Chapter 18: Impossible Things
Ponies are weird.
Somehow, Meadow had gotten used to that. Mostly. She had accepted it. It was just something that happened; the grass grew, the birds flew, the sun shined, ponies were crazy. It had gotten to the point where she just calmly accepted it with fairly little fuss. If nothing else, it kept things interesting, in the best and worst sense of the word.
It wasn't that she needed something to make life better. She had everything she needed: a home, a purpose, and enough love to feed a whole herd of changelings. Spark had received some well-earned praise for his flying machine when he demonstrated it, and that made Meadow feel rather proud of herself, as if she had accomplished something. Then there were the various diversions. Meals and outings with Spark's adoptive parents were the most common, but Meadow's favorites were the flights. Sometimes they were for the fun and excitement of flying, while others were simply to enjoy some time alone together.
So while life was already very nice, somehow the usual pony craziness managed to make it a little better. Meadow still occasionally found herself thinking she had gone as insane as they had, but it kept things interesting. Life around ponies could never be dull, and it meant she always had something to do at work. Fortunately, nothing nearly as disastrous as the return of Nightmare Moon had loomed up, leaving Meadow to at least find some amusement in the strangeness of ponies even as they figuratively turned the world upside down around her.
Right up until she opened her door one fall morning, little over a year after that long night, to see that they had somehow managed to make that figurative statement literal.
Meadow just stood there, staring out the doorway in disbelief. The sky extended out below her, peppered here and there with purple clouds that sent columns of muddy-looking rain upward. Far above her was the ground, the city sprawling out into the distance; or at least, the portions of the city that were not currently floating several hundred feet above--or was that below?--the ground. Many buildings were currently floating at different altitudes, and Meadow was distantly annoyed to note that several had maintained their correct orientation. A few sections of road had even followed them, leaving precariously narrow and frighteningly thin strips to connect various houses.
She had no such luck; the porch just ended, leaving nothing but sky past the steps. Not that she would trust such a questionable surface as a floating path, but it still seemed... unfair.
Though a very tiny part of her mind did find it somewhat comforting, and possibly a little amusing, that she seemed to be faring better than the filly in the house across what should have been the street. She was looking mournfully out the window at Meadow, while her home slowly turned end-over-end around her.
In the end, Meadow did the only rational thing she could do.
She stepped back, shut the door, and sat back against it. Then she proceeded to stare at the opposite wall for several minutes as she tried to make some sort of sense out of what she saw outside.
Sadly, the most rational explanation she could come up with was that she had somehow contracted whatever insanity infected all the ponies around her. It was complete nonsense, of course, yet it still made more sense than what was going on.
Eventually, she stood and trotted into the kitchen, where Spark was still finishing up breakfast.
"So, I think we'll stay home today."
Spark looked up from his toast. "Can't. I've got work. That stupidly big ship we're working on still needs a lot done on it, and Dad needs everypony that can help out."
Meadow smiled nervously. "I'm pretty sure they're not doing any work today."
That drew out a short pause. "Why?"
"Um... well, I'm not quite certain how I could describe--"
And then everything went dark.
"Oh, come on!" Meadow groaned, followed by her horn lighting up. She tried to follow it up with a reassuring smile, but she was pretty sure it came out as a grimace.
Spark was wide-eyed, looking around for a moment before his eyes locked on Meadow. Surprisingly, he stayed mostly calm, only a small hint of fear in his voice instead of an all-consuming panic. "W-what's going on?"
"I... don't know."
He shakily stood up, the remnants of his breakfast forgotten. "Do... do you think Luna--"
"No," Meadow cut in, shaking her head. "This is something different."
"Then... what is it?"
Meadow stood silently for a few seconds before letting out a sigh. "You should probably see this yourself. It's a lot easier than explaining it..."
They stood silently on the back porch, which was once again fully lit by the sun. Any fears of "eternal night" were banished when the untimely night lasted all of three minutes. It was a small comfort, yet rather insignificant compared to the inverted world and floating buildings.
Spark was still staring at their backyard, with the shed and flying machine neatly enclosed by a fence. The whole thing was floating some fifty feet away on a separate island of floating dirt.
"Huh."
Meadow made a sound halfway between a strangled laugh and a groan at Spark's decidedly understated summary of the situation. She sat, massaging her temples with a pair of hooves. "This just... this is too weird."
"Well," Spark said hesitantly, still eying the separated back yard. "At least we're okay?"
Meadow slowly let her hooves fall, then looked at the house, then straight up at the ground far above. "We're hanging from the underside of a floating building. I don't know if I should be more worried about falling down into the sky or up into the ground. I'm not sure if I'd go so far as to say we're 'okay.'"
"...Okay-ish?"
She snorted softly. "Yeah, I guess I can go with that."
A loud thump directly beneath their hooves made them both jump; Meadow followed this by a moment of panicked flailing at the sudden vertigo of jumping "up" toward the ground, but thankfully her hooves landed back on the porch just as a voice called out from below them.
"Spark? Meadow? Are you okay?"
The sight of Willow Leaf peering up from under the porch was bizarre enough to make Meadow snort out a chuckle. The pegasus was standing directly opposite them on the underside of the porch as if it was the top.
Which by her perspective, it was. Meadow fought the urge to grab onto the railing of the porch for fear of her recognition of this reminding the ground of the pull it was supposed to have on her, but her hooves stayed firmly planted on the upturned porch. "I-I think we settled on 'okay-ish,'" she replied.
Willow let out a nervous chuckle. "Thank Celestia for that. I was so worried. Everything's gone so crazy!"
Great. When a pony complains that things have gotten crazy, you know you're in trouble.
Willow stepped off the porch, turning to hover right in front of them. Even having had several minutes to get used to the world being upside down, it was still incredibly strange to see her hovering completely inverted from their own position. She caught Willow tilting her head to the side as she looked at them, then quickly snapping back to upright. "Well, um... I had been planning on helping you two get down to the ground, but... I have no idea what that would do, now."
"That would probably just give us further to fall," Meadow said dryly, giving a timid glance over the edge of the porch.
"You and dad are okay, then?" Spark asked.
"We're fine, don't worry about us," Willow replied, giving a strained smile. "He's helping ferry ponies stranded in floating buildings back to safe ground, though the syrup rain is making it a little difficult. I was going to help, but I just had to find you two first. Are you sure everything is fine here?"
Meadow did her best to ignore the weather comment she had surely misheard and hesitantly looked up. "As long as gravity doesn't remember how it's supposed to work, sure."
"M-maybe we should go back inside," Spark said, trying to keep his eyes focused on Willow and not the ground far above. "That seems safer. I mean, unless the whole house decides to fall down, too." He ended the sentence by clamping his mouth shut, his expression clearly stating "this is not helping."
Willow frowned. "Maybe I could help you down? It might be safer if you're in our apartment, closer to the ground?" A faint smirk started to grow. "Even if you're stuck walking on the ceiling."
"Y-yeah," Spark said, nodding. "That sounds much better."
"Okay, I can do that," Willow replied with a nod. "Let's... let's try..."
It was an awkward affair as Willow and Spark clutched each other. Her wings beat awkwardly as she tried to keep herself righted while Spark clutched to her, trying to fall in the opposite direction. This was made all the more awkward for how close they were in weight; Willow was quite athletic but trim, and so likely weighed about average for a mare, but Spark was certainly on the small and light side for a stallion. As a result, Willow had to be careful while beating her wings to stay stable, as even a tiny bit of lift was enough to make their roughly-counterbalanced weight start floating upward.
"This is like trying to fly while holding down a giant balloon!" Willow had grunted, while Meadow found herself torn between horror and hilarity at the awkward pair.
Hilarity won when Willow lost her balance and the pair of them flipped upside-down, leaving Meadow laughing in near hysterics as the disgruntled tangle drifted slowly toward the ground.
Meadow felt a little bad for laughing when it was her turn. As it turned out, what was hilarious to watch was rather terrifying to do, at least to somepony without wings. The terror diminished rather quickly when she decided that things had gone so weird that she could probably wave off spontaneous wing-growth as being less strange than flying upside-down houses. Still, it made her feel bad for laughing at Spark, though he seemed to not mind. Or at least, he was laughing just as much when Willow awkwardly hauled her into the apartment and released, the two of them flopping onto a couch and the bare ceiling, respectively.
From there, things were surprisingly calm. While it was completely bizarre and even a little absurd, it was fairly quiet in the apartment. It could almost pass for normal, if not for exchanging day and night every few minutes, or having to climb over the top of doorways to get to the next room. The weirdest it got was when Meadow got a glass of water and had to drink it while holding the cup upside-down to keep from spilling the liquid. Feeling it pooling at the top of her mouth was strange enough. The odd sensation of it pressing up in her stomach was even weirder.
She refrained from drinking or eating anything else. Such a strange feeling likely wouldn't lend itself well to comfort, and she rather dreaded finding out what would happen when it came back out.
Otherwise, things were fairly uneventful. It seemed like a complete contradiction to have the world outside gone so wrong, and yet be relatively normal inside that apartment.
I've been spending way too much time around ponies, she thought with a small frown, if this can in any way be described as “normal.”
They sat and waited, surprised at how little there was to do when stuck on the ceiling of an apartment. Fortunately, they didn't have to wait too long.
Only a few hours after arriving, Meadow felt something. It reminded her most of the feeling in the air whenever they powered up the Songbird's motors: a faint and almost electrical tension that filled the air, just on the edge of perception. She looked around just as a brilliant white flash lit the drawn curtains.
It was the only warning they got before a wave of light shot through the room. Meadow reflexively cringed back, a hoof rising to shield her face even as she started to move toward Spark. For an instant, she could feel something, a presence, almost like emotional energy, but so vastly more powerful. Too powerful to properly sense and comprehend. It was as if she were at the center of the entire universe's attention, and for a moment she couldn't help but feel that it was judging her... and that the universe did not approve of what it found.
An instant later, everything seemed right.
She couldn't put words to it, not properly. For a single instant, the entire world felt at peace. Everything was calm, everything was peaceful, everything was exactly as it should be. There was no other way to put it: The world just felt... right.
She blinked.
She was sitting on the couch. Across from her, Spark was sitting in a chair, also blinking his eyes. They were back on the ground. Despite the sudden shock, her heart was beating calmly, her breaths slow and steady. Whatever powerful sensation had just washed over them had completely vanished without a trace.
The entire strangeness of the day had vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving the world with no more lingering effect than a vivid dream. Outside, everything was restored. No more flying buildings, no more weird weather. There was no sign at all that anything weird had happened except for the look of the ponies wandering around, that momentary period of shock and wonder that would swiftly lead into jubilation at having survived another calamity.
After Willow and Sunseeker returned to double-check that yes, they were safe and sound, Spark and Meadow returned home. It was right where it should be, firmly planted on the ground as if it had never been anywhere else.
Meadow even made her way to City Hall, only to find the dullest day of work she had ever experienced. Literally nothing was wrong. A few ponies had gotten minor scrapes and bruises during the chaos, but those had all vanished along with the rest of the insanity. She and Charity spent a few hours looking for anypony who needed help before eventually shrugging and giving up. It was as if whatever disaster had occurred had never happened, some shared hallucination rather than the world falling into chaos.
It was only the next day that they knew for certain what had happened. Some strange creature named Discord had decided to make Equestria his plaything, possibly as revenge for its Princesses having entombed him in stone for a millennium. He'd gone on something of a rampage before being defeated, apparently deciding that these ponies didn't make the world chaotic enough on their own. The sudden magic that had ended it was from the same magical artifacts that had defeated Nightmare Moon just a year prior, yet again wielded by the Princess's protégé and her friends.
As interesting and outright bizarre as it was, Meadow tried to put it out of mind. The whole thing had just been so strange that she wanted nothing more to do with it, even if that meant mimicking the ponies who carried on as if nothing too unusual had happened. If nothing else, she could take comfort in knowing that there was no way that anything could be more freakishly bizarre, insane, or incomprehensible than some deity-like being of pure chaos making the world his plaything.
It took the universe just over half a year to prove her utterly wrong.
The day started normal enough. A nice, late-spring morning, calm and peaceful. Meadow had a quick breakfast while chatting with Spark, finishing up with a kiss before heading off for work. The air was still cool but promised to warm nicely as the day went on. It was a pleasant morning, and she trotted along with a spring in her step. A smile crossed her face as she thought of their kiss and the lingering taste of love.
She was almost to City Hall when she noticed the anxious pair of ponies talking in hushed tones as she passed them on the street. At first, she disregarded it; after all, it was a private conversation, none of her business, and likely nothing she could benefit from anyway. Then she noted another couple behaving much the same way, and a small group. When she turned the final corner to see the crowd near the steps of City Hall, it was obvious that something significant had occurred. The newsstand there was practically swarmed in ponies.
Giving the crowd a wary look, she started to trot around it, making a note to ask Charity what was going on. At least, that was the plan before the pony running the stand finished the sale he was making and called out. "Canterlot Invaded! Read about it here!"
Meadow came to a halt, looking over as if to confirm that she had heard that properly. Canterlot? Invaded? The idea struck her as absurd. After all, it was the heart of a sprawling, mighty kingdom, the seat of two beings of incredible power, home to the Royal Guard, and situated on immensely defensible terrain. To even attempt such an attack seemed like insanity. The idea was so preposterous that it would be easy to dismiss if not for the serious expression of many of the ponies as they read their freshly bought papers. Those faces made the case that logic could not.
After a moment of hesitation, she turned and approached the stand. As she slipped past a couple ponies, she could finally see the papers on display.
And her brain simply stopped. For several seconds, she simply stared, mouth hanging ever so slightly open. She didn't move. She didn't blink. She didn't even breathe. She simply stared at the headline, unable to properly process what she saw.
CHANGELING INVASION REPULSED!
It was simply wrong. It didn't make sense. The individual words made sense, the grammar was correct, but together they made for such an impossible and incomprehensible arrangement that her mind simply rejected every single possible interpretation. It was nonsense. It was wrong.
Changelings don't invade. Changelings don't reveal themselves to ponies. Changelings don't even exist to ponies. It was completely impossible for that sentence to exist.
She stared numbly at the words, which stubbornly refused to acknowledge her logic. Instead, they simply sat there, staring back at her. Her brain struggled to comprehend what that sentence could possibly mean when her eyes finally drifted down to the picture below them.
It was faintly blurred and off-kilter, as if taken by somepony who was more concerned with their own safety than with the quality of the photograph, but it struck her as clearly as if she had seen it with her own eyes. Any changeling from the hive would immediately recognize that scene: a pair of drones hovering beside the Queen herself, forelegs raised in victory. Even after so many years, it was a sight Meadow could never mistake. Her Queen, rising up gloriously... shown on the front page for every pony in Equestria to see.
She shuddered, overwhelmed with the sheer wrongness of it all. She paused, stepped back, paused again. Her brain slowly struggled to come back to speed, to make sense of it all.
A pair of eyes were fixed on her. Something about that caught her muddled mind's attention, her head turning slightly to look back.
Bigs stared at her with wide eyes, his expression full of shock; an expression that she numbly realized mirrored her own. He simply stood there, frozen in a fear that she could taste.
And then, creeping up behind that fear, there was anger. His jaw slowly tensed, expression tightening. Then he tore himself away from her stare and broke into a gallop.
The action snapped her mind into focus. Instinct demanded action, and her brain quickly took up the task.
I can kill him.
It would be easy. She was already turning to the nearby alleyway. Once there it would be simple to fire-portal to the next alley, ahead of where he was running. A quick, piercing bolt of magic through the side of his chest would end him instantly, and he'd never see the ambush coming from such an unexpected angle. She could even take a different form to ensure that nopony would see her killing him.
All those thoughts flashed through her mind and were dismissed in an instant. She couldn't do that. Even with the incomprehensible insanity of what was happening, that thought rattled around her mind: she couldn't kill him. Practical excuses flashed through her mind, pointing out that it would only delay the inevitable; a murder would bring an intense investigation, and being a long-time rival, she would be the most natural place to start looking. At the same time, she knew it didn't matter. She only had to imagine Spark's reaction if he ever found out, and she knew she couldn't do it.
Spark.
Hooves skittered on the cobblestone as she turned into the alley. She hopped, her horn lighting up, a flicker of green fire flashing in a circle on the ground ahead of her. Her hooves came down, and then kept going as the fire enveloped her. The world lurched and spun around her as she pulled two points in space together for a single instant, and then she was through. She emerged from the flames to tumble to a stop in the middle of her living room.
In an instant, she was back on her hooves.
"Spark!"
There was no answer. She looked into the kitchen, rushed up the stairs, peered out into the backyard, calling out his name as she went, but he was nowhere to be found.
I can't stay here! Bigs was running with a purpose, and it was easy to guess what that was: the Guard. He'd tell them about her, and then they would come straight here. She couldn't have long. Once he convinced the Guard of what he knew, which probably would not take long, it would only be a few minutes before they would be at her door.
With a quiet, anguished whine, she turned to her dresser. Saddlebags floated up in her magic, and she quickly crammed several belongings into it. Clothes, some jewelry, anything she could grab quickly and easily. The only item she consciously reached for was her compass; she was not going to leave that behind, ever.
As soon as she had finished, she paused, then quickly repeated the process with Spark's saddlebags, making sure to get a fair assortment of tools included.
She had to get out of here, and if he came with her then maybe, just maybe, she might be able to work it all out. She didn't know how, but... maybe with some time she could figure something out.
Heading downstairs, she went into the kitchen, pulling out several items of food to stuff into the bags. There was no telling what the situation was going to be once they'd left, so it was best to be prepared.
The sound of the front door opening made her jump, a cold shock running through her. She ran to the doorway, just in time to see Spark stepping in and closing the door.
"Spark!"
His reply turned into a surprised grunt when she hugged him tightly. He actually chuckled slightly at the enthusiasm.
When she released, she could feel the touch of concern starting to creep into his emotions. She tried to forestall it with a small smile, though she had the feeling it looked somewhat awkward. "We... we need to go."
One of his eyebrows quirked up. "Go? Why, what's up?"
"I'll explain when we get there," she said, levitating their saddlebags out.
"Um... okay," he said, fortunately sounding more curious than concerned.
As he put his bags on--rather too slowly and casually for her tastes--she peered out the window. There was no sign of guards rushing to their house, but she knew they would be coming soon. In fact, if they didn't leave quickly, they'd probably run into them on the streets, and then...
She shook her head, then turned to Spark, pushing her shoulder against his side to get him moving. "Come on. Let's go out the back."
"Uh, y-yeah," he said, staggering along for a couple of steps before getting his hooves under him and trotting along with her. There was no time to waste.
Meadow opened the back door and hopped off the porch, hissing back, "We've got to hurry!"
That dubious expression was returning, more troubling than before, but he picked up the pace to keep up. She trotted up to the gate in their backyard, leading to a side street. As she reached it, she paused a moment to consider Songbird, parked nearby.
Too flashy, she thought a moment later. There was no way they'd avoid attention in that, and Spark was moving too slowly and hesitantly to rely on him for their escape. Sadly, she had yet to learn to fly the thing. She cast it from her mind, instead peering out over the gate. The street looked clear.
Throwing open the gate, she broke into a swift trot, casting a glance back to make sure Spark followed. His expression was full of concern, but he was still there, following her.
"Meadow?"
She kept going. A couple houses down was an alleyway. She took the corner and continued on until she heard him call out again.
"Meadow!"
She came to a halt, head whipping around to look behind her. Spark had slowed and stopped just inside the alleyway. His expression had gone well past concern. "W-what's going on?"
"Spark, come on," she replied, straining to keep her own tension from her voice. "We... we have to..."
She trailed off, staring back at him as they both panted, breathing much harder than the short trot would have demanded. The feeling coming from him cut into her.
He's scared.
I'm scaring him.
Her ears drooped as she stared back at him. Everything was messed up. Everything was going wrong. It was all spinning well out of her ability to control. Hopelessness and failure loomed. Bigs knew. Soon other ponies would know. Eventually, that knowledge would reach Spark.
But there was still one thing she could control.
Her voice came out strained and weak. "...I have to go."
Spark's ears twitched. "What? But... why?"
"Please, Spark," she pleaded. Every single instinct and fear screamed against her, but she continued on. "If you come with me to somewhere safe, I'll... I'll explain everything."
The fear for her was still as strong as ever. "Are you in trouble?"
Meadow winced. "...Yes."
His eyes widened, his body tightening up at that one word. "W-what? Why?"
She glanced around, mulling over her options. None of them were good, and those choices were quickly running out; they both looked back when they heard shouts from their home, one pony calling Spark's name.
When she looked back to Spark, the decision was made. She might not be able to control much of what was happening now, but she could control this. With a faint shudder, she forced herself to speak. "Did you hear about what happened in Canterlot?"
Spark blinked, the gears in his mind clearly going to work already. "What, the changeling attack?" Meadow winced, but he didn't seem to notice. "Only what was in the paper. I was talking with the neighbors about it a couple of minutes ago, but... why?"
Meadow swallowed. "And what did it say about the... the changelings?"
Spark paused a moment, looking off in thought as he recalled that part of the story. "...They're some sort of weird bug-pony creatures that suck the love out of ponies for food, and can shape-change themselves to look like loved--"
He halted, eyes widening suddenly. Then he looked back to her, expression questioning.
She swallowed and gave a faint nod.
Spark blinked at the silent confirmation. She knew he was smart enough to realize what she was saying, but recognition and acceptance were two completely different things. "Y-you... but you... that can't..."
She just nodded once again, more firmly.
For a moment he was silent, mouth working wordlessly for a few moments before going still. Then his expression hardened, body tensing. And there, in the background of his thoughts, anger started to grow. "A-and Meadow?"
Meadow flinched as if struck, quickly raising a hoof to wave off the question. "Oh, no. No! I am Meadow. I always have been, ever since the day we met at the orphanage, I swear it."
He stood rigidly for several seconds, the only sound being that of more shouts from their home. Then his ears drooped a little. His stance weakened as he drooped. His voice came out quietly "So, all of this... I'm just... food?"
"N-no!" Meadow said, shaking her head, but a guilty feeling quickly rose up. "I... I mean, at first, maybe. I was alone and scared. I needed some sort of affection to survive, and you were the most friendly, so... so I kept you around. I didn’t know what else to do. But then I s-started..."
Her words died on her lips at the sudden surge of shock and horror from Spark. His wide eyes, previously darting about in little jumps as he absorbed what she was saying, were now fixed squarely on her. "...It was you?"
She tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come. Instead, he continued on. "It was you. Every time a couple came to adopt, I got sick. I thought it was because of nerves, but... that was what you said. It was you?"
Her throat tightened as if it were trying to strangle her from within. Her voice barely reached above a whisper. "I'm sorry."
Spark staggered back, then fell to his haunches. No words came, only a stunned expression, his emotions in a depressed jumble. Meadow took a step forward, wanting nothing more than to comfort him, but halted as the gesture made him flinch back. She blinked, tearing up at the feelings radiating from him.
"...Spark."
He winced again, closing his eyes and turning away, as if afraid to look at her. His breath caught several times, his eyes watering.
Meadow trembled, and her voice wavered. "I love you."
More shouts echoed from down the street, along with the sound of hooves on cobblestone. Spark's eyes finally crept open as he looked back. His voice was faint, distant, almost devoid of emotion despite the turmoil she could feel in him. "The guards are coming. They're calling for me."
Meadow stood silently, her eyes pleading.
"You... you have to go?"
A nod.
"Then... just..." Spark's voice caught. He could barely continue on. "P-please just go. Before they get here."
A coldness gripped at her gut. She looked at him as if pleading for something else, but he didn't lift his gaze to meet hers. She sagged, eyes slowly falling to her hooves.
Meadow drew in a deep, ragged breath. Then she raised her horn again, its length lighting up in brilliant green, similarly hued flames flaring up in a circle around her. As they rose, she cast a glance back to Spark, who sat shuddering, tears starting to roll freely down his cheeks.
"I'm sorry," she said, just before the flames obscured her view, and the world moved around her.
On a hill just outside Manechester, a ring of green fire flickered to life. A moment later it surged up like a bubble broaching the surface of a lake. The flame flicked away as if the bubble had burst, leaving no trace of their presence save for a light-brown unicorn.
She turned on unsteady hooves to look back at the town, wavering for a moment before her legs gave out. She sank down to the ground in a disheveled heap, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed.
"I'm so sorry..."