• Published 14th Jul 2013
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The Education of Clover the Clever - Daedalus Aegle



Some people think lectures and classes are for educating. Star Swirl the Bearded has no patience for those people.

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Chapter 7: Crisis of Infinite Star Swirls

“Well, this is awkward,” both Clovers said in perfect synchronization.

The two Clovers were standing on the mountain ridge where the two elder wizards had left them. Clover the mare—Clover 1, as she was already thinking of herself—stared at her stallion counterpart (who was also already thinking of himself as Clover 1), and he stared back at her. Both of them wore near-identical expressions of shock and confusion in the face of information that their brains refused to process.

Clover leaned left to get a slightly different angle, was blocked by the fact that the other Clover leaned right at the exact same time.

“Do you know anything about,” they both began, then both paused, and both continued, “no, I don't suppose you do.”

“Do you think we—no,” they both sighed.

“We need to break apart somehow,” they both wondered why they had said it out loud. “How do you suppose...”

An awkward silence, interrupted by howling wind.

“Um...”

Clover bit her lip, watched Clover bite his as he watched her.

“Maybe we could,” raised hooves, hesitation, shaking heads. “No, that's stupid... Maybe...”

A tingling shot up Clover's spine as a thought occurred to her. “Wait, I just got an idea,” she and her alternate universe stallion twin both said. “Maybe... I think...” They looked at each other nervously, eyes wide, nodded uncertainly. “Okay, I think I've got it. Yes... Yes, I think it'll work. Is this okay? Okay? Okay. Ready? Ready.”

Clover punched her male counterpart in the face.

“Did it work?” he asked, by himself, rubbing his muzzle with his eyes clenched shut. “Oh that stings... right on my snout... I think knowing it was coming actually only made it hurt worse.”

“I'm sorry!” Clover squealed with wide eyes. “I'm so sorry! I'm not a violent pony! The idea just popped into my head and you said 'okay!', and I couldn't think of anything else and I just did it without thinking!”

“It worked, though,” he said. “We broke the synchronization.”

“Oh thank Celestia,” Clover the mare muttered. “I was afraid my brain was going to jam if that went on.”

“Me too,” Clover the stallion said, then shook his head. “You already knew that, of course.” He paused. “Who's Celestia?”

“You don't know?” Clover the mare asked, and her eyes lit up. “We should totally compare notes!”

The stallion quickly nodded. “Because knowing where our parallel worlds differ is going to help differentiate us and—”

“—make it possible to hold a coherent conversation!” They both finished together, looking happily into each other's eyes. Then they both grimaced, and recoiled from each other. “Not again!”

They were silent for a second. “Celestia?” Clover the mare suggested, while Clover the stallion said nothing. They both relaxed. “Okay, we have a code word,” she said. “Celestia is the ruler of the sun. I know I really shouldn't take her name in vain, but sometimes I do anyway. She's basically the centerpiece of a huge national mythology that doesn't really match reality anymore.”

“Oh, I see,” Clover the stallion said. “We have somepony like that as well. He's called Sol. He used to raise the sun, but now the Council of Horns does it instead.”

“That's exactly the same,” Clover the mare nodded. “You know what? Yes, of course you do. We should just go through our basic personal information to begin with.”

“Right. You go first.”

“You go—” Clover bit her lip. “Fine, I'll go first. My name is Clover Cordelia, I turn eighteen in four months, I'm from Whinnysor in Braytannia, the home of the Unicorn King. My cutie mark is a four-leaf clover in front of a sun. I got it when I was eight, it's a long story. I was a student at the Cambridle Academy of Magic until I became the apprentice of the legendary wizard Star Swirl the Bearded. Now you!”

Clover the stallion nodded. “My name is also Clover Cordelia, I turn eighteen in four months, I'm from Whinnysor in Braytannia, which is where the Unicorn Queen lives. My cutie mark is a four-leaf clover in front of a sun, likewise. I was a student at the Cambridle Academy of Magic until I became the apprentice of the legendary sorceress Swirly Star the Wise.”

“Wow,” Clover the mare said. “That's really parallel.” Clover the stallion nodded. “This is astonishing. There must be massive discoveries in magic we could make from this. Just think what we could do with each other!”

They thought silently for a few seconds.

They both shuddered at exactly the same time.

“You know what, let's not think about that,” Clover the stallion said.

“I cannot tell you how happy I am that you feel that way.”

“Oh Sol, this is so awkward,” Clover the stallion muttered, rubbing his muzzle again. “I wonder if the Swirly Stars have this problem.”

– – –

“I'm thinking Interdimensional Shell Game,” Star Swirl the Bearded said.

“We'd need a ringer,” Swirly Star the Wise said.

“No problem, I can make a barren universe and make it look alive until the rift enters the oubliette plane,” Star Swirl said.

“Just one barren universe? I was thinking three,” Swirly Star said. “Or can you not make that many infant universes on the fly?”

Star Swirl snorted. “Pick a number.”

“Seven.”

“Nine!”

“Somepony's been practicing,” Swirly Star admitted. “But can you keep them all in the air at once?”

“Juggling difficulty barely scales. Once you can do three you could do thirty.”

“Sounds good. Who has the ball?”

“I think it's better if neither of us know which is which,” Star Swirl said. Swirly Star nodded.

The two unicorns were standing on a flattened top of a rock floating through the endless void between universes. From where they stood, they could see each universe as a series of spherical apertures, stacked on one another in a loose spiral, stretching out to infinity. The fabulous view went unappreciated, however, as their attention was focused on the dimensional rift. It was a thick white vein in the void, vaguely visceral and diseased, splitting into translucent arms that stretched out into the spherical windows and crept inside. Two such arms stretched on either side of their rock, into the two spheres representing their home universes, floating side-by-side behind them.

“Well, let's get it done and go home,” Swirly Star said. “I need to bulk up my home defenses once we're done here.

“Me too,” Star Swirl said. “Alright, here goes.”

The two archmages activated and unified their magic, conjuring false time, space, and mass from sheer nothing. A series of apertures, indistinguishable to almost any living creature from the living realms of the multiverse around them, took form and began to rise up towards the rift.

Two minutes later the artificial planes disintegrated, and the rift was still whole and unmoved.

“We're not doing Plan B,” Swirly Star said flatly.

Star Swirl nodded in agreement. “Plan C, then?”

“I've never had a Plan C in my life,” Swirly Star grumbled. “And if you say you have then I'm calling you a liar.”

They watched the rift silently for a minute, trying to come up with a new approach.

“Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Swirly?”

Swirly scratched her chin thoughtfully. “I think so, Star. But where are we going to find a sailing ship and an ocean of cheese at this hour?”

“I have one right here, as it happens.”

“It's always a pleasure working with somepony who understands the value of being prepared.”

– – –

“Chocolate Bunnies?” Clover the stallion asked.

“My old roommate,” Clover the mare clarified. “She's always moving from one thing to the next, thinking each new thing is the greatest thing in the world and she has to dedicate her life to it, for maybe a couple of months, and then I never hear of it again.”

Clover the stallion nodded. “Oh right, yeah, Liquorice Whip. He does that. The worst was this time he fell madly in love with this chocolate-brown unicorn filly with a candy-colored horn...”

“Huh,” Clover the mare said. “Bunnies once fell madly in love with a colt with a liquorice wheel cutie mark.”

They both contemplated the implications of this in silent dread.

“...I am loving this cloak,” Clover the mare said, adjusting the hood just to have something to do with her hooves. “If it weren't for this, I'd have frozen to death by now.”

“Me too,” Clover the stallion said.

There was a burst of blinding light, and the mountain shook underneath them. In the distance, a massive avalanche roared in response, and the ground continued trembling for several minutes before it was still.

When the Clovers looked up, the vortex had doubled in size. They stared at it, their mouths hanging open. There was lightning there, moving in vast concentric circles across the sky, and on the glacier far below they could see alien colors as the air itself warped into strange forms of matter.

Portals, like the one the two elder unicorns had gone through, were opening and closing erratically on the mountainside. One portal on the ridge nearby—returning approximately every minute, remaining open for about ten seconds each time before closing—led to where Star Swirl and Swirly Star had gone, and the Clovers could see them performing indescribable feats of magic inside.

They could also see a sailing ship, and lots of cheese.

“What are they doing?” Clover the stallion asked.

“I have no idea,” Clover the mare said, and remembered that they both knew that they both knew very nearly exactly the same things.

“Shall we talk?”

“Let's talk.”

“Do we want to go help them?”

“Yes. Do we think it's a good idea?”

“No. We should stay here and leave it to them. They always know what they're doing.”

“Yes. But don't we really, really want to go see what they're doing up close?”

“Yes. Even though they specifically told us to stay back?”

“Yes. So what do we do?”

They both fell silent for a few seconds. Clover said “What would Star Swirl do?” as her stallion twin said “What would Swirly Star do?”

The portal opened, and they both jumped in.

– – –

“Clearly the rift does not appreciate good cheese,” Star Swirl said, as he put out the fires on his hat by stomping on it.

“As a matter of principle,” Swirly Star said, pausing to allow the aftershocks to die out, “I absolutely refuse to have a Plan D.”

“Agreed,” Star Swirl said, scrutinizing his abused hat with a mournful sigh before returning it to his head. “So, let's call the next one Plan A-2?”

Swirly Star was about to agree when a flash of light and a pair of thuds and yelps from behind them made them turn, and see the Clovers, who had just half-jumped, half-fallen onto the stone platform.

The rift pulsed with sickly light, and the spheres behind the two wizards shook. The archmages glared at their students. “What are you doing here? Didn't I tell you to stay back?”

“The rift is getting stronger out there!” Clover the mare said. “What are you doing?”

“We are succesfully applying an inverse strategy,” Star Swirl said. “All that has to happen is for the rift's ability to survive our plans to end before we run out of plans.”

Both Clovers silently attempted to puzzle this out. “So... your plans aren't working,” they each said to their respective teacher.

“...It is proving unexpectedly resilient,” Swirly Star admitted.

“But you know how to stop it?” Clover asked. “You said you'd done this before. You can use the same solution now, right?”

The two elder wizards exchanged glances.

“We once saw a rift of this scale and power, a long time ago,” Star Swirl the Bearded said. “It would be possible to use the same method now. But... inadvisable. We have other methods at our disposal. However...”

“None of it is working,” Swirly Star said bluntly. Star Swirl nodded.

“Why not?” Clover the stallion asked.

Something clicked, and Star Swirl's eyes widened. “...Because this is not a wild rift,” he said. “There is a mind inside it. Controlling it.”

“Something that knows exactly what we are going to do,” Swirly Star continued, “and knows exactly how to counter us.”

“Which leaves only one option,” Star Swirl said.

“We have to find and nullify the source.”

As one, the elder unicorns placed a hoof each on the vein that snaked between them into the sphere, and lit up their horns. After that, Clover saw nothing but the blackness of empty dreams.

– – –

When Clover opened her eyes again, the world was white. An infinite fog, with no visible source of light, no wind, no sound.

Clover felt something not entirely unlike hard dirt under her hooves, but looking down showed only more white. The other Clover stood beside her, and Star Swirl stood beside Swirly Star up ahead, their outlines visible through the fog.

She turned her head and immediately felt dizzy. The space around her seemed to have different ideas about how to behave than she was used to, and each degree she turned seem to shift her perspective by significantly more than one degree. It was like looking through a distorted lens, one that possibly opened into alternate realities. Or possibly as though, when she turned her head, her head was actually standing still and the world moved around her, only with a slight delay.

“Where are we?” both Clovers asked.

“We are inside the rift,” both the Stars answered, and Clover was unsure if there was one voice or two. When she looked up at her teacher, she was unsure if there was really only one of them. Glancing to either side, she became unsure if there was only one Clover, and if so, which one she was.

“Inside?” Clover asked, and Clover could no longer tell which Clover that was.

“A place beyond existence as we know it,” the Stars said. “Intriguing. Even our past does not exist here. Tell me something from your past, Clover, something you have not mentioned before.”

Clover dredged her thoughts for something appropriate, came up empty, and said instead: “My uncle once mistook a bottle of my mother's perfume for a serving of rose soup, and ate it. He ended up fleeing the house in terror and didn't dare visit again for two years. Is that important?”

“Until you just said it, that fact didn't exist,” Star Swirl said. “Our past is incomplete, and is only catching up to us at the speed of our thoughts. The rift may have other consequences as well.”

Clover looked down and saw that his hooves were slimmer than usual, slightly more rounded, and the unbidden thought came in to mentally examine the rest of his body before she remembered that she was, in fact, herself, had always been herself, and had every intention of remaining as such.

When that thought was in her mind, Clover the stallion stood a few lengths away from her, looking uncomfortable as he glanced, briefly, in her direction.

Star Swirl turned, slowly, counter-clockwise, lighting his horn at the void. After one and a half revolutions he halted. “The center is this way,” Swirly Star said. “Come, we walk.”

A minute later, while they were walking, the thought slipped away from Clover's mind, and there was only one of them each until Clover remembered that there were two, and so there was.

It was difficult to tell the passage of time, in the rift: it could have been minutes, or hours before the first sound of hoofsteps could be heard, out into the mist. Soon after, the sound was accompanied by the sight of a dark shape in the distance, moving in their direction, growing clearer as he drew closer.

Clover shuffled behind her teacher, and studied the creature. His lower body was like a pony, but where his neck should be there was instead a minotaur-like torso, complete with an extra pair of limbs ending in fingers, not claws or hooves. There was an iron ring in his nose, and a golden amulet hung around his neck.

This mythical monstrosity halted before them, and met Star Swirl's gaze with his own. “Wizard,” he said simply.

“Tirek,” Star Swirl said. “Is this rift your doing?”

Tirek shook his head. “I am imprisoned in Tartarus, for as long as Cerberus keeps his watch,” he said, “because of you, and my brother. But you belong there with me, Star Swirl. Not an hour goes by when I don't wish I could steal your magic, and break your bones beneath my hooves. I would go back to Tartarus willingly, and make peace with all the world beside, if I were granted that gift.”

“But you cannot,” Star Swirl said.

“I can't.” Tirek nodded, gritting his teeth together. “Yet, one small mercy is given to us. We are all here, Star Swirl, every one of us you have destroyed.” He gestured with his hand, sweeping through the fog. “We have been given the chance to come here, all of us, to speak to you once more, and to watch as you are ground to dust.”

A gust of wind stirred the fog momentarily, and then died, but in that moment Clover saw movement in the distance, as though an army stood for them just out of sight, waiting for them.

“I won't die,” Star Swirl said.

Tirek chuckled, and the ground quivered from the sound.

“Who is responsible for this?” Star Swirl demanded. “Who waits at the center of the rift?”

Tirek grinned. “Your worst enemy,” the centaur said. Then he was gone, vanishing like a gust of wind into nothing.

Immediately after, there was the sound of another creature drawing near, and Clover could not tell if they were hoofsteps or not. She watched intently to see what would emerge from the mist.

At first glance, it was a zebra, hooded and cloaked.

At second glance, it was a spider.

At third glance, it was a spider the size of a zebra.

“Professor...?” Clover began softly, “what is that?”

“The Mother of Spiders,” Star Swirl replied, gesturing for Clover to stay behind him. “You died a long time ago.”

The mother of spiders made a sound that might have been a chuckle, or might have been a guttural hiss. “You are far from the world of mortals, Star Swirl, and death is not the end. Every creature you ever wronged, every warrior you tore down, every friend who regretted your friendship... Every enemy you ever earned is here, waiting for you, to see you before you reach the end.”

“There is a problem I must attend to,” Star Swirl said bluntly. “If hungry ghosts are waiting for me, then let them wait and go unfed. I have no concern for this. Be gone!”

With something not entirely unlike the sound of a pony's chuckle, the mother of spiders was gone. From the mist, another figure approached, and behind it was another, and behind it was another, and another, and another, and another.

– – –

Life in the rift was strange, Clover thought.

One by one, strange creatures emerged from the mists. Many of them were sad, or bitter. Many of them were hateful. Some were monstrous. All of them had words to say to her teacher, and most of them left her teacher entirely unmoved.

The procession of fallen shadows continued for a long time, hurling curses and threats at Star Swirl and Swirly Star alike. Sometimes both wizards were there, sometimes only one. When it was only one, it was sometimes Star Swirl and sometimes Swirly Star.

Some of the figures who spoke to them did not yet exist, and Clover felt her head threaten to explode if she tried to remember the details about them, and what they, and her teacher, had said to one another. Still, she knew that they had been the most terrible, hateful, and monstrous of them all. Even the ones that were only ponies.

Especially the ones that were only ponies.

– – –

The ground did not tremble beneath Clover as it drew near, but the sight of the enormous shadow made her feel as though it really should have.

The beast that approached them was too huge to see its entire bulk through the mists. It moved through the air as softly as a light breeze, ghost-like.

Parts of it were skeletal. Parts of it were withered and dried up, mummified. Ghostly sand fell from the cracks in her skin as she moved, and disappeared into nothing. What parts of her remained whole were a mismatched cacophany of animal parts, dragon and minotaur and snake and sheep and something wild and feathered.

“The end is still coming, little darkling,” she said, her voice dry as dust fixing her empty eye-sockets on Star Swirl. “All the lands of ponies will fall. You have not stopped it yet.”

“I am alive,” he said. “You are dead, and no longer a queen of anything. Go, and roam Tartarus as an empty ghost. As long as I live your apocalypse will come to nothing.”

She tried to growl, but the sound was a feeble hiss that reminded Clover of an angry rat-cub. “You signed a deal in your blood. You still belong to me, and I will have you.”

“You have made your claim,” Star Swirl said. “Let us see you try to enforce it.”

He lit his horn and made a lone burst of magic cut across the Queen of Golden Sands, and she vanished into mist and nothing.

– – –

After a while, it began to snow.

Shortly after it began to snow, they came upon a group of four creatures who seemed to be waiting for them. One was a pony, the rest were not.

“What have you fallen into this time, Star Swirl?” the minotaur asked, looking down at the wizard with a scowl. He looked angry, Clover thought, but then minotaurs often look angry, no matter how they feel. The others, the pony, the griffon, and the pony-sized dog, looked sad, and said nothing, but held each other close, as if to comfort each other.

“That's really none of your concern,” Star Swirly Star said. “Are you hoping to watch me die as well? You will be disappointed.”

“It's possible,” the minotaur nodded. “You often disappoint.”

Star Swirl growled. “Enough of this,” he said. “Come, Clover.” They began moving again.

The minotaur turned his head as they passed, and noticed Clover trying to make herself small behind the wizard. “What's this?” the minotaur said with a raised eyebrow as they walked past. “Someone who has followed you into destruction? No news there, then.”

Star Swirl did not answer.

The snow disappeared once the four figures were no longer in sight.

– – –

Clover held her breath, her heart beating so loud she felt certain Star Swirl could hear it as they waited for the next figure to emerge. She wondered what it would be: an Ursa Major, perhaps, or a kraken from the deep seas, something so vast that only a tiny part of it would appear through the fog.

They heard trotting hoofsteps, and an old earth pony stallion drew near, a pipe in his mouth, with a cutie mark of waving stalks of wheat. He stopped in front of Star Swirl and they looked at each other.

Star Swirl frowned. “...Father?”

The earth pony nodded. “Hello, Star Swirl.”

Star Swirl only stared. “What are you doing here?”

The earth pony shrugged. “I got a chance to say hello to my son, and I grabbed it.” He looked around. “So this is where you've ended up, is it?”

“I'm not staying for long,” Star Swirl said.

An awkward silence ensued.

“How's the family?” Star Swirl quietly asked.

“Your mother never stopped missing you,” he said. “You broke her heart when you left, you know. And your little sister and brother. Do you remember, you used to do little magic tricks for them? For years after you left, they would ask me if you were coming home soon, and if you'd tell them stories about where you had been.”

Star Swirl said nothing in response.

“Your mother and I had another three foals after you left,” his father continued. “Two fillies and a colt, all earth ponies. They've all joined us in the Elysian fields, now. No long magic to keep them alive after a hundred years. But they grew up, and Hay Seed took over the farm, and the rest of them found good crafts that earned their keep, and they settled down and had families of their own. They were happy.”

“That's good,” Star Swirl said.

“Ponies never stopped asking about you, you know,” his father said. “The first unicorn in Edinspur in living memory. You left an impression. Your mother was always waiting for news from you, after you left.” His eyes narrowed. “You could have at least written us a letter, son. We had to find out you were kicked out of school from the village gossips.”

“This is just a dream,” Star Swirl said, pulling back, and turning away. “An image, conjured up to try to fill me with guilt, to weaken my mind. Is there a windigo in this rift, or some other monster that feeds on negative emotions? Who is it that is trying to break me? I will not permit it.”

His father shook his head, took a step closer. “I don't want you to feel guilty, Star Swirl. I only ever wanted you to be happy, you and all my children. I could help the others with that. But happiness, I suppose, was never part of your fate.”

“What's wrong with greatness?” Star Swirl demanded. “You do realize I'm the most powerful unicorn wizard alive, right?” He turned back to glance at Clover. “Do you think Marelin had to deal with her parents asking her when she was going to settle down, as she rode with Llamrei to face Morgan le Neigh's army of shadows?”

“I'm not a well-read pony,” Star Swirl's father said, “but even I know that destiny doesn't care about your happiness. Neither Marelin nor Morgan nor Llamrei lived happy lives. I knew that if you followed your magic to the stars, you might know greatness but you would never know peace.” He put a hoof firmly on Star Swirl's shoulder, and the two stallions' eyes met. “That's earth pony magic,” he said. “Things that grow strong, together. I tried to tell you, son, I tried to warn you. It's amazing what you can discover, if you're willing to look down and see what's right in front of you. But you, my son... You were always looking at the stars. And the thing about the stars is that, even among each other, they are always so very, very far away.”

Clover watched Star Swirl intently, waiting to see how the usually immovable wizard would respond. His face was locked, rigid, but Clover felt certain she saw something shifting beneath the surface.

Star Swirl's father looked over, and seemed to notice her for the first time. “Hello there, young miss,” he said. “Who might you be? Not a granddaughter of mine, by any chance?”

Clover gulped. “No, sir. I'm—” Your son's apprentice? Star Swirl the Bearded's apprentice? The Professor? The Wizard? “—his apprentice.”

He nodded. “Good. Perhaps you can teach him something useful.”

“Enough of this,” Star Swirl growled. “I will not be distracted. Come, Clover, we are leaving.”

The ghost of his father watched sadly as he walked past without a backward glance. “Would you like me to give a message to your mother?”

Star Swirl halted. He did not turn, or say a word. Then, after a few seconds, he began walking away again.

Clover looked from Star Swirl to his father, and back, then trotted up after her teacher. The ghost of Star Swirl's father watched them for a second, then dissipated into the fog.

– – –

“Professor?” Clover asked, breaking into a canter to keep up with her teacher's trot. “Are you alright?”

“We are going to continue moving forward, until we reach the center of the rift, and undo whatever force maintains it,” Swirly Star the Wise answered. “These phantoms are only images, dragged from my memories. They have no real power. They are only here to distract, and I won't—” She froze. Clover ran up alongside her, and saw that the blood had drained from her face, her eyes wide, staring straight ahead with her mouth hanging open.

“...Prince Máni?” Swirly Star said, her voice suddenly thin and weak, as she looked into the fog. “Is that you?”

“That voice...” Clover heard a stallion's voice in the fog, deep, melodious, and uncertain. She peered in the direction it seemed to be coming from, and saw a tall, dark figure shrouded in the mist. “I have not heard it for... Swirly? Swirly Star? Are you there?”

Prince Máni stepped closer, and stumbled.

Before Clover knew what was going on, Swirly Star had left her far behind, galloping forward at a speed unlike anything Clover had ever seen from her teacher. As the prince made contact with the ground, the old mare was there to catch him in her forelegs, and held him in a tight embrace.

Clover ran to catch up, but halted at a distance once she saw them clearly. Prince Máni was an alicorn stallion, slender and long-limbed, his coat a dark blue, his black mane wild and unkempt but glittering with pinpricks of light. He lay in her forelegs as she held him in a tight embrace, running a hoof through his mane. He was staring at nothing, haunted eyes on a gaunt and expressionless face.

Swirly Star's hat lay forgotten on the ground, having fallen off during the gallop.

The stallion turned his head slightly, and gave a faint gasp. “Swirly... it is you.”

“You're so cold,” Swirly Star whispered, barely loud enough for Clover to hear. He nodded, and Swirly pulled him closer.

“Yes... Very cold... How long has it been? I can't remember...”

“It's been many years,” Swirly Star whispered. “I've missed you so badly...”

“You're so warm, Swirly...” the prince said softly. “Can I stay here, with you? Have you come to set me free?”

Clover felt her insides tie in a knot when she saw the look on Swirly Star's face, her eyes clenched shut, forcing out tears, her teeth clenched tightly together behind her open lips. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I can't help you.”

He shivered, as in pain, as she continued to softly stroke his mane. “Please,” he gasped, “please don't send me back. No more.”

“I'm so, so sorry,” she said, her voice cracking. “Go to sleep...” Her horn lit up with a faint and feeble glow. The prince's eyes closed, and his shivering ceased.

She cradled him and rocked softly back and forth as he began to fade from sight, and was gone.

Tears trickled down the sorceress's face. She choked down her sobs as long as she could, before raising her head and letting loose a primal howl of grief and hurt into the void.

The universe shook around them, and Clover stumbled. Swirly Star turned, and seemed to notice the young mare for the first time.

Clover met the old mare's eyes, and her blood ran cold. “You,” Swirly Star began, “will never—”

– – –

“—ever speak a word of what you just saw to anyone. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir!” The stallion Clover said, attempting to stand at attention and withering under Star Swirl the Bearded's piercing glare.

“Don't think that just because you're from an alternate universe you'll be safe. I will know, and I will find you.” Star Swirl scrutinized the terrified young stallion for any sign of resistance. Finding none, he nodded and turned away, grabbing his hat and fitting it on his head as he went.

– – –

After some minutes of walking in silence, with Clover casting nervous glances to the elder unicorn, the wizards were able to compose themselves.

In the end, the shadows in the mist were all gone. Star Swirl halted, and declared, his voice flat and grim: “We are here.”

The four of them were gathered together again, in a spot completely like everywhere else in the white void. “This is the center of the rift,” Swirly Star said. “The source of its power is nearby. We only need to block it.”

“Did you think,” a voice spoke that seemed to come from everywhere at once, “that it would be so easy?”

The four unicorns looked around, but saw nothing in the emptiness. “Who are you?” Star Swirl demanded. “Show yourself!”

The void shook, and rippled around them. There was the sound of grim laughter, and then the voice spoke again, saying: “I am your doom, fallen stars. You followed the lure, and galloped into the trap. The ghosts of your past have caught you at last.”

“What is the point of this?” Swirly Star demanded.

“Justice,” the voice said. “You destroyed my world, fallen star. My universe was reduced to nothing, for your whims... now at last you will answer for your crimes.”

“Did you really do that?” Clover asked her teacher.

“Only once,” Star Swirl said. “It's not as big a deal as it sounds. Universes are born and die all the time, it's completely natural. We might as well put the process to practical use.”

“That's unspeakably horrifying,” Clover said.

“Strictly speaking, in purely academic terms,” Star Swirl said, “the destruction of an entire world is not regrettable, because nobody survives who could have regretted it. That which is not alive, feels no pain.”

“This is how the fallen star defends himself,” the voice spoke, and now it was smaller, coming from a point out in the fog. “No mercy for those you wronged, no remorse for what you did. Only cold rationalization.”

Out from the fog now came a figure that made Clover think of the trotting dead from the Temple of Forgotten Doom: a pony, emaciated almost to the point of being skeletal, hung with scorched and tattered rags, little more than a net. Its body was seemingly built of the same stuff as the fog around them, its eyes blank and blurry. It was a broken and cracked image of a unicorn stallion, its horn cracked and jagged on its forehead, its teeth broken in its mouth.

“Have you ever seen the world end?” the void pony asked. “Did you watch the universe you threw aside as it died? The sky turned to fire and ice, and collapsed onto the earth. All the ponies died, screaming. Did you hear them, fallen star? Would you like to?”

“That event was decades ago,” Swirly Star the Wise said.

“Decades,” the voice agreed, “floating in the void between worlds, slowly gathering my strength. Waiting until I was strong enough to face you. Now.”

Star Swirl watched the void pony with grim curiosity. “I am... impressed, that anything could have survived. But I do not regret my decision,” he said. “A rift, not entirely unlike this one, was in the process of devouring the multiverse. A sacrificial universe was needed. If it were now, I would have been able to stop it in other ways. Back then, we had no choice. We picked your universe at random, and gave it up. It was what had to be.”

“You took countless lives, Star Swirl!” the void pony roared. “That was not your choice to make!”

“We stand by our decision,” Star Swirl said. Swirly Star nodded. “Countless worlds have died before yours, for no particular reason, and you never cared because it had no impact on you, and there was no way you could have known about it. The fact that the world in question was yours, does not make it more important. Accept your fate, and be at peace.”

“Is that what you would have done if it was your world, fallen star?” the void pony asked. “If it was everything you held dear that was wiped out by some alien force, without warning, in the blink of an eye, would you lie down and accept your fate? No. You would have fought against it, and if you failed, you would have spent all your power and bent all your knowledge to hunting those responsible for revenge.”

“You have no idea what I would do,” Star Swirl growled.

“I know exactly what you would do,” the void pony said. “Now die.”

Clover fell back, forced away by the push of three magical auras of immeasurable power activating, and pushing against each other, as the archmages began to duel, a battle of wizards in a wizard's arena.

To a laypony, the sight would carry no meaning: the visible portion of a unicorn's aura is only a tiny part of the magic underneath, but Clover recognized the signs of massive magical discharge unlike anything witnessed in nature. Each of the three figures were wrapped in shielding bubbles. Outside the shields, each was shaping their magic, at tremendous speeds, into pinpoints of incredible force, attempting to find weak spots in the shield to penetrate while shifting their own shields to ward against the attacks.

It was happening much too fast for Clover to follow every nuance from her vantage point of hiding far behind her teacher as best she could given that there was absolutely nothing else to hide behind, but in the back of her mind a little voice of control said, there is no way Star Swirl can possibly lose. He's Star Swirl the Bearded, for Celestia's sake, and there's two of him.

She glanced sideways to see what Clover the stallion was doing. He was glancing sideways at her. Like her, he was lying flat on his stomach behind his teacher with his forelegs covering his head, a slightly worse position for him than her given that he was slightly larger, and Swirly Star the Wise slightly smaller, than Clover the mare and Star Swirl the Bearded respectively.

So why aren't they winning?

It was an even fight, and that in itself was alarming, implying that the void pony was twice as powerful. Clover carefully felt out with her own magic, trying to gently sense what each of them was doing without distracting her teacher, or drawing the entity's attention to her. What she found shocked her: the void entity's magic was not more powerful, only more concentrated. Where Star Swirl and Swirly Star had each erected a full shield, and were attacking in focused bursts, the entity's shield was concentrated in just a few key points... exactly those points where the two wizards were attacking. In addition, the two wizards had spread their defenses to cover every angle, and while no shield was perfectly even, the entity seemed to know exactly where the flimsy corners were: those points, unique to Star Swirl and his counterpart, where it cost the wizard just a little bit more to reinforce...

A chill ran down Clover's spine as she had a sudden flash of horrified realization. She glanced to her twin to see if he had thought the same, and found that he was gone, as was Swirly Star.

Or rather, they were both one, as were their teachers. Clover—she was both Clovers now, at once, and the unusual shape and heft of her body was only half-way annulled by the signals it was sending to her mind that her body was her own and everything was perfectly normal—looked ahead and saw only two unicorns dueling now, butting heads with the stubbornness of eternity: the void pony and Star Swirl would end up killing each other, and Star Swirl would probably be just fine with that because that meant the rift would die and the multiverse would be safe and he would want her to run run turn around and run and leave him—

Clover stepped out from behind her teacher, her horn unlit, and took a step forward. Then another, then another, gaining strength and courage as she walked, until she was standing clear of the two, who both seemed completely oblivious to her, the magic ripping the air apart between them.

She cleared her throat, loudly, and waved a hoof in the air. “Excuse me, sir?” she cried. “Could I just have your attention for a second please?”

Without turning, the void entity spoke inside her head, its voice more uninterested than unfriendly, saying: “You have no part in this. I am here for the fallen stars. Leave now.”

“I just want to talk!” Clover shouted, and when that did not draw his attention, she followed with: “I know who you are!”

Her blood froze as she felt the touch of his magic moving over her, reading her. Time seemed to stand still. Clover could not move. Under her coat of fur, her skin crawled. “Do you,” the voice spoke flatly inside her head.

In her thoughts, Clover nodded. “You're Star Swirl, aren't you? You're the Star Swirl from that lost universe. That's why you know everything about him. That's why you know his ghosts and how he fights. Because you were exactly the same, right up until your world died.”

There was a weighty pause before the entity spoke again, asking, “Who are you, little filly?”

“I'm Clover Cordelia,” she said. “I'm Star Swirl the Bearded's apprentice.”

“Apprentice?” the voice was sharp. “Was it fear, or lies, or threats that brought you to the monster's bondage? No matter. Turn and flee, and the gateway will open for you.”

Clover shook her head. “Star Swirl the Bearded is my teacher, and the only thing that brought me here was my own free will.”

Clover recognized the shock in the voice: it was like that of her teacher on the rare occasions she bested his expectations. “Star Swirl the Bearded has never taken an apprentice,” it said.

“Not before me, no.”

There was another pause. “I have seen the monster's true nature from within,” the entity said. “His heart is cold and black and cares for nothing... not even for himself. You are correct. I am Star Swirl, the Void. Cast out into oblivion, surviving only as a shadow beyond space and time. The fallen star will bring misery and destruction to everything he touches, and he will not care, nor regret it. The ghosts you met, on your way here? They were not all of them his enemies. Flee while you can, before you come to the same end as all the others who stood too close to the storm.”

Clover closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You know what? You're right. He is heartless. He's grumpy and insensitive and completely uninterested in having friends or being likable. In fact, I now realize he can't even reliably make friends with himself, because I've seen two other Star Swirls, and one of them wants to kill him. And it was terrible what happened to your world, and your anger is completely justified! But—and I'm sorry for this horrible cliché—killing Star Swirl the Bearded won't bring your world back.” She paused, sighing deeply as she tried to compose her thoughts. “But there's something else too. The Star Swirl I know would never sacrifice lives, and he would never put anypony in danger before himself. He's not very good at saying things clearly, I know that better than anypony. And he might not be willing to admit it even if he could be bothered to say it out loud, but after your world was destroyed, you know what he did? He went out and he learned another way to deal with this kind of rift, so that he would never have to make that kind of decision again. That's why he's here, inside the rift, exposing himself to danger. Because he changed. He can learn. He can become better.”

When the entity spoke again, Clover again heard the tone of genuine surprise in its voice. “You actually believe in him.”

She nodded. “I do.”

“Though you know what he is, you follow him willingly.”

“That's right.”

“There is one pony other than himself who believes in him...” He nodded. “But tell me, Clover Cordelia... does he believe in you?”

The magic withdrew, time began to move again, and Clover saw the two unicorns locked in the highest levels of magical combat.

“Professor!” she cried, and took a step closer. There was no reaction. “Professor!”

She took another step, and bumped her snout on the magical shield. Well, this will at least have to get his attention... She activated her magic, and pressed against the shield with her horn.

Star Swirl seemed to come awake at the sensation, and turned to face her with bloodshot eyes. “Clover?”

The shield shifted, swept over her, and shunted her inside.

“Star Swirl...” Clover began. “Please stop.”

“What?”

“Please stop this fighting!” Clover pleaded. “You're going to kill yourself!”

“I am saving the universe,” Star Swirl said, his voice flat and exhausted. “That is part of the job description.”

“This isn't about the universe,” Clover said, stepping closer to her teacher. “This is just you. Look!” She extended a hoof to the void pony, who was watching her intently. The attacks hadn't ceased, but they were subdued, blunted, upheld just in case but ready to withdraw if possible.

“You destroyed his universe,” Clover said. “You should apologize.”

Star Swirl blinked, bit his lip. “I... stand... by...”

“I know!” Clover said. “I know, you did it because you had to, it was the only thing that would save everything! I know that! He knows that too! But please... you know you did something bad. Wouldn't it be better to just admit it, and not have to fight over it any more?”

All the unicorns had halted their attacks now. Star Swirl the Void no longer had any hate or anger in his blank eyes, only regret. Clover looked from her teacher to the void pony and back, and saw that in every way that mattered, they were exactly the same.

“I'm sorry,” Star Swirl the Bearded, who was also Swirly Star the Wise, said. “I can't undo it. I wish I could. But I can't. I'm sorry for your life, and your world.”

The void pony smiled. “That's all I wanted to hear.”

In seconds, he was gone, dissolved into the background magic of the multiverse.

A wind picked up around them, and the fog began to shift as the rift lost its motive power, and began to die.

“Come on,” Clover said, her teacher standing there, staring blankly ahead of him. “Star Swirl?”

Clover tugged Star Swirl's foreleg over her withers and pulled her along with him, and he followed without a word. She tried not to think about the fact that he was actually remarkably light: as though under his expansive robe he was nothing but skin and bones. His head drooped down, his hat slouching forward in imitation of the rest of him, but staying on his head as they walked.

The fog faded away as the rift shrivelled up and withered, its power source gone with the disappearance of Star Swirl the Void. No longer shrouded, Clover looked ahead and saw the multiverse.

Straight ahead, a bridge of sorts led from the center of the rift to a rock hovering in the space between worlds, and across it into two twin spheres that waited, side by side. Gritting her teeth, Clover trudged towards them. At some point she realized she heard hoofsteps alongside her, and saw her stallion counterpart with his own pony burden hanging on his back.

With a final push, they fell into the spheres, and landed in the snow on the mountainside. The wind was still, and the only lights now were from the stars. Clover fell flat on her stomach, breathing heavily from the strain.

“We made it, Star Swirl... We're back home,” she said, as she turned to the prone lump of pony hidden beneath the star-, moon- and bell-adorned long robe and large pointy hat. The elder wizard groaned, and stirred.

Clover reached out and tilted up the hat, to check for head wounds, and found a beardless face with a long silvery mane underneath. A confused Swirly Star the Wise looked up at her.

“Clover?” she asked.

“Professor?” Clover blurted out.

With the sudden feeling of a sinking pit in her stomach, Clover looked around and saw the window to the other world. There, on the other side, she saw Clover the Stallion and Star Swirl the Bearded looking back at her in shock.

Both Clovers had just opened their mouths to speak when the last of the rift's magic dissipated, and the portal closed for the last time.

Author's Note:

UPDATE: August 16th 2015.
The Queen of the Golden Sands has been added to the procession of fallen shadows.
To jump straight there, search "The ground did not tremble".

– – –

There are some scenes in this chapter that do not exist. At some point in the future, when certain conditions are met, they will exist.