I

The thing she had always found the oddest about dreams was that they always seemed real. No matter how illogical the dream was, no matter how odd the situation, no matter how out of character she herself was acting or somepony else was, the dream always seemed to make sense. Even when she was aware that she was dreaming and that none of it was real, she still felt as if it really was.

Luna was sobbing at her older sister to do something. Twilight didn’t know what it was that the darker alicorn wanted, but it seemed urgent. The cold wind was blowing hard, throwing her mane about and muffling her speech.

“…Sister…. We can….Discord!” Luna’s mouth moved, but Twilight found that she could only hear some of what came out.

Celestia’s appearance was much changed. Twilight noticed what was different, but in the fuzzy logic of the dream state, she couldn’t grasp the significance. Her pearly mane was torn in some places, her wings missing a few feathers. Twilight could tell that at some point, the Princess had been burnt by something right under her wing. The cold wind blowing from behind Luna now became a scorching updraft from directly below them all, and Celestia cringed slightly.

“Ponyville….Discord…” It was even harder for her to hear Celestia than it had been to hear Luna.

Twilight recognized the mountains in the background now. That’s the mountain where that dragon tried to take a nap. There’s the dam above Ponyville… But there was no dam above Ponyville in this dream, she realized. There was only the raging river which poured down unhindered. She could hear the water loud and clear as it rushed on its way. She thought that it was pity she couldn’t hear the conversation between the royal Alicorn sisters quite as well.

Celestia focused on something ahead, something Twilight couldn’t see at all. Perhaps, the dark clouds that were swirling around over the mountaintops were concealing? Perhaps her brain simply hadn’t come up with something. Twilight didn’t know. Luna was looking down at the cascading falls and back towards something Twilight couldn’t see. Twilight could make out the fear on her face from here.

The dream ended unexpectedly. Somepony—a mare—began screaming. There was no sound of water or wind to muffle this scream: Twilight could hear it clearly. It dragged on and on, a wordless, endless, terrified screaming that went on an on and on and on and—

Twilight awoke with a start as her face hit the hard floor. She gasped, partially from the shock of impact and partially from the horrible screaming. She could almost feel it in her ears, bouncing around. She shivered.

“What a dream,” she muttered and climbed back onto the bed, thoughtful. She took stock of her surroundings: it was bright outside and strangely quiet. Perhaps Ponyville was off to a slow start today? Was there some event elsewhere she didn’t know of? She was about to set off to check her thoroughly organized calendar when she noticed her hoof was shaking.

This stopped her from making that leap out of bed. Now that she saw it happening, she could feel it happening in her whole body: her legs all shook and felt weak. Was she sick? Surely she wasn’t sick! She had just been fine yesterday, absolutely fine. In fact, she had spent most of the day inside working through a particularly lengthy section in 1001 Years: Livery’s History of Equestria. Nothing involving danger or even the outdoors, except for lunch with Rarity. So why am I shaking?

Unsure of what to do, she decided to stay as still as she could and wait for the shaking to subside. It did, but slowly, and she was puzzled. Perhaps it was because of my dream.

Her dream. Mouth involuntarily opening in a small “O” shape, the strange, terrible dream came back to her in force. She could almost feel the wind again and see the raging waters. Twilight had no idea where the dam had gone, but the whole thing had indeed been a dream. Dreams aren’t real after all. They don’t follow reality.

She shook her head and sat up, frowning at this early morning strangeness. No dream had ever thrown her off this badly. It was time to get back to normal, and fast, and she would start by checking her schedule. She found her calendar beside her bed and found the date, pondering. Nothing planned outside of writing to the Princess today— no, a note. Applejack, lunch, Sweet Apple Acres. She glanced at the clock, realizing suddenly that it was already lunchtime.

She swiftly descended the stairs, past a still sleeping Spike. Rolling her eyes, she used her magic to stand him up and nudge him. “Spike—“

“Ah!” the dragon, now awake and confused, fell face first on the library floor and looked about in every direction for whatever had tossed him out of bed.

“Spike! It’s just me. We slept in.”

This was something her draconic friend had not expected to hear. “You. Slept… in? As in, woke up late? As in, you weren’t on ti—“

“Yes, Spike.” She cut him off with a severe look. “I was late. I have a note to see Applejack today about now, so I’m going to head out. I want you to look after the library while I’m gone, as always—“

“Of course, but Twi—“

“—and perhaps clean a bit while I’m away? Don’t bother with reshelving the books from last night, just stack the ones that were scattered and do not lose my place in the biggest one, Livery’s Histories—“

The small dragon impatiently tried to cut off the bookish filly’s speech once more. “Twiligh—“

“It’s very important that I finish his account of the Long Winters before the day is up! And—“

“Twilight!”

Blinking, she looked at Spike with sudden interest. “Oh. Were you saying something?”

“Why is it so quiet?”

Twilight opened her mouth and then promptly closed it. Now that he mentioned it, the quiet was rather oddly complete. Twilight suddenly felt a strange foreboding and—

Spike opened the door. Rarity was there— What a surprise! I wander what she’s doing outside of the boutique. Aren’t the hours around lunchtime when she gets most of her shoppers in? Twilight trotted up to the door and called out a greeting to her fashionista friend. The white unicorn opened her mouth and seemed trying to speak, but Twilight couldn’t hear her.

“Rarity?” The white unicorn looked as if she was yelling, sitting a few yards away from the door. “Rarity, why are you—“ Twilight stopped in midsentence. She couldn’t hear anything. It wasn’t just Rarity who moved with no sound: behind her friend, she saw Lyra running fast down the street, mouth open and looking about for something or somepony.

Looking behind Rarity also brought the buildings of Ponyville into focus, leaving Twilight speechless. Few houses were spared; everywhere, buildings were missing bits and pieces if they were lucky, and almost everything if they weren’t. There was no sign of fire or devastation, things were simply missing. Parts of the street were simply gone— a black void in their place. It traveled down the street, dark tendrils reaching out as if searching for somepony it hadn’t seemed to find yet. Where sections of houses and shops were gone, the black tendrils of void space—what looked an awful lot like a void to her— were there.

Rarity, while Twilight was gaping, had been moving along the edge of the black void tendril Twilight was just now noticing. Carefully, carefully, the white unicorn crept along the edge, looking somewhere between disgusted and terrified as she finally reached the end of this particular branch and ran straight for Twilight, bowling her over and back into the library. The two ponies rolled right over Spoke and landed in a heap.

Rarity was on her hooves in a flash, words spilling out as if they were alive and wanted freedom. “Twilight, darling! You simply must come! It’s terrible, absolutely horrendous! I tried to find another way out for her! It’s a miracle she wasn’t swallowed up herself— simply miraculous, dear— but I just cannot find a way to extract her from her predi—“

“Rarity!” Twilight cut her off. “Please, take a deep breath and start from the beginning. What is a miracle and why is it also terrible?”

“It’s Pinkie Pie! The hole, the one that’s everywhere, swallowed up most of Sugarcube Corner! Pinkie Pie was at work early, baking, when the holes ripped open all around her. I don’t know how they missed taking her too, but they swallowed up all of the ground around her tiny section of the kitchen!”

Twilight shook her head, and did her best regain her composure. “It shouldn’t be that hard. I can just lift her. No,” she tried to picture that. “I wouldn’t want to risk it on an empty stomach and this soon after waking up. Teleporting is faster…”

When Rarity said this was miraculous… Twilight facehooved. Sugarcube corner was simply gone. All of it except a tiny bit of kitchen in the middle of a inky puddle of… nothing, Twilight supposed, not wanting to get any nearer. Her pink friend sat, bewildered but otherwise fine.

“Hi Twilight! Want a muffin?”

“Pinkie! No, I wouldn’t. I’m sure you Ditzy will want one later, but there are more important things to do first. Rarity said you were awake when this happened?”

Pinkie, who had produced a muffin from… somewhere, (Twilight had no idea where from) began eating it and thinking to herself. “Welll….. I was! You see, I remembered I forgot something and came over here to get it and then BAM. Well, it wasn’t a BAM noise, really. More like a RIIIIIPPPPPP sorta noise. I turned around and then…” When she’d started her story, Pinkie Pie was cheerful just as she had been since the day Twilight met her. But now, muffin eaten, she paused and looked down. “Sugarcube Corner…”

Twilight didn’t know what to say. She knew how much her energetic friend loved Sugarcube Corner. But she tried to fill the sudden renewed silence, unable to bear the way Pinkie was starting to look: the way she had when they’d given her a surprise party when she was mad at them.

“Pinkie! Do me a favor?”

“Hm? Oh, of course, Twilight! Anything!” This seem to distract her enough to lift her head.

“Be sad after we rescue you, okay? There can be a new shop, but there can never be another Pinkie Pie.”

“There might be one if there’s another universe! Like, one where the grass is greener! Or one where we’re all colts and my double is named—“

Twilight groaned, but at least Pinkie wasn’t about to start being depressed. That was just… disturbing. Which means I need to keep her focused until I can find something to really distract her….

Before Twilight could say another word, she heard the familiar sound of incoming mail and turned to see a momentary flash of fire from Spike, who was behind her. She was about to lift it with her magic, but something was off about it. “Spike, something’s written on the outside. Read it for me, please? It’s small.”

Spike did so, and then looked up. “The Princess says that I should open this one up myself. She says to not use magic.”

Twilight blinked. “Come again?” Spike began to repeat himself, but Twilight cut him off halfway through. “Never mind that, Spike. Open up and hold it so I can read it.” The little dragon did so and she scanned the message quickly.

To my beloved student, Twilight Sparkle

(Or Spike. Spike, if she can’t tell the townspeople this, you must.)

Do not let any of the townspeople use magic near the Voids! I’ve been dealing with the effects of magic use near these things all morning. We’re not sure what is happening, but as soon as a threshold of magical use is crossed, the magic just rebounds, implodes.

I am exhausted from healing unicorns, Twilight Sparkle, and I knew you would probably try to use magic at some point in the near future. I can only pray that you haven’t yet.

Canterlot has been devastated. The road between here and Ponyville is mostly missing, and the railway is a mess. Its too late to send chariots for you now, as the going is slow and dangerous and I don’t want you in the sky when it begins to darken.

Gather your friends.

Your Teacher,

Princess Celestia

Twilight thought over this. The news that the disaster was widespread was decidedly unwelcome. She had hoped, though she hadn’t had time to give it much thought, that this phenomenon was local. The unicorn was lucky that she hadn’t yet tried to rescue Pinkie by magical means.

“Rarity! We’ll need to find somepony who can fly if we’re going to reach her. Have you seen Rainbow Dash?”

But the other unicorn was already shaking her head. “No, I’m so sorry dear. I’ve seen not a single Pegasus all day, since I woke up to this… travesty! Can’t you just use your magic?”

“No, that’s what Princess Celestia’s letter was about. Magic near these ‘Voids’ is a bad idea. Anything beyond the simplest of levitations may be a bad idea for awhile. Don’t do any near the edge of the blackness, okay?”

“Why, of course!”

“Rarity, I can only think of three pegasi who would be able to do this who live in Ponyville proper and not in Cloudsdale. Scootaloo’s parents and Fluttershy. Have you seen Scootaloo’s mother or father?”

“I… no,” the white unicorn answered, unsure. “I don’t believe I have. But I wasn’t really looking for either of them, you know. Why, I could have simply overlooked them in all of the excitement!”

Twilight thought over the letter again while Pinkie called to Spike. The purple unicorn ignored their conversation completely, engrossed. Gather your friends. Fluttershy and Applejack lived in two different directions, and she’d need to go out to where they lived to collect them, probably soon. The Elements should be together. Rainbow Dash would be the hardest to find...

Pinkie’s voice drew her back to the problem at hand. The earth pony was calling, “Twilight! Can you lift me out of here now? This place is so boring and small!”

“Oh, Pinkie, I would, but…” she explained the contents of her letter, and turned to Rarity. “Can you find Scootaloo’s parents? I’ll stay here with Pinkie and keep her company.” Rarity nodded, and was about to respond when somepony else answered.

“Twilight?”

The purple unicorn mare turned to find a rather wide eyed Cheerilee behind her. The schoolmare spoke again. “Twilight, you aren’t going to find them. I… I’ve looked. Scootaloo’s house is over there.”

Twilight didn’t speak at first, not understanding. The usually cheery schoolmare was pointing to an empty lot that— Oh. It’s not an empty lot. She shuddered, and for the first time, realized that Mr. and Mrs. Cake were absent with the rest of Sugarcube Corner. Houses were half-gone. Ponies were gone, completely gone. I’m shaking again.

“Ch—Cheerilee, is Scootaloo…?” she tried to ask her friend the obvious. The earth pony looked down and said nothing and Twilight had nothing to say. She didn’t think there was much she could say.

“Twilight? What are you two talking about? Did you find me a way off my island?” Pinkie’s high-pitched, inquistive voice suddenly seemed so out of place.

“It’s nothing, Pinkie,” she responded woodenly. I have to focus on saving Pinkie right now. Fluttershy was not the best flier around, or even a terribly good flier, but she was certainly not the worst. She’d managed to mostly keep up with Rainbow during the whole Discord debacle, and since then Rainbow Dash had been working with her one-on-one during stretches when the weather was clear. She could do this, Twilight knew she could, and this nascent confidence is what she called upon when she addressed Pinkie again.

“Pinkie Pie, I know how to get you out of there. I’ll be right back, okay? Talk to Rarity and Spike and Cheerilee for a while and I’ll return.” She turned to Rarity, and they exchanged a look. Rarity didn’t have to voice her concerns, because Twilight shared them.

But Twilight trusted that her friend would come through. When they’d been in that balloon and needed her to keep up with fastest young flier in all of Equestria, she had done it. Fluttershy wouldn’t fail her friends.

The road to Fluttershy’s cottage and the Everfree forest was rife with the ever-present tendrils of dark running through the ground. The Voids, as the Princess had referred to them, were not as closely bunched together as they had been in Ponyville, but they had still managed to do plenty of damage to the landscape.

Twilight was apprehensive. Cheerilee’s revelation had stayed with her. She couldn’t banish that terrible instant of realization from her mind. It almost would’ve been better if it had been on fire or burned down before she woke up or collapsed.

Anything would have been better than what she had seen. The house was simply gone, replaced by a swirling black nothing as if it had never existed, without even a trace that a family of pegasi had lived there. Not even a trace that a little filly named Scootaloo who wowed the ponies of Ponyville with her reckless scootering. There would be no more misadventures.

Twilight went back to thinking about the Voids themselves. It was easier to focus on the mystery, and avoid the past. Or the future. Fluttershy’s house could be gone as well.

The Voids. The unicorn forced her thoughts back onto the right track. What did she know so far about this entire event? First: These holes opened up sometime early in the morning. Dispersal of the vile, dark stuff was chaotic and random. They appeared quite similar to cracks, and they responded negatively somehow to magic. Or, the innate magic in unicorns reacts negatively to them. Touching them was bad.

Now that she thought about it, the timing of the Princess's letter was mysterious. Was it just luck, the way Pinkie's surival was? Princess Celestia's power was vast, and Twilight was sure she had ways of knowing things that would escape her student. Perhaps she had been tracking Twilight? But she didn't say, did she, Twilight? So you're in the dark there, just like with everything else. It was frustrating.

She had almost nothing to go on as she shifted to the left to avoid a crack of Void which had ventured into the road. One of the words that had lodged itself in her brain, however, bothered her. Chaotically. She didn’t want to think that Discord was behind this, but it would fit well with how he operated. There wasn’t much in the way of rhyme or reason to the path of the destruction that she could see.

But there were problems with that hypothesis. He was stone, after all. What magic could be worked while one was stone? But he did manage to get out once. That still confused her, months later. How? Weakening magical bonds? Perhaps over time the magic just… deteriorated?

Another root-like void to jump over. Fluttershy’s cottage couldn’t be that far now. Despite the missing landscape, she still recognized her surroundings. There, in the distance, she could see the little bridge and the cottage before the imposing wall of trees. Fluttershy. Was she okay? Twilight told herself that the lack of Void concentration here was surely a good sign as to her friend’s health. Pinkie’s survival was a miracle, so perhaps today was a day of miracles.

The cottage, and the bridge over the creek were in sight- but seeing them only made her heart pound even faster. At first glance, the house looked fine and intact, but as she neared and the road curved slightly to go over the little bridge, she realized that the damage had been done from the side and that now the house stood divided.

“Fluttershy!” she called out worriedly as she stood before the door. Part of her was afraid to go in, the rest of her desperate to see her quiet friend.

There was no response, and the unicorn felt a sense of panic she’d been trying to suppress erupt forth in more calling. “Fluttershy! Fluttershy! Where are you?”

She came through the door and sat in mute horror.

It was as if she was seeing Scootaloo’s house frozen in the midst of being devoured by the Void. The center of the house was gone, a great jagged tear replacing it. Twilight was fascinated by it, unable to tear her eyes away from the den’s ruined state. The black fault line was an awful maw, and she felt as if it was sucking the rest of the building that had escaped it down into itself. The ceiling directly above the rip was missing. It eats everything above it, then. In the midst of her horror, the unicorn couldn't banish the inner scholar completely.

Twilight tried to remember where her pegasus friend slept in the house. Did the Void cut through her room? She looked up, but from this vantage point, she simply couldn’t tell how much of the bedroom or any other room was still around. She called out again, but there was no response. The unicorn groaned softly. If Fluttershy hadn’t answered by now, she was never going to. The silence told Twilight what she needed to know.

Or perhaps it didn’t. It occurred to Twilight that Rarity’s voice hadn’t reached her at first back at the library. The Princess had already warned her of the effect the Voids had on magic, but maybe they could change other things as well, block the passage of sound? It explained, she hoped, why the shy Pegasus hadn’t answered. If she’s here. She could be in Cloudsdale, scared and looking for Rainbow Dash. Twilight didn’t put the other possibility into words.

She walked to where the Void ended and gave way to wholesome grass and then simply walked around the edge. For something that had caused so much damage, this stuff was surprisingly easy to bypass. Nervous now, but still fearfully hopeful, she called out again. “Fluttershy?”

She heard a loud thud, and jumped. Then, an answer finally came.

“Twilight? Is that you?”

It was so soft that if she hadn’t been desperate to hear it, she wouldn’t have. She trotted back into the house through the back door. “It’s me, Fluttershy! Where are you?”

More shuffling, and then the yellow Pegasus appeared, flustered and wide-eyed. “Oh! Twilight! I was so worried! I woke up and-“

“Your house was missing. Well, part of it.” The Pegasus nodded and trotted to Twilight and sat before her.

“And my animal friends! Most of them had run away or weren’t in their homes… I found angel,”— the bunny was with her, Twilight had just noticed—“but the birds… the other bunnies…” the longer she spoke, the quieter she became until her voice was just a squeak of renewed, remembered panic. The unicorn tried to calm her friend, nuzzling her.

“Sh. It’s alright, it’s alright! I’m sure they were afraid and just moved away from the rifts.” Fluttershy nodded. Twilight didn’t know whether that was true or not, but it would do little good to say differently. Besides, why couldn’t it be true? . Animals could sense things like earthquakes before they happened, so she had read. Why not sensing something like these Voids? Twilight told the shy pegasus as much, and Fluttershy cheered up immensely.

“Oh, I knew they did that! But I had totally forgotten about it!”

Twilight smiled. “Now, I need you to come back with me. Pinkie is stranded and we need someone who can fly. You’ll just need to fly with her a short ways and set her down outside the hole.”

Fluttershy already looked worried again. “But I can’t fly with Pinkie Pie! What if I drop her? Can’t you use your magic?”

Twilight sighed and tried again, explaining that there was simply no other option, except for Rainbow Dash, and Twilight nor any other pony had seen her in Ponyville and she didn’t know how to summon her high-flying friend without the aid of magic, which she was loathe to use after Celestia’s warning. "Fluttershy, we need to get her away from the void. The way Celestia talks about it has me on edge. Every moment we leave her there is another moment that that void can grow and she has nowhere to run!"

Fluttershy thought about it as well. “I could go get her…”

“Oh, excellent! Pinkie’s island doesn’t seem to be in any danger! Why hadn’t I thought of that?”

“… Well, except that I don’t think I’ll be able to make it all the way. The hole things… they’re different, in the air, and I’m not sure how far-spread they are… and I… I tried after I woke up, but it... it was different and I got scared, and..."she shrugged and trailed off, leaving Twilight puzzled. But there wasn’t anything to be done. Fluttershy seemed convinced that Rainbow couldn’t be summoned by herself, so Twilight’s original plan would have to do. Together, the two ponies headed back towards town.

And Twilight, made curious, would mine Fluttershy for information about the sky and the Voids on the way.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2 Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes