//------------------------------// // Chapter 22 - Breaching the Gates of the Silver Key // Story: My Little Equestroid: Stompin' is Magic // by ForeverChasingRainbows //------------------------------// **Twilight Sparkle** Twilight wasn't prepared. She didn't have a plan. She didn't really have a clue what she was doing. It was actually kind of exhilarating, once she got past the mind-numbing terror of the uncertainty. Her questioning of the increasingly familiar route they had been taking - towards one of the defining rooms of her fillyhood, Princess Celestia's own chambers - had fallen on deaf ears as the small herd stampeded through the castle. The Night Guards on the doors probably should have given it away, but the sight of Princess Luna in what Twilight thought of as Celestia's bed had still been a bit of a shock. The almost blinding light emanating from the Princess's horn coupled with the cold sweat drenching her body testified to the amount of strain she was under, but Twilight had only gotten a momentary glimpse of the alicorn - as soon as she and her friends had entered the brightly-appointed chamber, Luna's dream had expanded to capture them all. Presumably their bodies were now unconscious back in the room, but there hadn't been any time to think about that. Twilight and her friends had been immediately bombarded with information delivered at the speed of thought. Luna had located Rainbow Dash's dreamscape - although the boundary between worlds was almost absolute in the waking world, the Princess informed them that it was significantly less substantial in the Dreamrealm. Having come to her own conclusions about Rainbow's fate and whereabouts, she had used her own limited abilities with dark magic to punch a small hole in the veil in the land of dreams, and had spent the whole night searching for any sign of Rainbow on the other side. Luna had found something, but now she was stuck just out of reach. She knew one of her little ponies was having a nightmare, but there was nothing she could do about it. It was taking everything she had just to hold the dream together, but with Twilight's help she might be able to reach Dash. With Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie urging her onward, Twilight hadn't thought twice about using her magic to force the breach wider - but now she found herself in uncharted territory. Their dream-selves were all stood, with the visibly exhausted Luna, in a semi-circle before a tiny flickering window in the darkness. Twilight tried to fight down the instinctive disgust she felt at the unnatural black fire blazing around her horn. Normally she didn't like admitting to her own ignorance, but this was making her extremely uncomfortable. "Luna, I... I have no idea what I'm doing here," she said, trying to ignore the small hissing black globules dripping to the ground from the mass around her horn. "is this even safe?!" "Just as... harmonious magic can be used... for great evil," Luna said through clenched teeth, stil focused on the tiny opening, "so too can this... be used for something virtuous. Hold true to your self, and... trust in your friends to help you stay on the path. As long as you moderate your use..." Luna ground her teeth and the glow from her horn increased in intensity. "We require only a small amount... of assistance... to..." With a wordless cry of effort, Luna forced the window wider. "There she is!" Pinkie Pie shouted joyously, bouncing on the spot. Applejack let out a celebratory whoop, clapping Twilight on the shoulder. "I can see 'er! Way to go, sugarcube!" "Rainbow..." Fluttershy breathed, stepping closer in Twilight's peripheral vision. She reached out a hoof towards the image, eyes sparkling with unshed tears. "What happened to the poor dear?" Rarity asked. "She looks exhausted! There must be something we can do?" Twilight had to agree with Rarity's assessment - Dash looked like she'd been dragged through a tornado, backwards. Her friend seemed to be inspecting herself in a mirror - didn't seem like much of a nightmare to Twilight, but then again dreams never made much sense from the outside. As the window into Dash's nightmare expanded, Twilight felt a buildup in the magic she was funnelling to Luna - as if there was something resisting the flow, causing it to back up. A phantom weight pressed down across her back, almost forcing Twilight down onto her knees. "I can't..." Luna leaned forward, as if fighting against an intense wind, "something is forcing me out... losing too much magic in the transfer, I..." Twilight wasn't exactly thrilled by the prospect of using even more dark magic, but if that was what it took to keep her friend safe, then she'd do it. More... The crushing pressure on her skull receded, replaced by a faint burn in her horn. The world slid back into focus as she forced her buckled legs to unbend. Twilight redoubled her efforts, forcing more energy into the spell to try and push through whatever was blocking them. Get... out... of my... WAY! The prickling, burning sensation spread out from her horn, racing down her spine from her head to her tail. She's my friend. MINE! Nopony takes them from me. Nopony takes what's mine. Distantly she registered Applejack cry out in alarm. "What the- Rarity, Princess, what'n the hay is goin' on with her?" "I don't..." Rarity faltered, "Twilight, what's happening? What are you doing?!" "Right ear flop!" Pinkie's voice was even higher-pitched than usual. "This is bad, this is really bad!" "Twilight Sparkle, cease this insanity at once! You are ill prepared for this level of exposure, you could do yourself irreparable harm. Think about what you are doing, about why you are doing it." I'm reclaiming what's mine. "We have to help Rainbow," another voice added, fragile and pleading. "If Twilight can do it then I... I think she should keep going. If, if she's not..." Fluttershy? Twilight pulled her eyes from the window in front of her, glancing to one side. Fluttershy was stood beside her, clearly on the verge of panic but nevertheless holding Twilight's gaze. Yeah, that's what I was doing, helping Rainbow. What the hay was I thinking? She's not some sort of object that I own, that I can reclaim... Gah, this stuff is messing with my head again! Twilight immediately started to throttle back the amount of power flowing out from within her, realising it was almost running out of control. "I'm okay," Twilight said, before clapping her hooves over her mouth. Her voice had gained a discordant, buzzing undertone that she found thoroughly disquieting - and, if their reactions were any indication, Princess Luna and her friends didn't like it any more than she did. Not to mention she couldn't see what else might have changed about herself. My whole spine feels tingly, and... wait, since when am I taller than Fluttershy? The dream before them all stole Twilight's focus back as, in a typical display of dream logic, Rainbow's image shouldered its way out of the mirror. The reflection stalked around the frozen original, seemingly taunting or mocking her, but its words were a barely-discernible mumble. "This is no time for distractions," Luna said quickly, still eyeing Twilight nervously, "what's done is done, and every moment only exacerbates matters - for both Rainbow Dash and for you, Twilight. I am no longer in control of the spell. We are all of us but passengers here - Rainbow Dash will be able to sense only you, and you must reach her before it is too late. This nightmare is being forced upon her, and she needs to fight it." Having only her thoughts and voice to work with, Twilight went for the straightforward option and called out to her friend. "Rainbow! Rainbow, snap out of it!" Both versions of Dash ignored her, the mirror duplicate leaning in to whisper into the other's ear, but Twilight sensed a flicker of something reaching out from the real Rainbow. Luna spoke up, sounding puzzled. "Her Element is responding. It's almost as if..." she shook her head briefly, but did not finish her thought. "Again, Twilight Sparkle." "It's no good Princess," Twilight said, reaching within for more power, "she can't hear me." Twilight knew she needed to make herself heard, and mention of the Elements had given her an idea. She could feel the other four Elements straining towards Rainbow Dash along with her own, but the connection wasn't quite strong enough. As Twilight slowly increased the flow of dark magic to the breach, Fluttershy said, "Please, we've got to do something!" Apparently Twilight wasn't the only one who had caught the Elements idea. She felt them stir around her as Applejack said, "C'mon girls, y'all know how this goes!" "Stop!" Luna shouted urgently, "You cannot use the Elements of Harmony alongside this much dark magic, not in the same spell!" The mirror image continued to taunt Dash as the nightmare continued. Twilight couldn't watch the building distress on Rainbow's face a moment longer, and neither could her friends. "No!" The discordant murmuring beneath Twilight's voice rose to a screeching roar. "We are not going to lose her! Not again!" "The energies will not combine," Luna warned, "my friends, do not do this, it is too dangerous!" "I don't care if it's too dangerous," Twilight replied, "she's our friend!" Twilight felt the power of the Elements pouring into her from both sides of the divide, but something was wrong. It was building up inside of her body almost faster than she could process, smashing against the flow of dark magic holding the window open, the opposing energies tearing each other apart inside of her. On instinct she took hold of both streams and twisted, forcing them to spiral around each other in a tight helix rather than colliding. The combined energy blasted out of her horn for only a moment before the spell collapsed, but it had the desired effect. The thinner dark energy ribbon splashed against the window in the dreamscape, forcing it open wider as the thicker multihued beam born of the Elements continued though unhindered. Twilight felt drained, sucked dry. Not just of magic - normal, or 'harmonious' magic, as Luna had called it - but of something else as well. Maybe this is what dark magic fatigue feels like. Wonderful, now I can have two colossal hornaches all at the same time. Twilight groaned, gently massaging the base of her horn. "That... is impossible," Luna stated blankly, staring at the rapidly shrinking ragged tear the spell had made in her realm. Oh, my head... Looking back up at the scene before her, Twilight could just barely make out Rainbow Dash's form inside the rapidly fracturing nightmare. A slipping, cracking sensation brushed against her tender horn, and Twilight realised she was still connected to the dream. "Rainbow!" she shouted, feeling a brief rush of relief at the lack of any discordant echo beneath her voice. The dreamscape in front of her continued to fall apart, blinding sunlight streaming in through the cracks in the darkness. "No, no, she's waking up! I'm losing the connection!" Twilight tried to get as much reassurance across as she could in the limited time she had left. "Rainbow? You need to get somewhere safe. Don't worry, we're doing everything we can to reach you. You'll be home before you know it." Pinkie and the others - especially Pinkie - added their own encouragements. Twilight knew Rainbow wouldn't hear them, but it wouldn't help anything to tell them that. There had to be something she could give Dash to work with, some kind of help she could lend across the divide. An idea began to form as something popped out of her memory. To Twilight it was just a name in a story, but to Dash he could be a potential ally in the strange land to which she had been taken; but there was a pretty big problem with it - even if Rainbow had a name, a being to search for, she had no way around the language barrier. "You have to find BraveStarr, do you hear me?" Twilight said, turning to Luna as the last parts of the dream began to fail. "Quick," she said, almost panicked, "reverse the translation spell you used! I need to convert it for her!" Luna blinked once, shaking herself free of her stunned state. The Princess lit her horn and swept her eyes across the collapsing dream before her. "It is too late, she will not hear you," Luna said hurriedly, before raising her voice to address everypony else. "I'll tell her. Cover your ears - or better yet..." Luna's horn flashed. Twilight felt a sickening lurch as her world tilted, and she closed her eyes only to reopen them to a swirl of clashing colours. Then she opened them again, and found herself waking up on the floor in Princess Celestia's room. She briefly wondered if she'd fallen asleep beside her mentor again, studying with a comforting white wing spread over her, before her waking mind got itself caught up on current events. To her surprise, the sensation of a feathery appendage wrapped over her withers didn't recede along with the memory. A slight turn of her head revealed Princess Celestia was indeed lying beside her, looking down at her in concern. Before anything could be said, the attention of the entire room was drawn back to the bed. Luna released an emphatic breath, like a pony suddenly relieved of a heavy load, and the light from her horn finally dimmed as she opened her eyes. "Done, done, and thrice done," she panted, still streaked with the sweat of her recent efforts. A mellifluous, insufferably smug male voice floated out of nothing at the edge of the bed, before Twilight saw an all-too-familiar mismatched, vaguely serpentine figure pop into view. "Well, well, well..." Oh come on, not him too! I already have a headache! "Somepony's been having themselves a little sleepover," Discord announced to the room, a huge smile on his face, "and you didn't even invite me?" He leaned back a little on the edge of the bed, holding a leonine paw to his chest. "I feel positively insulted. And based on the residue all over Twinkle Sprinkles I've missed quite the occasion," he said petulantly. Then his voice turned conspiratorial as he shifted his gaze to Celestia. "What have you been teaching her? Keeping secrets again, are we? You are such a naughty girl." **Thirty-Thirty** Normally, Thirty-Thirty would have found the sudden appearance of a large, talking, pony-goat-lion-dragon-thing surprising. At the present moment, however, his weird-o-meter had stripped a few gears and shorted out. He could still just about see it freewheeling off into the sunrise on his mind's horizon, trailing smoke and broken screws. The by now quite crowded room promptly erupted into anarchy. Most of the smaller ponies seemed to be more concerned about Twilight's welfare - which he didn't find surprising given what he'd just seen happen to the small purple pony - except for the guards, all of whom had keyed onto the intruder the way people back home keyed onto an outlaw with a loaded gun pointed at their family. All of them, however, halted as the royalty present - including Twilight herself - addressed the newcomer. "Discord!" "Twinkle Sprinkles?!" "GET OFF OUR BED, ABOMINATION!" The dark princess' bellowed imprecation was followed by an even louder bang, as a blast from her horn smashed the mismatched assembly of body parts across the room. Skidding along the pristine white stone floor on its face, the creature stopped just short of hitting the far wall before rolling over. To Thirty's surprise it didn't seem any the worse for wear after the strike, or even angry. If anything, it just looked shocked. "You hit me," it said to Luna, before raising a clawed arm to point at Princess Celestia. "Celestia never hit me!" "Oh yes I did," Celestia muttered emphatically. "We are not our sister!" Luna thundered, her volume still causing the room and furnishings to tremble slightly. "Good thing too," the creature replied. It disappeared from the ground in a flash of white, before rematerialising stood upright with its previous wide grin restored, "I can barely contain myself around one of her, but twins? I-" The patchwork beast froze as its gaze passed over Thirty-Thirty, its mouth hanging open, and the stallion tensed. Something about those mismatched red eyes was ringing some big alarm bells in his head. Then, its bottom jaw dropped. Not metaphorically either - it literally fell off the creature's head, bounced once on the stone tiles, and rolled away under the bed. After a short silence, its entire body followed suit, the rigid pieces coming apart and tumbling to the floor like bits of a plastic toy. The tide of parts rolled across the floor towards a stunned Thirty-Thirty before surging up in front of him and reforming into something almost, but not quite, identical to its previous form. It now had a large set of multi-lensed magnifying goggles strapped around its head, through which it peered at him with obvious interest. For the first time since his arrival in Equestria, Thirty-Thirty found himself before something that was actually tall enough to look him in the eye. "And they say I was at the back of the line when they handed out the body parts," The creature mused to itself, a lion paw rubbing the underside of its jaw as its other clawed arm adjusted the glasses, flipping down several extra lenses over one eye. It tilted its head to one side, then began to laugh as it asked, "What on Earth did they chop up to build you?" Not bothering to wait for a response, it added, "Whatever it was, they tore all the magic out in any case. No wonder I didn't see you there." The creature hesitated as something occurred to it. "Or is that a more recent change?" it rumbled suggestively, one eyebrow raised as it cast a glance back towards the ponies behind it. "I don't mean ta sound impolite," Thirty-Thirty growled, very much meaning to do so as he leaned in towards the absurd creature, "but who, and what, the heck are you?" "Oh!" the thing exclaimed, pushing the collection of articulated lenses up its head before pulling them off completely and tossing them away. The bulky apparatus blurred and transformed into a lit stick of dynamite in mid-air, before dropping neatly inside the chestplate of one of the unicorn guards that had accompanied Celestia into the room. The pony had just enough time to panic before a muffled thump presaged a burst of neon pink paint splattering out from every joint of his armour, thoroughly saturating his coat and the surrounding floor. "My apologies, this cause-then-effect ordering thing is still a little outside of my comfort zone," the creature said flippantly. A wide smile split its equine muzzle, revealing uncomfortably non-equine predatory teeth. "You can call me Discord. I think we're going to have a great many things to talk about, you and I." Despite her obvious fatigue, Luna spoke up from the bed. "No. Thou shall remove thyself from my presence and his with equal vigor," she declared angrily. "We care not what false reassurances of a changed heart thou offer to others, for Us the memory of thy crimes is all too close at hoof." Discord pulled something out from behind his back, displaying it to Thirty-Thirty balanced on an upturned palm. The small metallic box looked a little like a voltmeter, with semi-circular gauge and needle visible through a small transparent window. The thick black lettering stencilled onto the device, however, read "IRONY METER". The needle flicked all the way over into the red as Discord tilted his head toward it and raised an eyebrow at Thirty-Thirty, and the box began to emit a slowly rising squeal of escaping steam. A moment later a spring topped with a miniature pony head burst out of the back of the device with a cartoonish 'boing'. The pony had a deep purple coat and luminous purple mane, as well as catlike teal eyes and fangs. Then the whole assembly burst into flames. Discord turned his gaze from Thirty-Thirty to his immolated paw. "Damn. I hate it when it does that," he commented casually, before crumpling the device and the fire consuming it - which both reacted like they were made of paper - into a ball. He then tossed the ball up into the air, caught it in his mouth, and swallowed it. "Well," Discord proclaimed happily, clapping his mismatched hands together in front of him, "seems like somepony woke up on the wrong side of the moon this morning. I suppose we'll have to catch up later." A broad grin split his muzzle as he spread his arms, and for the first time Thirty-Thirty noticed a pair of small wings on the creature's back as they also spread - one feathered, the other a leathery membrane. "Toodles," Discord said, and vanished in a puff of smoke. Silence reigned for several long seconds before Thirty-Thirty managed to summon up a question. "Could, uh," he asked dully, "could someone please explain what happened just now?"