Reflections - Some silly stuff for the day comprised of foolishness which occurs on the first of April · 10:52am Apr 1st, 2018
Hello, everypony~
So I've had some stuff sitting around for a while which I figured it might as well share (and I figured, given today is the day that it is, this would be a good day to do it). So that's what's in this blog post. None of it is serious by any means but it does run the length of the entire story. So, spoilers ahead!
Ponyville’s fires reflected off of the snow that blanketed the ground. The ponies in the plaza in front of the late Sugar Cube Corner however paid it no mind.
Celestia groaned and tried to pick herself off the ground. She faltered at first, only succeeding when Twilight grabbed a hold of her and helped her up.
Miasmus backed away, circled around, then tried to jump at Crystal one more time.
Crystal scowled and wrapped her magic around Miasmus’ blobby form. Miasmus lashed out but couldn’t break through her magic. And then he paused when a blood vessel appeared to pop within Crystal’s forehead.
A split second later, she leaned in close. Her expression contorted into a malicious frown. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. The continued to stare him down.
Miasmus, in turn, reached out and stroked Crystal’s cheek.
Crystal recoiled, dropping Miasmus in the process. Crystal went red in the face as she felt at her own cheek.
The several ponies standing closeby burst into laughter.
* * *
Crystal stopped in front of it and turned to face Twilight. “Just out of curiosity… You wouldn’t happen to know a Sunrunner, would you?”
Twilight frowned and shook her head. “I’ve never heard of them. Why?”
“Didn’t think so. Nevertheless…” Crystal cracked a smile and said, “Let’s get this done.”
Together, the two of them filed through the mirror. Twilight’s world twisted just like it did when traveling through the mirror portal in the base of the Wondercolt statue. They reemerged in a cavernous space where only a few cushions, a table, and some privacy screen off to the side served as decoration.
And Twilight went to step but the cavern floor was lower than she expected and she fell flat on her face.
There were many occupants with the strange space but nearly all of them, including those on the floor, gave a few surprised gasps. Some then even started chuckling.
Crystal raised an eyebrow and looked down at Twilight and then chuckled demurely. “Watch that first step, it’s a doozy.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Twilight replied with a scowl on her face.
* * *
Chrysalis herself actually occupied the treadmill, vacantly placing one hoof in front of the other.
The rock in her thigh was now gone and the tissue, aside from some stretch marks, looked as if it had never been violated.
Chrysalis looked in their direction and went white as a sheet. “You!” she exclaimed. She recoiled into the railing and then stumbled and fell, creating a very audible thump. The treadmill, still running, promptly deposited her onto the floor.
The stallion caretaker dropped his clipboard. “Hey! Easy now. Are you okay?”
After a moment, Chrysalis rolled over while grabbing her sides. “No…” she slurred. “I believe I did that fall too hard.”
Starlight chuckled. “Oh no.”
Chrysalis doubled over. “I hope I’m getting danger pay…”
* * *
The metallic sphere hummed and energy swam through it. Crystal could feel magic swirl around her horn before flowing into it and then through to the rest of her body. Crystal, in turn, could feel herself extending past the boundaries of her own body. She could feel leylines within the metallic structure. She could feel power surges and she could feel currents moving for the first time.
She felt connected to the machine. She felt like it was a part of her.
After a moment, the flow between herself and the supercomputer ceased but her awareness of all of its internal intricacies did not. She took that cue and pulled back, but the machine kept a hold on her horn.
“Huh?” she thought aloud as she tried pulling again. Her horn remained stuck in the hole. “Are you kidding me?”
“Uh,” Sunset began, “what?”
After Crystal pulled a few more times to no avail, Chrysalis burst into laughter. A few more voices rose into laughter following.
* * *
Chrysalis looked in their direction and went white as a sheet. “You!” she exclaimed. She recoiled into the railing and then stumbled and fell, creating a very audible thump. The treadmill, still running, promptly deposited her onto the floor but she still rolled quite a ways afterward.
Starlight watched Chrysalis with her eyes and then giggled.
Crystal whirled. “Starlight!”
Chrysalis groaned and rolled over.
* * *
The other four gathered around Crystal, watching closely as she continued trying to pull her horn out of the slot. The horn still didn’t budge.
“For real?” Sunset asked.
“I’m stuck…” Crystal said.
Chrysalis doubled over with laughter.
Crystal continued to pull and pull but the horn still didn’t budge. And then the glanced backward and said, “Well, this complicates things.”
Sunset chuckled and then glanced at the others. “Should we just leave her here and go get something to eat?”
Chrysalis shot to her hooves. “Yes, let us go.”
Crystal narrowed her eyes. “Hey!” she barked.
* * *
Chrysalis looked in their direction and went as white as a sheet. She opened her mouth to speak but then shook her head and kept walking. “My apologies. I’m not ready to faceplant again.”
* * *
Crystal took one last deep breath and pushed the doors open. They creaked as they swung on their hinges. The throne room itself was a tall space with tall windows on either side. A singular carpet ran the length of the room and sloped up to the dais at the opposite end. The throne that sat atop it consisted of several gigantic crystalline gems, including one which towered over the rest of the throne.
And a lone pony sat on that throne. Cadance, at this moment, sat. Everything below her neck was poised regally just like it should have been. However, everything above that displayed a mouth-wide-open yawn.
And then Cadance snapped to attention; the giant crown on top of her head shifted places. “Oh! You’re here!”
Crystal threw her hooves into the air. “Come on, Mother. Wake up.”
Cadance shook herself from top to bottom. “Of course! Of course. Just go again, okay?”
Twilight giggled and stepped back outside the door. Crystal followed, shutting the doors behind them.
* * *
Chrysalis looked in their direction and went white as a sheet. “You!” she exclaimed. She recoiled into the railing and then stumbled and fell, creating a very audible thump. The treadmill, still running, promptly deposited her onto the floor but she still rolled quite a ways afterward.
Sunset shook her head and laughed.
Crystal sighed. “We’re never going to get through this.”
* * *
“Adamantine,” Chrysalis began, “there is something I want to know.”
“Yes?”
Chrysalis watched as another pair of unponies traded smiles with Adamantine and then said, “I will admit that you seem to do very well for yourself as a queen. You... command the adoration of your subjects.”
Adamantine chuckled. “I try my best.”
A moment of silence passed between them. Chrysalis’ muzzle twitched a few times and she even opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.
Adamantine grinned and leaned over. “I am sure that this is the part where you say that they do not fear me at all and that you’ve seen the way that they look at me.”
Chrysalis smirked. “Well, of course. That is what I am supposed to say.”
The two laughed and then turned. “Let’s try this again,” Adamantine said.
* * *
Starlight chortled. “Oh, sorry. For a second there, it sounded like you said that there were ten thousand songs on here.”
Sunset nodded. “Yeah, that’s right.”
“Preposterous!” Chrysalis exclaimed as she thundered over. She towered over them and pointed at the laptop and said, with bared fangs, “You dare to suggest that all of that fits into this tiny thing?”
A sly smile graced Sunset’s muzzle and she moved the cursor on the screen onto a new icon and clicked on it. The screen paused and nothing happened for several moments; the cursor continued to spin without any sign of other activity. And then even the cursor paused and then, at once, the screen flashed and then turned blue with a few lines of white text streaking across it.
Sunset snorted. “Are you bucking kidding me?”
Chrysalis blinked and peered over the top of the computer. “What?”
“Um,” Starlight tried, “why did it crash?”
“Are you bucking kidding me right now?” Sunset asked.
Celestia chuckled. “That is impressive.”
* * *
“We’re your friends, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie added as she stuck her head in. “That’s never gunna change.”
The others hummed affirmatively.
“Thanks, girls,” Twilight said, feeling herself lift up.
Pinkie Pie smiled and then looked over at Starlight. “By the way, here’s your muffin,” she said. She bumped the tray on her back which shot a muffin into the air in an arc toward Starlight’s plate.
Starlight caught it with her magic before it even hit. She held it up in a toasting gesture and said, “Thanks, Pinkie,” before she bit right into it.
Pinkie Pie said nothing. Instead, she laid a hoof on Rainbow Dash’s withers.
When Starlight lifted the muffin away from her mouth, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie frowned.
Starlight examined the remaining bits of cupcake and found its insides like that of any regular confection. She chuckled. “You gave me the regular cupcake, Pinkie.”
“Oops!” Pinkie Pie gasped. She reached into the bag and picked out another muffin and gave it a squeeze before going red in the face.
Twilight giggled. “Well, there goes that take.”
Applejack chuckled. “Might as well finish that there cupcake then.”
Starlight nodded and stuffed the rest of it into her mouth.
* * *
“Surreeee,” Starlight slurred. She sniffed the air and seemingly followed the smell with her nose before her eyes locked onto the opened pizza box on the nearby nightstand. “Oh, mind if I have a slice?”
Crystal hummed. “Go right on ahead,” she said as she jotted some words down on her paper.
Starlight lifted a slice with her magic and went to place it in her mouth but then paused and scowled as she glimpsed the pineapple toppings. After another pause, she laid the slice back down. “Crystal…”
Crystal frowned. “Hmmm?”
“Gee, hasn’t anypony said something about how wrong this stuff is?”
“There is nothing wrong with my choice in pizza toppings.”
“Yes there is! You don’t put pineapple on pizza!”
“I do!” Crystal exclaimed as she shot to her hooves. “I will put whatever I want to on my pizza, thank you!”
“It’s heresy!” Starlight exclaimed.
* * *
Crystal took the laptop from Celestia’s magic and brought it close. “In fact…”
Crystal touched one of the keys on the keyboard and a letter appeared in the command window. Crystal pushed another key and another letter appeared on screen, and then she followed it by tapping the spacebar. She narrowed her eyes and mouthed “Where is that hyphen key at…? Oh.”
She continued pecking at the keyboard with her hoof before, after about a minute, there was a complete line. She pressed the enter key and, suddenly, lines upon lines of white text flashed across the screen. The text went by faster than anypony could read and, in short order, Celestia and Chrysalis shook their heads and simply watched. Crystal, meanwhile, quietly munched on her corn.
The text suddenly stopped mid-sentence and that was when the three of them blinked and leaned in. And then, just like that, the screen flashed and then turned blue with a few lines of white text streaking across it.
And Crystal unceremoniously dropped the device while hissing, “You bucking stupid machine.”
Chrysalis started and then threw her head back with laughter. Celestia, meanwhile, went red in the face and his her snickering behind a hoof.
* * *
Starlight flipped to another flashcard. “Correct. Who was in attendance at the Pie slash Apple family Hearth’s Warming?”
“Everypony who was there in my timeline.”
“And how did it turn out?”
“Like it did in my timeline.”
Another flashcard. “And who was it that you fought off at the Temple of Chicomoztoc?”
“I fought off Cabelleron. And…” Twilight tapped her chin. “Oh, yes, I disabled a cipactalil.”
Starlight raised an eyebrow. “Uh, I think it’s cipactli.”
* * *
Another flashcard. “And who was it that you fought off at the Temple of Chicomoztoc?”
“I fought off Cabelleron. And…” Twilight tapped her chin. “Oh, yes, I disabled a cipactlil. Seepactlil.”
Starlight snickered. “Cipactli.”
* * *
“I fought off Cabelleron. And…” Twilight tapped her chin. “Oh, yes, I disabled a cipact...” She groaned and banged her hooves against the table.
Starlight sighed and shook her head. “Compactli. Compact… Oh for buck’s sake—”
“Capactli.”
“Sipactly.”
* * *
“I fought off Cabelleron. And…” Twilight tapped her chin. “Oh, yes, I disabled a cipactli.”
Starlight shot up in her seat. “Yes! Yes! That’s it! That’s… oh… Too excited.”
Twilight threw her hooves into the air. “I had it, Starlight. I had it.”
* * *
Starlight wiped some water from her eyes, but that made them no less heavy. She had to make it back to her bed. She had to see the progress more.
She trudged along and, as she rounded a corner, she finally saw some light within the castle’s darkened halls. Said light streamed through an open doorway and fell on the carpet. She approached the open doorway and peeked inside.
Crystal, Twilight, and Sunset stood gathered around the chalkboard. Several candles around the room lit the space just enough for them to see. They spoke in hushed tones and passed little scraps of paper between each other but there were little cracks in their facial expressions where it looked like they were trying not to laugh.
A quick glance at the chalkboard made Starlight pause. It was a singular drawing that looked like two circles connected to a large, long oval. That was how Starlight wished she could have described it.
She whirled backward and practically screamed, “Oh my bucking gosh!”
And, all at once, Twilight, Crystal, and Sunset turned and, on seeing Starlight, burst into laughter.
Starlight collapsed. “Oh my bucking gosh! What the buck!?”
While Twilight tried to gain control of her giggles, and while Sunset fell flat on her back from laughing, Crystal lay somewhere in between; she remained standing but remained laughing as well.
Starlight went red in the face and pointed at them. “That is not funny! That’s very not funny!”
And Sunset held up a hoof to Crystal to which Crystal responded by returning the high hoof.
* * *
Twilight grunted. “I wonder about that scar. How did you get that?”
“This?” Crystal asked.
“Yes. Did you get that in a monster attack? Did some… villain do that to you?”
Crystal laughed. “Actually, uh, I was in a jousting competition once.”
Twilight giggled. “That’s… even worse.”
* * *
“Yes. Did you get that in a monster attack? Did some… villain do that to you?”
Crystal laughed. “Actually, uh, I fell on a doorknob.”
Twilight giggled. “Please.”
* * *
“Yes. Did you get that in a monster attack? Did some… villain do that to you?”
Crystal laughed. “Actually, I sat in a chair for an hour or two while ponies did my hair and powdered my face and all that. And then, when I got up, it was there.”
Twilight let out a loud from-the-chest laugh and actually banged her hooves against the table.
* * *
“That’s an image.” She threw her hooves into the air. “Great and powerful defender of the multiverse, carries royal blood in her veins, and is an alicorn… spends her day asking ponies if they want fries with that.”
There was a pause. And then Crystal snickered and keeled over.
Twilight giggled. “What?”
“I am sorry. That line is never going to not be funny.
* * *
“That’s an image.” She threw her hooves into the air. “Great and powerful defender of the multiverse, carries royal blood in her veins, and…” Twilight started giggling, “is an a-alicorn…” She began to keel over. “Spends her d-day asking…”
Crystal wrapped her hoof around Twilight’s withers while laughing herself. The two swayed from side to side and eventually tumbled over.
Heh, I'm calling it: Reflections bloopers!
I love a good blooper reel.