It wasn't too long after our discussion that Twilight and Cozy Glow entered the room. Cozy Glow seemed fairly passive, but Twilight looked both frustrated and concerned as she stepped into the study. Given how little time she'd had to peruse the archives, I could see why. My heart went out to the mare, but I couldn't be bothered to dwell on her dissatisfaction when there was so much more to think and talk about.

"Yo," I greet with a lazy wave of my hand from my seat at the desk, "how'd it go? Not too well, judging by the expression, I'd wager."

Twilight's head, pointed at the ground with brows furrowed in consternation, jerked back up, and she seemed to realize she'd arrived at her destination. She looked at me, then to Moon Dancer standing to one side, then finally to Luna who was still seated on her comfy armchair delicately sipping yet another glass of wine she'd poured for herself during the lull in our conversation. Twilight, for her part, looked like she'd just woken up from a particularly deep sleep.

Just how deep into her own head was she?

Twilight seemed to collect her thoughts after a moment, blinking once, then letting out a frustrated sigh as she shook her head and turned back to me. "I learned a ton, but I don't understand most of what I found out," she finally said, her tone tinged with more than a little annoyance, "if I'd had some more time to study the information, maybe just another day or two—"

"Time we can ill afford," Luna cut in. Twilight shot her an irritated scowl, but quickly realized who she was scowling at and flinched, her scowl turned to an apologetic grimace. Luna just gave the other alicorn an understanding smile and continued, "I apologize, Twilight. I would give you all the time in the world if I could, but that is simply not an option in these circumstances."

"Yeah, I know," Twilight sighed again, this sounding more resigned than anything else, "it's not ideal, but I suppose I can consolidate all of my thoughts and note them down later."

"Note them down, huh?" I commented, "Do you have a way to note anything down?" I paused a second, then asked, "Actually, I've been wondering this for a while now, but... do you have an eidetic memory?"

Twilight raised her brows in interest at the question but nodded, "To a certain extent for certain things, yes, but I don't like to rely on it. I'd much rather have something tangible on hoof to reference, so I usually have parchment or a journal nearby whenever I'm doing any research."

"And there was nothing to write with or on in the archives?" I asked, turning to Cozy Glow who'd moved to stand by Moon Dancer.

"Nope, sorry," Cozy Glow replied with a helpless smile, "record keeping of the documents held within the archives is done through a thaumic memory imprinting process that only Lady Luna has access to. No parchment or scrolls required."

At that, Twilight and I turned to look over to Luna. Judging by the look Twilight was giving the older alicorn, I was fairly sure the younger alicorn was champing at the bit to find out more about that process. Luna, in response, simply took another sip of wine as if none of this had anything to do with her. Since Twilight wasn't saying anything, I assumed she'd already been told about the process and had also been told that she wasn't allowed to learn it.

I personally didn't care all that much so I just decided to move on. "Fair enough," I replied with a nod before returning my attention to Twilight, "So what did you learn? Anything immediately useful?"

"Immediately useful? No, I don't think so," Twilight replied with yet another sigh, "Plenty of fascinating and disturbing insights into the ancient history of this Equestria, but nothing that could help us with our current predicament—at least, not that I can see just yet." She looked frustrated again for a moment, but then her ears perked up, and she snapped a hopeful and expectant gaze in my direction, "What about you? Moon Dancer told you her story, right? You promised you'd tell me once I got back, and here I am, so spill it."

And so I told her.

I filled Twilight in on the whole story, paraphrasing where I couldn't remember the exact words, but leaving nothing important out. Neither Moon Dancer, Cozy Glow, nor Luna interrupted as I spoke, and Twilight sat on her haunches next to my seat to listen with an almost unsettling amount of focus. She reacted appropriately, when appropriate, and by the time I was done with the story, the mare was shifting her wings uncomfortably.

"I... honestly don't know what to say," Twilight admitted after a moment of hesitation. The pity was one thing, but the guilt in the look she gave Moon Dancer was so intense that I felt compelled to remind the mare that none of this had been her doing. Twilight just shook her head at that, saying, "I know that intellectually, but I can't help how I feel. What happened to Moon Dancer and Cozy Glow was terrible, and I can't help feeling like I played a part in it somehow."

"But you didn't," Moon Dancer herself pointed out gently, "you and your alternate became two very different ponies, Twilight. Maybe you two always were, but regardless, I don't blame you for what happened, and neither does Cozy Glow, I'm sure."

"No ma'am," Cozy Glow confirmed with her eerily child-like smile, "especially not me. I aided the Twilight of this Equestria out of my own greedy, megalomaniacal desires, so I'm pretty I'm the last pony who should be judging you anyway."

"And there you have it," Luna added, magically whisking her wine glass, along with what was left of the bottle, away to who-knows-where as she spoke, "Nopony blames you for the foolish actions taken in the past of an Equestria that is not even your own—nopony in this room at any rate."

"Thanks, I think," Twilight smiled gratefully, but the smile faltered somewhat as she registered Luna's final words, "I just... it just hurts me to think that there's a Twilight somewhere out there that can fall so far as to destroy everything she holds dear, even if it is for the sake of knowledge. No knowledge—no matter how much or how profound—should be worth such a horrific tragedy as what happened here."

Twilight looked resolute as she said those words, but I'd been hanging around her long enough to see that something was still bothering her. I had my suspicions about what it could be, but I didn't speak up, figuring I could talk to her about whatever it was later.

"Well said," Luna replied with an approving smile that vanished as quickly as it had come, "but if we are to speak of knowledge, I'd rather it be relevant to our current situation." At Twilight's curious frown, Luna nodded in her direction, "There is yet more Salvatore and I must speak to you about, Twilight Sparkle. Open your ears and listen well, for this concerns the connection shared between you two."

Luna and I proceed to tell Twilight our suspicions about what Discord had done to her, as well as my own concerns about Appartus' role in all of this madness. Twilight, as it turned out, had been thinking along the same lines as me. She'd already worked out that Discord might've done something to connect her to me in some intangible, magical way. She reasoned that this unfathomable connection is what allowed her to tag along whenever I died and wound up in another Equestria.

"I don't think such a thing would be possible unless I was magically tied to you in some way, Sal," Twilight explained once Luna and I finished telling her our thoughts, "even if the connection has its roots in chaos magic, all of this still wouldn't make sense otherwise," she shook her head and eyed me seriously, "That there's some kind of connection here doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is this mysterious energy Luna felt."

"The energy we believe originates from this 'Apparatus' creature?" Luna asked, to which Twilight nodded and flared out her wings in response."Now that you've brought up the idea that Apparatus might be involved, I'm starting to wonder if he—or perhaps it—is the one responsible for my transformation into an alicorn."

"Could be," I replied with a shrug, "we have no way to know unless we get a chance to talk to him again, and I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly eager to meet face-to-face with the guy again anytime soon, even if he is wearing my face," I paused, "...especially if he's still wearing my face."

"And that brings us to this ritual," Twilight said, changing the subject as she turned to face Luna, "whatever it is, you don't need to worry about me. Whatever Salvatore needs to do or go through, I get the feeling we'll both come out of it unharmed, if not entirely unscathed."

"So you're good with whatever crazy magic shit Celestia is cooking up for me?" I asked just to make sure. When Twilight nodded with a scowl of absolute certainty, I tried to breathe out all my misgivings about what would come next and stood up before looking over at Luna with another shrug, "Well... there you go," I said, "she's good with it, I'm good with it. Let's get this show on the road."

And thus, our discussion concluded—at least for the time being. I wanted to know more about what Twilight had found out, but it was clear Luna was getting impatient, and I could always ask Twilight about her discoveries later... assuming I survived whatever this ritual entailed. With no small amount of trepidation, Twilight and I followed Luna out of the cozy study and made our way to the large sealed double doors opposite the elevator room we'd originally come from. We'd left Moon Dancer and Cozy Glow behind, their role apparently having been fulfilled according to Luna.

Now it was just the three of us once again, and I wasn't going to complain about that in the least. The antechamber wasn't all that big, so it didn't take us long to reach our destination. Once we reached the doors, Luna stopped and turned to look me and Twilight in the eye—or that was the impression I got anyway. It was still hard to tell given the mane and no-eyes thing.

"Ahead lies the Chamber of Déaþgedál," she announced before turning slightly to face me directly with a solemn frown, "it is the location in which we will conduct the ritual that will awaken you to your potential as a lesser chaos spirit." She turned away from us both to face the double doors once more and her horn flared to life with a familiar dark blue aura as she continued in a quieter tone, "...And once we're finally free of this wretched nightmare, it will be the final resting place of my dear sister."

The seal etched upon the double doors flared in tandem with Luna's horn and vanished before Twilight or I could respond to the cloaked alicorn's words. Leaving us with that new bombshell to deal with, the former Princess of the Night pushed the doors open and stepped through. The doors themselves swung open not with the loud creak of wood or metal, but instead with the ear-grating sound of stone grinding on stone. Twilight and I exchanged looks as we parsed Luna's final words and the implications behind them.

I had an idea or two of what Luna meant, and if I was right, then frankly, I wasn't surprised. Judging by Twilight's expression, I don't think she was either. Once she realized what Luna was trying to imply, she just looked... sad. Resigned, almost. We both understood what we might find so there was nothing to say, really. Rather than waste any more time, I let out another resigned sigh of my own and followed after Luna. Twilight hesitated a moment but eventually followed after me.

As I entered the room behind Luna and looked around, my first thought was that I'd stepped into a chapel of some sort, but without any pews. The room was relatively small, like most of the places I'd seen thus far, but this one was more rectangular in shape. Its walls were made of the same dark blue stone as everything else in these caverns, but the walls were smoothed out as if sanded down or something.

There were no crystals jutting out of the walls that I could see. Instead, the only light that illuminated the room was six large floor candelabras made of some kind of black metal—three lining each wall along their length and all lit with a bright, golden flame. It gave a weird yellow-green tint to everything in the chamber. And speaking of things in the chamber, there wasn't much to see. What was here caught my attention, though. The Chamber of Something-or-Other was pretty small, so it wasn't hard to make out the stone podium with the cartoonishly massive open book atop it, nor did I have any trouble seeing yet another large spell circle carved into the ground in front of said podium.

Wait, no... not a spell circle, a ritual circle. And it's not carved. It's painted, and I don't think that's actual paint being used...

Doing my best to set that unsettling notion aside for the moment, I opted to focus on the large stone altar at the far end of the long-ish room. The altar was taller than it was wide, allowing me to see past the podium to what was resting atop it. And what did the altar hold?

A bleached skull.

A bleached pony skull.

More specifically, a bleach alicorn skull.

At first, I thought it was a unicorn skull, but that wouldn't have made sense given who was supposed to be waiting for us here. On top of that, the horn jutting out of the skull was too long to be the magical appendage of your average unicorn. The sight was enough to confirm my suspicions about Celestia's true condition, and the brilliant golden flames burning in the eye sockets only cemented my belief that we'd been talking to what pretty much amounted to a ghost this whole time.

"Welcome back, sister, and hello again Salvatore... Twilight."

The familiar voice of the Princess came from everywhere and nowhere at once, bouncing around my head like a catchy tune. It filled the entire chamber, but the origin of the sound was obvious. I winced involuntarily at the unexpected sound and I saw Twilight jump slightly, the sound seemingly snapping her out of her shock and horror at what she was seeing. I couldn't blame her for her reaction. More than the possessed skull itself, it was, once again, the implications of what could've happened to leave Celestia in this state that were the most disturbing to think about.

Well, at least the Princess sounds like she's actually got it together now. For the most part.

"Princess?" Twilight said in a near whisper as she took a tentative step forward, "I don't..." she shook her head in disbelief, her wide eyes glued to the talking skull on the altar, "i-is that... really you?"

When the skull next spoke, I could practically hear the sad smile in its voice as it replied, "I'm afraid so, Twilight. What you see before you is all that remains of me now. All that was left behind. My true self, I suppose..." There was a short pause, then a bitter chuckle. "...Or what little of my true self my sister could scrape together, rather."

"But... but I don't understand," Twilight replied, not finding any of this funny in the slightest, "how did you... what happened to you?"

"And where's that illusion of yours?" I threw in out of curiosity.

"Both very good questions," Celestia's skull replied with another wry chuckle, "to answer Salvatore's question... let's just say I'm putting my public face to good use elsewhere at the moment. As for your question, Twilight... well, that is a bit more complicated to answer and I would rather we focus on the task at hoof."

Twilight looked like she was about to press the issue, distressed as she was, but thankfully Luna stepped in to clear things up somewhat.

"It is not so complicated as my sister claims," she said, frowning at the skull in... admonishment? "We attempted to defend our subjects as they fled into the crystal caverns, fighting off the vile shades as best we could to give our little ponies time to escape, and Celestia sacrificed herself in the process—needlessly, I might add."

"You know full well what would have been at stake had I not acted when I did, sister—and I refuse to have this discussion yet again," Celestia replied, her weary but firm tone cutting off Luna's angry retort, "It does us no good to lament the past. What's done is done, and I would have us look to a better future for what little of our subjects remain."

"And how are our subjects meant to rebuild their future without their guiding light, sister?" Luna shot back with a bitter scowl, "Stars know I am not fit to lead the remnants of our society through the no-doubt turbulent times to come following our victory over this foul darkness. Not now... not like this," She gestured to herself, then shook her head and growled, "I had the means to stem the tide, if for but a few moments longer than you. If you had just let me stay behind—"

"Enough, Luna!" Celestia snapped, her patience clearly wearing thin, "I have faith that my little ponies will weather the storm and rebuild, with or without me. They are fewer—much fewer—but they are strong, even if it doesn't show now. Even if it takes time. Once the Old Night falls, they will overcome this tragedy... I have no doubt."

"I am not so sure, Celestia," Luna admitted softly, the fight in her voice replaced by weary sorrow and resignation, "perhaps, once, I would have agreed with you, but even what remains of the Elements have given in to madness and despair at this point." The alicorn stepped past me and Twilight to stand at the podium where the large open book lay, "But fine, I will speak no more of the matter. You are correct in that there are more important things to discuss right now."

There was a tense moment where Celestia's skull didn't reply and, given she was just a skull, I couldn't tell what she was thinking. I glanced over to Twilight to see the smaller mare eyeing Luna like she wanted to add to the conversation, but she kept her mouth shut. I was pretty sure she knew as well as I did that it wasn't exactly a good time to push things. Thankfully the moment passed quickly and Celestia refocused on what was to come next.

"Now then, Salvatore," she began, addressing me directly, "what we are about to attempt has only been done once before, and while I had my own doubts about this process given how the ritual was used in the past, my sister assures me this is the fastest method to provide you the knowledge necessary to awaken your potential as a lesser chaos spirit."

"The process is not ideal, and the method itself is rather extreme, but it is the best plan we could come up with on such short notice," Luna added as she magically flipped through the pages of that ridiculous tome, "Thankfully, Moon Dancer and Cozy Glow have already helped me make several modifications to the original ritual, so while there is still great risk involved, the ritual itself is much less likely to fail should something go awry."

"And what, pray tell, could go awry?" I couldn't help but ask as I eyed the dark red ritual circle, "And for that matter, how did you get all of this set up so quickly? We only arrived maybe two hours ago—at the most."

"An excellent point, Salvatore," Celestia replied, a wry smile hiding in her voice, "believe it or not, we—or rather, my dear sister—had already planned to do something similar to this long before you arrived."

"It was to be part of an ill-conceived plan to gain insight into Zushakon's weakness," Luna said with a grimace, "I had successfully managed to make the ritual safer, but I... ultimately could not bear the weight of what the ritual required of me."

Luna paused in her skimming of the large tome as she spoke, and I didn't miss the pain in the latter half of Luna's explanation. Like with most potentially uncomfortable topics, I chose not to pry. This time I knew I wouldn't have to because whatever she'd gone through, I'd probably have to go through the same thing. Twilight, on the other hand, heard that same pain and had no such hang-ups about poking her muzzle into Luna's business.

"What kind of weight did you have to bear?" the smaller alicorn asked with boundless sympathy and tactless innocence.

"A weight that I was not nearly prepared enough to take on," Luna replied grimly, "even with Moon Dancer and Cozy Glow's assistance, my mind could not handle the strain, but Salvatore should not have the same limitations."

As Luna spoke, something occurred to me, then, and as I followed my errant train of thought, it finally clicked.

"Wait..." I said slowly, "...this wouldn't happen to be—"

"This is the same ritual the other Twilight Sparkle went through, isn't it?"

Twilight and I figured it out at almost the exact same moment, but she was louder about it as she talked over me so I just let her have the floor. She looked from Luna to the altar where Celestia's skull lay to the bloody ritual circle between the two, her expression this strange mix of horror and fascination. Luna was the one who replied first, barking out a humorless laugh as she answered.

"Finally put the pieces together, did you?" she said with a grim smile, "the foundation of the ritual is the same, but the ritual itself is much changed from what it once was. I made certain of that."

"Changed in what way?" Twilight asked with narrowed eyes.

"With combined help from Moon Dancer, Cozy Glow, my own experiences in the Dreamlands, and the journal and tomes our Twilight left behind, I've cobbled together enough knowledge to modify the ritual," Luna explained, "The primary change is that we no longer require the needed artifact the ritual was originally based around, which reduces much of the risk."

Moon Dancer hadn't really gone into detail about the ritual her little group of cultists performed so I wasn't sure what artifact Luna was talking about. Evidently, she didn't feel like going into detail either because her explanation never mentioned what the artifact in question actually was. Before either Twilight or I could ask for more information, Celestia picked up the conversation from there.

"And on that note, I suppose it is as good a time as any to actually explain what the ritual is and what we require of you, Salvatore," the skull began, "Luna tells me you have a passing familiarity of eldritch lore. Is this true?"

"Uh, yeah you could... say that, I guess," I replied, wary of where the undead princess skull was going with this, "Why?"

"Then can I assume you know of the Unbegotten Source?"

"I know about Ubbo-Sathla, yes, and I'm not sure if I like where this is going," I replied.

And I didn't just mean that as a simple turn of phrase. The moment she mentioned the Unbegotten Source, Luna's warning about me losing myself in the river of time or whatever suddenly made a lot more sense. I was also pretty sure I knew what she was talking about when she mentioned an artifact. The thing was, if Luna and Celestia were attempting what I thought they were going to attempt, I was genuinely conflicted in how I felt about what was coming.

On one hand, I knew the story of Ubbo-Sathla and the fate of the protagonist in that story. Just like Luna's warning, the man essentially drowned himself in the river of time and his existence was pretty much washed away in the current. I honestly thought it was a fascinating way to go, but that didn't mean that's how I wanted to go.

On the other hand, if safety measures were put into place to prevent that from happening to me—and it was sounding like that was the case—then I had to admit a not insignificant part of me was actually kind of excited at the prospect of getting to see that primordial ooze and, more specifically, the eldritch knowledge inscribed on the massive stelae embedded in its gelatinous body.

All that said, I couldn't help but ask, "Are you planning to have me meet Ubbo-Sathla? And if so, what would that have to do with me learning what it means to be lesser chaos spirit? I know the Unbegotten Source is supposed to guard a bunch of ancient knowledge—" I studiously ignored the way Twilight's ears perked up at that "—but what are the odds it'll have the specific info we'll need?"

"Surprisingly in our favor," Luna answered before explaining, "Chaos spirits like Discord are born from, and represent fragments of, the power and influence of the Nuclear Chaos—the root of all true chaos. The nature of the Nuclear Chaos—and by extension, chaos spirits—is said to be unknown and unfathomable to all but a few select beings, and one of those beings—"

"Is this Ubbo-Sathla, I'm guessing," Twilight finished, looking both troubled and intrigued, "So you do plan on having Salvatore meet it somehow."

"And if that's the case, how are you planning to do that without the crystal?" I asked next, dropping any pretense that I might not know what they were planning to do at this point, "From what I understand, the whole process of sending my consciousness into the past depends on that thing—to the point that, originally, that was all you needed to get the job done. No fancy ritual required. Just stare into the oblate spheroid long enough and bam, one-way trip to the beginning of time basically."

"And as my sister mentioned before, the crystal was removed from the equation to minimize such risks as much as possible," Celestia replied, "All that's needed now is the modified ritual circle and Luna's modified incantation. You can think of the process as having paved a clear road you can travel as opposed to wandering aimless and lost in an endless desert."

"It is as Celestia says," Luna replied, her attention once more focused on the giant tome in front of her, "Now, Salvatore, if you will step into the ritual circle, we will begin."

"W-Wait, hold on," Twilight interjected, shifting a worried gaze between Luna and Celestia's luminescent skull, "I still have questions! What's Salvatore actually supposed to do? How does this ritual work? Wh-What am I supposed to do?"

"My sister and I will take care of maintaining the ritual and bringing Salvatore back when the time comes," Celestia replied reassuringly, "All Salvatore need do is sit within the center of the circle and, once the ritual begins, focus on maintaining his sense of self until he arrives at the intended destination. Once there, he will know what needs to be done."

Meaning you have no idea what I'm supposed to do when I get to Ubbo-Sathla, I didn't say but thought very loudly.

"You've no need to do anything, Twilight Sparkle," Luna added, "simply stand by and wait. We don't know if the ritual will affect you through the nascent bond you two share, but I'd rather minimize further risk all the same by having you keep your distance, at least for now."

Twilight looked anything but convinced that any of this was a good idea, and I couldn't blame her, to be honest. There was too much going unsaid here, and it almost seemed like Luna was trying to rush this whole thing along. That said, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't ready to get this over with, whatever "this" ended up being. Better to rip the band-aid off and all that, right?

"It's cool, Twilight. We're not gonna get anywhere waffling about unknowns," I said, trying to feign nonchalance as I made my way to the ominous, bloody ritual circle and sat down cross-legged in the empty space left in the middle of all the lines and runic script, "Whatever happens, happens. Best to get it over with, and besides, thanks to a certain someone, I'm used to sitting in ritual circles for ridiculous stretches of time by now. I'll manage."

"That's not the point nor the problem here, Sal!" Twilight snapped, "We're talking about the risk to your very existence! Possibly to my very existence by extension!"

I wanted to argue, but what she said suddenly got me thinking and I paused. What would actually happen to this Equestria if my consciousness got lost in the river of time? Would this universe still explode? I wouldn't technically be dead, I don't think. The protagonist in the Ubbo-Sathla story vanished from existence entirely at the end though, both his mind and body. So... yeah, I had no idea what would happen if this ritual went tits up.

Whatever happens, happens, remember?

I sighed.

"I'll be fine, Twilight," I finally replied with my best reassuring half-smile, "if there's one thing I have, it's a strong sense of self. Just sit tight and wait for me to get back, alright?"

Twilight glared at me for another moment, then at Luna, but seeing that the other mare was busy poring over her precious oversized book and paying her no mind, she eventually let out her own resigned sigh. She turned to look at me one last before moving over to the altar where Celestia's skull sat and planted her flank down with a huff before bitterly muttering, "I might not have to, you know," just loud enough for me to hear.

I know, Twilight. Believe me. I know.

Actually had to cut this one short and continue the rest in the next chapter. It'll take a bit of time, but the next chapter I post on the site will be the next chapter of this story, since I'm already about 1,000+ words in.