The eyelids of the unicorn soothsayer began to twitch ever so gentle while time went on. There was a strange and rather mysterious light that fell upon her eyelids. It wasn’t the light of the sun, nor was it that of the moon. It neither was the light of a candle and it certainly wasn’t the light of an magical aura. Something strange seemed to have happened already and the unicorn didn’t knew what it was.
To make matter possibly even worse, she realized to herself that the mattress upon which she laid had also changed. For instead of the usual fluffiness that was her own mattress, it seemed to have changed into something that laid even more comfortable. Normally she wouldn’t have really complained about the facts as they were given to her, but that time it all seemed to have been a little bit too well placed.
Almost as if something knew that she was dead tired outside of the beings in the castle. Perhaps a gift from the other soothsayers as a welcome back present? Or perhaps one of her students had changed the room that she slept into something completely different? The unicorn couldn’t tell with her eyes closed but the material beneath her just laid so comfortable.
There was no way of telling whether or not it was a trap or anything the like. The unicorn was literally touching within the darkness of her own mind while she tried to figure out everything. Without much luck though. Perhaps the time was there to just open her eyes and see what would have happened.
Another twitch was given off to the eyelids of the mare, then she finally managed to open them. Her eyes were fully opened in a slow and gentle manner. Twilight wanted to figure out what was going on with her without destroying her eyes in the process. Having her eyes destroyed was about one of the last things that she wanted to do actually.
So the mare opened her eyes with both calm and care, only to be greeted by a massive blue sky that stretched for eternity. That fact alone caused her to have gained a much higher sense of suspicion. She wasn’t back in her room anymore, that much was certain. But with her sight having returned did the mare began to scrub her back against the stuff beneath her.
She had to know what it was made of before she would be standing up and done something else. The unicorn shifted her body from both left to right before she blinked a couple of times. It couldn’t have been true what she felt, right? Clearly there must have been some kind of mistake that crawled out of her.
“G-Grass?” the mare whispered up to herself just before she rose an eyebrow. Something about the whole thing didn’t made sense for a moment to her as she growled deeply to herself. The unicorn removed her hands from her chest and laid them upon the ground. What followed next was the gentle act of her hoisting herself up from the ground to finally get some sort of an idea of where she happened to be.
The body of the unicorn soothsayer rose up further and further until she finally saw it all. She noticed the very spot where she was and she couldn’t believe the facts that were given to her. She blinked a couple of times out of sheer curiosity before she shook her head from side to side. “No, no, no, nope, can’t do this!” Twilight exclaimed before her body was dropped back to the ground.
The eyes were closed once again and the unicorn remembered the image that she saw only moment before. A massive field of grass, filled with trees that had their leaves rustling within the wind, while in the middle of to all laid a pond. A pond that she didn’t seemed to be remembering within her life, but it certainly had some massive degrees of magical powers.
“You won’t grant me a single day of rest, now would you?” Twilight muttered to the air that stretched above her. The words were meant for whatever force had pulled her into the realm. A little fact that she wasn’t all too happy about. Another growl soon enough followed through her mouth while the eyes were opened again to inspect the world around her.
Her hand was raised and one of her fingers were charged within the magical aura. Whatever had caused the mare to have landed there once more, it could have been the work of only two beings in the whole of existence. Two beings with whom Twilight had an interesting love and hate relationship in that very moment of time itself. A grumble was released through her nostrils before there was a shot of raspberry lightning fired into the skies.
Just one weak looking bolt of raspberry lightning was sent into the skies. She never had the intention to either harm or maim anypony in the process. She just needed to vent out her frustrations. In the moment of time did the way she did it, the best one.
Which was exactly what happened. The unicorn released another exhale of relief moments before the finger lost its magical aura. The anger had just been flowing straight out of her body as she rose her body up once more. The unicorn soothsayer glanced over the field of grass and noticed the massive amounts of flowers.
“What in the name of..?” she added to her arsenal of words after she rose another eyebrow. Never in her life had Twilight seen so many different kinds of flowers together just like that. Something told to her that it wasn’t a normal pond that she had ended up. But perhaps she had gotten to the one pond that could be changing everything that she knew.
Something about it all just seemed a little bit too obvious. Yet sometimes the obvious was in reality the part that needed to be seen in Twilight’s eyes. The unicorn soothsayer got back up on her hooves at a slow pace. All while she kept her eyes away from the pond. There was a feeling that there lurked a being beneath the waters that mustn’t be seen by any being.
Twilight’s eyes scanned the remaining bits and pieces of the area before she shook her head. It couldn’t have been right, right? She couldn’t have been on the place where she thought to have been. There was only one place that could have given her some kind of indication about where she happened to be, but she already knew where she was.
A little voice inside of her mind just constantly screamed it out to her. A little voice inside of her head constantly hammered the words against her. The mare brought a hand up to her forehead as she dared to take one last look around. She had to accept the place of just where she was or live with the constant nagging inside of her head.
“The garden of the goddesses, the inner sanctum,” the soothsayer mumbled to herself before she released a small gasp for air. The unicorn couldn’t believe what she had seen nor what she could have seen. Two of her fingers were cast within the raspberry aura and they both drew the symbols of both the sun and the moon within the skies.
The unicorn made a gentle bow before the symbols before she walked further into the mysterious, wonderful garden. The pond that laid before her was filled with water and something else. Twilight came closer and closer to the edge of the little pond and dared to look into it with her eyes. Though the two of them were squinted down to near nothing. The last thing that she needed was seeing something that she wasn’t allowed to.
But the very waters remained calm within the pond. Even though it felt as if there lived a thing that shouldn’t have been doing. The unicorn released a deep exhale through her nostrils as she seemed to have been genuinely happy that nothing jumped out of the waters.
Though it didn’t answer many of her questions. The water within, was just water. So the eyes were opened as a whole again and she did take a step or two backwards. She had absolutely no desire in becoming the meal for something that lived within those very waters. Twilight’s eyes looked from left to right in the hope to find the things that she needed to find.
She had to find the middle of it all. She had to find the middle of the garden of the goddesses in order to hopefully get the answers upon her questions. The unicorn couldn’t help herself but she just had to have them. Her eyes gazed from left to right before they finally managed to have found a path. With a great quickness in her hooves did she went over to the path and followed it in silence.
Trees, bushes and gravel. That was all that she saw in the meantime. The trees arched over her to make a beautiful and natural walkway whereas the bushes went as high as the stems of the trees. There wouldn’t have been any allowance to watch through the vegetation that was standing sideways. Yet Twilight was allowed to look up through the roof of leaves.
The gravel that made its own distinct sound beneath her hooves seemed to have been calming her mind upon all sorts of matters. The longer she travelled over it, the more she seemed to just lose herself within the grasps of the nature of the place. Forgetting her worldly troubles.
It was known to Twilight that such a thing happened, but she didn’t really seemed to be caring too much about it at all. If anything, it was good to have an empty head for a change. All of her usual thoughts, fears and troubles had been replaced with just a vast emptiness. Her mind had become a barren wasteland that was once occupied with everything.
Just the sheer amount of vastness that was given by it caused the unicorn to chuckle a bit to herself. The mare couldn’t help herself to shake her head from side to side. Her hair waved within the calm breeze of wind that were blowing in her face. But once again, she didn’t seemed to be truly minding it. To her it seemed that everything had to have been really peaceful and actually calm.
Though the pathway upon which she walked had to eventually give way to something else. Ahead of her there was a clearing to be found, one that became bigger with every step. A massive one while the trees seemed to be separating themselves and the path widened. Whatever laid behind the opening, it must have been the one place where she had been looking for.
The unicorn actually became a little bit existed as she also realized the words of the elder soothsayers. Words spoken in great caution as if they could have saved her life at one point or another. “Looking into the pond is forbidden, glancing over it is acceptable. Whatever you do, don’t force yourself to look into those dark waters. Once you do, you lose yourself to,” whispered Twilight to herself as if it was a command. Yet somehow they came to an abrupt stop. Almost as if she didn’t wanted to say to what she would lose herself if she did watch into the dark waters.
The words were remembered with vivid and that was about the only thought that was surging through her mind. The unicorn allowed herself a deep exhale before she nodded with her head. There was only one thing that needed to be done and that was to continue forwards. Twilight would have walked straight into the clearing and the revelations would have gotten to her through the gears of time.
When she did dare to walk into the clearing, the design turned out to be the same as the one where she woken in. The massive beds of all kinds of flowers combined with the trees and the bushes could be seen. Everything eyed just so calm and peaceful. In the middle of it all could it be found once more. A little pond that was perhaps two times bigger than Twilight was long.
The unicorn glanced over the waters and took in as much as she could from just that single little glance. It must have been the place where all the soothsayers had been warning her for. The only place within the entire realm of the goddesses where nopony else outside of them was allowed to look. Not even the highest ranking soothsayer was allowed to look into the waters of the pond that laid before Twilight.
“The pond of creation,” she whispered to herself. Twilight had realized what was stretching before her. The pond of creation was the most powerful thing within the entire realm of both the goddesses, as well as the physical. Everything that ever was, was being and should have been could be, was found there. There were reasons of why they weren’t allowed to witness within the waters. Even a single drop of it could spell disaster for the world as it was. Past and future changed to horrid extends, for just one example of the doomsday-scenario.
Perhaps the factories that were building up, the industrial revolution that their land was gently turning towards was in fact the direct result of somepony glancing into it? Speculations could only have been made about that matter actually.
But the longer Twilight stood there, the more she had the feeling that she wasn’t there for just a pretty show. If the goddesses didn’t wanted to come to her, she would be summoning them with the demand for answers upon her questions. Of course was a thing like that already pretty stupid enough to do, but perhaps it could have been working that time.
After all had Twilight served as some kind of messenger for one of them and she had seen what form the goddess of the sun used to carry. Perhaps it would have been for the better that she didn’t say anything. Perhaps it was for the best if she tried to summon them. In her eyes was there no right or wrong in the matter. Only the knowledge that she could have gained from trying to communicate with the pair of them.
Perhaps they would have listened to her simple request for information, or perhaps she would have been thrown into a whole different pile of rubble and mess. Nopony knew the answers and Twilight was desperate to find out for herself.
The unicorn moved herself over to almost the edge of the pond and lowered her body down next to it. She made certain that she wouldn’t have been touching the waters while she crossed her legs over one another. What then followed was that she assumed a pose of meditation. She sat right at the edge of the pond of creation, surely the two goddesses must have been wandering around within its very depths.
Nopony knew just how deep the pond was, or the other ponds in fact. Perhaps they were just shallow pools that wouldn’t have done much harm to anypony? Twilight didn’t knew and she certainly wouldn’t have been the first one to figure it out. After all –as the old stallion said to her before they docked– some questions were best left unanswered to keep the mystery within it.
Twilight was one of the few beings in the land that had seen the goddess of the sun her body in a form nopony had ever seen it before to begin with. That much mystery revealed about the two most powerful forces in their lands was actually enough for her.
Her eyes were closed when she charged her magic just faintly enough to let her horn be coated within the aura. She then continued with the words that were on her mind. The words that she would be speaking in order to get the two goddesses out of their hiding. She had a direct contact with the realm of the two, so she hoped that they would reply to her. “I command thy, goddesses of the sun and moon, to heed my call and appear before me.” Twilight spoke up in a tone that was both demanding as well as respectful.
Even though Twilight wanted to know the answers upon her questions, she didn’t had to forget the fact that she was still within the realm of the goddesses. Her powers and abilities wouldn’t have meant anything to the two beings that ruled as day and night. If the tone of Twilight alone wasn’t suiting them, she could have been sent back on the spot.
There were stories of soothsayers who had gone rogue and had tried to gain a command over the goddesses themselves though. The problem just happened to be that those rogue soothsayer tried to take command directly. That the beings of wisdom and creation would give them a fair share of their powers in return. The quiet goddesses would show their claws in those moments.
Twilight just wanted them to appear before her though. In her mind was there a difference between both of those commands. She only hoped that the goddesses themselves also noticed that little fact. Seconds had ticked by her. Seconds had gone by without a word from either the solar or the lunar goddess.
The unicorn was about to give it all in actually. She wanted to just give it all up before she felt something. Something that didn’t shook the land she was sitting upon, but rather shaking the soul that she carried deep inside of her.
The trembling of the soul could have been a rather clear indication that something had gone wrong. But the unicorn remained steady as she heard the waves of the waters increase. The waters used to be standing just still, but the more she waited for a reply, the more she heard the waves crashing against the sides of it.
Time had come for the two goddesses to reveal themselves before the unicorn. Whether it was liked by the pair or not, they had to heed the call. Which was actually the thing that they did. Out of the water there were two splashes to be heard and Twilight feared that she would be covered in the water.
Though she remained dry when the resonations of two new sources of magic began to fill the air. Two resonations that were truly powerful and perhaps a whole lot more powerful than anything that have ever lived upon the face of their lands. The unicorn then decided to discharge her own magic out of fear for an sudden overload. She remained sitting within the meditation pose before she felt the two mysterious entities soaring through the skies. Bits and pieces of them were given off to Twilight Sparkle as the unicorn soothsayer just tried to remain calm.
Gentle in- and exhales were released by the mare. Though every single time there was one of the magical resonations going past her, she felt a massive boost in her powers. Even with her own magic discharged, she still felt it happening. What the two had planned for her was something that she didn’t know. It was most likely a fact that she didn’t wanted to know either actually.
Within her ears did the questions echoed though. The gusts of wind that travelled around her asked her the questions first. Questions that needed a natural form of answering upon. She couldn’t and wouldn’t have let the goddesses just hang like that.
With a gulp before her words she spoke as honest as she could. “The reason why I called upon the two of you is a rather simple one, goddesses of the sun and the moon. There are questions upon my mind that need answering and I’m afraid that if I waited, I wouldn’t have been able to get the answers upon them,” spoke Twilight to the both of them in a humble tone.
Then came the moment of judgment. The goddesses had been kind to the unicorn before on numerous occasions because she was busy with the quest given to them. Yet said quest was over by the time that she showed herself into their realm. Which meant that the pair of them had to make the decision about whether or not they would have helped her with her issue or not.
The odds and ends were weighed down against one another while there was nothing but complete and utter silence for a moment. Just for a moment or two had every single sound in the place just been dimmed to sheer nothing. Not even the unicorn dared to be making a single sound as she was terrified for what would be happening to her.
Seconds ticked by like they were nothing. Seconds that just went by in complete and utter silence while the levels of fear were only rising within the mind of Twilight. Whatever would have been happening to her, she wasn’t ready for it at all. The unicorn hoped of course that the words of the goddesses would have been standing in her favor. Yet how big would such a chance have been?
Perhaps it would have been better to have made the travel down to the library, instead of the pond of creation itself.
Then the goddesses themselves came back into motion. The sounds returned to the area and Twilight perked her ears to whatever it was that they had to say against her. The unicorn listened with a great intensity towards what the whispers were saying to her. Relief came to her face the moment she realized that the words were in fact meaning something good for her.
“I thank you kindly, goddesses. Also, my most humble of apologies for commanding you to appear before me. I just, didn’t knew what other way would have been the best thing to do,” the soothsayer spoke to them in a grateful tone. She was just glad that they would actually answer the questions that were upon her mind. Questions of which she made to time go to waste to ask.
“Why, why am I here? Why am I here, specifically? As in, the pond of creation itself, what is so important about the place, or me, that you would have brought me here?” she asked to them both. It was only one of the many questions that she had upon her mind, but it was all better than nothing at all.
The swirling sounds of the goddesses were caught in her ears again and she tried to make words out of them to the best of her abilities. Yet the words that she got out of them were even more surprising than that she had actually commanded the two goddesses to come to her. “W-Wait, you can’t be, you can’t be serious here, right?” Twilight asked. The soothsayer didn’t seemed to believe the words that were spoken.
The words that were said to her couldn’t have been the ones that she had heard. It simply couldn’t have been. “O-Okay,” the mare started just before she would repeat the words of the two goddesses. “So, if I have this straight here… You want me, to gather three of the four company members again, f-for what?! We did what you asked of us, we stopped the tremors!”
The magical resonations and the whispers inside of Twilight’s ears became a whole lot more calming to her. Almost as if they tried their very best to calm the mind of the unicorn more than anything else. Which seemed to be working a whole lot easier than originally anticipated. The lack of too many thoughts in the mind of the mare made it easier to have her calmed down from everything.
Which in return gave the goddesses the time to speak the words that were needed towards the unicorn. Who still didn’t really seemed to be understanding anything of what was going around and about. Confusion only seemed to have been hitting her more and more the further the goddesses spoke up their words.
The confusion was readable upon the face of the unicorn as she held her eyes closed. Just everything that was being translated in her mind didn’t made a lick of sense. It almost would have been better if the goddesses had just told her some kind of cryptic riddle that not even she seemed to have understanding.
With a deep exhale that was released through her nostrils did the unicorn thought about the words once more. She must have made a mistake in translating them somewhere, right? The mare shook her head from right to left before she repeated the spoken words. “Basically and bare boned, you want me to gather the others again, go to the throne room, which is locked by the way. And there we shall receive the final gift?”
Even Twilight listened to the words as she spoke up them aloud and had to admit the very fact that they were just as stupid sounding as they did inside of her head. The mare once more shook her head as she released a deep grumble through her throat.
There wouldn’t have been an anthrony sane enough to let them into the throne room of Canterlot Castle to begin with. Let alone that the mares would have been stupid enough to heed another call that she made. They had one adventure, they really weren’t ready already for yet another one. Not that soon at least.
Twilight could only listen to the words that were spoken by the goddesses and translating them to the best of her own abilities. Yet the words that she had spoken to them were indeed the words that they had said to her. That fact alone was utterly terrifying.
The soothsayer released a gulp to herself as the words of the dragon were also thrown right into the mixture of it all. All of it became more of a cluster of mud then the bright light that she had hoped to be seeing. “Oh believe me,” the mare said after another sentence had been translated. “I’m still full of questions! Hundreds, thousands even that all need answering upon.”
Deep exhales were released through the nostrils of the unicorn. Twilight really wasn’t in the mood anymore to play some of the games that the goddess were playing with her in the moment. Once again was everything pretty much as clear as thick mud. Not to mention that the soothsayer realized that she couldn’t have won an argument with the goddesses that were standing before her. “I, I have enough answers, actually. More would just melt my mind into ways I don’t even want to think about,” said Twilight to them in a defeated tone.
The goddesses their resonation came to a standstill, they understood the direction from which the mare came from. They didn’t wanted to saddle her up with more than she could chew. So the only thing that could have been done for them was to return to the waters of the little pond and remain there.
Two splashes of water could be heard within the ears of Twilight and she flung her head backwards. Only then were the eyes opened up again and was she met with all of the colors that the realm of the goddesses had to offer. Another deep exhale was released through her mouth as she didn’t had the desire to get up. Yet she had to get out of the place. She had to stand up in order to return to her still sleeping body. Whether the unicorn liked it or not.
So with a couple of rather ungraceful motions had she managed to stand up again and had turned her back to the pond of creation. Even though she wanted to glance so badly into it view what the future might have held in stock for her, it was possibly better that it remained hidden from everything.
The soothsayer began to walk away from the place as the thoughts returned to her. Not even the silencing gravel would have been able to keep her mind quiet anymore. Thought about everything began to race through her. Thoughts about the events and the words of the dragon, as well as the commands given by the two goddesses.
Twilight had to gather Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash once more for something that couldn’t have been explained by any of them. The eyes of the mare almost fell shut again when she felt her connection becoming less and less. Something about the realm of the goddesses seemed to be fading away as breathing became harder and harder for her.
Whatever had happened, whatever would be happening to her, Twilight would discover everything soon enough. Perhaps sooner than she would have liked to begin with. Yet at the other end she had peace with it all. First things first though, what caused her to be breathing with such a great difficulty?
~~~~
The soothsayer was shot back into her own body whose eyes just forcefully were opened up. The mare gasped for air countless times as her arms were raised. Something had been crushing on her chest and she had to get it off of her. Whatever it was, it wasn’t really doing her a whole lot of favors to begin with.
The head rose itself up a little bit to view whatever it was that laid on top of her. The eyes went wide when she noticed how the pink scales were revealed to her. That alone told her enough and she wasn’t really too happy about it actually. Her mouth made a couple of smacking motions before the words finally could be said. “Pinkie!” was exclaimed in one short breath from her.
The lamia herself heard the word that was yelled up against her and she turned her attention over to the face of the unicorn. Just the sheer innocent look that she carried upon her face was one that spoke of having not a single clue about what she did wrong. Though when she got the even more purple than normal coloring of Twilight’s face in her eyes, she knew almost instantly what was happening.
Pinkie released a small gasp for air before she quickly dropped herself upon the floor again and giggled awkwardly. “S-Sorry, I, I was cold. The mattress a-and the blanket are helpful, b-but they weren’t enough for me.”
Twilight stroked over her chest a couple dozen times while she listened to the words of the lamia. There were deep inhales that could be taken again by her. Finally she seemed to have been able to breath normally again which was a blessing from the heavens in her eyes in the moment.
“Which, which is why you crawled up a-against me,” she brought out to the best of her abilities. Pinkie nodded to the words after which Twilight just dropped back in her bed. “Ugh, just great. Remind me that next night I place a small flame by you, because you nearly crushed me there.”
“S-Sorry,” the lamia whimpered to Twilight. Of course she didn’t do it on purpose or anything, not at all. Even Twilight realized that little fact and she couldn’t have stayed angry at the lamia for long. With just one quick gesture of her hand was the lamia given the freedom of roaming through the castle. Which was exactly the thing that the lamia decided to do. She let out a strange sounding squee before she was just gone.
Twilight released a deep exhale through her mouth as the thoughts rushed back to her. “Gather the three of them, go to the throne room, the final reward awaits there. Sounds like a trap, doesn’t it? Yet at the other end, everything can be seen that way.” A sigh was released by the unicorn before she sat up straight in her bed and blinked a couple of times. “Am I going to defy the will of the goddesses? Of course not. But they wouldn’t have something terrible planned, right? It’s the goddesses after all. It can go either way with those two.”
All the more reason to remain cautious about everything that was going on. Perhaps a cup of tea would have helped the unicorn to set her thoughts straight on the matter?