Lessons in Chaos

by TobiasDrake

3 - An Alarming Disappearance

Applejack’s eyes remained fixed on the spot of flooring where Twilight Sparkle had shattered into a thousand triangular shards. She saw the image flashing through her mind again and again. She experienced Twilight’s face collapsing into pieces, watched the fracture spread across the length of her body, down her legs and tail, and when it finished, Twilight shattered again.

“Twilight?” Applejack asked to nopony in particular. She reached out with her hoof, feeling the air where Twilight stood, but only air remained. She felt her heart begin to race, felt her breathing pick up, but she could do nothing to stop it. Her memory flashed unbidden and for an instant, she was a filly again.

“Where’s Mama?” Applejack asked, her heart already filling with fear. Somewhere deep inside, she already knew the answer, but she asked the question all the time.

Bright Mac had no answer to the question. His face dropped when she asked, and she could see him open his snout to speak, but no words would come out. Frantically, Applejack turned on Granny Smith. “Granny, where’s Mama?!” she demanded, her voice rising in panic.

Somberly, Granny Smith said only, “Applejack, I’m sorry.”

“Twilight!” Applejack shouted, her voice rising through the haze of memory. She reared back on her hind legs, shoulders convulsing as she stepped back from the ghost of Twilight’s disappearance.

“Applejack,” Rarity said carefully, stepping slowly towards her.

From the other direction, Pinkie Pie advanced, offering sweetly, “It’s okay. Twilight’s just fine.”

Applejack’s attention snapped quickly to Pinkie. “Y’found her? Where is she?!”

Pinkie shrugged her shoulders, backing up a step. “I mean, she’s probably fine. I’m sure she’ll be back before you know it! Unless she was sent traveling through time or to another dimension or maybe she was vaporized on the spot and now she isn’t anywhere at all, but I’m sure none of those are what happened!”

Applejack stared horrified at Pinkie, who seemed not to notice at all as she suddenly perked up and shouted, “Ooh, maybe she’ll come back and be a double alicorn! Can you do that?! Is that a thing?!”

All eyes turned slowly to Rarity. A second passed before she seemed to notice that she’d become the center of attention. She raised an eyebrow, glancing around at her friends before tentatively suggesting, “…I highly doubt it?”

Frantically, Applejack grabbed Pinkie’s shoulders with her hooves. “We got to find her,” she said quickly. “Is she--”

“She’s not upstairs!” Spike reported, descending the staircase.

Applejack’s breath rapidly increased its pace. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest like a jackhammer, and her eyes remained wide and unfocused as she spoke to the group. “We can spread out. Rainbow, you can go to Cloudsdale. Rarity, you search Canterlot. Flutt--”

“Uh, there’s a lot of Cloudsdale,” Rainbow Dash interrupted.

Flatly, Rarity added, “Yes, one does not simply search Canterlot.”

“We can fan out!” Applejack insisted. “There’s six of us, we can search every inch of Equestria in--” Before she could finish, she found Rainbow Dash’s hoof where her voice should be.

“Yeah, I’m gonna stop you right there.”

“We can’t simply search all of Equestria,” Rarity said in agreement. “We have to be smart about this. There must be some way to determine what happened to her.”

Applejack wrestled Rainbow Dash’s hoof from her mouth and demanded, “We got to find her!”

“Um….” Fluttershy spoke up in the back of the group. “What if we--”

“We will,” Rarity replied. “If you’d just calm down, we can--”

“We got to find her now!” Applejack shouted.

Dejected, Fluttershy lowered her head. “Okay. I’ll just be quiet over here.”

“I’ll find her myself!” Applejack shouted, bolting for the front door.

Rainbow Dash moved quickly in front of the door, barring her exit. “Hey, calm down. We’re going to find her, we just need to--”

“Applejack, please calm down,” Rarity pleaded. “This isn’t like you.”

“Wait, I got this,” Rainbow Dash said suddenly. Out of nowhere, she smacked Applejack across the face with her hoof.

“RAINBOW DASH!” exploded Pinkie Pie.

Grinning, Rainbow Dash asked, “You feeling better?”

“No!” Applejack shouted. “And now m’jaw hurts!”

One after another, the group turned to glare at Rainbow Dash. Sheepishly, she backed up to the door again. “That, uh…that usually works for Daring Do.”

Rarity looked back to Applejack, holding a hoof up in Rainbow Dash’s direction. “Setting aside Rainbow Not Helping Dash for a moment, we need you to help us think of a plan. We can’t do this without you, Applejack.”

“Y’don’t get it,” Applejack told her. “It’s my fault this happened. I gotta fix it. I can’t let this happen, not to Twilight. I can’t.”

“Wait, I’m confused,” Pinkie Pie uttered. “How is this your fault?”

“I….”

“Consider this the final lesson I have to teach you, Applejack, and it’s one you would do well to remember. There are always consequences for the choices you make.”

“Applejack,” Rarity whispered. “Listen to me. This is not your fault. We all agreed to help Twilight. We chose to do this as a group.”

“I should have let her go,” Applejack whispered to nopony in particular.

“Applejack, no,” Rarity started. She opened her snout to say more, but found herself coming up short on the right words to solve this problem.

Before Rarity could find those words, Spike spoke up. “We are going to find her, though. Aren’t we?” Rarity turned to see Spike standing next to Fluttershy, one claw gripping the table. “I mean, she’s not gone gone, right? She’s coming back.”

There was a strange vulnerability in Spike’s wide eyes and the light tremor in his voice that Applejack could hear him trying to hide. She’d never seen him like this before. With his intelligence and compassion, it was easy at times to forget how young he was, but watching him now, she found something familiar in his trepidation.

In a moment, something seemed to shift inside of Applejack. She surged to her hooves, feeling a wave of confidence and determination flow through her, crushing down her fears and insecurities into the pit of her stomach.

“Course we are,” she answered Spike quickly, approaching and reaching out a hoof to pull him into her chest. “We’re gonna find Twilight and we’re gonna bring her home, whatever that takes. Y’got my word on that, Spike.”

“Uh, thanks, I guess,” Spike said, raising an eyebrow at Applejack’s sudden shift in behavior.

“Don’t you guess nothin’. You and me, we’re all but kin, and kin takes care of one another. You and me, we got each other and we ain’t about to rest until she’s home safe, you got that?” She released her foreleg, letting Spike out.

Spike backed up a couple paces, then looked up at Applejack. “Thanks,” he told her earnestly. “I’ve got your back too.” He folded his claw into a fist, holding it out for Applejack. Without hesitation, she tapped it with her hoof.

Applejack nodded. She took a deep breath, then turned to address her friends. “I’m mighty sorry for the way I acted, y’all.”

“That was weird,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “You’re not supposed to be the pony that flips out.”

Rarity stepped forward, shooting a sharp sideways glare in Rainbow Dash’s direction. “We are all entitled to our momentary lapses, Applejack. The important thing is that you’re with us now.”

Speaking up from the rear of the group, Fluttershy asked, “Would now be a good time to--”

“Hey, I just had a thought,” Rainbow Dash stated, turning towards the table. The golden chest remained where it had been, the only perceivable motion being the glowing of the runes, which seemed to fade in and out. “How do we know that box is working right?”

Fluttershy scowled at Rainbow Dash, but fell silent again with a huff.

“Hmmm,” Pinkie Pie murmured, climbing up onto the table to examine the box closely. Plucking a magnifying glass from her hair, she flitted around it, examining every corner, inspecting the jewels, and scrutinizing the runes. After a couple minutes of careful investigation of its craftsmanship and makeup, she concluded, “The glowy bits are glowing, so that probably means it’s working!”

“Are they supposed to glow?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Mm?” Rarity stepped forward, approaching Rainbow Dash. “Whatever do you mean?”

“I tune her out when she starts raving about magic stuff,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “Did she say the box is supposed to glow like that?”

“Huh!” Pinkie exclaimed, standing proudly on the table beside the chest. “Y’know, I don’t think she did.”

“Right!” Rainbow Dash shouted, gaining steam. “So how do we even know the box is doing what it’s supposed to do?”

One by one, each pony turned to look at Rarity. Pinkie Pie was the first she noticed, prompting her to ask, “What?” Whipping around, she spotted Applejack and Rainbow Dash looking expectantly her way as well. “Can I help any of you?”

“Well, it’s magic and you’re--” Rainbow Dash started.

“Are you suggesting….” The remark ignited something fierce inside of Rarity. She looked from Applejack to Rainbow Dash, eyes narrowing as her mind processed the implication of the pegasus’s statement.

“I mean, if the horn fits--”

“Let me make myself clear,” Rarity said sternly. “I am not a backup unicorn. Why would you even think that?! The kind of spells Twilight works are above and beyond the realm of ordinary unicorn magic! Here, you want my professional assessment?” Rarity spent a second looking at the chest, then growled, “The glowy bits are glowing, so that probably means it’s working.”

“Geeze,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “We get--” She found herself abruptly cut off by Pinkie Pie’s hoof.

“We’re sorry, Rarity,” Pinkie Pie said, pointedly looking at Rainbow Dash.

“Honestly!” Rarity huffed. “You might just as well ask Fluttershy to perform a Sonic Rainboom. Isn’t that right, Fluttershy?”

Poking her head up, Fluttershy answered, “I had an idea that could--”

“Exactly!” Having managed to vent her frustrations, Rarity’s ire began to cool. More calmly, she continued, “If you want somepony to tell you if the chest is gaudy – and it is; it looks like it was invited to its first Grand Galloping Gala and is trying too hard to impress – then I’m your pony. But that’s the extent of my Pinkie Pie, what are you doing?”

“Hmm,” Pinkie uttered, lifting the chest from the table between her hooves. She heaved it overhead as though preparing to slam it down on the table.

“PINKIE, NO!” Rainbow Dash shouted, shooting onto the table and snatching the chest from her hooves. Squeezing the box between her forelegs, she fluttered in the air, keeping it well out of hoof from everypony.

Applejack turned on Pinkie in an instant. “What in tarnation do y’think you’re doin’?!”

Cheerfully, Pinkie Pie explained, “Well, I was thinking that if we don’t know that the box is doing what it’s supposed to be doing then maybe it’s not doing it and we just think it’s doing it, and if we think it’s doing it then it could be not doing it right under our noses! So I was gonna hit it really hard and see if it breaks like Twilight did.”

Applejack blinked. “Y’think the box is a fake?”

“Maybe not the whooooole box,” Pinkie Pie replied. “But Rarity said it’s really gaudy and I’m thinking, ‘Who likes things that are gaudy?’”

Rainbow Dash set herself back on the ground, returning the chest to the table. “That’s a good point,” she noted. “You guys remember what Cardinal was like? The guy had a huge crush on himself.”

Following her train of thought, Applejack added, “Yeah, Rarity’s whole job in that whackadoo fantasy world of his was to go ‘round tellin’ everypony how cool he was.”

“I remember,” Rarity acknowledged through gritted teeth.

Looking to the others, Rainbow Dash explained, “Yeah, that! He’d totally put up an image just to make his box prettier.”

At that, everypony backed slowly away from the chest, keeping a suspicious gaze on it. The runes continued to pulse and for a second, Applejack thought there might be a clue somewhere in the pulsing, but to her dismay, it was not the same rate that the stone had been pulsing previously. Perhaps magic just pulsed sometimes?

Applejack sighed. “Does anypony know how to tell if we’re lookin’ at an illusion or not?” Reflexively, she glanced to Rarity, but a violent stink-eye from the unicorn quickly turned her gaze away.

Several seconds passed in silence. Applejack watched the box, looking for any sign of an answer to the questions that today had laid on their plate. Fluttershy fidgeted with her foreleg, keeping Rarity between her and the table and wrestling with the question of whether or not it’d be right to interrupt. Pinkie Pie drifted casually towards Rainbow Dash, who had taken a seat in front of the chest, keeping it in hoof’s reach just in case it started to act up.

“A thought occurs to me,” Rarity admitted, breaking the silence.

“Good thought or bad thought?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Tom feeds by consuming magic,” she explained.

“Bad thought. Gotcha.”

“Even supposing that Twilight’s enchantment is effective at containing the chaos magic within the stone, what is to keep him from devouring the enchantment itself?”

“Twilight would have had a plan for that,” Pinkie Pie suggested.

“She did,” Applejack answered quickly. “Plan was, she’d be here to blast him with her counterspell.”

“Oh, yeah!” Pinkie grinned for a moment, before reality resettled and her expression slowly turned to a grimace. “Oh. Right. That’s not super helpful.”

Applejack looked to the others, then carefully approached the chest, putting herself between it and the group. “Well, we can’t just try smackin’ it around, less’n we wind up bein’ the ones to break it in the first place. Tom ain’t made any more Twilights since Rainbow….” She stopped suddenly, seeing the image play out in her mind once more. Twilight’s face broke into pieces in an instant, sending fractured shards of purple--

“Since I took care of it,” Rainbow interrupted, tapping Applejack in the shoulder with a hoof to try and bring her back to reality.

Applejack blinked, shaking her head. “Right. That. Point is, he ain’t in the room with us and that’s the best we got.”

“…how do we know that?” The question emerged from Rarity in a long, flat tone. She looked to Applejack and Rainbow Dash and for just a second, she sounded afraid.

Pinkie Pie giggled at Rarity’s question. “’Cause the box is here and Twilight isn’t, silly billy!”

“I don’t mean to be alarmist,” Rarity started, stepping forward to the others. “But how do we know that Twilight was the only one of us that Tom replaced?” She looked to her friends, watching the realization dawn on each of them in turn. Everypony except Fluttershy, who sat in a corner of the library simply watching the group speak. She’d been unusually quiet, hadn’t she? Well, it was Fluttershy, but still, a pony would think that she might have had something to offer to the conversation.

She looked to Pinkie Pie. Pinkie was difficult to read at the best of times, but she had been quick to try and break the chest. Could it be possible that she was trying to release Tom from the binding spell? She could have been a…no, wait, that didn’t make sense. If the magic chest was working, Tom shouldn’t be able to make a Pinkie clone to do that, should he? Unless his illusions didn’t need to…gah, she did not understand nearly enough about this kind of magic to make that assumption.

Applejack wasn’t prone to breakdowns, she was certain of that. She’d known the farm pony since childhood and had never once seen her completely lose it the way she had earlier. She’d seen Applejack get angry a time or two, but never the kind of panic attack that had struck so abruptly. Then again, Applejack’s ponytail had come undone and remained so, which seemed like an odd detail for Tom to have devised.

Rarity watched Rainbow Dash and Applejack separate from each other. A heavy weight settled in, seeming to press down upon the entire room. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak, remarking, “We got the fake Twilight. I think we’d have noticed if somepony else went missing. It’s not like he can be two ponies at once.”

“Why not?” Spike asked, climbing up onto the table.

“’Cause he’d have to be in two places at once, duh.”

Darkly, Applejack chimed in. “Ain’t like we’re talkin’ ‘bout a Changeling. Tom ain’t a pony, he just fakes bein’ one. Who’s to say he can’t fake bein’ two?”

Quickly, Rainbow Dash answered, “Well, we know he’s not me! So we can start there.”

“Do we?” Rarity asked.

“Uh, yeah. I’m the one that smashed his Twilight. I wouldn’t do that if I was fake. I mean, a fake me might not even be able to. Those things break really easy.”

Pinkie Pie leaned in close to Rainbow Dash, eyeballing her carefully. “Unleeeess…you really were Tom and you wanted us all to think you weren’t Tom so you pretended to smash the fake Twilight to get us all to think you were really the really real Rainbow Dash and not the fake real Rainbow Dash that you really are!” Plucking a magnifying glass from her hair, Pinkie shoved it into Rainbow Dash’s face. “COME CLEAN!!!”

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash fell sideways, pushing back against Pinkie Pie. “Cut it out! What about Rarity?!”

“What about me?” Rarity asked.

“You were really mean to us earlier! If anypony’s fake here, it’s you!”

“I beg your pardon?!”

Fluttershy sidled into the group, adding, “You did interrupt me when I was trying to--”

“I have been as courteous as I am capable of given the circumstances!”

“…just like that, yeah.”

“Twilight has gone missing, a treacherous stone that put me in the most ghastly attire and humiliated me for his own satisfaction is already trying to move us around like his puppets again, Applejack is on the verge of a panic attack, Twilight is still missing, and nopony informed me that I’d be expected to act as a backup wizard in her absence, so you’ll forgive me IF I’M A LITTLE STRESSED OUT RIGHT NOW!!!”

“Could everypony please stop yelling?” Fluttershy asked. “We’re all friends here. This isn’t how friends should act.”

“She’s right,” Spike agreed. “Twilight wouldn’t want this.”

Applejack nodded. “It’d just about break her heart, seein’ us at each other’s throats when she ain’t even been gone but an hour. Done enough of that already, I’d reckon.”

“She started it,” Rainbow Dash grumbled to herself.

Staying back by the edge of the group, Fluttershy suggested, “There has to be a way to tell if anypony’s been replaced, but we aren’t going to think of one if we don’t work together.”

Pinkie Pie mused, “Do you mean like a secret magic weak spot? Do the fake ponies have those?” She glanced over at Rarity, considering what she might--

“The next pony who does that is getting poked in the eye,” Rarity growled.

“Sorry, Rarity.”

“With my horn,” the unicorn clarified.

“Rarity!” Applejack shouted.

Rarity sighed. “I’m sorry. That’s getting on my--oh. Oh!” Rarity perked up, glancing frantically from one pony to another. “What about Twilight?!”

“Still missing,” Rainbow Dash said idly. “Thanks for catching up.”

“No, not our Twilight. I mean the other Twilight. Rainbow Dash, you managed to deceive her into revealing herself by appealing to events she could not recall.”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “So, what, you want us to just stand here and talk about stuff that’s happened to us?”

“Good idea,” Applejack said, stepping forward and addressing the group. “We’ve all been friends for quite some moons now. Surely we gotta know some stuff about each other that ain’t common knowledge.”

Pinkie Pie grimaced in confusion at the suggestion. “What, you mean like how funny it is when a pony nibbles on Rainbow Dash’s ear ‘cause--”

“WHOA, OKAY!” Rainbow Dash shouted, waving her forelegs frantically. “That is enough of that!”

“Sorry, Dashie,” Pinkie Pie said chipperly. She waited only a second before leaning in close to Rarity. In a whisper audible enough to echo around the room, she concluded, “She squeaks!” The sound of Pinkie’s voice was followed swiftly by an audible slap as Rainbow Dash’s hoof collided with her own forehead.

Nervously, Rarity took a single step away from Pinkie Pie, stating, “Thank you, Pinkie. I will file that under Things I Never Needed to Know About Rainbow Dash. I look forward to destroying that knowledge with what will likely be an excessive amount of cider this evening. It has been some time since I’ve seen Berryshine.”

“Why do you know that?” Fluttershy asked. Her voice trembled along with her legs as she approached Pinkie Pie. Her head hung low but her eyes studied Pinkie carefully, as if searching for some hidden feature.

Pinkie Pie only smiled sweetly. “I know lots of stuff! Like about your secret basement where you keep supplies and treats so your animals won’t get into them that you were going to turn into a secret getaway place where you could be alone from the world, but then you didn’t ‘cause of how you’re scared of basements!”

She turned to Rarity beside her next. “Or how Rarity always wants to have ice cream with her birthday cake even though she thinks ice cream is a sad times food, because her birthday always reminds her that she’s gonna get old and wrinkly.”

Rarity’s jaw opened slowly, but no words came out of it. She put a hoof to her heart, but before she could react, Pinkie Pie had already bounded off to Applejack. “Or that Applejack’s favorite color is green because it reminds her of her dead fa--”

Applejack promptly stuffed a hoof in Pinkie’s snout, silencing her. “Alright, y’all, who here thinks Pinkie Pie’s real?” she asked the room. She withdrew her hoof, leaving Pinkie to rub her nose, and raised it in the air. Her gesture was quickly matched by everypony else.

“Nopony else could be so tactless,” Rarity suggested.

Pinkie Pie inhaled sharply at the unanimous vote. Leaping several feet up and suspending herself in midair as she kicked her hooves excitedly, Pinkie let out a roaring, “YIPPEE!!!”

“Reckon I should go next,” Applejack said. “Rares, you’re the easy one. Your sister once ran off to try and join my family ‘cause she was jealous of the relationship I got with mine. You used to be madder than a wet hen over what happened ‘tween me and Crystal, but you and I got to bondin’ ‘cause of how much we both loved Twilight in our own way.”

“Yeah, you’ve been there for us a lot,” Rainbow Dash said to Rarity in agreement. “I mean, you managed to make dresses that make me look good without cutting into my awesomeness.”

Rarity chuckled. “Yes, I believe you once asked me for ‘20% cooler’. Were those not your words?”

Rainbow Dash laughed. “Hey, you pulled it off, so it can’t have been that bad of a suggestion. Even if it took a couple tries.”

Despite the tension in the room, Applejack chuckled. It was nice to think of her friends and everything they’d been through. “Y’always brought out the challenger in me, Rainbow,” she admitted. “It’s been nice havin’ a friend like you to keep me on my hooves. Even if y’did cheat at the Runnin’ of the Leaves.”

“Hey, you cheated too. Don’t put that all on me! Twilight beat us both.”

“She sure did,” Applejack remembered fondly. “She didn’t win, but she beat us fair and square while you and me were goin’ at it like a pair of foxes fightin’ over a lame rabbit.”

Rarity smiled. “I suppose that’s everypony. Well, all of us except….” The group turned in unison towards Fluttershy, who let out a quiet squeak and began to back away from the attention.

Rainbow Dash flashed a confident grin at Fluttershy. “Come on, you’ve known all of us for how long now? You’ve got to have something.”

Fluttershy’s eyes flew wide open with panic as she replied, “I-I-I don’t know, I…you’ve all done exciting and interesting things together and I’ve…what if I remember something wrong or say the wrong thing? I don’t want Rainbow Dash to kick me.”

“So long as you’re really Fluttershy, that ain’t gonna happen,” Applejack assured her.

“But it could,” Fluttershy insisted. “Everypony’s so scared and angry right now. You were yelling at each other and everypony’s been ignoring me and talking over me.”

Rarity put a hoof to her heart. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy. I hadn’t realized we were doing it. We never meant to ignore you.”

“It hurt my feelings,” Fluttershy admitted. “I’m supposed to be as much a part of this group as the rest of you, but whenever Tom’s involved, everypony becomes so mean. This is why I didn’t want to do this!” Fluttershy blinked and a single tear rolled down her cheek.

Applejack’s eyes softened. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy. I reckon some of us still got a long of hurt and anger in our hearts ‘bout what happened to us, but that ain’t no reason to take it out on you or anypony else here.”

“Awwww!” Pinkie Pie grinned widely. She reached out her forelegs to scoop up her companions, shouting “FRIENDSHIP HU--”

Rainbow Dash quickly put a hoof against Pinkie’s chest, pushing her back. “Hold up,” she said, refusing to take her eyes off of Fluttershy. Narrowing her gaze, she explained, “Fluttershy still needs to prove that she’s really Fluttershy.”

“But I can’t think of anything,” Fluttershy told them, backing up against the bookshelves. “You all have exciting lives but I’m just me. Nothing I do is special!” Looking quickly from Applejack to Rarity, Fluttershy added, “Besides, it’s not just me! What about Spike? I mean, if I was a mean illusion trying to trick everyone, I’d get everypony focused on me. Well, not me me, but me, the pony me and not…I’m sorry, I’m babbling.”

“Fluttershy,” Rarity said concernedly. She gently reached out a hoof for her friend, but the pegasus ducked away.

“It’s the clever thing to do,” she insisted. “While everypony’s looking at me, Spike can grab the chest and bolt out the door. I’m nervous under a spotlight and everypony knows that, so they could--”

“Spike?” Applejack asked.

Spike stepped up beside Applejack, stating bluntly, “One time I tried to come live at your farm because my dragon code made me owe you a life debt.”

“Oh,” Fluttershy said sadly, looking down at her hooves.

Rarity shot a glance to Applejack, who returned her look with a nearly imperceptible nod. She’d been given the go-ahead. Taking a deep breath, Rarity approached Fluttershy and placed a firm hoof on her shoulder. “It’s quite alright, darling. We all understand. You worry so much about what everypony thinks of you. It’s why you became so jealous of me when Photo Finish wanted me to be a model. You wanted--”

“No, I didn’t,” Fluttershy interjected. Catching herself, she quickly put a hoof to her lips. “I’m sorry,” she squeaked out. “I shouldn’t have interrupted.”

Rarity smiled. “No, darling, do go on.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that you were the one who was jealous of me. Photo Finish picked me. I didn’t want her to, but I also didn’t want to let you down, so I tried to do it anyway. I didn’t want to disappoint you.” Fluttershy sighed, remembering the way she’d felt that day. It hadn’t been easy being in front of so many ponies, but she’d….

Wait a second.

“That was one!” Fluttershy shouted quietly. “That’s something you and I shared!”

Rarity smiled warmly. “And you remembered, darling.”

“That means I’m real! Oh, I was so afraid. Thank you.” Fluttershy reached out and embraced Rarity, squeezing her neck as tightly as her forelegs could muster. Applejack came up around the other side of Fluttershy, putting a hoof on her side to join in the hug. Rainbow Dash descended upon Fluttershy from above while Pinkie Pie piled in from the side.

Fluttershy and her friends remained together for the better part of a minute, sharing in the relief and contentment of knowing that no matter what else happened, they could trust in each other. Twilight was still missing and Tom’s core still needed to be dealt with in some way, but with teamwork and faith in one another, she knew they could--

“The box is gone.” Spike’s voice cut sharply through the relief. Every pony looked up at once, their eyes falling on the table where the chest once sat. The door hung open and through it, Twilight’s purple silhouette could be seen galloping into the distance.

Shocked, Pinkie Pie declared, “She took advantage of a Friendship Moment! That’s so evil.”

“I’m on it,” Rainbow Dash said before taking off through the door. Twilight vanished around a corner, but corners were for grounded ponies. Rainbow Dash soared over rooftops, following Twilight’s course as she darted and weaved between shops.

Applejack started out the door after Rainbow Dash, but hesitated. She waved a hoof to Spike. “C’mon, we got to get after her!”

“Right!” Spike hesitated only for a second before leaping onto Applejack’s back.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie had already given chase, which naturally left only one pony to deal with. “Git along, Fluttershy, we’ve got to--” Applejack looked behind her, but found herself addressing only an empty room. A quick glance out the door showed that Fluttershy was on Rarity’s tail, pursuing the false Twilight of her own volition. Applejack couldn’t help but smile. “Well, good on you.”

Rainbow Dash soared ahead of the illusion, watching her closely. The chest sat on Twilight’s back, and she seemed to be struggling to hold it there with both wings. Rainbow Dash shook her head; the obvious smart pony thing for Twilight to do would have been to grab the chest with her forelegs and fly, rather than this awkward land escape she was undergoing.

Gauging Twilight’s direction, Rainbow Dash rocketed forward and dove down towards Twilight on an intercept course. Twilight spotted her at the last second and spun to face her. The phantom motioned with her horn but once again no magic emerged. Nothing stopped Rainbow Dash from slamming straight into her, sending the chest flying across the road.

The chest hit the ground hard on its lock, breaking it open. As it rolled forward, it fell open and spilled the stone core into the road. The fake Twilight pulled herself to her hooves and leapt for it, but Rainbow Dash was faster. The pegasus wrapped her forelegs around Twilight’s haunches and yanked her to the ground.

Although she rarely found opportunity to use it, Twilight’s ascension meant she should have the physical might of an earth pony. Rainbow Dash knew that wrestling with her should be as difficult as Applejack or Pinkie Pie, but the illusory alicorn gave her minimal struggle. She was shocked to discover that maneuvering on top of Twilight and pinning her to the ground took almost no effort at all.

“Let go of me!” Twilight shouted impotently at Rainbow Dash. She screamed in frustration, causing her image to flicker in and out of existence, but the weak force of her body never wavered.

“Yeah, that’s going to happen,” Rainbow Dash replied, rolling her eyes.

“You have to set me free,” Twilight argued. “I don’t know what he’s done to you, but I can fix it.” She struggled once more against Rainbow Dash’s weight; the weak effort felt strangely like holding down a foal, making Rainbow Dash feel uncomfortable. “Please, Rainbow Dash, I know you’re in there somewhere,” she pleaded.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. This was getting weird. “What the hay are you talking about?!”

“It’s Cardinal,” Twilight told her. “He must have woken up with that spell we cast. He’s taken control of your minds again. He must be trying to use the Elements of Harmony to--”

“Twilight, look at me.” Rainbow Dash rolled her over onto her back, once more feeling surprised at how easily Twilight could be forced around. “Do I look like I’m wearing my Element?”

Twilight’s eyes fell to Rainbow Dash’s neck, then opened wide with horror. “That’s impossible,” she said quietly. “How is he controlling you?”

“There you are!” Rarity shouted, galloping down the road. She was followed quickly by Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack at the rear. “I see you’ve captured our wayward phantom!”

“Yeah, I got her,” Rainbow Dash reported. “You should feel how weak she is. It’s weird.”

Dryly, Applejack remarked, “She ain’t never been Bulk Biceps, exactly.”

“No, but I’m pretty sure Fluttershy could beat her at hoof-wrestling right now.”

Spike dismounted from Applejack, slipping between ponies to approach. “Twilight?” he asked tentatively.

“Spike!” Twilight struggled once more under Rainbow Dash’s grip. The pegasus held both of her forelegs pinned to her chest with a single hoof that refused to budge even an inch. “Spike, you have to listen to me. Cardinal’s done something very strange to all of us. He’s controlling everypony, he’s making them attack me. He’s done it before. You have to do something. You’re the only one left.”

“Does she know we can hear her?” Rarity asked.

“Spike, please,” Twilight pleaded. “He turned off my magic. I don’t know how he did it, but--”

“Y’know what, I think I’ve had about enough of this!” Applejack snapped, stomping her hoof on the road. “Where’s that rock at? I’ll put a stop to this right quick.”

“Applejack?” Twilight whispered quietly.

“Oh, don’t even start,” Applejack grumbled. As Rarity levitated the stone core back into the confines of its chest, Applejack stomped towards Rainbow Dash and the helpless phantom. “You tell me what you did with Twilight right here and now or as Celestia is my witness, I ain’t about to be responsible for what happens next.”

“Applejack, it’s me,” Twilight whispered, eyes wide with fear. “Please, you have to recognize me. I know you’re in there.”

Rainbow Dash glanced sideways at Applejack. “She’s been rambling like this since I caught her.”

“You have to fight his control,” Twilight urged. “Please, if anypony can do it, I know you can. I love--”

Applejack stomped the ground next to Twilight. “Don’t you even dare,” she warned the illusion, eyes glowing with rage.

Behind Applejack, Fluttershy asked the others, “What are we going to do with her? She doesn’t seem to know anything.”

“Yeah, this is weird,” Pinkie Pie agreed. “I thought she’d be all, ‘MUWAHAHAHA NOW MY EVIL PLAN IS NIGH!!!’ but instead she’s all ‘AHHHH YOU WERE THE REAL MONSTERS ALL ALONG!!!’ But we’re not, right? We held a vote and everything. We all agreed we were real. Of course, she didn’t get to participate in that on account of Dashie smashing her so maybe she didn’t know.”

“It’s a trick, of course,” Rarity replied grimly. Fluttershy noticed that her face was contorted in the same angry grimace that had briefly appeared on Applejack when she interrupted Twilight. Unlike Applejack, however, Rarity seemed to be sustaining the look, keeping her eyes fixed on the phantom alicorn.

Rarity continued, “He’s trying to lure us into a false sense of security. He wants us to think we can trust him so that we’ll let our guards down. That’s when he’ll strike.”

Twilight fell silent under Applejack’s glare. She closed her eyes and laid her head back against the ground, seemingly resigned to her fate. Tears could be seen dripping from her eyes, which evaporated into thin air as they fell from her face, but she refused to give her captors the dignity of hearing her cry.

“This is a trap,” Rarity insisted. “Nothing more.”

“If you say so, Rarity,” Pinkie responded. Fluttershy noticed the dire tone in her voice; she sounded as unconvinced as Fluttershy herself was. “What do we do now?”

Piping up, Fluttershy finally managed to get out what she’d been trying to say before. “We should go ask Discord for help. Twilight disappeared because she was trying to use his magic. He might be able to figure out what happened to her.”

Rarity jolted away from her locked gaze on the Twilight phantom to raise an eyebrow at Fluttershy. “You are a dear friend, Fluttershy, but that idea is positively dreadful. Trying to contain Discord was the entire point of this. I can’t imagine any good coming of letting him know about this little fiasco.”

Fluttershy drooped. “You know, I’m not saying he’s perfect but he is trying. It wouldn’t hurt to give him a chance.”

“Well said, Fluttershy!” The voice seemed to come straight out of the air itself, reverberating through the street. “Why, I couldn’t have put it better myself, and I’m me!”

“Discord,” Applejack cursed, looking around quickly for the draconequus.

“Oh, great,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “Because that’s what we really needed right now: more chaos.”

A serpentine shape slithered out the window of the nearby flower shop, gliding swiftly along the ground until it arrived at Rainbow Dash and Twilight. Emerging from the earth, the flat shape reached out its talon to pinch at Twilight’s cheek. “And whatever do we have here?” he asked curiously.

Rainbow Dash startled from Discord’s sudden appearance, but kept a firm grip on the illusion. “Hey! Go bother someone else,” she shouted.

Discord seemed to pay her no mind. “Oh, marvelous work,” he said gleefully. “Truly a fantastic design you have here!”

With trembling voice, Twilight asked, “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, nothing at all. I am, of course, joking. This is amateur work. Really shoddy craftsmanship. You can practically see the magic bursting through the seams.” To illustrate his point, Discord raised his paw and snapped his fingers, conjuring a mattress overstuffed with watermelons. Summoning a mallet into his talon, he raised the bludgeoning implement to articulate his point and--

“We get it!” Applejack shouted, stepping between Discord and his argument. “No need to get messy.”

“Hmph. You’re no fun.” Discord snapped his talon, whisking the mattress and mallet away. “But if your majesty wills it, I suppose I must acquiesce.”

“Beg pardon?”

Ignoring Applejack’s confusion, Discord reiterated, “Still, this looks as though somepony took a halfway decent enchantment and ran it over with a train a few times.”

“It’s funny you should say that,” Rarity said grimly. Opening the chest with her magic, she levitated the stone core in front of Discord’s face. Bitterly, she asked, “Does this look familiar?”

Discord reached out and grabbed the rock, examining it carefully. “I’m afraid I couldn’t begin to keep track of…oh. Oh!” Discord giggled to himself with glee. Whirling around on the Twilight phantom, Discord asked, “My dearest Tom, is that you?”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked. “What did you do to me?!”

Twilight’s demand elicited nothing more than a snicker from Discord. “You have not been taking care of yourself at all, have you? Though I suppose it’s just as well.” Turning back to face the other ponies, he explained, “I must say, this is all a bit disappointing for me, really. I was hoping for something a bit more dramatic.” He shrugged, lobbing the rock over his shoulder. “Oh, well. They can’t all be winners.”

“Careful!” Rarity shrieked, racing after the rock. She caught it with her magic, returning it gently to its box. “We have no idea what could happen if the stone ruptures any further.”

Discord chuckled, reclining on thin air in the middle of the group. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry. I promise it would be quite a lot of fun.”

Bitterly, Applejack chided, “I reckon we’ve all had just about enough of your fun as it is. Now did you come out here to help, or are you just tryin’ to get under everypony’s skin again?”

Discord provided an elaborate bow, assuring Applejack, “Oh, of course I came to help, your highness. Haven’t you heard? I’ve reformed.” A shark’s grin spread across his face, covered in layers of teeth. He gestured to his chest, where a single patch of fabric labeled Merit Badge of Reformation rested. Printed on the badge was a picture of Discord himself giving a thumbs-up.

“Yeah, I trust you ‘bout as much as I can throw you,” Applejack replied. “And why do you keep callin’ me that?!”

“I’m just trying to show my respect,” Discord explained. “With Twilight missing, surely somepony has to serve as the…hmmm….” Discord rubbed his chin, musing to himself. “Whatever was she the Princess of, anyway? Books? I suppose we can go with that. Long live Applejack, the Acting Princess of Books!”

Discord threw his arms into the air, prompting a burst of confetti to spray down into the road. A single banner emerged from nowhere, suspended in the air behind Applejack and reading, “HOORAY 4 NEPOTISM”. A pair of tiny Discords appeared beside her, waving green and purple flags.

“Cut that out!” Applejack shouted. “Twilight ain’t gone. We’re getting her back, uh….” Sheepishly, Applejack added, “Just as soon’s we cotton onto where she might’ve gotten off to.”

“Of course,” Discord said wryly. “But in the meantime--"

“Stuff your meantime, I ain’t nopony’s princess!” Applejack shouted at him.

“Oh.” Discord recoiled from Applejack, an expression of concern flowing across his face. “Oh, dear. Perhaps I misunderstood the nature of your relationship. I am dreadfully sorry. Would you prefer ‘concubine’?”

Applejack erupted, lunging at Discord. Pinkie Pie and Rarity threw themselves against her, straining to hold her back as sheer rage poured across her face.

“DISCORD!!!” Fluttershy shouted, causing a visible tremor to run across his body. Flapping her wings, she lifted herself into the air. “That was not very nice,” she criticized sharply. “Applejack is in a lot of pain right now and you’re not helping. Now apologize to her.”

“In my defense, I wanted her to be a Princess--”

“Now. Or you can forget about next week’s tea time. And maybe the week after that.”

“Oh, alright,” Discord grumbled. Turning away from Applejack and folding his arms over his chest, he grunted, “Mmsry.”

“What was that?” Fluttershy asked pointedly.

Discord sighed. Turning his head to face Applejack, he said, “I’m sorry. There, are you happy now?”

Applejack narrowed her eyes. “I ain’t gonna be happy ‘til you tell us what you’re doin’ here, Discord.”

Discord turned the rest of his body back towards the group, putting the claws of his talon against his chest. “Why wouldn’t I be here? An alicorn blinks out of existence and you think I wouldn’t notice? What kind of Lord of Chaos would I be to let that slip by?”

Gently, Fluttershy asked, “You don’t know where she is?”

Discord shrugged. “Honestly, she could be anywhere. Or she could be nowhere at all. That happens sometimes when eldritch forces from beyond time and space are messed with by amateurs.”

“Horse apples,” Applejack swore. “You know somethin’.”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash shouted in agreement. “What did you do to her?!”

“Me?” Discord asked softly. “Well, that’s just rude. Here I was trying to help you, and what do I get for my trouble? Suspicion, anger, and scorn, that’s what. Well, fine. If you’re going to be like that, maybe you don’t want my help after all.”

Discord vanished in a flash of light, but didn’t go far. He reappeared on a bench down the road with his arms folded across his chest, visibly pouting.

Applejack slapped herself in the forehead with her hoof. “Y’all realize this is the last thing anypony needs right now, I hope.”

Fluttershy stepped into the middle of the group, encouraging, “He could help us. He’s better equipped than anypony to understand what happened to Twilight. He might even be the key to bringing her back from wherever she wound up.”

“As long as it’s not ‘nowhere’,” Rainbow Dash said grimly.

Rarity floated the chest to Fluttershy. “He created this thing, Fluttershy. Everything it did to us, it did because of him. Everything it’s doing now….” She glanced down at Rainbow Dash’s captured Twilight apparition again. The very sight of it frightened and sickened her. “The last thing we need is to give him a chance to make this situation worse.”

In the distance, Discord cried out, “Oh, woe is me, to be abandoned by all of my dearest friends!”

“Yeah, I don’t know, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said. “Rarity’s right. This feels like a trap.”

Pinkie Pie sprang into the conversation, stating, “Even if it is a trap, it could be a trap with Twilight in it, and a trap with Twilight is still closer to Twilight than we were before we sprang the Twilight trap!”

“See?” Fluttershy asked. “Even if this goes bad, it could still help us.”

“We’re doin’ it,” Applejack said abruptly.

Rarity blinked. “I’m sorry, darling, I seem to have gotten whiplash from how fast you switched sides. Would you care to repeat that?”

“Pinkie’s right,” Applejack said. “Look, we got even the slightest chance of findin’ Twilight, we take it. Ain’t no good’s gonna come from us sittin’ ‘round the library like a bunch of useless bumps on a log. We find Twilight, we bring her home. Ain’t nothin’ else matters right now.”

“Applejack,” the phantom spoke, but a sharp glare from the farm pony silenced her quickly.

Down the road, Discord shouted, “Truly, this betrayal has cut me deep, like a very deep cutting thing could cut! Oh, I am so alone!”

Applejack sighed. “C’mon, everypony. Reckon we should go see what he wants.”

“What about her?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“What about her?” Rarity answered. “We have the stone. She can’t stray far from it, I’m sure, and we’ve already seen that she has no usable magic.”

Rainbow Dash nodded, accepting Rarity’s argument. “Yeah, and she’s about as tough as a kitten. I guess I can let her up.” She stepped off Twilight, finally allowing the illusion to stand.

Twilight rubbed one foreleg against the other, soothing her sore limbs. She eyed the rest of the group suspiciously, as though still trying to read where the trick might be. “What do you want from me?” she asked them carefully.

“Pinkie Pie and I will stay with her,” Rarity suggested. “That way, I can keep an eye on the chest.”

“Good idea,” Applejack replied. “Rainbow, Fluttershy, you’re with me. Let’s go deal with Discord.”

As the trio of ponies approached Discord, he turned a single eye in their direction, then quickly turned his head away with a huff. Applejack sighed, speaking up as they drew near. “C’mon, out with it. What do you want?”

“I’m not speaking to any of you while she’s here,” Discord whined.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, gesturing with a hoof to herself. “Who, me?”

“She knows what she did,” Discord griped.

Smiling sweetly, Fluttershy crossed around to the other side of the bench. “She didn’t mean it. She’s just having a very bad day, that’s all. I’m sure if you gave her a chance, she’d be nicer to you.”

“Maybe,” Discord said slowly. He turned back towards Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “But I want an apology.”

“What?!” Rainbow Dash’s feathers stood on end at the suggestion. Her body convulsed at the very idea of it. “Are you out of your mind?!”

“I had to apologize to Applejack when I hurt her feelings. Now you should have to apologize to me. That’s how friendship works. Isn’t that right, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy looked straight at Rainbow Dash. “You were kind of accusatory. It wasn’t fair to Discord.”

“Yeah, what she said,” Discord agreed. “Now apologize or I’ll…I’ll go write a nasty letter to your parents about what you said and how it made me feel!”

Rainbow Dash laughed at Discord’s threat. “Yeah, good luck with that.”

“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said sternly.

Applejack put a hoof against Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. “C’mon, Rainbow, you gotta do this. Just remember, it’s for Twilight.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Ugh, fine. Mmsry.”

“I’m afraid I couldn’t hear that,” Discord said, cupping his talon around his ear. “What did you say?

“I said I’m sorry!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

“Ooooh!” Discord giggled, clapping his talon and paw together. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. And now look at us! We’re all friends again, because you said sorry.” Stretching out his limbs, he grasped the three ponies and pulled them in for a tight hug. “It’s the Magic of Friendship!”

Applejack pressed her forelegs against Discord, prying herself away from him. “You gonna help us or not?!” she shouted.

“Well, that’s tricky,” Discord admitted. “I wasn’t lying when I said that Twilight could literally be anywhere. She’s plunged into the depths of eternity itself. There may simply be no way of knowing where or how she ended up.”

---

Deeper and deeper into swirling colors and endless shapes, Twilight fell. Images assaulted her brain from directions that ran perpendicular to her vision. She experienced impossible mathematics. She became geometric shapes that could not exist. She was at once one with herself while being only a stranger on the infinite road of life.

She saw. She felt. She was. Twilight Sparkle.

And then she fell, screaming through a thousand mouths that did not exist, reaching out with a million hooves for something, anything to grasp onto. As she fell, she heard the voice again. “Lost little traveler, where does she go?” The voice giggled to itself. “Where can she go, so far from home? We don’t get many like you.”

Twilight looked up but saw only the infinite colors of black illuminated in the darkness, and then all at once she felt her body jolt to a stop. The pressure struck her like the ground crashing against her back, and then reality turned black.

“Mmmm….” Twilight felt something strangely soft, almost velvety against the side of her head. She felt her muscles beginning to return to her as the phantom limbs receded into the dark. The first parts she was aware of were her hooves pressed up against her chest. Then she found her eyelids, opening them into the dim of night.

The room was completely dark, but she could just make out the bare silhouette of a bedside table beside her. She blinked a couple of times as she sat up, but a stinging pain from the left side of her face struck her with each blink of her eyelid. She reached up with a hoof to rub her eye, but a jolting pain assaulted her every time she touched that side of her face.

Twilight reached out with her hooves, feeling out her limbs. Her forelegs stretched and moved fine. Her wings were missing in their entirety. There was a strange stiffness to her left hind leg, but otherwise, they were okay. Her neck--

Wait, what happened to her wings?! She reached around herself with her foreleg to feel her sides, and sure enough, she found only flesh. Not a single feather to be felt anywhere on her. As alarming as her strange whereabouts were, she found the fact of being a unicorn again to be far more jarring.

Climbing out of bed, Twilight set her hooves down on the floor, which made a strange clacking sound. It wasn’t a sound she was accustomed to, but neither was it unfamiliar. She knew it as the sound of crystalline flooring, not unlike what adorned Cadance and Shining Armor’s palace. But that didn’t make a lot of sense unless….

Twilight lit her horn with a quick spark of magic. Portraits and satin curtains decorated the walls and windows, but Twilight could clearly make out the white walls and large crystalline pillars that made up her surroundings. Racing to a large curtain, she threw it open with her magic and passed through the doorway into the balcony outside.

Sure enough, Twilight looked out upon the world and saw countless jagged, crystalline houses silhouetted in the dark of night. “The Crystal Empire?” she asked herself. “How did I get here?”

“Mmm?” Twilight heard a voice behind her, and for the first time, she turned to see the other occupant who had shared the room with her. “What time is…oh, for pony’s sake. Twilight, darling, the sun hasn’t even risen yet. Be a dear and come back to bed.”

Comments

[Yami Vizzini]

“Uh, there’s a lot of Cloudsdale,” Rainbow Dash interrupted.
Flatly, Rarity added, “Yes, one does not simply search Canterlot.”

images.moviepilot.com/image/upload/c_fill,h_470,q_auto:good,w_620/moreomir-boromir-was-one-of-the-most-noble-characters-in-the-lord-of-the-rings-and-here-s-why-jpeg-261549.jpg

If this means we take a break from Fluttershy being the first one to notice something and getting talked over, it's just as well.

And now I feel sorry for the Twilight construct.

Darn it, don't make me start squeeing over Raritwi when I'm probably not supposed to!