In Reflection, The Same

by Faedelaide

Yet

Twilight was dumbfounded at Sam's words, and even more so at his mysterious disappearance. He left without a trace, no widely carved path of destruction, no trail of black blood, not even footsteps in the snow. She didn't even know he could teleport.

"OK," Gelgen shouted out, breaking the stunned silence. "Can we, for the love of Grover, please go back to the cabin!? I expected to die a little later, and in a much warmer environment."

Gerret blinked back to consciousness at Gelgen's whining. "But what about Sammakött? What if he's still out there?"

"He is still out there," Gilda snapped. "But... as much as I'd like to chase him down and shove his own claw down his throat, we've got other things on our plate."

Gaine's eyes widened in shocked confusion. He scrambled over to Gilda, his words jumbling on the tip of his tongue. "wha--I mean--but you--what--but--well... I mean c'mon, you're just letting him get away after all he's done, all he could do?"

Gilda turned away from him, throwing herself into the sky with a powerful flap of her wings. Desperate, Gaine turned to Twilight for assistance.

"Wh-I mean y-... Twilight, you think we should go after him, right? Gilda's crazy, right?"

In the sky above, a voice floated down. "I can still hear you, Gaine. Pick your answer carefully, Twilight."

Twilight gulped. "I... I-I don't know."

Gaine groaned. "Come oooon! What if Sam attacks Griffonstone, or any of the other kingdoms?"

"He won't." Gillian suddenly spoke up. She walked up to Gaine, easily towering over him. the puffy griffon nearly toppled over himself, trying to make eye contact with her as she approached. "He said it himself. He's got no magic, no arm, no way to see, and no hypnotized army. He had to use a failsafe enchantment just to keep us from finishing him off. What we should be more worried about is whatever other effects that enchantment might have."

Twilight blinked. "You... caught on to magic pretty quickly, for someone who hasn't seen it much before."

Gillian froze for a sec, and her feathers frizzled a little bit before she answered. "Oh... well I uh... I dunno, I kinda just picked it up as I went along. It wasn't too hard I guess. I mean... I uh... You did help with some of that, casting all those spells and giving me that book on magic."

Twilight smiled warmly at her new friend. "well I'm happy to help."

"Hey, if you two are done having a tea party down there, could the princess get up here?" Gilda shouted from the skies.

Twilight took no time soaring up into the clouds above to join Gilda.

"What's happening, Gilda?" Twilight asked. "Do you see Sam?"

The griffon shook her head. "Out there, egghead. Tarface taught you about his crazy magic, right?"

Twilight turned to where Gilda was pointing. her talon pointed firmly in the direction of the distant Celestial Sea. Anxiety building, she answered. "Uh... I know a little bit about it."

"Then could you tell me what's going on with that glow out there?"

Twilight looked out towards the ocean again. Among the sea fog, a soft, pink glow creeped through. With a fresh dose of panic beginning to set in, Twilight felt out for the Aether again. When she opened her eyes, she gazed upon the vibrant, ever swirling realm around her. The trees thrummed with life, the snow glowed with colors Twilight could barely comprehend. Every time she looked into the Aether, Twilight was always astounded by it's beauty. Even the distant Wall, usually a foreboding black, glowed and swirled with life!

Wait... Oh no... Ohhh Celestia...

"Gillian It's the Wall!"

"What about it?"

"It's about to expl-"

KRAK-KOOM!

The eruption that followed sent a cloud of ice and snow rocketing high into the sky. It's peak pierced through the veil of the clouds, and ascended into the starry void above. The rest was tossed in all directions. The cloud of smoke that remained was easily larger than any of the nearby mountains, despite how distant Twilight was from its epicenter. Spirals of Pink-purple energy wound and swirled throughout the air, and dark clouds began to rise from above the waves, like many swarms of distant insects.

Gilda and Twilight could only watch as all of Leudnan Righrean was released upon the unsuspecting kingdom of Equestria.

The swarms of black began to spread until they became a singular thin blanket that spanned the entirety of the ocean. Even from this distance, Twilight could just barely make out the shape of some especially large creatures gliding on wings that were longer than any ship she had ever set sail on. The ocean sloshed and crashed from the force of the explosion, sending great waves hurtling in all directions, including the cabin.

After an eternity of watching the Wall fall back down to the ocean below, Gilda spoke up.

"W-we should get everyone out of the cabin. Quickly."

"Agreed."

"Oh Grover... What do we do?"

"I don't know."

Gilda turned to her. "Well we can't just do nothing. We might need Celestia's help for something like this."

Twilight took a deep breath. "Gilda, I need you to get the other griffons together. We need to get Cadance and the others out of here and back home as fast as possible. We can drop everyone off at Baltimare. Once we get there, you need to go back to Griffonstone and tell your council everything."

"Including the weird hypnosis and releasing an angry oil monster out into the world?"

Twilight nodded. "Everything."

"I... Ok, if you say so. I'll get the griffons moving. Shouldn't be too hard, no way they didn't hear that explosion too."

"alright, Good."

With that, Gilda flew back down to the forest floor. Twilight could vaguely hear her shouting as she ushered the other griffons into action. She didn't pay much attention, her focus was turned towards the ever thinning swarm of creatures. She watched as mighty winged beasts made their way towards far off mountains or forests, looking for something gone long ago. In the water, countless figures swam like schools of ravenous piranhas.

Twilight gulped in anxiety. She was going to have to send a letter to Celestia. She was going to have to tell her everything.