Dissonance: A Hidden World

by Braininthejar

Chapter 53: The Distraction

“So, this is what was inside Hate all along?” asked Applejack, looking up at the sky.

“It didn’t look like this during the first Splice,” said Obsidian.

“Nor at any time later,” added Enigma. “This is the first time I’ve seen it like this.”

“So, what happens now?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“What do you think will happen?” asked Obsidian, turning towards Twilight.

Twilight stared at the night sky. The stars weren’t just dimmed by the giant red ball - some of them shifted their positions around it, as if pushed out of the way. “You said that thing didn’t seem to have a mind of its own, did it? So, it might just stay there if nothing disturbs it… but I doubt it. This must have been the plan all along.”

“Whaddya mean?” asked Applejack. “If this thing, whatever it is, has never been like this, how would anypony know this will happen?”

“It could be that this is entirely unexpected,” said Twilight, “But after what we’ve seen, I don’t believe in coincidences anymore. Somepony manipulated the Shattered, used their device to cast a spell that sent us to the Dissonance, knowing that it would wake Obsidian, then pulled the strings during the war. They took Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle from Canterlot, and then let us find them just as the Shattered did. Dr. Stone, whoever or whatever she really is, wanted us to fight, and she wanted the Shattered to be ended forever.”

“So, she’s on our side?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“No,” said Twilight. “If she really provoked Hate into running amok tonight, she must be as evil as the Shattered. That means she must have had a different goal than us winning. I bet this is it.” She pointed her horn upwards. “If there is one thing only the Elements could do, it’s separating this power from Hate.”

“So, what do we do now?” asked Rarity.

“We put out the fires first,” Fluttershy spoke up, causing everypony to look at her. “Cloudsdale is made of clouds, so it won’t burn, but Canterlot is still on fire. There must still be ponies trying to get out of the city.”

“You’re right, Fluttershy,” gasped Twilight, “We can’t waste a second. Enigma, will you help us?”

Enigma nodded. “I can move ponies around if they don’t resist. And I can displace burning wood.” Then he wasn’t there anymore, gone to do as he said.

Twilight looked at her friends. “Okay everypony, circle.”

“So, we’ll play at being firefighters for the rest of the night?” asked Obsidian.

“Not you,” replied Twilight. “We’re sending you to the Crystal Empire first. Try to contact Verba, and prepare a circle. If we want to be ready before our enemy makes her next move, we might need to use the Amaranthine.”

***

Enigma moved through the burning city. He stretched his presence across town, popping in and out at dozens of locations at once, letting his supernatural spatial awareness guide him where his eyes could not catch up. It was so much easier with no overwhelming magic present to dampen his abilities.

Still, for all his speed, he knew he would be too late in many cases. The lower city hadn’t suffered Hate’s touch directly like the palace, but the stray fireballs and red-hot debris he’d sent flying with the initial explosion were enough to turn the sleeping district into a raging inferno.

He avoided the worst of the flames - there was nopony left to save there. Instead he looked for houses close to one of the fires, but not yet consumed. His experience didn’t fail him. With the fires splitting the city into separate pieces, there were always some ponies - the slowest, the heaviest sleepers, infirm or just unlucky, who found themselves cut off. This was where he could help.

He found an elderly mare stuck on the highest floor of her house. He appeared next to her, dropping his constant shifting to focus better, and tapped her on the shoulder. “I’ll get you out of here, ma’am,” he said. “Just close your eyes and relax.”

Easier said than done. The mare seemed more frightened by a stranger showing up in her house than by the fire raging just outside her window. When he shifted her away into one of the safer streets, she turned green on the face, and for a moment Enigma feared that she’d throw up there and then.

I can move them, even against their will, but it’s not as effective as I need, he thought as he came back to skimming through the surrounding buildings again. A different approach is in order.

He found a colt struggling with a stuck door, pulling frantically, too scared to think of bucking it open instead. With a sigh, he displaced the lock’s barrel, letting the door swing open. He observed the street just long enough to point the colt in the right direction when he ran out of the house and looked around in confusion.

Meanwhile, Enigma was already elsewhere, collapsing a burning building to stop the fire from spreading down the block. He found a group of ponies panicking in the street, and pointed them the shortest way through the smoke. He found a cul-de-sac blocked off by a fire just at its mouth, the front of the house falling apart, raining burning wood on the cobblestones. He appeared in front of the frightened ponies looking for a way out, and then started shifting the pieces, sending the burning wood a few blocks away, where the houses were already burned down, until a path was cleared.

What’s taking them so long? I can keep saving ponies, and fighting the fire, but even I have my limits.

As if in response, the sky above the city exploded with colors. Enigma closed his eyes, turning off his power as the magic washed over him. For a moment the night turned into day, the spell illuminating everything it touched. The fires were extinguished, the smoke blown away. Enigma could see a small house across the street recover from some of the damage, wood and stone fitting back into place, then promptly collapse again, as the spell couldn’t fix all the burned out parts of the supports.

Enigma waited for the spell to pass, and sighed. He spent about a minute hopping around the city, but there was nopony left that needed saving; everypony had either reached safety, or was already dead. I guess my work here is done, he thought. Calming everypony can be left to the Elements. Now to the more important matters.

He reappeared in front of the pile of slag that use to be Canterlot Castle, and extended his senses through the rock. Let’s see if I can find some clues to what’s really going on here.

***

It was early morning when the Elements of Harmony returned to the Crystal Empire.

Raising the Sun was the last thing they did before leaving Canterlot. Or what was left of it, at any rate: the spell they weaved together put out all the fires in one go, but there was still a lot of chaos and pain left in Hate’s wake, and few local ponies willing or able to take charge. In the end it took the Elements several hours to restore a semblance of order, spreading the truth with Applejack's power to prevent further panic at their appearance.

Finally they put in charge some soot-covered city hall official that Enigma managed to locate, and used what was left of the city guard to organize aid for the displaced and the injured. It wasn’t nearly enough, they knew: they healed smaller injuries where they could, and Fluttershy sang a duet with Rarity, soothing all who could hear them, to lessen the horrors of that night. But however much they did, there was still more damage to be fixed, more pain and grief to be soothed.

We owe it to them, thought Rarity, doing her best to look calm and regal as they departed. It was Hate who hurt them, true, but it was our war they got tangled in - somepony has to take responsibility, and we’re supposed to be the heroes here. It is up to us to fix this,

She looked at the ponies watching them disappear - there were still about two dozen sitting in the nearby ruins, and some of them could still obviously use their help. Rarity struggled to avoid eye contact with a dishevelled-looking filly closest to them.

“Come on, girls,” said Twilight Sparkle. “We can help them more if we’re rested, and magic is no substitute for proper sleep. Plus we need to be ready when 'Dr. Stone' makes her next move. Our powers may be needed more when she resurfaces.”

She’s right, of course, thought Rarity dejectedly, We might need to save all of them again soon. We must be rested and ready. Plus, I now have my own subjects to worry about. They must be worried sick about me by now, even if they’ve seen the sun rise.

She wasn’t satisfied with the explanation. Deep inside, she felt these were just empty excuses. But as the spell delivered the Elements in front of the pillars marking the entrance to the Empire, some of Rarity’s concerns were validated; apart from the changeling guards, there was a large group of crystal ponies sitting nervously on the grassy hillside just inside the barrier. As the light of the teleport faded, the whole herd got up excitedly, swarming the entrance.

“Your Majesty!” she heard the first stallion call towards her. “There is a strange light in the sky!”

“What does it mean?” asked another.

“It’s such a relief to have you back with us,” said some mare from behind him.

“What are we going to do?”

“Are we safe inside the barrier?”

More questions followed, some hopeful, some frightened and urgent. Rarity knew how it worked. She had seen it many times in Ponyville, a herd looking for a leader to reassure them. Usually it was Twilight.

Rarity stepped forward, took a deep breath, and…

“BZZZZUMMM!”

Pinkie Pie blew a crystal flugelhorn, a loud, obnoxious, cringe-inducing blare that caused everypony to momentarily freeze up. Rarity turned her head to silently glare at her, but Pinkie only grinned and shrugged her shoulders, packing the instrument away.

Nopony had spoken yet, and Rarity exploited the momentary silence, amplifying her voice and taking initiative.

“Ponies of the Empire!” she started. “We return from a battle against the same monster you saw us banish when we freed you! “

There were some shocked gasps, but nopony dared interrupt her. Rarity looked towards Fluttershy, and saw a cross expression on her face. The pegasus was clearly conflicted over how to relate the recent events to the public.

Better to keep it simple, decided Rarity.

“This time we have finished the fight!” she continued. “The monster is no more! But before we could destroy it, it wreaked havoc across both Canterlot and Cloudsdale!”

More shocked gasps. Rarity saw one stallion start opening his mouth to ask her a question. She couldn’t afford to lose the momentum.

“It took us the rest of the night to help in the rescue effort,” she said. “As for the light above our heads, it is the magic that used to power the monster. It was released when he was destroyed. We will work together to make sure that nopony can use it to cause any further harm! Now please, let us through! It was a busy night, and we all need some rest!”

The crowd instantly parted, opening the path. Rarity stepped in, followed by the other Elements.

“You’re getting better at it,” said Applejack.

“I have no choice,” replied Rarity

“I can’t rest just yet,” said Twilight. “There are a couple ponies I need to talk to. Starting with you,” she added, turning to look towards Bluebonnet, who had just emerged from the crowd.

The engineer nodded. “Just give me a moment. Enigma?”

Twilight turned around. Enigma was standing behind them, at the edge of the city’s barrier. “The helmet isn’t the most comfortable,” he said, “but it does work as intended. I was able to land all my shots exactly where I wanted.”

“And the power?” asked Bluebonnet.

“The reduction does hurt performance,” replied Enigma. “But that is only a problem against the most powerful targets.”

“We already know it can take down adult dragons,” said Bluebonnet. “Perhaps we could add an option to supercharge a shot from multiple batteries.”

“Speaking of batteries,” said Enigma, displacing the harness off his body and onto the ground, “There are only six shots left. Do you have means to recharge the batteries?”

Bluebonnet shook her head. “I’m afraid not. Unless you could bring me some extra equipment from the lab.”

“I cannot,” replied Enigma. “Whether by design, or side effect of the enemy schemes, Hate’s final rampage started down there. I tried to search the place for clues, but everything is either collapsed or melted. We even have to take his word that Stone made it out of there.”

“I understand,” responded Bluebonnet. “That means we only have six shots to finish this war with. But with only Envy and Deception left, this should be doable, shouldn’t it?”

Enigma shifted uncomfortably, flicking his tail in annoyance. “We’re not sure. According to what Hate said when we confronted him, both of them are already gone. He said that somepony impersonated Deception and disposed of Envy. We think that was who had sent the Elements to the Void Passage to meet Verba and Obsidian. Didn’t you talk to Obsidian when he returned?”

Bluebonnet shook her head. “No, by the time I knew he arrived, he had already locked himself in the ritual room. So... this is what happened? All this...” She looked up towards the huge red star in the sky. “And this too?” she looked towards Twilight.

“I don’t think this is a good place to discuss it,” said Enigma. “Twilight will brief you on the details.”

Bluebonnet took a deep breath. “First things first then.” She turned towards the gun sitting in front of Enigma. “I want to take it for some tweaking. If it can be needed at any moment, I should make sure it’s in top shape.”

“Not a problem,” responded Enigma. “I will drop in to get it before the next battle.“

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You’re not coming in? We could let you through, now that you’re…”

“No,” said Enigma. “I appreciate the thought, but now the great war is ending… I’d rather not sleep under the same roof as Obsidian. I’ll take care of myself.”

***

“Are you sure it’s all true?”

Twilight looked back at Bluebonnet. They were sitting across a small, cluttered table in a room that the engineer had been given as her temporary workshop. “I… have no proof. Hate had no reason to lie to us, but perhaps somepony had lied to him. As for Enigma… You know him better than me. Do you think he can be trusted?”

Bluebonnet stared blankly at the machinery pieces scattered in front of her, then, reluctantly lifted her gaze to meet Twilight’s. “I don’t know. I thought I knew him. But I thought I knew Dr. Stone too, and if what you’re saying is true, I might never have met the real Deception.”

Twilight chewed her lip pensively. “That was kind of Deception’s thing, wasn’t it? She adapted many faces and played different roles. Perhaps that’s why the other Shattered didn’t notice anything. Even they would rarely see the real her. Still, there is something missing. The Shattered are supposed to be super smart. And if Dr. Stone replaced Deception, how did she keep the ruse going without her powers?”

“Lab work,” replied Bluebonnet. “Everypony was used to her using doubles, and her powers have little direct use in combat. She could lock herself in a lab, make whatever monster they needed, and nopony would question how she did that.”

“And if she worked on their own bodies?” asked Twilight.

Bluebonnet snorted. “You don’t really think we’d work invasively on unsedated patients, do you?”

Twilight considered the answer. “That makes sense. Wait, no. She must have had some way of getting rid of the real Deception. And they let her sedate them. She could have got rid of them all, couldn’t she? Why didn’t she? Why put us into all this?”

Bluebonnet looked towards the window. The red star wasn’t visible from where they were sitting, but they both knew it was there, far above, turning the sky outside the barrier the color of sunset.

“Hate,” nodded Twilight. “The one thing she couldn’t do without the Elements.”

“And not just the Elements,” said Bluebonnet. “You wouldn’t have been able to do this two years ago. She needed you as strong as you are now, or it wouldn’t have worked. But great heroes only rise to oppose great evil. If she got rid of the Shattered-”

“She’d need to create new ones herself, just to test us until we were ready,” finished Twilight. “Come up with new lies, just to get to the same point. She must have decided it was easier to just keep the same war going than to make a new conflict from scratch. I thought it strange that no matter what the Shattered did, they couldn’t stop new Elements from appearing, no matter how they sealed them away. But if ‘Dr. Stone’ made sure they did… she didn’t even have to win, just help from the sidelines and keep low profile until the right bearers showed up. Until she could get me to read the book and finish the spell.”

She moved from her spot at the table. “I need to talk to Gloria.”

At the mention of the name, Bluebonnet shuddered visibly. “Are you going to ask for her help?”

“Not ‘help’ as such,” replied Twilight. “If what we’ve figured out is true, this ruse must have been on for centuries… millennia! If we’re to get to the bottom of this, we need to-”

There was a loud jingling outside, echoing through the cristal corridors of the castle. The two mares looked at each other.

“What is that?” asked Bluebonnet. “You think there’s trouble?”

Twilight walked towards the door, the spells woven around her body blossoming into an ethereal armor. “We'd better find out.”

She pushed the door and looked outside, turning towards the changeling standing guard there. “What’s going on?”

The insectoid pony moved his ears. “I don’t know,” he said. “But it’s over there, and moving,” he finished, pointing to his left.

“We’ll find out,” said Twilight before galloping away down the corridor, Bluebonnet close behind her.

She turned the corner, catching herself with magic as she started skidding on the smooth floor, and stopped face to face with a pair of confused-looking crystal ponies. They too seemed to be looking for the source of the sound. It was now moving away, and Twilight thought to give chase again, before changing her mind, and just teleporting after it, coming back to reality at the next intersection.

“It went that way,” said a changeling standing there, pointing a chitinous hoof to his right.

“What was it?” demanded Twilight. She strained her ears, but suddenly the sound disappeared. And now there was a low rumble coming from the direction she came from.

“I don’t know... “ muttered the guard. “It was kind of like…”

The rumble got closer, turning into a loud sloshing sound.

“What on earth?” Twilight looked back where she came from. She could hear some surprised screams from there, and then a foamy wave of white came crashing down the corridor. The two Crystal ponies & Bluebonnet tumbled helplessly across its face.

Twilight braced for impact and cast her first spell, grabbing the three ponies and teleporting them, dropping them behind her in a tangle of limbs as she erected a force barrier in the corridor to block the path. It stopped the wave, and for a moment Twilight stared intently at the white substance sloshing in front of her.

“What… is this thing…” she asked nopony in particular.

The female crystal pony on the ground disentangled herself from the other two, got up, and reflexively licked the substance dripping from her face. “It’s… custard, I think.”

Twilight raised her eyebrow. “Custard?”

She turned towards Bluebonnet and cast a spell that washed over the mare, pushing the substance off her, and pressing it into a clump. She levitated it to her muzzle, and sniffed carefully. “It does smell like it…”

Touched with a sudden thought, she zapped the blob with a simple antispell. Just as she expected, the substance bubbled briefly, and then phased out of existence. Twilight turned towards her companions. “This isn’t real,” she explained. “It’s a spell. But who would…”

She closed her eyes, and spread her magical senses. The custard was everywhere, filling most of the floor, at least as far as Twilight could feel - the magic it emanated muffled everything, making it hard to locate anything with sensory spells. It’s blocking detection, realised Twilight, But why in Equestria? She focused her magic, filling the corridor with dancing lights, ready to unleash an impulse that would alert everypony in the tower, when she noticed something else. For all of the symptoms of a malicious attack, the magic felt familiar, very familiar.

Twilight opened her eyes and stared at the custard again. “Pinkie?”

Changing her mind, Twilight transformed her gathered energy into an area counterspell, clearing the nearby corridors. Spreading her magic in front of her, she galloped back where she came from, the three ponies and the changeling following in her hoofsteps. She got to the previous intersection, and found the changeling that used to guard Bluebonnet’s door there, flailing helplessly in the custard until she could free him.

He looked at her apologetically. “I was swept away before I could fly,” he explained. “I’ve tried to raise an alarm, but this blasted thing…” He tested his wings, creating a loud buzz.

“No need to,” said Twilight. “Return to your post. I’ll handle this.” Conjuring a mental image of the floor’s layout, she dashed towards the kitchen.

When she got there, Twilight found Pinkie Pie standing over a huge bowl, likely the largest she could find in the palace. Over her head she was holding a bag of sugar.

“Pinkie,” said Twilight forcefully.

The confectioner froze, then slowly turned her head towards her, making a decent impression of Owlicious. “Whaaat?” she asked, looking back at Twilight.

Twilight glared at her. “Could you tell me what in Equestria are you doing?”

Pinkie Pie grinned. “Making imaginary custard.”

Twilight didn’t stop glaring. “Care to tell me why?”

With a flash of red light, the mass blocking the opposite door disappeared, Applejack and Rainbow Dash charging in, then visibly losing their momentum at the sight of Pinkie.

“Could somepony tell me what in tarnation is going on?” demanded Applejack, looking from Pinkie to Twilight.

“We were just about to go to sleep, when we heard that strange jingling,” explained Rainbow Dash. "What was it?”

“Oh, it was just me,” said Pinkie, emerging from the corridor behind Twilight, giving a shrug that made the bells on her jester hat jingle.

“So, that was what I saw…” said the changeling.

Twilight looked back at her, then did a double take. In the center of the room, a wooden cutout of Pinkie fell over, with a wet splat, the bag of sugar dropping into a bowl.

“But… why?” asked Twilight.

Pinkie Pie pronked past her and into the kitchen, discarding the jingling hat, and stopping at the bowl. “Oh, I was just trying to distract everypony,” she explained with a smile, before grabbing a ladle in her teeth, and scooping some custard from near the bowl, offering it to Twilight. “Want some?”

“Pinkie, stop goofing around, and tell us what’s going on!” said Applejack in exasperation. “What do you mean distract everypony?” Twilight could see the gem on Applejack’s chest light up.

Pinkie looked at it, sighed, and dropped the ladle into the bowl. “Well,” she started, before going off like a whirlwind, grabbing a mop, and sweeping through the kitchen. “I was talking to Rarity earlier, and she talked about how many horrible things have happened, and how everypony was worried and tense…”

She stopped, when Twilight groaned and cast a spell that cleaned the rest of the kitchen.

“She said that the ponies could use some kind of a distraction. And that’s what gave me the idea. Well, initially,” finished Pinkie.

She grinned. The reply was a circle of blank stares.

Rainbow Dash facehoofed. “Pinkie… not that kind of distraction.”

Pinkie snorted derisively. “Well, I believe, it was just the kind of distraction everypony needed. You can trust me on that.”

“What were you thinking, Pinkie!?” shouted Twilight. “Somepony could have… drowned!”

Pinkie gave her a confused look. “In imaginary custard?”

“So not the point…” sighed Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie looked around, then spun on the spot. “Anyway, my work here is done! Time for all of us to get some sleep!” And then she took off like a bullet, disappearing through the door.

She managed to get through three turns before Twilight teleported in front of her.

“Pinkie…” she hissed forcefully. “Stop right here. There’s something you’re not telling us, and right now we don’t need any new mysteries. With all that’s been happening, a misunderstanding could get somepony killed.”

She took two steps forward, stopping right in front of Pinkie. “What’s. Going. On.”

Pinkie Pie grinned. “I can’t tell you. Somepony might die if I spoil the surprise.”

Twilight gasped. “What?”

Without warning, Pinkie lunged forward, diving under Twilight’s horn, and pressing their snouts together. “Trust meeee,” she said in a forceful whisper.

Then she inhaled, and teleported away in a flash of blue.

***

After that, Twilight decided to, reluctantly, have some rest. Her head was buzzing with hypotheses, but Obsidian still hadn’t returned after locking himself in the ritual room, and the little bit of extra excitement provided by Pinkie pushed her past the limits of what she could feasibly accomplish without getting some sleep. It was then only hours later, when the day was coming to an end, and she was woken up to lower the sun with the others, that she finally found the time to interrogate Gloria.

When she entered the cell, Bluebonnet stepping reluctantly behind her, Gloria merely opened her eyes.

She was sprawled on her belly on the bed, wings splayed loosely on her sides. Though she had suffered no indignities normally associated with imprisonment, Twilight instantly noticed that she looked horrible; there were bags under her eyes, indicating crying and lack of sleep, and her mane was unkempt, loose hairs sticking out at odd angles.

There was a small plate on the table by the bed, made of thin metal rather than the heavy crystal the locals favoured, likely to deny her a potential weapon, even though with Applejack’s spell barring her escape, such measures could be considered redundant. The undisturbed vegetables made it look like a piece of still life, waiting to be painted.

Twilight looked down at her prisoner, then, as the silence stretched on uncomfortably, she scraped her hoof against the floor in a circular motion.

“So… how are you feeling?” she finally started.

Gloria made the effort to focus her gaze on her. “Dying…” she said softly. “You were right. This is death.”

“Oh?” asked Bluebonnet, emerging from behind Twilight. “You look pretty alive to me. What seems to be the problem?”

Gloria lifted herself up, just enough to keep facing them both without straining her neck. “When you took away my power… I’m getting dumber by the minute. Yesterday I could remember the name and face of every soldier that ever served under me. I could govern Equestria by memory. Now my head is like a sieve. It was never meant to hold so many generations of memories. Every breath I take, a bit of who I am dies forever… and the only things I wish I could forget are the ones that won’t fade no matter what!”

“Well, hold on to them then, because we have a couple of questions,” said Bluebonnet with a scowl.

Twilight glared at her, before turning back towards Gloria. “There are some things we need to know,” she said. “We’ve managed to… destroy Hate. There was so much power inside him, he turned to ash when we disjoined him. And…”

“There is somepony else,” said Bluebonnet briskly. “Manipulating this war. We think she might have killed and replaced Deception.”

The two statements made Gloria sit up on the bed. She stared, wide eyed, at the both mares, her mouth moving soundlessly.

“Tell us what you know,” said Bluebonnet.

It took a couple more seconds before she did. Twilight could see tears welling up in her eyes again. “Hate… Lightbringer is gone?”

“As far as we know, gone for good,” said Twilight. “But that magical thing inside him has been released. We think that was the plan all along.”

Gloria shook her head, reflexively wiping her face with her wing. “I’m sorry, please give me a moment.”

“Do give her a moment to get coherent,” said Twilight towards Bluebonnet.

Gloria spent a long moment sitting in silence. Finally, she opened her mouth to speak, just above a whisper. “Gone. After so many lifetimes, he’s gone. Of all of us, he was probably happy to die. We shouldn’t have pulled him into all this…” Suddenly her ear twitched, and she stared at Bluebonnet. “You said Eve is dead too? Replaced? What… what do you mean?”

“We got to speak to Hate before the battle,” said Twilight. “He claimed that Dr. Stone revealed herself to him as an impostor - she claimed to have taken down Envy too. That’s what set off his rage.”

“He burned half the Canterlot down,” deadpanned Bluebonnet.

“Doctor!” hissed Twilight, glaring at her companion. “You’re doing it on purpose.”

“She deserves that and worse,” replied Bluebonnet. “Even if it turns out she was also a puppet.”

“My subjects?” asked Gloria, wide-eyed. “The palace staff?”

Twilight’s expression turned grim. “We don’t know yet. There were a lot fewer ponies there than usual, but for those who stayed… the palace is gone. I’m afraid most of them didn’t make it.”

“We’ve gone with Twilight over what has happened so far,” said Bluebonnet. “Somepony sent her and the girls to the Dissonance to meet Obsidian. That requires tremendous power, but our lab equipment could’ve been used to supply it. You had a scheme to turn Twilight into an alicorn, but the device meant to do it exploded, causing her to escape and meet Obsidian. And the instruction for the process was in a book that she could then use to figure out how to unsplice you.”

“Eve wrote the book,” said Gloria. “It was her idea. I only made it look aged.” She was now listening with more interest.

“Somepony stole Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle right from under your nose, and while posing as Enigma,” continued Bluebonnet. “Denying you important hostages, making you suspect him, and sending them south, equipped with highly advanced, but time-limited protective amulets. This eventually made the Elements go out of hiding and fight Hate.”

“I thought it was the changelings,” said Gloria. “Even Eve suggested that.”

“But she knew you enough to know how you think, didn’t she?” said Bluebonnet. “Your relationship with Enigma was already damaged beyond repair when you started holding my daughter hostage. That was just the last move to make sure you’d be at each other’s throats. How did that start?”

“He abandoned us,” replied Gloria through gritted teeth.

“And that was the reason to cook up a plot that made the situation worse for everypony,” said Bluebonnet. “And the scheme that put Hate in the Crystal Empire? Was it your idea? Or did she discuss the matter with you until you came up with it?”

At that, Gloria sprang up, standing on the bed, wings spread, face twisted in sudden anger. “I don’t remember! What does that have to do with anything!?”

“We believe,” started Twilight, “whoever is behind this, is after the power that was inside Hate. It wouldn’t be separated from him until he died, which couldn’t happen for as long as he was one of the Shattered. When he conquered the Crystal Empire, he was connected to a lot of extra magic.”

“And it turned him into Sombra,” finished Gloria.

“Yes,” nodded Twilight. “But perhaps that was not the plan. Perhaps the plan was to give him so much magic that his pattern connection would break.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” replied Gloria.

“But we only know it now, don’t we?” said Bluebonnet.

“Well, there was that time in the very beginning,” said Twilight. “They tried to overload Hate with magic to destroy his pattern connection. That’s how that power ended up inside him in the first place. Although Obsidian believes that it wasn’t so. He thinks it was-”

Gloria sat straight, glaring at Twilight. “It was Indicina.”

“Indicina?” asked Bluebonnet in surprise. “The mare from the Splice vision? Obsidian’s lost love? You said she was killed, but you never did tell me the details. Why would she do it?”

“She was insane,” said Gloria. “The Splice drove her insane. When Obsidian disappeared, she appeared calm, but in fact she went mad with grief. She must have blamed the Emperor, because she…”

Anger flashed in Gloria’s eyes, and she jumped off the bed angrily, proceeding to pace across the cell.

“We didn’t find out until it was far too late, but she was the one behind everything. She poisoned the Emperor’s heart, and made him betray us. She made sure we would become monsters as everypony had feared. And then she stayed and watched as everything burned around her. Light didn’t remember it at first, he was sedated when they captured him, and only woke up for a moment when she started the process, but it was Indicina who put that thing inside him. She wanted him to destroy more. And he did just as she wanted. We all did.”

“And now it looks like this war has been manipulated in a very similar way,” said Bluebonnet. “But the goals seem pretty much opposite to what Indicina was trying to achieve. Who might it be this time?”

“I was thinking on who Dr. Stone might be,” said Twilight. “From what Obsidian told us, Deception was defined by her need of approval. So it couldn’t have been her turning on you. Could she?”

“No,” said Gloria. “It’s not a matter of my arrogance now. I do know her. She wouldn’t betray us. Even when…” she paused, looking ahead.

“Even when what?” prompted her Twilight.

“Even when she had to choose between a love and us, she chose us,” continued Gloria. “Back when we conquered Equestria for the first time. She was our infiltrator then. She seduced Loyalty for us, but fell for him in turn. If she switched sides back then, it might’ve been over for us. But she did go with the plan. She helped us kill the Elements and conquer their subjects.”

Twilight sighed. “And that stallion… Loyalty? Did she kill him too?”

“If you had asked me yesterday, I would’ve remembered his name,” replied Gloria bitterly. “She did try to save him, but it didn’t work out. He repaid her betrayal with hate, and she couldn’t fix it no matter how many times she tried to mess with his memory. In the end, it destroyed him, and she suffered horribly. She never fell in love again.” She paused again, as if hearing something at the edge of her senses. “Come to think of it, this is when she first adopted that serious scientist persona. I think she called herself Dr. Stein at first. She said it had been high time for her to change.”

“Perhaps it really was her then?” asked Bluebonnet. “It would all fit. A story of lost love, madness and revenge just like Indicina’s.”

“And magical powers?” asked Twilight. “Our mysterious mastermind has shown some really impressive magic if you think of it.”

“If she could give Luna enough power to appear in dreams,” said Bluebonnet, “she could’ve given herself powers as well.”

“Only if she had a proper soul to put inside herself,” said Gloria, “Her lost love was the only other awakened Element we ever captured alive. And he wouldn’t make a stable power source.”

“Well, if it wasn’t her, then who?” asked Twilight. “How many other ancient mares with knowledge of both highly advanced magic and your personalities can you think of?”

“We’re dealing with a shapeshifter,” said Bluebonnet. “How do you even know if it’s a mare?”

“Because…” Twilight paused. “Why am I so sure? I think…” She looked around the chamber, lost in sudden introspection. “I had a dream about her. That’s it! I had a dream, just before we woke up in our bodies. She showed up to warn me about the alicorn transformation. That’s why I panicked when Dr. Stone started the procedure.”

“That too could’ve been a mask,” said Gloria.

“No,” replied Twilight. “She was hidden, not disguised. She wasn’t trying to mislead me, because I wasn’t supposed to remember the dream at all, just act on it - find Zecora’s report book, and resist the transformation. She obscured her features, I have no idea how she looked or even sounded. But she was definitely a mare.”

“Well, it couldn’t have been Indicina,” said Gloria. “We put an end to her madness when Libra destroyed the Imperial Palace. I know she got Concilio out of there, but I was there too, high above, and saw the portal she pushed him through. There was no time for her to open another. Nopony else made it out of there - Both Aurora and Obsidian have surely told you some stories - Libra’s power of destruction was absolute.”

“Perhaps,” said Twilight. “But this war has lasted as long as it did because some ponies just wouldn’t die. Including Obsidian. He got squashed by a block of stone, and just turned into smoke, didn’t he? If there was a way to-”

There was a sound of hooves outside, and the door opened. Obsidian strode into the cell, instantly focusing on Twilight.

“Twilight, you’re not going to like what I’m going to tell you.”

Twilight turned towards Obsidian, bracing herself for what was to come. “Oh, Obsidian. You were locked in that chamber for so long, I was starting to get worried. What did you find out?”

“The Void Passage is sealed,” replied Obsidian.

Twilight blinked. “What?”

“Sealed,” replied Obsidian. “Closed from the inside. It’s the same mechanism that activates when somepony is being tested. And like before, Verba appears to be inside. We’re locked out from the Amaranthine.”

“And it took you so long to find out?” asked Twilight. “What were you doing all that time? We need to go there at once!”

“You all needed your sleep,” said Obsidian. “I spent the time checking the Passage for possible ways in.”

“If there are none, we will make one,” said Twilight. “Tell the others to get ready.”

“They already are,” replied Obsidian. “You’re the last I found, and they all seemed to have the same idea.”

***

When the three entered the council room, the other Elements were already waiting, accompanied by Pierce and Maska. Twilight walked up to the empty space at the table.

“It looks like our enemy has made a move,” she said. “We will need to go to the Void Passage, and find a way in.”

“How do we do that?” asked Applejack. “Obsidian couldn’t find a way in, and he helped build the place.”

“With force if we have to,” replied Twilight. “It might be a wonder of arcane power, meant to keep powerful intruders out, but it wasn’t designed to resist something like the Elements of Harmony. If we combine our powers, we should be able to break our way in.”

“Why would they lock it up though?” said Pierce. “If they can already hide themselves from scrying magic, the Amaranthine shouldn’t be a threat to them.”

“Perhaps they wanted to hide something else?” said Dash. “Like, I don’t know, something that happened long ago.”

“If it was before they thought to hide such things,” said Rarity, “they couldn’t cast any spells into their own past, could they?”

“Dissonance plays loose with the notion of time,” said Obsidian, “But once an event echoes inside it, it will always be a part of it. It might be so mixed into other memories that only the Amaranthine could sift it out, but it will be there, no matter what you do. That makes the flower a great threat to any conspirator’s plans.”

“So, they wanted to take it from us before we ask it the right question?” asked Fluttershy.

“That, or it’s a distraction,” said Maska. “If you’re in the Void Passage, you can’t be elsewhere.”

“Considering that we could set up a spell to drag us back here in an instant,” said Obsidian, “that would be a rather poor distraction. The first explanation makes much more sense, and I’m more inclined to-”

Pinkie Pie banged her head on the table. Everypony stared at her. The pink pony pulled back, staring into the ceiling, her ears flapping wildly in all directions, before leaning forward, and staring blankly at the sweaty imprint of her face on the crystal surface before her. “Yes… I can feel it too…” she said under her breath.

Twilight teleported across the table to her side. “Pinkie!? What is it? What’s going on!?” she asked frantically.

Pinkie Pie turned, and stared into her eyes. “It has started,” she whispered dramatically, before pivoting and pointing her hoof towards the balcony door. “Look at the sky!”

Everypony in the room ran outside. The semi-opaque dome above the city hid the night sky, but even so, they could see the red light of the new star to the south. And now it seemed to be moving.

There was a buzz of wings audible in the distance, and Maska tensed. “Guilt is at the gate again,” she said. “Requesting an urgent meeting.”

“What is happening?” asked Twilight, staring at the sky. Rarity breathed slowly, and the southern side of the barrier turned translucent, giving them an unrestricted view of the night outside. The red star was indeed moving, very slowly, but with the whole sky around it rearranging itself, stars moving out of the way in spiralling clusters. There was something more too, a feeling of growing pressure that had nothing to do with air, an overwhelming power, far in the distance.

Twilight’s eyes widened. “What in Equestria…” she heard Applejack say behind her.

“It’s moving towards Nevercrest,” replied Obsidian. “There is no mistaking this power for anything else.”

Twilight swallowed loudly. “You mean…”

Obsidian nodded. “Someone’s performing a Splice.”

Author's Note:

The chapter is finally ready.

Also, nobody has answered my question about the music links, so I guess they don't get used. Dropping them for now then.

Comments

[DDDDDDDDD23]

10092719
yeah it was happy for them because they were basicly the arryans living under hitlers rule.

[Braininthejar]

10119391
Come to think of it, ponies are one of the few inherently magical races in Equestria. It would take somethink like a kirin to be their equal, and tey keep several other sentient races in farms ( though it says more of the latter that they seem happy with the arrangement)