Twilight Sparkles light visits grim world 6

"Nice doin' Twiligh'." A country accent speak out of a polished mirror appearing between worldlines in front of the Alicorn of Happy endings.

"Applejack?"

"Not yers... meanin' the one ya suckered of course, not the one ya erased from existence." The image came into being an Alicorn AJ in polished mirror silver barding in a simple wooden chair with her family hat surrounded by mirror with an Apple Bloom by her side.

"Nightmare MIRROR? How many of you in the multi-verse are there!?"

"... A lot. Happens when you're a shameless favorite. Ask Timberwolverine how he keeps comin' back from the dead sometime. Also, Princess Me has a purpose, but so does Nightmare Me. Big joke ain't it? In order for the 'many truths' horseapples to work, ya need the mare who believes in UNCOMPROMISING TRUTH to be a part of it too, otherwise, ya ain't got all truths together. Ah can't lie, always gave me a warm fuzzy feelin' inside. Anyway Twili', Ah've got a little impossible challenge for ya, a world ya can't hope to make better or nudge along. Ah dare ya to try. And this ain't because there's some insanely overpowered evil version of ya loved by the worldline creator who can't bear to see his world subverted. Nope... it's worse than that."

"I'm not scared Nightmare Mirror." Amicitia said, trying not to think about HER Applejack and Mirror who both died because of her.

"The worldline is... Fall-Out, Equestria... Apple Bloom will have some fritters and cider waitin' for ya when ya break down screamin' and cryin'."

The mirror vanished.

Amicitia swallowed.
-
"Okay, the original thread world... while EXTREMELY messed up still technically reaches a happy ending on its own. Derpy and Fluttershy are helping rebuild the latter helping restore just like everyone helped care for her mentally and physically and former finding someone who care for her. So...." Amicita used her power to nudge scientist into taking step to find proper treatment for Little pip faster and in three years time will be able to leave the Single pony Project Device and for other to find a way to make sure the device would work without any aid.

"How are you so calm?" Nightmare Mirror formed and asked.

"Trust me I'm anything but calm at the moment. However I know the damage to the original thread is already healing on its own so i'm taking solace from that."

"Hmm, reasonable, but it's like you said. It's the original one thats healing, there are still others that are created from the original that are still worse off." Nightmare Mirror said.

"I know... I know." Amicita said wearily.
-
"And It's more like this world line has become so massive, rather like our native one, that few shadows-who-watch have the fortitude to read it, and it's grim and depressing premise does not help matters. And the few that do brave it, are extremely defensive of something they have devoted so much time to of their own free will, again, rather like our own. And it is only by the breath of the shadows that any of us live. And only one who truly loves it was willing to extend this. So they literally couldn't see anyway to remove any unnecessary suffering, or see any suffering as unnecessary.

"It's rather like the world where Trixie became the Element of Magic instead of Twilight, along with others being chosen by Harmony, but at the same time, the very creator of that world line insists that his Twilight and her friends are not shallow versions of themselves, even when Applejack is paranoid of successful farms that are not her own, Rainbow Dash is Weather Manager due to family connections instead of being that good that she can AFFORD to nap off, Pinkie Pie is copy and pasted over with no dynamic to her behavior even when all of that Ponyville finds her annoying rather than her talent at making other smile failing miserably, Fluttershy's cowardice is taken up to eleven with none of her calm clarity or sternness, and for Twilight... at least she isn't evil, and more like a mare who keeps making the wrong decisions . . . And the creator of the world line has decided that the versions of Twilight and her friends are not in any way swallow interpretations of Twilight and her friends. Creators of world lines are EXTREMELY emotionally attached to their work, it's the same thing when I tried to help give a happy ending to a world line created by my own shadow-who-makes, and the ante kept rising even as I tried to give that world hope. None to mention that world line where I tried to give a better future to where the original creator of the worldline was involved ... Less said of that the better.

Much like how the creator of our native world line can't see when he's given the villains far too much focus, too much of an advantage, and seems more interested in developing them than the actual heroes!" Amicita said the last part giving Nightmare Mirror through her magic mirror the stink eye. She was also sitting a monolith sized soap box that had its own gravitational pull.

"Ya ain't lyin'." Nightmare Mirror said simply through her magic mirror.
=

Amicitia's eyes twitched left, then right, surveying her colossal soapbox. The Alicorn sighed. "I could really use a drink. Want to call a truce and go take a break someplace, unwind a little?"

Nightmare Mirror raised an eyebrow. "Ah ain't exactly welcome at that All-Worlds Alicorn Bar, Twi."

Amicitia smirked. "Not there. There's this place just across the street."

"If this is one of them shipping things..."

"What? No! Pony Heaven forbid... Oh, but there is one little catch."


In a cozy, torch-lit cavern, a purple-furred Dire Wolf sprawled on a sinfully comfortable cushion. Her fur pattern made a six-pointed star on her forehead, and a halo of twinkling stars floated just over her ears. "This is so much more comfortable than the wolf suit," said Amicitia. "Unless you're Deus, I guess. She likes the wolf suit. Go figure..."

Nightmare Mirror's Dire Wolf form had burning green slit-pupiled eyes, and metallic golden fur that cast distorted fuzzy reflections in every direction. She'd stubbornly kept her Stetson on, even here, like this. "Have Ah mentioned that Ah don't like Blank Wolves? Always changin' true to false and back to true again when ya least expect."

Amicitia grinned, hiding her fangs. "You mean, insertions do those things, and the wolves change things back to how they're supposed to be."

"Ah suppose," said the Nightmare wolf grudgingly. One of the snowy-white Blank Wolves brought a huge mug of cider to her. Mirror stared at it, expecting her magic to work like usual, then groaned and cupped the mug in her forepaws. The first sip, however, made her eyes grow wide. She quickly gulped more, than gasped. "Hoooee! This apple cider's good. Strong, too."

"It's some kinda cosmic rule," growled a particularly large brick-red Blank Wolf, sipping from a smaller mug at his own table. "Invisible spirits, gods of death, reapers, Blank Wolves and the like, they like apples. Eeeyup."

Mirror stared. "Big Mac?"

The red wolf flicked his ears. "In another world long time ago... sis."

She curled her tail uneasily. "Maybe Ah should be gettin' on back. All those dirty little lies ain't gonna root themselves out..."
-
The green apples on Nightmare Mirror's wolfie golden metallic fur shivered and shined.

"Oops, 'excuse me, gotta answer this prayer quick before Ah high tail it outta here so Ah don't have to awkwardly talk to Alicorn versions of my family."

"YOU!" Amicitia stared in shock. "Have ponies who pray to you?!"

Wolf Nightmare Mirror took out a pager and began trying to text on it with paws.

"Well, not really ponies, the Yaks though, they call me the 'Great Smasher of The Non-Authentic, they opened up trade with Equestria on the spot Ah introduced myself, and told me we were 'friends for a thousand moons.' AH! But this ain't from them! It's from my one devoted in a human version of Equestria."

"Don't you mean Megan's world?"

"Nope! Completely different."

"Ya goin' to other worlds like that OTHER Nightmare Mirror and conquerin' places?"

She kept looking at the pager and typing. "No 'Big Mac', Ah didn't catch yer new name, sorry. Her heart cried out for a goddess who would accept her for wantin' to never mince words or pretend she meant somethin' else. She was ticked when her parents always taught her to never lie, and then tell her bein' polite and proper is all about lyin' and sayin' 'the right thing' instead of the real thing. Ah heard her, and Ah answered her prayers. She's got a little shrine to me in her closet. And," she worded out her response. "My-blessin'-on-you-Sugar-coat. May-the-uncompro-misin'-truth-be-with-you." She put the pager away. "Had to explain to her why a 'country girl' who looked like her goddess was attendin' the low class high school in town instead of her fancy smancy prep school, alternate universes, go fig'."
-
"Wait, the patron who worship you is named Sugarcoat?" Amicita asked.

"Yes, but don't let the name fool you. She was QUITE blunt in the honesty department long before Ah knew her," Mirror stated. "Ah formally got to know her after seeing a Mightmare version of you."

"What! you saw-"

"No it was not the being yer thinking of. This twilight was Nightmare Midnight or as other known her, Midnight Sparkle. The accidental creator of a infant Rainbow of Darkness," Nightmare mirror stated.

"I have a feeling... like I left the stove on... human version of Equestria... not Megan's world... a 'country girl' that looks like Applejack going to a high school and... Oh no! Human Twilight is going to go Nightamre! How did I ever forget about that!? NOW I REMEMBER!"

Everywolf stared at her.

"It was my BACK UP PLAN! I knew if I was ever purified I'd do my hardest to keep myself from ever existing in any timeline, any PONY timeline!!! So I tweaked the life of one of the HUMAN versions of myself out there, and erased my own memory and never told any of my firends!!! Oh Fauna Luster!!! How many other human Twilight Sparkles are out there who will unwittingly create a new Rainbow of Darkness that'll overwhelm them and make them into a new Nightmare me! There's no telling what else I created! I need to congeal the timelines so none of them lead to her winning!"

Mirror the dire wolf shrugged. "Actually, there was one where she won, undid the whole universe... except for herself and Discord, and Discord convinced her to use herself as fuel to set off a new big bang so things would go differently that time around again since a lifeless eternal void with nothing to create or learn was a total let down. Discord said he owed you."
The golden Dire Wolf thumped her mug down and padded towards the door. "Now, if ya'll will excuse me..."

Amicitia's ears drooped. "Nightmare Mirror, wait!"

"Let her go," growled Big Mac, his ears going flat. "Truth be told, it hurts ta see her like that."

Mirror paused in midstep. "Better the pain than a lie."

The red wolf recoiled, a soft canine whimper escaping him. "Eeeyup, you would say that. The irony of it is, Ah became a wolf for you. For mah Applejack, rather."

Amicitia's ears pricked up. "Really? I wondered, but..."

Big Mac curled his tail, barking a mild laugh. "Ya thought it'd hurt mah feelings? Ya'll would be surprised how often we talk about that, the ones of us who were ponies. Every one of us had our reasons, every one made a choice."

Nightmare Mirror had come back, her curiosity getting the better of her. She sat her hindquarters on the floor and peered down at the red wolf. "And yours was..."

Big Mac took a gulp of cider before he started talking again. He'd already spoken more words than Twilight heard from him in a month, back in the old days. "That Midnight Sparkle character... we saw her too, or somethin' like her, when she tore a hole from her world right through ours, and straight on inta Oblivion. Snow wasn't strong enough to stop her. Ma Fate needed another wolf, and fast. AJ was all rarin' ta do it... she'd been a wolf before and she knew the ropes."

The red wolf grinned suddenly, fangs gleaming in the torch light. "Like hay Ah was gonna let her give up her mortal life, and have her marriage and her foals all fade away into nothin'."

Mirror was dumbstruck, her tail frozen in place. "Ah was married? ME?! How? Ta who?"

Big Mac hesitated, then wagged his tail smugly. "Eenope. Ah'm not sayin'." Amicitia whined. "Ah'm not tellin' you either, Meddler. Ya'll can just wonder."

"But..." Amicitia sulked, ears and tail low. "Fine! I'll go find out myself. There can't be more than, oh... a few million worlds to search."

"Have fun with that," muttered Nightmare Mirror. "Mah magic mirror will find the answer way before you do!"

"I find that highly unlikely!" The Dire Wolves raced each other to the exit.

"Well, that's got rid of them," mused Big Mac. He raised his voice. "Is anywolf up fer some darts?"
-
Of course, Amicitia soon realized, it would be inefficient to fly past all those millions of worlds that needed searching, and not stop to help the ones on her checklist while she was there.  She shed the Dire Wolf form for now and double-checked her previous double-checks, making a few careful nudges...



(Softer ending for A Puppet to Her Fame)

Vinyl Scratch ground her teeth as she wandered the streets of Canterlot, wishing to Celestia that she knew what to do.  "I should stick with the plan," she muttered to herself.  "Meet Lyra and Bon Bon at the servants' entrance in two hours, get Octy *out* of there..."

* Where are you going?  A couple hours might be too late! *

Vinyl stopped in her tracks.  "But her scum parents could be torturing her with that collar, right now!  I can't let her get hurt again!"  She turned and went the opposite way, walking faster.  "But what if..."  She passed through the next intersection...

* Go right! *

She turned right, not really paying attention where she was going.  "Gotta think, gotta stay cool..."  So of course she blundered right into a tall white stallion in purple guard armor.

"Whoa there!" cried Shining Armor.  The guards flanking him started to rush her, but he waved them back with a hoof.  "Are you okay, miss?"

Vinyl stared at the captain's insignia on his armor.  Hope... but it could be a trap.

* Octavia's parents can't be paying off *all* the royal guards.  Look at that face... would he sell you out? *

Vinyl blushed a bit, suddenly glad of her shades.  "My... my friend is in danger!" she blurted out.  "Her parents are horrible... they're holding her prisoner and they've been abusing her, just because they're unicorns and she's an earth pony!"

Shining Armor tensed.  "Did you report this at the guard station?"  He looked at his soldiers.  "Why haven't I heard about this?"  One of the guards fidgeted, while the other looked away uncomfortably.  He gave Vinyl a serious look.  "If this is some kind of prank..."

Vinyl bit her lip.  "I don't care what you do to me afterwards, just please come and see for yourself!  I'll show you everything, the shock collar, the bruises..."

Shining Armor put a hoof on her shoulder.  "Lead the way."



Shining seemed dismayed when he realized that Vinyl was leading him to the manor of one of the wealthiest noble houses in Canterlot, but he seemed resolved to investigate anyway.  That all went out the window when screams started coming from inside the house.  "Go!" he shouted, and his two guards galloped ahead and bucked the front door down.

Inside was a scene out of a horror novel.  There was Octavia, even more bruised and haggard than before, and seething with rage.  The collar lay on the carpet at her hooves, smashed.  Ghastly shadows darkened the walls and floor, as if the room was filled with invisible swaying chains and hooks... and two more ponies, Octavia's mother and father, cowered against a wall, dripping blood on their expensive carpet.

"What the..."  Shining recovered quickly, throwing a dense pink magical shield around the wounded mare and stallion.  The invisible chains unable seemed to get through, but they kept pounding against it, searching for a way in.

"Not again!" snarled Octavia.  "Never again!"

Vinyl approached with shaky steps, despite Shining's alarmed look.  "Octy?  Octy, please, tell me what's going on!  It's okay, you're safe now..."

"You're not," moaned the grey mare.  "Stay away from me, I might hurt you too!"  She shook her head, weeping.  "The music, it *hurts*!"

"It's coming from her," Shining Armor realized.  His horn glowed brighter as another pink bubble surrounded Octavia.  At once, the swarming chains fell to the floor as if severed, then faded away.  "Okay miss, try to hold still..."  The pink bubble began to move...  it passed through Octavia's body harmlessly, but it peeled something away from her in the process.  Octavia crumpled to the floor and passed out.

"What did you do?" demanded Vinyl, horrified.  "Her cutie mark!"

"I think that thing *was* her cutie mark," stammered Shining.  The glow inside his shield bubble was swirling, forming into the image of an elderly unicorn wearing an antique concertmaster's coat and jacket... with more hooks and chains than a griffon meat locker coming from under the coat.  The specter howled like a furious opera tenor and lashed out at his prison, but the shield held steady.

One of his guards gulped.  "Sir, are we... safe?  Is it over?"

Shining Armor grimaced.  "I can hold this shield for a pretty long time.  I just hope the Princess knows what to do with it when she gets here."


Later, in the main hall of Canterlot Palace, Octavia and Vinyl Scratch sat on either end of a long bench, watching as Octavia's parents and several royal guards were marched in chains down into the rarely used castle dungeon.  

Octavia was bowing a cello aimlessly.  One of the castle staff had loaned her the cello.  Hers *hadn't* magically followed her.  She played skillfully, perfectly in tune, but she seemed to have no idea what to actually play.  "It's so quiet," she whispered.  "I never really composed anything in my life, did I?  It was all the ghost of my great grand-uncle."  She sighed.  "I... don't know how to feel about that."

Vinyl bobbed her head to an imagined beat.  "Forget about it.  Play the music that you want to play, Octy."

Octavia smirked and glanced at her flank, as blank now as when she had been a foal.  "What if I'm no good at it?"

Vinyl slipped her shades off and leaned against Octavia, grinning and tapping her hoof to the beat.  "Good or bad, I'll be right there to back you up.  Promise."

Octavia picked up her bow and posed, ready to give it one more try.  On her flank, a bass clef quietly shimmered into being.
-

"Interesting work." A voice said Amicita turned around to see Maud looking at her.

"What are you doing here?"

"Just visiting the me in this world me to make sure her family was alright." Maud said.

"Ah... is this Octavia-"

"No, this Octavia is not my sister. Although it hurts abit you must remember in the multiverse it is quite vast, which mean different sibling but i still love my sisters just the same." Maud said calmly.

"True, and i know there are more universes where octavia is your cousin and Photo finish isn't even a sibling but it still feels abit weird to me."

"Yes, Boulder mention that to me as well."