Twilight remembers a powerful being she met once before. Away from the rules of Everglow, perhaps a little summon wouldn't cause much harm? At the worst, nothing happens. At the best...
Twilight remembers a powerful being she met once before. Away from the rules of Everglow, perhaps a little summon wouldn't cause much harm? At the worst, nothing happens. At the best...
This is a crossover with the Ponyfinder universe and takes place during the same timeline of most of my other crossover fics. Twilight has already been to Everglow and back (twice!). Finally relaxed in her own castle, she can consider her part in this greater cosmology.
Twilight settled on a cushion. The newest Daring Do was open before her. The lighting was just right. It was quiet. It was peaceful.
She let out a gentle sigh. "Perfect..."
But her eyes wouldn't focus entirely. She kept skipping words and her thoughts would careen right off the paper as if it were greased. But it wasn't the paper's fault. Her problem was internal.
She could remember the gentle and powerful presence of that larger alicorn. In some small way, Twilight was reminded of Celestia, though that being, Princess Luminace, had far more in common with herself than any princess of the sun.
She began counting on her hoof, which mostly ended with her clopping her hooves together as she went. "She loves books. She loves magic. She loves friendship." Was she her literal translation, like the human Twilight? If she was, why wasn't she also called Twilight?
Then again, Everglow was far from a 'translation' of Equestria. So... visceral. She shuddered at the memory of the foes she had to face there.
Then there was her. "Princess Luminace," she spoke to the air.
"You alright?" It was Spike, peeking in from the door. "You don't usually make so much noise during reading time."
Twilight smiled at her faithful assistant, who had stayed resolutely at her side through her harrowing adventures. "I'm fine, Spike. Thank you. I'll need some privacy though, so only come if I call you."
"Roger!" He snapped a sharp salute and marched off as if he were a soldier, likely to go hang out with his marefriend, the half-pony Soft Mane.
Twilight rose up and levitated the Daring Do book away while snatching others. The art of summoning was not a common one in Equestria, but it wasn't a complete unknown either. After the whole elemental invasion, interest in magic that dealt with the protection of Equestria from such attacks became more popular.
She had three such books orbiting her, flipping slowly as she searched for the relevant parts. "She said I could call her," she spoke to herself. "I'm not bothering her if she said I could." She was, in part, justifying the thing she was about to do to herself.
Soon she had the spell she wanted. Sure, she had to invert parts of it. Most ponies were interested in keeping things outside Equestria from getting in, she planned to call one in.
With one more cleansing breath, she began to fuel her horn, making it glow brightly as she wove the magic with the delicate internal dance required to make it work. "Princess Luminace, I call you. Please come and speak with me." Her eyes darted across her library. "I have a lot of books you've never seen before. I wouldn't mind sharing."
The tempting offer proved too much to resist. Space itself folded outwards, distorting a moment before it suddenly folded shut. Twilight tilted her head. Had she messed up? She turned to one of the books and began flipping through it, only to squeak in surprise and fall back as a pony's head came into view, jutting free just as she flipped to the right page.
It was Princess Luminace. Freed of her literary prison, she stepped from the book on large hooves, growing to be as large as Celestia herself. "You called. I had... thought you may never."
Twilight pulled up her slack jaw. "Princess Luminace?"
Luminace glanced back at herself, her magic subtly adjusting her monocle. "It would appear so. No need to be so formal, fellow student of the universes. It is with great pleasure that I am invited here." She did a slow turn, her eyes widening as she realized how many books. "So many... You truly are a mare after my own heart."
Twilight took a timid step forward. "As a princess of Equestria, I formally welcome you to Equestria."
Luminace dipped her head. "One Princess to the next, it is an honor to receive your welcome. Equestria. That is your home, is it not? We are not on Everglow." She paused a moment as if feeling for the unfeelable. "Yes, we are elsewhere. I have not been here before, but I feel the presence of my peers." An ear twitched up. "One I thought lost has found strength here, considerable and growing."
Thought lost? Twilight jumped as it struck her. "Lashtada?"
"Ah, yes, that was... is her name. Child of the Moon Princess, it was tragic what befell her and her children." She looked Twilight over slowly. "Would you care to hear the tale?"
Twilight sat on her haunches and bobbed her head quickly. "Yes! You must know so many things I'd love to hear, but, um, first, how long do we have?"
Princess Luminace shook her head. "This is not Everglow. I am not beholden to the same mandates that ensure harmony there. I only feel one goddess, and I do not fear the anger of Lashtada." She paused again. "No, there are others, hmm... I will not persist too long, lest I anger them. Do you know who your gods are?"
Twilight felt like she was back in school, and the teacher had asked a question she didn't know. The horror of it clutched at her chest. "I... No? Besides Lashtada, I thought we were empty on that front."
"Curious." Luminace settled down slowly, coming down on more of an even level with Twilight. "Let's put that aside a moment. This is about us."
That Twilight could agree with. "You said I could call you."
"And I meant it." Luminace nodded slowly. "How could I not offer? Fellow student of life, we both burn with the desire to learn." She raised a hoof to her own horn. "Though not required, we were both born to the tribe most innately bound to the tides of magic. I look at you and see a perverse reflection, and I would know her better, and I feel she would like to know me as well."
Luminace approached the books that laid open on the floor, her eyes scanning intently over them. "Are these spells? They are... curious."
Twilight moved alongside her, eyes darting between her large guest and the books below. "They are Equestrian spells." She put a hoof to her snout. "Oh! Of course they look a little different. Only unicorns cast spells here."
Luminace raised a brow. "That feels like a waste of thought. Surely your other ponies have things to contribute to the pursuit of the underpinnings of the universe? Is that a legal mandate?"
Twilight shook her head manically. "No! No, that would be terrible." She pointed up at her horn. "Unicorns have magic, and all magic, in Equestria, that ponies have is done by the horn. No horn, no magic. It's simple biology for us."
"Fascinating." Luminace leaned towards Twilight, studying her spire. "You have seen this is not entirely true. Have you considered, perhaps, your people discovered the easy way and never looked beyond it?"
Twilight's expression creased into a soft frown. "What? You're saying a pegasus or earth pony could do Equestrian magic? Now, don't get me wrong. I know all ponies in Everglow could, in theory, learn to cast spells with sufficient study. But this is an entirely different world. A different universe, even!"
Luminace gave a slow bob of her head. "That may be true, but I choose to believe that, since I know it is true in more worlds than our own, that yours obeys this rule, which seems constant, until proven otherwise, of course." She raised a hoof at Twilight. "You were able to learn non-Equestrian magic, were you not?"
"Oh, yes!" Twilight suddenly galloped away, just to snatch a book off the shelf with a glow of magic and return with it. "I still have my spellbook, even if I haven't been using it..."
"Whyever not?" Luminace reached for the book, gently brushing it with a hoof.
Twilight set the book down on a podium carefully. "Most of them were... kind of violent. I don't even want to study much magic like that. I'd rather make friends than blow things up."
Luminace smiled at that. "In this, I agree, but not all Everglow magic is meant for war, you simply learned those first due to your... situation." Her horn lit with a white glow as the pages of the book turned slowly. "Do you know an enterprising youth, one who may benefit from this?"
Twilight paled slightly. There had been a set of ponies that had studied her book, and had learned from it. "The fillies..." At Luminace's querying look, Twilight shook her head. "A trio of friends snuck into my castle one day and stole this book." She tapped it lightly. "They studied it and did learn magic."
"And this tells you?"
Twilight sank to her haunches and put a hoof over her face. "That anypony could learn magic."
"I would venture further," spoke Luminace in a kindly tone, "that it may mean all thinking beings may, in theory, be capable of it. I have yet to meet a species, given sufficient capacity for thought, to be incapable of learning magic entirely." She inclined her head at the conjuration books still abandoned on the floor. "These Equestrian books are built solely for unicorns. Unicorns got there first, and it was accepted as a fact that magic was their domain."
Twilight lifted one with her magic and placed it beside her Everglow spellbook. She looked back and forth between the two. There were similarities, and yet, so many differences in the syntax and flow between the two. They were describing the same thing, but one through the lens of unicorn horns. "I've been a fool."
Luminace shook her head at that. "You are only made a fool if you do not take this discovery and revel in it. To be proven wrong is an occasion for celebration."
Twilight blinked at that. The idea of failure being good was somewhat foreign to her. "But I'd rather succeed. What's the point of studying, just to fail anyway?"
Luminace lifted her shoulders. "Knowledge itself cannot be 'succeeded'. It replaces and refreshes itself every time one learns they were wrong. Each wrong brings one closer to right. What lays behind the last wrong? Even I cannot know, but I am eager to find it." She reached a hoof and set it on the back of Twilight's neck.. "Take heart and be joyful. Today you learned something, and that's never a thing to be bitter about."
Twilight couldn't hold onto that sour note, not in the presence of the kind mentor. She couldn't feel the slightest scrap of scorn or mockery in Luminace's words. She gently, carefully, and with some trepidation tried to let go of that feeling of foolishness in herself. "Alright... so we take that as a wrong made right. Any pony can, in theory, learn magic." She thrust a hoof at her library. "But most of these books won't help. They all focus magic through unicorn horns." It came to her. "So we'll have to start writing new books..."
Luminace smiled brightly. "Fortunately for you, you have three talented disciples that sound eager to put their knowledge to work." She glanced around suddenly. "Something approaches."
Even as she spoke words of magic and wreathed herself and Twilight in shimmering bubbles, a figure popped into existence with the sound of a cork coming loose.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "What do you want, Discord?"
Discord leered at the larger of the two alicorns before him. "And who is this intriguing slice of chaos?"
Luminace bristled at the calling. "I am no servitor of chaos, Unspoken." She tilted her head a bit, realization coming to her. "Are you mocking me, or is this another echo?"
Twilight cleared her throat softly. "This is Discord. Discord, Princess Luminace, a guest."
Discord rolled a hand as he bowed low. "Oh, of course. Hello, Princess. Now, what was that about unspoken things and mocking?"
Luminace's curiosity grew stronger than her worry and she approached Discord to circle him. "Fascinating. Are you a god?"
Discord seemed surprised by the question, but quickly tried to smooth it over. "Of a sort, yes. I am the high master of chaos!" He brought up his mismatched hands and lightning arced between them with the scent of chocolate and a light spattering of pebbles, sugar, and confetti spraying free. "And you, I presume, are another alicorn princess?"
Luminace raised a brow. "Are there a lot of those in this world?"
Discord began counting on a hand, another finger sprouting as he got to six. "Six, if we include you."
Luminace shook her head. "You should not. If dear Twilight is the barometer of such a thing, I am above that. I may be of unified blood, but my power does not stem from it, rather the opposite. In my power, I claimed unification. Do you understand?"
Discord cocked a brow. "Are you gonna take that, Twilie?"
Twilight bristled instantly. "You will not call me that!" She gestured at Luminace widely. "She's a goddess, a for real goddess."
Discord's eyes traveled up and down Luminace. "I don't see the big deal."
Luminace nodded. "As you please. I have little reason to demonstrate myself for you. You do not feel like one that would take interest."
Discord hiked a brow. "Says who?"
"I have." Luminace turned to Twilight. "As we were speaking of--"
"Well, I don't need to stay here to be insulted!" Discord scowled a moment before he threw open a door that wasn't there a moment before angrily, stepped through, and slammed it shut.
Twilight let out a little sigh. "Sorry, he can be like that."
"He is not the Unspoken," agreed Luminace. "We are old friends. He has... an underappreciated task, and one he bears, forcing a smile and laced with a touch of madness. I do not envy him, but I respect him deeply." She leaned in towards Twilight. "Without the Unspoken, there may be no ponies on Everglow."
Twilight blinked at the mental image. "But... how?"
Luminace held up a hoof. "We could dive deep into Everglow history, but I would rather hear about your world. Tell me, do you study alone? Do you have friends who join you in the pleasure of learning?"
Before Twilight could answer, the sound of a window being opened came from above.
"Hey, Twi!" Rainbow Dash flew in from above with a big grin. "You finish the newest book yet?!" She saw Luminace and came to a halt, hovering in the air. "Oh, uh, sorry... Princess?"
Luminace smiled gently. "It would seem unified blood is a mark of royalty in this world."
"This world?" Rainbow hiked a brow, then pieced together the different proportions of their guest and clopped her fore hooves. "You're from Everglow! Sweet! I didn't think we'd get any visitors from there that weren't angry things."
Twilight gestured up at her friend. "This is Rainbow Dash, a good friend."
Luminace looked happy to see Rainbow. "And she is a partner in your studies, how lovely. Come forward, Miss Dash. Speak to me of the studies you share with Miss Sparkle."
Rainbow did flutter in closer, but looked a bit confused. "Studies? Oh! Yeah, they aren't studies, per se." She wobbled a hoof, then looked around a quick moment. She spied the abandoned Daring Do book and rushed for it. "Here!"
Even as Twilight colored, Luminace approached the book. Her horn glowed gently as she hefted it up and flipped through it as if looking for pictures. "A fascinating tale of adventure. Worthy of a more relaxed reading perhaps. It does not contain academic secrets. I feel there are falsehoods hidden among truths. Deciphering the two would take time."
Twilight tilted her head at the goddess. "Did you just read that?"
"Yes."
Twilight and Rainbow both shook their heads. Rainbow lifted her shoulders. "That's pretty crazy, but since you did read it, how did you like the part where--"
Twilight bopped her friend on the head lightly. "I haven't finished it!"
Luminace seemed amused at the two. "For some, the revealing of knowledge before they have earned it is quite a discomfort. We will have to speak another time on this book. It is a pleasure to meet any pony that would call Twilight a friend, even more so a fellow in study."
Still laced with a bit of red, Twilight shrank a bit. "But we're not... studying, exactly. That book is for fun."
Luminace glanced at the book held in her magic, then back at Twilight. "Do you read avidly?"
The two nodded.
"Do you not consider the actions the protagonists take?"
Rainbow looked to Twilight for help. She sighed. "The protagonist is the star."
"Oh! Yeah, totally."
Luminace smiled. "Then you are learning. It may not be the deepest of truths in every tome, but you are learning. Rainbow, please continue at Twilight's side. You two make an adorable reading pair."
Rainbow leaned in on Twilight. "Is she calling us marefriends or something?"
Twilight let out a loud anxious laugh. "Ha ha! No... She..."
Luminace glanced between them. "My apologies if I implied too heavily. Friendship is a facet of the universe I celebrate deeply. I would be quite happy if you remained friends forever. Romance... that I have less experience with. If it comes, I hope it does so gently and enhances that friendship. If it does not, no harm is done."
As Twilight scooted off to get some book or another, Rainbow slid closer to their visiting divinity. "So..."
"Yes?"
Rainbow flashed a big grin. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Nothing would make me happier at this moment." Luminace returned a smile, though hers was a much more subtle gesture. "What knowledge do you seek?"
"So, I have this friend, uh, Applejack." She was rubbing one leg up and down the other nervously. "She came back from Everglow with this crazy Scythe." Luminace raised a brow behind her monocle. "Yeah, not her kind of thing, right? So she comes back with it and she tries to start making ponies do things right, by force. I mean... she even kinda... banished a filly or two." She was looking progressively more nervous as she went on.
Luminace's expression grew more severe. "Does she still possess this?"
"No! No. Thank Celestia."
Luminace's face erupted into radiance. "Is that a local deity? You invoke it as if it were so."
Rainbow started in surprise. "Huh? No. She's a pony, just, you know, kind of long-lived, and powerful. Anyway, enough about her. We got the scythe away from Applejack, but she's still just a little bit... off. I mean, she's better than when she had it, don't get me wrong, but..."
Luminace gave a slow nod. "It warms my heart to see such concern for your friend even as it is chilled in the thought of what may have occurred." She began describing Severance, the unholy artifact. A scythe capable of performing cuts as precisely as any surgeon's scalpel. "Is that the weapon she returned with?"
Rainbow bobbed her head. "Yeah! Can you help her?" She started. "Oh, and getting those brats back might be nice."
Luminace gave Rainbow a little scowl. "You should not speak so of the next generation. Who will continue to learn when you are gone? I should imagine their parents are beside themselves with terror and lament. This blade is one of darkest intent. It is wielded by the Tyrant of the Night, the literal Night Mare."
Rainbow cringed even as Twilight returned with a book. Twilight peered between the two. "Did I miss something? Are you bothering her, Rainbow?"
"She is," agreed Luminace. "However, it is a heavy matter worthy of consideration. Your friend, Applejack, has also been touched by the divine. I'm afraid the gods of Everglow are hungry to spread their influence to a new world. One that has a species so compatible with Everglow must draw at them all the more intensely." She shrugged softly. "I would accept even human worshipers, if they were studious. The number of legs of my faithful matters little beside their eagerness to learn."
The book fell from Twilight's momentarily numb mental grip. "She has?! Is she alright?" She looked between Luminace and Rainbow Dash frantically.
Rainbow held up a hoof. "Chillax, Twi. She's alright. She's just... stuffier than usual." She looked back at Luminace. "So, what do we do?"
Luminace shook her head. "If you had clerics of sufficient power, an atonement spell would do well to restore her fractured alignment. Without that option, you must simply be as you have been. Be her friend, stay close, and very gently guide her back towards the light. Now, about those fillies?"
"Fillies?" Twilight blinked in building confusion.
Rainbow prodded Twilight lightly. "You didn't hear? Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon? They were being bullies and Applejack did some kind of crazy magic and sent them away."
Twilight blinked slowly. "I... did not... How hasn't everypony heard of this by now?"
Rainbow shrugged. "As many ponies think 'Honest Applejack' sent them somewhere to learn some manners as anything else. Their parents are real torn up." She rubbed behind her head. "That's why I asked about it."
Twilight bristled. "Why didn't you tell me?! I have the spell to get there and back. I could be fetching them!" She had become a harried mess, her mane frizzing with intense distress. "Do you know where they went?"
Luminace's horn glowed gently as she separated the two. "Let us not lose our reasoning. Even in darkest time, our thoughts will be what allows us to victory."
"Thoughts, right..." Twilight began the breathing technique taught to her by Cadance.
Rainbow shrugged gently. "Everglow. That's all I know. You can go there whenever you want? I thought it'd be, like, a big deal." She suddenly clopped her hooves together. "Alright!"
Twilight blinked. "Why are you so happy all of a sudden?"
Rainbow pointed at Twilight's Everglow spellbook. "You know Everglow magic. With you at my side, I can go anywhere! Let's gather up the girls and go rescue some fillies." She bobbed her head, looking quite confident. "I bet they're scared for their lives right about now."
Luminace dipped her head. "It seems your path is set. Twilight, it has been a pleasure to see you again and share knowledge. I would know you as a friend, and hope the feeling is returned. If you need help, think of me. You have no god in your heart, perhaps I could fill that hole within you. If not, I will not take offense, but it would be a pleasure and a delight."
Twilight pinkened in her cheeks as she staggered back half a step. "W-wait, can't you help?"
She shook her head lightly. "You return to Everglow. There are rules, and I will not disobey them any more than you would break your own land's laws, I should imagine." She turned to Rainbow. "Thank you for being her friend. The Great Library awaits you in time."
"Wha?"
Luminace offered no further answers but to return to the book she had emerged from. "Good luck in your travels. You may call me again, but please wait at least one full season. There are others who require my presence and I mustn't play favorites too intensely."
All too swiftly for Twilight's liking, the goddess stepped into the book and was gone.
