The Other Side

by MagnoliaThourns

Ch.9 - Baptism

Suddenly I’m not me anymore. I’m above myself, high above, and drifting upward. I can see the Queen’s back, the vertebrae in her spine just visibly pressing out of her skin, myself sprawled below her.

A light above me, brighter than anything I’ve ever seen. Champagne silver like polished zirconium, so bright I should be blind but it doesn’t hurt.

I’m traveling to it, faster and faster, there’s no frame of reference but the momentum building in me, I feel like a bullet or a photon myself, faster and faster and faster.

I reach the other side. There’s a being here; I feel a presence. Like an old friend I never knew I had, a sibling I forgot I grew up with. And I am filled with love. Peace and joy steep inside me, love soaks down to every fiber of me. I’m giddy with it, filled with energy and pure unending love and acceptance.

My life unfolds out from me in one; everything at once and all of it comprehensible. I feel my tongue scalding on the first cup of coffee I ever tasted, though the pain is not upsetting; I feel the magic bursting wings from my back as Celestia transforms me into an alicorn, hear the girls talking to me as I see you for the first time, smell the smoke and dust as Golden Oaks explodes, see the moon crawling into the sky the night after Luna’s return, feel the quill in my magic as I write you a letter, feel my legs move as I sleepwalk and my heart race when you find me.

I feel no judgment for any of it, not for the times I was bad or the times I was good. It’s all drenched in love, everything is. I am loved despite all of the mistakes I’ve made and all of the time I’ve wasted.

I am without a body anymore, but it takes me a minute to realize it. I am still myself, but I am more pure. Cleaner, stronger, like I’ve been diluted all my life in Equestria and this has distilled me back into my true form. The light stretches out into infinity, I feel it’s boundlessness and I am at once a part of it. I am limitless into the light and the being.

Hello Twilight.

The greeting comes not as words but as pure thoughts. Voiceless intent. It feels more real than anything I’ve ever felt before, it feels like I’ve finally woken up. It comes out of me, Yes.

You are a good pony. I know you have many questions.

Yes, yes I do, I want to know everything about everything. And I want to know how I’m supposed to know what to do. When I leave I’m going to be afraid again. How do I know what I should do, who I should be? How to be the ambassador, the leader of friendship?

I will tell you that your life is important. You are here in Equestria to learn, Twilight. To learn about love and friendship. Love, in all it’s forms, is what matters in life. You are here to help one another, to love one another. Remember to love. You are gifted with free will, and you must choose what to do with it. So long as you choose to love, you will flourish.

I will come back here, won’t I?

Yes.

I love you.

I love you as well. I know you want to stay. You have yet to love your fullest, Twilight. You have yet to lead who you need to. It is not your time, though it is very good to see you.

...God?

You may call me that.

Thank you.

You are very welcome, Twilight Sparkle.

Things start to fade. I can feel myself picking up speed again, the momentum pooling backwards as if I’m falling, leaving the love and the peace and slipping back into the dreamyness of regular reality.

I can see again. I’m in the marble plane. The Queen takes her hoof off of me, and my heart stings as it beats.

“It might hurt a bit. Do you feel better?”

I smile. I feel like smiling. I want to dance and yell and laugh and explode with joy.

“You look better.”

“Yes.” I stand up, tingling all over.

She presses one hoof onto my withers. “Remember what I told you.”

“I will.”

“I have full faith in you. You will be a great pony. Use your new powers wisely.”

“Powers?”

“It’s all inside you already. It will come naturally.”

“Okay. I trust you.” Confidence and determination swell in my chest, despite myself.I want to do this. I want to make her proud, and I want to run back to you to tell you all about it.

“Are you ready to go back?”

“Yes.”

“Welcome to alicornhood, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

“Thank you, Queen—wait what’s your name?”

“Globin. Goodbye.”

She pushes down hard and I smash through the floor. I freefall through the marble, burning needles pierce through the skin along my mane and tail, some lump of energy spikes through my brain and my horn, everything stretches and burns inside—

My lungs decompress suddenly and I’m flailing through the air.

I splash into the river, and surface with my mouth full of water and my eyes burning.

“Twilight!” you and all the girls call. I swim to you, and dimly notice it feels like my legs are longer than usual. But I can’t focus on anything but your face, your beautiful concerned face.

I grin ear to ear, unable and unwilling to contain it as I slip trying to run the last distance to you, and tackle everyone I can reach into a hug. This place is so strange and otherworldfully wonderful now. I focus myself on you, your joyous, beautiful face, and pull you into my forelegs through everyone else. I feel like I can see your soul in your deep, brilliantly blue eyes, like I’m asking permission to join you in there. Or you with me, but it doesn’t matter because we’ll be together. And I can feel you lean forward, then hesitate, but I’m already pressing my lips against yours. I hear everyone gasp and giggle in surprise, as we kiss and you pull your forelegs around my neck. I know it’s not good, it’s my first kiss and I don’t know what I’m doing at all, but I can tell that you do. And damn you feel good, and oh my Celestia I’ve never tasted somepony’s lips before it’s so weird and new and amazing.

We part after a moment, and I’m still thinking about you, about all of you as a zebra, when I feel magic involuntarily stir inside me. The words of the spell ring from a language I don’t speak, the focus and mental parameters I need to cast it come from nowhere and are similar only to the spells I used once to raise the sun and moon. It comes from nowhere and everywhere at once; like it was carved onto my bones and wound inside my flesh.

Halos light over your head. I can see them even through your face, which is simultaneously unobstructed by them. An impulse flashes to me and I can almost read them. The strips and crashes of color, the spinning and the points where some bands sever themselves for a gap of air, it’s all you, your personality, represented in twenty different glittering ways. It must be the rest of my power.

Pinkie slams into us, I catch a glimpse of the rings burning fuchsia over her before the sudden motion breaks my spell. She pours her happy out in wild squeals, “AaaaaAH, you’re dating! I’m going to throw you a dating party—NO a double date with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash! And Twilight, you’re so tall now! And--”

“Darling, your mane!”

I crane my chin around to see what I can of my mane, then flip my tail around and look at it too. It’s become flowing and ethereal, just like the royal sisters’ manes. It’s deep purple with streaks of violet and hot pink that melt into a band of sunrise orange running through the wine-dark like dusk peering through clouds. A coppery sheen streaks over it all and catches the light from the lanterns. I’m sitting on a piece of evening sky.

I look back up and laugh. The spell is still inside me. I’ll have to investigate it later. “We should move back to Zecora’s hut, where it’s safer.”

“Do you feel better?” Applejack asks. She’s such a sweetheart. I pull her over and squeeze her tight.

“I do. I’ll talk about it while we walk. Zecora,” I turn back to your grinning face and ask you, “Is it okay if I do something?”

Intrigued and completely on board, you say, “Yes of course, what is it you beautiful horse?”

I maneuver around you, trembling on my legs that are at least two hooves longer than they used to be, then slide my head under your rump, stepping forward and pushing up so you fall down on my back. “I want to carry you home.”

You hug me tight, and with you kindling such a warmth in my chest, we all start forward. I don’t need it, but I cast light from my horn like Rarity and Starlight are doing. Fluttershy, on my left, asks, “So what happened? Do you feel okay? You’re crying!”

“I feel at peace. I feel so, so happy!” Now that she mentions it, I notice the warmth streaking wetly down my cheeks. I let it flow. Even with you on my back I’ve never felt so light as I do right now. So free and open. “I think, after becoming an alicorn and a princess, I just wasn’t sure of my new role and my new body. I didn’t feel at home in it anymore, or in my place in the world. Suddenly, it wasn’t me, Twilight, a magic dork, it was me Twilight and a pegasus and alicorn magic and an earthpony all wrapped up to be a princess. I guess it took a long time for me to realize it. But now, well, I feel better. I feel whole. And I still don’t feel like a princess, but I know it’s doable now. I can do this now.”

You squeeze me again, and smush your muzzle against the side of my head to whisper, “I’m so glad you found what you were looking for.”

I flicker my head back at you as best as I can, “It’s thanks to you. We have a lot to talk about.”

You focus your energy on hugging me and snuggling my long neck while we walk. Things look different now that I’m taller. But they feel real again, even with the unusual angle everything is at now. “I found my purpose,” I say to the girls. “I’m going to manage relations between Equestria and all the other nations that we’ve started to befriend. I don’t know exactly how to do it, I have a lot of reading to do now, but I’m going to do it. I’m going to bring friendship to everyone I can.”

“Wow Twilight,” Spike says, running alongside me. “Are you going to do it with the dragons too?”

“Of course! And I would love your help with that, Spike.”

“But what happened in there?” Starlight asks. She’s close to my side suddenly, and looks more terrified than the rest.

“I met the Queen. And she euthanized the old me so I could grow.”

“What?!” Most of them yell. I feel you tense up over my back, but I just laugh again. Everything is gloriously okay now. Even thinking about the halo spell in the back of my mind, my head is clear at last. And these tears are so refreshing.

I describe what happened to me, how the Queen inhabits a world above ours, how she sent me on for just a few moments, how she’s taking care of us right now. Rarity nearly faints when I tell her she was completely bald.

We hit the sparse clearing around your hut, and I sit down to let you climb off. I want to keep you on my back, to let you just hug on me all day, but it’s not exactly practical right now. You kiss me on my ear and wipe some of the water off my face before you walk past to open the door and let us in.

Inside, you pull out more cushions and put a large kettle on for tea. Then you sit next to me, and bring your flank up to mine. It fills my whole leg with warmth; tingles up the base of my spine and throws me into another giggle fit.

We talk more. Starlight slowly grows less anxious as you grow more anxious. After a half hour explaining everything and answering questions, I turn to you. You lift your head up to look me in the eyes. That beautiful face fills my vision and I can feel your breath on my nose.

“Zecora, would you like to say something as well?”

You bite your lip. Then turn back to the rest of the group. I pull my wing out and put it over your back. You speak, “There is something I would like to say, to everypony here today. I have for all this time, spoken only in rhyme...”

You tell your whole story, everything you told me. They can feel how nervous you are; that something big is coming.

And then you dwindle down to your last lines, “And that is why I think it’s time that I stop speaking in ...verse. I hope you all will understand.”

“Aw shucks, sugarcube, you don’t have to rhyme when you talk for us to like you!” Applejack beams at you. “I think your voice sounds right pretty in normal speak anyway.”

“Yeah, Zecora,” Fluttershy says, “You don’t have to rhyme if you don’t want to.”

“Eeeeeeeeee!” Pinkie jumps up and tackles you out of my wing. “I love it! We have another party to throw!” From under her crushing hug, you look up at me.

And grin as the tears roll down from both of us.

Author's Note:

TL;DR -- I hope everything made since, here's a cool link, and thank you so much for reading!

Well, this is it. I'm going to ramble for a bit on my thoughts of the story, just because I always like to see what other authors think about their work.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, I think. My default perspective is third person past-tense, so a mix of second and first person in present tense is about as far away from that as I can get. I feel like I never got into Twilight's head quite all the way, but I do enjoy the interplay between the "I" and the "you". And yeah, Twicora is an odd pairing but I really like it.

I hope the ending was satisfying, I know the big climax was basically just a conversation. And I hope the whole thing with the halos made sense, it's her new power to kind of see what ponies are like, what their personality is, so she knows who they might be good friends with.

I was going to write an epilogue where Twilight talks to Luna and then brings up her plans for fostering friendship between nations, but it would have just been more conversations and I figure I'll just save it for a sequel (if I write one). I really like the magic system I came up with, and I plan on using it in original work later on. It came from me thinking about that one scene where zecroa slides her hoof over her empty cup and then it's magically refilled. How did she do this? So it came from world building essentially, and I really like exploring the MLP world. So if there is a sequal, it will definitely do more world building, about the Queen and Twilight's power, and the Zebras. I've also already got 3,000 words written exploring Twilight and Zecora's relationship, but I probably will keep it a separate thing from the one that focuses on world building.

The word "ujasiri" is Swahili for courage and bravery. I chose Swahili because it is the most spoken language in the Bantu region of Africa, and most of the zebras alive today are around that area.

Twilight's experience was inspired directly by the stories of near death experiences collected by the Near Death Experience Research Foundation. The overall plot was inspired by "The River of Dreams" by Billy Joel, which was one of the first songs that made me interested in music.

I think that's it. Thank you so much for reading the story! All comments are appreciated!

Comments

[Jamin P Rose]

I have found this to be perhaps the most profound story I have read in a long time. Your skill with writing and the style you used were amazing. I feel as if through reading this story I have found a missing piece of me. In this case it was my honor to read this, such an amazing piece writing.

[MagnoliaThourns]

8843034
Thank you! I can't express how much your praise means to me. While I was writing it, I felt like I was straining to capture something just out of reach. That profoundness, the writing style, I wasn't sure if it any of it ever actually got onto the page. It makes me incredibly happy that you saw those things in this piece. ;u;
I'm so glad I could help you; I'm so glad you found a missing piece! Thank you so much for reading and commenting!

[bigbear]

Thank you for sharing “the Other Side”. You set a very high bar for yourself. This is an ambitious story, with an unusual structure (the pseudo 2nd person ‘written letter’), a seldom used pairing (Twicora), extensive world building, and challenging subject matter. Any story that deals with Zecora’s rhyming language also has an extra burden to carry.

There were many things I liked about the story. I enjoy stories the explore the relationship between Twilight and Zecora, and am a fan of the rare Twicora pairing. I liked the slowly rising romantic tension and the resolution between them. I liked a lot of the world building.

I am especially interested in scenarios where Zecora trains Twilight. I heard a rumor there was once a plan in the show to have Zecora be Twilight’s mentor in magic, but that the writers decided to take the show in a different direction. The Zebra magic that you posit in the story was very interesting, and Twilight’s challenges and progress in learning it seemed reasonable. Twilight’s new situation at the end of the story also felt like an organic outgrowth of who she is as a character in canon.

One of the challenges that the plot structure you selected forced you to deal with was how to keep Twilight focused on Zecora, instead of reaching out to her friends, including the rest of the Mane 6, Starlight, Spike, and the other Princesses. Twilight loves all of them (platonically), and they love her. I feel like it is important to properly honor those relationships. You did deal with the issue in the story, but I think that the reasons for Twilight not bring them in, or them not intervening sooner, could have been handled more artfully.

I think that some of the world building on the other side of the river was very inventive. But it felt like it all came out in a rush. Twilight spends seven chapters beating her head metaphorically against the challenge of the river, and then there are a bunch of revelations in a chapter and a half. There was so much mysticism in the build up, that there were almost too many revelations in the end. To maintain the tone of the story, you could have had slightly fewer revelations, maintained more of an aura of mystery, and left Twilight and Zecora with additional challenges to deal with in their future.

All in all this feels like a worthy story with some flaws. I am glad you shared it with us, and would be very interested in any of the sequels you mentioned in your Author's Note.

[MagnoliaThourns]

8851913
I appreciate the long comment! I'm glad you liked the story. It was definitely harder to write in this perspective than in my comfort zone of third person, but I have actually used the style before in a non-fanfiction short story that I ended up scrapping. So I had some experience with it. A lot of the subject matter came from my attempts to express how I feel in life right now, and much of the more serious aspects, like the ideas surrounding one's own death, came from thoughts constantly running through my head. Zecora's rhyming definitely gave me some trouble though. (And for anyone struggling with writing Zecora, I recommend taking a look at this nifty site.)

I'm glad you felt romantic tension, I was worried I rushed that part of the story too much. And I'm glad you liked the worldbuilding--I love to worldbuild, especially in the unique and crazy universe of MLP.

It took me a while to think up what Zecora's magic must be like, but I'm actually really pleased with the results. It feels perfect for an intense anime battle. It's something I've already thought about recycling into original works, and I'll definitely be exploring it more in any sequels.

Twilight’s new situation at the end of the story also felt like an organic outgrowth of who she is as a character in canon.

, ", <3 ;* : ' \( #u#\) Thank you. This is high praise, and I'm really glad that it came out like that in the story.

You did deal with the issue in the story, but I think that the reasons for Twilight not bring them in, or them not intervening sooner, could have been handled more artfully.

Absolutely. I tried to write it as plausibly as possible, and in the end I'm still unsatisfied with it. The idea that there are some things you just want to keep to yourself is a valid one, I think, but Twilight as a character probably wouldn't keep it so hidden. I wanted a kind of dreamy feeling to it, and I felt like I needed to isolate her for the sake of that and the story, but I definitely could have done better.

Twilight spends seven chapters beating her head metaphorically against the challenge of the river, and then there are a bunch of revelations in a chapter and a half. There was so much mysticism in the build up, that there were almost too many revelations in the end. To maintain the tone of the story, you could have had slightly fewer revelations, maintained more of an aura of mystery, and left Twilight and Zecora with additional challenges to deal with in their future.

You have a good point. I had a lot of worries about the ending, but mostly I worried that it was too boring or too esoteric. I never even considered leaving mystery behind--my actual thought process was along the lines of "okay now how do I answer all of the reader's questions at once?" haha. I did intend for the tone to change, from dreamy malaise into real-feeling joy, but if that change came off as too jarring (or if it changed to something else) then there's something wrong I should have fixed. And I can see what you mean with the buildup and the release. I didn't stop to consider it might be too much all at once, in too small of a timespan, for it to feel as cathartic and satisfying as it should. Thank you for telling me; I'll try to watch out for this in the next pieces I write.

All in all this feels like a worthy story with some flaws.

Anything created by a human will always have flaws, I fear, but to be called a worthy story is an honor. I'll try to get my sequel ideas written sometime this century, haha. Thank you for reading, and thank you so much for your constructive criticism!

[lord_steak]

Very good. A few spelling and grammatical errors, but otherwise very good. Normally using “it’s” (contraction of it is/has/was) when proper grammar calls for “its” (possessive form of it) is enough to dissuade me from reading further; it’s among m’ biggest pet peeves. Not here, though. Fascinating story you’ve woven, here. Have an upvote.

[MagnoliaThourns]

9128739

I'm afraid "it's" and "its" is my Achilles' heel wheen it comes to grammer. Thanks for reading through it anyway! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[PaulAsaran]

You can has review!

[Satto Kez]

It's clear there isn't a sequel but I'll say that it would have been REALLY interesting to see what you would have done with her abilities and path chosen. The prospect of so many things to happen.
Thanks for this story, was a joy to read.