CHAPTER TWENTY

Twilight's mouth dropped open. She couldn't believe her eyes. Twilight, you're dreaming, she thought. You've been dreaming this whole time, and Spike is about to wake you up for breakfast before you read those sixty pages for Princess Celestia.

But she didn't wake up, and she didn't stop seeing what was in front of her.

It was Laney.

Her mouth wasn't moving, and she didn't have an instrument. It was more like the music was leaking out of her pores and melding perfectly with the air all around her, making the very fabric of the forest thrum in time to the melody. What's more, it continued to play as she decked Trina with a blast of energy from her horn, tossing the prissy mare into a tangle of rather prickly vines.

"You?" Trixie snarled as she wiped a drop of blood from her lip. "Trixie got rid of you ages ago!"

"Didn't do a good enough job then, I guess," the unicorn said. Her eyes and jagged sound-wave cutie mark glowed the same blue as her magical aura.

Twilight felt Corey stir under her. "Twilight, what's going on out there?"

"Ha!" Trixie powered up her own horn, aiming it at the smaller green mare. "There's no way an otherworlder who hasn't had enough time to learn any truly potent magic can defeat the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

Laney didn't even bother with another comeback. She shot another energy blast, then ducked under Trixie's volley of quill-darts to roll behind the portal.

"Twilight…" Corey's horn pushed up against her foreleg; she moved it to cover his view. It'll just confuse the guy more.

Rainbow Dash slammed against the roof of the cage again. "Come on! We need to get out of here and help her!"

Trixie was back on her hooves, manipulating a drove of vines and thorny branches in an attempt to trap Laney. In contrast, Laney was a blur of fluid motion, the music trilling and pulsing in time with her every movement. "Trina, you idiot, get over here and help Trixie!" the blue mare panted, her eyes hot with fury.

"Rainbow's right! There's no way Trixie will let her live if she captures her! Let's try this again, everypony!" Twilight yelled, finally stepping aside and letting Corey up. "Corey, I'm not sure you can see her right now, and I have no idea how, but Laney is alive. And our only way to save her is for you to sing! So SING!"

The orange stallion didn't move. For a second, Twilight thought he was in shock again, his eyes focused on nothing but Laney's constantly moving form. Then he nodded, and a slow grin began to spread across his face. "All right. Let's do this."

Kin and Kon began to tap out another beat, and Twilight used her magic to detect the place where the cage's spell was weakest. As Corey opened his mouth to sing, everypony in the cage plus a determined Mina began to push at the bars with renewed strength and hope.

"I'm feelin' all distraught, held captive in this cage…All I wanted was a party, now I'm filled with rage! I'm stuck in Peaceville Zoo…where I don't belong…"

The music issuing from the battle grew more intense, pounding and flashing as hard as Vinyl's dubstep to Corey's tune. Twilight forced her magic to its limits, widening the gap between bars even as Applejack pushed and Mina pulled and Spike breathed flame and Rainbow flapped her wings.

"If I could bust right out of here, I'd show them that they were all wrong!"

The violet unicorn felt the magic of the cage weaken as Trixie focused more and more of her energy on the battle with Laney. "One…last…push!..." she gasped, letting all of her anger at Trixie and her determination out in a final blast of power.

"I tell you it ain't right, to lock a good man down…All I wanted was a party, someone bust me out! I'm stuck in Peaceville Zoo…where I don't belong…"

The top and side of the cage burst apart in a flurry of pink sparks that shimmered in midair and settled on the floor of the clearing. "We did it!" Rainbow Dash yelled over the roar of the music and the wind that had started to pick up. "We really, really did it!"

"We're not done yet," Twilight called back, pointing at the battle. "Corey, don't stop singing!"

Laney had been swept up in a tornado of sound and air, and she was sending little white-hot music notes at Trixie and Trina. The two mares on the ground retaliated with bursts of sparks (Trina) and stinging vine-whips and the occasional rock (Trixie). "What're we gonna do now, Twi?" Applejack said as loud as she could. "There's no way we can go anywhere near that storm without bein' blown away or hurt by Trixie's vines!"

"No," Twilight replied, "But there is something we can do!"

"What's that?" Rainbow asked.

"It'll probably take all of us to do, and I'm not sure what'll happen when we do it, but it's all I can think of. Girls…" Twilight gulped. "And boys…we're going to have to close Trixie's portal."

Corey, Kin, and Kon immediately stopped singing. "What?" Kin spluttered incredulously. "But then we'll never get home!"

"Would you rather Earth got destroyed?" Twilight said. "The portal is the source of her power. If we shut it down, maybe she'll go back to being a simple magician who can't harm anypony any more than Trina!"

"Twilight's right," Corey said. He'd made a complete change from the depressed colt of moments before, going from sobbing on the floor to as determined as ever in the moments since Laney's return. "It's a small price to pay for saving the entire multiverse."

"I like the way you think!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

"Just tell us what to do," Corey finished, activating his horn.

Twilight grinned. "Follow my lead."

Since Trixie and Trina were distracted, it was simple for the group to circle the clearing and gather around the whirling vortex, still flashing the colors of the rainbow as well as showing an image of two dragons battling in the middle of a barren wasteland. "I don't know how we're supposed to do this, so everypony be prepared in case we're attacked," Twilight said over the wind, inspecting the outer edges of the hole. It was now as wide as a door and as tall as a full-grown stallion. Twilight felt very small in comparison.

The music faltered for a moment as Trixie landed a blow with one of her snakelike vines, then continued the smallest bit more softly than it had before. Twilight barely noticed. She was too busy looking for a clue to closing the portal. "Spike, have you overheard anything Trixie's said about this thing?" she called.

The little dragon thought. "Not much," he replied, holding onto Twilight's leg so he wouldn't be blown away. "She didn't seem to know much about how it got here, just that she could use it to take over the universe."

"No spells, no counterspells, no incantations, no nothing?"

"Not that I know of. Sorry, Twilight."

Laney was visibly struggling now, her mane blowing out of control in the breeze she herself had created. She had little cuts all over her coat now, the red blending with the green in a grotesquely festive way. The music was starting to waver more and more and the tune was warping into something confused and jumbled. "Corey! Fluttershy! Pinkie! Somepony, anypony, sing!" Twilight shrieked.

She couldn't hear anything because of the wind rushing through her ears, not even her own words, but Corey and the others' mouths began to move. Satisfied, Twilight returned her attention to the portal. The dragons in the picture were red and blue and had tiny creatures riding on them. I can't let any of these other worlds be taken over by a ridiculous tyrant like Trixie, the unicorn thought. I'll defend Equestria and the multiverse if it kills me to do it!

Twilight had no idea what to do, but she closed her eyes and let her mind extend to reach the portal. It was vast, stretching across all of time and space, tiny details and fragments of thought slipping through Twilight's brain like water through a sieve. She tried to catch bits and pieces, but every time she grasped something new, an old thing disappeared. This isn't a big library, Twilight reminded herself. You don't have time to sift through it. Just go as far as you can until something jumps out at you.

She didn't notice her head leaning in, closer and closer, until the tip of her muzzle touched the surface of the portal and she was thrown headlong into nothingness.

Actually, it wasn't really nothingness, but a bluish void filled with tiny stars and galaxies, all of them thrumming with a quiet, otherworldly music. Twilight looked around. The only thing there was a path of light that wound around in spirals and went on forever in every direction.

The unicorn took a cautious step back. "Hello? Is anypony here?"

Her voice echoed, but nopony answered.

Twilight peered over the edge of the starry path. It looked both as if she would immediately hit solid ground and keep falling forever if she slipped. With careful hooves, she walked forward, trying to make sense of what had happened. She couldn't see any way out, and she couldn't see anywhere to go but forward or back.

It had been hours, or maybe only seconds, before the stars head coalesced into a shape Twilight knew well: that of Princess Celestia.

"Princess?" Twilight whispered, lifting a foreleg in wonder and a little bit of fear. She hadn't forgotten the threat Celestia had made the last time they'd stood face to face. But the Princess looked calm and serene and not at all inclined to lock Twilight in any Canterlot dungeon.

"My most faithful student," Celestia said kindly. She folded down her wings and stood motionless on the path, her hair flowing as ever in a nonexistent breeze. "Of all the ponies in Equestria, Luna and you are the only ones I ever expected to join me in the Place Between Worlds."

"The Place Between Worlds?" Twilight asked.

"It is nothing and everything at once. It acts as a bridge for those who wish to cross the multiverse and learn about other worlds, and it has proved influential to many over the years." Celestia closed her eyes and turned her head upward. "I knew that the only mare brave enough to actually travel into it for the sake of the entire world would be you."

Twilight took a step forward. "Does that mean…you know I'm innocent? And that Grojband is harmless?"

"Indeed I do." The alicorn smiled sadly at Twilight. "But it came at a great cost. Trixie has trapped myself and Princess Luna in the sun and the moon."

"What?" Twilight gasped. "How is that possible? She only just now started taking over worlds, and she started with Earth, not Equestria!"

"That doesn't mean that she did not prepare," Celestia sighed. "With her heightened power, your disappearance, and the element of surprise on her side, Trixie was able to imprison us in the only places where we might be out of her way."

A horrible wave of guilt washed over Twilight. She and the other Elements hadn't been in Equestria to protect the Princesses, and they'd been incapacitated before the true war could even start. "So you found out that she was at fault when she imprisoned you."

"Yes. And now we must defeat her and return every world she has already conquered to harmony before her imbalance brings down the multiverse's structure."

Twilight stepped closer to her teacher, her ears flattened on her head. "Princess, I have so many more questions. How do we stop Trixie? How did she get so much power in the first place? Was Starswirl the Bearded really wrong? What exactly can Laney do – I mean, not just any pony can survive a fall down a giant cliff!"

"Hush, my student. All will be revealed," the princess said softly. "Unfortunately, we don't have much time, so I must be brief with my explanations.

"You know already that Grojband is from another world." An image of Grojband's planet, Earth, appeared next to Celestia, suspended in the air a little ways off of the path. "For them, music is like magic. When it is used well and wisely, millions listen. When it is mistreated, everyone suffers. All have the ability to make it, and Grojband has a special affinity for it."

"So Starswirl was right after all," Twilight said in awe. "Magic is just different everywhere you go."

"That's correct, my little pony," Celestia said. "When Trixie allowed the song-magic into Equestria, she created a portal that brought the creatures at the music's source into our world, as well as an imbalance that gave her incredible powers."

"Grojband was the source! That explains Corey and Laney's sensitivity to magical activity," said Twilight. She felt giddy, like she always did when she suddenly understood something foreign to her.

"Their connection to song-magic is one of the strongest in their world," Celestia confirmed.

"Then how did Laney survive falling off the cliffs by the Golden Gate?" Twilight asked. "It always seemed like Corey was the stronger unicorn until she appeared in the clearing just now."

"She is the heart of Grojband," Celestia said, and a picture of a small red-maned human appeared. Twilight could almost see the creature's resemblance to Laney. "She inspired Corey to create it. She truly is one of the most powerful magicians on Earth. It just took the fall to awaken that talent."

"But how did she survive?"

Celestia banished the pictures with a simple spell from her horn. "That, I do not know," she said. "You will have to ask her when you return to Equestria."

With a deep breath, Twilight let her mind process everything she'd just learned. It was a lot to take in, but luckily, the unicorn had had a lot of practice with last-minute studying. "How do we defeat Trixie?"

"Trixie's magic is a mixture of Equestria's and this particular version of Earth's," Princess Celestia said, unfolding her wings and walking down the path the way Twilight had come. "If left unchecked, her power will continue to grow and widen the imbalance between worlds. To defeat her, you must also combine Equestrian magic and song-magic. By canceling out Trixie's magic, it will restore order to the multiverse."

Twilight nodded. "I'm sure Grojband will have a song we can use."

"No," Celestia said. She stopped and knelt, looking Twilight straight in the eye. "This song must come from the heart."

The unicorn opened her mouth to ask another question, but the starry pattern swirled in Celestia's eyes and suddenly she was falling, falling through eternity – flashing past castles and evergreens and sunsets and so many other things she lost count, and then she was back in the windy clearing with her face millimeters away from the portal.

It took her a moment to get her bearings, but when her head cleared Twilight surveyed the world around her. Laney was still in the tornado, but her music was faint and the wind was losing its ferocity. Corey and the others were still singing, but it wasn't helping; as Twilight watched, Trixie extended a tendril of vine and wrapped Laney in it, bringing her down to Earth.

"I told you there was no way you could beat Trixie," the pale blue mare breathed, "and now she'll make sure there's no coming back for you!"

Laney gasped for air, her eyes fading from blue to their usual green. "C-Core," she choked, reaching a foreleg out…

Twilight acted without warning. She tore herself from the portal and leapt at Trixie, catching her by surprise and knocking Laney out of the vine's grasp. With her magic the violet unicorn pulled the green one out of the way and yelled, "Don't just stand there, get her!" at the small crowd she'd left behind. "Corey, come with me!"

Applejack was the first to charge, followed by Rainbow Dash. Twilight didn't stop to watch them, though. She pulled Laney into a bush and let the mare massage her throat for a moment. "Come on," she said. "We need to get back out there."

"Let me rest…" Laney mumbled. "I feel dizzy…and sick…"

"You're gonna be okay." Twilight sent a quick blast of energy into the smaller mare. "Please. There isn't time to rest."

"Give me a break, I just almost died twice," Laney said, shaking her head to clear it. "Everypony can do without me for a little bit longer."

Corey burst in with them, leaning over his bandmate with a huge grin on his face. "Lanes, we thought you were dead!"

"Well, I'm not," she said. "But I might as well be."

"Laney, we can't do without you," Twilight said firmly. "Your world needs you. We need you, Laney. This fight's not over yet."

Laney blinked sadly. "No you don't. Didn't you see me out there? Trixie creamed me. I'm useless."

"Stop that!" Twilight said. "Where would we be if I'd said that? If Fluttershy, or Pinkie Pie, or Applejack said that? We need to stick together and get rid of Trixie so we can save every single world we've imagined and dozens more that we haven't. So come on and face it. I'll be right here with you."

"We all will," Corey said. "Laney, please."

"I can't…"

"Yes, you can." Without any warning, the orange unicorn leaned in and tenderly kissed the green one on the cheek. "The universe might need you right now, Lanes, but more than that, I need you."

Twilight's eyes brimmed with tears, but she blinked them away. You have no idea how lost he was without you…please, Laney, please, for Corey's sake, come out with us.

Laney closed her eyes and let out a long breath. "Corey…"

"Yes?"

The eyes opened. They were blue.

"I need you too."

It's late and we're in a time crunch, so we'll make this quick.

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