In Reflection, The Same

by Faedelaide

Aether

Twilight faced the block of ice that imprisoned her other self. The once great chunk had shrunken significantly over the past few day, and she could see faint traces of a dark figure within the ice. Various cracks and dents perforated its surface, and a pool of a pitch black, sludge like liquid pooled around its base.

"Alright," Twilice bubbled, "now close your eyes again and try to feel that flicker within yourself."

"I'm trying." Twilight scrunched her face as she tried to imagine what the Aether looked like. Her focus on trying to feel the so called flicker within her was doing a well enough job of distracting her from the cold, but she still felt no closer to understanding what Twilice was talking about.

"You... probably haven't heard of this, but in my time, I heard that individuals... like Ma Vie... who wanted to police their aether power would store it away, allowing their power to only be accessed by the use of certain triggers. Perhaps that is what you need to jumpstart your magic: a trigger."

Twilight peeked open her eyes. "A trigger? Like what?"

"I'm not sure. You're the Aether inept, you would be more likely to know than I. You'll have to deduce the trigger yourself."

Twilight closed her eyes and tried to think. What did Twilice mean by a trigger? She racked her brain to think of something that might have helped her tap into her... self? All she could feel was nothingness. What was she meant to find? It all seemed like nonsense the more she tried to think about it. For all of Twilice's encouragement, she just couldn't get a grasp on it.

Twilight stood up suddenly with a frustrated groan. "I can't do this, Twilice! It's no use, I can't do it."

Twilice's low growl rumbled through Twilight's head. "Again with this... Do you doubt me?"

"No, of course not, but this isn't working! I don't feel anything. There's nothing there, Twilice!"

Twilice sighed, her familiar gurgling echoing around Twilight's mind. "Then perhaps this... You... have been a waste of my time."

"W... what?"

"Well if you can't use aether magic, how can you expect to destroy the wall? How could I expect you to do something so trivial as free me from my tomb? I thought you might've been worthy of being my student, but if you can't do it, I will have to find my out way to fix this mess."

Twilight began to panic. "Y-you can't do this, please! How can I stop the Wall if you don't help me?"

"I have been helping you, Twilight, but You've rejected everything I told you. You're just going to have to tell your friends and your precious Princess Celestia that you failed."

"No, please Twilice, I'll... I'll do anything!"

"...Anything? Then break my prison. Do that, and I'll listen to you."

"B-But how do I-"

"I gave you an ultimatum. Take it, or leave me be and go tell your friends of your failure."

Twilight slowed her breathing in an attempt to calm herself down. "O-ok... I'll try."

"I hope you will," Twilice remarked sarcastically.

Twilight focused her energy, trying to think of a spell that might counteract the ice's apparent resistance to magic, but her mind blanked yet again. She could feel Twilice's judgemental presence carefully comb her every thought, which only put more pressure on her. With each second that passed by, she only grew more and more desperate as she felt the aura of Twilice's dissapointment invade her every conscious thought.

Suddenly, an image appeared in her head. She remembered what Rainbow said in the Crystal Castle. In her head, Dashe's voice rang like a bell, blowing away all of Twilice's presence, all of her malice with one sentence.

"I always care about you, Twilight, especially now."

Then something clicked. From somewhere within her that she had never seen before, a single arrow loosed into a sightless, invisible void. It collided with a wall, pierced it through, and soared into a vibrant abyss beyond. In one incomprehensibly short moment, the hole the arrow left behind collapsed under the newfound pressure, and the everswirling abyss of the Aether all came crashing down upon Twilight.

She gasped, and tasted the air of ages unremembered and times forgotten. Worlds upon worlds stacked on top of themselves like papers in a book, completely open to be explored and digested. All around her, birds, hibernating animals, and even the trees swirled with magic and life all their own. Everything around her, living or inanimate, blinded her with its clarity, as if she could see everything and nothing at the same time. And she could, for in that one moment where everything rushed around her, Twilight could see the Aether. All of it.

She tried to speak, and a million voices lifted from her quivering mouth. "T-T-Twilice. I-I s-s-s-see it."

the faint glow of a beating heart brightened from within the incongruous black cube that was Twilice's prison. "You can? You see the Aether?"

"I t-t-think I s-see... e-e-everything."

"Then do it now! Use your magic and release me!"

Twilight tried to focus her power, but the winding river of aether that surrounded her threw her off, and she struggled to keep focus.

"Release me! I command you!"

Twilight could faintly feel the presence of her horn, but it was if her nerves had all melted away in a magical tsunami. She tried to close her eyes, but the blinding colors of the Aether remained. Her head throbbed as she tried to concentrate the aether around her into a spell. Slowly, the essence that slammed against her began to shape to her will.

"RELEASE ME NOW!!" Twilice's voice pierced through the thick ethereal ooze of the Aether like a barbed spear.

The Aether itself folded and bent around Twilight's horn as a million different realities intersected into one point. With the spell held firmly in her hoof, she loosed the spell at the pitch black ice cube.

The resulting boom was deafening. The trees, once covered in snow, snapped and cracked from the force of the explosion, and the snow around the two of them was melted away immediately. Bushes were flung up into the sky, water from the surrounding estuary was launched high into the air, coming back don as bitter cold rain. Whatever hadn't been thrown asunder by Twilight's spell was either evaporated or burned. The trees nearest to her were now completely singed. They were covered in, along with charcoal, a dark purple sheen that shone an opalescent glow.

Twilight, having stood her ground, looked back up at the ice block hopefully, a little afraid that she might've scorched her friend. But to her horror, the ice hadn't changed a bit. The last traces of her lavender magic sunk into the cracks of the ice, as if it were drinking it. The last traces of aether magic faded from its cold, blue face, and the ice returned to its motionless, unchanging state.

"H-how...how?" Was all she could mutter out.

Twilice sighed, though this one was not dripping with malice as it was before. "It's quite alright Princess. I expected this to happen, it's not your fault."

"But... I failed."

"You might not have freed me, but surely you feel the Aether roiling within you now. That's good. That's very good."

Twilight smiled at her accomplishment. "So you're still going to help me?"

"Of course, Princess."

Twilight uttered a sigh of relief. Thank Celestia she still had her friend. What would she do without her?

Unbeknownst to the poor, ignorant mare, miles away in the middle of the ocean, a noise echoed through the waves of the Celestial sea.

It was the sound of cracking ice.

Comments

[Zhafran]

Unbeknownst to the poor, ignorant mare, miles away in the middle of the ocean, a noise echoed through the waves of the Celestial sea.

It was the sound of cracking ice.

[ponepony]

"I always care about you, Twilight, especially now."

Then something clicked. From somewhere within her that she had never seen before, a single arrow loosed into a sightless, invisible void. It collided with a wall, pierced it through, and soared into a vibrant abyss beyond. In one incomprehensibly short moment, the hole the arrow left behind collapsed under the newfound pressure, and the everswirling abyss of the aether all came crashing down upon Twilight.

Corrupt Twilice's mind with thoughts of friendship.