Chapter 1 - Amaurosis

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The Golden Oak library was empty but for one mare, who sat at the desk of the front area, reading a book she’d already read at least three times. It was an old story. She’d hoped it would be comforting, the way old stories sometimes were.

Instead, she found herself unable to concentrate on the words or engage herself with the story. She wasn’t sure why, usually a good book and a nice cup of chamomile tea were all she needed, to relax the day away. It wasn’t either that she enjoyed the boisterousness of her roommate or the annoying questions of the ponies who hadn’t bothered to memorize the entire Dewlap Decimal system.

But…it would have been nice if one of Miss Cherilee’s students came by. She didn’t mind introducing foals to the favorite books of her youth (well, she’d never had a youth, but she had favorite books). She even enjoyed reading to the weanlings, on the rare occasion anyone had time to take them here.

Evening Star shook her head at her own foolishness. The mayor had chosen her for this position because she liked the quiet and because…well, nopony besides Trixie really felt comfortable around her. They all still remembered when Zecora had carried her out of the Everfree Forest, mumbling about strange and…let's face it, unsettling things.

The citizens of Ponyville weren’t as prejudiced as they had once been. The Princess of Friendship and the other Bearers of Harmony had made sure of that. But still, they’d never known what to think of an amnesiac, with no known family or friends, who for the first few weeks of her life in town, had pushed away the hoof of friendship, whenever it had been extended in her direction.

It was Evening Star’s fault, as always. She needed everything to be in the exactly the same place she left it and when ponies put a book back in the wrong place, it ruined her entire routine. She had tried to express, as nicely as she could, that it was important to keep each book where it belonged, so she could easily find it for other ponies. And they would just stare at her, like she was crazy. Which she was.

The reason why she lived with Trixie, was because just like she put up with Trixie’s excessive use of the third person, Trixie put up with her obsessive tendencies. It meant that Trixie didn’t ever have to clean up after all.

She closed the book. If she kept thinking about how nobody liked her and how they had every right not to, she was bound to get depressed. And if she got depressed, Trixie would try to cheer her up and that was bound to be worse than the depression itself.

Her horn glowed as the book lifted off her desk and flew to the gap in the shelf from which she’d procured it. Then she used her telekinesis to remove the feather duster from under her desk and begin making her hourly rounds, dusting the sparkling clean books and making sure everything was where it was supposed to be.

Evening Star didn’t remember being in school, just like she didn’t remember having parents or indeed, any kind of a life before Ponyville. But even though she didn’t know how she knew; from her earliest memories she could read. And reading was one of the few things that took her mind off the gnawing unease of existence.

It wasn’t fair. Most ponies got to spend their whole lives doing what they loved, surrounded by ponies who supported them. Evening Star liked being surrounded by books, she liked the comfort of being able to always put everything back where it belonged. But did she love it? Did she want to do it until the pink in her mane had faded and the fuzz on her muzzle turned gray?

Her cutie mark didn’t even have anything to do with being a librarian after all. It was some strange symbol that in all her research, she’d never found a picture of. And when she looked at it too closely, that gnawing sensation she got whenever a book was misplaced or someone rowdy came into the library, only got worse.
A cutie mark was supposed to be an expression of your deepest self. What did it mean when she didn’t even know what hers meant? Like everything else in her life, it was…unfinished, covered in a cloud she would do anything to clear. If only there was a way.

But whatever magic had taken away her memories, she’d not yet found a way to dispel it and with each passing day, she worried more and more, that she never would.

Aaaaaaand now she was depressed.

She sighed. It was impossible to stop herself worrying, it was even more impossible to stop herself worrying about worrying. The only thing she could do was dust the sparkling clean, completely untouched shelves and let the mindless repetition relax her twisted up nerves.

That’s when she found it. A gap in the foal’s literature section was missing. Evening Star didn't like gaps. There was something about…holes…that made her feel like the world was closing in on her. She kept extra books under her desk so she could fill a gap, if one ever appeared. If she didn't have a book which fit into the offending absence, she would immediately go out and purchase a new addition thick enough to fill the gap. Evening Star would sometimes spend hours just re-arranging the books on a shelf, just to make sure there weren't any gaps.

To make matters worse, this book hadn’t been borrowed. Despite her spotty long-term memory, she knew the titles of every book in her library. And she was excellent at remembering what books had been lent to whom. This missing volume (Foal's and Horsehold Tales by the Brothers Grimace) had not once been borrowed in Evening's entire career in the civil service. It was the kind of old storybook that no parent in their right mind would read to their offspring nowadays, because of how likely it was to give them nightmares. In fact, the stories in the tome had been so gruesome and cruel, that Evening Star had never been able to force herself to finish it.

That meant somepony had taken this book, without borrowing it, since her last hourly cleaning.

There was a note though, sticking out of that unexpected absence, a little sticky yellow piece of paper with half-illegible words written on it. Tentatively she reached up and snatched it with her hoof, turning away from the gap to read it, unable to concentrate with the glaring opening in her peripherals.

“HEY EV, TOOK YOUR BOOK FOR SHOW. DON’T FREAK OUT! - YOUR BUFF”

BUFF. Best Unicorn Friend Forever. Only Trixie called her that. She’d come up with it when they’d first become roommates, back when she was still trying to rope Evening into using her magic to be her stage assistant (it was hard enough, most days, going outside, without having to perform magic on command).

And now Trixie, "The Great and Powerful", had taken one of the books without borrowing it. All she'd had to do was ask. It would have at least given Evening Star a chance to mark it down and be sure the book didn’t get lost. They weren’t her books after all. They belonged to the town, to the Equestrian government as a matter of fact. That’s why you had to borrow them. If you didn’t borrow them, they were considered stolen. And if they got destroyed while stolen, she’d have to ask the town to pay for a copy.

This was an old book. It was probably worth a lot of bits. Certainly, worth more than a day of her meager stipend. She’d have to explain to the mayor, who had taken her in when she had nothing, that she’d lost a book. The mayor would be disappointed in her. More than that, she’d be furious and rightfully so. Evening Star had failed at her job. The mayor might not trust her to protect the books anymore. She might decide to fire Evening Star and hire someone who was more trustworthy, someone who didn’t let old books get destroyed as a prop in a gaudy magic show.

But Evening Star’s job was all she had. Without the Golden Oak she’d be homeless. And she’d never be able to get a job as a librarian someplace else, not if any-pony caught wind that she’d let a book get destroyed!

Most ponies would have been annoyed. Some might have gotten angry. But Evening Star was too scared for anger. She needed to get that book back and quick, before something went terribly wrong (as it always was about to).

She grabbed her only cloak and flung it over her, before rushing out into the cool spring afternoon, her eyes searching the sky for any sign of the fireworks that heralded her roommate’s shows. When they failed to register anything but storm clouds, she ran up to the nearest ponies, interrupting a conversation between two good friends to beg “Do either of you know where Trixie is?”

One of the ponies, the one with the cream-colored coat smiled, warmly. “Oh, you mean Trixie the Great? Yeah, I heard she was set up in front of the carousel tonight…hey, you're the mare who lives with her, aren't you? Do you think you could get me and my friend tickets for her next show?”

Evening Star didn’t answer. She was already galloping away in the direction of the Carousel Boutique. She was winded by the time she turned the corner and saw the mare she was looking for. There was Trixie, standing on a pop-up stage in front of her caravan (which was parked entirely too close to the entrance to the boutique for it to be safe), wearing that stupid cloak and that stupid hat (real wizard ponies didn’t wear cloaks and hats like that), and holding Foal's and Horsehold Tales with nothing more than her telekinesis, above a crowd of foals, half of which were holding lit sparklers or sugary confectionaries.

She was currently reading the story about the filly who came across the house with three bowls, three chairs and three beds, while she used her magic to project images of growling bears in the air above her.

“And just as Goldi-Mane drifted off to the land of nod, the Ursa Major and her family returned to home…” Trixie said, with a devilish smile. The foals drew closer to the stage, sensing that this was the part of the story where Goldi-Mane would get her comeuppance for breaking into someone’s house, sitting on all their furniture and eating their food.

“Trixie!” Evening yelled, shoving through the circle of parents to get within sight of her roommate.

Trixie looked up from the pages of the book, confused and then frowned. “Evening, I’m doing a show right now, okay? The Great and Powerful Trixie can chase a ladybug away for you later.”

Evening blushed as everypony around her laughed or clapped at the revelation. Trixie had promised she wouldn’t tell anypony about that!

It didn’t matter. All that mattered was the book.

“Trixie, you can’t just take books from the library whenever you feel like it!” Evening replied, pushing past the last of the yearlings to get to the edge of the stage.

“Uh, that’s why libraries are for Evening.” Trixie said. That got another round of laughs from the crowd.

Evening gritted her teeth. “I mean you didn’t borrow it...you just took it!”

“Tomato-potato. Now go away. You are making the Great and Powerful Trixie lose her place in the story.” Trixie said. Without looking she used her telekinesis to pick up Evening and toss her over the crowd of laughing foals like yesterday’s garbage.

Evening landed with a thud in a dirty puddle, staining her only cloak. She trembled for a moment in humiliation and rage. Then she raised herself back to her hooves. She turned back to Trixie, her own horn flaring with pink energy.

“And when the Ursa Major found that someone had snuck into her house and eaten the porridge she’d made for her husband and son, she was overcome with primordial rage!” Trixie read as her spell created the image of a roaring bear above her.

“NO!” Evening Star yelled, using her own telekinesis to shove the members of the crowd out of the way as she stomped back toward the stage, still dripping. “You took that book without borrowing it, Trixie. You took it without telling me, because you knew I would be mad. And you! Didn’t! Even. Care!”

With each punctuated word she shook mud from her mane and clapped her hooves down on the cobblestones until they ached. Trixie looked taken aback and the colorful sparkling images behind her slowly dissipated with the spell that maintained them forgotten.

“All you had to do was ask, ‘hey, Evening Star, can I borrow one of these books for one of my stupid shows, where all I do is talk about how great I am?’ But you couldn’t even do THAT!” Evening snarled, as climbed up onto the stage. “You know how much my job matters to me; you know how important it is that I keep this job. And still, you act like it doesn’t matter!”

Trixie stared at Evening Star in surprise for a moment, then her eyes narrowed. “Oh, please, Evening Star…no librarian in all of Equestria is more persnickety than you! I didn’t tell you about the book, because I knew you’d make a big deal out of it. And do you know why the Great and Powerful Trixie knew you’d make a big deal out of it? Because you don’t have any friends! All you do, all day long is sitting around worrying about your stupid books!”

Evening gritted her teeth together, then closed her eyes and yelled. “THEY AREN’T MY BOOKS!”

With that, she tried to grab hold of the book with her telekinesis, but Trixie, who was no slouch in the magical department, refused to let go. The world slowed, as Evening Star watched the century's old tome rip in half, sending a spray of pages swirling up into the air.

“No! No! No! No! NO!” Evening Star let go of the remains of the book and scrambled to grab all the pages with her telekinesis before they could land on a sparkler or in a puddle.

That was when she heard the first great *THOOM!* of something slamming into the ground. Whatever it was, it sent the crowd in front of the stage scattering in the direction of their homes. Evening Star didn’t care, she was too busy reading the page numbers of what she'd salvaged to be sure she hadn’t missed one.

*THOOM!* The sound came again, louder this time and she felt the stage creak beneath her.

“Okay, okay…I can still fix this…” Evening Star said, grabbing the remains of the book with her hooves and stuffing the re-ordered pages inside of it. “A little glue, it will be good as new…”

“Evening…” It was Trixie, she was standing a few feet away and her voice suddenly sounded very weak.

Evening Star scowled up at her. “None of this would have happened if you had just borrowed the book like you were supposed to Trixie!”

Trixie didn’t answer. She was staring up at something and as she lifted a hoof to point, Evening Star followed her gaze.

Towering over the entire town of Ponyville was a fifteen-story tall translucent purple bear, with the designs of various constellations glowing bright red along the surface of its fur.

“URSA MAJOR!” Trixie screamed as the creature opened its massive, saber-toothed jaws and let out a roar that shook the cobblestones of the town.

Chapter 2 - Eidolon

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Trixie disappeared in a puff of blue magic, just as Evening Star’s attention was drawn to the sound of the front door of the boutique, slamming into the side of Trixie’s abandoned caravan. Jumping off the stage Evening Star used her magic to shove the caravan out of the way, allowing Hondo Flanks, Cookie Crumble and Sweetie Belle to race outside.

“We have to get out of here!” Evening Star yelled, as the three of them paused to take in the towering monstrosity above. The shadow of the Ursa Major's raised foot had fallen across the four of them.

Hondo Flanks, pulled out of his shock by his instincts nodded and as Evening Star reached the group, the two of them wove their magic together, transporting the entire group down the block, just in time to avoid being crushed.

When they re-appeared, Evening Star stumbled with exhaustion. Even when they'd first found her, she'd been proficient in magic, one of the few facts she could take pride in. However, she was unaccustomed to channeling so much thaumic energy in such a short span of time and the combined teleportation had left her more than a little discombobulated. When she finally steadied herself, she saw the tears in Sweetie Belle and Cookie Crumble’s eyes and turned to see what they were staring at. The Carousel Boutique was now a multicolored pile of splinters, mixed with the pieces of Trixie’s stage and caravan.

Then a shadow fell across her again and she looked up to see that the Ursa Major had leaned down to swipe at them. The red pupils of its eyes swelled and in that moment Evening Star knew that this immense creature wanted to dash her to pieces, with everything it had.

Her body tensed. But when nothing came, she opened her eyes to see that the Ursa Major’s claw had slammed into a transparent blue dome encasing her and the family. She looked at her fellow unicorns, surprised that any of them possessed the magical ability to produce such a powerful barrier. But none of their horns were glowing...

“Rainbow and Fluttershy, now!” Yelled a voice from behind.

Evening Star turned to see Starlight Glimmer, the Bearer of Magic, and the Princess of Friendship herself. She flew a few feet off the ground, her pink wings extended, and her purple and blue mane made flapping in the wind. Her own horn crackled with turquoise energy as she maintained the shield spell, but Evening Star could see sweat forming on her coat, as the Ursa Major swatted at the force field twice more, testing its limitations. Then the creature snarled and reared back to come down with both claws.

As it did, there was a flash of blue and yellow to either side of the dome. Evening Star watched in awe as two more Bearers of the Elements wove through the air and approached the snarling maw of the immense bear. Although she'd never shared a conversation with them, she'd seen their pictures time and time again in the Ponyville Express. The faster of the two was Rainbow Dash, a member of the Wonderbolts renown for being the fastest flier in the nation. She curled up around the face of the Ursa Major, drawing its attention away from the protective field it had been about to break. It swatted at her, but like a pony trying to strike a gnat she flew circles around its head, while her companion neared one of its ears.

The less bold of the two was Fluttershy. The only thing she was known for was for probably being the most pacifistic of all the Bearers (that and the time she'd been a world-famous fashion icon). Nonetheless, she wore an expression of rigid determination as she approached the Ursa’s big bushy ear. Her face screwed up and she yelled to be heard over the growling of the creature and the rushing of the quickly growing storm.

“You have to stop! Whatever’s made you angry, we can fix it, but you have to stop destroying our home!!” She commanded. Her big blue eyes were filled with tears.

The creature snarled and looking away from Rainbow Dash's expert aeronautics, it swung a paw at Fluttershy. Not being as an accomplished flier as Rainbow Dash, she wasn’t able to move quickly enough to avoid the hit. There was a sickening crunch, and she was sent spinning end over end toward the roofs of Ponyville. Evening Star was sure for a moment she was going to see the legendary pegasi fall through a rooftop, or worse, collide with a chimney or spire.

Then she saw Applejack, one of the few bearers she'd seen in person, racing out from behind a building, whirling a lasso above her head. The earth pony was far from the genial salespony that Evening had seen from a distance, selling apples out of the back of a wagon. Now she used the abandoned carts and stalls along Ponyville's main street to parkour onto the rooftop of Quills and Sofas. She scrambled across its rolling roof and leaped into the air, intercepting Fluttershy’s fatal descent with her lasso. The rope cinched around Fluttershy's hindleg and Applejack skidded across the roof, digging her hooves into the tiles to avoid being pulled off by Fluttershy's momentum. Instead of smacking into the cobblestone, the yellow pegasi dangled a few feet above the ground by her ankle.

“Ah gottya!" Applejack said, through the rope in her teeth, as she slowly hoisted her dazed friend onto the safety of the rooftop.

“That’s it!” Yelled Rainbow Dash. She had descended, hoping to save Fluttershy herself (a move which, according to Evening Star's understanding of the laws of aerodynamics, would probably have killed one or both of them). Now she used her downward momentum to fuel her ascent, rocketing back up to the Ursa and punching it in the jowl. The creature seemed more shocked than pained, but as it bellowed with rage, Rainbow Dash used her wings to propel herself backwards, kicking the bear in the eye and eliciting another bone-shuddering roar.

Then she began to circle its head, increasing her speed until the Ursa Major's unswollen eye was lolling with dizziness, and it had begun to teeter.

“Quickly, get inside!” Starlight Glimmer yelled as she dropped the force field. Then her wings beat and she twirled up into the air, landing next to Applejack and Fluttershy on the nearby rooftop.

Evening Star watched as Hondo and his family took refuge in the nearby town-hall, which a number of unicorns were now using their magic to shield. But she stopped herself from following and peeled away, racing down the street the way she'd originally came.

With just a few steps, the Ursa Major could flatten the whole town. She had to get to the books tasked to her care into the basement before the creature destroyed them.

She galloped back in the direction of the library, still carrying the book which had started this whole mess. Looking back on the argument, she wasn’t sure what had come over her. It seemed so much more important now that Trixie was safe. When compared to the invasion of the Ursa Major, her concerns over one old book weren't just minuscule. They were microscopic.

Evening Star had been petty and when Trixie ignored her pettiness, she had said things that she wasn’t sure she could take back. She’d have to apologize when this was all over, assuming they both survived. But she couldn’t blame her roommate if she decided to move out (not that she had much of anywhere to go, now that her caravan had been destroyed).

She had just turned the corner and seen the library, when the Ursa Major staggered forward. Its paw crushed the Cafe Hay, sending splinters the size of Evening Star flying through the air and filling the street with a cloud of dust. Evening Star skidded to a halt to avoid being crushed in the explosion of rubble and fell to one ankle from the vibrations in the cobblestones.

A drop of slobber the size of a foal-pool splashed to the ground in front of her, as the Ursa Major snapped its terrible jaws at the pegasus currently harassing its face.

Just as she was about to dart beneath the creature, she saw something else. A smiling pink earth pony wrapping the twenty-foot-wide paw beside her in rolls and rolls of ribbon and streamers. She was even humming, as she did the job.

She stopped as she tied a big red bow on the Ursa Major’s pinkie claw and smiled over at Evening Star. “Hey, you’re the cranky librarian pony who can’t remember anything! You want to help me tie up an Ursa Major?”

It was Pinkie Pie. The pony who'd tried to give Evening Star a party when she'd gotten out of Ponyville hospital. Evening Star shook the memory out of her head. She was too busy racing in the direction of the library.

“I’ll take a raincheck!” Pinkie Pie called as Evening Star threw open the door and dove into the safety and protection of her home. Quickly, she began focusing all her remaining magical stores on removing books from their placement on the shelves and throwing them into the basement down below.

She heard more ground-rumbling growls and saw flashes of blue and turquoise light as the Bearers of the Elements continued to do battle with the immense bear. She was even half-way done with her hasty rearranging, when the roof of the library was ripped off in a shuddering groan.

There was the Ursa Major again, bruised, slightly bloody, but still very much alive and very angry. And it was growling down at her, a few strands of slobber dripping from its tree-sized canines. The constellations across its body were now glowing so brightly it hurt her eyes. As it opened its maw to devour her whole, a blast of blue energy struck its red tongue and a white unicorn with a seemingly immaculate mane leaped down into the library center.

“Nobody threatens my family and gets away with it, you big brute!” The unicorn declared as she galloped in front of Evening Star, her horn buzzing with the kind of deep-rooted magic that only protectiveness can awaken.

Applejack and Pinkie Pie appeared on the now exposed perimeter wall of the library, taking advantage of the Ursa Major’s pain to leap up onto its snout. Soon they were wrapping tape and rope around its jaws, while high up above, bolts of lightning slamming into the creature’s fur, scorching it with each blinding flash. They were both forced to leap off the snout of the creature as it reached up, tearing away the restraints over its mouth and getting them all over its paws in the process.

There was a flash of blue energy and Princess Starlight teleported into view, a still shaken looking Fluttershy leaning on her. As she did, Pinkie and Applejack leaped down from their perch, skidding to a halt on either side of their friends. The somehow still immaculate unicorn, whom Evening had now identified as Rarity, the local seamstress, joined them, as Rainbow Dash dived down from the swirling clouds above.

“Now!" Starlight ordered, and as she said it, the crown atop her head began to glow with purple radiance. Instantaneously, a white aura had surrounded the six friends and Evening Star looked away to avoid being blinded, as a beam of pure magic cascaded upwards.

Evening Star felt the tingle of that power, like static, crackling across her muddy coat and piercing the layers of stratified bone protecting her cornual nerve, deep within her horn. It was at once the most wonderful and terrible thing she'd ever experienced, so immensely energizing as to be addictive, but simultaneously filling her with profound insignificance. The sensation was strangely familiar, even more so than the occasional moments of deja vu that occasionally haunted her when she left the safety of her home.

The shuddering of reality warping and folding around this moment finally ended, leaving behind smoke of disintegrated rubble and the eye-watering scent of burnt fur. The Ursa Major was walling and even through the sunspots dancing across her vision, Evening Star could see that the Bearers had left the thing deformed, not just searing off much of its purple fur but leaving the translucent skin beneath partially melted, the once vibrant constellations on its body now warped and dim.

It fled, as loudly as possible, destroying another half a dozen buildings on its way back to the safety of the Everfree Forest. When the dust settled and the creature was far from sight, all six the champions slumped with exhaustion. Then they slowly gathered around Fluttershy, as Evening Star saw the look of determination fade from her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Rainbow asked, staring at Fluttershy's still slightly bent wing.

Fluttershy smiled. "Thanks to you, Applejack."

"Aw, shucks...Ah'm sure you woulda done the same for me. Ah'm just sorry you couldn't make that thing listen to ya."

Fluttershy looked at the ground. "That's not important...I'm just glad that Rarity's family is alright."

"Oh, I almost forgot about your shop!" Pinkie said, turning to Rarity with an expression of horror.

“It’s alright, girls,” The unicorn said with a half-hearted smile as they all pressed themselves to her coat and gently wrapped their hooves around her withers. “I didn’t really like that last line I was working on anyway...”

“Oh, Rarity,” Fluttershy said. “You and your family can stay with me for as long as you need. As long as you don’t mind all the animals.”

“And we've always got space for guests at Sweet Apple Acres.” Applejack said.

“I’ll help you put up a new carousel. Even better than the last one!” Rainbow Dash declared. "There'll be twice as much space for ridiculous dresses!"

“You’ll finally have a chance to put up those gem furnishings you wanted at the Castle of Friendship.” Starlight said with a smile.

Rarity teared up and then closed her eyes, letting herself be held and nuzzled by her five friends. “Oh, thank you girls. You-you are the best friends a gorgeous up and coming young designer could ask for.”

The rest all rolled their eyes lovingly.

“Th-thank you…for saving my life.” Evening Star said, her vision blurry and stinging from the ash in the air. She was not sure if she should be bowing in the presence of these ponies, who she knew worked so closely with Celestia herself. But even if she had, it still seemed inadequate thanks for what they'd just done for her.

Rarity opened her eyes and stepped forward, her friends all crowding around Evening Star. “Of course, darling. What else were we supposed to do?”

“That was a right good thing you done, protecting Rarity's family when everypony was ducking for cover.” Applejack said. “But why in tarnation did ya come here instead of the town hall, where you woulda been safe?”

Evening Star looked down at the ground. “This-this is my home…I had to protect the books.”

“Seems pretty silly to me!” Said Pinkie Pie, popping up out of nowhere right next to Evening Star.

“Pinkie Pie…” Starlight Glimmer sighed.

“What? You can always print more books, but if you get squished, who’ll print a new you?” Pinkie asked, wrapping her hooves lovingly around Evening Star’s neck and patting her on the head like she was a newborn.

“I appreciate your concern,” Evening Star said, respectfully drawing her head out of Pinkie’s grasp with a *POP!*. “But I need to clean this place up.”

“You don't mean to say that you intend to spend the night here, do you?” Rarity asked, suddenly concerned.

Evening Star nodded, no longer looking at the brave ponies who’d saved her life. She was too busy slowly picking up each and every book which had come free of the shelves when the canopy of the tree had been torn free.

“Umm, there’s no roof.” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

“And it looks like it's going to rain.” Fluttershy pointed out.

“Ooh, this game is fun! I want to point out an inane detail next!” Pinkie Pie said, throwing her forelegs up. “There are books...all over the floor!!”

“What did you say your name was?” Starlight Glimmer asked, stepping forward.

Evening Star looked up, a book on pottery between her teeth. “Evening Shtar.”

“Well, Miss Shtar, why don’t you come stay with me and my family? At least until you get a new roof.” Rarity said, putting a hoof on Evening’s shoulder kindly.

Evening lowered the book onto a pile of them. “But I have to clean up this mess…if I don't everything will be destroyed.”

Starlight smirked. “Don’t worry. The five of us will put all the books away safe and sound. You go with Rarity and get a good night’s rest, okay?”

Evening Star looked up to see Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy all nodding. They all looked absolutely wiped out from what they’d just experienced. But they were still willing to help her.

She felt something inside melt a little. “Thank you…thank you so much…” She realized she was crying and wiped her face with her leg.

“Our pleasure, neighbor.” Applejack said, stepping forward. "Just as long as ya promise not to go doin' anything reckless like ya did again."

Evening Star nodded, sheepishly.

Rarity’s family had opted to stay the night at the Castle of Friendship, for although they did not live at the Carousel Boutique their actual house was half-buried in rubble from the attack. Not only that, but the magical protections of the castle, ensured by Princess Starlight, offered more security.

The building was not what Evening Star had expected. When she'd first seen the castle, after all that nonsense with the centaur, she'd been overwhelmed by its beauty. But there was something about its sleek and almost transparent surfaces, to create a feeling of being exposed and trapped all at once.

She'd been glad when Rarity had gotten her and the others out of its cavernous halls and into a circular chamber with six beds. Evening Star guessed that the Princess and her friends used the place to house visiting dignitaries, but the stash of board games under her bed indicated that it might have also been home to a number of sleep overs in the past.

As she hung up her cloak and readied herself for bed, Evening Star watched as Hondo and Cookie and Rarity all fussed over Sweetie Belle, calming the nervous filly with a mixture of verbal reassurance, physical affection and eventually an almost heartbreaking lullaby. It felt wrong, watching them enjoy such an intimate moment, and Evening Star turned away and tried to pretend not to be listening.

There was something so touching about the scene, that it felt wrong just sharing the room with the four of them. They had something she’d never known, some deeper connection that made her presence almost sacrilegious, even after they’d thanked her so thoroughly for her assistance. So, deciding that just looking away was not enough, Evening Star took advantage of the distraction to slip out of bed and make her way into the hall.

As she stood outside the bedroom, Evening Star closed her eyes, in hopes that the tune of the lullaby might awaken memories of what her own parents had hummed to her as a babe. Perhaps there was something from her elusive past, which hadn’t been torn away from her so completely. Some shred of her inner essence that might take her away from this place, to one of belonging.

But not only did the melody fail to elicit the profound reaction she'd been hoping for, it did not awaken any emotion that could be described as familial.

If her parents were dead, she could have mourned them. But the closest thing Evening Star had ever had to a parent was maybe the mayor, who had done so much for her, or maybe Zecora, who by finding her had saved her life. Neither of which, she knew, viewed her the way she wished they would.

“Yer the mare Zecora found in the woods mutterin’ hocus-pocus, ain’t ya?”

She opened her eyes and nearly jumped to see how quickly Applejack had approached her. Then she nodded slowly, ashamed.

The taller mare gave a bittersweet smile as she sidled up alongside Evening Star, peeking into the bedroom through the slit in the door. “Cookie Crumble sure knows how to take care of a filly, don’t she?”

Evening Star nodded, her eyes on the ground.

“Ya know, ah think Rarity is just about the most generous pony ah've ever met, but ah reckon sometimes she don’t appreciate ‘er family as much as she oughta.” Applejack said.

Evening Star lifted her head. “Really?”

Applejack turned to her. “Ah reckon she will after all this...nothin' like a major disaster to get ponies thankful for what matters...but ah can remember when she'd get embarrassed just from them sayin' how much they loved 'er…”

She took off her hat and held it to her chest. “Still, it can be just about Tartarus on the rest of us, seeing somepony tossing away what we wish we had.”

Evening Star’s eyes widened. “I…I’m sorry…I didn’t know…”

“Aw shoot, it ain’t yer fault.” She said, putting her hat back on and smiling like they were discussing daisies. “Like my granny always says, there ain't no use in cryin' over spilt applesauce."

“That doesn’t make it any easier.” Evening answered, without trying to hide the bitterness in her voice.

“At least ah still got mah brother and mah granny to look after me.” Applejack said, searching Evening’s down-turned face.

There was a moment as Evening tried not to burst into tears again.

"But if ya ever want to talk…orphan to orphan, ah'm always happy to lend an ear.”

Evening Star looked up in surprise then recoiled. “Th-thank you, Miss Applejack.”

Applejack wrinkled at the honorific. “Ya helped one of my friends, ah help you. Simple as pie.” Applejack turned away. “Now, let’s get ya someplace else to sleep.”

Evening Star shook her head. “Oh, that’s not necessary…I don’t want to impose…I-I’ll be fine.”

“Horsefeathers! This here castle is big enough to hold the whole dang town come to it.” Applejack said, as she trotted in the direction of the staircase. She paused at the base of the stairs to glance back at Evening Star. “Unless ya wanna stay.”

Evening Star pawed at her reflection on the floor with her hoof. “I-I don’t want to be alone, Miss Applejack.”

“Right! Now ya can do away with callin' me, 'Miss', right this instant, ya hear?” Said Applejack marching back up to her. “But if ya don’t want to be on your lonesome, ah can sure as heck understand.”

“Thank you. For everything.” Evening Star said.

“That's just what neighbors do.” Applejack said, proudly.

But it wasn’t. Evening Star had never been treated this kindly in all her time in Ponyville. Admittedly, she hadn’t exited Golden Oaks more than a few times since getting the job. But still, it was all a world of a difference from the condescension and annoyance she’d received from Trixie.

Give it time, a part of her said. These ponies will get just as sick of you as all the rest. They don’t know what a pain in the rump you are yet.

She watched as Sweetie Belle drifted off with her parents on either side and her big sister at her hooves. The sight was sweet enough to put a smile on her face as she climbed onto her own bed and drifted off, too tired to be bothered by the normal worries.

She was in the Castle of Friendship. But it wasn’t cold and unfamiliar anymore. It was hers and it was rich with mementos from her and her friends’ travels.

She was sitting in the throne room, curled up under a blanket, warmed by the sunlight that dazzled through the gem-studded windows. A mug of hot cocoa sat on the crystalline table in front of her, its heat creating condensation on the normally transparent surface.

Then she heard a voice, echoing from the hallway behind her. It was soft voice. The voice of someone familiar, whose name she couldn’t quite remember off the top of her head. But what was stranger, was that the voice had called her something besides “Evening Star” and she had remembered it as if it had always been her name.

When Evening Star came to, she spent considerable time trying and failing to remember what that second name, which had felt so right, was. But although the process was beyond frustrating, it caused her to slowly realize something. Something very, very important.

She had just dreamed, for the first time since waking up in the Ponyville Hospital.

Chapter 3 - Kinesthesia

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Evening Star hurried down the hallway, peaking around corners and glancing into half-open rooms for reasons that even she was unsure of. She'd spent the first five minutes after waking having another existential crisis, this one mostly caused by her inability to identify what her dream had meant.

She had eventually been pulled out of her spiral by the sound of the laughter. The possibility of being in a room with another soul was a comforting one. And the delightful sound mixed so wonderfully with the odors of sugar, butter and fried batter, that even the most stone-hearted pony would have been incapable of resisting it.

She paused outside the doorway to the dining area to peek inside. Rarity and her family were eating pancakes, and, in spite of Rarity’s laughing objections, the meal had turned into a game of trying to squirt each other with bottles of syrup. Evening Star grinned. The world was as it should be, she was being silly again.

Still, she would feel more comfortable once she was out of the castle well out of sight of it. She gently nudged open the door, ducked inside and creeping past the massive table and in the direction of the exit.

“Miss Star! Well rested I trust!”

Evening paused and turned reluctantly to nod at Rarity.

“I’m afraid that Pinkie Pie made far too many pancakes and well, usually she’d finish them herself...but she’s busy helping the others with the repairs…in any case, you simply must join us for breakfast.” Rarity explained, jumping off her seat and trotting over to Evening Star, with her most winning smile.

Evening glanced at the smiling faces behind Rarity, inviting her to join them in their ridiculous competition. Then she shook her head. “I’m sorry, Miss Rarity, but I have to get back to my library. I appreciate everything you and the others have done…but I need to get started on…putting things back where they belong."

“But the whole town is in total disarray dear…at least tell me you are going to stay here until the repairs are finished.” Rarity said, seemingly scandalized.

“I’ve imposed enough on all of you…you don’t have to worry about me.” Evening Star said. “I have to get going. I’ll let you get back to your breakfast…”

She’d not made it two steps when Hondo jumped down from his chair and padded over to her.

“Ah, Evening Star, right?” He asked.

She nodded, mournfully.

“You saved my wife and my daughter…I just want you to know, as far as I’m concerned, your part of the family!” He said with a grin.

She startled. “Oh, umm, thank you sir but I-”

Then he’d wrapped his hooves around her, joined by Rarity, Sweetie Belle and Cookie Crumble in quick succession.

“Wherever we call home…you’re always welcome dear.” Cookie said.

Evening felt a squeeze on her leg and looked down to see Sweetie Belle smiling up at her. With some difficulty, she drew backward, then she yanked herself away from the group.

“I-I have to go.” She mumbled, avoiding the surrounding looks of confusion and concern. Eyes shining, she turned and galloped out of the room.

She was halfway back to Ponyville before she slowed her gait, eventually pausing on the cleft of a hill to catch her breath and stare at asymmetrical line of trees in the distance, which denoted the border of the Everfree Forest.

Then she collapsed, striking the dirt until her hooves hurt and she was too tired to do anything but lie down. She pressed her horn, buzzing and sparkling with the force of her emotion into the cool dirt, until its glow finally faded the downpour within had slowed to a trickle.

She was so stupid, letting those ponies treat her with care, letting them tell her she was one of them or that she could rely on them. Letting them…hug her. Like she was just a lost little foal who needed them to love her.

Well, she did need them, but she didn’t deserve them. Evening Star didn’t remember life before Ponyville, but she knew, deep in her heart, that she had done something truly terrible. Her research had indicated that memory loss could be caused by shock and the guilt she felt, whenever she looked at other ponies, having fun or being kind to one another, told her that whatever had traumatized her, she had brought it upon herself.

If her family were still alive, they would want nothing to do with her. And why would they, all she did was suck the happiness out of other's lives. She didn’t belong here; it was simple as that. She was a single puzzle piece left in the box, because she didn’t fit with anypony else’s life.

And then she’d had the dream, where she’d felt so strongly that for once, she belonged. But that had been ripped away from her, back to this world where she never would.

She shoved her face back into the dirt, her tears salting the soil as she cried out in a low whimper. “Please…please…whoever you are…forgive me…forgive me.”

She didn’t know who she was speaking to. She didn’t know what she needed forgiveness for. But she couldn’t stand another day, waiting for answers that might never arrive.

Eventually, when all the tears were gone and her legs had started to go to sleep from kneeling for so long, she continued on her way down the road. She had a lot of work to do.

Her stomach grumbled. She ignored it.

Evening Star spent the rest of the day using her horn to pick up beams and branches and pile them atop the library, in her best estimation of what a roof looked like. While the rest of the town worked hard to protect each other, to repair one another’s homes and businesses, she stood in this empty library, trying and failing to plug leaks that she knew, deep down, would cause the entire structure to collapse, the moment a strong storm rolled in.

She should have stayed at the castle. She should have accepted the hoof of friendship. She knew that. But she also knew that it was too painful, waiting around for ponies who were so much amazing than she was, to discover that she wasn’t worth the effort. It was better to hole up here, where she could hoard books that she could barely afford and be sure the rest of the world didn’t want or need her.

“Hey, Evening…”

She glanced away from the gap in her make-shift roof that she’d been staring at for the past ten minutes. “What is it, Trixie?”

“I-I’m really sorry…about taking that book…”

“It doesn’t matter.” Evening Star said, sauntering over to one of the empty shelves and staring at the wood. It had gotten wet last night, after the Bearer’s had helped her save all the books. The wood was warping. If the pegasi didn’t arrange drier weather soon, it would rot, and all the shelves would have to be replaced.

Not that the town would have the funds to do so, after what it had just been through.

“No, it-it does matter. The-the Great and Powerful Trixie…is not a thief.” The other unicorn said as she trotted closer.

Evening Star bristled. She couldn’t handle it. One more pony touching her or being near her or telling her how sorry they were or how much they appreciated her.

This is why you stay in the library. A voice reminded her. The outside was too…painful…too dangerous, too upsetting. Too real.

You don’t deserve real life. She reminded herself.

“Trixie, please…I’m really busy right now…and I don’t care anymore okay…I tried to save one book and I just made things worse. Now please, leave me alone so I can clean everything up.” Evening said.

“But I got all the bits together, to buy a replacement of that book!”

Evening Star paused and turned to stare at Trixie, more precisely, at her hoof, where a sack full of shiny golden bits now rested.

She looked up into the smiling eyes of the blue unicorn, her expression of horror eventually causing Trixie to go nervous.
“Did the I mess up…again?” She asked.

“Your caravan was destroyed.” Evening Star said.

Trixie blushed. “Well, yeah, but…”

“Trixie, the stage…all your props, your fireworks…they’re all gone and…and you’re probably going to have to move. Nopony will be able to pay for magic shows, with half the town destroyed.” Evening Star said.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie always covers her debts!” Trixie declared, with a little flourish of her cloak.

Evening Star was atop her a second later, wrapping her hooves around her neck and holding her tight. “I’m sorry I got so angry…I’m sorry I’m like this…you-you're the best roommate I could ever have…I’m so sorry for everything! Please don’t go!”

Trixie gently broke the embrace. “The Great and Powerful Trixie accepts your proposal…” Then she winked. “And you don’t have to apologize, Evening Star. You were right…I knew it was wrong and I did it anyway.”

Evening Star tackled her with another hug and Trixie, with a sad smile, gently patted her withers and stroked her mane, until she’d calmed back down.

Trixie ended up helping with the repairs, but their work was soon cut off by the fact that both of them were starving. After a belated dinner, made rich with the sound of laughter, the two of them passed out on their beds, the temperate spring night a blessing given their drafty residence.

That was when it happened.

It was another dream. Evening Star was back at the castle. Only this time there was arguing. Distorted voices cried out from either side of her, full of righteous anger and petty jealousy.

She saw herself rise above the clamor, two great purple wings appearing from behind her back to bring her aloft. Then she felt it, as the chambers shook with the sound of her voice, her demand for quiet. The magic she exuded was far superior to anything she’d accomplished in reality; it was intoxicating to imagine and terrifying to witness.

The Evening Star flapped her wings, then slammed her hoof down on the crystal table, her horn pulsating with barely contained magic. She was crying in the dream, but she didn’t know why. She was angry about something, possibly angrier than she’d ever been. But she’d no place to focus it, no clear target to direct her passion at.

And when the voices ceased to be cowed and returned to their accusations, the alicorn had fled. Fled up the pearlescent staircase, into a private library. That’s where she’d found it. The book. The key to solving all of her problems.

What had been its name again?

Evening Star opened her eyes. She was not in the Castle of Friendship. She was in her library. And she was not an Alicorn or a princess. She was a librarian, with a lot of work ahead of her.

When the day’s repairs were complete, or at least, as complete as they would be with Trixie holding a show at the library (she said it was to raise morale for the whole town, but Evening Star knew that Trixie needed the limelight as much as the residents of Ponyville needed a distraction).

After an amusing, if curtailed show, many of the ponies stuck around to help with the repairs and Trixie insisted that Evening Star take a break before she busted her horn trying to be useful. It was scary, to venture outside once again. Her home had been wrecked, but it remained hers, a place where she’d believed she could control. It was a relief in some ways, to have everything around her shattered so profoundly, just as it was a relief to be forced away from that damp and cluttered interior.

Still, even though she knew that the ponies doing the work were more experienced and talented at this than she was, even though she knew she would merely get in the way, she longed to return as soon as possible to make sure everything was going according to plan.

She had to force herself not to return. She had to remind herself that she trusted Trixie and the ponies of this town. And that the worst had already happened and that she was entirely powerless to stop the situation from somehow degrading any further.

She ended up going to Sugar Cube corner, just for something to do.

“Can I help you?” Asked the pony behind the counter. She had a gray coat with a dark lavender mane.

“Uh, hi…are you, new here?” Evening asked. There was something…familiar about the pony. She’d…never met her before, she was sure of it. But the feeling remained.

“Pinkie Pie is helping with the repairs…so she asked me to fill in for her.” The pony said. Then she lifted a hoof to point to the hastily scribbled name tag perched on her sweater. “I’m Maud.”

The name tag read: MAUD.

“Okay…I would like three blueberry muffins please.” Evening Star said.

Maud nodded and turned, lifelessly, toward the racks of hundreds of brightly colored pastries. Then she removed the muffins, one at a time, placed them in a paper bag and slid it across to Evening Star.

Evening had just begun to reach for her purse when the strange pony lifted a hoof.

“No need…any friend of Pinkie’s is a friend of mine.” She said, reciting the comforting statement with all the warmth of a tundra outhouse.

“Oh, okay…thank you, Maud.”

Maud just stared at her, and Evening Star quickly exited the shop, before the interaction could somehow become more uncomfortable.

As she sat down on a stone, overlooking the pastures surrounding town, she removed "Foal's and Horsehold Tales" from her saddlebag and gently used her magic to open it up. The olde grammar and faded illustrations, once unnerving at best, were now comforting somehow.

She skimmed over the contents, careful to avoid getting any crumbs on the yellowed pages as she ate. Then she paused, when she came across a story she’d never before heard. It was entitled “The Foryeten Prynce” and featured an illustration of two stallions quarreling over a beautiful mare.

After finishing her second muffin, she flipped the page to begin the story.

“Long ago, there were two alicorn prynces. The ealdor was sharp of mind and unequaled in the ways of spellcasting. The younger was stout of spirit and the boldest of jousters. The two were insevarable, ruling the kyngdom of Alicorns with cunning and might. But when a glamorous mare arrived from a distant climbes to visit their fair land, both desired her. Each toiled day and night to impress the mare, neglecting their duties to win her favour. When she chose the younger, the ponies of the court were relieved, that the wiser of the two might return his attentions to affairs of state. But the ealdor brother did not forgive his brother nor forget the mare. And so, he did a fierce thing and tried to change the heorte of the beautiful mare with magics…”

She frowned. Usually, tales collected in volumes such as this one, like the one that Trixie had been reading for the entertainment of the foals at her show, were based on true events. Exaggerated? Yes. But usually, they could be followed back to a particular incident, which had been mythologized.

But this one suggested the existence of a pre-Celestian kingdom of Alicorns, something which went against all she knew of Equestrian history.

Before the two princesses had awoken the Elements of Harmony, the lands which made up Equestria had belonged to the three great tribes. And before that, to Discord and the legions of Tartarus.

If indeed, there had been an Alicorn empire, the land should have been scattered with relics of their mightiness. And if this story was based on some element of truth, why had she never heard of it before? It certainly wasn't as memorable as the Three Billy Goats Gruff or the Little Red Riding Hoof. But shouldn't it have shown up in storybooks other than this one?

As she frowned at the words, wondering if there were any other books in her, somewhat limited inventory, which might better elucidate this line of questioning, her contemplation was interrupted by the sound of laughter.

She turned her gaze to see a large red stallion, exiting the town, with a yellow filly bouncing about at his hooves. The filly wore an adorable red ribbon which bounced with her every step and a smile that was so infectious that the stallion, although he was no doubt exhausted from helping with the repairs, couldn’t help but return it.

Evening Star watched as they made their way in the direction of the farmlands, the fading sunlight shining off their coats. It was then that she remembered she had a brother.

She still could not picture his face, nor remember his voice. But she could suddenly remember other things. Things like thundering hooves that she struggled to catch up with. A warm flank on which she’d climbed to reach a higher shelf. And a cutie mark, shaped like a shield.

She couldn’t recall what had become of him. Nor did she know how she could have forgotten him. But she knew that someone had loved her once and that knowledge was far from a disappointment.

As she watched the pair make their way in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres, she heard a screech, echo over the fields and watched as a massive, winged creature emerged from the canopy of the forest. It was a Cactus Wren, another monstrosity from deep within the Everfree Forest which she’d believed she’d go to the grave without ever seeing.

Each wing was the length of a saguaro, and its fleshy, green skin was covered in massive, pearly white spines. With a beat of its wings, it made trees creak and groan at the rush of air.

Evening Star sprang into action, galloping toward the pair, who were now galloping back in the direction of town, no doubt hoping to take cover beneath one of the few sturdy structures. Using her teleportation, she appeared alongside them, urging them both along, while she glanced back at steadily approaching monster.

Glancing at the young filly, whose brother had now picked up by the scruff of the neck, Evening Star skidded to a halt and turned to face the wild eyes, vicious talons and moisture-cracked beak. Her horn glowed brightly, and she fired a beam of pure energy straight at the creature’s wing.

She watched as a hole formed in the semi-translucent flesh of the wing, causing wren to let out a squawk of pain and for water to gush down on the road into Ponyville. The creature shuddered and beat its wings frantically, as it worked to return to the almost effortless gliding it had achieved moments ago. As it fought against the increased air resistance, Evening Star galloped after the stallion and his sister. She was almost to the town hall, where the little filly was desperately motioning for her to follow.

Then the wren, unable to fly straight, crashed its water-swollen bulk into the side of the building, sending shards of wood flying everywhere. The young filly had fallen off her brothers back and now both she and him were dazed and half buried in the rubble. The wren yanked itself out of the wall of the building, leaving behind half a dozen spines, each as big as a yardstick.

Evening Star galloped faster than she ever had, leaping onto a stall once used to house flowers and using it to propel herself toward the beak of the creature. As she readied her horn to fire another searing bolt into its face, a talon reached up and snatched her out of the air.

In an instant, she was in agonizing pain, thrashing against the spines on the inside of the wren's palm. Ignoring her feeble attempts at resistance, it beat its wings, sending shingles spilling off nearby structures and bits of rubble flying throough the air. The gust created just by its movement was powerful enough to send the few ponies brave enough to attempt to intercede, flying head over hoof onto their backs.

As it rose above the town, it closed its grip and Evening Star thrashed in agony as three immense spines pierced through her stomach, hind leg and chest, the last of which, tickled her ribs.

The magic she’d been holding onto, released, if only because she lacked the presence of mind to hold onto it any longer. It streaked out in every direction, cutting through the talon that was crushing and stabbing her simultaneously, and searing the face of the wren.

It let out another squawk of pain, this one even more deafening than the last. Then the spines drew out of Evening Star and her whole body was falling free.

For a moment, she felt the wind rushing through her mane and imagined simply spreading her wings and letting them glide her to the ground. Then she saw a sunbeam land on the still living wren. An explosion of solar energy tore through the air, creating a blinding flash of orange and yellow fire. Most of the spines evaporated midair, but the remaining few blackened and snapped from the force of the shockwave. The air filled with the scent of burnt cactus flesh, as charred chunks flew in every direction.

Then from the center of the shockwave, She appeared, as radiant as the sun and as colorful as the sky. With a grace and alacrity that would have made any pegasus jealous, she streaked down through the air, the yellow glow of magic rippling over her pristine coat like a heat haze. Evening Star. Princess Celestia had come to save her. She was so much more beautiful and majestic than Evening could have imagined.

Evening Star closed her eyes, her body paralyzed by the excruciation of the snapped spines still lodged in her chest. Then the rushing of the air stopped, and she was being cushioned by those massive white wings. Evening felt the warmth of the princess's aura and finally gave into unconsciousness.

Chapter 4 - Metanoia

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Evening Star was in the castle again. This time though…something was wrong. All the surfaces…were covered in dust. The mugs of hot cocoa sat in the exact same place. But now they were cold, their contents left to coagulate.

“Hello?” She called out. Her voice echoed through the dusty halls.

“Please…somepony…” She cried out again. “Anypony?”

There was no response. Just as despair began to grip her, she spread her wings and took to the air. She began to check the rooms of the castle, one at a time. Most of the mementos were still present, but a few had been ripped away, leaving behind noticeable gaps.

Eventually, rising panic gave way to cold realization. She lay down on the cold floor and folded her wings against her back. She was alone. For all she had accomplished, all the lives she’d saved, she was still doomed to end up like this.
That’s when she heard it. The scampering of feet across the floor of the castle. She jumped to her hooves and flew after the sound, calling out.

“Is there somepony there? Please say something…” She paused when she reached an unfamiliar bedroom.
Inside she could hear sobbing. She paused for a moment, then pushed open the door...

“I did what I can for her…but she is going to need lots of rest now…” Said a soft, warm voice.

“We’ll take care of her, Princess.”

“Starlight…this is the fourth attack this week.”

“I know, Princess! But we’re doing everything we can to figure out how to stop it…”

“I know you are. But if a solution is not found soon…drastic measures will need to be taken…”

"Please, Princess...not that. Not again..."

Evening Star opened her eyes and saw Princess Celestia speaking with the Bearers of the Elements. Even from here she could feel the aura of heat which radiated from her. She smiled at the knowledge that everything would be alright and snuggled deeper into the warm blankets covering her form.

And drift back to sleep.

Evening Star was outside the castle now. A blizzard that concealed Ponyville from sight, raged around her. She tried not to think about the windigos, high up in that swirling vortex, looking for a hateful heart on which to feed. Moreover, she tried to ignore the occasional whinnying shrieks which could not be attributed to natural phenomena.

The tracks she followed were fresh and they led right out onto a small hill, not far from the front gate.

And there, on the hill, was Princess Starlight Glimmer. Only, she didn’t have her wings. She looked smaller, less confident, somewhat pained. And as Evening Star neared her, she realized that she’d been crying. The wetness in on her coat had all but frozen in the cold of the blizzard.

“I won’t do it!” Starlight finally said, turning back to Evening with a look of righteous fury.

“Really?” Evening Star asked, continuing to trot closer. “So, when you use your magic to mind control my friends…that’s all fine and dandy. But when I ask you to help me with something important-!”

“It’s not that important, Twilight!!” Starlight yelled over the howl of the wind. “Believe me…I spent my whole childhood…missing my one friend and…blaming the wrong people for what happened to our friendship, instead of trying to make a new one. I know I’ve messed up…that’s why I won’t do this! It’s too risky!”

Evening Star actually snarled, and the wind around her seemed to take on an even more chilling aspect. “I know it's risky, but it’s riskier if we do nothing and let everything that the Princesses worked for fall apart.”

Starlight looked at the snow at her hooves in despair.

Evening Star stepped closer. “Please…put your trust in me. This is the only way.”

Evening Star awoke to the sound of mumbling. She was in the Castle of Friendship again, this time in a room all to her own. Immediately, she felt a pain in her side from where the spines had been embedded not long ago. She sat up, hoping to relieve some of the ache and noticed she was not alone.

The mumbling had come from a cloaked figure by the roaring fireplace, who appeared to be stewing something in a small pot. When Evening Star gasped, the figure turned toward her and lowered her hood, revealing a white and gray rigid mane and a neck that gleamed with the light of the fire.

“Zecora…” Evening Star tried to sit up again and instead found herself sliding back into a reclined position. “Wh-what are you doing here?”

Zecora smiled, kindly and removed a wooden spoon from her bag of witch doctor implements, which she used to collect some of the bubbling brown liquid in the cast-iron pot. As she approached Evening Star, she lowered the spoon’s basin to Evening’s lips.

“In time I promise that I will explain. But first you must let me relieve your pain.” Zecora said.

Evening opened her mouth and blew on the stew to cool it. Then, glancing up at Zecora’s slightly mischievous smile, she supped from it, careful not to burn her tongue by ingesting too much too quickly. Once she’d finished off the stew, she glanced back up at Zecora, who was already turning away and heading for the fire.

“That should help you to heal your wounds. Although magic kept you from the tomb, if not for Princess Celestia’s arrival, your encounter wouldn't have ended in survival.” Zecora said, as she returned to stirring the mixture.

“But what are you doing in town?” Evening Star asked, already feeling the mixture of herbs in Zecora’s stew begin to relax her muscles and relieve some of the stabbing ache in her side.

“The residents of the Everfree have been upset. I fear they flee from an even greater threat. If this situation is not soon fixed
all of Equestria will be at risk.”

Evening Star tried to sit up again. “What do you mean, a bigger risk? What could be worse than Ursa Majors and Cactus wrens?”

“That which you speak of is merely scared by the growing evil within the snare. You who I recovered from deep inside, may hold the secret to save our hides.”

Evening Star felt herself get angry. She hadn’t seen Zecora since the zebra had dropped her off at the Ponyville hospital, having claimed that her own, herbal remedies were not strong enough to treat Evening Star properly. Evening had always suspected that Zecora knew more about her circumstances than she let on. More than Evening Star herself could recall. But the zebra spoke in riddles the same way she spoke in rhyme, endlessly teasing Evening Star with the possibility of uncovering her own forgotten past, by making her feel that if only she were a little bit cleverer Evening would be able solve the puzzle.

“Zecora, I don’t know anything about what’s happened in the Everfree Forest. I hardly remember ever being there…”

Zecora sighed. “Regardless of knowledge, you are the key. If only your newfound friends can jog your memory.”

With that, she removed the pot from the fire, and set it down on a plate by Evening Star’s bed. “Get yourself some rest, my dear. Dark tidings await you; I fear.”

Then the zebra had left, no doubt to perform more low-level potion-making on the ponies of the town and continue offering vague and cryptic hints as to what was needed. If she knew something about Evening’s time in the forest, why hadn’t she said so? What was the point in forcing her to learn the secret herself?

Or was she bluffing? Was she just as scared as everyone else, relying on her intuition to reassure herself as to the solution to the menacing circumstances?

Evening Star sipped a little more soup, before drifting back into unconsciousness.

They were in the old castle, the one which had once belonged to the Princesses. Work like this could not be done in a place of positivity. Black magic loved dark and moist places like this one, places that had been forgotten deliberately, because of what they reminded you of.

She could feel the magic pushing through her veins, buzzing through her horn. Both of her hippocampuses were focused entirely on recalling the thaumaturgical equation she’d recently memorized, necessary to complete the spell. All unnecessary brainpower, all her guilt, regret and dread blocked out by the pure amount of concentration required to complete this spell. And as her magic mingled with Starlight’s, so too did their surface thoughts, Starlight’s unease and her determination becoming one. Evening Star had not felt so confident in a long time.

This would work. She hadn’t failed. It wasn’t too late.

Then pain rushed through her as the world slowed and its colors all flickered out around the two of them. They were at the terminus of their journey, piercing the veil of reality and slipping through to that most forbidden of all realms.

Everything was going according to plan...

Evening was awoken by the sound of laughter. Pinkie Pie’s laughter, because even though the pony was trying to be quiet, she still had a laugh that could call dolphins and blind bats. Anger should have been her first instinct, after all she was resting after having been partially impaled.

However, Evening found that Zecora’s stew had completely regenerated her, and she was actually glad to have been pulled out of her increasingly ominous visions.

“Evening, you’re awake!” Trixie slid out of her seat and bounded over, still wearing the same cape and hat she’d adorned for her last show.

“How long have I been asleep?” Evening asked, as she slid out of bed, careful to avoid stepping on the pot of now freezing cold, uneaten stew.

“Twenty-seven hours, fourteen minutes and 33 seconds!” Pinkie said, bounding over to the other side of her. “Trixie came over to the castle, after Princess Celestia explained the situation to her.”

“I can’t believe you were saved by the princess!” Trixie said.

“Why is Princess Celestia here?” Evening asked, already dreading the answer.

“Oh, she’s came as soon as she heard about the Ursa Major attack, to help protect the town.” Pinkie said. “By the way, I just wanted to apologize.”

“Huh? Umm, what for?”

“For teasing you! For the longest time, I thought you were just the kind of pony who didn’t like anypony else.” Pinkie said.

Evening looked away.

“I didn’t realize how sensitive you were. Then I talked to Trixie about you and now that I know how brave and wonderful you are, I promise not to make fun of you again!” Pinkie said.

Evening blushed and shot Trixie a dirty look. “I am not…sensitive.”

“Aw, it’s okay!” Pinkie said. “I’m sensitive about things too, I just bury them deep down where nopony can ever find them!!”

Trixie wasn’t paying attention to the conversation. The moment that Celestia had been mentioned, she’d gotten a look on her face like she was enjoying a luxurious bath.

“Can you imagine it?” She asked to no one in particular. “The Great and Powerful Trixie performing for the princesses in Canterlot? Evening, you must introduce me to Princess Celestia.”

Evening glared at her. “Trixie, just because Princess Celestia saved my life doesn’t mean I can get you a job at the palace!”

“Ooh! Ooh! I probably can!” Pinkie said, jumping up and down.

“Really?!” Trixie asked.

“Of course. Starlight Glimmer was Celestia’s student…and I get invited to the palace all the time. I’ll just slip your name in there when they ask if I know any great performers.”

Trixie grinned. “Oh, that would be spectacular! Can’t you just imagine it…the Great and Powerful Trixie, Court Magician to Princess Celestia!!”

Evening cleared her throat. “Umm, Miss Pie?”

“Yepperooni?”

“Do you, by any chance…know where Princess Starlight is right now?”

“Oh, she’s downstairs, talking with the other bearers. They are trying to come with a plan for what to do about the monster attacks…so far, Rainbow Dash wants to take the fight to the monsters, Rarity wants to build a fence around Ponyville, Applejack wants us to put the Elements back in the Tree of Harmony and Fluttershy wants to try to convince one of the monsters to talk to her, so that we know why they are acting the way they are.”

“How long has all this been going on?” Evening asked.

“You mean the discussion or the monster attacks?"

“The monster attacks…I heard Princess Celestia mention that the Wren was the fourth one this week.”

“Well…” Pinkie frowned in thought for a moment. “First it was a pack of timberwolves, then a couple of bugbears...then there were a rockodiles in the sewers…then a pride manticores showed up…”

“Okay, I get the picture.” Evening said.

“The Ursa Major was the first time they actually attacked the town though…everything else we were able to scare off without needing the Elements of Harmony.” Pinkie said.

“Shouldn’t you be down there, talking with them?” Evening asked.

Pinkie shook her head. “Nope! Eventually Starlight will figure out what we need to do and then we’ll do that.”

“That’s awfully…agreeable of you.” Evening said. “I wish I could…let go of things like you do.”

“Aw, don't say that! You’re perfect the way you are!” Pinkie said.

"Yeah. Right."

“By the way, are you gonna finish your soup?”

“Oh, that? No, but you might not want to eat it.” Evening turned to see that it was already too late. The moment that the word “no” had left her mouth, Pinkie had picked up the bowl and downed all its contents. “…it’s full of medicine.”

“Delish! Tastes like goulash!” Pinkie said, her tongue swiping away at her mouth. Then she stuck her muzzle into the empty pot, trying to fish out any extra bits of vegetable left behind.

“Umm, Trixie…I need to talk to Princess Starlight, okay? I think I might know a way to help her and the others…”

Trixie frowned. “Umm, what are you talking about? You nearly died yesterday!”

“I know…but Zecora was right…I…I have something to do with this and I have to help…before anyone else in Ponyville gets hurt.” Evening said.

Trixie stared at her for a moment. Then she dipped her hat down in front of her face. “Then the Great and Powerful Trixie will accompany you! My magic will no doubt come in handy, on your noble quest!”

“I appreciate that…but-”

“No buts! Every-time Trixie lets you out of her sight, you end up almost smooshed or torn apart…plus, I need to impress Princess Celestia, if I want that job at the royal palace!”

Evening sagged. There was no point in arguing with Trixie. Not that she really wanted to. The place she was going, she’d need all the help she could get.

While Pinkie continued licking Zecora’s bowl, Trixie and Evening exited the bedroom and descended the staircase, stopping at the entrance to the meeting area. There, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Starlight were arguing, but in the way that friends who want to work together do.

“For the last time, we are not going to flood the Everfree Forest.” Starlight said, her eyes on Rainbow Dash, who, being the naturally active type, had chosen to float over the friendship map, rather than sit down for the entirety of the meeting like everypony else.

“Why not! It would give Cloudsdale a chance to break the ‘most rain produced in one day’ record!”

“Is that a record that exists?” Rarity asked, as she used her horn to sew something.

“Well, maybe not…but it should be!”

“It’s not happening, Rainbow Dash!” Starlight said, causing her friend to sink into her chair with her forelegs crossed. "If we try to destroy the forest, the creatures that live there will be even angrier with us. We have to find the root of the problem first."

“Umm, excuse me, Princess?”

Starlight looked up and over to where Trixie and Evening Star stood. “Oh, Miss Star. YOu look like you feel a lot better.”
Evening Star nodded. “I just wanted to umm…suggest something…”

All ponies turned to look at her, waiting.

“Have you been to the Castle of the Two Princesses, recently?” She asked.

“No…to be honest we’ve been afraid to visit the Everfree more and more given the recent activity there.” Starlight said. “Is this about Zecora’s suspicions?”

“Sort of…I umm…I don’t know what might be causing the attacks…but I think there might be information about it, at the castle of the old princess.” Evening Star looked away. “And umm, I don’t know if this is true, but I heard there was a library there…”

Glimmer grinned. “And you want to see if you can find any information about our problem there?”

Evening Star nodded. “If you think it would be helpful…”

“Ah’m sure we all appreciate that, sugarcube.” Applejack said, hopping up from her seat. “But you already almost died rescuin’ mah and Rarity’s kin…we can’t ask ya to go marching into the belly of the beast on a hunch.”

“It…it’s not a hunch…” Evening Star said. “I had a dream…about the castle and about me and Princess Starlight.” She blushed. “Umm, we were doing some kind of spell…I think to protect Equestria…I don’t know if it means anything…but I think it might have something to do with my amnesia…I think I was sent from the Everfree to help you all deal with this. And besides…I can’t wait around for another monster attack to hit anyway…I-I want to be useful.”

They all looked at her with varying degrees of pride and wariness. Then Starlight spoke, pushing away her chair.

“Alright, Evening Star…I don’t have any ideas for how to deal with this crisis, so if I’m not about to turn down prophetic dreams and zebra witch doctors. If you think there are answers at the old castle…I’ll take you there myself.”

Evening smiled.

“I’m coming too!” Trixie said, lifting a hoof.

Glimmer sighed. “Alright...but you have to stick close to the rest of us…we don’t know what might be waiting.”

The reasons behind the Everfree Forest’s existence were unclear. Common knowledge dictated that it had been created by Discord’s plunderseeds, as a kind of revenge, tainting the land which Luna and Celestia had “taken” from him.

Of course, common knowledge was commonly wrong, and in this case not just because Discord vehemently denied the accusation. Any pony with the tiniest understanding of herbalism, would know that the plunderseeds, while similarly untamable as much of the flora in the Everfree Forest, had never constituted the majority of its ecological make-up.

As well, the Bearers of the Elements, who’d been forced to deal with Discord’s little timebomb when they’d first returned the Elements of Harmony to the Tree of Harmony, were of the firm belief that the plunderseeds had been just as toxic for the Everfree Forest as they were for the rest of Equestria (if a little less obviously so due to the rough and tumble nature of the area).

Some scholars of magic claimed that the forest had been created by the battle between Luna and Celestia, and that the sheer amount of ambient magic released by the two of them, had malformed the land, causing rapid mutation and elemental-fusion. This combined with Celestia’s vehement abandonment of the Castle of the Two Sisters and re-location of the Capital, allowed the area to grow unstewarded by pony-kind, resulting in its impenetrable and unpredictable state.
Less reputable sources said the forest had existed prior to the rise of Nightmare Moon and that in fact, it was left over from some far older conflict, involving the first war between Black and White Magic.

If Luna and Celestia knew the answers to this mystery, they had never seemed inclined to answer them. Celestia at one point had said that the forest should not be blamed on her sister, which was as ambiguous a statement as it was damning. But then again, she’d also said, when pressed by a historian, that it would be “cheating” to just recount all her knowledge on the subject.

The fact that the Tree of Harmony had existed there, unknown to all ponies but the princesses for over a thousand years, indicated that Celestia and Luna might have had very good reasons to discourage ponies from venturing into its expanse.
As if ponies didn’t have enough reasons to avoid it to begin with. Almost all of the wildlife was territorial and hostile toward intrusion of any kind. The uncontrollable weather which plagued the area made even flying over it treacherous, and the gnarled, centuries abandoned pathways which winded through it made getting lost a certainty for any pony without a guide to point the way.

Evening Star hadn’t liked the place before it became a festering blight on Ponyville. It reminded her of too many unknowns, most of them having to do with her past.

She stuck close to Trixie, Starlight and Fluttershy (it had been determined the rest would stay behind to watch after Ponyville in case of another attack) and tried very hard not to jump every time she heard a branch snap or a creature growl, somewhere off in the distance.

The entire journey was so ominous that she was actually surprised by the fact that they didn’t encounter anything on their way to the castle.

But of course, what they ended up finding at the castle, proved bad enough as it was.

The Castle of the Two Sisters was startlingly different to all that she’d come to expect from Princess Starlight’s castle, and completely antipodal to all she’d read of Celestia and Luna’s palace in Canterlot. Massive holes appeared in the exterior walls of the castle, causing the whole building to groan nastily whenever the wind picked up. The place wasn’t just overgrown, it was half-garden, thanks to the hardy vines and weeds of the Everfree, which had slowly pushed their way up through the massive stones that formed its base.

The only bit of civilization relatively untouched was the library. Starlight confiscated all of grimoires from there and locked them away in her castle, if only to prevent another “Inspiration Manifestation” fiasco. The remaining volumes had been protected by a minor charm, if only for posterity.

As the four arrived and began to, with varying levels of enthusiasm, inspect the dusty tomes. Evening Star had just made it through the first seventeen, when she heard it. From the nearby entryway to the stone staircase which spiraled above them, she heard sound of some creature slowly ascending the tower.

“Did…did any of you hear that?” Evening Star asked.

They all looked up from their work in surprise and more than a little bit of concern.

Evening Star blushed. “It umm…must have been my imagination…”

She turned back to her book and tried to re-focus her efforts on finding out if this history of aqueducts would be of any help.

A moment later, she heard that same scrambling noise, this time accompanied by the uncomfortable, but persistent feeling of being watched. She glanced around, even lighting up her horn and performing a simple spell to sense magic (i.e., invisibility) in the surrounding area.

When her divination failed to reveal anything, she turned to stare at the base of the spiral staircase. Sure, as she could smell the mustiness of the library, she could still feel the gaze of something staring at her.

“Trixie…I’m going to check up the stairs…would you mind coming with me?” Evening Star asked.

Trixie looked up from the book she hadn’t really been reading and nodded. “Of course…but only if you…” With a flash of blue, she was standing right beside Evening with that same cocky smile she had before any performance. “…let me go first.”

As she said it, her horn lit up and three globules of pale blue light shot out of it and swirled up into the stairway, illuminating the cracked steps.

While Evening could have done without the theatrics, she appreciated Trixie’s company in this dim, eerie castle far too much to complain about them at the moment.

She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting. Perhaps another vile form of plant life. Perhaps some multi-headed monstrosity from the depths of Tartarus.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t to be quantified so easily.

The room at the top of the stairs. Half of it was completely devoid of color. It was as if the noon light that passed through the window, became that of a florescent bulb. The stones which formed the floor of the chamber, no longer contained the muddy browns and grays of real rock. Each was identical in coloration to the others. And the various pieces of once plush furniture which sat in various states of decay, were just as lifeless as the light which illuminated them.

And the more she looked at the room, the more Evening began to notice all the details that weren’t there. The deeper you went toward the center of the circular chamber, the more indistinct everything became. Shadows grew darker, darker than merely the absence of light, until they looked like splotches of ink on a poorly drawn sketch. And the objects in the room, at least those closer to the center, they seemed to have less dimension to them, somehow.

Instinctively, her body began to freeze up. There was something this room and the dullness which had overtaken it, which made her brain scream to run from it and never look back. It was wholly worse than all she’d expected, if only because it wasn’t monstrous or terrifying in any explainable way, but merely wrong.

Then Trixie gingerly lifted a hoof, as if about to step into the room.

“NO! DON’T!” Evening grabbed Trixie’s leg and dragged her away from the entrance, back down the first few stairs.

That was when The Dullness moved. At first, she thought it might have been some kind of ooze, which had solidified over the scene and whose essence increased in viscosity in its center. But whatever it was did not shift toward them. It expanded outward, so that the steps they’d been standing on a moment ago, now held that same, colorless, obfuscation.

“What is it?” Trixie asked. Her wary curiosity had turned into profound terror at the sight of the thing, moving.

“We have to get out of here now.” Evening Star said, pushing Trixie down the stairs and trying very hard not to look back at The Dullness, to see if it was still moving.

Then she saw it below her, crawling up the stairs to meet her.

Chapter 5 - Peritraumatic

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Starlight Glimmer was the embodiment of the Element of Magic. That came with an immense reservoir of power, which no-pony else, save her fellow alicorns, had access to (a fact which Sunburst had often admitted to being more than a little jealous of).

It also meant that sensitivity of her horn, in detecting nearby spells and enchantments was dialed way up. She felt the teleportation spell that Evening had cast, before Evening and re-appeared in a flash of pink light in the library.

“Something’s coming!” Evening Star declared. She was not the shy, anxious pony that Starlight had seen head up the stairs a moment before. And she had not just grown more confident, but Starlight could feel more ambient magical energy surrounding her, some untapped reservoir of power.

How had she not noticed that previously?

Trixie pointed a hoof at the staircase from whence they came, and Starlight saw the thing that had frightened the two mares. The stones of the staircase were slowly being sucked dry of all color, then all texture. The same thing was happening on the ceiling above and around the door from which they’d all entered.

“Everypony close!” Starlight ordered, flying up into the air and creating a spherical force field big enough to contain them all.

“What is it?!” Trixie cried out, shaking Evening Star in demand of an answer.

Starlight cast a glance toward the librarian, who’s expression flashed with guilt for a moment and then returned to the same scowl of determination.

“I don’t know…but if we touch it, we will die.” Evening replied.

“Oh dear…oh dear…” Fluttershy said, drawing close to Starlight in hopes of catching a whiff of some of her bravery.

The massive library chamber was quickly becoming as gray and uninteresting as the staircase. More distant bookshelves looked practically two-dimensional, while the now colorless books on their shelves had begun to seem identical and flat. Whenever the grayness appeared, there was a popping and sizzling sound, like that of a lightbulb burning out. This hissing was accompanied by a smell, almost comparable to the slight whiff of ozone which teleportation sometimes brought, but much less sweet and much more burnt.

Starlight took a deep breath and extended her magic, to release a tendril from her shield spell and test The Dullness' boundaries. The moment that the appendage touched the graying shelves, it flickered and then the whole spell simply popped out of existence. Starlight blinked, and realizing that the forcefield had dropped around her and her friends, she
focused her magic and visualized the courtyard outside. She relaxed slightly, reassuring herself that despite the panic of her allies, the situation remained firmly under her control, at least for the time being.

Then in a flash of magic, the four ponies were standing in the castle courtyard. Whatever relief that might have come with this was quickly diminished as she saw the grayness which had overtaken the library, spreading throughout the ruins, with accelerating speed.

“Fluttershy, take Trixie!” Starlight yelled and the pegasus nodded and scooped up Trixie by the forelegs. Starlight, meanwhile, did likewise with Evening Star and flew straight up into the air.

She watched as more and more of the grayness consumed the castle. As it did, the moss and vines which had constricted so much of it, became not just colorless, but quickly ceased to be, altogether, fading into the poorly detailed stonework.
It was like watching the world unravel in front of her eyes.

“They’re not going to make it!” Evening Star cried out.

Starlight glanced where she was pointing and saw that Fluttershy, still recovering from her wing injury earlier in the week, was having trouble lifting Trixie over the castle gate and rampart.

“Hold on tight!” Starlight warned, before diving back downwards. As soon as she got within range, she used her telekinesis to lift Trixie slightly, so that she and Fluttershy were in no danger of touching the rapidly disappearing stones of the gate.

As the four of them landed ungracefully, just outside the castle, Starlight glanced back.

The entire castle had become a haze of black, white and gray. The invasion had paused. Whatever entity had caused this distortion, appeared to be sated. For now.

Still, there was no point in sticking around to wait until it got hungry again.

“C’mon,” She said, using her horn to gently prod the panting Fluttershy into movement. “We have to get out of here.”

The group adopted a gallop for the next few minutes, which eventually turned into a canter, when it was clear that whatever it was, wasn’t right behind them at just this moment.

They picked back up again when the sounds started. First it was a howl, then a crowing, followed by squawks, grunts, snarls and squelching, less definable cries. And in a matter of seconds, the entire forest was shaking with cacophonous dissent and all four ponies had to cover their ears to avoid being deafened by the outcry. Whatever it was Starlight had just witnessed, the locals were no more enthusiastic about its arrival.

After that, Starlight kept everyone moving until they were well outside the Everfree’s borders. It was afternoon by this point, and they were all so exhausted that more than one of them collapsed on the grass of Ponyville's surrounding pasture to catch their breath and process what had just happened.

“Well...that was…certainly…an experience.” Starlight said, trying to give her best reassuring smile to her companions.

“What was that thing?” Fluttershy asked.

They all turned to look at Evening Star, once again, for some kind of answer. She shrunk at the attention, all the strength that she’d exuded a few minutes previously having completely deflated.

“I…I don’t know…it…it just triggered something in me.” Evening Star said.

A series of images flashed through Starlight’s head, about what Evening Star might have seen, to give her amnesia, but which would nonetheless leave her scared of that…contagious pigmentation.

None of them were pleasant.

Trixie smiled. “Well, it was a good thing you were there. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have known it was so dangerous!”

Her statement failed to give attention to the fact that it had been Evening Star’s idea to visit the castle in the first place.

Evening gave her another weak smile and Starlight sensed she was thinking the exact same thing. Normally, she would have said something reassuring to a pony like Evening Star, who clearly suffered from deep seated self-loathing.

At the moment, however, there were more important matters to address.

“No wonder the creatures of the forest are so angry with us.” Fluttershy said.

“Wh-what do you mean?” Evening Star asked.

“Imagine if your home was being destroyed for no reason, you’d start taking it out on whoever you thought was responsible.” Fluttershy said.

“Uh, our home was kind of destroyed…by the Ursa Major.” Trixie said, nudging Fluttershy with her leg.

Fluttershy’s countenance darkened. “Whatever was in that castle didn’t start spreading until we showed up…I wouldn’t be surprised if it was unicorn magic behind all this. The things in the forest…just because they can’t talk, doesn’t mean they aren’t smart. They knew it was bad when that stuff…spread…and they are going to keep blaming Ponyville until we find a way to stop it.”

Evening Star looked at the ground. But it wasn’t with the rising despair that imminent destruction should have elicited.
No, it was with the glumness of shame, an emotion that Starlight was all too intimate with.

“I have an idea.” Starlight said, before the whole group could descend into the same depressive slump. “It’s been a long night. Fluttershy, can you escort Trixie home?”

Fluttershy nodded. “I’m sorry I couldn’t fly us out of there as well as I thought.”

Starlight smiled. “It’s okay, you tried your hardest…you just needed a little help is all. We’ll discuss my plan in the morning, okay?”

Fluttershy looked reluctant to go to sleep after what she’d seen, but she also looked too tired to protest. So, she nodded, and Trixie glanced back at Evening Star, waving goodnight to her, as she and Fluttershy disappeared into the night.

“I assume you want to talk to me about what happened.” Evening Star said, as if she were a school-foal about to be chided.
Starlight straightened up. “In your dream…did any of this happen?”

Evening shook her head. “No. I’m sorry…”

“What did happen?” Starlight asked.

Evening looked uncomfortable, but at least now it was in a slightly less suspicious way. “Well…I dreamed that…I was an alicorn and you were a unicorn…and in the dream I needed your help…doing a spell. I begged you to help me…I seemed really worried and…angry. Eventually…you gave in…but when we cast the spell…it felt…wrong…like I’d done something I couldn’t take back.”

As she described her dream, the magical aura around her seem to intensify, temporarily, before calming back down. Whatever blockage Evening was experiencing in her memory, it seemed to be tied directly to her magical potential.
How powerful would she once she remembered everything?

“How did you know what that stuff was?” Starlight asked. She’d studied the limitations of magic her whole life. She’d faced creatures from other realms of existence.

She’d never seen anything like that before.

“I don’t know.” Evening Star said. “I wish I did; I want to help you and the others…but…I can’t remember.”

“Would you be alright with me using my magic to try to fix your memory?” Starlight asked, watching Evening’s expression for that same shift, she’d noticed earlier.

“Of course!” Evening Star said, with a weak smile. “But umm…Dr. Horse and the other unicorns cast every mind-heal they knew…they said whatever happened to me, couldn’t be cured.”

Starlight gave her most princessy smile. “I’m the princess of magic and my friend is an expert on obscure spells, I’m sure if we work together, we can figure out something.”

Evening lowered her eyes. “If you think you can help…I-I tried everything back when I first woke up. Eventually, I just stopped trying…”

Starlight turned away. “Why didn’t you ever ask me to help before? You must have known I lived right outside Ponyville.”

Evening looked up at her. “I-I never thought to…”

Starlight frowned. She didn’t like to toot her own horn, but it was not a boast to say she was known throughout Equestria. That her and her friends’ exploits had been published in every major publication around the country. It wasn’t impossible that Evening Star really was big enough of a shut in, that she’d never considered petitioning her or one of the other princesses for help. But Evening Star’s explanation also ran contrary to her supposed desperation for answers.

“Let’s get back to the castle.” Starlight finally said. There was a lot that needed to be done and she was unsure of just how much time they had left, before The Dullness got hungry again.

Evening Star, as far as Starlight was aware, had never visited the Palace Library, even during her last two stays there. That made it odd that Starlight hadn’t needed to tell her where anything was…she’d just known. And with a reflexivity which suggested long term familiarity.

Not only that, but Evening Star was quickly proving to be a prodigy when it came to magic. This partially explained why Evening’s cutie mark was a magical symbol, not a book like Sunburst’s. But it didn’t explain why an amnesiac with an aptitude for magic had ended up working in a library.

Surely faculty of the School for Gifted Unicorns would have wanted to snatch her up, to train her properly, if only to be sure that her gifts didn’t…malfunction. When Starlight Glimmer thought back to the article in the Ponyville Express, covering Evening Star’s appearance and requesting that ponies who may have known her contact the hospital to help fix her memory, she didn’t recall there being a mention of Evening Star being particularly talented at magic, a fact which surely would have helped narrow down the search for relatives or friends.

“You sure know you’re way around magical tomes,” Starlight said, as she moved up to where Evening Star was flipping through “Mental Magic of the New Millenia”.

“Thank you.” Evening blushed. “Magic has always interested me…even though I’m not very good at it.”

“You moved that caravan back at the Ursa Major attack…that’s advanced telekinesis if I’ve ever seen it.” Starlight said.

Evening got even more flustered. “That…that was nothing.”

“And you managed to burn a whole in the wing of that Cactus Wren…before Celestia blew it up. That was battle magic…most unicorns never get a chance to use magic like that.” Starlight said, her words containing a little bit more accusatory bite than she’d intended.

“I-I’ve never done anything like that before…” Evening said. “I don’t think I could if I wanted to.”

Starlight nodded, slowly and returned to her own research.

Their library was quiet after that, for at least another half-hour. Then Evening Star coughed and pointed at the page in front of her. Starlight saddled back over to her to look at the page. It contained a complex magical equation and had been labeled “Usogost’s Telepathic Transference.”

“This might work…if the memories are still in my brain…” Evening Star said.

“How did you even know what this would do?” Starlight asked, glancing up from the page.

“Oh…I just assumed everypony could understand equations like that.” Evening said. The bizarre thing was that the lame excuse didn’t even sound like lying. It sounded like Evening truly had no idea how intelligent and powerful she was.

Magical talent was one thing, the ability to cast powerful spells without dropping from exhaustion. But the capacity required to understand an equation and use it to cast a spell of sufficient complexity precluded a level of academic learning. No pony was born, with the ability to understand such mathematics.

Trixie for instance, was an example of a unicorn with a high level of magical talent, but with too little patience required to learn high level spells. Starlight remembered Trixie from her time at the School for Gifted Unicorns. She didn’t remember Evening Star; despite the fact they were about the same age.

What could Evening Star have possibly been doing pre-accident, that led to her developing such skills?

“Evening Star…” Starlight began as she picked up the book with her telekinesis. “I want to help you…but I need you to be completely honest with me, alright? We don’t have time to play games here.”

Evening Star stared at the carpet. “I…I did something…really bad…I don’t know what it was…I just know that I can’t be forgiven.”

Starlight thought back to her own jealous fits back in school, the times her control issues and her inadequacy had almost destroyed her relationships with her friends.

“That’s not true.” Starlight said, stepping up to Evening Star and putting a hoof on her shoulder. “In the little time I’ve known you, you have saved countless lives and put your own in danger, to save your hometown. Whatever you did in your past life…it doesn’t define you.”

Evening Star looked up at Starlight and then away. “Thank you, Princess…for being so kind.” She took a deep breath. “But you don’t have to lie to me.”

Starlight’s comforting expression fell.

“The only reason I did the things I did…was because I wanted to be important. I wanted to be like you and your friends. I wanted to impress the whole town, to prove I wasn’t just a crazy librarian. No pony felt bad for me until I put myself in danger...and the only reason you and the others care about me is because you feel bad for me.”

“EVENING STAR!” Starlight clapped a hoof down on the stone floor, startling Evening into looking back up at her. “Listen to me! I have battled with evil creatures…giant dragons, centaurs, changelings…I know evil, when I see it. You are not evil. But you will never be able to do good…not until you realize you can.”

Evening Star stared at her for a moment and then took a deep breath. “You’re right princess. I promise I’ll try.”

Starlight relaxed somewhat. “Now…let’s set up this spell.”

Everything was ready. The candles were lit, the equations had been triple checked and the air was thick with incense. The incense smelled like cherries, because it had been Pinkie who purchased it for Starlight, but that part didn’t matter as much for this particular spell.

“Okay…” Starlight said, using her telekinesis to swing a pendulum in front of Evening Star’s face. “I want you to concentrate on the very first thing you can remember…”

Evening Star nodded and squinted at the pendulum.

“As you concentrate, you will feel your mind opening up. The experience is relaxing…like drifting down a lazy river. As you drift, you pass by all the memories which have been locked out of your mind and you know that soon everything will be alright and all the anxiety and guilt you have felt…will melt away like ice cream in the summer heat.”

Evening Star continued to nod, and as she did, each nod grew slower, and her eyes drooped further.

“I am joining you in the river, Evening. But everything will be fine…we will look at your memories together. It will be as if we were watching a good movie together.”

Evening Star nodded one last time, then Starlight released the magic which had been building in her horn. At first, she was afraid that the wave of thaumic energy would overwhelm poor Evening Star. She had only mingled magic a few times before, and only with more confident and experienced casters, like Celestia and Luna.

But after a moment of psychic fumbling, their auras intertwined, and Starlight’s eyes widened at the images suddenly flowing into her frontal lobe. Just as the magic she’d been holding back flowed like the lake depths of a busted dam, so too did the memories pour out of Evening Star’s subconscious. Without any rhyme or reason, she was bombarded with a thousand moments of perfectly intact inadequacy, boredom, frustration, alienation and more yearning that she’d ever known in her entire life.

There was more though. Underneath the seething self-disgust and thought crushing desperation, was something even worse. Like The Dullness, it was not any kind of magic that Starlight had encountered. It was not dark; it was not chaotic. It was older, older perhaps than anything she’d yet gazed upon.

And it was angry that she had dared to awaken it from its slumber.

Starlight let out a scream as the stream of blue magic extending from her horn to Evening Star turned pink, then red, then burned as bright enough that, had her eyes not been rolled back in her head, it might have blinded her. Then something inside Starlight, just as primeval as the vault in Evening’s mind severed the connection, sending her reeling backwards.

She writhed on the ground, as every muscle in her body fought to escape the thousands of burning hot needles running along every nerve ending. It was more pain in a few seconds that most ponies would not feel over their entire lives. And it was backed by the pragmatic hatred that all organisms instinctively held for each other, as means of survival.

The pain was so great, that Starlight hadn’t realized that when she’d started screaming, she hadn’t stopped, until she felt the warm glow of Evening Star’s magic wrapping around her and numbing the psychic tendrils lashing at her mind. She hadn’t realized either, that Evening Star was sobbing and calling her name, until the piercing shriek in the back of her skull finally faded to merely subconscious reverberations.

“Starlight, I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry…I’m so sorry…please…I didn’t want any of this to happen!” Her eyes were wide with terror and her muzzle wet with tears.

Starlight coughed as oxygen began rushing back through her body. Then she flexed her legs and wheezed.

That thing…that…monster, was staring down at her, with the same pathetic countenance as any other pony. As if the skin it was wearing wasn’t just a clever disguise for nothing more than a howling void.

“Get…away from me.” Starlight ordered, scrambling across the cold floor and pressing her wings to the nearest wall as Evening Star stared at her with deepening grief.

“L-let me heal you…” Evening Star said, taking a tentative step closer.

“GET OUT OF HERE!!!” Starlight ordered. “You don’t belong here!! GET OUT OF MY HOME RIGHT NOW!!”

Evening Star stared at Starlight for a moment, her sorrow replaced with shock. Her panicked breathing slowed. And her sobbing was replaced by a few, trickling, traumatized teardrops. Then she nodded, turning away and slowly trotting out of library.

As she listened to Evening Star’s echoing hoof-steps grow more distant, she had to grind her teeth together to stop them from chattering. But nothing she could do would stop the memory of what she’d just seen repeating in the caverns of her mind. After a little while, the Princess of Friendship’s teary-eyed shuddering gave way to stuttering giggles. Then it wasn’t long before the castle was filled with the frenzied sounds of laughter that can only be brought on by madness.

Starlight was eventually snapped out of her revelry by a booming voice.

“STARLIGHT GLIMMER! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?”

It was Celestia, she’d been calling out for Starlight for the past fifteen minutes. And now she’d finally found her.

Starlight crawled closer to her fellow alicorn, reaching out and wrapping her hooves around one of Celestia’s golden horseshoes. “I’m having a laugh…this is a humorous situation! Everything I’ve studied…everything I thought was important…none of it matters!"

She wiped an eye with her hoof as Celestia raised an eyebrow. Then she giggled and continued her explanation. “I tried to cure Evening Star’s memory loss. I guess that’s what I get for trying to help somepony!”

Celestia cleared her throat. “Starlight, please pull yourself together…now is not the time for hysterics.”

Starlight glanced up at Celestia and seeing that she wasn’t laughing, or even smiling, sighed and slowly got to her hooves. “Yes, it is Princess. The whole world...the entire universe...is about to be destroyed...and all the things I've learned, none of them can save us. I'm the princess of Magic and nothing I do can protect us from her or from what she brought with her! Every lesson I learned in friendship…I never encountered anyone like her. I never met a creature who had really and truly done something so terrible it couldn't be forgiven…”

Celestia frowned at that assertion but chose to focus on what the most pressing matter. “You believe Miss Star to be responsible for the recent attacks?”

Starlight Glimmer lifted her eyes. “I know she is, princess…I looked in her mind…whatever she did, it was so bad that her subconscious made her burn out all the memories with magic, just to keep her from going mad." Starlight looked back down, tears forming in her eyes. "She doesn't believe she's evil, but only because she doesn't remember what she's done...”

Celestia turned to look at the set up for the ritual as Starlight continued.

“When I tried to see what she was hiding…she lashed out at me, without even meaning to…I’ve never encountered anypony as powerful or as knowledgeable as magic. But that’s not all.”

Celestia turned back toward her. “Really?”

"Yeah...it gets worse...somehow..."

Celestia stepped closer, lowering her head toward Starlight. “How, exactly?”

Chapter 6 - Consonance

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She had known it would be a disaster. She wasn’t one of them. She wasn’t a hero. She was a librarian.

She wasn’t even that anymore. She was nothing, less than nothing. Stupid, useless, selfish, ugly, weak…every time she tried to help, she only made things worse.

They would all be better off without her. She would get home, pack her favorite books and leave. She had no intentions to stick around until Starlight told Trixie and the others what Evening had done.

She hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone. But she had. And that was all that mattered. There would be no redemption, no happy ending for her. She hadn’t deserved it. She didn’t belong, not in this town, not surrounded by so many happy ponies with loving families.

It was a relief. She wouldn’t need to pretend to be normal, to try to get friends. She would be better off, accepting the way she was and allowing herself to slip out of their lives before she did any more harm.

Still, she didn’t gallop home. She took the scenic route and slowed her gait to admire the last light of the sun. It was hard to believe there could be evil, in a place as bright and beautiful as this one. But then she’d never fit in to begin with.

She paused, to look up at the stars appearing in the pinkish-purple haze of the horizon. The Dullness lay someplace behind her, waiting to destroy every ounce of beauty, to swallow up all the friendship and magic in this place and replace it with something sterile and unremarkable.

But what could she do? She wasn’t a hero. And every time she tried to be one, it just ended up being clearer how she much she did not deserve the title.

That’s when she felt it again. The sensation being watched. Slowly, she turned around, and as she did, she heard the sound of something moving quickly down the dusty road, in her direction. The churning dread she’d had in her stomach, when she first saw The Dullness, returned in a wave.

Whatever intelligence Starlight had accidentally released when she peered inside Evening’s mind, took control of her limbs, galloping her away from this new threat faster than she had from the last one.

Whatever the damned thing was, its very existence was offensive. Like the Dullness, it so obviously did not belong. It did not just belong in Ponyville or Equestria. It did not belong in this world. It was the antithesis of everything familiar and safe, an aberration that brought with it terrible implication for the stability and sanity of the universe.
Just like her.

She paused on the edge of town, staring down main street, where helpful ponies were relaxing after a long day of repairs with jokes and drinks. She stilled her breath, rage overcoming instinct, guilt superseding survival.

She turned back toward the road and listened for the approaching footsteps. Whatever the thing was, she deserved it. And she could not spend the rest of her life, however short it might be, galloping away from it. Whatever hideous punishment the universe had devised for her undisclosed crimes, she would gratefully face it, if it meant an end to this life of confusion and uncertainty. She would rather than live with the misery that escape offered.

“Who…whatever you are…just come and take me already!” She cried out. “I don’t care anymore! So just…show yourself!”

She waited, her eyes closed, her ears raised. She waited for the telltale tingling which informed her she was in the thing’s line of vision again.

Then she heard the guffawing, coming from behind her and getting steadily louder.

She turned to see Applejack and Rainbow Dash, side by side, each with one leg slung over the other’s shoulder, to keep the other from falling over. They each carried an empty tankard in their free hoof.

“It’s not my fault you can’t hold your shider…” Dash said, as her legs stumbled on the perfectly unobstructed path.

Applejack rolled her eyes, clearly the more sober of the two (although that wasn’t saying much). “Speak fer yerself…it’s ya pegasi are the big lightweights. Heh, get it? Lightweights…’cause ya’ll can fly.”

Dash unentangled herself from the friendly embrace. “Hey! At leasht we don’t have an…infi-inferiory-inferiority thing!”

“Earth Ponies da' not have an inferiority complex!” Applejack asserted.

The two stared at each other as if in anger. Then they both burst into laughter, leaning on each other again and as their ribs trembled and their bellies shook.

“Aw, shucks…we sound just like two fillies fightin' over a colt.” Applejack said, wiping a tear from her eye.

“I guess it wazsh pretty silly…” Rainbow Dash admitted, unsteadily getting to her wings.

“Woah, there, ponygirl. What’s the first rule’a irresponsible drinkin’?” Applejack demanded.

Rainbow Dash groaned and rolled her eyes. “No flying, because I could get hurt.” She let out a noise that was probably supposed to sound dismissive, but because of her inebriation, just made her seem more drunk. “I’m the greatest flyer in Equestria…I could get home if I was blindfolded!”

“As appealing as the thought a’ ya smacking yer stupid head into a bunch of stormclouds is, Ah’ll pass.” Applejack smirked. “Ah ain’t lettin’ you outta mah sight for the resta the night.”

“Oh, yeah?” Rainbow Dash’s eyes gleamed with competitive spirit, only sharpened by her dulled foresight. “That shounds like a challenge!”

“Well, it ain’t one, so don’t ya go gettin’ any crazy ideas in that feather-brained heada yours.” Applejack said. “Oh, there you are, Evenin’ Star!”

Applejack tossed the tankard off into the pasture as if afraid it might offend her. Then she blushed and scratched behind her head with her hoof. “Sorry if we’re a little outta sorts. Me and Big Mac cracked open a case of the hard stuff, as a reward for everypony workin’ together and well, one thing led to another…”

“I told Applejack I could drink more than she could!” Rainbow Dash blurted. “And I was right!”

“Apologies if we’re a little outta sorts.” Applejack said.

“That’s okay,” Evening said, able to smell the fermented apple-juice off both of them. “Everypony deserves a break after what they’ve been through.”

“You can shay that again!” Rainbow Dash said, toasting her tankard to the stars.

“Say, why don’t ya join us for supper, Evening? Granny’s been cookin’ up something special for me and Mac.”

“I appreciate that…” Evening Star said. “…but I should really get to packing. I’m going to be leaving soon…”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other.

“Where are you going?” Rainbow asked.

“I don’t actually know…” Evening Star admitted. “But umm…I think it will be best for everypony if I leave.”

“Aw, fiddlesticks! Yer a local celebrity, Star.”

“Yeah, you totally kicked butt!” Rainbow said, almost kicking Applejack’s hat off with a lacksidasical swipe of her leg. “We need your help to protect the town!”

“Plus, Ah never thanked ya properly fer savin’ mah big brother and my little sis from that wren.” Applejack said, scowling at Rainbow. Then she smiled and it felt like the sun had just turned on for Evening Star. “Please give us a chance, Evening.”

Evening Star stared at her for a moment, then her stomach rumbled. Well, she may as well enjoy one nice meal before everypony hated her again.

“Okay.” She said.

Applejack and Rainbow shared a smile and clapped their hooves together in victory.

The aroma of ripening apples met the trio before they even reached Sweet Apple Acres. It complimented the crispness of the air to create an autumnal feeling, despite the fact that Spring hadn’t even ended yet.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash had taken up singing a rude and rather embarrassing song. Evening Star rolled her eyes at their off-key slurring of the lyrics, but she couldn’t help but smirk at the determination with which they stumbled from one verse to another.

They’d just stopped when she’d gotten the first whiff of what lay inside the Apple family home. The night was alive with the mouthwatering scents of hot cider, apple fritters and vegetable dumplings and it all mixed wonderfully with the inviting light of the porch lantern, to become a beacon of rustic comfort against the terrors she’d endured.

The visit only got better once she was actually inside. Applejack’s grandmother was a surprisingly spry pony, with a face full of smile wrinkles and an unwavering intent to feed Evening Star until her stomach ached.

Applejack’s brother was the strong and silent type, almost twice her size, who watched the proceedings with glint of pride and a great deal of amusement.

And then there was her little sister. She was firecracker of a filly, as adorable as she was precocious. Evening Star could tell that both Applejack and Big Mac were a little peeved by the barrage of questions she sent in Evening’s direction. But Evening didn’t mind. Not at first, at least.

“Do you like being a librarian?” Apple Bloom asked, after they were all seated and most of the food which was going to be eaten had been.

“Course she does, sugarcube! You shoulda’ seen how eager she was to save those books, when the Ursa Major attacked…” Applejack said with a hearty chuckle.

“Yeah, she totally almost got crushed.” Rainbow interjected, as she scarfed down viddles, earning a glare from Applejack.
Evening blushed. “It has its good moments too…”

“But yer so good at magic!” Apple Bloom said. “And Ah saw you’re cutie-mark! It sure don’t look like your destiny is just to be a librarian.”

“There ain’t no shame in being a librarian!” Granny Apple said as she slammed her utensils down on the thick applewood table. “Why, in my day, most ponies woulda given their left hoof to have more than one book on the shelf!”

“And just because of you and yer friends think yer cutie-mark gurus, don’t make it alright to go around tellin’ ponies what they should or shouldn’t be doin’ with their lives.” Big Mac chided.

Apple Bloom deflated and glanced back at Evening Star. “Sorry, Miss Star…I didn’t mean nothin’ by it.”

“It’s alright. The truth is I’ve never really been able to figure out what my cutie mark means.” Evening Star admitted.

She had not expected the looks of concern she received from this statement, or the gasp of horror that Apple Bloom released. “That’s terrible! No pony is supposed to go their whole life, not knowin’ what their cutie-mark means!”

“It’s not that bad really…” Evening said. “There are worse things to forget.”

In the silence that followed, Apple Bloom stared at Evening Star, Granny Smith and Big Mac stared at Applejack, Applejack stared at Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash stared glumly at her licked clean plate.

“Well, I reckon it’s gettin’ late…” Applejack said, picking up her hat and using it to fan her flushing face.

Evening Star smiled. “It’s okay, Applejack…I’m just glad you all let me have dinner with you.”

This attempt at kindness only served to deepen the atmosphere of grief which had overtaken the table and Evening Star, realized that she had yet again, in trying to help others, only worsened the situation.

“I should go…” Evening Star said, as she clambered off the bench.

“Wait! Don’t tell me your staying the night in that library again!” Rainbow said, floating up over her chair.

Evening Star paused and focused on the cracks in the smooth floorboards at her hooves. “I’ll be fine.” She said, at last.

“Horsefeathers!” Granny Smith said, popping up from her seat. “Yer staying the night here!”

Evening Star turned to her in surprise. “What? Oh no, I can’t…I have to-”

“I said you were stayin’ and that’s final!” Granny said, putting her hoof down.

The rest of the Apple family grinned in unison at the display.

“C’mon, sugarcube…you already done so much walkin’ today, you must be exhausted.” Applejack coaxed.

“And you haven’t heard one of Granny’s stories yet!” Apple Bloom chimed in.

“Yeah, and it’s dark out there…” Rainbow Dash said, having somehow become the voice of reason in this insane situation.
“And there might be another monster attack halfway through your walk and no one would be able to protect you.”

“Eyup!” Big Mac said with a grin.

Evening Star looked between all of them, the hope in their eyes and the firmness on their faces. Suddenly, she did not want to be out there in the darkness, with the sound of the footsteps and the feeling of those eyes on her. Suddenly, she realized that all the time she’d spent re-reading the same books and dusting the shelves, could have been spent out here. Among ponies who were more than friendly, but who felt like home.

She realized then she’d never be able to enjoy their company again, after Starlight revealed her.

“If you’re willing to have me…I’d love to stay.” Evening admitted.

There was a chorus of cheers, followed by an attempt by Rainbow Dash at an impromptu toast. The attempt was mercifully cut short by Applejack’s insistence that Rainbow had already had more than enough cider to drink and by Apple Bloom’s infectious excitement for Granny’s storytelling.

After they’d all found spots either on the couch or kneeling in front of it, Granny sat down in one of the house’s larger rocking chairs and began to recount a story she’d supposedly heard from her great, great aunt. It was unlike anything Evening had read in her books. It was a winding, half-remembered thing which backtracked so much on itself that any kind of plot was all but made irrelevant. Still, it was hysterically funny, and Evening Star couldn’t help to eventually join in with the peeling laughter of the rest of the audience, as the hilarity increased exponentially with the repetitions in the tale.
When the story had ended, her lungs hurt from laughing and she had been so enraptured by the strange and enchanting custom, that she’d forgotten all of her troubles.

It didn’t last though.

Soon enough, Apple Bloom need to head upstairs to bed, and by the time she had been finally cajoled into doing so, Rainbow Dash had passed out with her head on Applejack’s flank.

Applejack just rolled her eyes. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to be able to use them fancy magic powers o’yers to help me get this one up the stairs, would ya?”

Evening Star was more than happy to oblige, using her telekinesis to lift Rainbow’s curled up form, without disturbing her rest, and managing to maneuver her up the staircase without striking the walls of the Apple family home more than half a dozen times.

“How is she still asleep?” Evening Star whispered, as she and Appljack ascended behind the levitated pegasus.

“Ha! Dash can doze through a hurricane if she’s tired enough.” Applejack said, as they finally reached Applejack’s bedroom. Two piles of hay had been arranged on the floor in front of the bed, and after receiving a nod from her host, Evening Star lowered Rainbow Dash gently onto the first one.

“Thanks for agreein’ to do this…” Applejack said.

“Oh, it’s no problem, I use my horn to lift heavy books all the time…”

“Not that! Thanks for agreein’ to come over…thanks for agreein’ to stay. I know it means the world to Apple Bloom.” Applejack said.

Evening Star nodded and moved toward the unoccupied pile of hay.

“Oh, no ya don’t! Mah first nursery was a pile of hay and Ah’ll never hear the end of it if Ah let a guest sleep on the floor.” Applejack said, trotting over to the pile and waving a hoof dismissively. “Now you get yer rest, ya hear? We gotta lotta work tomorrah.”

Evening Star nodded, and reluctantly slid into bed. She cast a glanced toward Applejack one last time, the mare’s loving smile illuminated by the moonlight that fell through the bedroom window. But the mare wasn’t staring at her (thank goodness). She was staring at Rainbow Dash.

The two were true friends, the way that Evening and Trixie never would be. Tied together by fate and sonic rainbooms. But for the first time in a long time, Evening Star didn’t feel jealous or bitter or depressed at the thought. No, she was just grateful, that she’d been given a chance to see what life could be like, before it all went away.

She closed her eyes and slipped off to sleep, too tired to be scared of what she might see.

It was empty. Sweet Apple Acres was empty. Not just of the Apple Family and their lively if sometimes overbearing antics. Not just of the contented oinking of the pigs or the squawking of the chickens from within their barracks.

Sweet Apple Acres was empty of life. There were no apples on the trees, no grass on the ground. The barkless gray branches were unburdened by birds' nests, just as they were free of the fruitbats which had been allowed to help pollinate and fortify the orchard.

All that was left were the empty, unlit buildings and the lifeless clawing hollows.

“Twilight, you have to stop this!”

She turned, her eyes searching between the bleached white trees, for any sign of the creature behind the tremulous voice. “No! I have to fix this! I can’t just leave it the way it is!”

“IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE!” The voice declared. “EVERY-TIME YOU TRY TO FIX THINGS, THEY JUST GET WORSE!”

“I know, but I can’t leave them like this! This isn’t the way things are supposed to be!” She turned again, trying to catch the location of whatever was haunting her.

“Please, Twilight…I’m begging you, stop before it’s too late.”

That’s when she saw it, the shadow looming behind one of the thicker trees. Watching her with eyes as warm as moonlight.
The shadow, bigger than any pony she’d yet to encounter, slid out from behind its hiding place and moved toward her…

Evening Star was awoken by the shouting. But any drowsiness left in her was shaken out by Rainbow Dash grabbing onto her shoulders and violently shaking her.

“We gotta go! Now!” Rainbow yelled, over the hubbub.

Evening Star yanked herself out of Rainbow’s grasp, rolling off the bed and moving to the window, to see if the Dullness had widened during the night.

Any relief she may have felt at having this possibility dispelled for her, was overtaken by her horror at the billions of scorpions that had swarmed Sweet Apple Acres.

Chapter 7 - Noctambulism

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What happened next was a blur. First, there was an almighty squealing as the pigs reacted to the bed of scorpions quickly approaching their pen. Then Applejack yelled something about the livestock and Rainbow Dash looked conflicted.

“Get Applejack’s family to safety!” Rainbow Dash ordered.

Evening Star nodded, hopping out of bed and watching as Rainbow Dash and Applejack exited through the window, one after another.

Scrambling to get downstairs, she focused on projecting a force field like the one that Starlight had used to protect her and Rarity’s family when the Ursa Major had attacked. As she reached the first floor, she found Granny Smith, Big Mac and Apple Bloom had all climbed on top of the dinner table and were using brooms and kitchen implements to try to displace the swarm of rattling yellow anthropods crawling beneath the table.

The scorpions, for their part, didn’t seem particularly interested in attacking the family, they were far too busy pilling up at the bottom of the stairs.

“Stay where you are!” Evening Star yelled, before blasting a hole in the mound of bodies at the base of the stairs.

As soon as the smoke had cleared from her horn, the swarm of clicking pincers and glistening stingers had re-formed. In fact, the attack only served to heighten the invaders’ aggression, as they began spilling up onto the stairs at twice the pace as before.

Evening Star fortified herself with the thought that, at the very least, they weren’t ladybugs.

Shuddering at just the thought, she teleported off the stairs and onto the table, beside Big Mac and Granny Smith.
That was a bad idea, as it turned out. The dining table was a sturdy thing, carved by ponies with the intent of being able to host the entire Apple clan if need be. But even it was not intended to support such a load.

The table’s legs creaked and then table collapsed beneath them all, crushing a few hundred scorpions in the process.

“Get ready to move!” Evening Star yelled over the sound of snapping and crunching. She summoned a force field just as the swarm began to change direction and converge on the collapsed table.

“Ha! Git through that ya wanna-be crustaceans!” Granny Smith proclaimed, as the scorpions paused in their assault to test the boundaries of the barrier which had suddenly appeared between them and their prey.

“Wait, where’s Applejack?” Apple Bloom asked.

“She’s fine! She’s outside with Rainbow Dash!” Evening Star promised.

As they spoke, the arachnids, owing to the hairs on their legs, began to scale the dome of force, stabbing their stingers uselessly against the pink energy.

“We need to get out of here!” Evening Star said.

It was slow going, especially since the dome was more than a little small for Big Mac, forcing him to crouch slightly and all of them to press together. Evening Star couldn’t imagine a less comfortable situation, moving slowly through the venomous hordes, while the number of scorpions clinging to the dome increased with every second.

Well, except maybe for doing it without the force field.

They made it out the front door in time to see Applejack and Rainbow Dash throwing open the doors to the barn. The cows housed within were known for being skittish. They had probably stampeded because of an overzealous butterfly in the past.

Now they charged out of the barn, tearing through fences and turning a not yet ripe crop of tomatoes and carrots into pulp in their mad rush to escape the cyclone of stingers. Together with the pigs, they barreled through the recently planted cornfield, destroying the summer crop before it ever had a chance to sprout.

While the Apples watched their livelihood destroyed, Evening Star’s eyes were drawn to the chicken coop, where Rainbow Dash was currently attempting to re-locate some very loud and very uncooperative hens, with a look of serious consternation. The pegasus had just glanced back at Applejack as if to ask why the chickens weren’t intelligent enough to save themselves.

That was when the scorpions, which had squeezed through the holes in the wire chicken fence, seized upon Applejack. She let out a shriek and her world-famous hooves stamped down on the offending arthropods, turning half a dozen yellow bodies into stringy brown paste on her shoes.

Still the damage had already been done. As Applejack staggered at the agony racing through her nervous system, more scorpions poured in, crawling over the remains of their companions dispassionately. Rainbow Dash, who had never gotten along well with most animals in the best circumstances, tossed the chickens she’d been rescuing onto the top of the coop, sending them scrabbling and flapping madly against the tin roof to keep off the ground.

Then she dove in, grabbing onto Applejack with both hooves and dragging the slightly larger and bulkier pony out of reach of the swarm and over the fence. At first it looked like Applejack, whose hind legs were turning purple beneath her coat, was struggling against Rainbow Dash’s grip. But as Rainbow flew closer, Evening Star realized the truth.

Applejack was foaming at the mouth and the jerky movements that Evening Star mistaken for struggles, were the spasms of malfunctioning muscle. The mare’s entire nervous system had been overloaded with neurotoxin, and she had completely lost lucidity by the time Rainbow Dash got her close enough to drop her into the force field.

Big Mac and Evening Star managed to catch the still writhing Applejack after Evening Star had (briefly) created a hole in the top of the dome. As they tried to keep her spasming legs from bucking any of them, Evening Star looked up at Rainbow Dash.

The pegasus had sustained more than a few stings herself in her frantic attempt to extricate Applejack from the rising tide of death, and her flying was growing increasingly sloppy as she tried to shake loose the half a dozen brown bodies currently pincered to her blood-stained wings.

“I’ll get help!” Rainbow said, as she narrowly avoiding face-planting into the writhing mass. “I-I’ll come back…I promise!”

Evening Star watched with growing horror as Rainbow attempted to fly in the direction of Ponyville, instead making it only a few yards over the orchards before she crashed into a branch and collapsed in the dirt.

“Sis? Sis ya gotta wake up!" Apple Bloom shrieked, as Applejack’s spasms slowed, and her eyes rolled back in her finally still head. Apple Bloom looked up at Evening Star. "Ah don't understand! What’s wrong with her?!"

Evening Star stared at Applejack and then Rainbow Dash who despite her best efforts to take off, was unable to do anything more than lie on the ground and twitch weakly. One arm of the scorpion legion had already extended out in Rainbow Dash's direction and was making quick work of the journey.

Evening Star turned away and looked at the faces of the Apple Family. Granny Smith, having likely seen a venomous sting before, was already wracked with grief at what had befallen her granddaughter. Big Mac, on the other hand, was wrought with panic at the increasingly claustrophobic interior of the dome and his own inability to alleviate the situation as even more the scorpions encased the surface of the force field.

And then there was Apple Bloom. She was sobbing and shaking her Applejack, begging Evening Star to use her magic to save her comatose sister.

Evening Star knew two things. The first was that she had never teleported five ponies before, let alone teleported them the distance needed to reach Rainbow Dash right now. The second thing was the weight of the scorpions atop her force field was only growing and that while for the moment it was still manageable, in less than five minutes, it would exceed the strength of her spell.

Closing her eyes, she reached deep down and ran through every spell she’d ever learned. There had to be something she could do to help. Perhaps some kind of magical burst? But then the profusion of offensive thauma diffuse the shield spell, and the scorpions would close on them before she could bring up another.

This was it, she realized, panic overcome by the numbing realization. There were just too many of the scorpions and she was not powerful enough to stop them all. Maybe if they were willing to leave Applejack behind...she shook her head, refusing to entertain the grim possibilities. None of them would be able to live with their cowardice and she very much doubted that Granny or Apple Bloom would have been able to summon the speed required to evade the swarm even unburdened.

She opened her eyes and stared at Apple Bloom. She was the youngest, if anyone deserved to be saved, it would be her.

Just as she was considering teleporting Apple Bloom and Big Mac away, she heard it. The tell-tale whistle of something streaking through the air at incredible speed. It was followed by a wave of heat and a flash barely seen through the thousands of scorpions pressed against the shell of her force field.

The bodies that crowded the dome and made up the top layer of the storm were turned to ash, and she could see Her. Princess Celestia had landed right next to Rainbow Dash, creating a tiny impact crater with her landing. The scorpions which had just reached Rainbow had been similarly incinerated, while the trees surrounding Celestia's landing had been turned to charcoal. Most of the farm's structures, having been flooded with heat in too short a time to allow the creation of a proper fire, now smoldered, in various states of destruction.

Evening Star very purposefully did not look in the direction of the chicken coop and focused instead on the hope rising in her stomach, rather than the disgusting smell which had entered her nostrils.

As cinders rained down on the scorpions which had pooled around the force field, and which were only still alive because the scorpions above them shielded them from the blast, there was a second high pitch shriek and then a thunderous flash of blue, as Princess Luna landed right next to the front yard gate. The resulting explosion of magical energy very nearly broke Evening Star's concentration on the force field, something that Evening suspected would have resulted in her and everypony else within being killed in a fraction of a second. Instead, the brumal blast parted around the force field and re-assembled behind it. The sudden added moisture drowned all embers remaining from Celestia's entrance, as well as imprisoning the remaining scorpions in spikes of blackened, starry ice.

While her sister bent to inspect Rainbow Dash’s still writhing form, Luna narrowed her eyes at Evening Star and trotted toward her with purpose. Shivering at the princess’ regal presence, Evening Star dropped the force field and used her telekinesis to levitate Applejack’s mutilated body over to her.

“She's poisoned your majesty!” Evening Star said as she bowed.

Luna looked at Applejack and then at Apple Bloom, whose state of distress had only been slightly mollified by the fact they weren't all about to die horribly. Finally, she said “I will do what I can."

With that, her horn began to pulsate with light and her eyes glowed with the same impenetrable white light that Evening Star had seen take over Starlight and the others when they’d used their elements. As she did, wisps of silvery light wrapped around Applejack’s form, slowly teleporting every ounce of poison out of her system.

It wasn’t enough. The poison had thrown Applejack gone into cardiac arrest and her body remained unbreathing even as the sting marks on her legs healed over. Luna let out a breath and then lowered her horn to the levitated Applejack’s chest. There was a spark of electricity and Applejack’s body jolted.

Then her muzzle opened, long enough to let out a horrible, rasping cough. Her eyes remained closed, but her chest began to rise and fall again.

Taking control of Applejack’s body from Evening Star, Luna levitated her into the waiting hooves of her family, who almost crushed her still unconscious form in their desperation to hold her and protect her as she had them so many times.

Then Luna turned toward Evening Star and marched toward her, her platinum and silver shoes creating snapping noises against the surface of the ice sheet she’d created, from the sheer cold they radiated.

“Princess Luna…we owe you and your sister our lives.” Evening Star said, continuing to bow.

Luna stopped a few inches in front of Evening Star and sneered in a manner that only the ancient royalty can achieve. “You can drop the act, Twilight Sparkle…my sister and I know full well what you are.”

Evening lifted her head in confusion, as Luna reared up onto her hind legs. As she kicked the air with her forehooves, her horn gleamed again, and the magic she wove curled around Evening. Icy tendrils of energy, identical to the ones which had cured Applejack only a moment ago, now encased Evening’s entire body, trapping her legs together and numbing her horn to impede any attempts at casting magic.

Evening cried out, but her desperate pleas for explanation were smothered quickly as the magic gagged and blinded her, trapping her in a skin blistering prison of pure light. She continued to writhe against her unbreakable bonds, as Luna turned to face the horrified Apple family.

“This is business of the state. My sister will bring you to Starlight's castle. You will be protected there.” Luna said. Then she leaned forward. “Tell anypony who asks that this one…” She gestured to Evening Star. “…has disappeared.”

Big Mac looked like he was about to say something, to form some kind of protest to what had just been done. Luna pre-empted all rebuttal.

“AM I UNDERSTOOD!?” Luna asked, extending her wings and using her “court” voice.

The Apple family, too traumatized to even comprehend what they had just witnessed, nodded, in horror. There was a flash of magic and then Luna and her captive were gone. The conscious members of the Apple family continued to stare at the spot where they'd disappeared from until Celestia approached them.

"I'm sorry to frighten you." Celestia said, as she telekinetically floated Rainbow Dash’s healed but still incapacitated form along with her. "But believe me when I say that my sister and I do not act without reason."

"But why-" Apple Bloom began, as she cradled her unconscious sister's head.

"Of course...yer highness." Granny Smith said, with a little bow.

Celestia nodded and then lifted her head. Her horn swelled with power and as her magic lovingly embraced them all, the ruined farm and the uncountable arachnid corpses disappeared, replaced by the dining area of the Castle of Friendship, now crowded with the displaced citizens of Ponyville.

"Can I trust you to look after Rainbow Dash, until she has fully recovered?" Celestia asked, as she lowered the pegasus down onto the ground, next to where Apple Bloom sat with Applejack.

Big Mac nodded and Celestia turned away and spread her wings. Instantly, the ponies who'd crowed to question her as soon as she'd appeared, recoiled. And as she strode away, the gap in the throng closed behind her as ponies demanded to know why they'd been roused from their beds and forced to evacuate their home on order of The Diarchy.

“This ain’t right!” Apple Bloom said, turning to her brother and grandmother.

“Hush now! If’n the princesses say it is, then it is.” Granny Smith said, as she curled up on the floor next to Apple Bloom and her sister.

“But Evening Star was our friend! She saved me and Big Mac’s life. And if it weren’t for her, Sweetie Belle woulda been crushed!” Apple Bloom said, looking to Big Mac in the hope he might refute Granny’s assertion.

“Ha! Princess Luna did plenty a' nice things before she blocked out the sun…do you think it makes a difference?” Granny asked, as she began re-tying the ribbon in Applejack's mane.

“No…but that don’t mean-”

“Ah don’t care what it means!” Granny snapped, “You are gonna keep quiet about what ya saw…we got enough problems without royalty being mad at us.”

“But Granny…that ain’t right! The princesses are supposed to help ponies…" Apple Bloom said, leaning over Applejack as she dropped her volume. "...not tie them up for no reason!”

“Ah ain’t losing you too!” Granny Smith yelled.

A few ponies who had been hoping that the Apple family, having been teleported in with Princess Celestia, might be able to answer their questions, paused mid-approach at the outburst and quickly thought better of it.

“Ah already lived too long…” Granny admitted. “No pony ought to outlive her grandchildren…Ah almost lost Applejack today and Ah ain’t losin’ you too!” Her wrinkled face hardened. “And if’n that means doin’ what the princesses say is right, then that’s what we’re gonna do.”

Apple Bloom looked up at her older brother, but he just sighed and shook his head. After a few minutes, she lowered her eyes and squeezed her older sister’s hoof for comfort.

“She’s not what I expected…after her dream.” Luna admitted, as she set the traitor down in the center of Starlight's observatory.

“Don’t let her simple appearance deceive you.” Celestia said. “She is more dangerous than any enemy we’ve yet faced.”

“If that’s true…wouldn’t it be best to…eliminate her now?” Luna suggested.

Celestia shook her head. “She still contains the information on how to cease the rising fracture in our existence. Don’t worry…once I wrench the information out of her skull…there won’t be enough left to execute.”

She took a few steps toward the prone form, her horn flaring as she prepared to begin the first of many rituals.

“Wait…” Luna said, stepping forward.

Evening paused her struggles to listen.

“…allow me. I am more accustomed to the dream world; it will be easier for me to pierce the veils of her mind.”

Evening whimpered in defeat.

“Very well, you are the one who provided proof of her treachery. But be careful…Starlight nearly went mad after her attempt.” There was another pause. “I can’t lose you again, sister.”

“You won’t...sister.”

Apple Bloom had waited until her brother and grandmother had begun talking with the other refugees of the town, before she snuck off. She knew she needed to stay with her family, right now. She knew that wandering off, during an emergency, wasn't just stupid. It was selfish.

What she also knew was that she needed to be alone right now. Princess Luna was not the pony she'd thought she was. Neither was her own grandmother. That or Evening Star was not the shy, nervous librarian who she'd been happy to have in her home.

Apple Bloom couldn't believe that. Evening Star had saved her life, twice now. She had used her magic to protect her and her family, when it would have been so much easier to just teleport away.

And how had they repaid her? By ignoring it, the first chance they had, when she'd called for help. And all Apple Bloom could think of was her sister.

"Howdy, sis! ...what's wrong?"

"It's Scootaloo...she's mah friend...but when ponies mention her wings, she gets so sad. I want to make her feel better, but I don't know how..."

"Aw, c'mere...Ah know it's hard...sometimes yer friends don't know how their own worth. But that don't mean you love them any less, right?"

"Yeah..."

"So next time, somepony says something about Scootaloo's wings, what are you and Sweetie Belle gonna say?"

"That...that we don't care about her wings...that we like her for who she is, not what she isn't!"

"That's right. Now, you listen to me, sugarcube. It doesn't matter if it's a classmate or a full-grown stallion with a funny way of thinking...you stick up for yerself and for yer friends. A bully is still a bully."

Apple Bloom paused in the middle of the hallway, staring at nothing. Then she turned and ran in the direction of the nearest staircase. She had to find Princess Starlight and the rest of Applejack's friends. They'd know this was wrong and they'd know what to do about it.

Unfortunately, the wetness in her eyes, combined with the constant mingling of the worried crowd, resulted in her immediately colliding with somepony's foreleg.

As she staggered and shook her head, trying to regain her balance, she looked up and realized she hadn't collided with a pony at all. Zecora now stood above her, looking her over with those deep, green eyes of hers, that could have been jungle lagoons.

"Apple Bloom, I am glad to see you safe, but why are you in such a haste?" Zecora asked, leaning down to inspect Apple Bloom's contorted face.

Apple Bloom looked away. "Ca-can you keep a secret, Zecora?"

Zecora raised an eyebrow. "At first I would have to know, what the secret is and why it can't be shown."

Apple Bloom swallowed and then looked up at the zebra who, for the past few years, had taught her not only how to brew potions, but never to judge a book by its cover.

"E-even if somepony really important told you to keep the secret?" Apple Bloom asked.

Zecora leaned down. "In the kingdom I came from, importance is not who you are but what you've done."

Apple Bloom nodded and then resolved. "Well, it-it's about the princesses..."

Evening Star had been freed of Luna's enchantment, but only so that the magic of her bindings didn't impede the spells about to be cast on her. Now she was in a plush seat, with her legs tied to the chair, a gag stuffed in her mouth and a magic inhibitor resting on her horn.

While the princesses prepared the initial magic, Starlight and a pony who'd she never seen before had entered the room, levitating with them a number of tomes about magic.

“So, can you do it?” Starlight asked, refusing to look Evening Star in her pleading eyes.

“I-I think so…but I don’t know if I want to…” The stallion said. He wore the robes of a wizard. Surely, he must have known that magic was not supposed to be used for these purposes?

“I told you what I felt when I looked inside her mind…what Luna saw when she visited her dream last night. She is black magic user.” Starlight said.

Evening Star summoned the strength to protest the statement, bucking against her binds and pleading through her gag.

It worked. The stallion turned to look at her and his concern deepened. “I know but…I went to the academy because I wanted to help ponies, Starlight…and this…this is wrong.”

Starlight cast a nervous glance at the Princesses, who hadn't seemed to have heard the traitorous statement. “Listen to me, all those ponies downstairs are in danger because of her...unless we figure out how to stop what’s coming. I saw it out there, Sunburst…it won’t just kill us…it’ll make it like we never existed in the first place.”

The pony called Sunburst lowered his head in defeat. “Oh dear…why didn’t I become a city planner like my mother?”

“Relax…remember the breathing exercises that Princess Celestia taught us. You can do this, alright? I believe in you.” Starlight said.

That was when Luna finished her work.

With a voice soft as silk and as terrifying as the night between the stars spoke. “Are we ready?”

Evening Star whimpered, again.

“Apple Bloom, I don’t understand…what you’re saying makes no sense!” Rarity said.

They were on the steps up to Starlight’s observatory. She, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie had been summoned to there to talk to Celestia and had been galloping down to find Applejack and Rainbow Dash, when they’d run into Apple Bloom and Zecora. The former was on the verge of tears. The later looked angrier than Rarity had ever seen her.

“Ah know it don’t make sense, but it's the truth!” Apple Bloom said. “They tied her up like she was a criminal and then they told us not to tell anyone!"

“You don’t think the princesses could have been replaced by Changelings, do you?” Fluttershy asked Rarity.

“Surely not!” Rarity said. “Otherwise, why would they have saved our friends’ lives?”

“Besides, there aren’t any Changelings around anymore, sillyhead!” Pinkie Pie said. “Not since Princess Celestia-”

Rarity clopped a hoof over her friend’s mouth before she could say another word and Pinkie, realizing that she’d been about to spill state secrets grinned uneasily and recoiled.

“Uh…sorry…” She said, as a haunted look overcame Fluttershy's face.

“Regardless of their motivation, we must interrupt their interrogation.” Zecora said, pushing Rarity and Pinkie Pie aside. “Evening Star’s history must not be presumed, or else all of Equestria will surely be doomed.”

“Wait!” Pinkie Pie sped up the staircase past Zecora and barred the way with her outstretched hooves. “Starlight told us she was doing really dangerous magic up there!! We can’t just go barging in!”

Zecora’s eyes narrowed, then she reached out and placed a hoof on Pinkie’s midsection, gently pushing her out of the way. “We’ve no room for distractions, now is a time for action.”

“I will be the judge of that.” Said a voice as the door opened.

All five Ponies looked up, with varying degrees of fear, at Princess Celestia. Needless to say, she did not look happy.

“Your majesty, if I may be so bold, Evening Star is a good soul.” Zecora said, bowing as she continued up the stairs as if approaching a hungry lion. “She will be the one to end this assault,” With that Zecora lifted her head to stare up at Celestia. “Provided that we forgive her faults.”

Celestia narrowed her eyes. Then she lifted a hoof. “Friends of Starlight Glimmer, please make your way downstairs. The townsfolk are liable to panic without the reassurance of your presence.”

Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity all shared a look and then wordlessly began ushering Apple Bloom down the stairs.

Then Celestia turned her attention to Zecora. “I agree, wise Zecora, that the unicorn of which you speak is essential to defeating the force which has overtaken the Evergreen Forest. But I’m afraid that she is nowhere to be found. At the moment Starlight and my sister are attempting to locate her with an advanced tracking spell...you'll understand if I am reluctant to allow them to be interrupted, mid-cast.”

Zecora just stared at Celestia, as if a parent waiting for her child to fess up to a fib.

Celestia coughed. “I appreciate your concern about her, however, and I will be sure to inform you, as soon as she's located.”

Being a zebra, Zecora was a good few inches taller than all but the largest male ponies. What she was not, however, was taller than a fully grown Alicorn, especially one currently attempting to look as intimidating as possible.

Still, she continued to glare at her, any attempt at simulating the pleasantries of court replaced by lip-curling disgust.

Then Zecora turned away, galloping down the staircase and pushing past the descending ponies on her way down. In fact, she did not stop galloping until she had found unoccupied bedroom on the first floor. Once there, she stepped inside, locking the door behind her and turning to face the window by the bed. As she moved to the glass, her trained eyes searched the border of the Everfree Forest for any sign of approaching malignancy. When she was, at least, for the moment satisfied, she turned to the empty room and spoke loudly.

“Now that Discord is not nearby, I can at last become best friends with Fluttershy.” She declared, with a little smirk.

“OVER MY DEAD BODY!” Cried the draconeques who had appeared from nowhere, in, strangely enough, a mummy costume.

“Relax, I lied about my intentions, intending only to attract your attention.” Zecora said, turning to face the second reality warping entity she’d stared down today. “As you no doubt know, we are all in danger. To resolve this problem, requires a simple favor.”

Discord folded his arms and lifted his chin dismissively. “Why should I do anything for you? I take my orders from the Princesses…” He emphasized this by creating finger puppets on his lion’s paw of a white and black alicorn. “And from Fluttershy of course when she needs my help.” A third finger puppet appeared, this one yellow and much more nicely made than the other two.

“Princess Celestia turned you to stone,” Zecora said, strolling past Discord’s midsection without even acknowledging his hysterical antics. “Now is the chance to turn her subjects against the throne.”

“You want me to betray Princess Celestia?” Discord slapped his face in mock surprise and then grinned, putting on a police cap and pulling out a set of hoofcuffs. “You know, I could have you thrown in the jail for that kind of talk.”

Zecora paused by the door. “And miss your only chance, to impress your friend and prove your stance?”

Discord stared at her for a moment. Then the hat and cuffs *poofed* out of existence and he raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize I was in the presence of a fellow anarchist...what, pray-tell, my striped friend, exactly would I be doing?”

Zecora smiled.

“By combining Mink’s Marvelous Mind Bender and Hirsuite’s Mental Projection, you should be able to remove the magic shielding her subconscious.” Sunburst said, as he stared at what he was sure was not about to be a pretty sight.

Princess Luna stood in the center of the tower’s central chamber; eyes fixed on her target. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was for the good of Equestria. For the good of her subjects. Her sister had trusted her to do this.

She opened her eyes and glanced at Starlight. Starlight, who had been responsible for redeeming her, from saving her from the nightmare of Nightmare Moon. Who had taught her how to love herself again, after the Tantabus incident.

Starlight, who this mare had hurt, without even meaning to, with magic more ancient than any pony alive should be capable of unleashing.

Luna turned back toward Evening Star and smoke began to pour from her eyes. Then her horn began to glow, and the spells began to intertwine. Evening Star thrashed, as against her will, she was forced to meld magic with the alicorn princess. Her own warm pink thauma was quickly crushed by the wintry blue onslaught of the goddess of the night.

That was the moment that Twilight Sparkle woke up.

Chapter 8 - Inculpatory

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It had started with a party.

Pinkie Pie had wanted to celebrate three years since the successful imprisonment of the Tirek, Cozy Glow and Chrysalis. Twilight had wanted to hold the party at the palace, so it could accommodate all their friends from across Equestria.

Then the letters had started coming in. Rainbow Dash was up for the position of Team Captain and so, she didn't want to take time off the Wonderbolt circuit for "yet another party." Fluttershy's sanctuary was in the process of expanding, and so she was unable to leave her position. And Applejack had to look after her grandmother and the farm. There was a time when that information would have sent Twilight flying in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. This time she just sent a get-well basket.

Rarity had come, of course, because it gave her a chance to rub elbows with the rich, spoiled fools who Twilight had to deal with on a daily basis. But the three of them barely talked through the whole thing. It felt wrong to talk about the others behind their backs and Twilight had been busy catching up on events with Thorax and Ember and Princess Skystar. She'd put on a smile for Pinkie of course, who had not taken the news that not everypony could come well, and it had been nice, seeing her and Rarity again.

But it had felt wrong.

After that, she'd reached out to her old friends, asking if there was a better date, someday in the future that they could meet instead. There wasn't, as it turned out. She'd visited each of them. She'd thought, that if she helped Applejack through her family crisis, if she helped get Rainbow Dash to focus on something other than work, that maybe they'd come back to her. They'd want to be around her again and everything would be the way it was supposed to be.

It had worked, for a time.

But then Granny Smith had passed away. They'd all come to give their condolences and to support Applejack, but afterwards, it had been difficult to know what to do or what to say, without making the grief worse.

Then Rainbow Dash had gotten her injury. And Angel had gotten sick. And Twilight had kept trying to be there for her friends and kept finding that she couldn't, not as much as she wanted to. She had too much responsibility, too many other ponies who needed her.

So, by the time that the next anniversary party rolled around, Rarity had gotten engaged and was "too busy" preparing for the wedding to attend. And it had just been her and Pinkie Pie.

It became painful, just being around her friends, after that. Painful because of the silence where neither knew quite what to say. Painful because she wanted to help them, with all their problems, even the ones that couldn't be fixed. Painful because she couldn't and because, she discovered, they maybe didn't need her as much as she'd thought. Painful because all the good memories were tinged with bad but painful most of all, because none of them were foals anymore. They were adults, with careers and relationships and in one case, children.

They were adults and that meant they didn't have as much time for friendship as they once had. And it wasn't like they all didn't have other friends, other family members to lean on.

She had remained friends with Pinkie (because it was more difficult to not be friends with Pinkie than the opposite). Rainbow had moved in with Applejack, to help her keep the farm going and to give her some company after Big Mac got hitched. And Fluttershy and Rarity still had their spa day, only it had moved from weekly to bi-weekly, then to monthly, and finally, to once a year.

And she still had Spike.

Spike...

...

Where was Spike?! Why wasn't he here? Every creature else was here...why not him?

Oh, no...oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no...

"But we have to do something!" Apple Bloom demanded.

"I know, darling...and we will...just as soon as Starlight is done with her spell." Rarity said.

Fluttershy watched as the increasingly distressed Apple Bloom turned away and galloped off into the crowd, likely to find the other members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

"Should we follow her?" Fluttershy asked. She was starting to get serious anxiety from Rainbow Dash, Applejack AND Starlight not being around during such a stressful time.

"I'll get her!" Pinkie Pie declared, zooming off into the crowd and weaving between the clusters of frightened and angry ponies at an impossible speed.

"Oh, Fluttershy, what are we going to do? I mean, we can't just disobey the princesses." Rarity said, gnawing on her hoof. "But what if Apple Bloom and Zecora are right? What if something is wrong with Luna and Celestia?"

Fluttershy imagined the possibility for a moment, then she shivered. It would be like that one time that with the Tantabus. Except worse, because it wouldn't just be Princess Luna who'd gone bad.

"I don't know! Starlight usually makes these kinds of decisions...but we can't contact her!" Fluttershy said, turning to Rarity and shaking her by the shoulders.

"Ahem~!"

They both turned to look at Discord, who had appeared behind them and was pretending to be inspecting the claws of his lion's paw.

"Oh, Discord...did you get all the animals to safety?" Fluttershy asked.

He glanced down at her and smiled. "Yes, yes, just as you asked...but, I couldn't help overhearing you say you wanted to contact Starlight Glimmer...I was wondering if I could be of some assistance?"

Rarity shook her head. "I'm afraid not, Discord. Starlight and the other princesses are in the middle of a very important spell."

"Oh, really?" Discord asked, pulling out a pair of binoculars from nowhere. "Because I just happened to fly past the tower window on my way over and little soiree upstairs and...well...it didn't look like she was performing a spell."

Fluttershy frowned. "Wha-what do you mean?"

Discord smiled and extended his talon. "Want to take a look?"

She had tried. She had tried so hard and so many times. First with Starlight, then by herself after Starlight had refused to take part in it again.

She had seen those moments again and again, those times she'd intervened. Over and over, she had saved her friends' loved ones. Over and over, she'd fixed their problems before they even came to exist.

And over and over she'd returned to find that the world was worse for it.

The implications, that whatever Friendship issue had risen between them all, it could not be prevented or subverted or even fixed, began to terrify her. Equestria's defense plan required the power of the Elements. Without the friendship that bound the six of them together, the Elements might not be able to be awoken as before. What if there was another invasion? What if Sombra came back yet again? The whole nation would be doomed. Worse than that, she, an alicorn, might have her powers stripped from her. If some other creature gained control of the sun and the moon, it proved an existential threat to the entire planet.

Even if nothing went wrong, even if she were able to find some other ponies to become Bearers of the Elements (unlikely, Celestia had been forced to wait 1000 years before that happened), without her friends, she might lose her way as queen. The thing which had driven Luna to become Nightmare Moon, was her emotional instability and magical power. Twilight was now more powerful than Celestia and Luna combined. What if she went mad and her friends weren't there to save her?
Everything she had worked for would fall apart.

So, she continued, ignoring the increasingly disturbing changes to reality caused by her increasingly desperate trips. And yet, every time she traveled through time, every time she attempted, through a new angle of attack, to stop herself from losing the ponies who meant the most to her, she failed. Each loop she'd return to find her friends more embittered and hateful than ever. Every time she tried to fix things, they only got worse.

Twilight had wanted to stop. She had wanted to go back to the way things were. She had wanted to listen to Starlight and Spike. She wanted to go back to being queen of Equestria. She wanted to plead with her friends, to tell them all she had done and all she worried might someday happen.

But she couldn't.

She had always been...fastidious. Her mother and father had tried to get her to..."kick" her habits when she was young, afraid that she would grow up to be overly reliant on them. She supposed they had been right. But her compulsions had always been managable. After meeting the other girls, she was even able to forget them, for a time.

But stress had always worsened the symptoms of Twilight's affliction. On a particularly rough day, she'd find herself washing her hooves till they were sore or checking she'd remembered to lock a door, even though she knew, deep down, that she had. And the stress of her failure, to maintain her friendships, to keep the others in her life, not to mention of seeing the direct consequences of her actions each time she returned from the past, was too much.

Princess Luna had been right to restrain her. To treat her like a monster, worthy of Tartarus. She hadn't perverted time and space just because she was lonely. She hadn't nearly destroyed the universe because she'd missed her friends.

She had done it, because not doing was too hard.

"We...we should stop..." Sunburst said, his eyes on the tears streaming down Evening Star's twitching, unblinking face.

Luna didn't answer. The spell which had allowed her to enter Evening Star's repressed memories required a level of focus that more or less drowned out the rest of the world. She and Evening Star were now magically locked together and probably couldn't hear anything he or the others were saying.

"Luna will stop when she has the information we require." Celestia answered, from where she guarded the door.

"Please, stop it!"

It was Evening Star, her teeth gritted in agony, her face wrinkled with concern.

"Please! I don't want to see anymore! I KNOW WHAT I DID! I'M SORRY! Please...TAKE THEM AWAY!"

Sunburst moved to intrude but Celestia lifted a hoof to stay his hand and trotted up to the chair that Evening Star had been tied into. He watched as she inspected the unicorn like she was something she'd accidentally stepped on.

He couldn't take it anymore. He turned back to Starlight. "We have to stop this!"

She was staring at Evening Star, still with a look of fear...and sympathy? Her eyes moved to his.

"This is torture!" He said, pointing a hoof at the crying and squirming unicorn. "If...if this is what doing the right thing with our magic means...then...then I never want to cast a spell again!"

Starlight opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted as Evening Star cries grew louder and she began to thrash against her restraints.

"I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! PLEASE! I'LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN! JUST MAKE IT STOP!!!"

Starlight rushed forward to put a hoof on Luna's shoulder but was stopped when a yellow barrier of magic appeared over both the princess and Evening Star. She turned to look at Celestia, whose horn was now glowing.

"Luna will end the spell when she finds what she's looking for." Celestia said, stepping closer to Starlight.

Starlight looked at Sunburst and then at Evening Star. "Your majesty, this is wrong!" She said, after a few more moments of listening to Evening Star's now incoherent pleas.

"It was your idea, young one..." Celestia said, moving between her and Sunburst so she could keep an eye on both of them. She had not called Starlight "young one" since Starlight had become a princess.

"I know...and...I was wrong! I was scared after...what I'd seen, okay?! But please, nopony deserves this!" Starlight said.

Celestia paused in her circling trot. "You don't know what Luna saw in her dream last night..."

Starlight swallowed. "M-maybe so...but there has to be a better way than this!"

Celestia narrowed her eyes and turned to scowl at her protégé. "There isn't TIME, Princess! Remember your duty is to your subjects...they are depending on us to find the answer to remove this blight, before it consumes all that we love."

"But no pony in their right mind would want us to do this!" Sunburst said, rushing up to the princess.

She glanced, briefly at him. "Sometimes, Sunburst, things must be done, regardless of popular consensus, for the good of all."

"No!" Starlight said, as forcefully as she could to the mare twice her size. "She-she's had enough...we can find a way to stop The Dullness without hurting her like this!"

Celestia glanced at Evening Star, who was currently babbling and shaking against the chair on which she was perched. Then she hung her head and the glow around her horn faded, causing the barrier around her sister and their captive to disappear.

Starlight exhaled and trotted forward. That was when she and Sunburst were lifted into the air and thrown against a nearby bookshelf. They both grunted in pain, and although the force of the shove had not been lethal, their struggling quickly revealed that the searing yellow glow was completely immobilizing.

"Don't waste your energy struggling." Celestia advised, stepping closer to them. "I can move the sun with my telekinesis, I'll remind you."

Sunburst and Starlight shared a look of terror, but neither one slowed in their attempts to repel the magic force that was pressing down on them.

"I expected this kind of thing from Sunburst..." She said, turning away from them and trotting up to Evening Star's chair. "But you, Starlight? Well, I'm more than a little disappointed, to be honest."

"Princess! You know this is wrong!" Starlight called, as her own horn strained to dispel the telekinesis. It was no use, magical energy flowed out of Celestia like light from a star. The only thing Starlight could compare its strength to was that of the incantation which had prevented her from gaining access to Evening Star's mind.

"Yes." Celestia admitted. "But after I wipe your minds of the incident, you won't." Her eyes lowered and her pale, perfect face darkened. "And that is all that matters."

She reached out, using one gilded foreleg to brush a tear from Evening Star's agonized face. "This creature is not even a pony...do you know that? When my sister and I read her magical aura, we realized that she only *looks* like one." Celestia shook her hoof, using her magic to evaporate any remaining salty moisture from her hoof. "No, she is an aberration, from beyond time and space...she is a nightmare that persists after waking. She cannot be allowed to leave this tower...her very existence is tearing this universe apart at the seams."

This statement caused both Starlight and Sunburst to pause and again look at each other in surprise.

"That doesn't mean she doesn't have rights!" Starlight demanded.

Celestia snarled and whipped her head back toward her. "Just because I rely on you to assist in matters of state, does not mean I require your support to fulfill my duties, Princess Starlight. When you failed against King Sombra's curse and Princess Cadence was enslaved by the dark magic because of your incompetence, did I cast you aside?"

Starlight paled at the fact which Celestia had so casually revealed in front of Sunburst. The terrible truth which she had carried with them since their ill-fated trip north. But the force of Celestia's telekinesis made it impossible to turn away from either of them, so all she did was stare at the floor, as she contemplated what she and the princesses had become.

"And when I shattered the Crystal Heart and left an army of brainwashed ponies to freeze, did you protest it was wrong?" Celestia asked, stamping a hoof down for emphasis. "Did you demand that the crystal ponies, already fallen to the dark, be freed from their glacial prison?" Celestia smirked, nastily. "No, as I seem to remember, you asked me to alter your freinds' memories, so they wouldn't be haunted by the guilt of your failure. You weren't against me taking matters into my hooves when it benefited you, Starlight."

Sunburst looked between both of them, hoping to see some indication from Starlight's face that these accusations were false. He, like everypony, had been told that Cadence sacrificed herself to prevent Sombra's return, and that the Crystal Empire had disappeared yet again after the pyrrhic victory. But now he saw the deep well of guilt which Starlight had hidden so well.

"And when the Changelings, unable to co-exist alongside my little ponies, threatened to you and your friends, did you demand they be given a fair trial?" Celestia asked, stomping closer to Starlight's pinned position. "When I executed their self-imposed queen and shattered their so-called crown, did you spare a moment for the sanctity of their sovereignty?"

Celestia let out a barking sound that could be mistaken for a laugh.

"As I recall, you let your friends held a party to celebrate the defeat of the Changelings!" Celestia said. "You knew full well that my eradication of their filth was final, Starlight, and you let your closest friends think otherwise, because you were just happy to finally be safe for their abominable threat!"

Starlight just stared at the floor of the chamber in shame, as Celestia turned away with a look of disgust. "I thought that you understood the burdens which authority demands, child...but clearly I was wrong. My sister and I will have to do some major re-arrangements with your mind if you are going to impede the interrogation of one, pathetic prisoner."

That was when the window shattered and Celestia, taken aback at the sound, lost focus on her telekinesis just long enough for Starlight and Sunburst to fall to their hooves. Starlight had to stand still, however, to hold the older alicorn's magic at bay, and she cast a glance at Sunburst, begging him to intercede on her behalf. Sunburst ran for Evening Star, to interrupt the spell, but Celestia kicked out a hoof without even looking, sending him tumbling over his own hooves and breaking his glasses in the process.

Celestia didn't spare him or the increasingly drained looking Starlight. She was too busy staring at the broken window, where Discord was hovering, carefully supporting Fluttershy with his lion's paw and carrying a less than enthusiastic Rarity with his dragon's foot.

All three were staring at Celestia, although Discord was doing it with more smugness than shock. He lifted his talon and pressed the button on a cassette player, which began to replay all it had recorded.

"And when I shattered the Crystal Heart and left an army of brainwashed ponies to freeze, did you protest it was wrong?" Came a haughty, remorseless voice.

The recording was slightly muffled, because of the sounds Evening Star's had been making while Celestia gave her big speech. But owing to his manipulation of reality, he'd been able to pick up the sound even outside the room.

"I have to say, Celestia..." Discord said, as he clicked the "pause" button. "You're going to be dealing with quite the PR nightmare after this...in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if nopony wanted to be your friend."

With that he smirked.

Celestia was too enraged to care who was watching, her horn swelled with energy as she prepared to release a blast of pure energy into the draconeques. She was interrupted when a book smacked into her horn.

"Ah!" She turned and glared at Sunburst, as he continued to pull books from Starlight's nearby collection and fling them at her with the same gusto as the first.

She easily deflected them and was about to rebuke with a bolt of magic which would have put Sunburst in the infirmary for the next eleven weeks, when a yellow pegasus tackled her round the neck.

"You told us that you sent the Changelings to the moon!" Fluttershy yelled, as she kicked Celestia's throat and belly. "How could you do that!? How could you kill them?!!"

Celestia snarled and a surge of magic erupted from her, holding Sunburst, Starlight and Fluttershy in place. Then she turned to face Discord and the sobbing Rarity, her eyes smoldering with the bright orange magic of an alicorn lost to the throes of boundless supernatural power.

"Discord...give me that tape recorder..." She said, as she flexed her magic, causing all three of the ponies in her telekinetic grasp to flinch and wheeze. "Or I make it that you never get invited to a tea party again."

Discord's eyes turned into cartoon flames, and he snorted smoke out of his nostrils. Then he cast a glance at the still enraged and still resisting Fluttershy. He straightened a tie which had no reason to have appeared on his neck and smiled.

"I would just like to remind you, 'Princess', that neither you nor your sister can defeat me without the Elements of Harmony...and you can't use them if you don't have the bearers on your side...all of them. So just remember..." His aspect changed, his claws sharpening, his horns enlongating as the cartoonish appearence which barely contained his unrivaled potential began to grow in monstrous aspect. "Anything you do to Fluttershy, you better be prepared to experience it, multiple times, over the next several millennia..." He said, ducking his head to float through the window and widening midway to create a hole in the side of the tower as he slithered inside.

Finally, as he lowered onto the floor, he cracked his knuckles, ominously.

Celestia laughed and spread her wings, the tips of her feathers gleaming with golden fire, her eyes now completely overtaken by the glow of an alicorn channeling far too much magic for any one creature. "No, Discord...I couldn't imprison you without the Elements of Harmony...but all I'd need to do is drag you into The Dullness...from what I understand, it would be like you'd never even existed."

Discord sneered then glanced at the still struggling Starlight, the paralyzed Sunburst, and then again at Fluttershy. His Fluttershy. Who was crying now. Not because she was about to die, but because she was staring at Evening Star, the unicorn who'd started all of this (Discord would have to buy her a bouquet when this was all over). Fluttershy was crying because Evening Star was being mentally tormented by what? Her guilt over all she'd done?

He knew all about that.

He was about to cast his first spell (reversing gravity and thereby slamming Celestia and her incapacitated sister into the floor/ceiling) when another cry wrung out.

"No! No...that's not possible...no! TAKE IT AWAY! TAKE IT AWAY!"

But it wasn't Evening Star crying out this time. It was Luna.

Pinkie had been looking for Apple Bloom for a while now. Okay, probably not that long, but it FELT like a while. She had gotten sidetracked, once or twice, just because everypony was panicking and Princess Celestia had wanted her to calm them down.

She was about to pull out her Fluttershy disguise, in hopes that might lure Apple Bloom out of hiding. But she stopped when she saw her. Standing next to the other two members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, staring at something on the floor.

"HA! I found you!" Pinkie said, pointing with a hoof for emphasis.

They all looked up at her, sniffing and rubbing their eyes and noses. That's when she realized what they were staring at.

Dashie and Applejack were lying on the floor, unconscious. Princess Celestia had said they were fine! This wasn't fine, this was not even remotely fine! This was so far from fine, it might as well have been on the opposite side of the planet from fine!

Pinkie dove over top the fillies and began checking the vital signs of her closest friends, pressing her ear to their chests and checking their pulses through their wrists. Having been raised on a rock farm, she knew the signs of a concussion when she saw them and was quickly relieved to discover that neither showed any of the tell-tale signs of bruising on their skulls, which would indicate they'd suffered brain damage.

"Are-are they gonna be alright?" Scootaloo asked.

Pinkie was about to answer when something bad happened. Her tail twitched. If that had just, been it, it would have been bad enough. But the tail twitch was followed by a numbness in her forehead, a feeling of cold on her ears, a sudden pain in her left back knee, a sensation of sudden displacement in her stomach, and then a high-pitched sneeze and a deafening burp.

As she shook herself, trying to determine what her body was trying to tell her, she heard a shriek and looked up to see that Derpy Hooves was flying in front of one of the windows and pointing outside with her hoof.

"Something is happening!" Derpy cried out.

The ponies throughout the chamber rushed to stare out the window and quickly the castle interior was filled with the sounds of panicked whinnies and neighs. Pinkie Pie looked back down at Rainbow Dash and then turned to the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

"Gummy's in charge until I get back!" Pinkie said, plopping her gator down atop Rainbow Dash's muzzle and sprinting to the nearby table.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders stared at Gummy and then at Pinkie.

"Did she not know you guys were here?" Scootaloo asked Big Mac and Granny Smith, who had been standing about five feet away during the entire interaction.

Big Mac shook his head. "Nope!"

Pinkie caught none of the exchange. She bounced through the crowd, until she made it close enough to vault up onto the table in the center of the room. Crushing a few plates and disturbing the royal silverware, she turned to stare out the window at whatever it was Derpy had spotted.

The Everfree Forest. She'd forgotten you could see it from the castle. After a while, it had become nothing more than a nice backdrop to look at.

Now it was obscured, however, by a mass of claws, teeth and very unhappy expressions (at least, on the monsters who had faces). The ponies all around her began to scream and trample each other in their rush to escape. Pinkie Pie didn't notice.

She was too busy staring at the congregation of displaced monsters currently stampeding in the direction of the castle.

A few things happened in a very short amount of time.

The first was that Luna broke the connection between herself and Evening Star, snapping both of them awake. The second was that Celestia was momentarily distracted (again), giving Rarity the opportunity to disrupt her telekinesis and allowing Starlight to break the hold of the spell on her.

The third was Discord splattering the dazed Luna and confused Celestia with a firehose of glue. The two alicorns collided and skidded across the ground, slamming into a now empty bookshelf, which promptly fell atop the heap of tangled limbs and quickly solidifying yellow paste.

"That won't hold them for long!" Discord said, as Starlight raced over to Evening Star's chair and began undoing the straps on her.

"Yeah, no kidding!" Sunburst complained, adjusting his now bent frame and peering through the less cracked of the two lenses, as he helped remove the magic inhibitor from Evening Star's horn (which, had he not been short-sighted, he would have noticed was now coated in an almost transparent layer of ice.

"Is she alright?" Rarity asked, as she galloped over to help Starlight pull Evening Star off the chair.

"I don't know...right now we need to get out of here before the Princesses decide we'd all be better off on the moon." Starlight said, with a shiver.

She paused as she realized that both Rarity was not looking at her, but at Sunburst. Realizing all they had just heard, Starlight's spirits plummeted, and she stared at the ground. She deserved to be shunned by them. And worse. She wouldn't blame them if they never spoke to her again.

Discord turned to Fluttershy, who was staring out the hole he'd made in the tower. He turned to follow her gaze and saw the hundreds of enraged residents of the Everfree Forest, approaching the castle at a lethal speed. But it wasn't the legion of monsters which troubled him.

It was the view of the Everfree Forest, which was growing grayer and more indistinct by the moment.

"Oh...that can't be good."

Right then a singed bookshelf launched itself at Discord at around 80 miles an hour. It slammed into him, sending him flying back through the hole he had created. The group as one turned to watch as Princess Celestia clambered out of the pile, her natural warmth causing the glue to melt off her and blacken on the floorboards. Still a few book pages and splinters from the fallen shelf stuck to her coat, as she trotted toward them, her horn now longer glow yellow, but now a blood red.

The golden horseshoes which signaled her regality melted off her hooves as she walked and slid off her burning skin, the liquid metal burning holes in the floor and solidifying halfway somewhere in the stairwell below. As she trotted towards them, her perfect pearly teeth sharpened and her eyes began to glow so brightly, they were now painful just to stare at. She snorted, causing the water in the air in front of her to evaporate with a dull hiss.

Rarity gulped and pressed into Fluttershy and Evening Star as Starlight prepared to defend them in what was sure to be the greatest magical duel since Luna's corruption.

Then a beam of purple energy slammed into Celestia, sending her crashing through the wall of the tower and disappearing on the horizon.

Rarity, Sunburst, Fluttershy and Starlight all turned to stare at the unicorn who had done this, and whose cutie mark was now glowing brightly and...sparking? It seemed like little bits of magic were flying off Evening Star's hide. She still looked exhausted, leaning on both Rarity and Starlight to stay upright. But now there was a determination in her eyes, something like the determination that Celestia had shown a moment earlier.

But even stronger.

"The Dullness...is coming." Twilight said. "We haven't much time...Sunburst...you need to list for me every spell might help repair the fissure in time. Starlight, you, Rarity and the rest of the unicorns down below need to conjure up a force field to surround the castle. It doesn't have to last forever, just until I can fix the problem."

"Evening Star, it doesn't matter how little time you need; we can't create a shield spell that big! Only the princesses could have-" Starlight began.

Twilight lifted up a hoof. "First things first. My name isn't Evening Star. It's Twilight. Second thing, you are the most talented mage this kingdom has ever seen, and you are the Bearer of the Element of Magic..." With that she reached out and pressed a hoof to Starlight's chest. "...if anyone can do this, it's you."

She turned to look at Rarity. "Besides...I think you're underestimating just how much help your friends will be able to give you."

Rarity looked away and Starlight felt all the hope that had been in her a moment before vanish.

"I know you're all scared, and angry..." Twilight said, looking between the four ponies. "But you are the only ones who can fix this, right now, alright?"

Then she turned toward the pegasus by the window. "Fluttershy, the creatures in the Everfree Forest want to kill me...they believe that if they do, it will stop the Dullness destroying their home. It won't. Once the dome is up, you need to convince them to run away instead of attacking the castle, otherwise they'll be killed by the Dullness."

"I'm sorry, darling...are you saying that all this time, they've been after you?" Rarity asked, pointing a hoof at Twilight.

"Alright, Miss Sunshine! You want to fight dirty, that's what we'll do!" Discord said, appearing back in the room in a puff of teleportation, and rolling up his fur as if it was sleeves. When he realized that his foe was nowhere to be seen, he paused in what he was doing.

"Discord...I need you to take me to your home. The Chaos Dimension." Twilight said, stepping out of the grip of Starlight and Rarity and stumbling in his direction.

"What? No way Jose...I am staying right here and protecting Fluttershy." Discord said, one arm enlengthening impossibly to wrap around the yellow pegasus and pull her close. "Besides, I was in the middle of battling Celestia, and I have a giant kazoo that I was really looking forward to using on her..."

Fluttershy flew in front of him and put her hooves together. "Please, Discord, I don't know what's going on anymore, but we need to do what she says, before it's too late!"

Discord stared at her most adorable, pleading look. Then he waved a claw and rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine...I'll take the librarian to my old stomping grounds...but I warn you, it isn't going to be pretty...'

Twilight turned away. "I guarantee you...I've seen worse."

"Wait a moment...what about the Princesses?" Starlight asked.

"By the time either of them recovers it will be too late to stop us." Twilight said. She paused when she saw the look of guilt on Starlight's face. "They will be fine, I promise. But if waste time trying to save them, they will most assuredly die, along with every other living thing on this planet. Understand?"

Starlight nodded, slowly. "I'm sorry..." She said, as Twilight turned back toward Discord.

"It's fine...none of this is your fault." Twilight said, as she stepped closed to the draconeques. She stopped to glance back at Fluttershy and Rarity. "You two aren't going to understand this...but I'm sorry...for everything."

They frowned and glanced between each other. But when they looked back the unicorn had already disappeared into a massive purple and black portal, alongside Discord.

Chapter 9 - Mydriasis

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Rainbow Dash's ropy form lay limp across Pinkie's back as she scrambled alongside the Apple family and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, trying to maneuver their way to an exit. All around her, ponies she had known for years were either shoving past each other to make it to an exit or trampling one another in an attempt to locate misplaced friends and family. The whinnies of parents calling for their foals was almost drowned out by the panic of those desperate to locate an exit. The legion of horrors outside and the disintegration of the horizon beyond, had combined to drain all sanity from her once friendly neighbors, reducing them to blubbering idiots.

The hysteria was shattered only when the amplified voice of the Princess of Friendship shook the foundations of the castle, leaving behind a faint harmonization in its crystalline pillars.

"QUIET!!" Starlight called, flying high above the wailing herd. She cleared her throat in the ensuing silence and continued in her assertive, royal voice. "It's too late for anypony to leave the castle now, the only thing we can do is work together to better protect ourselves!"

"Where are the princesses?" Asked a stallion with a gray mane.

"Yeah, why isn't Princess Celestia here to take care of the monsters?" Demanded a unicorn mare.

You didn't become Ponyville's most prolific party planner by not noticing when somepony was having a rough day. There were wrinkles beneath Starlight's eyes, the kind which only came after you'd been crying. What had happened upstairs?

"Please, everypony..." Starlight began, glancing back toward the staircase. "The Princesses are working to solve the situation...what we need right now is to protect this castle. All adult unicorns need to line up by Sunburst and Rarity, together we are going to create a forcefield to protect the whole castle. All adult earth ponies need to help form barricades over the windows and doors, so that even once the barrier falls, we will be protected. And all the adult pegasus need to follow Fluttershy and help her gather storm clouds around the castle."

"But those monsters will devour us!" Called one of the male pegasi.

"Oh, don't lie! You'll be able to just fly away the second the barrier falls." Said an earth pony with an ascot. "The rest of us are the ones who'll be eaten alive!"

"PLEASE!" Starlight called. "Nopony is flying away! Nopony is going to be eaten...not as long as we work together!" Her face hardened. "But if we're just going to waste time arguing amongst each other, we might as well open the front door and let the monsters come in right now!!"

There was another moment of silence, before Pinkie sprinted over to beneath Starlight's shadow. "Starlight's right! We can do this!"

"We must, if we hope to protect our families!" Rarity said, galloping over to her, horn buzzing with magic.

"It's the only way!" Sunburst said, joining Rarity.

"Please, everypony..." Said Fluttershy, flying next to Starlight. "...we have to try."

The crowd, comprising mostly bakers, tailors, farmers, florists, mail ponies and weather pegasi, glanced at each other. Then something miraculous happened. It was something that always happens when people give speeches in front of frightened people. It was an everyday phenomenon, a bit of genetic coding which all social creatures benefit from. It was the other side of the same coin as peer pressure, a kind of groupthink which made sure that most of the herd always survived, no matter what or who got trampled in the process.

It was called hope. The desperate, blind hope that was the only alternative to that which was too terrible to consider.

For the past few weeks, there had been nothing to do but wait for more monsters to attack and let the sinking creep of worry slowly find purchase on Pinky's mind. But now...now there was no time to stay still. Now there was the rush of action and too much adrenaline to think about whether or not any of it would work.

"Fair warning, Miss Star," Discord said, as they re-appeared in a vaguely purple void. "Ponies have been known to go a bit...loopy...from being in here too long."

Twilight Sparkle gave him a skeptical look. "I wouldn't worry too much about it. Now, you're an expert at breaking reality...where is the crux of this dimension, the geometric point which gives it substance."

Discord leaned down. "Excuse me? Do you not understand? This is the CHAOS DIMENSION...there is no substance, in fact, there's no geometry either..."

"Inside of this dimension, no, but outside of it, is a framework...it's the thing which maintains the rules of each plane of existence...the logic behind the illogic. It's the reason why there isn't any geometry in this dimension. Where can I find the crux of that?"

Discord frowned. "You don't seem to understand. There is no crux! Even if such a thing existed, I would have destroyed it millenia ago!"

Twilight turned away. "With all due respect, you're not the most perceptive creature in Equestria...or the most innovative for that matter."

"Excuse me?" Discord snarl. "I am the most innovative creature in the universe, let alone Equestria! I have more original ideas on a daily basis than the rest of the planet has in a year!"

"But you have never been forced to grow." Twilight replied as she walked across the floating island of cheese onto which they had appeared and observed the animate pinwheels currently flying off into the distance. "You have been around so long and have had access to so much power, that you never had the need to learn from another creature. At least not before you were petrified for the second time."

She turned back to face him. "Probably because you were scared of what you'd learn..."

Discord roared. "You think you're so clever just because you've transcended time and space...well, have I got news for you," With this, he conjured up a black and white newspaper and threw it at Twilight's hooves. "I have seen more than you can dream of."

Twilight glanced, briefly at the paper, who's headline read "Discord awarded scientific prize for being innovative!" Then she put her hoof on the paper, making it wrinkle as she leaned toward him. "Prove it."

Celestia had not been knocked unconscious in over a thousand years. She had all but forgotten how uncomfortable it was. It took her a moment to remember what had happened and why her current predicament was so tight.

The strength of Evening Star's attack had sent her all the way to Sweet Apple acres, boring through a dozen apple trees and impacting with the now empty barn. Little embers seethed on the beams which hid her beautiful sun from her.

As she stood, she twitched her wings upwards, launching the burnt detritus around her several hundred feet into the air and cracking her neck hard enough to cause a sonic boom. Then she launched herself back toward the observatory at near light speed, the impossible rush of her flight flushing the dirt and ash from her fathers. Such was her urgency to protect her sister and save her kingdom, that it was only as she entered through the hole in the building caused by her expulsion, that she noticed the room was empty. The already burnt floorboards crackled and hissed beneath her hooves as she stepped into the center of the room, searching for some clue as to the location of her opponents.

She could see, even from across the room, the grayness which had almost consumed the entire Everfree Forest and which was fast approaching the refuge of the Castle of Friendship. And even as she stared at it, a translucent dome of multicolored energy appeared overtop the castle, just in time to stop a swarm of bugbears from crashing through the dining room windows. That was good. The citizens of Ponyville would be protected for the next half an hour or so, in spite of Starlight's betrayal. But nothing would be able to stop the grayness.

It was bad enough that Discord had gone rogue, yet again. But the unicorn they'd captured represented a much more present threat. If Celestia didn't find her and force her to end this corruption, all her little ponies were doomed not just to extermination, but to never have existed at all.

As she analyzed the magical residue of the spells which had been cast in the area, she turned to her sister to be sure she had been, at least physically, unharmed. After she was more than content with her investigation, she nudged Luna's neck with her muzzle, in hopes of rousing her from whatever daze this evil pony had put her under.

Her sister mumbled for a moment, a strange thing, considering Celestia had never known her to talk in her sleep. Then Luna opened her eyes, revealing unnaturally dilated pupils which quickly shrunk to their normal size. Then she closed her eyes and covered her face with her hooves. Celestia stared at her in horror and confusion as her battle-hardened sister shook inhaled sharply and then began to weep like a foal woken from a bad dream.

"Luna, what is it? What's wrong!? What did she do?!!" Celestia demanded. She had mastered healing magic millennia ago, but even the most accomplished alicorn required specifics to cure an ailment.

Luna shook her head and wrapped her forelegs around Celestia's midsection, burying her wet muzzle against Celestia's stained coat.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no..." She cried out. "I didn't know...how could I have known?"

"STOP IT!" Celestia commanded, pushing her sister off her and lifting her chin so that she could look into her eyes. "Tell me what you saw! TELL ME WHAT SHE DID SO I CAN FIX IT!!"

Luna's only response was more indiscernible whimpering and Celestia was forced to eventually push her off and watch as she crumpled to the floor as if unable to support her own weight. Her eyes were wild and her hooves kicked and curled periodically. "It's not my fault! It's not my fault! I didn't now! I didn't! It's not my fault!! IT'S NOT MY FAULT! NOT MY FAULT!!"

Twitches of instinctive magic spewed forth from Luna's form, forming rudimentary and ineffective protections and being dispelled by their own mistress just as quickly as they were created. Celestia closed her eyes but couldn't shut out her sister's piercing neighs. "BE SILENT!" She snarled, hoping that the flare of magic which had emitted from her might pull Luna out of her stupor.

It seemed to work, the sudden increase in light and heat around Celestia drawing the maddened mare's eyes away from their frantic search and toward her sister's battle-ready form.

"Our kingdom is in danger and I must find the creature responsible. Now, please...get a hold of yourself!" Celestia said, her frustration breaking through to sorrow as she realized her last command was a plea.

Luna shuddered and turned away, her voice hollow as a cenotaph. "Don't you see? I'm not me, Tia. And you're not you."

Celestia's eyes widened as she began to comprehend the permanence of her sister's affliction.

Luna continued to moaned, although now it seemed as if she were talking to herself. "We've already failed. We're already dead. All this is just a dream...a dream that we're still alive. We're not even really here, we just think we are...shadows of dreamers living and dying inside dreams...never alive...never dead...never real. Never real. Just...shadows..."

Celestia backed away, watching as the full grown Alicorn continued trembling and mumbling illegible disparagements. Luna traveled through the dreams of ponies across Equestria nightly. She faced the most depraved of nightmares regularly. But whatever soul-searing sight had lurked within the confines of their prisoner's subconscious, it had stolen from Luna all capacity for rational thought. Celestia prayed that the damage was not irreparable but sensed that her magics were useless in the face of such desecration.

Something alight within Celestia then, something which she had not felt since she'd incinerated Chrysalis and her followers.

Her eyes flamed. Her mane crackled to life, her gently flowing rainbow of color blazing into a raging inferno of white, yellow and red. Her hooves burned sooty holes in the floorboards. Her tail flared into a flame spout. Then she let out a roar as her teeth grew scraggily and sharp.

Twilight Sparkle, Evening Star, whoever she was. She had corrupted Celestia's favorite student and destroyed the mind of her little sister. She had to PAY. Her, Discord, that stupid zebra, every creature which had gotten in her way, every pony which had allowed this atrocity to transpire. They would all rue the day they had betrayed her.

But first, first she had a unicorn she needed to find.

"There! I found it!" Discord stabbed his talon into the fabric of the universe, ripping a hole in the Chaos Dimension and revealing a void of gray shadow and abstract machinery beyond. "Now tell me whose not innovative!"

"Thank you, Discord." Twilight couldn't help but smile. With the proper motivation, Discord was capable of nearly anything. She just hoped he would be up for the task.

She frowned, as she noticed a group of shadows in the void beyond, beginning to darken. As they increased in contrast with their surroundings, they also seemed to grow. Then she realized that they were moving, galloping in fact, on long, barbed legs.

"Discord?"

"Yes, Miss Neighsayer?"

"What-what are those?"

Discord turned to look at where she was pointing, and his eyes widened. "Oh...those would be the Hounds of Tindalos."

"They don't look like dogs." Twilight pointed out.

It was the understatement of the century. The creatures had triangular heads, with three pure black eyes on each side of their cephalopodic skulls. One bony fang stuck out from each corner of their cavernous jaws, while millions of rows of acicular teeth gleamed over the void at the back of their throats. Three limbs dangled beneath their spiny thorax, each ending in a webbed-claw that seemed to tear little punctures in reality, with each jerking movement. Tendrils, which might have been mistaken for tails, trailed behind their wrinkly blue forms, each one ending in a mouth or an eyeball, or sometimes a combination of the two. And three violet, razor-sharp tongues whipped out of their angular heads, slavering over the outside of their flabby, flattened cheeks and occasionally re-moistening their ovular, unblinking eyes.

"Oh, they aren't actual dogs." Discord explained as one member of the pack began to oscillate its head like a fruit blender, revealing the Hounds' primary method of consuming their prey. "They're just called that because they guard things like dogs do." He lifted his paw to his chin and stroked his beard. "Or is it because they 'hound' their prey across all time and space?" He shrugged. "It's one of the two."

"What is it they guard?" Twilight asked, as the creatures flailed their tendrils and tongues in rage at the intruders.

"Time, space...the reaches of reality where no creature dares tread. That kind of thing." Discord answered, nonchalantly as the pack of snarling, interdimensional predators drew closer.

"Can they be reasoned with?" Twilight asked, as the pack began to bray and bellow with unearthly hate.

Discord glanced at the creatures one last time. "Hmmm...no. Not by a pony...they're pretty stupid once you get to know them. They think all living things are food." Then he summoned a pouch into his hand and scooped a dozen clock-shaped chew toys out of it, tossing them through the rift. Twilight watched as the creatures hastened their gaits and then, completely ignoring the means of escape from their strange, colorless, angular world, they began chasing the chew toys that Discord had produced, with more than one even beginning to playfully fight its packmate over one.

"Luckily for you, they are old friends of mine." Discord said, too egotistical to pretend that he wasn't proud of himself. "They won't try to devour your essence unless I tell them you're on the menu."

Twilight rolled her eyes and leaped through the rift. Impossible shapes and indescribable colors formed and then deformed before her eyes. Machinery without end ticked in a mockery of cause and effect. And all around her, the chords whose vibration had created existence frayed.

Altogether, the reveal wasn't as traumatic a second time around. She supposed that once you remembered seeing the building blocks of the universe, it was hard to be frightened or overwhelmed by anything. It was a thesis that required deeper analysis, but one she would never get a chance to prove.

She slowed to a trot when she came to the source of Dullness.

A gaping blackness, its tendrils seeping across all existence, the wound which she'd created in the universe. She closed her eyes. She didn't want to think about it. She couldn't think about it. Soon enough, she'd be gone, and she wouldn't have to think about it ever again.

"How rude...not only have you neglected to thank me for saving your life, you also still haven't told me how it is you know all of this." Discord said, floating upside down and hanging his head in front of her face, and thus unintentionally obscuring her view of the void which represented her greatest failure. "Why, a draconques is liable to begin to suspect all sorts of nasty things about you."

"I'm trying to save the ponies you care about. That's all that matters." Twilight said.

He grinned. "Oh, I already know that...otherwise I'd never have taken you this far. Still, I usually like to know who it is I'm changing the fabric of reality with."

She turned away from Discord. "You know how I don't exist, technically?"

Discord snorted. "You're going to have to be more specific dear. Plenty of things don't exist, that doesn't make them not real."

Twilight sighed. "Fine...but there's someone else who...doesn't exist anymore. He's on the other side of this crack in reality. To seal it, we have to drag him through...but to get him through, one of us has to take his place...that will be me." She explained. "You just need to widen the hole long enough for me to find him. Once he's out and I'm gone...it will be like the Dullness never existed."

Discord floated closer. "So, you want to sacrifice yourself to save all of Equestria and you want me to just float by and watch?"

"In another universe we were friends..." Twilight admitted, still without meeting his hircine gaze. "I know that you know what it's like to not be able to make up for all you've done." There was the tiniest hint of guilt on the strange creature's face, although few ponies other than Twilight would have been able to notice it. "Please, Discord...let me fix my mistake."

Discord frowned. "Well, I'm certainly not opposed to you disappearing forever if it means Fluttershy is safe...but I'm afraid you've piqued my curiosity." He summoned a comfy looking sofa and coiled himself up on it. "Alright, spill the beans now. It's not every day that some creature nearly destroys the universe by accident."

She groaned. "Discord, we don't have time for this!"

Discord rolled his eyes. "Spare me the dramatics, madame...there's no time in this place. We could spend a hundred years in here and a second wouldn't have passed in the ugh...'real' world."

Twilight glared at him. "You aren't going to let this go, are you?"

He grinned. "Come now, what kind of FRIEND would I be if I allowed you to jump to your death without the pleasure of at least telling me why you don't deserve to live?"

Twilight sighed. "Fine. At least you won't remember it when I'm gone."

"You have to stop, Twilight." Spike said.

She had never heard him so angry or so desperate.

"Spike, don't you get it?" Twilight said, turning to him. "I can't leave the world like this...all my friends...everything is wrong..."

"TWILIGHT!" Spike hissed. "Every time you cast that spell, Equestria gets worse. And it isn't just this country either, it's the whole world. You HAVE to stop or soon there won't be anything left to come back to."

Twilight stared at the piles of paper at her feet. She had been struggling for the past two dozen trips to calculate what had been causing the timelines to change so drastically. She'd hoped if she could find the missing variable, she could adjust for it.

But she was no closer to discovering why the timeline was so unstable, than she was to finding out how to keep her friends from drifting apart.

She wanted to stop. She wanted to leave things the way they were. But that little part of her brain, the one that was harder to resist the worse things were, said no. It told her that she couldn't leave things the way they were, couldn't let them be a mess, not like this. Even if she stopped, even if she did what Spike said, she would have to come back. She wouldn't be able to resist.

"I'm sorry Spike..." She said, tears in her eyes. "I can't."

And with that, well aware of his intentions to stop her, she cast the spell for what might have been the thirtieth time, prepared to intervene even more subtly than she already had, to save her friends, to save Equestria. She would do whatever it took. She would fix things. She had to. She had no choice.

Then he tackled her, mid-incantation, and the spell was interrupted. The vast release of thaumic energy, designed already to tear a hole in the fabric of continuity, went sideways instead of lengthwise. The universe folded around the two of them and spat them out into some liminal plane between all forms of existence. Twilight and Spike found themselves falling, into a vortex of unimaginable circumference, the hole through which they'd fallen the only way back to the universe they knew.

Meanwhile, all around them, worlds and timelines other than their own splintered, mixed and disintegrated in an endless dance of perspective obliterating proportions. Twilight flapped her wings against the force which was dragging her and Spike toward gapping fracture below them. But even with her Earth Pony strength, she couldn't escape its pull, not while she also supported Spike's weight.

She glanced back at Spike as he held onto her tail, his own vision mesmerized by their kaleidoscopic surroundings. Then she looked past him at the crack in the universe. Somehow, she knew, that if she did not figure out how to fix it, it would devour her universe. She teleported herself closer to the hole, but was only able to elongate her descent, rather than gain any momentum toward the hole from whence they'd come.

"Twilight...I'm scared..." Spike admitted. The surroundings had seemed to have caused some kind of regression in his mind. Unable to cope with what he was seeing or what was about to happen to them both, his brain had reverted to a more primitive state.

"I know Spike..." Twilight said, as she felt the power drawing her towards it. She had created it, only she would be able to seal it up. Her friends would be doomed, unless she figured out how to escape.

"I promise...I-I promise. I'll come back." She told him.

Then she teleported herself toward the hole, this time not neglecting to bring her number one helper with her. She did not hear his screams (sound seemed to work differently in this place), but she didn't need to. Her imagination was exceedingly good at conjuring up the worst-case scenario and her mind's eye was incapable of seeing anything but the look of betrayal in his eyes, as he realized the just before it sealed completely.

As she escaped back into the Castle of the Two Sisters, nausea overcame her, at suddenly being on a three-dimensional plane of being once more. Collapsing onto the stone floor, she lay there as she felt her alicorn powers, draining away from her. Her wings folded, faded and then melted into her back. Her horn dimmed as her magical capacity shrank, and the extra strength and endurance she'd come to take for granted, seeped away, leaving her dizzy, exhausted and defeated the surface on the floor.

New memories crowded her head. Memories of never having awoken Spike from his egg. Memories of having grown up an orphan, without a brother, without a foal-sitter or a mentor or anyone. She struggled, for a moment, to keep the new memories at bay. To remember Spike, to remember her brother and her parents and most importantly, her friends.

But it was like trying to push back the tide. Eventually, her increasingly feeble magic reserves gave way and her brain, forced to choose between two lifetimes or succumb to insanity, chose the simpler of the two.

Eventually, the unicorn, would gather enough strength to leave the castle. She would continue talking to herself, telling herself not to forget, even when she collapsed again from exhaustion in the clearing just outside the castle grounds. But whatever it was she had reminding herself to remember, she had forgotten it by the time she woke up in bed at Ponyville Hospital.

"There...now you know...okay? I let my adoptive brother...be eaten by that thing...because I was scared. All of this...Celestia turning evil...the monsters attacking...all of it is my fault. If Spike had been here, the Changelings would have become friends with us and the Crystal ponies would still be alive...I ruined everything...and this is my one chance to fix it...so will you please stop looking at me like that and do what I ask?!" Twilight begged.

Discord continued staring at her with the closest thing to surprise an entity of his longevity and eccentricity could muster. Then he smiled. "What makes you think that throwing yourself in that stuff, will fix any of this?" He asked, nonchalantly given the stakes of the situation.

"I can't seal it with my magic..." Twilight admitted. "I'm not an alicorn anymore...I'm not powerful enough. And your chaos magic won't be able to fix a problem." He opened his mouth to disagree yet again and she shook her head. "Not one this big...doing so would be antithetical to the nature of your power. But I cast the spell, if I complete it close enough to the rift, maybe the Dullness will take me, and the rest of the world will be saved."

She stopped. "But we have to bring Spike back into reality first...otherwise everything will still turn out wrong."

"Hold on a second, let's think about this...now surely, if you were an alicorn, you were important in your...version of Equestria?" Discord asked.

She shivered. "Fate...circumvented that. I was Celestia's apprentice...in this timeline it was Starlight instead of me...she did all the stuff I needed to...she'll be there when I'm gone. Everything...will be normal again."

Discord frowned. "So, your plan to fix the universe was to make another tear in it..." He gestured to the entrance they'd entered through. "...and then rescue this dragon, and just hope that's enough to save everything?"

"If I had another plan, I would do it...but I can't think of any other way. I knew how to find it, I figured out what it was...but I don't know if I can close it. All I know is that if I don't at least try, everything will be gray and empty...forever."

Discord pondered this for a moment. "Fair enough...that possibility isn't particularly appealing to me either. Very well..." With that, he pulled out a giant carjack. "Let's do this thing!"

As Discord comically winched open the hole in reality, Evening Star closed her eyes and felt the gaze on her again. It was not really, Spike, she knew. Spike didn't exist. But in her subconscious, she'd become so used to him following her around, that she'd tricked herself into feeling like she could hear his footsteps and feel him watching over her.

I'm coming, Spike. She promised, as she cast every protective spell over herself that she could think of. She had no idea what, if anything, lay beyond, but doubted she'd be able to dissuade its hunger as easily as she'd done with the Hounds.

Then she plunged into the open rift, her body disappearing into the morass of energy.

There was nothing. There was less than nothing. Not that she would have been able to tell, given the fact there was no light. It was a bottomless ocean, the kind that should exist only the minds of the worst of thalassophobes. But it was real. Or beyond reality. The space where things that no longer existed went, the palace of paradoxes.

For a moment she feared she would drift forever.

Then her hooves made contact with something. With no friction in this place, no means of detecting texture, she had no way to tell if what she'd found was what she'd been looking for. But neither did she have much of a choice. She latched her hooves around the thing, whatever it was and began to kick against the nothingness, in hopes of retracing her steps. She had no way of knowing how far she had drifted or indeed if she was even moving at all.

But eventually, she began to feel something, some tickling sensation on the back of her neck and along the rim of her ears. Then light splintered into the darkness, slicing across her vision and revealing the blurred form of a familiar draconeques. She lifted her hooves and pushed through the rift the thing that she had grabbed.

It was Spike. He was as she'd remembered him. There was no time, after all, in the place where he'd been imprisoned. Still, his eyes were closed and his body unmoving and without heat or sound, she'd been unable to detect if he was even still alive. A part of her said that it didn't matter, that as long as he was back in the timeline, things would be fixed. But that voice was quickly quieted, as she galloped back through the barrier, feeling that tingling shiver across her entire form as the numbness of the void into which she'd entered left her.

"That's it? When you said a dragon, I imagined something a little more impressive..." Discord admitted.

"He's not breathing!" Twilight said, after pressing her ear to his chest. He had been without light, heat or oxygen, for what might as well have been an eternity. And he hadn't had magic to protect him, like she did. She hadn't been there, to save him.

Her eyes filled with tears, and she hung her head, pressing her horn to his chest. She had failed. Spike was dead and no one but her even remembered him. Her mind had been opened up to the secrets of the universe by her trip into this abstract plane. But she would have given up every last shred of knowledge for just a chance to say goodbye.

There was a roaring then and she looked up in time to see a meteoric collision fling Discord past her and into the rift.

It was Celestia. Or Sunbreaker. Whatever she had become because of Twlight's failure. If Twilight had just been selfless, if she had teleported Spike through the rift, instead of herself...but because of her, Spike was dead. And Celestia was a genocidal maniac.

It occurred to her for the first time that this was...wrong. She had been so busy processing all the trauma and truth which had suddenly rushed into her mind, that she had just assumed Celestia and Luna being evil was another weird, time travel result. But now that she considered the matter, she realized that everything else had been so consistent, that this stuck out glaringly.

"EVENING STAR! You have corrupted my pupil's mind, driven my sister to madness and allied yourself with that...abberation!" This last accusation was accompanied by a hoof pointed in Discord's direction and Twilight glanced back to see that he was still stunned from the attack and currently sinking into the void beyond. She didn't even want to think about what would happen if he was sucked out of reality. He had been around so long and changed so much. Equestria probably wouldn't even exist if he never had.

"For the good of ponies everywhere," Celestia said, her eyes pits of flame. As she reared up to unleash a torrent of flesh-searing flame, her horn glowed red with malignant energy. "I SENTENCE YOU TO IMMEDIATE EXECUTION!"

Her attack was pre-empted by the Hounds of Tindalos, whom, having just witnessed her assault their friend, began making all manner of burbling noises, which Twilight could only assume were indicative of anger. Their claws dug into Celestia's flank, ripping open the soft skin where her cutie mark was and staining her pure white cloak with viscera. She let out a scream and turned on them, blasting more than one away with her searing might. But there were dozens of the creatures, and they moved together in a pack formation, shuddering out of reality to avoid a blast of magic or a kicking hoof and reappearing next to the neck or soft underbelly of their prey.

Twilight was not sure if the things really were friends with Discord. But from the way they acted, she could tell they were territorial and that Celestia had neglected to offer them tribute when she intruded on their hunting grounds.

The vicious assault of her former mentor and friend should have been the most terrible thing she had ever witnessed. But her mind was a cavern now, carved by a molten flow which she had no means to slow or divert. All goodness in her, seemed sapped out by the horror she had inflicted and endured, and she considered then it was a relief that she would, hopefully, not exist much longer. Drifting in an endless and invisible void, didn't sound inhospitable when compared with a lifetime of listening to her own conscience gnaw away at the tattered remains of her sanity.

Still, Celestia had saved her when she was impaled. If anyone could bring back Spike, it was her.

There would be plenty of time to surrender to that living death she so richly deserved, after she saved the oldest and most betrayed of her friends.

She dashed to the edge of the rift, grabbing on Discord's paw with both hooves. He was being pulled back inside by something. Perhaps the prince alicorn from that incongruous story. Perhaps some other misbegotten soul, who, having been consigned to an eternity of incomprehensible seclusion, now grabbed onto Discord in hopes of forcing another entity to join its torturous existence.

She wondered briefly, why the thing, whatever it was, hadn't tried to stop her and Spike from leaving. She wondered if she would turn into the same sensation starved, semi-catatonic specter as what lay below when she dove back into that nothingness.

Then Discord shook out of his daze and glowered at her. "I am beginning to understand why Celestia was so intent on destroying you."

"Discord! Use your magic to teleport away from this rift. As soon as you do, I'm going to try to seal it." Twilight cried, as she strained to keep him from being sucked into the same position Spike had been only minutes earlier.

He nodded slowly and she could tell he wanted to say something. But whatever it was, he thought better of it, and as he used the last of his power (that which hadn't already been sucked into the void) to disappear in a puff of smoke, the absurdly large carjack currently jammed into the rift disappeared with him.

Twilight had only a few seconds to try to seal the breach or dive in, with the hope that removing herself from existence would fix all this. But she could see the thing surfacing through that impenetrable blackness, the thing which had tried to drag Discord in. Whatever it was, it was totally alien to both animal instinct and cultivated education. Whatever mind it had once possessed, had long ago been replaced with the unceasing hunger which uncompromised deprivation breeds. The thing was beyond reasoning, and like everything else in this strange abstract place between places, it could not be allowed to escape into Equus and defile the pastel paradise her friends called home.

With everything in her, she blasted the surface of the rift. It took every ounce of magic within her, to hold the thing at bay. But as the rip sealed over and she felt it's gaze disappear from her, she relaxed at the knowledge she had done the right thing. The Dullness had been stopped and so had whatever it was that she had attracted the attention of by retrieving Spike.

She felt a dull ache in her horn and realized as she raised a hoof to her head, that the force of her incantation must have cracked it. She could smell the metallic scent of blood in her snout too, and wondered if she might pass out.

The soul-shuddering shrieks of the alicorn who had introduced her to the beauty of friendship, roused her from the rush of fatigue and she galloped over to where Discord was sitting on a beach chair, watching the proceedings with a pair of binoculars.

She gave him one look and he sighed and tossed the binoculars away. "Oh, very well!" He admitted, before snapping his fingers.

The Hounds' blood frenzy paused, and they began whining, their jawless mouths salivating for Celestia's consumption. Discord gave them a stern look and slowly, they plodded away from their brutalized victim, returning to the chew toys he'd provided for them, although not without their pupilless eyes giving Discord looks which indicated that he very much owed them for this.

Twilight paid them no heed, galloping over to Celestia, whose eyes were clenched shut. Her hooves coated in a slick blue slug, the equivalent of blood for the Hounds who hadn't been fast enough to avoid a kick to their cartilaginous skulls. Her neck was ringed with acinaciform gouges and one of her back-legs was missing most of its skin. Her left wing was crumbled and her right one hung limply, having been partially torn from its socket.

She snarled, her sharpened teeth glowing menacingly at the approaching unicorn in a promise that she could still do damage and still would show no mercy.

Twilight realized then, what it was. Looking at the total lack of recognition in her eyes. It told Twilight everything she needed to know. Celestia's last apprentice, Sunlight Shimmer, had turned on her, just like her own sister. And Starlight Glimmer's anti-social tendencies had likely made teaching her a less than heart-warming experience.

The truth was that while the rest of the world had been able to circumvent Twilight's lack of existence, Celestia had not. Without a student, without someone to return her love...one thousand years, unable to trust or lean on anyone. Celestia had needed Twilight as much as Twilight had needed Spike. And without her...watching the Crystal Empire return to Sombra's control, it must have been the final straw. The last big blow to her psyche. Like Twilight, Celestia always wanted to do good, she always wanted to help others and make things perfect.

And just like Twilight, when sequestered from support, her worst qualities had festered.

No matter how much she had wanted otherwise, Twilight was needed. She sighed and gave in to the feeling.

Celestia looked ready to blast her apart. But just as she lifted her head to again fire a scintillating ray from her horn, she the change in her foe. Wings were folding up out of Twilight's midsection, feathers sprouting, expanding and shifting against invisible forces. Her horn was growing longer and her hooves becoming sturdier. Her exhaustion faded as glittering pink and purple energy swirled around her form, anointing her once more with the magic of an Alicorn.

"I'm sorry..." Twilight said, as she slowed in approach of the bloody but still fiery alicorn. "I'm so sorry for everything."

Then she bowed her head, her horn glowing faintly with one last spell. It was a simple spell, one of the first ones that unicorn fillies learned. It was a sharing spell. A spell for letting a loved one into a moment of great happiness or sorrow. It was, according to Twilight's teachers, one of the oldest spells in Equestria (and ironically enough, was one of the components for the memory spells which Celestia had used on Twilight's friends).

None of this ran through Twilight's mind as she cast it. All that she was thinking about was all the sweet and bittersweet moments which she had shared with her fellow alicorn princess. And soon, those thoughts had consumed the mind of the power-mad tyrant in front of her as well. Celestia saw the hatching of Spike's egg and his subsequent and thankfully temporary gigantism. She saw herself, agreeing to tutor little Twilight, so as to keep an eye on her. She saw herself, teaching Twilight about Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty, Generosity and the importance of having a sense of humor.

She saw Twilight saving her sister, as she had known she would. She saw Twilight defeating Discord and battling Tirek. She saw reassurances about her phoenix, arguments about her acting ability and a conversation about Starlight Glimmer's future. And she saw Twilight worrying about disappointing her, over and over again. She saw the Crystal Empire saved, Starlight Glimmer redeemed, and the Changelings befriended. She saw everything which had been missing from her empire for her long reign.

Tears splashed to her eyes. She had never had a foal; she had never found a suitable mate. She'd always been...too busy. She had never known she wanted a daughter, until now. She had never realized how empty everything was.

"No...n-no...I...I didn't...I couldn't have, I..." The fire receded, the glow died, doused by the first tears shed in a millennium.

"It's okay...it's not your fault..." Twilight wrapped her forelegs around the princess' neck and pressed her snout against her blood-stained mane. "Shhh...shhh...let it all out..."

Celestia stared at nothing as the weight of her failures came down on her like a boulder and settled in her stomach and her throat like shards of stone. She had failed her sister, her pupil, her parents...worst of all, she had failed her subjects.

"Shhhh. Shhh. It's okay. We're both broken." Twilight reassured; her own eyes closed. "There's only one way to fix things now...but I need your help to do it. Do you have any magic left?"

Celestia shook, her form completely reverted at this point, although its beauty remained tainted by her grievous injury. Then she nodded, desperate for any distraction from the realization of her actions.

Slowly, the two trotted to where Spike hung in the air, still curled up, still not moving.

"I...I know you can't bring back the dead..." Twilight said. "But...if there's anything we can do...to bring him back..."

Celestia stared at Spike for a moment and then let out a shaky sound almost like a laugh. "He...he's not dead. He's hibernating. Dragons do it when they can't get any sunlight for a long time."

Twilight's eyes widened. "Wha-he...he's not dead?"

Celestia shook her head. Then her horn glowed, and sunshine poured forth wrapping around Spike's unmoving form and sinking into his heat absorbent scales.

Slowly, his eyes opened. Twilight let out a little sob and then she hugged him.

There were no words, as they exited the in-between place and returned to the Chaos Dimension. Words only went so far, and were really rather inadequate when used to transcribe the enormity of emotion.

"What am I going to do?"

It was Celestia. Discord was thankful she was turned away from him at the moment. He was sure if she saw him roll his eyes she would start blubbering again. Even though her alicorn magic had already healed her more grievous wounds, she still looked smaller and weaker than ever.

Had he still been entertaining evil, now would be a perfect time to strike back at her. He doubted she would even fight back.

"You're going to have to be more specific dear." He said, as he filed his talons. "Now that the timeline has been restored, it would appear that you and Luna can return to being retired. In fact, I expect that everyone back home will be absolutely losing their minds over the fact that the princess and her forebearers are missing. Along with me of course."

She turned to look at him, a little shocked that he even he could be so callous in this moment. "I-I killed...so many..."

He sighed. "Yes, yes, you killed them and now they never died and if things had turned out differently, they never would have been born at all...see, none of it really matters. Everything can change all at once for absolutely no reason...so it's just better not to get attached to things."

She just stared at him, her haunted look only deepening.

He sighed and leaned toward her. "Listen, you and me and Twilight and Spike...we're the only ones who will remember what happened. Do you know what that means? Do you know what kind of a gift that is? We're the only ones who remember...so we're the only ones it matters to. Now, you can either let yourself be defined by something that never happened...or you can accept that you've been given a chance to be something better." He leaned closer. "Take it from someone who already spent thousands of years being evil when he could have been happy...don't waste your immortality, princess."

With that, he was already lifting off the nothingness in which he flew and slithering off in the direction of the portal back to reality. As if their lives hadn't just been turned on their heads. As if they all hadn't almost been obliterated. As if this were just...another day.

Celestia watched him go and her thoughts returned to her sister. Discord was probably right. She was probably worried about her. She didn't remember The Dullness. She didn't remember the thing that Celestia had become. Her sanity was probably intact now. And if Celestia told her how evil she had been in this "other" world which she remembered so vividly, would it make anything better? Telling the sister, she'd banished to the moon that she had done much worse things than Nightmare Moon ever had? Telling her that Luna had helped do those terrible things, because Celestia had told her it was the right thing to do.

She shook her head and let it fall. It was selfish. All the self-loathing and self-pity which was consuming her. It was selfish. If she let it control her, she might as well go back to the between place and let the hounds tear her apart.

But she didn't think she could go on, pretending to be happy and above all...good, not with what the truth of how terrible her righteousness was. It was an impossible choice, the choice between isolating herself, and thus hurting her loved ones more than she already had. And choosing to go on living, knowing that there was no good inside of herself, no act in the universe that would rescue her from her own judgement. Knowing that she would eventually crack and either let it all come spilling out or terminate her own maddeningly prolonged lifespan.

It was an impossible choice, but the latter option was unquestionably and irrefutably lunacy. To go on living, knowing there was nothing to live for? They locked ponies up for less.

Just as she was about to admit defeat to those deepest and most poisonous of emotions, she turned to one last time look at her former student.

Twilight was talking to Spike. It was a quiet talk, not the tear-filled reunion which usually accompanies escaping a life-threatening situation, but the barely audible discussion of two people who didn't know if they could be part of each other's life anymore. Twilight seemed happy, that Spike was alive. She seemed accepting of his feelings, about what she had done. Celestia wasn't sure what it was exactly she was apologizing dor. Twilight hadn't yet explained it, but she remembered some of Twilight's friends had begun drifting apart from each other and that it had upset her greatly.

And Twilight had that same look of guilt on her face, that Celestia had seen in the countenance of hundreds of subjects over her long reign. It was the same look which Celestia was sure she herself was now wearing. It was the question "Why? Why am I still alive?"

That was when she realized what she needed to do. That was when she knew what she'd done wrong to begin with. She had always pushed Twilight, wanting her to grow into her own, to overcome her problems. But she hadn't been there for her, when it all started falling apart.

She wouldn't make that mistake again. They both needed someone to talk to, someone who would understand how profoundly damaged the other was. Someone who they could speak the truth to, and someone who would never abandon them how many years went by.

She waited until the three of them were back in Equus and Spike had said his farewells to Twilight, to speak.

"This is my fault." She admitted.

Twilight turned to her with a look that was slightly too tired for surprise.

"I...I knew you...I knew you had a problem, Twilight." Celestia admitted. "I knew you needed...order. And I thought...I thought that you would...be able to just...get over it. I gave you the throne...because I was selfish...because I was tired of my duty." She closed her eyes. "I didn't treat you like you needed help, I ignored what was obvious, because it was inconvenient. I put you in an impossible situation and-and I expected you to deal with it without me...I-I'm so...so...sorry. F-for everything."

Twilight sighed and stepped closer. "I hated not having any friends, Princess. But I didn't mind being anonymous so much...I didn't mind...not having to care about everyone's problems. I almost...I almost wish I could have stayed Evening Spark. She was miserable...but...but she never hurt this much..."

Twilight's legs trembled, then she had to kneel from the wracking sobs which were forcing their way through her body.

"I thought...I thought that my friends would be with me for longer...n-not forever...but...j-just a little bit longer..." She choked. "I don't know if I can live in this world anymore, Princess...I know that you need me. I know that every creature...needs me...but...I don't know that I can do it...I'm not...I'm not as strong as you were...I could never...do what you needed to do."

Celestia watched the display helplessly, incapable of stopping her own waterworks at the sight of one she cared so much for in such inconsolable turmoil. Then she trotted over and lay down next to her, laying her head over Twilight's neck and nuzzling her gently with her snout.

"It's alright, Twilight...let it all out. You aren't alone anymore. I'll be here...for as long as you need me. I'm so...so sorry."

Twilight didn't answer. She didn't stop weeping for a long time either. But once she had, they remained in that position, two immortal, nearly omnipotent beings sitting on a hillside and feeling only the warmth of each other's bodies and the coolness of the occasional breeze.

Eventually, Celestia lifted the sun, and the day began properly. Eventually, Twilight flew with Celestia and helped her lie to her sister about where they'd been. Eventually, Twilight reached out to Trixie and Zecora, writing down in a new notebook a few new lessons about friendship, the primary one being that no friendship can last forever, but that the lucky thing about friends, is that you can always make new ones. Eventually, the endless assault of anxiety-triggering responsibility returned to their lives, the flow of mundanity impossible more powerful even than those who can transcend time and space. But for just a few hours, the two ponies sat in darkness and allowed each other to simply...be.

The Last Light of the Evening Star

by TheInfamousFly

Chapter 1 - Amaurosis

Chapter 2 - Eidolon

Chapter 3 - Kinesthesia

Chapter 4 - Metanoia

Chapter 5 - Peritraumatic

Chapter 6 - Consonance

Chapter 7 - Noctambulism

Chapter 8 - Inculpatory

Chapter 9 - Mydriasis