The Land Unspoken

Twilight groaned as she awoke amid randomised images thrown at her by her tired mind. On the canvas of her closed eyelids she once again blasted aside the door, fought side by side with her friends and witnessed the spectacular Sonic Rainboom and subsequent collapse of the castle. Finally, she saw herself taken down to the bowels of the castle and forced to open the portal, which had then sucked her in to… to…

Urgent signals from other parts of her body suddenly found themselves in the spotlight. She felt sand under her hooves, tasted something metallic in the air and heard…

Nothing at all. Her eyes snapped open and she glanced around for a moment.

“So this is the underworld” she said expressionlessly. It was strangely unimpressive.

A grey world surrounded her. She was in what appeared to be an abandoned settlement. Ruined buildings ringed what appeared to be a town square in which she lay, their grey sandstone walls crumbling and decayed. Under her hooves and extending for as far as the eye could see was sand, an endless greyscale desert. Although no breath of wind stirred the cold, dead air she shivered in apprehension.

First she began to walk, then to run, fear building in her belly. She called for the names of her friends but to no avail. Desperately she tried to use her magic, but nothing she could do would help. Her head seemed fuzzy, thoughts and all but the most basic of her spells eluded her. She felt like screaming.

I’m not dead! I don’t belong here!

Why did you have to take me...?

Although no sun shone in the sky a soft grey light illuminated everything. Twilight retreated to a crumbling wall, all that was left of a once sturdy hovel, and lay down with her face pressed to the ground. It was in this position that Rarity found her.

“Twilight!” said the unicorn joyfully. “You’re okay!”

“Oh,” Twilight replied without looking up, “hello Rarity.”

“Come now,” chided Rarity, aghast at the resignation in her friend’s voice, “what do you think you’re doing, hiding your head in the sand? Our plan worked! We took Xerox through the portal with us. We can defeat him here! Look, you still have the elements!”

Twilight raised her head, but instead of facing her friend she instead turned away and rested her forehead against a wall. “I have the necklaces, Rarity, but in case you haven’t noticed we no longer have our friends to work them. We can’t defeat Xerox by ourselves. Our friends are dead, Rarity. How many times do I have to say it?”

“But Twilight,” Rarity replied, “we’re in the underworld…”

Something in her voice made Twilight turn and finally face the unicorn. Her eyes widened in shock.

“…where the dead go when they die!” finished Rainbow Dash. “Hi Twilight!”

They were there, all of them. Even Ditto stood in the line. Their bodies were oddly translucent and colours were muted as if seen through a veil, but their smiles were bright and cheerful, made even wider by the look of sheer shock Twilight knew to be on her face. She merely stood and speechlessly watched them until Fluttershy broke the spell.

“Oh, Twilight!”

Twilight had been worried that her friend’s ghostly forms would be unable to touch her, but the crushing hug delivered by the yellow pegasus was incredibly, joyfully, real. It broke the fear and tension that had been knotting in her belly ever since their journey began, and the warmth of the arms that surrounded her melted away the frozen layer already placed on her heart by her short time spent in this cold, dead land. She laughed then, for the first time in days, and her friends laughed with her, joining the hug until Twilight’s form was lost amid those of her friends, a barrier of colour and warmth protecting her from the grey cold of the outside world.

After some considerable time they disentangled themselves and stood. Twilight was now covered in sand, and made some vague attempt to dust herself off as she spoke.

“So,” she began, “any idea where we start?”

“Well…” began Rarity, and stopped. “No, not really.”

Twilight was about to continue when something odd struck her. “Rarity,” she said, “why do you look like a ghost too? You came though the portal with me. Shouldn’t you be, umm… alive?”

“No,” said the unicorn. Her voice was sad. “Xerox killed me too. He hit me with his magic just before he got sucked through.”

Twilight recalled the blast of magic that had missed her by inches as Xerox had been sucked into the portal. Perhaps it hadn’t missed after all. “Oh,” she continued, “so… I’m the only survivor?”

It was Rainbow Dash who replied. “Rarity says that because we all died close to the portal we aren’t properly dead. Something of… of who we are is kept in the real world. It’s why we can stand here and talk to you like this. Most spirits are barely here at all anymore.” She shivered.

“So…” Twilight replied hesitantly, not daring to voice the question for fear of getting an answer. Rarity answered it anyway.

“We might be able to come back,” she said, “but first we need to find Xerox.”

“He went through alive like you, Twilight,” added Pinkie Pie, “so he probably ended up somewhere nearby.”

“Right,” replied Twilight. With her fears put to rest for the time being she took command. “Take your Elements, girls.” She threw each element to its owner, placed the Element of Magic atop her own head, and stood. “Let’s do this.” They began to run.

Despite himself, Xerox was impressed. Twilight had been rather cleverer than he had anticipated. Still, her little trick had only delayed the inevitable and had, in fact, made her own situation worse. The Replicus who had faced Twilight and her friends in combat were barely half of Xerox’s full army. The rest had been asleep in their quarters, deep in the bowels of the castle.

They had, of course, been pulled through the portal with him. Now he stood at the head of a small army.

He would have to find the portal soon; it couldn’t be far away. Once there it would be the work of a moment to reactivate it and repair the damage. Twilight’s friend had even provided the sacrifice, so once the portal was reactivated it would work fully. Xerox began to hum happily to himself. Dominion of the world was just around the corner.

He would, of course, have to deal with a tiresome little problem first. Xerox looked forward to seeing Twilight and her friends again. His Replicus were simple beings, but they respected power, and Xerox smiled to himself at the thought of how powerful he would look were he to defeat the Elements of Harmony themselves.

He’d read all about the Elements, and knew that Twilight and her friends had only succeeded in using them twice; once to subdue Nightmare Moon and the second to defeat Discord. The former had been caught by surprise and the latter had been overconfident. Neither had capitalised on the one weakness displayed by the elements. The jewellery held a great power, but it required time to charge once activated. When Twilight and the others faced him there would be thirty seconds where they were completely defenceless.

He shivered in manic anticipation. What a glorious thirty seconds it would be.

  “Xerox will try to escape!” Twilight said as she ran. “We have to find the other end of the portal before he does.”

With Applejack holding Ditto in her mouth the seven of them ran onwards through the endless sandstone maze. Whatever broken civilisation had once called this place home was certainly large; the settlement sprawled as far as the eye could see. Eventually, fearing they were wasting too much time, Twilight reluctantly allowed Rainbow Dash to give them some aerial guidance, despite the risk of her being seen by unwanted eyes.

“Well that was quick” commented Rarity as they emerged from the buildings mere seconds later.

“Yep,” Rainbow Dash replied smugly, “got you out in ten seconds fl-”

Twilight cut her off. “Come on! We’re wasting time. The portal should be nearby; I can’t have gone far from it when I came through.”

Rainbow Dash landed and joined the others as they loped across the sand. The seven of them now ran side by side, following a wide arc around the edge of the settlement. Occasionally one would stop and shout, having spotted something, but it would turn out only to be an abandoned building or a lonely, dead tree. Soon Twilight began to tire, but just as she was about to call a halt she felt a pulsing in her horn and stumbled in shock.

“My horn!” she gasped as the others crowded around. “Rarity… can you feel this?”

“No,” replied the unicorn, “my magic doesn’t seem to work now I’m dead. What’s it telling you?”

“The portal’s over there,” Twilight pointed towards the village. In the far distance one of the outlying buildings was glowing with a faint, multi-coloured light. “Once we’re there I’ll work out how to reactivate it. Now hurry! Xerox can’t be far!”

They ran as hard as they could, sand flying from their hooves, adrenaline holding exhaustion at bay as the portal got ever closer. Even as they reached it, however, Xerox emerged from the village nearby. He approached them, and an army of Replicus followed along behind.

“Oh, excellent.” Xerox said. “How kind of you to save me the effort of looking for you. If you’d care to lay down and die, well, it wouldn’t do anything at all since most of you are already dead. But, it would make your lives, I’m sorry, deaths much easier. What’ll it be?”

“Xerox!” snapped Twilight, “we have the Elements now! Nothing you can do will prevent your destruction. Surrender now, and-“

“Oh really, how tiresome” Xerox sighed. “You know, I really thought you’d see reason? But no, it’s all heroism here and pointless bravery there. Listen to me, you stupid little unicorn, your elements are nothing! To use them you need protection while they charge and nothing, nothing, is here to defend you. You think I don’t know about Nightmare Moon, or that fool Discord? You think I’ll make the same mistakes they did? Now I repeat my earlier demands; submit to me or your existence will be forever destroyed!”

“Submit?” Rainbow Dash said quietly, “I don’t like that word. You know what I think, Xerox? I think you’re scared. You’re finally facing a power that can beat yours, and you’re scared of what we can do.”

Xerox laughed then. “Hah! Are you even listening to me, featherbrain? You cannot defeat me alone! I have an army!”

“So do they.”

They all spun at the unexpected voice. From the village emerged another large group of ponies. These, unlike the Replicus, appeared to have their normal colours, though many had the muted look Twilight recognised from her friends. A unicorn with an odd green and brown colouring headed the army and as they formed a semi-circle around the portal (the Replicus occupied the other half) she came to stand beside Twilight.

“And who,” Twilight began, “are you?”

“My name is Shuriken Star” replied the camo unicorn. “I believe we’ve… met.”

“Shuriken!” snapped Xerox “attend to me!”

The unicorn treated Xerox to a baleful gaze, and when she spoke it was with malice dripping from every word. “You really believe I’ll side with you after you killed me for my failure?” she snapped. “Your spell is gone now, master, and I am free! Free to see just what a lowly, arrogant, power hungry COWARD that you are!”

Xerox froze, anger flashing in his eyes, and as he attempted to splutter words past his lips Rainbow Dash spoke.

“But who’re all of these ponies?” she asked “I don’t recognise them. Did Xerox kill them too?”

“Some, but not all.” Shuriken replied with a shrug. “You killed many. Many of these are the Replicus who died fighting you, or from the collapse of the castle. Remember Twilight? Xerox’s spell dissolves upon death.”

Understanding dawned on Twilight. “The spirit who warned me about the weapon! That was you!”

“Yes. When I returned with news of my first failure ever my master was… less than pleased. I gather he was angry at his son and took it out on me. He does that quite frequently, murdering innocents under his control, but he’s never dared kill me; I’ve always been too useful. I don’t think he realised just what an army he was building against himself beyond the portal. And now they have a leader.”

The army behind Shuriken began to stamp their hooves and growl. The unicorn continued, her voice rising to a shout over the noise. “He’s spent his life in control, but now somepony has a debt to pay! To all of us! Get them!"

With a roar the ex-Replicus army charged, hurtling across the sand and forcing Xerox’s legion back a step as the two armies collided with an almighty crash. At a barked order from Xerox they reformed and began to push back and the charge broke down into a series of messy melees. Shuriken calmly nodded at Twilight.

“We’ll keep Xerox’s army off you. Do what you need to do.” She left the circle and joined the fight. Xerox laughed at her retreating back.

“This changes nothing,” he said, “you still can’t use your elements without-”

Twilight knew her only hope was surprise. If she could catch Xerox off guard…

Simultaneously, the six of them opened themselves up to their elements. But even as Twilight began to rise into the air and felt power flooding her veins she knew she was too late.

Xerox sighed and readied a spell. So it all came down to this. It would have been much better had Shuriken not turned up (he vowed silently to make her suffer for what she had done). He was unable to make quite the dramatic killing that he had hoped, but nevertheless…

With the spell prepared he took aim.

And Derpy was there.

They grey pegasus had remained at the back of the group during the drama, almost hidden from view and entirely forgotten about. This was for one simple reason.

Death seemed to have barely affected the others, but to Derpy it was as if she had spent all her life looking through a keyhole and had only now opened the door. Her thoughts, normally so sluggish, now flowed through her brain in a cold clear stream, and one came to the forefront time and time again. Here was somewhere she could make a difference. Her newfound friends needed her.

So she stood between Xerox and the Elements of Harmony, a fragile wall between light and dark, and subjected Xerox to something nobody had ever experienced from her before.

A direct stare. Death had also straightened her eyes. Now both locked onto Xerox’s face, and the ferocity of her gaze forced even the mighty stallion to look away.

“Courage, Xerox?” If Twilight had heard Derpy’s voice now she would have been shocked. Her voice had been hard when she had first revealed her anguished past, but that was the hardness of cast iron; solid yet brittle. Her resolve, tempered in the fires of friendship and by her death, was now steel, and her voice reflected this. It was as solid and immovable as a continent, and Xerox had to force himself to stand his ground, rage building, as she continued.

“You told us before that we lacked an element of courage. Yet courage isn’t an element; it’s not something any of us specialise in, it is something we all have. Any one of us would take my place here and be prepared to die for her friends. That is what our friendship is all about. Individually, we are weak and our power is far inferior to yours, yet together we are strong, and we will destroy you!”

Xerox attacked in a wordless fury. Arranged before him was everything he had sought to quash in his kingdom; defiance, friendship, hope and pride. He drew together all his power in one mighty bolt of pure magic. All his anger, all his rage, went into this missile as he launched it towards the grey pegasus who watched it calmly.

A magical surge announced the Elements of Harmony joining the battle and a multi-coloured whip knocked the missile out of the air.

They say that even a rat will fight in a corner. As the elements fired a rainbow bolt toward him, Xerox stood his ground and met it with a bolt of his own. For a timeless moment he stood, defiant, challenging even the power of the Elements. Then with an anguished cry his power failed. Now Derpy was forced to turn her head away as the ensuing explosion seared through her closed eyelids. The roar from the blast was huge, but she forced herself to stand and listen, then to open her eyes as the noise ended as quickly as it had come.

Applejack landed beside her with a thump and a puff of sand. Elsewhere the others landed, blackened and bruised by the fight, but alive. Derpy looked around and suddenly realised something. Her eyes were once again off-centre. Gone was the brief spell of normal vision, back came wall eyes, and never had she been so happy to have it back.

A few weeks ago she would have relished freedom from her condition, but Twilight and the others had treated her with friendship and equality despite it. Now she discovered that, in fact, she preferred herself to be like this. It was simply a part of who she was.

Unsurprisingly, there was no sign of Xerox. His death had ended his spell over the Replicus, and now they milled around in confusion amongst the remnants of Shuriken’s army. The unicorn herself seemed unaffected by the fight and was already addressing the mass of ponies.

“My friends,” she began, “You are here because you fell under the control of Xerox, a rouge unicorn who has since been defeated by these brave ponies you see before you.” Here she hesitated. “You see around you the underworld, the world of the dead. Some of you are dead, others aren’t. If you’re still alive, step over to the portal and we can take you home. Those of you who are dead, remain with me.” It was a very short speech and would be unlikely to go down in history, but a calm, authoritive voice was a welcome relief for many and they followed her orders without question.

Derpy moved over to Twilight. She was in the centre of a respectful ring of space as the remains of the two armies moved about. The unicorn groaned as she rose. “Did we… win?” she asked.

“Yep” replied Derpy happily. Normality also brought her thoughts back to their usual speed and only one was currently occupying her mind. “Can we go home now?”

“Yes,” agreed Rarity, rising. “Let’s. All this sand has ruined my mane!”

Twilight spluttered. After the seriousness of the past few weeks, to hear such a basically Rarity-ish statement was somehow hilarious. Her legs gave way through a combination of exhaustion and uncontrollable giggling, Derpy collapsed next to her and the others weren’t far behind. The next few minutes were spent rolling around in the sand, laughing uncontrollably under the gaze of an amused Shuriken.

“Girls?” Rarity pleaded. The unicorn was still upright and looked on with an affronted air. “Please?”

Applejack stood. “But Rarity!” she exclaimed, “we did it! We won! Ain’t that cause for some celebration?”

“I’m fine with celebration,” the unicorn replied, “but this is just rolling around in the sand! How… uncouth!”

Pinkie Pie rose up behind the unicorn. Sand covered her completely and poured off her in streams, giving her the appearance of some kind of sand demon. “Awwhh, you just need a big hug!” she exclaimed, doing just that.

Rarity’s screech of indignation was drowned out by more laughter from the others. After a few seconds Shurkien broke in.

“Girls? Can we get the portal open, please?”

“Yes ma’am!” Pinkie Pie went from lying down to standing up so fast that she didn’t seem to pass through the intervening space. She was also still holding Rarity and now proceeded to throw her at the portal with a cry of ‘incoming!’

Twilight was already there and deftly caught the flying unicorn. As their horns touched and minds linked she felt from Rarity an overwhelming desire to do something horrible to Pinkie Pie and almost lost the spell in her amusement.

Unsurprisingly, the Elements of Harmony had provided enough of a magical surge to fix the broken portal. Now all it needed was somepony ‘pure of heart’ to open it. They did so and stepped back expectantly.

With a huge surge of magic, nothing happened.

Twilight broke the silence after a moment’s hesitation “It’s… not working?” she said in confusion.

Shuriken was beside her. “It needs a sacrifice to fully open,” she said. Her voice was quiet but it rung out amongst the suddenly silent crowd.

“But…”

“Unless you want to open it like you did last time I suggest doing it the usual way” interrupted Shuriken. “You’ll need a living sacrifice to make it work. I’m sorry; it’s the way Xerox made it.”

There was a pause, an absolute silence. None of them wanted to volunteer, but none could face asking the question. Shuriken spoke again.

“I would… willingly be your sacrifice; I would love to do what I can to make up for the deaths I’ve caused over the years, but I can’t. Once you are all through the portal must be closed from this side, and I’m the only other one with strong enough magic to do it. I will remain here with those who are dead and close the portal behind you.”

Suddenly something struck Twilight. “’Those who are dead’?!” she exclaimed, “you mean the dead can’t pass this portal?”

“No,” replied Shuriken, confused at the sudden outburst, “their proximity to the portal upon death allowed them a stronger form here in the underworld, but they still can’t pass through back to the world of the living.”

“But…” Twilight turned to her friends, “you’re all…”

“Look again, Twilight.” Derpy said quietly. “I don’t really know what happened when you released the power of the Elements, but something certainly did happen. We’re all alive now.”

Twilight stared, dumbstruck. It was true. Her memory of defeating Xerox was hazy at best, but whatever she had done with the Elements had restored her friends to life. She hadn’t noticed the change because they had all been covered in sand, but now she knew her friends were alive. How had she missed their colours shining so brightly, even through the sandy mess that encased them?

“We still need a sacrifice, though…” she added, sadly. “It’s going to have to be one of us, isn’t it?”

“That depends,” came the reply. “Am I one of you?”

Ditto had been entirely forgotten for most of the fight, but now he raised his head from the sand and stood. Eight pairs of eyes went to him and he shivered but stood firm under the gazes. “I can be your sacrifice. Ever since Fluttershy showed me there is such a thing as kindness in this world I wanted to do something to make up for my father’s wrongs. Your world won’t want me. I’m a cripple, I’m the son of a murdering tyrant. Let me at least die in saving you all. Please?”

Twilight looked at the others, and their expressions said it all. She nodded once, too overcome by tears to speak.

“Very well.” Shuriken was touched by the heroism shown by the little pony, but sentimentality had never been a particular perk of hers. Brusqueness, however, was. “Just walk through the portal, Ditto, it’ll open around you.”

“What will happen to me?” the little pony asked. He was afraid but hid it well.

“I… I don’t know,” Shuriken replied. “I’m sorry”. Ditto nodded and approached the portal. Just before he reached it he was interrupted. Fluttershy landed beside him.

No words needed be said as the two ponies hugged. It was an embrace that went beyond mere words to mix a cocktail of joy and sadness that could end the world or rebirth it anew. Here, it seemed to say, is the end of a friendship. It was one tragically cut short, but the memory of the laughter and tears shared in the few days spent together would last a lifetime.

Rarity choked back a sob and buried her face in Twilight’s shoulder. Pinkie Pie, with the exact opposite reaction, laughed and gave Applejack a gleeful hug of her own, which the other earth pony awkwardly returned. Twilight heard from behind her a cry of ‘Derpy! Don’t you d-‘ from Rainbow Dash, abruptly cut off with a thump. She smiled and placed a hoof around Rarity’s shoulders, drying the unicorn’s tears, and together they faced the portal where Fluttershy and Ditto still embraced.

Eventually they broke apart. Ditto nodded once, turned quickly, lest his nerve fail him, and entered the swirling vortex.

The portal opened.