When Darkness Falls...

by XTech309

Eyes Opened

Sunset sat in one of the many chairs surrounding the cutie map, Starlight beside her and Twilight across from her. Shortly after her and her friends' climactic battle with an intruder from what they could only assume was another dimension, she had decided to visit Twilight in person, both to tell her what had happened and to work together to explain it. While Sunset had made it sound simple enough, there was another, unseen factor involved. Ever since she'd fought him, Sunset just didn't feel like herself. If all that had happened to her was being forced to listen to the nonsensical ramblings of an interdimensional anomaly like her friends, she'd be fine. But that wasn't the case, not only had she seen things far beyond her comprehension from her geode, but she had seen them with her own eyes as well.

She shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if things hadn't gone perfectly. If she'd been thrown into the same void she'd seen in her flashbacks, or even worse, killed. Would her friends have had any idea of her fate? Could she have found a way out? Was there a way out? Or would she remain trapped there? Imprisoned in a static-filled hell with incomprehensible horrors. Her mind raced with a seemingly infinite number of questions. Everything from what that place was to the glitch-like substance that seemed to reside there. She didn't have the slightest idea what it was, and yet it frightened her to no end, a primal, instinctual fear like nothing she'd ever felt before.

She squeezed her eyes shut and took slow, deep breaths, trying to keep the swirling thoughts from overwhelming her. She was on the verge of a panic attack, she had no doubt. She had experienced them before, most ponies had at one time or another. The most prominent example was the one she had when she first went through the portal, when she left everything she had in Equestria behind because she felt Celestia was denying her her destiny.

She came to see her Geodesic Power as almost cursed, so to speak. On paper, the ability to see into people's minds so that she could understand them in a way that no one else could had sounded great. But a scenario like this, where she was completely mentally unprepared for what she saw, had never occurred to her. She couldn't control what she saw and what she didn't see, and she hadn't given that a second thought until now. The experience had significantly affected all of them, Twilight had been frozen, Starlight had been rendered incapable of casting a certain spell, and Sunset's friends on the other side of the portal had been almost irreparably broken, but Sunset had to deal with more than just her first-hand experience. She'd been cursed with some of the same knowledge he had, and he knew that, but she also knew he hadn't wanted her to.

She wanted to know more about him, more than just what she had been shown by her geode. Before all of this, what was he like? If there was sone thing Sunset knew for certain, it was that almost no one was ever born truly evil, and most certainly not to that degree. What in Celestia's name could have happened to turn him into what he was? Did he once have friends? Was he once a caring, empathetic individual like her? Made into what he was by circumstances beyond his control?

She shook herself out of it, subconsciously realizing what she'd been thinking and refusing to let it drag her down any further. "So, what do you have for explanations? Totally radical, based on no logic or reasoning at all, conspiracy theories." She blurted.

"I have no idea, Sunset, both Starlight and I have gone through every book and note we could get our hooves on. Here, in Canterlot, we even had Sunburst go through the libraries of the Crystal Empire, and nothing!" Twilight said in a defeated voice.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.” Sunset replied. She felt impending doom start to well inside her again. She had vainly hoped that Twilight and Starlight would have at least something as far as an explanation.

“Well.” Starlight started. “My leading theory is that he came from a portal somewhere. For so long we thought the only portals to other worlds was the crystal mirror, but then you found one in the Everfree during that whole ‘leftover Storm king magic almost sank your cruise ship’ thing. Equestria is such a big place.” She said, raising her forehooves and spreading them out dramatically. “Who knows what else could be out there? It raises a new issue for Twilight’s upcoming reign as Princess. If something like that could come through, who knows what else?”

"I'd rather not think about that." Sunset replied nevously.

In the silence that followed, as the three processed what had been said, Starlight noticed something. During her time as guidance counselor at the School of Friendship, Starlight had subconsciously developed a keen sense for subtle interpersonal cues. Her ability to detect and decipher these obscure signals at times and places where they would usually fly under the radar for most was almost a sixth sense. Twilight wasn't hard to read. She was obviously both stressed and exhausted by the events of the past few days, especially with her coronation and reign over Equestria on the horizon. But that was not the thing that really caught her attention. Rather, it was Sunset.

She noticed her eyes moving quickly around the room, seemingly analyzing everything around her. Her breathing was quickened and the pupils of her eyes were unusually small. Combined with the general feeling of unease she was putting off, Starlight couldn't help but feel that something else was bothering her, something more than what had already been said. Her discomfort was well disguised, for she seemed to make a conscious effort to tilt her head forward so that her mane covered most of her face, hiding her anxious eyes and flaring nostrils. Starlight started asking if everything was okay, but Twilight cut her off.

"Ugh!" Twilight shouted, causing everyone in the room to jump. "This raises so many questions!" She said, beginning to pace the room. "If this came from another world, or worse, another dimension, wouldn't that prove that there are more universes out there? And that any old portal anywhere could let aliens into Equestria at any time?! What if some world-conquering monster decides to step through one day!" She cried, standing up on her hind hooves and placing her forehooves on either side of her head. "What if-"

Starlight placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, slowly but surely bringing the panicked mare back to the ground. "Whoa there Twilight, relax."

"Yeah!" Sunset chimed in, Twilight's outburst seeming to knock her out of whatever trance she'd been in. "The important thing is: We banished him. Plus, we now know that the Elements work on cross-dimensional beings!"

Starlight walked over to Sunset, placing her muzzle in her ear and whispering. "Between you and me, I think she's just nervous about her upcoming coronation." She gave a chuckle.

Sunset whispered in reply. “But isn’t she right? Sort of? Age-old theories about the multiverse and other dimensions, finally proven right beyond a shadow of a doubt. I mean, yes, the human world has technically proven it already. But that's just another version of Equestria. How do you explain this?!

"What are you two talking about?" Twilight asked from a few yards away.

"Nothing!" The two answered simultaneously.

"Right." Twilight said with a deadpan expression. "I'd stay and pester you two about what you're hiding." She let out a yawn. "But the events of the last two days have left me with a grand total of 6 hours to sleep." Sunset thought about what she'd said. Now that she was fixated on it, she noticed the bags under Twilight's eyes and how her movements seemed - delayed.

She trotted off, presumably to take a nap.

"Whew." Sunset remarked.

“You and me both, Twilight admittedly isn’t the easiest to be around when she’s sleep-deprived, and I doubt confirming her fears would help that.”

"Do you mind if I share something with you?" Sunset asked, her eyes darting around the room. Starlight took notice of this.

"Sure!" She replied.

"Remember how I said my geode power activated twice during my fight with him?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, there were some parts I left out, and it's really been bothering me."

"Well, what is it?"

Sunset inhaled. "The second time my geode activated, I had a glimpse of more recent events. I saw him, but not as the violent, unpredictable intruder the rest of you saw him as. He was afraid, waking up in some, some void. It's like, some kind of pocket dimension that exists outside our reality, I think, and it's holding something in it."

"Sunset, you're not making any sense. I'm getting worried."

"Well, I'm trying!" She responded. "I don't know how to describe it. The world was full of static. It had these floating islands in it, scattered about like gravity didn't exist. He was hiding from something in there, I saw it! Some sort of glitchy stuff!"

"You're still not making any sense. We've established that other dimensions exist, big deal! There can't be any expectation that they're anything like ours."

"Ugh!" Sunset groaned, placing her forehooves on either side of her head like Twilight had. "Wait!" She said, a light bulb going off in her head. "I've got it! Starlight, what if I could show you exactly what I saw?"

"I still don't follow."

"My geode power, but in reverse, what if I could show you the memories I saw, a replay!" Sunset said with rising enthusiasm.

"Uh huh, and you want to do that so I can see for myself what you saw."

"Exactly! We're two talented unicorns, we can think of something!"

Starlight sighed.

---

A short time later, with books and notes scattered across the Cutie Map, the two of them had figured something out, sort of. They were kind of on the clock, and only had a prototype of what they wanted to do.

"Are you sure this will work?" Starlight questioned.

"Like, seventy percent." Sunset replied. "What could go wrong?" She said in a sheepish tone, seeming to realize herself the flaws in that logic.

Starlight glanced at the notes they had placed in the middle of the small pile of books they'd been leafing through. Sunset was right, there wasn't much that could go wrong. Even in the worst-case scenario, she estimated, there would only be a small magical explosion that could possibly shatter a few windows and have the risk of waking Twilight. Of course, that's still pretty bad, but Sunset seemed pretty set on the idea, and her attempts at a verbal description weren't getting them anywhere, so it was worth trying. Besides, in the relatively niche situations where it might be needed, a spell like this could be really useful.

"Ready?" Sunset inquired.

"I guess so." Starlight said with hesitancy.

They both sat down facing one another. Sunset began first, followed by starlight. Tendrils of magic the same colors as their auras slowly snaked out of their horns, meeting in the middle and intertwining like two pieces of string wrapped around each other. It was Sunset who had to put in more effort, since she was the one who was trying to project her memories of what she'd seen onto Starlight.

Sunset stayed there, trying to make it work, for what seemed to be a small eternity. Her eyes remained closed, focused, before they suddenly opened, glowing the same white they had during the use of her powers. Shortly thereafter, Starlight's did as well, and in each of their minds was a projection of what Sunset had seen.

They stayed like that for a few seconds, mouths agape, while the binding held their minds in perfect sync, replaying for both of them what Sunset had experienced. For both of them, it felt like an eternity. Every second was shown in excruciating detail. In reality, it had only been a few seconds.

---

The replay ended, and the tethers that held the two of them together exploded out of existence, sending them tumbling backwards to the ground below. Starlight shot up first, while Sunset breathed deeply, sprawled on her back.

"Wha - hu -" Starlight babbled from a sitting position. She stared at Sunset with wide eyes as she pulled herself together.

"See what I mean?" Sunset said after seeing Starlight's reaction.

Starlight continued to babble in utter confusion for a few seconds before finally starting to pull herself together. "Count to four, inhale, count to four, exhale." She muttered to herself. She repeated this process a few more times, Sunset watching.

"So, now you've seen what I have, so, anything as far as helping me understand it? It's been giving me a really hard time ever since it happened, it's almost the only thing I've been able to think about lately." Sunset said.

Starlight took another deep breath before answering. "I noticed. What I said before still applies. It's another world, dimension, reality, whatever. We can't expect any of what we already know about Equestria, or the human world for that matter, to apply in any meaningful way. If I had to guess, I'd say it's what you said it was: A void, some kind of "in-between" that exists outside of any one reality. Something like that is really hard to wrap one's head around, heck, I confused myself just saying that, but wild theories are really all we have, so it's best if you don't dwell on it too much."

"Okay, I suppose that makes sense." Sunset said. "But what about all the glitchy stuff? Forget everything about alternate worlds and dimensions for a second. What was that? Whatever it was, it must have been really bad to even make our intruder seem to fear for his life."

"I have no idea, even with what we've established so far. And that scares me."

"Which brings me to my next point." Sunset said. "What would have happened to me if he had thrown me into that - that void? What would have happened to the rest of us if it had gotten here somehow? You saw what it did to those poor creatures in my flashback!"

"Again, let's try not to think about it too much. The important thing is that none of that happened. Maybe that's why this 'void' exists, to keep whatever it is trapped." She took another deep inhale. "Which brings me back to one of my earlier points, it does us no good to keep talking about this because for every 'answer' we get, two more questions arise. Maybe we were never meant to see whatever that was. Maybe higher concepts like that can't be grasped by our feeble minds, or something like that. Jeez, that's such a cliché." She chuckled.

"You're right." Sunset said, admitting defeat. "We should just drop this and pretend it never happened. It's over. Me and my friends defeated him, and whatever it was, we'll never have to worry about it affecting us again."

"Good, let's do just that. Come on, I'll walk with you to the portal if it'll make you feel better, I'm sure your friends miss you." Starlight said with relief. The two of them did just that, trotting over to the portal as a pair. All the way there, though, there was still one burning question on Sunset's mind, without a doubt the biggest of all. She didn't know if it would be right to bring it up with Starlight, she seemed to be tired of the conversation and Sunset didn't want to force the issue any more. It was over, and as she said, it was in her best interest to just forget that it had ever happened.

They reached the room where the portal was. Sunset slowly trotted towards it, still debating whether or not to ask. She was right in front of it now, and just as she was about to step through, her mind made the decision for her.

"Wait!" She exclaimed. "I have one last question."

"I thought I told you that talking about it would only make it worse." Starlight replied wearily.

"It's the last one, I promise." Sunset said. "It just happens to be the one that's been haunting me the most."

Starlight's face softened. "What is it?"

"Are we real?" Sunset said, meeting Starlight's eyes. She seemed to be taken aback by the question, her eyes widened a little, and she even took a small step back.

"Wh-what do you mean by that?" She replied in a very audible state of confusion.

"Well, you've seen it!" Sunset exclaimed. "Both his memories and mine. In both flashbacks, both into his past and his confrontation with me and my friends. He said to 'Gumball', 'Can't you see that none of this is real? And he said to me: "None of this is real, it never was! You can't deny the truth!'"

"But why should you believe any of it? He's so obviously evil, of course he'd try to play mind games like that. It's not exactly a new concept, even in Equestria."

"It's not just that. If it were, I wouldn't be here talking to you if it was. It's, it's that device. You saw what it could do! You still can't cast Rope Charmer, can you? She said. Starlight winced, before shaking her head solemnly. "I've never seen or heard of anything that powerful, with those specific powers, and neither have you and Twilight."

Starlight opened her mouth to answer, but Sunset stopped her. "Yes, yes, I know. He's not from our world, so we can't expect him to play by the same rules we do, yada yada." She paused.

"At one point during my fight with him, while we were wrestling in this house, he pressed a button and I saw with my own eyes the ceiling fan above us just fade out of existence. I didn't even blink! It was just there one moment and gone the next! There was no poof or flash of magic, it was just... gone. It made me realize something when I started thinking about it. In the other world, we have cell phone technology. I know you've seen it, so I don't have to do a lot of explaining, but here's the thing: With programming software, coding, all this fun stuff, I learned some of the basics during my time at CHS, we can create our own little worlds on these devices. It was something I became familiar with when I got into video games there. Over time, there was one similarity that I noticed that once I did it, I could never get over. When you're using this technology to make things like video games, it's possible to get rid of things by pressing a button, by swiping a pen. That's exactly what the device that he had was doing, deleting things, pausing things, whatever. It's like our world is nothing but a program like the ones I've seen, and this device is just the pen or the mouse. It can manipulate us however it wants, and there's nothing we can do about it."

Sunset finished, taking a breath before collapsing to the floor under the weight of what she'd just said. What she'd just said didn't just apply to her, whatever that device was, it seemed to know no bounds, for it worked just as well in the other worlds she'd seen using her Geode.

Starlight stood there with her mouth agape and her eyes wide open as she tried to take it all in. She took a few deep breaths, repeating her 'count to four, inhale, count to four, exhale' routine.

Sunset still lay on the floor, now on the verge of tears. It was just too much, all of it. She cursed whoever her intruder had been. Not just for hurting her friends, but for cursing her with knowledge that a part of her knew she was never meant to know.

She heard the sound of hooves in front of her and looked up to see Starlight once more, a hoof outstretched to help her up, a gentle smile on her face. Sunset accepted it gratefully, and Starlight waited for her to calm down before speaking.

"Sunset, I want to ask you a question." She said.

"What?" Sunset replied nervously.

"Can you feel the ground beneath your hooves? Can you see the castle walls surrounding you?"

Sunset was silent for a moment, puzzled by the question. "W-what-" She began, but was cut off.

"Just do it. Focus on it." Starlight said.

So she did. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and let herself focus on her hooves. She moved her right front hoof aimlessly, taking in the feel of the hard ground and the sensations it gave her. She moved on to the second request from Starlight. Opening her eyes, she focused on the castle that surrounded her now, the mirror in which she saw herself reflected. She blinked. She moved her head around the room, looking at the surrounding books themselves. Contrary to when she'd been doing it before, she wasn't psychoanalyzing everything, just being in the moment, her mind completely clear. She exhaled, before her eyes finally returned to Starlight.

"Why did you make me do that?" She asked.

"To show you that you're overreacting." Starlight answered. "You needed something to focus on so you wouldn't keep spiraling out of control, and to realize that what's around you is real, despite what you've been told and what you've seen."

"But - that doesn't answer my question." Sunset said.

"It doesn't have to." Starlight said "I think what you're struggling with is not whether we're real or not, but rather the knowledge that there's more out there, more than just Equestria and the human world. Knowing that, there is no hard and fast definition of what is 'real' or not. For example, until we Equestrians interfered, magic didn't exist in the human world. Do you think they believed in magic before that? I'm willing to bet they didn't. My point is this: What's "real" or not varies from world to world, I can say that with confidence. I was just trying to help you see that, and ground you back into our interpretation of what 'real' is."

Sunset was silent for a moment, her mouth agape, again trying to comprehend what had been put in front of her. "That-that makes perfect sense, actually. Thank you, Starlight! How did you--"

"How did I know how to do that?" Starlight cut her off. "I work as a guidance counselor at the School of Friendship, and helping ponies through crises like this is just what I do." She said with a smile. "Admittedly, even I was beginning to be overwhelmed by some of what you said, but I'm better equipped to deal with and reason with this sort of thing, it's just part of the job. Your main takeaway should be this, Sunset: Don't let one bad experience ruin everything for you. Use it to learn that you shouldn't try to make every little thing make sense. Ponies' minds are different. That's part of what makes us unique. We also have limits, and I think it's important that you understand yours, that sometimes, as rare as it may be, you just can't understand or empathize with someone, no matter how hard you try. Take your own advice. Learn to let go."

Sunset pulled her into a hug. "Thank you, you have no idea how much that helped me, I felt like I was losing my mind." She said, slightly choked up.

"Heh heh, you're welcome, it's understandable really, that's an awful lot to put on someponies shoulders, I'm just glad I could help you through it, after all, what are friends for?" Starlight said.

"Well, thanks again." Sunset said, turning to the portal. "I should probably get going."

"Yes, your friends probably miss you. Go spend some time with them. Keep your mind occupied."

"Will do." Sunset replied with a smile.

---

Sunset lay sprawled out on a towel in a clearing just outside the city limits of Canterlot, just staring up at the night sky full of stars. She had followed Starlight's advice to the letter, spending as much time with her friends as she could. While the memory of what had happened still ached in the back of her mind, she had chosen to look on the bright side. She found herself with a newfound interest in the unknown. A curiosity about what else might be out there. Knowing that there were other worlds and dimensions beyond the human world and Equestria. She couldn't help but wonder at the possibilities. How many other fantastical worlds and realities were out there? While the one she had seen had had a less than happy ending, she was certain that they weren't all like that. A part of her hoped that one day she would be able to do just that, to explore other worlds and hopefully make some new friends along the way...

She closed her eyes, allowing herself to drift off to sleep.

Author's Note:

Apologies for the long update wait, for the few of you who've shown interest in my little project so far. Long author's note ahead, so bear with me: When I first started this prologue for my story, I wasn't sure where exactly I was planning on taking it, just that I wanted to build on the Rob theory and make MLP a part of my fan-made ending for his character. Now that I'm done (mostly), I can confidently say I've made up my mind regarding him.

In my story, he was never a good guy, but in the case of the corruption, his heart was in the right place. For as filled with hate and insanity as he is, he really did care about his world in the end, and the greater multiverse once he realized how much of a threat the darkness truly was. However, it's like the old saying, "The road to hell is often paved with good intentions." Yeah, Rob was actually trying to do good here, just like he was in the AWOG series finale, but at his core, he's still a sociopathic narcissist with a revenge complex and terrible social skills. His need for ultimate revenge against Gumball ended up coming full circle once Sunset saw it using her geode, obliterating any credibility he may have had in the eyes of her and her friends.

Que his "defeat" at the hands of Sunset and her friends, and he's officially done. His past actions coming back to haunt him once again, combined with the oppressing knowledge that nothing is real, and he loses all empathy he may have had for the multiverse in the face of the oncoming corruption. Who knows what he'll do now...

While this chapter was supposed to be the final one before the main event begins, I've had more ideas on how to build on how Rob's interference in the MLP world continues to resonate. After all, he did unintentionally make them aware of the greater multiverse and oncoming apocalypse, albeit barely. Those chapters are currently being worked on and those will be the last ones. That's why my first updates have been rather slow, my original upload schedule was one chapter every 2 days, as I have 7 or so chapters done and ready. However, these new ideas I had regarding the Rob story have to come first, otherwise I'd be uploading out of order.

As some foresight with what the main story is actually going to be, I'm taking a much more wide-angled approach with my storytelling. The main storyline, taking place in MLP obviously, will be accompanied by two other storylines taking place in two other shows. These two other storylines will be independent of the main MLP one, but take place at exactly the same time. (FYI, while there are only two definite storylines that will currently be accompanying the main, I have plans for several others.)

Which brings me to my second point: This story will have multiple sets of main characters, one cast for each storyline. Basically, this story will have a LOT of moving parts, and technically be multiple stories rolled into one, each chronicling a different set of survivors and their own struggles against the darkness.

The way I plan on handling it, in a nutshell, is alternating chapters, for example, one chapter taking place in TV show one, and the next taking place in TV show two. This would be to symbolize that both chapters happened at the same time. These separate storylines as I've said are independent of each other, but will intertwine some. For example, say a character in TV show one dies/is corrupted, and then they appear in the next chapter featuring TV show two as a new, unfamiliar foe for TV show two's cast of survivors, and vice versa. My intent here is to paint a much bigger picture for what's to come, and truly give off that "multiverse-wide apocalypse" vibe, with shows constantly intermingling with each other without directly crossing over, just the occasional cameo to get the main casts of each show wondering just how vast the threat they're facing really is.

This chapter took the longest to write out of any of the Rob story chapters, as I began it before I had a clear cut path where I was taking things, and I hit a hard writer's block trying to decide the best way to portray characters, especially Sunset, coping with the knowledge Rob had brought to them. In one of my eariler drafts I had what Rob had imposed on Sunset affect her much more, but I realized midway through it that there was a major inconsistency regarding how her geode power worked, and that I was putting too much of my own baggage on her, if that makes any sense. It just didn't pan out so I rewrote it. So I decided to gice this chapter a happier ending, and left Sunset with a newfound wonder of the unknown, now that she knows about the greater multiverse. Obviously, given the context of this story as a whole, this is a case of "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it."

Anyway, that's about it, and thanks if you stuck around for that long dissertation, I just felt the need to explain myself and give a detailed update of what was going on behind the scenes. I'm very well aware of how much long update gaps can hurt fics, so I'm doing my absolute best to commit as much time as possible to this (my current schedule allows for a maximum of 6 hours per week). Because like any author, I want my work to be successful. I've got a lot of work to do if I want to reach the bar set by ScorchingFlamesInc's take on the Pibby concept, but I see it as a fun challenge .