Big Macintosh carefully folded the blanket up into his collar and used it as a kind of step, allowing Smarty-Pants to stand up and look out of it. After ensuring she was well-situated he looked around the bland, gem-studded passage. “Ya ain't wrong 'bout how confusin' it is that ah can't see what's next.”
“The surprise is half the point. If you don't know you can never prepare. And as I said, if you have not the love and stability within you you will will never succeed, no matter how prepared you think yourself for whatever challenge you may believe stands before you.”
Big Mac set off into the indistinct distance, much more aware that the very angles were skewed and that he was actually moving up and around. Just thinking about that was unusual. He made every effort to try and feel the curve of his passage or the angle of the ground beneath his hooves. Even with the passive detection from his earth pony magic he felt nothing unusual. As far as he knew he was trotting along on a flat surface straight on towards the far end of the cavern.
The wall was close to his right side, studded with the large, magically-infused crystals that provided the light of the cavern. One of the crystals glowed brighter than the others, swirling with a milky haze. The haze slowly cleared to reveal an image of his sister Applejack snuggled up with Rainbow Dash on a cloud slightly to the side and down from Dash's rainbow waterfall. The two were looking quite pleased, softly kissing and nibbling on each other's necks, hooves drifting mostly-chastely over their bodies.
“I see your attention drift away from the path.” Argus broke Big Mac's concentration. “What do you see? This magic is not for my eyes any longer. It was already spent.”
“Ah see mah bigger lil sister an' her fiancee neckin' an' huggin' on one another.” He gave a huge shrug and walked on, noting the image following him to passing crystals. “Ain't nothin' surprising. Always knew they was doin' that.”
“Is that the one? The one who is betrothed to a zebra?” Argus peered into the passing crystals, as if desperately trying to see what was not for him.
“Nah. Applebloom's too young fer that kinda thing. She an' Zecora go out to the fair 'r spend th' day in, mixin' up brews an' such things. But Granny's got 'em courtin' right, like...” Big mac's attention was drawn aside again. A second crystal had flashed. Now besides being shown AJ and Dash, he suddenly saw Applebloom and Zecora. The two were in Zecora's hut, beside a crackling fire. Both were cuddled up close, yet in an innocent fashion. The curled-up filly was pressed in as close as possible to Zecora's belly, while the zebra mare read to her from an old-looking book, the visible page looking like the ancient pre-banishment illustrated and calligraphic manuscripts. “They look like they's already hitched...”
“And you have no objection to this union? Your family has no objection to this?”
“Granny's anglin' ta get Zecora ta put a ring on her leg jes ta make it all nice an' official. Mah other sis can't wait ta have her as a sister, an' ah find she makes mah littlest sis happy. Ain't nothin' more important than that. Ah thought that y'all from olden times weren't none too against the courtin'-a younger folks an' the folk a mite bit older.”
“You don't even see her stripes, do you?” Argus snorted softly and shook his head. “We were born in the wrong place and the wrong time.”
Before Big Mac could comment on that another crystal came to life, adding to the images. The new scene was Applebloom's fellow Crusaders Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, with Sweetie singing and Scootaloo looking moved and delighted. “These things plannin' on followin' me along?”
“They followed Bee and myself. You think you can stop seeing them; after all, you don't have to hear them. But you see them. You never stop seeing them. I can only imagine what you will find in them. As I said, my eyes are not for the crystals any longer.”
“Ah told ya. Ah'm seein' mah sisters. An' now lil Applebloom's friends. Ain't right, me seein' them like that. That there is their private singin' and wooin'.”
“You are no real youth, in the scheme of things. You may see intimacy you would rather not see.” Argus laughed softly and shook his head. “If only memories would fade away...”
Big Mac looked between the three scenes and on to a fourth, his sister's friend Rarity fluffing a rather large dress on Fluttershy. As big and uncomfortable of a blush as the pegasus was showing, she still looked just as happy as the unicorn. A fifth came up, that of Twilight Sparkle gently rolling dough with her hooves, assisted by Pinkie Pie, the earth pony intimately pressed against the unicorn's back, head beside hers, both sets of hooves pressing almost the same part of the dough. “Ain't it enough they was tryin' ta make me crazy in that maze?”
“This is no illusion. This is the reality. They are not all doing this at this moment, whatever that may mean here. But they have done all this. It is all true and real. And you must see it. The world will not let you ignore it. How happy are you with her? Maybe there were other paths untrotted. Other loves in easier reach.”
The sixth scene was no surprise given the lead-in from Argus. Cheerilee. She was snuggled up tight against her wife, the unicorn Toola Roola. He had seen them around Ponyville, whenever they were away from her chateau. A chateau. Could he have even offered half as... “You ever felt mad at yerself 'cause ya can't be mad at the world that ain't bein' kind to ya?”
“Bee hated what she felt when she looked in the crystals. Not the regrets. She never regretted. The rage, burning deep in her heart, her horn flashing to try and break the idiotic things. But I know it, you think things. About yourself. And then you realize what you have been thinking hurts you, and is directed to those beside the beautiful mare at your side. Can you trot through your own self-hate?”
Other mares showed up in the crystals, all the Ponyville mares that Big Mac knew, the ones with whom he had grown up. His small crushes and modest loves, all of them never manifested. All of them were so happy with the mares and stallions they had chosen. As he looked, he felt Smarty-Pants shift in his collar and he smiled. They were so happy. And so was he. Just beyond, he would find an even greater happiness, when the one he loved could speak and move, with no fear of dropping down before her time. “Ain't it a beautiful sight?”
“I find your maturity refreshing. You pass these crystals with hardly a notice. Have you really come to terms with your relationship?”
“It ain't hard ta do. Ah spent one night with her, an' a day ta get to know her. She was everythin' ah could ever want an' more. She's smart, she's funny, she loves the hay outta me an' ah ain't sure why... she's the best ah could ever hope fer. Now we got us a chance ta be together. Ah can be happy as alla them.”
“See if you can keep that attitude with you. It will surely aid you.” The passage the walked began to narrow, walls pressing in incrementally until all that remained was a single-file space with Big Mac on point. Appearing before them was a section of ground covered in row on row of eggs. “Expressions can become distressingly literal here, as you can see.”
Big Mac placidly regarded the path of eggs, slowly nodding his huge head, gently probing at one of the eggs with a hoof. “This s'pposed ta be impossible fer a heavy pony like me, 'r is there some magic that keeps me from wreckin' all this?”
“How much rage do you carry in your heart?” Argus held up an egg and presented it to Big Mac. “Hold this in your teeth. And then walk. You will not harm those eggs so long as you are careful. They are not as fragile as you might expect but they will break all the same.”
“Seems simple enough. Means it ain't gonna be nothin' of the sort.” Big Mac took the egg in his teeth and gingerly began his journey across the expanse of the eggs. The shells felt fairly solid beneath his hooves, even as he put different amounts of weight on their surfaces through the action of his walking, careful as it was.
The crystals on the wall, which had been blank and silent burst to life with a sudden volume and brightness. In each one were the faces and voices of ponies he knew and those he had never seen. The angry faces and voices pressed in from every angle, kith, kin and total strangers subjected him to abuse of all classes.
“How can you possibly feel anything for a ratty little scrap of cloth?! She's just some foolish filly's toy!” The shade of Rarity screamed out in her cultured tones.
“She was my Smarty-Pants doll! You had no right to her! It was a mistake that you ever met her! You were never meant to be together!” Twilight's image almost seemed to pound the confined of the crystal, her eyes narrow and hard.
“Ya think this family's gonna let ya back into the homestead? Not on yer life, mister! Not if yer gonna come by haulin' that there tangle-a blanket scraps and callin' it yer wife we ain't!” His older younger sister released her best anger onto him, in fine form to say the least, even if it was only an illusion.
“We did not anticipate thy success! Thou wast meant to fail and return chastised! Thou hast not the strength to trot the path and we always knew!” Luna's image stood imperiously and hit him with the full fury of her formal voice.
His teeth tightened on the egg, just slightly. He could practically hear the shell beginning to buckle under his slight change in strength. Beneath his hooves the eggs started to feel like the weak little things they were. No grown stallion could really walk on such a path and actually make it, no matter how careful. He didn't even really want to be so careful. He wanted it to be over already. He wanted to run through the passage to stop the lies and insults. Lies. Insults...
The imitation images weren't really his family and friends. It wasn't like the images of them being happy. It was the mirror maze again. Just their images worn like a disguise over a screaming challenge to his dedication. The insults were harsh, but he couldn't take them seriously. He knew what he felt in his heart for miss Smarty-Pants, and he knew what his real friends thought of it, those that knew. Twilight wanted only the best for him, and Princess Luna had personally seen to it that he could have his happy ending. The images were slanderous lies towards the ones supposedly speaking them. Lies put in mouths that should not have been saying things like that.
The path of eggs ended long before he realized it had. He had been trotting along on solid stone for a while, the screaming crystals well behind him, the cavern having opened up considerably. He found Argus there, waiting for him, the old zebra holding his hoof out for the egg in his teeth. “It is rather hard being the sensible one, is it not? I can only wonder the vile things that passed you on the path.”
“It ain't no thing, sir. T'weren't none-a it true. But them words was still cuttin' like knives. Ah'm real sorry fer you 'n' yer bride, havin' ta take a trot along that there path. Ah know what them old folks could say 'bout zebras.”
“To know and to feel is different... but thank you, young one. And what the old zebras could say to ponies was hardly any more kind. But I suppose it is all over in your world outside this place.”
“Maybe it is, maybe it ain't. Zecora weren't none too liked when first she met Ponyville. Then mah sis made a friend outta her. Nopony's got boo ta say against her anymore. They's jes waitin' fer th' nuptuals so's they can get their hooves on some fine vittles an' see 'em both in pretty dresses.”
“A whole town more concerned with wedding food and pretty attire than with the stripes across her back and the lack of them on her betrothed. A whole town.” Argus struck his stick down on the ground and shook his bearded head. “Don't tell me if there are more towns like that. I don't want to know. I don't think I could handle knowing if it is just one or if it is all. Let us move on. You are so close you can only imagine how much harder it will truly become before you reach the end...”