//------------------------------// // Fates // Story: Amber Ashes // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// Applejack did exactly what she said she was going to do. She went back to the Mesh. Immediately Blueberry made her the head gardener and gave her dozens of other trees, most imported from the other worlds. Applejack quickly promoted another mechanic to head gardener and gave herself the role of ‘first gardener’. She didn’t like being in charge, to put it mildly. “You know, Applejack, I notice you don’t walk in time with the Mesh anymore!” Dust said one day. Applejack was picking some apples off a tree and putting them in a bucket. “Hmm?” “You don’t move like, uh, ‘Clank! Clank! Clank!’ anymore.” Applejack shrugged. “The Mesh is speeding back up. Can’t time my life by it anymore.” “And that doesn’t bother you? Wow! All the other ponies like you are throwing a fit!” “If they’re throwing a fit they don’t understand what makes them mechanics in the first place.” She picked up a hose and turned the water on, carefully giving each tree the sprinkling it needed to grow up strong. “We stand together here.” “Strange… ever since the other portals started opening, things seem to be changing…” “Of course things would change. The Mesh isn’t all there is to the machine of life.” “Just makes me think ol’ Spanner might have had a point. Remember those things Spanner used to say about ‘being part of the machine’? We always thought he was kinda crazy…” Applejack smiled sadly. “Maybe he had a point. But maybe he didn’t. The ponies out there were free to do whatever they wanted. They didn’t seem to have it figured out any better than we do.” Dust nodded. “True, true… So, how many hero-worshipping visitors have you had today?” “Two,” Applejack said. “Annoyingly. I’m thinking of asking Rainbow to get her fancy teleporters to move my orchard to another district so they can’t find me.” “They don’t really get in the way of your work.” “It’s still really annoying.” She hopped into her personal spider and crawled to the top of the largest tree – her original apple tree. She got out and started picking more apples and checking for bugs. Ever since those bugs had gotten through the portals they’d done nothing but make her trees miserable… “I’d like the attention.” “You’re a manager. I’m not.” Dust nodded. “To be fair, being a super-high manager isn’t really that great anymore. I mean, I guess we’re not stressed all the time, but holy clanking gears are we shouting a lot. The Merodi won’t shut up about ‘labor laws’ and all that nonsense. Just uuuuuugh why can’t we wind up the Mesh and be done with it?” Applejack shrugged. “Dunno. Don’t care. I want to tend to my orchard.” Dust stamped a hoof on the ground in annoyance before laughing and shaking her head. “You have it easy up there, Applejack. Got everything figured out, huh?” Applejack snorted. “Definitely not. I just know that I’m not going to figure it out. The full machine’s too complicated. Might as well get used to where I am.” “Are you saying… trying to become one with the Mesh isn’t a good idea?” “I don’t know what I’m saying, that’s what I’m saying.” “Wait, what, hold on… what?” Applejack chuckled. “Maybe you should take a moment and not try to figure it out.” Dust sputtered incoherently. “Never thought I’d see the day I get Dust at a loss for words.” Dust rubbed her head. “You… Applejack, you’re strange.” “Side effect of being a pony, I hear.” “Funny.” With a roll of her eyes, Dust trotted away. “See you next cycle!” “Sure thing.” ~~~ Pinkie sighed in bed one night. “Hazel, how bad did I mess my head up?” Hazel groaned. “You really want to talk about this now?” “I’m a mare. It’s the middle of the night. I’m not asleep. Duh, of course I do.” “I feel like you’re projecting one of your characters on yourself.” “Oooooh, maybe they’re possessing me!” With a grunt, Hazel sat up and turned on the light. “Okay, yes, you messed up your head. But you also fixed it. Not really something you can undo without messing with your head further… so I think I’ll just keep loving you anyway.” Pinkie giggled. “I’m not doubting you. I don’t think I can.” “Oh, how blind are we?” “That’s the problem! We don’t know!” Pinkie snorted. “…Though seriously. I feel fine. Happy, very happy, actually. There’s just this little nagging voice in the back of my head sometimes that something’s not quite right.” “God’s way of making sure you don’t forget and try it again?” “Maybe.” Pinkie furrowed her brow. “No, stupid brain, now is not the time for multiversal theology class! AUGH!” “Your brain has been doing that a lot lately.” “I haven’t been writing,” Pinkie twitched. “I wrote to get all the things out of my head. Now my head’s filling up and… and…” She laughed nervously. “I’m going to have to let it out somehow.” “Maybe try something other than books?” “Any creative work can define a world. Any.” Hazel frowned. “…Do you have any ideas?” “I’m trying to think of what to do along the line of Fluttershy’s advice. Find another thing I can do… you know? She wanted to be a hunter, she’s a weaponsmith. I wanted to be an author, and now I’m going to be a… a…” She tapped her hoof against the bed. “I dunno, what are Prophets good for?” “Predicting the future?” “Funny. I mean, what can we do that’s helpful and not actually super-duper-mega dangerous?” “It’s probably dangerous regardless.” “Yeah…” “Doesn’t mean you can’t use it. You could be a superhero, or something.” “…Not sure how I feel about that…” “The Merodi know a lot about this whole Prophet thing. They can probably introduce you to some others. Maybe even put you on a program of some sort.” “Wouldn’t that be bad for you and the whole… politics thing? Earth hasn’t adapted to the Merodi yet.” “Wanna know a secret?” “Hmm?” “I talked to the Merodi Overhead of Relations. She says this initial panic always happens. Our Earth is, so far, just a textbook case and it won’t take but a few years and minimal effort to fully absorb us.” “…Wow. Earth really is that common?” “Most common universe type, apparently. Usually filled with humans though.” “I knew that.” “Heh. Point is, you can go gallivanting off with the Merodi as P. D. Prophet, it’s not going to do much here.” She kissed him. “But I probably won’t be around you as much! I don’t know…” “You went on a huge adventure and saved the world without me. You’ll be fine. Just make sure you’re home in time to make dinner.” “We both know I’ll just stick some veggies and ramen noodles in a bowl and call it gourmet.” “Nah. We’ll get one of those food replicators.” Pinkie giggled. “You’re insane, Hazel. Insanely brilliant, that is!” “I know. You tell me all the time.” They kissed again and there wasn’t much in the way of talking the rest of the night. ~~~ Fluttershy had gotten new eyes a week after losing them. They were… fine, but they didn’t look quite the same as her old ones. Curiously, they worked better than her old ones, since apparently she’d needed glasses. Of course now that her eyes were perfect she was wearing glasses like Renee to keep from giving off the ‘uncanny valley’ effect whenever she looked at ponies. There were contacts for that. To put it simply, she didn’t trust contacts not to fall out in the middle of a tense moment at work and shatter into a million pieces, ruining the weapon and making her order a new one. Was that unreasonable? Probably. But at least she was well aware of where the glasses were at all times. Plus, her glasses had ornate little dragon carvings on the rims! That was cool! She loved dragons. An entire race of monsters that weren’t monsters. They were amazing. The first day after she’d gotten her eyes back she went sparring with one. Best experience ever. The next day, she had returned home to Musk and not only been welcomed back a hero… but a goddess. Saturn. That had unfortunately gotten out. She still had her halo and everything, so it wasn’t like it was easy to deny it. She refused to comment on the other gods and she didn’t go back to talk to them. They didn’t deserve it. Though maybe they didn’t quite deserve the hateful language that was in that pamphlet going around… Or maybe they did. Fluttershy didn’t spend much time in the town itself after that – she retired to her workshop and got to work. She framed her bruised and battered shield on the wall and promptly got to making a new one. Her friends showed up from time to time and she gladly stopped her work to go hang out with them, but every moment of her work was spent on making a new shield. This one didn’t have her butterfly symbol on it. It had the six circle Rune-design. Otherwise it was functionally the same – though a bit lighter. Not to mention enchanted with the best enchantment given to her by Twilight – shrink and grow. Now it could fit in her pocket! She could pull it out if she was expecting something to jump her at any time! …Renee had talked about possibly operating on her brain to fix the ‘wiring issue’, but they’d quickly decided that would also rewire her personality. Fluttershy had, naturally, declined. She’d lived like this all her life and was content. Why fix what wasn’t broken? Once her shield was complete, she opened up her shop to the public again. The need for weapons was dying down since the monsters were being hunted to extinction by Unity and the Merodi, but Fluttershy could easily make a living selling trinkets with enchantments on them. Only one problem. Roughly a third of the customers decided they had to bow to her and offer ‘reverence for Saturn’ before buying anything. Some demanded they should pay more. A lot more sometimes. She also kept getting a lot of donations… “That’s it,” Fluttershy said one day, flopping into a chair next to the Red twins. “I need a change of pace. I can’t be Saturn for everypony!” “So leave,” Riot suggested. “You killed the king of monsters. You don’t really need to be a legendary blacksmith here anymore.” “…Huh.” Fluttershy blinked. “I guess you’re right… But what would I do…?” ~~~ Twilight and Rainbow stood on the surface of the Earth within Unity. “…This place is boring, I can see why I never visited,” Twilight commented. Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Do all your planets have overly-creative and determined hairless apes on them?” “They’re not hairless. And there are plenty of more interesting races. Ponies… dragons… those guys that don’t stop yelling… the energy beings… and these new things in the other galaxy that are basically all teeth. Humans are just… how do you describe something more ordinary than ordinary?” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “You’re a bundle of boredom.” Twilight shrugged. “Maybe. It is the curse, after all.” “Think we fixed that?” Twilight snorted. “If by ‘fixed’ you mean ‘nobody wants to trust the Unity Helix to run everything anymore’, then yeah, we ‘fixed’ it.” “It’s still running everything, isn’t it?” “Oh yeah, it’s too ingrained into the infrastructure of everything to remove. People just don’t trust it as much since it almost crashed.” “Just because I am removing major surveillance doesn’t mean I can’t hear you,” the Unity Helix said from a nearby television in a store window. “I’m still not sure that’s the right choice,” Twilight said. “It not only appeases the masses and makes them think they have more control, it makes Merodi Oversight happy too. Rainbow Dash, your people are not fans of restrictive societies.” “Deeeefinitely not,” Rainbow laughed. “I mean, the first thing we did when we arrived was drive the moon out of New Alice City.” “I still can’t believe it didn’t think of that when aiding Twilight.” “Blame Pinkie being amazing!” “Or me slapping him in the face with my wiles!” Twilight grinned. Rainbow rolled her eyes. “You have a really bad track record with higher entities, don’t try to spin it.” “Psh, I’m great with gods. They love me.” “Oh, wanna go talk to one right now? I know a few who would love a little ‘chat’ with you…” Twilight froze. “I, er…” She sighed. “I don’t do that anymore. I don’t… really leave Unity anymore, not without bodyguards.” Rainbow blinked. “Wait, seriously?” “My entire race depends on my continued life! Our souls are bonded! I can’t be running headfirst into gods and demanding they explain themselves anymore. That almost ended in disaster.” She laughed nervously. “You know we have soul wizards, right?” Rainbow asked. “…What?” “I’m sure Corona or somebody could find a way to separate your race from your soul. Or, you know, Cosmo Sparkle, she had a similar problem in her world… They probably fixed it. Maybe.” Twilight blinked. “Rainbow. You are going to free my soul. And then you and I are going on a trip through the entire multiverse. A road trip.” Rainbow laughed. “I’ll help you with the soul thing, but I’m going back to the Wonderbolts unit, and you can’t follow me there, sorry.” “What’s so special about these… Wonderbolts?” “I’m their Captain. We specialize in precision military strikes and shows of force. We aren’t really an exploration team. I was just on loan when I got lost in your mess of universes.” “Oh.” Twilight blinked. “I’ll still find some other way to explore. The curse of boredom is not so easily cured, you know.” Rainbow smirked. “Oh, if you go exploring, you’ll never be bored. You can trust me on that, Twilight.” “Can I bet on it?” “You don’t have any quid yet.” “I can make some!” “Quid is managed virtually through magic nodes so it can’t be duplicated effectively.” “…Aw…” “Sorry, no wallet party in Merodi space. We know our own tricks.” “You guys don’t know how to have fun.” “We have an organization called the Pinkie Emporium composed almost entirely of different versions of Pinkie Pie. We know how to party too well.” “…Geez…” Quazar landed in front of them, shaking the earth. “Twilight Sparkle… fancy running into you here.” “Hey big guy! I haven’t seen you since I saved the world!” She grinned. “You were lucky I wasn’t on the other half of the plan or I woulda given you the wham-wham Twilight Sparkle Special!” “…I was going to ask you if you wanted this vacation to Celestia City, but then I remembered you were insufferable. Goodbye.” Twilight’s smile fell. “W-wait! Quasar! We’re buds! Come baaaack!” Rainbow rolled onto her back, laughing. ~~~ Scarcity tapped her hoof angrily on a console. "...You know..." Glimmer said. "It's not like this is the first time everything's gone off the deep end." Scarcity said nothing, continuing her relentless tapping. "We've still had more successful outings than failures! And we'll go on to have many more!" No response. Glimmer sighed. "You can't do this forever, you know. You may be ancient and immortal but this is going to get to you." Watch me, Scarcity thought. Glimmer sensed it was a good idea to get out of her presence. Perhaps give the remaining crew an empathetic speech. Scarcity definitely wasn't going to give one. ~~~ The Enchantress looked out at her world. Just a few weeks ago, almost all of it had been desert. From the rocks she had stood upon with Fluttershy and Rainbow, it was endless. It was still dry. But it wasn’t sandy anymore. She could see a river cutting through the soil, a few scraggly cacti dotting the shore, and the starts of bushes. The mushrooms in the caverns below had exploded now that magic was back in full strength and the places where there were still plants had started to recover. The moment Rx’len had been killed, the magic returned to all earth ponies and pegasi. The earth began to bow to the ponies once more, and the weather became their terraforming tools. Naturally, the Merodi helped with the weather and re-introduction of plants, but the Enchantress had asked specifically for them to stay distant compared to their relations to other worlds. The Rune of Capella was not to be touched by them under any circumstances. There would be no experiments, and no use of the Rune in any capacity beyond “restoring magic to the world”. She liked to think that Scarcity appreciated that, wherever she was. Though if she was honest with herself, Scarcity was probably livid she made an incorrect judgment. Such was her way. At least she wasn’t coming back. The Merodi’s protection was enough to keep Starcross from dropping in and nuking the universe. The Enchantress shook her head, smiling. No use dwelling on Scarcity. Instead… why not dwell on the river? The green? The ponies around her? She didn’t do it. She didn’t save the world. Sure, she was part of it, and it wouldn’t have worked without her, but it wasn’t her. In the end, it was really only Applejack who saved the world by her own merit – and Applejack had never really wanted to be a hero. “Those who want victory more than anything will have it taken from them, and those who care not will have victory thrust upon them,” she told her friends. Turning to look at them, her smile only widened at the three other members of the newest Merodi Expeditions team. “That sounds wise,” Aegis “Fluttershy” said, leaning on her giant shield, polishing her armor in the light of the sun. Almost all Merodi agents chose alternate names for exploring, and Fluttershy had chosen hers to match her shield – Aegis. “Where’d you read that?” “Just came up with it myself.” “You should be a poet!” Scribble “Pinkie” Acorn said, grinning. Acorn was not a common name for Pinkies, so originally she had just thought of going by “Acorn”, but she quickly decided she didn’t like it. There was a ‘Scribble Pie’ in the Pinkie Emporium, but Scribble Acorn didn’t particularly care to keep her name truly unique. “Or a philosopher. You’ve been doing a lot of musing lately.” “Just don’t write it down. I doubt my musings would be very good protectors for us.” “You never know what might surprise you,” Amber “Twilight” Sparkle added with a coy smirk, her name chosen after her armor. She wasn’t wearing it now – even she admitted it was a bit gaudy – but she felt connected to her Amber Phoenix. “Maybe we’ll end up in a world where we have to speak in rhymes or die!” “I hear that’s what the zebras are like in a lot of worlds,” Scribble said. “Then we’ll have to tell them there’s another way,” Aegis asserted. “Or beat it into them,” Amber chuckled. “Amber!” “Whaaaaaat? It’s what we do! Sometimes!” “More often than Aegis’d like,” Scribble added. “For a weaponsmith you’re pretty peaceful.” “The best offense is a good, peaceful, defense.” “You’ve been watching too much sportsball,” Amber accused. “Yes. Yes I have.” Aegis giggled. “Girls, girls,” the Enchantress said. “Perhaps we should consider this on Celestia City? We don’t want to be late for our lunch with Renee.” “Oh, of course not!” Aegis pulled a dimensional device out of her armor and opened a portal to a massive city that sprawled in all directions – including on the sky. “Right this way!” Aegis, Amber, and Scribble hopped through the portal. Their leader, the Enchantress, the Rarity of the Crystal Sea went through last. Her chosen name? Hope “Rarity” Ponsia.