"Aurora!" The scream echoed through the swirling colors and twisted shapes of the infinite.
Twilight Sparkle flailed and fought as she felt herself falling endlessly through the insanity all around her, voices screaming from every direction.
"Don't you lecture me! You're a monster!" That voice. She knew that voice.
The shouting was mixed with an overpowering ringing, droning, and whispering all wrapped together in a cacophony of mind-splitting chaos. Twilight tried as hard as she could to find whichever way was down. Her battle to right herself only seemed to make the rush of images and words flash by faster, all jumbling together into a mess of information too much for her mind to process. The voices and sounds she heard that were once familiar were becoming increasingly alien as her mental grip on reality loosened.
"Because this is the way I choose to appear." A crack of thunder split the screaming that accompanied the words.
"You don't understand, Starswirl, but you will! This is the future! This is what magic has always led to! This is true power!" Every sentence was a new voice, a new conversation, and even more confusing than the last. With each new voice, she also heard more and more whispers which she could not understand.
"Let's slow down. What do you mean by a world between worlds?"
"There are just some things that reason will never answer."
"Because everything's better with portals; except when you open a door with no idea where it leads."
"Stare into the darkness long enough, and it stares back." The whispers were beginning to scratch at the back of her mind as the whispers grew louder.
"Stares back." The words were repeating again and again, growing louder as they overlapped.
"STARES."
Twilight Sparkle clutched her head between her legs, trying to fight away the pain that threatened to swallow her in its tidal surge. She was falling deeper into the abyss with no hope of escaping, no chance of even slowing down. The different voices were all blending together into a rush of deafening whispers as the colors melded together into a darkening tunnel.
She opened her eyes, blurry and watery from her tears as she looked down into the pitch black void beneath her. The void opened up, and an infinite number of eyes looked back.
"WE SEE YOU."
The void splintered and shattered as cracks flowed like blood up from the emptiness and probing eyes as Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth in an empty shriek. What fragments of reason she still possessed shouted in her mind, demanding explanation for the infuriating nonsensical mess that she was witnessing. Her mind was overwhelmed, it could not fathom what was unfolding before her as the void rose up, threatening to wash over her.
She let her head go and closed her eyes as all reality seemed to shatter around her. Everything was consumed in a blinding flurry of lights and colors and a sound like rushing water, sweeping her up and enveloping her whole being in a rush of broken existences.
It was in that moment that Twilight stopped trying to find up. She stopped trying to right herself. She stopped questioning the madness, accepting it in the overwhelming surge of sensations, sounds, and sights that burned her mind to its very core. That one moment passed, and everything Twilight grasped for slipped away as nothingness overtook her.
Twilight Sparkle floated in the wide, white emptiness. She felt nothing, heard nothing, and was content in that nothingness. In that void there was no time, no connection, just blissful existence without existing. She did not know how long she had been there. It felt like forever, and there was peace in that. When she looked down at herself, the only bit of matter and color in the deep white space, she took solace in that she could add a sense of uniqueness to the expanse. As she made her way slowly across the void, a feeling came over her. That sense of anxiety she always got when she was late for an appointment. What could she possibly be late for in her universe? She was the only thing in it. She couldn't be late, there was nowhere to go.
Perhaps something was waiting on her, but that also didn't make any sense. She was the only thing within her personal pocket of existence. Just as she was contenting herself once more in that knowledge, something happened. It was a strange sort of something. The sort of something that can make one question everything that happens afterwards. That sort of something was a sound, and that was very strange indeed. There was never any noise in her little universe, unless of course she was the one to make it. She couldn't actually recall ever making any sounds now that her mind was on the subject.
If that was the case, what was sound at all? How did she identify the sort of something as sound? She couldn't remember where she learned what sound was, or that the particular one that she had just heard was that of a creaky door. It had unlatched, swung open with a rather obnoxious creak, then closed again. Whatever had opened the door had closed it gently, so as not to aggravate the creaks again, and the soft click of its closing sent the void once again into utter silence. The crack in the perfect serenity was mended, and Twilight went back to her lazy contemplation about the nothingness, and her enjoyment of it.
"Hello," said a voice.
"Hello," responded Twilight.
"How are you?" The voice asked.
"I'm well." Twilight slowly looked about, searching for the source of the new sounds.
"As am I. Isn't that a coincidence?"
"I don't think so," she said in a confused tone. "Is that unusual?"
A head popped into view and the two ponies stared at one another. It was a bluish-gray sort of face with soft, golden eyes. On its head was a big hat that jingled, and a great big white beard hung from its chin. She felt something looking at this new face. The sort of something that she felt when she saw an old friend coming by for tea. How odd though, since she could not recall ever having known any others in her universe. There had never been any friends, never been any tea. Why did she feel this way? It was all so strange, but all so familiar.
"I imagine I should have given some form of warning, and I apologize for not doing so. You see, time magic mixed with Alicorn magic can be a fickle thing. Sometimes you simply glimpse the past, other times you can become stuck between the past and the present. Had you been prepared I have little doubt you would have easily found your way. That not being the case, you are now here. Stuck in what I can only describe as a universe of your own design." The pony spoke in a hurried fashion, its words blending together. "The magic that was cast can overload the unprepared mind, and this personal universe becomes a sort of safe haven for it. It is also an inescapable trap for those wholly unprepared. The very nature of the trap is that you don't see it as a trap. It's the only place you ever want to be. Thankfully, I am here to draw you out."
"Draw me out?" Twilight spoke slowly as she made every effort to wrap her thoughts around the words. "To where?"
"To anywhere. To wherever is not this empty void that you have constructed."
"Constructed?" Twilight placed a hoof against her forehead as she tried so very hard to think. "I made this?"
"In a way. It is very difficult to say for certain whether you created it, or simply found it. This is a place that defies explanation."
"Then, why leave?"
"Because, it isn't real." The pony vanished from view.
Twilight continued to float aimlessly for a moment. She felt something solid at her hind hooves, a sort of floor rising up to her. She sat down as it rose, and found she was now seated on an invisible platform. She couldn't see it, but she knew it was there because she was sitting on it. She looked down, and out of the corner of her eye saw the other pony sitting next to her.
"That's the trap, you see," he spoke with a wave of his hoof. "It feels all too real, but there isn't anything actually here."
"It feels real."
"Of course it does, that's the danger of it. It feels real, you want it to be real; but it is no more real than a waking dream. You cannot live in a waking dream, you can only experience it. In this place, there is no experience. Is that what you wish?"
"I don't know. I can't remember anything else, not really. This place has been my home for as long as I can remember. Forever, I think."
"Perhaps it has been, at least for this place. Forever can mean many things in a world where time has no power. But, for the world you left behind, it could mean quite a bit. Time could be standing still there, forever frozen as you float through this ethereal plane; or quite the reverse for an infinitely more horrifying outcome."
"The world--I left behind? I don't remember it."
"But it remembers you, and that is what is worth the most in times such as this." The unicorn stroked his beard as he looked up and gazed into the white abyss, his eyes very distant. "It means more than you think to be gone for so long and to return thinking yourself forgotten, but instead to find that you have been remembered. For some, that hope is nothing more than a fleeting dream. For you, princess, it is still very real."
"Why did you call me--wait," Twilight said hesitantly. "A princess?"
Twilight watched the unicorn turn his aged face her way. She couldn't read his expression. Perhaps he was considering her question, but she felt it was more than that. He was considering her, his soft golden eyes meeting hers and offering a strange warmth. When he finally spoke, his voice was barely over a whisper. It was not quick and difficult to follow like it had been before, but slow and clear.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle, that is who you are. That is what you are. Burdened with the responsibilities of leadership, and destined with the guardianship of all Equestria. All that you were before coming here was built upon such principles."
"But," Twilight said as she pushed a hoof against her head. "If that's all true--how did I get here? All I remember is being here!"
"When we are trapped in a dream, we can never remember the world outside. When we awaken, how often do we remember the dream?"
A dark feeling filled Twilight's heart; where had once been a calm sensation of satisfaction now grew a burning anxiety. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't find the words. Stamping her hoof down onto the invisible platform, she tried to muster herself to shake off the burn of muted panic within her. She felt like something was holding her, clamping down so tightly that she couldn't breath. All she did was think about it for a single moment, but that's all it took. It was crushing her in a vice that she couldn't see. It was forcing her to remain quiet, despite the questions she wanted to scream out.
"How can you tell the difference between the waking world and the dream world? Both are completely natural in their own right. You are a native to whichever you are currently in at that time. A world of your own. But that world can become a nightmare, all it takes is the knowledge that you cannot escape it. One simple thought, and bliss can become torture in the blink of an eye."
"Stop," Twilight gasped before gritting her teeth.
"Stop what?" The unicorn looked concerned as he noticed Twilight's discomfort. "I haven't done anything."
Fighting harder against the grip on her whole body, Twilight managed to gasp, "I can't--breath." She looked down as she felt the grip around her tighten, and her eyes widened in horror as she saw black tendrils surrounding her whole body.
The unicorn jumped up, the tendrils must have become visible to him as well. Shaking his head hard, he tossed the jingling hat from his head to expose a curved, glowing horn. His soft golden eyes began to glow with a brilliant fire as the horn burst to light, red power surging out from it. "I should have known you would try something. Setting a trap though, I should be impressed!" The red light was becoming brighter, now almost blinding. "So, shall you finally reveal yourself? Is this another game, or will you show me your hand?" The unicorn was bellowing as a whirlwind of magic surrounded him. "Come on! I have not been idle in my preparations, no matter what traps you set in my way! If you wish to have her, then you shall contend with me!"
A sudden need to look behind her gripped Twilight so forcefully that her head was moving before she even realized it. She tried to halt herself, but the need was overwhelming. Something was staring at her, a gaze drilling into her mind through the back of her head. She had to see it, had to face it. The moment she looked, she regretted her decision. The tendrils led back to an empty space of grasping claws and piercing eyes. The whiteness simply fell away into a shattered abyss that morphed and distorted chaotically. It was like that part of the world was alive. It was a throbbing, horrible thing that reached out from the depths of her most horrible nightmares.
The withered claws reached out towards her as panic gripped her heart and mind. She couldn't think straight as she stared into the abomination that soundlessly grasped at her.
A rush of red light sent the claws careening back. The unicorn slammed his hoof down, now standing between Twilight and the thing that stared at them. "I said you will not have her without a fight, and I meant every word!" The red whirlwind now encompassed them both, the magic sheering at the tendrils that held Twilight. The black filaments were cut away in moments.
The abyss retreated and vanished, trailing whispers as it disappeared.
The red tornado swirling around them began to wane, and finally vanish completely. Twilight was on her side, holding herself tightly as she fought to compose herself. A few gasping breaths, a few shivers, and a cough came before she found the strength to calm herself.
"I'm a damned fool," a new voice said. It was a deep voice, she didn't recognize it at first.
Twilight lifted her head to find the newcomer. She saw him standing right where her companion had been. Her guardian was gone, replaced by a slate grey unicorn of impressive size that sported a thick black mane. The sight immediately gripped her heart once again. This was different though. She didn't feel restrained, she felt afraid. She knew this pony. She knew exactly who was standing before her.
"King Sombra," Twilight whispered.
The unicorn turned his head in response, looking right into her eyes. Twilight felt the feeling on her heart soften for a moment. The eyes, they were the exact same. The soft gold that gave a sense of warmth; the eyes of her protector. She didn't know what to think now as she pushed shakily to her hooves and took a slow step backwards.
"Ah," he said, his voice raspy. "You recognize me, that's good. At least, I hope it is."
"What have you done with him?" Twilight had to force herself to keep from stuttering. "Where is--where is Starswirl?" The moment the name left her lips Twilight froze, blinking as she tried to grasp her own words. Looking down, she saw black tendrils weakly grasping at her, severed and withering in her wake. "Starswirl," she muttered again. Looking at Sombra, she clenched her jaw for several seconds before forcing the words out. "It never was Starswirl, was it?"
"That depends on the way you look at it. In a past life, perhaps. Now, I am as I appear."
"And--what was that? That thing! That--what was that?" Twilight saw one tendril making a shaking push to try and wrap around her leg. She stomped it hard into the invisible platform. The entire length of it quickly evaporated. "This! What just happened?"
"That is even more difficult to explain, almost impossible for we lack words to entirely encompass it. I can assure you though, we have not seen the last of it. We've ventured into its domain, and it has little desire for us to stay. We need to find the others before we continue, or risk its return. It is dangerous, of that you can be certain."
"The others? The--Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Cadence. I--I remember." Shaking her head, Twilight squinted and gritted her teeth for a few seconds. "What is going on?"
"You thought about the dream, so you began to see it all as a dream. You saw this place as possibly being fake, not being the true world. You saw through the veil, through the illusion. If even for a single moment, you exposed the thing that was trying to get at you. So long as it remains hidden it can corrupt and affect whatever it desires without scrutiny; that is how it works." Sombra shook his head, his thick black mane tossing about as he spoke. "Once you exposed it, I could banish it temporarily. But, it will not be so easy to drive away again, and now I must press you once again. I can only enter this space, you must be the one to open the door so that we can leave it."
"But--I don't even know how I got here! How am I supposed to get us back out?"
"Just imagine the others, see them in your mind and let the magic out. It will know what to do."
Twilight nodded. She wanted out as quickly as she could, and if that meant doing what a former enemy said then that is what she would do. She recalled Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadence. She held their faces in her mind, and let her magic begin to coalesce. Her horn began to glow, a little at first but quickly growing more bright. The faces in her mind became more vivid, and the light from her horn waxed with them. With a burst of purple light, Twilight suddenly felt herself falling.
Fear grasped at her heart as she fell. The darkness around her was closing in, and she flailed as she tried to find whatever way was up. She felt like a little filly again, hiding in her covers from the monster under her bed. The memory was getting more vivid, feeding the fear that grew in the pit of her stomach. The feeling of huddling beneath the thin sheet, shivering in fear of whatever horror was waiting for her, was all around her. Tears were welling in her eyes, the helplessness taking hold.
She was no longer falling.
Twilight slowly forced an eye open, her vision cloudy through the tears. Surrounded by nothingness, lit by a single beam of light above, was a bed. She knew it all too well, her heart beating harder when she recognized her own covers. The little floral designs, the blueish purple embroidery, there was no mistaking her own bed.
The fear was building again. The same terror that grips a little child from the dark, the kind that cannot be understood. She could only hide from it. She had to hide.
Twilight hiccuped when she found her legs stuck to the ground. She looked down, panic pushing her to fight harder. The black tendrils were wrapping around her hooves, weaving their way up her legs. Crying out, Twilight tried to summon a spell, but nothing happened. She fought to free herself again, but they were just too strong.
Panic was taking her, forcing everything away. Just like her in her bed, the fear was driving out all reason. She knew she had to calm down somehow, she had to get free. Her heart pounding, her body trembling, Twilight looked up and tried to force any kind of hope to the surface. A song, she remembered that much. A song about laughter, and the warmth it held that could drive away fear. She tried to remember the words, tried to fight through the haze that clogged her mind. Opening her eyes, her breath stalled in her lungs when she saw her bed. Black tendrils were reaching from beneath it, wrapping around the posts and creeping over the covers like evil vines. A single huge eye opened in the darkness beneath the bed, and she heard a child scream.
She was screaming, terrified, fighting against the horrible thing trying to take her. She kicked and struggled, desperately searching for any kind of opening that would give her a chance to break free. Memories poured through her mind, spells and other magical tools that might aid in some way, but nothing responded. In a last act, she clenched her teeth and focused, all her might centered into the memory of Sombra casting a whirlwind of magic to fend away the darkness. The power flowed through her, the crisp icy shiver of magic radiating from her coat, focusing in her horn.
"And always remember, Twilight Sparkle," spoke a soothing, warm voice. "Always remember to believe in yourself."
It was Princess Celestia! She had come to help! Twilight felt a surge of energy inside her, and she pushed it all into the spell. She put everything into her magic, an all or nothing chance. The spell went off, and everything stopped. There was no more grasping tendrils, no more crying, no more screaming, no more whispers. Only silence all around her.
Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes, and saw a dull purplish light all around her. She blinked, and pushed up against something. They were her covers. Pushing them down and away from herself, she rose up. She stared when she sat up, seeing nothingness carry on in every direction for as far as she could see. Blinking once, then twice, Twilight tried to make sense of what was happening. It was all going by too fast, so much all at once that she couldn't make heads or tails of any of it. First she was stuck in some kind of void of forgetfulness, then she was being toyed with by some kind of darkness monster, and now she was in her bed. Only her bed was in a new void, and everything was black and silent.
Throwing the covers, she was about to jump off when a spike of terror gripped her heart. Under the bed, it was waiting for her under the bed. A tiny sliver of rationality tried to shine a light against the fear, but it was so strong. She mouthed the words over and over, "it's under there." If she was so convinced, why was she beginning to lean towards the edge? She was fighting with herself, but still the rational side demanded answers. Even if some sort of terrible eyeball monster was waiting for her, she would at least know that she wasn't afraid for nothing.
"Nothing," she whispered, staring upside-down into the empty space beneath the bed. "There's nothing there."
What had she been scared of? Was there something out there? She felt like she knew; she felt that strange itch of a memory sitting just outside her reach. Then again, there really wasn't anything to be afraid of. What else was there? It was just her, just like it had always been.
Sucking in a breath, Twilight summoned a burst of light from her horn. Panic was fueling her spells now, and the tendrils retreated immediately. She knew that feeling, it was trying to make her forget. She wouldn't; she refused to fall back into that void. Even as her bubble of light pushed against the darkness, the darkness pushed back. Her light was quickly waning.
"No," she pleaded. "No, no, no."
She knew herself. She remembered herself, her life, her past. She wouldn’t let it pass into the void. She felt the tendrils reaching for her, and it sparked something new in her heart. The panic and fear began to burn, and anger kindled deep inside. A feeling so rarely tapped, but so happily accepted now that it wasn’t a moment’s thought before funneling it directly into her magic.
Twilight flung open her eyes, magic pouring from them as the tip of her horn exploded with power. “I said no!” Her shield pushed back, and solidified as the darkness waned. “My mind is my own, leave me be!” She pushed with all her might, her anger, and will as the light of her magic split the darkness. It fled, cracking and splintering as a single whisper echoed in its wake.
“We--have--only--just--begun.”
Fighting for breath, Twilight warily looked this way and that. She was in some kind of ruin, crumbling stone pillars and walls almost totally consumed by vines and growths surrounded her. The thunderous rumble of huge doors closing made her turn around quickly as she saw a remarkably large pair behind her. The doors must have been closing, and now silence fell over the ruins she found herself in.
“Twilight Sparkle?” A voice inquired.
Twilight turned with a start to follow the sound, and found herself looking into familiar eyes. “Princess Luna! You’re okay!” she cried out, relieved.
“I am, though my coming here was--tedious,” Luna’s coat was standing on end, and a shiver ran over her as she spoke.
“Then I think we had similar experiences. It was awful. Was that supposed to happen?” Twilight asked as she continued to scan the ruins around them. She couldn’t recall ever seeing anything like them before.
Princess Luna answered with a shake of her head, “I do not know, I have never experienced anything like this. Nor do I recognize where we have been deposited.” She nodded to the path ahead of them, “but that appears to be the only way.” Luna started walking down the path she pointed out.
“Are the others here?” Twilight asked as she began to follow Luna. “I mean, are we the only ones who made it?”
“I only just arrived when you appeared before me. I have not seen the others,” Luna said dully as she continued down the corridor. “I fear the worst, this magic is foreign to me. If I had known, I would not have so easily allowed it to work upon me.”
As the two walked, Twilight felt a sense of dread looming in her. The path was getting darker, and she knew in her heart, they were moving towards danger. “Princess Luna,” she whispered. “Something isn’t right.”
“I feel it too. We must be brave, there is no other way but forward.” She looked back at Twilight with a calm glance, “and I do not wish to test that darkness once again.”
“I don’t think it was darkness, Princess Luna,” Twilight said as she looked back at the two huge doors. “That was something--terrible.”
“I agree, but I fear the worst is yet to come.”
“What do you--” Twilight turned to face forward, but her voice trailed away. She was looking into pitch darkness. Only Luna was by her side, and the sense of dread now so strong she felt as if something was breathing down her neck. “Princess,” she whispered with a croak, “I don’t think we should turn around.”
“Then that is what we must do,” Luna replied, her own voice strained.
They looked at one another, and as one turned to see what was behind them. Chains stretched down from the darkness like a mad spider’s web, all converging on a large cage. A cage bathed in a venomous green glow, and containing a single occupant.
“That’s--” Twilight said breathlessly.
“Sister.”