Visit the castle relay 52%

Twilight knew something was wrong, even if she couldn’t quite explain why. She couldn’t be home again, not now. Something happened, and now…

She emerged from the Golden Oaks library, into a street that was… wrong. The grass was gray, the flowers chalk-white. There were no birds humming overhead, no bees. Not even a passing butterfly.

She passed the deserved train station first, the HV-rail buzzing away. A train sat on the platform, its doors open. Leaves clogged the entrance, and the fabric had yellowed slightly from the sun. There was no one inside.

Twilight considered taking the train to castle relay, but thought better of it. Whatever was happening, Celestia needed to know sooner than that. So Twilight headed down the streets, making her way to the airfield.

A few windows were shattered, doors hung off their hinges. A few homes of the city’s richer residents had been looted. There was no sign of the looters now, or these homes’ original owners. Just dead plants, and the occasional whistle as the wind blew through the ruins.

Eventually she reached city hall, and helipad marked in gravel on the ground there. Twilight stalked past an empty waiting bench, up to the controls. There was only the single car-call button. She pressed it, then turned towards the bench.

It was no longer empty.

A creature was sitting there, one who hadn’t been there before. A pony so bland she almost didn’t see him at all. His coat was black, his mane was black, leaving only his eyes to contrast from his dark features. He didn’t have wings or horn, and if there was a cutie mark on his flank she couldn’t see it. “Princess Twilight Sparkle,” he said. “We should have a word.”

Something twisted in her chest, something angry and indignant. She hated this pony, in a way she’d never hated anything before. Why?

“I don’t know you,” she said, biting back her emotions. She didn’t use the chair beside him, instead sitting on her haunches in the gravel. “Do you know what’s going on? Where is everypony?”

“Some ran, most died.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Not my doing, so don’t ask. I give living things a merciful death. Numbness, then the cold and never waking. Nothing like what you do to each other.”

Twilight saw a city the size of a planet, empty and deserted. She saw good ponies lose their minds in the darkness. She felt her ship rock with explosions.

Then she was back. “This is wrong,” she said. “I’m not here.”

“There is no here,” the pony answered, reaching out a hoof and nudging the edge of the bench. The bit of wood puffed away to ash at his touch. “Your mentor destroyed it, turning billions of years to ash in the blink of an eye. Such a waste. But it’s what you imagined.”

“Who are you?” Twilight’s tone went cold. Her wings flared to either side, and she puffed out her chest It didn’t help much, the pony didn’t even look up.

“I once heard a legend of how the world was made, would you like to hear it?” The pony looked up, expression cheerful. He didn’t wait for her answer. “For endless forevers there was nothing, endless unbounded void. But wait long enough, and you’ll find something waiting even in the nothing. Six sparks were kindled, wishing they could have a place to dwell.

“So each one contributed a thread to the fabric, until it was sewn tight. But it was flat and lifeless, with no place for life. So these six found a wind, and tricked it into joining them inside their creation. There it blew, until the tapestry was full, and there was space enough for life.”

He folded his forelegs in front of him, apparently satisfied. “Think of me as the wind, Twilight. Trapped here a for billions of years, clawing to escape.”

“And… not caring what you have to destroy to do it?” she guessed. The longer she spoke, the more of her memories were returning. “You’re trying to kill everything. If you’re something so powerful, why should you care about us?”

The pony shook his head once, looking almost regretful. “You don’t ask a fire why it burns the home of somepony you love. Fire burns.”

She shuddered, meeting the creature’s eyes. He’d done a fairly good job acting out emotions she recognized, but they never reached his eyes. She couldn’t sense anything from him with her magic, either. Like she was talking to empty air.

“Why are you talking to me?” she asked. “If all you want to do is burn everything down, we can’t have anything to discuss.”

Overhead, the gentle buzz of a helicopter rotor announced the arrival of the relay-chopper. Twilight didn’t look up to see it—she couldn’t shake the feeling that if she looked away from this creature, it would disappear.

“It’s simple, Twilight. As your time spins down to zero, I’ve been observing you carefully. I have decided to make you an offer. You should be flattered, it’s been ages since I contacted an organic species before. But yours is unique, and I believe we might find an arrangement to our mutual satisfaction.”

Twilight’s body tensed reflexively, and she backed away. “I can’t imagine a fire offering me anything I want. Or a wind, or… whatever you are.”

The thing shrugged. “Listen anyway. I find your kind… useful. And what I find useful, I preserve for my own purposes. So consider this: I can cease all hostilities against you. No pony will ever grow sick and die in the cold. Your bodies won’t fail in the space I have touched. You will be safe, until a billion billion years have passed, and my work is finished.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “And in exchange?”

“Your species will find a new purpose,” he said.

She backed away another few steps, glowering at him. “You mean we’ll be your slaves. You’ll take our bodies and our magic for yourself. Better if we were dead.”

He looked indignant. “Nothing of the kind, Twilight Sparkle. Your purpose would change—a slight change to your nature, if you will. That would be all. I cannot take such a… direct hand in affairs, that I puppet creatures around. Were you not so powerful in mind and body both, this meeting would be impossible.”

He advanced on her, thrusting out a hoof. “Accept my gift, Twilight Sparkle. Guide your species to prosperity. I will give you a new homeworld, rich in good things. Where other creatures spawned from the chaos will rot and die, you will prosper. So I have spoken, and so will I do.”

“What about the other creatures? Dragons, and griffins, and… everything else from our homeworld?”

“Safe,” he said. “Altered slightly, like you. But all are part of this bargain.”

Twilight stared down at the offered hoof.

1. Take it. This could be the end. Safety for Equestria, forever. It might come at a cost to other creatures… but since when is that my responsibility?

2. No way. It’s better to struggle and die against a force like this than to bargain with it. If we die, we’ll die free.

Author's Notes:

This chapter's poll:

https://www.strawpoll.me/18929651

What you’re reading is a CYOA-style adventure story, fully driven by its user feedback. This story is written using a system called Mythic, a GM-simulator that allows me to be fully in the driver’s seat for the prose, without actually knowing what will happen next. Success or failure in this story is fully governed by the fickle hand of fate, as well as the wisdom of those who chose to vote on it.

You can go ahead and vote in older polls if you want, but obviously they won’t retroactively change the text going forward, so the links are left behind mostly because I’m lazy and as a record of previous decisions.

If you’d like to take a look at my semi-regularly updated blog post with character sheets and stuff, go ahead and visit here: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/834930/voyage-of-the-equinox-resource-page

And if you’re curious about the dicerolls and the system, you can see all of it for yourself and verify that I’m not cheating on my discord here: https://discord.gg/mQfUn75