Between

by TheMajorTechie

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Science Fiction, Twilight Sparkle, Dark, Alternate Universe
Length: 1422

Twilight Sparkle falls through the cracks.

It was as if the world had set itself aflame. Fleets upon fleets of airships darkened the skies, sent by a powerful fragment of what had once been Equestria's nobility--sent with the intent to take back Canterlot once and for all.

And yet...

After the sky tore open...

Nothing was left.

Prior reading of Splintershard is not required. This story deals primarily with content only from the final scene of the last chapter, and is not canon to the rest of the story.

A highly experimental multi-narrative style fic written for Bicyclette's Science Fiction Contest III.

Published 2024-05-06 05:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-05-06 05:50:01 UTC

The End

The swirling vortex of magenta fizzles out. Twilight stands alone, panting.

It's over.

Tendrils of shadow zig-zag before her eyes as she turns.

For sure, it's over.

All this war. All this destruction...

All because she stepped down centuries ago?

She sits on the ground, the grass brushing against her haunches as she watches what remains.

Just a few minutes prior, a second sun had formed on the horizon.

Only darkness lingers now.

They'd really done it.

In her absence, they harvested the very magic of the Tree of Harmony.

What's left of it, at least.

And turned it into a tool.

A beam of milky-black nothingness pierces her through the chest.

No.

A weapon.

To think she left Equestria in good hooves.

The ray of shadow fades, dissipating as if reality itself stitched itself whole again.

More wandering tendrils hang in the air.

It's over.

She closes her eyes.

Canterlot for sure is gone. Incinerated.

And subsequently enveloped in that same void that now spiderwebs through the air.

It's gone.

Another beam of darkness pierces her.

This time, she feels it.

Reminisce

Twilight wondered if this was how it felt to Rarity when she cut her fabric.

A straight, clean, cut.

Not through silk.

Not through linen.

Not through wool nor cotton nor paper.

No, this was fabric of the dimensional kind.

She stared into the gaping tear she'd created. Where before, the lines drifted and flowed like strings floating in water, this...

She narrowed her eyes.

Her vision went black.

The Void

It's strange.

Staring from the outside in.

I'm not sure if there's a when anymore, let alone a where.

I've watched myself in that exact moment more times than I can count.

Every single time, I'm swallowed by the darkness.

Is it normal to feel this detached?

Were the thoughts that passed through my head every single one of those times really mine from those moments?

Or are they only projections of my current self?

Staring from the outside in.

I tumble out of the crack from where I'd been watching. It's the same every time.

I pick me up from the endless expanse of nothingness, and I disappear.

I wonder if anypony else is here?

The crack opens again. As always, it begins as only a little sliver of light.

I walk away this time.

From The Top

Twilight watched the clock tick backward alongside her many duplicates.

An explosion, but in reverse.

Airships drifted backward at accelerating speeds. Faster, faster.

And then they were gone.

Further and further back.

Backward trains.

Backward ships.

Backward walking, talking, flying.

The world blurred by in its ever-accelerating backwardness.

Twilight turned her head.

All of the other Twilights were gone. The ramshackle hut they'd constructed in the time they spent in the void--gone. The one and only other pony she'd met aside from herself this entire time--

Gone.

All that remained was a... throne?

A brisk tap of a hoof against the polished floor tore her mind back to the present.

The present.

Did time stop reversing?

Why was Starlight Glimmer here? Why was she holding a clipboard? What--

"Equestria to Twilight, hello--" Starlight stamped her hoof on the floor again. "You were saying something about stepping down? You sorta just... spaced out for a while there. I know the disappearance of Fluttershy was hard on you with her being the last of the other Eleme--"

"Wait."

Starlight shifted her gaze with a side-eye toward Twilight.

"Fluttershy disappeared? Didn't Discord transform her--"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Twi," Starlight flipped her clipboard around. "Spike just reported back from Ponyville that her cottage has been abandoned. No sign of Discord anywhere either if you're gonna ask."

"What about Sunset? Where's Suns--"

"Twilight," Starlight cut in again. "Please. One thing at a time. You look like you've seen the end of time itself. I'll get you something to drink. You stay right there."

Starlight cantered off to who-knows-where.

This... Twilight blinked, taking in the sun--the real, actual sun--filtering in through the stained glass windows.

This is her second chance, isn't it?

The Darkness

It's strange.

I stare at the beam of darkness that embedded itself in my body. I can feel it, but it doesn't hurt.

My hoof passes right through it.

My magic cannot grasp it.

The darkness thickens and shifts. Where it once pierced my body, it now envelops my hoof.

...

...

I can't feel my hoof.

Like Threads Torn Asunder

I can't feel my hoof.

I can't feel my hoof.

I can't feel my hoof.

Okay. Calm down, Twilight. You've lived for more years than you've bothered to count at this point. You've faced down world-ending threats before.

Keep.

Your head.

Cool.

I can't feel my hoof.

Well pull it out then, idiot.

But I can't.

Like, it's stuck.

The harder I pull, the more it feels like I'm about to tear it clean off.

The void that's consumed my limb tightens further.

I suck in a breath and feel for its edges. Or whatever equivalent it has to them.

Bingo.

My hoof comes free.

But it's the least of my worries.

Outin Side

"Hello?"

"Who's there?"

"It's me."

"Oh, hello, me."

"Are you me too?"

"I think so. Which me is me and which me is you?"

"I don't know."

"Me is you?"

"Me is you."

"How do you keep finding me, me?"

"I don't know. I just do."

"Hello!"

"Is that another me?"

"...No."

You

"Who are you?"

The filly remains unconscious.

Twilights wait patiently.

They watch as tears open and close like a grand show of lights.

"Where do you come from?"

The filly remains unconscious.

"Hello!"

The filly remains unconscious.

The filly remains unconscious.

The filly remains unconscious.

Whiplash

Every day, Gadget likes to play!

Hide-and-seek beneath the couch!

Running all around!

Pushing buttons! Flicking switches! Drawing to her heart's content!

She!

Is!

Happy!

Twilights step away from the filly.

She is not a me and mes cannot save a you like her.

Maybe.

The filly stirs.

De-con-struct

Author's Note

It may be preferable to use Fimfiction's TTS reader for this chapter.

De-con-struct

Have you

ever

felt like

you are drifting

away?

Like a part of you was

wrenched out

without any

prior war

ning?

I look at

the many

mes

that have come to gather

around

me.

Shift-Step Perspective

You stare at the mirror.

It isn't exactly a mirror, but it'd may as well be one.

You turn your cheek. The phantom behind the glass does the same.

The other cheek.

The action is mirrored.

A creak groans through your home.

What's left of it, at least.

The light flickers. You look out the window.

The sun sputters back into existence.

Then out again.

The house jostles. You brace yourself against the sink, flailing a hoof to the shelf you'd just reorganized before anything can tumble.

You fail.

You fail.

You fail.

A knock comes at your window.

They fail.

Failed to steer this decrepit building away from the drifting debris.

Failed to make something of your time here, alone.

Failed to... failed to what, exactly?

Exist?

No.

You frown, staring at your phantom through the mirror once more.

You respond to yourself with a smile.

Failed to fail?

Is that even possible?

Can you fail at failing?

What?

A tendril of darkness traces across your reflection. Your actual reflection.

A knock at the window, again.

It's you.

You cannot hear what you say, but you read your own lips. Or at least, you try to.

"Escape."

Escape?

"Escape."

gninnigeB ehT

"Woah."

"Woah?"

"Woah. It's been... far too long."

"Since when? Or what, I guess."

"The sun. The real sun."

"It doesn't flicker."

"It sure doesn't. It feels... nice."

"Well done on the steering."

"Thanks. We picked up a straggler along the way, too."

"More Twilights?"

"Not more Twilights. Not Ravens either before you ask."

"Gadget?"

"Gadget."

"Just the one?"

"Yeah. Just the one. She's been sleeping since we found her."

"Anypony else?"

"No."

"What's that in the distance? Another makeshift hut?"

"...No. Look what surrounds it."

"The darkness."

"The darkness."

"Do we think it will return?"

"Maybe not. Hopefully not. Look, it's dissipating."

"Let's hope."

"...It's gone."

"It's gone?"

"It's gone! Gone! Look, everypony! Look!"

"It's getting so bright..."

"Too bright."

"Airships?"

"Wait, airships? Wh--the light? It wasn't the sun?"

"Flames. Flames in a city, turning everything to ash. We're back where we started."