The Monster in the Twilight

by Georg

Ch. 30 - Void

The cavalcade of ponies into the ancient throne room divided almost instantly. First and foremost were five adults, who headed directly to five unconscious young ponies, picking them up and holding them in single-minded concern. They were almost unaware of the acrid smoke that wafted throughout the battered room, or the huge softly glowing ball of golden light in the center.

Following them, Trixie walked side-by-side with Zecora in stunned disbelief, approaching the glowing sphere and each gently placing a hoof on it.

“It’s almost cold, like running water,” said Trixie, looking up while running a hoof across the perfect surface reflecting her own face like a funhouse mirror.

“You speak of the tomb of my daughter,” said Zecora with her hoof almost touching Trixie’s. She let out her breath in a long, shuddering gasp before leaning forward with a solid thump, striking her head against the sphere. “A place with no fear, no anger and no hate. So this was the ending of my daughter’s sad fate.”

The faint dripping of tears on the floor were almost lost in the quiet voices of the children waking up behind them, and Trixie moved her hoof to rest on top of the distraught zebra’s with a reassuring pat.

“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do. I’ve seen this dimensional distortion spell before at one of the young spellcaster’s demonstrations they held for applicants into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. It took seven teachers to set up the spell and Princess Celestia to provide power, but in the end they created a tiny little universe about the size of a bit coin that lasted under a minute. Celestia said that with enough power, we could create an entire world made just the way we wanted.”

“Your Elements have taken both Nightmare and daughter, to a world which has neither wind, earth, or water. An ending of life for powers unspoken. Equestria is saved, but…”

Zecora slumped against the golden sphere, her tears flowing unchecked as Tallgrass moved up behind her and rested a chitinous hoof on her shoulder.

“Your heart is broken,” he completed. Zecora nodded with her tears continuing to flow along the unmarred surface of the shrinking golden sphere.

Trixie tapped the sphere, producing only the small click of a hoof striking an immovable object. “Princess Celestia said her demonstration universe was made out of cake. There was no way to be sure because the portal they were pushing power through was about the size of a pinprick. To make it this large and self-contained, without any portal to the outside world…”

She bent over and picked up the golden tiara cautiously, turning it over in her hooves. “Sparkle must have used the Element of Magic to create it around the both of them so Nightmare Moon could not escape. But how did this get outside? It can’t have just fallen out. The universe inside could be thousands of miles across, and the spell interface is impregnable.”

“I’m not pulling the stunt I did on the door again,” said Tallgrass, holding a hoof to his head. “I think it knocked my horn loose.”

“Be quiet, you silly goose,” hissed Zecora, her tears suddenly gone. The zebra flattened against the golden sphere, brushing her cheek up against it with intense concentration as if she were listening to something inside.

Trixie stared at the zebra in disbelief. “You can not possibly hear anything in there. That’s not a real object, it’s a theoretical interface where the laws of this universe and that universe are separated from each other by a metaphysical boundary layer of disjunct magical waveforms making a standing interference pattern that drains the universe inside of power until the symmetrical magic balance is drained below a certain threshold, and the field collapses. Um. Well, that’s what one of the instructors said. It’s completely impervious to any damage, because to this universe, it really isn’t there.”

Trixie reached out with the Element of Magic and rapped firmly on the glowing sphere. “See, not even—”

Twilight Sparkle floated in the Light.

For once in her life, there was no pain, no fear, no anger. Instead, all around her was the brilliant light of joy, fading out in the distance in all directions. She had no eyes with which to see, but she still saw herself as a cloud of faintly violet particles, a fog of glowing dust, swirling and blowing on invisible currents. The flow of energy around her substituted for breathing, an invigorating touch rippling across her body like a spring breeze.

A soft golden light surrounded her, emanating from a similar fog of yellow particles. Bit by bit, they separated from her own glowing form, coalescing into a small sphere of light that spun around in the air and danced for joy. She could ‘hear’ it sing and giggle as it darted around, expressing its pleasure in a childish song of freedom and flight.

To one side was a larger cloud of darkness, twitching and spasming in the light as dark particles flew away, fading into the distance with a sizzle. Beneath the boiling pile, a slightly lighter color of particle began to take shape. Somewhat similar to her own shape, it simply lay inertly on the ground as if it were dead, even though Twilight could see the low throb of indigo light coursing through its indistinct form. Finally, the last bits of darkness boiled away, vanishing into the Light as if the darkness had never existed, and Twilight drew herself together as the magnitude of her error became apparent.

“Luna?”

Indigo light surged weakly, and the cloud of glowing dust drew together as if in pain. “We are injured, Twilight Sparkle, but we live. Thank you.”

“I’m sorry,” moaned Twilight, moving closer to the unmoving ball of indigo sparkles while the golden light danced and played above. “I failed.”

The indigo particles stirred, forming a pseudopod that gently brushed the surface of Twilight’s transformed body. “You freed me from my own folly, Twilight Sparkle. Do not despair at our circumstance.”

“Hopeless. We’re trapped.”

“Where there is life, there is always hope, young one.” The dark sparkles rose up, twisting in their flight until they formed into the fuzzy outline of a proud alicorn. “Arise, Twilight Sparkle. Arise and greet thy companion.”

It took several tries for Twilight to gather her body together in the same fashion to form a strangely lumpy unicorn body from the translucent sparkles of light available, but eventually she stood beside the transformed Luna, looking at the golden light dancing above them.

“My sister’s sun is filled with such as those, immature creatures of immense power. Celestia was blinded to its kind, having spent far too much time looking at its brethren to recognize it, but I who lived in the darkness have reflected its kind of brilliance for far too long not to see the child for what he is.”

Luna extended a hazy foreleg, which the ball of light promptly hovered over with what could only be described as a dance of overwhelming joy.

“H-hello, little one.” Twilight tried to extend a leg to touch the creature, only to have her body waver and distort with the effort. “I-I’m sorry for trapping you in here with us.”

Luna looked around the limitless glowing area and the distant patches of expanding darkness with a sense of calm contentment, breaking into a sigh before caressing the ball of golden light. “Child, your skill at your craft is without equal. I see no weakness or flaw in your construction. Still, I thank you for granting me these few minutes of freedom before we pass forever. You did what you needed to do, and there can be no greater praise.”

Twilight gave no indication that she heard. Instead, she curled up into a tight ball of faded purple particles and dampened her glow, leaving Luna to look into the distance and consider the slow vanishing of the horizon. Finally, Luna eased herself down beside the tightly compacted ball of violet particles and extended a ‘wing’ over her. “Twilight Sparkle, if I have only one regret, it is that you are forced to pay for my misdeeds. Please forgive me.”

The ball of violet particles shuddered, and a quiet voice asked, “What about your sister?”

Luna winced as she looked away from Twilight. “What I did to her cannot be forgiven.”

“No.” The ball of violet particles shifted, and the body of a warped and scarred unicorn slowly coalesced out of the fog. “I hurt her too, and tried to kill her ponies. She not only forgave me, but she sent me to save you. If she were here now, what would you say to her?”

“I would say,” said Luna, her body becoming misty and indistinct, “‘I’m sorry, Tia. Goodbye.’”

“Tia!” chimed the floating ball of light, lifting from Luna’s foreleg to zip rapidly around them. “Tia! Tia!” Putting on a burst of speed, the ball of golden light streaked off into the distance, becoming lost to the surrounding light of the pocket universe in moments and leaving Luna and Twilight Sparkle to stare in bewilderment. There was a brilliant flare nearly lost in the surrounding light, and a tiny patch of darkness became visible in the distance, far, far away.

Trixie sprawled flat on the dusty floor of the ancient throne room, looking at the razor-sharp hole in the golden sphere that was pouring out light like a blazing torch. A matching hole had been punched through the eastern wall of the room behind her, still glowing white-hot with the passage of whatever came flashing out of the sphere. With a yelp of agony, she tore the hat off her head, dropping it to the floor and stomping the flames that surrounded a crisp circular hole in the fabric until the fire went out, and she panted in reflexive panic.

Looking up, Trixie saw everypony in the room staring at her, and she scowled in return. “Don’t tell me Sparkle didn’t aim — Ow! Ow! Ow!” She glared at Tallgrass, who quit smacking her over the head and glared back just as hard.

“Next time your mane is on fire, I’m going to let it burn.”

“Oh.” She barely spared a touch of one hoof to her ravaged mane before moving to inspect the rift in the glowing sphere, which had shrunk down to the point she could see over it now. “It’s fading fast now that it has a hole in it.” With a glance at the zebra still holding her face to the side of the sphere, Trixie added, “Do you hear Sparkle in there anywhere?”

“I fear she is lost and wanders in vain. When the hole closes, there she will remain.”

“Come on, Sparkle,” muttered Trixie, turning the golden tiara around in her hooves nervously while watching the sphere shrink. “You punched a hole, now get out of there.” She moved closer to Zecora as the golden sphere continued to shrink, blinking away a few tears of her own while they stood and waited.

Time passed with agonizing slowness until Zecora spoke abruptly with a puzzled tone. “Now I can feel her approaching, for I am her mother. She walks not alone, she is helped by… another?”

“Nightmare Moon?”

“No, I do not think so. But their pace is too slow, I fear for their fate. By the time they arrive, it will be far too late.”

“Like Tartarus it will,” growled Trixie. “Your daughter made this thing.” She jammed the tiara on her head in front of her horn and glared at the shrinking golden sphere. “Anything she can do, I can do better. Stand back.”

There was a shuffling of hooves in the room as the adult and young ponies backed up to the other side of the room. Zecora stood up next to Trixie, and after a moment of indecision, Tallgrass stepped up to her other side.

Trixie licked her lips and straightened the Element of Magic while regarding the shrinking sphere, now barely tall enough to reach her chest.

“Showtime.”