Chapter 3: A Learning Experience
Twilight Sparkle gulped nervously. In the basement of her library, she had assembled all the items before her that the dust-covered tome had told her to, but she was still having her doubts. In order to create an Outsider’s Rune, said the book, she’d need some charcoal, a bit of heat… and a bone from one dead whale. What disturbed Twilight the most was that the yellowed old tome actually had a sub-section on killing and ‘harvesting’ whales- and the several dozens of uses that each portion of the whale could serve. She had managed to avoid resorting to such disturbing measures by ‘borrowing’ a piece of a dismantled whale skeleton from the Ponyville Museum of Natural History: She had just asked for a piece, citing ‘research purposes’ and the curator had simply handed it over.
What Twilight had failed to mention to the pleasant, aged stallion in charge of the Museum was that she was going to use the whale bone to try and contact an ancient, omniscient being with power that may very well transcend Discord, and maybe even the princesses themselves. Yet the implications behind the possibility of such a being existing… she had to know, at any cost, she just had to.
Twilight rubbed her sleep-deprived eyes and followed the simple instructions written in the book:
The first and most important component of creating a whalebone rune is to ensure that the surface you are marking is clean. Generally a quick scrubbing with a wet piece of cloth will do the trick. Now, use the charcoal and inscribe the Outsider’s mark onto the whalebone slate.
Study the above image carefully. Ensure that none of the markings are off when you replicate it. The copy of the inscription does not need to be picture-perfect. However, extra markings or a lack thereof can bring calamity to one who attempts the next step. When you are certain that your charcoal sigil matches the symbol above, heat the charcoal markings using any means at your disposal.
And that’s all there was to it. With fidgeting hooves, Twilight copied the arcane symbol onto the flat surface of the whale’s shoulder bone. She tried to use a heat spell on the engravings, but she was too exhausted; her sleep deprived brain couldn’t concentrate enough to do it. The purple unicorn passed the whalebone to Spike, who had also had his sleep interrupted for the occasion. The juvenile dragon cocked an eyebrow at the grisly object in his hands, and looked back at Twilight.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Just do it.” Twilight snapped, she was too tired, too close to a breakthrough, to allow a petty thing like doubt to hold her back now.
Spike merely shrugged, and blew a gout of green flame onto the charcoal markings. The first thing Spike noticed was that the charcoal markings were glowing, as if they were tapping into some other, internal source of heat. They ended up glowing brighter, and the slate became so hot that Spike dropped it to avoid burning his fingers. The markings simmered, and the glow faded, leaving the distinctive black engravings behind. The simmering noise seemed to stay, though, changing subtly to a quiet gurgling sort of noise. Twilight carefully plucked the whalebone rune off the floor, and held it in her hooves. It seemed as if the odd, constant noise increased as she brought it near.
It was almost as if it was calling to her.
If Spike hadn’t been sleep-deprived, he would’ve known to be worried at the covetous look in his adoptive sister’s eye as she ran a hoof over the surface of the rune. But he was too tired to notice.
“Can I go to sleep now?” He asked, rubbing one of his eyes.
“Yes, of course.” Twilight was barely paying attention to her assistant as she stared at the rune, her bloodshot eyes wide with wonder.
She was still gazing into the engraved chunk of whalebone after Spike went upstairs to get his rest. She had done it, there was definitely something arcane about the small artifact sitting before her. But what did this mean? What should she do with it?
The lavender mare was still wondering about this when she finally passed out from exhaustion, slumping over the whalebone rune. It’s calling echoing into her dreams.
****
Twilight woke up, the haze of torpor dissipating from her mind. She peered around, trying to recollect the events of yesterday. Her eyes widened when she remembered what she had done. The looked down, and to her renewed disgust, found that she had indeed mutilated the remains of a dead creature in the name of science. The rune was still making that distinctive rumbling noise, calling to her. Twilight backed away from it, disturbed by its siren’s song.
“Twilight!” Spike’s voice echoed from upstairs, a mixture of fear and urgency in his voice.
With another pang of guilt, Twilight remembered that she had implicated her assistant in this dark business. She moved towards the stairs, ready to assure him that she would find some way to undo what happened last night. Upon mentioning the rune Spike merely shook his head, waving away her apology.
“Forget that.” He interrupted her, “You need to see this!”
He jogged up to the ground floor, and she followed him, wondering what in Equestria could be so urgent. He ran to the door and wrenched it open. Twilight’s jaw dropped in shock. Ponyville had definitely changed.
For one thing, last time she checked, Twilight’s house hadn’t been floating in an endless abyss.
Twilight thought for a moment that Discord had returned, but something on this scale would have been inspired- even for him.
“What do we do?” Spike asked, the hysteria rising in his voice.
Twilight lowered her head until her eyes were level with her assistant’s.
“I know this is bad, but you need to stay calm.” She assured him, “We’re not going to get anywhere if we panic.”
The purple dragon took a deep breath and nodded, the fear still remaining in his eyes. Twilight nodded, and turned towards the door. It appeared that there was a grassy path, leading upwards out of view from the door. Twilight cautiously took a step beyond the threshold of her door, acting as if the path would fall away at any second. Eventually she stepped outside, and turned back to her assistant.
“No way to go but forwards, I guess.” She said.
Spike nodded, and timidly followed her. On floating islands all around them were random objects and buildings. Yet all of the drifting islands seemed to correlate to one another in some way, or hold some sort of significance to either Twilight or Spike. Spike suddenly stopped, and pointed to one of the islands.
“Wait, that’s me, isn’t it?”
On one of the islands, a fractured section of wood flooring carried Spike, holding out a large, heart-shaped gemstone to an ivory-white unicorn. Both Spike and Rarity were unmoving, seeming to be frozen in that one moment of time. Twilight spoke up.
“It’s official; I don’t think we’re in Equestria anymore.”
“Yeah,” Spike concurred with growing discomfort, “let’s keep moving.”
Eventually their path flattened out onto a large, circular area of stone tiles. As soon as Twilight and Spike stepped onto it, a figure sublimated in front of them. It was a brown stallion, he floated, although he had no wings. And he definitely had a large control over magic, although he had no horn. The most disturbing quality of him was his eyes- which seemed to be alive with darkness. His flank was adorned with the same eldritch marking that Twilight had etched onto the whalebone slate.
He regarded them evenly, with his forelegs crossed in front of his chest.
“Twilight Sparkle, and Spike.” The mysterious stallion addressed them.
“W-who are you?” Spike blurted out.
“I have been given many names over my existence,” The brown creature answered cryptically, before switching his gaze to Twilight.
“I think you already know who I am.”
Twilight stood there, still speechless. The brown stallion gave her an amused look.
“Is this what you intended? All those weeks of studying how to break the temporal boundaries, reading those old, forgotten books you had accumulated in the basement of your library?”
The purple mare finally found her voice,
“Y-you’re the Outsider.” she whispered reverently.
“Yes. I watched with great interest since the moment you found that old, centuries-forgotten tome from your attic. As you obtained the bone of a creature that had remained undisturbed for centuries past, and as you inscribed my mark into it.” He cocked his head to one side, a whimsical look crossing his features. “I wonder what your Princess Celestia would say, if she could see you now.”
Twilight’s gaze fell to the ground in shame, Spike stepped forward, a temper rising in him.
“You shouldn’t talk to Twilight like that. We never even asked you to come here, come to think of it, where are we?”
The Outsider uncrossed his forelegs and gestured around him. “This is the Void: My realm. It is a depository of all that has been, all that could have been, and all that will come to pass. It is the bridge by which time passes, and is remembered, and yet time itself is meaningless here; not seconds, nor centuries.”
Spike was starting to get seriously tired of all these half-answers.
“Wherever we are, can you at least send us back?”
The Outsider gave a slight bow.
“Of course, from here, I can return you with ease. But I would like to extend an offer to you.”
Twilight’s gaze suddenly shot up again, her eyes filled with curiosity.
“What ‘offer’?”
“You have come here with many questions, only a few of which have been answered. And I sense that there are many more questions that you have never found the answers for.”
He made a gesture with a hoof, and a spherical portal opened next to him.
“Accept my offer, and you will travel to a world inhabited by a species known as Humans. Although some amongst them waste this gift, many of them are born thinkers, and their world is in a constant state of intellectual advancement. Be warned: I can send you there with ease, but you may not return with the same ease.”
Spike’s trust for the enigmatic brown stallion had finally run out.
“No deal. Come on Twilight, let’s go home.” The dragon turned to make his way back down the path, and he tugged on Twilight’s tail, silently begging her to not trust the dark-eyed deity. Twilight turned to follow Spike, but slowly, gazing longingly into the sphere. The Outsider spoke up again.
“A shame.” He brooded, “Your Princess Celestia did her best to obscure all knowledge of me. Of course, she was merely acting with the best intentions.” He crossed his forelegs behind his back, and leaned forward, “But I wonder: what other secrets has she kept from you?”
Spike gave a groan, knowing that he couldn’t give any argument to top that.
“Just hold on a second, Twi.” Spike implored, “If you’re going through there, I’m coming with you, okay? I’m not going to let you do any of that ‘never-heard-from-again’ stuff. Got it?”
Twilight Sparkle agreed, and they both passed into the dimensional rift. The Outsider closed it behind them, returning to his original form with a smile.
Things are about to get very… interesting.
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-STERS
Thanks, I'll be sure to get in touch with you again.
Been wondering when someone would do a fanfic about this, it's possible people already have and I'm just blind, but yay
Hehe, I'm finishing writing a Dishonored crossover too, but it tells the story many years after what happened in the game.. Anyway good luck mate and have a Derped Rarity for the idea:
th03.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2012/297/6/4/rarity_got_derped_by_derant-d5iququ.png
so with wich ending are you working on this fanfic?the low chaos ending?
I forsaw this fanfic... Long ago.... Now to read.
I quite enjoyed this....I shall stal- I mean watch you as you create more word sequences that work well together. (I like your writing style)
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Despite the grim outset, I am working with the low chaos ending. I don't think I could work with the way Emily becomes a bloodthirsty tyrant on the high-chaos ending.
1524071 good cause i was hoping that you were using the low chaos ending it seens to be the most cannon ending and also my personal favorite
A dishonred fic already, damn that was quick.
, gonna wait till I beat the game first in case of spoliers.
Looking forward to reading it
Hmm... This seems to be featued, huh.
Can someone please explain how the feature box works? I'm not sure anymore. 29:4 like to dislike ratio with a feature. Are there other variables?
Interesting premise that is done fairly well. It would be interesting to read what purpose Twilight could find in a plague-ridden, war torn city.
Intriguing. I wonder if Twilight and Spike will stay as a Ponie and a Dragon respectfully, or will they both be transformed into Humans? The Overseers would have a meltdown if they ever encountered these two in their original forms, and don't get me started on Piero and Solokovs reaction... Actually, i'm looking forward to Twilight meeting those two.
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Well, as of now, there are 37 likes, but there are 68 favorites.
I think someone is holding out on me.
Ohhh this is gonna be good!
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It's real.
Ah, good to see I'm not the only one doing this, and judging by the positive reception it'll be a good read. Watched.
The Outsider... that prick, I never liked him.
Looking forward to more.
In the case of placing spoilers and ruining the game for others who haven't played it yet, I find this story to be quite a wonder. The story is well-written and excellent ideas, seriously though, does anyone took notice that the markings on the portal was an easter egg of "Portal". I didn't know that at first, but man, I was like wooing all over.
The story is interesting, especially Twilight going to city of Dunwall by magical mean, but is it wise to have her visit to a grim and darken city. I was thinking more like having the Outsider interact with the princesses more than the student, so I'm kinda concern about that part. But seeing this is all about ponies, let's go through with it and let's see how it goes. The writing style was easy to read, descriptive and exciting because you could just imagine the scenario just by reading it. Another concerning about was Discord that use to rule over the Veil before the Outsider. I mean seriously, Discord ruling the Veil? I don't see the picture. Sure, the Outsider can be chaotic sometimes, but don't forget that he is a true neutral, both an angel and a demon and his goals are unknown and mysterious; which I find it to be interesting.
So in the end, cutting it short, the story was good, but the plot, well, I'm hoping that the next chapter have Whalers kidnapping the purple mare or something. Keep on writing good sir, I'm eager to see what happen next.
More please!
Well no offense against your story, but my story was more popular, but never got featured. I'm just wondering what factors lead to the feature box
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I was thinking on there being more interaction between Celestia and the Outsider, but I'll be completely honest with you.
I have trouble writing Celestia's character. I experimented with it during the first fiction piece I wrote... it didn't end well.
Regarding Discord and the Void, I was mainly using it as a writing item to give Celestia a bit of back story with the Outsider. Although re-watching "The Return of Harmony", I do see your point of view.
Regarding the Whalers, keep in mind that their supernatural abilities were linked directly to Daud, and as a result their abilities would most likely be diminished, if not reduced to nothing, when he died. However, I may consider going more in-depth with them later. Rest assured, the 'adventure' tag is there for a reason, things are just getting warmed up here.
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Personally, I think scoring the featured box takes a bit of luck, in addition to having a good story. Personally I would also appreciate any solid knowledge regarding the process of how a story makes the featured box. I've seen the same story make the featured box over and over again whilst other authors had to be content with sitting on the sidelines. (Not that I didn't like 'What Princesses Need', but it gets old after the third time you read it, y'know?)
EDIT: Ah, here we are, I looked it up. The explanation for featured stories are as follows:
"Featured stories are completely automated. They are calculated on a mix of a few things. The number of likes a story has received, the proportion of likes to dislikes, the total number of ratings, how frequently it's being viewed and the time since it was approved are all factored into the equation."
...Yeah, I think by now we can both agree that it feels a bit more complex than that.
You... this story... just...
ALL OF MY LOVE! ALL OF IT! 
I read this even before it became featured, and now that I have an account, just... Agkjdlkgjlgjhfllghdlghl 
Please, keep this up!
FUCKING YES! BEEN WAITING FOR A DISHONORED STORY TO COME ONTO FIMFICTION!
Brace yourselves. the dishonored crossovers are coming.
I just got Dishonored a week ago and haven't stopped playing since. And you sir, have made an awesome crossover. Keep it up!
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You know, as of now, there are three other Dishonored fics on this site...
I'd pretend that I'm the first, but that would be petty and dishonest, so here:
The Rat Assassin
Dishonored: The Outsider's Reach
An Even Sadder Hand Fate Has Dealt
Dishonored ponyfic, good Dishonored ponyfic. Well, I'm impressed
You combined Dishonored and MLP. Instant like and fave.
1527310 That could be me, But I'll fix that
Good stuff dude. I honestly can't wait to see where you take this.
Well alright then, this just got very interesting.
If I may make a suggestion:
You shouldn't ignore Twilight's 'home universe' while she's out on her adventures.
How do her friends react to her disappearance?
How does Celestia react? Seeing as she probably knows exactly where Twilight went.
And even more importantly:
Assuming Twilight makes it back eventually (albeit with some scars, mental and physical)
Do not end the story right when she gets back.
Having a Twilight, changed by another world, have to readjust to life in Equestria makes for some damn good reading.
Even if you completely ignore my advice, this is shaping up to be a good story. And I look forward to reading more.
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I don't mind the interaction with Celestia, but why her? Shouldn't it be Luna instead. I thought she was the more interesting type, seeing that she was imprisoned by her sister for a thousand years. Also, the Whalers aren't link to Daud, they're bestowed upon the gifts given to him; and by likely chance that Whalers may have a new leader and following Daud example in teaching new recruits of their powers.
From what I have read so far I can safely say that I can follow this story with some antisipation. While I was a bit skeptical at first to read this as most of the time when I see a crossover with a pretty small word count per chapter it usally leads to some combination of bad writing, gratuitous fan serves, or rushed plot. I'm happy to see this one break the mold that and can't wait to continue with the next part.
1530007 Maybe you aren't the first, but you do have something those others don't. Yours is a pony going to Dishonored, theirs are all Corvo going to Equestria. A fresh perspective is always nice.
1528335 truth be told, I thought of him as a more neutral version of Discord, he's an observer who intervenes to make things interesting.
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