//------------------------------// // Chapter2: Encroaching Hell // Story: Seeing Double // by klockwork //------------------------------// Twilight quickly left the house to deliver her messages. She decided to go see the Mayor first, it would help the masses. Ponies were already outside talking and wondering about what that new structure was. Twilight would have loved to stop and tell them all about what it was, or more specifically tell them it was nothing just to stop the worrying, but she didn't have the time. She quickly sped up and trotted over to the Mayors office. "Oh hello Twilight, do you happen to know what the hay that monstrosity is?" The Mayor asked. She was already outside her office staring curiously at the spire. "Actually, that's what I came to talk to you about. Its nothing, I'm sure everypony in town is wondering about that thing, but its nothing of importance. Would you mind delivering the message to the town?" Twilight said lying through her teeth. "Ya sure, but are you sure its nothing? Buildings that touch the sky don't pop up over night Miss Sparkle." The Mayor asked suspiciously. "Yes I'm sure, just an experiment. In fact, me, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash will be gone for a while, specifically to the spire. I'd tell more, but its classified information Celestia says." Twilight replied. She felt bad about keeping everypony in the dark about this, but she was certain they wouldn't be affected by it. She would have to remind Celestia not to tell them as well. "OK, if you say so." The Mayor said still a bit suspicious. "I'll go and deliver the message now." She continued as she began to walk away to rally everypony in town for the message. Twilight quickly trotted off to find the rest. She started at Pinkie's for the sole reason of she's the closest. As an afterthought she figured Pinkie could fetch Rainbow in the clouds with her hot air balloon. "Twilight! Hiya!" Twilight heard the familiar ecstatic voice come from behind her. She quickly stopped mid-trot and looked behind to see Pinkie Pie bouncing happily towards her. "I was just coming to see you! I thought if anypony would know what that thingy is" she said as she pointed towards the spire "it would be you!" "Hey Pinkie, I was actually just on my way to talk about that, but first I want to get the others. Would you mind taking your hot air balloon up to fetch Rainbow Dash then bring her to the library?" Twilight asked. "Sure thing! See ya later Twilight!" She said as she began bouncing back to Sugarcube Corner. "Well that was easy, two down, three to go." Twilight silently muttered to herself as she quickly began trotting towards Rarity's. When Twilight arrived at Rarity's she didn't see her outside, so chances are she was inside working instead of wondering about the spire. She walked up and began knocking at the door. "Be right there." She then heard Rarity call from inside as she walked over to the door. "Oh hello Twilight, what brings......" She trailed off when she finally noticed the spire scaling the sky behind Twilight. "Um what is that? Its hideous!" She asked pointing to it. "Its what I came to talk to you about." Twilight said. "Although first I'm getting everyone together, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash should already be on there way to the library, I'ma go get Fluttershy and Applejack then I'll meet you back there." "Oh well I can make your life easier dear. Applejack is already over here, she stayed over night helping me with some work. I'll go get her and meet you back at the library in a few." Rarity said. "OK, I'll see ya in a bit." Twilight said as she waved goodbye and began trotting over to Fluttershy's cottage. She did wonder why Rarity asked Applejack to help her, when out of anypony she could care the least about fashion. She quickly arrived at Fluttershy's cottage to find her outside tending to a group of bunnies. Either she hadn't noticed the giant skyscraper behind her, or she was just ignoring it and saying her animals were more important than her curiosity. "Fluttershy!" Twilight called out to her as she approached Fluttershy. "Oh? Hey Twilight whats up?" Fluttershy calmly asked. "Well for starters, that." She said as she pointed a hoof towards the tower. "Oh ya, I noticed that a while ago. I figured it didn't concern me and was probably nothing important, so I just ignored it." She said calmly. She was the first pony to think nothing of it Twilight had seen. As she ran throughout the town she had seen ponies everywhere wondering about it and they would continue to till the Mayor delivered the message. "I actually came to talk to you about that thing, because unfortunately it is far from nothing. The others are back at my library, Celestia has a mission for us, come on lets go." Twilight asked. "But what about the animals? They need my help right now, are you sure we can't do this later?" Fluttershy asked. "Well I'd say yes, but if we do, there may not be any animals left to help." Twilight said trying to persuade her to come with her. "OK fine, if that's what you want." She said being her normal door-mat self. The one time being that way would help her, was now. The two quickly flew and trotted back to the library. They didn't have much to say, mostly because Fluttershy was always so quiet and Twilight had a million things on her mind and was too busy in there to talk. By the time they both arrived back at Twilight's, they were both exhausted. Moreover Twilight was as she had ran there and back, and she wasn't the most active pony to begin with. She always spent so much time studying that she didn't exercise regularly. "Hey Twilight, so why'd you call us all over here?" Pinkie said as she greeted her. "Ya, whats goin on here?" Applejack asked. "Well, Celestia has a mission for us. It all has to do with that spire." Twilight began. She then proceeded to explain about her recurring nightmares then read them the letter she got from Celestia. The only thing she left out was the weird AI talking to her telepathically, she just thought they would find her crazy with that. "Well that's insanity!" Rarity was the first to speak. They all had reacted to it with increasing horror, much like Twilight did except they weren't brinking on insanity from the rest of it. "I'm guessing you already agreed to go though Twilight?" She then asked with a small sigh. "Of course, its either that or we all die; that's how I see it." Twilight said. "Well I'm in, I'd hate to leave you hanging, and I guess it sounds like an adventure too." Rainbow Dash said trying to act confident over all of them. Even so, it was easy to see through her and see she was scared as well. "Ah reckon ah'll come too." Applejack said. "Ah guess you're right, do or die as they say." "Well, I guess I'm in too." Rarity agreed. "Oh me too! It would be boring staying here without you four anyways!" Pinkie said. She was the only one who actually didn't seem scared at all. "Maybe I can just stay back and help the ponies here? I'd probably just slow you all down anyways." Fluttershy said quietly, obviously nervous and scared. "Come on, we need you. I promise you'll be fine." Twilight said trying to persuade her. "It doesn't sound like it from what you said." She replied. "Don't worry Fluttershy, I won't let anypony harm you. You'll be safe." Rainbow Dash said. The rest followed trying to pressure her into coming. They knew they needed everypony, it was like the time they had to kick a dragon out of Equestria. Fluttershy had tried to refuse to come. "OK... fine. I'll come, I guess." Fluttershy said not enthusiastic about her decision at all. "Well, then I guess its unanimous. We've saved the world twice, I'm sure we can do it again. We have the most practice out of anypony as well." Twilight joked. "I'll send Celestia a letter and see what we have to do next." She said as she quickly levitated out a quill and paper to start her letter telling their decisions. It only took a quick moment for Celestia's reply to arrive. Twilight ripped it open and read it out loud as fast as it had arrived. "Dear Twilight and friends, I am glad to hear you all have made your decisions so quickly, and I'm also even happier to hear a unanimous 'for' vote. For now, you'll all have to just wait around for a bit. Luna will be coming to Twilight's library ASAP with a totem. The totem will be able to teleport all of you to the spire. Be careful, I'm sure you'll all be fine at the end of all of this. Sincerely, Princess Celestia. Well, I guess we don't have anything left to do except wait." Twilight said anxiously. They ended up waiting for about thirty minutes until Luna finally arrived. They ended up filling up the time by nervously talking about how the other world will be while playing the board game 'Candy Land'. Pinkie had chosen it because it had the word candy in it and the box was covered in pictures of candy. She tried to eat the box hoping it would taste as good as it looked, but unfortunately it didn't. It only managed to get Twilight a bit annoyed. The thing that worried them the most was the fact that the ponies in the DMV would be opposites of the ones here. They figured that this must mean they have something like the elements of dis-harmony. Which then would mean that the mane six there would be the most evil and deadly ponies ever, since they were the kindest. Using the information they knew they drew mental pictures of how each of their counterparts would act. ************************************************************************************************************************************************************ Author's Note: For clarity of the reader, any time a pony from the DMV is mentioned they're name will be followed by an 'x'. In the story, they would not be calling the ponies Fluttershyx, just Fluttershy. ************************************************************************************************************************************************************ Twilightx would be the least of their problems they thought. Since Twilight was such a genius, then that meant that Twilightx would be the stupidest pony ever. It was a complement to Twilight in an odd way. Applejackx would probably be lazy and weak as heck. After discussing her and Twilight's counterparts, it made them feel a bit better. Knowing that at least some of the ponies on the DMV would be weak and pathetic and not cause any trouble to them while they were over there. It brought a small smile to there faces for a while, until they remembered how evil some of them would also be. Fluttershyx and Pinkie Piex would be the worst they thought. The worlds kindest pony and the worlds happiest and friendliest pony couldn't have a very passive counterpart. Fluttershyx would be the epitome of evil. They figured that she would be cruel and ruthless. If they had a person in charge of torture and punishment and prison, she would be the leader of it all. It scared Fluttershy the most, since she of all ponies knew what Fluttershyx would be like. Since she was so kind and helpful to all ponies and animals, they figured that Fluttershyx would take joy in killing. Fluttershy was already near crying from all the darkness being told about her counterpart. They didn't want to say it for Fluttershy's sake, but they were all thinking it, that if Fluttershy took care of animals, then Fluttershyx would be skinning them and using them for her own evil pleasure or making fur coats or anything of the sort. Pinkie Piex wouldn't be as terrible as Fluttershyx. They figured she would be much like Pinkie was during the time they through her a surprise party, except maybe a bit more insane and reckless. They thought she would definitely be more violent and not taking anything lightly. If Pinkie Piex was there instead of Pinkie during the surprise party, she may have decided to harm them instead of just running her mouth at them. Rainbow Dashx would probably be trouble as well. Since Rainbow was the element of loyalty, chances were that Rainbowx would be a spy and a master of espionage. It made them worry that she might try extra hard to replace herself with Rainbow if they discovered that counterparts of them were in the DMV. They had a fear that any of them might try to do it, or that even somepony may fake being nice just to get them in there grasp. They agreed that they would have to make some sort of password or code along with not trusting anypony who didn't enter the DMV with them. They couldn't quite picture what the opposite of Rarity would be and if she would be trouble or not. Since Rarity is obsessed with fashion to no end and she is the element of generosity, then that would mean Rarityx would be stubborn and filthy. That didn't make much sense to them as a personality, but they couldn't think of anything different. They eventually just sighed and said they'd probably see eventually. Chances are, they thought, that their predictions weren't all going to be correct anyways. "Hello girls." Luna said as she walked in. The girls were still discussing and imagining the horrors that lay ahead of them, they were so into it along with there intense game of Candy Land, they didn't notice Luna. Even though she was using her traditional royal Canterlot voice. "Hello? Is anypony there?" She asked moving closer to them. "What? Oh hey Princess Luna, welcome. Do you have the totem thing?" Twilight said finally realizing she had another guest in her house. The other five also greeted their royal guest afterwards. "Yes, it's right here." She said as she levitated it out of her saddle bag over to Twilight. "All you have to do is smash it on the ground and everypony in a 20yard radius will be ported to the designated location, in our case the great spire." She added telling Twilight the instructions, as she had been looking at it confusedly wondering how to use the device. It had had no buttons or switches or anything. It was just an hourglass with sand magically bouncing around inside of it. The sand was going up and down bouncing off the edges, as if they were rubber. "OK then no point in waiting, everypony ready?" Twilight promptly asked. Her question was then followed with five very ready voices who were ready for adventure and one not so ready 'yes', and one dragon who didn't want to see them leave. Twilight had told Spike before that she had made arrangements for him to stay with Celestia and be her assistant until they all got back. Spike still complained saying he wanted to come, but Twilight wouldn't budge. Spike then said his goodbyes, and so did the seven ponies, as he went outside to take the carriage back to Canterlot Castle. "OK so everypony clump up now, and lets go." Twilight said as everypony got into position. She then promptly smashed the totem on the ground in the center of them. In the next second all they could see was sand. If it wasn't magical sand, then it would have certainly covered them inside and out. They didn't feel anything, nor could they see anything. The sand seemed to encase them all in a shell that stopped any movement as well. Only after about a minute did the sand finally clear up. Once it did, they no longer saw Twilight's library but instead stood on the ground outside. It was mid-morning back in Ponyville, but if it was here, nopony could be able to tell. The spire seemed to radiate a special glowing twilight. It darkened the area all around it, but it was still able to be seen as a light center from far away, just like Twilight had noticed it first. The ground was damp as well, as if it had just rained. They looked around and noticed that they were on a small island. There were few trees, structures, or plants besides grass and the spire on the island. They could see the sea, which Twilight guessed spanned a mile or two. "Wow, this place sure is different from Ponyville." Applejack said amazed. "Ya. For one, that spire is nothing like any building I've ever seen, ever." Twilight mused. She then walked over to it and rubbed the building. "Its cold and made of some hard material that I've never heard of before. The Arcadians must have been much more advanced than we currently are." "Of course they were, they built a machine that started this rupture of the dimensions." Luna said. "Come on, lets find this rift to the DMV." "Ya! I'm ready to beat down some evil pony butt!" Rainbow Dash cheered still trying to sound more confident than she really was. The seven of them promptly walked around the spire until they found an entrance. It happened to be on the exact opposite side of where they had ported to. The spire had such a huge radius that it took them what seemed nearly 5 minutes to walk around it. The door to the spire was huge. It was like none they had ever seen before. It stood about five ponies high and three ponies wide. It was made of wood and in a gate like structure with twin doors buckled to each side of the spire. It had a metal ring on each door, but they were too high up to reach, and even if they weren't, they all figured they must be for decoration, because who would answer if they knocked on them? Twilight and Luna used their combined magic to pull open the large doors. It was much harder than it looked, the doors seemed to weigh a ton each, and it took there combined force on each door just to get it open. Once they managed to open one of the doors they went inside. From the outside of the door it looked pitch dark inside. Once they all entered, light filled one side of the room. The inside of the spire only had one room. On the left side of the room, there was a staircase that seemed to lead to the top-if there was a top to this beast. They had not been able to find one while they were outside. On the right side of the room they found what they were looking for. A giant rift bigger than the gate they had entered through sat. It looked just as it did in Twilight's books, which was something she wasn't exactly expecting. It was in a circular shape and radiated green light, and was colored green itself. It had two different shades of green which spun around forming a swirly spiral. "Well, its now or never." Twilight said nervously. Once they entered the rift, they were in the enemies territory. Who knew the horrors they would meet there. Then she remembered something she had managed to push out of her memory. "WAIT!" She suddenly shouted making the ponies nearing the rift stop in there tracks. "Something wrong dear?" Rarity asked. "Maybe. I just remembered, there's a monster on the other side of the rift. Remember when I was explaining what was going on and I showed you the book? The weird owl like creature on the cover of it, is supposedly living in the spire on the other side of that rift. It had spoke to me in my mind telling me that. It also told me the elements of harmony wouldn't work, but I wouldn't have expected them too either." Twilight explained. "Well, if what you said about that beast is right, then we're in for a heap of trouble on the other side of this here portal." Applejack said. "I'll go through first and hold it off while you girls sneak by." Luna offered. "No! You can't sacrifice yourself right off the bat! What if we need you. You have the strongest magic and you can fly!" Twilight said in sudden opposal to Luna's suggestion. "Exactly, if I am the strongest here and this monster is as bad as you say, then wouldn't I be the best to hold it back?" Luna said countering Twilight. "Fine..." Twilight muttered. She didn't want to see Luna probably die from the first second they enter, but they had no choice at this moment. She was right though, nopony else could hold it off for as long as she would be able too. "OK then wait a few seconds before going in after me. I'll divert it if its there, and if it isn't, then I'll just pull you all in anyways." Luna said. "Wish me luck!" She yelled before quickly flying right into the center of the portal and disappearing in a weird foreign noise. They waited about 30 seconds before going in after her. She never came back out, so they figured she was inside fighting off the monster. They all quickly charged in. Once they got in they didn't spend time looking for Luna, they quickly spotted the door and trotted at full speed towards it. "Did you happen to see the monster or Luna?" Twilight asked once they were safely outside. "Nope." The other five unanimously said. As much as they would have loved to go on a hunt for Luna, they knew they didn't have the time. "So... then this is it. The dimension that holds endless evil. So, how are we supposed to guard this world from knowledge?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Well, at least the time and date is the same." Pinkie Pie said glancing at her cake themed watch. "It's still 2:34 March 3rd, 1956." "I'm not sure what we should do now either, but first we should probably find a way to get on land. Hmm? Whats this?" Twilight said the latter part as after being hit in the face by a piece of paper. She quickly pulled it off. It showed a picture of a pony who looked shockingly like Fluttershy, but with a few differences. For one thing the eyes in the picture looked full of evil. The picture only showed her face and was probably highlighting the eyes, especially since the caption said 'Flutterscare is watching.' "Woah, look at this." Twilight said showing everypony else the picture. "Something tells me that Celestia may not be in charge in this world." "Hey Fluttershy, at least you get to be a dictator in some world. Looks like you rule with an iron hoof as well darling." Rarity joked. "I can't believe I could ever look so evil." Fluttershy said nervously. "And why is my name Flutterscare? I wish I was a nice ruler." "Who knows, might just be a nickname to help incite fear in her subjects." Rainbow Dash said. "Well ah don't like it. Maybe we should do something about that." Applejack suggested. "It may not be the best idea to go and flaunt about with our counterparts around. I'm sure they'd know somethings up and wonder whats going on when they see kind versions of them wandering around and doing a hostile takeover." Twilight said. "Stop arguing dears, lets just figure out our next move." Rarity said. "OK, well we should find a way off this forsakened island." Twilight said. "Yes, but hoow?" Rarity whined nervously. "There doesn't seem to be any way other than having me and Fluttershy fly us over. It'll take a while but I don't see an alternative." Rainbow Dash suggested. The distance was insane and she could tell it wouldn't be fun, but she wanted to get off the island more. "Um, I'm not sure if I could carry a pony that far. I'm sorry." She squeaked in her own scared way. "Look! Over there!" Pinkie Pie cried. "A boat thingy! We can get back that way!" She said as she bounced over to it quickly followed by the others. "Damn... if there's a boat here, that must mean there already inspecting this place. At least stealing this boat will stop there return." Twilight said. "Now, does anypony know how to work these things?" She asked. "No, but I think I can figure it out." Rainbow said. For the next few moments she flew around and inspected it before shouting, "Got it! All we gotta do is have pegasi ponies hold this rope and pull, while the rest sit in it. Me and Fluttershy can pull it." "OK, now lets hurry!" Applejack said impatiently. They all quickly got into position and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash began to pull the boat. Fluttershy ended up flying backwards into the boat only a minute after they pushed off, from how fast Rainbow was going. She was going at an extreme speed, if she wasn't pulling the weight of 5 other ponies and a boat, she probably would have made another sonic rainboom. She didn't seem to be slowing down at all, until they reached land. It had looked like land was miles away, but it only took Rainbow about seven minutes to arrive there. The five passenger ponies were all smashed up next to each other on the back side of the boat from the force of how fast they were going. Fluttershy was lucky she landed in the boat and not behind it, otherwise it would have been one hell of a bumpy ride for the meek mare. "That... was... invigorating? Exciting? Insane?" Rarity said shocked as they came to a complete stop and had docked. All five of them were still shocked from the force of it. Pinkie Pie had fallen over and could barely walk. The others had trouble walking again, but it wasn't as hard of a challenge for them. "Sorry..." Rainbow said a bit embarrassed, "I just really wanted to start our adventure." She lied. In all truth, she wanted to get off that forsakened island. "Its.. OK, were here know and still safe. But where are we?" Twilight replied shaking herself back to reality. They all looked around to see if they could see where they were. It seemed they got lucky at least, the area looked familiar. Eventually they came to the conclusion that they were in the back outskirts of Ponyville. They had never known that a body of water this large was behind there tranquil city. They hadn't recognized any of the buildings completely, but they knew the style and they just felt as if they were home again. It wasn't as they had pictured in there minds. From all the horror stories they brought up, they figured it would be dark and stormy with lightning everywhere and the only sound to be heard was that of evil laughter. Instead, it looked just like there world, only a little quieter. There were ponies out and about, and none of them seemed to be trying to kill each other. This place couldn't be as bad as they thought. "Hmm, I wonder if there's something new in that book..." Twilight began as she began to pull out the book from her saddlebag. She didn't remember that it was written in a language foreign to her until she opened it to see odd strings of letters pulled together. "Aw hay stacks. I forgot I can't read it." She said angrily, almost throwing the book into the water. Something inside her told her not to do such a thing though and she put it back instead. "Come on, lets be careful. If this is Ponyville, then our counterparts must be around somewhere. Fluttershyx or Flutterscare as we saw before, seems to be a bit deadly already." Twilight said. They decided to send in a scout first. They had Rainbow Dash fly up high and look around in town to see if any of them were out and about. Luckily, she returned with the good news that none of them were and that everything looked just like it did in their world. The six of them walked up into town, they knew since their counterparts were probably considered evil and tough, they all put on a strong face and didn't show kindness in their eyes. Even Fluttershy was able to pull it off after a few minutes of trying. She eventually remembered her training she had vowed to repress from the Minotaur only a few weeks ago, and let it release. The second they all walked up into town, everypony around them stopped walking. Some of them praised Fluttershy in a very nervous tone, and others just ran away trying to pretend they were never there. They wanted to ask why everypony was acting so weird around her, but they knew if they did ask, it would blow their cover. Instead they decided to keep on walking unphased, which was extremely hard for them to do, especially Pinkie Pie. She almost had an aneurysm from not being able to be her normal cheery self, and instead had to give everypony the cold shoulder. "So... where exactly are we headed?" Applejack whispered quietly. "I actually have no idea. Where do we go? There's no place here for us, unless we could take one of our counterparts houses. I would hate to have to kill somepony, I'm not sure if I could even do it." Twilight whispered. "I could. It isn't that difficult. Only takes practice." The six ponies froze in there tracks. The voice came from behind them, and it was cold and menacing. They slowly made a dramatic turn to see who it was who was talking to them. "Aw. Did I scare you? I'm soooo sorry." She said sarcastically before making a menacing laugh towards them. They were standing in front of Fluttershyx. She wasn't as evil as they thought she would look, no, in fact, she was worse. She seemed to have fangs as teeth, although they knew that wasn't possible, unless she did it herself. She also had an evil grin on her face and her eyes were dark and soulless. She was laughing maniacally at them. They hadn't been in the DMV for more than an hour, yet it was already turning to hell. "So, I have a question for you. WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU IMPERSONATING THE IMPERIAL DICTATORS OF MY REALM!" She screamed at them in an extremely loud and menacing voice. Fluttershy began to cry a bit, and the rest were stunned, scared half to death. "WELL?! I DON'T LIKE TO WAIT. WAITING MAKES ME ANGRY. YOU WON'T LIKE ME WHEN I'M ANGRY. SOMETIMES I LIKE TO KILL, JUST TO MAKE THE ANGER DISSIPATE!" She screamed when nopony spoke in a response. Fluttershyx seemed just to be having fun torturing her. From the evil grin on her face she looked as if she just wanted to fall down laughing at their terror. "Um." Twilight began trying to think of a lie. They were all scared to death, one wrong move and they're dead, and if they told somepony who called herself the imperial dictator, that they were counterparts from another dimension, who knows what she'd do. Chances are she wouldn't be all to nice about this to their dimension. "This is all an illusion!" She shreaked before mustering up all her strength and casting a teleportation spell that teleported all six of them back to where they docked the boat. They all wanted to just let loose screams of terror from what they had just witnessed, but they knew they couldn't. If they did, then they would be found again. "All an illusion my ass. They think I'm too stupid to be able to follow magic?" Fluttershyx whispered to herself. "Looks like this will be fun though. Its been a while since that place has had any visitors. I guess I'll call in my dear friend Rainbow Dashx to find my little impersonators." She grinned an evil grin eagerly awaiting the future for when she could visit that building again. It had been a few months since she has had any new 'friends' to play with in there and every time she brought a group there, it always days of fun games. Although all her guests always seemed to enjoy hide-and-seek the most. It bored her a bit, since she always won as the seeker in hide-and seek. Always.