S p l i t s

*Previously:

The train stops in front of the Canterlot train station. All of the ponies scurry out of the train car and huddle up for a plan. Twilight steps forward and says, "We need to speak with Celestia first. That is our main priority, then maybe after we can see a Wonderbolt show or go shopping if you all would like." The ponies agree and trot towards Celestia's castle.

*Continuing:

It was still a warm and sunny day in Equestria and the ponies trot up to Celestia's castle. The guards recognize Twilight and her friends and the drawbridge lowers as Twilight Sparkle gives the signal to do so. The ponies walk in to the castle's entrance. The castle was always magical to them, no matter how many times they saw it. The ponies had so many questions, but yet felt the day's reassurance that these questions would be answered and that everything would be alright. They enter the pearly white castle that bore gold and purple stripes alongside the towers. The castle itself is so majestic and massive that one could get vertigo from staring at it for so long. They finally enter from admiring the castle wall's beauty.

Twilight then had a sudden burst of energy of excitement. She was going to see her teacher, her mentor, her inspiration; Princess Celestia, her idol. Twilight hadn't seen the Princess in over a few months now. Twilight rarely writes to the princess anymore, instead, she uses her time for studying spells and other forms of magic. She had been so study-crazy that she hadn't slept for a couple days, but the lack of sleep didn't stop her from having so much enthusiastic energy. She took in a deep satisfying breath of Canterlot's fresh air and said to the group, "I'm ready. I'm ready for what ever answers Celestia tell me." She gives a bright smile of relief and thought to herself, "No matter what happens, no matter what is said or done, nothing will ever change the fact that Pinkie Pie is my friend and that Princess Celestia is my teacher, and she knows what she's doing."

Twilight was more cheery than Pinkie Pie actually. The others noticed the change in Twilight's mood and figured they should not be frightened anymore. There had been so much tension on the trip here, that they were almost relieved to act like themselves again and not worry about any arguments breaking out. Twilight galloped gleefully to Princess Celestia's courtyard, the others followed quickly behind, also having high spirits.

Twilight leads the group up the reflective white stairs and into Princess Celestia's foyer. They reverently walk in lowering their heads in respect. Princess Celestia looks up from her paper work and sets it aside. The Princess walks up to them and bows in return. Celestia raises her head to talk, "And what brings you here Twilight and everypony?"

Pinkie Pie chimes in, "Twilight wants to ask you some questions, your highness."

Princess Celestia looks at Twilight, "What is it Twilight? Is everything alright?"

Twilight smiles, "Yes Princess, everything is alright, but I just want you to tell me more about the Multiverse and we found this,"

Princess Celestia was shocked when she heard Twilight say Multiverse. The Princess stared intensely at Twilight, unnerving Twilight's concentration.

It was completely silent for few moments, until Fluttershy shyly stepped forward and showed Celestia her bunny, Angelina. The Princess didn't quite understand her action, so Fluttershy spoke up, "You see Princess, Angel is my bunny and well, um, he went missing and we have this idea that Angel fell into a portal, of some sort, and was replaced with a female version of his former self."

Princess Celestia lowered her eyes on the bunny, "I see. There is much I must tell you then. Follow me into the study, I have books that could help explain this to all of you." She turned slowly and sadly, she was full of grief. The Princess walked through these tall white shimmery doors, the ponies followed close behind her into a long hall. The cold, crisp air filled their lungs. No sunlight shone through the hall. It was completely dark except for some candles that were lit by each covered window. The window glass was cold, almost freezing to the touch. Everypony had chills running up their spine and goosebumps covering their bodies from head to hoof. Even the fearless Rainbow Dash was quite uncertain about this unknown, dark, and dreary hall.

Nopony has ever been through this hall except for Princess Celestia, Pinkie Pie, and-

"AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" a scream was heard from the group. Everypony nearly jumped out of their skins with their eyes widened. They nearly all had a heart attack. Fluttershy was nearly about to faint and is now hyperventilating.

Celestia turns around sharply, her voice tense and red hot, "What is going on? This is not the place to play games! Who screamed?"

Rarity whimpers, "I'm sorry Princess...A spider landed on my nose, it's so dusty and there's a nasty draft in here, could somepony open a window?"

Celestia upset and annoyed with Rarity's whining, "I'm sorry, but I'll have you wait outside, this is very important and I don't need this nonsense."

Rarity pleading, "Oh Princess, I'm the one who should be sorry, I must act lady-like, but failed."

Celestia raises her horn as it glows an ominous golden glow around it, "Very well," she teleports Rarity into a locked room in the castle. "Then you will not fail me again."

The other ponies looked at each other, and were scared senseless, but they knew that this was serious. Celestia turned around and began, "Now let's continue. You see each of these 6 doors holds up to 8 different multiverses. Within those Multiverses are smaller universes. We have been able to contain and maintain control of only 8 Universes and their billions of universes. It has taken many years, many many years, to even contain 1 Multiverse."

Twilight interjects, "Um, excuse me but, who's "we"?"

Celestia looks at Twilight and sighs, "This is very classified information Twilight, but I think it's time you knew," She looks at the remaining group, " all of you." She takes another deep sigh, "Starswirl and I have been collecting Multiverses. He first came up with the idea long ago, more than a thousand years ago."

Twilight asks politely, "What about Princess Luna? Did she ever knew you worked with Starswirl?"

"No, she did not and has not. During that time, when we were just starting out with this idea, she was corrupted by evil. It was and has been kept a secret from her. Starswirl was very gifted, I owe him everything. Without him we wouldn't know this much about the universe, or even other universes."

"What happened to Starswirl?" Twilight asks.

Celestia lowers her head and sadness swamps her face, "Ever since he discovered that Split, he's been missing. He hasn't returned after studying it. You see, a Split is when a new universe is being made within a Multiverse, sort of like what the "others" call a Worm Hole. Think of a Universe as a suitcase, within that suitcase there is a stack of parcels, each parcel is one Multiverse, each Multiverse is different in it's own way, like how if each parcel has something different written on each one. Well, first a worm hole is slowly manifested into existence, it's purpose at this point is to serve as a "tunnel" although very rarely does anypony ever return from a Split. The longer a Split exists, it becomes more of a vacuum than a tunnel and eventually flips itself inside-out and flattens itself from the pressure. Then it starts to rotate either clockwise or anti-clockwise, sort of like a galaxy, but much larger. Thus, creates a multiverse over time."

Twilight, "I see, but Princess I was also wondering why, well...about Pinkie Pie."

"What about her?"

Twilight choking, "She claims to be a, Guardian?"

"Ah yes, the Guardian of the Multiverse. All the multiverses in our universe at least. I'm sure there are other guardians protecting their own like us."

"Yes ok, but why her?", she says persistently.

Celestia asks, "Are you upset Twilight?"

"No I just," Twilight takes a deep breath and releases, "I want to know why you chose her over me, your student and star pupil."

Celestia sighs, "Twilight, you're not ready. Starswirl, even though was very intelligent and know more about astronomy than I, failed at what he loved doing."

"I don't see how Starswirl affects me though, you see-"

Celestia offended, "Starswirl affects everyone Twilight! Without him, all this wouldn't be possible!" she calmed herself and cleared her throat. "Starswirl became obsessed and soon engulfed himself in his studies. Nopony ever saw him, only on rare occasions he come out of the library. He made no effort to make friends or do anything else. He became a recluse, a hermit. It tore us apart." A tear fell from her eye as she began to choke on her words, the painful last memories she had of him were not pleasant. "One day as he inspected the heavens he saw the first Split ever recorded in Pony History. He wanted to go see it for himself, to closely study it, first-hoof." she wiped tears from her eyes, "I told him not to, I warned him. It was something he was not prepared for, he didn't know what he was getting into."

Twilight lowered her head, grieving for Celestia's loss, "And so, you chose Pinkie Pie, because you knew that she wouldn't become compulsive. That she would just stay away from the things that didn't intrigue her, as curious as she gets sometimes. You trust her more, than you trust me."

"That's not it Twilight, trust has nothing to do with it. I fear I might lose you the same way I lost Starswirl, you'd think I ever let myself live that down? Knowing that I put another innocent life at risk?"

"I'm sorry Princess, I didn't see it that way, I just thought that-"

"Well you have thought wrong, Twilight, I need you to focus more on your friends and your life than studying all day long. You know enough, more than the average citizen in Ponyville. For now, Pinkie Pie has done a wonderful job protecting us. You need to understand that and move on."

Applejack then steps forward, "Excuse me your highness but Ah'd thought of showin' you somethin' that Ah found on my farm."

Celestia calmly sighs, "Go ahead Applejack."

Applejack reveals to Princess Celestia the blue apple. Celestia inspects and says, "Ah yes, this is a Elppa."

The ponies jumped back a bit, they weren't expecting an immediate answer.

Applejack bewildered, "Uh, pardon?"

Celestia takes the Elppa, "This is an Elppa, it belongs to a Universe that I currently have here. Itanigami. This Elppa, is just as strange as the Universe it is found in. How did you get this by chance?"

"Well uh, ya see yer highness, Ah found it next to one of em portals by my farm."

"Hmm, really? Perhaps it was the Creator's doing."

Twilight asks, "Creator? You mean to this Universe?"

Celestia looks at Twilight as if she were a naive child, "No Twilight. To all the universes."

Twilight asks again, "Do you know who the Creator is?"

"Yes Twilight, I do and she is more powerful than I." Just as Celestia was about to tell everypony Luna's voice could be heard from a distance.

"Sister! Oh sister where are you? It's nearly sunset, and you said you would watch me raise the moon today like you used to!"

Celestia panics and says to Twilight and her friends, "Quickly we haven't had much time, I'll show you all of this later, Luna must not know about this place." Celestia uses a teleport spell on everypony and appear in the castle garden along with Rarity who was previously in an unknown locked room. Rarity seemed upset that she didn't get to see or know about the secrets that were told while she was gone. Rarity glares at them, "Hmph."

"Oh sister there you are! And look, Twilight is here and has brought her friends along. Hello everypony." Luna bows and warmly smiles. "Is there a special reason why you are all here?" she asks.

Twilight speaks up, looking nervous, "Ah yes, well, you see I haven't been writing letters to the Princess lately and well, I'd thought I'd pay her a visit to make things up."

Her friends nod in agreement.

"Oh, splendid. It is good to see you are all doing well."

All of them say at once, "You too."

Celestia nervously coughs, "So Luna, why don't you bless us with your beautiful moon this evening?"

"Sure thing, sister. I hope you all will enjoy tonight's performance." Luna laughs and takes to the sky.

All of them watch as the sun sets and Luna raising the full moon.

Celestia turns to Pinkie Pie and whispers in her ear threateningly, "I need to talk to you about something important. I want you to meet me in the Transporter Hall tonight at midnight, we have some things to discuss."

To be continued...