> Penumbra
>  by The Vault Tech
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The View
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight looked out of the train window, exasperated. That last mob almost got them, at this rate they may not even-

"Twilight, you okay?" Spike asked, interrupting her train of thought.

"Yeah Spike, just thinking about how angry that mob was, and how close they had come to straight out-"

"Twilight! It's okay, even if they had, we could've handled it."

"But that's part of it, Spike. We would've had to 'handle it.' How would've we done that?" Twilight responded with a desperate tone. Spike merely looked down at his feet.
The train came to slow halt as they arrived in Canterlot. There wasn't a mob here like every other stop, instead there were armed guards keeping a few stubborn ponies at bay. Twilight and Spike stepped off the train with their bags; Spike now being big enough to carry his own luggage. They were quickly met by an armed escort led by Shining Armour, whom for his part did not attack or berate Twilight.
Nobody interfered as Twilight, Spike, and their entourage made their way to the castle.... what remained of it, anyway. Twilight's eyes may have started going recently, likely from all of the books she shoves her nose into, but she could clearly see the destroyed left half of the castle littered with repair crews and rubble. She didn't look to her left where there were gaps in the buildings- she knew what was there.
There was a picket line at the castle they had to cross, which was easily and quickly done with some pointy sticks and threats that were more than half-full. They opened a door to find a very prim and proper series of princesses... and their assigned councilors.

"Ah, hello Spike" Princess Celestia greeted Spike with a modicum of warmth, which was lacking in her turn to Twilight, "Greetings, Twilight." The others greeted in a similar manner, save the councilors, who seemed to be content glaring at Twilight as though she had personally wrought their families' deaths.

"I hope this is worth our time, Twilight Sparkle. We are very busy with reconstruction, you understand, and your popularity is not helping." Luna said staunchly

"I understand, I promise it'll be worth your while. Besides, I was summoned by the Council of Princesses, so if you think it's a waste of time, you should've vetoed."

"What? We did not summon you, we-"

"We summoned you, using the Council as a front." Featherhoof pronounced smugly from Celestia's side

"Featherhoof, that's illegal, you-"

"Were totally justified in taking this liberty. I'm sure the people will agree."

Celestia did very well to hide her fury. The others, though clearly upset, remained silent. "Come along, then, to the ampitheatre so we can see this new WONDERFUL device in action." Featherhoof all but sneered for the last half. He turned and led the way through the door, with the other councilors leaving their respected princesses' sides to join Featherhoof's.
The journey through to the ampitheatre was remarkably quiet, but whether that was because Featherhoof was listening intently or because the Princesses had nothing to say to Twilight was undiscernable.... They eventually reached the door to the ampitheatre, and were greeted by boo's and shouts of general disdain. A few tomatoes were thrown, but blocked easily and the transgressors were "politely" asked to leave.
The ampitheatre was a large colosseum-like stadium with a slightly raised wooden platform in the centre protruding like an unwanted child in a belly. There was a small area near the walls of the stadium with protective glass to protect the closer viewers held within; the councilors took this place, while the princesses took seats in thrones- noticeably unprotected and much closer.

Twilight began unpacking the device while Spike began speaking to the crowd, aided by a spell to help him yell over the boo's, "Hello, all! Thank you for coming!"

"You suck!"
"Go to Tartarus!"
"My leg!"

"I'm sure you've all heard all about the incredible that my friend Twilight Sparkle has created!" Spike continued, completely unhindered by the shouting. "Now I know you have a few reservations about Twilight-"

"Damn right!" Featherhoof interrupted, eliciting a cheer and applause from the entire crowd.

Spike hesitated for a second to force a smirk, as though he didn't care, before continuing, "But rest assured that I have personally seen this device in action a dozen times. Now, for the first time, Twilight will be showing it off in public! Now prepare yourself for-oof!" Spike was interrupted by a rather hardily thrown rock surrounded by a pink glow, which caused an eruption of laughter. The thrower was not found, and the guards gave up trying in a few minutes; but this still barely slowed Spike, "P-prepare yourselves for the view of a lifetime!"

Twilight, having donned scrubs and goggles, moved the device and took her place next to it. She nodded to Spike, and the crowd fell silent. Mostly.

"Hurry up, we've got important business to attend to! We wanted to see this failure of an attempt at redemption so we could finally finish up ensuring you could never be a Princess ever again!" There were a few cheers for Featherhoof, but most of the ponies were interested in the sparking device, which they were only now really noticing.
The device had a central glass orb with a dozen other bars orbiting it, apparently connected to the device, all appearing to be made of a metal similar in color to gold, though nobody could tell what it really was. The entire thing was no more than about a foot wide and two tall. While the orb was attached to a pedestal, as it sparked and jolted, it slowly ascended into the air, revealing that the glass core was attached to nothing. As it sputtered and coughed like a dying child, the metal bars began to vibrate.
A bright flashing appeared above the machine, "For your own safety, please refrain from looking directly at the light above the device at the current time. It may cause blindness, concussion, insanity, aneurysm..." Twilight stated calmly. The audience reacted less calmly and immediately looked back to the device; for the most part. The bars around the core began twisting and bending loudly, they creaked and groaned and collapsed in on each other. What was once a series of metal bars were now small, perfectly shaped orbs rapidly orbiting the core, which was now spinning at a great speed. The pedestal of no ornate it was once resting on was now receiving electric bolts from the area around the orb and its balls. Twilight and Spike watched calmly, while the audience was alive with murmurs of fear and disbelief.
The light above the orb began to flash brighter and fade as the orb itself cracked and tore itself apart, fragmenting into several pieces, and causing a brilliantly blinding white light. The audience screamed as it was absorbed into it... and then silence... There was nothing, simply silence and light...
It seemed to last an eternity to the first time viewers, but it eventually faded to reveal that not only was everything in place and fine in the theatre, but that there was now a large spectrum of colours very unlike Aurora Equestrialus hovering above the device. The device itself had stabilized, the fragments orbiting slowly some unseen centre of mass, and the small balls orbiting the orb. The pedestal seemed to be projecting pure energy into the orb, but otherwise appeared unchanged.

"This is the dimensional viewer," Spike explained, "from here we can see into any other dimension, universe, or anything in our own that is otherwise unnoticeable! The only catch is that the device can only show you what is in other universes from where you are. You see, they're all layered onto-"

"Yawn." Featherhoof put a hoof up to his mouth to cover his faux yawn, and addressed the audience, "This is clearly a mere illusion."

"Actually, it's not. An illusion would be easily dispelled by the charms you already cast here. You did cast them, right?"

"Well..."

"If you didn't, you're a fool. If you did, you're an arse. Now, please take your seat and watch." Twilight Silently and dutifully pressed a button, revealing a beautiful grassland.

"Whoah..."
"Incredible..."
"I'm still alive!"

Twilight pressed another button, revealing a land plagued by some unknown parasite devouring trees and plants none of them had ever seen before. Another button revealed a mountain that had its point as the base, slowly expanding upwards. Press again, and another luscious grassland.

"Twilight, are all of the universes like this?" Cadence interrupted.

"Well, no, of course not." Twilight responded. "Me and my number one assistant, Spike, have spent hours cycling through emptiness and more emptiness to locate the few inhabited and, well, neat ones."

Celestia spoke now, "Is this a door, Twilight? Can we use it to enter and explore?"

"No, I'm afraid not Princess Celestia. This is only a window; though I suspect that I could create a door given enough time."

"Wait! How do we know this isn't just a portal to places in our world?" Featherhoof yelled.

Before anyone could even shout to agree, Spike yelled, "Because of this!"

Twilight pressed a button, revealing several strange being in even stranger dress in a desert, "This is John. While you may not be able to go through a closed window, you can occasionally make yourself heard through it. Though I do not have the equipment to do so now, I assure you they have the ability to communicate very well. Though he may appear but a biped like some ape, he's one of the smartest entities I've ever spoken to."

The creature produced a small paper that depicted a biped and a pony happily getting along. It then waved its right arm at the ponies, a few of whom waved back.

"Unfortunately, this is all of the time we're allotted before the device begins reaching universe-destroying energy levels." Twilight hit the off switch, causing the biped to vanish, replaced by the original air in the stadium, and the orb and balls to fall into the pedestal with a thunk.

"Bravo!"
"Impeccable!"
"Photosynthesis!"

Twilight packed up her device and left with Spike back through the door without waiting for an escort, or listening to the sure-to-follow speech by Featherhoof. She was followed by the Princesses after they listened to the speech, bot so much because they wanted to.. They found her sitting on the throne, with Spike resting against a wall.
Twilight appreciated the room, as empty and beautiful as a newborn's mind. Regal, decorated only sparsely with some banners and abstract paintings.

"That was incredible, Princess Twilight Sparkle." Luna commented

Twilight slowly turned her head towards Luna. Spike remained seated and seemingly ignorant.

"She's right, Twilight, I've never seen anything so lovely." Cadence agreed

Celestia approached Twilight and spoke gently, "This changes everything."

"Changes what?" Twilight responded. Spike watched now, and seemed prepared to jump up.

"Your mistake, it-"

"How can that be changed? It happened, nothing's changed." Twilight looked blank

"That's not true, you should have heard the people and Featherhoof talking about how great you are."

"It's all Minotaur manure, Celestia." Twilight stated her name hard, "I killed damnably near half of Canterlot's population, destroyed the castle, left a crack in Equestria that ruined trade for months, starved cities, my actions started wars and ended trade deals."

"Yes, but now you opened a portal to unlimited resources and space. We could-"

"No, I didn't. I created something else to fight over. And besides, does that really even out? Hundreds of deaths..." Spike got up and and held Twilight for a moment before walking out the front door, with Twilight in tow.
They left the device there, sure nothing would come of it.