Pinkie’s form flickered, the lines and colors of her body fading in and out, a look of intense concentration on her face. Grey rippled down her body, closely followed by a disturbing sort of transparency, as her brow furrowed even more, and she gritted her teeth.
With a cry of frustration, she hung her head, and the flickering faded. “Sorry girls. I can’t find a way out either.” Twilight nodded, her expression grim, and looked at Rainbow. The pegasus just shook her head.
“I thought so. That’s not part of the hacking, either,” the unicorn said, turning to examine the wooden head. “I suppose, as part of the deep immersion focus, the designers thought blocking off access to normal travel routes was a good idea.” She sighed, eyes flicking over the scrolling system messages. “If I can get access again, I’ll have to change that.”
“Darn right you will,” Rainbow said. “I don’t like being trapped.”
“Do you think you can fix the damage?” Pinkie asked, peering at the purple lettering.
“Maybe,” Twilight answered. “Program security is robust, and is fighting back, so that means there’s a chance. But I don’t have nearly enough knowledge for this. If I could be in touch with the main library, that would be different, but I can’t make that connection from in here.”
“What about from outside?”
Twilight turned, looking at Rarity with a puzzled expression. “Well, Theatrum is a sub-system of Semper, so that would probably be possible. But we can’t leave, remember?”
“Correction, darling,” Rarity said, a smirk on her lips. “We can’t transfer out. Which, for AIs, may as well be the same thing. But you seem to have forgotten that I am not an AI.”
Twilight blinked, then gasped, throwing her hooves on Rarity’s shoulders. “Of course! You’re a user! Nothing can keep you from just logging out and logging back in!”
“Duh! Why didn’t I think of that?” Pinkie exclaimed, smacking her head and giving Rainbow an accusatory glare, which the pegasus answered with a puzzled expression.
Twilight was already hard at work, a scroll and quill, both limned in her glow, floating before her. The quill fairly raced across the scroll, writing down instructions even as she spoke. “Semper should recognize you, and your status as Voluntaria will give you limited access already, but I don’t think that will be enough,” she explained. “You’ll need to open the way to the main control terminal, and then give yourself the right level of authority. Semper should be able to help from there.” The quill vanished into nothing as she finished writing, and she rolled the scroll up and tied it, the lavender ribbon summoned from nowhere.
“I’ve put everything down in this,” she said, as Rarity’s light blue glow took it over. “It’s not entirely complete, because I don’t know it all, but-”
“Like you said, the library should be able to help,” the white unicorn finished, vanishing the scroll into her storage. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, girls.”
“We’ll work on things from our end, too, Rarity.”
“Be safe.”
“We will.” Rarity nodded in reply, closed her eyes, and flickered. The words ‘logging out’ flicked over her body, and she vanished.
-oOo-
Somewhere in the midst of Everfree, inside of a rather ostentatious yet fashionable building, a door slid open, revealing a rather anxious looking white-coated unicorn. She rushed out of the login room and headed straight for her hat rack, flinging pieces aside one after the other before finally placing a wide-brimmed straw hat upon her head and tying it under her chin.
Rarity turned toward the door, her hooves beating a nervous tattoo upon the floorboards. “Oh dear, oh dear, how do I get there again? I should have asked for a map - wait!” Her horn flared to life, her glow reaching out and opening the drawers on her writing desk, their contents floating through the air and whirling past her head. “Oh come now, where did I put you? Ahah!” The flying objects halted, then fell to the floor, all her attention now on the map she held in front of her.
It was a curious object, a single sheet of parchment that, despite the normally static nature of that medium, featured a constantly updated map of the Everfree environs. “I should have brought you with me in the first place!” she cried, heading out her front door, heedless of the mess she left behind her.
She took two steps across the threshold, and came to a dead halt, staring at the sky. Was that …? “Oh no.” She took a quick look at the map, which helpfully displayed her current position and facing with a little arrow and the words “you are here,” and then back at the sky. “Oh dear,” she said. “That can’t be good.
-oOo-
Rarity shouldered her way through the gathered crowd, pushing ponies and dogs and various other creatures out of the way with a series of apologies. Finally, with a final, “Please do excuse me, darling,” she found herself at the front of the crowd, and paused, gawking up at the spectacle before her.
The library tree was under attack. Giant, spiky, evil-looking vines of a dark, reddish hue were wound around its trunk and branches, their coils visibly tightening. The doors and windows of the tree remained shut, denying access to the encroaching vines, but tendrils already rimmed the portals, seeking entry.
But this was not what had drawn the crowd. Above the tree, slowly circling each other, hung the Sun and the Moon, their rays describing a protective barrier around the library. More of the vines, creeping along the ground, had run up against the barrier, their progress blocked.
“Oh no no no no no,” she cried, and ran up to the barrier, her mind racing. She had to get inside, but how? Even if she got through the barrier, those vines looked as though they meant business, and who knew if the library could actually let her in. “Oh, of all the things that could happen!” she moaned, throwing a leg across her face. “Why this? Why now?”
“Rarity!” She turned, eyes widening. An orange coated mare was approaching at high speed, her long, blonde ponytail of a mane streaming out from underneath her stetson, which somehow stayed firmly on her head. “Just what in tarnation do you think you’re doing?” the mare said, coming to a halt with her face up in the unicorn’s. “You shouldn’t be anywhere near a quarantined area!”
Rarity threw her legs around the mare and buried her face into her neck. “Oh Applejack! It’s just terrible!”
“I- what?”
“That newcomer, Twilight, and Pinkie, and Rainbow! They’re all trapped in there!”
Applejack stared at the library through the shimmering barrier of the quarantine, and set her jaw. “They’ll be fine. System security’s already on it, see?”
“Applejack, there is someone or something hacking the library even as we speak,” the unicorn said, shifting to plant her nose up against the orange mare’s, “and they are depending on me - on me - to restore access to the library’s main systems! I must help them! I must!”
“Now, Rarity, be sensible-”
“No!” She turned, facing the barrier, and pawed at the ground. “They need me! And I shall answer that need!” Head lowered and horn pointed, she charged, and closed her eyes as the barrier approached.
The expected impact failed to come. Opening her eyes, she found her form limned in purple, and her hooves making contact not with the ground, but with an ethereal lavender bridge. “Oh!” she said, and redoubled her advance, a grin upon her face. Her elation was short-lived. Pain shot up her hind leg, as she was yanked from the bridge and dangled in the air, kicking and screaming.
“Unhand me, you foul thing!” she cried, flailing ineffectively at the vine that had grabbed her. “I will not be stopped! Release me!” The vine, of course, ignored her, simply lifting her higher, as others began to approach. Her eyes went wide at the sight of another of the things lifting up and coiling towards her, and she ceased her thrashing about, forcing herself to calm down. How to get out of this? Perhaps …
She focused, narrowing her eyes and concentrating on the vine that held her. It was certainly solid, and anything solid in this world had to follow certain rules. It should work. Should. Her horn flared to life, and she narrowed her focus, calling the script to memory. A flash of blue struck the vine, and she fell, the severed portion of the vine still wrapped around her leg.
Righting herself, she stomped on the grasping tendril, but accomplished nothing – its grip was too firm. Frantic, she looked around her – the vines were approaching at double speed, now, turning from the barrier edge and heading towards her. “Oh dear.” Scowling at the piece that still gripped her leg, she called the script back up, her horn flashing and severing the vine once more, and gave a cry of frustration. It clung still, now in two pieces, and it seemed she could do nothing to get it off.
A movement from the corner of her eye turned her around, and she backed up with a shriek. She had not been looking at the library, and the vines from that direction had nearly reached her. Her eyes darted in every direction, looking for a way out, and finding none. She was well and truly trapped.
Something buzzed past her head, and the vine closest to her snapped, falling to the ground in three separate pieces. Shocked, she sat, hard, upon the lavender bridge, watching as bright, buzzing sparks swirled about her, tearing through the reddish masses and sectioning them, again and again. A tug at her leg brought her head around, and she stared; Applejack’s teeth bit deep into the grasping vine, and tore it from her with what seemed to be effortless ease. Another tug, and she was free.
“Go on, get up!” the orange mare said, shoving the unicorn back to her feet. “We can’t go back, got to go forward. Move!” Rarity shook her head, and charged forward, the vines in front of her disappearing under the assault of her bright, buzzing saviors. With each frantic hoofbeat, the library door grew closer, promising sanctuary of a kind – but it did not open.
She skidded to a halt, and pounded on the door, grasping the handle with her glow and nearly rattling it off its hinges. “It’s stuck!” she cried, turning to Applejack, panic written all over her face.
“Don’t look at me, Rarity!” the pony shot over her shoulder, having taken a stance to guard against the still encroaching vines. “You’re the one as charged in here! What with all the purple I figured you knew what you were doing!”
“Twilight didn’t say anything about being locked out! Oooooooh!” She turned again, and beat the door savagely. “Open up, you stupid tree! You only just registered me! I am trying to help!”
As if in answer, the star upon her ear flashed, and there was a distinctive click from the vicinity of the door handle. Blinking, she tried the latch, and the door swung open. “Ahah! We’re in!” she cried, and dashed inside.
Applejack was not far behind her, but halted just inside the threshold, placing a hoof upon the door to keep it open. Rarity stared, aghast. “Applejack! What are you doing? You’re going to let them in!”
The orange mare just pointed, and Rarity followed her hoof, gasping at what she saw. Wings extended, a pink-maned pegasus with a distinctive yellow coat was pelting down the lavender bridge, flashes of light forming a strange shield around her, and slicing through any vine that got too close. “Fluttershy?” she asked, incredulous, and Applejack nodded.
Suddenly, the bridge vanished, and the pegasus stumbled, falling towards the writhing vines. A quick flap of her wings saved her from the fall, and she came rushing through the doorway at full tilt, slamming directly into the unicorn and tumbling them both across the library floor.