> The Forgotten Void Dweller > by Kaffeina > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Sometimes, the Void surprises me. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi! Oh, what’s that? Well, of course I’ll tell you who I am, dear reader, my name, at least my current name, is Magnus. I’m a retired SysAdmin from an old part of this Multiverse, often called the Displaced Multiverse. I live my life fixing issues in the Void, fractures in Universes or branches. Death has graced me with no enemies and many friends, however, I am an alternate of an evil being here, his name is The Merchant. However, my power, being merely low Godly, has assured people I am no threat. I happen to Displace people as well, but not in that tearing them from home sort of way, in fact, I’m displacing someone right now. I finished my inner monologue to my possible readers, and resumed my conversation with one of the mortals from the universe I had repaired. “What do you say?” I asked, having offered Displacement as an alternative for him and his daughter to dying in the oncoming civil war between their two factions. He started to speak and I took a small sip of my coffee. “It sounds promising,” he said, nodding, “but this is a lot to take in.” I nodded, understanding how he felt, much like my own arrival into the Void, “Of course, take your time,” I smiled and took another sip of my coffee. He stared off into space, holding the mug for a moment or two before turning back, “You know what, I’ll take that deal, what powers do we get?” I shook my hand, “I’ll give your daughter’s powers to her in just a moment,” I said, before pulling out five lists, each with five unique powers on them. Some of my Displaced have called it the Power Lotto, but only Essence really does a lotto, with a few others. My means are direct and precise, I offer two good powers, two decent powers, and a physiology. Nothing else to it, they merely pick their most desirable one. This had led to a fair few being greedy and me having to remove their powers, giving them time to learn their lesson before offering different powers. He looked over them, noting each power as he did so before pointing at the one on the far left, “That one,” he said firmly. I smiled. I was right, he was a good person, picking powers that benefited others and allowed him to protect them as well. “Admirable choice,” I said, giving him a friendly grin and granting him his new powers before marking him, in a very non-obnoxious way. Just a mark to show to others he had been Displaced by yours truly. I waved my hand, sending him, and his daughter who had already chosen her powers and been marked, to a choice Equestria, one of my favorite universe styles. And then, my coffee was interrupted by a minor annoyance, Essence, currently one of three well known entities, along with Aaron and Death. She appeared to be chatting it up with a friend of hers, Illusionist. I’ve ‘met’ her before, and found her both charming, and a bit annoying. Although, I’d suppose it comes with being Madness, as well as a Meta. I finished my coffee and, in my usual quiet way of doing so, reentered normal Void space, a beautiful view every time. I made my way over to a particular universe, one involving something about twin-tails and watched for awhile before looking over to see the Displaced Void Dweller, Aaron Heibai, drifted towards me. I decided to attempt to get his attention and avoid a potential collision, I happened to enjoy my particular spot in the Void at present time, and called out, “Aaron, do please watch where-” he flew right through me and it was then I remembered, I haven’t been seen by any other Void Dwellers since my retirement, and I mean that literally, they cannot see me, it’s never been explained to me by Death, but it does get depressing. I watched him go, off to whatever his next destination was, and returned to watching the universe, which had already reached the eventful climax of its timeline, leaving me with a bitter taste at the quick end. It was no issue, I could rewind, but I decided to take my free time and visit a universe I particularly enjoy, one in which Celestia is a dear friend. I drifted through the boundary and entered the universe, appearing next to Canterlot castle in time for Celestia’s daily tea and coffee on her favorite balcony, the princess looked particularly happy, her white coat twinkling lightly in the summer sun. I sat myself in the seat she always left open, for myself, and she started speaking, “Are you there, old friend?” She asked, her voice beautiful as always. “Who else would it be?” I asked, adding a bit of playfulness to my voice. She smiled, and started speaking, “Of course, I have wonderful news,” her eyes brightened, joy having lit them up. “Luna has come back to me,” she said. I forced myself to speak joyfully in return, “That is very wonderful indeed,” I told her, truly happy her sister was back, but also fearing, and knowing, what she would say next. “It is, Magnus, but I’m afraid I no longer need an imaginary friend to hold my hoof,” she said, still believing, a thousand later, I was her imagination. “Of course, shall I go?” I asked, attempting to keep my sadness in check. “Not yet,” she said, “I wish to reminisce with you, just for a second.” She said that, but, whenever I come back, far in the future, she never remembers and I am left alone, with nobody to talk to, leading me to yet another version of her before the process repeated itself. And so, I sat there, waiting, and, as time came for her to lower the sun, Luna appeared. “Sister, have you been talking with someone?” She asked, her demeanor still the same after a thousand years upon a barren rock trapped in her own jealousy. “No, Lulu, I wasn’t talking to anyone but myself,” Celestia said, her horn beginning to glow as she lowered the sun and I returned to the Void. With a sigh, I drifted off to another fractured universe, ready to send a new Displaced to their new home. This was usually how I repaid Celestia for her short friendship. I would send only the friendliest Displaced to each Celestia, checking in on them, only to find their memories of me faded and many of them accepting that they must have been displaced by the Merchant. It’s hard, you know, being invisible and easily forgotten. Before I retired, I had many friends, now? All I have as a friend is a a pony princess who forgets me moments after we speak for the last time. In all the Omniverse, I’ve found only one person can still see me. Death, a creator, and he’s nice enough, we hang out at my favorite cafe here and there, and, thanks to him, there’s always coffee for me while I’m there. In fact, I drifted back into the coffee shop, and took my usual seat, refilling my own personal mug. It always felt nice to sit here, sip a steaming cup, and watch the interactions of other Void Dwellers, as well as the assorted screens, each focused on a random universe. I had gotten so caught up in the one I was watching, that I hadn’t noticed Death as he appeared and poured a cup for himself. “Hello Magnus,” he said, bringing me out of my stupor and back to the cafe. Death’s usual appearance, at least around me, is that of a man in his early twenties in an unbuttoned button-up, a T-shirt underneath, and jeans with sneakers. “Hello Death,” I greeted him, taking a second to flick my eyes to the screen before taking a drink of my coffee. I am, however, am not like Death. His appearance makes you, in this case, think he’s cool, and the type of person you’d hang out with. I have a tendency to wear a frayed jacket, a baggy shirt, baggy jeans, and raggedy old shoes. In fact, these were the exact clothes I had been wearing when I started the job. “How goes Displacement and fracture repairs?” he asked, as usual. Death is normally concerned by such things, as I am one of few SysAdmins who didn’t lose access to coding upon the ending of the SysAdmin Corps, or whatever they had been calling it. “Well enough,” I said, handing him the tablet he had passed me long ago, and continuing, “I’ve fixed the section of the Equestrian Branch that had been drifting off, and I talked Yggdrasil out of invading the Hexical Branch,” he nodded, noting the data on the tablet, which recorded every repair I make. “It’s good to know you’re still working over here,” he said, returning the tablet, which was still open to the data on the Hexical Branch, revealing what I had actually done. Yggdrasil had invaded, after my attempt to talk to it, and I had eventually convinced it to retreat, however, it had taken several Hexical universes before this. This left me to clean up the mess of moving, and fixing, a large chunk of the current Multiverse, since few other Void Dwellers bothered with these things anymore. “Don’t be modest,” Death said, “You’ve done some pretty important work here,” Death nodded, reminiscing in something, I assume, before waving a hand as he walked away. “See you,” I called out, despite knowing, with his omniscience, that he knew what I’d say. I sighed, finishing off my current cup of coffee, and tapped open the tablet once more. It had a feature that monitored my current Multiverse to look for any fractures, tears, the typical issues, and it color coded by danger levels. And that led me to the current spot in the Equestrian Branch where two Conversion Bureau universes were on a collision course, all because some idiot newbie had shoved them. I had seen these events before. The universes collide, planets, stars, everything, begins ripping its counterpart to shreds, not a pleasant experience. Unlike most Void Dwellers, I found the Conversion Bureau Celestia to have a good idea, on paper, but she always goes about it the wrong way, in practice. I reached into the coding of the universes and stabilized them, thus preventing the collision and oncoming explosion of new universe fragments. Those could get nasty, after all, they’d destroy another and create multiple alternates ejecting them in a frag grenade style manner. Several unsuspecting Void Dwellers had their egos wounded by this every time it happened. These kinds of repairs never posed a challenge, always giving me the quickest fix as the safest. Things like the events with Yggdrasil, however, do not. I’ll admit, I find such things fun, but I will not create fun, only for it to backlash on me. A few moments after the repairs and some minor ones across the Equestrian Branch, I was greeted by the presence of Fausticorn, who, like everyone else, didn’t know I was there, and assumed the Multiverse was fixing itself. I’m not one to brag, nor to claim credit, but I have to admit, not being acknowledged for my actions by everyone, DEATH exempt, was striking a cord. I watched her peer into a few universes before drifting into a new one myself. Ironically, it turned out to be one I had Displaced someone too. A young boy bounded up a hill, a small cyan-colored pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail, flew up beside him, and they continued arguing about who was faster and who had won, all while panting on the ground. They seemed happy, playfully pushing each other as a purple, sorry, lavender unicorn made her way up next to them, only to to start lecturing them about safety. “It says right here in Quick Finish’s book, that races have set rules!” She stomped her hoof, arguing with the cyan pegasus. “Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes, “I’ve been racing for YEARS, I don’t need to know some stupid safety rules.” My eyebrow raised, apparently this was one of the typically arrogant and cocky Rainbow Dashes. “Everyone should pay attention to safety,” Twilight argued, pushing the book towards Rainbow with her magic, only for the book to receive a hoof to its open pages. “No Twi, “ Rainbow Dash said, “It’s just friendly competition,” she said, wrapping her hoof around the boy’s shoulder, “Right?” The boy nodded, “That’s right.” I nodded my head before turning around and ejecting myself from that universe with ease, landing right back next to Fausticorn. I watched her aimlessly wander for a bit before returning to the cafe. I welcomed the familiar coffee, and stared at the data on the tablet for a few moments, only to hear someone address me. “Hi, Death said you’re Magnus?” the new person asked. I would’ve responded but the idea of someone actually interacting with me was almost too much and I was left opening and closing my mouth like a fish, in shock. Something had happened and apparently, it was time for my life to change. Magnus, out. > Prologue Arc: Who Am I > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Void is a strange and very odd place. Many things lay in her expanse, from Void Dwellers to various mythical creatures or items. Yet, the strangest of these things, is a Voidling. Creatures born from the collapse of one world, and the devouring of another. Voidlings are mindless, only eating worlds in an attempt to restore what was once theirs, always failing, always destroying. Or... They're supposed to. Swirling void ripped through the air, devastating the matter it past. Worlds fell apart and stars died. Entire galaxies were torn asunder, as is the way of the Apocalypse. Consume, Destroy, Enhance~ My kind ripped through, consuming that which was not destroyed, or that which they could consume before it was destroyed. That is our way, that is our will. It is through this we will rise. Consume. Destroy. Enhance~ I was nothing, I was something, I was everything. This is how I felt and how I am. It is what we were, are, am, is. This is what the others have become, yet, I have begun to feel something other than the Ra'lltik'cor. The Hunger. This is new, yet none have seen before. Consume, Destroy, Enhance~ I am yet finding my people to be increasingly difficult, they do not speak, they do not think. I no longer can speak with them, I no longer feel the hunger. I do not remember, what has made me this way. No longer to I feel to consume, I feel, I believe I feel what my people, once they were, call Ik'tor'gashel. I can think, I do not feel I should be here any longer. Consum- My thoughts vanished, as I remember naught but darkness until I arrived at my new place of residence. When next I opened what I remember as eyes, the world spun before clearing itself into brilliant lights, of which I have seen little before. Nearly blinding, I closed my eyes in rapid attempt to protect myself from the brightness. Loud noises rang through the air and I had to put my… hands, over my… ears, to attempt and stifle the loudness. Despite my lack of knowledge, I could remember what every body part was, or most of them at least. After the brightness vanished, and the noises ceased, I opened my eyes. The moment I did so, I had to squint. It was not nearly as blindingly colorful or light as it had before, yet it still hurt to completely open my eyes. The surroundings I found were both new and familiar, as if I had been here a long time ago, before I could remember. I slowly rose to my feet, bracing myself against a nearby tree. I felt something in the air, though I could not tell you what it was, brushing against my skin. I brushed it off and began my shaky walk towards the buildings I could see in the distance. Various colors glared back at me as I shifted through the town. Many of the buildings I encountered were the same style, aside from a few. Perhaps most interesting was the house that was almost like a gingerbread one. I shifted back a bit when I approached due to the waves of sugar rolling off the building and into the air. The air near this building tasted sweeter, and I wondered what could be inside, what could cause this. Small pastel ponies were scattered across the room, some of which I recognized and whose names I knew. Clutching my head, I braced myself against the wall as broken memories shifted through my mind.. In an instant I remembered, this was Sugarcube Corner but… a pink blur flashed through the room. A few seconds later, it appeared in front of me. “Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! You’re new to Ponyville, or are you? Well, new to OUR Ponyville! I’ll throw you a party in a minute!” she buzzed off with a blur and I stood there, somewhat taken aback. “As usual, Pinkie,” I laughed. A splitting headache drove itself like a wedge in my mind. I knew I remembered things like these happening before, but, I couldn’t see them in my head. Those memories were just out of reach, it was like trying to hold water in a strainer. All I managed to grab was a split second, a flash, of a party where Pinkie was. The headache receded and I looked at the room. Pinkie flashed through like a blur, once more. The room’s setting changed slightly as party supplies and decorations sprouted up across the room and Pinkie stopped, staring at a higher up spot. “Here,” I finally said, walking over and grabbed her decorations. Reaching my arms up, I stuck the streamer to the wall and looked back at the pony. She grinned happily and I smiled back. Even if I couldn’t remember myself, maybe I could remember them. Immediately, I placed the other streamer and joined the party planner in decorating. It almost certainly went a bit slower like this, but Pinkie seemed to be enjoying it. While she was focused, I placed one of her own cupcakes on her muzzle. Quickly returning to my decorating I was surprised, a few minutes later, when she greeted people to the party with the cupcake still precariously balanced on her face. People filed into the room and grins filled their faces. Pinkie got everyone in and seated, paying special attention to five mares and a baby dragon. My headache spiked again, memories swirling and shifting in my head but never truly forming what I needed. All I could manage to see were the same ponies in a library, chatting idly. Shaking my head and clearing my mind I turned towards Pinkie as a massive cake rolled out of the kitchen, somehow fitting through the door. Once rolled to the center of the room, she leapt up onto a table and the ponies across the room, and the baby dragon, cheered loudly. Pinkie’s grin split wide and she spoke, “Welcome our new friend to Ponyville!” She yelled. I smiled along with everyone else and greeted people as they greeted me. Hiding my worries away, I joined the party. With everyone else, I played Pin The Tail On the Pinkie, and Guess What, and Chutes & Ladders. Each time we played, Pinkie won. No one seemed to be jealous, in fact, they all cheered when she won. I plastered a grin on my face and congratulated her as well. Perhaps everything was moving a bit fast, perhaps I should I feel more… shocked? Yet, I felt at ease here. Like it was a… home? Yes, that’s it. It took hours and hours but the party finally began dwindling as the sun began drifting past the horizon and was quickly replaced by the moon. The grey-white orb sat at the height of the sky, shining and giving light to ponies as they made their way home, some a bit tipsy after Pinkie had ‘Spiked’ the punch, and actually spiked it with alcohol. I was moving towards the door when Pinkie finally blocked me. “Where are you going, silly?” she asked. “I don’t know,” I answered. “Then don’t go, you can’t go if you don’t know where you’re going,” she argued and I felt a small smile creep onto my face. “Yes, but this isn’t my home,” I responded. “Then we’ll make it your home!” she answered, a grin on her face, “And once you do, we’ll have a Welcome Home! Party!” I chuckled lightly and tried to ignore the splitting headache that latched onto my mind. A swirl of color and I was left to the black. In a panic, I worried if I was back in the Void, back to being a Voidling, when a surge of color interrupted my worries. “Where are you going?” a pink blur asked. “Home, if I can find it,” I heard my own voice answered, though a bit less hoarse. “Well… Why not make here home? At least until you find your old one,” was the pink blur’s answer. I watched as it cleared, revealing… Pinkie Pie. She looked much the same as she did when I had seen her. A grin was across her face in the typical Pinkie fashion. “...Why here?” I asked. “You’ve already been here awhile and we’re your friends!” Pinkie answered, “Besides, is your heart out there?” she gestured towards the door, “Or in here with us?” she waved a hoof at her and her friends, smiling at a table across the room. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. “Home is where the heart is,” I answered the pink mare softly as I followed her back across the room. “Now, I have to plan your Welcome Home party!” she squealed in delight. The me I could hear chuckled and I was left to the black again. I felt myself rush upwards and light blasted me as I finally opened my eyes. Above me, Pinkie Pie and her friends, my friends?, were close and had worried expressions. A small pony with a red plus on her flank spoke as I sat up. “Good, you’re awake,” she said, nodding to the others. “He’s fine, just make sure he rests.” “Are you okay?” Pinkie chirped up, encompassing me in a hug, “We can’t lose a friend the first day we meet him!” I smiled and hugged the mare back, “I’m much better now, thanks Pinkie.” “No problem, um… What is your name?” she looked extremely confused. The others gasped and the rather elegant looking mare gasped louder, “Pinkie Pie! You can’t meet someone new, especially a gentleman, and not ask his name, or even not know it after such a party!” I laughed softly, “Its fine, Miss Rarity. My name is…” I felt a new headache spike, pushing the one already in my head to extreme levels. Clutching my head, Pinkie’s face contorted with worry. The others made to hold me up and I grabbed a chair. The headache suddenly vanished and I remembered something very, very important. “Oh my goodness, dear, are you alright?” Rarity asked, looking hesitant to do anything else. “I’m much better now, truly. Better than I have been in awhile. My name is…” I fought another headache as it tried to spike, “My name is Magnus. Nice to meet you.” > Prologue Arc: Sugarcube Corner > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Various ponies laughed as a cupcake managed to get shoved straight into Pinkie Pie’s muzzle, leaving her to stare cross-eyed at the mess. With a very illogical swipe of her tongue, which encompassed half her face, she licked it off. “Yummy!” she called out, much to the amusement and laughter of the ponies in the room, and one odd resident off in the corner. He stood there, watching with a grin on his face. However, his posture slumped as if something were wrong, whether with his back or otherwise. No one had noticed, as he was aptly chatting with anypony who got close enough and bothered to talk to him. The current person was one Twilight Sparkle, who had brought up the topic of the energies she had garnered from her latest analysis of him. “I have no words for it,” she said, “It’s more powerful than anything we have and could run a town like Ponyville indefinitely.” She seemed rather giddy for a moment, but her face fell, “Yet, despite trying every method I could to harness it, it dissipated like it never existed!” The man twitched, pain clear in his face momentarily, before he smiled back. “Best to keep trying,” he said, “there’s likely a method you didn’t try for one reason or another.” The unicorn mare frowned momentarily before teleporting a quill and paper into the air in front of her and rapidly writing something with magic before teleporting it away. The man stared at her for a moment, before going silent with a look of deep contemplation on his face. After a few more seconds of silence, Twilight gave him a goodbye and walked off. “Magic…” the figure said wincing again and clutching his head, before it sated. M-a-g, those letters were important to him, but why? Was it someone with that name? Was it something beginning with those letters? He tried to catch the thoughts again, only to receive another splitting pain in his head, like a wedge was being driven between himself and his own memories. Clutching a nearby stool, he focused again trying to push the wedge out of the way so that he could grasp what those letters meant. Yet, the wedge remained firmly in place. Taking a deep breath and letting the pain fade away, his vision blurred and he sat down against the wall, clutching his pounding head as it echoed with whispers of pain and letters. “-nbow, it’s just a game!” a white unicorn mare was scolding a very infuriated looking pegasus with a cyan coat. Her mane was striped like a rainbow and she was flying the air, holding something in her hood that she looked ready to throw across the room in her anger. “Its making me angry, I hate losing!” the same mare yelled back, her hoof leaning back threateningly. A few small foals on the ground were watching the argument with both amused and eager faces. Once the argument these two were having was done, they could play Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Donkey! The small foals let out a cry as the hoof went back and a yay of relief as it lowered, only to let out a cry again as the hoof went back up. After just a few more moments of this, Rainbow Dash huffed heavily and tossed the tail to the floor, which the first foal scrambled to pick up as a mare approached him with the blindfold. “It’s a stupid game.” The white-coated mare, Rarity, rolled her eyes and have an aggravated sigh before letting the cyan pegasus be. A tantrum she could throw and be unladylike for all she cared. The simple matter was that Rainbow was being childish. At this point, most, if not everyone, in the room were ignoring the guest of honor, though not intentionally. The said man was gripping his head again, the event had struck a chord in his broken memories, causing something to split through his mind at lightning speed. Nearly biting through his own tongue as he grinded his teeth in an attempt to not cry out, the memory flashed through his mind and replaced all reality momentarily. ”What do you mean?” The mare said to him as he grabbed the tail so she couldn’t launch it across the room. Rarity, on the other hand, huffed and gave a hoity-toity smile of I-Told-You-So to the cyan pegasus. “It’s okay to be childish,” he said, though he felt his voice sounded oddly off and different. Almost as if he was speaking into a terribly old microphone that was hooked up to an even older computer. He gave Rarity a look, “But it’s almost important to be mature.” Rarity raised an eyebrow before shaking her head and nodding. “Maturity is very important in order to be a proper lady,” she nodded at the man with her head, “or gentleman.” “I don’t like being stuck up,” Rainbow said, “I’m too awesome for that.” The man groaned before handing the tail to a small child, “Rainbow, you’re already a bit stuck up with how much you call yourself awesome, but maturity is different. You can act like a kid, but you can’t react like someone who lacks that kind of life experience.” Rainbow Dash made and O face whilst Rarity looked rather miffed at his words, though she nodded begrudgingly, “Quite right, Magnus.” Magnus winced again, and then let out a chattering gasp, “My...name…” He whispered it to himself, feeling proud, happy, and oddly sad for having remembered this. Yet, his memories showed something similar to what he had witnessed earlier, though the end result was different without him. Something urged him to say the same things to both mares, but he stopped himself as he stood up and winced, the same white coated mare calling out to him from across the room. “Are you alright, dear?” she asked politely. “I’m-” Magnus fell to his knees as another fiery whip of pain cascaded through his mind, reigniting earlier pains and causing the young man to let out a voiceless cry of pain as his vision swam and he dropped to his knees. Darkness whirled through his vision and the room lurched and shifted, the ponies moving with it. When he finally recovered, the room looked oddly different with subtle changes mostly throughout, yet something major stood out primarily. It was a young woman, in dark colored armor and a weapon on her back, standing at a table nearby. Much like looking in a mirror, their faces mimicked the other’s shock. “Who the hell are you?” The woman gaped. Magnus winced in pain, though the tendrils of darkness in his vision had already started receding rapidly. Shakily getting to his feet Magnus let out a heavy breath, the headache receding from the forefront of his mind. He rubbed his forehead with his palm and finally looked at the woman, all bleariness having vanished from his mind. “I’m,” a cough and a small spike of pain, “Magnus, at your service.” “Aranea,” the woman answered, “How did you get here?” “I’m not sure,” Magnus answered, looking around the eerily similar room. Everything was so similar, but so slightly different it was disorienting to him. The man reached out for the chair that had been closest to him, so eerily similar, yet it was clearly made of a different wood. “What did it look like when I got here?” “To be fair, I was very shocked,” the woman shifted, biting her lip, “but it looked like a silhouette made of swirling darkness just kind of shifted into the room.” A pony nearby nodded and a few foals were hiding behind parents or, in one case, three of them were huddled underneath a table. Adorable as they were, Magnus was too distracted to notice the scene itself and directed his attention back at Aranea. “Swirling darkness?” Magnus asked, flinching as a whip of fiery pain struck his mind again, “I...I remember such a thing, the Ren’orsa-ca…” He whispered, memories of what he had once been, of consuming worlds just like this one in raging hunger. A small amount of bile rose to his mouth, leaving a horrid taste in his mouth as he shook it off. “I mean you all no harm,” he said, “I only wish to return...home?” Aranea’s face fell, and she gulped before giving a heavy sigh. “You and me both,” she said, her hand clenching in a fist. Turning around, she looked around the room rapidly, clearly searching for someone. “Is Twilight still here?” “No ma’am!” one of the small ponies called out, “She left awhile ago.” “Very well,” Aranea said, grabbing Magnus’s sleeve and pulling him towards the door. She pushed it open and left the ponies to party whilst pulling Magnus firmly out the door. It shut behind her and Magnus raised an eyebrow. “You do not need to drag me, I will follow,” he said, standing still as Aranea looked down at her own hand gripping his sleeve. She eyed him for a moment before releasing and pulling her spear forth from her back. She nodded to him and they began walking, with her slightly ahead. “Sorry about that, force of habit,” she said, not even looking back towards him as she spoke. “Quite alright,” he answered, going quiet himself. Unlike the ponies, this woman spawned no memories lingering in his mind and left him rather stable. It was pleasant, but still so very strange that a world like this could have changed so. Yet, evidence permeated the area. Some houses had different colors than he remembered seeing in his Ponyville, while others looked exactly the same. Incredibly disorienting. Aranea nodded and they slowed to a halt as the entered the square for City Hall. “Something doesn’t feel right,” Aranea muttered before she began quickly moving towards the building in question. The night remained quiet and, oddly enough, no sounds came from anywhere at all. Uncomfortable, unnatural silence. “I agree,” Magnus muttered, “It’s...off.” Aranea had already reached city hall and was poking around it, looking inside the windows. The building was completely dark and no signs of movements were evidenced in it, or in the square surrounding it. Yet, despite the lack of explanation, silence permeated the air and a tension, thick enough to slice apart with a butter knife it seemed, was nearly palpable as she looked around wildly, only to freeze. “Son of a-” a painfully loud and ripping explosion blew Magnus across the square, straight into the woman herself. Thankfully, he rolled right off of her as they fell and their ears buzzed from the deafening change in noise. Magnus winced and began trying to clear his ears with a finger while Aranea seemed quite perfectly fine as she rose to her feet, spear at the ready. Another explosion, though farther away than the first, went off at the other end of the square, from where they had come. A large metal creature, an axe wielded in hand, had arisen from literal nowhere. Silver and black adorned its armor and its face glowed with an eerie light as the two floating creatures around it bobbed lazily. Aranea cursed loudly, enough for Magnus to hear. “A demon,” she hissed and raised her spear up. “Can you fight?” She looked at Magnus quickly before directing her attention back to the metal beast before her, shifting and walking lazily, though it would soon notice them, however dark it was. Magnus opened his mouth and frowned, “I am not sure… I do not have any weapons on myself.” “Fuck,” the woman hissed before sitting down and reaching into a bag. Lifting up a bundle of bottles, though their contents varied in color and seemed to emanate an odd glow. She finally pulled out a couple of tufts of something. “If you see me getting too injured, start by using these,” she held up the jars, “and if you run out, start using the feathers.” Magnus nodded shakily and watched as the woman turned and leapt skyward before spiraling down, straight onto the metallic beast’s head. It shifted back and the two bobbing creatures glowed brightly, only for her to land on the ground and roll back. After a certain distance, they stopped and she rushed forward again, batting them back towards the beast, nearly causing it to trip over them. She began a dance of sorts, where the creatures would glow, and the demon would swing its axe, only for her to dodge back properly and the creatures to stop. Finally, after naught but a few more strikes, one of them exploded and the axe caught her by surprise, sending her skywards. He tossed up one of the darker vials and she glowed green briefly before shifting herself and driving her spear straight into the other and causing an explosion that stumbled the metallic beast and left it open to rapid strikes from her. Leaping backwards as the axe swung towards her, she cursed again loudly before rolling underneath the next swing and striking straight for the demon’s knee joints. It switched tactics and swung straight down, though Aranea managed to use her spear and glance the blow off to the side. She crunched straight to the ground from the blow and Magnus immediately used another vial, this time of a brighter assortment and Aranea again glowed briefly. The demon made yet another swing and this time she used the weight of the blow to her advantage and struck wildly at it the instant the blow missed. Several jabs to the knee caused it to fall to the ground, unable to stand any longer. Its attacks, however, were not impaired as such and it swung with just as much vigor. Once again, she used it to her advantage. Letting the blow strike her spear, it flung her skywards and she disappeared into the darkness momentarily. Yet, mere seconds later, her spinning figure reappeared and slammed into the beast with a large amount of force. A blast emanated from the spear itself and drove the beast to the ground, letting her force her weapon through its helmet. Immediately, the being began to drip in darkness and fade out of sight. Huffing from the effort, she nodded at Magnus as he lifted another another vial she was briefly covered in green light a third time. “I knew I forgot something important,” Aranea said as she moved towards Magnus. She waved him towards her and opened her bag, letting his drop the items inside. She immediately began walking briskly, “And it’s even more imperative I talk to Twilight now.” > Prologue Arc: A Step Forward > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Why?” Magnus asked as she began moving at a brisker pace, the silence still permeating the square. A soft crunch of the dirt and gravel underfoot was the answer as they got closer to the edge of the square. Aranea remained silent, though she seemed to be pondering something until she halted. “What do you know of video games?” Aranea asked, making eye contact with the swirling shadows of the man’s eyes. “I assume you at least know something, right?” A nod was the silent response as she turned away and bit her lip. She resumed walking and Magnus followed. “Back home, well my home, there was a game called Final Fantasy XV, and like it says, it’s the fifteenth of franchise, although there were other minor games. Anyways, in XV, there were a variety of creatures you had to fight, but there was a kind that only came out at night." "Like the entity you just defeated. Which was?" Magnus offered, attempting to follow her ramblings. She nodded, looking up towards the sky. For a moment or two, she did not speak and allowed the soft crunch of dirt to replace their conversation. "A demon," Aranea finally said, "they were a disease, both literally and figuratively, that struck the kingdom in the game. It turned man, into monster." Aranea uttered these words quietly. Magnus gazed at her for a moment, "And you believe it's here as well, that's why you want to speak with Twilight." Aranea nodded, and they finally reached the tree in question, though it was lit up much like the rest of town, there were no signs of movement indoors. "While I am not friends with her," Aranea said, rapping on the door with her hand, "I do know she is an avid scholar and the protégé of Celestia." "Indeed," Magnus muttered, “And thank you for the explanation on demons.” That much knowledge, on Twilight, he had learned from his own world, before coming here. Aranea knocked again and a small purple baby dragon, Spike, opened the door blearily. The dragon glared up at Aranea for a moment. “TWILIGHT! THAT DRAGOON IS HERE FOR YOU!” he turned around, blanket dragged behind him and a stuffed animal in his hands. The baby dragon began moving up the steps and the lavender unicorn, known as Twilight Sparkle, emerged from the kitchen doorway. “We’ve got a problem, purple.” The loud crunch and thud of an old door masked the footsteps for a moment, before the dull thump of heavy feet echoed in the room as wind whistled outside. Another thud came as the person tossed a heavy coat onto a chair, which it slid off. A scoff and the person walked straight into the kitchen, dusty with grime. “It’s now been two years, three months, one day, and fourteen hours since the events which lost-” A hiss of static interrupted the speaker and the smack of hand on the radio caused to shift back. “New York City, Toronto, San Francisco,” the speaker listed off several major cities, “are all still in ruins, due to lack of-” another hiss of static, though momentary. “Every day, the same shit,” a masculine voice hissed, shutting off the radio as it began to ramble on. “Those bastards still can’t tell me where my daughter is, or the bastard that moved in with her.” The door to the fridge opened, nearly flung as the man began downing a bottle of alcohol. “Fuckin’ bastards, acting like everything's okay when,” the man burped, “it's the fucking Apocalypse! The Rapture! Some other hocus pocus that makes half the fuckin world disappear in just a few days.” Another set of footsteps came from the entry, rapping hard on the door as they approached. “Come on out, old man! We know what you have in there!” A chuckle came from two different voices in the same area. With growling sigh, the man stood up, and approached the door. Grabbing the shotgun leaned against the wall, he opened the door slightly and glared at the men. “Just open the door, dude.” “Fine,” he lifted up the shotgun and stepped back. “Come on in.” The indignant unicorn stared at her for few moments, “You do realize what time of night it is, don’t you?” Strangely enough, at least to Magnus and Aranea, the unicorn was in fact wearing polka-dot pajamas. Even adding to the amusement and moderately adorable sight was the fact she was holding a stuffed animal. “Of course,” Aranea rolled her eyes before pushing her way inside. The lavender unicorn sighed and moved out the way as Magnus followed the armor-clad warrior into the library. Thankfully the door was just barely tall enough and he gazed around at the plethora of books, the shelves they rested on rose to the ceiling and left the library feeling positively drowned in possible knowledge. “This is quite the collection,” Magnus commented, “Quite a bit more in this library than I expected.” The lavender unicorn smiled in response. “Thank you! I brought many of these with me when I moved in. Who are you, by the way?” The lavender unicorn asked, continuing to smile at Magnus. He smiled back, “Magnus, at your service, Miss Sparkle.” Twilight nodded and raised out a hoof for him to shake as Aranea coughed to get her attention. Quickly shaking it, Magnus let Aranea speak and turned towards the walls of books. “I need the books you have on demons,” Aranea said, “and we also need to talk.” “Demons? You mean the Daemos, right?” the unicorn’s horn had started glowing and a group of books floated down from the shelves, stacking into a neat pile on the closest table. Twilight opened the top one in her magic, “We’ve certainly researched them a lot, and know how to keep them away. However, the first books only talk about bipedal ones, whereas in the past few decades we’ve started seeing them as quadrupeds too. And these ones act very different too...” “Shit,” Aranea cursed, “I knew it.” “Knew what?” the magical prodigy frowned and raised an eyebrow, staring at the woman she believed to quite possibly be crazy. “Daemos, or demons, were a disease in another world. Not mine, but one my world… invented, for lack of a better term. Ponies play games, right?” Aranea sat down and Magnus drifted to a shelf, picking out the titles. “Like Tag, or Hide-And-Seek?” Twilight asked. “More complex, but that is base concept. Think of a moving picture that you can control with a little device or magic,” Aranea said. “We had games like that back home, and the demons were from one such game.” “Why would an element from a fictional game world end up here? That’s just odd,” Twilight responded, waving a hoof. “It’s like saying Daring Do is a real person.” “Technically, I am an element from a game, albeit a different kind,” Twilight just looked confused at this statement and Aranea sighed. “My appearance and abilities were not mine when I was born, I got them when I came here. I believe the demons were sent or brought here by whomever sent me here, for some insane reason. Though, I have to say that what I know most likely only works as a base skeleton for whatever is happening.” “...You’re insane! The very idea of travelling between universes is impossible, even by magic!” Twilight blurted, loudly, “Sure, Starswirl hypothesized it, but it’s not possible for us!” “How do you think he got here?” Aranea pointed at Magnus, “Yes, it’s not possible for ponies, but I myself saw Discord toss things through portals to other worlds numerous times throughout the time he had me trapped!” “You think Discord did this?” Twilight asked, “That’s ridiculous.” “Yes, but that’s because Discord never plans anything this far! I can pretty much guarantee it wasn’t him,” Aranea said, “And I honestly have no idea who it was.” “You’re saying that someone as powerful as Discord, more powerful than the princesses, decided to add these monstrosities to our world? Thousands of ponies have died to these things and more die every day! Princess Celestia had to increase the guard around every city and enact a 24/7 lights on policy in every town across Equestria, because someone decided to do this on a whim?” “I honestly don’t know, whether it was a whim or not. What I do know, is that demons are a disease, and as far as I remember, a contagious one,” Aranea said, slumping back in the chair. “I don’t know who would have an immunity, and who wouldn’t.” “It’s a disease!?” Twilight yelled, “That explains so much, but why would ones that look like ponies start appearing now, and not earlier? That doesn’t make any sense!” Magnus spoke up from the book he had opened, “Maybe it evolved to start affecting ponies recently?” “...Sweet Celestia,” Twilight’s eyes widened to rival a pair of dinner plates as she realized the very implications of such a hypothesis. “I need to send a letter to Celestia now. We need to start working on a vaccine or a cure.” “The only cure I can remember from the game was the divine beings, or whatever they were exactly. People who could absorb the disease into their own bodies and cure those who had started becoming afflicted,” Aranea had her face in her hands as she spoke. “Then we find them and have them start absorbing the affliction!” Twilight said, stomping her hoof. “Whoever they are HAVE to care about Equestria.” “I think we already know who they are,” Aranea said, looking up at Twilight, “and one of them already felt the effects of absorbing the disease.” “The princesses?” Twilight gaped, “Wait… No! Why would they not control it!? It’s a danger to ponies!” “I think because Celestia saw what happened to Luna, when she became Nightmare Moon,” Aranea answered, standing up. She moved towards Magnus, “Come on, you and I are going to Canterlot. Twilight, when you send that message let the Princesses know I, and a guest, am on my way to see them.” The lavender unicorn shook her head, “You do that and I’ll start researching a possible cure.” The mare suddenly yelled out for Spike and the little dragon came walking down the stairs lazily. Twilight already had a bit of parchment in her magic and was writing out a letter as fast as she could. Aranea nodded and Magnus set the book down, joining her as she opened the door and went outside. “You think someone did this? Sent you here, or possibly me as well?” “It’d make sense,” Aranea answered as she pulled her spear out and passed Magnus the satchel on her waist, which she had quickly unfastened. “We’re walking there, since the train doesn’t run at night and Canterlot is visible in the distance, so it’s probably relatively close.” Magnus nodded and fastened it on her waist, “If I had a weapon, I would help.” “I think Elemancy might be your best bet,” she answered, stopping and pointing at the satchel. “Its best I explain it now and you have it at the ready, since we’ll probably get in a fight or two on the way there.” “Quite right,” he said and opened the satchel. “Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder are the basic elements for magic and the base spells. The more potent the spell value, which you’ll see on the magic flask, the stronger the spell. Adding another item can change its effect. I have them listed in a journal,” she nodded as he pulled the journal out. “Make the spells as we go. If need be, I can explain more but we need to move quickly, as the longer the demons are about and people are afflicted, the more danger they’re in.” > Prologue Arc: Off the Rails > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The sounds of night filled the air with a variety of soft noises, owls made their calls and the rustle of bushes signalled the movement of other creatures. The stars and moon offered little light to guide their path, and the two people were hardly out of town before they were pretty much blind and would have been lost were it not for the shadow of the castle. The mountain itself blocked out a portion of the sky, oddly black against the slight purple hue that the night sky seemed to have taken. The castle itself was not as dark as her perch, for she seemed to glow slightly. The travellers could only just make out the barest details of the ornate fortress, yet it still held and odd sense of awe behind it. Perhaps it came from where she rested, crying out from far above that which lay below. The two travellers looked back to what lie ahead and woman pointed at the satchel on the man’s waist, before speaking. “I believe there’s a lantern of some sort in there, Magnus.” The man nodded in response and reached into the satchel and it jostled a bit before he pulled kerosene lantern out of the bag, passing it to her and then removing a small box of matches. Aranea struck one against the side of the lantern and, while Magnus held it, lit it up and the clearing they were in, interrupted by a set of tracks, became dismally brightened. The light reached only so far, and left the travellers with but a few feet of vision. The night itself sunk heavy and low, despite the color of the sky. Each time the lantern flickered, the darkness crept forward like a thousand hungry tendrils. The two moved over to the tracks and began following them, slowly. The clank of their shoes on the metal and then the dull thud as they stepped on the wooden boards that crossed the tracks. As the made their way cautiously, Aranea caught sight of something in the distance. Like what they had seen earlier in the night, a demon had crawled its way out of the ground itself. Magnus reached towards the satchel, only for Aranea to grab his hand and shake her head. Gesturing quickly towards the other side of the track, she lead Magnus off to the side and they began moving around the beast at a wide berth. It’s armor, despite the lurking presence of shadows, was clear even from the distance they were moving. A deep chrome and shining black paint, embellished with silver, shuffled as its open helmet showed the shining eyes. The monsters accompanying it bobbed in the air, their glowing shades of orange and yellow giving light to the field. The axe wielding demon groaned and the heavy armor clanked and jostled as it swung the axe in it’s hands idly. By their luck, or the demon’s poor eyesight, they were lucky enough for it to miss them. It moved closer to the woods and Aranea and Magnus moved out of range quickly. The two kept an eye out for more demons, yet the monstrosities seemed to only appear in small numbers and in large distances from each other. The castle far above was slowly getting closer, yet it would still be a bit before they would arrive to the city itself. Aranea had taken to cleaning her spear with a cloth from the satchel, while Magnus was reading through her journal. “Would Stopcast be a good use of Elemancy?” Magnus finally spoke up, eyeing the magic flask. In his other hand, he had the journal held up and was cross-referencing it. “I should think it would give an extra few moments to attack.” “Based on the strength of who or what I’m fighting, that could vary,” Aranea had moved the cloth to the inner part of her spear as she spoke. It squeaked quietly here and there. “As long as I’m not caught in the radius, yeah.” “And potency should be high as well?” Magnus asked, checking the journal once more. “For repeated usage, yes.” The warrior had turned her attention back to her spear, though she was keeping her eyes wary. Their last demon encounter had been some distance back. Shifting, she moved closer to Magnus as a spray of light came from the tree line and a group of floating bombs appeared. The tree line exploded outwards as a large quadruped in metal armor ripped through it with a massive sword. The trees had parted like butter against a warm knife and now lay strewn across the tracks and ground. Despite the iron giant having stopped, a pile of branches and leaves was still flying through the other debris. One of the bombs drifted towards it, and a loud growl emanated from the pile as it stopped. “The hell is that?” Aranea said, looking at Magnus. When the man shrugged in response, she sighed and moved towards the demon. “Start casting,” she said as she stowed her cloth in her pocket and lifted her spear to confront the demon. As she approached, glowing green eyes locked with hers and she barely moved before quickly leaping up as the demon swung its sword. Magnus opened the magic flask and threw the resulting swirl of magic at the iron beast. It’s armor hazed over with blue before turning a frosty white with the ground. The glow of the eyes stilled and then it was engulfed in a blazing flame before a whirlwind of lightning zapped the demon all over. The ground was charred and white, but the demon remained glowing with a light blue as Aranea dashed forward and began beating it. The strikes made the armor crackle, and the beast suddenly roared. A swing of its massive sword nearly struck Aranea as she rolled away and back. One hit and she’d have been split in two, not her most favored magic trick. She used the demon’s overeager swings to her advantage, striking as soon as it’s sword hit the ground and dashing back once it was freed. The beast was nearly ready to go down when the clearing was lit by an explosion. Aranea flew back and crashed into the dirt. Spitting pieces of grass out and wiping the dirt from her face, the woman stood up again as Magnus lifted a hand and tossed another explosion towards the demon. Aranea smashed the bombs as quickly as she could, and then made for the demon as the ground was finished charring. Another ringing smash from her spear and the right foreleg of the demon cracked and shattered like glass. The beast roared in agony and swiped at her as it fell, only for her to slam it in the face. Another roar and a powerful, armored, foreleg swung her way. Despite blocking it, she was still driven backwards straight into a bomb. Once more, it exploded. However, Aranea used the force that propelled her forwards to drive her spear home on the demon’s helmet. The resulting crack caused it to roar in pain and Aranea pivoted over its head as Magnus freed a vial from the satchel and activated it, causing Aranea to glow green like she had before. Immediately, the warrior landed and faced back. Her face was no longer sweating from the effort and she looked to be in a better state. Diving below the next swing, she sprinted towards the bomb and smacked it as hard as she could with her spear. It let out a loud cry and she bashed it back towards the demon. As soon as it exploded and blinded the metallic creature, she leapt over it and drove the spear home for a final time. The demon melted into a pool of darkness and Aranea began checking the ground. The items she did find, she carried over to Magnus and dropped them in the satchel. A few coins and even a sword disappeared into the seemingly endless bag before Magnus closed it and they moved towards the glowing pile of sticks. The wood growled and tried to move, but the sticks that made up the creature’s leg was snapped and gone. After a few minutes of looking, they found a few proper length sticks and put them on the leg. Like a snake losing its skin, the creature lost the broken pieces of wood and absorbed the other pieces into its leg. The beast quickly stood up and yipped, a chain of metal dropping from its mouth. Aranea grabbed it and pulled, but the wolf-like beast’s mouth was refusing to let go. She pulled as hard as she could and felt some wood shift. A medallion like item sat at the end of the chain and the warrior stared at it for a moment. I swear I recognize this… she muttered, before standing and grasping it in hand. She stood and walked over to Magnus, who had already stood up and moved, but noted that the wolf thing seemed to follow her. “That was intense,” the man said, putting the flask back into the satchel, though he left the pocket open. Magnus looked at her before looking to the creature. “Are you keeping it?” She looked down at the wolf made of sticks and leaves, “I suppose, if it keeps following me.” Magnus merely responded with a nod as they began walking once more. The walk remained quieter than before, though the sky was as pressing as usual. The air held an odd sort of tension to it as Aranea looked at the item in her hands. Its familiarity told her it was important, though she wasn’t sure she had held it before. In all senses of the feeling, it was like an odd mix of deja vu and forgetfulness. Someone would have mentioned this person to her, despite the intimate connection she could feel she had through this necklace. The soft crunch of grass beneath their feet served as their only companion while the two people mused. The darkness was nothing more than another background for someone else, though it’s oppressing effect on people was the unbelievable part. The darkness of Equestria at night seemed to push people to do things, sometimes and usually it was something opposite to what a person would feel normally. The cost of darkness was not what was in it, but rather what it wanted. The chain dangled, quietly shifting in Aranea’s grip as she focused on her past. After ponies, people started appearing and she gazed out for the necklace she now had. Despite her grief, she finally found something familiar. Her name sung out deafeningly and mangled in her head, but Aranea recognized who and why. Clutching the token tighter, she turned around to find the wolf gone. It seemed that whatever it wanted, had been fulfilled. Aranea muttered quietly to herself and a tear, nearly dried, rolled down her face as she realized what she had found, and exactly what it likely meant. Her friend, who had been dressed as Iris, had this necklace because it was the final piece of the costume. The rest of it, she had said she wouldn't wear often but she admitted to having grown attached to the little necklace she had obtained from the convention weeks prior. If it was here, she was here, it had been stolen, or she had experienced something horrible and died. A few more tears escaped and Aranea wiped them away before nodding to Magnus once more, “Come on, let’s go,” she said. > Prologue Arc: The Sun Speaks > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The woman grasped the necklace in hand, tighter than perhaps necessary as she walked past her companion. Magnus stared after her, a look of contemplation briefly flickering across his face as he pondered the meaning of the jewelry, before following behind her quickly. The soft hoots of owls and other small rustlings of creatures replaced the sounds of combat. The night seemed to lighten at the defeat of the earlier monstrosity and the lantern the two travellers had with them appeared to touch further out in the darkness. Despite this, their travel remained at a similar pace as the approached the tunnel. Dark and unyielding, the inner parts of the long corridor that housed the tracks were shrouded. With a prayer on his lips, to any deities he could remember, Magnus followed Aranea into the tunnel. The crunch of dirt and gravel quickly replaced the forest, echoing quietly in the humid underpass. Magnus, in the dim yellow light, could see that Aranea’s hand still grasped tightly around the chain of the necklace she had found. For what reason she seemed to react so badly, he was not sure. The strain of her skin, whitening as it was, showed the force she was putting behind it. The small chain jewelry was important. Unlike the walk through the fields, and the hours it had taken, their journey through the tunnel took less time and Magnus could see the light of the city coming forth from the exit in just a short time. The present glow was the lampposts that marked the streets, giving a deeper yellow hue to everything as the crunch of gravel began to lose its volume. The hollow echo faded as they passed from underneath the tunnel roof. The soft churning winds of the night whirled around them, touching the flames of the lampposts and making them dance. The soft wisps of light bent and folded, causing the city to dance with light. The castle, though on the other side of the town, loomed far overheard. The town itself was eerily quiet, and no one could seen in the windows. The wind on curtains and litter was the only movement aside from their own. Despite it being the middle of the night, the silence was still eerie and gave the town a disturbing feeling. The walk to the castle was far better lit, and the two guards weren’t visible. “Do you find it odd that no one is out?” Magnus asked, a magic flask held in his hand. The soft glow of elemental magic gave an odd contrast to their appearance and Aranea looked at her companion. “Very odd, even with demons people should still be active,” Aranea said, “they don’t attack many populated areas as far as I can remember.” She walked up to the doors and rapped her knuckles against the thick wood. When that didn’t get a reply, she pushed on the doors and they swung open. Frowning, she walked into the castle and found it brightly lit. Guards stood at other doorways, and the two at the door itself just nodded as she passed. “They expected us, right?” Magnus asked, slowly lowering the hand that had lifted the magic flasks. The guards themselves, within hearing range nodded. Magnus frowned and Aranea just nodded to him. “Why aren’t you concerned?” “For simplicity, and because of the current events, I don’t need to worry about this,” she answered as their footsteps took them through the hallway. Arriving at the door to the throne room, she pushed it open and Magnus looked around. The room was massive, and adorned with columns on her walls. The windows were colored glass and each depicted a scene. One depicted the fall of chimera creature, with a reptilian leg, a bird’s claw, a lion’s paw, and a hoof. It seemed to stand on two legs, but the creature was being turned to stone by two larger horses, one white, one blue. A chessboard ordained the background scene with clouds of purple. Magnus clutched his head as another headache torn through his head, and Aranea looked at him in concern. At the other end of the room, the physical version of the white horse sat upon a throne. Unlike Aranea, her expression was that of confusion. Nodding quickly to Aranea, Magnus waved off her concern with a stray hand. “Princess Celestia,” the warrior said, staring straight into the mare’s eyes. The Princess’s eyes held both a warmth to them, as well as a stony challenge. Yellow-gold met magenta and suddenly the Princess sighed. “I know why you’re here,” Celestia said, stepping down from the throne. “It’s about my sister and I.” “More than that, it is about what comes at the cost your divinity,” Aranea answered, stepping forward. “You let your sister absorb daemonic powers, but at what cost? In the end, her actions cost more innocent lives than they saved.” The warrior had waved her hand, gesturing to the windows, “You depict even the scene in which you were forced to banish one you called family? Aranea’s finger pointed at the window situated awkwardly behind the throne. “Yes,” she answered softly, “I wished to replace it, but none of the glass makers were willing.” She looked behind herself, “I managed to get them to remove it, but despite my insistence they would not destroy or replace it. So there it remains, a physical reminder of what I did.” “Are you not a princess? Destroy it yourself,” Aranea said, before stopping. Celestia’s head had fallen forward and the Princess seemed to have grown sullen. “You can’t? Guilt?” “It reminds me of my own failures, as I said,” the alabaster alicorn responded, “if I do not remind myself, how can I avoid repeating them?” “By not doing what you did, letting it happen,” Aranea said, crossing her arms. “You know full well that absorbing it results in more evil, or you should now.” the warrior gestured forth at the image once more. Celestia remained silent for a bit. “The others have done it,” she said, “the other leaders have continued it. But, it would seem, they are more divine, as you call it, than we. The Dragon Lord himself no longer finds his lands plagued, but the dragons have become more aggressive.” “Dragons have always been aggressive,” Aranea interrupted, getting a nod from Magnus who had taken to looking at the windows. “It is part of their nature.” “I do not mean their usual, I mean they have become more feral, more as animals than what their elders were,” she said, looking at yet another window as Magnus gazed at it with her. “A few hunted ponies a few years back, but they were exiled or killed, I know not which.” Aranea went silent, “They are afflicted by the disease as well then.” Celestia sighed and gave a curt nod. Magnus, however, looked up. “Can I ask why you two are acting so friendly?” he asked, looking between them. “I find it odd, as you’ve only met once before, and quite badly it went as I understand.” “We both have the same intentions here,” Aranea responded, looking back at the white alicorn. “Twilight did not fail to mention that in her letter,” Celestia agreed, “And, for all it is worth, stories still remain about her actions against the Daemos and even here, despite my lack of response, it is clear she is more knowledgeable on these abominations than myself.” “More than most people here,” Aranea said, giving a nod, “but I did not finish the game, so I do not remember much beyond the explanations I got online.” Celestia blinked, “I got very little meaning behind that, especially on the topic of ‘the game’ and ‘online’, the first makes no sense in this context, and the later confuses me.” “Oh yeah…” Aranea muttered, “To cut it short, in my world, the demons were creatures or enemies you would fight against while playing a ‘video’ game, or something on a projector. As for online, think of it like worldwide book that constantly updates with information that people add, amongst other things.” “Curious,” Celestia said, touching her hoof to her chin as she looked away, “I can see how one would get pleasure from playing something like that, whereas the secondary object sounds very useful.” Celestia suddenly perked up, “Unlike the other bits,” she interrupted before Aranea could open her mouth, “I do get the idea of you being from another world.” Aranea blinked and Magnus looked at Celestia with a mildly impressed expression. Aranea looked at her companion, and then back to Celestia. “See, now I’m the confused one.” Celestia smiled, gesturing for them to follow as she moved towards the door. “I will admit, the idea of you coming from another world has occured to me before.” “From what?” Aranea asked. “Starswirl the Bearded,” Celestia pushed open the door to a study that was blanketed in dust, and with an old mirror on the other side of the room. Amongst the dust were various tomes and odd artifacts. Aranea looked around the room, noting that Magnus, who had passed her earlier, was already opening some of the dustier volumes. The air was thick with enough dust, it seemed like a fog had fallen. “Starswirl the what now?” she asked, waving the dust cloud from her face as the other’s followed suit, Celestia using her wings. Aranea grimaced and shook her head. Celestia stared at her for a moment and frowned. “An intelligent unicorn and a good friend of mine,” the alabaster alicorn answered, “He studied many things, among them being the existence of other worlds, universes as he eventually called them.” Celestia picked up a few books in her magic, the dust clouding that part of the room as she did so. “Huh, unexpected but I suppose it makes sense,” Aranea said, pointing to the mirror, “but, let me guess, this goes to another world?” She chuckled. “Yes,” Celestia answered, perfect monotone. “...As surprised as I feel I should be, I’m not,” Arane shook her head and Magnus looked at the mirror. Raising his hand, he brushed the dust off the mirror and it swirled, both the mirror and the dust. “Do you even clean?” “We’ve not disturbed anything since Starswirl left,” Celestia huffed, watching Magnus poke the mirror. Each time he did so, it danced with color. She approached and touched it herself, though the mirror remained unaffected. “Don’t mind me, then,” Aranea said, coughing. “I’ll just sit here and choke on the dust bunnies.” “Strange,” Celestia commented, “What about you, is different from I?” The mare stared at the man, them locking eyes momentarily. “I can’t tell,” Aranea monotoned, “Could be anything.” Celestia blinked and facehoofed, letting out a, very much not royal, groan as it fell down her face. A blush of red spread through her cheeks and she coughed, looking towards the mirror. A few moments of silence after the embarrassment faded, the princess tapped the mirror. “Is the mirror solid to you?”” Magnus touched it again, pushing his hand through. “It feels more like… jello? I believe that is the word I am needing.” He pulled it back and the arm remained as it was, untouched. “Curious,” the princess said, “though, I do remember Starswirl mentioning something like this in his older writings.” She grabbed a heavier book, surprisingly dust-free, with her magic. Heavier than it ought to have been, she made a quick effort of removing it and a yellow manila folder fell forth. “...Well, that’s curious,” Aranea said, leaning forward and picking it up in hand. The old paper of the folder nearly crumbled in her hands. Carefully, she opened it and looked at the front page. “Dimensionally Misplaced? Also known as… Displaced.” “Now that is odd,” Celestia muttered, walking over to stare at the folder, “I do not remember Starswirl mentioning this.” Celestia moved a hoof up to tilt the folder itself so it was visible to her eyes. To you who find this folder- If you are reading this, you are what I refer to as a Displaced. Some of us are being held here, in worlds not our own, by one known as The Merchant, a Void-Dweller of great power. If you can use these notes to find your way back to your relative home, I wish you the best of luck. Either because The Merchant is not to be trifled with, or because finding your relative Earth in all the Multiverse is like trying to find a grain of sand in a sandstorm. Personally, I do not desire to leave. True, abandoning my life on Earth seems cowardly. But the power I now wield confers a responsibility, one that I fulfill willingly. And life in Equestria is more likely to be peaceable than life on Earth. To those that want to return, I wish you the best of luck, and tell you that the best of results could be gathered by using something that you brought with you. To those that wish to remain, I tell you that these notes can easily be reversed and used to shield your home from intrusions. Most notably, Discord could find them useful. To those of you that wish to try to fight The Merchant, I tell you that he will likely not go down easy. Your best bet is to find the one known as Xante and team up with him. And to those of you that wish to drag us all back... Do not test me. -Auric Fulcrum, Master of Psynergy, Wielder of the Flames of Alchemy, Slayer of the Wise One, Knight of the Eclipse, Lord of Eureka, Blade of Understanding. “Do not test me?” Aranea muttered, “talk about showboating. He’s like Discord with an ego the size of a full grown elder dragon.” Celestia nodded and Magnus kept digging through the books remaining silent. “I do not believe anyone in this world uses quite that many titles,” Celestia muttered, “though the dragons and minotaurs come close.” She shook her head as Aranea sighed heavily. “The term Golden Bastard has come up in my head,” the woman said, setting the folder down. A slight cough disguising a chuckle came from Celestia as Magnus nodded. He, in his hands, had gathered several books, each just as dusty as the last. Aranea set the folder back down, before turning and picking up one of the tomes. “For as important as that sounded, it gave the baseline information. It’s almost like he’s gleefully pissing on people from the clouds.” Once again, a coughing chuckle came from Celestia and Aranea looked at the next book. “The Lore of the Multiverse?” Aranea paled as the tome started extending downwards, slamming into the floor with immense force. She immediately pushed it off to the side and shivered, “I have no idea what that was, but I feel like I would need several gallons of brain bleach for each chapter.” The book shrank back down and she left it on the floor, cautiously moving away. “Brain bleach?” Celestia asked. “I would need to wipe my mind of everything in that book if I read it,” she answered, wincing at a book titled Cosmology and a few others with varied titles. The only one that didn’t try expanding when she picked it up was one about renegades, to which she gave a sigh of relief as she set it off to the side. Magnus eyed a book in his hands closely, “I believe this explains how I can get home, or at least back to where I came from.” The book, less thickly covered in dust, was a deep blue with a single silvery star on the spine. The name Starswirl was stitched into the star and the title was on the front. A Study In Displaced shimmered on the cover, whilst a simple name hung underneath. “The Doctor?” Aranea muttered, frowning before shaking her head. “No clue who that is, but if the Princess’ teacher, protege, uncle or whatever he was had a book from them, then we might as well believe it can help.” Magnus nodded and opened it. A momentary silence was the response before Magnus flipped through a bunch of pages, “...Apparently I can get home using the mirror.” Aranea frowned whilst Celestia nodded. “It did react oddly to your presence,” the alabaster alicorn answered, pressing her hoof against the cool surface of glass. The mirror remained silent and still as Magnus read a few more pages. “What an oddly simple solution,” Magnus muttered, “Literally all I have to do is walk through it.” Aranea raised an eyebrow before being handed the book. The yellowed pages of the old tome spoke of a few other topics, but the message on how to return home was quite clear. As she watched, Magnus stuck his arm through before removing the satchel from his shoulder and setting it on the ground. “I suppose this is it,” Aranea said, shutting the book and walking over with her own hand outstretched. Grabbing Magnus’s, she shook it slowly. “Been a pleasure, Magnus, thanks for the help. Feel free to visit if you can.” “I feel quite the same,” Magnus bowed slightly, “Goodbye, warrior.” The dark haired man turned and walked through the shimmering glass, disappearing as if he had walked into a pool of silver.