//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Part 2 // Story: Infinite Horizons // by Zervziel //------------------------------// In the vast chaotic expanse of trans-dimensional space, a sleeping goddess stirred. It had been millennia since she had last fully awoken, but now the sleeper found herself being dragged from blissful oblivion. In her rest she’d visit the countless worlds that made up her being, watching, observing as world after world spun about on the threads of fate like so many ornaments. Her wanderings had grown dark of late, her most recent venture culminating in witnessing the destruction of an entire world, it's respective universe following shortly after. Horrible images clung to her as that fragment of her was flung from the dying universe before finally rejoining her vast consciousness. As Tenebris Ultra fully awoke, a familiar heat cloaked the galaxy-sized goddess with a ferocity that only one being could hope to attain. Turning, she greeted her sister with a smile. "Welcome back to the realm of the living, sister. I thought you’d sleep for at least a million years this time." teased her opposite. Lucim Ultra as the wanderers had named her. The dark goddess’s face fell. "I might well have but something is amiss in the mortal realms, something that eludes even me." “I know.” Lucim answered, her voice an icy contrast to her burning form. “Your Shard said as much when I last talked to it. Some force has been destroying your universes. Those little minions of yours have been scuttling about trying to figure out what it is that ails you but they are at a loss as well.” The vast fiery being that was her sister was quiet for a moment. “Sister, I…” She paused, searching for words. “I cannot protect you inside that realm. Out here I would gladly challenge any being that dared to even attempt to harm you, but there I cannot. While losing one or two universes shouldn't harm you too much, if you lose too many too fast...” Lucim trailed off. “I know, sister….and thank you.” “Why are you thanking me?” Asked Lucim bitterly. “I just told you that I cannot protect you.” “True,” came the reply as the darker goddess nuzzled her sister. “But you’ve protected me for countless millennia while I have slumbered. To be honest, I haven’t been a very good sibling myself, leaving you alone for so long.” The smaller goddess leaned against the larger. “I’m the one who should be apologizing to you.” Lucim answered by leaning into her sister, supporting her as she always had since the time that they had both awakened in the void. “It’s nothing. At most I just wish you spent as much time with me as you spend with your mortals.” “Well, how about I start now? The Order could benefit from a less dozy benefactor anyway and we could actually spend some time together. I have plenty of new stories to tell you.” “I’d like that.” Lying side by side, Lucim laid her head atop her sister’s. From here she could see the tiny miniscule cap on the tip of her sister’s horn that was the Order of Destiny’s headquarters. Created by the wanderers who had since moved on, the structure was incomparably massive for the mortals. To her it just reminded her how powerless she was to protect her own sister at times, having to rely on a bunch of misplaced mortals. However her sister adored the tiny beings, which she figured was enough. Still the irony of the situation was not lost on Lucim. Her, a goddess, failing to have faith in the mortals. As Lucim re-adjusted herself for one of her sister’s stories, she caught a glimpse of a tiny patch of red in her sister’s mane as it moved towards one of the universes. Shard, I will leave my sister’s well being in your hooves for now. Know this, the death of all mortal worlds is not too high a price to keep her safe. *** “We’re surrounded!?” “I can’t see anything! Cadance, what about you?” “No!” “How do we fight these things?!" “Imbeciles,“ sneered Nightmare Moon as she scanned her chaotic surroundings for signs of her enemy. While it was hard to locate the warplings by the traditional sense, it was possible to feel where they were in the storm through one’s magical senses even as scattered as they were. There! Arching her back and spreading her wings, Nightmare brought her head and chest down just in time to deflect an aether tether launched by her closest assailant. Laughing at the being’s pathetic attempts to harm her, the Nightmare tore the warpling asunder with her dark magic. The storm may disrupt her magic’s enough to prevent teleportation, but it wasn’t fierce enough to prevent her from defending herself. “To me!” She called over the Paladin’s radio channel. “Twilight, you and Cadance defend the others from the warplings. Remember to feel for the beasts! Plan sight will not avail you!" --- “To me!” Nightmare shouted, cutting through the insidious whisperings that had been taunting the young pegasus. Shaking off the dark suggestions that voice had been feeding her, Scootaloo didn't wast a second and immediately triggered her suits jets and rocketed towards the rest of the group. From where she was she could see the Princess, Twilight and even Nightmare Moon using their magic to protect Braeburn and Slate. So intent of getting back to the safety of the group that, Scootaloo continued to fire her thrusters and would have collided with her companions if a blue glow hadn’t halted her. “Easy, Scootaloo. You don’t want to crack your helmet while in a vaccum.” Lectured Cadance in a tense tone. Still, she was just barely able to make out the pink alicorn winking at her through her visor. “S-sorry. I just kept hearing these really creepy voices in my head.” The young pony stammered. Cadance put a hoof on the young mare’s shoulder to comfort her, before turning her attention to the battle chatter as the rest of the Paladin’s regrouped. Reluctantly she followed the Nightmare's advice and extended her magical senses. Though considerably more limited than usual, she could feel the strange contortions of the magic field that were the warplings strange forms. And they seemed to be going after Twilight! Seeing her former babysitee in trouble Cadance shouted a warning. “Twilight! 2 at 6 oclock, above and below!” The young alicorn watched in appreciation as the unicorn fired her maneuvering just hard enough to switch ends and unleashing a dark purple bolt of chain lightening in to the abstract predators. As the warpling’s ethereal forms dissipated back into the chaotic void, another Paladin's voice came over the radio. “I got some of these things on my tail!” Shouted Rainbow Dash as she flew past, her jets firing at full throttle. Sure enough, three rippling forms glided after her. Cadance watched with a practiced eye even as she attempted to stop her own maneuvering to start pursuit. As inexperienced as Rainbow was with the maneuvering jets, it was only a matter of time before they overheated and automatically shut down. Before Cadance could intervene and destroy the ethereal beings, several warplings materialized from the twisting plane andstarted gliding towards Slate and Braeburn, the two earth ponies completely defenseless against the creature. Swearing akin to a veteran sailor than a princess, Cadance shifted her attention to this new threat. *** Despite her initial panic, Rainbow Dash felt a little more confident in her ability in evading the beasts as the rocket things on her suit gave her far better speed. Aside from the growing heat from riding the throttle so long, she almost felt as if she was flying normally. She was just about to announce that she had given the critters the slip when Twilight's voice came in over the radio. "Rainbow, cool your jets!" Twilight called out. However, the concern in her voice didn't bother Rainbow one bit. Dash gave a confident laugh. "Ha! Chill, Twilight! I've almost given those slow pokes the slip." "No!, I mean literal-" Manuevering thrusters overheated. Entering Cooling cycle. "That." Twilight finished lamely. “Aw, come on!” Dash shouted hoarsely, trying in vain to fire the glowing jets which only fired in short sputtering bursts that drove the panicked pegasus into a slow spiral. The warplings were quick to capitalize on her dilemma and quickly hemmed her in. “Ok, now I could really use some help here!” Dash had barely finished her sentence when a cerulean bolt of lightning flashed by her to strike one warpling after another. Recognizing the spell, she whirled about ecstatically with a raised hoof. “Give me one up high, Twi! You saved my flank…” Favoring the pegasus with a sardonic smile, Nightmare Moon bopped a hoof against the stunned pony’s hoof before seizing her with her magic. “Congratulations aside, we must depart from this realm. We are close enough to chance phasing in. Ms. Twilight, would you care to do the honors?” The unicorn took a moment to process what Nightmare had said before her head jerked up in realization. Microjets firing in sequence to cancel the backwards spiral that movement had started; Twilight sheepishly brought herself back on to a more natural plane. “Right, everypony. To revert back to real space, you must to engage the trans-dimensional portal generators! Just be sure the phase shifters are calibrated first” Silence reigned over the com system following her proclamation, as the puzzled ponies drifted through the ever changing void. Resisting the urge to facehoof for fear of cracking her visor, Twilight tried again. “There are two buttons in your helmet, right in front of your face. The big yellow button in your helmet. Hit that, then press the smaller blue button to initiate the shift.” “Hit them with what?” came the reply, only for everypony to watch in surprise as Scootaloo simply disappeared from sight. Before anyone could start talking at once, Braeburn interrupted. “Ha! I think I know how she did it!” The stallion exclaimed as he floated over Twilight’s head. “Now letsh shee-“ He too disappeared, reverting back to real space and none too soon as Twilight realized just how close Braeburn had come to disaster. Summoning her magic she fired another magical bolt of lightning at the warpling that had been sneaking up on his last location. “Oh!” Cadance exclaimed. “Ok, everypony, it seems these buttons are tongue activation only!” A chorus of “ewws” came in over the come with the most indignant and vocal being Nightmare Moon. “Think of it this way,” said Cadance, “you can either lick the button or stay here.” She punctuated her point by firing a pale blue bolt of light into yet another warpling. *** Back in real space, Braeburn and Scootaloo found themselves drifting towards a darkened planet. The only sources of light were several moons, one of which was directly in front of them and dangerously close, prompting Braeburn to speak up. “Please don’t tell me we avoided dying back there only to crash into Nightmare’s big honking moon!” “My what!?” Came an indignant voice. “My moons are the perfect size, cretin!” Scootaloo fired her micro thrusters to rotate herself. Sure enough the large uniformed shape of Nightmare Moon had appeared near them. Oddly enough instead of floating she seemed to be standing on an invisible surface. “Jeez, calm down, Moony! He didn’t mean anything…..and how are you doing that!?” Scootaloo jetted forward, waving a hoof near Nightmare’s firmly planted hooves only to be grabbed by a dark blue aura that jerked her to facelevel with the angry alicorn who spitted her with a icy blue glare. Speaking slowly and clearly, she addressed the young pegasus. “My name is Nightmare Moon, whelp. Not Nighty nor Moony. Do you understand me?” “Yes, ma’am!” Satisfied for the moment, the dark alicorn released her as the rest of the team popped back into reality! "Excellent work, Paladins." Nightmare Moon proclaimed with only the slightest hint of irnoy in her tone. "Now that i have been returned to my world free of harm, I invite you to stay at the Palace of the Moon and Stars as my guest until the warpstorm is over. What do you say?" Cadance had barely processed the offer before the rest of her team bombarded her, urging the weary princess to take Nightmare on her offer. She hated to admit it, but a stay at a nice palace after that ordeal was more than a little appealing, even if it was at the hospitality of Nightmare Moon. "Princess....Queen... Whatever title you lay claim to, we'd be happy to join you." Back at the beginning of the mission Twilight hadn't known what to expect when traveling to Nightmare Moon's home Equestria. Maybe a world covered in complete darkness, home to only slavering monsters, bat ponies, and maybe some regular earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi that had by some miracle, managed to hang on once the Nightmare took over. She had been prepared for the worst. Perhaps the Nightmare had held those ponies as slaves and kept them alive to serve her as Sombra had once done with the ponies of the Crystal Empire. What she hadn't been expecting was the flourishing city deep in the Everfree forest. Like any city it was bathed in light, but instead of the warm orange light of torches or the harsh white light of mage lamps, the city was bathed in a luminescent cascade of blues and greens. It was almost soothing until one looked at the gothic spires and towers of Nightmare Moon's palace. Almost every surface of the towering ediface was either sharp spikes or blank high walls as forbidding and cold as it's mistress, every single stone a dark gray. It was a place Twilight really didn't want to be, though admittedly her first impression of the palace was a little biased. *** After Nightmare Moon had so graciously teleported them to the throne room and dumping the whole group on the floor like a sack of very vocal potatoes, the Paladins took the opportunity to shuck their suits off and had barely stowed them away before finding themselves at spearpoint by some very suspicious looking bat pony guards. Even as Twilight looked to the Queen of Darkness for some support, she only found a cold smug smirk on the black alicorn's face as she draped herself over her throne. "Hey what's the deal?!" Rainbow of course. Twilight could only hope the pegasus would keep her cool in this situation. The last thing the unicorn needed nor wanted was for somepony to throw a punch since it was obviously a test. Not a test condoned by the Order because as harsh as the Order was sometimes, it's tests at least made sense. No, it was obvious to the studious mare that this was all Nightmare Moon's doing. "Excuse us, we're with your queen." Cadance stated in a neutral tone, deflecting a spear head away from her with a casual wave of her hoof." "So you say, lightlover!" Snarled one of the guards. With a small wave of his webbed wing, his fellow guards pushed closer, pushing the Paladins together. As Twilight fired up her horn, read y for a fight, she heard a series of snaps and clicks coming from Rainbow's direction. Curious she turned to look only to stop dead at the transformation that Rainbow's right foreleg had undergone. "Is that a particle projection cannon!?" She exclaimed in surprise as the muzzle of the weapon started to glow a cool blue light. "Back off!" Rainbow ordered the guards, moving her leg from one pony to the next before landing on the guard that had spoken first. In the face of this unknown weapon, the stallion backed off a few steps, his golden catlike eyes fixed on the glowing muzzle. "I don't want to use something that can knock Discord for a loop on a pony but I will if you push me!" Rainbow grated, her voice becoming harsh enough that Twilight could hear some artificial undertones. Nightmare Moon stood up quickly, her spectral mane and tail writhed as her black wings flared open as the dark pony exerted her authority. "Enough! Rainbow Dash, power down your weapon. I don't want any bloodshed in my palace." "If only because you don't want to get slapped with an official reprimand from the Order." Slate mumbled under his breath, his bass tones carrying through the room. Braeburn was quick to bop the former guard over the head with a hoof before flashing a winning smile at Nightmare Moon, who simply scowled in return before moving on. "As you are here at my hospitality, I expect you ponies to be on your best behavior." Stepping down from her throne, Nightmare circled the small group before stopping before Cadance. "Still I believe it would be best if you ponies were too...mingle with the inhabitants of my world. It is the first of many you will see as members of the Order of Destiny." "Do we even have time for that?" Asked Scootaloo. "I mean wouldn't the Order be expecting us back?" Twilight shook her head. "We can't get back to Headquarters until the warpstorm is over." She jerked a hoof towards the EVA suits that the ponies had been wearing mere moments ago. "Unless you want to go back the same method we came in." The orange pegasus blanched at that thought. "On second thought, tours sound very nice right now." "Then it is settled." Nightmare Moon walked back to her throne. "I have the perfect escorts for you as well." The mare's ebony horn glowed a dark blue as she raised a small silver bell and rang it. The response was swift as a startlingly familiar butter yellow pony swooped down from the rafters on a pair of batwings. "Y-you rang, your majesty?" asked Fluttershy, as she bowed. An sparkling ethereal tail cupped her chin and raised the pony's head to look at her Queen. "Yes, my dear. I would like you and perhaps a couple of your friends to give these nice ponies a tour of my city." said Nightmare in a smooth tone. "I'd be delighted to help!" Nightmare nodded and stepped back. "Well then, if you'll follow my bat-keeper, she and a few of her friends will show you around. *** The tour started out fine with the vampiric Fluttershy showing the travelers the area immediately around the palace. Twilight very quickly had to recalculate her earlier estimations of Nightmare Moon's world. There were plenty of regular ponies here, the only real difference being that there seemed to be far more bat ponies than there had been in her home Equestria....or maybe it was the same number and she didn't notice because she went to bed earlier than most ponies barring all night study sessions. Right after Fluttershy showed them a stall overflowing with luminescent mushrooms from the forest, Twilight stopped her mid-explaination. "Um, Fluttershy?" "Yes, Ms. Twilight?" Fluttershy looked at her expectantly, putting one of the smaller mushrooms she had been using as an example, back on it's stand with her wing. "What do you ponies eat here? I mean where we're from most of the fun relies on the sun." Twilight felt a little foolish, sure she was missing some obvious clue to that question. "Oh well we have a lot of fungus based recipes while some specialty farms like Sweet Apple Caverns, grow daylight dependent plants in specially built underground caves." "Wait!" Braeburn butted in."Wait wait, wait. ya mean to tell me the Apples of this world grow their apples underground?! Fluttershy giggled, accidentally revealing a pair of formidable fangs. "Oh not just apples. They grow corn, wheat you name it. Sweet Apple Caverns is just one of many farms that grow food like that. They just happen to be the closest one to Everfree City!" Twilight frowned. That seemed like a lot of digging, more than even earth ponies could move without spending decades on digging alone. "How did they clear that much space so fast." "The Diamond Dog Coalition did most of the digging. They work for pretty cheap if they get to keep any gems they happen to find while on the job." The group continued on. Twilight couldn't help but notice most of the ponies here seemed a paler color than usual. She hadn't noticed it with Fluttershy, but while the immense array of fur colors that was characteristic of ponies was still present, everypony else did in fact seem paler than usual. That wasn't the only change either. Whenever one of the ponies looked at her, their eyes seemed to gleam in the darkness, very similar to how Opalescence's eyes were in low light. "Intriguing." She murmured under her breath. And from the way that Fluttershy cocked an ear towards her, they may have keener hearing than usual though that may have been the pegasus's vampiric traits coming out. *** Eventually the group was lead to the furthest parts of the city. From here they could see the Everfree forest itself was alive with with glowing flora and fauna. Everywhere they looked, there was at least one plant or animal that possessed it's own kind of illumination Twilight's watched as two creatures that could only be described as a glowing mixture of a bat and a stingray, spiraled overhead in a dizzying flourish of light. "Oh good, it looks like that pair of spore bats are feeling much better." Commented Fluttershy as she watched them fly away. "The male came down with a terrible cold last week." Twilight could only nod dumbly. This world was hardly the dark, vile place her mind had imagined. If anything it felt like it had been created by the fae creatures. of legend. She had been about to ask Fluttershy something when a high pitched beeping noise interrupted her train of thought. Bring her hoof to her ear, the beeping quickly changed to a constant, smooth tone before going silent. Just as Fluttershy and a couple of the native ponies started to stare at the unicorn, a small metallic sphere popped into existence in front of the startled mare. Backing up the top of the sphere lit up and the image of a unicorn stallion appeared before the group. Despite his blue and blue striped mane being in complete disarray allowing the remnants of a cracked and chalky-looking horn to poke through, the Captain was smiling as he addressed the group. " Congratulations, Paladins, you've completed your first real assignment. Universe 6547's Nightmare Moon sent her report the moment the warpstorm broke. Report back to HQ as soon as you can." *** After a round of goodbyes to Fluttershy, the Paladins immediately opened a portal to the HQ, at Twilight's urging to not be late to their briefing. Cadance and Twilight went through the portal first, shivering as the sensation of having glacial water poured over them from the transition. They had barely emerged from the portal, blinking at the sudden abundance of light only to be swept up into a hug. "I knew you guys could do it!" Exclaimed Shining Armor as he gave the two another squeeze. Twilight gave him a hug in return before disappearing with a pop and a flash of pink light, leaving the pink alicorn alone in his hooves who took the opportunity to steal a kiss from him. Re-appearing a little further into the room, Twilight watched as everyone else returned through the portal. Rainbow Dash followed by Scootaloo who were promptly followed by Braeburn and Slate. By the time the two earth ponies appeared, everypony else had moved into the hallway to give them a bit more room due to Slate's bulk. The hallway itself was actually quite wide almost giving the impression of a banquet hall. The reason for it's size was made clear as other teams were constantly arriving from similar doorways lined both sides. Ponies that looked very familiar yet very different at the same time. Rainbow Dash had to make sure her mouth wasn't hanging wide open as when she spied a pony that looked like an exact doppelganger to the captain of the Wonderbolts, Spitfire. The only differences being that this pony had both an eye and a foreleg that were clearly artificial. Rainbow might have stopped and tried to talk to her if it wasn't apparent that this Spitfire was in a hurry to get a teammate to the infirmary. Already stunned to see another cyborg pony like herself, Rainbow Dash practically leapt out of her skin when something pulled her tail. Whipping around, a few choice words on her tongue, Rainbow found herself face to face with Twilight, who gave her an appraising look. "Oh! Heh, sorry about that! You just startled me a bit." She admitted. The unicorn's magic released her tail as she urged Rainbow to follow her with a hoof. "We need to get going. Shining has got to debrief us then we can go eat." It was only then that Rainbow noticed the rest of the team was ready to move on. Clearing his throat, Shining addressed his sister. "Normally debriefings are actually reserved for larger actions. Like the time that one Celestia merged her world with an alternate version of the human homeworld. Operations to undo that level of interferance are the ones that benefit the most from operations." "So how did they get rid of the bad Celestia?" Rainbow asked, curious. After all Celestia was an incredibly powerful pony. For a version of her to be strong enough to merge two worlds, was beyond her understanding. "The Order basically sent any Celestia willing to take her down. I think the odds were at least a hundred to one." Shining looked thoughtful for a moment. "It could have been more though, since I think a couple of them took their sisters along so they could work out any remaining animosity on a third party. At any rate, who wants some food? I'll buy." Most of the Paladin's gave him a wry look before moving towards the mess hall. *** Deep inside Central Core, a dark blue alicorn studied her visitor with an appraising eye. The being was as tall as Celestia, while but was also considerably thinner. Instead of fur, she was covered in a black chitinous carapace, one of the most defining characteristics of the changelings. While she lacked a crown characteristic of most Changeling Queens, her demeanor was no less noble. "I'm going to be blunt with you, Ms. Alternia," Lady Shard began. "We have a bit of a situation here on my station. Our resident changeling hives/kingdom/whatever they call them in your home universe are getting a bit restless and are objecting to our current conditions about feeding and our treatment of them in general." The adminstrator tapped a hoof on her desk, causing a holographic display to appear in the air between them. It showed a large dark castle surrounded by a sizable plot of land bordered by large metallic towers. Between the towers buzzed small silvery drones as they skirted a faint blue outline of a shield. Every now and then a changeling would step past the bounds only to have one of the drones start following it. "I'll admit it's definitely overkill for a monitoring system," She admitted, as she turned away from the changeling. "but it's necessary. Unfortunately, old hatreds don't disappear as soon as a pony walks through one of our portals. Ponies are still afraid of changelings and in turn Changelings are getting restless and don't like being segregated so much. While there are a few integrated communities across the station, they are relatively few and far between." Turning back, Shard looked the queen dead in the eyes. 'That's where you come in. You've successfully ruled Equestria for a millennia after the Celestia of your world pressganged you into the role. Even after you were found out, you worked to keep the peace between as well as finding alternate ways of feeding. While I can't guarantee those methods will work at all on some of the changelings, I could very much use your help." Forgetting herself a bit, the pony carried on in a much tenser and rushed voice. "I've got the council of Celestias and Lunas and that daft republic breathing down my neck with talks of a cleansing order and the Queen's Collective are doing the same to have the restrictions lifted. I do not need this on top of four universes going dark in one solar cycle alone!" the alicorn suddenly realized she had grabbed the changeling by the shoulders and had practically been ranting in her face like a mad mare. Calming down, she hastily backed off, rather embarrassed she had let her feathers and herself get so ruffled in her ranting. "Sorry about that. My question still stands. Are you game?"