Fluttershy’s head reeled. Something had changed the moment she passed through the portal, and since she had been frozen when she’d gone through, she had nothing with which to analyze her situation.
The buzzing in the back of her mind was oppressive. Even though she had come to accept her condition and was more than content with her life... the buzzing… she hated the buzzing.
New Alice City looked just as it had through the portal, not that she could really react to it. Not like this.
One of the soldiers had come through with them. She couldn’t hear his weapon charge and fire because of the buzzing, but she could feel it. The slight ionization of the air, a rush of wind, and a shuddering impact.
Applejack fell into Fluttershy’s field of view, kit flying open and spilling her numerous tools onto the hard ground of the dark alleyway. The lasers had burned holes in two of her legs, making it difficult for her to move, much less stand.
However, she was nothing if not a clever pony. She used one of her free legs to grab Fluttershy, pulling her in front so her armor could deflect the next shot. Fluttershy fell over, a soft ‘oof’ escaping from her lips.
In the time this bought her, Applejack took a knife off Fluttershy’s armor and strapped it to her boot. She jumped out and drove it into the neck hole of the soldier’s armor. Lightning erupted from the blade, coursing through the orange clouds and armor itself. The being dissipated into loose dust and the Runic defenses clattered to the ground.
Applejack fell to the ground, breathing heavily. Fluttershy, now in full control of her faculties once more, trotted over to Applejack and laid her wings over the mechanic’s wounds. She cast a healing spell…
…Grinding, sulking, curious…
…Fluttershy pulled her wings back, startled. She had cast the spell – Applejack’s wounds were healed, at least on the surface – but something had went into her wings as she did so. Something… cold.
Applejack coughed, sitting up. “You look like you’ve seen a corpse.”
“I… Rarity was right, the magic here is…” she didn’t know how to describe it, besides simply wrong, and she didn’t want to judge this world that quickly.
Speaking of…
She breathed carefully and looked around New Alice City. They were in an abandoned alleyway with empty trash cans and evidence of rats. The walls around them were made of black, disheveled brick that was heavily worn. At one end of the alley was a boarded up door and the other led to a street with horseless carriages flying by, lighting up the night with their lights.
The moon dominated the sky. Fluttershy felt like it was watching her. Watching everypony.
“I killed him,” Applejack said, suddenly.
Fluttershy knew what she needed to do. “You were acting in self defense, don’t you ever, for a single moment, think you had any other choice. He wanted you dead, and you were at a disadvantage. You did what you had to do, even if it was regrettable.”
Applejack looked at her, stunned. “Have…?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “No. I never get the opportunity—because of my condition. But my weapons have.”
“Your world loves you.”
“You… you made it there?”
Applejack nodded. “Twilight was able to get me and Pinkie th-“ She stopped herself. “Where’s Pinkie?”
Fluttershy whirled around, looking for any sign of the pink mare – finding nothing. Not even a pink hair on the dark ground.
“Pinkie!” Applejack called. “Pinkie Acorn!”
“Applejack took care of the cloud!” Fluttershy added. “There’s no danger!”
No response.
Applejack clenched her jaw. “…We need to look for her.”
Fluttershy agreed. “Blue Bolt did say she would be able to find us if we came back… if we can find her, we can find Pinkie.”
“How do we find her?”
“I think it’s more of a ‘she finds us’ sort of thing.”
Applejack nodded. “Then we just wander around until we find something. Know anything about this world?”
“Magic isn’t… normal. It’s called New Alice City. That’s… it.” Fluttershy shrugged.
Applejack nodded. “Can you use those fancy hooves of yours to get my tools?”
“Fancy hoov- oh! You don’t have traction hooves!” She immediately set to work picking up the spilled tools and tying them back to Applejack in a makeshift toolkit. “There you go. Should work until we can get you a new one.”
Applejack pointed at the dimensional device with her hoof. “Know how to use this?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “I think I might be able to figure out how to send us back to the desert… but we don’t want to go back until we hear from the others.” She picked up the Runic armor and hung it over her flank – she never knew, it could be useful.
“So. Which way?” Applejack asked.
Fluttershy gestured to the street with her nose. The two left the alleyway, stepping out to a land lit by distant neon signs, metal poles with flickering lights, and the endless rush of horseless carriages. It was hard to see into the carriages, but Fluttershy could occasionally pick out a few pony silhouettes through the windows. There were a few ponies talking around on the sidewalks, heads directed at the ground.
The road signs were wrong. Not only did they appear to be written in complete gibberish that pointed into walls, contradicted other signs, or sometimes angled straight into the sky. The carriages seemed to completely ignore them. “What…?”
“Excuse me, we’re lost,” Applejack said, addressing a passing stallion. “Mind telling us where we are?”
“Every soul is lost in New Alice City…” the stallion droned without a hint of emotion in his voice. He kept walking, not so much as looking up to examine them.
“…Odd,” Fluttershy admitted. “I’m going to try and get a sky-high view. I’ll be right back.”
Applejack nodded in agreement. She’s too eager to follow orders… good for now, but what is she going to do when she needs to stand up for herself? Fluttershy took to the air, gaining as much altitude as she could.
Her wings tingled slightly from the world’s magic, but it wasn’t enough to shake Fluttershy. She rose higher… higher… higher…
And she couldn’t see the edge of the city. The buildings went on and on… all under the gaze of the moon.
She rose higher still, so high that it became difficult to pick out individual buildings even with her eagle-eyes. There was no sign of the edge of the city. Endless buildings in every direction, the vast majority lit by their own artificial lights. She saw massive buildings hundreds of stories tall, many of which looked like artistic sculptures… but no single building was unique. Even the largest most impressive ones had a copy somewhere in her field of view.
From this high up, she could see the major streets, too. They appeared straight at first glance, but at closer inspection she realized they were moving. The further away something was from her, the more it rolled and churned like it was made of some sort of liquid.
And then she noticed the dark spots. Large, circular patches of the city where all the artificial lights were off, creating a jarring interruption in the otherwise uniform cityscape. The spots roamed the city, as though they were living entities…
The closest one was moving right toward her location. Nothing to worry about, chances are good one of them would be moving toward me…
The second closest one was also moving toward her. And the third. And the fourth.
All of them.
They seemed to be picking up speed too.
Fluttershy decided she’d had enough time in the sky and plummeted back down to the street Applejack was waiting in, landing hard enough to crack the sidewalk with her armor. “We shouldn’t stay here.”
“What did you see?”
“Dark things. Coming right for us.” She gestured at the axe on her back. “That is a weapon of light. If you need to…”
“Got it.”
Fluttershy pointed down the street. “That way.” The two trotted along at a brisk pace, stopping only to talk to the ponies they came across.
“Hey, what are the dark things?” Fluttershy asked one of them.
“Everything is dark…”
Fluttershy twitched. “Is this place designed to be unhelpful?”
“They can’t help you.”
Fluttershy turned to see a bright white pegasus in an official looking blue cap giving them a curious glance.
“Why not?” Fluttershy asked.
The mare twirled a baton in her wing. “They’re the lost. Y’know. Dead?”
“I – I didn’t.”
“Everypony knows that, liar.”
“We’re not from this world. I’ve never been to this city before.”
“Oooh, makes perfect sense.” The mare put away her baton. “I’ll have to take you to the station to get you acquainted with the City.”
“Oh, you’re an officer?”
The mare tapped her cap. “Yep. Somepony’s gotta keep this City under control. Come with me.”
They followed her, turning a corner into…
Fluttershy’s head reeled. She was sure they had turned onto another street, but… she was currently looking at a dark blue building lit by purple lights. The sign on the front was unreadable, but there was a dilapidated shield symbol matching the one on the officer’s head. “What in…?”
“You two would be so lost without me…” the officer said with a chuckle. “Don’t worry, this door ain’t gonna fold ya.”
“Fold…” Fluttershy said, trying the term out. She’d be sure to listen for it and ask about it.
The inside of the station was jarringly bright, although excessively purple. The moment they were inside the outside city looked almost pitch black, only the light of the carriages and posts fighting to be seen. Almost like stars…
Had there been stars in the sky? Fluttershy wasn’t sure.
“Right this way, need to get you fitted out with the proper paperwork.”
She led them to a desk covered in precarious stacks of paper, stamps, and pens of varying colors that were impossible to see clearly under the purple light. With an ‘a-ha!’ the officer brought out two identical forms and set them on the desk.
None of the words on either of them were legible, even though they were presented in neat blocks of text. Fluttershy could make out a dotted line at the bottom.
The officer gave them both pens, grinning. “Sign your names here and we can get you into the system!”
Applejack probably would have signed had she been able to hold the pen. Fluttershy, however, dropped the pen like it was made of molten lead – the burning sensation of the magic on it had been deeply disturbing. “What kind of spell have you placed on this!?” she demanded, flaring her wings in aggression.
The officer stared at her in confusion. “You… you can’t detect spells...”
Fluttershy cast a simple light spell with her wings, revealing most of the pens to be red colored – specifically, the red of blood. “Wanna bet?”
…Seeing, yearning, devouring…
The officer stared at her. She pulled out a gun – only for Applejack to kick it out of her hoof.
“Don’t try it,” Applejack said, hefting the hoof that held Fluttershy’s knife in it.
The officer was at a loss for words.
And then she wasn’t there anymore.
Gone. Not so much as a poof.
“Wh…” Fluttershy took a few steps back.
“I have no idea,” Applejack said, gulping. “But I really, really don’t like this place.”
The two moved to leave the station – but they found that there was no ground outside. The posts and carriages were moving atop a nothingness that went on forever.
Fluttershy frowned. “Rope.”
Applejack nodded, tying a rope around Fluttershy’s armored waist and tying the other end to a latch on a door inside the station. Fluttershy spread her wings and flew into the nothingness. Down… down…
There was nothing down there. Endless… nothing.
Looking up, she could see the moon, towering over all the buildings that were sitting on the nothing. It went on forever.
Fluttershy flew back up – and suddenly the street was back, beneath her hooves. “This…”
“I’m thinking we might try our chances back in the desert…” Applejack said as Fluttershy walked back in. “Dead ponies walking around… managers trying to do… I don’t even know.”
“Blood is a dark magic construct,” Fluttershy said. “There are hunters who use it, but it must be used sparingly and carefully. That pen was saturated with it. And this world…” She looked at the moon.
She couldn’t quite put her hoof on what about the moon she didn’t like. It was big. That shouldn’t be that much of a problem. Right?
Without warning, there were a dozen officers outside the station, all pointing their guns at the two of them. “Come out with your wings up!” they shouted in perfect unison.
Fluttershy froze – Applejack didn’t. She grabbed Fluttershy and dragged her behind the desk, using the wood as cover. The bullets started flying, but they weren’t enchanted, so the thick wood provided more than enough shielding.
And then everything was pitch black – save the glow of the Runic armor on Fluttershy’s flank.
“Applejack?”
“I’m here,” Applejack said. “Can’t see anything other than you, though.”
Fluttershy spread her wings, casting another light spell.
...Defiant, energized, unique…
Fluttershy could make out Applejack and the desk – but nothing much further than that. “…This spell should be more powerful.”
“This isn’t natural darkness.”
“Definitely not…”
“I don’t hear the managers anymore.”
“I don’t hear anything. Not even… the carriages.”
“Huh?”
“The rolling things outside.”
“Oh.”
There was suddenly a hole in the ground where there hadn’t been before. With a yelp, the two of them fell into the hole, sliding down a glowing ramp. There was no more darkness, now they were surrounded by a kaleidoscope of rapidly flashing colors.
Fluttershy felt as though she was drifting through syrup one moment and cloud the next…
Then it was bright.
There was nothing around them but white expanse as far as the eye could see.
“Okay, clearly, you are all a bunch of idiots and I should have given you some basic survival tips for New Alice City.”
“R-rainbow…?” Fluttershy asked, barely able to hold anything in focus.
A slap across her face remedied that. “I am the Blue Bolt. We don’t use the names they want in the Thieves’ Guild.”
Fluttershy saw the blue face of Bolt come into focus. “Thieves’ Guild?”
“Yeah. The only bastion of true freedom in the city.” She waved a wing at them, indicating they should follow her into the white expanse.
Applejack looked at Fluttershy, questioning. Fluttershy’s only response was to smile, shrug, and follow the Blue Bolt.
~~~
Pinkie had folded through the wall upon arrival.
She stood in the center of a small patch of grass, lit by four lampposts. The buildings of New Alice City rose around her like an oppressive claw, and the moon…
The moon looked at her.
She let out a prayer of thanks that there was no way it could know what was going on inside her mind.
…Not that she really knew what was going on in her mind. None of this made any sense. It was… impossible.
Is it though?
Wordlessly, she took a step off the grass and onto the sidewalk, paying special attention to the cars that passed by.
Every last one was filled with the exact same pony silhouette. No variation. And none of the cars ever stopped. Nopony ever got out.
They’re not real.
One way or the other, that thought was true.
Pinkie began to walk down the sidewalk, refusing to look at the moon. She couldn’t be noticed…
Applejack and Fluttershy wouldn’t know that. They couldn’t know that. Pinkie couldn’t know that.
Right?
“Well, what’s a mare like you doing out and about at a time like this?”
Pinkie refused to look at the officer. Don’t make eye contact. “Time is meaningless.”
“Hmm… colorful, for a lost…”
“Color is just a projection of failed dreams.”
The officer grunted, turning away from Pinkie. One step, and the hatted pony folded through a nearby wall, appearing elsewhere.
Safe. For now.
Pinkie continued walking, keeping her head down, only taking momentary glances upward to see where she was. She didn’t look at the signs, or even the streets. She looked at how the cars moved. They may never arrive at a destination, but they were always going somewhere…
And she would as well.
There’s no way. This is all just a coincidence. There won’t be a donut shop at the end of this.
She folded through the air. She was standing in front of a corner store with a large, neon pink donut on top.
“No…” she breathed, a tear streaking down her face. “No. Not…”
She walked into the store, sitting down at one of the tables.
A blue mare walked up to her and pulled out a notebook and pen. “Welcome to the Donuteer! What can I getcha?”
“Pink sprinkle deluxe, hold the underglaze.”
The mare fixed her with a dumbstruck glare. “I… I’m sorry?”
“You heard me,” Pinkie deadpanned. “You know what to do.”
“I… y-yes! Right away!” She reached behind the counter and gave Pinkie a donut covered in sprinkles. “Remember to savor it!” She ran away so fast she dropped her notebook and pen down on the ground.
Pinkie didn’t even touch the donut – she stared, blankly, outside. The headlights and lampposts shone like stars against the inky blackness.
After sitting like this for a few minutes, something unexpected happened. A dark unicorn stallion trotted into the establishment and sat down across from Pinkie.
He had a donut. But the blue mare hadn’t been here to give him one…
“Donuts are the perfect example of the cycle you find yourself in,” the stallion said.
Pinkie refused to answer him.
“I live, you can be assured of that. The moon does not ensnare me. But, naturally, that does not mean I am for you… just as those ensnared are not all against. Curious, isn’t it? The slight imperfections in rigidity?”
I am not looking at him.
“And yet, the passing familiarity… the way that everything seems to click. I can see it in those eyes you are trying so desperately to hide from me. You’ve been here before.”
“Everypony lives in New Alice City,” Pinkie mumbled. “That’s… all there is.”
“I think you and I know differently.” He grinned. “My name is Shine. And I don’t belong.”
“…Clearly.”
“I’m the only one who hasn’t followed your understanding, isn’t this true? The only outlier. Something… else. Beyond even the Thieves and their little games, no matter how much the Auburn Mistress and the Blue Bolt wish for more.”
Pinkie tensed. This is all ridiculous. It doesn’t exist. It’s a dream. It’s true either way!
“All one with the moon… maybe.” Shine looked at the notebook and pen on the ground. “You could stay here, finish your donut, and become part of the expected. Or you could grab that… and uncover a real secret.” He no longer had a donut. He stood up and walked out the doors, vanishing into the darkness.
Pinkie looked at the donut in front of her, speaking of familiarity, guarantees… and then there were the notebook and pen on the ground.
What was she scared of?
She shivered.
Everything.
She grabbed the notebook and pen, proceeding to leave the establishment.