//------------------------------// // Ch.4 How far does this rabbit hole go? // Story: Life's Annoying Paradox: Perception is Reality // by CDR //------------------------------// Entry #2 -Date of entry; December 6th, 2011 -Date of event(s); 1,500-ish years before Nightmare Moon's banishment Harmonous winked into existence at the base of Celestia’s throne. Looking up quickly, he saw the princess’ jaw freeze mid-syllable. He was about to speak when the Royal Sister thundered in anger. "Harmonous! How dare you?" she shouted with the full force of her voice. "You have precisely one minute to explain yourself." The intruding pony one looked around,soon realizing that he had just interrupted a meeting with some very important griffin diplomats. Panicking, Harmonous activated a time-pocket spell, sealing them both in a single second of time. The ruler’s reaction was instantaneous. "You dare imprison me? What..." The anger died in her voice as she finally noticed the condition her friend was in; his form was not entirely solid as it should have been. Instead, his body was surrounded by the misty forms of his friends, each slowly overlapping his position before drifting a few inches to the sides or above him. "I... am... sorry... princess,” said the alicorn through intensifying pain. "The others are in pain, and... I am not far off from the same thing." It must have been the spell I cast, he thought as he did his best to stay standing. Harmonous’ knees gave way and he crumpled to the floor. "Read this," Harmonous groaned as he levitated the note and journal to Celestia. The weakening Alicorn did his best to slow his breathing and calm his troubled mind as Celestia read first the note, and then the journal entry. "I'm not sure I entirely understand Harmonous. While I now know that Tom, Hal, and Fin are in pain, you on the other hand, as an alicorn, should be able to effectively stop the pain, or at the very least banish it from your mind," Celestia said, looking both worried and confused. "I have had almost the same dream as described there. But I would be hovering above and behind them. Whatever it was that they were losing at the moment, I was gaining. The problem is now I feel that I'm gaining nothing. I feel only the same pain, now..." The alicorn had manged, as he spoke, to sit up before the princess. But now he fell, fully unconscious. In a split second, Celestia grabbed hold of the time-pocket spell before it could fail. It would just raise more questions than give answers, the royal sister thought as she channeled her own magic into the spell. "Now let's see what I can do here Harmonous..." Celestia had looked around the room to check on various parts of the spell, speaking as she turned to face Mono once again, only to find that he had shrunk in size to that of when she had first met him. "Mono?" she inquired. The stallion-turned-colt slowly started glowing a faint red and rose from the floor. He stopped four feet off the floor. A pale haze poured fourth from his body, slowly taking the form of a creature that Celestia had never seen before. The Princess sat there in silence, barely comprehending what was happening. She did feel something, however: anger. She was furious; she had not experienced such rage since her battle against Discord so long ago. Here before her it seemed that not only were four ponies that she cared for possibly dieing, but that it was the fault of this being now taking form before her. She could see what the problem was: This thing was siphoning off their life so that it could live. No more, the enraged princess determined. No more. Celestia rose from her throne to her full height, moved down the steps till she was just in front of the creature, took aim at the thickest part of it, and, being careful not to hit her friend, shot a blast of her magic straight at the being. She was disappointed with the with the result. What only could be described as a squeak issued from the creature as parts of its fluid form moved to try and block the attack. Though it did not know it at the time, it needed not fear the spell for the blast passed right through it, leaving no effect. Sailing on behind its intended target, the bolt was absorbed by the walls of the spatial spell. Both stood there for some time, Celestia trying to process in her mind how it could be unaffected by her magic, while the creature slowly opened its eyes and ceased cringing. "What are you and what are you doing to Harmonous?” Celestia blurted. It was all the alicorn could think to say. The creature flinched. "You're not going to try and shoot me again, are you?" it inquired, not fully realizing that it was unharmed. "That depends on how you answer my questions. I would suggest you do so." Celestia’s surprise at the the creature being unaffected by her attack was quickly being replaced by anger. "Well I don't have any idea about your second question, but as for the first, I could have sworn I was supposed to be a pony now. Would you happen to have a mirror I could use?" It looked around, slowly losing itself to the grandeur of the room. After gazing about the room for a bit, and noticing but ignoring the seemingly frozen figures of the griffins and guards, its attention snapped back to Celestia. "Umm... a mirror, please?" the creature insisted. The white alicorn huffed in agitation; she had already lost much of her patience in speaking to the diplomats. This ethereal parasite was rapidly depleting the remainder. Celestia raised one of her fore-hooves and pointed to the side of the room where a large mirror stood. She watched as the haze began to float in the direction she had indicated, following behind it at a distance. It stopped just to the side of the mirror and shifted suddenly before speaking. "Did I just? … Not important, I guess... Now let's see what I look like." The creature shifted in place and moved slightly to the side, positioning itself directly in front of the mirror. As the haze studied itself in the mirror, the princess noticed it becoming more clear in form. It stood on upright on two legs, with it's upper limbs ending in... Dragon's claws? Celestia wondered as the creature slowly gained more definition to its form. No, those are only four talons per limb. This has five on each. Suddenly, one of its upper limbs moved towards the colt floating within it. Its head started bobbing up and down frantically, looking between itself and the mirror. Taking a step back, it fell to the floor as color poured into its form, granting even more clarity. "I remember... everything... But that... is me!" Celestia had taken a step back when it fell, looking to where its voice had come from. "Now that you remember, everything, as you put it, answer my questions," demanded Celestia. It's head snapped around at her voice, a look of confusion and terror in its azure eyes. "Oh shit," it said as it brought fourth not only the memories needed to answer her questions, but also those of the alicorn's recent anger. Slowly it got up from the ground and stood, its mind racing with the different possibilities it could imagine to explain the situation. Several times it started to speak, only to have no sound come out. Finally, its mind latched onto the one thing that did not quite make sense. "Celestia, you asked what I was doing to someone called Harmonous. Who would that be?" "Not someone, creature, somepony. Harmonous is the colt currently floating in your chest." He looked down at hearing her words, then back at the mirror to get a better look. "That's where my heart should be," it muttered while still staring. "Heh... heh heh... heh hahahahaha hahahahahahahaha.” The creature fell over again, wrapping its arms around its chest and rolling around on the ground as it continued laughing. Celestia furrowed her brow. Now she was really losing her patience with this thing. "What is so funny, parasite?" "I'm sorry Tia, its just that I realized what all is going on here. Heh heh. Though I should have guessed that you wouldn't have been able to figure it out. I'm dreaming! I mean, why didn't I get it before?" The creature raised a foreleg and planted the palm squarely on its forehead. "I mean seriously, I'm a colored floating haze with a colt for a heart. I've been shot at and unaffected by alicorn-level magic. And to top it all off, you have no idea what I'm supposed to be! Hahahaha." It was laughing so hard that there were tears in its eyes. "You don’t know what I am? You're the ones that brought Equestria to Earth, after all. I mean come-on, Celestia, you've known about humans for years!" ”You will show me some respect you monster! You will answer my questions now, or I will rip Harmonous from you insubstantial chest!” The last straw for Celestia had been the casual use of the pet name that her sister had given her. "Sure you will Tia. Pfft. Next you'll tell me that Mono here is the combined form of three other ponies. Heh. Heh. Hahahaha," he sneered as he turned around and started to walk away. "What?" She blinked; the creature had said it as if it were completely preposterous. "What, what?" he replied, still walking away. "Repeat what you just said," she deadpanned. He stopped and turned around, his mirth dying down to a chuckle. "Harmonous here," he said gesturing to the colt in his chest, "Is the combination of an Earth pony by the name of Kerp Ztom, a Zegasis by the name of Hailfire Shock, and a Unicorn by the name of Infinite Imagination. I should know, all four of them are my ideas! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have some fun before I wake up." At this he turned back around and continued to walk across the room. That is, until he ran into the edge of the time-pocket spell. "The hell did I just run into?" he asked annoyedly as he started to poke at the invisible wall. "That, human, is the spell Harmonous cast before he collapsed, shrunk in size, and started glowing red." The alicorn did her best to hide her confusion. My attack did not affect him, but Harmonous' spell could? Several possibilities ran through her mind on just what that might mean. "Bullshit!" it said as it turned around and stared at the alicorn. "I am Harmonous, and Harmonous is me!" He spat as he began traversing the room once again. "Friggin dreams, never the way you want them," he muttered as he crossed the room once again. "Apparently not, otherwise you would have passed through the spell as if it wasn't even there. On the other hoof, this should help prove that, You. Are. Not. Dreaming," Celestia said, adding power to her voice. "Pfft, dreams rarely ever make sense." He would not admit it, but he was starting to think that he was not actually dreaming. "Prove it then,” he challenged, “Prove to me that I'm not dreaming. Come-on Celestia; I dare ya!" "As you wish, human." She moved towards him, an idea coming to mind. "Harmonous once described to me what it felt like when he would allow himself to split back into the other three. He had mentioned that it required him to either lose his concentration, or he could push it along with a little magic." Harmonous forgive me, she thought as she stopped before him. "I'm going to try and force him to separate and see if you feel anything. Will that suffice?" she asked, hoping he would reconsider his challenge. "Eh, why not?" The alicorn’s choice of proof sounded much more interesting that what he had planned to do for fun. Celestia focused her magic into the tip of her horn. The magic manifested as a small star, that glowed dully. "That's not much," he said, calling to mind what he had seen before. "Harmonous said it did not take much," the alicorn replied as she tilted her head, touching her horn to Mono's glowing body. As soon the magic entered Mono, his eyes shot open. "Whys it so bright in here?" the colt asked, blinking his eyes. "Mono, are you okay?" asked the princess, very much relieved that he did not sound like he was in pain. "Oh fuck. Not g--" The human was not able to finish as he felt himself blast apart. Light exploded violently from Harmonous engulfing him and the haze of the human. The force of the blast threw the princess against her throne, knocking her unconscious.