//------------------------------//
// Chapter Six: Gateway 
// Story: Both of the Four of Us 
// by TwinkieSpy 
//------------------------------//


Both of the Four of Us
Chapter Six: Gateway


There was a moment of absolute silence, until Pinkie finally decided to break the ice. "Um, Princess? I thought you said Marem was a city..." She gave a skeptical glance to Trixie, who returned it, and another to Lightning Burst, who only tried to avoid eye contact. "Right? Didn't you say that?"

Stretching in front of them was a large expanse of what looked nothing like a settlement, and a good bit more like a swamp. The landscape was covered mostly by water, and yet the land-anchored vegetation was persistent enough as to grow regardless. Ghostly-white moss hung limply from the stretching cypress branches that sheltered the sludge-clogged water, on which thin layers of algae floated. A thick backdrop of ominously organic sounds--the calls of unseen frogs, buzzing of unseen insects, and occasional worrying splash from the swamp's deepest regions--hung in the air. 

Last time Pinkie Pie had visited Froggy Bottom Bog, she and four of her friends had nearly been devoured by a hydra... and yet she still felt safer there than she did here, in what was reportedly a civilized, cultured city. It felt so untamed--not like Ponyville, where the town authorities arranged even the weather to work in its citizens' favor, and not even like Everfree Forest, which often seemed as if it was out to destroy any ponies who dared step within its bounds. No, this place didn't aim to hurt them; rather, it simply seemed... apathetic. It didn't care. Pinkie, Trixie, Lightning, and even the Princess could live here or die here, and Marem--was it really Marem?--wouldn't be affected in the slightest. Places like the Everfree Forest and Froggy Bottom Bog had goals, they had personality. This swamp didn't. It was like an inanimate object.

Inanimate, or dead.

Luna chuckled, perfectly content to defy the prevailing mood. "I most certainly did, Pinkamena. I implore you to retain trust in me; there is indeed a method in the madness of this place."

"Could've fooled me," remarked Pinkie nervously, prompting another light laugh from Princess Luna.

"As I said: retain trust in me," she assured, brushing the earth pony's ear with one of her wings as she took to the air. Pinkie placed a forehoof on the ear that had been touched, giving the Princess a sheepish grin. Luna's confidence was reassuring, regardless of their ominous surroundings.

Trixie let out a contrived cough to indicate her impatience, prompting a considerably harder blow to her own ear from the alicorn. "Well, does the Great and Powerful Trixie not have reason to be concerned?" insisted the unicorn, glaring upwards at Princess Luna. "Trixie thought she was on her way to Peasantville. Well, Princess? Lightning Burst?" She turned to them both in turn. The latter, having been silent up until then, snapped to attention.

"I thought so, too!" cried Lightning, panic beginning to set in. "This is supposed to be a road! Marem is ten miles to the west!"

Luna glanced back, turning to address the stallion of nervous disposition. "Have you ever visited Marem?"

Lightning Burst winced as if struck. "Well... no..." he admitted, hanging his head. "But I've seen the name on maps; I know the way! I'm a navigator by trade! This can't be right!" The pitch of his shaking voice rose with every sentence. 

"Worry not," said Luna, finding it necessary to interrupt Lightning before he managed to hurt himself. "Were one to consult a map, one would indeed find that this bog was situated in the middle of an established road, and that Marem was located a considerable distance away. The map, however, would be incorrect."

"You're not making any sense!" snapped Trixie. "First you tell us this is a city; then you tell us that it's a bog--which it certainly looks like to this Great and Powerful pony! Now you're implying that there is some sort of mass conspiracy meant to impede travelers on their way to Peasantville, or..." She waved a hoof as if dismissing Luna's words as nonsense. "...or something!"

"Do not overreact. There is no 'conspiracy,'" replied the alicorn, undaunted. She rolled her eyes. "In fact, you and your navigator are free to continue onwards; Peasantville is indeed located up ahead. Our business together is finished. Pinkamena Diane?"

Pinkie stood up, prepared to hop off of the cart and follow Luna into the swamp, but she was impeded by Trixie, who shoved her way in front of her stubbornly. "Don't be stupid!" cried the performer, shrilly. "The Great and Powerful Trixie will not stand for being played with like this! Invisible cities, nonexistent roads... Trixie is going to move on to Peasantville after sorting through all this, or not at all!"

Lightning went stock-still at that, eyes wide with fear. Pinkie could only hypothesize that he was mentally weighing the pros and cons of leaving Trixie's employ right then and there; regardless, she couldn't help but giggle at how much the stallion's reaction reminded her of her friend Fluttershy.

Immediately, Trixie whipped around, turning on Pinkie Pie. "You! What, Trixie would like to know, is so funny?! Are the two of you in on this? Is this some sort of con?" She took a step closer with every question, until she had the earth pony backed up against the wagon's edge, only a few inches away from falling.

A dark blue miasma enveloped Pinkie, followed by Princess Luna's landing on the cart in front of her with a heavy 'thunk.' Pupils obscured by a whitish glow enveloping her eyes, she leaned forward challengingly, staring down Trixie. Her voice boomed in the humid air. "We are sure you would know much of so-called 'cons,' Miss Trixie, but we assure you that Pinkamena's and my mission most certainly is not one. And thou art not welcome to follow us, so please carry on and get your self-important hooves away from my traveling companion."

What ensued was another moment of silence, tension crackling between Luna and Trixie as Pinkie stared, mouth agape, and Lightning Burst curled up into a fetal position on the ground, shivering with fear. Finally, Trixie took one meaningful step away from Princess and baker, extending a forehoof out in the direction of the swamp. "Fine, then," she hissed, voice thick with malice. "Go."

Princess Luna recomposed herself, magical glow fading and ethereal mane and tail beginning to settle. There was an ominous boom of thunder in the distance. "Gladly," she replied finally, extending a wing to the floor. It took a moment for Pinkie to realize that the alicorn intended her to climb aboard, at which point she did exactly that, still not entirely sure what to think of the Princess's sudden outburst. It wasn't as if Luna's temper was a new thing for her; she had seen that angry energy before, sometimes even aimed at Pinkie Pie herself. However, she had never seen it take hold with such suddenness or at such small provocation before. Luna had argued with Trixie plenty over the past few days, often with massive amounts of vitriol spewed from both sides, but never... like that. What made this occasion any different?

Pinkie's question went unanswered as Luna took flight, leaving the wagon and its occupants behind. The flight was not a long one; Luna had not been exaggerating when she had said that the bog they had stopped at was literally Marem, and the takeoff had been more for making a dramatic exit than anything else. They hit ground again on a small island in the swamp, merely a little patch of overgrown grass, its only distinguishing feature a strange lavender flower that bloomed flamboyantly in the swampy environment, just slightly taller than Pinkie herself. The fuchsia baker examined it carefully as she dismounted, convinced that nothing so remarkable could be irrelevant... especially when this so-called city still seemed to be nothing but an abandoned swamp.

"Princess?" asked Pinkie Pie, pausing from her examination of the purple bloom just long enough to glance up at Luna. "Is this some sort of illusion spell or something? I've seen Twilight do that sometimes, with little things like making books look like sandwiches and... stuff. Is this a town disguised as a swamp or something? Also,"--just to reestablish the status quo--"the stars look really, really pretty tonight."

Luna smiled downwards, genuinely, filling Pinkie Pie with relief that the Princess had indeed settled back into her usual demeanor--well, maybe even a bit nicer. "Thank you," she said in response to Pinkie's complimentary non-sequitir. Then, "No, not as such. An illusion spell is a clever thought, but there are none in deployment here."

"Oh. Well..." Pinkie raised an eyebrow, letting out a small nervous giggle. "I don't mean to disrupt the timing of your exposition, Princess, but I still have no idea what's going on or how this swamp can be Marem. Even I like to have some things explained sometimes."

"That is a fair request," agreed Luna. "Very well, then. It is probably best that I first establish one thing: Marem is not, in fact, a physical place."

The alicorn paused, waiting for Pinkie Pie to butt in with an incredulous exclamation of "What?!" or "No way!" or some similar outburst. In actuality, she did no such thing, but only stood there silently, waiting for the remainder of Luna's explanation. Full of surprises, that pony.

"Actually," continued Princess Luna. "It is more similar to... the sort of landscape one would see in a dream. Not in its design as such--in fact, Marem is a very well-organized city. Rather, Marem is literally a settlement made in the space between realities, a place created by the minds of this world's citizens. This bog is one spot in which the barrier between reality and fantasy is at its weakest, hence my claim that Marem was 'located' here. This is the gateway of sorts through which we will pass into the city."

Now Luna stopped speaking with an air of finality, waiting for her traveling companion to grasp the extent of what she had just said. She hadn't meant to conceal anything from Pinkie; Luna just knew how difficult it was for a normal Equestrian to comprehend the concept of a place that was literally nowhere. Even Starswirl himself had had difficulty in doing so, and he had been a brilliant scholar.

Meanwhile, Pinkie's mind was swimming with questions and theories. She thought of her dream, of the bizarre sky with its holes in reality... was that what this was? A hole in reality? Was that why she had felt that way? But then... who was Pinkamena? She wasn't Pinkie, because Pinkie was Pinkie. Wasn't she? It was like she was seeing the Sonic Rainboom for the first time all over again.

"Then..." Pinkie Pie's voice faltered, anxious for one of the few times in her life. "Then is that why..." Her eyes were still trained on the vegetation. "Is that why the flower disappeared?"

Luna gazed appraisingly at the empty space in which there had once been a violet bloom. "That is exactly why," she replied. "Look up, Pinkamena Diane Pie."

Pinkie looked up. She wasn't in the bog any more. Where there had once been an unobstructed night sky there was now a bright blue expanse, crystal spires reaching up to touch it. Her gaze followed the spires down... down to the ground, where she found that they weren't just decoration--they were buildings. Skyscrapers made of crystal! The ground beneath her hooves was still covered in grass, but just a few feet to the right of Pinkie and Luna passed a winding cobblestone road connecting the buildings to each other. The subtle, organic sounds of the swamp were gone, replaced by the hustle-and-bustle of a big city at rush hour. A beautiful unicorn mare with a carefully-styled mane that could give Rarity's a run for its money bumped into Luna accidentally, but only made her hurried apologies and trotted off, apparently unimpressed by the sight of a royal alicorn.

"I may have been hasty in my earlier declaration," said Luna at Pinkie gaped at her surroundings. "Now is the time to say, 'Welcome to Marem.'"