//------------------------------// // Who are you? part 2 // Story: Who are you? // by Rubycast //------------------------------// I stopped when I reached Ponyville. My lungs burned as I drew in air. I looked behind me to see if Big Macintosh was still chasing me, but he was nowhere in sight. I sighed in relief. I’m not sure when I had lost him. At some point in the chase I could no longer hear anything but my own hooves as they pounded on the dirt trail. “What was that about?” I asked myself. Never before had the Apple family, or anypony for that matter, chased me off their property, epically when they knew me. “Except the Apple family acted like they never knew me.” I tried, once again, to remember if I had done anything to upset them. “Well last winter wrap up I used magic on her farm to clear away the snow, but we made up after that. I even pinkie promised not to use magic on her farm again unless it was an emergency. I tried to think of any event where I used magic on the farm, but nothing came to mind. “Maybe it wasn’t something I did on the farm. Have I offended or hurt them?” There was that one time I gave her the book on organized orchards, but she said she wasn’t mad over that. I think she even used it once! I tried to think about the other family members, but yet nothing useful came to mind. If I had offended them then we’ve probably made up. Besides how can ponies who were happy yesterday hate me in one day? I jumped when I heard the chime from the town square. I looked at the time and gasped. “Eleven-ten!” I was really late for my appointment with Rarity! I galloped toward the Carousel Boutique like timberwolves were on my tail. Rarity might know what’s wrong with the Apple family. I dodged ponies that were in my path, yelled back sorry, then continued. I could hear their angry shouts, but I was on a mission. I had to get to the boutique before it- “Closed!” I yelled once I saw the note on the door that said closed and a reason for why. I scanned it quickly to see the reason. I hoped Rarity or Sweetie Belle wasn’t hurt--Sweetie can be clumsy. “Dear customers,” I read to myself. “the Carousel Boutique will be closed today due to low amounts of supplies. I, Rarity, shall reopen the Boutique tomorrow, since an important event has come up for tonight.” “Closed for supplies? But she said she wasn’t going to get anymore until tomorrow, so she could spend the morning with me!“ I reread the note to see if I read it right, but sadly I made no error the first time. I gasped once I realized the reason. “Oh no! I was so late she thought I wasn’t coming and went to the store!” I turned and galloped to the nearest, and only, sewing shop. The shop wasn’t busy that morning, though I suppose it never was concreting that Rarity was the only pony in Ponville who made clothing. A few other ponies were there, but I wasn’t sure if they were there to shop or use the shop as a quiet place to talk. Either way it didn’t matter to me. Rarity was my only target in the shop. I slowly pushed open the door and strolled in. The door slowly shut behind me as I moved on. “Now where would Rarity be?” I asked myself as I looked at the different sections of supplies. I walked through the fabric section before I heard a scream from the next one. “Is somepony in trouble?” “This is the worst possible thing ever!” A mare cried. I smiled as I realized the mare was Rarity. I’ve heard that scream and line so many times that I’ve memorized it. I walked over to the next section, and sure enough, Rarity was there with a stallion. The stallion was dark brown and wore a black jacket with a golden name tag on it. “Is everything alright?” He asked her with wide eyes. His glasses slid down to the end of his nose. “No! Everything is not alright!” She yelled at him. “There is a crime here and cannot go without punishment!” The stallion leaned forward like Rarity was telling a story and was getting to the juicy part. “W-what is it?” “It’s so horrible I can’t even talk about it!” She covered her eyes with one arm and pointed a hoof at the different colors of thread. He pushed up his glasses and looked at each of them. He looked at her after he was done, shook his head, and looked again with squinted eyes. After three times of this he sighed and looked at her. “I’m afraid I don’t see anything, ma’am.” She gasped. “But how can you not see it? It’s clear as day!” She took in deep breaths and exhaled just as fast. I knew Rarity was having a panic attack, so I decided to go and held her. I trotted over and stood beside her. “Rarity, what’s the problem?” She looked at me. Her eyes were wide as could be. “Oh, darling! It’s so awful, yet this stallion can’t see it!” I smiled from ear to ear when she called me, ‘darling.’ True she called our other friends that, but see seemed to recognise me. I walked over to the threads and looked at them. I was used to finding details that others might miss. It was true that Rarity was better at seeing the smallest details, but she didn’t seem to want to explain it. I pulled back after a few minutes and shook my head. “The only thing I see wrong is that most of these threads are ugly-” I caught the glare from the stallion and cleared my throat. “I mean plain.” That seemed to cool him off, but not by much. The threads were every color of the rainbow, but they were dark as could be. The greens were a hideous shade that made me think of something disgusting. The reds were dark as the thickest blood. The only color that looked useable was the blues, but I knew Rarity wouldn’t like a color such as that. Rarity gasped and she smiled. “Yes! That’s it darling! These threads are plain and wouldn’t look good in any of my dresses.” The stallion sighed heavily, clearly forgetting service with a smile. “Well, ma’am, other ponies use these colors in their creations, and they are satisfied.” “Well, I cannot use these for my dresses, and I ask you bring me some other colors.” “Ma’am, these are the only colors we have in threads, but if you want us to request for some-” “Oh, no, no, no. I couldn’t let you go into all that trouble.” She smiled. “I’ll mange on my own.” The stallion rolled his eyes and walked away. When he was out of earshot Rarity muttered. “Those things take weeks to get.” She sighed and walked the opposite direction. I walked beside her. “Hey, Rarity, sorry I didn’t make it in time, but we still have a few minutes to model those dresses-” Rarity stopped and looked at me. “Modelling? Oh, darling, I couldn’t ask a pony as yourself to do that.” I blinked. “But yesterday you said-” “Yesterday? I don’t remember requesting any models.” My eye twitched. Was she playing the same trick as Applejack? Rarity wasn’t much for pranks, and she didn’t seem mad when I first talked to her. I chuckle nervously. “Rarity, what are you talking about? Yesterday we planned this. We were going to do it today. Remember?” Rarity placed her hoof against her chin as she thought about this. I held my breath, praying to Celestia that she remembered. I bit my lip to stay calm as I awaited her response, even though part of me knew it was hopeless. But I had to hope. I just had to. Finally she lowered her hoof and looked at me. Slowly she smiled at me until her front teeth were shown. I found myself smiling back. I knew this was a joke! I knew it! I just knew- “I know what’s going on.” She said in a soft tone, like a mother would use when it figured out why her foal didn’t want to go to a party, but wouldn’t say. “You’re mistaking me for someone else. Perhaps you’re looking for your friend.” My smile dropped. “W-what?” I asked, but before she could repeat herself, I bolted out of the shop and down the road. I couldn’t take this anymore! I had to find the others! I had to see if they would remember me! “Oof!” I yelled as I collided with something. I landed hard on the ground. From my position I saw a few Pegasi fly by, unaware of any activity on the ground, but before I could sit myself up, I heard a familiar voice yell at me. “Hey, watch it!” “Dashie! That’s not nice!” A familiar hyper voice said. “But she crashed into me!” “U-um, s-she’s not getting up.” A familiar soft voice whispered. I felt myself grin, despite the fear that grew in my mind. ‘What luck.’ I found myself thinking. ‘I ran into the last of my friends. Surely they’ll tell me what’s going on, or what I did wrong, or they’ll admit to this sick joke!’ I almost giggled madly, but thankfully I was able to keep it inside. It was a long shot, but the only hope I had. I quickly stood up and smiled at each of them. Pinkie Pie was the only one that returned my smile. Dash was busy glaring at me while Fluttershy hid behind her mane. I looked at Pinkie Pie. She loved to play jokes more than anypony I knew--the second being Dash--but she knew how far to take a joke. She’d never do anything to hurt a pony’s feelings, especially her best friends. I don’t know if she was behind this joke, or why she could agree to it, but she’d tell me. “Hello, Pinkie Pie.” I said. Pinkie’s smile dropped for a moment as she squinted her eyes at me. She walked around me a couple of times, studying me, before she went back over to Dash’s side. I swallowed back a lump in my throat. ’There’s no way she’d forget me.’ I thought to myself. ’She never forgets anypony!’ I quickly shook the thought from my head. None of them forgot me! They’re just playing- “Hey, how’d you know me?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Have we met before? Because there’s no way you’d know me if I don’t remember you, unless you’re new.” She suddenly gasped. “Oh, you must be new! I should throw you a party!” She pouted. “Oh shoot! I forgot my welcome wagon.” She smiled. “Oh well! I’ll get it later and bring it to you and-” “Pinkie!” I yelled and stomped my hoof, causing Fluttershy to jump in the air. “I’ve had enough of this! I know what you’re all doing.” I glared at each of them. “This isn’t funny! Stop it right now!” Pinkie Pie tilted her head to the side. “What are we doing?” “You’re playing this dumb trick on me! You and all of our friends are pretending not to know me! All of you act like you’ve never seen me before!” “But we haven’t!” Pinkie Pie said before she turned her head to Dash. “Have we?” Dash shook her head and glared at me. “I’ve never seen her before.” She walked over to me. “And she’d better stop harassing my friends.” She unfolded her wings to look more intimating, but I pushed her away. I ran over to Fluttershy, who was hiding behind Pinkie Pie. “Fluttershy! Make them stop!” I begged. Fluttershy whispered something in a tiny voice. I gritted my teeth. “Speak up!” I yelled louder and more forcibly than I wanted. She gasped and jumped back. Her eyes watered and her bottom lip shook. She ran away from me before she took flight. I, along with everyone, could hear her crying, but for once I didn’t care. I felt anger burn inside of me. After all I’ve done for them, how dare they act like this! “Hey!” Pinkie yelled as she hopped in front of me. “That’s wasn’t very nice!” “Well maybe if you guys quit the act I wouldn’t have yelled at her!” “I warned you!” Rainbow yelled. I suddenly found myself tumbling on the ground with the blue Pegasus. When we stopped she was on top of me, but I quickly changed that by hitting my head against her forehead. As her head went back I took the chance to punch her jaw, and sent her off of me. She only flew a foot from me before she regained control and flew towards me again. My horn glowed as I readied a spell, but before I could cast it, she struck my mouth with her hoof. I fell to the ground and held my jaw as instant pain filled it. I opened my mouth and one of my teeth fell into my hoof. I quickly threw it away and glared at Dash. “You made me lose a tooth!” I yelled, despite the pain. She smirked. “And you’ll lose even more!” She charged at me. I lowered my head and charged as well. I heard Pinkie yell something, but I couldn’t hear her words. Not that I cared. Before either of us could collide I casted a teleportation spell away from the scene. Away from them. Away from everypony.