A Crack in the Glass

Chapter Two: Dimensional Perturbation

“I was scared! Ha ha! Can you believe it!?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she trotted down the damp path leading to Ponyville.

“Mhmm,” the winged creature walking next to the pink pony grumbled, trying his best not to let his frustration get the best of him as he felt the need to let loose his anger in a swift, powerful kick. Varkrai stared down the dirt road at the town in the distance with his hands in his pants pockets as he walked alongside Pinkie, who had insisted he come with her.

The night before had been one of the more interesting that Pinkie Pie had ever experienced. She got to converse with a strange creature in which she had no idea where he came from, she got to stay inside of a bubble of some sort of reality altering force for the entire night, she even managed to pluck a few of the creatures’ feathers out of curiosity. Of course, there were some repercussions of her plucking the winged beast’s feathers, as she almost had herself thrown half way across Equestria should the female voice that had been talking to Varkrai not interrupted his actions. The language that Varkrai and the woman’s voice spoke still remained as gibberish to Pinkie Pie, and she had felt she couldn’t have held herself back from asking what they were talking about earlier during the night, but she knew she had made a promise to not ask any questions, no matter the situation. Pinkie had just gone along with the conditions as best she could, despite plucking the creature’s wings of a few feathers with her mouth, and with no questions asked the entire night as she and Varkrai waited out the storm, she only had the option to act as if he were anypony else she knew. However, that had appeared like something Varkrai didn’t plan on.

For the pink pony and the black winged, avian, bipedal, grumpy creature the night before, there was no sleep to be had. Pinkie Pie’s intrigues in Varkrai had kept her up all night, talking with him and learning as much as she could about him by simply conversing. He seemed lenient with what he deemed as a question or not, as Pinkie was able to find out a few of his interests, though she still had no idea where he came from, what he was, where the woman’s voice was coming from, what was going on with the weather, why they were in a weird bubble that sheltered them from the storm, why he was sleeping out in the middle of a field, or how old he was. The only things that Pinkie knew about him was that he liked to fly and that his clothes were made from the fleece of some sort of animal called a ‘caldance’, though Pinkie had no idea what a caldance was, considering that Varkrai only had stared at her when she asked him what it was. So, she stayed up the rest of the night, admiring the scenery and unintentionally waking Varkrai up with her talking time after time he began to nod off to sleep. The storm had passed as morning came around and Varkrai had been as cranky as ever, stuffing his wing into Pinkie Pie’s face as she woke him up from his longest run of sleep, which was three minutes. He seemed used to the annoyances of being woken up and being pushed around on the ground in an attempt to get him on his feet as if he dealt with it before. The only thing that persuaded him to get up and go along with Pinkie Pie to Ponyville was that she told him that there were more of her species there. Something about meeting more of the ponies piqued the creature’s interest, and now he found himself walking along with Pinkie Pie as the headed for the town ahead of them, fighting back the urge to play a game of Punt the Pony into Oblivion.

“You’re gonna love Ponyville! Maybe I’ll give you a tour!” Pinkie Pie suggested, bouncing up and down at her excitement. It was very little that she ever had the chance to bring someone new to Ponyville, more than that someone that she had no idea what species they were. All she was focused on was introducing Varkrai to the ponies of Ponyville and becoming his friend.

“Pinkie Pie?” Varkrai spoke, keeping his eyes at the colorful town.

“Yeah?” asked Pinkie.

“If you could shut your mouth for ten seconds, that’d be great.”

“Okey dokey lokey!”

Silence fell over Varkrai and the pink pony walking next to him, their foot and hoof steps filling in the lack of conversation. Pinkie continued to stare up at Varkrai, who was starting to get a feeling that she was counting down the seconds in her head, and sure enough, ten seconds later, Pinkie had her mouth spouting out words again.

The rest of the walk had been torture to the tall, avian figure making his way towards Ponyville. He began to develop a fear of even stepping a single foot into the town that he and his talkative companion were walking to, thinking to himself if all of the inhabitants of this world were as bubbly as Pinkie Pie. He almost threw up at the thought, but he tried to remain with an open mind. There was something he had to figure out about the colorful land he had found himself in, and with Pinkie Pie’s attitude, he had doubts that she would be able to stay on task for a single minute. For the duration of the walk, he endured the constant blaring of Pinkie’s ecstatic voice and the high-pitch sound of her hopping up and down in his left ear, trying to convince himself that the risk of having his ear drums pop was worth reaching the town and talking with the other ponies. He had a hard time doing so.

“And we’re here! Where do you want to go first?” Pinkie Pie asked as she and Varkrai arrived at the border of Ponyville, both of them coming to a stop.

Varkrai ran his eyes across the edge of the town. At least they’re somewhat sophisticated, he thought to himself, looking over the houses and buildings making the established network of Ponyville’s current structure. The ponies of the town were up and moving, making their way through their schedules for the morning. They greeted each other and some stopped to chat with their neighbors, a few of them conversing about the odd weather yesterday. The fillies and colts of the town ran around each other, playing in the small puddles strewn throughout Ponyville’s roads and streets as they splashed in the water and laughed happily. The sun peaking over the mountain tops in the distance was a sight for sore eyes after the inescapable storm that had pelted the town of ponies the day earlier, and the pegasi clearing out the remaining clouds in the sky were happy to finally see the blue of the ocean above them. Unbeknownst to all of the ponies, a strange figure stood next to one of their own, watching them and thinking to himself that he was going to be a bit more annoyed with these lifeforms than any other.

“They seem a bit too happy,” Varkrai whispered to himself.

“Why wouldn’t we be?” Pinkie asked, causing Varkrai to flinch slightly as he wasn’t expecting a comment. “Ponyville is one of the nicest towns in Equestria! You’ll see!”

Varkrai sighed and scratched his head. “I’m sure I will.”

“Great!” Pinkie exclaimed. “So, where do you want to go? There’s the spa, Sugar Cube Corner, town square, the libr-”

“Oh! Oh!” the female voice poked in, which gave the black winged figure and Pinkie Pie a small start. The language she spoke had adapted to Pinkie’s understanding, and her suggestion of where to go made Varkrai grumble slightly. “Varkrai! Let’s go to the spa!”

The red-eyed creature put a hand up to his forehead. “Noitorum, not now. These creatures seem to be intelligent. Plus, I have a headache. I just want to find the one with the most knowledge and reason so I can find out if this dimension is-”

“Most intelligence?” Pinkie asked.

Varkrai peaked out from his hand at the pink pony next to him. “Yes. Do you know it?”

“Of course I do!” Pinkie Pie declared. “Everyone in Ponyville knows that Twilight is the smartest smarty-pants around! Should we go to her house first?”

Raising an eyebrow and putting his hand back down at his side, Varkrai turned his head to look at Pinkie. “The smartest in this establishment is twilight?”

“Yep!”

“As in the time of day?”

Pinkie giggled. “No, silly!”

A burning sensation coursed through the winged creature’s entire body and he felt his hands clench into fists. “Call me silly one more ti-”

The pink pony continued, “As in Twilight! Twilight Sparkle! She’s one of the ponies that lives here! Come on, follow me. I’ll take you to her!”

Varkrai stood still for a moment as he watched Pinkie Pie hop forward.

“I like them,” the female voice spoke.

Shaking his head and looking back towards the mountains, Varkrai finally had a moment to recollect his thoughts now that Pinkie’s voice was out of earshot. “I don’t. I’m just surprised that they speak English. Usually humans are the only ones that know the language.”

“Well, maybe these lifeforms are different!”

“Different, yes, but that isn’t always a good thing.” Varkrai turned his head back to Ponyville. “After all the years that we’ve been hopping through these worlds, I think you would have learned that it’s not a good habit to jump right into the cultures of the indigenous populations. Especially ones we’ve never encountered before.”

“Oh come on! Did you see the pink one!? She’s adorable!”

“She’s annoying.”

“Lighten up! I’m sure we’ll be fine. These ponies don’t look like they’re being tormented or are in some sort of war! Maybe we can have some fun for once.”

“If this dimension has been broken open before, maybe we will. I just want to find out if this world is undiscovered.”

“And if it is?”

Varkrai bit his lip. “Then we’re gonna have a bit more on our hands that we usually do.”

“Varky!” a voice called out from further towards Ponyville.

The burning feeling returned into Varkrai’s body, and he could almost feel himself tear apart with his anger. He centered his eyes on Pinkie Pie, who was motioning her hoof to him from the edge of the town. “What did she just call me?” he asked quietly

The female voice laughed quietly. “Let’s go, Varky. We don’t want to keep this ‘Twilight Sparkle’ waiting.”

Varkrai clenched his teeth and closed his eyes, trying his best not to dig his finger nails into palms. “You’re lucky you’re not in your physical form right now.” He begun to head for the town. “Besides, the one Pinkie named Twilight doesn’t even know Pinkie’s bringing us to it.”

______________________________________________________________________

“Why didn’t you tell me you were bringing that thing to me!?” Twilight Sparkle yelled, frantically running around the ground floor of the library as she searched for a certain book along the shelves lining the walls.

Pinkie Pie followed Twilight with her eyes as the lavender unicorn knocked her appliances on the floor with her careless sprinting. “Uh... I thought I would surprise you?” Pinkie said, giving Twilight Sparkle a nervous smile. “Surprise!”

“Pinkie!” Twilight slid to a stop in front of her friend. “A surprise is- is a party! Or a joke! What is that!?” She pointed her hoof to the window of the library, in which the back of a tall figure stood just outside.

His eyes slightly squinting in the sunlight as he stood outside of the library, Varkrai remained silent as he waited for Pinkie Pie to finish talking with Twilight. He gently perused the structures of Ponyville and the town’s inhabitants, managing to ward off a few of the ponies that were daring enough to even glance at him with a stare back at them. With his arms crossed, the top of Varkrai’s head sat in the shade of the tree while the early morning sun bombarded him with its light. The orange-tinted sky, after being in darkness for so long before with the storm, looked as if it were some sort of utopia in the sky for the winged creature looking up at it. So many times the worlds he had visited were dark and void of light, warfare and turmoil striking over everything else. Equestria was one of the exceptions as it seemed so far, though the daunting feeling that it wouldn’t last for long dangled in front of Varkrai’s eyes every second. He had to find out of this certain world he found himself in was in danger, and the only way he was going to find that out was speaking with one of the more intelligent of ponies. Quite honestly, it wasn’t necessary for him to speak to the smartest of the town; it was only personal preference of not having to explain as much as he usually had to. However, that depended on if the Equestrian dimension, as he now knew it, was undiscovered.

Pinkie looked back at the window Twilight was pointing at. In all honesty, she had no idea what Varkrai was, or what his intentions were, but she knew that he couldn’t be all that bad. To her mind’s extent, that is. “A... present?” Pinkie guessed, looking back at Twilight with another nervous smile.

Twilight Sparkle gave the pink pony a slightly frustrated stare. “For who? Spike? Me?”

A pause in her thoughts caused Pinkie to blank out for a second. “...the library?” she guessed again.

“Pinkie, we don’t even know what that thing is!” Twilight attempted to reason with her friend. “It could be dangerous!”

“But he didn’t hurt me!” Pinkie rebutted, following the lavender unicorn with her eyes again as Twilight searched around the bookshelves for something. “I know he doesn’t mean any harm!” She found herself rethinking her statement as she remembered herself being picked up by Varkrai and almost being launched into the mountains the other night. “Well... not a lot of harm.”

Twilight came to a halt in front of one of the bookshelves under the stairs leading up to her room, levitating down a blue covered book with a picture of wings etched into it. She flipped through the pages hurriedly, coming to a stop at a page, but quickly shaking her head and continuing through the book. “Oh, there isn’t anything in this about winged beasts like... whatever that is outside!” she yelled, frustratedly tossing the book away.

“I doubt there would be,” Varkrai spoke from atop of the flight of stairs above Twilight, sitting on the steps and looking down at her as he twirled a blade of grass in his fingers. His appearance gave both Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle a small heart attack. Twilight backed up to Pinkie’s side and stared up at him along with her friend. Even now that he was wide awake and attentive, Varkrai still seemed as if he were a little tired and irritable with his eyelids hiding the upper halves of his eyes. Despite being passive, his voice showed a hint of annoyance in it. “From the looks I was getting outside, I’m coming to the conclusion that this dimension truly hasn’t been touched.”

Twilight looked back to the window near the entrance of her home and quickly returned her glance to Varkrai. “How did you-?” she started.

Varkrai tossed the blade of grass in his fingers off to his side and watched it tumble down the steps. “If you’re wondering, no; I don’t mean any harm unless you’re looking for it.” He put his eyes back at Twilight, who was looking at him angrily for cutting her off. “How did I get in here without you noticing? I don’t know. Maybe you should be more aware of your surroundings.”

With a furrowed brow, Twilight Sparkle prepared a spell in her horn, a purple aura surrounding it. “You sure seem comfortable here already,” she commented.

“Comfortable?” Varkrai asked. “Not really. Sure, the environment seems nice,” He pointed a finger at Twilight’s horn. “though the population inhabiting it doesn’t. I’m just getting to know this dimension.”

Taking the hint, Twilight Sparkle let her magic calm down and the aura around her horn disappeared. “And we’re just getting to know you. How do we know you’re not up to something?”

“If I were up to something whatever that thing was would be done already,” Varkrai said. “Don’t take that as me being cocky. I’ve gotten to know my capabilities enough over my life time to know what I can do and what I can’t.”

“And how long would that life time be?”

Varkrai’s mouth curved into a slight smile. Cautious of Twilight’s uneasiness of him, he slowly slid his legs to the edge of the stairs and hung them over the side. Gently flapping his wings, he lowered himself to the ground and set his feet on the ground, folding his wings against his back. With him standing up, it was apparent to Twilight Sparkle how tall Varkrai actually was. He looked as if he were a half of a foot or two above Princess Celestia’s stature, though the few lone hairs sticking up from his head added an inch or so to his height. His wings managed to extend to even height with his hair now that they were folded, the black-feathered appendages peeking out from beside his arms and over his shoulders.

He slid his hands into his pockets. “How long is the day and night cycle here?” he asked, beginning to casually walk around the room.

Pinkie and Twilight glanced at each other. “Twenty four hours,” Twilight answered. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Because the solar systems, typically in dimensions like these-” He paused for a moment and centered his eyes on Twilight. “This is a planet, I assume. The blue sky outside indicates some sort of atmosphere.”

“Yes... Equus. What else would it be?”

Varkrai returned to walking around the room, both Pinkie and Twilight watching him. “I don’t know. A giant void of flowing energy with remnants of a lost civilization floating in it. Empty space waiting to be reconstructed into a new dimension. A flat plane or universe that continues to grow and grow until all life halts. Layers and layers of different levels of constructed space hiding organizations of indoctrinated inhabitants that have no idea they’re not where they think they are.” He stopped and looked at the two ponies. “Need I go on?”

Twilight and Pinkie shook their heads, clueless as to what Varkrai was going on about.

The winged creature smiled. “Good choice.” Again, he began to walk in a circle, following along the shelves of books. “My asking of the length of the day and night cycle has to do with my age. Aside from a few other dimensions, I’m surprised that this one, too, has a twenty four hour cycle of day and night. Rather, a day and night cycle at all.”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

Twilight’s question seemed as if it had passed through Varkrai’s head without leaving any sort of trace. “Take Demons, for example,” he continued, Twilight Sparkle rolling her eyes, though Pinkie seemed to be enjoying herself as she listened to Varkrai sputter what sounded like nonsense. “They tend to not like light, so they block out the source of light in the areas that they are and create their own artificial lights, which seem to please them more than the natural light source in the area they’re in. It’s not much of a precaution to save them from being harmed like Shades do; they just don’t like light. If you survive long enough in a Demon corrupted dimension, you start to loose track of the days and you don’t know how old you are any more if you don’t have some sort of clock on you. Primordials lose track of their ages before they even know it, with all the Demons running around and what not.” Varkrai sighed and stopped in his tracks again near the entrance of the library, looking down at his feet. “Does any of this sound familiar? Any of it?” he asked as he looked back up at Twilight and Pinkie Pie.

To his fears, however, the two ponies were in complete confusion. They only stared at Varkrai with blank eyes and partially hanging open mouths.

“Project Omega?” Varkrai asked. “Demons? The Omnipotent Force? Humans? Primordials? Feers? Zuktius? Rustnox? Duraknians? Shades?” He took his hands out of his pockets and turned his palms upwards. “Anything?”

He was only met with silence.

Varkrai closed his eyes and fell backwards, sitting down and scooting back against the door of Twilight Sparkle’s home. He put his palms up to his face and grumbled quietly, “Why? The one dimension I find myself in that’s decen-” He paused for a second. “-not trying to kill me... hasn’t been broken open before.”

Pinkie Pie leaned towards the lavender unicorn next to her. “I think he’s a bit upset,” she whispered to her friend, though both of them kept their eyes on Varkrai.

Twilight Sparkle nodded subtly. “Maybe, but he’s obviously going on about something that we don’t know about,” she whispered back. “Either that, or he’s lost his mind.”

“I can hear you,” Varkrai muttered from behind his hands.

The two ponies laughed silently. “Well, as long as you can hear us,” Twilight Sparkle said. “Why don’t you tell us about what in Equestria you’re talking about?”

Letting his hands slide down his head and flop onto his lap, Varkrai’s face emerged slightly irritated. He stared up at the ceiling of the library for a moment before he tilted his head to look at Pinkie and Twilight. “Are you sure about that?”

“We have time.”

Varkrai closed his eyes and took a deep breath in before he stood up and set his seemingly tired, cross stare on the pink pony and lavender unicorn in the center of the room. “You may want to take a seat, then,” he suggested.

Shrugging and supposing why they shouldn’t, since Varkrai didn’t seem to be the complete danger that Twilight had suspected him as, both Pinkie and Twilight Sparkle sat down on the floor and looked up at Varkrai.

“I can’t read minds, so I’m gonna need to know what you two want to know,” Varkrai began. “What’ll it be? A history lesson? Some equations? A demonstration? A board game?”

“Oh! Oh! Let’s play a board game! I call first!” Pinkie blurted out, grinning while she bounced up and down in place. A sharp glare from Varkrai instantly calmed her down, Pinkie smiling nervously and sitting still.

“I don’t know what I expected...” Varkrai muttered. He shifted his eyes to Twilight. “You seem reasonably tolerable. So? What do you want to know?”

Twilight didn’t know where to begin. Having known nothing about Varkrai for the past three minutes, she felt a boiling excitement in her as she conjured up questions in her mind. Varkrai’s hostility out of the way, Twilight Sparkle soon let her curiosity get the best of her. She had clearly learned nothing about what Varkrai was in her studies and lessons at school, or what he was talking about, and small squeaks of excited anticipation escaped her throat one by one.

Meanwhile, Varkrai only squinted at both of the ponies with his jaw partially hanging in a sort of confusion. Twilight Sparkle practically foaming from her mouth and Pinkie Pie rapidly flipping her tongue up and down with her hoof, spraying spit everywhere, the two ponies didn’t seem like the best candidates to be talking to for the creature staring at them.

The winged beast clicked his teeth together. “An interesting dimension, this one,” he mumbled through his teeth. Hoping Twilight and Pinkie wouldn’t freak out and start whinnying whilst running around the room, he stepped forward and barely lifted his right arm out in front of him. He turned his palm upwards, and with a flick of his wrist up and his fingers down, a large spark of a strange white fire snapped on the floor in front of Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie. The small explosion, despite it not harming them, caused the two ponies to almost jump out of their coats, though Pinkie left a good trail of her mane behind as she leaped into the air with enough propulsion to reach the moon.

Varkrai, a smile on his face while he saw Twilight Sparkle hyperventilating and Pinkie Pie landing back on the ground extremely confused, stepped backwards and crossed his arms. “Either your legs are stronger than I thought or the physics in this dimension are broken,” he remarked, lifting an eyebrow at Pinkie.

Clearing her throat, Twilight Sparkle fixed her mane while she recovered from her moment of panic. “Sorry,” she said. “I was... thinking.”

“I could tell,” Varkrai noted.

“What was that!?” shouted Pinkie Pie, looking around the room and stopping her eyes at the small puff of smoke rising from a blackened spot on the floor.

Twilight Sparkle furrowed her brow and looked at Varkrai. “Yes... what was that?”

“Oh, so now you pay attention!” Varkrai said, raising his eyebrows and smirking. “Am I gonna have to get closer every time with that, then? It sure woke you up.”

Twilight growled. “So? What was it?” she asked sternly.

His smirk growing into a full smile, Varkrai uncrossed his arms and put his right hand up as if he were displaying something. After a short second, a strange aura formed in the air above his palm, gathering in a ball that flickered like fire off of the top hemisphere. The fire, however, was not anything of the sort. Upon looking at the collection of the peculiar substance, the flames appeared to be some sort of energy, tendrils of the pure white aura coiling loosely into the air and disappearing after escaping out of a two inch radius from the collection’s center.

Varkrai eyed Pinkie and Twilight as they stared at the substance in his hand. So this dimension truly doesn’t have any idea of what’s around it, he thought to himself. “Something, huh?” he asked. Twilight and Pinkie looked back at him as the white aura above his palm disappeared. “What you saw wasn’t anything that you have here in your world, I can assure you. You might have something similar, but there are plenty of unique ways of manipulating energy and transforming it into something different out in the dimensional wastelands.” He put his palm up in front of him and recalled the aura. “This is an energy manipulation known as ‘Solance’.” Varkrai gave Pinkie a glare as she opened her mouth to say something. “It has nothing to do with a caldance. Not even close.” Turned his head to Twilight as she gained a confused look on her face. “I-” Stopped in his tracks and shook his head. “Don’t worry about.”

“So... what is this ‘solance’, then?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

With a snap of his fingers, the collection of energy above his hand fell down onto his palm. He kneeled down and rolled the ball over to Twilight Sparkle, who stopped it with her hoof and picked it up with curiosity shooting from her and Pinkie’s eyes. “Solance is a type of manipulation of energy into a lethal or recreational use. Physical or sub-dimensional, solance can be shaped into any sort of shape and can do a lot of damage in combat.” Varkrai made a twisting motion with his hand at the ball of solance in Twilight’s hooves and the sphere, acting on its own, twisted around itself to form a knot and tie around the lavender unicorn’s hooves. “Or just cause annoyance.”

“Cool! Let me try!” Pinkie Pie said, reach to the knot around Twilight Sparkle’s hooves and pulling. She flew backwards as Varkrai disassembled the rope of energy, crashing into the wall of the library.

“It can also be released back into its normal state, which is only a free flowing mass of sub-dimensional... stuff,” Varkrai said, shrugging. “I assume that the aura that I saw collecting in your horn earlier was a sort of energy manipulation, as well. Solance is typical in a race known as Feers, which is what I am, if that answers your question about that.”

“And what’s a... feer?” Twilight Sparkle questioned, rubbing her hooves and watching Pinkie Pie stumble back to her side.

Varkrai filled his lungs and gave Twilight a smile. “A biologically modified primordial descendant spliced with the genetics of several different human dimension and a small number of foreign dimension beings and equipped with a purified evolution of dark energy bonded to his or her soul through Trinostic technology other wise known as Solance.” He continued breathing normally. “Catch all that?”

Surprisingly, the explanation had even caused Pinkie Pie to stop what she was doing and stretch her mind.

“That’s what I thought,” Varkrai assumed. “Any more questions?”

“Mind explaining what all this talk of ‘dimensions’ you’re going on with?” Twilight asked.

“Now you’re getting somewhere,” Varkrai said. “Dimensions, as I have been talking about them, are different, very different, worlds. I wouldn’t exactly call all of them worlds, but they’re something of the sort. Anyways, a dimension is one of the universes, empty voids of space, flowing energy, all those, that are floating around you, me, and everything else that’s in this sub-dimensional space.” He put his arms up at his sides, horizontal to the floor. “What do you see here?”

“You!” Pinkie answered.

“Right. From the perspective of a single dimension, the space that a lifeform is in is just a place that they can see and interact with. Beyond that guise, however, are many, many more dimensions floating around, all of them separated by a one, single, force. The Omnipotent Force. This force is what is keeping all of the dimensions from cramming into one gigantic mass of mush, and what is keeping other dimensions from invading others. Granted, it doesn’t do a very good job, but it makes a decent cover-up for the actuality of dimensions. That is known as sub-dimensional forces. The entire Omnipotent Force is one big void of sub-dimensional energy. It’s there, but it’s not there at the same time. This force separates dimensions, yet keeps them in the same space, and if beaten and worn down enough, it can be ripped open and create something called a dimensional gate, which is just a gateway between dimensions. There can be some drawbacks to breaking through dimensions, however, and they can be lethal to dimensions that don’t know of the others. There are plenty of other dimensions that don’t have environments like this one, and they’ll do anything to take it.”

Varkrai stopped himself as he realized that he may have lost Pinkie and Twilight somewhere during his explanation, as both of them were staring at him like they were in some sort of trance. He shook his head and rolled his eyes, planting one of his palms against his face. “Strange,” he muttered. “It usually takes a day or two for me to be frustrated like this in virluth dimensions.”

“Vir... luth?” Pinkie Pie repeated, scratching her head.

The winged figure peaked an eye out between his fingers and focused on Pinkie Pie. He lowered his hand from his head. “Yes, virluth. Dimensional word for untouched or undiscovered. It’s one of the few words of the dimensional language. Don’t ask me to teach you the dimensional language; it’s complicated. I suppose you ponies wouldn’t know about it due to being in a virluth dimension.”

“Well, what’s a ‘virluth’ dimension?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

Varkrai thought to himself for a moment as he conjured up an example of a virluth dimension in his head, though the first thing that opened in his mind probably wouldn’t have been the best, or most decent, explanation. “Uh... hang on a second,” he said, sticking three fingers on one hand up out in front of him. The creature rotated around himself as if he were looking for something. His eyes pinpointed on a few sheets of paper atop a desk a few steps away from him, Varkrai walking over to the desk and picking the sheets up. He turned back to Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle after examining the thin pieces of paper, holding them in his index fingers and thumbs. “A virluth dimension is a dimension that has not been touched. By that, I mean it has had no contact with other dimensions before, which means it has never been... ‘opened up’. They’re like these.” Varkrai walked forward and held out the blank sheets of paper out in front of him to Twilight Sparkle, tightening his grip on them. “Try to push your hoof through them.”

The unicorn furrowed her brow. “Why?” Twilight Sparkle asked, confusedly staring at the paper held in front of her face.

“It’s an example, alright? Just do it,” Varkrai insisted.

Twilight Sparkle, after giving Varkrai a strange look, lifted her hoof up to the papers and pushed lightly on the pieces of paper. She only found that her hoof made a large, shallow indent within the sheets. “I can’t,” the unicorn admitted, beginning to get frustrated as she pushed harder and harder.

“As expected,” Varkrai said. He brought the pieces of paper back to him as Twilight lowered her hoof. “Virluth dimensions are harder to get through to other dimensions than others because they don’t have a ‘weak point’. They’re kind of stubborn, if you will. All they need is a weak link for the entire chain to snap and fall apart.” Varkrai held the pieces of paper within his longer fingers and pinpointed his thumbs in the center of the papers. He pushed his thumbs forward, a tear forming in the papers as his thumbs ripped through the multiple sheets. Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie exchanged a brief look of befuddlement as they watched Varkrai enlarge the tear in the sheets, both of them beginning to wonder if bringing him into the treehouse, or even approaching him, was a good idea. Varkrai held the papers back out in front of him to Twilight, the tear now a bit smaller than Twilight Sparkle’s hoof. “The hole in these papers represents what I have done to this dimension by breaking through the sub-dimensional forces. Granted, the actual process was a little less messy and more subtle than... well, this. As before, this dimension more than likely hasn’t been visited by any others, considering your lack of knowledge about them. What I have done is broken through the ‘stubbornness’ of the dimension, which is the hole in this paper. Now, try to push your hoof through the sheets.”

Twilight Sparkle, beginning to catch on to what Varkrai was saying, nodded and lifted her hoof up to the sheets. Not expecting the papers to have ripped open so easily, Twilight lost her balance and flew forward, letting out a startled squeak as her hind legs followed after the rest of her body. Twilight Sparkle braced for the impact, squeezing her eyes tight. Though, she felt a sudden feeling of relief as she felt a pair of hands catch her a few inches from the ground. She opened her eyes to find Varkrai staring down at her, his arms outstretched and his hair dangling from his head.

“Get it now?” Varkrai asked, slightly smiling.

“Uh... yes,” Twilight nodded. “Yes, I get it.”

“Good.” Varkrai flipped the lavender unicorn up onto her hooves and let her go, Twilight Sparkle stabilizing herself and walking back over to Pinkie’s side.

“The ease of your being able to push through the sheets of paper, which seemed to be quite effortless, represents the ease that other dimensions are going to have now that there is a weak point in the dimensional forces,” Varkrai explained as he brushed his hands off on each other, small hairs of lavender fur falling from his gloves. “Meaning you’re going to have a lot more company from your neighboring cousins.” He centered his gaze on the two ponies and gave them a small, somewhat sinister smile. “You better hope they’re friendly.”

“Wait, so you’re saying... that there are going to be more creatures from outside of our dimension... coming here?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“You got it,” Varkrai affirmed. “How are you defense systems here?”

“What do you mean how are our defense systems!?” Twilight yelled. She stood up. “What does that matter!? What matters is that you just put us in danger!”

“Your defense capabilities matter, as a nation or whatever you have here, because, if those dimensions that come through are hostile, you’re going to be up for a fight,” Varkrai said. “And besides, one of the rules of dimensions are that every dimension is broken through sometime during their lifecycle. It would’ve happened anyways, so don’t blame me.”

“Well... I’m blaming you! How long does it take for other dimensions to get through!?”

Varkrai glared at Twilight. “Well, I don’t know. Maybe if I could hear myself think I could give you some predictions.”

Twilight Sparkle calmed herself down and sat back at Pinkie Pie’s side, who was only befuddled and listening to the conversation. “Alright, fine.”

“Thank you.” Varkrai took a moment to think to himself and held his chin, staring at the floor. “In the virluth dimensions that I have been in before, the time periods that passed were somewhere between one and five months, going off of a twenty four hour day and night cycle. Out of all of them, only two of them were under three months; the other ten were over three.” He looked up at Twilight and Pinkie. “I’d give this dimension three and a half to four months, maybe more, maybe less.”

The lavender unicorn sighed and looked around aimlessly. “Well... what do we do until then?”

Varkrai stayed silent. He kept his eyes on the two ponies, who had grown noticeably quieter. Even Pinkie Pie, with her bubbly attitude, seemed to be preoccupied with wondering what could happen now that they were open to other dimensions. The two ponies seemed to have taken the information in well, despite their few pauses of brain activity throughout Varkrai’s explanations. They appeared to trust him, and Varkrai bit his lip.

“Varkrai,” a female voice spoke gently, cautious of the situation. Twilight, curious as to who was talking, and Pinkie, recognizing the voice, looked up at Varkrai. “What are we going to do?”

The black winged figure gripped his temples with his fingers and closed his eyes. “I suppose...” He shook his head and looked up at Twilight and Pinkie, who were awaiting his answer. Almost uncontrollably, he smiled. “I suppose we’re gonna have to give a helping hand here. It’s not all the time we come by dimensions like these.”

Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie grinned and stood up, both of them excited to hear that Varkrai was going to help them.

“Wait a second,” Twilight spoke quickly. “Who’s we? And where is that voice coming from?”

Varkrai smiled. “Noitorum, I think it’d be best if you showed them.”

“What!?” the voice yelled. “Really!?”

“Yes, yes. You can celebrate once you’re out here.”

“Are you serious!?”

“...Yes.”

“You’re not joking, are you?”

“Shut up and get out here before I change my mind.”

Not even wasting a second, the voice squealed with excitement as it began to act. The aura that Varkrai had showed Pinkie and Twilight begun to make a ring on the floor of the library on its own, glowing intensely as the solance grew in concentration. The voice had disappeared, though it was replaced by a high-pitched ringing noise that grew in loudness as its visible counter-part grew in luminosity. The library was filled with a pure white light as the ring of solance continued to gather more and more energy. Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie, both covering their ears, stared with squinted eyes at the ring in front of Varkrai, who was used to the display. As the library just about reached the point of no shadows and the ringing was almost enough to shatter glass, everything stopped. The ringing ceased as the halo of light on the ground shot up from the floor faster than Twilight and Pinkie could track, and in the center of the ring’s course into the air, a figure emerged from the fading light.

“Twilight, Pinkie,” Varkrai started, stepping off to the side to show himself to the two ponies. “This is Noitorum.”

Varkrai lifted his left arm up to the figure standing diagonal to him. The light gone and the ringing stopped, the lavender unicorn and pink pony uncovered their ears and opened their eyes completely. In the place where the glowing ring had almost blinded the two ponies stood a woman of Varkrai’s species, two pure white, feathered wings sprouting out from her back. She had on a set of clothes similar to Varkrai’s, but the sweatshirt she wore was purple. Her feet were bare of any sort of footwear, her toes wiggling on the floor. Her eyes were almost exactly identical to Varkrai’s, sharpened pupils and blackened whites of her eyes, though her irises were a white that seemed to gleam with their brightness. Like Varkrai, her complexion was young, and her stature was enough to be outlined by her clothing. She seemed to be just a bit under Varkrai’s weight, who appeared to be toned and had some muscular build under his clothing. Her long black hair flowed down her back between her wings and came to a halt just above her tailbone, swaying side to side as she did with her upper body. Two thick strands of her hair hung in front of her shoulders, either split or pushed off to the side by her breasts. Her arms behind her back and her fingers interlaced, Noitorum stood with her stomach outwards, trying to hold herself back from rushing forward and tackling the two ponies that she found so adorable.

“Well, Noi?” Varkrai said. “Are you gonna say hi or-?”

He couldn’t even finish his sentence before he was tackled to the ground and squished within the arms of Noitorum.

“Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!” she screamed into his face, continuously increasing her grip on him and kicking at his legs.

Varkrai could barely let out his words, “You’re... welcome. Now let go of me. I can hear my bones cracking.”

With one final squeeze, Noitorum leaped off of Varkrai and rushed over to the two ponies that were slightly startled by the woman squealing her head off. Varkrai, after taking a second to get his wind back in him, sat up and looked over to the woman over by Twilight and Pinkie. Already, Noitorum was holding onto one of the ponies, Pinkie, up within her hands, holding the pink pony out in front of her and rambling about how unbelievably happy she was. Pinkie Pie, even though she wasn’t used to being picked up, couldn’t help but feel Noitorum’s happiness reflect onto her, both Pinkie and Noi laughing and screaming at each other with excitement. Soon after she was acquainted enough with Pinkie Pie, Noitorum moved to Twilight Sparkle, picked her up, and cradled her in one arm and tickled her stomach with the other, though the lavender unicorn was a bit more resistant than her friend as her yells were more of embarrassment and anger.

Varkrai sat back on the floor of the library, watching Noitorum and the ponies play with each other. He leaned back and rested on his elbows, closing his eyes and putting his head back. The feeling of being able to relax for a while was one that Varkrai had missed, and the lack of being able to hold something adorable had started to make Noitorum hyperventilate with how excited she was. Varkrai took the moment to accept that he and Noitorum were going to have to do some more explaining down the road, though he figured that Noitorum could do most of that. For now, Varkrai let his mind relax, knowing that he and his pearl winged companion would be able to sit down and finally get some rest.

The lingering feeling of the susceptibility of the dimension, however, decided to take a room and settle down in his head as well. Whatever was coming through after Varkrai and Noi was unknown, and whether the dimension they found themselves in was prepared or not could only be known until their preparations were tested.

If Equestria would withstand the horrors of the dimensional wastelands, certainties were no where in sight.