Voidwalkers

by Meep the Changeling

8 - Shall We Play a Game? (Part 1)

Vinyl Scratch - 22th of Megan, 29 AE

Equestria - Ponyville

There’s a rumor floating around which says Celestia got really mad at Twilight after she gave her Ponyville as her fiefdom, and Twilight lifted the old restrictions on buildings’ looks. I don’t believe for a minute that Celestia yelled at her, but I do think her highness was more than a little disappointed when modern concrete and brick buildings began to pop up in the former historic preserve.

Ponyville had lost some of its charm over the years. It was still nice, and still looked like something out of a fairytale, and I couldn’t disagree with Twilight’s logic. The old building codes did prevent better defenses from being built, and it would be unfair to lift restrictions for the nobility but not the peasantry on something as simple as architectural regulations.

Not to mention keeping the old restrictions in place on peasants would mean that most homes in the city couldn’t be fitted with modern defenses. So it was a safety issue too.

It wasn’t all bad though. It would be more accurate to say that the old charm had gone and new charm had moved in.

Celestia’s sun shone down on Lyra, Chem, and me as we walked up the cobbled street towards Bonbon’s for today’s gameday slash ‘I met my previously unknown long-lost brother’ introduction. Everywhere you looked, unicorns and earth ponies trotted up and down the street, happily talking to each other as they went to and from dozens of small shops or hung out on public benches. The skies overhead were full of pegasi flying about or lounging on decorative clouds as they did the same as everypony below.

The street was lined with all kinds of buildings, some old with magically augmented wattle and daub walls and thatched roofs, others new with brick, concrete and glass walls painted up and decorated to look as rusting and old-fashioned as the newer designs could. It was as if Ponyville had moved out of the Classical Era into the Solar Era.

Heh, given another thousand years, maybe it would finally catch up to how Manehattan was thirty years ago. Just in time for everything to be all sci-fi with gleaming glass towers covered in living plants and neon lights.

As we walked up the road I couldn’t help but notice that Solid State’s Software Shack was having a fifty percent off sale on techno arcana. I’d have to swing by the later and pick up a DV-MI converter so I could put my VR helmet's display on my bedroom’s magic mirror. That way Octy could watch me play if she wanted too.

“Mmm, that’s right,” I said to myself as I remembered another thing I had to pick up.

Lyra’s ears perked as I spoke out loud by accident. She and Chem had been talking shop ever since we left her dungeon of an apartment. I wasn’t able to understand anything they were going on about. I might have been a wizard if fate hadn’t stuck me in Luna’s court. But instead of a Mage Academy, I’d gone to Officer’s School.

Life's funny like that.

When it came time for doing, I’d help all I could. But, now was the time for theoretical thaumaturgy, and well, that’s not my bag.

“Sorry, did you say something, Vinyl?” Lyra asked with an apologetic frown. “I um, I was focused on Chem.”

I shook my head and gave her a reassuring smile. “Nah, just thinking out loud. There’s a sale on at my favorite electronics store and that reminded me that I need to pick up a DV-MI converter, and a replacement for the Imagizer Octy and I used to have.”

“Used to have?” Lyra asked with a confused frown.

I nodded. “Mmmmhm. Turns out that you can't use it to stream HD audio and video to um… Like… Three, maybe four hundred mirrors? We tried to rig up a home-broadcast-station to do a one-time jam session for our fans in Ponyville. That crystal cracked almost immediately. Shoulda went with a tech solution.”

Lyra nodded and shook her head while grinning. “Yeah, tech is way better at mass broadcasting right now. But give the mages a few more years and it will catch up. It’s not like there was much demand for that sort of thing thirty years ago. Well, aside from the radio,” she agreed, slowly frowning as she finished.

I smirked. “You remembered that radio is tech based, didn’t you?”

“Heh, yeah!” Lyra snorted. “It’s a bit hard to keep straight what uses what.”

Chem looked over at the old enchanted item emporium across the street from Solid State’s Software Shack. I always liked Charming Charms. The store, not the pony. She was a real jerk. But her shop sold great things, and the loving care she’d put into her shop to make the inside and outside look like an ancient wizard's laboratory was really cool.

“Why not get them now? We’re right here,” Chem suggested casualty.

“No can do,” I said with a frown. “Luna actually has work to do tonight, and it’s game day so we need to pack the afternoon as full as we can. We also have to introduce you to everyone, and that’s going to eat up some time too.”

Chem’s ears folded back sadly as I gave him the explanation. “Sorry sis,” he said, face seeming to retreat into his green hood somewhat. “I didn’t mean to cut into your days’ entertainment. I could return to working on the theory Lyra and I are crafting and we could take care of this another day.”

I waved a hoof dismissively. “Nah, it’s fine it’s fine. It would be weird if we left it for another day and everyone’s free now. Besides, Luna’s going to be busy with something Celestia’s asking her to do. She could be gone for a few days. Or maybe even forward the job on to us.”

Chem nodded slowly. “As you wish.”

Lyra snickered, prompting me to raise an eyebrow. “What?” I asked her curiously.

Lyra gave me a hurt look. “I- I specifically gave you a copy of that movie to watch!” She protested, stopping just long enough to stamp a hoof indignantly. “I even gave you the original version instead of the one the Emerald Hive reshot with changeling actors to make a pony version!”

“What, did Chem just reference something?” I asked with a confused flick of my tail.

“Yeah, he did! Hopefully intentionally,” Lyra grumbled.

“Totally did,” Chem laughed. “Fun fact: That movie exists in every universe where humans become advanced enough to produce films.”

Lyra tilted her head. “Every universe? Inconceivable!” She mock-protested.

I was so lost…

“Um, Lyra? You give me a LOT of movies to watch. I may be a vampire with eternal life ahead of me, but I still do things. I don't have unlimited free time all at once. It’s portioned out over, you know, eternity,” I said for the hundredth time.

Chem turned to Lyra giving her such an extremely serious look that it genuinely frightened me. “We are making her watch The Princess Bride,” he said matter of factly.

“We so are!” Lyra agreed with equal seriousness.

Deciding to steer the conversation elsewhere before one of them decided to tie me up and force me to watch half a dozen movies all so I could expand my geeky joke lexicon, I cleared my throat and pointed off towards Twilight’s palace.

“Sure we can do that sometime,” I quickly agreed, nodding once. “Chem, we’ll be heading past Twilight’s palace on the way. You can see it, well, from anywhere in Ponyville. Just thought I’d point it out to you as a palace instead of a fortress.”

“It does look pretty forty,” Chem agreed with a chuckle. “Is that really what you guys call a palace? I hope not. I’ll have to Rogal up a proper palace to show you all how it’s really done.”

“It’s a palace in name only,” Lyra said for me.

“Right,” I agreed. “It’s really more of a castle, or fortress. The really cool thing about it is underneath all that plaster and paint which makes it look like a real tree holding up a stone castle, the whole thing is actual solid crystal. It’s pretty cool just how much nicer Princess Twilight made it look with what amounts to stage dressing. I mean, if I hadn't told you, would you have been able to tell?”

“Yes,” Chem answered matter of factly. “The surface of an object is not a barrier for me.
My vision is quite different from yours. I see the crystals under the surface, and the molecules which compose those crystals, and the atoms which in turn make them, all the way down to the tiny slivers of raw potential which form each and every string laying at the heart of each subatomic particle.

“By the way, that cheeseburger you ate for lunch isn’t digesting properly. You may be mildly lactose intolerant, or perhaps the combination of cheese and B+ blood doesn't sit well with you… Or the cheese wasn’t up to health code.”

So that’s why I was feeling a bit gassy… Also, I should probably definitely absolutely find a way to shield my bedroom from his vision.

Lyra shuddered and looked over at Chem looking a bit more green than usual. “Keep that X-Ray vision horseapples to yourself!” She demanded.

“I plan on it,” Chem replied with a shy smile. “It’s not a sense ponies possess. I only mentioned it because my sister specifically asked if I could see something.”

“Well, we’ll be passing it in a few minutes,” I said with a laugh. “I’ve always wanted to know how Twilight stuck on the extra tree branches. I could use the same method to mount bigger speakers on my walls. Would you mind telling me how they are stuck on when we get there?”

“I wouldn’t mind in the slightest,” Chem answered immediately. “Ah, yes! As I was saying before, Lyra, if we can get a fresh data set of your curse in action we can use that to work backward and-”

I began to tune their conversation out as it once more became little more than math and wizardry.

Math and WIzardry. Now there’s a tabletop game for those even geekier than me.

Twilight Sparkle - 22th of Megan, 29 AE

Ponyville - Equestria

“ARRRRGH!” I shouted, throwing the bundle of useless notes across my study into the now overflowing trash can. “Useless! A complete waste of time!”

As I pushed myself away from my desk I could feel my left eye starting to twitch. I’d spent the last several weeks trying to learn this stupid spell. Not master. LEARN!

Me. Twilight Sparkle, Equestria’s Archmage, unable to learn a spell.

To be fair it was a spell which, to my knowledge, no one had ever actually managed to cast. But I mean come on! The theory behind everything checked out. I had the raw power needed to cast it. Yes, it was so complex that the single spell took thirteen standard length spellbooks to write down even if you used the teeniest text and most efficient font known to ponykind but COME ON!

I took a few deep breaths, doing my best to calm down. “It’s just a spell, Twilight. You’ll crack it eventually,” I said in an attempt to reassure myself.

It failed. Fortunately, no one was around to witness the failure.

The Sevenfold Shield was becoming- No, had become, my nemesis. I would conquer the spell no matter what it took. One day, the theoretically unbreakable shield would protect all of Ponyville from harm. Well, at least external harm. It would still be vulnerable to internal harm, but if I could just master the stupid thing, I could eliminate one entire direction for threats to come from!

If I could learn the spell, then I could do what the Unknown Mage couldn’t do and actually cast it. I could experiment, adapt, alter, and improve. If the energy efficiency could be improved, then I could have the spell work even if I wasn’t in Ponyville. Maybe we could one day have every town in Equestria protected by the Sevenfold Shield!

“But we will never get there if this stupid thing keeps refusing to let me have more than two of the protections active at one time!” I growled to no one as I glared at the malformed spell matrix through my new goggles.

I loved these goggles. Not only were they masterfully crafted so the two brass frames were tempered to a nice blue color which matched my mane, and not only were the enchanted lenses colored precisely to match my eye color, but the dark brown leather cushion and straps were super soft! No irritating stiff bits digging into my skin. Perfect comfort!

And the functionality! Oh, Sisters Above the wonderful functionality! These sweet little things let me see a spell’s matrix right down to the individual particles of mana. And their other features! Mmmm, zoom levels, light filtering, wavelength isolation. Everything controlled by thought alone.

They even stored and displayed the text of books I’d read while wearing them.

Gentle Repose was a godsend! Custom enchanted equipment on demand, why hadn’t I employed an enchanter as part of my staff the minute I’d become a princess? Everyone needs a good-aligned, work-oriented, me-level, science loving, friendly litch, who happens to be a master enchanter living in their basement.

”I see… And you need them by tomorrow evening? Of course, Princess. I’ll carry on straight through the night and have them for you by noon. Perhaps sooner if I can machine the frames properly the first time.”

They were on my nightstand when I woke up this morning. Along with a nice hardwood, velvet lined, locking case.

Too bad Repose was a rare exception to the usual rules regarding the undead. If more of them could be fully sane and preferred to keep themselves from rotting, I’d organize an ‘enchanters who never sleep, eat, nor enjoy not spending every last moment of their unlives building things’ service for every last researcher in Equestria.

I reached up to hold my head and whimpered. “This is the fifth time I've gushed over these goggles to avoid reading the stupid spell again,” I moaned allowed.

AAAAAAAAAAAAA! IT'S SO HORRIBLY COMPLEX THAT MY BRAIN IS STUCK IN A LOOP! INCLUDING THIS FREAKOUT OVER BEING STUCK IN A LOOP! HELP ME, FUTURE ME!

That’s it! I’ll just time travel forward until I found a version of me who had finished this and have her teach it to me.

I paused long enough to stand in awe of my own genius.

That plan is perfect. YES! Nothing could possibly go wrong with-

Somepony politely cleared their throat behind me, making my ears perk. “I see that I came at the right time, Darling,” Rarity said, her voice quavering slightly with concern.

I turned around, my spinny chair creaking as it rotated. I’d long since gotten used to Rarity’s new look. Well, old look. She’d been cybernetic for three decades now.

While none of us had seen her choosing to get parts of herself replaced with bionic versions AGAIN after Lily had replaced her first set of crude emergency replacements with proper organic parts, it suited her in an odd way.

Every few months, Rarity would have a new paint scheme or differently shaped chassis for her bionics. She even had begun selling high fashion conversion kits for replacement limbs alongside her clothing lines. Leave it to Rarity to suffer severe bodily trauma and turn prosthetics into art.

Of course, sometimes art is strange.

I laughed as I saw Rarity standing behind me, looking almost completely normal thanks to a textured white paint job which matched her silky white fur almost perfectly. You could only barely see the seams between her front leg and barrel, though the seams between her rear flanks and her pelvis were more obvious. All three of her mechanical legs looked like they were parts of a costume, which made Rarity look half dressed for a party.

“Don’t you normally prefer to make your metal parts stand out?” I asked, shaking my head. “What happened to yesterday’s clear acrylic thing?”

“Sometimes subtle is better than overt,” Rarity said as she trotted over to me, her face full of concern. “Darling, that wasn’t yesterday’s ensemble. I was wearing that particular number last week. Do you even know what day it is?”

I felt my heart skip a beat. “OH NO! Did- did I miss the presentation on the History of Unusual Arcana I promised I would give for the graduating class of Ponyville High?” I asked, my eyes shrinking in terror.

I couldn’t possibly have forgotten to-

Rarity shook her head quickly. “No, no you did not. That’s in two days. Whatever are you doing in here, Twilight? We haven’t seen you in a week.”

“I’m trying to learn how to cast the Sevenfold Shield,” I replied, rubbing my temples to try and soothe my headache. “It is NOT going well.”

“S-still?” Rarity asked, her eyes widening in surprise. “It’s taken you more than a week to learn something?”

“I think it would take Sunset a year to learn this,” I moaned, leaning into my hooves. “And she has an eidetic memory! I just have a really good normal memory. I don’t… I can't even get a third layer of the seven layers to work and there's no reason why I am failing that I can even- Just- I- ARRRRGH!”

Rarity flinched and stepped forward, gently laying her metallic left hoof on my shoulder. I couldn’t help but notice she had made this hoof feel like a real flesh-and-blood one. I guess she was trying out a more natural looking and feeling line before releasing it.

Her horn glowed light blue as she picked up some of the discarded Hayburger wrappers from the floor around my desk.

“Twilight, Darling, we’re going to go out and have a nice lunch. A real lunch. Please tell me you’ve been eating something other than-” Rarity said as she levitated the wrappers over to my study’s trashcan only to set them beside the full can. “Ah, well… I’m certain you’ll pay your maid extra for this.”

Was it selfish to issue a royal decree to make Hayburger create a delivery service? Yes. Was it worth it in the end for all parties involved? Also yes.

“Yeah she gets double during study periods,” I mumbled, cheeks flushing in embarrassment.

"So, always then?" Rarity joked.

The joke pierced some of my mental fog, bringing a smile to my face. "No, just almost always," I corrected. Truthfully.

Rarity gently picked me up with her telekinesis and set me down next to my chair on my hooves. “Come on, darling. We’re going to a lovely little bistro I discovered last week. It’s not too far, and getting out of this… This mess will help you think.”

It probably would.

I nodded and followed Rarity out of my study, down the stairs, and out the front door into Ponyville. As we walked she filled me in on what everypony had been doing while I was… Away.

No one had done anything major. After all, I hadn’t been asked to help with something. My friends had ‘study interruption privileges’. I’d stop if they needed me. But there was still plenty of things to catch up on.

Rarity was developing a new more natural looking line of cyberware for amputees who couldn’t afford synth fur ”After all, many amputees can not afford the services of a good Biomancer. They must wear their bionics for life. Not everyone is into elaborate designs, and everyone deserves to feel like they are properly presentable. There’s no better way to know how these limbs look and feel than to try them for yourself. After all, I would never deign a dress for somepony in a style I had never worn myself.”

Dash had started working on a new trick and managed to not hospitalize herself this time. Pinkie Pie invented some sort of white chocolate dipped mango pie which she was entering in a contest. Fluttershy had FINALLY gotten brave enough to publish an album of vocal covers under a pseudonym. Applejack had been up to the normal springtime farming chores.

A nice normal week. Shame I missed it, but then again Twilight Sparkle drives herself nuts sciencing up some magic is also part of a nice normal week.

We’d just exited through the palace doors when Rarity cleared her throat and gave me a hopeful look. “Twilight? You seem to have forgotten to remove your goggles,” she said, clearly hoping I would take them off.

“Sorry, but these need field testing,” I replied with a polite smile.

“I, um… It’s just that you look odd with an accessory but no clothing to pair it with,” Rarity sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. “Can we at least go back inside and get a jacket?”

I bit my lip and waited for a few moments, letting myself feel the rather intense sunlight on my fur.

“I think it’s a bit hot for a jacket today, wouldn’t you agree?” I asked Rarity apologetically.

I did understand her point of view. I had to already be a mess from working all through the week. I couldn’t remember showering… I mean, I probably did, but maybe I didn’t. My mane and tail were a mess.

Rarity just wanted me to look like a proper Princess, and that was okay.

But I didn’t have time to waste today on showering, dressing, and being proper. I am Princess Twilight Sparkle and this is Ponyville. Everypony here knows what I’m about.

“And if you pushed them up on your forehead, you wouldn’t be able to test them,” Rarity sighed in defeat. “I trust they do lots of neat sciency things? And you got them recently?”

“Mhm!” I exclaimed with an eager nod.

“What can they do?” Rarity asked as we resumed walking down the steps towards the street. “Oh, look! Vinyl and Lyra are out and about today."

I hummed in surprise, my ears perking up in excitement. "Really? Lyra's here?" I asked happily. "I'd like to get to talk with her, apparently she's really buckled down in learning wizardry! Maybe she'd have some ideas about the spell I'm working on."

Rarity nodded and flicked her enhanced eyes across the crowd. "I think you'll get to do that, darling. They seem to be heading this way? Mmm, yes! I think they are. You don’t think Luna would send them as messengers, do you?”

I frowned and squinted through the small crowd of ponies passing by the front of my palace. I couldn’t see the two knights, but that didn’t mean they weren't there. It was a pretty packed crowd. After all, it was lunchtime and we were looking at Main Street.

“She might if she were busy herself and couldn't use a messenger gem, and it also wasn't urgent... I should have had Repose make these things tag people I know,” I commented as I continued to search the crowd.

“Just to our left, darling,” Rarity said as she pointed the two out with a hoof. “And frankly, if you did that, you’d regret it because it would be highlighting and naming everypony in town.”

“That’s true,” I giggled as my eyes FINALLY found the pair of Vampire Knights.

The two looked as if they were passing by… But Rarity did have a point. I had been too wrapped up in my studying lately. A quick conversation wouldn’t delay them from whatever they were doing and would help me pull myself back into a stable mindset.

I raised a hoof and waved at the pair. “Hi, Vinyl! Hi, Lyra! How’s it going?” I called as loudly as I could to be heard over the buzz of conversations which filled the street.

Vinyl’s ears perked as I called her name, swiveling in my direction before her head turned to look at me. Vi said something to Lyra who turned and looked as well, and then the two began to walk towards the palace steps.

No, not the two.

The three began to walk to the palace steps. A smaller dark furred stallion bundled in a thick green cloak walked along with them. For a moment, I swore the cloaked stallion was somehow sinister, but as he got closer I could see that he was very thin. Malnourished as a foal thin. He was most likely bundled up for warmth.

Or perhaps the cloak was some form of arcane life support. He seemed to bleed magic. Like, a LOT of magic. I could tell that most of the magic wasn’t his, that cloak had some serious power behind it. More than enough to keep a stallion alive and healthy.

Poor guy! My heart went out to-

Wait. Vinyl is a vampire. She’s gotta have some food source in town which doesn't harm anypony. A volunteer, or a deal with a local blood bank. That’s the law.

The stallion could also be a starving vampire. In which case, extra poor guy! There are social programs all over Equestria for people in need of uncommon foodstuffs. The poor thing must have been some sort of village outcast.

Good to see that Vinyl was kind enough to share- Wait a minute…

I squinted through my goggles, taking in the stallion’s features. And the unusual magic which permeated his body.

If I hadn’t had my goggles on, I would never have noticed the subtle way ‘his’ aura moved. It tugged and pulled on his body like the strings of a puppet. That’s not normal!

Usually, the aura is pulled on by the body not the other way around. This wasn’t a creature producing magic, this was magic moving an object so expertly concealed I would never have detected it without a tool to aid me, especially with the enchantments on the cloak the golem wore.

That's what it was, a golem. Nothing else would be worth using this much power to create and operate, nor the level of detail put into hiding the animation spell. An animation spell which didn’t have a whiff of necromancy to it, cutting out the possibility of the thing being a zombie. Hence, Lyra and Vinyl were leading a golem around.

A very realistic, very pony-like, indistinguishable from a living creature to the naked eye, golem.

D-did somepony in the Crystal Empire start making extra creepy ‘adult dolls’?

As Vinyl and Lyra drew within talking range to Rarity and me, Vinyl gave me a smile.

“Hey, Twi!” she greeted happily. “What’s up? We’re heading over to game night with Luna and the rest of the gang, so if you have a message or something for her, we’d be happy to deliver it.”

I shook my head. “Oh, no! Nothing like that, I just wanted to say hi. I don't talk with you girls very much, but you’re Luna’s bodyguards. It just seems like we should be better friends.”

Lyra nodded, her lips pursing slightly in thought. “Yeah, that makes sense. Luna treats us like family, and you’re her sister via adoption. We probably should at least be close friends instead of just friends.”

“It seems to me like you should think of her more as a cousin,” the golem said in a rather pleasant voice which fit its slender male boy rather well.

It. Spoke. In a whole sentence. Saying something that couldn’t have been pre-scripted. AWESOME!

“Cool!” I squeed, hopping forwards slightly to get a better look under the construct’s hood. “Who built this golem? This may very well be the first one with the ability to speak properly!”

Vinyl tilted her head forwards, looking at me over the rims of her glasses. “Uh, Twi? This is my brother, Chemical Fire.”

Rarity cocked her head. “You have a brother?” She asked skeptically.

“I’d remember if you had a brother,” I said with a worried frown.

Lyra laughed. “They had no idea the other existed until a couple days ago. I hired Chem to help me with a project and he ran into Vinyl at my place. We just came back from asking her parents about this whole thing.”

The Golem cleared its throat. “Are those some form of arcane detection goggles?” It asked me curiously. “If so, you should know that I grew up very ill. My cloak provides me with the normal range of mobility, as well as other helpful things. It was this or a wheelchair.”

I frowned, and took a step back, squinting at the enchantment again. “I suppose you could repurpose a golem animation spell for that purpose,” I said as I suspiciously analyzed everything I could see in his aura. “Sorry for the mistake.”

This didn't smell right at all. I took a few moments to read everything again.

“It’s alright, no offense taken,” ‘Chemical Fire’ said diplomatically. “Truth be told, I don’t exactly know the precise workings of the enchantment myself. This was imported from Estoneigha. Is it using some form of construct animation system? That’s rather brilliant!”

I was right. The body had zero arcane aura. It was NOT made of living tissue. I’d walked into something big. But were Lyra and Vinyl lying because we were in public and this was all classified, or because of some other more sinister reason?

Vinyl shook her head. “Thank Luna you’re a forgiving kind of pony, Chem. That sort of mistake would be a terrible first impression,” she said, shaking her head. “We really are related, Twi. He’s got his hood up which might make it hard to see, but we’re pretty similar despite the color difference. He looks a lot like dad, just younger. Uh, Chem? Put your hood down so she can see we look alike.”

The construct pulled down its cloak’s hood, and I tilted my head downwards to get a proper look at its face. An annoying part of maturing as an Alicorn which I’d only recently gotten used to.

With the shadow removed from his face, his features became clear. The red eyes, the charcoal gray fur, the jet-black mane, the pronounced cheekbones. Fill in the sickly, unfinished looking parts of his face and-

My eyes widened in pure horror as everything clicked into place.

This was Sombra! I was looking at a younger Sombra! Just younger, ‘damaged’ looking, and lacking the physical changes related to dark magic corruption! He wasn’t a perfect match, but then again, why would he make a fake body that was a perfect match? Everypony knew his face!

Sombra was a Litch. With Necromancy banned in Equestria, I had known very little about Litches. Then Repose joined my household staff. Now I knew almost EVERYthing about Litches. I lived with one.

They come back if you kill them, but don’t break the enchanted item keeping them alive because they are a disembodied consciousness. Sombra was once able to slowly push his own consciousness into Trixie’s body through the Alicorn Amulet, which turned out to be a relic of his.

Sombra was back, and he had stuffed his consciousness into a well-crafted golem, and had deceived or hypnotized Vinyl and Lyra in order to infiltrate Ponyville!

Unfortunately, there was one flaw in his plan. I could and would stop this right here and right now!

I smiled at Sombra. “Yes, I do see a resemblance to someone I know… Sombra!” I announced as I readied my magic to cast a simple spell.

He looked at me with genuine bafflement. “Huh?” He asked, clearly in an attempt to deceive me.

Wasn’t going to happen! I’d been over-analyzing things all day. No way a plan this simple was going to slip by me!

My horn burned with arcane light as I prepared a deactivation spell. He’d forgone defensive wards for the sake of stealth! I could simply turn this body off and then destroy whatever charm allowed him to control it.

His eyes flicked up to my horn as I readied my spell, and as he saw me about to attack him, his eyes lit up with glee. Then he actually squeed. That settled it. This was Sombra.

“TWILIGHT, NO!” Rarity, Vinyl, and Lyra yelled.

I fired.

Sombra reacted with impossible speed.

In one swift motion, he lunged forwards, cape billowing as he hurtled across the two-meter gap between us, and pushed my chin upwards.

He didn’t hit me. It wasn’t a uppercut. He just grabbed me and pushed my chin upwards, tilting my head back so the ray spell fired harmlessly up into the air.

Or so he thought! I’d just redirect the beam’s path and pull it back down towards-

The whole world around me suddenly twisted, warping and blurring as everything moved towards the center point of my vision, like water draining from a sink. A loud hissing flowing sound like metallic sand flowing down a hillside accompanied the terrifying reality-melt, fizzing ever louder until the entire world was nothing but white.

Everything remained white for just a heartbeat before the white flared brighter, shrinking to a single point of blinding white light which hung in an inky black sky which in turn rested above a jagged, crater strewn landscape entirely covered in fine gray-white dust. The last of the sand spilling away hissed by as the landscape emerged from the whiteness.

Unless I was mistaken, I was on the moon.

“HE TELEPORTED ME!” I yelped as I frantically wracked my brain for any spell which would allow me to breathe in the vacuum of-

Wait, what!? Did I just- “Speak in space?” I said finishing my thoughts out loud as my tail stood up in alarm.

I had. I had just spoken in space. WHAT!? THIS IS NOT SCIENTIFICALLY POSSIBLE!

Wait a minute… My eyes narrowed as I took stock of everything I could see around me.

I could see the sun, but not Equis. Luna keeps the moon tidally locked, the same side always faces Equis. I was on the dark side of the moon.

Speaking of the sun, it was too large, and bright, and pure white to be Celestia’s sun. I had seen images of her sun taken via spacecraft. This couldn’t be Equis’s moon. Especially because it had an atmosphere. It had to, how else could I possibly talk?

Where the hay was I? How the hay did Sombra teleport me here? The theoretical maximum range of a teleport spell is only enough to put you into orbit. I couldn’t imagine the power needed to teleport someone to another star system entirely!

I turned around, hoping to spot anything that could be some sort of clue, and came face to face with an imposing humanoid creature. He stood just a bit higher than me, which would put him almost on eye level with Celestia, or horn-tip level for me.

He had to be a wizard of some kind. He was dressed in red, gray, black and gold robes which were mostly form-fitting, save for the black carbon fiber skirt, and the voluminous gold trimmed hood. A steel mask with a single dark eye slit covered his face, and bulky silver vambraces studded with glowing red LEDs and a large black jetstone each protected his arms.

The robes looked to be sealed, as if they were a spacesuit. In fact, on closer inspection, every last bit of material was not natural fibers, but rather a space-age material, and the dark eye slit visor was really a piece of black mirrored glass, and the mask’s mouth portion contained an intimidating looking respirator, making it some sort of breath-mask.

In his left hand, he held a techno-punk looking wizard’s staff which looked like the foal of a classic wizard's staff from fantasy fiction and one of Sky’s gauss rifles. In his other hand, he held Rarity by the scruff of her neck.

All pretenses of finding a way home vanished from my mind the second I saw her limp unconscious form clutched in the hand of the entity which had to have brought us here. There was no question that he was hostile.

I glared at the creature, spreading my wings to look as big and intimidating as I could.

“I don’t know who you are, but you had better let her go and put us back on Equis right now or you will learn why I am the foremost protector of Equestria,” I ordered.

To my surprise, he held Rarity out, and let go of her.

Also to my surprise, instead of falling to the ground, a bright pink diamond-shaped crystal unfolded from nothingness to encapsulate Rarity’s body, keeping her now imprisoned form floating in the air.

My ears flipped backward as the final straw fell into place. If this guy wanted a fight, he would get a-

The wizard vanished, transforming into a bright blue pillar of light, as did Rarity and her crystal prison. The beams arched across the sky, touching down atop a distant lunar mountaintop, from which a massive obsidian castle seemingly made entirely from evil looking spires grew like they were parts of the universe's fastest plant.

“What?” I asked of reality itself.

I took a deep breath, focused on the base of the tower, and teleported. Or rather, I tried too. I felt my magic flow, I heard the distinct pop of a teleport, but when I opened my eyes I had only moved ten or so meters.

Okay, Twilight. Teleportation is being dampened. No problem, we’ll just fly the ten or so kilometers and-

“I AM FROM BEYOND!” A male’s voice bellowed dramatically. “Reclaim your friend and all you desire shall be yours! Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish!”

A male’s voice which matched Vinyl’s brother’s perfectly.

Ooooookkkkaay! My mistake, he wasn’t a revived Sombra. But he was a something! A powerful and mysterious something. A something which wanted to test me for whatever reason.

Sure. Why not? This whole situation was hardly the weirdest thing to happen to me... This year.

“A test huh? I guess nobody told you that Twilight Sparkle, NEVER, FAILS, TESTS!” I announced with a serious look in my eyes and a grin on my face.

The second I finished speaking, a very poorly made sword emerged from the lunar dust in front of me, seemingly shaking its way free of the loose dust. I wasn’t even into swords, and I could tell that it was well… Minimal and crude, despite having pointless glowing circuit patterns on the blade which made it look ‘techy’.

Curiously, I picked up the blade with my magic. The second I did a thousand warcries split the air as countless scores of creatures I could only call goblins in armor fashioned from scrapped high-tech equipment emerged from the ground itself, from behind rocks at random, and seemingly from thin air in a few cases.

The techno goblins charged, crude but seemingly functional technologically enhanced machetes, spears, and even a few dangerous looking guns raised to attack.

I lowered my horn and fired a spellbolt at a goblin experimentally. The bolt hit it’s armor and crackled, doing just as little damage as the first spellbolt I’d ever fired. Namely, nothing at all.

“Ooooh, boy,” I moaned, hefting the crude sword I had been given.

I had not thought I’d be slashing my way through an army of goblins on the dark side of the moon today.

Comments

[Da Fennec]

Interesting and thing have went pear shaped. Vi and Lyra if no one else should've expected that. Chem I really hope you are just having fun playing otherwise you really done screwed up.
Of course looking like Somba that was bad. Wonder why Vi or Lyra didn't pick up on it. I'd ask the same about Discord but he might of ignored it just to see how people reacted

[Jacktank10]

Game On!

[Bloody_Tofu]

Ohhh.. I Realy hope Twilights not costing spells in the middle of town while she’s in the game zone.

I so want a pic of Twilight in those goggles now.

[Neece]

I bet Celly got pouty as hell when Twily lifted them. Not mad, not screamy, just pouty.
A royal decree for burger delivery. I had forgotten how much I love your Twi, meeps

Everyone needs a good-aligned, work-oriented, me-level, science loving, friendly litch, who happens to be a master enchanter living in their basement.

I think book horse is way too pampered. And has an unhealthy fixation with new shiny toys... Or would her zebra girl say otherwise?

I had not thought I’d be slashing my way through an army of goblins on the dark side of the moon today.

This quote wins the story three times over for the sheer badassery of a techno barbarian adventure to save the cyborg waifu from the techno wizard and its cyber castle of 80's doom. Because nothing can have that much neon and not be from the 80's

Chem gets double cookies for such an intervention, though. Dude's awesome for giving an adventure to someone that wanted to kill him two seconds earlier.

[popmannn]

8509781 Best we got for now...
orig00.deviantart.net/fe4c/f/2011/336/7/9/twilight_sparkle__for_science_by_sandshrew-d4hxw3p.png

[ClockworkMage]

Ugh, the classic type green problem

[Meep the Changeling]

8509781 I'll get on that :3

---

8509783

I think book horse is way too pampered. And has an unhealthy fixation with new shiny toys... Or would her zebra girl say otherwise?

Chem agrees, hence her in game nerf.

Dude's awesome for giving an adventure to someone that wanted to kill him two seconds earlier.

That's actualy WHY he's giving it to her XD He wouldn't actualy be hurt if the body he is controlling like an action figure wass distroied... and he's not using the same logic you and I would because hello! Chem's not a human. He's got a whole other mantality. Thus Twi attacks him and instead of being affraid, since it's not a thing that would actualy hurt him, just his "toy" his responce is "YAY! Somone wants to play with me :D "

[Neece]

8511326
He certainly gets plus points for style. Let's hope robogal and purple dork agree with that, later

And let's not forget the facehooving that shall come from the Knights once he tells them what he's doing. Narrating Twilight's moves all the while while showing them on the screen. Sidescroller style

[djthomp]

Not sure if this is a good idea. Twilight is more or less a superweapon that just keep hitting harder and harder and breaking through barriers she shouldn't be able to. Chem has a lot of experience with his games, but he's never played with Twilight before and she doesn't know it's all for fun.

[Rewrite]

Hahaha! this chapter was great Meep!. I love Twilight's parts in this! her studying. Her deciding Chem was Sombra...The dark side of the moon part! It's all amazing!

And great reference! I'm glad to see you still enjoy that so much!

[Naturefang]

Lyra tilted her head. “Every universe? Inconceivable!” She mock-protested.

"You keep on using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means."

Chem turned to Lyra giving her such an extremely serious look that it genuinely frightened me. “We are making her watch The Princess Bride,” he said matter of factly.

My dog is named after a character from that book/film, Fezzik.