Equestria 485,000

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 19: Through the Black Door

The haze instantly split and light surged downward, nearly blinding Twilight. She cried out in pain; it had been so long since her eyes had beheld anything so bright.

“Twilight?” said a concerned sounding voice. “Is everything alright?”

Twilight opened her eyes and looked around. The setting she found herself in was not terrifying or grotesque, and although she knew it was Equestria it was one so distant through time that even the idea of it was incomprehensible. It was not the frozen and alien world that her physical body lay suffocating on, nor was it the toxic industrial wasteland from the time of the Exodus. Instead, Twilight found herself in an idyllic setting more beautiful than any ark garden. The ground was covered in lush, green grass dotted with the occasional jaunty flower, and trees sprung up from deep soil without the need for internal tubing and support systems. The sky was blue, not black, and filled with puffy white clouds. The light that had burned Twilight’s eyes was the sun, which sat high in the sky.

The pony that had spoken was a white unicorn. Her look of concern matched the tone of her voice.

“Rarity,” said Twilight. Her voice felt distant, as though it were not her at all who was saying it. “No. I’m fine. I just…I think I had something in my eye.”

“Oh, darling, you should have said so!” Rarity reached into her bag and produced a box containing tissues. “I always carry these for dramatic emergencies. Dab, don’t rub!”

Twilight took one in her magic, and continued to look around. She was confused. The world did not look quite right. It looked like it was supposed to, but somehow, everything was hazy, almost grainy. Her eyes would not focus on certain parts of it no matter how hard she tried, and the light seemed off. Whenever anypony spoke, their voices were affected by the same fog as the scenery: they sounded as though they were speaking from the far side of a hill, or through a great death of dark water.

Rarity was not alone. The rest of Twilight’s friends were there too. They were all sitting around a plaid blanket. Food had been prepared and brought in a basket; it was the types of plant-based items and baked goods that Twilight felt as though she had not seen in so very long. Applejack was in the process of taking an apple fritter, and Pinkie Pie had just said something that had made Rainbow Dash laugh so hard that milk had shot out of her nose. Fluttershy sat somewhat separate from the others, her attention devoted to a small rabbit. All of them looked somehow distant, as though they were not really there; it was as if Twilight were viewing them through a long-forgotten recording.

They spoke, and after what felt like an eternity their voices came into focus.

“Twilight! Twilight!” called Rainbow Dash, wiping the milk from her nose and jumping up toward Twilight. “Pinkie! Tell her that joke! Tell it!”

“Rainbow Dash,” sighed Pinkie, a smile on her face. Twilight remembered that smile. She had missed it so very much. “It won’t work. The timing on that sort of thing has to be perfect.”

“Come on! That joke can’t possibly be bad!”

Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes. “Alright. What does a Pegasus use on her spaghetti?”

“Pega-SAUCE!” cried Rainbow Dash, almost before Pinkie had finished the joke.

The entire group groaned, even Fluttershy’s rabbit.

“Oh,” said Rainbow Dash. “Wow. Yeah. You were right. That really didn’t work, did it?”

“Nope,” said Pinkie. “Don’t question the Pinkie when it comes to jokes. I knows what I knows.”

“I haven’t heard a joke that bad since I filed my taxes,” said Applejack. “Whoo-boy. I can almost smell it.”

“Are you criticizing my tax structure?” asked Twilight.

“I just might be. Did it really need to have that many pages?”

“It only has a few!”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “At one point the forms collapsed on poor Big Mac and nearly squeezed the apple juice clean out of him. If his wife hadn’t been there to help me get it off of him, he might still be under there.”

“Darling, you have no idea,” said Rarity. “Imagine trying to submit in seven individual districts! Each of my boutiques has an COMPLETELY different set of forms!” She paused. “Although, the Ponyville Royal tax might be a wee bit bigger than the rest?”

“Wait a minute,” said Rainbow Dash. “Since when do we pay taxes?”

They all turned to her. “Since three years ago,” said Twilight.

“Oh,” said Rainbow Dash. “Well…nopony told me!”

Pinkie Pie began laughing, and the rest joined in, except for Twilight. She did not find tax evasion to be a laughing matter at all.

As the mutual fit of laughter subsided, Applejack spoke. “When did we get so old?” she asked. “Look at us. Sittin’ around discussing taxes.”

“Darling, I would HARDLY call myself old,” said Rarity.

“You weren’t saying that when your thirtieth birthday was rolling around.”

Rarity glared, but Pinkie Pie giggled. “You have no idea how often that happens,” she said.

“Thirty isn’t that old,” said Fluttershy. “Not for a pony, anyway. Isn’t that right, Angel III?”

The small brown rabbit nodded.

“Ha,” said Rainbow Dash, “you’re all old.”

“Either that,” said Applejack, “or you’re just not ripe yet.”

They all laughed again. Then Rarity spoke.

“We just don’t do this often enough,” she said. “When was the last time we were together like this? I admit, I’ve been dreadfully busy as of recent, what with the business. And what with preparing for Applejack’s wedding.”

“Aw, shucks,” said Applejack, blushing. “Rarity, you’re jumping to conclusions again. If there’s going to be a wedding, it’s years off- -and besides, I don’t think it’s going to work out anyway.”

Rarity gasped. “Applejack! Why would you say that?!”

“Because I don’t really have time for that sort of thing. Business is booming, and I have so much work to do on the farm. And with Big Mac having a foal, and Applebloom going off to school, well…”

“Well indeed,” said Rarity, looking somewhat dejected. “Well, it’s never to early to plan.” She turned to Twilight. “Although, of course, if you would hurry up, I might get a chance to plan a ROYAL wedding.”

Twilight blushed. “That’s not going to happen any time soon,” she said.

“You would be surprised,” said Fluttershy. “A little birdie told me that he’s seen you spending an awful lot of time with Flash these days.”

“Purely on business!” cried Twilight, her blushing betraying her. The others looked as though they were about to laugh, but sensing her discomfort decided to let the matter drop.

“Well,” said Pinkie Pie, “I may not be getting married, but I AM going to have the absolute very bestest sisters day EVER tomorrow!”

“Did you finally get Marble and Limestone to agree to come?”

“Oh yeah! It took FOREVER, and a lot of convincing…several bribes…and level 100 speechcraft skill, but I did it! It’s like trying to convince Applejack to take a day off and Fluttershy to go to a party at the SAME TIME!”

“I do have crippling social phobia,” admitted Fluttershy. “But I’ve been writing to Marble. She seems very excited.”

“Of course she’s excited! I’M EXCITED!” Pinkie Pie vibrated heartily. “And you should see Maud! She’s positively ecstatic!” Pinkie Pie turned to Rarity. “And you’re going to be there, aren’t you?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for all of Equestria,” said Rarity. “I’ve pressed on the new fall fashion line all week just to clear my schedule for it! I just adore Maud.” Rarity gasped. “Perhaps you four could model for me? It will only take an hour- -and earth-grays are ALL the rage this year. Celestia knows why.”

“But Pinkie Pie isn’t gray,” said Rainbow Dash. “She’s pink. It’s in her name.”

“It is in my name,” said Pinkie Pie, shrugging.

“Well…yes,” admitted Rarity.

“It’ll be fine,” said Pinkie Pie. “Maud just LOVES fashion, and I’ve seen Marble trying on her socks more than once. But after that, we’re gonna paint the town red!”

The dream seemed to shift. Some resolution was lost, and the image took on a strange sepia tone. It seemed to phase forward quickly, and Twilight caught hints of a conversation, and of the emotions she felt toward these ponies. They were like sisters to her, and they had been since she had met them over ten years earlier. They were her friends, and she loved them.

Then she turned her head, and the dream slowed to a normal pace, although it did not lose its discolored tone. Two ponies had just emerged down the nearby path. Both were unicorns, and one of them was a pale violet pony with extensive bicolor hair. Twilight recognized her as Starlight Glimmer. The pony beside her, staring longingly at Starlight, was a blue unicorn mare with white hair. Twilight could not remember her name, although she was aware that had known it at one point long ago.

“Starlight!” said Twilight, standing up. “Come join us! We’re having a picnic!”

Starlight and the blue unicorn looked to each other, and then at Twilight. “That would be great,” said Starlight, “but we were just taking a walk through the park.”

“Sure,” said Rainbow Dash. “A ‘walk’. And I’m sure you were ‘walking’ on that bench over by the lake.”

The blue unicorn blushed, but Starlight did not. “We have to get back to the preparations. For the new spell.”

“Oh!” cried Twilight. “That’s tomorrow!”

“It is,” said Starlight. She raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t forget, did you? We’ve been working on it for six months”

“I didn’t forget!” lied Twilight. She turned to her friends. “We’re testing out a new experimental spell! It’s derived from a basic framework created by Starswirl the Bearded but completed by his student, Clover the Clever, but that had been used for an entirely different purpose historically until we rediscovered it. Starlight had the idea of merging it with a Statswirlian vortex using the inherent power of the Map to stabilize the recirculation, meaning that a spell meant for water purification can be combined with one for- -”

“Twilight,” said Rarity. “Breathe.”

Twilight took an extremely deep breath. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m just so excited!”

“And what, exactly, does this spell do?” asked Applejack.

Twilight smiled mischievously. “Well, you’ll see. I don’t want to get your hopes up. It’s still in the very early development stage- -”

“But all our calculations indicate that it should be functional,” said Starlight. “We just need to run the first launch to get data for fine-tuning.”

“Launch?” said Fluttershy. “Oh dear.”

“It’s a figure of speech,” laughed Starlight. “Trust me, I was nervous at first too, but Twilight showed me eighteen different approaches to the math that proves it’s perfectly safe.”

“Nineteen,” corrected Twilight.

“Paratransversive calculus doesn’t count! You can prove anything with that if you use the right constants!”

“What exactly does it do?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“Paratransversive calculus? It’s used to predict the mass to volume ratio of eddies produced by transdimensional curves- -”

“Not that,” said Pinkie Pie. “I already know that. Sort of. Kind of. Well, I know how to make change for a bit, but that’s not easy at all! I mean what does the spell do? Does it make frosting?”

“Pinkie Pie,” said Rainbow Dash, “why would a spell make frosting?”

“Icing, then?” suggested Pinkie Pie.

“No. Like I said, you’ll see if it works. Actually…” Twilight looked at Starlight and the blue unicorn, then at her friends. “You can come see if you want. We can always use more help.”

“Hardly,” said the blue pony, only to be elbowed by Starlight.

“Well, we’re already having company,” said Rarity, meaning the sister’s day.

“And I’m gearing up for the harvest,” said Applejack. “And tomorrow Fluttershy’s going to help me with the birds and fruit bats, getting them organized and all.”

“I’ll be busy all day,” said Fluttershy. “But I will be there in spirit!”

“Rainbow Dash?” asked Twilight.

“I’ve got work,” sighed Rainbow Dash.

“Work? I thought you quit!” said Rarity. “I mean, after officer’s school- -”

“Being an officer in the Wonderbolts is a dream come true,” said Rainbow Dash, “but it doesn’t pay well. And I need money. To pay taxes, apparently. That, and not having a job is really messing with my schedule. I have a lot of naps- -I mean atmospheric phenomena to catch up on.”

“Oh,” said Twilight, feeling far more disappointed that she showed. “Well, sure. But if any of you want to come help, we’ll be out at the castle.”

“Yeah. All day,” said Starlight. She shrugged. “We’re not going anywhere…”

The dream suddenly ended, interrupted by sudden pain. The happiness that Twilight had felt in it was replaced by the cold reality of her modern life, and something else. She sat up suddenly, gasping for air. It smelled strange to her, not like the beautiful scent of fresh-cut grass and leaves about to start changing color in her dream. This was a smell of stale metal, and things rotting.

She looked around in a panic, not understanding where she was or what was happening. Her eyes latched onto two figures nearby, though. One was Applejack, staring at her with a look of intense concern, her green eyes wide. It looked as though she had been crying. Standing beside her was a far more disinterested looking hologram of a violet alicorn.

“Twilight!” cried Applejack. “Thank Celestia, you’re alright! When I found you, you weren’t- -you weren’t breathing!”

Twilight groaned. “The safety protocols,” she said, feeling the acidity of her blood leaving as she slowly managed to catch her breath. “They must…they must not have activated…” Her eyes suddenly widened. “My mask! Where is- -”

“It’s here,” said Applejack, holding out the transparent portion of Twilight’s morphiplasm rebreather. Twilight took it and slammed it back onto her face before taking several long breaths. The smell receded- -the smell of Equestria, the world that had once been her home, the smell that reminded her of everything she had forced herself to forget that she had lost.

“But how did you know?” she said at last.

Applejack turned to the hologram. “She told me.”

The hologram looked at Twilight for a moment with its empty, dead eyes. Then it turned and started walking, dissipating into nothingness as it left without a single word.

Applejack watched it go, but then turned to Twilight. Her fear and tears had become anger. “What in the name of Luna’s tiny haunches were you trying to do?!” She cried. “Was that an accident? If it was, why the hay weren’t you breathing the air like the rest of us? How many times do I need to tell you about equipment upkeep- -”

“It was not an accident. I cut off my own air supply.”

Applejack’s eyes widened. “You WHAT?!”

“I needed to sleep,” said Twilight. “I can’t do it normally. Not anymore. The guilt. You wouldn’t understand.”

“But- -but why? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?! Twilight, if I had lost you- -”

“I needed to talk to Luna,” said Twilight, remembering their conversation. “We were talking about…”

Suddenly, the memory hit her so hard that she almost cried out in surprise. Twilight’s eyes widened and she fell silent as she looked at Applejack. She tried to speak, but found that she could not.

“Twilight?” asked Applejack, her anger once again turning to fear and concern for her friend. “What’s wrong?”

“It…it worked,” whispered Twilight. “I can…I can remember you…”

Comments

[AppleTank]

Oh boy. It begins. Remembering the family she had so rudely told off just a few hours ago. wew