Tears flowed from a pair of predestined eyes whilst Blackbird wept herself into being. Two eyes—blazing like glittering, gathering twin nebulae—shed tears that twinkled like embryonic stars emerging from their stellar nursery. Each new star brought light into the void; slowly, perhaps spanning eons, a newborn constellation took shape while other, older stars and constellations bore witness to this solemn event.

Blackbird was in a form she was incapable of comprehending, a state of existence that she was ill-prepared to cope with. Here there was only will and she had never been one for willpower. With no body, with no physical distractions, there was only a perfect mental state of total, unwavering awareness, which was terrifying. By what means did she see without eyes? What manner of existence could be defined with a body made of stars?

What was a constellation but something that you imagined that you saw in the stars?

Two constellations moved among the stars to intercept her but Blackbird lacked the means to respond, to react. They moved with terrifying finality, two cogs sprung free from some great celestial engine. The larger one was comprised of bright red, orange, and yellow stars, while the smaller had stars that ranged from indigo, blue, and white. Blackbird knew them, she had followed them in her travels, they were the Sisters Equus Alicornae; the larger one had a horn that pointed north, always north, while the horn of the smaller one always pointed due south.

But not now; no, those horns were pointed at her and Blackbird was terrified beyond understanding. She was an intruder here and she knew that she didn’t belong. Through happenstance, she had stumbled beyond the mortal realms and now she was in a gallery comprised of incomprehensible celestial beings—with Dim somewhere among their number. Blackbird understood that now; lives—any lives, mortal or immortal—were like stars, and stars burnt out.

Some of the other constellations were now awake and watching as the Sisters moved to engage the intruder. Blackbird could feel eyes upon her; no, more than eyes, she could feel awareness thrust upon her, and the sensation stripped her bare. She had no means to hide here in this place. An unknowable dread permeated her very being when the vague darkness beyond the stars also took notice of her. There was good here, but also evil. For the first time in her life, Blackbird was truly awake and aware to this knowledge. It went beyond all mortal understanding, which caused her mind to race with an endless number of new insights and epiphanies.

Even things that were not creatures—beings as she understood them—held awareness of her, and she could see a constellation made of scales; she knew with absolute certainty that it was judging her. How did scales hold sapience? Blackbird’s state of consciousness shrivelled, recoiling, rejecting this reality that went beyond her limited mortal comprehension.

Did those watching the stars below watch the drama unfolding in the heavens above them?

The approaching Sisters spoke in one voice.

Who are you that come to this place where the divine come to rest? By what right do you intrude upon the Forge of Fate? Speak, little, insignificant one, and We might still be merciful.

How did one speak when one had no body? No means to generate a voice? The stars of Blackbird’s constellation seemed to shudder while she struggled to comprehend the workings of this existence. Without knowing how she did so, somehow, she spoke: “I have come looking for Dim. Who are you, so that I might address you properly?”

We are the Star Maiden. We ask you, why have you come looking for Dim?

“Well, Star Maiden,” Blackbird began, “Dim is my friend and I suppose if I broke it down into the most simple of terms, I just can’t let go of him.”

Did you just not let go of what your heart held fondest?

Blackbird raised her right talons, extended her index talon-finger, and was about to respond, when the words died off in her nonexistent throat. Again she tried—and still holding up one talon-finger made of stars—again she failed. Celestial entities were tricky creatures, Blackbird realised. She couldn’t bluff them, intimidation wouldn’t work, and for once, Blackbird wished that she really was a sphinx so that she could be equally cryptic.

Dim has withdrawn himself and recalled his essence. He is a Celestial. Rather than be defeated and possibly consumed, he has conceded. His divinity has been relinquished and now resides in his sanctum.

“So Dim just quit? He gave up?” Blackbird shook her nonexistent head from side to side. “No… I need to see him.”

The very meaning of sanctum means a private place where others are excluded. He is beyond your reach.

“So what happens to him now?” Blackbird demanded while the stars that comprised her body flared with anger.

Freed from his corporeal form, no longer held back by physicality, he is now free to become a guiding force in the realm of dreams. With his body cast aside, he will go on to greater things.

“The pain of living was too much?” Blackbird’s extended talon-finger curled down and joined the rest of her digits in a tight, clenched fist made of coalescing gases, clouds of dust, and tiny stars.

Yes.

“Whatta load of shit!” Blackbird knew that she had lost her temper, but she didn’t care. “Where is he? Where is that whiny little asshole bastard? I need to talk some sense into him!”

You are one of the pains of living, no doubt.

“You’re damn right I am!” Though she lacked a body, Blackbird seethed and the stars that shone where her heart might have been located blazed with ever-increasing brightness. On the verge of a full-body supernovae, Blackbird felt a rage that she had never before imagined, an all consuming wrath that existed only in beings that didn’t have a body, for a living form could never contain such fury.

His body might still live, for a time. Bodies are stubborn like that. For whatever reason, bodies like to cling to life, painful though it might be.

Confused, Blackbird tried to make sense of the words said to her.

You lack comprehension, tiny, insignificant mortal, which is why you should not intrude where you do not belong. Only Dim’s divinity has gone. That is separate from the weak force that animates the fleshy construct of his body. The part that you want, the part that you desire, it still persists and will for a time. Let not your fleshy blood pump be troubled.

“I want all of him!” Blackbird’s voice thundered through the celestial void and even more constellations awoke, their stars flickering and twinkling. “Where is he? Where do I find him? Where do I go to talk some sense into him?”

A massive dragon lifted his head from his hoard of golden stars, yawned once, and then belched out a cloud of swirling, glowing cosmic gas. Somehow having a sleepy expression, he faced Blackbird, raised his nine-clawed hand, and made a gesture at her.

Greed and ambition. Admirable qualities. Always take what is yours… by force, if necessary. What you seek is hidden here, in plain sight.

Really, Draco. You’re going to help this annoyance?

Since when does a talking hammer tell me what to do? Shut up, Mjölnir.

You just wait until my champion, Mjölna awakens to her potential!

Like a maddened astronomer, Blackbird began to search the stars, trying to find something familiar. Wings spanning entire galaxies spread from her sides and she was painfully aware of so many awarenesses focused upon her. The constellations continued their banter among one another, but she tuned out the unwanted distraction. Flying in loops and circles, she looked everywhere.

One side of the Forge of Fate was filled with the brightest stars and the most dazzling constellations, such as the Sisters Equus Alicornae. Blackbird knew that Dim would not be among these stars, he couldn’t be. If he was, she was certain that she would hear his ceaseless whinging about the light being too bright even now. Dim would never be content in such stellar space.

Turning about, she saw Capricornus, the Horned Goat. His stars were dull, as if they were distant, and darkness gathered around him. His light seemed sickly and ruinous. To Capricornus’ left, there was Lynx’s Gaze, also known as Catrina’s Eye, a cluster of half-dead stars that almost appeared to be a slitted cat’s eye if one squinted at it just so.

No, Dim would most certainly not be among these stars either. If by some chance he was among their number, there would be signs of conflict and violence. Not just any violence either, but the sort of violence that only Dim was capable of. No, Dim, though dark, and also a Dark, would not count himself among this number of stars.

So where would he be?

Following a hunch, Blackbird’s sharp eyes sought out the scales, which stood in the middle of the two sides, the brilliant and the fading. Somewhere between the blazing and the dying. There, tucked between the opposing sides, she found what she was looking for, a cluster of constellations including a set of scales.

A lone purple-pink star surrounded by a magenta nebula flashed to get her attention.

Hey! Hey you! I think you’re looking for Libra, right? Balance in all things? He’ll ignore you until you say his name.

The nearby scales flashed in annoyance.

Oh bother. The upstart has outed me. So annoying, always trying to make friends with everyone.

Well, I am the Light of Friendship. Blackbird, your friend lies in Libra’s realm. You should talk to him. Maybe try to make friends.

Willing herself forward, Blackbird flew through the celestial space and approached the scales, her eyes searching for signs of Dim. As Libra grew larger, smaller constellations around him gained focus. She saw a sword, a plow, a hunter’s bow, and a great many things that were neither good nor evil, but simply were. Her sharp eyes even found the Blacksmith’s Sconce, a constellation that her father, Stinkberry, had pointed out. Stinkberry claimed that the ingenuity and industriousness of earth ponies came from the Blacksmith’s Sconce, which was also called the Forge Light.

“Libra, where is Dim?” Blackbird asked, all too aware that she was being watched and studied by all.

Preserving the balance, as is right and proper.

“Okay, let me make this clear, you rigged system of measurement. You’re gonna tell me where Dim is, or I’m gonna knock those scales of yours right off balance. Got me?”

Like Dim, you are a creature of upsets. But you do not belong here, with us. You are no force of equilibrium, no countermeasure capable of correction to restore balance. Go be with the Sisters.

“The Sisters don’t have Dim, you off-balanced hunk of junk.” Blackbird held her talons out in front of herself, though she wasn’t sure what she could do to follow through with her threats. Eyes darting about, Blackbird sought some solution, some means to tip the balance of the scales in her favour.

Just as she was about to run her mouth some more, she noticed something behind the scales. Swooping through Libra, she honed in on a patch of darkness. A most curious constellation was ahead, a candle with a swirling black flame—a vortex of some sort. As she drew nearer, a cacophony of voices broke out, but she ignored them, but in doing so, failed to take notice of their warning.

The candle grew larger, or maybe she grew smaller, it was difficult to tell. Not much made sense. This constellation was a lot like Dim’s cutie mark, which was a candle with a black flame in a silver candle holder. Now, the candle was a massive, vision-filling thing, and the swirling vortex seemed to devour the light of the burning stars below.

Something about the darkness was terrifying, but also fascinating. Blackbird could feel a tug now, a pull, an attraction. Looking down, she could see stardust being pulled from her constellation body and the streams of glittery silver formed spirals as they were sucked into the black patch of nothingness.

From the devouring maw, a formless, shapeless mass emerged, the suggestion of something, but what remained unknown. It was the absence of everything and was the same colour that could be seen when one closed their eyes. Blackbird found herself mesmerised by it and she hovered near the black flame of Dim’s candle like a moth too curious for its own good.

Wait...

The voice was cold, vacuous thunder that both alarmed Blackbird and filled her with odd reassurance. Faceless, without form or definition, it was devouring her essence little by little, sucking away her stardust. It felt like the most natural thing in the world, because she was a thing that did not belong here in this place, and things that should not be had to be disposed of. How did she know this? Blackbird had no idea, but the strange knowledge filled her with peace.

I would speak with you.

“Who are you?” Blackbird asked while she stared into the unfathomable, unknowable rift in reality.

I am the Void, and I too, have business with Dim. I wish to rouse him from his lethargy, his malaise, so that he might do something for me.

“What is it that you want from Dim?” Blackbird looked down at the streams of stardust being siphoned from her constellation body, but for whatever reason, felt no sense of concern or alarm. “Tell me plainly, if you want my help.”

What many who encounter him seek to have… death. Long, long ago, I was created to audit reality. I was to correct the things that should not be. And so I have corrected many things that should not be. Things like Dim himself—he is a thing that should not be, an oversight of fate, a contingency no longer needed. He will be repurposed, not devoured, but there are other things that should not be. Like so many other things, I have suffered from entropy. I have grown tired. Rouse Dim from his inactive state, so that I might die… so that I might achieve my own end.

Extending her talons, Blackbird pointed in the direction of the constellation of Capricornus, the Horned Goat. “You mean like Grogar?”

Yes! That is something that should not be! Grogar unnaturally extends things beyond their natural end. This upsets the balance. I am aware of how I must appear, but I am not a force for evil. Nor am I a means of righteousness. I exist only to consume, and I have grown satiated.

“What will this do to Dim?” Blackbird leaned forward, closer to the swirling vortex, and could feel a powerful attraction. “Will this hurt him in any way? Do him harm?”

Does Dim not want power?

“The sort of power that might win a war?”

Oh, that and so much more. My power wanes, but it is still power unimaginable. Against unnatural things, abominations, eldritch horrors, things that offend reality, monstrous forms that are an anathema to Harmony, I am a force to be reckoned with. Through me, the dead will know rest.

Blackbird turned her head and glanced in the direction of the constellation of Capricornus, keen of his awareness. While Blackbird was a chaotic creature, she knew and accepted this, she was also a good creature. Could Dim be trusted with the powers of the Void? She had no idea what they were, but the cosmic, celestial essence of Grogar didn’t seem pleased with this development.

“Give me your power as well,” Blackbird said to the Void, “so that Dim and I might be in balance. I want the power to slay the undead and all those other things you mentioned. But I want the means to be Dim’s equal, just in case all this power goes to his head.”

No!

The one voice of the Sisters Equus Alicornae thundered through the celestial expanse and everything echoed with their protest. It was both terrifying and reassuring, for reasons Blackbird could not comprehend. Of course, the Sisters were agents of some greater force that Blackbird did not understand, so it was only natural for them to protest.

Absolutely not!

Grogar’s voice overlapped the echoes of the Sisters and formed a dreadful cacophony, a disturbing dissonance that filled the emptiness with distressing conflict. Of course he wouldn’t want this either, which made it seem all the more right. Now, more than ever, Blackbird knew that she had done the right thing.

Let it be done. This one is brave and plucky enough to stand in contention with the major powers. She ascended to this place through her own sheer force of will, and reanimated the constellation of the long dead hunter. Give her power to go with her self-ignited divinity. If only all mortals were so driven.

Libra’s voice brought harmony to the discordant echoes and the stillness of the celestial realm was restored. Blackbird now had a million questions, maybe as many questions as there were stars, but now was not the time nor the place to ask them. She could feel the scales behind her silently judging her even now, and the force of his awareness permeated through every star of her being.

Let yourself be devoured and you will find Dim beyond.

The Void awaited and when Blackbird dove into the yawning nothingness, it felt like the most natural thing in the world…

Author's Notes:

Next chapter: the pillow fort sanctum.

A better edit might be up later. We shall see.