Prelude to Weirdness

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It was like a great wave, crashing over the land, destroying all in its wake. Farmlands were wiped out, mountains crumbled, the few forests that remained fell, and the vast cities that dotted the land were wiped clean off the face of the earth.

Except there was no wave. There was nothing, and this great wave of nothing was destroying all of Equestria. Rolling invisibly and silently across the landscape, everything it touched was devastated and utterly erased from existence.

As this nothingness approached the bustling industrial metropolis that was Canterlot, the only sounds that could be heard were the panicked screams of the ponies as they desperately tried to flee. The streets and walkways were overflowing with bodies, all rushing to escape the city.

All except one.

Even as thousands of ponies of all ages, breeds and social backgrounds milled about her, a single dark-purple alicorn stood her ground, facing the oncoming wave of nothingness with an expression of grim resignation.

She sighed at the sight of the buildings and smokestacks of Canterlot, dissolving into the air as the wave reached them. She watched with mournful eyes as airships and planes took off from landing pads all about the city, packed with ponies eager to be as far away as possible from the oncoming invisible death that came ever closer. She tried to block out the screams of mares and stallions as they were caught in the nothingness, their cries of terror and pain cut short as they were consumed and erased.

Twilight Sparkle said quietly to herself, "It's no good... looks like I was too late to warn them again. Not like they would have listened anyway."

Buffeted on all sides, the alicorn sprinted through the streets of Canterlot, trying her best to remember the way to the palace, where her only means of escape this forsaken city lay. As she ran, she listened to the screams of the ponies she passed:

"What is that thing?!"

"It's coming right for us!"

"He promised! He said he'd keep us safe! He lied!!"

So he was here then as well, Twilight thought. He's moving faster than I expected. Let's just hope the time dilation here isn't too bad.
Rounding a corner, she found herself at the gates of Canterlot Castle, now abandoned by its guards and wide open. She hurried through the massive iron doors into the corridors of the palace, at last allowed some relief from the pandemonium outside. Please let it be here, please let it be here, please don't let him have moved it, please let it be here...

As she took a right down the corridor, she kicked the doors of the vast throne room wide open, wisps of dust swirling in the harsh bright light. The throne room was a far cry from the one she was familiar with. Instead of the marble steps leading up to the twin golden thrones, bedecked with jewels and fine velvet cushions, there was a single throne carved of jet black stone and draped with blue cloth. On the wall behind on either side, there hung long banners emblazoned with an image of a black crystal shard, and a red and green eye above it.

But she had seen this all before. In countless other Canterlots, across hundreds of Equestrias, the banner could be seen hung in the throne rooms and from the walls of the palaces. But whether that banner hung or not, wherever she travelled, she knew that disaster and death were not far behind.

She focused her mind back on the task at hand. For just on the side of the steps leading up to the enormous basalt throne, was the mirror. Propped up against the wall, gathering dust, but otherwise in perfect condition.

Twilight's horn flared up with blue light as she lowered her head and aimed a spell directly at the mirror. A small fragment of debris rose up from the floor, surrounded by the same blue aura, and was flung at the mirror. But instead of shattering the glass, the rock simply passed through the mirror and vanished from sight.

"Excellent, it's still open," she said to herself, before a familiar muffled sound came from behind. She spun about on her back hoof and her blood ran cold at what she saw. The walls and doors were gone, now replaced by a great expanse of blank, empty mass, and the emptiness was inching closer with every second.

Quick as a whip, Twilight conjured out of thin air a black marker pen and drew a tiny line on the side of her left hoof. Just one more tally mark added to dozens more already drawn there. A flash of blue light and the marker was gone, then with one final mournful glance at the throne room as it crumbled and dissolved into nothingness around her, she took a deep breath and leapt at the mirror and straight through it.

Behind her, the throne room was gone. The mirror was gone. Canterlot, and the thousands of ponies who called it home, were gone. In an instant, countless voices all across the world, and even out in the farthest reaches of space, were silenced. And the universe was simply no more.

Her body felt like it was being stretched and pulled in a hundred different directions at once as she tumbled further and further through an endless stream of lights, spiralling and shimmering in every colour of the spectrum. You never get used to that feeling, she mused. And just when you think you have, something new comes up and makes the whole journey unpleasant in a whole new creative way...

As she tumbled through the endless tunnel of spinning lights, she closed her eyes and summoned up another burst of magical energy. As her horn lit up, a beam of white light shone out from the tip, pointing towards a point far in the distance.

Spreading her wings, she tilted her body and headed straight in the direction of the beam. The light grew brighter and brighter as she neared the point, until finally she was engulfed in light.

Her head was pounding, her vision was blurry and her limbs were weak and shaking. C'mon, hang in there! Almost...there...

Then at last, she felt it, that familiar tingling across her body as she passed over the threshold of a portal, and arrived in the magnificent and grand throne room of...

WHUMPH!

Any further thought was cut short as she felt herself slam headlong into a wall that seemed to come far too early. She slid down the wall and her vision went black.

Princess Cadance awoke with a start. Sweeping her mussed mane out of her eyes, her ears pricked up as she heard a commotion downstairs. Like something was crashing about somewhere on the lower floor of the Crystal Palace.

Rolling over, she nudged Shining Armour, who still lay fast asleep beside her. "Shining... Hey, Shining..."

"Mmmh... No, my vision of hell... So much lentil casserole..." he whimpered sleepily, gesturing feebly with a forehoof.

"Shining Armour! Wake up!"

"Guh-wha?! Quick, get the baking soda!!" The unicorn sprung up, yanking the blankets up to his chin. No longer finding himself sailing a mighty ship on a sea of casserole, Shining Armour glanced around the bedroom with bleary eyes. "Uhhh... Oh, Cadance? What's the idea? It's still dark out."

"That's why I'm worried," Cadance replied. "I'm pretty sure I heard something downstairs."

"Like what?"

"Like something hitting a wall or something. I think there's somepony in the palace!" she said, looking warily at the door.
Shining Armour simply smiled. "Oh sweetie, I'm sure it was nothing."

"Please?" Cadance said, nudging her husband. "Could you just go check it out or something?"

He swept the bedclothes aside and slowly got out of bed with a sigh. "Alright, tell you what, I'll send some guards downstairs to check it out."

He pushed the door open, and right where they should be, on either side of the door, were two crystal stallions, dressed all in silver armour. "Something wrong, your majesty?" one of the guards asked as his prince poked his head around the door.

"Cadance said she heard something moving about downstairs. I'm not certain I heard it, but I'm a heavy sleeper as it is," he said, bashfully rubbing the back of his neck.

The guard nodded. "Yes, we heard it as well. It sounded like something big moving around downstairs. I've sent a pair of guards to do a sweep of that floor."

Shining Armour felt a tiny shudder at this news. "Huh... Well, as soon as they've searched the whole floor, report back to me immediately."

"Yes your majesty," the guard replied with a bow.

Closing the door behind him Shining Armour returned to the bed. "So what was it?" Cadance asked, sitting up against the backboard.

"Apparently they heard a noise downstairs too. Don't worry though, the guards are checking it out and if it turns out to be somepony in the palace, they'll report back to me but they'll take care of it," he replied, slipping into bed again.

Cadance gasped. "So it wasn't just me! What do you think it was?"

Shining Armour shrugged. "No idea. I hope it was just an animal that got through the windows or something. We'll find out soon enough though."

"I dunno, it sounded a bit bigger than just some animal," she replied.

The unicorn put a comforting hoof around Cadance. "Hey, don't worry. You know I handpicked the palace guards myself, they're the best soldiers in the Empire."

Cadance nodded, lying back down. "By the way, you were talking in your sleep again, why didn't you just tell me you didn't like my lentil casserole?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but none came. "I... I have no explanation for that..."

Before she could reply, there was a timid knock on the door. "Come in," she called, and the door creaked open, revealing a rather bemused-looking guard.

"Erm, sorry to disturb you your majesties, but we, er, found the source of the noise."

"Ah, fast work," Shining Armour said with a confident smile. "So what was it?"

The guard scuffed the floor with a hoof, before answering hesitantly, "I think, honestly this is something the both of you need to see for yourselves."

A pair of guards walked down the stairs, their horns glowing in the darkness, followed closely behind by Cadance and Shining Armour, both clad in thick, silvery-blue dressing gowns.

On the floor below them, the commotion had returned, louder than ever. Several guards were gathered around one door in particular, with several entering and exiting. "She's in here, your majesties," the guard leading them said. "Better be careful, she's rather aggressive."

"She?"

As if on cue, the door flung open and an armoured guard was flung out the door, skidding along the floor a few feet until coming to a halt at Shining Armour's hooves. Squinting through bruised eyes at his superior, the guard gave a weak salute before blacking out.

"That's what you get for touching me, meathead!"

Cadance's ears pricked up, and her eyes went wide with surprise. "Hang on, I know that voice!"

Peeking tentatively around the doorframe, Cadance and Shining Armour gaped at the pony who stood in the corner of the room, her wings flared wide open in anger, a glass vase in her magical grip. Surrounding her were half a dozen crystal guards, none particularly eager to get within swinging range of the agitated alicorn.

"T-Twily?" Shining Armour stuttered. It sure looks like her, he thought, but... different.

The pony seemed to recognise the voice, as she slowly turned to face the doorway, the vase lowering to the floor as it slipped from her grip. She looked straight into Shining Armour's eyes with shock, and maybe it was a trick of the low light, but her eyes seemed to shimmer with the first signs of tears.

"Twilight, is that you?" Cadance asked, stepping forward to stand beside her husband.

The mysterious alicorns eyes widened, and there was no mistaking the tears in her eyes. Without warning, she shoved the guards bodily aside and leapt at the two, knocking them both to the floor in a tight hug.

"Cadance! Shining Armour! Is that really you?" she sobbed, holding the both of them tightly. "Thank the Queens, you're both still alive!"

"Uh... Yes, Twilight, we're... both alive," Cadance replied, becoming more and more confused by this strange pony who may or may not be Twilight, who was presently hugging her. "Why wouldn't we be, exactly?"

"And where did you come from?" Shining Armour wheezed out as he was squeezed tighter. "This room is locked inside and out."

Twilight "I came from the mirror, of course. But I had no idea it'd been moved to the Crystal Empire! And what luck too, it's wonderful to be able to see you again!"

But her embrace was broken as Shining Armour pushed her back, his hooves on her shoulders. "Alright listen... Twilight. I always love to see my little sister, but what are you doing here this time of night? And since when did you get a dye job?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well last time I checked, your fur wasn't quite this dark. Not to mention as far as I know, your cutie mark isn't purple and black."

The alicorn looked back at her flank. Sure enough, there was the black starburst cutie mark, surrounded by five purple stars. "Ah... yes, well you see the thing is, I am Twilight Sparkle but... well, not the Twilight Sparkle you know."

Cadance raised a confused eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean, I'm not your Twilight Sparkle. Your Twilight Sparkle is probably back in Ponyville right now... In fact, you should probably send her and your Celestia a message about all this right away! This concerns them too, and all of Equestria for that matter!"

Shining Armour and Cadance looked to eachother in utter bemusement, each silently pleading for the other to say something, anything, that might make this situation make more sense.

When it became obvious neither had the answers the other needed, Shining Armour sighed, his shoulders slouching in resignation. "Cadance, you take... Twilight, upstairs to the throne room. I'll send those letters."

Cadance nodded, and she and not-Twilight headed back up the stairs, the purple alicorn casting glares at each of the guards she passed.

Shining Armour watched them leave, and as soon as they had gone, slumped down on the floor, forehooves over his head.

"Your Majesty!" one of the guards cried, rushing to his side. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Sergeant," he said as he nodded. "Sheesh, of all ways to start a morning. I tell you, that mirror has caused us nothing but trouble since it was first moved here."

"Shall I lock it up again, sir?" the guard asked.

Shining Armour got up. "Yeah. And have guards posted outside that room. Nopony goes in or out, Sergeant, not until we know what's going on here. In the meantime, I better get to those letters. Princess Celestia will want to know that the mirror is active again."

The guard saluted, and after saluting back Shining Armour returned upstairs to his bedroom. Once he was out of sight the sergeant turned to his men. "You heard him boys. Two guards outside the room at all times, nopony goes in or out. Is that clear?"

"Yessir!"

"Aegis, Ironhelm, you two take first shift. Somepony will relieve you at noon."

Aegis and Ironhelm have a smart salute and another "Yessir!", while the other guards returned to their posts around the castle.

The sergeant turned about on his back hoof and trotted off towards his post at the main doors. But as he rounded a corner in the crystalline corridor, he came to a halt as he spotted another guard in a rather odd state. A guard he did not recognise.

"Hey, you!" he barked, and the guardspony jumped to attention. He trotted over to get a better look at the young stallion. "Name and rank, now!"

The young guardspony gulped and stated, "Silverspear, second lieutenant, Topaz Division, sir!"

The sergeant cast a scrutinising eye over Silverspear. "Is that so? Well I'm the sergeant of Topaz Division, so why haven't I seen you around before? Are you a new recruit?"

"No sir, enlisted a year ago, sir!"

"A year ago?" The sergeant parroted, "I call horseapples on that, Lieutenant! A pony in my division for a year and I never see them around? Highly suspicious..."

"Well sir," Silverspear replied, "With all due respect, I've never seen you around either. I thought Jet Battleaxe was the Sergeant of Topaz Division, sir."

The sergeant barked back, "Jet Battleaxe? Never heard of him! I've been sergeant of my division for 3 years now..."

The two guardsponies argued back and forth long until the morning, unaware that the strange events of this day were only just beginning.

New Faces and New Places

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To say that Thistle Whistle was confused and disoriented would be a massive understatement. Just last night she had nestled down to sleep in her beachside home on Butterfly Island, after a long party hosted by her dear friend, Star Catcher. Then the next day, after a dream of ice-cream sundaes the size of houses, she awoke to one of the strangest sights she had ever seen.

Clouds. An enormous city, floating high up in the air, made entirely out of clouds. The houses were clouds, the streets and roads were clouds, everything around her was completely made from clouds!

She gulped. Thistle Whistle had never been overly fond of clouds.

"Whu... What?" she mumbled, whistling nervously as she hovered a few feet off the floor. "What is this place? Where am I, how'd I get up so high?!"

She squinted up in the sky. The sun was hanging overhead, basking the land below in a stunning summer mid-morning. She whistled again. "Looks like it's already well into the day. Come on, Thistle Whistle, not like you to sleep in this late, not like you at all..."

She flew through the streets of Cloudsdale, taking in the strange sight of the cloud city, as pegasi of all shapes and sizes flew around her, heading into buildings or up into the sky above. "Just what is this place?" she asked again, to nopony in particular. "Did Butterfly Island turn into a floating cloud island while I was asleep? I'm pretty sure I'd have heard about something like that... And where did all these ponies come from? There weren't that many of us last night..."

"Your attention, please!"

Thistle's monologue was cut short, however, as a pegasus stallion flew down among the streets, ponies gathering around him. Without much of an idea of what else she could do, she shrugged and joined the throng surrounding him.

"I need volunteers," shouted the stallion. "There are strange new weather-patterns approaching from all directions, and it's up to us to check them out and make sure they won't cause any trouble. I'm sure some of you have noticed already."

A general murmur of agreement rippled through the small crowd. "Strange weather? What does he mean?" Thistle asked the pegasus next to her, whistling under her breath to get her attention.

"You know, the weird things in the sky that keep appearing and disappearing, the funny-looking clouds, that kinda stuff," she replied.

"Oh, I see." Thistle looked up into the sky and sure enough, not too far away she could see a large patch of clouds that seemed to shimmer and flicker in the air, like a lightbulb going out. And then, before her astonished eyes, the cloud vanished into thin air.

"Woah! Did you see that? Tell me you saw that!"

"See what?"

"That cloud! There was a huge cloud just over there and then it just... poof! It vanished!" replied Thistle.

The pegasus looked in the direction she was pointing. "Yeah, that's been happening all morning, that's what we're checking out. You coming?"

Thistle scuffed the clouds below her with a forehoof. "Oh! Er, I would, you know I totally would help but... I'm, uh, not too good with... clouds."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I guess... I guess they make me nervous," she replied with a nervous whistle.

The pegasus looked at Thistle with a slack-jawed bemusement that would not be out of place if she had just sprouted a second pair of wings. "Seriously? A pegasus... who's scared of clouds?"

"I know, I know!" Thistle covered her ears in embarrassment. "It doesn't make much sense, but it's the truth, I just don't like clouds!"

"You do realise you're in a city made entirely out of clouds, right?" the pegasus deadpanned as she took to the air to join the volunteer force.

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask about that, where exactly am I?" she asked.

"Wh-what do you mean, where are you? You're in Cloudsdale, pretty much the pegasus capital of Equestria! How could you not know where you are?"

"Cloudsdale?" Thistle echoed, whistling thoughtfully. "Hmm, never heard of it. How far is Butterfly Island from here?"

The pegasus scratched her head. "Uh... Can't say I've ever heard of the place. But if it's an island then it's probably off the coast somewhere, in which case you're a long way from home. Anyway, look, the vounteers are heading off, if you're not coming with then I gotta split. So long!"

Without another word, the pegasus turned in midair and flew after the small group of pegasi, who all headed out of the city together towards a particularly large cloud front just off to the south. "Hey wait, come back!" Thistle called after her, trilling and whistling as loud as she could. "I still don't understand where I am! What's going on?!"

But to no avail, as the streets returned to normal, with nopony giving her a second glance. She sat down on the floor, hanging her head. "Oh, I've never been so confused..."

"You're telling me!"

Thistle looked up at the sound of another voice, and found herself staring into a huge pair of purple eyes. Jumping back with a start, the pegasus that hovered upside-down in front of her smiled and waved a forehoof, her neon yellow mane clashing brilliantly with her white fur. "Hiya!"

"Um... Hi," Thistle replied to this strange pegasus. "Who are you?"

"I'll tell you who I am, I'm a pony who's just as confused as you are!" she said in a shrill excited voice. "I mean, I go to sleep last night down in Dream Valley, and next thing I know I'm in a whole city made of clouds! Is this place cool or what!"

"Heh, if you say so... So you have no idea where you are either?"

The white pegasus shook her head. "Nope, not a clue. I'm guessing you just woke up to find yourself here too, huh?"

Thistle Whistle nodded. "That's right. I went to sleep in my home on Butterfly Island, and then I wake up today on this floating city. Ohh, this is all so strange."

"Omigosh, that's exactly what happened to me! I was throwing a birthday party for my friend Posey, but it wasn't even a huge crazy party because, well, Posey is a kinda shy little pony who doesn't really like those kinds of parties, which I just don't get, I mean, how can you not..."

Thistle cleared her throat loudly, stopping the pegasus' rambling in its tracks. "Oh, right, sorry! Anyways, after the party was all over, I went to bed like always, and the next thing I know, I'm floating high in the sky on the roof of a building made of clouds. Weird, huh?"

"Yeah, that is weird. But that's it? There wasn't anything else?"

The pegasus tapped her chin, flipping over in mid air to fly right way up. "Hmm... there was one thing. Just as I was falling asleep, I remember looking out the window at the night sky. It might've just been my sleepy eyes playing tricks on me, but I remember the moon looking kinda... blurry. Like I couldn't focus on it or something."

"Blurry? Hmm..."

"Yeah, I know, weird," the pegasus replied. "But hey, it's great to see I'm not the only pony confused by all this. Wanna hang out?"
Thistle eyed the curious pony up and down. She seemed excitable, to say the least. But any company was better than none. "Sure. I guess being confused together is better than being confused on your own. I'm Thistle Whistle, by the way."

The two of them flew off to explore Cloudsdale, the white pegasus flying upside down again. "Thistle Whistle, huh? I guess that explains the whistling. Well nice to meet ya, Thistle Whistle, my name's Surprise!"

"Is it just me, or is Ponyville especially lively today?"

Pinkie Pie stood behind the counter at Sugarcube Corner, watching as more and more ponies came through her doors and lined up. "I see what you mean. The brunch crowd isn't usually nearly this big, and I'm seeing alot of ponies I've never seen before. I dunno if I'll be able to throw welcome-to-Ponyville-parties for them all! Hmm, maybe I should just throw one big party for all of them... Oh, hey Twilight, hey Spike!"

As another customer left with a bag of delicious delicacies, Twilight Sparkle and Spike approached the counter. "Good morning Pinkie Pie. Boy, things sure are busy here, huh?"

Pinkie nodded, brushing a loose hair out of her face. "Oh totally! I've been serving ponies non-stop since early this morning! And this might seem weird, but I don't recognise alot of them. Is there a show in town or something?"

"I know what you mean," Twilight replied, looking around at the crowded bakery. "There definitely are alot of new ponies in town. And I've noticed that quite a few of them seem sort of confused for some reason, like they don't know where they are. Anyway, two iced buns, please."

The pink pony dutifully got to bagging their cakes as Twilight passed a few coins over the counter to her. "Mmm, delicious as usual, Pinkie Pie. How's yours, Spike?"

But Spike had not eaten his. It was held in one clawed one, as his body seemed to tense up. Suddenly, his stomach rumbled and swelled, and a burst of green flame erupted from his mouth with a mighty belch, which formed into a scroll of parchment that landed on the floor before them.

"A letter?" Twilight picked up the scroll and unfurled it, noticing the purple wax seal on the outside. "It's from my brother!"

Stepping aside to allow other ponies to reach the counter, Twilight and Spike read over the scroll at breakneck speed. Twilight's curious smile fell as she read, turning into a confused frown. "But... but this makes no sense..."

"What does it mean, Twilight?" Spike asked, just as confused as his unicorn friend.

"I don't know, Spike. But I do know we have to get to the Crystal Empire right away, c'mon!"

As the pair ran out of the bakery, Pinkie Pie called after them, "Twilight, what's up?"

Twilight shouted over her shoulder, "Apparently another 'me' has appeared out of the mirror portal in the Crystal Empire!"

"Wait, what?!" But before she could get an answer, Twilight and Spike had run out of the shop and were on their way to the train station. Pinkie watched them leave for a moment, then shrugged. "Huh, today is off to a very strange start. Ah, hello there, what can I get you today?"

A pony she had never seen before came to the counter. She was a bright green earth pony, with a pink and magenta mane and a slightly ditzy expression on her face. "Good morning, at least, I think it's morning. Is it morning?"

Pinkie nodded with a smile. "Yep, it's morning alright! Just enough time to pick up something delicious for breakfast or brunch. Anything in particular you're after?"

The green pony looked over the vast array of cookies, cakes, buns and pies in the counter, licking her lips. "Well, these all look great, but do you have any with green icing? I've always liked green icing the most."

"As a matter of fact, I have just the thing for you miss... what's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Minty."

"Miss Minty," Pinkie finished, whipping out a tray of small dense fruitcakes, wrapped in green fondant icing. "A little something new, my very own patented Pinkie Pie Green Bombs!"

"Ooh, looks delicious! I'll take three!" Minty said with a grin.

Pinkie scooped three of the cakes into a paper bag. "Excellent, that'll be six bits, please."

Minty's smile sagged. "Oh... I, uh, don't really have any money on me. Sorry..."

Pinkie frowned as well, about to retrieve the cakes. But she could not allow the poor little pony to go hungry. "Tell ya what, I'll give ya one of them on the house, just as long as you remember to come back and have some more another time, 'kay?"

The pony's eyes lit up as her smile returned. "Really? Oh thank you, thank you! And I promise, if these cakes taste as good as they look, I'll definitely be coming back. What did you say your name was again?"

"I'm Pinkie Pie, Ponyville's resident super-duper-party-planner. Nice to meet you, Minty."

Minty raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Pinkie Pie? You look different today. I've never seen your hair quite this... poofy."

"What do you mean?" Pinkie asked. "My hair's always been this poofy and floofy. And I'm not sure I've ever met you before. Are you new in town?"

"New in town? I've lived in Ponyville for years, Pinkie Pie," Minty replied, now very confused indeed. "And of course we've met before, we've been friends for ages. You stopped by my house for tea yesterday, remember? I spilled the milk all over your tail!"

Pinkie frowned. "I think I'd remember something like that. Sorry Minty, but I've never seen you before in my life."

"But... But..."

"Look, I'm really busy at the moment. But maybe once I'm done with my shift today, you and I can hang out. Just because I don't know you yet doesn't mean I don't want to know you," Pinkie said with a comforting smile.

Minty smiled back. "Okay. Hopefully by then I'll understand what's going on a bit more. Until then, Pinkie Pie."

"See ya!"

With a wave, Minty picked up her bag of cakes and headed out the door. So this is Ponyville, she thought to herself. It sure doesn't look like it to me. Just what is going on today?

Taking out a cake, she bit into it, chewing thoughtfully as she walked. She did not recognise anything she saw, not the buildings, not the ponies, nothing. Wherever I am, she thought, it's not the Ponyville I know.

But she was interrupted as from above, there came an ear-splitting roar. Ponies all around fell to the ground clutching their ears, scattering and fleeing into any buildings that surrounded them.

"Oh sweet Celestia, it's another one!" cried a lanky young stallion as he fled past.

Minty turned and called after him, "Another what? What was that noise?"

The stallion mutely pointed into the sky, and what Minty saw made her jaw nearly hit the floor.

At a first glance, it looked like some sort of dragon. But on closer inspection, she noticed a few things. First of all, it was much smaller than a dragon, and its wings were not flapping, swept back and motionless instead.

Second, that this dragon was seemingly made of metal, with an extremely pointed snout and glass windows where its face would be, as well as having no arms or legs.

Thirdly, that it was faster than any dragon she had ever seen. It streaked across the sky at breakneck speed, leaving a white vapour trail in its wake.

But then, just as soon as it had appeared, the strange metal thing flickered slightly and vanished into thin air, leaving nothing behind but the fading vapour trail and the echo of its roar.

Minty got up off the ground, her limbs shaking and quivering, her eyes glued to where the strange metal dragon seemed to disappear. Yep, this is definitely not the Ponyville I know.

"Okay then, now start from the beginning," Cadance said, as she and Twilight Sparkle closed the doors of the throne room behind them. She ascended the steps and sat down on the throne, as the purple alicorn stood before her. "Tell me who you are, where you came from, and what you're doing here."

Twilight nodded, and cleared her throat. "Ahem, alright then. Well, in answer to your first question, I am Twilight Sparkle, daughter of Twilight Velvet and Nightlight Sparkle, younger sister of Shining Armour. I am also wielder of the Element of Magic and a commander of the Equestrian army, under orders of Princess Celestia."

"Equestrian army?" Cadance repeated. "But... Equestria doesn't really have an army."

"Maybe not your Equestria, but in my world, Equestria is one of the strongest military powers in history," Twilight replied. "And that brings me to your second question. I come from Equestria, but not the Equestria you know. You see, I'm from an alternate reality."
Noticing the baffled look on Cadance's face, Twilight continued. "That mirror that I appeared from, the one in the room downstairs, do you know what it does?"

"It's a gateway, right?" Cadance answered. "A door to another world, kind of like our Equestria, but different... So that's where you came from?"

Twilight nodded. "Something like that. But odds are I'm not from the world that that mirror leads to. I'm from a different one, you see, one of a number of alternate Equestrias. You live in a Multiverse, Cadance, one reality in an endless sea of universes."

Cadance blanched. She had heard old theories about there being alternate universes. But even with Twilight Sparkle's adventure with the mirror less than a year ago, it had never struck her as being possible on a larger scale. "How... how many are there? Other Equestrias, I mean?"

"I can't say for sure, but there's definitely at least a thousand."

Cadance gulped. Thousands?! How could such a thing be possible? "And... what reality did you come from?"

"Well, in my world, Equestria was much the same as it was here," she replied. "Prosperous, vast, ruled over by Celestia and Luna, relatively peaceful at the time. But in recent years, Equestria's borders had been spreading as the Princesses sent out military campaigns to conquer neighbouring lands, to add to their dominion. The Frozen North, the Changeling Kingdoms, Cervidas, the Dragonlands, even across the ocean to the Griffon Kingdoms. Equestria was the most powerful empire in recorded history, uniting almost half the globe under its banner. It was a pretty utopian rule, with all races and tribes, not just ponies, living together in peace under the Princesses' rule. My friends and I, the holders of the Elements of Harmony, were the commanders of the Princesses' armies."

"You commanded an army? At your age?" Cadance asked, eyes wide with shock.

Twilight merely shrugged. "Well I was already royalty, so commanding an army wasn't too big of a step. But this empire didn't last, sadly. And neither did my world, for that matter."

"What do you mean?"

"One day, out of nowhere, the Equestrian Dominion came under attack.. A vast armada of ships, floating down from the sky like blimps or enormous hot air balloons, came down from the sky filled with strange creatures that looked kinda like ponies, except they were nothing but shadow, solid shadow. And while our armies were vast and strong, we were nothing compared to them. And leading them was a fierce, vicious commander. A unicorn named Sombra."

Cadance gasped. "King Sombra?!"

"Close," Twilight replied, climbing up the steps and standing by the throne. "He called himself Emperor Sombra, Ruler of all Reality. He claimed that he had come from beyond our universe to conquer it, as part of his own empire. But what he wanted didn't matter, what mattered was that he had declared war on the Equestrian Dominion. And he wasn't gonna get away with that.

The fighting went on for years, Celestia and Luna leading us against Sombra's shadow creatures. There were countless casualties, and many of our soldiers also ended up turning into shadow creatures and joining Sombra's forces. It was practically a world war. But then out of nowhere, there came this strange wave of... nothing."

"Nothing? What do you mean, a wave of nothing?"

"I mean just what I say, Cadance. It was a huge wave of just... void. Not invisible, but not really anything either. And whatever in came into contact with was destroyed and wiped from existence. And this wave was moving across the entire planet, consuming all it touched. We had no idea what it was, but we knew Sombra was behind it. Some sort of ultimate weapon of his or something. Once it began spreading across our world, he and his armies fled and vanished.

I ran from the wave, until I reached Canterlot, where I hid in the throne room as my world disappeared all around me. As it approached me, I was backed into a corner. The very same corner where the Princesses had always kept a large mirror."

"... The mirror portal," Cadance whispered as it clicked in her mind.

"Exactly," Twilight said. "I didn't know what it could do at the time, but as I backed into it, I fell through and into some sort of tunnel of lights and colours, until I landed in Equestria. Or rather, another Equestria. You see, those mirrors exist in every Equestria, they are one of the few absolute constants among the universes. Each one leads to another universe, that is 'next to' that one. But the entrance to these bridges between worlds only opens every few years. It was just good luck that that mirror had been open at that time."

"So, what happened to your universe?"

"Gone. The entire universe was wiped out behind me. I was the only one who escaped," Twilight replied, her expression darkening.

"I'm... I'm so sorry," Cadance said softly, placing a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

Twilight sniffed, before looking up with a deep breath. "And after I figured out everything that had happened, I swore a vow: That I'd follow Emperor Sombra to whatever universe he and his army were heading towards, and do whatever I can to aid them in fighting against his conquest.

But it never worked. Most universes put up a good fight, but they would always eventually be consumed by the wave of nothingness, whether they resisted Sombra or not. All I could do is warn them ahead of time, hoping that they'd be able to put up a better fight than the last."

Cadance sat in silence, listening to this strange Twilight's story with awe, that quickly gave way to fear. "So, if you're here in this Equestria... then that means..."

Twilight nodded. "Yes, I'm afraid so. I can't predict exactly when he will attack or how, time gets a little odd when travelling between universes, but Emperor Sombra is on his way here. I'm not sure why, but he seems to be really interested in this Equestria in particular."

The pink alicorn slumped forwards in her throne, clutching her head in her hooves. "This... this is all just too much. Hopefully Celestia will have a better idea of what to do than me."

"We'll know soon enough."

Shining Armour pushed the doors open as he joined the two alicorns in the throne room. "I just got a reply from our Twilight, saying that she's on her way here. So I guess that means you're telling the truth then. Whoever you are, you're not our Twilight Sparkle."

"So does that mean you'll help me?" Twilight asked.

"If everything you're saying is true," Cadance replied. "Then Equestria might be about to take on its greatest threat yet. So of course we'll help."

"I have a question," Shining Armour joined them at the top of the throne steps. "I've been hearing odd reports from a lot of ponies around the Crystal Empire: strange creatures appearing and disappearing, flying objects in the sky, whole buildings that weren't there before, and lots of reports that the sky looks weird somehow. Do you think this might have something to do with what you're talking about?"

Twilight tapped her chin with a hoof. "Hmm, maybe. I can't say for certain though."

"I hope Celestia will have some idea about that too," Cadance replied. "Any idea when she'll get here?"

Suddenly, there came a bright blinding flash of golden light in the middle of the throne room. As the light dimmed, the three ponies looked and saw none other than Princess Celestia.

"Wow, right on cue," Twilight muttered.

"Good morning Cadance, Shining Armour. Please forgive the rather abrupt entrance but I received your letter. I would have arrived sooner, but there is something very strange going on in Canterlot. I hope one of you may have some idea what is going...on..."
The princess trailed off as she saw the third pony sitting with Cadance and Shining Armour. If she was not so good at maintaining a facade of calm and collectedness, Celestias jaw would have dropped clean through the floor.

"Hello Princess," Twilight said with a nonchalant wave. "You may want to take a seat. This is where things get weird."

A Hole in the Sky

View Online

"Good morning, Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow Dash gave a hesitant wave as yet another pony greeted her as she walked down the streets of Ponyville. At best, she recognised one or two of the ponies she encountered, and even then only vaguely. Sure, she recognised a few colour schemes from ponies she had seen around town before, but something about them seemed... odd. It did not help matters that they all seemed to have the exact same mane- and tail-styles. But the many strange ponies out and about today were the least of her concerns.

Because wherever she was, it certainly was not the same place she had gone to sleep.

Last night, as always, she had gone to sleep after a long, hard day of cloud-busting, aerial practice and generally being awesome, in her cloud home high above Ponyville, just like always. But as the morning sun glinted in her eyes, she had awoken in what was probably the absolute pinkest house she had ever seen!

It was a fairly spacious place, with shelves and cupboards lining the walls, and a large stage in the middle of the room. Huh, did I sleepwalk over to Rarity's place, she had mused groggily. But even Carousel Boutique was not quite as garishly pink as wherever she was now.

As she wandered through this strange new town, she noted with some disgust that the rest of the town fared little better, with every building done up in garishly bright blues and pinks. It was like if Pinkie Pie had become an architect overnight.

Among the tiny houses dotted around the place, there were all sorts of strange buildings. One seemed designed to look like a treasure chest, over in the distance was a building with an enormous inflatable butterfly tethered to its roof, and right in the centre of the town was a large purple castle! Hot-air balloons hovered overhead in the cloudless blue sky, and everything had an odd theme-park feeling to it. Rainbow was unable to quite put her hoof on it, but every building seemed to lack something...

Her musings were cut short, however, as a familiar blur of purple and orange zipped past, propelled by a tiny scooter. Leaping out of the way, her eyes went wide with shock as she saw the pony riding it.

"Scootaloo?" she called as she got to her hooves. "I-is that you?!"

At first glance, the pony was the spitting image of Scootaloo. The purple mane, the orange fur, the scooter. But on closer inspection, Rainbow saw that not only was this pony fully grown, but had her long mane done up in a ponytail, as well as a cutie mark of two yellow flowers adorning her flank. Not to mention she was an earth pony.

"Oh! Sorry Rainbow Dash, I didn't see you," the pony said. "Are you okay?"

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Sorry, I thought you were somepony else... wait, how did you know my name? Or has my fame finally caught up with me?"

The pony cocked her head to the side in confusion. "What do you mean? Everypony in Ponyville knows about Rainbow Dash, Ponyville's own fashionista."

"...What."

"Anyway, sorry I can't stay to chat, Rainbow Dash. I'm on my way to talk to Kimono," the pony said as she hopped back on her scooter.

"Who's Kimono?" Rainbow asked, now getting very confused.

"Umm, Rainbow Dash, did you hit your head or something? Kimono's the super-smart pony who lives on the outskirts of town. You've met her before!"

At this point, I'd just go with it, a tiny voice in Rainbow's head muttered. She sighed and said, "Right, right, I have... So, what were you going to talk to her about?"

The pony opened her mouth as if to answer, but paused as she looked up into the sky. Pointing up into the sky, she stuttered fearfully "About... th-th-that!"

Rainbow looked up and her mouth dropped open in amazement.

Cloudsdale.

Floating in the sky, less than a mile away, was the pegasus capital of Cloudsdale. But somehow, it looked different. The architecture looked much sleeker and smoother, with less swirls and pillars of cloud, some of the buildings almost resembling the skyscrapers she had seen in Manehattan once, only... more modern. She could see the faint dots of pegasi flying around among the tall buildings, while every now and then a pegasus would break off and fly out into the surrounding lands.

"What the...? What happened to Cloudsdale?"

"Is that what that is?" the terrified pony beside her asked. "I've never seen anything like that before, have you?"

"Well... sort of," Rainbow replied uncertainly. "Hey, would you mind if I tag along while you see... Kimono?"

The pony's face lit up all of a sudden. "Of course! Let's get going."

Rainbow shrugged and followed, flying low alongside the scooter-bound pony. "So... with me being all confused and all, could you... remind me what your name is?"

The pony looked over her shoulder with an eyebrow raised. "Um... I'm Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash. We've been friends for years, remember? Are you sure you're okay, you're acting kinda strange today. First the change in your voice, the different hairstyle, which by the way really suits you..."

"Scootaloo?" Rainbow echoed. The voice in her mind spoke up again. Just roll with it, hopefully this Kimono character will have some answers. "Right, sure..."

Rarity drew back her curtains, humming gently to herself as she set out to begin her day's work. As her horn lit up, levitating spools of thread and rolls of fabric onto her table, she noted with some curiosity how strange the sky seemed. Something about it seemed... blurry, almost.

But she paid it little heed, putting a hoof to the pedal of her sewing machine and getting to work. While she stitched, she watched Ponyville going about their business in the streets below her window. How strange, she thought to herself, there certainly seems to be a lot of new ponies in town today. No doubt Pinkie Pie is enjoying herself making all sorts of new friends, she added with a small chuckle.

A chuckle that died in her throat as her gaze turned skyward, and she glimpsed a winged figure slowly flying towards Ponyville. Whatever it was, it was far too big to be a pegasus... and besides, pegasi were not exactly known for being scaly.

"YEEEK!" Rarity screamed as the dragon swooped low over Ponyville. Despite being indoors, she ducked under her desk anyway.

Outside, she could hear the panicking screams of the ponies as they scattered like cockroaches from the fearsome dragon, many hurrying into houses and buildings, some ducking under carriages and wagons. But as she timidly peeked up over the windowsill again, her eye was drawn to the dragon. It was a strangely slender figure, nothing like the bulky armoured beasts she had encountered before, with gleaming white scales and a crest of purple spines running down its back, that curled strangely to one side.

But she had no time to muse on this colourful creature, as she glimpsed a tiny figure, held in the dragon's clawed hands. It was a unicorn filly that looked to be no older then Sweetie Belle, with lightish pink fur and a rainbow-hued mane.

"Good heavens, that poor little filly! Somepony needs to do something!" Rarity said aloud, watching the scene. The dragon had now landed in the town square, stomping about as it no doubt looked for more ponies to devour.

Is nopony going to help her?! She desperately looked around, hoping, praying that some valiant brave pony would step in and help the poor little pony. But nopony came. The dragon had stopped stomping about, and now held the little filly up, looking down at it.

"It's going to eat her!!" Rarity cried. Leaping up from under the table, she swung the window open wide and hoisted herself up onto the sill. As she tried her best to not look down, she gently lowered herself down onto the awning just below her window before daintily jumping down onto the ground.

She dusted herself off briefly, before taking to her hooves and sprinting towards the dragon, as it lifted the little filly up to eye-level.

"PUT THAT LITTLE FILLY DOWN THIS INSTANT!" she screamed, skidding to a halt mere feet away from the monster. The dragon and the filly looked down at Rarity, bemused expressions on both their faces.

"Little filly?" the filly said derisively. "I'll have you know I am a princess, and will be addressed as such!"

"Perhaps," Rarity replied. "But nonetheless, this beastly dragon has you in its clutches and I do not want to imagine what it intends to do with you. So you, Mr Dragon, will put that filly down right now!"

"Excuse me!" The dragon roared in a booming, if feminine voice. "I am a lady, thank you very much!"

Rarity blushed at her mistake, grinning sheepishly. "Oh... I, uh, stand corrected. But my point still stands: whatever you are doing here in Ponyville, Miss Dragon, we will be having none of it. So I would appreciate if you would release the filly and be on your way!"

The dragon rolled her enormous eyes. "For goodness sake, what does it take to get some directions around here?"

"I warned you that they wouldn't want to talk to you, but did you listen? Nooo," the filly replied, before looking down at Rarity. "And you! I'll thank you not to talk to my friend that way!"

"Your friend?!" Rarity sputtered. "Dear, that dragon could eat you in one bite!"

The dragon sighed. "Look, this is getting us nowhere. Come along little one, perhaps there's another town nearby where they are a little more cooperative."

"Lead the way, Miss Rarity," the filly replied.

Wait, what? "Wait a moment!" Rarity sprinted after the dragon as it made to take off. "I knew your colour scheme seemed a little familiar, but now your name is Rarity as well?!"

The dragon nodded. The filly waved, revealing a small sceptre gripped in her hoof, a large star-shaped jewel embedded on the top. "And my name, too. Rarity the Unicorn, Rainbow Princess of Unicornia. Nice to meet you!"

"So, your name is Rarity as well?" the dragon asked. Rarity nodded, dumbstruck. "Well... this is going to get confusing fast."

"I'm still wondering exactly what a dragon and a young filly are doing together in the first place," Rarity said.

Dragon-Rarity replied, "Well, she's about the only creature I've run into all day who hasn't fled in terror the instant I try to talk to them!"

"And why would you want to talk to a pony in the first place?" Rarity asked. "Surely you know that ponies aren't exactly fond of dragons."

"That's news to me, I don't even know where I am." Dragon-Rarity replied. "I went to sleep last night in my cave like always, and next morning I wake up ontop of hill in the middle of nowhere, there's ponies everywhere and barely a dragon to be seen!"

"The same thing happened to me," Rarity the Unicorn added. "I wake up this morning without a clue where I am or where my friends are. Luckily for me I ran into this dragon here, who was just as lost. So, we decided to work together to find out just what is going on."

Rarity sat down, tapping a hoof on her chin pensively. "Well, that's... certainly unusual..."

As she mused, there came the clattering sound of hooves sprinting towards them. Turning around, she saw Applejack skidding to a halt as she came barrelling down the street. "Rarity! Are ya crazy, get away from that dragon!"

"Applejack, calm down, they don't mean any harm," Rarity replied.

But the farmpony would hear none of it. "No harm?! Rarity, open yer eyes, it's a dragon! Since when do dragons mean anythin' but harm to us?"

"We're just asking for directions!" Rarity the Unicorn called down from the dragon's hand.

"And it's already grabbed a filly too!" Applejack shouted. "Rarity, go find the others, I'll hold this scaly menace off until ya get back!"

Before Rarity could interject, Applejack was charging headlong at the dragon, lasso swinging in the air above her. But before she could throw the rope or grab onto anything, Dragon-Rarity took to the air, flying a few feet off the ground as Applejack ran underneath her and skidded to the other side of the square.

"Applejack, please listen, she means no harm! And she hasn't kidnapped the filly, they're friends." Rarity called, rushing over to Applejack.

"Well, more acquaintances than actual friends," Dragon-Rarity replied. "We only met up earlier today. We're both lost, confused, and would appreciate it if someone could tell us where we are!"

Applejack glared up at the white and purple dragon. "Well, how do we know yer tellin' the truth?"

"Because if I had wanted to eat you or destroy your town, I would have finished doing so about ten minutes ago."

Rarity nodded. "She makes a good point."

Applejack stared into Dragon-Rarity's eyes, and the dragon stared back, as if searching for some inkling of deception in eachother's gaze. "Hmm... Well, I guess I can't fault ya for that logic. But what were ya talkin' to them about, Rarity?"

"Well, for starters, the fact that we all share the same name," Rarity replied.

"Seriously?" Applejack looked from Rarity, to the dragon standing before her, to the little filly inthe dragon's hand. "Okay, that is interestin'. Come to think of it Rarity, it does kinda look like you if ya were a dragon."

"Well, you actually look rather like a friend of mine, if she were a pony and not a dragon," Dragon-Rarity replied. "You even have a similar voice."

"Is that so? Well, this just got even more confusing... Applejack, would you mind staying with our guests here while I go and find Twilight? No doubt she can shed some light on what is going on."

Applejack shook her head. "Not gonna happen Rarity. Twilight and Spike hurried off to the train station a few hours ago. Apparently they got some letter summonin' them to the Crystal Empire as soon as possible."

"Did she say what it was about?"

"Well, Pinkie Pie told me she was talkin' about 'another her' comin' out of the mirror portal. Ya think that has somethin' to do with what's goin' on here?"

"Probably." Rarity nodded. "There seems to be no end to strange things going on today. Dozens of new ponies in town, many of them rather strangely dressed, I've noticed, then these two show up, and now apparently Twilight is off in the Crystal Empire... Something very strange is definitely going on..."

"So Twilight, any idea what's going on?"

Twilight Sparkle shook her head. She and Spike were seated in the train as it sped across the Equestrian countryside. All throughout the trip, they had seen strange sights out the windows of the train: Strangely-dressed ponies getting on and off the train, mysterious flying things in the sky, and a few times Twilight had even sworn she had seen them pass by a town or village, just for it to vanish as they pass it!

"Not a clue, Spike" Twilight replied. "Vanishing towns, strange ponies, things in the sky... speaking of which, is it just me or does the sky seem sort of... off, today?"

Spike clambered up to the window, looking out at the landscape as they passed by. "Yeah, I kinda see what you mean... It's sort of hard to focus my eyes on it, like it's blurry or something."

"That's what I thought," Twilight replied. "And now apparently there's this pony who's come out of the mirror in the Crystal Empire. A pony who looks just like me... It's like all of Equestria's gone mad today!"

"You don't think Discord's behind all this, do you?" Spike asked nervously.

Twilight shook her head. "I doubt it. Discord's a troublemaker and he is incredibly powerful, but I think even he would have trouble causing this much havoc. I just hope Princess Celestia will have some answers for us."

"But if she came out of the mirror," Spike said. "Do you think she's maybe from... that other world?"

"I can't see any other explanation," she replied with a shrug. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Spike remained at the window, watching as the strange phenomena went on all across the land. He watched in awe as a trio of things screeched across the sky above them, leaving white trails in their wake. They looked almost like dragons or birds made of metal. His jaw dropped as he spotted a dragon simply popping into existence in the middle of the sky, where those metal flying things had been mere seconds ago. The beast looked around in bemusement, before it vanished once more.

But his attention was drawn to the alien sky once more as he spotted something forming. It was like a small hole, a crack, an opening in the sky itself. Spike would have waved this off as yet another bizarre thing going on today, if it weren't for what appeared to be coming out of the hole.

"Uhh, Twilight?"

"What is it Spike?" Twilight joined him at the window, as the little dragon pointed a clawed hand up at the fissure.
It almost resembled some sort of smoke, weaving and snaking down from the crack, a tendril as thick as a treetrunk but completely black. It slithered through the air, reaching down towards the train.

"Spike, I... I think now would be a good time to..."

But her words were cut off as the entire carriage shook. Ponies were jolted out of their seats, and the entire train screeched to a halt. Spike stumbled to the floor as Twilight struggled to stay upright, as the gaslights sputtered out.

For a moment, all was still. Nopony dared to move a muscle. Outside the carriage could be heard strange creaking sounds, and rhythmic thumps, as if someone or something was walking around on the roof. Twilight followed the noise with bated breath as it travelled down the carriage to the end. It stopped briefly, before going back in the direction it came, until it came to a stop right above her.

Then, all hell broke loose.

The windows on either side of the train shattered, spraying the ponies inside with shards of glass. The sunlight was blocked out as the inky black mass poured through the broken windows into the carriage. It writhed and wriggled through the air like the feelers of an insect, probing and searching. As one such tendril of blackness slid against the side of Twilight's face, the entire mass froze for an instant, then lunged at the alicorn.

"Spike!" Twilight screamed as the blackness surrounded her. Her horn flared up with magenta light as she blasted at the blackness with beams and bolts of magical energy, which seemed to deter the black mass for a moment. But no matter how much she struggled, it surrounded her, engulfing her in its shadowy form until nothing of her could be seen.

Then, as swiftly as it had appeared, the blackness receded out the windows, swirling back up into the sky into the fissure high above, before the fissure closed and vanished without a trace.

As the light returned to the carriage, ponies rushed to the shattered windows, gazing up at where the fissure and the shadowy thing had emerged from. But there was no trace, no sign that anything had ever been there.

Spike, meanwhile, could only stare in slack-jawed horror at the spot where Twilight had been. A matter of seconds, and whatever that was had swooped in, grabbed Twilight and vanished. mere seconds!

"Is everypony alright?"

The conductor, his hat askew and his uniform scuffed and torn in a few spots, entered the carriage with first-aid kit in hand. A few cuts and bruises here and there, but nothing too serious, it seemed.

He approached Spike, unsure whether the little dragon was alright. "Um... son, are you...?"

"Get us to the Crystal Empire."

"Pardon?" The conductor stooped down to Spike's level.

The dragon grabbed the conductor by his shirt. "Get us to the Crystal Empire as quickly as possible! Whatever that thing was, it just took Princess Twilight! The other Princesses are in the Crystal Empire, and they need to know what's happened!"

The conductor nodded frantically and hurried out of the carriage towards the front of the train.

The board is set, the pieces are moving.

View Online

By the time Twilight Sparkle had finished telling Celestia her tale, the sun was dipping low on the horizon, bathing the Crystal Empire in a low orange light. The afternoon had been most unusual for the Crystal Ponies, with reports of several local residents missing, or replaced by strange new ponies, as well as rumours of other strange creatures out and about during the day, or seen flying through the sky. But the citizens of the Empire did their best to work around these strange occurrences and get on with their day-to-day lives.

High above the Empire in the Crystal Palace, however, matters were very different. Princess Celestia had listened with rapt attention as this mysterious new Twilight Sparkle related her story. How she was from another Equestria, alike and yet very different from this one. How her Equestria had come under attack from a malevolent invader calling himself Emperor Sombra, Ruler of All Reality, whom she had followed from universe to universe as he continued his campaign of multiversal conquest, followed closely behind by the mysterious wave of nothingness that destroyed everything it touched.

"But what confuses me is this whole thing with the... nothingness, the wave that is constantly destroying whatever it touches. How can anypony have access to that level of power?" Cadance asked.

"Sombra and his forces have the ability to travel from universe to universe without the need for bridges," Twilight replied. "Who knows what sort of power he has at his command?"

"But then why does he use it?" Shining Armour asked. "I mean, if he wants to conquer all these different Equestrias, why does he then just destroy them?"

Cadance replied. "Perhaps it's his way of crushing opposition. If that Equestria won't bend to his will, then it doesn't deserve to exist, that sort of thing perhaps?"

Twilight shrugged. "Maybe, nopony's ever gotten the chance to ask. By the time the wave shows up, Sombra and his forces are always the first to run for it. What do you think, Celestia?"

All eyes turned to the Princess, who was sat in complete silence, her face betraying her feelings of shock and dread.

"...Celestia?" Cadance said. "Are you alright? I'd imagine this whole multiple universes thing would be alot to take in at once..."

"Oh no, it's not that," Celestia replied. "I was well aware of the existence of other worlds parallel to our own."

Shining Armour was surprised. "Seriously? How did you know?"

"Centuries ago, when I was still young," Celestia explained, "I studied under Starswirl the Bearded, the greatest mind of our time. And among other things, we did discover the existence of these other worlds. He actually created the original mirror portal, which was a prototype for the second mirror, the one that now sits a few floors below us.

"He used it to travel to other universes, other Equestrias, learning all sorts of fascinating secrets about magic, science and the nature of the cosmos. Some of what he learnt he could not replicate, since the natural laws of universes can be very different to one-another, but many he studied, replicated and documented. It is the great secret of Starswirl the Bearded's knowledge and wisdom."

Cadance interjected, "And you never thought to tell us any of this? To maybe warn us that there were other worlds out there apart from our own, and the one on the other side of our mirror?"

"I did not know," Celestia replied. "I thought that each mirror could only lead to specific worlds, and sometimes only at specific times. And yours was the only functional one, ever since Starswirl personally locked the other mirror."

"Why'd he do that?" Shining Armour asked.

For a moment, Celestia' face became dark, and her expression of shock changed to one of sorrow. "I... became greedy. I used the mirror for my own personal gains, with no concern for the consequences. Then one day, Starswirl caught me in the act, and personally sealed the doorway... I'd never seen him so furious before."

An awkward silence hung in the air as Celestia's eyes became distant with reminiscence. "Uh... Celestia, are you alright?" Cadance asked, reaching out with a comforting hoof.

Celestia countered her hoof with one of her own, taking a deep breath and blinking a few times. "It's fine, it's just, well... not a memory I like to reflect upon very much."

"But wait, something doesn't add up," Shining Armour said. "I thought our mirror was only supposed to open up once every thirty moons, and it hasn't been nearly that long a time since Twilight... our Twilight, went through it."

"I can answer that one," Twilight replied. "You see, there are several mirrors that can only be used at certain times, yours being one of them. However, I've found that that rule only actually applies to entering the portal from the universe's side. Going through it from the other side, travelling from the void into a universe is a different matter entirely, anypony can do that at any time as long as they can find the mirror that leads there. And that's how I ended up here: I saw that this was where Sombra had his eyes set upon, and got here before him so I could warn you."

"And what about all the strange things going on, ponies disappearing, strange creatures and places showing up out of thin air? Do you think that has anything to do with it?"

"Maybe, I can't say for certain. It's been happening in quite a few of the other universes I've been to, but not quite to the same degree as you seem to be getting here. But if Sombra is the cause, I can't really see any reasoning behind it," she replied.

Celestia stood up. "Well thank you Twilight Sparkle. If what you're saying is true, then this Emperor Sombra character could pose an enormous threat to not just all of Equestria, but all of the Multiverse. So, how long until we can expect him to attack?"

Twilight scratched her mane. "Honestly, I'm surprised he hasn't made a move yet."

Just as she said those words, the doors of the throne room swung open and an armour-clad guardspony strode in. "Your highnesses, pardon the interruption, but there is a Spike the Dragon here to speak with you. He says it's urgent and judging by how agitated he appears, I'm inclined to believe him."

"Please, let him in," Celestia replied.

Before the guardspony could even so much as nod, Spike had barrelled past him, rushing into the throne room as fast as his little legs could carry him. "Princess Celestia! Cadance! Twilight! Taken! Hole in the sky! Black Tentacle! Gone! HELP!!"

"Spike!" Shining Armour rushed to Spike, holding him back with a forehoof. "Spike, calm down, you're not making any sense! Now, start from the beginning, what's happened to Twilight?"

Spike nodded, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves. "Ookay, sorry... So Twilight and me got your message, something about another Twilight coming out of the mirror or something like that, so we got the train from Ponyville. But somewhere inbetween here and Canterlot, something attacked us! There was this thing, this... hole in the sky! It just ripped wide open, and this big black thing came out. It looked like smoke, but it was solid, and it came down into the train and took Twilight away into the hole! Sh-she's gone, and I dunno what's happened to her!!"

He grabbed onto Shining Armour's leg, hugging him tight. The unicorn patted him on the head. "Shh, it's okay Spike. We'll find her."
He looked up at Shining Armour, tears streaming down his face. "P-promise?"

"Of course!" Shining Armour tousled his scaly head. "She's a Princess of Equestria, and most importantly she's my little sister, we'll get her back no matter what!"

Twilight looked to Celestia, who now stood at the window. "Sounds like Sombra is making his first move. Your thoughts, Princess?"

The Princess looked over the Crystal Empire, watching the ponies going about their business in their glimmering crystal city. Aside from a few unusual faces and a few anxious glances, the crystal ponies seemed relatively calm, despite the bizarre goings-on affecting the land. And even as she watched, a small house on the outskirts vanished into thin air, to be replaced by a brown and white thatched cottage, the likes of which one would expect to see in Ponyville or some other Equestrian city. Its door opened, and out stepped a very confused-looking family of hippogriffs, who gawped at the sparkling metropolis that now surrounded them.

"Until Sombra's forces begin to show up, our top priorities are to keep the ponies calm and under control. We cannot allow them to panic, especially in the face of possible invasion," Celestia said, turning from the window. "And our second priority is getting Twilight Sparkle back. As Shining Armour said, she is not only very dear to all of us, but she is a Princess, and a bearer of an Element of Harmony. I do not want to think what these invaders may have in mind for her."

"But how can we find her?" Spike asked. "Where did that hole in the sky lead to?"

"Most likely to Sombra's forces, lying in wait just outside this universe."

For the first time, Spike noticed the dark purple alicorn that sat among the rest of the ponies, and his eyes went wide as dinner plates. "...T-Twilight?"

The alicorn waved. "Hi Spike. You look different."

"But... bu...wha... but she's...wha... huh?!" Spike wobbled on his feet as his head began to suddenly feel very light.

"Breathe, little guy, breathe," Shining Armour quickly conjured up a pillow, laying it on the floor just as Spike fell backwards to sit firmly upon it.

"It's a long story that we don't have time for at the moment Spike," Twilight said, anticipating the endless deluge of questions the little dragon no-doubt was preparing. "To give the short version, I'm Twilight Sparkle from another universe, here to warn your universe about a multiversal conqueror who has his eyes set on this version of Equestria. Your Twilight Sparkle may have been taken by him for whatever reason, and we need her back."

"But how?"

The solar Princess tapped her chin as she sat down again, in deep thought. "That is a very good question. I admit, I've forgotten most of what I learned about using the mirrors after Starswirl sealed the Canterlot mirror, however... there may be a way..."

"What?" Cadance asked, descending the stairs from her throne. "What's your idea?"

"Here is a question: How well would you all say that you know Twilight?" Celestia asked the assembled ponies around her.

"She's one of my best friends!" Cadance replied

"I've known her since she was born!" said Shining Armour

"I've known her since I was born!" added Spike.

"I might not know her personally, but if we're the same pony from different universes, I'll probably at least know how she thinks," Twilight said.

"Exactly, and I have been her mentor for over a decade now," Celestia replied. "And then there are her friends in Ponyville, the ponies who mean more to her than anything in the world. I know of an old spell that can use that kind of strong emotional and personal connection between ponies, and can be used to track them down, pinpointing exactly where they are. If we can somehow channel this spell via one of the mirror portals, we could use it to travel to wherever Twilight is being held."

Cadance gasped. "You really think that could work? I mean, that sounds like extremely complex magic."

Celestia stood up, her face grim with determination. "It will take enormous amounts of magical energy, but I feel that, with a strong enough emotional connection, it could be possible."

Spike leapt up from his cushion, having recovered from the initial shock of seeing the other Twilight Sparkle. "Then let's not waste any time! Let's get the girls from Ponyville up here, get to that mirror downstairs and do this thing!"

"I'm afraid the Crystal Empire's mirror will be of no use," Celestia replied. "That mirror is of the kind that can only send ponies to one universe: the same universe where you and Twilight travelled not long ago."

Spike's face reddened as he remembered. "And got turned into a dog by it..."

"Indeed," Celestia said with a slight grin. "However, there is a second mirror in Canterlot castle. It is capable of reaching any universe that its user can enchant it to reach, even though it has been deactivated for hundreds of years now. That is the mirror we will have to use."

Spike raised a claw. "So what's the plan?"

"I will return to Canterlot as soon as possible," she replied. "and begin going over my mentor's old research, and see if I can create the spell that can connect the mirror with wherever Twilight has been taken. In the mean time, the rest of you must travel to Ponyville as quickly as possible, gather up her friends and meet me in Canterlot."

"But what about the Crystal Empire?" Shining Armour interjected. "Cadance and I can't both leave it unprotected..."

"Which is why I'm staying behind."

The unicorn turned and looked at his wife in shock. "Wait, what?"

"You heard me," Cadance replied. "You go and find your sister for us, and bring her back. The ruler of a kingdom needs to stay with her people."

"But I'm a ruler too," Shining Armour replied.

Cadance shrugged. "Well, yeah, but I'm the holder of the title of Crystal Princess. No offence sweetie, but the only reason you're a prince is because you're married to me. You're the one marrying into royalty, so you're technically only a prince-consort."

"Ouch, Cadance," Shining Armour muttered.

"She has a point," Celestia added.

"Besides, you said yourself, you've known Twilight far longer than I have. So if this spell relies on emotional connection with the target, then it makes sense for somepony who has known them their whole life to be part of it, instead of somepony who's known them only a few years."

Shining Armour did not look entirely convinced, but he knew she was speaking sense. "Alright. I'll go with Celestia and the others, you stay here and keep the Crystal Ponies under control. But at the first sign of trouble, don't hesitate to contact me."

"Don't worry so much, Shiny," Cadance giggled. "I can take care of myself, you know."

He smiled. "I know I know... So then, I guess we'd better get going then?"

Celestia nodded. "Indeed you should. Shining Armour, you, Twilight and Spike head back to Ponyville and find Twilight's Ponyville friends, and then come straight to Canterlot Castle at once."

Shining Armour nodded, and with a beckoning hoof, led the way toward the train station. Twilight galloped after him, but skidded to a stop as she saw Spike barely able to keep up, jogging far behind her.

Fluttering to his side, she lowered a wing and gave an encouraging smile. "C'mon kiddo, hop on."

Spike eyes the strange alicorn with apprehension. "You sure?"

"Hey, I might be from a different universe, but I'm still Twilight," she replied.

Spike shrugged, and with a quick "Good point," hopped onto her back. Twilight flapped her wings, taking to the air and flying after Shining Armour.

Just as they disappeared down the stairs, Celestia looked once more to Cadance. "Good luck, Auntie Celestia," Cadance said, returning to her throne.

Celestia nodded and, with a blinding flash of white light, teleported out of the throne and vanished from sight.

"I still don't understand how you don't recognise me, Pinkie Pie. We've been friends for years!"

Pinkie Pie shrugged. "I'm sorry Minty, but I don't think I've ever seen you before in my life, and I never forget a face."

The two ponies sat in Sugarcube Corner. Opening hours were over, and as Mr. and Mrs. Cake tidied up the shop front, Pinkie Pie and Minty sat around a table, munching away on some leftover tarts. Minty rested her chin on the table. "Gosh, this whole day has been confusing. I wake up, all of Ponyville looks strange, there's much more ponies than usual, and then I find some ponies I know, but then they don't know me and... ooohh, this is all so strange!"

"Tell me about it," Pinkie replied. "There's been alot of strange ponies out and about today, even by my standards of strange! I wonder what's going on."

"Well, I hope it all sorts itself out soon. I don't know how much more confusion my head can take!"

Pinkie stood up, gulping down what remained of her tart in one go. "In the mean time, you're welcome to stay with me as long as you like. I like you, Minty, you seem really nice."

Minty smiled. "Thanks Pinkie Pie. Even if you're not the Pinkie Pie I know, I'm still glad to have a friend in all of this."

There came a knock at the door, followed by a familiar voice. "Pinkie Pie? Y'all okay in there?"

Pinkie's ears perked up at the sound of her name. Bouncing to the door, she unlocked it and pulled it open. "Hiya Applejack. I'd let you in but, well, it's past closing time."

Applejack shook her head. "It's alright Pinkie. I was just checkin' to see if ya were alright, what with everythin' going on today. Oh, who's yer friend?"

Pinkie beckoned Minty over to join her. "This is Minty, Applejack. Apparently she's lived in Ponyville all her life, but I've never seen her before, even though she say she has a friend named Pinkie Pie. Funny, huh?"

"Hi Applejack, nice hat!"

Applejack grinned and tipped her hat. "Gee, thanks! So, you say you've always lived in Ponyville?"

"Well, sort of," Minty replied. "I mean I have, but not in this Ponyville, if you know what I mean. Can there be more than one Ponyville?"

"I reckon it might have somethin' to do with that letter Twilight got before she left. And with the dragon that showed up earlier today that looks just like Rarity."

"You mean the one about another Twilight appearing in the Crystal Empire?" Pinkie asked. "Yeah, maybe... wait, there's a dragon that looks like Rarity? Why did nopony tell me about this?!"

She dashed past Applejack and hurried out into the town square, where, sure enough, just on the other side of the square stood Dragon-Rarity, with Rarity the Unicorn now sitting on her head. Rarity stood on the ground below the dragon, and waved when she saw Pinkie staring wide-eyed at the dragon.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! This... Is... Amazing!!" the pink pony zipped over to the strange trio, her mouth going a mile a minute. "Applejack wasn't kidding, you really do look like Rarity!"

The dragon smiled, revealing rows of teeth like knives. "No, she looks like me... And come to think of it, you rather look like a friend of mine. Your name isn't... Pinkie Pie, is it?"

Pinkie nodded. "Sure is! So wait, there's a Pinkie dragon too? And is there an Applejack dragon, and a Fluttershy dragon, and a Rainbow Dash dragon as well?!"

"Yes there are, actually," Dragon-Rarity replied, an eyebrow raised in curiosity. "How did you know their names?"

"Because those are my friends' names," she replied, looking up at the tiny filly on her head. "And who's your little friend up there?"

"I am Rarity the Unicorn," the filly called down. "Princess of Unicornia."

Pinkie tilted her head. "Unicornia? Huh, I didn't know that was a real place. Ah well, nice to meet ya!"

"A pleasure, I'm sure," Rarity the Unicorn replied.

But before the conversation could continue any further, the still evening air was rent asunder by a scream, ringing out long and loud from the direction of the Everfree Forest.

Dragon-Rarity's ears flattened against the shrill noise. "What in the wide world of Draconia was that?!"

"Land sakes, that sounded like Fluttershy," Applejack cried. "C'mon y'all!"

And so through the streets ran probably one of the stranger groups of people seen running through Ponyville: four ponies, a full-grown dragon flying overhead, with a filly who claimed to be a princess perched on her head. It was a common joke throughout Equestria that Ponyville was built on some sort of spacetime anomaly that just draws weirdness to it, due to the endless stories of travelling magicians, giant bears made of star-stuff, stampeding bunnies, armies of duplicate ponies and now a full-grown dragon flying through the streets. Perhaps there was some truth to that running-gag.

The ponies followed Fluttershy's screams, heading straight for her cottage on the edge of the Everfree Forest. But as they reached the edge of the town, they saw with horror the cause of the screams.

Another strange rip in the sky had appeared, just above the edge of the Forest, less than fifty feet away from Fluttershy's cottage. And from this rift there came great masses of shadowy, inky-black things, some of them vaguely shaped like ponies, but many of them were unlike any creature that the assembled ponies and dragon had ever seen. It was impossible to count how many there were, they seemed to merge together and split off into multiple forms almost at random. Many of them even seemed to be airborne, flying towards Ponyville while a smaller group were descending on the cottage of a terrified Fluttershy, who cowered with her animals inside her house.

Applejack scuffed the earth with a forehoof before charging headlong towards the cottage. "Hang on Fluttershy, we're comin'!"

"Hang on Fluttershy, I'm coming!"

But as they sprinted at the cottage, Applejack saw to her left a pony she did not recognise. It was a stallion, and earth pony around the same age as her, if not slightly younger, with pinkish-cream-coloured fur and a short, spiky brunette mane. She could not make out his cutie mark, he was galloping too quickly, but she could see it was something black and circular.

"Get away from her, you bastards!" the stallion shouted, eyes ablaze with anger staring directly at the strange shadowy things that closed in on the cottage. Leaping the fence in a single bound, he barrelled with full force into the shadows. Or he would have, had he not slipped right through them at the last second, tumbling along the ground until he collided with the cottage wall. His eyes snapped open, glancing left and right at the things that now not only surrounded the cottage, but were now closing in on him as well.

"Oh now, come on..." he muttered to himself.

"Hang in there, fella, help is on the way!"

Applejack leapt over the fence into Fluttershy's garden, kicking away at the shadows with her hind legs. A few kicks hit home, knocking the strange creatures back, but many blows seemed to sail right through the creatures' bodies like they were made of smoke.

Pinkie leapt into the fray, bouncing atop the heads of the shadowy masses, knocking a few to the floor and leading the rest on a merry chase around the garden. Applejack took the momentary respite to help the young stallion back onto his hooves.

"Oof... thanks Applejack," the stallion said, rubbing his head. "In hindsight that might not have been a smart idea of mine. Good to see you're here though."

Applejack was taken slightly aback. "Uh, yer welcome, but... do I know you?"

The stallion looked at her in confusion. "What are you talking about? It's me Applejack, it's Connor!"

Before she could question any further the shadows came back around to attack, but were driven back as Rarity joined the fight, sending blast after blast at the inky-black things with her horn.

Dragon-Rarity stomped into the fight as well, crushing many of the shadows under her foot or her tail. But even as she crushed them, the shadow-creatures seemed to slither out from under her, once again becoming intangible like smoke. Minty, meanwhile, could see that this was far out of her comfort zone, and so she steered well clear of the fight with Rarity the Unicorn.

"It's no good, Applejack!" Pinkie cried as she slipped through another shadow to land on the ground with a bump. "These guys just won't quit, whatever they are!"

"I know Pinkie, and more of 'em just keep comin' out of that hole in the sky, headin' straight for Ponyville!" Applejack replied. "Any ideas how to beat them?"

A flare of light from Rarity's horn whizzed past the earth pony, slamming headlong into one of the shadows, seemingly blasting a wide hole through its midsection. it split apart and faded into wisps of blackness. "Look at that," Rarity shouted. "They don't seem to like bright lights very much."

Dragon-Rarity stooped low, taking a deep breath. "Bright light? I think I can provide..."

"No, no firebreathin'!" Applejack shouted, knocking another shadow-creature back. "We're too close to the trees, you could start a forest fire!"

"Well then what can we do?" Rarity asked. "I can only shine my horn so bright for so long, Applejack, and more of these beastly things just keep appearing!"

Sure enough, even as she spoke, the shadow creature she had blasted apart coalesced back together into a vaguely equine form, which then lunged straight for Rarity, who was being slowly backed up against the wall of the cottage. The unicorn closed her eyes, her whole body tensing up as the shadowy thing came at her.

But it never came.

A deafening bang and a bright flash rang out, dissipating the shadow-creature that was looming over Rarity. She cracked an eye open and saw with relief the shadows reeling back from her. Looking around for the source of her salvation, Rarity flinched as there was a second bang and a flash of light, blasting apart more shadows and bringing the melee to a standstill. All eyes, equine, dragon and shadow-creature, turned to the source of the noise.

Standing on a hillock to the side of the cottage, a few feet down the edge of the forest, there was a steel-grey unicorn mare with a brown mane. She was dressed in a strange blue and yellow jacket with a saddlebag hanging off her side, and around one of her forelegs she wore a strange bracelet with a small green glowing screen.

But what drew the most attention was the strange object she held in her magical grip, like a short metal tube attached to a cylindrical body, with a small light-brown protrusion out the back, and another, darker-grey tube attached ontop of it. The unicorn pointed the end of the still-smoking object at the shadowy creatures with a look of grim determination.

"Alright," Littlepip shouted. "Would somepony care to tell me just what the flying fuck is going on around here?!"

Great Minds Think Alike

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All about her was darkness. So dark, she could not be sure she had even opened her eyes for all the difference it made.
But as Twilight staggered to her hooves, groaning from her own pounding headache and weak limbs, she saw that she was inside some strange structure. She was enclosed on all sides, with what looked like a large glass window on one side, and a smaller one higher up on the wall behind her. And on the other side of the larger glass wall, a much larger room, the walls lined with chambers similar to her own.

Are these... prison cells? Twilight tapped nervously on the glass. Solid as stone, not even wobbling or vibrating in the slightest. This isn't glass, she realised. This is... diamond!

Frantically, she slammed her eyes shut, preparing to charge up a teleportation spell to get her out of her cell. But as she felt the magical energy accumulating in her horn, her entire head throbbed with pain, and the spell dissipated. She tried again and again, but to no avail. Any spell she attempted to cast resulted in nothing but a feeble glow of magenta energy and a headache.

"You won't get anywhere with that, I'm afraid."

She froze in place as she heard the voice. As if by magic, a pony had suddenly stepped out of the shadows of one of the far corners. Or at least, she hoped it was a pony. With its rather strange armour, covered in glowing tubes and a strange sort of mask, somewhat like a respirator or a gasmask, covering its face, it was hard to tell. All she could see of their face were two big, purple eyes.

"Wh...What do you mean?" Twilight asked, shrinking away from the diamond glass as the figure approached.

"Disabling spell," they replied, in a buzzing, mechanical voice through the mask. It may have been her mind playing tricks on her, but something about the voice seemed feminine. "All of these cells have them, for obvious reasons. We can't have you escaping before he's done with you... but then again, given where we are, where exactly could you escape to?"

"Given where I...?" Twilight headed to the opposite wall, rearing up on her hind legs to get a peek out the high window.

For a brief second she saw nothing but blinding white light, but then the light dimmed and she saw it. All around her was an endless mass of swirling lights and colours, some impossible to describe, as far as she could see in any direction. It reminded her almost of the colours on a soap-bubble, constantly twisting and bulging, fading from one colour to the next. It looked almost exactly like what she had seen...

"... Between the mirrors," she whispered to herself, as stunned realisation chilled her whole body. "But that would mean..."

"Precisely, Twilight Sparkle," the figure interrupted. "We are in the space between spaces. The Limbo, the Bleed, the Void. The space that lies between universes. And the home of my master's fleet."

Looking again, Twilight could see them. Enormous structures, unlike any ship she had ever seen, just floating in the Void. They almost resembled enormous turtle shells, lined with windows and ports, and with massive tendrils of inky, shadowy blackness reaching out through giant holes in the underside of the vessels. There were dozens of them floating around her, ranging from little ships that could perhaps house a dozen or so ponies, to massive ships more akin to flying castles. But from what she could see through her tiny porthole, they all paled in comparison to the vessel that she herself sat imprisoned within.

"How many are there?"

"Enough," the figure replied. "Enough to spread across universe after universe, until they are all under the protection and control of Emperor Sombra."

Twilight turned away from the window. "Emperor who?!"

"Emperor Sombra, Commander of the Voidfleet, and Ruler of all Reality." she replied. "And I speak for him to you, as his Harbinger."

"How... how is this possible? We destroyed Sombra years ago!" Twilight exclaimed, slumping to the floor in shock. "I was there, I saw it happen! King Sombra is dead!"

Harbinger simply shook her head. "Oh you silly girl. Do you really think yours is the only world out there? My master, Emperor Sombra, is from a universe far apart from your own. And now, with the strength he has gathered to his side, he rides across the Multiverse, bringing every world and every universe under his control."

"But what do you want from me?"

Harbinger sat down just outside the diamond window. "Well you see, Emperor Sombra is not without mercy. He's taken quite the interest in you, Twilight Sparkle. It would be a shame for such an alicorn as yourself to go to waste in a world such as your own..."

Twilight cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean, 'wasted'?"

"Think about it," Harbinger replied. "Not only were you one of the most powerful unicorns in history, but now an alicorn no less! And yet what has happened to this girl with incredible power? Playing Fourth String to the other Princesses."

"That's not true," Twilight replied. "I'm equal with Celestia, Luna and Cadance now. And I know they must have some sort of plans for what I should do as a Princess..."

Harbinger raised an eyebrow sceptically. "Really? Can you be sure of that? How do you know the Princesses really consider you an equal? How do you know they aren't just keeping you around for some other, lesser reason?"

She placed a hoof on the window, staring intently at Twilight through the diamond glass. "We can offer you so much more. With your kind of magical power, you could be a true leader. You could command your own ship, and who knows? When Sombra's conquest is complete, perhaps he'll even let you hold dominion over a few worlds."

Twilight rubbed her head, her mind buzzing with thoughts. She had dealt with would-be conquerers and tyrants before, but at most, she had dealt with ones who had enslaved a city, or perhaps a kingdom at most. How could this Sombra character have amassed enough power to travel between universes at will? And just how far has he gone in his conquest? Has he really conquered whole universes?!

And what of his offer? Would he really give her a planet to call her own? given his apparent power, maybe he really could.

And if he offered you a choice of which world, said a voice in the back of her mind, why not your own world? You could keep it under your wing, keep it safe from the likes of this 'Emperor' character. For a split-second, it was almost a tempting offer.

"What are you, completely loco?!"

As soon as this thought became manifest in her mind, however, another cried out. Pinkie Pie's voice, no less!

She imagined what her friends would say, if they saw her agree to Emperor Sombra's terms.

"You seriously agreed to work for that creep?!"

"Heavens, Twilight, I thought you had a stronger resolve than this!"

"I ain't gonna live in any world ruled over by some tyrant who calls himself 'Emperor!"

They're right, she thought.

"So," Harbinger whispered through the glass. "What say you, Twilight Sparkle?"

"I say no."

The armoured pony stepped back from the glass, eyes wide with shock. "Pardon?!"

"I said no!" Twilight shouted, rising to her hooves again. "I'm not going to submit to the will of some tyrant like your master! And my friends back in my Equestria will give you the exact same answer. And as long as my friends fight against you, so will I!"

Harbinger stared through the glass at the alicorn, who glared defiantly back. She sighed. "I see. Well, that's... disappointing. But no matter, you're still trapped here with us, and I'm sure we'll find a... use, for you."

With that, the strange pony opened the door and left the room. Twilight shuddered slightly as she sat back down in her cell. She did not like the way that Harbinger had said the word 'use'.

On another part of the ship, a figure stood by a massive window that stretched across the room, looking out at the fleet of ships that floated in the Void around them. Behind the giant silhouetted figure, door opened and Harbinger skulked in.

"How is our prisoner doing?" the figure asked, in a voice like ice.

Harbinger bowed low. "Master. She was less than cooperative, I'm afraid. In her own words, for as long as her friends fight against you, so will she."

The shadowy figure sighed in a low, rumbling voice. "Indeed... Well then, we shall have to keep her around. She could prove useful as leverage, should things not go to plan."

"And until then," Harbinger asked, unable to contain the excitement in her voice. "Would it be okay for me to have a little... fun, with her?"

"If you must. Just, do not physically harm her. We need her alive and unspoiled," he replied.

Harbinger groaned with disappointment. "Oh, very well... Lucky for me, I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I've been meaning to try out."

Wringing her hooves with glee, the mare bowed low and exited the room, leaving the dark figure to gaze over his fleet, pondering his next move.

Rainbow Dash rubbed her eyes for the umpteenth time that morning. How can anypony stand to live in a place so... bright? Sure, Equestria was a very colourful and bright place to live, but here, all the colours seemed glaring, saturated in some way. Honestly, it hurt her eyes to stare at it for too long.

"Hey... Scootaloo," she asked the pony trotting ahead of her. "How much longer 'til we reach this Kimono person?"

The orange earth-pony pointed to a small house less than fifty feet down the road. "It's right there, Rainbow Dash. Are you sure you're alright? I'm sure I heard that you'd visited her less than a week ago."

"Right, sure..." Rainbow trailed off. Weird colours, ponies that I sorta recognise, but then I've never seen them before, but they... somehow recognise me... Sweet Celestia this place is weird!

The two knocked on the door of the modest cottage. From within they could hear the familiar clattering of hooves on a wooden floor, but also a muffled voice. The words were unclear and indistinguishable, but the tone was very obviously excited.

The door creaked open and in the doorway stood a violet mare, with a darker purple mane tied up in a topknot. She was dressed in the robe of her namesake, a kimono with an orange and red flowerprint. "Ah, Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash, do come in. I admit, I was not expecting visitors today but..."

"Who's at the door? Ohmygosh, is it more ponies? Oooh, I wanna see them, I wanna see!!"

Rainbow Dash felt her heart skip a few beats as she heard a familiar voice. Shrill, perpetually excited and hyperactive. "Pinkie Pie, is that you?!"

"Sure is, cute little pony! But how'd you know my name?" replied the voice. As the source of the voice came around a corner and stepped into view, Rainbow's jaw dropped nearly clean through the floor.

Sure enough, it looked like Pinkie Pie. Except last time she checked, the Pinkie Pie she knew was not dressed in a pink skirt, a white shirt and blue cardigan with blue knee-high boots and a bow in her hair. Nor was she furless, except for her mane, or lacking a tail, or walking on two legs.

But sure as her name was Rainbow Dash, this furless, bipedal clothed... thing, was Pinkie Pie.

Her dumbfounded shock was only amplified as the creature barrelled right towards her and swept her up in a rib-crunching hug, squealing at the top of her voice all the while.

"Ooooh, you are just the cutest thing! I mean, those colours look awesome on you, but you still look cute too! You know, you kinda remind me of a friend of mine back in high-school..."

"Pinkie."

The bipedal Pinkie Pie blushed, grinning awkwardly as she put Rainbow Dash back down. "Oops, sorry Kimono, I forgot. Sometimes I just don't know my own strength, you know?"

Kimono rolled her eyes. "I know. So, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, I imagine you are wondering exactly who this girl is?"

The two of them could only nod dumbly.

"Well, do come inside, and I will try my best to explain."

As Scootaloo closed the door behind her, another young pony skipped past the cottage, completely oblivious of the bizarre events transpiring within.

"So then," Kimono said as she sat down again inside the cottage. "Pinkie Pie, perhaps you could tell our friends here what you told me?"

The strange creature nodded as she perched herself on a hoofstool, barely large enough to accommodate her. "Okey dokey! Well first of all, hiya you two, I'm Pinkie Pie!"

Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo nodded, neither of them having quite rediscovered their voices.

Pinkie continued, "Well, the other day I was walking home from school, that's Canterlot High, with a couple of my friends, Applejack and Rarity..."

"Woah woah!" Rainbow Dash spoke up, waving her forehooves. "Hold up. So not only is you rname Pinkie Pie, but you also have friends called Applejack and Rarity?!"

"And Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, yeah!" Pinkie replied. "And like I said, you totally look like Rainbow Dash if she was a pony. What did you say your name was again?"

Rainbow scratched her head. "Erm, I am Rainbow Dash. And that's the weird, thing, I have friend with the exact same names as your friends. I even have a friend named Pinkie Pie, and she looks just like you if you were a pony instead of a.... erm..."
"Human?"

"Yeah, I guess... Wait, 'human'?" Rainbow Dash chuckled to herself. "Heheh, Lyra is gonna flip when I tell her about this!"

"Anyways," Pinkie continued. "One of my boots came undone, so I crouched down to tie it up again, and I told the others to go on, and I'd catch up. But then I get back up when I'm done, and suddenly I'm not on the high street anymore, I'm in this forest. Weird, huh?"

"Indeed, it is unusual," Kimono replied. "And neither of your friends were anywhere to be seen?"

"Nope. None of you have seen them, have you?"

"I am afraid not, Pinkie Pie," she said. "Though I do find your presence unusual. As a matter of fact, I too know of a pony named Pinkie Pie, who lives in town not far from here."

"Ooh, do you think I could meet her?" the human Pinkie leapt up, knocking her stool over. "I bet I'm super cute as a pony!"

"Uh, I dunno if that's a good idea," Rainbow said. "I mean, wouldn't that cause some sort of... I dunno, a paradox or something?"
Scootaloo asked, "What's a paradox?"

"I...uh..." Rainbow scratched her mane. "I dunno. But the thing is, I have a friend back where I come from, who says she once visited a world that was kinda similar to mine, but everyone was one of these 'human' things... Well, except for Spike, he was a dragon..."

"Spike the Dragon?" Scootaloo echoed. "You know him too?"

"Oh, you guys got a Spike as well, huh? That's pretty cool... Anyways, she did say that she met a bunch of humans who were exactly like me and my friends. In fact, Pinkie Pie, I think you met her, her name was Twilight-"

"Twilight? As in Twilight Sparkle?! Ohmygosh, she was awesome!" Pinkie interrupted, leaping up and down in excitement. "I remember now, she was a new girl at school, then she was crowned Princess of the Fall Formal, then she got into this battle with Sunset Shimmer, who turned into this huge demon thingy, then we all got cool powers, and she got to dance with Flash Sentry and..."

But she paused mid-tirade as Kimono pointedly cleared her throat. "Oh, er... sorry, got carried away again."

"It is quite alright," Kimono said, motioning for her to sit down again. "But you raise an interesting point. You mentioned that your friend Twilight Sparkle travelled to another world, Rainbow Dash? And that world was apparently where you came from, Pinkie Pie?"

"Yeah, but Princess Luna and Celestia said that the mirror that connected the two world only opened every thirty moons or something. And it doesn't sound like Pinkie Pie travelled through the mirror at all."

"Nah, I'd remember that," Pinkie added. "Like I said, One second I was on the high street, then I kneel down and when I look up, suddenly I'm in this forest!"

"That is kinda weird," Scootaloo said. "So if she is from another world, why is she suddenly here in ours?"

Kimono leaned forward in her seat, resting her chin on her forehooves. "I am not sure... This is all very confusing."

"It has been a rather strange day," Scootaloo agreed. "I've heard ponies all over Ponyville talking about seeing strange things, like strange creatures, ponies they've never seen before, giant floating cities in the sky, flying machines..."

"And this is why I live out of town," Kimono muttered, with a slight hint of snark.

Rainbow spoke up again. "Well, this is just an idea at the moment, but hear me out. After the whole thing with the mirror portal, I know that other worlds exist, and Pinkie Pie here is proof of that. And even though this place is called Ponyville, just like the place where I live, I've never been here before and I don't recognise anyone here. So what if this is another different world, and somehow I've ended up in it just like Pinkie?"

"But why? What has caused all this?" Kimono asked.

"Well, maybe for some reason all these different worlds are, like, coming together or connecting or something... It's kinda hard to describe."

"No, I think I understand what you're saying," Scootaloo replied. "I remember my sister Cheerilee read a book that talked about something like that."

Her sister... Cheerilee?! "And what did it say?"

"Well, it basically talked about the idea that the world we live in is just one in a bunch of different worlds. Like, when you make a fruitcake or a plum pudding. The book described it like all the different worlds are like the plums, all part of one big pudding, but held apart by the dough inbetween them."

"Mmm, I could sure go for some plum pudding right about now," Pinkie said, licking her lips.

"So, if we were to go by this analogy," Kimono continued, "What if the plums are, for whatever reason, coming closer together, or maybe even merging together somehow. That would, possibly, allow creatures from each world to cross over and interact."
Pinkie Pie sighed. "So somewhere out there is my actual home? Well that's kind of a relief, so I'm not stuck here in Ponyland... no offense."

Kimono smiled. "None taken. But the biggest question is, why? Why are all our worlds suddenly colliding together like this?"

"I dunno, but it may have something to do with that!"

All eyes turned to Scootaloo, who had headed over to one of the front windows, now pointing with a forehoof up at the sky outside. The three ponies and one human gathered at the window, watching in horror at the scene unfolding outside.

A pink and purple earth pony trotted down the path, a look of urgency on her face. "Ooh, I better hurry," she said to herself, "or I'll be late for Twinkle Twirl's class! And I don't like to face that pony when she's mad, no siree! She'll be all grumpy and she'll pick on me to demonstrate all the hard dance moves and... oh, you know what I mean..."

As Skywishes rambled on and on to herself, she failed two things. One was the rippling, surging rift in the sky high above her, out of which streamed strange black clouds and streaks of shadow. The other was the strange inky-black shadowy form that was emerging from the bushes just ahead of her.

Until she bumped headlong into the shadow, that is.

"Oof! Oh, sorry!" she muttered as she staggered back from the thing. "I guess I was thinking to myself, and I didn't look where I was going. You're not hurt are...?"

Only now did she get a good look at what she had bumped into. It was like the silhouette of a pony, only several heads taller than her, and somehow solid.

She did not even have time to scream before it expanded around her and engulfed her.

Fluttershy whimpered, huddled inside her cottage with her myriad animals gathered around her, desperately trying to shut her hears from the commotion outside. She could hear the shouts and screams of her friends as they battled the shadowy monsters that were descending on her house, but even a few voices that she did not recognise.

Silently, and treading as lightly as a mouse, she snuck over to one of the windows. She peeped up, peering outside at the melee. She could see her friends all in the midst of the fight, against the strange shadowy things, whatever they may be.

Her blood ran cold, however, as she saw a terrifying sight. A dragon, about the same size as her house, its scales white and purple, came barrelling into the fray, sweeping the shadows about with its massive tail. It did not seem to be using its firebreath, but that failed to make it any less terrifying to the poor pegasus. She stood, rooted to the spot with fear as she watched the dragon, until an earsplitting bang made her jump clean out of her skin with a squeak.

Not even bothering to look for the source of the sound, Fluttershy huddled down on the ground with her hooves covering her eyes, quivering like a leaf. She could hear another unfamiliar voice shouting something, and within a moment the commotion of the battle began anew outside

Suddenly, there was a loud rattling noise. She cowered even lower as she heard something outside, pushing and knocking on her door. Is it one of the shadow monsters, she thought. Is it something worse? Is it another dragon?!

"Fluttershy, open up!"

A masculine voice rang out from the other side of the door. Whoever it is, Fluttershy mused, it doesn't sound like how one of those shadow monsters probably sounds.

She got up, keeping her head low as the battle sounds seemed to be dying down outside, and hurried over to her porch. "Who are you out there?"

"It's me, Fluttershy, it's Connor!"

She frowned slightly. "Erm... sorry, b-but, I don't know anypony named Connor..."

The voice groaned. "Oh for crying out loud, why doesn't anypony recognise me?! Fluttershy, this isn't really the time to be playing around, now let me in, please!"

"I'm sorry, but I've never heard that n-name in my life, now i-if you could just go away and leave me alone p-please... I mean, if you wouldn't mind..."

There came another knock on the door, this time a little gentler. "Fluttershy, are ya in there?"

The timid pegasus' ears perked up at the more familiar voice. "Applejack?"

"It's okay Fluttershy, you can open the door. Whatever those thing were, they're gone now. And don't worry about this Connor fella. Whoever he is, he seems friendly enough."

Tentatively, Fluttershy slid the bolt on the door aside, and had barely enough time to step back before the door was pushed open from the other side and she found herself swept up in a pair of peach-coloured hooves. Her cheeks burned red as she opened her eyes and saw that she was, in fact, being hugged by a rather odd-looking pony.

He was a stallion, a little taller than her, with pinkish-cream coloured fur, and a short black mane, just as messy and spiky as his tail. He was holding her tight to him, hugging her with all the affection of a close friend of years. "Thank God," He whispered. "Thank God you're okay..."

"Erm, pardon me fella, but d'ya mind tellin' us why yer cuddlin' up with Fluttershy?"

Applejack stepped inside the house, frowning at the strange new stallion, followed closely behind by Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and a fourth pony she did not recognise, with greenish-turquoise fur and a pink mane, who smiled at her. "Aww, how sweet!" she said.

The stallion finally let go of her. "Alright, this is getting annoying now. You girls know me!" he said, his voice beginning to rise. "For the hundredth time, I'm Connor! You girls know me, we've been friends for a few years now!"

"My good sir," Rarity replied. "I think we would remember someone of your... unique, colour scheme."

"But... But..." Connor sputtered. "I-I'm friends with you girls. I used to be a human, remember? I helped save Ponyville when the Dragonfire ponies attacked. Me and Fluttershy, we've been..." he trailed off as he saw the blank faces on all the ponies around him. "You girls really don't know who I am, do you?"

They all shook their heads. "I-I'm sorry," Fluttershy replied. "I mean, you seem like a nice enough pony, but I've never seen you before in my life."

Connor's face fell as his hooves gave way beneath him and he slumped to the floor. "Dammit," he muttered. "Dammit, dammit, dammit. And just when I had everything figured out..."

There came an audible throat-clearing cough from the doorway, and all eyes turned to see the grey and brown unicorn standing in the doorway. "I hate to interrupt, but we might want to find somewhere a little safer to shelter, in case those shadowy things come back."

Minutes later, the small group were back in town, hunkering down inside Carousel Boutique. Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie and
Fluttershy all sat around a table, while Rarity the Unicorn, Connor and Minty sat at another adjacent table. Dragon-rarity, of course, remained outside, but poked through a ground-floor window, her head looking for all the world like some sort of morbid hunting trophy hung on the wall.

"Okay," the grey unicorn said, finishing a sip of hot chocolate. "First of all, my compliments to whoever made this hot-chocolate, this is probably the tastiest thing I've eaten in a long time!"

Pinkie Pie grinned with pride.

"And second, I want some answers if you don't mind. Who are you ponies, where am I, but most importantly of all, why the hell is this place so... green?!"

"What do you mean?" Applejack asked. "All of Equestria's like this. Well, except the Badlands and the Desert down south, but otherwise, this is pretty normal."

"Really? Because I'm pretty sure that after the Great War, all the megaspell-radiation made growing plants pretty much impossible, didn't it?"

"Great War? Megaspell? What on earth do you mean?" asked Rarity. "There hasn't been war in Equestria for almost a millennium. Well, maybe if you count the whole ordeal with the changelings a few years back."

"I remember that!" Connor blurted out. Wilting slightly under the bemused gazes, he trailed off again into muttering. "I-it's just... I remember that whole invasion. Another thing I was involved in, and let me guess..."

"Nope, sorry, I don't remember ya bein' there either," Applejack said with a shrug.

"Thought so."
Minty threw up her hooves, leaning back in her chair. "Can I just say that I have no idea what any of you ponies are talking about? What's Equestria? What are changelings? What's a war, even?!"

"I'd like to know that myself," Rarity the Unicorn added.

"Look, we don't have time for all this!" the Grey unicorn shouted, standing up. "I'd like some answers if you don't mind, but otherwise we should work on what to do when those shadowy things come back.

Rarity stood up as well, glaring at the unicorn across the table. "Pardon me, but when did you become in charge? We don't even know your name or where you came from!"

The unicorn stared back, refusing to back down. But as the tension became unbearable in the room, she sighed and backed down.

"Alright, alright. My name is Littlepip. I'm a Pipbuck technician for one of the Stables, Stable 2 in fact. I was out travelling, searching for a... a friend of mine. I'd just found this..." her horn glowed as she lifted up the strange weapon she had been carrying. "And I'd just gotten into a little fight with a pegasus pony who was trying to attack a caravan nearby. I passed out from my wounds, but when I woke up, here I was, with no idea where I had ended up, who anypony was, or how grass could be growing here! I thought the radiation from the megaspells had sterilised the land centuries ago. This whole place should be a wasteland."

Applejack shrugged. "I dunno what to tell you, but as far as I know, there's always been grass here. And I might not be some history buff like Twilight, but I'm pretty sure if there was some Great War that turned Equestria into a wasteland, I'd know about it."

Littlepip sat down, her head in her hooves. "This is insane. None of this makes any sense..."

Suddenly Pinkie Pie leapt out of her seat, jumping up and down, shrieking, " Ooh, hooh! I got it! I think I figured it out!"

"Pinkie Pie, whatever do you mean?" Rarity asked, watching her friend with some confusion.

"Well think about it," Pinkie explained. "Minty here apparently knows me, but we've never met before. Connor apparently knows all of us, but we've never met before. Littlepip says she comes from somewhere where all of Equestria is a wasteland, and now we've also got a young filly and a dragon who both call themselves Rarity."

"What are you getting at?" Connor said.

"Don't you get it, we're all from alternate universes!"

There was dead silence as Pinkie declared her conclusion. Even as she grinned proudly at her own genius, everypony looked at Pinkie with an expression one would wear upon seeing a friend declare themselves to be an alien or the second coming of Christ.

"Okay Pinkie," Connor said, rubbing his temples with a forehoof. "I dunno if they have comics in Equestria, but if they do, you gotta stop reading all those crossover stories."

"No no, hear me out!" Pinkie continued. "Remember when Twilight went after Sunset Shimmer into the mirror in the Crystal Empire? She said there was a whole other world on the other side of the mirror. So if that world exists, why couldn't all these other worlds? What if, somehow, all our different worlds are somehow merging together, into one big super-world? So ponies, and other creatures, are all appearing in eachother's worlds and stuff?"

Rarity frowned. "I don't know, Pinkie, that sounds rather far-fetched, don't you think?"

"Maybe, but it does seem to make sense," Littlepip added. "But if this is happening, then why? What's causing all this, and what's going to happen when all these worlds come together completely?"

"I'm guessing it had somethin' to do with those shadowy things, and that big hole in the sky," Applejack replied, walking over to the window to look at the rift that still hung in the sky, less than a mile away. "Whatever's causin' that must be causin' all this weirdness too... I wonder how Twilight's doin' up in the Crystal Empire, d'ya think she's figured all this out yet?"

Before she could even blink, Pinkie Pie was at the window alongside her, pointing out the window "You can ask her yourself!"
Sure enough, just at the far end of the town square, three familiar figures, two ponies and a tiny baby dragon, rounded the corner, but skidded to a halt as they saw the enormous body of the dragon sitting outside.

"Huh, when did Twilight get a dye job on her fur?"

Bumps in the Road

View Online

Deep beneath Canterlot Castle, there is a door. A door that leads to an extensive network of tunnels within the mountain itself that Canterlot is built into. Few have ever passed beyond that door, and not for the past thousand years has it been disturbed. But now, for the first time in a millennium, the library and study of Starswirl the Bearded himself was bathed in the glow of candlelight.

Celestia sat at a dusty old desk, flipping through ancient books and scrolls, quill held in her magical grip as she scribbled down notes on a sheet of parchment. The parchment was covered in strange sigils and glyphs, long incantations hastily scrawled down to be memorised later, and most important of all, as many memories and details she could remember about Twilight Sparkle. For while the formula and the incantation were an important part of the spell, she still remembered most of that from her experiments with Starswirl when the mirror was first created. The emotional connection with Twilight was vital, however, in connecting the mirror with her position, since connecting with a specific location was out of the question.

With a low sigh of frustration, she rubbed at her eyes with a hoof. "In all my years ruling," she muttered aloud to nopony in particular, "it seems I've almost forgotten how mind-numbing focused study can sometimes be."

"Tell me about it."

Celestia felt her heart leap into her throat. Her mane and tail swirled in all directions as she whipped around on the spot. "Who's there?"

"Oh come now Celestia, don't tell me that after all these millennia, you still don't recognise my beautiful voice?"

She lowered her guard. Of course, it would be him at a time like this. "Alright, you can come out now, Discord."

Right on cue, there was a bright flash of light, and suddenly less than a few feet away stood none other than the mismatched spirit of chaos, Discord. Floating through the air, he rested his chin in his hands. "So, Celestia, whatever are you doing down here? Isn't the dark usually Luna's thing?"

"Discord, as much as I love our little chats," she replied, returning to her studies, "this really is not a good time. I'm rather busy at the moment..."

"It's to do with all the beautifully bizarre things going on around Equestria, isn't it?" he asked. Holding up his hands in defence, he added. "And before you ask, I can assure you I had nothing to do with it!"

She nodded. "I know. I actually do know what the cause of all this is... or at least, I think I know. Tell me Discord, what do you know about Multiverse Theory?"

Discord chuckled. "Ahh, classic! I've even travelled to a few myself. I even found a universe where I was a banana, now that was a weird Monday... So where are you planning on heading?"

"Well, I'm not so much going to another universe, as much as I'm going to... the place inbetween universes," Celestia replied.

"Twilight Sparkle has been taken there, and is being held captive by a pony calling himself the 'Ruler of all Reality'."

"My my, how egotistical," Discord replied, rolling onto his back in mid-air. "I like him already! So your plan is to go into the Space between Spaces and get her back?"

She nodded. "I know it sounds far-fetched, but desperate times call for desperate measures. If only I could get this spell right!"

She scrunched up the sheet of parchment with the sigils and glyphs drawn on it and threw it against the wall. In a flash of light Discord was there, sweeping it up with a broom and scooper. "So what seems to be the problem? Travelling to the Void is tricky but it's hardly impossible. I do it all the time, it's like a holiday home to me!"

"Well I'd advise you against taking any vacations for a while, Discord," Celestia replied. "It would appear this rather unwelcome pony has station an entire army in the Void just outside our universe. And it's not just the travel that's the problem. I don't know the exact location where they are keeping Twilight, so instead I'm trying to create a formula for the mirror portal to lead to wherever she is via an emotional link. The memories and the friendship her friends feel for her can lead us right to her."

"My my, your 'Magic of Friendship' is rather versatile, isn't it?" he said with a smirk. "Offensive blasts, cleansing, petrifaction and now dowsing too?"

"It can be a source of great power, for those who wield it correctly," Celestia replied, matching his smirk with one of her own.

Discord shrugged. "I'll take your word for it. But if you're trying to make a link to a pony instead of a place, you got the sigil all wrong. Here..."

Shoving Celestia aside, he took up her quill pen in his tail and scrawled down another sigil which, despite the quill having been dipped in a black inkwell, was drawn in bright heliotrope. "A bit here... add the spiral here...take it through the Kamael instead of the Tzadkiel this time... Carry the one and... Perfect!"

Discord stepped aside, arms folded in smug satisfaction. Celestia picked up the scroll, looking over the sigil with a sharp eye. An eye that grew wider and wider with gobsmacked realisation every moment she looked at the thing. "But... but how did you...?"

"Dear little Princess Twilight isn't the only one who's been busy studying recently, Celestia," Discord interrupted. "You were pretty close, but it needed some tweaks. But that should get you where you need to go."

"Thank you Discord," Celestia replied with a smile. "It's perfect. Now if you don't mind, I really do need to get back to work I need this spell up and running as soon as possible."

Discord hovered in the air above her. "Ah yes, well, that's what I was coming here for. Y'see, while I was strolling around the castle, I noticed a rather interesting looking fellow wandering around."

"Interesting... how, exactly?"

"Well he was a big white alicorn with a long flowing mane and beard, dressed in gold armour with a crown. You don't have a brother by any chance, do you?"

He never got an answer. In a bright flash of light, Celestia was gone from the caverns and re-materialised in her throne room. Though she was not alone, for in the middle of the room, looking extremely confused and lost, was the very alicorn Discord described.

He was roughly the same size as Celestia, though with a bulkier, more muscular build. His fur was the purest white, while his long flowing mane and beard were a bright fiery red, as was his tail. His golden barding and gorget only added to his imposing figure, and atop his head was a plumed golden helmet. But most striking of all was his cutie mark: a yellow sunburst symbol, exactly like the one on Celestia's flank.

The two alicorns caught eachother's eyes and stared at into eachother's eyes in complete dumbfounded disbelief. Like a pair of cats who spot one another over a long distance, neither pony moved for a good while.

Finally, Celestia found her voice again and broke the silence. "Ahem... who are you? And what are you doing in my throne room?"

"I was about to ask you the exact same thing," he replied in a rich baritone voice. "This is my throne room, miss...?"

"Celestia," she answered. "Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria. And you are?"

The alicorn stallion slowly approached her. "I am Prince Solaris, ruler of Equestria... would you care to explain exactly what is going on here?"

Celestia sighed. This is going to be a very long day. "I will, but you may want to make yourself comfortable. This could take a while... Raven!"

A white unicorn with a brunette mane done up in a beehive poked her head around the doorway. "Yes, your majesty?"

"It seems I will be entertaining a guest for a while this afternoon. Would you please prepare us some tea?"

Raven spotted the second white alicorn in the room and her jaw dropped.

"Erm, Raven?"

She jumped, sputtering slightly as she found herself again. "Oh! Right, yes... tea, I will be right back with that!"

She disappeared back round the doorway and returned minutes later with a tray laden with a teapot, some cups and saucers, and a plate of small cakes. And for the next hour or so, Celestia and Solaris sat together in the throne room, taking tea as she explained everything she knew to him. Before long it became apparent that this Solaris was, as she had suspected, another version of her from a different universe. A universe where, going by his description, everything was virtually the same except the gender of everypony in it was swapped around. Her faithful student Twilight Sparkle was now his faithful student Dusk Shine, Princess Luna was Prince Artemis, Discord was Eris, King Sombra was Queen Umbra, Princess Cadance was Prince Concerto, Queen Chrysalis was King Metamorphosis, and so on and so forth. But aside from the mismatched genders, everything else was identical. Including the strange phenomena that was affecting Celestia's Equestria.

"Amazing," Solaris muttered as Celestia finished her explanation. "I had begun to theorise something similar myself: that the Multiverse was somehow being affected, causing all these strange things. I suppose great minds thing alike, eh Celestia?"

Celestia chuckled. "I suppose so. But whatever this Emperor Sombra is planning, it is only a matter of time before my ponies begin to panic."

"Not to mention him taking your student hostage. And speaking of which, with Artemis, Concerto and Dusk keeping things under control in my Equestria, I would be more than willing to help in that regard."

Celestia shook her head. "I appreciate the offer, but I don't think it would work. As I said, the spell requires a strong emotional connection to Twilight to work, and since you have never met her, I don't think you could do much in that regard."

"Maybe not," Solaris replied. "But punching a hole from one universe into the Void is no easy task. You'll need all the magic you can muster. Is there no way I could help in that regard?"

She tapped her chin with a hoof. "Hmm... I suppose it could... and you're right, this spell would require massive amounts of magic power. Even with Luna, Cadance and myself all working together, we'd be too exhausted to do much else afterwards..."
It was then that she had a flash. It was as if a lightbulb went off in her head. "I have a brilliant idea! Follow me!"

She galloped out of the throne room and back towards the caverns, Solaris close behind her. The two came back to the study and stood before the mirror. Celestia levitated a stack of old scrolls from a nearby bookshelf and flipped through them, pulling out a few sheets while setting the rest aside. "Yes... these will do."

"Wait, if your universe is similar to mine, then those are..."

"Indeed they are," Celestia said with a confident grin. "We can increase the power of the spell with you by my side, but why stop there? Why stop there, when there are so many other Celestias and Lunas out there in the Multiverse."

Hastily reading one of the parchments, she fired up her horn and cast a beam of golden light at the mirror that stood nearby. Its surface rippled and boiled, the jewels set into the frame glowing bright, before the whole mirror became still.

"Come on Solaris, let's go find the others!" she said as she leapt through the mirror and vanished from sight. The alicorn stallion glanced at the sheet, shrugged and followed her in.

"Admiral, I'm picking up a strange disturbance on one of the lower decks. It's reading like another of those rift anomalies we've been picking up."

Lights flashed and sirens blared on the bridge of the HMS Canterlot, the gargantuan flagship of the Equestrian starfleet. Admiral Celestia sat in her chair, taking messages from all departments and divisions on her ship, as well as listening in on the comm-chatter from the other ships. She groaned and held her head in her hooves. Just once, she thought, can I actually have an encounter with an ordinary alien lifeform, instead of constantly coming across some bizarro negative space hoo-hah?

"Patch me through to the nearest security team to the anomaly," she ordered, and the unicorn sitting at the communications console got to work. "Security, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, Admiral!" came the reply through the commlink. "We're just entering the room where the anomaly has been detected and... Oh."

"Security, what's in there?"

"Umm... Admiral, you may want to come down and see this for yourself," the team leader replied.

Admiral Celestia shrugged. "I guess I'll go see what's up. Vice-Admiral Luna, you have the bridge."

"Aye-aye!"

With her own personal security team behind her, she left the bridge and trotted down the corridor, until she was just outside the room where the anomaly had been detected. The two guards stationed by the door saluted her and stood aside as she entered.

"Ah, just the pony we wanted to see."

Before her stood two alicorns, one of which looked incredibly familiar. Both were white-furred alicorns in golden armour, one a mare with a mane and tail the colour of an aurora, while the other was a stallion with fiery red hair and a beard.

"You are Celestia, I presume?" The stallion asked. Admiral Celestia nodded dumbly, too shocked to speak.

"Well, you're probably aware of some rather strange anomalies affecting your... fleet," the mare added. "And that's why we're here: We are you from different universes, and we need your help."

The three new arrivals gawped up at the massive form of the dragon who sat nonchalantly by Sugarcube Corner. But none was more slack-jawed than Spike. Not only for seeing another live dragon for the first time in months, but because he recognised those colours anywhere.

"...Rarity?"

"Hmm?" The dragon turned around, looking about the square for the source of the voice. Spotting Spike, she smiled broadly. "Oh my, another dragon! Hello there, you must be friends with the other ponies... I say, you look rather familiar you know. By any chance is your name Spike?"

She knows my name! This... radiant beauty knows my name! "Erm, yeah... I-I'm Spike. It's n-nie to meet you too..." He reached out a tiny claw, and the massive dragon took it in her own claw and shook it delicately.

"Aww, you're just as much of a gentleman as the Spike back in my home. Well yes, my name is Rarity. And who are your friends here?"

Shining Armour was first to regain his voice. "M-my name's Shining Armour, and this is Twilight Sparkle... Erm, where are these 'other ponies'?"

As if on cue, the door to Sugarcube Corner burst open and a pink blur shot out. Before Twilight could react she found herself bowled over by a mass of pink fur, frizzy hair and a distinct smell of cotton-candy. "Wheeee, Twilight, you're back!" Pinkie Pie squealed as she hugged Twilight tight. Over her shoulder, Twilight could see four more ponies exiting the shop behind her.

Applejack smiled as she saw the familiar alicorn. "Glad to have ya back, Twilight. But when did ya get a dye job?"

"Yes indeed," Added Rarity. "It's a nice variation on your old look, but still, whenever did you find the time to do it? I thought you were in the Crystal Empire on urgent business."

"Uh yeah, about that..." Twilight trailed off as she pried Pinkie off of her. "Your Twilight... well, she... never made it to the Crystal Empire."

"What?!" cried the four ponies.

"She's been kidnapped!" Spike shouted. "I saw it with my own eyes. We were on the train together, when all of a sudden this great big hole appeared in the sky and out comes this... smokey, shadowy thing, I'm not sure exactly what it was. But it smashed through the train windows and pulled Twilight back up into that hole!"

"That's horrible!" Fluttershy said, shuddering. Connor placed a comforting forehoof on her shoulder. Nopony noticed, but from the look on his face it was obvious he wanted to do more.

Applejack scratched her head. "But if Twilight was kidnapped... then who's this?" she asked, pointing to Twilight.

Twilight waved a hoof. "Right, about that... uh, hi everypony. Yeah, I'm Twilight Sparkle, except I'm... not. Not yours anyway. You see I'm from an-"

"Alternate universe?"

The alicorn stared wide-eyed at Pinkie Pie. "B-but how did you...?"

"Hahah! I totally called it!" Pinkie shrieked. "I knew this all had something to do with alternate universes but the others, they didn't believe me!"

"Well like I said," Connor replied, "This all sounds like some goofy comic book!"

Minty joined the conversation as she chewed absent-mindedly on a candy-cane. "Well, I guess it does sorta explain a few things, like why nopony seems to recognise me."

"Yeah, I guess same goes for me," said Connor.

Littlepip nodded. "Same here. Because wherever this is it sure as hell isn't the Equestrian Wasteland I used to call home."

The group returned to Sugarcube Corner and headed upstairs to sit down as Twilight retold her story to the group, of how she had come from another universe to warn of Emperor Sombra's approach after he had conquered and then destroyed her universe. How she had followed Sombra's trail to this universe, her encounter in the Crystal Empire, and finally, the reason she, Shining Armour and Spike had come to Ponyville

"... Which is why we came to find you." she finished. "We believe your Twilight is being held by Sombra in the Void, the space between universes. Celestia intends to cut through to that Void and retrieve her, but she needs your help to track down where Twilight is, exactly."

"But how?"

"I'm not altogether clear on the details myself," Shining Armour replied. "Something to do with the emotional connection you all have with Twilight. But long story short, we need to get you all to Canterlot so we can do this spell and get our Twilight back."

"And the sooner you can do that, the better," Twilight replied, standing up from her table. Pacing up and down the landing, she continued. "Because this isn't the first time Emperor Sombra has done something like this."

"What do you mean?" Fluttershy asked.

"I've watched Sombra's campaign across the Multiverse for quite some time now," Twilight replied. "And sometimes, when he attacks a universe he will go after one specific person in that universe. I'm not exactly sure why, but he seems particularly interested in getting those individuals out of his way. And when he succeeds, that universe submits to him pretty soon after. I'm thinking that your Twilight may be his choice from this universe. "

"And all these odd things going on, that's because our universes are merging together?" Rarity asked. "But why is that happening? Is this Emperor Sombra character powerful enough to do this?"

Twilight shrugged. "I'm not sure. Maybe it's some sort of weapon of his. Why conquer individual universes when you can merge several of them together, and then conquer that one? It kinda makes sense."

"Or as much sense as any of this," Applejack replied.

"Well then there's no time to lose!" Littlepip said, springing to her hooves. "If you ponies need to get to Canterlot, then we go to Canterlot."

"I think a few of these fellows might disagree with that, I'm afraid," came Dragon-Rarity's voice from outside the window. Pinkie opened them and saw Dragon-Rarity flying just above the house. From her vantage point in the air, she could see another rift tearing itself open in the sky above Ponyville, less than a block away from Sugarcube Corner.

"C'mon ponies!" Pinkie dashed down the stairs to the ground floor. "Another of those skyholes is opening up!"

Following Pinkie Pie, the group hurried through the town square, now deserted as most ponies had locked themselves inside their houses. Rounding a bend they found themselves on what would usually be a quiet street. But now it was a hive of activity, as a score of the shadow monsters streamed out of the rift above.

Quickly, they ducked behind the corner. "Okay gals, we need to think about this before runnin' in. Twilight, any idea why they're here?"

"There's not too many of them, so I'd guess a scouting party. Looking for any weakpoints in the land to take advantage of."

"Right, so let's not give 'em any weakpoints to use. And we've seen they don't like bright lights much, so you and Rarity... er, that's our Rarity, get in there with your magic and light 'em up. Same goes fer you, Littlepip, they don't seem to like that flashy thing of yours much either"

"Right!" replied Rarity.

Littlepip nodded, hefting her Little Macintosh gun in her magical grip.

"As fer the other Rarities," she continued, turning to the filly and the dragon. "Y'all stay at this end of the street with Pinkie Pie and Minty, make sure they don't get further into town."

Dragon-Rarity and Rarity the Unicorn nodded.

"And Fluttershy, Connor, Spike and I can take the other end of the street. Pincer them into this one street until they're all taken care of."

"I gotta say, Applejack," Pinkie quipped. "You sound just like an army general when you talk about this kinda stuff."

Applejack shrugged. "Not much different from herdin' stampedin' cattle. Twilight, when yer ready fer us to come in and block them off, shoot up a flare or somethin'. Y'all ready?"

The group nodded. Silently nodding back, Applejack led Connor, Spike and Fluttershy around a back-alley to the other end of the street.

"Heh, suddenly I'm having flashbacks to my fight against the Dragonfire," Connor muttered with a grin as they snuck through the alley.

Spike glanced at him curiously. "The what-now?"

"Never mind." Connor's grin slipped a notch and they carried on in silence.

The group came round the corner and found themselves at the other end of the street, looking down the road at the group of shadow monsters who milled about in the street. They waited with baited breath for the others to get into position.

There it was! Over at the far end of the street, a beam of violet light shot into the air. Applejack, Connor and Spike moved down the street towards the shadow monsters. They would have been spotted, but Twilight, Rarity and Littlepip were already galloping into the fray, flashes of light and earsplitting bangs signalling that the fight had begun.

Rarity and Twilight's horns were lit up, bathing the street in white lights and sending the shadows retreating up the road, where they were met by Connor, Applejack and Spike, who kicked, bucked and pummelled at the inky black creatures. Most of their blows passed straight through their bodies, a few made contact, but it was enough to keep them distracted as the unicorns bore down on them with their flares and magical missiles. And behind them, Pinkie, Rarity the Unicorn and Dragon-Rarity came striding up the road, ready to pick off any stragglers who tried to flee.

"Keep it up everypony!" Applejack shouted as she kicked a shadow right in the chin, sending it reeling back. "We got 'em surrounded!"

Littlepip whirled around on the spot, blasting another shadow full in the face with her gun. "How long do we have to keep this up? Because I don't have endless ammo for this thing!"

"Until they're all gone, either headin' back into that hole, or if we knock 'em all out!" Applejack replied.

Dragon-Rarity nodded in satisfaction as a shadow dissipated under her massive foot. "Shouldn't be too hard."

But as she said it, the rift above the town opened wider. And with a great rumble what looked like a massive black cloud poured forth, made up of scores, perhaps even hundreds of shadow creatures.

"Oh you just had to go and say it, didn't you!" Rarity the Unicorn shouted.

For the first time in what felt like an aeon, Twilight found herself feeling completely content.

Her aches and pains were gone, her exhaustion was gone, and as she opened her eyes, she found herself in the last place she expected to see.

"...Ponyville?"

Sure enough, before her lay the familiar white walls and thatched rooftops of Ponyville. The Town Hall pavilion stood proudly in the centre of town, the Ponyville flag flying in the breeze. Sugarcube Corner, Carousel Boutique, the Golden Oaks Library, even Sweet Apple Acres in the distance. Tentatively, she took a step towards the town. Nothing seemed to change, there weren't any ripples in the air. Well, at least I know this isn't a dream...

As she strode through town, she was greeted by all she came across. There was no panic about strange visitors or sightings, no unknown ponies who looked out of place. Everypony seemed to be going about their lives as they had done for years before.

Heading for the town square, she saw a most welcoming sight: the doors of Sugarcube Corner were wide open, and just on the pavement outside was a large 'SALE' sign. needing no second bidding, she headed inside.

The store was fairly busy inside, with a dozen or so ponies crowded around the counter, buying all manner of cakes, pies, sweets and other foods. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were behind the counter, taking bits and handing out food. Mrs. Cake looked up and smiled as she saw Twilight enter. "Oh, good morning Twilight! Back from your trip?"

"Um, morning, Mrs. Cake," Twilight replied, happy to be home, but still unsure how exactly she got back. " Yeah, I... I guess I am back. Is Pinkie Pie around?"

"She's upstairs," Mr Cake replied. "Go ahead and say hi to her, she'll be thrilled to see you're back."

Saying a quick goodbye, Twilight headed up the stairs to the second floor and knocked on the door. "Pinkie Pie? Are you in there?" she asked. "It's Twilight."

"Twilight?!" came the excited reply. "Omigosh, come on in! I'd let you in but I'm a bit busy at the moment!"

She pushed the door open and saw Pinkie, smiling down at her from one of the rafters near the ceiling. "Pinkie Pie? What in Equestria are you doing up there?"

"Trying out a new party trick!" Pinkie giggled. "It's gonna be awesome if I can get it right. Could you fly on up here and give me a hand?"

"Uh, sure I guess..." Twilight opened her wings and flew up, perching on the rafter next to Pinkie. "Hey Pinkie, this may seem like a weird question but... where have I been the past few days?"

Pinkie frowned at her. "Whadaya mean? You've been off in the Crystal Empire. How do you not remember?"

Twilight shrugged. "I'm not sure... I-I thought I had been taken somewhere, but I can't really remember... I dunno, I'm just feeling a little weird. Anyway, what do you need help with?"

She pointed to a coil of rope by Twilight's foot. "Could you tie that around the end of my tail, then tie the other end to the rafter?"

"Uh... okay." Twilight looped the rope around the rafter under her hoof, uncertain exactly where Pinkie might be going with this. As she tied, the other end of the rope slipped off and hung loose from the rafter. "Oh shoot, hold on a second, just let me..."

But as she turned and stooped to lift up the other end of the rope, she felt her tail bump into Pinkie Pie, and everything happened at once.

Pinkie squeaked with shock as she slipped off the rafter, falling straight toward the floor rump-first.

Twilight turned just in time to watch in horror as Pinkie plummeted. Faster than thought, she grabbed the end of the rope in her magical grip, tied it into a loop and tossed it in Pinkie's direction to catch her before she slammed into the floor.

She breathed a sigh of relief as the rope did indeed catch Pinkie. A breath that died in her throat as quickly as it had been breathed as she saw the rope loop not around her hoof, or her waist, but her neck.

For a nanosecond that felt like an eternity, Twilight's heart stopped as she saw the rope tense and Pinkie came to a stop mere inches above the floor, the sound of the rope going taut perfectly echoing the sound of Pinkie's neck as the rope yanked on it.

A sickening, heartwrenching snap.

It's All Coming Together

View Online

True to her name, Rainbow Dash was the first to dash out Kimono's door and onto the pathway. Scootaloo, Kimono and the human Pinkie Pie made to follow her, but stopped in fear as they spotted the shadowy mass standing a few yards down the road, just below the rift in the sky.

A black murky hoof emerged from the mass, followed by a featureless face and a black body as the pony that once was Skywishes broke off from the shadow creature, all remnants of her former appearance replaced by inky darkness. The mass reformed into the vague shape of a pony, though larger than usual, and stood alongside her. And high above them, dozens more of the dark figures swarmed out of the rift, floating down towards the nearby town.

"R-rainbow Dash?" Scootaloo called from the doorway. "What are th-those things?"

Rainbow eyed the two shadows up and down, lowering her head and scuffing the dirt with a forehoof. "I dunno Scootaloo, but somehow I don't think they're too friendly."

Kimono shook her head as she stepped into her front garden. "Now Rainbow Dash, it's not healthy to have that kind of mindset. Just because some creature looks scary or dangerous, doesn't mean..."

She was cut off, however, as the shadow that once was Skywishes lunged forth, stomping down with full force at the spot where Rainbow Dash had been standing mere nanoseconds ago.

"... Well, never mind then."

A cloud of dust went up as Rainbow zoomed into the air, away from her attackers as the dust settled. Whatever these things are, I gotta get rid of them fast. It looks like there's even more trouble in town! She swooped back down, flying full speed at the shadows, eyes closed and hooves outstretched to punch them back.

But her hooves never made contact. Opening her eyes she saw behind her the shadows watching as she apparently sailed clean through them. With her attention on the shadows, she failed to notice her flight path taking her head-first into a hedge.

"Pony-Rainbow Dash!" the human Pinkie cried. "You okay?"

Rainbow grunted as she heaved herself free of the hedge. "Rrgh... I'm fine. But I don't get it, these things can somehow change whether they're solid or not! It's like tryin' to..."

She paused as the shadows leapt at her again, narrowly missing her as she took to the air again. "... like tryin' to fight shadows or smoke!"

"But how are you supposed to fight a shadow?!" Scootaloo called as Rainbow flew rings around the creatures, occasionally ducking low and striking with her back legs, to no avail as each blow slipped through their bodies.

The human Pinkie Pie ducked behind a fence. After the events of the Fall Formal last year, she was not exactly a stranger to battles with magical or supernatural creatures. But at least Sunset Shimmer could almost be reasoned with or spoken to. These shadowy things, whatever they were, did not look like they could be reasoned with. They were just... well, shadows!

Wait... shadows... "Ooh, I got an idea! Rainbow Pony!"

The pegasus looked up as she skidded into the ground, after another failed attempt to divebomb the shadow creatures.

The human Pinkie waved to her before tossing something to her. "Here! Point it at them and press the button on the top!"

Rainbow caught it, fumbling the tiny object in her forehooves. "A... What is this, a flashlight?"

"Just do it, hurry!"

She shrugged. Turning to face the two shadows, she aimed the flashlight keyring at them and pushed the button.

Rainbow barely had enough time to close her eyes before the tiny device lit up with a blinding beam of light. All she could hear was what sounded like a rushing wind, followed by something heavy falling to the ground.

"Skywishes! Oh Skywishes, are you alright?"

Cracking an eye open, Rainbow saw that the shadowy things had vanished without a trace, leaving behind the pink and purple Skywishes lying unconscious on the ground. Scootaloo rushed to her side, searching desperately for any sign of life. She relaxed considerably as she saw the gentle rising and falling of the earth pony's chest.

"Take her inside my house, Scootaloo," Kimono said, "Pinkie Pie, how did you know...?"

"That bright light would do the trick?" the human Pinkie finished. "I read alot of comics back home, and in those kinda stories, monsters that are shadowy or dark or whatever can never stand bright lights. So I figured my pocket flashlight would do the trick."

"A bit bright for a pocket flashlight, don't you think?" Rainbow chuckled. "Where'd you get something that powerful?"

Pinkie shrugged. "Dunno, my mom and dad got it for me when I started high-school. It gets pretty dark during winter, and they're kinda paranoid about me walking home alone in darkness. I guess they went a little overboard in getting a powerful light, huh?"

"Well when you get back to your universe, be sure to thank them, 'cos that flashlight may have saved our lives," Rainbow replied.

"Let's go, we should get into town fast!"

Scootaloo returned from the house. "Into town?! But Rainbow Dash, that's where they are!"

"You lose your nerve all of a sudden Scootaloo?" Rainbow asked as she peered in the direction of Ponyville. Sure enough, more and more of the shadows were emerging from the rift in the sky, descending to the ground as they spoke. "C'mon, your friends might need our help."

Quick as a flash, she took to the sky and flew towards Ponyville. From high up, she could see the creatures were swarming about through the streets. "I'll just gather up as many of them as I can, grab some flashlights and lanterns and..."

Her train of thought came to a crashing halt, however, as she saw barely a single pony on the streets. And the unlucky few that remained outside did not look to be fighting back. Most of the ponies had fled into their houses and barricaded themselves in. Rainbow winced, however, as she watched a few unlucky stragglers in the streets being chased down by the inky black shadows, cornered in alleyways or street corners.

"There's way too many of them for me to go around picking them off one by one," she said aloud to herself as she dodged a falling shadow. "Gotta find some way to take them all out at once... but how?"

She tapped a hoof to her chin as she flew around the town perimeter, occasionally flashing Pinkie's flashlight at any shadow that got too close to her. Come on Rainbow, think! You gotta take all these things by yourself... So how can you make a flash big enough to wipe them all out at once?

The Sonic Rainboom, perhaps? She shook her head. Nah, that might have the awesome boom and the rainbow shockwave, but it's not exactly a bright flash...

And then she remembered. A move she had perfected years ago. Aside from the Sonic Rainboom itself, it was one of her three most impressive aerial manoeuvres. A move she had not performed for ages...

Rainbow gulped. You can do this Rainbow. You know the technique, and you got the awesomeness to pull it off. You just gotta do it...

Steeling her resolve and gripping the flashlight in her teeth, Rainbow flew high up into the sky above Ponyville, the brightness of it vaporising any shadow that fell towards her from the rift, which now began to close, having disgorged its share of shadows. Turning around on the spot, forehooves outstretched before her, she zoomed down towards the town below, shadows all around her.

The move would take pinpoint precision and timing. She put on an extra burst of speed. The ground came rising up to meet her.
Then suddenly, she forced her wings wide, skidding to a halt in mid-air. This was it...

Anypony down in Ponyville who happened to be looking out the window at that time would have been temporarily blinded. The sky lit up with the intensity of a bomb exploding, or a thousand lightning strikes going off at once. The Buccaneer Blaze had that sort of effect.

The shadowy monsters below stood no chance. By the time the light finally died down, not a single one remained on the ground or the sky surrounding Ponyville.

Rainbow landed on the ground in the middle of the town square. Save for the echoes of the Buccaneer Blaze, silence reigned supreme. "Is everypony okay here?"

No reply. The silence was only broken by a faint whimpering. She followed it behind one of the vividly-pink houses, and found an earth pony cowering against the wall, covering her face in her hooves. She was a strange hodgepodge of colours, with cream-coloured fur, a mane of pastel orange, yellow and pink, and a tail of all sorts of blues and purples. She was almost as colourful as Rainbow herself.

But Rainbow Dash had little time to dwell on this, as her sympathy took over. She was never much good at being sensitive or gentle (Except when it came to Tank, of course), but neither was she ever one to stand idly by when somepony was in distress.

"Hey, it's okay," she said in a low voice, kneeling down in front of the quivering pony. "Those shadows are gone now, it's alright."
The earth pony jumped slightly as Rainbow placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. She looked up through eyes wide as dinnerplates, her pupils little more than pinpricks. "R-R-Rainbow... Dash?"

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, it's me... well, sorta. I mean, I'm not the Rainbow Dash you know, but that doesn't matter. The point is, you're safe now. What's your name?"

She wiped her snout with a hoof and took a few breaths to steady her voice. "T-Toola. Toola Roola..."

"Nice to meet ya Toola Roola," Rainbow said with a smile. Toola Roola?! There's a name nopony would self-apply back in my Ponyville... "Are you hurt or anything?"

"No... no, I'm alright now... those things, those... shadowy things... I don't know what they did, but one of them was chasing me. I was hiding here, and it..." Toola shuddered, holding her withers in her hooves. "It g-grew around me... everything went black."

Sounds like what happened to that Rainbowshine pony back near Kimono's house, Rainbow thought. "It's okay now. They're all gone now, I made sure of that."

"Really?" Toola looked up at Rainbow through teary eyes. "Th-that flash of light was you?"

Rainbow nodded. "The Buccaneer Blaze, a personal favourite flying move of mine. Not bad, eh?"

The earth pony nodded fervently. "It was amazing! How did you do it?"

"Ah, sorry, it's a secret. Can't explain my signature moves to just anypony. C'mon, let's get you somewhere safe. You sure it didn't do anything else to you?"

"A-actually, it did." Toola Roola stopped a moment, her eyes becoming fearful again. "After everything went black, I saw... things."

"Things?" Rainbow replied. "What kinda things?"

"I don't know... It was like, a lot of strange blurry images. I can't really remember right now."

"C'mon, we should really get you somewhere to rest," Rainbow replied, lending Toola a supporting shoulder. "Do you know a pony named Kimono?" Toola nodded. "We can head to her house. A good long rest, maybe it'll jog your memory of what you saw."

A short walk, a quick powernap and a soothing cup of chamomile tea later, and Toola Roola was on the mend.

Rainbow pulled Scootaloo aside and whispered to her. "Hey Scootaloo. I get that those shadowy things are pretty scary, but Toola here was shaking like a leaf when I found her. She practically looks like she was traumatised or something!"

"I can guess why," Scootaloo replied. "Poor Toola Roola is terrified of the dark. She's probably the only pony her age who still sleeps with a nightlight."

"Seriously?!" Rainbow sighed. "That explains why she was so shook up. I'm not one-hundred percent certain, but I think whatever that thing did to Rainbowshine happened to Toola as well."

"Let's find out." Scootaloo sat down beside Toola on a simple cushion on the floor n Kimono's living room. "Toola Roola? How are you feeling?"

"Much better, thank you." The cream-coloured pony nodded with a weak smile. "Kimono, you should really start selling this tea of yours, it's delicious!"

Kimono smiled. "Why thank you. Now then, Rainbow Dash tells me you saw something when that shadowy creature attacked you. Can you remember what it was?"

Toola's smile slipped. She sat back in thought, her eyes closed. "I think so... it's still kinda blurry, but I think... Yes, yes I remember it now!"

Kimono quickly grabbed a pencil and a sheet of paper from a nearby table and wrote as Toola described what she saw.

"I saw images of... ships. Huge ships, except they were floating in the air, and had no sails. They were somewhere... colourful. It was like a huge empty space filled with swirling colour, like the colours in a puddle of oil or something, it's hard to describe. And there were dozens of these ships."

Kimono scribbled down notes. "What else?"

Toola continued. "Then I saw this... creature. It looked like a grey and black unicorn, but bigger, and dressed in armour, with long black hair and a big spiky crown, and a blue cape... There were cities and towns, with holes in the sky, like the one that was above here... But then these places started disappearing. Like they were just drawings, and somebody was rubbing them out, until everything was just whiteness... Then there was the grey unicorn again, with..."

"Hundreds of those shadowy things behind him?"

Everyone present jumped as they heard a new voice among them. Rainbowshine had gotten up from her sleeping spot on the couch, and came to join the group. "Is that what you saw?"

"Yes, yes, that's it exactly!" Toola replied with a nod. "A-and they were all looking at that whiteness. It was coming at them like a huge wave or a wall or something, except there was this thing sticking out of the front, looking kind of like a pony made of... I dunno, light or something, it was all very weird."

"I saw the same thing," Rainbowshine said, sitting down beside Toola. "When that black thing attacked me, I saw all that sort of thing as well."

"This is amazing stuff!" The human Pinkie Pie added. "It all sounds exactly like something out of a comic I read back home!"
Rainbow Dash turned to the humanoid. "Really? So what happened in the comic?"

The human Pinkie stood up, pacing back and forth across the lounge. "Well, there was thing bad guy... the Anti-something, I forget his name... and he wanted to, like, destroy all the world or rule over it or whatever, you know what comic-book villains are like. Anyway, he came from a place called the Antimatter-Universe, where everything was reversed from how it was in other universes. And he wanted to use this antimatter stuff, which looked just like a huge white wave, to destroy all the positive-matter universes, which somehow would make him superpowerful... Y'know in hindsight, it was a weird story!"

"Weird or not, it does sound rather similar to what Rainbowshine and Toola Roola saw," Kimono replied.

"Oh it gets weirder," the human Pinkie continued, "This villain guy even had his own army of shadow-monsters, and they were defeated by really bright lights and everything!"

Rainbow raised a hoof. "So, in the comic how did the superheroes defeat this guy?"

The human Pinkie hesitated before answering. "Well... by gathering together all the superheroes from all the different universes that were left, and all fighting him together... I think, the story got really complicated later on."

"Sheesh, I'll stick to Daring Do books for now, thanks," Rainbow replied. "At least those all happen in one universe! But anyway, back to what they saw. This is just a guess, but maybe what they saw was what this unicorn fella planned to do. Maybe he wants to do something like the guy in Pinkie's comic, and that huge wave of white was some kinda superweapon or something."
Scootaloo gulped. "That doesn't sound good."

Suddenly, the assembled ponies (and human) were bowled over by a cacophony of noise from outside. It was a jumbled mix of screams, roars and explosions, coming from not too far away.

"Gah! Speaking of not sounding good," Pinkie shouted above the din. "What is there a war going on outside or something?!"

Rainbow got up and hurried to the window, pushing the drapes aside. Her eyes grew wide at the spectacle. "Yep, pretty much."

What had once been a bright green countryside, with a hedgerow and a dirt road going past Kimono's house, was now a chaotic village street. White and pink houses lines the cobblestone road, and ponies galloped up and down the street, many of them followed behind by the all-too-familiar shadow creatures. Rubble was strewn all about the place as a battle raged in the streets.

"Hang on," Rainbow said. "... I recognise those buildings. This is stirrup street! I'm back home!"

"But if we're in your Ponyville, then why doesn't my house look any different?" Kimono asked.

Scootaloo nodded. "And why are some of the buildings different, but some of them look like buildings in our Ponyville?"
Rainbow threw the door open. "We can worry about that later. Right now my hometown is under attack, and now I know how to beat these things. Come on!!"

The others following behind, Rainbow stepped out into the streets of Ponyville, flashlight at the ready, and leapt into the fray. She fought tooth and claw, barrelling down any shadow monsters she encountered, blasting them full in the face with Pinkie's torch. But for every shadow she vaporised, it seemed another came hurtling out of the rift in the sky above Ponyville. But she and her friends pressed onward, until they reached the Ponyville town square, where a large group of ponies were gathered, huddling together as they blasted and fought against the ever-pressing waves of shadows. Including a group of very familiar ponies.

"Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie Pie cried from the centre of the melee as she slammed down on the button atop a party cannon before her.

A shadow reeled back, batting at the confetti that now covered it. "Where have you been?! I've been worried about you!!"

Rainbow laughed. "Oh I've been places, alright. But I'll tell ya later. How are things going here?" she shouted back as she swooped in to join the battle.

Twilight lowered her head, firing a beam of violet light at another column of shadows vaporising several and driving the rest back.

"Not too good! We got some sort of dimensional rift open above Ponyville, these shadow creatures just keep coming, your universe's Twilight Sparkle has been kidnapped, and we have no idea how to close the rift!"

"You may not have to," Rainbow replied before rolling across the square and huddling up into the mass of ponies. "I'm guessing you know about the whole Multiverse thing at this point? Well in whatever universe I was just in, we had one of those rift things as well, but it eventually closed. It was smaller than this one though, so I dunno if they work the same."

"It closed on its own?" Rarity added, ducking below a small barricade to fix her askew mane. "Well that's a relief. After all if these rifts were made by magic, I'd hazard a guess that they require a lot of energy!"

Twilight's face lit up. "Oh my gosh, you're right! And if this rift is even bigger, then I'm guessing it'll close even quicker than the one Rainbow was dealing with."

"Well I hope that happens soon," Pinkie Pie replied. "Cos even I'm starting to get tired!"

The battle raged on for nearly an hour. The majority of ponies had retreated indoors for safety, and only a small pocket remained behind to help the now very bizarre group of friends. The rest had already been caught and taken over by the shadows. Thanks to Rainbow Dash and the human Pinkie Pie's knowledge about their weakness to light, Rarity, twilight and Rarity the Unicorn had a distinct advantage, sending beam after beam of light into the shadowy masses that threatened to engulf them on all sides. It was as if some invisible fire burned all around them, the smoky blackness was so thick.

"Hey Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo shouted above the melee. "Do you think you could do that trick you did back in the other Ponyville? The Blaze thing?"

Rainbow kicked at a shadow that got too close. "The Buccaneer Blaze? I dunno if I should, I'm still pretty worn out from the last one. Besides, wouldn't I be wasting my energy if more of them are just gonna keep coming afterwards?"

"You won't need to worry about that, look!"

The human Pinkie Pie pointed to the sky, where, at long last, the rift expelled its last waves of shadows, before quivering to a close and vanishing from sight.

"Anytime you're ready, Rainbow Dash!" Connor shouted.

Rainbow motioned to the others to give her space. They pushed out, forming a circle around her in the middle of the fight, holding back the waves of shadows.

Crouching low, Rainbow Dash pushed off with all her might, zooming high into the sky at near sonic speeds. She wheeled round in midair, until she was looking down at Ponyville far below. Apart from the circle of her friends in the centre of the town square, almost all the streets of the town were filled with blackness.

She took a deep breath, making a quick mental prayer to whomever may have been listening that it would go right. She muttered aloud. "Here goes nothin'."

She flew back a few feet, then barrelled down towards Ponyville with all her might. She was almost reach Rainboom levels of speed. Just a bit... further...

Finally, the window was open. The perfect moment had arrived, and she did it.

The searing light of the Buccaneer Blaze shone out across the sky above Ponyville, as if the sun had suddenly gone supernova. Nopony had ever truly seen exactly what the Buccaneer Blaze was, the light it produced was just that bright.

All across Ponyville the streets were cleared, as the shadow creatures vanished under the intense power of the light. Once more that day, Ponyville was silent, save for the last echoes of the Blaze, and the hissing screeches of the shadows as they were banished back to nothingness.

"Thanks so much for your help, girls. We don't know what we would have done if you hadn't come when you did!"

Mayor Mare had taken the group aside as cleanup efforts got underway to get Ponyville back to working order. The shadows may have been banished, but the damage they had done was still very much evident. But with both Ponyvilles now apparently merged together, ponies from both universes got to work together in repairing damage, reuniting families and caring for those unfortunate ponies who had been taken over by the shadowy demons.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Aww shucks, it was nothing. What'd you expect, we'd just let our hometown get overrun by those creeps?!"

"Ain't no shadowy demons gonna take over my hometown!" Applejack added with a determined stomp.

The Mayor smiled. "That said, we are once again in your debt. And to your new friends as well."

She bowed to Rarity the Unicorn, Dragon-Rarity, Connor, Littlepip, human Pinkie Pie, Minty, Scootaloo and Kimono.

"Thank you ma'am," Littlepip replied, bowing back. "Though by my guess, I'd say with this whole Multiverse business, we've got more than one version of Ponyville here right now. I'll bet that's gonna get confusing soon."

"Not to worry," the Mayor said. "I've already been informed about this whole Multiverse business, and I have my cohorts working out how to manage two Ponyvilles occupying the same place. But let it be known that whatever... ahem, whatever universe you are originally from, that you are welcome here."

"Aww, thanks miss Mayor!" The human Pinkie knelt down and picked up Mayor Mare in a tight affectionate hug, only breaking it when she opened her eyes again and saw the gobsmacked stares of everypony around her. "Aheheh... sorry."

"That's quite alright miss," Mayor Mare said, straightening her collar. "Now, I understand you and your friends have some business in Canterlot?" The five friends nodded. "Well I won't keep you then. Best of luck with whatever you're up to!" she called as she returned to her entourage of officials helping organise the cleanup effort.

"So you guys have a Canterlot too?" the human Pinkie asked. "So what have you gotta do there?"

Twilight Sparkle stood up on a piece of rubble, elevating her above the small crowd. "I guess this is as good a time as any. As it happens the Twilight Sparkle of this universe has been kidnapped by Emperor Sombra. We need to go to Canterlot to help the Princesses in a spell to get her back."

"Wait, hold on a sec," Rainbow Dash interrupted. "Emperor Sombra?! But I thought King Sombra was destroyed!"

"Your Sombra was. Emperor Sombra is from a different universe entirely. He is a warlord and tyrant, bent on conquering all the Multiverse for his own. And for whatever reason, he's kidnapped the Twilight Sparkle from your universe," Twilight replied. "Princess Celestia says she can create a spell to retrieve her from wherever Emperor Sombra is keeping her, but it requires an incredibly strong emotional connection with the Twilight Sparkle of this universe."

She paused a moment to let the information sink in. Kimono raised a hoof. "So if we don't directly know this Twilight Sparkle, I'm guessing we don't have to come along?"

Twilight nodded, as Spike replied. "Exactly. Only those who directly know Twilight need to come along. Otherwise, you might wanna try and track down anypony you know."

"However, I have a feeling we might need your help in future if this whole crisis continues. Which is why I took the time to make these..."

Twilight's horn lit up, and a small stack of sheets of paper levitated into the air. A sheet fluttered out to each different group of ponies from each different universe. "I enchanted them real quick during the cleanup effort. If one of you writes something on the paper, it will show up on everyone else's paper as well, so we can all keep in touch in case somepony needs help."

"Snazzy!" the human Pinkie said, examining her paper closely. "So I'm guessing you don't have cell...phones...?"

She trailed off, standing slowly up, stock still like deer in the headlights. "Excuse me ponies!"

Without another word, she sprinted off down a street, where a small group of figures were walking up the street. There were four more human girls, around the same age as the human Pinkie Pie. And also like the human Pinkie Pie, with very familiar colour schemes and hair.

"Pinkie Pie!" one of them screamed, running toward the pink-haired human as fast as her fabulous boots would carry her. "We were so worried!"

"Where've ya been, girl?" A blonde-haired girl in a cowboy-hat asked. "And fer that matter, where are we?!"

"We're in Equestria, Applejack!" the human Pinkie Pie replied. "This is where Twilight came from. Y'know, the place with all the ponies!"

"Seriously?!" The one with the rainbow-coloured hair gasped. "So what are the ponies like? What's Twilight up to?"

"Welllll..." The human Pinkie said. "Twilight's in a bit of a pickle at the moment. I can explain later, but in the meantime, how about you meet the ponies for yourself!"

They hurried back to the larger group, where nine jaws simultaneously dropped. The human Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity stared in utter bemusement at their pony counterparts, who stared back just as shocked.
"Now this is just plain damn weird," Littlepip muttered aloud.

It was as if all of reality had stopped. The word had frozen in its tracks. Twilight lay perched on the wooden beam, her eyes following Pinkie as she swung, limp and lifeless, from the rope.

But even as the world slowed down, Twilight's mind was already going at a million thoughts a second. The first thought being what to do next.

Do I cut her down? M-maybe she's still alive! But I saw and heard her neck snap, how could anypony survive that?! Oh sweet Celestia, what have I done?! She leapt down from the beam to land clumsily on the floor, quickly shuffling backwards away from the hanging body until she was cowering against a wall.

How could this happen?! This wasn't how it's supposed to be... Oh gosh, what if the others find out?! What's going to happen to me?! I just... I just wanted to help her...

She nearly leapt out of her skin as there came a knock at the door. "Twilight? Pinkie Pie? Y'all in there?"

"We're thinking of having a picnic lunch, care to join us?"

Rarity? Applejack? How did they know I was here? What will they say?! "D-don't come in!" she shouted, hastily cutting the rope and catching Pinkie in her magical grip.

"Twi? Y'okay in there?" Applejack asked, knocking again.

"I'm fine!!" Twilight screamed back, unable to hide her panic. "I'm j-just fine, we're fine... don't come in, I'll be out in a minute..."

"Is Pinkie in there?" came Fluttershy's voice

Twilight lowered the body to the floor gently. "Uh, yeah... sh-she'll be out too. I-in fact, you girls should g-go on ahead. We'll catch up l-later!"

But Applejack persisted. "Twilight what's going on in there? Why isn't Pinkie Pie saying anything?"

"Are you sure you're alright darling?" Rarity asked, daintily knocking on the door. "You sound rather flustered."

"Seriously girls, please, don't come in!" Twilight screamed, cradling Pinkie's body in her forehooves. "Just leave me alone!"

The doorknob turned, and the door creaked open. "Alright Twilight, enough is enough, we're comin' in," called Rainbow Dash.

"Whatever's going on can't be that bad!"

"No, please...!"

But it was too little too late. The door swung open, and the four ponies entered. And as soon as they saw the spectacle before them, Twilight standing over Pinkie Pie's lifeless body, all colour drained from their faces.

You could hear a pin drop, the silence was so thick and heavy. Twilight looked desperately to each of her friends, but their faces betrayed nothing but pure shock.

"I'm sorry..." she whispered. "I'm so, so sorry."

Applejack at last broke their silence. "What..."

"P-Pinkie Pie..." Fluttershy looked on the verge of tears. Or on the verge of vomiting, it was honestly hard to tell.

Rainbow Dash was instantly at Pinkie's side, cradling her head. "Pinkie Pie! Ohmygosh Pinkie, c'mon, wake up!!! Please, wake up!"

But she did not wake up. Rainbow's facade faded and her voice dissolved into sobbing. "H-how did this happen?"

"I'm sorry Rainbow," Twilight said, slowly backing away. "I was only trying to help... sh-she was doing some new party trick and I was helping her, a-and then she fell, so I threw a rope and... oh Celestia, it all happened so fast! Before I knew it, she... she was..."

"Ssshh, c'mon Twilight," Applejack said in a gentle voice. "Let's go, let's get you out..."

"No!" Twilight pushed her away. "Stay away! Please, don't touch me, just stay away!"

"Twilight, please, you're not thinking straight," Rarity tried to reason. "Just calm down and come with us. Everything's going to be fine."

Twilight was backed against the wall. "NO! Stay back! Just leave me alone!!"

"C'mon Twilight, seriously, we need to get you out of..."

"I said stay BACK!" Twilight's horn flared bright. A beam of violet light shot straight at Rainbow before she could lay a hoof on her. Rainbow Dash was knocked back almost six feet.

Her head flew even further.

"Oh no..." Twilight sunk to the floor. Her face and chest were spattered with blood as she loked down at Rainbow's body. "I-I... I didn't mean to... What... Oh gosh, what did I do?!"

"Alright, somepony help me get her outta here!" Applejack leapt forward, pushing Twilight to the floor, her strong earth-pony legs pinning her limbs to the floor.

"Please Applejack, I'm sorry! I don't know what came over me, I panicked!" Twilight wept openly, feebly struggling against her grip.

Rarity's horn began to glow. "Hold her down Applejack, I'll take care of this..."

"Oh no you won't! GET AWAY FROM ME!" But before she got a chance to cast any spell, a beam of magic caught Rarity right in the chest, sending her flying back against the window, and through it, falling with a gutwrenching crunch onto the hard ground below.

Beams and bolts of magic flew all about the room, shattering photo frames, shredding bedclothes and toys, leaving scorch-marks on the walls and ceiling. Twilight screamed and cried as she fought not only to keep her friends away from her, but also to get herself under control. Magical power and panic were never a wise combination, especially for an alicorn of Twilight's power.

"Stoppit! You're making it worse! Leave me alone and get out of here! I-I can't control it anymore!" she shrieked as another beam of energy shot forth from her horn, forming into a violet crescent, like a blade.

"T-Twilight, please! What are you doing?!" Fluttershy screamed, backing away.

But Twilight was beyond reason. Her panic and desperation had given in to madness. "I won't let you take me! Nopony can know!"

The wind was knocked out of her as Applejack leapt onto her back, sending her tumbling to the floor. "You murderer! You killed them Twilight, you killed 'em all. Yer outta yer mind!" she roared, pressing her full weight against her.

"You're...not..." Twilight heaved with all her might, getting back to her hooves and throwing Applejack off. "HELPING!"

Her horn flared, no, exploded with light, and the entire top floor of Sugarcube Corner was engulfed. Twilight closed her eyes and covered her ears against the explosion, only daring to peek after the roaring sound had died down. Her ears were still ringing, but the light of her horn faded at last, leaving only the charred, blasted remains of the top floor remaining.

All around her was death. The broken and bloodied bodies of her friends lay all around, some on the ground outside the bakery, where shocked ponies began to gather to see the aftermath of the cataclysm. Some still lay inside the wrecked building, Applejack impaled through the eye with a broken shard of glass, Rainbow's headless body hanging out a window, all visible except for Fluttershy. The only traces of her Twilight could see, were a few locks of scorched pink hair and a heap of greasy-smelling ash in the corner.

In the moment Twilight at last found the feeling in her extremities, she opened her wings and fled.

The Crisis on Infinite Equestrias

by Redback Spino

Prelude to Weirdness

New Faces and New Places

A Hole in the Sky

The board is set, the pieces are moving.

Great Minds Think Alike

Bumps in the Road

It's All Coming Together