Chapters Nopony knew what was going on. Each of them had been minding their own business, then suddenly they were here. Naturally, many of the fillies and colts in the room did exactly what they were taught to do upon finding themselves in a room without any consent or prior knowledge of their location.
They panicked.
Several began to cry for their parents, or in the case of a certain orange coated Pegasus, Rainbow Dash. Many of the mares and stallions in the room found themselves having both pity for the foals and rage for whatever force it was that brought them there. The lights on the ceiling above were giving off a pale purplish-pink glow, and the lack of any sort of decoration or design on the walls was unnerving to say the least.
Several theories began to pop up between the ponies trapped there, with "Changeling attack!", "Alien Invasion!", and "Judgement Day!" being the most common.
However, before a full-scale riot could erupt, a voice made itself known to the ears of all those present.
"Calm yourselves, My little ponies," a familiar voice declared, powerful, yet gentle. Princess Celestia now had the attention of every pony in the room, hundreds of eyes pointed to her, desperate for something to calm their fears. "I do not know of the force that brought us here, but I sense no malice towards us in this room. Be patient; violence and panic will do nothing but dampen our spirits and injure your bodies." For a moment, the ponies in the room that had been deepest in panic hung their heads in guilt, before a voice among them spoke up.
"Impostor!" the voice shouted. All heads turned to the new voice, revealing a scowling lavender unicorn mare. "That thing isn't Celestia!"
"Twilight Sparkle, what is the meaning of this?" the apparently-not-Celestia said.
"I'll admit, your voice is spot on, and the way you hold your stance is almost convincing. But your disguise forgets one important thing."
"Twilight what are you-"
"PRINCESS CELESTIA HAS WINGS YOU SHAM!" At this, the white mare stumbled back from the intensity of her students words.
"What do you---!" looking at her back, the unicorns accusation was confirmed. Eyes wide, the lookalike stared long at the place where two large swan-like wings should have connected to her body, and found not even a stump. It wasn't as though they were removed, it appeared to be that they had never been there at all.
The ponies in the room now began to converge on her, believing she would hold some answers. Not-Celestia was not frightened, but all could see the shock in her face.
"Where are we?"
"What's going on?"
"Where's Rainbow Dash- er, Princess Celestia!?"
"Hold it!" The lavender mare stepped forward again. "I'll ask the questions. I know the princess better than anypony, and I already fought alongside my friends in the changeling invasion. I can handle whatever she throws at me."
"Twilight, please listen to me-"
"NO! You listen! I trained under princess Celestia for years, and do you honestly think I'd fall for some unfinished disguise like that? Tell me: Where are we?"
"I do not know, nor do I have any connection with this situation."
"Alright, if you won't answer that then answer this: Where is the princess?"
"I am the princess."
"Listen, the second we get out of here I'm reporting this place to the guard. They may let things go easier if you just cooperate."
"Twilight Sparkle, I have told you, I am the princess, and I cannot explain what we are doing here."
"Last chance: Where Is the princess?"
"No matter how many times I am made to answer my response shall not waver. I am Princess Celestia."
"Fine. Have it your way. If you won't give me the answer I'll force it out of you!"
"You will not command me Twilight Sparkle. I will not give you information that is false. I am your teacher."
"No. YOU'RE, NOT !" Twilight's mane was now sticking out in several areas and her eyes were going wild. "I learned under Celestia for years. I know who she is. If you think some cheap disguise that isn't even finished will trick me you're sadly mistaken."
"Twilight, listen to yourself, you're terrified. Calm down, you need to think this thro-"
"I've had enough!" the lavender one was now obviously frazzled and could barely keep herself still. "You can talk all you want, but unless you tell me where the princess is I'm not interested. Now, if you aren't interested in talking honestly, would you just be-"
"QUIET! " a normally timid voice bellowed, once again bringing silence to the room.
"Umm... I think... maybe... she's telling the... truth... umm... I... here..." The new voice, now identified as a yellow Pegasus mare turned to her side. A few faces gained confused looks, but the purple unicorn gasped.
"You - YOU AREN'T FLUTTERSHY!" Twilight yelled in fear.
"Please Twilight, believe me, I don't know what's going on either."
"NO! NonononoNO! If you're Fluttershy, please explain what MY cutie mark is doing on your Flank!" At this point heads quickly shifted between the two, and even from afar it was clear; their cutie marks were identical. A large six pointed pink star surrounded by five smaller white stars "Fluttershy has three pink butterflies as her cutie mark, and I don't care how powerful your magic is, YOU CAN'T CHANGE A CUTIE MARK!"
The exchange continued, without much success for either side, as cyan figure with a poly-chromatic mane quietly approached the princess.
"You too, huh?" The cyan mare said at great length. The princess turned her eyes from her student and towards the voice that had spoken to her.
"Rainbow Dash?"
"Heh, Maybe. I don't know anymore." The unusually mellow mare turned to her side as Fluttershy had done, and what the Princess saw took away all of her usual resolve, her jaw dropping and eyes growing wide at the sight. Like the princess, Rainbow Dash's pride and joy, her beautiful wings, were simply gone without a trace. This alone would have unnerved the princess, but one other change brought the total shock she felt. Rainbow Dash's signature cloud and tri-colored lighting bolt were completely gone, nothing replacing them, simply a bare flank. Maybe-Celestia thought for a good while about what to say coming up with no logical explanation, or even an illogical one, when a small orange filly ran up to the now-flightless Pegasus beside her.
"Rainbow Dash!" the little filly said with a smile on her face, grabbing her idols front hooves into a tight embrace. "I was so sca- uh, worried! Yeah, worried! Please tell me what's going on!"
"...I don't know, Squirt. I wish I could tell you, but I can't." Rainbow Dash looked at Scootaloo, unable to bring a smile to her face.
"Well... Let's go. You always say you'll never figure out anything sitting on your plot. Maybe you should see if you can see somepony from higher up."
"Sorry Squi-Scootaloo. I don't think I'll be flying anytime soon" The filly's eyes shot open.
"What!? But you're Rainbow Dash ! You wouldn't be Rainbow Dash if you were stuck on the ground!"
Those words. Those few simple sentences stung more than anything else in Rainbow Dash's life. Here, now, Scootaloo had said it herself: a Rainbow Dash without wings was no Rainbow Dash at all.
"C'mon Rainbow! You promised you'd give me flying lessons today! You promised!" And now she was rubbing it in, still none the wiser.
Rainbow Dash was furious with herself 'Some element of Loyalty I turned out to be ,' she ranted in her mind. 'Can't even keep her promise to teach a schoolfilly how to fly... Am I really this useless without my wings? I even gave in to Discord to get my wings back...'
"Please Rainbow, at least try to look for a way out of here!"
"Sorry kid but any searching is gonna be on the ground. I'm not going to be flying for a while... Maybe not ever again."
"Wh-What do you mean? Of course... you'll..." The filly looked at the barren back of Rainbow Dash who returned the look with tears in her eyes. "This isn't real... THIS ISN'T REAL! NO! NO WAY!" Scootaloo was now crying, unable to take what she had seen.
After a moment, Rainbow Dash had moved in and nuzzled the filly, trying and failing to be strong for her. Celestia felt her heart wrench at the sight, and turned her head back to her student, knowing there were some things even a princess had no place in.
Twilight Sparkle continued arguing with Fluttershy over the identity of the latter, but the Princess could do nothing; when her student made an assumption, it took quite a bit of evidence to convince her otherwise, and Celestia's intervention would likely provoke her. Celestia lowered her head and went deep into her thoughts, trying to come up with some explanation for their apparent imprisonment.
The pair beside her, however, didn't care about any of the events around them. Rainbow had failed herself and Scootaloo, and she was unable to forgive herself for that. As for Scootaloo, she had been wandering and searching for anything that would be normal, something that would give her hope. Naturally, her first thought was Rainbow Dash in flight, and the sudden revelation that even this had been taken was too much.
So the mare and filly held each other and for several minutes, doing nothing but wetting the floor with tears, cursing at what they had lost.
Chapter 2: Red-Eyes takes Mourning
Sweetie Belle was horrified. One second she was with her friends trying to get her cutie mark in mountain climbing, the next she's in a room filled with ponies she doesn't know, with no help in sight. The closest thing she saw to somepony she recognized was a thing that looked like Cheerilee, and after trying to get close she immediately turned tail and galloped away because that thing had no face demon to let her body do anything else. There was no spite, no hatred, only fear and loneliness in the little white filly.
Sweetie finally slowed her pace, the adrenaline in her system diminishing and her lungs demanding more air. Stopping completely, Sweetie panted, sweat dripping profusely from her chin and mane. She gained several curious looks from the other ponies nearby, but they were currently to enthralled in their own conversations to be bothered with the filly's odd behavior. Several minutes later, Sweetie Belle had gained enough strength back to move her legs, though they remained sore from her intense sprint and soaked from sweat.
Thinking it best to just look for some pony she knew, she cautiously began to scan the faces of the ponies nearby. Though many seemed familiar, something just seemed... OFF about these ponies, but she couldn't quite put her hoof on it.
Forty minutes of fruitless searching later, Sweetie began to grow desperate. She would take ANYPONY so long as she knew them. Rarity, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, hey, she'd even be fine with Snips or Snails at this point! She just needed to know that she wasn't alone, that she would have somepony to talk to, somepony to help her.
Sweetie's ear twitched. She heard a voice... a familiar bratty voice. And it was-? Crying? Trying to close in on the noise, Sweetie carefully listened to the sounds around her and made her way to the figure it was coming from.
Sweetie Belle's suspicions were confirmed upon location of the voice. It had been a little, pink coated, purple and white maned filly, head buried in her front hooves and whining loudly, a diamond encrusted tiara about to fall off her head.
"Diamond... Tiara?" Sweetie asked carefully, wary of her chances of being shooed off. The pink filly before her either didn't hear her or didn't care as her sobs hadn't let up even slightly. Moving a bit closer, Sweetie tried again "Are you okay Diamond Tiara?" This time was met with more success, as the sobbing filly raised her head, revealing two eyes gone pink from watering, a trembling lip and a running nose. The two fillies eyes met before Diamond Tiara buried her head again.
"Go away. Just leave me. You and your cutie mark crazies friends are the last ponies I want to see right now." Her voice was quiet, lacking much of the authority and snobby attitude she was known for. "I just... I j-just-t... want..." was all the pink filly could manage before resuming her sobbing.
"Diamond Tiara, please tell me what's wrong."
"Like you care."
"I DO care! Please, just what is it? You need somepony to talk to and you aren't finding one just sitting there!"
"Please, just go away... I don't wanna talk to you."
"Just tell me Diamond, you need to get it off your chest." Sweetie Belle was still processing why she would ever talk to the school bully alone, but under these circumstances, she really couldn't help but feel worried for her.
"I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE YOU BLANK -" Diamond Tiara stopped, turned her head to the side, staring at her body, before falling on her face again and crying even harder than before.
Sweetie Belle began to move around Diamond Tiara's body and began looking her over, stopping at a sight that made her eyes go wide in astonishment. The image of, well, a diamond tiara was absent from the filly's flank, leaving it bare. Sweetie Belle immediately felt sorry for her, even if Scootaloo said that a cutie mark crusader would never feel bad about anything that happened to bullies like DT, this was beyond that. Sweetie Belle longed for her cutie mark to appear, she didn't want to wait, she hated being a blank flank. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to actually have her cutie mark and then lose it. A cutie mark is part of who a pony is, it reveals their place in life, and losing it would be losing that part.
Sweetie looked around to make sure Scootaloo or Apple Bloom hadn't shown up, she couldn't have them see what she was about to do. Coming closer to Diamond Tiara, Sweetie Belle pulled out the small hoofkerchief that Rarity had given to her ('A proper filly must always be prepared', she said), surprisingly dry despite being concealed in her mane during her earlier sprint.
"Take it." Sweetie said to the trembling mass before her. Diamond Tiara raised her head again, looking at the hoofkerchief and Sweetie before slowly reaching out for it. After taking hold of it, Diamond didn't know what she should think or say.
"...Why?" she settled on, holding the scrap of well-stitched and embroidered lace before her.
"Because Rarity says to always think of others, and last time I checked, she's a pretty good source for knowing how to be generous."
Diamond Tiara waited a moment, looking down at the gift she had been given. A moment later she patted her eyes and blew her nose, making sure to keep any mucus from dripping onto her hooves. she then folded it up, covering any wet places with the hoofkerchief's own padding and returned it.
"...Thank you... Sweetie... Belle..."
Sweetie Belle made sure when she returned the hankerchief to it's hiding place that it wouldn't open and coat her head in it's contents. Upon hearing Diamond Tiara's last comment, she nearly fumbled.
"What?"
"I said... Thank you..." Diamond was obviously struggling to get herself to say those words.
Sweetie Belle was nothing short of stunned. Diamond Tiara NEVER thanked anypony , no matter what they did for her.
"Umm... You're welco-OOF!" as Sweetie responded to Diamond Tiara the pink filly had pulled her in, holding her close.
"I'M SORRY! I'm sorry I pick on you all the time! I'm sorry I call you a blank-flank! I'm sorry I make everypony at school so miserable all the time! I'M SORRY! " Diamond Tiara had nearly broken down at this point, the tears returning to her eyes. "I'm sorry for everything! I just wanna *hic* go home! I wanna see daddy... I wanna go home... I j-just *sniff* wanna go home..."
Seeking a way to comfort her, Sweetie Belle began to stroke Diamond's mane as Rarity had done for her when she was upset. Initially Diamond had rebelled, but in a brief moment she did nothing to stop it, taking the action without complaint and holding the white filly close to her. A few minutes later and the pink filly had come to her senses once more.
"We'll be okay. We'll look for a way out together."
"...Yeah... No use whining to daddy if he isn't around..." Sweetie couldn't help but feel even worse, she wanted Diamond Tiara to get what was coming to her like her friends, but not anything as broken as this . Before long, however, Diamond had completely recovered and dried her eyes, looking expectantly at Sweetie Belle. "Let's go then."
"What now?" the white filly asked
"I thought you had a plan?"
"Nope, just running and listening."
"Seriously? Come on, you and your friends come up with insane ideas every day, you have to have something !
"I was more concerned with trying to run away than thinking of a plan."
"Away from what?"
"Trust me, you do not want to know."
"Humph. Well if you're going to invade my privacy I'm invading yours: What was it?"
"Fine. I saw Miss Cheerilee."
"Pfft, that's all? Afraid she's gonna give you homework on being foalna-"
"And she had no face." Diamond stopped, thinking about it before realizing that the white filly had been right; she really wished she didn't know. "Yeah. It was even freakier than it sounds. So... Got any ideas?
"Well... Maybe we should just try to find the other foals from school? If both of us are here the rest probably are to."
"Sounds like as good a plan as any."
"Just one more question Sweetie- What happened to your eyes?"
"Huh?"
"Eyes. You know the things in your head that let you see?" The pink one snarked.
"I know what they are, just what happened to mine?" Sweetie asked, a bit annoyed at the comeback and Diamond's returning resolve.
"Aren't your eyes supposed to be green?"
"What do you mean? They are green, aren't they?" Diamond Tiara pointed to the small pool of tears on the floor that hadn't been dried.
"Take a look for yourself." Sweetie Belle moved to the puddle slowly and looked in, unable to comprehend the figure reflected back at her. While the figure initially appeared to be her double, in place of her grassy green eyes were two of the same orange-red coloring Apple Bloom's possessed.
"...This is getting weird."
"Should we just go now then?"
"Yeah, I don't think it's a good idea to just wait for somepony else to find us here, and we aren't finding any answers just by talking to each other."
"Well then, after you." Diamond said, ushering to the crowd.
Sweetie was still a bit unnerved by Diamond Tiara's sudden attitude adjustment, but by no means was she complaining about it.
"Right. Let's go." Sweetie said with a nod.
And so the filly with odd eyes and the filly who had lost her cutie mark came together and joined in search of the others. Would they ever find them? They could only hope. With the small spark of understanding to light the fire of friendship, they stayed close and weaved together through the crowd of ponies before them, keeping their eyes out for anypony they knew, hoping, just hoping that they would be able to get home. With a small smile at her new company and the thought of her friends, Sweetie Belle began her search.
Chapter 3: The Great and Plentiful Trixie
"Applejack? Twilight? Where are you, dears?" a voice spoke with a great degree of panic. "If this is some sort of practical joke I assure you it is not funny in the least!" The empty room around her did not respond with anything more than an ominous echo of her shout. In the darkness, a snow white mare with a royal violet mane slowly moved forward. It felt... Lonely. Not the eerie horror she would have expected from such a foreboding location.
Today had been horrible. First finding herself stuck at the library due to a thunderstorm Rainbow Dash had been forced to reschedule, Rarity had been made to attend a sleepover hosted by Twilight. From there, she and Applejack had only become more and more furious with one another. After finally curling up beneath the covers, Applejack had cannon-balled onto the mattress, throwing her off, and... Now she was here. Nothing in between that, she was just hurled off the bed and when she opened her eyes... Here she was.
"Twilight! If this is some kind of trick Applejack is playing on me I implore you to make her stop!" Nothing. Not a sound.
"Spiky-wiky? Can you hear me? Please make them stop this!" The room remained silent. "Somepony! ANYPONY! ANSWER ME!" Rarity was in full panic at this point. What was going on? Why was she alone? Would her friends really do something like this to her? Or did she hit her head on the floor and this entire space was fabricated by her mind?
"No, you are not her!" A voice in the distance finally broke her train of thought.
"Oh please, the true Trixie has seen Hasbro toys that look more real than you!" And her spot of hope was dashed upon recognizing the voice.
Oh, not her. Please, when I said anypony, I meant anypony BUT * her*. Rarity thought to herself. Still, with no other leads, and determination to get to the bottom of this, she began moving in the direction of the voice.
"You foals! There is but one and only Great and Powerful Trixie! And she stands before you foalish impostors!"
"Cute. Very cute. You amuse Trixie with your shoddy knock off of her ability. But Trixie does not believe you know who you are dealing with. For the mare you see before you is Trixie, and she does not enjoy having a pitiful party of imitators attempting to mooch off of her success."
"The Great and Powerful Trixie scoffs at your lies! Only one among us can be Trixie. We shall find somepony else to judge us. And when TRIXIE wins, she shall have you imprisoned for stealing her image! You are all foals to think you could possibly imitate Trixie!"
"Trixie approves of this herself. She shall win and you foals shall be out of her mane for good."
The bickering, boasting, and gratuitous use of third pony speech belonged to the most incompetent and overconfident mare Rarity had met in her life... Though, Schizophrenic? She never would have guessed. The voice had been getting louder for a while, but she still was unable to make out where its owner was.
"She will do." The voice spoke from directly behind Rarity. Wheeling around quickly, she found it too late as a her limbs were restrained by a pink aura.
"Trixie, unhoof me this instant!" Rarity snapped at her as she struggled against the magical bonds, her own magic unable to push away Trixie's.
"Hm? You have met Trixie?" The blue mare then cringed before putting on a scowl "Ah, yes, Trixie remembers you from that accursed Ponyville. Then this shall be simple."
"What do you me- eh?!" Rarity was struck dumb as no less than four more Trixies emerged from the shadows in the room, each lighting her own horn to be seen.
"You shall listen to each of us and decide who is the true Trixie, and who is a foalish phony."
Funny, I thought those were the same thing , Rarity thought to herself, though emotionally, she was terrified. How could there be more than one Trixie? What kind of sick, twisted mind would manipulate the world in a way that would make this possible?(1)
"And should I refuse?" Rarity asked automatically, not really listening, only darting her eyes between Trixies. The Trixie on the far left responded.
"The True Trixie remembers how much you care about your mane, so should you not comply, she will pull it out, strand by strand." Rarity snapped out her trance instantly.
"YOU WOULDN'T DARE!
"Would you like to test Trixie?" They responded together. Rarity pouted before her face fell into a grimace and she hung her head in defeat.
"Very well, er, Trixies. I have but one request."
"And that would be? Trixie shall humor you."
"That we find another to help. I only saw you at your performance and the ursa incid-"
"NEVER SPEAK OF THAT! " All five bellowed at their captive, leaving her ears ringing.
"...Right. As I was saying, I only saw your performance for a short time before being humiliated into fleeing, so I believe another pony would be necessary to make a proper decision." In reality, Rarity simply didn't want to deal with Trixie alone. One was bad enough, but listening to five of her in a row? There are some things even a proper mare does not have the patience and will to handle.
"Trixie... shall consider your request. We shall search for a single hour, if nopony is found then, You shall make the decision on your own."
"Very well then."
"Where should we begin?"
"To our left would be Trixie's best guess."
"Well the real Trixie believes we should head forward."
"No, Trixie says we should head back!"
"You aren't Trixie!" and thus, the arguing began again. Rarity facehoofed (internally, as her physical hooves were still quite efficiently restrained.)
I suppose it truly is impossible for anypony to work with Trixie, including Trixie. Rarity muttered under her breath.
"You are such a stubborn foal! Listen to Trixie when she commands you!"
"Ha! That's Trixie's line! We are heading left!"
"Back!"
"Ahead!"
"LEFT!"
"NO, BACK! "
"WE ARE GOING --"
Suddenly, the sound of a loud blast echoed in the distance and the ground began to tremble slightly. All six mares turned in the direction of the sound and saw a pale purple glow in the distance.
"Toward that light?" Rarity finished for her.
"...Y-yes, Trixie believes that is our best lead."
"T-T-Trixie agrees with her d-doppelganger." The rest responded, obviously shaken by the sudden noise.
"Now then." The Trixie who had been restraining Rarity spoke after a moment to gather her bearings, "We shall each take hold of one of her limbs. Trixie grows tired of holding her still alone."
"What!?" Rarity shouted at her, "When will you brutes just let me walk!?"
"When the real Trixie is determined and the others are exposed. Now, we do not have time to waste. Each of you grab one of her legs." Rarity felt a shift of magic, but it all felt the same as before - until an unfamiliar feeling took place. She couldn't describe it easily, it was like feeling of a new presence between her hind legs(2).
"...Trixie didn't think she had five."
"Yes, quite an odd condition."
"What do you mean?" Rarity asked, curious to figure out what it was she had felt.
"Oh, Trixie was just observing your third hind leg. She di-"
"WHAT.
"Do you want to simply talk to Trixie now, alone? Your hour is burning away. We could always skip the search."
"N-no, that's quite alright, lead the way." Rarity replied hastily. Now she absolutely NEEDED one of her friends to talk to, she was already in shock from the odd deformity, having to deal with Trixie while under this stress would surely drive her mad.
"Very well, we shall advance." The party gathered around Rarity and began to move forward.
The initial shock had worn off fairly quickly, and Rarity had begun to contemplate her situation. She was in a strange place, surrounded by copies of a mare she could hardly stand, and to top it all off, she had somehow sprouted an extra limb without even noticing.
This is going to be one of those days, isn't it? She thought to herself.