//------------------------------// // Ch.15: Family Forever // Story: Tapestry: A World Apart // by Star Scraper //------------------------------// Crimson Fire turned the key to his house. From outside, it was a narrow street of stone buildings, and in the cramped inside, sheetrock and carpeting hid the stone construction. “Crimson, Crimson! You won't believe who I saw today!” a filly's voice cried through the hall as he opened the door. He froze at who he saw. Gold Will sat inside, Scarlet excitedly beaming at him as she sat next to her. “Uh – please, don't be scared. Come on in,” Gold Will beckoned. He hesitantly closed the door behind him without turning around, then slowly approached her. She wore plain clothes as ever, but for some reason had hairbands on her mane and tail. Certainly not what she was entombed in as a body. She bore no injuries indicating her execution, either, though she looked more tan than he remembered, and had freckles. Nopony her age had freckles, not since the domes went dark. “Put a hoof on your forehead,” he commanded, his voice fighting back shakes of terror. She readily complied, then gave a little smile. “Heheh – see? No horn. Not a unicorn. Certainly not lookin' to uh – bring winter or nothin'...” He cocked his head ever so slightly, taking another step forward, his eyes still wide with disbelief. Scarlet piped up, “yeah, uh, she admits something happened to her memories, but it's really her! She was able to describe you down to your eye color and favorite foods! It's gotta be her!” “Wha-what happened?” he breathed. “Is it – is it really you?” “Well... sorta. A lot is different about me. I'm like some different version of your – of Gold Will. But... What Scarlet said is true.” Her tone switched from a simple explanation to something more sympathetic. “From what I hear this other form'a me was just as bad at tellin' a lie as I am, so I ain't gonna pretend I'm exactly Gold Will, but I will ask you this -” She looked him straight in the eye, her expression and tone turning both pitiful and judgmental. “- You won't let me die again, will you?” Her tone quickly softened as her ears flopped down, ever so slightly, and her gaze averted to the ground. “Truth is I'm lost. I'm from like a whole different world, a different version of this family. And I'm puttin' my life in your hooves. It's a silly an' stupid thing to do in some ways, but I'm desperate.” She looked back up to meet his eyes. “But you won't let me die horribly again, will you?” she asked again, even more pitifully. He stood stiff, ever so slightly wavering as the room seemed to rock around him for long moments, before he finally relaxed. He could recognize the subtle nuances – he could tell she was hiding something, she was still as terrible a liar as ever, as she said. But her fear was real, and she told the truth about putting her life in his hooves. He knew that for sure. Before he might have hesitated. But he couldn't bear to see her broken body again. Especially not when he had to account to her for what he'd done. She was offering his soul a chance at redemption from the bloodstain of his own younger sister he'd failed to save. He couldn't betray her. And with the subtle nuances of the way she talked, thought, persuaded – how he could tell where she hid something and where she was more earnestly sincere – he couldn't doubt it was her. As he ran forward she froze for a brief moment before his enormous forelegs wrapped around her and lifted her into the air in a hug. “Oh, Gold Will!” he bellowed, squeezing her. “Oohf! Heheh!” she grinned as she was lifted off her hooves for a moment. “I – I don't even care how. I just – I can tell it's you and that's all that matters. I don't want to wake up, if this is a dream, I just don't!” he cried. “I – I promise I'll never... No – you better never go and talk to those bad kinds of ponies again, you got it!? I can't protect you, so you've got to be safe, okay!?” He squeezed ever harder. “Nng, uh – think ya could loosen up a 'lil?” she forced out. Though at least her back hooves were on the ground this time. He did, but only barely. “But – how did you get here – is it safe for the police to see you? Are you in hiding?” he asked earnestly, still not letting go. “Well, I reckon' I better not get recognized by anypony if they uh... you know,” she commented. “No – you better not, unless this was – I don't know, some kind of advanced science divisions' workings? Something the Governor did? Or -” He finally pulled away, but kept his hooves on her shoulders, and only far enough to meet her eyes with a terrified look in his own. “It's not magic, is it?” He put a hoof on the back of her neck, feeling her vertebrae, finding no breaks. “I – I told ya I don't know really what happened...” she bowed her head slightly, her ears folding back uncomfortably as he felt her spine. “How – how could -” he cut himself off, realizing she hadn't done whatever it was that saved her – or brought her back from the dead. She recognized the tone, though. It would be useless to even try lying, even just by omission. “Well it's not dark magic, I can promise ya that!” “No – I'm not doing it.” He pulled her in an embrace again. “Whatever happens to me – if this is wrong, then I'll be wrong! Whatever dark, twisted trick those unicorns might be trying to play – I'll not play into it! I'll accept you back just to spite them! To betray their nefarious plots by taking all the good from this and cutting out the evil – so I'm sorry, Gold Will, but I'm going to have to do things to you you don't like! But it's best that way, it's really best!” Applejack's pupils shrank. “Uh... what kinda things?” she asked, afraid, and thankful for Twilight's enchantments on her mane's hairband. “For one, you're not leaving this house! And I'll make sure of it! And I'm not telling you anything! Because clearly if your memories are gone, the unicorns – they've wiped – no, they've done something terrible to you!” He squeezed her again, then held her at hoove's length again to look into her eyes as he spoke, “but there's still something of you left! You won't be turned into a bomber to undermine civilization because you won't be a part of it! Not until I've recovered you!” “Re-recovered me?” Never before had she been so afraid of her brother's overwhelming strength. He ranted wildly, “Yes! Why haven't they thought of it before? Everypony is so scared of the mind-wiped they never thought of the obvious solution! The executions are an act of compassion so they don't have to slowly starve to death when we can't afford to support them, and to contain their dangerous ideas – but I'm immune! I won't fall to your insanity, and I don't have to kill you to hold strong! I'll be strong for you, Gold Will, I'll be strong enough for you, this time!” “You're – you're startin' to scare me, Big Ma-Crimson...” Before she could even resist, he pulled her in and squeezed her again, though it felt much less reassuring than before. “Yeah, what are you talking about?” Scarlet echoed, her voice hesitant and afraid. “You – do you think she...? But no, she'd never!” “SHE IS, SCARLET! She's had her entire mind wiped clean and replaced by the unicorns! You can't mention that she's back to anypony, you understand!? Anypony! Or they'll have all three of us arrested and executed!” The filly spoke up again, “Are you saying-?” “I meant what I said!” he bellowed in affirmation. “Nopony can know or all three of us are dead!” His volume and tone switched to continue talking to Gold Will as he picked her up and started carrying her. “J-just what're you doin!?” she barked, wriggling to try to break free, but to no avail. “I – I admit I don't really know what I'm doing, Goldie, I don't know all the mind-science on how to get your mind back, but I'm not gonna hurt you, okay? That's the number one thing! I'm just – you know how you put foals in cribs so they don't hurt themselves? It's just like that, but you get a whole room!-” “I'm not a foal, gal'darnit!” she cried, now turning to hitting any part of him she could reach, but she didn't have enough leverage to do any real damage. She bit her lip to keep herself from crying for help. She knew she had to keep the meeting secret – she didn't have the papers Astilbe said they'd need, and even worse, she was a perfect match to a pony that was supposed to be dead. The last thing she wanted was to get guardsponies on her again. Whatever he might do to her, she trusted it wasn't as bad as what they did to Pinkie. Plus, she didn't want her hairband to hear her cry out for help. He sped up in response to her strikes, approaching and descending a flight of stairs. “No! You've been poisoned with unicorn propaganda, the lies they've put in your mind are dangerous! Too dangerous for ponies to hear, too dangerous to be spoken, too dangerous for young Scarlet! I won't let you threaten this family again! You almost got us all killed, don't you get that!? I know the real you – when your mind was in-tact – would never have endangered us all like that!” He set her down in front of him. She was in another room – a basement, she guessed by the stairs, but it was a lot nicer than some cellar. She could feel her tail tucking itself between her legs. Just as she'd kept from crying out, she realized she had nowhere to run, even. She didn't want to start a wild chase across the streets that'd get the guards' attention – especially not if it meant it could get this other version of her family killed. He held her in place, looking straight into her eyes. From his earlier wild rant, she'd thought his pupils would be shrunken and wild – but they weren't. They were certain and strong, and just as he'd been able to read her, she could read him. He meant every word he said – he saw her as a filly playing with matches, or some patient at a mental hospital. “Look, Goldie, when you're back in your right mind you'll thank me for this. I'm defending everything you care about and love. But not the same way as before. The Vanguard may have given up on rehabilitating ponies but I'm not gonna give up on you!” He stomped a hoof. “But don't you trust me-?” she began in a pitiful voice. There was no point in trying to hide how scared she was. Even if the tucked tail didn't make it obvious, her ears clinging to the sides of her head and her shrunken pupils did. “No!” he interrupted. “Not like this. I trust you – when you're in your right mind. But not like this. Other ponies have done something terrible to you, and it's not safe for you, or anypony within the sound of your voice until you're back in your right mind. Think of it like... I'm holding you down to do an emergency field surgery, to remove a bullet.” Applejack shuddered. “Isn't there anythin' I could possibly say to get you to believe me when I say I'm just fine and don't need you to 'hold me down'!?” He paused. “Yeah... Is it true your memories are gone?” Her tongue caught. She knew she could neither lie nor make up an entire lifetime of shared memories. “I – I didn't forget nothin', but... Like I said, I'm not really your 'Gold Will',” she couldn't look him in the eyes as she told him again. She was too afraid of how he might respond, as he clung so desperately to the hope that she was. But she did look straight into his surprised, confused eyes as she continued, “But I kinda am! The best I – that I know, is that I'm from some other world with a different history than this one. I'm your little sister from there – I'm Gold Will in a world where – where things aren't so awful and it's sunny and warm and grassy outside, an' I'm scared, okay!? Are ya gonna –” her voice trembled as she asked, “are ya gonna treat me well even if I'm not the Gold Will you knew? Even if I didn't forget but just never even had those memories? Because even if I'm not Gold Will, you know I'm still some form of her...” He looked blankly at her for a long moment, considering his answer, before taking on his determined look again. “I just said it – I know I recognize you, Goldie! This is just part of whatever evil thing they did to your mind! The only way you could've survived... what happened to you, is if magic is at work. I know you think you're from another world, but you're not, that's just the magic messing with you. I'm putting myself and Scarlet at great risk with this – it's foolish and stupid. But – do you at least remember how important you are to this family?” She looked back up at him, her eyes shimmering. Even in this terrible other world, an Apple was still an Apple. She answered with sudden confidence, “yeah. I do.” He pulled her in to another hug. This one wasn't confining, and he didn't lift her up again. He just hugged her. “You're halfway back, already. I know – I know there must be a way to get the rest of you back, Goldie, your real memories and all. Forget everything else, that's the only thing that matters to me, now. Mom and Pops may be gone forever, but we're never losing each other.” She felt tears well in her eyes as she felt the sincerity and emotion in his voice. She suddenly and completely understood why he was so frantic. She understood how much he genuinely cared about her. And something else came to her mind: It was confusing, it made no sense that she'd be orphaned in both worlds. Yet it made sense, in a way. This world had a thousand years to be totally different, but somehow, there's copies'a us, here. Astilbe is still Pinkie, even here. And Apples are still Apples, even if we don't go by that name. But doesn't that mean – is it really true, then? Was it really more than just some dumb accidents?... Did losing ma'n Pa really make us who we are – so much that we had to lose'em in this world, too, to be the same ponies we were in Equestria? “I'll be with you the whole way, Goldie. We'll get your mind back, somehow. We'll get it back to how it was before this whole nightmare started...” Twilight paced restlessly in the storage room, circling Applejack's Stetson and one of her hair bands. She could hear the sound of the theater through the room's very high ceiling. Questions rushed through her mind. The alert spell would've told me if she took the duplicated hairband off, so she probably didn't lose it... She charged her horn and cast a quick pinging spell to check – the pony who last wore the stetson before her, and the duplicate of the hairband, were at the same spot. Okay, so why hasn't she given us the all-clear to talk to her yet? Did she forget, or is she just waiting for something? She's just been alone in that room for what, thirty minutes, now? “You pace a lot,” Pinkie commented from her bed. Twilight stopped for a moment and looked at her. “Well, Applejack's in mortal danger! And not just Astilbe, – I mean Applejack – I mean, Astilbe is in mortal danger, too! And Rarity!” She started pacing again as she recited, “Astilbe only agreed to this because I could listen in through that hairband, and the moment AJ cries for help, or gives any identifying information that could reveal Horus theater or Astilbe as spies, it's up to ME to make sure she doesn't get tortured or interrogated or even say the wrong thing! - Applejack or Astilbe!” “It's only the third time you said that,” Pinkie deadpanned. Twilight shot her a surprised look. “Oh – uh, sorry,” Pinkie apologized. The alicorn shook her head, “No, it's alright. It's been a really hard day for both of us. Do your wounds still hurt just as bad every time you move?” Pinkie shifted around a bit, immediately biting her teeth. “Nope. It's getting better. Doesn't hurt nearly as bad as yesterday. But It still feels weird how these ponies wear these 'underwears' all the time. It feels kinda like a diaper.” “How do you...?” Twilight shook her head again, “You know, nevermind.” She resumed her nervous trot. “Oh hey, tell me about that owl dream again!” The alicorn stopped again. “I dreamed I was Owlowiscious when I took that nap, that's all.” “Oh but you woke up thinking you were an owl! You should've seen the look on your face!” She giggled. “Now that you mention it, I wonder if that had anything to do with that spell I was working on?...” she furrowed her brows in thought. “What do you mean?” Pinkie's attention piqued. “Well, I was working on some magic with Owlowiscious before this whole thing started. Some kind of mind-sharing spell. Now that I think about, the mistake I made at first – it might've led to that.” “So... you were Owlowiscious because you were sharing minds with him? Was Owlowiscious waking up wondering why he was an owl back in Ponyville?” she asked, some concern edging into her voice. “Oh. I uh – I hope not. But I don't know.” Twilight returned a far more concerned look back at Pinkie. “At any rate, it wore off soon after I woke up, but it was really weird. No, the dream was memories from Owlowiscious, not some live mind transfer. I remember seeing the Golden Oaks in it...” “Oh. I'm sorry,” Pinkie sympathized. Twilight hadn't even realized her voice had turned sad as she said it. She quickly brushed it aside. “Well, being an owl sure was interesting. It's weird – I even remembered his other memories, too. I remember his memories of memories...” “Hey, uh, I think they're gone now,” Applejack's voice finally came out of the hairband lying on the floor. “I'm usin' this thing right, right? Like, long as it's in my hoof I can hear y'all? An' I'm payin' attention to it? I guess if I don't got it right then I can't exactly hear ya tellin' me how to do it right...” Her alicorn friend shot over to it, leaning down into it. “Yes! That's right! So what happened! He sounded crazy! Did he hurt you? Are you alright? Are you in some dungeon?!” she poured her questions out. “No, no, I'm fine. And uh – I guess it's technically kinda like a dungeon 'cause I'm locked in here? - but it ain't all cold and – well it's carpet and sheetrock and it's got this really nice light. Come to think'a it, I don't think I ever seen a light like this before. It's like sunlight, it ain't all yellow and dim, it's like – uh – blue? I mean, this ain't a dungeon, it's like one'a the nicer rooms I ever been in. Even got a water closet with running water attached. So I guess like a fancy, soft, carpeted dungeon with a nice bed, some books, and an' all-you-can-eat buffet?” That explains all those noises when he brought food down. “You know, it's really weird to hear her voice coming out of a hairband like that,” Pinkie said. “Hi, Pinks! Yeah, it is, ain't it?” the hairband called out. “Hi!” Pinkie beamed. “So, he didn't hurt you or anything? Are you still in the house?” her questions still had a strong eager edge to them. “No, no. I probably hurt him more than he hurt me, what with how I was fightin' when he carried me down here an' all – an' I didn't hurt him much at all, either. An' yeah, I'm still in the house. Just the basement of it.” “Okay, good. I'm really worried about you, there, Applejack,” she supportively reminded her. “Yeah, well, I wish I could say I wasn't. Big Mac seemed alright, though. Like, I mean really, come'ta think'a it, if one day Applebloom came home all weird like this I'd, uh – well, I wouldn't lock her in her room, no, but we don't live in a terrible dangerous place like this world, either. Then again I did kinda make sure she didn't leave the farm so that's kinda like lockin' her somewhere safe, far away from the fire swamp...” “No!” Twilight firmly laid down her opposition. “He may sound and look like Big Mac but don't lose sight of things over there, AJ! He's not the Big Mac from Equestria. He's Crimson Fire, a fictional character who's just kind of like him.” “Tarnations, Twi! We been over this!” her frustrated voice fought back through the hairband. “I'm the one out here puttin' my own neck out this time, and I'm givin' him some benefit'a the doubt!” “Is that what 'benefit of the doubt' means?” Pinkie asked, confused. “Ya darn well know what I mean!” “You meant you're going easy on him because you think he's your brother – but he's not! Look, I know he said he refused to tell you things, but just keep trying to see if you can't figure out if Rarity's been captured, okay? That's what you're there for! It's just not worth it to risk us real ponies over some fictional characters.” Applejack sighed, then paused, and after a moment, let out a much sadder, softer sigh. “I – I just wish we could help out all these ponies, Twi. We saved our world so many times – from Nightmare Moon, Discord, Tirek – do you think – do you think there's anything we can do to save this one? I know they don't seem real to you, but... They sure seem real to me. I mean, all that doohicky you speak of about 'not really bein' them' an' all – I dunno, Twi, you just gotta talk to someone you love from here, then you'll see. We gotta help these ponies somehow.” Twilight groaned, then quickly ran through her head, and gave the best, most honest, and diplomatic answer she could come up with, “AJ, to be honest, that's a very deep metaphysical question. But this I know – we're going to save Rarity, and we're going to get out of here together. How many books do you think exist with terrible worlds like this? We can't save all of them. But we can save our friends. These ponies are nothing but what you experience of them – remember how the words appeared in the book after Rarity? We're in a book, AJ. We can't worry about all the fictional characters in all of Spike's comic books, either. We just need to focus on getting each other through this.” There was a long silence from the hairband, before AJ's voice finally came through again. “Just tell me, Twi, how are we gonna get through this? I – I dunno. I feel like I just can't leave Bi – Crimson Fire here like this. Like I gotta bring him home. Or at the very least, make things right here. Give him a life as good as ours in Equestria. Ain't there any way we can do that? Like I was sayin' – we saved Equestria all those times – can't we do the same here? Ya didn't answer that.” It was Twilight's turn to pause for a moment, though she didn't take quite as long to respond. “All those times we lived in a good world threatened by some single terrible thing. I – I'm sorry, but I really don't know what I can do about a world where the ponies themselves are bad like this. Maybe we could try to convince them that unicorns aren't evil, but you saw what happened to Pinkie – who they just saw next to me! “We can't change how a hundred million ponies act every day. It took Celestia centuries as a supreme monarch to do that, after they willingly submitted to her. All I can think of is rescuing Rarity, getting together again, and trusting Celestia when she told me she knew I'd be able to find my way back. I don't even know how we're getting back yet, AJ. Once we've done that, then we can talk about fixing this book. You don't want Rarity, Pinkie, yourself, or me to get hurt, either, do you? That comes first. We can talk to Celestia about how to fix worlds and how the book creates them when we get back.” There was yet another pause, this one much shorter. “Twi, Rarity comes – I think she comes first, maybe... But I'm afraid I – I gotta make one demand, okay? I'm puttin my hoof down.” “...yes?” she hesitantly asked. “I – I don't even care how much this may blow his'n her mind, or how hard it'd be for Big Mac and AB to cope, but we gotta bring back Crimson and Scarlet when we go back to Equestria, too, along with Astilbe'n her friends. Okay?” This... This is spiralling out of control. But... she made a lot of guesses in her head as to how returning may work. Maybe she just had to activate the elements. Maybe this world had its own version of the book they could read to get back. Whatever it was, bringing back others didn't seem like it'd be much harder than returning back, themselves. At least she was willing to bet on it, and commit to the promise. “Okay. If it's possible, I'll do everything I can to bring them back with us, but Equestrians still take first priority.” “Okay. Thank you, Twilight. It means a whole lot to me... an' I'm sure it means a whole lot to my family, too.” “But they're not your family...” Twilight grumbled quietly to herself. Pinkie was asleep in her bed. Twilight was sitting at the table with a quill and an open book she'd found in the room. The page was full of logic squares of game theory and notes on her plans, as well as technical notes about the various machines around her. She heard the door unlock and open, Astilbe appearing in the doorway. “Oh, hello, Astilbe,” she cheerfully greeted in a hushed tone, trying not to wake Pinkie. Some sleep, and then Reverse-engineering the fantastic machines had put her in a good mood, despite everything. Perhaps there was something great to be gleaned from this terrible world. But Astilbe's face was solemn, stricken with something heavy. “What's wrong?” she asked. “Should I wake Pinkie?” The pink mare approached, whispering back, “that's up to you. I'm sorry I couldn't come by here earlier today – I can't act suspicious to my coworkers and I had a show, you know? But here's what I just found out.” She opened her saddlebag and pulled out the poster. Twilight's wings flared out and her eyes widened. She took the poster in her magic, muttering, “no, where'd you find this? Is it – I mean could they have? -” she cut herself off, looking at the picture again. The pony lacked Rarity's makeup or false eyelashes, and wasn't dressed the same as she was when she put her hoof to the page, but it definitely looked like her. She couldn't imagine how a photograph could be fabricated. But even if it could, then what? She couldn't risk the possibility of it actually being Rarity. She knew what she had to do. Astilbe just sadly shook her head, then looked her new friend in the eyes, “Is it her, then?” Twilight nodded. Her wide eyes hardened, her wings relaxed, and the same determination that had defeated immortal, vengeful gods came over her. “Okay, Astilbe. We've got less than twenty-four hours, right?” she asked. Astilbe nodded. “Then Let's talk about how to rescue my friend.”