“In a nightmare, every choice you make is a wrong one.”
Max Payne, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.

Lyra Heartstrings’ Residence, May 3rd, Year 3 Era Harmonia.

Bon Bon was weeding her front garden, trying to take her mind off of how aggravating she found her partner. She wasn’t doing very well at it.

Because of course she found a mysterious creature, and of course she’s going to be staying in the hospital to look after it. Why not? Ugh.

Bon Bon wasn’t mad, per se. Being mad would imply that this sort of thing hadn’t happened before, that she hadn’t been left waiting for Lyra to come back from some midnight lecture or animal watching session a hundred times before.

“Why do I put up with that mare?” she pondered aloud.

“Because you love her?” a voice asked.

Bon Bon looked up, to see Derpy Hooves standing over her, the grey mare smiling.

“Oh, hello Derpy,” Bon Bon said softly. “How’s it going?”

“Oh, not too bad,” Derpy replied, her wall eyes focusing ever so slightly more. “The Doc’s not feeling too well.”

Bon Bon frowned. “Oh? what’s wrong with him?”

Derpy shrugged. “Kept going on about having a headache, said it meant that some event with four dimensional fallout was coming.”

Bon Bon snorted. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Not sure,” Derpy admitted, “but it’s got us all on edge.” She shrugged. “Maybe it’s nothing, though. He can get a little… twitchy, sometimes.”

Bon Bon gave a small nod. “That, I totally get. Mine’s totally the same.”

“Yeah,” Derpy said sympathetically. “Still, we love the ponies we love for their faults as much as their virtues.”

Bon Bon blinked. “That’s… surprisingly deep.”

Derpy shrugged. “Something I heard somewhere. Makes sense though. The Doc’s always up and about, tinkering or messing with something or another. I sometimes think he’d forget to eat or sleep if I didn’t remind him. But even though he worries me and irritates me, I love him anyway.”

Bon Bon nodded slowly. “I guess.” She sighed. “I just… Lyra’s been away for the better part of two days dealing with this ‘human’ business. She even stayed over at the hospital. All I got was a lousy note!”

“I guess she’s passionate about her hobbies,” Derpy said with a shrug.

“Wish she was half as passionate about me,” Bon Bon muttered. She sighed. “Anyway, how can I help you?”

“Oh, right,” Derpy said, grinning sheepishly. “I was, uh, wondering if you could tell me when you’re getting that next shipment of Canterlot Jelly Foals in? The Doc’s gone through our entire supply. Again.”

Bon Bon grinned. “Sure thing. Let me just fetch my records.”

And so Bon Bon focused on more mundane issues for the moment. The question of her frankly irritating other half would be one she’d have to deal with when said other half finally bothered to come home.

She was pretty sure everything was fine with Lyra anyway. How bad could some random creature be?

Ponyville Hospital.

Lyra couldn’t breathe. All she could do was watch as Alexander Reiner – Alex, the human she’d been speaking with for what must have been hours, the human she’d been laughing with, joking with – held his arm around her friend’s throat, a look of pure murder in his eyes.

“Let Flutters go!” Pinkie Pie yelled, her expression utterly betrayed and livid. “Let her go, right now!”

Alex snorted. “Or what, Pink Menace?”

“Or we stop you,” Twilight said, her horn glowing as she took up a defensive stance.

“I’m sure that’ll be a great comfort to Fluttershy here when I start squeezing tighter, the blood flow to her brain stops, and she asphyxiates,” the human said, almost blandly, as though he were talking about something utterly mundane. “And if you think you ‘stopping’ me is some sort of scary threat, you’re really underestimating just how ready to die I am right now.”

The bold, bald and blunt statement caught everypony off guard. Pinkie Pie’s mane twitched, seeming to deflate slightly, and Lyra felt a chill run down her spine.

He really is ready to die. How bad, how terrible, must it be, where he’s from? How much pain must he have suffered to be so willing to let life go?

“Everypony calm yourself,” Celestia said, her voice supremely composed. Her muscles had tensed, but to her credit she had remained a centre of complete controlled serenity. “I understand your desire for answers, Alexander Reiner. Believe me, I sympathise with how confusing this must all seem. But you will not get them by threatening my subject.”

“I'm already getting them,” Alex snapped, baring his teeth. He calmed himself, before narrowing his eyes at the Princess. “See, the Celestia I know wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice a pawn to win the game, and all her subjects are pawns. I’ve seen how her armies operate: natural born and Newfoal alike get cast aside like trash so long as the larger goal is met.”

Twilight and Lyra exchanged a glance, and Lyra shrugged. This was not something she had discussed with him yet.

“If you were the Celestia I expected,” Alex continued, “I'd be dead the minute I tried to do a thing, whether that meant flash frying this room and everypony or not.” He narrowed his eyes. “But here we are… still talking. That tells me something’s up with this little game of yours, something beyond the ordinary.”

“I won’t sacrifice my subjects on the altar of expediency,” Celestia said. “I could kill you, that’s true enough. But not without hurting my ponies. I won’t do that.”

“Funny, that,” Alex said. “You’d think after all the ponies you've already let get hurt -”

“It should be painfully obvious to you by now that I am not who you were expecting,” Celestia snapped. “I am willing to find answers with you. Not by force, but together, as equals. Violence isn’t necessary.”

Alex’s grip didn’t shift. “You’ll forgive me if I need more than your word on that. Do you know how many broken promises I've heard from your kind? Too damn many.”

“Have I ever broken a promise to you?” Lyra asked, stepping forward and looking him in the eye. “Ever?”

Alex looked at her. “I… you're not even her.”

“I am Lyra Heartstrings,” Lyra retorted. “Whether I'm the one you knew or not. Am I so different? Can't you put your faith in me, like you did before?”

Alex’s expression wavered, before he finally looked away from her, releasing Fluttershy.

“In you, always,” he said.

Lyra smiled at that.

“How can I trust them though?” Alex asked after a moment, his gaze held firmly on the six young mares. Twilight actually had to shiver at his glare. Even though he was in no condition to fight, if glares could kill, she would be maimed a hundred times over.

“Because I do,” Lyra said. “I promise you – they won't hurt you.”

Alex looked uncertain.

“There's no point me saying ‘if this is a trick, I'm going to do some violent thing’,” he said after a moment. “If this is a trick, I’m fucked.”

Lyra winced.

“But,” Alex continued, “faith… faith was what held us together. Faith was what kept us fighting. Everyone knows that. Faith in righteousness or in ourselves or in our comrades.” He looked at Lyra. “Faith in you.”

Lyra looked away. “There's… nothing special about me.”

Alex smiled. “There, you're wrong. You're just managed to convince me to trust these ponies to go through my head. That, Lyra Heartstrings, is one hell of a good one.”

There was a long pause, somewhere between dangerously tense and incredibly awkward.

“I’m not going to apologise,” he finally said, looking at a flinching Fluttershy. “You don’t know what I’ve seen. If you had, you’d understand why I don’t trust you.”

“We’ll find out the reason for your distrust soon enough,” Celestia said quietly, her voice chilly and much less sympathetic than it had been. “I hope, for your sake, it is a good enough reason to explain your violence against an innocent.”

At her cold tone, Alex shifted his posture, almost huddling, with his knees pulled to his chest, arms across. Lyra noted the posture as being a defensive posture, most likely reflexive.

It’s always what we don’t say that really says everything.

“I guess you will,” he said after a moment. “If I’m a monster, Princess, it’s because I fought monsters for too damn long.”

Celestia’s expression softened at that. “You’ll forgive me if I say you don’t sound overly happy about that.”

“Who said I was?” Alex snorted, before fixing Celestia with a glare. “You stay the fuck away from my head, have you got that clear?”

“Luna will enter with the Element bearers, not me,” Celestia said with an incline of her head. “You have my word.”

“Yeah, that better be how it goes down,” Alex muttered. “‘Cos if this whole thing is a trick and I wind up dead, I'm haunting the shit out of you.”

Celestia exchanged a wry glance with Luna.

“Duly noted.”

The Crystal Empire.

“And why do you have to go speak to that plotwipe?”

Princess Cadance of the Crystal Empire smiled, brushing some of her long mane from her slender face. “Because Auntie Luna asked me to.”

Her husband, Shining Armour, sighed, laying his head on his armrest. “Why? He’s a plotwipe.”

“He’s family,” Cadance retorted, trying to sound patient. “I know you don’t like him, Shiny -”

“Don’t like him?” Shining Armour retorted. “He’s an up-his-own-plot layabout who slacked off his military service flying the Starspear around like a pleasure yacht instead of doing what he was supposed to be doing!”

Cadance sighed. “Look, I know he can be a little… awkward, but all the same, Auntie Luna has asked me to speak with him tonight, so I have to.”

“Probably because nopony else would want to,” Shining Armour snorted. He let out a sigh of his own. “Alright, alright, you know what you’re doing I suppose. Just… I dunno, don’t go easy on him just because he’s family.”

Cadance rolled her eyes. “Of course not. Do I go easy on you when you need to do stuff?”

Shining Armour smirked. “No. Good point.”

Cadance chuckled. “Don’t worry, Shiny. I know how to handle Astron Blueblood.”

Ponyville Hospital.

“So,” Luna said, after doing a little preparation of her own. “We are all agreed to do this?”

Lyra was speaking softly with Alex, who looked dubious, but she seemed to have forestalled further issues.

“Yes,” Twilight said quietly. “We’re ready.”

“Let's just get on with it,” Rainbow Dash said impatiently. “I'm sick of all this waiting around.”

“While I’m not as impatient as Rainbow,” Rarity added, “I must say the prospect of answers to all the unpleasant questions this… human business has brought up… well, it's most gratifying to think we might know what it all means, soon.”

Luna nodded. “Very well. I say again, though, that you must all be sure that you are willing to do this, and prepared for the potential consequences.” She looked at each of them. “It is not beyond the realms of possibility that we will get lost in there.”

“That's a risk for you, too,” Twilight pointed out.

“Perhaps,” Luna said, “but I’m willing to take it.”

“Well, so are we,” Applejack put in. “This stuff might be big. Seems to me like we’re involved, so let's go all in.”

“A poker reference?” Rarity asked. “I didn't know you played.”

“Not well,” Applejack admitted. “Big Mac cleaned me out three times in a row last week.”

“He's got the bestest poker face ever,” Pinkie Pie agreed. “You might as well be playing against a rock, and I say that having played against plenty of rocks. And having lost to most of them. Except Rockbert Rockington III, he’s got a terrible poker face.”

Luna chortled. “Well, if we are to go all in, let us begin.”

“I’d say good luck, but I don't care,” Alex cut in.

“You're very helpful, Mr Alexander Reiner,” Rarity shot back sarcastically.

“I try, ma’am,” Alex shot back with a snort.

“Hey,” Lyra said. “I’m going in there too.”

“Which is the sole reason I’m not shitting bricks right now,” Alex told her, smirking at the collective wince from the ponies. “Guess you can have fun in my fucked up head -”

“Do you have to use words like that?” Rarity snapped.

“Have to? No,” Alex chuckled. “But they do make me feel better when a bunch of ponies I don’t trust are about to go rummaging in my head.”

“Enough,” Luna said, shooting both of them a look. Alex looked away, having the decency to look slightly abashed, and Rarity sighed as Luna looked around the Element bearers. “Centre yourselves, little ponies.”

She closed her eyes, and the others followed suit. There was a sudden glowing, and then -

- they were in a forest.

“This… isn’t what I was expecting,” Lyra said softly, looking around.

It was dark, and there were what looked like bright orange embers floating through the air, coming from somewhere in the distance. The others were standing nearby, looking around, clearly confused by their surroundings. Princess Luna was standing at the rear of the group, looking as bemused as the rest of them.

“Be careful, my little ponies,” she said quietly. “There is no way to know what the state of this human’s mind is, but I would not feel unjustified in assuming that it is…”

“Hey, did you hear that?!” Rainbow suddenly said, looking wildly around.

“What?” Applejack asked from next to her, frowning in confusion. “I didn’t hear anything.”

Rainbow was still looking around. “Coulda sworn I heard something.”

“Like what?” Applejack said again.

Suddenly, Lyra felt the ghost of something passing her, and then she heard something whisper.

“Alex.”

She looked around, narrowing her eyes as she tried to see what was out there. “I heard something, too.”

“What?” Twilight asked, approaching her.

“I don’t know,” Lyra said quietly. “It was a voice, saying Alex’s name, but -”

“Alex,” another voice whispered. Lyra’s ears perked up, and she saw Twilight look in the direction that one had come from.

“I heard it,” she whispered. “What is that?”

The two Unicorns looked to Princess Luna, who was also listening.

“I believe these are voices from the human’s past,” she said after a moment. “But it is still strange, as though…”

“Alex!” a voice yelled from the distance.

“Horseapples!” Rainbow swore. “What the hay was that?!”

“More of Alexander Reiner’s bad memories?” Twilight guessed. “Maybe they’ll give us a clue as to what’s really going on?”

“Lead on, then, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said stiffly. “In this place, your guess is as good as mine. Be cautious, however: I have not encountered a mind as fragmentary as this in a long time.”

“Are we sure about this?” Rarity asked quietly.

“We don’t exactly have a choice, Rare,” Applejack said with a half smile. “If we’re gonna figure out just what’s what, we’ve gotta figure out just what’s goin’ on in this fella’s head.”

Rarity sighed. “I know. But still… I won’t deny, this is more disconcerting than I had envisioned.”

Twilight and Lyra exchanged nervous glances, before heading through the woods in the direction the yelling had come from. The others followed behind.

As they walked, there were more sounds, not unlike thunder, except harsher and more metallic. Then there were screams and cries interspersed among them.

“This doesn’t sound good,” Rainbow put in. She had foregone flying in favour of walking next to Fluttershy, whose eyes were wide with horror. “What’s that noise?”

“Some sort of cannons, maybe?” Pinkie suggested, her mane somewhat deflated compared to usual. “I mean… when I was making the party cannon, I had to do a little research. It kinda sounds like that. But smaller.”

“The Griffons have claw-held variants of cannons called muskets,” Rainbow said softly. “Helps them get over the problem of not having active magic units. Maybe these humans have something like that?”

“That would make sense,” Lyra commented. “I mean -”

Before she could finish her sentence, a shadowy human figure passed across their way.

As one, they stopped, observing the figure as it slowly crossed their path. It wore a similar outfit to Alex’s own, except less battered, and the camouflage patterns were rendered in greens and browns. The figure turned its head, and most of its face was in shadow.

“You… did good work… Mr Reiner…” it said, its voice distorted but recognisably masculine. “You should… be proud…”

The figure passed out of sight.

“Who… what… was that?” Rarity asked quietly.

“No way to know,” Lyra said. “Alex hasn’t told me much about specific other humans he knows.”

“Well, that one was creepy,” Pinkie commented with a scowl. “I don’t normally like judging ponies and other beings on what I see about them in dreams -”

“How many times have you seen ponies in other ponies’ dreams, anyway?” Rainbow cut in, giving Pinkie a quizzical frown.

“More than you’d think,” Pinkie commented. “But like I was saying – that guy gave me the creeps.”

“He didn’t exactly seem like a fond memory,” Twilight agreed. She turned to look at Princess Luna. “Any thoughts, Princess?”

“Only that we are entering a deep, dark part of his subconscious,” Luna replied warily, looking around again. “I suspect there will be a melting pot of his worst experiences within this place. We must be cautious.”

“Well, that’s encouraging,” Rarity said in a faux chipper voice.

“Yeah, because we weren’t being cautious before,” Rainbow muttered.

Luna gave them both a slightly irate glance, then sighed.

“Worry not, little ponies,” she said. “Nothing amiss will happen to us here, I guarantee it.”

She went ahead, the others following her lead. All around them, the sounds were getting louder: the screaming, the sound of whatever weapons were going off…

… and the whispers.

“Alex,” one male voice said, right near Rainbow’s ear.

“Colonel, don’t sweat it,” another male voice whispered near Rarity. “We’ve got your back.”

Another voice, female and imperious, spoke near Luna, and she paused as it spoke. “I do not fear death. I fear failure. I fear the world that awaits if you fail. That is why I will make sure you do not.”

Another voice, all too familiar, went off near Lyra’s ear, and she froze. “I’ll be back before you know it, Alex: if it works, we can win, and everything we’ve suffered will have been worth it.”

“Was that you?” Twilight whispered. “Because that sounded like you!”

“I know,” Lyra said, feeling her blood chill. “I think… I think it might have been the other me.”

“Didn’t you say that he thought you were dead?” Rainbow put in.

“Yeah,” Lyra said in a small voice.

“Don’t focus on these things yet, my friends,” Luna said. “I think we are approaching the answer to some of our questions.”

Through the trees, they could see what looked like a shantytown. The buildings were small and made of wood and strips of metal, looking like they’d been put up in a hurry.

“The hay is this place?” Applejack pondered aloud.

There were a host of ghostly bipedal figures racing through the place, their features and details indistinct. Standing at the edge of this shanty town, however, was Alex Reiner, in his full gear. He turned to look at them, but it was as though he couldn’t really see them. After a moment, he turned back to the shanty town and began walking through it.

“Alex!” Lyra called after him.

“Is that him, or is it just a memory?” Twilight asked.

“Either way, it is for the best if we follow him,” Luna said quietly. “Come on.”

She led the way, the group following her lead. Along the way, the figure of Alex Reiner turned and raised his hand, aiming what looked like a metal crossbow of some description. The figure of another human, possible a female judging by certain differences, ran out of the door, oddly distinctive compared to the others. It looked like it might have been pregnant… and then, suddenly, the metal crossbow made a horrible, loud bang, and the figure fell.

As it fell, it seemed to flash between the figure it had been, an image of Lyra – looking a little older and more worn than the horrified Lyra watching it all – and another female human figure, this one with the same blonde hair Alex had.

“Alex,” this figure said from the floor. “They took him, Alex. They took my son, Alex. Why didn’t you stop them? Why didn’t you do something? Alex?”

Alex didn’t seem to react, instead walking on. Luna followed, never pausing, but the others couldn’t help but look at the female lying on the floor. The female’s eyes seemed to glare at them accusingly as they passed.

“This is insane,” Rarity muttered. “This human’s mind is like some sort of horror story.”

“It’s a horror story we’ve got to find out more about,” Twilight said grimly.

They pressed on, further into the shantytown. Luna had stopped, waiting behind the silent figure of Alex, who was standing in front of what was most likely a child, again with blonde hair. The child was looking at him with wide green eyes.

“You didn’t save me,” they said dully. “You didn’t save me.”

Twilight came to stand next to Luna, and her eyes widened in horror at what she saw next.

A tall, alabaster figure with a golden tiara and shining golden armour was trotting up to the child, wings spread outward in triumph, a foul smirk on her face.

“Celestia?” Twilight whispered.

“You didn’t save me,” the child said again, as the figure of Celestia brought a small, clear vial of some sort of purple liquid up. “Why can’t you save me, Uncle Alex?”

And then the faux-Celestia poured the vial onto the child’s head. They simply stood there, letting the liquid pour across their skin… even as their skin started bubbling, their bones started cracking, and fur started sprouting from their body.

“Why… didn’t… you… save… me?” the child-thing said, before falling to its hands and knees, the cracking of bone only continuing. Before the horrified eyes of the ponies, the human child transformed into…

… a foal. A foal with a blonde mane and a pale blue coat. It looked up with dead, glassy eyes, and gave an unnerving smile to the figure of Alex, before turning and running off. The faux-Celestia looked from the newly-made foal to Alex, a foul grin on its face.

“You know that this is what I will do to all of your people,” she said. Her voice was odd, tinged with something unidentifiable. “You know that you can’t save them all. Even augmented as you are, you have tasted my power. Do you think for one moment that you stand a chance, even with the help of my mirror? Do you think they will help you?”

“This is horrifying,” Rarity murmured. “Please, we’ve seen enough. We need to leave here, now.”

“I agree,” Fluttershy whispered.

“That… that can't be Celestia, can it?” Twilight said, her eyes wide with horror. “Princess Luna?”

Luna was staring at the faux-Celestia, her eyes narrowing with hatred even as the image still smirked maliciously at the figure of Alexander Reiner.

And suddenly, she turned to look Luna in the eye.

“Hello, Little Moon,” she said.

Luna took a step backward, her wings flaring defensively, and the others jumped backward.

“How strange,” the faux-Celestia said, “for you to be here, for you to come and see this human’s fractured mind. But also fortuitous.”

“What are you?!” Luna hissed.

“A memory’s echo, a fragment of a fragment of the power of my true self, the lightest imprint of a touch upon skin and soul alike, my power to twist him stymied but the barest stain of myself remaining,” the faux-Celestia said, grinning. “But enough to stay here, lodged in the depths of Reiner’s mind, making him doubt and question, enough to push, enough to push and push and push.”

“Whatever you are,” Twilight put in, growling at her, “you’re not Celestia. Celestia would never wage a war, not against anypony, that wasn’t justified.”

“How do you know I am not?” the faux-Celestia said.

“Because of what we just saw,” Luna hissed. “What did you do to that child?”

“Nothing, in reality – that was the privilege of my servants,” the faux-Celestia said, shrugging. “But I saved them all. Every last one of them that I take. Freed them from their fears and their worries, their choices and their concerns. They are happy. Eternally, infinitely happy.”

“That… wasn’t happy,” Pinkie put in, her mane even more lank than it had been. “That smile… wasn’t a smile. It was not.”

The faux-Celestia shrugged. “Does it really matter what you think of what I have done? You have no way to me, no way to send him back, and even if you did, you have no power to stop me.” She grinned again. “But if you want to try… well, I suppose I shall see you in person, Little Moon.”

“Do not call me that,” Luna growled.

The thing bowed. “As you wish. Farewell, Luna.” She gave a final, malicious chuckle. “We will see you soon.”

And suddenly -

- they found themselves back in the hospital room. Alex looked blandly at them, no sign that he was even aware of what they had just seen.

“Fun trip?” he asked sarcastically.

Luna scowled, shaking her head. “I… I have never seen a mind that fragmented in one still sane.”

“Sorry, ma’am, you still haven't,” Alex said with a smirk. “Reckon we all passed ‘sane’ a while back. I usually settle for ‘not in a straitjacket’.”

“What… what was that?” Twilight asked. “That… that thing we saw. You… what…”

Alex laughed bitterly at that and replied, “You saw my memories, right? Then you should’ve figured it out already.”

“What was happening to that foal, or that child, that…?” Twilight asked. “What was… was that… what was Celestia doing?”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “You’ll have to be more specific. Your people do a lot to humans, and Celestia most of all.”

Twilight swallowed. “She… she changed that child, changed them into…”

“Ah,” Alex said, nodding as his amused expression faded. “Yeah, that’s the truth. Not sure which time you saw -”

“That happens more than that one time?!” Twilight almost-yelled.

“Well, yeah,” Alex said. “I’ve no way of telling exactly which of my memories you saw. But it happens all the time. It’s kind of what the war is all about.”

“I… I don’t understand what…” Twilight stuttered.

“Alex,” Lyra said, her face gaunt and bloodless. “What’s happening on your world?”

He sucked in a breath. “We’re at war.”

“That much seems obvious,” Luna said quietly. “But what kind of war?”

“A war with you,” Alex clarified. “Or rather, with the Solar Empire. Queen Celestia and the Elements of Harmony are the leaders of an invasion of my home planet, Earth. Armies of Guards, bolstered by… well, the ponies who used to be my people.”

“And… and I…” Lyra struggled to articulate her thoughts. “I saw myself. Dead. What…”

Alex took a breath. “My friend, Ambassador Lyra Heartstrings, fought on our side to oppose the forced transformation, degradation and obliteration of the human race.”

His expression darkened, teeth bared, and eyes full of murder turned to stare at Celestia, who had listened to all of this with a calm, if troubled, expression.

"She was fighting to save us from you."

So here we find the first real divergence from SPECTRUM proper. I wish I could say that the idea of the fragment of Queenie in Alex’s head was an idea I had from the getgo, but it actually didn’t pop up until I was writing this version of the story. What can I say? Sometimes, it’s the new things that really pop.

Hope you enjoy the way the story continues.