• Published 6th May 2012
  • 7,919 Views, 723 Comments

Static World - Kendandra



Discord haunts Twilight's dreams as she and Luna share romance. Celestia frets over Discord's seal. There is more to the the story of these three ancient beings than meets the eye, and Twilight Sparkle is about to get a crash course.

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29: Timelines: Heaven's Fall

“The Keep in the Sky? Are you implying that it was real?” Twilight Sparkle shook her head in disbelief.

“Oh? You have heard of it?” Princess Luna glanced up with a confused look.

Twilight nodded and droned on in a monotone. “Certainly. It is mentioned in many fables, the mythical and magical castle that floats in the sky much like modern day Cloudsdale. But unlike Cloudsdale, the Keep in the Sky was made of stone and wondered the sky on an unexplainable journey. Imagine something of that mass floating casually through the air. The sheer magic it would take to get such a weighty structure to levitate at all, let alone move it around, would be astronomical. And what about this gap in the clouds you mentioned? Is this some sort of pocket dimension where the sun and moon exist in close proximity? Hm… perhaps it’s a hyper-compressed compartment of space-time bounded with mana-kentic dipoles? This would suggest a development in magical competency millennia ahead of our time.” Twilight shook her head dismissively. “Simply impossible. I thought this story was supposed to have some historical truth to it? Oh, is this story supposed to have some sort of metaphorical meaning? This whole thing is an allegory?”

Luna shook her head. “No, this story actually happened. Please just listen and all will be explained…”

“But I don’t get it! Who in the hay are these Dagr and Nótt things? And what’s with the unicorn and the pegasus?”

“Ain’t it a mite obvious? Why, it’s as clear as a harvest day that they are….”

“Ah!” Twilight jumped back in shock. “Applejack! Don’t sneak up on ponies like that!”

Applejack narrowed her eyes. “I’ve been here the whole time….”

“Twilight’s right, fair Applejack, it’s impolite to creep about. Now where was I? Oh, yes… The Keep in the Sky….”

Large walls of stone slowly pressed together in space the behind them, closing off the entrance to the strange sky realm they had just came from. The enormity of the structure was unlike anything Helia and Selena had ever seen. It was a castle, obviously, but they had never imagined a castle would look so grand. Soft columns of colored light streamed in from a collection of stained glass windows. Gratis chuckled as the two ponies descended from their place on his back. The unicorn spun in a circle, her hooves clacking against the gray stone floor. The Keep in the Sky was prevalent of many myths and many stories that Helia was privy to, but she had never imagined in her wildest dreams what it would look like. The roof was a high spanning archway, and while such a spacious interior so high in the sky should have welcomed the wind to howl, the atrium was still and silent. In the background the walls of the keep seemed to move slightly. Carvings of vines and trees slowly swayed in an ethereal wind. Helia had seen moving stone before, the incident with the golem still fresh in her thoughts, but this was not the same. It lacked the menacing or sheer magical presence she had seen before. These moving carvings simply swayed majestically. The subtle movement of the castle walls made it seem like it was alive. As if the castle was a living, breathing entity and the sways of the vines were the subtle shifts of a creature just settling down in a comfortable spot to read a book.

Even with all the grand spaces or even the moving stonework, the thing that stuck with her most were the colors. The entire castle interior, or at least the entire interior that she could currently see, was cast in a dull, but comforting pale gray. The stone slabs gave the impression of old bones, blanched by the sun. Despite how dull the shade seemed, it was easy to see why it was chosen. The gray stone floor was the perfect canvas for letting the sunlight, streaming through a marvelous display of tinted glass, paint vibrant colors. Helia’s mouth hung open slightly as she surveyed the sight. “So beautiful. I’ve never seen something like this before in my life. What are they?”

Gratis approached behind the pony and placed a claw on the unicorn’s back. “They are stained glass windows.”

“They are marvelous. I… could live in a house with just one of these and stare into its beauty forever.”

“They are more than just beautiful, my dear Helia. They tell stories of the world’s past.” Gratis gestured around. “See how they cast their light upon the floor? It is so we may walk in the path of history and understand it. It is built in glass so that we may understand how fragile the tales of old are, and what it takes to preserve them. Should this castle ever fall from the sky, these windows would shatter and history would have to begin anew from that point.”

Selena tilted her head. “Is that a meadow-four?” Nótt looked at the young pegasus and chuckled softly.

Helia stared intently at the projection on the floor. “It means that history lights the paths that we walk upon. Without knowing where you have been you cannot see where you are going.”

“Very good, little unicorn. You’re quite clever. Brilliant, in fact.” Gratis smiled widely.

Helia’s eyes narrowed and a slight smirk adorned her face. “But if these windows shattered, could they not be replaced with new ones? New ones containing new tales, depicted in the vision of whoever crafted them.”

Gratis frowned. “The one who would do that… now there would be the monsters of which you speak…” The dragon gestured with his arms, showing off the enormity of the windows. “To us immortals, history is our only asset. Destruction of history can only lead to one thing…” The sisters leaned in closer to hear the dragon. “But that is another tale for another time. Come, walk the hall of the world’s history with me and we shall go about dispelling this belief that you are a monster.” The dragon shook his head. He pointed to each window in succession. “This one here shows the machinations of the past, the wagons moved by boiling water and captured lighting.”

“Captured lighting? Such powerful magic, correct?”

“No, not magic at all. A foreign power of what was then nature, once studied and then understood, soon harnessed by the centaur’s hands and hooves. The first steps towards mastery of the world and its universe.” He lifted his claw to the next window. “Here, in this frame, is the discovery of magic, the forbidden power of the universe for it is both wonderful and dreadful. A power sourced from the balance of diametrically opposed poles: creation and destruction, positive and negative, earth and sky… order and chaos.” Gratis gently pushed the sisters to the next window. “Then this one depicts the centaurs and their war. The great Centaur War, a war that would claim the very fabric of the world as its final battlefield. It was here that opposites combined and it was here that opposites split apart. It was here that the lost lights of the future was birthed and then forgotten, swallowed by chaotic hearts.”

“Lost lights of the future….” Selena repeated, with a subtle twinkle in her eyes.

“This next one shows the cataclysm and exodus of the centaurs. Such a war only could have lead here, to this result. The land torn asunder, the very sky burned and floated away, leaving only the cold embrace of the stars to cradle this small rock. The keeper of the tides was broken along the very lines drawn in one of its monthly shadows. The giver of light was pierced and its eternal flame died out. A time of mystery, as the masters of the world left this land in the care of fledglings, mere children.” The dragon began a slow walk down the hall. Dagr and Nótt stepped ahead and pushed open a grand set of doors.

Helia let out a small gasp of amazement. “It’s like a hall filled with stories. Stories told in glass pictures….” Helia stopped in front of one of the windows and stared at the familiar shapes.

Gratis stared for a moment at the window; he appeared to be lost in thought as he spoke. “This one is the rebirth, when new gods were born. Not gods born of machine and magic cultivated by the centaurs but gods born out of necessity from the misdeeds of them.”

“And this one?” Selena pointed to the next window in the line.

“That is the cowardliness of the gods. Fearing that the universe might invoke retribution for their acts, they fled and hid amongst the clouds, so that they may avoid their true purpose.” Gratis spread his arms wide and sighed. “Now that you see this world’s storied past, now that you see the troubles it has been through at the command of arrogant fools.” Gratis lowered his head down to Helia’s own. His eyes inches from hers, he smiled mischievously. “What right have you to call yourself a monster?”

Helia shook fearfully in the god’s presence. “I… I…”

“Have you tried to claim the laws of the world for yourself so that you may use them selfishly?” He whispered.

“No… I…”

He raised his voice slightly. “Have you taken that which was hallowed and forced it to bend to your will and your will alone?”

Helia struggled to keep eye contact with the dragon. “I…”

Gratis began to shout. “Have you campaigned to shape the world in your view?!”

Helia shook her head. “No… I only…”

He was outright screaming. “Have you set the world aflame and taken the lives of those you would call friends?! Have you burned the sun so brightly it turned to ash?! Have you used the moon until it fractured and wept?! Have you thrown the world into despair and left mere children to clean up after your cataclysm?!” As he finished shouting a deathly calm crept over the castle hall. For a solid moment in time Helia simply stared into the eyes of the dragon and watched their inner fire burn into her soul.

Finally she spoke up. “No…” The voice was quiet, but it was not without strength.

“Then how can you claim to be a monster? How can you claim to be the worst the universe has to offer when there are so many more worthy of that title?”

“I… killed my father.”

“No. The golem killed him. The great love he had for your family killed him. Maybe even his pride killed him. But you, my dear sweet Helia, did not.”

“But….”

“True your actions may have set the stage for this tragedy, but you alone are a victim of circumstance.” Gratis turned around. “And you…” He leaned down towards the small blue pegasus. “Young Selena, what of you in all of this? Do you think your sister a monster? Are you a monster for helping her retrieve that bell?”

Selena suddenly shook under the weight of the dragon’s gaze. “My sister…” Selena glanced over to Helia and a small smile grew on her face. “I love my sister. She is certainly not a monster.”

“Well there you have it, sweet Helia.” Gratis smiled. “History, myself, and your own sister discount your claims. I can provide you no more evidence. Now, with all this known, call yourself a monster once more.”

Helia looked at the ground. She stared at the colored light cast by one of the stained glass windows. She stared at the brilliant reds and blues. Her lower lip quivered as she brought her attention back to the dragon’s face. “No. I can no longer call myself that term.”

“Very good then.” Gratis chuckled softly.

“But,” Selena’s ears drooped as she spoke. “I still miss father.”

Gratis scratched at the long beard on his chin. “Hm… I see. Perhaps then we should honor him with the mark he had on history.” Gratis waved his claw over a blank section of the hallway. The stone bricks dissolved and left a large gap in the wall. The bizarre golden light that reflected off of the clouds in the sky pocket flooded into the hallway.

Nótt raised his hoof and blocked Selena from glancing over the edge. Nótt managed to sing with a hauntingly beautiful voice despite smoke pony’s lack of a discernible mouth. “Careful hoofsteps, lovely Selena. The clouds far below are not as soft as one might imagine to a pegasus.” Selena nodded back to the shadow and cautiously backed back into the safety of the castle.

“Now then…” Gratis waved his tail across the opening. Shards of colored glass rose up and covered the hole. As the crystalline structures finished forming a distinct picture appeared. “There,” Gratis began, “now Welkin of the pegasus tribe is forever set in the path of history.”

The sisters approached the newly formed window and stood atop the stone tiles it cast its light upon. The cyan shades of the pony’s coat fell across the sisters’ faces. Selena reached a hoof up and touched the window pane gingerly. Selena opened her mouth to say something, but no words came. Helia was mesmerized by her sister’s actions. Deep in the back of her mind she could feel a prodding thought, telling her to speak on her sister’s behalf. “Selena,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

The young filly swallowed a sob. “It’s not your fault.”

Helia looked up at the window and sighed. “Mother always said death was a natural part of the world. He may be gone, but we can remember him in our hearts.”

Selena inhaled deeply. A tear began to fill her eyes as her hoof traced the outline of the picture’s wings. “He was going to teach me how to fly.”

“Was he now?” Gratis’s gentle voice startled the two sisters. “You’ve been banished from the laagar and now there no pony is left to teach you. Well… a pegasus is a creature of the sky so what better place to learn how to soar than the Keep in the Sky?” Gratis smiled and gestured down the hallway with his claw. “Come, let me show you what it means to be a pegasus.”

Selena looked up at the dragon and wiped her tears with her hoof. “You…? You would teach me?”

“But of course! Follow me to the terrace. Come along, Nótt.” Gratis turned his back to the windows and began to walk down the hallway. “Helia, we will give you some time to pay your respects. Speak to Dagr when you are ready.” With that final line, the gray dragon disappeared around a corner with the shadowy pony and her sister.

Helia walked slowly around the hallway examining all of the windows. She studied the images intently for a moment. The one in particular she was studying Gratis had described as the great centaur war. She stared into the brilliant orange tinted glass that made up the magnificent flames that engulfed the subjects of the image. On some primal level she felt the image of the fire reflect into her eye where it flickered endlessly. How long she had stood there, gazing into the window was unknowable. It was certainly a few hours. The sun’s change in position told her that. But exactly how many hours passed escaped her. She was pulled out from her trance by the nagging feeling that she was being watched. She spun around to see the spectral phoenix, gazing at her.

“Something the matter, little Helia?” The brid’s voice once again astounded her. It’s calm, lyrical tone flowed through the air as silk streams of sound. The voice sounded young. It was a sprit full of fiery passion laced with an echo of ancient wisdom.

“No…” Helia said, a bit intimidated by the creature’s presence. She then shook her head and spoke again. “Actually, something is on my mind.”

“Voice it, and I shall do my best to answer.”

“Why are we here? Why were we brought to the Keep in the Sky?”

Dagr glanced out the window quickly before turning back around to face Helia. “Father has interest in you. Therefore you are here. I know nothing more than that.”

Helia glanced back at the window depicting her father. “Wait a minute…” Helia spun around and locked eyes with the phoenix. “Gratis and my sister, where did they go? Can you take me to them?”

“Of course, sweet Helia.” Dagr bowed slightly before extending his wing. He gracefully motioned for her to follow. They proceeded down the hallway and into a grand ballroom of some sort. Helia had heard tales, of course, of the great unicorn kingdoms in the tribal homeland. They had castles there as well, but she somehow doubted that they were neither as fantastical nor as mysterious as what she was seeing now. They passed through ballroom and courts, hallways and the tops of ramparts. They strolled through art collections and a large caged courtyard filled with birds. They walked through a hall full of statues and a stargazing observatory. Each room was more fantastical than the last. Finally they came to a large room lined with wooden shelves. Helia looked around the room with wide eyes. From the ceiling hung a chandelier filled with glowing crystals, providing a harsh light to the room. Several desks sat with candles, long dripped down.

“What is this place?” Helia said.

Dagr glanced upwards at the chandelier. “It is the library of the Keep.”

Helia stared at the empty shelves. “I’ve not been to a library before, but…”

“She’s never been to a LIBRARY BEFORE?” Twilight Sparkle interjected.

“Do you mind? I’m in the middle of a story here!” Princess Luna donned a pout. “Honestly, you’re making this take a lot longer than it needs to be.” Luna shook her head. “Now where was I? Oh right….”

Helia stared at the empty shelves. “Well, I’ve never been to a library before now, but don’t libraries have… books? There’s nothing here but empty shelves as far as the eye can see.”

“An empty library?!”

“Twilight! Please!”

“Sorry….”

Helia stared at the empty shelves. “Well, I’ve not set hoof in a library up until now, but I was pretty sure libraries have… books or tomes, right? This place is nothing but empty shelves as far as I can see.”

The phoenix walked to the far end of the room, towards its exit. “It has always been empty. No books have even been retrieved from the surface to place upon the shelves.”

Helia shook her head in confusion. “Then why build a library if not to fill it with books?”

Dagr sighed. “Sometimes, father makes little sense.”

“Well it certainly doesn’t make….” Helia began to cough loudly. She fell to the ground and clenched at her neck.

“Are you alright, little one?”

Helia cleared her throat and stood back up. “I’m fine.” She shook her head. “It must just be dusty in here. Can we find my sister now?”

Dagr opened a door and gestured to exit. “This staircase will take us to the roof, where I suspect your sister is.”

“Alright.” Helia began to climb the stairs. The cobblestone steps twisted upwards around a central pillar. Helia could not be certain, but she assumed they were climbing up of the Keep’s many turrets that adorned its sides. Helia tried to count the stairs as she climbed but lost count sometime after four hundred. After what seemed like an eternity, they reached the top of the staircase. Dagr pressed the tip of his wing against the wooden door in front of them. The door creaked open slowly, flooding the area with a soft orange light.

Helia stepped into the outside to a grand vista. In every direction she could see, a landscape of clouds curled around like crashing waves frozen in time. The clouds, bathed in light from sunset and moonrise, played a symphony of pastel colors that serenaded her eyes with rich pinks and oranges. Helia tried to comment on what she was seeing, but no words could describe the sight. In the distance a small light blue blur was falling. A shadowy collection of smoke whisked the blue dot back to the top of a cloud only for the dot to leap off once more. These events repeated endlessly as Helia approached the silver colored dragon that was perched on the end of the castle roof. “Gratis…” Helia said.

“Lovely day for flying, wouldn’t you agree, Helia?” Gratis chuckled. “Of course every day is like this up here in the cloud pocket. Dagr, would you go help your bother? Young Selena is doing quite a bit of falling and I imagine he’s getting awful exhausted catching her.”

The phoenix bowed before spreading its wings and leaping off of the roof. “Certainly, father.”

Gratis looked down at the unicorn with the pink mane. “Besides, I sense Helia would have some words with me.”

Helia clenched her jaw as she watched the phoenix fade into the distance. She did not look up at the dragon as she spoke, but even from that angle, Gratis could see the fire in her eyes. “I know what you’re doing.”

He frowned. “I’m sorry, but I only know everything. I cannot read minds. You will simply have to be more specific.”

“Why did you bring us up here? What is the rationale behind showing us all of this?”

“Rational? Who said anything about being rational?” Gratis chuckled.

“The reason we’re here, tell me it.”

Gratis sighed. “My garden…. The forest you entered is a special place. One might say a fixed point in magical flows. You were the first pony to ever enter it, and by circumstance you managed to enter at the only time in three hundred years that I was visiting. You a pony of your age without a mark, a blank slate with no defined destiny somehow wound up in a contrived circumstance that lead to our meeting. I’ll admit I was curious.”

“Are you saying it was my destiny to find you there in that forest?”

Gratis scratched his chin. “Some say that every living thing everywhere is capable of having a special magical connection with others, possibly even before they’ve met. They call it fate, destiny, fortune, luck, or predestination.” Gratis shook his head. “Such things do not exist. At least not for mortals.”

Helia shook her head. “No such thing as destiny? But what about cutie marks? Don’t we ‘mortals’ receive it when we find out destiny?”

“No. You receive them when you choose your destiny, not when you find it. There is a difference.”

“Then what does a cutie mark stand for then?”

“Resolve.” Gratis leaned backwards and gazed up at the cloud covered sky. “When you decide what your place in the world is, not because it was assigned to you, but because you chose it and acknowledged it. When you choose the one thing that makes you who you are. It is a choice. It is always a choice.”

“So I’m a curiosity because…?”

“Mortals don’t have a destiny. But you just might have the closest thing to it. A set of circumstances carefully crafted… but to what end… I do not know.”

Helia sat down next to the dragon. “You keep saying mortals don’t have a destiny. But myths speak of the fact that you are immortal. Does that mean you have a destiny?”

Gratis laughed. “Only if it can find and catch me.”

Helia looked down at the stone roof. “So we’re here because of curiosity? We’ve seen all these fantastical sights because you were curious….”

“When one knows everything, the unknowable becomes very interesting.”

Helia inhaled deeply. “We’re little things of interest to study, and you expect us to stay here… forever… don’t you?” Helia locked eyes with the dragon and spoke with a determined tone. “That’s why you’re teaching Selena to fly! Like father was supposed to! You can’t just replace him. You can’t just abduct us and replace our lives so you can satisfy your curiosity.”

“No, I cannot replace him. Nor can I bring him back. The only thing I can do is attempt to provide a distraction from that sorrow.”

“A distraction… just forget about him? How could you even think such a thing?”

Gratis waved his claw in the air and one of the clouds floated over. “Because I’m capable of being pragmatic. Do you think your father would want you to morn his death for eternity? What use would that have?”

“The concept of sadness is hard to grasp for you, isn’t it?”

“Maybe. But take a look at where you are! A pocket of serenity where the sun and the moon dance endlessly in an ocean of clouds. I can show you many things. All of this would be yours. You’d be a princess. The laws of the world are mine to bend and you could reap the rewards.” His claws ripped a chunk out of the cloud and he passed the fluffy substance to the pony. “Like this. Here, eat.”

Helia took the substance in her hoof. “Eat it?” She slowly placed her placed her tongue on the cloud. “It’s… sweet?”

“Clouds made of cotton candy.” Gratis chuckled. He looked thoughtfully up at the sky before continuing. “Would it be so bad?” Gratis asked. “Staying here, that is, in the Keep in the Sky?”

“We have a life on the surface. I have a mother I love dearly and an uncle who would worry.” A small tear rolled down her cheek. “I just lost one member of my family. I’m not about to lose the rest. I don’t think I can bear that kind of heartbreak ever again….”

“I see…”

“We are in two separate worlds, you and I. Mortals and immortals do not interact.”

“True.” Gratis said. “And here I was getting used to having someone else here.” Helia bowed her head. Then a small smile crept up upon the dragon’s face. “Although…” Gratis stood up and walked to the edge of the roof. He leaned downward and peered over the edge of the roof. “What if we were to inhabit the same world?”

“But… we don’t. You live up here! You said yourself you only come to visit my world once every three hundred years.”

“Ah, but you forget. I am Gratis. The impossible is mine to command.” Gratis raised his claw and snapped his fingers. A blinding pillar of light erupted forth from the ground, piercing the clouds below. The Keep began to rumble violently. Around them it began to rain. The cloud ceiling began to dissolve into a downpour. In the distance Dagr and Nótt snatched Selena from the air and attempted to bring her back quickly to the Keep’s rooftop, dodging cloudbursts as they flew. The wind picked up around them as the clouds below broke into strayed strings of fog. Like tendrils they whisked upwards, lashing out at the phoenix and the ponies. The clouds on the horizon began to rotate, the Keep in the Sky as the eye of the storm. The sun and the moon retreated out of view, the sun soaring upwards and out of sight while the moon sank below the horizon. The Keep in the Sky gave a sudden lurch.

“What’s happening?!” Helia screamed as the Keep shook violently. A gust of air blew her mane upwards.

“Paradise’s descent,” Gratis said. The Keep began to fall at an alarming speed. Selena and the brothers reached out to land on the roof but they were too late. The Keep fell. It fell and it fell. It must have covered the whole height of the sky and more. It fell past moonbeams and sunrays, through stars and storms. The clouds attempted to reach out and catch it, but they could not hold the mighty structure’s stone weight. Finally they broke through the cloud barrier beneath them and when their vision was no longer obscured by the mist they could see the ground below. It was nothing but a placid pond, a dead tree stranded in the center where the mists culminated. It must have been here that the sun and moon and fled to, for they were hiding on opposite sides of the pond. As the Keep approached the celestial objects fled once more as if either they were frightened by the Keep's presence or as though they were needed elsewhere. “Hang on to something!” Gratis yelled. “This might get a tad dramatic! Faster! Faster! I hope we get enough speed to make it!” The Keep crashed into the pond with the most unsettling sound Helia had ever heard. It was not a splash like she had expected. It was the sound of glass breaking. It was the sound of the universe shattering beneath them as they crashed downward. Light flooded the area. Soon Helia recognized the blue sky around her. They had fallen back to her world. And they were falling faster and fast with each passing moment. She glanced downward and could make out the dark green patch that was the forest she had met Gratis in. She could see the cave where she had found the golem. As they neared the ground she could even see the small dot that was her wagon home.

“We’re still falling!”

“Yes! That’s generally how one travels to the ground!”

“But my sister and I are mortals! We won’t survive the crash!”

“Then I suppose this would be a bad time to tell you I hadn’t considered that when I started this!”

Helia screamed and then it all ended. The Keep came to a lurching stop just a few hundred feet from the treetops of the forest. Helia's breath refused to settle. Gratis began to laugh. “A brand new day rises over the Known World.” Gratis smiled.

“All this because of… us?” Helia gasped for air.

“I’d forgotten how it feels to have someone to talk to.”

“But what about them?” Helia pointed out to the horizon where Selena and the brothers were safely flying, apparently following in the descent and also coming to a safe stop. “You don’t talk to Dagr and Nótt?”

“Talk? No. Celestial Angels can only sing….”