What Came Before

by Lynwood

XV

Author's Note:

Yay! Here's another chapter!
I decided to just continue doing what I was doing, 1000 words a day. If a chapter is important it'll have more words.
Comments and constructive criticism welcome. Leave a like and a favorite if you're feelin' it, too!
Enjoy!

Jiggy

Twilight's world was silent. It failed to turn. She wobbled. Her head felt light. Her vision spun, black blotches appearing randomly, then fading as though nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, Twilight's mind raged against itself. Facts contradicted facts, the truth was stranger than fiction.

Three thousand years. Three thousand years. This was not possible. This was not possible. She was no alicorn. She was no god. Twilight could feel it. Anyone with a lifespan longer than five hundred years would project a certain sort of curtain of experience. It was natural of all creatures. Magic wasn't just a way of life- it was life.

With Cee, there was nothing. Not even a trace. Not even a smidge. It was like she had never even been exposed to magic.

Twilight realized her face was touching something softly warm, yet grainy and rocky. Her eyes turned and saw an endless plane of brown. It was almost beautiful, lying there with her face in the dirt.

"TWILIGHT!"

Twilight felt herself being shaken by something or someone. It's not like it matte-

An immeasurable amount of pain shot through her face, shaking her back into the world of the living. She frowned as her muzzle smarted.

"Rainbow! What the hey!" She yelled. Dash was standing over her, her hoof raised for another slap. "What was that for?"

"Well, you've been layin' there for a while, now, Twi." She stepped away, and Twilight shakily got to her hooves. She dusted herself off before looking around.

Everyone was staring at her. The humans, the ponies, even the one that contradicted reality.

"Uh, hehe... Sorry." She blushed, wishing that she could melt into the ground. She had fainted, in front of everyone, in front of Celestia! Princesses do not faint. Not at something so minuscule like reality-bending ponies. Said pony merely raised her eyebrow at the whole situation.

"I'll talk with you later." She spun around, towards the Royal Sisters. From the rest of the ships, more walkers stepped out. Some in white, some in black. The black ones followed Cee, and the white ones busily unloaded material from the crafts, carrying them to the center. They looked metallic and shiny and were laced with cables and wires and plating. Twilight watched as the group of walkers dressed in white began to construct something from the parts. They built the components into a large, silver sort of triangular prism that stood upright. The walkers activated something, and the corners of the prism split off. They were hinged at the bottom and lifted the prism up until it stood on its three new legs.

The a trio of walkers dragged a very different looking machine from one of the larger carriers. It was orange and yellow and had all sorts of markings. IT was worn and scratched and looked a lot more used than the shiny silver tripod. The walkers moved it underneath the tripod that stood in the middle of the street. When they were satisfied with its placement, a tube extended down from the bottom of the tripod and linked to the box. Suddenly the whole thing lit up, multicolored lights blinking and flashing. From its top extended a spire, rising high into the glowing evening air.

Twilight watched the walkers clear away from the tripod, moving quickly back to the crafts they arrived in. The tripod shimmered, and the air around it gradually began to take on a solid form. Before her eyes, the tripod-machine constructed a barrier around itself. The barrier was in the shape of a triangular pyramid, patterned with a hexagonal grid. The Pyramid reached up to the tip of the spire, encasing the whole construct in a light blue shield.

Twilight noticed a crowd beginning to form around the Walker machines. The ponies milled about, whispering and muttering. Some looked angry. Some looked excited. Many looked scared.

Twilight noticed Cee walking towards her. Behind the approaching pony, Twilight spied a worried-looking Celestia, talking to her sister.

"Twilight Sparkle." The voice was stern, yet soft. Young, yet wise. Twilight turned to face Cee.

"Can I talk to you for a bit?" Cee finished. Twilight nodded dumbly. "Great. Do you have a place where we could speak undisturbed?" Twilight nodded again and used a hoof to point at Golden Oaks Library.

"Wonderful. Let's go." Cee set off towards the library, Twilight following behind, lost in thought. They pushed through the crowd, making their way to the front door of her home. Twilight only snapped to attention when she noticed Cee magically opening the door. Her magic was not the color of her eyes as Twilight thought it would be but instead was a green tinted clear. It did not sparkle, as all unicorns' did but flickered and streaked through the air.

Twilight suddenly thought of something. If Cee had no natural magic, then...

Yes. Her flank was a clean, bare gray. It wasn't the strangest thing about her by a long shot, though.

They were inside the library now, and Cee shut the door behind them. She walked to the center of the room, sitting down at the still-set table. Twilight sensed something wrong. Cee looked over at her and gestured for her to sit.

Twilight did so, trotting to the pillow and sitting down. She looked at Cee expectantly and received a stern look back.

"I know you looked at them." Twilight jumped. Was it really that obvious? "Nobody would've fainted at seeing a random pony step out of a high-tech machine, Twilight. Get them out." Twilight gulped, then nodded, retrieving the bag of Orbs from her pocket dimension. Upon seeing so, Cee removed something from a pocket dimension of her own. It was a small silver cylinder with a single black groove on it. Cee tapped it with a hoof, and it activated. The machine hummed, then projected a bubble outwards very quickly. As the bubble passed through her, she felt her magic tingle. Cee smiled at her softly.

"Don't worry. It's just a resonance blocker. To stop Celestia from hearing us." Twilight gave a weak smile and then cleared a small area for the bag of Orbs. Cee's face turned serious again. She levitated an orb about a foot above the table.

"Okay, Twilight. I am about to show you a part of my life. It is one very different from your own. I am warning you now. You will not enjoy it." Then, her horn activated and Twilight fell into the Swirl.

Comments

[Kyle the Scrublord]

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