The group of survivors made their way steadily through the ruins of Canterlot city, hopefully closing in on the mall, though they still were unsure of exactly where they were. Strangely, there didn’t seem to be many people around, corrupted people, that is. Ever since discovering Trixie, and subsequently proving that those afflicted could in fact be saved, they had yet to come upon any more, which was as comforting as it was concerning. For one, it meant that after a while the group could move out in the open and not worry as much about having to fight any more of them, but at the same time, where had they gone?

“Hey, Sweet Leaf, do you have any idea how much longer until we reach the mall?” Wallflower asked, moving to the left side of her friend, who was currently looking down at her phone scrolling through her map and occasionally glancing up to search for named landmarks or street signs.

“Ummm. . .” Sweet Leaf replied, looking up from her phone towards an oncoming street sign. “Keep going in a straight line past Frederick street, then take a right at. . .” She said, to no one in particular. “We should only be a couple miles out by now.” She said in answer to Wallflower’s question.

“Hey, guys, what’s that coming up?” Flash’s voice cut through the air from his position at the front. “Straight ahead. It looks like something floating above the ground.”

“Floating?” Starlight asked, moving from her spot towards the middle of the group to where Flash was at the front, squinting her eyes to look at the object in the distance. “I can’t make it out from this distance, should we go check it out?”

“We don’t have much of a choice.” Sweet Leaf chimed in. “Whatever it is is on the route that takes us to the mall, so you better hope its friendly.”

Flash and Starlight exchanged uneasy looks, before turning their attention back to the object of their fascination that was slowly but surely growing bigger as they walked towards it.

As the object grew closer, so did the intrigue and confusion of everyone in the group as they were able to make it out more clearly. Words failed all of them as a way of describing it, as all it seemed like was a patch of static floating a few feet above the ground. The first thing their minds jumped to was corruption, but whatever this was didn’t match that description. In contrast to the dark, oil like corruption that glitched and pixelated in all different colors, this was more akin to TV static, the kind you’d see on older cable TVs whenever they’d lose signal. In addition to the rift itself, the surrounding area seemed to be affected by it, the surrounding buildings, road and sidewalk all missing chunks that were both spread out all around the rift and some nowhere to be found, as though the pieces had been sucked into it.

Drawing even closer, they began to also notice a rough border surrounding it, resembling cracks like glass that arced around the outside.

“Is that. . . a portal?” Aria asked, noticing the similarities in the way it looked. Now able to see it clearly, that was certainly the impression they got from it. It was as though someone had taken a hammer to reality itself and cracked it like glass, revealing the static nonsense that resulted from such a disturbance. Although portal was the first thing they thought when looking at it, what lay in front of them more closely resembled a rift of sorts.

“I’m- not sure.” Flash said, bringing a finger up to his chin in thought for a moment. “Hey, Wallflower, Trixie, Sweet Leaf, doesn’t this thing look similar to those rifts midnight sparkle opened up? At the end of the friendship games?”

“Ugh, how could I forget.” Trixie said, moving towards Flash in front of the rift. “I get what you’re saying, it does have a striking resemblance, but that’s about it. Didn’t those rifts just lead to that alternate world where we’re all ponies and such?”

“Yeah, but it’s the only thing that kind of makes sense.” Flash said, before Trixie let out a groan and brought a hand to the side of her head that was still coated in corruption. “You okay Trixie?” He asked.

“Y-yeah, I-i’m f-f-fine.” She managed to say, her voice beginning to glitch caausing her words to become extremely drawn out “I-i think this rift is m-messing with me somehow. . .” She trailed off, continuing to hold her head. To the worry of everyone around her, the corruption that still lay on the left side of her face suddenly became much more active, causing her hair and eye on that side of her face to start glitching and flashing uncontrollably, though surprisingly Trixie didn’t seem to notice this.

“Uh, Trixie? You still with us?” Wallflower asked cautiously.

“I’m fine!” Trixie blurted out before regaining her composure. “I’m fine, not gonna let this stupid sludge on my face win. Should probably get away from it though, just in case.” She said, turning away from the rift and walking in the opposite direction, still seeming unwell.

Flash watched Trixie walk off for a few seconds, followed shortly after by Sweet Leaf, presumably to make sure she was okay. He turned back towards the rift. “Anyone have any ideas what to do? I wanna say we get rid of it somehow, but. . .” He trailed off.

“I know this is gonna sound crazy, but I kinda wanna know what’s on the other side.” Sunset chimed in.

“-That’s because it is.” Adagio replied. “And how do you suppose we find out? By stepping through? Sorry, but that’s gonna be a hard pass from me.”

“How about we throw something into it?” Starlight said, appearing from behind Sunset carrying a moderately sized rock, presumably a piece of rubble from a nearby building.

“I guess it’s worth a shot.” Flash said. “Go ahead then.” He said, stepping away from the rift. Starlight walked up, proceeding to hold her arm back and then throw the rock with as much force as she was able. To the shock of everyone, the rock stopped moving almost immediately upon crossing the boundary, rotating slowly in one place as though there was no gravity, before vanishing in a small flash of light.

“Are we sure that this thing is really just static?” Sunset said. “It looks flat, but, that rock was still there, floating.”

“I don’t suppose there’s anyone willing to stick their head in and find out?” Starlight said.

“I will!” Diamond said.

“That doesn’t sit right with me.” Wallflower responded. “You’re just a child, Diamond, if anything happens. . .”

“I’ll be fine, listen.” Diamond said. “How about one of you holds my arm and I just stick half my body through, that way if anything happens you can just pull me back out.”

“I mean, as long as you’re okay with it.” Aria said. “I’ll volunteer to be your spotter.”

Diamond cautiously made her way until she was face to face with the rift, followed by Aria who quickly grasped her right arm firmly around the wrist. Diamond looked back towards Aria, who gave her a reassuring nod. After raking a deep breath, Diamond took the plunge, dipping her head and the upper half of her body through the rift. The group watched anxiously for a few seconds, waiting.

“Woah!” Diamond suddenly exclaimed.

“Do you need me to pull you out?” Aria asked.

“No, I’m good! You guys have to see this!” Diamond exclaimed.

Flash and Wallflower exchanged nervous looks. “Well, I mean, as long as Diamonds okay, then I don’t see the harm in taking a quick peek.” She said, moving towards the rift and poking her head through. Flash watched in awe as her face and then her hair seemed to melt into it, leaving only her upper body and legs visible for a few seconds until she came back out. “Woah.” She said with wide eyes.

“What?” Flash asked. “What’s on the other side?”

“I-it’s like-” Wallflower started. “it’s just more of that static, everywhere you look, until you look down that is.”

“What do you see looking down?”

“There’s all these- islands of sorts, just floating. I’m pretty sure there’s no gravity too, because as soon as I peeked my head through my hair started to float, really weird feeling. And those islands. . . they were like, chunks of cityscape. Some of them had pieces of road on them, some had houses on them, and some of the bigger ones had whole buildings!” She spread her arms out and gestured to the ruined cityscape surrounding them. “It was literally like if someone ripped buildings, houses, roads, and the ground beneath them out, and them threw them into outer space!”

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Flash said in a mixture of confusion and disbelief.

“Join the club.” Adagio chimed in, waving a hand dismissively. “It’s not like anything else has made sense recently”

“Do you wanna see it?” Wallflower asked Flash.

“No, I think I’m good, thanks.” He replied.

“Diamond, are you almost done?” Aria said with impatience.

“Sure, you can pull me out.” She responded. Aria tugged on her arm, causing the rest of Diamonds body that was inside the rift to emerge with a small pop.

Starlight spoke up. “Cool, so we’ve found a weird portal-rift thingy that leads to a void of unending static that has no gravity and floating islands with buildings on them, what are we supposed to do now?”

“Close it, maybe?” Flash replied.

“And how do you suppose we do that, Flash?” Adagio said. “Again, none of us have magic, and I feel like that’s a requirement this time around.”

“Well, we’ve made it this far without magic, haven’t we?” He said. “If we managed to save Trixie from the clutches of the corruption all on our own, then closing a tear in reality shouldn’t be that difficult. How about we just try to, uh, pull it closed? Like this.” He said, stepping back in front of the rift and grabbing one of the far edges with his hands and pulling. “Well, come on!” He said.

Reluctantly, the rest of the group followed his example, gathering around the rift and grabbing the edges wherever they could.

“Now pull!” Flash exclaimed. All at once they began pulling, at first to no avail. As time passed though, Flash noticed the area he was pulling on start to move, bending and giving in under his hands like paper. “It’s working! Just keep going!” He exclaimed. They all continued to strain as they used all their might, more sections of the rift starting to crumple under the force of the group.

“This isn’t gonna work!” Adagio said in-between labored breaths.

“Yes it will, just keep going!” Flash yelled back. After a little while longer, none of them had much strength left in them, and they had only succeded in moving the edges a few inches. Flash considered quitting, but before he could say anything, he noticed two more pairs of hands grab on on either side of him. Trixie and Sweet Leaf. Without saying a word, they quickly added their strength to the effort. A few seconds later, a loud cracking noise could be heard over the sound of their straining, and especially with Trixie’s help, Flash noticed, they suddenly started making great progress.

“Come on! Just a little more!” Wallflower cried out. With one last coordinated effort, they succeeded, the edges of the rift suddenly giving way under their combined strength and causing the rift to collapse in on itself with a loud THWOOM,
creating a shockwave that threw the group of survivors back onto the pavement of the road below. There they lay for a while, all of them too spent to say anything immediately after.

“I can’t believe that actually worked.” Aria said once she’d had time to breathe.

Wallflower began to stand back up. “Hey, Trixie, are you okay now? Y’know, now that the rift thing is gone?”

Trixie stood up beside her. “Yeah, thanks.” She said, looking down at her hands. “I actually feel better than I did before, stronger.” She said in an awe-struck voice.

“Yeah, I noticed that!” Flash exclaimed while he got to his feet. “It was only when you joined that we were actually able to close it, so maybe being partially corrupted made you stronger! Or perhaps you still having it on you meant you could interact with it in a way none of us could!”

“Ha Ha!” Trixie exclaimed, pumping her fists. “Trixie really is great and powerful now!”

“I don’t think you should be celebrating, Trixie.” Sweet Leaf said, her and the rest of the group now standing upright again. “I don’t think you still having that stuff on you is a good thing, even if it apparently makes you stronger than the rest of us. We still have no idea what the stuff even is, much less what it’s capable of!”

“I have to agree with her on that.” Adagio said. “You might be fine now Trixie, but what if something happens and you become one of them? I for one don’t like our odds if she turns and we have to fight her if she’s stronger than the rest of us.”

“So what are you suggesting then? We leave her?” Sweet Leaf said.

“I dunno! Maybe?!” Adagio said, throwing her hands up and walking away. “All I’m saying is that I think she’s dangerous and can’t be trusted, for all we know she might still be under the influence of the stuff and is just waiting for the right moment.” Trixie looked away and down towards the ground in shame and hurt.

“We’re not leaving her.” Flash said in an authoritative voice, stepping in front of her. “If she really was still one of them, she wouldn’t have helped us close the rift or walked away from it when it started messing with her, because apparently there’s some sort of connection there none of us understand yet.”

Adagio turned back around to face Flash. “Fine, I was just saying that this really doesn’t sit right with me. Can we at least all agree to keep a very close eye on her?”

“If that’ll make you more comfortable, sure.” Flash said with an eye roll. “I think you’re being too pessimistic, Adagio. Look at the positives here, Trixie might be our best shot at continuing to survive, since she has control over it to some degree. If we can find Sunset and her friends, then maybe Trixie having first-hand experience will help them understand it better and figure out a way to stop it.”

Adagio didn’t respond.

"There, then it's settled." Flash said after a brief silence. "Now, on to the mall!"

Author's Note

This is likely the final update this story will receiving, at least for a while while I switch focus to my bigger fic and other sidestory, Simulation. I’m still going to leave this story marked as incomplete though, because it’s entiely possible I might come back here, just again, not anytime soon as I write this.

This chapter is also the first one that directly links this fic to When Darkness Falls because of the use of The Void which comes directly from the storyline I have established over there, so if you haven’t read my much bigger story and would like a more complete picture of what the void is, I’d definitely suggest doing that.

Besides moving on to writing Simulation, I’m also going to be going back and updating When Darkness Falls over the next few weeks, re-editing or re-writing some parts and adding some new stuff to get it on the front page again and hopefully bring more traffic to this side story and the one coming up.

An idea I have floating around while I plan Simulation is making use of background music a little more. I’ve already experimented with it a bit on this fic by having it in the beginning of chapter 2, but moving forward I want to make it part of the story a bit more. Simulation as I’m planning it now will be a bit darker than this one was, but not quite enough to make an M rating necessary. Just as a little sneak peak, here’s the names of a few intrumentals I’m considering adding to it.

Hellhole

Umbra

Versiculus Iratus

Unknown Suffering

As I stated in the last chapter, Simulation is going to focus entirely on what happened to Bon Bon in this fic (spoiler alert, it’s a lot worse than what happened to Trixie), and will explore another of the various methods the darkness uses to subdue its victims and keep them firmly under its control, hence why the titles of these intrumentals might sound a bit dark.

Anyway, I hope all of you have enjoyed reading! And I look forward to sharing with you all what I have in store for the coming months! A little goal I have for myself is to get When Darkness Falls to the featured page at least once by the end of the year, so expect a lot of work to be done by then.