I found myself once again in the limbo of stars in which I had already been. The last time it was a result of the failed return to Equestria, but this time it was something different. Once more I fell a long time and brooded as to why I was here again. Was I dead? Had Nightmare banished me to this place? Strangely enough, I remained calm like my first visit. It was weird, as though this place exuded serenity despite lying in deepest darkness.

In contrast to my first visit, I was here without my body, just with my mind. I could neither talk nor feel. Neither could I sense my soul or cast magic. A small eternity I further fell, no ground, no destination, until the stars disappeared and my thoughts consumed me, all alone in the dark. Was this my end? Was this death?

"No, it is something worse," said a friendly female voice out from nowhere. Startled, I looked around, but I found no one.

"I am here..." I turned again to the source of the voice and in front of me stood a white alicorn with a smooth long red mane. She was bigger than Celestia but had the same loving expression on her face.

Startled, Cadance looked back when something tapped her back. The grim look which was on Discord’s face looked directly into her eyes before his sharp fang glistened in his broad smile. In a panic, she fell from the roof but not before the fake Discord flung a missile towards her. First she hit the ground, then the missile hit her, and her pained screams echoed through the small village.

At once, Celestia was at Cadance’s side, and with some attacks of her own, she forced Chrysalis to retreat. "Is everything okay, Cadance?" she asked while she searched for the draconequus.

"Yes… I was just surprised." Slowly the pink alicorn rose from the ground and stood ready to battle next to her aunt.

"We have to be cautious. If she can use Discord's magic—"

"Look out!" called Cadance, but the attack hit Celestia in the middle of her face. Completely bewildered, Chrysalis and Cadance looked upon Celestia who licked the banana cream pie off her face. Puzzled, fake Discord checked his lion paw that held a ball of chaos magic before it turned for some reason into the delicacy framing Celestia's face. He was so surprised that he was hit fully by Celestia's counter attack and sailed with great force into one of the destroyed houses.

"You might be powerful, Chrysalis, but Discord's magic can't be controlled even by you!" she shouted at the queen of the changelings who was freeing himself of the debris and patted himself down with both claw and paw, removing the dust from the fur.

"I do not need to control anything that is intended solely for destruction!" she snapped once and dissolved into a small explosion of confetti. Both alicorns searched immediately to see where Chrysalis teleported herself to but found nothing. The quiet flapping of wings was audible, but it was too late.

"Cadance, behind you!" her aunt called, but ‘Discord’ had already seized the wings of the pink pony and lifted her into the air. Black magic wafted around her, and with a laugh from Chrysalis, the alicorn fell back to the ground, wingless. Celestia caught her in her magic but she was already unconscious.

"You know, Celestia—" In the second Chrysalis started to speak, golden arrows narrowly missed her. "It is rude to—" Again she was interrupted as one of the arrows reversed its path and hit her, causing her to faceplant on the hard ground. "Ouch…"

"You might have Discord's magic, but I know the tricks not merely of his but yours as well. It doesn't matter what you'll do, you can only lose, Chrysalis." Celestia's horn glowed bright white as she prepared another attack. A giant magic sphere accumulated at its tip, and the earth around the alicorn, feeling the magic's attraction, began to float to it.

Not waiting for the recovery of the fake draconequus, Celestia released the magic. With wide eyes, he could only look at the attack and was soon swallowed by its light. The explosion of the impact tossed any wreckage too close into trees, houses and the golden dome that covered the Elements and Shining Armor. The Princess of the Sun had moved in front of Cadance and protected them both.

'Lauren Faust!' was my first thought. I wanted to ask her who she was and where she came from, but without a body, I merely floated in front of her.

“I see you know one of my other existences," she said cheerfully. "Here I use a different name. I am Albia the First, creator of this world," she introduced herself and bowed. "And you are Blue Light, aren't you?" I wanted to nod but couldn't. "Nice to meet you," she said and thrust a hoof into my direction, expecting a handshake. As I didn't know what I was supposed to do, I pretended for a moment to be still in possession of a body. "Oh right, I forgot that you are just a ghost."

'What’s going on?' I thought as I examined the alicorn, who still looked upon me with this big grin.

"Maybe I should explain this to you… Yes, that's a good idea." She made a small table and two cushions appear. "Please take a seat; I don't like talking while I stand." If I had eyes, I was sure that they would be rolling. She took a seat and again from nothing two cups appeared, apparently filled with tea. "Do you want tea or sugar?" she asked, pouring entire table spoons into her cup. Giving no answer, she took it as a no and allowed herself a sip. "So…" she said and put the cup down. "I believe you were already here once in the void, weren't you?"

'Yes,' I thought and Albia nodded.

"Well, if a being dies when they were already here once, then it doesn't move on but has to stay the rest of eternity in this place. That is the punishment for the mortals who dare to enter the realm of the creators," she said as if she read an entry from a statute book. "Actually we shouldn't keep them company, but for family I do make an exception now and then," she finished and winked.

'Family? I don't understand…' I slowly caught on that she probably could hear my thoughts.

"Well, you are the son of my daughter, aren't you? You know, big, white, with a green, pink, blue mane, moving with a non-existing wind." Every adjective was punctuated by moving her hoof in a circle. "Has a sister which controls the moon…"

'I believe I understand,' I thought and had to suppress an internal laughter. 'So I am dead and you are here to make the eternity slightly more bearable?'

"No. I am here to meet my grandson given the opportunity. Granny still has to give your present for the missed birthday." I noticed that I really skipped my birthday due to the time shift between the worlds. She again sipped her tea, and I couldn't help but imagine her as a blend of Celestia and Luna.

"Of course, I am their mother. I created them in my image," she said without placing the cup on the table.

'Created?'

"It isn't like every day a young handsome stallion comes along. So I created them." Albia said this like it was the most normal thing of the world. "But I treat them as if I had given birth to them and I love them in this way, too." Her voice became serious as she said this, probably to emphasize that there was nothing to question. "So…" she clapped with her hooves and was cheery again all at once "... Tell me something about you."

The raised dust cleared and Celestia saw an empty crater where her attack had struck. Instinctively, she erected a barrier around herself and Cadence and barely parried a ball of pure chaos. Before the shield, a crack in the space-time continuum appeared which swallowed a big part of the ground before it closed again.

The alicorn had to interfere with Chrysalis’ freedom of movement and had already the appropriate spell in her mind, but she needed a few seconds of peace to cast it.

"Aunty?" Cadance woke up behind her. There was no better moment. The young alicorn rose from the ground and began to stretch. "My wings? What happened to my wings?" she cried as she noticed her missing appendages.

"Calm down, Cadance. If we manage to defeat her, your wings should reappear," Celestia reassured her niece. "Can you keep her busy for a few seconds?" The Alicorn of Love thought a bit before she nodded. Celestia closed her eyes and concentrated on her spell. Cadance created several shields as taught by her husband, all of them independently movable. She wasn't the warrior like her mother, but the Princess of the Moon wasn't available at this time. She barely noticed in time the first attack coming from above and several blueberry muffins blocked her view through the first shield. The second attack followed at once and struck the second shield. The ball of energy burst into many small ones which caused small explosions at their impact sides.

"Annoying as the husband, I see," Chrysalis hissed with Discord's voice and moved on to attack physically. She weaved around the shields and raised her arm to strike Cadance with her claw. However, Celestia intervened and fired her prepared spell directly into the queen's face. Blinded by the bright light, she teleported a few meters away, only to be welcomed immediately by Celestia's hooves. She landed again in the front of Cadance who hit her full force with a shield on her head and pressed her further into the ground. Quickly, Chrysalis snapped her paw, and her body turned transparent with a false sense of security, as she was still hit by one of Celestia's beams in her back, throwing her into the wall of a house.

If the queen wasn't at the end of her tether, then she was now. Bent forward with a broken wing, she stood cornered before the alicorns and panted for air. "This is it, Chrysalis." Her form flickered and her true nature was soon visible. "I will be the one who ends this fight!" The white alicorn's horn glowed as bright as the sun itself, maintaining its intensity. Between both princesses, a large gate began to construct itself with the earth around it. When the gate was finished, runes of all kinds began to light up on its frame, and with a flash of light, the portal opened. Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, was not about to throw the towel in just yet.

"It isn't over for a long time yet, Celestia. You may have defeated my swarm but others still lurk out there, waiting for their opportunity!" she screamed, unable to maintain Discord's form any longer and sank on her own four hooves. Not having enough magic left, she couldn't force away the damage from her real body and so her own wing was bent and she had to hold up her broken right front leg.

"I, Celestia of Equestria, banish you, Chrysalis, to Tartarus. There you will spend the rest of your life thinking about your own deeds," said Celestia and loomed over the broken queen. The changeling pushed herself with her last of her power away from the ground and rammed her pointy horn directly into Celestia's barrel. Startled, Cadance gasped for breath, but Celestia moved no muscle. Slowly Chrysalis drew her head back to witness the end of her nemesis, but she was greeted by an everlasting smile. No blood could be seen, nor a wound.

"You got around a lot," Albia said when I finished my story. She had emptied her cup of tea and now and then nodded during my narration.

'And what do we do now?' I asked her.

"Now? Now I’ll give you a tongue-lashing." She rose from her cushion, cleared her throat, and looked directly at me with her deep blue eyes. "You are an impatient child who often looked after himself, and like a spoiled brat, cries for help when it is too late." I flinched in my thoughts. "Pure selfishness and love of adventure put you into this position. Do you agree with me?" I nodded.

"Good, because this is nothing bad." I was confused. "Everyone makes mistakes, and you can't always do the right thing even if you want to do it. You surely know the saying, ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’." She sighed. "What I want to tell you is that there isn't only good or evil. Sometimes you have to think of yourself and remember that there is nothing wrong about it. The art lies in thinking of your friends, to have both things in balance. Self-sacrifice is therefore never the right solution."

She paused for a moment and started to laugh. "You are the second former human I quarrelled about this." She stomped her hooves and was laughing so hard that she was short of being out of air. "Whoever created you humans, he was surely an odd fellow." So weird it was what she told me, I understood what she meant. What use was it to solve a problem if you weren't part of the solution? She made it clear to me how foolish it was to surrender Nightmare my body and my soul.

"Ah…" She began to calm down and took a few deep breaths. "I hear that you understand what I wanted to tell you. Nice that you aren't just a pretty face."

'Why don't you help Equestria when it is in trouble?' This question was on my mind some time already.

"But I do," she said. Behind her, six cutie marks appeared: those of the Elements of Harmony. "The Elements are a way to ask me for help. If you use them, I will not hesitate to lend my aid. However, they are only for extreme emergencies, like if, for example, my daughter has to be freed of an evil spirit or a chaotic god needs a time-out."

'Why don't you just kill them or banish them forever from this world?' She shivered a moment.

"I love all beings which live upon my world, regardless if they are evil or not. I could never harm a living being inside this world, even if they themselves don't follow this rule." That was why the Elements banished Luna in the moon and turned Discord to stone. It was her who played the tune the Elements would dance to. "So it is," she added to my thoughts. "And that is why I can't help your own world, unfortunately." I wanted to ask why but she anticipated the question. "First there is the fact that the Nightmares are not even doing anything wrong. Some worlds simply have reached the end of their existence and are not destined to be saved. Secondly, the Elements only work in my world, for that is how I designed them. It’s a safety measure so beings from other worlds cannot steal and abuse them for their own purposes."

'How can I help then my world?'

"You can't." It was as if my head was hit with a stone. "But you can show your people a way to help themselves, and my daughter has given you already everything you need."

'Her runes?'

"Exactly. She has told you already how she protects Equestria from the Nightmares, hasn't she?"

'Yes, but since they are already on my planet, the shield would no longer help them.'

"Not the whole planet but surely a part of it." An image of the Earth appeared from nothing, with a golden shield covering it. "From the outside, a Nightmare can't pass." Many small blue balls bumped into the shield and spared the Earth. "But you don't need to cast the spell on the entire Earth." The shield vanished and immediately many small domes spread on the Earth's surface. "If you protect the areas they haven't reached yet…" more balls bumped on the shields and slid between the domes "...then those would be safe as well." The Earth vanished and I saw the alicorn smile again.

Celestia grabbed Chrysalis, who was lying on the ground, and lifted her up to eye level. "Best wishes for the rest of your life…" With those words, she threw the changeling through the gate which instantly slammed shut and then returned into the ground from which it rose.

"Is it over?" Cadance asked. Celestia nodded and slumped down. "Aunt!" the young alicorn called and hurried over.

"It’s nothing, Cadance, I'm merely exhausted." The white alicorn pointed to the destroyed houses. "Please check if the others are safe." Cadance nodded and was about to gallop over to get to her husband when she noticed a familiar prickle on her back. Her wings had returned, and with one push, she sailed over half the distance.

"Armor, Armor…" she called as she nudged the white unicorn several times with her nose. The recipient’s eyes twitched before he moaned loudly. "Thank goodness you're okay!"

"Chrysalis?" he wheezed and coughed.

"Aunt Celestia took care of her. She’s gone." Satisfied, Armor smiled weakly before he slipped into unconsciousness again. Slowly his wife laid his head upon the ground again and looked for the Bearers, the first one being Twilight. Her sister-in-law was lying on her side with closed eyes. "Twilight, hey…" The unicorn opened her eyes and looked into the friendly face of Cadance.

"Oh… hey Cadance." She slowly rolled on her stomach and looked over the area. "What happened? Where is Chrysalis? Is everypony alright?" Cadance nodded, despite not having checked all personally. She could feel the souls of everyone present and knew that they would be out and about soon.

"They should be…" But there was a strange soul, as if it was shy of expiring. Without finishing her sentence, she rushed to one of the flattened houses. She hoped that most of the residents were safe. Walking over some boards, she lifted a beam to uncover her target. It was a young earth pony with orange fur and a white mane who, while unhurt physically, was devastated. Tears ran over her cheeks and fell into the black coat of the alicorn who she held with her hooves.

"Huh? Could you please take care of this pest?" The pink alicorn immediately recognized Nightmare. She ignored the dark being and lifted the foal out of the debris.

"Let me go, I want to stay with my father!" she yelled and struggled in the air.

Cadance looked down to Nightmare who replied with a dry laugh. "She means the actual owner of this body…" It coughed and spat blood. "Only that I killed him when I took over this body." Disgusted, she examined the being. She felt the hatred, the violent temper. There was no love, no compassion, only pure malice. The filly was holding still while Nightmare was talking but began to scream again.

"You killed my father after everything I had to do to find him!" She struggled madly and new tears ran over her cheeks.

"Who did this body belong to?" Cadence coldly asked the dying being. Again it laughed, only interrupted by the blood which dropped out of its mouth.

"Blue Light," it finally stated with a grin and lost consciousness. Cadance was shocked. She hadn't met her cousin personally but still felt sorry for him. Her mother and Armor had told her that he had settled in in Ponyville, had found friends, and was even founding a family. Sadly she shook her head and moved away from the house with the foal. Celestia met with her half way. Her aunt had listened in and was shedding tears.

"I'm sorry, aunt…" Cadance said. Celestia nodded and check the filly in Cadance's arms.

"Hello, little one, would you please tell me your name?" The filly sobbed and gasped for breath between the tears. She wasn't older than ten or eleven years at most, nearly still a little foal.

"Auralia…" she sobbed without looking at anypony.

"Would you please explain to me why you are in this time?" The filly's eyes shot up, locking on Celestia. They were blood red and full of mourning.

"I… I… I wanted to find my father. Twilight had sent me to correct a big mistake and I thought… I could…" Celestia wiped the tears from the filly's face with a wing.

"Everything will be alright…" Celestia said, her horn glowing. At once, the foal fell into a deep slumber before the alicorn laid her horn onto the pony's head.

"What are you doing, aunt?" Cadance asked worriedly, still holding Auralia in her arms.

"I'll send her into her own time. She shouldn't be here and it is important that she doesn't remember this." She concentrated on the seal of time which was on the filly, and Auralia was suddenly gone.

"So, let's talk about your present. It should be something which will be of use for a long time, as I don't believe that we will meet soon." With those words, the table and cushions vanished.

'What do you mean?'

"What are you missing right now?" I pondered a moment but nothing came to my mind. "Being alive, you dummy!" she finally said.

'Surely more a soul and body instead, right?'

"Call it like you want." She suddenly wore a diabolically broad grin on her face. Even broader than before. "Any particular wishes?" Was I crazy or did she offer me a new life?

"No, I’m giving you the chance to return into your old one. I’ll come up with a body and soul just like this…" She raised her leg and shook it. "Well, you get the idea." I started to think about it when she already stopped me. "Hold it! Hold it! Hold it! I have a better idea. I’ll do it like with Celestia and Luna, only that I’ll model upon Celestia. It’ll be a joy to more than one family member." She looked nearly as happy as I just did.

Author's Notes:

Die, meet the creator of everything, go back 3 days later. Just FimFiction things.

I remember how difficult it was to write that at the time.

Thanks to Verequus for translating this chapter.
Special thanks to JBL for proofreading and editing.

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