//------------------------------// // Day 3 // Story: Crashing Equestria // by Zytharros //------------------------------// Day 3 “Okay, new pegasus, since I’m starting you from the bottom, I’ve got a few things to tell you,” Rainbow Dash commandingly declared. “First, I am your instructor and as such I want no lip from you. Second, I am going to teach you how to fly 40% cooler than any other pegasus in Ponyville. Third, I am going to make you wish you were still in bed. Is that clear?” We were standing on the ground just outside of Ponyville. I was listening to “The Life of a Twilight Star” on loop as motivation, and shouted my reply – “Yes, ma’am!” “Good. Now, watch carefully,” Dash said. She began flapping her wings to gain some lift, like I had done yesterday. I copied her movements and we lifted ten feet off the ground. “So, now, to turn your body, you use your tail in combination with your hips.” I followed that rainbow mane through a simple obstacle course, moving around and learning the basics of flight. I paid careful attention to how she flapped, the flutter in the wings around sharp corners, the bend of her body in corners, and how she gained and lost altitude. However, for never having done it before, I was pretty tired after that first exercise. “Oh gosh,” I said. “I didn’t think you had to use up that much energy to fly…” I said, gasping. Rainbow chuckled. “We’re not done for today.” She landed in front of me. “I want you to practice these wing stretches. You don’t seem like you were very athletic on Ear…gmpthpth!!!” “Appleford!” With my hoof in her mouth, I whispered, “Say I came from Appleford!!” Rainbow coughed and muttered, “Okay, okay…” I released her and sighed. “Remember, you can’t tell anyone.” Rainbow growled. “Yeah, yeah… You don’t seem like you were very athletic in… Appleford. I want you to stretch. You don’t fly as well as I do without stretches.” I watched her, imitating her movements to stretch. I found they stretched some pretty vital areas for anypony, in addition to the wing stretches for the pegasi. I decided at that point to begin a fitness program that day –and stick to it. Part of it would include some running, another part would include flying, and a third part would include magic training. I discovered Rainbow Dash had some extensive anatomical intelligence about ponies of all stripes because not only did she show me the stretches, she also explained how each muscle, tendon, membrane, and bone movement affected each other. She gave me some proper stretch pointers, then had to bid farewell and take off to do the weather. “Let’s do this again!” I said. Rainbow winked at me and replied, “Sure! It was fun!” I came back into town just as the pegasi took off to rearrange the clouds with Rainbow Dash. I stopped by a couple of fruit stands who were just closing up for the weather and grabbed myself a couple of fruits with the change I had earned yesterday on Applejack’s farm. I retreated back to Twilight’s library, beating the rain and getting indoors just as Rainbow Dash kicked the floodgates open. “What’s up, Zytharros?” Twilight asked, thinking there was an emergency. I looked behind me. “I beat the rain.” Just then, the deluge hit the ground. “Oh no,” Rarity said. “I’m going to have to walk home in… that?” “Let me help, Rarity,” I offered. “What would you like me to carry?” “Oh!” Rarity said, brightening up. “I don’t think you need to carry anything, except my book… and my umbrella… and my latest materials.” “I can do that,” I said. I levitated the umbrella above her head, the book under the umbrella, and the material under the book. We had a casual walk through the rain to her abode, chatting about colour combinations and gems – something not especially of interest to me, but it seemed to thrill her enough. The conversation moved to more interesting ventures soon, though. “I bet you would look simply fetching in a suit I make,” she said. I smiled. “I was wondering if you would say that. I don’t have any money for you at the moment, but I would like one eventually.” “Well, just come over when you have the bits to buy,” she said cheerfully. “Would you like to try sewing? I’ve got some simple designs you can work on. They’re not terribly complex.” I smiled. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m not a tailor.” “How do you know that?” she asked. “Back in Appleford…” I began. Rarity threw me a questioning look… “Appleford?? I thought you said-“ I sighed. “Just roll with it, please. I’ve already told Rainbow Dash to tell people that…” “Oh, right…” she remembered. “You all made us Pinkie promise not to tell anyone outside of our group. But really… what kind of harm could befall us?” “I… don’t know…” I admitted “…and I would rather not know. It would still be best if only a select few know.” “Has Applejack told anyone else?” the gem specialist asked. I closed my eyes and thought for a second. I gave my reply when I opened them again: “I don’t think she did, except maybe Apple Bloom. She had to confirm it with Twilight Sparkle before she even believed me, and now she understands the gravity of the situation. She’s likely made Apple Bloom Pinkie promise, too.” We arrived and entered Rarity’s boutique. “Well, the letter from the Princess certainly makes things official,” Rarity said. “I know,” I confirmed. “Anyways, as I was saying, back on Earth I took a sewing class and, although I successfully made a pair of shorts, I got too stressed with figuring all the logistics out. I never did like that class… I liked my cooking class a lot better.” “That’s how you learned how to bake that scrumptious sweetbread from the other evening!” Rarity exclaimed. “That treat was simply divine!” I smiled. “Thank you.” “Well, it was nice talking with you,” she said, “but if you’ll excuse me, I have to get working on some of my new designs.” So I bid my farewells, left and returned to Twilight’s house. When I arrived, I shook my fur out and entered the library. “Welcome back,” Twilight greeted warmly. “I never got a chance to thank you properly for the breakfast, paska, and party on the same day, Zytharros. You did a lot for us.” “It was nothing,” I said. “In truth, I think I did it to try to forget my home for a while.” I then told her all about the previous night and my conversation with Fluttershy. Twilight’s face dropped into a look of concern. “Like Fluttershy said, we’ll get you home,” Twilight reaffirmed. I nodded slowly. “I know. I just wish there was a way to communicate to my family I was okay.” “Well,” Twilight said, “I took the liberty of doing a bit of research for you when I was in Canterlot last. I don’t think you need to worry about lost time.” I snapped my neck to look at her in confusion. “Wouldn’t time pass equally between the dimensions?” “It turns out, it doesn’t,” Twilight informed. “Just like Pinkie Pie can… well… do anything she wants because she doesn’t care for any physical laws, those taken from their living dimension into the cartoon world often return within seconds of time passing. Only in select cases where one passes regularly between the barriers, whether cartoon or real, like in the case of Michael Jordan in the Warner Brothers’ movie “Space Jam” on Earth, does time actually maintain a parallel normalcy. Since none of us knows how to travel freely between the dimensions, except the Princess herself, and she does not do so routinely enough… I asked her while I was there… I suspect there has been only a few seconds at most that have passed on Earth since you left. The rate will have slowed from the time you arrived as well.” “That makes no sense,” I said. “You guys don’t move until we animate you in new episodes in our world. How can the dimensions act together in that way?” “That’s the funny thing…” Twilight continued. “It appears that the parallel worlds affect each other in funny ways, depending on one’s location. From this side of the barrier, for instance, it would be your world appearing as stills and art, and from your side it would be us.” “Is this one of the topics studied by Starswirl the Bearded?” I asked, looking back at the bookshelf. “You have a lot of books by him.” “No,” Twilight acknowledged. “He never got into this field. It was his ninth assistant Tangerine Hopes that wrote this book. She was especially gifted with trans-dimensional travel.” She showed me the back of the book. On the back was an image of a pale orange unicorn with angular deep-pink eyes and a black mane. Her cutie mark was barely visible in the picture – an angled dagger stabbing a planet. I was a little freaked out by that cutie mark, so different compared to everypony else’s. “Twilight, what’s this supposed to mean?” I asked. I highlighted the cutie mark with my magic when she took the book back. She puzzled over that cutie mark for a little bit. “It’s far more violent than any other cutie mark I’ve seen,” she said, visibly alarmed. “It’s something I should bring to Princess Celestia’s attention next time I’m in Canterlot. How did I miss this?” We pored over the book together for hours, flipping back and forth and comparing notes and interpretations. It seemed like Tangerine had written her book like a diary. She described being hired by Starswirl when she was just a little filly, and over time had discovered that their talents were in different areas. She left after just two years to study in a remote edge of the forest to study trans-dimensional travel. She perfected her trans-dimensional travel and warped between ‘layers of reality’, as she called them, her cutie mark appearing after one of her adventures landed her in the wrong Ponyville and causing her to obliterate the Ponyville she was in. At that point, the writing got less and less cohesive – “…the solar solstice doubles quantum physics…”, “…Ponyville is the source of all hate…”, “NUMA NUMA NUMA BACKQUORZORGUQ…” until finally the book was a garbled mess of script, scribble, and torn pages. A couple looked like they had been chewed on. Twilight closed the book slowly. She was as visibly mortified as I felt. A terribly ominous feeling settled over the library. “Oh no…” she squeaked. “Tangerine Hopes… She may be… the calamity…” Seeing that Twilight was in no mental state to write a letter to Celestia, I snapped to and called Spike. The little purple dragon ran to our side. I scribbled a hastily-written note. To Princess Celestia and the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony, I am Zytharros, the one who was summoned from Earth. A matter of grave importance has arisen, and Twilight and I must speak with all of you immediately. While doing research on trans-dimensional travel, we came across an ancient journal written by a unicorn named Tangerine Hopes. We began reading the journal, curious as to her theories and practices. Little did we know we had just opened the diary of a mad filly. We discovered that this filly’s research had created an omnipresent and ghastly apparition in space-time itself – Applejack, this means she’s an insane ghost pony that sees everything happening in all of time in her field of vision all at once. I would take that to mean her ‘real self’ is trapped between layers of reality. This merits further study, but for now I believe that Tangerine Hopes is the calamity. Please allow us to meet with you as soon as ponily possible. If my theory is true, we – and I mean all of us: Equestria, my home world of Earth, and the entire fabric of every universe that has ever existed – are in a level of danger I cannot accurately describe. May the Elements of Harmony be enough to save existence itself. Zytharros Spike sent each of the letters on. Twilight was still in shock. She was shaking badly. The journal had terrified the mare – and I was soon about to find out why. “Ma-ma-mag-g-gic c-c-can… d-do that…” she asked, stuttering. She kept on repeating the statement over and over again. She looked around at her library. Each book visually frightened her. “Tell me magic can’t drive you mad…” Twilight begged me. “Tell me it can’t…” I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know the answer. I didn’t want to disappoint her, but the proof was there. In truth, it terrified me, too, but… I didn’t know what to think. “Everything’s so new to me…” I said. “I… can’t answer you, Twilight…” She looked down, her eyes still as large as saucers. She curled in on herself and shook violently. The fear was getting to her. Suddenly, I heard Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie burst through the door. They saw me trying to comfort Twilight. “What happened!?” Pinkie Pie asked. “This is the scarediest I’ve ever seen her.” I pointed to the open journal on the ground. “We just discovered a possible source of the calamity in that book.” Rarity picked up the book and magically carried it as the rest of her friends read it. They slowly began to understand the letter Zytharros sent – and why it was so urgent. Spike suddenly barfed up another letter. I picked it up and read it. To Zytharros, I hope, for all our sakes, you are wrong. I am willing to meet to discuss this extreme case with you and your friends. However, I am unable to do so today. I am indisposed in Las Pegasus at the moment, taking care of some royal business. Come to Canterlot tomorrow. We will talk about it then. Princess Celestia. “I will not lose my sanity!” Twilight suddenly shouted. She began to pull down and tear up all her works about magic. I tried to stop her with my magic, but soon discovered Twilight’s power. However, although I was weak in my magical knowledge and was handily pushed back by Twilight, within ten minutes of battling her intellectually-earned magic, I realized my magic was imagination-based, not knowledge-based like Twilight’s, and repelled her magic from the books she was destroying. I also quickly paralyzed her temporarily and blackened the room instantly, save for small pools of light around each holder of the Elements. This confused everyone in the room except for myself. “What in the name of Celestia are you doing, Zytharros??” she shrieked. “Magic will destroy all our minds! It must be stopped. Someone hand me a saw so I can cut off my horn!” “Twilight…” I said softly. She rambled on. “I have to destroy these books. I have to lose my magic. I have to go and hide. I’m a danger to everyone… A hermit… Yes, a hermit’s what I…” “Shut up!!” I shouted, my booming voice echoed throughout the house. Everyone stopped what they were doing. Fluttershy cowered behind Applejack, who cowered behind Rarity, who hid in turn behind Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie shied away on her own, though she didn’t hide. Twilight cowered in my magical hold. “Get a hold of yourself!” I said. “You’re the only one of the seven of us who has the power to right this, and that’s only if we all stick together.” Twilight sobbed. “You’re the one the Princess summoned this time.” “But my role is only to amplify your power!” I reminded. “You must supply it.” “But I’m useless if I go mad!” she protested. I sighed. “You’ve dedicated yourself to the study of magic for your whole life. You understand all the consequences of every spell you use. Your power is largely under your control – exactly as it should be, for the safety of the world. As long as you keep yourself aware of that fact, you should be fine.” I let Twilight descend to the floor. I was sure she wouldn’t tear up her books anymore. “But what if I can’t? What if, in the future, it takes control of me? I can’t bear the thought of losing control of my power like Tangerine did and…” her aggressiveness disappeared “…harming my friends….” Twilight said, lowing in sadness. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy were coming out of their fear. The storm had passed. However, Pinkie Pie walked up to her, unnaturally sombre. “Listen, Twi. I may be a little crazy, but that’s my choice. According to that book, she sees the entire universe in front of her at all times. I would lose my mind if I had to watch everything all at once…” then she reverted back to her happy self “…oh, wait, I do watch everything! At least, in Ponyville!” “Nopony’s brain is built to handle that kind of input,” I continued the thought. “We’re all built to focus on a linear stream of events as we move through life. To see it all in a single shot… we would go insane like she did.” I approached her again and offered a kind smile. The light restored to the room and everyone calmed down. Twilight Sparkle lay down on the ground and cried. I joined her, thought I didn’t cry. It wasn’t long before we all lay in a little circle in support of our frightened comrade, some crying, others with a simple look of concern. “The book scared me,” she said. “The fact that someone had lost their mind studying magic… it frightened me so badly.” She looked at me with a smile of genuine thankfulness. “Thanks for being here; Zytharros, Pinkie Pie, all of you. You stopped me from making one of the worst mistakes I could have ever made.” “You still damaged some books,” I said. “I can help you re-transcribe them, if you like.” Twilight looked away. “I couldn’t… Not after that outburst…” “Your fears are well-founded,” Rarity encouraged. “But we can overcome this together.” Rainbow Dash nodded. “That’s right. We got through Nightmare Moon and Discord, we’ll get through this.” Fluttershy nodded her support silently. Applejack smiled. “We can and we will.” Twilight looked relieved and a little humbled. “Thanks, friends.” “Now, let’s get those books repaired and our facts straight,” I said. “Remember – we’re meeting the Princess tomorrow, and we should have our theories well hashed out.” “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get to hashing!” Rainbow Dash said impatiently. So that’s exactly what we did. We repaired destroyed books as we bantered over the journal and its’ meanings long into the night, coming up with a list of notes and a rough draft that we would go over on the train to Canterlot in the morning. It didn’t take me long to fall asleep that night – battling Twilight was the hardest thing I had ever done, and it nearly broke me.