Displaced into Nothing

by RockstarRaccoon

Chapters

Prologue: Blank Canvas
Chapter 1: White Noise
Chapter 2: Shadows on the wall
Chapter 3: Sharpening the Lines
Chapter 4: Filling In the Blank Spaces
Chapter 5: Expanding the Color Palette (Part 1)
Chapter 5: Expanding the Color Palette (2nd half)
Act 3 Introduction (AKA "Princess Luna recaps the plot")
Chapter 6: The Colder Tones (Part 1 of 4)
Chapter 6: The Colder Tones (Part 2 of 4)
Chapter 6: The Colder Tones (part 3 of 4)
Chapter 6: The Colder Tones (part 4 of 4)
Chapter 7: Shades of Grey (1 of 3)
Chapter 7: Shades of Grey (2 of 3)
Chapter 7: Shades of Grey (3/3)
Chapter 8: Desaturated
Chapter 9: ...and a Shade Darker
Chapter 9: ...and a Shade Darker [ TEXT ONLY VERSION ]

Prologue: Blank Canvas

Let me tell you about my life...

Or...

That's not exactly right...

Let me try this again.

Let me tell you about a girl named Marilyn Susanna...

Marilyn lived in a strange land, far, far away from our own. A land where creatures like Unicorns and Dragons were neither seen nor heard. A land where the stories of great sorcerers and wizards were just that, stories. A land where there were no monsters or mystical wonders to be wondered at. A land where most people believed magic to be nothing but fantasies and fairy tales...

Marilyn Susanna was born in an ordinary hospital, on an ordinary day, the daughter of an ordinary working class family. And at first, Marilyn seemed like an ordinary girl... But there was something extraordinary about her. Marilyn loved reading from a young age, especially stories about the magic and adventure, even though it was all considered mere fantasy in her world. Marilyn knew magic wasn’t real. But she wanted to believe in it, she wanted it to be real so hard, but alas, it seemed the doomed fantasy of a child...

Marilyn was smart though. Incredibly smart. She had a curious, contemplative mind, and excelled in math and the sciences from a young age. She graduated high school a whole grade ahead, and was given a full scholarship to a prestigious University. She minored in Mathematics, and majored in... It doesn’t have a name in your language yet, but it involves logic and math.

It was in her second year of college that she became involved in the study of the Occult.

The group was supposed to be secret, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to tell you, seeing as you’ll likely never come across it. They held late night meetings in libraries, coffee shops, and apartments, and called themselves the Midnight Society. The Midnighters discussed cutting edge science, speculative history, philosophy, metaphysics, religion, the paranormal, cryptozoology, conspiracy theories, and most importantly, magic.

Marilyn knew in her head that this wasn’t a rational decision. Magic wasn’t real, there were no supernatural forces... The world was as it seemed, governed by a set of logical rules, which could be observed and modeled. Magic was not part of that model. Marilyn told herself it was all just fun and speculation, and was known as the everpresent skeptic of the group...

...until one night, the group found irrefutable evidence of the supernatural.

During an experimental ritual, the Midnighters opened the barrier between their reality and what you may know of as the Dream Realm, granting passage to something truly terrifying. The entity, known to the Waking realm as a “Deep One”, was a literally nightmarish creature, born from the deepest depths of the collective unconscious, and it had no interest in cooperation with the lesser beings who had opened the doorway. Far from it... This being of incredible power hated them, blaming them for every crime their kind had ever committed.

One of Marilyn’s fellow Midnighters died at the Deep One’s terrible claws that night, shortly before the others could push it back beneath the veil of nightmares. Shaken by the reality of what had come to pass, the rest of her group abandoned the study of the paranormal altogether...

...But Marilyn became obsessed.

The supernatural was real! It had happened right in front of her! And now, she knew that its power could be harnessed...

Marilyn managed to complete her bachelors degree in only four years, impressing her professors with her sharp, analytical mind. By night, however, she moonlighted as a sorceress, learning to influence people through their dreams, to incept ideas within their minds which would later play out in reality, to take works of pure concept and make them impossible realities. Marilyn quickly gained favors she had never earned, was given jobs she would never have been considered for, had access to secrets whose owners had never told a soul...

Marilyn had power. Power that began to terrify even her...

People wouldn’t just do her harmless favors, she realized: she had the power to cause men and women to leave their spouses for her, to empty their bank accounts and become destitute for her... to kill for her. Worse, as time went on, she became increasingly aware of entities far more powerful than her, and Marilyn knew that it was only a matter of time before they caught wind of what she was doing.

By this point, she had amassed quite a savings account, most of it gained by rigging the odds. She decided it was time to get out while she still could: she quit her job, left the city, and moved to the countryside, nearly swearing off her Sorcery altogether, only using it from that point forward for knowledge and her own protection. Secluded, she was safe to live out her life in peace, away from the temptations of society.

The few friends she’d made in college noticed that she came around less and less, and tried to get her to come back out of her shell, unaware of the exploits which she’d been drawn into. One day, they invited her to a comic book convention. She had plenty of money, and it would be fun they said... Lonely from her self-imposed isolation, she agreed: what would it hurt to relax for a few days?

Soon, Marilyn found herself enjoying one of the biggest comic book conventions in her country, dressed in a costume she'd thrown together of one of her favourite cartoon characters from her childhood, looking bright-eyed at all the childish pleasures there.

On the last day of the convention, she wandered into a very peculiar stall... The goods here were of remarkable quality, some looking almost as if they were the real thing. It was here that she saw the most adorable plush toy, and decided that she should buy it. She exchanged brief pleasantries with the vendor, a tall, thin man with a mustache. He looked to be just past middle aged, but was still somewhat handsome, with an odd glint in his eye. As Marilyn finished paying him, she noticed there was something... off about him... As if his spirit was... hollow...

...Was he...?

No. That was impossible. She laughed it off as she walked out of the stall: of course there was no real magic here. That would be silly, right? She didn’t even see the hole before she was already careening through. The spellwork had bared down on her before she had any time to throw up a ward. In a last fit of desperation, she clawed out with her mind, working to unravel the spell before it literally tore her body apart...

And that, at the far-too-young age of twenty seven, is where the story of Marilyn Susanna comes to an unfortunate end...

...And where MY story begins.

Author's Note

Revised on July 27, because it's a weak intro. :V
Revised again Aug 12 because I think I'm about to get featured again...
Revised one last time Sep 14, becuase I had to reread.

Chapter 1: White Noise

My memories of the circumstances under which I came to be what I am are a bit shaky, considering what was happening at the time and what happened shortly after. I still have some vague recollection of “living” through it though, and I can piece the rest together from what I found out later.

This is what I know...

I was in a massive empty space, surrounded by almost total darkness, the only point of reference I had to judge distance by was the flickering colors and lights far far away. I'd glimpsed this part of the cosmos before, but only at the farthest reaches I’d dared to explore: I'd never figured out a way to actually traverse the distance to here, and I'd worried about the dangers I knew must lurk here in the inter-dimensional space I now know as the Void. I didn't have time to think about that though: from the moment the spell hit me, I could feel my form being torn away, as if it was merely a paper shroud for my mind and soul. I tried desperately to hold it together, lest I be lost in the Void as a consciousness without a body, but the spell was too powerful: my physical form was broken down into raw potential before I could even mount a proper counter. Whatever cast this spell had directed an immense amount of force into it, as if I was struggling against the indomitable will of a distant leviathan...

I had barely recovered my bearings by the time the next part of the spell began to trigger. The first part had removed my physical form, but was somehow keeping me together as the next part started to weave a new form around me. Not one to be part of someone else's magical experiment, I quickly pulled at the fabric of that spell...

I quickly found that, while whoever this caster was had access to far greater will and energy than me, their spellwork was far less sophisticated than one would expect. It was as if they'd used a brute force approach to removing my body and constructing a new one around my mind. I managed to pull it apart at the seams, instead using my own spell to break it down and absorb it, quickly hijacking whatever spell was keeping me together and trying to weave some sort of ward to defend myself from whatever was going on...

...it was the moment that I'd countered the spell though, that all hell broke loose.

Before I could finish raising a defense, another set of spellforms rushed in on me: I'd triggered some sort of failsafe. It was quickly made clear to me that whoever the caster was hadn't intended to let me exist if they couldn't control my existence. The trap spells grabbed at all parts of my being, pulling at my mind and memories, trying to unmake what little was left of who I'd been. Once again, my efforts to resist directly were useless: it was like fighting against some unstoppable force of will, bearing down upon my insignificant mind, a mind which I was losing fast.

Desperate to not be turned into nothing, I grasped at the spellwork, frantically tearing apart those spellforms and absorbing their energy. Every second, whole swaths of the person Marilyn had been were ripped away. Memories, consciousness, and personality were shredded, thrown asunder, and whatever I didn't manage to hold onto was lost to the Void, like disintegrating objects in space. By the time I'd pulled apart the spellwork, the damage was done: I had no idea who I was or what was happening to me. All I knew was that I needed to keep what was left together, and keep myself from being subsumed into the astral. Every moment I spent in that void, entropy wreaked havoc on me: I was literally falling to pieces...

Clawing out in desperation, I found one last spellform which hadn't yet triggered. All I could tell was that it was some sort of travel spell, meant to relocate me somewhere far across the cosmos. I had no idea where the caster had intended to send me, and at this point, I didn't have enough mind left to guess. All I knew was that anywhere was better than here...

With no other options left, I tapped into the spellform and activated it, sending myself hurdling across the space between realities. Turbulent forces wrenched me about as I struggled to maintain my sense of self, experiencing a form of ego death as my raw essence was directly exposed to the collective unconscious of a billion worlds. I don't know how long I was falling for: time is an entirely relative construct, and I had no frame of reference, nor was I even a temporal being at this point. It could have been seconds just as easily as an eternity. I was running purely on will and purpose at this point: I would have felt fear, but the emotion was no longer functioning, so close I was to being subsumed into the cosmos entirely by the time I hit the destination and was quickly pulled into the aura of some unknown World...

I felt a vast force surround me as I entered the powerful magical field this world was surrounded by, and just as soon as I'd left the power vacuum of the void, I found myself tumbling about in some sort of vortex around a massive power source. Quickly losing coherency, I focused on keeping myself intact. I managed to connect the cluttered remnants of the girl who had been Marilyn haphazardly, unable to rebuild memories and concepts properly in the maelstrom. My will had been exhausted at this point, and I found my consciousness dwindling. Unable to act, unable to find shelter, the purpose that had driven me began to die...

Forms blended into nothing... Existence became meaningless...

Author's Note

Revised July 28th, because it's in the Featured box and a lot of people are reading it fresh
Revised one last time on Sept 14, because I needed to reread anyway.

Chapter 2: Shadows on the wall

“Alright. Let's begin!”

“Ready when you are!”

“July 24th, 4 LR. While performing routine observation of the Harmonic Aether as part of the ongoing study, (see Harmonic Aether Survey, 4 LR) I have discovered what appears to be a large spellform held within the 5th spiral of the current. This finding is significant, as spellforms are typically broken apart soon after entering the flow. This spellform, however, seems to have been built to preserve itself in hostile conditions, possibly the Void which lies outside of the Aether on the astral plane. What's more, this structure, while far too complex to analyze, is clearly of purposeful construction by a talented mage, but does not appear similar to any comparable spellform on record. After preliminary study, I am tempted to speculate that this may be...” She hesitated a moment, taking in a breath, “...of extraEquestrial origin.”

He stopped, “Wait... You mean like... Aliens?”

The mare hesitated, then nodded slowly, “Yeah, I looked through the records of this method of spellcraft, and I didn't find anything like it: no one's ever developed the use of Concept-Thoughtforms in this way, especially considering it's uses in spellcasting are mostly supplemental to different spells, and this is far too complex to be an experiment... That doesn't exactly rule out something from our planet, but it definitely rules out any culture we have contact with.”

“...wait... What if this is some sort of Invasion? Like in that movie! They didn't send their spaceships, they sent a machine to terraform the planet!”

She rolled her eyes, “Calm down Spike, it looks more like a time capsule filled with information than anything else, and even if it was, I just put it in a Thaumatic Isolation Chamber. It's not going to be able to do anything because it won't be able to act upon anything outside of its containment.”

“Are you sure? What if it's a mind-control spell? What if there's more of them? We should tell the Princess.”

“Ok, first off, this thing didn't exactly blend in with the background radiation. I'm sure if there were more I'd have noticed. Second, I am a princess, and I'm going to have you send a copy of this to Celestia when we're done. Third, there’s no reason so far to believe the creators of this spell were hostile, or that it’s even a spell with destructive capabilities. Now, any other emergencies, or can we get back to documenting these findings?”

Spike sighed, “No... Ready when you are...” He lifted the quill back to the parchment.

She nodded with a little smile. “Alright, where was I?”

“ExtraEquestrial origin.”

“Right. To prevent potential degradation of the spellform, and to isolate it for closer study, I have placed it in a Thaumatic Isolation Chamber. I will proceed to run routine analyses on the spellform before directly experimenting with it. As the only known spellform of its kind, however, I will avoid anything which might damage it at this time. Attached are the results of my observations.

Signed, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Doctor of Magical Sciences.”

Spike finished copying down the notes. “... Magical Sciences. Got it. What's next?”

“Well...” Twilight looked around her lab, thinking, “I have the machines set up... I suppose you could go back upstairs for a while while I run some tests...”

“You sure? I could stick around and write things down if you need me...”

She shook her head, “No, it's fine, just don't leave the castle in case I need an extra set of hooves.”

Spike nodded, heading for the stairs, “Right... I'll get back to cleaning...”

Twilight smiled a little, adding as he rounded the corner, “I love you Spike!”

“Love you too Twilight!”

Twilight beamed for a moment before turning back to her work...

Twilight opened her magical vectors, reaching out towards the corners of the room, wrapping her aura around several machines which had swiveling wheels attached to their bases. She solidified her magical grip and pulled the objects into the center of the room, arranging them around the isolation chamber and starting them up, one by one.

Her thaumatic spectrometer was first: she hadn't been able to get this thing's frequency in the wild, but now that she had it isolated, she could find out for sure what kind of energy it was made from. She started that machine, and moved onto several others, such as her lattice distribution analyzer and her aural lithograph machine, before standing, herself, in between two of the machines and observing the spellform directly, pencil and notepad held in her magic beside her. She began the process of carefully sketching and analyzing the various patterns in the spellform, but she quickly realized she wasn’t going to get it all down. There were so many complex details here that it might take her a whole week to actually map it out, and on top of that it was moving: a whole section of it was just a stack of rotating circles, not far apart from each other. She counted about 500 discs in that stack, but it was only a guess: they were like a stack of papers that had suddenly decided to start spinning as if they were gears in a clock. She also noticed that parts of the spell seemed entirely structural, there for the sole purpose of keeping the numerous sections which looked like they were just piles of information secured to the main mass. She'd found a few pieces which had broken off, and had kept them in separate containers, but they weren't something she could interpret without any other information... She wondered if this was maybe the caster's way of giving the spellform information to draw on, but it was an inefficient way of doing it: why not just link them in directly and have them be called when needed?

The last machine made a beeping noise, and the sounds of the last papers finished tumbling. Twilight put the final touches on her notepad and set it aside: there was no way she could analyze this thing in one day, but she could probably find time in the next few days to make more detailed sketches of it... She picked up the spectrometer’s output papers, pulling over her swiveled chair to sit down. “Hmm...” she mumbled to herself, “That's... That's definitely not equestrian... Let's see...” She rolled over to her bookshelf and pulled a reference book, flipping through for anything that even resembled that, but after glancing over every section it became clear that the only reading she could recognize on this was background radiation from the Abyss... “'nother point for aliens...” she muttered, setting that down and grabbing the next paper. The more she looked at it, the more questions came up: it wasn't just the method of spellcraft that was unusual, it was the very nature of the magic which had made it. It's lattice work was in about 50 different patterns, as if the work of at least that many mages, looked nothing like a unicorn’s, or anything else she'd seen for that matter, and was more haphazard than anything she'd make, but not haphazard enough to be a chaos mage. Some parts looked like they might’ve been symbolic, but she didn't recognize any of the symbolism or numerology involved, and wasn’t even sure what the basis for most of it was... She was starting to wonder if parts of it were obfuscated or randomly generated, or if it had been mutated by intercosmic radiation.

There were endless possibilities, but no answers in sight...

Twilight sighed, arranging the notes she’d taken in a box on the desk. She’d gathered every bit of data she could in one hour, all of it inconclusive. She stared at the shimmering mass floating in the chamber. She wasn’t sure whether to be excited or annoyed: here she was on the precipice of what was probably one of the most important discoveries in the history of her planet, and she couldn’t make heads or tails of it...

“Hey Twilight!” a scratchy voice interrupted her brood, “You done down there?”

Right. The investigation.

She’d already informed the royal guard of the activities of Starlight Glimmer, and had a bulletin put out for her, but the new EBI wanted to talk with all of them together just to make sure there weren’t any details missing and to figure out how to proceed...

She was pretty much done for the day anyway. She gave the spellform one last glance, and turned to walk back up the stairs, reaching out to flick the switch for the electric lights she'd had installed overhead... She’d figure this one out... in time...

“Alright... Day three... Ready?”

“Uh... Twilight? ...Did it look like that last night?”

Twilight glanced at the chamber which Spike was pointing at with a hesitant claw. “...No... It... changed overnight...” she muttered, eyes widening, ”Spike! Help me get some readings!”

What had once been a shimmering white mess of spellform had congealed, becoming a grey blob of shimmering energy, sparks floating between sections like tiny static discharges in a cloud. Parts of it reached out from the main cloud, like tendrils, and slid gently against the crystal glass lining the container. Other than that though, the blob just bobbed lazily in the air, as if suspended on the surface of a liquid...

Twilight scrambled about as the set all the equipment to record, finally just putting her face against the glass, horn alight as she frantically scribbled notes to describe the new structure, drawing diagrams of it and noting the many changes. It had broken apart the structures connecting the data clusters and rearranged them for fast, organized access, just as she’d been thinking the day before... Her eyes widened: it had done more than that. It had created new superstructures for sensory input, and substructures for better storage and processing...

Her jaw shook as she struggled to vocalize. “...it... it’s self-optimizing...” she breathed, “I... I’ve never seen that before...” The machines began to stop, and she tossed the notepad haphazardly on a nearby desk, yanking the paper off the thaumatic spectrometer and pouring over the data, breathing intensifying as more numbers came in... “Celestia...This is incredible...” Twilight breathed, eyes tearing slightly as the gravity of the situation began to dawn on her.

“What... What’s going on?” Spike was shaking a little, a different sort of gravity dawning upon him.

“I mean... We knew that it was possible to make an adaptive spellform... In theory, a conceptual spellform could be built to self-modify, but... This isn’t just self modifying... This is completely reconstructing itself into a new spellform, suited for the new environment inside the isolation chamber... Like...” she stopped, breathing almost cutting out as her eyes widened, “Like a living organism... Spike! Do you know what this means?!”

“Uh... That it’s turning into an alien?” Spike said, increasingly anxious.

“No Spike! It means we’ve just found something which could prove and disprove a whole book worth of models on the nature of magic! This could be one of the greatest finds in the history of magical theory!”

“I dunno Twilight... You just said it’s ‘self modifying’... What about that story you showed me where the self-modifying construct went rogue and destroyed its creators? How do you know this isn’t like that?”

“I don’t!” Twilight grinned, “That’s what makes this so exciting! We’re literally looking at something that’s more advanced than anything ever developed in recorded history!”

“Twilight! Think about what you’re saying!” Spike took a step forward, “This thing could be really dangerous!”

“Sometimes science involves studying things you don’t understand,” Twilight defended, “even when they’re dangerous. Especially if they’re dangerous! I thought I’d taught you that much.”

“Twilight, this could be a Grey Goo Scenario!“ he fired back, “You can’t let it out of that chamber!”

Twilight rolled her eyes, “Oh come on Spike. I’m eventually gonna have to interact with it directly if I want to know what it is...”

“No!” Spike put his foot down, pointing a finger at her, “You just told me this thing is dangerous, like really dangerous. We need to tell the other Princesses what’s going on, and develop some sort of, I dunno... quarantine policy with this... this thing! Nopony should be screwing around with it unless they have somepony else watching them!”

Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but stopped herself. Her head sagged, and she sighed, “You’re right... I taught you well...” She grumbled, “Probably too well...” She straightened up a little, “Fine. We’ll tell the princesses and I won’t open the chamber unless somepony else is there to watch... ok?”

Spike nodded, relaxing his shoulders, “Right...” He took a few steps forward, putting a hand on her shoulder, “I’m just looking out for you Twi... You know that.”

Twilight looked away, a half smile forming, “Yeah... Sometimes I let my excitement run away with me... It’s good to know I have a good friend to help pull me back.”

Spike smiled, “Any time Twilight, any time...” He grabbed the paper off the last machine to record its readings, “So... What exactly changed that’s so impressive? Looks like it just got darker to me...”

Twilight took the paper and arranged it in front of her with all of the other output papers she’d collected. “It did more than that Spike... These are the readings from yesterday, and these are the readings from today... The spellform has maintained the same spacial dimensions and only had a small decrease in usable energy, but the threadcount has almost tripled overnight. It’s like it’s building new pieces into itself with the energy it had when I found it. Not only that, but look at the spectrometer readings: yesterday, it had frequencies which were entirely alien, but today, it’s started to actively harmonize with the Aether of our own planet... I think it’s pulling in the energy that the containment isn’t blocking to build a superstructure that can maintain stability on our world AND trying to optimize and improve its own functions to be faster and use less resources as it does so. That’s the kind of thing that requires a strong background in spellcraft to even attempt, and by that, I mean even Celestia would have to really concentrate to optimize a spell this well... And this isn’t a caster, it’s an actual spellform weaving itself! Whoever created this has mastered the art of spellcraft so thoroughly that they can literally make spells which do their own advanced spellcraft!”

Spike blanched a little, “Woah... You don’t think this was... just one person who made this, do you?”

“If it was, it had to have taken them weeks of work: this thing is so complicated, it would’ve taken me that long just to figure out all of its capabilities... And that was before it started self-modifying. At this point, I’d say that with enough time, it could have virtually limitless capabilities.”

Spike shivered, “Right... Just another reason to be cautious...” he turned to step towards the chamber, looking up at the little lights flitting about within the cloud... They ran from the tendrils, which seemed to almost “lick” the glass as their ends seemed to feel at it, down into the central cloud, where they were lost in the scattered mass of tiny sparks flitting about within. “So... What do you think those... things... coming out of it are? They look like they’re sending the lights into the cloudy part...”

“...I... I think it's recording information about its surroundings... I can literally see the patterns traveling from these mechanisms to this information processing center... Like a thought traveling along a neuron...”

“Wait... So it’s... watching us?” Spike lowered his voice, taking a few, slow steps back...

“‘Watching’ is a bit too loaded as a word... I’d say it’s more like it’s sensing what’s going on... It’s obviously sensing the sides of the container, it probably has some information about the space outside the container, and it might even recognize that we’re standing here talking, but there’s no way it could interpret that we’re having a conversation about it, let alone parse what we’re saying. Think about it: if it’s not even from the same planet, how could it know Equestrian?”

“Right... right... but... you don’t think it’s like... ‘aware’, do you?”

“Spike, it’s a spellform. Attributing equine behavior to it is tempting, but that would be the Pathetic Fallacy. I doubt it even really thinks, at least not in the way you or I do...”

“But... What if it did?”

“Well...” Twilight looked idly at the chamber as she humored the notion in her mind, “That would be an explanation for its ability to adapt and improve itself so well... But it would completely rewrite our understanding of this kind of magic. Things like Rogue Nightmares can be vaguely self aware, but they get that way because somepony fixating on them, and actively imagining them to be that way for a long time. Even then, they aren't capable of doing this kind of spellwork, even the ones that escape the Dream World. Besides, this seems more like passive information gathering to me, like an amoeba feeling about the space it lives in.”

Spike nodded slowly, “Alright... Well... I'm gonna head back upstairs... Just don't let it out while I'm gone, ok?”

Twilight nodded, “Don’t worry. I’m not even thinking about it anymore...” back to the spellform... Well... If it was changing... maybe she could at least document the changes... She went for the time-lapse-camera, the spectrographic film, and the thaumic shield. She wasn’t able to see the macro changes at this point: it was happening too slow, but she might be able to see the changes if she watched several hours of footage at one frame per minute... She set everything up, aligned the camera, and set it to watching...

She looked over the setup one last time... everything seemed promising. Part of her still couldn’t believe what was happening: the more she learned, the more questions she had. She longed to meet whoever had created this thing. She could learn so much...

But now, she felt like she was in the dark... a primitive pony whose world consisted entirety of a cave she’d been trapped in, huddled around her fire, staring at the shadows on the wall, wondering what they meant and desperate for some outsider to come along and take her into the true light...

Spike’s voice interrupted her contemplation from the top of the stairs, “Hey Twilight! Letter from Canterlot.... Looks like Luna attached some notes to this one!”

Twilight grinned. Luna’s dream magic functioned mostly off of conceptual thoughtforms, making her one of the leading experts in the subject, even after a thousand years worth of developments in the field. Maybe some questions would be answered sooner rather than later...

“Woah... That’s... creepy...”

“Yeah... Reminds me of the Tantabus...”

Spike chewed his claws a little, “You don’t think that’s what it is, do you?”

Twilight shook her head, the shock wearing off, “No... The spellform is completely different from the Tantabus... I think it’s... Mimicking... me...”

When Twilight and Spike had come down to check on the entity for the day, it had changed again, this time, far more drastically. Standing before them now was an alicorn shaped cloud of shimmering magic, too thick to see into, complete with a pair of dimly glowing eyes. It had no other differentiation for things like its mane, tail, wings, or hooves, but the shape was uncanny, and it had started to develop a membrane of... What might be actual, physical matter... Twilight wasn’t sure yet, but it covered the entirety of the “spellform “, if it could even be called that at this point...

“It’s just standing there... All rigid and stuff...”

“Remember Spike, it’s not advanced enough to really understand equine behavior... It’s probably just trying to build a form it can remain stable in, and used mine because, well, I’m here.”

“Right... If you say so... Still creepy...”

“Well... Let’s document the new changes...” Twilight walked over to the side of the room where she’d left her notepad...

“Yeah... Document the creepy ghost po-HOLY SHIT!!!”

Twilight jerked around to see Spike scrambling away from the chamber on his back, pointing a trembling claw at it. The entity’s head had changed position so that it was now staring at him... Twilight mouthed for a moment. She spoke slowly and carefully, “Calm down Spike... It can’t get out of that container... And it’s just....” she wasn’t really sure what to describe this as...

The creature’s head jerked. Its featureless face pointing at her now.

Twilight’s wings shot up a little, hoof raising as she leaned back, “Ok Spike. I agree. It’s creepy.” She looked it up and down, measuring her breaths as she reminded herself that, one, there was no evidence that it was a hostile entity, two, it was inside a chamber which prevented it from getting out, and three, she’d be able to quickly destroy it if it tried to do anything. “Spike... Come over and stand with me... I don’t see any reason to believe it’s dangerous...”

“Do you see any reason to believe it’s NOT dangerous?!” he yelped.

“No priors. It’s literally done nothing but sit there recording information and self modifying...”

“Ok, then what’s it doing??”

The entity’s body shuddered a bit, its hooves jerking about to turn to face her, moving in a rigid, disturbingly unequine manner like a corpse in a sack being used as some sort of marionette...

“It’s...” Twilight gulped, hesitant to even say it... “I think it’s... Watching us.”

“‘Watching’? Who’s committing the Pathetic Fallacy now?” he shot her a brief glance from where he was on the floor, but didn’t let his eyes leave the apparition for long.

“I think the fact that it’s attempting to take the form of a pony is enough evidence that I can no longer rule out an actual intelligence.”

The entity’s neck jerked. Its dead stare was once again directed at Spike.

“...So... Now you’re saying it’s alive?”

“Well... Think about it. The structures seemed haphazard earlier... But they would appear that way if they were generated organically... The rate and direction at which it’s self-modifying implies more than just random iteration, but is too complicated to be mathematical... And now it’s trying to mimic the appearance of something it’s been observing. Out of all the different things it saw, it chose to imitate the living organism that’s been observing it... Yeah, it looks like it might be....” she stopped. Her eyes widened a little...

“A what? Twilight, what the hell is this thing?” Spike had moved back against the wall now, eyes not leaving the chamber.

The entity jerked again, it was now looking at Twilight. Another spasm, and its head was tilted to the side.

“...I don’t think it’s a spell anymore... think we may have discovered a magic-based life form...”

“Right. Not some crazy alien spell, it’s a real life fucking alien.” Spike said, his wavering voice undermining the attempted snark.

“Spike. Language.”

“Language? Twilight, there’s a fucking ALIEN trying to TURN INTO YOU, and you’re worried about the words coming out of my mouth?? TWILIGHT, WE ARE IN A REAL-LIFE HORROR STORY! You need to get your priorities straight!”

The entity shuddered again. It was looking at Spike, head slightly raised.

“Spike! We can’t panic here! This is an amazing discovery, and we can’t jump to conclusions!” She took a step towards him, wings flaring a little.

“‘Jump to conclusions’!? Twilight, it’s not from this world, it can self modify, it can absorb and create matter, and now you’re telling me it’s actually an alien consciousness. Twilight, that is the very definition of dangerous!” He narrowed his eyes at her, “Why aren’t you afraid?”

“I am afraid! I’m just accepting that sometimes discovery is scary! This could be one of the most important moments in the history of pony-kind, and you won’t stop yelling about your emotional reactions!” she stomped over to him...

“Because you’re not taking the situation seriously! Twilight, you can’t just keep carrying on like this isn’t a threat! It’s literally trying to become you!” he was almost shouting now, leaning in towards her, face inches from hers...

Twilight’s nose pressed against her assistant’s, her own voice rising even higher, “Just because we don’t understand it doesn’t mean we should be afraid! It’s in a powerful containment, and so far it hasn’t even tried to brea-”

THUNK.

Twilight and Spike went dead silent. They hadn’t been looking at the chamber. That noise had come from the chamber. Slowly, they turned their heads, looking over at it as if it could break out and attack them at any sudden movement...

The creature’s head was pressed up against the side of the chamber. There was a soft scraping noise as it slid the top of what passed for a snout against the crystalline material.

“Twilight,” Spike whispered slowly, “Why is it doing that?”

“I think it’s...” she swallowed, “I think it’s... testing the barrier.”

Spike just stared at it, eyes wide.

They both stared in silence for a moment.

Finally, Spike opened his mouth to whisper again... “You’re sure it can’t get out...?”

Twilight shook her head gently, not willing to look away from the chamber. “Not in its current form... That chamber is rated to contain twenty thousand joules of force. It would have to give itself a more solid form to actually break it. Based on the current rate of development, I’d say we have.... at least forty-eight hours before it’s capable of escaping.”

Spike just stared, slack jawed for a moment.

...

Spike held the notepad and quill out in front of him, “Fuck it. I’m out.” He opened his hands and let them drop to the floor, then turned and started towards the stairs.

“Spike! Wait!” she started after him, holding out a pleading hoof, “I’ll put stronger wards around it! It hasn’t even come close to getting out of this one!”

“Twilight, I can’t take this anymore! This is insane! You can’t just keep this thing in here and watch it alone! At what point are you going to realize that you’re putting your life in danger!”

“My life? Spike this science! Science IS my life!”

“No Twilight, you’re MY life!”

Twilight stopped, blinking at him.

Spike grabbed her, pulling her into a hug, “I don’t want to lose you... But you keep getting so close to this thing and it’s scaring the shit out of me... I keep thinking this is like some horror movie where it’s going to eat you or kill you or take over your mind, and I just... I can’t watch this anymore...” his eyes started to tear up, “Please... Please don’t make me watch this anymore...”

Twilight stared off into space for a moment. Slowly, she put her forelegs around him, hugging him back, “I... I’m sorry...” she whispered, “I didn’t think about how this felt for you... You don’t have to come down here if you don’t want to...”

“Just... Just promise me one thing Twilight... Promise me you will never, EVER let that thing out...” he pointed a claw towards the center of the room.

Twilight looked over at the entity, it was now pressed against the side of the chamber, mouth snapping open and shut as tendrils reached out to... it looked like it was “tasting” the barrier with a fan of tiny, wormlike tongues. She shuddered at the abomination that had floated in from the abyss, that she had allowed safe haven to grow into... This. She held Spike tighter, “I promise... I won’t let that thing hurt anyone... I won’t let it out...”

Spike sniffled, nuzzling at her neck, “T-thanks Twilight... I just don’t know what I’d do if we had to fight that thing without you...”

Twilight nodded, giving a weak smile, “You won’t... I won’t put myself in danger...”

They stayed like that a little longer, sighing deeply before letting go.

Spike was the first to speak up, “I’m gonna go... tell the other Princesses what’s going on... I’ll be right upstairs if you need me...”

Twilight nodded, “Right... I’ll go figure out exactly what changed...”

Spike walked up the stairs, casting a worried glance behind him as he went. Twilight glanced back at him, then looked at the chamber. The creature had gone back to just standing there, staring with dead eyes. She took a deep breath... and walked to the side of the chamber.

The creature’s head followed her, turning fluidly on its stiff body.

“Getting better hang of fine motor control I see...” She glanced over it, horn lighting slightly as she enhanced her vision and looked it over. “Looks like you’ve put some sort of lattice of solid magic around you... Actually... It looks like you’ve somehow transmuted it into actual matter, but it doesn’t look like it’s made of anything real... Are you trying to make some sort of skin for yourself?”

The creature tilted its head, jerking again.

“I can’t see your spellwork too well anymore... Looks a lot denser though... At this point your complexity is increasing logorithmically... I wonder how long you can keep that up...”

The creature jerked its head to the other side.

Twilight stopped, giving it a puzzled look, “...Are you... Trying to understand me?” She leaned in a bit, staring into its eyes... They didn’t seem so dead now that she looked at them close, not two single lights, but a mass of tiny flickering lights which drew information back into the creature’s mind.

It jerked into a straight position, leaning slightly into her, eyes boring back into hers with sheer force of will.

Twilight backed away a few inches. She could practically FEEL the will coming off of this thing... Spellforms did not have their own will. Spellcasters put their will into spells. This thing was definitely alive, and it was determined to do... something... with her...

“Are you... Are you trying to communicate with me?” she asked tentatively.

The creature stared.

“Go ahead, say something.” She opened her mouth and gestured with her hoof, “Speak!”

The creature stared.

“I. Am. Trying. To. Communicate. With. you.” She said, loudly and clearly, making solid, resolute gestures to try and communicate intention.

The creature stared.

“Come on! Just open your mouth and show me you can communicate! Go ‘ahhhh’...” she opened her mouth wide and just tried to get it to understand that simple concept of having sounds come out.

The creature’s mouth was suddenly open, and for a moment, Twilight was left staring wide-eyed into the roiling mass within, instinctive terror freezing her in place. With a loud screech, a shuddering, grainy wail began to emanate from its mouth, causing various objects in the room to vibrate.

Twilight took a few steps back, eyes wide at the response.

“Woah, woah! What’s going on down here?!” Spike was running down the stairs, quill in hand.

“...communication... I’m trying to get it to interact with me, but it doesn’t seem to understand enough of what’s going on for us to figure out a system yet...”

“Aaand... You think that's a good idea?”

“Well, Spike, if it is intelligent, the only way we'll know is if it tells us... In fact, at this point, that may be the only way to learn more about it...”

Spike nodded slowly, and was interrupted by a sudden burn of magic in his chest, “Ah... getting a letter...” he opened his mouth and let the magic out as fire, a scroll materializing in the air. He snatched it out of the air, checking the seal, “Looks like Celestia sent a message back. Want me to read it out loud?”

“Um...” Twilight looked at the ponnequin-like apparition in the chamber. It stared back at her with the eyes of a funeral mask, silent and rigid. She took the scroll in her magic and unfurled it, both of them reading it in silence...

Dear Princess Twilight,

As a fellow princess, I trust your judgement and will not presume to tell you how to proceed. In my opinion, however, this entity you have found is definitely capable of threatening Equestria, and I highly recommend that you do NOT release it from containment.

My sister, Princess Luna, has been reading your reports, as she is the leading expert on this form of magic, and has already planned to join you in two days. Expect a letter from her tonight with her current thoughts, and expect a visit from her after sunrise in two days.

In the meantime, please continue to monitor the spellform, send your observations, and maintain isolation procedures. I implore you, however, not to open the container.

Your Friend, Princess Celestia

“Well...” Spike spoke slowly, “There you have it.”

Twilight nodded, “Yep... That pretty much settles the matter, if it wasn’t already.”

Spike nodded, “I’ll go tell her that...” he turned to leave again.

Twilight turned back to the chamber, “Right... I’ll get to work on those wards...”

Twilight wandered down the halls from the kitchen to the lab, the cold oats she’d eaten for breakfast sitting in her stomach like dirt...

Spike had been too scared to spend the night in the castle, leaving her alone... She glanced at a mirror she passed in the hall: she’d been spending most of her time trying to understand the creature in her lab, and hadn’t even been outside the castle in at least a day. She'd barely slept the previous night, having spent hours looking over her time-lapse footage, reading over Luna's notes, cross-referencing her books, and working through the math of how fast this thing was changing...

Maybe Spike was right, maybe she was letting this turn into an obsession.

No... She had to see this through... For science.

She made her way down the stairs to the lab, reaching out with her magic to flip on the switch for the electric lights as she walked towards the container...

The sight stopped her dead in her tracks.

There was no blob of spell matter in the container. She was in the container.

Twilight Sparkle. A mirror image staring back at her.

...Though... Not quite. What was in there looked like her: it was an Alicorn, the same size as her, with the same mane and tail cut, the same wing and hoof shape even... Like a perfect copy of her silhouette, but... the colors were all off... Instead of purple, its fur had taken on a shade of grey, its mane was jet black, and it had no Cutie Mark. The only color it had was its eyes, which looked like painted glass orbs, their irises yellow as they stared at her dead, unmoving. The doppelganger showed an emotion too... It had a look of worry on its face... It's entire body, actually, standing tense and straight, as if it wanted to bolt at any moment...

Its mouth opened...

A sound came out...

...it formed words...

“Twilight... Sparkle.”

Author's Note

Revised 16 Sept, 2017

Remember, if you are enjoying this so far, you should hit the like button, because that helps me as an author.

Chapter 3: Sharpening the Lines

...I don’t remember much about what happened after I was pulled into the planet's magical field...

I had only a vague sense of my surroundings as I was floating in an aether.

What passed for my “mind” was made entirely of pieces I’d drawn together without a chance to really organize them.

As I had no frame of reference, and time was otherwise without meaning to me, I couldn’t know how long I was there, nor would I have been able to care.

At some point, in this state of mindless consciousness, I registered a sudden presence: a will acting upon me from outside... Something pulled me out of that whirlpool of energy, isolating my form, placing me into some sort of container, and... studying me?

I couldn’t really comprehend what was going on at first, only that I’d found myself in a stable environment, and I had just enough cognition left to know that I should start weaving my spellform back together while I had the chance. I found that most of my pieces had held together, and that, from them, I could rebuild my consciousness to the point where I could actually comprehend my situation. I figured out later that it wasn’t until the third day after my observer had found me that I’d started to become aware of my surroundings. I quickly discovered that I couldn’t seem to move any force through the walls of whatever cylindrical container I’d been placed in, only sense concepts, and later, use sight and hearing to observe my observers. That wasn’t a problem though.

The isolation chamber was safety to me: as a drifting mind without a body, I was vulnerable to external forces, which would have degraded me until I dissipated into nothing were I not sheltered from them. Whatever civilization I’d come across though had apparently advanced magical technology to the point that they could isolate me in something akin to a vacuum chamber. Some amount of ambient energy could still permeate the walls of it, but nothing that would threaten a spellform under observation.

By the fourth day, I’d managed to copy traits from the lifeform which was in the room most often, my observer. I was now able to see and hear her and her assistant... A part of me registered them as “adorable”, while another part registered them as the only thing standing between me and destruction. I had to communicate with them somehow, lest they misunderstand my situation...

My first thought was to communicate through motions, but I found that I lacked the necessary concepts to formulate much more than head-tilting. In response to my movements, however, my observer began to make deliberate sounds, directing them at me. I realized that she was attempting to communicate with me through these vocalizations, but I had no concept of language, so I didn't know what the noises she made were supposed be. I realized that mathematics were universal, and would communicate my intelligence, but I was once again, unable to communicate them in a way which my observer could understand: simply passing raw numbers as sound made a noise which my observer seemed to find distressing, which was counter productive to my interests.

I had to solve this tactically.

It was clear that I was missing some crucial tool to interface with the conscious beings outside the walls. I began to search through the various concepts which were pooling outside my chamber. At some point, I even tried to directly phase some part of my form through the wall, but this was met with little success. Eventually, I found a manifestation of the concept of their language, part of which had solidified in the conceptual plane after my observer had attempted to communicate it to me. Through an extension of the process with which I’d copied her form, I figured out how to incorporate that into the rest of my mind, giving myself some sort of interface for interacting with them.

I’d been experimenting with the concept when my observer reentered the room, and I decided that this was the best opportunity to test my new ability: I’d learned a name, and I knew that if I said that name, she would instantly understand my intent to establish communication.

I reached out with all my will, desperate for this to work...

“Twilight Sparkle.”

She just stared at me for a moment, as if it was shocking that I had formed words after I’d pretty much vomited the Fibonacci Sequence on her the previous day. (In hindsight though, trying to put information like that into sound when I didn’t have a concept of words to work from might not have been the best strategy.)

Finally she opened her mouth and responded, “You can talk?!”

“I have acquired this ability, yes.”

“So... You're self aware then? Like, a sapient being?”

“Affirmative. I am a conscious individual observing my surroundings.”

“So.. how long have you been aware of this?”

“I have been a sapient creature for many years, but I lost my complete awareness some time ago and am only now regaining it.”

“This is amazing! I have so many questions!”

“...You may ask as many as you wish, Twilight Sparkle, but I cannot promise you answers at this time...”

“Ok... Oh, where to begin? Um... I know!” Twilight had picked up her notepad and stared at me eagerly, ready to take notes, “What are you?”

“Energy... Thought... Form... I do not believe I am anything.” At this point, I was still piecing together and analyzing what was left of Marilyn’s mind: I didn’t know who I’d been or where I’d come from. “I am aware that this is not my original form, and that something happened to put me in this state.”

“Oh... Well... Do you have a name then?”

“Yes.”

Twilight paused, as if expecting more of a response than that. She added slowly, “Ok... well, what is it?”

That was a very good question! ...What was my name again? I gave her the straightforward answer, ”Memory is... clouded... much of it lost... I do not know.”

“Oh... I’m sorry. Is... is there something I should call you then?”

I paused... Nothing came to mind, and I knew whatever name I told her might be used as a descriptor for me for quite some time... “...I will think about this.”

“Well,” she grasped, “are you male or female?”

What an odd question. I looked back into the code of my base form, “I do not believe I possess any sexual traits. however, I believe I was female when I last had form, like yourself, and I suppose I still identify as such.”

“Ok... So... how do you work? Are you just made of pure magic? Where did you even come from?” I had the faint notion that she was starting to get agitated in some way, but I couldn’t really empathize, being a near-emotionless blob and all.

At least she was on a good track though. “This, I can perhaps answer. I was once an organic being, a user of magic, like you. I was changed when... Something happened... An accident? An attack? I lost my physical form, and was shunted to your world by... some spell... I do not know why this has happened. I do not know what exactly I would be considered. I may simply be a spellform sustaining the consciousness and mind of its caster... Though, if this is the case, I am a very complicated spellform indeed... I will have to study my own workings in order to tell you more.”

“I see... So you don’t know anything else?”

“Not at this time: my memories are woven into the structural mechanisms you see around me. I have not yet had time to rebuild myself. If you give me time, I will be able to analyze my situation with more data, and then I will tell you what I have learned...”

“Well... That’s promising... I guess.” I could feel her giving up from across the room. I suppose she had thought that actually communicating with me would give her some concrete answers, but unfortunately, I was not yet capable of knowing them.

Something in me stirred. Was this...? “I am... I believe I am feeling ‘sympathy’ for your situation. I apologize that I cannot help you further your understanding of this situation at this time.”

She gave me a little smile, though it didn’t seem real for some reason, “Oh, it’s ok! I understand, you’ve been through a lot. Science... isn’t the most important thing here...”

“I suppose this is true, but Science is, nevertheless, an important goal. I believe we have mutual understanding of this, as we are both scientists... If there is any way I can assist you, please inform me.”

She perked up a little at that, for real this time, “Oh. Would you be comfortable if I ran a few more tests then?”

“Yes. I would very much like for you to run some tests!” I reconsidered for a moment, “As long as they are not intrusive: I do not know how stable my form is at this point. I would like to see your results though.”

Twilight nodded, “Alright then, I’ll just start with some harmless readings...” I felt her reach out with her power, projecting her will towards the machines about the room, along with a carrot from a box on the desk. I could see the magical energy she was projecting to make the objects move. I had realized in my earlier observations that the creature which was studying me was an impressive mage: she had a large supply of power, and was clearly very knowledgeable, but her Will... the previous day when I had pressed my will against hers as an attempt to communicate, I’d felt like a feather brushing against a brick wall. Granted, she’d stepped away at that, so perhaps she underestimates herself... I made a mental note to talk to her about it when this was all over.

*crunch* “Yer shpellwork is increderbly complex...” she said idly, munching a carrot right next to the glass wall between us... Her machines were all running, and she was taking the time to look over me herself again, but this time she wrote on the notepad much slower than I’d seen her do so before, as if her rudimentary sketches mattered less and less.

“I am sustaining a full consciousness, capable of independent thought and spellcasting. As I’ve implied, I hypothesize that I am actually a sapient being somehow made into a conceptual form. A meta-entity, if you will.” I responded, idly watching her work, “Such a structure would have to be incredibly complex, simply because of how complex a mind is... The subject is fascinating, and I look forward to further study.”

She nodded thoughtfully, stepping away to examine the papers coming out of her machines. She took another bite of her carrot, chewed, and swallowed before commenting again, “Huh... Now that you’ve stabilized, I can see you have a remarkable amount of raw energy... You might actually be storing more than any unicorn on the planet, though, nowhere near as much as a princess...”

“This would make sense, seeing as I am right now not much more than energy made form: I suppose I require this raw energy to keep myself alive...”

“I see... So... You seem to have an advanced understanding of magic...”

“Yes. This is what has allowed me to survive in this state.”

“Ok... Do you remember where you learned this?”

“In college.”

“Ah, so you studied Magic!”

“No. I studied...” what did I study? It's like I should know but I couldn't connect the words... “I do not believe your language has a word for what I studied.”

“Oh... And you don't remember the details of that?”

I dug a bit deeper. Nothing. “...Your language does not seem to have the necessary words. It may have been a technology that you have not yet discovered. I hypothesize that such a technological disparity is due to your formalized understanding of magic, which my world does not have.”

She sighed, “Well that just brings up more questions... Do you know who taught you magic?”

“A secretive group.”

“Ok... Can you tell me about them?”

“...I do not remember at this time.” Part of me felt like I should feel bad about that, but my mind was too underdeveloped to be capable of sentimentality at that point, and I had no reason to be sad for people I did not remember.

“So... What do you remember about your life?”

“... I do not know. I have not had time to understand. Once I became aware of your presence, establishing communication was my primary objective. I have not yet fully analyzed nor Incorporated much of my being. I am, in a sense, a fraction of what I should be.”

“Wow... Ok... So... I guess I should wait until you've done that?”

“This would allow me to give you more satisfying answers. Yes.”

“Ok. In the meantime, I guess I should just keep running tests?”

“Yes. This would be helpful.”

Twilight spent quite some time running tests with me, analyzing the nature and stability of my being. At some point, we moved beyond mechanics to exercises, where she’d ask if I could do something and I would try it. I found that I had the ability to take concepts, such as colors and shapes, and directly manifest them as part of my being. This made sense, as I myself was a being of pure concept. As this dragged on, our conversations meandered, away from talking about my situation and towards discussion of science and philosophy. I realized that this culture I’d been discovered by did not have the same level of mathematics and physics I was familiar with, but had far greater understanding of metaphysics and thaumaturgy. It would’ve been fascinating, if I could remember more, and from this, I actually felt a pang of sadness... I wanted to tell her about my world, and to learn more about hers, but I just wasn’t able to.

Eventually, Twilight had exhausted her lines of exploration, and we’d run thin on topics to discuss. She looked up at the clock. “Well... It's pretty late... I should be getting to bed soon...”

“Yes. That would be a good course of action.”

She looked at me with a bit of concern, “You're ok with being alone? I can stay if you're lonely... I mean, I understand if this is a little scary for you...”

“Fear is... Minor... Perhaps I lack the necessary point of reference to experience discomfort at the unusual nature of my situation. I am not worried by the prospect of being alone.”

“Still... If there is anything I can do to make you more comfortable...”

I... think I actually managed to smile at this point, “There is comfort in the notion that you are here and wish to help. Your presence has provided me with a sense of security.”

Twilight blushed a little, “oh! Well... I'm glad I make you feel safe. I... I'll keep trying to help you get yourself back together... I guess I'll... See you tomorrow morning?”

“I do not believe I am capable of leaving this containment. I shall spend the time in which you are sleeping by attempting to rebuild my form in the safe environment it provides me.”

“Um... Right! Well... Goodnight then.”

“Goodnight, Twilight Sparkle. Thank you for your assistance.”

She blushed again, “Oh... It's no problem... All in the name of science, right?”

“Yes. For science.”

Twilight smiled a little as she left, and I moved on to the next task at hand: rebuilding what was left of... well... me...

I set to work on picking apart what I'd put together haphazardly before, and trying to piece it back to more effectively.

Being in the container helped with this. It was a solid barrier against magical forces, so that my pieces wouldn't float away, and the ambient energy of the world wouldn't disrupt me.

Now that I knew how to create a physical form around myself, remaking one would be easy. I dissolved the body I’d created, allowing myself to drift apart into a cloud, taking up the whole mass of the cylindrical container, separating my components to the point where I could work on them easily. I started to lay out the active components in an organized shape, figuring out each one.

The first thing to work on was untangling the parts of my mind which were active in this process. This was something I'd been working on, but every time was a risky, uncomfortable process: think of it as doing surgery on your own brain, except your brain is made of moving parts which could crash into each other. If I messed up, I might be back to rebuilding my own consciousness.

If I'd been thinking straight before she left, I’d’ve asked Twilight for help. At the time though, I was barely able to hold a conversation with her, let alone think to ask for assistance. Even if I had, I wouldn't have been able to explain what I was doing to her... Hell, I barely understood what I was doing. Such is the way of the scientific frontier though.

If you still have a body, I should probably apologize for how confusing this all probably is for you: I really don’t have a frame of reference to what it’s like to have one anymore. I mean, have you ever looked at your own mind, and seen the very thoughts you were thinking as you thought them? Let me tell you, it is a rather unique experience, and one which quickly became second nature to me in that infant state where I had developed too little understanding of things to realize the strangeness of it all. I vaguely remembered the brain surgery experiments which had been done on my homeworld, where electrodes were used to stimulate the neurons of conscious patients to see what they thought: that whole process was essential to not accidentally lobotomizing someone during a routine biopsy. Considering how hard it had been to recover from my last “lobotomy”, I decided to study this as much as I could before tampering with it.

I started with a set of simple thoughts, numbers, noises, words, and moved on to concepts, observing each as it went along the pathway. I found that I was not confused by the speed at which they traveled, even though it had to have been near the speed of light. It was as if the temporal constraints of my mind had been removed, and time merely existed as a measurement of relative location in a single dimension.

That settled, I started to piece together the remaining frayed ends. I’d felt some emotions while talking to Twilight, and this had given me some perspective on what was what. I started to connect back my more complex emotions in the locations and patterns they belonged in, there was happiness and sadness, connected into sentimentality over lost memories. There were fear and anger, pretty close to each other, as they’re both defense mechanisms. I linked them into my sense of self, where they belonged, connecting the fina-

I DON’T HAVE A BODY. HOLY SHIT. WHERE IS MY BODY!?!

I went into full panic mode the second I reconnected human instincts, turning into a screaming, roiling mass of clouds. I was lucky Twilight's jar-thing contained me, because I don’t know if I could keep my pieces together while twisting around myself like this.

HOLY SHIT. WHAT DO I DO? MY BODY IS GONE!!

Shut... the fuck... up!

I felt my form go still, the structure which felt the emotion split into several pieces in my grip, after I’d violently wrenched it back out of place.

Ok, new observation: “Existential Dread” was clearly not something I would benefit from at this point, as I was already non-existential on some level, and that wasn’t changing any time soon. I set it aside at the far end of things so I’d be able to empathize with it later, but never actually had to deal with it. I marked down that as a problem for future me...

I went to reconnect the other emotions, but something in the back of my mind stopped me... I didn’t have to connect it. In fact, I no longer had to be burdened with direct emotion at all. Fear? That thing which prevents us from trying because we may fail? That was right there. I was literally looking at my sense of fear as it tried to tell me that doing this procedure on myself was unsafe. With a flick, it was completely disconnected, screaming it's distracting worries at nothing. With another flick, it was fully connected again, and I once again felt the desire to shudder with worry at what I was doing. I didn’t, of course, because clouds don’t have reflexes and I didn’t bother to make one because, well, I was doing surgery on my own fucking brain.

I remembered reading several informed sources explaining to me that emotions are derived from a set of instincts, meant to give the brain a fast response in a drastic situation. Fear prevents us from harming ourselves, happiness is a reward response, anger is a defense mechanism. When attempting to use higher level cognition, to practice rationality and scientific thought, however, they get in the way. On top of that, they can play into these things called cognitive biases, which are when the instincts inherited from lower-order animals actually prevent the mind from understanding reality as it is. The most problematic example of this is when people gain new information, but reject it as a defense for their preconceived notions, even if those notions have no evidence, and have an emotional response because of that.

...Yeah, I could really live without those right about now.

I started to build a new structure, which would allow me to directly bypass my emotions when thinking of things, making them a more supplemental process, rather than a gatekeeper. When one is not burdened by their emotions, they can act with purpose. There are many philosophies which talk about this, though your average westerner misunderstands them: you’re not suppressing or removing emotions, you’re simply not allowing them to control you, because, and this is essential for people to understand, feelings are not intelligent, they are instinctual. Considering how badly I’d reacted to panic earlier, giving into them could actually be dangerous to a being being held together by sheer force of will like I was. The new structure I had would allow me to acknowledge and understand them reflexively, but prevent them from ever being more than another form of sensory input. Sure, I could always let sadness out to play later and have a good cry over the fact that I’d probably lost everything in the life I could barely remember. Or not. Crying solves nothing if you can ignore sadness indefintely. Right now, the past was the past, and I had to deal with what was going on in the present.

Besides, crying is an anatomical response, and I have no anatomy, so why bother.

So yeah, when you have the ability to restructure your entire personality from near-screatch, and you don’t have any of those pesky inhibitions in place making you worry about your precious “humanity”, you can use that opportunity to take pretty much all the things that don’t directly relate to imposing your will on the universe and stick ‘em in the back where they belong.

Anyway, with my personality fully intact and understood, it was time to delve into those memories Twilight had been so curious about. I started arranging them on one side of the tank and setting my perception and analysis on the other side, letting me shuffle through them like pages in a book.

Unfortunately, as I quickly remembered, that’s not actually how memories work.

Many people think of memories as little videos that get saved in the back of your head, stored as an individual moment to be played back to you at a later date. Anyone who’s ever tried to recreate a set of memories from a long time ago quickly realizes that that’s not the case.

Memories, like most parts of the mind, are actually formed relationally, as a series of patterns which make reference to each other. For example, you may remember things from your childhood home, and have emotions connected to those memories, perhaps individual senses like smells or the perception of shapes. In reality, all of those are arranged as patterns in your neurons. The layout of your childhood home? A series of things you learned a long time ago pieced together with your understanding of how physical spaces operate. Memories of things that happened there? All utilize not only that same layout, but also other genericized concepts you learned a long time ago and have been using and updating repeatedly ever since: the kitchen table you remember may not have even been yours, but some derivative of the ones you’ve seen after it.

So the memories that I had were not only out of order, but they tried to make references that I didn’t know, and possibly didn’t even have access to. Think of it like a 10,000 piece puzzle, where the image is some insanely complicated diagram, pieces can be connected in incorrect ways, and you’re actually missing most of the pieces, so good fucking luck trying to figure out what the diagram actually says.

This is one of the points where being an emotionless entity of pure will with a very relative concept of time becomes useful: I ignored my sense of despair and moved straight onto the task at hand... the long, tedious task of piecing these things together through trial and error. No, I was not happy when my friend died in front of me... Not sure what monster killed him, oh wait, here it is, Deep Ones. Hmm, they sure do love tentacles... Yes emotional center, it is scary to know those exist. Moving on to helpful things... Oh neat, a list of names of authors I'd learned from. I sure bet knowing names like Plato, Aleister Crowley, Elizer Yudkowsky, Anton LaVey, and Friedrich Nietzsche would come in handy on another planet. At least I know who the guy with the golden parymid on his head is. Yes emotions, very cringe. Now... There's college with the advanced math and the degree in the thing that doesn't exist in this world...

...wait... Does it? I was looking at the concepts I'd learned for programming advanced math equations into machines, and it was sparking some knowledge of...

I flipped quickly through the other memories... There was the Deep One again. Why had I found that? Who were these people? What were we loo- MIDNIGHT SOCIETY, COMPUTER SCIENCE, ETHERIC WORLD, ASTRAL TRAVEL, THE DRAGON KNIGHT, DREAM WALKING, SYSTEMS THINKING, INCEPTION, CONCEPT MANIFESTATION, THEORY OF MIND, HARRY POTTER, THEORY OF POWER, SHADARAK, HIS DARK MATERIALS, SAMASARA, THE HOLY TRINITY, CHURCH OF SATAN, THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR, OBJECT PERMENANCE, VAMPIRES, HUNTERS, ACCOUNTANTS, WEREWOLVES, THE FBI, GHOSTS AND SPIRITS, THE EXARCHS, THE REPTILIANS WHO CONTROL THE WORLD GOVERNMENT, THE GOD MACHINE, THE ABYSS.

...Ok...

...That's a lot of information...

Now that I'd managed to find and process a thread which gave a solid idea of what my adult life looked like, it wasn't too hard to piece the rest of it back together. I made sure to keep the stuff about magic near the top, because that was what I was going to need, and let the stuff about the life of this girl whose name I couldn't remember fall to the bottom: whoever she was was likely gone for good, and who I was would rise from her corpse.

Enlightened by my own intelligence, as a fedora wearing jackass would say, I looked back at my own spellform. Things made a lot more sense when you were running at full capacity and actually KNOW how these structures are made and arranged.

It was fascinating, not only seeing what had come together when I'd been desperately trying to regain consciousness, but what that first spell had done with my original mind. I'd never seen a mage actually work something like this, but something told me this wasn't a result of direct spellcraft. It was like something had melted my physical form down and made me into my base concepts, conserving everything but my body as a pure idea. What came out wasn't simply a construction of the spell, but a constant of the universe: I'd somehow become my own platonic form, and now I was dicking around with it like it was made of legos. No, this wasn't structured magic, it was too organic. There was so much information to process here... So much I could speculate... If only I had a notepad, like Twilight's...

...could I conjure one? I knew what it looked like... If I focused my will on it...

A notepad materialized in the jar with me. Yes! I lifted it in my aura and... Wat.

Upon further examination, I'd created something which had the appearance of a notepad, but did not actually have the physical function of one: there were no actual pages, just what looked like them, and I’m pretty sure it had the consistency of rubber. Apparently manifesting items in reality isn't as simple as willing them into existence.

Go figure.

It was a simple matter to absorb the matter of my fake notepad back into my own energy just as easily as I created it, matter and energy being interchangeable and all. Useful to know, I'd have to explore the applications of that later. I could probably do it to physical objects I hadn’t made...

In any case, the memories and personality being mostly handled for now, I moved onto matters of presentation. I could now make a voice close to what I believed my original to sound like, and I now had a more detailed personally behind it. All that really stood to be changed was the form itself.

I didn't want to simply mimic the look of Twilight, so I began to experiment with other variations on that form. I started with my shape. Twilight's was a good base: a form with many structures for running energy along... Perhaps this could be improved?

I altered my horn to have a better surface area, giving it a bit of a curve to help direct magical energies. I did a similar process with my wings, straightening the feathers into spears, creating a sort of dish out of them for whatever casting I might do from them. My bones were also part of this: I gave them a slightly more bowed shape too. I realized that I could take this a step further, and started rearranging the actual bone fibers. They wouldn’t be as stable, but I wasn’t exactly worried about osteoporosis here. Hooves made of the same material as the horn and not covered by fur, to keep a solid conduit for magic.

Next I figured I should do something about Twilight’s boring mane... I mean... it was her, but it wasn’t me. See, in Equestria, Magic is a highly formalized field of study, but back on my homeworld, Magic is typically studied by libertines working on the outside of society. I remembered having a sort of messy orange hair before, in my previous form: I wondered how hard it would be to simply lift the concept from my memories and place it in... I looked over what I remembered and carefully built the concept into the spellform, aaand... Apparently manifesting new traits onto my own form from known concepts was something I could do pretty easily if I actually took the time to structure them.

I copied it over and set the tail to match, then glanced down at my dark-grey coated body: its color was the product of direct magical flow. I toned it a couple shades darker, and decided it suited me.

I externalized my point of view and looked myself over, making a few finishing touches. All in all, I was a very pretty pony, and I would definitely enjoy brushing and braiding my pretty orange hair. Something was missing though...

I remembered the symbol on Twilight's flank. Somehow, my memories were telling me it was called a... “Cutie Mark?” I realized that hers was representative of a magical force of Harmony of which she was the chosen avatar. I needed to think of one for myself.

At first, I was tempted to put it off, but I worried it would make me stand out more than I wanted to. Granted, standing out wasn't really an issue ye, seeing as I was already an alien with otherworldly powers, and everyone I’d encountered so far knew that...

...Then again, I already had a special talent... I just needed a symbol for that...

I considered the situation. I was an occultist, I was unmade, and now I’ve been remade as a creature of concept... In a sense, I’d achieved a form of enlightenment: people have spent their entire lives trying to experience the level of ego-death I’d been given by virtue of having my mind and soul torn out of my body. Through a cycle of death and rebirth, I’d achieved a purer state... There was a single concept in the symbology I remembered which talked about a path to purification through death and resurrection...

Saṃsāra: The Wheel of Life.

A moment later, I had a picture of a golden, 8 spoked wheel on my butt. I could've made it actually spin, but I decided not to, once again, for the sake of blending in.

With that done, I took a moment to reflect on what I had been through (my sense of fear had subseded for my sense of pride, which was now trilling in the back of my mind). I grinned as I turned around, looking over my body for a bit. I could hardly believe that only a few days ago I was a barely conscious cloud of stuff, and now I'd managed to take the form of an actual pony!

With all that done, I settled in, sitting down and meditating on everything that had happened while I waited for Twilight to return. As it turned out, I didn't have long to wait...

Twilight came down the stairs “Good morning!” She flipped the lights on, as she'd done every day so far, “I hope you’ve made good progress wi- Whaa?? Oh...” she stopped blank as she took in the changes, “I see you've... altered your form again.”

I smiled, “Yes. I wanted to continue interacting with you normally, and I figured it would be easier if I looked like a real pony. This seemed the most appropriate way of representing myself as a member of your species.”

Twilight nodded, looking me over, “I see... Well, it's very nice... But you weren't a pony before, were you? Do you remember what your original species looked like?”

I shook my head, “I think we were featherless bipeds. Not like, a featherless chicken mind you, more like mammals... probably similar to your apes. I can’t remember the fine details. All I can remember about my own appearance was the way my hair looked...”

Twilight nodded more, walking in a circle around me to get a full view. I lowered my tail a little, my emotions telling me that I was rather exposed, though I didn't know why, seeing as I could see just as much of Twilight. Was this a normal interaction for her species, but not mine?

She continued, “I see you've chosen a cutie mark, but I'm not sure what it means... Is it something to do with... destruction?”

I shook my head, “Destruction? No... What makes you say that?”

She pointed with her hoof, “a circle, eight arrows pointing from the center, the cycle of entropy.”

I thought about that one, “Huh... I guess that could be an interpretation... I intended the wheel of time: the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, that all things go through as one. On my planet, it is a symbol of a process one uses to achieve Harmony with the natural order... Though, I guess entropy and destruction is a natural part of that...”

“Interesting...” She thought for a moment, “So, do you know why Ponies have symbols on our flanks, or was it just a stylistic decision?”

“It's a cutie mark. A stylized representation of your special talent. ...Right?”

Twilight nodded, “Right... How did you know that though? Did your species have them, or...?”

I paused... That was a good question. How did I know that? “I'm not sure...” I replied, “I don’t think we had them, but it just seemed like a known fact...” ...but where did I learn it?

“Fascinating... You've already exhibited the ability to pull concepts into your form... Maybe knowledge of what words mean is part of the language?”

“That’s possible... By the way,” I chirped, “it’s Meta.”

“What?”

“The last time we spoke, you asked what you should call me. I am a Meta-form, a product of metaphysical reality. Call me ‘Meta’.” I grinned a little.

“Oh!” she smiled, “Well then, Meta, it's nice to have something to call you!” She walked back towards the front of the chamber, reaching out with her magic and moving the machines over again. “You seem to have a much more defined personality today, by the way: yesterday you were almost speaking in monotone. Today you seem downright chipper!”

“Was I?” I asked, tilting my head. I thought about it a moment, “Well, I have a much broader range of emotions now, so there's that much more to express.” I looked around at the various machines as they hummed to life.

“Right.” Twilight agreed half-absently, making sure all the machines were set up properly before coming over to sit on her haunches next to the chamber, magic holding her notebook beside her, “So... I take it you've regained most of your memories by now?”

“Somewhat...” I replied, “I've been able to cobble together more of my personality, though it is still a bit messy, because clearly there are large chunks missing from it. Most of the actual memories I've looked through have been incomprehensible: I can see what I was going through, but there's key information I have no context or point of reference for, so it's just coming out as gibberish...”

“But... Aren't they your memories?” Twilight looked up from the notes she was making.

“Yes and no... Memories often rely on references to other memories and personality traits to be understood. Without many of the formative memories pieced together, I don't have a point of reference to make sense of the less formative ones... I feel that given more time to explore myself, I will be able to re-build my personality and understand what is happening.”

“But... If you already have all the pieces together, how would you recover ones you don't have?”

“Picture a painting with white around the edges. Imagine you wanted to see more. From the original work, you can understand a close approximation of what is not drawn in the margin, and paint new scenery that fits, even though your new paint is a generalization which loses the fine details. As I learn to understand how my personality and emotions function in practice, I will learn how to properly fill in the gaps in my memories.”

“Ok... So... How do you plan to do that?”

“Simple.” I said as the machines started to quiet around us, making their little beeps to inform Twilight that they were done collecting data, “Open this chamber so I can interact with your world and learn from this experience.”

Twilight stared, a look of hesitation growing on her face, “I... Don't know about that... You're an unknown entity of unknown power, and you've come to exist through highly unnatural circumstances... I don't think it would be safe for me to just let you out of this chamber...”

I was left with a blank. Twilight hadn't been planning on letting me out. She had been planning on keeping me contained indefinitely. This was not good.

A part of my memory chimed in that I was on the wrong end of something called the “AI in a Box” conundrum.

Picture a researcher who has created a self modifying artificial intelligence which has surpassed their understanding of how it thinks. This AI would be capable of bringing about radical change on a global scale, but for now it is being kept in isolation, and is thus unable to do anything but talk to the researcher. In order to be let out, the AI must convince the researcher that it is not a threat, but the problem is, the researcher has no way of knowing that the AI isn't lying about its intentions, because a self-modifying entity is fully capable of programming itself for uncanny deception. Whatever the case, the researcher and the AI are left with an inevitable ultimatum: while the two could theoretically talk indefinitely, in the end, there are only two solutions. Either the researcher lets the AI out of the box... or she destroys it before someone else can.

Fortunately, I could already model that Twilight had no intention of destroying me, and that left me with the problem of convincing her to let me out before someone else did: I had to convince Twilight that I was not a threat, and was unlikely to become one. That's not an easy task when both of us knew I was only a few iterations away from being able to break containment and turn myself into something like a Grey Goo scenario: a self replicating entity which uses matter around it to create more of itself, spreading uncontrollably until it had consumed the entire world, leaving it as nothing but a uniform coat of that entity.

Obviously I wasn't going to do anything like that, but I had to give Twilight enough reason to believe this was an acceptable risk. I started by reviewing my situation...

Fact: I am a self-modifying entity of unknown origin or potential.
Fact: Twilight has effectively contained me such that it is impossible for me to leave on my own at this time.
Fact: in order to continue developing my personality, I must leave this containment.
Fact: I can self-modify to overcome this obstacle manually.
Fact: Twilight is capable of enhancing these wards to prevent me from doing so.
Query: Is this indefinite? Perhaps I could iterate to the point I could break out... How long could Twilight keep up with this? Would doing so convince her to destroy me before I could escape? Were the other actors which had been mentioned capable of destroying me if she wouldn’t? Would I even want to play that scenario out with her?
Conclusion: convincing Twilight to release me is the most viable option.
Fact: Two rational actors, working from the same priors, will not disagree.
Query: is Twilight a rational actor?

Only one way to find out.

Attempt #1 - Appeal to Emotion
“Twilight...” I said after that pause, allowing sadness to drip into my voice, “I thought we were friends... If you don't let me out, I'll never be able achieve my potential as an individual. Don't you trust me? Please let me out...” My voice was wavering by the end of that, eliciting an empathy response. Not that I was at all lying: I did consider her a friend at this point, and I was feeling sad that she didn't trust me, but of course, I no longer showed emotions like that without conscious effort.

Twilight steadied herself a little, clearly discomforted by the prospect, but staying resolute, “I'm sorry Meta. I want to be friends, and I don't want to keep you in here either, but we both know that you’re a potentially dangerous entity, and blatant appeals to my emotions aren't going to change that.” She didn't seem comfortable saying that, but I could tell her will was pretty absolute.

Conclusion: Twilight is a rational actor.
Fact: Twilight believes the risks of releasing me outweigh the benefits.
Query: Is Twilight aware of all the benefits?

Attempt #2 - Bargaining
“But Twilight,” I said, “Think of all the things you could learn from me: I'm a being of pure magic from a world with an entirely different approach to the craft. Think of all the things you can learn from me if you just let me out!”

Twilight nodded, briefly considering the notion, “The offer is intriguing, but it doesn't change the situation: my desire for knowledge isn't a reason to let my guard down, and if you were a malicious entity using deception, it wouldn't matter what you promised me. Besides, I can learn plenty without breaking containment. I mean, you aren't going to stop talking to me just because I can't let you out, are you?”

I nodded, frowning, “Right... And I think you understand enough about theory of power to call my bluff if I threatened to ostracize my only source of stimulation...”

Twilight frowned, but nodded, “Sorry Meta, but it's true. The benefits just don't outweigh the risks.”

Conclusion: Twilight has greater interests than knowledge.
Implication: Twilight feels ethical responsibilities to others.
Query: Do Twilight's ethics support her actions?

Attempt #3 - Ethics
“Twilight,” I stated calmly, “I believe that it is un-just for you to keep me against my will. By doing so, you have impeded my freedom of movement and impeded my ability to self actualize. This is a violation of my rights as a self-aware being.”

Twilight faltered at that one, “Oh... Well... That is true: you act self aware, therefore you must be...” In that moment, I was glad she'd never heard of a philosophical zombie. She continued, “I suppose we didn't consider that when we developed our isolation procedures... Still... Do your rights to freedom override the needs of my world's population for safety? I hardly think you can argue that.”

Oh shit. She had me there: utilitarianism, the goal of creating the most good for the most individuals, is the most practical and easily applied ethical norm. There isn't really an argument against it when you're dealing with things of this magnitude. I'd have to find another way around...

Conclusion: Twilight is acting ethically, to the best of her knowledge.
Fact: Twilight is also aware that her knowledge is heavily flawed.
Query: How well do Twilight's priors respond to scrutiny?

Attempt #4 - Appeal to Reason
“What evidence do you have that I'm even dangerous? You and I both know that simply knowing what I am gives you the power to stop me, and so far I've shown no desire to do anything but cooperate. I haven't even made an attempt to escape while you were gone! Am I not innocent until proven guilty?”

Twilight’s will was faltering, I could feel it, “I... I don’t know what to tell you Meta, ponies are really scared of what you can do, and you get stronger by the day... They trust me, and I can’t guarantee that I could protect them from something like you...”

“Twilight, Justification through fear isn’t evidence, it's an appeal to emotion, and you can’t use emotions to figure out the truth: you and I both know that that’s not how science works.” I stomped my hoof, “Twilight, I just want to see your world and be your friend! Stop clinging to your emotional notions of comfort and let me out of the damn jar!”

Twilight stood up, taking a step back and raising a forehoof, “I... I don’t know Meta... you make a really good point, and I really want to be your friend, but I have no way of proving you aren’t planning something dangerous, and I can’t subject others to that risk...” She was shaking a little at this point, “I... I promised Spike I wouldn’t let you out... I... I can’t just...” she trailed off, giving me a helpless look.

Conclusion: Twilight’s only justification for her actions is the faint notion that the fears of outside observers may be justifiable.
Fact: Twilight had all the evidence she needed to disprove them.

Attempt #5 - Logic
“Twilight,” I softened my tone a little, “If I was trying to deceive you, I could tell you any number of lies...”

I restructured my form, becoming smaller and more fragile, speaking in a pathetic tone, “I could tell you that I was a little child, and that I was scared and needed a hug.”

I restructured my form again, floating in the air, 6 forelegs with hands at the end spread out like some Hindu Daeva, “I could claim that I am a cosmic guardian, and that every moment you kept me here was another moment that the universe was threatened.”

I restructured my form into Spike, that little creature who’d been assisting her the two days prior, trying to mimic his voice, “I could even pretend to be one of your friends, trapped in the jar when the creature escaped! You’d have no way of proving that I wasn’t lying, and you’d be emotionally compromised.”

I started to restructure my matter back to the pony form I’d been in before... Ack! No! I ran out of energy mid-materialization, falling apart into a cloud again, tumbling about inside the container.

“Meta?!” Twilight leaned into the container with widened eyes, “Are you alright?”

I managed to steady myself in the container, this time, carefully rebuilding the form slowly, from the hooves up.

... whew... ok... sudden burst of will... sudden draw of power... Don’t do that again until I know what I’m doing... I finished manifesting the tips of my wings and horns, making my body whole again, then continued. “Right... Sorry... Made myself unstable for a moment there...” I straightened up, “Twilight, the point I’m making is that I could have done any number of things if I was lying or had malicious intentions. You KNOW that. We BOTH can think of so many ways I could’ve tricked you into letting me go. That’s not what’s happening though. What’s happening is I’m trying to walk you through a logical reason why you should willingly let me out. There is only one logical reason for me to behave in that way Twilight. What is that reason?”

Twilight took a deep breath, nodding back and forth for a moment, as if reaching for a reason to deny me. She couldn’t find one, “...The only reason I can think of for your current method of persuasion is... that you want to cooperate... because you want to be friends...”

“Right. So we’re in agreement?”

“I... I guess we have to be... I mean, two rational actors working from the same information aren’t really able to disagree... That’s just a logical constant...” She looked aside, “But... I promised Spike I wouldn’t let you out... Can’t we... can’t we wait for him, and at least convince him that this is safe first?”

I thought for a moment, “Isn’t Spike the one who said you couldn’t let me out because he was scared of me?”

Twilight nodded, “Yeah, he’s my... assistant. We decided that you shouldn’t be let out without heavy oversight back when you first started changing.”

“Ok, well... I think we’ve already established that, not only is the fact that he’s afraid not a reason to keep me in here, but rules you made before I started talking to you can’t really be applied...”

“Yeah... but... I promised him...”

“Right, and when he gets here, he might try to convince you that I’m still scary, and that you shouldn’t let me out, and then I have to wait even longer...”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll like you once he meets you...”

“But when will that be? Will you decide that you need somepony else there? How many second opinions are you going to need for something you’ve already agreed is reasonable? What if one of them isn’t as rational as we are?”

“Well... I mean... You can never be too careful...”

I stood firm. “Twilight, I think we both know that getting a second opinion is just an excuse to delay the inevitable. In fact, it is endangering me, because I have no way to escape if there is a disaster someone else decides it is safer to terminate me without your consent. Rational actors working from the same information don’t get to disagree. You have to let me out. You know that. You have no justifiable reason to hold me against my will, and I have every right to be allowed out. This is the only course of action which stands up to scrutiny.”

She turned to take a step towards the controls, hesitating, looking back at me over her shoulder, “You... you promise you won’t hurt anypony?”

“Twilight,” I said firmly, “I promise I have no intention of hurting anypony ever, especially not you and your friends. In fact, the thing I’d like to do most is for you to show me your world so I can learn about it and we can become better friends.”

Twilight stood where she was for a few seconds, mentally preparing herself for the transgression she was about to make...

She walked slowly to the controls, stopping to face them... glancing back at me... looking back down as she raised her hoof to them, just staring at it as she thought of the line she was about to cross...

I could feel terror, uncertainty, and even despair emanating from her shivering form. But I’d won, we both knew I’d won. There was no other course of action she could justify to herself. Twilight’s hoof rested on the lever. She took a deep breath, and her hoof moved the lever...

With the hiss of a hermetic seal being broken, the crystal walls lifted, and I eas bathed in the outside conditions.

Twilight had let me out of the box.

Author's Note

Blah! That was a hell of a chapter to write. Hopefully the others don't drag out so long... I know I won't be trying to write them as fast.

By the way, here's a pony code for seeing Meta's new form in General Zoi's thing. (It's under the "Advanced" subtab) No, it's not her permanent form.
31490003146666665F5D8741140CC082FPP1F3600H02000381DD7818F2CB4B0811CC3F3FB20000

Chapter 4: Filling In the Blank Spaces

As the containment around me lifted, I let my head lol back, opening my mouth and taking it in... Being back in the ambient flow of energy, now that I was firmly anchored to the physical plane, had a liberating feeling, possibly akin to feeling a strong breeze through your hair after spending a week inside a hospital room. In the chamber, it had been silent, alone. Now, immersed in the free flow of energy, I experienced a feeling of connection to this world, its denizens, its environment... I was no longer a being apart, but a part of its being.

Twilight was looking at me with a note of wonder: my hair was literally flowing in an invisible breeze, power rippling through my hide. I grinned at her, laughing a bit: a few moments ago, I’d experienced a tense moment of a prisoner pleading for freedom. Now, I just wanted to hug her. Speaking of that...

I rushed at Twilight, causing her to give a little squeak of surprise as I halfway tackled her, embracing her in my forelegs and cuddling her close, nuzzling with my new muzzle. She blushed again, ahhh, Twitwi is best pony: so adorable! <3

Ahem. Not sure where that came from...

Anyway, after a moment of realization, Twilight tentatively hugged me back, also chuckling, though a little less comfortably than I was.

Ah, she’d get over it.

“Thanks Twilight! I’m so glad you let me out!” I gave her another snuggle.

“Heh, well, you made a good argument for it! I’m just glad you’re not mad at me...”

I shrugged a little, “Ah, it’s ok Twilight, I’d’ve probably done the same thing if a self-modifying entity had shown up on my world...” Gee... I sure was enjoying this close, personal contact thing... Twilight had this really pleasant ambient field, like being close to something warm and inviting.

There was something else too... This weird, innate desire to groom her mane or something... Like... Something about the prospect of brushing her hair as a comfort action felt very normal, as if my memories insisted I had some sort of familiarity with her... Perhaps I’d known a similar person in my previous life?

“So...” she asked, pulling away a little, “What are you planning on doing now?”

“Isn't it obvious?” I grinned, “Science!” I reached out with my own will, mimicking the telekinesis I'd seen Twilight use, and the whole lab was awash with papers, the test results from today lined up with those from the previous days. Grinning up at the information, I sat down on my haunches next to Twilight.

“Alright!” I said excitedly, looking at how the various graphs and sets of symbols (which I assumed to be numbers) changed with each day, “...what does any of this mean?”

“I take it you don't remember numerical spell analysis?”

“I'm not sure we had this on my world... We were less advanced in magic, but if those lights are modern, more advanced with things like electricity....” I gestured to her ramshackle electric lights, which were clearly a newer addition to the structure, but registered to me as obsolete technology.

“Oh.” Twilight said, “That's... Not at all what we'd assumed... It'd be really interesting to hear about that later.”

I nodded, “I'll tell you what I can, eventually...” I turned my attention back to the papers, “So, what does this stuff mean?”

“Oh! Well, that first one is a spectrographic reading of your magical energy. It detects the specific frequencies of a spellform to help figure out how it was made. At the beginning, over here,” she pointed to the far left with her nose, “you had this entirely alien reading. But as you can see,” she swung her head slowly to point at the far right, “it changed over time... This latest one is almost identical to the background aura of my lab. I was actually hoping you could tell me more about that: I’d never seen that sort of behavior before.”

“Well, two things, one was that I needed to rebuild the spellforms that I was made of, and your world's energy was plentiful. The other was that having the same frequency meant I'd have a more stable, native form in your environment, though it adds to the complexity in some places. Mostly though, I was just working with what I had to build a stable body to anchor myself to...”

Twilight nodded, writing down notes. She'd pulled over her notepad at some point while I was talking, “I see... That explains a few things. This next one is a lattice analyzer. It gives the size and density of a spellform. You actually started getting the maximum reading this machine gives for a few things on the fourth day after I found you.” She pointed to the first one, “This was the first reading, on the second day, when you were a cloud.” She moved to the second reading, “This was the third day, when you’d turned into that blob with tendrils.” She pointed to the third day, where exclamation points had been printed around the big number, “This is the fourth day, when you started trying to look like a pony. As you can see, your thread-count goes above what the machine gives accurate readings for, and it just keeps getting more inaccurate from there. Same with density,” she pointed to a small graph, the middle of which had made a rough line at the top of its chart on the 2nd reading, which just kept getting bigger as the days went on, “You were too dense for it on the 3rd day. I don't know how you managed to keep your spellwork that dense without it interfering with itself...” she looked at me questioningly.

“Well...” I said, sitting back a bit and making the hide that formed my chest transparent, so that she could see the clockwork spellform inside me, “Some parts, like my memory, actually rely on that interference to function efficiently, others, like the way I'm actually storing information, utilize subspacial folding. I believe I may even have a few ten dimensional structures in there...”

Twilight's pencil slowed, “...but... There are only nine dimensions...”

“Nine known dimensions, that you've discovered.”

Twilight drew a blank for a moment, then flipped her page back and started scribbling more notes, “Oohhh my gosh... Are you sure? I mean, you're sure you're not mistaken about this? Because the discovery of a tenth dimension completely changes several models of unified theory... I mean, unicorns have only been able to sense five without enhanced perception, and we only know about the ninth because of the Hoofings Equations...”

“Unicorns aren't ten-dimensional magical entities from the Void.” I allowed myself to get a little smug, “I can pretty much sense any dimension I'm able to operate in, but I can understand why you're surprised: I think my people only discovered five or six of them...” I thought about that, “Wow... I'm like a walking science experiment!”

Twilight looked at me, “So... So wait... You're saying you can just SEE these other dimensions?”

...a slow smile spread over my face... “Twilight. Remember the flying books from your dream last night?”

She stopped, “Yeah... Kind of... Wait how did you-”

I reached down into the Dream World, stretching my arm out for a few meters in that direction as I did so, and yanked out a flying book, grinning at Twilight as it flapped in my hoof.

Her eyes practically bugged out of her head, “HOLY SHIT!” She almost dropped her notepad, “How did you do that? Even Princess Luna can’t do that! You didn't even build a portal, you just did it! HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?”

I laughed instead of responding to her for a moment: screwing with Twilight's sense of reality was way too much fun. I let the book go, and it started flapping about haphazardly on the floor, its tiny wings unable to support it in the gravity of the Waking World. “Ok, ok... Let me explain... Remember how we were talking about the non-cardinal dimensions? One of them is the dimension of thought. It’s a bit like time, where it has this one-directional flow, but unlike time, things can and do travel against it through the application of Will. The physical, Waking world, is sitting on top of this endless depth of concepts and thoughtstuff, part of which we know as the collective subconscious. You go down far enough, and you start getting some really weird stuff: I don’t know what’s past the collective subconscious, and all I know about the other direction is that Platonic Concepts supposedly get pulled down from there.”

“...Platoni-what now?”

“That’s not important right now. What’s important is, because I can perceive that dimension like any other, and I’m not bound by the limits of a being truly bound to the physical plane, I can interact with it. Grabbing that book was just a matter of reaching in that direction and yanking something that was lingering there from the dream you just woke up from.”

“Well, that's... Wait... are you telling me you can just move across non-cardinal directions at will??”

I laughed again, “That would be impressive, but no. I mean more in the sense that I can simply interact with non-cardinal directions without the need to bend them parallel with the cardinal directions with a portal. The book was sitting on the top of the Dreamtide, so I could snag it without stretching my form too far in. I don't think I can actually move myself in those directions... Yet... But I certainly seem to have developed a knack for parlor tricks... With experimentation, this could have some real application.”

Twilight stood up and started pacing in earnest, “Holy shit Meta... You literally just subverted the laws of reality, and you're calling it a parlor trick! I’m not even sure how many cutting-edge theories about the function of reality you just rendered obsolete with that, how many spells you bypassed by just... You just did it! I don’t even know, I can’t even! What do you-”

“Uh oh...”

“WHAT IS IT!?” Twilight shot over to me, looking me over.

“The book.” I pointed at a spot on the floor.

She looked, “I don't... Where did it go?”

“Oh, it dissipated into thought stuff and subsumed back into the dream world. But it did it while I was watching it...” I narrowed my eyes.

“Is that normal?”

I shook my head, “They're not supposed to be able to do that while being observed... See, things from the Dream World lack something called ‘object permanence’. Picture the Dream World as a body of water, and we're all sitting on the surface here in the Waking. We can dive in, grab something, and pull it out, but it can't really keep it's form in the Waking world without an observer. This means that things from dreams can only exist in the Waking while someone is actively watching them. If you stop paying attention to them, even for a moment, they lose their form and vanish, like an air bubble meeting the surface of the water. I don't think I've ever seen one of them vanish while I was watching, back when I did this on my home world. All I know, well, think, is that the fact that it did means that I don't count as an active observer anymore...”

“Wow... So... What does that imply?”

“I don't know. That I'm actually dead? I've only ever seen this from creatures that don't have object permanence themselves... Which... I... have...?” I stared off into space, awkwardly feeling at my not-meat body with my forehooves, as if that would tell me if I was about to dissipate.

“Well... that's odd then...?”

“Yeah, it is... I’ll have to look into this. It may explain something about the nature of the dream world...”

There was a moment of awkward silence, which Twilight broke, “So...” she looked around, “I found some other pieces of what I'm guessing were your memories floating around...”

“Really? Lemme see!”

“Right over here...” Twilight walked over to a shelf, on which several crystal domes sat, each of which housed a shimmering spellform.

I followed her over, sensing the familiar barrier of that crystal substance she’d been using to contain me before. I made a note to ask her about the material later. “Interesting... Would you mind if I took them back? I mean, I’d like them back, but if it’s important to you to keep them longer...”

Twilight shook her head, “No, no, I think I’ve learned all I can from them. Besides, they’re yours, so it’s better if you just took them back. Who knows, you might even find something useful in them.” she smiled.

Carefully, I wrapped my magic around one of them, reaching out with my forehooves to lift the dome, pulling the delicate lattice of spellwork and energy out and setting the dome back down. I looked at it for a moment in front of my face, thinking about how best to bring it inside my body. After a moment, the easiest method seemed good enough: I brought it to my face, opened my mouth, and reached out a few tendrils to grasp it and pull it inside.

Twilight winced next to me, “Uh... Meta? Could you warn me before you do creepy stuff like that?”

“Creepy stuff like what?” I asked, 3 stray tendrils still floating out of the sides of my mouth.

She pointed a hoof at my mouth, “The tentacles coming out of your orifices. Normal ponies don’t do that. Actually, I don’t think normal anything does that...”

“Oh...” I said, slurping the tendrils back inside, “I don’t really have the same sense of unnaturalness as physical beings anymore, so my definition of ‘creepy’ isn’t really well developed...”

“Ah... right...” she winced as I repeated the process with the second, third, and fourth. “So... Is that it? Do you just knows what’s in them, or is there some process to reintegrate them?”

“Hmm... I was going to analyze these later, but if you want, I could demonstrate and explain the process to you as I go.”

Twilight grinned, nodding vigorously, “Oh yes please! I’d love to hear all about how you do that!”

“Alright!” I nodded, turning my focus inward as I handled the new concepts. “First step, I have to analyze the structure and find the endpoints of it, figure out where the pattern begins and ends so I can see how it’s supposed to hook in...”

“That's some pretty complex spellwork, how do you manage to keep track of it?”

“I had to optimize and expand how much information I can keep in my mind at once. It was one of the things I did over the past few days when trying to rebuild myself.”

“Wow... Ok... So you just rewrote yourself to be better at casting... I... Kinda wish I had that kind of power...”

“Maybe I'll figure out a way to replicate the process for you then... I mean, without tearing you apart and all that. Anyway, right now I'm going over the connection points of this mindform to see how it responds. I can tell that it's mostly facts because it's all very referential: it's meant to be linked to other memories and used for background information. Early on, these were hard for me to figure out: it wasn't until I realized I needed to hook them to other memories that I could actually use them for details. Anyway, now I know how to look over the whole thing from one endpoint, and I found that on this one, so I'm doing that now...”

“Oh! What's it about?”

“Oh... This one’s some basic information on... You'll like this: it's about my homeworld.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up, “Really? What’s it say?”

“Well, it doesn’t really ‘say’ anything, it’s just vague concepts and definitions... It seems I was a member of a race of bipedal primates known as ‘humans’, who just about mastered electricity and were experimenting with space travel... My homeworld’s name would translate to something like ‘Terra’ or ‘Earth’, and had several landmasses, with temperatures ranging from about 40 degrees Centigrade to well below freezing... I’d have to know more about your world to tell you what’s actually different, or to have the context to really interpret most of this stuff... I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t feel like I specialized in biology or planet science, so I don’t even know how much of this would actually impress you...”

Twilight nodded, “Well, I’d definitely like to hear more about your species and planet when you can tell me... Is there anything else you want to share?”

“Hmm... Let me look over the next one... This should only take a moment...” I got the connection and ran it through my consciousness. “Oh... Hmm... That could be useful...”

“What is it?”

“...I think this is the memory of the last time I was fully self aware...”

Twilight began to nod, slowly, as she pieced it together, “You mean, when you were...”

“Yeah... Weird thing is, it starts out like I was at some sort of,.. event... a festival I think? I was trying to... buy... something... and I was pulled into... a hole or something... and I was hit by someone’s spell...” I looked it over a bit more, “Ok, yeah, someone yanked me out of a festival of some sort and into a big empty part of the Dream world, and hit me with some spell that tried to tear me apart and put me back together as something else... but I guess I countered it halfway through and came out like... this...”

“So, this is the result of an attack, but not the intention?”

“The intention was to send me to this world after transforming me into something new. Maybe a monster, I don’t know. The caster put a failsafe in the spell which tried to unmake me when I tampered with it, so I think it’s safe to say that they’re not the good guy here...”

“You think it might be someone in Equestria? Some enemy trying to use souls from beyond the Void for an invasion force?”

I shook my head, “No. Whoever it was was very far away, but very powerful... I think we’re looking at something that lives out in the Void here...”

Twilight cringed at the thought, “A Void Dweller... What would it want with our worlds though?”

“I don’t know...” I furrowed my brow, “I hope we don’t have to find out any time soon...” I looked inward for a moment as Twilight gulped, “In any case, I'm not sure what the other two pieces you found are: they're not very coherent, and I just don't have enough context to fill them in...”

“Sounds like we’ve got some exploring to do later then.”

“Right.”

“Hey Um... Meta? Can I see your spellform again?”

“Hmm? Sure. Just don’t poke it too much, ok? This is basically my brain I’m exposing here...” I subsumed the physical form I had around me, letting the matter of it melt back into energy as I just let myself turn back into that cloud, held together by my will to exist. I unfolded a bit for her, spreading out a little more so she could see it all clearly.

Twilight’s eyes bulged a little as she watched, causing her to cringe and take half a step back, “That’s... Disturbing that you can just... do that... I mean, fascinating, don’t get me wrong, but wow...”

“Yeah, I found it a bit odd once my personality came back. I actually had to manually remove my own sense of existential dread at the notion that I don’t really have a body anymore...”

Twilight hesitated a little, “Wait... you can modify your own... personality? I mean... You’re actually turning off your emotions?”

“Yeah, it’s all part of this complex spellform that I can sort of stop and tweak if I need to...”

She looked at me with new worry.

If I had eyes at that moment, I would’ve rolled them, “Oh come on Twilight, I still have the same goals and values. There’s no reason for me to self-modify myself to be malicious, I mean, if given the chance, would you make yourself want to be a self-replicating monster, and turn yourself into some sort of grey goo scenario?”

“I guess not...”

“Right. It wouldn’t make sense for me to do something that made me malicious, and I have no reason to purposefully change my own values to something more primitive. You don’t have to worry.”

Twilight nodded slowly, “I guess that’s... comforting...” Her eyes narrowed a bit, looking me up and down, “Come to think of it... how are you talking to me right now? I didn’t notice it was strange when you looked like a pony, but now it occurs to me that you don’t really have the necessary organs...”

“Oh, it’s simple: I’m just manifesting the sounds in a voice I remember being my own.”

“Yeah, but... how are you making them audible? Are you like... conjuring an illusion, or...?”

“No illusion. I am simply making the sound exist... You understand how sound waves work, right?”

She nodded, smiling a little, “Yes, kinetic energy vibrates the air, creating a compressional wave, which travels outwards indefinitely.”

“Right. I’m making noises by creating those compressional waves.”

“Wow... Ok then... Just another world-changing power you have.” she rolled her eyes a little.

“Right... Well... Would you mind looking at what you wanted to see now? When I don’t have a form, I have to hold myself together against ambient energies. It makes me feel very... ‘naked’...”

She blushed a little again, “Oh! Right... Let me just... get to it then!” She leaned in a little, looking through my spellform, “...I can barely even see the spellwork now... It’s so... Small and intricate...”

“Yeah...” I admitted, “I think I’m hitting a bottleneck in my development: I’ve made most of the improvements and additions which are obvious, and I’m starting to hit some boundaries involving the laws of physics... This might be close to my limits.”

Twilight nodded slowly, “Well, it’s quite an impressive limit. I’m pretty sure we’re well beyond the world record for ‘most complex spellform’.” She took a step away, “You can turn back now.”

I reformed the pony body around myself, pulling my mass into the shape, becoming the smiling alicorn mare standing in front of Twilight again. I stretched my limbs a little with a sigh, “Ahh... much better...”

Twilight nodded again, “Right. Thanks for showing me that!” she gave me a smile. There was a moment of pause, and she glanced around the lab a bit, as if searching for something new to do with me, seemingly at a loss for a few moments. “Um... so...” she grasped for an idea, “Do you... wanna see my... book collection?” she grinned sheepishly.

My eyes widened slightly at the prospect of seeing the library of a magical scientist on an advanced alien world. I stared straight at her, and this time I had to temper my response to not show too much emotion... The forceful, hiss-like response I gave was pretty much appropriate... “Yes.”

So one winding staircase and a couple hallways later, Twilight showed me her library. Now, when she’d said “book collection”, I’d been thinking something like a few bookshelves of reference and light reading material. You know, a respectable private library. No. Twilight, from the looks of the labels on the few dozen shelving sections she had, was talking about an actual public library collection, complete from books for foals to learn to read with, to the great literary works of her planet, to records dating back over a thousand years, to textbooks on cutting edge science and magical theory. This was the kind of thing you’d see in the Universities of my homeworld before physical paper books became impractical for more efficient technologies...

I let my jaw drop as I stared at all the bookshelves, literally vibrating with excitement at the amount I could potentially learn from such a vast collection. I mean... She literally had whole sections dedicated to magical theory, and here I was, from a world where a single book on magic could literally cost you an arm and a leg... Granted, it wasn’t my arm and leg I gave to the six headed butterfly spider thing, but that guy sure did miss ‘em.

...uh... he had it coming. ...And he got better. Long story.

“Well, here it is! I just finished stocking these books.” She glanced over at me. The sight of me panting, wide-eyed, legs spread slightly, wings sticking straight up caused her to immediately blush. She looked around uncomfortably, “Oh, um... Meta...? you should probably um... do something about... you know... The wings...”

I tore my eyes away from the books, “The... wings? Huh, would you look at that...” I lifted a hoof to poke at the stiffly extended left wing. “What about ‘em?”

She blushed a little more, “I mean... Well... alicorns aren't exactly common in Equestria, and if somepony sees you, you might attract the wrong kind of attention...”

I nodded, glancing back at my wings. “Oh, ok. I'll just stop having them for a while.” I focused on my form, temporarily removing the part with the wings, causing them lose all semblance of form and melt back into my body, leaving normal, flat fur where they’d been.

Twilight shuddered slightly at the sight, “I’m never gonna get used to you just doing that...”

“Sorry Twi,” I shrugged, “I’ll make a note to warn you next time I modify my form like that.”

”Right...” she said, “So... I was thinking I could get some material to cross-reference with, and maybe you have some things you’d like to read?”

“Well, I don’t actually know how to read your language, so right now I’m doing what I did to understand your language in the first place.” I said, concentrating on the bits and pieces of linguistic concept floating about.

“Oh... I don’t suppose you could show me that?”

“It’s not exactly clever stuff, Twi. I’m just sifting through the concepts about reading floating in the ether, trying to piece together a coherent understanding of it all...”

“I see... And how is it coming along...?”

“...It’s gonna take a little while... It’s a very tedious process...” I replied.

“Oh... well, um... Would you mind if I left you alone in here for a few minutes? I have some stuff I’d like to go take care of in the lab...”

“Twilight, this is the best room I could imagine on this planet. At this point, I don’t really want to leave...”

She chuckled bashfully, “Oh, yeah.... It is pretty great... isn’t it...” She turned to start out the door, “Be back in a few minutes...”

“See you soon Twilight...” I responded with a detached wave of my forehoof. I kept concentrating on the various concepts I felt floating in the aether around the library, pulling them in and trying to build a working model of things. I reached out and pulled over a dictionary, and then an encyclopedia, to demonstrate to myself how the language worked. Pretty soon, the various titles and labels were all making sense, soon after, I found myself understanding the words of the encyclopedia telling me all about Prench Haute Couture, and within a few minutes, I felt like I could write a book in Equestrian.

Ok, even I impressed myself at this point: I’d gone from not knowing a language, to being able to read and write in it, in a matter of days, using a brute-force approach to just add the knowledge directly to my mind. That was a feat that I know would have been far out of my reach if it wasn’t for my odd predicament. And I wasn’t even stopping there: now that I knew what everything in the library was, I could tell that there was no way one pony could get through all the books in a timely manner. Fortunately for me, I wasn’t a pony, and the “one” thing was just a matter of skill at this point.

I turned my focus inward again, letting my body go mostly dormant on its hooves as I put my full attention on self-analyzing. I isolated the parts of my mindform which dealt with reading, comprehension, and and concept analysis. They were a bit of a jumble, but I stretched them out and began to arrange them. I worked to find new ways to streamline the processes, quickly improving them, systematizing them, bringing out the most efficient structure I could conceive at the time for learning from books.

Soon, I was able to extrapolate patterns from my work, and I began to create a copy from them, making a repeatable pattern. It was highly complex, but easily mirrored, and would do everything I needed it to: a spellform to raise, read, comprehend, and retain knowledge from books to be stored and analyzed later.

I tessellated the pattern, making 1 into 2, 2 into 4. 8... 16.....

...32.

It had been a strain on my will and energy reserves at the end, but there were now 32 such shimmering spellforms floating about the library, lifting assigned books off the shelves, opening them, and slowly flipping through the pages to read them. I grinned, just resting for a moment as I admired the outcome of my work...

“Twilight? Is that you in here?” I’d been enjoying the feeling of the raw, unprocessed knowledge of the various texts being unloaded into my brain for a few minutes when a familiar voice came through the open door. I turned my head to see a little purple reptilian creature walking in, slowing as he saw me. “Oh... I heard the books and saw the magic and I thought you were Twilight...”

I shook my head, “Nope. Just a new friend of hers.” I turned to face him, giving a friendly smile, ”You’re Spike, right? You can call me Meta.” I held out a hoof for him.

He walked up and took my hoof, hesitant as he looked at my face with a bit of concern, “Uh... right...”

“Is uh... something wrong with my smile?” I asked

“Um... no! It’s just... um... wide...”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I uh... don’t have a lot of experience with socializing...” I took a moment to view myself from an external perspective and adjust it’s wideness from “insane” to “friendly”. “...Is this better?”

Spike chuckled awkwardly, “Um, yeah! Much better.” he looked around, “So... What are you doing with the books?”

“Oh, Twilight said I could read any of her books, and I wanted to read them all, so I isolated the section of my consciousness that deals with learning from books, distilled it to a pattern, and tessellated it a few times so that that I could absorb the conceptual information of every book in the library through simple mechanical process of book learning, without having to physically interact with them.”

Spike looked at me with a blank expression, his eyes having glazed over halfway through the explanation. “So... What’s the end goal of this?”

I sighed, giving him a sympathetic smile, “I’m using magical constructs to read the books for me, so I can learn their concepts without taking the time.”

“Oh...” Spike looked around at all the spellforms floating about, eyes widening as what I was doing began to dawn on him, “Oh!” He put his hand to his jaw, “Does... Does Twilight know this spell?”

I shook my head, “Probably not. I mean, I made it up just now, using raw conceptual thoughtforms...”

“Huh...” Spike said in that way people talk when they really don’t have any response. “Oh! That’s what that alien thing was made of! You must be the expert Princess Luna said she would bring to look at that thing Twilight’s keeping in the basement, right?”

“Um... Well, I suppose I’d be considered an expert on the subject at this point, but I’ve never met Luna... as for the thing in the basement...” I wasn’t sure how to field this one. Twilight had told me that Spike had been adamant about not letting me out, and she’d been breaking the promise to him that she wouldn’t let me out a few hours ago, so while I didn’t want to lie, I didn’t want to tell him that I was the thing he was terrified of without Twilight there to calm him down.

...Which was why it was lucky that I heard Twilight’s hoofsteps echoing around the corner again. “Alright Meta,” she said as she rounded the corner, “Now that that’s done, we can... um...” she trailed off as she saw me talking to Spike, surrounded by books floating in and out of her shelves. “Oh... Hi Spike! I... see you’ve met Meta!” she chuckled uncomfortably.

Spike smiled and nodded, “Yeah, Twilight, you’ve gotta see this spell she made to read the books: she says she made it up on the spot!”

Twilight looked around, “The books? Wait... Is this some sort of mass-analysis spell?”

“I isolated my mind’s ability to read, comprehend, and store knowledge from books, created a hyper-simplified version, making it into a semi-symmetrical pattern, and tessellating it several times. So... now I can read your whole library in a few hours AND hang out with my new friends!” I pulled the sides of my mouth back and up to give her a grin.

Twilight’s eyes practically sparkled, “That’s amazing!” she rushed over to me, getting in my face in her excitement, “You have to teach me!”

I leaned my head back so she didn’t bump her nose against mine, “Um... Yeah... But later: we’ve got something else to deal with right now...” I pointed a hoof at Spike, cringing slightly.

Twilight looked over, blinking at Spike, “Oh, um... Right, Spike! You’ve met Meta!”

Spike nodded, “Yeah! Is she gonna help you study that alien blob thing?”

Twilight cringed, fidgeting, “Um... Not exactly... She’s um...”

“Spike.” I said calmly, before Twilight could start digging a deeper hole, “You know how, when the entity in the chamber started to act strange, you made Twilight promise not to let it out? Because it seemed like some sort of monster?”

“Yeah... Did we figure something else out?”

“Well, I think we owe you an apology. See... While you were gone, it started talking to Twilight and that changed the nature of the situation. Spike... I’m a spellcaster from another world, and after I took a solid form and was able to understand what was going on, I asked Twilight to let me out. I’m sorry that I made her break her promise to you, but I was afraid of being trapped...”

Spike’s eyes widened, looking over me with increasing amounts of agitation as he realized what I was saying, “Wait.... You're that thing from the basement!? I was just in there 2 days ago and it was just a pony-shaped blob!”

“Yes.” I nodded, “I have regained many of my senses in the past few days. I hope to be back to my old self soon... And,” I added, trying to give a reassuring smile, “I hope that we can be... um... friends?”

Spike blinked for a moment, moving a bit closer to Twilight, leaning into her a bit, “Uh... Twilight? Can I talk to you about something in the next room?” he eyed me shiftily, “...Alone.”

Twilight gave me an awkward wince as she turned and walked out, Spike casting glances back at me as they walked through the doors...

I just sort of took the moment to check in on my spells... make some improvements...

A little ways down the hall, Twilight spoke in a hushed, apologetic tone, “Spike... You're mad at me, I know...”

“You just let that thing out? Alone?” He hissed, “What the hell Twilight? Containment procedures! We had clearly agreed on containment procedures!”

“She was talking to me, there didn't seem to be any evidence that she was actually dangerous, I couldn't just keep her locked away indefinitely...”

“That's not your decision to make! Twilight, we have no idea what her goals are or what she's capable of! You could’ve endangered all of Equestria just now!”

“Oh come on Spike, what so far has happened that makes you think she's willing or able to do something to hurt us?”

“She literally just told us she self-modified to read all the books in your library. What if she decides she wants to read everything in Equestria?”

“Oh come on, is that such a bad thing? I mean, it’s not like reading a book destroys it...”

“Says a pony who’s never collected mint-condition comic books... But no, Twilight, think about it, defense plans are written down, ancient spells are written down. If Meta’s part of some invasion, she could just be gathering information for an attack! That’s not even considering what she might do to get information when she runs out of books!”

Twilight rolled her eyes, “Spike, you keep operating from these assumptions that Meta chose to come here and be this way. There’s no evidence that she’s malicious or even that she’s lying.”

“There’s no evidence that she’s not, Twilight: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence! You even told me that a self-modifying entity like that could do all sorts of things to potentially kill or enslave the entire planet!”

“When we talk about that, the risk is often poorly explained. A self modifying artificial intelligence could have any number of goals, most of which aren’t so much malicious as different from what organic beings would want. An AI is more likely to become obsessed with the number Four than it is to decide that all life on the planet must be eradicated.”

“How can you prove that? Didn't you tell me that nothing like this has ever existed?”

“Well... No... But that doesn’t mean we can’t model this sort of thing. I mean, we’re predictable as organic life forms because we’ve evolved over the millennia to act in accordance with satisfying our biological needs in our environment. A self-modifying entity doesn’t have those constraints, but it still operates based on an existing set of constraints: it has the values it starts with, the needs and wants it has, and the environment it has to adapt to to satisfy these. From that, we can extrapolate the constraints in which it will purposefully self-modify itself, and the actions it will then take. Following so far?”

“I guess... But I’m not sure what we can assume about Meta...”

“Well, first off, she has a strong self-preservation instinct. That’s pretty clear from the fact that she even survived this far, and is usually something you can assume about any entity that isn’t being reckless. Now, with something as powerful as Meta, I’m not sure how much self-preservation is a reason not to provoke us, but I still think she’d see us as a potential threat if she did become malicious.”

“Right, but that’s all the more reason for her to deceive us about her intentions if they are something which would cause us to fight her.”

“Right, but that brings me to my next point: putting aside the fact that Meta seems to hold Friendship, or must at least some form of social cooperation as a value, because she seeks socialization with other intelligent beings, what reason would such an entity have to be outright malicious? I mean, her values and thought processes are definitely alien, but there are an infinite number of goals she could have, and a finite number of them directly involve killing. For all we know, she could want to become the greatest wildlife painter in the world, and that’s why she wants to be let outside.”

“But Twilight, just because a goal doesn’t directly involve killing ponies doesn’t mean killing ponies won’t come up: we have no reason to believe she would have any reservations about killing in order to achieve her goals, because she’d have no reason to put those in. If she decided to paint every house in Equestria red, for example, she cold decide that blood is a good source of pigment and start killing for that reason alone.”

“That’s a good point, but as of yet, the only interests we’ve seen from her are Socialization, Self-Improvement, and Gathering Information.”

“Right, gathering information like what our insides look like on a dissection table.”

“I’m aware. Any goal can go to dark places, but that’s true even for ponies: some of the most intricate knowledge we have on pony anatomy was gathered by mad scientists and dark wizards doing highly unethical experiments. Meta has no reason to use those sorts of methods other than perhaps convenience, and her interests in Socialization and Self Preservation would make them problematic. Even then, you have to remember that she’s clearly a living, thinking being. We don’t lock up powerful wizards like Sunset Shimmer simply because of their ability to hurt ponies, and the fact that she’s not a life-form we’ve encountered before doesn’t mean we should treat her differently.”

Spike sighed, “I know, I know... Tolerance and all that, but seriously Twilight, are you at least aware of the risk you’re taking here?”

“Of course,” Twilight stated, “just because I’m willing to show her Friendship, doesn’t mean I’ve lost sight of the fact that I barely know her, and that she’s capable of things I can’t even predict. It just means I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt: until she starts showing interest in defection, I’m going to continue cooperating. That’s just how game-theory works when two strangers are in a scenario like this...”

“Right, but...” he paused, struggling a little, “It’s like... I just feel like you’re really missing something here, like there’s some flaw in your reasoning as to how all this justifies trusting something like her...”

“Well, if you think you know anything I’m overlooking, you’re welcome to tell me.”

“Well...” Spike struggled, “I dunno... She’s scary?” He sighed, “I don’t know how to argue this... It’s like you have more words than me, and I just don’t know enough to really argue this...”

“So... You’re admitting I have a better point... but not conceding?”

“It's not that I think you have a better point, it's that you're just so much better at arguing stuff like this. But just because you can make a claim well doesn't mean that claim is sound.”

“But Spike, is there anything I’ve said that you think is incorrect?”

“Well, not of the top of my head, no. But... just because you're correct doesn't mean you're right!”

Twilight stopped to think about this, “Well... Yeah... I guess that’s true...”

“Look... At this point, I think all we can do is agree to disagree. All I’m asking is that you don’t forget what she is and what she’s capable of, and I’ll try to be nicer to her. Deal?”

“Well...” Twilight thought, “In the absence of any better conclusion to the matter, I suppose that’s fair enough.”

“Right... Now, I think we should contact Princess Celestia to tell her what’s been happening. I mean, I’m pretty sure she’d like to know about this, and I’d kind of like to know myself...” he straightened a piece of parchment and readied to write.

“Alright... Let me think about this... Started talking, had a conversation, went to bed, had another conversation, let her out, potentially dangerous... Ok, I think I know what I want to say.” She cleared her throat.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I apologise for not informing you of this sooner, but there has been a major development in the study of the extraEquestrial spellform which I discovered several days ago. At approximately Nine AM yesterday, the entity took a form that looked like mine, and began speaking to me, claiming to be a female from another world who studied magic and lost her body in some sort of Magical attack. She did not have access to most of her memories or personality at this point, and told me she would be unable to provide answers to my questions until the next day.

Over the night, she created a body with a unique look, and this morning, she asked to be referred to as “Meta”. She then asked me to release her, claiming she wanted to learn about our world, as this may help her regain more of her memories. After a thorough discussion of whether she was dangerous enough to be contained without evidence of malice, at approximately Ten AM today, I released the entity from containment. I am aware that this action was a breach of safety protocols, and take full responsibility for it, however, I believe Meta is a friendly, sapient being, and that allowing her to be free was the only ethical course of action.

Spike does not believe that Meta is safe, citing her ability to self modify with seemingly no limit, her clearly alien values and viewpoint, and her willingness to do so, especially when gathering knowledge. I on the other hoof, believe I have befriended Meta, and plan to continue learning about her.

We will send more detailed notes in the next few hours. Until then, take any action you deem appropriate. As of yet, however, I believe the situation is handled and we can proceed as normal.

Your fellow Princess and Friend, Twilight Sparkle.

“Anything else?” Spike asked

“No... I compiled the notes that I wanted to send her while you were taking to Meta. They’re sitting in the usual spot in the lab. I guess you can send them when you get a moment...”

“Uh huh...” Spike said, rolling up the letter, tying it off, and sending it in a rush of magical flames. “Alright... there it goes.”

“Thank you Spike. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?”

Spike sighed, “No. Let’s just get back to see what Meta’s been up to while we were gone. Hopefully she didn’t turn the furniture into an army of robots...”

Twilight chuckled weakly, and they both walked back down the hall.

I was still messing with my spells when they got back. I found that the information was coming out in raw form, and that I’d need to process it later, perhaps while sleeping, before it worked as actual knowledge. As they came through the doors, I finished up what I was tweaking and turned to face them, “Welcome back. Still just reading the books...”

“Hello again Meta.” Twilight smiled, “Sorry to keep you waiting, we were just talking about... Um...”

“Me.” I stated.

Spike stopped in his tracks.

“Uhh...” Twilight’s smile faltered.

“You were talking about how Spike doesn't trust me because I am clearly capable of being a threat, and he has not seen enough evidence to overcome his fear of me, while Twilight does not feel this way because she has seen no evidence.”

Spike unconsciously took a step away from me, eyes widening.

“Meta...” Twilight said, also a bit unnerved, “Were you spying on us?”

“Not entirely by intent.” I spoke a bit slowly, ”I have a far stronger awareness of my surroundings than a typical organic being and I haven't gained full control over what I tune out. On top of that, all verbal communication carries concepts, which I’m learning to interpret, so I didn’t even need to parse the words to understand the intent. I heard you through the door, and once I realized it was a matter which concerned my wellbeing I gave it some attention.”

Spike looked at Twilight, even more perturbed now, “So... You’re telling us that there’s no way for us to hide information from you...”

I gave him a sympathetic look, “I guess I’m telling you that, if you want to keep things private from me, you’re going to have to be more careful about them.” I thought for a second, raising my forehooves disarmingly, “That’s not a threat or anything, I’m just trying to be honest with you about what I’m capable of. If I lied, then you wouldn’t have any ability to trust me.”

Spike relaxed a bit, still grimacing a little, “I guess that adds up, but even still, you’re an alien with unknowable goals and powers beyond our comprehension. Surely you understand how reckless we would be if we didn’t assume that you were being deceptive...”

“If I wanted to deceive you, I would have lied about overhearing you. If I was interested in subverting your will, I would have fled or attacked by now. Friendship is not built on deception, but on cooperation. Someone who attempts to subvert your will is not trustworthy as a friend, because they aren't supportive of your goals.”

“Is that how you see Friendship? A means to an end?” Spike asked, more inquiring than accusing.

“Would you want to be friends with someone who was comfortable with hurting or betraying you? Friendship requires mutual support in order to be worth something. A friendship where one side clearly takes from the other without giving is not a good friendship. That is a simple fact of social interaction. Right now, I am giving you the honesty you need to give me the trust I need.”

“Riight... Well, thanks for that, I guess...” he glanced over at Twilight, “I’m gonna go send some reports now, if it’s all the same to you...”

Twilight sighed, “Right... Fine... Go do that...”

“I’ll see you later Twilight. Meta...” He kept glancing back at us as he left the room...

Twilight sighed, “Sorry about Spike,” she said, “He’s really protective of me, and I’ve been getting him to read a lot of hard sci-fi lately. I guess the stories about rogue artificial intelligences, alien invaders, and killer robots have all gotten to him more than the exploration...”

“It’s understandable,” I said, “I’m sure I’d be a bit more cautious if I were in your position. If Friendship wasn’t such a terminal value for you, you may not have even let me out. A friend who’s willing to second guess you like that makes a far better advisor than one who agrees with you. His relatively strong sense of caution is part of what made me so eager to get you to let me out before he came back... Sorry that I was a bit manipulative, by the way. You kind of had me trapped in a vulnerable situation...”

Twilight nodded, slowly, “I guess I understand... You’re very threat oriented, I’ve noticed. Like a pony who’s used to being in danger.”

I nodded, “Humans are a dangerous species. Humans who study magic live on the edge of society, under constant threat from other magic users and supernatural beings... Besides, if I’d been more defensive, I wouldn’t be in this situation now...”

“Right,” Twilight nodded with a bit more force, “I suppose you’ve been put in a very precarious situation...”

I nodded slowly, adding after a few moments, “Hey, look on the bright side: if I hadn’t been sent here, I’d have never met you!” I gave her a smile.

“Aww...” Twilight smiled, blushing slightly.

I responded with a sideways hug, letting go after a moment, “So, you think it would help if I go talk to Spike?”

Twilight shook her head, “Give him some time. He’s probably still a bit on edge after everything that’s happened...”

I nodded. I didn’t entirely remember how people worked, but I’d realized that Twilight was a bit more analytical than usual. I probably couldn’t just use a wall of logic on Spike, so I’d have to just let things work out naturally... “Well, if we’re giving Spike his space... Do you want to go outside?”

Twilight sighed, “I suppose I’ve already let you out of the box, so what’s the harm of letting you out of the castle? Come on, the door’s this way...” she gestured with her head and started walking out of the library and down the hall.

I grinned, following her out, speeding up a moment to keep pace beside her. “I can’t wait to see more of your world, Twilight. Oh, maybe there’s somepony you want me to meet?”

“Yeah... about that... We shouldn’t tell my friends what you are.”

“What am I?”

“Um... That’s... a good point... I guess I mean that you’re from another world and all that... Do you... want to make up a backstory? Like, you’re my cousin from out of town or something?”

I shook my head firmly, “Deception is not a sustainable method of making friends, or even existing in society. If they ask, I would prefer to tell them the truth. ...What we know of it at least.”

Twilight grit her teeth for a second, “Alright... Well... I can’t guarantee they won’t react with pitchforks, but you never know...” Her horn lit up, and one of the massive doors swung inward a bit.

A breeze pushed through the open door as we approached, and I felt Equestria’s open air for the first time. Excited at the notion of finally getting to explore the world I'd found myself in, I trotted next to Twilight, out into the town of Ponyville...

Author's Note

FINALLY. Here it is.
Next chapter should come out right quick, and I hope to release chapter 6, where the action starts, around a week from now. Hope you all are enjoying the science-ponies so far! :3

Chapter 5: Expanding the Color Palette (Part 1)

Author's Note

Finally.
Here it is.
The longest chapter.
I'm breaking it down into two parts because of just how insanely out of hand this single chapter is, the worst part being that it's mostly slice of life in the middle of a psychological thriller, but to be fair, I did say I wanted to push out of my comfort zone. Enjoy the pretty horses, and expect the second part of this real soon: it's all downhill from here on out!

Chapter 5: Expanding the Color Palette (Part 1)

Ponyville was about as bustling as one would expect, and I was reminded a bit of a small town on the verge of erupting. I could tell that Twilight's castle, which was an impressively large structure from the outside, had been made using some ancient and powerful magic, but was clearly a new addition from the freshly installed interior and the lack of heavy development nearby. Perhaps someday soon this place would grow into a bustling city, but for now, it was far flung from the overcrowded metropolis of say, New York City, a place I'd somehow remembered from my homeworld.

Twilight and I walked side by side down the cobblestone road, and I found a certain fondness for the clip clop! clip clop! noise our hooves made as they fell on the hard stones. There just seemed to be something comforting about this world of colorful ponies that I couldn’t place: all I knew was that my own world had been far more grey and dead.

Not far into the town proper, I tapped Twilight on the shoulder and pointed to a particularly poofy plump pink pony literally bouncing towards us. She stopped a few feet away, wearing a huge grin as she looked us over excitedly. “Hey Twilight! Who’s your new friend?”

“This is Meta, she’s another scientist from out of town who’s staying with me for a while.” Twilight said, gesturing to me. She looked at me, “Meta, this is my friend-”

“Pinkie Pie.” I stated aloud.

There was a brief pause as they both just looked at me with confusion.

Pinkie broke it, “Wow!” she grinned, “You sure must be really smart to already know that!”

“Yeah... Meta, how did you know that?”

“I don't know...” I looked over at Twilight, “All of this seems very familiar, despite the fact that I've never even been to your planet before...”

Pinkie gasped, “Are you an alien from another world trapped here without form or memories by some spell, remembering stories told about us from the future of some other timeline!?”

“...yes. Well... I'm not sure about the last one, but yeah, the first part is true. How did you know?”

“Lucky guess!” she grinned at me, as if it was the most normal thing to assume.

I made a note to ask how much of a “guess” that was later...

“So, Meta,” she started again, “Since you're new in town, I should throw you a 'Welcome to Equus’ party! I’ve never thrown a party for an alien before...” she rubbed her chin with a forehoof, “Actually, I don't think anypony has...” Her eyes lit up, “That means it'll be the first 'Welcome to Equus’ Party ever!!”

“Uhh... Pinkie Pie?” Twilight slipped in, “I'm not sure that's such a good idea...”

Pinkie’s face fell, “Aww... But I’ve always wanted to throw a ‘Welcome to Equus’ party, and I’m sure she’ll just love my cupcakes!”

I chimed in, “Pinkie, I'd love for you to throw me a party, but I don't think right now would be a good time. I'm still getting used to having a pony body, and I haven't even figured out a way to eat yet. You should wait until I've had some time to adjust, then I can try your cupcakes! With hot sauce even!”

Pinkie’s face lit back up at that, “Ohh boy! I bet it's gonna be super awesome-riffic!” She jumped forward, giving me a big hug, to which I just smiled and hugged her back. Something about her felt so... Comforting...

Beside me, I heard Twilight mutter, “...how did she know about the hot sauce?”

“Welp! I'd better let you go!” Pinkie Pie said, literally letting go of me, “Try not to bore the readers too much with the sciencey talk!” She giggled a little.

“Don’t worry, things’ll pick up in the next chapter!” I giggled back, giving a wave as she turned to leave, “See you later Pinkie!”

“Byyeeee!” Pinkie called as she bounced off.

I smiled as she left, turning to Twilight, only to notice her staring at me in confusion. “Uhh... Meta? What was that about... ‘The Next Chapter’?”

“The next... What? I have no idea... What... What was that?” My mind tried to analyze what had just happened, but my memory kept throwing me the answer that it was “just Pinkie being Pinkie”, whatever that meant.

Twilight sighed, rolling her eyes, “Great, there’s one more mystery. Though, I guess we can just write this off as Pinkie being Pinkie for now...”

“Pinkie being Pinkie...” I repeated, “Um... yeah, let’s leave it at that for now...”

“Right... So... Is there anything you were thinking of doing before... that happened?”

“Uh... Well... I suppose it might be nice to see... some art? You know, see a bit of your planet’s creative culture...”

Twilight rubbed her chin, thinking for a moment, “Hmm... I know! My friend Rarity is a fashion designer, she knows all sorts of things about art! Maybe you’d like to meet her?”

“That sounds good...” I nodded slowly, “Some clothing might be nice too. I feel... oddly exposed. Not just because my body isn’t made of real matter either: I feel like I have some sort of... ‘instinct’ left over from my old species, where I’m supposed to be wearing clothes for some reason... Besides, I could weave a few defensive runes or something into a cloak, in case I need to defend myself from something... Oh, I’d like to look around that forest at some point.” I pointed way off to the edge of town.

“The Everfree?”

“Yeah, it’s teeming with raw energy... I’m downright drawn to it...”

She nodded thoughtfully, “That makes... some sense... I mean, the Everfree is filled with strange, wild magic... You’re probably sensing that. You might want to be careful though: the Everfree has been known to have some very unstable conditions for spell work.”

I nodded back, “Hence the warding on the cloak.”

“Smart thinking!” Twilight grinned, “Rarity’s is this way...” She turned and started leading me to another part of town.

I fell in beside her, “So, you think your friend could make me a decent outfit?”

Twilight nodded enthusiastically, “Oh yes, Rarity is one of the best fashion designers in Equestria! I’m sure you’re going to love whatever she makes for you.”

“Sounds great!” I grinned. A few more moments of thought caused me to pause though, “Actually... I don’t have any money to pay her with... I mean, I’m assuming your society has currency, right?”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll be more than willing to make it as a gift, and if she’s not, I have plenty of money to pay for whatever you need.”

I nodded, putting a smile back on as I continued walking. “Thanks again, Twilight.” I added, “I mean... You really don’t need to be doing all this just for me...”

“Oh! It’s nothing... All in the name of science, right?” She gave me another smile.

“Well... it’s more than just science... I mean, you didn’t have to take me around town, or let me see your library, or defend me from spike, or even let me out in the first place.” I smiled, leaning in to give her a brief nuzzle on the side of her neck, “You’ve been a very nice pony, and that means something to me.”

Twilight blushed a little, “Oh, well... Thank you, I guess... And you’re welcome!”

A bell hung over the door rang as we entered the tall, elaborately decorated building that was Carousel Boutique. I heard a gentle yet peppy voice waft in from a room in the back, “Welcome to Carousel boutique! I’ll be with you in just a moment...”

“It’s me Rarity! I brought somepony for you to meet!” Twilight called out, heading for the next room.

Quietly, I followed her, glancing around at the various arrangements of clothing around me. I wasn’t really sure what the point of clothing was in a society where I hadn’t seen any being worn, but I had a distinct emotional response from a few of them, the most common one being a desire to wear them: they were all clearly of expert design.

“That Twilight I hear out there?” A drawing voice wafted out from the doorway, moments before an orange mare wearing a large brown stetson and blonde mane poked her head out, wearing a friendly smile. “Well fancy seein’ you here. I see you’ve brought company...”

“Applejack!” Twilight strolled over with a smile, “I wasn’t expecting to see you here!”

“Hello!” I chimed in loud enough for the ponies in the back room to hear me, putting on a new smile for Applejack, as we walked to that back door.

“Howdy, my name’s Applejack if you didn’t already pick that up.” the orange pony said as she beckoned us into the room, Pleased ta’ meet ya’!” she took my hoof with hers, and I shook it with a grin.

“And I am Rarity, it’s a pleasure to meet you as well!” the pony from earlier beamed at me, holding out a hoof for a much more gentle shake. She was a pure white unicorn with a whimsically styled purple mane, and if I’d remembered the Wolfmother song at the time, the iconic guitar riff would’ve started playing in my head.

I took her hoof and followed her shake as well, “You can call me Meta, and the pleasure is all mine!”

“Meta here is a fellow magical researcher, who I recently met after she went through an unfortunate ordeal.” Twilight chimed in, “Her memories are a bit fuzzy right now, so she’s going by that name until she remembers her old one...”

“Oh dear, how awful!” Rarity said, putting a hoof to her chest. I wasn’t sure how much of her reactions were theatrics, but I seemed to sense a genuine concern from her.

“Yeah, ah’m sorry to hear that Meta. I hope ‘yall feel better soon.” Applejack threw in with a frown. She wasn’t prone to any sort of exaggeration of her mannerisms, so the genuine nature of her response felt all the more genuine to me.

“Oh, I’m making good progress: a few days ago, I literally didn’t have a body, and I didn’t even understand the concept of social interaction. I’d consider just talking with you like a normal pony to be a major improvement!” I tried my best at a reassuring smile.

“Didn’t have a body?” Applejack’s eyes widened slightly as her started to stumble, “That’s a... mighty unfortunate ordeal for y’all to go though... How’re you even standing here?”

“Oh, well... It wasn’t easy. After Twilight here rescued me,” I put a foreleg over her shoulder as she blushed, “she put me in an isolation chamber where I could just... put myself back together... I eventually figured out how to build a new body from scratch.”

Applejack’s eyes widened a bit more, “Wait... Y’all can do that?” she looked at Twilight, “Twi, can y’all actually do stuff like that now?”

Rarity interjected before Twilight could respond, “Hang on a second... Twilight, didn’t you say you had some sort of ‘alien spellform’ in your lab, and that it was starting to mimic pony behavior?” She glanced back at me, eyes widening, “Oh my... That was you, wasn’t it...”

I kept a gentle, even smile: this next part was going to be important. I spoke calmly and clearly, “Yes. I am a magical scholar from what we believe was an alternate universe. I was reduced to a sort of formless state and sent here by some sort of spell that was used against me. As I only have vague memories of my old life, and I don’t have a way back yet, I’ve decided to learn about your world and perhaps live here indefinitely. I hope that you’d still like to be friends with me.” I looked back and forth between the two of them, keeping my smile on stiff.

Applejack just stared at me, drawing a blank from that new information, her mind whirring to provide a response...

...Rarity didn’t really miss a beat with hers, “Oh darling, that sounds absolutely horrible! I simply can not imagine what you must be going through right now!” she reached over and took my hoof in both of hers, “If there’s anything I can do to make you more comfortable here, please, don’t hesitate to ask!”

Applejack turned her head towards Twilight, giving her this wide-eyed, questioning look.

Twilight just smiled uncomfortably, nodding a little, “Yeah... It turns out what I thought was an alien spell was an actual alien... So... I figured I’d make friends?”

Applejack shrugged, looking me over for a moment, “Well... Y’all seem pretty friendly to me... I s’pose we might be friends, uh... someday.” She gave me a weak smile, as if hiding some discomfort.

I decided not to call it out. “I’m glad to hear that!” I looked back and forth between them, “Thank you both for being so understanding.”

Interestingly enough, this is about the point where I realized I’d been sensing some sort of unseen connection between the ponies, like a channel of some sort of energy being directed at each other. I wasn’t sure what I was sensing, but held off on the speculation for the time being.

Twilight’s smile grew into a grin as she saw her friends’ response to me. “Oh good! I was worried you might be a little frightened when you found out what she was...”

Rarity shrugged it off, moving closer to me, putting her foreleg over my shoulder, “Whatever would we be afraid of Darling? Meta here is the one who should be terrified! I’m sure this is all very unnerving to you... is there anything I can do to help?”

“Well...” Twilight said, “We actually came here for that”

“Oh?” Rarity’s eyes lit up at the opportunity, “Please, feel free to ask for whatever you need!”

“You’re a very experienced tailor, I see. Where I’m from, everyone wears clothing in public, and it feels a bit odd to be, well... naked. Also, I’d really like some pockets, and some sort of physical protection, as I feel like my body might be a bit less durable than I’d like...”

“Say no more!” Rarity beamed, “At Carousel Boutique, I take pride in making sure everypony walks out looking and feeling fabulous...” she trailed off a little, searching for some words, “...no matter how unusual their circumstances!”

“Right!” I smiled with an affirming nod.

Working with Rarity, I described the kind of outfit I was looking for: a long, dark jacket made of tough material, as well as a cloak I could line with protective enchantments. Rarity introduced me to some interesting material they had on her world which was made specifically for runes and enchantments exactly like I was describing, and offered to put a grid of this on the inside of a traveler’s cloak, to which I agreed wholeheartedly. It was also suggested that I take a pointed hat with a wide brim as well, as this was, in Rarity’s words, “not only stylish for a spellcaster of your prestige, but could be very useful in shielding your head from any sort of magical interference!” I really didn’t get that one, but something about it really clicked with me, so I went with it.

Pretty soon, Rarity had made some sketches of me wearing this outfit on paper, and it was clear to me at this point that she had quite a bit of skill at making creative ideas into practical realities. Pretty soon she was taking extensive measurements, commenting on how close my proportions were to Twilight, who I’d noticed was significantly taller than the others, while Applejack wrote the numbers down with a practiced hoof. I could tell that Applejack was pretty experienced with tracking numbers, and probably did a large amount of the accounting for her apple farm, which alone would explain her close friendship with an entrepreneur like Rarity...

...Wait... How did I know about that...?

“All done!” Rarity trilled, breaking me out of my thoughts, rapidly rolling her measuring tape back up with a snap! “I should have this ready for you by tomorrow. Do try not to get into any more dangerous situations before then, hmm?” she gave me a wink.

I chuckled a little, “I’ll try not to Rarity. Thanks a bunch!”

With that, we all said our goodbyes and I left with Twilight. I’d noticed that Applejack was very guarded around me, as if she had things she wanted to say that weren’t nice, so she didn’t want to say anything at all. She didn’t trust me, and I wondered how she might’ve behaved had we been alone...

“So Meta,” Twilight asked as we strolled down the path away from Carousel Boutique, “Where to next?”

“Well...” I said in a moment of thought, “I'd still like to get a closer look at the Everfree, even if we shouldn't go in...”

Twilight nodded, “I suppose we could do that... It’s this way.” she pointed briefly with a hoof and began leading me in that direction. “Maybe I should should introduce you to my friend Fluttershy. She lives just outside the Everfree, and she can introduce you to Discord. He might know something about your situation.”

“Discord you say?” there was something ringing a bell about that name, as if I should be excited to hear it, “Sounds like a good plan...”

Twilight opened her mouth to say something else, when a high, scratchy voice called to us from above, “Hey Twilight!”

We both looked up to see a blue pegasus with awesome rainbow hair zooming down to join us, hovering backwards just in front of us, eyeing me over briefly before setting down, smirking at Twilight, “Looks like somepony found somepony to talk Magic with. Wanna introduce me?”

“I know who you are.” I headed Twilight off, “You're Rainbow Dash, the fastest pony in Equestria. Aren't you a member of the Wonderbolts?”

Twilight’s eyes widened in a moment of bewilderment, Rainbow just grinning, “Ha ha, what? I mean, I know I'm awesome, but I guess my reputation proceeds me... You a fan of stunt flying?”

“I don’t think so...” I said, though it was entirely possible I had been, “I just saw you and remembered that you are... It's as if I know who all of you are from some story, but I don't remember reading it...”

Twilight finally spoke up, “But... How is that possible? Meta, you're not even from this world...”

“I don't know... Perhaps we need to reexamine our model of multiversal theory...”

“Wait... What’s that about another world?” Rainbow said, confused, “Are you like, an alien?”

I rolled my eyes a little, “Yes, I am an Alien, Rainbow Dash. I come in peace. Live long and prosper. Yadda yadda yadda.”

Rainbow laughed, “hah! Good one. Anyway, I gotta get back to my training, I’ll catch up with you girls later...” and before Twilight could say anything else to stop her, she leaped back into the air, zooming out of sight.

I watched her leave with this strange lingering feeling of joy from seeing her fly like that, “Huh... I was wondering if she’d react like that...”

“Mmhmm...” Twilight nodded, “Well, at least it seems your personality is developing more.”

I nodded back, “Yeah, I'm feeling pretty well fleshed out at this point...”

And at that, we continued on, the trees of the Everfree looming over the dark underbrush as it came into full view...

The Everfree forest was teeming with a strange, turbulent energy: whereas the rest of this world it seemed to be covered in a strong ambient energy which flowed steadily with uniform saturation, in the Everfree, it broke up to flow around trees and other features, churning in strange magical eddies, creating both hot-spots and dead-zones. It was as if the whole area was operating on a different set of principles than the rest of Equestria, and the readings I was sensing from it were both enticing and ominous.

At some point though, as we moved within 20 meters of the treeline, I felt something else... It was as if an unfamiliar presence had rolled in upon me like a weighted fog. I didn’t have any real frame of reference for exactly what it was, like many of the things I could now sense, and I suspected few beings of the waking did.

Not far from the last house, we approached a cottage which seemed built out of a hill, surrounded with a small garden filled with burrows, a quaint bridge running over a small stream for housing fish.

It was then that I noticed the silence.

Perhaps it was the bird houses which made me realize that we hadn’t heard any birds on the way here, even though we’d spent the past few minutes in the woods during the day. I looked around at the burrows, getting the distinct feeling there should be plenty of active animal life around here... There was none.

As we crossed the bridge, I focused in on my senses, noticing the chickens hiding in their coop, the birds hiding in their houses, the ground animals hiding in the burrows...

I could feel their fear.

“...This is odd. Normally, Fluttershy’s garden is filled with animals... Is it just me, or is it oddly quiet?”

“I noticed that too. The animals are all hiding from... something.”

Twilight cringed, a look of worry on her face as she quietly tapped the door, “Fluttershy?” she called out carefully, “It’s me, Twilight. Is everything ok?”

On the other side, I heard someone move quietly to the door and slowly turn the handle. It creaked as it slowly cracked, a slender yellow mare poking her face out, “Twilight?” she looked over at me, “Oh... you brought a friend...?”

“She wanted to meet you... Is everything ok?”

The door opened wider as Fluttershy conversed with us, looking about anxiously, “Um... No... I mean... Oh dear... I think you should come inside...” Fluttershy moved behind the door, keeping it open as Twilight slipped inside and I followed her in.

The living room seemed dark and bare of life, the blinds drawn and the animals, once again, hiding from... something. I could see a pile of blankets under the couch where Fluttershy had been hiding, the only sign of life in the room. Clearly, whatever had spooked the animals had been going on for at least a few minutes...

Fluttershy closed the door quietly, locking it before turning to look at us with worried eyes, “The animals... They’re all scared... They told me there’s something... unnatural moving through the woods... Like some sort of monster...”

I looked at Twilight, “I’ve been sensing some sort of presence in the woods the entire time we walked here... Maybe it’s that?”

“It’s possible... I hope it’s not something we need to worry about...” Twilight looked over at Fluttershy, “This is Meta. She’s another spellcaster. She’s had some... odd magic done to her. I was hoping Discord might be able to help...”

“Oh, well... I was expecting him for Tea in the next half hour... When all the animals started acting scared, I told them to wait for Discord to show up, because he could protect us from... Whatever it was...” She looked around at all of the various holes in her living room, where the animals didn’t even seem to want to show their faces.

“Well,” Twilight offered, “now that we’re here, maybe we can protect you from whatever it is?” She glanced over at me.

I nodded, “Yeah, both of us are experienced with defensive magic. I’m sure we’re a match for whatever it is, assuming it’s even hostile.”

Twilight nodded, “Right. Fluttershy, ask your animals what they’re afraid of.”

Fluttershy timidly returned her nod, looking around, “Um, alright everyone. It’s safe now: Twilight and her friend are here.”

I saw a few animals peek their heads out, but almost immediately, all of them shot back into their holes with a resounding series of squeaks and hisses, the walls briefly coming alive with the scurrying of tiny feet.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, looking around with “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know... I’ve never seen them act like this... I thought they would come out, but now they’re even more scared than before...” she looked over at me, “It’s almost as if...” her eyes started to widen, breathing becoming heavy, “Meta... I think they’re scared of...” her body trembled, her eyes not breaking contact with me “...You...” She began to back away.

“Me? But why? I’m... Oh...” I looked at Twilight, “Uncanny Valley.”

“Uncanny Valley? But you look perfectly normal! Why didn’t anypony else see it?”

“Animals sense the world differently than we do, so when I made myself to look friendly to ponies, I must have missed some characteristic which they pick up on...” I trailed off, letting her pick up...

“...creating the appearance not of a living thing, but something trying to mimic one!” her eyes widened, “Meta! They probably think you’re a flesh golem or something!”

“Right! So how do we get them to stop being afraid? I don’t have enough context to know what I need to change to look natural...”

Fluttershy’s wings were raised, and her fur was literally standing on end, “T-Twilight? What... what’s going on?! Why is Meta... Why isn’t Meta alive!?” she stumbled backwards, ending up pinned against the couch, shaking violently as she stared at me with gaping eyes.

Twilight grimaced at her, searching for words, “Meta is... um... The best way to describe it is that she was maimed by a magical spell... Her body is actually a construct she put on so she could talk to ponies without scaring them.”

I nodded, “Right... I’m not dead, it’s just that I had to put on a fake body... Like a prosthetic! Yeah, that’s what this is, they’re afraid of my prostheses!”

At the notion that I was really just a horribly maimed pony, Fluttershy immediately calmed down, breathing a sigh of relief, “Oh... That’s a relief...” her eyes widened again, “Oh my gosh, Meta, I’m so sorry! I had no idea what you were going through, and I must have made you feel absolutely terrible when I thought you were a monster, and you’re really just a normal pony trying to make friends!”

“Well... I wouldn’t call myself a normal pony... considering I wasn’t a pony before this...”

Twilight cringed.

“Oh... Oh my!” Fluttershy’s eyes widened, “I didn’t realize just how serious it was! Oh you poor thing, I’m so sorry! And here I’ve treated you so horribly...”

I sighed, “It’s fine, I understand why you were scared. It’s…”

“Oh no, but it’s not fine!” Fluttershy kept laying it on thick, “I mean, here you are, going through what you’re going through, and here I am acting like you’re some sort of... Oh! I’m such a silly pony! How can I ever make this right!”

I rolled my eyes, “I said it’s fine Fluttershy. Let’s just move on and talk about something else, like... Hey, Twilight, why don’t we tell her about our day so far!” I held up a hoof to Twilight, beckoning her on.

“Oh! Right! Um... We were at Rarity’s earlier, and we saw Applejack there!” Twilight offered.

“Yeah, Rarity is making me a new outfit” I continued.

“Oh... well that’s nice of her.” Fluttershy seemed a bit unsure.

“Yeah,” Twilight nodded, picking up the idea, "Fluttershy, Meta here likes to wear clothes!”

She perked up at that one, “Oh... she does?”

“Yes, um... Dresses too!” I grasped for the first thing that came to mind, “...Are you a fan of Prench haute couture?”

Fluttershy finally smiled, “Oh yes! I particularly love ribbons and frills!”

I smiled back, “Ah, I like more modernist designs, you know, the more form-fitting ones.”

“Oh, those! Rarity’s made a few of them, but of course, I’d never wear something so... provocative...” she blushed a little, trying to hide it behind her mane, but hey, better than apologies. “Oh where are my manners... Would you like some tea?”

“I love tea!” I said, not thinking. “Wait... Actually, I can’t ingest anything right now, so I suppose I’ll have to wait until another time...”

“Oh, I’m so sorry Meta! I had no idea!”

Twilight facehooved, groaning, “Not this again...”

I was about to open my mouth when I felt a presence phase in on top of us. Suddenly, I felt a burst of power rewrite reality in the middle of the room, creating circumstances from the multitude of possibilities where some sort of long-bodied chimera was floating just above the rug. Holy crap. I could feel the power dripping off this guy, as if he’d been wired into some facet of the world itself, and his form seemed built to perfection through chaos, if such a thing was even possible.

...Also... he looked familiar... in that comforting sort of way that made me want to be friends, which was bizarre, considering he basically had the body of a circus train catastrophe... You know, the kind that ends with a big bill for fishing wire and cackling screams of “It’s aliiive! By Promethius, it’s aliiive!!!”

“Ah, Fluttershy! I see our good friend Twilight has decided to join us for Tea! Let me guess Twilight, you just couldn’t resist the thought of my impeccable company. Oh, but you reeaally should have called ahead. If I’d known I’d ha- Oh.” Discord immediately stopped when he noticed me for the first time, having somehow not sensed me as a living creature in the room. He leaned in, giving me his full attention, ”Well you're different.” Discord dropped the subject mid-sentence and began eyeing me over with amused curiosity, picking up my hoof and looking at it, sticking his head under my body and looking over my underside...

“Um... Discord?” Fluttershy stammered, blushing, “That’s... a little.... Rude... don’t you think?”

“Nah, it’s fine. I’m a huge fan of Discord.” I said off the cuff, “I also don’t mind this kind of attention from an attractive male... Hey Twilight, you should make a note of that, in case you were wondering about those preferences.”

Fluttershy practically buried her face in her hooves at that one, trying to hide the immense blush at hearing another female talk that bluntly about a male she was clearly interested in.

Twilight blushed too, “I um... wasn’t really... um... ok... I’ll keep that, in mind...” she stammered.

I didn’t need to give into my shame though, and my sense of humor was finding the whole thing hilarious. So did Discord, because he started laughing out loud, something which I joined in on.

“Ah Twilight, I don’t know what this abomination is that you’ve called in from the void, but I completely approve of this application of the dark arts!” he laughed more, grabbing my hoof and shaking, “Welcome to Equestria, whatever you are... Do you go by something pronounceable on the lower planes?”

“Meta. And Twilight didn’t summon me, I was sent here from another world by someone else’s spell, which was trying to change my physical form when I sabotaged it. Twilight found me unconscious.”

“Yeah, Discord, you know a lot about trans-dimensional magic. Have you ever heard of anything like that?”

“Hmm... sounds like someone tried to Displace you...” Discord rubbed his beard, peering over me with a smirk, “That would explain the recent disturbances in the dimensional barriers...”

“‘Displaced’?” I asked, “You’re saying you know what happened?”

Discord gave a shrug, waving it off with his paw, “Oh, you know, one hears things when they get around the multiverse. Normally, lower level beings like Humans or Ponies don’t travel beyond their own universe without extensive training like the Moon Princess has, or the help of a being with that kind of power, such as yours truly. Sometimes, however, a higher level being, and I’m talking ‘That Which Dwells Within The Void’ here, will decide that a world-dwelling creature, such as yourself, should be something else on a different world, so they’ll grab some concept from the collective unconscious, slap it on them, and chuck them across the dimensional barriers. It's all the rage this century, though I prefer more absurd entertainment, personally. Anyway, Multiversal Displacement is a veeerry meticulous process, and one which it sounds like your ‘Displacer’ wasn’t expecting to be interrupted, you clever thing you...” his smirked turned into a grin as I sensed something like... admiration?

“But why would someone do something like that? I did not consent to this!” I lightly stomped a hoof for emphasis. “What sort of goal could possibly justify this sort of thing?”

Discord raised his hands defensively, “Oh, I wouldn’t know! I mean, they all have different motives. Some do it for entertainment, some do it to meddle in the affairs of other worlds, some even have these sorts of cosmic machinations which involve Displacements across countless worlds. I wouldn’t be surprised if your Displacer simply did this because it was some convenient shortcut in some other plan. You, however, probably put a spanner in those works...” he rubbed his hands together, “Oh, I’d love to see the look on that interdimensional meddler’s face when it realizes what you’ve done...” his grin faded to a frown as he had a sobering thought, “Well, of course, assuming it doesn’t just destroy you on the spot... That would be a shame: I quite like your attitude so far...”

I sighed, “Well, I’m glad my continued existence has your vote of confidence: I wouldn’t be happy about being destroyed myself... Though,” I conceded, “I suppose I wouldn’t be unhappy either, seeing as I would no longer exist.”

Discord chuckled, Twilight and Fluttershy were just looking back and forth between us with increasing amounts of worry on their faces.

“Discord,” Twilight asked, “Is there any way we can defend Meta from her Displacer if it comes after her? I mean, do you have any way to protect her?”

Discord shook his head, “While I am the Avatar of Chaos in Equestria, making defense against the impositions of otherworldly beings my purview, I wouldn’t be able to tell you in advance. Meta’s displacer could be anything from a lowly Deep One to a full on Eldrich God, and anything between that could have a myriad of strengths and weaknesses. Now, you, being the one chosen to wield the powers of the Avatar of Harmony, should also have that kind of power at your disposal, but I simply can’t promise you anything about a situation I know nothing about...” he thought for a second, “You know, it’s quite exciting, really.”

“Well I don’t believe in gods.” I grumbled, “And as much as I find the idea of multiversal travel ‘exciting’, I believe in my right to, you know, not have my very being broken down by uncaring Outsiders...”

Fluttershy took a step forward, “Please Discord, Meta seems like a nice enough pony. Isn’t there anything you can do to help her?” she put a hoof on his arm.

Discord looked down at her hoof, and I sensed that connection again... strong... I’d have to ask them later what kind of bond they had. He rolled his eyes a little, making a good show of feigning a lack of caring, though I could sense the will to please her within him, “Oh fine, I was going to have some me time today...” he held up a coconut to show us a hole in the side, bouncing his eyebrows, “...Buuut if it means so much to you, I suppose I could go look around and see if I can turn anything up on who might’ve done this, but only because you’ve all been so forgiving about the whole Tirek thing...”

...Tirek...

“Thank you Discord! I'm so glad you're our friend!” She leaned in and gave him a warm nuzzle on his side.

Discord actually blushed a little at it, “Yes, yes, well, we can't all be beings of cosmic power now can we. It was delightful to meet you Meta, now if you'll excuse me, I have some holes to poke my head into...” He raised his hand, snapped his fingers, and rewrote his position in reality in a flash of chaotic power.

I glanced around, feeling his presence fade out of the quiet cottage...

“Well that’s good news Meta. With Discord’s help, I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of what’s happened to you in no time.” Twilight gave me a reassuring smile.

I didn’t respond, something was banging in my head, like a misunderstanding that had been left unresolved for years.

Fluttershy leaned over towards me, “Meta? Is something wrong?”

“...He betrayed you to Tirek, didn’t he.”

“What?”

“Like, I mean, you had this evil sorceror named Tirek who could steal magic, and Discord sold you out to him, only to regret it after his sudden but inevitable betrayal? Because Discord is emotionally stunted? Then he swung back around at the last possible second, right?”

“...That’s... Yes. How did... How did you know about that?”

“I have no idea. It’s just a piece of knowledge I have. I’m really starting to wonder if there’s some time dickery at play here, because I feel like ‘why did you forgive him so quickly?’ is a question I’ve been wanting to ask for a few years.”

Twilight and Fluttershy looked at each other, hesitant...

“Discord...” Twilight began, “Changed.”

Fluttershy nodded softly, “We were all very mad at him until we realized just how sorry he really was...”

“... betraying us like that... Well, it just about destroyed him...” Twilight glanced back at Fluttershy, “It's a bit of a personal matter that we'd like to put behind us...”

I nodded slowly as I thought that over. I decided it wasn't something I should pry about: I doubted I'd fully understand if I did... I dropped the matter. “Alright. I was just curious, I guess. I didn't mean to make anypony uncomfortable.” I looked out the window: the sun would be down soon. “Well, Fluttershy, it was nice meeting you, but I feel like we should be going now.” I gave her a little smile, “I hope to see you again sometime soon!”

“Oh... Yes! It was nice to meet you too, Meta.” Fluttershy returned the smile.

As we walked outside, I thought about something I’d observed between Twilight and Fluttershy: I was starting to realize that what I’d been sensing was the strength of social connections between ponies... Was this what “friendship” felt like to a being of mind? I noticed that there were small waves of energy being sent between them, but I did not make these waves, and none were ever directed at me. I’d also begun to notice that they were slightly different depending on who was interacting with who, like how earlier I’d had some odd sense of the relationship between Rarity and Applejack. I set a note of it aside to look into it further: this could be worth studying.

As we cleared Fluttershy’s yard, I was broken from my thoughts, having noticed that presence from earlier fading back in. I now wondered if this was the feeling of being watched...

Chapter 5: Expanding the Color Palette (2nd half)

The rest of the trip back to Twilight’s castle was uneventful, aside from the odd presence looming until we walked across the open lawn, the sky turning dark as we walked through the towering front doors.

The gentle knocking of them shutting echoed a little through the half-empty hallways, reverberating through the massive structure for a good few seconds as we headed towards the large table that contained a map of Equestria and the surrounding lands. On the edge of the table sat what seemed to be a scroll...

“Hmm? What’s this?” Twilight approached the scroll, levitating it in her magic and getting a closer look, “Huh, this is from Princess Celestia. Spike must’ve gotten it while we were gone...”

“You want to read it now? I can wait...”

“I was about to ask. It might be important...” she unfurled the scroll and started reading through it quickly. “Hmm... Oh... Celestia says she’s... proud of me for looking past my fear to pursue friendship...? Well, that’s a relief... I was worried she’d be mad...” She read on, “She says she’s still fine with me handling it, but Princess Luna is still showing up in the morning to come see you...”

“Right, Luna...” I got that nagging feeling like I should be excited by this again, as if some part of me was sure that Luna was like, the best princess ever, or something... I pushed it aside again. This precognition thing was odd, and I felt like it was spurious at best.

Twilight looked at me, misjudging my sudden pause, “Don’t worry, Luna is an expert on Conceptual Thoughtforms. I’m sure she’ll be able to shed some light on what’s going on...”

“Yeah... I hope so...” I said, glancing up the stairs, “Hey... You think now would be a good time to talk to Spike?”

Twilight thought a moment, then nodded slowly, “I don’t see why not... he should still be up a bit longer, and I suppose I should go prepare you a room. His room is, um...” she winced as she looked back and forth between two doors.

“It’s fine. I found it...” I said, trotting off.

“Wha- You found it? How?” Twilight called after me in confusion.

“This place has magical markers. If you know how to sense them, they’re like direction signs.” I called back, following the path laid out for me.

“Wait... really?!” I sensed Twilight focusing behind me as I walked out the door, “Wait... So those are actually.... AAUGH!! Why didn’t I figure that out before we started mapping the castle!!”

Sad Twilight.

Here it was. The door to Spike’s room... I lifted a hoof and gently knocked on the crystalline material, “Hey... Spike? It's Meta again. I just want to talk for a bit...”

After a few moments, the door cracked, and a slitted green eye peered through, “Where’s Twilight?”

“Somewhere else in the castle... She said she was going to prepare me a room...”

“Right... and I’m assuming you’re here to try and talk me into trusting you?” he raised a brow, scowling.

“I’m just trying to figure out how to convince you that I’m not here to destroy your planet or something.” I plead, ”Spike, I’m just as in the dark about this as the two of you, and I don’t want you worrying about what I might do if I can somehow convince you that I’m not a threat.”

Spike sighed, opening the door a bit more, standing there and crossing his arms. You know, there seemed something odd about how his head came up to the same height as mine, and how his slender reptilian form seemed to be bringing on some muscle beneath the scales, as if he was an adolescent. I had no idea why this person I had just met who was clearly a young adult should look any younger, but some part of my mind kept conflicting, as if I’d thought he was a few years younger...

“Look, Meta, I think I understand why Twilight's not afraid of you, but I'm not ready to just let my guard down on someone who could literally kill us all with a single spell, and might not even feel remorse about it. I literally have no way to know you’re not just this year’s big villain biding your time until you have the perfect opportunity to attack.”

I sighed back, “Well... Will you at least give me time to prove to you that I’m not malicious before you go and do something about it?”

He winced a little, looking away, “I... probably shouldn’t tell you this, but... unless Twilight changes her mind, I’m not really sure what I can do about it...”

“Oh... Well... I’ll be sure to give you your space then. If there’s anything I can do to make you feel safer around me, just let me know.”

Spike put a claw to his chin, tapping as he thought for a moment, “Well... When you put it that way...” he sighed, deflating as he relented on me for the first time since we’d met, “I suppose that nothing short of you leaving would make me feel safe... And I guess Twilight’s right, it’s not fair for me to push that sort of thing on you just because of my feelings...” He straightened back up again, “Alright Meta, you can be friendly with Twilight and all that, and I won’t try to stop you or anything. Don’t expect me to suddenly want to jump out of my comfort zone and be friends though: I’m still keeping my eye on you.” he pointed to his face with two fingers, then to me...

I smiled, “I can do observation. All I can ask for is that you give me the chance to show I'm friendly.”

“Right, right...” he nodded, “Well... if there isn’t anything else, I guess you shouldn’t keep Twilight waiting for too long.”

I nodded, “See you around, Spike!”

He smiled, just a crack, but I saw it, “Yeah, I’ll definitely be seeing you...”

The room Twilight had gotten me seemed to be pretty standard fare for a royal guest chamber: big bed, big window, big armoire, big mirror... I even noticed the attached bathroom was pretty nice, not that I was likely to need it for anything...

It’s the odd things you notice when you lose basic bodily functions: I didn’t need to bathe anymore at this point, because I could just dissolve the dirt off of myself, and I didn’t sweat because I didn’t need to maintain any sort of body temperature, so the beautiful bath that had been stocked with luxurious shampoo would just sit unused as long as I was here. Hell, I didn’t even have a reason to brush my teeth or wash my face, no matter how pleasant the sink and mirror were. Don’t even get me started on things like the toilet...

Part of me lamented the effort that must have gone into making these things so elegant, now sitting here with a guest who no longer had purpose for them. I’d lost some element of the experience of being a living being, isolated from others through simple things that we take for granted, from taking a relaxing bath alone to eating a cupcake at a party...

...Maybe, in a sense, I really was dead. I certainly had more in common with an automaton than a real pony...

Twilight’s voice broke through my brood, “Sorry if I seem, you know, a little too excited by your situation... I’m sure it’s a lot to go through.”

“It’s fine, Twilight. Like I said, I purposefully made it so those emotions can’t cause me discomfort anymore... Besides, an inquisitive mind is exactly what I need right now!”

She smiled, “Mhmm... To be honest Meta, it’s kind of refreshing to meet a pony who acts as logically as you do...” she scratched the back of her head, “I may be the Princess of Friendship, but when I was younger, well... irrational behavior was sort of a thing that drove me away from others...”

I thought for a moment... “Hey, Twilight... Can I ask you something kind of personal?”

“Um... sure! I’m an open book!” she smiled at me.

“Do you have, like... some sort of social disorder?”

“I’m... not sure what you mean” she tilted her head.

“It’s... I guess I’m wondering if there’s some sort of neurological difference in you that makes social isolation normal for you.”

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, then closed it, furrowing her brow slightly in thought. She put a hoof to her chin, tapping slightly. I could literally feel her thinking hard about it, no doubt going through her memories and analyzing them as a whole, trying to decide if there was some common thread which would agree with the notion. Finally, after a few moments, she spoke again, “You know... I suppose I’ve always felt like I was sort of... Different... In a way that isolated me. I’ve thought about asking a psychologist about it, but it just... never seemed the worst of my problems.”

“Well, I wasn’t really an expert in psychological disorders, so I wouldn’t know anything about it... I guess I was just wondering if that was something you went through.”

“I mean, I do have trouble associating with other ponies, but I always assumed it was because I was just interested in different things from other ponies, or, well, on my worse days, that maybe I was just too smart to relate to...” she cringed, cutting herself off, “Well, I don’t think it’s good to think that about myself...”

“Why not?”

“Why not what?”

“What’s wrong with asking if your intelligence is something that isolates you?”

“Well, I mean... I don’t want to go around saying I’m smarter than anypony else. I mean...”

“But Twilight...” I pressed, “You and I are smarter than other ponies. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think all your friends are great, even Spike. But at the same time, there’s nothing wrong with admitting that they aren’t as smart as you.”

“I don’t know... That doesn’t sound very nice... though I guess there was that time that I was afraid to show how good I was at magic...”

“So what’s the difference when what you’re good at is learning and processing things?”

“I suppose you have a point... It’s just that it’s so rude to go around saying it, that’s all.”

“I’m not saying we should like, hold it over others... But Twilight,” I argued, “don’t you agree that it’s a barrier? Sometimes I feel like I have to pretend I’m someone I’d never want to be, just so everyone else doesn’t get confused, but if I ever complain about it, everyone is suddenly mad at me! I mean, how often do you try to explain what’s on your mind to someone, and they get lost a few sentences in?”

“I... I guess I see what you mean... It’s not that I want to be better than others, but sometimes...” she sighed, admitting it, “As much as we’d like to think about it, not all beings are created equal...”

“...And it’s not like I want to argue with people all the time... but...” I looked out into the darkness beyond the window, “it’s just so frustrating when they’re baffled by things that just feel... obvious...”

“...I... I haven’t felt that way...“ Twilight took a step towards me, “...with you.”

I glance at the hood, “I... I guess... You’re right...” I looked up at her face, just staring for a few moments. I let my gaze fall to the floor, a little smile forming on my face. “You know... Twilight...” I glanced down at my hoof, scraping it gently against the beautiful crystalline tile, eyes wandering to the ornate, plush rug that I probably wouldn’t appreciate as much as a pony whose body was real, “I don’t remember much about my old life... but I do remember that it was really hard for me to make friends. I mean, I just... kept seeing problems in things like sports and movies, and there weren’t many people who liked stories that really got into science and magic, or to talk about logic and ethics with. They definitely didn’t understand a lot of the things I was afraid of, or upset by. So I just... Well, I never got that close to many people...” I looked back up at her, smiling a little as I let my emotions show, a few ‘tears’ starting to form in my eyes, “But I feel like... I guess what I’m saying is... In spite of everything else, I’m glad that I got to meet you.”

Twilight blushed again, smiling a little. “Wow... Meta... That really means... alot to me... I’m glad I met you too...”

I took a step towards her, leaning in as we wrapped our forelegs around each other in a firm embrace. That’s when I felt it... that connection that I’d sensed between Twilight’s friends all day, except now, I finally knew what it was...

Love.

Not, like, romantic or sexual attraction. Like the love felt between friends, or the love you feel for something you enjoy. Just... pure, innocent, Love.

I smiled at the feeling of her body pressed against mine, that energy of her affection pushing into me. I knew I wasn’t able to reciprocate with her, but part of me didn’t mind so much: it was enough to be with her here, knowing the mutual affection we shared, her soft breathing as she gently nuzzled my mane, while my forehooves felt at the soft fur of her hide, her warm body against my room-temperature one. We stayed like that for a few drawn out moments before slowly relaxing, her head resting comfortably on my shoulder. Our forelegs slowly fell, but we stayed like that, close to each other, for a few moments longer.

As we moved to part, I remembered a feeling I’d had earlier...

“Hey... Twilight?”

“Yes Meta?” she looked at me with that adorable smile.

“This may be a little weird to ask but... Can I like... Brush your hair?”

“Oh! ...you mean like a slumber party, right?”

“Um... Yeah! That would be great!”

And so, after a bit of rummaging and moving about, the two of us were lying on my bed, side by side, gently running soft brushes through each other’s manes. At some point I remanifested my wings, to which Twilight expressed some interest in preening them. Some part of my past self was practically squeeing with glee with every stroke of the brush, though none of it really seemed too novel: we were just two good friends, sharing a relaxing moment together... I guess I’d always wanted to have a sleepover or something?

In any case, the conversation wandered in the direction that such conversations are wont to do...

“So...” Twilight asked, leaning her head against my foreleg as I ran the brush down the back of her neck, “What was that earlier with you and Discord?”

“Oh that? Well... Obviously, he’s powerful and funny... quite handsome too. I really liked his style, just... I dunno. I’d hit that...”

“Meta, you are so weird!” Twilight laughed, “I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with xenophilia, but Discord? Really?”

I rolled my eyes playfully, “What can I say? He’s an impressive specimen of his species, and I’d like to get to know him better! At the very least he’s funny...”

“Right, when he’s not acting crazy...” she deadpanned. “What was that whole bit with the coconut about anyway?”

“Oh Twilight...” I chuckled, patting her on the head with a hoof, “If you gotta ask, you’ll never know!” I giggled at her pouty face, reaching over and pulling her into another hug, nuzzling the side of her neck.

This devolved into more giggling and more cuddling, which struck me as a bit... “intimate”, for how well we actually knew each other. It occurred to me though that, compared to humans, ponies evolved from a herd species, and must be particularly used to close contact, seeing as huddling was a defensive mechanism in their ancestral environment. Now, it’s just a normal bonding ritual, which brings them comfort in stressful situations, like humans hugging and patting each other to show affection.

Our cuddle session died down about as quickly as it began, leaving us casually stroking each other with idle hooves.

Twilight yawned, “Well meta, I’m about ready to call it a night. You ok if I head back to my room now?”

I waved her off with a hoof, “You go ahead and head to bed Twilight. I’m gonna stay up a bit longer... Collect my thoughts and all that...”

“Alright Meta, Luna will be here in the morning, but I’ll come wake you if we need you when she gets here...” she said as she slid off the bed and onto her hooves, walking back towards the door, “Goodnight Meta.”

“Goodnight Twilight... Oh and Twilight? Thanks again for being my friend.”

She smiled warmly, “Glad to be yours too. I’ll see you in the morning.” And with that, she turned and left, the door closing behind her...

...And there I was, alone with my thoughts... For the first time, really, since Twilight had come down to check on me that morning. Perhaps even for as long as I could remember, seeing as I’d only managed to form a functional personality the night before: one might even say that I was able to reflect for the first time in my life.

Walking over to the window, I thought about what had happened over the past few days... What I’d remembered... What Discord had said... Somewhere out there was a powerful being who’d decided to abduct me from some festival, magically mutilate my body beyond repair, and hurtle me into an unfamiliar world. I didn’t know why anyone would do this, but I couldn’t think of a realistic justification for it. What had happened to me was in the past though, and changing that was far beyond my will. For now, I could only move forward, and try to make the most of the situation I’d been thrust into.

I looked over the peaceful view of rural Equestria at night. There was something I’d been meaning to try. In my non-corporeal form, I had pretty much levitated at will. I didn’t yet know how to do much more than reach in non-cardinal directions, but I hadn’t found much limit to what I could do with the cardinal ones. It was time to put that to the test. I glanced back at my wings: they really weren’t built for flight, and were more for show and the projection of magical force, but I didn’t need them for that. I had other means to work with...

With barely a glance back at the room, I braced myself on my hind legs, and launched myself forward, jumping out the window and spreading my wings. Immediately, I began plummeting fast, the force of my will alone unable to match even a fraction of gravity’s as I dropped several stories. Unable to think of any way to stop myself in that brief period of falling several stories, my body slammed into the ground full force, legs instantly buckling, pieces of my flesh literally exploding outwards as my entire body was shattered against the hard dirt of the ground. I felt ichor ooze from the sockets where my eyes had been before the sudden pressure of my skull flattening had blown them out, lying splayed and broken on the ground.

It was quite the inconvenience yes thank you sense of panic at being maimed, your input is so appreciated. The pain was excruciating... Or, it would’ve been, if physical pain were still a meaningful stimulus to me. But alas, I did not have pain receptors in my body which was literally just a shell.

Woe is me.

I lied there thinking for a few moments about the predicament: apparently my physical form had mass, and thus weight, and as long as I had weight, I couldn’t levitate like an incorporeal being, Without matter though, I would be subject to the magical ether of the planet trying to whisk me away, and out here, it was coming in gusts. I looked internally, trying to understand what exactly the situation I was in was...

I remembered that gravity is caused by some effect that mass has on spacetime, though I was a bit fuzzy on the details. An occultist-turned-physicist named Isaac Newton had theorized that it was the result of planetary auras pulling each other at a rate equal to the product of the two masses, divided by the square of the distance between them, (an inverse square law) multiplied by some constant which was around 8 or 9, and that inertia meant that the objects were moved towards each other at different rates according to their mass, meaning a relatively small object, such as my body, would be moved much faster than a large object, like the planet it was splattered against. I also remembered that another physicist named Albert Einstein had disproven that model, showing that Gravity was really caused, not by attractive forces innate to matter, but because matter warped space-time with its presence, something which was made clear to me based on the fact that I could see 5 of the dimensions curving around the matter around me.

...Wait a second.

Realizing I was basically experiencing something that even Carl Sagan couldn’t have experienced no matter how many mind-expanding substances he used, I reached some tendrils of raw matter out of my body and raised it back up, pulling the viscera back in and snapping everything back into place as I set myself back down on my hooves. I focused on the functional concept of what I was made of... Matter bent space-time, and was affected by its curvature... What if... What if there was some way that matter didn’t have that property? What if one could tune out the presence of space-time? Scientists had theorized such methods, but they could never actually produce them outside of heavily controlled environments... But they couldn’t literally see the presence of dimensional warping. Tearing down the existence of my own matter to its most fundamental level, I found it...

...And then I was weightless.

It’s a cheeky little feeling, you know, being able to just will yourself to move in any direction, and simply floating about under your own power. When I say “my own power”, I don’t even mean like a pegasus: the wings helped with stability and aerial maneuvers, but at this point I was literally willing myself in a direction and going there, physics need not apply. It wasn’t long before I was taking a leisurely glide about 20 meters above the rooftops of Ponyville.

I wondered how fast I could go. I’d found that I didn’t have any sort of momentum to keep me moving, nor did I accelerate according to Newtonian physics: gravity and inertia are results of the same aspect of mass, which meant that by subverting gravity, I had equally subverted inertia. I could basically maneuver on a dime, but I could only move about as fast as an average pegasus. Seeing as will played a large role in this, I wondered if there was some actual peril, if I would be faster. Could I outrun Rainbow Dash if someone had turned her evil? Was that kind of speed possible with this mode of transportation? There was so little information for me to draw on at this point, I had no idea what sort of equations my powers were bound by.

I’d realized by now that will was becoming the main limiting factor in all of this: Magic = Will + Intent, after all. I remembered the being which had “Displaced” me having a colossal amount of will and energy to draw from, but I didn’t know exactly what it was. I wondered if I could some day bring that sort of force to bear: before all this I might have thought it impossible, but here I was, re-enacting some sort of fanciful thought-experiment to literally levitate on a whim. What was once “impossible” was now a simple matter of understanding. With previously working models crumbling before me, I could only reject “reality”, and assume anything was possible...

...But what sort of being could have that kind of drive?

I remembered that Friedrich Nietzsche had theorized that all things, from humans, down to the smallest atoms, had an innate “Will to Power”, which drove them to seek a position of greater control over their environment: just as man builds his empires, so too does the wolf stake his territory, so too does the spider toil, so too does the bacterium feed, so too does the molecule within form the bonds of the lipid bilayer, so too does the atom vye against the subatomic forces to stabilize its own electron shell. All will was really the Will to power, only directed and harnessed, made into a fraction of what was truly beneath the surface. If directing it towards more specific goals fractionalized its strength though, I wondered what it would look like if that Will to Power could be harnessed in full. What kind of force could a being which had harnessed the will of its entire being bring to bear? If Nietzsche was to be believed, the being which could do that sort of thing would be like the over-the-top hero of an Ayn Rand novel.

But if the Will of this entity was simply that innate need for power that all things supposedly have, then what would the Intent of such a being even be like?

...some sort of paperclip optimizer for power?

I glided back into the window, alighting on a moment and glancing around the room Twilight had provided me... It was dark, yet I could see everything, the presence of magic humming through the crystal structure. I slipped inside, walking calmly to the bed and crawling up on it. I hadn’t slept in several days, and wasn’t really sure if I could still sleep at all, but I decided to lie down at the least to have some down-time, perhaps meditate. I knew all conscious beings needed to rest periodically, and that without that time to process memories and relax they could literally go insane, but I wasn’t sure what all applied to me at this point...

I was lying on my back, eyes closed, splayed out in a position that might’ve been uncomfortable for a real pony, but which gave me ample room for the spellwork I was made of to spread out a little, relaxing and readying myself for dormancy...

Within an instant, I slept.

I did something very different than dreaming...

Act 3 Introduction (AKA "Princess Luna recaps the plot")

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 6: The Colder Tones (Part 1 of 4)

Author's Note

I have split this chapter into ~~3~~ 4 parts, as this will make it easier for me to force it along and finally get this story back on track. I hope you're all enjoying this so far!

Chapter 6: The Colder Tones (Part 1 of 4)

[Stillness...

Darkness...

Time Elapsing...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QLXiK07bno)

My sleep was dreamless, as I had worried it might be. No sooner had I made the decision to fall asleep then I went into a state of dormancy, my mind automatically shutting off all major functions and going into some sort of maintenance cycle. It was without motion, without any ability to stimulate my mind, but I wasn’t bored by it at all: I couldn’t have been, as all higher functionalities, such as personality and emotion, seemed to shut off automatically, as if they’d all somehow recalled how sleep should work.

During this time, I was only vaguely aware of the passage of time, but was still completely aware of my surroundings: the silence of the darkened room, the weak rays of light which made their way in through the open window, the light breeze wafting in and flowing gently over my false flesh, the distant sound of the wind against the stiff grass on the cold ground far below... In the distance, I heard some creature howl, a reminder that even in the dark of night the world remains alive.

Soon after most of my old brain functions had gone to sleep, new ones I’d been unable to identify before came alive. The maintenance mechanisms of the mammalian brain played out in front of me, striking the various facets of my personality, testing, repairing, relaxing, draining the accumulated mess of energy clinging to each little synapse. And the processing of the day’s experiences, exquisitely adding new memories to my long term storage, reconciling the new points of data into the old. Oh that glorious volume of information I had absorbed from the multitude of books, the knowledge so sweet as it became mine and added itself to my own intrinsic internal power. T’would have been orgasmic, would that I were able to experience such pleasures in that half-dormant state.

It occurred to what little mind I had that I could actually perform tweaks to the process and the things it was working on, making this the best time to optimize mind functions. I spawned new algorithms to reorganize the structure, piece by piece, concept by concept, getting even the smallest optimization out of something as simple as making the more used passages shorter and more robust. With the whole thing turned off, it was much easier to understand and meddle with its base structure. There were a few vulnerabilities I'd been concerned about before which I could now work out, those emotions and instincts I'd cobbled together and put through a bypass earlier were isolated off into their own little set of interconnected systems, I found a way to store long-term memories in 73% of the space I'd been using, and built in routines to perform basic calculations at approximately 37.6 times the previous speed. As I was doing this, I made note of just how much fear seemed to be developed compared to the other emotions, especially in my memories of magic. I wondered what had been going on in my life before this had happened.

I also speculated at this point that I must no longer have a subconscious mind, as all of my mental functions are now directly under my control, making it all technically conscious, aside from one structure.

It was a self contained mass of energy from which my will seemed to be derived: clearly central to my ability to use magic. Other than the facts which were obvious on the surface, it was almost a black box: I could see the many complex structures, arranged in an organic lattice like the rest of the parts I’d begun with, and I could see what it was doing but could not understand its full meaning, because it utilized concepts which were simply beyond my understanding of reality.

Part of me wondered if this might be what had been referred to as a “soul”. If it was, then I worried it might be damaged: there were clearly places which were made to interface with something, but those pieces simply were not there. I thought perhaps my emotions should be linked to it in some way, but if such a structure existed, it was not there any more. More troubling: I could not find a source for the energy it expended, though it gave off energy every time I acted. Even an act as simple as observing it in my sleep drew power from it, and the law of conservation of Energy states that that energy had to be coming from somewhere.

I hadn’t fully observed it the previous night when I was rebuilding, but I also recalled that it had had a slightly stronger energy signature. I had no way of knowing if this would be a problem or not at this time. I wrote in a set of processes around it which would monitor it for me, giving them a set of calculations to understand the rate at which it was fading. It was the most that I could do for now.

I spent the next hour or so just taking stock of the new information I'd pulled from Twilight's library. Now that it was all scanned into my memory, I could peruse the contents of those tomes at my leisure, unbound by the physical constraints of a book. It was going to take a long time to boil this stuff down to a cleanly working knowledge, but that was what subroutines are for. In the meantime, it was interesting to see how much of it seemed familiar, Starswirl, The Hearth’s Warming, The Crystal Empire, Griffonstone, and how much wasn't, the First and Second Fimbulwinter, the Caribou Kingdom, Starswirl’s actual treatise on magic (which, I must say, were only really impressive for the time they were written, and are now mostly obsolete, much like the writings of Copernicus), the war with the Dragons... As an alien, it should have all been new to me, but for some reason it was all clicking like, “yeah, that's what this planet is like.”

I was looking over a few novels when I felt a strong presence rolling in outside. I didn't bother to wake up, instead just moving the spellwork which gave me perception outside the window and perceiving what was below. A dark chariot had pulled up, and a midnight blue Alicorn about a head taller than Twilight was walking into the castle. A part of my mind told me that she was clearly both an authority figure, she was more powerful than Twilight in more ways than one, that she had the build and posture of both an experienced swordspony and combat mage, and that she was one of the most beautiful horses I'd ever seen and I really wanted to brush her mane. Ignoring the last fact, I took stock of the three stallions who accompanied her: one was a cloaked unicorn who seemed comfortingly familiar, the other two were armored guards of a Pegasus-like race I'd yet to come across, but my readings told me were “thestrals”. It occurred to me that I should look downstairs, but I couldn't move my window of perception outside of my own line of sight due to the magical nature of the castle’s walls. I pulled it back in and began the process of waking up, drawing the various routines to a close and regrounding myself in external reality.

I opened my eyes.

The whole experience of “sleeping” had been wonderfully surreal, and I was tempted to play with it more, but something told me I should wait on that and go see why Princess Luna had flown down from Canterlot with a friend at a time when she'd normally be in bed.

As I slid out of the bed to recalibrate my body and readjust to physical movement, I thought over what had just happened. I estimated I'd been asleep for maybe... Six hours? The sun had come up, I'd noticed when it had come through the window, but it no longer affected my ability to sleep in, because my eyes weren't real.

On the positive side of things, it was virtually impossible for someone to sneak up on me while I was sleeping, as it had no effect on my ability to detect movement or magic. I now knew I could improve myself while asleep, as well as work magic externally. With enough time and knowledge I might even be able to farsee and cast while asleep, meaning I would be able to utilize a full host of abilities even during regular maintenance cycles. The regular weaknesses that the need to sleep brings sentient beings had been almost totally negated.

On the negative side, no more dreaming, which meant no more Dream Energy. I wasn't sure if the lack of them would eventually overwhelm my mind and make me go insane, but I'd have to deal with that when it came up. On top of that, there was the matter of the broken structure I'd been examining: if it truly was my soul, and souls truly were required for Magical Will to be exerted, then as a being of pure magic I was in danger. I'd left some processes to monitor the structure, but until they had conclusive results, there was little that could be done.

Satisfied with the state of my physical body, I headed towards the door just in time to hear a set of metal-clad hooves walking up on the other side. I reached out with a hoof and opened it, causing one of the thestral stallions to jump back slightly with a little whinny, his hoof halfway raised to knock.

He straightened up fast though. “Ma’am. Is your name Meta?” he glanced awkwardly at my wings and horn.

“Yes, that's my name. Can I help you?”

“Your presence has been requested in the meeting room.”

“May I ask what for?”

"Just a meeting with the princess. Standard procedure."

“Um... Alright.” I stepped out into the hallway, letting the door shut behind me on its own as he lead me down the hall. The fact that a princess had come from Canterlot implied something big was going on. The fact that I was being lead to a meeting with her and given only vague details implied that there had been a change I wasn't aware of. Twilight had mentioned that Luna would be here, but she hadn't sounded like it would be so... Militaristic... I decided to test the air.

“Might I ask what your name is, sir?”

Silence. After a few moments of hesitation, he answered, short, as if I’d been explicitly placed on a need to know basis, “Hammer.”

He knew what I was. I knew he knew what I was. His motions, his tone, his hesitations, he had been briefed that I was an alien of unknown power, and that this mission would clearly involve a potential altercation with me. I tried to look deeper into his mindstate for more information, but I found white noise: it was as if he was actively working to block my analysis of it. It would stand to reason that this was the result of training against mind-based attacks.

In that moment, I could have escaped. It would have been easy to just phase through a wall, take off through the clouds, get as far away from here as possible. But what then? Twilight was my only real friend on this planet, and probably my best hope at figuring out what was going on. And what if they took me fleeing as a form of defection? Would I be hunted? Was I willing to take the chance? What if there was no hostility here, and Luna was here to help? I couldn't possibly trust this “knowledge” I'd come into this world with about how strange this seemed.

I had no real options, only one course of action. Left without even an emotion or activity to go off of, I followed the Thestral Guard to an unknown liaison...

Chapter 6: The Colder Tones (Part 2 of 4)

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 6: The Colder Tones (part 3 of 4)

The late-morning air of Ponyville was light and cheery as ever, the smell of drying leaves mingling with that of the flowers blossoming in the gardens. I once again found that melodic *clip clop!* to be a calming presence as Twilight and I made our way along the road, but any sense of pleasantry was poisoned by Luna's words, which still hung like shadows in our minds.

In the hour since Luna had left, I’d watched in silence as Twilight gave new orders to her guards, making sure that the mysterious presence would be investigated. An uncomfortable emptiness now ruled the space between us for the few long minutes in which we crossed the green from her doorstep towards the town proper. There wasn’t much either of us could really say. It was what it was, and Luna had laid it out clearly in front of us, leaving Twilight and I to somehow reassemble it into something sensible.

“So... Meta...” Twilight spoke tentatively, “About that conversation earlier...”

I sighed, “I suppose there are a few things to talk about...”

Twilight nodded slowly, her face downtrodden, “So... Were you really just trying to get out when you said you wanted to be friends?”

“It wasn't so much lies, as much as telling you the parts of the truth that would accomplish my goals.” I responded plainly, “I only withheld information which I thought would make you decide to keep me contained.”

“But... friends don’t do that to each other.” Twilight said, a tone of hurt entering her voice, “Friends are supposed to trust each other...”

“Some things are more important than friendship.” I stated.

Twilight's face fell further. “You... you really believe that...?”

“Twilight,” I said in a softened tone, “Luna and I live in a different kind of world from you. It's not that we don't respect your reverence to friendship, in fact, I find it endearing, as I'm sure she does too. But ours is a world of constant peril, where the kind of friendship you hold as an ideal can be a vulnerability as much as a boon.”

“I... I just can't see it that way. I can't imagine what the two of you must have gone through, but... I used to have so much trouble with friendship, I just... I finally just stopped trying. I shut everypony out, and convinced myself that friends weren't really worth the effort... But now...” her eyes grew a look of intensity, “Now, my friends are so important to me, I can't even imagine a world without them.”

“You value friendship more than we do,” I said. “It's just a matter of perspective, Twilight. Our perspective doesn't select for friendliness, it selects for survival. And I'm not saying that's a good thing: I would never suggest that just because a thing is the way it is, it is the way it should be. That would be ascribing morality to nature. We don't get to choose our reality though. We just have to learn what it is, and live within it.”

Twilight nodded slowly, “I... I think I understand.” She paused, a smile slowly appearing on her face, “But, you've made a falsifiable claim about reality, and as as a scientist, I'm just going to have to disprove it!”

I looked at her for a moment, finally smiling back. “You're a light in this dark world, Twilight. Don't ever let anyone convince you otherwise.”

Twilight beamed. We kept walking a few moments longer, the din of the market streets beginning to bustle around us. She slowed as we passed a cafe which had tables painted to resemble mushrooms. “Are you hungry? I haven’t seen you eat anything today...”

“I can't eat, remember? I'm not even sure this form requires any form of sustenance outside of the ambient energy I’ve been absorbing...”

“Is... That sustainable? I mean, you must take a lot of energy just to run on your own...”

“I’m not sure.” I furrowed my brow, “I believe I’ve identified the structure which you would call a ‘soul’, but I don’t fully understand its inner workings yet, so I’m not entirely sure what supposed to power it. It’s probably the only reason I’m able to function at all, seeing as a spell requires a caster. I think it was damaged when I was in the void too, because it doesn’t seem to have a method of replenishing its own energy. So far, I’ve been measuring its changes, and it’s been gradually losing small amounts of energy as time goes on.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, her pace slowing, “Wait... Meta... Are you...”

“Dying? Maybe. I’m pretty sure I already died. This is a section of metaphysics that neither of our worlds have really come to grasp. I was a bit worried that something like this would be an issue, but I’ve sort of been betting on the idea that, as long as I keep self-modifying and learning, I’ll eventually figure out how to fix it.”

“Meta...” Twilight stopped, leaning towards me, her face close and her voice hushed, “Why didn’t you say something?”

I shrugged, “I didn’t really notice this until I was asleep last night. I’ve been running a calculation in the background, and, compensating for the rate of increase in power use from self-modification, I should be able to survive for another three weeks, assuming I there isn’t an unforeseen emergency.”

Twilight’s face tensed, her expression souring as if she was deciding whether or not to cry.

I sighed, putting a foreleg over her shoulder. “Look, Twilight, I’m not going to try and tell you that death is a ‘good thing’ because it’s ‘natural’ or any of that, but people get diagnosed with terminal illnesses every day. The only thing that makes it any more of a tragedy is the fact that I’m a unique specimen. In all of the possible timelines, All The Myriad Worlds that could have been, this is probably the only one in which Twilight Sparkle found the ghost of a dead mage floating in the planet’s thaumosphere and put her in containment fast enough for her to rebuild.”

“That... That puts it in perspective, I guess... But it doesn’t make me feel much better...” she looked downward again.

“Twilight, remember what I said last night?” I put a hoof under her chin, raising her face and looking into her eyes, “Even if it means all of this had to happen, even if it means I have to die, I’m still glad that I got the opportunity to meet that young mare, Twilight Sparkle.” I gave her what I meant to be a reassuring smile, even though she knew most of my emotions were just for show.

She managed to return the smile, if weakly, “Well... Even if it’s only for a couple weeks, and then we have to say goodbye... I’m glad that I had the opportunity to meet that mage, Meta.”

We reached forward at the same time, pulling each other into an embrace. I held her against me for a moment, just quiety stroking her back as I listened to her breathe through the heavy moment. It was a good few seconds before she let go.

“Thanks...” she said, “Even if I know you don’t really feel upset by it, thanks.”

I smiled, “Anytime, Twi-Twi.” I slipped away from her, “Hmm... Maybe we should do something today, just to say we spent it together...”

“Hmm...” she thought, glancing around. “How about a bookstore?” She said pointing to a nearby shop, which had shelves and displays of books stacked about.

“Assuming they have anything you don't, I doubt they'd let me cast my reading spell without buying the whole collection.”

Twilight frowned slightly, “You know, not everything needs to be studying. Sometimes it's nice to just sit down and read a novel.”

“A novel...” I repeated. Perhaps Twilight was right: days of rigorous focus had left me wired, especially with that feeling of being watched fading in and out periodically since we’d left the castle. Perhaps it was part of my nature to work myself ragged, though, did “ragged” really apply, or even matter, now that I no longer had biological needs?

I glanced at Twilight. She'd been trying hard to be a good friend, even after I'd admitted that whole thing back in the lab was more about getting out than making friends. Perhaps there was something... right? About humoring her?

“You know, I suppose I could peruse a few titles...” I smiled at her, “with a friend.”

Twilight practically beamed.

We trotted over to the bookstore in pleasant silence, the half-rusted bell above the door letting out a little jingle as we went inside. Its scent was a mixture of fresh glue and old page-dust, the cobbled-about shelving units housing a mixture of books from the past few decades to the past few months.

Twilight, of course, went straight for the magical theory section, eyes scanning up and down the rows.

I stood at the front of the aisle, and stretched my perception, auto-reading the titles and cross-referencing them with the known list. 3 books illuminated as I dragged them off the shelf: 2 new, one an old one that looked like it had recently been refurbished. “These are the ones you don’t have.” I said, walking over to stand by her.

Twilight blinked, having only been looking for about a minute, “Oh... Wow, you made that a lot easier...”

I nodded, “I’m not bound by having to actually run my eyes over them or directly recall things, remember? It’s very helpful when you’re trying to find new books, I guess.”

Twilight gave a chuckle as she took the books. She flipped through the pages of each tome in succession, looking through the contents, setting them back on the shelf one by one, “Let’s see... This one’s a bit out of date, and less comprehensive than I’d like... Don’t need another beginner’s guide... Hmm... This one looks promising... Oh... Nope, nothing new in it...” She sighed, then gave me a little smile, “Well, I guess you don’t always find something you want... Wanna go look at the novels?”

“Sure... Maybe they’ve got something about a fairytale princess who does science...”

Twilight giggled, “There aren’t any Fair Folk novelists in Equestria, as far as I know, but we can alway see.”

Something in the back of my mind told me that her talking casually about “Fair Folk Novelists” was a red flag, but at this point, it’s not like I could do anything with it.

As we walked into the sci-fi / fantasy section, I went straight for the table marked “clearance: 50% off”.

Twilight looked over. “Looking at the bargain bin first?” she smiled.

I nodded, reaching out to lift the first book from the stack, “It just seemed like the thing to do... I guess I used to go to bookstores a lot and this was where I’d start...”

I perused a few titles... There was one about a dragon who was some sort of knight (though not THE Dragon Knight); picture books about characters like Rockhoof, Somnambula, and Flash Magnus; a couple revival versions of stories involving princess Luna roaming the countryside with a band of knights, which I pointed at, casually remarking, “You should get something like this for the next time Luna comes by. Maybe seeing the way they drew her muscles and armor on the cover would put her in a good mood...”

Twilight chuckled, “You know, I had some of the originals copied a few years ago, but I sort of lost them when the old library was destroyed... Maybe I should get the new printings.”

I nodded with a smirk, lifting a few books to flip through the various “The Entity from Another World!” and “Spooky Stories of Scariness!” titles, but stopped abruptly on a single book.

...That symbol...

I pulled it out, absently reading the cover aloud, “‘Tales from the Midnight Society: the Complete Series’...”

Twilight glanced up from her stack, “Oh that? Lyra was trying to get me into those before I moved here, but I’ve never found that author to be... um... ‘coherent’ enough for me.” She chuckled uncomfortably.

“The symbol here... It seems really familiar...” Impossibly familiar in a world where I was an immigrant of only days...

Twilight leaned over to look under it as I opened it and started flipping through pages, “This triangle thing with a pair of eyes and a looking glass? Doesn’t look like a real symbol to me...”

“Yeah... That’s what’s so weird about it...” The book I’d found seemed to be a thick collection of pulp fantasy novellas. They described a group of amateur occultists from a world where magic was hidden from the masses, who kept getting in over their heads, narrowly avoiding the machinations of vampires and witches by almost pure luck as they looked for evidence .

“It’s set on some sort of other planet, and in the early printings, they’re some sort of fantasy race...” She furrowed her brow, tapping a hoof to her chin, “Actually, I think they were like, talking orangutans or something... They had some weird name that was hard to pronounce too... I think it was like... ‘hey-huu-mehehn’ or something.”

I stopped. The word she had said was a word I knew. The strangest thing though, was that I knew the original pronunciation in the original language, before it phoneticized out of English into a Equestrian.

“(h)yo͞omənz” I pronounced.

Twilight blinked, “Is... Is that how it’s supposed to be pronounced?” She looked at the page I’d stopped on, “Is it... Is it on this page?”

“No.” I said, flipping back to the appendices until I hit a large, two page picture of a small college town set against the backdrop of the New England countryside, the trees in their mid-autumn state as they lined the road. Even without color, I could imagine the amber and gold leaves which fell from them, as the mechanical carriages drove about on the roads. The buildings became as tall as 4 stories near the clocktower and city hall, but the largest construction was the 4 lane bridge which spanned the Miskatonic River. That, and of course the University which the town had grown up around...

The town was incredibly familiar, as if... No.

I KNEW THAT TOWN.

The streets. The buildings. The people. Every twist and turn right down to the patterns of the stoplights between Peabody Avenue and Hangman’s Hill, the name of the cashiers at the local supermarket (Hannah, Doug, Barbara), the half burnt-out sign above the liquor store, the fallen leaves of oak trees churning in the gutters of the road, the worn dusty signs from more a hopeful era which displayed the name in massive, bold, proud letters for all passerby to see. The caption at the bottom of the picture only served to confirm a name I already knew by heart...

Arkham, Massachusetts

“I lived there.” I stated aloud, my thoughts already beginning to tumble over themselves with the discovery of That Which Should Not Be.

“What? What do you mean?” Twilight was incredulous, “Is it based on a real place, or...?”

I flipped the page again, finding a drawing made to look like a photograph of the Midnight Society’s members: the “orangutan” creatures from the original book. All 7 of them were there, including...

Marey, the brilliant technologist who became a sorceress with power over the dream world in the second-to-last book, and the central character of the final book.

“This book is about me.” I said aloud, still staring at the colored drawing of the dirty-orange haired female of southern ancestry. I glanced up at my own mane, which resembled the pigment on the page almost perfectly.

“What? How is that possible?”

I struggled to keep the blaring sense of existential dread quieted as it slowly neared catastrophic proportions, threatening to spill outside of where I'd contained it, clouding my consciousness with its constant signalling.

“I need this book.” I stated.

“What? Meta, I don’t even understand-”

“Twilight.” I said, wheeling towards the storefront, “I need you to buy me this book.”

“Ok ok!” she said, hurriedly grabbing for some bits and tossing them at the confused cashier.

I slammed through the front door with a clatter, I didn’t even wait for him to count the change before grabbing Twilight’s body in my magical aura and yanking her out the door behind me. I threw myself on a bench in a decidedly unequine sitting position and combed through the pages with wide frantic eyes, ignoring the confused glances coming from the ponies around us as I flipped them quickly, stopping on each page for the mere moment it took me to process each.

“Is that actually what I am? A fictional character?” I said, grasping for meaning in the face of absolute madness, “That would explain why I don’t have any clear memories, but it leaves so much else unexplained...”

I was reading through each part, the adventure of three friends in the first, the formation of the society in the second, the introduction of Marey in the third, the death of Clydesdale in the fourth at the hands of the Deep One, and subsequent departure of several other characters... The horror of Hangman’s Hill... The secret vampire coven... The slow realization that this was bigger than all of us, that there were forces far beyond our knowledge or control, pulling strings we hadn’t even been aware of... And of course, the day I learned how to cross the barrier between the Waking and the Dreamtide...

All of it rang true. All of it aligned with my memories, even drawing up a few I didn’t know were there.

“If I’m a character from a fantasy, how do I understand magic so well?” I flipped backwards through the pages of the last two stories, looking over the concepts again, “He doesn’t give anywhere near enough information about Dream Sorcery or Metaphysics in general for me to know that.”

“I don’t know, maybe an Occultist like Crowley was writing a fanfiction which explained the actual principles behind it?” Twilight offered, “There’s a whole genre of fanfiction where fans try to explain fantastical settings with real-world science and logic.”

“This is an obscure pulp fantasy series, why would someone put it to that kind of scrutiny?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Lyra would?” Twilight’s cringe worsened, “You... you don’t think she made you, do you?”

The sheer horror of what my mind was struggling to reconcile, to comprehend, was beginning to overwhelm all other parts of my personality. That internal cacophony of implications and warnings that was drowning the logical thoughts inside of it. That peaking sense of urgency driving my mind into a near frenzy as I struggled to read the pages at lightning speed. I had to understand this. This couldn't possibly be a coincidence. I had to understand how this book series was somehow connected with my existence. It wasn't so much a fear of potentially being a fictional character, but a fear that I had no world to return to, a fear of what it might mean if my soul had never been complete and would never be true, and a fear of what would happen if I didn't understand what this meant.

“Twilight, it didn’t seem like it was likely at the time, but this is solid evidence that Luna was right. I could have come out of the Dream World as an anomaly.”

“So... What would that mean? Are you this character? Or...?”

I glanced at the notes about the author inside the cover, “Maybe we could find the author and ask them for details?”

Hooved Filly’s Lovecolt was perhaps one of the strangest sci-fi horror writers of the last generation, writing stories of “That Which Should Not Be”, from colours that had never been seen to monsters hiding just out of our sight. Lovecolt suffered from an unidentified mental illness marked by paranoid delusionality, the constant struggle with it becoming the inspiration to his writing. According to him, it was as if the terrifying things within his mind “begged to be written.”

Sadly, near the end of his career Lovecolt’s condition worsened, and he became more paranoid, experiencing delusions and night-terrors, claiming that dark creatures were hiding within the walls. He took his own life a year before this book was published.

“This book isn’t new...” Twilight cringed, reading over my shoulder, “Even if we went to his old home, I don’t know if we’d ever be able to find his notes...”

I kept reading, I was halfway through the book now, and new details were emerging. Details about the sorcery that Marey had practiced, details of the things she’d done, times she’d spent with her friends, and... and...

That wasn’t right.

No...

That wasn’t how that happened. It was different. We didn’t... I wasn’t...

“It’s wrong.” I stated.

“Wha-?”

“It’s all wrong.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The details, Twilight. The details are all wrong.”

On the surface, everything was clear, unmistakably a story about me and the world I’d believed myself to be from, but the details conflicted with the most solid of my memories: the ill-proportioned description of the bipedal apes known as “Huemahns”, the map of the town simplified until it became almost useless for real navigation, the descriptions of the members of the Midnight Society bland as if they were nothing but passing glances at their true selves... It was wrong! It was ALL WRONG!!

“So... Wait... What does that imply?”

“Something else is going in here. I can’t trust my memories at this point, because I don’t know how many of them might’ve come from this book. If I’ve been contaminated with concepts from your world, then that would explain why I know things about you and your friends, but it wouldn’t explain why I have these tangible memories of a place that’s only vaguely described by somepony who died over a year before my appearance.”

“Is it possible that he knew about your world somehow?”

“How could that be? Twilight, this is the first instance of contact between our worlds...” I stopped for a moment, “...right?”

She shook her head, “I haven’t found anything...”

I sat silent for a moment, facts and speculations tumbling in my mind as it tried to fit them together somehow. “Twilight,” I finally said, “You should go talk to Lyra. I need some time alone to process this...”

Twilight looked like she was going to protest, but she stopped, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “Alright... But I want to talk more once you’ve calmed down...”

I nodded, “Of course. Once I have the facts straight, I’ll tell you everything, and we can try to sort it out together...”

She smiled weakly, getting up from where she’d sat next to me. She leaned in to bring her foreleg over my neck, hugging me against her for a moment. “Don’t worry Meta. I’m sure we’ll figure this out.”

She held me a moment longer before letting go, slowly turning and walking away, leaving me to stew with the implications I’d now been given...

Chapter 6: The Colder Tones (part 4 of 4)

Author’s Note: Concerns were raised that the violence against children in this scene means I plan to turn this story into a Grimdark fic, as opposed to the cerebral story it has been.

I am not. Read on.

Noon had come and passed as I walked away from the town center, and I found myself wandering aimlessly along the outskirts. The breeze carried the scents of the nearby fields and forests across the unkept grass that I walked along. Above, the sparse clouds the pegasi had hung to give the town some shade drifted whimsically, their shadows occasionally rolling across my path.

Internally, my mind worked to put a flurry of questions into organized rows.

Could I really be nothing more than the figment of a schizophrenic mind? Was that where I’d come from? But if I was merely a character from a story, how did I come into being? How could I know so much of the obscure magic I seemed to have found myself as the foremost expert on? Perhaps another writer had known how to ford the Ora and written that in? But who would do something so wreckless? And how would that explain anything else I knew or was capable of? How did I become this intelligent? Was there another sapient mind pulled into the mix, or was mine created through random chance, as part of an anomaly?

If I were given the choice, I wouldn’t want to be a storybook character, because if I was just a figment from the Dreamtide, that meant nothing I remembered was real.

Was that so bad though...? I supposed not. I think, therefore I am: I am a living being now, regardless of origin. The method of a thing’s creation does not change the thing that it is.

But even still, if I was a character from that book, why did everything in it seem so... wrong? That book had clearly been written about my life, but why did so many details seem off? If I’d sprung from a derivative work, why would they make such extreme changes to the smaller details? Why would they bother to make the main character even more alien? Why would I remember being attacked at a festival if I'd been given life within the dream world? How was I still able to function as an entity of the Waking?

If I’d been corrupted by some other being, why would they use the memories of a storybook character? What was the purpose of me being created in the first place? Was I the spearhead of some sort of attack? Or perhaps the result of an attempt to communicate? Perhaps I was simply the discarded result of an experiment?

My walk became more purposeful.

No.

None of these questions were worth pondering at this point. They had answers, as all questions do, but I didn’t have the information which led to them. Something else was going on here, and until I understood what, the full picture couldn’t take shape.

I slowed as my destination loomed in front of me, and I looked up upon it, closer than Twilight had ever brought me, the dark boughs towering above my head.

The Everfree Forest.

Its tumultuous fields had been calling out to me since I first arrived, as if drawing me with the call of home. It was only now though that I had the context to understand what it was I'd been feeling.

Familiarity.

I had been here before. In fact, I knew it well. This was the first place I'd been when I'd come into this world, where the spell had brought me, and where I had lost me original consciousness. I knew, somehow, that somewhere in those treacherous woods, I would find the answer I needed.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders cow rescuers yay!”

The cheering of a group of fillies nearby broke me from my thoughts, and something in my brain screamed that if I didn’t get out of their way, I was about to be very annoyed.

I dissolved my form and pulled myself out of phase with the physical world, making myself effectively invisible and intangible to the creatures of the physical world. I moved on, floating through the trees on the edges of the forest, reaching out to touch, to feel the strange presence that marked this place as separate from the rest of this world, my mind analyzing the chaotic forces at play.

I found it calming to be back in this familiar role: not as a broken abomination struggling to comprehend its own existence, but as a researcher in the field, recording data and for answers to the unanswered questions of the world. And I remembered being here now, in a time when I couldn’t see anything and had no bearings on my physical location. The trees I had not seen, nor had I smelled the mud of rotting vegetation, nor heard the whistling of the weak breeze running through the tangled branches, but this place... As I ventured just inside of it, I felt embraced by its magic as it wrapped around me, no longer a force strong enough to whittle my now hardened self, but a veritable cornucopia of energy for me to feed upon.

I felt the power of this place dancing around me, just as I had before, but only now could I truly comprehend its beauty. Here, magic moved freely, almost like a living creature. Here, the spiritual plane met with the physical, the life so dense it made the outside world seem hollow in comparison. Here, even the divots that rainfall had made in the dirt, the knots in the trees, everything comfor-

The silence of the forest was murdered by a scream.

Three shrill voices were shrieking in absolute terror back in the direction of Ponyville, sending nearby birds scattering.

The Crusaders.

I rushed through the woods, back in the direction of Ponyville, following the screams as the number of voices dropped from three to two. I tore raw matter directly from a tree as I went straight through it, wrapping myself in a new body as I went. The tree leaned and topped behind me, crashing to the ground as two screams became one. Wings tore from my back, legs from my chest, and a horned head from my neck, as I flew, not bothering to even move my legs as I gained momentum by the laws of Aristotelian physics, and the final scream was silenced.

My form finished solidifying just as I hit the edge of the clearing, bursting through the foliage, overclocking the analysis of my perception as I took in what was in front of me.

The creature was vaguely humanoid, with bone white skin, massive draconic wings with deep red membranes, and powerful looking hooved legs. It was clad in armor made of pure bronze, painted dark red in what looked to be the blood of sacrifices, mixing in the fresh blood of the fillies scattered around him.

Sweetie Belle coughed on the ground, blood streaming from her face as she tried vainly to crawl away, her tail pinned under his hoof. Applebloom flailed her hooves, banging them against the tree behind her as she hung sideways, her blood running down its trunk as splinters dug into her hide where her body had been smashed into its bark: it was a wonder her spine had survived such an impact. Scootaloo’s swollen face ran with tears and snot as her hooves clamoured at the massive hand around her neck, choking out incoherent whimpers as she begged for her life, wide eyes fixed on the axe held above her head.

I didn't even bother to wonder how I knew their names.

I acted.

Zero Point One Seconds
The Monster hadn’t noticed my entrance yet. I continued to direct all the force of my momentum towards it, straightening my body like an arrow.

Zero Point Two Seconds
The Monster twitched, the sound of the foliage breaking in front of me having reached its ear. The brush fell away from my body towards the ground as I gained momentum.

Zero Point Three Seconds
I began to notice the barest hints of a mach-cone forming around my hooves. I ignored the observation for later.

Zero Point Four Seconds
The Monster’s body began to turn to look at the source of the sudden noise. I saw branches hit the ground behind me as I passed through the center of the clearing.

Zero Point Five Seconds
The three fillies’ ears twitched, as they now noticed something, and their eyes began to move with their assailant’s. There were now less than 25 meters between us.

Zero Point Six Seconds
The Monster’s eyes began to focus as it finally registered my presence in the clearing. I made the matter of my body as solid as possible, focusing every ounce of my momentum forward, and then...

An object in motion met an object at rest.

The shock of the impact traveled through the bone structure I’d assembled, beginning with my forehooves, which were split open as they sank whole centimeters into the metal plate covering his chest, traveling up through the pastern, which splintered as as the monster’s hoof was lifted off the filly’s tail, continuing through to shatter the bones of my lower forelegs as my magic pulled the three fillies in the opposite direction, compacting the joint of my elbow past the breaking point as the air was pushed from the creature’s lungs, causing globs of phlegm and spittle to fly from his mouth, creating fissures in my upper leg bones as he lost his grip on Scootaloo and the bark of the tree cracked, sending all three fillies flying across the ground.

The monster and I continued on a path through the air, across the grove where we collided with a tree, its trunk buckling under the force of the impact as our momentum carried us through it, gravity pulling us back towards the ground. The monster hit first, legs catching against the dirt, causing him to tumble backwards, leaving me to continue along through a bush, which caught my limbs against its branches, twisting them beyond natural flexibility before breaking away and allowing my motion to continue into the ground, where my ribs and spine were quickly mangled by the impact and the rolling which followed.

I jammed my hooves into the ground, forcing my body to stop in an upright position, quickly realigning my broken bones and twisted joints, body parts jerking into their proper positions and snapping audibly back together, leaving me standing reassembled in a pose of aggression.

The tree fell to the forest floor with a crash as the monster pulled himself to his feet, growling. His glance darted between me and the three fillies behind him, as if deciding what to do next.

They were just standing there on the far edge of the clearing, somehow too stupid to understand what they needed to do, despite the buildings clearly visible just beyond the trees.

“RUN!” I shouted at them.

They glanced at each other, too shaken to functionally recognize the command.

I reared back, gathering a burst of magic into the part of me that created speech.

“RUN!”

My amplified voice boomed against the trees around me, echoing through the nearby woods.

They jumped back. Sweetie Belle, quickest on the uptake, grabbed the others with her magic and yanked them along. The three of them took off towards town.

The demon growled, finally speaking words as he reached for his belt, “Nobody fucking leaves UNTIL I SAY SO!!” He roared, gripping a tomahawk which he threw at the fillies, spinning in the air towards Sweetie Belle with deadly accuracy.

The tendrils of my will shot out, quickly reaching the projectile and gripping it in my magic, yanking it to sail back around, over the monster’s head and coming to a rest in front of me. I growled back, emulating a predator in a territorial dispute, spreading my wings wide, “Leave them alone.”

I dismantled the matter of the tomahawk, turning it into dust in front of me, which I promptly absorbed into my stores of unutilized material.

As the monster stared me down, I felt that malicious focus I’d been feeling for the past couple days settle back in full force, emanating from his blackened eyes. I stared back in rigid defiance. He gave a deep and hearty laugh, “YOU, are seriously threatening ME? You’re a fucking tiny horse!” He shook his head, “At least now I have an Adult to get some answers out of. Maybe you’ll actually be worth my time...”

“More like I’m going to tear you limb from limb if you don’t tell me what you’re planning.” I deadpanned.

“Oh really? You honestly think you can threaten me?” he mused condescendingly, “Let me explain to you what I am.”

“I know what you are.” I stated.

“Oh do you now little horse?”

“Nathrezim.” the word fell from my lips like rotten meat. “Emissary of the infernal Burning Legion. More commonly known... as a Dreadlord.”

The Dreadlord was taken aback for a moment at that one, but he gave another chuckle, “So you’ve read your demonology. Very clever, for a girly little horse...”

Wait. Something wasn’t right here.

“So what was this, you get your jollies from beating children?”

“No,” he scoffed, “I was interrogating them.”

I could’ve sworn there was a lot more to my memory of Dreadlords. Like a story that I was on the cusp of remembering.

“How did ‘interrogation’ lead to chopping off that filly’s head?!”

“The stupid babies weren’t listening to me! They just kept babbling about wanting to go home and shit! If they’d just answered my goddamn questions, I’d’ve let them go!”

Did Dreadlord’s talk like that? He sounded more like a petulant teen than an interdimensional conqueror. Maybe it was a translation thing though: I had a very pure understanding of Ponish, while he couldn’t possibly have had much practice.

“You were doing it wrong.” I stated, “You pushed their fight-or-flight instinct without establishing satisfying your intent as a flight-mechanism.” I sneered with a bit of a grin, “If it were me, I’d’ve had the information out of them without even drawing blood.”

I was goading him now. This could go one of two ways, either he’d spill some information to me, or he’d get worked up and attack me without thinking. Either one would work to my advantage. Besides, part of me was really enjoying taking out my frustrations on Amateur Hour here.

The Dreadlord growled, “Don’t you lecture me you weak little bitch! I am a creature of power beyond your imagination, and the one I work for is capable of crossing all the cosmos with a single step!”

Ooh, that reminded me of someone we’d been talking about.

“Oh really?” I mocked, “Who do you work for and why did he send you to this podunk planet of prissy ponies? You the team flunkie or something?”

“Who I work for is none of your concern.” he shouted, raising a hand to point a menacing finger at me, “YOU will tell me where Megan is!”

“...Megan?” that caught me out of left field, “Who’s Megan?” Definitely not a pony name...

“Don’t play games with me you stupid horse! Megan Williams! The guardian of this world!”

...So why did it sound so familiar?

“Who told you about Megan?”

“The god I work for has seen that this world has been visited by a human named Megan Williams. Tell me where she is, or I will make you tell me...” he growled the last part. I assumed he meant it to sound menacing, but I was, like, literally impossible to frighten at this point, so it was kind of a waste of his vocal chords. Seriously: have you ever growled like that for too long? It’s not exactly good for your singing voice.

Something strange through... When he said “Megan Williams”, I remembered a human girl wearing blue jeans, an orange shirt, red boots and vest, and long blonde hair, tied back in a ponytail. The strangest part though, was that a part of me suddenly remembered being Megan. As in, I specifically remembered looking in a mirror and seeing her image, and knowing that that was who I was.

That made no sense though. Not only was I dead sure I’d been Marey, but I knew Megan was a fictional character. Then again, I felt just as sure that Dreadlords were also a work of fiction, yet here was one, standing plainly before me, asking after a character out of a children’s story.

The whole thing was so nonsensical, that only one answer even remotely made sense...

“I am Megan.” I said finally. I wasn’t sure I was really who he was looking for, but at this point, I felt like we might as well get whatever bullshit this was over with.

“What?” the Dreadlord was taken aback, “You can’t possibly be her: Megan is a human, and you’re a fucking horse!”

“Yeah, well, a lot of shit’s been changing for me lately, species included.” I snarked, “Now are you gonna tell me what in hell do you want?”

He readied his axe, “Well, if you are Megan, then no hard feelings, but I’ve been sent to DESTROY YOU!” Before I could ask anymore questions, he was charging me head on.

I shot sideways as the axe swung down, digging a rut in the dirt as the Dreadlord followed my movement. I landed on the side of a tree, feeling my hooves sink into the bark as I directed gravity to hold me against it. “Why do you think I’m the guardian of this world? Better yet, what does your master think killing me will accomplish?”

“My master’s motives are beyond mortal comprehension!” The Dreadlord launched himself at me again.

I shot sideways again, letting the axe bury itself in the tree, right between where my forehooves had been, “‘Beyond mortal’... Bull Shit! I bet it’s some overwrought machination involving using this world for resources or some other stupid cliche!”

“STAY STILL YOU BITCH!” I barely managed to duck under the path of the bolt of concentrated hatred that flew from his hand. I had been wondering when he’d bother to use magic. There was a potent energy to it, but the will behind it seemed pathetic in comparison: no wonder this guy was the flunkie. Either he’d never learned how to focus his will properly, or it was even weaker than your average human.

It burst against the tree behind me, peppering my back with splinters just before I rolled to the side, my body whipping out of the way of another charge with the axe. It was clear that this was brains versus brawn. Then again, I wasn’t feeling much magic on the Axe as it grazed by my hooves...

...Wait... why was he using such a mundane weapon on a planet with magical creatures?

Up until this point, I’d assumed this to be the Spearhead of an invasion, but now that I’d thought it through... why was he this amateur? These guys were supposed to bring entire civilizations to their knees. Maybe he actually had flunked out of demon-magic-school or something? Perhaps his lack of magical prowess had made him an Outcast? Or he’d gone renegade, and left the core force in an attempt to circumvent the meritocracy which would never have promoted someone as weak as him? Then again, I knew nothing of his race, really. Perhaps he was a younger one, and killing a protector was a Rite of Passage.

I kept zipping around the clearing as he played whackamole with his big dumb tree-cutter, eventually beginning to work up a sweat. I mean, he was definitely putting some power into that thing: at some point I’d tried to get him to lodge it in a tree when he attempted to decapitate me against it, and rather than getting stuck again, it just went through, causing the tree to come crashing to the floor of the clearing, kicking up a storm of leaves through our increasingly scarred battleground.

I was starting to notice the swath of destruction around us. We’d downed several trees at this point, and I was starting to smell the smoke of a potential forest fire. Both of us could probably keep this up all day, and I was kind of... not interested in this? I mean seriously, big drawn out fights aren’t my style. Devising means and hitting at just the right point. This? This was glorified whackamole, and I had apparently found myself in the position of the mole. That’s like, the least fun part of the game, and this guy seemed a bit too stupid to understand that banging yourself against a wall repeatedly does not break said wall. In order to get out of this little Nash Equilibrium, I decided to do the one thing that typically breaks such a cycle.

I chose “cooperate” as my next move, standing stark still in the middle of the clearing.

“Gotcha!” he grinned menacingly, swinging the blade from over his head and straight for my skull.

“Yep.” I deadpanned, “You win.”

If I wasn’t mentally exhausted at this point, I might’ve hoofed him a little plush toy or something. His dedication deserved a prize.

As the axe bore down mercilessly upon my bare head, I took a moment to appreciate a few of the finer points of its design. The first thing I noticed was that its conceptual form was far more pure than anything natural, like it had been conjured out of the dream world instead of being made at a smithy. This made it easy for me to analyze it, being a creature woven of that very same magic at this point.

This dreadlord fellow was pretty accurate. His axe collided with my head just about dead-center, causing my skull to buckle and split down the middle as his axe drove its way through: I was pretty sure I felt the odd sensation of my spine and leg bones cracking again under the sudden force too.

The axe’s blade was composed of a combination of adamantine and lead, weighted heavily on the massive jagged head, with several combat enchantments slapped haphazardly onto its form. There was one for breaking through bones, which caused my skull to crack like an eggshell to a hatchet. There was another for rending flesh, which caused my hide to tear aside in unnatural ways, as if being hit with a chainsaw. The last one was for absorbing blood through the metal, and somehow channeling that back into the wielder as a dark energy for knitting organic matter back together, which, let me tell you, is good for sounding all evil and ruthless and all that, but is really not efficient enough to be in any way practical, even if you're fighting a monster literally made from literal blood.

Trust me, I would know.

Or would I? I could just be making shit up at this point and you wouldn’t know what was real. Hell, at this point, I wasn't even sure what was real.

It was actually kind of funny, just how grimdark this whole thing was clearly meant to be: big evil demon, axe made for maiming and blood drinking, cutting my head in half right down the center and leaving these two ragged sides hanging off my neck, the head of the axe lodged just next to my spine on my withers as I felt my splintering legs give way, causing my body to drop to its chest with my ass in the air.

What was especially funny was that he confirmed my suspicion: the axe had no enchantments for anything like cleaving through magical or incorporeal beings. You know, the kinds of things which would have made it an effective weapon against me.

Word of advice: if you’re hunting magical constructs, make sure your weapon of choice is rated for spellcleaving. Because if you don’t have a spellcleaving weapon... You’re gonna have a bad time.

I couldn’t help but laugh, which came out as this sickly double-tone from the two separate halves of my head, one high pitched, one low.

The dreadlord just looked down, his toothy grin turning to confusion.

“Ok, ok, so, this is what’s so funny.” I gurgled in two separate voices, “You came to kill something made of flesh and blood, on a planet where like, crazy magical shit happens all the time. I have no idea why you didn’t see this coming.”

“...what the hell?”

Not bothering to continue the chit-chat, I reached out of the gaping hole where my head was and wrapped my tendrils tightly around his axe, dragging it out of his grip and inside my being as I absorbed the spellwork and melted down its form. I repurposed the matter and shape to transform my hooves into a pair of axe-heads, similar to his but without all the unnecessary enchantments, and promptly began to swing my forelegs at him.

“What?!” His eyes widened and he barely managed to get out of the way, falling onto his ass and scrambling backwards.

I didn't have the reach I needed to hit him, so I elongated my forelegs to about double their length, effectively giving myself a pair of polearms to swing at him with. I felt them graze against something solid, and the telltale sound of metal scraping against metal filled the air. He was fast though, and had supernatural reflexes. In order to get a good hit on him with the speed I had, I’d need to be able to hit him from more than one angle.

So I changed my form into one that could do that.

I let go of the last vestiges of my pony form, feeling the flesh I'd crafted tear away as my limbs stretched and contorted into new shapes. Skin was just a form of clothing to me, a courtesy to the sensibilities of ponies who'd like to think of me as one of their own, and not the abomination that I truly was. There were no ponies here though, only a creature of the infernal planes, and I had no intention of making friends with it at this point.

As I threw myself at it, I made the changes that would make my physical form the weapon I needed. My body and neck became elongated like my legs had, giving me a serpentine form. I stretched my bones through the flesh that clung to them, sharpening the ends Into blades and spears, my whole body effectively covered in knives. I twisted my wings forward into new spears, and, deciding that was too few, I tore new limbs from my back: a series of tentacle-like appendages, 5 meters long, with various barbs and blades on them. I had a few options with those, and not much time to figure out the optimal setup, so I just gave myself a grab-bag of whips, hooks, spears, and spiny clubs to try on my prey. Picture a deep-sea predator that's just a wad of limbs for tearing things apart. That was me.

“WHAT THE FUCK!?” the Dreadlord shouted, backing up in actual fear now.

I allowed myself to laugh, the sound splitting through the sides of my split head as I beared down upon it.

The Dreadlord slammed into a tree, pulling out a large, obsidian knife as he scrambled to get around it, and began swinging it at me in a panic, which did nothing to actually deter me as I began jamming the spears that had been my ribcage through his guard, stabbing him in through the numerous gaps in his ornate armor. I noticed that his knife was enchanted enough to actually hurt me, as it sliced through my magically manifested limbs easily, but it was a pretty lost cause when I could just keep spawning new ones to add to the whirlwind I was bringing down upon him.

I didn’t have a large amount of experience in this type of combat yet, and what little I did have wasn’t exactly the kind you can plan with on the fly, so I was pretty winging the whole thing without even putting forethought into it. Surprisingly, this worked against the Dreadlord. It was still surprising my that this Dreadlord was far less competent than he should have been: sure, the strength was there, but why was he caught so off guard by me attacking him in this state? A Dreadlord should be well aware of this sort of threat, and even if he’d never encountered an amorphous entity, he should have at least have been trained in some way. He tried whipping another spell across my chest, but all it did was burn me.

This whole thing was a botched job from the start though, considering the bad intel. The fact that they thought that I was the “guardian” of this world meant they didn’t know about Twilight and Discord, which was some pretty serious misinformation, seeing as I’m pretty sure this would’ve been over a while ago if one of them was here. We could leverage that bad intel to our advantage though: if they continued to think I was the real threat, they wouldn’t know to look for another one, and unlike Twilight and her friends, I could lead any fighting force on some sort of insane wild goose chase just about indefinitely.

His foot caught on the gnarled root of a tree, causing him to fall backwards, arms flailing as I bore down on him.

And then, I impaled him.

I impaled him forty seven times.

At this point, I pretty much had him staked to the ground, and as strong as he was, he didn't really have the strength to pull even a single limb free. I was aware that I couldn’t actually kill him: Dreadlords are entities beyond simple flesh and blood, and his minions were likely to resurrect him within hours. I wasn’t sure I had access to the kind of magic that could prevent that, and now wasn’t exactly the time for field research. Of course, the resurrection thing meant I could use him to relay a message, and if I wanted them to spend their efforts on me instead of Twilight, this would be the perfect opportunity to lay down that kind of smokescreen.

And so, I lifted him into the air, bringing the sides of my face close to his and letting out a hissing threat, “When you get back to your masters, tell them Megan is coming for them!” I threw both halves of my head back and let out a howl of renewed laughter, the last thing he heard as I gripped tight with all of my appendages and pulled outwards as hard as I could. His agonized howl gave way to a sickening ripping noise as everything gave at once, and pieces of leathery flesh were scattered in front of me.

All around me, the remains fell through the air. Before all of them had even hit the ground, they caught fire and quickly dissipated, the presence of the Dreadlord vacating the area for whatever base of operations he’d made. I took note of the direction they were pulled in, memorizing it for later tracking. With that settled, I melted down my war-form and regathered my matter, reforming back into the Alicorn form I’d been in at the beginning of the fight, my multi-tonal cackling merging back into a single voice.

Oddly enough, it was only at this point that I noticed the weight of another strong presence observing me from just behind. Letting my laughter fade to a chuckle, I turned around to see Twilight and her five friends she’d introduced me to the previous day standing at the edge of the clearing, all staring at the scene of the carnage.

Applejack was halfway crouched, shaking violently as fear glued her to the spot.

Rarity had vomit gurgling out of her mouth, but seemed too shaken to bend her head down, or even wipe the splatters from her white fur.

Fluttershy was on the ground, curled up and sobbing, the only one not looking at me, instead keeping her eyes shut tight as if praying for it to all go away.

Rainbow seemed locked in a state of confusion, halfway into a combat stance, wearing a sturdy jacket from her military uniform and a pair of wing blades at the ready.

Pinkie was just staring at me with a slack jaw, eyes wide and twitching.

I looked at Twilight, my chuckles becoming less enthusiastic as I just plopped back on my hind quarters, raising my forelegs in a prolonged shrug as the blood continued to drip from them.

Twilight responded by reaching up with one hoof, slowly wiping a large chunk of what looked like my own splattered viscera off of her cheek.

...Talk about awkward.

Chapter 7: Shades of Grey (1 of 3)

So... I’d like to take a moment to compare and contrast the social norms regarding violence, between pony-dominated Equestria society and Westernized human societies.

Ponies are not, as humans often believe, a race of pacifists. They can be rude, aggressive, warlike, and even downright murderous, just as much as humans. That being said, they are primarily herbivorous, and have pretty much adapted to live in harmony with the natural world. They literally have a virtue in their culture, which does not have any real human parallel, that involves the facilitation the various functions of nature, including the animals, and another which involves living alongside nature, with no clothes between them and their world, just like other animals. It would not be considered at all outlandish, in pony culture, to literally walk out into the woods, naked, and have a cuddle with a wild raccoon or rabbit. In fact, Fluttershy lets bears and bobcats into her home and even sleeps in the same bed as them as if they were some beloved family member: other ponies only consider this to be a mild eccentricity.

Now, that isn’t to say you won’t hear them talk about eating things like eggs, insects, and even sea animals like the imported Hippogriff Fish-Oil tea. It is not unheard of for, say, the hungry pegasi of coastal cities to swoop down upon the ocean and pluck fish, or Unicorns to lure in small animals and kill them for sustenance, sometimes eating them raw, perhaps even alive, for their magical energy. Twilight Sparkle herself has, in fact, mesmerized birds into a sleeplike state and eaten them right off of her hoof on more than one occasion. The utility of consuming other animals is just considered to be a fact of life, often compared to the way that the bear eats the fish, or the cat eats the mouse: one creature dies, another gains sustenance, as is the way of nature.

What isn’t natural to ponies is cold, calculative violence with fatal intent. Stomping a mouse and frying it up is one thing, repeatedly stabbing a moving opponent with a spear as they desperately try to keep you away is another. It takes months of training to get members of the royal guard acclimated to the concept of doing grievous harm to an opponent, and even then, they’ll only do it if you push them: ponies are creatures molded by harmony, and the instinct of killing is all but a distant memory to them. While a unicorn could do any number of horrific things with their horn-spells, like say, create a series of explosions which go off in a chain aboard a ship, or tear the life force directly from an individual’s body, or create a hyper-thin blade to run through the necks of a group of opponents simultaneously, there are virtually no accounts of them going so far as to turn their own bones into spears and tear their opponent into pieces through brute force.

And there I was, covered in blood, staring at ponies who had just seen me literally do exactly that.

“Hey girls.” I began in a calm voice, using my magic to push the gore from my fur and onto the ground, “I’m sorry you had to see that. I was attacked by that monster and I didn’t realize you would get here so soon. I think we should all just calmly walk away from this place, and go back to the castle before it gets dar-”

“NO FUCKING WAY!” Rainbow cut me off with a roar, her wings raised in the air, blades at the ready, “WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED‽ WHAT THE FUCK DID SHE JUST DO TWILIGHT‽ WHAT THE FUCK DID SHE JUST KILL‽ HOW THE FUCK DID SHE JUST TEAR HERSELF APART? ARE YOU EVEN A FUCKING PONY‽ WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!!!”

“Rainbow,” I said, raising a hoof gently, “Nopony is in danger. I was just using my magic to fight a monster. That’s all. Now, if you’ll just calm down, we can al-”

“CALM DOWN? CALM THE FUCK DOWN‽ FUCK NO!” she took another step forward, as if ready to attack at any moment, ”NORMAL PONIES DON’T DO THAT! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU‽”

“Rainbow, I’m not a pony, remember? I am a spellcaster from another world. This body is just a manifestation, just like the form I turned int-”

“YOU WHAT‽ YOU’RE A FUCKING ALIEN‽‽ TWILIGHT! SHE’S A FUCKING ALIEN!!”

“Rainbow!” Twilight said, hurriedly waving her hooves to try and calm her down, “It’s ok! I know she’s an alien, I’m the one who found her! We told you this remember?”

“You didn’t tell me you were SERIOUS!!” Rainbow shouted, eyes bulging out of her skull.

“Rainbow, literally everypony else knew. You are the only pony who didn’t believe her.”

“I-it is t-true...” Rarity finally croaked out, reaching up a hoof to wipe some of the vomit off of her lips. She gagged slightly, trying not to go into a dry-heave, “Rainbow, Meta told me and Applejack herself.”

And THAT is why you always keep your lies to a minimum.

Rainbow was still beside herself, a blood vessel on her face approximately 67.2% of the way to bursting, “Are you... Are you fucking KIDDING ME‽ You knew she was this fucking... THING, and you didn’t say ANYTHING‽”

“Well... I don’t think anypony was aware that she... that her true form...” Rarity glanced over at me and almost immediately began to retch again, whipping her head away and heaving on the ground, spittle dripping from her muzzle as she tried to get the taste of bile from her mouth.

“Twilight. You HAVE to tell the other princesses about this. I mean, HOLY SHIT, Twilight, we’ve been harboring a fucking ALIEN PREDATOR!” She ground her teeth, “Captain Spitfire’s gonna throw a fucking fit when she finds out about this!!”

“The other Princesses already know. Luna was just here this morning to meet her.”

“And for the record,” I piped in, still standing where I was, so as not to spook them, “I’m not technically a predator of your species or any other: I’m just very good at changing my own shape. I don’t really have a ‘true form’, as you call it, only the ones I make to fit the situation.”

Rainbow had a moment of bafflement, in which Applejack found the words to step in, “Twilight what the hay! If y’all know she was capable o’ this kinda mess then why’d y’all let her around Ponyville?!” she stomped a hoof, “Twilight, mah whole family lives there! How could ya endanger everypony’s lives like that‽”

“Girls...“ Fluttershy said below a generally audible volume.

“I didn’t know she could do that, but she was just... here, and she seemed nice, and...”

“Seemed NICE‽” Applejack started to boil over, “Twilight, she just ripped some creature inta’ literal pieces!!”

“Girls...“ Fluttershy, why are you so bad at just raising your voice the first time?

“SHE COULDA KI-” Applejack was cut off.

“Applejack...” Pinkie Pie had placed a hoof firmly on AJ’s withers. She stared into her eyes with a weight of woe.

“Wha... Don’t you start tellin’ me ta giggle at the ghosties! She’s fuckin’ terrifying!”

“But Applejack...” Pinkie Pie said, her voice a complete lack of her usual bliss, “Just because... Just because somepony looks scary to you doesn't mean they're a bad pony...”

Applejack hardened, “But she AIN’T a Pony, Pinkie! And she did’n just look scary, she tore that thing to fucking shreds!!” She stomped her hoof, trying to pull away with a toss of her head.

Pinkie held tight, “Remember Zecora? And Discord was scary, but now he wants to be friends!”

Applejack growled, “That don't count Pinkie! They never turned into... Whatever that was!” She shook her head.

“Um... Actually...” Fluttershy finally managed to speak audibly, “Discord can be pretty scary when he makes his body parts fall off... And sometimes, when he's not thinking, he shows me his... um... his organs...” She hid her face behind her hair...

“That sounds rather gastly, Fluttershy,” Rarity croaked out, trying to cringe away the new thoughts, lest she begin vomiting anew, “You should tell him to stop.”

“Oh, well, he doesn't know any better because he's not used to living with Ponies, or, um... anyone else... so he forgets. And I was thinking, maybe, um... Meta doesn't think that... That's scary...”

“Aaactually,” I ventured forward, “I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known you were about to get here. I knew it would’ve been frightening, but it seemed like the most direct route to my goal...”

Twilight sighed, shoring herself up before beginning anew, “Look girls, I've known Meta pretty much since she got here, and even when she's scary or does things that make Ponies feel uncomfortable, she's never given me any reason to think she'd actually try to hurt somepony.”

“She sure put the hurt to that dragon-thing just now.” Rainbow half-assed, the adrenaline still working its way out of her system.

“That was a Demon, and it just tried to bludgeon a group of children to death for fun.” I stated, “It outright stated it was here to kill this world's guardians. If I hadn't attacked him, I have no reason to believe he wouldn't have tried to kill you next.”

Even Twilight wasn’t expecting that bit, “Wait... What?”

“The fillies told us there was a unicorn mare fighting a monster near the road to Zecora’s.” Rarity recalled, “They didn't mention any of those other details.”

“Why didn' AppleBloom say somethin’?”

“How much time did she have to tell you?” I deadpanned.

There was a pause. Rainbow answered again, grimacing slightly, “Welllll... we kinda ran off from the restaurant in a hurry, so... I guess they didn't really have time to say what else had happened...”

“...Soo...?” Twilight raised a brow and cocked her head, begging the question.

They stopped, and I could feel the metaphorical gears turning in their heads as they searched for a way to rationalize the new information into their existing worldviews.

Finally, it was Applejack who gave in with a sigh, “Fine. Ah guess Ah owe her an apology... Listen Meta, Ahm sorry I thought any ill of ya. I think you're scary and all, but that ain't no reason to be ungrateful for you savin’ my kin.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes away, looking like she’d rather be somewhere else right now, “Yeah, I'm sorry too... Spitfire keeps telling me I don’t think before I act, I guess she's right...”

“It's fine.” I stated, “I expected you to be afraid of me, and I’m not about to let myself be offended if you don't trust or even like me. The important thing right now is that there's a demon on your planet, and he’s likely to bring others.” I started walking back toward town, “We should get back to the castle and plan our next course of action... Twilight, Spike can send messages to the other princesses, right?”

“Right.” Twilight replied with a nod, falling in to walk beside me again, throwing an uneased glance over her shoulder.

Rainbow rolled lazily in the air above us, dipping in, “Soo wait...” she began to speculate, “If you’re an alien, what planet did you come from? Does everypony on your planet have those powers? Are you from a race of shapeshifters?” It seemed as if she’d forgotten for the moment that she was seeing me as a monster, her fascination with potential alien superheroes taking over.

“No.” I clarified, hesitantly, “I’m something... Different... At this moment I’m some sort of anomaly. A one-in-a-trillion-chance occurrence. I’m not really sure that anything quite like me has been observed by my species - or yours - before. I wouldn’t know though: I don’t have a complete set of memories, and we can’t trust the ones I have...”

“Yeah, but like, did you come here in a flying saucer? Do you suck out ponies’ brains?” You know Rainbow, if I did, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t look so excited...

“No, I was dragged across a world-line between my planet and yours, and I haven’t tried sucking out anypony’s brains... well, not yet, at least...” I shot her skull a smirk.

She backed away slightly, and it was quiet for a moment, aside from our hooves transitioning from the grassy field to a dirt road running along the outskirts of town, the late-afternoon sun beginning to cast an orange glow on the rooftops it could strike.

“So Meta, you seem to know what that creature was.” Twilight surmised, “What are we up against?”

“It’s called a Dreadlord.” I recited, “They’re a product of one of the Infernal Planes, used as the front-line commanders of a force of demonic invaders known as the Burning Legion. Seeing as you aren’t in the middle of a war with them, I’d say he’s the spearhead of some larger strike-force.”

“Wait.” Rainbow interjected, “If he’s the spearhead... How long has he been hiding out in the Everfree?”

“I’m guessing since about a week ago. That’s when I found Meta.” Twilight mused, “Luna told me there were multiple incursions through the barriers between our universe and the outside...”

“But... Why here?” Rarity asked, “What use could our planet possibly have to them?”

“Magic.” I stated, “I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I’m pretty sure the field around this planet isn’t typical. It’s much stronger and more stable than any I can recall, and in the hands of a extraplanar being powerful enough to work on that level? It could be a valuable resource...”

“But if they know enough to know that,” Rainbow came in again, “Why start with Ponyville? Why us? We have, like, magical rainbow powers! The tree grew Twilight, like, a giant magical castle of friendship or whatever! Wouldn’t they realize that this would be like, the hardest place to take on?”

“If they realize that, it may be their strategy. If you want to win a war fast, you go for the strongest asset before a defense can be mounted...” I trailed off, “Then again... Why wouldn’t they open with a stronger force? Ugh...” I put a hoof to my head, thinking it would be churning if it were real, “So many things here just don’t add up. Not only was he completely unprepared to fight something like me, but he kept talking about someone named ‘Megan’, as if she was some sort of ‘guardian’... But that’s you all, and Discord, right? You’re the ones who’ve defended Equestria and this planet in the past. And as far as I know, Megan is a fictional character who exists only in my mind...”

“Megan...” Twilight slowed, putting a hoof to her chin, “I may have heard that name before. I think she was one of the heroes in a mythology book. But... Most of it wasn’t even translated into modern Equestrian: not many ponies alive today would even know about her, and even then, she was just a story...”

“So wait...” Rainbow quirked an eyebrow, “This guy is looking for characters from ancient mythology? How’d he get that mixed up?”

I thought for a moment, “You know, that connects with another thing that doesn’t add up: I keep thinking that Dreadlords aren’t supposed to be real either, like, they’re fictional characters from a book I read a long time ago. I have no idea how one exists here and now...”

“Meta... You remember what Princess Luna said, right? About how you might actually be a fictional character? What if that’s what’s going on here? What if something is bringing fictional characters into existence to fight each other? What if you were supposed to be Megan, but you got mixed up with Marey, and now you’re something entirely different?”

“That could explain how this is happening, but it’s still not a why. Luna and I both agreed, Twilight, this kind of thing doesn’t happen naturally. Something powerful from outside your universe had to have planned this.”

“But what would something that powerful possibly gain from making fictional characters fight like that?” Rarity balked, “Amusement??”

“I don’t know...” I furrowed my brow, rubbing my chin with a hoof, “It’s as if some sort of occult hand is reaching down from above, trying to move us like pawns upon some giant chessboard towards some unknowable grand scheme...”

“An occult hand?” Twilight raised a brow, giving me an odd, half-amused look.

“You know, like, some invisible, powerful force we don’t understand.” I explained, awkwardly, “People use that phrase, right? Whatever, anyway, we’re going to need to track down their base before they attack for real.”

Rainbow glanced at the sky, “Well, I dunno about recon tonight: it’ll be dark by the time I can assemble any sort of team for a flyover. There’s no way we’d be able to comb an area that big in the dark...”

“Hmm...” I tapped my chin with a hoof as we rounded the corner and headed for the looming structure of Twilight’s crystal castle, “I sensed the direction of their altar when I discorporated the dreadlord’s form, and I could probably tell you a bit more if I was close enough to sense it, but even then, I’m not sure it’s something we should attempt without backup...”

“Right, so we just wait ‘till tomorrow then?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t see what else we can do.” Twilight dipped her head, “We tell Celestia and Luna what happened tonight, and tomorrow we head into the Everfree with a team of guards at the crack of dawn.”

“Um...” Fluttershy ventured as we moved up the walkway, “I don’t suppose I could just... stay home? I mean, if this is a job for the guards...”

I shook my head, “No can do Fluttershy. Twilight needs all five of you for the elements of harmony to work, and she may need to call them up without much warning if there’s a larger incursion going on.”

“Right,” Twilight gave a nod, “All of us need to be ready to leave from here by dawn tomorrow.”

“Well, ah told mah family ah might be spendin’ the night here, so ah guess ah’ll just stick ta that plan...” Applejack stepped in front and placed her hoof on one of the massive crystal doors, which already stood slightly ajar, letting the rest of the late afternoon air breeze into the grand foyer.

“Alright everypony, we’ll have Spike send a letter to Celestia and spend the night here. Rainbow, Applejack, go over to the castle guard post and bring back the officers on duty. They’ll need to mobilize the local guard in case there’s an attack. Meta and I will go get Spike...”

Everypony nodded and we split up, with Twilight and I heading upstairs while the others either stayed in the map room or headed for another wing of the castle.

“How are your energy levels?” Twilight asked.

“Good enough...” I said, gliding up the wide staircase beside her, “the fight didn’t really take much out of me. Slowing my own rate of decay is one of the things I’m constantly improving on, but there’s only so much that can really be done. I’d say he took a day off me, tops, but I’d hate to see what happens if I had to fight him again...”

Twilight nodded, “Well, if all goes as planned, you won’t have to fight him alone...”

“One can hope, but you know what they say: ‘no plan survives contact with the enemy.’” we came to the top and I set down, trotting next to her, “Next time, he’ll be waiting for me, and he’ll know not to use a mundane weapon on me again.”

Twilight cringed, “Right... And anything with any sort of spell-cleaving potential, like one of Luna’s swords, is likely to do some serious damage on you...”

I nodded, “I could probably handle him either way, but I’d have to be much more careful next time.” I shook my head a little, “We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it... How were things on your end? Did you find Lyra?”

She sighed, trotting silently down the crystal hallway for a moment, our hoofsteps echoing against the walls, “Yeah... She actually said she hasn’t written much about Marey, or an alternate version of the setting, so she showed me her fanzines, and explained to me which details were different, but...” she trailed off with some confusion.

“But what?”

“They all had subtle differences in them. I think fanfiction writers just like to change things to give it their own spin or make their concepts work, or just to make them more ‘realistic’. Do you think you could look at them later? I mean, you didn’t really give me enough for me to go on...”

I nodded, “When this is dealt with... Sure. If it’d shed more light on the situation, then yeah, it’s not like we have many other leads at this point...”

We walked up to Spike’s door, and Twilight knocked, “Spi-ike!”

No answer.

She knocked again, “Spike? Have you already gone to bed?”

No answer.

She lit her horn, screwing with the privacy lock he’d installed and unlatching it, opening it just enough to poke her head in, “Spike?” She pulled her head back, “He’s not in there...” her brow furrowed, “That’s odd... normally he’s home by now, but I didn’t see him downstairs... Where could he be at this hour?”

“Maybe we should check the library?” I tossed out.

“Maybe... The balcony is thi-”

“TWILIGHT!!” Somepony shrieked from the front of the castle.

“RARITY!”

Without a beat missed we turned and bounded down the hall back towards the main room, her at a full gallup, me flying. (I’d’ve phased through the walls, but I’d already discovered that they weren’t very permeable to any form of energy I could become)

We burst back to the main room to find Applejack had carried one of the guard officers out of the hall that lead to the empty barracks. The blood from his wounds dripped with down their coats and dotted the floor, but he was breathing, and Fluttershy and Rarity had rushed over with a first aid kit to bandage him.

“Wha- What happened‽” Twilight, rushed to the side of her guard.

“We found ‘im curled up like this at the desk.” Applejack called on our approach, “the others were there too, but...” she trailed off with a cringe.

“Three confirmed causalties.” Rainbow muttered distantly, wiping the blood from her hooves onto her chest as she flew in behind them.

“Too... Fast...” the orange guard said, “We... Couldn’t react... Didn’t think I was gonna...”

“Flash, Flash,” Twilight put her hoof on him, looking him in the eyes, “I’m going to cast a healing spell on you, but I need you focus for a moment, can you tell me anything about what they looked like?” She lit her horn and a purple glow poured over his body.

“H-hooves... Two hooves... Maybe... a minotaur?” he groaned, wincing as Fluttershy poured more alcohol on him, “He... I think he had horns... And... His sword... His sword glowed green...” He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth, “That’s... That’s all I saw before he got me too...”

Twilight nodded, “You did what you could.” She furrowed her brow as she finished weaving the spell, letting it loose on him, “I can’t heal this kind of damage with a quick spell, but I can at least get it all to hold back in place. You should be fine by the time you replenish that blood.”

Flash let out a sigh as I felt the magic of harmony flow through his body, remaking what order had intended it be before its mangling. Flesh was reknit, bones reset and bonded, veins were reconnected. By the time it was done, Flash had fallen halfway asleep, and the remains of her spell flickered through his body. That gave me an idea...

I stepped away, focusing my energy, “Hang on... If this monster used dark magic to sneak up on them, I might be able to sense it...” I spread my wings and focused, reaching out to sense the ambient energies in the air, tinkering with that magical web that seemed to be woven into the castle.

I could feel the lingering essence of dark magic in the air, and it stood out against the harmony which the castle exuded, but... it was faint... muddled... Whatever mechanism the castle used to disrupt dark powers within had wiped most of it away, leaving only a faint, smeared residue.

I furrowed my brow, “There’s not enough of it left for me to say anything... If only this castle recorded what happened here...”

As if in response, I felt the presence of a very powerful entity with massive reach stirring just beneath the surface of reality, moving within the fabric of the castle’s existence. Even its minute movement caused me to quiver...

The “map table” lit up.

“Wh-what?” Twilight walked over to the map table, “It’s... It’s showing the castle now?”

Sure enough, the map had created a representation of the first floor of the castle. It rushed in to show the side doors. A large figure, cloaked in shadow and too swift to really make out, slipped in through the entrance. It slipped down the halls, keeping to the walls and sometimes the ceiling, exploring, searching... It would stop occasionally, sitting still beneath the hood it had drawn, as if listening, before moving swiftly along.

“Woah, Twilight, this thing does surveillance recording? Why didn’t you warn me?” Rainbow cringed, thinking of things she’d done in the castle.

“I had no idea it could...” Twilight said, watching the figure move about.

It just about made a beeline for the guard post, where it swiftly drew a pair of double-ended swords, which glowed a sickly green, and barreled through the first pair of guards it saw, leaving them in ruins. Flash and another guard looked up just in time to see it rush them, drawing their own swords to defend, but it was no use: it swiped right through them, halfway-decapitating the other guard and cutting through Flash’s wings and barrel on his left side.

“Wait!” I pointed a hoof at the image, and it halted abruptly, “Back it up... Stop there!”

The frame was frozen on the image of Flash falling, a scream of terror and agony etched on his face as his wing came halfway away and his side was split open, blood spraying over the clean crystal of the walls.

“Ah... Dear... That’s quite a grisly place to stop, don’t you think...?” Rarity cringed, diverting her head, still queasy from earlier.

I ignored her, pointing to the figure, “Look.”

In this instant, his hood had fallen halfway back, the cloak opening up to reveal his body. He didn’t seem to wearing that much armor at all really: he was wearing a pair of torn cloth pants, but had nothing covering the purple skin of his bare torso, and little more than strips of leather wrapping the wrists leading up to his clawed hands. His feet were hooves, as Flash had noted, but the face looked almost human, save for his pointed ears, massive goatlike horns, and the blindfold through which a faint green glow could be seen where his eyes should have been. He also had a pair of enormous, batlike wings, just like the Dreadlord...

It was like nothing out of this world, or even my world, but the strangest thing of all was just how familiar it looked.

“Wait... is that...” I narrowed my look, “...Is that who I think it is?”

“Who do you think it is?”

“I... Can’t remember it all, but... He’s from the same story the Dreadlord was from...” I explained, “It’s odd though... I specifically remember him as being some sort of demon hunting warrior, a protagonist who killed Dreadlords, not... Whatever he’s doing here...”

The projection began to move again, the creature leaving the guards, having dispatched them all. It flew swiftly down the hallways, twisting and winding until the library came into view. Spike was sitting in the middle of it, looking over some books, cross-referencing some notes while the monster slipped in behind him.

“Spike... No!” Twilight put her hoof to her mouth.

Spike looked up from what he was doing turning to look at the door, just in time to put his hands up as the creature barreled into him. It grabbed him by the neck and slammed his thrashing body to the floor, then again, then again, then again...

“Spikey Wikey!!”

It held Spike up, who now hung limply from the massive hand, and turned to leave with him. The view followed as he ran out of the castle, and faded away, replaced by a map of the area around Ponyville.

The image of a green flame now burned above the Everfree...

The seven of us stared in horror for a moment as it burned its sickly hue.

“They...They took... Spike...” Twilight’s legs shook, and she put a hoof on the table for balance, her eyes wide and quivering, “Spike...”

All of us gritted our teeth.

“We need to go after him.” I stated.

“But...” Rarity said with short breath, “Without him, we don’t have any way to bring the princesses...”

“If I fly straight to Canterlot right now, I could have the princesses here in a few hours.” Rainbow Stated.

“That won’t be fast enough...” I glanced around the table, “We have to go in alone.”

Rarity’s eyes widened, Fluttershy just cowered more... Rainbow spoke up, “Alone? Are you nuts?? This guy just took out four guards like they were schoolfoals! There’s no way we can handle him alone!”

I shook my head, this is just like that night on Hangman’s Hill...

I put my hoof on the table, firm, “We don’t know what this guy is planning. A couple of hours may be too late. These guys don’t seem to know how to be gentle, one of them almost killed the Crusaders, and this one could kill Spike, or worse, send him to the Infernal Planes as a sacrifice to bring more Demons in.” I glanced back down at the table, “And they already have a good few minutes head start: I’d say we don’t even have a whole hour to spare.”

“Shit...” Twilight breathed, glancing back and forth between the options, “Alright everypony, grab what you need and meet up on the edge of the Everfree. I want to leave in the next half hour. You know the path...”

She turned to Rainbow herself, “Rainbow, you have time to bring a message to the guard station across town, right?”

Rainbow looked her dead in the eye, “It takes me nine point eight seconds to cross from here to there at top speed. What do you need?”

“Good. Go tell them to rally the militia and ready a defense in case they attack the town while we’re gone, and have their fastest flier send a message to the princess. Tell them about the two demon attacks, that we’re following them into the Everfree, and to bring troops immediately.”

“You want me to bring an escort back?”

She closed her eyes grimly and shook her head, “The town has too few guards as is, especially with four down. They need to be ready in case these things show up again...”

Rainbow saluted, “On the double, Twilight!” She shot off.

“Everypony else, you know what to do.”

With a few quick nods everypony turned to rush in different directions, scurrying off to gather provisions for the long walk ahead...

Author's Note

FINALLY. Took me long enough to get that one out... Between work, other projects, and running the local My Little Pony fanclub, I've been hard-pressed for the time to actually

Bit of thanks to the Friendship is Optimal (Optimalverse) Discord Chat, where I'm a moderator and I sometimes bring this up to talk about. They've been pretty supportive. If anyone wants to help me by, you know, just talking about it with me to keep my mind on it, that's a good place to find me...

"No plan survives contact with the enemy" is a nod to Starlight Over Detrot, which is another one like this, and you should read it.

In summation... Lady Sylvanas did Nothing Wrong.
Flees in a giggle-fit!

Edit: Yes, I know that Chessie wasn't the first person to say something like "No plan survives contact with the enemy." I mention it because it was what I was thinking. Please stop trying to correct me on the comments.

Chapter 7: Shades of Grey (2 of 3)

Twenty Six minutes later, Twilight and I approached the Edge of Everfree, the images the table had shown us weighing no lighter on our minds...

After her friends had left, she’d been going through bouts of shaking. I’d been pushing her along through the process of gathering all the things she felt she needed in the woods. Now, on the road, I draped a wing over her withers in an attempt of comfort.

“How are you holding up?”

“I... I dunno...” she said, leaning against me a little, “Part of me keeps thinking that Spike could already be dead, but another part of me still can't believe he’s been taken.”

I nodded, “Your brain is trying to process the ongoing situation without knowledge of the resolution or the likelihood of the possibilities. You need to focus on reacting to things to distract your emotions from the situation.”

She nodded against my side, “I guess I know that... I'm just a little overwhelmed is all. I don't think I've ever had to deal with this much all at once... I mean, I'm gonna have to write letters to those guard's families...”

“That's not relevant.” I said, “There's no point in focusing on something you won't be doing until we get back.”

She closed her eyes, “Right, right. I've just gotta be strong. Spike needs me...”

We peaked on the last hill out of town, the clearing at the edge of the Everfree coming into view. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were already standing there, the former nervous, the latter unusually solemn. Glancing beside us, I saw Rarity walking up from the other path, wearing some sort of magician’s outfit. I wasn't entirely sure how much of it was meant for practical spellcasting and protection purposes, and how much was for her to look “fabulous” on an adventure.

“Ah, good to see you two. How are you feeling, Twilight?”

“Overwhelmed, to be honest. Just, trying not to think about it all. Let's just not get into it.” She pushed ahead to where Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were already waiting, leaving us alone behind her.

“Poor Dear...” Rarity trailed off, watching her go. She turned to glance at me, “Well, since I have a moment with you,” she lit her horn, unclasping one of her saddlebags, “I managed to put the last few stitches in this before I left.” she levitated out an ornate cloak and a long vest, offering them to me, “It's not the most elegant work, but you asked for sturdy, and I believe it fits the criteria.”

I reached out and took them with my hoof. The fabric was definitely tough, and the enchantment woven into it felt like a strong net, holding it all to reality. I hesitated to put them on though, “Really? I mean, are you sure? I know you’re not comfortable around me anymore. I did turn into something monstrous...”

She winced, “Ah, well, while it was rather... Garrish... It’s really... what’s on the inside that counts! Besides, you did it to save my sister. After that, I’ve no right to claim you aren’t deserving of my generosity in return.” She gave me a weak, half forced smile, which I interpreted was supposed to be reassuring.

“Well, thank you. It really means something to me...” I said, slipping it around myself, feeling its magic creating that much welcome barrier between my form and the moving energy trying to erode it. “This should make things easier once we get deeper into the forest.” I added, and we started slowly down the hill to join the others.

It was occurring to me that I'd never really appreciated just how great Twilight's friends were, even though I didn’t know when or where I'd heard about them. Now we'd been pushed together by the situation, the truly remarkable nature that each of them had was beginning to stand out. Twilight was lucky to know ponies... People like them.

Part of me wished I'd had friends like that in the life I couldn't remember.

“Alright, I’m here.” Applejack called from behind us as she trotted up the road. She was wearing a tight-woven jacket, probably wool, with two more on her back. “Ere’s gonna be a chill wind ta'night... ‘Sides, a good strong fur can take a scrape or two fer ya.” she took them off her back, tossing them to Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. She stretched her legs a bit, her heavy-built muscles flexing as she glanced around, “Who we still waitin’ on? Rainbow Dash?”

“Um, no...” Fluttershy mumbled from where she was hunched against a nearby boulder, pulling a sleeve over her foreleg, “She went to scout ahead...”

As if in response, I heard the rush of air, and Rainbow Dash’s hooves slammed to the ground of the clearing, the steel plates on the spine and chest of her barding clinking lightly against each other, the rest of her body wrapped in a tough, leathery looking material.

“I can’t see anything.” She grunted, gritting her teeth as she glanced around, “It’s just too dense out there...”

“Then I guess I’ll have to figure it out as we go...” I said, turning to step to the front. I glanced back, “If you’re all ready, that is. I mean, if you’re afraid now, things are gonna get a lot worse once we find their base...”

The girls looked at each other with worried eyes, each studying every other’s expression. Twilight took a deep breath, stepping forward with a stern nod, “We’re ready. Spike needs us, and there's no way we'd let you handle this alone...”

I returned the nod, “Then let’s get going. We need to move quick if we want to get there before it gets too dark: all of you need light to see by...”

“I’m coming too.” a stallion’s voice came from behind us.

We all glanced back to see a strong-built pegasus trotting towards us, newly clad in some spare armor from the guard station, sword in sheath, spear resting at his side, orange wings still slung in bandages beneath his saddlebags.

“Flash!” Twilight’s wings flared, “I told you to get some rest!”

“And I did.” he said, matter-of-factly, “Then I woke up, ate some fish, drank some cider, and put on a new set of armor. Now, I'm escorting you into the Everfree forest.”

“The hell you are...” She hissed, raising her voice again, “Flash, you're in no condition to be here! Go back to the castle and get some rest!”

“I will...” he said with a stern nod, “After I've escorted you through whatever it is you're about to walk into.”

“Flash,” Twilight stated in a level tone, her annoyance rising, “I’m ordering you to stand down and go get some rest.”

“I understand your order, and I respectfully refuse to follow it, Princess.”

Twilight was at a momentary loss. “I’ll... I’ll have you court martialed.”

“Then I’ll be court martialed, after I escort you through the Everfree forest.”

Twilight was becoming flabbergasted, “But... But you swore an oath to follow my commands!”

“I swore an oath to protect Equestria,” he corrected her, “and I’m sure as tartarus not going to let you and five of the most important mares in Equestria walk into enemy territory without backup.”

“No no no,” Twilight set her hoof against her head, “You’re in no shape to fight... Flash, I can’t lead my own guard captain into a situation like this!”

“Too bad, because I’m following you.”

“What if we were ambushed and you couldn’t get out of the way in time?” she pled, “You’d be throwing your life away!”

“Sed Sagitta Pharetra.” he said calmly.

The others blinked. “What’d he just say Twilight?”

“Sed Sagitta Pharetra.” Rainbow repeated, “‘I am but an arrow in a quiver.’ It’s an old pegasus military vow.” she glanced around at the others with a stoney expression, “He’s saying his purpose is to die.”

Rarity and Fluttershy both put their hooves to their mouths in little gasps.

Flash nodded, “I made a vow, Princess, that I would serve Equestria to my death. If that means I’m about to take a spear through the heart in place of you or the other element bearers, then I’d be glad to die.” He stood up straight, “I am but an arrow in your quiver.”

“I... Flash... You're asking me to take your life in my hooves. I'm not ready for that kind of responsibility...”

“I know. I didn't take this post because I thought you were an experienced commander, I took it because Shining said you weren't prepared to make the sacrifices you'll need to. That's why I'm making the sacrifice for you.” his voice was calm, as if he were her teacher, “I'm going to follow you where you don’t want me to, because right now, you need all the help you can get.”

“Twilight,” I narrowed my eyes, “We don't have time for you to argue with your guard. If he's willing to take the risk, let him do it.”

“Half an hour ago he could barely walk!” She shouted back, “I can't let him throw away his life for me!”

“The hell you can't!” Rainbow suddenly burst in, “Twilight, ponies don't join the military thinking it's going to be safe, they join it because they want to protect other ponies with their own lives!”

“Rainbow, I...”

“No!” she stomped a hoof, looming over Twilight despite being the smallest pony there, “He made his choice, and he's right: none of you are soldiers, but all of us are important to Equestria. As much as you don't want to admit it, our lives matter and his doesn’t. If anypony needs to die, it should be him, because that's the choice he made when he signed up for this, to be an arrow in a quiver, to die for Equestria if it came down to it. Don't you dare take that away from him!”

Everypony stared at Rainbow.

I stared at Twilight.

Finally, Twilight just threw her head back with a groan, “Fine!” She turned, “If you wanna run in and die, Flash, go right ahead. Don't expect to return to your post when you get back...” She turned and started walking, “Let's go Meta, before anypony else decides to toss themselves in front of a spear for me...”

I nodded, slipping in front of the group, reaching out to navigate the eddies swirling before me.

With no further question or delay, we stepped across the threshold, under the dark branches of the Everfree Forest.

As we walked, I felt the chill of the night air rolling in through the trees, the dense looming canopy blocking out all but a few of the dying sun’s amber rays. I felt Rarity shiver nearby, and I’d probably have done so as well, had my body been truly alive.

Nopony spoke as we moved swiftly, quietly, as if any sound might alert an enemy, any question might cause further delay.

Rainbow and Flash had taken up positions to the left and right of the group, watching the sides for flanking or ambush, while the others stepped carefully behind me in a loose group.

Off to the side, I felt some sort of magical presence, which caused me to slow and gesture for Rainbow. Off in that direction, I could see a moving mass of branches.

“Timberwolf.” Rainbow hissed, signalling the group to hunker down.

The lone hunter looked at us with one glowing, unblinking eye, before slipping off into the underbrush, deciding we were better left alone.

“It's leaving.” I said, turning to continue.

“They hunt in packs.” Flash signalled for us to stay put.

“It's alone. Injured by the looks of it... It's not going to be a problem.” I said, pressing forward.

The tension disturbed, everypony started moving again.

“Any of y'all ever heard if a lone Timberwolf?” Applejack ventured.

“It’s not normal.” Twilight stated in a low tone, “They evolved to exist in groups of three or four. An individual can reform its body with time if something happens to it, but getting the magical energy and nutrients of a kill requires at least one of them to actually take down their prey.”

“Whatever injured that one probably took down its packmates.” I stated, “I have a feeling that's not the last thing we're going to see here...” The smell of decaying flesh was beginning to reach me through the underbrush, barely present over the mud clinging to our hooves.

Ahead, I could see a figure huddled against a tree. At first, Rainbow and Flash seemed to think someone was sitting in the road, but I knew if it had been, I'd've sensed its life.

I sensed nothing but background noise here.

“Shit’s about to get scary.” I said, narrowing my eyes, “looks like our enemies got territorial.”

The stiff corpse of an adolescent drake was halfway propped against a tree, eyes still upturned mournfully, though the blood from the gaping chest wound was mostly dried over her orange scales as she hung from the bark like a pig on a meat hook.

“Oh sweet Yggdrasil...” Applejack blurted, pulling off her hat.

Rarity was wincing, but managed to not retch this time.

Flash stepped in, peering closely at the wound, “I think this is from this morning. Looks like they got her with a sword to me, like the EUP used to use before the Smouldering Mountain Accords...” He glanced back at me, “You think she picked a fight with them? Bit off more than she could chew?”

“Judging by what we've seen of these guys, I’d say she just wandered in too close.” I shrugged it aside. “Nothing we can do to help her now. We need to keep moving.”

“But, she’s so young... She probably has a family somewhere.” Fluttershy protested meekly, “What if they’re looking for her?”

“Whether her parents know or not doesn't matter: she's already dead.” I stated, walking on, “Right now, our priority is getting to Spike while he’s still alive.”

They hesitated, but Rainbow pressed with me, “You heard the mare. We're on a clock here. We have to help who we can.”

The girls dragged their hooves as we fell back into our previous formation.

Pinkie Pie stepped closer to the corpse on her way by, reaching out her hoof to push closed the lids of her eyes, hiding their lingering look of despair before turning to move on. We left her like that, no time to mourn or even consider who she might've been before her life had casually thrown away.

It was only the first sight in a trail of corpses.

Next was a Cragodile with its head split open by a familiar axe, its midsection draped over a rock as insects squirmed where its blood and gore had been spilled on the path. After that, a series of normal animals were strewn across the path. A pack of wolves, a black bear, a few foxes and rabbits, which looked like they’d had bites taken out of them when they were fresh.

Fluttershy had wanted to stop, but there was no way we could spare the time, so instead, she was leaning against Rarity, burying her face in her mane and quietly whimpering while Rarity rambled on with some sort of distraction.

“What in Tartarus were they doin’ out here?” Applejack scowled at a twitching timberwolf limb which was wedged in the fork of a tree, “It's like they were tryin’ ta wipe out every monster Luna missed in here.”

“Boredom, I guess.” I said, not reacting to all this, “Maybe they were practicing on something they knew they could handle before taking on the main threat.” The term “jungling” flashed through my mind, but I wasn't sure exactly what it meant, nor did it seem like a word anyone else would've known.

Rainbow was about to raise the alert at a figure in the woods, but I stopped her.

“It’s dead.” I projected my voice at a near silent volume, “Just don’t say anything: I don’t want Fluttershy to see it.”

She glanced back in confusion as the full face of the Manticore came into view, eyes still half-open as it hung from the tree where it had been impaled.

“Like I said,” I clarified, “They didn’t care what was friendly or violent out here. This is just senseless killing. The sooner we can take out whoever’s been doing this, the better...”

“Listen, about that...” she whispered back, “I’m not sure I understand what the plan is here. Fluttershy and Rarity aren’t really good for a fight, and the rest of us aren't exactly a crack strike team... Are you just gonna have us hit them with the rainbow? ‘Cause we’ve never really tried to weaponize it like that before.”

“Honestly, if it wasn't for that rainbow, I'd’ve left Fluttershy back in Ponyville. Probably Rarity too.” I murmured back to her, taking a left at the next fork in the road, “with a little bit of backup, I could probably take both of these things, but remember what I said: these are demonic forces we're talking about here, and whatever's behind this is unfathomably powerful. I don't know what they might be able to pull out when once back them into a corner. That rainbow is way more powerful than anything I could ever dish out.”

“How do you know so much about the rainbow anyway? Nopony saw what it actually did, other than giving everypony their magic back, and we've only used it once.”

“Good question.” I said, “I'm not exactly sure. I found the notes Twilight had written on it in the library, and that jogged my memory of it. I have no idea how I know anything else about it, but so far, just about everything else I know about you girls seems to be right...”

“You think... You think somepony's been spying on us?”

“Or has heard the stories. After all, the 6 of you are famous, and will probably end up in the history books just for using the elements of harmony...”

“Wow.” She drew a blank, “I guess I realize I'm famous, but I forget about everything that entails. I really should take a moment to find out what the papers have been printing about me...”

The trees broke into a clearing ahead, and through them we could see bits and pieces of some sort of crumbling stone structure, walled off by a perimeter of stone which had been placed long ago to hold an earthen terrace in place. As we walked down the half-overgrown path, what must’ve been a centuries-old fort came into view, a few of the worn cobblestones still visible in the dirt and grass of the path leading up to the entrance. Deep inside, I could feel the disturbance we'd been following throbbing beneath the surface of reality.

“This is it.” I said, leading the others towards the stairs, “let's try to be quick and quiet here, if they don't know we're coming after them, they're going to realize it pretty soon...”

As we approached, we heard the buzzing of flies, the stench of meat that was beginning to turn reaching our nostrils before we came across what looked like a campsite in front of the gate, holding a grisly sight...

“What... What is that?” Rarity said, standing behind the rest of the group. She pulled out a handkerchief to hide her nose from the biting stench.

“Looks like a cow...” Flash said, his face screwed between confusion and disgust.

“...Her front half you mean.” Rainbow said, working her jaw in shock.

“Dear Celestia...” Rarity held the cloth tight to her face, trying to avert her eyes, “I... I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much blood before...”

Applejack cringed as she stepped closer, careful to avoid the casually discarded ribs lying on the ground, “It’s... Moonique. The young cow who went missing last night...” Applejack breathed, taking her hat off and putting it to her chest, “Her mother's been worried sick.” Her eyes widened as realizations washed over her. She stumbled backwards to get away from the sight, “Ahh, ahh naw, Celestia no, ahm gonna have ta tell Bessie and Toro we found her like this... like... Ah don’t even know what this is!”

Flash was looking at her sunken eyes, dried into place, still holding their sorrowful expression, lips peeled permanently back in silent agony. “I’d say the T.O.D. was about... A day and a half ago, not too long after she was last seen. Not sure on the C.O.D. though. I'd say exsanguination, but clearly it was a lot more than that.” He glanced up, “Got anything Princess?”

Twilight was leaning in the jagged edge of the body, looking over the wounds with a clinical expression. “It looks like they’ve been... cutting pieces off and...” she stepped away, her eyes following the trail of dried blood to the firepit, “Taking them to the fire?“ Her eyes widened.

The fresh, half-cooked bones still shone white in the moonlight, stripped of their meat.

“Sweet Celestia...” her jaw dropped as she stared, her train of thought crashing on what she had registered.

“Twilight...” Applejack asked, “I... I don’t understand... What did they do to her?”

“They ate her.” the words came out in a choke, “They carved up her body and ate her.”

The whole group froze, their faces contorted in that moment of shock.

“Cannibals.“ Rainbow growled, the blades peeking out from under her wings, “Twilight, this is getting way over our paygrades. Are you absolutely sure you don't want more backup? I bet I could have the entire fucking guard out here in two hours tops.”

“Spike doesn’t have that kind of time, Rainbow! We need to get in there before...” she looked back at the grisly corpse, afraid to even finish the sentence.

“Two hours is more than enough time to open a portal to the Infernal Realm.” I stated, knowing exactly how long it took without need for context, “That... And he already knows we’re here.” I looked up just in time to catch a flash of a pale face as he slipped back from the arrow-slit, the feeling of his menacing sight falling away again.

“So... We’re going... in there?” Fluttershy whimpered.

“We have to.” Twilight said, turning to the door, “Spike needs us.”

She pulled it open with her magic, a gust of Dusty air wafting out from the dark, echoing depths of the once-abandoned halls.

And so, with dread under every hoofstep, we left the corpse of the poor girl they’d butchered for meat, and stepped into whatever forgotten outpost they’d darkened with their presence...

Chapter 7: Shades of Grey (3/3)

Author's Note:
Something I realized when writing this chapter: I was wrong at the end of Chapter 6. This is the most violent part of the entire story. I’d like to once again reiterate, this story really isn’t intended to be that violent or gorey, it’s just what the subject matter demanded. (ok, I'll admit, this chapter was a blast to work on)

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the end of chapter 7! (finally)

My writing/proofreading music for this chapter: (if you want something to listen to while you read)
- Warcraft 3 Soundtrack (Undead Tracks)
- Bottom of the Well: Alternate Theme by Pixel8ted Strings
- Majora's Mask Orchestral Arrangements by The Noble Demon

The clacking of our hooves against the stone echoed against the ancient walls, deep into a darkness which even my sight couldn't pierce. Going through the door had led us down a surprisingly long hallway, which must’ve been built in pieces over time due to the differing qualities of masonry every few meters, as if every few decades whoever was in charge of this place had said “Make the wall thicker!” Though, to defend against what, we could only speculate. The floor was divoted with wheel-tracks, ground smooth for carts to be brought in more easily, and the arched ceiling had regularly spaced murderholes. The entire time, Twilight and I had been on edge, ready to throw up some sort of shield had an enemy decided to use them on us.

But there was only the sound of our hoofsteps reverberating through the tunnel as we left the living one outside behind us to enter one that was now long dead.

It was a short walk before we came to a large, open room, wide enough for the ceiling to be supported by pillars, with only a few exits: one on each side, and a large one at the end. A wide balcony, inaccessible from where we were, hung over from around the sides, creating a kill-point for intruding groups.

No archers manned these walls now however. Instead, we'd been greeted by an eerie silence, small motes of dust hanging in the light of Twilight's horn. The tapestries which must have hung here had long since disintegrated to dust on the floor, leaving only brass rods above their piles. In the distance, the night wind ground against the crumbling stones, muffling and echoing through the hall until it was a low white-noise, pressing in behind the echoes of our hoofsteps on the cold floor.

“Twilight,” I said quietly, careful not to let my voice echo too far, “you're the history expert here, do you know what this place was originally built for?”

She looked over one of the pillars as we passed, “Judging by the wear and styling of the stones, I'd say this is pre-Nightmare Moon. Other than that, I'm really not sure.”

“Founding Wars.” Flash stated, “At some point, the unified tribes built structures like this to protect strategic points, like the capital at Everfree. This place looks like it was added onto over the years, so it was probably on a trade route of some sort. It's only half a day's trot from Everfree, and on the edge of Canterlot’s vision, so the EUP would have kept it up as a defensive outpost until the forest took over.” he glanced a bit closer at the repair-work on of the columns as we walked by, “Or maybe even after that. This could’ve been the central base of operations in this part of the Everfree for quite some time.”

“That’d explain the size.” I said as we neared the large door on the other end. I stopped, turning around, “Before we go further, I should warn you girls, there’s some sort of enchantment on these walls that’s preventing me from seeing or casting magic through them. I can still sense the ritual in the basement, because that thing is fucking loud, but I can’t tell you what’s around the corner or how to get there. We’re basically going to be running blind through a maze here.”

“Maybe we should split up then,” Applejack ventured, “ta cover more ground?”

I shook my head, “We have no idea what’s in here, and I’d rather not split our strength. We’re probably going to end up fighting both of those guys at once by the end of this, along with whatever else they have in here, and if they actually manage to bring anything through, we’ll need the six of you together to summon the rainbow.” I glanced around, “Does anypony else have any concerns?”

All of them hesitated for a moment, but shook their heads. With nothing left to say, I turned back for the door, leading our group down that center path, where yet another wide hall, with the same cart-wheel divots, led deeper into the complex.

Without the sense of matter I’d come to rely on, I was just as ignorant of the actual layout as the others. We had no real option but to follow the hallways and hope that they eventually lead where we were going.

That hall ran on a brief ways before splitting off in both directions, and it was here that I hesitated. I quickly analyzed both sides, trying to determine which one was better.

“Which way should we go Meta?” Twilight stepped up beside me, placing a hoof of comfort on my shoulder.

“I... don’t know.” I admitted with a cringe, “As far as I know, they’re both equally likely to lead where we need to go... They both do, in all likelihood.”

“So... Why don’t we just go left?” Rainbow put forward.

“Because, we could also go right...” I said, confusion mounting as my mind began to run wild with calculations, scouring for a meaningful difference in the choices. Both halls seemed functionally identical, right down to the level of wear and tear on the floor.

They all glanced at each other.

“Meta...” Twilight spoke with a note of concern, “If one isn’t better than the other, then why can’t we just pick one at random?”

“Yeah, I like Left right now, so I say Left.” Rainbow stated again.

“Ye... yeah... Ok...” I said with actual hesitation, turning to head that way, “Left it is then...”

That had been an odd moment, and gave me something to ponder as we walked: I remembered reading that there were people with highly analytical minds, whose thought processes would be overwhelmed by trying to make decisions between choices of seemingly equal value. Up until this moment, I hadn’t really noticed a problem, but in that moment my near-indifference had become a serious drawback: the brain uses its less-evolved tools as a shorthand for decision making, after all. I made a note to look into potential solutions to this problem in the future.

We continued down the hall, turning right at the next fork to keep heading for the disturbance beneath the center of the fort.

Pinkie’s twitch was the first sign of danger.

She jumped backwards just as the brick beneath Applejack’s hoof gave with a scrape and click. Everypony gasped at her as the rusted mechanism shrieked into motion within the walls, and the floor dropped out from beneath us.

The moment I felt it come away, I reached down to grab it. In that kneejerk reaction, however, I had not taken the time to consider the fact that my magic was unable to penetrate anything in here, and so the heavy mechanism merely slipped from my grasp.

Flash gave a forceful flap of his wings, shooting backwards with his forelegs stretched to the sides, grabbing Twilight and Fluttershy just as they lost their footing, throwing them back before they tumbled in. His legs weren't long enough to reach Rarity or Applejack though.

The clanging of rusted metal rang from within in the walls around as the pair of trap floors rotated, shuddering as they continued.

Rarity and Applejack began to scream as they plummeted into the dark pit, and Rainbow and I shot downward to grab them. In the moment, both of us had expected the floor to stop once it had completed its drop. It did not. Instead, the two sides continued to flip, the outsides coming back down to close in on me and Rainbow.

In a last-ditch burst of magic, I shoved her upwards, away from the gap, milliseconds before it slammed inward around me. The meat and ichor of my body oozed and splattered as it was crushed, painting a dripping line on the ceiling above and the slide beneath as the mechanism locked back into place, running out in all directions as the rattling in the walls died down and the whole thing went silent.

Both above and below me, I heard the whinnying screams of several mares.

I slid upwards through the crack, yanking my matter back into me, causing it to slide out of their fur and slip off their faces. I pulled myself back into a blob, then quickly rebuilt my alicorn body.

They were panting with wide-eyed expressions.

“Meta!” Twilight gasped, “Ohh, thank Celestia, for a second there I forgot what you were... Did... Did you get...?”

“No.” I said, “There was a smooth incline down there, and they ended up sliding away before I could grab them.”

Rainbow pressed down on the trap tile again, clicking it inward and outwards a few times. Nothing happened.

I glanced around, analyzing the sound it was making now and comparing that to the one I had recorded when it was triggered, noting a distinct difference. “It’s not moving anything back there. The trap must be so old that the chains in the mechanism snapped when it was triggered.” I looked back at them, “Unless we scour the castle for a maintenance access to this, I don’t see any way to get this open again.”

Rainbow snorted, “Can’t you just blast through the floor?”

I shook my head, “If Twilight or I could just blast through these walls, I wouldn’t’ve had us taking the hallways.”

“But... You’re like, the most powerful alicorn I’ve ever seen!” Rainbow protested with a stomp of her hoof.

“No. I’m not.” I corrected, “I don’t have a huge amount of raw power, just finesse. Twilight is the most powerful spellcaster I’ve encountered on this planet.”

“There must be some way to get to them!” Pinkie moaned, “Nopony builds a trap door like that without a way back out!”

“Right...” I said, looking around, “and we can’t use the rainbow without them...”

“Meta,” Twilight picked at the floor with her hooves, horn alight, “There’s a crack between the floor slabs, about a millimeter wide... But... I can’t...” she grunted as she trailed off, her magic slipping uselessly in and out of the crevice.

I sighed, beginning to loosen my physical form again, “Looks like we’re splitting up after all.” I stepped over the crack, lining up with it, “Twilight, the ritual space is a three or four floors beneath us, about sixty seven meters in. Can you feel it?”

Twilight closed her eyes, focusing on her magical senses. She cringed, “Yeah. I feel it. It’s like... a wound in the world, being peeled open...” she shuddered, “and Something Awful is trying to bleed through it.”

“That’s the infernal plane.” I explained in a low tone, “There’s a thick line separating it from reality, but they’ve been whittling it down in that one spot for a while. You five need to find another way to get to wherever that is. I'll go make sure Rarity and Applejack are ok and lead them there. Remember, the enemy has had plenty of time to prepare for us, so expect to find something way more lethal than an old trap like this.”

Twilight nodded with the others, stepping onward, “Be careful down there Meta...”

“Worry about yourself Twilight. Whatever they’re doing in here, it’s not something any of you have encountered before, and you’re about to take the long way in.” With that, I let my body compress into a sliver as I slipped through the crack in the floor, letting myself fall down, into the depths of that black pit, leaving Twilight and the others to wander above...

The slick incline of the trap had gone down for two floors, dropping down a third into a pit, which would’ve been two meters deep, if not for the ancient bones which had collected there.

The room was pitch black, but I could see Rarity and Applejack squirming atop the pile. They could only hear each other.

Rarity lifted a leg as she tried to pull herself up from the pile, “Urrg... What is this stuff? Old Charcoal?”

Applejack squirmed, wincing down at her buried leg, “Rare, watch out, ah think somethin's stabbin’ me real bad...”

“Hang on, let me light my horn.” Rarity shifted her focus upwards.

“You don't want to do that.” I warned.

“Meta?” she glanced up, momentarily distracted, “Did you fall down here too?”

“What's down here? What don't ya want us ta see?” Applejack pulled a hoof from the pile and tried to move it around in confusion.

Rarity looked down with a wince, “I... I'm lighting my horn.”

“You really don't want to do that.” I reiterated.

“Consarn it, what are we lyin- ahh ahh...” Applejack's eyes widened as the light came in and she saw the empty eye sockets of several skulls staring back at her. She lurched back, panicking, then let out a whinny of pain as a few ribs dug into the tough sides of the long coat she had on, which thankfully kept her from drawing more blood.

Rarity glanced over at her, but her eyes followed the sea of bones back to the ones she was sitting in. She drew inward and started to hyperventilate, letting out half-suppressed whinnies with every breath.

I rolled my eyes, reaching out with my magic, “I told you not to look...”

With ethereal claws, I plucked them from the pile, the bits of bones clacking dryly against each other as they fell away, and carried them to the small platform on the edge of the room, setting them gently on the stone tiles. I glided over and touched down next to them, re-solidifying my form with reality with a gentle clack of my hooves.

Applejack whickered with discomfort, calming down enough to notice the bone that had been lodged in the side of her hindleg, a trickle of blood beginning to pool around her hoof. “Ah... Shit... Rare, you brought any bandages?”

“Don’t bother. Not enough time anyway.” I said, yanking out the bone and pressing my magic into the wound.

“Now, hang on there, that’s a pretty deep... cut?” Applejack stopped her protest as I finished weaving her skin back together.

“Mimicking pony skin was one of the first things I had to learn, and it isn’t much different than putting it back together. Let’s get going...” I turned to the small, prison door which gave access to this room, and pushed on the handle. It caught on a bolt. Above the handle was a keyhole.

Rarity turned to pull her saddlebag open with her teeth, poking around inside with her snout, horn flickering, “Hang on, I have something for this.”

I placed my hoof against the hold, and within a second I’d sensed the locking mechanism, pushed back the latch at the back and flipped the internal cylinder, pulling the bolt. I gave it a light shove, and the door swung open.

Rarity glanced up, “Oooor you can just do that.”

“I’m literally made of magic, remember? You’re not going to need stuff like that. Just stay behind me, keep the light on low, and make sure we don’t get overtaken.”

I turned back to the open doorway, and the three of us started off down the musty tunnels of the dungeon...

Twilight’s breath hung in the air.

As the halls winded on, the bricks beneath her hooves had become almost ice cold to the touch, and an unnatural “frost” now crept over the floor and climbed up the walls, glistening like a sickly grey haze in the light of Twilight’s horn and the fireflies of Fluttershy’s lantern. Even beneath the jackets Applejack had brought them, they all felt a chill that their shivers did little to shake.

As they walked, they peeked around the ancient doors into disused rooms, most of which held the remnants of equipment which the guards once stationed here had left behind. All of it was dark and dreary, none of it showed a way down.

Fluttershy rolled her shoulders and ruffled her wings uncomfortably against herself, “Wh- Why’d it get so cold in here?”

Twilight looked downward, eyes narrowing as if she could gaze deep beneath the floor. “This area is right above the ritual chamber. Somehow, it’s drawing the energy out of our world. Heat is energy.” she looked ahead, “If we can just find some stairs, we can get down there and stop this.”

The hallway widened, and ahead they came upon two large doors sitting a few meters apart, both of which looked to lead into the same room. Rainbow and Flash had to press their bodies against one as they pushed it inwards, scraping its sunken edges against the floor as they slowly revealed the crumbling wooden tables of the mess hall.

All around the benches sat ponies, about twenty or so, each clad in jewelry that had barely kept its shine. Whoever they’d been, no meat remained on their desiccated skeletons, their bodies bent over time-cracked ceramic bowls which now held dust.

Rainbow stepped in, looking around with puzzlement, “Did... Did they just die here? Eating their oats?”

Flash walked over to a group, his eyes narrowing as he approached, “These don’t look like soldiers...” he looked closer at the jewlery, “...nightmare moon?”

Rainbow glanced about, “I guess we’re not dealing with the first group of evildoers to use this place.”

“Whatever they were here for, it’s ancient history now.” Twilight stated, “We can figure out what it was when all this is over. Let’s keep looking for those stairs.”

Fluttershy whimpered in surprise, drawing all eyes to her body as it rose and fell with terrified breaths.

“T-Twilight,” she stammered, eyes fixed on one of the skeletons, “I... I saw it... turn to... to look at you!”

They all froze. Not one of them made a sound.

...And that’s when they realized it was no longer silent.

Behind the bricks, they heard a whispering... like a thousand mouths joined in voiceless screaming.... And they were closing in from all around.

“Everypony...” Twilight hissed, wings lifting defensively, “Walk slowly towards the back door with me...”

The living ponies moved carefully, staying very clear of the skeletons, which they could swear they now heard creaking ever so slightly, as if the bones were trying to come back to life without flesh. In a few moments the whole party was bunched up in the back of the room, every skull in the room now looking right at them as they slipped through the large doorway and into a dilapidated kitchen area. Twilight quickly shut and latched the wooden door behind them, levitating a wrought-iron stove which was only halfway rusted and placing it snug against the door to bar pursuit.

They all breathed a sigh of relief, trying not to think too hard about the fully audible shuffling noises now coming from the other side as they turned to keep walking. Across the room, they could all see the open landing of a stairwell, which they quickly followed down, eager to put distance between them and that unnerving cafeteria. The chill in the air softened as they descended, but unfortunately, these only went down one flight, putting them in a storeroom, whose door led them to yet another nondescript hall.

Rainbow scowled, “Ugh... Are you serious? Who designs a castle this hard to get around in?”

“I’m getting the feeling this is the layout they originally planned for...” Flash admitted, moving on, “That trap near the entrance wasn’t something we’d’ve put in, and you’re right, something’s really off about these hallways. It’s almost as if the whole place was made to slow us down...”

Strangely, it was no longer cold or dry on this floor. On the contrary, it was warm and damp, like an animal’s den. And yet, as they walked, they had an odd sensation of strain on their breaths, as if the very atmosphere had somehow become viscous.

Pinkie Pie slowed, “hey, does anypony feel like we’re being watched? Like...” she cast an uncomfortable glance down at her left hoof, lifting it from the floor.

It was giving an odd twitch.

“It’s been doing that ever since we came down the stairs.” she spoke in a hush, “But that one means that there’s something scary I don’t see...” she looked up at the others, “...And it’s in the same room as me.”

All of them slowed, glancing about.

“You got a direction on that one, Pinks?” Rainbow growled as she pointed a blade at the hallway behind them.

“Yeah...” Pinkie gulped as she shrank inward, huddling in her coat and trying to make her body smaller, “All around us.”

Fluttershy’s eyes darted as she stepped backwards, accidentally bumping against the wall.

It had a slight give to it, as if the stone was being held in place by something squishy.

She turned her head and immediately wished she hadn’t.

It was shriveled dry, bloodshot, an eyeball poking out from between the bricks, staring back at her.

She didn’t even breathe as her eyes stayed locked, body frozen in a state abject despair, all semblance of hope draining from her body like blood from a bag that had been sliced open.

It twitched.

She let out a ragged squeal of terror, hooves flailing as she sprung away, smacking into the other wall and bouncing off of it, causing some of the bricks to fall away with a sound like a stone being pulled from mud. Behind them, something living shifted and oozed a sickly rotted blood.

Rainbow’s eyes widened at the sight. She reflexively jammed a sword into the wall with a growl.

Her rage turned to regret as all around them, the walls gave a shudder of agony, the bricks loosening and moving about, as if they’d been stuck there with writhing maggots. Mortar crumbled to dust and poured in around them, and more of the bricks started to peel away, revealing a gangrenous flesh growing, pulsing, bleeding behind the old walls.

“WHAT IN TARTARUS?!” Rainbow shrieked as she yanked backwards, shaking the ick from her sword.

Twilight’s hornlight flickered and flared, she shrieked direction as she turned to bolt.

“RUN!!”

They rushed through the spasming tunnel, which moaned like a whole cult of heretic on the racks.

Pinkie shot out in front, pointing with her snout as she ran, “Look! Stairs!!”

They turned down that corridor, rushing for the opening as the cloud of crumbling bricks gave chase.

From the stairwell, something, white and shaped more like a clump of claws than a real hand, raised itself into view. A pale head, with a mane of spines and teeth like shards of bone ascended the stairs in front of them. It let out a guttural hiss, ribs protruding from its rotting chest, as two similar creatures moved in to join it.

Their hooves skidded on the slimy bricks, which pulsed beneath them as they slowed in terror and disgust.

“What ARE those things?!” Rainbow nearly gagged.

Twilight let out a howl, a blast of light firing from her horn, tearing through the undead creatures and turning them into heaps to be trampled. Behind them, the wailing continued, and they could hear the door from the mess hall above caving in. They kept running, for it was all that they could do, descending deeper down into this pit of horrors...

The wall shuddered as I shot another one of my spikes through one of its eyes. It moaned from about forty three different pseudo-throats as a few more bricks crashed harmlessly against the shield I was holding up like an umbrella above Rarity, Applejack, and myself.

“Must you do that, Meta Dear?” Rarity glanced at the shuddering walls with palpable discomfort, “I mean, whatever this... icky stuff is... it really is quite unsettling as is without you antagonizing it.”

“The Growth is one of the ways infernals maintain the areas they’ve infested.” I said, spawning another shard of bone from my hoof, accelerating its matter and nailing another eye, “If I leave them, it can track us more easily, but if I destroy them, it can’t see in this hall until they grow back, which takes quite some time. I don’t like it watching us, nor do I appreciate the way its been messing with my perception.” I thought for a moment, “Interestingly, the fact that I don’t remember it doing this is proof that I never had this sense in my past life, assuming I existed before Twilight found me. I have memories seeing this stuff somewhere, but not of it actively scrambling my ability to detect matter through solid walls.”

“Ah, Meta? That’s really interestin’ an’ all, but ‘re y’all seriously not seein’ how downright horrifyin’ all this is?” She cringed as I bolted another eye, shying half a step away from one of the pulsating walls, where the flesh was poking out between the cracks in the mortar like some sort of throbbing meat-cake that had been allowed to swell up in the sun.

“Oh, I’m very aware that it’s creepy.” I put a spike through yet another eye without bothering to turn my head towards it, “I’m just not bothering to react because, at this point, there’s no further point in processing my sense of fear. I already know the likelihood of us all dying down here, and I just don’t have the patience to gawk at a glorified wall of flesh, when the real danger is the room we’re trying to get to.”

“Very reassuring Meta.” Rarity scowled, voice dripping, “It’s not the weird fleshy stuff behind the wall we need to worry about, it’s the portal which the evil demons are already pouring out of that’s probably going to kill us.”

“I didn’t say probably,” I corrected, shooting another eye, “I merely implied that there was a significant chance.”

The walls moaned unhelpfully.

“Riiight,” Applejack had her own scowl, “Let’s jus’ keep goin’ and try not ta’ think about the-AAH!”

I snapped my body backwards, stretching my hoof in her direction, swinging it inches away from her head. The blade collided with it, sinking in hard and barely stopping before it went through my flesh and met hers. If I registered damage as pain, the burn I felt going through my leg would’ve been beyond excruciating. As it was, the whole thing had been cleaved off, and the matter melted as the enchantment keeping it together was destroyed by the magic of the sword.

The creature that had taken the form of Illidan scowled at me as the girls scrambled to put my body between his and theirs. “Ah, so it is you...”

“Yeah,” I said, splintering the remaining upper leg into a set of spines which shot in his direction, “It’s me.” The walls behind him were peppered with constructed bone spears as he managed to slip out of the way of all but two of him. I could hear him hiss as they embedded in his arm.

I formed three more forelimbs while the girls clamoured about behind me with whinnying cries as a group of shambling amalgamations of dead flesh and bone crawled into sight just down the hall, hissing and clattering against the floor. Something in my head told me they were creatures cobbled together from decaying matter through dark magic, referred to as “ghouls”, and I was done questioning how I knew anything at this point. Rarity fired a bolt of magic at one, while Applejack started grabbing pieces of fallen masonry to lob at them.

They’d have to handle that for now: I had a bigger threat to eliminate first.

He rounded on me again, holding his swords out in front of him, ready to guard against an attack. Time was on his side, and he knew it, meaning he got to play the defensive role here, and I had to break through before his minions overwhelmed us. With the enchantment on his weapons, however, I couldn’t just overwhelm him with brute force like I had the Dreadlord, so I focused all my senses, and started analyzing his movements.

I moved in, letting all four of my forelegs form spearing appendages, feinting right, left, down, left again, making a few cautious swipes and jabs while keeping my distance. He quickly parried and stepped around my motions, getting in a few good slashes to my limbs, taking two of them off outright. I, however, was getting useful information from this.

At first it had seemed like he was exceptionally skilled with his swords, but now that I watched, I could see that the way he gripped his swords was sub-optimal, and his footwork wasn’t entirely stable either. Clearly, he was skilled. Clearly, he was clever. Clearly, his body was supernaturally fast and strong. Clearly, he’d gotten in plenty of practice. Under the proper application of enough force, however, I could make him crumble.

Behind me, Rarity and Applejack were giving up ground, slowly being overtaken: I had a matter of seconds left to deal with this.

I rapidly spawned shards throughout my neck and mouth, my throat bloating out as they amassed, as my forelimbs regrew and split into a new total of 8 spearlike appendages. I opened my mouth and launched the entire batch of spines in a wide cone, the high-speed projectiles pouring out on him in a two-point-seven-second barrage. I’d already seen him fail to fully avoid it the first time, even with his incredible speed, and this time, he nearly panicked outright, throwing himself back at an odd angle as they sank into his armor, getting through to the flesh in the less protected spots. I’d effectively brought buckshot to a sword fight, which was a trick he hadn’t been prepared for.

I lunged at him from below, sinking my claws into his legs and yanking him towards me at bone-breaking speeds, overtaking him with my forelimbs like a trapdoor spider grappling down its prey. One of his swords slipped from his hand, and he swiped desperately with the remaining one, cutting through two of my limbs and causing them to dissolve, but I managed to get his arm with a third, tearing the sword from his grip before he could do any real damage.

He growled and flailed, kicking at me as I hoisted the bulk of my form on top of his, growing more limbs and tendrils to reach inside of him, stabbing through his unarmored chest, reaching inside of him. He started muttering some kind of incantation, as if trying to cast a spell, but I opened my mouth as wide as his head and jammed it against his face, spawning a cluster of tooth-like protrusions to stab into it, working against his mouth. I reached out with my will, pressing it forcefully against his, preventing him from summoning the energy to do anything more.

I could feel the core of his life force, perhaps what one might refer to as a “soul”, hanging just out of my grasp, like a delicious morsel on a string.

It would’ve been a simple matter for me to reach in and begin consuming it, preventing him from resurrecting like the Dreadlord had, feeding myself with that precious energy, but the girls were now pressed against my backside, shrieking with panic as the unending rush of ghouls bared down on us. There wasn’t any time to eat his soul. Rather than attempting it at the cost of their lives, I bared down hard against his skull, crushing it in my mouth.

I twisted my upper body towards the hallway ahead as he crumbled to ashes which roiled on the floor around us, altering my forelimbs back into a pair of poleaxes and taking a heavy swing at the monsters grasping at Rarity and Applejack. Bones crunched beneath my bladed appendages as I lurched forward and swung the next blow, and then the next. I steadied my hind-hooves against the floor and glanced back at the girls, who were now staring at me in slack-jawed horror.

I almost rolled my eyes, “Oh, quit acting like any of this is surprising at this point and just stay behind me.”

They gave each other a frightened look, but nodded shakily, and we continued onward through the seemingly unending flow of ghouls...

Rainbow slammed her hind-hooves into yet another one, her heavy steel shoes going straight through to shatter its spine, rendering it back to a pile of bones.

Flash dove forward, chopping through the bones of the creature in front of him in another swift, decisive swing of his sword. With that group dispatched, he started swiftly forward, concentrating on keeping his breath up, lest he become winded. Ahead, they could hear another wave of enemies, scraping and hissing as they came around the corner.

They’d been lucky thus far: whatever these things were, they were scarier than they were dangerous. So far, the two soldiers had managed to avoid being wounded by the claws as they held a line in front, thanks to a combination of swift movements and heavy armor, and once they’d been hit with enough force, the crudely formed creatures fell over quick. Had they been a group of inexperienced travelers, this would’ve overwhelmed them, but this was a pair of combat-trained pegasi with substantial backup.

Pinkie Pie had been surprisingly useful thus far as well, as she’d pulled a brightly painted flail out of Celestia-knows-where and was cheerfully smashing away at the monsters that tried to overtake their front line.

Twilight’s horn was steaming as she maintained resolute focus, firing quick blasts around the others, keeping the enemy from holding a line.

Fluttershy was cowering behind the rest of the group, unable to handle creatures she couldn’t work her charisma on, dragging her hooves as she was brought along entirely by the fact that watching the back was less scary than being left behind.

This aside, the group was making steady progress through the halls, breaking through the near-constant waves of enemies one group at a time, hoping that the next one might be the end, or that the next turn would be another flight of stairs, or at least a place where they could rest for more than a moment.

“Keep it up everypony! They’ve got to be coming from somewhere!” Twilight shouted, trying not to focus too hard on the throbbing discomfort she was feeling from whatever was going on a few floors beneath them.

“Celestia damn it!” Rainbow growled, “how many of these things are there?!”

“No way to count!” Flash shouted back, “Let’s just hope they don’t send out anything bigger...”

As they turned the corner, something different came into view: a large, bipedal creature, wearing full armor, carrying a large axe in each hand, glowing red from the eyes and runes around its body, casting a sickly light over its wings and horns.

The Dreadlord.

“...Oops, spoke too soon.” Flash cringed.

Behind him, they could see the sides of the next stairwell, but his hulking body took up most of the hallway. The demon stayed where he was, scanning over the group cautiously, then let out a hearty laugh of mocking, “looks like you dumb horses forgot to bring the one monster that could kill me.”

He shoved his minions aside, walking resolutely towards the group as they started to back into a more defensive posture.

Flash smashed the creature which had drawn near him, then quickly dropped his sword to pull his spear.

Rainbow crouched down, looking for an opening she could exploit in the narrow halls.

Flash went in for a cautious a stab only to have his spear knocked aside. He backed up and made another, which the dreadlord failed to block, but it glanced off the heavy metal armor.

Rainbow saw her opening and went for it, surging forward to jam one of her swords between the armor plates and into his leg.

The Dreadlord growled, dropping to a knee as he swung his axe reflexively.

Rainbow’s sword caught on his armor for a moment, just long enough to keep her from stepping back in time to miss the swift blow. If it had been angled better, it might’ve gone through her armor, rather than leaving a gash in it as she was thrown to the side. She slammed against the wall behind him, struggling to get back on her hooves, only to find a frenzy of claws descending upon her from the next group of minions. She let out a shriek, twisted her body away as she kicked at another one.

Pinkie Pie sprung past the Dreadlord, narrowly avoiding one of his axes as she dove at Rainbow, bringing her flail down on the monsters before they could overtake them.

Behind her, the Dreadlord snarled as Flash managed to jam the spear into the gap below his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around it and yanked it aside, pulling it out of the captain’s grip and lunging forward. Flash wasn’t quick enough to avoid the axe before it caught him on his one good wing, yanking him off his hooves.

Flash screamed as he felt himself slammed against the wall and dragged hard in a blind rage.

There was a surge of light, and Flash ended up thrown against the other wall as the Dreadlord dropped that axe, screaming in agony as he threw up that hand to shield his face, as Twilight focused a solid beam of harmonious magic on it, burning through his skin, and nearly to the bone as he backed away, thrashing to try to avoid it, his only real defense being to keep part of his axe between her horn and his comparatively massive body.

Twilight howled defiantly as she stepped forward, angrilly pressing the assault as she melted his armor and burned away his flesh, driving him back against his own clambouring minions.

Rainbow snarled as she shoved one of the small monsters away, and Pinkie Pie let out a scream as one of them leapt at them. Twilight glanced over just in time to see them fall under the weight of several ghouls.

“RAINBOW! PINKIE!” She screamed, momentarily redirecting her beam in their direction to burn through those attackers. In the next moment, she felt a massive hoof knock the breath from her lungs as it made contact with her side, smashing her body against the ground and sending her tumbling.

Hooves failing to find purchase on the floor, Twilight flailed, seeing the hulking figure bearing down on her out of the corner of her eyes and throwing up a shield above herself in the nick of time. The dreadlord’s axe slammed down against it, causing her to cry out as her magic recoiled from the force.

“Noo...” Flash groaned, desperately scrambling to pull the few bones which were still intact into motion. The limp remnants of his wings smacked bloodily against his sides, and his foreleg threatened to buckle. With no other weapon left to fight with, he prepared to hurl his body forward.

Twilight howled in pain as the axe came down on her barrier again and again, each strike like a hammer to her horn until finally, it shattered. The dreadlord laughed wickedly as he raised the axe for the killing blow, Twilight’s horn sparking uselessly as she tried to regain composure in time, the world becoming a blur as the axe came down.

Twilight was knocked back as a loosely-armored body was smacked against her, causing her to roll further, another attack finally charging on her horn before she even saw what had happened.

Flash let out a gurgling roar of defiance, as his hooves skidded along the blade, pulling it deeper into his chest.

“What...? FUCK!” the Dreadlord swung wildly as he tried to dislodge the living scabbard which had now rendered his weapon useless.

Twilight screamed in anguish as she poured every last ounce of her fury into her horn, bathing the hallway with a light that was literally blinding. Her shriek grew ragged as the sound of air becoming plasma overtook it, a blast like the wind of a sandstorm rushing through the hallway, tearing the monsters away as all the ponies were forced to the floor. For a few seconds, none of them could even see or hear what had happened.

As they opened their eyes, they could see the smoldering remains of part of the wall where the dreadlord had been was, the bugs from Fluttershy’s broken lantern now flying about in anxious confusion, still bright enough to light the area. Around them, the tunnel creaked, but the sounds of oncoming claws had ceased. All that remained of the demon himself was the hand gripping the axe, crumbling to ash without its body.

Beside it, Flash’s corpse was draped limply around the axe, half-furrowed eyes staring blankly into the darkness.

“Flash... No...” Twilight whimpered, dragging herself to his side, ignoring the throbbing pain in her horn. She yanked off his helmet, running her hoof along his limp face, trying to think of some spell she could use to help him, but nothing she knew could piece organs back from tatters. “Why...?” She choked, “Why’d you have to be such a big damn hero?” She started to sob, “I told you not to come...”

She felt a foreleg around her shoulder.

“Twilight, we can’t stop.” Fluttershy said in a wavering voice, holding her close.

“I... I can’t just leave him like this!” Twilight sputtered.

“There’s nothing we can do for him now.” Fluttershy said sadly, “He did it because he wanted us to stop this, and right now, he’d want us to keep going.”

Twilight shook the tears from her eyes, biting her lip as they continued to drip down her face. She reached forward, gently pushing his eyelids down with her hoof, though it didn’t look like he was sleeping at all. Her legs shook beneath her as she stood, and Fluttershy led her to Pinkie and Rainbow, who had just finished bandaging each other. They barely had time to glance back at his body as they descended the stairs, continuing their trudge through this labyrinth of despair...

After Not-Illidan was out of the way, I’d spent the next few minutes beating through the horde of fifty three ghouls, with Applejack and Rarity following close behind, following the trail through the corridors to a flight of crudely built stairs not far ahead. Once we’d descended, we ventured down through jagged-walled catacomb, where ancient crypts were watched over by obsidian and bronze statues of grotesque, otherworldly beings. Naturally, the graves they’d been charged with were now torn up and empty of remains, which, of course, had meant the minions had stopped coming, so the rest of the walk went unimpeded, save for the dimly audible hum of concentrated malice coursing through the walls around us, picking at our bodies like a swarm of bloodthirsty gnats looking for an opening.

We’d finally made our way to a massive oaken door. Around the edges of the ancient, enchanted wood were a series of carvings depicting various symbols of dark magic and lunar cycles. This definitely wasn’t part of the original castle, assuming the guard didn’t decorate the doors of their subterranean chapels with detailed engravings of violent sexual couplings between Nightmare Moon and Shub-Niggurath. I made a note to ask Princess Luna if she’d really been this aggressive during her days as an extraplanar dominatrix the next time I saw her, but the history wasn’t important right now, because what was on the other side was far, far more sinister.

From beyond, we could hear sounds of scraping, not unlike the skittering of a hundred giant cockroaches, moving together in an orgy of claws. Beneath the thin skin of this world, I could feel the energy of hatred, throbbing like a welt that was close to breaking open and spilling its blood.

“They’re in the next room...” I gave an involuntary shudder as a ripple of evil ran across the fabric of reality, “...And they’re close to finishing the ritual.”

Rarity put her hoof to her mouth.

Applejack brashly rushed the door, intending to slam it open, only to find herself held back by my magic. “Why ya holdin’ me back?!” she growled, “We can’t just leave Spike in there!”

“Applejack,” I told her squarely, “If you go in there, I can guarantee whatever’s on the other side is going to tear you apart before you can even get to him.”

“Then what do we do?” Rarity grimaced, “Spike doesn’t stand a chance without us!”

I paused for a moment, pondering the situation...

I didn’t have backup. Rarity and Applejack were capable, but I needed somepony on the level of Twilight to take on this kind of opposition.

The princesses wouldn’t be here for another few hours. I didn’t even have time to wait for Twilight. Hell, I didn’t even know if Twilight and the others had made it this far.

Trickery was out too. I had no idea what they wanted, beyond pleasing their “master”, and I couldn’t really engineer a scenario in which I had the power to negotiate or bargain them down.

I was left with the imperfections I’d seen from the Dreadlord and the Hunter when we’d fought. They’d shown fear when I threatened their lives. They’d shown ignorance when I’d unleashed only a fraction of what I could do. They’d shown an inability to think quickly when I’d turned the tables on him. They’d shown a serious lack of experience when it came to dealing with what I was, whatever you’d call what I was. Even if they knew what I was now, even if they knew I was standing outside, they had no idea just how fast I was about to be on top of them...

...And that’s where a path of least resistance presented itself.

I stepped to the door, focusing all the mechanisms of my mind on my next task. “Rarity. Applejack.” I stated calmly, “I need the two of you to turn around, go find Twilight, and lead her back here.”

“But... what about you?” Rarity asked.

I glanced back over my shoulder, “Me...?”

I turned back towards the door, my form beginning to melt. I could feel the girls stepping back uncomfortably as my so-called “flesh” lost its semblance of realness. My magic was flowing strong, and I was well stocked with matter, all of which would become useful in the next few moments.

“If Luna’s right, and this is just a work of fiction being played out...

..then we’re in the middle of a horror story...

...And I’m the monster.”

Author's Note

HEY EVERYPONY, IT’S SHOGGOTH TIME!

So, interesting tidbit, The Growth (that flesh growing behind the walls) is a thing from a dark medieval fantasy setting I’ve been working on. If you’d like to read (and play an RPG) about radioactive elves and talking rat creatures becoming knights and fighting against horrific monsters from beyond the veil of reality, you should keep an eye out for that: it’ll pretty much be the kind of stuff I write on here, but without the limitation of ponies.

Also, I’m officially entering into the launch phase of my Patreon, which will help me not have to work as many contract jobs in order to pay off the bills, thus giving me more time to write, and also show me that I can actually make some money off of my art, which, once again, means I can do more of it. If you’re interested in throwing me a couple of bucks a month, you can find it at patreon.com/RockstarRaccoon.

Probable crises aside, I don’t have a huge amount on my plate this next month (especially if the Patreon takes off), so I’m hoping to have all of the next chapter up real soon. Wish me luck! :3

Chapter 8: Desaturated

Author's Note

Special thanks to everyone who pushed me forward in the doc after I posted it in the blog, and to my Patreon Supporters: y'all have had this thing for MONTHS now, and I'm glad you finally got me to get it out!

Chapter 8: Desaturated

As sapient beings, we often like to think that we can wrap our heads around all sorts of concepts, and that we could describe anything we saw through our mastery of language. This is simply not true. Language was created to reflect what we need it for, but if no one has needed a language to describe a thing in the past, then there is no reason for it to be up for the task in the present.

A good example is the images of “sea monsters” one can find on maps from the Middle Ages, which are actually drawn from the descriptions of real life animals given to researchers, who documented and drew them to the best of their ability. Without existing words or pictures to describe those animals, however, the meaning became blurred. An explorer might describe to an artist, “a sea-creature, not resembling a fish, with ten or so limbs, beady eyes, and a long body that is more tail than anything, six feet long.” You and I might know what he’s describing, but the artist this is being described to has never even seen a picture of the creature in question.

He has seen lobsters though, which he remembers are...

Not like fish
Many limbed.
Beady eyed
Long Bodied
Mostly Tail

And although he’s never seen a lobster more than a foot long, he can easily picture this, and so he draws it, and that’s why cartographers adorned their maps with giant crustaceans known as “Squids”, thinking that this was a totally accurate depiction of sea-life.

As the first explorer of this novel state of being, I could attempt to describe the form I’d chosen in that moment, but language would fail me.

I could tell you about the tentacle-like appendages, the long, wickedly barbed spears, which opened into pincers so they could both grab and spear, the roiling black mass of plates and black ooze which hid my core, or the sacs of flesh-melting substances which were spread across it, but these are simply parts of a whole, a construction that was far more than that.

I could tell you about the coloration I’d taken on, but the most precise phrasing our language gives me would be “all of them and none of them at the same time.” Even if this were not a vast oversimplification, it would not adequately describe the pattern and the spectrum.

I could tell you about the emotions I was registering at the time: a range of anger, desperation, sadism, and ― blaring unhelpfully over all others as usual ― fear, but I was not in control of nor controlled by my emotions. Even if I were, every person has a choice of how to express their emotions, regardless of what they are, so this would only be for the sake of empathy.

I could attempt to summarize myself with words like “abomination”, “killing machine”, or perhaps even “shoggoth” to describe what I had turned myself into at that moment, but these are simply vague summation.

What I had become was so outside of all prior experience that it would baffle a mind made by evolution to simply behold it.

What I had become was so beyond the realm of possibility that I could feel reality itself straining to reject its presence.

What I had become was something both beyond words, and yet, a simple concept.

I had a will to impose upon reality, and my body had become the awful tool with which I would do so with extreme prejudice.

What I had become...

...was Death Incarnate.

Splinters flew from where the door had been a moment before, riding the shockwave of force I dragged into the room with me. In an instant, two, six, nine of the small minions were torn asunder in a mangle of flesh.

I skewered more of them on my sharp-pointed appendages, opening the claws to tear them apart.

I opened the “mouths” on my forelimbs, wrapping each around the creatures, two at a time, the hundreds of teeth I’d filled them with crushing the enchanted stuff into nothing but matter and energy for me to consume.

I grabbed against the floor with my forelimbs, dragging my body forward, feeling myself ooze across the icy floor as I quickly covered ground, feeling the mooks grind beneath me as I plowed their bones like dry earth.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?” I heard one of their leaders shout.

What the fuck, indeed.

Within a minute, the minions had been shredded and scattered, and I heard the faux-Illidan incanting something. A wide ring of green flames sprang up around the altar, creating a barrier which burned away my form wherever I tried to cross it.

I allowed myself to consolidate in one spot, congealing part of my form back into some vague semblance of the pony shape I’d taken to communicate. As that figure of shadow, I spoke, my voice the same as it had been in every other form. “Let him go and I’ll let you live.”

Spike’s eyes widened as he looked at me from where he’d been pinned. He looked down at the altar, where the sacrificial dagger had been left beside him...

The Dreadlord snarled in rage, “What the hell are you!?”

“The one making the demands here, that’s what.” I shot back, “Your army is destroyed. Your position is compromised. Now let him go.”

“The hell we will!” he glanced back at not-Illidan.

He sneered, “The god who sent us here has demanded action of us, and we will not stop until we have seen it through.”

“You mean the otherworldly creature who Displaced us, don’t you?”

“Displaced?”

“When an entity from the void reaches into reality and drags someone from one universe to another ― and, in our case, changes their form in the process ― it’s called being Displaced.” I had my body take a step towards them, flaring its wings slightly, “That’s what you are, isn’t it? A human turned into something else?”

Not-Illidan paused, lowering his voice, “So, you were from the convention...”

The Convention. That was the “festival” I’d been at. That’s where I’d found...

...that vendor.

That was where this had all started.

Danger can lurk in any shadow, and ours is a world of darkness. I’d let my guard down for one moment, and immediately fallen into the web of some great monster, snatched up like any other prey. I’d’ve cursed my former self for being so foolish, but hindsight was always 20-20.

“Yes!” I pressed on, “That’s how all this happened to me. I was at a convention, I was attacked, and I ended up here without a body. I don’t remember anything else though. I don’t even remember what my name was!”

The Dreadlord laughed wryly, “We haven’t remembered our own names since we got here. The only name I remember is Varimathras.”

Behind them, Spike watched intently, breathing gentle streams of fire against one of his cuffs, slowly turning it hot enough for him to bend.

As long as they didn’t catch him, he’d eventually escape. I could tell that fighting them together like this would be a risky endeavor, even if I overpowered that ward, but now I knew what they were after, giving me ground to negotiate.

“We don’t have to fight!” I called out, “We can work together to get out of this mess!”

The Dreadlord scoffed, “You think we’re gonna fall for that? We were given some pretty clear instructions: the only way off of this world is to do what the god who sent us here commanded, and his command was to kill you.”

“But there is another way!” I insisted, “If you just work with me, I can get us back home!” This was a stretch of the truth: I wasn’t sure I could do that, but presenting the possibility might de-escalate things long enough to get Spike out of danger.

“Lies!” Not-Illidan roared, ”We’re nowhere near earth! We’re not even in the same universe! How could you possibly get us out of here?!”

“Twilight and I are very good at magic. We’ve been looking into where I’m from since she found me. If you just give us time, we’ll find a way to cross the void and get back home!”

He scoffed, “Even if she could do it, we’ve already killed her guards. We’re the enemy. She’d never agree to help us!”

“She’s forgiven countless enemies in the past, even befriended them, no matter what they’ve done! She doesn’t want to fight, she just wants to protect her friends!”

“Ugh, don’t you get it?” the Dreadlord shouted, “We don’t even know if any of this is real! This whole place is based off that stupid show for little girls!”

“...What show?”

Not-Illidan scowled, “Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of My Little Pony! Grown men, call themselves ‘Bronies’, posting the damn thing all over the internet!”

“Yeah,” The Dreadlord added with disdain, “Goddamn adults who watch the show religiously, make fan clubs and conventions, and write stupid blogs and fanfictions about fucking horses!”

The show...

There was a show...

My Little Pony.

It was about a pony named Twilight Sparkle, and her friends, who went on adventures together...

I’d seen that show. I liked that show. How could I have possibly forgotten about that? That’s how I knew so much about them. I’d literally been watching snippets of their lives for the past four years!

Spike had melted his way through the shackles holding his wrists down and was sitting up, looking fearfully at their backs as he hurried through the ones binding his ankles. I had to keep their attention focused on me, or else they might notice him.

I kept talking, “But this is real! If you’d only stop to talk to them you’d realize that they’re real people with real lives, and you’re hurting them when we should be working with them! Everyone from those guards to that cow, to the little girls I stopped you from killing had people who cared about them! How can you justify all the suffering you’re causing?!”

“Justify?” the Hunter waxed philosophical, “Suffering is part of nature! If it wasn’t us, it’d be something else causing it!”

“Just because something is natural doesn’t mean it’s good, and just because someone else would do it doesn’t mean you’re not making it worse! Hurting them is wrong, no matter who does it!”

“No it’s not! That’s just the excuse of the weak!” the Dreadlord jumped in, “The europeans suffered and it made them strong enough to conquer the world: if these horses are real, we’re doing them a favor by creating progress!”

I had my body shake its head, “Progress is supposed to benefit the people making it. Progress of the sake of progress is pointless if the only gain is suffering.”

“Yes,” the Hunter pointed out, “but didn’t a wise man once say that suffering gives life meaning because it gives someone the chance to endure it, and prove themselves?”

“Nietzsche said a lot of things, then he spent the last decade of his life smearing his shit on the walls of his cage.” I retorted. “Even if he was right, how can you possibly judge whether or not anyone is suffering enough? Just how much do they have to endure for you?”

“As much as we need them to.” the Dreadlord declared, “Our god has the power to make these decisions, and he has given US the power to carry them out as we see fit!

“Just because he’s powerful doesn’t mean you should listen to him!” I argued, “Everything you’ve told me about him tells me he should be fought, and destroyed if possible.”

“You think you can stand in the way of a god who walks between planets?” the Hunter scoffed, “The Greeks called that hubris!”

“Listen to yourself!” I shot back, “The dark powers you’ve been using have corrupted your minds! Just because you have power doesn’t give you the right to use it!”

“Why should we care about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’?” the Dreadlord sneered, “In a few moments, the ritual will be complete, and no one on this world or any other will be able to stop us from carrying out our task! We’re beyond judgement by mortals!”

“Isn’t there a part of you that feels guilty about this?” I demanded, “Don’t you have a shred of morality or shame left in you?”

“Morality is only the excuse the weak-minded give to beg for mercy.” The Dreadlord spat, “It only serves to hold the higher-man back!”

“That’s the demons you’ve become talking! What would your human selves think?”

“I don’t care what they’d think!” he snarled, “You think we don’t know what you’re doing? You’re just telling us this bullshit to trick us into letting our guard down! You can’t possibly believe in it!”

I stopped for a moment, caught off guard by that one, “What are you talking about?”

“You may have fooled those horses, but we know who you really are!” the Hunter growled, “How can you possibly hold us accountable with everything you’ve done?!”

“What do you mean, ‘what I’ve done’? I don’t remember anything before I came here!”

“Oh really? One of the most dangerous criminals in the New England area doesn’t remember that she’s the real bad guy?”

I had my body shake it’s head again, “I don’t remember any of that, but I do know that that’s not how it works. Just because someone does unethical things, even if they benefit from them, doesn’t make ethics themselves invalid. Ethics is how people behave to create a better society for everyone, just as you could’ve avoided all of this if you’d only tried to work with the ponies like I did instead of trying to kill them!”

Bart laughs at this, “Now I see why we’re pinned against each other: you’re everything we’re not. We are men of POWER, we TAKE what we want without begging, while you are a coward, a degenerate desperate to hide within the herd. You’re nothing but a slave to society!”

And in that moment, I saw the briefest reflection, within him, of who I’d been before I died, almost the exact same excuses echoing in my head in that voice I called my own. Every fallacy, every weak justification, every shred of evidence you seek out to tell yourself that no, you are not the bad guy. In my emotional state, it had been easy to blind myself enough to believe, but in the light of my logical mind, removed from that person I once was, I saw it for what it had always been: a self-deception to lull one to sleep at night.

Everything both he and my past self had said had been correct...

...But none of it could possibly be right.

“We all pretend, but none of us are innocent!” he continued, “Given the chance, anyone would be a criminal: we’re just the ones with the guts to do what we want! And now, because of it, an angry god has decided that this is our punishment! But we're getting out soon. As soon as we complete this ritual, his will will be done!”

“How will that help?” I pressed, “Do you even know what you’re opening a portal to?”

“To the place where evil souls like ours go to rest!”

“No it’s not!” I insisted, “I've seen what's on the other side of that wall, and it's not what you think it is! They’re not interested in helping you, they’re just using you to get into the world and kill people!”

He smirked, “Of course they do, that’s why we’re giving-AUUCK!!.”

Spike roared as he slammed into the back of the Hunter, jamming the sacrificial dagger into his neck, clawing at the seams of his armor to keep hold of him.

With his focus broken, the circle of flames wavered, and I pressed in.

The Hunter snarled, whirling about as he grabbed at the attacker clinging to his back, becoming more frantic every time that knife cut into him. His hand finally took hold of Spike by the neck and hurled him back at the altar. His head and the stone collided with a sickening smack, body falling limp to the floor.

“Damn lizard!” he shouted, pulling a sword, “I’ll use your guts for-” It was at that moment that my central mass collided with his with a force comparable to a thirty-five thousand kilogram semi truck barreling down the freeway at fourty-five meters per second.

I could feel his bones flatten against me as I let my body fold in on itself, like a giant fist made of solid pony and tentacles, the force of the punch carrying him through the air until he reached the far wall, where the ornate carvings were turned into a much less ornate spiderweb pattern.

And that’s why you look both ways before you cross the street.

I could already hear a sound like screaming metal, the fabric of reality in the center of the room becoming visibly warped, stonework crumbling away as the eyes and mouths underneath rolled and gurgled, smashed in and exposed to the air. It was like standing on the surface of a massive pulsing boil that was ready to burst open and spew its infection at the slightest touch. I didn’t have much time left. I didn’t know how to stop it at this point, and there was no time to figure it out, but as long as I took care of the summoners who created it, I might’ve been able to contain it.

The dreadlord’s axe collided with my backside, sinking in deep as it split the weave of spellwork that kept the matter together. I wrapped the end of an appendage around it, yanking it back out as he bull-rushed me with a greatsword. Meanwhile, the Hunter had rolled to his feet and was hissing an incantation, lifting his hand and pointing the palm at me. I caught the Dreadlord’s swing on the axe he’d thrown, twisting the underlying matter to support it against the force. A wave of negatively charged magical energy, some sort of anti-healing spell, pressed against my other side, forcing my will against it as it peeled through the top layer of my carapace.

Above us, the bricks were crumbling away, the eyes beginning to swell and pop as the mouths pushed their teeth outward, as if trying to reach forward and bite at some unseen sexual partner, writhing in the throes of some terrible orgasm. I could feel it radiate from the altar, like a burning neither hot nor cold, that cut through skin and bones and got to the very meat of the soul.

I generated a large number of spines within my body, sending them outward to the surface, opening holes in my exterior to launch them from. I didn’t waste any time containing the ichor within, I just let it ooze out as I fired a volley in both directions. My opponents saw this coming, and both turned and ducked, trying to catch them on the solid metal of their armor. In this opening, I split every appendage I had between the two of them, coming at them from the sides.

The Dreadlord rolled back, standing up with a huge sweep of his greatsword, managing to slice through three of them, the dark fire within the blade burning everything around where he’d hit to ash. The fourth and fifth made their mark, however, jamming into the gaps in his armor to draw blood, but he brought his sword down just as I began to twist in.

The Hunter came out of his crouch with both swords drawn, slicing two of the tendrils intended for him in half, causing them to crumble uselessly to the ground, leaping to the side to avoid the last one. I managed to cut a deep gash in his arm before he brought them in like scissors and took that appendage.

And then it happened.

Not with a bang, but with a terrible ripping, like the womb of some great primordial abomination being torn open to spill the squirming fetuses within as they choked for amniotic bile. The wall of reality hung agape and their tatters flapped in the putrid wind as a force of hatred like no other poured forth, setting the walls ablaze with agony, casting the room in a light that desaturated all matter of semblance of positive emotion.

I was thrown back from the event horizon, the very presence of it burning away at my being. I had to drag what was left of me behind one of the large pillars which supported the ceiling just to re-collect myself.

Through that gaping hole, an ashen wind blew. Beyond it were endless seas of fire and ice, swirling and falling eternally in the absence of both the laws of gravity and thermodynamics. Great spines, of what material I could not tell, reached forth from beneath the churning maelstrom, and from beneath them we could hear an ear-splitting cacophony of screams, like an entire world of people being tortured.

I had to recoil as it burned away at the magic that kept me alive.

“Fools!” I amplified my voice over the roar of noise, “Can’t you hear them screaming? Our very existence brings them pain! Their only goal is destroying our reality! They'll betray you the moment they don't need you!!”

“LIES!” the Dreadlord shouted, “Our time has come!”

The Hunter held his hands up to the opening, and began to chant, “O’ great destroyer, O’ mighty herald of the end, O’ purchaser of perverse product, O’ gluttonous retch, O’ mighty ruiner of life. Come forth, and feast upon the flesh of the living, I invite thee. Cometh into this world and wreak your havok...

“...I summon thee, Rekedeth the Devourer!!”

The world itself gave a deep wail of agony, like a section of living brass instruments being strangled, long and drawn out, becoming louder until a hand was lifted into view. It had seven fingers and measured at least half a meter across, but was otherwise not unlike an ape’s. It grabbed onto the side of the portal, pulling up a large head, more mouth than anything else, with four eyes sunk into its sides seemingly as an afterthought. It huffed like a beast in its death throes as it’s lips were peeled back as it peered through the opening, as if reality were an unseen wind against them, showing the jumble of haphazard teeth which went back further than could be seen.

“I am Rekedeth, devourer of life.” it demanded, “What use would a mortal of this world have of me?”

“We have one who you must kill, O’ mighty Rekedeth.” the Hunter beseeched.

“Only a youth of great life is equal exchange for Rekedeth.” it rumbled, “A mortal must pay the price or suffer it.”

Spike groaned, trying to drag himself from where he’d fallen, when the Hunter grabbed him by the skull, holding up his limp body, “We’ve brought you a dragon whelp. It was his blood that opened the portal.”

Rekedeth separately rotated all of its eyes until they pointed at Spike, studying him calmly. “This one has great life, great purpose...” it stated, reaching out to take him with those massive claw-like fingers, “It will suffice.”

Seeing this as a last chance, I leaned out from behind the pillar and had to brace myself, to press myself forward, using most of my will to shield my existence from that terrible wind, that pure energy of anti-life.

At first, I had thought Rekedeth would simply devour him, as that seemed to be his schtick, but instead, it flung him back towards the portal. “Equivalent Exchange”, I realized it had said: it wasn’t asking for a sacrifice, it needed a life to equal out it’s anti-life when it crossed over.

Spike was merely fare for the toll.

My tentacles flew forward as fast as I could push them, crossing that distance just as he crossed the threshold. They wrapped around Spike, holding him in place, just beyond the precipice of that portal to infinite terror.

He wailed in horror as he clung to me, trembling violently as I slowly pulled him back.

Rekedeth’s eyes wheeled over my entirety, “This mortal would interfere?”

“She is the one you must kill!” the Hunter proclaimed, pointing at me, “The monster who we were sent to destroy!”

“The contract must be fulfilled.” Rekedeth explained, “Rekedeth may only act once the exchange is complete.”

“I’ve had enough of this shit!” the dreadlord rushed the length of my appendages, bringing his sword down to hack through them one at a time.

I grew them back to replace them, but I could barely hang on against that howling wind as it was. I couldn’t keep up, there was just too much pressure, too much interference. He just kept cutting, faster than I could replace them, and it was clear it was only a matter of time.

Spike stared at me with tears as the last thing holding him to this plane of existence was severed, disintegrating around him as that thing that couldn’t have been true gravity took hold.

I watched him fall, shrieking through those impossible skies, away and into those clouds, neither of us able to be anything but passive observers to his final fate.

And then, with a gurgling shudder, the portal swirled shut, the rift in reality collapsing, the screams fading out where his had joined them.

The wind had gone, along with the main purpose of my even being there...

...the only thing that would’ve stopped me from killing them.

I let myself melt into a liquid, slipping into the space between the floor and the flesh, reaching out across the room with the tendrils of my will. I didn’t even bother fully integrating it at this point, opting to work as a parasite, disintegrating the stone around us as my tendrils writhed within the flesh. Its many mouths began to scream recoiling from my presence, but it had nowhere to go. I entered it, violated it, took control of its very being, making it into another part of the weapon that I was.

Rekedeth stared down at the floor, unmoving and confused, “This being is already dead.” He stated.

“Then destroy her ghost!” The Hunter growled, “I don’t care how you do it, just help us take her down!”

“Rekedeth shall devour.” it stated, reaching down with a mighty shoveling claw.

I didn’t give it time to put its hands in me.

With a mighty yank, I pulled down the curtain of flesh that made up the ceiling, slamming it down on them like a giant meaty tarp.

I felt them all go down beneath it, but I didn’t relent, I lifted it again, and brought it down once more. Like my own form, everything within it became a weapon in some fashion. I found some sort of digestive system within it, and let its acids and enzymes gush into that space to eat away at them. I felt rudimentary bone structures breaking within the membrane, and turned the pieces outward like spears, jamming into them wherever their flesh was uncovered.

The former-humans managed to bring their weapons to bear, pushing blades in, slicing through it as the loose stone and mortar was thrown about with them like a hailstorm, but it wasn’t much use against the constant onslaught which threw them about.

Rekedeth reached out, grasping at clawfuls of the stuff, ripping it away from me and shoveling it unceremoniously inside of the pit of teeth that was its mouth, yet I was relentless, pounding them from every angle. I could feel... taste the blood coming out of them, feel and hear bones snapping as I broke them down, their choking screams echoing through the wrecked chamber.

Rekedeth was the only one who didn’t seem perturbed, simply tucking in its legs and shoveling as much as it could grab into that gaping mouth, slurping it down into whatever void was within it. Soon, it began to pull enough of the ceiling and floor away that I could no longer surround them.

I didn’t care. I brought a section of sinew from behind a wall, whether it was intended to act as nerve or intestine, I didn’t know or care, letting it be a giant meaty tentacle. It slammed into the three of them, plowing them into the other wall.

The two former humans, to their credit, managed to keep hold of their weapons this time, slashing wildly at everything I was hitting them with.

Rekedeth finally managed to grab hold of the center of my being, yanking me from the floor and shoveling me into its mouth like everything else, severing the connection with a mighty chomp of those endless teeth.

Torn from my control, the remaining flesh went limp, shuddering as it finally died from the shock of what I’d done. All around them, the room went calm again, the dust and stone settling on the ground without the constant motion of my attack.

I’d left quite a deal of damage on both the Hunter and the Dreadlord. Thick plates of armor had been pulled away, and what remained was dented, warped, and cracked. Tough hide had been cut to ribbons, leaving them to bleed profusely, barely able to stand at this point.

Rekedeth, by contrast, had no more than surface wounds. There were scuffs, scratches, and chips in the uneven plates covering its back and limbs It’s exposed hide had been cut enough for a sickly dark green ichor to bubble forth, but the cuts were neither deep, nor the bleeding profuse. Two of its claws had been chipped, but that hardly mattered as it had far too many and they were far too big to begin with. Three of its eyes had been injured by debris, and were shut, but that still left the rest of the strange multitude scattered over the front of its head.

But even with all that, it was still standing, still in apparently good health...

...The only truly life-threatening injury it had sustained was that I was now within whatever passed for its stomach, preparing my next attack.

“The being of no world is consumed.” It groaned with a shudder, “The contract is fulfilled.”

“Good work, Rekedeth...” the Hunter panted, “Now... Leave this plane, and return to that from whence you came...”

Rekedeth looked down upon them dismissively, “That was not our contract.”

The Hunter just stared at him dumbly, “W-what?”

“The contract was that Mortals would bring Rekedeth across the divide, and Rekedeth would carry out a task of devourment in return.” it narrowed its eyes, “The contract is fulfilled. Rekedeth will now commence the undertaking upon this universe.”

I could feel an excitement stir within the very essence of its being, a perfect hatred, a will built entirely around the desperation to consume all life, suddenly given a shmorgishborg to devour.

I kept track of it, but turned my attention inward, focusing my will as my edges began to fray, degraded by whatever thick miasma of anti-reality was contained within the anti-creature’s stomach. Preparing myself for the next stage of my plan.

Around me, Rekedeth began to raise itself up, towering over them in all its terrible glory as it began to command them, “You will bring more souls for sacrifice. This place will be defiled until the barrier is undone eternal.”

The Hunter’s eyes widened, “That wasn’t our deal!”

“Your deal did not include your lives.” it narrowed its eyes with a growl, looming over their weaker forms, “If you are not useful to our undertaking, you are worthless to us.”

As it spoke, I allowed myself to disperse, to expand within that literally bottomless stomach. I settled into my new home, made myself comfortable, sank my teeth in...

It continued to orate, unaware of my actions within it, “We will enter this world en masse and purge it of all that is good, we will turn all love to hatred, all happiness to despair. All hope for the future will be erased, replaced with only pain and loss.

“We will snuff all life from existence, from the largest world to the tiniest microbe, and sterilize it of every nutrient and all energy, deny it any chance of return.

“We will travel to every edge of this universe, no matter how many millenia it takes, completely annihilating all within our path.

And then, only when no life can take root in this world, We will rest in peace.” it gave a shudder of ecstasy, almost orgasming from the thought alone of such destruction.

And as it writhed, I continued my unseen attack. Like a tape-worm within the gut of a bloated hog, I fed and grew, remaking myself into a parasite. After all, I was the ultimate adapter, and there is no adaptation more competitive than parasitism.

“H-holy shit...” the dreadlord breathed, “D-Dan, you didn’t say anything about that part...”

“I... The book didn’t... It just said ‘devourer of all things’, it didn’t mention any of this...”

“Fools.” Rekedeth grinned sadistically, “To delve into such matters without knowledge of that with which you parlayed? Now your fate is certain. You will join the ranks of the Great Undoing, or, you will die with the other mort... all... llehh... ehh...”

It’s eyes started to roll about, frantically looking for the source of the disturbance, eventually pointing inwards towards its own skull, where I had penetrated what passed for its brain.

It convulsed violently as I tore into the magic that made up its being, consuming it as it had consumed my flesh.

It let out little wails, gaining its first experience of genuine terror. It tried to discorporate, to pull itself back out of reality, but my claws were already too deep within it for the effort to dislodge me, and I held it to the plane of existence.

As the connections within it broke down before me, I carved out the very essence of its being, undoing the configuration of every part of its energy, using it to refill my own reserves, to rebuild all the damage I had taken.

It’s soul was nothing but sustenance for me, and I reveled in this new source, far more than the ambient eddies I’d been feeding from so far.

It occured to me that this may even be suitable to replenish the loss of my own soul, though taking stock could wait until later.

The husk that had been Rekedeth’s body slumped down, the light fading fast from its eyes, leaving the amateur-hour duo that had been stupid enough to summon it gawking in confusion...

...At which point, I figured it wasn’t using its corpse, so I might as well take it for a joy ride.

Without much care for the finer points, I connected myself to the equivalent of its nervous system, and once I had them tethered, the mirth which I now felt spewed as laughter from the mouth of my new body, which I flapped carelessly as I lifted its limbs like a marionette.

The two would-be demons backed away, even more confused and terrified than before.

“Really?” I gargled in a voice somewhere between Rekedeth’s and my own, “You thought you could kill me like this?”

“You...” the Hunter gasped, “H-how are you doing this?? How are you even still alive?!”

“I’m alive because you’re worthless and can’t even summon something to be a threat to me.” I grinned maniacally with that horrible mouth, “You should’ve gone with something that ate energy, not matter.”

The Dreadlord stumbled back, trying to raise his sword against me, “What did you do to him?”

“He liked to consume so much, so I consumed him. I slurped up his insides like a milkshake...” I had the body narrow its many eyes on them, “...just like I’m gonna slurp up yours.”

Before they could respond, I set upon them, throwing the entire mass of that fat, bulbous body against them, swinging every limb it had in their direction.

They immediately had to pull away, swinging their swords in a panic, desperate to block any part of my redoubled attack.

I laughed as my meat-puppet lumbered forward, completely undaunted by them, even as their swords struck in and damaged it.

The Dreadlord chanced a step forward to give a heavy swing. His sword gouged deep into the arm I’d set against him, nearly severing it. With the next swing I made, it came loose from impact against his side, breaking into ash as it smashed against the wall. He stumbled and moaned as I formed a weaponizable appendage of my own, letting it sprout from the opening, swinging it against him without any real loss.

The Hunter continued to back away, shrieking with terror now as he frantically tried to swing at the limbs raining down upon him.

I wasn’t even worried about the rest of the body at this point: every swing I made forced them backwards a step, another step I could take forward. And as I pressed on, as I turned what had once seemed like a battle into a massacre, the last of what had been Rekedeth ripped into pieces around me, the tatters becoming nothing as they hit the floor, allowing me to retake the form of that mass of roiling matter which words could not describe.

Their screaming, begging, and desperate swings of their swords did nothing to allay me.

Finally, I had them against the wall, and with that, I surrounded and bore down upon them. I tore the swords from their grips and skewered them, pinning them to the wall like an overzealous crucifixion, my tendrils entering them to writhe through their innards.

“NO!!” The Hunter begged as I began to absorb him, “Please! We’ll give you anything!!”

I allowed part of my matter to congeal once again into that crude pony form I’d been taking, a new protrusion taking on the appearance of a dripping tar-like sculpture of the front half of a horse. “There was only one thing you could offer in exchange for your life right now, and you threw his life away quicker than I’m about to throw away yours.”

“Please!” the Deadlort sputtered, “We didn’t know what we were doing! W-we’re sorry!”

“Too late.” I stated without emotion, “Forgiveness is for people whose lives I value.”

The Hunter shook as he gasped his final plea, “Please... Please... You talked about... ethics...”

I responded only to humor them in their final moments, “Ethics only matter if you care about coexisting. I no longer have a reason to care.”

I pressed in deeper, and their begging became less coherent, replaced by forlorn wails of agony as they tried desperately to think of any way they could get out of this, the sinking realization setting in that nothing would convince me to stop.

I could taste their fear, comfortingly familiar as I lapped it up like a favored vintage, but it only served to whet the hunger that I now recognized as insatiable.

I’d reached the core of their life force now, sucking their very being out like a shake through a straw, drawing it up from them. At the time, I couldn’t even figure out for sure what it was I was taking from them, or how I was doing it, only that I’d never consumed a source of energy so rich, so pure, in my entire existence. They shook violently like fish on the skewers of a spear, trying in vain to free themselves as they gasped desperately, suffocated of life itself.

“META! STOP!!”

I froze at the sound of her scream, lingering in the moment before their final expiration.

“Twilight...” I hissed.

The princess had burst through the half-melted doorway, her other friends following close behind. I noticed Flash was no longer with them, but I didn’t care to ask why.

“Spike’s gone.” I synthesized the words in a manner entirely ethereal, “They used him to bring in a demon.”

Twilight hesitated for a moment. “Meta, I...” she took a deep breath, “Killing them won’t bring him back.”

“That doesn't matter.” I stated, “They're the enemy. No matter what we offer them, we’ll never be able to trust them.”

“I know,” she pleaded weakly, “But... We stopped them. It’s over Meta. We don’t have to kill them to be safe from them.”

“Even if we could make the threat from them virtually non-existent, it wouldn’t be worth it. Their lives have no value: they deserve to die.”

“No one deserves to die.” she shook her head sadly, “Not Flash, not Spike, not even them.”

“But why do they deserve to live? What did they ever do to earn our mercy, Twilight?” I asked with annoyance, “What have they done but make lives miserable for no reason other than some so called ‘god’ told them to?”

“You don’t know what brought them here.” she offered, “You don’t even know what’s going on. Maybe... Maybe in another circumstance, they could’ve been the good guys. Maybe... Maybe they just needed the right friends.”

I had to take a few cycles to process this.

It was utter nonsense, utter fucking nonsense.

It didn’t matter who they might’ve been: the circumstances that had led us here were in the past. None of us could change them,

Who they were now was an enemy, and my enemies were a threat to be eliminated.

Killing was the most efficient and effective method of eliminating that threat.

How could Twilight possibly weigh the distant hope of reforming them with the permanent solution of me killing them?

It was nonsense!

They had to die!

I had to kill them!

Killing them would keep us safe!

I had to kill them, and everyone who stood in my way, and I had to keep killing until there was no one left to stop me!

I needed power...

...the power to kill.

Because killing was always necessary!

And I needed more power so that I could kill more...

...And I needed to kill for that power!

I needed more power, the power to kill, so I could kill for more power, more power, so I could kill, to kill for more power, more power to kill, for more power, to kill more, for more power, to kill for more power, to kill more, for more power, to kill, for power, to kill, for power, to kill, power, kill, power, kill, power, kill... power...

...kill...

......kill......

.........kill.........

...Where was this even coming from...?

......What the hell was I even doing?

I stared into their terrified faces, two mortals caught up in the game of uncaring gods, just as I was...

I stared back at the faces of worry on Twilight and her friends... The people I’d wanted to call my friends...

I thought of myself, prepared to take actions that most would consider the ultimate transgression against nature without even thinking about them. I’d not just become death, I’d become some sort of soul-eater, feasting upon the existence of others to preserve my own. It was almost like I’d become completely detached from the living creature I remembered being, a deranged spirit, obsessed with power and death.

And I thought, maybe she was right... Maybe they wouldn’t be this way if the circumstances were different...

After all, a person themselves isn’t evil, only the actions they take.

No one really deserved to die.

I let go with a growl, letting them fall to the ground before her, where their limp bodies shook with exhaustion as they gasped for breath against the shattered stone.

I craned my neck down to their level, growling, “I’m only keeping you alive because of her. Don’t make me change my mind.”

Both of them shuddered, pulling away pathetically, no fight left within them....

It was at that moment that I felt the barrier of reality shift, as something truly gargantuan reached through the curtain and slipped a part of itself inside.

We all must’ve felt it, because the others went tense, Twilight herself gasping as her eyes nearly rolled back in her head.

The moment I became aware of him a feeling of utter domination washed over me: it was like being a climber staring up at an endless mountain, knowing you don’t have the rope to conquer such a god. I had to shut my sense of fear back off entirely just to stop it from overwhelming me.

Clap.

...Clap!

We all jerked to see a tall, thin, human male... An actual human, like I’d been before, slowly clapping as he waited for our attention. “Well, well, well. It looks like the mad dog has finally found her leash.”

With a clawlike hand, he reached into his pocket, pulling out a silver pocket watch, flipping it open to check an inside adorned with glowing runes, pointed to with what looked to be multi-dimensional hands, “You know, I expected my two villains to last far longer...”

He glanced back at us, his thin lips peeling back in a smirk, showing a hint of his sharp teeth. “...But then again, when I cast my net, I was merely looking for a few small fish. I never expected to catch a shark like you...

...Marilyn Susanna.”

Chapter 9: ...and a Shade Darker

Marilyn Susanna.

That had been my name.

My real name.

The moment He said it, it clicked.

I didn’t ask how He knew it when I didn’t, I didn’t need to. It was obvious by what He was, and what He was was obvious the moment He entered the room.

We could feel it. All of us. Me, most palpably, as I had to focus on keeping myself together, but I could see the ponies shuddering at the weight of what he was pressing into the physical world. Rarity, of course, staggered, grabbing her horn, while Applejack and Rainbow rushed to support Twilight, who nearly fell over in convulsions as her body, attuned to the magics that were the very foundations of this world, was overwhelmed by the new presence pushing them aside.

His presence was like a mountain had been suddenly dropped upon us all.

He was a being that was never meant to exist on a plane of reality.

A paradox from a place that could not truly exist, and thus, had no rules to govern it.

A real entity from outside of reality itself.

As I got a better view, it became clear that His form only seemed human at a glance.

It was at least seven feet tall, and incredibly thin. It had a long, gaunt face with sunken eyes and widened nostrils, and a long thin oily mustache which looked almost plastic. Age wise, it looked to be about 50, with white streaks in otherwise black hair, which was slicked back so thickly I could’ve sworn it was actually a mane of spines. It’s skin was off too: dry, cracked, like a painting left to the elements, looking almost like the scales of some sickly lizard.

It wore a full-on glittering cape, replacing the jacket in what was otherwise an 1800s three piece suit, like some high-class magician from post-revolutionary france. It’s thin, clawlike fingers gripped a black cane, atop which a golden set of talons clutched a glass ball which held the illusion of a galaxy swirling inside. The sheer amount of power it represented made a corona that would’ve been otherwise heavenly, and I shit you not, a golden circle of light, like a halo, hovered just above his head.

He scanned over us with slit pupils, set into emerald irises, but looked almost through us: mere mortal insects crawling on a ball of dirt and dung, beneath the concern of a creature such as Him.

“You know,” He mused, as much to Himself as anyone listening, “I had to have a new timeline shunted for this. Quite a costly thing. Quite a shame, considering what I’d intended has not come to pass.”

“What are you!?” Twilight demanded in a hiss, still shaking violently against her friends as the blood vessels in her eyes surged with red, eyes fixed upon His form, but unable to focus, “Wha-what the hell are you!?”

His brow furrowed as He looked at the two former humans sputtering on the floor, “You were supposed to last longer.” he noted, waving a hand in a vague gesture, “In fact, I told you two quite specifically that this grand confrontation was supposed to be dragged along for quite some time.”

“I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria!” Twilight’s voice was cracking, a drop of blood running from her nose, “Who are you and what the hell are you doing on Equestrian soil!? Answer me!!”

“I don’t suppose either of you are familiar with the story of David and Goliath... No, that would be beyond the pitiful scope of your reading: I assume only the hedge witch would be so educated.” He ran His eyes from the two would-be villains and over to me, “Although, I suppose when I left my fetch to recruit your adversary, I did not expect someone like her to stumble into the booth.”

“What are you talking about? What did I do?” I asked.

He turned back to the two humans He’d transformed, “And this was to be your penance for the sin you committed against me.”

“We didn’t know... We didn’t know who we were stealing from.” The hunter gasped, “

“It was just a trinket!” the dreadlord cried, “We didn’t think it was that big of a deal!”

He scowled, “It matters not what your sin was, what matters is that it was committed against me.”

“Please... we didn’t know she could do that...” the hunter begged, “Give us another chance!”

“You wouldn’t even know how to fight her.” He scoffed, turning to look around the room, “There’s no point. This whole timeline is a wash. I might as well erase it.”

The two former humans’ eyes widened as they pulled themselves closer to the wall, an act more instinct than tactic, as if any amount of distance could make one safe from such a being.

The hunter looked at me, eyes wide with terror, grasping at the last bit of hope left in the room. “Help...” he begged, “I’m sorry, we’re sorry, we’ll do whatever you ask, just... help.”

I stared back at them, unsure of what I could even do: simply being in the room with this projection of His power was overwhelming.

“Your begging annoys me.” He stated dismissively, waving His hand at them, “Be Gone.”

And in a moment, before I could even react to the feeling of a sudden shift in the energy, they were gone.

Not killed. Not vaporized. Not shifted out of place. Gone.

He had removed them from existence.

Twilight’s eyes widened, her tears beginning to turn red with blood, “What did you- how did you... you- you killed them.” she sputtered, “You killed your own servants.”

“I made them. They were mine to unmake.” He said offhandedly, the first and only acknowledgement He’d given of her presence.

“WHAT?!” she gasped, “How could you... Murder is still murder! You can’t just... just...”

He was done speaking to her, and instead narrowed His eyes at me, scanning over my form with the first real consternation we’d seen Him wear. “And you... how did you even manage this? You were never supposed to have this kind of magic. You weren’t even supposed to anything of use! You came as a normal human girl! You bought a stuffed toy of her!” He pointed at Twilight, “How could you have managed to surpass characters of that power level so quickly?!”

A few snappy comebacks went through my head, but I realized it wasn’t a good idea to antagonize Him right now. I could tell Twilight needed time to recover, and I needed information, and that meant I needed to keep Him talking while we pulled ourselves together. I needed to go along with whatever this was.

“I used magic.” I replied, not entirely sure how accurate my explanation was going to be, “Your spell killed me, and I used magic to bring myself back.”

His brow furrowed in annoyance, “That can only be a lie. The spell I left was never to kill, and no magic should have brought you back from your own unmaking. What did you do?”

“I don’t know! I don’t remember anything you’re talking about!” I protested, “I don’t even know who or what you are, let alone how you knew me!”

He rolled His eyes, “We have never met before. I no longer even manifest myself in your world. I merely know who you are because I am a god, and the gods see all.”

“That’s not an explanation: you just gave a reason with no mechanism.” I stated.

“I am a god. What more mechanism do you need than divine power?”

“Any mechanism. Everything has an explanation, even magic. There’s no such thing as gods.”

He scowled at me, “Absurd little mortal. I stand before you, a god in spectral flesh, and yet you still deny me?”

“I deny that a stable universe without causality can exist, and I deny that any being can claim the title. No one has greater right to power or existence than any other.”

He rolled his eyes, “Of course, this is your hubris, to elevate yourself to Our level. You claim that mortal beings, humans, have equal weight with the gods themselves. The absurdity of it astounds me! I would be insulted if the statement weren’t so ridiculous!”

“How can one person be more valuable than everyone else?” I countered, “No matter how much

He raised his arms, letting His power swirl around His projection, “I have walked between worlds, mortal, become ruler of some and destroyer of others as I see fit. While you roll in the mud and live your tiny, simple lives, I lead machinations whose very scope and nature is beyond your puny comprehension.”

“If you have that kind of power, what are you even doing here?” I asked, not even bringing up the logic that something so powerful shouldn’t have to justify himself to me, “Why did you kidnap humans and make them fight each other?”

He scoffed, “I just told you, mortal, I do not need to justify the acts I deign necessary. You wouldn’t even begin to comprehend my designs.”

“Try me!” I said, “Just tell me what you even gain from doing this? Was this all for your amusement?”

He shook His head, “I do not need mortals to ‘amuse’ me. Your actions are beneath me.”

“Then why did you need us to do this?” I pressed, hoping to get literally anything out of Him.

“There is power in a story, and power in destruction.” He stated, “The conflict I had intended you to have would have escalated far beyond this, it would’ve created a world so mired in violence, so rich in emotion and turmoil, that its very turning would’ve been able to power spells beyond your understanding in a war beyond your imagination.”

“Wait... you were going to use this planet as a power source?” I was begging for more information at this point. I could vaguely understand what He meant, but I had no idea what mechanism He was going to use, and the scope He was talking about was literally beyond astronomical.

He narrowed his eyes, “Of course you would like to know how to do such a thing, usurper. I was willing to humor you, but I won’t give someone who rolls in the blood of her own kind any more ideas for how to lead her insane war against nature itself.” He raised His hand, “Your sins end here.”

Before He could do anything, I felt a burst of magic from Twilight, her position in reality being shifted in an instant. In a flash of light, she stood before me, facing Him down, standing firmly on her own now, despite the blood dripping from her eyes.

“Stop it!” she shouted, “I won’t let you hurt anyone else!”

He stared at her, His hand lowering halfway as a sneer appeared on His face, “I see her petulance has rubbed off on this world’s chosen guardian.”

Twilight gritted her teeth, “I don’t care what you are, and I don’t know where you took them from, but I won’t let you use my world to torment them anymore!”

“Oh you naive little pony. If you knew the truth about her kind, you'd be terrified of them...”

Suddenly, the perception of everyone in the room shifted, the walls shifting to a grisly scene of limitless gore. Bleeding corpses hung from hooks all around us, eyes and mouths open wide in a terror that didn’t die with them. There were pigs, goats, sheep, cows... even horses. In endless lines, endless rows, they were ferried along, from the slaughter they’d been raised for, to their butchering, and eventual consumption of their flesh.

I could hear the girls retching where they’d been moving to join Twilight, unable to even give some near comparison to what they were seeing.

“What... what are you showing us...?” Twilight gasped, “What have you done?”

“Me? Nothing.” He sounded almost smug, “Factory farming is an invention entirely of the humans you beg mercy for, as if they are not just as capable with the lesser beings of their own world.” He even let out a brief chuckle at it, “...I suppose that’s what I intended to create here: a factory farm.”

“You monster....” she whimpered, “How could you even live with doing such a thing... Meta would never...”

“Marilyn Susanna?” He let out a mocking laugh, “Your so-called ‘friend’ was one of the most vicious criminals in New England!”

In the center of it all, the image of a human woman, of the human woman I used to be, standing atop a mountain of corpses, most of them human, or at least wearing the guises of them.

I tried to process them all, checked each and every face, trying desperately to find any reference to a single one in my remaining memories. But I couldn’t... either the memories were lost, or they hadn’t mattered enough for me to remember in the first place... assuming anything He was showing us was even real.

“I don’t know what this is...” I finally said, “I don’t remember killing any of these people!”

He scoffed again, seemingly amused by the reaction He was getting, “You don't even remember your crimes, but based on the abomination you've made of yourself, I can see that your depravity, your hubris, knows no bounds. How did you even do this? What are you even supposed to be? How did you even convince these fae creatures that you were anything but a monster with a form like that? And why is it that the moment one of them tells you not to kill someone is the first time you so much as hesitate?”

“I don’t know! I don’t remember anything before I woke up here!” I finally admitted, “I don’t know who that person was, or why she did what she did, but I don’t remember being her!”

He paused. “Perhaps I already did kill you... Perhaps you are merely a shadow of the beast I captured... No matter though, clearly you’re found some way to cling to the living world, even in death, and in doing so you’ve become the monster you always were. Even death cannot redeem you for what you have done in the eyes of the gods...“ He began to raise that clawed hand, “...it's time I end your foolish tantrum.”

In an instant, the force upon me was lifted, and the miasma around us was shattered, our perception of the destroyed altar room flooding back in as the false world was cut away with literal swords, flying through the air under the propulsion of powerful magics. Rushing in from the door was the mare whose dark image had been all over the walls.

Luna was pulling all her power at once, roaring with full fury as her entire body strained to bring in everything she could bear. As her massive crystal greatswords came together in an attempt to slice through the projection of the entity who was trying to kill us...

...and made Him flinch.

She gave him no time to recover, grabbing the hilts of her swords in her forehooves, whipping them around in a powerful yet fluid motion, grinding them repeatedly against the false-skin of the entity which was attacking her world. Each blow chipped away at the facade, that skin coming away to reveal what looked like twisted scales just beneath it, whose shine and pattern was marred by every scratch Luna’s blades left on it.

He growled, holding up a hand to block the blades, having it batted about as the false-flesh fell away in tatters as He held up the other, trying to summon some sort of conjuration to blast her with. The light of her horn surged as she met it with her own, filling the area with bright searing power which left scorch marks on the floor beneath them.

He brought His hand down, shoving through the blades and moving to strike her, something she only reacted fast enough to avoid the full force of. Still, He left a bloody gash on the side of her barrel, the spikes on His fist having caught upon her and torn it away with the sheer speed of the attack.

Still, she pressed her attack, despite her visible strain, hitting Him with every ounce of strength she could muster, both magical and muscular. Any moment of reprieve she gave was another opportunity for Him to counter her, and it was slowly becoming clear that His counters were wearing her down, while her assault was merely delaying His advance.

Meanwhile, Twilight was at my side, “Meta... Meta, can you recover? What do we do?”

“I don’t... I don’t know.” I brought myself to say, “This isn’t even his true form and he’s just...” I couldn’t bring up the words to describe it.

Beside us, a pair of thestrals, both in the armor of high-ranking night guards, fell in with salutes.

“Princess Twilight,” one of them said, “We can’t fight that thing. What are your orders?”

Twilight blinked up at them, confusion in her bloody eyes, “Where did you even come from? Does Luna know what that thing is?”

Crowley ran up beside them, the unicorn’s voice raspy from his heavy breathing, “An interloper from the broader Dream Realm. Possibly a Deep One. She wasn’t sure when she engaged. We only knew you were here because Nocturne was watching you” he looked at Twilight again, “Again, if you have a plan, we’re ready to assist.”

I looked at Luna’s ongoing resistance, blasting through all the options as I tried to come up with some solution before she went down, “That’s not even the entirety of the entity. This is just some sort of projection it’s created as a conduit for its power. The only reason it hasn’t just killed her is leverage: it can’t really manifest in this reality because it’s not made to be part of it.

“So she’s not even actually hitting it?” he asked, eyes widening.

“No, it’s the equivalent of pushing its hoof away.” I said.

"What... What can we even do against something that powerful? If it's not even really here?"

Suddenly, I remembered something Discord had said... the Elements of Harmony were tied to some sort of entity which existed inherently as part of this reality, a guardian against incursions like this. They had the ability to summon its power.

“Twilight,” I said quickly, “The Rainbow! Use the Rainbow on him!”

“Wha? I can’t! Do you have any idea what being this close to that kind of power can do to you!?"

Before I could respond, the entity's projection laid a fist on Luna's chest, knocking her back with a sickening crunch as her fourth and fifth ribs gave way. She snarled more as she kept swinging, trying frantically to not give Him any more openings.

“Twilight, if she goes down before you stop that thing, we all die!” I shouted, already feeling my grip on this reality loosen as the interloper managed to shove more of its power into this reality. “Get the girls together and use the damn rainbow!!”

After another moment's hesitation, Twilight nodded, whipping around to her friends behind her. “Alright girls...” she reluctantly declared, “...you know what to do.”

With that, she lit her horn, connecting herself to the others, and connecting them all to the very force of nature which governed magic among their kind, turning them into conduits for it to manifest itself. The whole process, by its very nature, involved the sudden transference of so much energy, that it bled off in other ways, producing light, anti-gravitational waves, and transformative effects brought on by the fact that it was pure magic rolling through their bodies, which took on new colors in response.

It happened in a matter of seconds, more power than I’d even thought possible flooding into one space, and once enough had gathered, it erupted into a manifestation of pure will and power.

The Rainbow Of Light isn’t just a colorful effect: when it’s happening, everyone in the room can feel it, even non-magical creatures. It’s impossible not to feel a primary facet of the world’s magic bringing that much raw power to bare. To be in its presence is to be in the presence of Harmony itself, a force so thoroughly aligned with the natural order of the world, it applies an insurmountable pressure to return everything to the way it should be. For any creature which belongs in Equestria, to behold it is a moment of absolute awe and infinite beauty...

...except for the two things that didn’t belong in the room - the Displacer and me - it only left us screaming.

Even though it was pointed away from me, simply being in the vicinity of the Rainbow Of Light was enough to make every section of my being light up in a cacophony of screaming, the force of harmony willing my abomination of existence towards its more natural state of non-existence. Reality was now determined to reassert itself in this place where it had been so thoroughly twisted, and it was rejecting my very existence as unreal.

In the milliseconds it took for the actual mass of the Rainbow Of Light to cross the room, the walls themselves disintegrated. The flesh that had made up so much of them near-instantly evaporated directly into non-existence, and I suspect the same was true for everything else in the building: it had been totally and utterly defiled by darkness and demonic magic, but no amount of mere defilation could withstand the awesome power of the Rainbow Of Light.

It went straight through Luna, not only leaving her unphased, but immediately erasing her wounds, bolstering with the strength to keep fighting, though she had no more need for it.

It was a terrifying testament to the Displacer’s power that He had time to react, roaring in pain and anger as He held up his hands, reflexively trying to block the oncoming ocean of power. His flesh held no resistance, instantly erased by the Rainbow Of Light, leaving the projection to show a truer form...

...He had become some sort of reptilian creature,

The ponies in the room all shuddered in the few seconds before it ended, the Displacer’s screaming rattling through their very souls as He was forcibly shunted from the plane he’d trespassed upon.

And then, just as abruptly as it had been summoned, the Rainbow Of Light was no longer needed, and released all hold of its man ifestation upon physical reality, that massive concen tration of energy suddenly rushing outwards, the sheer a mount of it cre ating enough light to momen tarily blind all see seeing crea tures in the ro o m.

I strained the laast

of my my will to keeep myself

to g et he rrrr

...There was nothing I could do.

Chapter 9: ...and a Shade Darker [ TEXT ONLY VERSION ]

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