Chapter Twenty-Seven: Falling Out Of The Shallow Start
The newly-rebuilt, reinforced-crystal front doors were instantly blasted to pieces as Bon Bon Heartstrings–having forgotten there was a door-always-open policy and no actual lock, to boot–bucked them right open and rushed inside.
The sound created by this explosive force was doubtlessly enough to reach the resident princess even while in the throes of intense reading, seeing as she came stumbling down the stairs to investigate shortly after.
Twilight Sparkle blinked blearily and rubbed her eyes at the sight that greeted her in the foyer, staring openly in plain disbelief. Granted, the surprise was largely unwarranted–Ponyville being as it was–and, were she in her right mind, the alicorn would doubtlessly have conducted herself with more poise. To be fair, though, two pairs of the exact same pony respectively was almost certainly not what she'd been expecting to see upon investigating the noise.
Bon Bon didn't give her much time to process before she spoke with hurried tones and a great sense of urgency:
"Princess! What do you know about the multiverse? Specifically, is there a way to reach somepony somewhere else?"
The alicorn gaped, her purple eyes darting between the four mares as she stood dumbly at the top of the crystal staircase. Bon Bon stared insistently at the purple mare's figure and began trotting closer, to which Sweetie Drops rolled her eyes and placed a hoof on Bonnie's back, stopping her from her subconscious approach.
"You're being too direct. We should explain ourselves, then ask for help." But Bon Bon wasn't having any of it, whipping around and placing her snarling muzzle nose-to-nose with her twin's, who merely raised an eyebrow.
"Don't you dare tell me what to do." But another, more familiar hoof on her withers bade her pause and lock eyes with her wife, Lyra. The minty unicorn offered an understanding smile, underscored by empathy and immense sorrow but no small amount of reprimand as well.
"She's right, Bonnie. Please calm down or we'll never get anywhere." To which Bon Bon slumped, appropriately ashamed, and visibly attempted to recompose herself with only moderate success.
Meanwhile, the other Lyra–henceforth referred to as 'Lyly', as the group had decided shortly before–was left standing in the doorway, returning the gaping look of shock to Twilight in full. Specifically, the mare was eyeing the alicorn's majestic, feathery wings–both spread fully in expression of her surprise–and silently reevaluating just how different this universe was from hers.
“Princess,” began Sweetie Drops, bowing respectfully as she approached the bottom of the stairs, “we are sorry for barging in so impolitely, but we really need your help.” The earth pony raised her head to stare deeply into Twilight’s eyes and she did her best to communicate the urgency of the situation to those blank purple orbs. “Can we sit down somewhere and explain ourselves?”
The regally stunned princess recovered enough to nod her head and open her muzzle, but it was then that a tall figure stepped into place at her side.
It was the four mares’ turn to gape as they took in the sight of what seemed like Celestia, but with several notable changes:
Imposing leer, blazing orange eyes with near-black sclera, a mane of literal fire, the list went on. Possibly the most jarring was the way her muzzle formed a near-contemptuous sneer as she stared down her nose at them.
And yet. And yet…
Those eyes, fearsome though they were, nevertheless communicated a deep pain and longing, so intense that those watching were stricken speechless. The unicorns in particular were barely able to refrain from collapsing into heaps of heartache thanks to their empathic abilities.
“What have we here? Yet more travelers?” Not-Celestia abruptly spoke, her gravelly, fiery voice creating a warm wind that buffeted the mares’ ears and shook their very cores. Twilight was also affected, but she seemed somewhat used to it and was thus the first to recover.
“You think they’re from another universe, too?” The white alicorn smirked at this, revealing a glint of prominent fangs as she gave the mare opposite a wizened, teasing wink.
“I don’t see any other explanations, do you?” Twilight didn’t respond to this and indeed seemed very discomforted by the near-predatory look she was receiving. Thankfully, the taller alicorn ceased breathing down her neck to regard the now-recovering mares below. “Come along then, you four. We have much to discuss.”
Shaken but no less determined and desperate, Bon Bon led the way up the stairs as the Not-Celestia turned and, without further comment, strode away. Princess Twilight scampered along closely behind, but not before giving the pairs another curious look or two.
Their fate problematically uncertain, the mares headed deeper into the crystal castle, hoping to receive answers to their questions.
…preferably before they got eviscerated by the twisted once-ruler leading them.
It wasn't going well.
Anon gave another nudge, but the nail holding her bindings only budged a little.
The shelling started and stopped at different intervals. Sometimes it was artillery from the camp that was firing back. The roaring of cannons had become little more than noise by now.
Well, at least for her.
Knight only got worse. Pulling on his mane, crying, muttering to himself.
And then the ring on his horn started to melt.
Anon could feel it coming. Her teeth started to hurt and there was pressure from behind her eyes. She thought they might be getting gassed for a brief second.
No, it was his powers activating. Slowly fighting against the reinforced ring.
Worse, Anon started to hear steps outside their cell doors.
She should have expected it; they might have stuck them in a room to stew for a while, but there were only a few reasons to hold onto prisoners in a war camp.
The doors swung open and two masked soldiers entered, then positioned themselves on either side of the doors and held them open for a third pony. With perk in her step and a creepy smile on her face, the scarred crystal mare from earlier trotted in.
As one could imagine, seeing your to-be-interrogator smiling rarely boded well. Anon, while quite aware of this fact, was more preoccupied with other things.
If she sees Knight, we are doomed.
Thus, a new course of action was hastily planned in the jumper’s head.
God, I hope this works.
“Good morning Miss.” Anon said in an overly cheerful tone. “We have beautiful weather today, don't we?”
The mare's smile broadened, her horn crackling with sickly green magic as she approached the jumper, who sent her a smile of her own.
“There was a terrible misunderstanding,” Anon continued, her voice unwavering.
“Is that so?” The crystalline mare leaned closer, eyes gleaming dangerously, but Anon's attention was solely on her uniform. Or, more accurately, on the silver buttons of her uniform. Polished to perfection, shining in the meager illumination of the cell like the light of the worlds smallest lighthouse. Even her breastplate displayed the same level of polish, so much so that it could be used as a weapon to blind the enemy. “And how is that?”
Anon gave her her cheekiest wink.
“Ah, you see, you got the wrong peo- ehm, I mean, ponies.”
The scarred crystal mare’s facade broke for just a second as her lips twitched in irritation.
The scars on the mare had initially fooled Anon, but her true nature was still clearly on display. Soldiers in war had better things to do - like dying, screaming and getting shot at - than polishing silver buttons on their uniform to absolute perfection.
No, the mare wasn't a soldier. She was far worse:
A bureaucrat.
And if the uniform was anything to go by, a perfectionist to boot. Which could spell either their salvation or doom. But Anon wasn't the type to surrender so easily.
And she had an idea. A plan. A crazy, half baked one, but those were the best; half baked ideas had the great advantage of being able to be baked into something proper later.
“Oh, really now?” The uniformed mare said. “And who are you then?”
“Pizza delivery,” Anon informed matter-of-factly. “To one Heugh Hunt.”
“What Hough Hunt?” Asked the crystal mare. “Speak!”
“Yours, I think,” said Anon innocently.
The mare paused, a puzzled look on her face.
And then the slap came.
Anon saw it coming, but she still flinched despite her attempts not to. It hurt a lot, but considering she got hit by a very hard hoof, that was to be expected.
“You think yourself clever, do you?” The crystal mare snarled.
Anon flashed her a smile, now a little bloody thanks to her split lips.
“Yup.”
This time it was magic that hit her. Nausea came over her like a wave as the world started to spin.
“I have questions. You will answer them. Understood?”
Anon raised her head, meeting the cold, angry gaze of the officer. Ego, that was her weakness. The sense of indulgent self-importance.
So much so that she utterly failed to notice that Knight was nearly through his bindings as Anon did her best to annoy her.
“Non. Je ne parle pas anglais.”
The mare roared, she leaned closer, hoof raised to strike her again.
Anon had no intention of letting the blow land.
“You little-”
The jumper leapt forward like a wound-up spring, chained limbs wrapping around the mare's raised forehoof. With one pull and a kick of Anon hind legs, the mare lost her already-precarious balance, ending with her front leg pressed against her back and chains around her throat - preventing her from screaming orders at the confused guards still standing by the doors.
The mare thrashed, pinning Anon against the wall and crushing the filly painfully, but she held on, chains still wrapped around the officer’s neck as the two fought.
And then the explosion hit.
Knight's bindings finally melted and the colt's now-freed power sent a wave of energy and metal fragments through the cell. Thinking fast, the jumper used the incapacitated mare as a not-so-figurative meat shield, taking cover behind her. Before the officer had a chance to react, there was a loud noise as one of the half melted metal pieces hit her on the leg - cracks spiderwebbing across its crystalline form.
The jumper did not hesitate.
With all the strength she had, Anon stomped on the cracked leg.
The sound of shattering glass filled Anon's ears - together with a short-lived yelp as the mare grew still, the now-broken limb laying beside the rest of her. Without even stopping for a moment, the jumper went for the mare’s pockets, frantically searching for a key.
The guards, regaining some initiative, finally took action, rushing towards Anon with spears drawn.
Anon's vision was fuzzy, blood was pouring from her nose - either from the impact against the wall or Knight's onslaught of power - but despite that everything seemed so very clear at that moment:
She finds the keys in time or the guards get to her first and both Knight and she die here.
Her hoof reached into the last pocket she had not yet searched on the crystal mares uniform.
She acted too fast and uncoordinated - the magical grip that allowed her hooves to grab things shook, turning the pocket inside out.
Nothing.
The pocket was empty.
The masked guards reached back, their spears dashing forward with a robotic, machine-like motion.
A cylinder landed behind the guards, the brainwashed soldiers turning to face it.
Just in time for it to explode in a flash of light, followed by the room being filled with grey smoke.
There was a pop and a grunt, swiftly followed by a pair of rather gong-like noises.
The smoke cleared. Revealing that both of the masked guards were now laying in a heap on the floor.
Somepony standing above them, short club still in hoof.
Total silence followed.
Well, that would be a lie. The guards were making pained noises and Knight was crying in a corner and part of the cell was now on fire, not to mention the artillery outside but nopony said a word.
The new arrival turned towards the foals. Another pony, but covered in a slightly-tattered form-fitting black suit with a blocky night vision device covering their face and a belt of throwing daggers across their shoulders.
They raised the device from their face.
With one eye behind an eye patch, Twilight Sparkle gave them a wry smile.
“Kept you waiting, huh?”
Anon almost screamed.
The sun's radiant beams shone down through the enormous windows, refracted into dazzling patterns that spread in every direction by the crystal structure of the room.
Seated around a circular table–made of actually tasteful wood, thankfully–were six mares existing in various states of composure ranging from 'tranquil interest' to 'nervous wreck'. The sound of tapping hooves and shifting cushions went equally unnoticed by all, however, as each individual was far too engrossed in processing the situation to care.
The not-quite-silence was interrupted when a pair of doors opened, allowing Spike to enter, carrying a plate of fresh tea and scones. Utterly unfazed by the odd sight that greeted him, the baby dragon strode over to the somewhat-crowded table and deposited his load before respectfully bowing. Twilight, rolling her eyes at his official attitude, took initiative in passing the refreshments to her unexpected guests. The siblings shared a look and Spike bowed once more before taking his leave, after which the alicorn steepled her hooves and began.
"Hello, everypony. Thank you all for agreeing to calm down and sit. Today has been quite the bundle of surprises, eh?" Vehement nods greeted this statement as the princess paused, resisting the urge to rub her temples. "Now then, Bon Bon..." Her gaze flickered between the earth ponies before finally settling on Sweetie Drops. "...I'm going to trust you to give me a succinct rundown on what the hay has been happening. Please be quick and direct, as something tells me time is of the essence."
The agent nodded, stealing a glance at the imposing form of Not-Celestia–who merely observed the goings-on with an apparent passing interest–before straightening. Sweetie Drops briefly wondered if she should salute, but ultimately decided to push that proposition aside and simply begin as ordered.
"Right. Well, the first thing you should know is that my fiancé and I are from another universe. We recently adopted a Jumper–someone with the ability to travel between universes–and due to an unfortunate series of events, ended up here. We—"
"—What does she look like?" Interrupted Not-Celestia, who leaned ever-so-slightly across the table. Sweetie faltered, dumbfounded and beginning to sweat slightly as the room's temperature seemed to skyrocket. Twilight frowned and turned to the larger alicorn beside her, staring like a disapproving bunny would toward a hungry lion.
"Please don't interrupt, Daybreaker. Questions can wait until after." All four non-alicorns felt shivers run down their spines as the pair locked eyes in a silent staredown. Daybreaker broke contact first, smirking to herself as she leaned back and the temperature accordingly dropped to a reasonable level.
"Fine, fine." She raised a hoof and waved it in a noncommittal gesture before pointing easily at the agent. "Continue." Shaken by the display, Sweetie took several seconds to compose herself, sipping from her tea and looking to her lover for support. Lyly, however, was unfortunately too transfixed on the alicorns to offer any, though Lyra did offer a reassuring look. The agent didn't quite know how to feel about that, but, having gathered herself as best she could, she continued with the briefing.
"We ended up entering this universe inside of our alternate versions' house and mayhem followed." At the princess' questioning look, she elaborated a little. "Turrets sprung from the ceiling and we ended up in a fight to the death due to...extremely poor communication." Sweetie Drops grew downcast at this and she fought to keep her gaze from dropping. Twilight's eyes bulged in alarm and her wings burst open as she planted her hooves on the table, her face set in great concern.
"Is she okay?! The Jumper you adopted? Did she get shot?" Observing the mare's shaking head and puzzled expression, the purple alicorn felt the need to offer an explanation. "It's just that I helped install those systems, so I know firsthoof how deadly they are. You're sure she's alright?" The agent spluttered, dumbfounded by this information, before Bon Bon spoke up for the first time since they'd arrived.
"No, Twilight. We don't know if they're 'alright'." Everypony turned to the former agent as she stared vacantly into her teacup, which was held in a violently shaking hoof. "Spring jumped away to Faust-knows-where, and she took Knight with her."
The rattling tea began to spill over the sides of its cup, but Bon Bon merely continued to gaze into the distance as Twilight gasped and held a hoof to her muzzle. "That's why we're here. We need your help to find them and bring. Them. Back. And we are going to do it before something awful happens to them. Do you understand?"
Her anxious worry for her son having made a vengeful return, the former agent couldn't help but slam her sore forehooves together. She failed entirely to take notice of the twinge of pain that created, the hopelessly-shattered cup that was in the way, or the still-hot tea which spilt all over her body. Everypony at the table save Daybreaker flinched away from the earth pony as she stared straight into Twilight's eyes, immense sorrow and a not-insignificant amount of instability present in her own.
"To be clear," interjected Sweetie Drops, "the jumping was an accident and due to timberwolves attacking," at Bon Bon's murderous glare, the agent slumped and finished, "but yes. That's why we're here."
"Do you have anything that might help?" Inquired Lyra, who stared hopefully at the alicorns as she bit into a scone. Twilight's muzzle opened and closed rapidly as she searched for something to say. Daybreaker chuckled, observing this, and stood from her spot on the cushion to begin absently pacing the room.
"Well, you've come to the right place, but not because of Purplesmart here." The taller alicorn ignored Twilight's affronted look, instead levitating Lyra's scone from her grip and taking a bite from the opposite end. "I myself got here from another universe, as you heard. It would seem there's been a lot of traffic in that department, lately." Daybreaker finished off the scone within a few more short chomps, pretending not to see the minty unicorn's saddened expression as she tilted her head.
The alicorn's long, sharpened horn began to glow as a molten light traced itself through its spiral from the base to the tip. "You're in luck; I have just the thing to help you contact your kids. You won't be able to go to them, but seeing them at least should help somewhat, right?" Eager nods met her expecting look before she grunted, lowering her head slightly as if pressed by some enormous weight.
It was then that the seated mares' respective attentions were drawn to a floating full-length mirror, hovering in one corner of the room as it gave off a low glow.
"This," announced Daybreaker, standing tall and dramatically sweeping her hoof towards the reflective surface, "is a scrying mirror." Just then, the named object's glass became a swirling vortex of colors unimaginable and places unseen by sane eyes.
Hope flared to life inside the four mothers' barrels as they stared optimistically into the mirror's whirling face. Finally, they had a way to reassure themselves of the situation. At last, they could gather information and end this curse of not knowing what was happening to their children. Now that they had a way to at very least speak with the lost foals, everything else would soon fall into place and maybe they could even find a way—
Just then, the alicorn's magic faltered and the mirror fell face first to the floor with a great crash as she clutched at her horn.
And just like the glass, any remnants of hope were shattered to tiny pieces.
“Kept you waiting, huh?”
Anon's mouth hung open as the image in her mind continued not to reconcile with reality.
The jumper knew a thing or two about the mare. During her time with Daybreaker, Twilight Sparkle was often the subject of stories and tales the alicorn of the sun shared.
Those stories painted a picture of Twilight as curious, socially inept and a bookworm to defeat all bookworms. Somepony who once wrote a sixty page university grade thesis and invented a new way to measure magic simply because the teacher forgot to say what the page minimum was and the filly went on a panic fueled binge, adding more and more parts in hopes that it would be enough.
That was in elementary school.
Twilight was the filly who Celestia had to personally drag away from the castle library every other day, because she gave a promise to Twilight’s mother to make sure she eats dinner. The same purple ball of magic and curiosity that accidentally turned the whole school invisible.
That Twilight Sparkle loved stargazing, Daring Doo books, watching Celestia work her forge or trying out a new spell with often…interesting results for the castle staff.
This wasn't that Twilight Sparkle.
This Twilight stood confident after just defeating several enemies, weapons and gadgets strapped to her body. Her one remaining eye scanned her surroundings, absorbing every detail around her.
That eye stopped on Anon, narrowing slightly as she took a fighting posture, her head tilting slightly to the side.
“You’re not our informant,” Twilight said in a voice that sounded so coarse Anon wondered if she managed to inhale a gravel road somehow. “Who are you?”
The purple mare reached for the bludgeon with her magic, Anon lowered her stance. She barely stood, her legs were bleeding in the places her cuffs dug into her flesh and she winced with every breath.
Knight had it worse.
Again.
From behind Anon there was a terrible wailing sound. The colt backed into a corner and a shimmering gray barrier formed around him. His face was covered in rapidly-vaporizing metal residue, his eyes wide with uncontained terror.
Twilight recoiled at the sight, confusion clear on her features.
Anon approached Knight.
“No!” He yelled between sobs. “Go away!”
Here, before the colt, stood Twilight Sparkle. He remembered. The broken bones, the glee with which…he had hurt the mare. There was only one reason she could be here for:
Revenge.
The effect the barrier had on Anon’s powers made itself known again. The jumper's ears began to ring. She felt her power rise and rise - she had to make a conscious effort not to fall through the floor as her body became almost static like.
Twilight’s confusion gave way to concern as the filly marched towards the barrier, her face stony and filled with determination.
“Wait–”
Anon stepped through the barrier.
Knight flinched away, expecting anything. An insult. An attack. Or something worse.
Anon moved no further.
The filly sat there in front of him, blood slowly pooling under her. Her body remained static, barely holding onto reality.
Their eyes met. The static faded away. The jumper solidified in reality.
Knight wouldn't—couldn't—understand what was happening.
So, he sent for somepony who just might make sense of the situation.
It took longer than expected to mentally track down his Other. The colt’s conscious decision-making had been so thoroughly beaten down that its presence was incredibly weak in his psyche. Just a few threads, really, barely hanging on. Not even three hours ago, Knight had been just fine with Darkest fading away—he was a screwup, after all, and his choices had led them to pain too many times in the past.
Still, with everything that was happening, Knight didn’t know what else to do. So, tenuously, he offered a halfhearted apology and retreated backwards.
Darkest took a breath in, his posture straightening and his terror turning into contemplation. His horn slowly charged in preparation as he stared evenly at his aggressor.
And then Darkest noticed the network of scars on the jumper's body.
Anon noticed his.
“How?”
The colt's voice had an edge. It was less a question and more a demand.
Darkest was pointing at his barrier. Unbreakable. Reality defying.
Anon tapped at the floor with her hoof.
It went through.
“Same stuff as your barrier,” Anon said. “Just…from a different angle.”
The colt’s gaze softened, his muzzle turning into the tiniest, and saddest, of smiles. In that moment, he appeared so much older than any child had a right to be. Much older than any child should be.
“Have you learned why?” He asked. “Why us?”
There was a hint of desperation in his voice. Looking for an answer to how they get their power. Or at least that was what Anon thought he was asking. She wasn't quite sure.
“I don’t know,” Anon sighed, pausing for a few seconds. “I’m sorry.”
Darkest gave a slow nod, his expression unreadable. Seconds he spent in silent contemplation, eyeing her damaged body up and down. A change occurred, a chance taken, and the daring question next to leave his muzzle clearly took much effort:
“Can I…trust you?”
This made the jumper pause. She hesitated, performing an amount of introspection that frankly surprised her. On surface level, Anon wasn’t exactly a trustworthy person at all and yet–
–and yet she knew the answer anyway.
“Yes. Yes, you can trust me. I’m going to get you home—both of us.” These words, combined with her strong, determined visage, seemed to convince the child she was responsible for. Darkest nodded again and the ghost of a smile appeared on his face until something else entirely dominated it.
“You are hurt,” the colt said suddenly, his figures twisting into another kind of horror - the horror of one's own action. “I am harming you.”
The barrier hummed, the sound echoing in the jumper's mind.
But the sound was fading, and she pushed on. She would always push on.
It was the only thing she knew how to do.
“I've been through worse,” Anon answered. “I endure. And so will you.” The colt watched her, his eyes narrowing. In fear? In anger? No.
Determination.
“...What now?” Darkest asked.
“We do what we always did,” Anon answered. “Persevere.”
“Together?”
Anon smirked.
“Together.”
The barrier fell and its gray shimmer vanished. Two foals stood side by side, facing a black-clad mare.
Twilight stepped aside from the body of one of the unconscious guards. Their armor was partially stripped, revealing their cutie mark.
“I found our informant,” Twilight said, her voice remaining flat and stoic.
Three wrapped candies on beige fur. Anon gulped. Darkest stared.
“Is that…” he whimpered.
The jumper’s jaw clenched in barely-masked anger.
Bon Bon.
“Not her.” Anon managed to speak out. “Just…another one.”
It was a small consolation, mostly for Darkest’s sake.
Mostly.
"Can you do anything?" Anon asked Twilight. “Break the mask? Free her?”
Twilight shook her head.
“No,” she said, her expression hard and impossible to read. “Once the mask is on, removing it is…lethal.” Twilight's brow furrowed, her singular eye sparking with a dangerous glint. “But you should know that. Everypony knows that.”
Darkest’s eyes bulged in alarm and he shot a concerned glance at his companion. Anon remained stoic, meeting the mare’s gaze head on.
“We are…not from around here, in a manner of speaking,” Darkest finally decided to say. “Though that is a technicality we could potentially argue on.”
The mare sighed and kneeled down, reaching a hoof into one of the pouches on her suit.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Anon said, feeling the beginning of a headache as Darkest prepared his barrier.
“I need to look at your legs.” Twilight said matter-of-factly and opened the pouch, revealing its contents.
Splints, bandages, disinfectant, some ointment and… is that a cigarette?
“No time. We have to go before they find us,” Anon attempted to argue, but was immediately shut down.
“There are no more hostiles in this building,” Twilight stated, fumbling with a bottle of red liquid in her grasp. “The alarm was not triggered and with the shelling outside, nopony will just stumble in here. So let me help.” The mare frowned. “I’m not abandoning foals.”
Anon gave Darkest a sidelong glance. The colt was obviously afraid of the mare - Anon could still feel his power almost begging to be allowed to unleash another barrier.
Dammit.
“Okay, do it.”
The mare gave a nod.
“This won't hurt, but it's going to be uncomfortable,” Twilight said. “Try lying down so you won't fall.”
Twilight poured the potion on the open wounds. The effects were immediate. The bleeding stopped, the wound itself began closing.
But Anon didn't see much of the process. Her head became heavy, vision hazy. She nearly fell.
Darkest caught her.
The colt looked almost as surprised by that development as her. He put her on the floor as gently as he could manage.
“Now, we sneak out,” Twilight said, pulling something from the hallway. “And this is going to help us.
Anon stared at the object. Darkest’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“You are jesting, obviously,” Darkest spoke, his eyes still glued to the object in question. “But this is…hardly the time for such comedy.”
Twilight didn't answer at first, lifting it and inspecting it one last time.
“It's how I got in,” she finally said. “And it's how we get out.”
Brown, two holes for handles. It still even had ‘Fragile!’ written on one side,
“You can't be serious,” Anon managed to sputter out.
“No,” Twilight said. “But I’m solid.”
And with that, she pulled the cardboard box over them.
A soldier watched.
An earth pony, large and muscular, his body hidden under overlapping plates of steel, mask hiding his facial features. He clutched a spear in his forehooves, its incredibly sharp point glistening in the evening sun.
He was the very model of a soldier in the army of Sombra - Dutiful, unyielding, indomitable.
Incredibly stupid.
His purpose was clear. Guard the checkpoint and not let anypony or any creature through. If anypony or any creature tried to get through, he would stop them just as surely as…as something that was very sure.
The soldier wasn't very bright, but that was alright. He wasn't supposed to be.
He continued sitting in his dugout overlooking the road as the incoming alert blared in the background, but he had his job and by Sombra, he would do it!
A box sat in the middle of the road.
The soldier's eyes narrowed under the mask.
The box moved.
He continued staring.
The box continued moving.
“I can't believe this is working,” Anon whispered.
Darkest only gave a nod of acknowledgment, the green filly’s disbelief fully justified in the colt's mind.
Twilight only hummed in response, too focused on walking and keeping Anon balanced on her back.
“It's a disadvantage of using mind control over large groups,” she said casually. “Without somepony there to command them, they have no real pattern recognition or initiative outside of vaguely stated tasks pre-programmed into them.”
Darkest raised a brow, stopping again as another guard glanced their way.
“So, you are taking advantage of a mistake in their… ‘programming,’ so to speak,” Darkest said, a strange look in his eyes. “That is interesting information. And, also, quite clever of you."
“Thanks.” Twilight grabbed a coin from one of her pouches, throwing it in the way of a patrolling pair of guards, diverting them away. “But it will probably get patched soon after Sombra or some of his higher-ranking underlings realize what's happening.”
The purple mare craned her neck, looking behind her.
“You holding on back there?”
Anon could not help but grunt angrily.
“More or less,” the jumper said. “But do you really need to carry me around like a sack of potatoes?”
Twilight stood slightly up, the box moving with her as she turned a corner.
“Walking around with your injuries is only going to cause further damage. Permanent damage.” She paused, lowering her goggles and clicking a button on them. She stood still for a moment, scanning nearby foliage before lifting them up again and continuing moving. “If you want to walk without crying in pain ever again, you let yourself be carried.”
“I…could offer my meager assistance in this matter?”
Anon shot a look at Darkest, the colt sneaking alongside the mare, trying to stay as away from Twilight as the box allowed, which wasn't much.
“That…would be nice, actually,” Anon said after a while. She scowled and pointed at one of the pouches. “At least I wouldn't have all this gear poking me in the ribs. What are you even carrying in these?"
The purple mare's ears twitched to the left side, the mare halted for a second, waiting in silence before continuing to sneak along the outer wall of the encampment.
“Caltrops, balloons and foldable mine detector.” Twilight explained, eye glued towards another checkpoint, her voice low. “Do as you want. I need to focus now.”
Darkest hesitated, slowly nudging the filly and taking her front hoof over his shoulder, hefting her up and settling her on over his shoulder blades.
To his surprise, it wasn't nearly as physically hard as he thought it would be.
Or better, as it should be.
“You are…quite light for your stature,” Darkest said slowly.
The green filly simply shrugged.
“Yeah, turns out you can't heal years of starvation in a month," Anon said nonchalantly. "Who would have thunk?”
The ground shook suddenly. A wave of air went over them, knocking Darkest off balance. The colt fell to the ground, front hooves covering his head.
The boom followed, alongside the shrapnel from the magical artillery shell. It landed some ways behind them, the explosive born projectiles embedding themselves into walls and ground.
Better than embedding themselves into us, Anon thought. It landed far away enough to be relatively safe.
At least for now.
“That one was close."
Darkest gave a singular nod, still shook from the impact. He shot the jumper an apologetic look - his evasive maneuver having made the filly land hard against the ground. Despite that, she looked relatively unfazed, even giving Darkest a small smile of encouragement.
“Strange," Twilight mumbled, more to herself than to her two companions.
“Why?” Anon asked.
“The artillery should have been focusing on the eastern side of the siege camp," Twilight explained. "To allow us - well, me and hopefully our freed informant - an easier way out.”
Anon paused, raising a brow at the mare.
“They knew about the mission?” she said. "Doesn't that comprise the whole operation?"
Twilight shook her head.
“No, they were told an ammo depot was moved there recently as a cover story," Twilight smirked. "A bunch of highly reactive crystals saturated with magic is a tempting target."
The mare suddenly paused.
They’d managed to sneak out of the siege camp, getting close to a nearby river. The patrols had almost ceased, leaving them with a lot of open ground and muddy fields. Craters littered the landscape, together with abandoned trenches and patches of rusted barbed wire.
The only piece of intact nature around them was in the river itself. The water meandered through the wounded landscape, sun reflecting on its surface, making it look less like water and more like liquid gold. Reeds were growing on the shores, coloring them green and contrasting against the water.
It felt surreal. The frontline moved, the battle raged on, the gears of war continued turning - grinding dreams and lives to dust. And yet, there was still calm. There was still beauty.
It didn't seem right, that there still could be beauty even in war.
“Something is wrong,” Twilight said, her voice low. “This is the extraction point, but I don't see anypony.”
Darkest stopped, lowering himself to the ground so Anon could climb off him.
“Perhaps they are simply late?” The colt asked, but the mare shook her head.
“See those?” the mare pointed at the reeds. Anon didn't see anything wrong with them at first, until she noticed that all the plants seemed to be copies of each other, down to the smallest detail. “It's an illusion.”
“So, a trap,” Anon whispered. “Any plan on how to get around it?”
“One,” Twilight said. “But we will need bait.”
“Not it!” Anon called out suddenly.
Two heads turned sharply on the green filly.
“What?” Anon quirked a brow. “I can't walk. It's only logical.”
“You misunderstood me,” Twilight said with a smirk.
“I'll be the bait."
Twilight wasn’t having a good day.
That wasn't anything particularly new, of course. Having to fight a seemingly hopeless war against a dictator able to brainwash and enslave his people en masse was hardly any fun, but this mission was especially bad.
She had bad intel. Her friend was now lost and the whole mission was just a disaster.
And then there were the two mysterious foals.
They definitely threw a wrench in things. Just their mere presence raised so many questions—questions she decided to push down for later after they got away from the bunch of mind-controlling maniacs. Questions she and The Boss would want to hear the answers to.
In short, Twilight Sparkle didn't have a good time.
This would soon become somepony else's problem.
The mare lowered her spectacles, playing with the settings for a while.
She smiled.
The ambush was well prepared. Illusions were hiding a set of fortified fighting positions - from the look of them, they were abandoned observation posts, left behind after the frontline moved further south and were now just reused and fixed up for the sole purpose of ambushing her.
There was at least a whole platoon there, elite soldiers fitted with the best armor and the best gear. Night vision enchantments, fire crystals, improved spell matrix on their mask, allowing them some level of independent decision making, all the bling.
But none of that would matter.
From one of her numerous pouches, Twilight retrieved a doll. The agent looked into the button eyes of the enchanted doll, her ears flattening against her skull.
Of course, this wasn’t her original, cherished foalhood toy, but a decoy. Still, it looked close enough to remind Twilight of better times, which was enough to make her hesitate, even if only for a moment.
The mare shook herself.
“Well, time for action, Private Smarty Pants II.”
With that, she threw it and activated the Want It, Need It spell.
The effect was immediate.
The thing about mind control, Twilight thought with a smirk, is that it makes you vulnerable to even more mind control.
The doll landed into a trench, next to two armored soldiers, both holding crossbows at the ready. They turned towards the doll, aiming their weapons at the decoy.
They paused.
They exchanged a glance.
And pulled the trigger.
Two crossbow bolts were sent flying, soaring through the air to their respective targets.
“MINE!!!” The soldiers bellowed at the same time as the bolts shattered against their respective breastplates.
The noise alerted more soldiers.
More shouting could be heard from the fortifications.
Yet more chaos.
Twilight suppressed a laugh.
Then she stopped laughing.
Out of the dust and smoke of the fight appeared a pony.
Her azure coat was marred with scars. A single crystal was embedded in her chest. Her horn was long, curved and deep red, clashing against her fur. She didn't wear a uniform or armor like the surrounding peons. She wore…something else.
The word ‘extravagant’ comes to mind.
And then quickly becomes quite lacking.
There wasn't a place not covered with stuff on the cape the mare wore. There were tassels, embroidery done in golden thread on blue silk, the whole thing was embellished with sequins and little stars covered its surface, not to mention it sparkled with at least a gallon of industrial strength glitter.
And then there was the hat.
Twilight refused to look at the hat.
"Good of you to finally join us, Agent Sparkle," the unicorn sneered. "The Great and All-Powerful Trixie was beginning to tire of waiting."
And all of a sudden, the day of Special Agent Twilight Sparkle became even worse.
Trixie snickered, pursing her lips as she lazily walked forward, right towards the doll, picking it up in her magic. The pitiful enchantment rolled over the sorceress with absolutely no effect.
“Tsk, tsk, Sparkle. Enchanted trinkets? Really? Are you that desperate?” Trixie tittered, her expression softening into something almost approaching empathy as she spoke towards the bushes she expected Twilight was hiding in. “Our offer still stands,” Trixie said. “Our glorious Almost-As-Great-As-Trixie-Overlord Sombra can still fix you. Your horn can still be-”
Trixie never got the opportunity to finish that sentence.
The doll - the very doll Trixie was now levitating very close to her face - exploded.
“Now!” Twilight yelled.
Anon sighed.
"This is not going to end well."
Their goal was simple: Reach the extraction vehicle, make sure it wasn't sabotaged, and escape.
Of course, the goal being simple didn't exactly translate to it being easy.
"With all due apologies for mine accusation, was this not your idea in the first place?" Darkest said.
"Yeah," Anon answered. "That's how I know it won't end well."
Darkest’s barriers made Anon's power go wild.
Coming to that realization wasn't hard. Anon knew all too well how it felt when her power went into overdrive. That was how it’d all begun, after all - both this mess and her jumping troubles.
Her power needed a recharge every so often. Whatever Darkest was doing, it completely sidestepped this process and simply gave all her abilities a giant boost.
This was not a good thing, considering that her powers had a bad habit of sending her - and now Darkest - blindly into a random point in space and time when she had too much power build up.
But there was an advantage to this.
“Well, here goes nothing,” Anon whispered.
From a bush rushed a ball of Thaunon and jumper powers, barreling towards the soldiers gathered around Trixie like a giant bowling ball, with very similar effects: Crushing everything in its path.
Inside this bubble was Darkest. His eyes narrowed in concentration, while the filly behind him leaned against him, tongue sticking out as she prepared for her part in the plan.
The Thaunon orb impacted against another soldier. The poor soul went flying to the side, landing headfirst on a rock.
Unluckily for him, as a response to the usage of artillery and other long distance magical weaponry, the armies on both sides had switched from the usual steel helmet with cloth padding to flak helmets. And while those helmets were far more useful against shrapnel and projectiles, they offered much less protection against blunt force trauma.
That is to say, half the soldiers present at the ambush now had a serious concussion.
“Blink!” Anon screamed and the bubble disappeared, reappearing twenty feet to the left and roughly inside the space of a gaggle of very confused and now very flat soldiers.
Then it teleported again. And again. And again.
For Anon, the trick was using her powers as much as possible to avoid an overload.
For Darkest, the trick was holding in his lunch.
But Darkest held - both his barrier and lunch - until they finally reached their main goal:
The escape vehicle.
“Is that…” Anon paused, disbelieving her eyes. “....A balloon?”
Laying there in a heap was a basket large enough to fit all three of them. The magical burner to make hot air, the weights were all ready and in place. All except the envelope - the main body of the balloon.
Anon could overlook the fact that it was garishly purple.
What she couldn't overlook was the hundreds of arrows stuck in it.
“A balloon…” Anon whispered, staring at the destroyed thing.
“Ehm, you know, I have suddenly arrived at a realization,” Darkest said, attempting to get the jumper's attention.
“A goddamn balloon,” Anon exclaimed, anger seeping into her voice.
He didn't have much success.
“The balloon is not…strictly necessary for our escape,” Darkest proposed. “I do think we might potentially be able–”
Anon stomped her hoof, rolling her eyes.
“I mean, who would use - “ she kicked the balloon for emphasis” - that? In a warzone!”
Darkest gulped. He could almost stomach shouting from the soldiers and Trixie, but from the jumper it…
It reminded him of somewhere and somepony else.
“We could simply–” Darkest attempted again, only to be interrupted.
“It’s slow and vulnerable." Anon continued. "And purple! I thought she would have something, I dunno, useful! Did I mention that it's bucking purple!”
“You do realize that you can teleport vast distances.” Darkest said.
Anon froze, her mouth hanging open.
“...What?” was Anon’s ever-so-eloquent reply.
“Our objective is to flee the vicinity,” Darkest explained with a sigh, “and you are able to teleport utilizing the boost from mine Thaunon.”
The jumper shook her head.
“Too dangerous. Can’t aim from here,” Anon said. “I go for it, and we have the great choice of ending inside the ground, or far above it.” She shuddered. “Both are not great.”
Darkest took in a deep breath, his brow twitching slightly.
“We could fly down,” he said simply, only getting a blank stare from Anon. “The bubble. We could simply teleport and gently land in it. I believe it would sufficiently slow our fall.”
Anon opened her mouth, raising her front hoof and searching for a retort.
“That’s…” she paused, realizing she had nothing. “A great idea and now I'm mad I didn't come up with it.”
Before any of them could add anything, the brush behind them exploded in a shower of twigs and dirt.
Twilight landed with a barrel roll - dodging another blast of azure magic that way.
“Quickly! Ready the balloon!” she screamed, yelping as another bolt struck just next to her.
Trixie ran through the bushes, her face covered in soot, her eyebrows gone.
“Sparkle! I’ll kill you for this!”
Anon turned towards Darkest.
“So, eh, Canterlot. About…two minutes away from falling onto it. Ready?”
Darkest gave a weak nod as the Thaunon bubble reappeared around them.
“Now!”
Dead silence filled the room as every last mare failed to so much as breathe.
Daybreaker groaned loudly, swaying wildly in place before stumbling back into the wall for support and grabbing her forehead with both forehooves. Raw pain and a deep ache she was vastly unfamiliar with flooded her head, nearly bringing tears with it, to her complete surprise. So this is what being low on magic is like. Who'd have thought?
The graceful alicorn had felt her reserves running low ever since escaping her reality, but merely brushed the sensation aside until then. Apparently, that was a mistake, one she was now paying for in full.
An echoing slam killed the silence as Bon Bon Heartstrings stomped her hoof on the table, having climbed on top of it.
"Are. You. Kidding me?! Our one chance to contact them and you go and shatter it to pieces! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
Shockingly enough, nopony leapt to calm the seething earth pony, numbed and dumbed with horror as they were. Daybreaker locked eyes with the mare, managing to give off her trademark unimpressed look even as she winced through another wave of pain.
"Oh, cool your jets, filly. It's not as if the mirror is irreparable." This surprised Bon Bon enough to make her realize her current less-than-civilized position and accordingly return to her seat. Lyly finally spoke up for the first time since they'd left the Everfree, staring at the white alicorn with wide eyes as she allowed a faint trace of hope to reenter her conscious.
"You mean you can fix it?" To which Daybreaker gestured vaguely at the fallen artifact, sighing imperceptibly in relief as the last punishing ache left her body. I won't be trying that again.
"The enchantments and true magic are stored and focused on the frame, not the glass. The body of the mirror is the portal itself, with the surface merely a window to view it through." The once-ruler shoved off the wall to stand proudly once more as smiles gradually returned to the mothers' faces. "As such, repairs will be trivial." Imperiously, she turned to gaze at her fellow alicorn, who was already magically collecting the glass shards and flipping through a thick spellbook.
A polite cough brought the princess out of her trance, though, as she eeped and returned her attention. "I will require assistance operating the mirror, and I'm sorry to say, Twilight, but you simply don't have the raw power needed." While the purple mare seemed surprised at this, she humbly accepted the statement and nodded her head accordingly, to which Daybreaker gave a toothy grin. "I believe you said there was a version of me in this universe? One you're close to? Could you contact her, please?"
Princess Twilight Sparkle gave a hasty nod and immediately departed the room, but not before fusing the shards back into one solid pane of reflective glass with a flash of purple.
Daybreaker glanced imperiously at the mirror, eyeing its fallen form up and down--or maybe left and right--but not daring to reignite her horn for fear of further aggravating it. Her ears twitched, detecting soft hoofsteps to her left, and she turned there while cocking an eyebrow.
"Go on, say it." Lyra urged, to which Bon Bon responded with a stink eye that conveyed so much disdain the alicorn couldn't help but be impressed. The earth pony did, however, eventually turn back to face her, gazing up with an expression that, to her credit, seemed genuinely remorseful.
"I am sorry, Daybreaker, for yelling at you. My behavior was unbecoming of a civilized pony and I deeply regret acting in such a manner." Then, the candymaker whipped her head back to her grinning wife, muttering through clenched teeth: "There. Happy now?" Pleased, Lyra nodded cheerily and promptly trotted off as Daybreaker, more amused than she cared to admit by the interaction, gave a small chuckle.
"That's okay, filly. Even if I can't empathize, I can at very least pity you endlessly for it. Besides, your little stomp back there was pretty cute." Bon Bon squinted, decidedly not entertained by this, but a slight upturn to the corner of her mouth betrayed her true reaction until she straightened and became more serious.
"How long will it be until I can see him? Do you think it'll take long to teach the princess how to use the mirror?" Daybreaker nearly chastised the mare on her impatience, but upon further consideration of the situation, miraculously held her tongue and merely gave a gentle smile.
"We shall have to see."
Elsewhere, both minty unicorns approached the mirror, lighting their horns as one to lift the pane of reflective glass and actual mirror respectively. Lyra eyed her other version's green magic aura in moderate surprise, glancing between it and her own vibrant gold one before simply shrugging her shoulders. Lyly, meanwhile, stared into the distance while in apparent deep thought, only barely managing to focus long enough to slide the glass panel--with minimal effort--into its frame.
Once the mirror was fixed and secured safely in the corner of the room, Lyra strode forwards to bump shoulders with her twin, eyeing her with moderate concern.
"How're you doing, me? Everything alright?"
Startled, Lyly jumped slightly and whirled to face her, but soon registered her words and sighed deeply. Lyra stared into the mare's eyes, noting how oddly familiar such an action felt, though she was indisputably a different pony.
"No, not really. I'm worrying about our kids." Lyly seemed to want to add more, but could only stand there with her muzzle open, at an utter loss for words. Lyra hummed thoughtfully, breaking the stare to instead sit beside her twin and monitor her wife talking with Daybreaker across the room.
"I have a lot of confidence in their abilities. I think they'll be okay, don't you?" But the other musician scoffed hollowly, averting her gaze away from Lyra's side-eye to instead study the ornate mirror.
"I don't know what to think. I learned Spring is a jumper at the same time you did, y'know. All this time, I thought she was just a troubled filly and nothing more." This bade Lyra pause and take a few moments to think, but her encouraging smile returned soon enough once she found a way forward.
"Well, what do you know about her? It's been a few weeks since the adoption, right? Why don't you tell me about Spring?" The minty mare opposite gave a subdued sigh, but evidently decided to humor her and, after a short break, offered a reply:
"Witty, clever, surprisingly nimble, confident, brave, the list goes on. She really is wonderful, especially considering what she must have gone through." Lyra's grin grew as she observed her twin brighten in saying this, with the mare's look of longing and confusion slowly being replaced by something far more desirable and productive. Any self-respecting mother would happily embrace the opportunity to gush about her children, after all, and neither Lyra was an exception.
"She sounds like a very capable young mare," the thaumusologist commented, to which her other self finally returned the grin and turned to face her. Lyly seemed to think for a moment, likely debating whether or not to ask the question in her mind, before she opened her muzzle and inquired:
"What about Knight?"
The query was simple and, at a glance, straightforward enough. Really, it shouldn't have taken much effort at all to launch into a spiel about her adoptive son and his many talents and charms. Why, several treasured memories immediately popped to mind, ready and waiting to be shared and mutually fawned over.
Thus, it was greatly confusing to Lyra when she found the words choking in her throat, utterly unable to be vocalized. It was this unicorn's turn to droop her head in thought as she finally took the time to think about the situation.
Until that moment, she'd been far too caught up in offering support and encouragement to those around her to really consider things. Now that Lyra took the time to pause and reflect, she was taken almost completely by surprise as a wave of powerful emotion swept over her.
So great was the feeling that she failed entirely to notice the other unicorn's stumble and tiny gasp of alarm.
"I...really miss him. He's just a scared little foal out there on his lonesome. I just...really wish I could hold him right about now. He gives the best hugs, you know." Lyra held back a sob, nearly collapsing for the rush of longing that suddenly threatened to overtake her entirely. "A little sloppy sometimes...but...it's the effort that counts, right?" A concurring nod was her answer before the two sat in silence as Lyra tried and failed to compose herself.
"You don't have to worry." Lyra would have startled at the sudden appearance of Sweetie Drops if she wasn't otherwise preoccupied, though she did offer the earth pony her full attention. "Wherever they are, we know they're together. And I can promise you this much: Spring Break isn't going to let anything happen to your son while she's around." Sweetie stood confidently, with a grave expression of such seriousness that the minty mare couldn't help but be reassured, at least temporarily.
A nod was the mother's response and Lyra allowed herself the smallest smile.
"Thank you."
Just then, however, everypony's attention was abruptly drawn to the crystalline double doors which flew open, permitting two alicorns to regally stride through.
Well, more specifically, one strode through while the other trailed behind, several clipboards held in her purple aura as she muttered hurried words into the taller one's ear.
Regardless, salvation had finally arrived and the desperate hope that'd been kindling in all four mothers' hearts blazed to roaring life once again.
"Princess Celestia!"
They were falling.
This did not surprise Darkest.
It had been his idea, after all. Teleport here, using the wondrous and so strange power of the jumper - so alike yet so different to his own abilities.
What shocked him was Canterlot.
He had known they were going there, of course, but that fact did not exactly set in until he was staring at the golden roofs and white marble spires, towering over the grand city in all their terrible familiarity. The city was different in small, subtle ways. The occasional ruined house, the random bouts of destruction, speckled through the city, already being cleared. The air of gray, fearful expectations hanging over the capital.
But all he could focus on was those damned golden roofs he was so acquainted with.
They were getting closer.
Darkest knew he was supposed to do something now, but all he could do was stare at the majestic, terrible place below him.
And the noise! So much noise! The wind whistling, the screaming - in and outside his head. All those voices telling him to do things. Stop. Try to make a barrier. Lay down and cry.
And so he did nothing.
And the roofs got closer.
In the periphery of his blurred and misty vision - probably because of the tears in his eyes, caused by the sharp wind, he supposed - he saw two blobs.
One was purple and black, flopping in the air like a dying fish. Because all the training in the world cannot prepare you for suddenly staring at the oldest nightmare known to history.
And the other was bright green.
The green one was particularly strange. Darkest would swear that it not only failed to scream, but only said one sentence that he had to have heard wrong because it made no sense whatsoever.
It said: "Oh no, not again."
And then it disappeared.
Darkest blinked, rubbing his eyes in disbelief, but ultimately came to the conclusion that the green blob was back.
Only it was much closer now.
With roughly the same grace and coordination of an upside-down flying elephant with a bad case of dysentery, the green orb kept disappearing and reappearing yet closer to Darkest.
And the roof below them became yet bigger.
With fascination, Darkest could now recognize certain landmarks - like the palace or the school for gifted unicorns - even see some more colorful blobs down there.
The colt shuddered.
The green blob appeared next to him.
There were words said, he was almost sure of it. What those words were would remain a mystery to him, as he was unable to hear anything over the cacophony of sheer noise in his head.
So much noise.
And then…
Silence.
Anon floated in front of him - well, she was falling technically - her eyes narrowed in both gritty determination and concentration.
Time slowed.
Literally.
A bird flew outside the field of subjugated time and Darkest could see how it moved; inch by inch with each flap of its wings.
But the silence.
It was deafening.
Maybe it was the shock. Maybe the weight of the realization that he was suddenly all alone brought him back to reality.
Maybe they all just got lucky.
But whatever it was, Darkest finally remember what was happening.
And what he had to do.
Twilight Sparkle, former prized pupil of Princess Celestia, now the best secret operative in the service to the crown, was screaming.
"AHHHHHHH!!!"
Understandable, really; she was falling to her death. If there was ever a reason for some screaming, falling to your death is definitely a good one.
That is, until she suddenly wasn't.
"AHhhhhhh….ah?"
Twilight Sparkle, the very best of her class in Canterlot’s magic academy, was gawking in sheer disbelief as she A) stopped in midair, just some ten feet above the extremely sharp roof of the palace observatory, and B) was surrounded by a field of something she couldn't even begin to identify.
The bubble she was encased in gently lowered to the ground of the public park behind the school. Two more bubbles—one containing a green filly currently vomiting her guts out and the other a unicorn colt who stood and watched with dejection on his face—landed nearby and promptly evaporated.
"I hate this," Anon moaned, before gurgling and emptying her stomach again. "Remind me, why does your power make me sick? It's just unfair at this point…"
The bubble had fortunately vanished, saving Anon from having to stand in her own sick as it pooled around her.
Twilight, similarly released, rushed to the jumper's aid, while Darkest continued watching from behind the relative safety of his barrier.
"Can somepony please explain what just happened?" Twilight demanded.
Anon—unhelpfully—heaved again, only narrowly missing Twilight as the mare dodged out of the way.
"Our plan was successful," Answered Darkest simply, looking around as guards in golden armor approached them.
"Our plan?” Twilight protested. “Teleporting above Canterlot wasn't part of the plan!"
"Not part of your plan,” Darkest said, his gaze still firmly on the approaching guards. “But yours was never going to be successful.”
Twilight glared at him. Not daggers - those were broadswords at the least.
Finally, one of the guard ponies approached.
“Agent Sparkle? How-” But she cut him off with a raised hoof and confidently strode forth.
“No time. We need to go.
Take us to Celestia.”
Anon hadn't understood at first.
The hall was giant and gilded with gold virtually everywhere. For once, it wasn't treated as a decoration or a rarity, but instead like some cheap paint to be slathered every place seen fit. Rune-covered plates made from the precious metal formed the floor, the wall and even the ceiling.
Simply told, gold was everywhere.
And so was magic.
Its presence was almost overwhelming. The scent of ozone permeated the space like that of death in a fetid swamp. The very air buzzed with energy, seemingly alive with an arcane power that sent everypony's coat hairs standing on end—all emanating from the room's centerpiece:
The throne.
Slowly, Anon raised her head and looked up.
White feathers and blood stains laid under the throne - if one could call the giant construction of gold, arcane runes and wire a ‘throne.’
And strung up on the throne was a corpse.
The remains of a large, white alicorn sat there, unmoving. Flesh peeled away from the body as though seeking escape from the decomposing mass and ribs poked out from what might resemble a chest cavity. The wings—the great, alabaster wings she'd once sat under and felt so sheltered by—were reduced to nothing. Only strips of skin hung off them like macabre streamers, with yet more bones jutting out at odd angles. Only a naked skull remained of the face, with golden wires leading from one of the eye sockets.
The other eye socket glowed with arcane fire.
"Your Highness," greeted Twilight as she kneeled and bowed in subjugation. Anon stared up at the cadaver, fully expecting it to reply or somehow react.
It did nothing. The only observable movement came from a cockroach scurrying across the yellowed bone of its cranium. This lasted mere seconds before the insect strayed too close to the wires that replaced the carcass' left eye and expired with a brilliant yellow flash.
That, and the slight wavering of the flame contained by the eye socket opposite.
"I have returned from my mission to recover our informant. Sadly, I arrived too late, but while there I came across these two." Here, the purple unicorn gestured to the foals behind her. The jumper dared to break her staring contest with the corpse, but only long enough to check on her newfound ally.
Darkest wasn't doing too great, from what she saw—it seemed he would soon be the one to projectile vomit for a change—but she didn't have the time to fully observe him before returning her gaze to the ruler. "They are foals with unprecedented abilities," Twilight continued, "I...owe my escape to them, as they were able to teleport us back here."
The corpse gave no jolt of surprise. The body didn't react to this information in the slightest, despite the shocking and objectively-impressive nature of it.
How could it, Anon thought, it's dead!
And still the flame flickered on.
"You may be interested in their powers, but they're very clever beyond that and honestly I'd take them over Agent Sweetie Drops if ne–" Twilight cut herself off. There was no perceivable reason for her doing so—at least, not on surface level. Anon herself took a few seconds of confusedly looking about before she detected the change:
A deep rumble, felt more than heard, came from the throne. The ozone scent intensified, slightly at first, but more as the moments went on. The arcane fire in the cadaver's eye brightened and became eerily still.
What...are...your...names?
Hastily, almost as though compelled, Anon strode forth, but resisted the urge to bow.
"You can call me Spr- Anonymous, or Anon for short," the filly stated, standing proudly even in the oppressive presence of what once had been Celestia. "And my companion here is named Darkest." The colt, conversely, whimpered and ducked low to the ground, looking as though he'd greatly appreciate if he could disappear into it.
The jumper felt her eyebrows crease in concern, but once more had to return her attention to the deceased princess. "We're...not from around here. Can I ask..." Anon paused, looking about the gold-covered throne room and blinking, "what happened?"
No response.
Twilight stiffened at the question, holding her muscles tense as her head drooped even further towards the floor.
And the flame flickered on.
“I see,” whispered Anon. “Funny, I had nearly this exact conversation before.”
The temperature in the room flared. Anon could feel a tendril of an alien mind, a shape tried to pry open her own. A gaze looking at her very soul.
A familiar feeling for her, at this point,
Truly...what…terrible…luck.
Then, she stumbled as the ground beneath their hooves shook and staggered gusts of ozone-scented wind emanated from the throne. Anon thought for a second that the whole castle was coming down, but realized just as soon that no, that was laughter.
The animated, rotting corpse was laughing and the jumper was so glad for it that she couldn’t care less what it was laughing at.
Laughter, after all, was much better than getting lasered to smithereens.
Or maybe it's fate…I never could tell the difference.
Anon gave a nod.
Fate and misfortune had an ugly tendency to be interchangeable in most cases.
Once that was over and Once-Celestia settled down, the grand, ancient tones of her telepathic ‘voice’ once more entered their brains:
Twilight…tell them.
And the mare could only sigh.
“It all started nearly two years ago, on the one-thousandth Summer Sun Celebration. Nightmare Moon was returning and I was sent to gather warriors to defeat her. It…didn’t go well.” The unicorn sighed and clutched at her singed eyepatch, but the hoof soon pulled at the tattered hood of her cloak instead. “I-we…when we fought the Nightmare we lost.”
Twilight took a deep breath.
“There were six of us,” she said slowly. “My friends.”
“They didn't make it.”
The mare’s head hung low, her mane hiding her one good eye and for the first time, Anon realized something.
She didn't see Twilight's horn - or see her use any magic.
The mare straightened herself, her expression turning back to a mask of cold professionalism.
“Nightmare spared me,” the mare paused. “No. Spared is the wrong word. She learned that I was Celestia’s student. She saved me for later. To hurt Celestia more by making her watch. But not before…before she made sure I wasn't a threat anymore by…” Twilight trailed off, unable to finish, her hoof reaching for her forehead.
Where her horn used to be.
“She then came for Ponyville,” Twilight said.
“There were no survivors.”
Anon tried her best to keep her composure. She knew where this was coming. She heard it once before. A story told by a Celestia of a different place.
“Celestia and Nightmare fought over the ruined town,” Anon interjected. “And in the fighting-”
They both perished.
Every living pony gave hearty shivers at the depth of the ‘voice.’ Its resultant pressure weighed heavily on the three of them, lowering heads and hopes alike as they witnessed thousands of years of sorrow.
“It wasn’t long after that the Crystal Empire reappeared. We were just trying to rebuild and get our Princess back. It barely took a few weeks for Sombra to declare war, but in that amount of time we were able to get…” Twilight gestured meaningfully at the throne before them, “...this up and running. I guess we’re lucky in that regard, at least.” Twilight slumped to the floor and could only lay there in a pitiful heap as memories seemed to ravage her conscious.
“That does sound like a situation of excessive catastrophe,” Darkest remarked, his voice wavering as he swayed on his hooves. Seemingly without intending to, he took several steps toward Anon, lurching unsteadily the whole way.
It was slight, though, and the jumper had the sense that only she had noticed. “In my home world, I am told all of Ponyville rallied against Nightmare Moon and were successful in fending her off. They collaborated with the Elements of Harmony and were rewarded handsomely.” This piqued Twilight’s interest, or at least Anon assumed so from the way the mare’s ears perked up and swiveled in Darkest’s direction.
The rotting corpse, however, made no such movements.
It was just as invested, though.
Anon could tell.
“How did they do it? What could we have possibly done differently?” Twilight’s tone was as solemn as it was accusatory and the colt flinched accordingly. He faltered and rubbed one foreleg with another, shooting her an apologetic smile.
“I am afraid I cannot answer that, madame. I know not the specifics of the event. I was…” Darkest grimaced deeply and stared vacantly into space, ”…otherwise engaged at the time.”
The jumper’s heart went out to him and she closed the distance—not that there was much between them, the colt having taken several more steps in her direction—to offer a supportive hoof on his shoulder. Much to her surprise, he immediately leaned into the contact as his legs all but buckled. Darkest was shivering quite heavily and almost seemed to be…fighting something.
“I helped fight off Nightmare Moon back in m–er, the universe I came from,” Anon related while shifting in place to support the child with her shoulder. The filly’s newly-healed legs still ached and she’d barely regained any energy in the short interim allotted, but somehow, she found the strength to steady him anyway. “I, eh, kinda prepared an ambush and used a plan made by…by a different Celestia. It didn't exactly work and I probably would have died if not for intervention on other peo–ponies’ parts. But the ambush weakened her enough that elements worked in the end.”
The jumper sighed, her gaze settling on the fiery eye socket that didn’t seem nearly so threatening, now. “It’s easy to judge yourself now. See all the failures now. So many maybes and should haves. But, you did what you thought was right and all you could and…it wasn't enough. For what little it is worth, I’m sorry.”
There was a connection there, tenuous as it may have been. It was just like her and Daybreaker; two lost souls that’d both lost so much laying down arms and coming to an understanding.
Thank you.
Darkest convulsed.
A massive shudder wracked his body, strong enough to dislodge him entirely. No longer propped up by Anon, the colt fell to the ground and was still for a mere second or so before the shaking resumed. He clutched his head, pained, while muttering inaudibly to himself and curling up as best he was able through the debilitating convulsions.
Anon felt her eyebrows crease in immediate concern and she ducked down to check on her charge, every last bit of first aid she’d ever learned flitting through her mind. Too much to sort through and too little time–the amount of medical knowledge she’d gained, while expansive, consisted of far too many different body types and species that almost none of it was any help. Twilight, likely having heard the sound of Darkest’s body hitting the floor, rushed over to assist.
This did not help matters.
“NO!” He cried, and the mare faltered in her approach. The colt flailed, trying and failing to shoot to his hooves, instead crashing painfully to the gilded floor. Anon reached out instinctively, but he cringed away from her as well and went sprawling in the opposite direction.
The arcane flame strengthened again and there was another rush of energy as Once-Celestia ‘spoke,’
Ah, I see. It is near–
"–NO!!"
And was promptly cut off with another scream.
Darkest—at least, the pony that had been Darkest mere seconds ago—finally clambered to his hooves and properly backed away from them. His pupils had shrunk significantly and his fearful gaze flickered between three targets before settling on the deceased alicorn. The colt froze, then, with the only perceivable change being the mounting terror that overtook every part of his body.
“No one move,” softly ordered Anon from the corner of her muzzle. The jumper settled into a confidant stance, projecting assurance to Twilight and her mentor as she slowly approached. The mare relaxed and Once-Celestia didn’t speak again, so the filly assumed she’d successfully convinced them she knew what she was doing.
Now, if only she actually knew what she was doing.
That would be nice.
Fake it ‘til ya make it; Fifty percent of the time, it works every time.
Strange was the fact that they’d already gone through this before. Darkest was supposed to trust her now, right? He hadn’t had any issues doing so ever since the prison, so why freak out now? Why was he looking like he’d never seen her before? Had all her efforts been for nothing?
The colt edged away from her approach, his rump bumping up against the gilded walls of the throne room as he ducked low to the ground. Anon hesitated. Something about the way Darkest was eyeing her like a cornered animal made her decide getting closer wasn’t a good idea.
“What’s the matter, Darkest?” She inquired, but the colt made no reaction and gave no response to the name. His ear didn’t so much as flick as he stared warily back at her.
“...Knight?” Anon tried, which earned a blink but still no scrap of recognition.
Are there more?
“She…” the colt whispered, pointing a hoof behind the jumper. She didn’t dare look, figuring he was indicating Twilight anyway. He’d been afraid of the mare since she showed up, Anon knew. His constant glances and edging away had been proof enough of that.
Now, if only Anon knew why.
The filly moved to step closer, but paused again when he flinched and backed along the wall. Moderately frustrated, she sat in a slight huff as she studied him.
Yes, it was clear Darkest was no longer who she was talking to. The colt’s posture had changed again, growing yet more slouched and tense. While not exactly talkative, Darkest would certainly have said more than one word at this point, and been logical enough not to suddenly expect an attack.
“She’s not going to hurt you…” Anon faltered, searching for a name that didn’t appear, “...kid. No one will. It’s all going to be okay.”
He didn’t believe her, that much was clear. The filly wasn’t even sure he’d heard her in the first place, given his utter lack of reaction. The colt retreated yet further, but froze and suddenly glanced back at the throne room’s entrance, where two guards were posted on either side of the double doors. They’d been the ones to escort the trio here in the first place and had stood silently since taking up their positions.
‘Had’ being the key word there.
Now, the guards were in the process of opening the doors and bolting outside.
And that was when the alarm sounded.
Another rumble, different from when the corpse spoke, viciously shook the room. Blaring noise and flashing red light filled it soon after, but Anon was too focused on not falling over to pay it much mind. Darkest did fall over, his hooves scraping uselessly against the tractionless gold floor as he let out another yelp.
Twilight, it's time.
The purple unicorn opened her mouth as if to argue. The corpse stared hollowly into nothing but Anon could still feel the disapproving glare.
“But their powers,” Twilight managed to stutter out. “We could–”
No.
It was a command. So clear and bright it pushed away the image of rotting flesh and bleached bone. Just for a moment, Celestia seemed regal again. Alive again. With fire in her words. A being of will and pure might.
And then the ceiling caved in.
Only the jumper’s quick instincts saved her from being flattened under the enormous chunk of pure gold that came crashing down. She teleported to her charge’s side and attempted to help him up, but the colt refused to stand in favor of covering his head and sobbing uncontrollably.
“There’s been a breach!” Reported one of the soldiers from the hall. “Sombra’s army is at our doorstep! They’re storming the halls!” That was all the stallion got out before he rushed along, likely to assist with that same problem.
Shrieking, metallic clashing, and the sounds of several explosions soon echoed back from that same hall amidst yet more rumbling. Anon found herself wildly glancing every which way as the castle crumbled around her, unable to simply teleport out with Darkest just lying there.
Do they not care about their own soldiers?! The siege weapons will take out everything!
It seemed that was Sombra’s only goal.
And there the foals were, stuck in the crossfire, far from both home and any semblance of safety.
All because of her.
A purple and black blur entered the jumper’s vision, one that was definitely fuzzy due to its speed and not the helpless tears covering her eyes. Twilight—at least, Anon was decently sure it was her—wove expertly between falling rubble and spreading cracks as she arrowed straight for the foals.
The chunk of gold that’d fallen blocked the jumper’s view of Once-Celestia, but a reanimated corpse strung to a glorified chair couldn’t have been doing too well, considering the situation.
So why’s she coming here?
Anon’s confusion was cut short; Twilight soon reached them and quickly dug something out of one of her many pockets. Just as the filly opened her muzzle in inquiry, a blinding blue flash overwhelmed her mind and she recognized the sensation of teleporting.
A dim, torchlit room greeted the jumper when she rematerialized, complete with a long, rounded table in the center, dusty shelves holding various objects, and stone walls.
Darkest immediately crawled between the many chairs and under the table, sniffling pathetically to himself. Anon whipped around to face Twilight, who had set some sort of crystalline pendant on a shelf to rummage elsewhere with both hooves.
“Where are we?” Thankfully, the mare ignored the strained cadence of the jumper’s voice and responded in clipped, gravelly tones.
“The war room, deep below Canterlot Castle. Originally a wine cellar. It’s the safest spot in the building.” She paused in sifting through the shelves, one ear cocked at the ceiling, before sighing heavily. “You still have maybe ten minutes until the whole thing comes down on top of you. The supports won’t hold the weight, so be out of here before then, got it?” Twilight stared back at the filly, her expression grave but all the more determined. “You can get out of here, right? Back to your home?”
Deeply unsettled, Anon could only nod. Luckily, that was enough for the mare and she continued searching.
It felt like an eternity listening to the rumbling above and wincing with every muffled explosion, but Twilight eventually let out a pleased hum and retrieved her desired object.
A steel amulet in the caricature of an alicorn, set with a blood red gem that glowed with malevolent power, rested in her hooves. Both Anon and the agent stared at it with equal unease, but finally Twilight stored the thing in her bag.
Perhaps because she saw the jumper’s confusion, the mare sighed again to herself and strode forward to speak.
“We’ve lost this war. Known it for a while now, despite our best efforts.” Twilight’s scratchy voice was level and clear, with only a slight wavering to betray her emotion. “But the Prin–Celestia told me that, so long as you two get out of here alive, that’s a victory we can celebrate.”
Anon’s eyes widened, unused as she was to such generosity, but the mare was indisputably genuine in her statements. “So please, for everypony’s sake, go back to your happy land and enjoy it for us. I’ll hold them off as long as I can.” With that, the agent retrieved the pendant—likely what she’d used to teleport them there—and made to activate it and return to the battle.
Something felt so wrong about that, though, and before she knew what was happening, Anon rushed forward to interrupt.
“Wait!” She yelped, placing her hoof on Twilight’s cannon bone, “you could come with us!”
The mare looked every bit as surprised by that statement as the filly, but somehow, Anon found herself speaking with full sincerity. Perhaps it was desperation from knowing a comrade—a friend that had traveled with her and saved her life and come to understand her even by the slightest margin—was about to send herself into the fire for her sake. Maybe it was something else entirely. But the jumper knew she had to try.
“As you said, a happy land. One with no wars and little strife. You could settle down and…” Anon choked, only now realizing the irony of her words.
That didn’t make them any less true.
“...and relax a little. Begin to heal. Leave all the stress and death and…everything behind. Wouldn’t you like that?”
Twilight seemed to genuinely think it over.
For about a second.
“No,” the agent stated in a tone every bit as firm as her grip on Anon’s hoof. “I…we…we’ve been dead for some time now. We just…refused to accept it.” Twilight shut her eye for a moment. “I’m…I’m tired of fighting. So tired. But I won’t run.”
Twilight paused, her muzzle formed a small smile that wasn't a smile at all. “I’m not afraid. I’m going to see my friends again. Use my magic again. See my brothers again.”
Knight turned away, Anon gulped, giving her a small nod, her lips forming her own fake smile.
“I understand,” Anon replied finally.
“I hope you don't,” Twilight said earnestly. “Goodbye. And…live well, okay?”
And then she was gone.
The filly was left blinking away any remaining bluish particles from the teleportation, but her head soon drooped to the floor. The room trembled slightly as explosions from above intensified, but in that moment, she couldn’t seem to make herself care.
And then sniffling from under the table drew her attention instead.
Anon had lied when she said they had a way back. Two obstacles stood in their path, both looming high and seemingly indomitable from where she sat:
Firstly, Darkest’s current state meant he was unlikely to cooperate much or at all. This was incredibly bad because she needed his help to jump anywhere, but it wasn’t nearly as significant a problem as the other.
The bigger issue was the fact that Anon would never find the colt’s home universe. The Weave was incomprehensibly vast and, even considering the way similar places congregated, it would take years of searching at the least to find it.
Less like finding a needle in a haystack and more like locating a single molecule of water in the Pacific Ocean.
One step at a time.
Anon breathed deeply and mentally arranged a checklist of sorts.
We can’t stay here. And the only way to get out is for Darkest to work with me.
Thus, the first order of business: Calm the colt down from whatever he was experiencing. Preferably before the ceiling caved in again and they both were buried under millions of tons of marble and gold.
Crouching down to his level, Anon did her best to keep any rising panic out of her voice as she crawled forward and addressed him.
“Hey bud,” she began, immediately feeling a rush of deja vu, “it’s gonna be okay. Remember me? I’m your pal. We’re gonna be fine.” But her words apparently had no effect, given the way Darkest failed to react or move from softly weeping into the stony floor. The jumper could barely make out his figure in the flickering torchlight, but that only made it more saddening.
Or, not Darkest, she mentally corrected. Knight or…whoever else there is.
Truth be told, Anon was quite a bit more panicked than she cared to admit and the ever-increasing rumbles from above didn’t exactly help. All too aware of the fate both foals would meet if they failed, she made to scoot forward in hopes that proximity would somehow help her efforts.
Only for a particularly loud sniffle from the colt to make her freeze in hesitation.
I have… Anon concluded, …absolutely no idea what I’m doing.
This was a big problem.
But just as the filly was about to do something she’d have probably regretted, she felt a…tingle of sorts at the back of her mind. Pressure increased between her ears, not unlike when her companion used his powers. One alarmed glance at his horn revealed it thankfully unlit, but that still raised the question of where such a sensation was coming from.
Anon backed out from under the table, glancing about in all directions while doing her best to ignore the way everything rattled and clumps of dust fell from the ceiling. Her ears swiveled as the pressure shifted, moving away from her head to instead focus on the nearby stony back wall of the room.
Belatedly, the jumper realized it was her special senses that let her pick up on the…force?
Entity that was pushing through and beginning to occupy that space.
Something was entering from beyond their current world, and upon realizing that, the filly’s mind was sent into a panicked frenzy as it pondered just what that thing could be. As if the situation couldn’t get any worse. Now some eldritch horror had decided to feast on their souls and nothing she did would be able to stop–
“Spring? Are you there? Knight? Hello?”
Anon stopped short, easily recognizing the voice that spoke to her.
Lyra?
The section of wall shifted, changing from a crumbling stone edifice to a window of sorts that let her peer into what looked like a room made of crystal. Her immediate impression was of how tacky it appeared, even despite the regular wooden table and chairs within. Really, the room was quite a bit like her own, if much more ostentatious and with significantly less threat of being crushed under a giant collapsing castle.
The jumper’s attention wasn’t on the room she looked into, though.
Immediately, it was instead drawn to the mares within, each looking back at her with great intensity.
“Spring!” Cried Lyra, whose face lit up with relief as she stood a foot or so away from the ‘window.’ The mare’s voice was distorted and had an odd tone to it, but was thankfully still understandable despite the sheer distance separating them.
Anon recognized Lyra, Bon Bon, and their counterparts all pressed together, peering at her. Celestia, too, was sitting in the background with her eyes tightly clenched and her majestic horn blazing with golden light. Most surprising, though, was Daybreaker seated next to the princess, one hoof raised to steady her while she muttered inaudibly into her ear.
“Can you hear us?” Inquired the Bon Bon standing to the left. Once more, the jumper was too dazed to do more than dumbly nod her head, but that seemed to be enough for the mares, each of whom became markedly more excited.
“Where’s Knight? Is he with you?” That was the other earth pony, who Anon could guess was her companion’s mother. Still trying to make sense of this strange development, the filly wrestled with her answer for a few precious seconds before responding.
“Er, yes! He’s here—just under the table. We’ve been traveling together this whole time.” A sudden realization entered Anon’s head, even as Knight’s mother all but lunged up to the window, pressing her muzzle against it as she peered behind her. “There’s no time to chat though,” the filly continued, urgency and panic clear in her voice, “we’re under several million tons of death in the form of a collapsing castle. Darkest started freaking out and I need his help to get us out of here.” She approached the mirror, looking each mare right in the eyes and letting them take full stock of her expression. “Can you guys help? I don’t know what to do. Nothing’s working!”
Bon Bon—the frantic mom, that was—narrowed her eyes and placed a hoof on the surface of the ‘window.’ It was odd to watch, as the limb evidently met some resistance against the surface of whatever they were using to contact her, but ended up looking like the mare was anticipating a high-five.
“I need to see him.” Anon shivered at the intensity in her voice, instinctively pointing behind her in vain hopes of redirecting any maternal wrath.
“Can you shift the perspective?” Inquired the Lyra that hadn’t spoken yet as she glanced back at Celestia. Anon’s view was somewhat obstructed by a looming candymaker, but she still saw Daybreaker give a silent nod and mutter more instruction to her counterpart. The princess grimaced with effort and beads of sweat began to glisten on her forehead, but slowly the ‘window’ crawled along the wall to a better position.
A loud gasp, packed with jaw-dropping amounts of emotion, pierced the air once Bon Bon laid eyes upon her child.
“SUGAR!” She all but screamed, “I’m here! I’m right here! It’s okay! It’s…” but the mare trailed off when Knight gave no reaction, slumping to a sitting position. “....he can’t hear me.” With equal reluctance and apology, Anon trotted back into view and gave her theory.
“I think the only reason I can is because of my powers,” she proposed, trying and failing not to look at the utterly heartbroken expression on Bonnie’s face. “But talking hasn’t done anything either! What does Knight need?” Lyra stepped forth then, laying a hoof on her wife’s shoulder as she addressed the jumper.
“You must have had an interaction with either mind magic or a tall pony. That’s Red right now, not Knight.”
“He needs hugs,” muttered Bon Bon in a voice almost as strained as the ceiling above the foals. “You need to hug him. Grip tight and stay away from the lower body.”
That instruction went against every last instinct the filly had—surely he, like herself, wouldn’t exactly appreciate sudden physical contact. Still, the colt’s mom was the expert here and Anon leapt to obey.
Knight—or, rather, Red—continued not to react when she wrapped her forelegs around him, much to Anon’s surprise. Shivering and incredibly cold, he laid limp in her grasp as she lugged them both back out from under the table. Doing so was no small feat; generally speaking, hauling around dead weight the size of oneself was not an easy task and the jumper was still weakened from her injuries.
Just as she managed to scoot them into better view of the ‘window,’ an especially powerful rumble shook the room and sent the foals sprawling in a tangled heap. That got Red to react as he shuffled to his hooves and stared at her with an expression of great unease.
“Don’t hurt me,” He murmured. Anon’s only movement was to glance helplessly up through the ‘window,’ awaiting further orders.
“You still have to hug him,” Bon Bon repeated. The filly shot her an incredulous expression, but Lyra was nodding along and the earth pony couldn’t possibly be more serious, so she slowly rose as well.
“Okay,” Anon said to all three of them. She hobbled forward on throbbing legs and reached around Red’s shoulders, expecting at any time to be assailed by a deafening scream or even crushed by falling rubble. The quakes had gotten so bad by then that dust poured from above like heavy rainfall and she reconsidered her decision to get away from the table.
Red didn’t so much as blink, but as the seconds dragged on, he raised his own forelegs and eventually returned the embrace.
Suddenly, a tremor rattled the colt and he let out a quiet whinny, gazing fearfully at the ceiling as cracks spiderwebbed across it.
“That’s Knight,” reported Lyra, who had also pressed up against the ‘window’ by then. Anon glanced over to them and noticed how the other two had moved back to give them room.
“Back away and give him space. Let Knight come to you.” The jumper did just that, disengaging contact and clearing her throat to get his attention.
“I need your help, Knight.” The colt locked eyes with her, conflicted, as the room’s wooden supports creaked and began to splinter. “Your Thaunon is the only way to get out of here. Please,” the very mountain groaned as a centuries-old city crumbled to dust atop both it and the war room. A sudden hopeless desperation that she hadn’t felt in a long time entered Anon’s voice. “I don’t want to die.”
The next moments felt like an eternity.
They started with the foals locking eyes. Knight’s white orbs held fear and an indescribable amount of wariness while Anon’s face showed only frantic worry. For far, far too long she could only sit there and hope he was convinced, all while his eyebrows slowly drew together.
Then, the far side of the room was buried under a literal mountain of rubble as though in slow motion. Anon only caught the tail end of stone falling from the ceiling before it was completely blocked off, and the opening only grew as milliseconds passed. Slowly, oh-so-slowly, impending doom approached in the form of splitting cracks along the room’s cap, with each falling boulder serving to widen the gaps.
And then, finally, Anon felt the by-then familiar pressure of her companion using his powers. Knight didn’t so much as glance behind him at the approaching rubble, summoning a sphere of Thaunon around both himself and the filly just as the torches were snuffed out.
So sudden was the lack of any sound that Anon could only sit there for some time, listening to her own breathing and studying her green hooves in the blazing grey light of Knight’s horn. Once the delayed realization that they both were intact came to her mind, though, she cried out in relief and leapt towards the colt with forelegs outstretched.
Knight tried to catch her, he really did, but they nonetheless were sent sprawling again in another tangle of limbs. This time, he didn’t break away and instead held the sobbing filly close, whispering into her ear again and again.
“We’re safe. It’s okay. We’re safe. It’s okay.”
So relieved to be alive was the jumper that she didn’t—couldn’t—ponder the strangeness of the role-reversal. Anon eventually stopped herself and merely laid there, feeling her powers recharge alarmingly fast.
The window! She realized.
To the mares that had somehow made contact with them, it must’ve looked like both foals just got crushed to death. This was troubling, but more importantly, if the filly’s suspicions were correct…
Reaching out with her senses revealed the ‘window’ still in the same spot. Its energies, to her utter delight, originated from Knight’s home universe and had left a trail all the way back there.
“Knight…” Anon said, watching as his ears pricked and he bent his neck to look at her. Exhaustion from the roller coaster—both emotional and physical—that day had been filled her, but was mixed in equal measure with excitement at what was shortly to come.
“We’re going home.”
Well, thought Daybreaker to herself, I’m going to need a new mirror.
Not five minutes ago, two troublesome foals had ripped a hole right through her priceless ancient artifact—strange, really, given glass hardly had a tendency to do as much—and crawled through, irreparably warping the frame and nullifying every last enchantment. Then, as if to spite her, the scrying mirror failed to even give off an epic explosion to mark its death, instead expiring with a mere puff of dust as it clattered to the ground.
Currently, the mare was sat before the thing, disdainfully poking it with a hoof as she tried and failed to ignore the noise around her.
This world’s Bon Bon was the main contributor to it and Daybreaker found herself glancing in her direction again.
There she was, curled up in the middle of the room and blubbering like a foam-mouthed lunatic while she mindlessly stroked the object held in her death-grip.
Said object being her son, whose white face was beginning to turn purple from the pressure.
Surprisingly enough, Knight didn’t seem to mind this all too much, laying completely cocooned with his eyes closed and a pleased grin on his face. Luckily, Lyra was seated right next to her wife, monitoring the two in case things got out of hoof. The minty unicorn occasionally bent down to kiss her child’s muzzle, but otherwise seemed content to let Bon Bon hog him all to herself. This was for the best; if any force dared try to separate the two, everypony knew only horrors would follow.
Elsewhere, Anonymous’ adopted family sat in a group hug, with Lyly holding her tight and Sweetie Drops on the outside, with a light grip for fear of agitating her sore legs. The jumper was clearly shaken by what had happened and in need of support, which Lyly had been all too happy to contribute. It’d been somewhat of a shock to Daybreaker to see the loved ones her friend had gained and she imagined the road to acceptance hadn’t been smooth, but from the brief glance she got, it seemed the ‘filly’ had it made.
The alicorn’s gaze settled back on her destroyed property just as her counterpart gracefully approached and sat beside her.
“I must ask,” began Celestia, “will they be able to return to their world?” She tilted her head to indicate the group hug, brows creased in moderate concern. “Spring only knew to come here by following the mirror.” Daybreaker nodded, waving a wing in dismissal.
“Yes, yes,” she said, “it won’t be a problem.” Celestia looked both curious and incredulous, but she rolled her fiery eyes and returned to poking the mirror’s remnants. “I have my methods. How do you think I got here?” This seemed to satisfy the princess and she fell silent for a moment, contemplating, while Bon Bon’s blubbering and Knight's murmured reassurances filled the room.
“Can I ask what happened?” Daybreaker froze as an odd and unpleasant feeling settled itself in her barrel. Her counterpart was plainly curious and would probably pry if she refused, but the pain was too great for any other option.
“No.” Celestia blinked and opened her muzzle, but was promptly cut off. “I said, no. You do not want to know.” Thankfully, she nodded and gave up the line of inquiry, to which Daybreaker let out a tiny sigh of relief.
“It’s quite the adventure that’s been had,” the princess remarked, staring out through the window at the sun she owned. Her twin chuckled ruefully and, having given up on poking the dead, spun to do the same.
“You missed all the best parts.” Celestia nodded at that, lighting her horn once more to perform a textbook sunset. She strained, drained as she was from the exertions just before, until Daybreaker ignited her own magic and reached out to help. The sun felt familiar, but distinctly different from her own. Younger, more vibrant.
Alive.
“Where will you go?” The question was simple, but she still took some time with her answer. Perhaps to think it over, perhaps to revel in a sunset that didn’t like just another tick on a timer that was steadily approaching zero.
“Oh, I’ll travel around. See the sights. Maybe help those in need if I feel generous. All that good loner vigilante stuff.” Celestia nodded again, leaving it at that.
A stereotypical sunset washed across the sky, bathing the crystalline room in beatific colors that dazzled the eye. A calm settled over those within, enough that Bon Bon finally released Knight from her death grip (though she stayed ready to snatch him back up at a moment’s notice; one couldn’t let her guard down, after all).
And, in that moment, all were at peace.
“[bleep]! I forgot my spork back there! We need to go back!”
“NO!”
Relatively speaking, of course.
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They need to get the spook.
awesome chapter and i really have to start reading this story from the beginning too ^^
the word of the day is: NO.
great read
Finally finished the whole thing... 25k words... my eyes 💀
Rating
Evangelion/10
It was a mess. Enjoyable page turner, but a mess regardless.
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1.It's clear that sombra war AU Equestria was a bunch of memes meshed up together and nothing more, but it's the best thing of this fanfic, but it's so good everything else looked bad in comparison. It kind of made me little annoying that it wasn't left as openned ended, but got axed the moment anon and knight left.
2.Why did daybreaker even here? Twilight herself took on daybreaker's role without problem. Was she supposed to be buddy with anon in the end and that plan got scraped? I smell a big rewrite here.
3.Feel so sad for two lyra(s). Basically relegated to bobbob's plus one.
4.This is a decent balance for Bonbon Heartstring. I droped libereo right after knight adopted by Bonbon because she's such an irritating character to read. Made her share the screentimes with lyra and counterparts make it barely tolerable.
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I loved it!
Well that was fun. RIP True Spork.
Not the True Spork!!! How will Spring 'Anon' Break do..... whatever it is she used it for.
I had a joke that was going to definitely be absolutely totally hilarious... probably... possibly... I don't know because I completely blanked on the joke
Whenever the teacher doesn't give a word limit on creative writing, I use that to my advantage. The first time, she didn't give a word limit, and I ended up writing 21 pages while everyone else wrote below ten pages.
It was interesting to see this crossover between both stories; you did a great job!