//------------------------------//
// V - Mob Mentality 
// Story: Broken Mirror 
// by GMBlackjack 
//------------------------------//

>> Here's a question: How would you describe Cartwheel in one word?

This is not a question for you, so don't try to answer it, lest you end up the fool.

Actual answers vary drastically, from 'where?' to 'home' and other such meaningless words along the lines of 'empty,' 'distant,' 'boring,' 'round,' 'feathery,' 'unwelcoming,' and 'idiotic.' All of these words are legitimate, I suppose, though in a rather shallow and bigoted way. 

I have a word I find much more appropriate than all others I've heard. 

Unforgiving.

The town has a sort of mob mentality about it. Nothing magical or overly unusual about it, just a mob, a perfectly regular mob in most senses. Except for the odd little fact that the mob isn't mindless. It remembers everything in it, creating a collective memory. And like all mobs, it's as violent as a greedy dragon. 

Imagine a greedy dragon the size of a town that knows how to hold a grudge for eternity, and you have Cartwheel.

The most terrifying thought to most is that Cartwheel isn't even close to the worst place on the planet. There are much more horrid things out there. But that terror is shallow. What should be considered terrifying about Cartwheel is a bit harder to grasp.

Where are all the children? <<


~~~


"She'll live," the white stallion said. He'd introduced himself a few moments ago as Inspector Calcium. "She'll probably be able to travel soon, in fact. Though she needs rest now."

Minuette sighed. "This has all just been one clusterbuck after another... Nice to have some good news for a change." She looked through a grimy window, noticing the setting sun. "We'll have to find somewhere to stay..."

"Good luck finding a bed for your earth there," Calcium said, tucking Rarity in.

"Yeah. She seems to have completely forgotten how things work around here."

"Hey!" Pinkie said. "How was I supposed to-"

Minuette's eyes darted to Calcium, performing a quick calculation. She raised a hoof to slap Pinkie, but that hoof was caught midair by Pinkie's own. Pinkie locked eyes with Minuette - both pairs filled with anger.

"Can't even keep your earth under control," Calcium said, slightly bemused. 

Minuette looked like she wanted to punch his skull in. She carefully pulled her hoof back from Pinkie and stomped outside. "Make your own sleeping accommodations, rooter. Word of advice, nopony is going to let you sleep under their roof, soooooo... hope you find a nice pasture of grass!"

Pinkie twitched. "I hope you get a moldy bed!"

"I probably will, but I'll at least have a bed, best you can do is sleep with piggers!"

"Pigs are nice, pink, and soft! and I don't mind mud!"

"Celestia's ass, stop taking things so literally!"

"Oh, I know peeerfectly well what it means! I'm just trying to annoy you!"

Minuette stormed out of the building and slammed the door. Pinkie hoof-pumped. "Woo! Point for Pinkie!" She cackled maniacally, eyes darting around wildly. 

"...Dead mare walking," Calcium muttered under his breath.

Pinkie slid right next to him, her mouth right next to his ear. "What was that? Why am I dead?"

Calcium backed away, looking at her with annoyance rather than disgust - or fear. "I was referring to your soldier," he said, examining her through his monocle. 

Pinkie cocked her head. "Wha...? She hasn't made anypony mad..."

"You really are as stupid as you look," he said, adjusting the placement of Rarity's sheets. 

Pinkie forced a smile, gritting her teeth. "You care to tell me what obvious thing I'm missing, boney?"

"No," he said, levitating her into the air, kicking the door open, and tossing her out. "Don't come back here without your soldier. I can't stand your kind." The door slammed in her face.

Pinkie laughed. "Well... great! At least Rarity'll be fine in there! Yeah!" Pinkie got up and walked away, face contorting spastically as she went. Every step she took was hard, flat, and angry. She walked right through the square again. 

"Hey!" a pegasus yelled. "This is our space, haven't you learned that?"

"No!" Pinkie rang out, grinning. "Anypony want to try and teach me that!?"

"Oh, you have no idea..." another pegasus said, grinning. 

"Shaaaame on you!" Pinkie sang. "I'm needed by the army and hooo boy would they get mad if something were to happen to me!"

"Buck the army." A deep, authoritative voice rang out. A tall golden mare strode into Pinkie's sight, her horn glowing intensely. "I don't care if you're the princess's illegitimate daughter or have intelligence that will change the world. You defied."

Pinkie's mane poofed up slightly. The world came into focus, and she smirked, producing her frying pan. "You want to dance?"

The golden unicorn said nothing. She merely fired a laser, which Pinkie dodged by nimbly lifting a leg. The bolt drilled a meter deep hole into the ground. 

"Wow!" Pinkie said. "Impressive! If you'd hit me I'd be-"

A pegasus bystander collided with her, pinning her to the ground. Pinkie rolled, tossing him off as if he were a basketball, narrowly avoiding another laser bolt from the golden unicorn. She threw her frying pan at the unicorn, only for it to be disintegrated. Pinkie noticed dozens of pegasi moving as one, rushing her. She couldn't dodge them all - she was pushed to the ground, encased in angry bodies. Wriggling like a worm, she managed to squeeze herself out as if she were made of some rubbery substance. She screamed in pain as she did so - it hurt, it hurt a lot, to bend her body like that. Was that what normal ponies felt when she dragged them around back home? 

With a quick pop, she was free, though she collided rather quickly with an outstretched hoof. "Ow..." she muttered. "This is hardly sporting!"

She realized in this moment it wasn't going to be fun anymore. She saw something in her opponents - it mostly wasn't hatred, though that was there. It was fear. Fear of what she represented. She was scaring them, and had been ever since she showed up...

Her mane went flat again. She lost her energy and sank to the ground, letting the pegasi pile on her. Dozens upon dozens of them, all punching and biting, unable to organize their panicked rage. 

Then Pinkie's tail twitched. Her eyes widened. "Oh no." She tried to throw them all off her, but her jump was too slow. The laser from the golden unicorn missed her - but it instantly killed three pegasi. 

"WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Pinkie screamed. She punched behind her, knocking out a pegasus she had no way of knowing was there. 

The golden unicorn blinked. "Sacrifices must be-"

The blast from a party cannon sent the unicorn flying. "SACRIFICES FOR WHAT? YOU KILLED THEM!"

For the first time since Pinkie had laid eyes on her, emotion crossed the unicorn's face. "No, you did! If you had been submissive and weak like you were supposed to be this wouldn't be necessary!"

"W-what?"

"You did this! you broke the order with your earthly defiance!"

Pinkie looked at the scant remains of the pegasi - a wing here, a hoof there. "N-no..."

"Yes. You did that." Her horn glowed. "And surely you can realize, murderers don't deserve to live."

Pinkie said nothing. She didn't even move. Didn't look up. 

"Just submit to your punishment." She fired the laser.

Pinkie dodged, leaping quickly behind a building and vanishing completely. 

"DAMNIT!" The unicorn yelled. She looked at the three pegasi's remains, her face pained. "D-damnit... That was for nothing..."

"She'll pay for what she did here," a pegasus mare said.

"Yes. Yes, she will." She narrowed her eyes. "I know just how to do it."

Meanwhile, over a mile away, Pinkie cried herself to sleep in the shade of one of the few trees in the plains. 


~~~


Minuette let out the most pained groan imaginable when she walked into the room she had procured for the night. The space was bare, the only bathroom was a window looking to the street, and the bed was not only moldy, half of it was missing. If she had felt safer, she would have just cast a sleeping spell on herself, but that was too risky in a place like this. It wasn't just because Pinkie had to go and be an idiot. She was part of the army... And nopony in these little towns liked the army... 

She shook her head. They couldn't do anything to her, none of them were warriors. And Rarity was with an Inspector, so the ponies would have to be complete idiots to try anything. Minuette refused to think about Pinkie Pie right now. That mare could go hang herself for all Minuette cared at the moment. At least, that's what she told herself - part of her felt depressed at the thought.

"What's wrong with you..." Minuette muttered to herself. "She's just a cloud rooting pig of a mud pony! Bucker, she's also annoying!"  She flopped onto the half mattress, ignoring the dampness. "The world would be so much better off if she never left hers..."

She rolled onto her side, looking out the window. Stars appeared in the darkening sky slowly, and the moon rose, a sure sign of Luna watching over them all. The stellar object's white rays fell on Minuette's face, feeling her with a momentary feeling of comfort. 

The sky sure was beautiful tonight. She could have let herself get lost in it. She almost did - but then she heard a creak behind her door. 

Buuuuuuuuck...

She should've known the serenity was too good to be true. 

Her door was kicked down. She vaporized the first pegasus in line with a single high-intensity magic blast. "Who's next?"

A golden beam of energy shot from the hallway towards Minuette. She cast accelerado to dodge it, the end of her tail burning into ash, along with a large section of the floor. Minuette raised a set of miniature magic shields in a rapidly rotating pattern along with six magical bullets as glowing blue points of energy ready to launch at her command. "Big mistake. I'm a trained soldier! No mere town brawler is-"

She was interrupted by another laser, which her shields easily deflected. She raised an eyebrow. "Was that-"

Then she felt the golden unicorn behind her. The unicorn tore Minuette's shields off with her magic and summoned an ethereal blade to her side. Minuette rolled out of the way, but the blade nicked her front shoulder, drawing blood. She reared up on her hind legs, firing her magic bullets at her opponent. All six hit - all six bounced off a magical sheen hidden just beneath the golden fur. 

"The buck!?"

"I was once in the army myself," the unicorn said. "I hated every minute of it. Yet they somehow managed to promote me to Commander before I flew the coop."

Minuette took a step back. A deserter...

"Scared?" The mare leaned in. "You should be. That pink pony of yours just killed three of my people. You know what the punishment for an out of control earth is."

Minuette didn't believe for a second Pinkie had killed those three ponies, she was far too soft for that. The thought wasn't very comforting. "S-she isn't mine! I was just tasked with getting her to another army base! She's her own mare!"

"This isn't a court, cadet. This is justice."

Minuette thought fast. She was outclassed here, and she knew it. Even if she did win somehow, it'd likely turn the entire town against her. But if she submitted she'd die... There was only one option.

"Bye," Minuette said, teleporting away. She found herself outside, face down in the street, smoking slightly. Being nervous was never good for teleportation. She scrambled to her hooves and galloped through town. Luckily the streets were abandoned  - unluckily the golden mare knew how to teleport as well. 

Minuette reared the moment she saw the flash of yellow that heralded her opponent's presence. The golden mare snorted. "So you not only aren't an idiot, you know a spell most cadets don't. Bet you're at the top of your unit. Used to getting things your way?"

"Why are you psychoanalyzing me?"

"Makes it more interesting than just vaporizing you off the face of Equis."

"You're a bucking weird psycho."

"I don't think that word means what you think it does." She raised an eyebrow. "Are you calculating a long range teleport?"

That was exactly what Minuette was doing. "W-what? What makes you say that? How could I, a mere cadet, know long-range teleportation?"

"I'm curious to see if you can do it. And where you'll go that you think is safe."

"Uh... What?"

"Just do it."

"Something's wrong with you."

"Already knew that. Go on."

Minuette grimaced. "Alrighty..." She teleported right in front of Inspector Calcium's door, smashing her face into the wood. She ran into the house and shut the door behind her. Breathing hard, she turned to look Calcium in the eyes. "The ponies in this town are crazy!"

"A definite," Calcium said, looking up from his book. 

"How can you stand to work here? How hasn't she purged this place yet!?"

Calcium's eye twinkled. "Oh, they're self-defeating."

Minuette shivered. "Y-you do know you've got a deserter out there right?"

"Oh, yes. Gold Standard's her name. Idealistic mare." He turned to the sleeping form of Rarity. "Bit like this one, actually."

"She woke up?"

"Oh yes. Asked for you and Pinkie. I said you were asleep. She said a lot of interesting things." He looked at her. "...What the Concretes did was an act of war."

"Yeah, I know."

"Only a matter of time until the Crown reciprocates."

Minuette nodded, glancing over at Rarity again. She jumped when she realized Rarity's eyes were open.

Rarity sighed. "Calm yourself, darling, I'm fine."

Minuette let out a breath. "Good. We'll need to leave as soon as possible. The town's filled with crazed preeners and... some scarily sane runters."

"Where's Pinkie?"

"Somewhere outside town," Minuette said. "Let's get out first, then we can go look for her." Why am I even suggesting that... 

Rarity nodded. She stepped out of bed, wincing when she put weight on the leg that was shot. "Oh... I fear I am going to be slow."

"Just keeps getting better and better..." Minuette facehooved.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it," a new voice said. 

Calcium looked into the doorway. "Ah. Madam mayor. Wasn't expecting you."

The blue mare walked in, levitating her extravagant coat off her body. "Likewise." She smiled at Minuette and Rarity. "Pleasure to meet you."

"...Trixie?" Rarity said in disbelief.

"Yes, that's my given name. Just 'Mayor' is fine." She walked around the establishment with grace and rhythm, something that looked completely alien to Rarity when coming from the form of Trixie. 

"So," Trixie said, "you've noticed I have a town of completely mad ponies."

"Yes!" Minuette yelled. "This bucking place is succumbing to the mob! They tried to attack me! They claimed we killed some ponies! They've become fixated! I'm amazed you haven't been purged yet!"

"Purged...?" Rarity asked.

Minuette sighed. "As a town gets bigger, its dangers of becoming a corrupt city constantly rise. When a high corruption is detected Inspectors will send word to Sunset and have the town burnt to the ground."

"My Stars..."

Trixie raised an eyebrow. "You had to explain that to her?"

"Er... yes."

"There really is some top-secret army operations going on, aren't there?"

Minuette facehooved. "Yes! Bucking Celestia yes!"

Trixie nodded. "That makes this even more painful."

"...What?" Rarity said, frowning. 

"In order to keep my town and the good ponies left in it from being purged, I convinced Calcium not to report us."

Minuette blinked. "...How!?"

"The mob is a self-solving problem," Trixie said. "The population keeps going down. Those within the mob that are brutal never live long, and fewer and fewer are able to resist the call each day. Since they can't have children, it'll eventually kill itself with its toxicity."

"Th-that's horrible," Rarity said, reeling at the implications.

"Dodging the law always is."

Minuette shook her head. "How does this concern us?"

Trixie sighed. "Sadly, the mob here will never forget a debt or wrong. You and your ponies insulted them personally. They won't stop until you pay with your life. And in the process, they will start attacking bystanders, and towns you visit will be essentially invaded. The whole point of letting them kill themselves off will be pointless."

Minuette looked at Calcium. "Do you hear this?"

"Yes."

"You agreed to this!?"

Calcium nodded. "And all the other Inspectors in town. But with your arrival, we've been forced to give the Mayor an ultimatum. Either she has you killed to appease the mob, or we call for a purge before they can get out."

Rarity gasped. "But... But... No! I won't allow it! These ponies have lives!" She sat down. "I'll live here the rest of my days, even if that is only for the next few minutes, to stop this! My only request is that you let me see Pinkie first."

Minuette's jaw dropped. "Are. You. Crazy!? You're the reason the Concretes are starting a war! You... You know things! You're important! You can't just throw it away for some stupid backwater town that should have been burnt off the map years ago!"

"Yes, I can," she said, folding her hooves. "I've only been in this world a day and I'm already done playing by your rules. This is all wrong, every aspect of it. I'm not just going to say 'oh, well, if that's the way you do things...' anymore! No! Seriously, what the heck is wrong with you ponies?!"

"Did you not hear the Mayor? She's going to execute us!"

"Try and stop me."

Trixie sighed. "They've convinced me."

"...What?" Rarity said.

"Order the purge."

Calcium nodded and walked out of the house. Rarity looked ready to burst a blood vessel. "I just told you not to do that! Weren't you listening!?"

"That means you are worth saving," Trixie said. "You're important. Besides..." She looked out a window at the town itself. "It would have taken too long anyway. It's only a matter of time before another troublemaker comes to town."

Minuette gulped. Rarity grabbed Trixie's hoof and looked into her eyes. "...What has this world done to you?"

"What it does to everypony," she sighed. "You try to do your best, but you only end up making deals with devils..."

"I..." Rarity sighed. "...Thank you. For trying. ...What's going to happen to you?"

Trixie smiled sadly. "Don't worry about me."

Rarity put a hoof to her mouth in realization. 

"I suggest you leave quickly. Who knows how long it'll be. I'll keep Gold occupied."

Minuette awkwardly looked from Rarity to Trixie, a bit overtaken by the conversation. She turned to Trixie and saluted. "May the Stars be with you."

Trixie saluted back. "Likewise."

Minuette cast the invisibility spell, taking Rarity by the hoof and getting her out of town in silence. Minuette heard Gold Standard start yelling - presumably at Trixie. The sounds of magic lasers going off could be heard. There was no way Trixie would last long against that. 

After they were out in the grassy fields, Minuette heard Rarity crying. She sighed. "Look. It's... It's the way things are. We have to cut off what parts are dangerous before they kill us."

"You're all broken..." Rarity managed.

"...I'm not going to disagree with you there." 


~~~


Pinkie woke up, looking at the night sky. The town of Cartwheel slept below. It looked much more peaceful form a distance. If she hadn't just been in there, she might have fooled herself into believing it was welcoming. She saw a few ponies leave town. She wondered why they were leaving. Why they looked to be in such a hurry. 

She saw something bright red in the sky getting closer and closer. It looked a bit like a miniature sun...