Magic Song

Chapter Twenty: Between Worlds

Twilight's mouth dropped open. She couldn't believe her eyes. Twilight, you're dreaming, she thought. You've been dreaming this whole time, and Spike is about to wake you up for breakfast before you read those sixty pages for Princess Celestia.

But she didn't wake up, and she didn't stop seeing what was in front of her.

It was Laney.

Her mouth wasn't moving, and she didn't have an instrument. It was more like the music was leaking out of her pores and melding perfectly with the air all around her, making the very fabric of the forest thrum in time to the melody. What's more, it continued to play as she decked Trina with a blast of energy from her horn, tossing the prissy mare into a tangle of rather prickly-looking vines.

"You?" Trixie snarled, spitting out dirt. "Trixie got rid of you ages ago!"

"Didn't do a good enough job then, I guess," Laney said. Her eyes and jagged sound-wave cutie mark were glowing the same blue as her magical aura.

"Ha!" Trixie powered up her own horn, unleashing a barrage of - were those quills? - at the smaller green mare. "There's no way an otherworlder who hasn't had enough time to learn any truly potent magic can defeat the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

Laney didn't even bother with another comeback. She shot another energy blast, then ducked under Trixie's volley of quill-darts to roll behind the portal.

Trixie was back on her hooves, manipulating a drove of vines and thorny branches in an attempt to trap Laney. In contrast, Laney was a blur of fluid motion, the music trilling and pulsing in time with her every movement. "Trina, you idiot, get over here and help Trixie!" the blue mare panted, her eyes hot with fury.

Twilight almost couldn't look away, but Rainbow Dash distracted her by flapping back up to the top of the cage. "Come on! We need to get out of here and help her!" she yelled, giving the metal a good solid buck with her hind hooves.

"She's right," said Applejack. "Trixie's still in Princess-mode, and Ah'm pretty sure distractin' her with the fight is the perfect time fer us to figure out how to shut down that portal."

Rainbow let loose another kick. "I didn't say it was time to stand around and chat! Get your flanks in gear NOW!"

Twilight’s mind raced, piecing together a plan. She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Corey gently pushed her out of the way and stepped forward. The stallion who’d been lying and sniffling on the ground mere moments ago had a new fire in his eyes. He looked like a leader.

“Rainbow’s right. There’s no way Trixie will let Laney live again if she beats her. We need to break the cage, and we need to shut that portal down.” He turned to Kon, a smile spreading across his still-wet cheeks. “Kon? Count us in.”

“One! Two! Three! Four!”

Twilight ran to the bars and took up her position again, grabbing them with her magic and pulling them apart as hard as she could. Pinkie followed suit, and one by one the other mares joined them as Grojband sang with renewed strength and hope: “I’m feelin' all distraught, held captive in this cage…All I wanted was a party, now I'm filled with rage! I'm stuck in Peaceville Zoo…where I don't belong…"

The music issuing from the battle grew more intense, pounding and flashing as hard as Vinyl's dubstep and matching up with Corey's tune. Twilight forced her magic to its limits, widening the gap between bars even as Applejack pushed and Mina pulled and Spike breathed flame and Rainbow flapped her wings.

"If I could bust right out of here, I'd show them that they were all wrong!"

In the clearing, Trixie let out a furious scream and conjured a jet of fire that hurtled toward Laney. The green mare only just managed to escape from catching her leg in the multicolored flames. As Trixie’s magic became more and more focused on the battle, though, Twilight could feel the magic holding the bars of the cage together weakening. “One more push…should do it!” she gasped, sending magic through her horn with all her might.

"I tell you it ain't right, to lock a good man down…All I wanted was a party, someone bust me out! I'm stuck in Peaceville Zoo…where I don't belong…"

The top and side of the cage burst apart in a flurry of pink sparks that shimmered in midair and settled on the floor of the clearing. "We did it!" Rainbow Dash yelled over the roar of the music and the wind that had started to pick up. "We really, really did it!"

“It’s not over yet,” Corey shouted back. “That portal’s gotta go! Is there any magic weapon or something that could get rid of it?”

Twilight’s brain was in a fog (for once) but Fluttershy piped up, her voice barely audible over the crunching of rocks against trees. “The Elements! Of course!”

“The Elements…” said Rarity, trying to keep her tail from blowing up above her flanks and mostly failing. “They’re still back in the library, in town!”

Corey nodded. “I figured! Pinkie, Dash, you’re the fastest! Mind running back into Ponyville and getting the Elements back while we give Laney a hoof?”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!”

Rainbow swept up into the air and gave Corey a salute before flying after Pinkie Pie. Twilight’s jaw dropped in shock. What happened to ‘we can’t trust them?’ Corey’s ability as band leader is stronger than I thought!

“Okay, so remember the crazy plan from a minute ago?” Corey said, glancing over Twilight’s head into the clearing. “I have an even crazier one. But I think it’s gonna work too. Kin, Kon, and I are gonna keep providing a soundtrack while the rest of you sneak over and take out Trixie’s minions until she’s fighting Lanes alone. Meanwhile, Twilight and Spike will check out the portal and see if there’s anything else we need to know about it in order to close it up. When the Elements get back is when we start our last stand. Sound good?”

“As good as it’s gonna get,” Applejack said, picking up a vine that Trixie had flung in her direction and coiling it into a lasso. “Dibs on Trina.”

Corey turned to Twilight. “You’ve got this, right?”

Twilight nodded, determined. “Yes, sir.”

Kon struck up another beat, and the group split, leaving Twilight and Spike alone. “Spike, did Trixie mention anything about the portal while she had you prisoner?” Twilight asked, turning toward the portal and feeling the strength of the wind immediately push her backward a few tail-lengths.

“Not much,” Spike said. Twilight could feel his claws digging faintly into her leg – not enough to hurt, but enough to keep him from being blown away. “She didn’t seem to know much about it herself, except that it opened into another world and she could use it to get pretty much anywhere she wanted.”

“What about you? What have you noticed?”

The little dragon thought for a moment. “It seems like that’s normal unicorn magic going through it. If you let me breathe on it, I think I could connect it with Celestia, and you could tell her what happened and ask for help!”

For a split second Twilight froze, remembering her meeting with Celestia in this very clearing. Would the Princess really come if she confessed right now? Would there be any hope of Grojband getting home?

But as she looked out at the clearing – at Applejack, who had Trina in a headlock, and Rarity, who appeared to have hit Snips’ pressure points, and Fluttershy, who was politely asking Snails to continue cowering in the bushes – at Corey, Kin, and Kon, who were singing about “going away” – at Trixie, who was flinging bladed wheels at her target, and Laney, the center of a tornado of white-hot music notes - and at the portal, glowing a thousand colors and tearing at the seams – she realized that if they didn’t stop Trixie, there would be no home for Grojband to go back to anyway.

“Let’s go, Spike,” Twilight said. “We do need the princess right now.”

It took the better part of ten minutes to struggle over to the portal, and by then Trixie had gotten wind of the plan and was fighting Laney plus the other mares all at once. At this point the hole was as wide as a door and as tall as a full grown stallion, with tiny cracks around its edges like it could break apart reality at any moment. It was beautiful and terrifying, and Twilight suddenly felt very small.

“Are you sure you can do this, Spike?” she called over the howling wind. “Since Trixie made your mail come to me, I’m not sure if you can even contact Celestia!”

Spike nodded. “She enchanted the cage, not me! Now that I’m outside, Celestia will get the message for sure!”

“All right.” Twilight planted her hooves and aimed her horn at the portal. Without prompting, Spike took a deep breath and sent a stream of flame into the portal’s heart, turning the magic surrounding it from pink to green.

Nothing happened.

“Seriously? That’s it? No message to Celestia?” Spike scoffed, folding his arms. “We’re doomed!”

“That’s…disappointing.” Twilight leaned forward, studying the swirling lights and colors but seeing nothing of value. “I really hoped there, for a second…”

BAM.

Twilight’s vision went dark. Her head ached like she’d just looked right at a thousand suns, and the sounds of rushing air and distant singing shut off like they’d never been there in the first place. Tiny images, fragments of details of bigger pictures, slipped through Twilight’s brain like water through a sieve, a seemingly endless rush of information coming in through the tiny tip of her horn. It was like she had a library streaming behind her eyes, but she couldn’t actually see it, and she couldn’t hold on to any of the images for more than a second.

If she could have felt her body, she’d have noticed that her head was still leaning in closer and closer, until her muzzle brushed the surface of the portal and she was thrown headlong into nothingness.

Actually, it wasn’t really nothingness. It was a bluish void filled with tiny stars and galaxies, all of them thrumming with a quiet, otherworldly music. Twilight looked around. The only thing there was a path of light that wound around in spirals and went on forever in either direction.

Twilight took a cautious step backward. “Hello? Is anypony here?”

Her voice echoed, but nopony answered.

Her head had stopped hurting, too.

Twilight peered over the edge of the starry path. It looked both as if she would immediately hit solid ground and keep falling forever if she slipped. With careful hooves, she walked forward, trying to make sense of what had happened. She couldn't see any way out, and she couldn't see anywhere to go but forward or back.

It had been hours, or maybe only seconds, before the stars had coalesced into a shape Twilight knew well: that of Princess Celestia.

"Princess?" Twilight whispered, lifting a foreleg in wonder and a little bit of fear. She expected the alicorn to be angry or at least annoyed with her, but the Princess looked calm and serene and not at all inclined to lock Twilight in any Canterlot dungeon.

"My most faithful student," Celestia said kindly. She folded down her wings and stood motionless on the path, her hair flowing as ever in a nonexistent breeze. "Of all the ponies in Equestria, Luna, Cadence, and yourself are the only ones I ever expected to join me in Ouranos."

“Ouranos? That’s Minoan for ‘sky’, isn’t it?” Twilight said automatically.

“That is correct, my little pony. It is nothing and everything at once. It is the dome that holds the entire multiverse, and acts as a bridge for those who wish to travel it. Many have used it to seek power or glory.” Celestia closed her eyes and turned her head upward. If it could be called upward; Twilight wasn’t really sure which direction was which. “Right now, we are in a moment separate from Equis. Time has stopped there. We are here, and we can discuss what you and your friends must do.”

Twilight took a step forward. "Does that mean…you know I'm innocent? And that Grojband is harmless?"

"Indeed I do." The alicorn smiled sadly at Twilight. "But that knowledge came at a great cost. Trixie has trapped myself and Princess Luna in the sun and the moon."

"What?" Twilight gasped. "How is that possible? She only just now started taking over worlds, and she started with Earth, not Equestria!"

"That doesn't mean that she did not prepare," Celestia sighed. "With her heightened power, your disappearance, and the element of surprise on her side, Trixie was able to imprison us in the only places where we might be out of her way."

A horrible wave of guilt washed over Twilight. She and the other Elements hadn't been in Equestria to protect the Princesses, and they'd been incapacitated before the true war could even start. "So you found out that she was at fault when she imprisoned you."

"Yes. That mare does have quite the talent for monologuing. But now, we must defeat her, and return every world she has already conquered to harmony before her imbalance brings down Ouranos and every world it holds along with it."

Twilight stepped closer to her teacher, her ears flattened on her head. "Princess, I have so many more questions. How do we stop Trixie? How did she get so much power in the first place? Was Starswirl the Bearded really wrong? What exactly can Laney do – I mean, not just any pony can survive a fall down a giant cliff!"

"Hush, my student. All will be revealed," the princess said softly. "Unfortunately, we don't have much time, so I must be brief with my explanations.

"You know already that Grojband is from another world." An image of Grojband's planet, Earth, appeared next to Celestia, suspended in the air a little ways off of the path. Twilight stared. It was blue and green, hanging in a starry black space, with swirls of white surrounding it like tiny clouds.

The princess continued, "For them, music is like magic. When it is used well and wisely, millions listen. When it is mistreated, everyone suffers. All have the ability to make it, and Grojband has a special affinity for it. A bubble of it appeared in Equestria, most likely because some of our magic exists through song as well."

"So Starswirl was right after all," Twilight said in awe. "You can still travel from world to world by connecting them with magic from each side. It’s just that magic is different in every world.”

"Indeed," Celestia nodded. "When Trixie allowed the song-magic into Equestria, she created a portal that brought the creatures at the music's source into our world, as well as an imbalance that gave her incredible powers."

"Grojband was the source! And that explains Corey and Laney's sensitivity to magical activity!" said Twilight. She felt giddy, like she always did when she suddenly understood a new theory or tested a new spell.

"Their connection to song-magic is one of the strongest in their world," Celestia confirmed.

"Then how did Laney survive falling off the cliffs by the Golden Gate?" Twilight asked. "It always seemed like Corey was the stronger unicorn until she appeared in the clearing just now."

"She is the heart of Grojband," Celestia said, and a picture of a small red-maned human appeared. Twilight could almost see the creature's resemblance to Laney. "She inspired Corey to create it, and though she lets him take the lead, the band would fall apart without her. She truly is one of the most powerful magicians on Earth. It just took the fall to awaken that talent."

"But how did she survive?"

Celestia banished the pictures with a flash of golden light. "That, I do not know," she said. "You will have to ask her when you return to Equestria."

With a deep breath, Twilight let her mind process everything she'd just learned. It was a lot to take in, but luckily, the unicorn had had a lot of practice with last-minute studying. "Next question. How do we defeat Trixie?"

"Trixie's magic is currently a mixture of Equestria's and this particular version of Earth's," Princess Celestia said, walking down the path the way she had come and beckoning for Twilight to follow with a wingtip. "If left unchecked, her power will continue to grow and widen the imbalance between worlds. To defeat her, you must also combine Equestrian magic and song-magic. By canceling out Trixie's magic, it will restore order to the multiverse."

Twilight nodded. "I'm sure Grojband will have a song we can use."

"No," Celestia said. She stopped and knelt, looking Twilight straight in the eye. "This song must come from the heart."

The unicorn opened her mouth to ask another question, but the starry pattern swirled in Celestia's eyes like she'd already asked too much already and suddenly she was falling, falling through eternity – flashing past castles and evergreens and sunsets and so many other things she lost count, and then she was back in the windy clearing with her face millimeters away from the portal.