Order-naries: Redux

by CTVulpin

Chapter 3: The Strangely Familiar

When silence greeted his announcement, Ash took a second look at the five ponies seated at the bottom of the Lirin’s entry ramp, who all looked like they’d seen a ghost. He slowly looked over his shoulder at his companions with a perplexed look on his face. Two of them simply shrugged and looked confused as well, but Gold Heart went a step further by taking a few steps down the ramp, waved awkwardly at the five Element Bearers, and said, “Um, hello? Girls?”

“Ahh! What is going on?!” Pinkie wailed, clapping both forehooves to the side of her head and tottering around wildly, “Make it stop; I’m so confuuuused!” She fell over onto her back, head lolling back to look pleadingly up at the ponies in the ship. It wasn’t quite enough to break the rest of the tableau, as everypony else continued to just stand around trying to make sense of what was going on.

“I have the distinct feeling we’re missing something here,” Soul Mage muttered to his group at last.

“Clearly,” Ash deadpanned, and then spoke up and asked, “What, has it been so long that you all forgot about us? Or, I hope not, did you actually doubt that we’d keep our promise to come visit you again?”

“But you were already here!” Pinkie exclaimed, flailing her hooves in the general direction of the hospital.

“Come again?” Ash gave the pink pony an odd look, and then shook his head. “Does anypony here have a better grasp on their sanity that can explain?” he asked. “Anypony? Applejack? Rarity?”

“Ash!” Rarity cried, charging up the ramp and tackling Ash in a hug, crying tears of relief and joy all the while. “Oh, it is you! You do remember me! I… I… Oh heavens,” she released the somewhat dazed unicorn, blushing deeply, “how undignified of me. My apologies, Ash, but… Oh, I just don’t know what’s happening.”

“Does anypony?” Soul asked desperately.

“Well,” Applejack said, “it might be best just to show you. It’s a mystery that just keeps gettin’ deeper the more time passes. Come on.” The Order-naries exchanged glances and then fell into step with the group as they turned to return to the hospital. Pinkie bounced back to her hooves, her confused hysterics gone like they’d never existed, and Rarity walked almost intimately close to Ash’s side, which he allowed in deference to her rather fragile emotional state.

“Can we at least get a hint?” Soul asked. “Something tells me this won’t be the kind of surprise we’re going to like.”

“I reckon it isn’t,” Applejack conceded. “Ya see… Shoot, how do Ah put this?”

“There’s evil clones of you guys in the hospital,” Rainbow said. The entire group stopped and gave her a weird look.

“What,” Soul said flatly, speaking for everypony.

“‘Evil’ might be jumping to conclusions Rainbow,” Rarity said.

“Fine, bucking insane clones then,” the pegasus amended sourly. “Yesterday they fell out of the sky like you guys do and then ran off into the Everfree Forest and lost a fight with a manticore. They’re dead ringers for you in looks.”

“Except for Gold Heart,” Pinkie put in. “They don’t have one of her.” Heart and Soul exchanged a bewildered look at that.

“Hold on,” Gale said, “what’s this ‘fell out of the sky like you do’ junk? We did that once. That’s not a habit.”

“What about all the other worlds between your home and here?” Rainbow retorted smugly.

“Touché.”

The mood was considerably brighter than it had been in the last little while, because although there now seemed to be two different versions of the Order-naries in the same world, the native ponies were on familiar ground with the more recent arrivals. No one was really relaxed, however, because there now seemed to be two different versions of the Order-naries. As they neared the hospital, one of the implications of this fact dawned on Soul Mage. “We’re probably going to cause an incident if we just walk in there, since three of us are supposed to be in there already, recovering.”

“Ooo, good point!” Pinkie said. “Just a second.” She zipped around the corner of the building, zoomed back, and before anypony could blink had affixed false mustaches to Ash, Soul, and Gale’s faces. “There,” she said in satisfaction.

“You must be kidding,” Gale said, trying to figure out how the mustache was attached so she could remove it. Ash sketched and cast a quick spell that banished his to someplace else, while Soul simply ripped his off.

“Aw,” Pinkie said glumly, “no one ever likes the mustaches. Oh well! Plan B: Rarity and I make a distraction while you all sneak in.”

“That sounds more reasonable,” Ash said. Pinkie beamed, grabbed Rarity and vanished through the hospital doors. AJ poked her head inside, and after a minute motioned for the group to move in.

“Tread softly y’all,” she cautioned in a low tone. “Pinkie knows her business, but some ponies might not be so engaged.” The pegasi all flapped softly to lighten their steps, but the rest had to stay focused on where they put their hooves as they quickly crossed the reception area, where Pinkie was improvising a song and dance number which at the least held the attention of all the staff that were present, and through a door Rarity was holding open for them while flirting with an orderly. Once the Order-naries were all past that checkpoint, Rarity gave a subtle signal that she hoped Pinkie caught and understood and then followed the quick, stealthy procession toward the “other” Order-naries’s room. There were a few close calls with nurses going about their rounds, one of which necessitated stuffing the four out-worlders into a closet and then waiting for them to catch up at the next turn, but when they finally reached the goal no alarms had been raised and Pinkie Pie had rejoined the party. The door was slightly ajar, and the sound of conversation leaked out into the hall unimpeded.

“Ok, look, Missy,” a voice eerily like Ash’s said, “you seem to be under some misplaced impressions. I really doubt you truly understand the gravity of the situation here, so-”

“I do understand,” the voice of Twilight Sparkle snapped. “I don’t know if it is a memory problem with you, or I have mistaken you three for someponies else, but either way you’re going to trust I’m quite familiar with this, and I’m not giving up until I get some answers.”

“I was wondering where Twilight was,” Heart mused.

“Aye,” Ash said, “and that sounded like a cue to me.” He put on his stoic, “serious business” expression, waited for his team to get into formation, and then nudged the door open and marched in. He swept the room with his eyes, suppressing his gut reaction to recognizing the three ponies in the bed, and then turned and said, “So, Twilight, I-” He faltered, blinked twice, and spluttered, “Why do you have wings?!”

“Long… story,” Twilight said slowly, looking between the two nearly-matched sets of Order-naries as her brain tried to catch up with this new development.

The Ash in the bed recovered his normal state of mind quicker than anypony else, and regarded the newcomers with a studying look. “I assume these are the ponies you were confusing us for?”

“I hear you decided to cross paths with a manticore shortly after waking up in an unfamiliar body,” Ashen Blaze retorted. “That does not speak well for you; there are many less potentially lethal ways to go about ruining somebody’s reputation.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” the bedridden Ash countered darkly.

“Down, boys,” Gold Heart said with gentle firmness, stepping between the two. “It won’t help anyone if we start out by trying to jump down each other’s throats. You three are injured and strangers here; wouldn’t it be in your best interests to make nice with the locals? Believe me, you won’t find better allies in all of Equestria than the ponies in this room right now.”

“She has a point there,” the bed-ridden Gale said to her Ash. “They’ve got us at a disadvantage, Traev, and perhaps they’ll relinquish the Diamond once we’ve explained ourselves.”

“Traev?” Ashen Blaze murmered. “Diamond? What-” Gold Heart silenced him by putting a wing over his mouth and giving him a hard look.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” she said, and then nodded to the ponies in the beds. “Proceed, please.”

“Very well,” grumbled the other ash-grey stallion. “I suppose we should start with names. I am Traev Maestron Brogalio, and these are my teammates.”

“Johnten Drago,” said the golden-yellow unicorn in the bed on the left.

“Carrie Chen,” the brown earth pony said with a nod.

“Well, no possible name confusion problems there,” Soul Mage said with a grin.

“Lovely,” Traev deadpanned. “We…” He seemed unsure of how to continue and looked to his fellows for help.

“Why don’t we start with this?” Twilight asked, opening her bag and levitating the Diamond out again.

“Twilight,” Ashen Blaze said slowly, “is that…?” Twilight passed it to him and he held it before his face, staring into its depths as he activated the magic within it. It lit up, and Ash’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Bah re,” he breathed, “in neither dream nor nightmare have I expected to see this again.”

“What is this ‘again’ thing you… ponies are on about?” Carrie Chen asked. “I’m pretty sure I’d remember if we’d passed through a world like this before.”

“Question,” Ash said, watching the Diamond slowly rotate in his magic grip. “This Gem is just one part of a set, isn’t it? Numbering seven in all, one for each Magical Element?”

“Yes,” Traev said in surprise, “but how-”

“You three,” Ash interrupted, now warming up to a narrative, “are currently embroiled in a repeating hunt that spans dimensions for these Gems of great but chaotic power. Your opponent in this race is a demon of considerable power, bound by fate to the power of the Gems and who seeks them for some megalomaniacal end. Again, again, and endlessly again you have gathered the Gems together, tried to turn them against the demon, and in a catastrophe moment you are all plucked up, flung to a new universe, and the cycle begins anew. Please tell me I’m way off the mark here.”

A sudden chill seemed to settle over the room, coupled with a long, pregnant pause as anxious and shock expressions were exchanged like cards in a high-speed round of Go Fish. Finally, the doppelganger of Soul Mage, Johnten Drago, cleared his throat and said, “No, that’s actually a pretty good summation of the situation. Yeah.”

“Oh my,” Rarity said, swooning.

“This is way too freaky,” said Rainbow Dash.

“You said it,” Spike agreed.

The Order-naries took the news with a more proactive attitude, moving slightly away and going into a huddle, with the large Diamond in the center. One by one, Heart, Soul, and Gale each touched the Gem and verified for themselves that it seemed filled with the power of Light, waiting and willing to answer any call to come out and act. “It feels a bit different, I think,” Heart said. “Almost like there’s something approaching intelligence in there.”

“Large stores of power can develop the illusion of will,” Ash said. “It’s just the potential energy wanting to move, and an able mind is actually a fairly weak point for it to press against. More importantly, there’s six of these unaccounted for, not to mention that skvetchte Tau’rin. Gale, does PC still have the data he needs to track the Gems?”

The head-mounted computer activated, and Gale read the readout on the eyepiece. “The only thing he has on them in his local memory is a basic record of our own hunts, and the order you gave him shortly after the end to forget the Gem signatures if he needed to free up memory. The Lirin’s computer might have a back-up, but he’s having some issues connecting to it from here.”

“Ok,” Ash said, “this is not how I wanted to spend my Equestrian vacation, but it is what it is.”

“Hey,” Traev said smartly, “what are you lot muttering about? If you believe us, we’d like our Diamond back now.”

“No need to worry yourself over it, my fine mirror-match,” Ash spoke up, using the Diamond to sketch a smug salute. “It’s in good hooves with us. Let the docs finish up with you, and then see if you can catch up. Twilight, girls, Spike, we’ll see you around.” The Order-naries trotted out of the room even as the ponies in the beds cried out in protest and tried to rise in pursuit. Twilight restrained them, enchanting the bedclothes to hold them in place. By the time they’d been forcibly settled, Doctor Stable burst into the room, saw that his patients were where they belonged, and then looked back into the hall in bewilderment.

“I guess they were telling the truth,” he said, scratching his head. “Can somepony tell me what’s going on?”

“Yes,” Twilight Sparkle said with faint amusement, “at long last, I think we can.”

---

When one makes their living as an entertainer, it is essential that one takes efforts to remain in the audience’s good graces. A little ego-stroking is acceptable, and even expected of certain kinds of acts and performers, but a show based entirely around boasting and humiliating any and all hecklers will only lead to disaster. The Great and Powerful Trixie had learned this lesson the hard way and now made it a point to surround herself with fellow entertainers so she would have to share the stage and pay out as many compliments as she received. There was still the occasional challenge to match her wide range of skills against some self-aggrandizing specialist or local celebrity, but Trixie made a point of trying to meet those challenges on fair ground and to never gloat over her victory.

In this particular case, however, she was making an exception.

Her plan was going perfectly. As she had expected, Tremolo’s already revenge-obsessed mind had been twisted and narrowed even further by the Alicorn Amulet, allowing her to get away with many smoke-and-mirror tricks disguised as age-altering, duplication, and even gender-changing spells. She said a silent thanks to Luna that before Tremolo had first shown up with the Amulet she’d had the chance to rebuild some connections among the ponies of Hoofington, because the act she was putting on wouldn’t have been possible with only the ponies of her troupe to act as her assistants. It wasn’t an easy show by any means, since Tremolo’s main shtick had been subverting and exposing Trixie’s trickery, but by not allowing him more than a moment to think between tricks and speaking in terms to make him suspect illusion rather than smokescreens and substitution she’d managed to keep him off-balance and flustered. She could see the wheels starting to turn in his head though, and knew it was time for the coup de gras.

“Not yet willing to admit defeat?” she asked condescendingly, watching the red unicorn seethe. “Surely you can see that Trixie is and always will be the greatest and most powerful unicorn of the stage, no matter what means you may employ against her.”

“No,” Tremolo said. “No, all this can’t be real. You’re just a fake Trixie; you can’t possibly have this kind of power! You’re just playing me for a fool again, and I’ll figure out how.”

“Will you just give it up already?” Harlequin called out in a bored shout. “What does she have to do, turn a pony into a rabbit or something?”

“Ha!” Tremolo scoffed, “not even the highest level unicorns can actually change a pony into a different species.”

“Challenge accepted,” Trixie said dismissively. Tremolo narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but didn’t scoff again, giving her tacit approval to try. “Cabbage Patch, would you mind?” Trixie asked, looking to the smallest member of her troupe. The little earth pony was shaking with nerves, but nodded and stepped forward to where Trixie indicated: the very middle of the road and far removed from the crowd and objects big enough to hide behind. “Just give Trixie a moment to warm up,” the azure showmare said with a great show of stretching and sending sparks off her horn, “and then you’ll see some real magic. If you can undo Trixie’s spell, then she’ll admit defeat, but if not, then you honor your word and remove that gaudy amulet.”

“Sure,” Tremolo said, staring unblinking at Trixie.

Trixie came to a standstill, head down and eyes closed as if clearing her mind in preparation, and then lit up her horn and pointed it toward Cabbage, who was shifting about nervously. A nimbus of pink light surrounded the little pony, and her mane and tail started floating freely as if they were underwater. Trixie gritted her teeth in concentration as the aura around her horn grew in size and strength until it seemed she couldn’t hold it back any longer. At that point she let it fly and Cabbage Patch was engulfed by a thick green smoke cloud. When it cleared, the sea-green pony was gone, and in her place was a similarly-sized buffalo calf with big, golden eyes.

Tremolo’s jaw dropped, and then he looked at Trixie’s smug smile and grew hard again. “Illusion, it must be,” he said.

“So you thought of all Trixie’s accomplishments today,” the showmare said without losing her smile. Tremolo scowled and then hit the poor buffalo with every counter-spell he knew, all to no effect besides leaving her laying on the ground in a daze.

“I… I…” Tremolo stammered, and then slumped in defeat. He reached up a hoof, undid the clasp on the Alicorn Amulet, and slid it off his neck. Before he could think twice and go back on his word, Trixie yanked the amulet out of his grip and passed it to Harlequin, who had a box ready to receive it. Trixie then cast a spell that changed Cabbage back to normal in another puff of green smoke.

“Now, Tremolo,” the showmare said, “be warned: I have the royal patronage of Princess Luna herself to perform as I see fit, and if you ever harass me or my troupe again we’ll see to it that you answer to her, capiche?” She whirled about and strutted to her stage-wagon in the company of her troupe.

Unseen by all, a pair of eyes glowing with chaotic power watched as the crowd dispersed, leaving the sorry, broken, angry red unicorn glaring in impotent rage at his justified and victorious enemy.

Comments

[Leo Archon]

Ai chi-hwah... This gets more and more out of hoof each second.

I'm guessing, though, that things won't be as simple as Luna smashing the Amethyst while it's attached to the demon's head this time, eh?

[Emeral Bookwise]

Well, this is certainly getting weird. I'm even less certain of what to make of these dopplegangers now. They might look the same, arrived the same, and even be on the same old quest, but increasingly they seem to be wholly distinct individuals rather than mere AU counterparts.

Then there's Trixie and her seemingly unrelated side story going on, except it looks like that may become relevant shortly.

You've certainly managed to perk my curiosity if nothing else.

[djthomp]

Yeah, even cross dimensional clones is seeming unlikely at this point. Three completely different individuals who just happen to be on their dimensions version of the same quest?

I forgot to mention before, but I really enjoyed the scrying scene back in the first chapter between Twilight and Celestia.