Equestria Threadfall

by David Silver

12 - Countless Answers

Celestia went to a specific mirror with purpose, drawing the cloth free even as she took a slow breath. "Good... King Sombra." The image showed a court room, as the first had. There sat a grey-furred stallion, speaking with others that nodded appreciatively. "We should wait until he is finished."

Luna drew up besides her. "That is Sombra? How is a mad tyrant going to help us?"

"This is a Sombra that is good and whole. I never met him, but I met one just like him... Just... like him." A single tear escaped her eyes even as she shook her head to clear it of such thoughts. "You can see his subjects are happy to see him."

The court they held in silence, at least from the view of the Equestrians, seemed to have perfectly content ponies that approached him with whatever silent needs they had. He listened and responded. It was all orderly and without anger. He gave one pony a pat on the withers. If he was an evil tyrant, he was being very subtle about it.

But court did end, and he looked like he was ready to step down from his throne.

Celestia passed through the mirror, walking into it as if it were water. Emerging from the other side, head bowed low, she raised a hoof. "Good King Sombra, may I ask a question?"

Sombra peered at the sudden large pony that had appeared. She wore finery befitting one of royal standing, but her head was lowered humbly despite it. "I would say that you have already done so, but I will spare a foreign dignitary such trite humor. What troubles you, m'lady?"

Luna suddenly came to be, standing next to Celestia and looking around curiously. "Another world," she muttered as she gawked at things but didn't move from the spot.

Celestia inclined her head towards Luna even as she raised it back to normal. "This is my sister. A foreign dignitary, yes, precisely that. Tell me, have ever you or your people had to face a threat from above, silvery strands that carried death and ruin?"

"A most curious request." He raised a hoof to his chin. "I am grateful to report that we have not faced such a daunting challenge. Is this a thing that haunts your lands?"

"I am... afraid this is true." She turned right around towards where she came. "You are safe, but... in case it should... ever come to be..."

Luna nudged against her. "Why are you hesitating?"

"It is not our place," she whispered softly.

"And it would be our place to take their knowledge if they had any?" She shook her head, looking to Sombra. "If the thread comes, prepare fire and hide under stone. To touch it is death, to allow it to reach the ground is death for it, then for you when your crop is destroyed."

Sombra sat up fully, worry clear in his eyes. "You speak of dire things. Will you not sit and explain fully these troubling words?"

"We cannot." Celestia dipped her head, ears splayed. "Already we have said more than perhaps we should. Please, be safe." She suddenly lunged, vanishing into the wall they had emerged from.

Luna shook her head softly. "I need to go with her. Good luck." She followed after her sister with less panic, strolling smoothly into the wall that rippled around her, going still a moment later.

He approached the wall curiously, peering at the smooth stone before reaching out, but his hoof refused to go through it as the two large mares had done. "Hm..."

---

On the other side of that wall, a world away, Celestia patted down the cloth that covered the mirror. "None can pass while they are covered. Our worlds are again separate, as they should be."

"Why are you being so emotional about this, Sister? We come seeking answers, we must seek them vigorously, not timidly." Luna looked around before approaching a random cloth lump. "I will try this one."

"Do not be casual." But Celestia didn't stop her. "I will... try this one." She turned in place to a tall cloth and her magic drew it free, revealing a new mirror. "We will meet back here in two hours, with success or not. Be sure to cover any mirror you are finished with."

The search would continue.

---

Twilight's head slapped against the desk, but she didn't notice. Her snoring filled the room, her heavy eyes too much a burden to hold any longer.

Spike crept up on her and gently set a blanket over her collapsed form, tucking her in comfortably.

She made some soft appreciative noise, rolling her head to the side with a little smile, but she did not awaken.

Spike didn't argue it. It was the first sleep she had allowed herself in too long. He turned away from her sleeping form to peer at her notes, a byzantine mess of math and figures and charts. He climbed up onto the table, his wings making it an easy task, and got closer to the figures. Speaking faintly under his breath, his claws waggled as he followed from one to the next. He wasn't at Twilight's level, but he'd been around her long enough to at least follow along.

There was a mistake. He grabbed a chalk and rubbed out a 3 and replaced it with a 6. Of course, this changed the next step, which changed the next step... which... Well, he kept going forward, finishing the math as best he could, scratching at the green board with his chalk busily.

"Spike?"

He dropped the chalk with a squeak, turning around in a hop to see Twilight sitting up with sleepy blinks. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, uh... nothing?" He flashed a false smile. "Just, uh.... I saw a mistake..."

"A mistake?" Her wings flared, throwing off the blanket that had been placed on her. "I don't make basic..." Her eyes settled where his adjustments had begun. "mistakes..." She raised a hoof, wobbling it as she worked through the math in her head, then brought it to her forehead with a clop. "How could I do that?!"

"It's alright! You're under a lot of stress." He hurried to the edge of the table and hop/flapped down to the floor. "In fact, if you want to finish that nap?"

"Who can nap at a time like this?!" She thrust a hoof at Spike. "Besides, you fixed it!" Her magic grabbed the abandoned chalk and resumed the math. "Which means... and... then..." She kept the math going and carried the result over the a diagram of the world. "Which leads us to..." She scratched out one circle and drew a new one. "Here!"

Spike tilted his head at the diagram. "Where is here, exactly?"

"There!" She pointed skywards, though it seemed at a specific place. "That is where the problem is coming from. That is why the thread falls where it falls! It's all orbital mechanics."

"Oh, yeah, just that," he agreed with a shrug. "So what can we do about it?"

"Whatever this thing is, it's performing an orbit around our world." She swirled her hooves together. "It's very elliptical. If we wait... we win, eventually, as it will leave our proximity." She threw a hoof wide. "And off into deep space it will return."

"Until... the next time?"

"Until next time," she miserably agreed, thunking her head down without passing out. "That's not a real answer. I don't want to pass a problem forward to future generations. Still, it is at least comforting to know that, in the worst case scenario, we won't be thread-rained on forever."

"That is a plus." Spike hiked a thumb at the board. "Could we float a balloon up there and do something about it?"

"A balloon..." She frowned a little, considering it. "It's not a matter of reaching it, but timing it, and then doing something about it, and not being devoured by thread on the way."

"Oh yeah, huh... probably surrounded by the stuff. What do you mean by timing it?"

"It's going very quickly." She resumed cycling her hooves around one another. "It looks slow from here, but up close, it's moving very fast. A balloon could miss it very easily. I'd rather send flyers. Dragons, pegasi, alicorns? Ideally flying ahead of its trajectory to meet it... if they don't get eaten."

"If they don't get eaten," sullenly agreed Spike. "We should tell the others what we figured out."

"Yes!" She hopped to her hooves, her magic grabbing Spike and placing him on her back. "Let's."

---

A cloven hoof poked at sullen ash. Others were doing much the same, picking through the remains of the village for what they could find, and it wasn't much.

"My people," spoke the largest of them, a great female Kirin with gentle eyes. "We have lost much today... But we only lost one person. It could have been so much worse. I know you're all hurting right now... I know some of you wonder if silence wouldn't have been better."

More and more of her subjects turned to look at her with sad and lost expressions.

"But know that in silence we would have perished alongside our precious things. Come with me, all of you." She began to trot away, leading a line of kirin along to the edge of where their fire had burned away most everything.

That was where the thread touched the ground, where the land itself began to look ill. Where the trees were destroyed, and no plants remained. There were no calls from animals. There was nothing but silence. "This is what we would have had, if not for fire. We lost much, but we could have lost everything."

One kirin took a timid step forward. "What will we do now?"

"We will rebuild." She turned towards them fully. "We will rise again." She tapped at her chin. "Surely it didn't happen to just us. Let us put aside our pain for a moment and see to our neighbors. We will find strength in unity." She directed a cloven hoof towards the nearest pony settlement. "We have nothing here to tend, so let us all go and see what befell them. Perhaps they know more of the threat, or they simply need our help. Either way, we go."

---

Luna did slow circles in place, blinking at what she beheld. "What manner of..." She could scarcely describe it. Every pony had wings. Every pony had a horn. Every pony had a crown, some were tiaras. When they met, they greeted each other as royalty encountering royalty.

It was a world of princesses, but even the stallions were equally endowed, and not a pony seemed to mind the overflow of royalty.

"I say." There was Fancy Pants, looking at her as his wings ruffled. "Princess Luna, was it not?"

Luna inclined her head faintly. "That is indeed mine name. And you are... Prince Fancy Pants?"

"Indeed! I am tickled you remember me." He raised a hoof to his chest. "It's an honor to meet you. Your moon was quite lovely last night."

"As was your..." What was he prince of? She struggled to think of it.

He shook his head softly. "It's quite alright, my dear. Not all of us can be royalty of such large and important things as the moon itself. Why, how would you properly enjoy noblesse oblige?"

That was his domain?! Luna blinked softly, puzzling that. Well, with so much royalty, their domains would have to get quite small indeed. "A fine thing to rule over," she assured. "Since I have you here, perhaps you could answer a question for me."

"I would be quite obliged," he said with a soft chuckle. "How may I assist?"

"Have you ever heard of a terrible thread that rains from above, devouring anything it touches, save stone, metal, or crystal?"

It was his turn to look baffled. "I can't say I have, Princess Luna. Sounds dreadful."

The search would continue.

Author's Note:

Last friday of the month? Time for some stories full of thread! We go world hopping! What world would you visit if you had a mirror portal collection?

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Comments

[Tangent]

The kirin survived!

Well, most of them.

And their first thought after weathering the thread disaster that left their village in ruins is for the safety of their neighbors. Good folk, those kirin.

[fanreader999999]

Mmm.

[Aurora Dimmet]

Dragon-pony hybrids that can set themselves ablaze.

Yeah, they're making it out of this one alive.

[Telwyn Freecolt]

A world of where all ponies seem to be royalty man what kind of history and story would that be like.

[David Silver]

10181674
The idea tickled me to no end.

[Frustration in Excelsis]

One kirn took a timid step forward

I am hoping, I am very strongly hoping, that Autumn Blaze wasn't the one kirin who got eaten by the Thread, but I can't help but notice that she doesn't seem to appear in this scene and, while that may mean nothing, I'm kind of starting to panic.

I mean, Torch and Auhizotl already died to this, so there goes named character immunity...