//------------------------------// // Chapter 23 // Story: Millennium Wake: Part 1 // by Chaotic Dreams //------------------------------// Chapter 23 “So what’s the plan?” Megan inquired. “Plan?” Rarity echoed in surprise. “Twilight usually took care of that sort of thing, though those never really worked out either... I suppose the easiest way would be to simply allow ourselves to be captured. I don’t really see how we can sneak up on a giant sentient tree crawling with monsters.” “But what if we don’t escape again in time?” the human questioned uncertainly. “What if she does more of...” she gestured at Rarity’s tail. “... This to you?” “We won’t give her the chance,” Rarity affirmed, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. The second-to-last thing she wanted to happen was for Fluttershy’s monster to make Rarity less of herself and more... Something else... But the first thing Rarity didn’t want to happen—nay, wouldn’t allow to happen—was Surprise suffering the same fate. “Besides, she’ll probably send us to the same place she’ll send Surprise. Searching the entire tree ourselves with monsters on our tails at every turn sounds a lot less efficient than allowing the tree to take us to Surprise on its own.” “So how do we get their attention?” the Firefly-that-wasn’t asked in an almost bored tone. Rarity would really, really enjoy the day when she found a cure for Firefly’s affliction. “Just fly up and yell ‘hey, come get us’?” “More or less, yes,” Rarity admitted. “Though that would look suspicious to most ponies, these monstrous minions of Fluttershy’s imprint don’t seem to be the brightest of creatures. I suppose we simply let a spiderbat catch us each and wait, hoping for the best.” “Screw that,” Firefly’s alter ego snorted. “I have better things to do then get caught up in your lame plans. If that pegasus got herself captured, then I say it’s her problem.” “Her name is Surprise,” Rarity declared, whirling on the fake Firefly. “And if you don’t help us, I’ll sting you.” “You wouldn’t!” the other Firefly sputtered. “You’re too nice to do that!” “Do I look like I’m in a ‘nice’ mood right now?” Rarity queried darkly. “You’re not my friend, and I’m not yours. We don’t like each other, and I understand that. But you are going to help us free Surprise and kill that tree.” “Wait a minute,” the other Firefly realized, smirking. “You can’t sting me, because that’ll be the end of the two-leg as well!” “We also die if we get too far apart from each other, do we not?” Megan inquired. “Whatever you decide to do, I’m going to the tree. If you stay, we’ll both die, but at least with us you have a chance.” “... Fine,” the not-Firefly sighed, sulking. “But on one condition.” “Condition?” Rarity echoed. “What makes you think you’re entitled to setting conditions?” “Because I can think, just like you!” the other Firefly shot back angrily. “I’ve been around you long enough to get the hint that you don’t think I’m a person, that I’m just like the imprints. But even if the imprints don’t think they’re real ponies, I know I am. I can feel just like you can. So what if I’m taking over the ‘real’ Firefly’s mind? Wouldn’t you if you had no other way to live, if letting her win meant you would die?” Rarity was taken aback. She had to admit to herself that she had never actually thought of Firefly’s mind-parasite as anything other than a disease—a mindless malignance that needed to be destroyed. What would she have done in the same circumstances? Would she fight for her own survival, even if doing so meant she’d slowly be killing somepony else? No, she wouldn’t, she realized. Rarity smiled to herself, thankful that this era hadn’t changed her quite so much after all. She told the impersonator as much, adding “Living off of another’s death is no way to live. Haven’t you ever tried to live with Firefly instead of off of her?” “Do you honestly think there’s anything I haven’t tried?!” the not-Firefly spat. “I’m not pure evil, you know. I just don’t want to die, and if that means killing somepony else, then as much as I don’t like it, I’ll do so.” Rarity was about to make a retort, but instead realized this would get her nowhere. Besides, they were wasting time, when that abomination with Fluttershy’s likeness was doing who knew what to Surprise. “Megan, do you have anything stored in that computer of yours that can draw their attention?” Rarity inquired urgently. “Sure thing!” Megan affirmed, snapping and materializing what appeared to be fireworks. Perfect, thought Rarity. The fireworks worked like a charm, igniting the night brighter than the sun for a few brilliant moments. Rarity had to shield her eyes, glad she wasn’t stuck seeing heat again. She really didn’t want to know what that kind of flash would’ve looked like were she to see its power rather than its visual effect. Instantly, the air filled with the savage shrieks of spiderbats. “Here they come,” Rarity announced, planting her legs firmly in anticipation. “Brace yourselves!” One moment, she was standing beneath the dark treetops, and then suddenly— Rarity gasped in mild pain as the claws of the spiderbat clenched her, and it took every ounce of strength she had not to let her fierce surprise take control of her new tail and plunge it into her captor. It seemed that the spiderbat had the same idea, though, and quickly sprayed her tail’s barbed end with a coating of thick webbing. Rarity shivered at the disgusting feeling of the gooey, slimy covering, but also at what its presence meant for future encounters. She had never wanted to inflict its poison on any living thing, but if push came to shove, she had to admit that it would be pretty useful in an escape. No! She thought desperately, her thoughts curving around a hairpin turn. Don’t think like that! You were fine before that monstrosity cursed you with this tail, and you’ll be fine without it again. Isn’t this what you wanted, after all? Something to stop your tail from being a danger? If so, why did she suddenly feel like she’d lost the use of a vital part of herself? Was she really becoming that used to this ghastly new addition? She shuddered again at the thought. Well, she went on in her head. At least I’m not covered head-to-hoof in that repulsive webbing this time. She turned to see Megan caught in the claws of another spiderbat flying alongside her own, her hands restrained with more webbing. She didn’t look too happy about having her only access to her computer cut off, but she gave Rarity a hopeful smile all the same. The imposter wearing Firefly’s body was similarly restrained, her wings tied to her side by thick sticky strings. She merely scowled at Rarity. The feeling was mutual. Rarity only hoped that the fruit Firefly ate didn’t come with some sort of backlash. She didn’t want to deal with that arrogant parasite for the same length of time that the real Firefly had control. She swore, the first chance she was able to kill Firefly’s mental oppressor without killing Firefly, she would take it. The monstrous tree loomed up to meet them. It was lit with several bioluminescent beings scuttling across its surface, and even the tree itself pulsed with light in places. A knot opened up for them like the first time they had ‘visited’ the tree, though this time it was higher up. It seemed like they wouldn’t have to go through The Hall of Life again, skipping the frying pan and going straight into the fire. The spiderbats tossed them into the tree one by one, not bothering to remove their webbing. This was something Rarity hadn’t anticipated; she could function well enough without her new tail, but she had been relying on Firefly’s flight and Megan’s access to her computer. Then again, she’d already admitted that even in her own time plans had never really worked out as intended. It seemed she would just have to improvise. She prayed she’d be able to think of something in time. Fluttershy’s imprint’s office was much the same as before, though it had been completely healed. The doorway to The Hall of Life was still covered with thick vines and bark, while the other walls, including one in particular, were fully regenerated. The massive imitation of Fluttershy’s eyes were too preoccupied with her latest ‘perfection’ to notice Rarity and her friends entry, her slit of a mouth contorted in consternation. But as much as the giant face of the fake Fluttershy made Rarity’s stomach churn, what immediately drew her attention was what Fluttershy’s imprint was focused on. Her blood ran cold as she saw the snowy pegasus held aloft by the vines, saw the vine with the sword-like stinger, saw the black goo flowing through the vine’s veins, saw the stinger plunging towards Surprise’s chest before she could react and— “NO!!” Rarity cried out, rushing forward, but already knowing she was too late. Her horn sparked, her icy blue aura latching onto the stinger even as it made contact with Surprise’s flesh. No... Rarity mentally whispered. She had failed. Or... Had she...? What in the world? Rarity thought as the stinger remained motionless at Surprise’s chest despite all the force put into driving it forward. As the vine pressed on in vain, it began to crumple, until it broke completely and splattered black goop all over Surprise and the ground. “Oh, hi Marshy!” Surprise giggled, noticing Rarity and her friends at last. “You’re just in time! Do you think you could help this pathetic excuse for a plastic surgeon? She doesn’t even have any injection needles strong enough to start the operation!” Surprise... Was alright? But, how?! No, it didn’t matter—that was a question for later. For now, she needed to free Surprise and then end this tree once and for all. Rarity charged her horn even as Fluttershy’s imprint turned her gaze on the newcomers. “Rarity!” the monster with Fluttershy’s voice squealed with glee. “You came back! I can finish perfecting you now!” “You’re not going to be ‘perfecting’ anypony ever again!” Rarity snarled, her horn crackling as she formed a blade of magic and sent it slashing through the vines holding Surprise. Fluttershy’s imprint gasped in pain as the snowy pegasus was released, taking wing. Meanwhile, Rarity tried her best to keep from falling over from the exertion such a spell demanded. She had seen Twilight effortlessly use the spell plenty of times, but Rarity had never thought that she herself would need to use it, much less be able to. “Hey!” Surprise complained. “Don’t ruin this for me, marshmallow! I want to get cool new body parts like you!” “Surprise, we have to kill this tree!” Rarity commanded. “And besides, you’re fine the way you are. I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier.” Her face scrunched up. “And my new body parts are not cool,” she added under her breath, inaudible over the background noise. “Really?” Surprise questioned, her eyes watering as a smile split her face. “Oh, thank you, Marshy! You’re the first pony to ever say that!” “Kill me?!” Fluttershy’s imprint wondered in horror. “But why ever would you want to kill me? All I’ve ever tried to do is help life!” “You’re a monster who won’t leave life alone!” Rarity retorted. “I’m sorry you think that,” the not-Fluttershy responded sadly. “But I really am helping life. Maybe you’ll see things my way when I’m done helping you.” Instantly more vines sprang up from the floor, ceiling, and walls, latching onto Rarity limbs and hoisting her into the air as another black-goo-filled, stinger-tipped vine sprang up. Other vines grew out to try and snatch up her friends, even as the stinger-vine surged forwards to erase Rarity and replace her with something else. Rarity’s horn sparked, telekinetically fighting against the vine as best she could, but she had already used more magical strength than she thought she had with the blade-spell. The vine’s progress barely slowed at all as it ate up the distance between them and— BOOM. The stinger exploded in a fiery blaze of smoke, sending black goo everywhere as the vine shriveled and died. “Not today, motherbucker,” Surprise smiled darkly, holding a miniature smoking party cannon. Her mane and tail had once again fallen flat. “From now on, you mess with the marshmallow, you mess with me.” “If you all won’t let me help you easily,” Fluttershy’s imprint sighed. “Then I suppose my only choice is to help you all a little more forcefully.” More vines sprang up, but this time all they did was cover up the knothole opening. Thick bark grew over them, sealing off their only exit. They stood in silence for a few moments. “Um... aren’t you supposed to be cursing us with a fate worse than death?” Megan wondered. “If that’s what you stubbornly insist on calling my help, then yes,” the fake Fluttershy responded. “And I’ve already begun.” “What do you—” Rarity started to say, taking a step towards the face with her horn sparking threateningly. She froze when she heard the squelch of her hoof touching the fleshy floor. Looking down with dread rising in the pit of her stomach, Rarity saw a dark sludge dripping off her hoof. Looking at the place she had just stepped, she also saw the source of the black goo. “She’s flooding the chamber!” Rarity warned. “It’s rising through the floor!” And so it was. Puddles of the vile substance were already pooling in areas, running over and into each other. “Do not worry,” Fluttershy’s imprint soothed, or at least attempted to. “You will not drown. After you have swallowed enough of the improvement gel, I will drain my office and you will be free to go on your way. Just try not to panic, and it will all be over soon.” “We’ve got to get out of here!” Firefly blurted, clearly not taking the tree’s advice. “I can’t be turned into some slow monster-thing! I can’t end up like you, Rarity!” Rarity shot the imposter a harsh look before turning to Megan and Surprise. “Any ideas?” she questioned hurriedly, trying to ignore the feeling of the goop rising against her flesh. The floor was completely covered now, the black liquid having reached Rarity’s knees. “I can’t do anything without my computer,” Megan reminded them. “And I can’t access it without snapping my fingers. But even with my computer, I don’t see how I could get rid of all this gunk.” “Surprise!” Rarity realized as she telekinetically went to work wrenching off Megan’s webbing. Even if Megan’s computer was of no use now, it could be when they finally did get out of this blasted office. If they got out of this blasted office. “Can you blow up that monstrosity’s face? We can climb through her eye socket just like last time!” She shuddered upon realizing what she had just said—she had never wanted to have an experience like that again, but it was better than dying in this goop to be reborn as a monster. It would be so tempting to just escape as they had last time as well, but Rarity knew she would have to resist. If they wanted to truly get away from this place’s biological horror, if they truly wanted to spare everypony the potential fate of winding up as one of Fluttershy’s imprint’s pets, then they had to kill this tree. “No offense, Marshy,” Surprise spoke up as her mane and tail reinflated, a ‘eureka’ look on her face. “But I believe I have a better idea!” Before the others could react, Surprise zoomed around the room, grabbing each of her friends by the hoof (which should have been impossible). Then she sped towards the giant fleshy face. “What are you—” Fluttershy’s imprint tried to say before Surprise dived inside her mouth, tugging her friends along with her before they had time to register what was going on. “Surprise!” Rarity gasped in horror and disgust as they were pressed above and below by the moist roof and floor of the mouth. “What are you doing?! This way only leads to the stomach!” “And that’s where we’ll find The Pink Book!” Surprise agreed as she pulled them farther down the throat. “But we’ll be digested before we find anything!” Rarity asserted. “A minor technicality,” Surprise said dismissively. For once it seemed Fluttershy’s imprint agreed with Rarity, as the tongue of the tree attempted to bunch itself up in front of them and push them back out. After all, there would be no way to ‘perfect’ Rarity and her friends if they were all dead. “We can’t have any of that!” Surprise giggled despite the situation. Pulling out her miniature party cannon again, she fired at the tongue repeatedly. A scream of pain reverberated from deep below them, and the tongue flinched and writhed, sending them all sliding down it and into the wet darkness below. Rarity lit up her horn to illuminate the way as best she could, but the pit they were falling into seemed bottomless. “Surprise!” Rarity scolded. “If we don’t make it out of this alive, I’m going to kill you!” “Rarity!” Megan piped up. “Can you get the rest of this webbing off of me? If I can snap, I can levitate us so we won’t take an acid bath!” Rarity furiously attacked the webbing with her magic, but the restraints held fast like iron. Finally she darted forward and stuck her horn into them, trying to lift her head and up slice them open. She gasped a little in pain as the webbing resisted, tugging at her horn to the point of making it feel like she soon wouldn’t have one if she kept this up. But, knowing she soon wouldn’t have an anything if she didn’t, she fought on. “You might want to hurry that up, Rarity,” Firefly’s doppelganger informed her. “It looks like that acid bath’s coming up!” The vertical tunnel did seem to be lighting up, even without Rarity’s magic. And if that weren’t enough indication, the temperature was spiking even as a nauseating smell permeated the air. “Almost... There...” Rarity grunted as she fought against the webbing. Unfortunately, the webbing seemed to be winning. And then they were out of the vertical tunnel, but still falling fast. The hole of the tree’s throat fell away up above them as a massive cavern opened up below. A substance that might as well have been lava from its coloration and all the heat it was emitting bubbled and churned far beneath them, though it was rising up faster each moment. The heat was becoming almost unbearable, the smell overpowering. Hot... Hotter... And then— With a furious final assertion of force, Rarity finally cut the sticky strings apart. Megan instantly wrenched her hands out of the remaining restraints and snapped, cutting their fall short on a cushion of air. Another snap enveloped them in a transparent bubble, and they all let out a sigh of relief, thankful they could do so at all. The bubble was full of breathable air, unlike the noxious fumes they’d just been faced with. All let out a sigh of relief, that is, except Surprise. “Aw, come on!” she huffed. “I was this close to getting The Pink Book! It’s right down there! I can feel it!” “Surprise, let it go!” Rarity commanded. “I know how much this conspiracy theory of yours means to you and how you think that book can help you save the world, but if you really want to save the world then you need to help us kill this tree!” “Marshy...” Surprise spoke quietly, yet firmly. “Remember when Twilight—the real one—was so upset over not having a friendship report? How you and all your friends thought it was nothing until you realized that even though it didn’t make sense to you, it should have been important to you because it was important to her?” “How do you know about that?” Rarity inquired. “The same way I know everything I do,” Surprise responded. “But that’s not important. What’s important is that that book is important, and I really, really need you to help me get it. Please, Rarity!” The white unicorn saw the look of desperation on Surprise’s face and reluctantly realized she was right. Even if this didn’t make any sense, she needed to help Surprise because it was so important to her. That should have been all the reason Rarity needed. “Alright, Surprise,” Rarity told her. “You’re right, and I’m sorry. But this is a two-way street, remember? You need to help me as well. If you help me kill this tree, I’ll help you look for this book.” “Agreed!” Surprise cheered, hugging Rarity tightly. “Just one question, though... How do we do that?” “I’ve been thinking about that,” Megan spoke up. “If this tree has a stomach, then what’s to say it doesn’t have a heart as well?” “That would be ideal,” Rarity noted. “But how do we get to it?” “I suppose we just find a way to get out of the stomach and go up,” Megan thought aloud. “Then we should find it before we would reach the office.” Rarity spoke her agreement, and Megan levitated their bubble up to the roof of the stomach. Surprise drew her miniature party cannon again, shooting the roof enough to create a sizeable hole of burnt flesh. The tree shook with a cry of pain. “Well, now the imprint knows we didn’t die in her stomach,” the un-Firefly noted worriedly as Megan levitated them up through the hole and landed them on the outer surface of the stomach casing. “And if she knows where we are, why isn’t she growing more vines to catch us again?” “I don’t think she has complete control over every part of her body,” Rarity explained. “But now that she does know we’re still alive and where we are, I suspect she’ll be sending her cronies after us.” “Speaking of which...” Megan noted, pointing up. The friends looked skyward, and Rarity suddenly found herself torn between two emotional extremes. One the one hoof, she joyfully realized she could see the heart, far above them but well within reach with all the fliers there were in the group. It was suspended by various thick veins between what appeared to be giant lungs and various other organs. On the other hoof, though, knotholes were opening up on every side of the tree. As horror fought against her joy, an army of abominations flew, slithered, or crawled through the holes, letting out a collective primal roar as they surged down towards Rarity and her friends.