Equiforce

by Crack-Fic Casey

Consequences

Twilight stared at the fragments of the Crystal Mirror, morosely sorting through them with her magic. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The mirror should have been indestructible. What could have caused this? Normally she would have been in a state of panic, but she felt removed from the situation. It was as if something was dampening her emotions.

It’s probably just shock. Just give it a minute.

Twilight set the pieces down and sighed. What was happening over there?

As if in answer to her mental ruminations, Starlight appeared in an explosion of blackness and motion. Twilight staggered backwards, trying to block the bizarre twisting of space. When her vision cleared, she could see the older mare lying on the ground and breathing heavily.

“Starlight! What happened?”

Star waved away Twilight’s efforts to look over her. “I’m... fine. Just… winded. Sunset… bad. Had friends. Overwhelmed. Stray shot… hit mirror. Rainbow sent me… with girl.”

Twilight gasped. “What about Rainbow?” When Starlight didn’t answer she grabbed the mare and roughly forced her to eye level. “What about Rainbow? Where is she?” Dimly, she could hear the sound of her magic crackling, but she ignored that. It wasn’t important. Her question was important.

“Woah— hey!” Starlight cried. “Calm down!” She knocked Twilight’s hoof away. “Look, she’ll be fine. She’s the fastest mare alive. She can escape anypony, and after we save Luna we’ll find a way to get her back.”

Twilight Sparkle stared down at her, furious. She left Rainbow. She left her alone to die. Well, if she was fine with Rainbow dying for the greater good, then why wouldn’t she be fine with her own—

Don’t kill her.

Twilight seethed, struggling with herself. She left Rainbow to die! I should rip out her skeleton!

...But is that truly what Rainbow would want?

Twilight sighed, pulling her magic back into herself. There was still an unnatural glow around the room, and most of the equipment was destroyed, but all of the materials she needed to make the portal were kept elsewhere. Aside from one, that is.

She levitated the filly up to eye level, dispassionately looking for obvious injuries. The Crystal Mirror had changed her from one of the unnatural monsters that inhabited Earth to an Earth Pony, one that was very, very pink. Her clothes were gone, but she was sure that the magic would restore them when she was returned home. Assuming she survived, of course.

It’s such a shame. But saving your teacher is more important than saving someone you don’t know, isn’t it?

She sighed. “Okay.” Very carefully, Twilight lifted the filly up and levitated her towards the door. Trotting after her, she paused at the door and turned back to Starlight. “Guard the perimeter against any intruders,” she ordered. “It’d be unfortunate if the Royal Guard stopped us right before we got what we wanted.”

Starlight cautiously stood up. Distantly, Twilight noticed that the mare looked terrified. She thought about saying something calming, but honestly didn’t see the point. As long as she did as she was told, Starlight would be fine.

---

Sunset awoke to the sensation of being strangled. Oddly enough, this was neither an unfamiliar sensation nor the worst way she had been woken up. Rainbow Dash sat astride her, having evidently discovered how to wrap her fingers around things and was putting that knowledge to good use. ”What is Starlight going to do to Twilight? How long have you been working for her? Answer me!”

Sunset wanted to say something scalding, but she was being strangled, and therefore could not speak. “Graah,” she managed to get out.

Rainbow punched her in the face, and then stood up. Lightning trailed down her arm, crackling and popping. Sunset tried to crawl back, but Rainbow planted a foot squarely on Sunset’s chest.

“Starlight teleported to Equestria without using the Crystal Mirror. So I bet you,” she leaned heavily on Sunset chest, making her gasp in pain, “can do the same thing. Take me back there right now, or I turn you into a twitching corpse.”

Sunset blinked. “What are you talking about?”

Rainbow, somehow, managed to look even more infuriated. Her magic grew brighter, and she visibly held herself back from striking Sunset again. “Starlight abandoned you here. With me. And the only way that I won’t rip you to pieces is if you help me save my friend.”

Sunset nearly said something dismissive and sarcastic. She almost re-ignited her flames and started the fight anew again— but what she saw stopped her.

The statue was lying in a crater. The Crystal Mirror was shattered. The rubble was gently releasing odd, light blue wafts of smoke. There was black ooze covering the ground that was wrong in way she couldn’t describe but made her skin crawl.

The mirror is gone.

...I can’t go home again.

Rainbow was still speaking. “It’s not a lot to ask. Just pop me over there, and I’ll do my thing, and you don’t die.”

Despair turning into anger. That was a sensation she hadn’t felt for a while, and it was agonizing familiar. “I can’t,” she spat out.

Rainbow’s expression wavered. “Of course you can. You have—”

“No, of course I can’t! My Mark is for pyromagic! Why in the world would I be able to open portals to other Realms?” She shook her head. “I can’t do anything. I’m stuck here.”

“Hold it right there!”

Rainbow’s expression fell. Her eyebrows, mouth, and general facial expression somehow became a wall of entirely straight lines. “You. Are. Kidding. Me,” she said flatly.

Sunset glanced in the direction the voice had come from. Is that Abigail?

The southern girl ran up to them, limping and breathing heavily. “Now ya’ll… wait right there… and give me back… my friend… or else!” she managed to get out in between breaths.

Rainbow and Sunset just looked at her. They glanced at each other, both confirming that she was serious, before turning back to regard the bravely panting girl. “Or else what?” Rainbow asked in a genuinely bewildered tone.

“I’ll do... a thing!” she got out.

“A thing,” Sunset echoed flatly.

“...Yep,” came the reply of someone who knew exactly how stupid that sounded and was making a go of it anyway.

Rainbow looked like she was having trouble deciding to be impressed or classify her as the biggest moron in the Realm. Sunset decided to answer for her. “That is the dumbest thing I’ve heard in my life.”

Abigail paused. “Yeah, I reckon it is.” She straightened her back out and took a step forward, holding a two-by-four in both hands like a baseball bat. “But Diane got hurt ‘cause she tried to save me, and an Appleby always pays back what she owes!”

“But we can kill you,” Rainbow said flatly.

“A world ran by the likes a’ you ain’t a world worth livin’ in!”

Rainbow snorted. “Heh. You got guts, kid.” She stood up, stretching her arms. She looked at them for a second, before shuddering and looking elsewhere. “We don’t have your friend anymore. My wingmare double-crossed us and stranded us here. See that large smoking crater?” The smoke had since returned to being black and grey, but enough of the gunk existed to make the scene look creepy and ominous. “The Crystal Mirror was our only way to Equestria. Without it, we’re stuck here and Starlight can do whatever she wants.”

Abigail wavered. “Yer lyin’.”

“Why? It’s not like you can hurt me with that.”

Sunset wasn’t sure if the words or the bluntly honest tone pissed Abigail off more. Either way, it was fun to watch. “Now look—” the girl sputtered, trying to bite off a caustic retort. “If that pointy purple monster can get through, what’s stoppin’ ya’ll from doin’ the same thing as her?”

Sunset slowly stood up as well. She winced at the surge of pain from nearly every part of her body. She hadn’t felt this bad in a very long time. “Like everyone from the Realm of Equestria, Unicorns have a Mark that increases our talents and magical abilities. Starlight’s allows her to travel between Realms.”

Abigail looked like she wanted to comment on a large number of things in that sentence but Rainbow spoke up first. “No it’s not,” she said. “It’s for combining magic spells. Sparky told me about it. It lets her combine spells and helps her work with others.”

Abigail looked remarkably befuddled. Both mares ignored her. “No, she told me that it let her use the spell that travels between the Realms,” Sunset said thoughtfully. “It’s why it’s nothing like normal spells.”

“But that’s not her Mark,” Rainbow insisted. “Even if it was, whatever…” she flailed around for words to describe what exactly she’d seen. “—that stuffwas, it wasn’t magic. It was… I dunno, something else!” Aware that this wasn’t quite enough, she tried to clarify. “Something really bad. Maybe it had something to do with that book she read from?”

“What book?” Abigail finally broke in.

“Ya know, the old one with the weird letters and the creepy face! Did she use it in front of you too?”

Abigail shook her head. “When she took Diane, she said that she was gonna help the demon ‘save the realm,’ and she’d ‘read it in a book.’ Maybe it’s the same book?”

“Why would a book have technical instructions on how to travel between the Realms and some kind of prophecy?” Sunset asked. “Besides, Queen Celestia is the only pony that has reliable visions of the future.”

“It wasn’t just how to do that weird portal thing,” Rainbow argued. “She used that to make the bracelets too!”

Sunset opened her mouth to retort— but then her eyes widened. “That’s it!”

“What’s it?”

“The bracelets! We still have magic because of them, which means that there’s a connection between these things and Equestria! My special talent isn’t for modifying spells, but I should be able to use them as a thaumic tether and amplify the magical energy contained within the shards of the Crystal Mirror to transport us to Equestria without my soul being destroyed by the Nowhere!”

The other two girls exchanged glances. “I heard, ‘destroy our souls,’” Rainbow offered.

---

Celestia peered through the binoculars at the ruins of her old castle. The Royal Guard had been standing ready ever since Luna had been struck down, so rallying them had been easy. Penetrating the forest had been substantially more difficult. They’d only taken Earth Pony troops, as they would be affected the least by the Everfree’s bizarre magic, but that left them with limited numbers. They had been fortunate that none of the Everfree’s various monsters had appeared.

The Castle had remained intact surprisingly well over the centuries. Luna had pulled the guard out of the place a few hundred years ago, and almost the entire superstructure was still recognizable. Of course, this meant that it remained a very useful defensive position. Even if the trio didn’t have the numbers to defend it properly, there were a number of traps and nasty surprises that could be waiting for them.

Besides the queen, her Captain of the Guard narrowed his reptilian eyes. “I see plenty of ways this could end badly,” he said casually. “We don’t know how many traps your sister left in this place when she pulled out, or what Twilight could have added after she got here.”

Celestia nodded. “What do you suggest?”

The drake stroked his chin. “A straightforward attack wouldn’t be very smart,” he thought out loud, “and we don’t know what they’re up to. For all we know, they could just be hiding. We could wait for one of them to come out foraging. If we held one hostage, the other two might fold.”

Celestia shook her head. “No, Twilight’s not behaving rationally. I don’t want to put too much pressure on her at once. We need a way to bring her in quickly, but carefully.”

“Don’t ask for much, do you?”

Despite the grim surroundings, Celestia smiled. “You knew how difficult the job was when you took it, Spike.”

Her longtime companion and friend crossed his arms and frowned at the castle as if that would provide an answer. “There's still a lot of unknowns here, Sunny,” he said thoughtfully. “We need to know more before we can make a real plan.”

Celestia sighed. Under the first hoof, Spike was right. They didn’t know the full extent of Twilight’s new powers, the remaining traps contained within the Castle itself, or anything about this ‘Starlight’ pony beyond that she’d been working at the archives for around five years. But under the second one, it was only a matter of time before Twilight put whatever she was planning into action, to say nothing of how fortunate they were that they’d not encountered one of the beasts of the Everfree yet. Of course, under the third hoof, it was entirely possible that Twilight knew that they had limited time and had deliberately planned a trap for them.

What would Luna do?

“Have the troops begin surrounding the castle,” she ordered. “We don’t have the luxury of time. Be sure to hold half of our forces back, in case this is a trap.”

Spike nodded. “And of course, as the sensible pony you are, you’ll lead that group instead of charging in?”

She ignored the thinly veiled sarcasm. “As Twilight will no doubt be expecting me, it will only make her suspicious if I don’t show up. I have no choice.”

Spike gave her the piercing stare she’d always detested; the ‘I know what you’re really thinking, and it’s not as clever as it looks’ stare that he’d mastered a few centuries ago. “Just be careful for once,” he said. “Equestria kinda needs you to keep the sun from falling out of the sky.”

She put a hoof to her chest in mock outrage. “Spike! And here I thought you would have missed me!”

He shrugged easily. “I’d have missed my stuff, and Equestria’s where I keep all of my stuff. Is that close?”

She rolled her eyes at the drake, before taking her shield in her magic and marching forwards. “Wait for my signal,” she called behind her. “Don’t move in until then!”

---

Abigail was not hiding from the two monsters. She was standing in a completely casual, normal stance that just so happened to be several feet away from the demons. It was sensible, not cowardly. In fact, just to prove how much she didn’t care, Abigail edged closer to the blue one. She flinched when part of the rubble the red one was messing with sparked but was otherwise cool and collected. She nodded to the rainbow demon, who nodded in return.

It is surprisingly difficult to talk to someone after they’ve tried to kill you. It's a rather personal thing to do to someone, and afterward, you generally aren’t sure how to interact with them without falling back on it as an option. The two of them stood quietly, neither wanting to speak and a little afraid of what the other might say. Eventually, the demon went first.

“So,” she started. “This is a nice country you’ve got here.” She pointed at one of the cars that lay overturned in the parking lot. “Weird animals, but cool. Metal animals are cool.”

“Be careful,” Abigail said vengefully. “If one of them wakes up, it’s liable to take yer head off.”

Rainbow glanced at her in concern, before turning and taking a long look at one of the trailers parked across the street. She swallowed. “Good to know.”

The silence returned, bringing with it an odd form of awkwardness that’s difficult to describe. It’s a little like the silence one hears when you get on an elevator with your ex, and they’re holding you at gunpoint because you accidentally stumbled into a heist movie instead of the rom-com you thought you were in without realizing it. Abigail took the opportunity to examine the demon more closely.

When she wasn't a danger to anyone, she didn’t look very horrifying. Up close, Abby could see she was covered in short fur or hair that made her look almost fluffy. Her eyes were glowing red, but her face didn’t look angry, it looked upset. If Abby didn’t know better, she might think the monster was worried about something.

Didn’t she say somethin’ her friend bein’ in danger?

Abigail wasn’t the most sensitive girl in the world, but even she felt that she should say something.

“Why’d ya try and kidnap my friend?”

That likely wasn’t it.

The monster (Can I still call her that?) winced. “Yeah, I’m really sorry about that.” She paused. “I mean, it's not like it's the kinda thing you can just be sorry about, but… ya know—” She waved her hands around in front of her, trying to think of something to say.

Abigail nodded. “Thanks.” She crossed her arms uncomfortably, then uncrossed them. “But I meant… y’all are super demons with magic powers. Why did you need to kidnap some random girl?”

Rainbow sighed. “It’s a little complicated, and I couldn’t follow most of it. Diane’s related to a super powerful unicorn back home—”

“Unicorn?” Abigail broke in.

Rainbow nodded distractedly. “Yeah, back in Equestria I’m a Pegasus and Sunset over there is a Unicorn. My name’s Rainbow, by the way.”

“Wait, Sunset?” She stared at the flaming demon. “Sunset, that’s you?”

“Yes, and I’m a little busy, thank you,” came the irate reply.

Abigail glanced between the two of them, unsure how best to respond. Eventually, she decided to just pretend that this was normal. “... So you were sayin’?”

“The girl is related somehow to some unicorn named Starswirl the Bearded, and Twilight needs to use her magical signature to pick a magic-lock thingy so we can break into a vault and steal the Elements of Harmony. We need to use their magic to heal Guardian Luna.”

Sunset chuckled. “Is that how she sold it?”

Rainbow frowned. “What do ya mean?”

Sunset carefully lowered the shards she was levitating to face Rainbow directly. “The Elements can’t heal ponies, they're just artifacts of magical power. Starlight and I were going to use them to gain unlimited power.”

Rainbow just stood there, staring at Sunset. “So, they can't cure Luna?”

Sunset shook her head. “I’m sorry. The only thing that can save Luna is if Twilight gives her the magic back.”

“Well, how is she supposed to do that?” Rainbow asked incredulously. “You really think if it was that easy that Twilight wouldn’t just do it?”

Sunset shrugged. “That kind of magic can have an effect on ponies. It can be hard to give up.”

“Not Twilight,” Rainbow said firmly. “I don’t care how much it’s screwing with her head— she’s still Twilight. She can control it.”

Abigail glanced between the two of them, unsure how best to respond. “I don’t know much about magic,” she said slowly, “but are ya sure—”

“OF COURSE I’m sure!” Rainbow snapped. Abigail backpedaled furiously away from the monster's rage. “Twilight is my best friend. I’m not gonna stop believing in her just because she’s gone crazy!”

Everyone nearby froze, watching Rainbow. She took in a deep breath, seeking control. “And she hasn’t gone crazy,” she insisted. “She’s a little off, but she’s still okay. She has to be.”

Abigail glanced between the two of them, feeling very out of her depth. The two monsters glared at each other before Sunset turned back towards the rubble and ignited her magic. Silence descended once again.

---

Celestia cautiously edged into the room, peering in each corner. She couldn't detect any spells laid down across the floor, and there were no physical signs of traps that she could see. The queen motioned forwards with one wing, her soldiers advancing with her. They all stopped and pointed their weapons as the sound of rapidly advancing hooves came from the doorway on the right. A lavender unicorn burst through the door and fell at their hooves. “Oh, thank the heavens!” she exclaimed. “I’m so happy you're here! You’ve saved me!”

Celestia frowned. “Are you Starlight Glimmer?”

The mare nodded. “I’m so sorry, but she forced me to help her! Both of them did! You won’t believe how terrifying it’s been. Now that Rainbow Dash is dead—”

“Dead?” Celestia had spent centuries trying to find a way to stand near ponies without looming, and as a side effect had become quite good at the process of looming itself. Starlight shrank back. “What do you mean, dead?”

“She went through the mirror portal—” Celestia managed to loom even more, “I’m sorry! But we were attacked, and she’s gone, and Twilight just snapped!”

Celestia closed her eyes. She hadn’t been very close to Twilight and Rainbow, but she’d liked the guardsmare-in-training quite a bit. “You saw her die?”

Starlight nodded. “We were attacked by this— monster. She looked like a minotaur, except she wasn’t covered in hair— and she could control fire! She was insa—”

Celestia lit her field, and yanked Starlight into the air, holding her at eye level. She pressed her magic tightly around Starlight’s body, scarcely letting her breathe. “That’s very interesting,” she said in the kind of calm tones one usually hears from someone before they go on a killing spree. “Would you like to know something else interesting?” Starlight didn’t answer, but Celestia carried on anyway. “I experience visions. Sometimes of things that have happened, sometimes of things that will happen, but every time it's of something that’s real. And do you want to know the really interesting thing I saw the other night?”

Starlight looked like she didn’t want to hear anything but likely wouldn’t have spoken up even if she could talk or move. Celestia’s field tightened even more.

“You. I saw you giving a mare named Sunset Shimmer a bracelet that gave her magic in other Realms. The bracelet that transformed her into the ‘monster’ you described, which makes your sudden confusion as to her identity... suspicious."

Starlight squeaked. It was literally the only action she could take.

“So, I’d like you to think back over what you’ve told me and decided whether or not there are any details you’d like to change before I change you into something that’s on fire.”

Celestia noticed that she was perhaps channeling her sister a bit too much, and took a step back. Starlight was shaking (as much as she could shake) and trying to light her own field. Celestia overpowered her with ease. “Search the castle, “ she ordered her soldiers. “Be careful. We don’t know—”

The caste shuddered, as a pulse of magic flowed across every surface. Celestia dropped the unicorn, who fled deeper in the castle. Celestia let her go; she had other concerns. “Everypony, get out! Now!”

Military personnel were trained to follow orders without question, and in a world where multi-story dragons weren't the scariest things alive, orders that meant Run Away Now were given special treatment. As such, not one of the soldiers noticed that Celestia ignored her own warning and headed deeper into the ruins.

I’m not going to give up, Luna.

---

Sunset growled to herself as she levitated the rubble in the air. Altering existing spells was absurdly difficult for somebody who didn’t have a Mark for it. They were lucky it was possible at all.

Behind her, Rainbow was waiting as patiently as she could. Which basically translated into pacing, twitching, and finding that fine line between ‘looking over Sunset’s shoulder’ and ‘putting her own life into jeopardy.’ I can’t believe I lost to somepony like her. How did she do it? I should have seen such a cheap shot coming from a mile away!

But she hadn’t, much like she hadn’t anticipated Starlight’s betrayal. As somebody (somepony, she corrected herself) who prided herself on her own intelligence, being outsmarted was probably the worst thing that could happen to her.

There was another magical spark, and Sunset cursed her inattention. The spark was a good thing, as it meant that the connection between the items was strengthening. Sunset needed to increase the power running along that connection, but if she did it too quickly, it would short out and she’d be stranded forever. With only Rainbow Dash for company.

And maybe Abigail as well. She’d never thought much about her; they’d certainly had fights before, but Abigail wasn’t the sort of person who would engage in the kind of back-stabbing and subterfuge that one needed to control any group of people. Abigail was an annoyance, nothing more.

What was bothering her was the fact that she’d stuck around for the new girl. There’s no way they’d known each other before today, and Abigail is suddenly risking her life for her? That doesn’t make sense. Sunset didn’t like things that didn’t make sense. Maybe it’s because of what happened to her mother?

Another spark coursed along the invisible tether, and it didn’t fade for several seconds. Sunset’s breath caught. This is it! After all of this time…

She was going home.

The tether shone with power, bright enough to be seen and not felt. It reached out to each of the remaining shards, linking them together. Space began to warp around the crater, forming a sphere of teal energy. “I can’t hold this for long!” Sunset shouted. “We’re going to run out of power in a few seconds! Ready?”

Rainbow didn’t even answer. She dove towards the portal, surprising Sunset and forcing her to dive after her. She didn’t even notice Abigail run after them.

Fortunately, she’d cast the spell correctly. Her portal hadn’t caused the same kind of chaos that Starlight's had, and they were protected from the Nowhere by what was left of the Crystal Mirror’s spell.

The three girls materialized in a maelstrom.

---

Twilight lit her magic, the corona extending in a double field out from her horn. The spellstones set around the chamber started to glow, a high pitched trilling emanating from each corner as they began to penetrate the Nowhere.

Carefully, she floated the Heir over to the center of the room, overtop the circular glyphs she had drawn into the floor to mark the spells she had laid in place earlier. The Heir twisted as the magic began to flow through her, spinning around her in a dizzying display of color. Twilight's purple magic began to mix with the blue that the Heir had, creating a magical field that would hopefully fool the enchantments around the Dream Castle into thinking it belonged to Starswirl.

Her eyes closed for concentration, Twilight took the magic that flowed around the room and put all of it into a mystical call. The filly began to writhe on the ground, screaming as her magic was taken from her.

Slowly, the room began to shift. There was a sound, a grinding woosh slowly rising around her. The stone floor began to shift, cracked stone slowly being replaced with hardwood. The walls slowly became bookshelves. A chill swept through the room, and a fierce wind began to pick up inside the room itself. There were a series of cries outside that led Twilight to believe that something similar was happening throughout the castle.

Then something went wrong.

In a flare of light, three figure began to materialize in the room, disrupting the spells. NO! Not after all this time! This can’t happen!

Gritting her teeth, Twilight pushed the spells back into place as much as possible, working around the new enchantment as much as she could. Twilight thought she heard the door open, she couldn’t be sure. Energy crackled and flashed around the room, and in one final explosion, everypony in the room was gone.

Twilight blinked. She was laying in an unfamiliar room. Her head felt like it had been scalped and then stitched back together by a drunk surgeon. She slowly stood on wobbling hooves, trying to get her bearings. Twilight and the girl were in a library of some kind. There was a window, but the outside wasn’t the Everfree Forest anymore. It looked like space was being warped somehow, like it was a fabric being pulled towards a singular point on the horizon, except that point was wherever Twilight focused her eyes. She looked away after a few seconds, overcome with nausea.

The library itself was beautiful, even for a library. The polished wood shone in the soft yellow light, the walls were covered in shelves, and the entire room had a very warm, welcoming feel to it. Over a fireplace was a portrait of a grey unicorn with a long beard and silver mane.

Twilight’s breath caught. There was no way this could actually be…

It is.

Twilight was standing in the personal library of Starswirl the Bearded himself.

She squealed, immediately forgetting her headache and galloping over to examine the bookcase. There were hundreds of titles, several that had been out of print for years. She could hear a small voice in her head telling her that this wasn’t important, but she pushed it back. She had found Starswirl the Bearded's long-lost personal library! It had been sought after for centuries! There was so much she could learn! Rainbow would flip when she heard-

And where is Rainbow Dash?

She looked at the bookcase longingly but forced herself to the door. As much as she wanted to stay and read for hours, she had something more important to do. If she couldn’t find the Elements, Rainbow could be trapped forever.

All that’s left is to find the Elements and return to Equestria. And this time you can’t let anything stand in your way.

Twilight had come a very long way, and she wasn’t going to let anypony down now.

Comments

[Crack-Fic Casey]

This chapter is called Consequences for two reasons. The first is because this is where the consequences for several key decisions start to come into play. Starlight is learning something about being used, Twilight is slowly slipping away, Sunset's self-reliance isn't going to cut it when she isn't the biggest shark in the ocean, and Rainbow Dash is starting to see that whatever happens next, things will never be the same again. Abigail's choice to go after Diane is in a way a consequence of her own past, but that's a story for another day.

The sky outside the Dream Castle is based on this visual effects shot.

On a meta level, this was the first chapter I wrote after I set a deadline for myself, and I was suddenly realizing that having a deadline meant having things done by a certain time. I haven't raced to beat a deadline before, or even raced period. It's a little scary. Though it really improved my writing: I don’t even have Deleted Scenes for this chapter.