Prologue - Battle after Battle
Clung
Cin
The blue hearth mare was tidying the huge room after the full work day. Various bottles of potions laid on the counter, waiting to be again flung to their respective positions. It had been another profitable day in this modern Equestria, especially since she began selling...
“Do you sell the toy?”
The shop-keeper almost fell from the ladder she was on. She hadn’t been expecting anypony. Luckily she had years of experience juggling and grabbing falling potions, especially the ones she knocked off with her high mane-do. Once she got safely to the ground, she turned to look at her wanna-be customer.
“The shop’s closed for the day, little one,” she said to the light blue colt with green mane in front of her. He must have been really young. He didn’t even have a cutie mark yet.
“Awwww...” He pouted. “But everyone in the city has one, and they said I could buy it from Mage Meadowbrook. Can’t you just sell me one? Pleasepleaseplease!”
Meadowbrook sighed. “Sorry, but even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. They sold out today. But if you come back tomorrow, I’m sure to have some mo…”
sniff
The colt’s eyes started watering. “No, no, don’t cry. What’s your name, little one?”
“Name? M-my name is O-opy.”
Strange name for a pony. Maybe it was an abbreviation for something else. “Okay, Opy, do you want to hear a good story?”
“But… but the toy?”
“It is a story about the toy, something only you will know, and nobody else. And when tomorrow you’ll come buy it, you will truly know why it is so amazing. Do you promise not to tell others, Opy?”
“Yes! I promise! What is it?” he answered, drying his tears.
She took a dusty book from the shelf, one of the few among the countless antidotes and herb flasks. She opened it up on the counter, under the curious and now excited eyes of the little foal.
“Woah,” he said. “Pretty colours!”
“Yes,” started the Mage. “It all began after the Sirens’ banishment from the kingdom, even before Equestria was founded, thousands of years ago...”
“They’re still not themselves!”
A slightly younger Meadowbrook looked at the young Stygian while he ran towards them. “They must be still under their influence!”
It was just a few hours after the battle against the Sirens. Even if they were victorious, the problem seemed to be still unsolved. They all turned to the bearded pony as he stepped forwards and charged his horn, focusing on the city.
After a few moments, he said, “There’s no lingering magic in their mind. The Sirens are not controlling them anymore.”
“But they’re still fighting!” Stygian was almost in tears.
Rockhoof scanned the relatively silent city “Are you sure of that? There does not seem to be any quarrel.”
“No, but they’re not talking. Everypony is avoiding each other! Even the families are split. They may not be arguing on the outside, but it’s like they are!”
“I guess…” said Starswirl. “That those wretched creatures drilled the hatred in their skulls for too long of a time. I say to give them some time to rec…”
“Starswirl.” Mage Meadowbrook called him. “I think you might be underestimating the problem. If it’s true the Sirens’ magic has left deep trauma in their mind, then waiting could actually worsen the situation. We need to intervene.”
“Oh, Mage, you are the expert in physical healing, but I didn’t know you also knew about mind healing.”
“I heal ponies to make them feel better, may it be physically or mentally; it does not change my mission. Believe me, it is the best way to cure them.”
The bearded pony nodded. “Admirable. How do you propose to proceed?”
The Mage looked sideways at the green forest on the hill near the village.
“I know something that can help them, but I will need your magic too.”
“Oh? My magic? I may remind you that I have devoted my life to the study of magic. I can change the shape of a pony, but I cannot change their mind.”
“Don’t worry, I just need your magic for something I am sure you will be able to do.”
“And that is where the colours went boom?” said the foal, looking at the image of a bearded pony conjuring rivers of glittery colours over the city.
Meadowbrook laughed a bit. “Yes. The colours went boom, three times over actually, before all the ponies were cured.”
Opy looked at her inquisitively. “Three times? Why so many?”
“For it to work,” said Meadowbrook, turning a page, “it was necessary to find the right… Intensity.” On the paper were now two illustrations of the village ponies.
The first image showed sleepy ponies, looking at a rainbow with glassy eyes. “The first time, it was too little. The ponies were a bit dazed of the colours, sure, and that helped them forget about their worries for a bit, but that was it. It was clear that they needed something stronger, and that’s what they got.”
The Mage swiped her hoof on the book, shifting the gaze of the little foal from the first image to the second one. It showed the same village ponies, but this time they were looking at a vortex of colours with lop-sided smiles. “The second time, they started actually enjoying the colours, basking in their swirling. They started to regain their own mind, but the shadows of the Sirens’ magic still oppressed them. That wasn’t quite enough.”
Opy looked up from the book. “They needed more?”
“Yes,” another page was turned. “But in order to do so, something else was needed. Something to untwist their minds and shape the colours. Something like...”
“... the toy?”
Meadowbrook smiled “Exactly.”
“Have you gone out of your mind, Mage?”
“No, Starswirl. It is not my mind that is astray. It is those of those poor ponies. And it will remain thus if we do not act.”
“We have already done this twice. And it seems that it quite worked. The burden seems to have been lifted from their heart.”
Meadowbrook shook her head. “For too little, and for too short of a time. You have seen them. They are already returning to their former state.”
Starswirl stroke his beard. “Still, rising the power is… I guess I can try to repeat the last spell. Maybe after that...”
“I’m sorry, Starswirl, but that would be not advisable,” she answered, with a frown. “It would help for a while, but just like last time, it wouldn’t last for long. In the long run, the ponies would become dependent on us two, and even if we accept to treat them periodically, that would be unhealthy for them. The only option left is to increase the dose again. I can assure you we are still within the danger threshold.”
The bearded pony looked down, thoughtful, and looked at the pieces of modeled glass in his hoof. He closed his eyes, and with a sigh, he finally said “So be it.”
“Thank you, Starswirl,” said the Mage, bowing.
“I hope,” said him, heading for the village, “Yours will not be the only thanks I will hear.”
The bearded pony in the picture was shooting his magic through what looked like small pieces of glass, angled so that the light would refract and reflect countless times. The result appeared in the sky as a swarm of symmetric and patterned coloured shapes, extending from the sea to the mountains.
“And that was the first documented use of a kaleidoscope.”
The colt looked up confused. “The kale.. di.. what?”
Meadowbrook rolled her eyes. “That’s the name of the toy.”
“Oh..” said him, returning to the book after an instant of contemplation. “But, if the colours made them feel better, why not more? Like, double?”
At the thought, a slow chill crept on the back of the mare. “T-there was not the need, Opy. Especially because on the third try, the charm finally worked, and a miracle appeared.”
“Miracle? The colours can also pull out miracles?”
After a giggle, she continued. “Indeed. The citizens stopped staring at the colours, and started looking, and then they remembered something else they had to look for. Something they had lost.”
She pointed at the last picture, where the village ponies, looking more healthy than ever, were joyously dancing and celebrating. “The colours led them, and then they found it again. And with it, they also found themselves.”
“What? What did they find? Tell me.”
“That,” said Meadowbrook, closing the book. “Is something you will need to find out yourself tomorrow, Opy. But I promise, it will be worth the time.”
“Oh.”
“But for now, I need you to leave. It’s late and you should go back to your parents. And I still have work to do, especially if you want to buy your toy tomorrow.”
“Really? But… You are an earth pony. Don’t you need a wizard to…”
“Do you think the word ‘Mage’ in my name is just for show?” She winked at him and he giggled. “See you tomorrow, Opy.”
“Okay, Mage! Bye!”
She watched him go, and then she immediately turned back to her work. She had to focus on production, if she wanted to have more toys to sell the next day, and also respect the huge order she received earlier that day.
Her eyes wandered to the back of the shop. There, on a worktable, laid rows of finely worked lenses, jars of glitter, coloured papers and other flasks.
“Thankfully, with all these modern inventions, even magic is not needed anymore, though an additional hoof would be helpful even now.” She looked at the crate at her side, much larger than the merch she had already finished assembling. “Oh well, time to stop moping and get back to work. They are already waiting for this shipment, and from what I heard, these little toys will really be useful for those poor people. They really had seen them all.”
On the crate was written an address.
Ponyville.
The Kaleidoscope is on the Chair
Swirls of colours dancing behind a lens. “Come on…” Double and quadruple symmetric shapes coming done and undone in swift instants. “Show it…” Glittery specks floating lazily in front of an inquisitive crimson eye. “I know it is in he...”
“Rainbow Dash!”
The multicolor-maned pegasus jumped in the chair she was sitting on. She had to jumble to keep the hold on the short cylinder object she was so closely inspecting. “What?”
“Could you please pay attention for a bit? We’re in a meeting!”
Rainbow looked around. She was sitting at her usual spot around the Cutie Map, in the central room of the Friendship Castle. Important matters, Friendship Missions, that’s usually where the seven of them gathered when something happens. Except that… “Well, at least I had the decency to show up. And I’m awake.”
Twilight sighed. That was right, and also a first. Sure, it happened in the past that someone had to skip a meeting due to work or other reasons, but to start with only two Bearers and a fast-asleep Spike was unprecedented.
“Maybe they’re just late. And as for Spike, I guess that’s mainly my fault. We were awake last night trying to evaluate Smoulder’s essay.” Twilight glanced sideways at the saddlebags she brought with her in the hope she had time to go back to corrections before the meeting. “It seems she still hasn’t gotten the hang of ponyish written language. And expressions. And calligraphy. I hoped that being a dragon, Spike could have helped me, but… Rainbow! Put down that thing!”
“Uagh!” She jumped again, startled. “It’s ok. It is… on the chair! Yeah, here,” she said, cautiously placing the object on the armchair, but still her eyes were glued on it.
“Seriously, what’s with you and that… What is that thing anyways?”
“It’s a kaleidoscope, silly!” The voice boomed from behind Twilight, followed by a real boom of confetti. “It’s the new trend of the day or maybe the week; everyone in town has one but I still have not managed to buy one, since I had to work all day yesterday to clean up in the after party, and I should get someone to help me get one since I don’t know where—”
“Pinkie! Slow down! Where have you been?”
The four pink hooves stopped bouncing around the room, disoriented for a moment. Then they turned to Twilight, sporting a huge grin.
“Oh, Twilight, the meeting! I know I was forgetting something. Sorry I am late, I was doing my usual morning Ponyville lap to meet my friends, but I could not find so many people around, so I thought to go to Carousel Boutique to check on Rarity, but I found it closed and I thought that was strange since it was clearly shopping hour. The lights were mostly off though, I entered anyway hoping they wouldn’t give me a restriction order like last time, then I saw huge lumps of clothes everywhere like someone was building some fabric fortress, but then Sweetie Belle run up to me saying Rarity was out of her wheels and she needed some help. So I went to find othe—”
“Wait! Rarity is sick? Why didn’t you tell me that first? We need to get to her, fast! Rainbow let’s -”
Twilight turned around, only to find that Rainbow had used the Pinkie intermission to flee the scene. And the kaleidoscope was not on the chair anymore.
She couldn’t believe it, Rainbow Dash going away while one of her friends was in danger? She’d likely escaped before that part of Pinkie’s exchange, or more probably she was not listening at all, being so engrossed in her little trinket.
Yet, that didn’t bode well with her. And the lack of her other friends made it much more ominous. That was not the moment to stay put.
“Pinkie, I’ll go to Rarity. Could you check on the others? I have a bad feeling.”
“Okie Dokie!” Said Pinkie, while observing Twilight dashing through the door. She then scanned the room, and looked sideways at the empty chairs, before grinning again and bouncing away, following her friend.
“I’ll go check on Applejack first, but I am sure she is fine and had just too much work at the farm. You know, all that bucking and planting and having to take care of Granny and Applebloom, and no relax makes her a…”
Her voice trailed off in the large room, leaving just the low snoring of a still asleep Spike.
“Rarity! Are you in there?”
Twilight knocked hard on the door on Carousel Boutique. But that was just out of habit. She was ready to barge in the moment she did not receive an answer. Yet, that turned out not to be necessary.
The door quickly opened, showing a Sweetie Belle looking up to her. She seemed quite distressed, but at the sight of the princess, her eyes widened out. “Oh! Twilight, thank Celestia you're here!” she said in a haste, grappling the alicorn’s leg.
“Sweetie! Where is Rarity? Is she all right?”
“No. She is upstairs. I couldn’t help her! Please…”
Twilight didn’t hesitate. She flew inside, in the direction of Rarity’s private room, Sweetie still clung at her hoof. She thought it would have been quicker this way, but the hills of robes and dresses around the shop were so high, and the light so dim, that she had to significantly slow down to avoid becoming the best Harlequin of all the carnivals.
“Why is it so dark in here? And what about the mess?”
“Twilight, please…”
“Rarity, right.” Focusing again on the main quest, Twilight chose the fastest route and teleported directly upstairs. Opening her eyes, she immediately spotted her target, under the sole light of the room, emitted by the lamp on the table.
“Rari…” Twilight started, but then she took in the whole picture. The curtains were all shut to block unwanted vitamin D from outside, yet some sheens of light still hit her eyes. The light reflected by countless needles floating midair.
“‘The hay…?”
Rarity was seated underneath the sea of metal, all levitated by her magic. Part of the needles continuously and quickly sewed and ripped several pieces of fabric, pulling and throwing the finished and unfinished form pile to pile. But she wasn’t even looking at them.
“Rarity! What’s this? Answer me!” bellowed the alicorn.
“It’s useless.” said Sweetie Belle, shaking her head.
Twilight looked down at the white unicorn filly, that was finally with all the hooves on the ground.
“I tried to get her attention for hours, I called her, sang at her, I even threw Opal at her, but she wouldn’t answer. And I’m too scared to get closer than this.”
Twilight turned up again to look at her friend. She was seated on a comfy chair, near the table, giving them the shoulders. And even though her magic was idly working above her, it seemed that her hooves were busy with something else.
“Stay close to me.”
Sweetie Belle nodded, and they slowly started to walk up to Rarity, constantly eyeing the pointy industry above their head. As they reached her, Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder.
Sweetie gasped, but nothing happened. Slightly relieved, the violet mare looked at her friend, and saw that she was deeply engrossed in a dark object in her hooves. “Rarity, talk to me. What are you doing?”
“...you won’t flee me...”
Both Twilight and Sweetie Belle felt the urge to step back. Those words didn’t sound at all like Rarity’s, but the ones of a hungry predator. Twilight was going to retract her hoof, but she had already had enough of this.
With a single movement, she turned her around and looked her in the eyes. Obviously, Rarity was startled and let go of her grip on the magic, but Twilight knew that would happen. A violet barrier shielded the alicorn, her friend, and the shrieking Sweetie Belle from the cascade of sewing supplies and sewed and screwed fragments of would-be dresses.
Twilight looked at her friend. Her mane was ruffled, she had some coffee stains on her coat, and her eyes were red and cracked, but apart from that, and the dozy look on her face, she didn’t seem too far off her usual self. Even her mascara seemed okay, so she hadn’t even cried, as was usual for her in such a crisis.
“Rarity, snap out of it! What happened? Why are you like this?”
“...the colours are the lead...” she said, dragging the last word.
“Lead? Colour? What are you…” Before she could say another word, a bundle of white fur jumped in front of her, directly in the hooves of the white unicorn.
“Sis! Please, come back! You’re not yourself! Please!”
A flash of wakefulness went across her eyes. “...the sparkle...cat...clashed with...Sweetie?”
The filly looked up with hope “Rarity?”
The big sister still seemed a bit lost, but the more she stared at the little one, the more she came back to herself. And then came the tears. “Sweetie!” The filly unexpectedly found herself in a rock-tight hug. “You’re here! I looked everywhere for - I was trying to - But you’re here - You were it…” Rarity rambled at her, between her tears.
“Rarity, are you ok? How do you feel?” asked Twilight, also on behalf of Sweetie Belle, who seemed to be starting to miss the fresh air.
“Twilight, darling, yes. I-I feel fine now. I guess I was too lost in my research of — I don’t know what it was, I just felt so... lost, and yet so driven to it, but I couldn’t imagine, I didn’t know… That it was… All along… it...” Rarity stopped talking. The grip on her sister loosened, but didn’t totally come undone, just enough to let her breath again.
Gasping for air, Sweetie asked “Sis, what was that? It didn’t make any se— Sis?” Sweetie looked up to her, finding her fast asleep. “Twilight, is she..?”
“She is okay, leave her be,” said Twilight after performing a quick check-up spell. “I don’t know what came over her, but now she’s just asleep, I guess from magical exhaustion.” She glanced at the needles on the floor, the feeling of uneasiness creeping up to her once again. “Sweetie, tell me what happened today. What was the cause of this?”
“I have no idea!” answered the filly, still wrapped in her sister’s unconscious but unrelenting hug. “Rarity seemed fine this morning. She went out early to check on the ‘new trend’, as she always does when she hears about something new.” Sweetie sighed, then continued. “When she returned home, though, she started pulling all the dresses off of the mannequins and the armchairs, speaking madly about a new sensational idea she felt. She piled up everything on the floor, and then she drew the curtains to make the colours ‘blend’ better, whatever that means.”
“That sounds bad,” commented Twilight.
“Actually, it was just a bit over her usual frenzies, so I didn’t think too much of it at first.” Sweetie shivered. “But then things changed. It was like Discord had taken control of her. She started shredding the dresses, then sewing them in a lot of different shapes, then ripping the shapes and gluing them and cutting them and—”
“Ok, I think I understand.”
“But that wasn’t the worst part! She started... rambling about something that was hers, but she felt she had lost it, and she was looking for it. When I asked her what it was, she said it was…” Sweetie took a breath and, artificially trying to lower her voice, she said
“Inspiration.”
That word somehow gave Twilight the chills. It was like Sweetie had tried to produce exactly that effect. “And then she ran up to her room, becoming as you found her.”
“That’s... worrying.“ Twilight could not convey the discomfort she felt.
She looked again at her friend, noticing the mascara ruined from her tears. Usually it would have been a bad sign, but now it was somehow comforting. “When she wakes up, even if she seems normal, bring her to a doctor, okay? We need to understand what’s behind all of this.”
“Behind what? Because behind you there’s me! Surprise!” The loud announcement signalled the entry of the cheering pony.
“Pinkie! Keep quiet!” said Twilight, startled, glancing at Rarity.
“Ups. Sorry. I just had finished checking up on Fluttershy and I came back here to re-check on Rarity, but now it seems everything is okay, or at least better than before.”
“Fluttershy? How is she? And didn’t you say you wanted to go first to Applejack?”
“Oh, yes, I guess I said that. But then I remembered Gummy was at Fluttershy’s because he didn’t feel too good yesterday, maybe for something he ate. So I asked her to help me, and sent him to her sanctuary. Fluttershy had to take care of him all day yesterday and also today, since he still wasn’t great, unlike Fluttershy that feels okay, and says she’s sorry she couldn’t attend the meeting. She was busy looking after Gummy and so—”
Rarity snored, stealing the attention of everypony. It was at that moment that Twilight finally noticed something else amid the mess of clothes and supplies near the two unicorns. A single dark object, like the one Rarity was handling during her ‘research phase’. It must have fallen together with all the needles, the noise covered by Sweetie Belle’s scream.
The kaleidoscope was under the chair.
Twilight eyed it inquisitively, but before she could grab it, Sweetie Belle said “Oh, that reminds me, Apple Bloom said they were having problems too.”
Twilight frowned. “You mean with Applejack? Is she sick too?”
Sweetie shrugged “I don’t know, she and Scootaloo came to me this morning looking for help. I had my hooves full with Rarity already, so Scootaloo suggested to go for Rainbow Dash, and from then I had no news.”
“Shoot. Pinkie, I’ll go to Sweet Apple Acres. Could you check on Rainbow?”
“On it!” said Pinkie with but as a millisecond delay.
Twilight shot out of the room, leaving the pink pony and the two still-hugging unicorns.
“Holes?”
“Yep, rows and rows of good ol’ fashion holes, like she was gon’ to start a tot’ly new orchard on her own. Or… or as she was—”
“Looking for something?” Twilight completed the sentence for the old Granny Smith. She was the only person she found at Sweet Apple Acres, rocking the rocking chair.
It seemed that in the morning, after Apple Bloom returned from the market with some errands, the elder sister shot out in the fields without telling anyone and started digging as many holes as she could, rivalling Winona herself.
“I don’ know, deary, but she seems all right now. Some tough love sure helped.” Answered Granny, slightly grinning.
Twilight had an instantaneous vision of Big Mac pinning down her sister, though she wasn’t completely sure who would win such a strength contest. She shook her head and went back to questions. “I’m just relieved she is okay. And you said it all started with…”
“This little thingie here.” Granny pointed to the small dark object balancing on the head of the rocking chair. “The moment Applejack looked into it, she dashed out the door in a frenzy.”
Twilight frowned. “Can I see it?” Granny shrugged, and the alicorn hovered the cylinder in her hoof with her magic. It was a kaleidoscope.
She was starting to detect a pattern. Two may be a coincidence, but three was a clue. “The trinket seems to be everywhere in the town lately.” Twilight internally cursed at her lack of interest for the latest trends. She had been too busy with the school and now something dangerous was spreading through the town right under her nose.
She examined the object. There was no trace of magic that she could detect. The hoofwork on the lenses on the inside was remarkable, though, as if something only an expert in optics and light could come up with. The changes in colours and shapes were mesmerizing, and the subtle shift in speed and shades of the shiny fragments inside made it a treat for the eye. But all in all, it was nothing more than a fancy foal’s toy.
Sure, after staring inside for a long time, she was starting to feel a bit dizzy, but that was a natural reaction of the brain, and it would not have lasted more than a minute. Long enough for making her bump into the table, though, shaking some letters off of it.
“I’m sorry. I’ll put them back.”
“Don’t worry, dearie. Those letters ain’t even for us.”
“Huh?”
“That grey mailmare delivers us a bunch of wrong letters all the time. We usually go and deliver them oursel’, but we had a busy mornin’, as you can see.”
“I’ll deal with them,” said Twilight, rolling her eyes and placing the letters in her saddlebag. Now was not the time to dwell on Derpy’s work issues. Twilight went back to juggle the kaleidoscope in her magic, thought about it, and then asked “You said Apple Bloom bought this? Where did she find it?”
“A’ don’ know, but if a thing smaller than Big Mac's vocabulary can sell so much, there’s only one decent pony in town up for that job.”
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Bad day? Full Week? Stressing Work?
Do not mope. If you can’t cope,
Then buy a Kaleidoscope!
- The Certified Cure by Mage Meadowbrook -
“Meadowbrook? But she is in Hayseed Swamp, ages from here!”
“Trade knows no limits nowadays. You just need the wit and means to provide the ponies the merchandise they need. And make them realize they need them.”
“And Ponyville’s citizens would need anti-stress trinkets because…”
Filthy Rich didn’t answer. He just looked at Twilight expectantly with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, right…”
So the kaleidoscopes came from Meadowbrook as anti-stress devices, and they were selling so well because, well… it was not totally her fault the citizens were stressed, right? Yeah, being a princess, with a castle and a school and all, brought a lot of changes in the town, but they were good changes, weren’t they? And they also had to deal with the Everfree forest, and Pinkie, and the CMC, and...
“Okay, fine, I see your point, but there’s something going down through the entire town. Less ponies are out in town, and some of them seem off their hinges in some way or another. And I suspect this ‘merch’ is the cause of it all.”
“I can’t see how they could be a danger at all. The only warning we give to the customers is to use them while seated, to prevent damage due to the temporary dizziness.” He pointed out to the chair in the back, where a single free-to-use kaleidoscope laid for anyone who wanted to try it out. “I myself have tested the product countless times, and nothing wrong has ever come out of it. I spent the entire last night examining all the ones on sale, one by one. So, in which way do you propose they are the source of this problem?”
“I - They - Look, I’m not sure myself, but they are involved in this somehow.” Twilight tried to think fast. Something was still not squaring out.
“Nonsense. Mage Meadowbrook herself sent those. I wouldn’t sell something that would hurt anypony. That would also badly hurt my reputation, and the sales would drop. I’m not a scampony like a certain duo.”
Twilight sighed. “Yes, I know you are not. And yes, I am also confused on how a toy could be a dange… Wait. This is a toy.”
Rich looked down at her in a condescending way. “Well, you could call them toys, but they are actually very refined stress relief remedies developed by expert hooves.”
“No, you don’t get it. This is nothing more than a trinket. Almost an ornament. How could this be considered a ‘remedy’ in itself? I don’t remember anything about the use of such a device in my medical books to cure illnesses. At least not alone.”
Rich shifted the weight from a hoof to another. “You mean… They were together? But, if they were, why didn’t she inform me?”
“What were together?” She flared her wings. “Filthy Rich. Was there something coupled with the kaleidoscopes? And where is it now?”
The stallion could feel the pressure of the alicorn magic throbbing. “It - it was a plant of some sort… It was in the same crate, I thought that was just something nice to look at, while de-stressing…”
Twilight’s glare became so sharp it was physically stinging. He quickly added “I - I already sold it… yesterday… but I think they already used all of it…”
“WHO?”
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It was the second time that day she got to furiously knock on the door of a store that was closed at the usual rush hour. This time, it was the large building that seemed to be made mainly of marzipan.
Though, if it were really made of marzipan, they would have had to compel Pinkie Pie to make a Pinkie Promise to not scarf it down. Also because she lived in it.
“Mr. Cake! Mrs. Cake! Please, open up!”
“Silly, they can’t open up if they’re not down there!”
Twilight, relieved to hear that voice, looked up to find a vaporous mane leaning out from one of the second floor windows. “Pinkie! Are you here? What about Rainbow Dash? And where are the Cakes?”
“Oh, Rainbow Dash is a-ok, Scootaloo found her before me and she stopped being so obsessed with the kaleidoscope. I had to save Scootaloo from her grip, since she wasn’t breathing and couldn’t even say help me, and that was difficult considering they were hovering in midair. I did separate them and then they kept speaking normally and not minding me at all, so I figured I would leave them alone. So I went to Maud, but then I remembered she’s with Starlight at Ghastly Gorge fighting quarray eels and—”
“Ok, Pinkie, Rainbow is fine, good. Where are the Cakes?”
“I was getting there. Anyway, skipping some minutes ahead, I went back here, since I remembered I still had some cleaning up to do from last night; but as soon as I stepped in, Mr. and Mrs. Cake looked at me flabbergasted and went out of the door with Pound and Pumpkin in their arms, and locked me inside. I guess so that I don’t have to deal with customers, that is ridiculous since I am more than able to—”
“They went out with the twins? Did they tell you where they were going?”
Pinkie shook her head “No, but they were headed in that direction.” She pointed with the hoof towards a path, leading directly to the Everfree Forest.
“Oh no.”
Twilight started galloping, with a terrorized look on her face, leaving Pinkie alone at the window. “You could at least say hi, but today seems everyone seems off in one way or another... like. that mare that was looking under every rock to find her hands, but couldn’t find them, so she almost drowned in the river. Oh, that was fun, but then that candy mare had to fish her out and save her and that was boooring, and yet that was good because she gladly handed me…”
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She never reached the Everfree Forest. The cries of the babies diverted her off the course to under a bridge. There were some trails on the mud around the river, like if someone had fallen down there.
“Mr. Cake! Mrs. Cake!” Bellowed Twilight, as she found all four of them on the bank of the river.
The two grown ponies were not responding, but they were still breathing.
She looked at them, both in tears like their foals, and in the most distressing hug position she could have ever imagined. It was like they had tried to catch the other and the children all together, without really knowing where they were.
She had to force them apart with the sheer strength of her magic, and laid them on the sand. The babies crawled on top of their parents, trying to wake them up by calling them, but without much success. They started crying again.
Twilight didn’t have much experience in waking-up spells, so she resorted to the closest manual solution she could think of.
“Cough! Wha-” Mrs. Cake suddenly woke up from the splash of cold water on her face. “Where- T-Twilight! Why you…”
“Oh, thank Celestia, you are with us.” Twilight tossed away the bucket she used to pick the water from the river. She was glad to see both the Cakes still kicking. “How do you feel?”
“I.. don’t know… Ouch, my head. But where - why are we here?” said Mrs. Cake, trying to get on her hooves without much success.
“Easy now. You probably fell down here from the road. We should get you to the hospital soon. And in the meantime I need you to answer some questions.”
Twilight encased all of them in her magical aura, sustaining their weight and making them levitate. Then she put the babies on her back. She didn’t know if they had some broken bones or other injuries, so there was no way she was going to make them walk.
“MY BABIES!” She turned quickly to see a screaming Mr. Cake flailing his hooves desperately towards Pound and Pumpkin.
And with a split second of delay, “GIVE US OUR FOALS!” Mrs. Cake emulated her partner. Twilight bit her lips. That wasn’t their normal behaviour. What had gotten into them?
She hesitantly raised the babies, and as soon as they entered the reach of their parents, they were snatched away lightning fast, and locked in true wrestler locks.
Twilight was going to intervene, but the twins didn’t seem in discomfort. Those were real and caring familiar hugs. She drew a breath of release, that retracted almost immediately when she heard Mrs. Cake say “My baby Cakes. You’re here now. We’re here. Nowhere else. No one else. Ever.”
Not Good. She had to distract her somehow.
“Mrs. Cake! Mr. Cake! Talk to me! Do you remember anything? How did you get here?”
Still midair, they looked at each other, and then looked at Twilight, as if just recalling she was there. They start talking in turn, constantly interrupting each other.
“Twi-light? What do you mean—”
“We got here teleporting.”
“Oh, yeah, it was Pumpkin. Why she would not want to go to the forest...”
“Silly Pumpkin! It is the most safe place there, don’t you know that?”
Mr. Cake took his daughter between his hooves, shaking her. “Uh, you sillysillysillysill...”
“OKAY!” shouted Twilight, stopping them. She did not want to discuss why the forest wasn’t a safe place. It didn’t really matter at the moment. She had to focus on the right questions. “Listen, do you remember what did you buy yesterday from Filthy Rich’s store?”
The couple seemed first lost in their thoughts, but then they rolled their eyes.
“Ooooh the list was looooong.”
“Yes, we had a party to prepare, so we needed eggs, flour, brown sugar, vanilla, chocolate chips...”
“No, silly, we didn’t buy brown sugar!”
“Yes, we did!”
“No, he had finished it, remember?”
“Oh right… But we didn’t buy brown sugar, did we?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Ye—”
“LOOK!” shouted Twilight again. “I can solve the conundrum for you. You bought sugarcane, not some brown sugar, right?”
Or at least, that was what Filthy Rich had told them it was. He didn't know what use could have the plant Meadowbrook sent her, so he just sold it to the Cakes as sugarcane, since he really was out of brown sugar at the moment.
A flash of temporary wakefulness passed through the Cakes’ eyes.
“Oh. Oh, right, right.”
“Pfft… conundrum…”
“We bought a plant, right, I remember we had to extract the sugar.”
“Oooohhh no, never again, it was long and tedious work. Next time, let’s buy just the sugar, ok?”
“Yes, sugar that our babies like so much, right you two?”
“Yes, not like that bad brown sugar. Say with me, baaaaaaad.”
“Oh my little chimp—”
They were refocusing on their children. That was not good. “WHY?” said Twilight, with renewed emphasis. “Why was the sugar so ‘bad’?”
The Cakes frowned
“It was awfully sour for sugar...”
“Yeah, we had to make the cake for the party, but there was no way that sugar would have been palatable for little foals.”
“Only biiiiig foals ate that cake yesterday.”
“And we had to make sure the taste was right even for them.”
“Oh! we used all the brown sugar for the failed recipes. We should buy it again.”
“We tried and tried and tried and tried and tried…”
Twilight thoughts ran wild. A party? Oh, yes, yesterday, there was one. What was that one for? She couldn’t remember, but she shot down the invitation due to the work for the school. But if it was a Sugarcube Corner party, without a doubt most of Ponyville would have been invited.
“Uuuuuhhh turn and spin and turn uuuuuuhhh...”
The Cakes were back focusing on the twins. And even if the children were not crying anymore, she could not leave them like that for too long. “PLEASE!” She managed to gain again a length of their attention span. A length that was getting shorter and shorter. “What about the kaleidoscopes?”
“What about the kaleidoscopes?”
“What about the kaleidoscopes!”
“WhAt aBout the kaleidoSCOpes”
“Whattabbatthe kaleeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...”
“They were on sale together with the plant, weren’t they?” Asked her, trying desperately to converse with them, this time with scarce success. “They must have a connection more than ‘they are both de-stressing to... look...”
It finally clicked. The plant was not made to be looked at. That was even more ludicrous than thinking that a toy alone could cure some illness. The plant was the main part of the treatment. Probably a stress-relief herbal remedy to munch on. And most of Ponyville had a literal slice of it.
But by itself, there was no plant so strong to induce a mind-altering state, if not ingested in very large quantities. The drug had to be activated by an external stimulus, something that would shake the mind of the ponies, even for a bit, to let the chemicals do their job.
That was the purpose of the kaleidoscopes. They were the trigger.
“Kalè-kalè brrrrrr!”
“Smooch! Oh, my precious little tarts!”
Twilight’s head started to hurt. The constant loud intermissions of the Cakes, joined with the giggles of their children were too distracting, and she needed to think fast.
There was an ancient tradition of using mind-altering substances and triggers as remedies, on which, without any doubt, Meadowbrook was an expert. But in recent times, those treatments were commonly frowned upon, since they had to be carefully prepared and dosed in advance, or they could have disastrous consequences. Why didn’t Meadowbrook inform Rich how to use…
Twilight eyes widened on the spot, and her neck snapped back at her saddleback, quickly extracting everything she had in there with her magic.
She did explain it. But the explanation never reached the correct destination.
She found and instantly shredded the envelope that was delivered to Sweet Apple Acres, the one that read “Filthy Rich” on the exterior. In one gasp, she read the whole letter.
“That’s a loong letter there.”
“And she’s reading so fast.. You too will read so fast in the future, won’t you two?”
“Yes they will, and they’ll make us proud of them, so proud proud proud pro…”
Twilight was not listening to them anymore. It was all in there. She recognized the type of plant, and double checked the info in the letter with what she knew.
How should it have been consumed, the intended impact, the recommended way to couple it with the kaleidoscopes, the duration of the effects.
And, most importantly, in clear terms, the correct doses and the danger thresholds to be respected.
“Proud prade pried prod—”
“ENOUGH!” Twilight refolded the letter and deposited it again in the saddlebag. Without another word, she teleported all of them in front of the hospital and entered the main hall. Then, and only then, she let herself take a long breath and calm down.
“Good news?” Asked Mrs. Cakes, still a bit shaken by the sudden change in location. Twilight looked upwards at her.
“Yes,” she said. “You drugged them all.”
Twilight gestured vaguely at the big room, where several ponies were waiting their turn for being assisted. Some of them were shivering. Others bobbing in place. But most of them were just looking blankly in front of them, muttering how they had lost something important.
On most chairs, near the sick ponies, were the kaleidoscopes.
“Uh, that doesn’t sound like good news.”
“Maybe she has been drugged.”
“It is good news, since the drug they took seldom has any lasting effects. And even if the sugar extraction has spiked the strength of the drug, eating a slice of cake wouldn’t be enough to breach the danger thresholds.”
And only the ones who ate the cake were drugged. That explained why the kids, and the ponies who couldn’t go to the party like Fluttershy and Filthy Rich, were still sane. She started to walk down the room. She had to tell a doctor everything, and soon.
“And even if I made an error in my computation, there’s more good news about all of this.”
“What is that?” Asked Mr. Cake, lending an idle ear.
“You two,” said Twilight while she spotted a doctor and waved at him, trying to draw his attention to the still-floating Cake family.
“You used up all the sugar from the plant, and digested most of it. It shows in your condition, but I would have expected you two to be in a much, much more severe state than this. If you can make a full recovery, everypony else can too.” The doctor finally noticed them, and started galloping towards them.
The Cakes, though, burst into laughter.
“Pfffffffff… Ahahah.. Oh, nononono, that sugar was so terrible we gave up taste-testing after a couple of recipes.”
“For all the rest of them, we relied on her judgement.”
Twilight’s attention shifted quickly back to them. “Her? Who…”
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She teleported at the center of the ground floor. The building was spotless and sparkling, as if someone spent time to carefully clean every nook and cranny.
She had explained the situation to the doctors as quickly as she could, in less than five minutes.
But that was five minutes longer than she wanted.
She ate most of the sugar herself.
She shouted her name, which echoed in the unusually empty room. The pink walls looked inquisitively at her, as to ask why she was yelling in vain.
She carefully listened for a comeback, with the heart in her throat. But nopony answered.
She unknowingly saved everypony.
Swallowing down, she steeled herself and ran up the stairs. On the upper floor, all the doors were wide open, except for one. The door to her room.
Twilight entered hastily, and looked everywhere. The bedroom was tidy, the window was still open. Not one thing seemed out of place.
But the room was empty.
Just by giving them some good food.
She tried to activate the lever to the slide, but the mechanism was blocked by something. Not wanting to lose any more time, she teleported directly into the cave below her.
But then she found herself alone.
The party cave, usually brightly lit by the lamps and painted in countless colours, was now almost completely dipped in darkness. No sign of somepony down there.
No family.
She stepped ahead, but stopped when she felt under her hooves the crunch of countless sheets of paper. Looking closely in the dim glow she recognised them, the files of all the Ponyville’s citizens, spawned by countless hours of party planning, now scattered and forgotten all over the floor.
No Gummy.
In the distance, she saw a light emitted from a long cord bulb. And in that light, shadows were moving. Somepony was there.
She galloped up to her, in the mid of the mess, starting to feel relieved. “Pinkie!” She bellowed.
But there was still no response.
And the desperate need for somepony.
As Twilight got close, all she could see was a single chair.
She kept calling her. “Pink—” but then she froze—
Friend to everypony.
—when she noticed the two pairs of pink hooves, hanging limply from the ceiling.
But dear to none.
The kaleidoscope was near the tipped chair.
