//------------------------------//
// To Smite a Villain 
// Story: Inverted Harmony 
// by AmazingBluie 
//------------------------------//

Pinkie Pie woke up, gasping for breath.

It had been a dream. A crazy nightmare, even stranger than the regular ones. The usual heffalumps, woozles, and dancing pink elephants were gone, replaced with a dark basement and a familiar pink pony. There were two of them, actually, as well as a lot of very sharp objects. Completely unrealistic and ridiculous, it was enough to put her into a cold sweat.

Grabbing a drink of water from a nightstand, Pinkie pinched her nose and drowned it to calm her nerves. Then she remembered that she was performing the cure for hiccups and started laughing, making herself feel better.

Just as planned.

Pinkie sighed and lay down again, her mind on the dream. She rubbed a hoof along her chin in thought as she puzzled over whether it held any significance.

Could the dream have been trying to tell her something? She usually had a twitchy left cheek if someone was planning to make pastry out of her. It was the right cheek if she spelled pickle with two “c”s.

Maybe the dream was telling her the other Pinkie liked to bake so much, she wanted her help making a super amount of awesome pastries for everypony? Her unwilling and disturbingly graphic help.

On the other hoof, it could have been some sort of warning. The dream may have been trying to tell her that there was danger and she should be aware of evil, crazy ponies that looked identical to her.

Or it was the bean burritos with the extra helping of onion.

It was impossible, of course. Those never messed with her dreams. The "evil, crazy pony" idea was impossible, too. The other Pinkie Pie would never really do something like that. Pinkie Pie of the other universe was sweet and kind and didn't have a single evil bone in her body.

Fighting the unease, Pinkie pulled out an old something that always comforted her from under her pillow and snuggled it. It would be embarrassing to be caught snuggling with it, so she usually tried to keep it hidden. Right now, she needed the reassurance.

She had a sense for ponies, though, and knew, deep down, that her counterpart would never hurt her. She knew that she didn't have to worry about being chopped up into cupcakes and served to her friends, and certainly not from the other Element of Laughter. She knew if a pony was crazy enough to do all that, they wouldn't be able to hide it from her.

She would know better than anypony, after all.

Putting away the butcher's knife, Pinkie went back to sleep.

___________

Early the next morning brought about the fourth day of the alternate six ponies’ visit, two days after Second Rainbow Dash disappeared.

First Twilight trotted down the stairs in the library, yawning from a good night’s sleep. She went to the kitchen to make some breakfast for herself. She passed and ignored Spike, because nobody cares about him and he’s irrelevant to the story.

Sorry, Spike.

Spike shrugged, walking back to bed. “Eh, I’m used to it.”

As Twilight finished her cereal, the first of her friends started showing up for the planned meeting. She and First Rainbow Dash exchanged morning pleasantries as they made their way out into the main room.

“Good Morning!”

Dash, who was still sleepy-eyed, yawned before replying with a smile. “Morning.”

“Did you sleep well last night? I slept better than in ages!”

The pegasus nodded, then grinned. “That was sure a crazy day, yesterday, wasn’t it?”

“It sure was!” Twilight’s nostalgic smile fell into a frown. “I think. Actually, I don’t remember what happened.”

Dash started rubbing her chin in thought. “Me neither. Just that it was crazy.”

“Me, as well.” Rarity came through the door and joined them. Soon, everypony had gathered in the library, muttering about the crazy day they couldn’t remember.

Giggling, one of the Pinkies cried out, “Wow! It’s the same for me!”

The other Pinkie grinned. “Me, too! Except…” She trailed off, staring distantly.

Everypony stared at her, wondering if she would remember something the rest could not.

“What is it, Pinkie?”

Pinkie rubbed her head, thinking hard. “Well, I almost seem to recall…”

___________

“Stop! Stop! Stop!” Discord, dressed in a british colonel’s uniform, had appeared in the middle of the war-torn spa room.

Twilight’s hoof stilled, halfway through writing her name. She had mixed feelings about the interruption.

“This chapter has become too silly for public consumption!”

Applejack finally managed to pull the arrow from her leg, but paused before restringing it for another shot.

“This whole place has become a ridiculous assortment of contrived and improbable situations, of which I had no part, and its chaotic overtone has broken the barrier of believability. Quite frankly, it was just too silly.”

“You’re just jealous!” Ghost Pinkie yelled.

“No, no, me being left out has nothing to do with it. I’m not petty. Don’t be ridiculous.”

Both Rainbow Dashes cooed and giggled while the Fluttershys continued their battle for ownership, completely ignoring Discord.

“So, as of this moment, this day never occurred. All dead ponies won’t have died…”

Rarity dropped her knife and sighed in relief, the guilt having weighed on her. Although her guilt was not as significant, Second Rarity was also relieved.

Ghost Pinkie groaned in disappointment.

“…All revelations will be undone, all banners taken down, all toast unmade, and Byuk will be a shinigami again.”

“But I’m a real boy!”

“That is all!” And with that, Discord and the entire day disappeared.

___________

“And that’s how carriages were invented!”

There were several moment’s worth of silence. Pinkie beamed as everypony tried to take in her explanation of their amnesia. Eventually, First Applejack broke the silence.

“What’s a Byuk?”

Second Twilight coughed. “Pinkie!” Her voice was a little high, so she paused a moment to try and calm it back to a reasonable level. “This isn’t the time for your silliness. First Twilight and I have real matters to discuss with all of you, regarding the plan today.”

“Yes, but I don’t get why writing my name—” Feeling a hoof on her shoulder, First Twilight turned to see a very serious mirror image.

“Do we really have time to puzzle over Pinkie Pie? Now?”

Twilight shook her head in agreement. They had a long day ahead of them, and she needed to be ignoring Pinkie Pie, for her own sake.

With that out of the way, the Twilights slowly corralled everypony around a map in the center of the room. First Twilight held up a marker and gathered her friends’ attention.

“All right, girls,” she pointed at a spot on the map, circling it. “First and Second Rainbow Dash did indeed find Smite’s hideout, up in this area.”

First Rarity lifted a hoof. “Um, forgive me Twilight, but… where is Second Rainbow Dash?”

Twilight blinked and looked around, before centering on the Dash that was present.

First Dash shrugged. “Heck if I know. She said there was something she needed to take care of last night, and I haven’t seen her since.”

Second Applejack chipped in, “She wasn’t in her room this morning.”

Second Fluttershy added thoughtfully, “I thought I saw her flying northwest last. Isn’t that the direction of Cloudsdale?”

Twilight frowned and started fidgeting. “This isn’t the time for visiting family, or whatever business she might have there. That’s not good, our plan is already falling apart.”

“No, it isn’t.” Second Twilight said with a calming voice, placing a hoof on her double’s shoulder again. “Rainbow Dash knows where the hideout is. She’s sure to be back before long. If we leave a note, she’ll even beat us there. We can’t delay this.”

“Delay what?”

One of the Applejacks had spoken, although Twilight didn’t catch which. She did need to continue, though. “Smite has built more Cider-Sprayers than we initially expected. He has at least half a dozen, although we have to count on the possibility of more. We have to stop him before he finishes an army, because that would quickly become a complication we don’t need.”

Second Twilight stepped in, adding the more worrisome news. “Aside from that, there’s a bigger problem. We’re going to have trouble once we’re inside, because the entire place, as near as we can tell, has been magic-proofed.”

“Magic-proofed?”

First Twilight shrugged. “It’s a working term. We’ve never heard of anything like this before.”

Second Rarity grimaced. “So, unicorns can’t use their magic inside?”

“Presumably, but it’s worse than that. Pegasi can’t even fly in there, and we have no idea what it would do to an Earth pony.”

Second Twilight rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so melodramatic. Applejack’s natural strength and athleticism, for instance, will be fine. Her talents are focused on growing things, and we’re not going to be in there long enough to test if that’s even affected.”

Both Applejacks took a keen interest at that, quickly asking something that came out along the vein of, “But is it a lasting effect?”

Twilight shook her head. “Dash was fine after leaving the mouth of the cave, so magic is more likely suppressed rather than removed.”

After a look from Applejack, she amended, “No, there shouldn’t be lasting effects.”

Second Twilight glanced at the clock and then caught everypony’s attention. “So, are there any questions?”

After a bunch of unsure looks but no comments, she nodded. “Good. We need to move before Smite can build even more machines. The sooner, the better. Once there, we’ll take out the robots and then bring Smite in. Between the eleven of us, it should be easy.”

First Twilight tapped her. “You mean twelve?”

She grimaced. “Yes, of course. I’m sure Dash will be here soon. Thank you.”

While nopony looked particularly pleased, the meeting was quickly wrapped up and preparations began in earnest.

___________

“That was close.”

Second Twilight passed the time left in her room, despite having already packed. It gave her a chance to contemplate a decision on Smite’s fate, although there was now something else on her mind.

“What’s that?” Byuk, casually curious as always.

Twilight groaned. “My other self. She’s understandably concerned about Second Rainbow Dash missing. She might not have even let it go so easily, except that… she trusts me.”

“Does that make you uncomfortable?”

Frowning, Twilight answered, “Only that I’ve never lied to myself.”

A snort was her only reply.

“But it’s not like I can trust her with the truth!” Her voice turned defensive as she rounded on her ghostly companion, purposefully misinterpreting his unspoken comment. “She wouldn’t understand the truth! My world was just like this one, not long ago. Now it’s full of crime. Ponies don’t change that fast! Those terrible, monstrous ponies are still out there, even if they’re not acting out, yet. It’s only a matter of time before-”

Twilight blinked, realizing that Byuk was playing with a paddle ball. “Where did you get that?”

Byuk shrugged. “Pinkie’s room. You were ranting and I was bored.”

After a long moment of watching Byuk try to hit the ball, Twilight shook her head. “Whatever. I suppose I might as well be talking to myself, anyway. However, I do need something from you…”

He stopped and looked at her, curious.

Twilight grew deadly serious, wanting to convey the importance of what she was about to say. “I am about to enter a particularly dangerous area, with no access to magic, and no idea what I’ll be finding inside. What I need… is a backup plan. Specifically, a partner who is not affected by magic… or lack thereof.”

Byuk’s face was neutral, uncaring. “We are not partners.”

“No…” Twilight admitted, “but there’s a reason you stay with me. You’re interested. You want to see what I do next. Am I right?”

Very slowly, Byuk nodded, eyes narrowing. He left it unsaid that he could only help if it didn’t affect a mortal’s natural lifespan. She was far from unaware of the rules of the Death Note.

Twilight smiled at the small victory. “Good. If you want to see what I do next in my world, you’re going to have to help me survive this one. Can you do that?”

He nodded again, but lost the care he had shown before and went back to playing with his new toy.

With a sigh of relief, the unicorn smiled. “Good enough. I feel much better about this already.”

___________

As the ponies gathered for their trek, the Twilights going over checklists, there were two absent ponies. Rainbow Dash had still not returned, and there was only one Pinkie Pie bouncing around.

First Twilight was getting frustrated. “Where are they?!”

Just as the words left her mouth, the other Pinkie Pie came around the corner with a tray in each of her front hooves. “Hey, everypony! I brought something special for the trip!”

The other Pinkie Pie grinned. “Cupcakes!”

She helped her other self pass them out to the group. They all seemed delighted, although curious about an unusual taste.

“What’d ya put in these, anyhow?” Second Applejack asked around a mouthful.

Pinkie smiled. “Do you like them?”

“Yeah, they’re pretty darn good.”

Pinkie shrugged. “I usually make them better, with a special, secret ingredient, but I had to make a substitute out of sodium and iron-enriched flour because somepony won’t share.” She sent a pouty glare at Second Fluttershy, who looked confused at the attention.

First Rarity started looking around while frowning. “I can’t believe there’s still no sign of Second Rainbow Dash.”

Nearly half the ponies present stiffened at the mention. Pinkie just mumbled to herself, sore about not getting to the pegasus in time but taking solace in the fact that Dash’s name hadn’t come up, anyway. It had not been her time.

Second Fluttershy, on the other hoof, looked nervous and stared hard at the ground while pawing at it. “Oh, well… there’s probably nothing to worry about.”

___________

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle’s voice was thick with apprehension. “This is really weirding me out, right now.”

Scootaloo waved both her and Applebloom’s concerns off. “You want to earn our babysitting cutie marks or not? Besides, twenty bits is twenty bits.”

They all three watched Rainbow Dash crawling around the other Fluttershy’s hotel room, propelling herself with her hind legs while dragging over her front two. She was suckling a baby bottle full of milk the entire time. Every once in a while she’d stop and stare at them with wide eyes and the blankest face for several seconds, before returning to her exploration.

Scootaloo shivered a little. “But you’re right. This is the strangest job we’ve ever tried.”

___________

“All right, girls, let’s get going!” Second Twilight was leading the charge as the eleven mares, each with saddlebags, began walking in the direction of Smite’s hideout. It wasn’t more than a few hours of a walk, and they didn’t want to draw attention with other means of travel.

Hot-air balloons really weren’t made for stealth, despite First Twilight’s initial plan.

Each of the original mares packed up their Element of Harmony, as well, just in case. Both Twilights wanted to see if they’d work in the magic-proofed cave, and if they might destroy the effect if it came down to it.

First Twilight hung back an extra minute, keeping an eye out for the missing Rainbow Dash. She looked over and noticed her fellow native friends doing the same. It was odd that none of their doubles seemed concerned.

She shook it off, and they caught up to the others.

___________

A couple of hours later, they were halfway there. It was mostly grassy hills at this point, although they were approaching a tree line.

The group had slowly divided into several smaller groups to chat along the way, and time passed swiftly as they exchanged stories. There were many differences between the worlds, despite so many similarities, and it was interesting to learn about them.

It was notable that First Applejack kept away from her mirror self, preferring to chat with Second Rarity, who seemed a bit sad all the time, and both of the Fluttershys. Second Twilight similarly stayed away from First, as well as both Raritys, and ended up talking with Rainbow Dash and one of the Pinkie Pies, who had butted in.

At some point, Twilight realized what those groups didn’t have. Hers, with Second Applejack and First Rarity, also seemed to be missing somepony: the other Pinkie Pie. She didn’t seem to be anywhere.

“Everypony, stop!” The group did as instructed, looking amongst themselves in confusion as to what was wrong. “We lost one of the Pinkies!”

The remaining pink equine gasped. “Oh, no!” Her head darted around in every direction, lifting each hoof one by one when looking downward. She faced Twilight as her expression reached even greater heights of shock. “But where’s the other one?”

Twilight opened her mouth to calm Pinkie down, then froze as she realized that Pinkie was referring to herself. She was stuck for a moment as she tried to formulate an appropriate response, forgetting her self-made promise to ignore her eccentric friend.

Luckily, Rainbow Dash stepped in, voice dripping with exasperation. “You are the other one, Pinkie.”

Pinkie blinked for a moment before settling back into a normal stance and grinning sheepishly. “Oh, yeah, right.” Suddenly, she burst into hyperactive mode again with a grin. “That’s right! I am me!” She shot a hoof into the air to emphasize her point.

Dash clopped herself in the head and rolled her eyes.

“No, no, no! I am me, and me are we, and she is we, which means we are I!”

The explanation did not help her audience.

“All I have to do is deduce what I would do if I were me and me were free in a familiar place to sightsee.”

Still nothing.

Pinkie Pie sat back and pressed her forehooves to the sides of her head, closing her eyes and focusing her entire mind on solving the inner mysteries of herself.

A little over two minutes later, without opening her eyes, she gasped. “I know where I am! I know where I am! I’ve solved the mysteries of the Pinkieverse and figured out that I am…” Pinkie dramatically raised a hoof slowly, “right…” then shot it out to point in a direction, “there!”

She opened her eyes and saw herself sitting right where she pointed, two feet away, and munching on an apple, loudly.

Twilight facehooved and groaned. “Pinkie, she’s been back for about half a minute, obnoxiously eating an apple, and we’ve already greeted her. Loudly. In front of you!”

The party pony looked stunned, then offended. “I tell you right now, Twilight, I had to unlock the secrets of the Pinkieverse to find out where I was! And they told me the direction through loud crunching noises that sounded just like… oh.”

Second Applejack rolled her eyes and walked up to the previously missing Pinkie. “Well, what I want to know is what in tarnation you were doing in the first place?”

The pony, whom Twilight was convinced was Second Pinkie, swallowed her current bite of food and replied, spitting minimal amounts of Applejack’s apples in her face. “My new invisible friend wanted apples, and since we were passing other AJ’s farmland, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to stop by and grab a couple for the road.” She glanced around before frowning. “I guess he got lost when it was time to leave, ‘cause I haven’t seen him since.”

Twilight heaved a sigh and looked to her new best friend, herself, for help. Oddly, Second Twilight was focused very acutely on Pinkie, and looked like she had seen a ghost. Looking back, First Twilight didn’t notice anything stranger than usual on their friend, aside from the fake goatee.

It probably wasn’t that, since the expression didn’t change when the other Pinkie chose that moment to march up, yank the facial hair off her double’s face, and plaster it on her own.

Leaning over, First Twilight asked, “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Second jerked back and looked like she’d woken from a bad dream. “No,” she practically whispered. “No ghosts here.”

After a quick bit of fussing, mostly about staying together as a group, the ponies were off once more.

___________

It was mid-afternoon when they got there. They’d stopped for a picnic a little earlier, making sure to be well-rested. Pinkie Pie ran out of the cupcakes she had made earlier, but promised to make more at the first opportunity.

Better ones.

As the group gathered before the mouth of the cave, they took a long moment to watch the inside. There wasn’t much to see. It got dark not far in, although there were hints of more light through a distant hallway.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out to relax herself, Rainbow Dash gently flew at the mouth of the cave, falling down a few feet short.

“This is it,” she said, turning around to look at her friends. “Past this point, there is no magic. No flying, either.” Dash seemed dejected at the thought, and somewhat worried, but she held her chin up and waited, ready to go in.

The Twilights looked at each other and nodded, then trotted inside as if nothing were wrong. The others followed, Fluttershy the only one dragging behind.

“Are you sure we have to be here?” They both had places they would rather be.

Rainbow Dash frowned. “We can’t use the Elements without you, Fluttershy. You know that. And… other Fluttershy, you wouldn’t leave us alone, would you?” Her eyes were pleading.

Second Fluttershy could never resist those eyes, and she longed to see them with more innocence in them. With Dash unable to fly, there would never be a better opportunity than now. “I won’t leave you, Dashie.”

Dash smiled and the three caught up with the rest.

___________

“Hello?!”

Twilight’s echoing voice went unanswered, except by itself.

The Elements of Harmony, and identical twins, were standing in a large, cavernous room with poor lighting from a few torches along the walls. There were stalactites and stalagmites, some quite large, throughout the place. It was otherwise empty.

Pinkie chirped, “Well, looks like nopony’s home!”

Shaking her head, First Twilight responded, “We’re not leaving that easily. If Smite wants to hide, we’re just going to have to go get him.”

“But which way do we go?” First Applejack kept glancing between the different passageways available. “Should we split up, or stick together?”

“Split up,” Second Twilight immediately answered. “We can’t allow him to go around us and escape.”

First Twilight looked at her in surprise. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. The last thing we should do is risk our safety. We stick together, and if he does escape, we’ll at least be able to use magic against him.”

Her double reluctantly nodded. “Okay. Then which passageway?”

Twilight closed her eyes and thought for a minute. “It’s impossible to choose. There’s too many variables, and not enough information. At this point, our best chance at picking the right one would be-”

Her eyes snapped open. “-random! Pinkie!”

Both pink ponies perked up.

“Do you have a twitch for a passageway leading to a villain?”

Both of them laughed. “No, silly!”

Twilight’s elation dropped.

“But I do have an itch on my bottom third tooth!”

“Me, too!”

At Twilight’s perplexed look, both ponies walked to the middle of the room. They each put a hoof in the air, readying to point. “And the villain is hiding…”

Suddenly, the hooves in the air jerked, and both ponies glanced at each other in surprise. In stereo, they said, “Uh oh.”

“Good evening, ladies!”

The group turned as one to take in the newest arrival to the party: All-Star Smite.

With brown fur and blonde mane, Smite seemed to have a fairly average build. He wore a labcoat, but had nothing else on him. However, he was not alone.

“I’m sure you know of me, but allow me to introduce you to my Cider-Sprayers!”

No less than nine Sprayers surrounded him, and all eleven ponies felt a collective need to back up into a tighter group. Those machines looked meaner in person, and it occurred to them that without the guarantee of the Elements of Harmony, much less their own magic, they might have finally found a situation where they were in over their heads.