Broken Mirrors
Pinkie Pie woke up early in the morning, way earlier than she usually woke up. It didn’t help that she was camped out on the floor of her own room, but there was also a commotion downstairs, somepony knocking at the door and calling out politely if Pinkie Pie is awake in Twilight Sparkle’s voice. Pinkie struggled to her hooves, and stretched catlike, popping out her back and putting that spring back in her tail. Then she hurried downstairs, where the muffled sound of Twilight’s voice could be heard:
“Ohh, I hope she’s awake. I knew I should have waited until dawn I just knew it.”
With a wry smile just to herself, Pinkie Pie pulled open the door and greeted her awkwardly winged unicorn friend. “Hey Twilight!” she said pleasantly, “What’s up?”
“Oh good, you’re up,” Twilight said in quick relief, walking forward as she spoke, until Pinkie had to move backward to avoid the mare running into her. “I hope she slept well, the theory of alternate verses really is fascinating you know, I wonder if she knows anything about the mathematics involved, it’s all supposed to be quite proven to be impossible, of course, and yet here she is. Do you suppose she ran afoul of a powerful wizard, or a princess even, or a queen who banished her here for some awful transgression she committed? Oh, the possibilities are just—”
“Twilight!” Pinkie squeaked desperately, unable to back up anymore, as she’d run her plump rump right into the other wall.
“Huh?” Twilight said vaguely. She backed up, grimacing then, saying, “Sorry, it’s just I’m really excited about the possibilities of the mare actually being from another—do you think she’s available?”
“Well,” Pinkie offered a little more calmly, “Did you get any sleep last night?”
Twilight was trying not to blush as she weakly protested, “Maybe?”
“And what happens after you don’t go to sleep for a looong time?” Pinkie said patiently.
Twilight snorted, saying testily, “I sleep it all off when the crisis is passed? Listen, if you’re worried about me it’s—”
“No, it’s not that,” Pinkie cut in. “It’s just that this filly had a crisis last week, and she didn’t sleep for days, either! So... she’s probably gonna be sleeping a while.”
“...oh. Well, I can wait,” Twilight said, with an embarassed, yet disappointed smile.
“Okay,” Pinkie said, trotting a few steps away from her friend. Turning over her back to look at her though, Pinkie said uncertainly, “Can I get ya anything?”
“Oh, I’m fine Pink—” Cue her princessly stomach to start grumbling.
“How about I go start cooking up some cinnamon rolls?” Pinkie said.
While the day dawned, and Twilight waited for her cinnamon roll, Pinkie kept glancing to the back area nervously. The Cakes lived back there, along with their two adorable little foals. The twins hadn’t been a problem just yet, but if they were too rambunctious, they might wake up the mare, and they were always rambunctious in the morning. Nevertheless there wasn’t much she could do about it, so Pinkie used Twilight’s visit as motivation to get an early start, getting things warming, and unwrapping previously prepared pastries to start out sales in the morning, while the bakers got going on the next round. She made sure to start warming a pot of canned soup, even though the bakery didn’t sell soup, for obvious reasons.
The twins were the ones who woke up their parents, from the sounds of it. But maybe it was the wonderful smells that woke up the four of them. The noise wasn’t too bad though, and the new mare didn’t come downstairs. She was probably sleeping pretty soundly. Twilight Sparkle got her cinnamon roll, and that was especially important because if Pinkie knew anything about Twilight, she probably hadn’t eaten last night either. Twilight was calmer and fuller that way, watching Celestia’s morning sun shining over the horizon, through the assortment of tarts and pastries on display trays in the window.
Pinkie found herself starting to get worried about the mare upstairs again. What if she had woken up and was too shy to come down? What if she woke up and didn’t know where she was, and got really scared? So Pinkie put aside her baking duties for a moment, tossed her apron up onto a hook and trotted over to Twilight.
“Enjoy your breakfast?” Pinkie asked hopefully. Twilight nodded with a grateful smile, some sugary glaze still clinging to her muzzle.
“Thanks Pinkie, I hadn’t realized how hungry I was.”
“No problem,” Pinkie answered brightly, “Say, I was gonna go check on the mare just to make sure she’s doing okay. You wanna come with?”
“Would I!” Twilight declared excitedly, jumping straight up off her haunches. “The mare’s point of entry is just crawling with a kind of magic I’ve only read about before, extraspatial harmonics with a negative frequency! It’s what you would observe in theory if wormholes existed, and I’m starting to think that maybe they do! Do you—”
“Uhh, could we ask her, maybe?” Pinkie asked anxiously. “I’m a little rusty on my theoretical physics.”
“Oh, right, yes. Ask the dimensional traveller, that would be a good idea,” Twilight stated. “So... lead the way?”
“You can count on me!” Pinkie cheered (quietly), and went bouncing lightly for the kitchen. When Twilight followed her that way, instead of going upstairs, Pinkie turned and blushed embarassedly, saying, “Sorry, Twilight. I was just going to get her some soup. Be right back!” Twilight waited there at the base of the stairs, until Pinkie had poured out a bowl of salty vegetable broth, closing the lid on the serving bowl and placing it and a glass of water on a tray on her rump for safe transport.
“Okay!” Pinkie whispered, sidling up next to her friend. Pinkie led the way up the stairs to her own room then. Pinkie Pie gets to live in the cupcake, by the way!! Twilight followed up the stairs, and at the top, Pinkie carefully nosed open the door she’d left partially ajar. Her room was still dark with the curtains drawn, but Pinkie could vaguely see Gummy in his bathtub/terrarium, and the sleeping figure of the mare still lying in Pinkie Pie’s bed.
“One sec!” Pinkie whispered to Twilight, and then carefully froghooved into the room. The mare’s breathing was even, and she looked very peaceful there in Pinkie’s bed. But... maybe the mare didn’t have to stay asleep, since Twilight was waiting so patiently? And it had been like ten hours, so... it would probably be good if she tried to eat something else, by now.
Instead of waking her right away, Pinkie partially pulled open the curtains, and set the soup down on a table beside her, opening the lid enough to let the smell pervade the room. Then Pinkie gestured Twilight into the room, and led her over to where Gummy was sleeping. Or... whatever it is that he does. He stared, blinking slowly up at the both of them, as Pinkie whispered, “Hey there Gummy! You want Twilight to feed you, little guy?”
“But—the mare?” Twilight asked in confusion, looking over to the lump on the bed.
“Just let the soup do its magic,” Pinkie whispered assuringly, “We’ll give Gummy his food and then she’ll be all ready to wake up.”
Twilight nodded approvingly, saying quietly, “That’s very astute, Pinkie.”
Pinkie smiled and nodded, making a mental note to think of fun things to do with that incredible word. Astute! Stootey... toot? Right, so Twilight got to drop little fake jelly worms into the tubrarium, where Gummy snapped them right up. Once he wasn’t chasing the worms anymore, she and Pinkie went back over to the bed. Nudging the mare’s side gently, Pinkie whispered, “Wake up, sleepyhead!”
“Mhm?” the mare mumbled, sleepily opening her vivid blue eyes. “Oh—” she quickly inhaled, looking down at her hooves in surprise, and clutching the covers. “Oh—” she repeated, staring at herself dumbfoundedly, and then joyfully. “Oh, I’m okay!” she said, eyes closing in pure, sweet, unadultrated bliss.
“You want some soup, miss Okay?” Pinkie said, gesturing at the bowl to the mare. The mare looked wide-eyed at Pinkie, then looked at the bowl and with a flat expression said confusingly enough,
“Oh, a lid. Of course.”
But then she blinked and sat up more, looking at Pinkie with shimmering eyes, saying, “Thank you so much. That would be...”
And then her eyes kind of snapped to where Twilight was standing just behind Pinkie. Biting her bottom lip, openly staring, yeah this mare had a fan crush so bad on the new princess. The mare blushed heavily then, and tore her gaze away from Twilight, saying unsteadily to Pinkie Pie “T-thank you so much.”
Pinkie just removed the lid with the edge of a hoof, saying hopefully, “Well go ahead, dig in. It shouldn’t be too hot.”
The mare looked at the bowl, and then Pinkie, and then leaned towards the bowl, and then looked at Pinkie again.
“How do I...” she said uncertainly.
“Do you not have soup in your native verse?” Twilight cut in with tense curiosity, drawing the mare’s entire attention again. Twilight was trying to sound like she knew all about that sort of thing, but it was kind of a silly assumption to make. Still, what was going on with this mare?
The mare blinked at Twilight like a deer in a hunter’s sight, then replied in utter confusion, “What? No, we have soup. I just... how do I eat it?”
“Like this?” Pinkie tried, pantomiming taking a sip of soup right above it, going “Mmm, nomnomnom!”
The mare just looked at her blankly.
“So I just—” the mare said, tilting her head down, and looking at it uncertainly, then just... sticking her tongue in the bowl? She gave a disapproving hst at that, pulling her tongue back and staring at the soup hungrily.
“You don’t have bowls in your native verse, of course!” Twilight crowed triumphantly. “You see, a bowl is a concave receptacle for hot liquids and cereal, that—”
“I know what a bowl is,” the mare snapped frustratedly. “But how do I use it?”
She eeped then, and hid her nose under a hoof, looking at Twilight again.
Twilight blinked at her. “The... bite grip?” she tried uncertainly.
“Thank you! Yes. What’s that?” the mare exclaimed eagerly, her nervousness suddenly forgotten again.
“There’s a lip on the side...” Twilight said, gesturing vaguely with a hoof, “You bite that, so that you can lift the bowl.”
The mare pulled back and looked at the bowl’s lip, realization dawning in her eyes. Biting down on the rim of the bowl, she successfully raised it up into the air. She spilled a little soup, but Pinkie was going to wash her sheets pretty soon anyway. With a paranoid amount of care, the mare took a little drink.
Putting the bowl down, she said thoughtfully, “It’s not very convenient if you can’t talk while holding it...”
“Some ponies hold the bowl in their forehooves,” Twilight suggested, “But it’s common etiquette to only pick up the bowl when you’re drinking soup. With your mouth, I mean.”
The princess strode a few steps closer to the mare, looking at her looking at the bowl in fascination, in fascination. “So, they have bowls in your verse,” Twilight said in a hinting tone of voice, as the mare attempted another sip, “But they have a different design?”
The mare had to pause to put the bowl down again. “Oh, they’re the same design,” she said, with an even, blue eyed gaze at Twilight. “But they have a different use for the lip of the bowl, what you call the bite grip.”
“Really? What’s that?” Twilight asked curiously.
The mare stared at Twilight and opened her mouth as if to speak. Then, she blinked. Then, she looked down thoughtfully at the bowl again, mumbling, “I don’t... know...”
“I don’t suppose you could take care of her up here for a bit,” Pinkie said to Twilight, with an uneasy glance downstairs. Nothing smelled like it was burning, but she wasn’t sure if the Cakes were out there watching stuff yet. “I still have some things baking that I need to go check, and still some setup to do.”
“No problem, Pinkie,” Twilight said with a happy smile, “And thank you for this chance to get to know her better!”
The mare stopped in fumbling with the glass of water to look at Twilight nervously. Which was strange, because it was usually Pinkie Pie who made new ponies nervous—not that she tried to do so. Twilight was always the one who calmed them down and got them to climb down off of the flagpoles. So that had to be what was happening here, even if the mare seemed totally comfortable with Pinkie, but nervous around Twilight. Pinkie was probably just reading things wrong again.
So she left them, calling over her shoulder, “Mi casa su casa! Anything you need, just go ahead and use it.” Then she went trotting lightly down the stairs, returning to the downstairs kitchen to resume her incredibly exciting routine baking and setup procedures. First, Pinkie checked the—
Twilight Sparkle was at a loss. What do you ask an extradimensional traveller? Twilight didn’t want to seem snobbish, but she didn’t want to seem ignorant. Heavens knows, Equestria must have seemed a backwards, primitive verse, from the perspective of one who had mastered travelling between them. If it even was possible to travel between them, that is—but what else would explain that strange phenomenon the mare led them to, by her hoofprints in the snow? It couldn’t be a trick; performance art and theoretical physics just don’t mix! But... what to ask her?
“D-do you think I could um...” the mare said a bit desperately, leading Twilight to notice that she was unsuccessfully attempting to brace the drinking cup between her hooves in order to drink from it.
“Oh, no problem miss!” Twilight said pleasantly, levitating the cup and tipping it slightly forward that the mare could get a grip on it with her teeth. The mare stared at that in a frightened sort of fascination, but didn’t bite it. Did she not use cups the same way?
“It doesn’t have a bite grip, but it’s lighter so you should have no problem taking it in your teeth,” Twilight said. “Just firmly brace them, without biting down hard, and they should tighten reflexively at the weight on them.”
“I uh, drank from a cup before. It’s just I’ve never seen your magic,” the mare said, sounding superbly starstruck. “Is it—what does it feel like to do that?”
“To lift a cup?” Twilight asked uncertainly. The mare nodded.
“It’s um... I just wrap my magic around the cup and lift it,” Twilight said uneasily, “It’s kind of hard to explain to an earth pony—um, not that you’re stupid I mean, just you haven’t had a horn to deal with. It even took me a while to figure out how to just... lift a cup, but it was a long time ago, and I was a very little filly. Do they not have unicorns, where you’re from?”
“No, they don’t... they don’t have any of this,” the mare said, and then she at last took a drink. Twilight released her magic, and the mare spluttered as the cup’s weight tilted against her teeth, and would have lost it, and the water again, were Twilight not already ready with her horn.
“Careful!” Twilight said, levitating the water back into the cup, and the cup over to the mare again. “Sorry, I thought you had it.”
“Just... didn’t know you were going to let go of the cup,” the mare said equally awkwardly, “I didn’t know the um... common etiquette for that, if you hold it the whole time or not.”
“It really is fascinating how your verse’s ponies are so different from our own,” Twilight said, as the mare drained the cup completely dry, without once spraying the water all the way across the room in surprise.
Twilight placed the empty glass down on the tray, as the mare shyly smiled at her and said, “Thanks... Twilight. Or do you prefer Princess Twilight, or Twilight Sparkle?”
“Twilight is fine. We’re all friends here,” Twilight said bashfully, “And no need to thank me. You certainly aren’t going to be at your best in such a strange situation. Tell me, in your world you have no unicorns, and no use of bite grips. From what I’ve seen here, you seem to want to manipulate everything with your hooves. Is that how you do it, in your old world: stop and lift everything with your hooves?”
At that question, the mare gave Twilight the most strangely anxious look, and said meekly, “In my world, I don’t... have hooves.”
O.K. recalibrating here. “You don’t have—huh?? But... you do have hooves!” Twilight protested, pointing at the mare’s pretty cream hooves. Pretty filthy, at any rate.
“I sort of... changed into a pony,” the mare said, wincing as though she were squeezing the words out of a vice grip. “I don’t know how, or why, but I just... woke up like this. I used to be a... um... do you know what humans are?”
“Vaguely,” Twilight said, waving a hoof, “Mythical Monsters Made Manifest mentioned them, once. I think they’re native to Zebri—wait, you were a human?”
Instead of answering, the mare just stared at Twilight open-mouthed again. About what? If she’s such a huge fan, then surely she knows about Twilight’s prolific reading habits!
“I’m sorry it’s... yes, I was a human,” the mare said, shaking her head abashedly. “I must have transformed... that’s why I said I wasn’t supposed to be a pony.”
“Oh my,” Twilight said, her thoughts racing! “You really are in trouble, then! Not only did the transfer process take away your home and loved ones, but also thrust you into a strange form, totally alien to you!”
The mare grimaced as a sort of smile, and said, “No, it’s not so—” but Twilight was on a roll, declaring proudly,
“Well, worry not! You won’t have to be a pony for very much longer, if I have anything to say about it. You’ll be back to your old self before you know it! I’ve already got at least onetwo ideas for new spells that might be able to lead you safely back home, restoring your human form, all highly theoretical of course. I just hope your transformation won’t give you a negative opinion of ponies in the future.”
“I really don’t mind, I just...” the mare glanced down at her hooves again. Probably loathing them. It would be just like if Twilight woke up with a... a beak one day!
“It just takes some getting used to,” the mare said in forced pleasantness, trying to make Twilight feel better by looking at her with an honest smile. But it was clear this mare was suffering silently.
“I’m sure I could get you back quicker, if you tell me about the process by which you came here,” Twilight said hopefully, “Does your verse have dimensional travel as a commonplace thaumology? You clearly didn’t come through with any equipment, or in the most ideal of situations. Are you an explorer of alternate verses? Or a diplomat, perhaps? Was there a terrible accident in the laboratory that—”
“No, no, I’m just... I’m not anyone special,” the mare insisted, holding both her hooves up defensively still laying there in Pinkie Pie’s bed. “Nobody knows me, or c-cares, I’m pretty much nobody. Nothing special about me, and c-certainly I wouldn’t have access to technology that could do... this.”
“Were you a test subject of an experiment?” Twilight tried.
“Sometimes I wonder about that,” the mare grumbled quietly, but then looked at Twilight and added in a normal tone of voice, “No, I’m just... someone. With nothing anyone would remember about.”
“Then how did you get here?” Twilight asked utterly perplexed.
The mare looked at Twilight, face full of worry.
“If you tell me, then I can get you back, and you can return to your normal life,” Twilight said insistently. “That’s why I’m asking, because I want to help you!”
The mare’s eyes darkened at Twilight’s words, and she said in a curiously calm voice, “I don’t remember anything. I just went to sleep in my bed, and woke up face first in the snow, as a pony. It’s really okay though—”
“Oneirology isn’t unheard of for its influence on boundaries of reality,” Twilight mused, “But there are pretty hard limits to what a dream can project. I’m sure you’ve pinched yourself at least once in the past week of searching for Ponyville.”
The mare blinked at her, saying, “Uh, how does a pony pinch ...herself?”
“...by nipping your own arm?” Twilight replied confusedly. “It was just a bit of bad humor. But I can work with that. Somehow, your dream state must have become empowered with reality warping properties, that landed you here, as a pony. Yes, that could hm... well, it’s... something, at any rate.”
The mare huffed a frustrated sigh. Wait, frustrated? “Never mind,” she said glumly, “I just wanted you to know that I’m okay. B-being a pony.”
Why was the mare being so polite about it? Twilight raised an eyebrow at her, but decided not to comment further. Especially not when the mare then decided to ask, “Oh, do you know if there’s a mirror in here?”
“I think so, but this isn’t my room, so no promises,” Twilight said cautiously. “Why do you need a mirror?”
“I have been able to see myself a little bit in water, and windows,” the mare said, “But I haven’t seen a mirror yet. I’m just curious what I really look like... as a pony.”
“Well alright. I’ll see if there’s anything in her closet,” Twilight said contentedly, swinging the closet door open in her magic, “Pinkie has that sort of free spirit attitude, you see. She did say our home was her home, so it should be fine.”
When Twilight poked her nose in the closet, she found a rather large, swivelling full length mirror in there. Because it was Pinkie Pie. While Twilight rolled it out, the mare climbed down off the bed.
She immediately slid down on her rump like a foal, before carefully picking herself up onto all fours. Standing and lifting her head, the mare seemed stable, yet looked curiously at each leg, lifting them to test her sense of balance. Twilight wasn’t sure, but she did seem to recall that humans were bipedal, like minotaurs, so this must have been an extremely unnerving experience for the mare. But, she did ask to see a mirror, and it couldn’t hurt, right?
“Okay, if you’re sure about this,” Twilight told the pink haired mare, Twilight’s magenta hued magic sliding the mirror over their way. “But I want you to know,” Twilight nervously added, “That you are very aesthetically pleasing as a pony, even if you are a bit filthy, currently. It might disturb you to see this, but I assure you that you look very normal, even if it might seem strange to you.”
“I think I’ll manage,” the mare said with a shaky chuckle. “So um...” she tried to tilt her head around to see in the mirror, “Bring it over here, please?”
“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Twilight said reluctantly, presenting the mirror for the mare. Sure enough, the mare got very quiet upon seeing herself, revealing neither happiness nor sadness about what she saw. The mare lifted a hoof, then looked at it, then looked at the mirror again in a dazed sort of shock.
“I’m Twinkleshine, without a horn,” she said flatly, sounding disgusted yet amazed. She planted her hoof down again, continuing to silently regard herself in the mirror.
Twilight herself raised an eyebrow at the mare’s choice of words. “I wouldn’t say that,” Twilight argued. “Her snout isn’t as rounded as yours, and she has oval eyes, I’m pretty sure—wait, how do you know Twinkleshine?”
“Well, I’ve... seen her, um...” the mare said, pupils narrowing while Twilight squinted at her.
Feeling quite a bit peeved, Twilight seethed, “Are you seriously that much of a crazed fan, that you even have to stalk my friends in—”
Twilight’s brain screeched to a halt.
“How do you know Twinkleshine?” Twilight repeated at the mare, Twilight’s concern quickly growing, as she said, “How do you know my name? How do you know anything? You’re a human mare from another world! Another verse! An entirely different reality! How did you know about Sugarcube Corner? How did you know Pinkie Pie, and me? How could you be a fan of us, if you live in an entirely separate reality from our own? Were you spying on us across the dimensions? How? Were you sent here intentionally, to target us? Why would your verse want to target the Elements of Harmony, if not for malicious intent! Do you have that capability? What are you going to do to us?!
“How did you know my name?” Twilight demanded of the mare, “How did you know my name?!”
Absolutely terrified, the mare barely managed to squeal, “Twilight, the mirror—!”
(crack)
The mirror cracked, which is to say, the entire mirror cracked, not just the glass. The glass itself shattered and fell, as Twilight’s magic went numb at the realization that she’d just destroyed what had once been her best friend’s mirror. The frame broke into two pieces as it landed, and Twilight desperately grabbed what remained, to little avail.
It was enough to shock Twilight out of her panic though, and she shook her head at the mirror, telling it, “I’m so sorry, Pinkie.” She really hoped it didn’t have sentimental value.
Twilight turned to look at the mare evenly then, who’d fallen on her rump again and backed against the wall. It all made so much sense now. Twilight didn’t know how she did it, but somehow this mare had them all fooled. It had been so convincing, too! But now that the flaw in the mare’s argument came forth, it was obvious that what Twilight had discovered was, while an incredible feat, also an incredible ruse. Still, for her to go to this much effort...
“We’re not gods,” Twilight told the mare somberly. “We’re just ponies, who happened to be at the right place at the right time. Yes I have wings, and yes I did save the Crystal Empire, but not alone, and not just with those 12. It’s perfectly alright if you want to respect and admire me and my friends, for what we’ve achieved as ponies, but can’t you see this is going too far?”
“What...?!” the mare squeaked in frightened confusion.
“This!” Twilight gestured at the mare’s fallen form in general, while summoning a basket to deposit the glass shards in. “You went and starved yourself out in the wilderness, and you constructed some sort of highly advanced magical... prank, just to get my attention? Just to impress me? I’m a princess, not some kind of deity, missy! Why couldn’t you just... take the train to Ponyville, and talk to me? You think your magic can’t impress me, just by showing it to me?”
The mare just blinked at her, speechless.
“This is about Trixie, isn’t it?” Twilight said a little bitterly. “You think that it’s just a big game of one-upmareship, where you have to be bigger and better than her, or I’ll just be a big snob! Is that what you think?”
“I don’t—a snob? Trixie?!” the mare said, her eyes tearing up despite herself, as she braced unsteadily on her forehooves. “What are you saying?”
“I want you to get your friends,” Twilight told her cooly, pulling the mare up to her face in her magic, “And have them all report to me at the library. No more grandstanding, no more risky stunts, no more lying to the pony you’re trying to impress. Get all your fellow fans to the library, and I’m going to have a very long talk with you about the consequences of putting a pony up on a pedestal. Being a fan is one thing, but what they did to you, or you to yourself, is entirely unacceptable.”
“How am I supposed to do that?!” the mare wept as she hung there helplessly, “I don’t even know how I got here! I don’t even know any fans; how would they all fit in the library?”
“I didn’t mean all my fans,” Twilight said rolling her eyes at the struggling filly. Well, technically mare, but she was surely acting like a filly. “Just the ones who orchestrated this. Don’t tell me that you worked alone.”
“I... worked alone?” the mare parroted, just like she wasn’t supposed to do, and that got Twilight’s hackles up enough. Then, the mare said, “Orchestrated? I didn’t orchestrate anything!” and before Twilight could rebuke her for lying again, the mare exclaimed in tearful exasperation, “How do you even know about the show?!”
Twilight took a breath, then noticed her mouth was hanging open, and closed it. The... what? She opened her mouth to speak again and... what? “What show?” she asked, suspiciously. “Are you talking about a stage play?”
“N-no, more like a movie,” the mare wibbled.
Twilight shook her head, saying, “Are you asking for movie rights? Because there are channels for that sort of thing, that don’t involve pretending to be a lost traveller from another verse.”
“I am a traveller from another verse!” the mare bawled, intensely disquieted. “I have a s-show that I watch, that’s like a movie and you’re all in it! That’s how I found you! I mean that—that’s probably why I got sent here, because... because I wanted you to be real!”
“Okay, let’s just...” Twilight rubbed alongside her horn tiredly, “Let’s just start over again.”
“Twilight, what did you do?!” Pinkie Pie shrieked, as she burst in through the doorway.
“Oh, the mirror?” Twilight said with a nervous grin, “Sorry I got a little too—”
“Not the mirror!” Pinkie shouted, launching herself to tackle the mare right out of the grasp of Twilight’s magic, “Her!”
Twilight looked at the mare that Pinkie was hugging, who was now crying into her friend’s fluffy pink mane. The mare looked really upset, like she couldn’t stop her tears from coming. A bitter edge to her breathing, as if somepony had made her... cry.
Guilt welled up in Twilight like inky black oil from depths of the earth. “I’m so sorry,” Twilight said softly, but that seemed to upset the mare even more! “I didn’t mean to—” Twilight said, “This is serious, I mean... I just wanted to impress on you... I was just...”
And now Twilight was beginning to feel tears in her eyes. “Ohh!” she stomped in consternation, and lit up her horn. Winking out with a bright magenta flash, Twilight appearing no less than 300 feet away from Sugarcube Corner, before she decided to run away on her own hooves.
While Twilight had her very fascinating and eventful breakdown outside, Pinkie Pie found that the mare calmed quickly, once Twilight left.
“She’s a lot scarier in person,” the mare mumbled into Pinkie’s shoulder.
“There there,” Pinkie patted her on the back, “It’s all right.” She pulled the mare to arm’s length, smiling at her and saying, “You doing okay now?”
“I’m sorry,” the mare said, guiltily looking away from Pinkie Pie. Huh?
“What are you—” Pinkie started, but the mare looked at Pinkie Pie again, pleadingly this time, saying,
“I’m just not... it’s just so different! I’m not used to... being this way. I didn’t think I would feel so s-scared about it. I couldn’t even think! I...”
“You’re talking about how you were a big, brave humin, instead of a timid little pony, huh?” Pinkie suggested. The mare started to shake her head, then bit her lip, and switched to nodding her head. Huh.
“Yeah, that’s it. I’m just... ponies are really brave, though,” the mare said shakily. “Ponies are really brave,” she repeated more steadily, “And I’m just so much more...”
Lifting her hoof up between her and Pinkie, the mare rubbed the crook of the cannon against her cheek, and tried a smile. Pinkie didn’t know what to do. She left her to her own devices, backing up to give the mare some more space. Maybe it was a bad thing to do, but Pinkie Pie just wasn’t sure what to do at this point. Hug? Dance? Play? Party? Or just... not do anything? Could you do that?
Laughing nervously at the moisture she could see on her arm’s fur, the mare said, “I’m just so much more emotional now. I haven’t been able to cry in... in a good long time. And now I c-can’t not cry.”
“You want ponies to make you cry?” Pinkie declared in utter confoundment. A pony who didn’t like smiling? She’s happy because she’s sad?
She seemed calmer at least, as the mare said to Pinkie in a terribly solemn voice, “It’s a lot worse, when you have so many tears inside, and you just can’t let them out.”
That... hit Pinkie a little harder than it should have. She didn’t let it show, though. As Pinkie spoke with the mare that morning about silly, light hearted and inconsequential things, she wanted to know more about what this mare went through, but the mare really didn’t want to talk about it. And Pinkie Pie of all ponies could understand that.
So, leaving the mare to take a long needed shower, after teaching the mare how to take a long needed shower, Pinkie just had to get to baking and wondering. Baking, and wondering if the mare would be okay, and if there was something really, really wrong with her, and maybe Pinkie was wondering just a little bit about herself. When was the last time she cried? Not just to be funny. Like, really, for real cried? Pinkie couldn’t even...
She couldn’t even remember.
The sounds of the open market were starting to drift around, as ponies arrived and set up their stands. It was a quiet hubbub that gave Applejack that little fluttery feel inside, the excitement of starting another day with four barrels full of cider and a whole array of treats, preserves and apple butter, with good expectation that it’d all be sold come the afternoon.
She was just warming up the kettle of spiced cider when Twilight came along. Applejack would have tipped her hat at her friend, but the farm pony’d taken to wearing a wool stocking cap this time of year, and that didn’t really have a brim to tip.
“Howdy Twilight,” she told the approaching royalty.
“Oh, hello Applejack,” Twilight said in a seriously glum tone, her breath fogging the chilly morning air. Twilight Sparkle didn’t look like she was in the best of moods, so maybe the question Applejack had in mind wasn’t the best question to ask. You didn’t gain nothing by keeping it bottled up inside though, and Applejack reckoned Twilight came here to talk about it anyways.
“How you been?” Applejack asked all friendly-like.
“Just peachy,” Twilight drawled unconvincingly, not looking Applejack in the eye. “Listen, can I ask a favor of you?”
“Cider’s 2 bits a glass,” Applejack said with a hopeful smile, “Take it better part of an hour to warm though. It don’t taste right if you heat it up fast.”
“Not the cider! I—oh. Ha ha,” Twilight failed to laugh, rolling her eyes. “No, I just need your advice.”
“Ain’t that what friends are for,” Applejack mused, kicking a leg out to lean against her apple cart. “Now what can I do you for?”
“Well, see, there’s this mare,” Twilight said. “And I can’t tell whether she’s trying to hurt me or not, or whether I’m... accidentally hurting her. I really felt like we were connecting with each other, and then everything got out of hoof, and now I’m not sure if I should even approach her again. I don’t know if I should pursue her and try to mend our relationship, or just leave her alone, like she seems to want.” Glancing aside nervously, Twilight said, “I know you don’t want to be the go-to pony for loyalty stuff, but I really just need an outside opinion on this, and I think you’d have a better idea of what’s going on than me.”
“Look, ah don’t judge, Twilight,” Applejack said in a calming tone, “You cain be with whoever you wanna be with, and ain’t nopony got any right to criticise, just because she’s a mare. But it’s up to her to choose to be your special somepony.”
“I’m really not in the mood for jokes today, Applejack,” Twilight said in exasperation.
“About askin’ me a favor?” Applejack returned, confused. Twilight Sparkle squinted at Applejack cautiously, but the farm mare just looked at her with concern and Twilight didn’t say any more on the subject.
Instead, Twilight shook her head lightly and explained, “Pinkie Pie took in a homeless mare yesterday. It was all very sudden, but she seemed to think that the mare was special somehow.” It sounded like Twilight was getting into lecture mode, so Applejack busied herself getting a few more sticks in the cider’s fire, while turning an ear towards Twilight speaking at length of course.
“And she was special, it turns out,” Twilight said, “She has no record, no history, not even a name. Never seen in any neighboring towns, according to Pinkie at least, this mare just... wandered out of the woods yesterday, half frozen, starved and exhausted. She— she claimed to be from another world, Applejack. Another verse! From a totally different plane of existence!
“I thought she was just buttering us up at first,” Twilight continued fervently, “To get a free meal or something. And then I thought she was one of those crazy fans that not even Princess Celestia can get off our tails. So to prove that she was lying, and not really from a different reality, Rainbow Dash and I went to where the mare said she’d come from. Before the snow last night, it was pretty easy to follow her trail.”
Twilight shook her head, saying, “There was a portal there, though! Or there certainly used to be. There was a localized magical disaster! Something blew a hole in that forest 300 feet wide, and there was a magical signature there that I found completely unrecognizable. Me! The laws of physics were practically head over heels in that... that crater. So obviously she was telling the truth! And somehow she... came from another world.”
Twilight fiddled on her forehooves at that point, so Applejack said, “Fraid ah don’t see what the problem is here, Twi. You talked to Dash, the mare’s tellin’ the truth, so what’s the holdup? You really think she came from another world?”
“No, and that’s the problem!” Twilight retorted with a stomp. “I mean, yes... and no. I don’t know what happened in the woods, half a week ago, but something big definitely happened. I wrote to the princess last night. I think we’re going to have a whole team of arcanists studying the thing! But...
“Certain parts of the mare’s story just don’t check out,” Twilight said worriedly. “She knew us, Applejack. She knew my name before I even told her. How would she know that, if she was an entire world away from us? I don’t mean to be modest, but we’re not that famous! Are we?”
“I don’t rightly know, Twilight,” Applejack replied. “That hocus pocus stuff is a bit over mah head. But what did she say about it?”
“I tried to ask... okay, I was moderately upset with her, and tried to... get her to confess to setting this all up as some sort of elaborate prank,” Twilight said with a guilty wing lift that would’ve done Rainbow Dash proud. “And she just got so upset... I may have freaked out a little bit, and maybe I kind of... made her cry. So...”
“So you wanna know how to apologize to the mare without scarin’ her again,” Applejack said evenly.
“S...something like that, yes,” Twilight admitted, “But what I wanted to ask you was if I’m being unreasonable about all this. I mean, there are two explanations here, both of which are completely ludicrous. The first explanation is that the mare is some sort of strange creature who portalled here from another dimension using heretofore unknown thaumology, coincidentally got changed into a pony while doing so, and has no idea of how it occurred. And this other world has been somehow monitoring my life all the way back to Canterlot.
“The other explanation...” Twilight sighed, “Is that there is a group of fans of the Elements who are so crazy about us, that they developed an entirely novel magical field which has never been seen before in the arcane community, just to impress me more than Trixie did. Upon achieving this phenomenon, they then had one of their members wander in the forest for two days as if totally lost, in the middle of winter without any protection, just so that she could pretend to be a visitor from another world.”
“So... you think it’s crazy that she might be from another world,” Applejack said carefully, “But you think it’s crazy that she’d pretend to be, on account of what she’d done to convince you?”
“That’s about the sum of it,” Twilight said with a grateful smile. “I’m really sorry to dump on you like this, it’s just... I really need to figure this out, because if it’s the former then we might have a crisis on our hooves, and if it’s the latter, then we have a group of dangerously unstable ponies out there, wielding a completely unknown form of magic. Should I dispatch scientific teams, or law enforcement?”
“Well, eum...” Applejack scratched the ground musing, “What’d she say to get your attention when she tracked you down? Somethin’ all fanfillyish?”
“No, she... she didn’t approach us,” Twilight said thoughtfully. “Pinkie directed my attention towards her, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think she wasn’t looking for us at all.”
Applejack shook her head, saying, “Then her intentions ain’t obvious one way or another. Ya got two explanations alright, and neither of ‘em make a lick of sense. Don’t matter how dangerous it is then, since you cain’t tell what that mare thinks of you. You gotta talk to her, and learn more about her, but ya gotta have some tact, and... just... don’t let her rile you up. You want me to try talkin’ to her? You know how you can get all, kinda... well... y’know.”
“I suppose the first mistake was leaving me alone with somepony,” Twilight said with a morose, flat-eared sigh.
“Now don’t be like that, Twilight,” Applejack set an arm on her friend’s back... wings. Right. Wings now. “Somethin’ got you riled up, and I don’t care if’n it happens every Tuesday, you ain’t gonna get riled up without a good reason. Now I got customers comin’ but if you and this mare, what’sername?”
“I—I don’t exactly know yet,” Twilight admitted nervously.
Applejack continued steadily, saying, “So this... mare and you can come have dinner with me, and I’ll do mah best to suss her out, and keep both of you on the same page. That sound good?”
Twilight smiled at Applejack, saying, “Thanks... I really am worried about it, but it’s not like the world is going to end in half of a day. I should probably get some sleep, anyway.”
Twilight did look kind of frazzled and sleepless like she gets sometimes. So Applejack smiled back and said, “There, see? Get some sleep and ah know you’ll have no problem with yourself.”
“Right as usual, AJ,” Twilight smiled. “So, dinner at your place, I suppose?”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Applejack heartily agreed. “If there’s one thing that can bring out the best in a pony it’s a good, home cooked meal!”
“I better hold my appetite then,” Twilight said, quickly licking her lips, “But I don’t suppose a mug of cider will fill me up too much.”
Hovering her cheek above the surface of the cauldron, Applejack said, “Could be hotter temperature-wise, but it’s sure to warm your heart.”
Twilight laughed freely, and bought herself a tasty mug of cider to boot. Then, she went striding off to the library, to get a nice, good, long nap. When her counter spell woke her up with a gentle dinging noise, Twilight felt... marginally more pony than when she went to sleep. One of the frustrating things to find out about being a princess is you actually couldn’t cut back any more on sleep, even if you could do more while awake.
Twilight slid out from under her covers post-nap and rolled smoothly to her hooves, stretching like a cat until her back popped, then looking out the window at the grey sky overhead. So hard to tell the time of day, this time of year, but Twilight’s internal clock gave her a fairly good idea that it was getting on toward early afternoon. That was one thing that had improved upon her ascension, which was nice and convenient, even if a counter spell was more accurate.
Taking a calming breath in and out, Twilight Sparkle prepared to see about getting that mare over to Sweet Apple Acres.
Of course the mare wasn’t at Sugarcube Corner when Twilight got there. “She went out for a walk,” Mrs. Cake told Twilight. “A young mare like her was probably dying of boredom all cooped up there upstairs. Said something about working out the soreness, quite a sensible idea.”
“Any idea where she went?” Twilight asked hopefully, but Mrs. Cake shook her head.
“But we did manage to get her a little more presentable,” the plump blue baker said as an afterthought. “Just to get the worst out of her coat, and comb out her hair a bit. So don’t go looking for a mare who’s covered in burrs and holly now. She probably didn’t go far. The poor dear was still so exhausted, she was practically walking like a foal this morning!”
Twilight did find the mare nearby the bakery, seated up on a bench and all swaddled up in a nice thick shouldercoat. Too big for her, it was probably Mrs. Cake’s own coat. That family of bakers was so giving when they saw somepony in trouble, it was amazing. There was actually another pony sitting with the mare when Twilight found her, one of the hometown Ponyville unicorns, Twilight was pretty sure.
“You would be surprised how many ponies come down to the lake, especially on weekends,” the one pony said. The conversation prompted Twilight to vaguely remember the mare having been around the local swimming hole, which would explain the story mark of twin dolphins, but Twilight simply couldn’t place her name. She had a striped blue mane, and a lavender coat a shade somewhere between Twilight’s and the mystery mare’s.
Twilight really wasn’t sure how she felt about the safety of this. On one side, it looked like just two ordinary ponies having a normal discussion. On the other side, it looked like just two ordinary ponies having a normal discussion, one of whom was either a powerful, dark sorcerer, the tool of a powerful, dark sorcerer, or an alien visitor from another world.
Nevertheless, that was as far as the conversation got before one of the two mares noticed Twilight standing there looking their way. The pink maned one with blank thighs was facing away from Twilight, so it was the blue maned one who stopped talking first, and her eyes widened abruptly upon seeing she’d caught the interest of Twilight Sparkle. Pony Medley’s 100 Easy Steps to Joining a Conversation did say you should listen to the conversation for a bit, but it didn’t say anything about what to do if ponies suddenly stopped talking in your presence. So instead Twilight just blurted out,
“Hi! Hi. I’m really sorry to bother you. I just wanted to uh...” (lead you to my friend’s house so we can secretly interrogate you), “Find out how you were doing!”
“...me, your majesty?” the blue haired mare said, wide-eyed.
“I think she means me,” the pink-haired one said to the blue-haired one, which was indeed the case, before turning to face Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight had the attention of the mysterious mare out there on a park bench in the chilly winter day. Now if only she could figure out what to say to her.
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ektually. . . Our corner bakery in my little town used to offer soup-and-a-sandwich lunches. Which I always followed with a cupcake, for obvious reasons.
8096285
That might have been a bit confusing. Pinkie made a can of soup, for obvious reasons. On a tangential note, that bakery doesn't sell soup. Incidentally, bakeries around here are mostly hole in the wall cheap sugary pastry sellers, while places that bake and serve real food would be considered restaurants, or cafes, or pubs if they serve alcohol. And I have to travel an hour before I can find a bakery that makes actual bread, since supermarkets corner the bread market, making cheap, terrible bread in their own in-store bakeries.
8096285
but they have clothes?
8096460 I've never heard of a bakery that sold clothing.
"either the a powerful"
"either a"?
"If you are dealing with large numbers, you might want to consider using the Clever numerals instead."
That would be much easier if we knew how they worked. :)
(Also, nice slang; is some of that new?)
8096785
Nah, all those terms I figured out in Feeding Problems, whether people knew it or not. I just thought giving a summary here might help readers, if I'm insisting on going with something weird.
At least I'm not using dozenals.
My only real regret is there's no convenient shorthand for the number of the mane 6: 12 in base four. "onto" is already a word. "unto" the same. Why couldn't they throw Derpy and Cherry in with the team? Then I could've called it the mane score!
I'm not even going to tell you why they're called the Clever Numerals!
nice catch
8096865
Ah, thanks.
Dozenals? Something to do with base twelve?
:D
Well, I'd... guess after Clover the Clever...
No problem. :)
8096962
In a certain reimagining of the defeat of Nightmare Moon the ponies used a numeric system called "dozenals," which was a a base-144 numeric system that itself used a second roman style additive notation to break down the 144 numerals, grouping by 12. It was really gross.
N-no, you t-totally didn't guess it right away. Shut up. ¬_¬
8097269
...Huh. Thanks.
Well, I still have no idea how they actually work, if that helps. :)
Really, really minor nitpick but why Twilight don't repair Pinkie mirror right on spot? She do know repair spell.
8098943
She didn't really have time, since Pinkie ran right in, and shortly thereafter Twilight freaked out at making somepony cry. Repair spells take a certain presence of mind anyway, which is sort of the opposite of the mindset you'd have when breaking things in aggravation. I could've had her be like zap, "See the mirror's fixed, all better!" but I don't know who Twilight would think she was fooling.
I probably should include a bit about Pinkie sweeping up the glass to get her mirror fixed later.
8087394 its definitely not that bad, the only problem i see with it, and please don't take this the wrong way, but.... WTF happened to Rarity's face?!? either I'm looking at it wrong, or her eye is sideways and her horn is coming out of her nose. I'm not trying to be mean, its just every time i look at the cover my eyes go right to Rarity and i has a confuse.
8099361 ...yeah her face looks weird. I think I ended up covering up the parts that make it look... weird, but not as weird.
I'll poke at it.
You definitely have a interesting headcannon going around your head, though lets see where it takes us
Funny things that ponies in canon use decimals. Maybe some time in past they used other numeral systems but modern ponies use base ten.
And yes, such shifts possible. Some of our ancient civilization used base 12, base 60 (Babylon), base 20 (Maya) and so on.
8531475
Well, mostly I attribute it to the show being created by humans, who didn't want other humans to stop watching because they were confused by the numbers. I can't really think of any in-universe explanation for using base 9+1.
We still use base 60. That's how seconds and minutes are counted. As for base 12, that's how we count "semitones," "inches," "hours" and "months."
I don't really know of anything that uses base 20 today, but that's just basically an overcomplicated version of base 10 anyway. (Same prime factors.)
One thing that puzzles me is why no civilizations use base 30, or base 6. That'd make more sense than bases 60 and 12. Base 6 has prime factors 2 and 3, and base 30 adds 5 onto that. Base 10 is 2 and 5, but skips 3 for no reason.
Ah, so this is why you were dismissive of my correction on your other story; you use four as slang. Good to know I guess, though I would have appreciated being told there, instead of you making me look like an idiot.
9133113
Sorry, I didn't think you'd think I thought you were an idiot. I honestly thought you'd like it when you figured out the connection between four and score yourself.