//------------------------------// // Antisymmetry // Story: An Expedition to the Crystal Forest // by Doubt //------------------------------// An excerpt from The Ultimate Expeditioner's Handbook: It is without dispute that the world can be differentiated and thus categorised in an infinite number of different ways. However the most useful means of categorization is to dichotomize experience into those things which are known to the observer those which are not. This has many upsides in that it grounds the observer into the reality which they are perceiving, and turns neutral, objective facts into subjectively significant tools with which one can build an actionable plan for confronting reality. However there is, as with all things, a problem with this thinking, which is that of it's efficacy. While it may be the "most useful" way of viewing the world, above it's frankly paltry competition, that doesn't imply that it's sufficient. It's not. With a bleary slowness, Rarity’s eyes flitted open as she finally started to come to. Immediately, she clamped her eyes shut and clasped the sides of her head, overcome with a dull pounding emanating from her swollen forehead. She let loose a pained grunt and ground her teeth with each painful throb. Rolling onto her stomach, she buried her head in her hooves as waves of pain washed over her head from front to back. Her horn. Rarity remembered now the spell she’d cast in a desperate effort to save herself. She remembered how it had singed her horn and left her in a daze, and how it had almost blinded her even through closed eyes. She’d known the dangers involved with casting a spell so far out of her league, and this was it. Several minutes passed—or what Rarity assumed to be several minutes—and the mind-numbing pain began to gradually subside, allowing her to finally think clearly for the first time since waking up. Keeping her face planted in the crook of one of her legs as she carefully moved the other hoof up to test the area around the base of her horn. It was noticeably swollen and sensitive to the touch, which was a clear sign that there was some degree of internal damage, but she had already deduced as much from the rhythmic pulses of pure agony that had consumed her consciousness for the last few minutes. A damaged horn was the greatest fear of any unicorn, and Rarity was no exception to that rule. External damage could be repaired professionally, assuming it didn't heal on its own, but internal damage, especially to the root of the horn… She hardly wanted to entertain the thought. At best, she could expect a few weeks without magic to allow her horn to heal with a few weeks to magical therapy to follow. At worst… Rarity let out a long groan as she shakily lifted her head out of her hooves, then opened her eyes once again to take in her surroundings. The movement was enough to leave her seriously nauseated, but what she saw was enough to make her forget about that development entirely. All around her in every direction were dozens of pink-leaved trees with white trunks made, not of wood, but of a cloudy white crystal, like milk mixed in water. The crystal trunks were each made up of hundreds of smooth, flat faces that met at straight edges, and every one of the faces had a flawless polish that would have taken hours to achieve by hoof. Countless fallen leaves speckled the grass below, which was, oddly enough, more blue than green, and every second more leaves fell, seemingly without end. The very air itself seemed to glow a warm yellow, like the sun on a summer day, as if a mist of pure gold hung in the air, softening the hard, rigid contours of the crystal trees. Rarity cautiously took a few steps forward until she reached one of the many crystal trees and placed a hoof against its trunk. The tree didn’t react in any way, but the action had the effect of making Rarity feel... quite happy. Unusually happy. She looked up at the brightly-coloured leaves above and watched them twitch and sway with the passing of a gentle breeze, and for whatever reason, she couldn’t help but give a smile at that. It only now occurred to Rarity that she was free of pain entirely. She brought a hoof up and prodded the swollen area. The action was met with slight discomfort but little else. Rarity didn’t know where she was or how she’d gotten there, but she felt no desire to question it. The only thing she wanted now was to go for a stroll to see what more this Crystal Forest had in store. Since nothing seemed particularly special about any given direction, she chose one at random and began walking that way. As Rarity walked she became aware of a baritone hum resonating in the air that she hadn’t noticed until now. It evolved constantly from second to second, wobbling in pitch, and rising and ebbing in volume, yet none of these things were enough to hold Rarity’s attention for long. Soon it became just another pleasant background noise, and Rarity went on ignoring it. In the distance, Rarity could make out a ledge up ahead where the ground cut off. Initially she assumed it was a cliff, however, as she got closer, fragments of land began to materialize where only emptiness had been before. Rarity stopped. Her sense of self-preservation told her to turn back, to avoid the unknown… yet it carried no weight. Rarity felt safe. She felt at ease. Soon she found herself continuing forward towards the newly-formed land, as though nothing at all was amiss. Each step was followed unfailingly by shards of new terrain blipping into existence several yards ahead, cutting off Rarity’s view of what, if anything, lay over the edge. Despite all this, despite how unnatural everything seemed, Rarity felt nothing but delight from her circumstances. It was as though she was the center of her own quaint little universe. And she loved it. •  •  ❖  •  • Rainbow Dash darted through the air amid near-absolute darkness, searching for any opening in the dense canopy of black crystal branches and blue leaves overhead. She wedged her front hooves between two branches and tried to pry them apart, but to no avail. “Fluttershy!” she called out into the dark. Her voice echoed almost endlessly before fading into unintelligibility. She continued searching for a way out until she came across a patch of spindly branches which were much thinner than anything she'd seen so far. She rammed into them with her shoulder, but the mesh of black twigs was far stronger than anything Rainbow Dash could throw at it. She kicked and clawed at the weak point, tearing leaves from their branches, but still the interlaced branches remained rigid and unmarred. Eventually, after thoroughly exhausting herself, Rainbow settled down on the ground to catch her breath and used the time to take in her surroundings. She stood on what looked to be a path. To both her sides were trees with black crystalline trunks spaced so closely together that not even the thinnest of ponies could have slipped between them. The canopy above was, likewise, incredibly dense. Not even a shred of sunlight made it through. The only light for Rainbow Dash to see by came from small glowing bulbs of a glass-like substance which hung from some of the crystal branches, giving off a weak blue light. They were slender, long, and bulged at the end, like elongated teardrops. The path Rainbow Dash stood on was straight, yet she could only see a few feet ahead of herself before everything faded to black, as if there was a literal fog of darkness blocking her sight of what lay beyond. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but stare into that pitch blackness, searching. She felt distinctly that there was something in it, something just out of sight. Her heartbeat began speeding up again and a chill ran up her spine. She could feel another pair of eyes staring back. Rainbow Dash took to the air and flew slowly in the opposite direction. She told herself that there was nothing there, that her imagination was playing tricks on her. She had every reason to be nervous, but she didn’t want to freak out without cause. No danger had presented itself to Rainbow Dash yet, and until that was no longer the case, she just needed to keep a cool head and figure out what to do next. However, it was hard for Rainbow Dash to know what to do when didn’t know how she had ended up where she was. She remembered descending through the treetops, planning on warning Fluttershy about the stormclouds in the distance, only to emerge below the treetops in an unknown, and highly unnerving location. She continued flying slowly through the dark, only now noticing that there was a deep, eerie hum that wobbled all around her, a quiet bass thrumming that peaked just above the lower limit of pony hearing. Just one more thing to add to the laundry-list of things she didn’t like about her current surroundings. Still, the fact remained that there was nowhere for Rainbow Dash to go other than down the path ahead, so she did the only thing she could, and carried on into the darkness. •  •  ❖  •  • Rarity rested beside a quiet little pool of water, feeling calm and cheery as she stared at its flat, reflective surface with her head propped up on a hoof. It gave the impression of a koi pond; shallow with clear water, calm and peaceful, the only thing lacking were the fish, or any animal life at all for that matter. In fact, now that Rarity thought about it, she hadn’t seen a single animal since she’d woken up, which may have been cause for concern, but Rarity quickly discarded the thought and searched for something else to occupy her mind. She looked up in time to catch sight of a gentle breeze plucking two leaves from a branch so they could dance together in the wind. She watched, captivated, as they twirled around one another, sailing ever-closer the ground, until eventually coming to a rest on the teal-blue grass like all the leaves before them. The display left Rarity feeling downright giddy, but for reasons she couldn’t explain, and truthfully, she didn’t see the point in looking for an explanation. Everything was perfect as it was, so any action she took only stood to detract from that. For now, she decided it was best to continue lazing about and enjoying every little thing she saw. An hour passed before the possibility of doing something different even occurred to Rarity. Boredom, it seemed, no longer had any power over her thoughts. The only thing that drove her to find a change of scenery was the desire to see what else her little universe had to offer. She stood and stretched her legs then began in a random direction, humming happily to herself. Any time she would pass a crystal tree, she would absent-mindedly brush a hoof across its smooth surface, enjoying the fleeting contact and the warm feeling it instilled in her. She kept like this until the pink-leaved trees of crystal gradually gave way to trees of wood, and the sounds of birds chirping took over. The feeling of joviality soon left Rarity when it occurred to her that the air no longer hummed to her, and it had ceased to glow. She turned around to head back, but couldn’t find anything to head back to. She was standing in the middle of a rather normal-looking forest, and the crystal trees she had so quickly grown attached to were nowhere to be seen. It was a jarring transition from one world to the other, which left Rarity feeling empty and at a loss for what to do next. That is, until she heard what sounded like somepony crying nearby. •  •  ❖  •  • The narrow path Rainbow Dash walked seemed to go on forever into the dark. There was little room on either of her sides. She couldn’t have walked with her wings outstretched without her feathers scraping against the walls of black crystal tree-trunks, and that, more than anything else, was the worst part for Rainbow Dash; not the darkness, not being lost, not losing Fluttershy—What got to her most was the confinement. It was the one thing always on her mind. She felt like a coin lost in the cushions of a sofa. Rainbow Dash never admitted it to anypony, but she had a pretty bad case of claustrophobia, and the only thing presently keeping her from descending into a state of panic was the fact that she could keep moving forward. She moved cautiously through the dark, watching her step insomuch as she could, until she spotted something curious: A scuff in the dirt which appeared to have been made by a hoof. Whoever it belonged to, they were traveling in the same direction as Rainbow Dash. She picked up her pace, and called out ahead of herself. “Fluttershy? Rarity? Anypony?” The words echoed before fading away. She stopped when she came upon another scuff in the dirt. It looked very similar to the one she’d seen twenty or so paces ago. In fact, it looked exactly like the one from before. Not only that, but the whole area—the trees, unearthed roots, leaves, even the faintly glowing crystal orbs overhead, everything suddenly felt eerily familiar She increased her pace to a swift canter. The scuff on the ground disappeared into the darkness behind her, then, out of the darkness, another appeared ahead—The same mark. Rainbow Dash didn’t want to believe it, but the conclusion was unavoidable: It was the same stretch of forest repeating over and over, an infinite loop with no exit. She broke out into a gallop. It felt like the world was closing in on her. The repeating pattern of trees flowed by with no end in sight. The mark in the dirt would come and go every few seconds, until Rainbow Dash eventually slowed to a stop, tears forming in her eyes. She turned and punched the closest tree as hard as she could. Her hoof clacked against the crystal and she let out a useless shout. She wanted it to all be a dream, she wanted to wake up and have everything be fine again, but she knew that wouldn’t happen, because it wasn’t a dream. It was all hopelessly real. She was trapped with no recourse of any kind, and so she did the only thing she could: She curled up on the ground, and she gave up. •  •  ❖  •  • “Rainbow Dash? Is that you?” Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up. She lifted her head and spun it around to find that her ears had not deceived her. The black crystal trees had been replaced with trees of wood, and the sun’s light illuminated everything in bright, vivid colours. And there Rarity stood, practically an angel in Rainbow Dash's eyes. “Rarity!” Rainbow Dash burst out as she clambered to her hooves. She dashed over to Rarity and threw her forelegs around the unicorn’s neck. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you,” she said with a relieved laugh. Rarity returned the hug hesitantly, taken aback by the show of affection. “Rainbow, it’s... um... nice to see you as well,” she said, then pulled back, examining Rainbow Dash's puffy red eyes and tear-stained fur. “Darling, have you been… crying?” “No.” Rainbow Dash said reflexively, quickly wiping her eyes. “What happened to you? Fluttershy and I looked all over for you, but we couldn’t find you anywhere.” Rarity thought momentarily about pushing Rainbow Dash on why she'd been crying but decided against it. She knew that wouldn't get her anywhere with a mare like Rainbow Dash. “It was the strangest thing,” she said. “All I remember is waking up in a place where… I don’t know what to say, really.” Rarity paused, finding that nothing she’d ever experienced could help her truly put into words what she’d felt. “It was like a little world of its own, filled with these… these lovely-looking trees made of crystal. And they had beautiful, absolutely vivid, pink leaves as well,” Rarity said, breathlessly.  “It was perfect. More than perfect. Oh, I wish I could show it to you so you could know what it was like.” Rarity's eyes lit up as she thought back on the short time she’d had there. She quickly snapped out of her reverie, then looked around curiously. “Rainbow Dash, where’s Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash's ears drooped. “I don't know. We were together one second, and then the next... I was somewhere completely different. It was dark, and…” Rainbow Dash cut herself short, shaking her head. “Rainbow, are you—” Rarity was cut off when a large raindrop smacked against her horn, and she let out a yelp. Rainbow Dash cocked an eyebrow. “What was that?” “Sorry.” Rarity said, bringing a hoof up to gently rub the sensitive area. “It’s my horn. I injured it when I cast that spell.” More raindrops fell. Rainbow Dash glanced up to the clouded sky above, and was hit by a drop on the nose. “Does it hurt?” she asked, wiping her nose. “When I touch it, yes.” Rarity also looked up, seeing the gray stormclouds that loomed overhead. “I think we have more imminent problems at the moment.” Rainbow Dash nodded. “We need to find some kind of shelter or we’re going to get soaked,” she said, beginning the search for somewhere to ride out the weather, not waiting to hear Rarity’s thoughts on the matter. Rarity watched with concern as Rainbow Dash took off without her. She could tell something was off with Rainbow Dash, but couldn’t place her hoof on exactly what it was. Clearly she was upset, that much had been made clear when Rarity had first found her, but she also seemed… avoidant. Before Rainbow Dash could get too far away, Rarity started after her. Perhaps she was just reading too much into things. As time went on the rain increased from a drizzle to a downpour, and soon the rain was coming down so hard it was as if a giant, city-sized water-balloon had burst above the island. Only after several minutes of trudging through the freezing rain did Rarity spot something which looked like an adequate shelter. She pointed over Rainbow Dash’s shoulder at a short, rocky cliff in the distance, mostly obscured by trees. “How about over there?” she shouted over the sound of rain hitting leaves. “There might be a cave or perhaps an overhang to hide under.” Rainbow Dash flipped her soaked mane out of the way so she could see what Rarity was pointing at. “Anything’s better than this rain.” •  •  ❖  •  • Rarity and Rainbow Dash lay side-by-side under a roof of solid stone, soaked and shivering, but out of the rain all the same. They had found the shelter they were looking for in the form of a horizontal crevice in a large wall of granite rock, but not before being soaked to the bone and sapped of every last ounce of warmth in their bodies. The shallow crevice the two ponies had tucked themselves into was far from spacious. Water cascaded down over the entrance by the gallon, just inches from where Rarity and Rainbow Dash lay, and every so often a gust of misty wind would blow into the crack in the rock, keeping the two in a perpetual state of dampness, though Rarity had the misfortune of taking the brunt of it. It wasn't great, but it was the best shelter around and decidedly better than traipsing aimlessly through the mud and rain. Rainbow Dash passed the time by preening her wings, which had been unwelcomely ruffled in the storm. Rarity didn’t do much of anything, other than occasionally remarking on the weather. It being dreadful was more or less what she had to say each time. Rainbow Dash finished straightening her feathers then turned to face Rarity. “Alright Rarity, what's going on?” she said in an uncharacteristically serious tone. “Hmm? Whatever do you mean?” Rarity responded, turning to look back at Rainbow Dash and wiping her wet mane out of the way. “I mean, why aren’t you being as nosy as you usually are? You haven’t asked me a single question about this morning. What you caused this morning,” Rainbow Dash sneered. “Just get it over with. I can tell you're trying to be clever somehow.” “Am I?” Rarity said. She wasn’t sure if she should be pleased or offended by the accusation. “And how exactly am I trying to be clever?” “I don't know, you just are. You’re always looking for ways to trick other ponies into doing what you want.” Rarity put a hoof to her chest in mock offense. “Well I must say I'm insulted by how readily you would accuse me of deceit, Rainbow. As if I would ever coax information out of somepony they wouldn’t normally share.” Rarity received only a wordless glare from Rainbow Dash. “Alright, I apologize for prying earlier. That was a little rude of me,” Rarity admitted. However, the glare she was getting from Rainbow Dash only deepened. “And the only reason for why I’ve avoided the topic is because I was trying to be courteous,” Rarity snipped. “You seemed rather upset when I found you, so I thought I’d leave it up to you to decide when you’re ready to talk about it. If that’s in some way manipulative, then I apologize.” “You almost ruined everything…” Rainbow Dash stated quietly, nearly whispering the words. “Oh, pshh. So Fluttershy knows you have a crush on her, it’s not the end of the world.” Rainbow Dash did her best to keep her voice calm while she spoke. “I don’t have a crush on Fluttershy anymore.” Rarity hummed incredulously. “I don't, Rarity!” Rainbow Dash shouted. A gust of cold mist blew into the stone shelter, hitting Rarity mostly. She wiped her face, but there was little else she could do to dry her fur without a towel. “Fine, you don’t,” Rarity conceded, though only for the sake of progressing the conversation. “Now how exactly did I almost ruin everything? I’m not sure you realize this, but I hadn’t intended for Fluttershy to overhear our conversation, so it’s hardly fair for you to lay the blame at my hooves.” Rainbow Dash gave an annoyed groan. “If you hadn’t been so nosy in the first place, there wouldn’t have been anything for Fluttershy to overhear!” “And why is that such a bad thing?” Rarity retorted. “What damage was done because of my inadvertent involvement?” Rainbow Dash grumbled and turned away. “Is that it? You aren't going to tell me what actually happened between the two of you?” Rainbow Dash stayed quiet. Rarity settled herself into a more comfortable position. “Fine,” she said, curtly. Patience was a virtue Rarity had long ago mastered, and if nothing else, she could always resort to asking Fluttershy. That is, if they could ever find her. •  •  ❖  •  • The rain had slowed to a calm, continuous shower, the wind had stopped, and night was beginning to fall. The thought of sleep tantalized Rarity, but her wet fur and incessant shivering left her without the remotest chance of getting any sleep at all, despite how absolutely exhausted she was. She lay staring at her front hooves, her vision unfocused, but she made no fuss. Rainbow Dash, likewise, felt the bite of cold at the end of her nose and the tips of her ears, but as far as she could tell she was holding up much better than Rarity. In fact, Rainbow Dash was beginning to think that Rarity was showing the first signs of hypothermia. Rainbow Dash’s knowledge about hypothermia was limited to what she’d learned during weatherpony training, which wasn’t a lot because she hadn’t paid much attention for the in-class lessons, but she did remember that it was nothing to take lightly. “Hey, Rarity?” Rarity responded with an atypical delay. “Hmm?” “You feeling alright?” “Umm… I'm…” Rarity’s teeth chattered audibly. “Uh… Well I am rather cold.” She finally said, emotionlessly. By this point Rarity wasn’t even capable of feeling sorry for herself. Rainbow Dash watched sympathetically as Rarity continued to shiver. “Rarity, I think you’re starting to get hypothermia.” Rarity didn’t respond immediately. She was finding it surprisingly difficult to attach meaning to the words Rainbow Dash was saying to her. It felt a lot like she’d just woken up. Eventually though she lined up all of the words in her mind. “Remind me again what that is.” “It basically means you’re too cold.” “Oh...” Rarity mumbled half-heartedly in reply. A few seconds passed while Rainbow Dash waited for Rarity to say something more, but she seemed content with her simple ‘oh’. Deciding something needed to be done, Rainbow Dash slid over so she was touching sides with the freezing mare, and with a bit of hesitation, stretched out a wing and wrapped it tightly around her cold, damp body. “Just don't tell anypony about this, alright?” she said. The last thing Rainbow Dash needed was to lose her reputation as a daring flier extraordinaire in favour of being known as the kind of pegasus who throws around winghugs. Few things rank lower on the awesomeness-scale than that, and even though in this instance it was necessary, Rainbow Dash knew all-too-well that rumours have a way of eliminating nuance. “And don’t think this means I’m not still mad.” Rarity craned her head to look at the wing draped over her back. She could feel the warmth coming from Rainbow Dash's body where it was pressed up against her own, and the wing over her back kept her own body-heat in. “Of course,” she said, resting her head on her hooves. “And... thank you.” Rainbow Dash returned to watching the torrential rain as she would for most of the rest of the night. By now most of the ground was covered in an inch of water, and only a few patches of unsubmerged land could be seen still. On and on the rain fell, beating down on the trees and curtaining over the entrance to the rocky shelter, a never-ending downpour which carried on through the night. Rainbow Dash briefly glanced back to Rarity who was teetering toward sleep and adjusted her wing to make sure in covered as much of Rarity’s body as it could. “Don't mention it.” •  •  ❖  •  • Fluttershy had managed to make it to the foot of the mountains before the rain had started and gotten her tent up just before the downpour. It provided ample protection from the whipping and roaring wind, and a dry place to sleep for the night. Beside her in her tent she had her own, as well as Rarity and Rainbow Dash’s bags which she’d been forced to carry all three of after Rainbow Dash’s disappearance. Whether that had been a burden or a blessing, Fluttershy couldn’t decide. The constant struggle had provided a much needed distraction to keep her mind from spiraling into a panic attack, but now, having nothing to keep her thoughts at bay, her mind was free to wander. The thoughts she'd successfully avoided all day suddenly seemed inescapable. What had her worried most was that, in two days the airship that dropped the trio of ponies off was supposed to return to pick them up on its voyage back to Equestria. But the weather, if it didn’t improve, would make that task impossible. Not to mention that Rarity and Rainbow Dash had vanished without a trace, and may not be present for the airship’s arrival if it even came at all. Fluttershy knew she shouldn't, but she couldn't help but blame herself for everything. Rarity and Rainbow Dash's disappearance really did seem to be her fault. It had been her idea to bring them in the first place, and none of this would have happened if she hadn’t. What if she was next? What did that mean for her? There was nothing she could do to stop it. Any action she took would be an exercise in futility. She had no idea what she was up against, or if what she was up against was worth worrying about at all. How could she possibly proceed under those circumstances? Fluttershy curled up into her sleeping bag. Nothing about her situation could have been more different than last night when she’d shared her tent with Rainbow Dash. More than anything, she wished she had Rainbow Dash by her side again. She didn't try to stop the tears when they came. Just another exercise in futility, as far as she was concerned. They left cold, wet spots on her sleeping bag where they fell, but Fluttershy couldn’t be bothered by that. Just yesterday everything had gone so smoothly. She’d spent most of the day among the wildlife, documenting creatures not known to exist in Equestria, accompanied by her two closest friends. True, there had been the incident with the mushrooms, but compared to today… Fluttershy squeezed her eyes closed tight and clutched at the fabric of her sleeping bag, drawing it close to her chest and letting out a choked sob. She’d lost Rarity. She’d lost Rainbow Dash. And she had no idea what to do next.