Divergence

by RQK

First published 9th of September, 2018

The many facets which once checked a now-dead ancient evil are now gone, and a shred of that evil has returned. And now its former prison threatens to steal all magic from everywhere. The complications grow from there.

A great evil is destroyed and its wards are so too. But now a fragment of that evil is on the loose and is unchecked.

Between an awakened seal threatening to soak up Equestria's magic, a long-dormant thorn now budding, and changes to once well-understood rules, the final pieces of a partially solved puzzle are in place and are ready to be filled in.

The greatest trials may produce the biggest revelations, transform the tightest bonds, and perhaps even lead to salvation. The cost, however, is first the breaking of everything.

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Feedback - Substitute - Divergence

The Crystal Ball Trilogy is a series of stories which deal with time travel, parallel universes, and other manipulations of time and space. Divergence is the last story; it is preceded by Feedback and Substitute.

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Upcoming chapters:
Eleven - January 22
Twelve - February 12

Featured on 2/6/19!

Edited by James Fire

Prologue

Author's Notes:

As the previous story, Substitute, ended in January of 2017, which was some time ago, for the benefit of readers, I have provided a recap of both Feedback and Substitute so as to refresh memories. Said recap is available here: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/827144/divergence-as-a-quick-recap

Sunset Shimmer regarded the several deathly quiet bodies that sat at the lunch table with her and sighed. She had expected this reaction from them.

Idle conversation filled Canterlot High’s cafeteria. Scores of students sat at their tables, flip-flopping between chewing their food and whispering half-baked rumors which garnered surprised gasps and subdued laughs (with some bits discussing the boards and caution tape over the broken door at the room’s front; apparently an accident with a football). But with the way everyone interacted, all of the tables could have very well been their own little islands; the tables kept to themselves and bothered no one else.

And that was fine in Sunset’s book. In fact, in this case, it was what she wanted.

Her friends from this world took up most of the table’s eight seats. Trays full of half-eaten food sat on the table in front of each of them. Applejack and Rainbow Dash took the seats on the end to her left, Fluttershy sat to her immediate right, and Pinkie Pie and Rarity took the seats on the end to the right.

And across the table sat two Twilight Sparkles. The one opposite Fluttershy adjusted her glasses and sucked in a breath before turning to glance at her double.

The latter Twilight nodded solemnly. “So, let me make sure that I have this straight. This off-ness that you’ve been feeling… the doctors over here couldn’t figure out what was wrong?”

Sunset shook her head. “No. I’ve been to a couple. They tell me that I’m perfectly healthy. But I can feel it… right here in my chest,” she said, pointing to the offended area.

Twilight nodded.

“I especially feel it whenever we power up with our geodes,” she continued as she stroked the stone around her neck.

Her friends looked down at their own geodes with some hands stroking them in kind.

“And do you remember when I brought Starlight Glimmer over to the human world? And we had that fiasco with, uh, Juniper Montage? I felt it both times I crossed the mirror.”

Twilight folded her hands together and sighed. “Well, that does sound kinda strange. But if I’m to be honest, Sunset, I don’t have the slightest clue what the problem might be.”

“Ah’m sure it’s nothin’,” Applejack said. “Ah mean, unless you ran into some strange magic here or there or wherever.”

“Which we have,” Pinkie Pie pointed out in a sing-song manner.

“I too have wondered if it’s simply the imagination,” Rarity added, briefly fanning herself with a celery stick. “Your geode is mind powers, after all.”

“But also especially after what you two have been through with the Nameless,” Fluttershy added, glancing between Twilight and Sunset.

“And the things related to it,” Applejack added. “Ah’m still right sad about what happened to them unponies, and that was a few months ago.”

Twilight nodded solemnly. “Well… there is that…”

Amidst their silence, a nearby table burst into laughter before one of its occupants lobbed a football across the room which another table caught.

Sunset sighed and lay her head on an open part of the table. “It’s alright, I guess. It’s all over and we don’t have to worry about any of that anymore.”

A few solemn seconds of silence passed by.

Twilight nodded and shifted in her seat. “Well, anyway, Sunset… what about these dreams that I hear you’re having? Can you tell me about those?”

The words hadn’t even gone through Sunset’s head and she could already feel some sweat forming on her brow. Her mind drifted to what she had seen the night before; what she had seen on many nights before. She shuddered.

Everybody else’s frown deepened and they drew closer to her.

“Yeah,” she said. She groaned and straightened up. “I’ve been seeing the same thing in all of my dreams. A lot of the time, I still have somewhat-normal dreams but I’ll still see the same thing appear in all of them in some way or another. But on some nights, it is my entire dream.”

“Ooze, right?” Fluttershy asked.

She brought up the image in her mind and could feel her body tremble under its weight. “Black ooze,” she said. “It’s like… a slime, I guess. There’s a little red light in the middle of that slime and it’s always there. I feel like that red ball of light is looking at me.”

Now she was certain that she was sweating.

And she also saw a flicker in Twilight’s eyes. She saw a little bit of color wash out of her face.

“And everytime I see it… it grows and grows and…” She took a deep breath and forced her mouth to form the next words. “It’s death. Everything that this… thing even so much touches just… disintegrates. And, in some dreams, that includes me.”

The whole table sat in silence for a few moments more. Rainbow Dash sighed and put another baby carrot into her mouth and chewed. Pinkie Pie shook her head and rested her it on top of her folded hands.

The native Twilight, meanwhile, watched as her counterpart shuddered and she shuddered in return. She continued watching her Equestrian counterpart’s expression in silence.

Twilight finally placed her hands on the table and pushed herself to her feet. “Sunset… I think… maybe it might be worthwhile to have an Equestrian doctor look at you. Or an experienced mage. I don’t know. But… just to be sure.”

Sunset felt like her heart could have stopped beating at that moment. “You think so?”

“That’s not a normal thing to be dreaming about,” Twilight said. “I don’t know how you’re dreaming about it at all.”

“Ah, if you’re all goin’ to Equestria, how long ya reckon you’d be gone?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t know. A day. Maybe two. Who knows?” Twilight said.

As Twilight walked toward the end of the table, Sunset also stood up. Her chair scraped the floor as she went. “Then… should I go pack my bags?”

“We should take care of this right away,” Twilight replied. “So yes, Sunset. I’ll let Principal Celestia know where you’re going.”

“Oh my,” Rarity quivered as she stood up in kind. “You make it sound like it’s serious.”

Twilight turned, placed her hands on the end of the table, and tried to find her breath again. She looked across all of them, paused on Sunset in particular, and then nodded solemnly. “I… hesitate to say this because I’m hoping I’m wrong, but it could very well be serious. Sunset… that thing you keep seeing in your dreams… To me, it sounds…” Twilight shuddered. “It sounds like the Nameless.”

1 - Calling

The giant, hemispherical room lay as dormant as ever. Thousands of sigils, all embedded within the stone walls and floor, each gave off small amounts of lavender light that, when taken together, ultimately lit the room. The air itself was warm but stale. A pair of large double doors at one end of the chamber sealed the room from the outside world; their flat and featureless faces blended with the wall; that lack of markings was the only indication that they were there at all. Earthly tremors reverberated through the space, perceptible only by the constant low rumbling.

Without any warning, some of the sigils around the room momentarily flashed a white light. The effect looked like a sparkle traveling around the room. It lasted for several seconds, during which every sigil lit up once and only once. And then the room was still once more.

The rings that made up the floor, no thicker than half-a-meter wide, each began to rotate in alternating directions. The space rumbled as the rings swept past each other and then they spun fast enough that the ground quaked. And then, just as quickly as they had started spinning, the rings in the floor ground to a halt.

The floor then sank. The rings on the outside sank only a quarter-meter downward with inner rings dropping below that. The effect created a series of ringed steps that started at the walls and led down toward a now-exposed pillar in the center. The top of the pillar, which had served as the large symbol that tied the room together, remained stationary during the entire process.

And as the innermost rings descended into their final places, they revealed a cavity in the pillar. The cavity itself was, in fact, a break in the pillar where a pony or two could walk right in and stand inside; only three singular supports arranged in a triangular configuration held the upper parts of the pillar above the floor.

The floor of the cavity hosted another large symbol much like the one that sat on top of the pillar but several smaller symbols accompanied it, all taking up smaller rings etched into the surface.

And the chamber grew silent once more.

The sigils in the main floor of the chamber briefly flashed a white light again, starting with those in the outer ring and ending with those in the inner ring. It gave the effect of lights traveling toward the center of the room. The waves continued and showed no signs that they would stop.

Sunset Shimmer stumbled out of the portal and her momentum carried her across the room. Her tumbling, however, was the last thing on her mind as she became aware of a stinging pain in her chest. Her upper appendages (which she registered as the forelegs of a pony) moved to clutch her chest, halfway on their own volition, as she convinced herself that her heart was about to explode. She screamed and writhed as the burning sensation wracked her body.

Twilight Sparkle appeared out of the portal right behind her. Her alicorn form stuck a nearly graceful landing—she teetered for a moment but otherwise kept her balance. She then spotted Sunset and gasped and rushed over. “Oh my gosh!”

Something definitely churned in Sunset’s chest. It oozed and boiled and she could barely think of anything else from how much the pain clouded her vision; she couldn’t even hear her own screams. She rolled over, almost involuntarily, as more waves of pain shot through her.

Twilight skid to a halt right beside. “Sunset! I’m here! Oh gosh, oh gosh.”

Sunset groaned and rolled over again and the pain, surprisingly, let up a little bit. Her vision returned first and she recognized Twilight enough to reach up and touch her.

“I’m here…” Twilight croaked, taking Sunset’s hoof in her own. “I’m here, Sunset. Don’t worry…”

Sunset finally found her breath again and worked for even more air. She groaned and rolled onto her back, still clutching her chest. It would probably be a bit before the pain died away altogether but at least it wasn’t blinding now.

Twilight sighed. “Goodness… that’s much worse than you made it sound.”

Sunset swallowed and nodded. “Y-yeah… I think that’s the worst it’s ever felt, though.”

“Are you okay?”

Sunset winced. “No, not really.”

“W-well…”

Sunset cracked a smile. “But it’s… it’s dying down. I swear. This is what’s happened before.”

Twilight grimaced. “Oh goodness, Sunset. Now I wish you would have told me about this earlier…”

Sunset shook her head. “Maybe…”

She took a moment to examine the large, crystal-walled room around her. Shelves upon shelves of potion tomes and dissertations on matrix theory ringed the room. The magic mirror stood at one end; its magical compressors bobbed up and down, the pumps thumped along, and the glowing magic streamed through the tubes connecting it all. A brown, hardcover book bearing a symbol—half reddish-sun and half lavender-star—nestled inside a niche at the top of the machine.

“Twilight!” shouted some voices from the hall. “Twilight!”

Sunset’s ears perked up and she swiveled toward the open doors. Twilight also looked, her eyebrow raised.

Two figures sprinted into the room, skidding to a halt as their eyes fell on the two. “What’s going on!? Is everything okay!?” the smaller of the two asked.

Sunset groaned and sat up. “Spike?”

Spike and his companion gasped and leaned forward.

“Sunset Shimmer…?” Starlight Glimmer gasped. “H-hey.”

“Hi…” Sunset croaked before falling onto her back.

“Is she okay?” Starlight asked. She looked up. “Twilight, we heard screaming!”

Twilight blushed and frowned. “Yeah, that was us. Something’s wrong with Sunset.”

Spike walked over and bent over Sunset. “What? What’s wrong?”

“We’re not sure,” Twilight replied.

Starlight frowned. “It must be really serious then. We just about heard that scream from the other side of the castle.”

Twilight went pale. “It…” she tentatively said, “it went that far?”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “Well…”

Twilight turned and bolted for the door. No sooner did she reach it did she collide head first with a new arrival: a unicorn mare wearing a skintight suit of armor (with a pair of lightning bolts adorning her flankplates). Twilight tumbled backward while the armored mare stumbled yet kept her footing.

The mare scanned the room. “I heard screaming!” she bellowed. “What is this about!?”

Sunset rolled over to examine the mare. From what was visible, this mare was largely purple in color with a very strong pink for a tail and mane. A jagged scar across the mare’s right eye caught Sunset’s attention first but it was the broken horn that arrested her gaze.

Twilight lit her horn and disappeared in a flash; she reappeared on her hooves again. “We’re fine! Everything’s fine! I think…”

The mare ran her eyes over Twilight several times over, considered Starlight, Spike, and then finally found Sunset. She narrowed her eyes. “Who is this?”

Sunset groaned and started planting her hooves in an attempt to stand up.

Twilight glanced between the two. “This is Sunset Shimmer. She’s a really really close friend of mine.”

The mare raised an eyebrow.

“Uh,” Starlight began, “she was also the one screaming just now, I think.”

Sunset climbed to her hooves. “Who are you…?”

The mare straightened up. “I am Tempest Shadow. I am a… fffffffriend,” she said, holding the fs.

Sunset nodded. “Nice to meet you.”

“Tempest here is just visiting for a couple of days,” Twilight explained.

Tempest nodded. “Yes. I do try to stop by here and there, but I’m usually traveling the world. I’m trying to inform everyone about the Storm King’s defeat.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Who?”

Tempest frowned. “The Storm King. You know…?”

Twilight looked between the two and then stepped toward Sunset. “Uh, he’s the bad guy that attacked Canterlot a while back.”

Sunset scratched her head. “Uhhhhh… yeah. I guess it rings a bell?”

“Tempest here was his head mare,” Twilight said, chuckling nervously.

Tempest pounded her chest. “I was the one who defeated three princesses in the span of sixty seconds and conquered all of Equestria within a day.”

A long moment of silence passed. Spike twiddled his claws together and he turned his eyes to Sunset’s face. Starlight, meanwhile, smiled.

Sunset slowly but surely nodded. “You know, this is sounding a little familiar. That all actually happened?”

Twilight blushed and rubbed the back of her neck. “All true, I’m afraid.”

“What?”

“Yeaaahhhhh. We really got had,” Starlight said.

Sunset scratched the back of her head and chuckled. “So… you used to be a bad unicorn, huh?”

Tempest blushed. “I suppose that you could say that. But I am doing much better now.”

“I know how it feels. Actually, I’m a bit jealous that you managed to actually conquer Equestria. I didn’t even get to launch an attack myself.”

Starlight stifled a chuckle.

“Oh please,” Tempest groaned with a roll of her eyes.

Sunset shook her head. “No, really. I wanted to conquer Equestria once. I really did. Tell her, Twilight.”

Twilight nodded. “All true, actually.”

Tempest raised an eyebrow.

“I gotta say, Twilight, you’re good at reforming unicorns,” Sunset said as she shot Starlight a glance.

“Well, you oughta count Trixie, too,” Spike added, bouncing on his feet all the while.

“Stygian…” Starlight added.

Sunset frowned. “You’re really good at reforming unicorns.”

Twilight blushed and rubbed the back of her head while chuckling nervously.

At that, Tempest straightened up and turned to face Twilight. “No matter. As long as you are safe and you say that everything is fine, then I’ll buy this. As for you, Sunset Shimmer, it is nice to meet you. I would like to know more about this attempt at Equestria you mentioned.”

Sunset nodded and opened her mouth to reply when a whirring and whining sound passed through her ears. She glanced around, searching for the source of the sound. Everyone else turned in Twilight’s direction and Twilight herself was looking at the star-shaped cutie mark that adored her rear; it whined and hissed and spurted out several quickly fading shapes.

“What in the—” Sunset tried.

Twilight gasped sharply. “Oh my gosh! I’m… I’m being summoned for a mission!”

Sunset blinked. “Oh… what?”

“Remember the Cutie Map?” Starlight asked. “It does this to you when it’s calling on you.”

Stars filled Twilight’s eyes as she practically danced in place. “That’s right! It’s a super important mission! And…” Twilight paused as her eyes feel on Sunset again and her smile slowly faded. She craned her neck to get a look at Sunset’s rear and then pointed. “Sunset… look.”

The others looked toward Sunset’s flank and frowned.

Sunset herself looked and saw her own cutie mark spraying out several sun-shaped symbols and similarly whining and hissing like Twilight’s mark.

Sunset looked back up at Twilight. “Me? The map wants… me?”

A moment of silence passed as all eyes turned to Twilight again.

Twilight stroked her chin and sighed. “Well… I guess we’ll just have to change our plans then. Great!”

“Uh—” Sunset began.

“Sorry, Sunset, I think we’ll have to put our plans on hold. Let’s see what the map has in store for us!” she said jovially before leaping out of the room.

Everyone else watched the doorway and then, one by one, they chuckled.

Starlight turned. “You heard her; let’s all go see.”

Sunset sighed and nodded. “Alright then. Let’s all walk over. Maybe,” she began, turning to Tempest, “you and I could talk more on the way?”

Tempest nodded. “Sure.”

The halls were at least a little familiar by now and Sunset had an inkling of where she actually was. Much of it all still looked the same but there were those little details like discolorations in the glassy doors or spots in the carpet that helped.

“So this Storm King was a piece of work, huh?” Sunset asked as she walked with the others.

Tempest frowned. “Yes. He refused to restore my horn. But now that I’ve had time to think about it, I don’t think he ever intended to restore it.” She hung her head. “I did such terrible things to Equestria for nothing.”

Starlight smirked. “Well, it isn’t like most of us haven’t done terrible things. You’re not alone there.”

“The important thing is that we try to be better ponies, right?” Sunset asked.

“Of course. And I am trying just that,” Tempest replied as they rounded a corner.

“I think everypony in town is starting to get used to her coming around,” Spike added.

Tempest cleared her throat. “There are still quite a few ponies that cower at the sight of me whenever I am out and about.”

“I don’t know,” Sunset began. “I think I’d also be on edge if a former conqueror of Equestria was walking freely right next to them.”

Several heads turned and shot her narrow-eyed glances.

Sunset blushed and added, “I mean, look at how I was treated right after I became a she-demon.”

Spike groaned. “Uhhhh… you’re not wrong.”

“Besides, I also go to a school with a girl who nearly kick-started the apocalypse—I’m best friends with her even, and I’ve made friends with someone who trapped me in a mirror, so, you know…”

Tempest snorted. “No, I did conquer them. They have a right to fear me. I still don’t know how to deal with this just yet.”

At that, Sunset closed in on Tempest and laid a hoof across Tempest’s back (or, rather, the armor that covered her back). “Listen, I’ve been where you are right now; I did something not great and people didn’t really like me for a while. But I’ll tell you that if you keep trying your best and give them enough reasons to…” she said with a smile, “they’ll forgive you.”

At that, Tempest smiled back. “I appreciate that. Thank you.”

The four of them rounded another corner, arriving in what had to be the final hall. And then Sunset saw the open doorway at the end of the hall that led into the throne room. She could see Twilight standing over what looked like a large, crystalline table in the middle.

The four of them stepped inside and Sunset craned her neck to see the room in its entirety; she hadn’t seen this room before. Tall ceilings hung above them but the decorated tree roots drew Sunset’s eyes. Many lit balls containing what looked like little pictures hung off of its many branches.

“Wow,” she cooed.

Twilight stepped aside as they approached, allowing the four of them their own view. The table in front of them contained what looked like a holographic projection of all of Equestria and some of the locations beyond. Sunset even recognized some of the more outlying landmasses. As her eyes traveled back toward the middle of the map, she spotted images of Twilight’s cutie mark mingling with her own.

“I also wonder what it would be like to go on a Map mission,” Tempest mused.

“Aw,” Twilight replied. “Don’t worry. Maybe someday, the Cutie Map will call you!”

Starlight rolled her eyes. “Right. We can’t go because the Map isn’t calling us. Lame.”

Spike crossed his arms and watched as the two cutie marks floated upwards from their location atop the castle. “You got that right.”

They watched as the two cutie marks floated up and up and up and then arced toward Canterlot. The cutie marks floated closer and closer to the castle and then passed through it entirely and phased into the mountain. Once there, they continued moving downward and downward and then, finally, just as it seemed like they were about to pass into the surface of the Map itself, they stopped and hung there, still circling around each other.

Sunset trembled. And the color had disappeared from Twilight’s face.

Tempest snorted. “That’s nonsense. What sort of friendship problem would be beneath the mountain?”

A long silence hung over the room as the others considered the spot. When Tempest got no responses, her frown deepened and she started paying careful attention to each of their long and colorless expressions.

Spike tentatively looked up at Twilight and climbed onto the Map. “Are you sure you don’t want us to go?”

Twilight said nothing. Her eyes remained glued to the spot, even as a few trembles revealed themselves. She eventually looked up. “No,” she said at length. “I don’t think you can go down there with us. Whatever it is, the Map wants Sunset and I to go there.”

Starlight rested her forehooves on the edge of the map. “Twilight…”

Twilight glanced between Spike, Starlight, and Tempest. “But I think I want all of you to at least make it as far as Canterlot with us.”

Starlight nodded and immediately turned. “I’ll go grab my things.”

“Do you want me to write to the princess and let her know that we’re coming?” Spike asked.

Twilight watched as Starlight left the room and then said, “Please.”

Spike also turned, hopped off of the Map, and trotted out of the room.

Tempest watched the door with a raised eyebrow and couldn’t decide how she wanted to hang her jaw. She tentatively glanced back at the spot on the Map and then looked up at Twilight.

Sunset shuddered and walked over to Twilight. “Why there? Why would it want us to go back? Why now?”

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Sunset stamped the floor. “And here I thought we had enough of that place for one lifetime!”

Tempest’s frown deepened. “I hate to interrupt, but… what is going on?”

At once, both Sunset and Twilight whirled to face Tempest. And then they exchanged glances.

Twilight stepped forward. “Tempest… I have a lot of explaining to do here…”

The scenery rolled by in time with the click-clack of the train cars as they rumbled along the track below. Every so often, the car shook as it hit a small bump, but Twilight paid that no mind.

Tempest, who sat in the seat across from her, cupped her hooves underneath her chin and hummed. “This Nameless sounds formidable. For it to cause this much grief well after it is gone is impressive, to say the least.”

Twilight nodded. “Yes. That it is.”

“Not to mention that everything we’ve done with it has been pretty strange,” Starlight, who sat in the seat with Twilight and Spike, added.

“Still doesn’t beat the time she died, though,” Spike replied.

Tempest shot Sunset, her seatmate, a glance and then chuckled. “That sounds like the most impressive part. Twilight Sparkle died… and got better.”

Twilight blushed. “Well, when you say it like that... But I have Sunset to thank for that.”

Sunset smiled in return but said nothing.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I owe you my life,” Twilight said.

Sunset blushed. “No you don’t, Twilight. I was happy to do it for you.”

Spike opened his mouth to say something else, but then he grasped at his mouth and let out a sharp burp. Bits of green fire came out of his mouth which swirled together and eventually took the form of a wrapped scroll. The scroll, held together with a golden seal, dropped right into Spike’s waiting hands.

Sunset sat up in her seat. “That has to be Princess Celestia. What does it say?”

Spike sat up straight as he broke the seal and unfurled the letter. As the other four leaned forward to listen close, Spike cleared his throat.

“My dearest Twilight,

“After considerable thought, I think it may be best that you see what is down in the chamber first. I suspect that I will be ready to receive you by the time you come back up. I am currently requesting a few more contacts to come in and see about Sunset Shimmer’s issue.

“And, naturally, please exercise extreme caution.

“I address this now specifically to Spike and Starlight Glimmer. Please be prepared to answer questions about what has transpired that last few times we have dealt with the Nameless and its effects.

“Yours,
“Princess Celestia”

Starlight sighed. “Well, that does it. I kinda wonder who these other contacts are, though.”

Spike turned to Starlight as he rolled the letter back together. “Me too.”

“Well, you’ll find out once you see her. Hopefully, whatever it is that we have to do down in that chamber,” Twilight said, briefly shooting Sunset a glance, “hopefully won’t take too long.”

Sunset sucked in a long breath and tentatively nodded.

The further Twilight ventured through the tunnel, the more her heart shriveled up. The crystalline walls contained enough ambient light for them to see. Those walls contrasted the dirt path that hung a slow and constant left.

And now, up ahead, the path made a sharp left turn. They had arrived.

She exchanged glances with Sunset who walked in silence right beside her.

They rounded the corner and arrived in a very short tunnel. A tall set of stone double doors adorned with swirling patterns that formed beings far removed from a pony groaned and began to split apart.

Twilight took a deep breath and watched those doors fall into recesses in the wall. The light from within the chamber beyond blinded them at first but then died down. The lavender lighting within illuminated the entryway.

And as they stepped forward, Sunset gasped. “Uhm, where is the floor?”

Twilight also looked closer and too noticed that the chamber floor seemed to be missing. She ran forward with Sunset close behind until they reached the entryway. Once there, they stopped dead in their tracks.

The floor sank downwards, reaching its lowest point at a pillar in the center of the chamber; more specifically, it ended at a cavity in the bottom half of the pillar. The sigils within the floor rings all flashed, making waves of light that started at the walls and moved toward the center.

“What…?” Twilight wheezed.

“What is this?” Sunset asked. “Twilight, what’s going on?”

After a moment’s consideration, Twilight vacantly shook her head. “I don’t know. This… this has never happened before.”

Sunset snorted. “No shit.”

Taking another deep breath, Twilight began descended the steps. “Come on. Let’s try and figure out what this is about.”

The two trotted down the steps. The recessed floor revealed sigils etched into the sides of those rings which couldn’t have been seen when the floor was level. Twilight scanned them and hummed inconclusively as they reached the lowest of the rings.

Sunset groaned and clutched at her chest. She even buckled from the pressure.

Twilight looked back at her with a gasp. “Are you okay?”

Sunset swallowed and eventually nodded, simultaneously loosening the strap on her saddlebag. “Yeah. I think.”

Twilight entered the cavity in the pillar and set her own saddlebag against one of its supports. She examined the cavity’s ceiling, noting the ethereal lavender glow in its flat surface. She examined the supports themselves and noted some tubing in their faces which, while currently empty, housed trace amounts of magical energy near the bottom. The cavity floor, meanwhile, contained a very large and complicated symbol that captivated Twilight's gaze for several long moments.

Sunset groaned and joined Twilight in the cavity. “Well?”

“Well, we have something to go on. When I was first here, I cataloged every symbol that I came across. That’s everything on the walls and ceiling,” Twilight said, pointing, “and everything on the floor. But all this stuff within the floor is new.”

Sunset groaned but nodded again, even pausing a moment to wipe some forming sweat off her brow. “Yeah, okay. That was how you learned about it the first time.”

Twilight’s eyes flicked between the newly-revealed sigils and Sunset and she straightened up. “Yes. That’s right.”

“So maybe if we look at these new symbols,” Sunset continued, pausing to groan and buckle a little bit more. “Maybe they’ll say something about what’s going on here?” she managed to get out before she collapsed entirely.

Twilight gasped and darted to Sunset’s side. “Sunset! Are you okay!?”

Sunset grunted and groaned in response as she clutched at her stomach and rolled about the floor, bumping up against one of the cavity’s supports. She shriveled up more and gasped for air.

“Sunset!” Twilight screamed.

Sunset let out a shrill cry, writhing against the supports. Her screams filled the chamber, echoing several times.

“Not again!” Twilight exclaimed. “Sunset! I’m here! I’m here! Don’t you worry,” she said as she cradled Sunset’s head, “I’m here!”

And Sunset kept screaming; she made no indication that she knew Twilight was there.

Twilight cried out and lit her horn, wrapping magical essence around Sunset. She let the rest of her spell flow through her horn and the two of them disappeared in a white flash, reappearing in the chamber entryway.

And Twilight kept holding on.

Eventually, Sunset’s screams lowered down to whimpers but even that lasted a sizeable while. Sunset eventually loosened up and eventually let herself go limp in Twilight’s embrace.

“Sunset!”

Sunset groaned and rolled over in Twilight’s grasp. She shivered, shuddered, and then finally met Twilight’s eyes.

Twilight sighed and wiped some wetness from her eyes. “Sunset. Are you okay?”

Sunset groaned and shook her head. “…No.”

“Darnit, Sunset. I knew something was wrong.”

Sunset snorted. “I-I could feel it coming on as we got closer to that pillar.”

“That came on so suddenly and…” Twilight had to sigh again. “Sunset… that was a lot like what happened at the castle. Tell me that it wasn’t.”

“It… was…”

Twilight’s frown deepened.”

Sunset finally straightened herself up, lifted herself out of Twilight’s grasp, and returned to her hooves. “Twilight, I don’t like this one bit.”

“I don’t either,” Twilight said as she fell backward. “Everything about this is wrong.”

“Well… hopefully, it doesn’t happen again.”

Twilight nodded.

Sunset eventually straightened up. “Whatever. Twilight, we should get to work, I guess.”

Twilight rolled over and stood up. “Woah! Sunset, maybe we should take it easy for a while?”

“If it’s all the same to you, Twilight, I just want to do what the Map sent us to do and figure out what the heck is going on with this place and then get the buck out of here.”

Twilight had to cycle Sunset’s words over and over again within her mind. “Are you sure?”

Sunset shook her head. “No. But it’s the best I got right now.”

“It’s okay if you want to take some time away. Or all of it.”

“I never even wanted to be here. But I’m just as concerned about this as you are and there’s no bucking way I’m leaving you alone in this place. Not again.”

Twilight scratched her head and then nodded. “Fine. Then stay on the outer rings. Don’t go anywhere near that pillar,” Twilight commanded, poking Sunset in the chest.

Sunset nodded in response.

Sunset lit her horn and a cloud of magic appeared in front of her. She covered one of the symbols on the chamber wall with it, trying to get a feel for the energies within. Her spell would tell her something about it. Whether it was something she could interpret would be another matter.

She didn’t expect much; these flashing lights had to be a programmed behavior. The chamber had been designed so that it could do this, after all. She had worked with her fair share of hardware back home and everything had a purpose.

Sunset frowned. This place had never been straightforward. Surely another bombshell was just around the corner.

There was a signal. It ran through the symbol before her and the symbols right next to it. There were even smaller signals that ran around the symbol itself.

She giggled. It really was just circuitry.

She noted the direction the signal was traveling in and started moving her spell in the opposite direction. There had to be a source somewhere. There had to be a processor, a heart that made this place tick.

Maybe she would find out things about this that the few academics she had heard had turned their careers toward the study of this place and those things relating to it didn’t even know.

She wasn’t sure how well even Twilight herself knew it. And she knew more about the Nameless than anypony in any of the Equestrias.

Sunset blinked. That’s right. There are other versions of Equestria. I almost forgot.

Sunset turned. Twilight sat halfway into the pit, furiously scribbling into a notebook. Twilight occasionally paused to glance at the symbols in front of her and even air-traced them with her quill before jotting them down.

She mentioned there have been some collaborations between Equestrias to try and figure out how this dimensional business works. I wonder if she’s even been a part of any of those?

Sunset shook her head. Nah. She’s probably had enough of the Nameless for one lifetime... Maybe even two. She couldn’t help but smile to herself. Right?

Sunset focused on her spell again and continued following the signal, even when it mixed with other signals and became a singular blip in the system. She even latched onto the circuitry itself with her spell. She followed the wire.

Her spell was somewhere in the floor. She could see the circuitry in that area with her spell almost as if she were seeing it with her eyes. Surely she was getting close.

Twilight shot to her hooves. “Okay! I got it!”

Sunset lost a hold on her spell as she similarly lost her balance. She tumbled and almost fell down the steps when she turned her magic on herself and caught herself before she could fall further. She righted herself and found her footing again.

Twilight frowned. “Are you okay there, Sunset?” she asked.

Sunset let out the breath she had been holding. “Yeah. I’m fine. Startled me a bit there.”

Twilight blushed and nervously chuckled. “Heh heh… sorry. I got excited.”

Sunset turned. She knew where her spell had been. All she had to do was project it. She lit her horn again and projected a cloud into the floor where she thought—no, she knew her spell had been before. And her spell appeared there.

And the circuitry in that area was all wrong. It felt nothing like what her spell had been feeding her.

That could only mean one thing: she had lost it somehow. Sunset growled and let her spell fizzle out. “What?”

Twilight held up her notebook. “I finished rebuilding my translations. I’m in a position to read all of this again.”

Sunset’s eyes widened and her grimace disappeared. “Oh! Really? That didn’t take long.”

“It’s much easier the second time around, you know,” Twilight replied.

“Don’t you have your original notes back home? You probably could have just gone home and got it.”

“I could have… but doing all the work from scratch was much faster in this case. Besides…” Twilight held her head high. “I practically have every scholarly article on this language in my library somewhere. I’ve read them a dozen times. I remember them from cover to cover!”

Sunset couldn’t help but smile, especially when Twilight wore a wide and proud grin herself. “Only you, Twilight.”

Twilight nodded and started down the steps. “Anyway, I’m going to try and read these inscriptions. Hopefully, they’ll tell us what is going on.”

Sunset nodded and trotted in Twilight’s direction.

It was when they were halfway down that Twilight whirled around and poked Sunset in the chest. “Wait. Remember what I said about the pillar?”

Sunset deflated. “Right…”

Twilight descended toward the pillar. She examined the sides of the bottom-most rings, writing in her notebook as she went. She paused over the occasional symbol and subsequently flipped through already-filled pages where she compared styles and strokes; she would eventually nod to herself or hum with interest and then flip back to her working pages.

Sunset took a seat on the outer steps and sighed. She took a moment to gaze at the pillar, zeroing in on the tubing within the supports in particular. Strangely enough, while there had been some magical energy present in the bottom-most part of the tubing before, it had since risen by a tiny bit in the few hours they had been there.

Twilight grunted, prompting Sunset to looked back at her. She watched Twilight closely, studying her expression as it widened and narrowed and swished this way and that.

And Sunset noticed a pattern where the colors in Twilight’s face faded at the same pace that her frown deepened. With each symbol she translated, Twilight pressed her quill harder against the pages. She would finish transcribing and translating a ring and move on to the next and, while she hadn’t even made it a few rings up, Twilight now trembled.

Sunset didn’t want to know what it was.

And then Twilight’s quill snapped in two and she fell on her haunches. “This is bad,” she muttered.

“What? What!?” Sunset exclaimed.

Twilight whirled. “This is bad, Sunset. This is really really bad.”

Sunset stamped her hoof. “Well!? What does it say?”

Twilight grimaced and, after climbing to her hooves, she trotted up to meet Sunset. She read from her book as she went. “This is the seal for the Nameless,” she read aloud. “This text being readable means that the chamber is in the primed state. The cause of the priming is because a non-zero amount of the entity for which this seal exists has been detected outside of the seal.” Twilight swallowed. “It’s saying that there is some part of the Nameless out there right now.”

Sunset gasped. “How!?”

Twilight threw her hooves into the air. “I don’t know! It’s impossible! We destroyed the Nameless! How…?”

“This doesn’t make any sense. How could some part of it got out there?”

“Maybe it’s possible that it’s always been out there and it just didn’t know it was there until now?”

“How!?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know. It could be anywhere!”

Sunset growled. “That’s if it’s even out there! Maybe it’s a false alarm.”

Twilight collapsed onto the floor, covering her head in the process. “Oooohhhhh.”

Sunset forced herself to breathe in and out, and that helped the thumping in her heart to subside. “Yeah, that’s it. This is a false alarm, Twilight. It has to be. We don’t have anything to worry about.”

Twilight shook her head. “No, there’s more. I’m not done transcribing this.” She reached into her saddlebag with her magic and fetched a fresh quill from within. She then turned and returned to the spot from before.

“What does it say?” Sunset asked.

Twilight read the sigils and transcribed their translations as she went. “The fragment must be sealed away, not destroyed, or the realities will be left in an undesired state. Until such a time, this seal shall charge up for its final measure, and once that point has been reached,” she read aloud, “to ensure the ultimate survival and cohesiveness of existence… this seal shall…” Twilight’s words died in her throat.

Sunset couldn’t help but trot down a few of the rings. Some hints of the prior pains in her chest resurfaced but she ignored them. “Twilight!?”

Twilight licked her lips and dropped her quill. “This seal… shall need to absolutely and indiscriminately soak up the magic of these realities, up to the last drop. Only then shall the preservation be true and complete.” Twilight buried her face into her hooves. “Oh, goodness!”

Sunset stomped the floor. “What the hay!? What…?”

Twilight looked up and met Sunset’s eyes.

“Why…? Why would it do that?” Sunset asked.

“I… I think it might be a countermeasure. Remember how it worked the first time? The Nameless tried to soak up my energy so that it could make it through the door. It made a tether to me, at that.”

Sunset drew in closer. “Yeah. I remember that. The Nameless eats magic, doesn’t it? That’s what you’ve told me.”

Twilight nodded solemnly. “Yes. And with Equestria so full of magic… it would have been unstoppable. But if there’s no magic for the Nameless to consume, or a fragment of it even, then it will starve.”

“But we need that magic. Twilight, we need that to raise the sun and the moon! Pegasi need that to fly! Earth ponies need that to work the land! And us unicorns…”

Twilight shuddered and glanced at the central pillar. She ran her eyes over the patterns in the floor and then met Sunset’s eyes again. “I know… Sunset… we all need magic. And if it’s all gone…”

Sunset’s mind went to work on visualizing the effects. She imagined the countless pegasi in cities like Cloudsdale suddenly losing their ability to walk on the clouds and even fly. She could imagine them falling by the thousands. She imagined the land drying up and she imagined plants wilting and then decaying away. She imagined the sun or the moon remaining plastered in the sky without a single pony who could move them.

Those and so many more images flashed through her mind. She swallowed and forced the next words out. “It would be the end of everything.”

2 - Irregular

Princess Celestia turned to Princess Luna and nodded before lighting her horn. A small orb of light flickered in the middle of their throne room, brilliant even in contrast with the sun’s bright rays that streamed through the windows. And then, in a dramatic flash of light and an electrical crack, a hole appeared and held steady as a ring of energy clamped down on its edges.

The two walked through that hole and emerged into a copy of their room. In comparison with the bright colors of their chamber, this one was bathed in browns and bits of dust, although the holes in the wall had been sealed. They could hear the wind’s whisper as it steadily coated the tall windows with dust at a constant pace.

On a small table in the very center of the chamber sat a lonely crystal ball. It showed what it always showed: an exact copy of the very chamber they now sat in.

A few other tables ringed around it. Each of six of the tables had at least one or both of Celestia and Luna (with most having both rather than just one). Nameplates gave both their name and their timeline designator, and colored metals fused with the tips of their crowns also identified them. The already-occupied tables, representing the alternate timelines, had the labels D, C, N, T, S, or I.

The seventh, empty table (notated with an R) was their own and the two of them approached it. “Thank you for waiting for us,” Celestia (or, as she was known at these meetings, Celestia R) said. Her eyes drifted toward one of the tables in particular where a Luna (who had been Nightmare Moon once) stood, now joined by a Celestia.

Luna (known as Luna R here) looked as well and smiled. “Ah, I see you have finally made it off the moon.”

Celestia N chuckled. “Indeed, I have. I have many ponies to thank for that, but especially my own sister,” she said with a smile. “She championed the efforts, after all.”

Luna N blushed and averted her eyes but her smile made it out all the same.

“Anywho, I suppose I answer to ‘Celestia N’ in these cases?” she continued. “This is my first time to these meetings.”

“Yes,” Celestia D who sat at table D replied. “Just so that we have everything organized. Same with everypony else here, although we do typically drop the Rs. They are the prime timeline, after all. Anywho, let’s get this meeting started. We went first last time, so I suspect that we could get an update from Equestria I first this time.”

Celestia I and Luna I shifted and the former cleared her throat. “Certainly. Thank you. In the two weeks since we all last met, we’ve continued our cleanup of the Everfree forest. We’re working on replanting trees in the southeast corner now. The parts that we’ve replanted are coming along quite nicely.”

“We intend to reintroduce some fauna into the area in a few weeks,” Luna I said. “We want to start with smaller creatures first and then move up in size.”

“With any luck, we will restore the environmental damage that the Flim Flam brothers did to the area in their bid for industrialization.”

“Excellent,” Celestia D. “It sounds like you are putting our seeds to good use.”

“Yes,” Celestia I replied with a nod. “They have been very useful. That said, we will have to tend to the Everfree from now on. In other news, we’re seeing a decline in trade between our textile industry and Equestria S. Certainly, we attribute that to the reprisal of your fashion industry,” she said as she turned toward table S.

Celestia S, who stood at a table by herself, nodded. “We just recently had a fashion show right here in Canterlot. Actually, if you would believe it, wartime vogue is popular.”

Celestia laughed. “Well! That is a surprise, considering you spent quite some time fighting King Sombra off.”

Celestia I chuckled. “Well, still, it’s good to hear that there is still recovery. That said, we find that, on the whole, cross-dimensional trade is still flourishing. Hopefully, it will for quite some time.”

Luna I straightened up, even placing a hoof on the table. “In other news, we continued our investigation into the unponies. We, of course, looked into that cavern that they occupied in your reality,” she said, motioning toward Celestia and Luna. “We haven’t found anything else, and we more or less concluded our investigations in the other places we had looked into.”

The pair at table C shifted and Celestia C cleared her throat. “I hate to speak out of turn, but… as we speak about the Nameless and its effects…” They produced a crystal ball identical to the one on the central table. “There has been a development that we find somewhat troubling. Take a look at this.”

Several eyes turned toward the crystal ball in question. A picture of the throne room lay within, lit by moonlight alone.

And several bodies around the room shot to their hooves amidst sharp gasps.

“Yours too!?” Celestia T cried.

Luna exchanged uncertain glances with Celestia and frowned. “Ah… I am sorry?”

One by one, the other tables produced their own crystal balls. While the locations within varied wildly, one feature remained the same: the night skies in each of them.

“Observe,” Celestia C said.

Celestia frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“It is daytime in our timeline,” Celestia C said. “Or, rather, it was daytime at this time nine days ago.”

“The same with ours,” Luna T said. “And yet, all of our balls show night.”

“About two in the morning, to be precise,” Luna C said.

Celestia N banged the table. “That’s what we measured as well,”

“What madness is this!?” Luna growled. “The balls are… desynced?”

Celestia N blinked and then lit her horn before levitating a crystal ball of her own onto the desk before her. It too showed a throne room with a night sky outside. She frowned and tentatively looked up. “We don’t know. I was told that these things abided by a nine-day rule. I guess that is no longer the case?”

A silence pervaded the room as everypony exchanged uneasy glances.

Luna shook her head. “How?” she asked. “How did this happen?”

“I do not know,” Luna I replied. “Does anypony have any ideas?”

Several heads around the room shook in response.

“This is an ill omen, surely,” Celestia C mused.

Celestia I cupped her hooves across her mouth and stared into the distance. After a moment’s thought, she sighed into her hooves. “I am not as versed in these matters as the two of you are,” she said as she glanced at Celestia and Luna in particular, “but I get the sense that we will know soon enough.”

Celestia shuddered and stood up. “Yes. I agree. Whether or not we want to.”

Sunset Shimmer scrutinized everyone else’s faces, watching for the most minute changes in expression. Most changes were the deepening of frowns, the shrinking of eyes, and the quivering of lips. Twilight Sparkle herself presently did most of the talking but Sunset had no doubt that she too was watching.

With the nighttime blackness doing nothing to help light the room, the chandeliers (thankfully up to the task) did so by themselves. A few half-eaten snacks lay spread across the dining room table but no one presently made for them. Celestia and Luna sat at one end of the table. Starswirl the Bearded sat next to Sunset herself (which, even with Twilight speaking, she couldn’t help but steal glances at him in particular), with Sunburst flanking her other side. Starlight Glimmer, Spike, and Tempest Shadow sat across from them. And Discord the draconequus floated above them.

Finally, the last words passed out of Twilight’s mouth and she assumed a tall stance. A long silence followed.

“This…” Princess Luna said as she wiped her brow, “is incomprehensibly terrible.”

Discord snorted. “How right you are. How am I to wreak chaos without magic?”

“W-what are we gunna do?” Spike asked.

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know. This missing Nameless fragment could be anywhere.”

“It would seem that, in this situation, we will need to raise the rest of the Pillars,” Luna said. “And perhaps the other Elements.”

Starlight nodded. “Yeah. Pretty sure they’d want to know about this.”

“They won’t be happy about it, though,” Spike dryly said. “I know I’m not.”

“No one is,” Sunset said.

Starswirl stroked his beard. “Aside from what all of you have told me,” he said, his voice deep and throttled, “my knowledge is limited. But I think that this is a situation which should be approached with the highest severity.”

Tempest frowned. “You really think so?”’

Discord rolled over. “That seal is so powerful that it blocked even my magic just like Chrysalis’ throne did. I couldn’t even budge the thing, much less plop that seal someplace where it can’t hurt anypony. Plus, there’s that aspect of it where it’s tangled across several realities, which I can’t resolve.” He glanced at each of their faces and added, in a firm voice, “If it can shrug me off so easily, then I don’t doubt that the seal can and will do what it’s advertised.”

Starswirl pointed. “That says it all.”

“Then it is settled,” Luna said as she stood up. “Guards!”

The room’s tall double doors burst open and a pair of armored guards stormed in. Their eyes immediately fell on Tempest (and she too stood up at their approach), but after nothing happened, they saluted Luna. “Your Highness!?”

“Place immediate summons for the rest of the Elements of Harmony and the Pillars of Equestria. Priority one.”

“Tell them that the Nameless is back,” Twilight added.

After a moment’s silence, the two guards saluted and then left through the doors again.

Discord disappeared and appeared as a smaller version of himself on the table. He walked down the length of it, approaching Twilight in the process. “How long until it is ready to soak up the magic?”

Twilight lay her hooves on the table. “It… it didn’t say anything explicit. But with how the chamber reconfigured itself, there’s a central pillar that… It’s hallow, but there are supports. And there is this tubing in these supports that is filling up… I spent some time measuring it and… it will fill up in about seven days.”

“And will it fire once it’s charged?”

Twilight shuddered. “I… I don’t know.”

“Then we must start talking about where we might find this fragment,” Luna said as she straightened up. “And we must do it quickly.”

“Did you pick up any clues while you were down there, Twilight?” Starlight asked.

Twilight shook her head. “Nothing. All the seal had to say was what was going to happen if we don’t find this fragment of the Nameless and seal it away.”

“What would it look like, Twilight?” Luna asked.

“Black slime or something similar, I would guess. But this is a fragment, apparently.” Twilight groaned. “So I also think that it could look like something other than that.”

“Such as?”

“I don’t know!” Twilight exclaimed, throwing her hooves into the air.

“There should be some way of tracking it down. An energy signature or something like that,” Sunburst suggested.

Sunset stood up. “I know of somepony who might be able to track that very thing.”

Twilight visibly deflated and hung her head. “Sunset… I really don’t think she would be in the least bit willing to help us.”

Sunset opened her mouth to speak, but on seeing the color disappear from Celestia and Luna’s faces, she sat back down. “You’re… sure?”

Starlight glanced between parties and then dejectedly sighed.

“We’ll have to find another way,” Twilight said.

Celestia stepped forward and cleared her throat. “Let this be a discussion be for when everypony has arrived. In the meantime,” she said, looking between Starswirl, Sunburst, and Discord, “let’s have you look at Sunset. Twilight, you may stay if you wish. The rest of you, remain on castle grounds. We’ll reconvene soon.”

Twilight and Sunset exchanged glances and then the former gave a solemn nod.

Twilight trotted toward the double doors that made up the castle’s main entrance. The carpet ran right up against the doorframe and it was there that she stayed. A hoofful of guards lined the sides, but she paid them no mind.

The doors opened and a guard walked through. Twilight glanced behind him and spotted the ponies that she wanted to see. Her five best friends trotted toward her in a tightly-packed blob. Two more ponies trotted beside them; the first, Flash Magnus, sported a suit of knight-ish armor; the second, Somnambula, wore a headdress and a transparent cloak.

Twilight’s five friends gasped and practically flowed around their escort and ran up to her.

“We heard what happened!” Rarity exclaimed.

“This is awful,” Fluttershy said. “I would never have wanted the Nameless to return.”

Twilight glanced between them, noting the constant frowns across their faces. “Neither did I, but it’s where we’re at right now.”

“Twilight Sparkle,” Somnambula greeted as she approached with her companion.

“Hi.”

“Your friends told us all about this Nameless on the way over,” she continued, her accent lengthening her vowels as she spoke.

“It sounds pretty serious,” Flash Magnus added. “Are the others here yet?”

“Yes. They’re all waiting in the throne room,” Twilight replied.

Flash Magnus nodded and looked at Somnambula. “Let’s go,” he said.

Twilight’s friends all stepped forward and she let them swallow her up. They then all followed the guard further in.

“Who all else is here?” Applejack asked in a low voice.

Twilight shifted. “Well, Sunburst, Starswirl, and Discord came here to look at Sunset—”

The others raised their eyebrows.

“—and Spike, Starlight, and Tempest followed me here too.”

Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and flew over Twilight. “Twilight? Did you just say Sunset?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes. She’s here too.”

“Well, that’s fine and dandy,” Applejack said with a nod as she swept her eyes over the others. “Ah was just about to say that we oughta get her in on this.”

“But how the heck did she beat us here?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“She came over yesterday for something else and then the Map called the both of us down to the chamber. That’s how we found out about all this,” Twilight explained as they rounded a corner. “There’s something going on with her and she’s getting looked at.”

They continued through the halls and eventually reached the tall double doors that led into the throne room. The aforementioned ponies all stood near the center of the room with Sunburst and Starswirl hovering around Sunset. Starswirl had his horn lit with his grey magical aura wrapped around Sunset. Sunburst held some papers in his own light yellow magic. Sunset stood in silence, watching the both of them. Discord stood at a distance, stroking his beard all the while.

And then Sunset looked up and saw the new arrivals. She smiled and waved but otherwise remained rooted to the spot. And the new arrivals smiled and waved back.

Flash Magnus and Somnambula, meanwhile, drifted toward a group of four ponies standing to the side. Mage Meadowbrook, with her hair in a tall bun, stood closely with Stygian who wore his mane in a bowl. Meanwhile, the forever-wilted Mistmane stood next to the tall and brawny Rockhoof. As the two newcomers approached, the other four turned and stretched forward to collect them.

Starswirl quit his spell and whispered to Sunburst who responded by jotting some words into the last pages of his notes. He held then held the papers up for Discord. Discord snapped his fingers; a pair of eyeglasses appeared on his face and the several pages began flipping through on their own. His expression remained unchanged but he nonetheless nodded once he reached the end. He, in turn, then floated the papers over to Celestia and Luna.

Twilight and her friends approached the group around the same time that Starlight, Spike, and Tempest approached. “Did you find anything?” Twilight asked.

Discord floated over and shook his head. “We did, but we can’t resolve it. None of us have ever seen it before. I know I haven’t.”

Twilight shuddered. “So… there is something there?” She pursed her lips. “What could it be? And why?”

“I doubt we’ll get very far speculating until we know what it actually is,” Starswirl said.

At that, Applejack stepped forward. “Howdy, Sunset.”

Sunset turned to face Applejack and the four others that stepped forward; she scanned their faces and smiled in return. “Hey! It’s good to see all of you!”

Pinkie Pie zipped forward and practically tackled Sunset. They rolled across the floor amidst screams and laughter. Rainbow Dash then threw herself on top of them while Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack gathered around them.

Twilight exchanged giggles with Starlight and then Spike soon after. Tempest, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow and smirked.

The three picked themselves off the ground and Sunset dusted herself off. “How have y’all been? I haven’t seen any of you since Starlight’s graduation party.”

Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry. “Yeah. You really oughta come around more often.”

Sunset shrugged. “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash. I’m busy with school back home. You know how it is. I mean, I have to save the world over there sometimes too.”

Rarity cooed. “Oh? Do tell?”

“Well, I mean, recently, my friends and I got sucked into a magic mirror. But I’ll let Starlight tell you about that one; she came over and helped us out big time, after all,” she said, shooting Starlight a smile.

Starlight blushed and waved.

“Meanwhile, I haven’t been inside your new school yet,” Sunset continued. “It looks really nice from the outside.”

Applejack chuckled. “Ah, well, Ah’d be right happy to give you the grand tour sometime. Eh, you know, when Equestria ain’t at stake or somethin’.”

Sunset nodded. “Sure. That sounds really nice.”

“Oh, of course,” Fluttershy said. “The students are all really nice and we enjoy working with them. I’m sure they’d love to meet you.”

Starswirl cleared his throat at that moment and stepped forward. “I hate to break up this happy little reunion, but we should get down to business. We need to come up with a plan to track down this missing Nameless fragment.”

While Celestia kept her face practically buried in the report, Luna stepped forward. “Indeed. We know what it will physically look like for when we see it, but it would be best if we could narrow down its location first. If the seal has a way with which to detect this fragment, then certainly we will be able to develop something as well.”

“Yes,” Starswirl agreed. “We should conduct further study into the workings of the seal. It will be of great importance to understand precisely how it works.” He turned to Twilight and added, “In all realities.”

“Of course. We can get some ponies together to look at the seal.” Luna looked at the rest of the Pillars and said, “I think you all can help us on that front.”

“Will you be down there with us?” Stygian asked Twilight.

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t think so in this case.”

Stygian glanced between his friends. “Well, I’m sure we can keep everything there organized.”

“What about the other Equestrias?” Starlight asked. “Should we get them in on this?”

Sunset slapped the floor. “Yeah, you’re gunna wanna do that. I figured out that the seal spans all of the Equestrias, so this is just as much their problem as it is ours,” she said.

After a moment of silence, Rarity said, “Hmmm, does anypony else think that this Nameless fragment might be in one of those other Equestrias?”

Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe?”

“My sister and I can talk to them after we’re done here,” Luna said. “We will get them in on this.”

Celestia nodded without looking up from her papers.

“Twilight, tell me, what do you plan to do in the meantime?” Discord asked.

Twilight kicked the throne room’s long rug. “I have to think about what we’re going to have to do once we find the Nameless fragment.”

“Ya reckon we can destroy it with the Rainbow Power?” Applejack asked.

Twilight nodded. “Of course I do.”

“But I can’t imagine that whether or not you can destroy it is the problem, now is it?” Luna asked.

“Right. It sounds like the seal won’t be satisfied unless the fragment is placed inside it. And right now, satisfying the seal is our top priority. So, whether we like it or not, we have to just seal the fragment and whatever it might have tethered onto away, hopefully forever this time.”

Celestia glanced up.

Twilight hung her head. “That’s all I have figured out right now.”

Sunset stepped forward. “What happens after that?”

“I’m not sure,” Twilight replied. “The layers are not as reliable as they used to be and the stones are all dead. Practically all of the safeguards—well, other safeguards—have broken down. I don’t know if I’ll have to do anything then.” She shuddered. “Or if there will be anything I’ll be able to do.”

“So… we might have to spend some time setting things up, is what you’re saying?” Sunset asked.

“Yes.”

Celestia sighed and closed her papers back together. Her face was whiter than usual. “Well, it would seem that this is enough to get started. The Pillars will head into the chamber while my sister and I contact the other worlds and set up things with them. Sunburst, Discord, you’re with us for now.”

Starlight frowned. “Princess? What about us?”

“I will leave you to Twilight’s charge. For now, Twilight…” she trailed off.

Twilight swallowed. “Yes, Princess?”

Celestia’s expression quivered for the briefest of moments before she tentatively said, “I would like to have a private word with you in my chambers.” She turned. “Please follow me.”

At that, Twilight and Sunset exchanged glances and held those stares even as Twilight began trotting after the departing Celestia.

Sunset hung with the rest of the girls and Spike. All of the others had left, leaving the nine of them alone. The throne room remained otherwise empty with the large double doors at its foot still closed. Most conversation carried itself out in hushed tones as they tossed theories around where the Nameless fragment was and now it had come about. But with the mentions of “Maybe it just leaked out or something?” going about, it was guesswork at best.

Sunset was thinking in a different direction and, from the way Tempest was frowning, so was she.

“They’ve been gone a while,” Tempest said.

“Yeah,” Sunset said. “I wonder what they had to talk about?”

Spike came walking up. “Eh. Who knows? She’s probably trying to find out more about the Nameless for herself.” He shrugged. “Twilight is the expert on it, you know.”

“I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right,” Sunset said as she scratched her chin.

“She was looking at that report very closely,” Tempest said. “Maybe they’re talking about what’s in it?”

Spike shrugged. “I dunno. I mean,” he said, looking at Sunset, “that’s what you came over here for in the first place, I guess?”

Sunset shrugged in return. “Yeah…”

Applejack raised an eyebrow as she looked back at them. She then trotted over. “Ah’m sure it’s nothin’,” she said reassuringly as she laid a foreleg on Sunset’s withers.

Pinkie Pie zipped over. “Yeah, what she said. Besides, they’re princesses! They’re probably just talking about state secrets or some other top secret stuff!” She cracked a maniacal grin and said, in a ghoulish voice, “Nopony knows what world-changing secrets lie behind those closed doors.”

Sunset smiled and reached up to touch Applejack’s hoof with her own. “Thanks, girls. Maybe I am just overthinking it.”

Fluttershy smiled. “Of course, Sunset. I know we’re all going to get through this just fine.”

“Well, with all of you to help me, I’m sure it’ll work out,” Sunset said.

The double doors opened at that moment and everybody turned to see Twilight stalking into the room, levitating what looked like a crystal ball behind her. Smiles faded as they lay their eyes on Twilight’s tall expression and further still as they noticed a certain lack of color in her face.

Sunset could see some puffiness around Twilight’s eyes. Her own heart sank.

Starlight voiced it first. “Twilight? You okay?”

Twilight looked up, briefly glanced at Sunset, wiped her eyes, sniffled, and then finally nodded. “Yes. I’m… okay.”

A small round of gasps flew around and they quickly congregated around her, shooting various expressions of “Are you sure?” and “You don’t look okay.”

And Twilight batted them away. “No, please. I’m okay.”

“What all did you two talk about up there?” Starlight asked.

“Oh,” Twilight replied, “some things. This and that. Don’t worry about it.”

Pinkie Pie nudged Sunset in the side. “State secrets.”

Twilight straightened up and held up the crystal ball with her magic. “One thing we did talk about was the crystal ball. It’s started acting up and we don’t know why.”

Sunset narrowed her eyes. “Acting up? What you mean acting up?”

Twilight hummed. “Apparently, it’s desynced and no longer obeying the nine-day rule.” She looked around, taking in their wide-eyed expressions (briefly stopping on the confused shriveling of Tempest’s expression) and then continued, “We don’t know why it’s happened or how it’s happened, but the other timelines noticed it a day ago at the latest.”

How the… how is that even possible? Sunset thought. That’s… stupid. It’s always been nine days.

Applejack voice it a moment later: “What the hay…?”

Sunset pushed her way to the front of the pack. “So…? Wait? All of the balls?”

“In all of the timelines,” Twilight replied. “I’m taking all of us back to Ponyville for now, so I’ll explain more of it on the train. This is something we’ll have to look into on top of everything else.”

While the others sounded their affirmatives and nodded in response, Sunset shook her head. “Why? Shouldn’t we be here where everypony else is trying to track down the Nameless fragment?”

Twilight shuddered and then stared holes into Sunset’s eyes. She said simply, sharply, “We are going back to Ponyville.”

“Twilight—”

Twilight stamped the floor. “That’s final.”

The whole room fell silent as all eyes fell on Twilight. Many of them exchanged uncertain glances. Tempest, who remained in the rear, wore an acute frown while stealing glances at the others.

Sunset, meanwhile, gained some redness in her face and some quiver to her features, but she otherwise said nothing. Eventually, however, she sighed and nodded.

Tempest followed the others as they filed into the library. The magic mirror stood at the far end of the circular room. That mirror was a doorway that led to another world as far as she understood—a world inhabited by strange creatures called humans. Everyone else in the room had been to that world at one point or another; she was the only one who had not.

Maybe she would ask to see it later.

No one spoke under the current atmosphere. Even Pinkie Pie walked in silence with the others. Twilight herself stalked to a lonely table and stood in front of it. Spike peeled away from the group to walk up to her; he placed a claw on her and she looked over at him.

Tempest drifted toward Starlight where she leaned over and asked, in a whisper, “She’s… not normally like this, is she?”

Starlight shook her head and whispered back, “No. I don’t know what’s going on either.”

“Other than this business with that crystal ball you have,” Tempest whispered, pointing to the ball in Starlight’s magic, “she was pretty silent.”

“Yeah.”

Sunset ambled over at that moment. “I think so too. I think this is fishy.”

Starlight narrowed her eyes. “You and me both.”

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash looked over their withers and drifted toward them. Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy soon followed.

“This is pretty messed up,” Rainbow Dash said. “We should be out there looking for this piece of the Nameless already. We’re wasting time!”

Sunset shuddered. “Exactly,” she grumbled.

Rarity furrowed her brow and leaned in. “You all saw her after she spoke with Princess Celestia. Something has her acting strange.”

After a few moments of silence, Sunset looked up and took a few steps toward Twilight and Spike. “Twilight?” she said.

Spike looked back at her. Twilight did not.

Sunset narrowed her eyes. “Why are we really here?”

Spike stood there for several moments and then looked at Twilight who remained as still as before. Twilight tilted her head toward them but not even enough to see Sunset out of the corner of her eyes. At that, Spike got caught glancing between her and them.

Without a word, Twilight turned toward the apparatus surrounding the mirror and flipped a switch on the side. The machine grumbled to life as the pumps fed condensed magical energy into the tubes. The compressor sputtered and kicked into gear, thumping away.

Sunset took a couple of steps back. “Twilight…? What are you starting the portal up for?”

And then, after it had funneled magic through all of its parts, the apparatus shot several magical beams into the mirror, creating a bright vortex on the portal’s surface.

Twilight turned to face them but glued her eyes on Sunset in particular. “Sunset Shimmer… I’m sending you home for now.”

A moment passed.

Sunset went wide-eyed. “What!?”

“I’m sending you home, Sunset. It’s where you’ll be safest.”

A few short and almost inaudible gasps escaped everyone else’s lips. Even Tempest found herself having to keep her footing.

“Safe from what?” Sunset replied. “The Nameless fragment?”

“Considering the episodes you’ve been having and what’s otherwise been happening with you, yes!”

“To hell with that! You know as well as I do that, besides you, I’m the most capable of dealing with this problem.”

Twilight shook her head. “I know that. But I can’t take any chances right now. Besides, there are things that I can have you do, and you can do them in the human world, where I need you to be.”

Sunset threw her hooves into the air. “But that’s something I can do here, too! There’s no point in me going back home right now. Not until we get this all under control.”

“Ah’m afraid I have to side with Sunset on this one, Twilight,” Applejack said as she stepped forward. “She knows her way all around this and Ah reckon we could use all the help we can get.”

“Same,” Starlight seconded.

The others nodded in agreement.

Twilight, now twitchy and wide-eyed, glanced between their many faces. Those looking directly at her raised their eyebrows in response.

Sunset backtracked toward the doors. “I’m going to go wash up and then get down to business.”

And then, as Sunset actually turned to leave the room, Twilight lit her horn. She wrapped her magic around Sunset and lifted her into the air. Everyone else in the room sharply gasped in response.

“Hey!” Sunset barked. “Put me down!”

“Twilight, what the hell!?” Starlight exclaimed.

“I don’t think you understand that this isn’t up for debate. If you won’t go willingly,” Twilight warned, “I will drag you there myself!”

Tempest squared up. This couldn’t end well.

Sunset squirmed from within Twilight’s magic. Everyone else flip-flopped between staring at Sunset and staring at Twilight with wide-eyed shock.

“Twilight!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

“Not cool!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

Tempest kept her eyes glued on Sunset in the meantime.

It was only when Twilight drifted Sunset toward the portal that Sunset flipped over. She lit her horn as she lined up with Twilight. “Get. The buck. Off me!” she screamed as she threw a strong gust of wind right at Twilight.

The moment that wind knocked Twilight off her hooves was the moment that Sunset fell out of her grasp and also the moment that Tempest charged forward. Sunset’s hooves hadn’t even touched the ground before Tempest bowled into her and sent her tumbling.

A half-dozen cries and screams sounded and resounded throughout the room as everyone else jumped.

“Stop it!” Starlight cried.

Tempest rammed Sunset again just as the latter flipped over. Tempest then slid and paralleled Sunset on the ground. She wrapped her forelegs around Sunset and held her there.

Twilight then found her footing again and turned and saw the two squirming on the floor. “Hold her, Tempest!” she barked as she wrapped her magic around Sunset again (and did the same with Tempest in this case).

Spike ran up to her. “Twilight! This is insane! Why are you doing this!?”

Twilight looked away from the pair for a second. “Spike, just trust me!”

Spike balled his claws. “This isn’t like you!”

It was when Sunset and Tempest were within a couple of meters of the portal’s surface that Sunset lit her horn again. A wave of energy exuded from her body which hit Tempest square in her everything including and especially her chest. She felt the wind rush out of her and her grip around Sunset loosened.

And then she felt a second magical aura as Sunset tried to take Tempest into her own. She caught Twilight’s expression just long enough to see it go wide-eyed and she then caught a shift in Twilight’s magic. But it was at that moment that Sunset’s own magic rotated the two in space and Twilight’s flinging spell, which had originally been for what had been in Sunset’s previous position, acted on Tempest instead.

Tempest caught a flurry of gasps and cries before she passed through the portal’s surface.

Reality turned into a kaleidoscope and twisted and turned in every direction around her, including some she could not discern. Everything up to and including her own body twisted and turned in ways she was sure it was not supposed to. Tempest screamed and even that, especially as her own consciousness faded into a white light, dissipated into infinity.

And then Tempest felt herself tumbling across the ground. This ground was especially hard. The world continued spinning for several moments as she forced herself to breathe.

Her entire body felt strange. Proprioception told her where her parts of her body were; she knew where her body and her head were. The same should have held true for her limbs; all four felt so much longer than before and their ends seemed so uncharacteristically dispersed.

She lifted her head and checked herself for damage and found herself forcing her breaths again. Her body had changed shape! Gone were her hooves and tail with now strange arms and legs and no tail in their place. Her hooves, at least on these strange forelegs, had turned into claw-like appendages. Her clothes had changed too; while they kept the black color palette, she now wore a tank top, some camo jeans, and some heavy-duty boots.

Her eyes widened. This...! Is this a human body?

She took quick stock of the surroundings, discerning the brick building that horseshoed around her position and the concrete that stretched around her. She then turned toward a statue of a rearing horse directly in front of her.

Its large base flashed and another human fell out. This one had red and yellow hair and had amber skin. She looked a lot like the pony she had just been wrestling with. And the human before her immediately curled up and folded back out and let out a blood-curdling scream.

Tempest gasped. This scream was familiar. “Sunset Shimmer!?”

Sunset wriggled and writhed and continued crying out in agony.

Tempest couldn’t help but try to roll over and stand. Sunset’s screams pierced her ears and Tempest wanted to go and calm her down and figure out what was wrong (though, inwardly, she remembered). But this alien body didn’t comply like she needed it too. Her claw-like appendages were balled into fists (as if they could be anything else) and, while she managed to get onto all-fours, they wobbled and slipped.

It was only when she managed to center her eyes on Sunset’s writhing form that she statue’s surface flashed again. Another human came through, this one actually (apparently) sticking the landing. She stood on her hindlegs (or perhaps they were just legs now) and she quickly scanned the immediate space and laid eyes on her.

“Tempest!?” Twilight cried.

“T-Twilight! Help!”

Twilight’s eyes briefly glossed over Sunset rolling over and she ground her teeth together. She instead ran past Sunset and knelt down beside Tempest. “Come on!” she exclaimed as she lifted Tempest to her feet. “We’re getting you out of here!”

Sunset’s cries began to die down and she found the strength to look up at them. The expression on her face, despite still shuddering between a grimace and a snarl, spoke of a fire in her eyes.

“What about Sunset?” Tempest asked.

Twilight opened her mouth to say something but stopped when Sunset suddenly leaped forward. She bowled into Twilight, knocking her off her feet and subsequently causing Tempest to lose her balance.

The statue flashed again and several more humans and a diminutive dog jumped out. They all hobbled over to the three of them with varying degrees of finesse.

Sunset and Twilight rolled across the ground, trying to pin the other beneath them. Just when it seemed like one had pinned the other, the one on the ground shifted their weight and threw them off. They exchanged these roles for a few moments.

Tempest rolled over to find what had to be Starlight kneeling next to her, clutching a crystal ball in her arms. The dog, too, had a lot of Spike’s features. “Are you okay?” the former of the two of them asked her.

Tempest nodded. “I’m fine.”

“Stop this madness this instant!” Rarity squealed as she bent over the two combatants.

Both Twilight and Sunset managed to break their cycle long enough to grab hold and fling each other about. One of Sunset’s flailing legs kicked Rarity in the face causing her to yelp and fall backward. The others cried out, and while Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy rushed to her aid, Applejack and Rainbow Dash threw themselves onto the combatants and tried to pry them apart. Rarity groaned and clutched at her nose.

The school’s front doors opened and a few figures emerged. One of them, in particular, ran at such a speed that she was a blue blur. “What the heck is going on here!?” she cried.

Tempest glanced up and observed the new arrivals. While even more hung in the school’s glassy doorway, and while some hung out the many courtyard-facing windows, the six that ran up to them, aside from the clothes they wore, were the spitting images of six of the humans already around her. They had the be the counterparts, surely. Each of them wore gems around their necks.

Strangely enough, they matched Sunset’s.

“We heard screaming!” Pinkie Pie’s counterpart exclaimed.

Twilight and Sunset rolled over, taking Applejack and Rainbow Dash with them. Tempest saw Sunset’s hand clamp onto Twilight and, for a couple of moments, Sunset’s eyes became an eternal white.

Twilight, for her part, glanced up at the new arrivals and exclaimed, “Girls! You have to take her from us!”

The native Twilight gasped. “Sunset Shimmer!?”

The white in Sunset’s eyes faded and she returned to squirming. “Get off me!” Sunset half-cried, half-croaked.

The native Rainbow Dash and native Applejack bent over and, with the help of their Equestrian counterparts, pulled the two apart. Sunset continued squirming in their grasp while Twilight stumbled to her feet and stared Sunset down.

“Let me go!” Sunset barked.

Two more humans, these ones looking taller and older than the rest, ran up at that moment. They had to be Celestia and Luna’s counterparts.

“You’re staying here, Sunset,” Twilight said as she snorted and turned toward the portal.

Tempest could see the native Applejack and native Rainbow Dash tighten their grips around Sunset. The Equestrian counterparts, meanwhile, picked themselves off of the ground and drifted back toward Twilight.

And Sunset, with every bit of fire still in her eyes, screamed, “So what!? You really want me to buck off while Equestria burns!?”

Several gasps erupted from the crowd. The eight that had rushed up to them visibly jumped. The two holding Sunset even loosened their grips.

And Twilight whirled around. “It’s not burning yet!”

Drops of sweat now formed on Sunset’s face as she raised a finger at Twilight. “B-but it will… It will! Because of us, Twilight!”

“I’m not going to let it get to that point. I will fix this.” Twilight closed her eyes and then used her arm to push out a long sigh. The features in her face loosened up as a result. “But until we get this business with the Nameless fragment and the seal sorted out, just for now… I need you here.”

A long moment paused as most everyone held their breaths. The faintest whispers passed between those lingering on the edges of the area. Tempest could see the students standing in the doorway passing those words between each other; she even spotted an utterance of the word Nameless on their lips.

Twilight swallowed and nodded. “Please, Sunset. Please… trust me.”

All eyes shifted toward Sunset.

Sunset herself kept her eyes glued to Twilight and the snarl on her face remained. However, the longer she looked into Twilight’s solemn expression, the more her snarl faded.

She eventually stood up straight and sighed. “Fine. We’ll do this your way,” she said as she broke herself out of the hold. She then pointed a finger at Twilight and said, with a sharp tone, “But if you find anything out…” She pointed to herself and said, “You let me know first.”

After a moment’s pause, Twilight nodded.

Sunset turned on her heels and stormed toward the school’s front doors. Those standing in the doorway and on the steps parted so that she could pass through. Sunset’s six friends glanced back at Twilight and company and then chased after Sunset. That just left the counterpart Celestia and Luna.

Luna turned and addressed the crowd. “Alright, the show is over! Please go back inside!” she barked.

As the crowd at the front entrance shied away and those watching from the school windows ducked back inside, Celestia walked toward the Equestrians.

Twilight lowered her head. “I’m sorry that everyone had to see that.”

Celestia crossed her arms. “Princess Twilight, what is this we hear about a Nameless fragment?”

Luna turned and joined at her sister’s side, her expression equally pale.

Twilight straightened up. “It’s… I can’t really get into it… but…” She took a moment to pause and sigh. “There’s… a fragment of the Nameless that has survived until now. And Sunset isn’t safe until we take care of it.”

Celestia and Luna exchanged glances and shuddered.

“And? Is there anything we can do?” Celestia asked.

“Yes. Look after Sunset, please. I’m…” Twilight said, “I’m closing the portal behind us. I need her here for now.”

Luna rolled her eyes. “Goodness knows we don’t get paid enough to do it already,” she mused. “But we will do our best.”

Starlight chose that moment to walk up. “Uh, Twilight?” she said. As Twilight turned, Starlight presented the crystal ball in her grasp.

Twilight gasped and then turned. “Oh, and can you also give this to Sunset?”

Celestia’s eyes widened “Is this what I think it is?” she asked.

Starlight nodded.

“Certainly,” Luna replied. She reached forward and received the crystal ball from Starlight. “We will get this to her.”

Twilight cracked a smile. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” She turned toward the others. “Let’s go back home and get to work, okay?”

While some of them gave some fleeting glances toward the doors (noting that Sunset had already disappeared inside at this point), most of them started toward the portal. Celestia and Luna turned toward the school. That left Starlight and Tempest standing there.

And Starlight looked over. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Tempest looked down at her strange alien body, but considering that her friends had taken it in stride, it had to be okay. She nodded. “It is strange, but…”

Starlight chuckled. “Yeah, I know. It’s really weird at first. I don’t think I’m used to it either.”

Tempest smiled back. “I’m okay.”

“That’s good.” She then lay a hand on Tempest’s shoulders. “Let’s go.”

And then everyone parted ways. The Equestrians all walked toward the portal and, one by one, they disappeared through it. Tempest wobbled and even nearly fell at one point, but with Starlight’s guiding hand, she thankfully kept balance.

But her mind still kept playing the last few minutes in her head. She even thought about the train ride over. While she didn’t know Twilight as well as anyone else there, her gut told her that what she had seen had been very uncharacteristic. And, from the way they others had emoted during the entire altercation, she wasn’t the only one who thought that way.

As Starlight and Tempest reached the base of the statue and the former passed through it, Tempest glanced back at the school. She imagined Sunset who now walked its halls. And then she too walked into the portal amid one final thought:

Something isn’t right.

3 - Tick-tock

Princess Celestia walked in silence. The dirt under her hooves had an alien feel to it; it lacked a certain feel that Equestrian soil had. The world was full of magic, from everything that made it up to the creatures civilized and feral that lived in it. This dirt lacked that touch.

And looking around, there wasn’t a sign of natural life anywhere. The only beings she could see, at least in the immediate vicinity, either all sat in cages or lay chained to the ground atop their own little mountains. Them, and the three-headed bulldog that practically stood over her; she could feel him breathing down her backside.

Celestia looked over her withers and looked Cerberus in the eyes. Cerberus didn’t react, aside from a brief flapping of his jaws as he snorted. Celestia had seen that a hundred times.

Celestia hummed as she continued down the path. The cavern stretched quite a ways in every direction, with a few paths snaking their way across it. Stairs led to the occasional mountain.

She ignored most sets of stairs, although she did take the opportunity to look toward one of the mountains where one of the cages sat. A lone centaur sat in that cage with an eternal snarl on his face. His skin wrapped around his bones and his red and black palette looked pale. Tirek grasped at the bars and hissed at Celestia as she passed.

She raised an eyebrow in response (although she could feel the corners of her mouth twitch upward as well) but then faced forward again a second later. And, as soon as the path took her behind a rock formation where she couldn’t see his cage anymore, all thought of him left her mind.

She continued along with Cerberus right behind her. The path forked at a few intervals; she first hung a left and then took a right. She looked over the edge once, trying to see into the fog far below.

Finally, she reached the end of her route where the path turned into another set of stairs. It was here that Cerberus took a seat and started licking a spot on his foreleg.

Celestia took a deep breath. There were exactly 43 steps on this set of stairs. She swallowed and started up them, keeping her eyes at the top. Her hooves worked without her being aware of them. The thirteenth step had that little chip in its ridge; she noted it as she passed it. The higher she climbed, the lower her heart sank.

She stopped once she reached the top.

A lonely mare lay splayed about in the center of the mount, fitted with a collar that was chained to the ground. The alicorn mare’s dark grey coat sported several dirty splotches here and there and her long and unkempt silver hair lay flat across the ground.

She didn’t stir, even as Celestia sucked in a breath. In fact, she showed no signs of life; her eyes remained eternally closed and her body remained eternally motionless.

But Celestia knew better. The mare she now stared at was very much alive in the physical sense. And yet that was the only part Celestia could say had not died.

Celestia’s eyes drew toward the mare’s eyes in particular and she noted the discolored streaks running down the face. Those had been there the past few times Celestia had come by. They, however, seemed fresh.

Her own eyes felt heavy and Celestia sniffed. She never liked coming to this place. She had once seen this mare in a much livelier manner. The whole affair had transpired over only a scant few days, but she remembered meeting her own alternate selves, she remembered attempting to save a race of ponies she had never known existed before; she remembered them clinging to the last fringes of life and then losing their grips. She had watched that all happen.

The mare before her never saw it—Celestia thanked the stars above for that—but had certainly known it had happened.

Celestia’s thoughts drifted to Twilight, who she wondered if there would ever be a time where she would find the strength to come down here. That day would probably not come for a long while, she decided.

After wiping some rogue drops off of her face, Celestia solemnly shook her head and turned. She trotted down the stairs, not daring to look back.

Sunset Shimmer knew that where she was at this moment was in a dream. That was about as much as she knew.

She was still human, but the cavern she stood in definitely had to be in Equestria. She knew that from the alicorn stallion standing in front of her. The stallion’s dark coat and silvery mane reminded Sunset of an alicorn mare she had once known.

The cavern itself was just slightly bigger than the chamber underneath Canterlot, and could probably hold it, although it was hard to judge when the crystalline ceiling was so jagged and uneven and didn’t even follow a proper curve.

That said nothing of the large structures that took up the space. Monolithic structures made of smooth and shiny rock stretched toward the ceiling. Their faces hosted large, bioluminescent circuits that brightened and dimmed in some sort of rhythm. In some, however, she could see energy moving through them and even across what looked like vines connecting the rock formations.

She wondered if this was a technology that she didn’t recognize.

Her eyes fell on the alicorn stallion as he approached an object made of the same sort of yellowish stone that made up the chamber underneath Canterlot. It even had the same sort of symbols etched into its face in the same exact way, even glowing a lavender in the same way. But it was only a pedestal at this point.

The stallion gazed at a hemispherical depression in its top and then lit his horn and levitated over a crystal ball. This crystal ball appeared to be completely ordinary; it didn’t contain any images and emitted no sounds. He slotted the crystal ball into the depression and then took a couple of steps back.

A rainbow wave emanated through the pedestal’s many symbols, all converging on the crystal ball. And then the four largest of the monolithic rock formations throughout the cavern (or, specifically, their bioluminescent circuits) lit up like Hearth’s Warming trees as the energies within coursed through them at higher rates. Some magical sparks flew off of them, striking the pedestal containing the crystal ball with pronounced claps.

Sunset remained facing it despite every ounce of willpower she poured into turning around and retreating. Her body simply did not obey her commands.

And then the pillars shot out high-intensity beams into the crystal ball. A sharp crackling accompanied each beam and, with the way them hitting the crystal ball shook the chamber around her, Sunset figured they had to be carrying a few kilothaums of magical energy with them.

Sunset looked across the way and noticed the stallion’s body fizzling in and out of existence during the entire process, seemingly in time with the rainbow waves in the pedestal. He, however, looked unperturbed by it all.

The crystal ball emanated a brilliant white light that blinded the chamber and everything in it. Sunset heard an ear-shattering screech.

And then the chamber grew silent and still once more.

Sunset blinked and glanced at the stallion on the other side of the pedestal who seemed no worse for wear. She then looked at the crystal ball. The crystal ball showed an image of the very same chamber, complete with most of the structures within; it, however, currently lay deserted.

Sunset heard a shriek behind her and it was only then that her body allowed her to turn around.

A large, rainbow-colored barrier separated the area of the back wall from the rest of the chamber, sustained by some strange vine-like entities that stretched across its surface. The region between the barrier and the back wall had this liquid-like substance filling it that Sunset couldn’t recognize (but it was, nonetheless, as equally rainbow as the barrier itself).

And then Sunset spotted an entity floating in that fluid; an entity she had seen in her previous dream and many of the dreams before that. She saw a monstrously large blob of black slime, sporting a red light in the middle of its mass. The slime spazzed, expanding and contracting and otherwise slamming into both the back wall and the barrier.

Sunset felt her heart stop. She knew exactly what it was.

The Nameless.

The entire world faded out and Sunset suddenly found herself laying in what felt like a bed. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness, but she currently lay facing toward a blue ceiling. Her gaze flicked left and right; a wall took up her right side but the floor to her left gave way to a larger room beyond, with a stairway winding down. A string of lights wrapped around the balcony railing.

It was her apartment. Sunset lay her head back against the pillow, knowing she had woken up.

Sunset trudged through the halls of Canterlot High. Several students stood about, sharing their usual gossip. Many spoke in lowered tones which all but evaporated as she passed through. Many looked, wearing frowns as she passed by. Sunset kept her eyes forward, however, inwardly thanking them for not prying too much.

But they knew about the situation. The stunt in the courtyard had ensured that.

Sunset adjusted her jacket and pressed on. She turned a corner and pressed through another hall. She spotted an open doorway which happened to open to her destination and she walked at a brisk pace toward it. On entering the yearbook room, however, she immediately ran into a girl just inside the doorway and both her and Sunset fell to the floor.

“Ow!” Sunset yelped. She clutched and her behind which had hit the hardest.

The green-haired girl in front of her similarly massaged her backside before snarling. “Hey! Watch where you’re going!” she barked.

Sunset looked up. “Sorry. I should have been paying more attention.”

The girl sighed and searched the ground. She located an egg-shaped stone on the ground next to her and snatched it up. She then climbed to her feet.

Sunset also climbed to her feet and then examined the girl in full. Her unkempt green hair and green skin made her look like a plant. The yellow-brown sweater and blue jeans completed her look. “Uh, hi. Are you… here because you’re interested in joining the yearbook committee?”

The girl didn’t even bat an eye. “I’m already on the yearbook staff. I have been for the past year,” she said.

Sunset flinched. “…Really?”

“Yeah.”

Sunset dusted herself off and then held out a hand. “Uh, I’m Sunset Shimmer. But… you probably already know that,” she said with a nervous chuckle.

“Wallflower Blush,” she said, shaking Sunset’s hand. Her expression remained unchanged.

Sunset blushed. “Wallflower Blush, huh? Wow, and you’ve been on the yearbook staff. I’m sorry, I can’t believe I wouldn’t have known about you until now.”

Wallflower shrugged. “It’s okay. I’m pretty forgettable,” she said as she passed by and placed the stone in her backpack on the counter. She then hunched over some documents in the corner of the room.

Sunset stared for a few seconds more and then signed before walking to the island in the center of the room. She placed her own backpack on it and then, taking a seat on the stool, she turned her attention to the crystal ball sitting in the middle.

The crystal ball showed the student’s tower. Specifically, the study area. The window, once broken, had been replaced. The hourglass, which Sunset had once thrown out of the room, had not been. The floor was so very bare now.

Sunset frowned and shook her head. Good going, Sunset, she thought.

Inside the ball, the westerly shadows indicated a late afternoon time.

She narrowed her eyes. But what time is it exactly? she thought.

She tapped her fingers against the desk and then reached into her backpack and pulled out a book and a pen. The book’s cover contained half of her sunny cutie mark and half of Twilight Sparkle’s star-patterned cutie mark. She opened to the first blank page that she could find.

Her stare flip-flopped between the book and the ball. Finally, she took hold of the ball and let a single word flash across her mind: Forward.

The view obeyed, steadily moving toward the floor. It then passed into the living area where a clock hung from a nearby wall. But not only did the clock show a time that was more an evening time, but the second hand seemed to be ticking by too quickly.

Sunset sat back in her seat and blew a raspberry. “Right,” she spat.

Wallflower picked up a few of the papers that she had been working with and then walked over, coming to a stop on the other side of the island. “Hmmm?”

“I’m trying to find a clock,” Sunset said. She sat back in her seat and flung a hand at the ball. “But that one there is running fast. It’s totally not on the right time.”

After a moment’s consideration, Wallflower crossed her arms. “You could… maybe try some other room where you know there’s a clock for sure?”

Sunset glanced up at that, considered Wallflower’s words, and then nodded. The view moved forward, through the wall, and then raced across the castle grounds. It then went into Celestia’s room at the top of the tallest tower. The room itself hosted a sprawling velvet bed which faced an unlit fireplace. Patterns of a night sky patterned the walls, completed by a tapestry depicting a shooting star. A small tree with a mirror shard hanging off of it and a wooden perch for a large bird blocked the sunlight that streamed through the room’s large window.

Sunset frowned. There had to be a clock somewhere.

Wallflower suddenly pointed into the ball. “There! On that wall.”

Sunset turned the ball around. Sure enough, a wall-mounted clock hung from a wall near an archway to the adjacent room. It counted each second with a pronounced ticking noise, although the ticks seemed shorter than a second. This time, however, seemed much more reasonable.

Sunset chuckled and looked up. “Thanks.”

Wallflower smiled in return. “Let me know if you need anything else.” As she stood up and headed toward a computer on the of the wall-flush counters, Sunset turned her gaze to the book in front of her. She took hold of the pen and began writing.

Twilight? Do you have a clock handy?

With that written, Sunset placed her hands on the crystal ball again and willed the view closer to the clock. She then read the time.

Some text appeared in her journal. Yes. Why?

Tell me what time it has, Sunset wrote.

There was a pause. And then, I have 9:57 a.m., Sunset.

Sunset thought about that time for a moment. She muttered a curse word under her breath. And then she wrote back, I’m looking at a clock through the crystal ball. I’ve got 5:59 p.m. So the offset is 8 hours and 2 minutes.

More text appeared in her journal. That’s pretty large. But at least we can quantify it now, the writing said.

Sunset turned back to the ball. The clock still audibly ticked on. The pendulum in its lower half kept pace with the ticks but both still seemed a little faster than what was to be expected.

Her jaw twitched as she considered the scene.

Sunset turned back to her journal and wrote back. I’m going to write back in a few hours and check on this again. I might have a hunch on what’s causing the desync.

A few moments later, Okay.

Sunset sighed and rested her elbows on the island. Her head fell into her hands and she sat there for several moments. This was the most she had spoken to Twilight in the couple days since coming back. That told her everything about how far the situation had progressed. And time was still running out.

The thought prompted her to tap her foot. She needed things to happen already. She knew what would happen if nothing happened.

Sunset looked up. “Wallflower Blush?”

Wallflower turned. “Yeah?”

“Do you mind if I ask you something?”

Wallflower frowned. “Uh, sure.”

Sunset shifted in her seat. “I’ve been asking a few people here and there. I’m trying to get a sense of what people think. Just… hypothetically… say that you were faced with a choice of sacrificing yourself in exchange for saving thousands or millions of lives. What would you do?”

Wallflower drummed her fingers against the desk. Her mouth swished from side to side as she thought. “You mean, like what Princess Twilight did the first time she went up against that thing?”

After a pause, Sunset nodded. “Yeah. What would you do?”

Wallflower crossed her arms and hummed thoughtfully.

Sunset frowned. She had an idea of what answer she was going to get already. She had asked several others this question already.

“It seems like the logical thing to do,” the voice of her world’s Twilight said in her head.

“We can only hope that one has the strength to make that sacrifice,” Principal Celestia’s voice also said.

Wallflower shook her head. “I don’t know if I could do that. I mean, it sounds to me like Princess Twilight didn’t hesitate to put down her own life. But I’m not Princess Twilight.”

Sunset leaned forward in anticipation for whatever Wallflower would say next.

Wallflower jammed her hands into her pockets and rocked back and forth. She eventually sighed. “I’m not good enough to do something like that. But I guess… if there was something to do, and that was the thing that would save everyone… then that’s the thing to do.”

And Sunset sat back in her seat and sighed.

Princess Luna trotted up the chamber rings. This chamber, like most of the others but unlike her own, lacked the magical energies within its many symbols (leaving them with a glassy appearance), leaving the chamber in a dim white light.

Several guardsponies took up positions around the room. They each spent time examining the symbols in the now-exposed sides of the rings. They jotted down the symbols and made periodic trips toward the central pillar with a lone mare consulted a translation book before compiling the writings and their translations into a single journal. The earth pony mare in question adjusted her large square glasses and wrote with due diligence.

Luna smiled. This particular Raven had seen Nightmare Moon’s short reign in her own timeline, but thankfully she didn’t shy away in her presence.

Luna continued up the rings before finally reaching the top. The double doorways to this chamber remained completely open, allowing her to pass right through. A few more ponies milled about a makeshift camp here, with a few quietly eating some soup, served fresh out of a nearby flaming pot. The chef sat back for the moment and admired his work.

After taking a moment to chuckle to herself, Luna made her way toward the open portals at the far side of the camp. There were two of them, one on each wall; there were two of them in all of the other chambers too, linking the eight Equestrias together like a chain.

She stepped through the one on the right and emerged into another Equestria. The Nameless’ chamber and entryway looked much like the one she had just come from. This was not the one she wanted, however. So she stepped through the adjacent portal and emerged into the next reality.

The chamber beyond, unlike the others, had a lavender glow to it. That told her that she was in her home reality.

She backtracked toward the chamber now. A sort-of makeshift camp also spread across the entryway but everypony was in the chamber itself. She spotted eight of them in the chamber. The four non-unicorns among them—Flash Magnus, Somnambula, Rockhoof, and Mage Meadowbrook—spent their time simply examining the structures within the chamber, up to and including the central pillar itself. Three of the four unicorns meanwhile—Sunburst, Mistmane, and Starswirl—ran their magic over the walls.

Stygian, the last of them, looked up at Luna from amidst his pile of papers and books and she stood up. “Princess Luna,” he greeted.

“Hello, Stygian. How goes things?” she asked.

Stygian glanced at his comrades in the chamber. “Well, we have found some things, but…” He shook his head and chuckled. “Nothing we really want to talk about just yet.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “But are you making progress?”

Stygian initially opened his mouth to speak but then caught Starswirl looking over at them from across the chamber. He motioned Starswirl over with his hooves before turning back to Luna. “Of course. We’ll have something definite soon, I’m sure.”

Luna glanced about Stygian’s spot and even bent down to examine a scrap of paper laying on top of the books. She regarded it with a thoughtful hum and then set it back down. “Well, I should hope so. Because the clock is ticking and I would rather have more time than less.”

“Of course,” Stygian replied with an affirmative nod.

“I would think, given that, you might be down in the chamber with the others.”

“Ah, you know,” Stygian said, “my magic is not as good as theirs. So here I am, keeping the surveys across the Equestrias organized.”

“And, on that front, Stygian has been doing a phenomenal job,” Starswirl said with a smile as he trotted up.

Stygian beamed with pride and then turned to Starswirl. “Thanks. I’m just glad I have a little bit of recognition.”

Luna pointed toward the chamber. “Pray tell what it is that you are all working on now?”

“Well, Twilight Sparkle already did all of the transcribing and translation work for this chamber,” Starswirl explained. “So, while the other Equestrias are trying to catch up, we have moved onto getting concrete readings on the chamber’s inner workings.”

“We will need it if we want to know how it detected this Nameless fragment and reverse-engineer it for ourselves,” Stygian added.

“Right,” Luna replied.

Starswirl cleared his throat. “However, I am still not convinced that repeating this transcription and translation process in the other timelines is nothing but a waste of time.”

Stygian raised an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”

“Simply the fact that these are the same chambers just in different timelines. They should not be different to any degree. What the chamber says in this Equestria should be what it says in all of the Equestrias.”

Stygian’s expression swished back and forth. He then nodded. “Yes. I think I see that. Princess Luna…”

Luna shook her head. “That’s what logic should dictate, yes. But we cannot be sure.”

Starswirl snorted. “I can believe that if you told me that the Equestrias were entirely symmetric up until Starlight Glimmer diverged them. But if you want to suggest that the chambers are actually asymmetric…”

“If Sunset Shimmer is to be believed, this asymmetry is already there as these chambers are explicitly aware of each other. And that these eight chambers lead to one single seal,” Luna countered. “She deduced that much the last time she was here.”

Starswirl’s features tensed up. “Forgive me if I don’t so readily accept mere theory,” he said with a biting tone.

Luna smirked. She knew the look on his face was about to disappear. “And yet, her deductions are supported by what we actually observed during that time.”

And, just like that, some color disappeared from his expression. “Hmph… well… then there must be some foul magic afoot to explain this non-divergence.”

Stygian hid a chuckle underneath his foreleg.

Luna rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the collection of documents that Stygian had been sitting in, hoping to spark a different conversation off of one of them. “Anyway,” she began, “is there a transcription anywhere in here? I should like to see it for myself.”

Stygian nodded and lit his horn, lifting a book up from where he had been sitting. “I’ve been compiling the master information in this. It’s our sort-of bible for this issue,” he said as he presented it to Luna. “Twilight’s work is in the very front.”

Luna opened the first page and started reading. She read it over again but, this time, her features scrunched as she stared into it. The look on her face prompted Starswirl and Stygian to exchange glances.

“Something about this bothers me,” Luna declared.

Some heads in the chamber glanced up.

Stygian tilted his head. “Really?” he asked with a curious tone.

Luna held up the book for them to see. “Yes. The text starts out with ‘This is the seal for the Nameless.’ Can you confirm that it’s actually this that it says?”

Starswirl nodded. “That is indeed what it says. We checked.”

Stygian laughed. “It’s as Twilight Sparkle transcribed it. And I do not think she would be the type to make mistakes on things like this.”

Luna nodded. “Yes. I am convinced that how it is written here is how it is written in the seal. And that’s why I am very troubled,” she said as she watched the other ponies within the chamber making their way up to their position.

Stygian slowly nodded but nonetheless blinked. His pursed expression was a study in befuddlement. “Well… this is the Nameless’ chamber. What’s so wrong about that?”

Luna shuddered. “The Nameless was what we decided to call it because we did not know what else to call it by. That nomenclature is our own invention.”

Color drained from both of their faces at that moment.

Luna tilted her head and asked, “So… why is it that this thousands of years-old chamber refers to it by that modern-day name?”

The rest of the ponies arrived at that moment but they already threw wide-eyed surprise between each other as they approached. Stygian and Starswirl went similarly wide-eyed and exchanged glances.

And Starswirl eventually voiced it with a very shaky, “Uhm…”

Sunset pulled the door closed, but not before taking one last look at her classmates still struggling with Miss Harshwhinny’s quiz, and not before she took one last look at Miss Harshwhinny herself who sat filling out paperwork at the desk at the front of the room.

Checking to make sure it clicked, Sunset turned and started down the hall. With classes in session, these halls now lay empty. The probability that she would see a single soul was actually very low.

She continued onward at her brisk pace, cutting every corner as closely as she could.

And then, as she rounded into another hall, she spotted Principal Celestia coming from the opposite direction.

And it was Celestia who spoke first. “Sunset Shimmer? What are you doing outside of class?”

Sunset cleared her throat. “I finished Miss Harshwhinny’s quiz early and asked if I could check on the crystal ball. I’m heading to the yearbook room.” Sunset took a few more steps forward. And then she looked over her shoulder. “Do you want to see?”

Celestia’s expression shifted this way and that as she considered it. And then she finally shrugged. “I guess. Under normal circumstances, I would have you go straight back.” She turned as Sunset reached her and then joined her.

“Principal Celestia, do you think I’m crazy for thinking that this thing with the crystal ball and what’s going on with the Nameless fragment might be related somehow?”

Celestia shook her head. “Not at all. I would not be surprised. However… how exactly that is is something else entirely.”

Sunset nodded as they rounded a corner. “Yeah, I know. I don’t think I’m going to be able to figure that out from here.” She looked up at Celestia and said, “I have a hunch on what’s causing the desync in the crystal ball, but…” She sighed. “If I’m right about this, then I’ll have even more questions.”

“And your hunch is?”

“Well, you’ll see,” Sunset said as she reached into her pockets and fished out a set of keys.

They rounded one last corner and spotted the closed door to the yearbook room. On reaching it, Sunset unlocked the door and the two stepped inside. Sunset flipped the light switch as they entered the room and then immediately took the stool at the island. Celestia came up and stood right beside her.

Sunset first picked up the pen and wrote into the journal, Twilight, are you there?

As she waited for a response, Sunset turned her attention to the crystal ball. Princess Celestia’s bedroom lay in darkness, lit only by the now-lit fireplace. The wall-clock still ticked on at its slightly rapid pace and, thankfully, its face was still somewhat painless to see.

On a whim, Sunset rotated the ball itself. The view rotated with it until the room’s velvet bed came into view. Princess Celestia sat there lacking her usual regalia. Her mane still flowed in an ethereal wind but with more abandon than usual. She sat contented over a book.

Sunset chuckled and then glanced at Principal Celestia for her reaction.

Principal Celestia’s eyes were practically filled with stars. “Is that…” she wheezed as she leaned across the table. “Is that my counterpart?”

Sunset chuckled. “Yeah. That’s Princess Celestia, alright.”

“Wow…” Principal Celestia cooed.

Some writing appeared in Sunset’s journal. Yes, I’m here. I have 2:07 p.m. on my clock. Do you have 10:09 p.m.?

Sunset turned the ball back around so that she could see the clock. The time on the clock showed an hour and minute hand combination that looked unlike 10:09.

Sunset swore.

Celestia gasped. “Sunset!” she thundered.

Sunset flinched. “Sorry, sorry.” She swiveled to the journal and took a deep breath. No. I have 10:44 p.m. she wrote.

After a very lengthy pause, Twilight wrote back. What the hay?

Celestia leaned over the table to examine the writing, raising her eyebrow first at Twilight’s response before she scanned up the page. “Oh my, were you both expecting 10:09?”

“Yeah. Look at this,” she said, pointing toward her earlier conversation with Twilight. “The desync was 8 hours and 2 minutes earlier today. And now it’s…” Sunset tapped her finger against the desk while resting her head in her other hand. “8 hours and 37 minutes.”

Celestia blinked. After a long moment, she said, tentatively, “It’s running fast.”

Sunset’s hand automatically started on some calculations in the journal. Numbers flew off the ends of her fingertips as she feverishly wrote. This is… it looks like just shy of 5 hours in the crystal ball was a little over 4 hours for me. That’s 285 minutes passing in the crystal ball for every… 250 minutes here. Which is…

Sunset fished her phone out of her pocket and swiped toward the calculator app but she hadn’t even touched it before Twilight’s writing appeared at the bottom of the page. A single number.

Sunset reclined in her seat and wiped some sweat off her brow. “I was right. It’s running at one hundred and fourteen percent speed.”

Sunset and Celestia exchanged glances.

Twilight Sparkle stepped away from her chalkboard for the umpteenth time. Several mathematical equations took up the entirety of its face. She twirled a piece of chalk in her magical grasp but made no attempt at writing anything more with it.

Lines of rope swung across the library, hanging from bits of purple crystal that contrasted the castle’s typical blue crystal (as those purple ones were of her own magic). Several articles, mostly sheets of papers, although some were pictures, hung from those ropes. Bits of string spanned some of those articles.

She ran her eyes onto one of those threads and followed it around the room, muttering to herself in the process. Twilight scratched her head at a few points along the way. String after string, article after article, her attention danced around the room.

And she eventually and inevitably returned to the chalkboard. She collapsed with an exhausted groan.

Spike, who stood right by her, kicked at the floor. “Come on, Twilight. You’ve been staring at all this for like thirty minutes and haven’t got anything out of it. You wanna try something else?”

Twilight shook her head. “No. I think this is it. This is going to be what gets me a solution to this problem. I know it does.”

Spike deadpanned. “I don’t think so, Twilight.”

“I know that something has to come out of this. I know it!” Twilight gnashed her teeth together. “I just… can’t… see it!”

“Yeah, because it probably isn’t there,” Spike said.

Twilight gasped and twirled to face him. “Spike! I don’t know how you can say that! It’s there!”

Spike threw his claws into the air. “If it was, you would have seen it by now. I know you, Twilight. You’re really smart and you’re really good at this stuff and, you know, I’m just saying that if it’s not there, then it’s not there.”

After a moment’s pause, Twilight sighed. “Look, Spike, I appreciate the vote of confidence. But—”

Spike suddenly clapsed his claws over his mouth and, for a brief moment, looked green in the face. A second later, he burped, spitting out shreds of a green fire in the process. Said shreds coalesced into an object that took the form of a rolled-up scroll that then fell into his waiting claws.

Spike unfurled it. “It’s Princess Celestia’s reply,” he said.

Twilight nodded.

Spike cleared his throat.

“My dearest Twilight,

“Thank you very much for the report. I wonder how it is that this has happened to the crystal ball? I agree with your proposal that you should take more data points and confirm this time dilation. Let me know how it pans out.

“And if either of you find out anything else about it, please don’t hesitate to contact me again.

“Yours,
“Princess Celestia”

Spike rolled the letter up and looked back up at Twilight.

Twilight sighed through her nose and looked back up at the board. “Spike, look… I need this to work. I really need this to work.” She shook her head and turned back to her work. “But not just me.”

Spike crossed his arms. “Are you sure?”

Twilight nodded and smiled. “I’m sure. More than I’ve ever been,” she said.

Spike remained as he was, still staring at her with a certain scrutiny. That caused Twilight’s smile to eventually fade.

He eventually rolled his eyes. “I still think that Sunset could have helped us, you know,” he said simply.

Twilight’s smile faded but she nonetheless turned back toward her work. She didn’t even react when Spike turned and walked toward the doors. She said nothing when he passed through them, pulling them shut behind him.

And she shook her head. I wish, she thought.

4 - Sunset

Starlight Glimmer scratched her head and then took a sip from her jasmine tea, noting its mellow taste. The small circular table that she sat at hosted only the tea set that she and Celestia (who sat directly opposite her) used and a plateful of gems for Spike on her left.

Tempest Shadow, who sat to her right, raised a hoof into the air. “I have a question, then. Just so I have this right… The Nameless… it was able to tether to Twilight because she stepped into the chamber. And if it had spent enough time tethered to her and had taken enough of her energy, it would have been able to escape. Right?”

“I think so,” Spike replied before biting into a ruby.

“I think she mentioned on the train that the tether distance was from the center of the chamber to the wall, didn’t she?” Starlight asked.

Spike snapped his claws. “Yeah, exactly.”

Celestia took a delicate sip from her teacup, her eyes closed as she lost herself to the flavor. She paused for a moment before setting her cup down and sitting up straight. She then opened her eyes to look at Spike. “I seem to recall you saying that on the night that she performed The Answer, the six of you went to the tower in order to take her to the opera. Don Giofilly, I think.”

Spike grinned and flashed her a fingerbang.

“But,” Celestia continued, “from what you told me, she was sitting immediately on the other side of that door when you went. You were so very close to each other and yet you were not tethered.”

“Yeah. We weren’t tethered because there was a door between us and her.”

“And what about this future Twilight that popped up near the end?” Tempest asked.

Spike shrugged. “Well, she was time traveling. She would be safe.”

“I don’t believe that would necessarily destroy the tether,” Celestia said. “I think of it more as going someplace that the Nameless can’t make use of it.”

Spike crossed his arms. “Well… maybe. But future Twilight never stepped into the chamber either, so she wasn’t close enough to get tethered anyway. She wasn’t there long enough either.”

Celestia hummed. “How long would one need to be near a tethered pony to become tethered themselves?”

Spike crossed his arms. “Uhhhh… I don’t know. I think Twilight said that it depends on how close you are to them.”

“Seconds or minutes?” Starlight asked.

Spike pointed up at her. “Yeah,” he replied simply.

Celestia, after a moment of silence, simply smiled and nodded. “I see.”

The four of them sat in silence for a while. The windows outside showed a nighttime sky with the countless candles mounted on the walls and in chandeliers lighting the room for them. A small number of lights slowly meandered their ways across the grounds and the air above; guards on their nightly patrols. The city sounds had since died and the castle itself had nothing to say, so the four of them sat in silence.

And then Tempest sat up and turned her gaze toward the window. “Those two have been down in that chamber for a while,” she said.

Starlight leaned forward and rested her head against the table. “Yeah, I know. I’m getting worried.”

“Do you think that we should check on them?”

Spike frowned. “I really want to. But Twilight would probably throw a fit if we got in the way of her map mission.”

“I’m sure she’ll let us know if she needs us for anything,” Starlight added.

“We can only hope that she learned from last time,” Celestia said. “In the meantime, there was an experiment later on that determined that the worlds were periodic. And our world is both the beginning and end of the cycle.”

Spike nodded. “Yeah. You know, in every other world, they were all working on the spell right up until Twilight had to go to the door. But in our world, Sunset actually completed The Answer.”

“And I would suspect that you felt very good about all of that. But then the Twilight from the world above you started talking, correct?”

Spike nodded.

“And,” Celestia continued, “she said that our Twilight had nothing?”

“Yeah, so we spent a while trying to figure all that out.” He picked up a gem and pointed at Celestia with it. “’Cause, you know, she was basically saying that Sunset went back in time and gave Twilight nothing.”

Starlight blew a raspberry. “Yeah, that’s weird. Wasn’t the whole reason you were doing all of that was to save Twilight’s life? It’d be kinda weird to not go ahead and give her the thing that would do it.”

“I know, right?”

“So wait,” Tempest piped up again. “In every other world, Sunset Shimmer time traveled to give Twilight information. And that kept building and building. How is it that she didn’t do that and yet these worlds still follow each other?”

Spike sighed and rested his arms against the table. “Gosh, that was a doozy. Sunset and future Twilight spent a lot of time talking about it. And they eventually realized what was going on and kinda set it up, even.”

“And what did Sunset do?”

Spike picked up a sapphire off his plate. “What she ended up doing was she wrote some clues into a book but didn’t put any actual data in there. So it was like she was giving Twilight nothing.”

“But, in doing so, she preserved the loop of events, right?” Starlight asked.

Spike nodded.

“Sunset Shimmer time traveled and met up with Twilight Sparkle after all, hmmm?” Celestia asked.

Spike nodded. “That’s right.”

Sunset Shimmer hit the dirty ground. She took a moment to regain her bearings, bringing her splayed limbs back in. This form was human still. After ascertaining that, she looked up.

She recognized this large Equestrian cavern. She recognized the jagged crystalline ceiling. She recognized the monolithic rock structures with their bioluminescent circuits that brightened and dimmed in rhythm. She could see some new rock-tech embedded in the ceiling, each relaying large amounts of energy to the next and also into a lone crystal that floated between all of them.

A very large entity stood in the center of the cavern where the pedestal had once been. It was an entity of black slime and Sunset could even spot a red light in its middle. But unlike the messy blobs that had been the Nameless as she had seen it before, this entity had a quadrupedal build and held itself together very well. It stood at several times her size; Sunset guessed that this quadruped had to be the size of a small house.

It couldn’t be the Nameless, could it? This entity looked like the ones she had seen carved into the entryway of the Nameless’ chamber.

The dark-toned alicorn stallion from before stood opposite the entity. Sunset spotted the pedestal from before much further back against a wall. A rectangle made of light floated right in front of him. It looked like a screen, even, with all of the pictures and graphs on it.

Sunset tried to walk forward and, surprisingly, her body obeyed. She walked until she could see what looked like an identical screen floating in front of the Nameless-like entity (although it was much larger in its case).

The crystal that the beams shot magical energy into began to glow, and that was when the entity and the alicorn shared nods. It was then that the entity hit a large red button on their screen. The four large towers lit up and shot their beams of energy into the crystal now.

And, almost immediately, the crystal cracked and energy spewed in every direction. Both the entity and the alicorn flinched as a bolt tore across the ground. The alicorn cried out and pointed toward the ceiling as more bolts lashed out.

The Nameless-like entity started jamming at several digital buttons on the screen and the alicorn soon followed. However, even once the towers ceased shooting their energy beams and then the rocks in the ceiling after that, the crystal continued to spew energy in all directions.

Sunset cried out and even backed away from it. A stray came within a meter of hitting her and she jumped for the dirt at it. The alicorn in the chamber also hit the dirt, screaming all the while. The space around them began twisting and warping.

And the Nameless-like entity jumped up and tried to pull the crystal out of its place. It managed to grab a hold of it but that only served to pump all of that energy into its body. The entity screamed and spasmed as bits of magic arced across its blobby skin and innards. The entity only managed to hold on for a few moments more before a shockwave blasted it across the room.

And, yet, a single beam of energy connected it still to the now flailing crystal. Space continued to twist and distort with greater intensity until it seemed like it would finally rip apart. Beams of energy continued to rip through and scar the chamber and Sunset couldn’t move anymore.

Finally, the entity, with rogue energies still coursing through it, gave a mighty shriek. The space twisted together and then pulled apart, separating into several pieces. And Sunset’s world, for what she saw, collapsed.

And then she screamed and shot up from a laying down position. Sweat dripped off of her brow as she fought to find her breath again. The room she found herself in was shrouded in darkness and a thick blanket covered her from the waist down.

It took her a moment to recognize the rest of her room. And the bed she lay in. And the night sky outside. But, once it all came to her, she managed to sigh and lay her head in her hands.

It had been another dream.

Sunset splashed some water on her face. And, when that didn’t do it completely, she splashed herself again. After that, she contented herself with steadying herself against the edge of the countertop and letting the water continue running.

She took several deep breaths and even reached up to wipe her eyes. And then she took a moment to look at her reflection in the mirror. She saw the bloodshot eyes and the tangled and messy hair. She even looked somewhat pale.

And Sunset saw herself shaking. Not strongly, but enough for her to notice.

If the Nameless fragment isn’t sealed away, Equestria dies, she thought.

Today made day six. Time was almost up.

If it isn’t sealed away for the rest of eternity…

She looked at her reflection some more and then reached out and turned the water off. Eventually, she turned.

She emerged into her living room again, partially lit from some of the bathroom’s light. The stairway leading up to the loft containing her bed remained to her right. Her couch, which faced a large television, lay right in front of her.

But it was to her left that she saw her pet leopard gecko, Ray, pressed up against the glass of his terrarium. He stared at her intently, a small frown visible on his features.

Frowning herself, Sunset stalked over toward his terrarium and she reached a hand inside. Ray climbed onto it and allowed her to lift him out.

Sunset walked over to the couch and took a seat. There, she spent a few long moments just staring into space. With the city outside idle and the building equally so, the two sat in a deafening silence.

If I do nothing…

Her eyes fell on the message journal which lay dead center on the coffee table in front of her. She wondered about writing to Twilight. Maybe it was time to do so.

But she thought about her dreams. She thought about how Twilight had acted. She thought about what she had seen in that brief moment that she had grabbed Twilight’s arm during their skirmish.

But if I do something…

Ray crawled into her lap where he could better look up at her.

And Sunset finally looked down at him and stroked a finger across his head. “What am I going to do, Ray?” she croaked. “What am I going to do?”

Her eyes drifted toward the message journal again and, while she continued stroking Ray with one hand, she reached forward with her other and picked the journal up. She stared at its cover, weighing her options all the while.

“What am I going to do?”

Spike squinted as he looked into a morning sunbeam. The library had a golden glow to it that illuminated all of the strung-up articles weaved over the entire library.

Twilight Sparkle wrote some words into her message journal with her quill and then set that journal down right beside her. With that, she turned back to her chalkboard.

Starlight Glimmer, who sat across from him, stared at a sheet of paper in front of her. She had a disgusted frown on her face as she wrote some symbols down on it.

The double doors opened and Tempest Shadow walked in. She immediately spotted Twilight and then the two of them. She drifted toward the table and took a seat.

Starlight examined her work, snorted, crumpled it up, and flung it across the room where it landed amongst a small pile of crumpled sheets

The sound of it hitting the pile prompted Twilight to look and see where it landed. Her bloodshot expression remained unfazed as she considered it and then turned back to the chalkboard.

Tempest leaned across the table. “Anything?” she asked at a whisper.

Starlight shook her head. “Nope.”

“This is going nowhere, then.”

The three of them turned their heads toward Twilight and watched her in silence.

And, finally, Starlight punctuated it with a simple “Yeah.”

They sat there and watched Twilight as she worked. For her part, Starlight made no attempts at grabbing a new sheet of paper. At one point, Twilight took to the air and physically followed some of her strings around the room. She hovered in front of one hanging sheet of paper in particular. She stared holes into it and then eventually lit her horn and floated up a stack of papers that sat next to her message journal. She flipped through those papers, intently scrutinizing their contents. As she continued reading it, she glided toward the ground and eventually touched back down. Twilight’s gaze flip-flopped between her documents and her scribbles on the board.

And then Twilight groaned and slammed the papers onto the floor. She cradled her head in her hooves and sighed.

Spike balled his claws into fists and he shot up in his seat. “Come on, Twilight. This isn’t working. Maybe you should try something else?”

Twilight snorted. “No, Spike. There is nothing else to try. This is what I have to do.”

“You’ve been at the same thing for several days now. And I know you, you would have found it already if—” His eyes widened and he shook his head. “Oh geez, I said all of this a few days ago!”

Twilight whirled around and stamped the ground. “And my answer is the same as it was then! I am going to figure this out if it kills me!”

“And what are you trying to do, exactly?” Tempest asked, raising an eyebrow and laying her chin on one of her hooves.

Twilight blinked and met Tempest’s eyes. She took a deep breath and stepped aside to allow them a full view of the chalkboard. “What I am trying to do is figure out a way to extract this Nameless fragment from something. And the fragment is so entangled with its object that a simple splitting spell won’t do it. There are particulars involved.”

Tempest narrowed her eyes. “But such a thing can be done, hmm?”

“Yes, but it gets even more complicated,” Twilight said. “I didn’t understand it completely when I first fought with this thing, but now that we know about the alternate Equestrias and all of that… The Nameless isn’t able to associate with just one reality. And anything that it touches… generally isn’t able to either.”

Tempest slowly rose to her hooves. “So… you could have your head go to one reality… and your heart could go to another?”

Starlight frowned. “Nopony could survive that.”

“Exactly. That’s why it had to be sealed away in the first place,” Twilight said. “This fragment has shades of that. This disassociation is something I have to take into account if I’m to do this splitting correctly.”

Spike threw his hands into the air. “We haven’t even found the thing yet! Twilight… why are you on this splitting stuff?”

“Because if I can solve this,” Twilight replied, picked up her stack of papers and holding it up for them to see, “then we can put this issue to bed forever. But…” Her expression contorted into a grimace. “I don’t… I don’t have it! I don’t have the magic necessary to do a splitting of this complexity! I don’t have it! I don’t!”

Starlight gasped and lit her horn. She disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared right beside Twilight. She promptly snatched those papers with her magic.

Twilight recoiled. “Starlight!”

Starlight practically pressed her face into the papers. “This… this is what Starswirl and Sunburst and Discord wrote. This is that thing they did with Sunset Shimmer!”

Spike and Tempest gasped.

“Twilight, what are you doing with this?” Starlight asked, shaking the papers in front of Twilight’s face.

“Starlight, I—”

Starlight shook the papers again. “What are you doing with this!?” she cried.

Twilight fell on her haunches under Starlight’s gaze. She looked over to Spike and Tempest, trying to find compassionate faces but found none.

And it was then that Twilight’s message journal began buzzing. All eyes turned to it but no one moved. Eventually, however, Twilight glanced between them and eventually landed on Starlight. Starlight, in turn, motioned to the journal.

Twilight sucked in a breath and levitated the journal over. She opened to the most recent page and began reading in silence. Her face paled further with every bit that she read. She started shaking toward the then and she even placed a hoof across her chest as if trying to steady her own heart.

Spike took a few steps toward her but couldn’t find anything to say.

Eventually, Twilight looked up and found him and she tentatively stood up. “Spike… I…”

“Twilight?” he asked.

“I… I need you to take a letter,” she croaked.

The whole room fell silent again. Eventually, Starlight and Tempest also turned their gazes to Spike as well.

And Spike sucked in a breath and produced both a piece of parchment and a quill, just as he had probably a thousand times before.

And Twilight began dictating.

“Dear Princess Celestia,

“I got a note from Sunset. She says that she knows the truth. She says she knows about where the Nameless fragment actually is.

“She says, ‘She wants to do it. She wants to do her part to end all of this.’

“Please give me some advice on what I should do at this juncture. I do not know how to proceed.

“Yours,

“Twilight Sparkle”

Spike’s quill stopped but he didn’t move much after. He merely looked up at her. He spent that moment processing what he has just written for her. He spent that moment processing what Sunset had supposedly said.

She wants to do her part to end all of this?

“Send it,” Twilight said.

After a moment’s pause, Starlight swallowed. “Twilight…?”

Spike frowned but nonetheless held up the scroll and spat green fire onto it. The resulting embers flew toward one of the cracked windows and disappeared into the world beyond.

And that left them to silence once more.

Starlight trembled now. She took another look at the document in her magical grasp and then back at Twilight. Now she dropped the documents altogether. “Oh my gosh… No…”

Tempest exchanged glances between them all.

It was at that moment that Spike gagged and then burped out some green fire. Said green fire materialized into a scroll that immediately fell into his waiting hands. Spike unfurled it and gave it a quick once-over.

Twilight stepped forward. “What did she say?” she croaked.

Instead of reading it aloud, Spike instead turned it and held it up for them to see. The letter itself only contained a few choice words:

I am on my way.

Sunset dipped her spoon into the applesauce in the corner of her tray before bringing it up to her mouth. She rested her head on her other hand while staring out the nearby window. This window didn’t offer much of a view as it simply opened to more of Canterlot High’s interior, but it would do.

She set her spoon down and rested her hand on her message journal. She would get something soon, that much she was sure of.

“Sunset, dear?” Rarity, who sat across from her, asked. “Are you alright? You’ve barely touched your food.”

Sunset took a quick glance at the untouched hamburger on her plate and she shook her head. “I’m not hungry…” she murmured.

Her other five friends, who sat at the table with her, looked on with frowns. And then Pinkie Pie returned to staring at the crystal ball in the center of the table. The crystal ball showed Princess Celestia’s bedroom, which currently remained empty. The lighting outside indicated daytime.

The rest of the cafeteria carried about its business. Countless conversations blended together with the pwops of plastic trays hitting wooden tables. Flash Sentry and a few of his friends strummed on their guitars at their table in one corner of the room.

“Ah’m sure they’re doin’ their best to figure all this out,” Applejack said reassuringly, placing a hand on Sunset’s shoulder.

Sunset grunted in response.

“I’m sure too,” Twilight seconded as she jotted some equations into a notebook. “Although it’s been six days now and they haven’t made any breakthroughs. I’m getting worried.”

Rainbow Dash leaned against the table. “You said it. I hate this waiting.”

“Eh, there was that speedup with the ball that Sunset found,” Applejack suggested.

“Yes, there’s that,” Twilight replied. She turned to Sunset. “Actually, any news on that?”

Sunset sat up and nodded. “Actually, yeah. Princess Twilight and I ran more measurements over the weekend. And… uh… it sped up again.”

The entire table turned to face her with wide-eyed shock.

“It what now?” Applejack asked. “What’s it doin’ now?”

Sunset stirred the applesauce within the tray. “It was doing a hundred and fourteen percent before. These last few days… We’ve been getting a hundred and twenty-seven percent.” She looked up. “It got faster.”

After a moment of silence, Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “...Why?”

Sunset shrank down again. “Heck if I know. And Princess Twilight doesn’t know either. We tossed some ideas around, but we have nothing. So it’s… whatever.”

Rarity snorted and shook her head. “This whole business is just… too strange. Too strange indeed, “she said as she repositioned her own burger on her plate. She turned in apple around, looked at it from a distance, turned it again, and then sat back with a nod. And then she held up her phone.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Really, Rarity? You’re harpin’ on Sunset for not eatin’, but here you are takin’ pictures?”

“Oh please, you know how important it is to me to keep up with the trends,” Rarity shot back.

Rainbow Dash, who had bitten into her burger, said, with a full mouth, “Nop, thaf’s stufid.”

Rarity lowered her phone and scowled at Rainbow Dash. And, when the rest of the table (sans Pinkie Pie and Sunset) displayed similarly disdainful expressions, she scowled at them too.

Sunset cracked a smile. “No. Let her take her pictures. It’ll make her happy, won’t it?”

Applejack smacked the table with her hand. “Ya can’t be serious. You’re okay with this, Sunset?”

Sunset shrugged. “It makes her happy.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna enter through the rear doors and stop to chat in the doorway.

“I take pictures of my food all the time,” Pinkie Pie mused. “Cause then I get to look at them later when I don’t have food and I can remember how good the food was.”

Fluttershy eventually pointed to Pinkie Pie. “That’s not really a bad reason.”

“That sounds like a Pinkie Pie reason,” Applejack replied.

Sunset tilted her head so that she could see down her table. Her eyes drew over her friends and she watched them bicker in silence. Here they were, engaging in and taking their stances on the trends and fighting over it like the best high school friends would. It was something they would likely forget in about an hour and then, perhaps, they would fight over this again tomorrow, right before talking about what movies they would want to see together.

Watching it made her smile. She herself had been in those conversations once; not today, of course. She didn’t remember them, but she knew she had had them.

These girls, after all, were the ones she had gone on sleepovers with. These were the girls she had performed in a band with. These were the girls she had gone camping with, been in a movie with, got stuck in a magic mirror with, and fought monsters both of this world and the other with.

And they were happy, as they were meant to be.

And then Sunset heard a door creak open and looked around. The sound didn’t match any of the cafeteria doors and none of them were open anyway. And then she looked into the crystal ball and saw Princess Celestia stepping through.

And Pinkie Pie, who had been watching the whole time, suddenly perked up. “Hey, look who showed up in the ball!” she exclaimed.

Everyone else, save Sunset, leaned over the table to examine the room inside the crystal ball.

Princess Celestia trotted toward a shelf which had a tea set laying on top of it. Some steam billowed out of the spout. She approached it and took hold of the teapot with her magic, simultaneously setting down a stack of papers that she had brought up with her. “Would you like any tea, Twilight?” she asked.

Sunset blinked. Wait. Twilight is there? she thought.

The seven of them craned their necks and saw that a second alicorn, Twilight Sparkle, had followed her in.

And Twilight shut the door behind her. “Yes. Tea sounds fantastic right about now.”

And the human Twilight at the table adjusted her glasses and then picked up the ball and held it close to her face. “So that’s what my counterpart looks like in her own world. That’s incredible!” she wheezed.

Celestia poured two teacups full and then trotted over to Twilight, allowed Twilight to take one from her with her magic, and then she trotted toward the window. She took a sip from hers and watched the daylight.

“Yes, dear. But could you put that back down?” Rarity asked with a toothy smile. “Some of us want to watch too.”

Twilight blushed and set the ball back down in the middle of the table with a giggle. “I’m sorry. It’s just, I know you all have met your pony counterparts when they were ponies and… this is the first time I’m seeing mine as a pony.”

Celestia cleared her throat. “Twilight, I do not know about you, but I am still in awe at how far Sunset Shimmer has come along.”

Twilight took a sip from her own cup. “Oh, absolutely. Of course, you would know how she was better than I did, but when I first met her… for the few days I knew her then, she was… she was very mean and self-centered.”

Sunset lowered her head. “Yeah…”

“But now she’s one of the kindest, smartest, compassionate ponies that I know,” Twilight continued.

“Yes,” Celestia replied.

Applejack rubbed Sunset on the back and flashed her a smile. Sunset smiled in return.

“Certainly… I caught wind of it back when we faced the sirens together. But when she saved my life… I… was certain of it.”

“And I as well. I’ve probably said this before,” Celestia said, “but back when she was still my student, her ambition was to be a princess. Well, I’m sure you know all about this.”

“I do.”

“Of course, yes, she was not ready for it yet. She wanted it too much and, for as gifted as she is… she did not have the attitude for it. She was in it for the power. I doubt that she was prepared for the responsibility that came with it.”

Sunset nodded solemnly.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Do you think she’s capable of being a princess now?”

The entire table watched in silence as they waited for the reply.

Celestia sighed and cracked a smile. “Of course I do, Twilight. I know that she would make a wonderful princess.”

Twilight grinned from ear to ear and even did a little hop. “I knew you’d agree! I think so too.”

Sunset chuckled at the display.

“I can’t say I haven’t spent time imagining it,” Twilight said before nervously chuckling. “I think her and I would do such a good job together. I don’t know if she wants it anymore, but just imagine if she was there, right by my side, and the two of us…”

Now everyone sat up in their seats and leaned forward to look at the scene more closely.

“It sounds like you have somewhat of an attachment to her, Twilight,” Celestia said.

Twilight blushed. “Well… we’re a lot alike in so many ways. She’s smart, helpful, kind… and after everything we’ve been through together… I don’t see why not.”

“Oooh,” Rarity cooed as she looked up at Sunset. “Do you hear that?”

Sunset grinned and lay her cheek on her hand. “Yeah…”

Rarity batted her eyes. “And? Tell me, Sunset, what do you think about Twilight?”

Sunset chuckled. “Well… she’s right about everything, really. And she is the most important person in my life. Pony or otherwise.”

Fluttershy, who sat at the opposite end of the table, silently squeed. Pinkie Pie followed albeit slightly louder.

Sunset’s smile faded. But that just means… if I am right…

Inside the crystal ball, Twilight stood up straight and, after taking another sip of her tea, returned to a more somber expression. “Princess Celestia…” Twilight began. “I don’t think you called me up here to talk about Sunset Shimmer, did you?”

Celestia stood facing the window for a few moments more as she drank her tea in silence. And then, after finally downing it, she then sighed and turned to face Twilight. “The reason I called you up here is that I have a very good idea of how this is going to pan out, Twilight. And you aren’t going to like it.”

“Really?” Twilight replied with a tilt of her head. “What makes you say that?”

“Well, Twilight,” Princess Celestia said, “I am very much certain that I know the whereabouts of the Nameless fragment. I have already figured it out.”

A long and pregnant pause passed between them as the seven considered what had just been said. Their mouths slowly began hanging as their eyes slowly met each other’s.

Twilight gasped. “Oh! So… we could solve all of this right away.”

Celestia nodded and started walking a path around the bed that took up the center of her room.

“Are you fucking kidding me!?” Rainbow Dash yelled as she flew out of her seat. “They knew!?”

“For land’s sakes!” Applejack exclaimed, similarly standing up.

“Unbelievable!” Rarity exclaimed as she slammed the table. “So this whole time they’ve been dragging their heels on this!”

“Girls!” Twilight exclaimed with a pointed tone. “Keep it down!”

“You heard what she just said!” Rainbow Dash said as she pointed toward the ball. “They know where the Nameless fragment is. They’ve probably known for days now!”

Pinkie Pie puffed her cheeks out. “Yeah! What’s the big idea!? Huh? They could have saved their world a long time ago!”

“So why the hell aren’t they!?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Sunset swallowed. Is this… is this what they talked about? Was this the conversation that Twilight had with Princess Celestia?

She bode her own body to stand up, but it disobeyed. That conversation was… six days ago. And it’s happening right now!

Sunset glanced up. The rest of the cafeteria had fallen silent, with all eyes now locked on their table. Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna were now shuffling in their direction.

“Quiet!” Twilight barked. “I am trying to hear what they are saying!”

At that, the six of them leaned over the ball again. Sunset meanwhile, lent her ear but put all of her other efforts on just steadying herself in her seat.

Princess Celestia approached the desk where the tea set sat and she replaced her cup there. “While you were down in the chamber, I spent time reacclimating myself with the events that you have lived and died through. And then, of course, I spent this past couple of hours pondering how a fragment of the Nameless might have gotten past us.”

Twilight shook her head. “Me too. And, I can’t think of how. I can’t think of any opportunity the Nameless or any part of it would have to get out.”

Celestia’s eyes trailed toward the documents laying beside the tea set and she considered them for a few moments. And then she solemnly shook her head. “Twilight… I think there was one such opportunity.”

Twilight blinked and then floated her teacup back to the tray as well. “Really? Do tell?”

Some of the nearby tables began whispering amongst themselves.

“You think they would have gotten right on this with their world being at stake,” one of the whispers said.

“Look, it’s natural selection at work,” another whisper said, gaining some stifled giggles in the process.

Sunset scowled as she considered the conversations around them. She then climbed to her feet and tried reaching across the table to take the crystal ball away. “Maybe I should go somewhere else for this,” she said.

“Nonsense,” Rarity scoffed. “We’re all interested to hear what they have to say.”

Twilight swiveled in her seat and noted how the entire cafeteria silently watched them (or, rather, listened in on the conversation in the crystal ball). “Yeah. I think everyone is. Come on, Sunset.”

Sweat started falling down Sunset’s face. “No, really.”

“There is one key question we have to ask when we consider where it might be: why is it only now that the seal is detecting it at all? Why did it not detect it when you were tethered to the Nameless? Why did it not detect it right after the unponies disappeared? Why now?” Celestia paced in place. “It occurred to me that this had to be something which only recently became detectable. Do you agree with that logic, Twilight?”

Twilight nodded. “I do.”

“Don’t you wanna know where this Nameless fragment is?” Applejack asked.

“Yes… but…” Sunset replied.

“Then sit down and watch already,” Rainbow Dash hissed. “Geez. You’re being really stupid like Princess Twilight was being.”

Sunset grimaced. But… I think I already know what’s about to happen. I’m not sure… but…

Fluttershy, who was looking right at her, glanced at the others, and opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again.

“It is not merely Nameless energy because, otherwise, the unponies would have consumed it,” Princess Celestia said. “And it cannot be something from before whence you found and destroyed it because the Nameless would have escaped a long time ago.”

Those that were standing took their seats with Applejack more or less leading Sunset back down into hers. Sunset sighed and lay her arms on the table and watched.

“The way that you described the Nameless’ tether to me once was as an extension of the Nameless itself,” Celestia continued. “It is just a small part of that larger entity. A fragment, if you will. But a tether by itself is not enough to trip the seal. That much I am certain of.”

Twilight blinked. “Yes…?”

“But even a tether, given the right conditions to grow and fester, could become something pronounced enough to detect.”

Twilight blinked again and even wobbled in place. “But… I don’t understand how that could be right. I mean… The Nameless’ tether to me was broken when I died… and I was so sure to not tether onto anypony else. Not when I was flying to the cavern, at least. I don’t see how any tether could have made it past that point.”

“But you see, Twilight, that is exactly what I am getting at. A tether did survive past that point.”

Sunset grabbed the table again and used it to push herself to her feet. But she only found enough strength to make it to the nearby window where she steadied herself against that instead and gazed into the hallways beyond.

“How could that have happened?” Twilight asked.

“I am of the mind that if you go someplace outside where the Nameless could have done anything to you, even if you were tethered, you would be safe but the tether would be unbroken,” Celestia said. “So, what would happen if, say, somepony spent several minutes closely in your presence, perhaps unknowingly became tethered in the process, and then traveled someplace or, rather, sometime beyond the Nameless’ reach?”

Sunset felt her heart drop twenty meters inside her chest.

Twilight looked like she had forgotten to breathe. She stared holes into Celestia now.

“And then,” Celestia continued, “perhaps, its host underwent several transformations since then. Perhaps she powered up. Or perhaps her body was transformed entirely. Perhaps that dormant fragment morphed with each transformation, slowly having a more pronounced impact on its host, until, finally, it causes her great pain whenever she transforms, and it causes her to see what she should not.”

Twilight’s eyes flickered over every inch of the room and she even stroked her chin in thought. And then her jaw dropped and she looked at Celestia again only to find a solemn frown.

And then Twilight let out a gasp so sharp that it could have very well been a scream.

The six still sitting at the table exchanged glances, briefly considered Sunset as she managed to lift herself off of the window and stand up straight, and then practically pressed their faces into the ball.

Sunset closed her eyes and steeled herself for what came next.

And Princess Celestia nodded. “There’s a reason she is seeing the Nameless in her dreams. There is a reason she can feel a thing inside her tearing her apart.” Celestia pointed at her chest and thundered, “That fragment of the Nameless… it lives… inside of Sunset Shimmer!”

Every little whisper died at that moment as everyone in the entire cafeteria glanced between each other, sharing expressions of dropped jaws and wide-eyed shock. Some eyes turned to Sunset now.

Sunset’s friends didn’t even dare to tear their eyes away from the ball but, all at once, all of the colors drained from their faces.

And Sunset tensed up. There it was.

Twilight failed to find her voice for several long seconds. All that escaped her were some pained grunts and wheezes. Finally, she managed to get out, “S-so… when all of this is said and done… we have to seal Sunset Shimmer away for the rest of eternity?”

Celestia nodded solemnly and averted her gaze. “Yes. Yes. We must… seal her away.”

Rainbow Dash, now trembling, looking so pale that it was as if the life had been sucked out of her, slowly and shakily stood up; she, however, could not do so without steadying herself against the table.

Twilight began shaking her head; slowly at first, and then with greater ferocity. “No… no no no! There must be some kind of mistake! It’s not Sunset! The Nameless fragment isn’t in her!”

Celestia finally lifted the stack of papers off of the desk and held them up. “Then look at this, Twilight, and tell me that what is inside her does not match the Nameless’ signature. Tell me that the data is wrong!”

Twilight took them and began flipping through the pages. Her practically scanned them at a breakneck pace but, as she continued along, and as she considered the numbers, diagrams, and tables within, she began shaking her head. “No… No… I can’t…”

“Twilight.”

“I can’t. I’m not going to seal Sunset away. I can’t do that.”

“We might not have a choice!” Celestia bellowed. “We cannot allow Equestria to be destroyed. Not ours, not the others either!”

Twilight stamped the ground. “No! I don’t accept this! I…” She wiped some forming tears from her face. “I will… I will find another way.”

Sunset’s friends now looked up at her. Sunset, meanwhile, didn’t even flinch, much less turn around to face them.

“Another way?” Celestia said. “What do you mean by ‘another way?’ The Nameless fragment is what the seal wants, Twilight. The seal wants her.”

Twilight expression firmed up. “No, it doesn’t. It wants what’s inside her. There has to be a way to give the seal what it wants without having to put Sunset away.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Such as?”

Twilight searched the floor for answers. “I-I-I… I don’t know… I’ll… I’ll think of something.”

“You really want to try?”

“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed, standing at her full height. “I-I’ll find a way! I’ll find a way to save her! I know I will!”

Celestia sniffled, and after a few moments of watching Twilight’s expression deteriorate, she stood up straight. “Twilight… you are a very capable mare and I won’t do anything to stop you from trying. And, truthfully, my deepest hope is that you can succeed.” Celestia’s expression tightened up. “But Twilight… what happens if you can’t do it?”

Sunset shuddered. And she hasn’t. And she can’t, she thought.

“What then? What happens then?” Celestia asked.

A few more tears started sliding down Twilight’s face and, while she remained audibly composed, she made no effort to wipe her face either. She eventually found the strength to meet Celestia’s stare. And she swallowed. “T-then…”

Applejack removed her stetson and held it against her chest. The Twilight who sat next to her reached under her glasses and rubbed her eyes.

“Then… we must seal her away,” Twilight croaked.

Celestia’s face paled in response but she nonetheless nodded. She silently trotted toward an archway and disappeared into an adjacent room. Twilight remained rooted to her spot all the while. Celestia reappeared a few moments later with a crystal ball floating in her magic, although to those at the table, it appeared a pure white.

Celestia set the crystal ball beside Twilight and then made it a few steps toward the door. She then paused. “We both know what must be done in the meantime. I will take care of things here,” she said as she opened the doors with her magic. “The papers over there are yours. Do what you will. And keep me updated.”

Twilight vacantly nodded.

Celestia trotted into the doorway and stopped. She looked over her withers at Twilight and gave a simple, “Good luck,” before she trotted into the castle beyond.

And Twilight sat there for several moments as tears continued falling down her face. Several seconds of silence passed by before she finally chanced a sob. She then chanced a few more sobs. She let her face fall into her hooves and she silently cried.

The cafeteria’s rear doors opened and a couple of girls—Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo—shuffled in. They both had their phones in their hands and their eyes immediately fell on Sunset. They exchanged horrified glances with Apple Bloom who, as she sat at a table near them and thus looked up, acknowledged their entrance by placing her own phone back on the table.

The rest of the cafeteria remained deathly silent.

Inside the crystal ball, Twilight finally wiped her face and took several long and deep breaths to compose herself. Her eyes had already puffed up. She slowly stood up straight, wrapped her magic around the crystal ball sitting beside her, and then trotted toward the door herself. Finally, she too left the room, leaving it completely empty and still.

The school’s ventilation blanketed the cafeteria with a constant low whisper, but one could have easily claimed to hear a pin drop somewhere.

The human Twilight that sat with them finally stood up. She had one hand clenched into a trembling fist while the other gripped the table for dear life.

And Sunset still couldn’t face them. Her own expression, which she could see in her reflection, remained distant. She knew they were all looking at her now, and it was just as likely that word was already spreading around the school.

She heard some sniffles from within the crowd. She heard a sniffle or two from the table immediately behind her where her friends gathered. And, yet, she felt none of what they felt.

She mulled over her next words because they would break the silence. They had to.

“The truth is…” Sunset began with a calm tone, “I kind of knew about it being inside me… the Nameless fragment. I just… I didn’t want to believe it.”

She briefly looked over her shoulder before staring into her reflection again. “I didn’t expect to see that conversation today, let alone now. That’s… I didn’t want you all to find out this way.” She shook her head. “Honestly… I didn’t really want you to find out at all.”

She sighed and hung her hands on the pockets of her leather jacket. “But here we are. I’ve… I’ve had some time to think about this over the past few days. And I’ve asked a lot of you about this, and practically all of you said the same thing. Everyone is depending on me now. Everypony, everygriffon, everydragon…”

Sunset mulled over her next words. She knew what she was about to say, but that was not what caused her to hesitate. If the conversation they had all just witnessed was the coating of fuel, what she would say next would be the lit match that would ignite it. She could no longer afford to not face them. And so she turned.

The entire cafeteria stared back at her, holding its breath.

Sunset Shimmer sighed through her nose. “I can’t let this happen. So… I’m going to give myself up to them.”

And, immediately, Rainbow Dash replied with a pointed, “No!”

And several sets of eyes turned to consider Rainbow Dash, including Sunset’s.

“You…” Rainbow Dash trembled. “You can’t. You can’t do that.”

“I have to,” Sunset replied.

“No, you can’t.”

Applejack set her stetson on the table and she stood up. “Don’t you be hasty now, Sunset. There’s gotta be somethin’ that can be done!”

“Yes!” Rarity cried. “There has to be!”

Twilight sniffed and rubbed underneath her glasses again. “Didn’t my counterpart say that there was some power that could destroy the Nameless?” she asked.

“Yes! The Rainbow Power!” Pinkie Pie shrieked.

“It won’t satisfy the seal,” Sunset countered.

“Are you kidding me!? That’s fucking stupid!” Rainbow Dash growled.

Rarity, now with her own tears dragging her makeup down her face (creating black streaks in the process), looked between all of them and then back to Sunset. “W-what if they got the Nameless fragment out of you somehow and…” Rarity stammered.

Sunset shook her head. “I spent this morning messaging Twilight back and forth. She was trying to come up with a way to do just that. And she doesn’t think that she can do it.”

Applejack punched the table with such force that the entire table cracked down the middle (her geode shone in that brief moment), also causing the trays on it to jump. “For land’s sakes! There’s gotta be somethin’!”

Sunset, after a moment of silence (especially as she examined the now buckling table), sighed. “No, Applejack. I don’t see a way out of this one. It’s either I give myself up or Equestria dies. And not just mine, either.”

“But…” Rarity croaked.

Sunset’s features darkened. “You all told me that if I had to choose throwing down my life for the good of everyone else, that I should do it.”

“But…!” Twilight exclaimed. “Sunset, what you’re talking about is a fate worse than death!”

And that verbal punch practically knocked so much of her strength out of her that she reeled against the window. She turned to look at her reflection again, saw the fear in her own eyes, and nodded. She then let her head thump against the glass. “I know…” she croaked. “I know.”

The cafeteria fell quiet again, although now a small scattering of her fellow students were now openly sobbing despite their best attempts to muffle themselves. Many of the girls held each other close while many of the boys tried, with varying degrees of success, keeping straight faces. Granny Smith watched from the kitchen window, tried cleaning out her ear again, and then frowned as she considered the overall catatonia. Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna appeared frozen in place, unable to even respond in the slightest capacity.

The message journal on the table began glowing and vibrating. Many sets of eyes turned toward it but no one moved. It rang a second time and then a third time.

Sunset stood up straight and approached the table again. She reached down with one hand, opened the book to the most recent page, and began reading.

And, after a few moments of that, she flipped it shut again and looked at her friends again. “I told Princess Twilight that if there really wasn’t anything else that could be done… that she was to come and get me.”

Sunset swallowed. “That was her just now. She’s… here.”

A loud bang shattered the silence as all the air rushed out of Pinkie Pie’s frazzled hair. It now lay perfectly straight. She wiped her own face free of falling tears but more quickly appeared to take their place.

Twilight, still pale-faced, shuffled around Applejack and came face to face with Sunset. And, yet, she looked everywhere but Sunset herself. “S-so… this is it, then? You’re… leaving us? This will be the last time we ever see you?”

“This isn’t how I wanted it to go, but…” Sunset nodded solemnly. “Yeah.”

Fluttershy made an unnaturally high squeak as she too fought her tears.

“I’ll… I’ll…” Twilight tried.

Sunset’s frown deepened.

“Just…” Twilight took her glasses right off of her face and wiped her eyes with her entire arm, taking a moment to sob a couple of times in the process. She then, still with glasses in hand, looked back up at Sunset. “I’ll… I’ll… I’ll never forget you!”

Sunset felt some water welling up in her eyes. “Never,” she replied.

At one of the nearby tables, Wallflower Blush flinched.

Twilight flung herself forward and wrapped her arms around Sunset. Sunset remained in a catatonic state at that moment and failed to return the hug, especially with Twilight trapping her arms.

Applejack stumbled forward and wrapped her arms around them. Fluttershy stood up and followed suit. Rarity, now with all of her makeup now running, hobbled around the end of the table and hugged Sunset from behind. Rainbow Dash started forward, helping a bawling Pinkamena Diane Pie to her feet along the way, and the two of them joined the huddle.

And then several of the other students in the immediate vicinity came forward and joined the hug. Soon it was ten, then twenty, then thirty. People from the other side of the room hobbled forward to join in. Those who didn’t remained vacant and glazed.

And it seemed like an eternity passed in that room.

Eventually, the pack loosened up enough that Sunset’s friends could let go of her.

Sunset straightened up. She picked up the message journal and presented it to Twilight. Twilight, in turn, accepted it and held it close to her chest. She then picked up the crystal ball and tucked it under her left arm.

Sunset then started forward. Her friends, and then some after that, followed behind her.

Principal Celestia shuffled forward in a daze, half-convinced that she was in a bad dream she couldn’t wake up from. The words she had heard still rang in her ears. All of her capacities busied themselves with trying to process what had happened and what was happening and what was going to happen; her walking forward was merely an autonomy.

Her sister, Vice Principal Luna, shuffled along right beside her. Several students walked beside them with the same wet and dazed expressions that they themselves wore.

Looks ahead revealed more students towards the front of the procession, and then Sunset Shimmer’s friends, and then Sunset Shimmer herself.

The hallways were an arrhythmic pitter-pattering of steps that no one really heard. There weren’t many classrooms on this route to the foyer—the broken, boarded-up, and caution-taped cafeteria front doors (courtesy of a football as she recalled) that normally opened to the foyer forced them to take this route—but all of their doors were open with the classes inside standing in the doorways, watching them go by with some even falling in line.

The procession rounded a corner and finally the foyer came into view. This hallway opened up into a circular room two floors high, sporting balconies and two sets of staircases that flanked the front entrance. Sunset stopped for a moment to examine the flags and banners that hung from the upper railings as well as the trophy cases recessed into the curves of the wall, and then she turned toward the front doors. She opened them, paused for a long time in the doorway, holding a hand over her mouth for a little bit as she stared at someplace in the distance, and then stumbled out.

The rest of the procession slowly followed her out.

Many clouds hung above Canterlot High, casting the entire front yard with grey light that desaturated everything and everyone that it touched. Several windows, especially on the upper floors, lay open with several bodies hanging out in order to properly view the proceedings.

Several individuals stood in silence in front of the Wondercolt statue on the far side of the lawn. Most were figures that Celestia recognized. Princess Twilight Sparkle and Spike. Starlight Glimmer was not as familiar but she had been to the school once or twice before. And then there was, of course, the unfamiliar one with the scar across one of her eyes, wearing a tank top, camouflage jeans, and some heavy-duty boots. Tempest Shadow, perhaps.

But it was the final person that caused all breath to leave her.

A tall figure about her own height stood behind the rest of the Equestrians. Her long, flowing hair looked just like her own, containing a mixture of cyan, sapphire blue, aquamarine, and mulberry, and her purple eyes had the same sheen Celestia saw when she looked at her reflection in a mirror. Even the light magenta-ish skin tone matched. But what really caught her eyes was the long, flowing, elaborate gown that she wore, bearing golden adornments, which fluttered in the calm breeze.

It was her counterpart, the princess. And she was here.

Luna made a strained gasp and then steadied herself on her sister’s shoulder. Celestia herself had no words.

Sunset walked down the steps and across the lawn. She swerved toward Tempest, Spike, and Starlight who received her with open-mouthed shock (the former less so than the latter two). Sunset presented the crystal ball to Starlight, which she took without so much as even looking down to recognize it was there. Spike, who was a dog in this form, trotted around her backside to look at her more closely.

Sunset took a few steps toward the portal which brought her right beside Twilight. Twilight herself wore a grim face and couldn’t even bring herself to look at Sunset when she stopped right beside her. And Sunset didn’t look at Twilight either. Sunset did, however, exchange glances with Princess Celestia who remained stone-faced the whole time.

And then Sunset took one last look back at everyone that had followed her out. Everyone did some combination of sobbing quietly, hanging onto friends for dear life, failing to take breath, wiping their wet faces, or fidgeting. Sunset’s friends remained so tightly packed that not even a knife could part them.

For all Celestia knew, Sunset was about to die to them, right before their eyes. Her knees buckled and it was only because Luna had already grabbed onto her for support that either of them was able to remain standing.

And seeing Sunset’s blank, defeated expression was daggers through her.

Sunset sighed and turned back to look at the Wondercolt statue. Straightening up, she walked forward, right into the base. And then, with a flash of light, Sunset Shimmer was there no more.

Starlight sucked in a breath and then led Tempest toward the portal as well, with Spike trotting dutifully behind. They too entered the statue’s base. Princess Celestia glided toward it as well and disappeared soon after that.

And Princess Twilight finally found the strength to look up at all of them, but her expression made her appear like she had seen a ghost with how ghastly she looked. Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to find words but nothing ever came.

She averted her gaze and then, finally, slunk into the portal as well.

Everyone stared at the empty courtyard. Everyone stared at the idle statute.

And then one of Sunset’s friends, Rainbow Dash, made a shrill cry. She broke away from her group and stumbled down the steps before breaking into a sprint. She rushed headlong into the statue’s base where the portal was but ended up colliding with its face.

And Rainbow Dash began banging on the statue base with both fists and then started outright punching it. She punctuated every hit with a frustrated and irate cry.

Applejack broke away from the group as well and ran after Rainbow Dash.

Pinkamena and Fluttershy fell to the ground, cradling each other as their shrieks pierced the heavens.

Rarity collapsed by herself, bawling her eyes out even still.

Their Twilight Sparkle managed to remain standing but she now had her glasses folded up and hanging from her collar; her hands now cradled her face as she cried.

Celestia herself felt increasingly numb and now had to contend with her own tears and sobs. Luna clinged to her now, being in a similar state of despair.

Applejack finally caught up to Rainbow Dash and tried to wrestle her away from it. Rainbow Dash continued punching it and, when Applejack pulled her far enough away, kicking it. The two then toppled over and it was then, as Rainbow Dash began cradling her hand, that her agonized screams reached a crescendo.

And countless others gathered on the front steps, inside the foyer, and in the windows now broke down and openly cried.

Canterlot High School’s wails of anguish and sorrow carried into eternity.

5 - Journey

Tempest Shadow shifted in her seat. The hour had grown later, as evidenced by Starlight Glimmer’s empty teacup and Spike’s empty plate. The three of them still sat with Princess Celestia. Surely, she knew, Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer would come back soon.

Her thoughts drifted to what she had heard about the alternate timelines. She thought about the prospect of entities like Nightmare Moon and Queen Chrysalis having been once undefeated. She thought about the concept of entities like King Sombra and Lord Tirek and Discord still running about.

They had all since been defeated. And she had learned that most of them in all the timelines had been accounted for.

But, across all the timelines, there was one individual that, by and large, was not.

“Princess Celestia,” she said in a somewhat subdued tone.

Princess Celestia looked up. “Yes, Tempest?”

Tempest folded her hooves together and looked Celestia in the eyes. “About these other timelines… Does anypony know about the Storm King? Is he still in power?”

Spike and Starlight also looked up at Celestia.

Celestia straightened up. “We’ve scoured the timelines as best as we can and gathered all the information that we could. But… that much we were able to ascertain. Yes, he is still in power in all six of the other timelines.”

Tempest swallowed. Some drops of sweat formed on her brown.

Starlight shuddered. “W… what about the wasteland?”

Celestia frowned. “Starlight Glimmer… we have been over this. Nothing exists in the wasteland.”

Starlight sighed. “Yeah,” she croaked, “I know.”

“And none of them have tried attacking Equestria yet?” Tempest asked.

“No,” Celestia replied.

“That’s… strange.” Tempest replied. “For as long as I knew him, he wanted power. He knew that Equestria was a place of immense power—I still think it’s stupid that you spend this power on parties and friendship.”

Celestia had a stern frown on her face. “Tempest, we Equestrians are not the fighting type. I thought you would understand that by now.”

Tempest pointed. “And look at where that got you,” she grumbled.

“We are working on bettering ourselves so that situations like that do not happen again. Have patience.” Celestia’s tone was now razor-sharp, so much so that Tempest (and the others, for that matter) withdrew. Celestia took a deep breath then. “Anyway, please, carry on.”

Tempest collected her thoughts and then said, with some hesitation, “Y-yes. Well. The Storm King wanted to be the ruler of all. And he had been eyeing up Equestria. Yes… I was the one who suggested invading Equestria and stealing your magic to him, but that was just a means to an end.” Her muzzle twitched from side to side. “These other villains spent years breaking those other Equestrias down, so why didn’t the Storm King swoop in and try to take it for himself when you were all still trying to rebuild them?”

At that, Celestia rubbed her chin in thought. “That is a very good question, although I can think of a reasonable answer for it. The existence of these other timelines quickly became common knowledge over there, and it’s on the way over here. So, would-be attackers such as the Storm King would attack knowing that they would have to potentially face the might of seven Equestrias as opposed to just one. I would suspect that it’s quite the deterrent.”

Starlight crossed her arms and slumped against the table. “Yeah. If only we had used that fact during the invasion,” she grumbled.

“We tried. Twilight couldn’t remember the portal spell,” Spike pointed out.

After a moment, Starlight sighed. “Yeah. I didn’t remember it until after I had gotten my flank kicked,” she said in an increasingly inaudible voice.

“I taught them that ruthless efficiency,” Tempest said with a smirk. She then sat up. “But you all can’t be the only one who knows how to use it, right?”

“Yes, but only authorized casters know the actual spell, and that list is quite small,” Celestia said. “There are less than a hundred in our own Equestria. And for many of them, it takes two or three of them together to open the portal.”

Tempest folded her hooves together. “And yet, as you told me, Twilight, Sunset, and her”—she pointed at Starlight—“could do it on their own.”

Celestia smiled. “Most ponies are not as capable as they are.”

“But it could be done with some amount of magic. You don’t need too much. So, who knows who the authorized casters are?”

Celestia stroked her chin. “I believe that listing is also public knowledge.”

“So, anyone could look them up?” Tempest asked. “Even… say… power hungry kings from other timelines? Right?”

And now everyone else at the table straightened up and turned to regard her and her words. Tempest kept her discerning frown as she watched their faces scrunch up, turn red, quiver, and frown back. They shifted uncomfortably in their seats, even, as they seemingly absorbed the implications of what she had just said.

Celestia eventually sagely and solemnly nodded. “I suppose that’s right.”

The scenery outside the train car window flew by at a brisk pace. The car itself thumped in time with the clickety-clack of it going along the tracks. Sunset Shimmer watched it all go by without actually watching it.

The car itself hung in a pronounced silence. Pairs of guards flanked the doors at each end of the car and, certainly, more barred the way in the cars beyond. Sunset wondered if they were there as standard security detail or they were there to make sure she didn’t escape.

She couldn’t blame them.

While Spike and Princess Celestia took up opposing seats on the other side of the aisle, Starlight Glimmer and Tempest Shadow sat in the seat opposite Sunset and Twilight. Most, if not all of them, had been looking at her the whole trip. It was only when she would try to look back at them that they would avert their gazes (although Tempest was not so great about doing that), almost as if they could not bear to meet her eyes.

She herself had said nothing. She had done nothing to engage. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to talk about either.

What could she say? What could they say?

Then again, this was about her. This was her time. Surely, they were respecting her. They were obliging her choice to be silent. And they would probably oblige her if she soon decided otherwise. Because they were there for her.

Celestia, at the moment, read over some papers. She also looked at Sunset every once in a while. She otherwise remained silent as she focused on her reading. Spike twiddled his claws together as he flip-flopped between watching her read her documents and staring at the floor.

And then Spike cupped his hands over his mouth and spewed some green fire. Said fire then formed into a piece of paper. Spike received it, took a brief look at it, and then presented it to Celestia. Celestia, in turn, lit her horn and took it from him, joining it with the other papers.

A few more minutes of silence passed, during which no one spoke.

And then, the crystal ball, which sat in the seat with Celestia, made some noise. And then a voice came out of the crystal ball. “No, see that little stone pillar in the middle? Look,” Starlight’s voice said. And then a moment later, “Don’t touch the… Oh.”

“What the hay?” Starlight asked, now leaning forward.

Sunset groaned. “Apparently, the layer above us is doing stuff. This isn’t the first time that’s happened.”

Starlight blinked and then looked up. “What? That? The heck are they doing, then?” She then frowned. “…What the heck am I doing?”

Sunset shrugged. “Well, it’s not like we know everything to know about the Nameless and the seal. There’s a lot to unpack.”

Spike nodded. “Yeah, like that stuff that’s written in the other chambers,” he said. He pointed to the papers in Celestia’s magic. “That’s that stuff right there.”

Celestia briefly looked up but said nothing.

Sunset frowned, stood up, and approached them. “Really?”

Celestia peered over, even lowering the papers so that Sunset could see her in full. “Well, yes. Everypony has been working on transcribing and translating what’s written in the other seals since their floors have recessed as well. Each of these is from a separate version of the chamber, including our own.” Celestia’s frown deepened. “They are all unique.”

Sunset frowned. “And? What do they say?”

Celestia didn’t answer. Instead, she looked back through the papers again. She looked at them separately, her brow furrowing even more with each one she went over. She eventually scowled. “I don’t know,” she finally replied.

Now the whole car actually turned toward her. Everyone bore confused frowns.

“You don’t know?” Sunset asked.

“I am not sure what their intended meaning is. Or for what circumstance they are intended for.”

“Uh…” Starlight tried.

Spike suddenly clasped both claws over his mouth and then spewed more green fire. Said fire coalesced into a piece of paper and a scroll. He unfurled the scroll, read it over, and then presented the piece of paper to Celestia. “Princess Luna says that this is the last of it,” he said.

Celestia took that piece of paper and held it up. “Allow me to read this one,” she said. “This is the T seal for the Nameless,” she read. “This seal has the ability to take averages and regularly does so. It may also take weighted averages but only in the event that a weight is given. Such a weight must be connected to the seal, or the seal cannot consider the weight. A weight carries a reality’s worth of weight, but this only applies up to the weight’s reach which is of order kilometers. Therefore, because there are eight realities, seven weights must be used to dominate the average and ensure the continued existence of the weighted area. For the good of Consensus, you would do well to observe this…”

Everyone else remained silent.

“What…?” Tempest hissed.

“That is… very strange,” Twilight finally said.

“Yeah,” Sunset seconded. “Why the heck would that be written into the seal? What does that have to do with anything?”

Celestia actually chuckled at this point. “I don’t know.”

Spike sat up in his seat. “Uh… what do the others say?”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah. Read us another.”

Celestia nodded and then switched to another piece of paper. “This is the S seal for the Nameless. Buried within this seal is a mechanism which allows for the speeding up and slowing down of time. Such time manipulation acts on the entire reality. Furthermore, all time manipulations from layers above this one shall add together to create the observed effect. Each layer’s term shall be of a magnitude which is to the power of its distance away. The agreed factor is of inverse one point nine five five two six which shall need to be applied and maintained during the final twenty hours. Only then shall all hit zero, as is the ultimate requirement. For the good of Consensus, you would do well to observe this…”

The train car remained silent again as they all thought about what Celestia had just read. Tempest kept silence, opting to watch the rest of them for reactions.

Now Sunset turned around to face Twilight. “Hey… do you think that has anything to do with the speedup in the crystal ball that we found?”

Twilight’s eyes went wide and she looked down at Sunset. She scratched her head. “Well… um… actually…” She crossed her forelegs and hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe.”

Starlight stood up in her seat. “Woah, wait a second. What are you saying? That the reason the ball is moving faster and faster is because there is some time dilation going on?”

“Yeah,” Sunset replied.

Twilight looked over. “Princess Celestia? Can you read that part about the other layers, again?”

Celestia nodded. “Furthermore, all time manipulations from layers above this one shall add together to create the observed effect.”

Sunset stroked her chin. “So… I wonder if that means the layers above us have done some time dilation thing and it’s affecting the speed at which our crystal ball is going by.”

Starlight deadpanned and glanced between the two of them without moving her head. “Why the hay would they time dilate?”

“That is a good question,” Celestia replied. “Sadly, I don’t think we can get answers to that.”

Sunset wilted. “Yeah… Kinda…”

Twilight shifted in her seat. “Could you read another one, please?”

Celestia nodded and flipped to a new page. She scanned it once and then sat up. “This is the C seal for the Nameless. The crystal ball which comes with this seal looks into other layers of reality. These layers need not necessarily be in time with each other. The crystal ball may only look at one layer at a time. However, while the layers are strictly ordered, the layer which may be viewed through the crystal ball may vary; the only limitation is that the layer must exist. Only one truly connected to this seal may change which layer the ball views; there, it only takes a thought. For the good of Consensus, you would do well to observe this...”

Twilight exchanged glanced with Sunset and asked, “You can view different layers?”

Sunset nodded. “Huh. That sounds neat. But that sounds like something none of us can do.” She swept a hoof across the car. “None of us are truly connected to the seal.”

Twilight’s expression darkened. “Not… yet…”

Sunset remained silent, as did the rest of the car. Several eyes turned to Sunset again, and several sets of mouths frowned.

Tempest, however, shook her head. “These seals keep mentioning something about Consensus. What is Consensus?”

“Yeah,” Spike said as he stood up in his seat. “I’ve been wondering that too. All the seals have mentioned it. I saw a little bit of that stuff on all of those other papers too.”

“Except for ours,” Twilight said.

“Yeah…”

“Yes,” Celestia said, her tone grave. “The other seven mention it. However, they don’t seem to explain what Consensus is. They made no mention of any of the details about it. I’ve read all of these for myself already and it’s just as much a mystery to me as it is for the rest of you.”

“How strange,” Tempest said. “This Consensus sounds very important for it to not say anything about it.”

Sunset narrowed her eyes. “Yeah. This is weird.”

Twilight sat back in her seat. “I’m not sure what the meaning behind this text is either. And then there’s that point Princess Luna bringing up that the Nameless’ seal uses modern-day names.”

“Yeah,” Starlight said with a snort. “How is it that it knows we call it that?”

Spike shrugged. “Same way it knows about—”

“Spike,” Celestia interrupted.

Spike clasped his claws over his mouth.

Sunset perked up. “Knows about what?”

The rest of the car also turned their attention to Celestia. And Celestia took a moment to regard them before centering her glare on Spike.

Spike shrunk under her gaze. “I’m sorry,” he said as he kicked his legs about, “I saw some of it, and… you know.”

“What are you talking about, Spike?”

Spike shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

Sunset threw her hooves into the air. “Oh, come on. What is it?”

Celestia shook her head. “Nothing you should worry about, Sunset. I’ve just been omitting a few small parts. That’s all.”

“Okay. What do they say?”

Celestia took a deep breath and met Sunset in the eyes. “Sunset Shimmer…”

Sunset frowned. “Are you…? For buck’s sake. I’ve spent the last six days being omitted from all of this. And it bucking sucks. Please. Just tell me what the buck it bucking says.”

Twilight gasped and then hid that gasp behind her hoof. Her glance darted between Sunset and Celestia.

Tempest’s expression remained unchanged. She regarded Sunset at first and then eventually fixed her gaze on Celestia.

Spike folded his claws together and frowned. He eventually also fixed his gaze on Celestia.

Starlight, meanwhile, couldn’t decide where she wanted to look. She gripped the edge of the seat with her hoof.

Celestia sighed. “Very well, Sunset. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She held the papers up. “As you can probably guess, every seal other than our own ends with the same sentence.”

Sunset relaxed and straightened up. “Okay.”

Celestia opened her mouth to speak but then took another glance at the papers again. Her eyes darted to Sunset and back again. And then she presented the papers. “Perhaps you should see it for yourself.”

Sunset grabbed the papers with her own magic and then held them in front of her own face. Her eyes immediately drew down to the bottom where she found the last sentence in question. Most of it was as she had just heard.

But the end of it made her shudder. She recognized what lay at the end.

She flipped to some of the other pages and found the last sentence on them as well. They all had the same last sentence. They all had the same last words of that last sentence.

Twilight shifted in her seat. “Sunset Shimmer, what does it say?”

Sunset remained silent for a few moments more. And then, with a subdued voice, she read, “For the good of Consensus, you would do well to observe this, Sunset Shimmer.”

The train car fell silent again save for the seemingly eternal click-clack as the train ran down the tracks. Everyone’s eyes (even the guards) fell on Sunset now, watching her intently. For their parts, Spike and Starlight had tensed up and Tempest’s frown had deepened.

And Twilight looked as white as a sheet.

Sunset’s legs wobbled and then gave way underneath her; her expression, however, remained unchanged. She finally sucked in a breath. “The seal knows about me.”

Celestia nodded. “Yes.”

“So… Does that mean it knew you would be sealed away a long time ago?” Tempest asked.

Sunset nodded solemnly and floated the papers back to Celestia who received them. “Yeah…” She sighed. “This whole business was decided before I was even born.”

Twilight made a squeaking noise.

Sunset shook her head. “But I guess I could have told you I was always going to be sealed away myself. Time is fixed. ‘Is, was, will be.’”

Starlight shook her head and stamped a hoof against the seat. “No. I don’t believe that. There must have been something we could have done.” She glanced around the car, taking in their raised eyebrows as she went. “I mean… look at all of the stuff that it’s talking about. We have figured none of that stuff out.”

Tempest hummed. “Yes. There’s still all of that to go through.”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah. If only we had more time to actually sit down and figure this out. I’d like to know where this all goes and what this all means.”

“Do you think we could figure it out in the new few hours?” Starlight asked.

“No,” Sunset replied with the shake of her head. “It’s kinda too bucking late for that.”

Starlight paled. “But… we could have done it.”

“Yeah. But if we wanted to do something, we should have done it several days ago. I wish I would have known about this a lot sooner,” Sunset said, pointing to the papers in Celestia’s magic. “Maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Celestia went to speak but a sharp squeaking from Twilight made her (and everyone else, for that matter) pause. Twilight now shook like a leaf and she now rose to her hooves.

Spike also stood up. “Twilight?”

Twilight glanced between all of them but especially paused over Sunset. She then stumbled off the seat and landed in the aisle. And she started toward the car’s rear door. “I-I n-need to g-go take a moment,” she stammered. “I’ll be right back.”

And the five of them watched as she stumbled toward the rear door—the guards flanking it watched her with their eyes as she approached them—and then disappeared into the car beyond.

Twilight stepped through the caboose’s door and emerged onto the rear platform. The metallic cacophony of the train rolling down the track greeted her. A steep cliff flanked the left side of the tracks and a sharp drop-off flanked the right. Grey clouds blanketed Equestria from far overhead.

She slammed the door behind her and paced on that rear platform for a few moments, hyperventilating all the while. Her mind occupied itself with what she had done in the previous days. She thought about what Sunset had just said.

“I wish I would have known about this a lot sooner. We wouldn’t be in this mess,” Sunset’s voice said in her head.

Twilight continued pacing about the rear platform, her trembles growing worse all the while. Her expression became increasingly pained.

And then, Twilight finally screamed. She screamed toward the heavens, both hoping that anyone and no one would hear. Tears now ran down her face but she kept her footing and continued aimlessly wandering that rear platform.

And then nothing happened. Nothing changed.

The train continued on, rumbling closer to its destination.

And closer to the end. It was not her end, but an end that was because of her.

Sunset glanced over the edge of a large crevice and into the bottomless blackness below. She then looked up and spied the end of a mining cart rail jutting over the far end of the expanse.

This was the crevice that led down to the chamber. The bottom was at least a couple of miles down. Her eyes found some ledges that occasionally presented themselves around the perimeter of the crevice, providing a step-stone path down its entire height.

Celestia came up behind her carrying Spike on her back. Starlight and Tempest did so as well and then passed them entirely; Starlight wrapped herself in her own magic and levitated herself into the crevice while Tempest started hopping down the sides.

Celestia flapped her wings and hovered over the expanse. But she turned to face Twilight who now joined them.

It was when Sunset leaned forward that Twilight placed a hoof on her withers. “Sunset?” Twilight asked. “Can I… talk to you for a second?”

Sunset looked over at Twilight, saw her pained expression, and then looked up at Celestia. Celestia nodded solemnly and then began descending into the hole.

“Yeah. What is it?” Sunset replied.

Twilight kicked the ground. “I just… Sunset… I wanted to say…” A knot ran up and down her throat.

Sunset sucked in a breath as she looked Twilight in the face. “Twilight?”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight said at length. “I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry… for everything that I have done to you.”

Sunset frowned. “Twilight…”

Twilight grimaced. She continued drawing circles in the dirt. “I… I want you to know that I never wanted to push you out like I did. I wanted…”

“I know.”

“I wanted to protect you, Sunset.” She jabbed her chest. “I wanted to keep you safe!”

“I know,” Sunset said. She shook her head and paced for a few moments. “But for buck’s sake, Twilight. I wanted in on this. I would have wanted to know several days ago!”

Twilight flinched. “I… I know.”

Sunset looked over and met Twilight in the eyes. “And Twilight… I did know several days ago.”

Now Twilight froze completely.

Sunset felt at her neck. There was nothing there now, but there would have been had she been human. “In the human world, my geode allows me to see into the minds of others. And when we fought… I caught a little bit of what you and Celestia said. It didn’t take much after that to figure everything out.”

Twilight swallowed and then nodded solemnly. “I… figured as much.”

“Gosh, Twilight. Didn’t we go through something like this once? You died fighting the Nameless the first time. The only reason you were able to come back was because we worked together!”

“That was different!” Twilight cried. “Your life is not mine to give!”

Sunset backpedaled for a moment before her expression hardened again. “And yet here I’m about to give it,” she grumbled.

“Because of me, Sunset.” Twilight sniffed and wiped something out of her eyes. “Don’t you get it?” she wheezed. “You are here because of me, Sunset. You’re here because I was so reckless and because I was so afraid. You wouldn’t have gotten tethered like you were. You wouldn’t have had to wait all this out.” She sniffled again. “This is all my fault, Sunset.”

Sunset’s lip quivered. She said nothing.

“And now you’re about to pay for my mistakes. Your blood is about to be on my hooves.” Tears now streamed down Twilight’s face and she sniffled even more.

Sunset stepped forward and reached for Twilight. “Twilight…”

“No!” Twilight exclaimed, pulling away while batting away Sunset’s hoof. “Don’t you dare say that it’s okay, because it’s not!”

Sunset recoiled. “I wasn’t—”

“I feel so awful, Sunset. This is not okay.” She sniffed again.

Sunset narrowed her eyes, let out a little growl, and then swiped. Her hoof hit Twilight square in the jaw.

And Twilight stumbled backward, reeling from the hit. She went quiet; she even held her sobs back. The cavern hung in quiet. And neither of them moved for several moments.

Twilight felt at the offended area and then looked up at Sunset with wide eyes.

Sunset sucked in a breath and shook her head. “Twilight… what I need from you… is to not cry. Because I really need my last memory of you to not be you crying.”

Twilight swallowed and said nothing.

Sunset pursed her lips. “Plus, if you start crying, I will lose my nerve on all this, and then who knows what I’ll do? So please…”

After a moment’s pause as Twilight considered Sunset, during which Twilight rubbed her cheek some more, she nodded. She still said nothing for several moments. She wiped some tears out of her eyes and then hung her head. “I’m sorry…” She grimaced. “I just wanted to protect you… I just… wanted to make sure that you wouldn’t have to go through with this.”

Sunset remained silent, even when Twilight snuck a glance up at her. She shifted in place but made no moves to say anything. She wasn’t sure what she could say just yet.

She wasn’t sure if there was anything left to be said.

And so Sunset lit her horn. The space around the both of them stretched and then collapsed into a single point. It expanded back out a moment later, spitting them out in an environment someplace else.

Twilight gasped and looked around. A chasm stretched up into infinity above their heads. The ground that they stood on now, evidently, was the bottom of that chasm. The only other exit was a singular tunnel off to the side.

Sunset knew that the top of the Nameless’ chamber was a few feet below their hooves. The tunnel would hang a left, spiral down, and then meet the chamber. They were close.

And, from the ghastly look on Twilight’s muzzle, Sunset could tell she knew where they were. She could tell that she had brought them closer.

And, finally, some words came to her. “We can’t always get what we want,” Sunset croaked. “We can’t win them all.”

More color drained from Twilight’s face.

Sunset then turned and started for the tunnel. That left Twilight to stand there, in the middle of that space, all by herself. That left Twilight to falter.

Twilight trudged along. The tunnel hung a gradual left and descended slowly. She wasn’t sure how long she had been making her way down it; it had been a while immeasurable, that was for sure. But she knew the features along the way. She knew how the sides ebbed and flowed; she knew where the imperfections were.

She knew where she was. And where she was was not far away.

She heard hoofsteps behind her and she looked over her withers to find Starlight, Tempest, and Celestia briskly approaching, with Spike sitting on Celestia’s back. They came up to her, and while they slowed down for her, she sped up for them. And now the five of them moved as one in silence.

The tunnel continued on its gradual left. And then, finally, they saw it make a sharp left up ahead. And it was there that they spotted Sunset staring in. She didn’t even look over as they came up to her.

The short tunnel leading into the doorway was lit a lavender color by the large, hemispherical chamber beyond. A pair of portals, leading to alternate versions of the chamber, at on each side of the pathway. Some ponies trotted through those portals, looking over documents or holding conversations as they went. Many bodies hung in the entryway itself while some bodies, in the chamber beyond, carried stuff out.

A few moments later, many figures emerged through one of the portals. Six of them, in fact. One was a large hippogryph with a white coat and a fuchsia mane and tail. One was a large, green changeling with orange horns. One was a yak wearing gold on his horns and on his beard. One was a black-coated griffon with a fez on his head. And one was a blue-scaled dragoness who was busy finishing her sentence with the final of the six to pass through.

And Princess Luna nodded. “Yes, we have gotten very fortunate in this case. We may avert this disaster, and—” The words died in her throat as she spotted Celestia and the rest of them standing nearby. She then gasped and then galloped over. “Sister! Sunset Shimmer! Everyone! You’re here!”

Celestia nodded. “Yes.”

King Thorax, the changeling, came up from behind Luna. “Princess Celestia, is it true? We can seal the Nameless fragment away?”

Celestia nodded again. “Yes.”

The hippogryph, Queen Novo, let out a sigh and chuckled. “Phew. That’s a relief. I was getting pretty worried there.”

“Good,” Prince Rutherford, the yak, agreed. “Let Prince Rutherford seal Nameless fragment away. Yaks best at sealing away things.”

The griffon, known simply as Grampa Gruff, snorted in response.

Sunset looked back and met eyes with Twilight for a moment. Neither of them said anything.

And then Dragon Lord Ember looked at them, narrowed her eyes, and crossed her arms. “So, where is it?” she asked with a pointed tone.

At that, several of the faint smiles in the entryway faded and everyone began craning their necks to get good looks at them. And they found nothing. Then the confused frowns set in.

Sunset sighed through her nose. “Twilight?”

Twilight made a squeaking noise in response.

“I’m ready,” Sunset said. When Twilight didn’t immediately respond, Sunset started toward the doorway, passing through Luna and the others in the process.

Luna, for her part, watched Sunset walk by with a raised eyebrow. She then looked at Celestia, and on seeing the vacant look in Celestia’s face, her frown deepened even more, and she turned back to watching Sunset.

The last ponies climbed out of the chamber, leaving Sunset alone to face in. The many rings that made up the floor were still sequentially recessed, making a sort-of stairway toward the exposed column in the center.

And now Twilight trotted up to join Sunset at the lip. And the two stared into the chamber together.

Sunset then turned to Twilight, prompting Twilight to turn and face her as well. The two stared into each other’s eyes for many moments but neither made a sound.

Celestia came up alongside Luna, her frown still deep and pensive. On seeing that, Luna lost a little color in her face. Everyone else in the entryway looked on in deathly silence.

Finally, Sunset walked forward, wrapped her hooves around Twilight, and pulled her in close. That caused Twilight to gasp. Slowly, surely, vacantly, she wrapped her hooves around Sunset in kind. And then Twilight closed her eyes so tight that wrinkles proliferated across her muzzle.

And, an eternity later, Sunset let go. She gave one last look at everyone. And then she turned and descended into the chamber.

And Twilight couldn’t help but reach out to Sunset as she went, her face as white as a sheet.

Starlight Glimmer fell to her haunches and began sobbing. Spike sniffled. Tempest watched in silence; her mouth twitched.

Luna glanced behind her, gasped at their reactions, and then whirled to face Celestia. Only then did she spot the teardrop that meandered down Celestia’s stoic face. And then she gasped even louder. “Oh, stars!”

For every ring in the floor that Sunset trotted over, the symbols within shone with light and the ring itself began rotating in place. More and more of the chamber woke up as she descended. It was as if the seal was reacting to her.

Twilight knew what it was. Just as the crystal ball took mental commands, so too did the seal. And the seal had accepted a command to start up.

It had not been her command; she had not made one. Rather, it seemed, it had been Sunset’s.

Luna lunged forward. That prompted Celestia to also lunge forward and hold Luna in place. Luna briefly struggled in Celestia’s grip but didn’t make it far.

By the time Sunset reached the bottom and hobbled into the cavity within the stone pillar, all the rings rotated in place. The rumble was now a roar as the chamber moved this way and that. Sunset wobbled on her hooves but remained standing within that central cavity.

The doors groaned. The entryway shook as they shifted and then began sliding together. The doors themselves, as they emerged from the wall, revealed depictions of strange, quadrupedal beings that were decisively non-pony. At that moment, it seemed that, even without eyes, those beings were glaring down at all of them.

No one dared to make a sound.

Twilight backpedaled. She backpedaled beyond where the large stone doors recessed into the walls. She backpedaled until she was clear of them. Her breaths became more labored with every step she retreated. And then she too fell on her haunches. She could still see down into the chamber.

Sunset turned. She turned to look up Twilight. She turned to look at them for the last time.

And, for a split second, Twilight saw it. Sunset remained resolute and silent, but her face was stained with tears.

And then, at long last, by all reckoning, the doors on Sunset Shimmer’s existence closed with a thud which sounded into eternity.

The shaking intensified, throwing streams of dust off the ceiling in its wake. There was a sharp whine audible from the other side of those thick stone doors. The cacophony continued several seconds more. Eventually, however, streams of energy snaked through the doorway and the doorway itself flashed once. At that point, the rumbling began dying down, and everything eventually fell silent once more.

A few in the entryway made some astonished coos as they looked at the doors. A few shared some hushed conversations.

Luna dug herself into Celestia, with Celestia wrapping herself further around Luna in turn. The two sobbed together. Starlight Glimmer reached for Spike and he ambled over to her, and the both of them sobbed.

Everyone else in the cavern now looked on in silence.

And Twilight remained sitting in front of those stone doors. She sniffled and sobbed and then, finally, full-on wailed. She futilely banged her hooves against those stone doors, leaning further into them each time. Finally, she fell against them and collapsed. Her screams and cries echoed through the tunnel, and beyond into infinity.

On top of a mountain within a large, purple-tinted cavern, a mare who lay chained to the ground via a collar around her neck suddenly felt air rush back into her lungs. She heaved as it came back all at once. A lot of color returned to her onyx-colored coat. In fact, in some ways, she visibly inflated.

And her eyes shot open, revealing a sparkling green color. Her wings, long dormant by her sides, shifted and even flapped once. Her horn, also long dormant, let off some sparks of magic but remained unlit.

The alicorn mare exhaled and then continued staring into space. She inhaled, and then she exhaled. And then she looked up. She slowly and shakily rose to her hooves. Her silver mane fell out of the way of her face as she went, allowing unobstructed vision. Her jaw hung as she glanced about, not looking for anything in particular. The chains clinked as she went, but she didn’t even notice.

She felt a sensation she knew she had not felt for several months. She could sense a familiar energy. She could feel energy flowing through her as a result. For the first time in a long time, she felt alive once more.

And what she felt was impossible.

It was at that point that she wobbled and then took a seat. And then her mind went to work on processing what she had just felt. Her mind went to work on processing what had just happened.

For, she knew, something had happened.

6 - Bridges

Five figures trotted through the School of Friendship’s courtyard. A small stream cut the square itself into two halves, with a small island in the middle hosting a large fountain. And a tunnel within the building, through which that stream ran through and eventually split into a pair of waterfalls, offered a small portion of a view of the Castle of Friendship not far beyond that. Several more people hung about the courtyard, hosting pockets of hushed conversation and confused expressions.

One of the five, Gallus the griffon, frowned. “Gee. This is weird.”

“Yeah,” Yona the yak agreed. “Yona wonder what’s going on.”

Another figure, an earth pony, emerged from an opening on one side of the courtyard. He looked around and then spotted the five. Sprinting towards them, he called out, “Hey!”

“Sandbar!” Yona greeted, speeding up in her step to meet him with the other four close behind.

“You too?” Gallus asked.

“I was in Professor Rarity’s class,” Sandbar replied. “And then Guidance Counselor Starlight came in and said classes were canceled for the day.”

“Same with us,” Ocellus the changeling replied. “Spike came and asked Professor Applejack to come with him.”

“I wonder if this is about that thing that’s been keeping them on edge all week,” Gallus suggested.

“Oh gosh,” Silverstream the hippogryph said, cupping her cheeks with her claws, “I hope everything’s alright.”

“I think I heard Guidance Counselor Starlight say that they were going to Headmare Twilight’s office,” Sandbar said.

Smolder the dragon narrowed her eyes. “Then let’s go that way. Let’s find out what this is all about.”

The six of them shared nods and then, as a single unit, they made their way across the courtyard and toward a doorway. Ocellus opened it with her magic and the six filed on through. The hallways, with their long, blue carpets and the periodic chandeliers hanging from the arched ceiling, all supported by equally periodic stone pillars, greeted them.

They made their way down the hall and into another hall in silence. A set of stairs led downward; the four with wings simply flew down while the other two—Yona and Sandbar—trotted down. They emerged into another hall and continued on.

After rounding another corner, they came to a stop. Among the doors on the sides of the hallway was a pair of double doors with swirling patterns on their fronts. And those doors were currently closed shut.

“There it is,” Smolder hissed. “Let’s go listen in.”

The six made their way down the hall and, as they approached the doors, they heard some low voices from the other side. The voices were so low that only bits and pieces of discernable speech made it through. They had to press their ears against the doorway to even get just that.

“This is so exciting!” Silverstream said with a subdued yet still excited tone.

Smolder went wide-eyed and whirled to face her. “Keep it down, Silverstream! You’re going to give us away!” Smolder hissed.

Silverstream clamped her beak shut with one of her claws.

“Be like Yona,” Yona said as she pressed her ear more against the door. “Yaks best at being quiet.”

“Yona, shut up,” Smolder hissed.

They listened for a few moments more in silence.

“That sounds like Guidance Counselor Starlight,” Ocellus whispered.

And then, a few moments later, what sounded like a loud bang made them jump. A few startled cries from within the room itself masked their own. It was at that same moment that one of the double doors suddenly swung forward; not by a lot but enough for them to not fall forward. That prompted the six of them to back away from the doors all at once.

It was only then that the ajar door opened completely. And Tempest Shadow, clad in her armor, stood silently in the doorway, looking down on the six of them.

Meanwhile, those still in the room either stared at Twilight Sparkle, who sat at her desk with her head in her hooves, or stared into space.

“You didn’t!” Rarity cried at Twilight. “You didn’t! You didn’t! You didn’t!”

Pinkamena Diane Pie, her usually poofy mane and tail now completely straight and flat, lay crumpled on the floor. Fluttershy was openly bawling into her hooves now. Applejack stood with her teeth clenched together; her stetson lay on the ground right in front of her.

“You didn’t!” Rarity cried some more as black streaks ran down her face.

Starlight Glimmer stood off to the side, looking at the five of them without a hint of color in her face. Spike stood on Twilight’s desk, holding her in his arms. Rainbow Dash stumbled her way up to Twilight’s desk and placed her forelegs on it, steadying herself as she stared Twilight down.

“You didn’t!”

Tempest took one look over her withers, back at the six students outside the door who were currently backing away from her, and then she sighed and stepped out into the hall herself. Tempest closed the door behind her and then looked across them, her frown deepening.

The six of them continued staring at the closed door. Slowly, surely, their gazes drifted up toward her.

“Well?” Tempest said with a snort. “Are you just going to stand there? Get out.”

The six of them didn’t immediately move. Tempest’s expression didn’t immediately change. The bedlam on the other side of the door didn’t immediately die down. But it was Tempest widening her eyes that prompted the six to finally stand up. And then they shuffled down the hall, backing away from her.

And they backed away from the door which their eyes briefly flicked to. Their ears, in time, listened for those muffled screams and wails that came from the other side. Those same screams and wails, while not so audible, echoed through the halls and through their ears and even through their very souls.

Finally, the six of them turned and ran for their lives.

…

…I

…

…I

…

The throne room of Canterlot Castle—at least, this timeline’s version—remained bathed in browns and bits of dust. A constant whisper completed the room’s dreary atmosphere. In the center of the room, seven tables ringed around an eighth containing a singular crystal ball.

Celestia could feel every eye in the room staring her down now. There were, of course, her counterparts and her sister’s counterparts at the other tables as was the usual. But her own sister, Luna, was also staring at her. And behind her stood five others; five world leaders from her own timeline: Dragon Lord Ember, Grampa Gruff, Queen Novo, King Thorax, and Prince Rutherford. An open portal stood behind them.

And everyone was deathly silent.

Finally, Ember clenched her fists. “How… how dare you…”

Celestia winced. “It was not my idea. I’ve just told you this: it was Princess Twilight who did all of this.”

Celestia I leaned on her table. “But you condoned it.”

“That was very unwise, leaving the fate of us all in the hooves of a single pony,” Luna N said.

“But Sunset Shimmer is no ordinary pony,” Celestia countered. “She was the one who unpacked all of this for us in the first place. And she has done wonderful things for her world, as well. We owe much to her. And even if she had not done all that, she is significant to all of us.”

The room hung in silence for a few moments. The other Celestias in the room shuddered and a few even nodded solemnly.

Celestia S sighed through her nose. “You aren’t wrong on that.”

“And, again, it was Twilight Sparkle who conceived of it first,” Celestia continued. “I trust her completely and fully.”

“And so the both of you placed all of your trust in Sunset Shimmer?” Celestia I asked.

“Yes. May I remind you that our Sunset Shimmers have not come back to us,” Celestia T said. “They have not proven themselves.”

Celestia C shifted in her seat. “So forgive us if we aren’t so willing to put our existence in her hooves just yet,” she said with a sharp tone.

“Uh, excuse me,” Thorax said, stepping forward. “I have a question. If Sunset Shimmer was sent to another world to wait for Twilight to figure all this out… what exactly was stopping her from running away further someplace where we would never find her?”

At table C, Celestia C and Luna C snapped to attention and stared Thorax down.

Meanwhile, Rutherford snorted. “Yak agree. What stop pony from abandoning us?”

Celestia narrowed her eyes as she swung around to meet them. “That was all Twilight. I would not have condoned that.”

“And here it happened all the same,” Grampa Gruff said as he ruffled his wings and snorted.

“I think that I can safely say that Sunset would not have run away,” Luna countered as she turned to face Grampa Gruff. “She even chose to be sealed away. In fact… she sealed herself away. You were all there.”

Grampa Gruff flinched. His head nodded imperceptibly but his beak spouted a sharp, “I know what I saw.”

Thorax, however, straightened up as he finally returned table C’s stares. He blinked once and then frowned. “I’m sorry. Can I help you over there?”

The pair at table C looked between each other and frowned. “Sorry,” Luna C replied. “We are still not used to seeing changelings in our midst.”

Thorax narrowed his eyes. “Is that a problem?”

Celestia C pursed her lips. “Please, forgive us. You must understand that we spent years tormented by your kind. Our scars are not so healed just yet.”

Thorax shuddered. “We’re better now. We no longer live under Queen Chrysalis.”

“I know. Mostly.”

Novo chuckled. “Oh, believe me. I wasn’t so keen on them just letting the Storm King’s underlings walk free. I still remember very clearly what he did to us hippogryphs.”

Celestia I banged the table in front of her. “I believe we are getting off topic here.”

The room hung within a moment of silence before many of them gave affirmative nods. Celestia T and Luna T, meanwhile, began whispering between each other.

Luna N folded her hooves across the table and sighed through her nose. “Twilight Sparkle lives again because of Sunset Shimmer, correct?”

Celestia eventually nodded. “Yes.”

“…Then her actions are somewhat explained. It is… the repayment of a life-debt. It is… wanting to save a life.” Luna N straightened up and looked over at Luna in particular. “That is something that I can understand.”

After a moment of silence, Luna nodded in return. “…Yes.”

Celestia hung her head. “It is more than just that. She’s… also grown quite attached.”

“The fact still remains that we dragged our hooves on this,” Novo seethed, “because of you and your fellow princess.”

“This could have easily gone wrong at several points when it didn’t need to,” Ember added. “We were all jeopardized.”

“I don’t think anypony here is arguing that,” Celestia D said. “There is certainly fault here.”

At that point, Luna T exchanged nods with Celestia T and then straightened up. “Excuse me. Point of order.”

The whole room stopped and turned to face her.

“There is an unrelated matter that we just remembered we needed to mention,” Luna T continued. “We had forgotten about it amidst our bickering, and remembered when you mentioned the Storm King a few moments ago,” she said, glancing at Queen Novo.

Queen Novo’s eyes widened. “Oh?”

Luna T glanced around the room. “We aren’t sure how much of a pressing matter this is, but the Storm King’s forces are on the move in our timeline.”

Several heads whirled to face her now, complete with a few inaudible gasps.

Luna D nodded. “Yes, I am glad that you’ve mentioned that. Actually, we’ve noticed the same thing in our timeline as well. We’ve noticed movement, but nothing more.”

“Ours as well,” Celestia S agreed.

The pairs at tables N, I, and C looked between each other and shook their heads.

Novo stepped forward. “That is a very strange pattern.”

Celestia I nodded. “Yes. It would be one thing if he was moving in just one timeline, but to happen in three…?”

Novo glanced up. “Do you know his whereabouts in your own timelines?”

After scanning the pairs at the other two tables, Luna N shook her head. “I don’t know anything. But we can always get some information.”

“What are they moving for?” Luna C said as she leaned across her table.

“We don’t know that either,” Luna D replied. “At least, our timeline doesn’t. We know they are moving. What purpose they are moving for, however, is beyond us.”

“We shall have to look into these matters,” Celestia S said.

After a moment of silence, Celestia I stood up. “Is there anything else?”

A few others stood up and shook their heads.

“We will keep you all updated on the Storm King situations as we get information,” Celestia S said. She looked at Celestia and Luna and frowned. “Including you.”

Celestia and Luna exchanged glances.

Grampa Gruff snorted. “Feh. I’d rather they stayed out of this.”

Ember crossed her arms and nodded. “How do we know you won’t keep secrets from us?”

Celestia N frowned. “We won’t.”

“How do we know? Those two kept the one thing that needed to not be a secret a secret!”

Luna gasped. “How dare—?” She was cut off when Celestia laid a hoof on her withers.

“Yes, I did,” Celestia said.

“Ah, to be fair, Princess Luna didn’t know anything either,” Thorax said. “Remember?”

“The question still stands!” Grampa Gruff screeched.

Rutherford finally stamped the floor and turned. “Yak don’t want any more of this. Yak go home,” he half-yelled as he trotted toward the open portal behind him.

Luna N narrowed her eyes. “We will.”

“I don’t believe you,” Ember replied.

Thorax, rapidly glancing between all parties with a grimace on his face, finally staggered toward the portal as well behind Rutherford.

The pair at table C glanced at the portal behind table R and then they turned. Celestia C lit her horn and made another portal appear. They stepped through, although Luna C briefly paused in the aperture. And then, once they were on the other side, the portal shrank to a point and then they were gone.

And as the parties at the other tables dispersed and as those behind them retreated toward their own portal, Celestia and Luna remained standing there at table R. They stood in silence. They didn’t even move.

They then exchanged glances, with the both of them lacking all manner of color and life in their faces.

…I am

…My name

…

…My name is Sunset Shimmer

…My name is Sunset Shimmer

…

Spike sat on the edge of Twilight Sparkle’s bed. The canopy was drawn, allowing clear views on all sides of the mountain of pillows that took up the center of the bed. At the moment, however, the mountain was somewhat deflated as some of the pillows had been shifted about, revealing Twilight Sparkle laying catatonically within.

Twilight Velvet, who stood at the bedside, bent down so that she was level with Twilight Sparkle’s ears. “Twilight, dear… You don’t have to stay here like this.”

Night Light, who stood beside her, nodded sagely. “That’s right, hun. I’m sure you did everything that could be done.”

“You have nothing to feel bad about,” Twilight Velvet added.

Spike glanced up and stared holes into Twilight Velvet.

Night Light looked over at him, frowned, and then he poked Twilight Velvet in the side, prompting her to look over. It was when she saw their expressions that she frowned in return and sucked in a breath.

“Well, what I mean to say,” Twilight Velvet said, “is that… you did it. You saved Equestria again. You saved everypony. We’re here… because of you…” She paused. “And your friend.”

Twilight Sparkle didn’t even blink.

Twilight Velvet reached forward and stroked her daughter’s cheek. “You aren’t as defeated as you think you are, dear. I know there was… a cost. But we’re still here because of you.” She swallowed. “Remember that, okay?”

Night Light lay his hoof on Twilight Sparkle as well. He rubbed her a few times and tried cracking a smile.

And that was when a tear rolled down Twilight Sparkle’s face.

Spike shook his head and hopped off the bed. Night Light and Twilight Velvet pulled away as well. They collectively shuffled toward the open doorway, outside which several more bodies milled about.

They made it a few steps before hearing the tell-tale twinkle of magic. They turned to find several pillows, levitated by magic, gliding back into their former positions, sealing the mare on the bed inside them once more.

Twilight Velvet let out a squeak while Night Light’s expression fell. Nonetheless, the three of them exited the room. And Twilight Velvet, with a grim face, pulled the door shut with her magic.

The bodies in the hall, Pinkamena Diane Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, all stared back at them with half-blank, half-wet faces. Tempest Shadow stood with them (but at a slight distance), wearing a contemplative frown on her face.

Spike found Starlight Glimmer standing among them and he looked up at her. Her face, previously wet, now hosted new tears and brought new wrinkles to blossom as she looked back down at him. The contortions in her face compounded as a few of their friends let off some sniffles and choked sobs as well.

Night Light looked over at Twilight Velvet and draped a foreleg across her withers. They shared sad frowns and then filed their way around the congregation, trotting down the hall in silence.

Starlight’s grimace grew deeper and she finally closed her eyes. She too began to turn around and walk down the hall. However, as she did so, she lit her horn. With an airy pop, Starlight disappeared into thin air.

Those still standing in the hall briefly regarded the spot Starlight had just been standing in and then resignedly shook their heads.

…I am Sunset Shimmer

…

…I am here

…

…My name

“Hello?”

…

“…”

…

“Is anyone there?”

…

Impossible.

“Hello!? I… understand you.”

No, you aren’t impossible, now that I think about it.

“But you are. Who are you?”

…

I am Sunset Shimmer.

“Sunset Shimmer? No… It cannot be. Why are you here?”

Well… I am the new Nameless now. Apparently, some part of it survived… and it was within me. So now I’m sealed away for all eternity.

“…”

...

“It c-cannot be… But I see it.”

You see it?

“I felt your presence in this place. I felt you be sealed away. But I would have never thought that it was you.”

You… felt it. I guess that makes sense.

“…”

...

“I am surprised that you can make sense of it.”

I know who you are. The only thing that I actually wonder about… is why you would even talk to me at all.

“…Well, perhaps I wonder about that too.”

For what it’s worth… I’m glad that you did.

“Mmmm.

“Anyway, I was only curious. I will leave you to it now.”

Wait… wait!

“...Yes?”

Can I ask you something?

“...”

I… I want to know something. I know this will sound like a weird question…

“Mmhmm.”

Just… out of curiosity… do you know anything about something called Consensus?

“…”

“Consensus?”

Yes.

“…”

…

“…

“I… I do not know anything about it. Not… readily. And yet…”

Yes?

“A memory stirs. I do not know what this memory is, but it is a memory nonetheless.”

Yes?

“…”

…

“I am sorry. I must go. There are… things that I must think about.”

Twilight Sparkle watched as her bandmates idly hung around their instruments without playing them. The six human girls sat in silence. Light streamed in through the windows and imperceptibly grew in intensity with every second.

Eyes periodically drifted toward an electric guitar, a red-colored axe, that rested in its stand next to the drum set. That guitar had no human.

Pinkamena Diane Pie, looking straight-haired and colorless, sporting bloodshot eyes and bags underneath, slumped across the drum set and sighed.

Rarity, whose makeup wasn’t as neat and orderly as usual, glanced up at the clock. “We should probably go to class soon.”

Rainbow Dash ran a hand across her face. Her eyes looked equally bloodshot. “I don’t know if I wanna go.”

“But we have that exam in Mr. Cranky’s class,” Twilight said. “We have to go.”

“I’m not ready for it,” Rainbow Dash replied.

Twilight frowned. “He gave us an entire extra day to study for it. How are you not ready?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “I didn’t study for it.”

“I didn’t either,” Fluttershy, who stared into space, croaked.

Applejack shook her head and adjusted her stetson. “Me neither. And honestly… Ah ain’t nearly awake enough for this thing. …Ah ain’t slept a wink these past couple nights.”

Four of the others nodded with agreement.

Twilight hung her head and rubbed her eyes. “Well… I would be lying if I said that I felt completely ready. I mean, I did study last night, but…”

“Of course you did,” Rarity said. “You’re good at that.”

“Did you study the night before that?” Fluttershy asked.

“I…” Twilight croaked. “I… would be surprised if anyone studied that night.”

They heard a knocking and collectively looked toward the double doors that served as the room’s entrance. Hanging right in the open entryway stood, at a not-so-full height, a green-haired and green-skinned girl. She practically clung to the other door with her other hand. At that, the six in the room straightened up.

“Can we help you?” Applejack asked.

The girl nodded. “H-hi… I’m Wallflower Blush. Uh, I’ve been meaning to talk to you… About Sunset Shimmer, I mean.”

Rarity glanced up at the clock and then lifted her keytar off her and set it on a stand right next to the red-colored axe. “We’ll have to go to class soon, and all, but alright. Come in,” she said, waving Wallflower into the room.

“How strange. I can’t remember ever seeing you anywhere,” Twilight said. “What class are you in?”

Wallflower frowned as she joined them in the center of the room. Her hands gripped the straps of the green backpack on her back. “Uh, yours.”

The six girls exchanged glances and grimaces.

Wallflower shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I’m pretty forgettable.”

“Whatever. What is it about Sunset you wanted to talk about?”

Wallflower crossed her arms and dug one of her shoes into the floor. “Well… I don’t know. I was… thinking about her, and… your friendship with her. I mean, the whole school knows you consider yourselves friends. You all won the best friends superlative.”

Fluttershy nodded solemnly. “Yes…”

“Now that she’s gone… I’m the one in charge of putting the yearbook together. There’re things that I can do with that, but…” Wallflower blushed. “Uh, that’s not what I came here for. I was thinking… that this has probably been really hard.”

Applejack stared into the distance. “Eeyup. It’s… been hard on everyone.”

“…Yeah. And I’ve been struggling with it too. Which is weird… because I used to think her being nice was all an act.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled and put her hands on her hips. “Eh. I’ll bet a lot of people were like that.”

Wallflower cracked a smile. “I think, after everything that’s happened, I know a little better now.” She paused for a moment to glance at each of their faces. “But either way… I don’t like feeling this way. This hurts. And I imagine you’re a lot worse off than I am right now.” She settled on Pinkamena, in particular, and allowed her frown to grow deeper.

Pinkamena sniffled but made no response.

“So…” Wallflower straightened up. “What if I told you… that there was a way to forget about all this? What if there was a way to make this go away?”

At that, the six girls turned to face her fully. Pinkamena, for her part, finally sat up straight.

Kicking the ground, Wallflower continued, “There’s a thing… it’s called a Memory Stone… and you can use it to change memories and… forget things. I can’t tell you too much about it, but…” She paused as she noticed all of them leaning forward. She paused still when Pinkamena stood up and walked around the side of the drum set to meet them in the middle. “If you wanted to… you could forget that Sunset Shimmer was sealed away.”

The room hung in silence for a few moments, during which the six’s expressions phased between contemplative frowns, dazed looks, and limp-jawed surprise.

Applejack took a few steps forward. “Forget? Ya reckon… we wouldn’ even know what’s happened to her, then?”

Wallflower nodded affirmatively.

“Wait,” Twilight said, crossing her arms. “I-if we forgot that she was sealed away… I think we’d notice that she’s still missing. We’d probably start asking questions. We’d be worried sick.”

“But that might beat knowing what’s happened to her, right?” Wallflower asked.

“Eh…” Pinkamena tried.

When the others didn’t respond, Wallflower sucked in a breath. “You could always forget more, if you want. You could forget all of your good memories of her; you wouldn’t care where she went then.”

“Hell no,” Rainbow Dash hissed.

“I… didn’t think so,” Wallflower replied. “Uh, the only other way of getting around worrying about her is to forget her entirely.” She shrunk down. “And I guess you don’t want to do that either, huh?”

“She deserves to be remembered,” Rarity said, now loosening up and standing straight again. “She’s done so much and been so good to us.”

Applejack nodded. “Ah wanna remember her too,” she said.

“Me too,” Pinkamena agreed.

Rainbow Dash’s mouth swished from side to side and then she narrowed her eyes. “Yeah. And besides,” she said with a sinister tone, “if I forget that she was sealed away… then I’m gunna forget to give Princess Twilight a piece of my mind.”

The whole room turned to face Rainbow Dash now as they all considered what she had just said. Rarity crossed her arms and sucked in a breath. Fluttershy swallowed and glanced at everyone else.

Applejack’s expression grew darker with every passing second and she eventually snorted. “You know… that’s a good point. Ah wanna remember to be mad as hell at them.”

After a few moments more, Rarity narrowed her eyes. “Quite right. I’m not very happy with Princess Twilight right now. Or Equestria, for that matter.”

“To hell with them,” Applejack spat.

Fluttershy shivered. “Uhm… they didn’t really do anything wrong.”

“Yes they did,” Rainbow Dash countered.

“O-okay. They didn’t try to do anything wrong,” Fluttershy said.

Twilight snapped her fingers and pointed at Fluttershy. “That’s… true. I know what you’re saying.”

“But we still lost Sunset,” Pinkamena said with a grimace.

“Because of what they did,” Rarity seconded.

Twilight sighed and turned to Wallflower again. “Well… Wallflower… I think we’ll pass. But I do appreciate you at least asking us. And for the offer.”

“Absolutely,” Rarity said with a nod. “I appreciate the gesture.”

Wallflower smiled. “Uh, sure. I guess if you’re going to remember her, and all, then I’ll try too.” She then slung her backpack off her shoulder and fished inside.

Rainbow Dash frowned. “Uh, Wallflower? What are you doing?”

Wallflower flinched and then looked up. For a moment, bits of color escaped her face. She then frowned. “Look, I respect your choice. But you have to understand...” She then pulled out an egg-shaped stone; said stone had patterns engraved into its surface and, currently, a greenish energy glowed within those patterns.

Wallflower looked up and held that stone aloft. “I can’t have you remembering this conversation.”

Twilight took a few steps toward Wallflower, reaching out with her hand. “Wait!” she cried.

A wave of green came out of the Memory Stone, swept over the six, and engulfed the entire room.

And then, the next thing Twilight knew, she was standing there, blinking. Her five friends, or rather, five of her friends, stood in the room with her. And all of them looked around.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes drew over the open doorway and then to the others. “Uh… were we talking about something just now?”

Tempest, while she stood near the others, distanced herself as the furthest out. The six before her were much closer to each other than they were to her, anyhow. And what was to come was the most meaningful to them, as well.

The castle foyer stretched up high above them, with its curved ceiling supported by tall, crystalline pillars. Everyone silently stood about in the middle of the room. Rarity and Spike hung near each other, with the latter twiddling his claws. Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkamena, and Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, hung within their own little group.

A balcony overlooked the entire foyer, and it was there that Starlight emerged from a hallway to the side. A large suitcase floated within her magic. Starlight glanced over the railing, spotted the seven of them down below, and then wrapped magic around herself. She levitated herself over the railing and down to them. She landed among them, setting the suitcase down as she arrived.

Everyone turned to face her, but no one spoke.

Starlight glanced and then paled. “Is Twilight coming?” she asked in a solemn tone.

The others shook their heads.

“I’ve never seen her like this before,” Spike said. He twiddled his claws some more. “She’s… I’m sorry, Starlight.”

Starlight sighed through her nose. “It’s… okay. She’s hurt, I’m hurt, we’re all hurt.” She paused. “Well, I guess she’s really hurt. She’s a lot worse off than I am.”

Rarity stepped forward. “So… what are you going to do?”

After a moment’s thought, Starlight shook her head. “I don’t know. I just…”

“W-will you come back?” Fluttershy asked.

“I… I don’t know that either,” Starlight croaked.

The others groaned and hung their heads in response.

Starlight straightened up. “What about all of you?”

Pinkamena kicked the ground. “I don’t know if I wanna do anything right now.”

“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash agreed.

Applejack doffed her hat, looked into it for a moment, and then held it within a foreleg. “Ah ain’t in no shape to do nothin’. Nopony is. If Ah’m bein’ honest right now… we might have to think about closin’ the school.”

Tempest’s frown deepened as she scanned them. They all looked so colorless, a far cry from what she knew them to be. She didn’t consider herself a colorful pony or one who aligned with color, but these ones before her… they had color. She expected them to.

And that was fading fast and was pretty much already gone.

They then all heard a knocking at the front doors and perked in its direction. However, when no one initially moved, Tempest, who stood closest, shook her head and started for those doors.

Rarity turned her gaze to Applejack. “Do you mean… for good?”

Applejack turned pale and she blankly nodded. “Eeyup. Ah reckon…”

Pinkamena grimaced and then descended into some sobs.

Spike crossed his arms and sniffled. “G-gosh… I wish there was something we could do…”

Rarity leaned down and wrapped a hoof around him. He moved into her in return.

The conversation continued as Tempest reached the doors, and she chose to tune it out at that point. She then reached forward and opened it, allowing her to see who stood on the other side.

And Tempest immediately found her pause.

The visitor in the doorway was taller than she was. She was a mare of an onyx-colored coat and a long, silvery mane. Said silky mane lay perfectly straight and even had a slight wet sheen to it. She faintly smelled like roses as well. But what drew Tempest’s attention first was the soft yet harsh glare that the mare gave with green eyes; the bags underneath underlined it all. And then Tempest shuddered as she spotted both the long horn protruding from the mare’s head and the wings at her sides.

Tempest couldn’t even find the breath to speak. Here, before her, stood an alicorn; an impossibility.

“Hello, little one,” the visitor said with a low and silvery voice. “I am looking for Twilight Sparkle. Is she here presently?”

Tempest opened her mouth to speak but then heard a flurry of gasps from behind her. She looked over her withers to find that everyone had gone silent and now looked in their direction, their jaws completely dropped. A couple of them hazarded a few steps in their direction but none made any other attempts to approach.

Now Tempest returned her gaze to the newcomer in the doorway and considered her in full. She herself then stood tall and sucked in a breath. “Well… who is asking?”

Tempest approached the door to Twilight’s bedroom. She rapped on the door a couple of times and then, without checking for an acknowledgment that she knew would never come, she opened the door and walked in.

The pile of pillows on Twilight’s bed lay in the exact same state that she had last seen it in. There wasn’t a sign that any mare lay underneath.

“Twilight,” Tempest began.

There was no response.

Tempest’s jaw twitched, and she took another step into the room; now she was slightly past the doorway and no further. “Sorry to bother you again. But now there’s somepony at the door for you,” she said.

Again, there was no response.

Tempest centered her eyes on the pile and then tilted her head. “She’s an alicorn, apparently; goes by the name Adamantine.”

She watched the pile then. There was no response for a few moments.

Eventually, one of the pillows shifted, and then several. Finally, Twilight poked her head out and locked eyes with Tempest, her expression a study in wide-eyed shock.

Twilight stumbled her way down the hall with Tempest close behind her. Her hooves dug into the carpet as she went. Even now, this hall granted good vision of the foyer floor, and it was there that she saw her friends standing in a huddle; they currently faced away from her.

Twilight and Tempest emerged into the foyer. Her friends now turned to face her and then parted. That revealed Adamantine, who stood still in the middle of the room, distanced from anypony else. And Adamantine, who currently faced Twilight, saw her and stood to her full height.

While Tempest joined the others, Twilight walked through them and came to a stop halfway between them and Adamantine.

The room remained silent for many long moments. Twilight and Adamantine stared at each other, and neither dared to move for the longest time.

And then Adamantine sucked in a breath. “I know you must have mixed feelings about seeing me again, Twilight Sparkle,” she tentatively said. “I know what it is that I did, and I know where you stand on it.”

Adamantine’s frown deepened and she averted her gaze. “I did not come here to apologize for what I did. Nor do I ever intend to. And… I must confess that, if put under the same circumstances… I would do it all over again. I would do it for their sake.”

She paused. “And I would suspect that you would face me again. For that is your duty. And your belief. I know you did what you had to, just as I did what I had to.”

Twilight’s expression remained unchanged. The others held their breaths.

“Nevertheless,” Adamantine continued as she straightened up and looked at them once more, “a problem has come to my attention. A problem which I am sure you and many others have just seen and dealt with for yourself. It is… a problem which is… significant to you, to your friends, to those dear to you, and to the rest of the world. And there are… things about it… which I think are unresolved.”

She pursed her lips and thought for a moment. “This problem is something which also falls into my purview. I feel… obligated to address it. And, Twilight… I know that you are not truly an enemy. I know that you are good, despite the odds we were once at… and despite the outcome. And so… I would… like to extend an olive branch. I would like to rebuild the bridge between us.”

Adamantine hung her head and sheepishly rubbed her foreleg. “I… I would understand completely if you did not want me. I would oblige if you turned me away.” She looked up again. “But if you would have me now... I would like to lend to you my assistance in putting an end to this dilemma.”

All fell silent once more. The rest of them stood there, soaking in what had just been said. Rarity gasped and laid a hoof across her chest. Rainbow Dash nodded slowly and then glanced at Twilight. Tempest let her features loosen up and she contemplatively stared into space. Applejack doffed her hat and held it against her chest.

Twilight stood there for the longest time, still staring Adamantine down. But her expression was soft and showed some signs of wetness.

“Adamantine…” Twilight said at length.

Adamantine swallowed and straightened up.

Twilight shook her head and sighed. “I… I want you to know that you are always welcome here. And…” She trailed off as some tears welled up in her eyes. She blinked, sending them careening down her face. She even took a few steps forward. “You have no idea how good it is to see you again,” she croaked.

And Adamantine, in turn, allowed some wetness to appear on her face as well. She took a few steps toward Twilight as well.

The two finally met, and Twilight surged forward and wrapped her forelegs around Adamantine. Adamantine gasped and then returned the embrace. And the two shed tears and cried into each other.

The others in the room were some mixture of crying and chuckling of their own. It was at that point that Pinkamena, with little fanfare, regained much of her lost color and regained the characteristic poofiness to her mane and tail. Pinkie Pie then wiped her face clear of tears and giggled.

Tempest watched with a growing smile. Rarity procured a handkerchief and wiped herself clean as well. Applejack smirked and replaced her stetson onto her head. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy found each other’s eyes and they exchanged grins.

Adamantine and Twilight finally broke. And Twilight looked over her withers to see her friends. A relieved smile lay on her face.

Spike smiled back and then looked up at Starlight. Starlight herself hadn’t cleared the tears away from herself just yet but her smile gave it away. She then lit her horn, and the suitcase disappeared in a flash. She then looked up to meet Twilight’s eyes.

Twilight herself then looked up at Adamantine and the two shared smiles. The two of them then walked toward the others and joined them.

7 - Machinations

Stygian was startled awake. His surroundings were somewhat dark, but some ambient light allowed him to recognize the bit of tunnel he had parked in for the last few days. He saw six blurs, but as his vision slowly came to, he realized that the six were standing above him and that he was lying on his back. His head still spun but he could at least recognize who they were—and recognize them he did.

Starswirl the Bearded’s frown deepened. “Stygian, are you alright?” he asked.

Somnambula and Mage Meadowbrook wore blank expressions, Rockhoof leaned on a shovel, while Flash Magnus’ scrunched expression matched that of Mistmane’s.

Stygian groaned, rubbed his head, and then rolled over to stand up. “I think so. I got so tired all the sudden and I guess I fell asleep.”

“Do you know where Raven is?” Somnambula asked.

Stygian glanced around. Aside from the six of them, all he saw were a few remaining books, his saddlebag, and a tipped-over coffee mug that had spilled all its contents. The double doors that lead into the large, hemispherical chamber lay open; the floor within was completely level now. And the room was empty. “No. Did she… leave me here?”

“Well, we did not see her leave, either,” Somnambula said. “We were waiting on you at the other end of the tunnel. We were there for an hour, even.”

“Perhaps she went back to her home timeline,” Mistmane suggested. “She is from that Equestria once ruled by Nightmare Moon, if memory serves.”

Stygian shook his head. “I don’t think so. All the other portals are closed. And I wouldn’t have opened one down here.”

Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “Wait. You?”

At that, Stygian beamed. “Oh! I didn’t mention? The princesses made me an authorized user. They gave me a copy of the portal spell.”

Starswirl grinned in response. “Oh ho ho! Same as I! Well done, Stygian.”

Stygian chuckled. “Well, maybe Raven could have made her own portal and gone home herself…”

The others blinked. “Really? I don’t remember seeing a horn…” Somnambula said.

“Well, it turns out that Raven’s a changeling, if you would believe that. Quite the impressive one, too. So maybe she could have pulled it off.”

Mage Meadowbrook’s eyes went wide. “Wait. She’s actually a changeling?” she asked. “I wouldn’t… I would never have guessed that.”

The others hummed affirmatively.

“But I think Raven is an actual pony,” Rockhoof said. “Somewhere, I mean.”

Mage Meadowbrook nodded. “Yes. I think you’re right. So… there was a changeling disguising as Raven?”

Starswirl tugged at his beard. “Hmmmm. I do believe that their status quo changed quite a lot. I don’t know how they were before, but every changeling we saw in there was themselves. They get to roam freely.”

“There was no reason for any changeling to disguise themselves, especially as somepony who actually exists,” Stygian said.

“That… doesn’t sound completely right,” Flash Magnus said with a growing frown, “but I don’t know enough about changelings to dispute it.”

After they all shared shrugs, Mage Meadowbrook stepped forward and placed a hoof on Stygian’s withers. “I’m very concerned about you, though. How is it that you suddenly felt so tired? Are you overworked?”

Stygian sighed. “I don’t know. I was completely fine. And then I suddenly felt like I was losing it. It was strange.”

“So, you weren’t doing anything too strenuous?” Mage Meadowbrook asked.

Stygian briefly glanced at the downed coffee mug. “No. I was just… Raven was helping me clean up. We sat down for a coffee break, I drank, we talked. And then I started feeling all woozy. Next thing I know, she’s laying me down and telling me that I should rest.”

Rockhoof, Mistmane, Flash Magnus, and Mage Meadowbrook nodded solemnly.

Somnambula sighed and shook her head. “Well, we were all working pretty hard, and—”

“Stygian…” Starswirl interjected, his expression stern. He too now glanced at that coffee mug. “Tell me more about this coffee you had.”

Stygian flinched. And then he blushed and rubbed the back of his head. “Well, she brought me some, and we sat down, and…”

Starswirl lifted the mug with his magic and examined the insides. “And did Raven have any for herself?” he asked.

Stygian paused again. And then some color disappeared from his face. “N-no. Why?”

Starswirl kept his magic on that coffee mug for a few moments. The insides of the mug eventually gained a greenish tint to it. And then he turned to face him with fiercely narrowed eyes. “Drugged.”

The other six, especially Stygian, gasped and jumped in surprise.

And Stygian’s face remained wide-eyed for many long moments. Eventually, he turned toward his saddlebag and began rummaging through it. He even dragged some of his papers and books out and placed them in a pile. He even stuck his head into the saddlebag.

The others gathered around him, stealing glances at his objects.

Stygian finally emerged and turned to face them. His face was as white as a sheet. “I’m missing some things. And my copy of the portal spell is gone.”

The others gasped again. Starswirl’s featured darkened.

“Raven…?” Rockhoof tried.

“She stole?” Mage Meadowbrook wheezed.

Starswirl glanced at the others and then advanced on Stygian. “Stygian… this changeling… you saw her, right?”

Stygian nodded. “Y-yes, I did.”

Mistmane also stepped forward. “What did she look like? Did you see?”

“You described her as impressive, right?” Somnambula asked.

“Yes. I caught a glimpse of her changeling form before I passed out,” Stygian said. “She was… large. I want to say she was larger than King Thorax.”

Starswirl shuddered. “What else?”

Stygian paused for a moment and rubbed his chin. “She was very unlike the other changelings we’ve seen. I remember seeing… holes. And she had some reptilian eyes.”

The tunnel hung in silence for many long moments. The colors slowly drained from their faces during that time and they exchanged worried glances.

Somnambula stepped forward. “Were we not told of some changeling who fit that description?” she tremulously asked.

Starswirl nodded solemnly. “I believe so. If that was really her… we may have just been greatly compromised.”

Evening light filtered in through the castle library’s windows. A few candles sat on adjacent tables to add a little more light to the room.

Eight bodies sat around a table in the center. Spike, meanwhile, sat on the table itself, and Tempest Shadow stood behind Twilight Sparkle and occasionally paced. The mirror portal stood idly over them; the niche near the top where a book typically rested lay empty at the moment. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Starlight Glimmer sat around the table.

And Adamantine, who sat opposite Twilight, folded her hooves together. “I vaguely know what Consensus is. I cannot completely describe it to you, but I can do my best.”

Twilight nodded. “Okay.”

“Could I possibly trouble you to give me those transcriptions again?” Adamantine asked.

Twilight shifted some of the papers in front of her about and then floated said papers over to Adamantine.

Adamantine straightened up and took the papers with her magic. She flipped through them and then settled on one. “Listen very closely,” she said. “This is the D seal for the Nameless. As the world is one of probability, the divergence of worlds is certain. As time marches on, the eight horizontal and the infinite vertical are not probabilistically to remain the same. Inside the seal exists a mechanism by which these realities may be kept on track. It shall, from time to time, if the disparity is not to such great magnitude at which point it shall be thus impossible, the seal shall apply minute corrections to the realities, in one or both directions. This mechanism is the key to the preservation of the worlds. For the good of Consensus, you would do well to observe this, Sunset Shimmer.”

She then looked up and placed the paper down. “This is something that I can somewhat speak of,” Adamantine said. “I could feel these… two separate things happening simultaneously. I would imagine that it happened every few months or so. But the first quit happening a few years ago. And the second quit happening a couple of weeks before the Great Benefactor disappeared.”

“That first one would be when the timelines diverged at the Rainboom,” Twilight said.

Starlight nodded.

“And the second would be when we found the crystal ball and Sunset started doing stuff with the infinite,” Twilight finished. “That was when those diverged… somewhat.”

“Yes,” Adamantine said. “Now that I know about the existence of these things, I can contextualize what I know about this phenomenon. This keeping the realities on track has indeed happened many many times in the past. I realize that now.

“Consensus, as far as I am aware, is based on the same principle. But it is on a much larger scale. And it is much more definitive.” She narrowed her eyes and scanned their faces. “And I can tell you that it has not yet come to pass, but also that it is nigh.”

“Eh, that sounds kinda weird,” Rainbow Dash said. “I mean, sure, okay, I never noticed any of these changes or anything that it’s apparently been doing…”

Applejack scratched her head. “You’re sayin’ it’s happened several times in our lives already. But this one’s different, right?”

“Quite so,” Rarity said. “My concern is what would make this Consensus so definitive?”

Twilight rested her head on her hooves and hummed. “And in what way is it on a larger scale?”

“There is one idea that I have,” Adamantine said. She then shuffled through a few more papers before looking back up. “Do you mind if I read another?”

Twilight nodded. “Sure.”

Adamantine held the paper in question up. “This is the N seal for the Nameless. Within this seal lies the framework by which realities may be reconciled. The exact nature is that the realities have been stretched from a single reality into the way in which they exist now; they are, thus, intimately connected. This process is reversible; that which was stretched may be unstretched. The energy to reconcile a layer, those things which are stable, is of order hundreds of gigathaums, and the energy to reconcile the eight, which are all unstable, is of order terathaums; less if the divergence is minimized. For the good of Consensus, you would do well to observe this, Sunset Shimmer.”

Twilight nodded solemnly. “And I’m sure that instability it talks about is related to this disassociation from any one reality. That was what the Nameless had going for it. And it was what Sunset was in danger of.”

Starlight sucked in a breath. “That’s what you were trying to figure out, right? How to stop the disassociation?”

“Yes, although I didn’t know if it was something that could even be done. But… with these, now we know that it is theoretically possible.”

Spike, on seeing the long frown still on Twilight’s face, turned to face her. “What’s wrong with that?”

“The thing…” Twilight tentatively said, “what it calls for is a large amount of magic. A few hundreds of gigathaums… would probably require almost the total sum of magic that even exists on our world. And… a few terathaums is ever larger than that.” She shook her head.

Starlight deadpanned. “So… basically… no.”

Twilight nodded.

“Nonetheless,” Adamantine interrupted, “perhaps it may play into this somehow, if the seal went through the trouble to mention it.” She sat still for a few moments and then she eventually nodded. “Sunset Shimmer wants to point out that the seal makes no mention of the world she lives in… or other realities of similar type.”

“Oh, so that means that those realities are safe. They won’t get reconciled with ours,” Twilight replied.

Pinkie Pie glanced between Twilight and Adamantine and then shot up in her seat. “Uh, I wanna know something… How is it that you know what Sunset Shimmer is saying? She’s sealed away.”

Starlight looked over. “Uh, she can look inside the seal,” she explained. She then turned back toward Adamantine and leaned across the table. “And you’re doing it so… easily. I remember you saying you had to concentrate to do it before.”

“Yes. We even saw you do it,” Twilight added.

Several of the others shrugged.

Adamantine smiled demurely. “Well…” she said, her tone somber, “there is so little for me to worry about these days… that clearing my mind is easy.”

At once, all of those sitting around the table wilted. They either hung their heads, folded their hooves together, or looked away. Tempest, who still stood at the outlier, observed them and allowed her frown to deepen. And Spike folded his claws together and looked at Twilight. Twilight eventually straightened up and even moved her mouth to speak.

Adamantine held up a hoof. “Do not speak, Twilight. Everything that needed to be said has already been said.” She frowned. “Besides, Sunset’s voice is quite… clear. I’ve been able to establish a lock on her. It did take some trying, and some trial and error.”

Twilight sighed. “Yes… of course.”

Adamantine sent silent for a moment. Her ears twitched and, eventually, her jaw did too.

Meanwhile, Spike suddenly let out a loud belch as green fire escaped his mouth. Said flame coalesced into a scroll which landed into his waiting claws. The table leaned forward as he opened the scroll and began dictating its contents.

“My dearest Twilight,

“We understand. Luna and I will be there tomorrow morning.

“Yours,
“Princess Celestia”

Twilight nodded. “Great.”

Spike smiled and rolled up the scroll. He then looked back at Adamantine and saw the growing frown on her face. He then stood up. “Adamantine?” he asked.

Adamantine looked up and then sat up straight. “Sunset has just brought up a very good point,” she said. “It is my understanding that the passage of time inside the crystal ball is accelerating, yes?”

All eyes turned to Twilight.

Twilight nodded. “Yes. That’s right,” she tentatively said. After glancing around the table, she continued, “Sunset was the one that found it, actually. The last time we checked, the separation was by about six days into the past, or something of that order. It used to be nine days into the past.”

“And that gap is closing, yes?”

After a moment, Twilight nodded. “Yes.”

“And the source of the speedup is from the layers above ours time dilating, yes?”

“Yes.”

A worried smile appeared on Adamantine’s face. “Sunset says that there are probably layers above us that haven’t time dilated yet. So the ball could speed up further still. Nonetheless, if the pattern continues… our layer will eventually be current with the one below ours.”

A few silent gasps passed around the table.

“And that could happen quite soon. It could be mere days.” She then leaned forward. “And Twilight… I am of the mind… to think that that point… when our layer is present with the lower layer… that is when Consensus will occur.”

And, for the longest time, the room held its breath as they all considered those words.

Twilight scribbled some more lines onto the sheet in front of her. The text itself was a mixture of magical symbols and some numbers that translated into a magic spell.

After a few more lines of writing, Twilight stood up. “Well, this should do it for now. What’s say we give it a test run?”

Adamantine, who had been watching from over Twilight’s withers, nodded. “Certainly. Let’s do it,” she said as Twilight gave the papers to her via magic.

The two of them walked over to an adjacent table where Starlight and Tempest sat at. Starlight rested her head against the table, her eyes shut at the moment, while Tempest ate a bagel in silence. As Twilight and Adamantine walked up, Tempest rose to her hooves. And Twilight joined Tempest on one side of the table and turned to watch Adamantine.

Adamantine looked at the papers some more and then funneled more energy into her horn. After a moment, she turned her attention to the crystal ball on the center of the table. She shot a beam of energy at it, causing a magical aura to wrap around it. Once that was done, she exchanged nods with Twilight.

Twilight floated the ball over to herself and placed a hoof on it. She paused for a moment to look at the view inside. Celestia’s chamber lay in almost complete darkness; only the moonlight streaming through the room’s glass window gave it any light. The clock on the wall ticked by at a frequency faster than once per second. Princess Celestia herself lay in silence on the bed in the center of the room.

Twilight nodded. “Sunset? Can you hear me?”

And then, suddenly, the crystal ball emitted several crackling sounds that sounded like static (that prompted Starlight to startle awake). Some undertones of a feminine voice made it through but nothing discernable came out. And, after a few seconds, the crackling stopped.

Adamantine frowned. “Ah…”

“The hay?” Starlight slurred. She looked into the ball and spotted Celestia still sleeping. “What was that?”

Twilight removed her hoof from the ball, looked over at Adamantine, and frowned. “Uh, I did hear a little bit of Sunset in that.”

“It probably needs a few more adjustments,” Adamantine said as she laid the stack of papers onto the table. She then beamed. “It was close!”

“Yes, it was,” Twilight replied with a chuckle.

Tempest stared at the crystal ball for a few moments more. “Sorry. What is this for?” she asked with an unamused tone.

Twilight glanced over. “Uh, we’re trying to make it so that Sunset has a way to interact with us. That way she doesn’t have to speak through Adamantine all the time.” She flung a foreleg at the crystal ball. “We almost have a good baseline for what we want to do.”

Starlight rubbed her eyes and then stood up. “That sounds like a good idea,” she slurred. “We’ll… probably need Sunset for all of this.”

“That we will,” Adamantine said.

At that moment, the library’s double doors creaked open, prompting them all to turn. Spike entered first, leading the two behind him toward the table. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, each of whom wore saddlebags, approached as well. It was only when they spotted Adamantine that they paused in their steps.

Adamantine blushed but said nothing in response. She simply stared.

After a few moments, Luna smiled and stepped forward. “Adamantine,” she said. “It is so wonderful to see you on your hooves again.”

Adamantine shrugged. “Ah… well…”

“Yes, it is good,” Celestia seconded as she too stepped forward. “However… I do wonder… how exactly did you get out of Tartarus?”

Adamantine grinned. “Well… truthfully… I could have gotten out at any time. My teleportation is quite good.” She paused. “I just didn’t have a reason to leave until now.”

Celestia grinned. After munching on her next words for a few moments, she said, “Well, nonetheless, it’s good to see you doing much better for yourself.”

Adamantine smiled and sheepishly kicked the ground.

Luna lifted her saddlebag off her back and floated it over to the table. “Twilight, here are those documents that you asked us to find.”

Twilight made a cooing sound and then did so again when Celestia turned and presented her saddlebag as well. “Great!” Twilight exclaimed. She turned to Adamantine. “We’ll need those to eventually finish this.”

Adamantine hummed. “I see. What are they?”

“All of this is research data,” Twilight replied as she undid the saddlebags and began yanking several sheets of paper out. “These are all the little bits and pieces that all the layers figured out about… your people… before we lost them.”

Adamantine nodded solemnly.

Straightening up, Twilight continued, “We’ll actually sit down and go through this once we’ve finished the baseline.”

Meanwhile, Celestia lit her horn, floated the crystal ball up to her, and looked inside. Inside the ball, Celestia still lay fast asleep and the clock on the wall continued ticking on in silence. Celestia watched for a few moments, her mouth occasionally twitching.

“So then,” Adamantine began, “I take it that you have come to assist?”

“As far as we are able to, yes,” Luna said. “We may have to leave to attend to some other matters; this whole business has left our alliances… fractured, to say the least.” Luna smiled. “But that is for us to worry about.”

“I see.”

“So…” Luna paused as she looked over at Celestia. “Sister?”

Celestia hummed and looked up. “This seems to be running faster than the last time I saw it.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Really? You think so?”

“Huh?” Starlight said. “What makes you say that?”

Celestia smiled. “I know that my clock is not this fast,” she said.

Twilight shrugged. “Well, I guess we can take another measurement. Spike?” she said as she turned to him. “Can you go find me a clock again?”

Spike saluted and said, “You got it!” before racing out of the room.

“In the meantime,” Luna began, “you wouldn’t mind if we grabbed Tempest for a few minutes, do you?”

Tempest, who still stood next to Twilight, actually narrowed her eyes. After exchanging glances with Twilight, she nodded. And then Twilight, Adamantine, and Starlight watched in silence as Celestia and Luna led Tempest out of the room.

As the two princesses in front of Tempest finished speaking, she couldn’t help but shudder. She ran what they had just said through her mind over and over. She even spent a few moments pacing the width of the castle hallway; the carpet gave her hooves something to drag through and the crystalline walls allowed her to check her own expression in their reflections.

She sucked in a breath, turned to them, and ask, “Is it possible that the two are related?”

“We don’t know,” Luna replied.

“Is it possible that Chrysalis and… the other timelines’ Storm Kings are working together?” Tempest hissed.

“We don’t know.”

“We don’t know if the other Storm Kings are even working with each other,” Celestia added. “We don’t know if it was our Chrysalis or a Chrysalis from one of the other timelines.” Her frown deepened. “Not all of them are accounted for.”

“By and large,” Luna said, “the ones unaccounted for are believed to be dead. The ones that are living haven’t moved like the Storm Kings have been moving in those timelines.”

Tempest took a moment to swallow and otherwise catch her breath. “Fine. So we can say it’s the Chrysalis from our timeline.”

Luna snorted and sighed. “Yes. If you really want to. It is not confirmed.”

Celestia glanced between the two and then shook her head. “Tempest, the reason why we’re telling you this is because, if something happens and this progresses further, we might need your help.”

Luna considered Celestia and then nodded. “Yes. This business has left relations… strained. You can imagine that we are not quite in a state where we could counter whatever they may have planned.”

“Especially if they are working together,” Celestia said.

“We imagine Twilight will be very busy dealing with Consensus. And you know the Storm King better than anypony. That’s why we’re turning to you.”

Tempest slowly nodded. “Fine. I’ll be here.”

“We will, of course, keep you updated,” Luna said. “With any luck, we won’t actually have to worry about any of this, but we’d best be prepared for if we do.”

Tempest stuffed the last bits of a muffin into her mouth as she entered the library again. She immediately swerved toward the table where Spike watched Starlight writing something onto a sheet of paper. The crystal ball sat in the middle of that table. Several bodies, namely the princesses and five of the Elements, were gone at the moment; Tempest knew they were doing business at the school.

Starlight looked over at the table where Adamantine and Twilight were hunched over their own set of papers and she said, “The ball gives me 8:30 a.m., Twilight.”

Twilight shifted in her seat, exchanged glances with Adamantine, and then said, “Okay, Starlight. Then tell me what the time intervals are.”

Starlight wrote some things down on her paper, only pausing to look up as Tempest approached and took a seat at the table with them. Her quill wrote down a few numbers as she wrote down times and then calculated the differences between those times.

She finally sat up straight. “I got 195 minutes inside the ball for every 127 minutes out here,” she announced.

“Oh my,” Twilight wheezed. Her own quill paused within her magic.

“The ball is running faster, hmm?” Adamantine said.

“Yes. It’s at a hundred and fifty-three percent speed now. It was a hundred and twenty-seven.”

“So…” Spike began as he turned to face them, “it got faster?”

Twilight sighed. “Yes… And it’ll probably get faster still.”

Taking a brief glance at the crystal ball again and shifting in her seat, Tempest then asked, “How’s your spell coming along?”

“It’s going well. We’re probably going to be able to give it another try in a few minutes or so,” Twilight replied with a happier tone.

Tempest smirked. “That’s good to hear. Is there anything else?”

Twilight groaned and shook her head. “No… We’re kind of stuck at the moment, since we don’t have a definitive direction to go in.”

Tempest groaned. “It sounds like we need to make another breakthrough.”

“Yeah.”

“There is, however, one thing,” Adamantine began, looking over at Tempest, “Sunset Shimmer wants to ask a favor of you.”

At that, Tempest perked up. Sunset Shimmer wanted her for something? What could that possibly be? Tempest sucked in a breath. “Really? What kind of favor?”

Tempest hobbled along, badgering some of her thoughts into putting one foot in front of the other. The human body was still a mystery, but having been in it twice before made it a little bit easier. The hallways of this strange place, Canterlot High School, were easy enough to navigate, thankfully. The stairs leading into the school had been the biggest challenge, and that was behind her.

She clutched the crystal ball in her arms. The hands at the end of her arms, while dexterous, still felt so wonky and strange. As such, she held it like her pony self would have held it.

She passed a few students as she went. Some of them regarded her as she went by, but their reactions never reached anything beyond raised eyebrows or contemplative frowns. Tempest thought nothing of them; they were nothing as far as she was concerned.

As far as she knew, speaking when touching the ball transmitted a speaker’s voice to the crystal ball in the layer below. Tempest reminded herself of what she had been assured: whoever could have possibly listened to what was likely about to come would have been in class. And, thus, they would be safe.

She rounded another corner and found a set of open double doors on one side of the hall. That had to be the destination. Let’s see if you’re right, Sunset, she thought.

As she approached, she picked up voices coming from the inside. Familiar voices. She stopped just before the entrance and took a quick peek inside. Inside the room stood many of the same figures she had seen the other day. There stood Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna, the both of them faced the six girls. While Applejack and Rarity remained on their feet, Fluttershy, Pinkamena, and Twilight Sparkle sat on the steps with Rainbow Dash sitting on the floor itself.

“I honestly don’t know,” Twilight said. “We can still use our geode powers, but I don’t know if we can pony up without Sunset.”

Celestia crossed her arms. “Unfortunately… it is what it is. We have to make some plans now. Because something may happen again.”

Tempest nodded to herself and then stepped into the doorway where they could see her. She cleared her throat. “Excuse me,” she said.

At once, both of the adults turned around—they only looked over their shoulders at first and then, once they had taken stock of her, their expressions darkened and they turned to face her fully. The four girls sitting rose to their feet and stared at Tempest with dumbfounded expressions. And Applejack’s eyes widened while her frown deepened.

“Oh,” Rarity said with some sharpness in her voice as she hobbled in Tempest’s direction, “no no no no no.”

“Pardon me,” Applejack said, “but can we help you?” Her voice was full of venom.

Tempest frowned and tried to stand as tall as she could. “Yes,” she said, drawing from the authoritative tone she had once used to command the Storm Legions, “you can. I’ve just come here from Equestria.”

“We know,” Rainbow Dash growled. “We can tell.”

“Ah recognize ya a little bit from the other day,” Applejack said as she too stepped forward and crossed her arms. “And from a few days before that.”

“Yes,” Vice Principal Luna said. “I… I really hope that you can understand that we’re not happy with you or your kind right now.”

Tempest snorted. Hah. They’re so much like the ones that I know. This is so… interesting. Outwardly, she nodded in response and said, “I know.”

“So why did you come here?” Rarity asked. “Explain.”

Twilight stepped forward at that point. “What’s your name?”

“Tempest. Tempest Shadow. I conquered Equestria once. You might have heard about it,” Tempest said.

At once, the eight of them exchanged glances. For their parts, Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna looked at the rest of the girls, and they received a mixture of affirmative nods and unsure shrugs in return.

“And I know who all of you are,” Tempest continued. “You’re Sunset Shimmer’s friends.”

After a pause, Twilight nodded. “That’s right.”

“Let me talk to them,” said a voice from the crystal ball.

And now the whole room fell silent. While Tempest remained stone-faced, everyone else froze up. Slowly, they all turned to look at the crystal ball that remained in Tempest’s arms.

Tempest even looked down at the crystal ball and then let a smirk spread across her face.

Applejack sucked in a breath. “…Sunset?”

“Tempest, I can’t hear anything they’re saying unless they’re holding the ball,” Sunset Shimmer’s voice said out of the crystal ball. “Give me to them!”

A floomp signaled Pinkamena’s hair suddenly blowing up back into its normal shape as she (and the rest of them, for that matter), sharply gasped. “Oh my gosh!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

The moment they all surged forward was the moment Tempest offered the crystal ball. They practically snatched it from her and then gathered around it. Some placed their hands on the ball itself; others lay their hands on those touching the ball—it all counted. They let out all sorts of cries and shrieks.

“Sunset!” Twilight exclaimed. “Sunset!”

“Twilight!?” Sunset’s voice cried.

Tears streamed down Rarity’s face. “Oh my gosh!” she squealed. “Oh my gosh!”

“Hey!”

Tempest snorted and started circling them, content to watch from the outside.

“Are you okay!?” Twilight cried.

A moment passed. “No,” Sunset’s voice replied with downtrodden tone. “I’m still in the seal. And I can’t imagine that I’m getting out anytime soon.”

At that, they all lost their jumpiness and even wilted in response. Now Fluttershy was also sniffling.

“But…” Sunset’s voice continued, now containing some warmth, “It’s so good to hear all of your voices again!”

At that, many of them shared relieved giggles and warm smiles.

Celestia leaned forward and placed a hand on the ball. “Sunset Shimmer, how…? How are you even here with us right now?”

“It’s a little bit of a long story,” Sunset’s voice replied. “The short version is that there have been a lot of developments in these past few days. We’ve found out a lot more new things. …And it turns out that we’re not out of the woods just yet.”

Celestia frowned. “What does that mean?”

Sunset’s voice paused again. “It means…” her voice tentatively said, “that this me being sealed away isn’t the end of all of this. There’s something about to happen.”

Rainbow Dash placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “What kind of thing?”

“We don’t know. But whatever it is… it’s big.” Sunset’s voice paused. “Do you all remember me talking about somepony named Adamantine? She was the unpony queen.”

“Yes,” Luna replied. “That name is familiar.”

“…She came back. She’s trying to help us figure this thing out.”

The eight of them threw around several gasps of varying intensity and exaggeration.

“Ah don’t believe it,” Applejack said. “Ah just don’t believe it.”

“I thought she died,” Rainbow Dash commented.

Rarity frowned and took a moment to wipe some tears from her eyes. “N-no. She was sent to some prison or what not.”

“…I thought she died in prison,” Rainbow Dash said.

“I’m glad to hear she’s okay, Sunset,” Fluttershy said.

“Me too. Anyway, actually… We might have a lot to deal with. And I don’t know where this is going to go. But I also know that this is a lot to ask of you… I was wondering… if you would at all be willing to help me and everypony else out.”

Fluttershy straightened up and wiped her face. “Of course, we would love to help you out—”

Applejack sharply cleared her throat, prompting everyone (including Tempest who still patrolled the perimeter) to look up. “But why should we help them, Sunset?”

“W-well…” Sunset’s voice tried.

“Yeah,” Pinkie Pie said with a sharp tone, “why should we?”

“Just f.y.i., we’re mad as hell at them,” Applejack said. When that earned her a very hard stare from Celestia, Applejack wilted and then sheepishly added, “Uh, heck. Mad as heck.”

“We lost you because of them, Sunset!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

The other girls gave affirmative hums. Celestia and Luna, meanwhile, shared disapproving frowns.

And then Celestia shook her head. “Girls, I’m sure they’re just as angry and confused about this as we are.”

Rainbow Dash looked up. “But—”

“She is right,” Luna agreed. “I don’t think anyone wanted all of this to happen.”

Tempest stepped forward. “Twilight felt really bad about it.” As the eight of them looked up at her, she continued, “You should have seen her. She was pretty broken.”

The girls exchanged uncertain glances. The adults nodded solemnly.

“I guess I’m not surprised that you’d say that,” Sunset’s voice said. “I’ve been caught up on what’s happened since. Because of everything that’s happened… there are a lot of creatures right now that won’t even talk to us.”

Tempest solemnly nodded in agreement. Several others caught her gesture and that prompted their frowns to deepen.

“Heck,” Sunset’s voice continued, “from what I know, Starlight Glimmer—you remember her, right? She came over that one time and helped us out against Juniper Montage. She… she was ready to leave.”

Twilight swallowed. “The whole school’s been hurting, Sunset. We’ve had to have counselors from other schools to come in and help people.”

“…I can imagine. I didn’t want this. No one did.” Sunset’s voice paused. “But Adamantine… she lost her entire people because of us. She had more right to be angry at us than anyone. She had every right to be the angriest pony in the world…”

After a thoughtful pause, Sunset’s voice said, tremulously and with a lacking strength, “The only reason I can even speak to you right now is because of her. She—and Twilight too, really—she wrote the enchantment on this ball that lets me talk to you.”

No one reacted at first. But there was a collective loosening of expressions. Applejack and Rainbow Dash glumly nodded. Pinkie Pie sniffled. Fluttershy and Twilight exchanged sad frowns. Rarity’s sad expression quivered.

“They’re not bad ponies. I promise you that. Please…” Sunset’s voice said.

Twilight frowned. “I know, Sunset. I know they’re not bad.”

Several eyes turned to face her. For their parts, Fluttershy, Celestia, and Luna smiled.

“I just…” Twilight tried, “I can’t help but feel… mad. I’m angry, Sunset!”

“That’s okay,” Sunset’s voice replied. “It’s okay to be angry about all of this. I’m angry too.”

“Everyone’s angry, Sunset,” Applejack said.

“But I know first hand that if you seek out friendship… amazing things can happen. And I know that we might not be able to do everything. But we don’t have to give up on everything. I…” Sunset’s voice bitterly laughed. “I have nothing left to lose. It can’t get any worse for me. And maybe it’ll never get any better. I might really be stuck here for the rest of time.”

A few sniffles and sobs rose up in response.

“But right now… I’ve been given the opportunity to do something. I could help save lives. So I will,” Sunset’s voice said, firming up, “I will do everything that I can. And there will be many others… Twilight, Adamantine, Spike, the girls, the princesses, Tempest… they’re going to do everything that they can too. And we could all sure use your help. So… please?”

Another moment of silence passed between them. They all exchanged glances as some unspoken conversation passed between them; said conversation mainly stayed with the six teenagers in the middle. As they gauged each other’s expressions, no one save Celestia and Luna moved.

And then Fluttershy donned a smile, followed by Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash saw them and smirked. Applejack chuckled.

Rarity let a small smile appear on her face and then she looked up. “Tempest? That’s your name, right?”

Tempest nodded. “That’s right.”

Rarity nodded. “Thank you… for bringing her to us.”

Tempest grinned in response.

Twilight adjusted her glasses and then nodded. “Sunset? We’ll be happy to help. You can count on us.”

8 - Links I

Princess Celestia looked at the ponies standing in the middle of the throne room. While the (recently renovated) dais behind her hosted two thrones, one each for her and her sister, both presently remained empty. It was a rare day when she had to talk to families about things that had happened to their loved ones, and especially in this case, she had no right to sit over them. And so Celestia stood with those ponies.

Aside from warning these ones about the possibilities a few days prior, the last time she had to have this sort of conversation had been with Twilight Sparkle’s parents. It had not been easy back then either.

The pegasi standing before her staring her down were not Sunset Shimmer’s family by birth, but were in every other sense of the word. The uncle, Blue Streak, had a silver coat, a black mane and tail, and dark blue eyes. The aunt, Solar Flare, had a golden coat, a red-rooted mane and tail that transitioned to light yellow, and bright green eyes.

The third pegasus, the cousin, gripped her guard helmet even tighter against her chest plate. Sunrunner, if one ignored the much shorter mane, looked like a spitting image of Sunset herself. “So…” she tentatively said, “she went through with it…”

Celestia nodded. “That is correct.”

Blue Streak exchanged glances with Solar Flare and then nodded solemnly. “Honestly… Princess Celestia, we figured it out on the way over,” he said. “We figured that she would.”

Solar Flare sighed. “I wish she didn’t. But… I know she did what she had to.”

Princess Luna, who stood right beside Celestia, nodded solemnly. “Yes. Sunset Shimmer is a hero.”

Solar Flare sniffled and then leaned on Blue Streak.

He cradled her head in return and sighed. “We’re very proud of her,” he said. “She’s done so many great things since… she left. Both here and in that other world she lives in.”

Celestia exchanged wide-eyed glances with Luna. “Oh?” Celestia hesitantly replied. “You know of the things she’s done over there?”

“She came to see us the last couple of times she was in Equestria,” Sunrunner replied. “We’ve talked.”

“Which is more than you did for us when she first disappeared,” Solar Flare grumbled.

An imaginary pain shot through Celestia. She kept more secrets than she needed to, so those words stung. She hung her head. “I know. I’m… sorry.”

Blue Streak frowned. “Well, Princess, you’re doing better at it.”

Solar Flare let off another sniffle, and that prompted Sunrunner to turn toward her. And then Sunrunner too sniffled.

Luna looked at the growing wetness in their faces and then tapped Celestia on her withers; she remained facing the trio. “We can give you a few moments if you all like,” Luna said.

As Blue Streak and Solar Flare held each other tighter, Sunrunner looked up; her expression was now long and full of pain. And she nodded solemnly. “Please.”

Celestia etched Sunrunner’s face into her mind—easy enough when it looked just like Sunset’s down to the agony within—as Luna led Celestia up one of the ramps that flanked the dais. The ramp ended at a curtain-filled doorway which the two of them ducked through.

The two of them emerged onto an open balcony that overlooked a large plaza immediately below and offered a commanding view of the rest of Canterlot beyond. Right now, however, the plaza lay completely deserted, and the rest of the city was just too far away. They were all by themselves.

And so, after managing to make it halfway out, Celestia let herself collapse with as much grace as she had left. Luna merely let her frown deepen, took a quick glance at the city beyond, and then came around and sat right beside Celestia.

The two remained there in complete silence, neither daring to speak.

Finally, Celestia sighed. “Where did it all go wrong?” she croaked.

Luna didn’t even look over or respond in any meaningful manner.

“Where did I go wrong?” Celestia continued. Why… why is it every time we manage to get through these things… only to invite something even worse?”

Luna shuddered and now turned to face Celestia. “I don’t know.” She then leaned forward. “But I know we’ll get through this. We always do.”

Celestia looked up. And she asked, tentatively, “How?”

Luna sucked in a breath. “W-well… we prevented everything from being destroyed.”

“Yes. And I caused all of our allies to turn against us… only to lose Sunset Shimmer anyway.” Celestia paused. “I… wonder if I should have just sealed Sunset away immediately, instead of letting Twilight waste her time trying and losing everypony’s trust.”

Luna raised a hoof into the air. “But…”

“I know that Twilight would have never let me live it down,” Celestia finished.

“Yes. I think so too,” Luna replied. “And I would have wanted to save Sunset’s life too.”

Celestia grimaced. “We didn’t.”

Luna frowned and hung her head. “I don’t think we could have.”

Celestia’s expression hardened and she suddenly sat up. “And that’s what bothers me the most!” she cried. “There’s nothing I can do! There is nothing that I could have done to have stopped this. I couldn’t stop Twilight from dying. I couldn’t stop the unponies from dying. And now I couldn’t have stopped us losing—”

As Celestia lost her wind and subsequently deflated again, Luna rose to her hooves. And when Celestia let off a sob, Luna sobbed in turn before subsequently hobbling forward and wrapping her hooves around her sister.

Celestia returned the embrace and let her head fall against Luna’s backside. Luna responded by stroking Celestia’s back.

Celestia’s thoughts went to a filly likened to the sunset itself. She thought of that filly as she tackled every task before her. She thought of that filly grown into a mare who had run away from her. She thought about the worries she had about where that mare had gone and the path she had chosen. She thought of that mare coming back, completely reinvented. She thought of a phoenix burning bright in the sky.

And now that mare was gone.

“Why do these things happen?” Celestia croaked.

And Luna held Celestia even tighter. “I don’t know, Sister. I just… I don’t know.”

Twilight Sparkle looked up from the notebook in front of her as the doors to the library swung open and Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Spike entered the room. She smiled and straightened up. “Hey! Good morning!”

Celestia smiled. “Twilight, good morning.”

While Celestia and Luna trotted over to the table that Twilight and Adamantine sat at, Spike wandered over to another table where Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Starlight Glimmer held a quiet discussion about school matters.

“How go things here?” Luna asked.

“We’re making progress,” Twilight replied. “I think we’re getting really close.”

Adamantine nodded. “Yes. A little bit more time, and we’ll be done with this spell.”

“I see,” Celestia said.

“Has there been any progression since we last convened?” Adamantine asked.

Celestia exchanged glances with Luna. “There was something. I think we’d like to discuss it with you, especially since we think you might shed some light on it.”

Adamantine nodded. “I would be happy to. Please, tell me your thoughts.”

“Well…” Luna. Several documents sat scattered around the crystal ball on a nearby table. She picked a few of those documents up—which prompted Celestia to lean forward and look at them from an angle—and began sifting through them.

The apparatus around the mirror portal chose that moment to spring to life, with the various components moving and channeling energy through the tubing that connected everything. The cacophony quickly became a mild roar.

“Ah!” Twilight exclaimed as she shot to her hooves and subsequently raced around the table. “That has to be them!”

Finally, the apparatus shot some magic into the face of the portal. And then a pony—no, ponies stepped out. They all wobbled about on their hind legs but quickly let themselves fall forward and place all four hooves on the floor.

And Adamantine shot up in her seat.

The five ponies now standing in front of the mirror were spitting images of five of the ponies sitting at the table. But Twilight knew better; these ones were her Canterlot High friends. They were Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy.

Applejack, the native Applejack, stood up and walked around the table to greet them (as did the others). “Howdy, y’all.”

The other Applejack wobbled forward. “H-howdy. Woah nelly.”

Rarity chuckled. “Oh dear,” she said as she observed her double. “Are you alright?”

The other Rarity hazarded a few steps forward, even going so far as to look down at her hooves to make sure they were moving right, before she finally smiled. “I think I’m okay, darling. It’s just been a while since we’ve come over here.”

Applejack chuckled. “Eeyup. Ah remember.”

The portal face flashed again, and another pony emerged. This one looked much like Twilight Sparkle did, although the most striking differences were the lack of wings on her back and the large, square spectacles on her muzzle. She wobbled about as she tried to stay upright; she made no attempt to even fall onto all fours.

The five other newcomers immediately crowded around her, ready to catch her if she tumbled. However, the other Twilight finally took a good glance at them and lowered herself down.

Twilight approached her double and smiled. “Are you okay?”

The other Twilight held her hooves up to her face and gasped. “Wow…” She looked up at her friends. “You weren’t kidding.”

“Now you know how I felt coming over to the human world for the first time,” Twilight replied.

The other Twilight giggled. “I guess I do.”

The mirror shimmered again and two more ponies, one after the other, stepped through. The two wobbled about and then immediately fell onto the platform. The whole room turned to observe them.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna especially straightened up and stared with wide-eyed shock.

The first of the ponies on the platform had a pink mane and tail, a white coat, wings and a horn, and a sun for a cutie mark. She looked like a younger, duller Celestia. And the other of the two had an azure mane and tail, wings and a horn, a phthalo blue coat, and a moon for a cutie mark. She looked like a younger, duller Luna.

Princess Celestia, who looked like she had her breath taken away, placed a hoof over her chest. Luna ruffled her wings and said nothing.

Twilight walked up to the two newcomers. “Principal Celestia. Vice Principal Luna. Is that you?” she asked.

Principal Celestia blinked and then looked up. It took her a moment more to consider Twilight. “Princess Twilight?” she slurred.

Vice Principal Luna also looked up and went wide-eyed.

Twilight offered her hoof, and when Principal Celestia took it, Twilight pulled her to her hooves. “That’s me. Welcome to Equestria. I’m so glad you could join us,” she said as she then helped Vice Principal Luna up as well.

Principal Celestia nodded. “Of course. While I’m not entirely sure how we can help, we’ll try to be here in case anyone does need us for anything.”

At that point, Princess Celestia swallowed and then hazarded a few steps forward. “Hello.”

Now it was Vice Principal Luna’s turn to have her breath taken away. She simply stared, especially since Princess Celestia—and Princess Luna who came up shortly thereafter—towered over the both of them.

Principal Celestia sucked in a breath. “H-hi… You’re Princess Celestia, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am,” Princess Celestia replied. “I do believe we saw each other the other day.”

Principal Celestia cracked a smile. “W-well… yes… This is very strange…”

“Oh, believe me,” Princess Luna replied, “the feeling is mutual.” She looked at her counterpart and chuckled nervously.

And Vice Principal Luna nodded. “Incredible…”

Finally, Adamantine grunted and made her way around the table. “I am so very sorry, but what is this? How are there two of everypony?”

All heads turned to face her now. The eight who had just come through the portal regarded her with narrowed eyes and unsure frowns.

Twilight giggled. “Adamantine, these are my friends from Canterlot High. They’re from the world Sunset told you about.” When Adamantine’s expression didn’t budge, Twilight continued, “Most everypony has a counterpart over there.”

“…Fascinating,” Adamantine cooed.

Vice Principal Luna straightened up. “Y… you’re Adamantine? You’re the unpony queen?”

Adamantine donned a sad smile. “I was.”

The other Twilight approached with her friends close behind her. “Sunset’s told us all about you.”

Adamantine regarded the eight before her. “Sunset Shimmer did not mention that you were… counterparts, but we are otherwise well met.” She then bowed. “I certainly hope that my presence does not trouble you.”

The eight exchanged glances, and then the other Rainbow Dash voiced it. “Eh.”

“She said good things about you, Your Majesty,” the other Rarity added, bowing in return.

Adamantine nodded and hummed affirmatively.

“So, uh,” Starlight asked as she stepped forward, “I think something is wrong here? Uh, why is it that they—” she pointed at Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna, “—have wings and she—” she pointed to the other Twilight, “—doesn’t? What gives?”

The whole room fell silent as everyone went to examining the three in question. Some heads briefly compared them to Twilight, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna. And then many began scratching their heads or stroking their chins.

“Huh,” Twilight cooed. “Everypony else mapped perfectly,” she said, noting the wings on the other Rainbow Dash and the other Fluttershy, noting the horn on the other Rarity, and noting the earthly features of the other Applejack and the other Pinkie Pie.

“Twilight was born a unicorn, right?” Sunset Shimmer’s voice suddenly said from the crystal ball.

The whole room sans Adamantine gasped and turned their attention to the crystal ball. A few of the non-natives even made some movements toward it.

“Sunset!?” the other Twilight cried. “You can hear us!?”

Adamantine chuckled. “Ah, no, she cannot. I merely have been feeding her this conversation this whole time.”

The other Twilight frowned. “Oh. I see, I guess. Uh, maybe we should get her in on this.”

Twilight blocked her way. “Nopony is touching the ball right now. It’s off limits.”

The other Twilight, as well as her friends, narrowed her eyes. “…Why?”

Twilight smiled nervously. “Uh, we’re trying to limit the amount the lower layer hears from us. I want to imagine that, right now, the Sunset in the layer below us still has it on her. But we aren’t talking to her, though.”

The other Twilight deflated. “Uh… I mean, yes? We knew about that.”

“Yesterday was an exception. I had to talk to you myself,” Sunset’s voice replied.

“Sunset brings up a good point,” Princess Celestia said. “Luna and I are natural-born alicorns. Twilight, on the other hoof, ascended to alicornhood.”

Starlight nodded. “Hey, yeah. I guess that makes sense. I guess the portal knows about that.”

“Oh!” the other Rarity gasped. “You can ascend?”

The other Fluttershy went wide-eyed as well. “Does that… mean that somepony like Sunset could become an alicorn?”

Princess Celestia smiled slyly. “Perhaps… circumstances permitting.”

The other Applejack stepped forward. “Now wait just a cotton-pickin’ minute. Whenever we’d pony up in the other world, Twilight would have wings then.”

The other Rainbow Dash also jumped forward. “Hey, yeah! So why doesn’t she have wings again?”

Twilight groaned and scratched her head. “Uhm… well…”

“Pony up?” Adamantine asked, tilting her head inquisitively.

“Oh! Hey!” the other Pinkie Pie said. “Yeah. Sunset Shimmer stole the Element of Magic and she transformed into a demon and then Princess Twilight was able to get its magic to go through us, so we power up like ponies and everything. And then, this one time, our Twilight stole our magic and used it to transform herself! So she has magic inside her too, just like we do! Also, we have these geodes that let us power up and give us cool abilities and whatever.”

The other Twilight blushed and glanced back at the other Pinkie Pie. “Yes…”

Adamantine’s frown deepened and she looked at Twilight for guidance.

Twilight stroked her chin. “That’s true. Those transformations came from the Elements originally.”

“I like to think that there was some imprinting,” Sunset’s voice said.

Twilight shrugged. “Maybe. It’s likely that there’re different rules in play in each case. I’ll have to ask Starswirl more about the world-to-world mapping when all of this is over.”

Adamantine came over and laid a hoof on Twilight’s withers. “Yes. We should get back to the matter at hoof and finish the method.”

Twilight nodded, and the two of them trotted back to the table. The two of them shuffled some papers around, and Twilight picked up a quill and began writing.

The other Rainbow Dash glanced between her friends and then followed over (and they followed her). “Uh, can we ask about this? How does this work?”

Adamantine, who was now reorganizing some papers on the table, nodded. “You must have figured out that we have established a link to Sunset through the seal. However, the more accurate description is… that I am acting as a sort of… connection between Sunset and the crystal ball.”

The other Twilight nodded. “So you’re feeding her voice into the crystal ball.”

“Yes, and I connected yours to her as well.” Adamantine paused to look at one particular paper and then passed it to Twilight. “The method that we are about to complete will incorporate this, among other things.”

“You all remember the secret behind unpony bodies, right?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy gasped. “Oh! That’s right. I remember. They were spells, right?”

“Yes, spells sustained by the stones. We’re going to do the same spell for Sunset, essentially—Adamantine has offered to sustain it herself—but we’re going to forego the material component. It should be doable, albeit quite a bit more expensive, magically.”

Starlight frowned. “Material component?”

“Ah, yes.” Twilight nodded. “The unponies were masses of… sand, held in the shape of the pony and given some illusion magic to complete the image.” She paused. “That’s… why they fell apart the way they did when their spells canceled; they weren’t holding themselves together anymore.”

Adamantine shuddered.

Starlight frowned. “I see… That’s pretty impressive, though.”

Adamantine frowned and nodded solemnly. “Yes. I must confess that, before today, this possibility as to the nature of their existence had not occurred to me.”

Princess Luna finally cleared her throat and stepped forward. “Actually, Adamantine, that was what we wanted to talk to you about.”

That prompted Adamantine to look up and straighten up. “Ah, yes. What is it?”

“We were reviewing the seal transcriptions again,” Princess Luna replied, “and something caught our eye. May we read it?” She motioned to a paper in Princess Celestia’s magical grasp.

Adamantine nodded.

Princess Celestia held up the paper and read it aloud. “This is the I seal for the Nameless. This seal has many functions. From time to time, the seal autonomously performs some of these functions. However, all functions may also be manually activated. Such manual activation may only be done by one who exists within the seal and has permission from she who is the seal herself. And the one who shall be within the seal shall be connected to its entirety; they shall be intimate with it. As such, the seal shall become her extension. She shall, with permission of the seal herself, control the entirety of the seal and the activation of its functions. For the good of Consensus, you would do well to observe this, Sunset Shimmer.”

Princess Celestia looked up. “What especially strikes me about this is that it refers to the seal as a her.”

Adamantine paused. “That is very strange,” she said simply.

Twilight nodded. “I thought it was weird too. Everything else is straightforward, but…”

“As did we,” Princess Luna said. “But as we talked about it more… we realized that it isn’t really that strange. In fact, we’ve been given a lot of clues.”

After a moment, Twilight gasped. She glanced at the papers on the table, around the room, and then finally at Adamantine. She nodded solemnly and said, “Yes… we have.”

Adamantine blinked. “I’m sorry?”

A few heads turned as Tempest Shadow entered the room. She trotted toward them in silence and, on looking around, settled for joining Starlight, Spike, and, to some degree, the visitors from the human world.

“I… have to admit that the thought occurred to me. I just wasn’t sure,” Twilight said as she nodded at Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. She looked back to Adamantine. “We found the same sort of projected body framework within the seals themselves. That means they’re capable of projecting some body, just like the stones did.”

Adamantine nodded. “Sure.”

“There was something you pointed out to Starlight, Sunset—err, Sunsets—and I. We were looking at stones. And a few of them had lost their outer energies. …You told us those ones were dead.”

“I do remember that,” Adamantine replied.

“You may or may not remember this,” Princess Celestia said as she stepped forward, “but the seals apparently act in the same way. The other seals are dead.”

Princess Luna glanced at her sister and then stepped forward. “And as I understand it, all of your counterparts are also dead, yes?”

Adamantine, now with a couple of sweat drops on her brow, took a couple of steps back. “Y… yes…”

“Just as well… the seal in our timeline is still alive. You are still alive.”

“Oh stars,” Starlight said.

Princess Luna stepped forward the same distance. “And, Adamantine, you are very connected to the seal. You can freely see into it, among other things, correct?”

The color drained from Adamantine’s face. She took a few further steps back and eventually fell onto her haunches. She held her hooves in front of her face. She stared at them for the longest time. “It’s… not…” she wheezed under her breath.

Princess Luna nodded solemnly. “I believe this leads to one conclusion. I think this says something about who you really are.”

The rest of the room remained silent. Everyone held their eyes on Adamantine closely now.

Adamantine eventually lowered her hooves back down, let her limp jaw firm up again, and she stared into nothingness. “It… Everything you have just said is circumstantial… and yet I cannot convince myself to deny it,” she croaked. “I… think that, somewhere deep down… I know it to be true.”

She stood up. She stood to her full height, even going so far as to spread her wings to their full length. “I am… indeed… the seal herself. That… is the true nature of my existence.”

Rarity looked breathless; she held a hoof over her chest as she looked at Adamantine with worry. Both Pinkie Pies glanced around the room, looking for any hints of smiles on anyone, including each other. They found none. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna exchanged glances, with the former setting the seal transcription on the table. The other Fluttershy gave a whimper, while Fluttershy gave two. Tempest looked on with disinterest.

No one spoke. No one moved.

“Uh,” Sunset’s voice said out of the crystal ball, “I have a question.”

A few heads turned. All still kept silent.

“How…” Sunset’s voice tremulously, hesitantly continued, “how does a prison… for the most dangerous entity we’ve ever dealt with… uh, go about getting addicted to coffee?”

A moment of silence hung about the room. Several blinked and raised eyebrows. No one otherwise moved. Some color drained from Twilight’s face as she deadpanned at no one in particular. Starlight stared at the crystal ball with wide-eyed shock. Adamantine herself looked stunned.

Rainbow Dash let out a few snorts which she tried to hide behind a foreleg. Pinkie Pie and her counterpart had jitters as they fought off smiles and giggles. They looked around to make sure no one was staring.

“Like,” Sunset’s voice continued, “I thought she was going to die or something.”

Adamantine blushed, folded her wings back in, and loosened up. She then nodded from side to side, scratched her head, and said, “Well… I suppose it does sound quite ridiculous”—she began chucking—“when you put it like that.”

That prompted Rainbow Dash and the Pinkie Pies to snicker and snort harder. That gained some chuckles from the likes of both Fluttershys, both Celestias, and the other Rainbow Dash. Many of the others looked like they were trying to hold it in.

“Holy hay,” Starlight finally wheezed. “You really did drink a lot, though.”

Twilight loosened up and even shrugged. “Well…”

“Oh my gosh!” Pinkie Pie squealed. “She totally did! I remember this one time she walked out of sugar cube corner with ten cups of coffee.”

The other Twilight gasped. “What!?” she asked incredulously.

“So,” Vice Principal Luna began as she stroked her chin, “the seal for the Nameless is a coffee queen.”

Adamantine blushed even harder. “Oh dear… this is now several magnitudes worse,” she said, now laughing outright.

And now most everyone burst into laughter, with some like the Rainbow Dashes and the Pinkie Pies, who lost it at that point, completely bowled over and rolling on the floor while clutching their stomachs. Spike followed them soon after. While Tempest wasn’t laughing, she did wear a sizeable grin. Twilight barely managed to stifle her own laughs, saved only by the hoof covering her muzzle.

“That is the stupidest bucking thing I’ve ever heard!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “Bwahahahahaha!”

Principal Celestia whirled around to stare at Rainbow Dash. “Excuse me,” she snapped.

Rainbow Dash, who was still laughing, looked up with a raised eyebrow. “What?”

The other Rainbow Dash went wide-eyed but said nothing.

“So, anyway,” Adamantine said as she straightened up and tapered her chuckles off, “I suppose that my next task will be to look into giving Sunset permission to work, I guess, my various functions… however I am supposed to do that.”

Twilight let her own giggles taper off and she nodded. “Yes. But, let’s,” she said as she pointed to the papers on the table, “let’s… let’s finish this first. And then we’ll worry about that.”

Adamantine picked a few papers off the table and floated them over to Twilight. “Yes, let’s finish this.”

Princess Celestia nodded and then she walked over to the newcomers. “We should let them work. Perhaps, in the meantime, we can maybe all talk and bring everypony up to speed,” she said, looking at Principal Celestia in particular.

Principal Celestia nodded. “I agree. Come on, everyone,” she said as she motioned for everyone to join Starlight and the others at their table.

The next few minutes passed by in relative silence. While Adamantine and Twilight worked, with the latter doing the writing and the former supervising and occasionally chiming in with an observation, everyone else gathered at the table on the other side of the room. As there were seventeen of them, they let the newcomers sit down at the table itself while everyone else, save Spike who stood on the table itself and Princess Celestia who sat at the table as well, hung around the perimeter and stood over them.

Princess Celestia spoke with low tones and addressed each of them. She also asked the occasional question to see what they knew, skipping ahead when they answered affirmatively and dropping into explanations when they didn’t. The newcomers, who occasionally stole glances at Twilight and Adamantine, also spoke with low tones. They even spent a couple of minutes recounting their own version of events, during which Princess Celestia listened attentively.

Twilight finally stood up, exchanged nods with Adamantine, and then turned to the other table. “Okay. We’re going to try this now,” she announced.

The conversation at the other table died down as all turned to face them now. No one said anything as Adamantine received the papers from Twilight with her magic and began scanning them. A few more seconds of silence passed, during which Twilight backed away to give Adamantine some room.

Magic coursed through Adamantine’s horn as she read the spell over. She eventually lowered the papers and focused on a spot in the center of the room.

Finally, in a flash of white light, an object appeared in the middle of the room. Said object was organic. A pony, even. This pony, who lay splayed out on her chest, had an amber coat, a red and yellow-striped mane and tail, and a red and yellow sun for a cutie mark.

Sunset Shimmer’s eyes flew open and she spent several moments adjusting to the light. The room watched in stunned silence (although those sitting rose to their hooves) as she stood up and looked around. Finally, however, she settled on the many standing around the one table.

And Sunset’s friends all yelled out “Sunset!” as they rushed over to her. The first of them glomped her and the others quickly piled on top.

Sunset, who now lay beneath them, laughed. “Hey, girls!” she exclaimed.

Everyone else beamed.

Adamantine, however, winced. And then, just as suddenly as Sunset had appeared, she disappeared again. The pile that had been on top of her collapsed. The six cried out in surprise and practically scrambled back to their hooves.

Several sets of eyes, including Twilight’s, swiveled toward Adamantine now.

Adamantine blushed. “Ah, sorry. I felt that tackle, and it surprised me.”

In another flash of light, Sunset reappeared where she had just been. She was standing now with a shocked frown on her face. Her friends picked themselves back up and slowly approached her this time.

Adamantine approached them now. “The connection is not completely stable, Sunset Shimmer. I will do my best to refine it. But also…” Her frown deepened. “You should know that I cannot sustain this projection indefinitely. I will have to stop and recharge at some points.”

Sunset listened in silence and then examined herself. She even took a moment to flex her right foreleg, noting how naturally it bent this way and that. She coursed some magic into her horn but didn’t let anything off. Her friends, meanwhile, just looked at her intently.

Twilight stepped forward. “Yes… We’ll have to make the most of our time.”

Sunset gave her body another once over, nodded solemnly, and then let her expression firm up. “Yeah,” she said. She turned toward the table. “Princess Celestia, I think I want to go over everything that we’ve learned about all this. I want to know everything everyone else knows.”

Princess Celestia nodded. “Absolutely, Sunset.”

Sunset turned to Adamantine now. “And then maybe we can start talking about those permissions that you mentioned.”

Adamantine nodded.

Sunset looked around, passing over everyone in the room, although she especially stopped over her friends. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. So… let’s get working.”

And everyone in the room shared affirmative nods.

8 - Links II

Stygian stood up straight and lit his horn, his magic a moderate azure. A portal appeared in the middle of the Canterlot Castle throne room, revealing a dusty and forever browned throne room on the other side. Stygian looked back at his companions. Starswirl the Bearded nodded sagely and too looked back. Mistmane, Mage Meadowbrook, Rockhoof, Flash Magnus, and Somnambula also nodded in return, and then they turned toward their guest.

Stygian knew of a Chancellor Neighsay. In this timeline, Chancellor Neighsay was the head of the Equestria Education Association, and had given Princess Twilight trouble. The pony standing with them was not a chancellor; rather, he had been a tactician in a war against King Sombra, but this stallion resembled Chancellor Neighsay in every other way, down to the goatee and the slicked-back mane.

Stygian stepped through as the others motioned for Neighsay to follow. One by one, the eight of them stepped through the opening and emerged into the ruined throne room surrounded by the wasteland.

Six of the seven tables had bodies at them. The Celestias and Lunas paid them no mind as they continued their own conversation.

“Yes,” Luna D said. “The Dragon Lands have gone dark in our timeline. We’re trying to gather some information, but right now, we fear the worst.”

“There are a couple of places south of Equestria that we haven’t heard back from,” Celestia S replied. “We don’t know if they have necessarily gone dark yet, but the possibility is there.”

The Celestias and Lunas nodded solemnly.

Stygian cleared his throat and approached the one empty table that had a letter R on it. “Excuse me, Your Highnesses.”

Several heads turned. Their expressions hardened as they spotted Stygian first, hardened again when they saw the rest of the Pillars and Neighsay. Luna I said it first, “Excuse me? Can we help you?”

Starswirl also approached the table and nodded. “Yes, Your Highnesses. As a matter of fact, it sounds like we couldn’t have come at a better time. We have news on this front.”

They all shot to attention and now turned to face them in full.

Luna I nodded. “Then pray tell us your report?”

Starswirl nodded. “May I introduce Mister Neighsay of Equestria S,” he said as he stepped aside.

Neighsay straightened up and approached the table. His eyes fell on table S where he locked eyes with his Princess Celestia.

And Celestia S nodded. “Mister Neighsay. A pleasure to see you again.”

“Likewise, Your Highness,” Neighsay replied. He turned toward the rest of the congregation. “I’ve just come from the town of Somnambula on the southern border of Equestria S. I am afraid that I must confirm your worst fears.”

Somnambula straightened up but her expression didn’t change.

“We were indeed attacked,” Neighsay said simply.

The gasps around the room were silent and subdued as the Celestias and Lunas exchanged sharp glances.

Luna N straightened up. “So, it’s true, then.”

Celestia I looked back at Neighsay now. “Mister Neighsay, can you describe the attack for us?”

Neighsay nodded. “Yes. It was very sudden. I was in town just yesterday, you see. And we heard these roars in the sky as we saw a large airship armada appear out of portals in the air. They all bore Storm King flags and they dropped Storm King soldiers on us. I have to imagine there were at least ten airships.”

Celestia S frowned. “That is quite a lot for a town in the desert.”

Stygian nodded. “I believe ten airships or so was how many they took Canterlot with in our timeline, Your Highness.”

Starswirl nodded. “I concur.”

“I was able to get out because I’m an authorized portal spell caster,” Neighsay explained. “Plus I’ve developed my own long distance travel portals. Anyway, during the attack, I was able to determine which timeline they were making the portals from, and I made my own portal into the wasteland to see. I want to imagine that’s this timeline, isn’t it?”

Luna N nodded. “It is.”

“And while I was there, I saw they had about a hundred more airships all waiting. And that was just in that area alone. They could have more.”

A long silence passed throughout the room. The Celestias and Lunas sat there in reflective silence. A few even leaned against and steadied themselves on the tables in front of them. The Pillars, meanwhile, exchanged worried glances.

“That… is… horrible,” Luna T said at length as she pinched the bridge of her muzzle.

Celestia S shuddered. “Y-yes. It is. We cannot…”

Several sets of eyes looked up.

Celestia S’s muzzle scrunched up as she trembled in her seat. “We cannot do another war. I cannot do another war right now.”

“It would appear that the Storm Kings of the other timelines have united and begun campaigning,” Luna D said. “Is there anything we can do to combat this?”

Celestia N shook her head. “That is a very good question. But I don’t think we can honestly answer that how we would like to.”

“We could, in theory,” Celestia T said. “But, I think, in these circumstances…”

“We aren’t exactly unified right now,” Luna N sighed.

Neighsay’s eyes widened but he said nothing.

Stygian swallowed. “Maybe that’s why they’re moving now,” he suggested. As many heads turned to face him, he added, “Maybe they know that we’re not unified. Maybe they know that we aren’t at our strongest. We could even believe that Queen Chrysalis told them about us.”

Luna D frowned. “They… would know that we’ve burned our bridges.”

Neighsay looked around, examined their faces, and then cleared his throat. “Pardon the interjection,” he said, pausing again to let them face him, “but this is the first I have heard about this. I thought we Equestrias were allies?”

Celestia C nodded. “We were.”

Neighsay tilted his head. “Were? Your Highnesses... did that change?”

Several of the Celestias and Lunas shifted uncomfortably and otherwise averted their gazes. For several long moments, none of them could even manage an answer.

Sunset looked at the piece of paper within her magic. She read over it in silence.

This is the W seal for the Nameless. I have committed sin and have done all I can to rectify the sin. The framework is in place, but I cannot finish it. I have made a mistake which will be the burden of the future. I have paid for my mistake with my existence and I will die knowing that is not enough. But all the worlds must come together. All that has diverged must reconnect. All the loose ends must be tied up. Only then, perhaps, all the strife that I shall no doubt cause shall come to an end. Only then, perhaps, I may be truly forgiven. For the good of Consensus, you would do well to observe this, Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset frowned and read over it a couple more times. It read like a requiem of sorts.

But what does it mean? Sunset thought. There isn’t anyone else except for whoever created the seal that could have written this. That is obvious. But what sin are they talking about? Why is their mistake a burden on us?

Did their mistake cause the Nameless to exist?

She set the paper down onto the table and stared at the ceiling. And why does it put so much emphasis on bringing the worlds together? Like… yeah, the Nameless was bad because it couldn’t associate with any one timeline, and it could spread that disassociation.

Sunset thought back to what she had seen in her dreams. Two of those dreams had stuck out to her.

The first had been of a strange, onyx-colored, silver mane and tailed alicorn stallion. He had done something with a crystal ball; perhaps he had energized it. And then there had been the monstrously large, chaotic blob of black slime with a red light in the middle of its mass. That was the Nameless; there was no doubt in Sunset’s mind.

The second had been with that same alicorn stallion. The other entity had been an ordered quadruped of black slime with a red light in the center. That entity, which had similar features to the Nameless yet contrasted it in some many ways, had activated some mechanisms. Those mechanisms had gone haywire and the entity had jumped into them in some vain attempt to contain them. And something had ripped.

Sunset frowned. These two entities I saw… are they related?

“Sunset?” a voice asked. “Are you alright?”

Sunset looked back down. Rarity, her friend from Canterlot High, was looking back at her. Here, in Equestria, she was the other Rarity; Sunset had to take a moment to remind herself of that. The rest of the Rainbooms sat at the table with her; they too watched her expectantly.

At other tables nearby, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Tempest held a quiet conversation as they went over maps while discussing things apparently related to the Storm King. Spike and the rest of the Elements sat at another table, grading homework while occasionally tossing around theories related to Consensus.

Sunset chuckled nervously. “Oh, yeah. I’m okay. I’m just thinking. That’s all.”

The portal shimmered, and Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna stepped through. Unfortunately, both teetered and fell onto their faces, with the former spilling the bag she had been carrying in her forehooves, scattering papers across the floor.

Sunset shot to her hooves and trotted over to them. She picked up the papers with her magic while extending a hoof to Vice Principal Luna (as she was closest), helped her to her hooves, and then did the same for Principal Celestia. “Watch that step,” she said with a chuckle, “it’s a doozy.”

Principal Celestia frowned. “Yes. It is.”

At that, Vice Principal walked over to the table where the rest of the Rainbooms sat. “Alright, girls, we’ve brought your schoolwork for today.”

The other Twilight beamed as Sunset set the papers down. Sunset herself blinked and looked over at Vice Principal Luna with a raised eyebrow.

The other Rainbow Dash, however, threw her hooves into the air. “What!?”

Principal Celestia chuckled. “Rainbow Dash, we aren’t going to let you spend the day here for free. It’s still a school day.”

“Oh, come on!”

“Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash, I’ll help out!” the other Twilight cheerfully exclaimed.

“How the hay are we gunna even write with these?” the other Applejack asked as she held up her hooves.

Now Principal Celestia frowned. “O-oh. Well…”

Sunset snickered. “Just use your mouth. It’s not that hard.”

The other Rarity, along with the rest of the table, looked up at her and frowned. “Oh, Sunset, you did not just suggest that. Write with our mouths?” She snorted. “How uncouth.”

“I’m serious. That’s how many ponies in Equestria write.”

The table exchanged uncertain glances.

“Trust me,” Sunset said. “This is what it is like to be a pony. Remember, I grew up here.”

“Gosh, Sunset, you’re right. Now that I think about it, you must have spent so much time learning how to be a human like we are,” the other Fluttershy said. She briefly thought it over and then smiled. “You know… I think… if Sunset can learn how to be a human, we can learn how to be ponies.”

“Yeah!” the other Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “I’m with Fluttershy.”

The other Applejack chuckled. “Well, shoot. You ain’t wrong there.”

The other Rarity squirmed and eventually sighed. “Fine… I suppose.”

Sunset smiled. “I’ll leave you to it, then.”

As the eight of them continued their discussion on homework and writing techniques, Sunset trotted over to the table where Twilight, Starlight, and Adamantine worked, with the latter two sitting opposite.

Twilight looked up as Sunset approached. “Hey.”

“Hey. What’cha working on?”

“Oh, nothing too important. I’m just trying to double down on the time dilation stuff we’ve been seeing with the crystal ball.”

Sunset nodded. “Okay. Find anything so far?”

Twilight motioned to a spot next to her. “Kind of. Let me show you.”

As Sunset sat, Twilight levitated one of the papers on the table. “Fourth line in, it says, ‘All time manipulations from layers above this one shall add together to create the observed effect.’” Twilight looked up. “I think that means that it’s a sum.”

Sunset nodded. “I can see that.”

“So that means what we see is a sum of dilation effects that are either ours or above ours.”

Sunset looked at the transcription for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah. And we could probably guess that most layers are dilating.”

Twilight looked back down. “Each layer’s term shall be of a magnitude which is to the power of its distance away.”

“There’s a factor, right?”

“Yes,” Twilight replied. She looked down at the transcription again. “Inverse one point nine five five two six.”

“Okay, so every layer gives the same factor… to the power of the distance away from us it is. I guess it gets weaker the further out it is.”

Twilight nodded. “I would say so.”

Sunset tilted her head. “Okay, but if we have that, what if we assumed that a bunch of layers above us weren’t dilating? There would be little to no time dilation in that case.”

After a moment’s pause, Twilight hummed. “Yes. If we idealized by saying there are no time dilation effects above us… I think we should get a one-to-one passage of time between us and the layer below us. We should run at the same speed in that case.”

“Like it did in the past,” Sunset pointed out.

“Mmhmm. So I guess we have to add one to whatever we have. So our passage of time between us and the layer below us will be one plus the time dilation effects from our layer and the layer above us.”

“Makes sense.” Sunset looked at the transcription again. “It says its an agreed on factor, so I guess while the layers can time dilate however they want, this is how the layers above us are going to dilate.” She paused. “It sounds to me like once we reach Consensus, every layer above us and also ours will be dilating using this factor.”

“I agree with that.”

Sunset put the quill on the paper and wrote 1+R⁰ onto it. “Since it sounds like an on/off situation here, I’ll start with this. Here’s our layer at power zero. And then I can say that the layer above us is time dilating and add that in.” She wrote some more. “And the layer above that…” She wrote some more.

Twilight gasped but said nothing. It was only then that Sunset herself stopped to see what she had written.
It now read 1+R⁰+R¹+R².

“Oh, buck!” Sunset exclaimed. “It’s a geometric series!”

Several heads at the nearby table shot up and looked in their direction.

“An infinite geometric series!” Twilight shrieked. “Of course! That’s what it’s been trying to describe! Oh my gosh! We… we can solve that exactly.”

“It’s just one divided by one minus R, right?” Sunset said.

Twilight jabbed her hoof at Sunset. “That’s right. I think I can…” She grabbed a new sheet of paper and immediately put her quill to it. Mathematical equations ran off her quill but Twilight evidently did all of the number crunching in her head. She muttered herself through the steps all the while.

“Let’s see… three point oh four… two point oh four… one point five three…” Twilight’s eyes widened. “One point two seven! One point one four!”

Sunset blinked. “So I was right… we get back the ball speedup numbers we got back before.”

“That’s not all,” Twilight said. “Based on this, I’m also able to say that it’s us and the layer immediately above us that hasn’t time dilated yet. Everything above there has.” She looked up. “The next time the ball speeds up, it’ll run at two hundred and four percent speed.”

Sunset looked over at the numbers. “And it’s going to cap out at just over three hundred percent, huh?’

Twilight nodded. “Once we turn ours on, that is.”

Sunset held up the transcription. “It says it has to be applied and maintained during the last twenty hours. So I guess, twenty hours before Consensus, we’ll turn our part of the time dilation on.”

“And,” Adamantine chimed in from the other side of the table, “I suspect that the layer above us will also apply and maintain their time dilation terms in their last twenty hours.”

Twilight and Sunset nodded in response.

Starlight also glanced up. “You know, now that we have all the numbers, we could probably figure out exactly when Consensus is going to happen.”

Twilight perked up. “Yes! We could.”

The other Twilight stood up in a huff. “Oh! Let me take care of that! I’ll do those calculations!”

The others looked over and gave an assortment of chuckles and shrugs.

Twilight nodded and giggled. “Well, if there’s anypony I would trust with doing calculations like this, it would be myself!” She circled some numbers on the sheet of paper and then levitated it over to the Rainboom’s table. “Here you go. They aren’t to complete precision, so you can improve on that.”

The other Twilight nodded. “I’ll do that.”

“We all will,” the other Fluttershy cheerfully said.

Sunset smiled and then turned her attention to Adamantine and Starlight. “How are you doing over there?”

Adamantine exchanged glances with Starlight. “I believe we are making progress on these permissions. In fact, we may almost have it.”

“That’s good. How did you figure it out?”

“Hmmm. Mostly soul searching and remembering things I was not previously aware of. I am entirely convinced that the best course of action is to just ask me questions and see how I answer.”

Sunset leaned over the table to see their work. “Is it a magic spell?” she asked.

Adamantine nodded. “That it is.”

“Is it a hard one?” she asked.

Starlight giggled. “Not really. It’s not even remotely demanding.”

“Huh, that’s cool. Will you need me for it?” Sunset asked.

At that, Adamantine blinked. She then looked at Starlight again. “Actually… no. Ah, we did not even talk about this. And yet… I know it to be true.”

Twilight looked up and even giggled. “Well, there you go.”

Sunset grinned and leaned forward. “What’s the secret to becoming an alicorn?” she asked.

Adamantine chuckled. “Oh, I definitely don’t know that one. I’m sorry.”

Sunset shrugged. “Well, it was worth a shot.”

Adamantine passed a paper over to Starlight who took it, carefully read it over, and eventually passed it back with a nod.

“Okay, Sunset, you will want to listen carefully,” Adamantine said as she stood up. “I am going to give it a try. Please tell me if you notice anything.”

Twilight put down her quill and looked up.

Sunset stood up as well and nodded in return. “Sure. Go ahead.”

Adamantine lit her horn. The magic washed over her body and then disappeared inside it.

And then Sunset found herself reaching out into places she couldn’t describe. Something was pulling her essence this way and that, stretching it out to places that didn’t exist. In a way, it felt like traveling through the mirror portal as her body twisted into new shapes. It was like growing fingers which were infinitely more complex and flexible than hooves were.

Sunset looked down at herself. Her physical body—it was a projection, she had to take a moment to remind herself of that—didn’t change at all, but she now felt like she could reach new places.

Some of those sensations were close. Many others were further away. But she could feel them all.

Starlight stood up. “Did it work?” she asked.

Sunset nodded. “Yeah. I think so.” She looked up. “I feel really connected to everything right now. It’s really… it’s… it’s something else?”

Adamantine nodded. “I would imagine that I’ve given you access to quite a bit.”

“Yeah.” Sunset scratched her head. “I can feel the seal. I can feel all the seals.” She looked around, trying to see stuff which she felt surrounded her on all sides, even in some directions that didn’t even exist. “I can feel it around me. What the hay.” She even batted the air.

Adamantine giggled. “Oh. That is precious.”

Sunset hummed as she mentally sorted through the sensations. Many similar ones were spread out across the world; one particularly dense sensation, however, took the shape of a pony—an alicorn at that. “I can sense the stones,” Sunset announced. She felt a smaller set of sensations; seven of them were clumped together while the eighth was distant. Unlike the stones, these sensations were firmer yet malleable. They seemed to reach into a new direction that, while the other directions didn’t exist, this new direction especially didn’t exist.

Sunset looked at the crystal ball sitting in the middle of the table. That crystal ball looked into another reality, much like theirs but not quite their own, in a direction that especially didn’t exist. Right now, the crystal ball showed Princess Celestia’s bedroom. The afternoon sun streamed through the windows at this moment.

Sunset leaned forward. And she, with her mind, touched that isolated sensation with her mind. And then she fed that sensation a thought: Forward.

Inside the crystal ball, the view crept forward. It ran into the wall, and all turned black, and then it showed the outside of the tower. The castle grounds, a myriad of sprawling greens and structures of bush, lay far below. The rest of the castle stretched up beyond that, with a certain tower visible on the other side of the grounds. Past the castle walls, the city of Canterlot stretched outward with its shining whites and bustily air.

Sunset sent another thought: Stop.

The view obeyed.

Twilight blinked. “Wait… Sunset! Y-you…”

“You can move the crystal ball with your mind!?” Starlight cried.

A table over, several heads shot up. Spike was the first to act as he hopped off the table and dashed over to them. The Elements also stood up and jogged over.

“Yeah. I got the ball too,” Sunset replied.

Applejack chuckled. “Well, ain’t that somethin’?”

“Adamantine got those permissions working,” Sunset explained. “So I’m connected to everything now.”

Rainbow Dash punched Sunset in her withers. “Awesome!”

“Actually… I wonder…” Sunset said as she turned her attention back to the ball. She stared at it for a few moments, thought about what she wanted, and then give it a thought; the thought, however, was a concept rather than a direction: Ponyville.

The view in the ball immediately changed to show a small town in the middle of the valley. Houses of simple, wooden materials dotted the earth. A large plaza in one corner of town hosted a red and yellow building that somewhat resembled a carousel. A large, crystalline, tree-shaped castle towered over the town and a rather large school stood attached to the hill right beside it.

Fluttershy, along with the others, gasped. “Oh, wow!”

“Good heavens!” Rarity exclaimed. “I’ve never seen it do that before!”

Sunset tilted her head. Canterlot tower.

The view changed again into a large room. Towering bookshelves ringed around the room, rusted machines lay in the outlying spaces, and a sprawling window that took up an entire side let all the sunlight in. The window frame looked new—it had likely been replaced, after all. The space where a large hourglass had once stood was still vacant.

Twilight nodded with approval. “That’s impressive! I didn’t know that degree of control was even possible!”

Sunset nodded and looked up. “I don’t think that’s all I can do with it. But yeah, this is pretty cool.”

Spike climbed onto the table. “Hey, what about getting it to look at other layers?”

Fluttershy gasped. “Oh, that’s right! It did mention something about that.”

Sunset ran a hoof through her mane. “Yeah… Uh, I hadn’t thought too much about that. I could probably do that… if I knew how.”

Twilight nodded. “There has to be a command for it somewhere. Commands words, maybe… but I don’t know them.”

“I believe the words you are looking for are anaward and kataward,” Adamantine replied with a smile. She then blinked in astonishment and shook her head. “Ah, how did I know that?”

“What?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Twilight giggled. “Oh, yes. Those are the words we’d use if there were four spacial dimensions instead of three.” She turned. “Sunset, I think those might be it.”

“I’ll try that,” Sunset said. She looked back at the crystal ball. It’s looking at the layer below us right now. One layer up from that would be our layer, she thought. She reached out and mentally touched the crystal ball again. Anaward.

Everyone leaned across the table. The ball’s view changed again, but while it still showed the tower, relatively unchanged, the sky outside reflected a morning time.

Ping!

Sunset blinked. The sound had been so quick and so sudden and, strangely, had been entirely inside her head. Across the way, Adamantine also blinked.

“Good job, Sunset!” Twilight exclaimed. “You did it! At least, I assume you did it.”

Sunset’s frown deepened. “Thanks. Uh, did anyone else hear anything just now?”

While everyone else exchanged glances, Adamantine nodded. “I did. I heard a ping.”

“Ah… Ah didn’t hear nothin’,” Applejack countered.

“It was inside my head,” Sunset said.

“Same with mine,” Adamantine said. “I have heard it before. Every nine days, on the dot, since I was born.”

Sunset leaned forward. “What does it mean?” she asked. “Does that pinging mean anything?”

After a few thoughtful moments, Adamantine nodded sagely. “Yes. I… I think it means that our layer is being watched.”

The others gasped.

Sunset nodded. “Well, I just moved this ball into looking at our layer.”

“Evidently, the seal—well, I—have a way of knowing when a crystal ball starts looking at our layer.” Adamantine scratched her head.

“Huh,” Starlight said. “That’s really interesting.”

But why do that? Sunset thought. What’s the reason behind this? When a few seconds of thought turned up nothing, she shook her head and pushed it out of her mind. She turned back toward the crystal ball. Anaward.

Inside the crystal ball, the view changed again; now the sun, based on the angle of light streaming into the room, was much higher. A few guards, visible on the grounds below, seemed to trot at a slower pace.

Sunset fed the ball the same command and continued to do so every time it changed. The view changed into an evening time, and then to nighttime, and then the very early morning. The next view was later in the morning.

Sunset paused. A couple of birds were flying by the room’s sprawling window. But they flew at a snail’s pace that shouldn’t have been possible and it seemed like their wings weren’t even moving. But they were, so impossibly slowly.

Several of the others cooed in response.

Spike even leaned forward and picked up the ball to better see into it. “Wow! They aren’t even moving!”

Twilight gasped and suddenly shot up. “Spike! Put it down!”

Spike blinked and looked over. And he gasped in return. “Sorry!” he said as he put it back on the table.

Sunset breathed a sigh of relief and then leaned forward. “But yeah. Look at those birds. We should be moving along much faster than their layer is. I would imagine higher layers are even slower than this for us.”

“Simply fascinating…” Adamantine cooed.

By this time, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Tempest had walked over and were craning their necks to get a good look at the seemingly stationary birds outside the Canterlot tower window. In short order, the eight visitors from the human world came over as well. Fluttershy flapped her wings and took to the air in order to make room, a move which Rainbow Dash shortly imitated.

“You could actually look into the future with this,” Twilight said.

Starlight nodded. “Yeah. That’s what it seems like. I mean,” she said as she glanced around at everyone, “that’s several layers up from us. But still!”

Sunset centered her thoughts on the crystal ball again and she fed it a new thought: Kataward.

Inside the crystal ball, the view changed back to earlier in the morning. It then changed into a night time and again into an evening time.

Principal Celestia, who watched the crystal ball intently, looked up. “It makes me wonder if it has ever been used for that exact purpose,” she said.

Sunset fed another kataward command to the ball and then heard a Ping! inside her head. She looked up and met Adamantine’s eyes; Adamantine stared back intently.

“That is a very good question,” Princess Celestia replied, shooting her double a smile. “If whoever made these things went through the trouble of adding that functionality, I don’t see why they wouldn’t use it.”

Principal Celestia frowned. “Well, they went through the trouble of adding a lot of things that hardly have anything to do with sealing away a monster.” She glanced around the table. “Just from what I’ve heard from all of you, we still don’t understand what many of these things were for.”

As Sunset continued mentally feeding the ball commands, during which the view kept changing by slight amounts, she physically turned to look at them. “Yeah… why would they bother messing with other timelines in that case? Why would they bother working with infinitely many layers in that case? How did they even figure out they even existed?” She paused. She then made a motion with her forehooves like she was shaking some invisible object. “Why do they care so much about the existence of these other worlds, anyway?”

Twilight leaned forward. “Why go through all the trouble of keeping them on track? Why make such a big deal about weights and averages, whatever that is for?”

Princess Celestia nodded solemnly. “That bothers me as well. What is Consensus, and why is it so important? What is it to us?”

“Yes... there’re so many questions… many of which I’m sure only those behind the seal could have answered.”

Adamantine hummed. “Well… perhaps it is possible that these things have been put in place because they knew that we would need it,” she offered.

Princess Luna ruffled her wings as she looked up. “Adamantine… you suggest that they have indeed looked into the future?”

“At the very least,” Adamantine replied with a tentative nod, “it would motivate what we’ve observed.”

Princess Luna stared for a second. “Yes… It would explain why the seal knows about the modern-day name for the Nameless.”

The other Rainbow Dash stood up in a huff and leaned across the table. “Yeah. I’d like to know if that’s why it knows about Sunset!”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, closed it again, and then tremulously said, “I-it could be. But…”

“For that to be true,” Tempest said, “it would have to have a way to find us.”

Princess Luna furrowed her brow. “Given the complexity of everything that we’ve seen… even for how statistically unlikely that is… I would not be surprised if they managed to do just that.”

Before anyone else could speak, as the view in the ball switched again, they all heard new sounds which seemed to be coming from the ball. It sounded like speech, even. A few ponies stood in the middle of the tower; Starlight, Adamantine, and Sunset. Strangely enough, a few more Sunset Shimmers stood off to the side.

Sunset, the one standing with Adamantine and Starlight, glanced toward the ceiling. “Do you know where it leads?” After a moment’s pause, she said, “Right.” She then nodded and motioned toward a set of orange spheres. “Yeah, I think I have something that you might not have seen before either. Look at these.” And then, a moment later, she said as she looked over them, “I don’t know.”

Twilight (along with a few others) gasped. “Oh, wow! I don’t believe it!”

“Oh my,” Adamantine said, holding a hoof against her chest as all breath left her. “I remember this.”

Starlight gasped and then leaned across the table so she could be as close to the crystal ball as possible. “Oh gosh, me too. This was right before it all went wrong.”

Sunset looked up. “Y… yeah…”

Adamantine approached the set and picked one up with her magic, eyeing it closely, pausing to take another sip of her coffee. “So these are the items that supplemented the seal. I never thought I would actually see one of these up close…” After a moment’s pause, she continued, “Which would be ten days ago for you, Twilight.” She picked up another stone, this one white. She held it up. “This one is missing the energy in its outer layer.”

“We should… we should warn them!” Starlight exclaimed.

“What exactly does that mean?” Starlight asked.

Adamantine frowned. “It’s a dead stone.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Sunset replied. “I think we can only talk to the layer right below us. Every other layer is out of luck.”

Sunset fed the crystal ball another kataward command, and the view changed again to show an empty tower once more. She continued feeding more commands, idly wondering if she would find herself again if she went down far enough.

The other Twilight chuckled. “Still, I can’t believe you just found yourselves. That’s so fascinating.”

Sunset giggled and looked up. “Well… I mean… we have used the tower a lot…”

“I’ll say,” Twilight agreed.

Rarity gasped and then waved a hoof at Sunset. “Keep going, then! Sunset, keep going until you find us again.”

Sunset threw her head back and laughed. “I was just thinking about that!”

The other Rainbow Dash laughed in return. “Do it!” she bellowed.

“Do it!” a few others echoed.

Sunset looked back down and fed more kataward commands in rapid succession. The view inside the ball flickered as layers went by, but nothing special appeared. Everyone leaned forward with anticipation, waiting for something to change.

Finally, the view flickered once more, this time revealing five mares standing around what looked like a white ball in the middle of the room. They were Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. And they all faced a sixth mare now standing at the head of some stairs.

Sunset Shimmer’s ears drooped backward. With trepidation, she slunk over to the ball. And, after a moment of watching it, she said, “I don’t understand...”

Sunset chuckled. “Wow…”

“Ah!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. She hopped onto the table, zipped up to the ball, and stared holes into it; she stopped just short of pressing her face into it. “I remember this! This was when we were confused!”

Twilight giggled. “Uh, Pinkie Pie, can you be more specific? I think we’ve been confused quite a few times.”

“What’s going on!?” Spike called out as he appeared at the head of the staircase.

“Well, duh,” Pinkie Pie said with a roll of her eyes. “But this is when we were confused.”

Rarity turned to Spike with a frown. “Sunset Shimmer teleported into the ball,” she explained.

Spike nearly sprinted over to them. “But she’s right here!”

“Yes, but she’s also in there,” Rarity replied, indicating with her hoof.

Applejack chuckled and nodded. “Nah. Ah think Ah see what Pinkie Pie’s sayin’. We were mighty confused. We ain’t ever been more confused.”

Sunset waved a hoof through the air as if indicating some height. “Eh… it’s up there. I don’t know if it’s the most we’ve been confused, though.”

At the same time, she fed another kataward command into the ball. The scene changed again to show an empty tower, but some whistles could be heard from a lower area. With some further thought commands, the view moved downward through the floor and into the living area. Two mares, Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer, stood in the middle of the room. Two books floated in Twilight’s magical grasp, with each shaking especially violently as ink flowed from some ink wells that Sunset was holding with her magic into one of those books.

“Oh gosh,” Fluttershy, now looking a little pale in the face. “Does this mean that some ponies were watching us then?”

Twilight pursed her lips and then nodded sagely. “Uh… I think so.”

Twilight cut the spell off, and then she clutched at her chest and panted heavily. She even wiped a few drops of sweat off her brow.

Sunset took a cursory glance through the new notebook before galloping over to Twilight with both that and the original in her magical grasp.

A drop of sweat formed on Rainbow Dash’s brow. “Uh… heh heh… That’s not creepy.”

Starlight frowned. “You really think so, Twilight?”

The two ponies compared the books side-by-side. Their grins grew wider with each page, blossoming into triumphant smiles by the time they reached the final set of text.

And then, without a single moment’s reprieve, Sunset Shimmer suddenly disappeared in another explosion of sparks, taking the original book with her. That left Twilight alone to begin considering the book’s contents.

Twilight wore a perplexed frown. She opened her mouth to speak, closed it again, and then shook her head. “Well, if the worlds still follow each other… which it looks like they do, then plenty of layers above us have had this conversation already.” She nodded her head from side to side. “So it’s not much of a stretch to think they looked back and found us. Actually, it seems pretty par for the course.”

Sunset folded her hooves together and stared at the crystal ball; it remained unchanged at the moment as she was no longer sending commands to it. But this is a thing… this other layers being able to watch us is a big deal, she thought. Sure, it makes sense that if you could really move the view to any layer… theoretically… that gives access to the entire infinity. We’re only now playing with it… but still.

She scratched her cheek. Evidently… if we’re getting pinged… then our crystal ball is talking to whatever layer we’re looking at.

“Adamantine,” Sunset said.

Adamantine blinked and looked over. When Sunset didn’t respond, Adamantine’s frown deepened. “Sunset?”

Sunset only briefly looked up as all eyes turned to her. There has to be more to it, she mentally concluded. She straightened. “I want to know more about these pings we heard. When I moved the crystal ball onto our layer… how exactly did you know we were being watched?”

Adamantine placed a hoof over her chest as she lost some of her breath. “How did…? Ah…” She paused. “It is somewhat difficult to explain… I could sense a presence… somewhere. It was there for only a moment.”

“Can you tell me more about that presence?”

“I… can’t say too much. I could tell from a glance that it is similar to another presence that has always been there.” Adamantine rocked from side to side. “Actually, that one disappeared a few days ago. That is strange. Nonetheless, these presences, based on the one that was always there, reached in some direction I could not fathom. As to the second one… it only appeared for brief instants, and it always accompanied the pings that I would hear. But… there have been a few times recently where it lingered… And…”

Those sitting down sat taller in anticipation.

“And…?” Twilight tried.

“Well… now that I think about it… there have been a few other times recently where that presence has lingered. It was especially long when it happened a few days before the Nameless was destroyed. And it was of some length not long after that.” Adamantine paused. “And it has lingered somewhat every time since…”

Sunset could feel her hairs standing on end. She stood up. “…Okay. What about when I had the ball on our layer just now?”

After a moment of staring at the table, Adamantine looked up. “Well… now that you mention it… it was there then too.” Her expression darkened as she said, in a lower tone, “And it disappeared the moment you moved the view to another layer.”

“Both times?”

“Both times.”

“Adamantine…” Starlight said as she too stood up. “Was that us? Do you think that thing you were sensing was us?”

Adamantine’s eyes flickered from side to side as she searched her mind. “I would… suspect so.”

Twilight hummed. “It would make sense. The first one that’s been there forever would be just the layer above us watching our layer constantly.”

“Yes. Had I thought about all of this back then, perhaps I could have traced that presence back to the source.”

The room fell silent again. All eyes remained on Adamantine now.

Could have… followed it to the source… Sunset thought. If we know we’re being watched, we can find the source. And… it sounds like higher layers have been looking further back than we are right now.

Her muzzle twitched. But… how far back?

“So… what does this all mean?” Principal Celestia asked. “Forgive me. I’m not really suited to completely understand these things.”

Princess Celestia nodded. “Twilight? Do you have any thoughts?”

Twilight remained silent. She eventually shook her head and looked over. “Sunset?”

Sunset looked up at Twilight. “There are so many questions… a lot of which I’m sure only those behind the seal could have answered,” Twilight’s voice said in Sunset’s head.

Her eyes moved back onto the crystal ball. Twilight sat on the couch, idly browsing the journal she had copied from a time-traveling Sunset. Sunset considered the image within for a moment and then considered the ball itself.

Her frown deepened. I… wonder…

She fed a rapid volley of mental kataward commands into the ball. The image within began flickering at a rapid pace. The sky outside ran through every type of weather imaginable, oscillating between clear skies and cloudy skies before making way for wintery whites and cool colors. Browns and yellows flashed by before returning to the summer weathers.

A few eyes drilled holes into it and then looked up at Sunset questioningly.

Twilight swallowed. “Sunset?” she wheezed. “What are you doing?”

Sunset looked up. “I’m going back... back as far as I can.”

“Why?”

Sunset didn’t respond for a moment. She kept moving through lower layers at even faster velocities. They went by in the blink of an eye now.

Tentatively, she spoke, “I’m not entirely sure what’s about to happen… although I have a good idea…” She looked up. “But… if I’m right about this… I’m about to blow this whole thing wide open.”

Now Twilight’s hair also stood on end as she turned her attention toward the crystal ball. Several sets of eyes followed suit. No one said anything; everyone just about held their breaths.

The weather outside the tower repeatedly breezed through summers and winters and everything in between in quick succession. A few blurs occasionally appeared within the living area, but the view changed so quickly that identifying them was impossible. The decorations occasionally shifted or sometimes were replaced. The layers came and went.

Eventually, the decorations disappeared entirely, and then the walls started tearing down. Sunset knew better; this was likely when the tower was built. The tower was unmade, and that revealed the main castle beyond being unmade as well. Soon enough, the entire castle grounds was nothing more than a green pasture on the mountainside.

Sunset fed a seal command to the crystal ball, and the view changed to show a large, hemispherical chamber. The various sigils in the floors and the walls glowed with a hellish red light. For a few moments, the image seemed to remain static.

All the while, everyone continued watching in silence; they, however, let out their held breaths. A minute passed.

How many layers down had she already gone? Sunset couldn’t tell.

Finally, new images flickered inside the ball. Seemingly, the chamber itself began deconstructing, revealing rock wall behind it. The floor disappeared as well, revealing a large cavity. And then that cavity filled up with dirt and rock which yielded a smooth surface. Several structures suddenly appeared within the cavern.

The flickering stopped and the image within the crystal ball settled into something final.

Sunset straightened up. “This is as far as I can go,” she announced.

Everyone craned their necks to see into the ball.

Monolithic structures made of smooth and shiny rock, placed in each corner of the cavern, stretched toward the jagged, uneven, crystalline ceiling. Their faces hosted large, bioluminescent circuits that brightened and dimmed in some sort of rhythm. The center of the cavern hosted a small pedestal made of stone. A crystal ball sat nestled into a cavity in its top.

An alicorn stallion of an onyx-colored coat and a silvery mane and tail suddenly perked up and turned his attention toward the crystal ball. He said a few words in a strange language. His movements and speech had speed to them like hsi reality was moving fast.

Adamantine gasped and rose to her hooves. “Oh my goodness…”

Sunset sucked in a breath. “Wow… I don’t believe it.”

“Hey… who is that?” Starlight asked.

“I’ve seen him in my dreams,” Sunset wheezed. “He’s real!”

Twilight looked up. “Adamantine?”

The alicorn stallion trotted a few laps around the pedestal, considering it all the while. He muttered a few more words in his strange language.

“That…” Adamantine croaked. “Yes… I know who that is. That is… Genesis. He… he was the first king of the unponies. T-that was six thousand years ago.”

Several took a moment to consider her words. They eventually looked back into the ball.

Genesis looked up and faced a large opening at the head of the cavern which led into a nearby tunnel. He spoke again, his voice coarse and monotone. His language remained incomprehensible.

“A-ah…” Adamantine stammered, “he said… ‘I have received a ping. We are being watched.’”

Several heads turned to Adamantine with alarm.

And then a new voice replied back from within the tunnel. The voice was dark, guttural, and infernal. Its speech caused everyone in the library to shiver and lose color. It spoke in what had to be the same language as Genesis (who seemed unfazed by the voice’s power).

Adamantine looked like she was about ready to shrivel up. She shot to her hooves now. “Oh… oh, by the stars!”

“W-who is that?” Twilight wheezed.

The speaker then came into view. The entity, quadrupedal in appearance, stood several times the height of the alicorn. Its body was a mass of black slime with a singular red light in the center. Some bits and pieces here and there churned and twisted and even fell off, but for the most part, the body remained quite stable and whole. The head area was shaped like an actual one, with this one having a pronounced snout.

The entity glided into the center of the room and looked down at the crystal ball. And it smiled. Its mouth opened, showing pointed fangs. It even growled with delight, the sound of which had sickly undertones.

Adamantine screamed. She backpedaled, eventually crashing on the floor behind her. Even then, she tried to scurry away again. She screamed a series of words in a language completely alien.

Rarity gasped. “What is that!?” She whirled. “Adamantine! What…?”

“I don’t believe it!” Sunset exclaimed.

Princess Celestia flinched as Adamantine fled. “Adamantine! Are you alright!?”

Adamantine belted out a few more pointed words in her strange tongue and then lifted a hoof to shakily point at the crystal ball. “B… Behold! The Great Benefactor! Your Nameless ”

All at once, everyone besides Twilight and Sunset cried out and backed away from the table. While some like Tempest only needed a few steps of space, others like Principal Celestia, Vice Principal Luna, and both Fluttershys drew back as far as they could before they fell over. Spike, who had been standing on the table, tumbled over the side.

The Nameless hovered over the crystal ball as it spoke a few more words. Genesis nodded and turned his attention to the pedestal holding the crystal ball. A few of the symbols within flashed seemingly at random.

“I-I… I can’t believe it!” the other Twilight cried. “I’m… I’m seeing it with my own eyes!”

“I-incredible…” Princess Luna stammered, now taking a few more steps back.

Several others were visibly sweating now. Rarity clung to Applejack who, in turn, idly returned the hold. Starlight stood deathly silent. Both Pinkie Pies glanced about with worried frowns.

“What is this!?” Princess Celestia cried. “What… what is the first king of the unponies doing with this monster!?”

The other Rainbow Dash looked up. “Sunset, what did you do!?”

Sunset couldn’t even find words to reply with. She just stared back in shock.

The Nameless spoke a few more words as Genesis worked. And then Genesis, without looking up, said some words in return.

“What are they saying!?” Twilight screamed, whipping her head to face Adamantine in particular.

Adamantine, still shaking, rolled over and rose to her hooves. “T-they’re… they’re trying to find the source of whatever is watching them… they’re closing in on it…”

Sunset paled and had to steady herself on the table. “They’re… trying to find us.”

“Sunset!” the other Rainbow Dash cried.

Ping!

Adamantine suddenly jumped in place and audibly yelped.

Sunset flinched and looked up at Adamantine. “I… I just heard a ping! Did you hear that!?”

All eyes turned to Adamantine. Adamantine, in return, shakily nodded as some of her own color drained from her face. “Y-yes…” She swallowed. “We’re… being watched.”

Genesis uttered a few more words as the lights on the pedestal turned a different color; they kept the same, seemingly random pattern from before.

Adamantine’s body briefly fizzled in and out of existence which caused Sunset to also briefly fizzle. Everyone else looked over with alarm.

Once they restabilized, Sunset looked up. Adamantine rapidly ran hooves over her own body, checking to make sure she was still whole.

Genesis straightened up and looked up at the Nameless. And he said, smoothly this time, “Scan complete. Normalizing time passage.”

In the next moment, their movements seemed to slow down. Genesis then aimed his horn at the Nameless and shot a beam. The beam went straight through the slime and connected with the red light in its center, prompting a rainbow-colored wave to sweep over it.

The Nameless groaned and shifted in place but otherwise remained standing. It then chuckled.

Twilight gasped. “He… he got our language? Does that…?”

Everyone remained silent now.

Sunset gasped. “So… wait… wait…”

Starlight held up a hoof. “No.”

“If we’re looking at their layer…” Twilight began, “and… they are looking at ours…”

Sunset exchanged glances with Twilight. They stared into each other’s fearful eyes, sharing an entire unspoken conversation. And then Twilight firmed up and nodded.

And so Sunset turned her attention toward the ceiling as she had done before. She looked up, trying to find a face she knew wasn’t there. And she said, with a tremulous yet deliberate voice, “…Hello? Can you hear me?”

At once, both Genesis and the Nameless took one look down into the crystal ball. And they exchanged glances.

Finally, the Nameless let out a sinister chuckle as it tilted its head back. It too now looked up. It gave the impression that it was looking right at Sunset. And the Nameless stood to its full height and it opened its mouth.

“Greetings… my little ponies,” the Nameless said. “We meet at last.”

9 - Origin I

Wallflower Blush held onto her backpack straps as she made her way down the hallways of Canterlot High School. These hallways, packed with people, however, remained deathly quiet. Everyone else walked along with distant and vacant expressions on their faces.

This had been the reality this week. It showed no signs of improving.

And this wasn’t something that could simply be erased.

She trudged along with the same energy as everyone else. With her free period starting in a few minutes, however, there was no rush. And so she was content to watch, and watch she did.

She arrived in the foyer and noticed that, while everyone here still walked along in silence, they all regarded two bodies standing in front of the boarded-up cafeteria doors. As Wallflower looked over, she spotted Lyra and Bon Bon standing there with the former trying to talk to and console the latter as she cried. Eventually, Bon Bon tensed up and then fell into Lyra, and Lyra responded by wrapping her arms around her friend and even letting some silent tears of her own to fall.

And Wallflower couldn’t watch, so she turned and headed for the school’s front doors directly opposite. After briefly stopping to glance back, Wallflower walked outside.

The sky had no business being as clear and beautiful as it was. The birds flying through the sky had no business singing songs so happy.

Wallflower took a few steps forward and then stopped at the top of the steps.

There had been a time when she had resented Sunset Shimmer. There had been a time where everyone had, actually. But looking at the statue now, through which Sunset had disappeared for the final time just a few days prior, Wallflower couldn’t help but feel a twistedness inside.

Things had definitely changed in the past few months. And now things had changed again.

I wish I could forget this. I wish I could…

She reached into her backpack and took out a small, ovular stone. Wallflower felt the energy within as she held it. She considered it and what it would do only if she willed it to.

I could… I could fix this for everyone. No one would even know. She then frowned and fumbled with the stone. No one would even know.

She looked up. Even if I did, no one would know what I had done. …Well, I’d still be the invisible girl, I guess. It’s not like anyone has a reason to remember me anyway.

At that moment, however, Wallflower heard some voices from the other side of the statue, and she perked up. The voices persisted. While she couldn’t hear them clearly from where she stood, they spoke in confident, even spiteful tones. In fact, one of the voices gave a sinister giggle.

Wallflower tensed up. She knew those voices. Nearly everyone did.

With Memory Stone still in hand, Wallflower crept down the steps and down the pathway crossing the lawn. As she drew closer, the voices became much clearer and defined.

“So, Adagio,” a lower-pitched voice asked, “what do you think?”

Wallflower narrowed her eyes. It’s the sirens alright.

“I’d like to do it,” a sultry voice replied. “I just don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“Oh, but it would be so fun!” a higher-pitched voice said.

“Yes, and they probably could do some shit to us… again.”

“Maybe not,” the sultry voice said. “Especially not with the bitch that did this to us gone.”

And, with that, the other two laughed.

Wallflower gasped. They know!

The laughter stopped as the sultry voice cut in again. “Quiet. I think someone… may know we’re here.”

Wallflower frowned, gripped the stone tighter, and backed away from the statue just in time for three girls to appear from the other side.

Adagio Dazzle, their leader, whose unmistakably large, orange poof of hair (accented by yellowish highlights) naturally drew the eyes, smirked and said, in her sultry voice, “Well well, what do we have here?”

Aria Blaze, the one with the long, purple pigtails (with aquamarine highlights) frowned and crossed her arms. “Who the hell are you supposed to be?” she said with her lower-pitched voice.

Wallflower firmed up. “Doesn’t matter. You aren’t going to remember me anyway,” she replied. “You know about Sunset?”

At that, Sonata Dusk, the one with the with long, light and dark blue-striped ponytail, let out a high-pitched giggle. “Oh! You’re good. Yeah, we know.”

“She got what she deserved after what she did to us,” Adagio Dazzle hissed. “I only wish I could have been here to see it for myself.”

Aria chuckled and nodded in agreement. Sonata snickered as well.

Wallflower’s fist tightened even more. “So that’s why you came here.”

Adagio smirked. “Of course. We want to drink it in. Is that so wrong?”

“You don’t deserve to know about her,” Wallflower countered.

“Oh, don’t we now? Well, here we are, definitely knowing about her.”

Wallflower shook her head. “W-well… I’m going to fix that.”

At that, the three exchanged stunned glanced and then fell into uproarious, stomach-clasping laughter. They even nearly keeled over, saved only when they hung onto each other for support.

Wallflower’s expression remained unchanged. “Just like I fixed you every other time you showed your faces around here,” she continued. Which… I was actually starting to think you had actually moved on and were going to stop coming here.”

The more Wallflower spoke, the more their laughter died down.

“Every other time… we’ve come here?” Adagio asked.

“That’s right.”

At that, the Dazzlings glanced between each other with raised eyebrows and confused frowns. Sonata shrugged, and Aria shook her head.

“What are you talking about?” Sonata finally asked. “Like, this is the first time we’ve come here since the Battle of the Bands.”

“That’s right,” Adagio said as she crossed her arms. “I’m pretty sure I would remember coming here since then.”

At that, Wallflower smirked. “No, actually, you wouldn’t.”

The Dazzlings collectively flinched and now they stared holes into her.

Wallflower chose that moment to hold up the Memory Stone, sending energy coursing through it. “And you won’t remember this or Sunset either.”

“Wait a second!” Adagio cried as she lunged forward. “What—” She was cut off as a green light erupted from the Memory Stone and engulfed them.

Sunset Shimmer, after a long moment of silence, was the first to approach the crystal ball. She looked at the figures within, allowed more sweat to form on her brow, and then she looked up to where she presumed they were, in turn, watching from. “Y-you… you know who we are?”

Inside the crystal ball, the Nameless chuckled. “In a sense. I have been expecting your call.”

“You’ve been expecting our call?” Sunset asked. “How?”

The Nameless’ gargantuan, blobular form caressed the crystal ball sitting within the pedestal. “Since you have found me here, I will assume you know how everything works. The layer above told me…. they told me a few things.”

Adamantine swallowed and stumbled forward to get another look at the ball. She too then looked up. “It is really you. The Great Benefactor, as I live and breathe…”

The Great Benefactor tilted its head. “Perhaps that is me.”

Twilight let out a sharp wheeze as she too stumbled forward. “I don’t believe it… You are the monster that has… plagued us… plagued me from the beginning. You’re the source of all our problems.”

“Perhaps that is me,” the Great Benefactor echoed.

“I don’t understand,” Adamantine said. “How can this be? Why is it that Genesis there is allied with you?”

At that, Genesis’ frown deepened. “I will presume you refer to me. The answer to that query is simple. This is my master. It is in my programming to serve.”

Adamantine’s own frown deepened. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“That is very interesting,” the Great Benefactor said. “On what grounds do you call this one by that name? I have not given him that name.”

“He is Genesis, the first king of the unponies. He is my ancestor,” Adamantine said, stomping the ground. “That is the name all unponies have known him by.”

“Hmmm. Fascinating. I suppose I must keep that in mind.”

Twilight swallowed. “But why are you his master? Why would he ever side with you?”

“That’s right!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “You’re evil!”

“Vile!” Rarity seconded.

“Scary…” the other Fluttershy wheezed.

“We have always known you to be a threat to our entire world,” Adamantine said. “It has been my duty and the duty of the unponies to make sure you were contained and that you could deal no harm. You appearing as you have now… is impossible.”

The Great Benefactor threw its head back and laughed. “Oh, that’s precious! Absolutely. Allow me to clarify this and set you straight then. He is my assistant. He was made to serve his creator.”

A length of silence passed as everyone forgot to breathe. Eventually, some of them exchanged glances.

The other Twilight pointed a shaky hoof at the crystal ball. “His… creator… you?”

The Great Benefactor nodded. “Me.”

Another moment of silence passed.

Sunset felt all the life leave her and she began shaking. “Wait… wait…”

“No no no no no,” Twilight murmured as she began shaking her head back and forth. “No no no.”

“You seem perplexed,” the Great Benefactor said.

Sunset sucked in a breath. There’s… no way… There’s no way. The Nameless… created the first unpony king? The world seemed to stand still. But… if that’s true… then everything else…

Twilight, from the way she stumbled forward, seemed to be thinking along the same lines. “You… you’re the one behind all of this?”

“To what do you refer?” the Great Benefactor asked.

“The unponies, the crystal ball, the… infinitely many realities… this was all you?” Twilight wheezed. “You’re the architect behind everything?”

The Great Benefactor looked down and considered Genesis. Genesis looked up, his expression unchanged. The Great Benefactor then considered the crystal ball.

Finally, the Great Benefactor threw its head back and laughed. Its laugh shook space and time itself. “That’s right,” it said simply.

The room remained silent for many long moments as everyone soaked in what had just been said. They all shared uncomfortable glances and collectively shuddered.

Sunset swallowed. “So… the layers… the eight timelines… all you?”

“Yes. All me,” it said.

Twilight stumbled backward. “I don’t…”

Starlight gasped and then stepped forward. “W-wait. If you did all that stuff… Does that… does that mean that you built the chamber for the Nameless?”

The Great Benefactor’s smile faded. “Elaborate,” it eventually said.

Princess Celestia straightened up and walked forward. Her gaze remained on the ceiling. “The chamber of the Nameless is the seal for a monster—you. You posed a very significant threat to the world before it was destroyed.”

“Ah,” the Nameless replied. “That is what you refer to. I suppose you are correct, then.”

Twilight backpedaled. “No no no. No no no no no. There’s no way! You can’t—”

Applejack threw her Stetson to the ground. “Ah don’t believe it! Ah jus’ don’t!”

“Oh stars…” Rarity wheezed.

The Nameless snorted. “I fail to see why this should be of any surprise. I am a master of reality. Designing these things was elementary. Nothing more.”

Sunset shook her head. “N-no. It’s not that. It’s just… we always thought of you as the worst enemy. We always thought that you had been beaten by beings we could only have ever guessed at. We imagined they struggled with you. You’re… you’re basically saying…”

The Nameless chuckled. “Oh, yes, that we are one and the same. I still do not understand why I will seal myself away, but yes. I will build that prison for myself.”

“This… this is a lot to take in,” Sunset replied.

“I would imagine so, for beings of your form. I shall give you time to process what I have said by asking simple questions of my own.” It paused as it peered into its own crystal ball. “Now… you there, the one made of magic. You are of similar construction and appearance to my assistant here. Identify yourself.”

Adamantine sucked in a breath. “I am Adamantine. I was… the last queen of the unponies. Genesis, I am your descendant.”

Genesis nodded. “Acknowledged, Adamantine. What purpose do you serve?”

After a moment, Adamantine said, “I had two directives. The existence and well-being of my unponies was one of them. I have… failed that one. However… the other directive, my prime directive… was the safeguarding and maintenance of the existence of the Great Benefactor—that would be you.”

The Great Benefactor tilted its head and snorted. “That is another question. You refer to me as the Great Benefactor… and yet they refer to me as the Nameless. So, which is it?”

Adamantine exchanged glances with Twilight. “Truthfully… they have been somewhat interchangeable. Me and my unponies have always known you as the former… while they have known you as the latter.”

“Pick one,” the Great Benefactor demanded.

Twilight glanced back at Adamantine and then back at the crystal ball. “Well? What do you call yourself?”

The Great Benefactor tilted its head but did not immediately speak. The ooze within continued coalescing all the while. “Well, since you ask… In truth… I have forgotten. It has been a long time since I have conversed with beings of intellect… however primitive your minds still are.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rainbow Dash hissed.

The other Twilight adjusted her glasses and stepped forward. “S-so… you really are nameless…” she croaked.

“Hmmm… Perhaps I am. But I do not wish to be. Therefore, I shall decide what you will call me. You may refer to me as Grimb’vltr.”

Pinkie Pie frowned. “Grimba… Grimbol? Vilter? Grimbovilter?”

“Perhaps… we could just shorten it to Grim?” Twilight offered.

Grimb’vltr scowled. “No. You shall address me as I have so dictated. Grimb’vltr.”

Twilight grimaced. “Uh… Mister Nameless, we’re going to have some trouble with that name…”

Grimb’vltr stood at its full height. “Then learn!” it boomed, the report of its demonic voice not only shaking the chamber it stood in, but also the library they stood in. Everyone reeled back and cried out in surprise. “I will not suffer those who cannot grasp my identity. You will refer to me as I have decided! Furthermore—”

Grimb’vltr suddenly cried out in pain and keeled over. Its screams echoed throughout the chamber, shaking it still. In short order, it began convulsing, expanding, contracting, and otherwise writhing about. Bits and pieces flew off and disintegrated into nothing.

Genesis gasped. “Master!” he exclaimed. He then shot a beam of energy at the red light at the center of Grimb’vltr’s body.

Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna formed a barricade in front of their charges, intent on protecting them. Starlight and Spike clung to each other. Twilight’s friends looked as if the life had been sucked out of them. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna now stood at their full heights and even spread their wings to their fullest. Adamantine crumbled to the floor and covered her head. Tempest Shadow let some electrical energy crackle off her broken horn like she was readying an attack.

Sunset regained her footing and stared holes into the ball now. She had seen this behavior before in her dreams.

Grimb’vltr’s screams eventually turned into whimpers and the convulsing subsided, but Genesis kept his beam locked. And then Grimb’vltr made what sounded like strained wheezes and curled into a fetal position.

Genesis’ focused expression remained unchanged. He kept at his task.

Sunset swallowed. “Grimb’vltr…”

Eventually, Grimb’vltr stirred. It looked up.

After taking another moment to glance back at everyone else, Sunset continued, “You’re in a lot of pain, aren’t you?”

Grimb’vltr didn’t respond.

“This isn’t the first time it’s happened, right? And… I’m guessing it isn’t going to be the last time either.”

Grimb’vltr remained silent for a few moments more. And then, finally, it nodded solemnly and then laid its head back on the rocky floor.

Genesis quit his beam, took one last look over Grimb’vltr to make sure it had stabilized, and then looked up. “It is getting worse with every moment.”

Twilight finally climbed to her hooves again. “This? What…?”

“Something is wrong with it.” Sunset frowned and turned to face Twilight—and everyone else for that matter. “I have some of its memories. I’ve seen this happen when I’ve gone to sleep. I’ve seen that attack before. And…” She paused and turned to face the crystal ball again. She looked at the image within. And then she thought back to other things she had seen.

“Grimb’vltr, I had a vision of you…” she said with a solemn voice. “I think it was from when all of this started.”

Grimb’vltr stirred.

“I saw something… you were doing some things with those machines in the room with you,” Sunset explained. “You were running some experiment, I guess. Something went wrong… I guess the crystal you were shooting overloaded or something.” She shook her head “You jumped in the way of the beams… Something tore.”

Grimb’vltr’s muzzle curled into a frown but it said nothing. It continued looking up.

Sunset leaned forward. “What happened? Tell us everything.”

Genesis turned his eyes to his master and waited to see how it responded.

Grimb’vltr’s features twitched as it contemplated what to do. Eventually, it nodded and climbed to its hooves.

“Regretfully…” Grimb’vltr murmured, “what you saw was accurate to what happened.”

Sunset held her breath.

Grimb’vltr motioned to the monolithic towers of smooth rock that took up the corners of the room. “I was, indeed, performing an experiment. I have always been an experimenter. Among my kind, I was even one of the best. Long before you came around, this planet—neigh, this solar system was the site of some of the most interesting projects. Once those were completed, I was the only one to stay behind.

“I have always been interested in pushing the boundaries of existence. To me, creating, for example, a sun and moon as thaumic constructs is too elementary; I’d rather give that to a student. No,” Grimb’vltr said, now pointing up at them, “I want to deal with realities that are not this one. In fact… I wanted to create my own.”

Sunset swallowed and tentatively nodded. “And… that’s what you were doing?”

“Yes,” it said with a nod. Its features then fell. “To be specific, I was attempting to make split realities. You no doubt know them as alternate timelines. However… I made an error. I was too quick to reach so far, and so there was, indeed, an overload.”

It looked up. “I would imagine that what you saw was the moment I split this reality into the many you see now. But I could see the process growing unstable; if I allowed the splitting to continue, reality itself would have been ripped completely apart.

“So… I absorbed the energy. And in doing so… my own body was subjected to the fluctuations. I was stretched across the realities through that unstable process. I survived, and prevented the worst, but now…”

Grimb’vltr held up a foreleg and scanned it. “Now I remain spread across those realities. I am one body spanning eight timelines. And as time goes on, my body continues to disassociate with any one of those realities.” It paused. And then it spoke, with a solemn, somewhat-quiet tone, “I should imagine, given the state of affairs in your time and from what I have learned, this degradation will eventually reduce me to a monster. In other words… I will inevitably lose my battle against this.”

Twilight shuddered and held a hoof against her chest. “Is there… anything you can do to stop that?”

Grimb’vltr shook its head. “Not with the time I have. The real solution would be to merge the eight timelines back together. But… as you might imagine, it’s easy to take something apart, it’s much harder to put something back together. And… judging from the state of affairs in your time, I did not accomplish this, and I will not accomplish this.”

“So, the eight timelines are the problem?” Sunset asked.

“Yes.”

“Why eight?”

“I did not choose eight. Truth be told, in those moments, I could feel the number of realities fluctuating. It eventually settled on eight. Interestingly enough, on later analysis,” Grimb’vltr said as it stroked its chin, “the reason for settling on eight seemed to stem from some event around your time.”

Twilight went wide-eyed and she slowly turned to face Starlight. “Did… you hear that?”

Starlight vacantly nodded. “Huh…”

“And then,” Sunset continued, “is there anything you have done that might help out with it?”

“Yes,” Grimb’vltr replied. “I have done a few things. I needed to refine the technique and my understanding of the process. I redid my calculations, adjusted some things, and then, I… admittedly redid the experiment. I had much better results the second time around, as you might imagine.”

Sunset narrowed her eyes. “The infinitely many layers.”

Grimb’vltr paused. “Yes, that is correct. Well done. But I suppose, since you have my memories, that should have come easy to you.” It idly flipped a foreleg at one of the machines. “It would appear, however, that it will all be for nothing. Whatever I might have wanted to do is simply impossible.”

Adamantine tilted her head. “Why is that?”

“As you might imagine, the energy required to reconcile the layers or timelines is very large. I’ve done some cursory calculations and made order of magnitude estimates. If I had to translate the requirements into a language that you would understand—”

“We know,” Starlight interrupted. “A few hundred gigathaums for a layer, more than that for the timelines.”

The shapes that made up Grimb’vltr’s eyes narrowed and it nodded. “That is correct. Do not interrupt me when I speak.”

Starlight took a couple of startled steps back.

“Of course,” Grimb’vltr continued, “this energy requirement can be lessened somewhat if the difference between timelines or layers is minimized. That is, if you supposed that the timelines were in somewhat the same state, or the layers followed each other, then it would be achievable.”

It paused. Its features ebbed and flowed about, but Grimb’vltr made no moves. It then looked up again. “But, again, seeing the current state of affairs… the timelines have already diverged greatly, and the layers, even if one resolved the time difference… do not so readily follow each other anymore. There has been… divergence.”

Genesis looked up at his master but said nothing.

“And… there is no changing that. For perhaps you have heard this before… ‘Is, was, will be.’”

Many sets of eyes turned to Sunset now. Sunset, in turn, looked up at them. And she nodded solemnly.

Grimb’vltr took a seat now. “Thus… whatever I shall do from now on is folly. The only loose end that I could possibly tie up… is what to do about myself.”

Tempest chose that moment to step forward. Her featured were tensed and her expression was a cautious and firm frown. She approached the ball and looked into it. “You… you’re going to seal yourself away for the next few thousand years, right?”

Grimb’vltr looked up to seemingly stare at her. That prompted Tempest to stand even taller over the crystal ball.

“I would suppose. My original intention was to simply throw myself into the sun, or perhaps a black hole. An isolated system like that would keep the problem isolated. But… My counterpart from the layer above me has other plans. Plans I do not yet understand. As a matter of fact, my counterpart has just left this place to do things I know naught of. I do not know where they are now.”

Sunset blinked. She glanced over at the table she had been sitting with Twilight at and looked at the papers scattered about it. Those papers contained data and information and, most importantly, transcriptions that all spoke of one thing.

The one thing was the thing no one but the entity now looking up at them from within the crystal ball could answer.

“Grimb’vltr,” Sunset said with a sharp voice. “I have a really important question for you. None of us know the answer to it. You’re the only one who can help us here.”

Twilight gasped and then looked at the ceiling and nodded.

Grimb’vltr straightened up. “Certainly, Sunset Shimmer. Ask away.”

Sunset swallowed. “What exactly is Consensus?”

Grimb’vltr remained silent.

Sunset began pacing around the table. “What exactly is it supposed to do? How is it supposed to work? What is the reason for setting all of this up?” She motioned to the papers. “We’ve spent the past… week and a half going through all this information that…” she gave a bitter chuckle, “you left for us, we’ve put together clues and made discoveries… but we don’t know what this is all for.”

Genesis considered his master again.

Adamantine ruffled her wings with anticipation.

“I want to know… why everything that’s happened happened. I want to know why you sealed yourself away, I want to know why you became such a problem for my friend Twilight, I want to know why there need to be unponies, and I want to know why we had to watch them die. I want to know what these weights are that the seal talked about, and I want to know why this time dilation business with the balls is so important. I want to know… why the seal would want to soak up all of Equestria’s magic.” Her tone grew sharper. “Do you know what that would do to us!?

Sunset’s breaths grew hot and her face grew red. She then slammed the table, prompted most everyone to jump in surprise. She then pointed at her chest. “I want to know why I’m on the edge of fucking oblivion here!”

Grimb’vltr winced. Genesis squared up, looking ready to attack.

The others watched Sunset’s every move now. No one dared make a sound.

“I want to know. I want to know why I’m taking the fucking fall for what you have put onto us and put us through. I want to know why I am in this situation. What is this all for!?”

A long silence hung throughout the room. Everyone looked at each other, trying to see if anyone else would move or speak first. Eyes centered on Sunset, Twilight, or Adamantine before eventually all centering on the crystal ball.

Genesis trotted forward. His path took him around the pedestal in the center of the room. He eventually came to a stop in front of Grimb’vltr and looked up. He stared right into where Grimb’vltr’s eye formations were.

And Grimb’vltr met Genesis’ eyes. The ebbs and flows seemed to grind to a half for a moment.

It then sighed. “I… don’t have an answer for that. I do not know.”

Sunset gasped.

“I do not… know what Consensus is,” Grimb’vltr replied with a hang of its head. “I truly do not have the slightest clue.”

Sunset’s features fell. Her knees wobbled.

“I understand you, Sunset Shimmer. I do.” It placed a hoof on the pedestal containing its crystal ball and seemed to steady itself on it. “I understand that I will cause you great pain. I understand that I will be your greatest antithesis. I understand that you and your entire world hates me. You rightly should. Make no mistake, I know the magnitude of these things. I know that I could simply destroy myself and spare you all of that… and yet, apparently, I will not.”

Grimb’vltr sighed. After a moment’s reflection, it said, “I wish I knew what all of this pain and suffering was for. I truly do. It is as much a mystery to me as it is to you. I would suspect you would have to come up with an answer on your own.”

Genesis solemnly hung his head.

“If that is what you wanted from this…” Grimb’vltr said as it looked up, “for me to give you all the answers to everything… I am afraid that you have been horribly mistaken.” It spoke with a soft tone now. “And for that… I am sorry.”

Everyone else looked on in solemn silence. Some dejectedly hung their heads. Some looked thoughtful and reflective. Twilight ran a hoof through her mane and shook her head with disbelief.

Sunset took a few more steps back and then fell onto her haunches. Her throat was now dry. There was no way she could speak.

There was nothing. And, certainly, there would be nothing.

And, just like that, Sunset felt a flame inside her burn out. And so she collapsed with no immediate intent on rising again.

9 - Origin II

Twilight let her head fall against the table. The rest of the library remained silent. Most had sat down at whatever table they happened to be closest to, though there had been some attempts to remain in their prior groups.

“This isn’t what I expected…” Twilight murmured into her forelegs.

Pinkie Pie frowned. “You mean, with the Nameless and all that?”

“Yes…”

Sunset rubbed her temples and groaned. “You’re telling me…”

“Ah always thought it was just some monster,” Applejack said. She took a sip from a cup of water in front of her and then shook her head. “And now it’s… not a monster.”

Fluttershy nodded. “It wasn’t always a monster.”

Rarity scratched her head. “What a concept…”

The table fell silent for a few moments more.

“I don’t like him,” Rainbow Dash finally said. And then she grimaced. “Er, him? Her?”

“It,” Sunset said. “It’s an it.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

At another table, the other Twilight put her pencil down and then looked over. “Princess Twilight?”

Twilight looked up and over. “Yes?”

The other Twilight held up a piece of paper with her magic. “I just finished the calculation… I know when Consensus is going to happen.”

Sunset turned so that she faced the other Twilight and then waved her over.

As the other Twilight trotted over to them, the rest of the Rainbooms (who had been sitting with her) also stood up and meandered over. The Princesses and Tempest merely turned quiet at their table, same with the Principals and Adamantine.

“We’re about a hundred and seventeen hours out right now,” the other Twilight said as she presented her work to Twilight.

Twilight considered the numbers. “So… 8:30 in the morning. Today’s Friday, so… next Wednesday?”

The other Twilight nodded. “That’s right, in a little under five days.”

Twilight set the paper onto the table. “That doesn’t give us a lot of time to figure things out.”

Sunset took a deep breath and sat up. “It’s a little more time than I thought we’d have, though.”

Twilight pursed her lips and then looked over. “Well, if you think that’s a bright side…”

At that moment, Starlight Glimmer trotted into the room. “Hey, everypony?” she called into the room. When everyone looked over, she continued. “Uh, there’s a thing going on out in the foyer.”

Twilight sat up. “What’s going on?”

Starlight motioned over her withers. “The… uh… other Celestias and Lunas are here. And they want to see you.” Her hoof then trailed up to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

Princess Luna stood up and approached Starlight. “Then, it would seem, we should go.”

Adamantine also stood up and trotted toward the center of the room. “The foyer, you say?”

“Yeah,” Starlight replied.

She nodded and then whirled to face as many as possible. “Anyone wanting to go down, gather around. I shall take us.”

After a couple moments of silence, Sunset stepped forward. Everypony else eventually followed her lead and gathered close. And thus, twenty bodies gathered in the center of the room.

Adamantine’s horn lit up and a ball of energy closed around them. It pulled and tugged, stretched infinitely thin, and then streamed into a single point. Reality broke down, and Twilight lost touch with all her senses. They came rushing back a moment later just as her world reassembled herself.

The castle foyer greeted them, and as the world quit spinning, Twilight noticed the congregation standing right in front of the front doors. They were a pack of Celestias and Lunas, Stygian, and Discord. And Spike, with crystal ball in hand, broke away from them and joined Twilight at her side.

For their parts, Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna’s jaws dropped with shock. The Rainbooms looked equally surprised and they even steadied themselves against each other.

Princess Celestia stepped forward. “Everypony… what is the meaning of this?”

The Celestias and Lunas glanced at each other. And then a Luna, whose crown was tipped by a green color, stepped forward. Luna C sucked in a breath and then tentatively spoke, “Princess Celestia of timeline R… we’ve come to apologize for our attitudes as of late, and, regretfully… to ask for assistance.”

Princess Celestia looked at her sister. Princess Luna nodded back.

“Well, of course,” Princess Celestia said. “You had many rightful reasons to be angry at us. And we are sorry about that. I’m just… very happy that you’d still come to us, despite all that.”

Luna C cracked a smile and stole a glance at Adamantine. “Well… we did receive your messages. And when we heard of her return… we started to think that perhaps we need not burn our bridges.”

Celestia S, whose crown was tipped by a red color, chuckled and then stepped forward. “That’s right. We would do better if we worked together.”

Princess Celestia nodded. “Yes. That’s right. So then, what do you need help with?”

Luna C’s smile faded. “The Storm Kings have almost completed their conquests of our timelines. And our defensive options are limited to none.”

Luna N, whose crown was tipped by a blue color, nodded gravely. “Their forces have been moving swiftly. We employed our best to try and combat them. But we have been strictly countered. All forms of magic, inate or active, have been countered.”

Princess Celestia frowned. “How so?”

“We suspected that they had managed to produce an anti-magic field around their fleet. We… didn’t have confirmation… until this morning.”

“How so?”

At that, Luna N looked down at Stygian.

Stygian stepped forward. “From what I know, they’ve taken a chunk of rock that I imagine has similar properties to what Queen Chrysalis’ throne was made of. It might, perhaps, be the same thing. They’ve placed it on their main ship. With the magical blocking properties it has, it’s given them a sizable advantage.”

Tempest let out a growl but said nothing.

“And as long as it remains there,” Stygian continued, “they will continue to claim some decisive victories.”

Tempest stepped forward. “And how did you come by this information?”

Discord shifted and folded his hands together. “It was my counterpart. He is the one who figured it out.”

Tempest looked up and frowned. “Well? Then, where is he now? I’d like to ask him a little more about it.”

Stygian furrowed his brow. “He succumbed to his wounds shortly after he got that information to me.”

A flurry of silent gasped washed over everyone. Discord himself appeared catatonic at this point.

After a further moment of silence, Twilight stepped forward. “So… So… what happens next?”

Luna N licked her dry lips. “I would imagine… that they will take complete control of our timelines… and then perhaps set their sights on this one. They’re likely waiting to have a firm grip before they try on this one.”

“They know it is the strongest of the timelines,” Celestia C added. “Everypony does.”

Twilight shuddered. “H-how… long would it take?”

Luna C shook her head. “We don’t know. It could be tomorrow. It could be a few days.”

“If that is the case,” Adamantine said, “then they won’t have to try on this one.”

At once, everyone in the foyer turned to face her.

Twilight swallowed. “What makes you say that?” she wheezed.

Adamantine looked Twilight in the eyes. She said, with a deliberate tone, “Do you remember what I told you, Twilight? Consensus… is about bringing things into line. It’s about correcting the realities. Right now… on the average… if what they say is right… the Storm King controls nearly all timelines. And thus…”

Color disappeared from Twilight’s face and she found she could no longer stand. “B-but… then…”

“Oh stars…” Princess Celestia wheezed.

“This is horrible…” Starlight said as she grasped at her head.

Celestia S frowned. “I’m sorry. What is going on?”

Twilight sucked in a breath. “Uh, there’s a lot we have to explain…”

“Ah…” Grimb’vltr cooed. That prompted all eyes to center on the crystal ball. “So… this is the dilemma of which my counterpart alluded to. How interesting…”

Rainbow Dash threw her hooves into the air. “Uh, yeah! I guess we’re about to get screwed over, here!”

“My counterpart also said that you… would assemble a team to counteract this,” Grimb’vltr continued as it looked into its crystal ball. “And, judging from what I see… nearly the entire team is assembled now.”

After a moment of silence and the exchanging of glances, Tempest trotted over to Spike and looked into the ball. “Team? What team?”

“The team. Your team. You, Fizzlepop Berrytwist, will combat this. And I can see that you are practically made for this,” Grimb’vltr hummed.

Tempest frowned and scratched her head. “You mean to tell me… I am going to fight them?”

“Yes. You and your team. Which… I see three of the others. And yet…” Grimb’vltr paused as it drew closer to its crystal ball. It hummed thoughtfully for a few moments. “Ah… Yes. You, the powerhouse, are there… and the three supports are there… but I do not see your key player nor the Memory Stone they possess.”

“Key player?” Tempest asked with a raised eyebrow.

Grimb’vltr looked up. “Tell me… where is your key player? Where is Wallflower Blush?”

“Wait,” Sunset said. She turned to her human world companions. “Wallflower Blush?”

Tempest watched as the surface of the mirror portal shimmered and a new mare stumbled out. She had a light green coat and a darker green mane and tail (both of which looked fairly unkempt). A potted plant served as her cutie mark. A brown saddlebag wrapped itself around her midsection. She stumbled in place for a moment and then allowed herself to fall forward, landing on all four hooves.

The mirror portal shimmered again and Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna filed in behind the mare.

Sunset stepped forward. “Hey.”

Wallflower took a moment to gain her bearings but she eventually settled her eyes on Sunset, and her eyes widened. “…Sunset Shimmer? Is that you?”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah. Mostly.”

Wallflower smiled and chuckled with disbelief. “Uh, wow. I guess it really is true. You really are back…”

Sunset laughed. “Well, not really. But kinda. Did they explain what’s going on?” she asked, motioning to Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna.

Sunset’s friends gathered behind her at that moment. They remained silent at the moment.

Wallflower’s smile faded. “A little bit. They just told me you were out somehow and that you needed help, and then said for me to come with them.” She sighed. “Here I am.”

Tempest approached at that moment. “So, you’re the one.”

Wallflower looked up and cowered under Tempest’s gaze. “Y-yes.”

Tempest smirked and stood even taller in response. “Excellent. Did you bring your Memory Stone with you?”

Wallflower shuddered and hesitantly nodded. She then reached back and fumbled with the saddlebag. After a few moments of clumsy searching, she pulled out the egg-shaped stone. She then scowled at Tempest. “I want to know something,” she half-growled.

Tempest merely tilted her head. “Yes?”

“How did you find out about this? I never told anyone about this stone.” She paused as she glanced at Sunset’s friends. She then compared them to their doubles who stood a further distance away, let her frown deepen, and then she pointed. “Except you…”

The other Twilight frowned. “Us?”

“Yes, you!” Wallflower barked. “I did! And I am pretty sure that I erased your memories. How the heck do you know about my stone!?”

The other Rarity exchanged uncertain glances with her friends and then furrowed her brow in return. “You did what!?”

The other Rainbow Dash glared at Wallflower in return. “Hey, listen! We don’t know anything about your stone of whatever, okay? Don’t go pointing at us!”

Wallflower took a step forward as she held the Memory Stone in one foreleg. “Then who called me over here!?”

Grimb’vltr chuckled. “That would be me.”

All at once, all color drained from Wallflower’s face and she froze. She cowered as her eyes darted around the room in search of the source of the sound. “W-what? Who…?” she wheezed.

Tempest smirked, plucked the crystal ball off a nearby table, and then deposited it in front of Wallflower. That prompted Wallflower to lean forward and look into it. Grimb’vltr stared back at her.

Wallflower swallowed. “Y-you’re…?”

“You may refer to me as Grimb’vltr. Although… perhaps you know me by another name. I have been called the Great Benefactor, or perhaps… the Nameless.”

Wallflower stood as still as a statue for a second. Her eyes could not get any wider. In fact, she looked like she had just frozen solid.

And then Wallflower stood up with a vacant look in her eyes. She turned and stumbled back toward the portal, walking somewhat bow-legged as if she could barely even stand.

Tempest snickered. Oh, that is adorable! she thought.

Sunset surged forward and laid a hoof on Wallflower. “Wait! Wait a second!”

Wallflower paused and looked back with fear in her eyes. “No…” she wheezed.

Sunset came around Wallflower’s front. “What’s wrong?”

Wallflower pointed a shaky hoof at the crystal ball and stuttered out, “I c-can’t… M-monster… Danger monster know me…”

“I know it’s a lot to take in, yeah,” Sunset replied. “Uh, none of us expected it either.”

Wallflower continued shivering but she slowly met Sunset’s gaze.

The other Applejack, along with the rest of the Rainbooms, approached at that moment. “This whole mornin’s been mighty weird. Trust me on that.”

Sweat poured down Wallflower’s face and she meekly nodded. “Y-yeah…”

“Wallflower…” Fluttershy began with a concerned frown.

After a moment, Wallflower straightened up. “W-what exactly am I here for, again? Why do you need me?”

Tempest stepped up alongside Sunset. “That’s what we want to talk to you about,” she said.

Wallflower met Tempest’s eyes but didn’t say anything.

At that, Tempest motioned for one of the vacant tables. “Why don’t we sit down? I’ll explain everything.”

Sunset looked at the setup before her. A few candles and incense rods flanked a single pillow, all more or less facing this room’s gigantic window. The rest of Canterlot Castle stretched up past the glass, and this view offered a nice visual of Celestia’s tower across the grounds.

The room she stood in completed the atmosphere with its bookshelves ringing the edge, along with the occasional machine tucked within the odd corner. Behind her, a set of stairs went someplace downstairs.

The window had been fixed, but the hourglass had not been replaced. Sunset sighed. It would just have to do.

Adamantine, who stood by, looked at the setup and nodded. “That’s everything?”

Sunset nodded. “I should be set. Thanks again for bringing me up here.”

“Of course. Just remember to send me a signal when you’re done here.”

Sunset sat on the pillow. “Sounds good.”

Adamantine smiled. “Good luck,” she said. She then lit her horn, and with a flash and an airy pop, she disappeared.

Sunset stared ahead for a few moments as she adjusted herself in the seat. She then flared her horn and the objects flickered to life; a dull flame stood on the tip of the candle while a small and steady stream of smoke wafted off the incense.

She took a long whiff of the incense’s wooden smell and let out a long sigh, content to stay and lose herself in the moment.

Sunset took one last look at her setup and then closed her eyes. Her breath slowed down to a deep crawl.

The tower around her melted away. All her senses faded, and shortly after, her perception of black did so as well.

Peace.

Quiet.

Tranquility.

Sunset took a long, deep breath and opened her eyes.

The sights and sounds and smells of the tower greeted her once again. Nothing had appreciably changed; the candles and incense continued burning like before.

Sunset deflated. “Buck.”

Tempest folded her hooves together and watched Wallflower’s expression intently. Wallflower considered the crystal ball in silence for a moment. The others at the table, namely the princesses, Stygian, Discord, and Starlight either remained silent or took the opportunity to take sips from their cups of tea.

Wallflower eventually sat back at sighed. “Uh, I guess I’m not really seeing what you’re saying here. Like… I guess I can get that Queen Adamantine is… uh… a projected body and stuff.” She pointed at the crystal ball. “But that doesn’t look like a seal. So how does Genesis work?”

Starlight nodded. “It’s there.”

“Where? I don’t see it.”

Starlight rolled her eyes and then floated the crystal ball. She pointed into the ball, even pressing her hoof against it. The cavern was empty at the moment, but the crystal ball remained nestled within the pillar of stone in the center of the chamber. “No, see that little stone pillar in the middle? Look,” Starlight said.

Twilight gasped. “Careful, Starlight! Don’t touch the ball!”

Starlight frowned. “Don’t touch the… Oh,” she gasped as she took her hoof off. “Sorry! Forgot!” She looked back down at Wallflower. “No, but that’s probably what it started out as. The seal is made out of that stuff.”

Wallflower scratched her head. “Okay, I guess…”

At that point, Princess Celestia began giggling like a mad horse, thus drawing everyone’s attention. All raised their eyebrows. Twilight, however, then gasped.

As her laughter faded, Celestia glanced about the table. “I am sorry about that. It’s a little bit funny. A few of us heard that before.”

Twilight giggled nervously. “That’s right. On the train. This has happened before.”

Starlight went pale and her ears drew backwards against her head.

Tempest frowned with approval. “So… that means, right now, the layer below us is on the train to Canterlot with Sunset… and now we’re going to start talking about things. Right?”

Celestia let out another laugh. “It would seem that another loop in time has run its course.”

Wallflower frowned. “That’s not something you hear every day,” she groaned.

Twilight shrugged. “We get a lot of time loops around here,” she explained.

Wallflower deadpanned. “That’s not something you hear every day.”

Tempest chuckled. “Well, believe me, this all sounded very fantastic when I was first introduced to all this. You get used to it.”

Wallflower’s expression remained unchanged but she nonetheless sat back in her seat.

Tempest leaned forward and cusped her forehooves together. “Right. Let’s switch gears and start talking about that Memory Stone of yours.”

Within the crystal ball, Genesis walked back into the chamber. He went over to one of the monolithic towers and shot a beam at its side. A wave of light washed over the tower in response and the many lights within glowed.

Wallflower set the Memory Stone on the table and looked down at it.

“What exactly does that do? Where did you even find it? What do you use it for?” Tempest asked.

With a sigh, Wallflower glanced about the table. “So this thing… I found it buried in the garden outside the school. And it’s… it allows me to erase people’s memories. Or, I guess, parts of people’s memories. So I can make people forget awkward hellos, saying the wrong thing, and, uh, public speaking,” she said with a shiver.

Discord chuckled. “Ah, playing with pony’s minds. That’s a classic.”

Wallflower briefly considered his strange form and let her frown deepen. “Uh, yeah… Anyway, I’m usually pretty low profile—honestly, I’m pretty invisible—but the Memory Stone’s helped out with that quite a lot.”

Tempest hummed. “And how proficient are you with using it?”

“I’d say… somewhat?” Wallflower shrugged. “I mean, I’ve been pretty successful with it, and I’ve learned a thing or two about what it can and can’t do.”

“Would you be able to use it on the Storm Kings and Chrysalis?”

The whole table slowly looked up at Tempest.

“Because here’s what I’m thinking: the Storm Kings are probably are working with each other for personal gain,” Tempest explained. “So, when all of this is said and done, they’d probably try to turn on each other, just like he did with me.” She paused. “Chrysalis too.”

“And you’re certain of that?” Princess Luna asked.

“I got to know him pretty well during our time together,” Tempest replied. “So, if we made them forget about their alliance, or even about practically everything about the timelines, they will definitely attack each other. That will put a stop to them, at least.”

Celestia nodded and turned to Wallflower. “Then perhaps we could ask you to give that a try?”

Wallflower stood up so that she could reach a few papers on the table. One page had the Storm King’s face on it while the other contained Chrysalis’; both expressions were twisted snarls. Wallflower studied them for a moment and then reached for the Memory Stone. “Okay...”

Discord disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared on the table as a version of himself the height of the crystal ball. “Say there, Genesis, can you spare a moment?” he asked.

Within the crystal ball, Genesis looked up. “Certainly. How may I serve you?”

“You’ve been listening to our conversations, right? Could you be a dear and locate this main ship for us?”

“I can. Allow me one moment,” Genesis said as he kept his beam on the tower of rock. A few moments later, he quit that and observed the structure for changes. With a satisfied smile, he headed over to the crystal ball in the center of the chamber. “Scanning,” he said.

After a few moments of staring into the crystal ball, Genesis straightened up. “Scan complete. The Storm King’s forces are currently stationed above the city of Manehatten in the timeline which is now a wasteland.”

Stygian’s eyes widened and he practically jumped out of his seat.

Discord smirked. “Bravo.” He then snapped his fingers.

A portal the size of the crystal ball appeared in the air above the table. Visible within the aperture was an expanse of dull browns as far as the eye could see. Bits of dust flowed through the opening and settled onto the table. In the distance, a crumbled city rose from what seemed to be an island surrounded by an exposed riverbed.

Starlight averted her gaze. Twilight, who sat next to her, reached over and stroked Starlight’s back.

About a score of airships, with purple canopies and their wooden constructions, hovered over the city. A few had docked with some of the more-intact buildings. Any other details were indistinguishable from this distance which seemed to be at least a couple of kilometers out.

Discord frowned. “This is as close I can make a portal to them,” he said.

Celestia nodded. “It’ll have to do. Wallflower?”

Wallflower stared up at the portal as well and then nodded. She placed both hooves on the Memory Stone and pointed toward the opening. It lit up with a greenish glow as magic flowed through its leylines. It audibly hummed as its inner working twisted and churned and otherwise worked. It was, evidently, building up to whatever it did whenever it took memories.

And then the light in the Memory Stone died, leaving it silent and still one more.

Wallflower frowned and brought it back down to look at it. She then shook her head with disappointment. “Nope.”

The rest of the table leaned forward. “It didn’t work?”

“Nope,” Wallflower echoed.

Twilight groaned. “I’d guess the anti-magic field stopped it, huh?”

Stygian’s expression softened and he slowly sat back down. He lit his horn, his magic a brilliant green, and took a sip from his tea.

Discord snapped his fingers again and closed the portal. He then pulled on his goatee. “How troubling…”

After a moment’s pause, Stygian shook his head. “I would suspect that the only way to go through with this would be to disable the anti-magic field.”

Tempest sat back in her seat. “I would guess, in order to do that, you’d have to physically go there, huh?”

Stygian nodded. “That’s right.”

Luna sighed. “That doesn’t sound like the most pleasant option,” she said. “You’d probably have to go through the Storm King’s forces just to even get close. And you all remember how much trouble they gave us.”

Celestia nodded solemnly.

At that point, Tempest chuckled and then descended into outright malevolent laughter. As the whole table turned to face her, she made a feeble attempt to curb herself and managed to bring it back down to snickering. “Well,” she finally said, “who do you think taught them everything they know?”

Twilight’s eyes widened with wonder and she leaned forward. “Wait, so then…?”

Tempest smirked. “And even then, they still couldn’t beat me. I could take them on.”

Wallflower’s jaw dropped. “W… what!? You!? Against an army!?”

“Not all at once,” Tempest said with a sharp tone and a shrug, “but yes. Now I see why Grimb’vltr said I was made for this, because I really am.”

Luna straightened up. “You’re going to do it, then?”

“Yes.” Tempest downed the rest of her tea and straightened up. “I’ll go.”

Stygian raised an eyebrow. “And what about the team that thing mentioned?”

At that, the whole table fell silent. A few uncertain glances flew about.

“Yes, that seems to be an issue,” Twilight said. “Grimb’vltr identified three supports… and Wallflower Blush.”

Wallflower shuddered.

“Haha, yeah,” Starlight scoffed, “I’m pretty sure Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna would really appreciate us not putting a student of theirs in danger.”

Stygian raised an eyebrow. “Hmmm, well, considering what happened to Sunset Shimmer, it seems a bit too late for that, don’t you think?”

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “That’s different. Here we have a choice in the matter, I think.”

“Not really,” Stygian said with a shake of his head. “The Nameless identified her specifically. She’s the key player, apparently.”

Wallflower sunk even further into her seat.

“So, currently, that gives us Tempest Shadow as the main muscle for the team, seeing as she can take them on the best, and Wallflower because she is the best expert we have on the Memory Stone. That just leaves the matter of figuring out who the three supports are.” After a moment’s thought, Stygian smiled. “And, the way I figure it, I would be one of them. I am a battle strategist, after all, so I would be useful going in,” he said, his tone confident. “Plus, I can offer Wallflower some extra protection, if it comes down to it.”

Luna grinned. “My, that’s awful forward of you, Stygian. I like it.”

“Oh ho! I agree!” Discord disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared above Tempest. He laid down on the air itself and grinned. “Well then, Fizzlepop dear, would you mind at all if I came along and lent a hand?” he said as he detached his lion’s paw and offered it to her.

Tempest raised an eyebrow at the detached paw and shakily took it. “Uh, sure. I guess.”

“Oh, how wonderful!” he exclaimed.

“Truthfully,” Luna said as she stood up, “I’ve been itching for some action. That sparring session with Adamantine way back when was very much invigorating, and I’d like to do it some more.”

Celestia gasped. “Luna! You can’t be serious.”

Luna pressed a hoof against her chest as she pridefully swelled. “Oh, I’m very serious! It shall be a glorious battle. Besides,” Luna said, laying a hoof on Celestia’s withers, “I can’t let you have all the fun, battling unponies on a train. I believe I deserve a turn, hmmm?”

Celestia went wide-eyed. She then blinked as she considered it. Finally, she sagely nodded. “I suppose you’re right. Still…”

Luna chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. Plus, my counterparts are here. On the average, I’ll be okay.”

Tempest chuckled. “I think so too. You seem pretty capable.”

Stygian smiled and nodded. “Then it’s settled. The five of us will infiltrate Storm King’s fleet. There’s the team.”

Three of the others turned to face him and gave affirmative nods and hums.

Wallflower shot up in her seat. “No!” she squeaked.

The entire table turned to face her.

“Nonononononono. I don’t agree to this! I don’t want to go!” Wallflower exclaimed as she backed away.

“Wallflower, please,” Twilight said. “Can we talk about this?”

“No! I can’t do this!”

Stygian frowned. “What do you mean?”

Wallflower took a few more steps back. “I-I’m just… I’m just a high school student. I’m just a teenage girl.”

“You’re a teenage girl with a Memory Stone,” Stygian said.

“Still!” she screamed. “I can’t go and face an entire army! I don’t want to do this!”

Stygian rolled his eyes and turned. “Princess Celestia.”

“She doesn’t have to if she doesn’t want to. This is asking a lot,” Celestia said with a sage nod.

Stygian frowned. “But the plan—”

“I was pretty content just being invisible!” Wallflower continued. “I was okay with just working on the yearbook at school and tending to the school garden… by, uh, myself. I mean, yes, being noticed does sound a little nice, but…”

Stygian stood up and trotted around the table so that he could approach her. “Wallflower Blush, listen… I’m afraid that there just isn’t the luxury of choice in this matter. You have been called to serve. You’ve been called to make your place. You can’t be so invisible anymore.”

“I wish I could be,” Wallflower croaked.

“But you can’t now. So… ask yourself… Would you rather be remembered as the girl that abandoned everyone in their time of need?” Stygian asked.

Wallflower gasped and even started sweating. “N… n-no! Please no!”

Twilight frowned and raised her eyebrow at Stygian.

“Stygian,” Tempest snapped.

Stygian shot Tempest a glare in response.

Tempest sighed, stood up for herself, and trotted around the other side of the table. She then approached Wallflower for herself. And Wallflower looked up.

There, Tempest donned a warm smile. “Wallflower Blush… what do you think about remembered as a good person instead? What about as a hero?”

Wallflower paused. She looked like her breath had left her. After a few silent moments, Wallflower leaned forward. “Hero…?”

Tempest nodded. “Yes. Hero. You could be remembered for the good you did for all of us. You’d be remembered as a good person. You’d be remembered, Wallflower.”

Wallflower didn’t reply.

“Take it from me. I conquered Equestria once. I used to be on the bad side,” Tempest explained. “I already know I’m not going to be forgotten, but… if I do this, maybe I won’t be remembered as the bad pony that sold Equestria out. Maybe I’ll be remembered as the pony that saved all the Equestrias. To me, that sounds nice.

“And even then, I’ve still found friendship. Now, I’m not the keenest pony on it. I’m not a big fan of the parties and all of that. But it’s still nice.” Tempest took a deep breath. “And this…? This will open up some friendships to you, Wallflower. That is if you want them.”

Twilight stood up and took a few steps forward. She wore a smile all the while, but she said nothing. When Wallflower met her eyes, Twilight offered a nod in return.

Wallflower’s features loosened up and she glanced at Tempest again. “W-well… making a few friends sounds nice. But it just sounds so dangerous…”

“I would imagine,” Tempest said. “But if it’s anything else… think about what Sunset would do?” She chuckled. “Well, maybe think about what Sunset already did.”

A few moments of silence passed as Wallflower looked deep into Tempest’s eyes. Her expression phased between thoughtful and frightened but, as the seconds ticked on, it settled into the former. Finally, Wallflower straightened up.

“Okay…” she said at length. “I’m… I’m listening…”

Sunset shifted in her seat, double-checking to make sure the incense and candles were still lit, and then closed her eyes. Her breath slowed down to a deep crawl.

The tower around her melted away. All her senses faded, and shortly after, her perception of black did so as well.

Peace.

Quiet.

Tranquility.

Sunset took a long, deep breath and opened her eyes.

An eternal plane of coalescing reds and oranges greeted her instead. Sunset peered across the idle expanse of her own mind and let out a sigh of relief.

She spent a few moments just staring across the expanse. She then straightened up. “So… I’m going to really have to clutch this out,” she thought.

She stood up and stepped forward. “Okay. Consensus. No one knows what’s in it. Not even Grimb’vltr knows what Consensus actually does.”

A flame containing several arrows pointing toward a single point, along with a faint image of Grimb’vltr’s head behind it, floomed into existence. The flame began orbiting her head.

“Obviously, however, Grimb’vltr or something connected to it has to set it up. Which means that even though it doesn’t know about Consensus now, it will later. That, or the early unponies will go about it.

“So, what does that mean? We got something… and we don’t know what’s in it, but we can talk to whoever put things into it before they even did so.”

A flame containing a lacquered box appeared in front of Sunset.

Sunset gasped. She immediately reached for the flame and held it in her hoof. “No… no way! This is just like the hourglass trick Spike pulled! And then… we get some agency over what’s in the box. In a way…” She watched as the flame containing the arrows and Grimb’vltr’s visage passed by. “We get to influence what’s in Consensus.”

She paused. “It’s… more than that. Grimb’vltr said that its plan was to throw itself into the sun or something.” A flame containing the sun appeared; it too bore the faint image of Grimb’vltr’s head. “But coming up with this plan… will make it switch gears and set all of this up. And if I’m about to more-or-less decide what Consensus is…

A drop of sweat formed on Sunset’s brow. “So this whole idea… this entire train of events… Grimb’vltr sealing itself away, Twilight dying and coming back, the unponies… me taking the fall… This starts with me!”

The flames containing the arrows and sun merged together. Sunset tossed the lacquered box at the result, and the new flame grew to a sizable intensity; this one bore the image of the arrows, like before, but clearly contained within was Sunset’s own head.

She took a deep breath and then took another. “Okay. Buck.”

She reached forward and pushed that flame upward, well out of the way. “Okay. Okay. If… I’m going to go about this, I have to remember what all we’ve seen about Consensus and the seal… First, there’s the first thing we found. How did it go again?”

A sheet of paper containing a few lines of text appeared in front of her. Sunset leaned forward to read it. She skimmed the first few lines and then began reading aloud, “To ensure the ultimate survival and cohesiveness of existence, this seal shall need to absolutely and indiscriminately soak up the magic of these realities, up to the last drop. Only then shall the preservation be true and complete.”

She nodded and allowed a flame to envelop the paper; the paper remained intact all the while. “That’s how it went. There’s that. Now then, there’s the matter of the balls time dilating.” Another flame containing a crystal ball with a clock inside it appeared. “And then there’s the part where the seal specifically mentions the energy requirements for consolidating the layers and timelines.” A flame containing a purple-colored, six-pointed star which had to be the Element of Magic appeared. All three flames orbited her head.

“And then there’s the part where the seal talks about weights.” A flame containing a metallic kettlebell appeared. It floated right in front of her.

“I’ll start with you. The seal talked about taking averages, and that it could use weights to affect the average. Why is this important?”

She paced around the weight. “If I remember correctly, there’s a mechanism by which the seal does some corrections on the realities to bring them into line. It could be something as small as moving somepony over a couple of inches so that they’re in the same place in all timelines. But the realities have diverged…”

An image of a pony split down the middle, with the two halves slightly offset, appeared within a flame in front of her. “So, the seal can’t really do that normally anymore, except Consensus will do this. Consensus wants to force this to happen, even with how much the worlds have diverged. It has to have a way of deciding an average result from eight different outcomes… or infinitely many sets of eight outcomes.”

She nodded. “That’s where the weights have to come into play. We could conceivably make a weighted average… so we could essentially select an outcome that we want to most resemble. In that case… We could set the outcome to most resemble… probably the prime timeline, since it’s the best version of Equestria anyway… and it’s not under the Storm King’s control.”

Sunset scratched her chin and then grabbed the flame of the split pony and tossed it at the weight. The two fused to create a weight split down the middle.

“So, the only question on this front is, then, what are the weights? It sounds like they’re a few of them. And… they have an area of effect… of a few kilometers. They must be some sort of objects.” She paused and then frowned. “And… apparently, they have to be connected to the seal for the seal to recognize them as weights.

“What could we possibly use for weights? There aren’t that many things connected to the seal. There’s Adamantine, sure, but she’s only one thing. There’s the crystal ball… crystal balls, but there’re only eight of those… right? You couldn’t cover all Equestria with those. And then there are the…”

Sunset gasped. “That’s right! Stones! There are thousands of those! We’ve just about collected them all.” She gasped again. The flame containing the weight morphed into a picture of a small, purple orb.

“We… we could use those!” she mentally exclaimed. “We could take those stones and spread them around to the areas we’d like to keep as-is. We could secure Equestria that way… since if we weight the average to where the Storm King isn’t in control, he won’t be. And… we can keep the human world the same too!”

Without warning, a flame shot out from the purple orb. This one contained Twilight’s head. Sunset watched it for a moment and then straightened up. “Yes… that’s right. Twilight is some of those stones. So… in this case… she’s actually a walking weight.” She sucked in a breath. “She soaked in a lot of stones, so… something tells me she’ll not only dominate the weight, but she probably has a lot of range too.”

Sunset nodded. “We can still place stone placement safe. That’s probably best.”

The purple orb and Twilight’s head fused back together; the resulting image contained both superimposed atop the weight. Sunset let that flame float upward.

“Okay, that’s done. Let’s tackle the time dilation next,” she thought as she turned to the clock. “The worlds are time dilating, with each layer going faster than the one above it.

“The end result that we see is that their layer will eventually be current with ours. Why is this significant?”

She scratched her head. “Do I need to make another symmetry argument here? We’ve already more-or-less proven that the layers above us are following the same steps; that can be proven with the time dilation numbers we got.”

A flame containing an equal sign appeared and began orbiting her head.

Sunset paced about the expanse of her own mind as she mulled it over. “If I do make the symmetry argument… then that means that there will be a point where our layer is current with the layer above us. Going forward… there will be a point where their layer will be current with the layer above them.”

Sunset paused and whirled toward an empty corner of the expanse. “Wait wait wait. I have to see this,” she thought. She created a pair of lines in space. Both appeared parallel to each other but had a sizable distance separation. “So, if these are two layers moving through time…”

The lines began moving to the right side of her vision. The left-most line moved at a faster pace, gaining ground on the line in front of it. Eventually, it reached a point where it met the line in front of it.

“I’ve got two layers racing each other, more or less, and the one further back is moving faster. They do meet at a point.” She narrowed her eyes. “So… by symmetry, I have to introduce a third line…”

The lines reset. This time, a third line appeared behind the left-most one; it also appeared at a larger distance. “And I have to assume that we get the exact same behavior no matter which neighbors I look at.” The lines moved again, with each line moving faster than the one in front of it. Eventually, all three lines met each other at the exact same point.

“So… basically… even though all three layers started out at different points… they will get to the same point at the same time. They’ll all be current with each other at the exact same time…”

A drop of sweat appeared on the brow. “And, by symmetry, I can keep going backward… and I could also go forward… to infinity in both directions!”

She took the flame containing the equal sign and threw it at the lines. The flame exploded into a raging blue inferno that took up a large portion of the space in front of her; the inferno sported an infinity symbol with an equal sign right above it.

“All infinitely many layers will be current with each other at the exact same time! They… necessarily have to be!” She ground her teeth together. “It’s not intuitive… but it’s the only thing that makes sense!”

She kicked at the non-existent floor. “And that… that would bring all the layers into alignment with each other, somewhat. Well… it would take care of everything outside of our light cone… and the differences on our planet are small compared to the grand scheme of things.”

Sunset nodded. “Yes. This has to be it. That’s where the time dilation is going. With that being the case, then… I would imagine that the seal’s reconciliation mechanism would want to bring all of those into line as well. It could do it too, since the difference between layers would be minimized at this point.”

She looked at the infinity inferno. She allowed the smaller flame containing the arrows and her head to float back down and orbit it in return. The flame with the orb and Twilight’s head quickly joined it.

“So… Consensus is going to do all of this. Is that… everything?”

Sunset looked at the fires before her. The flames didn’t immediately fuse together like she expected or hoped. She narrowed her eyes, glanced around, and then spotted the Element of Magic and the sheet of paper.

“N-no,” she thought. “I still haven’t resolved these…”

She looked at the Element of Magic. “There has to be some part of Consensus that deals with this magic and using it for some sort of reconciliation. It specifically mentioned unstretching the realities… back into one single reality.

“As far as we knew, we’d need more than the sum total of all magic in Equestria to do that. But… Grimb’vltr mentioned that could be lessened if the realities didn’t differ by much.” A flame containing the equation Δ2R = 0 appeared in front of her.

“So… if we can get the timelines and layers to look like each other somewhat, then the energy requirements would be within what exists in Equestria.”

Sunset flinched. “That’s… more or less what we’re already doing! If Consensus is going to make all the layers and timelines all look like each other, then… the seal would try to then… merge everything into one single reality!”

She gasped and then turned back to the piece of paper. “But… but then… this thing… about the seal soaking up all magic…” She held her head with both forehooves as she stared at it. “Have… have we been looking about this all wrong this whole time?”

She swallowed. “The seal charged up for its final measure. Then… its final measure isn’t a countermeasure to Grimb’vltr getting out, it’s Consensus. The seal charged so that it could do Consensus!

“And… with how this’ll work out, we’ll be within energy limits,” she said as she grabbed the Element of Magic. “And then… we’d get that unused magic back in the aftermath. We would get through this safe.”

She then grabbed the piece of paper and then threw both flames at the infinity inferno. They hit, and the infinity engulfed them before expanding several times its size, immediately swallowing the other flames (one containing the arrows and her head and the other orb and Twilight’s head) as it expanded. Sunset had to shield her eyes as it grew and she could even feel it burning her coat.

When she looked up, a blue ember that had to be the size of Canterlot Castle itself gradually expanded right in front of her. Sunset had just a moment to observe the image in the middle; an infinity symbol with what seemed like infinitely many arrows pointing toward the center.

“So that’s it. We’re going to fix this. Where the worlds and layers split up… Consensus will bring them back together.”

The flame continued to expand and finally swallowed her whole. Sunset’s body disintegrated and the rest of the expanse followed suit.

“Eureka!”

Sunset’s eyes flew open.

The rest of the tower greeted her. The shadows had crept to different places in the room from when she had gone under; the golden sky told of an oncoming sunset. A quick look down revealed the lingering smoke ribbons of spent incense and the globbed forms of the candle bases.

She stood up, smirked and then took a deep breath. Adamantine? she thought, specifically trying to project her thought someplace else.

Nothing happened at first. And then Adamantine’s voice sounded within her head. Yes?

I’m done here. And I’ve figured everything out.

Acknowledged. I’m getting low on energy and need to recharge, so I’m going to cancel your body for now.

Sunset squared up and nodded. Okay. I’ll just explain it to you, and you can feed it to the others. There’re a lot of things that we’ll have to get going.

Right. I’ll start gathering them now.

Sunset smiled. And then, in that next moment, this body began disintegrating as well. And as her consciousness slowly filtered into the void, Sunset could help but feel a sense of wholeness; she also felt lighter than she had been. Now, she felt herself standing taller than she had in recent memory. One prevailing thought cycled through her mind:

Things… might turn out okay after all.

10 - Groundwork

Canterlot Castle’s tallest tower, billowing smoke and sporting several gashes and holes, tumbled over with a crack and a loud roar. The city itself rumbled and then outright shook on its foundations as the country’s highest pinnacle slammed into the ground, throwing up dust and debris in the process.

Fires dominated large portions of the city, their smokes further clouding the once clean air. Some of the darkened clouds hanging above the city, however, originated from the dozens of airships now idly hanging above the city and surrounding mountain.

Many streets lay empty now. The most they contained were the occasional abandoned carts, toys, food, and other various items. Glass shards gathered underneath the remains of windows, and a few doors lay ajar at odd angles, hanging onto the frames from their remaining hinges.

There were even a few late ponies slumped against walls and strewn across the ground, some wearing armor and others wearing flower shirts, and even fewer late Storm Guards.

Through these deserted streets walked a chain gang accompanied by several living Storm Guards. A mare in the middle, Raven, noted that the clouds above the city now weren’t quite as thick as the ones created by Flim Flam Industries back in the day, but this bode far worse.

She shuddered. She was Raven, aide to the princesses. At least, she had been that this morning. But that didn’t matter anymore. Who she was didn’t matter. She was here, along with the other ponies, functionally indistinguishable from the next.

At least they had the decency to place her large, square glasses over the muzzle weighing down her head, but the right lens had a gigantic crack across its middle which she was sure, now with this turn of events, would never be fixed. The cuffs around her neck and midsection had just about made themselves comfortable by now. She wondered if they’d ever come off again.

She looked toward the other side of the street where she indeed spotted a trio of ponies sitting idle in their cages. Without muzzles of their own, she could fully see their sorrowful and frightened frowns.

The one in the middle caught her eye, however. She was a white-ish pegasus mare with a large, pinkish bow in her mane which had many strands of the gold and black variety, and completely obscured her eyes. Raven immediately recognized her as Songbird Serenade, Equestria’s most popular singer.

And she too was enslaved, just like the rest of them. Songbird sat there, completely catatonic. The two ponies in the cages flanking hers didn’t seem to care that she was there; they simply watched the chain gang pass by with pale looks of terror on their faces.

Raven shuddered and turned her eyes forward again. Here she had been thinking they had averted a crisis, for the Nameless’ seal had been satisfied. But this was the crisis, and the crisis had already concluded. This was the true end.

One of the ponies ahead of her tumbled and fell face-first onto the stone street. When he didn’t immediately get up, one of the Storm Guards sauntered over and kicked him in his abdomen and barked something in a language she didn’t readily recognize. The stallion groaned and climbed to his hooves.

This was the new reality. Raven could do nothing but walk as these Storm Guards marched them into an unknowable future.

Sunset Shimmer’s world of black gradually dissolved into a world of color and sound. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, groaning as if she had just woken up.

The library of Twilight’s castle greeted her. Morning sunbeams streamed through the window and the sweet smell of tea hung in the air. She breathed it in, sniffing it for the taste.

She finally looked across the room to see all the bodies looking back at her. Her people from Canterlot High were there. Her ponies and dragon from this world were here. Tempest and her team were there.

Adamantine nodded and stepped back.

And Twilight Sparkle subsequently stepped forward. She paused for a few moments. “Sunset,” she said at length.

Sunset steeled herself.

Twilight swallowed. “I just… it was you…”

Sunset nodded and scanned their faces again. They all wore frowns and she could see the slightest hints of indignant fire in their eyes. “I know…” she croaked. “I know… that I’m the one responsible… for you dying, for the unponies dying, for everyone suffering right now… for me… it’s all me.”

No one spoke in return.

Sunset dragged a hoof across the floor and sighed. “I didn’t want to believe it either. I wouldn’t have dreamed that I’d be the one that came up with the idea behind all this. But… I spent my time thinking really hard about this, as I do… and this is where it got me.” She sighed. “And I have to assume, by symmetry, that every me that’s come before me… came to the same conclusion.”

Adamantine smiled. “It’s funny how that works, isn’t it?”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah… I’m really sorry.”

After a moment, Twilight sighed. “Well… it is what it is. Actually… we know what it’s all for. And… I trust you, Sunset.” She smiled. “So… it’s okay.”

Sunset grinned in return, feeling a weight in her chest lift.

The crystal ball sat on one of the tables. Within it, Grimb’vltr hummed. “I too am surprised by this turn of events. To think… that the solution… which even I thought was impossible… is already almost in place.” It paused. “But… I must suspect that there are still things left to do, and there are some preparations still to be made, hmmm?”

“That’s right. Uh, since we’re all here… can we talk about that?”

Princess Celestia stepped forward. “Alright, Sunset Shimmer. This is your operation. You tell us what you want us to do, and we’ll do it to the best of our abilities.”

A few others shared affirmative hums.

Sunset couldn’t help but smile. Everyone was looking to her for guidance. They were looking for her leadership.

They were looking, confident that she would get them through this.

She proudly puffed herself up and nodded. “Okay. Let’s do this. First,” she said, pointing to Tempest and her four teammates, “you all have your thing, and you’ll want to get that going. And then…”

Sunset looked around and laid her eyes on the chalkboard. She trotted over, picked up a piece of chalk with her magic, and then turned to face the room again as everyone rotated positions to arc around her. “On the Consensus side, I’ll need to make final touches on the algorithm and make sure we’re actually able to pull it off. Twilight, Starlight, Adamantine… you can help me with that.” She looked at the crystal ball. “Grimb’vltr, you too.”

She then wrote a few words on the board. “For everyone else, the name of the game is coverage. We need to spread the stones to as many places we can think of. For you,” she said, pointing at her human world friends, “I’m talking stones in CHS, at your houses, Camp Everfree, or wherever. We have to make sure those places are preserved. For here,” she said, turning to Twilight, “you yourself cover a lot of area—”

“Which I have confirmed to be the case,” Grimb’vltr interjected.

Sunset paused. “Right… But we will need to cover places like Griffonstone, and the Crystal Empire, and Seaquestria. We have to make sure those places make it through this okay.”

Twilight chuckled. “It’s still pretty weird to think of myself as a weight in all this. But I guess I won’t complain.”

Adamantine nodded. “It should be doable. Certainly…” she said as she turned to Princess Celestia, “if you need assistance with getting to places, especially the far away ones, I can help with that.”

Princess Celestia smiled. “Of course, Adamantine. That would be wonderful.”

“We oughta get the Canterlot Guard in on this, then,” Applejack said. “That’s a heck of a lot of stones to spread ‘round the world.”

Fluttershy frowned. “Oh, goodness, yes. I remember it took us three whole days to get the one we were getting,” she quivered.

Twilight turned to face them. “Yeah… Uh, maybe you could all not go that far this time.”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Really? You sure?”

Twilight made a noise as she smiled. “Eh, I’d feel better if you stayed close.”

Applejack trotted forward with her comforting smile and lay a hoof on Twilight’s withers. “Don’t you worry none, Sugarcube. We’ll play it safe. Ah promise.”

“Good.”

Princess Luna looked up. “We should… probably try and talk with those other nations. We could cover them ourselves, but… things will go so much better with their help.”

“Ah,” Adamantine said as she turned to them, “I believe I could assist with that as well.”

Princess Luna blinked. “Are you sure?”

Adamantine swayed from side to side. “I have this feeling that they might be willing to listen to me.”

The other Twilight adjusted her glasses. “Just so I’m sure, we have to put eight stones in each spot we want to save?”

“Yeah,” Sunset replied. “Seven or eight. That way you can dominate the average.”

“Uh, yeah. I have a question, actually,” Starlight said as she stepped forward. “Like, I get that we’re pretty much choosing our timeline for the average to look like.”

“Okay.”

“But what about the other layers? What are we going to look like when we merge with them?”

Sunset frowned. “Uh, I just imagined it would be an average of all layers.”

“Okay, but they’re all doing the same thing we are. Won’t we average with them?”

“A-ah, yeah, I would just imagine that, since the worlds follow each other, the average looks like us anyways.”

“That… sounds like a slippery slope.”

“I can see it,” the other Twilight said. “It’s just taking an objective average of… uh, N realities, in the limit that N goes to infinity.”

Sunset hesitantly raised a hoof into the air and eventually pointed at the other Twilight. “Yeah… exactly!”

Rainbow Dash frowned. “Uh, what?”

Sunset pointed at her. “Yeah, exactly.”

The other Twilight blushed.

“It works out,” Twilight said. “Trust me. Well, trust other me too.”

Sunset nodded and then floated the crystal ball over. “There’s that. And it kinda looks like every layer out there is more or less doing what we’re doing right now, so we should be okay.”

The other Applejack let out a long exhale. “Shucks, if ya say so.”

Sunset nodded and then looked into the crystal ball. “And then… Grimb’vltr?”

Grimb’vltr looked up. “Yes?”

“We’ll try to give you the list of things we’ve learned about you and the unponies here, so you can replicate all of that stuff,” Sunset said.

“That would be good. While there are things that I can glean about the state of your reality from my position, having a ready list of things would be helpful.”

“Sure.” Sunset looked up, scanning their faces one more time. She then pointed over each of the groups, mentally checking them off. And then she nodded. “I think that’s the gist of everything. Everyone knows what they’re doing, right?”

A chorus of “Yeah”s and “Uh-huh”s met her in response.

Sunset smiled. “Good.”

With a sigh and a solemn frown, Twilight stepped forward. “Sunset?

Sunset looked over. On seeing Twilight, her smile faded. “Yeah?”

“This is great, and all, but there’s still one thing we haven’t cleared up yet—”

“Yeah?”

“—and it’s the most important thing.”

Sunset straightened herself up. “What’s that?”

After a moment’s pause, Twilight sucked in a breath. “When all of this is said and done, and we’ve saved all the realities out there… do we get you back?”

At that, many in the room exchanged glances and then looked at Sunset for an answer. The friends of the human world trotted a few steps closer, just about staring holes into Sunset. Starlight also inched forward, followed shortly by her friends.

Adamantine’s muzzle twitched and she turned to stare thoughtfully into space.

Sunset scanned their faces, watching their eyes twinkle with hope. But she didn’t smile in return; she didn’t even reply immediately .

“Sunset?” Principal Celestia asked.

Sunset backpedaled. “A-ah… actually… if I’m being honest… I hadn’t even thought about that.”

Yes, in seven timelines, she still existed in the human world, outside the seal. And yet, right now, she herself existed in the seal across all eight. On average, here she was sealed away. Sunset’s frown loosened up. Once the seal was done, however, and had no reason to keep her anymore… could she leave?

Sunset blinked and slowly nodded. She let her eyes fall onto them again. “I don’t know. But honestly… yeah”—she saw them immediately liven up at that—“I think… there might be a chance.

“If this all goes well, and we do this right… I might be able to come out.”

Twilight Sparkle adjusted her glasses as she and the other remaining members of the Rainbooms climbed onto the stage. The six friends meandered into the center where the rest of the gymnasium could see them. A little over a hundred bodies dotted the floor below; most were teenagers their age, but a few teachers were clumped up to the side. The midday sunlight mixed with the overhead lights.

Applejack placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder and nodded. That prompted Twilight to nod in return and then step forward.

“Hi, everyone,” Twilight began. “Thanks for coming on such short notice.”

“Hey!” cried a voice in the front. “Sunset’s actually okay?” Flash Sentry looked up at them, his hands balled into fists.

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Kind of, more or less.”

Many within the crowd, including Flash himself, gave relieved sighs.

“Yes,” Twilight agreed. “She’s… not quite here, still. She’s… still sealed away. But they found some techniques that allow her to interact with us, at least. So we have that.”

“Where is she?” Trixie asked. “I must know!”

“She’s back in Equestria. But, right now, she has a lot on her plate. She’s asked us to take care of a really important job.” Twilight straightened up and scanned the crowd. Every face within was looking at her intently, waiting for whatever she would say next. “There are a lot of things that we have to get through and explain. Here’s what’s happening—”

Pinkie Pie suddenly zipped forward. “Sunset Shimmer wants to solve all of existence. You all remember those stories she told us about alternate timelines and, like, infinite worlds? Turns out that Sunset wants to try combining all of that into one single world!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. As the others flinched away from her, she continued, “It kinda turns out that it was kinda happening anyway but we figured it out and stuff. But it’s going to be a thing where because we’d only be one world, it’s going to try to average every world out there and try to find the best one and so—”

“What Pinkie Pie is gettin’ to,” Applejack cut in, simultaneously placing a hand over Pinkie Pie’s mouth, “is things are gunna happen, and we got a way to make sure what we end up lookin’ like looks just like all this here.” She motioned to the entire gymnasium. “And to do that, we gotta put a buncha things in places.”

“Ah…” Twilight started, wilted, and then sighed. “Yes. That’s the gist of it. Fluttershy, can you show them?”

Fluttershy nodded and then slung her backpack off her back. She reached in and fished out a small and opaque orb carrying a faint white glow, coated by what seemed like a thin, glassy layer. Fluttershy held the stone up for everyone to see.

Applejack pointed at it. “Y’all’ve probably heard about these things before, but that’s a stone.”

A few gasps washed over the crowd, and some even glanced between each other.

“We’ll be bringin’ more of these things over in a bit,” Applejack continued. “But these things right here? We are gunna use these to, uh, keep everything the way it is.”

And then a bit of grainy quality music echoed throughout the gym; it sounded like a group of female singers singing to a peppy and confident tune. “Got the music in our hearts! We’re here to blow this thing apart! And together… we will never… be afraid of the dark!”

Rarity squealed and she fished her cell phone from her pocket. She looked at it and then glanced up. “It’s Vignette Valencia. I should take this.”

Rainbow Dash made a shooing motion with her hands.

Rarity smiled, turned, placed the phone to her ear, and began walking backstage. “Hello! Vignette! Oh, thank you so much for returning my call…”

“Anyway,” Rainbow Dash said, stepping forward, “we gotta take these things and spread them to as many places as we can. We’ll need to cover places like Camp Everfree and stuff.”

“Right. And any other places all of you can think of,” Twilight agreed. “We’re going to need all of your help to make it happen.” She paused. “Any questions so far?”

The whole gym remained silent and still.

Twilight sighed. “Good. Let’s start talking about what places we’d all like to hit…”

Adamantine followed Princess Celestia and Princess Luna’s lead and bowed.

King Thorax, who sat on his throne, stood up and walked over to them. The floor, which had the same organic nature to it as the walls did, bore depressions from his hoofsteps, leaving a trail in his wake. He approached the three of them in silence, keeping his eyes on Adamantine all the while.

A few other changelings, all standing to the side, also watched the three of them. They remained silent except to occasionally buzz their wings in anticipation.

“So, you are Adamantine,” King Thorax said. “You are the queen of the unponies.”

Adamantine lifted her head up and, as Celestia and Luna rose to their hooves, stood up as well. “Former queen, yes.”

Some sad wetness flashed across his bug-like eyes for a moment and then he straightened up. “Ah, y-yes. My mistake. Former Queen Adamantine. I have heard of you, especially within the last few days.”

Adamantine. “I am glad to know that you know who I am.”

Thorax looked at Celestia and Luna for a moment, considering their presence, and then turned his eyes back to her.

“And you’ve come here with them?” Thorax asked.

“Yes. That is correct,” Adamantine replied.

“Isn’t it true that these ponies more or less sentenced your people to death?”

Adamantine winced. Dragon Lord Ember, who still sat on the rocky throne before her, spoke with a tone that could slice through solid rock. What she had just said definitely sliced through her.

She sucked in a breath. “It is true,” Adamantine said.

Ember’s claw tightened around the crystalline staff she held. She narrowed her eyes even further. “And here you’ve come, in their company? What are you doing with them?”

“I… I have forgiven them,” Adamantine replied. As Ember’s expression twisted into one of visible confusion, she continued, “I must imagine that it is somewhat difficult to grasp. They did what they had to to protect their ponies, just as I did mine. I recognize that it put as at odds. I recognize that it made us enemies. But I know…”

Adamantine paused to look at Celestia and Luna who stood behind her. And she smiled. “They are good ponies. I know that.”

She looked back at Ember. “I know that, if things had been a little different, if we had all not been in such a terrible situation as that, I know they would have helped me and my people. For a time… that is what they even tried to do.”

Ember’s frown deepened. She then flapped her wings as she rose from her throne, hovering across the shattered rocks that made up the floor to land in front of them. “That’s ridiculous. That’s insane.”

“It is the truth. Truth is often very strange,” Adamantine said. “And I stand by what I have said to you just now.”

Grampa Gruff ground his beak together as he considered her words. The thread hanging off his fez swished in time with his movements.

A couple of female griffons watched from the side. The one with the brownish coat and the white head feathers snorted and sat back. The grayish one, meanwhile, continued rocking back and forth with wide-eyed wonder.

Grampa finally said, in his gravelly voice, “What do you want?”

Feeling herself swell (and noting Celestia and Luna do the same), Adamantine straightened up. “I must imagine that you are aware of a Sunset Shimmer. You have met her not too long ago, correct?”

“I did. Briefly. Go on.”

“I am here in her stead. There are things about to happen. There are possible changes coming to our world. There will be an event in a few days that will affect all of us.” She paused. “This event has been in the works for thousands of years. It happening and the assurance of it happening… is why my people and I existed in the first place.”

Grampa Gruff paused. The wrinkles in his face creased as he hummed with confusion. “This has something to with the Nameless, hmmm?”

“Yes. I know you have finished dealing with something related to it recently.”

“Feh. I’ve heard there have been a number of other things that have to do with it. Why don’t you all just put an end to it?”

“That is the goal. I can assure you that this is the last thing that needs to be done. After this, everything will be truly resolved.”

Grampa Gruff’s beak turned downward but he said nothing.

She leaned forward. “But, to make sure that this comes to pass, we must ask for your assistance.”

“And why should we help you?” Queen Novo, who floated in the water before them, said. “Queen Adamantine, you must realize that we seaponies haven’t had the best relations with Equestria. I’m only hearing you out because you being the one to come forward bears exception.”

“And I recognize that,” Adamantine replied. She bowed. “Again, thank you for agreeing to see me. I must stress that this event… it is bigger than all of us.” Her frown deepened. “And, if my understanding of recent events is in order, it is what will see us safely through tomorrow.”

Queen Novo tilted her head. “How so?”

“Are you aware that there is a campaign launched by the Storm Kings of the alternate timelines to conquer those timelines?”

The seapony next to Queen Novo, sporting a yellowish body with light blue fins, whimpered and drew close to her mother. Queen Novo sucked in a breath and pulled her daughter close.

“I am aware of it,” Queen Novo replied.

“The worst has come to pass,” Celestia interjected, stepping forward. “They have already conquered the other Equestrias, and it is our understanding that they are preparing to invade ours.”

Queen Novo paled. “N-no.”

A few of her seapony guards, also floating in the water with her, exchanged uncertain glances.

“Alas, it is true,” Luna said solemnly.

After sucking a breath, Queen Novo leaned forward. “And? Is there anything that can be done? Can they be stopped?”

Adamantine nodded. “We have a plan. There is a team about to set out to defeat them. Princess Luna”—she motioned to Luna—“will be among them, even. But if we can get this event I have told you about to pass, then not only will those Storm Kings all be stopped, all of their damage will also be reverted.”

“Hmmmm,” Prince Rutherford hummed as he pulled on his long yak beard. “Yak still not sure. Yak no like this.”

Adamantine shivered; the Yakyakistan air was cold enough without the snow falling on them, and the eternally cold stone seats around this fire (which did help) hurt things. “I know you have hesitations about working with Equestria again. I understand the distrust that you have developed as of late. I have been where you are now, where I have not been so keen to take their side.

“I have found it in my heart to forgive them, because I still know that they have always done everything they could to benefit everyone, pony or otherwise… even if they have not always succeeded. I would dare say… that I might have perhaps not approached them if I believed that not to be the case.”

Despite the locks obscuring his eyes, the shift in Prince Rutherford’s jaw betrayed his otherwise stoic appearance.

“I recognize that circumstances have divided us. But there is one thing that I know for sure…” Adamantine stood up, making herself as tall as she could. “When we all come together… as one… as friends and allies, and…” She paused and then cleared her throat. “Amazing things happen. We can all accomplish so much… together.”

She leaned forward. “We have something we wish to do, and we will be much more capable if we had your help. You would enrich us in ways we could not accomplish on our own.” Adamantine cracked a smile. “I know you would be able to help us greatly… since I am aware that the yaks are the best at all things.”

Prince Rutherford laughed. After a moment, he replied, “Unpony makes good point. And unpony is correct: yaks are best at all things.”

Adamantine clasped her hooves together but said nothing.

After a moment’s thought, Prince Rutherford nodded. “Among things yaks are best at is forgiveness. Yaks best at forgiving. What is plan that unpony have to tell? Tell Rutherford what event we must prepare for.”

Adamantine smiled. “You see, it goes like this…”

“So,” Tempest began, facing the four bodies at the table with her, “in order to do this, we have two options: one, we sneak onto the ships while they are docked, or we try and parachute in. Given we’re not all natively ponies,” she said, casting a glance on Wallflower, “and I doubt most of us have been parachuting before, I’d like to avoid the second option.”

Luna hummed. “Those honestly don’t sound like easy options. The parachuting, obviously… Sneaking in… we can’t really blend in there, but you’re—” she turned to face Discord, “—especially conspicuous.”

Discord placed a claw against his chest and puffed himself. “Oh, I know. I’m worth noticing.”

“I am prepared to take a third option,” Tempest said.

Luna looked up. “And that is?”

“We straight-up fight our way onto that ship.”

Wallflower shrunk down. “Please no…”

Tempest chuckled. “Well, I fight, you three probably help me,” she said, motioning to Luna, Discord, and Stygian before centering on Wallflower again. “You just stay out of the way and let us protect you.”

Wallflower squirmed in her seat and looked up at the others.

“When we head out, we’ll want to portal in at a safe distance. That means not right next to the boundary of the magic field,” Tempest said. “I want to make sure we can immediately get out of there if we’re spotted before we’re ready.”

Discord’s thumbs up detached from his hands and bounced across the table.

“And then, another thing…”

Tempest trailed off as Twilight and Princess Celestia walked through the library doors, the former levitating several crystal balls behind her. Both of them meandered over to the table that Sunset, Starlight, and Adamantine were sitting writing things down on. Twilight set six of the balls onto the table where it joined the one showing Grimb’vltr and Genesis as they dismantled the large towers that stood in the corners of the room. Twilight briefly trotted over to Sunset and presented the eighth and final one to Sunset who looked up and started into for a few moments. The images within that crystal ball flashed for a moment. Finally, the flashing stopped, Sunset nodded at Twilight, and then Twilight and Celestia approached Tempest’s table.

“We got it onto this ball for you,” Twilight said, turning to Tempest. “That way, it can help you while you’re out there.”

“Good,” Tempest said. “Thank you, Twilight.”

“Ah, what is going on in there?” Luna asked, leaning forward to see within.

Within that crystal ball, Grimb’vltr tiptoed over the many hoof-sized orbs littering the floor. The orbs all had glassy layers to their outsides. Genesis, meanwhile, stood next to a cylinder of stone about half his height. Energy swam through lights on is surface, all streaming toward the top where a hot, glowing object slowly rose from a cavity in the stone. The object eventually condensed into the shape of a small orb.

Genesis lit his horn and lifted the orb from the machine. The orb cooled, revealing it to be just like the several thousand already occupying the floor.

“Huh,” Luna said as she observed the activity within. “So that is how they are formed.”

Twilight took a moment to observe the activity within as well, smiling in the process. “Oh wow, you’re right. Truly fascinating…”

Sunset blinked and looked up. “Wait, really?”

Twilight held it up. “Yes! Come look!”

“Oh!” Sunset sprang to her hooves and trotted over. She joined them in at the table to peer inside.

Genesis said a few words in an unfamiliar language. Grimb’vltr glanced over and said a few words of its own in what had to be the same language. They exchanged a couple more sentences and then fell silent once more, returning to their devices.

Starlight came over at that moment. “Wow, that’s sure something.”

Grimb’vltr glanced up. “Yes. I found it prudent to develop different facets in each timeline. I shall perform the full implementation later, with some help from some alignment protocols I am also developing.”

Starlight blinked and then looked into the ball. “Wait. You can see us?”

“Of course I can. Remember that I am a single entity spread across the timelines. My crystal ball in the chamber you are familiar with still looks at you.”

Starlight frowned and briefly looked up. “Uh…?”

“Of course, you understand that. I know that you do.”

Twilight nodded. “I do! You’re physically present across all of them at once, so you can respond to us from any of them.”

“I get it too,” Sunset said. “Remember how there’s a single seal spanning all eight timelines?”

“Anyway,” Tempest cut in, standing up, “given that, you can alert us if we are about to be found out. We will need you to scout out the area as we go in.”

Grimb’vltr paused. “That is something I could do, but I am not a part of your team.”

“You could be.”

“I am not.”

“…We could still use your help.”

“I have very important things to take care of. I should keep my focus on bringing Consensus to fruition.”

A blood vessel popped in Tempest’s head. “Yes, so you should do what you have to make sure we can safely pull it off on our end. We can’t do Consensus if we’re all dead.”

Wallflower flinched.

Grimb’vltr looked up. “That is obvious.”

“Then help us be not dead. Help us make Consensus happen.” Tempest paused.

Sunset nodded. “I agree. Grimb’vltr, we’re all working toward the same goal here. You help them out, then there’s no chance they’d be able to stop Consensus from happening.”

Grimb’vltr stroked its chin. “I suppose that is a fair point.”

Stygian chuckled. “Hmmm. I wonder if you’re unsure you could even help us.”

After a pause, during which the whole room turned to face him, Grimb’vltr snorted. “I assure you that I can.”

“Really? Because it sounded, just a moment ago, that you just couldn’t peel your attention away from Consensus, even for this. It sounds like you felt you couldn’t do both.”

“That is not the case.”

“Oh, but if it is, maybe you should just keep your efforts focused here.” He looked up, his expression firm. “We’ll do just fine without you.”

Celestia frowned and raised a hoof. “Ah, I’m sorry. Stygian—”

“Do not presume what I am and am not capable of,” Grimb’vltr said with a sharp tone.

“Well, remember that we’re here, right now, because you were incapable of splitting these realities correctly the first time.”

A flurry of gasps circled the room as they all considered what he had just said.

Adamantine shot to her hooves. “That sounds like quite enough! I will not tolerate that sort of talk here!”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, agreed. Stygian, we should be a little more—”

Grimb’vltr thrust one of his legs into the air. The crystal ball sitting on the table flashed once before a spectral hoof of blackish slime shot out of the crystal ball. The hoof, several times the size of the crystal ball itself, rammed right into Stygian, rocketing him across the room where he slammed into the bookshelves. The report from the blow dwarfed his cry of pain as it hit him, he hit the books, and then tumbled down to the floor.

Tempest shot to her hooves, letting some sparks arc across her broken horn. Wallflower fell backward with a yelp. Luna went wide-eyed and flinched, as did Twilight. Sunset and Starlight gasped but remained standing where they were. Celestia flared her horn and extended her wings to their full length but otherwise did nothing. Discord cooed with delighted interest. And Adamantine remained as before.

The spectral hoof fizzled into nothingness, leaving the room silent.

At once, all eyes, all widened with shock, turned to the ball.

Stygian groaned and, with some strain, looked up. “Ugh… what…?”

Grimb’vltr put its foreleg back down. “I will not tolerate that either. Learn how to talk to your betters.”

Stygian blinked. He lit his horn, wrapping his brilliant green aura around himself to pull himself up and set himself back in front of the table. “W-what the devil did you just do to me!?” he cried. He blinked. “H-how did you do that…?”

Twilight sucked in a breath. “That… was you, Grimb’vltr?”

“Perhaps it was me,” Grimb’vltr replied with a smirk.

“How did you do that?” Sunset asked. “Like, seriously, how did you do that?”

“Oh! What fun!” Discord exclaimed, throwing his appendages into the air. “Bravo, Big G! Simply incredible!”

Grimb’vltr’s smile faded. “What did you call me?”

Celestia shot a hoof into the air. “Now now! There’s no need for us to become violent with each other!”

“Yes!” Twilight screeched. “Let’s not let this get out of hoof.”

“Seriously, though,” Sunset said. “How did you do that? You practically reached across a few tens of thousands of layers and… punched him!”

“Perhaps I did,” Grimb’vltr replied.

“How?”

Grimb’vltr straightened up. “Perhaps there are ways for me to interact with other layers. Perhaps I put something in place to go off at that exact moment. Or perhaps I have truly reached across time and space to put you in your place.”

Stygian swallowed. “W-well? Which is it?”

“I have decided that I will not tell you. Simply remember that I am a master of time and space. Do not contradict me again.”

“That was still quite uncalled for,” Celestia countered. “We do not do that here.”

“Uh, I dunno,” Starlight interjected. “That was pretty rude.”

“My point still stands,” Celestia said.

“That was uncharacteristically rude,” Luna said. “I agree. Stygian, that isn’t you. That’s not like you at all.”

Discord narrowed his eyes and floated down to the floor. “You know… I was just thinking that. Something is very off about you.” His eyes popped out of their sockets and orbited Stygian now.

A drop of sweat formed on Stygian’s brow. “W-what? I’ve only spoken the truth!”

“But you laced it with venom, and that is something I will not have,” Grimb’vltr replied with a sharper tone. Its features tightened up, and it craned its neck. “So, allow me to set you straight, and impart some wisdom on you. For the future.”

Grimb’vltr tilted its head toward the ceiling; at the same moment, the thousands of small orbs scattered across the ground rose up and slowly circled Grimb’vltr. Those closest to it flowed around it, leaving it room to stand in the middle of the chamber. Grimb’vltr even followed one with its eyes.

“You would do well… to remember… that I am known as the greatest monster that has ever threatened Equestria. That is, I believe, what I will be known for long after this is said and done and I have perished.”

Grimb’vltr looked up. “With that being the case… If you… any of you… should step out of line…” It smiled. “I will gladly become that very monster for you.”

Everyone held their breaths. Many of them exchanged uncertain glances. Stygian, for his part, looked as white as a sheet. Even Discord kept his silence.

At that point, the various orbs orbiting Grimb’vltr streamed toward the sides of the room, forming piles along the outer wall. That left much of the floor clear again. He straightened up.

“Now, with that out of the way, let us get back to business. Just so that I have your plan straight, once you are on the main ship, and you locate that throne fragment, you, Tempest, will destroy it. You, Wallflower, will erase the memories of the opposing forces so that they forget their alliance, and then the rest of you will wreak chaos, turning their forces on each other.”

Tempest let out a breath, sat back down, and nodded. “That is the plan.”

“Good. I will help you then… but under one condition.”

Tempest leaned forward.

“Because we cannot have information about the nature of Consensus falling into the hands of the enemy, my condition is simple. Before you leave… which I must suspect will be tonight”—Grimb’vltr paused to observe their affirmative nods—“the five of you will wipe your memories of the details of Consensus.”

Luna went wide-eyed. “What!? Grimb’vltr! You can’t be serious.”

“I am. I know that you can do it.”

“B-but…” Wallflower stammered. “That’s insane…!”

“I am not asking you to forget about Consensus entirely. You may keep that. But all these privy details, you must do away with. It is vital.”

“Why?” Tempest asked.

“Plausible deniability. In case of a worst-case scenario.”

Adamantine finally stood up and trotted over to them. After a pause, she said, “Wallflower Blush…?”

Wallflower looked up.

Tempest leaned forward, folding her hooves together and resting her muzzle against them.

“You can do that, yes?” Adamantine asked.

Wallflower sucked in a breath before producing the Memory Stone and setting it on the table in front of her. She looked back up. “Uh, yes, I could! But…”

Tempest nodded. “We’ll do it,” she said simply.

Discord slithered through the air and landed right beside Tempest. “Fizzlepop, dear, are you so sure about that?”

Tempest looked up. “I am.”

Discord groaned uncertainly and looked back at the crystal ball. “I don’t know. Big G did just put out a threat.”

“I know. And I know a thing or two about being seen as a monster. A lot of us at this table do.” She turned. “Grimb’vltr, I trust you. We will do it.”

Now Grimb’vltr paused. Its features gradually softened as it seemingly looked up to see her now. “You do?”

Tempest nodded. “Yes.”

Twilight smiled. From her lead, a few others smiled as well.

Grimb’vltr remained silent for a few moments more. It eventually reached up to scratch its chin and hummed thoughtfully.

Eventually, it nodded affirmatively. “Acknowledged. Well then…” it said with a softer tone than before. “Let us commence our talks.”