The Prism of Infinity

One
Peace (?) in Ponyville

Written by
Jed R.

Editors/Pre-Readers
RoyalPsycho
Doctor Fluffy

“How are we supposed to protect Equestria?”
Rainbow Dash, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Part 2.

Do not fear what is to come.

Do not fear pain, for it is transient. Do not fear sorrow, for it is temporary. Do not fear death, for it is inevitable.

Fear the loss of your heart, for you may never get it back. Fear the hardening of your soul, for it may never soften. Fear anger, for it burns friend and foe alike. Fear fear, for it turns even the purest soul into a monster. And fear loneliness most of all, for it drives us to do terrible things.

Terrible things… these are the tales of terrible things, but also of the good that they draw forth. These are tales of love, of sisterhood, of brotherhood, but also of war, of pain, of death. These are the tales of loss, of sorrow, of betrayal, of madness, of sacrifice and heroism, of duty and honour.

These are the tales we will always need, the tales we will always tell.

And this tale starts like this.

Ponyville. May 10th, Year 1890 of the Harmonian Calendar.

“Rainbow Dash!”

Mornings in the town of Ponyville honestly didn’t deserve to be called ‘peaceful’, nine times out of ten, as much as the ponies who lived there might have wished otherwise.

In fact, Ponyville had, in the time since Princess Celestia’s student Twilight Sparkle had taken up residence, seen everything from an attack by an Ursa to an invasion of parasprites to an incursion by a chaos god. The residents of the otherwise peaceful hamlet had learnt to accept that their home was going to have its share (and then some) of whatever anarchy was happening in Equestria at the time.

Of course, most of the time the things that went wrong weren’t apocalyptic, merely the result of some of the… esoteric inhabitants of this town indulging in a variety of their eccentricities.

Rainbow Dash – a cerulean Pegasus mare with a rainbow mane that ran in her family – was one such esoteric inhabitant, one who happened to enjoy moving at incredible speeds through the air. This was something she was also very, very good at.

Unfortunately for both Rainbow Dash and the inhabitants of Ponyville, she didn’t always necessarily make sure that the speeds she went at didn’t affect anypony else, as Twilight Sparkle herself was making abundantly clear.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” the purple Alicorn asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rainbow Dash was currently sitting in a heap of shattered and cracked crates that had, about two minutes ago, been sitting (perfectly intact) on top of a cart being pulled into the town. That had, of course, been before Rainbow had made what might charitably have been called a navigational error. It was rather lucky for Dash herself (not to mention her friends, colleagues, fan-club members, and possibly the rest of Equestria) that she was neigh-indestructible. It was not, unfortunately, something that could be said for the rest of Ponyville’s scenery – or, for that matter, population.

“Well,” Rainbow began, chuckling nervously, “I, uh… would you believe it’s practice?”

“I’d believe it’s ‘out of practice’,” Twilight replied, rolling her eyes. “Y’know, I thought you’d have been past this by now.”

“Past what?” Rainbow asked innocently.

“Past this… irresponsibility,” Twilight clarified, groaning in frustration. “I mean, come on Rainbow. You’ve got to know better than to be this careless after… y’know, I don’t even know how many times!”

“Well, in my defence,” Rainbow retorted, “nopony told me there’d be a cart coming through my usual practice route this morning.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Maybe you should go slower?”

Rainbow snorted. “That would kinda defeat the point of speed training, dontcha think?”

Twilight sighed. “Just… just be more careful in future, okay?”

Rainbow sighed. “It’s important training, y’know.”

“Of course it is,” Twilight replied with reflexive sarcasm.

“I mean it,” Rainbow said, seeming unusually serious. “Without the Elements, Equestria’s gonna have to rely on us being faster, smarter, and better than anything that shows up. Which we’re not gonna be if we don’t train.”

Twilight blinked, before giving Rainbow a tired smile. “I… think I understand what you’re saying. But Rainbow… I’m sure there’s nothing that terrifying on the horizon. And even if there is, it won’t be anything we can’t handle.”

“There’s a big difference between saying that,” Rainbow retorted, “And it being true, y’know.”

Twilight’s smile faded. “I know.” And then it returned, brighter than ever. “But hey, I know we’ve defeated plenty of things without the Elements. I believe in us, Rainbow.”

Rainbow gave a big grin. “Me too, Twi. Me too.”

Twilight’s smile turned into a wry smirk. “So, does that mean you won’t be knocking any more crates over?”

Rainbow winked. “No promises, Twilight.”

And with that, she took off, heading somewhere else in a hurry. Twilight watched her go, her rainbow-coloured trail zooming off into the distance, and sighed.

“That one,” she murmured to nopony in particular. “Always on the move.”

If you had asked Rainbow Dash why she felt the need to train so rigorously, she might have brought up any number of reasons. The upcoming Equestria Games, her dedication to becoming a Wonderbolt, the desire not to lose her edge or become complacent. To an extent, some of these reasons might even have been true: Rainbow might have had a certain lazy streak (or several lazy streaks, really), but she didn’t want to become complacent in her skills, and both the Equestria Games and the Wonderbolts training mattered a great deal to her. But that wasn’t all of it.

For the past few days, she’d felt a sense of growing dread in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t know why, but she had the horrible feeling that something was coming, was going to happen that would need her at her best. And, without the Elements of Harmony to help her and her friends take on any major threat, her best needed to be even better than it had ever been, which, given how awesome she had already been, meant tapping into a layer of awesome that had been hitherto unheard of.

Why do ponies use words like ‘hitherto’ anyway? Rainbow wondered. She’d read it in a Daring Do novel, and it had seemed silly to use a big word like that, one which half the ponies Rainbow had ever met probably wouldn’t have understood, when a smaller word would do. That being said, she was sure some ponies preferred the big words. Twilight’s definitely a fan of big words. Egghead.

She shook her head, and began thinking about her training regimen. Low-flying speed and manoeuvrability training was important: the ability to approach an opponent from great speed, dodge obstacles quickly even when you weren’t expecting them, make sharp turns at high speed… all of that was important. Indeed, it was basic hostile flight training.

Probably still need a bit more training if I’m running into a cart full of crates when I wasn’t expecting them, Rainbow thought with a frown. But hey, that just means there’s room for improvement, right?

Her face took on an expression of determination, and the corner of her mouth turned up in a smirk. She could definitely work with ‘room for improvement’.

With a sigh, she began flying in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage. In all her training – and her little chat with Twilight – she’d almost forgotten that she was supposed to be meeting with Fluttershy in a few minutes.

No problem, she thought with a grin. I needed more speed training.

“Spiiiiiike!” Twilight called as she entered her library. “Are you here?”

Her assistant didn’t answer, and Twilight sighed. The young dragon had mentioned something about going to help the Cutie Mark Crusaders out with yet another plan to get their cutie marks today, but she had hoped she would catch him before he had the chance to head off.

Because, despite everything she had said to Rainbow Dash, something was wrong today. She could feel it in the air, and she’d been able to for at least the last two days. She couldn’t rationally explain the ‘wrongness’, but she knew, with the certainty of the rising sun, that it was happening.

Maybe Rainbow’s right to be worried, part of her thought, and she could only just dismiss the thought. Could be some sort of magical miasma. But no… why would it only affect us two?

Even as she thought it, there was a knock on her door. She sighed.

“Come in,” she called.

At once, Pinkie Pie and the tan Earth Pony stallion just about everypony called Doctor Hooves entered the room. Pinkie was jabbering to herself, smiling happily, but her eyes were glassy and looking at everything and nothing at once. Hooves, by contrast, simply looked concerned as he led Pinkie into the library.

“Princess Twilight,” he said seriously, “I wouldn’t normally bother you – after all, we all know that you’re rather busy these days, being made a Princess and all, and congratulations on that by the way, I think it’s wonderful that…”

“Doctor,” Twilight said seriously. “What’s wrong with Pinkie?”

Hooves sighed. “Well, at first, we – myself and Ditzy, that is, she and I were at Sugarcube Corner enjoying a spot of tea, when -”

“Doctor,” Twilight said more sternly.

Doctor Hooves took a breath. “I think that something very, very odd is happening to Pinkie.”

Twilight smiled tightly. “Define ‘very, very odd’.”

“You’d… have to hear for yourself,” Hooves said quietly. Behind them, Pinkie was arranging random odds and ends in a rough semicircle around her.

“She did that at one of the tables,” Doctor Hooves said. “It’s best just to wait and see.”

Twilight frowned, before approaching Pinkie. Though she was mostly mumbling, occasionally words would pop out in fragmented bits of sentences.

“… I know, the ration packs are so horrible! I tried adding sugar but… why yes, Commander, I do know a bunch of drinking games… no, should I? Oh yes, Lieutenant. No? No? Maybe? Well, I do try, but I left a lot of my best emergency party supplies in…”

“Some of it is addressing individuals, by rank mostly,” Hooves said quietly. “I don’t know what’s wrong. It might be some sort of catatonic state, but to be honest I’m not that kind of doctor, so my expertise in medical ailments is…”

“Thank you, Doctor Hooves,” Twilight said shortly. She waved a hoof in front of Pinkie’s eyes. “Rainbow Dash told me that she saw something a little like this once, but…”

“But you don’t want to rule it out, Pinkie Pie or not,” Doctor Hooves said. “In truth, I don’t blame you – I’ve seen my share of Pinkie’s… well, her uniqueness, but this…” his voice trailed off. “I wouldn’t be able to guess what this is, honestly.”

“I’m just glad you brought her here,” Twilight said. “Though I’m surprised you didn’t take her to the hospital.”

“Let’s just say I was following my gut on the matter,” Doctor Hooves said, tapping his nose. “Have you any recommendations here?”

“Well,” Twilight said. “She seems… definitely catatonic. This isn’t her talking to imaginary beings because of social anxiety or social withdrawal. This is more like… this is more like she’s seeing something completely different than the rest of us, like her perceptions are totally different from the physical world.” She looked at the objects Pinkie had arranged. “I don’t even think she’s consciously arranging them. More like… her hooves moving to fill some gaps.”

“‘Different’, you say?” Hooves asked, frowning. “In what sense?”

Twilight sighed. “That’s a question only she can answer, isn’t it.” She took a deep breath. “Can you leave her here and go fetch somepony from the hospital, please? Nurse Redheart should be on duty, at least.”

Hooves nodded and dashed off, leaving Twilight with the unresponsive Pinkie. She tried to consider what might have caused this state to happen.

Could it be Discord? It wasn’t like his usual work, but he wasn’t known for repeating himself, and more to the point, now that the Elements were gone there was only the dubious promise of his friendship with Fluttershy to…

No, she thought. If he was going to do something, we’d know. He’s ostentatious. This is… small.

What could possibly have happened to Pinkie? Some sort of creature attack? Something to do with her Pinkie Sense? Something else entirely?

Loathe as she was to leave Pinkie in her current state, Twilight knew there was only one recourse open to her, and that was to go to her library and start researching. There had to be something in all of these books.

Turning away from Pinkie – who was still mumbling cheerfully at the objects she’d assembled, addressing them almost as if they were friends, even pausing as they “talked” – Twilight got to work. Whatever this was… well, “normal” was not a word Twilight could easily apply to Pinkie, but this was something far beyond her usual state.

Just as she turned to go, however, Pinkie said something that almost made her heart freeze.

“… thanks for asking Captain. I am really worried about Twilight. Are you sure she’ll be okay?”

Rainbow Dash arrived at Fluttershy’s with time to spare – unfortunately, most of that time was then spent putting the potted plant she’d knocked over back upright, not to mention putting the soil back around it satisfactorily. Despite her best efforts, when Fluttershy stepped out to greet her, her kind eyes immediately gravitated to the plant.

“Oh dear,” the butter-yellow Pegasus said softly. “What happened?”

“I, uh…” Rainbow said, scratching the back of her head sheepishly. She was half tempted to tell a small white lie, but as much as she didn’t like admitted her carelessness, Fluttershy was her one of her oldest and best friends. “I think I need to work on ‘landing at speed’ a bit more.”

Fluttershy smiled. “It was an accident, Rainbow.” She examined the plant. “Anyway, it’ll be okay. It doesn’t look like it was damaged, though I might need to put more soil in with it.”

Rainbow smiled. “Glad I didn’t wreck it.”

Fluttershy threw her a look. “Why were you practicing speed landing?”

Rainbow’s smile faded slightly. “Oh, just… y’know, keeping sharp. In case, y’know?”

Fluttershy nodded. “I think I do. You’re worried about us not having the Elements.”

Rainbow nodded and gave her a rueful smile. “Can you blame me?”

“No,” Fluttershy admitted. “But… well…”

“Well?” Rainbow asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, you’ve been pushing yourself pretty hard since then,” Fluttershy said. “I mean… even the ‘most daring pony’ thing with Applejack…”

“That?” Rainbow Dash said with a derisive snort. “Come on, Fluttershy, that was just me having fun!”

“Was it?” Fluttershy asked, giving Rainbow a meaningful look.

Rainbow didn’t answer, but Fluttershy had a way of getting to the heart of things.

“Ok,” she said quietly. “Maybe I’m just antsy. This stuff’s been worrying me since we lost the Elements.”

“Which is why,” Fluttershy pointed out, “Twilight’s been looking for a way to get them back. Isn’t it?”

“I guess,” Rainbow said. She smiled. “She’ll figure something out, right?”

“We will,” Fluttershy replied. “Together.”

“Together,” Rainbow nodded. She let out a sigh. “Well, let’s get going! Those seeds won’t collect themselves!”

Fluttershy nodded, and together the two of them set off for the Everfree Forest.

In the end, she hadn’t been able to concentrate on reading, a fact that might have had her laughing at the irony of it if she hadn’t been focused on how terrified she was.

Pinkie continued to mumble and murmur to herself, that same glassy-eyed, catatonic grin on her face. As Hooves had mentioned, a lot of it appeared to be her talking to people that only she could see, many of them with ranks. Desperate for something to do, Twilight began noting down every instance of rank that she could, followed by names.

Her own name came up three more times, all in conjunction with speaking to the ‘Captain’. She also spoke to the ‘Commander’ another four times, and the ‘Lieutenant’ (or possibly more than one) a good dozen or more.

“Pinkie?” Twilight tried. “Are you… can you hear me?”

“… no, Ensign, I’ve not heard anything about that – but you know me!” Pinkie said to nopony in particular. “Happy to help with any parties, any time…!”

Twilight gave a sigh. She wondered what it was Pinkie thought she was seeing.

“Twilight?” Pinkie’s voice suddenly said, and Twilight felt the blood drain out of her face. In contrast to most of Pinkie’s cheerful rambling, she now looked deadly serious. Her mane had even deflated somewhat.

“Pinkie?” Twilight said again. “Can you… can you hear me?”

“Can you still hear me, Twi?” Pinkie echoed plaintively, not hearing Twilight’s own plea. “I know that everyone says you can’t. They say you’re not really ‘aware’. I wish you could hear me though.”

Twilight sighed. “I can, Pinkie, I can. Can’t you hear me?”

Pinkie didn’t look at her, but her next words chilled Twilight to the bone.

“The Captain says you’re helping us win the war.” Twilight felt her breath quicken. “That what you’re doing is giving us the advantage. Maybe that means we’ll all be able to go home soon, huh?”

Pinkie sighed, blowing a lock of mane out of her face. “I just wish… there’s so much I wish I could say to you, Twi. But if you hear me, I just want you to know – I wouldn’t change any of this for the world. Well, maaaaaaaybe I’d take home never changing like it did if it meant we didn’t have to be here, but that’s probably not how it works. I know you have doubts like any of us, Twi, but I just want you to know that I know we’re doing the right thing, and I know that you know it too.”

What does she mean? Twilight thought. What war? What’s happening where… where she is? A sudden horrible thought occurred to her. Could she… could she be seeing the future?

A sudden knock at the door dragged Twilight’s attention away from Pinkie and that altogether horrifying thought. She raced to the door of her library and opened it: sure enough, Doctor Hooves was there, grim faced, along with Dr Horse, a stern-looking Earth Pony with a messy black mane.

“Hooves told me what happened, Princess,” Horse said, barging past Twilight and approaching Pinkie. “She’s catatonic and unresponsive, talking to unseen persons, correct?”

“Uh, yes,” Twilight said, frowning. “That’s right.”

Horse examined Pinkie, shone a small light in her eye, checked her heartbeat with a stethoscope and then sighed.

“Eye dilation normal, pulse normal,” he said. “Without taking her in for proper examination – which we’re ill-equipped to do right now – I can’t say what’s wrong.”

“What’s happened?” Twilight said, frowning at him. “Why aren’t you equipped to handle her?”

Horse shared a glance with Doctor Hooves, who answered for him.

“Pinkie’s condition is the worst they’ve seen,” he said. “But more than a dozen ponies have come in complaining of headaches, auditory or even visual hallucinations, or some undefined ‘bad feeling’ that’s a mix between dread and paranoia.”

Twilight felt the blood drain from her face. “Oh.”

“Oh?” Horse said, narrowing his eyes at her.

“I-I’ve had a feeling of… of ‘something bad’, all day,” Twilight said softly. “Whatever it is… if it’s affecting that many ponies, even me…”

“It’s a big deal,” Hooves finished.

“Princess Twilight,” Horse said slowly, “it’s clear to me that this is in no way a medical issue, but a magical one, and thus beyond my capabilities to deal with. I will have all of my findings delivered to you at once, and of course I will continue to provide what care I can.”

Twilight sighed. “Thank you, Dr Horse.” She turned to Hooves. “Doctor Hooves, if you could find the other Element Bearers for me, I would be incredibly grateful. I suspect we’re all going to need to band together if something is happening.”

“I’ll get right on it,” Hooves said with a nod. He dashed off, and Dr Horse, with a nod of his own, followed.

Twilight sighed and looked back at Pinkie.

“… is that really what happened to them? Wow, I didn’t realise…”

“Well, Pinkie,” Twilight said to her catatonic friend, “here’s hoping we find some answers soon.”

Pinkie tilted her head, looking off somewhere above Twilight’s bookshelves. “…I’m sure everything will be okay!”

Twilight couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “I hope you’re right, Pinkie. I hope you’re right.”

“Thanks again for helping me today,” Fluttershy said quietly. “I know you’re busy.”

“No problem,” Dash said with a wink.

She watched as Fluttershy collected another few seeds. Fluttershy was the one who had an eye for such things, and so Rainbow was more than content to let her focus on doing the collecting. Rainbow didn’t mind that this left her holding the bag. Weight training, after all.

“Hey,” Rainbow said after a moment, “you never told me what these were for, anyway.”

“Oh, well, Zecora asked me to grow a few plants for her,” Fluttershy replied with a soft smile.

“Uh huh,” Rainbow said with a nod. “That’s fair, I guess. But why can’t she grow them herself? Not like she doesn’t know how to garden.”

“She probably knows more than me, but the Everfree doesn’t let a pony – or, uh, a zebra – control the growth and health of a plant as well as we can outside the Everfree,” Fluttershy replied with a patient smile. She sighed as she collected another seed. “Alright, this should be everything I need for now.”

Rainbow’s eyes glanced over to the Everfree Forest, the looming, dark presence now uncomfortably close. While they had ventured in there before, she still didn’t entirely trust the place.

She frowned: she could have sworn she could see eyes, watching them from a distance.

“Do you see that?!” she called, pointing to the forest’s edge.

“See what?” Fluttershy asked, frowning in that general direction. “I don’t see anything.”

Rainbow frowned. The eyes were gone, but she could have sworn she had seen something out there.

“There… I thought I saw something watching us,” she said, scowling. “It musta run off.”

Fluttershy frowned. “If there was something watching us, maybe we’d best head home. We don’t want some nasty creature to catch us off guard.”

“If it tried, I’d smack it into next week,” Rainbow muttered.

“Come on, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said, still looking at the forest. Her expression was odd – a mix of fear and confusion. “We really don’t want to still be around if it’s dangerous.”

Rainbow felt an irrational urge to go charge into the forest after whatever she had seen, but she shook her head. Fluttershy was clearly less than thrilled by the idea of there being something out there, and surely Rainbow had a responsibility to get her friend away from potential danger, right?

“Alright,” she said. “Let’s go, Flutters. You’re right.”

The two Pegasi began flying away, neither of them looking back, even as the owner of those eyes returned to watch them again, silently observing them as they headed back into the safety of Ponyville.

And so the children of the imposed order now return from the border of the realm of the natural order, scampering in fear away from that which they do not comprehend. It is the way of things, and so accepted and guarded thusly.

The intelligence watching the two ponies trot (or in the cerulean mare’s case, fly) back to their small town couldn’t help but give a small smile.

Infinite diversity in infinite combinations, all of it right in its own way, all of it just in its own right, and all of it Good.

For so long the intelligence had observed the Way of Things. It was not always a task of fairness: deep within the depths of this forest, and others, there was a cruelty and a hardness to life that the ponies of Equestria had long since subdued with their magicks. And yet, the silent watcher begrudged them not their advances, no more than she could begrudge nature its own ways and faults. In these matters, these things simply were as they were. Only when they truly brought danger to one another, when they stepped beyond the bounds of their Orders and began breaking the cycles that kept the world alive, would it be her task to set them straight.

And yet…

There is a feeling in the air, something... wrong. Yes, that was the word. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG…

The watcher shook her head and turned to leave. There had been many things that felt wrong that the right corrected all by itself, from the time of Discord a millennial ago when the spirit of Chaos had subjected this world to his inversion/subversion/aversion of the way it was meant to be, through the corruption of the guardian of the moon, all the way to… well, the return of the corrupted lunar guardian and the Chaos spirit. As her long watch had taught her, much of the way the world worked was cyclical, and that which was wrong would be corrected without her input. She, therefore, needed and was mandated only to observe, never interfere. It was the rule of her life.

For all the world is my charge, and I must see all sides of it, she thought, as though remembering a dream.

Nodding her contentment that things would return to the Way They Should Be, the mare named Gaia left. After all, all the world was her charge, and a most troublesome charge it could be at that.

Author's Note

You know what the joyous thing about making new variations on an old theme is? You get to come up with entirely new concepts for how things work, for how certain points - A to B to C - happen, and for how they affect everything else. Such is what we see here...

... but I’ll let the story tell you that itself, in due course 😉 For now, I just hope you enjoy it all.