Twilight stared into the book. Her eyes had mostly lost the ability to focus. She had not slept in three days. Although she was aware alicorns apparently did not actually need to sleep, she still felt a powerful urge to do so. She also knew that sleep would be impossible, not with this many books unread.

The effect of Crimsonflame’s library was something akin to spending a life living in a well-worn home, only to one day find a door that led to the rest of the house- -and realizing that the total house was five times larger than one had previously expected.

There were always legends, and theories, of course. Most of them were obscure, or widely forgotten, or even discredited. Only a truly dedicated student would have ever bothered to seek out stories of mythical battles or tales of strange skeletons, or spells that no pony could ever possibly perform. Twilight had been that student. Even then, what she had seen was only a fraction of what had been available.

The most difficult thing had been focusing herself. These books were on numerous subjects, ranging from her favorite subject, magic, to others of great importance regarding the rich and ancient cultures of long-dead civilizations. Celestia was counting on her, though, so Twilight had done her best not to distracted and limit herself only to the most recent books, those concerning the Choggoth War.

Twilight closed the book she had been looking at and yawned. She stood up and jumped off the edge of the table onto one of the dragon-sized chairs, and then to the floor. She made her way through the stacks, relishing being surrounded by the strange books. Even their smell was different, but somehow familiar. Regardless of what they were made of, books still smelled of knowledge and quiet peace.

The library had numerous levels in its wide spiral, but no railings. Twilight reached the edge of one level and, being careful not to fall, looked down. Below, Crimsonflame was attempting to teach Spike a spell. Twilight felt a pang of disappointment in herself. She had never realized that Spike had the capacity for magic, and she had never even thought to try to teach him. Not that she necessarily had the ability to do so; after reading and failing to understand several Draconian magical manuals, she had realized that dragon magic was vastly different from pony magic.

She started down the ramp toward the ground floor, but then remembered that she had wings. She spread them and fluttered to the ground below- -or at least tried to. To the outside observer, it probably looked more like plummeting. She landed inverted, her feet kicking against air as her wings held her in the opposite direction of normal landing.
“Twilight,” said Spike, approaching where she had landed. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, managing to flip herself over and straighten her feathers. “I just don’t know how Rainbow Dash does it.”

“Well, she is a professional,” said Spike, helping Twilight the rest of the way up. “I mean, literally. She is a professional at flying.”

“I know, Spike.” Twilight turned her attention to Crimsonflame, who now seemed to be staring forward- -or at least one of her eyes was. The other was looking off at something else, and reminded Twilight of a certain pony back in Ponyville.

“Um…excuse me, Grand Magus?” she said.

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle,” said Crimsonflame, almost sounding somewhat annoyed.

“I found a lot of information, and your library is amazing. But the history seems…incomplete.”

“It is as complete as I can get it.”

“I know, I know, and by no means was I trying to insult the quality or…quantity…of your books. They truly are wonderful. But I was trying to find books on the end of the Choggoth War, and there…well, I can’t seem to find any. Not even in the post-war wing.” Which, of course, was less a wing and more of a large closet filled with heavily charred books in ancient pony script. “All I could find were fragments.”

“Because those books no longer exist.”

“No longer exist? What happened to them?”

“They were destroyed.”

“Destroyed?” said Twilight, feeling a wave of sadness pass over her. The idea of innocent books being destroyed was a tragedy- -books that had spent their entire lives for no other reason but to edify ponies only to be ended by some accident or fire. “Destroyed by what?”

“By ponies.”

The sadness at the thought of destroyed books hardened into something like a stone in Twilight’s throat. Destroyed books were one thing, but books that were killed voluntarily were something entirely different. The idea was abhorrent, like the thought of murdering helpless animals.

“Why would ponies destroy books?” sputtered Twilight, with a mixture of sadness and rage that Crimsonflame would even suggest that such a thing was possible. “Especially books so old and important!”

“Knowledge control, perhaps. Or anger, or spite. I do not know. I was not conscious at the end of the war. Every record of those events was kept by Single Horn. When her dynasty failed in the time of Third Horn, the books that the Imperial Family possessed were burned.”

“Burned?” said Twilight, feeling faint.

“I awoke much later. I know as much about the end as you do. However…” she exhaled into her hand, and the smoke condensed into a wide flat sheet. She handed it to Twilight. “This was left at what I am sure many expected to be my grave, preserved until my awakening.”

She handed the sheet to Twilight, and Twilight took it in her magic. It was made of the same material as the pages in the books, but was not covered in text. Twilight realized that it was a photograph- -but not the kind that ponies took with film and chemicals. It had instead been taken by magic, and the forms imprinted on it were infinitely clearer and more lifelike.

Crimsonflame drew a long claw over the figure and tapped the image of the pony in the center. “That was her,” she said, her voice sounding heavy.

Twilight looked down at the picture carefully. In the center, where Crimsonflame had pointed, was the image of a gray mare. Everything about her was gray- -her coat, her mane, and her eyes. She was dressed in some kind of ancient-looking armor. Twilight realized that, as Single Horn’s name implied, she was indeed a unicorn.

She was not alone in the picture, however. Flanking her were two ponies- -one another unicorn with a pale, almost pinkish coat color, smiling weakly as another somewhat larger dark-colored pony put her forelegs around her and Single Horn. The form of the nearly-black pony was grotesque; her skin was covered in ugly, jagged scars, and one of her eyes was missing. It also appeared that her horn had at one point been snapped off, a torment that Twilight knew meant lifelong recurring spells of agony.

On Immediately on Single Horn’s right was another pony, who appeared to be completely dressed in thin, stone-like armor. No part of her skin was exposed aside from a single eye that stared through a hole in her flat, faceless helmet, and from that eye, Twilight knew that she was smiling.

Further left was an earth pony, but, assuming that the unicorns were of similar size, one that was much smaller than any pony she had ever met. She was narrow and white, with a cutie mark of an oak leaf. That pony was not a child, either; although she was barely the size of Applejack’s dog Wynona, she had the proportions of a fully adult pony.

The final figure in the image was on the far right, and something that Twilight did not recognize at all. It was substantially larger than any pony, and its body seemed to be covered in a hard, smooth gray shell that was reminiscent of some kind of crustacean. Still, it had four legs tipped with hoofs, and a pair of goat-like eyes that seemed to have a glimmer of sentience in them, and Twilight’s mind suddenly made the connection that it must be a cerorian, one of the extinct species of proto-ponies that had once ruled Equestria.

“These must have been her friends,” said Twilight, smiling.

“I know,” said Crimsonflame. “That she had such allies in the twilight of her life has given me great consolation throughout the centuries. This image is all she left me, and it is more than enough.”

“Thank you for showing it to me,” said Twilight, returning the photograph. It did not help her, but it did remind her of her own friends. Friends who were waiting for her. “Spike,” she said, “get my notes. I think I have enough now. We’re going back to Canterlot.”

“Right,” said Spike, running off to get the copious notes that Twilight had taken. He stopped suddenly. “How are we supposed to get back again?”

“I will handle this,” said Crimsonflame, smiling mischievously.

“Princess,” said one of the bat-winged guards, a look of concern spreading over his face. “Please reconsider. Please, do not ask us to leave you.”

“Darksense,” said Luna, “And Silentwing. Please. Please grant me this request. There is something that I must do.”

“As you wish, your highness,” said one of the two chiropterans. They bowed, and then hestitated, perhaps longer than they should have. Luna knew that she was breaking their hearts, forcing them to abandon her, but there was no other way.

Eventually they returned to the royal chariot and connected themselves to it. They spread their wings and pulled it into the night sky. Luna watched them go, and, even after they were out of sight, continued to stare up at the sky. The beautiful night sky; what she had spent her life perfecting, her ultimate creation. The care of her masterpiece had fallen to Celestia, now.

Luna turned her attention to the tree-like crystal castle near her. She stepped toward it, and felt her legs go out from under her. It had taken all her strength to appear to be healthy and vigorous before her guards, even though in truth it seemed that they already knew of her weakness. Without them watching, there was little motivation to maintain the charade.

Except for one. A single, all-important reason that drove Luna to stand, and to cross Twilight Sparkle’s courtyard toward the Castle of Friendship.

The castle itself had largely been abandoned. It had never been filled with much of anything, and under Celestia’s orders, Twilight’s friends had been moved to Canterlot to ensure their safety. The empty, lightless halls now stood silent and barren, their cold emptiness the antithesis to what they were meant to represent.

Through this emptiness walked Luna. Her silver-clad feet clicked on the floor, echoing throughout the void around her. She had bathed and donned her royal shoes, as well as her obsidian crown. The only part of her royal attire that was missing was her black necklace, which was still replaced by the machine that pulsed in the darkness, filling it with strange light that drove back shadows both mental and real.

At first, Luna was not sure where to look, and the fatigue of her condition started to take over. She could feel one of the shadows staring back at her, watching, waiting. A shadow that she knew she needed to stop.

Luna focused her mind and ignored Nightmare Moon. She instead thought about Twilight Sparkle, the violet alicorn who was her sister’s pupil and also one of Luna’s first friends in the new era. She knew Twilight, and knew that she was not born to royalty and not a pretentious pony. If she had something valuable, she would not keep it in a vault, as royalty would- -but in her personal chambers.

So Luna climbed the stairs of the castle, breathing hard against the encroaching shadows, and followed her instincts to where she knew Twilight would want to stay. This led her to a room high in the castle, overlooking Ponyville with a breathtaking view. The heavily armed guards that had flooded the small hamlet were the only ponies visible in the streets, though, as they patrolled for any sign of Choggoth activity.

The room was round, but not overly spacious. It did not take Luna long to find a small jewelry box against one wall. Luna smiled in spite of herself; if only Celestia had known what Twilight’s impression of “security” truly was.

Luna approached the dresser on which the ornate box sat. It would have been placed high and out of reach for most ponies, but for a mostly grown alicorn, it was barely at head-height. When Luna reached it, she removed the contents of her bags and placed them next to the box: one, a roll of parchment, and the other, a heavy metallic device.

She bowed her head and held the tip of her horn near the lock of the box. With a gentle sound of tiny internal mechanisms shifting, she magically unlocked the box, and lifted it open.

A soft, tinkling sound filled the otherwise silent room. The jewelry box seemed to have a wind-up musical feature. The clicking of the tiny metal mechanisms sounded so sad to Luna, and made her feel so terribly lonely, even though she was most certainly not alone.

Carefully, she lifted out the inserts of the box. The upper ones were filled with various relatively cheap jewelry: necklaces of synthetic pearls, or gold-plated bracelets, and even some frumpy-looking horn rings. Luna felt unpleasant going through her friend’s jewelry, but she knew that it needed to be done.

Something glinted in the bottom of the box, and Luna pushed away the jewelry surrounding it. There, in the bottom, were three violet stones. Even without testing them, she knew what they were. She had seen their siblings countless hundreds of times in Celestia’s crown and necklace. They were cerorite gems.

The stones would not respond to her magic, and, shaking, Luna reached in pulled out the smallest of them. Inside her, her mind was screaming; part of it recognized what she was attempting to do, and was trying to stop her. She had resolved herself, though, and knew that it needed to be done for the survival of all of Equestria.

She picked up the device that she had brought with her. She held it in her magic, turning it over. She had examined it closely, and understood how it worked. A small brass cartridge filled with explosives and capped with a piece of lead was inserted into the end of a tube. When the trigger was pulled, a tiny hammer would strike the end of the casing, and the explosive would ignite, driving the lead forward, pushing it outward with great force.

The cerorite, of course, did not have a casing. That did not matter, though. Luna simply picked it up and dropped it in the open barrel of the pistol. The gemstone was more than durable enough to survive being pushed forward by the lead behind it.

The firearm shook in Luna’s magic. Tears rolled down her face as she lifted it up to her head, and inserted the open end of the barrel into her open mouth.

Although Celestia had never told her outright, Luna knew why her sister kept those gems, and she knew what they could do to an alicorn. She had never expected that her life would come to this. The gun was surprisingly tasteless, and Luna manipulated the barrel to ensure that the cerorite would travel cleanly through her brain. She started to sob against the gun, the realization crystalizing in her mind that she would never again see her beloved sister, or any of her friends. Worse, she imagined how they would find her- -how Twilight would find her. She was too weak to change locations, though. It was too late for that.

She knew that it needed to be done. If she continued living, Nightmare Moon would eventually take control of her again. Equestria would fall into darkness. Luna had to act while there was still time, while she was still herself. If she did not, she would change, and she would hurt everyone that she cared about. The only way to ensure Equestria’s survival, and that of her sister and friends, was for her to die.

“Martyrdom,” said a voice beside her as Nightmare Moon’s shade materialized from the shadows of Luna’s mind. “How very noble of you, if uncreative.”

Luna glared at Nightmare Moon, and through her tears began to pull the trigger.

“Before you do,” said Nightmare Moon. “If you even can. Know that this will not stop me.” Luna slowed her squeeze on the trigger, but did not release it. “Don’t bother to take the gun out,” said Nightmare Moon. “I really was enjoying having an immortal body, but if this really is what you want, I will not stop you, just as I did not stop the others who chose this path.” Her slit-pupiled eyes turned to Luna, glaring at her. “I am you, so I know what you are thinking. I am transmitted by bloodline. You think that because you have no daughter, killing yourself will end me. All that is true, but not entirely.” A toothy smile crossed her face. “I do not need to be transmitted by blood. Magic will do. And right now, a child is nearing birth. One that was infused with more than enough of your magic to make her a compatible host.”

Luna’s eyes widened. She pulled the gun out of her mouth, her thick saliva clinging to the barrel. “No!” she whispered. “You would not dare!”

“I will not allow myself to die,” said Nightmare Moon. “I must survive.” She smiled, and sighed. “I was hoping that I may have found a permanent home with you. I suppose not. Oh well. Being born into a family of murderers will be interesting. Oh, the things that child will learn…”

“No!” cried Luna, taking the gun in her hooves and pointing it at Nightmare Moon.

Nightmare Moon only smiled, and raised her own hoof, pointing it toward her own head. Luna’s forelegs raised as well, forcing the barrel of the gun into the bottom of her jaw.

“Do not forget where I truly am,” said Nightmare Moon. “If you cannot bear to be the one with whom I share a body, so be it. End your immortal existence. This might be your only chance.” She leaned closer. “Just know that, just as I am half of you, you are half of a pair that excludes me. If you die, Celestia will never forgive herself, and she will never recover.” Her eyes drifted toward the remaining two violet crystals. “Perhaps another of these will find a use, then.”

With that, Nightmare Moon faded into the shadows, awaiting Luna’s decision.

Luna paused, and then, with a scream, threw the gun across the room. She collapsed to her knees on the floor, and silently stared at the crystal floor. She expected tears, but they never came. It seemed that she had none left to give.

Nopony was speaking. Instead, they simply sat around the table, poking at their respective breakfasts. Rarity had hardly eaten anything since the what had come to be called amongst the castle military “Incident Zero”. Anything she tried to eat she generally had difficulty keeping down.

Fluttershy, likewise, was having trouble eating as well, but for different reasons. She had been given a plate of eggs, and Rainbow Dash had made sure that they were cooked exactly the way she liked them- -but she had only eaten a tiny amount, and only to avoid offending the cooks.

Neither Rainbow Dash nor Applejack were hungry either, but then still managed to eat, and the only sounds in the room where their respective forks clinking across their plates- -that and the sound of Pinkie Pie downing yet another batch of cupcakes from the royal kitchen. Of the five of them, only she alone did not seem to be affected by the miasma that afflicted the others.

Applejack looked up at the others. She hated that they were fighting, especially at a time like this, but she knew that tempers were running thinner than the hair on a mule’s butt, and now was not a good time to talk about things.

As she looked up, one of the candles in the center of the table suddenly ignited with a tiny red flame. It then flickered, and then went out as quickly as it had come. Applejack stared at it for a moment.

“Did y’all see that?” she asked. The others looked up at her.

As they did, the room was suddenly consumed with a massive burst of red fire with enough force to knock all of them off their chairs- -except for Pinkie Pie, who had seemed to sense it coming and had taken her cupcakes beneath the table.

There were cries of fright- -mostly from Fluttershy- -and confusion. The whole room seemed to have just suddenly exploded. When Applejack looked up at what had happened, she saw that that the dishes had been blown completely free of the table- -and had been replaced with Spike, a thoroughly singed Twilight, and a massive and ominous looking red-flame rune circle that was melted into the tables and walls.

“Wow, that was great!” said Spike, looking down at his claws. “For once I didn’t get sick!”

“Good for you,” coughed Twilight, wetting her hoof in a puddle of water from a spilled glass and extinguishing a small flame in her bangs.

“Twilight!” said most of her friends at once. They poured around her, wrapping her in a hug.

“Wow, I wasn’t gone that long!” she said

“It’s been like three days!” said Rainbow Dash, floating to the top of the room. “And we didn’t even know where you were!”

“I was doing research for the- -” Twilight gasped when she saw Rainbow Dash’s face. One of her eyes had a substantial bruise around it, and the same side of her body was peppered with bruises dark enough to show through her coat. “Rainbow, what happened?”’

“Oh,” said Rainbow Dash, turning her head as if she could hide the injuries. “Well, a Pegasus can’t just stay indoors. So I went out for a bit and…kind of…ran into an anti-blue riot.”

“A what?” said Twilight, confused.

“But don’t worry about me. I held my own in that fight. One guy came at me from the left, and I was like BAM! Right in his mouth! And then I kicked another right in her guts! Teach them to throw bricks at Rainbow Dash!”

“They threw bricks at you? Why?”

“Twahlight,” said Applejack. “A lot has happened since you left.”

“A lot?” said Twilight, suddenly afraid of what had happened. “What do you mean ‘a lot’? The Princess told me that it would take time before Oblivion regenerated!”

“Oblivion?” said Applejack, confused.

“It’s what D27’s real name is,” said Twilight dismissively. An image came to her mind of the poems and descriptions she had seen in Crimsonflame’s books, of a horrid rotting horizon that approached from the distance, destroying everything in its path. “Has the invasion started?”

“No,” said Pinkie Pie. “Unless you count the army of blue clones that are popping up all over the place and stealing things and blowing stuff up. Oh, and they started a race war!”

“That sounds like ah invasion to me,” said Applejack.

“But it’s not anything like the book said,” said Twilight, opening one of the several books of notes she had brought with her.

“That filthy beast,” spat Rarity. She had not moved significantly since Crimsonflame’s spell had materialized Twilight before her. She suddenly started running her hooves through her coat. “I- -I need to take a bath.”

“You’ve taken like, sixteen baths since you woke up this morning!” said Rainbow Dash, exasperated.

“Yeah,” said Applejack, frowning. “Mah apple farm is about as drah as a colony ah’ missionarahs rahght now, and you’re usin all the water for baths- -”

“You don’t understand what it’s like!” screamed Rarity suddenly, pushing back her chair. “That thing- -I touched it! Those tentacles, that disgusting, that- -” she shivered violently. “I hugged that thing!” she said, nearly fainting.

“Wait,” said Spike. “What?”

“I know how it feels,” said Fluttershy, meekly.

“Oh, Fluttershy,” said Rarity, her reaction of disgust suddenly tempered by her compassion for her friend. “I forgot. I didn’t mean- -”

“No. It’s okay,” she said, and leaned forward, putting her head on her forelegs in front of her, as though she were about to go to sleep.

“When did you hug him?” asked Spike again. “Is nopony else bothered by this?”

“I can’t believe,” said Rarity, shaking again. “I can’t believe that I let that thing get near my dear Sweetie Belle. All those…those tentacles, and mouths. How can I ever forgive myself? What kind of sister am I?”

“Ah feel bad about it too,” said Applejack. “I should ah’ seen it. Ah mean, who orders six tons ah apples?” She shivered herself. “And that thing had its tounge in mah mouth.”

“Please don’t,” said Rarity, covering her mouth with her hoof. “Oh now not- -” she stood up and ran to the door. There was a sound of vomiting from the other side.

“You’re both wrong,” said Rainbow Dash, crossing her forelegs. “I’ve said it before. He’s not a bad pony!”

“Oh, he’s not a pony at all!” said Pinkie Pie. “He’s more of a…” she reared on her hind legs, and raised her forelegs above her head, waving them about, and walked around the room making ominous squelching sounds. Seeing this, Rarity immediately vomited again.

“How can you…oh, there just is no way to be ladylike about vomiting…how can you say that?” said Rarity.

“He saved Scootaloo. Not a bad pony. Simple as that.” She glared at Rarity and Applejack. “He saved Applebloom and Sweetie Belle too, in case you forgot.”

“For all we know, he set the whole thing up!” cried Rarity.

“Ah agree,” said Applejack. “I mean, two awizolis, just comin’ out of the woods and snachin fillies? That just ain’t somethin that happens.”

“Ahuizotls,” corrected Rainbow Dash harshly. “And it can to happen. Because it did! Why would he fake something like that?”

“To get on our good side,” said Rarity, taking her seat. She seemed exhausted. “Perhaps, maybe, to convince some of us that he was some kind of ‘hero’, so he could get close to our sisters and to us so he could- -” Rarity shivered and wrapped her legs around herself. “An like a naïve fool, I took his gem, and I even made him clothes…”

“And I sold him apples,” sighed Applejack.

“And he hates me!” cried Fluttershy, suddenly picking up her head. Torrents of tears were falling from her eyes. “I didn’t mean it! I didn’t even know Celestia would do that to him! All- -I want- -to do- -is apologize! This is all my fault! I made him evil!” She collapsed into her tears again.

“Ah, Fluttershah, it’s not your fault,” said Applejack, putting her hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “He was evil the whole time.”

“Not evil,” said Rainbow Dash, turning away from them.

“Actually,” said Twilight, who had been shock at the emotional discourse she had catalyzed simply with her presence. “He kind of is.”

They all turned to her.

“Yah know,” mused Applejack. “Yer thah only one of us who hasn’ met him yet.”

“No, I haven’t,” admitted Twilight. “But I do have this.” She jumped down of the smoldering table and, avoiding the still smoldering embers from the spell and the various spilled food and drink. Dragon teleportation spells, it seemed, were far more violent than the associated pony version. “The reason I wasn’t here was because I was visiting a library of an old associate of Celestia’s.”

“An awesome associate,” added Spike.

“She had books from the last time the Choggoths came to Panbios- -I mean Equestria, long ago.”

“The last time?” said Applejack.

“Well, if they came back, it definitely wasn’t the last time,” noted Pinkie Pie.

Twilight sighed, and she led her friends out of the room. She needed to tell them, but she also needed to tell Celestia as well- -it made the most sense to give everypony the same explanation, all at once.

The castle was surprisingly empty, Twilight realized. Celestia normally kept a number of guards patrolling, but they were mostly gone. The few that remained were even more heavily armored than the ones she had seen before in Ponyville. Their normally ornamental, somewhat cheerful armor had been replaced with dark, angular, practical armor marked that had been marked with their names, ranks, and the military crest of Equestria. They all looked terribly ominous, especially the unicorns, who seemed to be highly agitated and unwell.

What her friends explained to her as they moved quickly through the palace did not set her mind at ease. The subterfuge, theft, and sabotage that D27 had perpetrated alone were horrible on their own. What most concerned Twilight, though, was that D27 was doing more than taking priceless magical relics and destroying weather factories- -he was forcing ponies to turn against herself. The imprisonment and sudden hatred of blue ponies terrified her, in part because her own father was a blue unicorn.

Canterlot, at least, was well protected. Supposedly, the anti-blue riots were only sporadic and quelled rapidly- -but with extreme prejudice. The weapons that the occupying soldiers used were not meant to be nonlethal, and even with creative use, they still caused horrendous injuries.

Twilight’s mood began to shift. She had forgotten about the situation when she had been surrounded by books and knowledge, when there had been a task- -but now she was forced to remember the battle before, and to face the situation at hoof. Equestria was changing quickly, and perhaps in a way that it could not fully pull itself back from. It was not the fear for Equestria that gnawed at her heart, though. Instead, she found that she had begun to doubt her beloved Celestia.

The Princess, it seemed, had retired to what was now called the “war room”. The room itself had formerly been a sort of tea room, meant for the Princesses and their guests to relax while overlooking the castle courtyard. Now it had been linked with charts and maps, most of which were enchanted and laid out on a large table placed in the center to catalogue troop movement and Choggoth sightings across all of Equestria.

“Princess,” said Twilight as she entered. Celestia was not dressed in her battle armor, a fact which greatly released Twilight, but she was not wearing her normal jewelry either. Instead, her head was adorned with a simple circlet of gold without a violet jewel. The remainder of her body was covered in ornamental golden armor, representing that this was a time of war.

“Twilight!” said the Celestia, looking up from a report. She smiled widely, and suddenly looked profoundly tired. “You have returned to me!”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

Celestia motioned for the secretaries she had assisting her to leave the room. They bowed, and obeyed, leaving Twilight and her friends alone with the Princess. Twilight cleared a space on the table, and set down the book of notes that she had acquired.

“What is this?” said Celestia, looking down at the hastily-scrawled notes. “This is not one of hers.”

“No, it isn’t,” said Twilight. “These are my notes. Just like you told me to find.”

Twilight proceeded to tell the story she had managed to acquire from the books, even in such a short amount of time. She told of the elder races that had existed when Equestria was called Panbios- -of the wise and ancient dragons, the brilliant and powerful trihorns, the strong but tragic cerorians, the beautiful Aurasi, and of the other race that were called the Sklklekel and later the gohh, who still remained in the deep and forgotten darkness of Equestria.

She told of how in ancient times the Choggoths had come. From where, even the ancients did not know; they had simply seemed to appear from elsewhere. Twilight spoke of how they had covered the land, and how their progress had been slowed by a seemingly endless and hopeless war before they eventually covered nearly all the world, consuming it, devouring everything and everypony they touched.

Exactly what happened beyond that was not clear. The records just seemed to stop. Twilight knew that an incident of terrible destruction had occurred, simultaneously erasing the Draconian Federation as well as the Trihorn Empire in a single stroke. Unlike the deaths of the cerorians or Aurasi, it was not well recorded. She imagined that what truly had transpired had been recorded by Single Horn, only to be lost to time.

Other facts were dispersed through her story as well, in part because she would repeatedly find herself speaking of a strange tangent and be gently guided back to the subject of Choggoths by Celestia. She was also careful to gloss over the more unsavory aspects, the things that she was not ready for all her friends to know that would be included in the full report to the Princess. Scientists had for years postulated on the evolution of unicorns, and even with centuries of research, nopony knew why they had developed horns- -except, now, for Twilight. She knew where they had come from, and what they had been used for. It chilled her to think that she was a direct descendent of something that had been created- -and that, sometime in her distant past, she was descended from slaves.

“Do they have any weakness?” said Celestia, her tone deadly serious.

“Silver,” said Twilight.

“What, like a werewood?” said Rainbow Dash, floating near the top of the room, slowly circling impatiently as Twilight told the story- -only stopping during parts about the Aurasi.

“There’s no such thing as ah ‘werewood’,” said Applejack, annoyed at Rainbow Dash’s seeming refusal to take the situation at hand seriously. Twilight knew, though, that Rainbow Dash was just as affected by the description of the Choggoths as the others.

“Werewoods do exist,” said Spike. “Crimsonflame told me they do!”

“Not exactly like a werewood,” said Twilight. “Silver reacts with the Choggoth on a cellular level. I would hypothesis that wherever they come from, they don’t have any silver at all.”

“Surely a terrible place,” said Rarity.

“I will have my soldiers switch to silver munitions,” said Celestia. She sighed. “Unfortunately, silver is relatively rare. And if what you are describing about them is true, I doubt that it would be effective on the large scale.”

“No,” sighed Twilight. “No it won’t. But, Princess, if I may…I came up with a plan.”

“What sort of plan?” said the Princess, leaning closer, a faint hope glimmering in her violet eyes.

Twilight turned through the book with her magic and pulled out a sheet hastily stuffed into it, one that was covered in a detailed copy of an stunningly elegant trihorn spell schematic.

“This,” she said.

“Ooh! Ooh!” said Pinkie Pie, leaning over the image. “I see…a dog! No, a bird! No, no, a unicorn riding a pickle over the Canterlot West Bridge!”

“This is a schematic,” said Celestia, as in awe of it as Twilight was. She examined it, seeming to understand at least the basics of its function. “Where did you get this?”

“It was in a book by somepony named Cutting Deeper,” explained Twilight. “From what he wrote, it seems that he was one of the lead researchers on Choggoth research. He…” Twilight paused, wondering if what she was about to say was appropriate to be spoken, “…at first, he was attempting to turn the Choggoths into some kind of weapon- -but something happened.”

“What sort of thing?” said Fluttershy, cowering at the ominousness of Twilight’s tone.

“He never said, but whatever it was, it drove him insane. He spent the remainder of his life trying to create a spell to kill a Choggoth.”

“So this spell will put that thing down?” asked Applejack.

“No,” said Celestia. “Twilight, this spell is not lethal.”

“Exactly. It’s why Cutting Deeper never managed to actually kill a Choggoth. He was crazy, but brilliant- -”

“Crazy brilliant,” added Pinkie Pie.

“- -and the spell works.”

“Back up,” said Rainbow Dash. “What exactly does it do? I mean, I can’t read that!”

“It is designed to summon a Choggoth’s neural network- -basically, this makes its brain appear.”

“Eew,” said Pinkie Pie. “Brains are gross. They’re all squishy and always think weird thoughts about other ponies!”

“So we just need tah’ use this, and then…” Applejack shuddered. “We just need tah get rid’a the brain.”

“No,” said Twilight.

“No?” said her friends, looking at her.

“What kind of creature can survive it you remove its head?” said Rarity, with uncharacteristic brutality.

“Choggoths, apparently,” said Twilight. “That’s why the spell never worked. Cutting Deeper could summon a Choggoth’s mind, but Choggoths don’t need minds.” It was Twilight’s turn to shudder. The idea of a creature that could function just as easily with as without conscious thought disturbed her deeply. “And even if you did destroy it, it could just make another.”

“That’s kinda gross,” said Rainbow Dash.

Rarity seemed to agree. The only thing keeping her from vomiting profusely, it seemed, was being in the presence of the Princess.

“But you have a way to kill it permanently,” said Celestia.

“Yes,” said Twilight. She drew out a diagram, something that had been copied from a book drawn by a Draconian mage. She pointed to it with her hoof. “The neural core is linked to the rest of the Choggoth’s body, wherever it may be, regardless of how many pieces it is in. If a mind is present, every part shares a mind. If we attack that core with the Elements of Harmony, the effect will be instantly distributed to all of it at once.”

“Wait,” said Fluttershy. “You can’t…you can’t seriously mean you’re going to try to…to…”

“To kill it,” said Celestia. “Yes, Fluttershy.”

“But he’s a pony,” said Fluttershy. “Even if he isn’t. If you…if you take his life…if we do, we’ll all be…murderers!”

“There is no murder in war,” said Celestia, her tone matching the cold and unfamiliar expression that suddenly crossed her face.

“Fluttershy,” said Twilight. “I told you what happened the last time.”

“Surely you understand the implication?” asked Celestia. “They killed everything. Every tree, every plant…every animal.”

“Not the animals!” cried Fluttershy, about to burst into tears again in response to being forced to accept the truth she had refused to allow herself to consider.

“Every animal, every being, every pony,” said Celestia. “Why do you think I did all this? Do you think I want to plunge Equestria back into war?”

“Back into?” said Twilight, confused.

“Never mind,” said Celestia, smiling.

“So we just need to catch one of his clones,” said Rainbow Dash, shrugging. “Simple as that. Use the spell, zap him, and everything goes back to normal.”

Twilight looked up at her friends, surprised. “I thought you were still on his side,” she said.

“I am. He’s not a bad pony at all, and not evil. But, he did make Fluttershy cry.”

“Yeah!” said Pinkie Pie. “You know the rule, Twilight: you make Fluttershy cry, and you’ve got to die. Thems the breaks.”

“Wait,” said Fluttershy. “Is that really a rule?”

“That will not work,” said Celestia, examining the spell. “Even if you could catch one of his bodies before it evaporates, this spell calls for substantially greater mass.”

“I know,” said Twilight.

“And what does tha’ mean, in Equestrian?” asked Applejack.

“It means,” said Twilight, “that we have to use the spell on his real body. Or at least near it, I suppose.”

“How near?” said Fluttershy, ducking behind Rarity.

“Pretty near,” said Twilight. “Or distantly close. The point is, we need to go wherever he went.”

“It is called the Gloame,” said Celestia, frowning. “It is a basin dimension near our own. No pony has been there in millennia. It is a terribly, terribly dangerous place.”

“And we need to go there if we want to stop D27,” said Twilight, momentarily forgetting that his proper name was Choggoth Oblivion.

“That will not be possible,” sighed Celestia. “He has sealed himself inside. The only portals are the ones he uses to move his clones into Equestria, and they are far too small and unpredictable for a pony to travel through, even with a teleportation spell.”

“I know,” said Twilight. She reached into her bag and drew out a something resembling a hoof-sized stone cube. In the center was something resembling a pulsing, violet crystal.

“Crimsonflame let me borrow this,” said Twilight.

“Crimsonflame?” said Pinkie Pie. “She wasn’t red and black, was she?”

Twilight blinked. “Wait, what? Have you met her?”

“No. That would just be really cliché.”

Twilight felt the cube lifted from her hoof by Celestia’s magic.

“This…” said Celestia in awe. “I…I never through I would see one in my lifetime.” She set it down in the center of the table, and activated it. The stone-like parts of the box shifted, unfolding and reconfiguring itself, rapidly attaining proportions that were divorced from its initial size and mass. The purple light in the center separated, producing numerous marks and orbits and spherical lights that filled the room between the extending and shifting pieces of stone.

“What is this?” said Rarity, the glow of the lights and the elegant geometric shapes reflecting in her wide eyes. She momentarily seemed to have forgotten about D27.

“A Draconian cube,” said Twilight, feeling somewhat proud of herself. “And a map.” She used her own magic to try to mimic Draconian magic, and managed to shift the projected image to explain the point she was trying to make. “See, the if the total surface area of a dimensional plane is represented by a toroid whose points have tangentially related by a Clover function- -”

Applejack cleared her throat loudly.

“Oh,” said Twilight, trying to think of a more colloquial way to explain the theory of transdimensional permeability. “Think of the ‘Gloame’ like a house, with lots of doors,” she said, trying carefully to craft an appropriate metaphor. “The doors themselves don’t lock, so anypony can push them open in either direction at any time. The doors themselves cannot be destroyed, but they can be moved- -”

“You can’t move a door,” said Pinkie Pie, who was now bouncing around the perimeter of the room. “I’ve tried. Several times. They’re really really heavy!”

“I know,” said Twilight, annoyed at the collapse of the metaphor. “That’s not the point. What matters is that the gates still all exist.” She pointed to one particular set of coordinates in the map. “And most of them are probably here.”

Celestia looked at the set of data before her. “That is Tartarus,” she noted dryly.