Figure 6: Camera
Figure 6: Camera
The Martins awoke to the sound of flamenco music coming from the stable. As they were still mostly dressed, they were able to quickly make their way to see what was going on.
In the center of the open part of the building sat Rarity, a serene expression on her face as the light of her horn beat out a veritable symphony of rhythm. Arrayed around her was a whole assortment of electrical equipment, all working as if possessed. A pair of Polaroid SX-70 cameras ejected photograph after photograph with their distinctive whirring sounds. As they self-developed, each photo revealed abstract swirls of color and pattern that had no resemblance whatsoever to anything the camera lens was pointed at. Nearby, a partially disassembled Xerox copier was spontaneously spitting out pages covered with spider-web like designs of dresses, shirts, and various other items of clothing.
Chuckles’ record player was attached to the two speakers from the CB radio, which was currently playing an obscure song by David Bowie:
“Andy walking, Andy tired,
Andy take a little snooze.
Tie him up when he’s fast asleep,
Send him on a pleasant cruise.”
Chuckles himself was attending to each of the miraculous devices, nodding, grinning, or perhaps just scratching his head at each new artifact produced.
In addition to the electrically-powered anomalies, three music stands held open three different books, and on a nearby chalkboard was drawn a timeline with dates, place names, and drawings of Rarity-like ponies in various chalk colors, one that was apparently her, another one like her with a horn, two hornless ponies, and finally two others with small wings. Two of the ponies, the blue and pink ones, had human women sketched next to them, dressed in the appropriate attire of their time periods. Various questions were scrawled next to each figure, such as “Is family the problem? Or the solution?” or “Do androids dream?”
“Rarity?” Antonia asked in awe.
“Andy Warhol - silver screen.
Can’t tell them apart at all, oh oh, oh oh oh!”
The pony looked up at the couple, and at that moment the needle lifted up off of the record. “Hmm?” said a pleasant voice from the speaker. “Oh, good morning! I hope I didn’t wake you.” The tone of the voice seemed a perfect match for the expression of the mute pony.
“I’m not surprised,” William Martin said dully. “Why am I not surprised that one of our ponies can talk? Wait, it’s less that you’re smart enough, and more in the realm of ‘How?’”
“She reversed it!” Chuckles said in a gloating tone. “She figured out how to reverse it!”
“Reverse what?” asked Antonia.
“What Discord did to her,” Chuckles explained. “He was turning her magic into electricity so it wouldn’t build up in her head and kill her, but magic is all about the imposition of will upon reality, so that gave Rarity control over electrical devices without him even realizing it. All she had to do was to figure it out! And I helped—see, the electrostatic mechanism from the copier is a modification of—”
“Chuckles, could you please allow me to digest your world-shattering announcements one at a time?” William pleaded, waving a hand to silence the clown. “So...Discord? I assume Discord’s the alias of that guy?” He accompanied the words with an accusing finger stab in the direction of the CB radio.
Chuckles nodded.
“And then...magic? Seriously? Magic? I mean, I was never much of a believer in the fae back in Britain, but compared to me...if there was anybody that I was certain would never, ever resort to explaining the unknown with magic...”
Chuckles gestured around him. “You know, at a certain point, seeing really is believing.”
“So if Discord’s story is a complete pack of lies, does that mean that he exiled you here?” Antonia asked Rarity after pondering everything she had just learned.
The unicorn nodded. “Discord’s powers are nearly limitless, but he still has to operate according to certain rules,” her disembodied voice explained. She gestured at the six figures on the chalkboard. “Together, we six proved the only ones capable of defeating him the last time he tried to take over my world. He tried to corrupt us, but that failed. Since he apparently can’t actually kill us or harm us physically, he has resorted to scattering us through space and time, honor-bound to provide a way for each of us to return home, but doing his best to make that process as difficult as possible. By the way, would either of you know where the ‘center of the universe’ might be located? That was the only clue that he provided to my particular way home.” That phrase, “The center of the universe”, was written prominently at the bottom of the chalkboard notes Rarity had made on herself. Similarly cryptic notes accompanied each of the other ponies.
The couple looked at each other for a few seconds and shrugged.
“The center of the galaxy’s in Sagittarius, I believe,” William said feebly.
“Yes, and you do not possess the magic or technology to travel there in any feasible timeframe,” Rarity’s voice said with a sigh. “So clearly, the ‘center’ in question must be metaphorical instead of literal. I don’t suppose you know of any way to time travel?” She gestured at the chalk board.
“Uh...no?” answered William as he examined the dates.
“A pity,” Rarity replied. “Well, the least I can do is leave some sorts of clues for Pinkie and Fluttershy to find, as those are the only two located in my future. Luckily, Twilight’s already managed to free herself.”
Antonia joined her husband in studying the part of the chalk diagram surrounding the purple unicorn labeled “Twilight”. “What’s this ‘Salem Witch Hunt’?” asked Antonia, pointing at the title explaining Twilight’s “Time and Place”.
Chuckles got a haunted look in his eyes. “It used to be a big deal, apparently. Then this Twilight pony changed history, and how it’s just a footnote in the history books, a ‘might-have-been’ of Seventeenth Century mass hysteria. Rarity is apparently the only one who remembers how events used to go.”
Rarity frowned. “Yes, and I hope there isn’t anything particularly dependent on the grim events at the O.K. Corral, because I think that moment is only a few hours away from getting undone as well. And I’m sure any moment now that Rainbow Dash will finally do something to reach her goal of becoming ‘remembered long after her time,’ considering how much she has accomplished already.” She pointed at a worn little volume, providing a biography in French of someone named Marie Marvingt that neither human had ever heard of. “So that’s three out of the six of us taken care of.”
“I...I don’t know what to say,” Antonia said. “But I vow to do anything that I can to help you out. F...fairytale creature or not, I still consider you a part of my family.”
Rarity looked her in the eyes and smiled. “And...and so do I, my dear. I have a family of my own that I miss ever so much, but I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me. There is, however, something a bit unpleasant that I need to ask you about, something I learned from Piera.”
The Martins looked in the direction that Rarity indicated, and there was Frankie’s daughter Piera, standing right beside her. Like her father, she had a habit of just sort of appearing without bothering to use a door, or perhaps she merely knew how not to be noticed. Piera was a tall thin teenage girl, with large dark eyes, pale skin, and hair like pale red thistledown. Most of that hair was stuffed awkwardly into a pale blue pullover hat that reached down to her pencil-thin eyebrows and completely covered her ears. She wore a frock dress the color of parchment.
“She’s a good pony,” Piera said in a scratchy whisper, reaching out to scratch Rarity’s head. “Not like...”
Rarity tilted her head so Piera could get better access to it. “Buttercup II,” she said grimly.
“The best damn—” the Martins began in unison, with the screaming of eleven ponies behind them.
Unnoticed by the others, an ashen Chuckles backed his way out of the tent.
“No,” Rarity said firmly, cutting off those who remained. “No, I’m afraid my fellow ponies have the truth of the matter. Buttercup was like me, wasn’t she?”
“She...well, she was pretty clever,” said William.
“She seemed to understand everything I asked of her,” added Antonia. “And the other ponies all deferred to her. Her eyes seemed to scintillate when you looked deep into them, like there was a little bit of lightning dancing in there.”
“She didn’t—” William tried to say.
“And her forehead mark definitely looked like a lightning bolt,” Antonia insisted.
William turned his nose up and sniffed contemptuously on hearing this last remark.
“She was ever so much fun with the children,” Antonia continued. “Leading them off into all kinds of games too. And she wasn’t too proud to let the adults play as well. ‘Stampede’, that was one of her favorites.”
Piera pulled back her hand, whimpering.
“Yes,” said Rarity coldly. “Stampede. Tell me what’s so wonderful about Stampede.”
“Yeah,” said William with a nostalgic grin. “That’s the one where everybody runs in a circle, wheeling tighter and tighter, until we all eventually trampled each other. Usually put at least one or two kids in the hospital with broken bones.”
“Are you listening to yourself?” Rarity’s voice asked incredulously from the speaker.
“What?” Antonia asked in a bewildered tone. “Buttercup loved it, so we loved it!”
“Everybody who met Buttercup loved her,” said William, his eyes wide as an innocent child’s, “and everybody who loved her loved doing what she told us.”
“But she couldn’t talk,” said Rarity.
“No, of course she couldn’t talk,” said Antonia. “But Piera here seemed to know what she was thinking...and after a while, so did we. Everything was going great before she disappeared! It’s such a shame, too. The Families had finally put enough pressure on Barnum and Bailey and the other big circus companies to get us invited to the annual U.S. Circusfest. Buttercup II was going to meet the President of the United States and leaders from around the world! And then she would become friends with everyone!”
Rarity shook her head in disbelief. “I...I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Discord may well have saved your world from an unimaginably horrid fate. Unfortunately...”
Another voice suddenly interrupted on the speaker. “Speak of the Devil! ...And so forth. Did I just hear the dulcet tones of my very favorite Element of Harmony?”
“Hmph!” Rarity’s voice stated, as she turned up her muzzle.
After a pause during which his eyes went back to normal, William walked over to the speaker and plugged in the wire turning on the voice-activated microphone. “And what in the world do you want?” he asked.
“I’d like to inform Miss Rarity here that she’s won my little contest, fair and square,” Discord said rather nervously, “and I’m willing to take her back to that place you don’t believe in where she came from. Everybody can come back with their fancy jewelry, do whatever they want to me...and save me from this Tartaric pony!”
There was something else audible in the background, a veritable sea of voices, saying the same thing, over and over again: “Death to Discord! Death to Discord!”
“It’s impossible!” the male voice ranted. “How can she possibly be immune to my magic?! She’s not even from this world—I just dumped her here to make room for Rarity! And her control over other ponies is absolute! She’s a greater force for dictatorial order than I’ve ever been for liberating chaos! Even the power of her name...”
“Buttercup II?” Antonia asked with an innocent smile.
“Best damn pony a—!” The voice was suddenly interrupted by the sound of an explosion, followed by another, organic sound, that was utterly indescribable.
“Aargh!” the voice on the radio exclaimed. “That’s the fifth head this week she’s taken over! Please, I’m begging you, send Rarity to the gate! The center of the universe, you can find it in—”
There was the sound of another explosion, then the chorus of voices became a deafening crescendo. There was a wail of defeat from Rarity’s tormenter and then...sudden silence.
The pony and three humans crept nervously up to the radio. William reached for the volume knob.
“Hmm...” came a new, female voice. “Hello, Earth!” it finally said with sadistic glee. “You know what? I like this place a lot better than home, so I guess I’ll release you freaks. Have fun with your crappy planet!” There was a crunching noise, followed by static.
William and Antonia collapsed, screaming briefly in pain and clutching their heads in their hands. Rarity and Piera kneeled down to check their vital signs.
Before they had gotten past checking pulses, the couple revived.
“Oh my God, we’ve been mind-controlled by a pony,” William said dully.
“What is that I’m hearing?” Antonia asked, gesturing towards the other ponies and their inexplicable noises of glee.
“That, I believe, is the traditional terrestrial pony song of liberation,” Rarity said solemnly.
Stats
Page generated in 0.021 seconds
Total duration
780 users online
1,096,856 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
What just happened? I mean, I know Discord got overthrown by Buttercup II, but who or what was Buttercup II?
Rarity's Fashion Sense must be running in overdrive, if she can tell what Human Pinkie's going to be wearing in the future.
5783823
And considering the future period in question is the 1980's, I give Rarity's chances of successfully guessing what that period was going to be like as roughly 1 in 10.
Oooh, she's good.
Buttercup ll is apparently a demon pony.
I so can't wait to see how this ends (rainbow beam to the face?).
Buttercup doesn't fuck around.
Now this is antagonist I can get behind
What in gods name is Buttercup II?
Not Robin Wright in fetish gear, one would presume. Clearly she's Damien from The Omen as a pony.
I really hope you finish this, it's intriguing.
6862211
Hmm...I really should do something, what with David Bowie's recent passing.
I'll see what I can come up with.