The Link
A short gray alicorn sat calmly by a round altar made from the trunk of an ancient white tree. Today she was reading a book she’d picked up on one of her many travels through the multiverse. It was an interesting historical romance about a seapony from a high society family under the water and a knight from above. The alicorn loved romances.
Her ears perked up when she heard the approach of hoofsteps. She smiled and put her book down. The fillies and colts of the nearby village loved to come visit her around this time. They always liked to see her in the middle of something, it made them think her job was more special than it appeared to be.
In truth, she really didn’t do anything more than guard the altar from all evil forces. There was no special ceremony needed for the upkeep or anything like that. She only guarded this place because it had saved her from a fate worse than death.
The trees along the clearing’s edge began to rustle and the alicorn smiled as the children poked their heads out excitedly. “Miss Alicorn!” They all cried that name as they poured from the trees and surrounded her. The alicorn had a name but she hadn’t used it in a long time, and it seemed to make the children laugh so Miss Alicorn was fine.
She laughed as they began to bombard her with requests, as the children so often did. “Now calm down, calm down, my little ponies,” she laughed. “One at a time.” She pointed to a very small earth pony with a white and brown speckled coat.
“Um, Miss Alicorn,” the colt murmured. “What’s the most beautiful sight you’ve ever seen?”
The alicorn smiled and tilted her head to look off to the side. “Oh, I’ve seen so many in such a short time. It’d be hard to find just one.”
“We wanna know!” came a chorus of eager voices.
She chuckled and tapped her chin in thought. “I got it. I’ve told you children all about the worlds I’ve been to before but do you know what those worlds look like together?” They all blinked and muttered in confusion.
“What do you mean, Miss Alicorn?”
She pointed up at the sky an all their eyes followed. “From here we can see the sun and the moon in the sky. And we know from experience that some ponies can travel there.” Her horn glowed and the air shimmered turning into an image of another world. It showed a pony in a large white bulky suit stepping hoof on the moon. The children ooed and ahed. “But do you ponies know what this world looks like from the moon?” A filly raised her hoof and she pointed at her.
“My mom says it probably looks like a giant marble!” Most of the children nodded in agreement.
“That’s true. So, who can guess what every world looks like from above?” They all waited in silent expectation. Finally, a lanky orange colt spoke from the back.
“A bag of marbles?”
The alicorn laughed again and shook her head. “No. It looks like this.” Her horn changed color and the image did as well, expanding slightly and flying above them so everypony could see. It looked like a string of brilliant white pearls floating in a colorful swirling space. The string seemed to go on forever. “The most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen was this. The shape of all worlds.” They all pointed and watched the image of the pearls with wide eyes.
Another colt raised his hoof. “So what’s the scariest thing you’ve ever seen?”
Her smile faded and the image above stopped moving. “Oh, well, um…”
“That’s not something to ask her!” somepony shouted.
“I don’t want to learn about something scary.”
“But I do!”
An argument began to erupt mostly between the colts and fillies. The alicorn tried to calm them down but her voice was easily overpowered. She glanced up at the image she’d been making and took a shuttered breath as a dark shadow crept over the shining pearls. “Enough!” she shouted, extinguishing the image and getting everypony’s attention. She took a breath to calm herself. “I don’t believe its very appropriate either.” The colt who started it kicked the ground woefully.
“Miss alicorn, what’s your world like?”
The alicorn paused as she heard the question. Then a smile returned to her face. “My home… is wonderful. Full of places I never thought I could find in my own backyard and friends who I would do anything for.”
“Can we visit it?”
Her smile faltered but she kept it up for the children. “No, I’m afraid not.” They all sighed. “Now I believe it’s time for young fillies and colts to go to school.”
Their sighs turned to moans as they got up and began to walk back through the forest. “Can we come see you again tomorrow, Miss Alicorn?”
She smiled at them as she waved goodbye. “Of course.”
When all were gone she let out a short sigh and blinked as her ears twitched. It felt like something was watching. She peered around looking for whatever had set her off but stopped to slowly turn around. “Who’s there?”
---<^^>---
Mare Do-Well shot up in bed breathing heavily. She quickly scanned the room for any signs of danger, her trained senses taking everything in. She was in an infirmary. What was she doing there? She remembered being in the control room of the Veloci-Lair and then… pain. She remembered seeing something. A crack in a wall. It hurt to just look at it. But where was this wall and why did she have this vision? She lifted her hoof to take off her hat but was surprised when she felt nothing above her head. Her eyes darted to a table next to her and she saw her hat laying on it. She quickly grabbed it to her chest. Was her mask off as well? She got out of bed and ran to a mirror. She sighed with relief. The mask was still in place hiding her mane and the purple wrap was still tight around her horn.
She seriously couldn’t believe she had passed out. Her, a trained martial artist and warrior. She grit her teeth in frustration. Just then the door swung open and a familiar orange pony in a white robe and black hakama walked in. “You’re lookin’ better,” Applejack stated.
Mare Do-Well returned her hat to her head and nodded. “I appreciate the concern but we should get moving.”
“Not even gonna talk about it?” Applejack eyed her curiously. Mare Do-Well didn’t know what to think about this pony. Unlike the others Fili-Second had collected for her interdimensional task force, this was the only one whose counterpart on her earth was a good pony. She and the others had discovered this Applejack nearly dead of exhaustion and cuts in her world. She didn’t know whether she could count on this Applejack like she could her own. “Ah mean you did just fall over and go into a trance.”
“I’m fine,” Mare Do-Well replied, regathering her supplies from the bedside table. “It was nothing important.”
“Ah know when sompony’s bein’ dishonest,” AJ said flaltly. Mare Do-Well stopped for a moment and sighed.
“I don’t know what to make of it yet. I can’t even seem to remember anything that happened during it. And because of that it’s not important to the task at hand.” She finished grabbing her stuff and walked past AJ out of the room. Applejack watched her leave before following behind her.
~`(\/)’~
Rarity was sitting in the corner of the Veloci-Lair for a few hours now. Ever since Mare Do-Well’s episode she had confined herself to a state of meditation. The vision she saw still haunting her and she didn’t know why. All it seemed to be was a crack. And yet the pure unencumbered emptiness she felt emanating from that crack made her soul shutter. To have looked into it was like looking into the eyes of death itself. Normally she would expect the Nightmare within her to speak up at this time and maybe lead her down another wrong path. But she could even feel fear from the Nightmare. She had not decided to speak for hours now.
“You’re in over your head,” a voice came to her. Rarity finally opened her eyes and turned to the side. The wall of the Lair was a shiny metal and she could see herself reflected in it. Her reflection glared at her with unfeeling eyes.
“I didn’t think you were going to show yourself today,” Rarity muttered just as unfeelingly.
The reflection slammed its face against the wall to get her attention. “Enough of these games between us! You saw what is at stake!”
Rarity chuckled. “Is the great Nightmare Moon afraid?”
“Yes,” the reflection stated bluntly. Rarity finally turned to face the reflection with a look of shock. She had never expected the creature to actually admit its own fear. “Think what you will of me. I am ancient, true but even gods have legends. There exist things in creation that mortals cannot even fathom.”
“You know what we saw?” Rarity asked. The reflection was silent.
“Go home,” it stated bluntly. “You and these others can do nothing to stop what is coming. And I will not be party to an endeavor that will just get you killed.” The reflection returned to normal.
Rarity huffed and returned to her meditation.
===E8DB
Rainbow sat with Flutterbat at the round table in the center of the Veloci-Lair. She had begun to play a friendly game of fetch with the slightly feral version of her friend. Rainbow threw a ball and Flutterbat happily flew off to grab it and return it. Her tail swinging like a dog’s. Rainbow smirked and chuckled at her friend acting like an animal. Flutterbat came back with the ball once more and dropped it on the table before smiling and slightly panting at Dash. Rainbow tussled her mane in a friendly manner and even scratched behind her ear. Flutterbat began to stomp here back leg like a dog as well.
“Sure you’re not Flutterdog?” Rainbow asked jokingly.
“Flutterbat!” she replied with an angry face before it melted back into an expression of pure joy at the scratches.
Rainbow laughed but it was still a little hard to get her head around all this. Just recently she had learned that her childhood friend was alive and now she was pulled into an interdimensional tag team of various other ponies who claim they’re her friends in other dimensions. Or at least Fili-Second did. She didn’t quite know anything about those others. Rarity had explained how her friends met was that they were all present when Twilight Sparkle, a name she did recognize, was called to Ponyville and they all aided her in defeating Nightmare Moon.
It sounded so much like the story Fluttershy had told her. Could it be that the only thing that separated events in her world and the one where they were all friends was her? Rainbow had never moved to Ponyville so she was never a part of Twilight’s team to find the Elements of Harmony. Rarity also said that she was the element of Loyalty. Rainbow was having a tough time believing that. Not only had she abandoned her friend for years on end but now she was even leaving behind a comrade that was missing in action. Sure, Fili-Second made it sound extremely important but Rainbow couldn’t help but think of Lightning Dust and her own Fluttershy.
Flutterbat seemed to notice her hesitation and began to purr a little while nuzzling under Rainbow’s hoof. She smiled at that and gave the doppelganger another scratch behind the ear. Regardless if this was her Fluttershy or not. If these were her friends or not. Rainbow couldn’t abandon these ponies who had all decided to put their lives on the line. She steeled her resolve as she heard Mare Do-Well enter from the infirmary.
---<^^>---
Fili-Second turned from the monitor bank to greet her. “You’re up,” she said with a smile. “I was sure that you’d be out for another-” She was cut off as Mare Do-Well got in Fili-Second’s face angrily.
“Never. Take. My. Hat. Off,” she said definitively. Fili-Second bit her lip before frowning and giving her a nod. Mare Do-Well turned to the monitor bank. “Where do we stand?”
Fili-Second’s expression dropped. “Not good.” She pulled up the same schematic of a line of spheres that represented the various worlds. For some reason it made Mare Do-Well think of a string of pearls. The red dot that had signaled the Glitch was now in two places, one of them stationary and the other moving away very fast. “It just split off about the same time you passed out.”
Mare Do-Well studied the schematic. “Has it ever done that before?”
“No,” Fili-Second replied. “Matterhorn designed this system to specifically track localized disruptions in space-time. For it to be in two places either means it’s learned to act in two places at once or…”
“Or it’s multiplied,” Mare Do-Well finished. She eyed the mare. She really didn’t seem like the type to know these kinds of terms. And her words were too precise. Like reading from a script. She made a note to study Fili-Second more closely. “Making two Glitches we have to deal with.” Just as soon as she said this the moving Glitch disappeared from the screen.
“NO! NO! NO!” Fili-Second shouted hectically as she moved her hooves at lightning speed along the keyboard to track it again. “Argh!” When she finally gave up hope she angrily slammed her hooves on the board making the keys vibrate until they began to come loose. Mare Do-Well had to pull her away before she did any more damage to the machine. Fili-Second’s angered face slightly faltered when Mare Do-Well touched her. She jumped slightly at the touch and tried to cover herself as if on instinct. Mare Do-Well narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
Mare Do-Well couldn’t quite figure this pony out. At times she was effervescent and bubbly, a lot like her nemesis, the Pinkster. But at other times there was a frightened fragility that could erupt into unprompted anger. Plus, there was the fact that she was perfectly willing to destroy an advanced piece of machinery like this one just out of anger. Fili-Second didn’t seem like the type of pony to know a lot about computers or the building of one. The more she got to know this mare the more she began to distrust her. Still, Mare Do-Well would have a hard time trusting anypony with that face, especially if they had the kind of power she’d seen from Fili-Second. “We should go check on the stationary target now,” she uttered. “We can probably find some clues there as well.”
“Right,” Fili-Second muttered. “I’ll gather the group for a tactical meeting. If we’re going to go in then you have to know a way to combat this.” Mare Do-Well nodded, slightly eager to learn just how the Power Ponies had been handling this cosmic crisis.
<___|=0
“The elements of what-now?” Applejack asked as they were all gathered around the round table. Rainbow Dash sat by Fluttershy with Rarity and Mare Do-Well sitting across from one another, the tension between the two palpable. Fili-Second sat next to Mare Do-Well but AJ was smart enough to know when somepony was applying the old adage “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”. That Mare didn’t seem to trust anypony, but especially that one.
“The Elements of Harmony,” Fili-Second repeated.
Rainbow lifted a hoof like this was a classroom. “Oh! Rarity mentioned those!”
Rarity did not look up from her seat as she kept her eyes closed in meditation. “Indeed,” she muttered.
Fili-Second continued. “Yes. Along our voyages through the multiverse chasing the Glitch, the Power Ponies and I discovered a repeating factor in almost every world. We six ponies were eventually brought together to form the Elements of Harmony. They would take different forms most of the time. Sometimes they would be magical jewelry or sometimes even mystical words of power. We even came across a world where they were fruits that gave the pony who ate them the power of the Elements. They are as follows: Loyalty,” she pointed to Rainbow Dash, “Kindness,” she pointed to Flutterbat, “Generosity,” she pointed to Rarity, “Honesty,” she pointed to Applejack, “Laughter,” she pointed to herself, “And Magic,” she finally pointed to Mare Do-Well. “In many worlds, when these powers were combined it created a magic that rivaled any in existence.”
“So you and the Power Ponies had these Elements as well?” Mare Do-Well asked. Fili-Second bit her lip before shaking her head sadly. “Matterhorn surmised that the physical properties of the elements were pointless. She believed that it was all of us together that brought the power out.” Mare Do-Well seemed to note the pink mare’s reaction.
“And did it?” Applejack asked.
Fili-Second chewed her lip for a second. “Kind of?” she stated. “We fought the Glitch quite a few times and gradually learned more about its weaknesses. We would… make friends with the Elements of Harmony of the endangered world and then… work with them to stop it.” Fili-Second looked like she wanted to say more but something stopped her. Applejack knew she was telling the truth, but not the whole truth. Something was smelling fishy. Mare Do-Well seemed to step in and ask the question that was on her mind.
“What exactly happened to the Power Ponies?” she asked.
Fili-Second shrunk a bit and lowered her head. “Gone… They’re all gone.” Once again, Applejack could tell she was telling the truth, but once again it wasn’t the whole truth. AJ narrowed her eyes a bit and opened her mouth to speak, but Mare Do-Well stood up.
“Well then, I guess this means we have to convince our counterparts on this world to stop the Glitch.” She motioned for everypony to join her and they all left their seats to go to the center of the room where Fili-Second could vibrate them to another world. Applejack caught up to Mare Do-Well and walked alongside her.
“That’s seriously all you’re going to say?” she asked. “Ah thought a pony as suspicious as you would have a thousand more questions for a reply that flimsy.”
Mare Do-Well did not turn to her as she replied. “If I’m right, then there’s nothing to really ask about.” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “There’s something else going on here. Keep a sharp eye out in this place. I get the feeling it’s not everything it seems.” Applejack briefly scanned the room with her vision. Nothing seemed out of place. “For now it’s something we can deal with at a later date,” Mare Do-Well said to her as they joined in the middle of the room. “The fate of the multiverse lies in our hooves right now. Don’t bring this up with anypony else.”
“You really don’t trust anypony, do you?” AJ asked.
“Right now I don’t trust anything,” Mare Do-Well said in a hush just before Fili-Second vibrated them out of the room. A moment after they left the far wall opened up to reveal a hidden door. A pony in shadows stepped out and stared at where they had just disappeared from.
“Tch,” the pony chided. “She might be too smart for her own good.”
===SS===
Sunset opened her eyes blearily as the light of the morning sun greeted her.
“Wh- What?” she mumbled. Sunset felt the warm white sheets of the Hoofwarts School Infirmary beds beneath her. She rubbed them gently. For the briefest of moments she wished Flash was here in the bed with her. She suddenly pulled her hand away with a jolt. “Who’s there?” She shot up and pulled the curtain around her bed away. The school nurse sat at her desk reading a magazine.
“Oh, Miss Shimmer,” the Nurse said. “You’re up. You gave us all quite a fright.”
“Um,” Sunset hesitated. “Did you say something?”
“Just that you gave us a fright,” the nurse replied warmly.
“No, no. Something about my bleary vision and rubbing the sheets getting me… excited?”
“…” the nurse didn’t really know how to reply to that.
“There it is again!”
“There’s what again?” the nurse asked with concern.
“Really? You can’t hear that line at the end of everything you say?”
“… Maybe you should get a bit more rest dear.” The nurse turned to the cabinet where she stored her sedatives, perhaps her student would feel better after a nice rest.
“Wait! I don’t want a sedative!”
The nurse turned to her perplexed. “Miss Shimmer, you know that reading minds is forbidden on school grounds.”
“But I didn’t! It’s the voice!” Sunset was beginning to sound like a crazy person. “Oh shut up!”
“Excuse me?” the nurse replied angrily.
“…Damn it.”