The Prism of Infinity

The Prism of Infinity

Two
The Mare in the Mirror

Written by
Jed R.

Editors/Pre-Readers
Doctor Fluffy
TheIdiot

“Equestria, we have a problem.”
Twilight Sparkle, Equestria Games.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy got back to Fluttershy’s cottage with time to spare, which was good as far as Rainbow Dash was concerned, since she was still… well, not rattled, since she was obviously too awesome to be rattled by anything, but she had been worried for Fluttershy’s safety when she saw the eyes from the forest.

“I’ll just go put these away,” Fluttershy said, trotting up to her cottage with a smile.

Rainbow nodded. “I’ve got stuff to do, so -”

“Hold on a second, please,” Fluttershy called back at her. She went inside her house, and then a few moments later came back out, her expression more serious. “Okay, now I’d like to go back to town with you, if that okay.”

“Uh, sure,” Rainbow said, frowning. “Why?”

Fluttershy looked away from her for a moment. “I – I don’t know how to explain it.” She let out a sigh. “I’ve been feeling… I think it’s dread.”

“‘Dread’?” Rainbow repeated. “How d’you mean?”

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Fluttershy said, frowning. “I just… I’d feel safer going with you. If that’s okay.”

“Well, yeah, sure,” Rainbow said, smiling at her. “No problem, Flutters.”

It wasn’t that far down the path to the centre of town that they were suddenly accosted by Doctor Hooves, who had galloped up the path to them at such speed that even Rainbow hadn’t seen him until he was almost at them.

“Oh, hello Doctor,” Fluttershy said. “How are you doing t-”

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you two!” the stallion said eagerly, cutting Fluttershy off. “Do you have any idea how many ponies look almost identical to the pair of you except for some small detail like mane colour or cutie mark? It really makes looking for anyone – excuse me, anypony – really hard! And that’s leaving out the fact that the pair of you are Pegasi! Why, I had to ask Ditzy to look in all the more vertically challenging places, and the poor dear’s gone and gotten herself lost…”

“Doc,” Rainbow said, cutting him off. “What do you need us for?”

“Oh, right,” Hooves said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Basically, something’s wrong, and Princess Twilight asked that all of you – the Element Bearers, that is – be summoned and directed towards her abode posthaste.” He paused. “She may have not used those exact words.”

Fluttershy and Rainbow exchanged a look. Regardless of Hooves’ rather odd manner of telling them this, being asked to go to Twilight’s in such a manner wasn’t a sign of anything good.

“What’s happened?” Fluttershy asked after a moment.

Hooves was uncharacteristically quiet. “You’d… better go yourself. It’s not good.”

That was enough to set Rainbow Dash zooming off towards Twilight’s without so much as a ‘goodbye’. Fluttershy threw Hooves a hurried ‘thank you!’ and followed as fast as her wings would let her. Sighing, he just started trotting back to Ponyville.

When they got to Twilight’s library, Applejack and Rarity were already there… and so was Pinkie Pie.

Rainbow couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Pinkie Pie’s glassy eyes were glancing about, not focusing on anypony or anything. She was rambling in a soft murmur, her expressions going through a variety of emotions, from cheeriness to concern to thoughtfulness all at once.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy said from behind Rainbow. “What happened to Pinkie?”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out, darling,” Rarity said, a soft, worried smile on her face. “Twilight’s just gone to check some of her more… esoteric books, shall we say, to see if there’s something about this kind of catatonic state in there.”

“Cata-what now?” Rainbow said, frowning. “What do cats have to do with what’s wrong with Pinkie?”

Fluttershy coughed. “Catatonic states are when somepony is unresponsive to external stimuli.”

Rainbow frowned. “I… okay, never mind.”

She looked at Pinkie and waved a hoof in front of her face. Pinkie grinned whilst looking somewhere over Rainbow’s shoulder.

“… so then I said, ‘you can’t load the cannons with party materials: a cannon needs special modifications to work as a Party Cannon’, but of course he didn’t believe me…”

“But… she’s talking,” Rainbow said after a moment. “And moving. How’s that cata-whatever?”

“That is what makes this particularly mysterious,” Rarity said quietly. “If it is a catatonic state, it's not a normal one.”

Pinkie’s rambling picked up slightly. “…I’ve been planning that surprise party for three weeks, you cannot ruin it! Promise me, Lightning…”

Rainbow frowned at the sound of a particularly familiar name, and Applejack noticed.

“Somepony you know?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I know plenty of Lightnings: kinda a common name for Pegasi,” Rainbow said. “But… I dunno, it makes me think of somepony I don’t want to think about.”

“Ooh, I remember which mare you mean,” Rarity said, frowning in distaste. “Yes, I can see why the reminder might not be your favourite.”

“But why would she be saying random pony’s names?” Applejack asked. “Or… y’know, that mare’s. What’s she seein’?”

“And why’s she seeing it?” Fluttershy added, still looking at Pinkie with wide, worried eyes.

“We don’t have any way to find out,” Rarity said, giving Applejack and Fluttershy a small, rueful smile. “Unless Twilight comes up with something -”

“Which I haven’t,” Twilight’s irritable voice said from behind the group.

The rest of them turned to look at her; she had no books with her and she looked somewhere between livid and frustrated. Or maybe ‘frustrated to the point of being livid’, it was difficult to tell the exact difference. Sighing, she sat herself down and looked at Pinkie.

“Didn’t you find anything to help at all, even a little?” Rarity asked. “Any explanation, at least?”

Twilight shook her head. “Everything to do with catatonic states seems to point to a different sort of condition. What Pinkie’s experiencing… just isn’t the same as anything I’ve read about.”

“In what sense?” Rarity asked.

“Well, catatonia is a state of not responding to stimuli,” Twilight replied, scratching the back of her head. “But… well, Pinkie is responding to stimuli. Just not any stimuli that we can see or hear.”

“Y’mean that she’s really talkin’ to… well, whoever she’s talking to?” Applejack asked, frowning at Pinkie.

“Not necessarily ‘really’,” Twilight said, “but there’s a lot more to whatever’s going on than just a simple catatonic state.”

“Like… what?” Rainbow asked, her expression one of utter confusion. “I’m not trying to be rude here, Twi, but what’s happening to Pinkie’s really freaky, and really, really scary.”

Twilight sighed heavily. “I know, Rainbow. What’s worse is, it’s not isolated to Pinkie.”

“What?” Fluttershy said. “You mean there are other ponies who’ve been… who are… like this?”

“Not quite this bad, no, but other ponies are being affected by whatever’s going on,” Twilight replied softly. She took a deep breath. “And whatever it is, it’s affecting me, too.”

There was an immediate chorus of gasps, exclamations and other distressed noises.

“What’s wrong with you?” Rainbow asked immediately.

“Rainbow!” Rarity hissed. She looked at Twilight. “Whatever it is, we’ll help, darling.”

“I know, girls,” Twilight said softly, smiling at them all. “Actually, compared to what some ponies have apparently been experiencing, I’ve been lucky. Doctor Hooves and Dr Horse both came by earlier, and Dr Horse said that Ponyville Hospital’s had a whole load of ponies come in.”

“Are any of them like Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked.

“Not according to Dr Horse,” Twilight replied, shaking her head. “Some ponies are just having feelings of immense paranoia or dread.” She paused. “Like me.”

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash exchanged glances: that also sounded like what Fluttershy had mentioned.

“Other patients,” Twilight continued, “have had either auditory or visual hallucinations.” At Applejack and Rainbow’s blank expressions, she sighed. “They’ve been hearing and seeing things that aren’t really there.”

There was a pause, and then Rarity nodded, as though something was occurring to her.

“Maybe Pinkie’s worse because of the same thing that gives her that Pinkie Sense of hers?” she asked.

Twilight frowned thoughtfully. “I… hadn’t considered that. It does seem like it might be possible.”

“Does that mean that it has something to do with whatever a Pinkie Sense is?” Rainbow asked, frowning.

“Maybe,” Twilight replied, her expression growing grim. “But the Pinkie Sense was completely inexplicable… nothing I did could even begin to figure out what it actually was, or how Pinkie actually knew things were going to happen.”

“What are you saying, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight took a deep breath. “I’m saying, if this is something to do with that…” Her expression became downcast. “I don’t know what we can do about it, or if it’s even something that has an answer. And the only pony who knows anything about the Pinkie sense is… well…”

She motioned to the still smiling Pinkie.

“You know I never reveal my secrets, Lieutenant,” she said cheerily to nopony.

“No horseapples, sugarcube,” Applejack said grimly.

“What’s being done for the others?” Rarity asked after a moment of silence.

“Dr Horse didn’t know what to do for any of them,” Twilight replied sadly. “The hospital’s current line of thinking is that it’s a magical problem. Which makes it my problem.”

There was a pause as all the ponies considered this.

“I think, when Spike gets back here, I need to send a letter to Princess Celestia,” Twilight finally said. “With Pinkie like this and more ponies being affected, the first thing we need to do is determine whether it’s a localised problem or whether all of Equestria’s in trouble.”

“That sounds like a good start,” Applejack agreed. “Can’t fix a problem if ya don’t know how big it is.”

“Agreed,” Rarity added. “I can go find him, if you’d like: the Crusaders were wandering about in town last I saw.”

“That would be best,” Twilight said softly. She sighed. “Here’s hoping, whatever the scale of the issue, that Princess Celestia has some idea how to deal with it.”

Princess Celestia – the alabaster Alicorn who was one half of the Equestrian Diarchy – was not having a good morning. Actually, she was having a terrible morning.

It had all started with the dream she’d had. She had been stood in a dark void, feeling something malevolent and oppressive all around her, and she could do nothing but flinch and cringe, every step in that place observed by an intelligence that she could not comprehend.

Then, suddenly, she had been in front of a mirror, one that stood in the centre of this void. Ripples seemed to go outwards from the point the mirror intersected, as though the surface was water, deep and black. And yet, where her own hooves had pressed upon the unknown ground, there was nothing.

She had approached the mirror slowly, her eyes widening in horror at the tired mare that seemed to be staring back at her from the depths of the mirror. Celestia had been looking at herself, there was no doubt about it… but where her own coat was shining alabaster, the mare in the mirror’s was dulled and dirty. Where her own mane was filled with lustrous, glimmering colours, the other mare’s had dulled to barely discernible, faded shades, almost greys and blacks. Tired eyes met Celestia’s own, and she almost recoiled at the sheer despair she saw within the other mare’s glassy, tired orbs.

Help me, the image in the mirror had seemed to say, her mouth working but no sound coming out. She almost looked like she was pleading. Please help me.

That had been the moment Celestia had woken up, gasping for breath and full of an unknown terror. She had reassured herself by looking in her own mirror and nodding at the image of herself she saw there – a little tired, but otherwise all her. Despite this, however, the image of her mirror doppelgänger begging for help had been one she could not shake, even as she ran through the usual affairs of state.

It didn’t help that today was the day she had a meeting with Prince Blueblood. She loved her nephew, but he was occasionally… vexing.

Not to mention the rather tedious subject that the meeting was about: Blueblood wanted to speak with her about trade routes and their rate of taxation, and the subsequent negative effect he believed it was having on their economy.

Ugh.

Still, she thought as she dragged herself out of bed. It could have been worse. She could have been the mare in the mirror, tired eyed, faded maned, tortured and haggard and pleading for somepony to help her…

There but for the Mother’s grace go I, Celestia thought softly, shaking her head to try and clear it. For some reason, she couldn’t get rid of the image of the haunted mare in the glass, her plaintive expression and sorrowful eyes…

Focus, Celestia, she thought to herself. It was a dream. Just… just a dream.

But as she got ready to deal with the affairs of state, she couldn’t help but get the feeling that it was far, far more than that.

When Spike finally got back to the Library, with Rarity right behind him, he was shocked to see the catatonic Pinkie. Whatever questions he might have had, however, were forestalled by Twilight immediately raising a hoof to silence him.

“We don’t have time to explain what's going on, Spike,” she said apologetically. “I need you to take a letter to Princess Celestia, urgently.”

“I… alright,” Spike nodded, still looking at Pinkie even as he grabbed the ink and quill from Twilight’s desk, followed by some paper.

Twilight couldn’t help but glance at her catatonic friend. Pinkie was still staring off vacantly, murmuring to herself. “… I always thought that painting it pink would make it look friendlier…”

Oh, Pinkie, she thought. How did this happen? What did this?

“Ready, Twilight,” Spike said, bringing Twilight's attention back to the present. He was holding the quill to the paper with a serious expression.

Twilight glanced at the others, who were looking to her anxiously, and then she began.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I write to you with unfortunate and worrisome news. Some sort of magical condition has begun spreading around Ponyville.

At that, Spike paused in his writing and looked up at Twilight, but she motioned for him to continue.

The worst case we’ve heard about is Pinkie Pie, who is in some sort of catatonic state where she’s seeing something we can’t. However, other ponies are experiencing symptoms ranging from paranoia, fear and anxiety, as though something terrible were about to happen, to auditory and visual hallucinations.

I request your urgent assistance in whatever way you can render it. As you can imagine, Ponyville is in a state of worry at the present moment.

Your faithful student and servant,

Twilight Sparkle.

“Done,” Twilight said shortly as Spike finished the letter.

“Alright,” Spike said, taking a breath. A moment later, the letter was on its way. “Now will somepony please explain what’s going on?”

Twilight sighed. “Like the letter said, Spike. Pinkie’s catatonic, and whatever’s wrong with her is almost certainly related to the feelings of dread and anxiety other ponies have been experiencing across town.”

“And the hallucinations,” Rarity added quietly. “It must be serious if it’s affecting as many as it is.”

“I hope that Princess Celestia can do something about it,” Fluttershy said quietly, looking more worried than ever. “I mean, if she can’t…”

“There will be a way,” Twilight said, looking resolute. “There is always a way.”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah, Twilight’s right. We can take on anything.”

Rarity clicked her tongue. “That’s a nice thought, dear, but unless you become a neurosurgeon, a miracle worker, or just plain omnipotent in the next few hours, I don’t see how we can ‘take on’ Pinkie being catatonic.”

Rainbow huffed. “We’ll figure something out.”

“Rainbow’s right,” Twilight said, looking more determined. “We can’t give up hope. There is always a solution to any problem – we just have to find it.”

“What if other ponies start going like Pinkie?” Spike asked, looking at their friend.

“… well, you know that the Captain doesn’t mean to be a grumpy pants, but after last time…”

“I’m hoping that it’s like Rarity suggested; that what’s happening to Pinkie is a result of her own unique nature,” Twilight said quietly. “The same thing that gives her the Pinkie Sense might be making her more sensitive to… this whatever it is. This… miasma of… wrongness.”

“So, we’re runnin’ with the idea that this is the way it is… because Pinkie’s Pinkie?” Applejack summarised, raising a questioning eyebrow. “That’s awful vague, Twi.”

Twilight shrugged. “I… guess it’s all we have? I don’t like it as an explanation, but until we get something more concrete -”

Suddenly, two things happened at once. First, Twilight’s eyes widened in shock, her mouth dropped open, and she seized up. Secondly, Pinkie stood ramrod straight, looking wildly around.

“Portal drive active, everypony!” she yelled. “General quarters! Batten down the hatches! Press buttons! Don’t panic! Unless you wanna panic: in that case, panic responsibly and remember to assume the position!”

And then Twilight screamed.

The meeting with Blueblood was just as exciting as Celestia had imagined.

“The import tax from the Griffon Empire might be raising vital funds,” her blonde-maned, slightly simpering nephew was saying, “but it’s also stifling a lot of import trade that’s vital for our relations with the greater Griffon Empire.”

He gave her a small, almost patronising smile, though she tried not to be offended: she suspected he couldn’t tell anypony anything he thought they didn’t know without seeming a little patronising about the whole thing. It was the sort of attitude being surrounded and shaped by the elite all your life engendered.

“With the influence the East Equus Company holds over their court,” he continued, “being in their good books is nothing short of vital for economic and political stability, as I’m sure you understand.”

She nodded, only half paying attention. As he spoke, she rubbed a hoof against her head, trying not to let the headache that she was feeling distract her.

“Auntie?” she heard Blueblood say. “Are you alright? You seem a little distant.”

She smiled at him. “My apologies, Blueblood. I had a… difficult night.”

Blueblood swallowed, clearly unsure what to do. “Do you need me to, uh, fetch anypony? A drink, perhaps?”

“No, no,” Celestia said, smiling. “Please, continue. You were saying about the East Equus Company.”

“Ah, yes,” Blueblood said. “What I was thinking was, rather than increasing taxes next quarter, decreasing certain import and license taxes might incentivise more traders to -”

Before he could continue, there was a sudden flash of magic, and a letter landed in front of Celestia. She looked down at it for a moment, before glancing at Blueblood, whose eyes were also fixed on it.

“That… looks important,” he said after a moment.

“Yes, I imagine it probably is,” she told him patiently.

He nodded slowly. “I ought to leave you to it, oughtn't I?”

Celestia brought the letter up and began scanning it. After a moment, she pursed her lips.

“That might be best, yes,” she said slowly. “I’m sorry, Blueblood. We’ll reconvene tomorrow, if this doesn’t take up more time.”

He nodded. “Alright, Auntie Celestia. Hope it all turns out alright.”

“Thank you, dear,” Celestia said vaguely. She didn’t pay attention as he walked out of the room, the door clunking shut behind him, as she found her attention fixed on the letter.

Dread, paranoia… and Pinkie Pie in a catatonic state? What could this possibly mean…?

Before she had any time to ponder more what this meant, however, a sudden pain shot through her head, and she collapsed to her knees. She looked up, and the mirror was back, the same haggard mare that looked just like her still staring out at her.

Help me, she seemed to mouth again.

Celestia blinked, and the mirror was gone, leaving Celestia to wonder just what in the name of the Mother had happened…

Twilight was lying on the floor of her library, unconscious, and Pinkie had inexplicably stopped staring about, glassy eyed. Instead, she was looking at the others with a frown on her face.

“Now,” she said, “I’m sure I wasn’t here. So unless I’m suddenly experiencing some sort of super-awesome-so-surprising-it’s-a-space-warper surprise party…” she looked down at at Twilight and the words died on her lips. “No. This isn’t a party.”

“What was your first clue, Pinkie?” Rainbow asked irritably, looking up from Twilight’s prone form.

“Either Twilight being on the floor or everypony's expressions,” Pinkie replied. “Not sure which I saw first.”

Rainbow kept attending to Twilight, while Fluttershy turned to Pinkie.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly.

“Fine,” Pinkie said, frowning. “Just… confused. I could have sworn I was with… no, but I don’t know any Captain Grey, do I?”

Fluttershy shrugged. “I… don’t think so?”

Rainbow thumped the floor with her hoof. “What the hay is even going on in this place?!”

There was a sudden, shocked silence at Rainbow’s outburst, and then she let out a breath.

“I… sorry, guys,” she said, hanging her head. “It’s just… first Pinkie, now Twilight… I feel so… so out of my depth, y’know? This isn’t just something I can punch or out-awesome.”

Pinkie smiled. “Well, I’m better, so it’s gonna all be okay, I’m sure of it!”

Rainbow smiled back at her. “Thanks, Pinkie. I’m glad you’re back to normal at least..”

She looked down at Twilight, who was slowly opening her eyes.

“W… what happened?” she asked.

“Well,” Applejack said, “you started looking like somepony had run ya through with an ice pick, the Pinkie started jabberin’ something about… what was it?”

“‘General quarters’,” Rarity clarified, frowning, “and something about a portal drive.”

“Eeyup, that was the one,” Applejack nodded. “Then ya just sorta collapsed, and Pinkie got back to normal double quick.”

“What?” Twilight said, turning to look up at Pinkie, who grinned down at her.

“Heya!” she said, grinning. “How’s it going?”

“Better now that you’re okay!” Twilight replied. Pushing herself to her feet, she grabbed Pinkie in a desperate hug. “I was so worried!”

“We all were,” Rarity added, smiling at Pinkie.

“What happened to you?” Rainbow asked, frowning at her as Twilight released her.

Pinkie blinked, before bringing out a bubble pipe and starting to smoke it, a thoughtful furrow to her brow.

“I… don’t know,” she said slowly. “One minute I was making some cakes for the Cakes, and then… I was…” Her frown deepened. “I was somewhere else, but I didn’t recognise it. But I was speaking.”

“We heard you speaking,” Rarity said with a small, empty chuckle. “To all sorts of ponies, or whatever they were.”

“I don’t think they were ponies,” Pinkie said seriously, “or… not all of them.” She looked at Twilight. “But… you were there, Twilight.”

“I was?” Twilight asked. “I mean… you spoke to me, or you thought you were speaking to me -”

“You were there,” Pinkie repeated, “but it was… was so weird...”

A scream from outside caught everypony’s attention before Pinkie could elaborate. At once, the girls and Spike dashed outside… only to see something impossible.

A giant white light had appeared in the sky, pulsating like a living thing. The size of it was enormous, despite it being probably a good mile up off the ground.

“What in the name of Celestia?!” Applejack swore.

“That’s some sort of magic!” Twilight yelled, her eyes widening. It felt like more magic than she’d ever been in the presence of in her entire life. “I don’t understand, only Celestia or Luna could -!”

Suddenly the light faded, and in its place was something entirely different. It must have been over four hundred metres long or more, a sharp, pointed prow facing towards the Canterhorn. Two almost rectangular wings protruded from either side of the machine, each with a massive, armoured zeppelin balloon beneath it, as well as dozens of what looked like propellers. At the rear of a thing was a tall arrangement that looked like a massive control tower. It was making a huge noise, even as far up as it was, so deep that the entirety of Ponyville could hear it.

“Is that an airship?!” Rarity yelled.

“It can’t be!” Twilight yelled. “I’ve never seen anything like it!”

Rainbow glared up at the imposing machine as it hung in the air, and spread her wings.

“Whatever it is,” she said, growling, “I won’t let it threaten Ponyville!”

And with a battle cry, before any of her friends could stop her, Rainbow Dash took off towards the giant unknown machine.