Our Equestria

by Nonagon


The Following Morning (II)

School was cancelled that morning. Sweetie Belle found herself wandering Ponyville alone.
 
Life had returned to normal with almost alarming speed. Apple Bloom, as she'd discovered, was catching up on missed chores; Spike was stuck doing the same, as Twilight Sparkle had been called to Canterlot for something just before he’d arrived home. Scootaloo’s house was suspended slightly above the ground in the cloud neighborhood just west of Ponyville, but one stepladder later, a misty-eyed pegasus mare informed her that Scootaloo hadn’t come home yet.
 
Outside of them, Sweetie Belle was starting to realize just how little she knew about her classmates outside of school. Small as Ponyville was, she had no idea where most of them lived, and was even less certain whether any of them could reliably be found there. Her other options for companionship were looking limited as well. Rarity was in the middle of another project for a big client, and Mom and Dad were... well, they were nice, but they were Mom and Dad. There were some things you just couldn’t go to Mom and Dad about. There was always Cheerilee’s house – the teacher had invited her students to stop by if they ever had anything personal they wanted to talk about – but Sweetie didn’t feel brave enough to go there on her own.
 
On a hunch, she made her way to the arcade, which she was delighted to see was open for business. A few ponies were playing on the machines that had been set up inside, including Archer, who was perched in front of Wonder Force Three. The stool she was sitting on was identical to the one inside of Equus. “Hey!” Sweetie Belle called, hopping over.
 
Archer didn’t respond. Her eyes were fixed to the screen in front of her, where a blocky and brightly-coloured alicorn hovered on one side of a red, alien skyline. Parts of the stained glass changed colour as grotesque bat-creatures flew in from the right, which Archer used the controls to dodge and weave around. Sweetie Belle looked on in fascination. “What are you playing?” she asked.
 
Archer sighed. “What do you want?” she asked, grunting out of the corner of her mouth.
 
“I’m trying to get everypony together. Want to come with me?”
 
“Why?”
 
The question gave Sweetie Belle pause. She’d never thought that one needed a reason to spend time with others. “Just because,” she answered with a shrug. “We’re all in this together. I thought we should spent time together, and... you know.”
 
“Why bother?” Archer’s eyes narrowed, but this seemed to be directed at the game rather than at Sweetie Belle. “We’ll all see each other at the next battle anyway. Besides, there’s only one pilot at a time.”
 
“I know,” Sweetie Belle said, kicking uncomfortably at the ground. “But I still think we should be together.”
 
There was a pause, and Archer shrugged. “Suit yourself,” she said. “I know Tornado’s going to be busy now, but you might have some luck with Peachy Pie.”
 
Peachy Pie’s house was hard to miss. Even in Ponyville’s upper-class district, if such a thing could be said to exist, it dwarfed its neighbors on all sides. The building was plain but broad, and stunned Sweetie Belle into immobility for a few seconds as she came up to it. Archer had said it would be big, but she hadn’t prepared her for just how big it was. Bubbling up in excitement, she skipped over to the door and knocked.
 
A few seconds later, the door was opened by a burly earth pony in a thin brown sweater. “Hello, little pony,” he said, smiling down at her. “You must be... Sun Glimmer?”
 
“I’m Sweetie Belle,” she corrected him. “Is Peachy Pie home?”
 
“Let me check.” He disappeared into the house, and Sweetie Belle heard a yell. “Sunny! Can you see if your sister’s home?”
 
A minute later, Peachy Pie appeared in the doorway. “Hey Sweetie Belle,” she said, stopping about halfway outside. “What’s up?”
 
“I’m trying to get everyone together,” Sweetie answered. “Wanna hang out?”
 
“Um... sure.” Peachy Pie glanced over her shoulder. A near-identical version of her with a platinum blond mane was standing near the stairs, watching them with an almost pleading expression. “Just give me a sec, okay?”
 
The door closed again. Sweetie Belle waited patiently, expecting both sisters to emerge, but after a short pause Peachy Pie reappeared on her own with purple roller skates on all four hooves. “Let’s go,” she said.
 
They set off down the road, Peachy Pie leading the way. The dirt road wasn’t the best surface for wheels, but it had been flattened enough by hundreds of passing hooves that Peachy Pie met barely any resistance as she glided over the ground. She sped ahead fast enough that Sweetie Belle had to run to catch up, sometimes stopping to twirl in place when the unicorn wasn’t being quick enough. “That’s a neat trick,” Sweetie Belle said once they’d worked out a pace that they both could stick to. “Can your sister do that, too?”
 
“Yeah.”
 
“Why didn’t you invite her along?”
 
“Because...” Peachy Pie sighed. She looped around Sweetie Belle and twirled around, drifting along backwards. “Because I thought you’d wanna talk about Equus and stuff, and I don’t want her to know about it yet.”
 
Sweetie blinked. “Why not?”
 
“Come on. Have you told your family yet?”
 
Visions of shouting Rarity flashed through her head. “Well, no,” Sweetie Belle admitted. “I thought they’d worry about me, and I wouldn’t know how to make it better.”
 
“I’ve got the opposite problem,” Peachy Pie explained. She whirled away and turned in a wide arc, leading them towards Ponyville’s park. “My parents would worry too. They’d probably flip out. But they already don’t let Sunny out that much. If they found out I’d got caught up in something like this, she’ll never get to do anything fun again.” She rolled her eyes. “She’s their favorite.”
 
This puzzled Sweetie Belle. She was dimly aware that Sunny Days was the older of the two sisters, but knew nothing more. “Huh? But if she’s the favorite, then why are you the one who can do whatever you want?”
 
“Because they don’t care about what happens to me.” They entered into a round area with a fountain just in front of the park, and Peachy Pie slid to a halt. “It started right here, a couple of years ago,” she continued. “Right over there.” She pointed. Sweetie Belle followed her outstretched hoof and saw a bench, the same one that had been inside of Equus. “Sunny and I were messing around with our roller skates and a jump rope, and... we got into an accident. I just got some cuts, but Sunny fell and bumped her head on that bench. Badly.”
 
“How badly?” Sweetie Belle asked, dreading the answer.
 
“Badly enough that she couldn’t go outside for two months. Mom and Dad stayed with her practically the whole time. Even after she got better, it was ages before they even let her put on roller skates again. Ever since, she’s never been allowed out on any adventures. I go out all the time, and sometimes I get scraped up, but they don’t even care. But they practically keep Sunny locked in a box in case she gets even a tiny little scratch on her.”
 
The pair started to walk and skate towards the bench. “That’s the reason she wasn’t allowed to come to Seaddle with us,” Peachy concluded. “They were too afraid that something was going to happen to her. And if I tell them, that’ll just prove them right.”
 
“That’s really sad,” Sweetie Belle sympathized. “But can’t Sunny know?”
 
“That would just feel like I’m rubbing it in her face. I don’t want her to feel like she’s being left out again.” Peachy reached the bench and hopped onto it, breaking into a brief giggle when Sweetie Belle hesitated. “It’s just a bench, silly. It’s not gonna bite you.”
 
Sweetie Belle bit the inside of her cheek, her inner Rarity warning her not to touch the head-bumping bench, but she forced the thought back and jumped up as well. “So you’re not gonna tell them ever?” she asked.
 
“Maybe someday. But... maybe not.” Peachy Pie smiled. “Maybe after my battle. If I can just prove to my parents that a pony my age can get into a fight with a monster that size and come out okay, maybe they’ll believe that my big sister can come out skating again.”
 
Sweetie Belle’s ears drooped. “Do you really think we’ll all win?” she asked in a quieter voice.
 
“Obviously.” Peachy Pie slid down and leaned to the side, resting her head against the bench’s back. “Pollinia wouldn’t have started this game if she thought it was impossible.” She grinned and looked up wistfully, her imagination beginning to drift.
 
There was a flash, and a sound like tearing paper.
 
Sweetie Belle vanished, along with the rest of the world. Everything but Peachy Pie and the bench turned to static, then reappeared as a dull brown. “Huh?” Peachy Pie sat up sharply in panic, slipping on her skates and almost falling off of the bench.
 
She heard a voice. “Great, another loser.”
 
Peachy Pie looked around. She’d somehow ended up in Equus’ cockpit; her first thought was that it was time for another battle, but all the other chairs were empty. The only other ponies were Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, who were playing pattycake in the middle of the floor and looking around contemptuously. When they saw just which seat had been filled, however, their sneers turned into overly-wide smiles. “Hey, Peachy Pie,” Silver Spoon said with a wave. “Want to come into our clubhouse?”
 
Peachy Pie steadied herself. She raised herself up carefully and lowered herself to the floor, almost sliding away on the nearly frictionless surface. “Your clubhouse?” she asked.
 
“That’s right,” Diamond Tiara said. She bopped Silver Spoon’s hoof and they resumed their game, minus the chanting. “There were a couple others here too, Rumble and Snips and that girl with the lisp, but we kicked them out. It’s our place now.”
 
“Kicked... what?” Peachy Pie looked around in confusion. “Kicked them out how? How did I even get here?”
 
“It’s really simple,” Diamond Tiara told her, almost succeeding in not sounding condescending. “If you sit in your chair and think about the robot, you get sent here. Silver Spoon and I figured it out almost as soon as we got home.”
 
“We found it first, so it’s ours!” Silver Spoon added in a sing-song voice.
 
Peachy Pie stared at them both. “Um, no,” she said eventually. “This place belongs to all of us. We should share it.” As the others’ faces soured, she turned and skated away, marveling at the smoothness of the floor beneath her. If we could just get these chairs out of here, she thought, this would be a perfect place to practice tricks.
 
She came to a halt at the wall and knocked her hoof against it. It made almost no sound. “Do you think we’re still underwater?” she asked. “If we are, why’s there no pressure difference between here and the surface? And where’s Cicada if he isn’t here?”
 
“I don’t understand why you hang out with those losers,” Diamond Tiara huffed, ignoring the questions. “You’re so much better than them. Why don’t you just stay with us?”
 
Peachy Pie rolled her eyes. “There’s more to ponies than money, Diamond,” she called back.
 
Cicada spoke from above. “No, there isn’t.”
 
All three ponies flinched as Cicada made his presence known from the top of the room. He slowly descended towards the center. “Money is influence,” he continued, his calm voice somehow booming in the rounded room. “Influence is power. All that matters, all that you are capable of accomplishing, is inflicting your own patterns on one another. A pony may live but a few centuries, but a memory may survive through civilizations and even to the end of your world, when the sun ashens and there are no more to remember. All three of you have been granted material influence, the power to go where you please, the power to do as you please, the power to give and take as you please.” He dropped down in between Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, causing them to jump away from each other. Although he looked at none of them, each of the three felt as if his words were directed at her. “What have you done with this power?” he asked. “What memories have you created?”
 
After a long pause, Diamond Tiara put her hooves down and backed away in disgust. “What is your problem, weirdo?” she asked.

Peachy Pie came to her senses with another question. “Where’s Scootaloo?” she demanded. “You told us you sent her home!”
 
Cicada didn’t answer. The walls around him began to hum. Noiselessly, the circle of chairs began to turn.
 
Peachy Pie clung to the wall of the room, while the two fillies in the middle backed towards each other. The chairs rapidly picked up speed, turning in seconds into a whirring vortex of furniture. Another glowing symbol appeared on the floor, this one smaller than the last, with one tendril stretching out to the place where the next pilot would be. The spinning continued for five seconds, then ten, before it began to slow. The chairs wound down, completing circle after slower circle, until they finally slid to a halt.
 
In the middle of the symbol’s grip was a high-backed dining chair.
 
Diamond Tiara stiffened. At the same time, Silver Spoon took a step back from her, shaking slightly. “DT,” she gasped. “Your...”
 
Needing no further prompting, Diamond Tiara looked down at her flank. She’d been marked with four curved triangles, two large, two small, all pointing down and bent inwards. This new cutie mark hadn’t replaced her old one but seemed to have been stamped on top of it, so that the four spikes hung from the top of her silver tiara like fangs.
 
She stared at this alien branding for several long, quiet seconds. Then she laughed. A quick chuckle grew into a side-shaking cackle, and then she threw back her head and almost howled, the noise echoing and magnifying off the walls and filling the room until even Silver Spoon began to inch away from her. Then she stopped, a cold, toothy grin on her face, and shot Peachy Pie a look of triumph.
 
“This place belongs to me. Now get out.”