Chapter 15:
Into the Breach
It was still dark out when I woke. I couldn’t say for sure how long I’d slept, but it was at least long enough to have a dream or two. Fortunately, no mad gods appeared to issue me any death threats. Just random, nonsensical gibberish that evaporated like smoke in the wind. Fluttershy was still dozing with her face hidden beneath her pink bangs. Not wanting to wake her, I eased myself out from under her wing and crawled away.
I was successful in not waking Fluttershy, but my movement attracted the attention of somepony who was already awake.
“Hey.”
It was Twilight. She was sitting alone by the portal, her body eerily illuminated by the magenta glow of her horn. Her expression was pensive as her shrewd eyes drilled into mine.
“Feeling any better?”
I rubbed my ribs. They didn’t hurt as much, but weren’t quite back to normal yet. I nodded and scooched over to her.
“Have you slept at all?” I asked.
Twilight snorted and leaned against the side of the statue. “We’re about to travel into another world to fight an immortal being who might very well maim, torture, or kill us. I’m surprised anyone can sleep at all.”
I didn’t have a reply to that. I’d slept because opening the portal had taken a lot out of me, but I didn’t have a clue why everyone else had been able to fall asleep so easily. Maybe everypony was trying focus on the present instead of looking to the future?.
I looked around at the sleeping ponies, idly taking a headcount for no particular reason. I noticed that we were missing somepony.
“Where’s Miss Bouncy Boobs?” I said.
Twilight barely managed to suppress her snort. “Bathroom. She’ll be back in a bit.”
“Hmph.” I sat down next to Twilight, adding my own horn’s glow to hers. “I take it she’s been awake with you.”
Twilight nodded. “We’ve been trying to figure out a plan of attack, but...” She winced and looked away. “I don’t know, Sweetie. There’s so much that we don’t know, and we’re going have to react to things as they happen. In all honesty, I’m not sure that we can do this.”
It was a strange thing. Before me was the fabled Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Ponyville, Element of Magic, Savior of Equestria. One of my idols, mentors, and friends. A peerless master of Arcana, trained for years by Princess Celestia herself. A beacon of hope for ponies everywhere, and most importantly, the one everyone was counting on to save the day...
...and she looked as lost as an orphaned foal.
“This is so hard,” she said in a quiet, wavering voice. “I know who everyone wants me to be, but I’m some not kind of white knight. I want to help, but I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants since all this started! How can I play the game when I don’t even know the rules?”
I’d been dreading this. I’d known it was going to happen, but that didn’t make it any easier. After all, how do you deal with realizing your hero can’t be who you want them to be?
I sighed and looked up at the dark ceiling, letting my eyes unfocus as I searched for the right words. “Dash and Pinkie told me about how desperate you’ve been to figure out anything you can about magic. I really wish I could help you, believe me, I do, but I just... can't.”
Twilight took a deep breath, exhaling loudly out her nose. “I went to school for years to learn about how the world works because I just want to understand. I can do multivariable calculus equations in my head, isolate and analyze DNA sequences, psychoanalyze both children and adults and work with string theory like it’s basic math. I’ve written papers and documents in multiple fields that have been published, and I was even about to start my dissertation for my PhD.”
Twilight’s voice fell into a tense, bitter growl. “And none of that. Means. A damn. Thing. Years upon years upon years of work, all of it for nothing. I went and compared our DNA to the NCBI Database to see if I could find a match, and got nothing but question marks. I tried to understand why our personalities were being subtly altered, and nothing made any sense. I’ve even been seeing if I can figure out how this dimensional portal works, but the only thing I can tell is that it’s magic! The entire world’s changed on me, Sweetie, and people expect me to have all the answers just because I have wings and a horn?! Ha!”
The sad thing was that I did, too. I didn’t blame her one bit for being so frustrated about all this, and as I listened to her, I realized I needed to give her something, anything, to show that I understood where she was coming from.
“I’m sorry, Twilight.” I looked down into her sharp eyes, filled with the blankness I loathed so much. “I’m sorry that all this happened. I’m sorry that you’re getting dumped on, and I’m sorry that I can’t give you what you want. If I could, I’d convince everypony that they shouldn’t just rely on you for everything, but even if you really are just as lost as them… you’re still giving them hope.”
Twilight’s expression softened. She shifted back and forth, her wings twitching slightly as she struggled with her own thoughts. Her voice was tense when she spoke again, but now it was tempered with restraint.
“I’m a blind woman trying to lead a group of invalids through a mountain range. I need something, anything, to help me out here, and I could do so much more if you gave me back my memories. It’s the very definition of aggravation that Discord’s put a noose around your neck.”
My eyes darkened. “Aggravating for both of us, you mean. I thought I might be able to make a difference for once, but instead I got shut down instantly. Now I get to walk around with the knowledge that I have the answer to everypony’s problems, but can’t do jack squat. Oh, and I also get to watch all of you wrestle with these issues and feel like it’s my fault. Super-happy-funtime, there.”
Twilight pursed her lips. “I’m actually not sure if that’s better or worse than my lot in all this.”
“You can shoot super-powered laser beams and teleport to almost any location at will,” I said flatly. “You’ve got the better deal.”
Twilight smirked. “I do enjoy the lasers.”
I heard the sound of a door opening behind me, followed by the light slapping sound of bare feet on concrete. I didn’t feel like talking to Dash right then, so I decided to cut our conversation short and get some more sleep.
“Are you mad at me?” I asked.
Twilight shook her head. “This isn’t your fault. If anything, I feel bad that you were dragged into all this.”
I smiled weakly. “Thanks. If it’s any consolation, I wish you didn’t have to deal with all this, either.”
I bade her good night and crept back over to Fluttershy. As I left, though, I heard her mutter something just loudly enough so I could hear.
“That makes two of us.”
***
“I just got a call from Mac,” Jack announced a few hours later. “He said he and Shining just got into the city. They should be here in a minute or so. Oh, and he said they’ve got a few other ponies from the farm with them.”
It was just a little bit after dawn. The additional rest I’d gotten had alleviated the rest of my soreness, and I felt fit for whatever the day was going to bring. Apple Bloom and Babs were with me at the moment, and we’d taken to rummaging through the piles of abandoned sports equipment for anything useful. Scootaloo and Shmangie were still outside in the van to keep a lookout for anyone, or anypony, that happened to come by.
“Great, finally,” Dash said. She was still wearing the blanket Rarity had given her like a toga, and looked none too happy about it. “I just want to get this over with.”
I made a derisive noise as I opened up an old cardboard box. “‘Get this over with,’ she says. Is she talking about the war, or getting back to being a pony?”
“Prolly both,” Apple Bloom said without looking up. We were talking quietly, so there was no danger of being overheard. “She’s an athlete, after all. Gotta be unnervin’ to have a set a big ol’ set of knockers like that.”
Babs giggled and took the cardboard box from me. “What bra size do you think she is?”
I turned back to look at Dash, mentally comparing her bust to the contours of her slender body. “Hard to tell because of the blanket, but I’d say at least a double-d.”
Babs followed my gaze, licking her lips for a few seconds, then grunted and looked away. “If only we were still guys...”
I ignored that and tuned back into the main conversation, where Fluttershy was in the middle of saying something. “—can’t help but wonder if we should just take the easy way out, you know? We all go through portal, then just come back to Earth right away. We don’t have to fight Discord if the portal can turn us all back into humans like it already did to Rainbow. None of us would be ponies, but we could all go back to our normal lives here on Earth without having to fight. Isn’t that a safer plan?”
I almost laughed. That would definitely be the Fluttershy option. Except that in exchange for that safety, we’d have to live the rest our lives knowing that we were aliens forced into alien bodies and exiled to an alien dimension, and our home would be lost forever.
That seemed like a pretty shitty deal to me.
Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt.
Something started vibrating against my leg. I’d taken a page out of Dash’s book and strapped my phone on so Shmangie could get a hold of me if needed. I magically pulled it out and used a stylus to answer it.
“Hey,” I said. “Is somepony here?”
“Shining and Mac,” Shmangie replied. “They’re heading over to the field house now, but they’re not alone. A lot of other ponies came with them.”
I hesitated at the tone in her voice. “Jack had said something about that. How many did they bring?”
“I can’t believe this!” I heard Scootaloo say in the background. “Ponies are coming in from everywhere! There’s gotta be hundreds! Where the hay are they all coming from?!”
I almost dropped the phone. I tried to speak normally, but my voice cracked halfway through. “Did… did you just say ‘hundreds’?!”
Shmangie’s voice held no note of jest. “Look out the window.”
I stared at my phone in shock. This couldn’t be real. There was no way that this could be happening. Babs and Apple Bloom, who’d both heard my side of the conversation, had stopped and were looking at me in disbelief.
“Hundreds?” Apple Bloom said weakly.
“No way,” Babs said. “Not after how badly we struck out last night! There wasn’t a single pony Scoots and I talked to that was even remotely interested in coming!”
There was a knock on the building’s main door. Dash went over to answer it. Outside were Shining and Mac, shuffling nervously back and forth as they stood exposed in the early light. Their eyes went wide as they took in Dash’s new form.
“...Dash?” Mac said.
“Yeppers.” She waved them inside. “Good to know you still recognize me.”
She led them over to the main group and started getting them up to speed on what’d happened last night. While they were doing that, I navigated through a small obstacle course of carts, garbage cans, chairs and broken desks to get over to a nearby window. I climbed up onto a shelf and looked out into the street.
Ponies. Ponies everywhere. Pegasi and unicorns and earth ponies, all of various shapes, sizes, ages, and colors. I’d never seen so many in one place in my entire life. Most of them were getting out of cars, but others were coming in from the river, and few even looked like they’d walked. I recognized a good number of them from the farm, but there were others I’d never seen before. They all looked nervous as they milled about and around the field house, but there was a grim determination in their eyes that spoke volumes about why they were here.
“I don’t believe it,” I breathed.
I watched as Shmangie got out of the van and started talking with one of the humans who’d driven one of the cars. Meanwhile, Scootaloo got out as well and started heading for the field house. She was making for the front door, but then she saw me in the window and made a motion for me to open it up for her.
I did as she asked. The window slid open with only a minor effort, and Scootaloo fluttered up and through. She landed beside me and immediately started talking excitedly.
“They just keep coming in from all over the place! This is so great! It’s an entire herd of colorful cartoon commandos! We can really do this, Sweetie! We can take back our home!”
“You really think we can?” Apple Bloom asked. She and Babs were looking up at us from the foot of the shelf. “Are there really that many out there?”
“Hell yeah!” Scootaloo said with a cocky grin. “We got this in the bag, girls!”
It was hard not to get excited. We’d expected barely any ponies to show up at all, and instead we’d wound up with an army! It was more than any of us could ever have asked for, and with that kind of ponypower at our disposal, we could definitely accomplish a lot more.
But despite the sudden optimism, I couldn’t silence the tiny voice that still questioned whether or not it would matter.
“Come on,” I motioned over to the main group. “We should pay attention to what they’re saying.”
We got back in earshot of Dash and the others, who seemed to all be at a pausing point in their conversation. At first I thought it was a natural one, but the eerie silence dragged on and on. All of them were so lost in thought and none of them even noticed our arrival. I was about to ask what was wrong before Fluttershy abruptly spoke up.
“Dash, what was it like?”
Dash scratched her head. “What, the feeling of going through the portal? It's not fun, I gotta tell you—”
“No, not that.” Fluttershy looked down. “I meant what was it like on the other side. What was it like being back in Equestria?”
Everyone in the room looked at Dash, who smiled softly. “Well, all I saw was the inside of a dusty basement, but... it felt good to be back there, I guess. It was strange—for those few seconds, it felt really welcoming. You know, to finally be a pony in the place where I belong.”
Pinkie chuckled. “Well then, what are we waiting for?! Let’s get this shindig started!”
Twilight tapped away at her phone with a magically-held stylus. “Pinkie’s right. We’ve delayed this long enough. I just set a five minute timer, so when it rings, we’ll move through the portal. Everyone make your final preparations.”
So this was it. This was the point of no return. In five minutes we’d go through that portal, and there’d be no going back. Arguably one could say that we’d reached the point of no return with the gathering of the ponies on the farm, but I didn’t really see it that way. It would’ve been difficult at that point, but if we really wanted, we could’ve all dispersed back into the world again.
My thoughts were disturbed by Scootaloo brushing past me. She trotted up to Dash and tapped her on the leg.
“You mean it, then?” she said. “You’re letting all of us go through with you? You actually want our help?”
“That’s the plan,” Dash said. She double-checked the supplies she had in a bag at her side. “We don’t really know what to expect over there, so having you girls around might be helpful.”
“Er… that’s not what I meant.” Scootaloo gestured to us. “I already knew we were going, but what about all the ponies outside?”
Dash cocked her head. “There are ponies outside?”
Mac coughed. “Oops.”
Shining laughed nervously. “Knew we forgot to mention something.”
Scootaloo led Dash over to the window. Her jaw dropped as she saw the crowd waiting to move through the portal.
“Holy...”
Scootaloo rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m not sure what happened. We told a lot of ponies on the farm, but none of them wanted to come. They must’ve all changed their minds.”
“I helped with that,” Shining said. “I… guess you could say I have a way with words. I spread the word after you left, and then told some others online, as well. I think we wound up with almost a thousand, total.”
Dash stared out the window in stunned silence. Not like I really blamed her. Not in any of our wildest dreams did any of us expect this.
Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow at her brother. “Shouldn’t this have been the first you told everypony once ya got in here?”
Mac shrugged. “Sorry. I got distracted.”
Shining smirked and snuck a peek at Dash’s chest. “Yeah… we both did.”
“Scootaloo,” Dash said in a dazed voice. “Go out there and tell them that the Mane Six are about to enter the portal. Anyone that wants to come with is welcome to do so.”
Scootaloo saluted. “Aye aye, captain!” She turned and started running towards the door.
“Hey!” I ran after her “Wait for us!”
***
“Listen up, everypony!” Scootaloo said loudly from atop the field house door. “Yoohoo! Up here! Yes, the adorable orange dodo! We’re gonna be going through the portal to Equestria in five minutes! Get your things together and form a line starting here!”
There was a flurry of activity as the gathered ponies did as Scootaloo asked. Babs, Apple Bloom and I helped out as well, although there wasn’t much that needed to be done. I did run into a unicorn who didn’t speak any English, but fortunately, she did know some Spanish, so I was able to help her out.
And as luck would have it, another foreigner decided to approach me right after I'd finished helping the first one.
“Hey again.”
My skin prickled. I turned and saw Daring Do emerging from the crowd, cleaned, groomed, and bandage-free. She was wearing her traditional green safari vest and pith helmet in lieu of military garb, along with a set of simple saddlebags resting at her sides.
“Didn’t see you around the farm after that first day,” she said with a look of mock-affront. “Were you trying to avoid me?”
My mouth went dry. The faces of ponies had kind of blurred into each other since I was so busy, and I sometimes got so absorbed in work that I didn’t hear people calling me.
I frantically waved my hooves back and forth. “No-no-no-no-no! I’d never do that! I was just preoccupied helping my sisters organize supplies and sew things! I’m so sorry if you—”
Daring burst out laughing. “Relax, I’m just playing! I was sleeping in the barn almost the entire time, anyways. You wouldn’t have seen much of me unless—wait… sisters? As in plural? I thought you only had—”
“Shmage!” Shmangie jogged over from the van. She was wearing a heavy-looking backpack along with something long and shiny that was hanging at her waist. “There you are! Come on, I’ve got your things, we need to...”
Then she saw the pith helmet.
“Buh...”
Daring grinned. “Heya.”
Warning sirens started going off in my head. I mentally slapped myself, telling myself to get a grip. Now was not the time for hero worship or fanfillying! I’d just finished giving myself crap for doing that with Twilight! I wasn’t going to do it here!
I cleared my throat. “Uh, Daring? This is my human sister, Angie Raimundo. Shman’, this is—well, obviously you know who this is, but her human name’s Lieutenant Mark Sheffield. She’s in the Australian Navy! Cool, huh?”
Daring waved a dismissive hoof. “Eh, don’t worry so much about that. Just call me Daring.”
Shmangie blinked several times. To her credit, it didn’t take very long for her to adjust to the shock. Her brain rebooted after a few seconds, and she smiled and waved in return.
“Nice to meet you. I wasn’t aware you knew my sister, but then again, stranger things have happened.” Shmangie turned to me. “I’m sorry, kiddo, but we really do need to get moving. You’re going to have to walk and talk.”
“Right.” I smiled at Daring. “Wanna come with us? We’re at the front of the line.”
Daring smirked as well. “First you give me an extra pillow, and now you’re inviting me to the head of the action? Girl, you spoil me.”
My reply was a hollow laugh. “Don’t thank me just yet.”
The three of us walked together up to the doors of the field house, occasionally slowing to answer a question or helping to direct a pony to the back. I checked my phone to see how much time we had. We were down to two minutes.
“Soooo, why’re you carrying a sword?” Daring asked, pointing to the object at Shmangie’s side.
“Oh! Right.” She unbelted the sheathed rapier and handed it down to me. “I assume you’ll want this.”
“Yeah.” I took it in my magic, inspecting it briefly before cinching it around my barrel. It was too long for me to carry at my side, but I was able to carry it on my back so long as I didn’t stop suddenly.
I blushed as I felt Daring’s gaze on me. “I look silly, don’t I.”
“That depends,” she said evenly. “Is that thing real?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know how to use it?”
“I was in the State Championship Fencing Finals for five consecutive years.”
“And she was offered an NCAA scholarship,” Shmangie added, then in a more emphatic voice, “which she should have taken.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not now, please.”
Daring gave a low whistle. “In that case, I don’t think it matters what you look like.”
I chuckled. “Speaking of looks, though, how about you? Why the change?”
Daring smoothed out a wrinkle in her vest. “You saw what shape I was in when I got to the farm. I didn’t see a point in fixing a bloody, shredded uniform, so I talked to your other sister and she suggested this since it was ‘iconic.’”
I nodded my approval. “You certainly look the part.”
“Yeah! Looking good, Daring!”
We’d just gotten to the door. I looked up at Scootaloo, who was still perched on top of the field house door.
“Huh?” I said. “Did you two meet already?”
She gave me an odd look. “Uh, yeah? I met just about everypony on the farm when I was with Dash! We were the ones who said to go to Rarity for new clothes!”
Daring winked. “Thanks for that, by the way.”
“I met her, too,” Babs said, coming up from behind us. “Er, sort of. Jack and I changed her bandages a few times while she was sleeping. Does that count?”
Daring’s eyes lit up. “Ahh, so you’re the one who was doing it. I kept wondering about that. Thanks, mate. I owe ya.”
Babs smiled. “Are you feeling better?”
Daring rolled her left shoulder. “More or less. Some wounds never fully heal, but the physical ones usually do.”
I didn’t have time to ponder that cryptic statement as just then, Apple Bloom showed up and revealed that—
“HOLY HORSEAPPLES! IT’S DARING DO!”
—she didn’t have a clue about Daring since she’d been working in the basement.
***
The six of us stood in front of the line with Dash and the others inside the field house. Twilight was standing on a box beside the statue, looking out at all of us with what I assumed was her attempt at a game face. Unfortunately, it just looked like she had gas. She was finishing giving instructions on how ponies were going to go in through the portal when her phone timer went off.
“All right, everyone!” she said, shifting back and forth on the box. “So, um... according to most books and movies I’ve seen, at this time I should give you all a rousing speech to inspire you for the big battle.”
The room went deathly quiet. No pony or human moved; all sets of eyes were now on her. Twilight took a moment to compose herself, then raised a hoof and spoke in a flat monotone.
“Make sure you’re brave. Historically, that’s the trait most beneficial at a time like this.”
She lowered her hoof. Silence. Five seconds. Ten seconds. Twenty. We all waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. Somepony coughed in the distance. Daring rubbed her shoulder. I idly tapped my hoof on the ground.
“Was… was that it?” Pinkie whispered.
No. I refused to believe that that was it. Twilight was just probably trying to do a dramatic pause or something. She’d continue any second now.
Twilight hopped down off the box. She put her saddlebags on, then ushered us over to the portal.
“First group is up. Single file, please.”
Dearest sweet Mother of Celestia, that was it.
Let it be known that Twilight Sparkle brought much shame upon her family that day.
Shining seemed to think much the same. He lowered his head in a facehoof and let out a long, slow sigh. Dash, who was next to him, leaned down and whispered something to him. I didn’t hear what it was, but his reply was an enthusiastic nod.
“Well, I guess this is it,” Apple Bloom said with a gulp. “We’re finally goin’ home.”
Scootaloo nudged her. “Scared?”
Apple Bloom scoffed. “Of course I ain’t! What’s there to be even scared of?”
“Discord,” Babs replied simply.
“The unknown,” Rarity said over her shoulder.
“Various unspeakable horrors,” Shmangie muttered.
Apple Bloom bit her lip and looked away. “A-aside from all that.”
Daring patted her on the shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry! He doesn’t even know we’re coming. We’ll knock him flat on his arse before he knows what happened.”
I kept my comments to myself. Sure, we had the element of surprise, but how effective was that going to be against an immortal demigod? It was seeming more and more like we were going to need a miracle to pull this off.
Pinkie went first. The base of the portal rippled like the surface of a pond as she went through, then smoothed out and appeared to be nothing more than dull rock again. Jack and Mac followed shortly after her.
“Hey, uh… Shmage?” Shmangie said.
I looked up at her. “Yeah?”
She was staring confusedly at Dash. “Who’s the girl in the blanket?”
My stomach plummeted. I’d forgotten to tell her what happened to Dash. Now she had no idea what was coming. Well, it was a little late now, but a little bit of a warning was better than none at all.
“It’s Dash,” I said. “She turned back into a human when she came back through the portal. We think it’s because the portal converts your body to fit the location or something.”
Scootaloo was the one who first caught on. Her eyes went wide, then she suddenly got a devious look. Subtly, she maneuvered herself so that she was just behind Shmangie.
Shining and Dash went through. It was now our turn. The portal stood open and waiting, and I said a silent prayer to the powers that be. Rarity and I stepped forward together.
Meanwhile, poor Shmangie hadn’t yet connected the dots.
“So... if it turns ponies into humans when they come to Earth... does that mean when humans go to Equestria—”
“ONE OF US!” Scootaloo yelled.
And she shoved Shmangie into the portal.
Or at least, she tried to. What really happened was that Shmangie awkwardly stumbled and got tangled up in me and Rarity, causing us all to tumble in together.
“WAUGH!” I suddenly felt myself spinning around at an insane speed, all the while being pulled down into a some kind of vortex. Terror, vertigo, and nausea all gripped me, and my consciousness faded and fled to parts unknown.
***
Going through the portal was not pleasant. If I had to describe it simply, it was a cross between going through a trash compactor and run through a washing machine. It wasn’t an experience I was eager to repeat anytime soon. I awoke in a foreign, yet familiar place, and did and internal check with a groan. Amazingly, I seemed to be okay. I wasn’t going to have an appetite for a while, but I could live with that.
At least I knew where I was. With a sneeze, I gingerly opened my eyes and lit my horn to see what time and neglect had done to Rarity’s basement.
Surprisingly, not much. The racks of old dresses were still sitting against the walls, a few rolled up rugs were in the corner, the washer and dryer were over by the boiler, and the icebox was still by the stairs. The only real indicator that the place was abandoned was the thick layer of dust that covered everything. Everypony that’d already come through the portal was sitting together at the base of the stairs, save for Shining, who was already over by Rarity’s side.
“Never again,” she muttered. “Never, never, never again…”
“You all right?” Shining tried to help her up. “It’s nasty, I know.”
Rarity waved him away. “A moment, please.”
“Urrrgh,” another voice said to my right. “Mi cabeza… te juro que voy a matarlos ellos...”
Okay, I’ll admit it, I was excited for this. I hadn’t meant for it to happen so awkwardly, but it wasn’t like I could change that. I decided to not worry about it, and instead looked over to see what Shmangie had become.
A unicorn. A pure white unicorn, the same exact shade that Rarity and I had inherited from our father. Her mane and tail were a deep rust-red, with naturally curled ends that were like a mix of my wavy bangs and Rarity’s coiffure. Shmangie’s almond-shaped eyes were hazel, and her slender frame and long, fluted horn marked her as a unicorn of northern descent, just like us. Her backpack had been transformed into a pair of heavy saddlebags, each one with a clasp in the shape of her cutie mark.
And yes, she had a cutie mark—a winged golden staff with a pair of white serpents coiled around it. I recognized what that symbol was, but it took me a second to understand what it meant for her. When it hit me, though, the chill I felt was stronger than a winter gale.
Shining did a double-take. “Wow.”
Rarity gasped. “Oh, my...”
I was speechless. All I could do was stare at her. She was beautiful. She was perfect. I didn’t need anything or anyone to tell me who she was or what the portal had done, for my heart was singing it out loud and clear.
A lump formed in my throat as I took a step towards her. “Shman…”
“Ahh.” She shielded her eyes. “Easy on the light, kiddo, I’m not—”
I’ll give her credit that she didn’t scream. She was surprised, of course; who wouldn’t be? But no, she didn’t scream… she just stared. First at her arm, which was what had made her pause in the first place, then at her hoof. She turned her head to look back at her barrel, and finally her tail and cutie mark. She reached up and felt her muzzle, slowly opening and closing her new mouth.
“I’m... a pony...”
I sprang forward and glomped her as hard as I could.
“Gracias a dios...” My choked sobs echoed softly in the dusty room. “Gracias, gracias, gracias a dios…”
Rarity and Shining smiled as they watched from afar.
“So much for all that genetic business,” Rarity said.
“I’ll say,” Shining agreed.
Shmangie, still dazed and in shock, dimly returned my hug without really knowing why. We may have been in a broken world, there may have been untold perils before us, but in that moment, none of that mattered. Our bodies once more reflected what was in our hearts, and that was a greater gift than anything I could’ve asked for.
Unfortunately, the touching moment was fleeting.
“We need to get going here, guys!” Twilight called from the other side of the room. “We need to clear this room before the next group of ponies comes through!”
As tactless as that was, she had a point. I reluctantly broke our embrace with a sheepish look and moved away from the portal. Shining, realizing Shmangie was going to have some issues, gently picked her up and moved her out of the way.
“You both stay here and direct the ponies that are coming in,” he said, tilting his head at the portal. “Think you can do that?”
I nodded and wiped the tears from my eyes. “S-sure thing, bro.”
Rarity floated over one of the rugs and unrolled it for Shmangie. “Here. Practice walking on this so you don’t scuff up your knees. We’ll come get you two if we need, okay?”
I quickly went over and gave her a hug. “Stay safe.”
They went back to the main group, who then shared a group hug of their own before they went up the old stairs single file. The door at the top was rusted shut, but Twilight pulled it off its hinges with an ear-splitting crunch and tossed it aside. Light spilled in from above, and the eight of them went up into the Carousel Boutique’s ground floor, leaving me and Shmangie alone in the dark.
Not for very long, though.
WUMM
The vanity mirror rippled. A second later, Apple Bloom and Babs fell through, groaning and clutching their heads.
“I’ll never ride the Tilt-a-Whirl again,” Apple Bloom said.
“Somepony stop the room, please,” Babs said in a cracked voice. “I’d like to get off.”
WUMM
Scootaloo and Daring came stumbling out next. They also fell over onto their sides with their eyes spinning in their sockets.
“Not cool,” Scootaloo said to the ceiling. “So, so, so unbelievably not cool...”
“Agreed,” Daring gasped. “Hrk…”
Giggling, I picked up the girls one at a time and laid them down beside Shmangie. I couldn’t pick up Daring, but a few good magical pokes were enough to get her up and out of the way.
“Dylan,” Shmangie said in a dangerously calm voice. “I’m trying very hard not to murder you right now.”
Scootaloo, who was laying spread-eagle on the rug, looked up woozily at her with a goofy grin.
“Hehe. You look like Sweetie and Rarity now. I think I'll call you Swearity.”
We both smacked her.
***
WUMM
Holy crap, did that sound get old fast. Ponies started coming fast and furious through the portal in groups of two and three, and over the next half-hour our time became filled with ushering the dazed newcomers away from the portal to keep it clear. We did have a few traffic jams here and there, but we were mostly successful.
However, there was an unexpected issue. Ponies recovered from the ordeal easily enough, but the humans who came through had no idea how to use their new Equestrian bodies.
“Okay, try again,” I said to the nine transformed humans standing shakily in front of me. “Remember to take it slow. Just alternate your steps in a diagonal pattern… try to keep your neck nice and straight—”
WUMM
“Gah!” Two of them immediately tripped. Four others managed to get a few steps before falling. The remaining three successfully got to the end of the rug before stopping and trying to turn around, but then they got tangled up and fell.
“You’re all still thinking about it too much,” Shmangie said from beside me. She trotted over without issue and helped them up one at a time. “You don’t think about walking normally, do you? Just do what comes naturally.”
She’d managed to master walking in a matter of minutes. I have no idea how. She said she'd just relaxed and let her body do what it wanted to do, but that didn’t seem to be working for the other humans. Maybe some of my natural instincts got transferred to her when we went through the portal together? I don't know.
“It’s these damn eyes!” one of the fallen humans whined. He awkwardly flailed on the ground as he tried to get back up by himself. ”I can’t get used to them being so far apart! It’s like looking around in widescreen!”
WUMM
I laughed. “Don’t worry, you get used to it.”
“At least we’re lucky enough to have a nurse helping us out,” one of the mares said, glancing at Shmangie’s cutie mark.
Okay, I take that back. Now I was laughing.
Shmangie blushed. “N-no, no, I’m not a nurse... that’s not what the, um...” she turned to me. “What’s it called, again?”
“Caduceus.”
“That’s not what the caduceus is supposed to mean.” Shmangie gave her a weak smile. “Americans confused it with another symbol long ago, but no one ever bothered to change it.”
“At least you know what yours means.” Scootaloo glanced back at her own cutie mark with a small scowl. “Took me days to figure out what mine meant, even after I got it.”
“That’s because you didn’t try!” Apple Bloom accused her. “You just went prancing around showin’ it off to everypony you came across!”
WUMM
“Well, excuse me for wanting to celebrate!” Scootaloo stuck out her tongue. “It’s not like I was the last one of us to get theirs, or anything!”
“Heh, it would be nice to know how I first got mine,” Daring said whimsically. “I’m curious what it was I first found.”
Babs turned to her. “Is that what your talent is? Finding things?”
Daring nodded as she helped up a staggering unicorn. “I have to have seen the thing in question at some point, and it’s better if it belongs to me, but otherwise I can find just about anything I want.”
It was hard not to be jealous of that. I mean, if you had a choice between being good at singing or finding anything you wanted to, what would you choose?
WUMM
I cursed and covered my ears. “Please tell me everypony’s almost through.”
“We’re prolly gettin’ close,” Apple Bloom said. She turned to me raised an eyebrow. “You’re lookin’ a little green. Need a break?”
I nodded and started for the stairs. “Don't mind if I do.”
“Oooh! Oooh! Let us know what it’s like up there!” Scootaloo called.
“Don’t leave the house!” Shmangie said.
I flashed her an innocent smile. “Who, me?”
“Don’t ‘who, me,’” she said sharply. Her large, hazel eyes bored into mine as she stamped her hoof with every word. “Stay. In. The. Boutique.”
I frowned and flattened my ears. “I know, I know, calm down. I just need some fresh air. Now, if you’ll excuse me...” I hurried up the stairs before the portal could go off again.
***
What waited for me upstairs was a nightmare. The basement had been more or less untouched, but the rest of the building had been sacked. Tables, mannequines, mirrors and furniture lay smashed everywhere, layering the faded carpet in crunchy debris. Ominous gashes covered the walls, as if they were made by a beast with claws longer than my entire body. The ceiling was covered with hundreds of spidery cracks, all of the windows were shattered to pieces, and the air was thick and odorous.
Ponies milled about everywhere as they worked to shore up the building’s defenses. They boarded up windows, stacked furniture against doors, and made space for everyone to move around.
I had to be careful not to get underhoof as I maneuvered through the crowds. I kinda wanted to see my old room, so I made my way over to the second floor stairs with that intent...
...only to find that the stairs had collapsed.
“Hayseed.” I kicked at the rubble and sat down on the awning. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but a part of me had hoped that I could’ve gotten up there. I was possible that the second floor was still intact and the stairway had just gotten blocked, but I wasn’t holding my breath.
As I stared forlornly at the damage, I noticed that the stairway window hadn’t been boarded up yet. I hadn’t seen what it was like outside yet, and while I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty, I was still curious. Nopony seemed to be paying attention to me, so carefully, I clambered up the stairway wreckage and peeked out the window to see what had become of my hometown.
The first thing I noticed was the sky. It was a random, shifting mess of chaotic color, ever-moving with no rhyme or reason. It was like the atmosphere was having an acid dream. The next thing I noticed were the surrounding buildings, which were either rusted, destroyed, or just flat-out gone. Wait, scratch that, I found them; they were floating upside-down in the air. Graffiti was everywhere, most of it in Equestrian, but you don't need to know what any of it said. Needless to say, it wasn’t nice. The ground was covered with polka-dots, zigzags, checker patterns and nonsense shapes. Chasms and sinkholes were everywhere, and in the center of town was Golden Oaks Library, shattered into tiny pieces and then reformed in the shape of a phallus.
Oh, and did I mention the bones? Yeah, there were a lot of those. Piles of 'em were everywhere. I wasn’t sure what species they all were, as they’d been scattered pell-mell all across the landscape. Some of them were clearly pony based off their skulls, but I wasn’t sure about the rest.
I vomited then. I managed to do it out the window, but yeah, my stomach decided that that was enough. I’d been expecting bad. Terrible, even, but I hadn’t been expecting that. I was wrong when I said that the interior of Carousel Boutique was a nightmare; the true nightmare lay in the twisted abattoir beyond, the perverse monument to depravity and insanity. I realized then how far out of our league we truly were, and how wrong we were to ever have set hoof in this accursed place.
Despair was about to take me, but then, I was startled by a loud, familiar voice.
“EVERYONE! LISTEN UP!”
Shining’s voice cracked through the entire building like a whip. Instantly, everypony stopped what they were doing, their ears all swiveling as one.
“As many of you know, I am Shining Armor, brother of Princess Twilight and former Captain of the Royal Guard. Ponies… I welcome you to Equestria.”
Curious, I slid down the rubble and made my way through the crowd. I stepped between legs and squeezed between gaps as only a minor can, following the sound of Shining’s voice.
“I know some of you have looked outside and are beginning to doubt why we’re here. You’re asking yourselves why we’ve we come to this wasteland, why we’re risking our lives or even fighting at all. But the answer to all those questions is clear as day to me—because this is our home!”
Shining was standing in the main showroom on a display stage addressing the crowd, his stern face holding the attention of all in the room. I stood in the back and watched as he demonstrated exactly how he’d gotten so many ponies from the farm to follow him.
“We all knew what would be waiting for us here, and on behalf of all ponies in our kingdom, I thank you for your courage. I know most of you are not fighters, and I know we lack any real experience fighting the sort of things that lay before us. We are students, secretaries, office workers, gamers, and just brothers and sisters. None of us have been trained to deal with the threat we will face here, but we will face it!”
He started pacing the stage. “I know many of you are scared right now, but you shouldn’t be! Look around you, look at the hundreds, nay, the thousands of ponies who were brave enough to come here and face the peril! You are among them! You are just as strong as they are! Think of what we can do together!”
There were a few cheers. I could hear murmurs of approval from the ponies around me. Shining felt the shift and became more animated, raising his voice so it carried over the applause.
“My fellow ponies, today you stand among thousands of the bravest individuals any of us have ever seen! Think of our combined strength! Think of our combined rage! The fury that we have been waiting to unleash on this day, twenty-five years in the making!”
I’m not sure what it says about me that it was the mention of vengeance that pulled me out of my funk. I mean, all the stuff Shining had said before that was cool and all but it was only when he started talking about getting payback did he really grab me. Not just me, either. More of the audience started cheering and pounding the floor in applause then, too.
“My fellow ponies, if you think you’re scared of the enemy, imagine how scared they must be of us!” Shining said. “Imagine the sheer terror gripping their black hearts as they realize we’ve arrived! Imagine the horror they must feel as they realize that before them is an army of the bravest, strangest, most furious individuals this world has ever seen! An army that has been waiting twenty five years for revenge! An army here to take back what is rightfully theirs! My fellow ponies, we are that army! Imagine the terror in our enemies when they realize today is the day they will have to face us!”
I think it was the bones that did it. More than anything else, that was what really made it all real for me. I thought it’d just been close calls before, but that was before I’d come here and seen the casualties. Ponies had died. Discord was a murderer. He had committed atrocities that rivaled some of humanity’s worst, and he needed to be stopped.
“Today is the day we reclaim all that we lost!” Shining yelled over the din. “Today we take back that which was stolen from us, that which we lost over five score divided by four years ago! We’ll get revenge on that traitor, that coward who backstabbed our entire kingdom! I don’t know what Discord will throw at us, but I do know that we will not run away any longer! We will hold this ground!”
I almost got swept up in the moment. The crowd was whooping and hollering now, and the energy in the air was almost palpable. I managed to resist the temptation, but I couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride at the stallion that would soon be my kin.
“This land! Right here!” Shining stomped a hoof on the dusty floor. “This land, right in the ruins of our beloved town! Not only does this land connect back to our friends back on Earth, but this land is the most important land in Equestria! You know why? Because this is land that Discord no longer controls! WE HAVE TAKEN IT FROM HIM! And from this spot, we will take back everything else he has stolen from us!”
He was right, of course. We had a forward operating base now. From here we could launch our assaults, and as long as we held the portal, we could retreat and use guerilla tactics to weaken his forces. Maybe we could mobilize a larger assault and lure Discord out in the open. The options were aplenty; all we had to do was choose one.
Ponies were now screaming out battle cries. Shining bared his teeth and growled, his own rage manifesting in his booming voice. “He won’t take a single inch of this land back from us! He has taken enough! Your old friends, your family, your past TWENTY FIVE YEARS!”
The crowd howled in anger, and Shining began stomping the floor. “Ponies! If today in battle you or your friends start to feel fear... if you want to just run away and let Discord’s forces take this land from you... you must think back to everything Discord has already taken from you! Think what he has taken from all of us! Are you willing to let Discord take even more!?”
“NO!”
Even I joined in that shout. Discord had already taken two lives from me. I wasn’t going to let him take anymore.
Shining was now screaming at the top of his lungs. “WE WILL NOT GIVE HIM A SINGLE INCH! NO MORE WILL HE JUST TAKE WHAT HE WANTS! NO MORE WILL HE TAKE WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY OURS! HIS TYRANNY ENDS TODAY!” Shining slammed his hoof down as hard as he could, cracking the stage with a resounding crunch. “TODAY WILL BE A DAY REMEMBERED BY ALL PONYKIND AS THE THE DAY WE STRUCK BACK! TODAY WILL BE THE DAY WE GET REVENGE FOR EVERYTHING WE LOST. FOR OUR FRIENDS. FOR OUR FAMILIES. FOR THOSE TWENTY FIVE YEARS. FOR EQUESTRIA!”
The crowd responded with a deafening chant.
“FOR EQUESTRIA! FOR EQUESTRIA! FOR EQUESTRIA!”
I decided I’d heard enough. Shining’s speech had been effective in keeping my fear at bay. It was time to take some action. It wasn’t going to be easy or pretty, but as long as we worked together, I believed we stood a chance.
I went over everything I knew about our enemy while I headed back to the basement. Discord was the embodiment of chaos and disharmony. His power exceeded that of even Celestia and Luna, and he could do anything from generate powerful curses to create dimensional rifts. He was a lying, greedy, insane megalomaniac who played with this victims before disposing of them, and he apparently had no qualms about taking lives.
However, Discord was known as a traitor, any alliances or partnerships he’d made would be shaky, at best. Followers would be either mind-controlled, enslaved, blackmailed, convenient, or insane. If we cut the right strings, we could easily turn the tables and turn his army against him. It was just a matter of finding out what and where those strings were, and we could diminish his forces, if not cripple them.
But that still left the issue about what to do about Discord himself. It was doubtful we could take him on with anything we currently had at our disposal. There was always the option of going on a memory-restoring spree, but that couldn't be done yet. There had to be something we could do now, something that wouldn't attract attention and give us away.
I thought about how Discord had been defeated in the show. Both times he’d been zapped by the Elements of Harmony, first wielded by Celestia and Luna, then again by the Mane Six. The Elements seemed to be the only thing that worked on him; everything else had either been ineffective or just bounced right off him. I had no idea why the Elements worked when nothing else did, but then again, I didn’t know much about the Elements’ origins to begin with.
I reached the basement stairs. There was currently a steady stream of ponies coming up from the portal, so I waited for a chance to go down and continued my thoughts. Discord had to be aware that the Elements were a threat. He’d undoubtedly done something with them: Either hid them, destroyed them, or maybe even sabotaged them. Or maybe he hadn’t found them at all and had been searching for them all this time. What happens to the Elements if their Bearers disappear? Do they go dormant? Do they return somewhere? Do they function as normal?
So many questions, not nearly enough answers.
But perhaps I was getting ahead of myself. If we could just find the Elements, just see if they still existed, then a lot of those questions might answer themselves. For instance, we didn’t know if the Mane Six could still use the Elements, but maybe we could find somepony else that could. A quick test would be all that was needed for that. It’d kinda be like the Sword in the Stone, only with pretty jewelry that fired rainbow lasers.
So the big issue then was being able to locate the Elements. If Discord had them, they’d probably be locked away somewhere. If they went into some kind of stasis when the Mane Six went to Earth, then Celestia only knew where they’d gone. I sincerely hoped that wasn’t the case.
This was starting to look like a dead end. We needed some sort of lead if we were going to find the Elements, some idea of where to look. The Mane Six almost certainly wouldn’t know anything, heck, they didn’t even seem that interested in the Elements to begin with. I understood why they felt that way, but still, I didn’t agree with the gung-ho approach they seemed to be going for.
No, I was adamant we needed the Elements. They were the only thing that’d ever hurt Discord, and we were going to lose without them. But where were they? We needed to put our energies into finding anything and everything that might hint us in to their whereabouts. It certainly would be nice if we could use some kind of finding spell to locate the damn things, but we didn’t have—
I suddenly felt like an utter idiot.
There was finally a pause in the ponies coming up from the basement. I scampered down the rickety steps as fast as my little legs could carry me, only pausing a moment to let my eyes adjust to the darkness. Shmangie and the girls saw me come down and swarmed me with questions.
“Feeling any better?”
“What’s it like up there?”
“Did you hear Shining shouting all that cool stuff?”
“Were you able to see outside at all?"
I ignored all of them and turned instead to Daring, who hadn’t come over because she was still helping the incoming ponies. I caught her attention with a brief wave and flash of my horn.
“Need something?”
I took a deep breath. “You said you can find anything so long as you’ve seen it before, right?”
Daring hesitated. “Uh, pretty much, yeah. There are some limits to it, but that’s pretty much the jist.”
“Does it have to be the actual thing, or can it just be a picture?”
“Pictures work, so long as they’re accurate.” Daring covered her mouth to stifle a sneeze. “Why? What’s up?”
I glanced back at Shmangie and the girls. I didn’t know how they were gonna take to this, but for some reason, I felt in my heart it was the right thing to do.
I floated over my rapier and strapped it on, cinching the belt so that it was snug around my waist. I turned back to Daring and spoke in a clear voice.
"I want to find the Elements of Harmony.”