Looking to the night sky I located the few consistent stars Luna didn't shift at night and quickly found my bearings
With a sigh, I turned South East and made for Border-Town, the place of my downfall.

Thankfully I was only a few kilometres away.

I watched from my balcony as dozens of stars appeared in the sky simply to shoot away.

My dear little sister always did have an exquisite eye for beauty.

Heading back inside I figured she would appreciate me telling her what I thought of her display.

In a flash of magic I was outside a side door to the throne room.
Pushing it open, I saw a clearly unhappy Luna dealing with my repulsive nephew, Blueblood.
Having not noticed Me enter, she responded to whatever whiny excuse I'd missed with, "Why did you stop going to my sister's court and come to mine to bother ME with your petty complaints?"

Stepping back, offended, he whined, "How could you call the exuberant cost of theatre admission 'petty'?"

Stepping into view I interjected, "You may want to go home and rethink that argument, dear nephew."

After looking between the two of us, his expression became a foalish pout before he stormed off.

When the door to the throne room had stopped echoing from being slammed, Luna looked to me, asking, "How is that...that FOAL, related to us exactly."

Shaking my head I released a heavy sigh. "I can't remember, but I have no doubt HE knows."

Grumbling incoherently, she looked back towards the door.

"If it makes you feel any better, your display tonight was beautiful."

Her brow furrowed and she turned back to me. "What display?"

Raising an eyebrow, I said, "The collective of shooting stars. What else?"

Her expression went from confused to concerned and she answered, "Tia, I didn't make any such display tonight. Are you sure you are not just tired?"

Before I could respond a letter popped into existence in front of her.

As she finished reading it, she said, "I am unsure of what you and Princess Twilight saw tonight, but I believe it should be investigated."

Shooting me a deathly serious look, she continued, "If somepony has been playing with my night I will find them and put a stop to it."

As I strode through the ruins of Border-Town, I was mildly surprised that it wasn't rebuilt.

Making my way through the overgrown and crumbling town by memory alone I eventually reached the Town Hall.

Stepping inside I saw it had been somehow preserved.

Disinterested in the magic involved I continued to the only thing I cared about.
The statue of me in the centre of the room.

As I approached, I cast my mind towards it, feeling my mask inside.

Walking around to the back, where the stone was thinnest, I struck the statue with the armoured part of my fore-arm, causing a large segment to fall off the statue.
Seeing my mask in the space I'd created, I reached in and pulled, feeling more resistance than I had anticipated.

When it finally came free, I felt the relief of the countless souls within.

Running my thumb over the patterns on its surface, I almost put it on immediately, but stopped myself as a thought occurred to me.

Placing the mask over the statue's face, I opened the top of my clothes slightly and started grunting in pain as I forcefully rejected the amulet.
Dizzy from the pain, I quickly removed it and paused to catch my breath.

I looked down at the amulet and recalled all the times when its interference had near gotten me killed.

When I'd recovered, I grabbed my mask off the statue and pressed the 'jaw' of it against the amulet.

With a brief flash of crimson, the effect was almost instant.
The bright red of the amulet faded as if it had been left in the sun for weeks on end, the black took on a dull steel-grey appearance and spots of rust surfaced.

While I had long ago fallen to the corruption of the artefacts, no longer would they be tearing my mind in two as they fought for dominant control.
Now the mask held the power and the amulet was little more than a trinket.

Letting go, the amulet broke as it hit the ground.

With both hands, I turned the mask and slowly put it on, involuntarily shuddering as its power washed through me.

Releasing a breath I didn't know I was holding, I smiled, only to have my moment ruined by the crashing sound of the indoor balcony falling from its long held position.

Looking around, I saw all the destruction that had been paused for over a thousand years had finally continued its intended course.
The tapestries burned, supports cracked and with a little Will, there was a single area where segments of the roof and ceiling didn't fall after I left.

As I left the long dead town, I cast my thoughts to my weapons. I doubted the ponies, or any other race for that matter, knew how to destroy Old Kingdom weapons, so Sun Bitch would probably have them either stashed away somewhere or several somewheres.

But there was one weapon she couldn't have gotten. I'd left my long sword at my home the day I razed Border-Town, and the only way to reach it was through the Cullis Gates I'd left across the land, and the only way to use a Cullis Gate was to use Will. They didn't respond to pony magic of any kind.

I recalled there was one not too far from here.

I only hoped my home was still in one piece.

It had been hours since Celestia had brought the shooting stars to my attention, and my searches through the dreamscape had come up empty. Nopony had the power to shift them besides me, not even my dear sister. She could bring them forth, but lacked the fine control to move more than one or two in a night.

From what I could recall, there was only one thing even remotely similar, but what it implied was terrifying

"We wonder if there are any other worlds out there," I thought aloud.
A low chuckle from behind startled me, so I quickly got my hooves beneath me and wheeled around to see Jack standing there.
He had been here a little over three months and while generally charming, he was easily angered and very aggressive at times.

He casually strode over and sat with his legs over the edge of the roof we were on.

Still chuckling, he said, "My dear Luna, of course there are."

returning to my original lying position, I asked, "How doth thou know?"

"I've seen them. Been to them. Came from one."

I looked at him, shocked. "WHAT!?"

He started chuckling again. "Did you honestly assume I came from this world? No, there are many worlds out there and an infinite number of variations of them. Parallels, if you will."

Thinking this a boast I challenged, "Can thou prove it?"

Pulling his legs up from the edge, he stood and channelled his magic, Will, I'd heard him call it, and he became surrounded by a few dozen little spheres, each with a miniature image of his mask.

"These Orbs, as they are known, will make their way to variations of this world, so that any who so choose may either call me to their variant, or offer to temporarily join me in this one," he said before raising an arm, sending the Orbs skyward, where they gathered briefly before shooting away with contrails that made them seem similar to my own shooting stars.

By the time I had finished my recollection, I had reached the tower to lower the moon.

Proceeding with my duty, I then made my way to the grand hall where I already found Celestia with no less than a baker's dozen pancakes dripping with her unholy mixture of maple syrup, Golden Syrup, honey and, surprise surprise, sugar.

It gave me a toothache just thinking about it and, if I recalled correctly, the last non-alicorn to eat it was hospitalised.

Attempting to redirect my attention from the diabetes on a plate I said, "Good morning Tia. I believe I have figured out who was behind what you saw last night."

"Oh, and who might that be?" she asked with a forkful inches away from her mouth. I swear the tablecloth hissed as her mixture dripped onto it.

With a heavy sigh, I looked her in the eyes and said, "I'm afraid, Tia."

She resumed eating. "Why Lulu? You can tell me anything."

"I believe it was...him."

"Him? Who, Discord? You and I both know he wouldn't dream of angering you. Wait a minute," She said before suddenly taking on a truly disturbing smile and continuing, "I know that look. Who is the stallion and did you let him make-"

"JACK, Tia!" I interrupted.

After her eyes briefly flashed with what was either fear or anger, she became serious and asked, "What was that?"

"I think it was Jack."

"Are you sure?"

"I am."

Having apparently lost her appetite, she pushed her plate away saying, "For both our sakes, I hope you're wrong."

It took me near on an hour to find the bloody thing, but I did it.

While most of the surrounding structure had deteriorated over time, the large, circular gold plate was untarnished.

Placing a hand on one of the stones, I felt it had near completely run out of power.

Channelling my Will into it, a soft glowing mist slowly started to form on the base-plate and grow into a small column.
When it had absorbed enough power, the mist was a little taller than me.

Stepping into it I Felt the expected disorientation that was associated with spacial displacement.

Stepping out of the receiving Cullis Gate into my home beneath the Badlands I stopped dead with my right eye twitching.

"What in the world?"

Author's Notes:

Ah, it's good to be back.
I'm surprised to see the faves didn't stop rolling in, but I'm sure as hell not gonna complain.

I apologise to you all for taking so long, even after I got a new laptop replaced by insurance.
I've been trying to work out how to operate Windows 8.

So far, it's been touch and go.

Anyways, I hope you all like the new chapter, despite it being a bit...gentler than the previous ones, but I assure you, that will change with the next chapter.
Speaking of which, I would like to know if I should change the tag from 'teen' to 'mature' for gore. Sex will still be references and double entendres.