Unfinished

by redsquirrel456

Here Be Monsters

“Well, this is familiar.”

Applejack adjusted her hat as she stared down the forbidding foliage of the Everfree Forest. Twilight and the rest of their friends stood slightly behind her wearing expressions ranging from determination to outright terror. None of them looked prepared for what they were about to do, having been dragged out of bed by Fluttershy, but at least they had all shown up.

“Just like the good old days,” Rainbow Dash agreed, flapping her wings more forcefully than she needed to.

“Do we really have to go back there?” Fluttershy whimpered, hiding behind Rarity since she stood furthest from the forest. “I mean, I’m not scared of the castle or anything, but it was just really, really, really unpleasant last time, and I doubt anything’s changed.”

“Come on Fluttershy,” said Pinkie, hopping in place with nervous energy, “you’re the one who woke us all up! We need to get in there—Twilight said so! Otherwise we’re never going to figure out what’s going on with our doppelgangers and dingle-boppers and yuletide yappers and—”

“It’s true,” Twilight cut in, clutching her horn as she stared into the dark woods. “I saw what Dusk was going to do. He’s going to the Castle of the Two Sisters to find answers, and so are we.”

“And that little book told you everything?” Rarity asked, pointing at Morningtide’s journal poking out of one of Twilight’s saddlebags.

Twilight closed her eyes as another surge of pain clawed at her. A wave of iridescent purple light flowed out of her horn and washed over her, and with it came the assurance that she was finally doing something right. “Everything I need to know,” she whispered. “Something happened to Morningtide there, something so horrible Celestia herself took his memories and cloistered him away in obscurity for the rest of his life.”

“It don’t say?” asked Applejack.

“The journal details everything right up until he got inside,” said Twilight, “and then after that it’s just nothing. His whole life he wanted to know what happened to him, why he had the dreams he did, why he saw himself in another world... and Celestia just took it all away.”

“Yeah, you told us the story on the way here,” said Rainbow, flying impatient circles. “So let’s get in there and fix whatever’s going on!”

“That’s just it,” Twilight said, sighing, “I don’t know how to ‘fix it’ or even if what’s going on needs to be fixed at all. I can feel the Element of Magic in me, telling me that this is something I have to do. It wants me to find Dusk, and your Elements want to find their counterparts too! If we don’t find a way to connect with them, then we’ll just suffer whatever happened to Morningtide and his double.” She bowed her head, her nose almost touching the ground. “Celestia will make sure of that.”

Rarity put a hoof on her shoulder. “I want to believe that the Princesses know best, Twilight, and I know you want to as well. But darling... I remember everything now. All of us do. We each caught a glimpse of the other side, don’t you remember?”

All of them nodded in unison as Rarity went on. “And if that’s the case then we all know what’s at stake, and that Luna was directly responsible for how much we almost lost. This is happening for a reason. There’s no stopping it anymore. We are committed to this. All of us.”

Twilight pushed herself up. All of her friends shifted on their hooves—or wings—as they felt a palpable air of determination emanating from Twilight as she glared at the mass of foliage before her, staring down the familiar path they had taken once before. It seemed so long ago that the forest was forbidding, impenetrable, swathed in the darkness of nightmarish imagination and looming like a hungry maw, and then it was only a mildly frightening joy ride to walk through, more a mild annoyance than a threat.

Tonight the maw loomed greater than ever, promising a void that they would never return from. For better or worse, the knowledge that nothing would be the same if they went through with this laid heavily on them all. Twilight looked over her shoulder at the others.

“We’re in this together, right? No turning back?”

Not a single one of them disagreed, but the looks on their faces shocked her. Now that it was finally here and they stood on the precipice, every one of them didn’t quite meet her gaze. They were frightened.

Twilight took a deep breath and seized the first bit of ground into the Forest with a firm stomp of her hoof.

“Then let’s go.”

And so they walked. None of them rushed to be at the head of the group, but they all followed Twilight, who was the only one who seemed anywhere near as brave as they wanted to. All of them tried to keep pace with the pony next to them, collectively letting Twilight’s inexorable gait drag them along as they shuffled in the wake of her steady trot. To Twilight, it seemed they were all waiting for one pony to suggest that they turn back, to stop and turn around and give them all an excuse to falter and leave. They all wanted to go, but none of them wanted to be the first to turn tail and so they all forced each other along, seeing that nopony else gave them the chance. In a weird way, it gave them courage that none of them had the strength to turn back, more ashamed of abandoning their friends than giving in to the fear of the unknown.

But the unknown was all they had to be afraid of, right? Luna and Celestia had their reasons for what they did, insane though they might be, but in the end this trip would bring them to a new understanding of Harmony if they succeeded. No, through this dark tunnel of wood and creaking boughs, a brighter day waited for them.

Twilight told herself that over and over, repeating the mantra with every step as her hooves turned to lead and the lights of Ponyville faded, then seemed to try to root themselves into the ground as they turned a corner and the portal back to civilization was lost. The unknown was a powerful force in the minds of every pony. It was one of the reasons they clung so tightly to Celestia and Luna, the great unknowns who were at least consistent, the only ponies who could stare into the face of the great darkness and shield the meek behind them. Her friends looked awfully meek tonight. Twilight knew that for all her own misgivings, for all her terror in the face of that single, gaping blank page in Morningtide’s journal where Celestia had ripped out his memories, that she had to be their Princess: the great unknown who still promised to be their one source of certainty. Perhaps if she talked it over with them they might see it the way she did.

“So, tell me,” she said to Rainbow Dash, since she was the closest, “what was it like?”

“Uh, what?” Rainbow exclaimed in a hushed voice, immediately trying to hide her jitters behind a nonchalant toss of her mane. It had been almost two hours since any of them said a word; Twilight figured her easily distracted friend had been lost in her own thoughts.“I mean, uh, whatcha mean?”

“Seeing him,” said Twilight, “or, well, you.”

Rainbow hissed and shrugged, going for a short spin as she fluttered alongside Twilight. “Eh, I dunno...”

“You don’t know?”

“It was weird,” Rainbow said. “Just weird.”

Twilight stared at her, watching as Rainbow began to fidget in midair, rubbing her hooves together and scratching her mane until she finally cracked.

“Okay, look, I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that, okay? It was weird! What more can I say? What more can any of us say?”

“That it was nice?” Fluttershy interjected, quickly shriveling under Rainbow’s surprised stare. “I-I’m sorry. It’s just that maybe we shouldn’t be quite so scared. Why would the Elements react the way they did if it was a bad thing? Rainbow, did Loyalty say anything about what you saw? Didn’t it feel like it wanted you to go closer?”

Rainbow spun another circle, batting a tree branch at the top of her arc. “Ahh... whenever we used the Elements, Loyalty never really ‘says’ anything to me. It just sorta feels the way I do when something happens. Maybe that’s because it is me? Either way, it’s all action and no talk. And...” She let her hooves dangle as she floated along. “It did want me to get closer.” She perked up with a daring smile, flipping over to lounge on her back while still propelling forward. “And hey, from what I saw, I still got a kickin’ rainbow mane like I do here! As long as he doesn’t start thinking that makes him more awesomer than me I figure we can get along.”

“Oh yeah? What if the other you just uses mane coloring?” Applejack said, squinting.

“No way! I’m not lame like that, and I’d expect anypony who thinks they can be me to be just as not-lame. I’ve got a reputation to uphold, and I’m not letting it be ruined by anypony, especially not me!”

Twilight watched her friend’s bravado spread to the others, all of them giving meek smiles that eventually blossomed into full on laughter. She watched as inspiration tied its cords around their hearts, and then realized with a start that she was actually seeing cords of light unravel from a space just above her heart and tie themselves to the other ponies, glowing a deep purple. As they looped back around to her, she felt her leaden hooves get just a little bit lighter. None of her friends seemed to notice.

“Does anypony—” she started, and then her ear twitched. Off in the distance a low, churning rumble echoed through the tightly packed trees. “—hear that?”

Rainbow flew up a little higher, her ears twisting left and right until they pinpointed the noise. “Sounds like water. Must be that river we had to cross last time!”

They hurried through the thickets, breaking out onto the riverbank. The river ran fast tonight, the waters swirling around the boulders littering the shallow riverbed. Something about the eddies and whirlpools the water made were hypnotizing to Twilight. She took a step closer, and her horn flashed. Her magic remembered this river.

“Spring run-off, I’d bet,” Rainbow sniffed, gesturing at the fast-flowing current. “Still, it’s pretty shallow.”

“I wonder where that wonderful old water serpent went to,” Rarity sighed sadly. “We could certainly use his help again.”

“Could probably hop over them rocks yonder,” Applejack said.

Their voices came from far away as Twilight leaned closer to the water, listening to a sound that chimed beneath the surface. She stood up again and looked back at the others, watching them argue with Rainbow Dash about the feasibility of her shuttling them across one by one. She remembered the trial they had to pass here, where Rarity proved her generosity. The threads that bound them all, still unseen by her friends, became clearer and lit up as the memory came back to her.

She closed her eyes and opened them again, seeing five strapping colts standing next to the river’s edge, poking at the water.

“Any ideas, Dusk?” Applejack asked her.

“For the last time, I’ll just fly you guys across!” Rainbow Blitz groused. “Geez, I already passed Wonderbolt training, not even all those apple pies you scarf down can stop me.”

“I’ll have you know it all turns to muscle when you apple buck as much as meeEEE!”

The others had a good chuckle from Applejack’s squeal as Rainbow lifted him up without warning and hurtled across the river, landing him neatly on a patch of dirt before swinging back around to pick up Bubble Berry. Next went Elusive, and Butterscotch flew himself.

Rainbow came back for Twilight, grabbing her around the waist.

“Hey, Dusk,” he whispered in her ear just before take-off. “About what I said before? About my double, and how I wanna meet her cause she might be awesome?”

“Yes?” asked Twilight.

“I kinda lied,” Rainbow muttered, lifting into the air. “I know the me in that other place, wherever it is, is probably just like me, but I’m doing this because you are, Dusk. You’ve never let us down before, and I figure if this mare you saw is anything like you, then she’s gotta be worth the effort. I follow you on this trip, buddy.”

“Thanks, Rainbow,” said Twilight.

“Any time,” Rainbow Dash said with a grin as she angled for the far bank. One flap later and they were moving. But something caught Twilight’s eye just as Rainbow started forward.

A dark shadow swooping down low over the treetops, streaking towards them, too fast to think, too fast to act—

“Wait, Rainbow!”

A terrible jarring impact as something big and heavy smashed into Rainbow’s side, knocking her clean out of the sky.

The icy, numbing terror of coming loose from her friend’s grip, the gut-wrenching nausea of a sudden drop.

The concrete smack as she hit moving water.

The strange tingling helplessness as a mighty hand enclosed around her and dragged her under.

The horrified shrieks of her friends just before the water closed around her ears and whisked her away.

---------------

Dusk Shine had never been more terrified in his life. Nothing made sense as the world collapsed into darkness and he was spun end over end. His flailing hooves scraped over rocks that loomed through the muck one moment and were swept away in the next. He couldn’t think, and more importantly, couldn’t breathe.

He had to get out.

He reached up for what he thought was the surface, but his hooves only scraped painfully over silt. He reached out for the rocks that flew by him, but none of them afforded purchase.

Am I going to die?

He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. Freezing cold water plunged into his nostrils when his lungs tried to take a spasming breath, too panicked to realize the futility of breathing. The icy water stabbed him, covering every inch of his hide in a million pins and needles that slid further into his flesh with every passing second. He pushed his hooves up again and kicked out, fighting against the raging current. But he was no Applejack, no Rainbow Blitz. Nothing worked.

His horn surged with energy as it went into an hysterical overtime, making his head split as spells came out unbidden, dispersed by the leystone. He found it strangely funny that he noticed a migraine in the middle of dying in a rushing river.

The ring, Dusk!

He gasped at the intrusive new voice in his head, and gagged on a new rush of water that buried him further beneath the surface. He bounced painfully off the bottom and his horn cracked against the packed stones at the river’s bottom. Blinding pain erupted through his skull as he yanked his hooves up to protect his head, feeling the smooth contour of—

The ring! Take it off! I can’t get us out if you don’t get rid of it!

Dusk felt his body crumple from another devastating impact on his shoulder. The air was knocked out of him as he bounced and spun into the current again. He flailed helplessly as his limbs were torn every which way by the iron grip of the water, his vision starting to go black as his lungs clenched and burned.

Now!

With what little strength was left in him Dusk threw his hooves up, ignoring the shattering pain in his shoulder. He caught the ring with just enough friction on the edge of his hooves and hurled it away, watching it vanish in the dark water.

There was a moment of dawning realization as the whole earth seemed to pause for breath.

And then came power.

The darkness was chased away by a blindingly bright light as Dusk’s horn flared to life.
He couldn’t tell if the water stopped around him or he stopped in the water. He did know the tell-tale signs of teleportation as the world burned away in a flash of light and reformed around him a moment later. He felt grass under his back, saw the starry sky through breaks in the canopy. And then he opened his mouth and vomited.

Grimy river water gushed out in a disgusting frenzy of coughing and hacking, his lungs wracked with pain as they tried to suck in air even as they expelled what the river has pushed inside.

That was too close, he thought.

I agree, said another voice.

Dusk froze.

Who said that?

Me. You. Is there a distinction anymore?

Dusk whirled around, scanning the treeline though he knew there was nopony there. His horn seethed with unused energy, bleeding it off in sparks and waves of light. In the middle of the hurricane of power that surged through him he felt something else: the same deep-seated, gnawing need that plagued him ever since the strange dreams began.

It’s you, isn’t it? he thought, though he heard his own voice as clear as day.

It’s us, she said in reply. I figured it out while I was in the river. The ring was the final barrier between us. Our shared danger was the last bridge. It’s all happening so fast, isn’t it Dusk?

Dusk shuddered, almost convulsed as he heard his name whispered by her beautiful, beautiful voice. It was a sweet, warm caress that cut through the icy cold wrapped around him, calming his violent shivers. He closed his eyes and sank to his knees. His eyes welled up with tears of desperation as he sprawled out on the grass, reaching out with his hooves as if he could take hold of her right now.

I’ve been looking for you, he mentally cried out, casting his thoughts all around as his horn exploded with another burst of power. I can feel you.

And I you. My name is—

-------------

“NO!”

Twilight gasped and scrambled to her hooves as the Royal Canterlot Voice thundered into the clearing she had landed in. A mighty force tore apart the trees to her right as a great black shadow burst into view, two eyes alight with fury and fire glowing from deep within.

“YOU WILL NOT DESECRATE THIS WORLD ANY FURTHER!” the shadow screamed with enough force to rip the very grass up from under Twilight’s hooves. Her knees buckled as her exhaustion from the deadly river course caught up with her.

No, no, no! I was so close!

Twilight might once have run from the terrible sight of a princess consumed by wrath. But this time she planted her hooves in the ground and lowered her broken horn, menacing the living tornado in front of her.

“Luna,” she growled. “How did you find me?”

The shadow that used to be Luna narrowed its eyes. Her ethereal mane swirled and billowed behind its head, circling above. Within it turned the very depths of the universe: galaxies, stars, black holes, all spinning around each other in an angry dance with its tempo set by the fury of the alicorn who controlled them. “YOU LED ME HERE WHEN YOU BUILT A BRIDGE TO THE INFINITE DARKNESS, AND YOUR MAGICAL OUTBURST WAS AS A BEACON. YOUR INSOLENCE ENDS NOW! THIS IS YOUR FINAL CHANCE TO UNDO YOUR MISTAKES AND COME HOME!”

Twilight’s horn basked in the dark magics unleashed by the Princess. Her magic felt the power of another trying to contain it, to control it and bend it to its will. But Harmony couldn’t be diverted or hidden away. It simply was. Twilight’s magic answered Luna’s challenge by burning ever brighter, challenging the darkness of space that swirled in Luna’s mane until it lit up the forest clearing as the Sun lit the sky.

Luna lowered her horn and took a step back, already overwhelmed by Twilight’s display of sheer might. Twilight grimaced as she saw Luna’s magic billowing up from deep within her, a blindingly bright, silvery light of the Moon.

“FOAL! IF YOU WILL NOT LISTEN TO YOUR BETTERS, THEN I WILL MAKE YOU OBEY THEM!”

Tendrils of silvery light shot out from Luna’s torso, crashing into a lavender forcefield that sprang up in front of Twilight. Their cosmic powers screeched with feedback as they tore against one another. The clash was so violent that it seemed to tear away the very fabric of the world around them, and Twilight caught a glimpse of an infinity of crisscrossing lines of dazzling color, some tearing and fraying from the violent magical duel, others seemingly invigorated by it. The same threads she had seen before lunged out of her own body and crashed into deep blue and purple strings flung out by Luna, accompanied by waves of bright white and silver that were almost symphonic in their regularity. Twilight wasn’t just seeing a magical duel, she was seeing the magic behind the duel.

She grinned ferociously and pushed out still more power, allowing Magic to take the brunt of the spellcasting. Pulsating rings burst out and shoved aside Luna’s threads as her own strings outmaneuvered Luna’s defense and smashed into her horn. The shadowy alicorn shuddered and was forced a step back.

“DO NOT FIGHT ME, TWILIGHT. I AM HERE TO HELP YOU!” she cried, even though she was obviously losing.

Twilight stomped her hoof. It caused a resounding bang and cracks tore out from the ground beneath it. “You threw me in a river!”

Luna’s shadowy, entropic visage wavered just slightly, a shiver that ran through the abyss enveloping her. “MY GUARDS HAVE PATROLLED THIS FOREST NIGHT AND DAY TO ENSURE YOU DID NOT PASS. YOUR ATTEMPT TO GO FURTHER PROVOKED THEIR ATTACK.”

“And they were told to kill me if I didn’t stop?!”

The storm of magical energy rebounded against Twilight as Luna reared up once again, her silhouette expanding to twice its original size. Far from being intimidated, Twilight just reached even further into her nearly infinite well of power, seizing Magic’s energy. She felt something begin to build behind her horn: an outburst of energy that not even Luna would be able to stop.

“THINE OWN FOOLISHNESS IS WHAT PUT THEE IN DANGER, TWILIGHT! THOU CANNOT COMPREHEND THE MAGNITUDE OF THINE ACTIONS!”

“Then just explain it to me!” Twilight shouted, her words tearing at her throat. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes and boiled away from the incredible heat. The pressure behind her head grew even worse. The more Luna pressed, the harder Magic pushed back. She felt herself slipping just like when her memories were returned. Something threatened to tear deep inside her, and Twilight realized it was her heart. “Why can’t you just let me go?! Why did you break my horn?! Why can’t you just let me see him?!”

Luna’s great shadow stared at the unicorn, so much smaller in size but so terribly greater in power. Gradually, the storm above her head came to a stop. The melee of twisting strings and impossible colors faded into oblivion once again as Twilight’s magic grew somewhat calmer. The all-consuming darkness around Luna’s body receded until her normal size and shape returned. Her eyes seemed to sprout from the inky blackness as it melted away from her body like oil, and she was fully illuminated by the terrible light emanating from Twilight. Her voice was not angry or commanding this time. It held a careful, guarded kind of neutrality.

“KNOWLEDGE IS A HEavy burden, Twilight Sparkle,” she said. “You are young, so young, and yet you command powers that rose at the dawn of the world and grappled with monsters from the refuse piles of creation. Your thirst for knowledge is what will destroy you.”

“I don’t understand!” Twilight wailed into the tempest around her. “Please, that’s all I want! Just help me understand!”

Luna stared. For an eternity, the two stood at opposite ends of a great gulf, one composed and almost serene, the other slowly being consumed by her own power. Twilight’s chest heaved with gasping breaths. The pressure behind her horn stopped growing, but it remained constant, an unspoken threat that Luna clearly noticed.

“Poor child,” Luna whispered, “I told Celestia you were not ready. She pushed you just as she pushed him and you will be devoured just as he nearly was.”

“Morningtide,” Twilight groaned, feeling the tear on her heart grow a little wider. The magical storm around her consumed the grass and started burning away the trees, growing even wider.

“Twilight, listen well, for this is your one chance at salvation,” said Luna, stepping back into the trees. “There is no ‘understanding’ of why this is happening. There is no ‘why,’ and there is no ‘how.’ Some things in this universe—and all others besides ours—simply are. You think that knowing is what will save you. But not knowing is the only thing we can do to protect you.”

“I don’t understand!” Twilight snarled. “Why can’t you just get that?”

Luna shook her head, continuing to recede until she blended with the shadows of the forest. “I ‘get’ it all too well, Twilight. You have accepted the word of Celestia for so long. You are her faithful student, and though your knowledge is vast, she has always controlled what you learned. The bindings of every book she ever gave you were the blinders that showed you only what she wanted you to know. All your life you have been happy with this arrangement. Accept it now. She knows you do not understand, Twilight, and that is exactly how it must be.”

Twilight shook her head, and the pressure began to grow again.

“I’m not stopping,” she growled with a voice that wasn’t quite her own. “I’m too close to stop now.”

“And I cannot stop you. You are and always have been beyond my power. I pray that Celestia can do what I cannot. She waits for you, Twilight. For your sake, do not go to to her. Do not force her hoof.”

Luna looked up at the sky, staring at the Moon through the trees.

“This night is rife with the meddling of fate,” she murmured, “but I will do what I must if the time comes. Just as we did before.”

Twilight felt Magic roil inside her chest. Before she could stop it, a bolt of lightning arced from her horn and struck the ground directly at Luna’s hooves. She raised a hoof in surprise and glared back at Twilight, and Twilight knew it wasn’t her Luna was looking at.

“You lead her to her doom,” Luna whispered.

“BE GONE! YOU NO LONGER HAVE POWER OVER ME!” Twilight shouted without meaning to, but she realized it was exactly what she had wanted to say. The words came from somewhere deep inside. Somewhere that hurt badly.

Luna vanished.

Twilight’s magic abruptly and violently . Her body convulsed mightily, and she dropped to the ground like a rock.

--------------

Dusk’s eyes fluttered open. He sat up with a start and saw all his friends gathered at the edge of the clearing, reeling between concern and panic.

“Dusk!” they cried out as one, rushing into the clearing. They stampeded over the ash that Dusk’s magic had left in its wake and tackled him, trying to hold him and talk to him all at once.

“You were going crazy!” Blitz exclaimed. “The light led us right to you!

“Your magic! It was incredible, like nothing I’ve ever seen!” said Elusive.

“And you were shouting at somepony! You sounded pretty mad,” added Bubble Berry.

Dusk met Applejack’s eyes next. “What’s goin’ on, Dusk?”

Dusk sat in Bubble Berry’s embrace, trying to keep the world from spinning. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “I was in the river, and then I heard a voice in my head. It spoke to me. I think... no, I know it was her. It was me, just like Eventide said. We touched each other’s magic, and she...”

He looked down at his still shaking hooves. “She pulled me out.”

“Well! What a gentlepony,” said Elusive, patting him on the shoulder. “But if magic is starting to cross over, then what could happen next?”

“I don’t know,” Dusk whispered, standing up on shaky hooves. “I saw glimpses of something. Something dark. I... she was yelling at it, and it was telling her something about not understanding. It stopped her before she could tell me her name. She’s on the same quest as us, guys. Going to the same place, looking for us just like we’re looking for them. I can feel it.” He looked up at Rainbow Blitz. “What the heck attacked us over the river?”

“I dunno,” Rainbow replied, “but it sure wasn’t friendly.” He turned and lifted his wing, showing a large bruise on his side. “Stings like a manticore, but I’ll live. It flew off before I could get a good look at it.”

“Had wings, that’s for sure,” said Applejack. “I got an eye for this kinda thing—have to give the farm advance warning when Rainbow’s blowin’ through town, no offense—an’ it was definitely a pegasus of some sort. It stopped for just a moment, I guess to see if Dusk fell. I couldn’t see its eyes and the color was all wrong, like they were wearin’ some kinda costume.”

Rainbow pursed his lips, but said nothing more.

“Well, the important thing is everypony’s alive, right?” said Butterscotch. “I really, really think we should get going before whatever it was comes back.”

“Good thinking,” said Dusk, standing up on shaky hooves. “I can walk. Just... keep a safe distance if my horn starts to glow. I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

With no other choice, they trudged on. Dusk attempted to reestablish the connection he’d had with her not long ago, casting out his mental net over and over. But he was just thinking to himself and had no idea how to find her again. Perhaps it would all come when they got to the castle.

“So, uh,” Applejack muttered as the silence closed in again while they stumbled through the woods back to the trail, “you guys all saw ‘em, right? The ones in the other place? We never really talked about that.”

Everypony answered yes. Applejack nodded. “Right. I saw me too.” He tossed his mane. “Gosh, it just felt plum unnatural, didn’t it?”

“Unnatural?” Butterscotch gulped. “How so?”

“It just... it was like suddenly realizing how unimportant I was, like I was a shadow lookin’ up at the pony castin’ me an’ I didn’t know I was a shadow until right then.” He shook his head vigorously. “It was almost like finally figurin’ out a lie that’s been told to ya after a long time hidin’ it. I didn’t like it. I don’t like any of this.”

An uncomfortable silence fell, and Applejack’s gaze slowly dropped to the ground in front of him. “But I did like her,” he whispered. “She was glowing, in the middle of all that darkness an’ madness. Glowing real bright, an’ I mean that literally. Like a... like the only big, red, shiny apple sproutin’ off an old, diseased tree. The one honest thing about the whole mess.”

They walked in silence for some time. until Elusive spoke up next. “When I saw me, or her, or whoever we’re supposed to refer to, I felt something similar. But it was rather different for me. We stood in that awful dark place and I remember the pain that came just before Dusk’s horn was broken by whatever was on the other side. But I saw her so clearly, and she glowed just like Applejack said!” He sighed, eyelids all aflutter as he steered himself onto Bubble Berry and leaned on him as he walked. “She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever laid eyes on. Oh, when this adventure is over, even if I am doomed to behold no more than a single glimpse of absolute perfection, then my business will be inspired beyond belief! Her luscious purple mane, the perfect curls in her tail! And those eyes! I could have stared forever into them as we locked gazes across time and space—”

“Not to be a killjoy Elusive, but you’re sounding kinda creepy,” Rainbow cut in. “I mean, from what Dusk has said, you’re basically talking about yourself.”

“Oh, but that’s just it! It’s not just myself, is it?” Elusive asked, trotting up to Dusk and peering at him. “Is it?” he whispered, squinting.

Dusk took a deep breath. “... No. No, it’s not. If it was just me wearing a different body, then I might not feel the way I do now. Those mares... that world... it’s something much more than just a bunch of yous and mes. When I touched her mind, her magic, I felt like I was seizing something that I should have known all along, something hiding deep inside me. Something about her tells me that they’re more than us. They’re... more real. Closer to... something. I don’t know what, but I do know they’re not just clones or doubles. They’re more than that. They’re their own ponies.”

The ponies I always wanted to be, he said to himself, but I didn’t know it until now.

Butterscotch cleared his throat. “Um, when I looked at her, the other me that is, I felt kind of the same way. Like no matter what I did there was no way I could really be me unless I was with her. I somehow just knew I’d never be kinder or better or more me than her.”

He blushed and ducked his head. “She was really pretty.”

“What about you, Blitz?” Elusive asked. “You said your you has a rainbow mane. Is it as, quote, ‘awesome’ as yours?”

They broke out of the forest and came out to a great cliff. Before them stood a very familiar looking rope bridge, creaking and swaying in a light breeze. Beyond stood the broken spires of the Castle of Two Brothers, still wreathed in the fog it had been last time. Apparently, Dusk surmised, both of the Princes had decided against rebuilding it even after its rediscovery.

“Nopony’s as awesome as me,” Rainbow muttered as he stared over the chasm, subdued by the still eerie sight of the old castle. “And if this other me isn’t really me, just some other pony, they definitely aren’t as awesome as me.”

“Maybe you can put your bits where your bridle is once we find ‘em,” Applejack said with a wry smile.

Rainbow scoffed and lifted into the air, zooming over the gap. “I’m gonna make sure nothing’s waiting for us!”

Bubble Berry spoke next. “Well, you know what I hope is still true about the other me?”

----------------

“I hope I still like to party!” Pinkie said, standing boldly next to Fluttershy and throwing a hoof across her withers. “I mean, how cool would that be? It’d be the first trans-dimensional party ever! And if it all goes sour we can have a ‘Sorry For Accidentally Destroying The Multiverse’ party right afterwards!”

“Hey guys! Looks clear!” Rainbow called. “No Shadowbolts this time. And the bridge looks sturdy enough!”

“Only you, Pinkie, could make light of something that might destroy all of reality,” Rarity said with a laugh as she stepped onto the bridge. Pinkie stopped in place and her ears twitched erratically, blinking faster than Twilight thought it possible for a pony to blink.

“Pinkie?” she asked. “What’s the matter?”

Pinkie went still. Her nose wiggled, and Twilight thought she heard the barest bit of a sniffle from her. But the moment passed, and a smile was back on her face. “I thought I got a weird kinda Pinkie Sense there. Like déjà vu, but all twisty and weird like it’s happening right now instead of before! But I guess it was nothing!” she said, then wiggled her rump and leaped to follow Rarity, following quickly by Fluttershy.

“Hey,” she called after the unicorn, “of course I’m gonna make light of it! I can’t make something dark! Isn’t everything already dark? I mean think about it! If it weren’t for the sun everything would be dark so you can’t really make it dark if it already is...”

Twilight chuckled as her friend’s gabbing was soon lost.

Applejack chewed on her lip, staring at the ground ahead of her before she stepped onto the bridge.

“Sugarcube, I know I’m Honesty an’ all that. Can I be straight up with ya?”

Twilight nodded. “Of course.”

Applejack took a long breath, swishing her tail behind her. “We all saw what we saw back in that dream realm of yours, Twilight. An’ I know what I saw, an’ I can’t deny it, neither. But that don’t mean I gotta be comfortable with it, or even agree with what’s goin’ on. Now even the Princesses are outright attackin’ us?”

“What do you mean?” asked Twilight.

Applejack refused to look her in the eye, gritting her teeth as though the words were painful to speak. “I mean I don’t know what I mean, Twilight! All this stuff about alternate worlds and alternate yous an’ mes hidden from us for so long by the Princesses! We’ve only know about this all for a couple a’ weeks an’ we’re charging off into the unknown without even a lick of information to go on. It ain’t right at all what Luna did to you, an’ if what you say is true poor Morningtide got the short shrift too, but I dunno about going an’ opening the gates of Tartarus about it neither.”

Twilight’s horn flashed, and she came to a stop. “What aren’t you telling me, Applejack?”

Applejack pulled the brim of her hat down over her eyes, dropping her flanks onto the soft soil. “I’m scared, Twilight. I really am. More than I’ve ever been in my life.”

“Applejack, we’re all scared. This is a big change from what we normally do and—”

“It’s not just that!”

Applejack stomped her hoof. “I mean all this talk about shrouds an’ veils an’ other mes an’ yous!
Why didn’t we see all this before? Why now? Why are the Princesses so dead set on stoppin’ us? Are we only alive cause of what we did for Equestria before? Is Celestia waitin’ in there to do to us what she did to poor Morningtide?”

She sighed. “This all is just dishonest, Twilight. Every last lick of it. I saw the other me in that dream world, Twi, an’ it was like he was the only honest thing there. Everythin’ else was just darkness and questions an’ general creepiness. Not somethin’ I could trust.”

Twilight’s heart twisted. “But you trust me, don’t you?”

Applejack stared at her a long, long time. Twilight sighed and began to turn away, but Applejack stopped her by lunging forward and throwing her hooves around Twilight’s shoulders, burying her face into Twilight’s mane.

“Of course I do, sugarcube,” she whispered. “I’ll always trust you, with anythin’. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here. Believe it.”

Twilight felt tears on her neck as Applejack pulled away and rushed across the bridge.

Her horn hurt when she followed.

The entrance to the castle was just as it had been in the past: old, rotting, and powerfully ancient. Twilight felt something change when she crossed the threshold. It wasn’t just a respect for the unbelievably old doorway and what it used to represent, it was a shift in the Magic inside her.

“You’re here,” she whispered. “I can feel it.”

She stepped into the great hall where she’d once thought the Elements were stored, watching Rainbow Blitz fly circles around the room as the others gathered in front of the empty pedestals. Absolutely everything was just as they’d left it: old, broken down, and covered in moss.

“Gosh,” said Berry, “it’s just like that one time where we also did something all over again!”

“The Elements used to sit right there,” Elusive murmured quietly, though his voice echoed through the whole hall. “And then came that light, and we chased Dusk all the way up to that tower over there...” He looked out a window to the old tower where the final confrontation with Nightterror Nebula took place. They shivered at the memory of the dark alicorn.

“This is where it all started. Our friendship, the Elements, everything!” Butterscotch said breathlessly.

“And where it’ll start again,” said Twilight as she approached the pedestals that held the original Elements. “Where we’re going to find a way to contact the other world. No matter what the Princesses have to say about it.”

“Why didn’t Luna follow us here?” Rainbow asked. “She had the chance to catch us all in the woods, we all saw her.”

“She knows she can’t stop me now,” Twilight whispered, but her voice had an uncomfortable edge to it she hadn’t meant to give. The others stared at her until she shook herself and waved off their concern. “I mean, we’re the Elements of Harmony. We embody the most powerful magic known to ponydom. If anything I’d say they’re just waiting for us to let down our guard.

“So, what, this is s’posed ta’ be some kinda trap?” Applejack asked.

Twilight shrugged. “Whatever it is, they obviously can’t think of anything right now. We need to get to work.”

“Doin’ what, exactly?”

“I’m... not sure,” Twilight said, hanging her head. “I think we’re more closely connected here than we ever have been before. Maybe if I just try reaching out with my magic like I did in the river, I’ll find them and we can, I don’t know, figure something out.”

“So, what, just send a friendly telegram between universes?” Rainbow said, putting her hooves on her hips. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound like the most complicated thing anypony has ever done.”

“I don’t claim to understand everything,” Twilight said patiently, “but I do know that for some reason, our magic seems to be connected. If I can just try to cast a spell, maybe Dusk will do the same and the reflections will give us some kind of bridge. The last time I was able to talk to him directly, it was when I was in danger of drowning. I don’t really want to repeat that.” She knelt down in front of the pedestal, closing her eyes. “I just have to try something, anything. Stand back, girls. I don’t know what will happen.”

She reached down deep inside for the Element of Magic.

“Oooh, no. We’re not going anywhere this time!” Rainbow insisted. “We’re staying right here until this is done. The last thing we need is some other crazy magical explosion to whisk you off again and—”

The world slipped away.

Twilight opened her eyes and was blinded by light. She jumped back and shielded herself with her hoof, realizing that she was looking at the sun through a window. A whole row of windows stood before her, set into beautiful white stone walls free of cracks or moss. Twilight looked up and saw an arched ceiling high overhead, decorated with banners that displayed coats of arms she remembered from her history books. Some were only used by the very oldest of unicorn families anymore.

She turned and felt her hooves drag over a soft red velvet carpet that stretched the length of the hall, ending at the foot of a renewed and restored pedestal, on which rested all the Elements in their original glory: simple gemstones all the colors of the rainbow, watching the hall, the windows, and Equestria beyond. Her friends were nowhere to be seen.

“The castle,” she said to herself, astonished, “as it used to be? How did I get here?”

A loud bang drew her attention back to the great doorway at the end of the main hall. The huge wooden doors with their iron braces were torn clean off their hinges.

Princess Celestia charged through them, nearly blinding Twilight with the light of her blazing horn. She wore golden armor in place of her torc and crown that was dented and battered, and her mane fluttered weakly like a flag in a failing wind. The alicorn’s hooves thundered over the carpet, her royal face twisted into an expression of horror, sorrow, and determination. She was heading straight for Twilight.

Panic seized the younger unicorn as she turned and ran.

“No!” she cried out. “You’re not getting me now! You’re not! Stay back!”

She summoned her magic and found it unresponsive. The Element of Magic felt different now, pleased and calm instead of violent and anxious, like it knew what she was doing and was happy to see her doing it.

The question is, will you help me? she asked herself. The answer shocked her, not for what it was, but that it came at all.

Yes.

Twilight froze in place next to the pedestal, turning back to Celestia.

“Not now,” Celestia whispered. “Not today. Equestria will not fall today! I won’t let it!”

She stopped in front of the Elements and lifted them from their perches with her magic. Though Twilight stood right next to her, she went completely unnoticed.

“Help me,” Celestia whispered breathlessly, levitating the Elements and placing them into empty slots on her armor. Magic came last, fitted into her shining breastplate. “Please, I don’t want to do this. There must be another way!”

Twilight’s attention was drawn back to the door by a loud explosion and the chilling sound of distant screams. In place of the Everfree Forest a whole city stood beyond the doorway.

It was burning.

Buildings had been razed and battlements torn down. Fires raged, choking the air with thick, angry black smoke. Before Twilight could react, a great shadow billowed up in front of the doorway, bleeding inky tendrils of darkness that seeped into the floor and cracked the perfect marble finish.

Out of the darkness stepped Nightmare Moon, her eyes bright with rage and magical power. Bolts of dark, entropic energy arced from her horn, which was bathed in writhing shadows. Her mere passing tore at the walls of the hall, bursting every window open as she passed them.

“Sister!” she crowed in that imperial, condescending tone Twilight remembered so well. “Thou flee to the safety of our old home, but it will not save thee from Our wrath!”

“Thou art not my sister!” Celestia shrieked as she turned to face Nightmare Moon, the Elements in her armor coming to life with a great and terrible light in the face of the dark creature before them. “She would not sully her royal dignity with this brutish violence! This is nothing more than petty revenge!”

“Petty!” Nightmare spat. “Sister, thine arrows and slings strike Us to the quick! Even now thou cling to thy lies! But We have found a greater power than thee, sister. Thou would cast Us off like so much chaff on the wind. But We will show thee a power that cares not for sunrises and sunsets! A power that inhabited the darkness before the dawn of the world! Dost thou truly believe the Elements of Harmony have power against that which is older than Harmony or Chaos itself?”

“Luna, this madness is thine and thine alone!” Celestia cried out, lifting into the air. Her wings spread out to their full span, and she shone like the Sun. “Thou must listen to reason!”

“Address Us by Our proper title, knave!” Nightmare shrieked. “The True Night, the Everlasting Night, is coming! We are its herald and its queen! And when thou have been brought to thy knees before Us, thou shalt see its fell glory!”

Nightmare hurtled forward with a primal scream of rage. Twilight, overcome by the awesome sight of clashing rulers, cowered behind the pedestal, certain she was about to be overwhelmed by their clash.

But it never came. All noise ceased.

Twilight looked up and saw Nightmare Moon frozen in mid-air, her fangs bared just before she clashed with Celestia, who floated with her hooves held protectively in front of her, wings spread in glorious defiance, her expression set in stony resolution.

“Mistakes piled upon mistakes,” said Celestia. Twilight whirled around to see another Celestia walking towards her from the other end of the hall. As she walked, the banners wilted and fell into ash, the stone became cracked and grey with age. Time marched alongside the alicorn, dissolving the world around her. “All made with so much certainty. I was so sure I was right, even when I was in the middle of doing something terrible. And do you know what the worst part is?”

She looked directly at Twilight. “The worst part is that I feel the same way now.”

“You brought me here,” Twilight whispered. “You showed me this! Are we asleep?”

Celestia reached the pedestal, which fell apart before Twilight’s eyes. The visions of Celestia and Nightmare Moon faded from sight. The castle returned to its decrepit state. Celestia sighed, trembling.

“He stood right where you are now, Twilight. Determined to make things right. But there are things that neither you nor I can fight against. Some things simply must be.”

Twilight shuddered as pain erupted from her horn.

“You stole Morningtide’s memories!” she hissed.

“Stole?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow. “I destroyed them, Twilight. Wiped them from his mind and all existence. Back then, the Elements were still at my beck and call, and it was they who gave me the power to do what only Luna could before she became Nightmare Moon. It would be another five years, four months, eighteen days, six hours, and forty two minutes before the Elements passed into dormancy. Before they abandoned me and ponydom and left me to seek their successors.”

Twilight felt another shudder run through her that forced her to her knees. A great, unbearable pressure closed in all around her, and she realized the strange force was tinged with gold. Celestia’s magic was closing in for the kill.
Twilight looked up at Celestia with a child’s pleading gaze, her lip trembling. Was this what Morningtide felt just before his answers were stolen from him?

“Why?”

“He too asked me why just before I did it,” Celestia whispered, a single tear sliding down her cheek. “I will give you the same answer I did back then, Twilight. The answer that saved him, and the answer that will save you.”

Her eyes lit up with power and the magical net closed around Twilight, surrounding her in a shell of light.

“None.”

“You know nothing!” Twilight barked back, and raw magic spilled out of her mouth like smoke. She fell to her side as all strength seemed to leave her. She felt herself slip away from her own body, receding until she was stuck in a little box deep in her own head. She watched herself struggle to her hooves, glare up at Celestia with seething hatred. “You cannot delay this any longer!”

Celestia’s eyes widened as a purple glow enveloped Twilight, pushing back against her magical trap. “I must try,” Celestia insisted, more to herself than Twilight. She pressed in harder, but that only seemed to make Twilight’s magic stronger. She was losing control. “You...” Her eyes widened. “You are not Twilight,” she said in a broken whisper.

“No,” Twilight heard herself reply, “I am more.”

“I WILL NOT LOSE HER!” Celestia shouted back, her mane bursting into flame. The very rock beneath her split and melted from her volcanic fury. “I WILL NOT! NOT TO THIS!”

“You already have,” Twilight responded.

She blinked.

The cage exploded as her magic surged outward. Celestia was caught up in the shockwave and launched back, crashing through the pedestal.

Everything went black.

---------------

“... And where it’ll start again,” said Dusk Shine, dropping onto his haunches before the pedestal. “The Princes should meet us here soon.”

“Is now a good time?” asked Prince Solaris as he stepped out of the shadows. He wore all his royal regalia, his expression rather grim.

Dusk Shine jumped to his hooves and hurried over to the Prince, sharing a quick embrace. “You made it!”

“Of course I did. Spines’ letters never miss,” Solaris said, smiling. “So, this is where we will learn the truth?”

“If it’s not I’ll eat what’s left of my horn,” replied Dusk. “This is where Eventide went before her memories were taken.”

Solaris went to the pedestal and stared at it, his expression becoming more forlorn. “This is where we fought,” he whispered. “Where Nightterror taunted me about his eternal night. Where I...” He bowed his head in silent reverence of the distant tragedy. “It is only appropriate that this is where we will uncover the mystery behind Eventide’s affliction.”

“But how do we contact a whole other world?” Dusk wondered. “I’ve felt my double before, but it was always her doing it. I couldn’t consciously find my way to her.

“Then perhaps consciousness is not the answer,” Solaris said, spreading his wings. “Come, my little ponies. We shall see if dreams will give us what the waking world cannot.”

“Is it really going to work?” Applejack asked. Solaris turned his gaze to the farmpony, who shuffled uncomfortably under Solaris’ royal scrutiny.

“I do not know,” Solaris whispered. “I am afraid we are at the same impasse, my friends. This all started with a dream. It only stands to reason that a dream will show us the way forward.”

“Shouldn’t Artemis be party to this?” Elusive asked.

“He is watching,” Solaris said, “from afar. The memories here pain him greatly, and he cannot stand to be near it. Fear not, for he is watching, and will be here in an instant if danger comes upon us.”

“We’re all going!” Rainbow said, puffing out his chest. “No way we’re letting Dusk take this on alone! Even if it just a bunch of mares.”

“I don’t know what we’ll be facing in there,” Dusk said with a sigh. “I don’t even know how to contact her, or if whatever force destroyed my horn before will happen again and do worse this time. Not even Artemis could stop that.”

“I will guide you,” answered Solaris. “I am not Artemis, but I know much of his magic.” His gaze went to one of the windows, to stare at the moon above. “I had to.”

“To help Eventide?” asked Dusk. Solaris only nodded in response.

Dusk gulped. “Solaris, what happened? What really happened to her, after that night she went into the castle? Why is everything after that night blank?”

Dusk would never forget the haunted expression that fell over Solaris’ face.

“So do I,” the alicorn replied. “Dusk... I’m sorry, but there is a greater blank space in my mind than in your book. I am afraid I simply cannot remember anything of poor Eventide since the day I found her in this accursed castle. And I fear the same fate might befall you.”

Dusk’s ears drooped. “Can’t remember? What do you mean?”

“I mean I fear that the influence that broke your horn and tried to steal your memories has since afflicted me,” said Solaris. “And may Eventide forgive me, but it was not until just when you mentioned her fate that I turned my mind to it and found nothing there.”

Dusk shivered as a sense of dread came upon him, but then then her face appeared in his mind, and he remembered her soothing voice, and all his fears disappeared. He straightened his shoulders and looked up at the Prince with renewed determination. “Do you trust me, Solaris?”

The alicorn breathed in deep. “More than I can put into words, my faithful student. We must have our answers, or this terrible fate will only befall more ponies.”

Dusk nodded. “Then we don’t have time to waste. Let’s go. I’ll do my best to join my magic to yours, and then you take us into the dream.”

“Prepare yourselves, my little ponies,” Solaris intoned as his horn lit up. “The truth may well be more painful than not knowing.”

Dusk closed his eyes. The glow from Solaris’ horn expanded to fill his vision. He felt himself drift away just like the night on Artemis’ balcony, fading into sleep, and then...

Nothing.

Dusk opened his eyes again. He was surrounded by darkness that seemed to go on forever, yet crowd in all around him. The floor beneath him was invisible and intangible. The air tasted vaguely of soot.

“Hello?” he asked, and his voice did not echo. “Solaris? Rainbow? Bubble?”

No answer.

“Hello!” he called again, taking a step forward but going nowhere. Without a plane of reference it felt as if something held him still and he just made walking motions in thin air. Was this the dream? Did something go wrong?

You stole Morningtide’s memories!

“Who said that?!” Dusk asked, whirling around.

Why?

He turned another way and began to run, not caring which way he went or how far he ran. He started at a slow canter, which turned into a full blown gallop as a rising fear at being left all alone turned to panic.

“Hello?! Anypony! Help me! What’s going on? Solaris! Solaris!”

He kept running, for minutes or hours he didn’t know. The darkness followed him, herded him, taunted him with the feeling of open space without ever delivering. On and on Dusk ran, heedless of anything but trying to convince himself that he was going somewhere.

“Help! Help!” he called out, but his words were swallowed by the blackness the moment they left his lips.

You know nothing!

He stopped. There was something familiar about this dark place.

“Of course,” he whispered, and turned around.

There she stood, her back to him as always.

“It’s you,” he said.

No. I am more.

There was something pained about her voice. “What?” asked Dusk, taking a step closer. “More? I don’t understand, you were perfect the way you were! I wasn’t trying to change anything!”

You already have.

They stood there for an eternity, and Dusk heard the sounds of crying filling every moment. It wrapped around him and wriggled into every crevice, filling his soul with immeasurable sorrow. It was like a knife stabbing him in the heart, filling him with numbing poison. He vaguely felt the urge to go to her, the instinctive need to comfort another pony in pain, but this went beyond anything gentle touches and cooing words could solve. It was something he couldn’t even fathom, and yet he knew it better than he knew himself.

“Betrayal,” he said, but didn’t know where the word came from.

She spun to face him and Dusk gasped, not with ecstasy or wonder but the seizing terror of suddenly realizing something was terribly, terribly wrong. Her face was not as he remembered. It had no surprise, no leaping joy at the sound of the truth breaking through weeks of cloudy suspicion. It wasn’t distantly, untouchably beautiful like it had been when he first beheld it. Her fathomless eyes were splashed with red and filled with tears, too immediate, too pained to be that of a dream. He saw the pain of a daughter torn from her mother’s side.

“Tell me a story, Dusk,” she said. Her voice was scratchy and tight like a saw about to break a length of wood. It filled the blackness and echoed back at him a million times louder, a demand sent from the vanishing point of eternity. “Tell me a story with a happy ending.”

“I... what?” Dusk asked, uncomprehending.

Her steps were wobbly as she staggered towards him.

“We never got to the end of our dream,” she whimpered, “we never got to see what happened when we met.”

Something wriggled under her skin. It was a spot of darkness, crawling up her face and into her eye, spreading its tendrils sickeningly slow through the whites and into her pupil, and turning her whole eye black. Dusk cried out, hopping backwards but unable to tear his eyes away. His mind was locked in the moment, glued to the floor by the immediacy of it all. He understood that he needed to hear this. But oh, how he wanted nothing more than to run in the direction most opposite to this thing that once ruled his dreams.

“I understand now,” she whispered, “but they were right. The Princesses were right. But they were only right about how wrong they were.”

She reached out to him with her hoof. It sizzled and hissed as a pool of darkness surrounded it. He fell back from her and couldn’t help himself. He started to scream. Her whisper was infinitely louder as she came closer, closer. A lump of freezing cold dropped into Dusk’s stomach as the spot she was about to touch started to burn, tingling with anticipation. His pupils contracted, focusing in on that one spot, and his mind screamed with everything it had: Don’t let her touch you!

“I know what our story is now,” she said, and her inexorable touch dropped delicately onto his chest.

The mare’s lips twitched grotesquely upward. Bitterness stained her words as she grinned and snarled all at once. “A tragedy.”

The darkness on her hoof spread into his body, slithering down into his flesh. Every inch it burrowed deeper burned and froze and shocked him until he felt it reach deeper, into a part of him nopony else had touched. It slid into the very current of magic that ran through his body and poisoned it, seeping through him and leaking out his horn in a thick, viscous black corruption. But at the same time, it didn’t just reach through him. He saw it crawling back up her hoof, consuming her whole leg in slithering black, making a beeline over her torso towards her cutie mark.

The mare spoke again as the darkness ate them both piece by piece, her mocking grin still etched on her face even as she twitched and shuddered with pain.

“Tragedy: a dramatic composition, often in verse, dealing with a serious or somber theme, typically that of a pony destined through a flaw of character or conflict with some overpowering force, as fate or society, to downfall or destruction.”

“Stop! Please!” he moaned as he felt something terrible seep deep inside, staining his spirit. “I don’t understand!”

The mare shuddered horribly as the darkness curved back around to start eating away at her neck. “But we were perfect, weren’t we Dusk? We had no flaws. No, we were doomed by other ponies. Ponies who I trusted more than anything in the world and trapped us all in their own arrogance. This happened because there was no other way for it to happen. They hurt me. They lied to me. They knew they couldn’t stop me or their own mistakes. It broke me, Dusk. To know that they saw all of this coming and couldn’t stop it because of what they did. How they thought hurting me could somehow stop them from losing me.”

She brought her face down close to his, and instead of ecstasy he felt only mind-numbing terror.

“Let me tell you a story.”

The darkness crawled into his eyes and consumed everything.

------------

Sight returned to him gradually, not that it mattered when he was still in the middle of nowhere. Dusk floated in a great abyss not unlike the ones he had seen the mare in before. It was a place of potential rather than emptiness, filled with unspoken ambitions. He pedaled his hooves, angling up or maybe down, and swam through the murky sea of possibilities until a book materialized in front of him. It opened without him touching it and flipped to the first page, beckoning him to read. A pony’s story unfolded within. It was a long story, full of dedicated research and endless pining for something more. It came to a part about a great discovery about to be made in a castle in the woods. Illustrations painted themselves onto the pages, and as Dusk floated closer he saw the images come to life until he felt he was inside the pictures and living a whole new life. He found himself in a great hall and saw a unicorn standing in the middle of it in the dead of night. It was a mare, slate grey with a silver mane and a cutie mark of a pony slumbering under a blanket of stars. She stood before a pedestal where rested five stone spheres.

Dusk watched as she knelt before the pedestal and her horn began to glow.

Once upon a time, there was a mare who believed that stories had more power than ponies could ever imagine.

A page turned, and in the mare’s place there now knelt a stallion, exactly the same colors as the mare, down to the cutie mark.

She met the stallion of her dreams and spent the rest of her life searching for him, never knowing how close they really were.

The stallion looked up as the pedestal began to glow. Through the window, Dusk could see the Moon twinkle like a star, and the pony-like silhouette upon it began to waver. A shadow fell over the stallion and touched his horn, leaving a blot of darkness on the tip.

They thought that dreams could touch worlds they would never see. They ripped the pages from their own stories and put them into each other’s, hoping against hope that in seeing the dreams of others, they would understand ponies they would never meet.

They found each other, yes. But then something went wrong. Well, wrong for them.

The stallion fell back to the ground, and the dark shadow on his horn expanded to cover his face.

Dreams are just stories that have not escaped the mind. They are not bound by a prison of words and paper, and while their stories were still incubating, still unfinished, they tried to dream the same dream and started writing on each other’s pages.

They never thought that their story was subject to revisal.

The page turned again and Dusk saw the mare in a similar predicament, clawing at herself as the shadows slithered down her cheeks towards her mouth. Another page later and the stallion was writhing in agony on the floor. Before him stood a tall white alicorn, but it was not Solaris, not with that wavering mane and mare-like features. The stallion stood up and began to stagger towards the doorway. A golden light shot from the alicorn’s horn and formed a wall ahead of him, stopping him in his tracks.

I was so close to finishing their story then. I was at the last page, ready to end it all with one last punctuation mark, and then SHE came. She tore out the last page of the book, ending the dream before it could end itself! She twisted a whole reality to her whims when she realized it would not find her sister!

The not-quite-Solaris alicorn said something that could have been “I’m sorry.” The light from her horn struck the stallion, who started convulsing on the ground. The image on the Moon shimmered like a warped painting suddenly soaked in water, and the darkness sprang away from the stallion.

The page turned again. The mare lay on the ground in a catatonic state. Prince Solaris appeared, kneeling down to nuzzle her, begging her to awaken.

The mare, the hall, and then the entire world faded into nothingness. Every page after was blank.

She fed him a lie, drop by drop, hint by hint, and let him gorge on his own fantasies. She told the poor stallion Morningtide to use his power to bridge the gap between her and her sister, and let him believe it would answer his life’s greatest questions. To break the barriers and tie every little stream of dreams into a vast ocean that could be charted, and find the nightmare her sister was trapped in. But when she saw the true power of unfinished stories and how they could influence hers, rewrite whole sections of her nice, neat little tale of a perfect Equestria, she slammed the gates shut and destroyed a pony’s dreams forever!

And so Eventide faded into nothing without the stallion to dream the rest of her story. And in the darkness, adrift in the Sea Where Dreams Come From, her sister still festered.

I FESTERED IN SORROW AND ANGER AND REGRET, DROWNING IN ONE PONY’S PATHETIC, SNIVELING APOLOGIES OVER AND OVER AND OVER.

The light flashed, and she was there, binding a dark alicorn mare with the power of the Elements. Here, she was as Dusk dreamed, all beauty and power and innocence destroying the embodiment of evil with her purity. Dusk gasped, awestruck by the mere sight of her.

But then Magic found its next holder. A new story began and with it a new world came into being: your world. And I was defeated once more, cast into the outer void as I was separated from my rightful host. Adrift in the sea of dreams, stuck in a million billion different stories, and none of them were what I wanted.

Dusk saw he and his friends standing before Nightterror Nebula as he was consumed by a rainbow, but somehow it was less awe-inspiring than the other version. The colors were less full, the sounds a little muted. He saw certain details missing wherever he and his friends didn’t look. Blank spaces in place of stone. Patches of white on an unfinished sky.

The day her story began was the day you became important. Just like the day Morningtide found his special mare in his dreams when his cutie mark helped him craft a new world. Because stories, for all their power, are just so wonderfully malleable. Like yours.

That night, after her great victory over the dark alicorn, the mare that looked just like him snuggled up in her bed and dreamed wonderful things of a new life to be spent in Ponyville with her new friends. And Dusk saw the book write down his own life alongside hers, ever parallel and never meeting.

Do you remember anything before that day?

Dusk turned back to the beginning. Here and there, scattered between the full chapters of the mare’s life, were blank pages. Dozens of them, one after the other. He realized these were places where his story was meant to be told.

A creeping horror fell upon Dusk.

You found Eventide’s book because the writer of your story wanted you to find it. And you came here because that is what you had to do, isn’t it? When the mare who writes what you do on the pages of her mind answered your call, you gave yourself to her.

And so to me.

Blank pages flew by as they flipped of their own accord, staring up at him, years of his life simply nonexistent. The pages suddenly gave way to words, giving him glimpses of his days just after he came to Ponyville, leading up to this exact moment, which he read with ever-growing alarm as the book transcribed everything as it happened. The words wrote themselves as his eyes flew over the page, describing his every movement, every rapid-fire panicked thought that raced through his mind.

And then he saw his name.

Your story is unfinished, Dusk. But have no fear.

The world returned to darkness.

I am here to bring it to its conclusion.

Dusk turned around and saw a leering mockery of the mare’s face staring at him. She was covered in darkness. Patches of her fur were missing and her cutie mark was covered in angry red scratches. Her eyes were pitch black, holes in her head that went back further than what should have been possible.

“Welcome to my writing room,” it said.

They were in a great white space that went on forever in every direction. Over the thing’s shoulder, she sat in a cage, bereft of hope and smothered in despair. His heart ached and he longed to reach out to her, feeling that somepony as wonderful as her should never be sad, but some invisible force kept him pinned in place. He looked down and saw his whole body encased in ropy black webbing, holding him fast to the floor and muzzling his mouth.

“You are the bridge I will use to write myself into her world, her perfect, finished world, and destroy the heart of every dream that has ever been. You were never the main character here, Dusk. You’re not even a support. You are NOTHING. You’re a whimsy, a minor spin-off of a greater tale. You exist because she exists, because her story is there to inspire your own. But you played your part wonderfully, tangling your tale with her own. The power of the Elements echoes through creation, and Magic drew you closer to Magic. And I rode you in.”

It grinned and ooze seeped between its fangs as it stepped towards her, placing a hoof covered in black sludge on her shoulder through the bars of the cage. She shivered at the thing’s touch and squeezed her eyes shut as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Dusk tried to move forward, to cry out in defiance, to stop this travesty from happening. She was too pure, too whole to be sullied by that depraved, warped vision of herself.

Stop it! he wanted to say, reaching out to touch her magic like they had before. But what could a reflection do to touch the pony beyond the mirror?

Listen to me! Don’t listen to that thing! he shouted in the confines of his mind. Get up! Do something! You’re the mare I’ve dreamed about, the one I always wanted! You can’t be this weak now!

But he couldn’t move, and she chose not to move, and the creature kept talking.

“She knows the truth now, a truth a pony she loved more than life itself hid from her her entire life. And when the truth reared its ugly head as it always does, the perfect Princess chose instead to slam the gates shut on this poor mare’s dreams. She was broken, and I seeped into the cracks. And then you came along and helped her break the doorway. You helped me into her mind. But I still cannot manifest completely and take her for myself.”

The thing that used to be the mare of Dusk’s dreams stood up and threw up its hooves grandly, spreading ichor all over the ground.

“A dream still exists in her mind! A dream of an Equestria where she is trusted and loved fully by a mentor who accepts her own flaws and works together with ponies, instead of demanding that they stay in blissful ignorance! It’s a story with a sickeningly sweet ending.”

It leveled a dripping hoof at Dusk. “Your story. And as long as you are alive, her dream is not the nightmare I need it to be. But now she is in here.” It tapped the roof of the cage. “Hiding from pain and deceit, hiding from her own power that she fears so much. She will not so much as think about you, now. Leaving your story open to revision.”

Another wave of its hoof brought out a little typewriter with a brand new page, ready to be written on. The sick mockery of a pony dropped onto its haunches, cracked its knuckles, and began playfully slapping its oozing hooves down on the keys, tap tapping away as thick black sludge splashed all over the paper.

Dusk grunted and struggled against his bindings. Most of what the monstrosity had said had gone right over him, too grand and big for him to think about now. All he knew was that he had to get free. He had to break the cage, had to warn his friends and get away!

“And so Dusk Shine felt the jaws of fate closing in, snapping shut on everything he ever knew and loved. He didn’t believe the Nightmare now, but he would in time. Soon its true power over his world would be made clear. The Nightmare let him run; it needed him for now. He was still the main character of this story, unimportant as it was in the grand scheme. He was hope, and hope needed a little tenderizing before it could be crushed.”

Dusk felt his bonds begin to twist and snap around him, ignoring the poisonous lies the Nightmare poured into his ears. One hoof came free and he pulled at the rest of the gunk, ripping it away from him. It tore painfully at his fur and skin but he didn’t care, using the pain to fuel his anger. This beast had sullied his perfect vision, corrupted his dream of the mare that he knew he had to save. He wouldn’t let it win.

“He was the only pony that mattered anymore, and that was why the Nightmare let him go.”

The last of his bindings came free. Dusk turned and ran. If he got out of here, found the Elements, he could destroy the Nightmare just like he did last time. Behind him the Nightmare laughed and laughed and laughed, chasing him out of the dream world as he ran to a door in the middle of nowhere, with a ridiculously out of place sign above it that read “Exit.”

He pulled it open and burst through the door, slamming it shut on the Nightmare’s grinning face.

“The Nightmare would kill him last.”

-------------

Dusk exploded back into consciousness. He kicked his hooves and rolled onto his stomach, leaping up to see his friends gathered around him.

“Guys, listen!” he gasped. “Something horrible has happened! I don’t know what, but I think Nightterror’s back! He’s been using us this entire time, and—”

He stopped when he saw them all not looking at him, but past him. Up at something that loomed over his shoulder. Even Solaris had been shocked into silence.

Dusk’s heart dropped into his stomach as he turned.

Before him stood the armor-clad form of Nightterror Nebula, his eyes glowing red under his helmet. A living cloak of darkness swirled around him, reaching out and clawing at the ground. His wings spread out to their full length and drove the shadows out, smothering everything nearby in shadow. His ethereal mane billowed behind him, crackling with the absolute chill of deep space. Steam coiled out of his nostrils as he took a deep breath and let it out in a slow, happy sigh.

“Oh,” he said with a grin that exposed a mouthful of jagged fangs, “this is going to be fun.”

Comments

[MeerKatKing]

So, let's see if I've got this straight: By trying to cross between worlds, Twilight (and Eventide before her) inadvertently set free the lovechild of Cthulhu and The Dark Presence from Alan Wake, who was trying to tempt them into setting it free so it could "write" their story into a tragic ending. The reason, therefore, that Celestia broke Twilight's horn was to try to keep that from happening. And also it was responsible for Nightmare Moon et al.
Does that sound about right?

[Quarik]

Damn...

[RazgrizS57]

2402951

Something like that. But sometimes it's best to not think and just accept not knowing. Trust me.
media.pinkiedb.com/photos/Twilight%20Sparkle/131057010651.png
You don't want to go through what I went through in my effort to try and understand this.

[BeastialMoon]

^ Oh, good, a summary. I almost didn't understand the chapter.
Amazing chapter.

[DarthMaul22]

Dude.

Excuse me, I gotta... I gotta pick up the pieces of my mind. 'Cause it exploded and all.

Holy shit...

[Chaotic Mind]

Now this has delved into a full blown In the Mouth of Madness parody.

At least in the "story" department.

[Misplaced Modifier]

“Well, this is familiar.”

Best opening to a chapter that I've seen in a long time.

-Mis

[Miki]

I... What is... I don't..... Even..... I....... Wha........

derpicdn.net/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTMvMDQvMDYvMTlfMzZfNDFfODEwXzI4OTk4OF9fVU5PUFRfX3NhZmVfcmFpbmJvd19kYXNoLnBuZyJdXQ/289988__safe_rainbow-dash_vector_reaction-image_artist-rainbowcrab.png

[BlockBreaker911]

What, I don't even, how, but, I think I get it, but, like...
myscriptx.com/dl/1365/tf2-sniper.gif

[Pirate Cadance]

Wow, just wow, I don't even know what to think. This is just... Wow. Some just some casual mind screwing going on here.

[Fancy Fox]

I understand it completely...I think something's wrong with me...
You know the dopple gangers? Well they don't live in a mirrored world and the luna in the other universe was actually still nightmared...
I think... I might be getting that wrong

[that1dude]

That was a pretty meta chapter there. Loved it.

Also, I had tons of flashbacks to Alan Wake while the Nightmare was giving us the exposition. Keep 'em coming, we're so close!

[Thespurgin]

YEssssss
Is it bothersome that I can grasp the general exposition of this chapter?

[James Washburn]

Alright, I won't lie, I read all of the Nightmare's dialogue out loud, and it was great.

[Ringcaat]

2414795 Maybe a liiiittle. There's a lot I still don't understand. I guess Nightmare is what took over Luna and Solaris, and is the reason Celestia and Luna have been discouraging Twilight from finding the truth, whatever that truth is. Or a big part of the reason. I feel like there must be more. But the story seem to indicate Celestia's reason for interfering with Morningtide was something else--to get her sister back, perhaps? That didn't make sense to me. And it's not at all clear -how- connecting the two worlds frees Nightmare. Or what role the lopsidedness of the worlds plays. Nightmare says that Twilight created Dusk's world--that she dreamed it up. Or at least I think that's what she's saying. So... Dusk is what keeps Twilight from breaking? And Solaris and Artemis have no idea, so naturally they're curious about the whole thing. But Celestia and Luna know that if Twilight learns the truth about the other world... somehow it will break the bond holding Nightmare in? And even learning about the other world damages the wall between them? But that doesn't seem to fully explain anything. Why did the recurring dreams start? And if Twilight already believed Dusk Shine is a dream, how does making her think he's real and then letting her know he's a dream again change anything? And surely there must have been some way for Celestia and Luna to let her know the nature of the danger without spilling the key secrets needed to keep it in. They could have said something like, "I know what this dream of yours is, Twilight. And it frightens me. The worst thing about this danger is that it may be unleashed by as little as me telling you about it in detail. You must trust me, Twilight. The true nature of these dreams must remain a secret, or our world may be doomed."

[Csquared08]

That was... Wow. Just wow. That was so incredibly dark. And I really liked it. I'm really looking forward to the next update!

[Keratin]

So, why does Celestia claim that there is "no reason" for Twilight to pursue things further? Surely "You'll be possessed by the Nightmare" qualifies as a reason, and she has to have at least some suspicion that is what would happen.

I'm not sure what to think about the sudden meta-ness in the reveal of this chapter. It rubs me the wrong way, but I'll keep reading anyway, just to see where you're going with this.

[Pilate]

2451927
As we talked about elsewhere, this is my primary caveat when recommending this story. I continue to hold my tongue under the assumption that Celestia's reasoning extends beyond a simple desire to keep the world ignorant of a great evil. It is either that, or she is failing to maintain control, a viable alternative. However, while viable, that alternative also casts into doubt Celestia's characterization. It is far too a novice error to try and protect an adult by lying rather than being rational with them, especially a studious and reasonable adult like Twilight. Further, Celestia's millennia+ of experience and wisdom would surely yield enough precedent to have faith in Twilight.

That said, in line with the idealism of Dusk's world would be the juxtaposition of Twilight's "real" one. It is quite possible Celestia and Luna act the way they do simply because they are tyrants or, rather, that they are in the hollow, unmotivated "Tyrantlestia" characterization mold. I worry that this might actually be the case—that they might simply be bad because of contrast—since it helps fit the duality of the story vis a vis perspective so well to have Celestia and Luna be harsh and dissonant to Solars' and Atermis' wholesome and harmonious. I worry because it would be an astoundingly weak point in an incredibly strong story.

[AppleTank]

This strangely reminded me of PenStroke's "Creeping Darkness," with the whole "looking at stuff allows big evil to take over."

[Orkz]

Okay.....That.....was....creepy....as....hell......and I loved it.

[Lurks-no-More]

Oh. Ohhhh.

But of course the R63 world is just a reflection of the Mane world. We, the readers, have been assuming that Dusk is as real as Twilight, that their worlds are equally important... but we're forgetting that the show itself, the ultimate origin and template of all MLP:FiM fanfictions and alternate universes is the one with Twilight Sparkle and Celestia and so on.

So, if I've understood things correctly... Princess Celestia saw in Morningtide's research a possible loophole, a way to get Luna back and away from the clutches of the Nightmare, before the thousand years were up. But it went horribly wrong, and she had to erase Morningtide's memory and suppress his research to prevent anyone from giving the Nightmare another opening into Equestria. Then, when Twilight and co. blasted the Nightmare out of Luna, it wasn't destroyed, but lingered on. And somehow, what Morningtide had done so long ago, resulted in the creation of Dusk Shine and his universe. That reflection, and the yearning it caused in any pony who became aware of it, was Nightmare's bait, drawing Twilight into its power so that it can break out, this time powered by the full Element of Magic and unopposed by Harmony.

I truly hope Nightmare is overconfident about her power and chances...

[TranscendenCelestia]

Something about her tells me that they’re more than us. They’re... more real. Closer to... something.

Closer to the audience, as they have their own TV show.

[KKSlider]

Now this is how you write lovecraftian horror!