Eq Renaissance Part 20 (Ed)

   Twilight immediately declared that she would serve as the medium.  It was the most dangerous role.
   Zecora immediately rejected that idea and stated that she would do it herself.  Besides, Twilight had more important things to do.
   So instead, Twilight set up the circle.  The others watched in confusion, still suffering from the strange fear they were all feeling.  “I need your little gas stove,” Twilight told Applejack.
   “Ain’t much fuel left,” AJ said.  “We need to be careful.”
   “That’s fine,” Twilight said.  “Don’t worry about it.”  She took the stove from AJ’s hands, and put it on the floor.  She paced a number of circles around stove, looking around in the dark room as if she were getting her bearings.  Lacking chalk, she tried to scratch what looked like directional lines in the floor with her shoe.  There was no visible mark, yet the act of attempting to draw them seemed good enough in Twilight’s mind.  It was all strange behavior, given there were no directions in this behind-the-mirror world, and there were no bearings to find.
   Then she sat down, cross-legged, a few feet from the stove.  She instructed two of her friends, Pinkie and Dash, to sit on her left, and hold hands semi-circularly in front of the stove.  There needed to be a space in the circle, Twilight explained, for Zecora.  When they looked, they realized Zecora had just wandered off into the dark.  Applejack and Rarity were to sit at the left of Zecora, coming back around the stove.
   “Big Macintosh?” Twilight asked when he seemed about to wander away himself.
   “Ya sure you want me in this?” he asked.  “I can’t say I know’d her too well.  I don’t wanna mess up.  I don’t wanna make your little circle there unsymmetrical or anything.”
   “Please,” Twilight asked him. “Please, sit at my right.”  So Big Mac sat down at her right, now willing to do pretty much anything that Twilight could ask.  He took Rarity’s left hand in his right, then looked to Twilight.
   “Um...”
   “You can place your hand on my knee,” she told him.  He looked around at the circle, then did as she asked.  Nobody seemed to pay any attention to it.  It seemed such intimate contact in public, especially after their recent lovemaking, but it was unnoticed by everyone else.  “Don’t let me go, alright?” she asked him.  Big Mac nodded.
   They had to wait a moment, then Zecora returned.  Her head was hanging low, and she bore a troubled expression on her face.  She quickly sat between Pinkie and AJ and took their hands, completing the circle.  Pinkie and AJ shivered, her hands seemed so cold.
   “Is there something we’re supposed to be doing to help, dear?” Rarity asked.
   “Zecora and I will handle it,” Twilight said, “just close your eyes and wait.”
   They all closed their eyes.  Twilight begin to cast a series of arcane, rare, and potentially dangerous spells.  Minutes passed.  Dash began to grow impatient.  Nothing, to her, seemed to be happening.  “Do we have to keep our eyes closed?” she asked.
   “You can open your eyes if you want,” Twilight said.  “But you may see things you wish you hadn’t.  Don’t react to them.  Whatever you do, don’t break the circle.  And try to remain silent, Zecora has to listen.”
   Dash opened her eyes. She was immediately alarmed.  The stove had been unlit when they began this, but without anyone moving, it was now emitting flames.  Tall flames, a wavering bright blue, but there wasn’t any heat.  Dash flinched at the shock of seeing it.   Pinkie immediately squeezed Dash’s hand tight, to keep the circle from breaking.  When Dash looked, she saw Pinkie’s eyes open and she was looking into the flames.  She had been looking for some time.
   The flames seemed to grow higher and higher into the air.  Then they seemed to buckle and waver, as if blowing on a wind.  The members of the circle felt a draft, then a chill wind.  Goosebumps rose on their arms; they started to shake.  The wind seemed to grow in strength as the fire itself grew in intensity.  It turned from a pale blue to a white, then a weird sort of polluted, greasy gray.
   The wind rose up into a horrible gale that blustered and battered the seated figures. It blew through that unfathomed chamber and began to roar. The roar rose into a high pitched scream, like a banshee, that sent shivers through the spines of all of them but Twilight and Zecora. The wind should have either snuffed the fire out, or blown into the faces of those downwind. Instead the flames stood up impossibly straight, its only apparent reaction to the supernatural wind was to whip itself into a spinning cyclone. All color now drained from it completely, it glowed unearthly in only white and shades of gray.
   Without any warning, the wind stopped utterly. The screaming howls faded into the distance as the wind whisked itself away to wherever it was going. The flames, though, continued to spin. Briefly, ever now and then, it almost seemed to take a human, even feminine, form.
   The silence was total. Nobody wanted to breathe for fear of breaking that silence. All but Twilight, who now chose to speak. “Fluttershy?” she asked. The look of concentration left her face.
   Rarity, Applejack, Dash, and Pinkie’s eyes welled with tears when they heard a familiar squeak. It was soft, and meek, but it was unmistakably Fluttershy's.
   “Fluttershy?” Twilight asked again.
   “T... Twilight?” came Fluttershy's voice. It came from Zecora. Zecora's lips moved, but it was Fluttershy who was doing the speaking.
   “Yes, Fluttershy, it's me.”
   “I can hard.... I can hardly hear you.”
   “Come closer to my voice,” Twilight said.
   “Where are you? I can't... where are you? I can't find you?”
   “I'm here, Fluttershy,” Twilight's voice began to break. “I'm right here. Come closer.”
   “I see a light.”
   “I'm near the light, Fluttershy. Step closer to the light.” Before them, the strange twisting flame began to take a sharper form. Then it became clearly their dear friend. She flickered and wavered, like a recorded image of an old silent film. Sometimes it would stop and seem to start over again, as if it couldn't properly keep time. She seemed to focus on Twilight.
   “Oh,” Fluttershy said. “I can see you now.”
   “Hello, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. “Everybody's here. We all miss you very much.”
   “I... I'm sorry.”
   “It's okay, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. “It's not your fault.”
   “Um, if you say so.”
   “We wanted to talk to you again. We want to know why you're here.”
   “I'm sorry,” Fluttershy said. “It's just that when Luna hit me... I got scared. I saw everybody run into the mirror, so I went into the mirror too. Before Zecora broke it. Was I... Before Zecora broke it.  Was I not supposed to? I was afraid, so I just followed everybody else.  I'm sorry.”
   “She was afraid?” Dash asked. “After she was killed?”
   “Hush!” AJ hissed.
   The ghost in the fire turned towards the sound. “Is that Rainbow Da... is that Rainbow Dash? I can't see her.”
   “It's her, Fluttershy,” Twilight explained. “She's here. She wants to know why you were afraid even after Luna hit you.”
   “Oh,” Fluttershy said through Zecora. “Um, well, I was thinking about that monster we found in the forest. The one that eats souls. Well, if there are monsters like that out there, I don't know what else there might be. Maybe Luna could have hurt me again. I didn't want to be alone without my friends, so that's why I followed. I hope you don't mind.”
   “We don't mind,” Twilight said, now openly crying. “We don't mind at all. We just want you to be okay. Are you alright here? Is there anything we can do for you?”
   “Thank you, Twilight, but I'm just fine. I like it here. I'm safe here. Nothing can hurt me here, I don't know how, but I know that.  I can hide. I'm everywhere at once here, and nowhere at once.  I saw what happened to your arm, Twilight.  I'm so sorry. I'm also sorry about poor Big Macintosh's hand.  I'm glad you're both going to be okay together.”  Big Mac squeezed Twilight's knee a little harder.  Whether anybody else had understood what Fluttershy was referring to, what she may have seen in the dark, he didn't know.
   “We're going to be fine, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, “but we're low on food and water. We're going to need to find a way out so that we can...”
   “Oh, that,” Fluttershy said.  “I can help. I can see the other mirror. The one that Zecora didn't break. I can lead you there.  I can lead you there.”
   Suddenly, the strange wind began to blow again.  Twilight knew what it meant. “Wait, Fluttershy, don't go.  We still have questions.”
   “I can take you there right now,” Fluttershy said.  “I've seen the other side. I think you'll be okay there. I'm not going to follow you there, but I'll still be with you, so you won't have to miss me.  I mean if that's okay.  It's strange on the other side, Twilight.  It's different, but it's the same.  You'll see.  I think that you're going to...”
   They couldn't hear Fluttershy's timid voice anymore over the roar of the wind, even though Zecora's lips were still moving. The flame sputtered, then died completely.  The wind stilled once more, at the same time.  Some of the girls shrieked in surprise; their eyes hadn't adjusted from the sudden loss of light, and for a moment they were swallowed in total blackness. Their circle was broken as hands were snatched away. There was a brief second of panic, and when they could finally see, they found Zecora on her back, and unconscious.
   They crowded around her. “Is she OK?” Pinkie asked. Zecora felt cold, and had turned a sickly ashy gray.
   “Will she be alright?” Dash asked.
   “I don't think she's breathing!” AJ was bent down over her mouth. “I can't find a pulse! Twilight?”
   Twilight struggled to push herself through the others. She knelt down by Zecora and had only barely touched her when Zecora responded with a deep gasp, her eyes open wide.
   “Twilight!” Zecora clutched at Twilight's shirt, speaking with her own voice. “I can feel her! She's showing me the way!”
   “You're going to be okay, Zecora. Just breathe and let it go.”
   “God! I can feel her. Oh, Twilight, she's still inside of me. I can feel her kindness. There's so much of it, Twilight. I can't hold it all. I never knew what it was to be so close to an Element. She's so powerful.”
   Twilight hugged her close. “It's okay, Zecora,” she told her. “Remember who you are. You have to, Zecora. You're not Fluttershy; you're not her. Don't lose yourself.”
   “Oh, God, she's going. I can feel her slipping away. I remember who I am. I'm all that's left. I can't lose her. Not her too. No. No. No.” The others wrapped their arms around Twilight and Zecora, sharing in the grief that Zecora could now understand as fully as any of them, having served as a medium.
   They managed to eventually get Zecora on her feet again. She rallied and recovered, although she looked a little older now, with bags under her eyes and cheeks still wet with tears. Twilight tried to explain to her friends the great personal risk Zecora had just undertaken, only so that they could have a few more moments with the spirit of Fluttershy.
   “We should go,” Zecora said, still shakily. “We should go now, before I forget, if that's alright with you. She showed me how to get out of here, and it's a precious gift she gave us. I think it's why she could not spend more time with you. I'm sorry for that.”
   Zecora led the way. It took another five hours of walking in total. It was a strange experience. Zecora walked quickly, with a clear purpose, and they struggled to keep up. It was unlike any of the past several days of randomly selecting doors and passageways and stairways; she knew exactly where she was going. They were nervous as they walked on. On one hand, there was the prospect that they would soon be delivered from this awful place between worlds, on the other there was the nightmarish fear that this would turn out to be a false hope, and they may still die here.
   It was almost a frightful surprise, then, when they nearly stumbled into the mirror. It was just a dimly lit mirror frame that rose out of the blackness a few meters ahead of them. They nearly collapsed from relief when they realized they had made it.
   The mirror, at first, only reflected darkness and themselves. Then there was a suggestion of something else beyond; a room. The image grew clearer and the tone brightened. Here was a room, similar to the one containing the mirror in their own world.
   “Is it the same place?” Pinkie asked. “It looks just like where we came from.”
   “Is Luna going to be waiting for us on the other side?” Rarity asked. “Because then I don't know what the point of all this is.”
   “The symmetry is broken,” Twilight observed. “We didn't meet ourselves coming the other way. So it has to be different.”
   “Meet ourselves?” Dash asked.
   “It's different,” Zecora said. “Fluttershy said it's the same and it's different. I don't know what she meant.  This world will be similar to our own in many respects.  We may indeed meet ourselves. The events in our world that led us here may not have happened in this place.  Still, we should be very careful.  Our presence may not be welcome.”
   They all paused, wondering what to do.  “Well I'm not sticking around this dump,” Dash said, and promptly stepped through the portal.  She hadn't expected it to feel such good, warm sunlight bathing her skin after spending so much time in the darkness. It was streaming through the big windows in this room, the windows behind the mirror she had just stepped through. It felt exactly the same as the sunlight she had always known. She took in a big deep breath of air. It tasted just the same as well. Well, there was just the faintest hint of something in the air, barely noticeable. It smelled just a little musty. Other than that, there was nothing apparently different about this room than the other one, except, perhaps, for the door frame opposite the mirror. Maybe Dash was just misremembering it; they had rushed through it after all. It looked a little bit shorter and a little bit wider than the last one. The others started coming through behind her. They ended up looking around just like she had, having the same thoughts.
   Zecora, Big Mac, and Twilight were the last to remain on the other side. Big Mac looked at Zecora and Twilight. They knew so much more than he did.  He knew he was just some dumb farmer who didn't amount to much, compared to the likes of them.  He thought that they probably wanted to talk to each other, about magic or something.  He himself, as usual, had nothing to say, so he stepped through to leave them alone.
   As it turned out, Zecora and Twilight had nothing to say.  They looked into each other;s eyes for a bit.  They had shared a bond, once, as lovers, but that felt like a lifetime ago.  Now they had just shared another, via Fluttershy, but that seemed about to come to an end.  They hung their heads in silence, then Zecora stepped through the mirror and was on the other side.
   Twilight turned back to that great, still darkness. “I'm sorry this had to happen,” she said to nothing.
   “I know,” Fluttershy's whisper responded.
   “I wish I could see you again.  I wish I could hold you tight.  With both of my arms, and never let go.”
   “You will,” the whisper replied.
   “You can come with us?” Twilight asked.
   There was nothing.
   Twilight stepped through.  She welcomed the light more than any of them: she had been lost in the darkness for longer.  “So what are we supposed to do?” AJ asked.
   “We need to find help,” Zecora said. “We need to announce ourselves to somebody.”
   “You don't mean the first people we see,” Rarity said.
   “No. This place is different, but I still don't trust Luna or Celestia or whoever might rule this palace. We should leave quietly.”
   “You mean sneak out again?” Dash asked.
   “We hardly got in the first time,” Pinkie pointed out.  “And that was after a lot of planning.”
   “I agree with Zecora,” Twilight said.  “I don't feel comfortable here. I want to get out, or at least try.  Then try to think of what to do.”
   It was as good a plan as any, they agreed.  Big Mac was the first to go through the door.  He listened, but heard nothing. Then he stuck his head out a bit, looking both ways.  The halls looked identical to the confusing maze they had first searched through.  He was just stepping out when he thought he heard something, and ducked back inside.
   “Somebody's coming,” he said in a whisper.  They pressed themselves up against the wall next to the door, so that anybody passing by wouldn't see them if they were just glancing in.
   They heard the person approaching.  Hearts sank and goosebumps rose as it truly dawned on them that they were no longer in the world that they knew.  They weren't hearing the stepping of feet, but the clopping of hooves.
   They peeled away from the wall to look out the door as it passed by. The risk of being caught didn't outweigh the need to know what was going on.
   They saw it pass by the open door. It was a white unicorn.  Four legs.  A long white fluted horn. It was decked out in the bronze armor and accoutrements that were easily recognizable as belonging to Celestia's Royal Guards.  Other than that, it wasn't human at all.  It passed by the door without noticing them, then disappeared down the hallway, like it knew exactly what it was doing and had every right to be there.  They were all stunned speechless, except for Pinkie.
   “Where the hell are we?” she asked.