//------------------------------//
// Resonance 
// Story: Redemption and Rebirth 
// by KGBCowgirl 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight Sparkle was losing her mind as she pored over her massive collection of volumes. She had raided the Royal Library before Canterlot had become an absolute ruin, searching for anything she could find on the magic of the unicorns from before the Princesses' rule. By now she had gone through more than half of the books she had rescued and still found nothing. Everything that had even the tiniest smidgen of hope in its text was either too obscure to translate or turned out to be a useless endeavor laid down by malcontent unicorns from the earliest years of the rule of Celestia and Luna.

No matter where she looked, there was not a single spell that could move the sun and moon to stabilize Equestria into a habitable land again. Twilight thought back to her former teacher's words from almost a month and a half prior.

"You must find a new home for our ponies. My sister and I are not long for this world, and it will be up to you and your friends to save them from a most gruesome fate."

Not three days after that, in the middle of the turning of the night and day, Celestia and Luna vanished from the face of Equestria without a trace. Since then, Twilight had searched for anything that could move the sun and moon, or even turn back time on a massive scale. Her efforts had proven ultimately fruitless, yielding no more than misbegotten conjectures, groundless theories, and physical impossibilities. All, that is, save one.

Twilight did not wish to entertain the idea she had come across, but it seemed to be her only avenue of saving the handful of ponies who had survived. The only problem that lay in this particular course of action, which was her main deterrent, rooted from the fact that the book which mentioned the spell suggested not only an impossible idea, but the power required could only be produced by the Elements of Harmony. It was a theorized spell, developed by Starswirl the Bearded, which he claimed could open a massive portal to a dimension parallel to their own. There were no notes on what existed on the other side beyond occasional references to "humans" and "a world without active magic."

The purple unicorn sighed as she read over every bit of information concerning the other world and could discern that it was very similar to Equestria in terms of geography and ecology, albeit with the previously noted lack of creatures that could use magic.

'But how can the Elements be the only power source that can make the spell work? And how did Starswirl even find out about this other world? There are too many questions...'

At that moment, the door to the library opened. Twilight looked up from the notes to see Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and what appeared to be a griffin. The griffin was crying quietly while Dash had a hoof over her shoulder. Pinkie trotted over to Twilight somberly, giving her friend a sad look.

"Hey, Twilight..." The pink mare said quietly. She glanced back toward the gryphoness, who had sat down on the floor near the entrance, propping her head on her crossed forelegs as she continued to sob. "That's Gilda, Rainbow Dash's griffin friend. You know, the one who left Ponyville after we pranked her? She just got here, and... she's..."

Gilda spoke through her sobs to finish what Pinkie was trying to say. "Everyone else is dead. I'm the last griffin in Equestria." Her crying doubled as she buried her face into Rainbow Dash's shoulder.

Twilight's eyes widened considerably at this. "No..." She looked back down to the portal spell notes before regarding Pinkie seriously. "Pinkie, I need you to do something for me."

Pinkie perked up slightly at the severity in Twilight's voice. "What is it?" Her blue eyes were focused on the unicorn.

"Find Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and the mayor, bring them all here, and get the Elements." Twilight gestured for Pinkie to come towards the notes. "This is our way out. It won't save Equestria, but it will save us"

Pinkie's eyes widened as she skimmed the notes before she nodded sharply and sprinted outside to carry out Twilight's orders. "I'll be back in a jiffy, Twilight!" She called loudly as she exited the library.

Rainbow Dash looked over to Twilight, still comforting Gilda. "What did you find? Is there egghead stuff that can really save us?"

Twilight nodded, gesturing toward the notes. "Starswirl the Bearded may have just saved us all, Dash. However, I need you to go and find your Element, bring it back here as soon as possible."

Dash lightly laid Gilda's head down on the floor before standing to give Twilight a salute and rocketing out of the library towards her cloudhouse.

Twilight returned to the notes. 'Now, to find out how the spell works...'





"Alright, Twi'. Why did ya'll have us all come here?" Applejack asked, her eyes showing the effects of her sleep deprivation since Granny Smith had passed away, leaving AJ to take care of even more responsibilities in keeping Sweet Apple Acres up and running. "Ya know ah have apples to buck before all the trees die."

Fluttershy spoke up next, almost to quiet to hear. "Um, yes. And I have to take care of the animals, since most of them are losing their homes."

"Darling, this had best not be one of your ill-begotten theories again. We simply cannot afford to waste more time on your attempts to make that time travel spell work again." Rarity's normally well-kept mane was horribly disheveled, as her skills with fabric had been put to work almost nonstop making bandages for the various clinics scattered across Ponyville.

Mayor Mare looked around in confusion before asking. "I must ask why I am here. I am, by no means, as powerful as the Elements of Harmony..."

The cacophony of queries and complaints assaulted Twilight's ears until she loudly said to them all. "EVERYPONY, BE QUIET!" When she received matching looks of shock from the ponies and griffin in the room, she huffed loudly. "Now, if that's done, I can explain why I asked for you all to be here."

Spike trudged downstairs, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Twilight, can you keep it down?"

"No, Spike. And I need your help with something, anyhow," Twilight snapped back. "If you could please find Starswirl the Bearded's journal and my stack of notes. I need to show everypony here what I found before Miss Gilda arrived."

At that, everypony who had recently arrived looked towards the gryphoness who was still seated in the space next to the door. She waved a talon nervously, receiving blank stares in response before the collective attention was returned to Twilight, who had levitated several sheets of paper and posted them on a board in the middle of the room. Floating in front of her was the journal she had asked for. Everypony else sat down as they prepared for Twilight to go into what Rainbow Dash commonly referred to as her "egghead mode," where a long, complicated lecture on an even more complicated subject usually awaited her "victims."

"I'll be quick about this, since we haven't got much time." At that opener, the rapt attention of the other occupants of the library was captured. "I have found a way for us to escape the death of Equestria, but it's a long shot." She pointed to a diagram, which outline the Elements of Harmony in a pentagram, with the Element of Magic at the center of the arrangement. "Starswirl the Bearded was known for his many advancements in the study of magic, from teleportation to time travel." Everypony laughed a bit as they recalled Twilight's endeavor to use the latter some years ago, resulting in her freaking out over an unfounded fear of a nonexistent doom. "He also had notes on something I thought was absolutely impossible, but may be our only ticket to survival. He theorized that a world similar to our own existed in a separate dimension, populated by a sentient species never seen in Equestria, which he referred to as 'humans,' bipedal like Spike is now, but like hairless apes."

Rainbow Dash snorted derisively. "Hairless apes? What's next, they can fly without wings or use magic without horns?" She crossed her hooves over her chest and waited for an answer.

"I have no idea what they can do, or what their society is like. Starswirl's notes weren't very detailed in that respect. But, the ecology and geography is very similar to Equestria's." Twilight's patience was wearing thing already with Dash's rude dismissal of the inhabitants. She took a breath before addressing the final detail, which she knew would shock the group the most. "There's something else..." She began before Rarity cut her off as Dash had mere seconds ago.

"Surely these... hairless apes, as you describe them, have magic?" The fashionista asked, her eyes growing wide.

Twilight sighed, shaking her head. "According to the notes, nothing in this other world can actively use magic. There are no dragons, timberwolves, or any other creature spawned here by the constantly swirling magical energies of Equestria. The inhabitants, both sentient and wild, are almost completely magically numb." The expected reaction of shock and disbelief was rampant as all seven members of her audience vocalized their shock at what Rarity called a "travesty" and Rainbow Dash labeled as "bucking nonsense." The clamor continued until Twilight slammed her hoof on the wood floor of the library loudly, silencing everypony.

"How can a world survive without magic?" Applejack asked. "That don't make any sense!"

"Why and how is not our concern at the moment!" Twilight snapped at her friends and the mayor. "What we need to concern ourselves with is how to get there. Now, according to Starswirl's notes, the portal spell to travel to the other world can only be powered by the Elements of Harmony. That is why I asked you all to come here. Mayor Mare, you are here because everypony in town will listen to your directions. I need you to gather the whole town in front of the library." She pointed to the pentagram design again. "Make sure they are gathered as close as possible, so we don't leave anypony behind. This design was meant to work on a small scale, but at the cost of the sealing of the Elements themselves and the bearers being sent along with the group that is teleported. Make sure everypony knows that we will never be able to return to Equestria again." The mayor nodded before rushing out of the library to carry out Twilight's instructions.

"What about us, Twilight? What do we need to do?" Rainbow Dash asked as her wings fluttered nervously.

Twilight walked over to the class case holding her Element before levitating it on top of her head. "The rest of us need to prepare ourselves for the spell. Gilda, Spike, you two need to wait with the rest of the crowd. We'll be outside in a few minutes."

Gilda nodded her assent and, before Spike could vocalize a complaint, picked the young dragon up in her beak, placing him on her back. She looked back towards Rainbow Dash one last time before walking outside.

When the gryphoness left, the rest of the group gathered near the board as Twilight began explaining the finer details of the spell. She only hoped that she wasn't sending the last citizens of Equestria to their doom.