Blankness

by Zaid ValRoa

10

The sound of hooves against dirt echoed in the empty streets of Ponyville as the small group galloped towards the edge of town. Worry and urgency carried their steps as they sped towards the guard outpost.

Twilight had wasted no time after hearing the news of the missing pony. She left the last of the preparations for tomorrow’s meeting to the Mayor and bolted out of Town Hall alongside Spike, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack, who had insisted on coming along.

Barely a word had been exchanged amongst them since they left. Perhaps one time had been enough to etch the information into their minds. Perhaps they were too focused on the task at hoof to think of anything else. Or perhaps they simply didn’t want to risk betraying their façade and show what they truly felt by saying anything.

Whichever the case, they remained silent as they galloped through the moonlit streets of the sleeping city.

“I hope we’re not too late,” Spike said, finally breaking the silence.

“What matters is we found out,” Twilight replied, and almost as an afterthought she added, “and we’re acting right away.”

Nothing else was said before the trio arrived at the edge of the magical barrier. After a few moments of frantic search, Twilight spotted one of the guards who—having apparently done the same—rushed towards her.

“Halt! Who goes there?” the young guard yelled as he reached the quarantine barrier, and Twilight recognised him as the Private who had accompanied Sergeant Bold Spear earlier that day.

“We need to speak with Sergeant Bold Spear, right now,” Twilight said with an unwavering tone.

A flash of recognition crossed the Private’s face, who spared nothing more than a nod before running towards the barracks. Twilight watched him run, letting out a long and pained breath as she processed what had happened in the last thirty minutes.

“Twilight?”

As if broken from a trance, Twilight turned around to face Applejack, her friend’s face twisted into a worried frown. At some point Spike had jumped off her back and was now standing next to the farmer, sporting a similar worried expression. In their eyes she found concern which far from calming served only to drive home the futility of her efforts.

“Twi...” Spike trailed off, “You can’t blame yourself for this.”

A nagging voice in her mind reminded her that while she couldn’t reasonably blame herself for the missing pony, she was free to blame her lack of oversight for turning this problem into an even bigger mess. However, before that line of thought could drag her into another tirade of self-belittlement, Twilight felt her shoulders being shaken.

“No, you don’t, Twilight,” Applejack said in a stern tone which reminded her of the way her mother would speak when chastising her. “I know that look o’ yours, and I don’t care how you’re trying to twist this in your mind to blame yourself for it, but I’ll be having none of that, you hear me?”

“I…” Twilight started, but the words died in her throat as she acknowledged Applejack was right.

The events of the week had taken its toll on her. She wasn’t going to pretend her life in Ponyville was a paragon of normalcy, but this was different from anything they had faced before. Had this been some resurrected evil from ancient times, she could find a prophecy which would tell her how to defeat it. If it were a wild monster or creature, they could take it down and prevent anyone from getting hurt. Heck, if this was a friendship problem, she’d be more equipped to deal with it, but this… She didn’t have the faintest clue about how to solve it.

Not being able to solve a problem was not the same as being responsible for it, though, and it was about time she stopped trying to carry the weight of a whole town on her shoulders.

“Pssst… She’s doing it again,” Pinkie whispered loud enough to make the action moot.

“I know. I think I was getting too wrapped up in my own thoughts, but I’ve done enough of that already. There are more pressing matters right now,” she finally said. Perhaps they believed her, or not. Either way, it made little difference, they could already see the soldiers galloping towards them.

“Miss Sparkle,” Sergeant Bold Spear said once he reached the edge of the quarantine barrier. The stress of the situation was starting to get to him as well. His fur was slightly frazzled, the bags under his eyes accentuated his incipient crow’s feet, and the gentle swaying of his body betrayed his rigid posture. He was tired, Twilight noticed, and wondered if she looked the same to him. “I assume the census has been carried out.”

“Yes.”

“How many?” he asked, diving straight to the point.

“Just one, we doubled checked,” she replied without missing a beat. The sergeant’s face twisted despite his attempts to remain stoic, and for a moment Twilight caught a glimpse of the tired eyes befitting a stallion of his age.

“How did that happen?”

Twilight took a deep breath as she sorted through the mess of jumbled of thoughts running through her mind. “He left before we even caught wind of the plague happening.”

“Well, this is just great,” the Sergeant said, his voice getting lower, “Just… Celestia damned great.”

“My friend Pinkie Pie will be able to provide an accurate description.” Twilight found that she didn’t have as much of a trouble in keeping her voice steady as she spoke; no matter how bad things got, she was going to do her best to clear it.

With a jump, Pinkie landed next to her and smiled at the Sergeant, though he remained impassive.

“Well, Miss Pie? What can you tell me?”

Pinkie looked back at Twilight for a moment before taking a deep breath and started talking, “You see, Mister Sergeant, we had a really nice event last week at the local market where all the vendors marked down their produce, and they managed to sell quite a lot, but turns out a lot means more to some ponies than others, because a few ran out of all they had to sell. There’s this stallion, Crafty Crate, nice guy despite the temper. Anyway, he also managed to run out of cherries. I mean, good for him, but—”

“Miss Pie,” Sergeant Bold Spear interrupted her, “please be concise.”

Pinkie blinked a couple of times before a nervous smile appeared on her face. “Ah, right. Sorry Mister Sergeant. Yeah, Crafty Crate ran out of cherries on Sunday and said he was going to Dodge Junction with other market ponies come the weekend, but he got ahead of schedule, his friends said he left around Wednesday.” Her smile became more subdued, and a nervous edge crept into her eyes.

Seeing her cheerful friend act so apologetic felt odd, but it brought some relief knowing she took this seriously.

Sergeant Bold Spear was quick to react. Without missing a beat, he turned around and addressed the guard next to him. “You know what to do, Private.”

The guard gave a hasty salute before galloping back to the barracks.

“Thank you, Miss Pie. Are you sure nopony else is missing?”

She gave a strong nod. “Yuppers. We even double checked our double check. I don’t know if that’s a quadruple check or a square check, but I figure you know better than I do.”

The grimace on the Sergeant’s face softened, but otherwise made no intention to leave. Pinkie Pie looked back at Twilight and smiled before trotting back to where Applejack and Spike were waiting.

Silence settled amongst them once again, and Twilight felt the air between them grow heavier, as if the magic barrier wasn’t enough. They hadn’t parted in the best of terms earlier, and that ought to be solved sooner than later if they were going to keep working together until the quarantine ended.

Just as he looked as though he was going to say something, Twilight spoke. “Sergeant, I’d like to apologise.”

Reactions were as immediate as they were silent. Sergeant Bold Spear’s frown faded away, replaced by a look of curiosity. In contrast, the reaction of her friends were more intense, although equally silent. Just out of the corner of her eye, Twilight could see their faces, emotions ranging from surprise to angry disbelief in the case of Spike. Nevertheless, she focused on the stallion beyond the barrier and kept talking.

“This evening… After what happened with Rainbow Dash. I know we were under a lot of stress”—Twilight chose each word carefully, gauging the stallion’s reaction—”we still are after all, but I shouldn’t have tried to dodge responsibilities.” Twilight immediately looked back at Spike, who seemed eager to jump in her defence, and held up her hoof.

Sergeant Bold Spear looked at her in silence, his expression unreadable, before he finally spoke, “You would make a great diplomat, Miss Sparkle.”

She couldn’t hold back a smile at that, nor did she want to, if she was being honest.

“It is as you said, perhaps the stressful situation we find ourselves in got the better of us. Rather than be sorry, I would urge you to keep up the good work while your town still needs you,” he said in a calm voice, a direct contrast with the exasperation which had marked their parting words earlier that day.

Twilight mused over his words. As hard as she had been on herself, she knew he was right. Making mistakes didn’t matter as long as you worked to make up for them. “Right back at you, Sergeant,” she finally said.

“If you excuse me, I must coordinate the course of action regarding the missing pony. Should anything noteworthy come up, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

“What about my friends?” Twilight asked before the stallion could leave.

A few contemplative seconds passed before his reply. “Miss Dash is under observation by the medical team, and we’re being informed of any progress.”

Twilight gave a sad nod, Pinkie’s sigh echoing her disappointment at the lack of news.

“Regarding your friend Zecora, hopefully you’ll understand if we couldn’t get to her. It has been a hectic day, after all.” The Sergeant’s flat tone made it hard to know if he was being sarcastic or not. “Rest assured that we will go for her first thing in the morning, and I will be sure to let you know once she is with us.”

Twilight nodded once more, and that marked the end of the conversation. With nothing more to say, Sergeant Bold Spear turned around and walked away. Once he was a good distance away, she felt her friends approach her.

“Why did you apologise, Twi? You didn’t do anything wrong,” Spike said, a trace of disdain clear in his voice.

Twilight smiled and lowered her body until she was face to face with the dragon. “Apologies are not about being right or wrong, Spike. It’s about letting go of the past,” she said as she ruffled his spines. “Right now, the last thing we need is ill will between us.”

“Darn tootin’, Twi,” Applejack said with a tone of impressed satisfaction in her voice.

While he didn’t seem to agree with her, he nodded a few times showing he understood. Twilight replied with an affectionate nuzzle which dispelled all notions of discomfort from Spike.

Just a few moment later, though, Pinkie was the one to ask the question in everyone’s mind. “So, what do we do now?”

With the census done and the Guard informed, there was not much they could do other than wait for tomorrow’s meeting. Thought that didn’t mean they had to wait alone.

“We should probably check on Rarity and Fluttershy. I’ve been meaning to check on them but with the frenzy of the past couple of days, I—”

“It’s alright sugarcube, I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“Oh! Oh! Rarity said she would be visiting Fluttershy at her cottage tonight, we can drop by and check both of them at once!” Pinkie exclaimed as she jumped in place a few times.

Between Applejack’s kind words and Pinkie’s enthusiasm, Twilight felt more at ease now. Despite the less than ideal turn of events, she enjoyed the brief moment of comfortable silence between them.

“Let’s go, then,” Twilight said, the hints of a smile, the first genuine one in days, appeared on her face.

---

The girls walked in silence—a more comfortable one this time—as they made their way through town.

“Been a while since I last saw Ponyville so empty, it ain’t even that late,” Applejack said as eyed the barren streets.

Twilight looked, as well. Though Ponyville wasn't known for its active nightlife, there were still plenty of ponies out at this hour Just a few days ago. Even a store or small cafe would still be open. Tonight, however, the air was filled with a silence induced by fear, like that of a wake. And thanks to the protective barrier, there wasn't even a cold breeze to breathe life into the streets.

“I hope they’ll come to the meeting tomorrow," she said. Her words barely above a whisper. "We need to remind everypony that we're together in this. That we can count on each other. We can’t do that if half the town doesn’t show up.”

“I’ll personally knock every door at the crack of dawn!” Pinkie chirped, raising a hoof way up high.

Knowing Pinkie, she’d probably do it, and she’d pull an all-nighter for the sake of having a cupcake ready for everypony. However, pressing them into action while the events of the past days were still fresh in their memories could have the opposite effect.

“I appreciate the thought, Pinkie, but I don’t think that would be for the best… We have to trust they’ll come,” she said, mustering every trace of confidence left in her. Nevertheless, she stopped in her tracks and looked at the houses around them “It’s easy to forget that this doesn’t necessarily affect everypony in the same way. We are all afraid, but some could take it worse than others. I mean, we’ve already seen it happen, but that’s all the more reason why we must stick together and—”

Her words died on her throat once she turned around and saw her friends standing behind them. Applejack was looking at some point in the distance while Pinkie and Spike were facing the spot where she had been standing just a few moments ago. Shock, confusion, fear, all these emotions flashed across her face as she tried to make sense of what had happened.

“Oh, please, go on. I believe you were about to go into a rousing speech about friendship.”

Ultimately, though, she settled with apathy the second she heard the voice coming from nowhere.

“Where are you?” she said, disdain dripping from her words.

Away from her, reality twisted upon itself until a void formed in the space between folds of air, and from its depths emerged a tall figure of mismatched parts. The newly arrived smiled at her in a way which would almost feel warm if it weren’t for the t-shirt saying ‘Friendship is Magic’ and the pink and purple pennants he held in each of his dissimilar arms.

“Twilight! So good to see you!” Discord said, throwing his arms into the air. His smile quickly turned into an inquisitive frown when he looked at the unicorn's weary expression. "You don’t look too thrilled, though.”

Twilight simply gave him a flat look as he caught his arms once they fell down. “What are you doing here? The barrier is supposed to keep the town closed!”

“Twilight, please. Do you really believe a simple shield spell could keep me out? Why, I almost feel offended.”

Her look of exasperation grew at the sight of the draconequus crossing his arms and facing away with a huff. “I didn’t ask how you got in, I want to know why. Ponyville is under quarantine, and we can’t risk an outbreak!”

“Oh, please. I know that much. You wouldn’t believe I’m actually here, would you?” to mark his words, he snaked his way to her and phased through her body.

Even though she felt nothing when he went through her torso, she couldn’t fight back the shiver that ran through her body at his action.

“I pose no risk regarding an outbreak. Cross my heart and so and so,” he said while half-heartedly making the motions. “That should be a load off your mind, right? I’m sure you could use that.”

“Why are you here, Discord?” she asked. The severity in her words coming clearly through gritted teeth.

“Can’t I worry about you ponies?” he replied in an insincere tone. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that a thing friends do?”

“Forgive me for being skeptical,” Twilight deadpanned.

“Come on, I’m reformed now! I’m all about smiles and rainbows now,” Discord shot back as he played with puppet versions of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

“You’ve only been ‘reformed’ for a month, and I don’t think I’ve seen you since then!”

Discord tapped his chin, as though deep in thought, “Yes, I suppose from your perspective it’s only been that long…”

“Did you come here just to kick us while we’re down?”

“Why, I am positively aggravated, Twilight, how could you say such a thing?” he said while fanning himself with a frilly fan and pinching an equally frilly white dress before giving a huff and walking around her. “Next thing I know, you will be trying to find a way to pin all this to poor old me!”

Twilight’s blood ran cold before she fixed a trembling gaze on Discord.

“Oh, you can’t be serious,” he said—silly props already forgotten—as his voice lost all traces of playfulness.

“Should I be?” she shot back, her features twisting into a scowl.

Discord stood straight, giving a flat look to some point beyond her.

“Twilight, come with me for a second.”

Before she could form a reply, Discord had snapped his fingers and Ponyville disappeared. She looked around at the white expanse around her, barely processing what had just happened. There were no signs of the Chaos Lord, just and endless blankness as far as she could see.

She could at least see herself, but she noticed to her distress that her body looked a bit blurry. As she was trying to make sense of where she was, she heard the voice of Discord echoing in her mind.

“I say this with as much seriousness as possible for me,” he said, devoid of his usual snark, “Do you think I could do something like this?”

Before she even had the chance to think of an answer, her whole body lunged forwards. Her eyes opened wide when she realised there was something coming towards her. She slowly came to a stop in front of a large golden rectangle shimmering with light.

Discord’s voice came again, just not inside her head. She looked and found him standing on nothing next to her, staring straight ahead.

“Take a look and tell me if you think this is the kind of thing I’d do.”

Hearing him speak so seriously felt odd, it was unexpected from the embodiment of randomness, but she took it as a sign he’d tell the truth.

The shine of the golden rectangle died down, and Twilight started to notice blurry shapes moving on the surface. Before she could say anything, though, the image got clearer and she got to see a pony whom she didn’t recognise at first. The stallion walked in an empty room before stopping next to a bed. He then turned on a lamp and she could see the serene visage of an older pony.

“Mister Rich?” she whispered.

Filthy Rich stood next to a bed. Twilight traced the shape under the covers with her eyes and even though it was dark, she had a good idea of who it was. The filly flinched at the touch of her father, burrowing further into her bed. Undeterred, Mister Rich leaned forwards and nuzzled her daughter. Although Twilight couldn’t make out the words, she could feel the love and worry in his tone.

She was pulled back from the scene when Discord snapped his fingers and the image disappeared, blinking into the golden shape once again before another mess of blurry shapes appeared.

This time, she was quick to recognise the pony in the picture. Sweetie Drops was lying on a carpet in front of a fireplace—a tired expression on her face and an empty space on her flank—, when Lyra walked into her room carrying a box with her magic. She settled down next to her friend and floated the box towards her. Sweetie Drops eyed the box suspiciously before opening it, finding it full of bonbons. She gave her friend a small smile before giving her an affectionate nuzzle. Still, as they shared the candies, the sadness didn’t quite left the mare’s eyes.

Another snap and the image changed to that of a white unicorn with a blue mane, laying on her back, closed eyes and blank flanks. With a flash of magenta magic, she floated a record out of its sleeve and onto a nearby turntable. Save for a flick of her ears when the music started to play, she remained immobile.

“Why are you showing me this?” Twilight asked, tearing her gaze away from the scene in front of her.

“That,” Discord said as he waved the image away, leaving the golden shape barren once more, “is just an example of what’s going on in your little town.”

Her throat tied itself into a knot. She was glad things hadn’t escalated into full-blown panic, and hopefully they wouldn’t, but Discord was right, and that felt like a slap to the face.

“Tell me, Twilight. What did you see?”

She looked back at where at the golden shape, seeing dozens of ponies flash before her eyes, one after another. Neither of whom had as much as a smile. She thought about them and the many more who had to be going through the same. A problem that went deeper than just a change in fur tone. Suffering from a blow to their very identity.

Twilight saw sadness, apathy, anger, resignation, impotence, confusion. She saw cutie marks, and lack thereof. Coats uniform in colour, a sea of b—

“That’s right. Boooring,” Discord said as he made the gold screen disappear with a huff.

“W-what?”

“I mean it, this is miserable!” the draconequus cried out, thrusting his arms in an overtly dramatic way. “Everyone’s so gloomy and bitter… Do you seriously believe this is the kind of chaos I’d make? I’m insulted, Twilight. Insulted!”

Twilight would’ve paid attention to the seemingly genuine hurt in Discord’s voice if her mind wasn’t being pulled apart by shock and outrage.

“Is this just a joke to you!?”

Her outburst seemed to actually grab Discord’s attention, who sighed as he floated downwards until he was at eye level with the mare.

“Twilight, let me level with you,” a shadow of a smirk crossed his face at his bad joke before he got serious again, “I’m new to this whole friendship thing. I still have a hard time looking at you ponies as more than parts of the landscape which happen to talk, but I assure you I bear no ill-intent nor animosity towards you or your kind.” A pause. “Regarding this whole cutie mark debacle, at least. This is not my doing, I promise”

Twilight tried to keep the frown on her face, but deep down she knew he was right. This was different from Discord’s usual methods, different from his type of unpredictability.

“After all, why get rid of cutie marks when they have so much potential for fun!” He said as he conjured an easel and a canvas out of thin air. “Never been a fan of the whole symmetric pattern, to be honest.”

Much to Twilight’s dismay, Discord quickly painted an exact replica of her cutie mark, and started changing the shape, colour, and number of points of each star.

“Oh, you know what would be great? Swap your cutie marks around, I’m sure that would make quite a stir!”

While on some level she felt disturbed by Discord’s words, another thought popped into her mind which soon overshadowed everything else.

“Wait, Discord!”

“No, no. Let me finish, I’m sure you’ll like it once it’s done,” he said while he kept painting over her cutie mark.

Rather than pay attention to his nonsense, Twilight jumped in front of him and threw her hooves on his chest. This caught him off-guard, but before he could voice his objection, Twilight spoke, “You can fix this!”

“I’m assuming you don’t mean the painting,” he said with a flat tone.

“You know I mean the disease. You can… find a way of getting rid of the virus and fixing what it has done on those who are already infected,” she nearly begged, looking up at him with hope in her eyes.

For the briefest of moments, she thought she saw something flicker in Discord’s eyes. Where normally she’d find disinterest and condescension, there was something else. She hoped it was a measure of empathy, that she could somehow let the draconequus know how important this was and he’d agree to help. However that light was gone almost as soon as it came.

Discord let out a heavy sigh before snapping his fingers once more. Colour returned to their surroundings as the white void receded until they were in Ponyville once more. Even as she felt the grass under her hooves, Twilight did not break eye contact with him.

“This has really got you down on the dumps, huh?” he said, his face showing something resembling actual emotion for a moment.

“Will you do it?” Twilight said, and even she was surprised by her pleading tone.

It was then that Discord did the most random and unexpected thing Twilight could have imagined him doing. He took her hooves in his hands and gently put them down before he coiled his serpentine body and sat on the grass next to her.

In all the time Twilight had known Princess Celestia, few were the times when she had noticed the age of her mentor. Be it after a hard day in court, or a moment of great duress, Twilight could easily recall the rare moments when she was able to feel the thousands of years the Princess carried on her back; and in that moment, she noticed the same in Discord.

When was the last time the Lord of Chaos had looked so serious?

“It would be easy, you know? Just a thought and I could change everything,” he said, looking up at the rose-tinted night sky, “just as I used to.”

The silence after he spoke hung heavily on the air. She wouldn’t pretend she understood the way Discord’s mind worked, but Twilight wondered if perhaps there was a hint of regret in his voice.

“I don’t blame you for not buying into my reformation. From time to time, neither do I,” Discord said, shrugging, “I wasn’t kidding when I said it still takes some effort to see ponies as real, unique beings, I used to simply not care.”

“But now you do, right?”

“Now I do.”

Much to her own surprise, Twilight found she wanted to believe Discord. However, that didn’t supersede her worry for their current predicament. “If you care, why won’t you do this one thing for us?”

“Because it’s never one thing. That’s just how it starts. I do one thing and it becomes much easier to do the next one, and so on. Not even consciously, but there’s less resistance in my mind the next time, and before you know it, cardboard sun and moon. I’d rather not deal with that, all things considered.”

“That seems… a bit pessimistic, if you ask me.”

Discord just chuckled, which was more in line with Twilight’s image of the draconequus than the seriousness he’d had over the past minutes.

“So…” she said with a final trace of hopefulness, “This is all in our hooves, huh?”

“I’m afraid so. No divine intervention to fix things for you at the last second, I’m afraid,” he replied with a smirk.

She wasn’t sure how to feel. A part of her still wished they all could’ve been saved by Discord, the Princesses, or even the Elements of Harmony, but by this point she had already accepted that nobody would. Nopony but themselves.

“Oh, cheer up. You’ll be fiiiine,” Discord said, waving his claw dismissively.

Twilight huffed before rubbing her eyes. “You mean it?”

“This is not the first status-quo altering event I’ve witnessed, and what with being immortal and all, I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last.” The draconequus then stood up, cracking his back in a way which produced an odd yet familiar melody.

“Hey, Discord,” she said, catching his attention. “I don’t know if this was your intention when coming here, but… I feel a bit better so, thank you.”

He gave her an amused smirk. “Really, now?”

“I think so. Ever since this whole thing started, I’ve just felt nothing I did was enough and there was a part of me which kept blaming myself because of that.” Twilight looked back at her friends, still frozen in time. “But this is bigger than me, bigger than any single pony. This affects all of us, and we have to work together to get out of this mess.”

“Well, I consider it a job well done,” Discord said as he started floating. “I’d love to stay, but all this gloom and doom does horrors to my mood.”

“I’ll be sure to let everyone know you dropped by,” she said with a smile.

“Do as you please, Twilight. Maybe I’ll come back once this whole thing blows over.” He paused for a second, rubbing his paws against the ground. “You ponies should look into making your roads out of something other than dirt. Gravel works wonders. Anyway, bye bye!”

Before she could reply, the draconequus disappeared, leaving silence in his wake and leaving her feeling somewhat better—if a bit annoyed. Seems as though talking things out did help.

“I’m going to take your silence as a yes, Twilight,” Pinkie said, breaking Twilight from her reveries.

It took her a moment to remember where the conversation with her friends had paused before the interruption, but smiled once she did. “How about this, Pinkie. We let everypony have a good night sleep, and we can make all the cupcakes you want afterwards.”

“Twi’s right, Pinkie. Forcing ponies to do something they don’t want won’t lead to no good,” Applejack interjected.

“Fine… But I’m still taking a bunch of sweets to the meeting and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!” Pinkie exclaimed, making her words with a pout.

“I can help with that,” Spike chimed in, smiling a mischievous grin which spoke loudly about his true intentions.

Twilight giggled at the sight. On some level, she found odd how easily she could laugh, considering the stress over the past days. However, maybe that’s why it was so easy. She needed something positive in her life at that moment. She’d have to check the logic of that with Pinkie. At the thought of that, she let out a hearty laugh.

“Let’s go, girls. We should check on Fluttershy and Rarity before it gets too late,” Twilight said as she started walking to the edge of town, followed by her friends.

---

Twilight took a long sip of her tea. With closed eyes, she enjoyed the warmth of her beverage before setting down the cup and looking at her friends.

“It’s so good to know you’re alright, girls,” she said, smiling.

“Likewise, dear,” Rarity replied, “I wish we could’ve dropped by sooner, though.”

“Oh, I’m sure Twilight had plenty of things to do,” Fluttershy was quick to interject.

“That still doesn’t excuse it, I should’ve found the time to come see you.” Twilight would’ve continued, but she was interrupted by Spike.

“Don’t listen to her, she’s been busy as Tartarus trying to solve this whole thing,” the little dragon said, playfully elbowing her on her side.

“And don’t let her tell you otherwise,” AJ added, shooting Twilight a sidelong glance.

“Sounds like you’ve had quite an interesting couple of days,” Rarity said, nursing her cup of tea.

“More than you can imagine… Enough about that, how have you girls been?” Twilight asked them with an eager tone. Perhaps she was trying to make up for not seeing them by making as much small talk as possible, though she did want to know.

Fluttershy gave her a smile before she started speaking, all previous worry now forgotten, “Well, um, I was tending to my animals. They’ve been quite stressed lately, but I’m doing my best to help them relax.”

Pinkie brightened up at that, and was quick to express her thoughts, “Oh, would you like me to throw them a little animal party?”

“I, uh… Don’t think that’d be such a great idea, Pinkie,” Applejack replied.

Far from backing down, Pinkie Pie puffed her cheeks and gave her friends a hard look before letting out all air in her lungs, seemingly deflating in the process. “I know… It’s just that I really want to feel useful right now, because I feel there isn’t much I can do as a whole because, well, everypony is so bummed out and, duh… Of course they are, but still, it makes me wish I could do something for them, and I don’t really know if there even is something I can do. I mean, you’re right AJ. What good would a party do right now? That’s not going to cheer them, that’s not going to give everypony back their cutie marks. This is not a fear we can just laugh away, and I’m running out of ideas…” Pinkie trailed off, hanging her head in defeat.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group showed varying degrees of bafflement, ranging from Rarity and Fluttershy’s blank stares, to Applejack and Twilight’s faces of utter shock.

After the silence hanged above them for far too long, Fluttershy broke their spellbound daze and spoke, “Ummm… Pinkie, are you alright?”

“Oh, of course I am,” she said, immediately cheering up, “I just have to keep trying and I’ll find a way to cheer ‘em up. It’ll just take a bit longer, but Pinkie Pie is no quitter!”

The whole room breathed a sigh of relief at her words.

“Huh… I thought that was going in a completely different direction,” Spike muttered while Twilight pretended she didn’t feel the same way.

Rarity then walked towards Pinkie and gently held hooves with her. “It’s good to know your spirits are still up, dear. Blue is definitely not your colour,” she added with a wink which got a few giggles out of their pink friend.

“What about you, Rarity? How have you been?” Twilight asked and only got a lopsided smile as an answer.

“As good as one can be, I suppose,” Rarity said after a moment, “I’ve tried to focus on making dresses, but inspiration has eluded me for the best part of a week.”

“Can’t imagine what happened with Green Jewel’s dress yesterday will help much,” Applejack mentioned, and immediately regretted doing so once she saw the look on Rarity’s eyes. “Shucks… Sorry, Rares. I don’t mean nothing by that.”

Rarity kept her gaze fixed on her friend for a few seconds before her eyes softened and a sigh escaped her lips. “No, AJ, you’re right. I fear getting new dresses is probably the last thing in anypony’s mind.”

“What happened to Green Jewel?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight was quick to answer, “Yesterday at Town Hall, everypony saw Green Jewel lost her cutie mark when a stallion ripped her dress by accident.”

“Hard to believe it was only yesterday,” Applejack said, talking to herself more than to the rest of the girls, “so much has happened today, it feels almost like a lifetime ago.”

It had been a busy day—one of the busiest Twilight had had since she came to Ponyville—and she knew it was about to get even busier. The group fell into silence once more, though it was short-lived, as Fluttershy soon spoke.

“Do you think she’s alright? Green Jewel, I mean.”

“I checked on her this evening and, all things considered, she was holding out well enough,” Rarity said. “I hope she’s feeling better, though I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t want to go to tomorrow’s meeting.”

Needless to say, ‘well enough’ was a long way from ‘doing well’, but Twilight thought it was an improvement over the general mood the town had presented today, and every bit of optimism would help. Celestia knew she was low on that.

She couldn’t help but frown. The success of tomorrow’s meeting depended on the collaboration of everyone in Ponyville, which could only happen if they went to the meeting. She knew some ponies, those who had been hit the hardest, would probably not go. However, she couldn’t shake the fear that many more wouldn’t go either.

“You girls will go, right?” Twilight said, knowing full well how needy she sounded, but cared little about that. Anything which helped her fight the mental image of an empty Town Hall was welcomed.

“Course I will, Twi,” Applejack replied. “Don’t have much to do back at the farm, so you can bet Apple Family will lend a set of hooves.”

“Oh, me too! Not many ponies are going to Sugarcube Corner, so I don’t think the Cakes will complain if I take a day off or two if it’s for Ponyville’s sake,” Pinkie said with a smile across her face.

“And it should go without saying, but I will be there as well, dear,” Rarity chimed in.

Twilight’s heart swelled with joy and relief at her friend’s reassurance. Just as many times before, no matter how dark things got, they got her back.

At that moment, though, Twilight realised one of her friends had remained characteristically silent. One by one, all eyes turned towards Fluttershy. The shy pony, aware of the attention her silence had earned, looked down at her cup of tea with such intensity, Twilight wondered if she wasn’t trying to find something to say in the leaves of her tea.

“Shy?” Pinkie prodded the pegasus, who was still silent.

“Fluttershy… You don’t have to go to tomorrow’s meeting if you don’t want to, you don't have to force yourself to do so,” Twilight was quick to add, hoping to ease her friend’s mind.

After another prolonged second of silence, Fluttershy set down her cup and looked straight at Twilight.

“I… I will go,” she said with an unwavering tone, and before anyone could object, she spoke again, “You’re right, part of me doesn’t want to go, and it’s not because I’m afraid, thought that’s part of it, too…”

Fluttershy looked wistfully through her window at the town beyond. “I feel I can’t not go. I know there’s probably not much I can do to help, but I have to do my best, just as everypony else will.”

She turned around and gave a small yelp of surprise once she saw everyone staring back at her. This time, however, their looks held nothing but heartfelt admiration and appreciation.

Twilight gave her the biggest smile she’d had since this whole ordeal started, and she felt some of her accumulated stress go away. “Thanks, Fluttershy. That means a lot.”

“Ummm… I mean, I don’t want to be a nuisance, I just want to help,” Fluttershy said.

“And that’s already a lot, Fluttershy,” Twilight continued, “Just as much as it’s needed to decide on a course of action for the rest of town, I was really hoping tomorrow’s meeting would help everypony see they’re not alone in this. That they have a town full of ponies on whom they can rely.”

Looking around, she saw Rarity, Pinkie Pike, Spike, Applejack, and Fluttershy returning her smile, and she knew she didn’t have to say anything else.

Perhaps that was why her body chose that moment to yawn.

“Oh! I’m sorry.”

Rarity was quick to assuage her concerns, though. “Don’t worry dear, we know you’ve had a rough day.”

“Yeah! You helped set up the dome thingy with the guards, and then we carried out a census with the ponies from Town Hall,” Pinkie chimed in. “I’m still not sure how we managed to do all that in just one afternoon, but we did it!”

“Honestly girl, you must be worn slap out after all you’ve done today,” Applejack added.

“And the day before, too,” Spike said, playfully elbowing her side.

“I suppose I’ve been quite active lately…” Twilight said, rubbing her hoof against the cushion.

“I’d say,” Rarity agreed, “you should go back home, dear. It’s getting quite late as well.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to worry my family. Big Mac must’ve told them what happened, but still. Should let them know everything’s alright,” AJ said, standing up and stretching her back.

“Oh, I should go back and check on the Cakes, too!”

“You should all be getting back home before it gets too late,” Fluttershy said. “We’ll see each other tomorrow.”

“We will,” Twilight said, a small smile tugging at her lips. She didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, but at that moment, surrounded by her friends, Twilight managed to feel a bit optimistic.

Comments

[rip4thwall]

Fluttershy… You don’t have to go to tomorrow’s meeting if you don’t want tom you don't have to force yourself to do so,”

No, I don't think Fluttershy wants Rarity's giant rock.

[Zaid ValRoa]

I only now realise that my hidden line in the description is no longer hidden if you use the site’s Night Mode. That’ll teach me to be clever...

8838018
Thanks for the catch. It’s fixed.

[Boltstrike58]

Alright, I thought this fic was dead!

[lightningman]

8838080
extremely funny it was though to make that mistake.

[TheGreatEater]

“Come on, I’m reformed now! I’m all about smiles and rainbows now,” Discord shot back as he played with puppet versions of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.”

remove " mark at the end.
_______________

She wasn’t sure how to feel. A part of her still wished they all could’ve been saved by Discord, the Princesses, or even the elements of Harmony, but by this point she had already accepted that nobody would. Nobody but themselves.

Cap (part of their proper name)
____________________

“But this bigger than me, bigger than any single pony. This affects all of us, and we have to work together to get out of this mess.”

this is
____________

And so another hectic day ends for the people of Ponyville. I look forward to the next chapter. This is a pretty interesting ride, and good thinking on Discord's part on his reason not to just snap his fingers to do what he wants ... if it'd even end up like the pony's would hope it would.

[Zaid ValRoa]

8842562
Thanks a bunch for these, pal. Even with a spellchecker, mistakes always find a way to sneak in.
Oh, and regarding Granny Smith’s use of ‘Ah’ rather than ‘I’ while the rest fo her family consistently use ‘I’ was just my way of marking her accent more. I’ll go over her lines in previous chapters and try to normalise it anyway.
I’m glad you liked the latest chapter, and I hope the next one won’t take as much (knowing my track record, though, I’ll write most of it in a couple of days, and then agonise over one scene for half a year)
Anyway. Thanks again, and see you around next time!

[TheGreatEater]

8842637
You're welcome, and I'll look forward to them.

As for Granny Smith, my main thing was her using I's in all of her dialog other than a few random appearances (even in the same chapter). But why'd her accent be thicker than how you write the other Apples? I mean if they grew up with her, and she practically raised them. Wouldn't they, like in the show pick up and carry on the same accent they were raised with?

Still. Good job all-in-all, and rather than agonizing you might want to get an editor / pre-readers (if for nothing else to see how a scene work out / if it needs changing.). But from what I've seen so far, you make some rather good calls for the finished product ^_^.