1 - Calling
The giant, hemispherical room lay as dormant as ever. Thousands of sigils, all embedded within the stone walls and floor, each gave off small amounts of lavender light that, when taken together, ultimately lit the room. The air itself was warm but stale. A pair of large double doors at one end of the chamber sealed the room from the outside world; their flat and featureless faces blended with the wall; that lack of markings was the only indication that they were there at all. Earthly tremors reverberated through the space, perceptible only by the constant low rumbling.
Without any warning, a few sigils momentarily flashed a white light. The effect looked like a sparkle traveling around the room. It lasted for several seconds, during which every sigil lit up once and only once. And then the room was still once more.
The rings that made up the floor, no thicker than half-a-meter wide, each began rotating in alternating directions. The space rumbled as the rings swept past each other, eventually spinning fast enough that the ground quaked. And then, just as quickly as they had started spinning, the rings in the floor ground to a halt.
The floor then sank. The rings on the outside sank only a quarter-meter downward with inner rings dropping below that. The effect created a series of ringed steps that started at the walls and led down toward a now-exposed pillar in the center. The top of the pillar, upon which was the large symbol that tied the room together, remained stationary during the entire process.
As the innermost rings descended into their final places, they revealed a cavity in the pillar. The cavity itself was, in fact, a break in the pillar where a pony or two could walk right in and stand inside; only three supports arranged in a triangular configuration held the upper parts of the pillar above the floor.
The floor of the cavity hosted another large symbol much like the one that sat on top of the pillar but several smaller symbols accompanied it, all taking up smaller rings etched into the surface.
And the chamber grew silent once more.
The sigils in the main floor of the chamber briefly flashed a white light again, starting with those in the outer ring and ending with those in the inner ring. It gave the effect of lights traveling toward the center of the room. The waves continued and showed no signs that they would stop.
Sunset Shimmer stumbled out of the portal and her momentum carried her across the room. Her tumbling, however, was the last thing on her mind as she became aware of a stinging pain in her chest. Her upper appendages (which she registered as the forelegs of a pony) moved to clutch her chest, halfway on their own volition, as she convinced herself that her heart was about to explode. She screamed and writhed as the burning sensation wracked her body.
Twilight Sparkle appeared out of the portal right behind her. Her alicorn form stuck a nearly graceful landing—she teetered for a moment but otherwise kept her balance. She then spotted Sunset and gasped and rushed over. “Oh my gosh!”
Something definitely churned in Sunset’s chest. It oozed and boiled and she could barely think of anything else from how much the pain clouded her vision; she couldn’t even hear her own screams.
Twilight skid to a halt right beside her. “Sunset! I’m here! Oh gosh, oh gosh.”
Sunset groaned and rolled over again and the pain, surprisingly, let up a little bit. Her vision returned first and she recognized Twilight enough to reach up and touch her.
“I’m here…” Twilight croaked, taking Sunset’s hoof in her own. “I’m here, Sunset. Don’t worry…”
Sunset finally found her breath again and worked for even more air. She groaned and rolled onto her back, still clutching her chest. It would probably be a bit before the pain died away altogether, but at least it wasn’t blinding now.
Twilight sighed. “Goodness… that’s much worse than you made it sound.”
Sunset swallowed and nodded. “Y-yeah… I think that’s the worst it’s ever felt, though.”
“Are you okay?”
Sunset winced. “No, not really.”
“W-well…”
Sunset cracked a smile. “But it’s… it’s dying down. I swear. This is what’s happened before.”
Twilight grimaced. “Oh goodness, Sunset. Now I wish you would have told me about this earlier…”
Sunset shook her head. “Maybe…”
She took a moment to examine the large, crystal-walled room around her. Shelves upon shelves of potion tomes and dissertations on matrix theory ringed the room. The magic mirror stood at one end; its magical compressors bobbed up and down, the pumps thumped along, and the glowing magic streamed through the tubes connecting it all. A brown, hardcover book bearing a symbol—half reddish-sun and half lavender-star—nestled inside a niche at the top of the machine.
“Twilight!” shouted some voices from the hall. “Twilight!”
Sunset’s ears perked up and she swiveled toward the open doors. Twilight also looked, her eyebrow raised.
Two figures sprinted into the room, skidding to a halt as their eyes fell on the two. “What’s going on!? Is everything okay!?” the smaller of the two asked.
Sunset groaned and sat up. “Spike?”
Spike and his companion gasped and leaned forward.
“Sunset Shimmer…?” Starlight Glimmer gasped. “H-hey.”
“Hi…” Sunset croaked before falling onto her back.
“Is she okay?” Starlight asked. She looked up. “Twilight, we heard screaming!”
Twilight blushed and frowned. “Yeah, that was us. Something’s wrong with Sunset.”
Spike walked over and bent over Sunset. “What? What’s wrong?”
“We’re not sure,” Twilight replied.
Starlight frowned. “It must be really serious then. We just about heard that scream from the other side of the castle.”
Twilight went pale. “It…” she tentatively said, “it went that far?”
Spike raised an eyebrow. “Well…”
Twilight turned and bolted for the door. No sooner did she reach it did she collide headfirst with a new arrival: a unicorn mare wearing a skintight suit of armor (with a pair of lightning bolts adorning her flankplates). Twilight tumbled backward while the armored mare stumbled yet kept her footing.
The mare scanned the room. “I heard screaming!” she bellowed. “What is this about!?”
Sunset rolled over to examine the mare. From what was visible, this mare was largely purple in color with a very strong pink for a tail and mane. A jagged scar across the mare’s right eye caught Sunset’s attention first, but it was the broken horn that arrested her gaze.
Twilight lit her horn and disappeared in a flash; she reappeared on her hooves again. “We’re fine! Everything’s fine! I think…”
The mare ran her eyes over Twilight several times over, considered Starlight, Spike, and then finally found Sunset. She narrowed her eyes. “Who is this?”
Sunset groaned and started planting her hooves in an attempt to stand up.
Twilight glanced between the two. “This is Sunset Shimmer. She’s a really really close friend of mine.”
The mare raised an eyebrow.
“Uh,” Starlight began, “she was also the one screaming just now, I think.”
Sunset climbed to her hooves. “Who are you…?”
The mare straightened up. “I am Tempest Shadow. I guess you can also call me a friend.”
Sunset nodded. “Nice to meet you.”
“Tempest here is just visiting for a couple of days,” Twilight explained.
“Yes,” Tempest said. “I do try to stop by here and there, but I’m usually traveling the world. I’m trying to inform everyone about the Storm King’s defeat.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Who?”
Tempest frowned. “The Storm King. You know…?”
Twilight looked between the two and then stepped toward Sunset. “Uh, he’s the bad guy that attacked Canterlot a while back.”
Sunset scratched her head. “Uhhhhh… yeah. I guess it rings a bell?”
“Tempest here was his head mare,” Twilight said, chuckling nervously.
Tempest pounded her chest. “I was the one who defeated three princesses in the span of sixty seconds and conquered all of Equestria within a day.”
A long moment of silence passed. Spike twiddled his claws together and he turned his eyes to Sunset’s face. Starlight, meanwhile, smiled.
Sunset slowly but surely nodded. “You know, this is sounding a little familiar. That all actually happened?”
Twilight blushed and rubbed the back of her neck. “All true, I’m afraid.”
“What?”
“Yeaaahhhhh. We really got had,” Starlight said.
Sunset scratched the back of her head and chuckled. “So… you used to be a bad unicorn, huh?”
Tempest blushed. “I suppose that you could say that. But I am doing much better now.”
“I know how it feels. Actually, I’m a bit jealous that you managed to actually conquer Equestria. I didn’t even get to launch an attack myself.”
Starlight stifled a chuckle.
“Oh please,” Tempest groaned with a roll of her eyes.
Sunset shook her head. “No, really. I wanted to conquer Equestria once. I really did. Tell her, Twilight.”
Twilight chuckled. “All true, actually.”
Tempest raised an eyebrow.
“I gotta say, Twilight, you’re good at reforming unicorns,” Sunset said as she shot Starlight a glance.
“Well, you oughta count Trixie, too,” Spike added, bouncing on his feet all the while.
“Stygian…” Starlight added.
Sunset frowned. “You’re really good at reforming unicorns.”
Twilight blushed and rubbed the back of her head while chuckling nervously.
At that, Tempest straightened up and turned to face Twilight. “No matter. As long as you are safe and you say that everything is fine, then I’ll buy this. As for you, Sunset Shimmer, it is nice to meet you. I would like to know more about this attempt at Equestria you mentioned.”
Sunset nodded and opened her mouth to reply when a whirring and whining sound passed through her ears. She glanced around, searching for the source of the sound. Everyone else turned in Twilight’s direction and Twilight herself was looking at the star-shaped cutie mark that adorned her rear; it whined and hissed and spurted out several quickly fading shapes.
“What in the—” Sunset tried.
Twilight gasped sharply. “Oh my gosh! I’m… I’m being summoned for a mission!”
Sunset blinked. “Oh… what?”
“Remember the Cutie Map?” Starlight asked. “It does this to you when it’s calling on you.”
Stars filled Twilight’s eyes as she practically danced in place. “That’s right! It’s a super important mission! And…” Twilight paused as her eyes fell on Sunset again and her smile slowly faded. She craned her neck to get a look at Sunset’s rear and then pointed. “Sunset… look.”
The others looked toward Sunset’s flank and frowned.
Sunset herself looked and saw her own cutie mark spraying out several sun-shaped symbols and similarly whining and hissing like Twilight’s mark.
Sunset looked back up at Twilight. “Me? The Map wants… me?”
All eyes turned to Twilight again.
Twilight stroked her chin and sighed. “Well… I guess we’ll just have to change our plans then. Great!”
“Uh—” Sunset began.
“Sorry, Sunset, I think we’ll have to put our plans on hold. Let’s see what the Map has in store for us!” she said jovially before leaping out of the room.
Everyone else watched the doorway and then, one by one, they chuckled.
Starlight turned. “You heard her; let’s all go see.”
Sunset sighed and nodded. “Alright then. Let’s all walk over. Maybe,” she began, turning to Tempest, “you and I could talk more on the way?”
Tempest nodded. “Sure.”
* * *
The halls were at least a little familiar by now and Sunset had an inkling of where she actually was. Much of it all still looked the same, but there were those little details like discolorations in the glassy doors or spots in the carpet that helped.
“So this Storm King was a piece of work, huh?” Sunset asked as she walked with the others.
Tempest frowned. “Yes. He refused to restore my horn. But now that I’ve had time to think about it, I don’t think he ever intended to restore it.” She hung her head. “I did such terrible things to Equestria for nothing.”
Starlight smirked. “Well, it isn’t like most of us haven’t done terrible things. You’re not alone there.”
“The important thing is that we try to be better ponies, right?” Sunset asked.
“Of course. And I am trying just that,” Tempest replied as they rounded a corner.
“I think everypony in town is starting to get used to her coming around,” Spike added.
Tempest cleared her throat. “There are still quite a few ponies that cower at the sight of me whenever I am out and about.”
“I don’t know,” Sunset began. “I think I’d also be on edge if a former conqueror of Equestria was walking freely right next to them.”
Several heads turned and shot her narrow-eyed glances.
Sunset blushed and added, “I mean, look at how I was treated right after I became a she-demon.”
Spike groaned. “Uhhhh… you’re not wrong.”
“Besides, I also go to a school with a girl who nearly kick-started the apocalypse—I’m best friends with her even, and I’ve made friends with someone who trapped me in a mirror, so, you know…”
Tempest snorted. “No. They have a right to fear me. They should, for what I did.”
At that, Sunset closed in on Tempest and laid a hoof across Tempest’s back (or, rather, the armor that covered her back). “Listen, I’ve been where you are right now; I did something not great and people didn’t really like me for a while. But I’ll tell you that if you keep trying your best and give them enough reasons to…” she said with a smile, “they’ll forgive you.”
At that, Tempest smiled back. “I appreciate that. Thank you.”
The four of them rounded another corner, arriving in what had to be the final hall. And then Sunset saw the open doorway at the end of the hall that led into the throne room. She could see Twilight standing over what looked like a large, crystalline table in the middle.
The four of them stepped inside and Sunset craned her neck to see the room in its entirety; she hadn’t seen this room before. Tall ceilings hung above them but the decorated tree roots drew Sunset’s eyes. Many lit balls containing what looked like little pictures hung off its many branches.
“Wow,” she cooed.
Twilight stepped aside as they approached, allowing the four of them their own view. The table in front of them contained what looked like a holographic projection of all of Equestria and some of the locations beyond. Sunset even recognized some of the more outlying landmasses. As her eyes traveled back toward the middle of the map, she spotted the image of Twilight’s cutie mark mingling with her own.
“I also wonder what it would be like to go on a Map mission,” Tempest mused.
“Aw,” Twilight replied. “Don’t worry. Maybe someday, the Cutie Map will call you!”
Starlight rolled her eyes. “Right. We can’t go because the Map isn’t calling us. Lame.”
Spike crossed his arms and watched as the two cutie marks floated upwards from their location atop the castle. “You got that right.”
They watched as the two cutie marks floated up and up and up and then arced toward Canterlot. The cutie marks floated closer and closer to the castle and then passed through it entirely and phased into the mountain. Once there, they continued moving downward and downward and then, finally, just as it seemed like they were about to pass into the surface of the Map itself, they stopped and hung there, still circling around each other.
Sunset trembled. And the color had disappeared from Twilight’s face.
Tempest snorted. “That’s nonsense. What sort of friendship problem would be beneath the mountain?”
A long silence hung over the room as the others considered the spot. When Tempest got no responses, her frown deepened and she started paying careful attention to each of their long and colorless expressions.
Spike tentatively looked up at Twilight and climbed onto the Map. “Are you sure you don’t want us to go?”
Twilight said nothing. Her eyes remained glued to the spot, even as a few trembles revealed themselves. She eventually looked up. “No,” she said at length. “I don’t think you can go down there with us. Whatever it is, the Map wants Sunset and I to go there.”
Starlight rested her forehooves on the edge of the Map. “Twilight…”
Twilight glanced between Spike, Starlight, and Tempest. “But I think I want all of you to at least make it as far as Canterlot with us.”
Starlight nodded and immediately turned. “I’ll go grab my things.”
“Do you want me to write to the princess and let her know that we’re coming?” Spike asked.
Twilight watched as Starlight left the room and then said, “Please.”
Spike also turned, hopped off the Map, and trotted out of the room.
Tempest watched the door with a raised eyebrow and couldn’t decide how she wanted to hang her jaw. She tentatively glanced back at the spot on the Map and then looked up at Twilight.
Sunset shuddered and walked over to Twilight. “Why there? Why would it want us to go back? Why now?”
Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Sunset stamped the floor. “And here I thought we had enough of that place for one lifetime!”
Tempest’s frown deepened. “I hate to interrupt, but… what is going on?”
At once, both Sunset and Twilight whirled to face Tempest. And then they exchanged glances.
Twilight stepped forward. “Tempest… I have a lot of explaining to do here…”
* * *
The scenery rolled by in time with the click-clack of the train cars as they rumbled along the track below. Every so often, the car shook as it hit a small bump, but Twilight paid that no mind.
Tempest, who sat in the seat across from her, cupped her hooves underneath her chin and hummed. “This Nameless sounds formidable. For it to cause this much grief well after it is gone is impressive, to say the least.”
Twilight nodded. “Yes. That it is.”
“Not to mention that everything we’ve done with it has been pretty strange,” Starlight, who sat in the seat with Twilight and Spike, added.
“Still doesn’t beat the time she died, though,” Spike replied.
Tempest shot Sunset, her seatmate, a glance and then chuckled. “That sounds like the most impressive part. Twilight Sparkle died… and got better.”
Twilight blushed. “Well, when you say it like that... But I have Sunset to thank for that.”
Sunset blushed. “Eh. I was happy to do it.”
Spike opened his mouth to say something else, but then he grasped at his mouth and let out a sharp burp. Bits of green fire spewed out of his mouth which swirled together and eventually took the form of a wrapped scroll. The scroll, held together with a golden seal, dropped right into Spike’s waiting hands.
Sunset sat up in her seat. “That has to be Princess Celestia. What does it say?”
Spike sat up straight as he broke the seal and unfurled the letter. As the other four leaned forward to listen close, Spike cleared his throat.
“My dearest Twilight,
“After considerable thought, I think it may be best that you see what is down in the chamber first. I suspect that I will be ready to receive you by the time you come back up. I am currently requesting a few more contacts to come in and see about Sunset Shimmer’s issue.
“And, naturally, please exercise extreme caution.
“I address this now specifically to Spike and Starlight Glimmer. Please be prepared to answer questions about what has transpired that last few times we have dealt with the Nameless and its effects.
“Yours,
“Princess Celestia”
Starlight sighed. “Well, that does it. I kinda wonder who these other contacts are, though.”
Spike turned to Starlight as he rolled the letter back together. “Me too.”
“Well, you’ll find out once you see her. Hopefully, whatever it is that we have to do down in that chamber won’t take too long,” Twilight said, briefly shooting Sunset a glance.
Sunset sucked in a long breath and tentatively nodded.
* * *
The further Twilight ventured through the tunnel, the more her heart shriveled up. The crystalline walls contained enough ambient light for them to see. Those walls contrasted the dirt path that hung a slow and constant left.
And now, up ahead, the path made a sharp left turn. They had arrived.
She exchanged glances with Sunset who walked in silence right beside her.
They rounded the corner and arrived in a very short tunnel. A tall set of stone double doors adorned with swirling patterns that formed beings somewhat unlike a pony groaned and began to split apart.
Twilight took a deep breath and watched those doors fall into recesses in the wall. The light from within the chamber beyond blinded them at first but then died down. The lavender lighting within illuminated the entryway.
And as they stepped forward, Sunset gasped. “Uhm, where is the floor?”
Twilight also looked closer and too noticed that the chamber floor seemed to be missing. She ran forward with Sunset close behind until they reached the entryway. Once there, they stopped dead in their tracks.
The floor sank downwards, reaching its lowest point at a pillar in the center of the chamber; more specifically, it ended at a cavity in the bottom half of the pillar. The sigils within the floor rings all flashed, making waves of light that started at the walls and moved toward the center.
Twilight sucked in a breath. “Well, this is new.”
Sunset snorted. “No shit.”
Twilight took a deep breath. “Come on. Let’s try and figure out what this is about.”
The two trotted down the steps. The recessed floor revealed sigils etched into the sides of those rings which couldn’t have been seen when the floor was level. Twilight scanned them and hummed inconclusively as they reached the lowest of the rings.
Sunset groaned and clutched at her chest. She even buckled from the pressure.
Twilight looked back at her with a gasp. “Are you okay?”
Sunset swallowed and eventually nodded, simultaneously loosening the strap on her saddlebag. “Yeah. I think.”
Twilight entered the cavity in the pillar and set her own saddlebag against one of its supports. She examined the cavity’s ceiling, noting the ethereal lavender glow in its flat surface. She examined the supports themselves and noted some tubing in their faces which, while currently empty, housed trace amounts of magical energy near the bottom. The cavity floor, meanwhile, contained a very large and complicated symbol that captivated Twilight's gaze for several long moments.
Sunset groaned and joined Twilight in the cavity. “Well?”
“Well, we have something to go on. When I was first here, I cataloged every symbol that I came across. That’s everything on the walls and ceiling,” Twilight said, pointing, “and everything on the floor. But all this stuff within the floor is new.”
Sunset groaned but nodded again, even pausing a moment to wipe some forming sweat off her brow. “Yeah, okay. That was how you learned about it the first time.”
Twilight’s eyes flicked between the newly-revealed sigils and Sunset and she straightened up. “Yes. That’s right.”
“So maybe if we look at these new symbols,” Sunset continued, pausing to groan and buckle a little bit more. “Maybe they’ll say something about what’s going on here?” she managed to get out before she collapsed entirely.
Twilight gasped and darted to Sunset’s side. “Sunset! Are you okay!?”
Sunset grunted and groaned in response as she clutched her stomach and rolled about the floor, bumping up against one of the cavity’s supports. She shriveled up more and gasped for air.
“Sunset!” Twilight screamed.
Sunset let out a shrill cry, writhing against the supports. Her screams filled the chamber, echoing several times.
“Not again!” Twilight exclaimed. “Sunset! I’m here! I’m here! Don’t you worry,” she said as she cradled Sunset’s head, “I’m here!”
And Sunset kept screaming; she made no indication that she knew Twilight was there.
Twilight cried out and lit her horn, wrapping magical essence around Sunset. She let the rest of her spell flow through her horn and the two of them disappeared in a white flash, reappearing in the chamber entryway.
And Twilight kept holding on.
Eventually, Sunset’s screams lowered down to whimpers but even that lasted a sizeable while. Sunset eventually loosened up and let herself go limp in Twilight’s embrace.
“Sunset!”
Sunset groaned and rolled over in Twilight’s grasp. She shivered, shuddered, and then finally met Twilight’s eyes.
Twilight sighed and wiped some wetness from her eyes. “Sunset. Are you okay?”
Sunset groaned and shook her head. “…No.”
“Darnit, Sunset. I knew something was wrong.”
Sunset snorted. “I-I could feel it coming on as we got closer to that pillar.”
“That came on so suddenly and…” Twilight had to sigh again. “Sunset… that was a lot like what happened at the castle. Tell me that it wasn’t.”
“It… was…”
Twilight’s frown deepened.
Sunset finally straightened herself up, lifted herself from Twilight’s grasp, and returned to her hooves. “Twilight, I don’t like this one bit.”
“I don’t either,” Twilight said as she fell backward. “Everything about this is wrong.”
“Well… hopefully, it doesn’t happen again.”
Twilight nodded.
Sunset eventually straightened up. “Whatever. Twilight, we should get to work, I guess.”
Twilight rolled over and stood up. “Woah! Sunset, maybe we should take it easy for a while?”
“If it’s all the same to you, Twilight, I just want to do what the Map sent us to do and figure out what the heck is going on with this place and then get the buck out of here.”
Twilight had to cycle Sunset’s words over and over again within her mind. “Are you sure?”
Sunset shook her head. “No. But it’s the best I got right now.”
“It’s okay if you want to take some time away. Or all of it.”
“I never even wanted to be here. But I’m just as concerned about this as you are, and there’s no bucking way I’m leaving you alone in this place. Not again.”
Twilight scratched her head and then nodded. “Fine. Then stay on the outer rings. Don’t go anywhere near that pillar,” Twilight commanded, poking Sunset in the chest.
Sunset nodded in response.
* * *
Sunset lit her horn and a cloud of magic appeared in front of her. She covered one of the symbols on the chamber wall with it, trying to get a feel for the energies within. Her spell would tell her something about it. Whether it was something she could interpret would be another matter.
She didn’t expect much; these flashing lights had to be a programmed behavior. The chamber had been designed so that it could do this, after all. She had worked with her fair share of hardware back home, and everything had a purpose.
Sunset frowned. This place had never been straightforward. Surely another bombshell was just around the corner.
There was a signal. It ran through the symbol before her and the symbols right next to it. There were even smaller signals that ran around the symbol itself.
She giggled. It really was just circuitry.
She noted the direction the signal was traveling in and started moving her spell in the opposite direction. There had to be a source somewhere. There had to be a processor, a heart that made this place tick.
Maybe she would find out things about this that the few academics she had heard had turned their careers toward the study of this place and those things relating to it didn’t even know.
She wasn’t sure how well even Twilight herself knew it. And she knew more about the Nameless than anypony in any of the Equestrias.
Sunset blinked. That’s right. There are other versions of Equestria. I almost forgot.
Sunset turned. Twilight sat halfway into the pit, furiously scribbling into a notebook. Twilight occasionally paused to glance at the symbols in front of her and even air-traced them with her quill before jotting them down.
She mentioned there have been some collaborations between Equestrias to try and figure out how this dimensional business works. I wonder if she’s even been a part of any of those?
Sunset shook her head. Nah. She’s probably had enough of the Nameless for one lifetime... Maybe even two. She couldn’t help but smile to herself. Right?
Sunset focused on her spell again and continued following the signal, even when it mixed with other signals and became a singular blip in the system. She even latched onto the circuitry itself with her spell. She followed the wire.
Her spell was somewhere in the floor. She could see the circuitry in that area with her spell almost as if she were seeing it with her eyes. Surely she was getting close.
Twilight shot to her hooves. “Okay! I got it!”
Sunset lost hold on her spell as she similarly lost her balance. She tumbled and almost fell down the steps when she turned her magic on herself and caught herself before she could fall further. She righted herself and found her footing again.
Twilight frowned. “Are you okay there, Sunset?” she asked.
“Yeah.” Sunset sighed with relief. “I’m fine. Startled me a bit there.”
Twilight blushed and nervously chuckled. “Heh heh… sorry. I got excited.”
Sunset turned. She knew where her spell had been. All she had to do was project it. She lit her horn again and projected a cloud into the floor where she thought—no, she knew her spell had been before. And her spell appeared there.
And the circuitry in that area was all wrong. It felt nothing like what her spell had been feeding her.
That could only mean one thing: she had lost it somehow. Sunset snorted and let her spell fizzle out. “What?”
Twilight held up her notebook. “I finished rebuilding my translations. I’m in a position to read all of this again.”
Sunset’s eyes widened and her grimace disappeared. “Oh! Really? That didn’t take long.”
“It’s much easier the second time around, you know,” Twilight replied.
“Don’t you have your original notes back home? You probably could have just gone home and got it.”
“I could have… but doing all the work from scratch was much faster in this case. Besides…” Twilight held her head high, “I practically have every scholarly article on this language in my library somewhere. I’ve read them a dozen times. I remember them from cover to cover!”
Sunset couldn’t help but smile, especially when Twilight wore a wide and proud grin herself. “Only you, Twilight.”
Twilight nodded and started down the steps. “Anyway, I’m going to try and read these inscriptions. Hopefully, they’ll tell us what is going on.”
Sunset nodded and trotted in Twilight’s direction.
It was when they were halfway down that Twilight whirled around and poked Sunset in the chest. “Wait. Remember what I said about the pillar?”
Sunset deflated. “Right…”
Twilight descended toward the pillar. She examined the sides of the bottom-most rings, writing in her notebook as she went. She paused over the occasional symbol and subsequently flipped through already-filled pages where she compared styles and strokes; she would eventually nod to herself or hum with interest and then flip back to her working pages.
Sunset took a seat on the outer steps and sighed. She took a moment to gaze at the pillar, zeroing in on the tubing within the supports in particular. Strangely enough, while there had been some magical energy present in the bottom-most part of the tubing before, it had since risen by a tiny bit in the few hours they had been there.
Twilight grunted, prompting Sunset to looked back at her. She watched Twilight closely, studying her expression as it widened and narrowed and swished this way and that.
And Sunset noticed a pattern where the colors in Twilight’s face faded at the same pace that her frown deepened. With each symbol she translated, Twilight pressed her quill harder against the pages. She would finish transcribing and translating a ring and move on to the next, trembling a little more each time.
Sunset didn’t want to know what it was.
And then, somewhat close to the top, Twilight’s quill snapped in two and she fell on her haunches. “This is bad,” she muttered.
“What? What!?” Sunset exclaimed.
Twilight whirled. “This is bad, Sunset. This is really really bad.”
Sunset stamped her hoof. “Well!? What does it say?”
Twilight grimaced and, after climbing to her hooves, she trotted up to meet Sunset. She read from her book as she went. “This is the seal for the Nameless,” she read aloud. “This text being readable means that the chamber is in the primed state. The cause of the priming is because a non-zero amount of the entity for which this seal exists has been detected outside of the seal.” Twilight swallowed. “It’s saying that there is some part of the Nameless out there right now.”
Sunset gasped. “How!? We destroyed the Nameless!”
“That can’t be right! It’s impossible!” Twilight threw her hooves into the air.
Sunset growled. “That’s right. We would have known about it a long time ago!”
“Yes…”
“So maybe it’s a false alarm.”
Twilight collapsed onto the floor, covering her head in the process. “Oooohhhhh.”
Sunset forced herself to breathe in and out, and that helped the thumping in her heart to subside. “Yeah, that’s it. This is a false alarm, Twilight. It has to be. We don’t have anything to worry about.”
Twilight shook her head. “No, there’s more. I’m not done transcribing this.” She reached into her saddlebag with her magic and fetched a fresh quill from within. She then turned and returned to the spot from before.
“What does it say?” Sunset asked.
Twilight read the sigils and transcribed their translations as she went. “The fragment must be sealed away, not destroyed, or the realities will be left in an undesired state. Until such a time, this seal shall charge up for its final measure, and once that point has been reached,” she read aloud, “to ensure the ultimate survival and cohesiveness of existence… this seal shall…” Twilight’s words died in her throat.
Sunset couldn’t help but trot down a few of the rings. Some hints of the prior pains in her chest resurfaced but she ignored them. “Twilight!?”
Twilight licked her lips and dropped her quill. “This seal… shall need to absolutely and indiscriminately soak up the magic of these realities, up to the last drop. Only then shall the preservation be true and complete.” Twilight buried her face into her hooves. “Oh, goodness!”
Sunset stomped the floor. “What the hay!? What…?”
Twilight looked up and met Sunset’s eyes.
“Why…? Why would it do that?” Sunset asked.
“I… I think it might be a countermeasure. Remember how it worked the first time? The Nameless tried to soak up my energy so that it could make it through the door. It made a tether to me, at that.”
Sunset drew in closer. “Yeah. I remember that. The Nameless eats magic, doesn’t it? That’s what you’ve told me.”
Twilight nodded solemnly. “Yes. And with Equestria so full of magic… it would have been unstoppable. But if there’s no magic for the Nameless to consume, or a fragment of it even, then it will starve.”
“But we need that magic. Twilight, we need that to raise the sun and the moon! Pegasi need that to fly! Earth ponies need that to work the land! And us unicorns…”
Twilight shuddered and glanced at the central pillar. She ran her eyes over the patterns in the floor and then met Sunset’s eyes again. “I know… Sunset… we all need magic. And if it’s all gone…”
Sunset’s mind went to work on visualizing the effects. She imagined the countless pegasi in cities like Cloudsdale suddenly losing their ability to walk on the clouds and even fly. She could imagine them falling by the thousands. She imagined the land drying up and she imagined plants wilting and then decaying away. She imagined the sun or the moon remaining plastered in the sky without a single pony who could move them.
Those and so many more images flashed through her mind. She swallowed and forced the next words out. “It would be the end of everything.”
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It's out!
And so it begins....
Could you please write a refresher blog or something so I and others don't have to go reread the first two books? It's been a while since Substitute ended.
YES!!!!!!
9160995
Gotcha. It has been done: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/827144/divergence-as-a-quick-recap
Well this isn't good. Sunset seems to be the tether this time too.
Hoo boy. Our actors are in place (including Tempest, who was surely written in for a purpose), the stakes are higher than ever, and the show begins. Good to know that somebody realizes the full implications of an Equestria without magic. (S8 Finale Spoilers) Because the show writers sure don't.
Dang this is off to a great start.
No please, not another roller coaster. Just when I thought we were done, ya sucked me right back in. Why are these so good?
Oh good, there's Starlight.
Oh man. Sunset's the tether, isn't she?
Uh, Starlight? You got called before. Alone. To Canterlot. To solve friendship problem. Regarding the Royal Sisters. What the hay are you complaining about?
And oh boy... here we go again!