Fit the Eighth
||Fit the Eighth||
“Thoooose who are deeeeaad are not deeeeaad, they’re just living in my heeeeaad… oh-oo-whooooaa…”
“That’s right, Pinkie,” Twilight said, frantically flicking through mirror after mirror in search of a familiar place and time. “Stay with me, just keep singing.”
“Aaaand since I feeeell for that speeeell, I am livin’ there as weeeell…”
“Come on, come on, come on… where is it?” Twilight bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, swishing her hoof across the Portal over and over to random results. “Pinkie’s bedroom, the library, Canterlot, anything in our time!”
“Tiiime is so short, and I’m suuuure, there must be something mooooooooore!”
“Rrrrrgh!” Twilight slammed her forehead into the wrong side of yet another empty bathroom’s mirror and slumped against its surface. “I wish you could do this, Pinkie. The Portal always goes exactly where you want it to.” She looked at her delusional, monochrome friend, lying on her side and lulling her head over the creamy grass as she sang. “How do you do it? What’s the secret?”
“Forty-two!” Pinkie drawled. “What I tell you three times is true!”
“Uh-huh,” Twilight sighed. “Well… at least the Bandersnatch left.”
Something hit the ground a few feet from Twilight’s tail, startling her. On examination, she found a large pebble lying in the grass. “Where did this come from?” she wondered, looking up into the sky. “Does the Wabe rain rocks, too?”
A similar stone knocked her in the back of the head. She yelped and dove behind the Portal. “What in the world was that!?” Peering around the small, floating square, Twilight saw a third stone hurl from the treeline. She lit up her horn and stopped it mid-arc, throwing it back into the trees. “Who’s doing that? Stop it!” she shouted, scowling. “I have enough to deal with already, thank you very much!”
“You’re a toymaker’s creation trapped inside a crystal ball…” Pinkie mumbled.
“Darn it, Pinkie Pie!” Twilight yelled, stomping her forehooves. “If you’re going to drone, will you please say something useful?”
“‘Cause IIII loooove to seeee you smile, smile, smiiiiile, yes I do…”
“Auugh! I can’t believe this is happening!”
Another pebble thumped against Pinkie’s belly, making her giggle. “All I really need’s a smile, smile, smile…”
“STOP THAT!” Twilight yelled into the woods of the Wabe, staring at the spot from which the rocks were flying. “You could hurt someone!” She gasped when she noticed a sliver of white among the dark branches. When she squinted, a disembodied grin hovering next to a pile of pebbles became clear. “You?” Twilight asked loudly. “What do you want?”
The invisible cat just continued to smile.
“Come on everypony, smile, smile, smile…”
“Don’t you have something to say?” Twilight yelled to the grin. “Some sort of stupid philosophical nonsense, or maybe some actual advice? Or are you just here to tell me to listen to her advice again, because obviously that’s not gonna be very helpful right now!!”
“All I really need’s a smile, smile, smile, from these happy friends of miiiiine…”
Twilight froze. Something—or rather several things—clicked in her head at once, and she glanced over her shoulder at Pinkie.
“Smile, smile, smiiiiile…”
Twilight blinked. “What I tell you three times is true,” she whispered to herself. Her eyes whipped back to the cat she couldn’t see. “What I tell you three times is true.”
The floating smile widened and even seemed to nod.
Twilight beamed and leapt into the air. “What I tell you three times is true!” she cheered, rushing back to the Portal. “All you need to do is… well, be curious—” She giggled. “—and smile, smile, smile.”
With a smile as wide as a mile, Twilight swiped her hoof one more time across the Portal. Immediately, Pinkie’s bedroom appeared on the other side, identical to how they had left it. Squealing with joy, Twilight waved and shouted “Thank you!” to the mysterious cat, lifted Pinkie in a bubble of magic, and lifted her forehooves to the Portal’s surface.
“I’m very curious as to why that worked,” she whispered, and fell through the mirror, pulling Pinkie with her.
The plain, wooden ground of Sugarcube Corner had never felt more heavenly beneath Twilight’s sore hooves. As soon as she and Pinkie Pie were safely through the mirror, she collapsed and rubbed her cheek against the floor. “I’m so happy to be home!” she said. “Aren’t you, Pinkie?”
Twilight shrieked and jumped away when she saw Pinkie’s unchanged curse: coat black as coal, mane white as snow. “What happened to you?” Twilight asked the semi-conscious pony. “And how am I going to fix it?”
She trotted in place, looking everywhere around the room in search of something, anything, that could possibly help Pinkie. Her bulging eyes landed on an empty space in Pinkie’s bookshelf. Twilight gasped. “The Complete Works of Bluish Carol! Surely that has the answers!”
She made firm her stance and focused on the distant book, still in the front room of her library. Stretching the leylines of her magic to their limits, she managed to spark her horn and teleport the large anthology into Pinkie’s bedroom with a loud bang and a bright flash. “Wow!” she said when the book was in her hooves. “I didn’t know I could do that!”
Flipping it open to the table of contents, Twilight scanned for some helpful words. Unsuccessful, she opened the huge volume to her own bookmark stuck in the middle of Carol’s poem, The Hunting of the Snark. “There’s got to be something in here,” she muttered, turning page after page with her magic and trusting her well-trained eyes to pick out something of value.
She stopped when she saw the word Bandersnatch and poured over the surrounded stanzas.
And the Banker, inspired with a courage so new
It was matter for general remark,
Rushed madly ahead and was lost to their view
In his zeal to discover the Snark
But while he was seeking with thimbles and care,
A Bandersnatch swiftly drew nigh
And grabbed at the Banker, who shrieked in despair,
For he knew it was useless to fly.
Twilight’s eyes widened. “Oh my gosh… this really happened. I saw that happen!” She skimmed through the following verses, trying to remember what happened to the Banker.
Without rest or pause—while those frumious jaws
Went savagely snapping around—
He skipped and he hopped, and he floundered and flopped,
Till fainting he fell to the ground.
The Bandersnatch fled as the others appeared
Led on by that fear-stricken yell:
And the Bellsteed remarked “It is just as I feared!”
And solemnly tolled on his bell.
He was black in the face, and they scarcely could trace
The least likeness to what he had been:
While so great was his fright that his mane hairs turned white—
A wonderful thing to be seen!
“That sounds like what happened to Pinkie,” Twilight noted, reading on.
Down he sank in a chair—ran his hooves through his hair—
And chanted in mimsiest tones
Words whose utter inanity proved his insanity,
While he rattled a couple of bones.
“Leave him here to his fate—it is getting so late!”
The Bellsteed exclaimed in a fright.
“We have lost half the day. Any further delay,
And we sha'nt catch a Snark before night!”
Twilight gaped. She turned the page, only to find the beginning of the eighth chapter. “That’s it?” she asked no one, reading the final stanza again. “That’s it!? They just… leave him there?” She quickly read the final chapter, finding no further mention of the Bandersnatch. “How could they just leave him there? There had to have been a way to help him! There has to be a way to help Pinkie!”
“Hello? Is someone in there?” Mrs. Cake’s voice came through Pinkie’s closed door.
“Uhhh…” Twilight answered, looking for someplace to hide the colorless mare.
Mrs. Cake opened the door before Twilight could move. “Twilight! Where have you been? The whole town’s been worried s—” When her eyes fell on Pinkie Pie, her round face tightened with concern. “Oh dear! What happened?”
“There’s no time to explain, Mrs. Cake,” Twilight said. “We need to find a way to help her, and I think the answer is in this book!” She closed the volume and held it up for Mrs. Cake to see. “Do you know anything about it?”
Mrs. Cake took deep breaths, trying to keep herself together. “Only that Pinkie treats it like scripture! I’ve never read it myself.”
Twilight groaned and slammed her forehead into the back of the book.
“But Carrot has!” Mrs. Cake continued. “I’ll go fetch him!”
“Yes, please do!” Twilight said, leaping forward. “Tell him it’s very urgent!”
Mrs. Cake nodded so quickly her hair fell out of place and she disappeared down the upstairs hallway. Shivering, Twilight threw Carol’s collection open to a random page and started to read at a head-aching pace.
Sooner than she expected, Mr. Cake flung himself into the room. “What’s going on? Twilight? Gaah! Pinkie Pie!”
“Mister Cake, your wife said you’ve read this book,” she said, tapping on the open pages. “Is that true?”
“Bluish Carol’s anthology?” he asked, stumbling closer. “Yes, I-I’ve read it. Why do you ask?”
“Do you know of any cure to a Bandersnatch attack?”
The poor stallion’s brow began to twitch and his wife appeared in the doorway. “Excuse me?” he squeaked, Mrs. Cake covering her mouth with a hoof.
Twilight pointed at the pony on the floor. “Pinkie has been decolorized and desensitized by a Bandersnatch, and I need to know if there’s any way to make her better!”
“A B-B-Bandersnatch?” Mr. Cake stuttered. “A-Aren’t those just fictional?”
“I wish they were,” Twilight said. “Please, can you think of anything that might help Pinkie?”
Mr. Cake ground his teeth and glanced around for an escape.
“Please, Mister Cake! Pinkie might be dying! Think!”
He shut his eyes and pressed a hoof between his eyes. “Yes, yes, I… I think…” He grimaced, clenching his jaw over and over. “I was friends with her father, you see—Pinkie’s, I mean. His mother used to tell us the most amazing stories from when she was a girl. We thought they were true until we read them all in that book and realized she was just borrowing from a famous author.”
“No, Mister Cake, she wasn’t! They are true stories! She knew Bluish Carol, she probably visited the Wabe through the looking-glass, and he wrote about her real adventures!”
The yellow stallion reeled. “What? Through the looking-glass?”
“Pinkie just showed me!” Twilight said, gesturing to the mirror. “It’s real! I don’t understand it, but it’s real! And so is this problem on our hooves. Please, was there anything Pinkie’s grandmother told you about a Bandersnatch or some kind of cure or… I don’t know, healing spell?”
Mr. Cake’s head lifted an inch. “There were… cakes.”
Twilight squinted. “Huh?”
“There were cakes in Wonderland,” he remembered in a breathy tone. “She always used to… poke my nose when she said that part…”
“What cakes?” Twilight yelled. “What did they do?”
“All sorts of things,” Mr. Cake said. “They made her grow and shrink and… I dunno, change.”
Twilight nodded. “That might work! Do you know the recipe?”
He snorted. “Of course not! It was all pretend!”
Twilight stared at the anthology. “No. It wasn’t. It isn’t.” Her eyes swept to Pinkie Pie. “Mister and Missus Cake… has Pinkie ever… experimented?”
The couple glanced at each other. “Definitely,” Mrs. Cake answered.
“Hundreds of times,” her husband confirmed.
“Does she keep her own recipes anywhere?” Twilight asked.
“If she does, I don’t know where,” Mrs. Cake said worriedly.
Mr. Cake stared at the Complete Works. “I might,” he said, and stepped closer to Twilight. He turned the book onto its front and lifted only the back cover, revealing a clear envelope taped to the inside full of small recipe cards.
“Yes!” Twilight cheered, pulling every note out with her magic and spinning them around her head. “Growing Cake, Shrinking Juice, Magical Mushroom Preparation… ah-ha!” She snatched one card out of the air, letting the others flutter to the ground. “De-Mimsying Pie! This must be it!”
“How do you know?” Mrs. Cake asked from the doorway.
“When the Banker was attacked by the Bandersnatch in Carol’s poem,” Twilight said, hoofing the recipe to Mr. Cake, “it said that he ‘chanted in mimsiest tones’. Mimsy must describe… this!” She pointed at Pinkie and beamed at the Cakes. “Quick! Go bake that pie! Pinkie’s whole life depends on it!”
The older ponies jumped and scurried down to their kitchen, leaving Twilight to cradle Pinkie in her forelegs. “It’s going to be fine, Pinkie Pie,” she said with utmost confidence. “Everything will be okay, because you weren’t just curious… you acted on your curiosity. You really wanted to know.” She looked into the mirror—the plain, reflective, rectangular mirror—and was overjoyed to see a wide grin on her own face. “And you figured it all out with a smile, smile, smile.”
||PP||
Pinkie choked on her third piece of pie. “Hwuuacht! I still can’t tell if I love this stuff or hate it!”
“Why don’t you take a break and think about it for a minute?” Twilight suggested as seriously as she could, pushing Pinkie’s hoof away from the oddly colored desert.
“But I’m a doer, Twilight, not a thinker!” Pinkie said. Her mouth straightened. “Or am I such a thinker that other thinkers seem like doers? Or are all doers thinkers, because thinking requires doing, doesn’t it?”
Twilight laughed and gave her re-pinked friend a hug from the side. “It sure is, Pinkie. And it’s good to have you back.”
“It’s good to be back, too!”
Mrs. Cake handed the remnants of her successful pie to her husband. “What was it like, dearie?” she asked in a hushed tone. “We were so worried about you!”
“I could kinda tell what was going on… and kinda not,” Pinkie said, rubbing her chin. “I thought I might be a ghost!”
“I’m glad that’s not true!” said Twilight. “I don’t know if anypony would believe me if I told them you’d died on the other side of the mirror!”
Pinkie smiled weakly. “Speaking of which… I really, really need you all to promise not to tell anypony about the Wabe.”
Mr. and Mrs. Cake shared a confused glance.
Twilight’s face paled. “But… surely I can tell Princess Celestia?”
“Well… maybe soon!” Pinkie said. “But not just yet! I… I sorta didn’t want anypony to know.”
Twilight tilted her head. “But you practically tried to smash me through the mirror to get there!”
“I thought you were ready!” Pinkie said, turning her hooves over each other. “I’ve kept it a secret for so long because I didn’t think anypony would be able to wrap their heads around it. And now that I know even you struggled with it, Twilight—you! The smartest, most thinker-est pony I know!—I’m not sure I want to share it at all.”
Twilight frowned. “Well, that’s sort of selfish. It’s a whole world of mystery and magic that could be studied and—”
“Disturbed? Dangerous? Deadly?” Pinkie bit her lip. “Twilight, I’ve been the Wabe hundreds of times, and I was still mimsied by the Bandersnatch. Do you really wanna risk it happening to anypony else, especially some poor pony who will be totally confused by all its crazy Wabeyness?”
“Well…” Twilight sighed. “When you put it that way, no. I guess it is a good idea to keep it a secret.”
She glanced at the Cakes. They nodded with forced smiles that suggested to Twilight that they really didn’t know what was going on, anyway.
“But I have to tell the princess,” Twilight said, turning back to Pinkie Pie. “Even Star Swirl said so.”
“If I remember right, he said you should ask her to tell you the truth,” Pinkie said with a narrow squint, leaning closer to Twilight. “He didn’t say anything about the Wabe.”
“But won’t I have to tell her about my visit to the Wabe in the long run?”
“Yes,” Pinkie said, “but just… be careful, okay? I’m kinda nervous she’ll…” Pinkie mumbled the rest of her thought at the ground.
“What was that?” Twilight asked.
Pinkie shrunk. “I’m scared she’ll get mad at me or something, and that she won’t let me visit the Wabe anymore.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Twilight asked. “Wouldn’t you rather stay safe from the—”
The pained look in Pinkie’s eyes was enough to cut Twilight off.
The unicorn nodded. “Okay, Pinkie. I promise I’ll… choose my words carefully.”
“Pinkie Promise?”
Twilight closed her eyes and made the proper actions. “Pinkie Promise.”
“Thanks, Twilight!” Pinkie said, throwing herself around the burdened purple pony. “You’re such a good friend.”
Twilight chuckled. “Not as good as you, Pinkie,” she said, “but thank you.”
She stayed with Pinkie Pie and the Cakes for another hour or so, just to make sure her mimsification didn’t return or leave any side effects. Once they convinced Pinkie to get some rest in her room, Twilight caught up with the Cakes in their kitchen.
“Daring Do brought our foals home safe and sound,” Mrs. Cake said with a soft smile.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Twilight said, bringing a hoof to her chest. “Where are Ditzy and Rainbow now?”
“Daring didn’t say,” Mrs. Cake answered. “She flew in, gave us the foals, and took off again.”
“I think she mentioned going back to Haissan,” Mr. Cake added.
Twilight nodded, remembering her conversation with Rainbow in the mirror. “That would make sense. How many days have they been gone?”
“Four, now,” Mrs. Cake said, glancing out the window at the midday sky.
Twilight gulped. “I hope they’re all okay,” she said.
“I hate to worry you more, dearie,” Mrs. Cake continued, “but the three little fillies who spend so much time together… do you know who I mean?”
“Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo,” Twilight replied. “What about them?”
“They’re missing, too,” Mrs. Cake said, “along with Ditzy Doo’s daughter. They’ve sent out a few search parties, but the general opinion is that they tried to follow Daring and Ditzy to find my children.”
“Oh, no!” Twilight cried. “Applejack and Rarity must be so worried! Have we searched Manehattan?”
“The mayor sent word to their officials,” Mr. Cake said, “but we haven’t heard any news yet, good or bad.”
“Oh, it’s all going so wrong!” Twilight groaned. “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to get home and check on Spike! I didn’t even know I’d been gone for so long.”
“And… where were you, exactly?” Mr. Cake asked.
His wife elbowed him in the ribs and rolled her eyes. “We’re not supposed to know about it, remember?”
“Honey bunch, if there’s a world behind a mirror in our house with creatures that can turn a pony into… whatever just happened to Pinkie,” he said, “I think I have the right to know about it!”
Itching to go, Twilight thought on her hooves. “If it makes you feel better, just get rid of the mirror in Pinkie’s room,” she said. “Replace it with a different one.”
“Won’t she mind?” Mrs. Cake asked.
“I doubt she’ll even notice,” Twilight assured them. “I’m so sorry, I’ve gotta go! Be sure to tell me if Pinkie starts acting strange.”
The bakers gave her sordid looks.
Twilight huffed. “Never mind,” she murmured, and galloped out of Sugarcube Corner. A few ponies tried to stop her in the road to ask where she had been, but Twilight dashed between them all and didn’t stop until she had locked the door to her home and library.
Spike was reorganizing books inside. “Twilight!” he screeched, throwing the volumes stacked in his arms and sprinting to hug her around the leg. “I was so worried about you! Everypony kept telling me not to worry and that you’d be fine, but I was still worried and couldn’t stop wondering if something terrible had happened and why you didn’t tell me where you were going and—”
“Oh, Spike, you won’t believe where I’ve been!” she said, stroking his scales. “Let me write a letter to Princess Celestia. I promise I’m all right, but this is something I have to do.”
The urgency in her voice ignited Spike’s obedience. He retrieved parchment and a quill from nowhere. “Want me to dictate?”
Twilight smiled sadly. “Not this time, Spike,” she said, trotting to her desk. “I need to think this one through.”
Spike blinked. “Oh… all right.” He tilted his head. “Uh, Twilight? Where have you been?”
As she organized her desk, Twilight ground her teeth together. “I… I promised Pinkie Pie not to tell anypony just yet.” She sighed and gave him a sorry look. “Feel free to ask her—maybe she’ll tell you—but I feel like I should keep that promise.”
Spike nodded. “Oh, believe me, I understand the importance of a Pinkie Promise. Do you think you’ll have that letter ready tonight?”
“I hope so,” Twilight said, dipping a quill in some ink. “Thank you for watching the library while I was gone, Spike. I really didn’t mean to disappear like that.”
“No problem!” Spike gulped and furrowed his brow. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
Twilight’s quill hovered over the paper as her ears drooped. “I… will be,” she said, less than firmly. “I hope.”
Spike scraped his foot over the ground. “Gosh, I feel so helpless.”
“Oh, don’t!” Twilight said, spinning around from her desk. “It’s me who feels helpless, Spike. I wish I could explain everything, or even that I understood everything, but I think the first step to wrapping it all up is sending this letter to the princess.”
“I trust you, Twilight,” Spike said earnestly. “I’ll send it as soon as you’re done. Uh… do you want me to go upstairs, or should I just…?”
“I think you should stay down here,” Twilight said with a sweet smile. “I’m so glad to be home.”
Though his face betrayed his confusion, Spike managed to smile. “I’m glad you’re home, too, Twilight. And don’t worry, after you send that to Princess Celestia, I’ll make sure you know right away when there’s a—”
||PP||
Spike burped. “Letter for you, Twilight!” he called through the house after reading the front of the envelope caught in his claws.
“Finally!” Twilight shouted, teleporting into the front room from her loft. “It’s been nearly two months since Celestia promised to explain everything to me. I’ve never felt so in the dark!”
“Yeah, well, join the club,” Spike mumbled.
“Oh, Spike, I’m so, so, so sorry!” Twilight said, scooping him into a hug. “I hate this! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it! I wish I could tell you everything, and the girls, especially with Rainbow coming back safe and sound… I feel like I’m putting a storm cloud over everypony’s head! But Pinkie is so adamant that I—”
“It’s okay, Twilight,” Spike said. “Honest! I get how badly you want to let it off your chest. Hopefully this letter—” He wiggled it. “—will help move things along?”
“Thanks, Spike,” Twilight said, nuzzling his cheek. A tendril of her magic reached out to lock the front door before she tore open the letter and removed a small piece of parchment.
“What does it say?” Spike asked.
“It’s an invitation,” Twilight said. “To Canterlot.”
“Just for you?”
Twilight turned the paper around for Spike to see. “Just for me. Today.”
“Wow.” Spike’s eyes widened. “This must be a pretty big deal.”
“I think it is, Spike,” Twilight breathed. “Bigger than either of us can imagine.”
The little dragon bit his lip. “Uh… so, should I go pack your stuff?”
Twilight blinked out of brief trance. “Oh, would you?”
“Yeah! Totally.” Spike saluted and hurried up the steps.
“Thank you!” Twilight called out, pacing around the central table and mumbling to herself. “Oh, I hope this meeting answers all my questions… I really don’t like having this much on my mind!”
Somepony tried to open the bolted library door. Twilight groaned and shouted, “Sorry, we’re not open right now!”
“Twilight? It’s me, Ditzy. Can we please come in?”
Twilight grimaced and rushed to the door, unbolting the lock and throwing it open. “Ditzy! I’m so, so, so sorry about letting Dinky out of my sight! I wish I could explain everything, but—”
“Twilight, it’s fine,” Ditzy said, holding up a hoof. “You don’t need to keep apologizing. Everything turned out just fine.”
Twilight’s violet eyes darted between the ponies on either side of the mailmare. One was a guilt-inducing, periwinkle filly, and the other was a bizarrely familiar, mustard-yellow mare in a dull green hoodie. “Hi, Dinky,” she squeaked to the tiny pony, “and… hello, Daring. When did you get back to Ponyville?”
“Today,” Daring said, flashing a quick grin.
Ditzy cleared her throat. “Uh… may we come in?”
“Oh, sure! Yes, of course,” Twilight bumbled, stepping out of the way. She closed the door once all three ponies had come inside.
“Dinky, go find the next book in the series,” Ditzy said to her daughter.
“Okay!” She zipped off to the fiction section, leaving the three mares in a tight triangle.
“Did you need something?” Twilight asked.
“Is there any chance you can watch Dinky again?” Ditzy asked right away. “Maybe for a week or so?”
Twilight blanched. “I don’t think so, Ditzy. Not only do I feel supremely underqualified due to recent failures in that area, but the princess has asked me to visit her in Canterlot today.”
Daring’s ears drooped. “Awwwww, shoot.”
Ditzy nudged her in the ribs. “It’s fine. I’m sure we’ll find somepony else.”
“If you don’t mind my asking,” Twilight said, “what will you be doing for a whole week?”
Daring brightened. “Ditzy and I are gonna—”
“Go back to Haissan and make sure everything’s all right,” Ditzy interrupted. “We left quite a mess and want to make sure that—”
“Oh, shut up, Sis,” Daring cut in. “Why do you always lie about this kinda stuff?”
“Because I—”
“Don’t have to anymore,” Daring said with a smirk. “Look, Eclipse…”
“Twilight,” the unicorn corrected.
“Uh huh, listen.” Daring raised one eyebrow in a self-sure expression. “You’ve read my books, right?”
“Of course,” Twilight said, pointing at Dinky as she browsed the shelf across the room full of Daring’s series.
“Right. Librarian.” Daring waggled her eyebrows and nodded her approval. “So, you’ve prob’ly figured by now that all that stuff is pretty much true.”
“Twenty percent true,” Ditzy said.
“Like, at least sixty percent true,” Daring corrected. “Biggest thing I left out was this bubble-head following me around all the time.”
“We were partners,” Ditzy said to Twilight.
“I did come to that conclusion,” Twilight admitted.
“So, here’s the point blank truth,” Daring whispered, putting both of her hooves on Twilight’s shoulders and staring straight into her eyes. “Our dad was a world class archaeologist who instilled a love for adventure and discovery into our young minds.”
Ditzy snorted. “Just because she’s a librarian doesn’t mean you have to talk like a book.”
“On one of his missions,” Daring continued, “he tampered with very old magic, and it brought a fatal curse upon him. We watched our father wither over the course of our teenage years as we sought for ancient artifacts that might relieve him of his illness, but none of them were as powerful as the curse, and he passed away while we were searching for the Magic Carpet.”
“Oh, gosh…” Twilight breathed. “I’m so sorry.”
“She’s being a little dramatic,” Ditzy droned, “but she is telling the truth. All of our adventures were spurred by the goal to save our father. Now we wonder if the Carpet might have been the answer, so we plan to go find it and settle our final mystery.”
Twilight squinted. “How will you know? I won’t… bring him back to life, will it?”
“Oh, heck no!” Daring said, jumping backward. “Ewwww, ew, ew! Nah, see, I’m thinking of it as more of a closure thing between me and Ditz. If we have the Carpet in our hooves, we can finally move past all the stuff that happened eight years ago and be sisters again.”
Ditzy smiled. “Oh, Daring. We’ll always be sisters, and I already said I forgive you.” She turned to Twilight. “But I do think it’s important we finally end this adventure.”
“I understand that completely,” Twilight said, nodding. “I wish I could be of more help, but I can’t miss this meeting with the princess.”
“Of course not,” Ditzy said. “Do you know of anypony who would watch over Dinky for me?”
“Fluttershy comes to mind,” Twilight said with a distant look in her eyes. “Did you say your father was cursed?”
“Yeah, when we were kids,” Daring said. “He went on this awesome excavation down south of the Badlands where some ancient pony tribe worshiped a sundial—”
“The Neighr, I believe they were called,” Ditzy added.
“—and he tried to remove an effigy from their temple and got super cursed.”
“We spent the rest of his life looking for cures,” Ditzy reiterated, “but in the end, we never found anything that gave him back his life, or even explained his disease.”
When the Sisters looked at Twilight, her pupils had all but disappeared in the center of her widening eyes, and the color in her face was draining to a shade close to Dinky’s.
“Whoa,” Daring chuckled, “you okay?”
“Twilight, you look like you’re about to faint,” Ditzy said. “Is something wrong?”
Twilight blinked. “Did you say… a Sundial?”
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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The plot thickens. Can't wait for a sequel.
Edit: Just remembered you're going to leave. So no sequel.
I wish you good luck.
We're losing Ponky? I need to pay more attention to these things. We'll miss you Ponks.
Wonderful ending to this story... Now I just need to go to sleep so I can read the finale to the other one,
wow you close out the story and leave us with a cliffhanger which creates an opening to a sequal that you probably won't be able to write for a while; you're mean. lol
I hate you so very much right now, Ponky. So very much. But it's for a very good reason. You see, between these two epilogues, everything screams sequel. And with the world-building you've done, I can see the sequel being just as good, if not even far superior to these two (hopefully three; my fingers are still crossed for that Honorary CMC fic when you get back) stories. But now I have to wait 2 whole years just for you to get back. Add in time to get back into things, plan things out, and actually write the story... It's a long time, and my inner reader is angry for that. On the other hand, the way you've tied these stories together so seamlessly leaves me a very happy reader, so well done, sir. Well done.
I love this ending. I think love it more than the one for TSD, which was already done superbly.
Dun, dun DUUUUUUUUUUN....
Thank you so much for... well, everything! It's been a blast!
God damnit! NO sequel and you lead up that much to one. Gah! This is going to hurt so much!
son of a sea pony! there had better be a celestia damned sequel for both stories!
Oh. My. Celestia.
SO MUCH AWESOME! I CAN'T STAND IT!!!
Ponky.
Ponky...
I think...
You're trying to kill me.
But shouldn't that be "'Sup,"?
I'm lovin this series and i'm a bit sad to see that you won't be able to update it while on your mission (I'm kinda glad i can't go on mine). but regardless i just want to say one thing. Good luck sir in all that you do.
AW MAN... THIS IS BEGGING FOR A SEQUEL!!
How is that to end a story? are you building up to a sequel right now?
Well you better be.
Oh my... Danger Doo's curse is related to the Wabe?
Some corrections:
> Everypony kept telling me not to worry and that you’d be find
that you’d be [fine]
> but I still was worried
but I was still worried
> Not only do I feel supremely under qualified due to recent failures in that area
"underqualified" is one word
Wrong recipe, Twilight!
What the buck? We leave mid-sentence, and come back two months later? The perspective is still following Twilight around. Why the initials, then? And why not finish the sentence?
EDIT: This flew right over my head the first time, but it is meant to be a transition. I missed it because of "Spike burped" coming first, but I see it now. And apparently, ||PP|| is always the scene transition. Silly me! 
That ending: Such a cliffhanger!
Further down the rabbit hole we go... I'd say this story was a smashing success!
24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9kv5sbXb51rrnep7o1_400.gif
PONKY, WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE THIS AT SUCH A DRAMATIC CLIFFHANGER? IT LITERALLY HURTS!
In all seriousness, though, this was an amazing ride, and I'm happy I rode it all the way.
I like this even more than the Sisters Doo. Man I want a sequal and I want more Pinkie hope things go well over seas.
UPDATE
Im going to come back here in 2 years, remember this, and leap with joy.
ya know for a side story this really is awesome as its owe.
is there going to be a sequel to this?
I never thought it would be possible to be furious and overjoyed at the same time, but that ending sure proved me wrong. Both stories were (and still are!) incredible! Thank you so much for sharing them!
Two years...
Well, be assured that we'll be right here waiting when you get back.
This is screaming for a sequel!! But not until 2 years (if there is a sequel).
YOU TROLL!
It's a different sundial, sillies!
This one opens the Stargate!
Very good story, i'm glad to have finished this one also before you left.
Celestia: Listen, Sparkle, nopony must know about what you have learned.
Twilight: But it seems pretty importa--
Celestia: Two words: Princess Coronation.
Twilight: Deal.
2070434 That is awesome.
You know... this could explain why Ditzy's been absent for so much of Season Three...
Wha-huh? Two years? Is there something I missed?
2070451Can that be a canon comment for the TSDverse? PLEEEEEEAAAASE???
Okay so I feel like I should call out the brilliance in the beginning of this chapter. Pinkie is singing "42" by Coldplay, the title of that song is a reference to The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy that gave 42 it's current place as the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Now the kicker is that Lewis Carroll also put weight to the number 42 in his writing 42 illustrations in AiW, rule 42, the baker in the hunting of the snark had "forty-two boxes, all carefully packed, With his name painted clearly on each", etc. Ponky I bow to your overresearched symbolism.
OH COME ON
THAT'S NOT EVEN FAIR
I DEMAND A SEQUEL
I bet the other sundial contains anti-alicorns who can shoot lasers!!! They're gonna blow things up!!! Then Celestia will be like, "No, don't explode my subjects," and they'll be like aww.... But they'll stop because they behave like children. Then, combining their power they'll create and alternative universe where they can blow things up forever and then they'll never be heard from again! Also, Anti-Luna will be the oldest and the most mature, sooooo.... Her lasers will be four-hundred times as powerful!!!
Er, wow... I just finished The Sisters Doo yesterday and it was really great, but this? This was an amazing side snack to that story. This was positively fantastic and all kinds of amazing, creative... just awesome.
I know you're gone, Ponky, but I doubt a day will pass when you're not making someone smile regardless.
....I started reading Through the Looking-Glass updates, realized I had to finish The Sisters Doo first, and finally finished both.
And you leave us with THIS?
If I were there in person I would hit you so hard that I wouldn't need the elements of harmony to send you to the moon.
I'd slap ya so hard that it'd make Ditzy's eyes uncross. 
I WANT TO FIND OUT WHERE IN THE WORLD YOU WENT TO SO THAT I MAY GIVE YOU A SOUND PIE TO THE FACE.
And I read the comments here and find out you'll be gone for two years.... You bastard, leaving us with this sort of a cliffhanger.
*Sigh* If you ever come back and see this, just be sure to note that I'm merely frustrated, not angry, and venting in amusing and bizarre ways.
Gah! *Flails* Cliffhanger of doom!
I love Lewis Carroll and The Hunting of the Snark is one of my favorite poems. So sending Pinkie into the madness that is Lewis Carroll is just awesome!
I really don't like how it ended though. Otherwise it was pretty good overall. I did like how it perfectly tied together with The Sisters Doo.
Well that was one hell of a cliffhanger. Sad you're gonna be gone for two freaking years. I humbly await your return. This was truly good.
A lovely tale of nonsense in a dimension of the same. Now to get back to The Sisters Doo and see what transpired in the land of logic.
someone MUST make a fanmade movie of this!! MUST!!!!
Fantastic story, thanks for sharing it.
...
Okay, that's my headcannon from now on. Pinkie Pie broke through the fourth wall and attended a Coldplay concert.
you have a truly magnificent brain
huh... to daring and ditzy's dad was cursed by the wabe? kul
*Read the Sisters Doo* That was cool.
*Read this* After having NEVER had any interest in AiW or anything related to it...never reading it, watching it yada yada...I, somehow, understood this completely. And I love it :D {Honestly the only thing I know about AiW is the Cheshire Cat [Only played Kingdom Hearts (Yay for screwing around with brackets and the like)]}
Goddamit, Ponks. 'tis as I fear!
You end with a 'hanger and leave for two years!
However, I praise your intuitive ways
It's one of my favourites, in all of my days.
I just recently learned that this story's connected
To the those two of Alice, 'found that unexpected;
Thought the Wabe and the beasts to be all up made,
And while still they still are, your genius won't fade
And maybe I am an illiterate freak,
who only reads pony fanfiction, so bleak
Still - a wondrous story I add to my pack,
And I'll wait for the sequel, when you come back!
Seriously, though.
You have to make more of this universe when you return
I'll be around ;)
Given the tags on this fic, I didn't expect to like it. I started reading it only because it was a side-story to The Sisters Doo.
Boy, was I wrong
This was fantastic, whimsical and funny. I enjoyed it greatly, despite the closest thing to a Lewis Carol work I've ever been exposed to before being the Disney version of Alice, which as far as I hear isn't even close to the real deal.
My usual caveats apply. Not only this fic clashes mightily with my headcanon, the show has added enough back-story contradicting it that an [Alternate Universe] tag might be now a good idea. Neither of those change the fact it's a very worthy read, though.
this was amazing it had so much depth and interesting pieces where you borrowed or modified. please have a sequel in the works I just came across this and TSD and want it's universe to grow but I don't know how I would even try myself
.....*blink.
And then there's that whole CMC adventure, that's what, 6 more months? Sigh.
I must thank Daring Do, for pointing me this way,
I expected rhymes, and sill times,
with Pinkie holding sway.
But instead a world of wonder, for'all Twilight's fear that day.
A roaring read, oh yes indeed,
Bravo, callooh, callay!
The ending... it feels almost like there will be another story. Since you have returned, will there by any chance be a third story to this?