//------------------------------// // Chapter 18 // Story: Millennium Wake: Part 1 // by Chaotic Dreams //------------------------------// Chapter 18 “Well howdy there, Rarity!” yee-hawed a familiar orange earth pony with a decidedly lighter coat than Rarity remembered. There were streaks of grey in her mane and tail as well. Her familiar Stetson was noticeably absent, though a beautiful replacement perched atop its former home. Rarity supposed that even Applejack would have eventually wised up about not being able to keep her beloved cowgirl hat around forever. “Uh, what do Ah say now?” Upon this last vocalization,, Applejack’s focus had shifted from looking directly at the magical recording device’s eye to somepony out of sight. “Just tell her what you’ve been doing and what’s going on in your life,” hissed an irritated voice that sounded suspiciously like Twilight’s. “Oh, right,” Applejack’s older image agreed. “Well, let’s see… After Ponyville, Ah moved out here ta’ Appleoosa ta’ help Braeburn and the rest o’ the Apple family settlers. It weren’t long after that when Ah came up with the idea of antimagic and built mahself a company around the stuff. The basic idear is that ya’ take one spell and then cast another spell that is exactly the opposite charge of the first spell. This makes the two spells cancel each other out, and there ya’ have it! Antimagic!” Rarity listened with rapt attention, not even daring to blink lest she miss a single moment of seeing one of her original friends again. Either her new draconic eyes allowed her to blink considerably less or she was just extremely determined, as afterwards she didn’t seem to remember blinking at all. The fact that Applejack was talking about something that might solve Firefly’s problem once and for all only increased the unwavering nature of Rarity’s full attention. She already knew the spell to force a copy of Rainbow Dash’s imprint into a pony’s mind, so it sounded like all she had to do was create an antimagic spell to counteract the vile enchantment. Then, not only would Firefly be freed, but the spell itself would become useless. Nopony need ever suffer from the schemes of Rainbow’s imprint ever again, at least not for long. The cold claws of reality gripped the white unicorn’s heart when she remembered Applejack’s company had literally been buried centuries ago. But that couldn’t be the end of it all, could it? Surely something of the company survived, right? Even if it meant digging down through a mountain of sand to get to the factory, Rarity was determined to find some antimagic. “At first Ah just intended antimagic to be used fer prolongin’ the zap-apple harvest,” the recording went on. “If we could figure out how to stop the magic that makes all them zap-apples disappear at the end of the day after they show up, then we could harvest a whole heap more. But Ah quickly found out that with the help of some other ponies, antimagic could be used fer so many other things as well. “Dragons use magic ta’ breathe fire, so if ya’ have the right antispell ya’ only have their strength ta’ worry ‘bout,” Applejack continued, seemingly lost in her memories of discovering such a wonder. And why wouldn’t she be proud of it? Such a discovery did indeed hold the potential to help so many ponies. If, like everything else in this frightening new era and the ages leading up to it, antimagic didn’t fall into the wrong hooves. “The same goes fer cockatrices and their nasty tricks, as well any other magical monster. Twilight supplied the magic and the unicorns, a’ course, but I came up with the idear. “I guess that’s about all I can say ‘bout mah company,” the older earth pony finished. “It’s been hard without you, a’ course, but I can say I’m happy each of our friends’ lives have gone well. The Cutie Mark Crusaders ain’t The Cutie Mark Crusaders anymore. Scootaloo went on ta’ be Vice President at Rainbow Industries, but I’m sure you already know that from RD’s Disks. Applebloom’s the most successful architect in all o’ Equestria; she even designed this here company headquarters o’ mine. Sweetie Belle’s got her own singin’ career now, and boy do the crowds love her!” Rarity’s face fell a little at this last mention. She knew all too well how Sweetie Belle’s life had gone. Scootaloo’s too, for that matter, if the copies in The Hall of Life were anything to go by. Admittedly, those might have all been lies. Rarity certainly hoped so, but the possibility that they had told the awful truth wouldn’t leave her alone, and probably never would. “Speakin’ o’ which, has Sweetie Belle ever gotten a spot on one o’ these here Disks?” Applejack asked, again turning her attention away from the eye of the magical recording device. “I know all us friends get a say, but shouldn’t Rarity’s family get ta’ leave some messages too?” “Oh, no!” the suspiciously Twilight-esque voice gasped from out of sight. “I completely forgot about the family!” “Well we need to get them a spot on one a’ these Disks sometime, don’t we?” Applejack insisted. “Of course we do!” Twilight’s voice—who else could it be?—agreed frantically. “And Rarity’s parents are already in The Ponyville Retirement Home! We have to go see them immediately!” “Immediately?” the orange earth pony inquired. “You mean like, right now?” “Yes!” Twilight’s disembodied voice responded urgently. Applejack looked like she was about to say something else, when her eyes lit up, reflecting a familiar realization. “Oh, no,” the older orange mare stated firmly. “Not that—not only do ya’ know how much that makes mah hip act up, think of how much it’ll scare ‘em! You could give ‘em heart attacks!” “It’s the fastest way to get to The Ponyville Retirement Home and you know it!” Twilight’s voice insisted. “Don’t ya’ dare—” Applejack tried to demand, but she was interrupted by a flash of light. When the fierce glow faded, the background behind Applejack had shifted from a wooden office to a room full of elderly ponies who were understandably startled. “…Ya’ dared.” “Applejack?” a horribly familiar voice called from off-screen. “Twilight? What are you two doing here?” Oh, no. No, no, no. NO! Not this, please! But Rarity couldn’t pull her eyes away from the hologram, try as she might. “Sweetie Belle!” the Stetson-wearing earth pony called, smiling and waving at somepony unseen. “It’s good ta’ see ya’ guys again!” Suddenly the eye of the magical recording device was wrapped in another glow, though this haze was decidedly less bright than the previous. The view shifted from gasping and wide-eyed elderly ponies to spin and see— “No!” Rarity cried out. “I can’t watch this!” But she couldn’t tear her gaze away. “Would you like to turn it off?” Firefly questioned worriedly. “Quiet!” the white unicorn hissed, not even looking at the temporarily un-split pegasus as Firefly recoiled at her snap. “O-okay,” Firefly mumbled, sounding a little bit upset. Rarity felt a tad guilty for a moment, but quickly shrugged it off; she had something more important to pay attention to. There they were. Sweetie Belle, older than when she had supposedly given up on Rarity, but younger than when she had refused to sing at her elder sister’s ‘funeral.’ And there, older by far, were Rarity’s parents. The unsophisticated, heavily accented, and beyond embarrassing ponies who had less class than anypony Rarity had ever met. Tears formed in her eyes as the full force of how much she missed them hit her in the face. “We’re so sorry ta’ be interruptin’ ya’ll’s day like this,” Applejack apologized as she tipped her hat. “But somepony forgot ta’ give Rarity’s family a chance ta’ leave her a message. That, and that somepony had ta’ drag me along through another tele-whatsit!” “It was the fastest way to get here!” Twilight repeated with indignity as the magical recording device’s eye was set down in front of Rarity’s family, the mystical haze around it diminished. “That don’t mean ya’ had ta’ bring me along!” the orange earth pony countered. “Not that I don’t enjoy seein’ ya’ll, a’course, but thing-a-ma-portin’ does horrors for mah hip! Ow!” “You’re leaving messages for Rarity?” Sweetie Belle inquired, her eyes just as wide and startled as Rarity’s parents (as well as everypony else in The Ponyville Retirement Home lobby, for that matter). “Yup,” Applejack agreed. “Y’know, just in case she don’t wake up afore… well… Just in case. It’s a good thing you were here, Sweetie Belle, or Twilight would probably be takin’ me all over Equestria ta’ find ya’… Speakin’ o’ which, please don’t take me back home, Twilight. I’d rather just send fer an airship.” “You’ll be fine,” Twilight assured dismissively. “And I’m so sorry to request this of you and your family all of a sudden, Sweetie Belle, but with my busy schedule I hardly have time to ensure the rest of The Element Bearers can record messages. If I don’t get you in now, who knows when I may find time to arrange another recording session?” “Are you sayin’ that ‘cause you’re too busy or ‘cause your memory ain’t what it used to be and you’ll just forget?” Applejack wondered blatantly. Twilight shot the earth pony a dark look, but turned back with a smile to Rarity’s family. “So, uh… is there anything you all would like to say to Rarity?” the lavender unicorn inquired. “Is there anything we would like to say to Rarity?” the white unicorn’s mother asked, tension rising in her voice. “IS THERE ANYTHING WE WOULD LIKE TO SAY TO RARITY?!” “Of course we do!” Rarity’s father roared with as much ferocity as an old pony’s wheezing voice would allow. “But we’d ALSO like to have a few choice words with YOU, Miss Sparkle!” “Mom! Dad!” Sweetie Belle scolded. “We’ve been through this! It’s not Twilight’s fault!” “Who gave her the apple?!” Rarity’s mother screamed. “You’re going to get yourselves all worked up!” Sweetie Belle reprimanded. “Calm down or you’ll give yourselves heart attacks!” “Our hearts HAVE been attacked!” Rarity’s father shot back. “By that delinquent excuse for a unicorn!” Both of Rarity’s parents looked like they had a few more choice words for Twilight, but with a flash of Sweetie Belle’s horn they were cut short. Each snored peacefully. “Please don’t mind them, Twilight,” Sweetie Belle apologized. “They’ve just… they’ve had a hard time. We all have, of course, and I know that includes you and the rest of Rarity’s friends. I want you to know that I don’t blame you for what happened to my sister. “And Mom and Dad are going to be furious when they wake up and learn that I robbed them of what might be their only chance to say something new to their daughter, but if I didn’t sedate them they might not have had another chance anyway,” the unicorn with the curling purple-and-pink mane went on. She then turned her attention away from Twilight and looked directly into the magical recording device’s eye. “But I think I speak for them as well as myself when I say that I never blamed you either, Rarity. I don’t blame you for not being here. That wasn’t your fault any more than it was Twilight’s.” What? Could this be… could this be true? Could that monster’s tale really have just been a lie? “Please,” Rarity whispered. “Please…!” “I want you to know that I never blamed you, not once,” Sweetie Belle went on. “I knew that if you could have been here with us, you would be. I know that nothing in the world could have separated you from all of us if you’d had a say in the matter.” A tearful smile broke out on Rarity’s face. “I also want you to know that I never thought of you as anything other than somepony to aspire to emulate,” Sweetie Belle continued. “Well, aside from that one incident that lead up to The Sisterhooves Social that one year, but that only made me admire you all the more. I mean, you of all ponies, coating yourself in mud just for me? What I’m really trying to say is, Rarity, that I—we, Mom and Dad, your friends, everypony you’ve touched with your generosity and self-sacrifice—love you, and always have.” . . . Her sister loved her. Had never stopped loving her. And, from the sound of it, never did even after the Disk. Silent tears of joy flowed down Rarity’s face as she huddled a short way off from the campfire, her throat tight with contentment. Her new friends had given her some time to herself, seeing her relieved grin and happily letting her absorb everything she had just experienced. It didn’t matter what this world threw at her. She could take it, and laugh in its face. Her sister loved her, and nopony could take that away from her. . . . Rarity sighed happily as her eyes lazily opened. “What a wonderful sleep...” Rarity bent herself backwards on the lush grass to stretch her stiff muscles, grunting at the elation. Her statement wasn’t directed at anypony in particular; she was just content enough to softly talk to herself and not think it strange. She had dozed off in her seclusion from the group, and saw their still-snoozing forms a ways off around the ashes of the campfire. Firefly had explained that there was no need to set up a guard because not only would the trees of The Fluttershy Forests wake them themselves if something came up, the trees would try their best to stop any violence within their groves. As Rarity had already seen, the trees had prehensile branches, so it was no stretch of the imagination to think of them scooping down and snatching up anypony who seemed to be looking to cause trouble. Rarity didn’t want to wake her friends yet—they had all deserved the peaceful sleep she happily saw they were experiencing—so she supposed she had some time to herself to plan the group’s next move. First, she guessed she should check where those new Disks were. The white unicorn concentrated, her horn igniting as she closed her dragon eyes. Thankfully she had not lapsed into seeing heat again since that first instance, but Rarity was ever-weary with the fear that she would unintentionally do so and wouldn’t be able to undo it. If she didn’t know how to turn on the infra… inf… whatever it was, then she certainly didn’t know how to turn it off. She almost gasped at the sharpness of the tug on her horn. Wherever those Disks were, they were CLOSE. Rarity opened her eyes and glanced hesitantly at her friends for a moment before finally deciding that they had had enough rest after all. She didn’t want these Disks to be spirited away before she could reach them. She lifted herself to her hooves, grunting again as her muscles woke up, before putting one hoof in front of the other. Her hooves were rather quiet on the soft grass, her steps making a light brushing noise instead of the usual clops. “Good morning, everypony—and human!” Rarity called cheerily to her companions as she began to trot over to them, only to be halted by a pull at the base of her spine. Her breath caught in her mouth as she slowly turned her head around to see— Rarity screamed. “Peanut butter giants killed the presidential goat!” Surprise, apparently still somewhat caught up in a dream, gasped as she jolted awake along with Firefly and Megan. The multicolored pegasus looked around wildly while Megan sprang to her feet and formed two blades in her hands as she scanned for the danger. The blades were quickly unformed at what she and everypony else saw next. Everypony and human’s eyes widened. The white unicorn’s new tail was not laid out flat behind her, dragged along the ground as it had been the night before. It seemed the formerly lifeless appendage had at last gained functionality, as the shining black scorpion stinger had apparently buried itself into a nearby object. It was very tall, and caught the sunlight filtering down from the canopy above, causing it to explode inside its crystalline heart. Dizzying rainbows emanated from the opaquely transparent structure, dancing up and down and spiraling out of reason or rhyme even as they played havoc with one’s reflection. Rarity looked up at its tall, towering form to see hundreds of similar smaller forms sprouting out from its peak. They arced overhead and outwards in every direction before branching out from one another to motionlessly jab countless tiny spades into the air. Wait… branching? The white unicorn’s leaf-green eyes widened as their owner realized that the very ‘spades’ she was looking at had also once been green. Just as the main tower of the structure before her had once been bark-brown… “What… but… I don’t understand…” Rarity whispered to herself in utter confusion. “How could a living tree be turned into… diamond?” And why in The ULE was the spiked tip of her new tail stuck inside it? Rarity’s draconic eyes grew even wider, as did her friends’. “Oh, no…” the white unicorn whispered. “I-I thought... I...” “Rarity…?” Megan ventured, cautiously walking over to the shocked mare. “Stop! Don’t come near me!” Rarity shouted back, throwing a hoof in her friend’s direction as a warning. “So that’s really what I think it is?” the human questioned after stopping abruptly. “What else could it be?” Rarity said as she pulled away from the former tree, hard. With a popping, splintering noise, her tail shot out of the diamond structure. But instead of falling flat to the ground, the tail curled up behind her. And she could feel it. She shuddered. The ex-tree shuddered as well, causing Rarity to unintentionally step back. “It’s still alive?” she gasped, hope in her eyes. “Or was that just its death throes?” As it turned out, neither assumption was correct. The crystallized tree finished its own shudder and then stood stock still. After a moment of silence, the tree began to glow with a light of its own, though the light-show from the sunlight shining through it became no less stunning. The tree bent down, causing Rarity to hastily back up so that the branched tower of diamond didn’t crush her in its slow but steady fall. The transformed tree stopped a moment before it touched the ground, though, and raised itself back up. “What in the world?” Rarity wondered. Her eyes widened again when a strange primal urge flashed across her mind, new and alien and discomforting. It was quickly followed by an unintentional flexing of muscles she hadn’t possessed before, and the crunching of wood from behind. The group whirled around, Rarity included, causing her tail to pull free of another tree. A large hole had been left behind, and suddenly a shard of diamond thrust out of it. Next came another shard, this one pointing up, and then another pointing in yet another direction. Quickly countless shards began jutting out of the tree and climbing all over it every which way until the entire plant was covered. The shards melted into one another, and the group found themselves looking at a replica of the first former tree. Rarity had to back up to the first ex-plant when the new diamond-tree performed its own shudder and near-fall before straightening back up and standing still as if nothing had happened. “What in the world indeed…” Firefly remarked. “Did you mean to do that?” Megan asked worriedly. “Did I… mean to back into the tree?” Rarity replied, not wanting to believe the conclusion her mind had concocted to explain this. “No.” “You didn’t back into it,” Megan corrected. “You stung it.” “I… but… I don’t even know how to use this thing!” Rarity glanced back nervously at her new tail. “I didn’t... I didn’t mean to--” Suddenly her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten since her meal of strange fruit before falling asleep the previous night. Instantly, more of those same fruits sprouted on the still-organic trees all around and were thrown down to the group below. Several landed at Rarity’s hooves, bringing a pleased smile to her face. Maybe she could make more sense of this after breakfast. It was rather hard to think on an empty stomach, after all. Her horn flared with a blue light as she magically picked up the fruit, opening her mouth to take a bite. But before she could, the alien urge stabbed into her mind again, her eyes snapping wide open as the muscles in her scorpion tail tensed up. It... almost felt like a desire for companionship. But it was twisted and perverted, transformed into a sickly monstrosity, channeled by what felt like a strange need to sting things with her tail. Before she could stop herself, her newest appendage lashed out at the fruit hovering in front of her mouth. It was sliced in half with force of her sting, the two halves of the fruit hitting the ground with wet thuds and igniting a small spark of annoyance within her. Driven by a strange curiosity, she continued to stab at the other fruits with her tail. Some were bisected as well, but others were merely impaled or even pricked. A liquid distinct from the juices of the fruit oozed down the mashed remains or out of the holes in the more whole foodstuffs, shining just like the former trees. Every fruit that hadn’t been sliced in half erupted with crystal shards before melting in on themselves in an all-too-familiar fashion, becoming giant diamonds. The last fruit transformed or mashed, the sickening wonder driving Rarity abruptly halted, and so too did she. She smiled, surveying her work, before she flinched as she realized what she’d just done. Her mouth fell agape, her irises shrinking in horror. She had just transformed an organic entity into a dead rock. And just moments ago, she was almost ENJOYING it. This was… this was worse than a cockatrice! SHE was worse than a cockatrice! She remembered all too well Sweetie Belle’s story of the incident with that petrifying monster. One of the most vile monsters of The Everfree Forest had terrorized them and threatened them with permanent petrification, a lifeless existence trapped in stone. If not for Fluttershy, the real Cutie Mark Crusaders would have been left as little more than statues. But a cockatrice could only attack when one was foalish enough to lock eyes with it. The rest of the time they were just scaly, ornery, overgrown chickens. Even a cockatrice, though, couldn’t do what Rarity had just done, driven by a surge of some new instinct she had been helpless to control. A cockatrice could only attack in the proper circumstance, but she could petrify at any time with just a sting. What had that perversion of Fluttershy done to her to make her more monstrous than a cockatrice?! “Marshmallow…?” Surprise ventured, taking a step towards the obviously distraught unicorn. Rarity’s eyes darted up, locking onto the snowy pegasus. Again, unbidden and uncontrolled, the primeval need for something to be unfalteringly companionable flooded her mind. Her tail twitched, and she felt it twitch. This feeling bounced back as a command from her brain, sending the stinger slicing down through the air toward— “NO!” Rarity screamed, the tip of her spiked tail stopping inches from Surprise’s shocked face. The insane pegasus’s eyes were crossed almost comically as she stared at the tip of the lethal barb, which dripped with a familiar crystalline fluid. The need for friendship, warped and twisted almost beyond recognition, shrieked out a scream of its own inside the white unicorn’s brain at being denied. But what good would it have done, and why had Fluttershy’s imprint forced it into her brain anyway? Surprise was already her friend. Almost as if in answer, a thought snapped into Rarity’s mind. Surprise was her friend now, but she might not always be. But what could turning the white pegasus into a diamond statue possibly do to solidify her friendship? Well, if it would do anything at all in that regard, all it would take to find out was a few more inches… “NO!” Rarity roared again, snapping her tail back and retreating hastily. Her dragon eyes flickered from one member of the group to the next, each returning her understandably distressed looks with a mixture of great concern and more than a little fear for and of their friend. “Stay back! Stay away from me!” “Rarity, relax,” Megan cautioned. “This isn’t you. It’s whatever that monster did to you. You can fight it. You just have to remember who you are, and not let that change, no matter how strong the urge is to be something you’re not.” “Of course,” Rarity agreed breathlessly, trying not to let herself begin hyperventilating. “I would never hurt my friends… I would never… Oh, that abomination is trying to force me to hurt my friends! She took my eyes, she took my tail, and now she’s trying to take my friends too?! Who knows what else she did to me?!” “But she didn’t take your friends from you,” Megan went on. “And she won’t as long as you don’t let her. Don’t give her that.” “No, no, you’re right,” Rarity breathed, forcing herself to take in air without letting the breaths act of their own accord. “I need to remain calm and composed and—” “Captured,” chuckled a voice. Rarity whirled around, making sure to keep her tail close to her own body and nopony else’s. She looked up with the rest of the group to see a pair of glowing eyes gleaming from the shadows of a treetop. With a rustle of leaves, the owner of the eyes slipped down to the forest floor, his still-glowing eyes dimming to reveal-- . . . Author’s Note: chapter nineteen will be written by a guest--my awesome editor, GaruuSpike! This is a heads-up to ensure you aren’t surprised by the shift in writing style and to whet your appetites a little. I won’t reveal any spoilers, but I will say that I had a blast reading it.