Chapter XXXI: Magic

The air was getting warmer, much warmer than in the caves closer to Utopia and the ponies were unsure of whether to follow the heat or avoid it. With the warmth also came aridity, the damp cave walls of dark brown rock and earth gave way to dry light brown walls. The grass grew more sparse the farther they traveled from the city, as well as all other signs of life such as bones and cobwebs. The ponies had been navigating the caves for hours, with Twilight, Rarity and Starswirl using magic to illuminate the darkness.

The ponies then arrived at an intersection of five tunnels. The Doctor led them a little distance down the warmest of the tunnels and lowered his head to sniff the ground. Then he went over to a wall and licked it. "Hmmm, tastes sandy. This way must lead out to the desert."

"Shouldn't we turn back then?" Rarity asked, "Wouldn't going back into the desert be taking a step back? And besides, I'm sure nopony wants to go back into that heat."

"It might not be that hot if we do find the way out," Twilight said, "because we should still be underground, so we're probably just going some spot where the desert air can get into the caves, like a canyon or something."

"Ah! Of course! How could I forget?" the Doctor shouted out suddenly, "The rift sucked the rock and earth in and around it when it formed and created a canyon, a big scar across the Arctic! And the tip of the canyon reaches into the Great Northern Desert! Nice work, Twilight."

"So that means we should follow the hot air? Since it leads to the rift?"

"Look at you, brilliant you! Two for two! Yes, the heat should lead us to the rift and probably to the next ingredient."

The ponies followed the dark. meandering tunnel as the grass became bare rock and the sounds of their hoofsteps echoed all around them. At some parts of the cave, where the rock collapsed the blocked the way, the unicorns pushed the debris away, and at other parts, where they encountered a deep chasm carved by underground rivers, the unicorns and earth ponies teleported across while the pegasi flew. They went along the maze and always followed the heat and dryness. Soon enough, they found the light from the never-setting Sun at the end of the tunnel and the rock came to be covered in sand. The ten ponies reached the light and exited the dark caves. The covered their eyes as the sunlight was blindingly bright to them.

Once their eyes adjusted to the light, they saw that they were on a wide ridge along a wall of an enormous deep canyon. In front of them was a cliff edge, beyond which was a sheer drop that went down farther than sunlight could reach. Above them was the cloudless sky peeking through the opening of the canyon, just a sliver of blue behind the brown, orange and beige rock and sand. Various pieces of technology, machinery and weapons were littered around the canyon, as well as the dried up bones and exoskeletons of indigenous Earth species and aliens creatures. At some point above where the ponies were, however, the oddities did not appear. Pinkie noticed this and asked, "Hey, why isn't there any stuff way up there?"

The Doctor explained, "Ah, that's because the rift only deposits its debris below two-thousand feet down the canyon. Higher elevations are beyond its spatial reach. Another fun fact: the rift only interacts with the Earth on the week of the Spring Equinox."

"How come?" Applejack asked.

"Well, you see, the rift occupies a constant spot in space and doesn't move around... er, uhh... actually I shouldn't tell you. You're still on the geocentric universe model. Just... never mind."

Just then, an old frail voice that seemed somewhat familiar came from above them. "It's annoying to have foresight that you can't tell anypony, isn't it Doctor?"

The ponies were startled by the voice and looked up at the ledge above the tunnel they exited. On it was an old griffin. She had a white feathered head, neck and chest, a brown body, wings and tail, and yellow talons. Her fur was ruffled and dull in color, and her feathers also were less than fine. Her eyes were her most distinct features, as they were white. She was blind.

"You must be the Oracle then. Pleasure to meet you," the Doctor greeted.

"Dude, the pleasure's all mine. I've been waiting for you all for two-hundred fifty years now." The Oracle hopped down from the ledge and landed amongst the ponies. "But before we get to business, there's somepony I've got to meet." She turned around in circles and sniffed each of them. She smiled upon sniffing Rainbow Dash. Slowly, she moved her talon to touch Dash's face, but Dash quickly smacked her talon away.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Dash tried to look at the Oracle in the eyes, but she simply looked straight forward blankly with her white eyes. The blankness disconcerted Dash and made her avert her eyes.

"You really don't recognize me, huh?" the Oracle said with some amusement, "Just as I expected."

"What are you talking about?" Dash replied.

"Yeah, how are we supposed to know who you are?" Pinkie joined, "You're a big mystery mysterious shady unknown griffin mystery."

The Oracle turned and sniffed the pony that spoke to her. "Oh, I promise, you know me alright... dweeb."

The six ponies gasped. Dash managed to stutter out the Oracle's name. "G-gi-g-Gilda..."

"'Sup Dash. How've you been the past two centuries?"

Fluttershy proceeded to hide from the old bully behind Pinkie. The others began to put on an attitude of hostility against her, while also being completely baffled at her appearance two-thousand years before their meeting. Slowly they backed away from her. Gilda heard their quiet hoofsteps and said, "Still angry at me, huh? Well, I guess that's alright. I deserve it anyway after all I did."

As Gilda said this, Pinkie began to feel some sympathy for her, this griffin that lived for two-hundred fifty years in a dark canyon in the middle of nowhere. She walked up and said, "So how did you get here anyway? Did you get in a time-machine too? Was it the Master?"

"No, no. It was all just an accident," Gilda replied, "Although, if you look at it in the big picture of time and space, this is fate."

"What do you mean fate?" Twilight said, "What kind of 'accident' would make you end up two-thousand years in the past?"

"This is something for the Doctor to say. At this moment, it's the Doctor who explains what happened to me." Gilda, without turning her head, gestured with her wing for the Doctor to step forward and tell the story of her fate.

The Doctor looked at the nine ponies who waited for him to give an explanation. "Well, it's all because of the rift. Gilda here fell through a rift in 21st century Equestria, probably the one in Cardhoof. As she fell, she was exposed to the Time Vortex, and all of time and space poured into her head. She saw all that was, is, what will be and what must never be. All of history from the birth of the Universe to the death of the Universe. The rift then dropped her off here, in the middle of the Great Northern Desert in the 1st century B.E- er, actually, no, the 3rd century, since she's lived here two and a half centuries. Since then she's just been waiting here, doing what she knows she will and must do. As she lives here, the rift becomes the source of her life force. It's what's kept her alive all these years. She's responsible for teaching the Utopians how to use their technology, because she was meant to do that. She mentored that zebra philosopher and sent her out into the desert to do the work that needed to be done outside the rift: telling Thorn to give Pinkie the White Dragon's fang, and giving Applejack the wedding rings of Lux and Nox. All of it, she knew was meant to happen. And all this time she's been waiting for us. I can only assume this has to do with the final ingredient of the Elements of Harmony. Am I right?"

"What about amirite?" Gilda replied.

"No, I said, 'am I right,' as in am I correct!"

"I know, I know. I'm just messing with you. Haha, two-hundred years and I still got a taste for fun. And yeah, you're right. Every bit. Luckily for me, all I had to pay for this was my sight. Going through the rift made me blind. Usually, seeing all of space and time makes ponies lose their minds and go insane."

Starswirl approached Gilda and closely examined her white eyes. He remarked, "A blind prophet... How poetic."

"Just like the prophet in the Hoofrican play, Mfalme Miguu Ndogo. I know. I got that a lot since the play was written fifty years ago. So anyway, dweebs, we've a ton to do to get that last ingredient. Follow me." Gilda hopped off of the ridge and glided down to a narrow bridge of rock that spanned across the canyon below where the ponies were. The pegasi flew after Gilda, while the unicorns and earth ponies teleported to the bridge. Floating above the center of the bridge was a big round black metallic featureless sphere.

"Oh no, not another one of these again..." the Doctor said as he approached and looked up at strange object. "Where'd you get a Void sphere?"

"I built it. Yeah, I know, pretty impressive if I say so myself."

The Doctor looked at Gilda with surprise and admiration. Here, out of scrap and space junk, and completely on her own, she had built a vessel that was the stuff of legend, something that the most advanced societies could only dream of making. He looked up at the sphere with amazement and dread, because if Gilda built a Void sphere for them, then the most dangerous journey imaginable was in store.

"Anypony gonna tell us what in tarnation that doo-hickey is?" Applejack asked.

"This is a Void sphere," the Doctor answered, "a ship capable of traveling through the Void, the region between universes. There are countless parallel universes out there, all stacked up against each other, and between them is absolute nothingness. No matter, no energy, no space, no time. It is pure nothing. The Time Stallions called it Hell."

"That doesn't sound very safe..." Fluttershy quietly commented.

"No it's not. It's just about the most dangerous place to be in the whole of Creation. For something from space and time to go somewhere where space and time don't exist is against the laws of everything, and... well, let's say the consequences are dire. Only the Void sphere can bend those laws and safely enter the Void."

Everypony turned and faced Gilda. They all wondered what she was planning to do with this sphere and what it had to do with them. Everypony silently stood there waiting for an answer to their questions from the all-knowing Oracle, but then they remembered that she was blind and probably did not notice that they were staring at her. Twilight broke the silence, "So, you built a ship to go into the Void and now you're showing it to us and you've been waiting for us for hundreds of years, so I'm guessing we're supposed to get in the sphere and go into the Void?"

"Yeah, that's about it."

The ponies looked at each other and murmured in concern. After hearing what the Doctor had to say about the Void, they were not eager to enter it. They all stared at the sphere and its presence was strangely discomforting.

"Gilda," the Doctor began, "Are you sure this is a good idea, because it doesn't look like a good idea to me. To go into the Void, we'd have to break a hole in the walls of the Universe and you should know how dangerous that is."

"I know, Doctor, but you've got one big asset. You've got somepony who can break through the walls easily and safely, although even I don't know how she does it."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Gilda then pointed at Starswirl and said to him, "Starswirl the Bearded, tell us, in your religion what's beyond the Universe."

"Beyond the Universe... uh, the ancients texts sayeth 'tis the Great Unknown," Starswirl answered.

"And what's between our universe and the Great Unknown?"

"The ancient texts calleth it 'The Fourth Wall.'"

Gilda than sniffed the air and located Pinkie. She turned and faced her. "I've seen all of time and space and there's one thing that bugs me more than anything else. Something I don't understand. Something that defies all logic. A freak of nature. In all of time and space, there's one pony and only one who can break through the Fourth Wall. And it's this little dweeb here." Gilda affectionately reached out her talon and ruffled Pinkie's poofy mane.

"Heehee! That tickles! But wait shouldn't this be Twilight's challenge?" Pinkie asked, "'Cause each of the ingredients came with a challenge to each of us, and now it's just Twilight who hasn't gotten one."

"Oh this isn't a challenge for you, Pinkie," Gilda answered, "Breaking the wall is a piece of cake for you. The real challenge is navigating through the Void, and that's what Twilight's got to do."

This shocked Twilight and she backed a few steps as all eyes focused on her. She looked at each pony with a hint of terror in her eyes. "But... but... why me? I can't drive a ship. I'm sorry, but I didn't study this. I never got a maritime education or an intergalactic one for that matter."

Gilda followed the sound of Twilight's hoofsteps and heavy breathing and put a talon on Twilight's shoulder. "It's alright. It's all cool. You don't need to study the ship. All you need's your magic. The final ingredient's the essence of all matter and energy in the Universe. Now, I don't have a clue what that means, but I do know that the Element of Magic is the key to finding it. Whatever this essence is, it's deeply connected to the force of magic. In fact, it's probably the source of all magic in the Universe. Yeah, it's kind of a big deal. I don't know where the heck it is, so that means it's outside the boundaries of time and space. And if there's anything that can track it down through the Void, it's magic. Specifically your magic because your Element is the most powerful magic ever. You have to navigate the Void and find this essence. The world depends on it."

Twilight heaved a disgruntled sigh and whined, "Ugh, why's it always me that the world depends on..."

"Oi! The world depends on me too sometimes!" the Doctor responded.

Gilda, with Dash's guidance, flew up to the sphere, and she touched it with her talon. Upon contact with Gilda's skin, the Void sphere gave off a loud clang, and it opened up, the shell rolling back segment by segment, revealing a plain white featureless interior. The sphere contained nothing, only an empty space for the ponies to occupy.

"It's a bit small," Rarity remarked, "It'll be awfully crowded in there."

"There's only room for six," Gilda said.

The Doctor quickly turned his head and said, "What?!"

"You, Derpy, Starswirl and Rainbow Sword aren't meant to be on this journey. It's for these six and these six only."

"You can't seriously think that I'll let them go into the Void alone!"

"It's what's meant to be, Doctor. You know better than to interfere with what's been set. I'd be happy to let you in if the laws of time allowed it, but sadly they don't."

"But-"

"Sorry, dude. This is fixed. There's nothing you can do."

The Doctor conceded. He knew better than to interfere with what time had predestined. Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie walked over and stood directly beneath the open Void sphere. They looked up anxiously at the white circle above them.

From a safe distance away, beside the Doctor, Derpy, Starswirl and Sword, Gilda gave the ponies some final words. "Where you're going, even I have no idea what it's like. I don't know where you'll go, who you'll find or what you'll see. The Great Unknown's called the Great Unknown for good reason. This spot's the focal point of the rift, the easiest place to open the walls of the Universe. Pinkie, you've got to open a hole in the walls to get into the Void, and you need to open a hole to get out of it."

"Wait, isn't there a spell I need to learn?" Twilight asked.

Gilda answered, "There's no spell for this. No sorcerer, wizard, king, queen, princess or whatever has ever been where you're going. It's just you and your friends. Harness the power of the magic of your friendship, and it'll guide you. Just trust the pure essence of your magic... whatever that means... I just remember seeing myself say that to you, but I don't really know what it means."

Derpy then flew over to the six and hugged each of them. "I'm gonna miss you guys. Have fun in Hell!"

The Doctor did the same and said, "Be careful, alright. The last thing I need is six companions stuck outside of space and time. Last time I dealt with that, the only way out was the power of my imagination, and that was tough. So be careful! And good luck."

Starswirl and Sword, being less sentimental ponies, shook hooves with the six.

"The fate of the world is in thy hooves, my little ponies," Starswirl said, "May the Sun bless thy day and may the Moon guard thy night."

"Be brave, my friends," Sword said, "Whatever is ahead of you is more formidable than anything I've dealt with, and seeing the way you six conduct yourselves, I believe you can face it. The strength in your hearts is greater than in any pony, dragon or Hoofrican I've encountered. May fortune be on your side."

Everypony backed away from the six and stayed a good distance away from the Void sphere as Gilda instructed. Twilight breathed in deeply and exhaled long and heavily. Here was the greatest challenge in her life so far. It would make quite the letter for Princess Celestia if she makes it through. No, when she makes it through. She looked to Gilda the Oracle and watched her raise her talon.

Before Gilda snapped, Dash stopped her, "Hold on! Gilda, I just got to ask you something. Why are you doing this for us? After everything we went through, I thought you'd hate us all. But instead you spend hundreds of years in the middle of the desert just to help us. Why?"

Gilda smiled gently as she remembered the one day she spent at Ponyville with Rainbow Dash and her friends. Everything she did that day, and how that day ended. She said, "Two words: I'm sorry."

"Actually that's technically three words," Pinkie joined in, "since 'I'm' is a contraction of 'I' and 'am'."

Gilda giggled. "Alright. Now make like bees and buzz off!" She snapped her talon and the Void sphere began to hum. It sucked in Twilight, Applejack, Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie and closed shut. Above the sphere, there came a great white light that then split into a spectrum of colors. The light spread out into a ring swirling in the air and inside that ring was nothing but darkness. It was a portal into the Void. The rim of the portal sent out bolts of electricity that repeatedly struck the Void sphere. Slowly, the portal widened and soon it was big enough for the sphere to enter through. The circle swirled faster and faster, and the electricity striking the sphere grew more numerous and more powerful. Then, in a flash of light of every color in the visible spectrum, the Void sphere disappeared.

Author's Note

It was a tough decision, choosing between Gilda and Trixie to be the Oracle, since both were equally despicable characters, but then Trixie had her redemption in Magic Duel, so I went with Gilda and gave her a redeeming moment.
And in case anypony gets confused about how the Doctor knows what happened to Gilda, it's just him being smart and deducing the story from the facts available to him. He didn't have any prior knowledge about her.
And the quest for the ingredient of Magic is a two-part thing, so the next chapter is the part-two of this one, hence the relatively shorter length.

Also, 500 views! yay. *enter message thanking my audience for all their support and help in getting to this point*
And this fic's birthday (well, the day before its birthday but close enough). It's rather embarrassing to think that this has taken me a year now.