//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Archimedes Constant 
// by Wheller 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 3


Pinkie Pie had fallen asleep by this point as she laid her head against Twilight’s flank, snoring loudly. Twilight’s hind leg was on pins and needles from where Pinkie Pie was resting her head, but she didn’t have the heart to wake the pink party pony from her slumber. She looked to Rainbow Dash, who was looking at her sadly; they both felt the same feelings about this situation with one of their friends.

Twilight could only imagine how Rainbow Dash felt; she and Pinkie Pie were close, far closer than Pinkie and Twilight.

‘This... this was heart breaking’, Twilight said eventually, quiet enough so that she wouldn’t wake up. ‘I’ve never seen Pinkie Pie like this before’.

Rainbow Dash did not reply, but nodded her head in agreement. Both of them continued to watch Pinkie Pie as she slept, she was twitching somewhat in her sleep, she was having a nightmare. Twilight wanted to cry.

‘Could have been worse’, Rainbow Dash said. ‘Could have been Fluttershy, could have been Applejack’.

Twilight was taken aback slightly, the statement was a rather harsh one, Pinkie Pie was in pain and she needed love from her friends... but then Twilight began to think that Rainbow Dash was right. Fluttershy had violently murdered six people in the old world; one of them was sitting before her. Rainbow Dash had died at Fluttershy’s hooves during her psychotic episode, if Fluttershy was ever to remember... Twilight didn’t want to think about it.

Then there was Applejack. Her manipulation by the Siblings Nightmare had sent her over the edge, and she had brutally maimed Apple Bloom, if she were to remember that... Twilight didn’t want to think about what Applejack would do to herself.

On the plus side, Pinkie Pie was here, where she was safe, warm, and in the company of those who cared about her.

‘I don’t think that we should leave her alone, we’re going to need to make sure that at least one of us has an eye on her at all times... lest she do something drastic’, Twilight said eventually. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. There was space here for Pinkie Pie, now that the Library was empty of most of its inhabitants. Trixie had moved out and gotten her own place, she was now living in the flat that had once been occupied by Derpy Hooves. Vinyl Scratch was off gallivanting around who knows where with Surprise, which was odd in itself. The Library now felt empty because Twilight had gotten used to so many others living here.

There was always Spike, though he usually made himself scarce during the day, Twilight wondered what he did when he was out, though when she questioned him about it, he causally avoided the question and went on about his business. Twilight smirked slightly at thinking about Spike; she’d seen the dragon as something like a baby brother. Where Vinyl Scratch here to make it, she would have likely made some smartarse crack about him growing up so fast.

Twilight concentrated hard on Pinkie Pie, enveloping the sleeping pink party pony in her magic and gently lifting her into the air, Twilight got up to take her up to bed, forgetting completely about her numb leg and nearly losing her concentration almost dropping Pinkie Pie in the process.

Rainbow Dash leapt up and got a hold on Twilight, allowing the unicorn to stabilise and regain her concentration. Pinkie Pie had listed somewhat, and Twilight gently brought her back to a stable position, she did not wake through the entire ordeal.

‘She must be really tired’, Twilight said.

‘Yeah... definitely’, Rainbow Dash said quietly.

Twilight leaned up against Rainbow Dash for support, and together, the two mares carried their sleeping friend up the stairs to put her to bed.

Pinkie Pie’s twitching began to subside, and the party pony’s dreams turned from her nightmares, to more pleasant ones of happier times with her friends.

...

Pinkie Pie awoke the next morning to discover herself lying in a bed in the spare room of the Ponyville Library, she sat up and looked around, and for a moment was confused about where she was. Then she remembered practically beating down the Library door and Twilight taking her in, she must have fallen asleep, though she didn’t know when. She looked around the room and discovered that Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep standing in the corner, the Pegasus mare was leaning against the fall of the room, her head drooping low.

Pinkie Pie smiled, she realised what her friends had done for her. Now it was time to return the favour. She hopped out of bed and went over to Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie leaned down and gently picked Rainbow Dash up with her back and carried her into the next room, taking care to put the sleeping Pegasus to bed.

‘Thanks Dashie’, Pinkie Pie said with a faint smile as she pulled the covers over Rainbow Dash’s body.

Pinkie Pie exited the room and went down the stairs to discover that Twilight was awake, nose deep in a book and scribbling onto a scroll next to her.

‘Twilight?’ Pinkie Pie asked.

Twilight jumped a little in surprise and turned around to look at the new comer in the room. ‘Pinkie Pie! You’re awake... did Rainbow Dash fall asleep while she was supposed to be watching you?’

Pinkie Pie smirked a little and nodded in the affirmation.

Twilight let out a long sigh and trotted over to her friend. ‘We’ve been watching you all night, in shifts, three hours each... I... didn’t want you to be alone’.

Pinkie Pie felt tears forming in her eyes, though these were not tears of sadness, as they had been yesterday. No, these tears were happy ones. Pinkie Pie was happy that she had such wonderful friends.

‘Thank you Twilight’, Pinkie Pie said as she approached her, she had a small smile on her face, while not the big, goofy looking grin that Pinkie Pie usually wore. It made Twilight’s heart soar.

‘You’re welcome Pinkie Pie I was glad to have helped’, Twilight said, returning the smile.

Pinkie Pie continued to smile and wrapped her forelegs around Twilight for a hug. Twilight returned it, and was happy that they were on the road to getting Pinkie Pie back to them.

Pinkie Pie smiled at Twilight. ‘Thank you, thank you so much’, Pinkie Pie said, she leaned close and planted a kiss on Twilight Sparkle’s lips.

...

Vinyl Scratch and Surprise reached the bottom of the elevator shaft and looked down the hallway towards the... well, to be perfectly honest, Vinyl didn’t know what exactly to expect at the end of the hallway. The hallway was long, and it was dark, she figured that the pony made tunnel like hallways stretched all around Fillydelphia. Fortunate that Fillydelphia lacked an underground metro system like that of Manehattan, otherwise somepony might have accidentally stumbled onto them.

Though, the more Vinyl Scratch had thought about it, it may have been by design. She remembered that there had been numerous occasions in Fillydelphia’s history where there had been talks about installing a metro system, but any time it ever came up, the motion was always being narrowly defeated.

Vinyl Scratch looked over to Surprise, who was glancing around at everything with a childlike wonder. Vinyl Scratch could hardly believe that this was the same Surprise that had tried to kill her on the very same day that she had lost her eyesight, before Whirlwind had stepped in and stopped her from harming her.

Vinyl Scratch couldn’t help but think that this Surprise couldn’t even hurt a fly, even though this was far from the truth. When it came down to it, Surprise still was a ruthless, psychopathic killer with little regard to life of any who got in the way.

Vinyl’s thoughts drifted back over to Whirlwind. She found herself frowning slightly, that poor pony had been dealt a terrible fate, and while Vinyl Scratch and the rest of her friends hoped that they could eventually free him from the monster that he’d become.

Vinyl and her friends recognised that Whirlwind and Legion were different, and they had all taken a vow to keep it quiet and make sure that, if they could restore Whirlwind to his old self, that there would still be a place in society for him to return to. Though with each passing day, that idea seemed to become more and more unlikely.

Vinyl Scratch’s ear began to twitch. Something was up, something that was not supposed to be, though she couldn’t quite place her hoof on it.

Vinyl Scratch and Surprise reached the end of the hallway and the door opened before them. A dozen or so unicorn ponies dressed in royal blue robes, identical to the ones worn by Montana Ulan upon her encounter with him at Ponyville raced out of it and surrounded them.  Each unicorn was levitating firearms of various kinds. Pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, one of them even had a rather nasty looking rifle; each of these weapons was of various origins that Vinyl Scratch didn’t recognise.

‘Well’, Vinyl Scratch said flashing a grin. ‘You machine cultists sure know how to make a filly feel welcome’.

She glanced over to Surprise, whose expression had turned from childlike wonder to one of distress. She was uneasy, but continued to not say anything.

The machine cultists did not respond, however, out of the door another pony appeared, he was an older unicorn stallion, a coat of beige and a mane that had once been jet black, but now had turned to a light grey wearing the a set of deep purple robes, he looked at her and smiled.

‘’Well hello there’, the unicorn stallion said simply. ‘I’m Chapter Master Archimedes. I’m head of this chapter of the Machine Cult. Welcome to Fillydelphia, Vinyl Scratch, we’ve been expecting you’.