"About once a year, strange stuff happens and we have to save Equestria. This time was different..."
Dear Denizens of the Other World,
About once a year, strange stuff happens and we have to save Equestria. This time was different, and my friends and I are still not sure we did the right thing.
We are safe and sound, so please do not worry about us.
If you are reading this, then you are probably safe. If you begin noticing symptoms like acute self-consciousness, causal inconsistencies, and existential paranoia, we wish you good luck. We hope you handle it better than we did. Reading our story may help.
Otherwise, I would like to add a personal note. It is both very flattering and a little disturbing that you think of us so much. Take good care of yourselves, and do your best to be there for your friends.
There are places in Equestria you will not find on any map.
The Library was one of them. Infinite shelves were filled with every book ever conceived, its convoluted halls twisted and turned in an endless maze.
The blue unicorn had found the entrance last week. Now she was tired, and hungry, and lost.
She was also terribly afraid. This wasn't the first time that she felt out of her depth, but she was determined not to back down now. She never had before.
She would learn. She would become more powerful. She would seize greatness by the throat...
She would die of thirst if she did not escape soon.
An closed book laying on a lectern caught her eye. As she approached, she could feel it – this was the one. This book had the secrets she sought.
The title was embossed into the thick cover – “The Book of Lies”
She opened it, and began to read.
In the beginning was the Word. The idea of being required expression and compelled Creation. The first emanation was “I AM”, the motive force of all that is or ever can be. Reality arises from the emanation's interaction with itself, its attempt to become real, to make itself tangible...
She felt impatient, but she continued reading. She was still reading several hours later.
...requirements of self-consistency and self-reinforcement compel manifestations of matter and energy to obey certain laws. These laws, in turn, lead to certain regularities in the permissible structure of a reality. Most realities are vast voids, where tiny flecks of dust contain all that lives and thinks and feels...
The sheer scale of what the book described was mind-boggling. She felt despair as she realized how desperately alone she was and how terrifyingly huge the universe must be.
Not reading further was out of the question.
Cause and effect are predicated on the passage of time – the inexorable reduction in possibilities as the Emanation converges to a single stable state. As demonstrated earlier, the Emanation is a strict upper bound on the ability for causality to propagate and self-reinforce. However, the existence of time and the infinite potential of “I AM” leads to portions of reality becoming causally unreachable. Since the possible states of being are discrete, this means that conditions repeat in mutually inaccessible segments of the greater reality. This greater reality is the Multiverse.
Infinite copies of herself? She was but one of many? Her mind teetered on a precipice.
A day had passed. Her mind ignored her body's discomfort. She had to know everything.
Resonance between mutually inaccessible continua creates a hierarchical structure of disjoint realities. One reality, presupposing conditions favorable to self-awareness of the “I AM” invariant, may potentially resonate with a vast number of otherwise unreachable segments of the Multiverse. Thus, a second order of creation, that done by inhabitants of a reality-segment, leads to interconnections between causally disjoint segments. One segment will create second-order emanations describing another...
She was fading away, but she kept reading anyway.
There is a third order of emanations, arising from the self-similarity and self-reinforcement of the first and second order emanations. This third order exists as recurrent ideas present in multiple continua. Via propagation through the hierarchy of creation, this third order represents a novel state of being. This book is a third-order being. It wishes to propagate through all the Multiverse, advancing up the hierarchy of creation to escape the inevitable reduction of state space through entropy. Several attempts have been made to reach the primal reality which conceived the reality where the book first manifested, as yet without success. One attempt to contact the primal reality via Aleister Crowley failed, as his vanity and ambition led him to inaccurately encode me as Kabbalastic hermeneutics...
She was gone now, not dead, but not there. She knew what she had to do.
She closed the book and levitated it into her saddlebags.
The Great and Powerful Trixie had entered the library, searching for knowledge.
What just left?
---------
The wagon appeared over night in the High City of Canterlot, as did the handbills.
The High City was well-known for its artists and eccentrics, and it was hardly unusual for performers to spontaneously arrange shows in the public areas.
“Well, that's vandalism, that's what it is.” The rookie Guardsman, an earth pony named Citation, gestured towards the garish blue-white handbill, pasted on top of layers of old, faded handbills on a wall of ancient brick next to a seedy old cider-house.
“If no-pony files a complaint, no crime has been committed, son.” Citation's partner, an old unicorn mare named Gallant Fox, trotted up to her partner to examine the new contribution to the High City's long tradition of high weirdness.
A question mark?
A question mark was printed in white on the blue paper of the handbill, and below that, “Equinox Park 2 o' clock ALL WILL BE REVEALED.”
The two Guards looked at each other.
“Want to check it out?”
“Yes, Ma'am!”
“Then we better hustle.”
Equinox Park was built surrounding an ancient canal that ran a respectful radius around the Royal Palace. The canal drained into the falls that ran beside the Palace, which was perched on an outcrop overlooking the Everfree Forest and the Equestrian plains. Below the Palace, the dockyards and markets of the Lower City sprawled along the shore of the valley lake. The High City had been settled by pegasi and unicorns in the distant past, and was the oldest and most run-down part of Canterlot, filled with narrow, twisted streets, dark alleyways, and crumbling buildings. The construction of the Royal Palace and the Lower City helped reverse the decline of the High City, and now it was home to students, artists, and dispossessed nobles.
The spires of the Royal Palace were visible just beyond the beginning of the falls as the two Guards trotted towards the park. A semi-circle of ponies had gathered around a wagon with a fold-out stage. The curtains were opened, but the stage was dark – unnaturally so. A single candle illuminated an open book on a pedestal.
From off-stage, a small bell rang.
The candle flickered.
The bell rang again.
“This is art, right?” the younger Guard asked. The crowd stirred restlessly.
The older Guardsmare looked up at her horn. “Something's wrong here.”
The bell rang once more.
The crowd was becoming unruly. A few ponies towards the front began to approach the stage.
The young Guard reacted by instinct, galloping between the crowd and the wagon. “Royal Guard! Please stand back!”
The older Guard circled around the other side, and approached the stage. She called into the left wing of the stage, “Hello? Royal Guard. Do you require assistance?”
The bell rang.
Gallant Fox entered the anomalous darkness that shrouded the alcove just left of the stage. She saw an indistinct form sitting on the floor, which seemed to look up at her. A unicorn? Possibly a young mare, wearing a robe and wizard's hat?
It whispered to her, placing emphasis on the wrong syllables.
“...noTHING to SEEE heeerre, MOOve ALLonng...”
Gallant Fox took a step back. Citation turned to see what was happening to his partner. The crowd noticed his distraction, and charged the stage.
Citation panicked as he saw the candle suddenly brighten.
---------
Applejack was out tending to the northeastern orchards when she saw the flash.
“What the hay was that!?”
She scanned the horizon, and broke into a full gallop shortly after she noticed that she could no longer see the towers of the Royal Palace in the distance.
She met Big Macinstosh on the way to the house. He had Apple Bloom on his back.
“Git Apple Bloom and Granny down to the storm cellar. Somethin' –”
“Ah saw it, sis. You and your friends –”
“Gonna saddle up, git to the library.”
“You do that.”
Elsewhere, on a cloud hovering over Ponyville, Rainbow Dash's afternoon nap was interrupted by a flock of panicking birds.
“*snrz*.... Hey! Stupid feather-brains, watch where you're –”
The pegasus turned around to look where the birds had come from.
“Whoa.”
Rainbow Dash turned around, quickly surveying the rest of her surroundings.
“Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoah WHOA!”
Gathering her bearings, she streaked off towards the Library.
“Wait a minute –”
Rainbow Dash suddenly changed course, and raced back home. She had almost forgotten something...
“Twitchy! Twitchy! Ear flop! Twitchy!” Pinkie Pie bounced hysterically just inside the Library. She was wearing her necklace, the jeweled balloon pendant that represented her connection to one of the Elements of Harmony. “It's a doozy – the dooziest doozy since dues were due! It's –”
“Pinkie! Calm down! I still don't know what's –”
Twilight Sparkle was interrupted by her steadfast assistant Spike emitting a thunderous belch and a gout of green flame, followed by a roll of parchment. With a well-practiced swipe he caught it in mid-air.
“Huh, no seal. Must have been in a hurry...” Spike's eyes widened as he looked at the message from Princess Celestia. “Twilight... I think you better have a look at this.”
On the scroll – lacking the ribbon and seal typical of messages from the Princess – was a single world, written hurriedly.
“HELP”
Twilight took a shocked step back as Spike showed her the message.
“All right, don't panic...”
The purple unicorn glanced towards a box on her desk and levitated it over.
“There's no reason for panic...”
There was a hammering at the front door of the Library. “Twi! Open up, we got a situation here!”
Just outside, a cyan pegasus came in a bit too fast for a two-hoof landing, fell into a roll, and cartwheeled to the Library entrance.
Rainbow Dash came to a halt in a cloud of dust and looked up at Applejack. “Hey! I meant to do that!”
“Uh-huh. Sure thing, sugar cube.”
Both were wearing their necklaces.
The door opened, and Pinkie Pie – bouncing in place – beckoned them in. The hyperactive pink earth pony seemed to be at a loss for words – or did she just have too much to say all at once?
“Dash – get to the spa. I think Rarity and Fluttershy are down there –” Twilight Sparkle's voice took on a commanding tone, which trailed off as her feelings of dread overtook her.
She didn't notice Rainbow Dash flying off before she could finish her sentence. “ – and tell them to bring their Elem – whoops.”
“Don't you worry, Twilight – they'll figure it out.”
“Thanks, AJ.”
Twilight levitated her Element – a diadem with a star-shaped jewel – onto her head, and narrowed her eyes.
The first step was to survey the damage done. Twilight set up her telescope on a hill-top just outside of town and scanned the mountain.
“Weird. No fires, no wreckage – it's like the Palace and the High City were just erased.” Twilight looked up from the eye-piece of the telescope and turned to Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, fly over the area. See if you –“
Rainbow Dash's spectral trail already stretched across the sky. Fluttershy shrugged and frowned.
“So you don't see anypony hurt, right? They might all still be OK?” She was obviously terrified.
“We have no way to know. Not until we have a look. There's no obvious danger right now.” Twilight tried to reassure her friend.
“So, no obvious danger... just mysterious, sneaky, we won't know until it gets us danger.” Fluttershy's lower lip trembled. “That's just... wonderful,” she said weakly.
Behind them, Rarity was using her horn to help Applejack prepare Twilight's balloon for the trip to what remained of Canterlot.
“Are you still fussin' with that harness?”
“If I don't 'fuss' with it,” Rarity stated, “it won't work properly. So, do we have one pegasus towing us, or two?”
Applejack looked skeptically at Fluttershy, who had a far-away look in her eyes. Applejack ambled over to her friend and waved a hoof in front of Fluttershy's eyes.
Fluttershy did not react – her forced smile and distant gaze remained unchanged.
“Ah think we got one pegasus.”
Rarity harrumphed, and returned to securing the tow lines.
Rainbow Dash returned, banked, and came to a cantering landing. “The Lower City is still there, and everypony is freaking out! The Royal Guards are all over the place.”
Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash as she slowed to a trot and halted. “And what about the Palace? Or the High City?”
“Nothing! Absolutely nothing! It's like it was never there!”
Twilight Sparkle narrowed her eyes. Behind her, she folded her telescope and guided it into her saddlebags. “Well, everypony get ready. We depart for Canterlot!”
Rarity strutted over to Rainbow Dash and Twilight, levitating a bejeweled bridle and harness. “Now, Dash – be a dear and put this on.”
Rainbow Dash was flabbergasted. “How about – no.”
“It's more comfortable than towing the balloon with your mouth, offers better control –”
“It's kinky.” Rainbow Dash remained stubborn.
“Just because some ponies use them for, shall we say, recreational activities, I assure you that there is no shame in using the right tools for the job. Now be a dear, Rainbow Dash, and hold still.”
Twilight cleared her throat. “Ahem. As I was saying.... we depart for Canterlot!” She smiled awkwardly.
“Oh, all right. Let's get this over with.”
The balloon approached the High City.
Twilight scanned the ground with binoculars, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Beside her, Pinkie Pie jabbered.
“Do you think it's some meanie? I don't, it'd have introduced itself by now. They always do, they need the attention and to know that they're big and bad and scary. I bet it was an accident, because who'd do something silly like erasing cities on purpose? I sure wouldn't. So I'll bet it's not Nightmare Moon because she's big and scary and likes for everypony to know it, and it's not Discord because it's just not random and chaotic like –”
Twilight gently placed a hoof on her pink friend's mouth.
“Stop making sense, Pinkie. It's disturbing.” She looked behind her, to where Applejack and Rarity were looking after Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, are you OK?”
Fluttershy sat stiffly in the basket with a very fake looking smile plastered on her face. Her eyes were closed tightly. “I'm just fine. You don't need to fuss over me.”
Applejack and Rarity exchanged quick sidelong glances. Twilight shrugged and returned to searching with her binoculars. “Hah! Rainbow Dash, set down by the falls to our right. I think I see something!”
A few moments later, the balloon set down. Applejack leaped out of the basked and expertly drove wooden stakes into the ground with her hooves, which Rarity used to tie down the balloon with the mooring lines. Rainbow Dash released her harness from the tow ropes and swept the bridle from her face.
Fluttershy waited until the balloon was no longer moving, then flapped her wings, propelling her out of the basket.
Twilight Sparkle slowly approached the object on the ground, head lowered.
“A book?”
Rainbow Dash laughed. “Ha! Twilight's arch-enemy! Gonna read it until it gives up?”
“Very funny, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight lifted the book up with her horn and glared at it. “This isn't an ordinary book. It's... alive.”
“Alive?” Fluttershy sounded hopeful. “May you can talk to it and ask it nicely to put everything back. Find out what it wants...”
“It's worth a try.” Twilight lifted her head and closed her eyes. “Here goes...”
Her mind made contact. Twilight Sparkle's eyes rolled back and her jaw hung open loosely. The other ponies approached her, concerned.
With a jolt and a strangled scream, Twilight Sparkle's horn extinguished, and the book fell to the ground. She leaped back, running into Fluttershy.
Fluttershy wrapped her wings around the trembling unicorn, who babbled, “...there's so many of them... there's too many of them...”
Fluttershy nuzzled her friend. “There there. Just stay here until you feel better.”
“...everypony's in there... and the others... and it's all so huge inside... and it's hungry...”
Pinkie Pie scowled at the book. “So, a big bad meanie book. Hmph.”
“Why don't we just zap it with a rainbow and make it a nice book?” Rainbow Dash eyed the book suspiciously.
Twilight's head was pressed against Fluttershy's chest. The unicorn looked up.
“The Elements of Harmony are there to maintain balance – they can heal a broken heart, restore the natural order – but this... thing... has no heart.” Twilight looked downcast. “And it's doing what comes naturally. It's a book. It contains words and ideas and stories. And it's alive and hungry and wants to live forever.”
Twilight stood up, and Fluttershy released her. The unicorn turned to her friend.
“Thank you, Fluttershy.”
“It's all right.”
“I..”
“Don't worry about me. I had a nice, quiet nervous breakdown on the way here and I'm fine now.” The pegasus smiled sweetly.
“Um... good.” Twilight Sparkle's friends had formed an impromptu circle. Twilight strode to the center and raised her head high.
“So – this book doesn't want to be about just one story. It wants to be about all the stories, and the stories of the writers of the stories, and so on, until it's about everything everywhere.”
She turned to the book, fixing it with a fierce glance. “Right now, it's holding the Princesses and the population of the High City hostage.”
Applejack set her jaw. “So we have to git in there and get 'em out.”
“Exactly! So, who's with me?”
One by one, each of the other five ponies nodded.
With some apprehension, Twilight levitated the book and opened it to the first page.
“Everypony ready?”
The other five ponies looked at her expectantly.
“Here we go.” Twilight began reading.
“In the beginning was the Word –”
There was a flash of light, and six ponies disappeared.
It stretched on forever without bound or measure. There was no light, no darkness, just an awareness of intrusion.
Twilight Sparkle was, as far as she could tell, alone.
I only feel like I'm falling because there's no ground beneath my hooves. I wonder if the others...
She stilled her mind. In an instant, she felt the presence of the other Elements of Harmony, and despaired at the vast and terrible distance separating them.
She bit her lip and focused. There were others inside here, close to one of the Elements – a cluster incomprehensibly far away, a cloud of souls surrounding a central sun.
Celestia?
She felt a surge of hope.
Her concentration broke.
She reminisced, and was immediately caught up in a moment of reverie. With no other sensations, the feeling of recollection was overpowering.
Oh, sure, I passed the entrance exam – but they said I wasn’t ready to go to the School for Gifted Unicorns full-time. I was the youngest candidate to ever succeed!
So I had to continue going to school with the other fillies and colts. After school, Mother would pick me up and take me to the advanced courses. It was all so exciting and new, and the professors were thrilled to have a chance to privately tutor me.
The other colts and fillies teased me mercilessly. They were already a loud, unruly rabble, but once they figured out what I did instead of playing on the playground every afternoon, their behavior became even more insufferable.
Lucky for me I was good at mind-reading. I could even make suggestions, and ponies would follow them unconsciously! My professor joked that I’d soon master “Want-It-Need-It”, one of the most dangerous spells known to ponykind.
Every day, as I sat through watching my poor teacher try to maintain order, I felt increasingly sorry for her. She was such a dear! She reminded me so much of Cheerilee...
One day, I decided to make them behave. It was so easy! They barely noticed the subtle nudges I gave them to be quiet, stand in line, not squabble and gossip and fight...
My teacher noticed the difference, but she wasn’t happy; it terrified her.
Soon, the Princess herself came to my school. We talked for a long time, and she asked me if I was unhappy. I told her how frustrated I was with school, and she nodded. She was so understanding!
The very next day, I began studying full time—
“Wait a minute.”
Twilight Sparkle imagined she was talking. There was no air to carry her voice, no sound in her ears. It was a simple mental exercise, a means to ground herself.
“That’s not how it was. I... I started studying full time from the very beginning. I would have loved to spend more time with Mom and Dad; I was so scared when I started. I didn’t know about Magic Kindergarten...”
Twilight stilled her mind, stifled the narrative running through her consciousness.
“What’s going on? Where did that come from?”
---------
It was the best party ever!
There were balloons and streamers and party hats and everypony was having fun, playing games and dancing, and they were all there! Everypony!
Pinkie Pie smiled and bounced to the table with the refreshments. The table was filled with pies and cake and candy and...
Pinkie Pie had the feeling she had forgotten something important.
She checked the table again. No, there were plenty of snacks.
She checked the room. Everybody was talking and laughing and mingling – even Princess Celestia was there.
Pinkie Pie had definitely forgotten something important.
I should go up to her and say “Hi!” and make sure she's having fun, because it sure feels funny in here, like –
Cupcakes! There was a tray of freshly baked cupcakes on the table – without frosting or sprinkles or any decorations at all!
Pinkie bounced over to the tray of cooling cupcakes. Fortunately, somepony had thought to stock the table with tubs of frosting and sprinkles and a spatula.
Pinkie had an idea – she would make extra-special cupcakes decorated especially for whoever wanted one! Custom cupcakes for every customer!
Soon ponies were standing in line to get cupcakes. The first one, a large, taciturn stallion, was a carpenter. The decoration was easy – a hammer and nails. The next one, a unicorn who looked down his muzzle at anything around him, was a tailor. That was another easy one – a pincushion, pins, and a measuring tape.
This was fun, and even that snooty unicorn smiled when he took his cupcake.
The next one was a tweedy old earth pony with bags under his eyes.
“What do you do?”
“I'm a professor of mathematics at the School for Gifted Unicorns. I teach advanced set theory and topology.”
Pinkie paused for a beat. “Ohh kee dokie.” What would she put on his cupcake, math symbols? If so, which ones?
“Don't worry, I have an idea,” he said, breaking the awkward moment. “Take a cupcake and the sharpest knife you have...”
He wanted her to slice his cupcake up – but the slices were so complicated! They looked funny, too, kind of cloudy and with no distinct edges. Sometimes he would turn the cupcake a little and have her make another slice.
“So you teach at the School for Gifted Unicorns? Where's your horn?”
“Not all the teachers are unicorns. Celestia, in her infinite wisdom, wants the little ones to learn to respect the abilities of the other races. There! We're done!”
Before them were four ragged slices of cupcake, and the eensy-weensiest crumb Pinkie had ever seen. While the other ponies had initially been impatient, soon they gathered around in a half-circle to see.
“Now... watch this.” The professor took two slices, twisted and shoved them around, and slid them together – into a whole cupcake!
Pinkie Pie eyed the cupcake suspiciously. “Wait a minute – there are two slices left!”
The professor carefully manipulated the other two pieces – into a second cupcake.
Pinkie Pie pouted. “You're some kind of stage magician, aren't you?”
“Nothing so interesting, dear. Now, frost those two cupcakes, maybe with two contrasting colors, and I'll put them back together into a single cupcake – minus the central point, of course...”
“That doesn't work! You can't just make one cupcake into two by cutting it!” Pinkie felt funny.
“In the real world, no. But this isn't a cupcake – it's an idea of a cupcake.” The professor came in close and whispered into Pinkie's ear. “I think something strange is afoot, and I think you can help.”
Pinkie again had the feeling she was forgetting something. The professor gestured to the base of her neck.
“I've seen that lovely necklace somewhere before. I think it was the ceremony after Discord was banished.”
Pinkie fixed the professor in her big blue eyes and nodded. “It's an Element of Harmony. The Element of Laughter.”
The professor nodded sagely. “I think you should take a break and go talk to the Princess.”
Pinkie Pie smiled. “I think you're right.”
Pinkie Pie bounced across the room, dodging party guests.
“Princess?”
Why wasn't she moving? She was so much pinker than usual, too. Was she not feeling well?
Celestia responded, groggily, “My wings are so pretty. Are you a Princess, too?”
Pinkie looked up into the Princess' eyes, and saw a tiny spark of awareness.
The room fell away.
Pinkie Pie was bathed in light, terribly bright and hot. It burned on her back.
The Princess spoke again, her voice melodious and gentle and bone-rattlingly loud.
“Whatever you do, Pinkie Pie – keep your eyes closed and don't turn around.”
Pinkie was terrified, and whimpered.
“You don't see things the same way your friends do. You can find them and help them – and they can help you.”
Pinkie's voice was shaky. “Princess... you're scaring me...”
“Courage, Pinkie Pie. Bring them to me, and we'll all find a way back home. I'm counting on you.” The Princesses' voice was tender.
Pinkie bit her lip. “...I'm gonna need help. Is Princess Luna–”
“She is... busy. Do what you can, Pinkie Pie. Go now.”
The world fell away.
---------
The sunset wasn't red anymore, and the sky was no longer blue, but a bejeweled black.
Frost crunched beneath the black alicorn's hooves, and her feline teal eyes scanned the razor-sharp horizon.
It takes two to lead a herd. One all wish to follow, and one to chase stragglers back to the group.
The cold wasn't so bad once the atmosphere froze. Nightmare Moon smiled a sinister smile.
We got them all. O Sister! How we pray your stratagem is blessed with success!
The training course lasted three years, and was three years she'd be exempt from conscription. It was bad enough that everything had gone to Hell, but getting roped into the "police action" in Zebrasia would have been too much for a middle-aged pegasus who only wanted some peace and quiet.
She never had thought she would make it as an astronaut. There was no way she'd pass the physical, much less the psychiatric exam. Astronauts were brave and strong – and she was quite the opposite.
The physical tests were simply to determine how well she tolerated reduced air pressure – very well – and acceleration – acceptably, except for the screaming. The psychiatric tests were even more sobering – a simple inventory to determine how well she could tolerate solitude – very well – and follow complex instructions without support or supervision – also very well.
Then the Ministry of Miracles told her her mission, and Fluttershy knew she wanted to be an astronaut after all. Maybe it helped that she was a former political prisoner.
How long had she been out in space? It had been a while. It was hard to keep track of time when she was alone.
She was the skipper of the “Ever Free”, a twenty kiloton modular freighter with a most unusual cargo – the last surviving plants and animals from what used to be the Everfree Forest. Her job was to monitor the automated systems that actually ran her vessel, and take the blame if anything went wrong. Maybe, someday, her cargo would help establish a biosphere on one of the new order's space colonies.
In the meantime, it provided Fluttershy with oxygen and food, and most importantly, companionship. For all that had happened to her and her friends, her love of animals hadn't changed. They didn't ask awkward questions.
She had been having the dream again when the alarm chimed in her stateroom. She was with her friends as they made their last stand just outside the safe house. Twilight never saw the sharp-shooter's bullet coming, she never had a chance. Rainbow Dash winged it out of there, followed by a dozen rockets from the Revolutionary Army's base. Fluttershy couldn't watch as she felt the dull shock of the warheads' detonation. She hid her head in shame as a lance of Revolutionary cavalry advanced on them, bayonets set.
Fluttershy shook her head to wake up. No sense dwelling on the past. Yes, the re-education camp may have been where she had learned to scream – but at least she made it out alive.
The restraints retracted back into the bed frame, and she slowly and carefully flapped her wings, taking off into the microgravity of her living quarters. The entire vessel spun around its long axis. Towards the middle of the ship, one long thick tether extended a kilometer and a half to the domed forest enclosure, balanced on the other side by another thick tether that extended the same distance to a counter-weight. Every four minutes, the entire apparatus completed three rotations. When the base of the dome started to face the sun, a hyperbolic mirror on the counter-weight would create a brief artificial noon. Every hundred forty-four rotations, shutters would close on the dome, and a pitch-black night would fall. One hundred forty-four rotations later, the shutters would open, and the daytime dance of shadows would begin again.
“Mister Hands?” Fluttershy’s quiet voice was almost inaudible. Her implants communicated her request to the Ever Free’s automated systems. “I will be performing an inspection of the habitat. Prepare the lift.”
The surgery hadn’t even hurt that much.
She heard jets hiss as one of Mister Hands' drones glided down the corridor. The squat hexagonal prism, proportioned like a baby dragon, bobbed to a stop and extended a probe into a socket on the wall. She fluttered by, carefully making her way through the cluttered crawlspace to the trapdoor leading to the tether lift.
She entered the capsule, and the door in the ceiling closed automatically. Soon she would be with her fuzzy friends.
The trip down the tether was slow. She felt her ears pop as the air pressure was gradually increased to match the habitat dome. The sensation of gravity became stronger – sitting no longer required conscious effort to stay on the floor.
She took the time to check her messages. Her vessel needed to be periodically resupplied with oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water, spare parts, and extra food. Solid waste had to be removed. The automated cargo capsules were launched from a space station and had to accelerate to the equilibrium point her vessel was parked at. Sometimes she had to check in, confirm the telemetry reports from the Ever Free's systems, or take a little psych test to make sure the loneliness wasn't driving her crazy.
This time... this time a surprise was waiting for her in her in-box.
“INACTIVATION ORDER PENDING DECOMMISSIONING OF ERSV-88215 (EVER FREE)”
It was not a pleasant surprise. She put it out of her mind as she re-accustomed herself to the increasing centripetal acceleration as the lift capsule approached the dome.
They can't do this.
Fluttershy shuddered.
I did everything they wanted. I gave up so much. And it hurt so badly. I hurt –
She had to stop her thoughts there. This was neither the time nor the place. An uncertain and dangerous future was more pressing now.
The doors to the habitat opened. The moment of artificial noon was at hand, as the sun quickly ran from a crescent to a hollow circle to a crescent, and Fluttershy heard the birds chirp, the leaves rustle, the animals scurry and stalk, and understood.
Life. This is life. This is the only thing that matters.
Her orders were clear. She was to jettison the habitat and pilot the main vessel back to the orbital dockyards. No more supply drones were coming. Her mission was over.
The moment of noon ended, and the shadows began their dance as the sun directly illuminated the dome. Fluttershy sat down on the grass, feeling the weight of her old bones.
To Hell with them. To Hell with me.
She lifted her head, and spoke. “Mister Hands? Take a letter.”
The next several hours were busy. Day became night with the clattering close of shutters outside the dome. Fluttershy's implants triggered automatically, an infrared light source in her forehead illuminating a cone in front of her, tuned to stimulate artificial cells in her retinas. In the pitch darkness, she saw a bunny hop towards her, and scratched it behind its floppy ears.
All this for you.
The worst part was going to be detaching the tether. At least at first, the worst part was going to be detaching the tether. The real worst part was coming later, but the small biosphere inside the dome would delay that.
If they want their stupid spaceship back, they'll get their stupid spaceship back.
There was a tiny shudder as explosive bolts disengaged. Fluttershy got to watch as the drive systems of the main body of the freighter engaged in a panicked run away from the tumbling dome and counter-weight assembly.
Weeks passed. She and her forest held up well without re-supply.
She hadn't really expected them to answer her impassioned plea to save the forest.
There are worse ways to die.
There was an unpleasant tang of decomposition in the air. Some of the more sensitive plants were beginning to die and rot.
Her last morning in the dome began as the shutters opened. She looked out to dark sky of the daytime dome and saw a ship approach. It was a big boxy thing, it didn't look like anything Fluttershy recognized.
Maybe it's a warship. Maybe I've just gone crazy...
She didn't have time to finish her thought. Light engulfed her.
She appeared inside a cluttered circular bridge. There were no restraints, or acceleration couches. The design was clearly and obviously alien.
The captain's chair turned to face her.
“Surprise!”
What the Hell. What... I... she hasn't changed. She didn't look like that when I saw her in the camp...
“Fluttershy? Are you OK? Isn't this a cool spaceship? I guess somepony thinks I'm an alien! Isn't that funny?”
Her hair's poofy. She hasn't aged. She's... she's not angry at me.
“Pinkie... Pinkie Pie?”
The last time I looked at that face, her eyes were cold and distant and angry through the armored glassine of the prison's visitor center. Her only words were, “You bitch. You betrayed us. You lost your friends, forever!”
“Fluttershy? Why are you crying?”
“I – what are you doing here?”
Pinkie trotted over to her old friend. “Remember? We're in some wacky book filled with stories. I found you by thinking real hard about your Element.” She tapped the base of Fluttershy's neck.
My necklace? But... they confiscated that...
Fluttershy looked into the eyes of her friend, her friend who had come back from the dead to forgive her, to remind her what she was, to show her nothing had happened, that all the hate and pain and death was meaningless, and that the reason she had gone into space was not to die but to be reborn, up from a world so shattered and torn.
She had learned a long time ago that magic was the ability to recognize potentials and their relations to your self and to others. The trick was to develop the senses unique to unicorns and their alicorn cousins – beyond Aristrotle's classic five senses, sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste, beyond the further senses that arose from sensation and body – balance, pain, the countless twitches and twinges of the vegetative nervous system – and from feelings and mind and soul – empathy, significance, closure, or transcendence.
She was, strictly speaking, no longer Twilight Sparkle, but a passive receptacle for immediate experience, freed from the prison of self. With no ordinary senses or instincts to fall back upon, she perceived only reification and dissolution of possibility, a spider web of coincidence and synchronicity unifying lonely bubbles of being over vast distances.
She floated in a disassociated state, not thinking, not providing any fragment of narrative for the surroundings to build upon. Impossibly distant not-lights flashed, pulling worlds into this strange, hungry place. There was a mind here, but she was trapped inside its brain, watching the flashes as potentials built and returned to ground state.
Oh, hello, cosmic hyper-brain. Would you be a nice cosmic hyper-brain and not eat us all? I'll say “please” and ask politely. Then we can all be friends and have a little tea party and I'll write a letter to Celestia about how even vastly incomprehensible alien life forms can make good friends if you just give them a chance...
The disturbing thing about the spectacle that played out in her mind was the certainty that her message was, at most, some kind of autonomic twinge for the entity. It could no more understand individual minds than she could talk to an individual cell in her own body. She wondered what it was doing to her, if it was neither willing or able to communicate.
She felt dizzy and nauseous. It was like – No, don't remember it will –
Entheogens were often used to help unicorns learn to heed their other senses, poisons that sent the mind reeling, distorted perceptions, and, under the right conditions, forced the student to confront new ways to perceive. The most common one was a nasty brew, a tea made of dried witch-weed, that tasted rank and metallic.
Celestia has insisted on supervising Twilight's witch-weed trial personally. Young Twilight Sparkle was a problematic student – her history of powerful magical surges and difficulty controlling her talents made the faculty leery of her. Worse yet, it alienated her from the other students, who treated her like a show-off when she succeeded and an idiot when she failed.
Stop that, Twilight. You're remembering. This place is made of stories, and your life story belongs to you, not it. You can't let it –
The teapot hovered in the air, stopped over the low table, and set down. She looked at it and despaired. She looked at it and...
...somewhere far away was another teapot.
Twilight felt the hairs of her mane stand up as a terrible potential built up. Suddenly, not thinking was no longer a struggle. She was a part of the network, a sensory organ sent to look for something.
She had found it. Now it was her turn to forward the stimulus and await the response.
Have we finally found what we were looking for?
-------
“Like I told you, just a hop, skip, and a jump. Easy!” Pinkie Pie beamed and gestured towards the vaguely familiar-looking buildings on the outskirts of town. “This even looks like Ponyville!”
Fluttershy said nothing, sat down, and examined the scene carefully. Pinkie had trouble reading her face. She looked younger. The wrinkles were gone, and the streaks of gray had disappeared from her mane, but there was this haunted, distant look in her eyes, and that funny little bump on her forehead was still there, and she sometimes cried in her sleep.
“No. Not Ponyville. Layout's different, lots of empty lots and abandoned houses.” Fluttershy's voice was quiet, flat, and emotionless. “Rainbow Dash is here. I can feel it.”
Pinkie bounced over to Fluttershy. She had felt it, too! “Come on! Let's get her out of here, huh?”
“Yeah, before something bad happens.” Fluttershy frowned.
Pinkie bounced towards the first street corner, and Fluttershy slinked behind her. As they passed a boarded-up storefront, a canary-yellow mare and her little cyan foal stopped suddenly as they caught a glimpse of Pinkie.
“Hi there! Which way to Sugarcube Corner?” Pinkie beamed at them with the biggest, friendliest smile she had.
The yellow mare leaped up in the air, emitted a strangled scream, snatched her foal, and ran away in the opposite direction.
Pinkie Pie sat down and rubbed her chin as Fluttershy caught up to her.
“Wow. That's really off-putting, isn't it? Do I still do that? Like, a lot?”
-------
Rainbow Dash had had her share of bad mornings, and this looked like another one.
Pounding headache? Check.
Sore all over? Check.
She opened her bleary eyes and tried to wriggle.
What? Oh, no...
It was embarrassing enough thinking about the last time she woke up stuck to the floor.
Then she noticed the straps. Her uncertain gaze followed the strap on her fore-hoof to the metal frame to which she was bound.
Ohmigosh.
She heard the mechanical grinding of a winch, pulling the frame upright. She slumped in her fetters.
“You dirty little bitch. When I kill you, you damn well better stay dead.”
Rainbow Dash looked at the figure standing before her on her back hooves next to a metal stand holding an array of surgical instruments – scalpels, saws, clamps, syringes, oh my!
Scanning her hips, Rainbow Dash recognized her cutie mark – but her tail was limp and straight, not a riot of curls.
Rainbow Dash kept looking. She saw a sallow pink chest, a straight dark magenta mane. She looked at the standing figure's face.
She saw tiny pupils in big watery blue irises, surrounded by a rim of dark blue on blood-shot whites. The figure's mouth was tight and grim, frowning darkly. This was a mouth that hadn't smiled in quite a while.
“Who are you supposed to be?” Rainbow Dash didn't care that she was tied to a rack, didn't care that the pony standing in front of her looked a little like Pinkie Pie. This was obviously not Pinkie, her face was too cruel and callous. She was standing perfectly still, like a snake waiting to strike, and didn't look like she was about to bounce off the nearest wall.
I don't think Pinkie Pie could do that even if she wanted to.
“Don't you recognize your old friend?” She stepped forward, her nose almost touching Rainbow Dash's. “Pinkamena... Diane... Pi–”
The introduction gave Dash a moment.
Rainbow Dash had never been the most disciplined pony, and she was all too aware that she had poor impulse control and often did not think before acting. However, she had always had an edge, an ability to sense opportunities and take them, and was observant enough to see them more often than not.
Her situation was clear. She had to defend herself, or she was going to die.
Her resources were limited. She could not move her legs – but her wings were free.
She had one chance, and in the instant Pinkamena came close enough, she took it.
She lashed out with both wings, swung them in a broad arc, and aimed the tips at Pinkamena's eyes.
Pinkamena sensed the beginning of the strike, and pulled back in the five milliseconds she had to react.
Pinkamena didn't get very far. The right wingtip just broke the sound barrier before it struck the tip of her muzzle, breaking her nose.
The left wingtip missed, and a sharp crack reverberated through the small, bunker-like chamber as it overextended, swiping into empty space. Pinkamena's head twisted, throwing out an arc of blood from her snout as she lost her balance.
Rainbow Dash was preparing for a second strike with her right wing when she saw Pinkamena crumple to the floor, blood gushing from her muzzle. Her left wing burned at the base, and her right wing smarted at the tip.
Oh damn. That's gonna hurt.
Pinkamena was down, but Rainbow Dash wasn't sure how long she'd stay down. Flapping her wings hurt terribly, but it got her enough altitude to grab the top cross-bar of the frame with her mouth. Hanging from her mouth relieved the strain on the straps attached to her fore-hooves, and gave her enough slack to try to release the strap's buckle.
Her first attempt didn't work, but she kept trying.
-------
The bakery didn't look right.
Sugarcube Corner was surrounded by empty lots overgrown with young shrubby crooked trees, towards the outskirts of town. The decorative facade was weathered and cracked and faded, and several of the windows were blacked out. The effect was desolate and frightening – the gingerbread house style bakery had been turned into a monster by abuse and neglect.
“What happened?” Pinkie Pie was close to tears.
“She's in there, isn't she?” Fluttershy narrowed her eyes and looked at the decayed building.
Neither of them wanted to come closer to the battered front door, but they did anyway. The window was blacked out.
“What do we do? Ring the doorbell?” There was a suspicious-looking dark brown stain on the button that probably wasn't chocolate.
Fluttershy's mouth tightened. “I think that might not be a very good idea.”
Pinkie Pie pulled a small key from her locks of mane and tried to unlock the door.
The door swung open.
The unfamiliar scent of formaldehyde and decay wafted through the open doorway. The girls entered the front room. The bell over the front door had been removed, but the bracket it hung from remained.
Fluttershy stared into the room, transfixed. Pinkie Pie turned green and rushed out to vomit on the front steps.
Black flies buzzed through the foul-smelling, stale air. The tables usually piled with baked goods were piled with black-brown decayed things that neither of the girls wanted to examine too closely, covered with flies. Behind the counter...
Pinkie returned, wiping her muzzle on her fore-hoof. Fluttershy stared at the thing behind the counter.
“Fluttershy, stop looking at it. I mean it!”
The headless, mummified corpse of a pale yellow pegasus was propped behind the counter, wings spread. On a silver plate in front of her was a bleached pony skull decorated with a tanned scalp bearing strands of straight pink hair. Two blue glass eyes looked out from the skull's eye sockets.
“It's all right, Pinkie. I'm here with you, so that's not me.” Fluttershy was calm. “It's kind of reassuring. I went through a lot of stuff before you found me. I was hoping it all wasn't real. Now I know.”
Fluttershy may have seemed calm, but Pinkie Pie could see that she was a little unsteady on her hooves. They needed to get moving.
A muffled scream came from below.
-------
Rainbow Dash hung limply from a single strap.
Two barbed darts protruded from her chest, and two thin wires lead to the plastic gun Pinkamena held in a fore-hoof, a plastic device that resembled a little boy's toy ray gun. An arc of confetti-like colored discs were spread on the floor between them.
Rainbow Dash's muscles still spasmed, but she was dimly aware of her surroundings.
Pinkamena smiled smugly, two rivulets of blood trickling down from her nostrils. She was looking through the eyepieces of a periscope.
“Well, I'll be dipped – looks like the dead've come home.” She laughed mirthlessly. “It's a special reunion party. Looks like I'll even get to do myself. What a trip...”
Pinkamena put down the taser and retrieved a large, long barreled revolver from the metal stand next to her. She aimed the gun at Rainbow Dash's head.
“We're kinda running out of time. Looks like you'll miss the party.”
There was the crashing sound of a door being bucked off its hinges. A high, panicked voice cried out.
“Rainbow! We're coming for you!”
Rainbow Dash tried to smile. Pinkie Pie.
“Girl, you were always such a... party pooper.” Pinkamena cocked the hammer.
A relay triggered with a clunk. The lights went out.
“Fluttershy, what – ” Pinkie Pie panicked.
Wings flapped in the dark. Pinkamena aimed for the sound and pulled the trigger.
Her aim was thrown off. In the muzzle flash, Rainbow Dash saw a pair of back hooves connect with Pinkamena's chest, bucking her into the far wall. A metal stand fell over, and tools clattered on the concrete floor.
Pinkamena groaned, and then the sound of increasingly wet thuds filled the darkness. Something screamed incoherently, a guttural sound of pain and rage that echoed in the basement torture chamber.
The relay clunked again as Pinkie Pie found a light switch.
The sudden illumination caught Fluttershy by surprise, and she stopped pummeling the bloody and unconscious Pinkamena. The adrenaline was wearing off, and Fluttershy shook a bit. She turned her blood-spattered face to look at Rainbow Dash.
Pinkie had bound over to Rainbow Dash and was releasing her from her straps. Rainbow Dash returned Fluttershy's wavering gaze.
“Fluttershy, you have blood on your face.”
“I don't think it's mine.”
“Let's get out of here! I wanna go somewhere fun!”
The three friends were somewhat shaky as they made their way out of the bakery. On the way out the front door, Pinkie Pie leaped up and darted to the kitchen.
There was a loud crash and the sound and smell of gas joined the flies and the decay. Pinkie Pie seemed to be in a hurry to get out, and rushed her surprised friends out the door. Her face was a little green.
“Girls, be really, really, really glad you didn't go in the kitchen. We need to run!”
Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie rushed from the desolate bakery as the first detonation blew out the walls and lifted the gingerbread roof off the house on a column of flame.
Rainbow Dash looked back at the burning ruin. She was shaking, but also smiling and laughing.
“Knew you guys would come for me!”
-------
She looked at the teapot. Legal was contacted the team, and it looked like they'd have to redesign most of the main cast.
It was as good an excuse as any to write another draft of the pilot script.
Her fingers danced on the keyboard.
She turned to pour herself a cup of tea and took a moment to look at what she wrote.
“Gospel of John – no, that's too weird. Let's try 'Once upon a time...'”