Equestrylvania

by Brony_Fife

Original Sin, Part IV

Chapter 4 ~ Heavenly Doorway

---

An author of little talent would describe it as a big watery thing, like walking through an ocean where you can breathe. An author of moderate talent would embellish, claiming it is more like an ocean of time, rippling at every unnatural movement made inside of it. An author of great talent would outright lie: the Heavenly Doorway is an ethereal creature of thought, with every wave being both a memory and an event yet to happen, with ripples of truth and falsehood, the tide merely harmony and disharmony greeting one another, then departing.

I am none of those authors, so all I can say is that when Aeon walks upon the treacherous Heavenly Doorway, it is akin to walking against your own destiny. It’s a feeling deep inside—the kind that twists the innards and scrapes against the soul. Any Traveler who dares to walk the Heavenly Doorway becomes a thought in its head—and it is hungry for thought, an intelligent and eager nightmare.

St. Germaine used to tell Aeon and Janine about the Heavenly Doorway before they even began using it, calling it a hellish nonsense that binds all possible realities together. A collective, adhesive imagination that keeps dimensions together like pieces of a shattered vase. But at the same time, it’s a thinking and feeling creature—much like the Castle—and being inside it, without protection or knowledge of direction, could spell the end of any Traveler. With a tip of his hat, St. Germaine disappears from view—and it’s only then that Aeon realizes the Heavenly Doorway has noted his presence and stolen a memory from right out of his head.

As his feet make soundless noises across the liquid floor, Aeon checks his watch and hurries. He’s been here often enough to know his way around. Out of the corner of his eye—it’s always the corner of his eye—Janine runs by, her deep blonde curls bouncing like a woven blanket of gold. He thinks he hears her laugh. He can hear her footsteps—haphazard and pitter-pattery in comparison to his authoritarian stride. Everywhere in the Heavenly Doorway is suddenly Janine.

No, such is a lie. Aeon knows it is. He accepts it, but God forbid the Heavenly Doorway let him. No, the Heavenly Doorway teases as he walks, as Equestria—the One Equestria out of the million possible Equestrias—comes just into view. His breath grows shallow as Janine

(no, the Heavenly Doorway)

haunts him again. Teasing. Taunting. Wanting him to forget the truth and embrace its bewitching, comforting madness. Like St. Germaine warned, the Heavenly Doorway is not merely an ocean of memory, not merely an intelligent and eager nightmare. It is a void where guilt lies in wait. It waits for any Traveler with enough gumption to walk its amorphous corridors, only to pounce, to bite, to chew, to swallow—to devour. It licks its translucent lips.

Aeon looks down as his authoritarian stride falls apart and he sprints, his ghostwhite legs moving like quickened clock pendulums. Janine giggles. She reaches out her little hand—from the corner of his eye, as always—and asks him where he’s going. God, he wants to cry.

Aeon lifts his head and looks to the sudden stress in his right hand. Clenched between his black-gloved fingers—the red jewel. The real Janine. It glows, a light in this dense darkness. A light that begs him not to look at the Heavenly Doorway as it taunts, as it whets its teeth and wets its lips, ready to devour him. His eyes focus on the red jewel’s light, and the red jewel’s light focuses back.

Equestria is right ahead. She looks up as she senses him coming. He runs by the corpses of other dimensions—dimensions his clumsy hands have sped to ruin—those pale pendulums beneath him pumping harder now.

He hears it erupt behind him. A raucous laugh. The Heavenly Doorway has dropped the Janine act. Aeon dares not look behind himself as he hears the mighty footfalls of Galamoth—dares not look, for Galamoth is also merely an invention of the Heavenly Doorway. But the squiggling tremors beneath Aeon’s feet tell him Galamoth is real and here and right behind him and eager to crush him like he wanted to right from the start.

Equestria looks to Aeon as he draws nearer. She makes a motion with her hand—give me yours, Aeon! The tremors behind him becoming fiercer, Aeon jumps. His legs are no longer pendulums, but rockets—propelling him across the Heavenly Doorway with the force of a catapult.

Equestria welcomes him back with her beautiful smile and warm embrace.

It feels good to be back.

---

The clock hands close in on noon, whether anyone prepares for it or not. As Fluttershy is given Cadence’s crown—as Rarity and Spike leave her boutique—as Applejack treks to the Library—as Roseluck is placed back in the mental ward——as Aeon exits the Heavenly Doorway to safety, his two legs once again becoming four, the clocks all strike.

It is noon.

---

Well, it’s to be expected—the tardiness. Aeon receives a glance or two from Owlowiscious as he helps Twilight go through some more books. Shyly, she apologizes for the lateness of her friends. “I don’t know what’s taking them so long,” she says.

“Do we have to wait?” Rainbow Dash sighs impatiently. “Why can’t we just fill ’em in on the details afterward?”

“I’m with Fruit Loops,” Shatterstorm says. Rainbow Dash shoots him an icy glare, to which Shatterstorm deflects with a nonchalant shrug. “Oh, what? I’m the only one who has to be stuck with a goofy nickname?”

Pinkie Pie hops in one place—then over there—and then over there—barely containing her constant, kinetic excitement. “Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh the real story’s about to start I CAN’T WAIT EEEEEEEEEEEEEE—”

Her gleeful shriek is cut off by a cyan hoof. “Down, girl,” Rainbow Dash says.

“Seriously,” says Shatterstorm with a shake of his head. “Didn’t they build you with an off switch?”

Pinkie Pie giggles. “An off switch? Silly Stormdrain! If I had one of those, I’d be a robot!”

A knock at the door breaks their conversation over its knee. It opens, and into the Library walk Rarity and Spike, with Applejack just behind them. “Sorry fer bein’ late, y’all, ” Applejack says, closing the door behind her. “Big Mac ’n me had a heck of a time tryin’na git plans drawn up fer reconstruction.” She laughs. “If’n it weren’t fer Apple Bloom, we’da been there all day!”

Spike and Shatterstorm share an awkward silence before Shatterstorm sighs through his nose. He steps forward—but before he is able to apologize for his outburst earlier, Spike holds out a tiny claw. “Don’t,” he demands.

“What?”

“You don’t have anything to apologize for,” Spike says. He scratches the back of his head sheepishly, trying his hardest to retain eye contact. “I… Shatterstorm, I’m really sorry for what I said to you in the marketplace. It was wrong for me to say something so cruel to you.”

Shatterstorm waves a hoof. “That’s OK. You know you and I are always gonna be tight. And if anypony’s got anything to apologize for... it’s me. It wasn’t right for me to force my point of view on you.” He smiles. It's small, but reassuring. Rainbow Dash catches it just before it leaves his face.

She’d seen how he lit up when he saw Spitfire. Before then, Rainbow Dash didn’t think he could smile. She’d seen him smirk, and she’d seen him grin. But this—both this and the smile he had for Spitfire—is the genuine article. A curve on his face that can convince the world innocence can persist even in the heart of such a cynical creature.

The moment these thoughts enter her mind, she tosses them out with a fierce blush and a stifled grunt.

Spike gives Shatterstorm a hug as Rarity comes near and laughs. “See? What did I tell you, Spike? Shatterstorm’s more understanding than that!”

Shatterstorm raises an eyebrow. “…What do you mean?” he asks slowly.

Rarity chuckles into the back of her hoof. “Oh, Spikey-Wikey was so concerned that he’d hurt your feelings so badly, you’d never want to be his friend again. The poor dear, worrying his head off like that…”

Spike blushes. “R-Rarity! TMI!” he says.

Twilight laughs as she places a hoof on her assistant’s head. “That’s our Spike,” she says between giggles. “Always making a big deal out of everything!” Her comment earns her a discerning stare from her friends—friends who’d known her long enough to know how big a deal everything is to Twilight.

Aeon clears his throat, getting everypony’s attention. “If we are all gathered, I take it we can begin…?”

Twilight looks about. “Well, it looks like we’re just waiting on Fluttershy.”

Rainbow Dash shakes her head. “I think we’re done waiting. We can tell her what she missed when she shows up.”

Pinkie Pie gasps dramatically, sounding more like a bullhorn in reverse. “What if she got kidnapped?!”

Aeon frowns and scratches his chin. “…A disturbing possibility…”

Applejack shakes her head. “Now Pinkie, there’s no need to worry ’bout—”

“—Or! Or what if she got kidnapped, then rescued by aliens, and then CAPTURED by the ALIENS WHO RESCUED HER?!”

Silence. Aeon removes his monocle. Cleans it. Puts it back. “Pinkie?”

“Yes?”

“Be serious, please,” he says. His impatience with Pinkie’s outbursts was only barely hidden beneath his monotone. “This is an important matter that involves all of you. We shall wait for Fluttershy for another five minutes. After that, I think we should look for her.”

Rainbow Dash steps forward. “How about I just look for her now, then? Save us some time.”

Twilight sighs and runs a hoof through her mane. “Well, I suppose if that’s okay with—”

“Right,” Rainbow Dash nods, unfurling her wings. As she does so, Shatterstorm unfurls his. Rainbow Dash glares at him. “Oh, what? You wanna come too?”

“Two sets of eyes are better than one,” Shatterstorm opines.

Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes. “Oh, for—! Seriously? Following me around, wanting to do everything with me, even knows the same ponies as me?” She waves a hoof. “Just admit you’re crushing on me and be done with it!”

Her sudden accusation draws a blush out of Shatterstorm’s face as well as amused grins from everypony else. He grits his teeth. “If you could see past your own monstrous ego,” he hisses, “you’d understand I’m only offering my help because I think you—might—need—it.”

“I don’t need your help!” Rainbow Dash screams. “I don’t need you following me around all the time!”

Shatterstorm remains rigid, his voice still slithering from his mouth like a serpent. “Is it my fault we’re both pegasi and that means we’re better at covering long distances in short amounts of time?”

“No, but it’s starting to get on my nerves! I can do this alone!”

“Are they like this all the time?” Aeon whispers to Spike as the two argue some more.

Spike shrugs. “I know, right?”

“Git a room, you two,” Applejack says.

“ENOUGH!!!” Twilight shouts loud enough to rock the Library. Silence for a few precious seconds. Twilight looks from Shatterstorm to Rainbow Dash, reading their shocked expressions. “Shatterstorm? You take the west end. Rainbow Dash, east end. Catch anything unusual, report back to me. If you find Fluttershy, bring her here.”

At here, the door burst in, a flailing Fluttershy stumbling through, gasping for breath. She nearly tramples Spike before Aeon uses his unicorn magic to prop her back up on all fours.

“Fluttershy, darling!” Rarity exclaims. “Where have you been? We were about to put out a search party!”

Fluttershy attempts to explain—honest, she does—but her voice comes out in haphazard bursts. “Witches—forest—crown—bad—oooohhhh my—not good—”

Twilight grabs Fluttershy and gives her a shake. “Calm down, would you?!” she says. A few seconds pass, Fluttershy in Twilight’s hooves, before Fluttershy swallows and her racing heart begins to slow. Her breathing gradually returns to normal and she is let go. “Now then,” Twilight says, much gentler this time. “Tell us. What took you so long?”

“I ran,” Fluttershy stammers. "I ran—I ran the whole way here to tell you that—"

“You ran?” Rainbow Dash asks.

Fluttershy nods, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Yes, I—I ran."

“You... ran?” Shatterstorm echoes.

“Y-Yes,” Fluttershy repeats, her face furrowing into a frown. "Why do you keep asking me that?"

Rainbow Dash and Shatterstorm share unamused aside glances. They look back to Fluttershy.

Then unfurl their wings.

“...Oh,” Fluttershy whispers, her cheeks burning bright red in embarrassment. It certainly wouldn't have been the first time she forgot she could fly.

Applejack rolls her eyes. “Okay,” she sighs, dismissing Fluttershy's forgetfulness. “So you ran here. Then what?”

“OK,” Fluttershy says. “I was just enjoying my morning with my little critter friends—and thank you so much by the way, Twilight; your spell broke Dracula’s hold on them. Anyway, I got approached by these three witches. They looked kind of like Aeon does when he’s… uh, when he’s… not... a pony? And they mentioned that they work for Actrise. And then—” (She sifts through her saddlebags and pulls out the crown from before, much to the collective shock of everypony gathered) “—then they gave me this!”

Wide eyes and half-open mouths and silent gasps are followed closely by a few seconds of stunned silence. Twilight lifts the crown from Fluttershy’s grasp, tinting it magenta with her telekinesis. Her eyes scream in terror and heartbreak. She isn’t able to get out much more than a weak “Oh no…”

“This is bad,” Shatterstorm says hoarsely. “Without a Princess to rally ponies together…”

“Quick, Twi! We gotta make a plan!” Rainbow Dash says.

“How we gonna do that?” Applejack asks. “This crown’s the only clue we got. We don’t even know where to start lookin’!”

“What if they took her to their spooky castle!?” Pinkie asks, genuinely panicking now. “What if they took her there and they’re gonna sacrifice her or something?!”

Aeon releases a harsh sigh from between clenched teeth, totally frustrated. “I don’t mean to alarm anyone, but that’s a terrible predicament. Besides the obvious, Dracula’s minions are capable of tracking individuals through using exact soul-targeting.”

“In English, please?” Rainbow Dash asks impatiently.

“What that means is, not only do they have your Princess in their power, they can also use her unique soul-signature to track others of her kind. Other alicorns.” He lets this sink in. “The other Princesses.” A snake of distress slithers across his back, his fears of Dracula’s minions attacking the Princess’ castle proven correct—and all too soon.

“This is a distraction,” Twilight says suddenly.

“Whatever do you mean, it’s a distraction?” Rarity asks.

Twilight looks the crown over more carefully, as if inspecting it for fraud. “Fluttershy, those witches who gave this to you… You said they work for Actrise?”

“Y-Yes…”

“Then not only is it a distraction, it’s a challenge—and on top of all that, it’s an obvious trap.” Twilight sets the crown down on a nearby table. “Kidnapping a close friend of mine for a cause that her superiors would probably have kept secret? Actrise is doing all this because she wants to draw me out into the open.”

Aeon nods. “This is very much Actrise’s work. Distractions are her forte.”

Twilight trots about nervously, as if afraid something is going to jump up from underneath the piles of ruined books. “Princess Cadance would have visited Canterlot in order to check on Shining Armor…”

“But wouldn’t it be more responsible of her to stay in the Crystal Empire?” asks Spike.

Twilight stops and shoots Spike an accusing glare. “Her husband is afflicted with a disease that has some… ugly results, Spike. She wouldn’t just leave him there like that. Besides, she has a high council that can at least maintain order in the Crystal Empire until she comes back.” She resumes pacing. “Anyway, since Roaring Yawn hasn’t responded to my message I sent almost six days ago, I’m going to have to assume that Canterlot’s now totally under Dracula’s control.”

A collective sigh fills the room. “That would explain how they got Cadance so easily,” Rarity says. “All they had to do was wait for her to come to her husband’s side. Such a fiendish thing to do!”

“Well, the research team was dumb enough to stick around instead of evacuating,” Rainbow Dash says.

“But the Royal Guard stayed behind as well to protect the research team,” Shatterstorm counters.

Twilight turns to look at him. “But when did you last receive any orders?”

Shatterstorm thinks this over until his face becomes pale. “…You’re right. I was under the assumption that HQ was really just preoccupied with trying to maintain order across Equestria… but if something like this happened…”

“Then the Royal Guard’s been wiped out?” Spike asks, alarmed.

Fluttershy whimpers. “Th-Then, if all this is happening… what do we do?”

The room is quiet. The disturbing sense of unease snakes through the room again before Twilight takes a deep breath, puts a hoof to her chest, then exhales while pushing her hoof outward, swatting the awful silence like a gnat. “OK,” she says. “Here’s what we’re going to do:

“Aeon. Before we do anything else, we’ll need your input. You gathered us here to hear you out, and we’ll do that for you.

“Rainbow Dash. Shatterstorm. You can both cover long distances in short amounts of time. After Aeon finishes, you two go to Canterlot, scope out the situation, and if at all possible, investigate where they’re holding Princess Cadance.

“As for me, I’m going to build the trackers we need to find Dracula’s remaining body parts before his servants do. The rest of us will form teams and use these trackers to find Dracula's remaining parts.”

“So, you’re not gonna fight Actrise?” Spike asks.

Twilight shakes her head. “That’s exactly what she wants, Spike. And most of us in this room have been on the business end of her magic already. We can all attest that she’s too powerful for me to take on mare-to-witch. But I’ve outsmarted her once, and I can do it again—I just need time, and planning.”

She continues. “Finally, we need somepony to get to the Crystal Empire. We need to know if it’s doing okay.”

Rainbow Dash and Shatterstorm share a knowing look. “I think we know somepony who can handle that,” Rainbow Dash says.

Twilight nods to them. “All right. Good. That’s good to hear.” She turns to her assistant. “Spike, I need those ingredients I asked you to get.”

Spike nods and sets his satchel down by a stand, rummaging through it and bringing out each of the necessary items. Twilight looks them over. “Good, everything’s in order.” She looks to Spike. “I need you to take these down to the basement lab.”

As Spike did as directed, Twilight turned back to the rest of the group. “We’ve got a lot to do this week.” She looks to Aeon. “So let’s get started. Aeon, if you may?”

Aeon has watched Twilight throughout this entire speech, and is amazed at her innate talent for leadership and resource management. Even with the terrifying news of Cadance’s kidnapping, she remains solid and fearless—if only so her comrades don’t panic. She reminds him so much of Soma. Growing into a true leader, without even realizing it.

He smiles and nods. “All right then,” he says. “Let us begin.”

Comments

[Clocklike]

An author of little talent would describe it as a big watery thing, like walking through an ocean where you can breathe. An author of moderate talent would embellish, claiming it is more like an ocean of time, rippling at every unnatural movement made inside of it. An author of great talent would outright lie: the Heavenly Doorway is an ethereal creature of thought, with every wave being both a memory and an event yet to happen, with ripples of truth and falsehood, the tide merely harmony and disharmony greeting one another, then departing.

I have the weirdest sense of deja-vu right now.

Spike blushes. “R-Rarity! TMI!” he says.

Tmi?

[Sage Probo]

5472147 TMI = Too Much Information