Grim Reflections
{[(SxT)]}
Suntrix woke wearily to find herself tied to a cart that was being pushed down a hallway like the one she’d seen before. “Hey! Let me go!”
A pony in scrubs and a surgeon’s mask looked down on her as they walked. “Oh, don’t worry, miss Suntrix. Everything is going to alright.” She wanted to yell at the pony but for some reason her voice made her calm, like everything really was going to be alright. “We’re just going to do a couple experiments on you.” Well, that didn’t sound good.
“Do you know who I am?” she asked trying to scare the pony. “Do you know what I’m capable of?”
The pony nodded, nervously averting her eyes. “Yes, that’s kind of the reason why Twilight wants to experiment on you.”
They pushed open a large set of double doors and were wheeled into an enormous lab. It looked exactly like Suntrix would expect an evil lab to look like from all those adventure novels she’d read. Giant electrodes decked the walls with tall metal machines full of lights and buttons lining the corners of the room. Tables full of chemicals and bottles were also widely present. Yup, this was a villain lair alright.
The masked pony stopped the cart and walked over to someone out of her line of sight. She heard some muttering and then somepony came to either side of her and lifted her cart onto its side so she could see. Before her were two ponies. The one in the surgeon mask and scrubs and the other. “You’re the pink one.”
The other pony was the pink one of the group that followed her. The one that could move super fast. Only she was different. All her limbs and most of her body were decked in gray metal armor. Around her head sat some kind of half helmet with a small red crystal lens over one eye. She wasn’t smiling. This must have been this world’s version of that mare.
“You’ve been talking to her, Fluttershy?” The pony in the scrubs disrobed to reveal her pink mane and familiar red and white dress. She also pulled her black hood back over her eyes. This was the pony from the throne room.
“I just thought she needed somepony to talk to, Pinkie,” Fluttershy replied.
“Maybe the two of you could let me in on just what the heck is going on?” Suntrix asked angrily.
Pinkie turned to her, still not showing any signs of smiling. “After the last trans-dimensional visitors we had Celestia went coocoo trying to repeat whatever process your friend did to get here.”
Suntrix groaned at them mention of Ice Twilight. “She is not my friend!”
“Whatever!” Pinkie shouted. “Point is, it was my doppelganger that was able to travel between dimensions so Celestia had both Twilight and I put to work in creating a dimensional door.” She pointed behind her to a rather large looking circular metal pipe on the wall with lots of black wires and clear tubes coming out of it. “Twilight and I discovered a correlation between the Pinkie Pies and I. This kind of inherent connection that could allow me to tap into the multiverse, but only to watch. I call it Pinkie Sense.”
Pinkie waved a hoof over her red crystal lens and light shined through it. The light spread out across the giant metal circle and an image appeared in the center. It was of a bunch of ponies in spotted fur togas with clubs. They looked almost primeval. “I can look at almost any world now,” Pinkie continued as the picture flipped through showing ponies in jetpacks, ponies living under the sea, even ponies playing what appeared to be children’s card games. “So I know all about you, Suntrix.”
Suntrix was slightly impressed by the display. “You don’t seem all too enthusiastic about your abilities.”
“Hundreds of hours of testing and live experimentation would put anypony in a bad mood,” Pinkie replied with straight face. “Even me.”
“That’s not good, Pinkie,” Fluttershy muttered. “You’ve got to keep a smile if you want to be the Element of Laughter.”
Pinkie turned on Fluttershy with a glare. “The Element of Laughter? Name the last time I cracked a joke! Name the last time I even left this castle! Name the last time you did!”
Fluttershy shrunk back in fear. “I-I-I’m sorry!”
Pinkie pulled back, her eyes wide as if she was surprised at what she had just done. “Fluttershy, I…”
Fluttershy’s lip began to tremble and she ran from the room. Pinkie held out a hoof to stop her but never got close. She let it drop by her side.
“So I take it you’re all a little bit pent up?” Suntrix asked, ridiculously trying to lighten the situation.
Pinkie didn’t look back at her as she walked over to the control board on the wall. “We all may not be acting according to our elements right now, but that doesn’t matter as long as I help Celestia and Twilight.” She pulled a lever and Suntrix began to rise in the air, a hook from the ceiling pulling her up.
“HEY!!” she shouted as the hook aligned her with the circular portal.
“It’ll all be worth it in the end,” Pinkie muttered to herself. “Yeah, just give Celestia what she wants and the world will be a better place. Everypony will smile again.”
Suntrix could feel that all sense had left quite a while ago. How do I get myself in these situations?
~`(\/)’~
Rarity looked around the entire penthouse with dismay. “It’s all so tacky!” she shouted as she threw another purple and orange dress onto the bed. Flutterbat had given up on trying to talk to her and decided to snoop around the kitchen.
She emerged nearly a half hour later from the bedroom and walked into the kitchen. Flutterbat was rummaging through the fridge for something to eat. “Okay,” she moaned. “I’m done. Sorry about snapping like that. Pinkie did warn me about what I might find but…” she shuddered. “I didn’t expect this.”
Flutterbat stuck her nose out of the fridge and raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her. “Yes, yes, let’s get on with the mission. Did you find anything that might indicate where she is or did you just search for food?”
Flutterbat got out of the fridge and pointed to a day planner she seemed to have thrown on the table. Rarity picked it up to read. “Monday: City assembly to erect new statue of Celestia. Meet Sweetie Belle for dinner. Well this version of me may be a tyrant but at least I’m a good sister.” She read on. “Tuesday: Send Sweetie Belle to stay with mom and dad. Note: Goodbye dinner at Che Hoofarti’s was delicious.” She frowned. “Never mind.”
Rarity suddenly noticed Flutterbat standing right next to her looking at the words on the page. Her eyes seemed screwed in concentration. “Darling, do you not know how to read?”
The bat winged pegasus looked at her. “Flutterbat never had to learn.” She perked up and smiled. “Flutterbat did learn one read thing. ‘Don’t let anything scare you, you can accomplish miracles with just a little bravery’.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Where did you learn that?”
Flutterbat’s smile seemed to become more melancholy and she lowered her head. “Somepony special teach it to Flutterbat.”
Rarity patted the mare on the back. “We’ll get back home, I’m sure of it. Then you can see your special somepony.”
Flutterbat didn’t raise her head, her smile now gone. “He gone now. Nopony left to go back to.” She walked a little away and then turned back with a forced smile. “But Flutterbat still has friends. Friends in cave and friends here.”
Rarity nodded. “Yes, we are fr-” She paused as she looked past Flutterbat to the fridge and its shiny reflective surface. Her reflection seemed to roll its eyes at her.
“How long are you going to keep fooling yourself?” her reflection asked, its voice unheard by Flutterbat. Rarity’s eyes widened and she immediately turned away. Shut up, she mentally shouted. Her eyes fixed on a toaster on the counter, her reflection in that as well. “You keep playing around with these ponies that don’t even matter. Why?”
“I’m trying to save the world,” Rarity muttered under her breath. Flutterbat stood off to the side giving her a curious look.
“Which world?” her reflection asked from a kitchen window. “Because I certainly haven’t seen you do anything for your world. Do you honestly think you can make any difference here? You’ve seen the kinds of threats that exist if you go down this path. Better to be a big fish in a small pond, I say.”
“Shut up,” Rarity muttered out loud as she turned her head again. This time her reflection was caught in the stainless clean tile beneath. It seemed to grow before her and slid underneath where Flutterbat stood.
“You just want to stay here and play house with all your fake friends until somepony ends it all for you.” It glared at Flutterbat. “Does she really remind you so much of her that you’d replace her?”
“Shut up!” Rarity let loose a bolt of magic that landed at Flutterbat’s feet. She jumped back in the air and landed on the counter in defensive stance. Her eyes were wide with fear and slightly slitted like a cat’s. Rarity could hear her hiss under her breath.
“You see,” the voice was now in her head, “she’s just a facsimile. Nothing but a beast with a familiar face.”
Flutterbat finished hissing and cocked her head at Rarity questioningly. “Fluttershy, I’m so sorry!” Wait, what did she call her?
“I am going to have your tail if whoever you let up to my room messed with my things!” A voice echoed out from where the elevator was but Rarity was having trouble concentrating. Flutterbat’s ears perked up and she jumped from the counter to grab her.
“We need go now!” she said.
Rarity was still having a hard time moving as thoughts were swirling in her head. She almost hurt Fluttershy, but she wasn’t Fluttershy. But she had hurt Fluttershy. How could she have been acting so chummy when it was her fault?
Flutterbat pushed her out of the kitchen into the entrance hall just as the elevator opened. Inside stood this world’s Rarity, wearing the same orange and green dress from her portrait. Behind her was the doorpony, along with ten or so black armored soldiers. “Well,” badly dressed Rarity said with a smirk. “I can honestly say that I wasn’t expecting this.”
Rarity finally shook it off and saw the situation. The armored soldiers filed out of the elevator tried to circle them. Flutterbat hissed and tried to swipe at one but they pulled out an electrical prod and zapped her making her wince. “Do not touch her!” Rarity shouted.
An immense cloud of black billowed around her and the disguise fell to reveal her dark form. She turned her glowing white eyes on the soldiers and blasted a wave of darkness at them sending them flying. The sound of laughing caught her attention and she looked to her doppelganger in the dress. She stood with her hoof to her mouth in a bout of laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Rarity asked. “As far as I see your helpless.”
“I’m sorry, darling,” she chuckled. “I should clarify. I wasn’t expecting this, but that doesn’t mean I was unprepared.” A loud thump came from Rarity’s right and she looked to see Flutterbat fall unconscious.
“Flutter-” Another thump and Rarity felt something slam into the back of her neck. Her vision started to go dark and she fell forward. As she began to lose consciousness herself a pony in a red jumpsuit with yellow highlights seemed to phase into existence next to her double. A red cowl was pulled over her face.
“We’ve known you were coming for a while, and planned accordingly.” Her laughter echoed in the large room as Rarity blacked out.
---<^^>---
Mare Do-Well felt the pressure in the room just from the alicorn’s stare. A moment of silence passed as they all met the alleged “leader of the resistance,” each pony seemingly waiting for somepony to make the first move. They were surprised when the alicorn did first.
“My apologies for the suddenness of your appearance and the hardships you had to face to get here,” she said as she bowed her head. “Quantum physics is a little hard to control with just magic and your position seemingly continued to shift as if it was out of phase with reality.”
“Huh?” Applejack uttered.
“I think you have a little more explaining to do than that,” Mare Do-Well said.
The alicorn raised her head. “You are right. Let me start by introducing myself. I am Luna, second princess of Equestria.”
“And Nightmare Moon,” Rainbow jumped in.
Everypony in the room seemed to get angry at that but Luna held up a hoof to stop them. “Yes, it is true that I once held that name and that I did horrible things with it. But the Elements of Harmony freed me from my self-imprisonment.”
Mare Do-Well nodded, taking all the information in while also recollecting the way they came in case they needed to make an escape. “Alright, princess. So how are you responsible for getting us here?”
Luna got up and walked over to a blackboard with tactics and strategies then flipped it over to reveal hundreds of small equations with symbols even Mare Do-Well had never seen before. “I have known of my sister’s plot to travel to and conquer other dimensions for quite some time. First rule of war is to always stay level with your opponent. So I have worked tirelessly with my smartest ponies to magically recreate the effect dimensional travelers like your friend there,” she pointed to Pinkie on the ground, “used to come here. We did not come far but we were able to determine a way to summon the speedster here using vibrational frequencies. I must say, your appearance is unforeseen but not unwelcome, hero.”
Mare Do-Well narrowed her eyes. “How do you know what I am?”
Luna walked over to her, her stern expression never changing. “My sister has kept tabs on the speedster for a long time. She knows all about you and your team as well, and with the help of our spies, so do I. I must say, you have lasted longer than expected.”
“You expected us to die?”
She shook her head. “That is not what I meant.” Before she could continue, Rainbow cut in.
“This is all a lot of very technical mumbo jumbo,” she said as she waved a dismissive hoof. “But aren’t you the bad guy?”
“Rainbow Dash,” Luna said her name with complete confidence. “I can assure you that I mean no harm. In fact, I’ve brought you all here to stop those who wish to do harm.”
Mare Do-Well grabbed Pinkie’s arm and lifted her onto her shoulders. “We’ve heard enough. We only came to this world to find Suntrix. Once our friends are done with that we’ll be gone. We’re not going to get swept up in a war that isn’t even ours to fight.”
AJ and even Rainbow seemed about to say something when Luna interrupted. “And I wouldn’t ask you to.” Everypony stopped. “The reason I brought the speedster here was because I wished to study her. With live data I can make technological leaps and bounds before my sister and possibly end her reign myself. Please,” she bowed her head again. “That’s all I ask of you.”
Mare Do-Well didn’t look back but she did stop leaving. AJ and Rainbow looked to her to make a decision. She looked down at Pinkie’s sleeping face. What would you do, she thought. “Fine. We’ll wait until she wakes up to make a decision. But take us to some room where we can rest.”
“As you wish, Amethyst?” The pink unicorn from before stepped forward and saluted Luna before leading them back down the halls. This time Mare Do-Well took it on herself to carry Pinkie. She still made sure to memorize the layout of the tunnels though, just in case anything happened. Which it so often did.
/^(*vv*)^\
Flutterbat awoke at what she could only assume was several hours later. Her surroundings were now much more like home than before as she appeared to be in some kind of underground dungeon. She stood up and took a step forward to find her legs shackled to the wall. After pulling with all her might several times she finally conceded any escape like that wouldn’t work. The room was small with not enough room for her fly or spread her wings too far. The wall opposite her restraints had a large wooden door with a slit to see through, though the way she was positioned it made it impossible for her to do that.
Instead she only needed to wait a few moments before somepony else looked through the slit. “Can I have a moment with her?” came a soft voice from the other side.
“Of course, Miss Fluttershy,” two gruff voices on the other side said. Two sky blue eyes peeked out from the slit and stared at her.
Flutterbat hissed and backed away as the door opened and two armored ponies parted ways to let in… herself. Flutterbat wasn’t a fool, she knew what she looked like from pools of water in her cave and even mirrors that he would bring her. Though while she was a tad paler with pink eyes this pony was more fleshed out with blue ones. She also wore some kind of clothes that Flutterbat didn’t understand. Why would a flyer wear a cloak? It’s so impractical.
The other her stepped forward and Flutterbat stepped back. This was a bit disconcerting. She even smelled like her. “Um, I’m not going to hurt you,” Fluttershy assured her. Flutterbat gave a nod toward the guards behind her. Fluttershy turned around. “I apologize, but would you please leave us alone for a few minutes.”
“I don’t think that’s very wise, Miss-” The pony was cut off as Fluttershy straightened herself and gave what seemed to be the scariest stare she’d ever seen. The pony gulped audibly and backed away quickly. “Uh, yes, of course, ma’am.” Flutterbat would have to try that some time.
Fluttershy sighed and turned back to her. “There, that better?” Flutterbat still eyed her cautiously but decided to sit down. “Good,” she said happily. “Do you talk?”
“Flutterbat talks.”
Fluttershy’s smile widened “That’s wonderful! It makes having a conversation so much easier.” She sat down as well and looked straight across from her. “So, tell me about your world. Are you all bats there? Oh, can you talk to bats?”
Flutterbat was baffled by this pony’s intentions. Every one of her heightened senses was telling her she was genuine about her interests though. “Why you ask? Aren’t you bad guy?”
Fluttershy’s smile fell. “Oh, I guess you would think that, wouldn’t you? Dungeon and all. Believe me I didn’t ask for you to be in here. That was Twilight’s idea.” She rubbed her hooves together forlornly. “When I heard they’d captured another Rarity and you I got excited. Nopony likes to talk to me in the castle. The guards all say they’re too below me and Rainbow and the others are too serious with everything. I thought... if there’s another pony just like me in the castle, then maybe we can have a nice conversation.”
Flutterbat’s frown deepened. “Pinkie say you princess hurt world. Say you try and take her.”
Fluttershy’s mood seemed to fall even further. “Yes. The Twilights have been preparing for your arrival for a while. Our Twilight used information from the last time your Pinkie Pie was here to build a speedster suit. That’s why they sent Applejack in it to capture you. But I don’t want anything to do with that. All that talk about invasions and ruling. They keep saying it’s for peace but it all just sounds so… so…”
“Evil?”
The two ponies’ eyes met and they stared at each other. “I’m not a bad pony,” Fluttershy muttered. “At least I never wanted to be. All I really wanted to do was help my friends.”
“Flutterbat didn’t have any friends for long time.” It was her turn to lower her head. Why did it feel so right to just talk to this pony? “Just bats keep Flutterbat company in cave. Then ponies came and offered Flutterbat a chance to save ponies. Pretty soon, Flutterbat made friends.” She narrowed her eyes at Fluttershy. “Friends help ponies. Friends don’t rule ponies.”
Fluttershy lowered her head once more with a look of despair and got up. She turned and began to close the door before looking back at her. “Thank you. For talking to me.”
Flutterbat gave her a tiny smile. “Come back again to talk. WE can be friends.”
Fluttershy smiled slightly too and then shut the door. Flutterbat heard the lock slide into place and she was left alone again. She laid her head back on the wall and looked at the ceiling in thought. She couldn’t just wait around for Fluttershy again though. She had to find a way out, save Rarity, and then get back to her friends. Somehow.