Reflections

by RQK

5 - Defeat

A cloaked figure popped into existence several meters away from the seven. Said figure whirled around and shot a blast of magic which barreled right into Starlight Glimmer and threw her across the plaza.

The other five jumped in surprise only for similar blasts to send them hurtling and tumbling as well, each hit garnering loud cries from each of them.

Twilight Sparkle’s eyes popped open, and she blinked several times as she tried to register what had happened. She glanced up, noticed the cloaked figure, and then noticed the lack of other figures around her. She looked around and spotted the still bodies of her friends nearby.

Twilight felt her world turn still and cold and she looked up at the figure.

The figure threw her hood off and her long and curly mane bounced into place. “Twilight!” Crystal Faire exclaimed as she trotted over.

Twilight coughed and tried to climb to her hooves. “Crystal…” she wheezed.

Crystal bent down and lifted Twilight up. “Are you okay?” She looked Twilight up and down.

Twilight’s whole body ached, and several tremors shooting through her nearly caused her to lose all footing. With each passing second, however, that paled in comparison to the boiling sensation building up within. Eventually, Twilight bared teeth. “Did… you just shoot my friends?” Twilight said, her voice reaching a yell. “Did you just shoot my friends!?”

Crystal tilted her head and raised her eyebrow.

Rarity moaned and rolled over. “Ooooh, good heavens…”

Twilight gasped again and whirled around. “Rarity!” she cried as she stumbled in their direction.

Crystal hummed and followed behind.

Rainbow Dash groaned and rolled over. “Ohhhh. Twilight?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight cried. She reached the two of them and let her eyes dart over their every inch. She saw the dark marks where, evidently, Crystal’s blasts had hit, and Twilight frowned. “Are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay!”

Applejack, who lay nearby, grumbled, coughed, rolled over, and tried to stand. “What happened?”

Rarity rolled over and looked up at Twilight. She blinked several times, her eyes opening more and more each time. And then Rarity glanced past Twilight and her eyes went wide. “Good heavens!” Rarity exclaimed. “Why… is everything on fire!?”

“Fire!?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, springing to her hooves. She whirled around, her expression glazed and disoriented. She then grabbed her head, teetered, and eventually collapsed again.

“Oh, this is just awful,” Fluttershy said, rolling over. “Whatever happened to Ponyville…”

Twilight trotted over to Fluttershy and bent down to examine her friend.

Applejack teetered about. “Mah head. Whatever it was that we got hit by, it sure was one heck of a doozy.”

Crystal cleared her throat. “Long story short,” she said, “there was an entity inside you which took complete control of you. All this happened while under its influence.”

Several of them groaned in response. Twilight’s frown deepened and she turned to face Crystal.

Crystal shook her head. “Twilight, I know what you are about to say. I should have brought you here a couple hours earlier. This has gotten out of hoof.”

“Or,” Twilight said, “maybe you should have taken care of Miasmus when he was out in the Badlands.”

Crystal scowled. “I prefer to tip the balance instead of outright solving the problem. I wanted you to defeat Miasmus from the get-go.” She ran a hoof through her mane and sighed and glanced at the burning buildings. “But sure, I dropped the ball a little if I let it get to this point. You can go ahead and blame that on me.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Right. Okay.”

Crystal trotted over and knelt down, looking Twilight in the eyes. “When I sent you on your way, you were on track to finish Miasmus off.” She paused. “I want to know what happened.”

Starlight stirred and opened her eyes. She groaned, arched her back, and then simply lay there in the snow. Her eyes shot back and forth between the two of them.

The other five glanced over.

“Who’s Miasmus?” Starlight slurred.

“He’s the parasite that took control of you,” Twilight said. “I… had a way to stop him. But… I didn’t act on it fast enough.”

“Had you taken shots much earlier, you would have actually won,” Crystal said.

“And I didn’t…” She couldn’t find the strength to look at her friends. “I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to hurt you. But… I thought that I was prepared to do what I needed to do… and I didn’t deliver.”

Crystal licked her lips, stood up, and then moved over to Pinkie Pie to check her over. “I’ve been keeping an eye on these events, Twilight,” she said. “Even from the moment you left the Crystal Empire, I checked to make sure that you were on track to defeat Miasmus. I didn’t let you go until I was sure these events would go as planned.”

Crystal nodded to herself and lifted Pinkie Pie to her hooves. She then turned her attention to Rarity. “So then, when I checked again about twenty minutes ago, you weren’t on track to win anymore. That’s… incredibly strange.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Okay, wait. Let me get this straight. Are you saying something happened along the way that… changed my destiny?”

“Apparently, yes,” Crystal said as she looked Rarity up and down. When Rarity stood up on her own, Crystal turned to Twilight again. “So, when I noticed that you no longer were going to defeat Miasmus, I retraced your steps. Most everything was ordinary, but…” She stroked her chin. “Tell me, did you happen to pass over a very deep well on the way over here?”

Twilight nodded. “I did. It… uh, it weirded me out, just a little, actually.”

Crystal nodded. “Enough to affect the outcome. Remember how I stayed in the Crystal Empire to study that hole? Well… it turns out that there’s another one of those holes at the bottom of that well that you flew over.”

“Hole?” Rarity asked.

Twilight blinked, and then she paced around. Her mind raced as it singled in on that thought and practically ignored all her other senses; the sights and sounds of a burning town disappeared from her mind. “More holes? But…” She shook her head and turned. “So there’re two now. And… are there more? Crystal, did you see any more?”

“I did,” Crystal replied.

Twilight’s throat went dry. She leaned forward and said, “I need to know what’s going on.”

Crystal frowned. “I don’t know for sure,” she whispered.

“Then do you have ideas?” Twilight whispered back.

Some color drained from Crystal’s face. “I’m hoping I’m wrong.”

“I hate to interrupt,” Starlight cut in as she climbed to her hooves. She looked to Crystal. “I don’t know who you are or what you two are going on about, but there’re some other problems here. Princess Celestia…”

Rainbow Dash gasped. “Hey! Yeah! I remember now.” She zipped up to Twilight. “See, when you went up north, Princess Celestia wanted to meet up with all of us in the castle.”

“We all met up there, and we assumed that she had some sort of important mission for us,” Rarity said.

“But then she does all sorts of glowy crap and… energy tentacles,” Rainbow Dash said.

Fluttershy shivered. “That’s the last thing that I remember.”

Pinkie Pie zipped up to Twilight. “There’s something wrong with her! I just know it!”

Twilight growled. “Miasmus. Where is he now?” she asked.

Crystal hummed thoughtfully. “Few seconds away, tops.”

“Oh, hayseed!” Applejack exclaimed and adjusted her stetson.

At that moment, a magical blast sailed over their heads, prompting everypony save Crystal to shriek and duck. They whirled around to find Princess Celestia emerging from between a pair of buildings, both of which crumbled around her.

Celestia smirked. “Well, well, well. What do we have here?”

“Miasmus!” Twilight yelled.

Celestia’s eyes fell on Crystal and her smile faded. “You there, in the cloak.”

Crystal looked over and hummed in questioning.

“Who are you?” Celestia asked.

Crystal’s muzzle twitched as she turned back to Twilight. “As expected.”

Twilight swallowed. “You knew he was coming.”

Crystal shrugged. “I saw it. You know what I’m about, Twilight.”

“I asked you a question,” Celestia said, her tone commanding.

Crystal stroked her chin. “Course, when you’ve been at this for as long as I have, you learn habits and how they’ll react to situations.”

“You… did mention that you’ve done this sort of thing before,” Twilight said. “I guess Miasmus usually comes running when this sort of thing happens.”

Crystal’s stomach grumbled with such volume that everypony could hear it. They all stared at her, and she, in turn, patted the offending area and chuckled.

She stared into the distance for a moment, her expression remaining unchanged as her horn lit up. What looked like two pieces of bread with lettuce and tomato between them appeared in the air in front of her, and she nodded. “Nice.”

Everypony stared at her, dumbfounded.

“A… sandwich?” Starlight asked.

Crystal snorted. “Well, it turns out that I’m hungry.”

Now Celestia’s face had turned red and she stared at Crystal with the intensity of a thousand suns. “You will pay attention to me,” she growled, coursing energy into her horn.

Crystal shook her head. “No,” she said, stuffing the sandwich into her mouth.

Starlight threw her hooves into the air. “Are you kidding? How are you not taking this… thing seriously!?”

“I can’t recall the last time I took him seriously,” Crystal mumbled, her mouth full. She swallowed and then conjured a napkin which she used to wipe her lips.

Celestia snorted so hard that smoke shot from her nostrils. She reeled back and shot at them.

Her blast came within a meter but hit nothing. Whereas everypony else reactively ducked, Crystal remained standing with her expression unchanged.

“See,” Crystal said, “this is what I’m talking about. He’s maybe ten meters away from us and we’re standing still.” She rolled her eyes and took another bite of her sandwich. “No business missing that shot, really.”

Celestia’s face turned even redder and her features trembled.

“You knew,” Twilight said, climbing back to her hooves. “You knew he would miss because you saw it in the future.”

Crystal chuckled. “Well, and he can’t hit the broadside of Canterlot Castle. As I said… he has not earned my taking him seriously.”

Celestia flared her wings to their full span and took to the air. Her eyes glowed white-hot and such energy coursed through her that she shined against the flames. “Insolent foals!” she screamed, her booming voice shaking the ground. “You will turn your attention to me, lest I smite you with my power! I will not be ignored!”

She fired an intensely bright, several-meters-wide blast at them. A barrier spontaneously encased the eight which absorbed parts of the blast and deflected others, the latter of which plowed into a nearby building. Everypony inside the barrier looked up, noticed the magic coursing through Crystal’s horn, and then sighed in relief.

As the blast subsided, all Celestia could do was stare in disbelief. Her jaw dropped at the sight of the barrier’s perfectly intact surface.

Crystal massaged her ear and stood up. She looked up at Celestia, shoved the last bits of her sandwich into her mouth, swallowed, and then turned to Twilight. “Whatever. Listen, I normally don’t like to rob you of experience, but… I really do want to get back to the Crystal Empire and run more tests on that thing.” She took another look at Celestia. “So… I’ll just take care of him quickly and call it good. Sound acceptable?”

Twilight mulled it over. “Just be careful, okay?”

Crystal nodded and then disappeared in a flash of light.

Celestia gasped and threw up a barrier spell just as Crystal reappeared right above her. Crystal drove all four of her hooves into the barrier which shattered in Celestia’s face. The force prompted Celestia to cry out as it sent her hurtling straight toward the ground.

“Princess Celestia!” Rarity exclaimed.

Fluttershy covered her face. “Oh dear…”

Twilight winced. “I said careful, Crystal Faire!” she cried, nearly pulling her own mane out in the process.

Crystal flipped over in the air and shot a blast of her own at Celestia which, while not nearly as intense, still burned the air. It slammed into Celestia who, in turn, screamed at the top of her lungs before she smashed into the ground.

Twilight’s friends cried out in surprise at that and then again when a dark blue blob oozed out of Celestia’s skin and then flew off. It jiggled as it landed nearby.

And then the clearing grew quiet and still.

Crystal touched down right beside Celestia, examined her for a moment, and then turned and approached the blob.

Twilight’s eyes darted between Crystal and her mentor lying in the snow.

Celestia groaned. Her eyes shot open and she blinked several times. Much of the color had returned to her face, and her expression, while lost, contained life.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight raced over.

The others followed suit. Those in front, Twilight especially, slid in the snow as they came to Celestia’s side.

Celestia rolled over with a dazed expression. “Twilight? Where am I?” she asked, blinking several times in rapid succession.

Twilight cradled Celestia’s head. “Princess Celestia!” She hugged her close. “You’re okay!”

“My head is throbbing,” Celestia said.

“You ain’t the only one, Princess,” Applejack said.

“It’s a long story, but I’ll tell you all about it later,” Twilight said. “I promise.”

A few meters away, Crystal grunted as the blob moved. She looked at it down her nose as it shuffled and stirred. It then turned toward Crystal, compressed itself, and then leaped at her.

Crystal didn’t even flinch. “I don’t think so,” she said as she shot energy at it which knocked it backward.

The blob tumbled through the snow and rolled to a stop some distance away.

“You are finished, Miasmus,” Crystal warned. “Give up.”

The other eight looked on in silence, watching with scowls and intense glares.

Crystal lit her horn, and several square pieces of glass materialized in the air behind her. The pieces slowly rotated in place but otherwise remained idle.

Miasmus oozed about a few meters away. His features expanded and contracted. Then he turned toward her and lunged again.

And Crystal slapped him down with her bare hooves.

Celestia groaned and tried to pick herself off the ground. She faltered at first, only succeeding when Twilight grabbed a hold of her and helped her up.

Miasmus backed away, circled around, and then tried to jump at Crystal one more time.

Crystal scowled and wrapped her magic around Miasmus’ blobby form. Miasmus lashed out but couldn’t break through her magic. And then he paused when a blood vessel appeared to pop within Crystal’s forehead.

A split second later, she leaned in close. Her expression contorted into a malicious frown. “Let me make something clear to you. You are done. If you continue to resist, I will break you.” She moved her magic, lifting him above her head.

The split second where Miasmus tried to lash out again was the split second when Crystal moved her magic down, slamming his blobular form into the ground. The report sounded like thunder and even prompted some gasps from the ponies nearby.

Crystal lifted him out of the crater and brought him to face her again. “Because I can promise you… that if you want to test me… you will fail. So… do yourself a favor… ensure that you live to see tomorrow… and yield.”

The spectators collectively held their breath.

A good deal of his surfaces still faced Crystal as if considering her. His innards swirled about at a snail’s pace and he even momentarily locked up. Finally, however, Miasmus’ form relaxed and withdrew.

Crystal smirked. “Good boy.”

With that, she levitated the pieces of glass forward and formed a box around Miasmus with them. She then set the box on the ground and looked back at Twilight.

Twilight let out the breath that she had been holding and trotted forward. “So, that’s it, then?”

Crystal shook her head. “Believe it or not, the probability hasn’t collapsed all the way. We just need to wait until the guards get here. That’s about five minutes, give or take.” She turned, smirking. “But that’s what I’m here for.”

Twilight cracked a smile and allowed herself to collapse with a sigh.

The others looked at each other and smiled. Celestia nodded in approval. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy hugged each other.

“However,” Celestia said as she motioned toward the numerous infernos around them, “there is still the matter of Ponyville being on fire.”

Crystal nodded. “I’ll get these put out. Leave it to me,” she said.

She turned toward the nearest building and lit her horn. A layer of magic descended on the flames, smothering them out. Said magic coalesced over the walls and floors of the building, climbing over the remains of countertops and burned and twisted household objects as it chased and caught more flames. With one building done, Crystal moved onto the next.

She wrapped her magic around Miasmus’ container and levitated it before taking to the air herself. “Actually,” she said, “putting out all the fires will give me a chance to straighten out what actually happened with everypony else. So, I’ll be back.”

Twilight nodded. “Don’t take too long.”

Crystal nodded and sailed into the nearest street. She dove into a flaming house and then she was gone.

Twilight sighed and turned toward the others. “Everypony okay?”

Starlight rubbed her forehead. “I have a massive migraine and I feel like I could sleep for a couple days straight. But… yeah.”

Pinkie Pie flopped onto the ground. “Yepperoni.”

The rest nodded in agreement.

“Well, it’s done, I suppose,” Rarity said. “The day is saved.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said. “Good job, Twilight.”

Twilight lowered her head in shame. “I didn’t save the day, to be honest. Actually, Crystal Faire saved me. I… would have lost to Miasmus.”

Fluttershy shook her head, her mouth turning into her signature delicate smile. “I know, Twilight. But that’s okay. We lost to, uhm, Miasmus too. We can’t win them all the time.”

Rainbow Dash jammed a hoof into the air. “Yeah. Still, I’m sure you gave him a hard time.”

Twilight thought about it and shrugged. “I guess you’re right. I mean, I guess I did figure out what his game was.”

“An’ that’s a good thing,” Applejack said. “Ah’ll wanna hear all ’bout that later.”

Twilight chuckled, looking at Starlight in particular. “Besides. It wouldn’t be the first time somepony else has had to save us.”

Starlight swelled with pride in response.

“But that mare,” Celestia said, now looking at the spot where Crystal had disappeared, “she looked very familiar.”

“She had some… somewhat savage and uncouth methods,” Rarity said. “They worked… of course.”

“It was forceful, for sure,” Applejack said. “If ya ask me, that was exactly what that dumb ol’ thing needed.”

“He needed a flank-whoopin’,” Rainbow Dash concurred.

Twilight hummed but said nothing. She could see pegasi in the distance still trying to whip together rainclouds. Some flew from group to group, perhaps to spread word about something she could only guess at. The buildings immediately around them now lay idle and unlit.

“Crystal Faire? Is that what her name is?” Celestia asked.

Twilight nodded. “That’s her name.”

Rarity frowned. “Wherever did you find somepony like her?”

“She came to us, actually,” Twilight replied. “She saved Flurry Heart’s life last night.”

The others, especially Celestia, perked up. All at once, their gazes centered on her, prompting Twilight to draw into herself.

“What happened?” Applejack asked, her brow furrowing.

Twilight shuddered. “Well… there were these strange ponies… and they came for Flurry.”

Pinkie Pie gasped. Her usual exaggeration, however, caught up with her as another wave of pain shot across her features and she clutched her head. “Owwie…”

“Take it easy, Pinkie,” Twilight warned. She scanned the rest of their faces, seeing similar shock on them. “But Crystal defeated them. We don’t have to worry about them anymore. Everything else is a long story.”

“Goodness,” Rarity replied. “That sounds dreadful. But at least they’re all safe?”

Twilight nodded. “Absolutely.”

“You know,” Starlight began, “now that I think about it, she kinda looks a little familiar. I feel like I know her from somewhere.”

Twilight swallowed.

“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash agreed. “I kinda got the same thing.”

“Yes, it’s strange,” Celestia said. “This Crystal Faire… she looks much like Flurry Heart herself.”

The others gave various affirmatives.

Twilight frowned and stared at the ground, even as the others considered the charred shambles of Ponyville around them. Not like any Flurry Heart I ever imagined.

Comments

[superfun]

I think this is my favorite chapter yet.

[EchoWing]

Oh, yeah, I'm definitely getting to like Crystal Faire. When she gets in there, crap gets done.

[honeyhoneyhoney]

Hm.

I wonder what you'll do now.c

:o

[Alondro]

Eh, it's better written than most multiverse fics... but still... multiverse continuity issues. Too much remains the same despite the radical differences in causality. It's the failing cliché of nearly every story/movie of this theme. Even "Sliders" eventually fell into that trap after sticking carefully to just being in worlds with a tiny initial change here and there, then moving on to the effects of more radical shifts in history.

Butterfly Effect, people. It's a thing. Alternate realities are much the same as going back in time and changing something in the past, and would end up much the same and thus need to be handled the same way.

Things in many universes just happening to be the same despite radical departures from the initial timeline starting point are a case of 'Contrived Coincidence' and is one of the more universally negative writing tropes. In fact, many comedies and movies... including the "Lego Movie" poked fun at this sort of thing. It's akin to using 'Because Destiny Says So' as a writing crutch to explain away overwhelming implausibility in the narrative.

For instance, one might be able to give a pass to a reality-hopper coming across a couple worlds with the same people living in different places after making different choices... but if in one reality a guy named Bob is a shipping clerk in Canada, and in the other Bob is a cyborg battling vampire-demons who'd invaded the world a century earlier... yeah, that's a bit tough to take seriously. In almost any scenario of playing out the causality changes, Bob simply wouldn't exist at all.

We're talking about chances of trillions-to-one against these circumstances playing out just right for 'Bob' to exist again. And to then repeat Bob's existence in world after world after world where events in the past were significantly different... the statistics are so dead-set again it you'd have a better chance of winning every lottery on earth every time you played them every day for the rest of your life. It invites the dreaded literary notion of ABSOLUTE FATE or SUPREME GOD directing every single event... in which case, if there's a Divine Puppetmaster making sure everything goes how it wants without telling anyone why or how, do the characters actually need to do anything?

See TV tropes: "Contrived Coincidence is one of the driving forces of Farce, decreed by the Rule of Funny. This is a major reason why wariness is needed in other genres; too much of it will make the story farcical." And its related to the almost always badly used trope of the "Theory of Narrative Causality" in which things only happen because the plot says they should. Every aspiring writer should try very very hard to avoid making glaring use of this UNLESS there is a very good reason it MUST be used: for instance being the existence of some central force guiding everything... and then you must be wary of bad God-mode character and Fate tropes.

In other words, mask the implausibility of the events in a strong enough narrative that they are no longer noticeable unless someone is looking specifically for them.

Or just write a silly over-the-top story where it just doesn't matter and people accept the absurdity BECAUSE they're expecting it (this explains both the "Transformers" and "Fast and the Furious" franchises. They're both just too ridiculous to take seriously.)

[RQK]

8153878
8153917
8153929

Woah, slow down there! Don't jump the gun!

All of the above are things I have considered and am still considering. But I also have to consider pacing. That's always important. Besides, remember It's About Time? Twilight was pretty ecstatic about meeting her future self. Additionally, Time travel shenanigans have canonically happened twice now. In the world of pony, these events are not as strange as they would be in ours.

The game is still young. You'll see how this actually works later on.

8153549
Glad to hear!

8153680
I've glad to hear that! Here's hoping everything that comes after this continues to entertain and (I guess) teach!

[Alondro]

8154019 "It's About Time" was also a moral-centered comedy about not getting obsessed over what might happen in the future, and allowing paranoid fears lead you to make a mess of things.

It wasn't about the time travel. That was merely a one-shot story device. I liked the limits put onto it: it could only be used once a lifetime per pony, and it only lasted a few seconds.

And then Starlight Sue got a hold of it and ruined it.

[Blankscape]

In chapter 1, she spoke with the gravitas Benedict Cumberbatch's Khan and had the vocabulary of a 15th century timelord, which I found awesome. Now it feels like Crystal is talking like a rowdy 15yo with something to prove. You've slipped in writing her dialog only 4 chapters in. You might want to stop and rephrase her dialog.

[RQK]

8308614
Aye. I think I ended up writing what I wanted to see there. And, yeah, what I wanted to see is wrong. Gravitas Crystal is best Crystal. I think this chapter is the only place where I slip but I'll definitely be looking over the whole story to make sure all the other dialogue is in line.

[Razzy]

Hah, thanks to Chryssie he was being held captive before Starlight and Thorax screwex everything up.

[Csquared08]

More holes?