The Stallion and the Girl, Finale
“Duniya yaara rang-birangi' naal”
-Daler Mehndi
“DJ, you’re spacing out again.” Dr. Erica McAllister, M.D., Eq.D., looked at her lifelong best friend. “If you’re not feeling well, we can do this later.”
“Yeah, sorry, just…thinking about the past. Never thought this day would ever come,” she said, raising her arm and seeing her “engagement ring.” “Ten years together, and Mike and I are finally getting married.” She squealed in happiness, but then it faded away as she said, “It almost never came.”
“DJ, it’s been ten years now! Princess Celestia sent you back here because she knew this is where you belonged, girl – amongst your people! For crying out loud, girl, you’re finally getting married!”
“Yeah, even if Lyra beat me to it,” she said petulantly.
“She’s going to kill you for saying that,” Erica pointed out. “Besides, your love life has been better than mine as of late. You try being one of the world’s few equiniatric doctors and having the time to date.”
The two women were in the forward room of the Delectable Moments Catering Company in Alexandria, located in the old Torpedo Factory, planning for DJ’s wedding; Erica, as maid of honor, had come along to help start the process. He had just proposed to the humanized pony three weeks ago, but unfortunately his leave was over and DJ tearfully saw him head back to Bahrain, though he’d promised her that when he returned they would be together for good. In the meanwhile, he’d left DJ with planning the whole of the wedding, though everyone she knew offered to help; considering Mike’s problems everything within the Fifth Fleet area of operations, DJ was wondering who had the worse of the two issues.
“So Lyra recommended this place,” DJ commented. “She knows enough chefs, bakers, etc. – Lord knows Pinkie or AJ would have done it in a heartbeat – but she wanted them to just enjoy the wedding. But she said this was the place.”
“Good afternoon and welcome to Del…DJ? DJ Martinez? Is that you?” Both DJ and Erica looked up to see a stately young blonde standing there, looking as professional as can be.
“Valerie Anderson?”
“Well, Valerie Dawson, now – got married about five years ago, in college,” she said, rushing over to hug the other two. “So, who’s the lucky woman?”
Woman? Both DJ and Erica looked at each other – like the hug, Valerie being nice to DJ.
She picked up on that instantly. “Yes, woman. That’s always what you wanted to be, DJ; it was never what I called you when I should have recognized your personhood.” The blonde fell silent for a minute before adding, “Look…DJ…if you want to turn around and leave, I can’t stop you. I was absolutely horrible to you during our high school years and I’ve never had the chance to apologize to you. You humiliated me that one day with your ‘alien queen’ bit and caused my friends to leave me—”
“They’d already left you by that point,” Erica said. “They just hadn’t admitted it. Brittney, especially.”
“Yes, she showed me how stupid I was for thinking she was an idiot, especially when she started hanging with the Drama Class folks,” Valerie chuckled bitterly. “Then you went through that hell regarding finding out who you really were, nearly getting raped by your own kind and nearly losing everything you had. But all I could think about back then is how much you deserved all that – God, was I ever such a petty bitch. How did you put up with me?”
“Truthfully? After the hell I went through, you were just a breeze in the hurricane,” DJ answered.
“I…see. Well, I’m asking your forgiveness now, DJ. I’m sorry I did all those things to you, and I didn’t even realize it until I had my ass handed back to me in college. Not going into that, but it taught me just a little bit about humility just a little lot too late.” Unexpectedly, Valerie got on her hands and knees. “Don’t laugh – I always swore if I ever saw you again, I’d do this to prove I’m serious.”
“Don’t, please.” DJ was feeling a little self-conscious about Valerie’s prostration, while Erica just laughed. When Valerie refused to get up, DJ got down to her haunches and said, “If you don’t, we’re going to talk about that egg thing.”
Valerie laughed. “I can’t believe I was stupid enough to fall for that.”
“Well, no one knew about ponies at the time, so…” DJ shrugged, then helped Valerie to her feet.
“Yeah. After all that time, all the insults about being called a pony…only to find out your species is called ‘pony’. You okay with that?”
“No, but then again, I don’t really care. As far as I’m concerned, I’m a human. I’m just pony-shaped,” DJ said. She then added, “And for what it’s worth, I forgave you a long time ago, Valerie. I have enough problems in my life without holding on to the petty ones.”
“Thank you,” the blonde said, brushing some hair out of her face. “So, then, let’s get back to business, if that’s okay with you.”
“About time,” Erica said as the trio took seats by the table.
“So who’s the lucky one?”
“Me,” DJ said. “You already know the guy – it’s Mike.”
Valerie’s mind nearly short-circuited at that mention. “You’re still with Mike? But it’s been over a decade!”
“Yeah, they know how to bring the drama,” Erica laughed, patting DJ on the back. “But you know our girl here: never does anything the easy way.”
“So, why so long?”
“Both college and then afterwards him being stationed overseas in a very unfriendly place,” DJ said glibly, “But he gets stationed in San Diego next year and we’re getting married just before he goes there.”
“Stationed? He joined the military?” Valerie asked as she brought out the menu lists.
DJ and Erica began to pour over them. “Yeah. Erica’s dad recommended him for the Naval Academy and Mike became a naval officer. He’s currently a lieutenant junior grade for Fifth Fleet in the Middle East.” She then mused, “This seems interesting.”
“I’ll go bring some. We’re always cooking small batches of things to try. Would you care for something to drink?”
“Sure.”
While Valerie went to go get some of the hors d'oeuvres and drinks, Erica whispered, “DJ, are you sure about this?”
The humanized pony nodded. “Yes. Lyra recommended the place, and she wouldn’t steer me wrong. Though I’m sure she didn’t know the backstory between me and Valerie.”
“I figured that. But can you deal with her?”
“I dealt with Rarity and Silversteel and their bigotry for my parents; I dealt with Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo trying to make my life miserable every chance they could while I was in Equestria. I can certainly deal with this.”
A couple of seconds later, Valerie came back with a tray of sparkling cider with glasses and some selections from the menu DJ picked. “The cider’s from an orchard in Equestria, designed to mimic champagne as much as possible – and it’s non-alcoholic, so no worries.” The two ladies nibbled on some of the brie spread while Valerie poured the cider. “It’s just strange seeing you here of all people, especially considering who came in last week. We’re doing the catering for Brittney’s wedding.”
“Really? She’s getting married? Wow. Tell her I said hi next time you see her.”
“Will do; she’s performing with the National Shakespearean Theatre at Wolf Trap this weekend. I can probably get you tickets, if you’re interested. I’m sure she’d love to see you two.”
“Sure,” DJ commented.
“That makes me wonder. What happened to everyone else? Haven’t heard from anyone in years – well, except for Trainwreck; every time the Seahawks play on TV he’s there arguing with a ref. I swear he does it just to keep his rep up in the world of football.”
“Well,” Erica started, “I’m a doctor now, working at the Equiniatric Medicine division at Johns Hopkins. Carlos just passed the bar and is an immigration attorney working for my dad.”
“As for me, well, I started work on my second novel. First one sold okay, nothing gangbusters – I’m hoping that The Frozen Atlas will sell better than its predecessor.”
“You’re an author? Wow – and I thought becoming a party planner was the tops, not that this is a race or anything. What about the others? Logan? Marcy?”
“Well, Logan’s a disk jockey in Los Angeles now. He and I both went to college at different universities there; unfortunately we didn’t have as much time to spend together as we’d have liked but he’s still a good friend. I listen to his show every now and then, since he broadcasts it on the web. Very eclectic mix of world music.”
“World music? Never would have expected that from him,” she admitted, before adding, “but…I guess I really didn’t know him as well as I thought I did. After all, I was interested in having the hottest guy in school on my arm, not about how he actually felt.” She had a bemused look on her face before continuing. “What about Marcy?”
DJ sighed. “We’ve kept in touch. She was hurting for about two years, going to a special high school for teens with serious mental issues. She’s okay now, though she’ll be on drugs for the rest of her life. I have to wonder if any of you knew about her particular past?”
“Well, I knew she came from a home so broken that she was living with her aunt and uncle….”
“Worse than that, and I want you to keep this under your hat.” DJ looked to Erica, who gave her a “your call” look before trying another bite of the duck pâté.
“I wouldn’t have anyone who would understand,” Valerie said, “though certainly I wouldn’t say a thing now.”
“Marcy…she was born with a chemical imbalance in the brain because of who her parents were. Her parents…they were…brother and sister; the brother, Marcy’s father, ran off when he found out and Marcy’s mother abandoned her shortly after birth; according to Marcy’s cousin David no one in their family has ever heard from them again. Marcy’s aunt, who was Marcy’s parents’ older sister, took the baby in, but medical tests showed that she had that imbalance. They’d had her on medicine until high school, when they thought that she’d be fine, but…Mike unintentionally triggered a relapse.”
“How so?” Valerie suddenly felt a thousand times small for what she’d done to the girl; worse, she knew that the person she’d been wouldn’t have cared and probably would have made things worse.
“Marcy sent me and Mike a picture. Turns out that Mike looks very similar to her father and something inside her just lost it. As for how’s she’s doing now, she’s a counselor for RAINN, trying to help others who are in the same situation she is. She lives in South Dakota with her husband and two kids – adopted, since her genes are too messed up to have kids naturally, she said – though she travels around the country a lot when her job requires it.” DJ’s eyes narrowed. “Forgive me for saying this, but for what Serena did to her? I don’t think I could ever forgive it.”
Valerie was silent for the longest time. Finally, she said, “You won’t have to. Serena’s dead.”
The other two women were surprised by that. “What happened?”
“Remember that everyone joked that she was so far in the closet she refused to admit there was a closet? Well, fast forward to the first year of college. She and I had made up by that time and went to a party over in Roslyn. Anyway, she got drunk – very drunk. When all of us found her, she was in bed with two other girls going at it like they were trying to repopulate the entire human race. She was not only tossed out of the closet, she was publicly humiliated: pictures taken as the three of them continued, and I was too drunk to try to stop any of it.”
A sad look came onto Valerie’s eyes as she continued. “When she sobered up, she was devastated. All those years she swore she wasn’t a lesbian only to find out in the hardest way possible. Both of the other two girls didn’t know and actually tried to fight over which one was going to be her lover, but it only made things worse for her, since she was horrified to find out that she was attracted to them both. But she didn’t want any of that, didn’t want to admit the truth to herself and so she took the easy way out.”
Neither DJ nor Erica said a thing, though the looks on their faces said they wanted to know.
“She just jumped off an overpass onto Interstate 66 one day in the middle of full traffic – the bridge by Merrifield Station. Her suicide note was hysterical, swore that she wasn’t a lesbian and that she made a drunken mistake. But we all knew…and we didn’t say a thing. And that, more than making your life miserable, DJ, will be the cross that I will bear for the rest of my life: that I couldn’t help her when she needed it.”
DJ went to say something, but instead, shut up. Suddenly planning the catering for her wedding just got less important.
“I’m sorry,” Valerie sobbed, burying her head in her hands. “Seeing you again just brought everything into the open, every stupid little pathetic thing that I was, everything I’ve lost and everything I’ve become a failure at.” The party planner broke down into tears.
DJ got up, then went over and hugged her. “Valerie, I’m speaking to you – not the person you were,” she said, taking the blonde’s face in her “hands”. “We are all a part of our experiences, so I was told, and they make us who they are. My aunt, Twilight Sparkle – one of my pony relatives – said that without experiences, we are nothing and without friendship, we are even less than that.”
“So, what, you’re offering your friendship?”
“Well, as she’s told me more than once, ‘Friendship is Magic.’”
Valerie gave DJ a wan smile, then the two embraced, letting out the tension of a lifetime, remaining that way for several minutes. When it seemed to have passed, Valerie smiled and said, “Well, before I forget, we have your wedding to plan, don’t we?”
“Yes,” DJ answered, “and those are the words I’ve wanted to hear for the longest time.” The trio then sat down and started looking over the details in full as DJ started to prepare for the next chapter of her life.
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Aw, man. That's not hilarious, that's mildly heartwarming. Shame on you for making me feel positive emotions.
852831
That's ultimately for the readers to decide.
.851874
It's the curse of the EqD! AAAAAAhhhhhhh!
852852 And I see you put another one in here. There's a pretty big difference between this story's Pinkie is a guest and AAG's Pinkie fires the party cannon.
A little bit of happiness a little bit of tragedy makes the world go round and round. A side story of the wedding would be nice...if you don't mind.
852883
Pinkie was a guest at Lyra's wedding, not the caterer, both because Lyra wanted her friend to have fun (that and Pinkie probably doesn't know the meaning of kosher.)
ahhh I was hoping you would continue with the fight
852852
You know, I'm still curious about what exactly the pre-readers said to you in-regards to your rejection. I can't quite find the previous comments about it either.
Awesome!
And while I read these two chapters I was (unintentionally) playing Catsgroove in a loop, and it worked for me.
Lastly for the author; by any chance do you have a IV of power thirst stuck to you or something?
853508
Not that I'm aware of anyway.
853518
well then just keep being awesome then.
That is totally not the ending I would have banked on for this story arc.
It's better than the ending I would have banked on for this story arc.
853898
Oh, how so?
853929
Because instead of exiting metaphorical stage left as a defeated and humiliated villain and never being seen in-story again, or worse yet coming back as a "bitter former popular girl" type, Valerie actually grew as a character and became a decent human being complete with a sense of remorse for her actions back then. She even made up with DJ when they met again. As I understand it, that's not exactly a common ending either in fiction or real life for this sort of thing.
Then again, I'm starting to wonder why I was betting on something along the lines of "if Valerie shows up again she'll still be antagonistic" given how the sidestories and the main story itself have turned out so far. It doesn't seem like the kind of plot you'd write now that I think about it - there's a lot of redemption and forgiveness as a theme in these stories.
858514
Oh noez Ive bin publicalalalalalaly humiliatedalized!
Good thing that you caught that before the current chapter of AAG mentioned yet more physics I have no clue about.
I'll fix it as soon as I think of how to rewrite that scene.
EDIT: there, fixed into something even less coherent.
876613
Who says she's a goddess? In fact, the princesses regularly deny that they are - it's their followers that insist that they are. Is Faust ridiculously powerful? Yes - but that doesn't make her a god. Should she have done it? Probably not, but she was doing what she thought was right - whether it actually was, the ramifictions are yet to be seen.
Oh, and Faust (the alicorn) isn't the same as Lauren Faust. The latter exists on human-Earth, but since FIM was never made, she has absolutely no tie to Equestria.
888529
It's clear why: they wanted to see humanity from the point of view of being with one on an extended basis (remember that Celestia only spent a couple of weeks on HE the first time.) It's just that Luna got more than what she bargained for.
And Robin's not really a badass; he's more of a lover, not a fighter.
BRICSK is a fictional alliance based on the real-world BRICS designation (of the largest growing economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.) In the story, Kenya was added and the group forms a counterbalance to NATO though not in a bad way.
I rate all these side stories
/5
They give background and extra fun to the main story's universe while still being interesting in their own regard.
I'd like to see the Foalnapping thing happen firsthand, or the actual meeting between DJ and the Mane Six plus families... one of the other side stories implied that there was more there than meets the eye... And although I would jump for joy, no, I am not implying that one of them is a transformer.
I love all of these sidestories, they're great world building, Marcy got off pretty lucky, if you want a real look at inbreeding, wiki Charles II of Spain