Starswirl listened to Twilight in silence, his expression growing more grave with each new detail. Twilight explained about Sunset Shimmer, the Crystal Mirror, and the journals that they had used both to communicate and to keep the portal open. He grimaced once as Twilight explained what had last been written in the journal, and how she had come to discover the tome “Ye Olde Tricks and Treats” and he seemed somewhat surprised by what she had read inside. With trepidation, Twilight pressed on, but though Starswirl’s face paled further when she showed him the state of the Cutie Map, he never broke his silence. For a supreme sorcerer of Starswirl’s nature and temperament it was odd that he would allow someone else to have the lead in a conversation for so long, but Twilight was too absorbed in her own concerns to consider just how ill opened his grim muteness would appear under normal circumstances. When at last he spoke, it was with such a heavy sigh Twilight thought she could hear the old stallions bones creak.

“These are dark tidings indeed. Far darker than you may have guessed,” with a pulse of magic from his horn, the lighting in the room dimmed and a sphere composed of millions of tiny dots appeared projected above the Cutie Map.

The image wasn’t static, but instead moved and flowed in a swirl of countless currents, moving between and through one another in a complex dance. This was not all, as Twilight watched, some of the dots faded away only for a new dots to bud off from an existing one and shoot off into new directions. It was dizzying and made her eyes hurt to look at.

“What you see before you is a rough model of the multiverse. Ours is but one of a series of countless realities, some good, some bad. Most are places where life as we know it cannot exist, has yet to come into existence, or went extinct long ago. The universe is vast and at times cruel, and this is reflected in the higher spheres.”

“I’ve heard this theory before, about many worlds and the universes that they exist in,” Twilight said with awe, “But I didn’t know anypony had tried to map it.”

“As I said, this is nothing but a crude model. New realities are born and die far too quickly for a reliable map to ever be made. Even this, is at best a guess as to the real shape of the multiverse. Though considerable efforts I tried to study the nature of reality by establishing tethers to our nearest alternate realities, our closest sister-dimensions,” as Starswirl said this the model shifted and grew larger so the dots became a cluster of spheres. Even here, they were still in constant motion, flowing around and through one another. “As you can see, each reality effects the other in ways both subtle and overt. The effect only becomes more pronounced when they are linked. Though it is true that opposites sometimes attract, which is why one of the first realities I traveled to was one that mirrored our own universe perfectly, a more complete understanding of the ways of the macrocosm have led me to believe that the phrase ‘like calls to like’ would be more appropriate.”

“So even though the mirror dimension was one occupied by ponies who were our opposites...” Twilight began.

“It was still one populated by ponies,” Starswirl concluded. “With a similar world, similar society, and similar peoples. Even the human world on the other side of the Crystal Mirror was far more like our world than some realities that exist out there on the fringes of exploration. Like calls to like. Realities similar to our own are drawn to ours and exist side by side, reinforcing and indeed creating one another moment by moment.”

“Creating one another?” asked Twilight, perplexed. “You mean the interactions of different realities create new universes? Isn’t that a process that takes trillions of years? How is that possible?”

“It happens with more frequency than you might think. A reality with billions of years of history can be created in the blink of an eye,” Starswirl’s model showed two spheres converging, and as they parted a third took shape and drifted away. “It comes into existence already old, already established... Because again, like calls to like, it is similar to the realities that spawned it. As you told me once before, your student Starlight Glimmer used this Cutie Map to travel through time. The realities you were sent to were a direct result of her meddling with such forces, similar enough to the reality you knew to still be recognizable, but flawed due to the cataclysmic event of their creation.”

“So the reason the ‘present’ I would return to kept getting worse...” Twilight’s eyes lit up,” Was because they were new realities! Flawed copies of flawed copies, born from Starlight’s spell. Each one different, but similar. So does that mean those timelines still exist somewhere out there in the multiverse?”

Starswirl nodded gravely. “There is every possibility that is the case. Just because you were fortunate enough to return to your own reality and timeline that doesn’t mean those tangent realities did not persist. However, you must understand that realities can fade away and die, consumed by a darkness so complete no spell to date has been able to account for their fall. They simply cease to exist, only their echos remaining, and they too fade with time.”

Twilight shuddered. She imagined her world just suddenly blipping out of existence like one of the tiny dots in the model multiverse. Would there be no warning? Would she even know when it was happening? As peaceful as Equestria was it was still a dangerous place and, given the many close calls she and her friends had in the past it was impossible for Twilight not to think about her own mortality from time to time. This was something else entirely though, on a whole new level, much larger and nearly unfathomable to her. It was one thing to die tragically and leave behind your friends and family, and whatever passed for your legacy. It was another thing for all that to just stop existing all at once.

“So what you’re telling me is that it’s possible the world Sunset Shimmer was in isn’t there anymore,” Twilight couldn’t quite keep the tremor out of her voice. “That’s why the mirror was destroyed and I can’t seem to contact her.”

“It is possible, but unlikely,” Starswirl answered, not unkindly. “With the destruction of the Crystal Mirror, the two realities have merely come untethered. There are other points scattered across Equestria where our worlds touch one another. The pony and human worlds are very close to one another and often overlap. To answer a question you asked me before, I believe that I can repair the Crystal Mirror. However, I am not certain it would be wise to establish the connection it previously had just yet.”

This time Twilight didn’t need to ask any questions, as she could tell that Starswirl was about to tell her what she wanted to know. The model multiverse winked out, but with a flare of his horn a new image took shape over the Cutie Map. At first Twilight thought that it was distorted, by some unstable magic or perhaps simple bad memory, but it was with dawning horror she realized what she was seeing. Etched into the air by lines of arcane power, there was an ever shifting three dimensional image of a filly with a maniacal grin. Though the image was colorless, there was a sickly sheen to her skin, that Twilight realized was composed of myriad pieces of candy. Even her teeth and mane seemed to be composed of sweets, and as she watched the creature seemed to morph and twist, her long liquorice hair writhing like tentacles as she grew and shrank. Dozens of tiny mouths opened and appeared to laugh or scream across the surface of her body, and new lethal appendages grew and shrank in what seemed to be a display of the creatures potential for cruelty.

“You asked me before what I could tell you about the Candy Mare,” Starswirl began. “Know that the creature before you is just one of her many guises. She is a parasite of both magic and souls, who seems to feed and grow strong on fear and suffering as well as the flesh of her victims. She is at once a kind of magical virus and a living grudge, born of the tormented souls of dozens, if not hundreds, of murdered children and their parents.”

“So this... This awful creature is real?” Twilight gaped at the filly as it smiled mischievously, it’s lips twisting as it’s candy corn teeth moved around inside her mouth like some kind of bizarre inverted buzzsaw.

“I’m afraid she is all too real. I have tried to protect Equestria for many years. I have had many successes, it is true, but also no small amount of failures,” Starswirl bowed his head sadly. “Unfortunately, she was one of my greatest failures.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight had never heard of Starswirl failing at anything, ever.

“I and my companions, the Pillars, worked hard to banish darkness from Equestria. As dangerous as our world is for ponies, it was far worse in our time, in the age when the pony tribes had not yet united. Though I like to think I was more forward thinking than my peers, I confess that I may have suffered from some of the egotism and elitism that was prevalent in unicorns of the time,” Starswirl smiled weakly, then hung his head in shame as he reflected on his past mistakes. “The Candy Mare was unlike any threat ponies had faced before. She was the product of our own hatred, greed, dishonesty, cruelty, and betrayal made manifest. Never before was there a creature that held up such a dark mirror to our own society, and our own selves. Her victims quickly grew beyond counting. Even now it’s uncertain how many she took and how many simply disappeared. I could never find a cure for the curse she spread, and instead had to dedicate myself and others to doing the only thing we viably could do: contain her. To that end, I went to great effort to wipe every mention of her from the annals of history. In retrospect, it was likely that I did it as much to hide my failure as it was to protect the ponies of Equestria...”

“That would explain why I’ve never heard about her before,” nodded Twilight. “Then I wonder how the story ended up in ‘Ye Olde Tricks and Treats’?”

“There were those even then that didn’t agree with my decisions, who could see rightly that I had grown arrogant in my role of Equestria’s protector. Those that wanted to share the story, to warn the ponies of Equestria of the danger that lurked in the dark, were actually ponies who were close to me, my former apprentice Clover the Clever chief among them. I suspect she was the one who managed to sneak the story into circulation by pretending it was just a legend to scare little fillies and colts. Gifted as she was with foresight beyond even my own, I would not doubt she anticipated a future where such knowledge would be vital to the safety of Equestria,” Starswirl’s face grew all the gloomier with this admission, but then his frown twisted into a smile. “Still, I was gratified to learn princess Luna had succeeded where I could not, and defeated the Candy Mare. Perhaps Clover ‘the Clever’ thought the danger had passed, and thus there would be no harm in commemorating Luna’s deed.”

“Was it really so dangerous for ponies to know about the Candy Mare?” Twilight couldn't help wondering aloud. “I have to agree with Clover the Clever, it seems wrong to keep such information a secret, even if you wanted to keep the knowledge from falling into the wrong hooves. It might keep ponies from panicking, but even if the real cause was to protect the reputation of the most powerful unicorn in Equestria, it seems like it would be a measure that would do little good in the long run. ” She added the last part quickly, hoping it wouldn’t offend Starswirl too much.

If the sorcerer took offense, he did not show it. Instead he slowly shook his head, “No, it was vital for the protection of the realm, or so I thought at the time. I had feared that the more her story spread, the more it would warp our reality, and shape the realities around our own,” Starswirl paused, eyeing the silently laughing monstrosity. “Remember, like calls to like. That was the reason we worked so hard to banish the darkness from Equestria. If there was no darkness here to attract others, then our realm might become one filled with light. I see now that the theory was flawed. In the end, simply containing the Candy Mare in this reality may not have been enough to stop her from triumphing in other realms. Especially if some version of her was able to manifest in the human world.”

“Do you think it’s possible that a being like the Candy Mare just came into existence in the human world?” asked Twilight, trying to explore all possibilities.

Starswirl appeared to give this some thought. “No. No the magic in that realm is too thin to support such a powerful manifestation, let alone generate it. Perhaps somewhere in their ancient history such beings existed, but that was long before our realities became tethered. No, I think it most likely that a Candy Mare from another universe, a universe more like our own, found some way to cross over into that dimension. If that is the case, then Equestria, and all our sister realms are in great peril.”

“But Luna defeated the Candy Mare!" the Princess of Friendship cried out, "Or at least she defeated our version of the Candy Mare, right? Shouldn’t that mean she was defeated in the other realms, if like calls to like?”

“The differing realities are similar but not the same. In some realms she doubtlessly was defeated. In others, her defeat may not have been quite so fulsome or as lasting as in our own. Indeed it is likely that there are many realities where she triumphed. I suspect one such realm corresponds with the candy coated Equestria that you told me manifested on the Cutie Map. However, this should be an outlier outcome.” The image of the Candy Mare faded and the model of the multiverse appeared again. “Imagine a drop of oil falling in a pool of water. The oil does not mix with the water, but is repelled, scattered. As the water churns the oil is diluted. Now imagine instead a drop of water falling into a pool of oil. The oil engulfs and consumes it, leaving almost no trace of the water discernable in the pool of oil, yet it is still there, though badly polluted. The Candy Mare’s mere presence is corruptive, but it should not be so all consuming as to spread throughout the multiverse. Even so, with the proper triggering event, she might eventually find a way to spread her poison to a series of new worlds. All her darkness would need to spread is another similar darkness to call to her.”

“Like calls to like. Darkness calls to darkness,” Twilight muttered to herself. Then she gasped, “The Pony of Shadows!”

“Yes. Bringing his evil back into Equestria, even briefly, may have pulled our reality towards a much darker part of the multiverse,” The model at last faded away and Starswirl turned to Twilight. “I had hoped since you and your student managed to save Stygian and quickly banish the darkness that we might have avoided this fate. But what you saw only confirms that dark days are ahead for us all. Worse... it seems undeniable where the threat will come from.”

“The Candy Mare...” the Princess of Friendship whispered her name and barely suppressed a shudder. “We need to contact the other Princesses at once. We need to get the word out all over Equestria. No, more than that, we need to warn the other races as well! If what the Cutie Map revealed is true then no creature is safe if the Candy Mare is trying to enter our world! I know you thought it best to keep the story of the Candy Mare suppressed before, but we need to act now before it’s too late!”

“Yes, I quite agree with you,” Starswirl’s reply was swift and sure. When he saw Twilight’s relieved expression he couldn’t quite suppress a smile. “I tried my best to protect Equestria, and in the process I may have made decisions that put her more at risk in the long term for the sake of its short term safety. Though I will do all I can to assist you, Equestria has new protectors now, and it’s up to you and your friends to best decide how to protect Equestria going forward.”

“Thank you Starswirl,” Twilight levitated over a parchment and quill, but hesitated before setting pen to paper. “How do I write this? It seems like there’s an awful lot to explain. Just thinking about it, if I received a letter about half of what we’ve discussed I’d suspect the sender had lost their mind!”

“Perhaps these are things best said in person?” suggested Starswirl. As he said this, he at last undimmed the lights, but the room remained somewhat dark. The sun had already started setting while they had been talking, and the rising moon was just starting to cast its pale brilliance through the castles stained glass windows. “Besides, the hour grows late. I think if we are to take action we must hurry before the one pony who has experience in defeating the Candy Mare sets about her nightly routine.”

“Of course! Princess Luna,” Twilight, who had unconsciously been frowning this entire time managed to smile thinking about her mentors sister. Luna may have still frightened some ponies but Twilight admired her strength, both of her magic and of her heart. If there was one pony that might be able to help them weather whatever storm was coming, it would be Princess Luna. “Let’s go Starswirl!” Twilight grabbed a saddle bag and headed for the door.

Starswirl, for his part, looked perplexed for a moment before asking, “Where are you going?”

“To Canterlot of course,” was Twilight’s matter of fact reply. “If we hurry we can catch the next train.”

“Far be it from me to question the new generation of Equestria’s protectors but,” Starswirl paused, choosing his words carefully. “Why not just teleport to Canterlot?”

Twilight screwed up her eyes in thought and then blushed slightly. “Er, well, you know the train industry relies on unicorns to pay to travel just as much as Pegasi and Earth Ponies. It wouldn’t be fair to them if we just... Cut out the middle Mare like that, right?”

The old sorcerer merely stared at her.

“Though I suppose it is an emergency, with the fate of all of Equestria hanging in the balance...” Twilight finished weakly. "And the train doesn't exactly have lines to all the other leaders of all the other races.

Smiling, but not saying another word, Starswirl vanished in a flash of magic. A moment later Twilight did the same.

It around that time that Twilight’s friends, Applejack and Rarity, burst into the throne room, but it was too late. Twilight was already gone.

Next Chapter: It Follows Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 4 Minutes