//------------------------------// // Curiouser and Curiouser // Story: PONYVERSE // by TopWanted //------------------------------// Curiouser and Curiouser ---<^^>--- “No. No. No! ...No!!” Mare Do-Well pulled out gadget after gadget from her belt in an attempt to find some kind of clue as to where they were. Finally, when she had exhausted her ability to come prepared, a small pile of electronics sat beside her. “I don’t understand! This world makes no sense!” “I’ll say,” Rarity agreed from behind her as she looked at the grass and trees. “Plaid grass on purple trees? If this is mother nature’s present to the world then I’m thinking about regifting.” She glanced at Mare Do-Well hoping for the pony to get the joke or respond but Mare Do-Well was having none of it. “I’ve tried geologic surveys, geographical analysis, weather patterns, even a flipping compass!” She held out her compass with its arrow mysteriously pointing up at the sky. “Up is not North!” “Well, darling, technically if you look at a map it…” she saw Mare Do-Well staring at her and shut up. The hero let out a long sigh and rubbed her temples. “No way to know where we are, not even a line to the others. Who even knows if they’re here! I suppose the best course of action would be to stay put for now and assess the situation.” Suddenly a small white animal launched itself from the underbrush. Rarity let out a short scream as it jumped past her and onto Mare Do-Well. She was frazzled and unready as the little critter seemed to crawl all over her body. “What!? Huh! Hey, get off!” She finally managed to throw the animal off only for it to land against a large mushroom. Rarity eyes widened as she recognized it. “Angel?” It was a white bunny rabbit and for some reason he wore an orange vest with a gold chain hanging from the pocket. But that wasn’t the only thing that surprised Mare Do-Well. Silently the rabbit inspected the hero’s hat as he turned it over in his tiny paws. Mare Do-Well felt her empty head and her blood ran cold. “Give that back!” Angel gave her a dismissive look and then blew a raspberry before taking off into the forest. Mare Do-Well shouted in frustration and gave chase. Rarity ran after her. “Wait! What happened to staying put?” They ran through the colorful forest, Mare Do-Well barely paying attention to the strange sights and sounds that pervaded the mysterious place. All she cared about was her hat. If that rabbit so much as put a scratch on it she would personally escort him to a den of timberwolves. She was able to follow the rabbit relatively well considering she wasn’t used to forest terrain but he threw her for a loop when he ducked into a large hole by a tree. “NO!” she skidded to a halt in front of the tree and peeked her head in shouting into it. “You get back here, you rodent!” Rarity stumbled from the trees behind her and didn’t manage to slow down in time as she collided with her back. Mare Do-Well fell forward into the hole and Rarity’s momentum plunged her inside as well. They both let out cries of terror as the hole appeared to be far deeper and larger than they had expected. Mare Do-Well fell for a couple seconds before her breath ran out and she stopped yelling, beginning to look around her. Rarity was falling beside her still screaming with her eyes closed. “Rarity. Rarity! RARITY!” The mare finally snapped out of it and opened her eyes. They were still falling but as far as they could see from the sides of the hole to the bottom it was all dark. They simply kept falling and falling. Rarity hugged her hooves to her. “Um, I don’t suppose you have any wings you’d like to show off right now?” Mare Do-Well crossed her arms and looked up then down. The hole above was already out of sight and there was still no sign of the bottom. She calculated the time they had been falling with the depth of the hole. “This makes no sense. This hole must be thousands of hooves deep! Why is something like this in a for-” she was cut off as a familiar orange vested white rabbit sailed past them and up, her hat in his paws above his head being used like a parachute. He gave them a snicker as they passed him by. “Oh, you little-” Another thing cut her off as Mare Do-Well felt her body hit a floor. It wasn’t as hard as she expected and she looked down to find herself standing in a tile patterned hallway with Rarity beside her looking equally dumbfounded. She looked back up to where the hole was but it was now a solid ceiling. “How the hell did that just happen?!” Rarity tapped her hoof against the floor and frowned. “Hmm, this is a strange place but it has an interesting style.” Mare Do-Well wasn’t listening as she pulled a small grenade from her belt and prepared to throw it at the suddenly appearing ceiling. Rarity’s eyes widened and she grabbed the mare’s arm. “Woah! What are you doing?” Mare Do-Well reeled on her. “I need that hat back!” “It’s just a hat, darling!” Rarity shouted back. “And not a very stylish one at that.” Mare Do-Well dug her hoof into the ground and turned away from her. She just didn’t understand. Though somehow the white mare was taking this with more stride than she was. She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Okay, we’ve lost our starting position. My hat is gone. And now we’ve found ourselves hundreds of thousands of hooves below ground. Not a bad way to start.” “Really?” Rarity asked with a raised eyebrow. “No, this is terrible.” She glanced at Rarity and saw that she was actually smiling. “What’s so funny?” “You,” she replied with a snicker. Mare Do-Well frowned. “What do you mean?” Rarity continued to smile. “Well, when we first met I’d never imagine you cracking a joke like that. You were so serious.” “So were you.” Rarity faltered for a moment and looked at her now white hooves once more. “Yes, I was.” She flexed her hoof experimentally and smiled a little more. Mare Do-Well let out another sigh and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “I’m happy for you, Rarity. I really am. Honestly, we didn’t know what Applejack’s spell would do, but I’m glad it had this outcome. Still, we need to find a way to get back to the others.” Rarity set her face and nodded. “Right.” They both looked forward at the long winding hallway before them. “Well, guess there’s only one way we can go.” They started walking. As they did, Mare Do-Well patted her back pocket where the talisman was stored. She gave Rarity a guilty glance and continued on. After what seemed like an hour of walking the two finally made it to the end of the hallway where a single tiny door awaited them. It stood no taller than their knees. Mare Do-Well gave an aggravated groan. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” Rarity merely studied the door curiously. “Hmm, well there must be some way to get past. Without the use of explosives.” Mare Do-Well put her grenade tossing hoof down sullenly and replaced the bomb in her belt. Rarity turned and studied her curiously. “You’re really out of your element, aren’t you?” “What do you mean?” Mare Do-Well asked. “You’re making jokes, recklessly wanting to toss bombs everywhere. It’s like you’ve been a different mare since you lost your hat.” Mare Do-Well’s eyes widened. She was acting differently. But why? Was it this place? There was something odd about all of it. But then Rarity seemed normal enough. Did it really have to do with her hat? She desperately wanted it back because of… reasons. But that was no excuse for her behavior. She was being reckless and untrained. Her thoughts trailed off as Rarity proclaimed a discovery. “Aha!” She picked up a tiny key from a table in the corner that Mare Do-Well hadn’t noticed before. Though by the logic of this place, she wouldn’t be surprised if it simply appeared from thin air. Mare Do-Well regarded her bluntly. “Okay, we have a key to a door that’s smaller than either one of us. How are we still going to get in?” “Well…” Rarity pointed to a small bottle on the table that had sat by the key. It had a tag on it that simply said “Drink Me”. Mare Do-Well knew she was getting more reckless but she wasn’t stupid. “Oh no! I hope you’re not seriously suggesting we drink something from some mysterious bottle that actually has the freaking sign ‘DRINK ME’!” Rarity rolled her eyes getting tired of this runaround. “Well look around, do you have any other bright ideas?” Mare Do-Well hesitantly pulled out her grenade but Rarity shot her a look and she replaced it. “Fine. But I’ll try first,” she said grabbing the bottle from her. “I’ve built up an immunity to certain poisons so I should be okay. Hopefully.” She glanced at the bottle in her hoof and then to Rarity. A nervous gulp echoed in the cramped hallway and she took a swig of the contents. Making sure to turn her face away from Rarity as she lifted her mask. When she’d finished she plugged the bottle and handed it to Rarity. She licked her lips tentatively, a sweet minty sensation on her tongue. “So?” Rarity asked. Mare Do-Well frowned as she made a conscious check of all her bodily functions. “It doesn’t appear to be toxic. Though it could just be slow acting. Anyway I don’t feel any different.” She turned to Rarity who was now replaced with an enormous white wall. “What?! Where am I?” “Um, Twilight?” The voice wasn’t loud but it did reverberate much more than their normal voices. Mare Do-Well looked up at the source and her jaw dropped. Rarity stood like a giant above her. She had to be the size of a mountain. “How did you get so large?!” Mare Do-Well shouted up to her. “More like how did you get so small?” Mare Do-Well’s eyes widened and she looked to the once tiny door. It was now just the right size. “Oh, come on!” “What?” “This makes no sense!” Rarity shrugged. “I don’t know, darling. Tiny door, shrinking potion, makes sense for me that they’d be together.” “No, I mean, I still have my clothes!” Mare Do-Well shouted back. “How, in Faust’s name, did a potion that I drank shrink my clothes as well?” Rarity pondered this for a moment. “Well, I would want my clothes to stay with me.” Mare Do-Well rubbed her temples. “Just drink the damn thing and let’s get moving.” A few moments later Rarity was beside her, struggling to hold up the now larger key. “Can you believe we almost forgot this?” Mare Do-Well grimaced. “Yeesh, I can only imagine what we’d have to do to get it from the top of that table again.” They both walked over to the door and inserted the key, twisting it and then pushing. The door opened outward and both mares walked out into… “NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!” Mare Do-Well shouted. They had come back out into the same forest from which they had entered, plaid grass, colorful trees and mushrooms all. “No! This makes no sense! We were thousands of hooves below the ground. We made no travel upward! How in Faust’s name can one place have such a loose concept of physics?” Rarity’s frown deepened as she looked at her surroundings. “Maybe that’s the point?” “Huh?” Rarity shook her head. “Nothing. Just a thought.” Suddenly as if by coincidence the white rabbit strolled by trailing Mare Do-Well’s hat behind him. He paused as he spotted the two and there was a moment of silence. “You,” she hissed. The rabbit snickered and then shot off into the forest again. “Oh, no you don’t!” “Wait!” Rarity shouted, but Mare Do-Well was already gone. She ran after her but the mare was simply too fast. Colors and patterns in the trees and grass whooshed past as she chased but the sight of the mare slowly disappeared. Rarity stopped running and slowed to a halt. She looked at her surroundings, a new sense of displacement creeping up inside.