Celestia and Luna must fix the portal to Amaravir before both it and Equestria are annihilated by a figure aiming to destroy the universe to remove all wrongdoing.
The portal to a world where all ponies were born as humans is not the only portal Celestia guards. There are many portals, and all must be guarded with her life, as harmony hangs in the balance if even one were to break a barrier between worlds. But one has broken, and Celestia and Luna have been plunged into another world that is shrouded in an everlasting winter. The God of Autumn and Winter and the Goddess of Spring and Summer have both fallen into a deep sleep, and without their presence the world of Amaravir hangs precariously on the edge of destruction. Can the princesses find the gods and awaken them before the evil that put them to their rest consumes Amaravir? And can they fix the shattered portal, lest Equestria fall under the same peril?
The barriers between Equestria and the worlds beyond were not unguarded. It was a priority that the mirrors and statues and shimmering lights in windows stayed under lock and key, only viewed and used under the most dire of circumstances. If they were to be used recklessly or carelessly, the consequences upon both Equestria and what lay beyond it would be immense.
And this was precisely why, as Celestia and Luna stood at the shivering, whirling window, neither of them could feel anything but unease in their hearts. Luna was pacing, somewhere between a walk and a trot; Celestia was stock still and staring at the colours shifting violently between the golden pillars.
“Luna.” Celestia was the first to speak up, lifting her hoof and rubbing it against her left front leg. She sighed, then continued. “I know we have… reason for concern due to this portal. But if you could stop moving for just a moment?” Luna halted in her tracks, looking over at her sister. As Celestia turned to look back, she couldn’t help but notice the look in Luna’s eyes. The most recent time she’d seen it was when they had received the news of King Sombra’s return, a memory that she didn’t want to revisit. She sighed again, straightening herself as best she could. “I believe, as a precaution, you and I should enter the world behind the window and see if the barrier is breaking down. Perhaps we can aid in its repair before it gets out of hand.”
Celestia saw the expression on Luna’s face change almost as quickly as the crack of a whip. “Sister,” Luna protested, her eyes darting back towards the portal. “We have little defenses if something were to happen. Should we not call upon your--” She took a moment to correct herself. “--ex-student and the other element bearers? We believe that they would have a far greater chance to fix what is wrong.” At that, Luna shifted away from the window and started pacing again.
“No, Luna.” Celestia stamped her hoof, drawing her sister’s attention. “Princess Twilight has been through so much in the past week. By all accounts, I shouldn’t have put her through the wringer as hard as I did.” Her voice softened for a moment. “I’m giving her a break. Heaven knows she needs it. And…” Celestia broke her powerful aura for a moment to laugh. “Luna, you and I may be thousands of years old, but I can assure you that neither of us are about to lose our magic anytime soon.”
With that reassurance, Luna managed to crack a smile. “Tia,” she murmured, and her voice was nearly teasing. She came up beside Celestia once more and wrapped her leg behind the older mare’s neck. Celestia turned towards Luna, intent on hugging her before they entered the world beyond, but it wasn’t to be.
A blast of cold air suddenly shot through the window, the swirling glass cracking and breaking into shards that shot across the room. It had only been a small crack, but the force of the frozen wind pulled the princesses towards the portal. Luna yelped and Celestia shouted, and both of them tried to gallop against the wind and towards the heavily-boarded door that signaled the exit to the portal room.
It was too much. The wind was too strong, and the cold too biting, and both alicorns were dragged forcibly back and into the portal. Light and colour swirled around both of them. Luna tried to reach out, tried to grab Celestia, but her hooves wouldn’t move far enough, and Celestia didn’t seem to notice, her eyes wide and looking at something that Luna couldn’t see. The very fabric of reality was tearing and jerking around them, and before she could get her hooves on solid ground, Luna lost hold on consciousness.
*
Celestia nudged Luna with her muzzle, her face wrinkling with worry. “Luna,” she said. “Wake up…” Her younger sister didn’t move, and Celestia shoved at her more insistently. “Luna! We need to find shelter!” It took another moment before Luna finally roused, her body shivering as she tried to stand.
“What happened?” Luna asked, voice shaking. “Where are we, sister?”
“I don’t… I don’t know.” Celestia’s heart sank into her stomach. “This place… I’ve never been here before.”
And it was no wonder why, Celestia thought. She hadn’t had a second glance at this particular portal since it appeared one clear morning. It was merely a shimmer of green and white light over a windowpane. It was nothing special, like the mirror that led to the world of humans, or the shockingly pink statue that Celestia liked to pretend wasn’t there and that Luna knew contained a much nastier secret than its inscription hinted at. This portal had been nearly forgotten, as it never caused any trouble nor made any hint to its existence other than a gradual shift in colours with the seasons.
Now, however, with the snow blowing up around them and the air freezing their coats and manes into shards of ice, Celestia couldn’t help but to wish she’d taken a look sooner. She lifted Luna up with some difficulty, and the two began to trudge through the heavy snowdrifts, looking around for somewhere warm to recover and get their bearings.
In the distance, Celestia spotted a light, and her tears of relief froze on her face. “Look, Luna--over there--” she said, but before she could start towards it Luna had already opened her wings and was flying against the wind and towards the distant light. “Wait!” Celestia called, taking to the skies behind her sister and lighting the fog with her horn.
By the time the two princesses reached the distant light, the sky had already gone black, but no stars lit the way through the fog. The only sources of light came from the town ahead and from their horns, but even then the low clouds nearly swallowed the glow. Celestia touched down first, followed by Luna, and both peered through the snow at the village they had arrived in. The huts--strangely small, Celestia thought--were nearly covered in snow, the only signs of life coming from the lights in each one. A single path stretched through the town, having been forcibly hewn through the snow, but there was no grass under it to be found. Instead, only ice covered the path, and Celestia wondered how the inhabitants didn’t lose their balance.
“Hurry! Inside!”
Luna was the first to turn towards the voice coming from a hut very near to the entrance of the town. Someone very small and standing on two legs--two!--was in an open doorway, motioning frantically through the wind at Celestia and Luna. Luna nudged Celestia softly to get her attention, then hurriedly trotted towards the small house, ducking in order to get inside.
Celestia hesitated. Whether or not she could trust the people of this other world, she did not know. But the barrier had broken, and in order to fix it, she had to gain their trust at the very least. And so, though she stalled, Celestia ducked into the doorway too.
The person closed the door, and all was silent but for the wind howling outside the hut and the fire crackling inside.
“Thank you for letting us inside,” she said as she wrapped the tattered blanket around her. The diminutive, winged woman, owner of the house, nodded, not responding at first. Celestia looked around at the interior of the house--rusted heirlooms, boarded windows, and the smell of rotting food--before turning back towards the woman. “But I must ask… where are we? What happened to this place?”
Before Luna could argue that the world they’d entered might have always been this way, the woman spoke up. “A great treachery,” she mumbled, pulling the steaming kettle from the fireplace. “But I believe introductions are in order first, and I have questions for you as well…” As she sat down, the princesses looked at each other, and then back at her. The woman cleared her throat. “Tell me, where did you come from? What are your names, fair alicorns?”
Again, Celestia interrupted Luna before she could get a word in. “I am Celestia, Princess of the Sun and ruler of all Equestria--”
“--co-ruler,” Luna interjected. She yanked her own blanket around herself and grimaced.
“--yes, co-ruler, thank you sister--and this is my dear younger sister, Luna, Princess of the Moon.” Celestia accepted the mug of hot water from the woman before continuing. “Together, we keep our land in harmony, balancing the day and night so that all may grow and all may sleep.”
The woman chuckled at that. “You sound like Feraria and Lauhennos, but they brought the seasons.” She took a long drink from her own mug, wincing as the hot water shot down her throat. “I suppose both of you must be gods too?”
Luna looked at Celestia; Celestia looked at Luna. Neither of them spoke, and for a while the hut was filled with an uncomfortable silence. Finally, Luna managed to be the first to speak.
“We… have never thought of ourselves that way,” she admitted. “Since we were children, our parents taught us to take their place. They told us someday the wheels of time would cease to turn on their lives, and we merely thought that we would be next in a line of many...” Luna stared into her mug. “But it seems that we have ruled the longest out of our family line, despite the trials that have come to pass. Perhaps, in some way, we are gods.” Celestia shifted, having nothing more to add to her sister’s comments. The woman merely nodded and took another drink. After another silence that dragged far too long for anyone’s enjoyment, Celestia spoke.
“My sister and I came from the land of Equestria.” She leaned back, as if to prepare for a long speech. “There had been a portal to your world--”
“--Amaravir,” the woman commented. “It’s named Amaravir.”
Celestia furrowed her brow for a moment, irritated at being interrupted again. “Amaravir, then. It’s been in the Hall of Gateways for at least twenty years now, but it wasn’t until today that we noticed it. When I saw that the colours and the sounds that the portal was making were completely abnormal, I called my sister to come and see what was going on. Before we could properly step our way inside, the wind from a crack in the portal drew us in, and I woke up in the snow. Luna and I flew towards the first light we saw, and then you found us.”
The woman smiled for the first time since Celestia and Luna had arrived, wrinkles forming on her cheeks. “Then our prayers for a saviour have been answered. Thank the gods…” She raised her hand, gesturing in a way Luna and Celestia could only call one of great thanks or of welcome. “If you may, forgive me for being so bold. I am the faerie Denée, and before the eternal winter came, I was the goddess Feraria’s confidante.”
“You spoke of her before,” Luna noted. “And of a great treachery. Tell us, who was this Feraria? What was this… moment, that threw your land into an eternal winter?” She shivered at that, looking downward. Celestia gently placed a hoof on Luna’s back, giving it a stroke, but Luna was not reassured, merely looking towards Celestia with tired eyes.
“Forgive my sister,” Celestia murmured. “She knows of eternity more than I do.”
Denée nodded, not questioning further. She hoisted herself up onto the threadbare couch and put her hands around the hot mug. With a slow inhale, she began weaving her story.
“I had been waiting for six months for the ceremony that would awaken my lady. Of course, us faeries and the other fair folk had been preparing for weeks. We had decorated the altar, fixed the tatters in our traditional costumes, and recited the songs and prayers that would help send Lauhennos to sleep and awaken Feraria.
“On the day of the season change, we were all excited and nervous as usual. The younger ones never know what to expect, especially the new charges in Feraria’s inner circle. As I was her most intimate friend, I had taught them everything they needed to know, and they had relaxed significantly since the beginning.
“But not everything was relaxed. There was a sense of tension in the air, something that nobody could quite place. I knew Lauhennos’ nymphs and pixies could feel it too, as they were shivering in the cold, something that they were accustomed to. Something was off, but we tried to continue with the celebration anyway, determined to awaken spring no matter what.
“The moment that both Lauhennos and Feraria were on the altar was the moment that she attacked. We hadn’t known it, but the Feraria we were seeing was a sham. As the two grasped hands, Lauhennos’ eyes widened and he dropped to his knees, the life seemingly sucked from his features. Feraria, or what we thought to be her, began to laugh as the entire world spun around us. We didn’t know what was going on. In fear, we tried to fly or run away, but the ground became ice and the air became snow. The woman at the altar shifted, still appearing as Feraria, but her eyes were a sickly green and her wings batted like a crushed dragonfly’s.”
“A changeling,” Celestia hissed.
“Yes.” Denée looked down, squeezing her mug as if it were a stress ball. “She was a changeling. Good people died that day, trying to take her down. We had assumed that she had killed Feraria and taken her form, and that she killed Lauhennos too, right in front of everyone.
“But that wasn’t the case. The last of us, the ones who were left from Feraria and Lauhennos’ circles, came together and prayed. Somehow, we still received a life sign from both of them. Right now, we believe that both of our gods are laying in a deep sleep, waiting for someone to awaken them.” Denée closed out her tale, looking into space. “Feraria lays in her crystal chamber in Celes. Lauhennos rests in the life tree in Lusnayin. We cannot awaken them alone, and so we have prayed for guidance, for heroes to come and save us from this unbroken winter.”
It was then that Celestia got back to her feet, Luna following not long after. Celestia’s horn glowed in the dim light of the hut, seemingly illuminating the entire world for a brief second before dying down.
“Denée, tell us,” Celestia said quietly. “Where are Celes and Lusnayin?”