Applejack - 18th of Megan, 17 EoHApplejack - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH
Deepglade - Everfree Forest
I’d never been this deep inside the Everfree before. The trees grew thicker as you went deeper into the forest, and eventually they became so dense you had to squeeze between them. That just wasn’t natural, and the forest was most definitely making it clear that it didn’t want anypony there.
Despite it being just after noon, you couldn’t see more than five meters ahead of you. The trees here were so thick and so close that their upper branches wove together and blocked out most of the light. Heck, it was dark enough for the light blue glowing moss which covered most of the ground to be seen glowing.
I didn’t even know this moss existed ten minutes ago. It was very lovely, soothing even. If I’d been here under any other circumstance I would have taken some back with me to plant in my garden.
I don’t think anypony in Ponyville had ever gone further than the outskirts of the forest as a foal. Except for the girls and I when we went to the Castle of the Two Sisters.
Dawn had taken me much deeper than that. Every time a tree got in the way, he’d simply smashed it down. My hooves stung from the abuse. Tartarus, my left forehoof was actually cracked clean through. Dawn didn’t care. It was pretty clear to me that he either liked the pain or couldn’t feel it.
Dawn grunted in annoyance as the thick, gnarled trunk of an oak tree blocked his path. “How do you put up with always being tangible?” He grumbled before smashing my injured hoof into the tree hard enough to carve out a huge chunk.
I felt my frog split open the second the strike connected. White spots flashed in my eyes as the pain radiated down my leg even as he threw a second strike, then a third, and a forth before the tree finally fell, creaking and cracking as it slid aside just enough to let us pass before getting caught on its neighbors.
<What are you even doing this deep in the forest?> I whimpered, unable to even think clearly through the haze of red and white which consumed my field of view like somepony had tied a rag over my eyes. <Zecora doesn't live anywhere near here.>
“Who?” Dawn asked, my lips turning down slightly.
<Zecora… Her tree house is near Fluttershy’s cottage. We’re at least twenty klicks deeper than where she lives. I’ll take us there. Just please… Stop.. Punching… Trees,> I begged fairly sure that my cracked hoof was going to fall off if it struck anything else.
“Oh yes, the Zebra. I’m not looking for her,” Dawn said simply. “I’m here for someone else. I’m sure you know who, you live next to her after all… Why can’t I see a damn thing? How do you clear your vision?”
<You could fix… Hoof… Before it comes off,> I whimpered.
I felt Dawn try and look at my right hoof, the leg moved, neck turned, but my vision just wasn’t having anything. It was too dark, and I was in too much pain.
“Right, these things are broken!” Dawn said decisively. “I forgot how easily blood pressure could damage eyes… Never thought I’d have to use these things. Just a minute.”
My vision suddenly went completely dark. Something smelled rancid and I felt two lines drip down my face as if I were crying literal buckets. Then the world came back into view.
The same darkness. The same blue glowing moss. The same old gnarled oak trees.
I honestly hadn't expected him to heal me like that. Why would he- Oh. Right. He had to use them too.
As Dawn examined the forest around us, I noticed the weirdest thing. Little objects. They went fuzzy anymore. They were just as sharp as if I were a few meters away from them. The hay?
“I thought I didn’t make pony eyesight that poor! AJ, how you were too stubborn to go see an eye doctor!? Or get a damn potion to correct- ugh!” Dawn snapped, my ears flattening in irritation. “I know you’re not exactly the best person but what the flying- Who does that? I didn’t even make you this stubborn for kicks!”
<C-cuz I am what I am. It ain't natural to-> I tried to retreat into my mind slightly, but Dawn’s rant continued.
“Wow, your first objection is ‘it ain’t natural,'” Dawn shook my head then spat in disgust. “And mortals wonder why I hate you. I don’t hate you; I have no respect for things which are too dumb to get a pair of glasses in a nation which has free healthcare!”
<Yeah, well, it never stopped me doing what I needed to do!> I shot back defensively.
It’s not like I was broken or anything. I just couldn’t read easily. That’s all.
“You really are a stubborn idiot! And here I was just trying to piss you off by saying that…” Dawn groaned. “I hope your stupid doesn't rub off on me…”
I didn’t have anything to say to my tormenter. It’s not like I had to justify anything he said with a real response.
“Right, let’s meet your neighbor who I’m now certain you never met because you’re a full blown stubborn jackass,” Dawn grumbled, rolling his eyes as we finished stepping forwards into…
Into a large glade straight out of a fantasy novel.
The ground dipped down into a natural bowl filled with tall blades of grass and dotted with odd pointed tooth-like rocks jutting up from the depression in the earth. Most of them were small, but some were as big as a pony. The bigger ones were scratched up- No! Carved with odd little sigils and characters.
Most of them were nonsense, but on one stone I could see a small carved bit which looked like Princess Luna’s cutiemark, hundreds of tally marks carved into the stone, and what I swore was a very mangled equish sentence. ‘I miss you, mother.’ Was that it?
That stone had a small lip cut into it, where a few small lit candles burned like some kind of shrine. But before I could examine further Dawn turned my head away.
Fog rolled in thick banks across the ground and trailed up into the air in wisps and moats like the steam coming off a bowl of soup. The blue glowing moss trailed along the ground like a spider’s web, leading down to the very center of the glade where an absolutely huge weeping willow stood like it had been there since there was a there to stand in.
“Everfree? Where the buck is your dry rotting face at?” Dawn called loudly taking extreme care to speak with my exact accent and mannerisms.
<Uh, what are ya’ll expecting to happen?> I asked, mentally rolling my eyes at the bastard who called me an idiot then tried to talk to a forest.
“Get out here! I’m sick of your crap! Making off with my fence, growing in close to the farm. You’re mine now, ya hear!?” Dawn shouted, ignoring me completely while turning to glare around the glade as he walked into it.
Wait a minute… Did something just move around the base of the willow?
<Ah, good eye. I didn’t notice that,> Dawn thanked silently.
“I see you there! I know what you are, I know how you work, and I’m going to be controlling this place from now on. Unless you want to cooperate,” Dawn said, pointing one hoof at the base of the willow tree.
Something at the base of the tree stirred. An actual pile of sticks, moss, and leaves drifted upwards sliding across itself and crunching into a pony-ish shape as two bright green points of light lit within the effigies skull.
The points of light narrowed, glaring up at us darkly. “I let you come because you are Fluttershy’s friend. Because you hurt yourself so badly to get here. Do you think you will ever leave me, or move any closer to my heart now that I know your intentions?” The stick-pony asked in a dry, raspy voice.
If I had control of my eyes, they would have become large as dinner plates. <What the buck is->
<That’s the Everfree. It’s alive. All of it. One single entity with a mind. Luna made it during that whole Nightmare phase of hers. You’d know that if you paid attention to the forest, It’s not like she doesn't do things,> Dawn informed smugly.
“Oh please, like I’d come here to kick you out if I didn’t think I could do it,” Dawn mocked. “All I need to do is climb inside that tree behind you, and then all of you is mine to do whatever I want with.”
I saw the stick pony's eyes widen in honest fear for a split second, before shrinking down to enraged slits.
“Your kind eats my grass, cuts down my trees and carts off my remains to make your homes. Some are different. Some do not prey upon me. I thought you weren't a predator, pony. I am not like my peers, I am not defenseless,” it hissed, ears falling flat. “I like Fluttershy. She is kind, even to me. Because she would be sad if you fell and I let the worms living within me feast upon you… You may leave right now, and never return.”
“Buck off, ya sack of dead sticks! This forest is mine now,” Dawn laughed mockingly.
<Uh,> I stammered fearfully as I noticed something moving at the very edge of my peripheral vision. <That’s probably not the best id->
Seven timberwolves exploded from holes dug into the massive trees at the edge of the glade behind me. Chunks of bark hit my flanks hard enough to leave bloody trails as the monsters burst from recessed ‘lockers’ dug into the wood. Their fiery eyes blazed with the same rage stamped on the stick pony's face. Their fangs dripped pitch. Their green vapor filled breath oozed from between their razor-like teeth.
The monsters howled hungrily. The Stick pony’s ears fell sadly, but the rest of its face kept the same enraged look.
It’s anger was… fake? What? Yeah, it wasn't mad, it was afraid. Just like a rabbit being stared down by a chimaera.
<Hehe, stupid thing! It has no idea what an earth pony bound to trees can do to it,> Dawn giggled like a school age filly.
I had just enough time to wonder how my plant nurturing aura would effect a living thinking forest before Dawn reared up and thrust both hooves outwards to our sides in a single sharp motion. Immediately I felt magic stir deep within me, slowly, sluggishly, like it had never been used. It wasn’t Dawn’s strange power, not that vague tingle, this was an electric jolt that distinctly came from me.
Two of the timberwolves responded to that jolt, the branches forming their bodies twisting and locking together into a solid ball of tangled wood. Their startled yelps instantly cut off as Dawn gave my legs a second flick, ripping the branches apart and sending them streaking into the other Timberwolves like a hundred crude spears.
<Do you have any idea how much work it took to make you guys forget you had an active form of magic, just like the other pony kinds?> Dawn asked silently with a hint of honest curiosity. <It’s probably some of my best work, but I forgot to keep track of how long it took. I always seek to improve you see.>
The remaining wolves yelped and screeched as their own branches were forced apart. The stick pony's eyes widened in terror as Dawn sprinted at it, mouth stretched into a savage smile. He lunged, it ducked, Dawn landed behind it and kept moving, running straight for the tree.
Countless barbed vines shot up from the ground, slicing through the fog and striking me all across my body with whip-like cracks. They wrapped tightly around my shoulders, waist, and legs, digging in deep. It would have hurt if I hadn't just punched down a kilometer of trees. This pain was nothing compared to that.
Then my hips cracked, popped, and snapped out of their sockets.
Blinding pain exploded from the mangled joints. I scarcely noticed as the vines jerked to a halt, turned us around and set me down in a hollow spot inside the tree.
“Y-you broke your own hips!” The stick-pony stammered in shock and horror.
“Sure did! Couldn’t move enough to control your silly little vines with them in one piece, now could I?” Dawn asked, twisting my lips into a savage grin.
“You’re insane!” The stick pony whimpered, backing up as its oakleaf ears flattened and its glowing moss tail raised fearfully.
Dawn sighed, resting my face against the flat of my left hoof. “Really? That cliche? Ugh…”
The stick pony continued to back up. I saw a few twigs fall from its belly, then some leaves dropped from its flank. It was slowly disintegrating. That must be why nothing else was attacking.
Dawn merely sitting here prevented the forest from being more than… That. And even it’s Timberwolf-like body was dying.
<I’m sorry! I never meant any harm. I’m sorry,> I apologize, hoping that just maybe the Everfree could hear me.
“Now then, since I’m in contact with your so called ‘brain stem’ I th- Wait… Your heart, it should be here! What did you do with it!?” Dawn roared, leaning forward aggressively.
“My heart is already somepony else's possession, and you’ll never take it from them,” the Everfree said with smug grin. “You will not command my trees for long. I will watch as the Hydras I house feed on your corpse and laugh!”
“I’m glad this hurts you,” Dawn said spitting at the stick-pony.
This time I felt it. The small line of control snaking from him, through me and into the weeping willow tree. He was forcing her avatar to rot.
Her? That was a she?
<Yeah, like I said, Nightmare Moon made that thing as a last ditch effort to kill Celestia before being banished. She also happened to want a filly at the same time. This happened. Dream Magic really isn’t something anyone should mess with. Now if you’ll excuse me, this cunt has pissed me off,> Dawn mentally growled.
“Burn!” He snapped, teeth cracking shut into a wrathful grimace.
A burst of dark energy lashed out from my barrel and sliced a line down the stick-pony. Her crude stick eyes widened in terror and then clenched in pain as the twigs making up her body smoldered, then burst into flame.
<Do me a favor and bleed onto the tree as much as possible will you? It’s a dark magic ritual thing,> Dawn asked as he watched the wooden pony scream in terror and swat at the flames, only spreading them the parts she swatted with.
He was elated and amused. I couldn’t process how or why anything could be this cruel.
The screams accompanying the collapse of the stick and moss pile stuck in my mind. Refusing to leave even minutes after they stopped. They hung inside me as the charcoal pile she left behind smoldered, singeing the moss around it.
<You didn’t need to do that… She was going to leave! You heard her!> I snapped angrily. <How dare you kill somepony just for making you mad!>
Dawn narrowed my eyes, flicked a hoof and tapping into the pool of magic I had never known was mine, animated one of the vines holding my body up, making it pick up a rock and place it in my hoof. A second flick and another vine snaked out and picked up a second rock, putting it into my other hoof.
Dawn calmly smashed one rock into the other, causing a large portion to flake off from the rock in my left hoof. I had just enough time to realize he was making a stone knife before he finished putting a crude jagged edge on one side of the rock.
“Oops,” he said with a smirk. “How clumsy of me.”
Then he licked the edge of the stone, slicing my tongue in half down the middle as slowly as he could possibly have done.
<That was fun! You should insult me again sometime,> Dawn said silently while I did my best to ignore the burning which engulfed my mouth. <Now, it’s time to turn this forest into a wall cutting off Ponyville from Equestria. This will take quite a while. Hmmm, yes. I can think of a few things to do to pass the time.>
I felt myself begin to pass out. My hips, tongue, the cuts all over my body. It was too much.
<You know, I think I like having a forked tongue. Let’s keep that,> Dawn mused thoughtfully. <Humm… I’ll need somepony sitting here and somepony to go contact my cultists and lead them here.
<Where did you say that Zebra lived again? Oh yes! Your hips, heh. Let me fix those up for you. I have some ideas for… Improvements.>
The world vanished as I lost consciousness.
Twilight Sparkle (Alpha) - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH
Castle of Friendship, Ponyville - Equestria
I could see the shattered remains of the rift drifting through the air. The remains were very very faint, and extremely far flung. That shockwave would have thrown most of the rift beyond my reach, but if I could gather enough of the thaumaturgic current, and the other me was willing to help give it some juice maybe we could spark the thing back into operation and-
My ears twitched as a wooden door creaked open.
“What exploded? Oh buck!” Someone shouted, the higher buzzing pitch in the voice marking them as a changeling female.
I turned my head to look, cursing the lack of my left eye.
Interesting. A changeling Queen, fairly young looking. White shell, long silvery mane, and tail… And an odd coat of moth-like fluff. This is why I loved having that cybernetic eye. I would have been able to scan her and work out why she had the fluff, or if she was merely shape changed.
Too bad I had to rip it out to avoid being used as a skin suit by a psychopath.
“Um, so…” The Queen stammered slowly. “Eyepatch Twilight, who are you?”
“I’ll explain myself later,” I answered bluntly. “I’m trying to save lives. Can you help reopen a rift? That truck destroyed it.”
“Um, Twilight,” this universe's Twilight said hesitantly from behind me. “There isn’t enough of that rift left to repair it.”
I looked back at the current, straining my arcane sense as much as I could. It was starting to disintegrate.
“Not with that attitude, no,” I agreed gritting my teeth in concentration.
I could do this! I had to do this! Everypony on the other side was counting on me!
I felt my horn began to heat up as I pushed excess magic into it. A few bits of the shattered spell twitched, slid, and flowed back together. Yes! I could do it! I could fix this-
The section of the rift I was repairing suddenly burned bright green-gold in the visible spectrum,and exploded with a sharp crack like a vacuum tube popping.
“BUCK YOU TOO, YOU MOTHERBUCKING VAGINAL PARASITE OF A SPELL!” I cursed, ears laying flat and lips peeling back in pure rage as the rest of the matrix self-destructed.
I failed. Again.
Why? Why had I been cursed with so much failure over the last forty-eight hours? Grogar returning, could I stop him? No. I was twenty minutes too late. Save Applebloom and Sweetie Belle from the insane AI whose plan to save everypony was killed them all and flash clone them later on another planet with heavily altered personas? Nope, too late.
Save Celestia, Luna, my brother and everypony else from total molecular disintegration at the end of the world?
No.
I fell to my knees. “Their all dead… I’ve failed. I’m a horrible leader,” I lamented, doing my best to hold back the tears.
Which is easy to do when you only have one tear duct.
“Shit!” Rainbow cursed. “Trix, we have humans in here! Did anypony bring med-”
“Twilight can’t reopen the portal!” Scootaloo called, the vox on her helmet making her voice into a deep bass rumble.
“Well aware, which means they are all dead. We can’t help them, but we can help these people,” Dash called back. “Other Twilight! Our atmosphere was poisonous to this species, they need help fast!”
I’m so sorry everypony… So sorry.
“They are from the mirror, they should be ponies,” this universe's me said oddly. “Ah! The truck has the zinc plated metal! It would have shielded them from magic while passing through the portal which means-”
“Which means you have humans breathing radon gas,” I said, standing back up.
Dash was right. People were in danger here. Save the living. It’s the way of war. I’d finish grieving later.
I turned and looked at the smaller black cargo vehicle. A rather crude design. Very utility based.
“I know a protection charm,” I said, blinking the tears out of my eye. “I can help.”
“I’m a fully equipped medical unit, I can treat them,” the robotic Fluttershy volunteered.
That would be a much better option. Three wars, this last disaster, the literal end of my world… And I never learned a healing spell. Heh. I’m an idiot sometimes.
“What the fuck!? I thought I’d be a pony on this side!” An angry female voice suddenly shouted from inside the vehicle.
I frowned, she was conscious? Good! She’d just gotten twenty-two ponies killed!
NO! Bad Twilight, that’s not something she could have known. It’s not her fault, and you will not resent any of those people for the accident.
This world’s Twilight trotted over to the left side window and reared up to peek inside. Her face immediately contorting into an annoyed yet blank expression.
“Celestia damn it, Lyra! Do you have any idea what you just did!?” She demanded.
Lyra? A Human Lyra? Ha! I felt a smile part my life for a brief second. Okay, thank you universe, I needed that.
Fluttershy’s ears and tail perked in alarm. The robot rushed over to the other side window and peeked in. “Lyra! Are you okay? What are you doing in- Oh,” her ears drooped in embarrassment, and I imagined she was blushing behind her armor plating. Her chassis looked organic enough to do that after all. “Um… Sorry! Wrong Lyra.”
Rainbow and I shared a look of grim irritation. This was going to get confusing, and fast!
“Uh, hi, really cool pony... Robot,” Lyra said slowly before turning back to face Twilight. “Twilight, I’m sorry, really sorry. It sounds like I hit somepony. But you NEED to break that mirror, or turn it off, or something! The whole damn army is about to surround our end of the portal!”
I turned my head and spotted a broken mirror attached to a large amount of crudely thrown together arcane equipment. That had to be the portal’s frame, based on the truck’s angle. I ripped the mirror from the machinery with a quick pulse of my magic, then tossed the broken mirror into an empty corner of the room.
“Right,” I said firmly as everypony looked at me in shock. “No more dimensional crap today. Twenty-two ponies already died. No more. Not today.”
“Umm… That’s odd,” Fluttershy murmured. “Everypony, they are okay. They can breathe here just fine. They have the same adaptations to the environment as a pony and um… S-seeing as how I’m dating a human. Um, no offense, Lyra, but you’re not human. At least not the kind I know. Not with the internal organs you have. Do you have subspecies?”
“What’s wrong with my insides?” Came the fear laden reply.
“Well,” the robot stated more firmly. “You’re internal anatomy is more along the lines of a dragon’s. Two hearts, two livers, and-”
“That’s normal,” Lyra grunted. “What I want to know is why I didn’t turn into a pony when going through the- Oh shit! Pinkie, Rarity, are you girls alright?”
Faust’s bones this was a clusterbuck…
“They’re unconscious but alive,” Fluttershy answered. “Twilight, can you please move them someplace comfortable? Be gentle, they have concussions. I’ll fix them up.”
“That’s a great idea!” I replied, not knowing which of us she was talking to. “Then we can sort out exactly what the buck is going on here. Sound good to everypony?”
“That’s… Yeah, that’s going to be for the best,” Twilight and the changeling Queen said in unison.
The next ten minutes became rather chaotic. Fluttershy helped Lyra remove her friends from the vehicle. Some cots were brought in for them to be set on while their various injuries were attended too. Nothing major, just shock and a concussion each.
I made a note of how much healing tech was worked into this universe's Fluttershy, or at least, this equid version of her. I was a bit curious as to why and how she existed, but I had other things filling my mind. So much destruction, so much death.
How was I still functioning? Was it merely the need to go on? Some biological imperative? No. No, it had to be more than that. Perhaps because they would all want me to go on living?
I was no stranger to survivor’s guilt, but when your family and you are the only ponies to survive the total destruction of your home… I didn’t know how to deal with this.
I could have ordered anypony to take point. I didn’t have to select our best fighters. They just so happened to be my wives and our adopted daughter. I could have picked anypony else. I-
“Okay, everyone is conscious!” Fluttershy announced happily. “Would you two girls please just sit tight? There’s a bit of a confusing mess going on right now. We need to sort it out.”
“What kind of mess?” The humanoid resembling Rarity asked fearfully.
“Uh, it looks like we literally drove into a cross dimensional... Clusterfuck. Yeah, I’m going with clusterfuck,” Lyra decided with a nod.
“Pfft,” Dash snorted, rolling her eyes. “Do you really have to swear like a little filly? This is an actual clusterbuck. Don’t downgrade it.”
I sighed and shook my head. “Yeah, okay, no. Each group here is choosing somepony to speak for them just so we can keep this orderly. We all want to know where we are and what everypony else is doing, let’s work it out efficiently. Please,” I begged closing my eyes right.
Well, eye. I really needed to get used to just having the one…
The Changeling Queen cleared her throat. “Well, Twilight how about you speak for this universe?”
“I’m not from this universe, how can I speak for it?” I asked reflexively, before facehooving as I realized she meant the other Twilight in the room.
“How about you go by Sparkle? Just to alleviate the confusion,” Twilight asked me with an embarrassed blush.
“Well, Trixie does sometime call her Sparky,” Trixie mused with a light blush.
Yeah. In bed. But they didn’t need to know that.
“Sparkle works. At least your Rainbow Dash isn’t here,” I said shaking my head as I imagined the two of them having a race to see who gets what name.
“Yeah, this is confusing enough,” Twilight agreed with a nod. “Um, you seem to be sort of, military. Since you’re the apparent CO, Sparkle, will you be speaking for your group?”
“Well, my title as Arch-Battlemage is kinda meaningless. End of the world and all that,” I muttered, looking down at the floor.
“Yeah, she speaks for us,” Dash said adamantly. “Twi- uh, Spark, we’re still here. We really need to make a decision here as a group. Your title still matters. This is your responsibility.”
“True enough, Dash,” I agreed after a moment’s thought. “Right then, I’ll represent us.”
“Uh, I guess I’ll speak for us,” Lyra said a second later.
“Um, do I count as part of Twilight’s group, or my own group?” Fluttershy asked with a timid droop of her ears.
Twilight brought a hoof up to her lips for a moment before nodding to herself. “Well, you’ve been here for two and a half weeks now. I’d say you’re still your own group, Fluttershy,” she decided.
I frowned slightly. Well, this was interesting. A four-way dimensional intersection. This had to be some sort of record, even by Ponyville standards.
“Alright,” I said with a nod to everypony. “I’ll start. My group and I were attempting to escape our universe. It’s endin- It ended. It's a very long story. Suffice to say the gates of Tartarus literally opened up, demons poured forth, and their leader decided to do something which caused the entire world to actually disintegrate.
“Our Celestia, Luna, myself, those you see here, and eighteen others managed to shield ourselves from the effects for a time. Long enough to open the rift you saw, Twilight, and hope to cross into your dimension.
“I did not know this was a parallel world, I’d discovered that another universe brushed very closely against our own months ago, but due to trying to prevent the Tartarian invasion, and being ordered to do a cultural exchange with the Emerald Hive I was unable to study it.
“I did not mean to come across as hostile. We had no idea what lay on the other side of the rift. From our end, it was blocked off by a hologram of a stallion in a pillow fort. No joke. I had to actually tunnel around that… I presume your Discord did it.
“I suppose I should introduce everypony. I’m Twilight, calling me Spark while I am here is a good option to keep things neat and tidy. I’m certain you know Rainbow Dash, who will need to sort things out with your own universe's Rainbow ASAP. You may or may not know Trixie Lulamoon-”
Twilight giggled and flashed everypony a quick smile. “I know LOTS of Trixies,” she snickered playfully. “You have no idea!”
Trixie blushed slightly. “What do you mean?” She asked, brushing a lock of her mane out of her eyes.
Twilight pursed her lips and hummed. “Uh, well, very long story short, our universe's Trixie is a clone, and they made a lot of copies of her. The majority of which are serving as my Guard regiment and Ponyville’s police force. The original one is married to a changeling who lives, amusingly enough, with the Emerald Hi-”
I felt my heart nearly leap out of my chest. “For the love of all that you hold dear, we need to go there right now and rip that ship’s AI core out of it before it kills us all!” I screamed.
Twilight blinked in confusion, her mouth pulling into a frown.
“Trust me,” Scoots said, shifting her weight inside her armor. “She may seem nice, but all she is doing is lying and manipulating you into helping her by making you think you were helping her. Unless your universe's is different…”
“The Phoenix's AI was decommissioned a long time ago,” Fluttershy said quickly and clearly. “I live there too. I asked Sky about it, because in my home universe ours is very nice and a good person. I got to see her code fragments and um… Well, it’s alright now. It’s perfectly safe.”
I slumped down with a relieved sigh. “Good! Good… Um, sorry if that makes it seem like I have any stigma against synths, Shy,” I apologised giving her a sincere smile. “I don’t. That particular person was going to turn me into a skin suit so she could convince everypony that she was on the level.”
“Yikes!” Shy yelped, ears falling flat.
Twilight’s wince looked like it might have tore a muscle in her face. Is that what I looked like when I winced? Wow.
“I um, I thought you guys were like, medieval,” Lyra said shyly from the side.
Twilight looked at her and shook her head. “No, not remotely. Our world’s are fairly comparable in technological advancement. It’s just that we tend to prefer traditional designs and hide our more advanced stuff inside them. And well, we have magic. It negates the need for a lot of technologies.
“The Emeralds live inside a huge wrecked spacecraft they have been repairing for generations. Their tech is about oh… Six hundred years ahead of us, if you combine our magic and machinery into one umbrella of ‘technology’. Maybe a bit more. Depends on our own rate of advancement.”
“Oh. Well, cool!” Lyra said with a happy grin, her yellow eyes seeming to twinkle.
I smiled. I still got a giggle out of seeing a human-ish Lyra. Too bad she couldn’t see this… Poor girl. She didn’t deserve that.
“Alright,” I said with a comfortable nod. “Well, Trix, you’ll need to work out a name then.”
“Oh there’s no need!” Twilight said rather quickly. “Most of ours prefer going by their serial numbers or have made up their own names. The only one going by Trixie is the original and she lives hundreds of kilometers away from here.”
Trixie nodded and adjusted her cape slightly. “It’s not going to be a problem, even if we do meet. Unless of course, she can do this!” Trixie exclaimed as she flicked her hoof and produced a deck of cards seemingly from nowhere, spreading them out in a perfect fan.
The changeling Queen tilted her head and frowned. ‘But… But there wasn’t any thaumaturgic current!” She protested.
Dash and I laughed. Shaking my head with a smile I shrugged. “I don’t know how she does that either… But come to think of it, you did say you’d tell me after the end of the world. Which just happened.”
Trix’s ears drooped sadly. “Y-yes. Trixie did. She’ll show you later. But… You won't be able to do it too,” she explained.
“Um so, what’s with your big robot? Some kind of war machine you picked up in the Hive?” Twilight asked me curiously.
“Heh,” Scoots laughed. “Yeah, I guess I would look like a robot if you didn’t know this was armor. I’m a pony. I um, I just can’t take this off. Not authorised.”
Everypony winced.
“Yeah…” Scoots grumbled.
“They have an Emerald Hive. We’ll get that thing cut off you as soon as we can. Right after this if possible,” I promised, giving her the most serious look I could manage in my current emotional state.
“Thanks, mom,” she sighed happily.
“She’s been in there for a week,” I explained to the jaw dropped Twilight.
“She’s your filly, and you haven't gotten her out of that, in a WEEK!?” Twilight demanded, shaking her head incredulously.
“Go ahead and try, the damn thing is so magic resistant I can’t do anything to it,” I grumbled irritably. “We’ll see if your Emeralds have a plasma drill and get her cut out asap. But for now… Can we have somepony else do their thing?”
Twilight nodded to herself. “Yes. I’ll go. Princess Twilight Sparkle, at your service,” she said in greeting. “In light of um, well, your refugee status, I’ll grant you citizenship here. But Princess Celestia will need to hear all of this again.
“The Changeling to my left is Queen Jade of Diamonds, she’s my best friend and Ancient Changelish Tutor. You’ll be happy to know that there is no world ending threat in sight. Meaning whatever other differences there are between our worlds, we haven't had any signs of anything like that.”
“Any legends of an all powerful warlord named Grogar?” I asked carefully, not wanting to say his name too many times.
Twilight shook her head. “No. Never heard of anyone by that name. Perhaps he never existed here.”
That would be awesome. Like, genuinely awesome.
I’d have to search for myself though. Just to be certain. If he was here, he was dead.
“That about sums things up for us… Lyra, would you care to go?” Twilight asked as she turned towards the minty haired humanoid.
“Sure,” she said, accepting the metaphorical baton pass. “So um, my friends and I were Sunset Shimmer’s old friends. You know, before the pony one replaced her? Yeah. Anyways, our Sunset got a letter to us roughly when you came through the mirror Twi-”
“How!? She died!” Twilight objected, eyes scrunching in confusion.
Lyra shook her head. “No. She’s fine. I wrote to her last week,” she corrected.
“Cadence said when she searched the lab all she found was a broken tank of Lye in the book disposal room,” Twilight objected. “As well as a big mound of half processed soap. Unless your species can survive acid that strong by shedding their skin-”
“Trust me, she’s alive. I’ve been getting letters. She’s fine,” Lyra said adamantly. “Anyways, she invited us to come visit… And we kept blowing it off because we were afraid that you would just send us back through the mirror-”
“I’d never do that!” Twilight objected, holding one hoof up in incredulity. “I just said not to come without sending a note through a month in advance!”
The three girls exchanged a look, nodded and then looked back at Twilight. “Yeah that never happened,” Lyra firmly disagreed, shaking her head slowly. “Anyways, last night your wards around the portal wore off, some kid stumbled in while livestreaming video, people thought it was a hoax. Then some other kid came through, stole something, used the clearly alien device to prove that your world is real, and I caught wind of the military's plan to evacuate and lock down all of Ponyville.
“So I had to come here to warn you of that before they decided to send troops through to scout the other side out. Since it was the last possible chance we had to visit Sunset, I asked if Pinkie and Rarity wanted to come. They did, we know it’s unlikely we will get to go back, we’re here anyways… So uh, once we figure out why none of us transformed into ponies coming through the portal, if you can help me get my truck outside, we’ll be out of your hair. Okay?”
“Your truck is covered in zinc, or some other substance that’s extremely resistant to thaumaturgic current,” I explained with smile. “You basically drove through the spell effect in a massive Faraday cage. Um, you know that electrical term, right?”
Lyra nodded. “I do… Shit. We won’t fit in here like this. Um, anypony here know any transformation magic?” She asked hopefully.
I nodded. “Yeah, but it will wear off in a week and you’d look like a dragon for that whole time.”
Also I’d learned the spell from a scroll bought at a sex shop that time Dash wanted to try out a dragoness… Meaning she’d be a sexualized version of a dragoness. But now wasn’t the time to mention that.
“That’s a problem Doctor Lily can solve. He’ll be able to turn you back when I get the mirror fixed and you want to leave… Also um, your Sunset clearly doesn't want to be known about here. I’ll keep my mouth shut. But, can she please write a letter to our Sunset? The poor girl thinks she committed equinslaughter and uh, she kind of can’t comeback here because if she does she will be arrested for that crime when she reenters Equestrian jurisdiction.”
“Oh! Well shit,” Lyra exclaimed with a frown. “Yeah, we’ll take care of that.”
“So um, that leaves me, right?” Fluttershy asked politely.
I just noticed that she had on a little green hoodie with a pink heart on the barrel and a dog collar on. It looked cute, but on the other hoof...
My eyes narrowed slightly as I took in the collar. “Twilight… That collar. She’s not your slave, is she?” I asked, ears folding back slightly.
Fluttershy blinked in surprise. Twilight’s eyes widened in horror. “N-no! I mean she’s just a machine but I wouldn’t own, I mean, she can think clearly but-”
“Wow, I’m a racist here. Cool,” I grumbled to myself.
“It’s fine, as far as I can tell I’m the first synthetic life form that she’s seen,” Fluttershy admitted with a slightly sad kick of one hoof. “The collar is um, my girlfriend and I like a certain kind of role playing. Also, it holds an RFID tag that works as my door key.”
Dash giggled and held out a hoof for her to bump. “Nice!” She said with a playful wink.
To our surprise Fluttershy returned the hoof bump with a very un-Fluttershy smile. “Thanks! I um… Yeah, not many ponies seem to be accepting of- Um, never mind.”
Interesting. She was far less timid than ours. She looked to merely be an introvert and have light social anxiety. You know, instead of needing antipsychotics and coping therapy for sciophobia.
Shy took a deep breath, her body actually seeming to breathe rather than just her making the sound.
“I’m from a parallel universe to this one, it’s the root universe. You can see it here,” she said as a small plate on her shoulder retracted, allowing a hologram projector to display a large floating map.
At least, I assumed it was a map. The projection showed fifteen spheres orbiting two central nested spheres along semi-random vectors. Something like an atom, only with the electron orbitals much more random. One of the outer spheres was highlighted.
“This is a map of our multiverse. It may not be complete, but it’s accurate for every place listed. We’re in the outer central ‘sphere’ right now,” Shy explained.
“Wait a minute, the only two that are touching right now are those center two, meaning we had to come from the center most sphere!” I exclaimed in sudden realization.
Maybe there was still hope! Maybe I could save them.
Shy’s ears perked happily. “Oh! W-well then there’s good news for you! Um, your universe is in a time loop. Sky worked out why it looks to be flickering on the map. It’s cycling through about five years of time in an endless repeating cycle. Maybe you could get back in one day and change how things end?”
I nodded. “I will certainly try. We’ll talk later sorry for interrupting. Dash, Trix, remind me to talk to her later… Also Shy, how do you know all this?”
“My girlfriend and I are Travelers,” she answered immediately. “There are a few hundred, maybe a thousand or two people who travel between universes as well, a tourism or adventure thing. Funnily enough, I’m dating one of the Lyras. Hehe! Sorry! I just imagined Bonbon learning that there are three of them here now!
“Uh- Anyways, we use arcanotech devices to hop between universes. Lyra was badly hurt when she arrived in my universe and had to spend time recovering there. We met, hit things off and after a month well... She had to move on, but I loved her, so I came with her.
“My home universe was hit by an arcane plague. It killed all organic life on our planet. Even the bacteria. Except for Doctor Trigger who hasn’t told anypony how he survived it… Yes, I know you’re thinking that he caused the plague. He did not. We checked. It looks like our planet drifted into some weird patch of the thaumaturgic field and well, we were extremely unlucky.
“Doctor Trigger was lonely, and had a lot of time on his hooves, so he tried to remake everypony the only way he could, being a roboticist. He um, went a little crazy… And we’re the results. He actually managed to make mechanical bodies and minds so good that he was able to resurrect us into them. He’s kept the process very secret.
“Sooo, yes. I’m an equoid now. And I’m not just programed to think I’m the original Fluttershy. I have memories of things that happened when I’m alone. I have the holes in my memory I recall having before becoming this, and changelings can feed off me so-”
“You’re a consciousness transfer,” I said with a little squee of delight.
“Exactly!” Shy agreed.
Wait a moment… My eyes narrowed as I turned to glare at Twilight. “You called her just a machine, and she’s a motherbucking consciousness transfer! What’s wrong with you!?” I demanded.
Her ears drooped awkwardly. “W-well she’s a robot! Ponies aren't made of metal.”
“Half my brain is metal, I’m still a pony. It’s not the body that matters it’s what’s in it!” I accused.
“Sparkle, it’s fine. Not everyone will think the same about things,” Shy said, switching off the projection.
“It’s not fine, I'm a racist!” I grumbled irritably.
Twilight looked at me angrily, her mouth opening to say something only to be interrupted as a cyan blur of light exploded into the room, literally tackling her to the ground. A slightly more muscular Rainbow Dash materialized from the streak of light.
“Twi,” she exclaimed in a frightened voice, her eyes widening. “I’m sorry I knocked you over, but Applejack’s gone missing, and I can’t find her anywhere in Ponyville! Big Mac and I searched the orchard, and we found her cart abandoned and-”
“How the buck did you move that fast!?” My Dash exclaimed in honest shock.
“W-what?” The newly arrived Rainbow asked as she looked up to see herself. “Ah, hay! Twilight, did you buck up time? If you accidently sent AJ into the past, I am going to be so pissed!”
“Four-way dimensional crossover clusterbuck,” I grunted. “As far as I know, our arriving here didn’t displace anypony.”
“And how did you move that fast! I’ve never seen you do that!” Twilight asked, squirming out from under Rainbow.
“I, um…” Rainbow rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. “I promised I wouldn’t tell anypony how I do that and you’re really smart, so I figured you’d work it out if you saw me do it… Besides, I like to take in the scenery. Mach two is a good speed for that… But seriously, AJ’s missing. We had a date night, and SHE was late. And she’s not in Ponyville. I checked everywhere on the way here.”
Huh, their AJ and Dash hooked up? Wierd. Dash and I shared a look, both of us clearly wondering why these versions of ourselves hadn't gotten hitched.
“Go get everypony else,” Twilight said decisively. “This is probably like the time she left because she lost a rodeo. We’ll see if she bought a train ticket or if any of the patrols spotted her on the road. If not, we’ll assume that something attacked her and dragged her into the Everfree. It wouldn’t be the first time timberwolves got into her farm. Meet me back here in ten-”
Twilight was cut off as the room filled with bright gold light. Gold light that I knew as Celestia’s magic.
Their world’s Celestia materialized in an instant. Looking every inch like the one I’d just seen facing certain death and lost. Including the blind panic stamped across her features.
“Twilight!” She exclaimed in panic, grabbing her by the shoulders firmly. “Did you feel the shockwave? The Elements of Harmony broke and-”
Celestia paused as she noticed me, as well as the two Dash’s, the three mirror world humans,and the pickup truck.
“Ah… Okay, well…” The alabaster alicorn sighed, letting go of Twilight’s shoulders. “That explains it. Which one of you two completely mangled the fabric of the universe using the Elements power so hard that it broke them from the stress?”
“They, BROKE!?” The Dashs exclaimed together, ears standing upright in alarm.
“Yes, they did. How did you not sense… Probably the residual magic in the air from the thaumaturgic pulse,” Celestia muttered to herself.
I cleared my throat. “Um, well I was using my universe's Elements to make an escape tunnel… Then those three drove through the portal in a zinc plated vehicle. So this is primarily my fault. I apologize… And to be fair, I did not know they could be damaged, eh heh...” I replied, ears drooping apologetically as my face twisted into a bashful smile.
Celestia looked at Twilight. Twilight nodded firmly. “That’s exactly what happened.”
“Well,” Celestia sighed slowly. “Twilight one, Twilight two, come with me. We need to figure out the best plan for getting them repaired… Knowing how they were made in the first place, let me warn you, it will NOT be easy.
“Jade, please keep the rest of everyone here for now. Once we have a plan for going forwards, I’ll work out whatever is to be done here with… This mess.”
The changeling nodded and then gave Celestia a salute. “Yes, Ma’am! Oh um, these three wanted to see Lily so they could blend in… Can I get Spike to watch everypony and have them taken care of? The mirror is broken, they can’t go home yet.”
Celestia nodded. “That’s fine, but they are to come back here once you’ve been taken care of. Now, Twilight's, come on. We have to figure out how to find a probably dead person, gather up exotic ingredients from across all of Equis, and work out if-”
“AJ’s missing!” Dash blurted suddenly.
Celestia groaned. “Annnd we have to do all that without Honesty. Great… Dash, I’ll get a search and rescue team looking for her. Because we need her. Badly. Eyepatch Twilight, you owe me a cake. A big cake.”
“That’s fair,” I agreed meekly. “Uh, I’ve decided to go by Sparkle. For clarity’s sake.”
“Well then, Sparkle, you owe me an immense cake. Banana Cream, at least my own size, preferably larger,” Celestia repeated. “Come on, let’s go. This isn’t for anypony’s ears but us.”
Well, at least I screwed up less than I thought I did. Fix this mess you made, Twi, and then see about saving everypony back home.
Tidying things up here shouldn’t be too difficult.
Pattern Steel’s Forge, Ponyville - Equestria
18th of Megan, 17 EoH
Next to the Everfree Forest, deep beneath the ground in a warm, dry, well-furnished cave, behind a vault door, one would find the home of Pattern Steel. And what a lovely home it was. Polished walls made from natural stone, but hoof quarried into smooth surfaces, with the notable decorative feature of a natural gold vein left in the wall as a sort of decoration.
It was a proper batpony home, half fortress, half luxury living space, all stone save for metal worked into elegantly designed fixtures and appliances to provide all of the modern conveniences, deep underground in a nice, safe feeling bed of hard rock. The reclusive thestral who owned it was one of the finest craftsponies in all of Equestria, as distinguished by her title of ‘Royal Armourer.'
Despite the noonday sun hanging overhead, Pattern lay in her bed, curled up in a ball beneath a large fluffy quilt atop her hoof made bed. Unlike most batponies, she had a few recessive genetic traits, which included a nocturnal sleep cycle. Noon to a normal pony was midnight for her.
The rust colored batpony squirmed uneasily in her bed, her short, dark purplish black mane tangling as she moved about in the grips of a nightmare, mumbling to the empty room.
“No… Too many… Too much talking… Stop… Leave me alone…” She whimpered.
Few ponies would consider a dream about attending a small birthday party populated by fifteen ponies a nightmare, but for Pattern, it certainly was a torment.
While she lay in the grips of her nightmare, the small rock garden set inside a large cut out section of the wall on her bed’s left hoof side began to stir. The dark red bloodwood spheroid which formed the garden’s centerpiece pulsed with a deep green light. The darker parts of the wood grain, slowly gaining a consistent ghostly glow. The light mixing with the blue glowing moss set in the back of the garden to form a turquoise color.
Around the shaped stones and uncut crystals, small bits of smooth sanded wood formed little patterns, decorations between each stone. As the bloodwood sphere pulsed, the small, lovingly shaped pieces of wood slid over one another, greenish yellow flecks of magic pulling on each individual piece as if a thousand strings were pulling each of them to the sphere, burying it within the center of their collective mass.
The wood clattered over the stones and clicked against each other as they formed a mass around the sphere. A mass which became a pony’s barrel, wooden, but lovingly carved, sanded, and stained a beautiful mahogany color. In a matter of moments, the pieces finished flowing together, forming what could best be described as a lovingly and passionately carved wooden statue of the world’s most beautiful mare.
As a final touch, the moss peeled away from the garden’s back wall, forming a short but neatly cut mane and a long, flowing tail for the wooden mare before she blinked, the tiny wooden bits around her eyes sliding across one another to accommodate the expression with ease.
The wooden mare rushed to the bed the second her body finished assembling, moving for all the world as smoothly and gracefully as a flesh and blood creature would have. Gently laying her forehooves on the sleeping bat pony, the wooden mare shook her urgently, her face frozen in an expression of pure terror.
“Pattern! Pattern, wake up! Please,” she begged with a whimper.
The Batpony’s eyes snapped open as she was touched, panic dilating her bright orange eyes into slits until she spotted the wooden mare standing over her. Then their fearful gaze softened into a happy one, though they kept some of the urgency within them.
“Everfree? Urk… It’s two twenty-five… OH NO! Are you on fire!?” Pattern asked, sitting bolt upright as she realized how distraught the other ‘pony’ looked.
“I-I was…” Everfree whimpered.
Pattern pulled her marefriend tightly against her chest with a hug so tight that it would have broken a normal pony’s ribs. Thankfully the wooden body she had sculpted for Everfree could take the compressive force of a batpony smith’s hug. But only just barely.
“It’s okay, you’re with me. Nothing will happen to your heart here, love. What happened?” Pattern asked trying to be soothing as she could. “Lightning?”
“Applejack’s gone insane, or, or, maybe it’s a changeling impersonating her. I don't know she, it, had really strange magic that could overpower my control over my trees, and it took the Deepglade from me!
“I can feel it, it’s there, controlling me. All of me except this one part. I... I can block it out but I can feel it if I don't remember to and it hurts! I-I need mom! Mom can fix this, she’s strong, right?” Everfree sobbed.
Patterns ears fell as she tried to take all of that in and failed. Only understanding that something had hurt her marefriend.
“Who’s dentist am I making very happy?” Pattern asked angrily.
“No! We need mom!” Everfree yelped, fear flashing across her face as she envisioned her marefriend facing the predator which had forced her out of her ‘body’ for lack of a better term.
“Princess Luna? Is it really that bad?” Pattern asked with a dark frown.
Everfree nodded.
“She has no idea you exist as more than a forest,” Pattern sighed slowly, closing her eyes. “You’ll have to come with me. She’s at her apartment at the Emerald Hive right now… It’s going to be a long walk. Unless- Are you okay with teleporting?”
Everfree nodded, shuddering as she thought about magic other than her own being used on her. “Y-yes… But only because this is really really bad,” She decided hesitantly.
“Alright. Let’s get you covered up, I think Sky’s in town. He probably has a teleporter to the hive from his house,” Pattern said giving Everfree one last tight hug as she slipped out of bed.
The batpony stretched her wings, stumbled to a dresser, took out a blue denim jumpsuit, brown scarf, and two pairs of welding goggles and tossed them to her mate, saving one pair of goggles for herself. After all, no batpony likes to have the sun sneak into one of their eyes.
“Put these on love. Wrap up completely, we don’t want to scare anypony… Towns are scary enough for me without them being afraid too,” Pattern sighed as she fished a can of Pega-Speed energy potion from the case beside her bed and cracked it open.
Copious amounts of caffeine just became critical for Pattern, and there was no faster way to get it. Besides, the Blue-Fast flavor was delicious.
The batpony mentally groaned as she watched Everfree cover up and assume her ‘alter ego’ of Patterns albino, instantly sunburnt marefriend. It was going to be a long, long night. She could feel it.