Harmony Consultant

by jqnexx

Phase 1: Awakenings, Part 2 (Revised)

Sunlight woke Mir again. She was in a bed and inside this time, but she was still a unicorn and she was still here, wherever here was. Croix woke up as well, and they rose and began to get ready to continue on. They'd slept in inns quite a lot over the years, since even in her homeland they were rarely given time to settle in. Too many things needed troubleshooting (sometimes literally).

The main difference today was they were (still) ponies, and housed in some sort of tree. She was pondering what she could possibly do about her current predicament when a delicious smell came from downstairs. Pancakes.

Croix dashed down the stairs. He'd eaten as much as he could hold at dinner last night, but he'd had no breakfast and no lunch that day. Mir ambled after him, eating wasn’t as important to her.

Pancakes were indeed the order of the day. The zebra Zecora had set a stack of them on the table, and had laid out a small selection of condiments. The normal syrup seemed present, as well as butter and honey, but some of them just looked odd. One of them was striped in the colors of the rainbow. Croix wasn't quite sure how they got it to do that, but he'd seen stranger things done before. As he watched, the Zebra reached into the bubbling cauldron with a ladle in her mouth and pulled out... more pancakes.

“Is that a synthesis technique?” Mir had descended the stairs, and still wore an expression of sleepy befuddlement. Croix smiled up at her. It was so rare for her to let down her guard, and she almost always looked adorable when she did.

“The secrets of the Zebra by many names are known, but they are exclusively our own.”

“Really? I did something similar myself once.”

“Your ability to do this was locked out when you were born, the magic simply is not available to a unicorn.”

Mir had approached the rim of the cauldron and looked in. She was wide awake now, and her posture had straightened and her eyes were locked on to the bubbling liquid in it. “Would you mind if I gave it a try?”

“The ingredients are there, but trying this you must beware.”

Mir's horn ignited, and her blood-red glow suffused the flour and eggs. She lowered them gingerly into the cauldron and stirred. A soft yellow glow appeared as she did, and when it died down she quickly yanked out a single, rather large pancake.

“This is quite a surprise, but it may still be an illusion that fools the eyes.” Zecora bent in for a closer look, but the pancake floated away from her.

“No, I'm going to check the taste first. I don't want you complaining about its taste, after all...”

Mir closed her eyes, then took a bite of the pancake and chewed. She had only chewed it briefly when there was suddenly a bright yellow glow from her cheek and her eyes popped wide open. She spat out the bite, but what came out was not a mass of wet carbohydrate – instead, a yellow flare spattered onto the ground. As it did, the floor burst into more of the brilliant yellow fire.

Zecora deftly grabbed a bottle hanging from the ceiling with her mouth, and knocked the stopper off with her hoof. Water, more water than could possibly be in such a small bottle, shot out onto the fire. Rather than being doused however, the fire was burning merrily under the water and seemed to be spreading along the floor under the force of the deluge.

“*COUGH* *ACK* No not water! It's probably something that doesn't burn normally. Let me see here.” Mir cleared her throat and begun to sing, her horn glowing as she did. “Was granme ga dest gigeadeth fayra.” Nobody except her could hear the lines after that, but there were a few of them. The mysterious brilliant yellow fire vanished and was replaced with a soggy floor. A paper-thin, extremely patchy layer of ice floated over the area where the fire had been most intense.

Mir ceased singing. She wiped some sweat from her brow and turned to face Zecora. “My apologies, I should have remembered what happened last time I used synthesis to cook before I tasted it.” Her face didn't show any contrition.

“We'll compensate you for the damages, of course.” Croix had reached into the coinpurse he carried with his wing.

“I have no need for gold, I merely wish an explanation to be told.” Zecora stood stock still, not taking her widened eyes off the fire. She understood unicorn magic, but neither of those things had been accomplished with its normal form. Unicorn magic could change things into other things, but her secret alchemy made permanent changes. She could see the difference. And the pancake-thing that was still floating in the unicorn's magic grip was a thing in itself, not merely a construct held together by magic. There had been something strange about the extinguishing spell she'd used too. The song she sung, and the way she did it mostly with her eyes closed.

Mir cleared her throat. “I learned synthesis in the land of Metafalss, but something similar called Grathmelding existed in my homeland. The results of synthesis depend on the feelings and preferences of the one making it as much as they depend on the recipe, so I kept ending up making things that were dangerous.”

“I am thankful for your telling us, but are you saying you yourself are dangerous?”

Mir looked down and pawed the ground with her hoof. She opened her mouth, but it had dried out. “Yes,” she squeaked out softly, “I suppose I am.” She grabbed the door with her magic and swung it open. “We should go.”

Croix stared down at the table, still laden with untouched food. “But...”

“I must agree with your stallion young mare, sending you on your way unfilled would be unfair.”

Mir turned around. “I'm sorry for the trouble...”

Zecora laughed. “As long as you no more cook, your recent indiscretions I will overlook. Sit down at the table, and then to serve you I will be able.”

Mir chuckled a little, and took a seat on a cushion at the table. Zecora picked up a spatula with her mouth, then flipped a small stack of pancakes onto the plate in front of Mir. She spit out the spatula, caught it sideways, and hung it back up on the wall.

“But there are some things that I feel are false, I have never heard of the land 'Metafalss'.”

Mir shrugged. “It's a small land, not notable for much besides the great tower there and its flying island. I'm from the country of Neo Elemia, which you may have heard of.”

“This information does not make me content, I've not seen that land on any continent.”

Mir looked up from her plate at Zecora. “You've travelled the world?”

“Many years have passed since I left my land, all the world I wished to understand.”

“Could you show us where you've been on a map?”

The zebra fetched an atlas, but to Mir's shock it was completely different. It didn't match the old world, or the newly remade one. A quick mental calculation with the latitude markers and the scale indicated the sizes might also be slightly different. The zebra was droning on in rhyme about the Minotaur lands and Croix was listening to her, but Mir was studying, hoping for anything familiar. The alphabet was different than any she'd seen before, but she seemed to be reading it fine. There just wasn't a single place name that was familiar at all. She started in the northeast and examined each square of the grid for familiar names, but she'd made it all the way across the map before Croix could finish whatever question he was asking about Minotaur dance contests or something.

She nudged her husband with her hoof. “Was i ga iqwayes her lof.” (1) It wasn't a song, but Hymmnos was a language too. A language she didn't think the zebra spoke. Croix nodded at her, and began to eat a little faster. They'd leave before the Zebra got any more suspicious.

---

The town of Ponyville stretched out before them. Mir could only stare. She'd never seen anything so colorful that was truly real. In front of her was a sea of colorful ponies wandering the streets. One building looked like a life-size gingerbread house, and another, levitating in the sky (that wasn’t unusual to her), was made of clouds. At least, if all of this was real. She still wasn't sure if this was a really, really good Binary Field program she'd been dropped into or somehow real. She still wasn't sure which one she'd prefer.

She considered what she'd do in the event each one was true. If it was a Binary Field, she had to get oriented, then bring her considerable skills into play and trash the whole simulation. Then she'd need to beat up whoever did it. Depending on who it was and why, “beating up” could have a considerable level of variation.

If it was real, though...

“Dear, we should head in. Find information and lodging. You're staring straight ahead and I'm starting to get worried.”

She shook her head, letting her mane fly. “Sorry. I'm just... overwhelmed.”

If it was real... would she want to go home?

---

They hadn't expected this when they entered town.

"…Cause I love to make you smile! Smile! Smile!" It looked like a parade. Several ponies were following along behind and singing with the most brilliantly pink pony either Mir or Croix could imagine. Not wanting to be caught up in it, they ducked back into a side street. As they did, Mir noticed an astonishing change coming over the ponies as the pink one reached them. They brightened up, began to march along with her, and started to sing.

She'd have thought it was rehearsed if it wasn't for the market. As she watched, the customers and a few of the merchants joined in, smoothly adding their voices to the song. The parade seemed to draw in every pony around except herself and Croix, as the merchants in the market had finally joined in. A few ponies had begun to dance in time with the music, and others carried the pink mare above the crowd.

"...come on and smiiiiile!" The song ended. The pink mare began trotting off determinedly, and the rest of the crowd resumed their interrupted activities as if a switch had been flipped.

"OK, I think that it's… safe?" Croix wasn't entirely sure of what to say after that. He'd seen performances gather spontaneously, but never quite like that. Maybe it's a song that everyone here knew already?

"Right. We need a place to stay and some idea what's going on. I'll find the latter if you can find the former."

---

“Good morning, welcome to the Golden Oaks Library, can I help you?” Twilight normally didn't get a lot of business at the library this time of day. The foals were all in school, and the adults of Ponyville either were busy with work or didn't seem to read much (they also didn't attend her History of Magic Ponygroup). As she opened the door, she was startled to find a pony she'd never seen before, a dim-colored unicorn mare with a sharp-looking horn and deep violet eyes like her own. For a brief moment, the stranger stared at Twilight's horn in a way that made her a little uncomfortable.

“Yes.” The new unicorn looked around at the books behind Twilight. “My husband and I come from a different country, and I'm afraid his literacy in Equestrian is rather poor. I'd like a book covering as wide a variety of subjects as possible at a moderate reading level so I can help him. Also, a book covering the basics of magic.”

Twilight put a hoof to her jaw and rolled her eyes in thought. “Oh, I know! We just got in the latest edition of the Illustrated Foal's Encyclopedia. It's only one volume but it has a little bit about just about everything of importance. It's still in its box, but...” her magic reached out and grabbed a book. “...here's a book on the basics of unicorn magic, although you might be a little old for it.”

As the purple... unicorn? (pegasus? pegicorn?) went to get the encyclopedia, Mir began to flip through the book on magic. Apparently “unicorn magic” was considered a wide field of study, and was regarded as a normal thing. Unicorns made up one third of the population of Equestria, and were considered more-or-less equal to everyone else. Yes, this place just might be paradise. But more immediately, she had some diagrams about how their magic worked. It seemed strangely... familiar. That triangular shape there, at the base of the horn. She'd seen a triangular loop just like that plenty of times. But this was impossible.

---

Croix had given some thought to trying to avoid looking out of place, but had decided it was futile. The armor that he wore was a rather specific design, and it didn't look like these guys had ever heard of the Grand Bell Knights. It was also too heavy and bulky when not worn for him to take it with him in a bag, and too valuable to simply leave somewhere. Mir's bodysuit could be folded up fairly easily, it was very flexible aside from the shoulder pads, but he didn't have that option. At least the lance could be moved onto his back to not look like he was here for a fight. It was still there though, and obviously pointy.

He sighed as he walked. The townspeople nevertheless were unhappy to see a stallion in armor, evidently fearing he was part of someone else's army. Someone Else's Army always had a bad reputation. One pony, with a rose on its hip, had even fainted at the sight of him.

He began to wonder if, when he found the inn, they would even be willing to deal with him. And then...

“Darling, wherever did you get that armor?” A white – unicorn, Mir had called them – had walked up to him, and was inspecting the armor. She kept her tone neutral about it, so he couldn't tell if she was as negative about it as everyone else. He figured honesty was the best policy, and besides, he’d been raised to be courteous to a lady.

“It's from the Grand Bell Knights of Metafalss ma’am.”

“I've never heard of such a place.” She gave a little huff, and then her expression shifted to unabashed joy. “It compliments you so well! It's also very protective. I've done a little work with such things in the past, and it's terribly difficult to get armor that provides protection to the legs and belly while preserving adequate mobility! But I'm more of a seamstress, so my input was largely limited to the dress uniform. Still, the color matches you fairly well. Is that hair dye?”

“No, I'm naturally this color.” He probably shouldn’t mention the transformation he’d undergone. The color at least was more or less normal.

“Anyway, you must give me the name of whoever made this. I'm certain the Princesses would love to hear that someone has made armor that fits a pegasus that well.”

“It's Cynthia. She lives all the way in Metafalss so it'll take a while to pass on that message.”

“Is that so far away?”

“It's about as far away as it gets.” He sighed. “By the way, I didn't catch your name. I'm Croix Bartel.” He held out his hoof for a shake.

“Oh I'm dreadfully sorry, how rude of me! My name is Rarity.” She fluttered her eyelashes at him. Was he her type? He'd better cut that off. He shook her hoof once with a slight firmness and then dropped his leg.

“My wife and I are looking for a place to stay here tonight, do you know a good inn?”

Rarity blanched slightly, then shook her head. The fact that he’d put “My wife” as his first two words of that sentence didn’t escape her. “I assure you my interest in you was entirely aesthetic. In any case, I'm sorry darling, but the local inn is almost always terrible. It's run by a pony with a penny-pinching mark and all, so he keeps pocketing disaster relief money instead of fixing leaks. I tell you what, as an apology for my rudeness earlier, I'll let you and your wife stay at the guest room in my house tonight.”

Croix paused for a moment. “Are you planning to take a look at the armor while I'm asleep?”

“Oh good heavens no, not without your permission.”

“Sorry. It seemed like for a while in my life everybody was trying to kill me, so there's a little paranoia working its way around my head.”

“Everypony was trying to kill you?”

“'Everypony'?”

“Well, I suppose it couldn't be literally everypony, but...”

“I have to admit, I've never heard that word before.”

Rarity stared at him blankly.

“I did mention I'm from far away, right?”

---

Twilight emerged from the basement with a brand new one-volume encyclopedia, still in its wrap. She tore it off and stuck on the library record sheet as she walked, humming to herself.

WHAM! Out of nowhere (to her), she collided with a pony standing stock still in her path. It was the strange unicorn again, staring at her horn, this time far more intently.

“You. Where were you made? How were you made!?”

Twilight's wings snapped open and she stumbled backwards, catching herself before she fell down the stairs. The strange unicorn was now leaning in towards her, eyes locked on the base of her horn, her mouth intensely locked into perfect stiffness.

“I uh, uh wow that's kind of personal, isn't it?”

“Answer the question. Where and how were you made?” The strange unicorn’s tone carried a certain intensity to it that implied she wouldn’t appreciate a non-answer.

“Well, my, uh, my mother and father met in a back room of the Canterlot Library, they loved each other very much, eleven months later I was born, here's your book now please leave.” Twilight thrust the book into the other mare's face, but she didn't so much as blink.

A blood red aura grabbed the book and moved it into the stranger’s saddle bags. “You're saying you're completely biological?”

“Um. Yes, yes I am I suppose.” Twilight wasn't sure where this conversation was going. She was so unsure she failed to even generate a possible alarming scenario. Her eyes flitted left and right looking for something in the room that might help her understand what was going on, but there was nothing else abnormal to see.

The other mare had advanced deeper into Twilight's personal space. “You're telling me you have a biological triangular nuclear loop, and that every unicorn has one, and that you make up one third of the nation's population?”

Twilight was starting to sweat, and had adopted a considerable lean away from the intruder. “I have no idea what a triangular nuclear loop is, but yes to the last part.”

“Huh.” The stranger's intensity failed. She sat down on her haunches and her eyes went wide, staring straight ahead.

“Uh, are you ok?” Twilight mentally reviewed the Mental Health Act (978) and the Mental Health Act (1001)(also known as the Smarty Pants Act). As a Princess (although she didn't like to think of herself that way) she could in fact order involuntary commitment for observation on her own authority. Not that she would do such a thing... normally. Although this was pretty weird.

“Yeah, I...” the mare paused, and looked away from Twilight again. “I got carried away by something.”

Twilight shrugged. She seemed to be ok now. “Alright, now may I see your library card?”

---

Mir sighed as she sat down on the park bench, watching the songbirds in the tree nearby. Half-tucked awkwardly into a pocket on her bodysuit was her library card. The problem with skin-tight bodysuits is that they never, ever have decent pockets. For the time being though, she'd gotten an invaluable source of information. She turned to the back of the encyclopedia and opened it, then smacked her face with her hoof. The books in Meta Falss had been written back-to-front because they wrote right-to-left. Here they wrote left-to-right like in her homeland. Had she really spent that much time reading Meta Falssean books? Oh well, no harm done. She'd read the entries in reverse order and pretend she’d meant to do that.

Besides, she was interested in the Zebra she met earlier. She'd also have to read that book on unicorn magic, but first some general knowledge. Her conversation with the librarian had made her realize that terms for things might be completely different here. How could a pony with an evident love of knowledge and a triangular nuclear loop not know what one was?

First entry from the back... “Zebrica”

---

By the time Croix met up with her at the park bench, she'd gotten to “Sombra.” That bastard reminded her of a bunch of people she'd known once. She smiled wickedly as she remembered them. That was one thing she wasn't sorry at all about.

“I found somepony that will put us up for the night.” Croix seemed a little disheveled.

“Somepony?”

“Yeah, instead of saying 'someone' or 'somebody' they say 'somepony' and I don't know why. They know 'somebody' but they don't use it except when talking about other species.”

“And how'd you learn this?”

“I ran into a lady that really liked the armor. I told her I already had someone but she said it was entirely aesthetic. She works in fashion, but she also seems to be a regular high society type. Reminded me of Cloche a little.”

“And is she the one putting us up for the night?”

“Yeah. She said she had a guest room.” Croix pointed with his hoof off towards the Carousel Boutique, and Mir followed his hoof with her gaze.

“Alright, let's go meet up with her, then go find some dinner. Also, I may have angered a Princess.”

Croix sighed. “Do I really want to know?”

She sighed. “I got freaked out about a thing they're too backwards here to understand. They don't know how good they have it.”

Croix was about to ask her to tone it down a little when he spotted Rarity walking towards him.

“Oh, there you are darling. Is this your wife?”

Croix turned toward her. “Yes, yes she is. Rarity, this is Mir. Mir, Rarity.”

Mir regarded the white unicorn and gave a curt nod, but didn't say anything.

“Well, it's nice to meet you as well. That's an... interesting thing you're wearing.” Rarity wasn't a particular fan of the bodysuit, and her distaste for it was evident despite her trying to hide it, mostly due to her leaning away from it.

“Oh, it's mostly a functional thing. I normally don't wear much.” Mir unhooked the suit and levitated it into her saddlebags. “Ah, I love being able to do that.”

Rarity turned towards Croix. “In any case, I was heading out for dinner tonight, and I thought I'd help you out by including you with me and my friend.”

Mir responded before Croix could. “You're inviting us to eat with one of your friends at a restaurant?”

“Yes.”

“We accept.” Croix nodded his assent and the matter was settled.

“Good, I know Twilight will be very interested in you.”

Mir and Croix exchanged looks as they fell in behind her.

---

Rarity sat down on the cushion next to the table, and beckoned her guests to sit on the two unoccupied cushions. Croix sat across from Rarity, leaving Mir to sit across from Twilight. As she sat down, the Princess gave her a quizzical glance, then turned to Rarity.

Twilight whispered to Rarity, “do you know these ponies?” She probably thought Mir couldn't hear her, but Mir could hear much better than most people expected. Just one of the perks of being, well, her.

Rarity whispered back, “they're from out of town, I'm sparing them a night at the inn.” She grimaced.

Twilight turned her gaze towards Mir slightly. “They seem a little weird to me. Or at least she does, she freaked out staring at me.”

Rarity huffed. “Well, you're an Alicorn, so you have to get used to the fact that it happens sometimes.” She turned to Croix, and announced more loudly “Sorry about that. I shall pay for your and your wife's dinners tonight to make up for...” she looked pointedly at Twilight, who looked defiantly back, “...our rudeness.”

“Nonsense,” Croix countered, “you haven't done anything rude. Besides, we've got a pretty good income, we'll pay our way.”

“Oh?” Twilight looked at him. “What do you do for a living, mister...?”

“Croix Bartel. My wife's name is Mir. I'm a bodyguard, and she's also a bodyguard and occasional writer.”

“Oh!” Not all the suspicion had vanished from Twilight's face, but enthusiasm was battling for territory. “What do you write about?”

Mir blushed slightly, and turned to look at Croix. He nodded slightly. “I... mostly write light novels. They're popular with many demographics, but mostly the 10-13 female and 25-35 male ones.”

Twilight nodded. “That seems to be oddly common. I'd recommend you just roll with your older male audience and not worry about them too much. In any case, where do you operate as bodyguards that requires such armor?” She pointed a hoof at Croix.

Mir fielded the question. “Our homeland used to have many people who did things because they could, rather than stopping to think if they should.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “People?”

Mir hung her head. “There were many different races represented among the fools of the past. In any case, the people of today live with the consequences of their foul experiments.”

Twilight's ears drooped slightly. “I'm sorry to hear that. We have a similar situation with the Everfree Forest, over that way...” she pointed with her hoof.

“I noticed it seemed odd when we passed through. We got attacked by wooden dogs or something, but it wasn't worth mentioning. Back home we fought a giant dragon made of wood.” Mir omitted the flesh-and-blood dragon they'd fought earlier.

“Timber wolves? My, how ghastly.” Rarity took a sip of her water. “But enough shop talk, we should order something, there's a server approaching us. I believe I shall have the water chestnut sandwich, and a side of tomato soup.”

Mir looked through the menu. No meat at all. “I'll have the bean soup, I suppose. Croix?”

“I'll have the bean soup as well.”

Twilight didn't bother with the menu. “I'll have a daisy sandwich and a side tomato soup as well.”

The server finished jotting down the orders and took off. Mir sighed. Maybe she'd be able to get through this day without anything terrible going wrong.

---

Croix and Rarity were chattering about armorsmithing or something as they walked back, so Mir decided she'd do a little reading while walking. She was going at a pretty good rate, there were a lot of “M”s but she'd busted through to the “L”s before they'd made it home. “Luna, Princess” was the next entry. She came to an abrupt halt.

Maybe it was just a coincidence, but the whole “trying to overthrow her sister and destroy the world, being imprisoned for centuries, trying again, then getting stopped by her sister's pet attack dog and friends” thing seemed uncomfortably familiar.

Both types of “virtual reality” she was familiar with operated a lot like dreams. Your mind (or the host’s mind if you were in someone else’s) would fill in gaps with the faces of people they knew, or with people they had a subconscious connection to.

If this was a cosmosphere, this would be the role she'd slot into, but it definitely wasn't that. She knew the soulspace like she knew the sound of her own voice. If it was a virtual world, it'd have to be some kind of binary field that was simultaneously more realistic than anything she'd ever come up with, and really, really weird.

“Dear? You stopped.” Croix's voice brought her back to reality (if this was reality). She lowered the book and blinked at him.

“Sorry, just saw something interesting.”

“Oh, don't worry about it. I'm friends with Twilight, I've seen her buried in a book walking around until she exited the town.” Rarity wrinkled her nose a bit. “At least she doesn't fly while reading. Anyway, Croix told me you don't like to wear clothing?”

Mir looked up to see her husband giving a small smirk from behind Rarity. Getting over his tendency to defer to women enough to get him to tease back had been tricky, but it was worth it most of the time. Sometimes she regretted it though. “I just never saw it as necessary. Everyone back home seems to think it's terribly important, so I gave in, but it's hard for me sometimes.”

Rarity looked puzzled by that. “Hard for you?”

Mir sighed. Croix had been on her about trying to deal with it. “I have claustrophobia. Being touched unbidden can freak me out, and tight clothing is a huge problem. I overcame it to wear my bodysuit, since it gives me help with magical stuff, but...” she looked down and trailed off.

“Oh, oh I'm sorry. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the wonders of looking great! You've got the frame of a model – not the tall, princess-lite kind, but the more demure, Fluttershy kind!”

“Like hell I'm demure!” Mir's outburst didn't seem to make it through to Rarity at all.

“It's merely a matter of designing a sufficiently comfortable outfit.”

Mir grimaced. “She's not listening at all.”

Croix shrugged (using his wings as well). “Let's roll with it. She is putting us up for the night.”

Rarity opened the door to the boutique. “You two sit tight a bit, I'll go to my inspiration room and SWEETIE BELLE!”

As Mir watched, a unicorn filly ran through the door and hugged her sister. “There you are, Rarity! I've been looking for you.”

“Uh, dear Sweetie Belle, you do remember that tonight is the night I eat out with Twilight, correct?”

“Oh.” The little unicorn's smile dropped briefly. “But listen. My parents are going to send me to Canterlot to get tutored! I don’t want to spend all summer without my friends! Can you tutor me? Pleeeeeaaassse?” Mir could swear Sweetie Belle's eyes had grown larger making that face.

“Oh, I'm terribly sorry Sweetie. My job has been consuming all my time lately, and I promised this nice lady a sample outfit. So I'm afraid I won't be able to for awhile. Why not get Twilight to do it? She's been helping you up until now.”

“But..” Sweetie Belle pouted. “Mom insists on a ‘full time’ tutor.”

Rarity frowned briefly, then sighed and began to move towards the inspiration room. “Sweetie, I’m not a full time tutor either I’m afraid. I don’t even have any accreditation.”

“What’s an accreditation?”

“It…” Rarity paused in the open door. “It means that you’ve completed a test to prove you can do something. Tutoring, in this case. And I really am sorry.” Rarity turned away. The door to the room closed behind her.

Sweetie slunk off without saying anything.

---

“Elements of Harmony”

Mir was still getting an uncomfortable feeling of deja vu from the encyclopedia. A powerful emotion magic that purifies evil and chaos? It reminded her of a few things she'd messed around with in the past. One of which had been used on her. If her theory that this was some sort of simulation she’d been slotted into was correct, that was another point of commonality between her and Princess Luna, former wielder of 3/6 of the elements. Uncanny. However, this was not distracting enough from the impending disaster awaiting when Rarity would come out of the inspiration room and discover what “freaking out” meant for someone like Mir. She needed to move around, try to think about how to get out of this.

As she stood up, she heard a faint sound. Someone was singing.

She slunk into the hallway and peered into the next room. It was that little unicorn from earlier, Sweetie Belle.

“I don’t want to leave my friends behind...” The song sounded a little bombastic for such a small, sad pony, but it really seemed to be working. Mir closed her eyes and let the emotions flow through her. She could feel the strength of the bonds Sweetie shared with Applebloom and Scootaloo (whoever they were) and how they stood together against the trials of life. She could feel how Sweetie’s rivals tried to break them down, but they stood up again and again. She could feel the filly’s dread at spending time alone in a strange place.

It was a shame she didn't know that much about unicorn magic, even though she'd devoured the book about it in between sessions with the encyclopedia. It seemed that each unicorn would have difficulty using magic until they had a “breakthrough” one day. The book had given some examples of a breakthrough, but hadn't really given much guidance on how to achieve one. It was intended for a pony that could already use magic. If only she needed a song tutor instead... Mir's eyes widened. Maybe there was something she could do after all.

“I shall help with you with your magic!” Mir came in naturally after the close of the verse. She sang of her experience with magic in foreign lands, and of the power of magic mixed with song. They did a couple lines as a duet on how wonderful magic is, and then it ended.

“So you can really help me with my magic, miss...” Sweetie Belle paused, realizing she didn't know the name of her sister's visitor.

“Mir. And you'll need your parents' permission. They have a habit of getting scared of 'strangers' and such.”

“Yeah! But my sister likes you so you can't be a bad pony.” Sweetie Belle began to trot out of the room, almost bouncing “Will you be here tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I'll get permission and see you then!”

Mir smiled. She hadn’t expected to see anything like that. The ability convey feelings so vividly with song, and such wonderful musical talent. Song Magic was a fundamental property of the universe. The filly should in theory be able to learn it. All she needed to do was find a way to give her a song.

Unfortunately, these pleasant thoughts distracted her from figuring out a good way to get out of Rarity’s offer.

---

“I think I've got it, darling!”

Mir gulped. It was the last chance to talk her out of it. Rarity's mane looked slightly messier and she'd put on a pair of red glasses.

“Listen. Rarity.” She wasn't listening. Mir grabbed her foreleg with her magic. “This is a bad idea. I can't control myself when I'm in a freakout, and I'm a lot stronger than I look.”

Rarity's horn glowed. Mir felt a small “tap” on the end of her horn and her magic cut off. “I know you're worried, but it's nothing to be afraid of. It'll fit perfectly, you won't feel any anxiety.”

“Your funeral.” No getting out of it. Mir closed her eyes and began to take deep breaths.

“Alright, first for the dress. I went with a daring red and black look. You seem like a pony that likes to look dangerous, am I right dear?” Rarity’s magic lifted up a red and black dress that did, Mir had to admit, look kind of nice. It had a geometric design that got more and more complicated as it reached the edges, and Mir wondered if it Rarity had built it with some kind of fractal algorithm. It didn't seem like the kind of thing she'd do, but she'd seen some of the stuff tucked away in the back of Rarity's storage. That astronomical costume looked hideous, but the math that went into it seemed impressive.

“Yes.” Mir could feel the dress levitated over her, then zipped up.

“It's about as sheer as I can make a dress that goes over fur. Now, on top of it we have something special. A new formal saddle.”

Saddle. That's the thing that you sit on when you ride a horse. Or maybe a mule. Mule (2), like that rat bastard supervisor nicknamed her. No, stay calm, deep breaths.

Croix now was beginning to get worried. He approached Rarity. “I'm not sure she's comfortable doing this.”

Rarity seemed to be entirely focused on the saddle she was levitating. “Oh this is so daring.”

Croix gulped. “It's more daring than you think.” He shifted his stance forward, bracing himself. He could tackle Rarity to the ground and stop this by force, but so could Mir. Maybe the dressmaker was right and Mir wouldn’t have a reaction? He’d wait and see.

Rarity levitated the saddle onto Mir's back. She tightened the straps. Nothing seemed to have happened, but Mir's breathing had gotten far more rapid.

“Ok it looks nice, but you should probably take it off, she's hyperventilating…” Croix had helped Mir try to overcome her claustrophobia in the past. There was no way she could speak without breaking her concentration on not freaking out.

“OK, it looks good, it just needs the strap tightened just a bit more...” Rarity grabbed the end of the strap with her mouth and pulled. Croix’s lunge toward her suddenly ground to a halt. Too late.

Mir's hyperventilating stopped for a brief second. Then she rolled over wildly, flailing her hooves and thrashing her neck and tail about. “AAAAAAAGETITOFFAAAAAA!!!!”

Rarity was flung into the air, and then smacked by one of Mir's hooves. She flew limply through the air, slammed into the ceiling, and dropped to the floor. Croix didn't look, Mir was still screaming and his wife had to be his priority.

He sunk on to his belly and inched towards Mir. Most of her thrashing was directed at areas in front of, above, and behind her, so the sides were clear unless she turned. Her horn was pulsing with scarlet light, but she couldn't seem to get a coherent spell going. If she did, he'd probably be paste. It was do or die.

His muzzle brushed up against the side. The buckle for the saddle's strap was on her stomach, right between the flailing sets of hooves. He'd get smashed. “Mir, it's me, hold still so I can get it off you!” The flailing halted. Croix didn't hesitate, reaching in and biting down on the buckle. He threw his head back to pull it off.

Mir righted herself and opened her eyes. The strap wasn't bothering her anymore, but the dressmaker lay in a groaning heap off to her side. She shook her head and sighed. “I told you this would happen. Here, let me help you with that.”

Rarity looked up at the fourteen ponies filling her shop. Seven of them began to chant softly while sliding about the room, and then seven medicine bottles, each with an unclear creature of some kind on top, appeared over her. They all poured pink liquid on her as one, and her vision snapped back into clarity. “I am...” Rarity paused to consider her words. This situation had gotten entirely out of hand. “...sorry for any undue inconvenience I caused you.”

Croix and Mir looked at each other briefly, then Mir turned back to Rarity. “I'm sorry for this as well. I should have just refused the saddle rather than try to tough it out.” She looked over her shoulder at the dress she was still wearing; somehow it had come through her flailing and thrashing completely intact, not a stitch out of place. “I'll take it without the saddle, though.”

Rarity practically glowed as she leaped to her feet, all traces of hesitation or fear forgotten. “Think nothing of it, I'm merely glad to have helped you with your fashion problems. Although, it may be a bit forward of me to say this...” Rarity lowered her head and pawed at the ground with her forehoof. “...I think you may need to see a specialist about the claustrophobia.”

Mir shook her head. “It's been worked on already. I can tolerate pe... ponies touching me now, even if I wasn't expecting it. The saddle was just... too tight.”

Rarity looked down at the discarded saddle, then at Mir's dress. “I suppose it looks alright without the saddle. There's a bit more solid color on the center of your back than I'd have gone with if I knew you would skip it, but it’s still magnifique.”

---

Mir settled into bed; Croix's wing wrapped around her felt far warmer than the blanket. For her first day in an alien society, it'd gone fairly well. Tomorrow she'd see if she could help the mare's sister. Her back felt a bit itchy where the saddle had been, though.

---

(1) “We have to leave as soon as we can!”
(2) Mir’s name in the original Japanese version is “Mule.” I have to say I prefer the localized name.

Comments

[Aliucon]

Seeing this one is a most pleasant surprise! I'm rather weak in my Ar Tonelico, since it's been years since I played the games (and never actually beat 2), but I could appreciate a whole lot of this!

The emphasis on Mir as the main character makes me have mixed feelings. Perhaps because I know more of the first game, I have this mind to be against her, despite her story being admittedly pretty sad and endearing in its own way. I never knew Jacqli would come to marry Croix, though I do remember liking her a bit more as Jacqli, which takes me to my first point: those characters felt well in-character from what I know and can remember, so I commend you for that! And the story seems to be focusing mostly on the parallels between both words, which is a great approach. It's almost overused here, but it gets point for being an interesting study. The referring to the triangular nuclear loop was the highest point for me in that regard. And there's also constant references to aspects of the games, which I deeply appreciate.

As far as the writing goes, it does feel a bit stale at times, but it's probably unfair to say this because you've been skipping scenes well, keeping only the more interesting bits for the audience to see. And I do know this build-up for the characters to get to know the world will probably lead to conflict further on: mainly with Mir, since Equestria is so much closer to the utopia of Reyvateils she wanted to create than their actual world. It just felt like some bits were drawn out a tad more than they should, even if we could see the punchline coming. Most notably, the scene with Rarity trying out a new dress on Jacqli. But that's minor, and it seemed like most of the others went straight to where they should, with nice dialog and some humor, so it's actually all pretty good. My main gripe so far has been with Twilight, I think, and I admit, it's purely out of how I interpret the character. I'd imagine Twilight's paranoia would throttle up to 11 when seeing Jacqli, her strange horn, strange suit, strange questionings and strange book requests. If even Flash Sentry registered that the last unicorn with oddly-shaped horn they heard about was Sombra, I'd expect Twilight to do the same and go nuts over that, do some ultimately failing research and perhaps keep them under strict watch until she unearths the truth from them. But you probably shouldn't mind me. As I said, I guess this goes back mostly to character view.

... I'm... really bothered by how easy Mir has everything so far, but that's not something to complain about. It's freakin' Mir, I know how obscenely powerful she can be.

Amazing story so far, my friend. Keep up the good work!

[jqnexx]

Huh, it seems I've screwed up and somewhere in editing I removed any mention of what Mir's cutie mark looks like from CH1. WHOOPS