//------------------------------// // An Empty Paradise // Story: Immortal Entity // by Darkblade Stormgiggle //------------------------------// Twilight… Twilight rolled around in her sleep, unaware of the cracks beginning to form in the air around her. Twilight Sparkle… She groggily rolled out of bed, blearily looking about for the source of the disturbance, unaware it was following her around, growing ever bigger. “Spike, is that you?” Twilight got up off the floor and walked around her new castle, looking for spike’s room. She still hadn’t gotten used to how large the castle was. “Spike, where are you?” Come to me, Twilight… “Don’t worry Spike, I’m on my way!” Twilight eventually made her way to Spike’s room, and made her way to his side. Gently, she prodded him awake. “Twilight, what’s going on?” said Spike, still mostly asleep. “It’s the middle of the night.” “Spike, have you been calling my name? I keep hearing voices!” “I don’t- Twilight, what’s up with all those cracks around you? Is that an alicorn thing?” Indeed, the fissures around Twilight had grown too large to ignore. They surrounded her, growing larger and wider by the second. You will be here very soon, Twilight… Suddenly, with the sound of shattering glass, light burst forth to engulf twilight, telekinetically dragging her into the newly created gap in reality. “Spike!” screamed Twilight. “Help me!” “I’ll save you!” Spike grabbed on to Twilight’s leg, but was unable to even slow Twilight’s progress into the portal. “Don’t worry Twilight, I’ll go get help!” Twilight! Sparkle! With one final burst of light, Twilight was fully pulled into the rift, leaving behind only a frantic Spike. <<>> Grand archways formed all around Twilight, only to collapse into dust and reform elsewhere. Lifeless grey trees sprouted in neat rows, growing and dying in mere seconds. Things that she could only assume were twisted, malformed buildings dotted the hellish landscape. An eerie dark pallor hung over everything in sight. Twilight had seen Tartarus before, and this place was worse. She carefully trotted forward, examining her surroundings for signs of danger. “Hello? Is anypony here?” Welcome, Twilight. “Who are you? Where are you?” I am here. Far off in the distance, a large dome silently rose out of the ground. Come quickly. You are being followed. Forcing herself to remain calm, Twilight carefully looked about her surroundings for anything following her. Unfortunately, due to the constant shifting of the surrounding area, she found it impossible to determine if she was being trailed. As she got closer to the dome the landscape seemed to slightly solidify. With every step she took everything seemed to last just a little bit longer and move a little less. “You never told me who you are.” Twilight chided. Soon, you will see for yourself, Twilight. All shall be revealed when you meet me. Remarkably, only now did Twilight begin to feel apprehensive about whatever entity brought her to this strange dimension. The entity’s refusal to reveal any information at all did not sit right with her. Add in the fact that this dome sounded like a trap to her, and she was beginning to have second thoughts about rushing blindly into what could very well be the entity’s seat of power. Twilight begin to examine her surroundings more closely. Any information she could gather, no matter how insignificant, could prove advantageous in the future. Twilight was startled to find that the dome had gotten closer to her even though she had been walking away from it ever since she had started having second thoughts about the place. She also noticed that now that the dome had gotten closer to her, the area had grown much less chaotic. The things that she had assumed were twisted buildings were now arranged in orderly sections, surrounded by pathways lined with more lifeless grey trees. Beds of sickly grey flowers surrounded fountains pouring forth a pale imitation of water. Poles that twisted and curved like a mad snake bore signs in strange text that she couldn’t even begin to translate. Every once in a while, something would disappear in a puff of smoke, only to be replaced by something else. That’s when she finally noticed them. In stark contrast to the now mostly orderly landscape, the amorphous shapes were flirting about without rhyme or reason. Twilight hadn’t detected them before because they had blended into the chaotic scenery so well, but now that things weren’t moving around quite so much, their natural camouflage no longer worked well enough to hide them. Twilight suddenly realized that their movements weren’t totally erratic; every time they made a seemingly meaningless loop or turn, they got just a bit closer to where she was standing. “What do you want?” Twilight demanded “Who are you!?” They answered. They showed her their pain. The pain of being torn apart particle by particle, bit by bit, then reformed only to be torn apart again and again. Never being entirely there, never entirely not there. Made incomplete, malformed. They showed her the constant agony that was their existence. Then they showed her herself, from their point of view. She was whole, complete… perfect. Always there, never not there. They hadn’t even realized a color besides grey even existed. They would give anything, take anything, to be her for even a single solitary second. They wanted whatever made her, her; they would find it, and take it for themselves. Then they could be perfect to. Run, Twilight! <<>> If somepony from Ponyville had decided to take a midnight stroll and walk to Twilight’s castle, they would have seen nothing out of the ordinary. Of course they would have been unable to see the battalions of night guards surrounding the castle, or the force field carefully concealing them. Princess Luna had ensured that as few ponies as possible knew about Twilight’s disappearance. Only Luna, Celestia, Spike, Discord, and the crack team of unicorn mages Luna had gathered to find the missing alicorn knew. Even the guards outside the castle had not been informed. “Cosmic Rift!” Luna barked. “What have you determined so far?” “Several things, Princess” he replied. He seemed unusually calm, given the circumstances. “We can be sure that Princess Twilight’s disappearance was not done under her own power.” “We already knew that from Spike’s testimony, Rift.” Cosmic Rift gave a slight grunt of disdain. “Perhaps, but now we know for sure.” “Have you discovered anything else, Rift?” “Yes, Princess. We now know that none of the suspects could have done it.” “Oh? Please explain” said Luna. “Gladly” Cosmic Rift told Luna. “The spell used to do the deed was far too powerful for any of them to pull off” “Just how powerful was it?” “Powerful enough that if the culprit had wished to do so, they could have brought the entire town with Princess Twilight.” “Discord could have done it” muttered Luna. “He has that kind of power.” “Perhaps, but we have reason to believe it was not him. As you well know, when Discord uses magic he leaves behind absolutely no magical residues. However, the magical residue left by the spell that took Princess Twilight was extremely large. So large that it can even be seen by the naked eye.” “Discord could have left a fake magical residue just to fool us” “I doubt it. Were he to do that, he would most likely have left a regular sized teleportation spell residue that could be traced to someone like Queen Chrysalis, so he could frame them for the crime. What we have is an impossibly large magical residue that is far too complex to trace to anyone. Furthermore, it most closely resembles a telekinesis spell residue, not teleportation.” “Telekinesis! That’s impossible, according to Spike’s testimony she was teleported!” “Indeed, part of the reason this spell is so hard to trace it that is seems to break several laws of magic. Even so, we managed to discover that Princess Twilight was taken outside of Equestria entirely” “Then you were unable to locate Twilight?” “Oh, I didn't say that; we just haven’t cast the divination spell yet.” “What!? Why not?” “Frankly, we are concerned that the entity will be able to detect our divination spell and it could feasibly destroy us all with a counter attack.” “Cosmic Rift, I am one of the most powerful mages in Equestria! Surely I can protect you?” “With all due respect Princess, somepony able to capture Princess Twilight in her own castle should have no trouble subduing you.” “Then what do suggest we do, Cosmic Rift?” Said Luna, in an icy tone. “Reconsider your decision in declining Discord’s help. With his aid combined with yours, we should have no trouble overcoming the entity responsible for Princess Twilight’s disappearance.” Luna let out a great sigh. “Very well. Notify- Before Luna could finish, Discord burst out of a potted plant that had been beside Luna and did a few acrobatic flips in midair before landing with a burst of confetti and a big “Ta Da!” “Discord! Have you been listening the entire time!?” shouted Luna. “Of course! What else is a concerned friend supposed to do?” said Discord. “I’m just as worried about poor, poor Twilight as the rest of you!” “Honestly Princess, you should have seen this coming” said Cosmic Rift. “Well put!” Said Discord. “And Luna, I’m hurt that you suspected me of ponynaping Twilight! Does our friendship mean nothing to you?” “Discord we’re not-“ Luna let out a small sigh. “Cosmic Rift, can we begin the divination spell now that Discord is here?” “Of course Princess. Just let me gather the other mages, and we can begin.” <<>> Twilight had run faster then she thought possible. Even with their erratic movement the strange creatures had been surprisingly fast. However, even though she had run parallel to the dome, she had still somehow ended up directly in front of it; and for whatever reason, the creatures had stopped following her when she had gotten close to the dome. Twilight decided to make her way to inside of the dome, as she had decided that if those creatures didn’t like it, she did. Unlike the rest of the landscape, the dome was unmoving, and unchanging. There seemed to be only one entrance into the dome, and it lay directly in front of her. As she passed through, she noticed that the dome was only paper thin. As soon as she went inside, the entry way sealed itself. In stark contrast to the exterior, the interior of the dome was awash in alternating hues of blue and white light, which writhed through the air as if alive. Welcome, Twilight. “Alright, whoever you are, I’ve made it to your dome, now tell me what is going on!” As you wish, Twilight. What would you like to know? “Who are you?” I have no name, because no one ever bothered to give me one. Except you, of course. I rather like the name “Entity.” It suits me well. “I… I never said that out loud…” Why does it surprise you that I can read your thoughts? Twilight tried to regain her composure, but failed miserably. “Um, Entity, could you stop reading my mind please?” I can’t. We are too close. “What do you mean?” I am all around you. “But there is nothing here! Nothing but all this strange light-“ Twilight came to a sudden, chilling conclusion. You are correct, Twilight. What you perceive as light makes up my form. While the dome had looked big on the outside, it was much bigger on the inside. Infinitely bigger. If the entity took up the entirety of the dome, and it did as far as she could tell, then it had to be infinitely big as well. “Just… Just what are you?” If you will allow me to, I will tell you the story of how I came to be. I believe it will answer many of your questions. “Very well.” I do not believe that I came into existence, merely that I stopped not existing. I do not know how this happened, whenever I try to see before my existence I only see nothingness. When I came into being, there was nothing around me but a great void. I grew to hate the nothing, for it was my opposite, the very anathema of my existence. So I decided to destroy it by creating a domain for myself. I created my paradise. Would you like to see it? “Yes” said Twilight. The shimmering blue and white lights came together in front of Twilight and showed her… paradise. There truly was no other word for it. But others, similar to myself, saw what I had done and wanted to be a part of it. I let them, as I was curious to see what they would do. They changed many things, and many changes I did not agree with. Strange things that moved begin to appear in my paradise, and they changed the landscape. Entity changed the vision of paradise and now Twilight could clearly see strange creatures tearing up the landscape and using it to build what could only be a city. Eventually, one of these things found its way to me and for the first time I gave it more then a passing glance, I looked deep inside it. I was very surprised to find... thought, emotion, sentience, awareness. I had thought only I had these attributes, as the others similar to me that had come before had not possessed them, only a cold sort of logic. I found I could communicate with it, and it with me. I grew to enjoy its presence, and I followed it back to its dwelling. But over time, it began to change. I expressed alarm, and it told me not to worry, that this was normal. However, it eventually started moving less and less, and I grew more and more concerned. Finally, it stopped moving altogether. I again looked inside it and I found… nothing. My most hated enemy, nothing. I looked at all the other moving things and saw that they too were slowly changing and would also eventually become nothing. I sought to change this. I would make it so they would no longer change. I would make them like me: unchanging, permanent. However, the others discovered my plan and banded together to stop me. Even though I drained much of their power, they still managed to trap me here, in this place. The vision changed to show… nothing. Not just nothing, Twilight, The others made my prison well. This place is actively nothing, and only nothing can be created here. But in my hubris, I tried anyway. I tried to recreate my paradise here. The end result was this place, not quite here, not quite not here. An empty paradise. I even tried to recreate the things that had moved and had talked. But this place seemed to actively combat that. All I could make was something akin to the other’s cold logic. I can only assume that the others knew that I would try to destroy the nothing in this place, and would waste my energy doing so. They were only half right. While I did try to destroy the nothing, I have lost none of my strength. I am unchanging, and so is my power. After my failure to recreate my paradise, I sought to escape. But I could not. I was unable to keep a portal in existence long enough to let myself through. And I did not know where to go. I did not want to go back to my paradise, for it was no longer mine. I looked elsewhere. The very first place I saw was filled with emptiness, but this did not deter me. I looked into the far future and do you know what I saw? “What did you see?” Twilight wondered out loud. You! The vision changed to Twilight, walking among the streets of Ponyville. I saw you, and looked deep inside you and was elated to find the same thought and emotion that I had! The vision then zoomed out to show all of Equestria. Your Equestria reminds me very much of the paradise I had made; it is just as beautiful. There are moving things everywhere; and they all have that awareness inside them! I then realized just how much I missed communicating with beings like myself. I redoubled my escape efforts, and eventually I devised a way to escape. The vision zoomed in to once again focus on Twilight. You are my means of escape from this place, Twilight. <<>> “Princess Luna!” yelled Cosmic Rift “We’ve found Princess Twilight!” Luna breathed a sigh of relief. “Create a portal and get her out of there at once!” “We can’t.” “What!? Why!?” “Each portal we make seems to instantaneously collapse once it opens on the other side.” “No doubt the entity that captured Twilight is responsible for this” Luna inferred. “Do we at least know where she is?” “Yes… But you will want to see it for yourself.” “Very well, lead the way.” Cosmic Rift lead Luna to Twilight’s throne room, where the unicorns had hastily constructed a magic circle. At least 15 unicorn mages stood surrounding the circle, all of them masters, all of them exhausted from casting too much magic. Discord had nonchalantly leaned up against Twilight’s throne; he seemed to be deep in concentration. Cosmic Rift joined the circle and begin to pour his magic into it, and the other unicorns followed suit. The circle seemed to warp and shimmer until it finally resolved into Twilight. “Why is she just standing there, talking to herself?” Luna asked. “That seems to be a habit of hers” said Discord. “No, it almost looks as if she is talking to someone we cannot see…” “Where is the zoom button on this thing?” questioned Discord. He fiddled with the magic circle, and it started to slowly zoom out. “I still cannot see who she is talking to!” “Hold on, let me try something else” Discord seemingly pulled out of nowhere a giant magnifying glass, and held it over the circle. “Hmm, that’s odd…” “What is odd?” “There are no invisible beings around her either. Are you sure she’s not just talking to herself?” “Hmpf, we will have to go there ourselves and ask her.” Discord let out a small chuckle. “And how do you suggest we do that if we can’t build a portal?” “We could send a dimensional anchor to where Twilight is, and then use it slingshot ourselves to her.” “I suppose we could, but if we ran into trouble there would be no quick means of getting back to Equestria” explained Discord. “Where is your sense of adventure, Discord?” “Oh, very well. Anchors aweigh!” Discord materialized a ship anchor, and sent it sailing through the magic circle, to where Twilight was. “Do not worry Twilight, we will be at your side very soon” <<>> “I have a few questions about all this, if you don’t mind” said Twilight. As is only natural. Ask away. “How exactly am I going to help you escape?” When the others made my prison they made sure that I could not escape. However, they neglected to prevent me from bringing others into the prison. Now that you are here, I can use your body as a vessel to contain my form. Once your friends arrive they will take you back to Equestria, bringing me with you. “Why can’t you create your own vessel?” Anything I would create here would be too weak to contain my form, due to the influence of the nothingness. “And this vessel has to be me?” I would prefer it to be you, Twilight. But no, anything living being that was not created in this place could potentially be used as a vessel. “And if I were to refuse to be your vessel?” I would let your friends take you back to Equestria, leaving me behind in my prison. But I do not think this course of action would be wise. “Why is that? What would you do?” It is not what I would do, but what has already been done. In their attempts to bring you back to Equestria, your friends have inadvertently brought my realm too close to Equestria. If left unchecked this could cause our worlds to collide, causing untold damage to your world. “We can’t let that happen!” Indeed Twilight, I knew this could happen and came up with a method of counteracting it. However, I can’t do so while trapped in this prison. Twilight grumbled. She was beginning to believe that Entity was manipulating her. Twilight decided to ask more questions to see if she could implicate Entity in any wrongdoing. Well, any more wrongdoing. “Entity, how did you bring me here? The spell you used was like none I have ever seen!” It was difficult. No teleportation works here, and no portal can be constructed. As you well know, such things work by folding space so that you and your destination are directly next to each other. However, what little space there is in my prison is far too weak to be folded in such a manner without collapsing. So I was forced to bring you the whole distance instead. “What!? That’s impossible! With the massive distances involved it would have taken forever!” Yes, it would have taken too much time. So I removed time. Without its interference you were here instantaneously. Twilight decided it was time for a different line of questioning. “Why did you not just bring me directly to you? Why set me outside the dome?” To do so would have been a lie, Twilight. You deserve to see the whole truth of who I am and what I have done, not just bits and pieces. I wished for you to draw your own conclusions about this place. “You could have just shown it to me instead!” That would have robbed you of the full experience, Twilight. “But what about those creatures! They attacked me!” They did so of their own volition Twilight. I merely protected you from them. Suddenly, a giant iron ship anchor crashed down next to Twilight. Your friends are here. You must choose quickly whether or not to bring me with you. “Why? I would like to talk with them, and see what they think about all this.” As you wish. We will wait for their arrival. Twilight found herself surprised by that remark. She had assumed that an evil being wouldn’t want her friends interfering. Either Entity honestly meant no harm, or was very sure of its power. She didn’t have long to wait. Twilight was surprised to see Discord sliding down the rope attached to the anchor like a fire-pony sliding down a fire pole. Luna brought up the rear, flailing wildly as she fell, with the rope tied to her waist. They both landed next to Twilight, Discord landing gracefully next to her, Luna falling flat on her face. “Luna? Discord!? You came to save me?” Twilight asked. She rushed over to Luna to help her off the ground. “Indeed, but we have more pressing matters to discuss” said Luna. “We saw you in conversation with something but were unable to determine what it was.” “Hmm? Oh you must mean Entity” Twilight clarified. “Entity?” said both Discord and Luna, at the same time. Yes, I believe that is the name Twilight calls me by. “Who said that!?” yelped Luna. She looked wildly from side to side, trying to determine the location of the voice. Discord merely knitted his brow in confusion. “Everypony please calm down! This is just how Entity talks.” “Just what is this entity, Twilight?” Discord asked. “Don’t you see all this bluish-white light?” “Yes…” “All of that light makes up Entity’s body” “Luna, do you remember when I said that if there was trouble here, there would be no quick means of getting back to Equestria?” “Yes…” Luna stammered. “This is exactly what I meant by trouble” Somehow, Luna managed to gather the shredded remains of her composure. “Entity, why have you taken Twilight Sparkle away from Equestria? I believe Twilight can explain better then I. Twilight then told Luna and Discord all that had happened since her disappearance from Equestria. “Surely you cannot be seriously considering bringing this entity back to Equestria?” Said Luna. “I… I think I will” Twilight said. “You yourself said that this entity was rightfully imprisoned here for its crimes against the natural order.” “Perhaps, but I believe that bringing Entity to Equestria and having it learn about the magic of friendship would be far more beneficial for everyone.” “Did this entity not kidnap you? Did it not also let you be attacked by hostile creatures?” “Yes, but I believe Entity only did those things because it didn’t know any better. If we left Entity here, it would just kidnap somepony else and do the same to them. But if we took Entity to Equestria, we could teach it to do some good.” “Discord, what do you think of all this?” “I will support whatever decision Twilight makes” answered Discord. “After all, she’s the one who will have to fix things if this goes wrong.” So have you and your friends come to a decision, Twilight? “Yes, we will allow you to come with us to Equestria.” Excellent. Are you prepared for me to transfer my essence into you? “I’m ready when you are, Entity.” Without warning, white and blue light begin to swirl around Twilight, blocking her from Discord’s and Luna’s view. The light rapidly built up in intensity, quickly becoming a raging torrent of light engulfing her. To Twilight, the process felt eerily similar to when the princesses transferred their magic into her. As quickly as the transference begin, it was done. Now that Entity was inside Twilight, the interior of the dome no longer shimmered with blue and white light. It was now the same dull lifeless grey like the rest of the place. Now, with Twilight’s aid I shall finally leave this place. Unbidden by Twilight, her magic begin to flow to her horn as Entity begin to cast a spell using her own power. Everyone began to rise in the air as the spell took hold. Twilight’s very last thought before being hurtled into Equestria was the insight that maybe this hadn't been such a good idea.