//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Turn to Flames // Story: Improbable Truth // by Charon the Chronicler //------------------------------// “Sooooo…what’s your story?” I asked as she sat in front of my fireplace in my blanket. I was sitting on my rump, my back to her so I wouldn't see her. “I’m speaking to a damn talking horse,” she deadpanned. I could practically feel the young woman glaring as if it was my fault my mind decided to construe myself as such. “That’s not your story, that’s mine. If you’re going to live here, I might as well know who you are and what silly backstory my mind has concocted of you.” She sat up straight, probably scowling, and held her arms out as if to ask to give me a moment. There was a deep breath…Oh, this is going to hurt my ears. “WHAT?!” she shrieked. “FIRST, WHY WOULD I WANT TO STAY HERE?! YOU’RE A FUCKING COLORED PONY-HORSE-PEGASUS-THING…THAT CAN TALK!” Racist. “SECOND, ARE YOU SAYING THAT YOU, SAID ABOMINATION, ARE REAL, WHEREAS I, THE LOGICAL, NORMAL HUMAN BEING, AM NOTHING MORE THAN A FIGMENT OF YOUR IMAGINATION?” She was practically foaming at the mouth at this point. She stopped her screaming and started heaving, her auburn hair all over the place, and her green eyes wild with fury. “Okay, I see how you would react like that, so for your sake, as well as my ears’ sake, I’ll pretend you’re real.” She rose a finger to interject, but I closed my eyes, turned to face her, and put my hoof up. “I’m not finished,” I continued. “I have a very good reason to believe I’m imagining you. You see, I’m a pony.” “No, really?” Ignoring her snarkiness, I plodded on. “Problem is, I remember being human, in a human world, surrounded by human things.” Now she was listening. “One day, I’m simply walking across the street, and boop, I find myself in a tree, in the body of a ‘colored pony-horse-pegasus-thing ̶ ’” Air quotes will never be the same. “ ̶ convinced I was having another…psychotic episode…I got the hell out of the town as soon as possible.” “Are you saying there’s a normal town nearby?” she rudely interrupted once more. “I wouldn’t know.” I shrugged. “As far as I see it, you are the first real, living human here. They were all ponies. This is a damn country full of ponies and magic.” She leaned back and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Disregarding the fact that you admitted that you are completely crazy ̶ " “Oh, I am. I’m talking with an imaginary woman right now,” I clarified. “DISREGARDING THAT…Are you basically saying that this entire country is populated by sentient ponies? How has humanity not discovered this country?” “You came out of the Everfree. If you’ve seen any of it, then you’ve probably noticed you’re no longer on Earth. There are no humans here but crazy me and little old you.” She shifted nervously in her place. Her eyes began to flick from place to place. “How do I know if I’m not in some coma, or in a mental ward?” she asked quietly. I raised my forelegs in the air. “Well, I promised I wouldn’t treat you as a part of my delusion, so I have to answer as if this were real. Thus, I can tell you that you aren’t in a coma, or crazy like I am, was, whatever. Since the only explanation left is that we’ve somehow come here, another universe entirely, and I’ve been turned into a technicolor equine. I think you can see why I’d prefer to think I’m crazy.” She looked down dejectedly. “Yeah...but what makes you think different universe?” “Three reasons.” I pulled up a hoof. We both looked at it, and I sighed. I miss my fingers. So very much. “Alright. First off, this system is geocentric.” Her eyes bugged out, but she let me continue. I rose another hoof to make my second point. “The night sky changes every so often, for aesthetic purposes.” She opened her mouth to interrupt, AGAIN, but decided to let me finish. I raised a rear hoof in the air by the other two...and promptly fell on my muzzle. I heard her suppressing a chuckle. Groaning, I continued. “Finally, magic, which causes the other two.” She stopped stifling her laughter. “What.” She probably thought I was kidding the first time I mentioned magic. “Yup. Magic is real. And it takes the corpse of physics and dangles it about like a demented meat marionette. Or sock puppet, depending on how much magic wants to screw physics.” The young woman went silent. I heard the shuffling of burned clothes as she turned around and stared into the hearth. She chuckled. “What’s so funny?” “I...I figured that if I’m crazy, or in a coma, I might as well laugh about the ridiculous things I’ve seen.” “You didn’t answer the question.” “Oh, you know… geocentricity. Different universes. Talking ponies. Magic. The way you tried to count to three-” “Hey, I’m used to fingers, okay?” I grumbled, “All the marvelous things you can do with that dexterity...reading books, writing, whittling, not to mention how I mastered the nines tables with my hands.” I didn’t know why I mentioned that last one. I just thought the trick was interesting. Apparently, so did she. “Wait, what was that last one?” “You don’t know it? It’s quite common.” “Well, not to me. I’ve always been a sucker for math cheats." She giggled with a hint of hysteria. “Alright. Give me your hands.” She hovered her hands over my outstretched hooves as I tried to resist the ‘urge’. It’s odd how an imaginary woman could make you want to hurt something so much. The hands seemed so unnatural, so wrong, but so intimately familiar. Now for me, tying knots was a pain, itching myself was annoying, and whenever I held my spear, it felt unnatural. “Uuh...is staring at my hands the trick?” I shook my head, both as an answer and to clear my head. “Okay. Say we do… nine times eight. Count on your fingers from left to right until you reach eight. Good. Now fold it down. How many fingers are on the left side of the separation?” “Seven.” “And on the right?” “Two. How does this help me?” “Dunno. What does seventy-two have to do with nine times eight?” I could see the gears turning in her head and she gasped. I cock my head at her. “Seriously? All this excitement for a simple math shortcut?” She looked to her hands and to my hooves. And then to me. There were tears in her eyes and her pupils were pinpricks. “I didn’t know that...but you did.” “Yeah? And?” She shook her head, shivering. “This is real. You couldn’t possibly know that if you were a horse, or if you were a delusion I cooked up. You were human. And I am no longer on Earth.” <><><> Hawk Eye had insisted that Strong Recovery tend to the others before he healed him. They sat in front of the hearth of the abandoned inn, the gryphon lying on his side as Strong mended the cracked ribs he had received from the corvus. The others were wide awake, Midnight making sure none of her vials had cracked, Red trying to comb his mane, and Tron just staring at the ‘zompony’. “What can you tell us about the, eugh, ‘zompony?’” Hawk asked, making quite sure to make his disgust for the word evident in his voice. “From what I could tell, sir, our victim is dehydrated, nutritionally deficient, and exhausted.” Strong Recovery pursed his lips. “If I had to guess, that odd flower that Tron blew off his head was stealing water, nutrients,and was possibly even controlling him. Any other pony would have collapsed from such a strenuous lifestyle.” “It was," an accented voice rasped. Everybody turned to look at the stallion as he struggled to get up. “I was trapped in my own body as the flower took control. It made me walk, eat, and do, only for itself. It wouldn’t let me sleep, and whenever I came close to one of y’all, the uninfected, it reached over and gave them a kiss.” He shivered as tears threatened to leave his eyes. “But it ain’t one of them loving kisses, no. It plants a seed in your mane, and it grows into another cursed sunflower.” The earth pony collapsed and began sobbing softly. Hawk Eye grunted softly as he got up and walked towards the stallion before placing a claw on his withers. “I understand this was a very difficult experience for you. I’ll give you time, but we need any information you may have. We’re going in blind, and others need our help.” “No, no.” He stood up. “I have to talk now, no matter how much it hurts me. T’others are in big trouble.” Hawk Eye nodded and turned to the team. “Midnight, take Tron and Titanium and find something to eat. Red, Thunder, you two are on watch. Strong Recovery, make us some tea. Lake Lily, help me out.” Team Barcrawl nodded and went to do their duties. Hawk Eye turned back to the stallion as Lake took out a pencil and a notepad. “Tell us what happened.” The pony nodded and began his story. “It all started when an infected pony done walked into Gator Bog Village, where y’all are now. At first we were really curious, and we approached the sick pony, and everypony that got real close got kissed by the flower. A lot of us found it really funny, and a lot of us got kissed by the flower. The next day, we done realized it was a grand mistake, ‘cause more n’ half the village was shambling around wit flowers on their head, moaning and groaning. Even…even the foals. The rest of us corralled them into the infirmary, and a few of us got kissed then. The third day, we realized it was the flower kisses that done this, but by then it was too late. They started trying to shamble to us, so we locked ourselves in the bar. O’ course there were only ‘bout ten of us left at that point, and the rest of the village was beating at our door. It was hard, looking outside and seeing our kin act like that. Eventually…they broke in. Or one of us cracked and opened the door for ‘em. I don’t know. But I know I wasn’t the only one considerin’ it. The next day, we were all infected, and we just shambled around. It was…horrifying.” The stallion took a few deep breaths, and Strong Recovery passed him a teacup. He took a quick sip and smacked his lips. “Thanks. Ahh...Just like Mawmaw used to make. Anywho, five days after the infected pony came into our town, another came in. We started goin’ towards him, and I wanted to yell, to tell him to run away, but I just couldn’t. But then we stopped. It was a blue unicorn stallion with a mane of the darkest black with a few streaks of blue. And his red eyes…” He shivered. “He was holding this black book that seemed to be leaking something. He pointed at me, and I sat down. He pointed to Ivy Soup and she just started trotting to the next village. Then he just…walked away. And all of the others followed him, like a bunch o’ ducklings following their mother. I’ve been here for two days, and am I happy to see you!” Hawk Eye was too busy thinking of the ramifications of what he’d just heard. “Where’s the next village?” “A day’s trot east, or a half-day’s gallop.” The stallion’s eyes widened. “You’re going to help them? And stop this?” “Of course.” Hawk Eye grinned. “And we’ll be catching that unicorn too.” <><><> I walked away from my shack slowly with Steel Fang, who had waited outside while I explained to the possibly real woman I had brought home. After she had realized she was not, in fact, dreaming, she did not respond to any more of my questions and wouldn't move from her place. I spared a quick glance before forcing my eyes shut, only to find that she was staring at the fire, dead to the world. “She needs time, Steel,” I said. “And it would probably be better for my sake if I act as if she is real, unless others are around. But I want her out of here eventually, so I have to prepare her. A disguise, so I won’t feel that damn urge anymore and so that she can eventually walk in public. That’s going to be tricky.” Steel bounded ahead of me when he saw the river. Still lost in thought, I followed him. “And if I want her to stay away, I have to make sure she’s self-sufficient. Exercise, survival training, the works.” I was so distracted, I didn’t notice that I was walking into the river. “I guess I could ̶ ” A loose stone was all it took for me to lose my balance, and I fell into the deep end of the stream. After a few seconds of confusion, I swum up to see Steel Fang wearing his attempt at a smile as he moved his jaw up and down. Is that a…laugh? Normally, I would grow cold at someone laughing at me, but his face was so weird, so innocent despite his teeth, I couldn’t help but smile at the sight. “Alright, I messed up.” I conceded as I pulled a guppy stuck in my tail. I tossed it to Steel Fang, who snapped the treat out of the air. I was still drenched when I pulled myself out of the water, and Steel Fang decided to lick me down. By the end, I was less wet, Steel was less thirsty, and we were both laughing. “We should head to Ze’s place. She’s got more salve for my burns, and I think they’ll help the woman’s own wounds.” A thought occurred to me. “I don’t know her name. But that brings up a few more questions. Should I use her name and get attached to her? Well, calling her anything but her name is going to get confusing, but it’s likely she has a name that wouldn’t fit here.” I was silent for a few more minutes. “Valentine.” Steel turned to me with a blank look on his face. “Like the main character in ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’. She could use ‘Val’ as a nickname, but to others, her name would be something like ‘Valiant’. This is the best possible solution for her name. As for her disguise, Valiant works well as a minotaur name. But she needs a long cloak that could hide her face. So we can get salve and a cloak from Zecora.” As I continued on my trek towards Zecora’s hut, I remembered the effort I had gone through to get ‘Val’ to follow me. At first, she refused to believe what she saw, but a small buck to the gut denied that notion. She followed behind Steel Fang and me, far enough that I couldn’t see her in my peripheral vision when I turned my head, but close enough for me to hear her steps on the dirt and dead leaves. We were lucky enough to get out of the Everfree without any trouble, but when she tried to follow me into my home, Steel tensed and even growled at her. After a few moments spent easing Steel, she sat by the fire I had started, and we talked. A rocky start, but I had a feeling this was going to be a rocky relationship from start to finish anyways. Zecora’s hut was already quite familiar to me by then, so it was only a few minutes’ walk from the river. She was actually outside, having just returned from picking some flowers. Or lunch. When she saw us, she only mildly stiffened when she saw Steel Fang. Progress. “Hey Ze!” I waved. “I was dropping in to see if you’ve got some extra salve. I need to stock up on it, you know, just in case. Also, how much for your nifty cloak you used to carry around with you? Totally unrelated.” <><><> Traveler floats in the room, invisible to all, listening to the mare practice her cello. To some, Octavia’s lifestyle would be mundane, repetitive. But to a being that has spent the majority of its existence doing the incredible, the mundane is a beautiful thing. Already, her most base functions are a work of art to it. If it made its tendrils small enough, it could observe each individual cell in her body, working in perfect unison to create something living, breathing, thinking, capable of making such divine music. Sound, at its base level, is nothing more than the vibration of molecules in the air at different frequencies. For an entity such as Traveler, a bundle of energies tied to a soul held together by will, ‘seeing’ would be either allowing light to register in its consciousness or using its own individual, invisible wavelengths to reflect off the environment to see. But since sound and touch is registered the same way, through contact with Traveler’s being, a song would be the equivalent of watching a massage, feeling a song, or listening to a painting. Traveler thinks music to be better than anything else it has found. Music is so common in the multiverse, but the variety is incredible. But if it could choose which one to listen to the most, no matter which artist would offer to play for it, be it Xanthis, Uparalani, Beethoven, Fi, or even the legendary Hormanalukatherkanti, it would always choose Octavia Melody. Or Octavia Philharmonica, depending on the universe. The being regretfully decides it is time to check up on the newest arrival, a woman from a universe Traveler had a difficult time cataloging. Is it a U2 or a U3? It fills some parameters for both designations, but not all of them. No matter. In less than a tenth of a second, it is inside the cottage Windell had made. The woman, soon to be rechristened Val, is crying by the fireplace, realizing she is truly alone in the universe. It is highly probable that she thinks of the family and friends she has lost. Traveler understands her pain, and chooses to remember all the other lifeforms that had died due to cluster instability. A sad fact is that the majority of organic beings died hours, if not seconds upon entering another universe. A four-dimensional being collapsed upon itself, a creature incompatible with the atmosphere drowned on oxygen and nitrogen, one that had disintegrated upon contact with light, another crushed by the gravity. Not to mention the few that were compatible often found themselves in inhospitable environments. In the deep-sea rifts, were chaos magic churned, at the height of entropic storms in the far east, in the middle of a wild blizzard, underground, were a few ley-lines met. There was even one that had appeared in the planet’s core. A quick and painless end, but an end nonetheless. Traveler may be quasi-immortal, it may have committed foul acts to ensure the continued existence of universes across Yggdrasil, but it still cares for all that is alive, and more so for all that is sapient. How could it sacrifice so much otherwise? Val continues to sob quietly, and Traveler watches on, unable to help. She is strong, she will get through it. And despite the fact she is disadvantaged in this strange world, it knows that she will carve out a place for herself in this world. Traveler internally nods as Val wipes her tears away, and then it blips back into Octavia’s living room, eager to hear more music. <><><> “Wear this, Val.” I tossed the cloak I bought from Zecora in her direction as I walked into my cottage, leaving Steel Fang outside so he wouldn’t feel nervous around Val. “Wait, what?” I heard her stand up. “Why can’t you just hand it to me like a normal person instead of closing your eyes? And my name isn’t Val, it’s E ̶ ” “I’m sure your name isn’t Val,” I interrupted. “And I’m not sure if you’re real or not. “ I trotted over to the cloak on the floor and picked it up. “But I’m going to help you nevertheless. So first, we’ll have to disguise you. Therefore the cloak and the name you’ll use as your own. Val, short for Valiant.” “I…uh…what?” She sputtered. “Why the disguise? And can’t I keep my name?” “From what I know, there are no humans here. So you’ll use this cloak to hide everything, using the guise of a minotaur female named Valiant, a member of a sect that chooses to hide the body to all. We’ll come up with a more defined story as we go.” “Do I really have to disguise myself?” I headed towards the sound of her voice while keeping my eyes shut. “From what I can tell, the inhabitants of Equestria are a kind folk, but are skittish to the new and unknown. Not enough to outright attack on sight, but enough to make relations strained. But from what I’ve seen, with enough dedication, hard work, and kindness, one could overcome the boundaries of race and form friendships with the natives.” “That doesn’t seem so bad.” “But you’re currently getting input from a guy who is currently most likely on his second psychotic break. Make of that what you will, eschew caution if you’d like.” There was a pregnant pause as I held up the cloak in her general direction. “Give me the damn coat,” She grumbled. I felt her hands grab the cloak, and by chance, one of her fingers brushed against my hoof. In an instant, it felt as if all the warmth left my body, like I had drunk hot soup that decided to freeze over in my stomach. I collapsed on the ground, aware of what was going on, but too tired to move. Panicking internally, I tried to find the flow of energy in my circuits, only to find myself without it. I see magic as a necessary part of my organic self. I realized. It’s only natural for a creature evolving in a ‘magic’ environment to use magic to make the biological process as efficient as possible. Slowly, I felt the magic come back into me, and I noticed I wasn’t the only one panicking. “Ohmygodohmygod! What happened?! What did I do?!”She stopped pacing around and looked at me in the eye. “What’s going on? Your butt tattoo is gone! Blink if you understand me!” I managed to blink, albeit slowly. Val let out a sigh of relief. Slowly, I was able to pull more energy from the air, and it seemed to be more saturated with magic than usual. It even seemed to want to come back. Eventually, I was able to stand up once more. “Okay, new rule,” I moaned, clenching my eyes shut again. “No bare contact with anyone. Apparently it screws up my own magic. It felt like you pushed it out of me in one fell swoop, but the magic just orbited around me until it flowed back.” “I don’t understand. You’re saying I pushed the magic out of you?” “It seems that way.” “I don’t believe you.” “Then how about an experiment?” She looked at me inquisitively. “Touch me again, and I won’t try to absorb the magic any more than it would naturally. So we know that if manipulated, it takes about one minute for someone to get their magic back. Test it on me now, and you might have a good emergency ploy.” She threw her hands in the air. “Fine,” she huffed. “Are you ready?” “Go for it.” “Boop.” She poked me on the muzzle and I felt the coldness wash over me again. This time, I had tensed up somewhat in preparation. So when the energy left my body, I was locked into my position. I quelled my rising panic and took a few deep breaths. “See?” She said haughtily. “What did I tell you?” THUNK! Apparently, I lost my balance, and I tipped over, still locked in place. Ow. Note to self: being drained does not remove or numb any sensation of pain. “…and I was wrong. Your mark’s gone again. I guess it’s a magic butt-mark, then. So…I just wait here, huh?” After thirty agonizing minutes of motionlessness, I finally able to stand up. It took another fifteen minutes for me to recover all of my magic. “I guess we’ll have to get you more clothes so you can actually touch others without doing…that. Put the cloak on for a second, will you? Val groaned, but from the rustling sound, it seems like she complied. I allowed myself to open my eyes for a second to see her in the dark cloak. It covered all of her body save her face. I felt the itch in my spine start to grow, so I quickly closed my eyes once more. “Alright, now take the bed sheet off from the bed, wrap it around yourself so that none of your skin is touching the cloak.” “Fine. I don’t know why you’re trying to play dress-up.” There was some more swishing of fabric. “Done. Now what?” I opened my eyes to see a cloaked figure, her face obscured by shadows and her eyes to glowing dots within the hood. I no longer felt that annoying itch in my back, so I managed to stop those urges. For now. “As I suspected, you pushed the enchantment out of the cloak through skin contact. The cloak Ze used to go through the Everfree would normally obscure your features to scare away the creatures of the Everfree, but you managed to negate it. You have to make sure never to touch the cloak directly in public. Heck, after I fashion some wooden horns to wear underneath the cloak, you’ll look like a very shy minotaur.” “A lot of what you just said passed clean over my head.” “Of course,” I nodded. “You must have loads of questions. I have a few myself. How about we take turns, with you starting.” “I guess I’ll start by asking you to explain magic to me. It seems like a lot of mumbo-jumbo.” “Not really a question, but I can work with it. From what I can tell, magic flows everywhere and is connected to everything, but higher concentrations bind to living things. It’s sort of like the Force in Star Wars, without midi-chlorians.” “What are midi-chlorians?” Val asked. “I’ve seen the trilogy and there’s no mention of them.” So she’s that type of Star Wars fan, huh? Eh, I don’t care. “Never mind that. So just like the Force, because everything has it. However, ponies, such as I, come in three main races, with different concentrations of magical energy in their circuits. Unicorns have more in their horn, allowing for them to perform spells. Pegasi have a higher concentration in their wings and a little in their hooves, allowing flight and weather manipulation.” Seeing her eyes widen and her head lean forwards, I rushed on before she could interrupt. “I’ll get to that. Earth ponies, or normal ponies, have a higher concentration in their legs for increased strength and a green thumb. Hoof. Whatever. Then there are the alicorns, which are basically those three combined, and the balance of those three magics makes them exponentially more powerful. There are currently three, soon to be four of them. Magic flows into their circuits mostly from the food they eat, but a little comes in through osmosis with the air. I’ve found that the more complex the organism, the more magic it contains. However, magic brings in an added bonus to some form of sapience to most animals, which is why you must never touch Steel Fang. “Magic plays a huge role in the ecosystem. Since the sun and the moon orbit the planet through the effort of two immortal alicorns, the world relies on their duties. We can basically assume that gravity doesn’t quite work the same way. Weather itself is really weird because they have to manufacture clouds.” “So does water not evaporate or something?” “Or something. If I had to guess, the pegasi keep the atmosphere too clean. Remember, clouds are water droplets that condensate on dust particles. As a result, pegasi replace dust with some form of magic in the factories so water forms clouds, while also making it possible for pegasi to push clouds around and manipulate them with their hooves, while pushing magic out of their wings with each flap to fly. Earth ponies can send magic down their legs into the ground to make it more fertile, and unicorns consciously control their magic using their horns. This gets sort of confusing unless you think of magic as some fluid energy source that can act as a catalyst for itself, thus drastically reducing the amount of energy necessary for what it would cost to make a spell work. That’s about all I can tell. Now for my question. How did you get here?” The two glowing dots within the hood closed as Val thought upon the circumstances of her arrival. “I don’t know,” she breathed. “It was evening, and I was walking through the streets of New York when there was a bright blue flash. Suddenly, I’m feeling as if I’m being sucked through a burning straw, and I passed out. You know the rest.” Her eyes slimmed into lines as there was a small yawn. “Can I get to bed? I’m beat.” I looked out my window to see the sun still high in the sky. “Funny that when one travels to another universe, they’d often forget about jet lag,” I muttered. “Sorry, Val. If you want to get acclimated, you’ll have to wait until night to sleep.” “Oh, come on!” She crossed her arms. “This is bunk!” “Yeah, well, at least you know what’s real and what’s not. I won’t bore you with more questions, so we’ll start our training regimen. That’ll keep you awake.” “Training regimen?” The two glowing dots blinked. “Yeah,” I affirmed. “You may have a way of negating magic, but that’s a last ditch thing. Without magic, you’re woefully weak compared to any potential foes. So we’ll be using every natural advantage humans have: agility, endurance, and weapon use. Do you know any self-defense techniques?” “Duh,” she snorted. “I’m a girl from New York. Mom insisted when I moved there.” “Awesome, then you know how to run. Follow me, we’re going for a jog. No breaks.” Val groaned, but followed.