Muliverse Rumble
Chapter 2: Forgiveness
(Perspective of Rainbow Dash – Pinkie Pie’s Basement)
I’m not sure exactly what it is that I’m expecting to see down here. I mean I’ve lived with the memory of what Pinkie, or her clone, had done to me for so long. But if it wasn’t really her that did these things to me then I need to be there to see her. The lights in the room come on and I look around at what is an astoundingly clean room. Somepony had cleaned all of the gore that the clone had left here. I didn’t want to know who had to do it. It had to be hard to face so many bodies, and so much death, just to make the room clean once more.
I hear the sounds of footsteps slowly turning into hoofsteps. Within a few seconds I see three ponies coming through the hole in the wall. The first is Jacob. His mane still in the dreadlocks she had seen him wear so often. I could see the flattened hair of Pinkie Pie as he carries her. I wait until he stopped and took notice of what had happened. To his credit he doesn’t seem to freak out too much, but I figure that’s most likely because he must have smoked up before going on this job.
“Karen girl, go ahead and wait out there for me,” he says through the hole.
“You sure?” a voice calls back.
“Yea, I’m sure you hear. I got tis,” he says.
“Hi Jacob,” I say.
“Dash, good to see you girl, but what you do here?” he asks.
“It’s a long story, but how is she?” I ask.
“She’s okay now, but it was bad when we got there,” he says as he carries her up the stairs on his back.
I follow as he finds a place to lay her down. I take another look at her and feel my heart up in my throat. I can see bruises, cuts, track marks, and I don’t even want to look anywhere else. I gently nudge her face, and I’m rewarded by a half open eye looking up at me.
“Dashie?” she asks.
“Pinkie, how are you doing?” I ask.
She shutters and I look at Jacob.
“They give her all kinds of chemicals and things. That’s why the ganja is so much better girl. It’s natural and don’t do this to ya,” he says.
I hear the sounds of other hoofsteps and turn to see Apple Jack, Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy, and the older Unicorn walking in. I can hear Niko talking outside of the building, and to be honest I’m thankful that he hasn’t come in yet. I hear the audible gasps as they near Pinkie Pie and I wait until Twilight asks the question I know she is going to ask.
“What happened to her?” she asks.
“Was a bunch of Russian Bumbaclots think ey do whata wanna with tis girl. Think ey make the fool o me. Ey fools, Ey dead fools,” Jacob answers.
I watch their faces and can tell that they are trying to figure out what it was that Jacob just said. It was hard for me too, but I can understand him just fine now. Finally Apple Jack looks at him.
“Ummm, what did cha say there partner?” she asks.
“He said that someponies were holding her, and that he went and rescued her,” I answer.
“Oh, thank ya,” Apple Jack replies.
“Niko boy be here then?” Jacob asks.
“I’m out here Jacob,” Niko says from outside of the building.
Jacob walks out and I look at the old stallion unicorn. Before he can even start I clear my throat.
“She needs to get what they put into her out of her system,” I say.
“What did they do?” Rarity asks.
I keep forgetting that with the exception of what the clone had done, and a few other instances, they hadn’t experienced a life in complete chaos. They were lucky, in a way, to not have to deal with the fact that they didn’t have to live with people killing each other, raping each other, and doing other monstrous things to one another. The world I escaped to is dangerous, but it is still beautiful.
I love waking up in the mornings and looking out at the city from the balcony of our apartment. The city looks peaceful, and even though there is the sounds of people below it doesn’t look like the same kind of madness that could do some of the more terrible things that happen there.
The older looking unicorn stallion looks toward me and then turns toward Rarity. He clears his throat for a moment.
“The things that happened to her are things that have not happened in Esquestria for a great deal of time. Before harmony reigned in this land there was wars, death, and horrific things done to anypony who didn’t try to protect themselves,” he said.
“That boy there, he say ‘anypony’?” Jacob asked.
“It’s the way we talk here Jacob,” I reply.
The old stallion shakes his head and continues.
“We saw much death here. Before Ponyville was ever founded there was a settlement that held thirty mares, twenty stallions, and over two dozen foals. It didn’t stop the raids, the torture, and the death that happened. All of it was caused by a dark force. It’s force that has been growing in power since its banishment to the space between worlds, but it has learned how to influence those who will let it influence them. The human world has seen much of this because their world is closer to that space,” the stallion says.
“The world were Pinkie Pie was?” Fluttershy asks.
“The very same world she was kept in. That world has more chaos within it than you can understand. The Dark force, or the darkness if you want to call it that, has been influencing the humans for generations. There are those who fight its influence, but I fear the number is growing less and less every passing generation. Eventually it will overtake all of that world, and now it even spreads here,” he said.
“The clone right?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, the clone was influenced by it, but something directly controlled it. There is something working with the Darkness. Something that wants it to spread out into this world, and it wants to watch it fall back into chaos,” he replied.
“What of their princess?” Niko asked.
I watched as he finally came into the building. I know he was giving me the time I needed to deal with seeing Pinkie Pie, but it was good to hear his voice.
“I’m not sure she completely knows,” he replies.
“It wouldn’t be the first time she didn’t realize something,” the other me says.
She leans against a counter and glares at me.
“What are you saying about Princess Celestia?!” Twilight demands.
“What am I saying about the Pony who sits around in Canterlot all day doing nothing, nothing but making those gross sounds from her room, day and night? I’m saying that she abandoned us! She left us to control everything! Luna has to control the rising of the sun, and then the setting of it and the rising of the moon! She doesn’t have the kind of experience that Celestia has and we had to find a way to make up for it!” the other me shouts.
“Princess Celestia wouldn’t do that,” Fluttershy says quietly.
“How do you know huh? How do you know what she would or wouldn’t do?!” she shouts.
“She wouldn’t because that isn’t how she is,” I finally speak up.
“And yet she left this clone to do these terrible things,” my other self says.
“The clone fooled all of us,” Apple Jack replied.
“Yeah, it fooled all of you. It fooled all of you long enough that it did whatever terrible things it did to an unknown number of ponies. At least we had a reason. We had to keep the weather going. We had to keep everything in harmony,” my other say replies.
I walk toward her and she backs away. Her face still covered in anger. I touch her shoulder and she looks at me. I can see the torment there. I see the same look I’ve seen in Niko’s eyes a thousand times. She stares at me before turning away.
“You don’t know how lucky you are. None of you know how lucky you are. You don’t have to live in a world where harmony comes at a price that is kept secret from all of Equestria,” she says.
“I know what it’s like to have secrets, and to live in a world that has a very dear price for any kind of peace,” I reply.
She looks at me before lowering her head. I thought that she was uncaring, that she was cold inside, but instead I see something I didn’t expect to see. I watch as the tears stream down her face leaving trails behind them. She tries to turn from me, but I make her stand there. I feel her shake as she stands there. I don’t know what it is she has done, or what she has seen, but I do know that she’s having to deal with something she has tried to deaden herself to.
“You it don’t you? Every time you try to sleep it comes back right?” Niko asks.
She looks at him and nods.
“It won’t ever go away. It can’t go away,” he says.
She loses it completely. Whatever walls was left around her emotions come crashing down. I watch as she cries. She walks toward Fluttershy, and to my surprise she wraps her up in a hug. The sight is astounding to say the least as I watch my other self hold onto Fluttershy, but hearing her say that she’s sorry is something else.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry that I didn’t stop them. I should have stopped them, but I was just shown what happened in there. They swore me to secrecy, and then you found out and was going to tell everypony… I didn’t want it to happen to you,” she cries out.
“I don’t know what happened, but I’m sure that my other self forgives you,” Fluttershy squeaks out. I watch as this version of myself shakes her head and instead holds onto my friend. She continues to ask for forgiveness, and I find myself wondering exactly what had happened to Fluttershy in her world.
Finally, she lets go and I watch as Fluttershy, who is blushing deeply, tells her that she forgives her, but doesn’t know why she wants forgiveness. She turns toward me once again and walks toward where I am standing.
“You can’t abandon them again,” she says.
“Element of loyalty right?” I ask.
“You are, but I haven’t been for a long, long time,” she answers.
What did I do in that other world? What could have caused me to abandon my friends and stop being the element of loyalty?
“Dash… Dashie? Where am I?” Pinkie asks.
“You’re home Pinkie, you’re home,” I answer.
(Perspective of the Agent/Older Stallion)
It’s touching. I’ve seen this kind of display several times over my long years. Even on Earth, in Liberty City, I’ve seen this kind of sweetness. It still surprises me. I suppose it does because it’s one of the few things that are both a constant and a variable. Still, we need to move quicker than we are at the moment. Mr. Bellic was right about needing a plan, but he doesn’t understand how much we need one. There are forces at work that even I am completely unaware of, and I fear that those forces may have already affected Princess Celestia. The Princess wanted me to be ready should anything happen, but I’m not doing what I do for her. It’s to keep a promise.
A promise made to a young filly I once held in my arms when I was a much younger stallion. I promised that I would keep harmony in the land, and that I would never abandon her, or the ponies she loved. My old eyes look up to the ceiling and I catch myself from drifting too far. I can’t be thinking about her right now. She has things she must do, and I have other works. I hear Twilight talking and after a moment I realize that she’s speaking to me.
“What?” I ask.
“I asked if we need to get the doctor,” she repeats.
“What’s in her body isn’t natural, and having someone who could help cure it would help, but we need her helped quicker than normal medicine could do it. We need Zecora,” I reply.
“Why her?” Apple Jack asks.
“Because she has a vast knowledge of natural cures, herbal healing teas, and because she will be quick and quiet about it. The doctors have to report to the Equestian medical council. If the Darkness has begun seeping into the world it will get into places where it knows what is going on,” I answer.