How Friends May Fall

How Friends May Fall – Part 8

Twilight began to breathe heavily as she tried to keep up with princess Luna. She didn’t know how long they had been walking, going through corridors and walking up and down sets of stairs. She couldn’t make out whether it was just a huge building, whether it was magically enhanced, or if it was just faulty architecture.

“Are you okay back there?” asked princess Luna, as she slightly turned her head towards Twilight. “You look worn out.”

“I’m… I’m fine!” replied Twilight, still breathing heavily but weakly forcing a smile on her face.

The princess nodded, and turned her head back forwards. Yet, as she turned her head, she suddenly began to move faster. Taking in a deep breath, Twilight began to move faster as well. But the princess began to move even faster. Twilight did the same, but the princess began to move faster again, and again, and again… Despite still walking normally, the princess was suddenly moving much faster than Twilight could run in a full gallop.

“Princess, wait!” shouted Twilight. “I can’t keep up! I…”

Yet, the princess had moved too far away to hear her. She was just a mere dot on the horizon, barely visible from Twilight’s perspective.

But then, Twilight took note of her surroundings. The corridor seemed to span on far beyond the horizon, and the ceiling seemed to reach well beyond the clouds. Freaked out by this unnatural display, Twilight quickly turned around to walk back, but only found a brick wall right behind her.

“Wha.--”

The brick wall suddenly began to move rapidly towards Twilight, threatening to crash into her at any moment. Twilight immediately turned around to gallop away at full speed, but only found another brick wall heading in her direction.

“W-What’s going on here? Somepony, help!”

Her voice only echoed on through the hallway. Spikes slowly began to grow out of the brick wall, crusted blood and decaying gore forming itself upon them as they neared Twilight. With panic searing through her veins, she began to pound the walls in a desperate attempt to get out.

“No no no no no NO NO!!!”

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”

With a shock, Twilight opened her eyes to find princess Luna standing right in front of her. The princess rasped and held her hoof on her throat. It had been a while since she had used the Royal Canterlot Voice, and her vocal cords weren’t used to it anymore.

“Wh-What?” asked Twilight with a soft voice.

“I said, we’re here.” said the princess, her voice still sounding a bit hoarse from the shouting.

“B-But… I…”

Twilight looked backwards, and found a perfectly normal corridor right behind her. She could even see the doors of the laboratory on the other side of the corridor, with only a small set of steps separating the two halves.

It wasn’t at all like she had experienced it. Where had the endless corridor gone? How was she suddenly right next to the princess again? For that matter, where had all the corridors and stairs that she had already been through gone? Had she been…

“You’ve… been hallucinating, haven’t you?”

Twilight turned back towards princess Luna, bearing a sad and concerned look on her face. The two remained silent for a moment, and simply stared into each other’s eyes for the moment. Twilight felt like the princess was staring right into her soul. As if she was staring right into her subconscious, searching for abnormalities or corruptions.

“Listen, Twilight.” said the princess eventually, as she stepped closer towards Twilight. “The Lunar Society clearly has its eyes set on you, and the fact that you’re hallucinating confirms that you’re their target. I don’t know what you’ve seen, and I think that I’d prefer if you didn’t tell me… But no matter what you do, do not give in to them. Otherwise, they will only drive you towards madness.”

The princess narrowed her eyes, and formed a stern look upon her face.

“No matter what you may see, and no matter what may happen, you must remember to remain calm no matter what. Remember that it’s not real, and that it’s just going on inside your subconscious. Because the moment that you lose your sanity, the Lunar Society will be able to take full control over your mind. Do you understand?”

Twilight remained silent, but softly nodded her head. Although she tried to remain calm like the princess said, she could still feel cold chills and shivers running down her spine, and she could feel her heart beating at a rapid pace. She was freaking out about everything that was going on, and she could feel that she was on the verge of going back into panic.

As the princess turned back around and walked into another room, Twilight slowly followed her through the door. This room was much smaller than the laboratory they had entered earlier; In fact, only three ponies seemed to be at work here, in a small office filled with cabinets and loose files.

“Good day, princess! Miss Sparkle.” said one of the ponies, as she walked towards the duo. “What can I help you with?”

“Could you please give us the files of miss Pinkamina Diane Pie?” asked princess Luna.

“Ah, file 63B/8. Coming right up!”

The pony walked back to the two other workers, and began to shout orders at them.

“Parch Quill! Leaflet! Fetch me file 63B/8, and make it snappy!”

The two workers immediately began to dig through the cabinets and loose folders, in search of file 63B/8.

“Sorry about the mess, princess.” said the commanding pony, as she turned her head back towards princess Luna. “We haven’t really had the time to sort our stuff this week.”

The princess nodded, and waved the pony off. She too dived straight into a pile of folders, and began checking them one by one for the correct file.

“Princess, what is this room?” asked Twilight with a concerned voice. “Why do have files about Pinkie? And why do we need them?”

“Well, this is supposed to be our organized file room.” replied princess Luna with a sigh. “Whenever we find somepony with a certain special or unique ability or abnormality, we document it and keep track of their records. We’ve got files of you and all of your friends here.”

“So… You’re actually spying on ponies?”

“Actually, it’s more like background research and statistics and such.” said Parch Quill, still checking through the files of one folder. “And it’s not exactly specific, either. This one right here is documented just for having a mane that looks like freaking toothpaste.”

“Anyhow…” continued the princess. “We keep these files here in case something happens, and certain special things are given as testimony. For instance, if that toothpaste-maned pony would ever steal something or perform another mayor crime, the police force could immediately identify her.”

Feeling a little uneasy with the thought of so many ponies being documented by the authorities, Twilight just sat back and watched the three workers as they searched through the files. They seemed to scan through them relatively fast, though the sheer amount of folders made it look like it could take a--

“I found it!” shouted Leaflet, raising his head from one of the cabinet drawers and holding a folder in hoof. “File 63B/8, on page 3 of folder Y2K/85.”

Leaflet gave the folder to princess Luna, turned to page 3 and began to read the file immediately. However, she was interrupted by Twilight tugging her right hoof.

“Wait, princess.” said Twilight, with a concerned tone in her voice. “I still don’t understand. Why do we need Pinkie’s files?”

“Well, Rainbow Dash told you that she appeared in her dreams, right?” replied the princess, turning her head towards Twilight. “Because if that’s true, then she either must have had some kind of special attribute that placed her there… Or she must have been affiliated with the Lunar Society.”

“B-But Pinkie would never join a group of fanatics like them!”

“So would so many others, I’m afraid.” replied the princess with a sigh, as she turned her head back to the file. “But before we jump to any conclusions, I need to know if she had any sort of particular attributes that could have placed her in that position.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes, and tried to focus her memories. Especially if ponies were already getting documented for small things like their mane color, there was probably a whole lot about Pinkie Pie that was documented. She remembered more of these special “attributes” that Pinkie had then she could count, but she couldn’t imagine that of them could possibly be used to place herself in somebody’s dream. Unless…

“Pinkie sense.”

“Hm?” said princess Luna, once more turning her head towards Twilight.

“Well, Pinkie was somehow able to predict the future through twitches and motions. I never found out how it actually works, but she just called it her ‘Pinkie sense’. I don’t know if it’s even related in the slightest, but it’s the only that I can think of.”

“Predict the future, you say? How accurate were these predictions?”

“Well, the one I have the most experience with is her twitchy tail, which means that something is going to fall out of the sky. That’s as specific as it gets, but she got it right every time I saw it.”

“Really? I wonder…”

The princess turned her attention back to the file, and began flipping through the pages rapidly. Twilight knew that the princess was looking for something, but she couldn’t think of what. But at least the princess did seem to have a lead on something… Could her Pinkie sense really be capable of doing such things, after all?

“As I expected!”

Princess Luna handed the file to Twilight, and laid her hoof the opened page. It was a detailed family tree of the Pie family, spanning back for well over 20 generations. The princess’ hoof was right next to a specific entry, acting as Pinkie’s great-great-grandfather on her mother’s side. The entry stood out from the other entries in the family tree, as it was surrounded by an elegantly drawn frame and the letters were finely decorated.

The entry read ‘Vertigo Flux, the Apprentice’.

“Who is Vertigo Flux?” asked Twilight, looking up towards princess Luna.

“Vertigo Flux is an apprentice of Star Swirl the Bearded.” said the princess. “The last one he had, in fact.”

“An apprentice of Star Swirl the Bearded? Did Pinkie really have such a powerful magician in her family?”

“Not quite.” replied the princess, shaking her head. “Vertigo Flux had great potential, which is why Star Swirl took him under his wing. However, Star Swirl passed away before he could start his advanced lessons. At best, Vertigo Flux had about as much magical expertise as a graduate student of the School for Gifted Unicorns.”

“Then why is he so important?”

“He was the first apprentice that Star Swirl taught in the arts of Chronomancy, back then a completely new kind of magic that Star Swirl had mastered. But because Star Swirl only had the chance to teach him the basics, all he was able to do was predict the near future by channeling jolts of magical energy through his surroundings.”

“Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?” said the princess, as the two both turned their head to face eachother.

“But Pinkie is not a unicorn! How could she be able to do the same?”

“It’s a one in a thousand possibility, but perhaps your friend inherited Vertigo Flux’s potential and magical ability. But because she’s not a unicorn, she couldn’t control it, causing her to effectively ‘ooze’ magical energies all the time.”

As far-fetched as it sounded, Twilight did have to admit that the princess’ theory somehow made sense. The origins of Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie sense had always been a complete mystery, and she had seen Pinkie perform some normally impossible feats on more than one occasion. It even explained her nigh-unsurpassable eating habits, as constantly losing magical energies would greatly drain the energy of a unicorn after a while; Let alone the energy of an earth pony.

“But if her magical energies were to mix up with the distress signals of the tortured unicorns, would it be enough to place her within Rainbow’s dreams?”

“I don’t know.” replied the princess, as she took back the file and placed it back on a pile of folders. “But it’s the only lead we have right now, and even then it’s a pretty weak one. It’s just a guess, after all.”

With a sigh, the princess walked back into the corridor, Twilight following close behind her. Twilight realized as well as the princess that they were just grasping at straws right now, though a feeling in her gut told her that they were on to something. But even if it was true, could the Lunar Society have known about this? What if leading Rainbow Dash towards insanity had been their goal all along? After all, that way they had taken out two wielders of the Elements of Harmony, and as princess Luna had said before, the more wielders they take out, the better their chances become.

Suddenly, her thoughts flashed towards Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity. They still had no idea about what was going on, and if the Lunar Society was truly intent on taking them all out, they could easily be aiming to take out the others at the same time. And with Fluttershy having sunk into a depression, Applejack being concerned about her brother and Rarity clearly suffering from something as well, they were easy targets.

“Princess Luna! I--”

As she snapped out of her own thoughts, she noticed her wicked surroundings. She found herself standing within the center of a dark area, completely surrounded by black smoke, with just a tiny, magical sparkle hanging several feet above her.

A chill ran down her spine as she heard a filly’s voice behind her.

“Hello.”