M.U.C.

“Goddamn this infernal toas-“ Celestia yelled before being electrocuted for the fifth time that day. In the blackness of the afterlife the alicorn saw the Cosmic Infinity. She waited for a few seconds, and then hit the restart button.

“You know, you could just smash it with a wooden mallet,” Luna suggested as her sister phased into existence beside her. They stood alone in the Great Hall.

“And I could also banish it to the moon if I so wished,” Celestia retorted. “Because that worked out so well with you.” The princess of the night shrugged, and watched as her sister stormed off in the direction of the kitchens once more. Celestia was really pushing this whole immortality thing. Another few screams and flashes of light later, Luna got bored and wandered off.

“Ah, so the fork doesn’t work either. Crafty little bastard, shooting lightning like that,” Celestia muttered to herself as she materialized again. The princess strode off again towards the kitchens, nearly kicking the doors down once she arrived. It looked like a battlefield inside. Pieces of metal were embedded in the walls, scorch marks lined the floors, and crumbs were sprayed all across the counters. Celestia marched right up to the cause of all this destruction, levitating a sharp knife towards its smooth metallic surface.

“Any last words?” Silence was the answer the mechanical monstrosity gave. Celestia swung the knife into the slit atop it, trying to rip apart the evil thing’s insides. Lightning shot forth from the beast and struck the princess directly in the chest. Convulsing, she fell back into the darkness. The last thing she heard was a victorious ding! before the blackness fully took her.

“Smug little bastard!” Celestia yelled from the afterlife. Sighing, she searched about for the Cosmic Infinity. However, she couldn’t find the little grey box. Maybe she had finally killed herself for good. But no, there, off in the distance she could see the device resting atop a table, next to a black box. As she approached the table she noticed that the box was flashing words. The text blinked rapidly, ticking across the side of the box.

“Warning,” Celestia read. “Enlightenment needed. Existence cancelation pending.” The princess watched the message scroll by a few more times to make sure she had read it correctly. “Well, that doesn’t sound good.” Celestia turned to the Cosmic Infinity and pressed the reset. When she stood again in the castle she did not head immediately for the kitchens. She had died a total of eight times that day so far, and only that last time had that message appeared. What had changed?

“Sis, I think you should come see this,” Luna called from the other end of the large room. “Something’s happened to the sky.”

“I haven’t been gone long enough for the sun to drop have I?” Celestia asked confused as she walked over towards her sister.

“Just look outside,” Luna said, gesturing in the direction of the window. Celestia noticed the slightest tremble in the princess of the night’s voice. What could shake up her sister? The white alicorn looked out the window. At first she couldn’t see it. She stared up at the sky, trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Then it hit her; there was no sky.

"But… how?” she whispered to herself. She continued to look upwards. No sun, no moon, no stars. No black or blue or white or any other color a sky should rightly be. It wasn’t even a color it shouldn’t have been. There was just nothing.

“You can’t simply have nothing. You have to have a sky. There isn’t even space! Nothing,” Celestia said, turning to her sister. Luna just nodded.

“Try to connect to the sun.” Celestia did, and succeeded. “Now point to where it should be.” Celestia did this as well, her hoof gesturing to an empty patch of nothing.

“I can feel it, but I can’t see it,” she said. “Look, it’s still casting shadows and everything! I can the heat from it through this window,” the princess said, pressing a hoof against the glass. “I just can’t see it.”

“And I can feel the moon,” Luna said. “But I have a feeling it will not show in the sky.” The princess of the night shivered. “Something is terribly wrong, sister. It’s as if the sun and moon exist, but not the sky they move across.” That sparked Celestia’s memory. She told her sister about the message she had seen on the black box. Luna’s mouth fell open.

“Luna, what did that message mean?” Celestia asked her sister tentatively.

“It means we need to find Lyra as soon as possible,” Luna said. “Preferably before we all disappear like that sky.” Celestia shook her head.

“But how can Lyra help us? And which one was she again?” the princess asked. Luna ignored her, motioning a nearby guard towards the pair. The guard saluted smartly.

“Yes, Luna?”

“Go find the unicorn Lyra. It is of the utmost importance to the kingdom.” Luna hesitated. “And call in the one known as Pinkie Pie as well.” The guard nodded, and bolted off. Luna turned back towards her sister.

“You see,” she explained, “we need to break a few dimensions.”