The Didact and Celestia had arrived in Canterlot early in the morning. Even with the sun only just peeking out above the horizon, lazily illuminating the white clouds that have been covering the city all week, the city had been bustling with activity as ponies, zebras and even some gryphons and elk made their business around the city. The Summer Sun Celebration had the city filled with visitors and tourists from around the known world came to see the rising of the sun for the longest day of the year. Even with the streets packed with ten times more visitors than normal, the Didact and Celestia had reached the castle well before breakfast.
From there, Twilight met them in her given bedchamber, which she had only just been woken up when a Solar Guard came in to tell her of their arrival. For approximately ten minutes, the two of them sat down in the room’s lavish chairs, while Twilight sat groggily at the side of her bed, wrapped in sheets to cover her body. The first thing she told them about was the visit from Kotec, his message for the Didact, and that he told her that he would know. The Didact only nodded in response to her regurgitation of the situation, hinting to neither his understanding or lack thereof.
Afterwards, he went on to confirm to her and Celestia that he did know him personally, and that Kotec Abernathey, regardless of his intimidating size and personality, was kind and could be trusted with doing what is right. “Kamendando Kotec Abernathey,” he said. “Commandant of the entire Coalition Armed Forces. Every general and every admiral answers to him, and he only answers to the President himself. Think of him as something like the Minister of Defence, but without all the politics. Not only is he a high ranking official, he is one of the stauch public supporters of the Valkyrie, and is keen to relay his opinions of the necessity of reform and change in the Inferi Coalition.”
He told her that the problem with the Inferi wasn’t them, but was the current regime in power. The Didact even went on to explain to her that the situation was similar with the Church of Unitology: noble teachings and solemn truths having been perverted into a massive lie by the current Prophet of Truth.
After having relayed the Kamendando’s message, Twilight decided to tell the two of them something else she decided. Celestia was confused as to why she had decided to do what she said, but the Didact completely understood, even when he was hesitant.
“Twilight,” he paused as he said her name, “Are you completely sure about this decision of yours.”
She nodded almost immediately, totally confident that what she was doing was right. “When those Inferi attacked us in the hall yesterday, I paralyzed the first one who came after me. When I did, I miscalculated, and the paralysis spell I used had stopped his heart, so he died. He was the first person I’ve ever killed, and I’ve decided that he will be my last.” She sighed heavily, looking down at her lap. “My new name will be my promise to that vow.”
The Didact was still unsure. “I understand that you want to do this, but a name isn’t just limited to the severity of the vow itself... it also becomes what you are. Everything you will ever do and become will be reflected on your name, and it will be burned onto your soul for as long as you live. Now, are you sure you want to do this?”
Again, Twilight nodded almost immediately. “Didact, Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle is dead. She died at the hands of those monstrous beast who justify themselves in the name of faith and patriotism. From now on, my name is Twyla Kassandra Spark, and I, will never, kill.”
Celestia could only stare at her student and her determined spirit. The Didact, however, decided to stand up straight, facing her, and gave her a salute. Twyla looked up at him, and raised her arm to return a sloppier version of his own, which he lowered after she did.
From that point on, Twilight Sparkle chose to be henceforth named Twyla Spark, and she severed all ties to her former self.
***************
The day before the Summer Sun Celebration marked the arrival of both Crown Prince Sirius, with his Nova Guards, and of their father, with his unknown entourage. Everypony in the castle knew to expect the two of them later in the evening, so the only thing they had today was absolutely nothing but waiting, so the Didact decided to continue his training with Twyla.
The two of them stood outside in the castle gardens a chilled breeze running through the grass as clouds perpetually covered the sun, giving the world a grey color. A gentle mist lingered and clinged to the numbers of plant life, a solemn calm echoing across the flowers and trees. The Didact sat in the lotus position on the grass, Twyla imitating him across from him.
“Brothers and sisters, we rejoice in our suffering, because we know that suffering creates perseverance, perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint.”
Twyla tilted her head. “What are you going on about?”
“I’m trying to teach you something: several things actually. The first is that even though I am not spiritual, even I can see wisdom from something that is. The second is that I’m trying to get you to truly understand the severity of your choices.”
Twyla sighed with annoyance. Since she had told them about her changing her name and her promise to herself, neither the Didact or Celestia had left her alone about it. She supposed that it was understandable that they kept babbling about it: it was a drastic decision that took a lot of thought, but that didn’t mean it was any less aggravating that they continued nonstop.
“Twyla.” He made the transition from Twilight to Twyla almost immediately from the point, and hasn’t messed up yet. “This isn’t me trying to convince you otherwise. This is actually the opposite: this is me making damn sure that you stick with this through to the end. Taking an oath to never kill a sentient being is a vast undertaking.”
As he spoke, little specks of magical light levitated in front of his eyes and danced around each other in his magical grip, giving the Didact focus. “Human nature is one of violence, so you will be tempted and seduced every day of your life to give in. You will suffer and hurt, and you will have to endure. Paul said that by enduring your suffering, you will gain character, and character that will give you hope. Do you understand?”
Twyla hesitated before answering. “I think.”
“There is no ‘I think’,” he snapped back at her, “You either understand or you don’t understand!”
“I understand,” she restated. The Didact nodded and stood up, gesturing for Twyla to do the same.
“Stand with me,” he said, “We still need to continue your training.” Twyla nodded and stood next to the Didact, again mimicking his stance as he faced out towards the landscape in the distance, eyes closed. In front of both of them , the gardens dropped down in a cliff, which let any pedestrians in this area see the magnificent view of the landscape of the country below. Here, the calm wind made a serene place to focus, while the view below, a sense of clarity.
“You are already a powerful unicorn,” he said, not moving any further than to talk, keeping his voice quiet, “so you are not in need to learn spells or magicks. What you need to learn is the finess of humanity. Spellcasting and psychophysics isn’t just about rigorous thought and practice, but of the economy of motion. You need to learn time management and how to regulate your aura and your magical reserves. Focus your thoughts and your energy.”
Twyla did as she was told and tried to focus the best she could. She took in deep breaths from her nose and breathed out slowly through her mouth, as her magic teachers long ago taught her to do. She shut out any and all external stimuli, excluding the Didact and his current teaching.
“As I said before,” he continued softly, “to make an oath against killing is a constant challenge. When I was being taught magic and the defensive arts, my teacher and my sensei always told me to do whatever it takes to first survive and escape, even if it meant taking another life. That will obviously not be the case with you. Your magic will then have to become fluid and responsive on a moment’s notice, able to bend and be manipulated like water. This will be hard, and you will fail... constantly, but in the end, you will have complete awareness of your magical aura and of your abilities.”
She entered a meditative state. Meditation was a bizarre concept to grasp, for any sentient. Within the realm of the known world to Equestrians, meditation was form of relaxing and a mode to release stress. To humans, primarily on Erde-Tyrene, meditation was utilized more for the spiritual and mental aspects. Human meditation went beyond Equestrian meditation, in which the practitioner induced a form of consciousness that let him contemplate and reflect on a certain mentality or emotional state. The result, was a clearer sense of thought and understanding.
To any who practiced magic, such as the mancers of the galaxy or to the highest levels of unicorns in Equestria, meditation also served as a means to visualize, measure and sharpen one’s magical aura. Trying to explain this form of deep meditation to a non-magical user, and even to a lesser magical user, was hard. Twyla saw herself almost like in an outer-body experience, floating on the inside of a bubble. The world around her was darkened, as if in a moonless night, while objects were surrounded with tendrils of violet colored lights, swirling around as if in some ethereal fluid. On the outside, it would appear as if Twyla was standing still with her eyes closed, as if she was dreaming.
That was the best way this form could be ever explained by a non-magically inclined human: like trying to explain color to a blind person, while being blind to it yourself. Regardless of whether or not the reader or the author could ever understand, Twyla herself floated stationary in front of her body. Here, the tendrils floating, as if caught by a rock in a stream, were the brightest: the source of her magical energy.
The magical aura is broken into three parts. The first is the fount, which comes from the body of the magician in question. The psychophysical energy of magic is radiated out from the body into the aura. The more powerful the magician, the brighter the tendrils of the fount become. Surrounding the fount is the aptly named empyrean of the aura. Here, the magical energy floats around unhindered and free, similar to how the air within a bubble moves around while the bubble was intact. The final part of the aura was the shell. The shell marked the point in spacetime where the magical energies of the magician could no longer compete with the natural psychophysical energies of the dark matter of the universe. The colliding energies literally made a shell that encases a perfect sphere of magical energy around the magician. The more powerful the magician, the stronger the fount and the larger the sphere.
Twyla had a very strong fount, the violet light translucently dominating her vision of her body. As such, she knew she had a large aura shell, just larger than her entire library back at Ponyville. For most unicorns she knew, their shells only went past their own bodies. The only exception she’s seen with this was with Crescent Star, who’s fount and shell was similar to her’s, and the royal family members she’s met, who’s founts were so strong that she has yet to feel their shells.
Her’s was like a second nature. She knew every ebb and every current that moved in the empyrean of her aura. The process of focusing one’s magical energy was harnessing these flows so the magic was easier to use. That was where the deep meditation came in: her actual body and mind were focused on dealing with the aura, while her ethereal form of consciousness could probe around and make sure nothing happened to the body and mind. Only some of the highest level unicorns could accomplish this, and from what she heard about mancers from the Didact, Twyla assumed that not many of them could do it either.
While as a being of pure energy and consciousness, there wasn’t much for Twyla to do other than to think and to contemplate. The death of the Inferi soldier played out in her consciousness over and over again, an onion layer covering her better judgment. No matter how much she tried to focus on a different subject, it would always lead back to her accidentally killing him due to her negligence. Granted, neither Crescent nor the Didact, or while we’re at, Celestia or her friends, would treat as such, she thought of it as negligence. She neglected to care about her magical output into the spell, so the paralysis had completely affected him.
She didn’t even realize she had killed him at first. It wasn’t until after the guards had come to help and remove of the remains/prisoners that she realized that the first one she paralyzed wouldn’t move period. It troubled her deeply, and even now, hours later, she could not shake the thoughts of what could have been if she had succeeded in the proper spellcasting.
As she thought about it, she found herself glancing (as a being without a physical body, it’s safe to say she had no eyes to even glance but, for all intensive purposes, we will say that she did) at the Didact next to her body. While hers was covered in tendrils of violet, he was covered in a pale yellow. She was slightly surprised, due to the fact that he had repeatedly shown his magical aura to be blue, not yellow. It was peculiar, to say the least, enough so that she decided to exit her aura and inspect his. The energy between the two of their auras were great enough for the shells to cave in and form between them. As Twyla passed through, she felt the energy change, like a wave of vertigo that almost broke her concentration. She knew the Didact was powerful, but this was a completely different level that she previously thought.
His fount was almost as bright as the sun in the sky and the energy shifted around like a violent storm. To say that he was unfocused would be an incorrect statement; she could feel that he was focused and that he was in fact controlling his energy on a higher level than she ever could presently. Twyla supposed the proper term would be he was mainly vagrant in his thoughts. He didn’t have any deeper sense of purpose or understanding. It was confusing for her to put into words, but she guessed the simplest way she could put it was that his thoughts were in focus, while he wasn’t.
As she contemplated on this, she let the energy fling her like a ragdoll; moving with the currents and ebbs. That was when she realized two things: first, that she was yet to even feel the shell of his aura, and that her aura was almost completely encased in his.
Twyla then thought about something: about how out of focused the Didact was in spirit, which she could only question. “Didact... were you ever a spiritual person?”
The bubble popped and she was jerked back into her body and consciousness. The Didact broke both of their meditations and sighed heavily. “Sit down,” was all he said. So, she sat down on a flat rock nearby and waited for him to sit himself.
He took his time with it. He sat on a rock adjacent to hers, pulled out a cigar and offered her one. Twyla respectfully declined, so he put it away and prepared his own. The Didact remained silent and sat there for long seconds as he smoked. The smell of tobacco assaulted Twyla’s nose. She remembered how her father always had a cigar whenever his colleagues were visiting the house, and that she was forbidden to touch them for a long time. The scent wasn’t necessarily appealing to her, but at the same time she didn’t find it as repulsive or abhorrent as many of her friends did.
“I’d be lying if I told you wasn’t spiritual in my younger days.” He always spoke as if he was an old man, with years of experience behind him. Twyla didn’t find it comforting. “I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church. My parents weren’t the most enthusiastic of Christians, but we always went to church and we had faith.”
“What happened?”
“Things change; that’s what happened.” He tossed the cigar over the cliff of the gardens and stood up. After moments of fixing his uniform, he started to walk away, leaving Twyla to stare at him with annoyance.
“When are you going to realize that we’re your friends?” she snapped at him. He stopped, only turning to look at her. “We want to help you,” she continued, “but you need to realize that things work differently in this universe than in yours. Here, we can’t help you if you don’t trust us!”
He didn’t yell or even raise his voice at her, only taking a step closer. “We knew the world would not be the same. Few people laughed; few people cried; most people were silent. I remember a line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu was trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says: ‘Now I’m become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
“You don’t even know who I am. If you did, then you wouldn’t want to. Hell, I don’t even want to know who I am. The whole reason that amnesia spell even worked on me was because deep down I let it. I am neither proud of what I have done, or who I am. Tell me Twilight, what is my name?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but realized that she had no idea. He had said it openly when he regained his memories and Rassilon had stated it when he threatened them both. Even through all that, with every other detail of the past few days seared into her brain, she couldn’t remember something as simple as his name.
Twyla looked down at her feet in silence, so the Didact continued. “My point exactly. The reason I’m not spiritual is because God and I aren’t in the best of terms. God has ripped everything I loved out of my life, and I have committed atrocities that would make any normal man squirm. You’re welcome to do any and all the soul searching you want Twyla, but leave me out of it.”
He walked away, leaving her to her thoughts.
***************
It was another five hours before the Didact saw Twyla again. He was sitting in the forum that lead to the reserved apartments for royal guests and dignitaries, as well as the bedchambers of Celestia and Luna. In the chair next to him was Celestia, who was more willing to one of the Didact’s cigars.
“Hey.”
The Didact looked up from his conversation with the princess and faced Twyla. “Good afternoon...”
Twyla couldn’t think of anything else to say, simply standing there in the Didact’s imposing silence. Celestia, however, would have none of it, so she cleared her throat obnoxiously.
“Twyla, I want to say I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you in the garden for simply wanting to find out more about me...”
Twyla nodded, still averting her gaze from him. “Apology accepted...”
Celestia cleared her throat again, hinting that the apologies weren’t done. Twyla huffed. “And I apologize for probing into things you obviously didn’t want to discuss. It’s your past and your life, so it’s not my place to go meddling in it if you don’t want me to.”
“No... it’s not, but apology accepted.” He stood up and offered Twyla a hug, which she happily accepted. The two of them embraced for a couple seconds, before the Didact pulled away and grasped her shoulders. “Twyla, even though I may not say or act like it... you are a friend of mine.”
She acknowledged him and Celestia looked up at her and smiled. “I believe it’s safe to say you don’t need to write a friendship report for this event.”
The Didact glanced over at her with slight confusion, but Twyla rolled her eyes in amusement. Celestia gestured for her to join the two of them in their talk about the Ineri. She explained that the Didact was telling her about the Unitologist religion and of several adventures he had dealing with them. Gladly, she accepted the invitation and sat down. When the Didact presented her a cigar, she didn’t refuse. While she wasn’t keen to smoking, she wasn’t against it; primarily when there weren’t pressing matters she wanted to attend.
For almost an hour, the three shared stories and tales from their numerous adventures. Twyla spoke mainly of the antics that her friends and her were involved in due to their being the wielders of the Elements of Harmony. Celestia talked of the bore and responsibility as the Grand Duchess and as the eldest sister of the Galaxia siblings. Between the three, they enjoyed most of the Didact’s stories. He spoke of what it meant to be apart of the Paradox Agency, and as an Executive.
It was when he was in the middle of telling them about how had first met Kotec Abernathey that a detail of Solar Guards entered the room, their golden armor and white coats shining in the afternoon sun. Celestia was the first to react to their presence.
“Ma’am,” the lead guard said as he approached. All of their helmets floated off with respect to their superior.
She sat upright and stared at them with her full attention. “What do you need gentlecolts?”
“Crown Prince Sirius is waiting for you in the dining hall, ma’am.” Celestia stood up at the report with haste. “Well we don’t have time to waste then.”
The Didact, Twyla, her guards and her all left together, heading to the dining hall.
***************
It was well known that there were five Galaxia siblings. In order from youngest to oldest, they were Vulcan, Luna, Celestia, Jovian and Sirius. Of that list, it was Sirius who was last to arrive.
At first glance, the alicorn was clearly the eldest and the most experienced. He walked with a stride of one who as seen enough things to be cautious. His wings were missing a couple feathers, but nothing beyond the ability to fly. Nonetheless, he kept his navy blue coat to a shine and he tried to maintain his mane and tail to a respectful extent.
As Celestia walked in, accompanied by the Didact and Twyla, she had realized that her older brother had changed quite a bit since she had last seen him a generation earlier. He had grown a full beard and moustache, which covered his mouth to a respectable degree with his pale cyan hair. His eyes were duller, having seen better days. Most noticeably, resting on his back to only just cover his wings, was a grey winter pelt, giving him more of an outdoorspony look over the regal image the other four kept.
As they approached, Crown Prince Sirius was too distracted from a conversation with Crescent Star and Luna, who had been in the dining hall before he arrived.
“Hello brother,” was all Celestia said. The prince turned his head as his face lit up with happiness at hearing his sister’s voice.
“Tia...” He rushed over and embraced her the best he could with her new form. “It’s been a long time kleine schwester...”
She tearfully returned the embrace. It had been a long time; previously mentioned a generation. Even for alicorns, beings who can live for millennia, a generation is a long time for separation. From all of his travels, Sirius became no stranger to separation, so it was always incomparable to the feelings he felt whenever he met another of his family.
“Meine sternen, you’ve changed little sister.”
“I guess that makes two of us brother. When did you become fluent in Gryphon?”
Sirius smiled. “It becomes natural after speaking it among gryphons for almost twenty years. That was in part to my absence for this long: I’ve been in the Gryphon States, living with them and learning their culture.”
Celestia nodded, turning to Twyla. “Sirius, this is my Faithful Student. She wasn’t even born before you left...”
“So this is the legendary Twilight Sparkle?” He said this with bemusement. “Even in the Gryphon States, you are well known as a powerful magician...”
“I prefer to just be called Twyla,” she said, extending her hand to Sirius’ hoof with a smile. As an alicorn, and as the oldest of the Galaxia siblings, he was taller than her, his longer horn extending noticeably past her.
Celestia then turned to the Didact. “This is a newer friend. He goes by the Didact and I suppose is the reason for all the ‘change’ around here.”
“So you’re the culprit behind all of this,” Sirius boasted with enthusiasm. When the Didact silently offered his hand, the crown prince took it and then proceeded to wrap him into a hug. “You certainly are different from any of the species I’ve seen in my travels with our father.”
Celestia cut in. “Where is father, now that you mention it? I thought he was coming with you?”
Sirius waved her off. “He decided to walk and should be up at any time, but back to our freund here. Tell me, what is your species?”
The Didact cleared his throat to answer. “I am human,” he said with confidence. “Specifically Homo-Sapiens-Sapiens.”
Crescent Star, who was sitting at the table with Luna as this was happening instantly perked up at his words. “What?”
The Didact glanced over towards Crescent Star. “What do you mean, ‘what’? I am human, which we all knew...”
Crescent Star nodded rapidly. “Yes, but it also sounded like you said Homo-Sapiens. ‘Wise men’,” he translated.
“Yes,” the Didact stated plainly. “That is the species classification of humanity in general. How is this so significant?”
“It’s because, son, that it means you are the same race of the Precursors of Astra.” The entire room stopped as it looked towards the door. Standing there was a tall unicorn with a white coat wrapped around his build. His fur was an unnaturally dark black, contrasting his almost translucently white mane and tail. From the angle, they could see his cutie mark: a black circle encompassed by a stream of whites, blues and reds in a swirling motion.
Crescent Star was the first to react, standing up to the best of his ability. “Mr. Event Horizon, I had no idea we would be expecting you too...”
The Didact turned back to Crescent Star. “You know him?”
“Yeah, he’s the one who sponsored my expeditions to find the Precursors of Astra. He came to me at the university a year ago and told me he was a wealthy philanthropist.”
“I wasn’t lying to you when I told you that Mr. Crescent Star.” The unicorn stepped forward into the dining hall, closer to the group. “I just didn’t tell you everything. I understand your shock, and even the shock of Ms. Spark here... but have I failed to raise my children enough to not be so dumbstruck around me?”
Twyla and Crescent Star were confused as to what he could possibly mean. The Didact took one look at Celestia, however, and understood perfectly. While neither Celestia or Luna had seen Sirius in a generation... they haven’t seen him in over a millennia. None of them had. Now, the very stallion who cared and raised the five of them for all of their foalhoods stood before them after having vanished for so long.
As the coat came off, and the great black wing of their guest spread out in the highest of regality, it was the Didact who stated it first.
“Event Horizon Galaxia... King of Equestria.”
Everybody but him bowed to the presence of their king.