Tapestry: A World Apart

by Star Scraper

Ch.12: Rest and Reconnaissance

If Twilight had been more intimately familiar with the room, or had powerful memories there, it would've been easy. But since she'd only just seen it, it took great focus. She held a hoof on Pinkie while her horn glowed with charging magic.

Twilight pictured Astilbe in her mind – the pony who looked as perfect a copy of Pinkie Pie as the Mirror Pool clones – and pictured her in the room she'd shown her. She imagined in her mind again the walk from the stage where Pinkie was currently laying, down the stairs backstage and through the hall, and left into that room, again imagining Astilbe inside, and wanting to appear just a few yards in front of her – and she fired the spell.

The backstage around her and Pinkie was instantly replaced with the storage room of science equipment meant for shows of awe. Applejack and Astilbe were waiting inside. Astilbe was still in her plain, dull-yellow dress. Applejack's mane was now bundled in her hairbands, and her lasso was still coiled over a shoulder and ready for action.

If her friend wasn't critically wounded, Twilight would've been bouncing across the room to look at all the strange contraptions and apparatuses inside. But as it was, the fatigue from the stress showed under her eyes, and her unicorn friend was still missing in a strange city with a black sky that was terrified of unicorns. All the while it was early morning and she still hadn't slept, but she'd hardly even noticed the missing sun.

“There she is!” Astilbe greeted, looking at her exhausted reflection. “Lookin' great, Pinkie.” She skipped right past her towards the door, then turned to the Equestrians. “You all wait here for just one sec! You really need some clothes! Just sit tight! And appreciate the wood floors! Just like the stage, only a century and a half old! It's AMAZING!” She disappeared through the doorway.

Twilight and Applejack just looked at each other, then down at the old, creaky wood floor, then back at each other.

“Well, if she wasn't on our side, she wouldn't have hidden us from those ponies, so...” Twilight reasoned.

“Forget that,” AJ replied, her voice full of awe, “just what in tarnation is up with her bein' Pinkie Pie? You know that's Pinkie, even if she calls herself 'Astilbe'.”

“I don't know, but she seems to know what's going on, and work here.” The alicorn finally took a minute to turn and look over the room. There were drawers and dressers, a vanity, and a few carts and machines she couldn't make sense of all around the walls. “There's a lot of big machines here, though. I wonder if we could re-arrange them so if anypony comes in they don't immediately see Pinkie?”

“She said they were important for somethin', ask her.” Applejack approached their injured friend lying on the floor, sympathy and worry in her voice. “Is it still hurtin', Pinks?”

Her eyelids were halfway down as she laid on her back. “A – a little, but...” she shifted a little bit, then cried out and clenched her teeth. “Okay, lots of 'little's! A whole bunch-many 'little's until it's a whole lot!”

Twilight snapped around and did a quick teleport right up to her, “don't move! Just try to hold still. We'll -” she glanced around the room again “- we'll find something to make you more comfortable.”

“More comfortable comin' right up!” Astilbe's voice sounded from the doorway as a huge mattress fell through it with a loud thump, making the two standing ponies spin around and even the injured one prop her head up. Astilbe quickly followed the mattress in, blankets and sheets and a pair of bulging saddlebags all piled on her back. She bit a strap on the mattress and started dragging it into the room.

Pinkie moaned on seeing it. “I – I can't just lie here while you rescue Rarity...”

“It's alright, sugarcube,” the farmhorse gently comforted, “you more than done your share, just rest now and be here when me'n Twi get back with Rarity, okay? Why – I dunno all that happened back there, or what those weapons were exactly but you saved our lives, didn't you?”

Twilight's ears perked and she turned to her friends. Her eyes were wide, but not for the reasons they might have guessed. Oh no, she remembered. She – she got shot for nothing! I was charging a barrier spell that could've protected us. Would it have held, though? Should I even tell them?

Well, she really might've saved our lives if the shield didn't hold, but it probably would have?... “She... probably did,” she confirmed. “Pinkie, you -” for a brief moment, she almost explained the whole thing, but went with her simplification, instead. “You probably just saved our lives.” Excitement and glee popped into her voice as she found a wording that was entirely honest and gave her friend the credit she deserved, “You literally took those bullets to save us! I'd say you deserve some rest!”

What would she learn if I told her she threw my concentration off a barrier spell, anyways? Not to save our lives? That all her pain is for nothing? I don't know that. Maybe she did save our lives, anyways.

“I – I did? I did!” The pink pony's blue eyes watered and she smiled again. “T-thanks for saving me back, is all.”

For a brief moment, she was confused. “I – I did!” Twilight intentionally echoed her friend's wording as she realized what she'd done. As horrifying as the experience had been, it began to dawn on her, not the horror that she'd reached in her friend's torn insides to save her life, but the realization she'd saved her life.

Pinkie wasn't only alive because of a horrifying, bloody, unpracticed emergency surgery she was unqualified to even try.

Pinkie was still alive because of her.

She felt her lip curl, and her own eyes water. “Oh, Pinkie, I guess we both saved each other, didn't we?”

They fell into a gentle group hug around the pony on the ground, careful not to move or shift her.

Astilbe finished setting the bed in the corner and turned to the Equestrians, hopped in surprise, and bounced over with a grin and joined the hug, “and I did something, too, right? Wait, did I? Aw, I don't think I did...”

“A'course you did! You brought us somewhere safe!” AJ touted.

“Oh, right, I guess I did!” Astilbe beamed as the Equestrians welcomed her.

“Okay,” After a moment with the newcomer, the group hug broke apart and Twilight turned to the others. Her horn charged, she pulled the sheets and covers over the bed and teleported Pinkie onto it, then gently set the blankets back over her.

Astilbe stood between Twilight and the bed and watched the telekinesis with fascination, only a tracking ear turned backwards letting Twilight know she was listening as the alicorn spoke, “whatever medical expertise you can get on her without getting anypony in trouble would be great. Whatever's going on here, obviously the official, uniformed ponies we met were less than friendly, but you're very friendly, so are there others like you who will help us?” she asked.

Astilbe turned to her now that the magic display of setting Pinkie in bed was over. She was biting her lip. “Eh. You just put a naked pony in our stage bed. We like to keep it clean. We could've at least put her in some underwear, first...” she whined.

She then popped open her saddlebags and threw a huge pile of clothes at the pony's hooves. “You two, get dressed! I'll watch over my lookalike, of course! To answer your question, yes. But there's not many, and they can't let anypony else know they're friendly to you. There's not many here in Delphi, at least. I hear way off in The Abyss there's unicorn remnants in the mountains, though, and even a huge pan-racial city right in the middle of the continent called Bastion, up on Canterlot mountain. And sorry but I really can’t help but ask – why do you all have tattoos on your flanks?”

“You mean our cutie marks?” Twilight asked.

Given how friendly and helpful their host was being, there was no reason to deny her request for them to dress, so they set to it.

“They're called cutie marks?” Astilbe echoed. “Oh – no, you put these on first, they go under the other clothes, it's called underwear...” she corrected them as they were dressing.

They were too distracted to bother asking why, so they just complied.

“Yeah, cutie marks just kinda magically appear when you find your calling in life – don't you get them here?” AJ asked.

Come to think of it, every pony we’ve seen has been wearing clothes that hid their flank...

Astilbe shook her head, wide-eyed. “Nuh-uh! That sounds kinda freaky – like magic everywhere all the time, just waiting to tattoo your back end? Then again – I really need to get over my fear of magic. I'm sorry, it's just kind of hard to get over after so many years here. It's... Mesmerizing, amazing, but also scary...”

Twilight spoke as she finished dressing, “well, then that means the ambient magic in Equestria doesn't exist here. I guess that's not too surprising... So, you said there are others who will help us? If I leave Pinkie here, can you keep her safe with them, then? And Applejack?”

“Yes! But I didn't say there were others here! But I can take care of these two,” Astilbe answered.

AJ froze halfway through buttoning a shirt on to face her alicorn friend. “Hey – what? I'm comin' with you, –”

“No. And that's final.” Twilight finished putting a foreleg through a sleeve of some dress she found, and met her friend's determined glare. “We wouldn't be in this mess in the first place if I was just -” she kicked a hoof on the floor.

“Careful with the wood floor!” Astilbe interjected.

“- if I was just more assertive about making up my mind and hiding that book!” she finished.

“Twi, both the princesses themselves said you had to read it!” Applejack replied, meeting her friend's solidness with her own.

“Well -” the alicorn doubted, then shook her head “- we can worry about that later, but for now, I'm putting my hoof down about you coming with me to get Rarity. I know I promised to take you here – well, I have. And I'm sorry but I really shouldn't have brought either of you here, actually. This – you saw what happened to Pinkie, this is unlike anything we've faced before. And when it comes down to it, I can fly, shoot beams of energy, throw up shields and teleport, and there’s no harmony magic in this land! Or at least there’s no cutie marks, so something is terribly different and wrong here, as if that wasn’t obvious enough...”

Applejack met Twilight’s determination with her own, leaning foward and spreading her forelegs like she was preparing to fight. “No, Twilight! You were like this back when we went to fight Nightmare Moon but remember it took all’a us! I thought you knew better!”

“And we don’t have all of us! I -” Twilight bit her lip and turned her head for a moment, taking a sharp breath in before continuing, “Maybe I saved Pinkie but it’s my fault all this is happening in the first place and I’m not going to let that happen to you, too! I’ll keep you here by force if I have to, because I’m not - I’m not letting that happen again! Rarity, and now Pinkie Pie - this is enough!” Tears were fresh in her eyes again and her breathing was ragged. “And - and we don’t even know if Rarity’s alive!”

The other two standing ponies were wide-eyed at her.

Twilight continued, “I’m only going out there because we need to find Rarity, but...”

Astilbe turned to both of them and spoke up, “Is Rarity the name of that white unicorn with a blue-purple mane in a black cloak that came by the street I found you two at, earlier? I was actually along there to see if there was anything special about the place as to why she showed up there. Hah, I was even better than the police at cracking that case of figuring out where she appeared in the city! Either that or you didn't show up in the same place, or they just didn't think it was significant, which would be odd – but then again why would -”

“Yes! Well what happened to her!?” “What the hay happened!?” Twilight and AJ both interrupted her back at the same time.

“Yeah! What happened?” Pinkie's weak voice followed from the bed a second later.

“Well... Word is she was shot and captured.” Astilbe hesitantly answered. “But the rumors about these kinda things are usually lies, so... Maybe she wasn't?” she offered some thread of hope.

Twilight's wings flared as her face was smacked by a distraught look.

“Well how do we find out?” Applejack eagerly asked.

Astilbe explained with an unsettling nonchalance, “Well, that's really not that easy... Sometimes they'll take some random other prisoner and scrape their forehead real bad to make it look like they removed a horn and have them executed, saying it was the unicorn, and they can find one that looks surprisingly similar to the real one that was in the dome. I'm honestly really surprised if she got away, though. They should've been able to catch this kind of thing, that's exactly what the dome guard and police are for, surely there’s something going on about this...”

“That's our friend y'all're talkin' about!” The farmhorse's nostrils flared, her body lowered in an aggressive stance.

“Woah, easy, friend, didn't we just have a nice hug?” Astilbe waved a hoof defensively at her.

“I think we're all just – shocked and upset right now,” Twilight diffused the situation. Though she was still clearly frazzled, she could feel her planning side of self starting to take control again. “You helped us – you do care, don't you? - and how do we find out what happened to Rarity, or where she is?”

“O-of course I care!” the local pony stammered in surprise. “Why'd you think otherwise? Oh – wait, my tone? I guess I didn't convey concern very well...” she scratched her chin, perking an eyebrow and looking up, then looked back at her guests. “Well, you should know,” - she brought a hoof proudly to her chest and sat on her haunches - “I am risking my life just talking to you three. They'd take me to town square if they knew I was doing this – especially helping you! Why, I'd be the real star of the show, what, saving my doppleganger and all.” She glanced at Pinkie.

Worry came across Astilbe's face. “Come to think of it, I should probably hide with her for awhile, at least until we can find out if they're looking for me or not. Trust me, I live on that stage – I guess it'd be fitting if I died on a stage, too, but I'd really rather not.” She put a hoof on her neck, tugging at the collar of her dress, grinning and laughing uneasily.

“As for your friend, me and – uh, myself and I – have been trying to investigate just what happened. But the reports are always so full of lies, and random panicked ponies aren't very helpful, and then you gotta be careful in how you go about asking questions...” She sighed. “So far we haven't been able to piece together exactly what happened but – I am on the case! Why don't you three just wait here and I can go take a look –” she turned and started walking out of the room as she spoke.

Twilight just furrowed her brows, some suspicion of what she meant coming to mind. But before she could say anything, Applejack cut Astilbe off as she turned to leave. “Now hold on! Don't go runnin' off before we come to any conclusions.”

“Uhm...” at her objection, Astilbe turned and faced them again, nervously freezing.

“So, what you're saying is, you're still gathering information? Well, so are we. And I guess we won't be much help without knowing anything about this place. It looked like a pretty big place to get lost in. Will your methods be better than just searching for her?” Twilight asked.

“Mhm, definitely!” she answered and nodded, “Your friend is either out of the dome, hiding deep in some building somewhere we can't get to, or in a prison. And no matter which of those it is – just searching won't find her. By now, she's either safe somewhere, or practically already dead...”

Pinkie piped in from her bed, her voice more sharply awake than before, “You said they'd do some stuff to you for helping us – uh, 'take you to town'? And something about being a star and dying on a stage? Is that what they'd do to Rarity? Kill her on some stage?”

Astilbe's tone turned thoughtful again. “Well, I guess they wouldn't kill me on stage, so much as I'd be – I dunno, hanging over it? A few inches into it?” She stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth and tilted her head, “Bluegh” then sat back upright, her pupils shrinking for just a moment, “but I'm really not into the kinda stuff they do before that to the unicorns. Not my kinda thing!”

The local's tone suddenly turned frantic, “Would they do that to me if I got caught helping you three!? I was helping a pony who was helping a unicorn, is that direct enough to be considered a 'close ally' rather than 'consorting with'?” The fear was quickly wiped away. “But let's just not think about it and just avoid getting caught, okay?”

“Speak sense, Astilbe!” the farmhorse demanded, her tail jerking side to side in agitation.

“They'd hang me, okay!” She huffed in frustration. “Maybe even torture me on-stage in front of everypony first so they can all get their hate and rage off on me even more when I die – not my kinda gig, okay!? They put you up on a raised stage, there's a big cross-beam over your head, they tie a rope around it and a slipknot at the other end, they tie you up, put you on a trapdoor on the stage, the slipknot around your neck, and open the trapdoor so you fall through and hang by your neck! And you have a coil of rope around your chest so I know you know what rope is!” She bristled, even more frustrated than Applejack was.

“That's horrible! No wonder you didn't want to say all that!” Pinkie commented from her bed, her face pitifully stricken.

“Oh. Well then,” AJ's aggression was gone, replaced by surprise. Her ears flopped down to the sides of her head. “I – I mean I heard they used to do that kinda thing back before Celestia had Tartarus to send the worsta' the worst, to, but...”

“CELESTIA!?” Astilbe hopped in place. “Really, where are you three from!? Celestia as in the mythical ancient alicorn that Clover the Clever described!? Who ruled over a unified Equestria before she banished her sister and fell into depression and her kingdom fell apart and The Great Winters began?”

They all blinked in surprise at the sudden news.

“Well, duh.” Pinkie answered. “It's not like there's more than one 'Celestia'.”

Twilight eagerly stepped forward. “Yes, but – you mentioned Clover the Clever – so you're describing the events of the first Hearth's Warming? The Interregnum of the Princesses?”

“'Interregnum'? No, she just fell from power. Unless wherever you're from –” just as quickly as she lit up, she stopped, caught in thought for a long moment. Then she continued, “then how did you get here? Where are you from?”

Applejack looked around her companions uneasily, “Look, I dunno if we really got time to chit-chat. Twi told me to stay here with Pinks, but she can't just stick around and talk.”

Twilight shook her head, “No, obviously flying around out there isn't going to get much done. However Astilbe does it, I think she’s right, we need the information she knows about this place and how to find Rarity. You saw the city out there, and how they responded to us. Either Rarity's found other friendly ponies or she's way out there somewhere, and we don't even know which way to look.

“Until we at least know what direction she's in, we're more likely to get further from her than closer by wandering around. And she might've even been captured. I'd like to find out whatever happened, then we'll know whether to even look for her or rescue her – and if we have to look for her, we'd need to know which direction to even go in so we don't just get further away. Odds are against us on that.”

AJ sighed, then sat down. “So what are we supposed to do, then? Have a slumber party down here while she's out there gettin' hunted an' hung?”

“Actually it's 'hanged' when referring to ponies,” Astilbe chimed in again.

AJ just growled at her.

“I'm not happy with it, either, but it's our only choice until we learn more,” Twilight asserted. “I gave you the reasons. Astilbe knows this place, we don’t, and it almost got Pinkie killed, so we’ve got to learn more before we go back out.”

“Twi, if AB went missin' we wouldn't be waitin' around for information, we'd be out lookin' for her!”

“This isn't a filly lost in the woods – and we shouldn't waste our time looking for her if she's in a dungeon and we need to find out and go rescue her,” Twilight replied. Her voice was level, but the hints of frustration were there.

The farmpony pursed her lips, thinking for a moment, then huffed. “Yeah. Okay. You got a point. I wouldn't want to go lookin' for her if she's in a dungeon. I guess we gotta figure out if she's captured or not, first, but I haven't got the faintest idea how we'd do that. But that doesn't mean I gotta be happy 'bout sittin' here and waitin' for Astilbe to find out...” she stewed, looking down at the floor.

“Me neither,” Pinkie added. “But Doctor Twilight knows best, I'm sure.”

“So... Given all this, don't you think it's fair you tell me at least where you came from?” Astilbe asked again with a nervous smile.

While AJ's tone was testy, she still gave a truthful reply, “Would ya believe us if we said we came from – uh – or that your whole world is inside a book?”

“This – it doesn't feel like the Haycarte's Method,” Twilight quietly objected, sitting down in an intense thinking pose. Everypony turned to her, so she started explaining, “Celestia and Luna spoke like this world would take us to another one, not that the other one wouldn't be real, but – then again, they weren’t explicit about that, and that time we got turned into Spike's Power Ponies didn't feel like Haycarte's method usually does, either. I guess – we probably are in a book? After all, there was that text on the book from when Rarity went in, and... Yeah, I guess we probably are.” She gave her old friend a disturbed look.

“Well, part'a me is comforted this isn't real but another part is really disturbed at just how real it feels...” Applejack's voice tapered off as her gaze deepened and she looked past the floor.

Astilbe just watched with growing confusion as they spoke.

“You think it feels real to you?” Pinkie couldn't help but add in with a moan. “Then again, this does feel really unreal to me, too...”

Applejack's shell-shocked face quickly melted away under a fiery determination as she looked back up at Pinkie as she spoke. She turned to stand and face her companions. “Look, whatever all that gets into – this I know – we need to save Rarity. 'cause obviously we can get hurt here, and I'd rather not find out what happens if we get killed in here. Even if it just pops us out, it's sure not to be very fun. If this is what gettin' injured does to Pinkie while ponies are tryin' to save her life -” she glanced back at her bedridden friend, “- I'd rather not see what it's like if Rarity got choked to death by some angry crowd, 'specially not after all she's been through with Sweetie Belle'n all. She needs us! So let's get to crackin' on this case! - uh, however we go about doin' that whole information thing.”

“Right,” Twilight nodded, “But, to tell the truth... That's not a safe bet.” She looked off to the side as she remembered her meeting with the high princesses. “Celestia and Luna spoke of this world like there was real, mortal danger, that it could kill us. They said that directly. That I’d…” die here, she mentally finished.

She faced Applejack again. I’m not telling them that. I can’t change it if reading the book was a death sentence. But… They said it was only the closest thing I could understand, so not literal? She felt a heavy dread. Maybe I die saving Rarity. But I don’t intend to let her die. “...That I might die here if I read it. So I think we can really die here. But I’d really rather not find out.”

“Are you saying I – and this world - aren't real?” Astilbe perked an eyebrow at them and tilted her head again, one ear folding back.

“Well...” Twilight started hesitantly.

“Well I feel real to me!” Astilbe put a hoof down, standing back up. “I'll only help you if you tell me you really believe this is real, okay? Because this is the real me! Not the actress Astilbe, not any of my characters – but the Cerulean who's gonna die in a public execution someday, or see the dawn come – one or the other.” She glared at them intensely, a flame sparking in her eyes. Her mane and tail seemed even poofier than usual.

“Okay.” Twilight nodded, meeting her resolve with finality in her voice. “This is real to us. If it's real enough to do that to Pinkie, it's real. And we've got a friend out there that we need to save from it. So how do we help find her?”

“Well...” Astilbe relaxed, looking down as she thought. She walked over to her doppleganger, then sat by her bedside, looking down at her, then back to her new friends. “For now, we just wait. I think – yeah, I'll trust you ponies with all of it. How you saved each other back there – and yeah, you even saved me when you took me with you, teleporting around – and if you were with the police somehow, I'm sure you would've taken me in by now even if just for my body – so yeah. I've got some friends.

“I kinda hid them a little, earlier... Really, me and they are on this case, not just me. And they are on it. They'll be back later tonight with what they've found out. I think it's best for everypony that you not see who they are – it's this thing the Ceruleans taught us called 'compartmentalization'. I should lie low for a bit until I can be sure they won't come for me because of Pinkie - the real reason I tried to walk out a minute ago is to meet them so they know not to come in here, so we can keep knowledge of each other compartmentalized. But when they're back... We'll learn a bit more about what happened to your friend. That much I promise I'll share. But we can't go out or you'll all just get shot again like Pinkie did. So until they get back and we can make a plan... Could you please tell me about this place you came from? Where apparently there's magic everywhere all the time? And about Celestia!?”