"Loyalties Lead To Betrayal"
Loyalty? Yeah. That's me! Rainbow Dash! The one and only! Best flyer around and the most loyal pony you can find! What? AJ says she's the most dependable of ponies? Well! I'll just have to show her how it's done! I have a reputation to keep after all. Who do you THINK would be Loyalty besides yours truly?
Fluttershy with her animals? Sorry, she's sweet and everything and you can't find a nicer pony but she folds like a deck of cards if you push her just right.
Pinkie Pie? Sure she's -fun- you can give her that. But . . . I kinda know from personal experience that she kinda can jump to the wrong conclusions about her friends.
Rarity? No. Sorry. No.
Twilight Sparkle? Okay, I guess she is kinda lovingly devoted to the Princess the way a filly is to her mother. But like any filly and her mama she's willing to bend what her 'mother' wants if Twilight thinks she knows best.
Back to AJ huh? Look. I'll admit she's hard working: it nearly killed her once (AND ME!). And she's always stuck by her family. . . . look I'm not any good at this philosophical stuff okay?! I just know the Element of Loyalty chose me! And I'm pretty sure these magical whatcha-ma-call-its don't make those kinds of mistakes! Do they? No they don't!
I rejected those Shadow Bolts fakes' 'get famous quick' scheme.
So I went nuts over those Gala tickets, we all did!
So AJ carried Fluttershy up the mountain instead of me, doesn't prove a thing.
I gave Applebloom advice on how to find her cutie mark. And I'm always willing to order around, er, help Scootaloo find hers.
I got infected by Poison Joke for my buddies following what we all thought was a dangerous witch!
So I broke nearly every rule in the book during the Running of the Leaves Race, so did AJ!
When Rarity was falling to her death, -after- she had ruined my routine and, er, disturbed my confidence just slightly, and had just accidentally KO'ed my idols, I pulled off a stunt that was thought to be impossible just to save her!
And I helped Fluttershy with her image when she was a model . . . how was I supposed to know she hated it?
. . . So I took the Buffalo's point of view that one time, it wasn't like I tried to FIGHT MY FRIENDS when that five minute war broke out!
And you KNOW I didn't give up and walk away from Pinkie Pie when she was . . . having issues . . . even when I had to drag her to her own birthday party kicking and screaming . . .
And I got my cutie mark to begin with for Fluttershy . . . okay . . . so I kinda got it thinking about how much I loved to fly and loved winning more . . . so I didn't even bother to think about checking on her or asking her what happened after. Look you think ponies stay the same their whole lives-?!
The point is that the Element of Loyalty chose me, and I'm doing my hardest to show I'm worthy of it.
Of course there was that one time . . . I had to choose loyalties. I had to chose between the friend I -thought- I knew and had known for a long time, and the new friends I had made and who had exposed their souls to me more or less.
I'm fairly sure I made the right choice. Considering what happened with the friends I've chosen, and finding out what the friend I thought I knew did.
Weather's gone crazy. A raincloud did NOT just make a foal out of me. Summon by the Princess. Time to save the world again.
Elements of Harmony stolen.
A stupid windowpane has the gall to take my declaration that I'll always be loyal to Princess Celestia like it was challenge! I'm the one who takes up challenges!
Maze? Easy-peasy. MY WINGS! Fluttershy's wings! My wings! Rarity and Twilight's horns. My wings!
Into the maze. Separated. No other choice. Make it to the center.
I see my cutie mark floating around . . . my Element? Has to be!
Discord. Jerk is acting like he's on vacation!
'A weighty choice is yours to make,
The right selection or a big mistake.
If the wrong choice you choose to pursue,
The foundations of home will crumble without you?'
AGH! I HATE RIDDLES! Give me action any time of day! Wings or no I'll make you eat those words and those stupid horns!
Then he shuts me up.
And I feel like something inside me breaks in two.
Less than a minute later I'm flying out of the maze straight towards home and not my house above Ponyville. I'm going where I was born and where every member of my family and nearly every last one of my classmates are. I hear AJ call out to the others I'm abandoning them even if she thinks I can't. I hear the maze fall apart behind me.
I know we're gonna save the world no matter what. Just because I've betrayed myself and you guys doesn't mean I've lost my confidence. I know we're gonna beat Discord. I know everything will be back to normal before we know it and none of us will speak of this again just like Pinkie Pie's little 'episode.'
Makes me wish I hadn't changed one bit since we all met. Back then, I might have let Cloudsdale fall apart, it was just 'some place I came from' I didn't think of it as still home. Then I won the Yearly Best Young Flyers Competition. Then I finally earned the respect of my classmates and my heroes. Finally it was a place I didn't dread returning to.
I know you Twilight, if not you then Fluttershy or Pinkie Pie. You'll say Discord tricked me. That he enchanted me. Something, anything as long as it's not my fault. Because you don't want to believe I'd ever do this. I'll let you think that. I'll tell myself that too. Then maybe the broken pieces inside me will stop stabbing.
Makes me glad I'm not the Element of Honesty. And that you guys are friends that a backstabber like me isn't worthy of having are so dang trusting!
After all, I'm the Element of Loyalty, there's no way I'd EVER do this -willingly!- That's what I'm counting on at least.
You'll fix me Twilight, you'll make these feelings go away: You'll use some new magic spell or maybe the Elements, or maybe you'll tell me some point of loyalty I've been missing. I don't know how but I know it'll happen. We always come out on top even when it seems impossible.
I'll fight you every inch of the way, you'll have to drag me kicking and screaming back into the light from this dark place. Because that's what needs to happen. But you'll catch me, you'll subdue me, you'll cure me. And it'll be like I never did anything wrong.
Heck. Maybe I won't remember a dang thing about this whole mess when it's over and I'm 'fixed.' Or maybe I'll remember it the way I want to remember: 'Not my own choice.' I can hope.
But you'll 'cure me,' I'll be well again, and Discord will be just a bad memory we'll never talk about.
I'm sorry for every pony in Ponyville I just betrayed, I'm sorry Princess, I've betrayed you too.
But I couldn't betray my home guys, not after it finally means something to me again.
I guess this is what happens when you're loyal to more than one thing, you end up having to betray one for the other. What was it that musty old teacher said in that class I mostly slept through? 'A pony can not serve two masters.'
Before I made a choice between you guys and Gilda, and now I've made a choice between Cloudsdale and you.
Guys, for what it's worth, I'm sorry.
-Traitor Dash
Confused Rainbow is confused. (why she ditched them)
Rainbow, technically was loyal o her home, going when she thought it was crumbling.
There were parts of that that I especially loved, the short, concise parts.
Spike?
Fair enough.
True...
I feel bad for laughing at this.
Fair enough.
All right.
True.
True.
True, she is an earth pony, greater physical strength overall and stuff...
I'll pretend I didn't hear the ordering part.
True, true.
Granted.
True, and the only thing you were thinking about then, was saving Rarity and the Wonderbolts.
I'll give you that.
No one wants to fight their friends.
Practically literally.
Of course not!
Atta pony!
Yeah, that had to be tough.
You did Rainbow. You did.
Wanna bet? Also, like it was A challenge.
I suspect that hit Rainbow harder than she'd like to admit.
Unfortunately not...
He's just trying to rile you up.
Discord's Sadistic Choice...
Wings or noT, you mean. You'll change your tune in a minute.
Ouch...
Unfortunately it won't be that easy.
Yeah...
Ouch, that must really have hit her hard...
You're not a backstabber Rainbow, Discord gave you no choice, you'd be betraying someone either way...
If only it were that easy.
Your confidence is admirable.
Right on all accounts but the last.
Hope, so cruel sometimes.
If only, if only.
She'll understand I'm sure.
It's Ok, we forgive you.
Ouch...
...
This, is a real Tear Jerker, ya know that Alex?
Loyalty is a difficult thing.
Especially when you're given a choice.
Friends of old or new?
The ones you love, or your family?
Reputation, or Happiness of others?
Decisions that have no clear out come.
Again, Loyalty is a difficult thing.
Did RD make the right choice? Family or nation? What would you choose?
8580359
It's hard for there to BE a right choice.
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Truly the eyes of somepony in complete control of the situation.
This is deep on so many levels
9249123
Thanks! I hope the rest of the story entertains ye! Thank you for the comment!
yeah, that moment 'something inside broke in two' is the moment Discord gave her the swirly eyes. Though admittedly, even if Discord hadn't cheated a little, it still is a pretty decent dilemma, even if Discord was almost certainly lying and going to mess with Cloudsdale if he won anyway.
My headcanon is that if Sunset had become the Bearer of Magic, like I assume Celestia was planning back then, Big Mac would've been her Loyalty. (The Apple family are all about two things, after all: Apples and Family.)
10976019
Logical. It's pretty obvious that Sunset was Celestia's original choice... which is why I hate the symbols on the tree of harmony, since it implies Sunset could never prove worthy and Twilight would ALWAYS prove worthy.
If Celestia hadn't gone and ignored Twilight's friends in Canterlot, Lyra Heartstrings, Moon Dancer, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, and Twinkle Shine... who would have been what? Or did Celestia ignore them BECAUSE they didn't fit those virtues? (Either way, Amending Fences makes Twilight retroactively a jerk that she didn't think twice of them AS friends.)
9674905
The 'where am I?' I admit kinda killed me inside... as it made the Pony POV Series' entire foundation based on a flawed assumption (ponies recovering from their painful memories corrupted by Discord).