Anput could not believe this turn of events, as he knew that Horakhty decided to scatter the Star Jewel of Valor away after Emir Khalid took to the throne. The alignment of coincidences that allowed the red stallion, the mare and the camel to have almost all the necessary pieces is not lost on the guardian, and as it read into their minds, it appears that this particular character called Abu Hamza had went on and somehow managed to anticipate and plan to such an extent. This is something he did not expect and all he have only one thing to say about the situation.
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"They are just too lucky." Anput said dejectedly to Vinyl in response to her inquiry, like a child whose pranks backfired badly to itself. Vinyl smiled and she is glad that the others are holding themselves against the odds of this rather manipulative guardian. However that also reminds her that she will also need to keep the pace up to complete the task before her so that she could rejoin them once more.
It was then that she found a reflection within a mirror that resembles a crossroads for her current path, and she saw the chains that are resulting from her decision. It seems that it is a reflection of her current situation; of her staring into the reflection of her current situation. If it were not so confusing, Vinyl would have thought that it is really awesome. She realized that something is odd, as all the reflections around her have turned into this exact moment in time and space. It was something she is not really expecting, but at the same time she kind of expected this to happen.
"Why is this moment so important?" Vinyl asked, and she turns to the stallion and the stallion's started voicing out the words from his mouth...
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"Everything that happens now, is now in your hands."
Anput said to Fatimah, who is now watching the reflections of the last scene of Sheikh Abu Hamza preparing the escape of everyone before they were launched away from the palace with everyone else. She is reluctant to touch the reflection with the right memory, for it will force her to admit that her father had indeed passed on. However, this reluctance to accept is contrasted with the continuous replay of her father's death in a myriad of ways, each more gruesome than the other.
In one reflection, the Sheikh was impaled by countless javelins before he could light up the explosive. In another reflection, the Sheikh was tortured in a long an excruciating interrogation to find out where Fatimah and the others are launched to. Before long, the chain of unrestrained possibilities continued on from every single action that the filly could take, and some involving some unsavory things happening to her.
The images hurt the the filly more than it should have and the grim and dark truths erodes the sense of being of the little one. Her mind reflexively reach with shock and disbelief. She feels numb and dazed, and her instinct is to withdraw away from it all, and forget about what happened and avoid or the source of the assault of her mind.
Stop, she said in her mind, trying to stop the flooding of her feelings but to no avail.
The little filly's mind is preoccupied with thoughts and feelings of unwanted memories or flashbacks and nightmares. As she recalls each memory both good and bad, she re-experience some of the sensations and feelings of fear and powerlessness she had during the final moments with Sheikh Abu Hamza. Her feelings of guilt and shame and started blaming herself and doubt her own judgment of being unable to react on time and causing him his injuries. She wonder if she were in some way responsible for his situation. Before long, her body started to feel nauseous and her chest tightens, and suddenly she hold her hooves to her mouth, trying to hold back the bile behind her throat.
Anput is now watching the scales where her heart is being weighted. The light grows dimmer and dimmer, and a rattle in the chain caused Anput to look on without any form of compassion. He will not say anything, no words of ridicule nor encouragement. It is his duty to evaluate the worthy heir to the line of Asar, and he knows that his task is of the utmost importance. It was then that the little filly turned around towards his direction.
"Why?" The filly asked, her voice trembling with both uncertainty and anxiety. She dare not face the stallion eye to eye, but she still mustered enough courage to ask the guardian for help. It was then that he started speaking to the filly.
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"The question is; do you know why you are here in this exact moment and time?" Anput asked the mare back, thereby ignoring the inquiries of the mare.
"But that is what I want you to think, for I know that you know of why I am here in this exact moment and time. Thus I will ask you this; Why are you talking in riddles for a question with a rather straight-forward answer?" Vinyl asked back, trying very hard to be philosophical but not doing too well in it.
"If you do not know why I am asking in riddles for a question with a rather straight answer, for a matter that you wanted me to think for you know that I know of why you are doing here in this exact moment and time, you surely must be clueless my dear mare." Anput answered back eloquently and with distinct amount of class.
"Oooo...you're good with this riddle-talk thing." Vinyl said, biting her lips a little. This reminds her of those thriller movies where they kept on asking questions until she got no clue about what is going on anymore. Looks like she can't do the old switcheroo to get the answers that she wants. However, the stalllion chuckled and waves his arms in an outward motion to encompass all the reflections.
"I am but an observer, and your life is a sum of an unbalanced equation inherent to the strings and flows of fate and self-determination. While it remains a burden to be avoided, it is not unexpected and it is not beyond any measure of control. As you are undoubtedly gathering, the anomaly is systemic, fluctuating in even the most simplistic of choices."
The stallion walks around the scale, where Vinyl's heart is glowing irregularly and as he touches it, she could feel a jolt of complex emotions within her. He then lifts his hooves away from the orb of light and walks towards her. The stallion is now gazing at the mare, and he puts his hooves below her chin and gently lifts it up to meet eye to eye.
"It is of course the way of all things, for you see there is only one constant . One universal ; causality. Action. Reaction. Cause. Effect." Anput gives the mare a smile, but Vinyl slaps his hooves away from her chin.
"Everything begins with a choice." Vinyl retorted. The stallion walks away from her, before turning his head around to give her a reply.
"No, wrong," Anput retorted back firmly, "Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without. Wondering as they make sense of their surroundings and struggle against what we try to deny, but everything is a pretentious lie, Beneath our poised appearance, we are completely out of control. Which brings to a simple truth..."
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"Causality. There is no escape from it, we are forever slaves to it. Our only hope, our only peace is to understand it, to understand the `why.’ `Why’ is what separates us from them, you from me. `Why’ is the only real social power, without it you are powerless. And this is how you come to me, without `why,’ without power." Anput answered the little filly.
You need to be strong, be strong, be strong... The little filly said to herself, to build up the courage within her. She is after all part of a proud Saddle Arabian clan, and she will...she will do what exactly? The doubt within her mind starts to fester in her, and no matter how hard she tried, the turbulent emotions within her is trying to overwhelm her. The nauseous feeling within her is growing stronger by the moment, and before long, the tightness in her chest is restricting her breathing. She tries to breathe in, but her breath is short and hurried, and her dizziness slowly becomes even more prominent than before. The room starts to distort itself, and she is mustering all she can to keep herself together.
"My dear, becoming stronger is no match for causality. Just accept that you are unable to do anything, and accept the eventuality of all things." He turns to the scale, and he can see that the orb of light is now at it very dimmest. Any moment now, it will become a black orb and he can be relieved of his duties. However, a faint glow still emanates from the deepest part of the orb, lighting as brightly as the light of a dying firefly.
In the filly's mind, what the guardian said has meaning to it, but she will not admit it as admitting it means that she is forced to his will. She could sense that if this goes on, she would pass out from the pressures of it all. These complicated emotions within her is such that she could hear her heart pounding louder and louder as she gasped for air, until she could barely hear her own breathing and thoughts. But there is something in her that is preventing her from submitting to this situation.
"No, not like this." The filly said strenuously, barely mustering enough strength to do so. The filly knelt down on her forelegs, and unable to held it in any longer she vomited on the ground. Suddenly the images turned from bad to worse, and the images contorts into even more hellish images. Anput immediately know that the mirrors are trying to go in for the kill, and as the images became an embodiment of madness and dark depravities to break the little filly's mind, he could only watch the orb's faint glow not faltering to this onslaught.
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"Causality my hoof!" Vinyl barked back at the stallion after hearing his response. Anput is unfazed by her display of authority, and remained silent. But deep down within the mare, she knew that what the stallion is saying is true to a degree. But if every choice is here, then surely the stallion is right. But by doing so, she might be goaded to make the wrong choice. It was this time that she wished that she was as well educated as Redheart as she would be able to see some things he have no idea about. As the images around her darkened, she realized that something is wrong with the reflections; they no longer showed any sort of images. It is dark, grim and cold,and for once in Vinyl's life, she can feel a insurmountable dread as she realized that this could only mean one thing;there is not even an ounce of the future for the mare right now. The lack of a future is even more frightening than having countless possibilities of the future, for the grim darkness means that no matter what she did, there would be the void of emptiness. She can not, or to be exact will not accept that she got no future of any kind whatsoever.
"Surely you know that this will be your fate; the mirrors of possibilities are showing the exact same thing. Your future...no your being is null and void. Why bother?" The mare's face is filled with a sense of disbelief, and she wanted to retort the stalllion. Her voice failed to come out and her anger has dissipated. In fact, she is now frightened by the prospect that she is forever alone and the light of defiance within her eye slowly died, and her eyes are more like reflections of lifelessness.
Her heart could not take such a fate and she tries to reason that a bad ending would be a better ending. But if the images does not even show her the bad things, why would it matter that she even attempts a bad ending. This state of cold helplessness seeps into the bones of the mare and every fiber of her sense of being. Before long, her mind was taken over by a deep depression of her empty state
She tried to resist, but the depression within her is enveloping her in a sweet and deadly caress. What is the point to invest so much energy and empathy if there is nothing that will result from it? Vinyl feels like the embrace is now drowning her mind and body, numbing it until she could not feel any pain. Such was the numbness that she is slowly losing faith in everything, and she is slowly losing and sinking under the surface of the darkness. Everything in her mind slowly started to fall apart right in front of her, and every second is more than she could take. Ironically, she is now more aware of her state of fading away, but she is not alarmed by it. In fact she is more disappointed that is is a gradual process, and she wanted to just get this over with..
As the mirrors of possibilities engaged upon their vicious attack upon Vinyl's mind, Anput noticed with the corner of his eye that the slowly fading light of her heart upon the scale is becoming more obvious with every moment.
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Anput wonder why the filly is not succumbing to this mind assault from these mirrors of possibilities. Even a grown stallion would succumbed to the madness and depravity of the images born out of the darkest regions of the mind and beyond, let along a little female filly. It is definitely not in his common interest to be invested in the trials, but there is something deep within him that is annoyed and yet being very impressed by the filly. As the filly grunts and grits her teeth, she endures the torture of the mindscape and now even Anput is unnerved by the actions of the mirrors around him.
"Hm...why do you resist little filly? Why don't you accept your fate?" Anput asked.
That is a good question..., the filly thought and wonder why she could do such an act, despite being assailed on all sides by the growing madness and depravity. Somehow, she could feel that something is holding resolute, and she wondered what it is within her that is doing so. She does not want it to end like this, and she definitely know that this is not what her father, the Sheikh wanted. Somehow, this is preventing all the feelings from overwhelming her. She slowly takes some deep breaths, and the tightness is slowly dissipating along with her fears and anxieties. She does not understand, but somehow focusing her thoughts to Sheikh Abu Hamza has focused her concentration. She can remember it all; His warmth, his kindness, his tenderness, his discipline, his...
It was then that she realized what that something is, and she knew why she is able to withstand it all. It is a simple and yet very fundamental thing, but often forgotten and ignored. Her father had shown her this particular aspect many times before, and yet how she could have forgotten it? It is the Sheikh's most defining nature and she too had inherited this aspect in spirit, if not in body.
As she gets back up, the faintly glowing orb started to regain its brightness and slowly but surely it regained its light. Anput watches as the ball slowly lights up to its original brightness before it went on being even brighter. The filly then voices out her answer.
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What...is...this...
Even in this tranquil and cold environment, a small warmth in the cold seas of dark abyss provides a bubble of being within this shadow. She wondered and somehow instinctively, she embraced this warmth. It gave her some sensation, some feelings, some emotions. She could empathize with this small warmness, and she could anchor herself to this small warmness. It is a small and insignificant, but it is all that she needed in this world of darkness, and this sense of belonging is really sweet. Suddenly from the darkness, the echoes of the voices that she recognizes as that of Big Macintosh, Redheart, Amanar and Fatimah resonated in her ears, giving her words of encouragement and support.
Anput realized that her eyes is slowly coming to life, and faced with this turnover of a hopeless state of being the orb of light upon the scale slowly brightens up and before long it regained its bright glow. It was then that Anput's ears was assailed by the booming voice of the electric-blue maned mare.
"BBBBBUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKYYYYYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Vinyl replied defiantly, but at the same time realized that she is now back from her state of despair. She is unsure why it happened, but appears that this caused the guardian to be visibly annoyed, and Vinyl knew that she was on to something. But what?
"How...what is the reason of this?" Anput said, his ears ringing from the sonic assault upon his ears. He looked at her with no measure of disbelief and confusion, and wondered how did the half-wit got out from such a deep despair so thoroughly. Vinyl's mind cogs immediately started think, but her simplistic mind takes a whole lot longer to wind up. She could still feel the numbness from the mind assault, but she will have to do it fast as she could feel it creeping back into her mind and she does not have a lot of time.
Come on Vinyl, there must be something that will help you solve this nonsense, she tries to convince herself. It seems that whatever it is that caused her to be in such a hopeless state is not pleased that she escaped from their clutches briefly and are now redoubling their efforts to assail her mind once more. She looked around and still noticed that the mirrors are reflecting a dark deep void, and she reminded herself that they are not showing her the solution for this problem. She will not find any answers in the reflections.
No one can truly see the future, unless they are a god..., Vinyl mused sarcastically in her mind. The creeping darkness and despair is now numbing her limbs once more and as she struggled to think, she finds that this is an impossible task. She then realized that she should have not thought about that, as now her body is paralyzed by that imposition. It was then that she realized that that many of the heirs to the Asar dynasty have ascended to the throne without being gods after going through this challenge.
Surely this must be a clue to this icky mess..., she thought. She does not know what this particular guardian is looking for in this trial other than the enigmatic 'pure of heart' and 'pure of truth' that he always blabber about. Using her limited knowledge and wisdom, she looked at all the possibilities. The choices of words, the choices of things she could think of, and the choices of things she could have done. The creeping darkness is now swallowing her sense all the way to the neck, and she could see that the orb that represents her heart is becoming dimmer by the moment. It was then in a moment of desperation did a thought flashes into her mind.
Wait, these choices, why did I want to choose them anyway? Why?
She realized that it is not choices that she could be concerned about. It is something that guides those choices, a simple thing that is often forgotten. Something simple, something profound, and definitely something that affects choices. It was then that the epiphany came to the white mare, and she knew that is the answer she will choose that will determine her salvation...
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"It is for a purpose!" Both Vinyl and Fatimah exclaimed at once . Suddenly one half of the stallion shatters, the right side for the filly and the left side for the mare respectively. Both Vinyl and Fatimah realized that the guardian's half that was shattered also shattered with everything in its respective direction. Both of them are now able to see each other and also the mirrors that are reflecting their particular moments of adversity. Both wanted to ask each other of what is happening, but they knew that they have to continue on with their resolve.
What is this.... Anput realized that something odd had just happened. He was observing them both at the same time while spliting them up in different spaces of reality, but now it appears that this has failed. This has never happened before in the Weighting of the Hearts. Something is coming up, but he is not sure of what it is. All the previous heirs had chosen a difficult choice and made the sacrifices that they need to do, but this is very different. He looked at both of them, each ready to answer his questions to them.
"We are here not because we are free, but because we are not free.There is no escaping reason, no denying purpose because without purpose, we would not exist. It is purpose that created us... " Vinyl answered, and soon Fatimah continued on where the mare left off.
"It is purpose that created us..." Fatimah repeated, her confidence slowly budding. The mirror where her birth was shown cracked into countless cracks.
"Purpose that connects us..." Vinyl said, looking at the filly with a smile. One of the pitch black mirrors started to shatter and glow, and slowly but surely the chain of mirrors cracking soon started to make itself apparent.
"Purpose that pulls us..." Fatimah said, and smiling back to the mare in response. The mirror that showed her interactions with various characters cracked further. Vinyl winked at the little filly and then turn her attention to Anput. Fatimah also turned her attention to the guardian, whose expression is that of disbelief.
"Purpose that drives us..." Both Vinyl and Fatimah are now saying in unison, and all the mirrors are now cracking into countless hairline cracks.
"Purpose that define us..." As they continued on saying their responses, both the mare and the filly slowly lift up their forearms, knowing full well what they are saying is what they believed in and that they are kindred spirits believing in the same thing. The cracks started to glow with a bright light, and both the orbs of the heart on the scales are now glowing radiantly.
"Purpose that binds us..." Vinyl and Fatimah clamps their hooves together, connecting them in both mind, body and spirit. Their eyes of determination and purpose is not lost on the stallion, and as he looked around the illumination of the radiant glow of the orbs and from the light are slowly lighting up the darkness.
"It is our sense of purpose that decide what will happen to us for our futures!" As the words leave the mouths of Vinyl and Fatimah, all the mirrors burst into countless shards, enveloping all of them in a fog of glass. The reflections of light that bounces from the countless glasses illuminate the darkness surrounding them, blanketing them all in its unbridled glory.