Caught Between Day and Night

Chapters

Comparing Both Notes and Phase
The Orrery
Starswirl's Lab
The Right to Exist
Escape to..."Ponyville?"

Comparing Both Notes and Phase

“Ugh...too many nightmares….”

Dawn scratched at her eyes. As she opened them, she yelped and gasped in unison, leaping out of the bed. She braced herself against the wall, hyperventilating. This room was some weird purple crystal with lavish trim around the doors, baseboards, furniture, and so on.

What is going on today!? This looks like a castle of some kind, but whose is it? Wait...there was that mysterious princess right before I passed out...what was her name?

Dawn felt lightheaded. She struggled to get her breathing under control. She braced herself against the bed as her slowed the rapid breaths. She sighed as lightheadedness passed, flopping her face against the sheets. The weight of her own limbs buckled her legs in her current state. She sat there for a moment, not breathing. As her strength returned, she pushed herself back up and breathed normally.

“She’s awake, Twi!” somepony shouted at the door. Dawn turned and saw it wasn’t a pony at all, but the baby dragon from earlier.

Oh...right. “Twilight.” That’d be why that crowd kept saying it over and over.

Lazily blinking, she watched the back of the dragon leave. Dawn took a closer look around the environs. They set her up in a queen-sized four-poster with four wardrobes and a private bathroom. These quarters also had a three-pony couch with coffee table, sporting current periodicals of athletics, finance, architectural trends, fashion trends, conservation efforts, fitness, culinary arts, and artistic expression, splayed across half the table in an even row and spread. A ceramic vase glazed blue sat at the end, holding a yellow lily, with lily of the valley framing the larger bloom. The vanity’s mirror was larger as the one in her own room in Ponyton.

This is what quarters she keeps for ambassadors and diplomats? I don’t think the wildebeest had this much luxury in their entire kingdom. Is she trying to economically intimidate visitors?

She could hear hurried footfalls in the hallway. She turned to the door and saw the lavender alicorn from earlier. She smiled cautiously, and entered the room. With a courteous bow, said, “Your Highness, I’m glad you’re awake.”

Dawn blinked, then returned the bow. “Please, Your Highness, just call me ‘Dawn.’ I’m not one for formalities.”

The other princess giggled. “Me too, Dawn. ‘Twilight’ would be fine.”

Dawn felt a grin, the first real one since...well, rather than dwell on that thought, Dawn asked, “Where, exactly, am I? I don’t recall seeing a ‘Ponyville’ on any map.”

“Well—” replied Twilight with a raised eyebrow, “—you’re in the Ambassador Suite in the Castle of Harmony. And yes, we’re in Ponyville.”

Dawn closed her eyes and shook her head with a long sigh. Twilight took a few steps with trepidation toward her. Dawn looked up at her hostess. “Forgive me, Twilight, but it’s all so confusing. Everything is so close to what I know and remember, but nothing’s the same. Let’s just start there, at the town’s name. ‘Ponyville.’ I’m from Ponyton. The architecture is nearly identical; in fact the only major difference I saw was what wood was used for the frames.”

“Dawn…,” Twilight interjected. “I think I may have an explanation.”

“Oh?”

Twilight nodded. She walked by Dawn, motioning for her to follow. The two princesses sat on the couch at opposite ends. Twilight sighed, then started, “After you passed out, I did a quick scan of your body to make sure you didn’t have an internal injuries. Physically you’re fine, but I noticed your magic is on a different waveform than the rest of us.”

“A different waveform? How much different?” Dawn asked with heavy breath.

Twilight bobbed her head around a moment. “The easiest way to explain it is to say all the peaks of the pattern are reversed. Everything else, though, is identical. Amplitude, wavelength, frequency, everything alike, except the reversed waveform.”

“Huh,” blurted Dawn. She scratched her chin, then beneath her left ear. “There are very few theories that would answer that.”

Twilight nodded. “And the only one that makes sense is—”

“—near-parallel worlds,” they said in unison. Their eyes met, followed by smiles, and then the giggles started.

The princesses moved closer together on the couch, and over the next several hours shared their life stories, joking, laughing, and crying together, especially at their similarities. Names were different, of course, as were locations, and certain personality quirks with every soul they ever knew, but for the most part, they knew the other’s story. The differences were just enough to keep it interesting for both parties. Twilight faced off with Nightmare Moon and the danger of eternal night, while Dawn halted the schemes of The Doomsday Star and her endless sunlight. They bore the same Element, though Dawn’s was an Element of Friendship, and Twilight’s was an Element of Harmony. Loyalty and Kindness were also the same. The other three were close: Laughter instead of Joy, Honesty instead of Trust, and Generosity instead of Selflessness.

The two both expressed their surprise that the others’ Elements’ pick of ponies, Dawn at the exclusion of zebras and thestrals, and Twilight at the diversity in Dawn’s world. This “Pinkie Pie,” at her baseline, sounded like Tabasamu after he had about five too many espressos. “Applejack” and Oat Rows would have been “close as kin,” as both would likely say. Nightwatch and Fluttershy shared a common driving force, but this “Fluttershy” liked animals, while Nightwatch kept infant foals in the maternity ward’s nursery sleeping safe and happily. “Rainbow Dash” and Greased Lightning would have been in constant competition from sunup to sundown. Then there was “Rarity” and Garland Wreath, who had nothing in common: a creative fashionista, and a humble monk. Both princesses had a good laugh about their closest friends compared to the other’s.

So went the talks, until....

Twilight giggled, “Yeah, I know! But, when you finish a spell started by Starswirl the Bearded, you can get some—”

“Starswirl the Bearded!? The writer of times and space spells!?” Dawn gushed.

Twilight’s face lit up. “Master of transfiguration, dimensional calibration, and teleportation?!”

“Creator of over two-hundred spells, builder the interdimensional mirror, and eccentric alchemist?!” they squealed in unison.

Huge smiles passed between the two of them. Both raised their forelimbs and pulled each other into a huge hug with giggling. They stayed there for a moment. After a contented sigh, Dawn said, “It’s too bad we couldn’t be from the same world. We could have been best friends for much longer.”

“Yeah…but we can start now,” sighed Twilight happily.

Dawn chuckled, “I wonder if it’s the same pony?”

Twilight laughed too. “Maybe? It’d explain how he was so knowledgeable of dimensions, time, and magic.”

“Yeah. It’s possible, I think.”

As they let go, Twilight gasped in fright. “Dawn!?”

“What’s wrong?”

“You’re...you’re…,” stuttered Twilight, wide-eyed and near hyperventilation.

Dawn anxiously pressed, “Twilight, what’s going on?”

“You’re...fading,” Twilight finished. She still had not blinked.

Dawn looked down, holding up her right forelimb. She squawked in terror as jumped back like a startled cat. She could partially see through herself. As Dawn ran for the mirror, Twilight accompanied her. It wasn’t just her leg. All of her was a touch transparent. She stared at her own hooves as she plopped into a sitting position. Dawn felt queasy, staring through her hooves at the floor below them.

“What’s happening to me?!” Dawn screeched, panic staining her words.

Twilight’s eyes darted around. Her lungs were also frantic as she squawked, “I don’t know! You may be phasing out because you’re from a different world! But that would mean you’d cease to exist! We can’t just sit here before you disappear completely!”

Dawn screamed again. Her transparency was on the rise. Whimpering and wide-eyed, she pranced in place as Twilight tapped at her head, breathing hard and fast while digging through a drawer. Dawn yelled, “But what do we do!?”

Twilight whipped out a blank scroll, a quill, and an inkwell. She started a hasty scrawl as she urged, “We need a checklist for—”

“A checklist!? Now?!!” Dawn interrupted.

“It’s how I get things done!” insisted Twilight, still writing away.

Dawn’s transparency now outweighed how visible she was, as she bellowed, “Twilight, please! There’s no time!!”

“But it’s how I work!!”

“How are you supposed to write a checklist of what you’re supposed to do before you know what you’re supposed to do!!? That’s backwards!!!”

“But—Dawn, that’s it!!” shouted Twilight. She dropped the scroll and quill and ran over to Dawn, who now was barely visible at all.

“What is??!”

“Backwards!” Twilight declared brightly. “Your magic’s waveform is the reverse of mine! If I modulate my magic, I should bring you back into phase!”

Spike, who just walked through the door, timidly asked, “Why’s everypony so mad??”

The image of Dawn was nearly gone as she pleaded, “Please, Twilight, hurry!!”

Twilight’s horn charged. As she focused, the undulation of the aura slowed, reversed, and it changed from a magenta to blue. As she focused, her spell ray swept across Dawn. A bright flash washed out the room. As the light dimmed to normal, they both opened their eyes.

Twilight grimaced. Dawn was easier to see, at least...at half-transparent, and stably so. Twilight sighed in partial relief. “Well, at least you’re not fading out any more.”

Spike’s face was shocked and twitching. Dawn’s, however, was vacant except the wide eyes. She stammered, “M-m-maybe my fading has-as, but-but-but Twi-li-li-light, you’re…!”

Twilight’s head jerked backwards. She trotted over to a mirror, where she nearly fainted. Spike ran over and propped her up while her head was awash. Recovering from her sharp gasp, in the mirror she saw herself...half-transparent as well. Twilight blurted, “Well, this is new….”

“We’re both half out of phase?” Dawn asked fearfully.

“It looks like.”

“What do we do now?”

Twilight eased herself over to the couch and flopped back down. She shook her head, and mumbled, “I have no idea. There’s only a few places that come to mind that might have any kind of suggestion.”

“We should try those,” urged Dawn, with Spike nodding emphatically.

Twilight smiled sadly. She stood back up, and went to the scroll she dropped. With a thin magenta beam she slice off the hasty and incomplete checklist, which disappeared into ash with a flash of flame. She wrote a short checklist quickly, cut it off, and gave Spike the rest of the scroll.

“Spike, send a letter to Princess Celestia,” Twilight ordered.

Spike took the quill. “Of course.”

Twilight began her oration.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I...have a serious problem. I’ll be teleporting to Canterlot shortly with another, where we will explain it posthaste and face-to-face. We will need the dimensional orrery; my life and another’s are both in immediate peril. It is imperative we set to work upon my arrival. I apologize for any inconvenience this will cause.

Sincerely,
Princess Twilight Sparkle

Spike sent the letter immediately. Dawn threw her hooves around Twilight. Both her voice and body were shaking. “We’ll get through this, Twilight. We will. We have too.”

Twilight’s person and tone were also quaking as the tears began. “We’re gonna give it our best, Dawn. We’ll stick together, and see this through. I won’t leave you.”

“I won’t leave you either,” sobbed Dawn. The two held the other by the head for a moment, and wiped away their own tears.

Spike tapped Twilight on the side, then looked at his finger funny. She looked at him. With pleading eyes, he said, “Please let me come too.”

“I’m sorry, Spike. The orrery is a powerful magical device. I can’t take you in there. It could seriously disrupt how you grow up,” Twilight answered sadly.

Spike looked down, poking his index fingers into each other. “Oh. Is it really that dangerous?”

“I’m afraid so. I’d take you if I could; you know that,” Twilight said with forced cheer.

“Please hurry back, and intact.”

“We’ll try,” she reassured him, before turning toward Dawn. “Ready to meet Princess Galactia’s counterpart?”

Dawn shrugged. “Ready as I’ll ever be. We’ll get through this, Twi. We will.”

Twilight sighed, “I hope so, Dawn. I truly hope so.”

The two disappeared in a magenta flash. Spike hung his head as he walked out of the room, wiping away a tear of his own.

Author's Note

Ooh. Both Dawn and Twilight are at risk of phasing out of existence completely, and need answers quickly before either or both of them disappear for good. At least they're both stable halfway between...at least, for now.

I've got a few things I need to do in the coming days, but I should be able to get the next one up reasonably fast. Thanks for reading.

The Orrery

Princesses Twilight Sparkle and Dawn Twinkle rematerialized just outside Castle Canterlot’s drawbridge. The two mares immediately dashed inside, receiving startled and perplexed looks of varying degrees from everypony they passed, including the otherwise-stoic guards. Dawn asked, “What do you think our odds are?”

“I don’t know. I can’t even guess! I don’t have a clue why it pulled me half out of phase, too,” said Twilight as they pushed through the front door, still running down the hallway.

Shoot...I never got around to telling her….

Dawn slowed a bit as her face hinted at guilt. “Well….”

Twilight stopped and looked back at her with growing irritation. “‘Well’ what?”

“Um….”

“Dawn, what did you leave out?”

“I’m sorry,” Dawn sighed as she hung her head. Twilight studied her face pointedly as she continued with closed eyes, “I should have brought it up, but it didn’t fit into conversation anywhere.”

A few passing nobles paused, muttering to each other if they really wanted to know why there were two partially transparent alicorns in the great hall. Twilight sighed. “That doesn’t tell me much.”

“I know. I just feel bad that—”

“Stop beating around the bush,” Twilight interrupted with a stern expression and tone.

Please, Twilight, this is hard enough as it is.

“Sorry,” said Dawn as she sighed. Twilight gave her a hard look, and rotated a hoof broadly and impatiently. Dawn pursed her lips, and confessed, “Princess Galactia sent a letter that said our world was in competition with another world, just to exist.”

Most of the nobles wandered off dismissively, or even disappointed. Twilight pursed her own lips. After a marked delay, she slowly said, “Dawn….”

“I’m sorry, Twilight!” Dawn burst. Her eyes started welling up. “I don’t know if it’s this world or another! There’s no way I could know until you slipped half out of phase! I’m so sorry!”

Twilight stared at her counterpart imperiously. Dawn’s head remained low with flattened ears. Twilight sighed long and low. “Dawn….”

...can’t blame her if she despises me now, but….

“Please don’t hate me…,” Dawn pleaded meekly. Silence occupied the hallway for a few moments as Dawn’s gaze slowly dropped from Twilight’s face to the floor right in front of her.

“No. I don’t hate you,” Twilight said curtly. “Nor can I say I’m very happy with how this is turning out, but I don’t blame you. But you’re right. There was nowhere in our conversation you could’ve told me that without it interrupting. You probably should have simply broached the topic anyway.”

“I was about to, when you noticed I was fading.”

“Ah.”

“Twilight!! What happened!?” Twilight and Dawn both turned to see Princess Celestia hurrying over to her beloved student with an expression her pupil had never seen on her face, nor heard in her voice, until now: worry...maybe even a bit panicked. Twilight tried to hug her mentor, and found it didn’t quite pan out as it had every other time. Partially out of phase meant she could only partially touch Celestia…and if she was patient, she could slowly push through her completely. Twilight discovered this only after her head had moved into Celestia’s neck just enough for her to get a more intense blood and tissue lesson than she ever wanted.

Twilight was right; she does look an awful lot like Princess Galactia.

“Your Majesty,” started Dawn, bowing with proper etiquette, “I’m afraid both Princess Twilight and I are halfway out of phase, and in danger of phasing out of existence entirely.”

Twilight looked squeamish as her eyes emerged from the interior of Celestia’s neck. The sovereign princess stood mystified, blinking rapidly for a moment. “...how…??”

This will not be quick….

“Well…,” Dawn trailed off as the passed through the double doors into the throne room.

The junior princesses explained their tale to the best of their ability as the three headed upstairs towards the orrery. Once Dawn mentioned that her world was in competition with theirs, Celestia decided to call for Luna to join them. Twilight was annoyed they had to start over, but rolled with it. Luna had a similar reaction the transparency. As they went into what caused it, Luna sent a servant after half a dozen volumes from the old athenaeum.

Celestia opened the door, and flicked a magical switch. Running lights along a walkway’s banister lit, ending in a round area. As the four princesses stepped in the round space, the room lit with a blue glow from its spherical walls. A small panel sat at the far side of the end of the round platform. Both Twilight and Dawn looked around in expectant excitement and wonder. Celestia kept a sad smile to herself as she shook her head at them.

Whoa...did Starswirl build this?

Luna walked over to this control console. “Sister, when was the last time either of us were in here?”

“I showed Twilight this room once, still fairly early in her studies, to give her a greater glimpse of the world of magic. Before that, I believe it was before...that sad millennium,” Celestia said, hinting at lament.

Luna gave Celestia a long, tight-lipped stare before looking back at the series of dials, buttons, and levers. She levitated up a hinged iron plate, and pushed up on a sliding switch as wide as her hoof. The plate clattered back into a closed position as an odd sound echoed from the panel. A greeting shown on the wall, followed by many points of light projected around the room. As Luna fiddled around with the dials, they moved and focused, zoomed in, and moved some more. As the points became coin-sized, they did not look like points, so much as discs. Most of them were a pale blue, especially at the current magnification. One such pale blue disc became highlighted with a yellow aura.

Oh wow. Yeah, there’s no way this wasn’t done by Starswirl himself.

Luna said, “This is our plane of existence, the proverbial ‘you are here’ sign. I wonder...sister, does it look different to you? I thought ours was shaped different from the others.”

Celestia pensively answered, “I think you’re right, Luna...I thought it was more of an X in shape.”

Luna turned to Twilight and Dawn with a wistful smile. “This was how we know that was our home, whenever Starswirl brought us here to—”

“You knew Starswirl the Bearded personally!?” Dawn burst, a smile breaking across her face. Luna took a step back with a craned neck, wide eyes, and one raised eyebrow. Twilight tried to not chuckle, but failed. Celestia merely blinked a few times slightly agape, and closed her mouth.

“Um...yes, child. We did know Starswirl the Bearded, and learned much from him. Is there something you wish to share on the matter?” Luna asked as her composure returned.

Yes I do! I just don’t know where to start!

“I’ve read a ton of Starswirl’s treatises on magical theory and practice!” Dawn cheered. As the sisters looked at each other perplexed, Dawn rattled off, “‘Circles and Dweomers,’ ‘Small-Scale Ley Lines,’ ‘Woven Spells,’ ‘The Power of Holes,’ ‘Intersecting Realities,’ which seems particularly relevant at the moment, but I can’t remember it right now….”

Luna smiled and shook her head. “A deepening of the mystery. It would seem Starswirl occupied both worlds, as his texts are found in both by the same names. ‘Intersecting Realities’ should be delivered here shortly, along with other relevant materials.”

Ooh...been way too long since I’ve read that one.

Dawn’s smile widened. Twilight walked over to Luna. “Ours still doesn’t look as disc-like as the others. Can you increase the magnification?”

“We can indeed,” Luna grinned.

The highlighted disc grew large enough to be a cart. At this magnification there was an obvious burr jutting out from the middle, at maybe a twenty-five degree angle. On the disc’s flip side was little more than a nubbin. Twilight frowned as she looked it over repeatedly, as did Dawn. Luna pursed her lips, then turned to Celestia. “Forgive me, but it seems ours has...grown, and significantly, since my last visit here.”

“You may be right. We should check again once these two are satisfied with the current view,” Celestia answered.

The two half-transparent ponies continued fervently looking over the medial disfiguration of the disc. As Dawn scratched her chin, Twilight asked, “Luna, can the orrery differentiate specific other planes of existence by their baseline magic waveform?”

Luna looked over the panel closely. As fidgeting with a few of the control gizmos, dials, and buttons, she stopped and stared at it again. After a moment’s pause she replied, “I believe so.”

“Good, good. Can you isolate one whose waveform is the reverse of ours? Not inverting the peaks and valleys, of course,” Twilight asked.

Luna smirked as she worked the device. “Naturally. If what you say about Dawn is true, I scarcely wish to imagine the destruction that would cause, were it the latter.”

Dawn scratched at her ear again. She looked at the other three as Luna grimaced and hurriedly did something else. When Twilight met her gaze, Dawn said, “I presume you refer to what Starswirl the Bearded said canceling wave forms?”

“Correct,” began Celestia. “We saw it once. A unicorn named Lux, not even a year after Starswirl passed, tried to prove that he was wiser on such matters. He was brash, arrogant—”

“—and most other imaginable ways, a genuinely unpleasant fellow,” Luna interrupted, shaking her head. “Without giving thought to consequence, he thought to dismantle Starswirl’s theories of magic, beginning with Waveform Theory.”

“Lux thought a show of a flower petal on an inverted waveform would be sufficient proof. So he created the flower petal,” Celestia lamented, shaking her head. “If it weren’t for the practice Luna and I had with barriers after defending the land from Discord, and already having one cast, we too would have been evaporated by the explosion.”

Luna added, “That is not to say we had no injuries. Everypony else fared far worse. We take solace in that they had no time to experience any sort of agony, but that hill was still leveled.”

Dawn blinked. She softly squawked to herself as she looked at Twilight, then back at the sisters. Scoffing, she said, “I guess that only cemented Starswirl’s theories as the paradigm.”

Celestia said, “Yes, and others have since built off of them, refining them into more exact methods, especially with ‘The Power of Holes,’ ‘Woven Spells,’ and ‘Power vs. Willpower.’ Very little of anything he wrote has been wholly disproven.”

“We have a match,” Luna announced.

The growth on their dimension’s disc was highlighted with a flashing white light. Luna further increased the magnification and walked over to join the others, looking at the marked addition. The four occasionally glanced at each other as if to size up what the others were thinking. Each showed their own pensive mannerisms in silence. A servant pony entered the orrery, particularly perplexed, with six books in his telekinetic aura. He set them down at Luna’s feet, bowed, and departed, never once showing any expression apart from totally baffled. Twilight took two books as did Luna. Dawn’s face melted into a nostalgic smile as she looked at which one was left for her, after Celestia made her pick.

After several minutes of reading, with Twilight flipping through pages the quickest, Dawn spoke up. “I forgot this part of the text. ‘In the rare event that two dimensions intersect with mirrored, but not canceling, waveforms, balance betwixt the two must be preserved at all times.’ Most of what he has here is hypothesis without any solid tests, though he say he did not experiment due to ‘obvious ethical and potentially catastrophic dilemmas.’ Huh. I suppose this...nebulous disclaimer is why so many theorists leave out this section. Should’ve listened to the Old Colt of Buckingham.”

“The what now?” Celestia asked, perking up as Luna set her book down and turned her ears toward Dawn.

They never heard that before? Weird….

Dawn met the other three’s gazes, and guardedly reiterated, “The Old Colt of Buckingham? Starswirl’s nickname?”

“Never heard that one, and there aren’t many here to know as much of the obscure Starswirl trivia as I do. At least, in this world, anyway,” said Twilight, ending sheepishly.

Dawn muttered, “Well, it’s where he was born….”

Dawn continued reading, and promptly noticed two pairs of front legs just past the book, one pair dark blue, the other white. She looked up to see the sisters casting highly interested yet stern faces at her. Celestia’s voice was amiable in spite of her expression. “Please, continue.”

“Uhh...as you wish, Your Majesties,” Dawn answered uncomfortably. She felt a caring rub at the base of her wings, too solid to be anypony other than Twilight. Blinking, she resumed, “Um, Starswirl was born in Buckingham, and the only foal of two of the most respected professors of magic of that time period. He was inundated from birth with magical instruction, but beginning during his adolescence, he was known to disappear—”

“—for months at a time, usually between two and three. Am I correct?” Luna finished.

Dawn sat there in shock. “Um...yeah. Yeah, that’s right. Why? Do you have no record of his birth?”

Luna bluntly said, “There is no record of his birth, tutelage, nor lineage. He simply showed up one day.”

“And then never returned after he disappeared for the last time, when he was well-on in years,” muttered Dawn.

“That’s...not how it played out here,” Celestia said cautiously.

Dawn looked between the royal sisters. “I guess that means he passed away here….”

“Millennia ago, at about quarter ‘til three in early winter, seven stories below where we’re standing right now, doing what he loved best,” Luna answered sadly.

Doing what he loved best, huh? Guess that’s the ideal way to go, but still...sad. Guess there won’t be a glorious return.

Celestia said, “His body was interred in the Great Mausoleum. We can go there if you’d like, once we’re done here.”

Dawn shook her head. “I’m not sure my heart could take it. There are some unicorns who want to believe he’ll return one day, since we never knew about his death. Part of me secretly wished it would happen, but...guess that dream was never more than a flight of fancy.”

“I am sorry to hear that, for many reasons,” said Luna. “But we should get back to work on discerning what can be done about yours and Twilight’s condition. The two of you are both still fading, but slowly.”

Dawn and Twilight shot each other scared looks. Celestia turned her eyes back to the model, and scrunched her brows. “Dawn, you said it was a ‘grey wave’ that overtook Ponyton?”

“Yes, why?”

“You’d want to...no, you don’t want to see this, but you need to,” Celestia urged.

Oh no...please, no!!!

The other three looked at model, and gasped, or in Dawn’s case, screamed. Something grey erased the outer edges of the burr. It then continued toward the middle. Dawn hollered, “NO!! PLEASE, OH GODS, DON’T DO THIS!!!”

The grey line continued to erode at the edges of the dimensional model as Dawn broke down into wailing sobs. Twilight held her close and tight as she screamed and stared through thick tears as the last vestiges of the model slipped away and were gone. The grey marks blinked out when Twilight’s dimension appeared to be nothing more than a flat disc like the others.

...but...we did everything the gods asked of us…why…?? Why can’t all this just be a terrible nightmare?

Dawn wept bitterly in Twilight’s embrace, desperately hugging back. Celestia’s ears drooped. Luna ran over to the panel, looked over several things, and then slowly hung her head.

As she came up to Dawn, Luna lamented, “I’m terribly sorry, Dawn. The orrery can no longer find a world that matches your magical waveform. My deepest condolences. I know it does nothing, but….”

I’m...all that’s left? I’m the only survivor from my world, the only memory of at all…?? I’m all there is?? What do I do? What can I do?? Can’t believe this is happening….

Dawn could not form words yet. Twilight rocked her side-to-side, gently stroking Dawn’s mane while her own tears leaked out. Celestia walked over to them, shaking her head slowly. Luna looked over at her sister, then back down, and wiped away a tear. Celestia pulled her sister into a side-hug, to which Luna nodded. Twilight murmured, “I’m so sorry, Dawn...I’m so sorry...I’ll still stay with you….”

“Twilight, Dawn, we should go,” said Celestia.

“Where?”

Luna looked at her sister, then at the two half-transparent princesses. “Downstairs. To Starswirl’s lab. If there’s anything anywhere that can help, it’s down there.”

Dawn looked up at Luna, closed her eyes and slowly nodded. Twilight helped her to her feet. They trudged their way back out of the orrery as Luna turned off the device and the lights behind them, and closed the door.

Author's Note

Sorry about the delay in getting this chapter up. Had five job interviews this week...but only one looked like it was worth a darn. That, the continuing job hunt, and playing stay-at-home dad kinda keeps me from writing. :ajsleepy: I could use sleep....

Hopefully I won't have the delays with the next...but there is the vacation next week that was bought and paid for last year. Wahoo. Doubt I'll do much writing then. :twilightoops: Wish me luck with everything. Feels like I'm slowly going crazy.

Thanks for reading!

Starswirl's Lab

Four princesses enter through the ancient door, the hallway providing the only light in the room. Celestia and Luna set to igniting torches and activating illumination crystals while Dawn and Twilight both ambled in awe, staring all around them at the scene. Bookcases fifteen meters tall lined the room. Magical instruments of varying degrees of both size and complexity lay around the rotunda’s tables and hanging displays, each one sans labels. Alchemic experiments, or potion production as far as any of them could tell, sat in varying degrees of completion, if one overlooked that nearly every liquid component had long-since dried to a husk, and all fuel sources were spent. An incomplete manuscript still was splayed over the lectern with an inkwell, desiccated by the unrelenting march of time, beside it. Another set of double doors sat on the far side.

“Whoa...,” breathed Dawn and Twilight in unison.

Wow. Not even the Starswirl Museum had this many original specimens.

“I see you didn’t change a thing,” Luna chuckled, shaking her head.

Celestia gave her sister a sad smile. “Nothing, except reinforce the enchantments. This room would have been dilapidated if I hadn’t.”

Not that I’ll ever get to visit the Starswirl Museum again...still can’t believe, and won’t believe, the gods decided to destroy us. I have to get home. I have to bring it all back somehow.

The royal sisters stopped in front of the other set of double doors. Luna turned to her sister. “Could you ever open these doors?”

“No...,” Celestia trailed off as she turned toward Dawn. “But I think we know somepony who can.”

Luna and Twilight also looked to the interdimensional visitor. Dawn met each of their gazes, and sighed. She powered up her horn. “Alrighty then, let me see what I can do with this.”

I sure hope you have some secret in here that’ll help.

The doors opened without any struggle. Within was a small chamber, with shorter, not as full bookshelves reaching the not-so-high ceiling. Instruments on non-book shelves were smaller, far more intricate, also without label. Many of these gadgets were still whirring, among which a few that had blinking red lights. The double doors at the other end were of a slightly different architecture, one that made Dawn gasp.

Well, that dispels all remaining doubts. Definitely the same Starswirl.

“Dawn...what is it?”

Twilight’s question shook Dawn from her from the trance. She looked at the three other princesses’ expectant faces, and sighed, “This door jamb looks like it’s from Cavalon. Like most of the things I’ve seen in this world, the difference between there and here is subtle. The flourishes on the molding are tighter, and turn the opposite direction of most of the door jambs here.”

“Yes, I noticed that immediately,” said Luna with a nod. “We should call for the archivists; these materials and devices certainly warrant careful study and preservation.”

Dawn pressed, “Of course, but after we look through them to see what can be done to help me, or if by one last miracle of his, he has a way to restore my world.”

Celestia said, “Naturally.”

The four princesses began thumbing through the ancient parchment. Most of them were diagrams, or nebulous notes about some intricate spell. They set the rolls they read in a common pile. After the eleventh scroll was set in the “read” pile, two archivists arrived. One quickly skimmed and catalogued the contents, then the other loaded them onto a cushioned, partitioned cart.

On her sixth roll, Dawn’s eyes widened.

To you who opened the door,

They call me Starswirl the Bearded. You may know me as “The Old Colt of Buckingham,” while those around you do not. That you were able to open the door is telling. You, too, are not from Equestria. And if you are reading this, trouble must have followed.

Equus and Equestria are competing worlds, just to exist. There are identical pieces on both sides, except for me. I have no counterpart. It seems I was destined to live in both Equus and Equestria, as if the gods themselves tapped me to either maintain the balance betwixt the two worlds, or to tip it. My magic’s wavelength is stable in both, while few (if indeed, any) others are as well, though this is particularly unlikely. I write this now for two reasons. One: if I was able to slip through the veil and end up here, one can easily conclude another may do the same, hopefully in time to prevent catastrophe. And Two: I realised I am dying, and will not be able to stave it off again.

Death isn’t the problem I face. Being interrupted by death is the problem; I am running out of time. I leave too many things unfinished: a perfected life-extending potion, the friendship spell, and most important, a functional dimensional stabilizing spell. My theories are sound (as evidenced by banishing a trio of Sirens from each world), but the complexities of affecting the whole of two worlds, not to mention sheer power output necessary, stymies my progress. For decades I’ve jumped between the two, gathering the data and testing the improved versions. I am close, so close I can all-but taste it. However, this current test still has two days before it completes, and I have another identical to it to running in Equus. It appears to be correct thus far, and if both tests are positive, then I will have it completed, and then the worlds can end their competition to simply be, let alone thrive.

If I have passed on, and the test has a positive result, I will need you to open the inner door; it opens directly to my identical lab in Castle Cavalon. You must summon Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to this room, and take the materials in here to Princess Galactia and Princess Soleia. Only the four princesses combined will have a sufficient power output to cast the spell, and at the proper wavelengths. Furthermore, only all four casting toward their counterparts through the open gate will stabilise both worlds. If not, the tipping of the balance will begin. As I said, I am the odd piece. On whichever side I die will gain the advantage. It will be slow, but will build up momentum over the course of a great many years, before the damage is likely to become visible.

If the test results are negative, somepony must continue my work, and the incomplete spell must not be cast. In its unperfected state, both worlds would begin their slow, agonizing collapse.

I pray this scroll is written in vain. You must hurry, if it is not too late already. In case it is...I have one last theory to test.

Starswirl of Buckingham
14th of March, Year 74 of the Age of Unity

He knew...Starswirl knew back then...why didn’t he say anything?

“Dawn?”

She felt Twilight’s hoof on her side. Dawn turned to see her royal peers and one of the archivists looking intently at her, though Twilight’s face was the most concerned. Dawn sighed, and held up the scroll. “He knew. All the way back then, he knew that the two worlds could not coexist. Starswirl knew one world would thrive at the expense of the other. He tried to find a way to reconcile them, and nearly had it shortly before he died.”

That would be why he stayed silent. It wasn’t the gods at all. It was him, because he could not right the balance before his death.

The others gasped. Celestia snatched up the scroll. Luna, Twilight, and both archivists rushed over to read over the monarch’s shoulders. Dawn frowned. As they read, she looked around. She scrunched her eyebrows and walked over to the door. She saw a bit of parchment, stuffed under the door by the hinge, where it was not visible outside of this small room. While the others were muttering amongst themselves, Dawn telekinetically pulled out this message, and opened it.

To you who opened the door,

The test appears to be positive, but my end is fast approaching. I no longer have enough magical strength to open the door, and my sight is going. Please find this room soon. My hope lies in that my assistant can find the castle physician or one of the princesses to get down here before I give up the ghost, and tell them how to open the door.

In the event this has not happened, and the collapse of Equus has begun accelerating, you may be able to halt or even restore the world...at least, if my calculations are correct. It, unfortunately, requires something drastic. You will need to find your Equestrian counterpart, and absorb them. This isn’t simply slaying them; this means you must extract their essence and magic, and draw those into yourself. Unsavoury, and unforgivable, if it weren’t for the host of lives it would save, or restore from the grave.

Regardless of circumstances, get the other documents to the princesses. Their combined powers will be necessary to stabilise both worlds.

I pray you can finish what I began. Godspeed.

Starswirl of Buckingham

Dawn was breathless. She could not inhale for a few moments, unnoticed by the five still engrossed in the other scroll. Looking around, she stashed the bit of parchment back whence it came.

He can’t possibly be serious. He wants me to kill Twilight? And that’s according to numbers he ran...when? What numbers, through what functions, based on what proof? Was he even cogent during this calculation? I can’t do that to her....

A tear ran down her cheek. Shaking her from the trance was Twilight’s voice: “That date, this was two days before he died. Did he get the results from his test?”

Luna’s voice was sadder. “From what we saw in The Orrery, either result would bear the same fruit now: nothing.”

“I hate to have to agree with you, sister, but I think you’re right,” said Celestia. “Without this other world, there is neither ‘Princess Galactia’ nor ‘Princess Soleia’ with whom to perform the spell. There’s no point in even attempting casting. Just the same, we should preserve what is here, as a last testament of his genius, and selflessness.”

No, Dawn. You have to try. It’s that or give up on Equus, your friends, and family, entirely.

Twilight sighed discontentedly. “That is so unfair to Dawn.”

Unfair is the right word, but more for you than me. There’s no way. She’s done nothing wrong.

There was a glint in Celestia’s eye for a split-second as she pressed, “Fair or not, we have to hurry if we’re to save either of you. Send word to Cadance that we may need her to transport Sunburst here; his expertise in magical theory may be necessary to decipher enough from these scrolls to find a way to stabilise both Twilight and Dawn.”

“Fair” has nothing to do with matters of life and death.

“Yes! He’s spectacular! Sunburst’s the best pony with magical theory since Starswirl himself trod Equestria! Nothing a good teleportation spell can’t fix!” beamed Twilight.

Good, an alternative. It’s not over yet.

Luna frowned. “If I may be so blunt, Twilight, you are unmatched in teleportation spells, but I doubt even you could successfully teleport two ponies that distance at the picture of health, let alone in your current state. They will need the train.”

“But that’s two days’ travel!” Twilight protested.

No, there isn’t an alternative, Dawn. It is over. You’re running away from the hard truth!

“Yeah, you’re right again, dear sister. I’m sorry, Twilight,” said Celestia. “I don’t know what we can do to sustain either or both of you, but I’m afraid we cannot send magical scrolls this old via dragonmail and expect them to survive. We’ll send for an emergency train, or maybe an airship, but at the rate you two are fading, I don’t think you’ll last for those two days.”

Twilight scoffed, “Surely there has to be something we can do!”

Celestia pursed her lips and closed her eyes. Luna looked like she going into mourning. Twilight kept looking between the two of them.

So this is it, huh? I have to kill her, and steal her essence?

Dawn began to sob quietly, but her tears came fast. Twilight turned to her, and put a hoof on Dawn’s shoulder. Twilight’s ears drooped. “I’m not giving up, Dawn. We’re gonna pull through this.”

You’re just making this harder....

Blubbering, Dawn slumped into a sitting position. She hid her eyes with a forehoof. Twilight rubbed at her shoulder. Dawn whimpered, “I’m sorry, Twilight...I’m so sorry....”

Twilight said, “It’s still not your fault.”

Makes me ill to just think about it, and I’m about to do that? What have I become...?

Dawn took the scrap under the door by her magic and tossed it toward Celestia. As the monarch unfolded the parchment in confusion, Dawn murmured, “I’m fresh out of options, Twilight...I’m sorry.”

What I would give for another way...but there it is. No sense in putting this off.

Twilight cocked her head to one side as Dawn got up, crying, “I don’t want to do this...I really don’t....”

Celestia gasped as she passed the scrap of parchment to Luna, and urged in a stern, mothering tone, “Dawn, don’t!”

Twilight started, “Huh? Celestia, what’s she talking ab—BAAA’AGGH!!”

Twilight turned in time to see the incoming magical strike. She moved to dodge, but the blue spell ray grazed her face, leaving a long and deep horizontal cut on her right cheek. She turned to see Dawn with her feet firmly planted, but her face was puffy-eyed, with tears so thick they were full streams running down her face, and rattling, sobbing breaths. “I’m s-s-sorry, Twilight. I-I-I am, but I can-n-not give up on my w-w-world.”

Twilight blinked in confusion, while Dawn charged up her horn, crying out loud.

Author's Note

Finally got back to writing a decent chunk at a time. This new job is...mind-numbing. It's like watching your creative abilities and drive atrophy right before you, while physically draining your body. Thus, the search for other work kept going. Wish me luck.

Then there's m' daughter. Once she figured out how to crawl forward, she began trying to pull to stand within a week and a half. Now she's starting to let go with one hand. I'm telling her to not grow up too fast on me, but it doesn't seem to be doing a lick of good.... :ajsleepy:

The conclusion is next. Better have it out more quickly, too; I apologize for the unintentional hiatus.

The Right to Exist

“Why!?” Twilight demanded, her right cheek roaring in pain. She charged up her horn as another blast lanced from Dawn’s, narrowly missing.

Please don’t make me say it again...I already feel terrible enough....

As Celestia powered up her own, Luna held a hoof in front of her. “Sister, we may not intervene.”

Dawn continued sobbing, in spite of the growing battle. Additional archivists came into the athenaeum and piled up everything they could onto carts, hurrying out once filled and returning with empty ones. Celestia scoffed at her sister, “And why not!?”

“Twilight and Dawn are the mirrors of each other. Two ponies, but only one soul between them. It is more of an internal conflict than an external one,” said Luna, as she ducked a ricocheted ray from Dawn’s attacks. A recently emptied bookshelf took the blow, breaking into a puff of dry rotted wood chucks, splinters, and dust. “Because of that, we may not step in, despite the circumstances.”

Dawn Twinkle continued crying, but managed some words. “It’s not r-r-right, that it c-c-comes to this. I’m sorr-r-ry, Twilight. I wish th-there was an-n-n-n-nother way....”

“How could this save or bring back anypony!?” Twilight hollered, popping another of Dawn’s shots with a negation-style counter spell.

Luna held up the note in her telekinesis. “Starswirl thought so. This hasty scrawling appears to be the last thing he wrote before he died, and he suggests that absorbing one’s other-world counterpart may be the only way to bring back others who’re gone because of a collapsing world.”

Can’t believe I’m doing this...what have I become...?

Twilight scoffed, “That’s lunacy!”

Luna craned her neck with a glare and flaring nostrils. “Hey! Watch your choice of words, Sparkle!!”

“Sorry, Princess Luna, it’s a—oh, enough!” Twilight yelled, narrowly evading a lightning bolt from Dawn.

She whirled around, sending a magenta spell in a whipping pattern. Dawn leapt to the side, but not enough. She yelped as it left a vertical cut on her left cheek. Dust fell from the ceiling. Every archivist stopped using so much caution and simply carried out the materials in telekinetic heaps as quickly as they could, getting the last scroll out of the previous closed antechamber. Luna sighed sadly, looking down, while Celestia looked at the fray with a growing expression of dread and panic. The embattled princesses now had opposing spell rays meeting halfway between them, both grunting, growling, and groaning. Ancient tile cracked under the strain, along with the floor underneath them.

Have I become like the very monsters I took down before the grey wave came? But this is my only chance....

“What would you do, Twilight, if our places were reversed?! Wouldn’t you try anything to bring them back!? Your friends, family, Celestia and Luna!?!” Dawn yelled, gaining some headway in the contest of opposing magic bolts.

“Not this!” Twilight screamed, evening the struggle. “I’d find some other way!”

“We tried that! Nothing panned out, or don’t you remember!?” Dawn retorted. The cracks in the floor spread. The widening crevasse edged toward them both.

“It’s still unthinkable! What could possibly drive you to this madness!?” screeched Twilight as she began to push through.

So begins the going around in circles...let’s see if this drives the point home.

Dawn disengaged, stepping to the side. Twilight’s spell shattered the far wall, exposing folded sedimentary beds, including an oolitic limestone. She gasped as Dawn seized her telekinetically, and threw her into the antechamber. She fired a pulse at the inner door, yelling, “Let me show you what’s left of my world, and maybe then you’ll understand!!”

The doors flew open, exposing the void beyond. Instantly an extreme wind pulled at everypony and everything. Twilight tried to escape, but was tackled by Dawn. Both ponies tumbled through the portal before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna erected a magical barrier at the antechamber’s outer doors, but even that bowed under the force. Both sisters continued pouring power into it. Celestia grumbled, “Are you still sure intervening wasn’t a good idea?”

“Might I remind you, dear sister,” Luna grunted through the strain. “I didn’t say it wasn’t a good idea to intervene. I said we may not intervene. There’s...rrgggh...a big difference.”

Out in the bizarre dark of the abyss, a shadow that did not diminish the colour of anything in relatively close proximity, spells rays shone brightly as they lanced betwixt the two junior princesses. Twilight and Dawn continued to flap about, their appearance, like a semi-transparent paint on a black canvas, glowed as a sharp accent against the deep darkness. Scraps of wood, tile, grout, and loosened oolites were swept through the portal in no particular order, nor in any clear pattern, and haphazardly floated in the warm nothing. Little sound came through the portal itself, though the timber groaned as it entered the empty limbo. Dawn shouted, “Welcome to Equus, Twilight! There’s nothing here! There’s nothing at all! What you see now, this void, is what’s left of my world! Do you like it? I don’t!”

“This, still, is not my fault, Dawn!” Twilight screamed. She winced as Dawn scored a glancing hit on her hindquarters. “What’s you’re doing is unfair to me, to Equestria, and ultimately to yourself!”

Don’t you even....

“Unfair!? You have the audacity to bring up fairness?!” Dawn squawked incredulously. “By even your account, Equus was further along the road of peace than Equestria! We had loyally served the gods, settled differences between all our nations, and starvation was all-but a memory, but we watched our world crumble, while yours, still torn by inequality and strife, fed off our destruction!! Now what is fair about that!?”

A fireball burst near Dawn, emanating from a magenta pulse. While she shielded herself, Twilight swung around and fired another volley. Dawn teleported behind Twilight, letting loose her own barrage. As she deflected the incoming attacks, Twilight yelled, “There’s no justification to deny another the right to exist!”

And here we go again.

“What should be, and what is, don’t coincide, Twilight!” Dawn answered, her tears starting anew. “Why should you get to exist, when I don’t!? What makes you more special!? What makes you worthier?! By your own admissions, we are equal!! I told you, I don’t want to do this, but I didn’t make the rules! The way it is, is the way it is! It’s not ideal, it’s not fair, but it left me with a choice! I had to choose one world or the other, and I chose mine! This is my only chance to bring them all back!”

Twilight grunted as she charged her horn. “You know just as well as I do that might doesn’t make right! It never has!! What would your friend say if they saw you acting like this!?”

Naturally, they’d be appalled, but in time they would understand, unhappily. Nopony’s arguing those points.

Dawn closed her eyes and sighed. She murmured, “Yeah, I know. Might doesn’t make right, and it won’t make me a hero, either. It just makes what is.”

Dawn opened her eyes again, leaking a large tear down the right side of her face. As Twilight frowned, the aura around her horn grew, and she growled, “Since that’s what you think....”

And so we come to the moment of truth. May as well get this over with.

Another such tear left Dawn’s eye as she fired up her own horn.

Above, Celestia and Luna dug their hooves in against the tugging of the void. The cracking of the tile from earlier provided a foothold, though the agony on their faces and the splintering sounding revealed what their hooves endured to keep them from falling in. Light flashed through the portal, bursts and beams of magenta and light blue. The sisters cried out in physical and magical exertion. Then through the portal came a glare, a harshly bright shine of the two colours in equal portions. For a tense half-minute or more, the overpowering light forced both sisters to squint in any hopes of seeing what was going on, or any hint of how the stalemate might end. The blue overtook the magenta for a moment, then all the light was the reddish purple. A moment later the glare subsided.

“I can’t keep this up much longer, dear sister!” Celestia whimpered.

Just then, Twilight Sparkle returned through the portal. She was fully opaque. Bracing her hooves against what was left of the grout and mortar, she blasted magic around the portal’s edges, and in a flash of white light it was gone, showing nothing but the damaged rock beds behind where it stood. All traces of its unique door jamb were gone. The sisters released the barrier. After a moment to alleviate the pain, Celestia slowly started toward her faithful student. Twilight flopped down, sobbing. Celestia slowed her approach. She looked down upon the junior princess. Twilight had her face buried under her forelimbs, sounding truly miserable. Luna followed behind at a few lengths’ distance. A few of the archivists timidly peered through the main doorway. Celestia tapped Twilight on the shoulder. Slowly she looked up at her mentor. Celestia pulled her into a hug, speaking in a soft, soothing maternal voice, “You’re okay, Twilight. You’re okay. You don’t have to worry about it anymore. It’s over.”

Twilight tightened her embrace of Celestia with tears still streaming down her face. She turned her head, nuzzling her right cheek against Celestia’s neck, leaving the vertical cut on her left untouched. She murmured, “It’s over. It’s all over now....”

Two weeks later....

Princess Twilight Sparkle opened the door to the Great Mausoleum. She beckoned her royal escort to wait outside as she entered, looking up and down the rows of names. She continued her slow amble like that for a good two minutes before coming to a stop. She stared in shock at large panel in front of her:

Starswirl The Bearded
B. unknown
D. 16th of March, Year 74 of the Age of Unity
“The greatest mind magic has ever known.”

She blinked several times in rapid succession for a moment, then plopped down into a sitting position without much royal poise. She mumbled, “Even interred, I’m still awestruck by you, by what you’ve accomplished.”

A moment passed in silence. A sunbeam shining through a higher window hinted at cloud movements in the skies above. She continued, “I didn’t want to come here, but I can’t think of any other way to get these thoughts off my mind.”

Another pause. She sighed through her nose, gazing around at the columns and the birds on the outside of the windows, flitting about. Twilight looked back at the name carved in the stone. “I’m glad you tried to save both worlds. I just wish you told somebody back then. Maybe then we’d still have both, instead of just Equestria.”

Twilight closed her eyes and hung her head. “We ran the numbers on your nineteen-scroll spell. You were right. With enough power, the two worlds would have been stablised. It’s incredible, that such a thing was possible. But as much as I want to, I can’t share that with my friends, or bring myself to tell them what all happened that day.”

Her eyes slowly opened. She rubbed at the healing cut on her left cheek. “Yeah…‘my friends.’ But are they really?”

She looked back at the great doors and saw they were still closed. “That’s the one thing you missed on. About absorbing her essence...I think that might have worked, if there was any of Equus left. But there wasn’t. It was completely gone.”

She tapped the floor unenthusiastically. “With Equus annihilated, absorbing her essence didn’t restore anybody. It just changed me into her. My memories are all that’s left of our world.”

The princess snickered for less than a second with a sad smile. “It’s kinda funny, that with a thought I can react like she would have, or like myself. Most of the time I’ve been acting as she would, just to keep from inciting confusion, or worse. I have all her memories, too.”

She frowned at the name on the tomb. “Guess I’m mad at you, that you botched your final piece of advice as badly as you did. Now I’m forced to live out her life instead of mine, or what I could have become in this world. And I’m stuck unable to say a word of the truth, without sounding like I’ve gone insane.”

She shook her head again. “Cannot be myself, but in truth cannot be her, either. I’m caught between day and night, stuck in this...crepuscular existence, where the only time I feel real is when I’m not quite asleep and not quite awake...and the rest of the time like I’m stuck in some mutation of reality, or like I’m watching a play or motion picture.”

The princess turned her eyes toward the doors again. “Maybe someday I’ll learn to accept life as Twilight Sparkle. But in my heart, home will always be Ponyton.”

Fin

Author's Note

And thus does she live out her days in the flesh of another. Twilight Sparkle, a prodigy of magical talent, and a princess who ruled with an even, just hoof, one who averted war without cowardice, and brought prosperity to the many. Yet there was always a melancholy about her, an incurable sadness everypony around her noticed, one that came after a certain eventful day....

Escape to..."Ponyville?"

Another gorgeous sunrise greeted Ponyton. Princess Dawn Twinkle smiled broadly as the sun crested over the eastern mountains, watching from The Palace of Harmony’s cathedral balcony. She was a thin and lithe alicorn, sky blue dappled with white, dark blue eyes, and braided mane and tail the colour of the sun at sunrise. The princess, of course, had already been up for several hours, attending to her morning routine of study and worshipful meditation. The warming sunbeams pressed into her fur and she inhaled deeply and happily. Life had been very good to her: studies under Princess Galactia, becoming a bearer of an Element of Friendship, spreading harmony around the world...her work gave her great satisfaction and contentment.

She couldn’t help but smile when she thought about her achievements: Dawn had averted war on four separate occasions, turning the would-be belligerents into friends. Internal threats came to the United Pony Kingdoms numerous times, and she and the other Element Bearers prevented the tragedies, often turning lives around for the better in the process. They made peace with many other species: the Deer and Elk kingdoms, the Yaks of the north, the Bison of the west, the Water Buffalo of the east, and the Wildebeest to the south. Trade had grown across the continent and shipping lanes over the ocean were taking hold. Peace and prosperity reigned. Coffers everywhere were filling up. Even the poor across the known world were nowhere near as destitute as they once were. Homelessness was almost a thing of the past, and at the rate they were going, would be in the next three years.

Yet…, there was something wrong with the world, something very wrong. There was talk of “grey waves” that shattered everything in their path, leaving an empty void behind them. Princess J’aime La Musique had disappeared after such a wave struck her palace…the whole town, gone without a trace. Many went to look, but found a new edge of the world before they got to where it was. There had been other grey waves, and it had been awhile since the last one was seen, but it still was unsettling to think reality was just plain falling apart. Princess Galactia and Princess Soleila had been frantically searching for answers. Late last night an answer came from Princess Galactia. Dawn did not know what books, or what astronomy, or what powerful magic the royal sisters went through to find an answer, but it was not a good one. She said their world and another were in competition for reality, for existence, that for one to survive the other had to die. Galactia said that their world, from what they could tell, was losing the fight.

I can’t believe such a thing. And even if it were true, I cannot and will not believe the gods would choose to destroy us instead of this other. We’ve ever been true unto them. We’ve shone the light they wished to every society, to every corner of Equus. We’ve made every enemy into a friend. We used the Elements of Friendship they bestowed upon us as their written wills commanded us to do.

She felt a rumble. Looking down, she noticed the book she set down on the banister was vibrating. She looked around. Ponies came out of their homes in a frightened clamour. Dawn flitted upward, continuing to look around. And out of the west she saw it: a grey wave. It was headed at Ponyton.

She swooped down, and, using a spell to amplify her voice, “Everypony run! There’s a grey wave coming out of the west!”

Ponyton’s resident didn’t need telling twice. They set off at a full gallop toward the rising sun. But the wave was coming, and coming quickly. Pegasi took off. The wave crashed through The Palace of Harmony, which went to pieces that quickly disappeared from existence. Dawn looked back to see the houses and stragglers be swallowed up. The wave spanned horizon-to-horizon, and began overtaking the rest.

Dawn swooped down as the wave approached a zebra in the crowd, shouting, “Tabasamu! I’m coming!”

“Save yourself! For me it’s too late! Please, Dawn, do not hesitate!” he shouted.

He disappeared as the wave overtook him. The dappled princess started to cry as she pulled up before the wave snatched her, too. Others she knew fell, including the other Element Bearers: Amber Waves was next after Tabasamu Kubwa, then Garland Wreath was swallowed, Nightwatch’s air speed could not get away, and neither could Greased Lightning’s.

No...no, no, no…!! My friends...I’m sorry...I’m so sorry...this can’t be happening...why would the gods do this…?? How could they betray their truest followers? I…can’t…Tabasamu, Amber, Garland, Nighty, Lightning…I loved you all….

Dawn screamed as she pulled up into a vertical climb, eyes clamped shut and flowing with tears. She wailed in heaving sobs as she could not climb any higher. The abyss below tugged at her as the grey wave collapsed, another area of the world claimed. She opened her eyes and looked downward, refusing to flap any more.

There’s nothing now...no reason...may as well join my friends in the beyond….

She sighed and passed out as she tumbled out of the sky, into the empty nothing below.

Dawn groaned and snorted, her nose full of dry dirt. She opened her eyes, and found herself in a familiar woodland, with familiar flora around in every direction.

The Unchained Woods...must’ve been a nightmare. I don’t recall coming out here, but that sure beats those grey waves. Eugh...creepy. I need to stop reading all those old myths. Not sure why the ancient ponies conjured up such horrible tales and scary legends...they had enough to deal with back then. Now, where am I in the woods?

Dawn started to trot along a small animal path. She pressed through saplings, over fallen logs, and around greenbrier patches. The princess, however, did not recognize where the trees where, nor their shapes, nor their undergrowth...as if the gods shifted everything around on a tabletop model. Even the creek didn’t look like one she’d seen in The Unchained Woods.

At least the creatures look familiar...where the heck am I? Do I go upstream and up the hill to look around, or downstream until it hits a river?

Dawn turned upstream. The brook was about a length and a half wide and not particularly deep, except by its cut banks. Time passed. Half an hour? Maybe a full hour? Dawn wasn’t sure. What was certain, though, was that the trees began to thin and shorten. With a glint of hope kindled in her heart, Dawn pressed forward along the stream. She came out of the woods.

What the…? That’s not...what’s going on here!?

Dawn found herself on the outskirts of a rural, agrarian town. It resembled Ponyton in many, many ways, but...something was off. The wood-framed Tudor architecture was right. But the frames were all the wrong colour. Ponyton’s frames were all a rich dark brown; these all had redder frames, like they were cedar or something similar. Dawn cautiously stepped forward. Nopony had noticed her yet. As she walked forward, she felt eyes upon her. She looked to her right, and saw a white unicorn with a crazy blue mane and tail, wearing purple shades and headphones looking at her with a raised eyebrow. The faint hum of electronica with a heavy bass line leaked from the headphones.

Dawn walked over to her and asked, “Excuse me, miss, can you please tell me what’s going on?”

The unicorn titled her head to the side. She stopped her music player and pulled down her headphones. She also pulled down her purple shades, revealing a pair of red-magenta eyes that were full of confusion, surprise, and a hint of distrust. Dawn pursed her lips and repeated, “Miss, can you tell me what’s going on, please?”

The unicorn just blinked at her. Dawn tried again. “I don’t recall seeing you in Ponyton before, ma’am. May I have your name, please, and tell me what’s happened to town?”

The unicorn frowned. She tapped at her throat and shook her head. Dawn’s eyes widened for a moment as her mouth rounded. “Oh...my apologies, miss.”

The unicorn patted her on the shoulder, then pantomimed...something. Directions, maybe? Letter shapes? Dawn couldn’t tell, but tried to keep up. After she finished, Dawn said, “Um, thanks? I’ll...just head home, I think. Hope it’s still in the same place….”

The unicorn stared as Dawn walked away, and shrugged. Dawn passed between two houses, both of which looked unfamiliar. Out onto the street, she found the whole place shuffled. Buildings were shaped wrong, and the wrong colours. Everypony she came across looked familiar, yet clearly were not the ponies she knew from Ponyton. That mare with the two-toned mane was a few colours off from Chocolate Kisses, this mare with the keg was too purple to be Cider Cup, and that red draft stallion looked so much like Oat Rows it gave her a headache.

Was...was the grey wave a real event? Did that really happen? But I’m still living and breathing...so that means—but this is a bad mirror-image of Ponyton! Maybe I’m dead, and this is the afterlife? If it is, I have to find my friends!

Dawn rushed onward and found the bazaar. To call it a ‘bazaar’ would not quite be accurate. Maybe a ‘farmer’s market’ would have been better, as pretty much everything for sale was fresh produce and the like. Dawn quickly found herself subjected to numerous confused stares as conversations halted when she walked by. Everypony made way for her. In under two minutes the marketplace had gone silent, with all eyes on her. Dawn’s cheeks heated up and her ears flattened while she walked forward. Hushed voices echoed around the stalls, mostly mystified at her presence, though there was plenty of suspicion, distrust, and accusation going around.

Dawn turned around, looking across the sea of eyes. After a brief moment to think about what to say, she asked the crowd, “Is…there anypony here who knows who I am?”

More murmuring answered her. Much of it was more confusion. Some of it was pity. Others sounded angry, as if she were insulting them all. One word kept popping up that she could distinguish: “twilight.”

Dawn cut in, “I’m just looking for a familiar face. Any familiar face.”

“It’d help if we know who you are!” shouted somepony in the crowd. Many others murmured in assent.

This isn’t going to go over well….

“My name is Dawn Twinkle, and I have no idea where I am,” she said, almost fully masking her anxiety and apprehension.

“Ponyville!” the crowded shouted in near-unison, making Dawn stagger a moment from the sheer volume. The hushed talking amongst themselves resumed to varying degrees and states of emotion, though none had returned to what they were doing. The word “twilight” came up in many more of these side conversations.

Well...that at least explains why it doesn’t look like Ponyton, but I’ve never heard of a place named “Ponyville” anywhere, foreign or domestic.

“Are you a princess?” some stallion shouted. The entire crowd shut up and stared at her again.

Oh, horsefeathers...somepony just had to ask...gonna go down like a lead balloon….

“Well...yeah, or at least, I was...I don’t know anymore,” Dawn said sheepishly. The tone among those talking turned much more accusatory as she shrank under the crowd pressure, with that “twilight” word coming from every direction.

Yeah...that went well….

“Look,” Dawn started. “I’m just trying to find a few of my friends that may have come this way. Has anypony around here seen a zebra—” several ponies’ faces lit up “—named ‘Tabasamu Kubwa,’ by any chance?”

All the faces that brightened after hearing the word “zebra” dropped back to their previous state upon hearing his name. Dawn’s shoulders slumped.

Thought he would’ve stood out the most, since zebras are rarely seen on this side of the ocean, and his contagious glee already seemed like it was in the air, until they all saw me. Guess they’ve seen a different zebra.

“Or a thestral named ‘Nightwatch?’”

Some blinked. Others shook their heads. Most of them just stared.

So much for the two most-recognisable of my friends. This doesn’t bode well.

“A fast pegasus called ‘Greased Lightning?’”

No response came from the crowd. Dawn’s ears drooped.

“A festival unicorn by the name of ‘Garland Wreath?’”

Still no answer came. Tears started welling up.

“A grain-farming earth pony named ‘Amber Waves?’”

Silence, again.

Where are my friends, if they’re not here? And what kind of afterlife is this? This is nothing like what the gods promised….

Dawn hung her head as she began to trudge away in some random direction. She tried to withhold the sobbing, with limited success. Crowd noise resumed, still with “twilight” coming off of most lips. Her mind found no reason to dwell on why these ponies were so concerned with sunset and just after. She just wanted to leave, wanted any hint of what became of her friends, wanted any clue as to where this so-called “Ponyville” was and how to get home.

She felt somepony give her a push. Dawn opened her eyes to see a concerned unicorn mare with a mint coat, whose voice, coat, and mane were a touch away from being the same as Balladeer. “Um, Miss Dawn, you were about to walk into a wall.”

Dawn looked up to see the side of a house not even two steps in front of her. She adjusted her course down the street, paying no further mind to the crowd noise as she muttered, “Sorry...thank you….”

Crowd noise picked up, along with instances of that word. A young mare’s voice called from overhead, “What’s going on here?”

Dawn opened her eyes to see a young mare land. Her eyes about shot out of their sockets when she noticed the horn along with the wings.

Who...there’s a sixth princess!? Just how many of us are there?! May as well make the crowns out of brass if this keeps up….

This alicorn was a lavender colour, with a dark blue mane and tail that both had one purple and one magenta streak side-by-side in them that all fell in a very straight pattern. On her back was a tiny purple dragon with green spines. Dawn noticed the entire crowd pointed this princess toward her. The alicorn in question turned, and gasped deeply as their eyes met.

Before Dawn could say anything, this other alicorn exuberantly motor-mouthed, “Oh my gosh! You’re an alicorn too!? But I didn’t know there was a sixth one of us! Where are you from? You must be a visitor from a distant land! I had no idea we had a dignitary coming! Spike, prepare the Ambassador Suite for our guest! I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle! Welcome to Equestria! May I get your name, please?”

Dawn felt suddenly woozy and overheated. Her vision grayed out and went to a tunnel as she uttered, “Dawn...Princess Dawn Twinkle….”

As unconsciousness overtook her, Dawn heard the little dragon say, “Geez, Twi, you overdid it again….”

Author's Note

Poor Dawn...girl's been through too much in too short a time. Ponyton's gone, and now she's in this "Ponyville." She needs answers, but fortunately has just the pony for the job in front of her.

I'll be updating this fairly quickly. Watch this space, and thanks for reading. :twilightsmile: