Voided Light

        “Again, Princess Sparkle, why are you taking this sort of information so well? You can’t mean to suggest your society has advanced to the point that you possess interdimensional travel.” Prime ground out as he strafed around on his ball-wheels while Twilight casually took some notes to reference some things she wanted to personally account for.

        “Technically yes. There are forms of teleportation that clearly leave the current physical plane, so the existence of other dimensions isn’t that surprising. The fact you two are from two vastly different realms also speaks volumes for your behaviors.” Twilight said as she sat in a comfy chair of one of the many spare rooms of her castle she’d decided to lead the two into.

        “I wouldn’t say vastly different,” Alex started, “They were probably the same until two years ago.” Alex commented until she finally noticed her voluminous hair and her tail. “Geez I’m new to this….”

        “Even so, fact is I just found out I had this done to me at random with intent rather than chance. I’m not religious, but damn if this doesn’t screw with my sense of self-importance.” Prime grumbled. “So what do we do now? Having you around is a huge draw of attention-.”

        The castle’s front door gong echoed through the crystal palace of friendship love etc and Twilight blinked as she teleported down, leaving Prime and Alex to look at each other in confusion, only for a frazzled Twilight to pop back in. “SHE’S HERE!”

        “WHAT?! WHY?!” Prime panicked, leaving Alex especially confused.

        “W-what?! Who’s she?! Why are you both freaking out?!” Alex asked in a panic only because the two locals who knew the situation were.

        “WHAT THE FUCK IS SHE DOING HERE?!” Prime panicked.

        “SHE WANTS TO MEET THE FALLEN STAR-CHILD!” Twilight screeched, pulling at her mane as Alex had no idea what to do.

        “NOOOOOOOOO!” Prime semi-screamed. “We are screwed if she talks to this kid! Screwed, I tell you! SCREWED!”

        “WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!” Alex roared, literally, her voice getting a bit deeper and throaty, echoing all through the castle before she slapped her hands over her sharp-toothed maw with a visible reddening of her face. “Sorry?”

        “Twilight! What is going-oh, hello!” Celestia burst into the room with a concerned expression until she noticed Alex, and Celestia blushed. “Oh dear, you really must be young to have no clothes. Is this your first Planet Landing?”

        Alex looked down puzzled to see her clothes had been incinerated, “Gods damn it all.”

        “Oh, sorry for making assumptions, here, let me fix it young one.” Celestia said warmly as she gathered the ashes in her golden magic, and they quickly reformed into literal clothes made of various hues of fire that easily slipped onto Alex much to her surprise.

        “Oh, thanks,” Alex said, relieved. He may have been a guy but even as a girl, he didn’t like to be naked. Alex stretched out a hand to the solar diarch, “I’m Alex.”

        “You must come from somewhere in Solana to have such a simple name. Is that right? Or are you the child of radicals in Bogon?” Celestia asked conversationally as she accepted Alex’s hand in a hoof, while off to the side, Twilight and Prime slowly edged to the door.

        Alex seemed to contemplate something for a minute before answering, “Bogon seems right. Although, I’m more in that neighborhood. I’m a star of Virgo, around a 12th of the time that is.”

        “A Zodiac Shifter? Astounding, most Star-Children are bound to a single form, consider yourself quite fortunate.” The sound of a squeak from Prime halted Twilight and his retreat, and Celestia finally turned her attention to them. “Oh? Twilight, why didn’t you mention you were working on a project?”

        “Oh...um...I just...uh...it slipped my mind! Yes! With all the things going on lately I’ve been a bit too busy to really consider telling you about my new robot...Bender!” Twilight gestured to Prime, who silently gawked at her with his expressionless face from her unwittingly making a Futurama reference.

        Alex, however, seemed uninterested, or did not know the reference, and attempted to help Twilight and Prime, “Yes, she brought him along when she discovered me...on a farm.” When Celestia looked to her and she saw the neck-cutting gesture Twilight was making, she guessed the farm part was too much info. ‘Whoops….’

        “You Landed at Applejack’s farm. Oh dear, I hope you didn’t damage anything too severely.” Celestia said with concern.

        “J-just my pride, really. The….” Alex cautiously looked past Celestia at Twilight, who quickly conjured an image of an orchard. “Orchard! Yes, orchard I landed in didn’t get burnt too badly.”

        “That’s good, we don’t want a sudden food shortage in town. Come, tell me of your journey, and if you require any help getting back into the skies soon.” Celestia began walking out and Alex slowly floated after her, looking nervously at Twilight and Prime, who gestured to follow the mare.

        Once they were alone, Twilight collapsed to the floor with a sigh and Prime began rapidly spinning his torso with his arms outstretched. “Shit, shit, shit, shit! Can’t let her find out! And Bender?! Really?!”

        “I crack under pressure okay! Especially when it’s Celestia. Okay, she doesn’t suspect anything, but suddenly having you leave would be a horrible mistake. She’d get curious as to why I’d put you away when I have a chance to gush about my work. In pony at that.” Twilight said, getting Prime to groan.

        “What do we need to do…?”

        “...I need to see your insides.”

        “Thank you Spike.” Celestia thanked the young purple dragon with a kiss to his crown, making him beam at the maternal praise as he finished setting out the tea she’d requested as Alex nervously fidgeted in the crystal chair she sat in, that thankfully didn’t melt from her touching it. “So tell me dear, have you any news from Bogon? It’s been centuries since I’ve even seen a Star-Child.”

        “O-oh, um, not really. It’s been so long with my flitting about the galaxies that any news I might have would be outdated.” Alex fudged, figuring what she said would be bought at face value, and got an understanding nod from Celestia to her relief.

        “That’s a fair point. How long since your last Landing? Or do you simply drop in on any planet you fancy?” Celestia asked conversationally as she levitated a small tea cake to her mouth.

        “Well,” Alex looked around, “I usually just drop in. The last one was actually about a galactic standard week before this one.”

        “So you might have set foot on Mars then, slightly smaller red planet?” Celestia asked as she sipped some of her tea.

        “I saw it as I flew in. Seemed a little, little to me,” Alex said, sipping her tea.

        “Hm...if you saw it passing in, you must have been traveling full speed, took a break on Pluto then?” Celestia asked as she scarfed down yet another tea cake, the crumbs falling without a care.

        “Nope, reached Titan actually, cold, but a lovely view,” Alex said, not even hesitating now.

        “Yes, Saturn is quite a sight from the largest moon in the system. Now then.” Celestia suddenly summoned dozens of plasma weapons all aiming at Alex’s head, causing her to raise an eyebrow. “How do you know Titan's name?”

        “Celestia, you never asked how old I was,” Alex put simply, “When I was younger, I landed on this very planet. Full of, well,” she gestured to herself, “A race called humans.”

        “Doubtful. Your very appearance would have caused the world to blow itself up sooner, or you landed in ancient times. Which….” Celestia eyed Alex, making her feel a little uncomfortable. “You are not that old. Quite young, and adventurous. To be as old as you claim, you’d at least have settled on a color for your flames instead of shifting them so much.” Celestia pointed out a line of blue flitting through Alex with the barrel of a plasma rifle, clothes too, and then moved the same barrel to a spot of red that turned white, then orange. “Only very young Star-Children just entering the cusp of adulthood retain their childishly colorful hues. Are you fibbing to make yourself seem older?” Celestia teased playfully as she telekinetically noogied Alex's head, getting her to growl.

        Alex’s form began to change, taking on a lioness style, claws forming from her fingers and her body bulking up all over while her face became more lion than human. “You want to hear something, miss princess? I HAVE SEEN MY HOME BURN, FREEZE, AND BE RIPPED TO SHREDS. ALL FOR SOMEONE ELSE’S CORRUPTED GOALS. IT TOOK A FUCKING GODDESS POWERFUL BEYOND COMPREHENSION TO SAVE IT, AND EVEN SHE HAD TO MOVE ALL ITS RESIDENTS. YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HOME THAT WAS? EARTH, THE PLANET WE SIT ON. IT WAS JUST LIKE THIS. GIVE ME A MINUTE TO REMINISCE.”

        “Quiet.” Celestia demanded, and suddenly Alex felt all the heat of a true star flood the room as Celestia’s mane and tail turned into the fire of her sun, and her eyes slitted as the magenta turned gold. “You will respect your elders child. You know nothing of suffering. I have watched a world die, and drag itself out of the very pit of hell to become what you see now. Now. Sit.”

        Alex looked up at her, “At least your world came back. Mine has been lost forever to the Void. My sister is gone. My parents died in front of us, back when I was littler. I had to shield my sister from the blood of our parents as it was pulled from their bodies in the thralls of chaos, I saw my friends burn before me,” Alex glared at Celestia, “All of this happened in just two years.”

        “Better erased, than a butchered mockery like this one.” Celestia coldly commented. “Now. I said. Sit.”

        “I’ve been told by a god-imitation to do something like that,” Alex smiled, her teeth sharp, “Better erased? You don’t know do you? There are three billion people now lost in the multiverse, all suffering. Four billion had died in just two hours. And all this? It was broadcasted into our heads, every day, twenty fours hours a day, for two years.”

        “Then they still have a chance don’t they? Unlike the trillion or so that went when this one decided to die. Now for the last, time. SIT!” A telekinetic force with the gravity of the sun crushed Alex down on her rear so hard, the crystal chair shattered under her, the shards flying everywhere.

        “I’m sitting, now what? Going to lecture me? Perhaps, do you pull that with these ponies? You see, even back home, I wasn’t much of a listener,” Alex smirked.

        “You will stay your impertinent tongue child. I have had to suffer for over 2000 years. Your meager 2 is nothing. I’ll let it slide because you are an off-worlder, but speak out of turn again and I will rip your lips from your face as I did the last Star-Child who dared raise lip with me. Am I clear?”

        Alex raised an eyebrow, “So that’s why it’s likely been so long… Besides, did I say it was only two years?”

        “If you’re going to say you were trapped in a recursion time-loop, I’ll admit that’s a fairly similar cruel fate. Now tell me. Do you hail of this realm? Or another?” Celestia demanded as a plasma pistol of sorts tapped her face, not even singing.

“Yeah, it was a time-loop. A pretty gnarly one too, lasted a couple hundred runs. And at the end of nearly all of them, my sister died. If you mean Displaced here? No. I’m from another Equestria, where,” Alex was interrupted by a white ball of fur dropping onto her head, “Yup, there she is. This thing thinks I’m her mother and I suddenly ended up here.”

“Oh how precious~!” Celestia suddenly did a complete 180, her fiery visage vanishing along with her weapons as she suddenly levitated the white puffball to her face and nuzzled her. “She’s so adorable! What’s her name?”

Alex watched for a second, “I was thinking Eris, after the Greek goddess of chaos. To honor the goddess who saved me, even though that wasn’t her name. Did I mention I was male? Originally, that is.”

“Well she’s just cute, and as for the gender swapping, don’t you know Star-Children are genderless? You’ve subconsciously selected female as your gender.” Celestia said as Eris began climbing on top of the mare’s head, tossing her crown to the floor which she didn’t care about, and began playing with her mane and ears.

“I’m not exactly sure I’m a Star-Child, to be honest,” Alex answered, looking a little hesitant. She opened her mouth to speak again, only to be interrupted.

Nope, you’re not.

“Oh dear, an alternate-plane being. I’ll just be ignoring that.” Celestia groused as she sat back down and summoned the shattered chair back together and gently sat Alex back on it, while also restoring her cup of tea, which was still nice and hot.

Celestia, I’ve seen this world’s history. I see your disbelief or hate but I’m different. Actually, I’d help if I could, but these tentacles won’t let me. AHN~

“Oh yes, I’ve been there. That was an oddly enjoyable week in that tentacle pit. Had my fifth foal that way.” Celestia replied, offering a saucer of cream to Alex. “Cream?” Alex gladly took the saucer, and couldn’t withhold the urge to start lapping it up with a purr much to Celestia’s quiet amusement.

Wow, no laughter. Tough crowd. Cthulhu, go away. I’ll deal with your bullshit later.

NO BUT MOM’S ME. I AM YOUR MOTHER, NOT A DAMN BABYSITTER. Sorry, he’s a little spoiled. Anyways, how’s it hanging?

“It could be better to be honest. An ancient nemesis of mine decided to rise up from the dead. Again. I’m sure you’ve had that problem a lot.” Celestia then held up the whole jug of cream to Alex, who tossed the tea on the floor to keep drinking the sweet creamy ambrosia.

Yeah, being one of the oldest things in existence can do that. Alex, be careful, you can’t have your Leo form getting addicted. Or fat. Dem cans will get big on you if you keep chugging cream like that. Alex responded with a middle finger to the air and kept guzzling the seemingly unending cream that Celestia giggled about having enchanted to do so. That aside, need any inside/outside info?

“Inside-slash-outside info is only useful from a credible source, and I can already tell that while entertaining, conversing with you might as well be akin to asking a hydra which head was the first one. They’ll all say they were.” Celestia commented as she summoned a cheesecake and started eating that, beings she ate all the tea cakes, and by now Alex was moaning with a hand on her bloated stomach from drinking too much cream as the jug hung from a finger with the bottom barely touching the floor.

“Too...much...cream…*BURP~*.” Alex’s burp was enhanced with a leonine roar that echoed through the castle, and she sighed contently, before taking another swig of cream. “Mm...nice.”

Now, now Celestia. While I am mad, that doesn’t mean I’m not trustworthy. I just so happen to have the memories of several quintillion versions of myself, as well as the versions, inside my head. This gives me lots of headaches as well as a ton of information.

“Hm...enticing. Tell me, do any of my alternate versions of myself live normal, happy lives? Because really, I’d like to know if my constant suffering is my own fault or if it’s fate.” Celestia asked idly as she mushed the cake into a tight ball, compacting it into a mouthful and shoving it all into her mouth at once, something she’d done quite often as Alex began snoring, her full stomach having made her drowsy.

Well, give me a second, gotta dig around in here…*sounds of things clanking, dishes shattering, creaking* Ah ha! Ok. Let’s see, factor in this… Yup. A fair few. Cthulhu, get out of mommy’s head. It’s dangerous in there. *loud roars* See?

“Quite. Now where is Twilight? She would normally be gushing about her latest project immediately, even if I did have someone else to speak with.” Celestia looked towards the door in concern. “Maybe she had some bugs she wanted to work out.”

Looks that way.

        “HOW is this POSSIBLE?!” Twilight gawked at the relatively small battery she levitated up as she and Prime were down in her workshop with Prime hooked into an electric outlet while she got a good look at his innards so their story about him being her project didn’t go flop when asked for specific details. However, Prime forgot one key thing. “WHAT SORCERY IS THIS?! Not even Spark Batteries can hold HALF of the amount of energy in this thing! And my projected rate of decay is ridiculously slow!”

        “Look, for the last time Sparkle, just shove my Fission Battery back in and take us back up! We’ve left Sunbutt and the kid alone too long as it is!” ‘Seriously Sparkle, the less you know about that battery the better! The fact that they still haven’t reached the energy capacity of the Old World yet is a good thing.’

        “Okay, fine, but since it seems I can power it up with either electricity or magic energy, you’re going to let me figure out how to make more since we could use them to fix a lot of our growing energy issues.” Twilight insisted, and Prime mentally cursed.

        ‘Damn, if that’s the case the batteries would probably be a good idea after all, if they can intake and output energy other than radioactive. Don’t want an energy shortage to cause anything similar to Before.’ “Alright, just slam it back in for now okay? You can borrow my Gutsy chassis’s battery later, let's get up there and take some heat off of the kid and ease any sort of inquiry she might have into me.”

        “Okay then.” Twilight jammed the battery back into it’s slot, having recharged it, and unplugged prime as she quickly levitated and reassembled his inner workings and then outer chassis within several seconds. “Let's go. Remember to behave like a primitive AI.”

        “Yes Mistress Sparkle. May I rub your wings?” Prime said robotically and haltingly, getting Twilight to kick him with a glare before starting up the stairs that Prime’s legs easily made work of even with three to deal with and the wheels.

        Soon enough, they entered the Tea Room, and found a strange sight. Alex was passed out on the floor, her stomach a bloated belly clearly full of cream if the endlessly pouring jug of it pooling the floor meant anything, and Celestia seemed to be talking to the air as she feasted on a whole selection of desserts on the table, a pile of plates telling just how much she’d eaten already. “Celestia? What’s going on?”

        ‘Dear gog, no wonder her ass is so big….’ Prime thought as he carefully followed after Twilight into the room as Twilight uprighted the endless cream jug and vanished the cream on the floor before she took a seat on a cushion.

Well, well. Sure took you awhile there purple.

“Like I haven’t heard that name before. Is this one of those ‘do not trust’ things Celestia?” Twilight asked as she chose a plate of flan to eat.

        “Yes, trust nothing she says, but agree all the same.” Celestia nodded, sucking up a plate of gelatin through a straw.

That’s hurtful. I’m going to put you on my naughty list. Oh, look at that, lucky number fifty-nine quintillion. Ugh, why do so many people hate me.

“As the Princess of Friendship, should I point out the obvious?” Twilight asked in general, and Celestia shrugged while Prime remained away from the conversation, even if the urge to reach over and crush her skull in his clamps was extremely powerful.

Well, I might, kind of, see it in your case. However, I happen to be a very friendly Void Dweller. But yes, please do.

‘Oh yes, she must be the one who Displaced Alex. I hope she didn’t rat me out-.’

        “So Twilight, is this your pet project? Taken from those ruins you informed me of in that report?” Celestia asked conversationally as she looked at Prime.

        “B-but she asked me to-.” Celestia leered at Twilight, and she nervously chuckled a bit. “Um, right, ignore her. Um, yes. I call him Bender, because Lifter sounded boring, and he can easily bend a small girder with those clamp arms of his. Say hi Bender.”

        “Greetings, Citizen.” Prime said to Celestia, who nodded politely to him. ‘That’s right bitch, don’t suspect the huge, rolling, mobile-tank of a robot that can rip you TO FUCKING PIECES WITH MY BARE-!’

        “He’s a very well designed robot, I haven’t seen one with arms like that in a long time. Most of them were sadly weapons of war and not tools of creation.”

[Dude, chill. She can be a bitch, I should know.] Well, he looks pretty sturdy to me. That aside, please, don’t ignore me. I happen to be very nice and get very aggravated when I’m ignored. Seriously, I am trustworthy. Ask me a question, any question.

“Will I ever meet a stallion up to my standards?” Twilight asked, getting Celestia to roll her eyes with a sigh as she put a piece of peach cobbler in her mouth, her stomach not even distending yet.

You want honesty, hard fact, or my opinion?

“Um...all of the above?” Twilight asked nervously.

Alright. In many worlds you do find love, being adorkably nerdy to a fair few, and you live very happily. So, yes, you very well might. In my opinion, it’s all up to you and the stallion. Otherwise, you usually hook up with one of your friends and spend long lives together. Dash is a common choice.

        “Oh, well she and I do have some bedtime fun together, but it’s all in good fun between two...close friends.” Twilight licked her lips, likely envisioning her athletic pegasus friend that very moment. “Shame she isn’t a stallion, I’d throw my hymen away for a piece of that anyday.”

*Audible eyebrow raise* Well then. I mean, I could make her a stallion but that’d be her choice, really.

“That’s all well and good, but Twilight, should you really be talking about changing one of your friends on such an intimate level without them around?” Celestia gently scolded as she finished the last dessert on the table, and gave a content sigh as she sent the dishes away to be cleaned in a flash of light.

That’s why I said it’d be up to her. Rainbow Dash, not Twilight.

“I’m sure she knows that, but she means in general. She’s right though, I’m sorry. I’ll bring it up to Dash later though, since gender-changing technology here is still very hit-and-miss and I don’t even know if she’d want to do that at all, let alone for us when we’re not even in a relationship….” Twilight began wilting, her loneliness starting to become obvious. “Cadence was right...I need a stallion. Or a marefriend.”

Whoa. You sound like a bloody Disney Princess.

        “Well, whatever that is, it sounds terrible. Chin up Twilight, things will go your way in love soon enough.” Celestia gathered up her crown and levitated Eris down to her snoozing mummy as she moved away from the table. “Well it was a nice visit in the end Twilight. Be sure to send me schematics of Bender’s arms, all the Loader models we ever salvaged were too damaged to get the servo strength down-pat. Ta~.” Celestia then teleported away, and Twilight fell onto the low table in relief.

        “Oh my gosh...I’ve never lied so openly to Celestia before. That was scary.” Twilight admitted as Spike reentered the room, having hid outside the door to listen in.

        “You were scared? I’m surprised I didn’t crush her right now.” ‘Why didn’t I do it? I may be in a smaller, weaker body with no actual weapons, but she was IN REACH, and I could’ve crushed her like a bug before she could’ve done anything….’

Actually, wanna see scary? Conversion Bureau Celestia. Fucking menace, Aaron and I have been deleting those universes for millennia. Besides, you’ve got it. All three of you did.

“Got what? What’d I miss?” Alex asked groggily as she sat up, and moaned as she put a hand to her sloshing stomach. “Too much sweet cream~...why’d I drink so much?”

I told you to stop but did you listen to the Omniscient Deity? No. Now you’re going to get fat from all that heavy cream. Expect bigger bootay and boobay hun! That aside, Twilight, you were giving reasons why people hate me?

“You’re abrasive, offensive, annoying, difficult to hear without imagining a sex scene, and you’re also completely unpredictable and thus impossible to understand most of the time, even if it’s funny. I could go on, but I’m a bit tired from how tense I was.” Twilight stated as she rubbed her temples, Spike quickly producing a pill she promptly swallowed.

I take compliment to the last three. Annoying, I can see that. Offensive… Not all the time, just when I’m a bit aggravated. Abrasive...That comes with the job description. As for your possible headache, *snap*, there. All gone.

“Whoa! Wow it was...that’s amazing! Sure I could’ve spelled it away, but spells, like medicine, lose potency over time and I’ve used headache spells enough they’re nearly useless on me, that’s impressive.” Twilight complimented as Alex groaned and belched as she sat back up, her jug of endless cream in hand, and looking like she wanted to drink some more, but managed to look green- literally -and put it on the armrest of the chair she was in.

That, is your own fault Alex. You are going to get chubby, lard-lady. As for you Twilight, before I go, here, *bottle of pills appears on table* instant-relief every time. No developing a resistance to these.

        “Whatever, guys like big boobs anyway. Maybe I’ll enjoy them too, since I’m a guy.” Alex snarked with an eye-roll, scratching her leonine muzzle and fingering her cat-like nose and whiskers.

*audible huff* Be glad thats just the Leo form. I’m off, pip-pip-cheerio and stuff. Oh, and one very last thing. SNAKES~! Suddenly, the room was snakes, getting everyone to scream as they ran out of the room made of indestructible snakes as Essence laughed maniacally and the room returned to normal. Oh my various Void Dwellers, that always works! Oh, and as a lesson…. An audible snap of fingers was heard, and the unbothered jug of endless cream sparkled for a moment. Let’s see her keep binging on THAT! Hahahahaha!”