Twilight Sparkle
BRAAAAAAP!
The resonating belch, accompanied by a surge of intense heat and a blinding flash of green light, woke her up quite unceremoniously. Twilight's eyes snapped open and her wings flew out to their full extent, and considering she'd been laying on her back this meant she was launched into sitting upright as her wings slammed against the bed.
"Ugh," Spike said, even more shaken than she was. "Letter for you, Twilight." He crawled out of his bed and handed over the scroll to Twilight.
"Thanks Spike," she said sleepily. What time was it? She had the blinds drawn so she couldn't figure it out. Either way, she took the scroll into her hooves and, lighting up her horn for illumination, opened it and started reading. First she smiled, then she frowned, then as she continued to read she gasped in panic, and as she reached the end she nodded resolutely. She would not let the Princesses down.
She got off her bed, already wide awake. There was nothing quite like reading that there was the potential of Nightmare Moon returning to possess Luna to wake somepony up. "Spike, I'm going to Canterlot, you're in charge."
The baby dragon rubbed his eyes with fists. "What's going on with Canterlot this time?" he asked sardonically.
Twilight shook her head at his sleepy snark. "Don't worry about it. The Princesses need my help on a..." She chose her words carefully. "... magical matter." Internally she felt guilty at leaving Spike out of it, but if it was considering experiments on Nightmare Moon's magic - however the Princesses got their hooves on that - then the fewer ponies around the better.
"You know, if you don't want to tell me what it is you can just say that," Spike grumbled.
Twilight winced in guilt, but went on to prepare.
She walked around her library home, gathering the few things she'd need in her saddlebags. Just a few stacks of notes, pencils. The castle would have magical instruments and such for her to borrow, so she could travel light.
Before leaving, Twilight grabbed a quick snack in the form of a lettuce sandwich, downed it, then slipped her saddlebags on. After adjusting the strap so her wings wouldn't chafe, she stepped outside of her library.
It was dark, still the middle of the night. Luna's moon hung high, slowly creeping down towards the horizon. Still blinking some sleep out of her eyes, Twilight stretched her wings and set off towards Canterlot.
The crisp night air billowing through her mane and whistling through her primaries was a shock to her senses, and she grinned. It'd taken quite a few lessons with Rainbow - and more than one mortifying preening session - to get flying down pat, but Twilight had always been a quick study. She was confident in her ability to reach Canterlot in a semi-timely manner. It wasn't like the city was that far, after all.
As she flew, she wondered about the letter. It hadn't explained much, but apparently Luna had discovered some trace of Nightmare Moon's magic within her mind and was understandably worried about it. Twilight was especially worried of what would happen if the Nightmare actually did take over Luna; all problems of how much the night goddess didn't deserve that aside, there were the logistics problems of them not having the Elements of Harmony anymore to purge the darkness. It was imperative that Twilight found a way to stop Luna from being corrupted once again.
She beat her wings as her pegasus magic propelled her through the sky, the Equestrian countryside passing beneath her and Canterlot's mountain looming before her like some great beast. Then she was flying over Canterlot, slowly spiraling down until she landed just outside the castle gates.
She trotted up towards the gate, which was flanked by two Night Guards. She nodded to each of them. "Good night," she greeted.
The one on the left said, "Good night to you too, Princess. Princess Luna and Princess Celestia are waiting for you in the Canterlot Archives." He gave an almost-smile and opened the gate. "I trust you can find the way?"
"Of course." She entered, bade them farewell, and set about finding her way to the archives.
In no time at all she was there. She opened the door, checked in with the librarian, and found both Princesses pouring over books in the teleportation wing. Celestia was bereft of her royal attire, which gave the sun goddess a strangely... mortal look. Twilight didn't like it. Luna meanwhile still had on her regalia, a tornado of books spinning around and above her horn.
Bracing herself to not use their titles, Twilight cleared her throat. "Celestia, Luna?" she asked.
Luna gasped, and her whirlwind of books came crashing down. Celestia set down the book she was reading and looked her way. "Twilight, thank you for coming on such... very short notice." She and Celestia walked together and shared a quick embrace. "I'm very worried."
"I can imagine, Celestia." They pulled apart. "What happened? Your letter didn't give me all the details."
"Is it safe," Princess Luna asked. "to assume that you know about the Nightmare's magic?"
She chuckled nervously and put a hoof behind her head. "Well, I know of it, but..."
"Come here," Luna said, opening a wing and gesturing to herself. Twilight walked towards her, nervously looking at Celestia for approval. In response, Princess Celestia nodded comfortingly. Once Twilight was within a few leg lengths of Luna, the Nightbringer lit up her horn with a blue corona. "Probe your magic into mine. Find my link to the moon, Twilight. A little more than halfway to it is the anomaly, currently shielded. Don't do anything to it," she intoned ominously. "Once you've found it, come back out."
From so close Twilight could see Luna's gentle, almost unnoticeable shaking and the tense muscles all throughout her body. She must've been really scared. "Alright Pri - Luna, I'll be careful." Twilight began her spell, scanning her magical signature into Luna's body. She was nervous; Celestia had allowed her to touch her link to the sun once when she was a filly, learning about spiritual links, but that was the only time. In a few minutes, however, Twilight found Princess Luna's link to the moon and sent her magic down it, keeping an 'eye' out for the shield around Nightmare Moon's magic.
Before long she found the shield of energy, both blue and golden magic forming a barrier around what appeared to be a tiny dark purple 'thread' poking out of the blue ropes that made up the bond. It was really small, she could certainly understand how it went undetected for so long. She wouldn't even have noticed it if she weren't looking for it. For a moment Twilight wanted to look further, but remembered what Luna had told her and pulled her scan's power back out, then shut off her horn.
"I see it," she said worriedly. They hadn't been kidding; Nightmare Moon's magic really was there. "What do we do about it? Can't we just, I don't know, cut it out?" Even as she asked the question she knew it was foalish. Despite how they appeared in her mind's eye, they weren't actually threads but rather hyperthaumatic weight distribution and identification spells. You can't simply cut a hyperthaumatic weight distribution and identification spell.
Celestia shook her head. "No, we can't." She lit up her horn and briefly connected her magic to Luna's. Luna's breath briefly hitched in fear, and Twilight had a feeling she would soon find out why. "Twilight, I want you to follow this thread as far as you can. Tell me what you think."
"Okay," she said uncertainly. It was Nightmare Moon's magic; she was really worried about poking it. What if she woke it up and made it possess Luna? Or what if it went after her instead? What would she even call herself, corrupted by it? 'Falling Dusk'? Still, the Princess had asked her to try something, she would at least try.
Lighting up her magic again, she pushed into the link. The shield around the tainted thread was gone, but the magic remained just as inert as before. Steeling her nerves, she placed several wards over her mind and a one-way shield around the taint, then touched it with her spell.
The magical corruption of Nightmare Moon, much to her surprise, didn't feel anything like corruption. After facing off against King Sombra she knew what corruption felt like, and this wasn't it. If she didn't know any better, she'd have said it was just like any other unicorn's magic...
She began tracing its length. The magic was incredibly thin and feeble, but solid enough that she wasn't afraid of it going anywhere anytime soon. She followed it through the void between Equus and the moon, and then -
- it vanished. Just folded up and dissipated. Twilight inspected it closely, the way the Nightmare's magic rippled and twisted against space-time before vanishing, it reminded her somewhat of the reality folding techniques needed to teleport, but she couldn't detect any spacial coordinates. She almost pulled back, but decided to keep investigating.
Closing her eyes to focus more, Twilight investigated the part of the magic just before it ended. It was certainly behaving as if it teleported elsewhere, but there was nowhere it went. Nowhere that she could see, but it was still doing something and the knowledge of what that was would not be denied to her!
Pulling up some of Starswirl's spells on fixed teleportation fields - portals in laypony's terms - and how to identify them, she looked closely at the region around the end of the thread. It was locked firmly in the ethereal plane, where magic resided, so even if she'd gone to where it ended she wouldn't even notice anything was wrong. On the other hoof, since it was in the magical plane, it'd make it easier to trace its location. She knew it must've had some location, as it lacked the proper perturbations of a miniature black hole.
Trying out several spells designed to trace a portal, Twilight frowned when all of them came up with no result. Then she had an idea; what if she sent a ripple down the magic itself? Despite her paranoia of whose magic it was, it was just magic, not intelligent at all. With a gentle prod of her power, she sent a subtle ripple down the Nightmare's magic. Assigning several tracking spells to the wave itself, she 'watched' it reach the portal and disappear.
She smiled; she'd gotten a reading! A moment after it vanished, she got a reading. A brief instance of high magical pressure, and then nothing. Twilight decided that wherever the portal lead, the magical pressure had crushed her wave and with it, the tracking spells.
Pulling out her magic, Twilight shook her head. "Alright," she told her two senior princesses. "I got something. Wherever the portal leads, there seems to be very high magical pressure. With some experimentation I think I can find a way to send something through but... where would it even lead?"
Princess Luna sat down and crossed her forehooves. "Splendid, so I am to be a guinea pig," she grumbled.
Meanwhile, Princess Celestia gave her a smile. It was the smile that said 'I'm-proud-of-you-but-what-you-discovered-unnerves-me-and-I-don't-want-to-show-that'. "Interesting. Luna, any ideas on where it leads?"
The younger alicorn frowned. "If I had to take a guess sister, I'd say it leads to wherever that misbegotten demon came from. Likely nothing too hospitable."
"I can probably make something that can withstand the magical pressure," Twilight offered. "Put some instruments on it, send it through the portal using a resonance entanglement on the thread, I can probably get some environment readings." She paused to consider her options, flicking an ear. "Maybe some pictures if I can get a camera."
Celestia nodded. "Use whatever you need, Twilight. Meanwhile, I'll be starting the day. Luna?" she asked.
The blue alicorn nodded, igniting her magic. "Right." There was a pulse of ancient, unknowable magic through the air, sending a cold chill through Twilight's body. Then Celestia did the same, warming Twilight's bones. "I'll see you at dinner, Tia?" Princess Luna asked.
Celestia nodded. "Yes. Would you like me to send a meal here?"
Luna thought about it, looked at Twilight, and then nodded. "Yes, bring something for Twilight as well."
"I will." There was a burst of sunlight, and Princess Celestia was gone.
Princess Luna looked her way. "Very well then, Twilight. Lead the way to the magical testing grounds."
She smiled. "It'd be my pleasure."
***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-***
Working together with the Princess of the Moon and her access to materials, Twilight soon got together something she felt would be able to go wherever the portal led. Likely a dark realm of shadows and nightmares. It had an air pressure gauge, atmosphere vial, pH strips, thaumatic meters, a camera on each side, thermometer, the whole scientific package wrapped onto something that resembled a decorated cardboard box not quite as big as Twilight herself; the portal wasn't very large and wouldn't be fooled by shapeshifting. They had taken every safety precaution imaginable, from a simple no-burn aura to an emergency beacon in case they made the Nightmare manifest itself.
She and Princess Luna trotted around it, inspecting it for anything that could be tightened, loosened, or calibrated. Eventually, their work done, Luna sat down and lit up her horn.
"Okay," Twilight said. "Are you ready?"
She nodded resolutely, eyes burning holes in the machine. "I am ready, Twilight Sparkle."
"Great!" she said enthusiastically. Behind her lay several plates with the remains of their lunches/dinners on it. They had gone on a little trek around Canterlot, visiting several universities for the instruments required, and now they were on the highest tower. Twilight had placed several protective wards around the room in case of a breach in the high-pressure environment on the other side of the link. She was ready to send it through the portal Nightmare Moon's magic kept open, to what she'd already dubbed in her mind as the 'Shadow Realm'.
"Alright," she said. "Here goes nothing. Probe venture into unknown realm via Nightmare Moon's residual magic, take one." Her horn lit up, and engulfed the box, and simultaneously pushed into Luna's spiritual bond.
The spell was tricky; she could track a wave through Nightmare's magic easily enough, but that was it. If she wanted to send the instruments through she'd need to entangle them with the wave, which required a hefty amount of multivariable calculus done practically on the fly, to say nothing of pulling it back. But the Princesses were counting on her to figure out what was going on with Nightmare Moon, and she was not going to disappoint them!
She found the tether of Nightmare Moon's magic and sent a rebounding wave through it, with enough force to withstand the magical pressure. Quickly she computed the math and bound the wave to the instruments. Immediately, it shimmered but went nowhere.
The wave approached the vanishing point. Twilight kept running the numbers through her mind and the magic through her horn. The tether of magic began to warp and the box became transparent. Then the wave went through the portal, and the box vanished.
Twilight waited with baited breath for the allotted amount of time she and Luna had decided on. Then the magical wave she had sent through, rebounding by nature, switched direction and headed back through, returning the box just before the wave faded.
It re-materialized where it had been and immediately broke into pieces with a loud crash. Both she and Luna jumped, their magic fizzling in surprise from the unexpected noise.
"What happened?" Princess Luna demanded. "I could feel it passing through but... why did it break?"
"I-I don't know!" she stammered, raising a foreleg in unease. "Let's see the readings," she said, walking over to it.
The box was quite damaged. Its metal had warped and dented, almost as if the box had... fallen from a height and, when it came back, all its momentum went into the ground. Luckily, the various measuring devices on it were, by and by, unharmed.
She scooped them up in her magic and began reading their layouts. "Air pressure, normal. Atmosphere composition - " She lit up her horn to analyze it. " - is identical to ours. Acidity reads six, temperature is three hundred and three Coltvin... everything seems pretty normal, Princess. The thaumatic meters recorded a high spike, but then it drops down to a little below our background levels." She looked up at Princess Luna, who was taking out the pictures of the cameras, which had been enchanted to take periodic photos on their own once they were sent to the Shadow Realm.
"Be that as it may," she said. "The cameras malfunctioned." Luna's magic opened them up to reveal that the film was blank. "Not much to see."
"Doesn't the film need to be developed?" Luna frowned, looked at the strips, and briefly coated them in her magic. They remained dark. "Oh." Well, it would make sense that wherever Nightmare Moon came from would be devoid of light. "So, what can we conclude from this?" she asked.
Twilight rubbed her chin. "Well, judging by the readouts there was a high spike in magical energy surrounding it, which quickly dropped to unimportant levels. That raises many important questions; was it localized, or was it instead a temporary effect of traveling towards Nightmare Moon's place of origin?" She rubbed her chin harder, for emphasis. "I'm afraid that without pictures we just have no way to be sure."
"What if, we created a light source? Attach a light bulb, perhaps?" Luna suggested. In the meantime, she lit up her horn and began fixing the box, unbending metal and reattaching measurement devices.
"Maybe. Oh, and a cushion for it when it comes back. We don't want it breaking again," she offered.
Luna nodded. "Hold a moment, Twilight. I shall be right back." Dark blue magic enveloped the older Princess and then she was gone, leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts.
Mostly, she wondered what they would do with this information. Cutting the tether of Nightmare Moon's magic could have dire consequences on Princess Luna's bond with the moon, but at the same time they couldn't very well leave it there. Perhaps they could close the portal, but that would mean leaving whatever was on the other side undisturbed. If Nightmare Moon had been sent back to her place of origins, instead of purged by the Elements like they'd all assumed, then there was nothing to stop her from coming back a second time. They needed a good idea of what was on the other side. Knowledge was power.
The information that they'd already gotten indicated that wherever the portal led was high in the air - there may or may not have been any land at all in the Shadow Realm - and aside from a brief surge of easily shieldable magical energy that likely stemmed from the portal itself, it was perfectly hospitable. After they tried again, the next step was a pony mission.
A whoosh of displaced air heralded the return of the Princess of the Night, with a coffee cup as well as flashlights and a large pillow in her magic. "I have returned!" she announced. "Let us begin anew!" She took a sip from her drink and moved the pillow over, lifted the box, and rested it under.
"Great!" Twilight said. "Flashlights... here here and here," she said, Princess Luna levitating them into place as she did. Twilight magically adhered them to their spots, and nodded once it was done. "Okay. Probe venture into unknown realm via Nightmare Moon's residual magic, take two." Again she sent a large wave through the Nightmare's magic, and attached the device to it. She watched as it faded from sight, and then after a moment it returned, just as planned.
It rattled when it hit the cushion, but otherwise was undamaged. Princess Luna, taking another sip of coffee, grabbed hold of the cameras while Twilight turned off the flashlights and looked over the other instruments. There was slight fluctuations, but well within what was normal for... well, normal for the atmosphere in Equestria. Everything was going well...
"No photos yet again," Princess Luna declared.
... except for that.
"Really? Can I see it?" Twilight asked innocently. Luna magicked over the cameras, and Twilight began opening them up. Much like Luna had said, there was nothing. No damage, no nothing. It was simply like something had draped itself across the camera lenses to prevent any light from entering. Considering what sort of place the dark parasite would hail from, it wasn't hard to believe. No matter how she looked at it, there was nothing wrong with the cameras, so it must've been some property of the Shadow Realm. "Hmm, not good," she muttered.
"Any conclusions?" Luna asked.
"Nothing too certain, given the lack of visual data," she muttered in full scientist mode. "It confirms my hypothesis of the area in question having some obscuring effect on light. Other methods may be used to detect the layabout of the area such as magical echolocation, but in order to do that..." she trailed off.
"... somepony would need to go through themselves," Luna said. "Twilight Sparkle, you do not truly mean that, do you?"
She grimaced and shook a little in nervousness at what she was implying. "Well, we do need somepony to see what is going on on the other side. If Nightmare Moon is doing something on her end to get here, we need to put a stop to it. And besides, severing the link from that end would be much safer than doing it here; the portal would absorb most of the backlash. Either way, somepony's going to have to go through and... the portal isn't much larger than myself..."
The other princess affixed her with a shocked look. "Thou can't be serious!" she said, slipping back into Old Equestrian. "To willingly venture forth into the realm of that wretched shade, to risk confronting her with no aid, no Elements, and no way to exceed her power on thy own? Twilight Sparkle hast thou gone mad?!"
"There's... there's got to be some way to sever it," she countered hesitantly. "This isn't business we can leave unfinished and the only way to fix it is by going there. I'm not saying I want to build a house there, Princess, but I can at least take a look. A quick peek in, then I come right out."
The elder princess bit her lip. "Art thou... are you sure about this? There is no telling what you may encounter there."
"I know," she said nervously. "But the instruments have picked up nothing out of the ordinary. We need to send somepony over soon, and I'm the only one small enough to fit through the portal who can also bring themselves back." Twilight Sparkle swallowed. She knew she was digging herself into this, but her sense of duty to the princesses came first. This was important, much more important than any worry she had herself. Now if only she could get rid of that worry she'd be set...
"I... very well, Twilight," Luna said, resigned. "How should we go about this?"
"I was thinking," she said. "That I could anchor a thread of my own magic to here, in case I break the tether and can't use it to get back. Something unmoving, stationary, as close to unchanging as you can get."
"The mountain?" Princess Luna suggested. "Or perhaps the very castle upon which we stand?"
Her ears perked up. "Perfect! Let me just... just get this ready." Twilight's horn blazed to life, and she began setting up a thread of energy similar to what was clinging to Luna. She attached one end to herself, and the other to the ground beneath her hooves, tying them together in every possible way she could imagine, since it would be her only lifeline back once Nightmare Moon's magical was inevitably severed. "Alright." She frowned. "We should probably get some materials ready for me; I doubt I'll be carrying a thermometer with me."
"Nourishment should be priority," Princess Luna said. "In case you remain there for longer than anticipated and we need mount a rescue."
"Oh, and a pencil and some papers! To send back reports. Maybe... maybe a crystal here, tied to my tether. I can send signals every now and then to let you know I'm fine."
"Very well, let us gather the materials we each think of and reconvene here," Princess Luna said confidently. Twilight herself wished she had that confidence. She was going off into the realm of Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon! She didn't know what to expect, she didn't want to imagine what it would be like, but her brain did it anyway. She was afraid, but then Twilight's mind flashed back to how terrified Luna had been - whether or not she tried to show it - and she just felt bad for being scared.
Before long, they'd torn through the castle and got together everything Twilight might've needed for a journey into the Shadow Realm, and then reconvened in Princess Luna's room where they set up the containment measures. She had her saddlebags, several pieces of paper and three pencils to write reports, enough high-nutrient bars and magical water pallets to last a week, and several resonance crystals filled to the brim with magic, in case Twilight's power ran out and she needed it to return. Twilight kept reassuring herself that she was not going into too much danger. She was just going to go in, and if she couldn't do anything, come right back out.
Fixing her saddlebags on, Twilight nodded. "I'm ready, Pri - Luna," she said, correcting herself at the last moment.
"Excellent. I shall perform the spell now - "
The door opened and Princess Celestia walked in. They both turned to her - Twilight suppressed the urge to bow - and she looked at them confusedly. "Sister, I had a free moment from my duties and I thought I'd check in. What is... going on?"
"Hehe," Twilight said, scuffing a forehoof on the carpet. "Well you see, Princess - "
"Ah, Tia!" Princess Luna said. "Your student had a revelation with the bond. The opposite side appears to be hospitable, and we have decided the most prudent course of action is to send somepony there to sever the bond, and then they can return."
Princess Celestia's gentle smile turned a lot more tense. She turned towards Twilight. "And... Twilight. Just who did you decide to send?"
"Well, um, me. The portal's only so big, its ethereal qualities would strip any shapeshifting, and I'm the only one small enough who can bring themselves back. Oh, but I've made a link from myself to the castle, so I can still get back when I break the Nightmare's magic," she tried to reason.
"Twilight Sparkle, are you... sure about this?" Celestia asked worriedly. "There is no telling what's on the other side."
"Well, there's no light as far as we can tell," she admitted. "But I'm going in shielded in every way we can think of, and if anything goes wrong I can just come right back. Please Princess, I've done this sort of thing before."
She nodded. "Alright, but I'm still casting a few safety measures of my own. Send a message through every twenty four hours, Twilight."
"Every twenty four hours, got it," she said. Twilight took a deep breath to steel her nerves. "Alright." She lit up her horn and refreshed the shielding spells, which would protect her from mental interference, forced transformation, disjointment, and raw magical force. "I'm ready. Can you please tell my friends where I'm going?"
The Moon Goddess nodded. "I'll perform the spell," Princess Luna said. "Sister, watch in case anything unexpected happens. Twilight Sparkle... best of luck." And then, Princess Luna's magic flared to life, and wrapped itself around Twilight.
She gasped as immediately her head began to swim. The sensation was similar to the one of falling she got after leaving a daydream, but continuous. She didn't dare call on her own magic for a final refreshment to the shields, lest it interfere with Princess Luna's.
Princess Celestia nodded. "Be safe, Twilight."
"I will," she breathed. Then the world dropped out from underneath her.
Everything she saw became watery and started to flow into the middle of her field of vision, like a water painting that had a hole punctured in its middle, and was draining down it. She felt... numb, like her entire body's circulation had been cut off. The sounds of her and the other princesses' breathing became garbled, as if Twilight were hearing it by pressing her ears to an iceberg, and then her hearing failed her entirely.
She was sure she was shaking, because her vision was. Everything felt wrong, horrible. She was falling, gliding along a rope, but she didn't see it. It was like she was moving in a direction she couldn't see.
That's exactly what's happening, she reminded herself.
Where her vision flowed together was a total absence of light. Darker than black, deeper than night. It was the total, absolute lack of any form of illumination, featureless and eternal. When the last speck of her former vision flowed together and vanished, she could hear torrents of magical power rushing around her, searing her shield as she traveled through... wherever. The darkness was exquisite and all-consuming, and for what she estimated to be to be thirty seconds she drifted in the abyss, falling. And then, the darkness shimmered, rippled like water. The silence was replaced by the sound of her own breathing.
Slowly but surely, the darkness resolved itself, almost as if there was light. The sensation of falling intensified, forcing Twilight to close her eyes by instinct alone. The magic burning away her shields faded away into nothing. She kept falling, fallingfallingfallingfalling!
And then she stopped.
She started falling again, but her wings sprang to life and began to beat, keeping her in place. Twilight Sparkle dared to open her eyes and she saw that she was...
"Wait, what?" she asked.
... she was flying above Canterlot.
