//------------------------------// // Ch. 4 Waiting for your letter. // Story: Mirage on the Horizon // by Hope //------------------------------// Eris sat on the porch of a cabin in the middle of the woods, watching snow fall through the trees, filtering like dust through a sieve to paint the pine-needles and old leaves with a tint of faded white. She felt old. Everything in her heart felt old, yet she knew without even thinking about it that she was young. Naive and fresh, eager and ignorant. Still, the age weighed on her spirit as hooves found her shoulders and pressed into them, the soothing massage working a bit of tension out of her muscles as her tail flicked aside, head tilting back to try and let the hooves do their job. “You need to stop carrying so much stress,” insisted the gentle voice of the pony behind her. “How does one do that?” Eris asked with a chuckle. “Stop carrying stress? It sounds like a fairy tale. Here, step beyond the veil of reality, and release the mythical stress.” “Well, you could start by not staring off into the forest, worrying over things,” the pony laughed. “We’ll be fine, Celestia.” Eris twitched, and her body was not her own. She was a white alicorn with a pink mane and tail, and a mish-mashed Draconequis was massaging her shoulders. “I…” Eris stood, shaking her head, trying to piece together the strangeness of being in a pony body. “No, Celestia…” “Celestia needs to relax,” the Draconequis insisted. “Sit down, come on, I’ll get you something to drink.” Slowly, mind spinning, Eris sat down, staring at her hooves. “I suppose… I thought…” “Don’t worry,” the Draconequis said softly as she pushed Eris out into the snow, and they held eachother close in the swirling snowflakes, dancing around them and forming a halo of light behind the Draconequis’s head. “I’ll keep you safe, Celestia.” The words were so sincere, so achingly close to a promise that Eris leaned into the odd embrace, and closed her eyes. “Okay, Eris,” she said, echoing words she remembered being told thousands of years ago. “Okay. I’ll stay here with you.” When Eris opened her eyes, she was standing over Fluttershy, who was staring up at her in horror. She took a step back, confused, and held out her hands defensively. “Fluttershy, what’s wrong?” “I saw into your heart,” Fluttershy whispered, unlatching herself from the wagon and backing away from her. “I saw it. I saw… I saw what you did to Mirage.” Eris tilted her head in confusion, racking her brain. “I didn’t… Can these things misfire?” she asked herself, looking at the fingers she’d snapped. But Fluttershy had taken to the skies, flying away as fast as she could. Eris scowled, and raised her hand towards the fleeing Pegasus, before stopping. She wasn’t sure what she’d been about to do, but it didn’t feel right. Slowly, she lowered her hand and let her friend fly away from her, leaving her standing next to all of Fluttershy’s worldly belongings in the middle of a rural dirt road. “Huh,” Eris said softly. “Well, I uh… I should take her stuff home, at least.” After taking her belongings back to her cottage and fighting off Angel Bunny, Fluttershy’s obstinate pet, Eris wandered back down the path to Ponyville. AJ’s farm was open again, the gate wide and “no trespassing” signs taken down. The Carouselle Boutique had the windows bright and curtains open, but she didn’t spot Rarity within. Most likely both of them were at the library, comforting their sisters. But next, Eris spotted Pinkie Pie's home. Sugarcube Corner was well known as the best cafe in town. Owned by the same family line for three generations, it was a bakery as well as a cafe that served all the favorite sandwiches and drinks of Ponyville. The cheery pink trim and gingerbread-like wooden panels gave it an inviting appearance that was somewhat tempered by the lights being off inside, leaving the door like a yawning dark chasm waiting to swallow Eris whole. She swallowed her fears, and looked around. Nopony else was volunteering to go inside, so it looked like the job was up to her. When Eris stepped inside, she first looked to the counter, expecting her friend’s face to be there like it always was. But there was nopony there. “Hey, um… Pinkie?” Eris called as she stepped through the cafe, ducking her head so she didn’t hit it on a beam that she’d never been tall enough to worry about before. “You alright?” “Riddle me this, Bat-goat-lizard-dragon-lion-woman,” Pinkie’s voice said from the shadows, echoing all around Eris as a shiver ran up Eris’s spine. “What can keep you safe, but also cut the deepest? Build a home, and carve it to pieces?” Eris spun, trying to spot the pink pony, wide eyed and heart racing. “I… Um… Is it love?” Eris whispered. “Wrong.” With a thud, Eris was slammed to the ground by Pinkie tackling her from behind, before a bright shiny knife was held just in front of Eris’s face. “It’s a carving knife, see?” Pinkie giggled. “Gotta have a shank to be safe! Otherwise the Owlbears’ll get ya!” Eris stared at the gleaming knife, not even breathing. Could she die? Would she just become a new version of herself like all the other times? Was she different now? She didn’t want to die! She loved her new life! The next Eris might not be so nice and benevolent and full of friendship! “Alright, um, Pinkie, are you… going to hurt me?” Eris asked slowly. “Not physically,” Pinkie said as her face lowered into Eris’s vision, her flat sheet of a mane blocking Eris’s sight like a curtain, meaning she could look nowhere else but those bright blue eyes, and the empty smile Pinkie wore like a mask. “Eris,” Pinkie started, as though she was about to tell a joke. “Isn’t it hilarious that you can’t help anyone without making stuff worse?” “That’s factually incorrect, stopping Starswirl had no downsides,” Eris whispered in a rush. “And I personally am happy that I helped you with decorating that one cake that one time because honestly I love helping my friends.” Pinkie giggled, tilting her head so it seemed to rotate. “You mean you didn’t just do that out of a misplaced sense of obligation in which you do things for other people to try and earn their approval, not because you actually want to do them, and you have an actual interest in decorating cakes outside of trying to get me to like you more than I already did?” Eris stared at Pinkie. Pinkie stared back. “Gonna snap your fingers now?” Pinkie asked with a sly smile. “Yeah,” Eris whispered. “Just need to…” She squirmed a little to get her arm out from under her, Pinkie shifting so that it would be easier, all while holding the carving knife concerningly close to Eris’s face. “Alright uh… Sorry… Pinkie,” Eris said softly, before snapping her fingers, not even looking at the pink pony as she did. But Eris wasn't pulled to some Dreamland, as Pinkie blinked away her confusion and put away her knife, apologizing profusely. No visions of Mirage or Celestia, as Eris walked out of Sugarcube Corner alone, and summoned a glass of water to drink before dropping the empty glass on the ground. As she walked away, looking for Rainbow Dash, the glass shimmered and crumbled into a small pile of sand.