The Matrix of Friendship

Chapters

1| Trojan Horse
2| Or Else
3| Stars and Stripes
4| Cupcakes and Handbrakes
5| The Archives
6| Through the Ages
7| Like a Dream
8| Remember
9| The Dark Side

1| Trojan Horse

Chapter 1- Trojan Horse

Twilight Sparkle stirred from her slumber. She sat up onto her rump and looked out the window, it was a bright, colourful day, scheduled by the weather pegasi. Spike had been getting breakfast ready in the new kitchen that came with the castle. Twilight had always admired his dedication to her- he got up early every morning to make her breakfast, fetched books for her, and generally did everything he could to help. But sometimes, he could go overboard. The memory of spike setting up Owloicious with that fake dead mouse flashed in her mind.

Dammit, Spike.

She slowly shook her head before jumping off her warm bed onto the chilled crystal floor, her body tensed up from the sudden cold but quickly adjusted and relaxed. She trotted over to the door- giant and purple with god accents- twisting and pulling the handle with her magic, and continued down a hallway to the kitchen.

“Good morning Spike.”

“Morning, Twilight! I made fried hay and daisies-your favorite!”

Twilight giggled. “You know me too well, Spike.”

Spike placed the plate containing said food onto a side of the table, and Twilight sat down next to it. He then grabbed his plate containing a piece of gem’ed toast and sat at the opposite end of the table. This new table was considerably large, probably big enough to fit 20 people. The distance between the two friends was almost awkward.

“So Twilight, what’re you going to do today?” Spike questioned in a particularly chipper voice.

“I think I’m going to head out today to the Crystal Empire library, there is some research I need to do involving the magic of the crystal heart. Sorry, I’m going to be gone all day.” Twilight made a somewhat fake smile at Spike.

“That’s ok. I was going to go over to Fluttershy’s cottage today, anyway.” Spike nevertheless was a little disappointed.

“What were you planning to do there?”

“Apparently, Fluttershy found a dragon, and she needs help taming it. She said I was perfect for the job, being well… a dragon, and all.”

Twilight wanted to know more, but she was stripped for time. “Ah, ok. Just don’t hurt yourself, Spike.” Twilight was genuinely concerned for him. Even though Spike was a dragon himself, and was quite harmless, other dragons could be very different. Especially the one that was sleeping in that mountain blowing smoke all over Ponyville.

“Don’t worry about me, Twilight. I’ll be fine, and Fluttershy is an expert with animals.”

Twilight had to agree with that. She knew so much about EVERYTHING, and yet, she knew very little about animals, ESPECIALLY dragons.
“Well ok then Spike. I’ve got to go now, I’ll see you later tonight.”

She finished up her breakfast, climbed off her chair and made her way to the front door, magicing her saddlebags onto her back. She opened the door and was just about to step outside before spike called.

“Wait! Twilight, don’t forget your scarf. It’s winter at the Crystal Empire at the moment.”

Twilight levitated her scarf from her room, twisting it onto her neck. She was thankful spike remembered, or she would have been quite cold. Winters at the Empire were colder than others. With a final mental check of her things, Twilight continued out the door. “Bye Spike!” She closed the door behind her and started making her way to the train station.

Spike sat in silence, as he finished up the last bite of his toast. He licked the plate clean with his tongue-almost 3 times as long as he is- and placed it onto the kitchen counter. He would have to clean the dishes later, but now, he had to go out and help Fluttershy.

He took Twilight’s plate and placed it onto the counter too before making his way out the front door of the castle. The weather pegasi sure did a good job today- the sky was a brilliant blue with the rare puffy white cloud. Spike was sure he could spot a light cerulean mare with a rainbow mane shoot across the sky in the corner of his eye.

He made his way down the main street of Ponyville. He passed Sugarcube corner, and started down the gravel path towards Fluttershy’s cottage. Her cottage was actually a fair distance from the small town, almost a 10 minute walk. The peaceful meadow that contained the cottage came into view, and the track turned from gravel to stone. In front of the cottage there were some beavers building a dam in the stream, and there was a squirrel in a tree, the flying one, Spike assumed. Spike spotted an all-too familiar rabbit, one that always held a glare, and never seemed to like anyone.

Spike made it to the door, and nocked twice. He heard quiet hoofsteps on the other side before they stopped, shortly after the door slowly creaked open, revealing one eye of the shy yellow Pegasus. It took one look at Spike before the door flung open revealing a quite happy Fluttershy.

“Oh Spike! You’re here!”

Without further delay Fluttershy leapt forward and hugged Spike.

“Whoa Fluttershy, stop it, I can’t breathe!” Spike said, jokingly.

Fluttershy let go of spike and beckoned spike into the house.

“The dragon that I found is out back. He’s quite aggressive, I didn’t want him to harm any of my other pets.”

Spike began to worry. This dragon sounded like it could very well be quite dangerous. “How big is it?”

“About the same size as you.”

And with that, all of Spike’s worries disappeared. That thing was probably harmless, plus, Spike was immune to fire and lava. The two walked down a hallway before coming to a door. Fluttershy opened it and they both walked through into her back yard. It was much the same as the front of her house, but it had a portion of it fenced off. They walked up to it and Spike peered over the top.

He froze.

“F…Fluttersh…shy… where’d you find that?”

“Oh, I found it on the Everfree forest. The poor thing, it must have been abandoned by it’s mother.”

“That…that’s a-a… Dialga dragon… a shape shifter…”

Spike had a rather limited knowledge of the extremely secluded species, but he knew this one. This dragon was known to wipe out entire kingdoms, mercilessly, by acting as a Trojan horse.

“Fluttershy….RUN!”

Author's Note

Well there we go! I know it was quite short, but it's supposed to be a bit of a test for me to get my writing style in check. How about the pacing? Am I going too fast?
Any criticism is welcome, but creative criticism is preferred.

I have noticed the difficulty of working with previously established characters and settings- you must abide by what they already are. If you notice any inconsistencies with the settings or characters please let me know.

2| Or Else

The two about-turned and ran for their lives. Spike was right. This was a shape-shifter.

The small dragon extended its wings, and shot up into the air, going at a speed rivaling Rainbow Dash’s, and creating a sonic boom. All of a sudden it exploded into a full size dragon, almost 300 feet long. The shock-wave from the rapid expansion blew Fluttershy and Spike off their feet and face first into the grass. The dragon blew rivers of flame out of its mouth as it somersaulted in mid-air before crashing down onto Fluttershy’s cottage, flattening it instantly, birds, and various land creatures scurrying for their lives.

The dragon wasted no time in perusing Spike and Fluttershy. He bolted towards them leaving a trail of destruction behind him. The pair had barely enough time to get back up before the dragon was upon them, staring down at them with dark, blood red eyes, filled with rage. The dragon arched its neck back in preparation of the raging torrent of fire that was to come.

The dragon brought its head down to look at the two petrified creatures, before opening its mouth in an ear-piercing roar of flame.

The flames crashed down onto Spike and Fluttershy, blowing them into the air, and singeing Fluttershy. The pair flew through the air, for spike, it was in Slow motion. Everything was happening too fast. Every little detail he picked up on. The dragon and its fire breath, Fluttershy screaming and slowly becoming a shade of black, all the animals running from the now flattened cottage.

In that moment, a brilliant yellow ball of light appeared above the dragon. A beam of white light shot out of it towards the dragon, on contact, sending cracks down its form from which a brilliant white light beamed. The dragon exploded in a brilliant show of light and debris, leaving the yellow ball hovering in the air.

The ball of light descended towards the ground. As it contacted the charred ground, it revealed the Princess of the sun, Princess Celestia. She slowly walked up to Spike and Fluttershy, who were now lying at the bottom of a small crater. Spike looked over at Fluttershy. Her mane and fur were singed, and much of her skin had been burnt. She wasn’t moving.

“Fluttershy?”

She didn’t say anything. Spike scrambled over to Fluttershy and looked into her eyes.

“Spike, don’t leave me. I’m scared.”

Spike began to tear up. He picked up Fluttershy and held her in his arms. Fluttershy’s body was tense, and then she relaxed.

“Fluttershy?”

No response.

“Fluttershy?!”

Still no response. See was gone. Tears were flowing down Spike’s face, he couldn’t contain them. One of his best friends and the element of kindness had just been killed.

No…Please.

Princess Celestia arrived on the scene. Her face was emotionless, a poker face mastered over thousands of years. Spike knew, however, that under that face was emotion. Sadness. Mourning. Regret.

The sun god spoke up. “Fluttershy in her time with us, graced us with unparalleled kindness. Kindness that no pony in history or future could hope to match. Fluttershy was a good mare, it’s tragic that she had to leave us so soon.”

Spike was lost. What were they to do now?

“What are we going to do?”

The princess coughed, Spike was sure she was trying to hold back tears. “There is someone I think we should inform of these events.”
Almost as if it was on cue, a tall draconequus being, one with the head of a donkey, appeared.

“Fluttershy! I here for my Tuesday tea party!”

He opened his eyes and took a look at the flattened house and trashed garden.

“Oh! I do like what you’ve done with the place. It screams… ‘chaos’.”

Discord walked up to where the door on the house would normally be, and opened it. A piece of torn wood rotated in the background. He walked forward and sat in mid-air, where Fluttershy’s couch should be.

“Fluttershy? Hello?”

“Hello, Discord.” That was not Fluttershy, it was Princess Celestia.

“Oh good morning, Celestia. I wasn’t expecting you to be here. I like what Fluttershy’s done to the place, don’t you think?”

“Discord…”

I mean, you have to have some chaos every now and again, otherwise it just gets boring…”

“Discord!”

“I wonder where Flutters is. I hope she hasn’t forgotten about our little tea party.”

“DISCORD!”

“WHAT!!?! Why are you even here, anyway!?”

Celestia lowered her head. “Discord, there’s something you need to see.”

“Argh, can’t it wait?”

“Discord, please.”

“Fiinnneee.”

Celestia turned and led Discord to where Fluttershy lay. Instantly, Discord’s agitated expression turned to one of pure horror.

“Flutters?”

Spike and Celestia just looked to discord with mournful eyes.

“No. No! Flutters!”

With a snap of his fingers discord was at Fluttershy’s side. He bent down, picking up the much smaller pony. He just stared at her, for what felt like hours, then finally, his expression turned very serious. He looked up at Celestia.

“You have to bring her back.” His voice was lower than it usually was, and quite dark.

“You know I can’t do that Discord. It would be unfair to every other pony in Equestria. If ponies never died, we would never be able to have new ones born.”

Discord seemed to ignore everything she said. “But this is different! This is Fluttershy!”

“I’m sorry, Discord, I’m not going to do it.”

“She’s the element of kindness! She is kind to everypony! Even me, even after I betrayed her! Can’t we show her some kindness!?!”

“No, I’ve made my decision.”

Sadness gave way to anger, rage. Discord couldn’t conceive a life without Fluttershy. “Celestia, bring her back… now.”

Celestia picked up on Discord’s changing expression, and adjusted hers as such.

“No.”

“I’m not asking.”

“And I’m not giving you a choice.”

“I don’t want one.”

Celestia knew what was about to go down. “Spike, get out of here!”

The little dragon picked himself up before turning tail and running behind a willow tree. Celestia turned her attention back to Discord, who had snapped into existence a coffin around Fluttershy.

“You don’t have to do this Discord. I don’t want to turn you back to stone.”

“You don’t have to, dearest Celestia. Just bring her back… or else.”

Celestia just stood there, motionless. Not an expression on her face.

Discord waited a moment, then finally spoke up. “Else it is, then.”

With that, hundreds of Discord copies popped into existence around Celestia. Celestia responded by spreading her immense wings, and rocketing into the air. She then dived, creating a sonic rainboom, before smashing into the ground, eliciting a massive shockwave cracking the ground, and destroying all Discords but one.

“Oops, looks like you found me! Here’s your prize!”

Discord handed Celestia a present. It was red, with gold ribbons and a gold bow on top- a classic design. Hesitantly, she opened it. Immediately, Discord sprung from it, stealing her wings, attaching them to himself. He flew into the air, now with 4 wings, all mismatched and out of place.

“Do try to put up a fight, Celestia.”

Celestia swirled her head around, casting a spell. A deep hum increased in volume, before giving way to a yellow beam of light shooting towards Discord. Discord snapped his fingers and immediately the beam of light was going the other way, straight into Celestia. The impact knocked her into the air, and without wings, she hit the ground hard on her side.

Celestia didn’t move. Discord was still cautious, though.

“Oh? What’s this?”

She still lay silent. Maybe he had actually won. “You’re not very good at playing god, Celestia. No, there is only room for ONE god here, and that’s me. The god of chaos.”

Celestia finally moved. “I’m the most powerful being in existence. Did you really think I’d go down this easy? I haven’t been playing god, no. All this time, I’ve been playing pony.”

Celestia rose up from the ground, hovering a few feet in the air, she rose up onto her hind legs.

I wished this day would never come.

The sun pulsed, becoming much more powerful for a moment. Celestia looked up. A tiny spec of white light was slowly getting closer. As it got closer, it was apparent that it was not a spec, but a massive beam. The light hit Celestia, and it transformed into a giant, pulsing, blinding yellow globe in her forehooves. Almost like the sun.

Her hooves tilted horizontal, towards Discord. The glove left her hands and instantly found its way towards Discord. With a fraction of a nanosecond to react, Discord snapped his fingers, teleporting Celestia to him.

Of COURSE it’s not the other way around. Argh.

In practically no time at all, the ball impacted. The visible spectrum of light was flying out in all directions, like a sonic rainboom, but upwards too. The sheer amount of energy released in the impact caused the air to expand instantly, creating a shockwave and enlarging the already existing crater. Discord’s spell did little to help him as he was blown into oblivion. Celestia quickly faded out of his view.

Discord awoke. He stretched, letting out a supressed groan as he did so.

He opened one eye. The other soon followed suit. This was not his normal house, in his 4th dimension home. Here, there was nothing.

Nothing. Darkness everywhere, save for discord himself.

“Where the buck am I? Not funny, Celestia!”

He tried his magic but all that was returned was a quiet splutter. Discord did not like the idea of spending any amount of time without being able to bring at least a little chaos.

“Am I dead?”

No. I can’t be. I’m a god, after all.

In the darkness, a moon appeared. The moon flashed a pale white, revealing a dark blue Alicorn with a flowing mane. She spread her wings, revealing herself to discord.

The princess of the night.

Author's Note

Here we go! Not quite as long as I hoped, but longer than the previous chapter. I know Celestia may not be entirely accurate to her in-show character but I felt like I needed to have her be a little more aggressive this time around. Still, she did try to avoid the fight. :trollestia:

I really love Luna as a character (best princess) and so I hope to do some epic shit next chapter, I can't wait. (Probably going to muck it up though) :moustache:

This music goes really well with this fight scene. The climax at 1:07 is especially good.

Hope you enjoyed- Sp33dy

3| Stars and Stripes

Author's Note

This chapter has a lot of feels, so I thought this might be a good song to play while listening.

Author's notes at the top today, mainly for the music.
Boy, 3 days, 3 chapters. I think I'm going too fast. I want to have longer chapters, and I think I did quite a good job on this one. And now, the story is over 5,000 words! yay!
Apologies for the Dragon Ball Z reference, I just couldn't help it. Many, many more references are to come, however. :yay:
I really hope I didn't butcher Discord's character. I mean, we've seen him be a heartless derp, but then, in more recent times, he goes to extreme lengths because of Fluttershy. I hope that people don't get too angry over the Discord/Luna ship :trollestia: :fluttershysad:

This chapter is a really great anchor to expand my universe. We now know that humans exist, and that Equestria shares the same moon as Earth.

Live long and prosper,
-Sp33dy

3| Stars and Stripes

The Matrix of Friendship

Chapter 3- Stars and Stripes

“Oh Discord, you’re not dead.”

The Princess of the night lowered herself to the…ground, or rather, non-existent floor, giving her feathered wings a slight ruffle before folding them onto her back. Her flowing blue and purple mane, complete with thousands of tiny stars, looked like the night sky.

Discord was less than pleased to see her. He just wanted some time to himself.

That’s what I want. Isn’t it?

He just lost a friend. He needed some time to himself. To mourn.

“What are you doing here?”

“I am the princess of the night, as such, it is my duty to go into ponies’ dreams.”

“I’m dreaming?”

“Yes, Discord.”

Luna paused, and beckoned Discord to come with her.

“Come, we shall take a walk.”

Discord was confused, and for him, that was a rare occurrence. If something was confusing, it was chaotic. And chaos wasn’t confusing, it was fun.

“Bu-but there’s nowhere to walk!”

“That is because you haven’t imagined anything yet.”

“What…….?”

Luna thought for a moment. She looked up and down Discord, he felt as if she was staring into his soul, those cyan eyes piercing his mind. “Discord, have you ever had a dream before?”

Discord was ready to say ‘Of course I have!’ but, he realized, he actually hadn’t. He’d never thought he was missing out on anything, though. Why dream where he could do whatever he wanted in real life, anyway?

“…..No, I suppose not.” Discord was surprised at how his voice sounded melancholy.

Ugh, I hate that emotion.

“Dreams are wonderful. They bring a new perspective to life, and they allow us unlimited imagination. The dream world is every bit as important as the real world.”

Discord was distracted by something else. Luna decided it was time to step it up.

“Discord, imagine something. Anything.”

Discord closed his eyes. His faced contorted into a look of intense concentration… nothing. He opened his eyes before looking to Luna and rolling his eyes.

“One does not simply defy the laws of physics, dearest princess.”

Luna internally chuckled at the irony of the comment. She smiled at Discord. “Here, let me get you started.”

The infinite darkness suddenly washed away, replaced with a clear starry sky. The ground was replaced by a fine grey powder, with no trees or bushes to be seen. In the sky, where the moon would normally be, was the world of Equestria.

“This place look familiar?”

It did. He had never been there, even in his extended lifetime, but he had seen it from afar-the peaceful grey globe that seemed like the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. It felt infinity far away- there, but never reachable.

“Yes, yes it does.”

The two stood in silence, taking it all in. After a while, Luna let out a sigh.

“I haven’t been here in a long time. Ever since Nightmare Moon’s defeat-MY defeat, coming to this world gauges deep wounds of sorrow in my heart.”

Luna looked towards Discord and their eyes met. “But I brought you here because this is the most beautiful place I have ever been. I thought this would give you some inspiration for your own imagination.

“It lacks chaos...” Discord thought about what he said for a moment.

It was as if Luna had read his mind, asking him the question so he didn’t have to. “Why do you like chaos, Discord?”

What is so great about chaos?

Discord formulated an answer. “It’s interesting… exciting. It’s never the same, and you don’t know quite what to expect. There is so much to chaos, than just what’s on the surface.”

Luna smirked. “You’re going to love this place, then.”

“I doubt that. Look around you.” He waved his hands out in front of him and turned around 360 degrees, to emphasize his point. “Where’s the chaos?”

Luna smiled at Discord. “Come, we shall take a walk.” She stood on 3 hooves and beckoned him to come with her.

Luna started walking. The moon’s surface was a soft powder, yet as she walked, he hooves didn’t sink down too far into the dust. Her silver royal shoes were still spotless as she walked.

Discord joined her on their walk.

“Look into the sky, Discord. What do you see?”

“…stars?” Discord wasn’t sure that was the answer she was looking for.

“Stars, you’re right. But what I see, are worlds. Each one, like our own, but different in some way. Do you know how many stars there are?”

Discord made a rough guess. “Over 9000?”

“Look into a patch of the sky, one where there are no stars in it. In that patch, are more stars. And if you look into a clear patch there, there are even more stars in that. It goes on forever.”

Luna stopped walking, and Discord followed suit. “Right now, in that single patch you’re looking at now, there are trillions of stars…worlds.”

Discord was speechless. It was beautiful. In each world, was something new, something exciting, something… unexpected. And boy, were there a lot of worlds.

Discord finally spoke “Snifff… It’s beautiful.”

The princess of the night let out a sigh, not of sadness, but of contempt. “It is, isn’t it?”

As if to prove her point, the night sky suddenly lit up. Flying across it, were 13 flying stars, each with a beautiful shimmering blue tail. They all collided at one point, exploding in a wondrous cloud of colour, like a galactic fireworks show.

The pair watched in awe as it slowly dissipated. Finally, after the last of the colour disappeared from the sky, Luna spoke up. “There’s one last thing I want to show you.”

Luna’s horn glowed a dark cyan as moon dust started to fly into the air around them. The dust spun into the air forming a small tornado, obscuring all visibility, before it was released from its magical control, and slowly drifted to the ground.

The two were standing on the edge of a small cliff. The ground in front of them dropped about 30 feet before flattening out into a massive basin.

“That’s the sea of tranquility.”

Discord looked confused. “But… there’s no water.”

“But… there once was. The sea of tranquillity is a lunar mare.”

“Mare?”

“It’s Latin for ‘seas’.”

“Wha-“

“It’s an ancient language. Nopony knows where it came from. But this is not what I wanted to show you. Come, follow me.”

Luna crouched down a little before springing into the air. Without the help of her wings, she flew through the air, and down into the sea basin. She hit the bottom with a soft ‘poof’.

“The moon’s gravity is much weaker than that of Equestria’s.” That somewhat fixed the look of confusion on Discord’s face. “What are you waiting for? It's fun."

Discord jumped. He flew into the air just as Luna did, and slowly arced down into the basin. He hit the ground and sunk into the moon dust a little.

“We have some ground to cover. Watch this.” Luna grinned. She hadn’t done this in a long, long time.

She leaped into the air like before, but on contact with the ground, she bounced back up. Discord watched, and it eerily reminded him of Pinky Pie.

THAT pony is a mystery.

Discord realised how fast Luna was going, she was getting away fast. He leaped into the air as Luna did, and very quickly, he was going very fast. The feeling of weightlessness was amazing.

In almost no time at all, he arrived next to Luna. She was focused on something. Discord followed her gaze to a certain object- one that was very out of place.

“What on earth is that?” Discord had never seen ANYTHING like it.

“In my time here, nothing ever happened, the sea of tranquility lived up to its name. Then, one day, an object descended from the sky, carried on a staff of flame. I hid from it, not knowing what it was. It landed, and for a long time, nothing happened. Then, a white being emerged from it. The being descended the ladder, before walking a few feet and planting a flag in the ground. Eventually, another white being emerged from the object, and they walked around, holding weird contraptions and picking up various rocks. They then retreated back into the object, and after a day or so, it separated, and half of it flew up into the sky. They left this all behind.”

Luna looked at Discord. “There are other beings out there like us, Discord. And one day, I want to meet them.”

Discord walked up to the object. It was gold, and stood on 4 thin legs. On one side, words read “UNITED STATES”, accompanied with a flag of red and white stripes, with blue and white stars.

"I wonder what that means..."

The two looked into each other’s eyes, and wonder consumed them. In that moment, time slowed down. When they looked away, they were no longer on the moon, but rather, they were in a green meadow. The birds were chirping, and the stream was flowing. The all-too familiar wooden cottage was there, where it always was.

Discord was, in an instant, reminded of how this whole mess started in the first place.

Luna wore a poker face. “Looks like my inspiration worked.”

Discord was just staring at the ground.

“Discord, is something troubling you?”

He appeared to be distracted by something else.

“Discord?”

“What? Oh sorry, did you say something?”

“There’s something troubling you. Am I right?”

Discord was considering what to say. “Well…ummm-” Discord trailed off, but eventually, he spoke. “Let me show you.”

Discord led Luna into the cottage. He opened the door, and let himself inside. He walked through the house, going into every room in the house. He walked upstairs, going through all the rooms before coming back down again, and sitting down on a couch. He gestured his hands as if to say “well there you go”.

“I don’t understand, what’s wrong?”

“Notice who’s not here.”

“Fluttershy?”

“Exactly.”

“What happened to her? Why is she not here?”

“She’s dead.”

A long silence overtook the two of them. It was as if time had slowed down-no- stopped.
Eventually, after an eternity Discord spoke up. “What happens to ponies when they die?”

Luna waited a few seconds before replying, carefully choosing her words. “Nobody truly knows. But I do know one thing. When a pony dies, they leave a part of who they are within their friends. Friendship knows no limits, not even mortality. While Fluttershy was with us, she gave us all kindness. She helped to show us what it’s like to have a good friend.”

Luna looked at the floor, and then to Discord.

“She left a part of herself within you, Discord. Before you met Fluttershy, you thought friendship was a pathetic pursuit. Now, it’s the thing you value the most.”

Discord began to shed tears. Unlike previously, like the time he was sick, these were not fake. These were all, too, real.

Luna walked over to Discord. “Stand up.”

Discord was now positively sobbing. “Sniffff- why??”

“Just do it.”

Discord stood up, still wondering why Luna had asked him so. She walked up to discord, reared up onto her hind legs, and wrapped her forehooves around Discord’s back, in a hug.

“You need this.”

“….Sniff…..“

I don’t want to lose my only true friend!

Resting her head on Discord’s shoulder, Luna spoke up, as if she had read his mind. “Sometimes, Discord, you have to face your fears. You feared not having your friend anymore, so you tried to prevent it. You need to face up to the fact that Fluttershy is dead.”

She paused before continuing. “And now, you have room for a new friend. A friend that can help you become a better person, just like Fluttershy did.”

She finally let go of Discord, stepping back a little and falling back onto her front hooves. “I’m sorry, but I have to go and check on my sister now. Your little fight was quite destructive.”

“How… how do you know?”

“Those are answers for another time. Just know that I have my ways.”

“Wha-you’re not mad at me?”

“No. I understand what hate and bitterness can do to people. You regret fighting Celestia, and you’ve learnt a valuable lesson.”

Discord smiled, for the first time in what felt like eons. “Thank you, Princess.”

The princess returned the smile. “Please, call me Luna.”

And with that, she was off. She walked through the door before spreading her wings, and flying towards the moon. She disappeared out of sight quickly.

Discord was left in the empty cottage, alone.

What Luna said was true. The death of his best friend was the worst thing that he had ever experienced. But Luna gave him a feeling, the same feeling that Fluttershy gave him.

She was right. He did have a new friend, one that helped him become a better person.

For that feeling, was love.

4| Cupcakes and Handbrakes

The Matrix of Friendship

Chapter 4- Cupcakes and Handbrakes

Twilight Sparkle trotted down Mane street to the Ponyville train station, still feeling slightly guilty for leaving spike at home for the day.

Well, he was going over to Fluttershy’s today.

The thought comforted her, and she quickly became distracted by the thought of spending a whole day studying in Equestria’s fanciest library.

This day is going to be perfeccttttt!

With that small bout of fangirling out of the way, her attention turned to the slowly approaching train station. She would be catching the 10:20 train to the Crystal Empire, giving her 5 minutes to spare- almost perfectly on time.

As was most of Twilight’s life. She planned everything, a month in advance, right down to a time for planning the next month.

Ponyville’s train station was nothing too fancy. Just a single track and platform, paired with a single straw-roofed wooden building. The stations at the Crystal Empire and Canterlot were far larger and fancier, as were the cities they were in.

The 10:15 train to Las Pegasus arrived at the small wooden platform. As were most of the other trains, it was a small steam train. Its funnel- at the front of the boiler- was silver, with a gloss black crown, and its bell, right behind the funnel, was golden. The train had a cow-catcher decorated with small butter-coloured love hearts, and had 3 lights. Two small ones were mounted on the side of the boiler, and third was a large one mounted in front of the boiler, decorated with the outline of a red love heart. The driver’s compartment had large windows on each side, the front one being in the shape of another love heart. Those seemed to be the theme.

The whole train was finished in a hot pink, and had yellow accents.

The train slowly came to the stop with the slight sound of screeching brakes. As soon as the vehicle stopped, clouds of steam jetted out from its pistons, accompanied with a ‘hissssss’.

A few dozen ponies exited the multi-coloured carriages, and it occurred to Twilight that she had never been to Las Pegasus. In fact, she had hardly heard anything about it, aside from when she studied geography before unicorn school. Ponies never spent much time learning it. Rainbow Dash had been there, but when Twilight asked, she simply replied “What happens in Pegasus, stays in Pegasus.”, not caring to elaborate.

I mean, it’s not like there’s some sort of law there or anything.

Ponies began to enter the train. Twilight recognised a few of them.

Lyra, Bon Bon...…Minuette…...and Pinky?!

Twilight said that last name aloud, and the pink pony turned around to see who said it. The two friends made eye-contact, before a pony walked in between their line of sight.

Next thing twilight knew, Pinky Pie was right next to her.

“HEY! TWILIGHT! HOWS IT GOING!? I DIDN’T EXPECT YOU TO BE HERE!”

If twilight had hands, her head would be resting in the palms of both of them. “I could say the same about you. Are you going to Las Pegasus?”

Pinky had managed to calm down. “No, I was looking for you!”

“Why?” Twilight was perplexed, but then again, what was the expecting from Pinky?

“I thought you might need a little help!”

“With what?” At this point, Twilight was just playing along.

“Studying, silly! What else are you going to be doing today?”

Twilight was taken aback by the sudden seriousness of Pinky. “I…um…how do you know what I’m doing today?”

“Pinky sense!”

Twilight decided not to question it any further. She submitted defeat, and let out a massive sigh.

“All aboard!” The conductor shouted, shortly before stepping onto the train himself.

With another ‘hisssss’, the train slowly started moving, some passengers waving at ponies on the platform. Pinky waved back at all of them.

In a few seconds, the Crystal Empire train would be arriving. “Uhmmm, Pinky, do you have a train ticket?”

Pinky flatly replied “No.”.

“But you need one to go on the train.”

“I don’t need any tickets, I get train rides for free!” Pinky could see the lost expression on Twilight’s face. “Long story…”

A powerful, unrivalled darkness filled the conceivable world- an awkward silence. As quick as it attacked, it fled, as the Crystal Empire train glided into the station.

This was a train, like no other. It was, in its entirety, made out of crystals.

It was long, sleek, and a glossy light blue. Just as the standard train, it had a cow-catcher on its front, only this time, its crystal structure was jagged, and sharp. Its slope merged seamlessly with the front of the train, where the windshield was. On the roof of the train, was the funnel. Just like everything else, it was blue crystal. It widened as it got to the tip, where thick purple smoke billowed out. At the back of the train, on the roof, two purple flags flailed in the wind.

The carriages were crystal too, in the same style, but in various colours. As the train came to a stop, everypony halted the various tasks they were undertaking and stared at the sleek machine, glistening in the sun.

Pinky Pie drew in an impossible amount of air in a gasp. “Oh. My. God. Look at that cloud!”

Twilight traced Pinky’s hoof to the cloud in question. “It looks like some cupcakes.”

“Exactly. I hope Rainbow Dash doesn’t see it.”

“Why not?”

“She……………………..doesn’t like cupcakes…………..” Pinky Pie began profusely sweating, almost comically.

“Oh, I never knew that.”

“Yeah…….she uh…doesn’t like to mention it.”

The doors the crystal train opened and ponies streamed out. After a few seconds, the flow stopped, and ponies began walking into the train.

“Looks like it’s out time to get on.” Twilight said, rather matter of factly. The two friends made their way onto the train, entering into a first class carriage. First class on the Crystal train was a luxurious as a castle’s throne room-the carpet was red velvet, and the train was divided into large private cubicles. They chose one, and walked inside. The cubical was decked out with 2 beds, a minibar, dimmable lights, tintable windows, and a plethora of modern luxury.

They walked over and sat down on their beds, opposite each other. From sitting on the beds you could still get an excellent view out of the window. A voice, quiet, almost too quiet to hear, sounded off. “All aboard!” The room’s soundproofing did quite a good job muffling it.

Slowly, the train began to move, gradually picking up speed with each passing second. The two sat in silence, relaxing into their room which would be theirs for the next few hours.

The ticket checker nocked on their door before letting himself in. He bowed as soon as he saw Twilight. “Tickets, please, princess.”

Twilight’s horn began to glow and she levitated her ticket over to the stallion. He punched a hole in it before using his own magic to return it to her. He turned to leave, avoiding all eye-contact with Pinky Pie. Twilight didn’t dare to think what Pinky Pie had done to get unlimited free tickets.

The train had now picked up considerable speed, and as it sped through the countryside, the beautiful natural scenery shot by. Rolling plains of grass, then beautiful snow-capped mountains, before finally flattening out into plains.

The train passed by Neighagra Falls, a gargantuan display of water. The river from the crystal mountains dropping down hundreds of feet into a pool, before dropping down again, into a small lake- a double waterfall. Above the small lake was a cool mist, created from the waterfall. Part of the mist blew onto the train, making tiny droplets form on the crystals and giving off a spectacular display of light.

“We should all go to the falls sometime. It looks stunning.” Twilight never failed to be amazed by the natural beauty of Equestria. It had its downsides, like the Everfree Forest, but the rest of it was surprisingly uncorrupted.

“Yes! We could have a party! A double waterfall party! What does it mean?!” Pinky was just as ecstatic as she always was when she was planning a party.

The two happily exchanged banter for the next hour, Pinky constantly obsessing over her party she had planned and Twilight sitting back and simply enjoying the ‘ride’. Their anticipation grew as they began to near their destination. The Crystal Empire came into view, the giant towering spike which was the castle, being the main attraction to the eye. It shot into the sky, shining brightly in the sun, until tapering to a sharp tip, piercing the sky.

The train neared the station, beginning to slow down, the breaks not squeaking, unlike the standard trains. The end of platform came into view through the window, and the train slowed to a halt.

Pinkie and Twilight got up from their beds, legs stiff from not walking in a while, and made their way out of the cubicle. They waited a moment for the surge of ponies to clear before making their way down the corridor and out onto the platform. As predicted, the Empire’s train station was very different from Ponyville’s. It was made of a dark purple crystal and featured a two-story tower.

They both immediately noticed the cold, as a chilling breeze blew through the station. There wasn’t any snow, and the sky was clear with the sun out, but it still felt like it was four below zero. Twilight was glad Spike had remembered her scarf. Pinkie, on the other hand, was not as fortunate.

Twilight was concerned. “You all right, Pinky?”

“Hold on….” She began to scrunch her face, and she held her breath.

“What is it?”

“Just a sec….” She could barely speak. She grunted, before all of a sudden, a pink moustache in the same style as her mane appeared on the tip of her snout. She relaxed from the pressure she was in and looked to Twilight.

“Well, whaddaya think?!”

Twilight wasn’t even surprised, she was used to it. “Does that even keep you warm?”

Pinky Pie almost looked insulted. “Of course it does! Nothing beats a moustache for warmth!”

Twilight rolled her eyes, and they started on their walk from the train station to the city.

A large portion of the ponies there were crystal ponies. Their coats were glossy, and sparkled in the cold sun, they were even slightly translucent. Many of them sported various items of jewelry.

The track to the city was dirt, with the occasional cobble stone. The city’s layout was based off a six-pointed star, with the castle at the center, and the houses radiating out from there. The two ponies came to the entrance to the city. Two small towers of cerise crystals protruded from the ground, seemingly holding 3 crystal diamonds between their peaks. The two on the outside were a bright purple, and the slightly larger one in the center was a dark turquoise. Above and below all 3 diamonds, were small white rods, floating next to them.

They continued onwards, and soon they were in the town. They made for the crystal library. As Twilight walked, she took in the slowly enlarging tower, and the various buildings in the city. Each building was far larger than that of Ponyville, and like almost everything else in the city, was made out of crystals. They had a somewhat chaotic feel to them, with the walls and roof being uneven and jagged, but they were superbly finished. The city was a spectacle even after being to it multiple times.

It was at this point that Twilight noticed the lack of a certain pink pony next to her.

“Pinky!?”

Nothing.

Danmit, Pinky. At least tell me if you’re going to run off.

Twilight resolved to just continue on with her day, after all, this was Pinky Pie. She’d never find her, and she was probably just buying a cake or something. She approached the library to her left, and trotted up the hard crystal steps into it. On each side of the steps, were crystal statues of gryphons, standing tall, with one paw in the air. Twilight entered through the dark blue double-doors, and was greeted by the vast 3-story expanse of the library, one story being below ground. The library’s blue crystal structure was lit by natural light from the massive clear dome on the roof, giving the whole library a clean cyan aura.

“Greetings, princess.” The librarian gave a bow before continuing. “Can I help you with finding anything?”

Twilight didn’t like it when people bowed to her, she just wanted to be treated like everyone else. But she had learned to get used to it, it was just something that ponies liked to do.

“No, thanks. I know my way around.” She could barely contain her excitement at that amount of books here.

27,463 books. Do you know how many books that is Twilight!? That’s 2.7463*10^4 books. All there for you to read! Oh. My. Celestia. I can’t wait!

But it was not the time to fangirl. She had research to do. She calmed herself before trotting up the white stairs to the ‘Crystal Heart’ section on the top floor. The section was down the back of the library, on the left side, at the farthest section of the isle. It was gloomy, and most of the books were dusty. It appeared nobody ever came down there, despite crystal magic being very important. Twilight tracked it down to all the crystal ponies knowing about it already.

She arrived at the aforementioned section, and alphabetically sifted through all the books. She mumbled to herself as she went. “A…B…………H. Ah, H” She looked through the various books, before coming to the one she had been searching for.

Twilight’s horn lit up in a purple aura in unison with the book as it floated towards her. She held it in the air next to her as the made her way to the study area of the library. Upon arrival, she placed the book down on a table, and used her magic to position a chair under her.

Origin of the Parapsychological and Physical Abilities of the Crystal Heart

Twilight opened up the book, and began reading the introduction. The crystal heart is a magical gem, made out of pure diamond in the shape of a love heart. It has an enchantment that gives it the power to defend the crystal empire from enemies and convert ponies to crystal. All crystal ponies rely upon it to stay happy and motivated. The origin of the gem is unknown, however some ponies believe that-

“Twilight!”

She turned to see who called her name.

“Cadence!” Twilight jumped off her seat to greet the Princess of Love.

"Sun shine, sun shine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"

The two partook in their special greeting, before getting to the matter at hand.

“What brings you here, Twilight?”

“I was researching the magical abilities of the Crystal Heart.”

“What do you want to find out about it?”

“I wanted to find the origins of it. It’s an extremely powerful gem, yet it is not controlled by any pony in particular. It’s unlike any other artefact in Equestria. I was looking through this book, and it said that nobody is sure where it came from, but some ponies think it may have been created by…”

Twilight levitated the book in front of her face to finish off what she was reading.

“…Starswirl the Bearded.”

“I see. Well, I think I can help you with that. Come, let’s go to the castle, I think we have some more information in our archives!” Cadence was excited at the prospect of spending a day with one of her best friends…

“Yesyesyesyesyesyes!”

…as was Twilight.

She levitated the book into the air and placed it back in its spot, before the two princesses made their way to the door of the library, stepping down the steps that twilight entered a short time ago.

“How have you been getting along with your friends? I haven’t seen you in a while now.”

She was right. Twilight did need to get around to seeing Cadence more. “We’re doing great! Although, Rainbow Dash had a bit of a breakdown after she found out tank needed to hibernate. She, uh, ended up blowing something up…”

“Oh, was she the one who blew up the rainbow factory?! Ugh, I hear terrible things go on there.”

“No, it’s just where they manufacture the rainbows.”

The two ponies continued down the street, and into the market. Being sold were things ranging from crystal horseshoes to hay. Something occurred to Twilight.

“Don’t they have crystal hay?”

“Hahaha, who’d eat that?”

“Well they have crystal everything else.”

“But would you eat something made out of crystals?”

“...No...but they do have crystal berries, don't they-”

Suddenly, a brown stallion, with a darker mane, interrupted them.

“Uh, hello! I’m in a spot of bother, can either of you tell me where I could find a handbrake?”

The two were taken aback by the forwardness of the stallion. Everypony was always very wary of approaching a princess, and would never address them without a bow first. But Twilight and Cadence didn’t mind, it was just unusual.

“Ummm…..…handbrake, handbrake.”

Twilight tried to think of a place to find one, while the stallion looked to Cadence. She simply shook her head, she didn’t know where to find one either.

Twilight suddenly clopped her hooves together, just like how she would snap her fingers when she was a human. In the background, a blue phone box’s door swung open. The brown stallion turned to look at it before turning back to twilight with a face of pure shock.

“Wh…wha………….……where did you say I could find one?”

“I don’t know of anywhere you can get one here, but in Ponyville there is a cartmaker on Mane Street.”

“I uh, thanks!” He turned tail and trotted away from the two princesses.

“Well he certainly was quite a character, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, very.” Was Twilight’s reply.

“We should get going, or we’ll never have enough time to find those books.”

With a nod, Twilight started walking with Cadence. The two walked past where the pone box was earlier, but it wasn’t there.

“Hey, wasn’t there a phone box here earlier?”

Without warning, Pinky Pie fazed out of Twilight’s mane, causing her to jump. Her wings opened to land her softly on the ground.

The pink pony walked up to Twilight, and placed her muzzle in front of her left ear, and said in a loud whisper,

“Careful…spoilers!”

Author's Note

Small hiatus between chapter 3&4, because I was loosing WAY too much sleep. (Bed at 4:30 school at 6:00)

This chapter is a bit more dragged out more than the others. Is it boring? This is actually more of an in-between chapter, next chapter there'll be some serious stuff happening.

I put a ton of references in this chapter, but they may be a bit too prevalent. The one I'm talking about, clearly, is the Doctor Who reference. The problem is, in writing, it's really hard to make things subtle.

I had a lot of trouble writing Pinky Pie. I am not a big fan of her bubbly personality, but I love her 4th wall breakages and one-liners, so I ended up making her a little mundane in the beginning.

Please give me as much criticism as possible. Please. Nobody's given men any yet. (Other than my non-brony friend)

Finally, I'll leave you with some pictures of the Crystal Empire, because, you know, it's fun to look at.

5| The Archives

The Matrix of Friendship

Chapter 5- The Archives

“What?” was Twilight’s response to Pinky’s ramblings.

“Oh, nevermind.”

“You were probably just imagining it. I mean, I never saw it.” Cadence decided that even Pinky Pie had no idea what she was talking about.

“Yeah, I hope so. Let’s just get over to the castle, shall we?”

The 3 friends continued down the street before arriving at the castle. The castle looked even bigger from right underneath it. Its massive structure cast a humongous shadow to all who stood below it. They walked past the crystal heart, floating and slowly rotating in mid-air in between two crystal spikes. Twilight got a good look at it.

You’re such a mystery, Crystal Heart.

Twilight chuckled at how she was talking to a gem. Albeit in her head.

They climbed a dozen flights of stairs before making it to the throne room of the castle. It was a large hall, made of quartz coloured crystals, and had a pink velvet carpet leading to the large throne made of various shades of purple crystal.

“Where’s Shining Armour?” Twilight was expecting him to be here.

“A while back he was sent to track down Starlight Glimmer. He’s been on her trail for a while now, but not much progress has been made.”

“Well I hope he catches her soon, she was really horrible to those poor ponies.” Twilight was rather disappointed that she wasn’t going to see her brother. She hadn’t seen her in ages and-

“THIS PLACE WOULD BE GREAT FOR A PARTY!” A party cannon appeared next to Pinky Pie, and she pulled a string attached to it. Confetti, streamers, and balloons shot out of it and showered the room, instantly making the throne room party-themed.

“Pinkkkyyyyyyyyyyyy!” Twilight didn’t have time for her antics. Plus, somebody would have to clean it up, later.

Cadence gave a small chuckle. “Yes, it would be great for parties, wouldn’t it, Twilight?” She gave Twilight a mischievous smile.

Twilight responded with a friendly punch to Cadence’s shoulder.

“Pinky, you can have a party in here if you want, unless you want to come up to the archives to read some books…”

Pinky was tempted by Cadence’s offer, but as Rainbow Dash said, ‘Friends stick together’.

“I’d love to, but I think that Twilight-“

“I don’t mind, Pinky. Go have fun, and make some ponies smile.”

Pinky Pie began to cry tears of joy. “Sniff…you have no idea how much this means to me!”

The doors to the throne room opened and a stream of parting ponies flowed in.

And then there were two.

On each side of the room, were clear crystal shafts that extended into the roof. Twilight and Cadence walked into one, and with a short burst of magic from Cadence, the ground they were standing on started rising. An elevator--- a piece of technology only the crystal empire had. The world slowly slewed downwards as they stood still on the slab of crystal. Eventually, they came to a floor, and the slab slowed to a stop. The magical shield on the door dissipated and they stepped out into the Crystal Empire royal archives.

Cadence’s horn lit with a light blue aura as the archive’s turquoise crystal floor began to glow, enlightening the entire library evenly from below. The isles themselves were not that large, but they extended hundreds of feet into the air, into the darkness.

Twilight’s eyes were the size of small planets. “………….there………are no…………..words..……”

“These archives are the largest in Equestria. Even larger than Canterlot’s.”

Twilight stayed true to her words, staying absolutely silent, slowly dragging her eyes over the humongous expanse of books.

Cadence looked to Twilight, and smirked. “It gets better.”

Her horn lit up again, and one of the bookshelf sections began to move downward, with a deep ‘whoooosh’, giving access to the books higher up. Another section moved up, and then another. Slowly more and more sections joined in the movements, each adding to the constant noise of rushing air, before they all instantly came to a stop.

“What did you say you were looking for?” Cadence turned to twilight.

“….uh…..Origin of the C-Crystal Heart…….” Twilight was still mostly at a loss for words.

Cadence’s eyes shone white, obscuring her pupils. The bookshelf sections continued on their previous journey, moving in seemingly random ways. Cadence mumbled to herself as she spoke.

“Origin…Origin…Origin……of the Crystal Heart! Here!” The shelves ground to a halt, the lack of the sound leaving the building feeling empty.

Cadence walked over to one part of a shelf and pulled out the book she had been searching for, her eyes returning to normal.

History of Magical Gems, Volume 7- The Crystal Heart

One of the isle sections lowered itself completely into the ground, revealing a table and four chairs. The two sat down at the table next to each other, and Cadence placed the book down in front of Twilight using her magic. Twilight used her hoof to open the book to the index. She scanned through the list before coming to one marked ‘Creation’, turning to the corresponding page, page 6.

Twilight narrated as she read. “The Crystal Heart is the second most powerful magical gem known, after the combined elements of harmony. Its power is not controlled by a soul user, rather, it is controlled by the citizens of the crystal empire, only when the gem is positioned correctly below the castle.

Its powers are specific, but not limited in ability. Once activated, the Crystal Heart has the ability to repel any foreign objects of it’s choosing from the radius of the city, and nullify any foreign magic and energy. Additionally, it is required for the crystal empire’s citizens to stay happy and motivated, and as such, must be activated once a year in order to sustain them. The Crystal Heart works off the magic of love, as all of its abilities work off of it. Unlike the Elements of Harmony, it cannot be absorbed into a being, it must stay in its crystal structure.
Due to these factors, its origins are under heavy dispute, and nopony truly knows where it came from.” Twilight paused.

“…And that’s where it ends.”

Cadence still held a smile. Her horn once again lit up, and slowly, something began happening. Twilight couldn’t place it, though.

“But it’s where the next chapter begins.”

The section of the isle they were sitting on began to rise up at bake neck speed. There was no wind, yet the sound of rushing air was quite loud. Gradually, the light from the floor got weaker and weaker, until they were in pure darkness.

They stopped moving.

A crimson crystal began to glow, illuminating the large empty room they were now in. This crystal was large, towering from the bottom, to the top of the room, its light amply powerful to lighten the room.

The walls suddenly gave way to wooden bookshelves, full of books. Each, high quality leather bound in silk and accented with pure gold.

Cadence looked to Twilight, trying to be as dramatic as possible. “Welcome, to The Vault.”

She waited for Twilight’s response, but after taking one look at the lavender Alicorn’s face, decided she should probably elaborate.

“Up here, is a secret section of the library. All of these books here are not available to the public. Here, are the Crystal Empire’s most closely guarded secrets.”

“Oh my Celestia….”

Cadence smiled at Twilight’s ridiculous overreaction.

Well, actually, this is pretty amazing. I was rather surprised when I first saw it.

She used her magic to gather a new book from across the room, bringing it to the table. She used her hooves to pick up the book and show its cover to Twilight.

The book’s cover was crystal-a royal purple crystal, yet it was scratched, and worn. The pages, still only visible from their ends, were stained, and crumpled. Clearly, this book had been around for a long, long time. Engraved, above a picture of a blue love heart, were the words:

The Creation of the Crystal Empire

This time, Twilight’s eyes were the size of large planets.

Cadence turned the book back around, and opened it. She scanned through a few of the worn pages, before coming to one, and began reading.

“In the beginning, there was nothing. Where Equestria was to lay, was but a barren wasteland. Only three ponies walked the land. Thy three, were the two sisters, Celestia and Luna, and the father, Star Swirl the Bearded.”

Twilight interrupted. “WOAH WOAH WOAH. Star Swirl the Bearded was the princess’s FATHER?!”

“That is another story for another time, Twilight.”

“And where did they come from in the first place!? And how long ago was all this?! And why-“

Cadence placed a shoe'd hoof to Twlight’s muzzle gently. She released it, and Twilight was silent.

“Breathe, Twilight.” The two took in a large amount of air, before releasing it, all the while with a hoof to their chest.

Cadence continued.

“The Elements of Harmony existed ever since the beginning of time, and Star Swirl the Bearded was the first to wield them. He needed a land for his daughters to live in, and so he created a gem of infinite power, the Crystal Heart, with the Elements. It took one hundred moons to create the heart, and upon creation, the heart exploded in a shower of pink light, destroying Star Swirl’s laboratory. Star Swirl then placed the heart on the ground, and positioned the elements of harmony around it. They activated, sharing their power with the heart. It is said that Star Swirl then claimed the elements, walked back a hundred feet, and then turned to see the Crystal Empire rising out of the ground.”

“ooooooooohhhhhhmmyyyyyycelllestiaaaaaaaaa” Twilight was lost for words.

How come nobody asked anything like this? You’d think questions like these would come often, you know, ‘Where did the Crystal Empire come from?’ and ‘Who actually was Star Swirl the Bearded?’ and all that.

Twilight’s initial shock subsided, and then, something major occurred to her.

“The Elements of Harmony can’t do that.” Twilight was certain that they couldn’t do that.

Sure, they were powerful, but creating whole gems of infinite power and entire empires!?

“Well, they clearly managed. It’s not just this book that says that, too.”

“They can’t do that. I’ve used the Elements before. Celestia has, too. The most they can muster is repelling an enemy in some way.”

`“Maybe you don’t know how to.”

`“Maybe.” This whole ordeal really puzzled Twilight. The thought of such powers was mind-blowing. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted cadence recoiling from the book a little, before turning to her.

“It says here that Star Swirl the Bearded created the Tree of Harmony too…”

Twilight looked to Cadence. Her face perfectly conveyed the words, ‘Horse shit’.

All of a sudden, the room was filled with a loud bang, accompanied with a purple flash. The girl’s eyes quickly readjusted to find none-other than Shining Armour standing there.

“Cadence! Twily!”

“Shiny!” The two said in unison.

“Twilight, you must go. I have an urgent letter from Princess Luna.”

He used his magic to pull the royal letter out of his saddle-bag, levitating over into twilight’s hooves. She began to read, it was rather short. “Dearest Princess Twilight, you presence is immediately required in Ponyville, after a recent turn of events. Regards, Princess Luna… and that’s where it ends.”

The three looked between each other exchanging looks of worry, before twilight spoke. “I learnt a new teleportation spell recently, I can teleport great distances but it requires magic from other unicorns.”

Without another word, Cadence pointed her horn to Twilight, and a magical beam flowed between the two. Shining Armour soon joined in, and then finally, Twilight’s horn began to glow, but not in its usual purple, rather, a bright white light shone from its tip. Her pupils disappeared as her eyes started to glow, and a deep whir began to fill the room. A flash consumed Twilight instantly, teleporting her away, and causing a small vacuum to be quickly filled, in a small shockwave.

In a flash of light, and a displacement of air, Twilight was in her castle.

Author's Note

10,000 words! Yay! :yay:
Here we go, what was originally supposed to be one 2,000 word chapter, has turned into three 3,000 word ones. Well, actually, there's one more to go.

This chapter is shorter, mainly because I wanted to keep it very well polished. I have so many things going on, at the same time, that it can sometimes be a mess.

PLOT TWIST CADENCE IS EEEEVILLLLLL

Hope you all enjoy, and all that.
-Sp33dy

6| Through the Ages

The Matrix of Friendship
Chapter 6- Through the Ages

“I always knew death would wear a familiar face, but, not yours.”

“Spike!?”

Nothing.

“SPIKKEEE!?!?!”

Still, nothing. She ran downstairs and into the throne room. She looked it up and down, examining each of the six seats, and the corners of the crystal room. He wasn’t there. She ran down the large, cavernous hall to his bedroom, lifting up his covers and looking under the bed.

Nothing.

“Spiiiiiiiiiiiiike!?!?!?”

She bolted out the front doors of the castle, forgetting to close them behind her, and onto the streets of Ponyville.

He must still be at Fluttershy’s.

The ponies were going about their day, as usual. Some were at the market, buying and selling various vegetables and assorted knick-knacks, or some were just commuting. Twilight barged through both on her reckless gallop to where Fluttershy’s cottage was.

The sky began to turn a shade of wavy orange as the sun slowly began to set, showering the land in a gradually increasing, but beautiful darkness. All of this, however, went unnoticed and unadmired by Twilight as she galloped at full speed down the track to Fluttershy’s cottage, startling the various wildlife as she ran, causing them to come out of their hiding places and flee. Twilight couldn’t care less…

Something had happened here, and it wasn’t good.

Oh Celestia, oh Celestia, oh Celestia.

She wasn’t quite at the cottage yet, but a large, swirling, menacing dark cloud of smoke was rising into the air above where it usually was. Twilight’s eyes began to water, from a combination of exertion and the air rushing past her face.

The path swayed, following the contour of the land, and making it impossible to see up ahead, the trees to the side of the path blocking the view. Twilight’s legs were aching, her body in pain, she was heaving, barely able to inhale enough air to sustain her speed. She was exhausted, but kept on going, not even noticing the pain.

Then, she saw it.

Where the peaceful, modest cottage previously lay, was a humongous crater, the surface of which, charred black, and smouldering. Shards of rubble lay strewn across the landscape. Splinters of wood, spearing into tree trunks, and parts of dinner plates, strewn across a river bed. The ground around the crater was cracked, radiating out from it. Trees were felled, and leaved charred. The whole area looked like a warzone, as if some pony had just dropped a bomb.

But all that, wasn’t what Twilight was looking at.

No. In the centre of the crater, lay a black pegasus, with hints of a butter yellow coat, and a light pink mane and tail.

“FLUTTERSHYYYYY!!!”

Twilight rediscovered the existence of her wings, instantly unfurling them and taking flight, shooting down into the deep crater at speeds even Rainbow Dash would be impressed by. She impacted the ground right next to Fluttershy, rolling over from the speed of the landing. She instantly picked herself up, and scrambled over to Fluttershy, standing over her.

“Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy’s singed fur had patches of blood on it, some parts of it so badly burnt, flesh was visible. Her mane and tail were nearly all burnt away, with only a few inches left. She wasn’t moving. Hey eyes were open, and relaxed. Twilight pressed a hoof to her chest, failing to feel any pump of the heart of expansion of the lungs. Fluttershy was painfully hot, and began to burn Twilight’s hoof, but she failed to notice.

“Flutters?” Twilight lowered her head and nuzzled her cheek, desperately hoping for her to respond. Just something, ANYTHING.

“FLUTTERSHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!” Twilight began to cry. Tears streamed from her face, falling onto the diseased pegasus’s body, hissing a little on contact with the hot surface. The tears and sobs kept coming.

Twilight suddenly felt something touch her shoulder, but she didn’t turn around. She was staring into the dark, lifeless abyss of Fluttershy’s eyes. They stared back at her, emotionless. Nevertheless, Twilight knew who it was. She would know his unique touch anywhere.

“Spike…” Twilight began to cry again. The tears began to flow once more, dripping down her cheeks, onto her chin, falling to the ground with a tiny ‘splash’. There was silence, for what felt like an eternity, before slowly, Twilight turned to face spike. His eyes were red, just like Twilight’s, from crying.

“Snifffff…..wh-what happened to her?”

Spike’s face began to contort, scrunching up his nose and eyes, beginning to sob. He slowly moved closer and embraced Twilight, wrapping his claws around her stomach. She sat back onto her rump to hug him back with her forehooves, and spike rested his head on her shoulder.

After a long, long time, Spike finally answered. “Th-the…dragon…it…it was a Dilgia dragon…”

Twilight took hold of Spike’s shoulders, and held him in front of her, the two staring at each other. Twilight’s face was a mixture of horror, despair, and regret.

“I-it…tran-transformed into a ma-ma-massive dr-dragon.” Spike was barely able to form words.

“It…it…breathed f-fire…” That was all that Twilight needed, or rather, wanted to hear. She drew spike back into the hug, and the two quietly cried on each other’s shoulders.

The sky began to grow dark. The orange and yellows gave way to purples and blacks-it was twilight. The ground became difficult to see, all of it fading to a shade of black. The meadow was silent. Not an animal stirred, not a breeze blew, and there was not a cloud in the now deep indigo sky.

In the now pitch black meadow, a single, dim, yellow light began to shine. Twilight lit her horn like a torch. She slowly placed Spike onto the ground, and loosely fell forward, back onto her front hooves.

In the dim light of Twilight’s magic, the two placed their dead friend on Twilight’s back, securing it with a spell, and began the long, dark, lonely walk to their home. The two walked in silence, avoiding eye-contact with one another. They walked slowly, heads drooped low, all their enthusiasm for life, drained from them. In the poorly lit darkness, Twilight tripped over a rock, stumbling to the ground, hitting her face. The coarse path’s stones drew blood, that slowly tricked down one side of her face before clotting. With what little strength she had, she picked herself up, and continued her trudge onwards.

This was truly, the most difficult part of their lives. Not Tirek, not Sombra, not Chrysalis, no. They didn’t steal your will to go on, to live.

What’re we going to do, now?

Well, we have a funeral to plan…….

The thought of that was horrible. Twilight never thought of having to send off one of her greatest friends, to be buried. They were all, still, so young.

Suddenly, Spike collapsed. Twilight turned to see what happened, and he wasn’t getting up.

“Spike?” She said in an exhausted, croaky voice. He didn’t respond, so she shuffled over, and nuzzled him onto his back. He was fast asleep, his eyes red, and puffy from sobbing.

“Spike…get up…..please…” The Alicorn was so close to giving up. All she had to do was to simply lie down, next to spike, and die.

Death. Why, Celestia, why?

Twilight’s hooves trembled, and she fell to the ground, with a thud. Her horn went out, all of Twilight’s energy gone.

Why continue? What’s left to do? Why even live life, if all that it brings is death?

She lay on the ground, her face emotionless, but deep inside her head, a battle of feelings was taking place.

No. There’s still things to live for. Friendship is not about giving up, friendship is about braving the difficult, toughing the impassable, and making the most of it. I still have to live, for my other friends, and, for Fluttershy’s legacy.

“For friendship does not end. Not even with death. Friendship carries on…” The words came from some pony else.

“…Through the ages.” Twilight finished.

“And you, you are the Princess of Friendship.”

She looked up to see who talked. Through the darkness, she could so nopony, but she felt a slight breeze on her fur. “He-hello?”

“Greetings, Twilight.” Twilight was sure she heard that voice before, but couldn’t quite place who it was. The overflow of emotion laying waste to her mind, wasn’t helping much either.

“Wh…who are you?” Twilight squinted, looking all around, but she couldn’t see anypony.

“Don’t thy remember me? I pray tell it hasn’t been that long.” The Princess of the Night floated down from her hover, landing in front of Twilight, revealing herself from her night-sky camouflage.

“Lu-Luna?”

“Yes, Twilight.”

“Please…help me.”

Luna bent down, craning her long neck, her flowing mane brushing the ground.

“Hush now dear princess, I’ll take you away, into a land of enchantment.” She placed a hoof on twilight’s shoulder. “Go to sleep now, I’ll take care of everything. It’s what friends do.”

The lavender Alicorn drifted into a deep sleep.

Twilight woke up, she was in her bed. She looked out the window, another beautiful sunny day, scheduled by the weather pegasi. She pushed back the covers, and jumped off her bed, her body tensing up from the cold of the hard wood floor.

She trotted across her room, opening the door, and continuing down the stairs. Spike was cooking… something he never cooked before.

Twilight climbed onto a chair at the table, and spike server her breakfast on a large plate, before returning to the counter to get his own breakfast.

“So, Twilight, what’re you going to do today?”

“You know what? I don’t know spike.”

Spike was surprised, evident by his small recoil. “Wow, that’s unusual for you. I thought you planned everything in advance.”

Twilight chuckled. “Sometimes Spike, it’s nice to have a little uncertainty. It makes things interesting.” The two thought about Twilight’s quote.

“You know what? I think I might go and see Celestia. We can take a nice train journey to Canterlot!”

“Yeah! That’ll be fun!” Spike was excited at the prospect of a train ride. They were rare experiences, a real excitement. “But why do you want to go see Celestia?”

Twilight looked puzzled. “I…I’m not sure. I just know I wanted to ask her something.

“Meh, oh well. You’ll remember it when we get there.”

The two stopped walking down the empty cobble street.

“Remember yet?”

“…No.”

“Oh well. We can go see Celestia anyway.”

“Sure.”

“You know, I’ve never seen Canterlot empty like this before. Something must be on.”

“I heard that some pony called ‘Sidcord’ is doing a magic show today, I’ll bet that’s where they all are.”

The two approached the gates to the castle, and they opened by themselves. They proceeded to walk through the castle gardens, and into the halls. They seemed different than usual, but they both knew their way around perfectly.

Finally, they made it to the throne room. The golden doors opened, and they were greeted by Princess Celestia. Only, her mane wasn’t flowing, and it was all a dull grey colour.

“Greetings, Twilight. What is it you wish to see me for?” It was as if the Princess was expecting them.

“I came to ask a question.”

“Yes?”

Twilight paused. What did she want to ask?

“Twilight?”

“What happens when some pony dies?” The answer just… came to her.

Celestia’s face contorted to an expression of confusion. “Whyever would you want to know that?”

“I…I…oh no…oh CELETIA NO. NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

With a gasp, Twilight jolted upright, wide awake and alert. Her brow was sweating, and her heart felt like it was going to fall out of her at any moment. She took one, single, short look at her surroundings.

“Fluttershy?”

Author's Note

I was going well, until I got to choosing the title. Oh god, that was difficult.

This chapter was intended to be as sad as possible, but NOWHERE NEAR as sad as 'My Little Dashie'. Oh god, I don't normally cry, but that was one heck of a story.

Anyway, ready for some I N C E P T I O N

7| Like a Dream

The Matrix of Friendship
Chapter 7- Like a Dream

“What is life? Is it nothing more than the endless search for a cutie mark? And what is a cutie mark, but a constant reminder that we’re all only, one Bugbear bite away from oblivion. And what of the poor gator, flank, forever blank, destined to an existential swim down the river of life to, an unknowable destiny?”

"Good morning Twilight.” The pony’s feminine voice was soft, and high pitched.

The room was small, and was made of wood. The floor was painted a grass green, and in the centre of the room, was a rug of various shades of brown. Wooden steps led upstairs, and a doorway to the kitchen. The front door was red, with large gold hinges, and an orange door handle.

Various bits of furniture were scattered around the outskirts of the room. On top of a second, oval, pink rug, was a large green and brown sofa accompanied with a matching armchair, divided by a small stool with a picture of Discord.

Little bird houses sat in the corner of the room, and some even hang from the ceiling. Various elevated runs for little animals scattered the room, and on one of the walls, was a large white brick fireplace. On the back wall, was an indented bookcase, full of books on taking care of animals, and everything there was to know about various creatures. That was, apart from one shelf, which was overflowing with books on various stitching methods.

A yellow and pink pegasus happily trotted out of the kitchen humming a song, a pate laden with food in mouth. She picked up the picture of discord with a hoof, lowering the food onto the tiny table, before placing the picture on one of the bookshelves. She then trotted back into the kitchen to get her own food.

It just now occurred to Twilight that she was sitting on Fluttershy’s couch, a blanket over top of her. An ecstatic Fluttershy trotted back into the room, repositioning the armchair next to the couch, and sitting down in it. “Oh, I hope you slept well last night. I really wanted to let you use my bed, but you refused to take the offer.”

Fluttershy gave off a squeak not unlike that of a chew toy as she gave a large smile. “Oh…I made you breakfast… I hope you like haycon and floweggs.”

Twilight just stared at Fluttershy with a deadpanned expression, blinking occasionally.

“Oh no…maybe I put too many saltlicks on the haycon….” Fluttershy’s expression turned from joyous to bashful. As if she was on autopilot, Twilight spoke.

“Nonono…it’s, um… just fine. You did a great…job.” Twilight’s voice was completely monotone.

“Oh…thanks.” Fluttershy awkwardly looked around the room. “I-is there something wrong? If, um, you don’t mind me asking.”

Twilight stared blankly into space. Eventually, she snapped out of it. “Huh!? Oh, no. I’m just fine. Great, actually.” She wasn’t quite sure what was wrong. Something wasn’t normal, but she couldn’t place it. Eventually she decided that it was probably just her OCD acting up.

Can my OCD even be called a disorder? I’d say disability is more apt.

Fluttershy looked relived. “Oh, that’s good. You looked like you had just seen a ghost.” She let out a small giggle at her own silliness. “So, today I thought we could take a nice nature walk, to look at all the cute little wild animals!” She was barely containing her excitement. “But only i-“

“If it’s ok with me?” Twilight chuckled. “Sure! Sounds like fun!” She used her magic to levitate the breakfast to her mouth. “Mmmm, Fluttershy, this is really good.” Twilight exclaimed, with a mouth full of food.

“I-I’m not that good. I couldn’t even make that salad Angel wanted me to make.”

“Don’t sell yourself short Fluttershy, always remember that. Your cooking is amazing, way better than mine.”

“I don’t want to brag…but…thanks Twilight.”

“Hey, no problem. It’s what friends do.” Something about that saying spooked Twilight. It was weird, like an old memory, forgotten for an entire lifetime, trying to worm it’s self into your conscious mind, and piece it’s self together.

Fluttershy had finished her breakfast, but not before Twilight. She stood up, and walked over to take Twilight’s plate, but a lavender hoof stopped her. Twilight’s horn glowed as her plate lifted into the air, while the plate in Fluttershy’s mouth tried to work it’s self free.

“Nonono, let me do it.” Twilight said in a caring voice.

Fluttershy hesitated for a second before letting go of the plate in her mouth. It drifted alongside Twilight’s place into the kitchen and out of sight, before Twilight’s horn stopped glowing.

“Shall we go?” Twilight said in an upper-class accent.

Fluttershy got the joke. “Yes, quite.”

The two chucked at their exchange of banter. “Right after you, dear.”

With a soft giggle, Fluttershy began making her way to the door, Twilight in tow. She twisted the slender door handle with her hoof, pushing the door open, and stepping outside. Twilight walked out, and nudged the door closed with her back hoof.

The two walked down the path and over a small bridge. Down below, in the stream, was a family of beavers building a modest dam. A white bunny rabbit hopped onto the path, obstructing Fluttershy. “Oh Angel, it’s just a short nature walk. We’re not going into the Everfree or anything.”

With a little hesitation, Angel bunny turned and continued on his journeys of…whatever bunnies do.

“It seems our nature walk has started sooner than expected.” Twilight said jokingly. Fluttershy just rolled her eyes at the dryness of it. They continued on, and left the main path to Ponyville, onto another that led into the forest. They walked for some time, simply enjoying the…tranquility of it all.

The lush greenery became a soft yellow, and the two ponies came to a divergence in the road. Twilight looked down each as far as she could, to where they bent in the undergrowth, sorry she could not travel both.

“Which one?” Was all Fluttershy said.

Each path was about the same, but only one was grassy, and wanted wear. In the morning light, one path lay, leaves no step had trodden black. Twilight again looked down each, as far as her eyes could reach.

“The one less travelled by.”

And so the two began their journey.

“I feel like I haven’t seen you in a long, long time.” Twilight was, as always, pondering. Pondering anything from how life began to why forks have 4 prongs.

“Oh Twilight, that’s silly! We see each other so often!” Fluttershy’s voice was quiet even when she was emphasising her speech.

“I know, I know. I just feel like…I don’t know. Something’s weird.” The purple Alicorn looked to the shy pegasus.

“Twilight, you worry too much. Just enjoy the wildlife. Just enjoy nature. Isn’t it peaceful?”

Fluttershy was right. She did worry too much. She was also right about the forest, it was very peaceful. The trees were a gorgeous yellowy-orange, mixed in with some lush green undergrowth. The sound of rushing water could be heard, from a small stream. The sound of bird calls echoed throughout the forest, their high pitch Morse-code only adding to the soothing feeling.

A butterfly flew by the two, and eventually settled down on Fluttershy’s mane. “Why hello there, nice to meet you.” Fluttershy greeted in a quiet whisper. The butterfly flapped its wings in acknowledgement, shortly before taking off, and fluttering its way through the air to a flower on the edge of the path.

They continued on their walk, through the thick forest. The path curved, and began to rise and fall. A clearing appeared to the left of the track, giving a full, unobstructed view of a waterfall. A giant waterfall. It was small, yet high. So high, in fact, that barely ANY water made it to the bottom. Most of it just…turned into spray.

A misty white cloud, pouring off the falling water drifted through the undergrowth, coating the leaves in a particularly heavy dew. The sun gleamed onto the water, periodically reflecting shimmers of sunlight.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Fluttershy was always impressed by the sheer majesty of nature. It was mind-boggling to think that something so…peaceful, beautiful, perfect, amazing…could be created without a creator.

Or at least, that’s what everypony thought. Nobody really knew much about Equestria’s creation.

Fluttershy peacefully walked to the edge of a pool at the bottom of the waterfall, with only the faint crumpling sound of dead leaves under her hooves. She gazed down into the slightly shimmering pool, seeing herself in the reflective liquid.

The forest’s leaves rustled in the slight breeze. The sun’s rays fell onto Twilight and Fluttershy’s backs, warming their fur. Twilight let out a sigh, not one of sadness of frustration, but of contempt. It was at times like these, that the lavender pony loved to contemplate life. The mystery. The meaning. The…fragility.

What is life? Is it nothing more than the endless search for a cutie mark?

Twilight suddenly noticed something move. She looked up. The sky gradually began to shift, the sun drifting across the sky at a visible speed. It began to make its way to the horizon, as it was getting closer, the sky turned a brilliant orange, before fading into a dark purple. The stars began to appear, fading into existence as the sun’s light relented.

Finally, the sun disappeared behind the horizon. The stars were now fully visible, all twinkling a very slightly different shade of white. Luna’s night was a beautiful masterpiece.

For a moment, all that could be seen were the stars. The ground was pitch black. Gradually, as the sun, the moon rose from the opposite horizon. It’s brilliant grey shine projecting a cool aura onto the land, allowing one to see their surroundings.

Eventually, the moon stopped in its journey, and hovered approximately in the centre of the sky. To Twilight’s curiosity, the moon flicked a little brighter for a moment, but only for a moment. It would have been so easy to miss. She stared deeply into the moon’s cratered surface.

What’s it like out there?

Life gave so many questions, and yet, so little time to answer them all.

The moon changed again, but in a way Twilight couldn’t quite place. It was changing but nothing seemed to be happening. Twilight continued to stare intensely into the glowing orb.

Wait. Is it… Is it getting bigger?

It was, and it was getting larger and larger by the second. The moon appeared to be advancing at what was… well… half the speed of light. The massive ball smashed into her, engulfing all her senses in a brilliant white light.

A voice, one that filled the space, and came from no particular location, called. “Twilight, It’s nearly time for you to wake up.”

Twilight’s features contorted to an expression of confusion. “What!?”

The blinding white light instantly disappeared, revealing a navy blue Alicorn, with a sparkly, flowing purple mane. Her wings unfurled from her back, splaying out into the air in a brilliant show, before she opened her eyes.

“What are you do-…I-…This is a dream, isn’t it.” Twilight’s voice came out sad, much to her surprise. She realized that she was very much enjoying this world, never wanting it to come to an end.

“Correct, dearest Twilight.” Luna began to walk forward, slowly. Her horseshoes made a clacking sound that echoed all around the…expanse of light. Twilight wasn’t really sure what it was.

Luna could see the confusion in Twilight’s eyes. “Ponies look up to princesses as if they are gods. And, in truth, we are. We possess power that only ancient evil forces can match. But, we are not omnipotent. Even the strongest of leaders needs guidance, in their darkest hours. Even, Celestia. And right now, dear princess, I think you need guidance.”

Twilight didn’t say a word. She just blinked, once.

“Yes, Twilight, this is all a dream. Nothing is real.” Luna paused, and tilted her head slightly upwards, for dramatic effect. “But tell me, who is that pony right there?”

Twilight suddenly found that they were standing in the sunlight of the forest once again. She looked over to where Fluttershy stared into the pool at her reflection. She was unmoving, and didn’t seem to be aware of Luna’s arrival or Twilight’s talking.

“It’s…Fluttershy?” Twilight was sure that was not the answer Luna was looking for, but she couldn’t think of anyone else that shy pink-maned butter-yellow-coated pegasus could be.

Luna smiled, just a little. “No, Twilight, it isn’t. Fluttershy is a real pony, but that pony right there, that’s what she left behind...”

Twilight didn’t have words. Not one.

“…Her legacy. Like I told you before, friendship does not end, it carries on…”

“…through the ages.” These words, to Twilight, were words that just…came to her.

“I told you that Fluttershy left a part of herself within you. This, right here, is that part. The part of Fluttershy that made her the kind, caring, and gentle pony we all knew.”

There was just one problem, that Twilight had picked up on. “Then what happened to the real Fluttershy?”

Luna cringed very slightly. “You don’t remember?”

Twilight shook her head slowly.

Luna looked up from Twilight, and turned around to direct her glance towards Fluttershy…or rather Fluttershy’s legacy. The reflection of herself in the water slowly faded out of existence, leaving just one pony staring into the dark water. Her face was one of innocence, and unknowing.

The memories started to seep through. Twilight began to remember. Tears began to flow down the young princesses’ cheeks, wetting her soft lavender fur. “D…dragon…”

Luna turned back to Twilight with a grim face, she leaned forward, and brought up a hoof to Twilight’s cheeks, wiping the tears from each. She then replaced her hoof, and craned her neck round behind her, directing Twilight’s attention.

The shy pegasus stood motionless, as the trees around them began to rustle. The rustling transformed into shaking, every second getting more and more violent, before one of the trees flew out of the ground, spraying dirt everywhere. It flipped mid-air, and upon landing, it was a green and brown dragon, towering over the small, vulnerable pony.

The rest of the trees followed suit, each uprooting from the ground, transforming mid-air, and landing with a heavy ‘thud’, shaking the ground.

The trickle of memories gave way to a flood, and in an instant, Twilight remembered everything. “Oh no. NO! FLUTTERSHYYYYY!!!!!!” She was screaming as loud as she possibly could, yet, she wanted to scream louder. Fluttershy still stood, motionless, oblivious to her surroundings.

The dragons encircled Fluttershy, and began to draw fire. Their throats started glowing a dark orange as they summoned their fire breath. Finally, they released, torrents of scorching-hot flame all congregating at one point.

“Is this a d-dream?”

Author's Note

PHEW! I'm sorry to say I lost a bit of motivation/inspiration for this chapter, and I know exactly why. It's useless. You could skip this one without missing a thing. And so, to make up for it, I promise to have something interesting for next chapter. Either way, I hope you get a little enjoyment out of this.

P.S Yes, horses use salt licks. And yes, I had to look that up. I know, my food puns were terrible.

Ha. Ha. Salt LICKS ^^^^^^

Next chapter: Sunspot

8| Remember

The Matrix of Friendship
Chapter 8- Remember

“Everybody knows that everybody dies, but not every day. Not today. Some days are special, some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all.”

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There was only darkness.

Twilight sat up in her…bed. It felt like a bed, but it wasn’t anything like her own. It was coarse, and rather hard. Suddenly, she became aware of a pulsing headache, and slumped back against her pillow, releasing a sigh. Her vision was swirling with blobs of colour. Dark blue, a faint pink. It was like she was travelling through the cosmos, stars passing by at light speed in a blurry flash of light.

Her head was spinning, it felt like her and her bed were floating through space, tumbling in every direction.

A white light suddenly appeared, its brightness causing Twilight to shut her eyes. She slowly opened them, and gradually, as her grainy vision cleared, she could make out a white mare with a light pink mane, standing in a wooden doorway.

“Ah, you’re awake, I see.” She walked into the room, shutting the door behind her. For a short moment, the darkness returned, until a ‘click’ accompanied by the lights dimly turning on, abolished it for good.

“I’m Nurse Redheart.” She walked over to a table beside the bed, picking up a pen in her mouth, and scribbling down a few notes. She then turned to Twilight. “Your friends have been waiting for you. Do you want to see them now?”'

Friends.

Everything had just been so… crazy in the last few days.

No, crazy isn’t the right word.

Twilight thought for a moment, her still aching head searching her vocabulary.

...horrifying, dreadful, sickening, awful, terrible, shocking, grim, ghastly, gruesome, nauseating…

None of these words described the situation better than the other.

“Hello? Princess? Can you hear me?”

Twilight snapped out of her daydream, responding without even thinking. “Oh…yes. S-sure, let t-them in.”

Nurse Redheart smiled, and with a nod, she turned and walked out the door.

For a moment, the room was completely still and silent. Twilight’s mind, however, was not. Before she could collect herself, four very familiar ponies walked through the door.

First, Pinky Pie.

Then Rarity.

Next, Applejack.

Finally, Rainbow Dash.

A part of Twilight was hoping, praying that Fluttershy would come through that door, and that her brutal departure from the living world was just… a dream.

But, it never happened. As the seconds ticked by, still, nopony came.

Maybe she’s just… late.

No. That was it. She had already been through this. Princess Luna had explained to her that Fluttershy will always be with us in our dreams, our memories.

And yet, it was still so hard to let go.

A tiny voice, far away, in the deep, swirling confines of Twilight’s mind called.

“Friendship does not end, Twilight.”

Twilight was jerked out of her thoughts by somepony calling her name. “Oh my gosh dear, we were so worried! Are you alright?” The first voice to speak being that of the alabaster fashionista.

Twilight was about to say her usual default of ‘fine’ but she stopped herself.

Am I fine? I don’t even think I know.

“I’m… not sure. I don’t know anymore.”

Rarity looked back at her with a pitiful look, and said nothing. She stepped back, gently pushing applejack in front of her.

“Uhm, you-you’re not hurt too badly are ya?” All she received was a blank stare.

The blank stare simply, and clearly said-

Yes.

“And…in more ways than one.” Twilight added grimly to her facial expression.

Applejack produced the same reaction as rarity, slowly retreating back, and encouraging Pinky Pie to say something.

The pink pony trotted up, still with a skip in her step, and practically shouted “I baked you some special It sucks to be in hospital but it’s OK now because you have your friends with you cupcakes!”

Twilight shook her head slowly while staring down onto her lap. Nobody ever turned down Pinky Pie’s cupcakes.

Nobody.

The party pony’s normally bouncy and puffy mane deflated, becoming straight and loose. Tears began to well up in Pinky’s eyes.

She turned, and ran for the door, crying, only to slam into it, and fall backwards.

And then, there was one.

The polychromatic mane’d pegasus stood in front of Twilight’s bed, not with an expression of sadness, but of shock.

Rainbow Dash looked around the room, at each of the ponies, before returning her gaze to Twilight. “What…happened? Where’s Fluttershy?”

Twilight’s pupils constricted to pinheads.

They…don’t know. Oh Celestia.

Twilight would have to tell all of them what had happened. She would have to watch all her friends go through the same thing that she went through.

And, it was going to hurt, all over again.

After a long silence, Twilight finally spoke. “…she’s dead.” Twilight coughed, trying to hold back tears, but it was no use. The floodgates opened, and she broke down. Again.

With the sound of a balloon being let down, Pinky’s mane and tail went from being fluffy, bouncy, and full of life, to dull, straight, and lifeless. Her face conveyed a very similar expression. She pulled a framed picture out of her mane, slamming it onto the ground.

The picture was a painting. A painting of Fluttershy, with a turquoise flower on her ear, sitting next to Angel Bunny. They were sitting under a small tree, on the rolling, grassy knolls of a hill, looking out into the deep blue sky, were Cloudsdale floated by. It’s towering, puffy, white majestic mass spouting water off the sides, falling into a river, far below.

It was what Fluttershy loved. Nature. Nature, it all its tranquillity, and beauty.

Pinky Pie bent down, lowering her face right up to the picture, and shouted at the top of her lungs.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! FLUTTERSHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY”

Rarity began to tear up, making her eyeliner run down her cheeks, causing grey streaks. Her horn lit up in a light blue as a large sofa flew in behind her, and she fell back onto it. She was crying at full force now, just as Twilight was.

Rainbow Dash sniffed, holding back tears. "F-Fluttershy? Wh-what happened t-to her?"

Twilight felt like she was going to die. The sheer amount of pain that was coursing through her, should never have been felt by anypony. It was as if there was a black hole where her heart was, only, the black hole was on fire.

"Th-there..." Twilight could hardly speak. Tears were streaming down her face, wetting the bedsheets. In between her sniffs, she managed to form a few words. "d-dragon…..b-big…..angry.....f-fire…..” She stopped. Twilight sat up, and looked straight into Rainbow Dash’s eyes.

Twilight could see Rainbow desperately trying not to break down, trying to hold her front of toughness and flair.

But it only lasted so long.

Rainbow Dash broke down in tears, grabbing Pinky and wrapping her hooves around her in a tight hug. The two friends cried over each other’s shoulders, letting all the remorse flow out.

Applejack pulled her hat off of her head, and pressed it to her chest. She looked down to the ground, and pressed her eyes closed as a single tear flew through the air, eliciting a drip upon hitting the ground.

Death was something that tore through ponies far stronger than the most powerful enemy. The girls had gone on adventures together, fought the strongest of foes, overcome the most difficult of challenges.

They had forged friendships.

And yet, nothing, nopony, no challenge compared to the difficulty that they were facing now.

The friendships they had forged, over all their time together, was now the thing bringing them down.

Friendship was powerful. It could bring such happiness, and, such sorrow.

The door to the room opened, and the dark blue form of Princess Luna entered. Her face displayed an expression of understanding, and of supressed remorse.

She strode past the ponies, glancing at each, and taking in the bitter view before her. It truly was a disheartening sight.

“My friends.” Luna stopped her pacing, and sat down on top of her hooves. “Come, sit with me.”

Slowly, the girls supressed their crying, and hesitantly made their way over to Luna. Twilight simply watched from her position on the bed. She was pretty sure what was going to happen next.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinky Pie, and Rarity sat down in front of Luna, sitting similarly to how she was.

“Death is one of the hardest things you will ever have to face. The loss of a friend can destroy a pony, from the inside.” Luna looked to each of them.

“Do not despair….” Luna tilted her head down, pointing her horn into the space in the centre of their circle. A white light shot from it, creating a brilliant shining white ball, slowly expanding. For a few seconds it stayed as it was.

And then it exploded in a flash of white.

Memories.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle….what’s your name?”

Fluttershy hid behind her mane. “Um….I’m Fluttershey”

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

“Um mynameisumFlutterhsy”

“Didn’t quite catch that.”

“….squeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeae”

“…Well, um, it looks like your birds are back…so I guess everything’s in order. Keep up the good work!”

“squeaeaea”

“Ooookey...” Twilight turned and walked away, meeting Spike. “Well that was easy.”

Fluttershy leapt into the air, gasping. “A baby dragon!”

“Yes Rainbow, I was there. And I’m very grateful, but we gotta-“ A giant lion with dragon wings and a scorpion tail impacted the ground in front of them.

“A Manticore!”

The Manticore roared, rearing onto its hind legs.

“We’ve gotta get past!”

Each of the ponies tried their combat techniques against it. Rarity bucked it in the face, only to retreat from her hair being messed up.

“Wait…”

Applejack jumped onto its head, trying to ride it before quickly being thrown off.

“Wait…”

Rainbow dash flew towards the Manticore, circling around it in a twister of rainbow light, only to be struck by its tail, and flung away.

Despite the defeats, they ponies recovered and congregated together, then charged.

“WAAIIITTTTTT!!”

Fluttershy leapt in front of the charging ponies, halting them. She then turned to the Manticore, and walked right up to it.

“Shhh, it’s okay.” She spotted a large thorn in one of the Manticore’s paws.

“Now this might hurt for juuust a second…” Fluttershy leaned forward and pulled the thorn out with her mouth, eliciting a roar from the Manticore.

“FLUTTERSHY!”

In the next moment, Fluttershy was swept of her hooves and being affectionately licked by the oversized cat.

“How did you know about the thorn?” Twilight questioned.

“I didn’t. Sometimes, we all just need to be shown a little kindness…”

Fluttershy looked to her friends, lying in a helpless pile of defeat beneath her.

And then to the dragon.

And back to her friends.

And then to the dragon.

“…how dare you…”

“…HOW DARE YOU!” She leaped into the air, landing on the tip of the dragon’s snout.

“LISTEN HERE MISTER, JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE BIG, DOESN’T MEAN YOU GET TO BE A BULLY!”

She leaned in, standing on her front hooves, staring strongly straight into the dragon’s eyes. “YOU MAY HAVE HUGE TEETH AND SHARP SCALES SNORE SMOKE AND BREATH FIRE, BUT YOU DO NOT, I REPEAT, YOU DO NOT. HURT. MY. FRIENDS!!!”

The dragon began to cry, showering tears like rain on the other ponies. “There, there, no need to cry, you’re not a bad dragon, you just made a bad decision. Now go pack your things, you just need a new place to sleep.”

Rainbow Dash jumped up onto the table. “You see what I’m saying, right Fluttershy?”

“You know what I’m seeing? I see that Discord is far from perfect, but I also see none of you giving him a chance!” Fluttershy stood up to her friends, in an effort to give Discord the benefit of the doubt, and be his only friend.

Discord dried himself off with a towel. “Oh yes, awful business that.”

“It is awful. This is Applejack’s home, and it’s being destroyed by innocent creatures that wouldn’t be acting this way if it wasn’t for your reckless behaviour.”

Discord turned to Fluttershy with a grimace. Fluttershy held her frown. “You need to fix this.”

“Well, oh yes, I will fix it. I only ask one thing in return.”

“Yes?”

“I ask that you never use your element of harmony against me…” Discord pointed to the pink butterfly on her neck. “…As a sign of our friendship.”

After a long pause, Fluttershy decided. “I will never use my element of harmony against you.” She took it her element off her neck, and threw it to Spike. Everypony gasped.

The memories of their time with Fluttershy flashed by. One by one, playing in the minds of each of the friends. In each, the true kindness of the pony was shown. Her ability to trust, to sacrifice, and to love.

Every single moment they were together was shown before them. The ethereal video played for what felt like decades, as years of memories flew by, until, a final clip played.

“…But once she finally forgave herself for what Nightmare Moon did…“

Spike finished Twilight’s sentence. “Poof!”

“Shhhhh…” Fluttershy shushed Spike, pointing to Luna, sleeping soundly on a few cushions.

“Huh. Wonder what she’s dreaming about now...”

The world went black for a moment, before reality came back to everyone.

The memories had come to an end. That was the last time, that they saw Fluttershy alive.

“Fluttershy may be dead, but the memories of her will live on.” Luna waited a moment, letting her words sink in.

“Remember the pony she was. Remember her kindness.”

Luna stood up. Slowly, the other ponies did so as well. Pinky sniffed before putting on a smile, and half-heartedly blowing on a party whistle. Rainbow dash muttered something along the lines of ‘I didn’t cry that much’.

Rarity simply remarked “That was…beautiful.”

The others gave a gentle nod, in agreement.

Author's Note

Alright. That's it. I'm done.
NO MORE EMOTIONS.
I'm probably more sick of it than you are. Writing mourning scenes like this are really difficult to write. It's probably the main factor of this chapter taking so long.

I have something to ask. How did you feel about a large portion of this chapter being about memories from the show? I had lots of trouble choosing what level of detail to go into, and what memories to choose, so please let me know what you thought. Also, what did you think of that picture that I put into the story? Do you think I should do more of that? Or not? Personally, I'd rather only use it rarely, and not to describe any settings.
Please take the time to tell me what you think.

I actually waited to post this chapter until after the airing of Do Princesses Dream Of Magic Sheep? because I wanted to reference it. Because of the upcoming hiatus, I thought the final memory would be good to come from this episode.

I know I already promised before, and I know, I'm a dirty lair, but I PINKY PROMISE this time, that next chapter, there will be some proper action.
Can't break a Pinky promise!

Anyway, I didn't really want to write things like this too much, but I REALLY didn't want to make light of a friend dying. I think I've done enough of that now. There will still be a bit of depression, but It won't be the focus.
Things will be happening soon.
Journeys will be endured.
Things will be discovered.
And new friendships will be made.

I'll see you in the next chapter. :heart:

9| The Dark Side

The Matrix of Friendship
Chapter 9- The Dark Side (Sunspot)

“I don’t trust someone without a dark side.”
“We’ll let’s just say you haven’t seen it yet.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Remember.”

Luna walked over to the side of Twilight’s bed, and placed her forehoof gently underneath her chin, directing her head upwards. In a new, softer voice, Luna spoke.

“How are you feeling?” Luna blinked, and smiled at Twilight. There was a sort of mutual-respect that they had for one-another, having known what each other has been through. Luna replaced her forehoof under her to let Twilight speak.

“I… I think the right thing to say is that I’m… better… than before.” Twilight looked down, averting her eyes.

Luna’s expression increased in seriousness. “You did sustain a slight concussion, along with numerous cuts and bruises. When I found you, you had almost no energy left, and you ended up being unconscious for almost six hours.”

Luna sat down onto her rump. “…But I’m glad to see that you are alright.”

Twilight returned a half-hearted smile.

Suddenly, Luna’s eyes flashed, becoming a sinister green, and producing an evil purple flame at the back of them. Her eyes shot open wide, and she stood up. Shortly after, her horn began to take on a similar effect-- green accented purple flames spewing from it.

A deep rumble could be heard from the flames, much deeper than normal fire. The green in Luna’s eyes became brighter and brighter, slowly obstructing Luna’s vision.

The tip of her horn suddenly transformed into a deep black, absorbing all light. It began to infect the rest of her horn, travelling down it like a wave until it reached the base. It stopped for a short moment, before continuing onwards. Luna remained rock still as it quickly enveloped her entire body, right up to the tip of her flowing tail.

It was now as if a glowing, flaming pair of eyes and a horn, were part of a shadow’s body.

All Twilight and her friends could do is stand and watch, terrified, as the shadow stood beside Twilight’s bed, unmoving. They were too petrified to move.

The shadow began to speak, however not in Luna's normal voice, or even the Royal Canterlot Voice. It was deep, distorted, and reeked of evil.

“H-hello?”

All Luna could see, was a vast expanse of cloudy blue. There was no ground. Or roof. Or walls. She was floating.

There was a foggy haze of an ethereal blue hue, clouding her vision. Slowly, it dissipated, revealing what looked like stars. Bright white orbs of light that seemed so close, yet, so far. They gently twinkled, changing intensity, and sometimes even changing colour ever-so-slightly.

Suddenly, Luna felt ground under her hooves, and stood up. She looked down expecting to see some sort of solid object, but saw nothing but the starry blue expanse.

“Hello? Sister? Is some kind of joke?” She looked around, but saw nothing. Slowly, she began to walk forward, aimlessly.

“If it is, I find hardly any humor in it.”

The starry blue haze of an expanse kept going on. It felt like it had no end.

But slowly, the faint outline of an object came into view.

It was big.

Very, very big.

Despite the lack of a light source, it felt like it cast a faint light on where Luna stood. And, she couldn’t even see it yet.

As Luna walked, it slowly drifted into view. At first, only its dark outline could be seen.

Is- is that Canterlot castle?

The object was shaped almost identically as Canterlot Castle, and looked to be the same size. The shadow of its majestic towers, topped with small penthouses flying small triangular flags towered over the main body of the shadow, just as Canterlot Castle was.

More and more detail began to seep through the fog, and as Luna walked forward, the image of Canterlot Castle became clearer and clearer. Eventually, Luna reached the gates to the castle.

It is Canterlot Castle.

It just floated there, high above Luna in the blue expanse. No support of any kind to be seen, not magical, not physical.

Suddenly, from deep within the walls of the castle, the tall outline of a pony appeared. It looked like it was rushing, trotting along just short of galloping.

As the haze cleared, through the gates, Luna could begin to make out the white and gold body of her sister.

"Tia!"

Celestia leaped into the air spreading her wings, and quickly flew the last portion of her journey. Luna caught a quick glimpse of her face, and it looked worried and panicked, a sight Luna knew all too well-- was once in multiple lifetimes.

With a flash of golden magic from her horn, the castle gates swung open and Celestia touched down onto the ground in front of Luna. The two thousand-year-old sisters stared blankly at each other at a moment, before Celestia leapt forward and brought Luna into a loving hug.

"I love you, Luna. But I don't have much time..." Celestia's voice sounded a little raspy, like she was sick or exhausted. And what did she mean by 'don't have much time'?

Does the have to go? Where's she going to go?

"Tia, what's happening?" Luna began to work herself up, thinking of all the worst possibilities. Most ponies saw Luna as calm, and emotionally sturdy. But between herself, and very few others, she was anything but. Luna had experienced things. Learned things. Done things, which one doesn't simply just forget.

Luna looked up to Celestia, and for a tiny moment, perhaps a one-hundredth of a second, she changed. Luna couldn't place it, it happened far too quickly, but something about Celestia flickered, if only for an immeasurable amount of time.

"I-I had a battle with discord. I cast the… Iridius spell. But he teleported me to him, and we both got hit." Celestia stopped, and looked down away from Luna, like she was carefully considering how to put what to say next.

"My...boduwsdesyoed" Celestia kept looking down at her hooves as she mumbled her words.

"W-what?" Luna bent her long neck down to hear Celestia better.

“M-my bouwadestyrysd” Whatever it was, she was certainly having a struggle saying it.

“Tia I can’t hear you if you keep mumbling! What is it?” Luna’s resolve began to crumble as the anticipation of finding out whatever horrible piece of information that Celestia had, increased.

“My body was destroyed!” Celestia flung her head up, a grimace, but not quite tears on her face.

“…Oh…”

Before Luna had time to think, it happened again, jumping her out of her thoughts.

The flicker.

For the second time, Celestia changed. The undefinable difference to her flashed before Luna’s eyes in a fraction of a second.

Only this time, it felt like it lasted just a tiny bit longer.

"Something's awoken within me, sister. Something I never knew existed. Soon, it's going to consume my mind."

"And my mind is the only thing that's left of me."

For the first time in her life, Luna was speechless. Her mind swirled with emotions and actions, not one in particular floating to the surface. For a moment, she stood there—mouth unmoving, in complete and utter paralysis.

And to think, that it was not long ago that I was there, helping another pony when they were lost. When Twilight Sparkle needed help to realize her emotions... to realize her thoughts, I was there for her. I was there to help her through the struggles of life.
What would I tell myself?

“Friendship does not end, not even within death. Friendship carries on…through the ages.”

But this is more than friendship. Celestia... she is my sister. I've grown up with her, been by her side, for thousands of
years.

"Remember the pony she was."

B-but I don't want to remember! I want to see her every day, talk to her every day, and just be with her. Not remember her every day.

Not be alone.

Celestia flickered once again, and this time—this time Luna saw it. She saw the change. It was just there for a tiny amount of time, but this time, that tiny amount of time was just enough.

Whatever was there for that tiny amount of time… it was dark.

“Tia… don’t go… Please!”

“There’s nothing I can do now… it’s too late. I’m sorry.” Celestia pulled Luna into another hug. “Listen… you need to gather the elements of harmony. Whatever’s coming… I can sense it’s bad. Prepare the girls… warn them. Whatever happens… they must stay safe.”

Celestia began to flicker more and more, now happening once or twice a second.

“Could the elements of harmony save you?” Luna was holding back tears, something that took her back to when she was much, much younger.

“I do not know for certain.” Celestia’s voice was now becoming distorted, sounding deeper and deeper by the second. “The elements of harmony are powerful; they can do many things. But I don’t think even they could save me.”

Celestia tightened her grip on Luna, and the two sisters embraced in a hug as the darkness consumed her mind.

Celestia flickered one last time. This time, she didn’t change back.

Luna started to become cold. The once warm embrace of her sister was now replaced with a chilled body clinging to her that stung to the touch.

Luna screamed and struggled, breaking free of the dark being’s hold. She backpedalled until she decided that she was far enough away, but when she looked up… it was gone. Celestia…whatever it was, had gone.

An eerie screech sounded, echoing off the non-existent mountains, like an eagle’s call. Luna looked up, searching for the origin of the sound, but in that moment, the blue space turned to black.

Nothing could be seen, there was complete darkness. Luna darted her eyes around, searching for some source of light to lock onto, but there was none. Where the castle previously towered, now showed nothing other than the infinite blackness that consumed her vision. Even the stars been snuffed out.

And then a brilliant, flaming flash of orange exploded in the sky. A streak of orange, yellow, and green shot down from above, colliding with the ground merely metres away from Luna, creating a brilliant flash of…

Black.

A dark flash.

How…how is that even possible?

Luna’s thoughts were instantly interrupted, however, at the sight of what was before her.

The pony in front of her stood up, and raised its head to stare directly into Luna’s eyes.

“Mmmmmm…greetings….sssisssster.” As it spoke, its voice was so deep and loud, that Luna could feel her whole body vibrate. As its tongue slithered inside its muzzle to pronounce the S’s, the snake-like sound sent shivers down Luna’s spine. Quite simply, its voice could be summed up in one, small, four-letter word.

Evil.

But, perhaps more importantly, it looked exactly like Celestia.

Only, it…her… whatever this pony was… was the opposite colour entirely. Its coat was a deep black, absorbing all the light that hit it. It wore a deep blue crown, along with an identically coloured necklace, both decorated with large bright green gems.

Its horseshoes were dark blue, unlike Celestia’s normally golden ones. Its mane was a combination of dark pink, dark orange, dark green, and a blackened yellow. Within it, being perhaps the most mysterious of all, were dark spots, where Celestia’s mane would normally sparkle.

And even that wasn’t the worst part.

Its eyes were white. All white, except for a green retina… and a black reflection of their surroundings. Their stone cold, motionless stare bored into Luna, in a frightfully alien display of supernaturalism.

Finally, Luna’s eyes drifted downwards and to the side, landing upon its cutie mark.

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this. Its cutie mark certainly wasn’t a reverse-colour of Celestia’s. No, it was a whole different shape entirely.

Luna jumped back as it spoke again.

“Ahhhhh…” It tilted its head up, and glared down at Luna with a psychotic grin. To punctuate its actions, on cue, a flash of bright orange lightening erupted in the background, bringing with it the window-shattering shockwave of thunder.

“Do I sssssscare you?” It laughed hysterically, generating a deep rumble.

Its cutie mark was a circle. A black circle, the outside of which, white rays of light extended from, fading as they got further away. Luna stared at it, trying desperately to figure out what its cutie mark was of.

I’ve seen many a cutie mark in my time. A flower? Perhaps a star. Sometimes even an hourglass. I’ve seen lyres. I’ve seen lemons. I once saw a frowning cat. But… what’s this? A ring? Maybe a wheel?

It had to be something. But what? She’d never seen anything like it before.

The dark being spotted Luna staring at its cutie mark, and angled itself slightly, allowing Luna to get a better view of it. “I ssssee you’re looking at my cutie mark.”

Luna’s eyes darted from its flanks to its face. She conveyed a swirling pool of emotion in the shimmering azure orbs.

Curiosity.

Wonder.

Bewilderment.

But mostly, fear.

Whatever it was… every…every factor of it seemed like it was purposely designed to instill fear.

Luna blinked for a moment, and swallowed the tightness in her throat. “…Wh…what is it?”

It put on a large, sinister grin. “Ohhhh? Silly Lunaaaa, don’t you know what it is?”

Luna said nothing, giving it all the confirmation it needed.

“Mmmmm…I’m dissssapointed in you, sisssster.”

The evil Celestia slowly trudged forwards towards Luna, dragging its dark-blue royal horse shoes along the... ground. If you could even call the invisible surface floating in the dark blue dimension, that.

It circled round behind Luna, grinning madly. Eventually, it returned to the front, and stopped. It had its body angled again, so Luna could see its mark clearly.

Suddenly, an explosive ripple washed over them, the dark blue of the dimension giving way to a bright light… the Sun. It was darker and larger than usual, so much so, that Luna could easily look into it, and see its craters and imperfections in some detail.

A shimmering orb began to fade into existence, and slowly took the bluish grey form of the moon. It rose from below where Twilight and the inverted Celestia stood, and slowly made its way up to the sun.

As it neared the end of its journey, the two celestial objects began to overlap. As the moon’s edge gradually passed over the surface of the bright sun, it obfuscated the sun’s rays, dimming it. The circle that was the sun slowly began to shape into a bright yellow crescent. But the moon did not stop, it continued to pass over the surface.

As the moon covered more and more of the sun’s surface, the dimension they were in began to dim, darkening as if the sun was setting. An eerie coolness descended upon Luna, sending chills down her spine--something darkness never gave her.

The moon finally reached its destination, and ground to a halt. It was now directly over top of the sun, perfectly covering the powerful source of light, and casting an infinitely large shadow upon the dimension.

In fact, it was so dark now that only a bright yellow ring could be seen in the sky where the sun once was.

The ring…

It’s exactly like its Cutie mark.

“…oh…” Was all Luna would, could say.

The glowing ring in the sky perfectly resembled the cutie mark of the evil Celestia.

Luna had never seen anything like it. Eclipses never happened in Equestria, with their system of the sun and moon being controlled by Demi-gods. Even though Luna had heard of ancient, far off lands of experiencing events such as those, she had never seen what one actually looked like in real life.

And… It felt wrong.

She couldn’t describe it. It was a feeling of uneasiness, of discomfort. It just felt like something was horrifically, tremendously wrong.

A dark sun?

“Everypony has a dark sssssside, Luna.” Luna couldn’t see the source of the corrupt voice in the new darkness, and it made it all the scarier. In a flash of magic she activated her night vision, and while it did allow her to see the distant stars of the dimension, the inverted Celestia was nowhere to be seen.

“My other form…Celessstia. She does a great job of hiding it…” A pair of flaming dark green eyes appeared in the darkness, contorted into a menacing grin.

“She does a great job of hiding meeeee.”

Luna began to back up, slowly placing each hoof behind the other as the retreated from those evil eyes.

The eyes followed her.

“Look in the sky. What do you sssseee?” The pair of floating eyes in the darkness expressed themselves as the voice spoke.

“A-an…e-eclipse?” Luna squeaked shakily. To see her sister become something so horrid and dark, scared her more than anything else ever had or probably would. She had never been this scared before.

Never.

Nothing ever really scared the princess of the night. Ponies were more scared of her than she was of anything.

As a foal, only one thing scared Celestia. The night. As every filly and colt would hate to admit, they were all scared of the dark.

But not Luna. She owned the night. It was her time, and she loved it.

Luna was dragged kicking and screaming from her little reverie by the dark voice that she was now far too familiar with.

"A ssssolar eclipssse." It still held that same maniacal grin.

"That is who I am..."
"I... am Solar Eclipse."

Luna’s eyes widened. The 'it' had a name.

Author's Note

You might want to hull down a bit, I have lots to talk about... :twilightblush:

How late this chapter is...
I apologize immensely for this chapter taking so long. I've had trouble staying motivated, and with so many other commitments and possible procrastination providers in my life right now, writing is become more and more of a task.
Why this chapter has a different name...
Nobody probably noticed, but I promised that the chapter would be named 'Sunspot'. Well, while writing the chapter, (as I usually do) I came up with what I think is a better name for it, so here we are.

I must inform everyone that this story is now going on an indefinate hiatus, and may never be continued.

That's the gist of what's happening, but for anyone who may want to know full details, they are as follows...
I feel as though this story has fallen into a bit of a hole. It's premise isn't that attractive, and it wastes a lot of my time that could be spent on far more interesting, self-contained stories. I have a lot of trouble writing this story because I don't see an end in sight.
Now that I am done with this chapter, the story will go on a long hiatus/cancellation. From now on I'm going to be working on a few new fic ideas, one of which I have already mentioned. Perhaps one day, if enough people want me to continue this story, I will. But for now, say goodbye. (Although you're going to be getting your fair share of the characters in other stories.)

I'm going to be turning over a new leaf when it comes to my writing, so I ask all of you-- what can I do to improve? Think about it now, post it in the comments, and then have a look at what I think I need to improve on myself.
Longer paragraphs, and not relying as heavily on formatting.
I'll be working on those things in my next stories, and hopefully my writing shall improve.
If I decide that this story won't be continued, then I will most likely post a epilogue, describing the ideas I had for this story, and just generally talking about it.

Thanks for reading,
-MrSp33dy123
[END TRANSMISSION]