Realms of Existence

by GMBlackjack

XX - Sperion's Story

Perhaps it is best to start with what I am.

I am the Spirit of Order - in a sense, at least.

Discord makes things diverge. In theory, I make things converge. Of course, unlike Discord, I was made with the Realms in mind, meaning things were a little different. The duality isn't perfect.

I was created right here in the Realm of Magic by Meadowbrook. She had been a crystalline one for a short time and was experimenting with her newfound magical powers. She created many things - I was just one of many. My purpose was to be the being that would use the inflections of all realms perfectly. She spent what amounted to years crafting me, and I was a horrible disappointment. While I showed great intelligence and fortitude, my inflections were no better than average. Yes, I had all of them at once - but not enough for her. Not enough to actually do the tests she wanted.

She didn't let that stop her, unfortunately. She tried other tests. At first, it was simple - just me showing off my powers for her, and her teaching me how to use my voice synthesizer. She spent much of her time teaching me about the structure of the Realms and Central, acting more or less as my mother. She eventually stopped getting any useful data from these endeavors and moved on to more... intense testing. Dangerous ones. She made me fight other creations of hers. She tormented me psychologically. She pushed me to my limits and demanded I move beyond. She saw me as hers - nothing more but her own creation, a thing. She owned me, so she could do whatever she wanted.

In a way, she was like Trekker, though admittedly not as malicious. Yes, I am reading your thoughts, don't bother asking about it. Just listen. I need to tell this story.

Eventually, I'd had enough. I told her I wanted to leave, permanently. I told her I was never coming back. I created a portal to the Realm of Dreams - but before I could leave, she cursed me, stripping me of most my powers, and dooming me to wander the Realms in the direction I had set out.

The Realms were... different, all those centuries ago. The Dreaming was less coherent, for it only had the minds of the Aztrot absorbed into it. However, it still had an intelligence - a personality that I grew rather acquainted with. The Realms of Life, Distortion, and Echoes were pretty much the same, though Starswirl hadn't taken up residence in the Realm of Distortion yet. I ran into him several times on my adventures, a stallion slowly falling into excited madness from his discoveries. There may have been one point where we were 'friends'... That was long ago.

The Realm of Truth was very different. The ponies there were not organized. They didn't have any sort of civilization - they just wandered around aimlessly doing whatever tickled their fancy at any given moment, which wasn't much given their mental state.

In the Realm of Power, there were many distant tribes. There were generally two to three individuals with the Inflection of Truth in each tribe who kept the other ponies alive, the nature of the Realm ensuring they never stayed in the same place for long. New Mareu didn't exist - it was just a couple really old guardians protecting an ancient Aztrot relic they couldn't read. I couldn't read it either, for that matter.

My journey to the Realms was depressing. I saw that the inhabitants could be doing so much with what they had, but they just weren't. They just sat on their powers, decaying into nothing. I tried to return to Meadowbrook - she would not have me. Not that she could have removed the curse anyway. We did set aside our differences much later, but she couldn't remove it no matter how hard she tried. It just wasn't enough. I was doomed to wander the Realms forever. I tried to kill myself a few times - but I was annoyingly immortal.

Then I decided I wanted to start doing things instead of just lollygagging around. I convened with the Dreaming for hours on end, learning all the Aztrot history I could from the disjointed images. I never did figure out how to read the glyphs, anything spoken and written is impossible within that Realm. But with what I knew, I took it upon myself to help the ponies abandoned in these Realms by their ancestors.

I taught the Ponies of truth what they could do with their inflections - I gave them the reason to organize. I brought the many small tribes of Power together, forging a half dozen - one of which was New Mareu. I helped organize the crystals together, prompting them to talk amongst themselves instead of succumbing to isolated madness. I never did convince Meadowbrook to join in.

I had no power myself - I was just a floating ball of spines, but I caused great change.

It was at this time that everypony wanted to worship me as some sort of god - or in the case of the Realm of Truth, would never stop talking to me. So I receded into the background, not informing, just watching them. I faded into the stuff of legend, and they grew, often in ways I could never have predicted, and in ways I disapproved of, as was the case with the Ponies of Truth. But they were dealt the hand and did what they could with it.

I spent years like this, talking only to the Dreaming. It was my only real friend in the world I had made for myself - and I... ...The Dreaming was really bizarre. It is literally a bunch of ponies' spirits all dreaming at once. I often wondered what the Realm of Dreams was like before it absorbed anypony - and the Dreaming itself wondered that as well. We never got an answer.

Anyway, centuries passed, and most forgot about me. I was content just to watch things unfold.

And then one day she arrived.

A yellow alicorn just showed up in the Realm of Life one day, though a portal of her own making. She was curious, investigative, and... unique. So after a few minutes of observation, I revealed myself to her.

Her name was September. She had a very particular cutie mark which she wore proudly - a heptagon with a circle inside it. She said it meant she was destined to help the Realms and Central.

I decided I believed her. So for the first time, I took somepony with me when I translated. I didn't even know that was possible until that day.

Her story... was different from mine.

...

She was born on Central long ago, in your 'east,' where Meadowbrook studied magic. She was born an alicorn, her parents a mystery even to her. Some thought she was part of some scandal from the newly formed Equestria, some thought she was the child of the stars. Regardless, she wowed the east with her kindness, her devotion, and her grace. She didn't have a cutie mark - she was in charge of her own destiny.

Then she stumbled across the last work of Meadowbrook's in Central. The mage had found the eastern temple, though without the Chest she could not use it. However, she didn't let that stop her - Meadowbrook was nothing if not tenacious. With several months of nonstop work and study, she figured out how to open a portal to the Realms on her own. September witnessed this event, the sight of which summoned her cutie mark. Startled by the appearance the shape on her flank, she lost her opportunity to follow Meadowbrook into the Realms.

Never before in her life had September wanted something more than to go to the purple clouds she had seen through the portal that day. She stopped at nothing, searching high and low for a way in. She eventually found four of the temples with their towering pillars, but she was never able to activate any of them. She even talked to Starswirl about it at one point, tipping him off to the existence of the Realms, fueling his own research. He ended up being thrown in by accident, which he once suggested may have been a side effect of his experiments and Discord's chaos magic.

September poured centuries of her life into finding the answer, working against her natural lifestyle to find her destiny. She wasn't a scholar, so she had to become one. Then, one day, she did it - tapping into a single column of the eastern temple, she flooded her magic into it and ended up in the Realm of Life with me.

She didn't realize until much later that she didn't have a way back, but she found she didn't care that much - she was at home in her Realms. She could stop being a scholar and start helping ponies again, now that she had found her place. So I came out of the woodwork with her, re-appearing to ponies that were descended from the ones I helped. There were only a few legends of me remaining, and most didn't affect my interactions with the ponies. It also helped that September outclassed me in every way - they loved her. the ponies of Truth claimed they didn't, but I'm sure they were in denial, as usual.

She hit it off with everypony, and she was naturally invited in as if she were a lost member of every family. A natural aura surrounded her that made everything trust her - even the Dreaming. And myself, now that I think about it.

We only spent a few years - glorious years - like this. During those years, we discovered that she had great power in all the inflections, and we began to wonder if it meant anything. We never did check the Archive of Truth... I don't remember ever realizing Aztrot legends were in there, not until you found them. Regardless, we didn't need it - all the information we desired was either already in her mind from her studies or the muddled minds of the Dreaming.

We began to wonder if she was a member of the Seven - or, rather, the New Seven. This was wrong - you are proof of that - but we convinced ourselves it was true, and that we needed to find the others that were probably still in Central. So we found the back door - September knew what Central was, and she had all seven infections at her disposal. She took me somewhere.

I... found that I wasn't stable in Central. We could only go for short trips - after an hour or so I would start to fall apart at the seams. She began to despise Central for keeping me from it.

Our travels to and from Central drew attention. Not of the Order - that didn't exist yet - but one of the original Seven. I never saw them in the flesh, but September did. Something she said to one of them made them flee into the Realms... We didn't figure out what happened until we went to the Dreaming again.

The member of the Seven - the First - had absorbed themselves into the Dreaming, the great influx of new mental information changing the Realm drastically. Gone was my odd friend, and in its place was a being who loved cryptic images and mish-mashed visions with mysterious intent. It became the Eye you know today - it gained a more stable thought process.

And through it we learned the tale of the original Seven.

In truth, there used to be Eight of them, since they came from the Eighth Level of reality, not the Seventh like our own, nor the Sixth level you all are thinking of right now - the one with the humans. Nor the Fifth that Pinkie is thinking about. It was the Eighth - a Central with eight Realms, the eighth being the Realm of Connection. In this place emotional, figurative, and relational connections everywhere all had a physically manifesting connection. This made travel between their Central and Realms so much easier - almost effortless. Their world was the Realms. But the power wasn't just wasn't enough. They experimented with their own inflections, seeing how far they could push them with no caution - it was all science to them. They messed with the fundamentals of reality just because they could.

None of them found out who did it, or what exactly was the end cause, but the entire Eighth Level was destroyed, dumping the Seven onto our Level. Wracked with grief from the loss of their Eighth - the Inflection of Connection - they were determined to make connections physical in this level as well, as a memorial.

They built seven temples, forming direct connections between the Realms with them. it was an extremely stupid move. It heavily stretched the fabric of our Level, a Level not intended to have physical connections, much less the fake substitute the Seven were forcing. Do you know that Magic of Friendship you all believe in so much? That is their doing - a side effect of something which should not be. They mutilated our Level, changing it forever into a shadow of their own. They are responsible for the core of darkness that plagued Equestria - the demons, the Wendigoes, all creatures made possible through the mutation of connection. You just choose to believe in the Harmony of Friendship because you are so close to the Elements - wake up! The connection is a dual edged sword - it produces evils as well, and the good side taxes reality just as much.

The Seven didn't realize what they had done until later, and to their credit, they did try to set things right by helping the inhabitants of our Level. They banished back some of the nastier creatures they had created and helped found the Aztrot civilization, occasionally taking the ponies into the Realms themselves for a tour. But the Seven would never let them stay, they wouldn't let them corrupt their Realms.

Eventually, however, the Seven grew jealous of the Aztrot, feeling as if the civilization was trying to take the place of their lost comrade. The Aztrot rejected them, and they went their separate ways, the many legends distorting the truth of the matter. The Aztrot locked the Chest away, believing the Seven's warnings for the time being.

And then Chicomoztok came along. An idiot and a madman through and through, he decided to colonize the Realms. Perhaps not as stupid of a move as introducing connections to a Level not meant to feel them, but it was rather close.

The Seven, who were perceived as nothing more than legends at that point, wiped the Aztrot off the face of Equis for their 'sins' in threatening the structure of the universe. The Seven had seen it coming: unstable reality falling apart. It wouldn't take much to completely send our Level the way their home went. Ponies living in Realms would gain inflections, and strong inflections would lead to experimentation. And in an unstable Level...

Well, they didn't want to destroy another world, that was for sure.

They never found where the Aztrot hid the Chest, leaving the seven temples mostly useless. Not that the Seven needed them. With the ponies in the Realms isolated and few in number, the Seven thought they were safe.

Until the First met September, that is. The First apparently entered the Realm of Dreams to ensure correct communication and to get September to stop traveling - to get me to stop dragging her along, to stop straining reality.

She agreed - after shouting at the Eye about how stupid they had been for messing with reality. They were the ones who doomed us with their hubris!

She dragged me to Central one last time right after that.

"Goodbye," she said.

"But we'll be able to see each other once you find a safe way to travel, right?" I said.

"No. I'm not going to try and find a safe way."

"What? Why?"

"I'm going to protect the Seventh Level." I remember clearly in that moment she looked at her cutie mark with an expression close to reverence. "It's my job. To that end... I am going to change myself, Sperion. Forever. I won't be the same mare once I'm done. September won't exist."

I was silent.

"Promise me this, Sperion. Protect my Realms." She smiled the saddest smile I have ever seen. "The best years of my life were spent in there. Make sure they stay"

I, of course, agreed.

"Please leave," she told me. "You don't want to see this."

"I want to be here."

She sighed, knowing she couldn't get me to leave.

I watched as she killed herself, and replaced her being with a monster. Her beautiful yellow coat, gone, replaced with machine plates. Her organs were squished to their minimum required size. Her elegant wings shot out, becoming razor blades, and her face solidified to its expressionless state. No mouth - no nose, just eyes. Then her mind... Her mind went next. She worked out her kindness, her mercy - what made her a pony. She needed to become something that would stop at nothing to protect the world.

She cried the entire time.

...Congeal's first act as a being was to attack me. I escaped through the open portal back to the Realm of Dreams. She would not have let me go were it not for the Dreaming ordering her not to. Perhaps some of my old friend was still in there after all.

The Dreaming - the Eye - or whatever you want to call the Realm of Dreams - told me what Congeal did after this. She founded the Order. She hunted down and killed the remaining Seven in Central. She destroyed the four temples she knew about. She made sure no one else ever found anything, burning all of Starswirl's and Meadowbrook's books on the subject.

Apparently, she wasn't thorough enough. You know the rest. Ahuizitol found mentions of Meadowbrook's experiments. Yearling found the chest with Rainbow Dash and then found a vague lead suggesting the location of a temple, but Congeal killed her before she could get close. Then the Chest was left to you... Where you took it to the snow of Yakyakistan and started this whole mess.

Now you know the full story. Who's to blame for this mess, I wonder? You? The old Seven? Congeal? September? Me?

I don't know.

I do know what I have to do though.

I can save her realms.

~~~

"How?" Twilight asked, curious.

"As I encountered each of you New Seven in the Realms, your powers were given to me. I have every one now - every one but Echoes." He paused. "It is turning me into what Meadowbrook wanted me to be - a perfect combination of the Realms. It makes me more stable, more able to influence the fundamentals of reality. I'm not there yet, but I will be."

Rarity frowned. "I'm sensing a very big catch. Your thoughts are turning dark..."

"Once I am perfect... I stop the contamination. I can remove the invading connections, dividing the Realms once again, keeping them all stable. The only cost..." He paused. "Is that I will have to eliminate Central completely and take its place myself."

"WHAT!?" Everypony yelled.

"I suggest you start evacuating to Level Six. I know you have a mirror." Sperion sighed. "You won't have much time."

"What makes you think we're goin' to let you?" Applejack said.

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash emphasized.

Fluttershy just stared at Sperion with a look of betrayal.

"I don't need your permission. I will save the Realms - I will stabilize this world. I just... Thought I'd give you the warning you deserve."

Then he moved. He teleported, appearing next to Starlight, distracting everypony present with a minor mental attack. He surrounded himself and Starlight in miniature black spheres - and translated the two of them to the Realm of Echoes.

The other six mares stared in disbelief.

Twilight gulped. "We should follow -"

"No, Twi," Applejack said. "We can't think in the Realm of Echoes. We'd get lost to time without her watching us. We... We probably should evacuate as many as we can to Earth."

Twilight shivered. "He can do it then? He really can destroy our home and save everything else?"

"He believed everything he was saying."

"No time to lose!" Twilight said, arranging everypony in the formation to make a portal to Central. "Prepare the evacuation - set up the defenses! Everything we can!"

Then they were gone.

The pieces of Congeal drifted further apart...

Comments

[Ponygood11]

The pieces of Congeal are going to do something, I just know it. Otherwise, why would you mention them, besides just being a troll?

[GMBlackjack]

8206084

Neither.

Aesthetic reasons, and a thematic point.

-GM, master of answers.

[Ponygood11]

8206128 Pft, that's boring. You're boring! Your face is boring!!!! FACE!!!!!!!!

[GMBlackjack]

8206256

Now is that the way to treat someone who is currently writing the next Influence chapter? Hrrrrrm?

-GM, master of blinx.

[Ponygood11]

8206314 Uh... I mean, you have a beautiful face! You are not boring at all! And neither is your face!

[zeusdemigod131]

Oooh, the human world is so boring. There's hardly any magic and everything interesting either gets turned into a human or an animal.

Also that many duplicates could upset and cause another dimensional collapse, meaning they'd then all have to move to 5 which I'm guessing is... here?

[GMBlackjack]

8207033

I never explicitly state that, but yes, it is meant that we are Level Five. (We don't have the Realm of Distortion, Six doesn't have the Realm of Magic, just like Seven didn't have the Realm of Connection)

Much like how the 'magic of friendship' is a leak in from Level Eight, the magics in Level Six, the human world of EQG, are all leaks from Level Seven.

-GM, master of lore.

[Cross Lament]

Note to self: possessing multiple inflections makes one a psychopathic idiot. Avoid.

[FM-96]

8207053
So in other words... by bringing the crown there, Sunset destabilized Level Six the same way that the Seven destabilized Level Seven. That's just great.

I have to say, I really like this idea of yours! It makes perfect sense in regards to canon and... well... real life.

So we can't break the fourth wall because there is no Distortion on our level anymore, huh?

[GMBlackjack]

8221856
Well... Read the stinger at the end of the Credits and my blog post on the ending, and you might get a few things explained. If you still have questions after that, there are no more secrets so ask away.

-GM, master of extra lore.