I.D. INJECTOR DOE
That Indestructible Something
By Chatoyance
═════════════════════
10. Belief Is Like A Guillotine
"A belief is like a guillotine, just as heavy, just as light."
- Franz Kafka
Two ponies, one large and white and glowing, the other small and yellow and dressed in denim waited for the light to change so that they could cross the street.
Gregoria shook her barrel to balance her saddlebags. She'd underestimated the weight of the two juice bottles filled with water in the right bag, which caused her saddlebags to slowly slide down on that side. It would probably make sense to just repack everything, put one bottle in each bag, but that would mean having to move the containers of oats, the muffins and all the other stuff. Gregoria had run to the convenience store down the block with money from Rachel's purse and bought a few things for the journey. They had decided they had no way to know where in Equestria they might end up on the other side of the bridge, so having water and food seemed wise. Also, they were both hungry again.
They had decided to leave just after dark, to minimize encounters and Rachel being seen. Rachel had removed all of her remaining Celestia jewelry - her neck circlet, her golden shoes - because she wanted it clear that she was not princess Celestia. If there was an Equestria on the other side of the Whinneysburg Bridge - both were calling it that now - then it must already have the real princess Celestia living there. The last thing Rachel wanted was to be seen as some kind of usurper or impersonator.
Gregoria had originally wanted to sell the royal Equestrian jewelry, arguing that this could spare them from having to walk the bridge. Gregoria was not keen on leaving the earth forever. "Rachel - come on! This, this shoe, right here, just this shoe could buy this entire apartment building! Do you have any idea how much gold this is? And the neck thing, that gem on it alone... you could buy the rest of the block and two more besides! You don't need a job! We have a fortune right here!"
"And how are we going to explain these things, huh?" Rachel was annoying when she was sensible. It ruined dreams. "Where did this much gold come from? Do you think something like all of this could just be sold without any publicity? And where, exactly would we sell it? Who to? Where do we say it all came from?"
Gregoria thought fast "You... had an uncle, a fabulous gay uncle who loved fancy jewelery and was also an explorer! He found the lost city of Teoten... Teonac... Somewhere-or-another in South America! He had no kids of his own, but you were his favorite niece so he gave it all to you when he died!"
Rachel laughed. "They'll want to know all about him. They'll ask my parents, they'll ask all of my relatives trying to find him!"
Gregoria grinned. "That's why I made him your gay uncle. See, your family are all religious nutbars and they never talk about your uncle because they're all bigots, but you alone were nice to him and that's why he left you the gold!"
"First, promise me you will never write fanfiction. Secondly, that would never work. Thirdly - even if anypony bought that story, gold dug up in foreign nations gets seized if anypony finds out. There are international laws and rules and treasure police. You can't get away with 'great explorer' stuff anymore, the days of Indiana Jones are gone, Greggy!" Rachel rotated the crown - Gregoria had fished it out from under the bed - and used her glowing yellow magic to stuff it into the pillowcase with all the other bits.
"Besides, my family weren't narrow bigots, you met them once - remember when my aunt Sylvia married her partner Lisa? You were there, or so I thought. You chowed down on the clam dip and threw up all over the..."
"Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah..." Gregoria's ears sagged and hung to the sides of her head. Her ears lifted just a bit "It was really good dip!"
"You're a really good dip." Rachel grinned and used her magic to try to tie a knot in the pillowcase to seal it. It wasn't working very well - she could lift things and move things, but trying to use a blob of light to tie a knot was troublesome. "It really would be awesome to be able to cash all of this in. I'm guessing it could be worth billions, Greggy, and that's probably a conservative estimate. This stuff is equivalent to the crown jewels of England, maybe more. And that's the problem..." Rachel frowned. "...there is no way to explain why any ordinary pony would have such a treasure. At best, we wouldn't end up in jail after years of being hounded about it. I don't think there is any way it wouldn't be confiscated as suspicious. We would never see a single shiny bit from any of it."
Gregoria watched, depressed, as Rachel finally managed to tie up the pillowcase that held the treasure. "We could take a hacksaw to it, sell little squares and..."
"No, Greg." Rachel used her magic to open her clothes hamper. She put the pillowcase filled with gold into the hamper and piled dirty laundry on top of it. "They'd question us about that, too. That especially, actually. Unless we went to some really scary place, and then we could have humans following us to get the rest."
"I still say we should take it to Equestria!" Gregoria stomped her hoof on the floor.
"And when we get taken to see the princesses, and we will be taken to see the princesses because - let's face it - I am Celestia's total double, how is also having copies of her royal stuff going to help? You want to spend your super-long pony life banished from Equestria, or thrown into a dungeon? Or banished and then thrown into a dungeon in the place that you're banished to?"
Gregoria stared at Rachel. "I bet you know all the words to all the songs, too, don't you?"
Rachel grinned. "Yup."
The light finally changed, so Gregoria and Rachel began to walk across the street. Since there was no way for Rachel to ride, the only way to get to the bridge was a long, long walk. It would probably take all night, though Rachel argued that it would be faster as ponies, and less tiring too. Gregoria had disagreed, saying that the hard concrete shocked the bones in her legs and made her hooves uncomfortable - the journey would be unpleasant no matter what.
Heading for the corner, both Rachel and Gregoria were glad to see that the few people out seemed to take no notice of Rachel, other than perhaps her size. They had come to the conclusion that she was probably being perceived as a very tall woman - Gregoria reasoned a tall, blond Norwegian woman, considering what Celestia looked like.
There was no clothing that could fit Rachel's huge form, so they had settled on Gregoria's original trick and hoped for the best. Rachel wore a dark blue tablecloth tied over her back like a cape, leather shoes attached with wraps of masking tape to her hind legs, a bedraggled, cut-open tee-shirt around her neck, and a baseball cap which her horn had been jabbed through. It was utterly ridiculous, but it seemed to work. The humans saw what they wanted to see, or more likely, what they needed to see to keep from screaming.
"Why do you like it so much? I mean, it's cute enough I suppose, and sometimes it's kinda fun - not Pixar fun, not Spongebob fun - but it's okay... what makes it worth actually wanting... this? What makes it worth actually wanting to be a pony for real? I don't see it." Gregoria leaned and shook her body again, re-seating her saddlebags for the umpteenth time.
"It doesn't. Not the show, really." Rachel studiously avoided eye contact with a pair of men in leather jackets passing them on the sidewalk.
"Huh? Wait a minute! You wanted, dreamed, of being a pony, right? I got that right, right?" Gregoria was confused.
"Oh, yeah. In a heartbeat. I almost got my wish. Almost." Rachel fell silent for a bit, while their hooves went 'clippity-cloppity' on the concrete. "But it isn't the show I love so much. My Little Pony is a great cartoon, I love it, but it isn't the heart of Equestria, it isn't the real magic. The real heart of Equestria is in the fandom. If you take the show as canon, then most of the really cool stuff isn't there. Equestria is barely better than earth in a lot of ways, and some of the episodes conflict with each other because not all of the writing is very good."
Gregoria made an ugly face as the strong smell of cooked meat filled their noses. The city was filled with smells neither of the two had ever truly noticed before. "So it's all the fanfiction stuff, then."
"Oh, yes, Greggy! Derpy Hooves, Doctor Who in pony form, Celestia and Luna as benevolent goddesses, Equestria as a perfect land, a pony heaven where ponies are always nice to each other and the scary stuff in the show only happens to the Mane six. That's what Richard and I loved, we loved all the stories about Equestria as heaven. He wrote a few, did you know that? He wrote about getting blown..." Rachel looked away as they walked. "...I ...I hope... stories can come true."
The silence and clippy-clopping became unbearable. "Hey - maybe... maybe we can buy a last meal before we cross the bridge, okay? Maybe we could have a snack, something really nice, before we go across? A last treat to remember earth with?" Gregoria felt like she would probably be very hungry by the time they got to the bridge, and the provisions in her saddlebags were supposed to be for surviving in Equestria until they could find a town or a city. Just in case they came out in a desert or something.
Rachel lifted her hanging head and nodded. "Sure. We'll use the last of my cash. Won't be needing it after today, anyway."
Suddenly Rachel stopped. "Wait." She looked around herself and then at Gregoria's saddlebags. "I never put on the little dangly purse. You don't have it in your bags, do you?"
Rachel had put all of her remaining bills and credit cards into an old-fashioned pouch on a long chain. It was something that would fit over her big Celestia neck. It wasn't on her neck now.
"No! Last I saw it, it was on the table in the kitchen, when we were taping the shoes to your legs."
Rachel looked back over her flank. "No money, no snacks. I want to save the packed stuff for Equestria."
Gregoria watched a car slow down as it drove past. Fortunately the men in it went on by. "We're only a block and a half. Let's just go back and get it. It's no biggie."
Rachel turned and began heading in the direction of her apartment building. "Sorry. I feel like an idiot. DERP!"
"Hey, it's no big, like I said." Gregoria followed behind and caught up to Rachel. Rachel could walk faster because of her long legs. "Wait up! Remember? Small pony!"
"Sorry." Rachel reduced her speed. "Oh no! What about keys! I never expected to go back!"
Gregoria grinned, just a little sheepishly. "I have 'em. Just in case. Just in case the bridge thing didn't work out."
That got a dirty look from Rachel, who was clearly betting the farm on the hope that the Whinneysburg led to Equestria. Then the look turned to relief. "Yeah... okay. Good idea, I guess."
The corner they had rounded was ahead. As the street that served Rachel's apartment came into view, so did the line of black, unmarked, windowless vans. They were accompanied by large, expensive black cars. All were parked in the middle of the street directly outside the apartment building. Rachel and Gregoria froze.
The lights were on inside Rachel's apartment. As they stood in shock, they could see human shapes moving behind the kitchen window by the fire escape. The humans were wearing black too, black turtlenecks from the look of it, and black sunglasses in the middle of the night.
Both Gregoria and Rachel began stepping backward, unconsciously, at the same time. "Come on!" They turned on their hooves and left at a fast, but not too fast pace, occasionally glancing back over their flanks at the receding scene. When the corner had been rounded, and the edge of the building blocked the view from the apartment, they both wordlessly broke into a gallop, Rachel ahead, and Gregoria doing her tireless best as a mere earthpony, to catch up.
──── ∆ ────
The black leather gloves had special inductance patches in the fingertips. Mr. Crown insisted that everyone use modified iPhones that he had 'fixed' himself. Supposedly they could not be traced or breached or recorded despite using Verizon. Not even the US Government's secret 'PRISM' system could listen in according to Mr. Crown. He claimed they were among the only truly secure phones in the world, and that only a very small number of people had anything like them. It was something built in, something only for those in the know. "Congratulations, sir, you are wise, you are handsome, and you dance well too."
Nadzieja felt clever saying that. It was an old Polish saying about having gold in the pocket. It was important to be serious on a job, but never grim. "About forty, maybe fifty kilograms, I would estimate. One gold crown with purple jewel, a large gold hoop with purple jewel, and four large gold drinking steins without handles. They were hidden in a pillowcase, inside a dirty-clothes basket."
Thibault held one of the heavy steins - they must be drinking steins, what else could they be - and stared at it like a dog hungry for meat. He hefted the weight of it, the mass of it, and whistled. "Now I know where daddy gets his money. Daaamnn."
Nadzieja nodded, still on the phone. "No, nothing else. It looks like a fast leaving, there is mess everywhere in the kitchen. I am thinking many men eating very much. All the food is gone." She gave Thibault a whack on the shoulder and pointed to the pillowcase indicating he should bag everything up again. "Yes sir. One final sweep and then we place package and leave. Yes sir, Bill is using iPad to photograph everything... yes sir, especially books and pictures on walls. Yes... one scrapbook, no diary. We think a woman lives here normally. Computer is already copied. Bill has done this. Of course."
"Guillaume." Strong, black-gloved hands scanned the room holding an iPad. "My name is Guillaume."
Nadzieja smiled. "Yes, as I said. Bill."
Guillaume shook his head. There was no reasoning with the woman.
When everything but the gold had been replaced as it had been before, Nadzieja set a shining object, tied with a bow, on the dining room table. She carefully placed the card. Guillaume struggled to lift the pillowcase sack full of golden artifacts, only to find the rip that had already started in it began to give way. He motioned to Thibault, and began stuffing the golden objects into the pack on Thibault's back, now empty because of Nadzieja's efforts.
Thibault groaned as they left the apartment.
"Stop complaining, baby, it's not every day you get to walk off with more than a hundred pounds of gold on your back!" Guillaume smirked - he wasn't the one having to haul the weight down the stairs.
"Unhh..." Thibault staggered as he descended the stairs. "At least the beer's good."
──── ∆ ────
Rachel was almost prancing as she crossed the Whinneysburg Bridge. She could definitely see it now, the real bridge under the illusion that humans perceived, and every bit of what she saw pleased her. Occasionally she would stop to just take in the view - not of the water, but of the bridge itself, of the gold and marble and jewels and precious inlaid stonework.
Because it was still night - though morning would soon arrive - there was a new feature that Gregoria simply hadn't noticed. Lamps. The bridge was lined with hanging lamps on elaborate fixtures, ovoid things made of some curious opaque yellow glass. They were large, at least a yard wide, and the smooth, curving surface was divided by metalwork done in an organic, vine-like style. Rachel said they looked like the lamp that hung off of Twilight Sparkle's library tree, though Gregoria couldn't remember it well enough for that to matter.
"It's never been pinned down what makes lights work in Equestria on the show." Rachel was the happiest Gregoria had seen her since her transformation. She was almost giddy now. "Faust herself suggested that magic would run everything, but there was that episode that had an electrical dam in it, and they've shown switches and buttons in several episodes. I don't agree with that, neither did Rick. We always went with magic."
Rachel stopped to study one of the lamps, which hung from a metal curlicue that grew out of the marble of the bridge. "Now a few fan authors have come up with little magical bugs, like fireflies, as the source of all lighting, and that's because it's been shown in some episodes, fireflies in jars for light, stuff like that. Rick liked that one. I bet there are magic insects in there!" The idea made the face of Celestia smile widely in the lamp light.
"Rachel?"
Rachel had moved on, Gregoria was following again, very conflicted but with nowhere else to go. Rachel looked back over her flank as she walked. "Yeah?"
"What do we do if this works? You got a plan, right? You've thought about this at all, or are we just winging it?" Gregoria thought for a brief moment and added "Only you've got wings, though."
"Ah... yeah." Rachel wasn't impressed by the comment. "I've thought about it. A lot, actually. Don't worry, everything will work out pretty easily. It'll be fine."
"Mind cluing me in?" Rachel hadn't turned into the character she resembled, not exactly, but it did seem that having such a grand and impressive alicorn body had made her act a little superior sometimes. Then again, maybe she was trying to convince herself that she knew what she was doing. Gregoria decided Rachel was more likely just whistling in the dark with her pronouncements.
"I figure that the bridge probably leads straight to Canterlot. That's the only place big enough to warrant a bridge like this. But if it doesn't it probably leads somewhere civilized. It would be pretty silly if it just opened out into the Everfree or some desert or something." Rachel nodded at a cluster of lamps near the middle of the arching bridge that were particularly large and elaborate. "Look at this thing, Greggy! This is designed, sculpted, created. I don't know by who or what, but this bridge is a work of art, and that means purpose is involved. It isn't some random thing. So it has to lead to some place, and not just... um, noplace. See?"
It seemed a large number of leaps of logic were involved with all of that, jet-assisted leaps at that, but Gregoria let it lay. "Okay then, so we end up in Canterlot or some other city. Then what? Just walk up to the nearest pony and say 'Pardon me, but we've just strolled in from another world, which way to the immigration center?'"
Rachel giggled at that. "No, no... we're already citizens of Equestria - we're ponies! We're not human anymore, we don't even belong on earth anymore. The only place with ponies like us is Equestria, we don't belong anywhere else!"
More rocket-car Darwin Award logic, but there was no point in arguing now. That could come later, after something terrible happened. Gregoria shook her head and sighed as they walked. At least that part of her human mind had survived transformation. Hopeless resignation was not a pony trait. "Then, granting all that, where DO we go. We'll need help, money, shelter... all kinds of stuff. We're just showing up with whatever is on our back! We're... 'earthbacks' without a green card!"
"Don't need a green card, silly. Like I said, we're already in, because we're ponies. We're going home, not to a foreign land. That - " Rachel stopped briefly and waved a hoof at the city they had come from "...is the foreign country. You're an Equestrian now, you'd better get used to it."
They walked in silence for a while. Then Rachel added "We'll just ask directions, then head straight to Canterlot castle. We'll present ourselves and ask to see the princesses. I think they'll let us in, considering me. Then we just explain everything, probably over tea and cakes. Then we find out."
Gregoria's ears perked up. "Find out what?"
"What made us ponies, of course! There has to be a reason for all of this. Maybe its Discord. Maybe Twilight messed up a spell. Maybe it's some... being... that isn't even part of the show, or even the fanfiction! Maybe Celestia is doing it for some reason. But if anyone knows, or can find out, it has to be Celestia, right?"
Gregoria plodded on, the end of the bridge was finally in sight. "If you say so."
It was a very long bridge, but the end finally came. It didn't look any different than the other side.
"Um... I'm not seeing Equestria." Gregoria had mixed feelings about this fact. On one hoof, answers and help would be very nice indeed. On another hoof, being stuck as a pony in magical ponyland wasn't exactly the worst possible thing, but it wasn't what she wanted, and it felt exactly like failure to her. She would have to give in, to just completely go native and be a pony simply to survive. The last of her humanity would only get in the way in Equestria. On a third hoof - if this didn't work, they were out of options. She kept her fourth hoof open, in the hope some idea or new hope might appear.
Rachel was clearly becoming upset, her voice sounded nervous, and her movements, previously grand and flowing, had become jerky and halting. "Um... I would have expected some change by now, I expected the view to sort of slowly change, but... that's not... maybe we have to cross some threshold or something." The thought seemed to cheer her. "That's it, it's probably like a flat barrier, like a wall, and it's invisible, and we just haven't passed through it yet!" Rachel began trotting to the stairs that led down from the bridge. "Come on!"
As they clopped down the echoing stairwell, Gregoria felt her heart begin to sink. This was not working out, only Rachel couldn't admit it yet.
"When we reach the bottom, we'll walk out into Equestria! I can feel it! We're nearly there Greggy!" Rachel sounded frantic now, she was trying to convince herself that her faith was real. She had constructed a religion for herself, and it was failing in the face of cold reality.
Then they were out, standing under the bridge, on urban sidewalk, in the light of early morning. They were beaten, they were hungry, they were thirsty.
And they were clearly in Brooklyn.
Gregoria briefly considered just heading home. Rachel was the only one really in the Everfree because of this. Gregoria knew she always had a bed with mom and dad. Rachel wanted to be a pony, well, she got her wish. Leave her to it.
The pony mind inside Gregoria reared up then and bucked her hard, right in the conscience. "SWIRL!" She couldn't abandon Rachel and her insane fantasies. It wasn't because Rachel had made her clothes, or let her sleep on the couch, it wasn't because Rachel was the only other pony in the world that Gregoria knew of.
She tried to fight it, she tried to do what she would have done if she were human. But her legs wouldn't move. Gregoria started to cry, tears running down her yellow muzzle. She couldn't leave, even though she had a home to go back to. Rachel's parents were gone, she didn't have a home to run back to, and Gregoria knew her parents wouldn't be willing to support Rachel for long.
The pony brain had won. All the 'Friendship Is Magic' pony swirl had finally won, it had beaten her. This was a sour deal, there was no solution for Rachel, she was a loss, this whole bridge thing was a failure, the sensible thing would be to part ways and there was no way Gregoria could do that.
Because Rachel was her friend and friends didn't ever abandon or betray friends.
"SWIRL!" Gregoria stomped her hoof. "SWIRL! SWIRL! SWIRL!" She couldn't even swear right because of the pony brain, and she couldn't do what she would have done as a human, and she couldn't be Gregoria Samson because now she was a pony and she had to take care of little miss precious princess over there and share her fate because pony friends stuck together no matter what. "SWIRL!" the tears made saying the infantile curse burble and distort.
A long, massive pony neck lay over her own. Gregoria felt herself being held tight by the large frame of Rachel's Celestia body. "Shhh.... shhh.... come on, let's head home. We'll figure something out. Come on. Come on Greggy." The voice was soft, motherly, kind beyond measure. This must have broken Rachel's heart utterly, yet there she was, thinking about her friend first. Rachel had been a pony before her body even changed. The last shred of humanity within Gregoria had just enough fight in it to be offended at that.
The key in Gregoria's left saddlebag was levitated out, wrapped in glowing, golden light. Gregoria stood silent, as she had been on the long, numb walk all the way back. It wasn't that she was physically exhausted, it took a lot to wear out an earthpony, though she was fairly sleepy. Rather, Gregoria was emotionally wrecked. The last two days had been fear, horror, confusion, hope, and finally, having that hope utterly crushed.
As they approached the apartment building, both had been alert for any sign of black vans or strange humans. There was no sign the bizarre invasion had ever occurred. Rachel just wanted to get into her apartment, and Gregoria was too destroyed to argue. Besides, they really had nowhere else to go.
There was a nervous moment when Rachel opened the door with a glowing blob of magic, but there were no lurking ninjas in the rooms. The door had been locked when they got there, and everything seemed untouched. The black vans and cars and humans in the window seemed like a dream. Maybe it had been. Maybe it hadn't really happened.
Then they saw it. On the kitchen table, surrounded by scattered oats and bits of carrot and wheat grass from their messy meal. A brand new iMac, tall and flat and shiny, with a metallic keyboard and a single, white, soap-shaped mouse. It had been built onto some kind of custom base, unlike anything either Rachel or Gregoria had ever seen - though to be fair, neither knew much about Mac stuff at all.
The base looked custom, tacked on. It wasn't corporate design. It had a light, it had power, it probably was power for the machine. The Mac was active, it was on, but it wasn't plugged into the wall or hooked up to anything external.
There was a note, a little card, set up near the flatscreen. The flatscreen had a bow around it, a pretty pink bow.
Rachel used her magic to lift the card. Gregoria had forgotten her funk with this development, this was truly bizarre and all she wanted now was to see what this was about.
Hello.
Please accept this little gift. It will allow us to talk.
I think you may find we have a great deal in common.
I have been watching you, not for long, just a day.
I have information about Richard, Rachel.
Or should I say - Celestia?
One Equestrian can always see another.
I look forward to being friends.
Friendship is magic, after all.- Malus Crown
Rachel lowered the card to the table, the golden glow fading from horn and card simultaneously. She quickly looked around, as if afraid she was being watched in the moment. Then she looked at Gregoria, a mixture of fear and wonder in her huge violet eyes.
"W-whaddya... what do you think?"
Gregoria stared back, stunned. "I guess... I guess we talk to the guy."
"How do you know it's a guy?" Rachel tilted her head slightly.
"It sounds like a guy."
"Okay." Rachel looked down at her hoof on the linoleum, and idly scraped a bit of carrot with her hoof. It had been a very messy meal. "Why?"
"He sounds like a creepy stalker."
Rachel blinked. "No, I mean... why should we talk to... this guy?"
Gregoria's ears sagged on both sides of her head. They were just flopped sideways, as if they had given up. "Got any more bridges?"
"...Um ... no."
Gregoria stepped forward and pressed her head into Rachel's tall neck, feeling the comfort of her warm, soft coat. "Then... we talk to the guy."
That picture is quite beautiful. Especially if you consider the ... practical design of the original.
Since you've spent so much time on proper terms, I figure I might as well say this- Celestia's 'necklace' is technically a torc, not a necklace. The rigidity is what makes the difference- a necklace is flexible, while a torc is rigid and solid, and usually made from a solid piece of metal.
And is also crazy uncomfortable.
2686774
Ah! A torc - thank you. I could not for the life of me remember that word. I've seen torcs in museum collections covered in celtic knotwork, I instantly remembered the moment you mentioned it... but last night when I was writing, nothing.
Alright. Let's talk to the guy.
I somehow imagined the bridge being far more elaborate.
Well, if this is how Crown makes his money (ha, crown!), then it looks like Luna or Cadance has already appeared. Hmm...
And alas, bridge was too easy.
Uh oh, that's one more lead that's fallen through... Fortunately when Celestia closes a (bridge) door, she opens a (browser) window. I liked the way it unravels for Rachel as she realizes it's just not happening. There was definitely a certain logic to it, and it was even a kind of "appropriate" magical-thinking logic, though at the same time it does feel too early in the story for them to be out of danger on Earth and off to Equestria.
Hmmmmmmmmm, I don't know what to make of Mr. Crown, exactly. I didn't have much clue as to his agenda before, but now I definitely am in the dark. Given that we've also got a rogue Celestia wandering about, I really have no idea what's going on, and that's just as exciting as you might think. It's fun that his employees aren't catching on, either - Not only do we get some dramatic irony to enjoy, we have their own enlightenment (dare I guess ponification!?) to look forward to.
The bridge is cool, much more streamlined and... "tasteful" than I imagined... I think I prefer the Earth version, though - The obviousness of the workmen's effort is what makes it shine, in kind of a "Clement Greenberg," early Modernist sense (understandable, given when it was built), where the artfulness isn't visual so much as conceptual: It's pure bridge, without any ornamentation or decorative materials to obscure its "bridge-iness."
Though of course, from a post-scarcity Equestrian point of view, that's just making a virtue of necessity.
2674645
Look who you've gone and made sad now...:
i.imgur.com/Y5qCFJH.jpg
2686774
I think it's technically a "peytral," which is chest/neck armor for a horse, and looks a lot like what Celestia and Luna wear. I only just found this out myself a couple months ago, but I'm going with it, because it so specifically points it out.
2688375
good theory
only bad thing is your saying the mac will suck them in. to equestria.
Well, dang. You tease. I half-expected that, but it was still mean.
Also, Greggy has the excuse, but did Rachel never read non-pony books either? I mean, seriously. "We've just demonstrated that this situation doesn't run on fanfic logic, my apartment was just trashed by the Men in Black, and one Malus Crown left behind a weird computer. Yeah, let's talk to this guy. Anyone with that name can't possibly be bad." Don't hit me.
Except we can't really dislike Mr. Crown since he treats his employees so well. The fruitloop has a god's damn'd 'PUPPY ROOM'. Purely evil being do not have a puppy room. I don't care what you say. On top of that, we know he isn't actually crazy.
Now, from Rachel's & Gregoria's standpoint, they don't know these things. All they know is that this guy has money & power, (an army of men in black suits, the custom PC rig); and that he is a pony as well, (he knows Rachel looks like Celestia).
Rachel just had what little hope she had, at all, crushed by reality. Then this guy comes along and gives them something to go off of. What did you think was going to happen?
2688757
Malus Crown isn't as ominous a name as you might think. You see, "malus" actually means apple.
Combine his name effectively being Apple King with his fondness for macs and his having faked his own death, I'd say the clues point to his being none other than Steve Jobs!
Which is still kinda scary, come to think of it...
2690144
*cough*
2689192
Except, Crown DOES treat his employees terrible, just he erases their memories after the fact.
Obviously, he's a changeling and the eternal love of a puppy is what sustains him.
2690371
While I do not condone the mind erasure part, Crown does seem to feel some kind of guilt because of this. Why else would he provide so many employee benefits?
2690144
This theory has me sold!
I am pretty amazed at your art, you are so very talented. I didn't expect the two groups to make contact so soon but it makes things more interesting.
It feels like Gregoria and Rachel represent aspects of yourself, the suffering cynic and the hopeful fan. This chapter seemed to be symbolic on a very personal level for you. There is no magic portal to Equestria, but that doesn't mean you can't bring a little pony to us humans.
Or I'm reading way too much into this. In any case, looking forward to more.
The lampshade is strong with this one.
So now the changeling has all of Celestia's regalia. Surely this cannot go wrong.
Am I a bad person for predicting that the 'bridge' thing would be a dud from the moment I read it? That aside... Well, maybe Mr Crown is a good guy and can help. But you trust a Changeling at your own risk.
Wow, that picture is great! Didn't see it coming.
I'm very glad that you used the bridge as a tool to sober your characters.
2687181 If you know it's called a torc now, why don't you change its name in the story?
I have to admit, the whole Celestia transformation thing was pretty jarring.
And time for a bit more of this, I think. I don't want to risk falling behind the other people reading at the moment and hitting spoilers when I look at the comments. :)
spurred by the title:
You know, there's been all that stuff in the news recently about America bungling executions, and for me it just highlights how backwards the system is. The claim is that lethal injection is a humane method of execution, but, um, no. It was already obvious that it wasn't the most human method available. What people really seem to care about is executions being pretty. If painless killing really was the objective, well, we have the guillotine. It wouldn't be pretty to use (or to propose to Congress, I expect), but it would kill very quickly. If you think that even the small amount of time the brain seems to remain active after decapitation is too much suffering, put the head in a fast-acting press. Which sounds like a really nasty idea and would no doubt look quite gruesome, but it would destroy the brain before the brain had time to register the damage and would thus be completely painless. They execute so many people in a needlessly complicated and painful way just because it looks nice, and yet they still try to claim that they're doing it this way because they care about the welfare of the people they're killing (but not enough to not kill them, obviously). It might be interesting to look at the psychology surrounding capital punishment, actually…
Anyway, though, this has been a tangent. Back to the ponies!
Yes, selling the regalia would be rather tricky… legitimate dealers would ask questions that Gregoria and Rachel have no sane-sounding way to answer, and with fences there'd be a fair risk of them just grabbing the gold and running.
Gregoria's "explanation" is pretty funny, though. :D
"Gregoria stared at Rachel. "I bet you know all the words to all the songs, too, don't you?""
And how exactly would you have known that that was a reference unless you remembered it too, hm? :)
I think you like ponies more than you think you do.
"The humans saw what they wanted to see, or more likely, what they needed to see to keep from screaming."
:D
"Hm, there seems to be a 240cm Norwegian woman striding down the street wearing a ripped tee-shirt, a baseball cap, a dress made out of a tablecloth, and shoes taped onto her feet."
I sometimes also feel that I might be more a fan of the fandom than of the show. I mean, I've watched all the episodes, but only once, and the only one of the comic's I've read is the one that was offered for free. The number of words I've read on FIMFiction, on the other hoof, and as just one part of my fandom experience…
…Ah. Now would be the time for galloping in the direction of away, I think!
Though, wow, these people aren't exactly subtle, are they? Hm. Who are they? They look too well-supplied to be doing this by mistake; they want to be noticed and aren't afraid of it. Adding yet another layer of mystery to this story…
Oh. That explains it. :)
…Wait. How did Mr. Crown know about this?! And he found out so quickly! So still another mystery…
Based on Spike's line about using up all the hot water in Ponyville, I once hypothesized that the town used a district heating plant fueled by wood gas.
I'm afraid that I'm with you here, Gregoria. Rachel's reaching, understandable though it is. Once you try returning to the apartment, though, I expect you'll like the gift left for you.
Oh, wow, nice picture!
On the one hoof, I'd be much, much more paranoid in your situation, possibly too paranoid to return at all. On the other, my additional knowledge suggests that what you're doing is indeed the best course of action for you, so my feelings are mixed.
This ought to be interesting…
2690144
My mind, it has been blown!
>>Chatoyance
That bridge picture was awesome, BTW.
I agree with this.
Every time Richard or his fanfics are mentioned I feel like I'm missing something. Like he actually has a story somewhere on this site that I should read.
Malus Crown likes Apple-Products. That makes sense. His name is Apple.
Geez, I must be terrible at being Polish, seeing as I've never heard of this supposed "old Polish saying" in my life.
7612594
I do a lot of research for my books, and there are upsides, and downsides to that. The upsides include accurate geography of locations, specific customs and phrases and details.
The downsides include obscure and out-of-date phrases and customs being presented because I have no way to know for certain that, say, a polish culture website with a bunch of listed sayings has anything to do with the modern world at all.
I've had this problem before - stuff presented by well-meaning folks trying to show the wonders of their nation... only they are presenting stuff that was old before World War Two. Or, maybe it's common only in their little region, valley, or city. And I have no way to tell.
I can assure you that the saying came from a Polish cultural site that earnestly tried to show how wonderful Polish sayings were. But for all I know, every saying came from somebodies' 90-year old grandmother. Who lived in an isolated town. Przepraszam!
7612761 Oh, that's OK. Sorry for getting all snarky, then.
2686774
Since you've spent so much time on proper terms, I figure I might as well say this- Celestia's 'necklace' is technically a peytral, not a necklace. The rigidity is what makes the difference- a necklace is flexible, while a torc is rigid and solid, and usually made from a solid piece of metal.
And is also crazy uncomfortable.
Fixed that for you. I know it's been quite some time since you posted your comment, but, beh, time.
Doesn’t really exist, you know.
I wonder if that makes me a heartless monster if I prefer the human's design?
Also, the reflection hasn't been altered. It is too complex for computers, I assume?
9988117
Due to the time of day, the shadow would be exactly that. The sun is close to overhead, about 1:30 in the afternoon. The 'computer' that runs the universe of time and space already represented the original bridge easily, so there could be nothing essentially beyond it.
I am certain that the last version of reality, where China was populated with intelligent monkeys, England with intelligent anthropomorphic corgis, South American with upright, two-legged talking Jaguars, and every other nation with anthropomorphic animals doubtless preferred their own creations more than the shaved apes (us!) that became our version of the world in the early 1700's. And the creatures that were humanity before the talking anthropomorphic phase centuries before that time probably preferred their own strange architecture before the world changed to furry humanoids in 300 BC.
There are inevitably people of every version of reality that always prefer what they are used to. They are the malcontents when the universe changes due to a code injection - it doesn't make them monsters. Just misfits.
Good way to deconstruct the "just turn in equestrian gold and jewel for cash" trope I have seen in a few other stories.
10571841
I think many people fail to understand the very large issues surrounding trying to sell priceless artifacts or large amounts of gold, or precious gems. All such transactions are carefully watched and all gold dealers have to follow stringent governmental requirements with much paperwork in order to function. One of my spouses has dealt in gold and silver over the years, and just buying or selling a single ounce of gold is an act carefully recorded and monitored - both by multitudes of cameras and by paperwork and overseeing higher-ups. Prison awaits those that fail to follow procedure - they are very, very cautious. Friendly enough... but cautious. I've always felt just a little creeped-out at such places.
Trying to fence a massive amount of gold, or a strange bejeweled artifact to a shady corner 'WE BUYZ YOUR GOLDZ!" type 'independent gold buyer' would be a failed endeavor. Even if - somehow - you could convince one of these gold slumlords to take the terrible risk involved, they would not give you even a pittance. Their argument would be simple - the risk is theirs alone, and where else you gonna go? Here's 200 bucks for Celestia's 60-pound gold peytral with giant inset sapphire... take it or leave it.
The answer, as with all stories, is either direct life experience... or do some research. Most authors here are too young to have real life experience, and too lazy to do research... thus the trope you describe.