Amber Ashes

by GMBlackjack


What a Way to Wake

Pinkie was a mare that had experienced several strange awakenings in her life. She had a tendency to overexert herself until she passed out from exhaustion, coming to an uncertain amount of time later. She’d woken up on random floors, the street, and even with her face pressed painfully into the foot of her bed. Opening her eyes to unusual scenes was something she was well acquainted with.

That said, waking up half-buried in sand was a new one.

She sat up, shaking the grains out of her long pink mane. Her first instinct was to put one of her hooves to her face – yep, she had fallen asleep with her glasses on again. She really needed to stop doing that. One of these days they were going to break…

The next step was to check her surroundings and figure out where she was. The middle of a desert. That was easy. The second part – why – was usually easy as well, but for the life of her she couldn’t figure that one out this time around. Or even how she could have ended up in the middle of a desert. She lived in Coeur d’Alene! Forest and lake as far as the eye could see! Were there even proper sand dunes in the entire state? If there were, she’d never been to them.

Was it a dream? …No, she wouldn’t be able to imagine what sand lodged in her back felt like. That was a new sensation. And she knew what it felt like to dream; she was a pretty decent lucid dreamer.

Panic began to rise when the reality sunk in. There was no sign of anything but sand as far as the eye could see and the sun was beating down on her with an oppressive heat. It would not be long before she started suffering from dehydration. If the sun was setting, she could probably make it to nightfall, but what about the next day? There was nothing for her to even go toward!

She shot to her hooves, tentatively trotting a few steps away. Then she backpedaled, returning to the position she had started in, legs locking up. Maybe moving was a bad idea? They might not be able to find her if she moved.

Who would “they” even be? Who would know she was dumped in the middle of a desert? Who would even do that? It didn’t make any sense! None of this made any sense!

She began to hyperventilate, unable to deal with the absurdity of the situation. There was no conceivable reason for anything happening, and she had no idea what to do! She was going to die a senseless death out here in the middle of some desert, her body to be covered in sand, never to be seen again! Forgotten! A tragedy!

Tragedy

A clear thought lodged itself in her head.

This is just like one of my stories.

This calmed her down considerably. She nodded to herself, muttering incoherent syllables that definitely weren’t words. It was just like one of her stories. Something fantastical had happened with no visible rhyme or reason even though there surely was one she wasn’t aware of. She should just consider this… an adventure!

Yes. Adventure. That was it.

What would the Blue Bolt do?

Well, fly, because she was a pegasus, but Pinkie could still get to a higher vantage point by walking. She trotted up the largest dune she saw, tripping a few times on the inconsistent ground during her ascent. When she reached the top, she looked around once more at her significantly increased field of view.

Nothing but sand.

“All right Pinkie…” Pinkie addressed herself. “We need to go walking in some direction and hope we see something. The sun provides two options – toward or away from the sunset. Uh…” She scrunched her face. “Away. It’ll be hard to see looking directly into the sun.”

“I dunno, sometimes the sun provides insights through heat shadow illusions.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I can’t be sure that’s a real… thing…” Pinkie turned to her left in alarm, screaming when she saw the purple unicorn standing next to her.

The unicorn smirked, making no attempt to hide her amusement at Pinkie’s fear. “Gotcha.”

“Wh… wh…” Pinkie shook her head. “Did you take me here!?”

“Me? No, I’m new here, just like you.” The unicorn was a thin mare, slightly taller than average with a flat, well-kept mane of relatively short length. Pinkie was having a hard time picking out any other distinguishing features. She seemed… ordinary. The mark on her flank was a simple white star and her body couldn’t be considered fit or unhealthy. Just… average.

Her eyes were intelligent, though, intelligent enough to hide details from Pinkie.

“You woke up in a desert?!” Pinkie asked.

“Woke up? No. I was awake when I arrived. Wandered around a bit, saw you sleeping, decided to see what you’d do. Clearly, you have no idea what’s going on, so I figured now was the time to introduce myself.”

“You were watching!?” Pinkie gaped. “I… besides the fact that’s more than a little creepy, how!? What was there to hide behind?”

“A unicorn never reveals her secrets,” she teased. “At least not without knowing the other pony first. I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“Pinkie Acorn,” Pinkie said. “Better known as P. D. Pie.”

“Never heard of you.”

Pinkie shrugged. “I… I write books. Pretty popular, but not everypony would know.” She frowned. “So, somepony’s kidnapping ponies and dumping them in the desert?”

“Eh,” Twilight grunted, giving Pinkie no new information.

“We need to find a way to survive,” Pinkie said, continuing speaking her thoughts aloud without really thinking. “Food, water, shelter. All of which seem to be in alarmingly short supply in this desert! Ugh, why couldn’t I have fallen asleep in the soup again?”

“Stop panicking.”

“I’m not panicking! I’m… extrapolating courses of action by talking aloud!”

Twilight smirked. “Okay. Keep feeding your internal madness.”

“How can you be so… calm? We are going to die out here if we can’t get food!”

“Relax.”

Pinkie twitched. “Look, Twilight, ponies need water to survive a-“

Twilight activated her horn, surrounding it with a lavender aura. A bucket of water appeared in a flash of purple, landing gently on the ground at Pinkie’s hooves. “There you go. Problem solved.”

“AUGH!” Pinkie shouted, jumping back far enough that she rolled down the sand dune head over hooves. She landed flat on her back right where she had woken up a few minutes ago.

Twilight activated her horn once again, surrounding both herself and the bucket of water in a lavender aura. With a flash of light, she teleported right in front of Pinkie, depositing the bucket in front of her. “What’s wrong? I thought you wanted water?”

Despite the unicorn’s giggling, Pinkie pointed an accusatory hoof. “W-w-witchcraft!”

Twilight facehooved. “Oh for the – are you really one of those ponies who thinks unicorns are evil?”

“What? No!” Pinkie backed into a nearby dune, unaware of how pathetically terrified she looked. “B-but that was a spell! That’s…”

“A completely normal thing almost any unicorn can do if they apply themselves,” Twilight continued.

“…You didn’t sell your soul to the Devil?”

Twilight grinned. “I am the Devil.”

Pinkie screamed.

Twilight guffawed, rolling onto her back in laughter. “Joking! Joking! Couldn’t resist!”

Pinkie twitched. “Okay… okay… is, uh… ‘magic’ governed by scientific principles then?”

“Yes. Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Just… gimme a second…” Pinkie grabbed her head and breathed in and out, slowly.

“I’m just going t-“

“I’m good!” Pinkie said, bouncing up on all four of her hooves. “Just had to re-evaluate a core belief I held on the nature of reality, nothing special.” She let out a crazed laugh. “Thanks for the water!” She rammed her face into the bucket and drank heavily.

Twilight’s bewildered expression was replaced with a grin. “Glad you’re up to speed.”

Pinkie pulled her head out of the bucket and cleaned her glasses on her chest fluff. “We’re on an adventure, I can’t afford to get caught up in all the little details. Like, you know, magic being a thing that isn’t inherently soul-corrupting, at least not always.”

“If that is true in your world, I pity all the wonders of magic that are kept from you.” Twilight put a steady hoof on Pinkie’s back. “Now, would you mind telling me about your world?”

“Not at all! I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, I love talking about myself!”

“Great! You can do that while I teleport us around. I’m looking for a settlement.”

“Do what to u-“

There was a flash of purple. Pinkie was suddenly on a distant sand dune, standing next to Twilight with shaking legs. “Ah… hehah…”

“You’ll get your teleport legs in no time.”

“Can we take a break fi-“

Twilight teleported again. Still nothing but sand visible for miles and miles, and Pinkie’s legs were still trembling.

“Nah, breaks take up too much time,” Twilight said. “I already wasted quite a bit messing with you.”

“Why is messing with me worth wasting time on?”

“Boredom is much like hunger, it must be satiated.”

“You’re lost in a mystical desert and you’re bored!?

Twilight teleported them again. “I wasn’t at first, but the endless sand is kinda the same after a while. Just sand, sand, and more sand. But then I found you, and things got a whole lot more interesting!”

“I’m not that inter-“ they teleported again. “-esting.” Pinkie blinked. “Hey, I didn’t choke that time!”

“Good, maybe now you can tell your story!”

“Well, I’m Pinkie Acorn, or P. D. Pie, and I’m an author of adventure books! Things like Nuevo and Arcsign and The Imble Series and… this all means nothing to you.”

“Good deduction,” Twilight said, teleporting again.

“Anyway, uh, yeah. I write books, throw parties, and write more books. I pass out a lot and eat a lot. I’m told I’m slightly crazy, and I believe it! I’m married to the best guy ever, Hazel, a politician, and I just like to make ponies smile!”

“You truly are an author. Most ponies would not be able to tie up their life story in a single paragraph.”

Pinkie shrugged. “Eh, there are a lot of things I left out. Childhood, recent events, how Hazel and I met…”

“I’m not interested in those things,” Twilight said dismissively. “I’m interested in your world. There’s no magic there?”

“Unicorns have telekinesis,” Pinkie explained. “But some ponies are angry about that…” She shook her head. “Nevermind! We don’t have magic, but we have this amazing thing called the Internet! It-“

“I know what the Internet is.”

“…Oh. Just, in most of my books when I have to explain what my world is like…”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yes, you assumed I was from some kind of fantasy world with wizards and goblins, right?”

Pinkie flushed. “…Uh, maybe?”

“Let’s try this another way… describe a normal day to me.”

“How much detail you want?”

“Start with maximum and we’ll inevitably tone it down from there.”

Twilight teleported once more, finding yet another expanse of sand…

~~~

Fluttershy looked at her companion on the journey to the rocks, trying to figure her out. Such a noble, tired heart… She had seen a few like Rarity back home, in the hunters who had given their entire lives to face the monsters and weren’t able to see the good they’d done. It was a problem with some of the elders, for they never left the front with the monsters, never returned to the inner cities where there were ponies who lived and died without fearing a sudden, violent death.

Rarity was like them, except actually right. She had actively looked for hope, for something resistant to the dying world, and had found only herself. The last unicorn.

Fluttershy had to admire her for continuing on despite it all. Fluttershy had always been able to cling on to progress and eventual success in future generations. What was Rarity clinging on to?

She had no idea.

Furthermore, she had no idea what she was going to cling on to. Fluttershy had done her best to hide it from Rarity, but she was scared. Her home was far away and she had no way to get back. She was lost in a dying world of endless sand and she had just agreed to help it without having any real idea of how to do that.

To make matters worse, she didn’t think she was giving Rarity any hope. She should at least be able to do that by offering to help… but the unicorn was too broken to let herself hope. All Rarity did was keep walking.

She got the distinct impression Rarity believed Fluttershy wouldn’t last very long. Which was… concerning.

At least Rarity had paid attention when Fluttershy went over all her weapons.

“And this is a mini bolt rifle, a weapon of my own invention,” Fluttershy explained, holding out a small box with three barrels pointing out of it. She flipped open the safety hatch, revealing a trigger. “Pull on this and it’ll fire a three-way volley of seeker magic darts.”

“…A miniature automatic crossbow?”

“A bit more powerful than that, but yeah. …You don’t have guns?”

Rarity raised an eyebrow.

“Ranged weapons that shoot through a chemical reaction? Gunpowder?”

“Never heard of such a thing.”

“Guess the knowledge was lost…” Fluttershy furrowed her brow. “Anyway, I could teach you how to use it.”

“It would be best if you used your more complex weaponry yourself.”

“I can’t.”

Rarity blinked. “You… can’t?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “I have a mental condition. I can’t react when I believe I’m under attack. You saw me freeze back there.”

“You say that with such… casual airs.”

Fluttershy smiled sadly. “I used to think my condition was a tragedy. Now… well, I’d still rather I didn’t have it, but it’s part of me. It’s what allowed me to become such a great weaponsmith. The mini bolt rifle wouldn’t exist if I was charging into battle every day to meet the monsters.”

“Surel-“

Fluttershy held up a hoof. “Rarity, I appreciate what you were about to say, but don’t. I’ve walked into battle with hunters hundreds of times in my life, if I could get used to the sensation and move past it I would have by now. I don’t let it stop me from facing the creatures and providing help to my friends but it’s a part of me I can’t fix. Okay?”

Rarity focused on Fluttershy’s smile. It was hard for Fluttershy to read her given how she kept her face covered all the time, not to mention the dust on the goggles.

“Okay,” Rarity agreed. “Though I will not require a ranged weapon. I can close the distance with a teleport.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Thanks. …Normally I’d suggest activating my shield to help protect me, but I don’t have it. My armor’s enchanted with swift enchantments, not defensive ones, unfortunately.”

“I cannot think of a weapon in the world aside from my magic that could pierce your armor.”

“Now if only I had my helmet on when I was zapped away…”

Rarity nodded, glancing toward the horizon. “The sun will set soon.”

“Looks like it.”

“I’m going to take you up on that offer you made earlier. Fly me to the rocks.”

Fluttershy broke out into a grin. “You got it! Hold on tight!” She spread her wings and jumped into the air, carefully flapping over to Rarity’s position. She locked her front hooves around Rarity’s midsection, careful to place her hooves so they would apply pressure to Rarity’s shoulders rather than ribs.

She would need a bit more oomph to fly effectively while carrying Rarity, so she focused a decent amount of magic into her wings. The gust spell activated, creating jets of wind behind her with every flap, launching the two of them into the air.

Fluttershy could feel Rarity’s muscles tense as they rose higher, though the unicorn quickly relaxed as the ride smoothed out. It did not take long for them to reach an altitude far enough from the ground that they could no longer feel sand grains blowing into their faces. Up here, the air was clear and the wind refreshing.

Wings aglow with whirling winds, Fluttershy angled herself forward, launching directly for the rocks at high speed. The wind whipped through her mane and tail, blowing them behind her like loose ribbons. Her magic coalesced into a soft green trail that streaked along the sky behind them. In a sky that hadn’t seen clouds in years, there was suddenly a reason to look up.

It would have taken them over an hour to reach the rocks on hoof. Like this, it took five minutes. The rocks stood tall, devoid of any vegetation or even evidence of past vegetation. Nothing more than tall, narrow rocks towering taller than most buildings.

“Fluttershy, stop!”

Fluttershy flared her wings out and brought them to a halt in midair, the sudden change in inertia churning her stomach. “What is it?”

“There’s a pony down there,” Rarity said, pointing with a back hoof. Sure enough, there was a blue pony sitting on top of one of the immense, scraggly rocks.

She was waving at them with a blue hoof.

“…Friendly?” Fluttershy asked.

“Don’t know,” Rarity admitted. “I’d teleport us, but…”

“I understand. Don’t worry; I know how to work around my mind. If she attacks you’ll be dropped safely.”

“...I’m putting a lot of trust in you…”

Fluttershy nodded. “I gotcha.” She took up a position directly above the waving pony and slowly descended, making sure to keep Rarity completely upright. The blue pony did not attack them as they landed – though she did spread her pegasus wings and hover a few feet above the tip of the rock spire.

“Another one?” Rarity asked as she was safely deposited on the ground. “I am finding a surprisingly large number of magically infused pegasi today.”

The blue pegasus nodded, flipping her rainbow mane back. She, like Fluttershy, was a bit too clean to have been wandering the desert, though she wasn’t bogged down with weapons. All she had was a small, disc-shaped object, a rectangular metal thing Fluttershy couldn’t identify strapped to her hoof, and a well-stitched gray shirt with a “u” symbol on it. “Hey. Name’s Rainbow Dash. I take it most pegasi can’t fly here?”

“And you find pegasi that can’t fly odd…” Rarity turned to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy nodded. “Are you from the past too?”

Rainbow stared at her. “…What? Past?

“The time of monsters…?”

“Flutters, I just came from a space station.”

Fluttershy blinked. “…What?”

Rarity narrowed her eyes. “How did you know her name?”

Fluttershy tensed. That’s right, she just called me Flutters. We haven’t introduced ourselves yet…

“Are you from… deeper into the future?” Fluttershy asked.

“What? No!” Rainbow facehooved. “I’m from another universe!”

Fluttershy and Rarity stared at her blankly.

“Another world? One where things are different? Uh… crud, I’m usually not the mare explaining this…” She tapped the tips of her wings together. “Man, I was not preparing for an interrogation when you arrived.”

“You were expecting us!?” Fluttershy said. What doesn’t this mare know?

“She’s a flying pegasus, Fluttershy,” Rarity said. “One sitting on top of a tall rock, nonetheless. She could have seen us from miles away easily.”

“Oh.” Fluttershy chided herself for overreacting. Right now she needed to stay focused and in control, even more than usual. “We’d still like to know what you’re talking about.”

Rainbow furrowed her brow. “Right… so… aha! Got it! This isn’t perfect, but it’ll do. Think about a moment in your lives where you made a big decision. Got it?”

Fluttershy nodded, holding the moment she chose to become a weaponsmith in her mind. She had no idea what Rarity was thinking of.

“Right, so, imagine you had chosen something else. Doesn’t matter if you don’t think you would have, just imagine if you had a bout of insanity and did. Imagine what would have happened.”

Fluttershy thought back. She would probably have ended up a teacher at the Academy, never seeing any action and having a less direct influence on the monsters. Her weapon designs would not have pushed back the Boglagath and the stronghold of Wiffleheim would have fallen. Her hometown of Musk would probably have been flattened by the ignited behemoth.

“Now stop imagining, because chances are that ‘what if’ image you have in your head actually exists.”

Fluttershy and Rarity blinked, not processing what she’d just said.

“There might be another place identical to your home except you made that other decision. Two different worlds, one where A happened, the other where B happened.”

“A realm where magic was never lost?” Rarity asked, seeming short of breath.

“Maybe?” Rainbow said, shrugging. “There’s no guarantee that the alternate version you want actually exists, but it’s possible. The idea I’m trying to get you to think about is that there are other worlds, other realms of existence, with other ponies that look a lot like you walking around and doing things. It’s how I know your names – I’ve met a lot of Fluttershys and Raritys in my time.”

Fluttershy gasped. “I… I’m not from the past, am I?”

“I have no idea,” Rainbow admitted with a shrug. “Time travel is a thing out there. But if I were a betting mare – which I conveniently am, heh – I would say you’re from another world, like me.”

“…Huh…” Fluttershy said, uncertain how to process this.

Rarity took a step forward. “You travel these… worlds, yes?”

Rainbow saluted. “Yep! Captain Rainbow Dash, Merodi Universalis!”

“Can you take Fluttershy home?”

Fluttershy looked to Rarity in shock. “I’m not abandoning you.”

Rarity shook her head. “If she can take you, we should use the opportunity.”

“My world can handle itself. I’ll leave a message – this world needs me more. …Actually, we can get more hunters here, bring more magic to the desert…”

“Don’t get your hopes up, I’m pretty stuck at the moment,” Rainbow said with a nervous smile. “My dimensional device is scrambled and I have no idea what world this is.” She pulled out a disc-shaped device and showed it to them. “It’s currently searching for any connection it can find. So far? Grand total of zero.”

Rarity nodded. “As expected.”

“I don’t suppose you know of any dimensional magics in this world?” Rainbow asked, grinning cheekily.

Rarity shook her head. “None, I’m afraid.”

“But come on! You two are, like, restoring magic to the desert, right?”

Fluttershy realized she had let that slip and covered her mouth.

“Oh, that a secret?” Rainbow chuckled. “Guess I’ll pretend I don’t know it then. You’re welcome.”

“Much appreciated,” Rarity commented dryly.

“Anyway…” Rainbow turned to Fluttershy. “How’d you get here?”

“I was just working and then… there was a flash of green light. I was suddenly in the desert.”

“Hmm…” Rainbow scratched her chin.

“That means something to you,” Rarity observed.

“Yeah. Space-time’s gone screwy and probably dragged several ponies here. I arrived a similar way, myself. If I know anything about how this usually goes, we’re going to have to find the other ponies.”

Fluttershy perked up. A goal.

“How would we find them?” Rarity asked.

Rainbow shrugged. “I don’t know for certain. I know one of them is a tall purple pony with a truly outrageous amount of magic, so maybe you can detect that?”

Rarity raised an eyebrow.

“Please don’t tell me you’re trying to hide the fact that you’re a unicorn. That’ll be so annoying to work around.”

Fluttershy stepped between Rarity and Rainbow. “She’s the only unicorn in this world, it’s better for everypony if she doesn’t flaunt it.”

“Oh. Geez.” Rainbow rubbed the back of her head. “I’m sorry, didn’t realize it was such a big deal here…”

“Mhm…” Rarity hummed. “I can sense magic, yes, but not over large distances. Which I suspect is what you need.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow muttered. “And if Fluttershy was dragged here, there are probably others…” She kicked a rock. “And I’ve got no backup, no leads, and two ponies w-“

Her dimensional device buzzed. She quickly tore it out of her pocket, grinning - there was a green “1” on the screen. “It found one!”

“…Another world?” Fluttershy asked.

“Heck yeah it did! Ha-ha! Your minds are going to be blown!” She held the device out with her wing and tapped it with her other feathered limb. The disc lit up with several green lights, shooting a speck of white energy forward. It stopped a couple feet in front of the device, rippling the space around it like a mirage. With a sound not unlike a metal sheet warping in the wind, a ring of white energy expanded from the point, pushing space out of the way. The interior of the ring showed something neither Fluttershy nor Rarity had ever seen.

An endless expanse of bronze gears moving with an unnaturally regular beat. Clank. Clank. Clank. Most of the gears were larger than houses, turning with impressive power. This clockwork extended for as far as they could see in every direction, lit by white rods spread around seemingly randomly.

“…I take it from your expression that’s not your world?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “No…”

“Great.” Rainbow stuck the dimensional device through the portal and shook it around a bit. “It’s not finding any more worlds on the other side. Ugh.” She pulled the device back out. The ring of the portal shimmered for a moment before collapsing with a comical pop.

“Well. It appears you aren’t a madmare,” Rarity observed.

“We… we will help you find the others,” Fluttershy said, smiling. “That is, if you don’t mind, Rarity.”

“I do not. It is as good of a next step as any other.”

Rainbow nodded. “Thanks! I look forward to working with you. But first, it looks like it’s about to be night. I found a cave in the base of these rocks filled with mushrooms, we can stay there.”

“So that’s how the raiders survive…” Rarity mused.

“Raiders?”

“Nothing to be concerned about, we took care of them.”

Rainbow smirked. “Glad to hear it. Also good to know that I might have to watch for raiders. Anyway, do you want a ride down on the S. S. Rainbow Dash? It’ll be much more exciting than the ride you took to get here.”

Rarity teleported the three of them to the base of the rock with a flash of white magic.

Rainbow let out a disappointed grunt. “Or we can do that. That’s fine too.”

Fluttershy grinned. “Looks like you don’t rate.”

“Ah, I can see you’re one of the more sarcastic and biting Fluttershys.”

Fluttershy still wasn’t sure what to make of there being other Fluttershys in the world. Or there being other worlds in the first place. Or Rainbow Dash herself.

Probably best just to sleep on it, really.