> Divided Loyalties.. > by Ponyess > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The Impossible, and a collaps of Reality: 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I sit in the dark cave, alone and abandoned. Hunching over the emptiness and darkness I never had dared to imagine. Now it is towering over my spirit; where it lay shattered, on the hard rock under my chest. This is where I had woken up, it is where I found myself. What time it is, I have no idea; why bother looking out through the entrance of the cave to know. As a matter of fact, I fear I had actually walled the entrance up, before I collapsed where I now found myself. The cave is cold, just like my home; it is all I have. As I turn my back on everything I had known, I see something that I knew just could not be; yet in defiance, it is there, staring back at me. Beyond fear, I just laughed at the absurdity; there is nothing else I could do. Yet, this is a cold, joyless laughter; that had no place in the throat of a living being. Next, I hear a rumble as the ground is shaking under the remains of what I once had been. As I once more open my eyes, I see something; merely a pink mist, as if a cloud, spiting a storm is ruefully floating towards me, but with the sound of a crowd of countless laughters. The cloud had just stopped before me, as if she was actually observing me. Oh, but for the absurdity of it all. Now I know, I am dead, and I had gone to the infamous Tartarus the Ponies seldom spoke off. Only then, there is the strangest of sounds before me, as if from within the pink cloud of nonsense. If it is mechanical, or organic in nature is beyond reason. Either it is pure magic, or I am hallucinating. What’s the difference, this is all the same. I open my eyes, after I had blinked, and there is a Pony before me. Where she came from, within an empty cave, where nothing could be. Maybe she is the spokes Pony of Tartarus, denouncing my sentence? I guess I should welcome it, and expect to be at the bottom of the pit that is my existence. “Hiya, Chrysalis!” the mare exclaimed, in a voice that still could not be. She reached out a single soft hoof, and picked me up from the bottomless pit; of the nonsense, and nonexistence in which I had been floating. “Outh, are you? The Judge of Tartarous?” I breathed; as if I feared, the response could actually have been worse than my last nightmare? “No, silly Chrysalis. I most certainly am not!” she pronounced; as if she had sentenced me, nonetheless. Yet, the sentence felt harsher; than the one I had been dishing out over myself. If this isn’t in fact Tartarus, is there a place even deeper than though? “If this is not Tartarus, who are you?” I breathed. “I am your shadow, but my friends know me as Pinkie Pie!” she exploded, in a roar of laughter; that almost shattered the walls of the cave, in which I am standing before her. “My shadow!” I snapped. “Is your full name in fact; Pinkamena Deana Pie?” I added, incredulously. “The one, and only. The Rock Farmer and the Party Pony!” she pointed out. The next instant, she spared the rock wall of the cave a moment; while she pummeled it with the tips of her hooves, beating out the tune of a wedding march. Only then, there is dust on the floor, and a glistering black heart in her hoof; which she reached forth and hoofed over to me as the single proof. “Oh, but wait. I did have another gift for you. Something for you to wear, now since your old suit is gone, but it would never fit you again, so there is no loss there!” she prompted. “You are insane, even for a Pony, and I have the impression you already knew that!” I responded, as I accepted her gift, wrapped in a small box. “They told me that, when we set out to oppose Nightmare moon, single-hoofed. On that note, I guess I have heard worse in my day!” she addressed my response; and urged me to wear, what was in the box. “Is there anyone, or anything that you have not opposed? You are the mare who engaged in a conversation with one of my minions, when I laid Canterlot under siege!” I added. “Let me see; I did oppose Nightmare Moon, then I was opposing you and your army, King Sombra, Discord. I am opposing sanity; logic, and even the fabric of space itself, so I guess I have them all ticked off, right there!” she counted on her hooves; but as she concluded the statement, she had counted more pink hooves than I have seen in the span of my entire life. “Wait, what! How many hooves does an Earth Pony have?” I inquired. “Beats me, but there is more Ponies, Changelings and Zebras taken together doesn’t know, than you could manage to slip into the Royal library of Canterlot!” she pointed out. There it was, again; that strange sound I can’t put a hoof or a horn on. The next instant, I have a full-sized Royal Alicorn before me. Only this Alicorn is clearly pink, and with a tightly curled up mane. “Okay, but how did you manage to do that, and what is that sound?” I merely spoke up; looking her in the eye, from more than a foot below the level of her eyes. “Some tricks work because you don’t know how they actually work, and some because you do know; this is most likely in the former category. On that note, let’s just fly out of this depressing dump!” she pronounced, as she flapped her wings. Before I had the time to protest, I had noticed the appearance of stars overhead, as if I had been under the clear sky, in a jolly night. These were the days.' “Dear Crysalis, you do know that we are more alike; than you or the Ponies dare imagine. In a sense, I am you. I fell what you feel, and I have been where you are. Frightening, isn’t it?” she declared, as if it had been a Royal decree. “No mere Pony could ever know how I feel; even if old mares’ tales speak of a shared history and linage, somewhere in the misty past before Discord ruled what is now known as Equestria!” I proclaimed firmly, while trying my best to fight the hard, cold shiver she; or rather her words caused me. “What does it take, to punch through your thick skull? I am no mere Pony. I am your shadow, but tuned on a different frequency than the Love you require. I have more magic than Twilight could ever have, and more love; than even Cadance could know. If you haven’t felt that yet, maybe you truly are on a level below even Tartarus?” she concluded. “When you put it that way, how ever did you manage to break the spell I had put up in order to block out the earthly existence? Was I that weak, when I cast the spell?” I prompted. Then I looked down on my chest; and that glistering, black top she prompted to wear; only it came with a strange cerise shimmer to it. I am wearing the skirt, and the boots she pushed in under my muzzle as well. “Oh, that was only too easy; when you are prepared to oppose both logic, and the fabric of space and time in a single pounce, and punch through. I felt the friend in need of my love; the friend, deprived of the smile I need. Perfect symmetry, wouldn’t you say; my dear!” she pondered. “Excuse me, but your logic has far too many hooves for me to handle, right there!” I pointed out, fighting a new shiver. --- --- --- > I will need.. Your Seed, by Tonight: 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ”How are you feeling, my Dear?” I inquired; as I set hoof just outside of Ponyville, on the main road. “Shockingly well, thank you for asking!” Chrysalis responded, before she had the time to think or look down. “Then we could as well enjoy the day, together. Let me treat you to a meal!” I prompted, casting a loving glance at the mare on my right. “A meal sounds good, if it is on you; I would be grateful since I don’t have a single bit!” she responded, now looking down at her fully equine hooves. “I was expecting as much, Midnight Stars. Your boots do put a special highlight twist to your looks!” I confessed. “Thank you, dearest, you make me feel so welcome here!” she conceded; as if it had never occurred to her that a Changeling could have been welcome in Ponyville, the heart of friendship. I casually transformed back to my regular, well-known Earth Pony form, while barely missing a bounce on my way towards the small village. “Midnight Stars?” she inquired in a curious; yet amused voice, before she realized what I had actually just told her. “Yes, that is your name; my dear. Since you are no stranger to the art of Masquerades, and its deepest implications; this would be perfectly you!” I pointed out, matter of fact; while still maintaining the exuberant spirit and loving tone to my voice. “Why, thank you; my dear Pinkie. I seem to have underestimated you, grossly; you truly do know my heart deeper than I dared to let any other in!” she conceded. “Scary, isn’t it!” I prompted. “To have another Pony knowing more than you are comfortable in sharing, certainly. How ever do you manage to know me so well; or any other Pony, for that matter?” she inquired, with a shiver of uncertainty. “Obvious, my dear Midnight. I know every Pony in Ponyville intimately, and most other Pony, Donkey, Mule or Zebra currently living in Equestria. And I never forget a single detail. Ever!” I explained; as if it had been as rudimentary, and obvious as I had let on. “If you can smile for me, I will love you to the end of time, and a few days after that!” I offered, generously. “Since it is you, loving me; I would have more problems holding the smile back, even when you don’t see it. Assuming there is truly a moment you don’t know of it!” she pointed out. “As I mentioned on our way into town, there is a table with our name on it in a fine restaurant!” I prompted, matter of fact; as sure as if I had in fact booked the table, at least a month in advance. “I take it, a waiter is expecting you; at the restaurant you had in mind!” she responded; no trace of amusement on her voice, while all traces of her previous mood had been scattered before the four winds. Of course, I know that it is natural for Ponies to react on my presence in this manner. She may have been hatched a Changeling, but why is that changing anything in this case. Friends are friends, and love is love; there is no reasoning around the fact, laid flat before you. A tall, white Stallion with an exceptionally tall horn is standing just inside; waiting for the next Pony to enter the establishment. Naturally, the Unicorn did recognize me, as I came trotting down the road, with a companion in tow. To him, there was no mistaking this pink mare; even when he did not recognize her companion. “Greetings, Pinkie Pie; it is an honour to welcome you and your companion to our most esteemed restaurant!” he proclaimed; just as we got close enough, for him to pronounce his invitation in a polite, and unobtrusive voice. “Thank you, Mr. Stylish; I believe there is a table for two waiting for me; with the menu, of course!” I responded, in a high class style I recall since last I had been to a Star Restaurant. “For you, MS Pie; I would have been prepared to clear the table at your arrival; but alas, that is thankfully not required today!” Mr. Stylish prompted. “That pleases me immensely, and I am exceedingly happy to know that you were not required to clear a table for me, today!” I prompted; beaming a bright smile in his face, indicating what I felt. “Right this way, MS Pie!” he prompted, while we followed him to a small table for two Ponies. “Thank you, Mr. Stylish!” I responded, following him to the table. “Have a seat, please; MS Pie!” he extended. “The tea of the house, please; for two, of course!” I ordered. “Two tea of the house; coming right up!” he responded, and trotted off in a measured, gentlestallion-like gait. “How? How did you do that? He clearly is upper crust!” Midnight prompted. “He is. So, I may not be a Princess; but I am intimately associated with all four currently living Alicorns of Equestria. Most Ponies doesn’t know who, or what I am; to them, I am simply Pinkie Pie, and Earth Pony. Yet, here; I am also the one who maintains the joy of Ponyville!” I suggested. “Thought as much. I do know the three first, but I have a good idea as to whom you refer to as the fourth. I imagine she must be mighty popular amongst the Ponies around here!” she responded, with a sly grin spreading out over her face. “I know. But alas, our tea is here!” I prompted. “The cluster of stars, for the element of magic? You did mention her before!” she suggested, tentatively. “That is her. Now, if you try the tea; it is sublime!” I added. “You do know your teas, my dear; I have to compliment you once again!” she put forth. “I do, but I have the best of teachers to my right and left. Aside from high Royalties, I have a sense for what Ponies does enjoy, and my sense does serve me well; you know!” I clarified. “There is a shill of recognition, when you put it like that. Yet, I don’t enjoy my tea cold!” she put forth, taking a new sip on her tea. Naturally, I can see the green light, firmly holding her cup. Personally, I was prone to go with unorthodox measures and applied my mane on the issue of holding the cup for me. “That, isn’t typical Earth Pony manner. Yet, it is less conspicuous, than any other convenience at your disposal?” Midnight prompted, with an uncertain grin. “No, it certainly is not; but I am the most atypical there is; of just about anything!” I whispered between sips. “If there had not been a stigma to it, I would have insisted on abnormal, but I guess I could settle for ingenius?” she tempted as suggestion. “I am such an eye-soar, my friends only see an Earth Pony, but with a bright pink coat and mane; defying anything and everything there is; in the name of fun and games. Little by little; they are bending to my will and point of view, even if I have to confess, it is an uphill battle with no end in sight. I can dig like a Diamond Dog, bust rocks, fly and levitate, aside from all the other things I do!” I merely rambled on. “An eye-soar, and unsafe at any speed?” she merely teased. “Unsafe while still, and still unsafe, when I outrace Dashie?” I pondered, with a giggle to my voice. “If you by Dashie are referring to that Rainbow Dash, that is an accomplishment. “I help my friends; but I love to throw parties, and prank the Ponies!” I put forth. “Let us have a rump in the hay; I know you need something to take the crushing weight off of your shoulders!” I prompted, as the sun was slowly sliding down towards the horizon. “Depending on who is on top; I fear you would be the greater weight, and pressure!” she teased. “We have everything we need, right here. I know you can perform, if and when you choose to; if you are in the mood, of course!” I offered. “I could, which is suggesting you are about to tease me in a manner that will make me take the offer?” she conceded. “If that makes you feel better? Otherwise, I am prepared to resort to more physical means of temptation or subjugation. Whichever works for you!” I promised. “Why does this scare me more; than any beast, or army I have ever faced before? Yet, I am tempted to see, just what you could do in order to seduce me!” she promised; in a tentatively positive tone, I had not yet heard coming over her lips. “Because you haven’t faced any Pony, on an equal level; prepared to touch you on an intimate, and personal level!” I merely added. “I guess that is more scary; than most everything there is!” she conceded. “The question remains, however; who is starting on top, and who is waiting her turn?” I prompted, straightforward. ---- --- --- > United is Strength: 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Together, we can take on Equestria, like none ever could; Nightmare, Discord, you, or even Tirek!” she pointed out. “How; pray tell, do you suggest we do that? You are right in what you say; none of us ever truly had a chance, and you know why!” I responded. “How? Because we, my dear; are never going to oppose their main force. We are not even touching a single hair on any of the Princesses, we don’t need to!” she explained, in utter clarity and all-knowing. “I am confused, but you are the authority on Ponies; so I am bound to trust you!” I pointed out. “Then you are in good company, even my friends are confused by me. Yes, but I hope you don’t feel offended if I compare you with Ponies; when Celestia is taken into account, you are not all that different as one may initially imagine!” she merely blurted out. “Wait, you are priding yourself to be a friend of every Pony, and knowing them intimately; is this where your strength lies, Friendship?” I implied. “It is this friendship that ultimately defeated and destroyed Tirek. If Earth Ponies are Farming, I am farming Friends; since I need them to smile and laugh, just like you need our Love to survive!” she cruelly pointed out, with a stabbing right fore hoof. “Yes, I do need that love; but I can’t change who or what I am, you of all Ponies do know that, right!” I defended myself. “That makes you my perfect allay. You know I can trust you; because you need what I have, while it is just as true in reverse!” she continued. “Just like two insignificant Ponies indulging in a little trade on the side?” I suggested, weakly. “Yeppers, deppers; now you got the idea all rounded up, and secured!” she stabbed on the wall. “Are you high, or something? Oh yeah, you are just pink!” I teased, as it hit home and the situation dawned upon me with overwhelming force, crushing down on me. This mare doesn’t play fair; when she had an entire Empire behind her, should I have been calling her sir? As I smile at her, laughing at her little jokes, there is a void building up behind her. What I see the shadow of, is the fear and depression, their Daemons turning tail in panic, fleeing. How could this be? Could a mere smile or giggle be as strong as the love of Cadance herself? She left me stuck; between the fear, and the hope. I ended up laughing at the absurdity in my situation, and what she was making me do. Just as she put no effort into her deed, as monumental as it may be. Now she had me cornered, just as certainly and securely as where she had found me. I am left with no choice, and nowhere to go, but to her. Anywhere and everywhere I turn; and I am still facing her, no matter what. When I was told that they saw me and us as Monsters; yet here I am before the Queen of Monsters herself. I can not doubt it, or deny her. As I look into the mirror, squinting my eyes; what I see is her, and she is the Changeling Queen, by the side of a little Deer foal, which is apparently me. How could this world pull such cruel jokes on me of all the Ponies of this world known as Equestria? I had given her all she had asked me the previous night, and she had given me all I could ask for in return. I belong to her and am hers, just as she is mine and the mate giving me all the strength a Queen could possibly wish for. How could one such as she give such an offer and make such a trade with one such as I? As if I had the power or right to question her, here or now? I had given her all she had asked me the previous night, and she had given me all I could ask for in return. I belong to her and am hers, just as she is mine and the mate giving me all the strength a Queen could possibly wish for. How could one such as she give such an offer and make such a trade with one such as I? As if I had the power or right to question her, here or now? In giving her everything and giving, what does that make me? Yet, she gave in and gave me everything I could ever have wished for, what does that make her? She had asked for the impossible and highly expected, but where does this all end? Could she even conceive; what she had been asking for, or what it will make her into? There is the one oddity in the room, it isn’t in all the things I had wished for or given; just as it isn’t in any of what she wished for, or gave me. The oddity is in the one seemingly impossible act, I am not looking at her as the monster we formerly saw the Ponies as; it is the affection for her I feel. In all honesty, I am still the very same Changeling; true and through, I have never changed my core, but I still do feel an affection for the one mare before me. When she will realize it, I have no idea. Yet, when she does, what will she ask of me in return? Do I need to fear it, and what she could do? I guess all that is too late, and too late by far. Once I start to feel the affection for her, I have no turning back. Why am I in a room saturated with love? I know I have never felt the likes of this, even since the days of Discords wicked rule. Why, oh way; is there a pink mare in the same room as I am currently in? Of course, she is the source of all I have, and all I ever wanted. She asks but for me to smile at her, and smile is what I do. How could I not, after all she just gave me? If a simple smile is granting me all the love I can take, then I will smile joyfully as if insane; no regrets. Love is best, when it is freely given; I had always known it and exactly why. I had chosen to forget and ignore it for my very own and very selfish motives, as destructive as it had proven to be. Only now, I have more love than I could ever have hoped for. Love given freely is no base for power and control. The problem is that a Pony isn’t controlled by food as in grasses or the lack there off. From just the one mare I have before me, I sense a steady out pour of love. She is beaming, like a star on the sky and feeding everyone around her. Every friend, and every pony smiling back at her as she is passing them on the streets. How could a pony maintain the steady out pour, of the magnitude she is? She and her friends had crushed me over and over, again and again. No matter what I did, or how well I had been preparing for the exploits; they had still beaten me. When I had hit the very bottom of the pit; she is digging me up, despite everything I had done to prevent it. Now she is reminding me of happier days gone by. The days when I first looked up at the old Queen of days I thought I had forgotten. The days I had been feeling full and content with life and everything it had to offer. The Queen had passed on and passed to the other side. She had left me with a hive I apparently had not been prepared to take over. In my thirst and greed, I had changed everything and toppled the order of the old Queen. Of course it is tradition, the new Queen had to take over after the old and in the process; things had to change. Sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse. I had crushed her and everything she was, everything she stood for. I had built me an Empire out of the previously warm and loving hive. In the end; everything I had, everything I had been was crushed and burned to cinders before the four winds. I had destroyed it all with the greed I had failed to harness and temper, for the good of my Changelings. In the state. I had been in at the time; how could I have known just how wonderful something as simple as a cup of tea could be? Just the one mare by my side, and nothing but. Her radiance was pushing it all away. I am in a bubble of her attention. No sense of being trapped, bored or even the slightest hint of dissatisfaction. With her by my side, everything is warm and fuzzy. As if I had been hugged tightly with the revered Queen of the past. --- --- ---