“How’d you do it?” Auburn demanded, shaking Twilight by the shoulders. “How!?”
Twilight levitated Auburn off her, chuckling. “I have a spirit tied to the essences of every other pony in my homeworld, and I’m several thousand years old. And even then, that moon still would have won had the Unity Helix not stepped in.”
“The… what?”
“It’s… a big mind that runs almost everything back home. Think of it like your moon, except a lot nicer and not so insufferably annoying.”
“Huh… Think it can help us?”
“I believe we’ll be a bit preoccupied with another threat at the moment, but once we’re done with that, I don’t see why we can’t try.”
Auburn beamed. “…The Blue Bolt was right to bring you all here.”
“Pfft, when will ponies learn not to doubt me?” Twilight chuckled.
“I doubt everything,” Rarity pointed out.
“You get what I like to call the ‘pessimist pass’.”
Rarity rolled her eyes. “So… care to explain what this moon is?”
“Nopony knows exactly what the moon is,” Auburn said with a sign.
“I know now,” Twilight smirked. “It’s the creation of Rx’len, the chosen ‘curse’ upon this world. From the short conversation I had with it… I think the moon wants a world that’s mostly dead with only a little bit of struggling life in it. For… some reason.”
“…I guess that explains why we’re still alive at all,” Auburn said.
“It’s insane, clearly.”
“Who is Rx’len?”
“A creature eating the magic in… this unicorn’s world.”
“Enchantress,” Rarity said. “I can be the Enchantress.”
“Right. Anyway, apparently Rx’len has infected all the worlds except one, which… apparently didn’t need help to do that to itself? It was confusing.”
“The monsters… the Mesh…” Rarity nodded. “But… wait, your world is completely fine!”
“Apparently Rx’len decided to be subtle with mine,” Twilight hissed. “It’s a curse of uniform monotony. Through Unity, things are becoming… boring. Apparently it wasn’t just me getting old.”
“…While that’s terrible, does that really change anything?”
“Hmm?”
“So the curse of Rx’len extends beyond my world. We still need to find the others and kill it. We just have more worlds to liberate than before.”
“Everything’s more connected than we realize…” Twilight smirked. “…The Pink One knew this before any of us.”
Rarity frowned. “I’m afraid I didn’t get to know her for that long.”
“She views the entire world as some kind of adventure story and it just… somehow works out. She said things that were completely unreasonable – that we were all destined to save the world, that we had to come together, that sort of thing. But it turns out there’s this multiversal pattern of Elements of Harmony and the six of us were probably connected from the moment Rx’len started attacking the Runes.” Twilight rubbed the back of her head. “Maybe there’s something to be said for intuition.”
“I wonder what she’d have to say now.”
“Probably something along the lines of ‘hurry up and find out where we are’!”
Auburn shrugged. “We think they’re with the Blue Bolt in the Pink One’s world right now. Our tech guy managed to find another world.”
“Huh. Convenient.” Twilight ruffled her feathers. “I’ll have the Unity Helix figure out how to access that one next time it contacts me.” She glanced around at the troop of Thieves around them. “Actually… Ra- Enchantress, where’s our Bolt? I figured she’d stick with you.”
“Hm?” Rarity took a moment to ponder this. “Possibly, if she wasn’t being lauded as the best thing since water founts by the other Thieves.”
“…Huh?”
“The Blue Bolt is a local hero, apparently, and having two of them is the best thing ever.”
“…I have to see this.”
~~~
“And then I did it. The patented, unique, world-famous… Sonic Rainboom!”
The crowd of thieves gasped in awe as Rainbow took to the air. Over the years, she had gotten exceptionally good at her technique and could pull it off on a dime. She channeled her inner magic away from her wings and to the tips of her front hooves, coating them in rainbow sparkles. She picked up enough speed to breach the sound barrier and allowed the magic to explode at the perfect instant – filling the dark sky with a ring of prismatic color.
She landed hard, kicking up a small cloud of dust. She smirked. “Like that.”
The crowd erupted into cheers.
“Thank you, thank you, I’m here all week!”
“What’s a week?”
“If you don’t know you’re definitely not getting the joke!”
The Thief cocked his head. “…Joke?”
A few other Thieves elbowed him and laughed, even though they definitely didn’t get it either. References were lost on otherworlders, and Rainbow enjoyed that far too much.
“Anyway, just you wait, Blue Bolt and Blitz will be together again and we will ROCK YOUR WORLD! There will not be a thing in this world or any other that two of the best ponies every will not be able to get you!”
“YEAH!”
“Can I get another yeah!?”
“YEAH!”
Rainbow let out a delighted laugh. “You Thieves are the best!”
“Having fun?” Rarity asked coyly as she, Twilight, and Auburn walked down from a double helix of wood.
“Ooooh yeah, I’m having a lot of fun!” Rainbow flew over to Twilight. “I knew you’d make it!”
“She had help.”
Twilight groaned. “Why’d you have to tell her that?”
“Because you wouldn’t.”
Rainbow snickered. “Nice. So, what’s the plan?”
“I wait for the Unity Helix to contact me again,” Twilight said. “It’ll be able to get us to ‘the Pink One’s’ world, where we’re pretty sure the others are right now.”
“Huh. They got a new world. Good for them.” Rainbow frowned. “That device never went to where we wanted it to…”
“Just proves that magic is superior.”
“The original dimensional devices were purely magical!”
“And that one’s not an original, tsk, guess they don’t make them like they used to.”
“I want to know how you’re insulting my history without even knowing it.”
“Careful guesses,” Twilight smirked. “Regardless, one way or another, we’re going to bring everypony together and roast Rx’len. Then we can work on the other curses around these worlds. With Merodi assistance, I assume?”
“You betcha! I can get the Overhead of Aid herself down here if I yell loud enough!”
“How loud can you yell?”
“LOUDER THAN THIS!”
Rainbow grinned as the sound of joyous laughter met her ears. Here were a bunch of jolly Thieves having a great time in the middle of a world that belonged in a horror story. She saw a lot of darkness in her travels, a lot of horror; it was a good day when she saw smiles and hope in the middle of that horror.
That was one of the reasons she did what she did. No matter how difficult it got, there were those moments that she’d cherish for the rest of her life.
And then there were those she’d dread.
Applejack folded into existence alongside a blue mare.
“Hey! AJ!” Rainbow winked at the nickname she’d just come up with. “How’s it shakin?”
“The Blue Bolt’s dead,” Applejack deadpanned. “Killed by some kind of shadow monster with way too many eyes.”
Rainbow froze.
Dead?
And the Runes didn’t respond to her…
They didn’t have a full set of Elements anymore.
~~~
Hazel and Pinkie walked into the house. Since they left the door open, Fluttershy assumed she was invited in, but she had the distinct impression she was only an afterthought in their minds.
Her suspicions were confirmed when she walked in and found the two of them pressed into a lip-lock against one of the hallway walls.
“Ahem,” Fluttershy called, trying not to be rude.
The two continued their embrace for a few seconds more before Hazel broke it off. For the first time, he was taking in Fluttershy’s appearance, and it clearly didn’t make any sense to him. “What in…?”
“This is probably going to sound ridiculous…” Fluttershy said. “But… I’m from another universe.”
“You’re that pegasus that was on the news five minutes ago!”
“I… what?” How could news be a thing she stood on?
Hazel motioned toward a box with a flat piece of glass on one side. He pressed a button on a rectangular thing on his couch, prompting the box to hum to life. A blurry video of Fluttershy carrying Pinkie appeared, while a droning voice described it. “This unusual pegasus seems to have kidnapped an unknown pink mare, flying her around the city as she flails wildly…”
“Pinkie was telling me where to go!” Fluttershy gasped.
“…and furthermore the pegasus appears to be in full armor, minus a helmet, which should make it impossible for her to fly.”
“…Well, that’s true. The armor’s magic.”
Hazel blinked, shutting off the box. “…Magic.”
Pinkie started laughing. “Not that kind of magic! Nope! It’s just normal stuff that exists around us! Not demonic at all!”
“…It isn’t,” Fluttershy assured Pinkie and Hazel, a bit confused. “It’s used to slay… demons?”
Pinkie shook her head. “Your monsters aren’t demons. I… I saw some…” Her expression dropped. “Did I have anything to do with that?”
“Pinkie…” Fluttershy sighed. “Hazel, she’s… she’s been through a lot. I… I don’t think I can help her.”
“She’s overblown her mind again,” Hazel said with a sigh, stroking Pinkie’s mane as she clung to him. “She’s needs rest.”
“But what if I dream up horrible things for them?” Pinkie asked, terrified. “What i-“
“Pinkie, I have no idea what’s going on, but I love you, and I know you. You need sleep. I still have some of those sleeping pills from a few months ago, okay?”
“O… okay…” Pinkie breathed.
“I’ll take her up to the bedroom,” Hazel said. “You make yourself at home… uh…”
“Fluttershy,” Fluttershy bowed.
“Right. You can get water from the fridge, if you want.”
He took her up the stairs, leaving Fluttershy wondering what a fridge was. He did say make herself at home… so she might as well take a moment to relax.
When was the last time something hadn’t been… constantly happening? She didn’t know. She was exhausted.
For the first time in two days, she unlatched her armor, removing all the greaves, plates, weapons, and guards she had. Gently, she stacked all the pieces in an empty corner of the room with the talking box.
She decided it was time to figure out what a fridge was. She walked to another room of the house, deducing it was the kitchen given the stovetop. Water would be in here… somewhere. She started opening cupboards, careful in case anything might spill out. Luckily for her, everything was arranged neatly, though there were an odd number of books stashed in unusual places. She eventually came to a large, white box taller than she was. She pulled open the lower door… and was greeted with amazingly chilly air.
There were a ton of water bottles in the door of what was no doubt the fridge, but there was so much more in there as well. In the back she could see salads, juices, cake, and something that looked uncomfortably like meat. Virtually all of this was packaged in bright packaging.
Ignoring the meat, she found herself focusing on the cake. Part of her mind marveled that this level of cold was maintained without a chilling enchantment, but that part was easily overshadowed by her desire for chocolate cake.
Hazel just said you could have a water…
…But he also said make yourself at home…
…But what does that mean in this world…?
…Just take the cake and ask for forgiveness later.
Fluttershy swiped the cake and the water and returned to the room with the talking box. She munched the cake with one wing and realized she didn’t know how to open the water bottle. It was clearly disposable, so she cast a knife spell and cut off the lid at the top. Problem solved.
She sat down on the couch and decided she might as well try to figure out how the talking box worked. She found the rectangular device Hazel had used before and checked it over.
On/off seems like a good start.
She pressed the button and the screen hummed to life. The same voice was talking, though this time it wasn’t about her. “The mayor’s office of Coeur d’Alene is currently under investigation in the disappearance of P. D. Pie. The mayor consistently denies involvement. We approached P. D.’s husband, Hazel Acorn, who used to work in the mayor’s office. He refused to comment.”
Oh. It was like the paper the bigger towns got, just in a box and talking. That was interesting.
Pinkie was clearly missed…
“Stick with us, we’ll be back with the story of a daring armed robbery right after these messages.”
Messages?
“BUY NOW!”
“AUGH!” Fluttershy shouted, pressing a random button on the button device. The image on the box changed to a dry expanse of yellow grass.
“The African Savannah is home to some of the Earth’s most fearsome and beautiful beasts… here we find the rhino in its natural habitat…”
Fluttershy’s eyes became glued to the images passing her eyes by. Creatures that were powerful, inspiring… and weren’t monsters.
It was beautiful…
She didn’t know how long she stared at the colored box. She did know there were three different ‘breaks’ for a bunch of annoying, loud, colorful segments that scared her a little. But she stuck around if only to see more gorgeous images of Pinkie’s world.
A world without a curse…
“You’ve never seen a TV before, have you?” Hazel asked.
Fluttershy shook her head as he came down the stairs. “Is that what the light box is called?”
“Yeah. Stands for Television. Which is short for televised vision. You see things from far away.”
“It’s amazing…”
“Pinkie told me a lot of stuff…” He grabbed the button device and shut the TV off. “But I want to hear it from you too. She’s… not in her best mind.”
Fluttershy nodded, telling an abridged version of her story. Where she came from, what started the adventure, all the ponies they ran into, the fight she still didn’t know the result of… and how they had arrived here, and how weird Pinkie was acting.
Hazel sighed. “…Your stories match.”
“Do you know what’s wrong with her? She’s… she’s worse than she should be for seeing somepony die. There’s something else.”
Hazel reached into his coat and pulled out a book entitled The Gaze of the Moon, by P. D. Pie. On the cover was a blue pegasus mare with a rainbow mane, looking at a tremendous moon that dwarfed the endless cityscape.
“Wh… what?”
“She wrote stories about New Alice City,” Hazel said. “That Blue Bolt… that was her hero. Her protagonist. She knew this the moment she entered New Alice City and…” He sighed. “That pony with the demon. He tricked her into seeing what her writing could do. She wrote a story where Bolt came to her through a ‘connection’ method she had never written about in any of her books. It came true.”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened.
“You’ve never heard of anything like this?”
“I… I can’t imagine having that kind of power…” Fluttershy gulped. “She… she must be terrified of herself.”
Hazel nodded sadly. “…For what it’s worth… thank you. Thank you for bringing her home. I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I don’t know what I’m going to make of all this… adventure. But right now, she’s here, and that’s all I can think about right now.” He smiled. “You look like you need to rest too.”
“I haven’t taken off the armor for two days…”
“I’ll get you a blanket. You can sleep on the couch.”
“…Can I keep watching the animals in the TV?”
Hazel chuckled. “Yes. Yes you can.”
~~~
Pinkie laid in her bed.
Eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling.
She’d fully expected that she would be able to fall right to sleep. That’s how it always worked - a strenuous day left her exhausted and she’d be out like a light. Not even the worst of days could keep sleep from her, she’d fallen asleep in random places so often one might even say she had “trained” herself to do so.
Not today.
It’s my fault.
Usually she could come up with some reason why it wasn’t her fault. She was pretty good at that. But she had written those books about New Alice City, had written the Blue Bolt to her, had fallen for the tricks… She shouldn't have. She knew better. Her entire purpose on this adventure was to know better. And she’d failed.
She curled herself into a ball. Somehow, the tears just kept coming…
Her imagination had killed so many ponies she’d never even seen. New Alice City was walking death. And who knew what else she’d brought about with her imagination?
She shivered, looking to her nightstand. A thick book with a cross on it drew her attention.
Pinkie could have used this as a sign to meditate, to take some solace and gain some stability. She could have opened the book and found comforting words at the moment she needed it…
But the mind is a cruel thing, and oftentimes the moment it needs something the most it refuses it, wishing to wallow in what it “deserves” for a while longer.
Her gaze drifted past the book and on to a notebook and pen.
Tears in her eyes, she stared at them for a moment, a great weight on her heart. The pain within her soul felt like a physical wrench twisting her insides, a lesion that threatened to tear her apart.
They needed her out there. But she was useless like this…
She grabbed the notebook and pen.