A Torn Page (The Enchanted Library)
“While you were all trapped with a bunch of fairies, I was having the time of my life.”
Cinder looked up at Swip’s representation. She still looked human, but she had ‘dyed’ her hair the color of most Sweetie Belles, though she kept it straight. Her skin—Ambiguously Brown, Cinder had decided—was a bit shocking since most Sweetie Belles were bleach white, but that just served as more of a defining feature. That is, if being a gigantic spaceship wasn’t defining enough.
“Swip, you were getting repaired. How was that fun?”
“Brought Rachel into a VR simulation,” Swip said, sliding in ‘closer’. “We spent all day talking, seeing the sights of distant worlds, and doing each other’s hair!” She grinned. “Machines are superior. Even when our spines are broken we can still sail the seven seas…”
“Oh, right, Rachel! How’s she doing?”
“Pretty good, actually. Turned down that offer to be liaison between our universes, but can you really blame her?”
“Not particularly,” Cinder admitted.
“Is she the one who flipped my mattress upside down?” Nira asked, walking through the lounge with a scowl on her face.
“That was me,” Swip reported. “Except it was upside-down before. You’re lucky I caught that in repairs.”
Nira twitched, grumbling incoherently to herself as she left.
“Someone’s a grump,” Cinder commented.
“At the rate things have been going with her, I’ll be out of a job,” Squiddy said. She was currently flopped over the back of a couch like a dead fish, so lethargic she hadn't even raised her head to speak.
“Think we should be concerned?”
“I dunno, I’m like, the least empathetically attuned fish on this ship.”
“You’re the only fish on me,” Swip corrected.
“Joke’s on you, I’m not a fish.”
“Joke’s on you, we still haven’t figured out if you’re a kid or a squid.”
“Neither of which are a fish.”
“For all we know kid plus squid equals fish.”
“That’s stupid.”
“I’m sure there’s a Horrorterror out there that’ll agree with me.”
“GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS?” Burgerbelle said, jumping through a door.
“If it’s not hammertime I win a bet,” Squiddy called, still not lifting her head.
“It’s random mission assignment time!” Burgerbelle declared. “Suzie’s got us a random creepy forest! Let’s see who gets to go!”
“Heh. Seren owes me five quid.”
Burgerbelle pulled a four-section slot machine out of nowhere and pulled the lever on the side. The slots whirled and quickly landed on four separate symbols with a ka-ching-ching-ching-ching! A flaming Crusader emblem told Cinder she was on the team. Next were Celia’s crystal, the crescent on Seren’s staff, and the six lines of the Void symbol. “Cinder! Celia! Seren! Blink!” Burgerbelle suddenly held all of them in her arms. “You’re all going to have such fun!”
Celia blinked, dropping the book she was reading. “Oh. Slot machine, I assume?”
“Yep,” Cinder said.
Squiddy shot bolt upright. “Hey! Seren! It wasn’t hammertime! You owe me-”
“No time for that!” Burgerbelle declared, running to the portal room—it was already open and set to a dark forest. “Have fun!” She threw the four of them in and closed the portal.
“Well, at least I don’t have to pay up!” Seren declared with an innocent smile.
“Lucky draw this time, none of us are going to throw that much of a fit about being here,” Blink observed.
“I was enjoying my book,” Celia commented.
“Hey, girls?” Cinder said.
“Hmm?”
“Timberwolf.”
There was, in fact, a tremendous wolf made of magically enchanted wooden planks glaring at them with a mixture of surprise and hostility.
“Sweet!” Blink said, taking up a fighting stance. “Let’s punch some trees!”
Cinder lit the timberwolf on fire. Normally wet timberwolves would be a nightmare to set on fire, but this particular one had a few loose twigs on its paw that worked as excellent kindling. It roared in a mixture of panic and agony as it frantically tried to put out its charring paw. As the roar turned into more of a whimper, it ran off, presumably to find a river or something.
Seren whooped. “Go Cinder!”
“I am the timberwolf slayer,” Cinder declared. “No wood shall escape my righteous flames!”
“It ran away,” Blink pointed out.
“It might die,” Cinder said.
“Probably not though.”
“Yeah, probably not.”
Celia smiled at the antics of the two unicorns. “Seren, have some fire spells on standby, we don’t want to be surprised if it calls some friends.”
“I’ll burn them all!” Cinder declared.
“We don’t want a forest fire, dear.”
“A… Hmm. I’ll burn some of them? Come on, they’re literally made out of wood! I’m super effective!”
“Something, something, pokemon reference Burgerbelle makes,” Blink said, waving a hoof.
“So, observation,” Seren declared, holding up a finger. “We are in a non-standard Everfree Forest.”
“Why non-standard?” Celia asked.
“Suuuuuper saturated with chaos magic. Like, directly from Discord saturated. That Timberwolf was enchanted with similar stuff too.”
Celia furrowed her brow. “...Be prepared for a quick eject if we run into a particularly nasty version of him.”
Cinder’s smile faltered. “A… oh geez, a really evil Discord would be… I don’t really want to think about it but I already am.”
“I can protect us long enough to escape,” Seren said. “...Probably.”
“Very confidence-boosting.”
As the other Sweeties talked and began to poke around the forest, Cinder took a look around. She happened across something interesting first. “Hey, I found something!”
“What?” Blink asked.
Cinder pointed at a tree with a window in it. “Treehouse.”
“Wow!” Seren said, floating up to the window and looking in. “I can’t really see anything… I wonder why it’s here?”
“Perhaps we should read the plaque?” Celia suggested, pointing with a hoof at the base of the tree.
PONYVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY
Donated by Princess Twilight Sparkle
“It does look a bit like the Golden Oak Library…” Cinder said, noticing a trap door beneath the plaque. “Well, adventure calls!” She pulled on the trapdoor, easily popping it open to reveal a narrow staircase.
“Seren,” Blink said. “Analyze the situation: is Celia going to fit?”
“Affirmative. Won’t even be that hard, if she crouches.”
Celia smiled. “I won’t even have to work that ha-”
“DOPPELGANGER!” a Rarity shouted. Celia took a moment to look up—and a book smashed into her face at high velocity. This normally would have done absolutely nothing, no matter how large the book was, but this particular one must have been enchanted with something because the impact force knocked her straight down the stairwell.
Cinder glanced up, looking at the Rarity for the first time. She looked normal, although angry, scared, and she had a pink necklace. To her side was a nervously shaking Fluttershy.
“Wh… SPIRIT! Stop mocking my sister!” She pulled the book back for another hit.
“DOWN THE STAIRS!” Cinder shouted, dodging the book by a hair’s breadth. Seren and Blink didn’t question it—they ran down as fast as their legs could carry them, passing through a magic veil of some sort without really thinking about it. They entered a large underground library filled with a vast array of bookshelves, tables, and even a few candles. Celia was waiting for them at the base of the stairs, rubbing her gemstone.
“What was on that book?” she wondered, experiencing something akin to a headache.
“Dunno, don’t wanna find out!” Cinder said. “Let’s j-” she heard hoofsteps coming down the stairs. “Let’s keep running!”
Celia shook her head. “I am more than capable of handling some boo-”
The Rarity threw the book before she reached the bottom of the stairs, hitting Celia square in the face again. She flew through the air, over several bookshelves, and down a second stairwell.
“Seren?” Cinder asked.
Seren caught the book in her telekinesis before the Rarity could retrieve it again.
“Ruffian!” Rarity shouted, voice wavering with uncertainty as she tugged at the book with her own, vastly inferior telekinesis. “Un… HAND the book this instant.”
“It’s not in my hand,” Seren pointed out.
“Wh… Bh… GAH, enough games!” She charged Seren, only to ram herself facefirst into an invisible wall.
“You might want to stop trying, this isn’t exactly going to go in your favor…” Seren said.
“We’ll go get Celia,” Blink said, grabbing Cinder. The two of them galloped away, running down the secondary stairwell into the lower level of the library. Once again, Celia was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs amidst a bunch of bookshelves. Unlike the previous level, however, this floor had bookshelves flying every which way in a random chaotic fashion.
Furthermore, there was a version of Twilight Sparkle floating through the bookshelves, a disgruntled look of annoyance on her face as she chased a particularly nasty-looking chaos-infused bookshelf through the air, never quite able to reach it. “Come on!” she called, oblivious to her three-Sweetie audience.
“...Seren’s up there dealing with the Rarity,” Blink reported. “Think we should…?”
“At the moment I am unsure of what precisely is happening,” Celia admitted. “Though I am curious to find out. HEY! PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”
Twilight turned sharply to the left, lighting up considerably. “Rarity! You’re back! Excuse me I-” it took her all of a second to see that Celia wasn’t Rarity. “...Discord.”
“What? NO!” Celia waved her hoof, lifting up her mane to reveal her crystal. “My name is Celia and I’m from another universe!”
Twilight’s horn stopped glowing. “...Another… universe? Prove it.”
“The two mares behind me are both alternate versions of the same mare, Sweetie Belle.”
“Hi Princess!” Cinder waved. “I’m Cinder, this is Blink, and the Sweetie on the other floor keeping your Rarity from beating us up is Seren!”
“Sweetie? Floor? Rarity? Beat up!?”
“I assure you we can explain everything if y-” Celia stopped talking when the Twilight teleported away. This did not stop them from hearing the conversation above them.
“Twilight! Help me defeat this… intruder! This mockery of Sweetie!”
“Rarity, I... Are you ramming a book into an invisible wall?”
“It’s the book you gave me! I’m… using it to defend myself!”
“From what?”
“The Spirit!”
“That’s just a kid, Rarity. With a… oh my that’s a lot of magic…”
“See! The Spirit!”
“Almost all of it is familial magic! Discord didn’t have family!”
“Then why does she look like Sweetie Belle?”
“I… Oh my, alternate universes. Yes! The mare that looks like you wasn’t lying, this is a case of interdimensional convergence!”
“I… what?”
Twilight teleported back down to Celia, Cinder, and Blink, a nerdy grin plastered on her face. “Tell me everything.”
“The universe began with an explosion,” Blink said.
“...Not what I meant, but I’m down for learning about the origins of the universe!” She summoned a scroll and a quill to herself. “I’ve never encountered interdimensional beings before, I don’t know anything besides the fringe theories!”
Celia smiled. “I’ll tell you everything, Princess. But only if you tell us some of your own story.”
Twilight hesitated. “...Okay. I suppose the legend of the four princesses is public knowledge…”
“Then we’re going to get along just fine,” Celia said, extending a hoof to shake Twilight’s own.
“...I, uh… I can’t shake that,” Twilight said, waving her hoof harmlessly through a nearby bookshelf. “Intangible.”
“Lemme try,” Blink said, phasing herself partially out of existence. She reached for Twilight and passed right through. “Welp, different sort of Voidey nonsense, sorry. I’m sure I’ll figure something out.”
“Twilight!” Rarity called from atop the stairs. “What am I supposed to do with the… monkey-pony?”
Twilight shrugged. “I have no idea. Why don’t we ask her?”
~~~
The story swapping had become very, very routine for Cinder at this point.
“Hey, we’re a bunch of multiversal explorers, all different versions of Sweetie Belle! Here’s some of the things we do said in such a way that we think is best suited for you to hear!”
“Oh, that’s cool! I’m a princess who was locked away in this library because Discord a thousand years ago, and Rarity here just recently found the library and is trying to find all my lost books to save me from my prison!”
“Cool!”
“Cool!”
At least that’s how Cinder filed it away in her head. In reality, it had taken around twenty minutes to get to that point and everyone was a good deal more serious about it. Twilight really had been trapped down here as little more than a ghost for over a thousand years, and that was not only terrible, it had clearly worn on the purple mare’s psyche. After she had gotten over the initial excitement of ‘multiversal explorers’ the alicorn had become much more tentative, uncertain, and… sad. It was heartbreaking, really, and just about the only thing that got her to smile were interesting facts about the universe, and her friends. It was just Rarity and Fluttershy at the moment, but apparently there were others, including the local version of Sweetie.
Rarity wasn’t sure if it was a good idea for them to meet.
“Naturally, we’ll help you get out of this library,” Celia said, seemingly out of nowhere.
Twilight blinked. “R-really?”
“Of course! You’ve been trapped here for far too long, a clear evil.” She smiled softly. “We have access to the strongest magics of multiple universes. While a Discord enchantment may be… difficult to break, we could no doubt do it with time, unless there were some unforeseen consequence.”
“T-thank you!” Twilight said, allowing herself to smile again. “I… I guess it must just be something about Rarities, huh?”
Rarity blinked. “What do you mean, Twilight?”
“Both of you are ready to help me after barely knowing me,” Twilight pointed out. “Maybe Rarities helping Twilights are multiversal constants, or something…”
“We are regular bearers of the Element of Generosity,” Celia admitted.
“Element of… Generosity?” Twilight asked, cocking her head. “That’s not one of our Elements…”
“Isn’t that crystal in your crown not the Element of Magic?” Cinder asked.
Twilight nodded. “Yes. Magic, Love, Moon, and Sun.”
“Fascinating…” Seren said, “Your Elements are attuned to the princesses. Ours are attuned to the magic of friendship—Generosity, Loyalty, Laughter, Honesty, Kindness, and Magic.”
“You actually have two of the standard bearers right here,” Celia said with a smile. “Generosity—that’s Rarity—and Kindness.” She pointed at Fluttershy.
Fluttershy gasped. “I… I am an Element of Harmony?”
“Sometimes, likely not here,” Celia admitted. “But that shouldn’t keep you from forming a powerful bond with your friends. The friendship between us ponies, that seems to be a multiversal constant, more than anything.”
“You know, except in the worlds where everyone’s trying to kill each other,” Blink pointed out.
“Those are the exception,” Celia admitted. “And rather detestable, I might add.”
Twilight visibly grimaced at the thought. “...Tell me more about how you travel between universes.”
Seren may have been more qualified to answer the question—but it was clearly directed at Celia, so the Gem answered. “There are numerous methods, both magical and not, that pierce the veil between worlds. But the basic theory is the same behind all of them. Once you know the coordinates of a universe—I’m not going into detail about how we find them, it’s essentially random more often than not. Once you know, you tap into a natural ‘connection’ that exists between your current universe and the destination universe. A dimensional device or spell is one that is able to grab hold of this connection by puncturing a hole in the fabric of space-time. This hole, attuned to the proper connection, leads from one universe to another. Some methods expand the hole, others simply use the hole as a path for teleportation.”
“Wow…” Twilight said, eyes wide. To her side she was furiously scribbling in a scroll. “I have so many questions…”
“We can give you access to our database later,” Celia promised. “All the basic theory of interdimensional travel is public knowledge, after all.”
“Well…” Twilight furrowed her brow. “In that case, a more specific question. Your crystal. It channels magic, clearly, but it isn’t a horn, and your body doesn’t have fur like a normal pony. How’s it work?”
Celia smiled. “A question I am qualified to answer. I am part of a race of beings called Gems—creative, I know. This body you see isn’t really ‘me’ per se, so much as my gemstone is. I was created hundreds of years ago…”
At this comment of her age, Cinder noticed Rarity tense up. The white mare had slowly gotten more and more silent as the conversation with the Sweeties had gone on, and this last comment turned her uncertain face into a concerned frown. As Celia continued to draw the attention of the entire room in her explanation of the magitech nature of Gems, Rarity slinked away. As far as Cinder could tell, she was the only one who noticed and cared enough to think something was up with Rarity.
After taking a few moments to see if anypony else would do anything, Cinder got up and followed Rarity. The unicorn had walked up the stairway out of the library and was now sitting on the ground outside, staring into the darkness of the Everfree Forest.
Cinder sat down next to her. “Hey.”
“AAAAUUUUGH!” Rarity screamed, nearly falling over. “You… you’re just as bad as Twilight!”
“She jump scare you much?”
“All the time!” Rarity put a hoof to her chest as she let out deep breaths of air. “Next thing I know you’ll tell me you’re some kind of spirit too…”
“Me? Nah, I’m just an ordinary Sweetie Belle that knows a bit of fire magic. Blink’s a ghost though.”
“A… ghost.”
“Yep. A ghost.”
“And here I thought she was the normal one… looked the most like my Sweetie, aside from the bracelets.”
“If she removed her glasses you’d get a nice view of some dead, empty eyes.”
“Then I am glad she wears sunglasses,” Rarity decided. “Very glad.”
“Most of us are. I kinda wish the other ghosts would too, though. But no, they wander around Celestia City, dead eyes and all. Apparently I’d get used to them if I spent all my time there.”
“Mhm…” Rarity said, listening, but clearly not into it.
After a moment of silence, Cinder spoke up again. “So… why are we out here?”
“You followed me.”
“Yeah. You seemed troubled.”
Rarity laughed. “You definitely aren’t my Sweetie Belle.”
“I’m older. And I’ve seen a lot.”
“And you’re apparently on fire regularly.”
Cinder lit her horn on fire and smiled. “Yep.”
“How d-”
“You’re avoiding it.”
Rarity winced, looking away from Cinder as fast as she could.
“It’s okay. Everypony does it. You should meet Nira, I haven’t gotten her to talk about her feelings hardly ever.”
“I’m not…” Rarity bit her lip. “I am. I just… I needed to get out of there.”
“Why?”
Rarity didn’t make any response.
“...Was it because you felt overshadowed?”
“She’s amazing,” Rarity breathed. “She’s graceful, well educated, clever, ageless, magical, from another universe… She’s me but better. And now here she is, ready to save Twilight, just like I was… And she can just do it. What, were all those books I found… pointless?”
“You’re her friend. That’s not going to change just because we showed up.”
“Of course not,” Rarity said—with significantly more confidence than Cinder was expecting. “Twilight’s not the sort of mare to forget ponies.”
“If you know that then, why a-” a lightbulb went off in Cinder’s head. “Ooooooooooooooooh, this is a bit bigger than a Friendship Problem, isn’t it?”
At first, Rarity didn’t register what Cinder was implying. “I suppose so…” The moment she did, she stared at Cinder in shock, flushing slightly. “Wh-what? I never!”
Cinder rolled her eyes. “Well, now I’m sure.”
“I-”
“Calm down, I’m not going to tell anypony.”
“You barely know me! How!?”
Cinder smiled softly. “I guess I’m just learning to pick up on things. I don’t think you have to worry about anything from Celia. She meets hundreds of Twilights on a weekly basis, treats all of them the same. She’s still yours.”
“Is she, though?” Rarity asked—more to herself than to Cinder. Then she shook her head.
“I don’t know,” Cinder admitted with a shrug. “I just barely figured out there was a thing here. I’m not Cadence.”
“Mmm…”
“I do know that sitting out here and not being part of the conversation in there is not the answer, if that helps.”
Rarity let out a decidedly unladylike snort that led to some equally unladylike laughter. “That… does seem rather obvious.” She looked up at the dark shadows of the trees all around. “I suppose I am being a bit silly. You’re not here to take her, you’re here to free her. I’m just being ridiculous.”
...Would we be taking her by freeing her?
“Cinder?”
Cinder shook her head. “It’s nothing. Just thinking about what we do with the worlds we visit.”
“Now who’s avoiding the conversation?”
Cinder rubbed the back of her head nervously. “Yeah… trust me though, it’s nothing you could help with, unless you want me to summarize the bizarre politics behind interference policy instead of going back to Twilight.”
“Well, that would involve going back to her…”
“Celia doesn’t bite, Rarity.”
“A mare does not have to bite to be threatening.”
Cinder raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to go back in or not?”
Rarity let out a disgruntled sigh. “All right, fine, you win, I’m going back in.” She walked to the staircase and descended into the earth. “Getting a heart-to-heart from my sister, I swear…”
“Just wait ‘till we take you to Celestia City!” Cinder trotted down after her. “It’ll make today look tame!”
“I both dread and anticipate that day!”
“As you should.”
The two returned to the library, surprised to find no sign of Seren or Celia, only Twilight, Fluttershy, and Blink.
“This is what it feels like to be intangible,” Blink told Fluttershy as her hoof passed through a bookshelf.
“So… strange,” Fluttershy admitted. “Though not as cold as I was expecting.”
“...Cold?” Twilight asked, cocking her head.
“I just thought since you couldn’t touch anything, you’d never feel warm.”
“Even though cold is the absence of temperature, I can’t exactly feel it even then.”
“Huh. I never would have thought of that…”
Twilight was about to continue the conversation—but she noticed Rarity coming down. “Oh, Rarity! I had…”
“I’d never just leave, Twilight,” Rarity said with a soft smile. “I only needed a little fresh air. As much as I adore your books you have to admit, sometimes it’s a bit much.”
“I know all too well…” Twilight said, looking around with ancient sorrow and pain.
“But it looks like you’ll be able to join me out there soon!”
“That’d be… nice,” Twilight admitted.
“You know what we need?” Cinder asked.
Blink cocked her head. “I mean, we already have me, what else could we possibly need?”
“A dance party.” Cinder took out her communication device from her mane and set it down on one of the tables. “I recently downloaded some modern Merodi dance music onto this thing because it’s just so weird.”
Twilight gasped, rushing to the table and staring closely at the device. “What is it? How does it work? How do you stor-”
“Shush,” Cinder ordered. “I have no idea how it works, and that doesn't matter right now. What matters is that we dance.”
“Dance?”
“Dance.” Cinder tapped the device with her magic. It started blaring some of the strangest synthetic music ever to grace Cinder’s ears—somehow harsh and soothing at the same time, a bumping beat interlaced with a wide variety of synthetic sounds from sources Cinder couldn’t even begin to guess at.
But she could dance to it. With a smirk, she jumped on the table and gestured for Blink to join her. The two of them took up stances opposite each other, standing up on their hind hooves. With a pair of matching smirks, they started waving their front hooves around in sharp, jerking motions, mirroring each other. Imperfectly, of course, but it wasn't like they were trying to do a perfect dance.
Cinder found herself singing uncontrollably.
“When the hooves hit the floor
And your fears are no more
It’s time to take the chance
Clap your hooves, come and dance!”
Rarity realized that Blink and Cinder weren’t in any physical contact the moment the verse ended. Instantly, she jumped into motion with the music, moving closer to Twilight with a smug grin on her face, inviting her with a raised eyebrow.
Twilight hesitated for a moment—still unsure if the music really deserved to be called such—but she couldn't say no to that face. She set her back hooves to the ground and spread her wings, mimicking Rarity’s movements. Badly, at first, but after a few moments she got the hang of it. It wasn’t like it was a complicated dance.
When the two of them got fully into it, Cinder fell back to her hooves, ending the dance with Blink. She watched the alicorn spirit and the brave unicorn dance around each other—spinning, twisting, approaching each other, but never quite touching. There was no need for words, only movement within the enchanted library.
Fluttershy put a hoof in Cinder’s mane and patted her comfortingly. Cinder looked up to the pegasus and smiled, taking the pat as a thank you for helping Rarity, even if it was just in a small way.
As the song ended, Rarity and Twilight brushed past each other, the unicorn’s back missing lavender wings by less than an inch. The two landed on three hooves, the thumping tunes fading out. When Cinder turned the music off completely, Fluttershy and Blink erupted into applause.
Rarity heard the applause and ate it up, bowing extravagantly. Twilight, conversely, looked as though she had forgotten there was an audience in the first place and looked rather sheepish—though she managed a bow anyway.
“Heartsongs are interesting things,” Twilight commented when the applause died down. “They just… take over, after a point. The words come—sometimes with dance. That’s… that’s what it felt like. Are you able to initiate heartsongs on command?”
Cinder blinked. “That’s not what I was trying to do, but I don’t know. Are we, Blink?”
Blink shrugged. “Maybe? Seems like something we’d try to do.”
“It’d be great if we cou-”
“Twilight, there’ll be time for that later,” Rarity said with a roll of her eyes. “Why not just enjoy it for what it is, for once?”
Twilight contemplated this for a moment. “Oh, all right, it was great, thank you. I will have a checklist of questions for later though, you can count on it.”
“You’re a Twilight all right,” Blink commented.
Twilight smirked. “If there is a version of me that doesn’t make lists, there’s something very wrong with reality.”
The mares laughed warmly at this observation, all for different, equally heartwarming reasons.
~~~
Celia and Seren weren't with the others because they had been gathering data about the magic of the library, trying to figure out exactly what it was that cursed Twilight Sparkle, trapping her here for eternity. The obvious answer: Discord. But that wasn't enough to force-break a curse.
While the others had their spontaneous dance party and subsequent critique of Merodi music tastes, Seren teleported Celia and herself outside the library.
“Do you think you can do it?” Celia asked.
Seren nodded, gripping her scepter. “It’s complicated and it’s powerful, but if I lay the right magic circles, I think I can dispel it. I don’t really know how well it can resist, but whatever Discord made has to have lost strength over time. I should be able to take it.”
“If there’s no risk, go ahead and try.”
Seren nodded. She spent the next several minutes tracing magic circles in the dirt around the library, taking a few breaks here and there to completely obliterate a timberwolf or two. Celia supervised as the simple circle of upturned dirt turned into a few dozen concentric rings surrounding many nearby trees. Seren had even uprooted one to create a connecting mana line between two distant nodes. The circles and lines soon grew too complex for Celia to keep track of—all she could do is ensure they were drawn cleanly into the ground without blemish.
Eventually, Seren nodded to Celia. “Ready.”
“Begin.”
Seren stood in the middle of a smaller circle just in front of the trap door. After letting out a short breath, she rammed the base of her scepter into the ground. Instantly, the entire network of circles around the library’s tree lit up with a bright Sweetie pink, banishing the darkness of the Everfree away. The crescent of the scepter flashed red, initiating Seren’s offense on the chaos magic of the library.
It fought back instantly. The circle around Seren shifted to a sickly yellow color, creating numerous claw constructs that attempted to attack Seren. She pushed the claws back with a simple shield, driving out the yellow chaos in the ground without breaking a sweat.
She smirked. Discordian curses were easier than she remembered.
And then it actually fought back, opting to hit Seren with a beam of chaos energy instead of bothering with creepy claws. She resisted, using a complex array of magic constructs to absorb part of the chaotic energy into herself and deflect the rest.
She could not overpower this attack on her own, so she would just have to last it out. Curses always had limited power. Without the caster here, it would run out of energy eventually.
Eventually…
Seren’s smile slowly vanished. It really shouldn’t have been able to output this much raw power without Discord being physically present, and they would have easily detected that. So where was it getting its power?
She began to reach out with her senses, allowing her shields to falter for a moment. It was not too difficult to find a tether that led directly to a soul. She saw a negative emotional feedback loop.
That’s just cruel, she thought as the chaos overpowered her and drove her through the trunk of a nearby tree.
“Seren!” Celia gasped as both the magic circles and the chaos magic dissipated.
“I’m fine…” Seren muttered, pulling herself out of the anthro-shaped hole in the tree. “This Discord’s either smarter than most, or more sadistic.”
“How so?” Celia asked.
“I can’t be certain just yet… but I think he tied the perpetuation of the curse to Twilight. She’s powering it with some aspect of herself. Something dark… Something…”
“Shame?”
“I mean, in theory…”
“It’s shame, or regret,” Celia said with certainty. “I see it all over her face, even when she smiles. Her past actions constantly haunt her, and this library is a constant reminder. Trapping her in a place that will constantly remind her of her failures… that is sadistic.”
“...I was afraid of this.”
Seren and Celia turned to see Cinder walking toward them, a grimace on her face.
“Afraid of what?”
“Afraid that we’ve walked into the middle of a very delicate story,” Cinder explained. “I’m… I’m not sure we should step in.”
“What?” Seren cocked her head. “Why not? This is a curse! We fix curses we can! It’s like our thing!”
Cinder turned to Celia. “Rarity and Twilight.”
“You noticed their feelings for each other?” Celia asked. “Impressive, I barely noticed myself. Good work!”
“Yeah. I went and had a talk with Rarity after she snuck away. Gave her some confidence to go back and talk with Twilight, that sort of thing. But she made me think about something… She felt like you were stealing Twilight away from her.”
“Ridiculous,” Celia pointed out.
“Yes. But… here’s what I see. I see a princess trapped in a library and a normal, somewhat weak unicorn risking her life to free her. Two mares forced together by circumstance and a series of unlikely events. If we remove the library… that might ruin the catalyst for their relationship.”
Cinder pointed at Seren. “You said the library was powered off Twilight’s own negative… something-or-other.”
“Shame and regret, if Celia’s right,” Seren said, frowning.
“If we remove that by force, Twilight will be free… but she’ll still hate herself. She’ll probably lock herself away, or something. ...Not sure, didn’t talk to her. But she’s very cagey and—well I just don’t see it ending that well if she gets out of here but is still broken.”
“It would ruin a future family…” Seren breathed.
“...Yeah, I guess that’s one way of looking at it.”
“She’s convinced me.” Seren turned to Celia. “We need to let them figure this out on their own.”
Celia furrowed her brow. “Ruining a relationship and making a mare’s life difficult are unfortunate. But we have to ask ourselves, what are the negatives of doing nothing?”
“Twilight remains stuck until Rarity frees her,” Cinder said. “And no, that’s not ‘unlikely to happen’, it’s virtually guaranteed to happen.”
Celia smirked. “You’re catching on faster than I ever did. Yes, that seems to be the right interpretation. But we have to ask if there will be sacrifice leading up to that moment. Say—a lost life. They are in danger from their Discord.”
“A Discord who didn’t kill Twilight, just imprisoned her in one of his games. They’ve already been on dangerous missions, and none of them have been seriously injured. I don’t think this is that kind of story.”
“A gamble…” Celia said.
“Trust me, Celia. We don’t want to do this. We want them to figure it out on their own.”
“It’s not like we haven’t backed off before,” Seren pointed out. “Plus, we don’t have to wait to be sure, we can just accelerate time.”
“We can?” Cinder said.
Celia nodded. “Swip is equipped with a time drive, though we use it as little as possible since timeline rewriting is frowned upon. A simple acceleration should do the trick, but I’d much rather have a Time player look into the futures for us. I’ll make the call—but first. Fluttershy, do you want to come out of hiding?”
There was a meek ‘eep’ from the staircase that led to the library. Slowly, the pegasus crawled out of the ground, tears in her eyes. “I…”
“How much did you hear?” Celia asked.
“...You don’t think you should help.”
Celia nodded. “I’m on the fence, myself. Change my mind.”
“No… no, you’re right,” Fluttershy said, wiping an eye. “They…” She glanced behind herself at the tree. “They need to work through this. Maybe we need to work through this.” She turned to Cinder. “You’re sure we’ll do it?”
“Positive,” Cinder said. “It’s how… fate works. You’ll probably suffer a great deal of emotional turmoil near the end… but you’ll get through it.”
“And if you’re wrong?”
“...Then we’ll come back. Because apparently we can.”
“In universes that allow backwards time travel,” Celia said.
‘Which this one does,” Seren affirmed.
Fluttershy nodded. “I’ll… have to keep the secret.” She closed her eyes. “...It must be hard, to be you. All the power, and yet you have to ask yourselves every day if you should use it.”
Celia smiled sadly. “We use it more often than we should, admittedly.”
“...Thank you for thinking about us,” Fluttershy said, nodding curtly. “I… I won’t tell. And when it’s all over… I’ll keep them from exploding.”
“We don’t even ask for that much.”
“It’s the least I can do. The…” Fluttershy let out a chuckle. “Kind thing.”
Celia put a hoof under Fluttershy’s chin and tilted her head upward. “You have the strength, Fluttershy. Don’t doubt yourself.”
Fluttershy nodded, face set. “Right.”
“...There’s one last thing we have to do before we leave…”
~~~
Cinder dropped the massive book on Twilight’s library table—not Celia, they had decided it would be best if the Gem held back. “One copy of Nested Spheres: A Study of Multiversal Phenomena: Portals to Higher Dimensional Eldritch Manifolds donated to the library of Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight looked down at the massive book with stars in her eyes. “D-donated?”
“Donated. Don’t worry, the only cost to us was the paper. And we all get pretty good salaries, so that didn’t even dent it.” A distant look came across Cinder’s face. “I found out I’m effectively rich today. That was interesting.” She shook her head. “Anyway, no doubt you will read it to your heart’s content! Don’t worry, it’s got margins for annotations!”
“This… this is perfect,” Twilight said, grinning from ear to ear. “The mysteries of the cosmos…”
“All in that book. Granted, a lot of it is probably going to be confusing, and it’s above my head, but you’re Princess Twilight! I bet you read it in a day.”
“That might be a bit much even for her,” Rarity surmised. “The book is thicker than my head…”
Twilight opened the cover and traced her book on the inner page. She saw an empty this book belongs to… line.
“...It’s yours,” Rarity said, pushing a quill and ink over to her.
Twilight, with a satisfied smile, picked up the quill and signed her name under the line.
“Now, don’t lose that one,” Rarity chided. “I don’t want to go have to run into a volcano and lug this monstrosity back!”
“I am never letting this thing out of the library,” Twilight declared. “Don’t worry.”
“Enjoy reading!” Cinder’s smile faltered. “...We have to go for a bit. We will be back, but I can’t give you an exact time.”
“Why not?”
“Chapter nine: time incongruity.”
Twilight blinked. “Time… isn’t consistent?”
“Not between universes, no. It’s apparently a nightmare for scheduling.”
Twilight’s expression was a mixture of horror and respect for the audacity of the multiverse.
“Anyway, we will be back. That’s a promise.” Cinder waved. “See you, Princess!”
Twilight waved with a hoof. “Do return. I will have a lot of questions for you when you get back. And… thank you for doing this.”
A spike ran through Cinder’s heart. “...What are friends for?”
She said her goodbyes to Rarity and Fluttershy, and stepped out of the library with the rest of her team. They stepped through a portal, returning to Swip. The forest was quiet once again.
~~~
A few weeks later…
Twilight closed the back of the massive tome, a frown on her face.
“Are they… are they coming back?” Twilight asked.
“They promised,” Rarity assured her. “Of course they will.”
“...I… I’m not so sure…” Fluttershy said.
Rarity looked at her with a mean look.
Fluttershy pressed on. “...Twilight, I think that book is an apology.”
Twilight looked down at the massive tome of multiversal knowledge, frowning.
“Seren tried to break the curse while they were here. She couldn’t do it.”
“Oh…” Rarity put a hoof to her mouth. “I…”
“They’re ashamed,” Fluttershy said, following it quickly with. “Probably.”
Twilight sighed. “...They tried, at least.”
“And they gave up too easily!” Rarity huffed. “They could have… stuck around! Done something else!” She tossed her mane back. “They could have helped us find the books!”
“But they felt their failure,” Twilight said, rubbing her hoof across the tome’s cover. “It drove right to their core. They couldn't face us.”
“Twilight, dea-”
“I know what that’s like,” Twilight said, simply.
Rarity and Fluttershy looked at her with pitying glances.
“Don’t be mad at them. Please.” Twilight forced a smile. “They gave us joy for a day. And gave us this amazing book. I don’t think it can help us get out of this situation, but it sure has a lot of interesting stories and truths in it.”
Rarity looked into Twilight’s eyes. “...I could never stay mad at them.”
“...Thank you, Rarity.”
~~~
Swip orbited the planet in the universe now dubbed Equis Quargend, after the legend of the four princesses. The planet was on the screen, but nobody was looking at it. Instead, they looked at the Maid of Time, Aradia Megido, a grey-skinned humanoid with ram-like horns. She wore a long, flowing red robe imprinted with the ten-toothed gear symbol that represented Time itself. She was apparently the expert on time travel for all of Merodi Universalis.
“I’ll find the moment,” she promised, a delighted smile on her face. “In fact, a version of me already has, and will come back here to tell me to go become her. You’ll arrive at the right moment.”
“Thank you, Handmaid,” Celia said with a bow.
“All you ponies insisting on bowing.”
“Technically not a pony.”
Aradia laughed heartily. “And your insistence on technicalities.”
Another Aradia appeared next to her in a flash of red, identical to appearance. “Found it!”
The first Aradia nodded, vanishing in a puff of her own time Aspect to perform the mission the second Aradia just returned from.
The second—now only—Aradia turned to the Sweeties and smiled. “A simple travel spell will do, this world isn’t related temporally to any others—it’ll rush to catch up with the primary flow of time. Swip, do you mind if I take us?”
“Bah, fine. Never let me exercise that time drive…”
“It is the least reliable of your systems,” Araida pointed out. She held out her hands and Swip was engulfed in a sea of swirling red gears, jumping forward over two years into the future. They appeared in orbit and not a single entity noticed.
“Teleport us down to the Library,” Celia ordered.
Seren, Celia, Blink, and of course Cinder appeared in front of the trapdoor once again. It was wide open, revealing stairs that led right into it.
Seren smiled. “The magic’s gone. She’s free.”
“But she is in there,” Celia commented.
“What are we waiting for?” Cinder asked, scrambling down the stairs.
“They might not like to see us…”
“I’m still going to hug Twilight and you can’t stop me. And neither can she.”
As she raced down the stairs, Cinder found out that there was something that could stop her from pulling Twilight into a hug, and that was the sight of two ponies in an embrace that was long overdue. Twilight Sparkle, with a disheveled mane and covered in a copious amount of black ink, was holding Rarity in her own hooves, their two faces pressed into one of the most passionate and long-awaited kisses Cinder had ever seen.
She froze—or tried to. Instead, she toppled forward, smacking her face on a table. “Ow.”
Twilight and Rarity broke free from each other and stared at her in shock. “Sweetie, what a-” Rarity saw Cinder’s orange eyes. “...Cinder…”
“You… you’re back,” Twilight said, shocked.
Cinder picked her head off the table. “Yeah… we’re back. Sorry we took so long.”
“You… you haven’t aged a day!” Rarity gasped.
“Was the time dilation really that bad?” Twilight asked.
“N...no,” Cinder said. “I… Geez this is weird, it’s been two years for you. It’s been… two minutes for us.” She swallowed hard. “We could have helped free you. It would have been as simple as calling one of the friendly Discords of the multiverse and brute-forcing the spell.”
Twilight and Rarity stared at her in shock.
“But if we’d done that… you wouldn’t have this.” Cinder held out a hoof and gestured at the two of them. “I… I convinced everyone that we didn’t have a right to ruin this. To keep you two from each other.” She turned to Twilight. “To keep you from escaping yourself.”
She took a nervous breath. “I won’t say I’m sorry, because I think I did the right thing, letting you work through this on your own. But I hope you can forgive me.”
Rarity looked at Cinder with sad eyes that clearly had been crying not too long ago. “...I could never stay mad at you.”
Cinder cocked her head. “Uh…”
Twilight was trying not to giggle. “She’s… being cute.”
“When am I not cute, darling?” Rarity asked.
“I don’t know…” Twilight said, though she subconsciously glanced at some pretty impressive scars across Rarity’s flank.
Rarity coughed. “Anyway, Cinder, I can’t possibly complain about you allowing this to happen, but it was kind of rude leaving without telling anyone.”
“...Uh, please don’t be mad, again, but we talked to Fluttershy.”
Rarity blinked. “Well. Apparently that mare is better at keeping secrets than I give her credit for.”
“Please don-”
“Cinder, relax, I think it might be physically impossible for me to feel anger right now.” She put a hoof around Twilight and giggled. “It’s… it’s finally done. The adventure’s over. And now…” She smirked coyly. “And now Twilight and I need to rest.”
“Oh.” Cinder nodded. “Right, you must be exhausted…”
“But I will be taking you up on that offer to see Celestia City. Soon.”
“And I can’t wait to see your worlds!” Twilight added with a clap of her hooves. “There was so much in the book you gave me I want to see for myself…”
“We do need to free the other Princesses,” Rarity admitted.
“We can help with that,” Celia said, striding forward. “...We didn’t interfere before. But we will now. Now that this… is done.”
“What of the other Princesses? They… may need to learn things about themselves as well.”
“Then… we will defer to your judgment,” Celia said with a bow. “While you rest, who may we discuss future relations with?”
“Spike’s outside,” Twilight said. “You can talk to him and the rest of our friends.”
“Then we leave you.” Celia bowed. “See you tomorrow.”
“Wait! One thing first!” Cinder tackle hugged Twilight into the ground.
Twilight was more than a little startled at first—but then she let herself laugh. She pulled the mare into an embrace and got ink all over her white coat. “Thank you, Cinder,” she whispered into the unicorn’s ear.
Cinder grinned from ear to ear.
Despite all the other adventures she’d had where lives were on the line and worlds were at stake… somehow, her actions here felt like the most important thing she’d ever done. As Rarity joined in on the hug, Cinder laughed.
There had been no battles today. No danger, no angry shouting…
In fact, the Sweeties had effectively done absolutely nothing.
And it was the best thing they could have done.
“...These two mares aren’t ready for the multiverse,” Blink observed.
“The multiverse isn’t ready for them,” Seren chuckled.
“I’m predicting a very eventful Honeymoon on Celestia City at some point in the future,” Celia added.
“That’ll be fun,” Blink said.
“Come on,” Celia said, waving. “We have policy to discuss. Let’s leave them.”
Three Sweeties left the library. One remained, trapped in a hug she never wanted to end.
Stats
Page generated in 0.019 seconds
Total duration
910 users online
526,411 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
OOOO sunflower...gonna be interesting in that that one knows about other universes.
"So were Burgerbelle and Suzie," said Cinder.
"If Shimmy didn't want us to troll her, she wouldn't react so amusingly."
Seeing Cinder so eager to burn things is a little disquieting.
If it weren't for the heartsong, my suspension of disbelief would've been irreparably shattered. A Twilight dancing well? Really now.
Very true. Though why do I feel like this is foreshadowing?
Sometimes the only winning move is not to play. Excellent intuition on Cinder's part. Her gift for metanarrative insight is a delight to see.
Definitely looking forward to seeing what you do with Project: Sunflower. It's a classic for a reason. And depending on when the Sweeties arrive, a case where there's no harm in much heavier interference.
Corked?
9661938
Huh, I was so certain that was a synonym for "raised eyebrow". Guess not.
-GM, master of corks.
9661946
Its "Cocked".
My feelings in Romance as a genre pretty much mirror yours. I wasn't a huge fan of it, but then I read TEL, and fell in love with the story. It's one of my favourite stories of all time to this day. Sadly, there are few romances as good as it, but that goes true for the best of any genre, really.
Wow, about time project sunflower is getting here, I definitely will wait eagerly :D.
9661898
I don't know... Cinder going all pyro without having to Fall seems... Adorable...
She really wouldn't like the Strangers' Bar...
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/nationstates/images/0/0c/9vtEIH9.png/revision/latest?cb=20170803171217
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/5/9/1432790.png nationstates.net/images/flags/uploads/the_candy_of_bottles__506295.png
Nationstates- 6,300,989 nations served! (And counting.) And yes, Merodi Universalis is available. I checked.
Well, that was a nice chapter.
A lovely chapter
Honestly, considering how Nira is the spirit of darkness you'd expect the squid to be a tiny bit friendly
Oof
... You have to understand, at this time, all of them were afraid of a common enemy. AKA, Communism, obviously
Rarity... you know better than this...
I... The true ending to TEL :v
I'm dead.
I'm crying too
squeeeeeeeeee so good...
Sometimes, nothing is the correct action.