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A Scarlet Harvester's Safe Passage1,282 words
A New World Holds New Companions...5,140 words
…And New Challenges2,674 words

…And New Challenges

Author's Note:

First things first, the med terms I was referring to last chapter:
-Coloboma is a prenatal ocular abnormality manifesting as a gap in the eye due to missing tissue in one of the eye structures, from the retina to the optic nerves. It usually appears as a keyhole-shaped pupil, but it can make the eye look slit.
-The sclera is the white of the eye. It can be discolored in various ways, but what Celestia and Luna were talking about was the blue tinge of osteogenesis imperfecta, which usually stems from collagen deficit or malformation.
-Proteolysis is the breakdown of proteins into polypeptides and amino acids. Abnormal proteolysis is associated with many diseases, such as pancreatitis, muscular dystrophy, degenerative skin disorders, and malignancy. It wouldn't be hard to interpret a homunculus' cellular breakdown from lack of ambient magic as abnormal proteolysis at a cellular level.

“Any last words?”

She thought for a moment, then shook her head. There was nothing left to say.

He shrugged, and pulled down the lever.

Twilight felt the floor disappear beneath her, felt the noose tighten as she hung, and as she gave her last breath, she-

Twilight sat bolt upright and screamed like the devil had jabbed a white-hot pitchfork in her foot.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The breath once more filled her lungs as she gasped and panted at the nightmare.

The screaming, of course woke her bedmate.

"Another nightmare, Twilight?"

Hyperventilating, Twilight slowly calmed her breath and nodded, to Sunset’s dismay. “Sweet Celestia, this is some major trauma. Even in the same bed, you’re tossing and turning with ‘what if’s’ and ‘if only’s’ terrorizing your dreams. And before you ask, Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna can’t reach across the dimensional boundary since this world doesn’t have magic to speak of. If your Element was in the wrong hands, it might cause a magic surge, but right now, it’s nothing but the annals of your mind imagining.”

Twilight sighed. “This time it was actually being hung.”

Sunset laid a hand on her shoulder. “Better than being saved, only for Celestia to distrust you and cause you to lose all your faith and fall to your death. At least it ended quickly this time.”

Twilight clutched her neck. "Yeah... clean snap is better than the feeling of asphyxia any night."

In another head...

Rarity woke up on a cold stone floor.

Strange, she thought as she looked around, this isn't the loft. And I'm certain I put on my pajamas, so why-

Her musing was interrupted, however, by a strangled choke from behind her. She turned to look... and was horrified at what she saw.

There, behind her, she saw a skeleton in shambles over a wooden donkey of sorts, bound on each limb by chains; the arm chains going into the ceiling, the leg chains going into the floor.

Most unnerving of all, however, were the single sapphire in its orbital cavity, the fractured hands... and the wedge clear through its jaw.

"Oh, my," Rarity said as she inched closer, removing the wedge from her skull's jaw - for it was a woman, she pieced together from the elliptical, if bisected, pelvis - and setting it back into place. "Who did this to you?"

"...hide!," the skull choked out as Rarity heard footsteps down the hallway.

Thinking on instinct, Rarity ducked under a shadowed table and quieted her breathing. Not long after, something glided into the room.

What it was, Rarity couldn't tell, but it was obscured with clouds, and spoke with a distorted, if feminine voice.

"I feel an intruder in this place," it spoke, its very words sending shivers down Rarity's spine. "Familiar, yet obscured... No matter. I'll show them what I do to weeds."

With that, the presence left, and Rarity breathed a sigh of relief before going back to the skull.

"Fancies herself a gardener," the skull spoke. "Took my eye, broke my jaw, and broke me over that wedge."

"I'm terribly sorry," Rarity spoke in horror. "I don't suppose I can do something?"

"...the throne and my eye," the skull spoke. "Bring me the eye she took from me, in the upper throne room. Once I have myself back together, the door with the starburst will open. Reassemble my bones over the throne with the diamond symbol, and I may be able to answer your questions."

Realizing that the only one with the answers was the skull, Rarity swallowed her fear and said, "Alright, darling. I will."

Another stealth game segment you have to imagine.

As the last piece of the skeleton's hand slotted into place, the footsteps of the Gardener thundering in her head, the skeleton's sapphire eyes glowed with prismatic light, and as the Gardener turned the corner, she was caught in the blast.

"NO! HOW DID YOU FREE THAT WEED?!," the shadowy figure cried out as the bleak ruins of the castle faded into a void of pure black, the only notable thing being a table with seven seats around it.

At the other side of the table, a bright figure was encased in a crystal around a seat with a starburst, a dragon sitting imperiously in the small seat beside her.

As Rarity marveled at the table, the dragon leapt toward the skeleton behind her... though the wooden throne had yet to fade as the skeleton rubbed her wrists.

As she got up and the dragon nuzzled her, however, her bones were wreathed in a bright light, wisps of violet trailing as she, now identical to the figure in the crystal, sat in one of the seats.

"Thank you, darling," the figure addressed in a lilting tone. "I trust you had no outstanding issues with the Interloper's little test?"

"Interloper?," Rarity questioned as she noticed faint cracks in the crystal prison. "Whatever do you mean?"

To her surprise, it was the dragon who spoke, in a voice that belied his size. "The Interloper imprisoned the spirits of five of the Gardener's victims in that nightmare, along with the power they held, to test five 'trusted mirrors' in your world."

He then turned to the crystal. "That is Magic, my former caretaker's power, sealed when the spirits were imprisoned and trapped in nightmares of worlds that could have and would have been. The Interloper's elder released her mortal self from imprisonment to enter your world, and they themselves contacted one other person in your world to shelter her as she heals from her wrongful persecution."

Turning back to Rarity, the creature said, "I take some blame. My message for help, written as I lay dying, was misconstrued, and the only evidence accounted for. However, that is not why you are here. You are here to shoulder a mantle, a mantle that will lead you on a journey you may not want to take, but which has lived within you as your truest aspect."

Rarity turned to the woman, who manifested a massive geode, then cracked it down the middle and produced a lozenge amethyst from it that shone against her and shifted her image into a visage Rarity was far from unfamiliar with.

As Rarity gaped, the woman - or rather, Rarity - giggled. "I suppose it is rather much to take on. Why, when I received Generosity for using my mane to repair a sea serpent's moustache, I was surprised too."

The Other Rarity's eyes then glowed as she spoke. "I, Rarity Belle of Ponyville, forswear this power, this Element of Harmony unto thee. May you not abuse this generosity, and instead show it in kind."

The amethyst then floated to Rarity, phasing into her, and her dopple smiled as she faded back into a blank figure and said, "These powers are now yours... but they are not yet useable. This power that existed in our realm does not yet manifest in yours. Until the last spirit takes their seat and forswears their Element, this power remains dormant save for the astral realm we find ourselves in, a pocket of dreams impregnable to their mistress. Know this, however... I shall be with you in the jewel he delivered. Now, use this power and waken!"

Rarity nodded, finding a wellspring deep inside that blossomed into violet light, cascading into a band of purple that rent the void... and as it went silent within her, she woke up in her bed, in her pajamas.

Wiping sleep from her eyes, she noticed a box with an origami horse by it on her dresser. Getting up to open it, she found a lozenge-cut amethyst in a pendant on a fine chain of gold and some sort of blue metal.

Realizing it could have only been the Interloper, Rarity unfolded the horse delicately, revealing a delicately written note that said,

Dear Rarity,

Congratulations. You released your other self's spirit from my labyrinth.
Here's something to consider; Was Pinkie really the one saying she had all the help she needed?
Enjoy the Element. Next on the list, someone will be holding their tongue... in a somewhat literal manner.

-S_____ _____K__

P.S: Hold on to that signature. You'll need it when all the pieces come together.

Deciding to keep her letter in the box where the necklace was, she donned it - it was quite a stylish piece, after all - and set about getting dressed.

In another world...

"She's gone, Princess Luna," Shining Armor said. "Even I couldn't say where she went."

"So what you are telling Us," the princess balked, "is that not only did the traitor steal the Elements of Harmony from Our vault, but you cannot muster the slightest idea of where she could have run to?!"

Moonlight Blood, Luna's personal guard captain, reluctantly nodded. "We detected no unauthorized ponies near the cells, no citizens of Ponyville reported her taking refuge in her old haunts, her family has been truthful that they do not harbor her, and our lines of questioning in Vanhoover and Manehattan have turned up no leads. Whatever happened to Twilight Sparkle, ma'am, it's clear that there was no conventional way to do it."

Luna fumed for a moment... before growling. "You had best find results, captains! Aside your efforts, the only choice that is left to me is to use the Crystal of Chaos... and after the nightmares I suffered last time, I do not say that lightly."

The captains saluted and left, leaving Luna to slump down in her throne.

"Why didst thou have to obsess over running away with her, dear sister?," Luna griped. "Now you are to be locked away in the dungeons, and We must handle what you once did whilst thou gallivant in search of a murderer..."

At the school...

(Specifically, a few minutes before Twilight's first math class as a human.)

Sunset sported a rare nervous look as she stared at Twilight's eye twitching while she looked at the math teacher.

"Miss Shimmer," the teacher said, "would you mind me asking why your friend looks torn between throttling me and being polite?"

Ignoring Twilight's repeated muttering of, _{"it's not her, it is not her, don't blow it, do not throttle your math teacher,"} Sunset sighed and said, "You know that scene from Lonsdaleite is Eternal, where Double Bonded has to work out the real Blowhard?"

Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. "Yes...?"

"Well," Sunset said, "the Garden Murders that Twilight survived had a lookalike of you as the perpetrator. Real piece of work, she was. Killed her whole class, all of Twilight's friends, and her baby brother. Faces like that get burned into your mind, especially when you end up throttling them yourself with hysterical strength."

"Oh!," Cheerilee said in realization. "Well, rest assured, miss Sparkle, I haven't the slightest inclination to such brutality. The only bad weeds in my opinion are stray dandelion flowers, and even if I had the slightest inclination, I have much more healthy and legal outlets for my frustrations, including a suite of therapists to help me prune such impulses!"

She then turned to Sunset and said, "That said, Sunset, didn't you schedule any therapy sessions for her to visit?"

Sunset looked sheepish, scratching her head as she said, "There aren't that many appointments open in the local clinics, and I especially don't know any therapists qualified to treat a PTSD case... especially not with almost everybody on the streets being a dead ringer for someone Twilight knew before."

Cheerilee gaped, but before she could pry further, the bell rang, and the math class filed in.

After math class...

"Well?," Sunset asked Twilight.

Twilight sighed. "I am so glad we managed to explain that lookalike scenario to Cheerilee... and even more glad that you stopped me from experiencing another psychotic episode because of her appearance."

Sunset nodded, but before she could leave, Rarity called, "Yoo-hoo? Twilight?"

The girls turned to Rarity... only for Twilight's eyes to focus in on what she was wearing.

"That's... a very nice necklace, Rarity," Twilight stammered out, to which Rarity replied, "Yes, it is rather mysterious. It showed up on my nightstand just this morning, but not before the most peculiar nightmare last night!"

"What kind of nightmare?," Sunset asked as Twilight noticed a faint shimmer in the necklace's amethyst.

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know, miss Queen Bee?," Rarity retorted acidly.

"I'd definitely like to know, too, Rarity," Twilight said, but before Rarity could react, another familiar face cut in.

"Howdy there, Twilight!," a tanned girl with a green and white T-shirt said, which drew Twilight's attention away from the necklace and onto the visage of another old friend; Stetson hat, eyes that shone like emeralds over freckled cheeks, and the very same country drawl she had come to count among her best friends.

"Well, howdy do, miss Twilight! A pleasure makin' your acquaintance! I'm Applejack. We here at Sweet Apple Acres sure do like makin' new friends!"

"Uh... you okay there, sugarcube?," Applejack said, and Twilight realized she was crying with her Element held to her chest again.

"Oh, my," Rarity said. "Another commonality, dear?"

Twilight nodded, and after a whisper from Rarity, Applejack pulled her into a hug and said, "Shoot, girl. Nobody could fake bein' that choked up about a familiar face. Sorry for draggin' up bad memories. You wanna sit down in the Cafeteria?"

Twilight sniffled. "I'd... I'd like that, Applejack."

As the two girls headed off, Rarity glared at Sunset, and the two retired to a dark hallway.

"I don't know what you intend to achieve with your nice girl act, Shimmer," Rarity berated, "but that girl is not another pawn for you to shape as you see fit!"

"Don't you think I know that?!," Sunset shot back. "I was initially interested in that gemstone of hers, and whoever sent me some weird message handed her to me on a platter, but despite what you think, Belle, I'm not so callous as to abuse a girl who just lost everything to an accidental self-framing! I want her to heal before I spring the false friendship on her."

"Why, to make it hurt more?" Rarity snipped, to which Sunset angrily but quietly said, "No, because while I don't regret my actions, I know better than to kick somebody when they're at their lowest point. I didn't have friends or a brother, but I don't threaten others with their confidants' safety just for a shiny prize."

Rarity, still mad but chastened enough, backed off while Sunset went to rendezvous with Snips and Snails.

Unheard by Rarity, Sunset whispered one thing. "You and your old friends better care for her, Belle. She'll need a foundation after I pull the rug out from under her."

At the Cafeteria...

"That Sunset's bad news, Twi," Applejack said. "I know she helped pick you up, but there ain't many people here willing to look past the rep of the Fire Devil of Canterlot High."

"She gave me the 'temper bomb' spiel, AJ," Twilight said. "I'd seen worse anger on Vice-Principal Luna's face... and the face of my plaintiff in the farce trial."

Twilight shuddered, and Applejack pat her on the back. "There, there, sugarcube, it wasn't your fault. You got served a rotten bushel, and you made the most of the water they put on the side."

The reassurance made Twilight sniffle with joy, and she replied with, "Thank you, Applejack. My farmer friend always knew how to comfort me like that, too."

Applejack couldn't help but smile. "You're welcome, Twi."

Her smile was cut short, however, by a mysterious text.

???: Poking at the truth, and still blinded by a lie.
???: We'll see how you handle the unvarnished details in a few nights.
???: Don't go to pieces, Applejack. You might have to hold your tongue soon.

Applejack frowned, but decided against answering what she figured was a set of spam texts.

Of course, from the crowds of other students, a man made a pattern of snaps unheard by the masses.

Snap. Snap-snap. Snap. Snap-snap. Snap. Snap-snap. Snap. Snap-snap.

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