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It was a beautiful very early spring morning. The stars were gone, but the sky was black as pitch, and the ground was still cloaked in the muzzy darkness of the end of the night. Into this morning, Rainbow Dash awoke feeling refreshed and ready to go. She jumped out of her bed of clouds, and stretched out her sleek, cerulean wings, making sure everything was in order. She took a few minutes to carefully nibble and tug at each primary, but like the rest of the world, her wings were nice and straight.
Rainbow Dash reached for the Hay-Me-O’s like she usually had, but hesitated before her arm closed on the box and smiled to herself. Might as well indulge today, considering that she and her friends had just saved the whole world. She went and got something a bit tastier instead.
It was hard to believe it was only the day before yesterday that the world was in so much peril. Rainbow Dash had been so messed up, she didn’t stand a chance on her own, but then her friends came for her, and saved her, and they all kicked that weird creature’s butt right back into the stone he came from. That’s what she put in her diary at least. Rainbow Dash: world saver. World... defender. Royal world guard. She had to scratch out a lot of possibilities there, never really settled on one.
That was the nice thing about a diary is since nopony was going to read your loopy, squiggly mouthwriting, you didn’t have to worry about making it presentable. Mostly what Dash wrote about that day was how incredible it was that her friends came back for her, even when she wouldn’t listen, and saved her from that awful fear and hatred that filled her, that made her feel like everypony was her enemy. It was just an amazing feeling waking up from that, and knowing you had what it takes to save the day.
That morning, Rainbow peered idly at the slowly growing daylight on the horizon out her window as she ate her breakfast. She quickly got through that tasty lemon blueberry muffin she’d been saving for a special occasion, finishing it off with a tall glass of rainwater. Some final calisthenics, and she zoomed out of her apartment.
The party was over, the celebrations concluded, and this morning her life could finally go back to normal. And that started with her job in cloud busting. With how fast she was, Rainbow Dash wasn’t even slightly worried about being late. She couldn’t call herself Rainbow Dash after all, if she was so slow that she left her workmates hanging!
Her supervisor was a yellow furred redhead called Strawberry Sunrise. A nice mare, strict but fair, Dash had to respect her planning skills, even if a certain blue pegasus could fly circles around her. Strawberry saw Dash coming, and Dash was a little puzzled as the supervisor dropped her clipboard and stared, her jaw hanging open in shock.
“Ready and reporting for duty!” Rainbow Dash said as she swooped up, smirking as she figured she must have wowed her boss, by how she zoomed right up there, and stopped on a dime.
“Rainbow Dash?!” Ms. Strawberry said, beside herself with confusion. “What are you doing here?”
Dash paused, and looked at her supervisor uncertainly, saying, “I... work here? It isn’t the weekend, is it?”
“But you’re on time!” the mare blurted out.
Rainbow figured this was a joke or something, so she said, “You bet I am. When am I ever not on time? Ponyville’s counting on us to give them the weather they need!”
The supervisor blinked several times, before giving an unruly grin and saying, “Oh I don’t even care. We need twenty cubits of cumulus ready to ship to the west side of town before sunrise. You think you’re up to the task?”
“I was born up to the task,” Dash said smugly, shooting off to get her clouds together, barely noticing in the back of her mind the supervisor saying dryly “Well at least that hasn’t changed,” while Rainbow Dash flew away from her.
It was hard work, but it was rewarding to see ponies down there on the ground, looking up at the rain ready to come down overhead. The sky was a grey indigo as Dash hustled, but by the time it was a bright sparkling blue overhead, and the sun peeked over the horizon, everypony below would only see a soft grey. She, along with her coworkers had the morning rainstorm going.
With Discord’s meddling in the everything of everything, the pegasus ponies had a lot of weather management to catch up on. Thankfully the Elements of Harmony had cleaned out all his nasty pink clouds, but that left ponies like Dash there to ensure that Ponyville had a nice peaceful summer. And she wasn’t gonna let them down.
What was less pleasant that day was dealing with her coworkers. So Rainbow Dash showed up first for work, so what? She wasn’t trying to show up anypony else, or put anypony down, like Blossomforth seemed to think. Everypony else loved how helpful she was. Dash was probably the best weather pony they had, and she made sure to make full use of her abilities. She didn’t do things part way, and it didn’t mean anything was wrong, just because they kept giving her strange looks when they thought she wasn’t looking.
To make matters worse, Rainbow Dash was still tired from the party, so she kept running out of steam. It was embarassing having to take a break to catch her breath after just an hour. She didn’t remember what Pinkie got her to drink last night, but Rainbow was certainly going to have a bone to pick with her friend, if Pinkie tried to prank Dash by slipping her some questionable juice. But Dash’s determination didn’t wane, and she knew she’d be more than recovered by tomorrow, and not embarassing herself here getting worn out halfway through the day.
She wasn’t recovered by tomorrow. Over the next few days, Dash started to think that maybe something was wrong. She wasn’t recovering, and her friends weren’t acting normal either. When her five best friends met for a weekly picnic, Twilight in particular was acting really standoffish. “Oh, don’t mention it,” she’d say distractedly when somepony complimented her on how she dealt with that Discord creep. “It’s really not all that,” she said in regards to their accomplishment. And she didn’t want to look anypony in the eye, just staring off at the farms in the distance the whole time.
Another strange thing Rainbow Dash found were like a ton of bills, and all past due! “Man, I really let myself go,” she grumbled, kissing her sweet bonus goodbye, as she budgeted it to fulfill her outstanding obligations. The weird thing is, Rainbow Dash had the money to pay for this stuff, so why was it even overdue? But the really weird thing is, the bills weren’t in her cloud desk. They were just shoved under her bed!
Rainbow Dash really thought she was maybe coming down with something. Her stamina was just shot. She got worn out like halfway through her shift, and her wings were aching and sore after the second day, of just doing ordinary average weather work! She was honestly puzzled because her tricks were going off without a hitch, but as soon as she tried to do anything steadily, it was like she couldn’t put any effort into something for more than 10 minutes.
But the strangeness didn’t end here up in the skies. Rainbow Dash met with her friend Applejack for lunch a few days later, and Dash might have been a little sore and stiff, but Applejack looked like death warmed over. “Woah,” Rainbow said in some shock, at the exhausted farm pony, “What happened to you?”
“C-comin down with somethin’ maybe,” Applejack said in a weary tone, in between wolfing down her sandwich hungrily. “I just ain’t been as peppy as usual these past few days. Plus mah family just... ah don’t even know what’s goin’ on. Mah family...
“Mah own family don’t trust me!” Applejack said with her voice tinged in a hurt and rage that just came out of nowhere. It was enough to get Rainbow to jerk back from hovering her head over the table, and listening her friend’s troubles.
“Sorry,” Applejack said, taking off her beatup old hat. She was so worked up that her hooves were shaking as she tried to hold it firmly against her chest, “Ah just been awful stressed lately, what with mah family still all actin’... weird. Maybe it’s some sorta lingering effect of Discord?”
“Well, how are they acting weird?” Dash asked curiously.
“Where do ah start!” Applejack crowed vehemently, rolling her eyes. “First, ah said ah was gonna go buck the east orchard, and Granny gets up in mah face all squinty eyed. She makes Apple Bloom go out there to keep an eye on me, like I wasn’t even gonna do it! Apple Bloom! And Apple Bloom didn’t even think that was a strange thing for her to do! That filly should be studyin’, not playing nanny to somepony who don’t need watching over. And ah been tryin’ to take my turn cooking meals, but they won’t let me, on account of ah might make something that didn’t agree with them. Me! You even tasted mah fritters?”
“Doesn’t Granny Smith make those?” Rainbow asked uncertainly, but Applejack shook her head.
“Yep, she sure does, but ah make ‘em too. She taught me herself, like she has been teaching me all mah years, about how to cook up a mean dumpling stew, and fancy rhubarb apple pie, and apple shortbread, and apple cakes, and apple brown betties, and apple—”
“Okay, we get the picture,” Rainbow said hastily. “So they like... think you’ll mess up? They think you’re clumsy or something?”
“That’s the thing...” Applejack sighed, slugging her glass to send water down her parched throat. “They think ah’m gonna do it on purpose. They keep lookin’ at me funny, and they say they’ll listen to me, but they ain’t doin’ it. Ah think Big Macintosh thinks I’m tryin’ to prank him or something. He just won’t take seriously anything ah say.”
“Huh...” Dash said, at a loss to understand.
When Applejack tried to stand, she almost collapsed, if an alarmed Rainbow Dash hadn’t rushed down to catch her! AJ had this monster headache, she said. “Be-better stay a ways away,” she cautioned Rainbow Dash with a shaky forehoof raised to push the pegasus away. “Ah don’t want you catchin’ it. Ah’ll just... make mah way home, and sleep it off.”
“Oh, no,” Rainbow said, stubbornly propping up her friend. “You already gave me this flu. I’m just not as sick yet. We’re both gonna get you home, and then I’m gonna go take a rest myself.”
So, things were still pretty weird in this town. But then again it was Ponyville, and you had to accept a certain amount of weirdness. Rainbow Dash was surprised at how surprised Applejack’s family looked to see Rainbow Dash escorting the orange mare home. They weren’t surprised that Applejack would be all sick and shaky like this, but that somepony would be helping her. Very unsettled, Dash wished Applejack luck with her family, and hoped she’d feel better soon from whatever bug that had gotten them both it seemed.
Things got even weirder though, when Rainbow Dash went in for her bi-weekly young flyer training session. Dash trained every day on her own, and this day she looked forward to, because she could get some expert info on flying, and best of all she got to race with some really awesome fliers.
Who all hated her guts now, for some reason.
It took Dash some time to dig herself out of the cloud barrier before shoving off and blasting to catch up with her “partner.”
“What the hay, Thunderlane?” Rainbow Dash said acidly in his direction. “You knocked me right into the barrier! What is your issue, mare?”
“Feels pretty bad when somepony does it to you, huh?” Thunderlane replied without a whit of remorse or sympathy. “Maybe you should work with us, instead of just trying to be the best, at everypony else’s expense!”
“I am!” Dash retorted furiously, but he just broke formation to fly away from her grumbling,
“I don’t have to listen to this crap.”
Nopony wanted to pair with her after that, and Rainbow Dash ended up getting paired with Drizzle! The slowest, most incompetent member of the team! Drizzle was a sort of dumpy looking mauve pegasus, with a burnt orangey mane in soft curls. Umbrellas as her cutie mark, not exactly speed material. And asking to partner with her was only possible, because Drizzle was a total pushover and couldn’t say no!
“Look, please,” Dash said with a hot blush as she put herself out for Drizzle’s sake. “I can’t find anypony else, and this is a relay team! I know you wanna sit on the sidelines, but I really need your help!”
“I... um... b-but why are you asking me??” Drizzle managed to eke out in her squirrely voice, cringing away from the boldly rainbow pony. Actually cringing away! Dash was afraid to even touch the skinny purple pegasus, because she might break!
“Just... come on,” Rainbow Dash said in a troubled voice, “I promise you it’ll be okay. You might not be our best flier, but you’re important to the team, too!”
Drizzle just kind of fish mouthed, and followed along silently. Dash didn’t know what to do with her, but... at least she didn’t treat Rainbow Dash with outright disdain.
Twilight Sparkle was still acting pretty odd. She met with Dash for lunch, and Twilight was acting bored, even resentful when Dash tried to tell her about her tricks, or the weird stuff going on at her job. Twilight started out friendly enough, but when Dash got into the weirdness of her teammates, Twilight just clammed up and stopped looking her in the eye. The unicorn just hurriedly finished her sandwich, and said she had to be somewhere. Barely left Rainbow Dash with so much as a goodbye.
That bothered Rainbow Dash. She knew things were a little funny with everypony in general, it seemed, but Twilight was her friend. It wasn’t right to leave Twilight all alone with whatever was bothering her. Rainbow Dash wasn’t the smartest pony on the block, but she could see that something serious was bothering her friend, and Twilight wasn’t talking about it. Why else would she be so... distant toward Rainbow Dash, if she wasn’t distracted by something else?
That egghead was probably worrying about some big sciency thing again, and Rainbow Dash was just the pony to get Twilight’s head out of the clouds. Twilight’d be more friendly with Rainbow, once the unicorn wasn’t all stressed out, right? Well Dash tried that, and...
The Ponyville public library, “Golden Oaks” branch wasn’t a very interesting place to be. Rainbow Dash usually wasn’t going there, except to crash in through the window when one of her tricks went bad, but today she made an exception and used the door. Because today she had a reason to be going there: to talk with her amazing friend, Twilight Sparkle.
Rainbow Dash found Twilight at her library, and Twilight was in there talking with a bright green unicorn. That wasn’t alarming in of itself, but the two of them both clammed up as soon as they saw Rainbow Dash come in. The other unicorn galloped out of the library without so much as a hello, and Twilight said a little too slowly, “Oh, hello... Rainbow Dash. Anything I can help you with?”
“Uh... yeah... who was...?” Rainbow said, looking from Twilight to the door and back.
Twilight just looked at her cluelessly.
“Never mind,” Rainbow said. “I just wanted to check and see if you’re okay.”
“Of course I’m okay!” Twilight said quickly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Just wondering what stupid thing I said at lunch the other day, that made you not want to talk to me,” Rainbow said.
Twilight thought about that and said, “Hmm... nope. I can’t think of anything you said that might have bothered me. Listen, Rainbow Dash, I’m simply under a lot of stress with my new... project, and I’m sorry if I acted rudely towards you.”
“What’re ya workin on?” Dash asked curiously, approaching Twilight, who backed up a couple steps and said,
“Oh! Nothing special, just taking the chromeo...manticoremilliliter and arcing the tangent until my statistical summary indicates positive correlations in—”
“Woah, forget I asked,” Rainbow Dash groaned. “I’ll just let you do your whole egghead thing. I just wanted to know if anything was wrong.”
“Nope,” Twilight said with a flat smile. “Nothing at all is wrong. Everything is perfectly fine.”
“...okay then,” Dash said, eyeing Twilight worriedly. Twilight merely stared silently back. “So yeah, cya, I guess.”
“Have a nice day, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said with a smile that didn’t look... right.
Twilight was hiding something, that much was obvious. But what? Rainbow guessed she just had to wait for the unicorn librarian to finish whatever it was. The only reason Twilight would be hiding something, was so she could show it to them all when she was finished, right? That was probably all it was, some special magic trick surprise.
Rainbow Dash got to working with Drizzle pretty closely at those training sessions. Drizzle’s problem wasn’t her wingpower, but her self confidence. Somepony had hurt this mare, just like those bullies had gone after Fluttershy so many years ago. It made Dash’s blood boil to think about it, but Drizzle was absolutely adamant about not saying who it was.
Dash didn’t push her. It wouldn’t be right. But she did slowly draw Drizzle out of her shell. Always being there when Drizzle came up to the finish line, even if it meant losing the relay. Giving her tips. Drizzle had a pinion all misaligned and she didn’t even know it until Dash pulled it straight! And sure enough, Drizzle started to perform better. She just needed a little encouragement. When Drizzle passed 6.75 wingpower on the second meeting, there were tears in her eyes. Rainbow Dash didn’t think Drizzle had ever gone that fast before.
And then Drizzle had a total meltdown.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” she shouted in between sobs, and “Why don’t you hate me?” and something about “giving me a chance” while Dash frantically tried to calm her down. It was really hard to understand a pony who was trying to talk while crying. Their aqua green Coach Sassaflash came up to the two with fire in her eyes, saying,
“I thought this was too good to be true. Look what you did to her, Dash. Do you like it when you do this to ponies?”
“What?!” Dash said with tears in her own eyes now, “No! Why would you even think that? What is wrong with you?”
“Oh, don’t you start on me now,” the older pony retorted hotly. “You just get out of here and spend some time to think on what you’ve done. You can consider yourself suspended until further notice!”
And now Drizzle was melting down at the coach’s hooves, begging her not to bluh blub something, but she couldn’t talk real well, and Rainbow Dash wasn’t really aware of much else besides what the coach had said.
“S... suspended?!” she squeaked. She had never ever ever ever ever ever ever
The coach stared at her oddly. “Just what are you playing at, Rainbow Dash?” she asked in a suspicious voice.
“I’m not playing!” Dash wanted to retort angrily, but she got as far as “I’m not pl—” before she couldn’t make words good anymore either. And it was kind of hard to see as she flew off unsteadily, until she wiped at her eyes. And somepony was crying and Rainbow Dash hated it. What went wrong? What did she do?
“Why was everypony being such a huge jerk to me?” she wrote angrily in her diary, later at her apartment all alone. “I tried my best to be there for them all, and they just wouldn’t let me even get close to them! And the one pony who did, I made her cry! Why was she crying? What’s wrong with everypony? They’re”
Dash stared at that her loopy mouthwriting a while, before scribbling “clearly” next to it. Staring at that mouthwriting for a while longer, she simply had no ideas what was so clearly wrong with these ponies. Rainbow Dash just put her diary in her dresser then, rolled over and pulled the clouds up tightly snug against her sleek, blue body, that everypony hated for some reason. Then she let herself drift into a troubled sleep.
Rainbow Dash was pretty much a zombie at work the next day. At least her coworkers had a good reason to give her strange looks now. She couldn’t wrap her head out of what was going on lately. Hadn’t Discord’s evil magic all been dispelled? Maybe some of it was still sticking around? Why else would ponies be so abrasive towards her all of a sudden? She almost got the thunder clouds mixed up with the lightning clouds, she was so out of sorts that day!
And then who should come flying up, but Coach Sassaflash!
“Rainbow Dash, there you are!” Sassaflash said, flying out of the blue to where Rainbow Dash was working steadily on cloud fluffing. “You did... you really work on the weather team?”
Dash blinked at her coach uncomprehendingly, before frowning and saying, “What, you’re here to make fun of me more? I don’t have to say anything to you. I got suspended, remember?”
“Yes, about that,” Sassaflash said, ears drooping as she looked away, searching for the words. “I got the full story from Drizzle, and apparantly you made her cry from being... too... nice to her?”
“Yeah, I don’t get it,” Dash said, angrily, her tail smacking the fluffy cloud beneath her. “Why does everypony have such a problem if I just want to be nice to them?”
Sassaflash didn’t answer, so Rainbow looked her way, and of course the coach was staring again. Sassaflash collected herself quickly though, and said, “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you are the best flyer I’ve ever seen. That’s why we need you on the team. But if you keep this up, you’re not just gonna be a fast flyer. You’re gonna be something... something else.”
“What are you saying?” Dash said with a pained grimace, “I’m kinda trying to work here, so could you make it quick?”
“What I’m saying is, you’re un-suspended,” Sassaflash said seriously, “And, I’m ...sorry. I need you to come to the next workout and be on your A game. Can you do that for me?”
Rainbow Dash swept her up in a giddy hug, saying, “Oh, thank yousomuch! I promise I won’t make anypony cry ever again and I won’t be a jerk even if other ponies are being jerks about it, and I won’t let you down ma’am!”
Then she noticed her coworkers were looking at her oddly again, and with an awkward smile, Rainbow Dash set Sassaflash on the cloud in progress, saying, “I’ll... just get back to work now.”
“You been working here long?” Sassaflash answered with a curious wariness to her voice. Dash knew exactly what she was talking about, for once.
“Yeah, I know, but it pays the bills,” Rainbow said with a sigh. “I quit school about three years ago, if you’re wondering.”
She didn’t know why ponies thought that was so terrible. It’d been necessary after that whole nasty business with her dad finally came to a head, and it’s not like she was missing anything. That stuff was for eggheads, not airheads. She was old enough to work on her own anyway, well... as of last year, at least! With a... permit. She honestly didn’t want to attract a lot of attention to this, or her boss might get in trouble, and Dash really did not need to try to live on her own, without a job.
“Look, I don’t mean to pry or anything,” Sassaflash said in a flustered tone. “Just... be there for practice, please? I promise you’ll... get all kinds of recognition, and you can go to the nationals. I bet you’ll take first prize in the Equestria Games.”
“Well duh, of course I’m gonna do all that,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes. “I’m awesome! What I wanna know is if Drizzle is gonna be okay with me just showing up again.”
Sassaflash blinked again. “What?” she said, looking once again completely lost.
“I really upset her last time, and I just don’t wanna do it again,” Dash grumbled with some chagrin. “You know how bad it feels when somepony says they hate you, or... or you hate them, or something? If she’s okay with it, I’ll come back, but I care more about her than some stupid prize.”
“You... you don’t care about the prize?” Sassaflash asked looking faint as she did.
“Of course I do,” Dash retorted, “It’d be the most awesome thing ever if ponies would finally recognize me as the greatest flyer to ever come out of Cloudsdale!”
She swooped above the cloud, spreading her wings midair in that bright sky, and saying with a cocky smile, “But what kinda hero would I be, if all I cared about was what I was getting out of it? We can’t take the nationals if we don’t have a good team, no matter how fast I am. I can find another relay team, it’s no biggie.”
“No!” Sassaflash squealed, then said hurriedly, “No, just, show up for practice. You’re more than welcome if you... if...” and to Rainbow Dash’s immense confusion, there were tears in the eyes of her coach now.
“I have to go,” Sassaflash breathed out, flying swiftly away. “Next Tuesday, hour after dawn!” she called out behind herself.
Dash looked after her, and then back at this cloud she was working on. She looked at her coworkers, looking over at her and whispering with each other.
“Okay,” Dash said, in a note of finality. She kicked that cloud into fluffy perfection, and zipped over to get the next one. That broke everypony out of their trance and they started working too. Dash ignored her straining wings, and worked herself until she was breathing in heavy gulps of air, catching up from her daze this morning, and surpassing it. With the clouds tamed, everypony would see a bit of blue, with just enough sun to warm their backs. It looked like it was gonna be another beautiful day in Ponyville.
As soon as she was done, Dash darted over to her supervisor. “Ms. Sunrise, ma’am,” Rainbow Dash said sharply. “I finished my section of the sky. Is it alright if I leave early today?”
The floofy haired Strawberry raised a single eyebrow, but she marked on the time sheet, and said, “Sure thing, Rainbow Dash. In fact, you can take tomorrow off too.”
“What?!” Dash exclaimed in sudden terror, “What’d I do wrong? I don’t want—”
“No, no you’re not in trouble!” her boss said in response waving her hoof holding the clipboard, “You’re just far enough ahead you can take a break. You did tomorrow’s work, today! You been working yourself real hard lately, especially for such a young mare. I just...” With a worried look in her pale olive eyes, Strawberry said, “Just take care of yourself, okay?”
Rainbow Dash nodded solemnly, and headed off. She was pretty exhausted, come to think on it. It wasn’t anything she wasn’t used to though, right? Some weird things were definitely going on here, but she figured it’d all be cleared up by the end of this afternoon. Rainbow Dash might not have been smart enough to figure it out, but she knew somepony who was.
So once again, Rainbow Dash had to fly down to the tree library where one of her best friends lived. Rainbow Dash stopped in front of the open library door, working out her wings as she rubbed at her sore pecs. She didn’t pause any longer than to groan at her uncharacteristic weariness. Barely half the day was over. Dash practically just woke up, but already she felt like going and finding somewhere to lie down and sleep. Rainbow Dash wasn’t gonna do that when she still had things to do though. So with her light blue hooves soon clopping on the wooden floorboards, Dash craned her neck around uneasily inside the building, seeking out the librarian.
“Twilight, you here?” Dash called out, suppressing a yawn, and in response she heard the distant surprised yelp of her friend, followed by the thunder of falling books. Frowning, Rainbow craned her ears in that direction, saying, “Twilight?” But then Twilight bamfed into existence like right in front of her. Rainbow Dash reared back while her lavender unicorn friend said,
“Rainbow Dash! So nice of you to visit! Hello! My good friend Rainbow Dash, what brings you here to the library? Something normal, like checking out a book, or showing off your new trick, right? Nothing dangerous, strange or alarming?”
Twilight didn’t look so good either. She had heavy bags under her eyes, like when she forgot to sleep for a few days from studying too hard. Or... more than a few days. Her mane looked like it hadn’t been brushed in equally as long, stray locks of hair jutting out at odd angles. And her eyes looked... scared. No, terrified.
“Twilight?” Dash said, leaning towards the unicorn, “Is something the matter?” But as she leaned, that made Twilight spook on the spot, jumping back in place with a frightened squeak.
“N-no, nothing’s wrong!” Twilight said, and it didn’t take Applejack to tell that she was lying. “I’ve just been really hitting the books lately, and boy do I need to go sleep it off. So if you’ll excuse me, I have a nap to get to.”
“Well, you do look pretty beat,” Rainbow said to the unicorn in concern. “Have ponies kept acting weird around you too, ever since we kicked Discord’s butt?”
“Oh, yes, yes ponies have been acting weird,” Twilight said quickly, “It’s just a lingering effect of Discord’s influence,” she told Dash. “Nothing to be concerned about. Just keep being who you are, and other ponies will get over it, and everypony will stop acting weird.”
“Being who...? Look,” Dash facehooved. “I actually made Drizzle cry yesterday. Drizzle.”
“What?! What did you do to her?” Twilight squealed, getting in Rainbow’s face again. “You didn’t feel like it was unusually satisfying, did you? You aren’t going to make a habit of—”
“Jeez, mare, back off!” Dash said in frustration, pushing Twilight away. “You’re acting just like everypony else! My coach said the same thing!”
Dash put a hoof on Twilight’s withers, saying seriously, “You know me, Twilight. Do you really think I would feel anything but horrible for making somepony cry?”
“Yes, yes I... I know... you,” Twilight stated thin-lipped. “And there is no way you would do that. I was just testing you, don’t worry. Your coach will come around. You just have to keep doing what you’re doing, and don’t get into any sort of a negative mindset.”
“I already am in a negative mindset,” Dash said with a strained voice, “Because everypony’s acting so weird!”
“Oh, oh no,” Twilight remarked. “I mean, oh that’s nice. And not alarming at all. Now if you’ll excuse me, I really have to go sleep this off. Studying way too long.”
The purple unicorn turned and trotted away without another word, heading downstairs while a flustered Rainbow Dash shouted after her, “You sleep in the basement?!”
“Yes!” came Twilight’s clear voice from deep within.
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Okay, I'm interested. I can't speak for the others but geeze, the implications of how Rainbow acted before...
And, would she want to go back to how she supposedly used to act? Apparently horrible enough that everyone expects the worst of you...
I can't help but wonder how she got to be the bearer of the element of loyalty in the first place, with that in mind. The same question to Twilight, since her behavior is hardly friendly.
My prediction based on the description, story, and title is that all the bearers were affected by Twilight's mind magic to be the ideals of their element, and it never wore off...
Frankly I'm getting a disturbing image that all of them used to barely qualify before, or maybe never qualified, or was just a title. Or so they thought... Because now they are living the cliche of being their elements personified in a world that never knew them as that before.
*edit* An alternative I just thought up is that Discord altered not just them, but the world and history to believe they were always Discorded... And that wasn't reverted.
Either way, Twilight should be working together with her friends, seriously.
7254139 that doesn't really work because Rainbow was disloyal when discorded, not cruel to people, she just didn't care about them
7254155
On the contrary, she coaches all her niceness in terms of being loyal, so the opposite is entirely possible.
*edit* Besides, Applejack's situation is nonsensical if you don't assume the Discording had an effect.
World in this story reminds me of what happens in there: Winter strudel
Going with that hypothesis, I assume that they accuse Rarity of theft and think that Pinkie suffers of sorrow
Oh I love the plot this story is making! It's really intriguing to see the social changes within someone's life when they finally try to make drastic changes to their own outlook as well as some of the ways that it might be a challenge even without the temptation of returning to their old ways! Please, continue with this largely unexplored theme! I haven't had the pleasure of reading a fresh new idea like this in so long!!!
Very interesting.
I will hold off on making any predictions or assumptions, but I'm eagerly awaiting the next chapter.
Well, this is certainly starting out very interesting alright. Canary really summed it all up nicely. I'm already interested in seeing where this goes.
Oh man I love this so much. It's kind of incredibly terrifying. There's so many weird ethical quandaries about how to deal with people making changes in their lives and how expectations shape us and whether outside influences are valid reasons to stop being who you are and if precedence should be given to the way things are now, or were at first. And you have super unique and interesting perspectives on everything, so I'm really excited to see how it goes.
I really have to appreciate how fantastically likeable you made the new Rainbow Dash. I think that's pretty key, because if she wasn't as sympathetic, this situation wouldn't be nearly as uncomfortable. But I really want things to turn out alright for her, which means... the real Rainbow is kind of screwed?
7254139
I read a pitch for this a year ago, so this speculation may be cheating – I don't totally remember – but I have a hunch that RD and co weren't even the original element bearers (hence Twilight acting extra uncomfortable, and having noted conversations with Lyra), and Discord just made Twilight think some random jerks were her (mind-altered) friends. Suddenly her mind control gets broken, and she realizes she's the one who permanently mind-raped a group of strangers into totally different people. I can understand her being out of sorts and wanting to avoid contact with them. This is some I am Not The Actor levels of uncanny.
7254139
Those are all great ideas. I think the real mystery here is how they'll react to whatever it is they find down the rabbit hole.
7254155
You have a point, though I'm curious how you would depict someone as being "disloyal"
7254321
That is beautiful. I actually love soramimi but I haven't seen that one. My favorite ever is this animutation based on Legend of Zelda's "Epona no Uta" but I haven't been able to find APoorNun.swf in years.
7254448
It's... not a very long story, just to give you a head's up. Just going with a funny idea I had once. I hope I don't disappoint you.
7254484
Probably wise. If you make any predictions on a story, you can never know whether you were correct, or whether I just changed it to use your idea instead.
7254502
Thank you! I should have a new chapter ready soon. I have a pretty good idea of how this story's going to go.
7254845
Thanks! I do love me an ethical quandary or five. As for Rainbow Dash being likeable, I don't think even the show writers realize just how important her element is to friendship. You can be brash, short tempered, even abrasive, but if you always follow through, and never give up on your friends, you could end up being the greatest friend anyone could ever have. Kindness is nice, for instance, and generosity is always welcome, but being there for someone when they need you is really what friendship's all about. Or so I've heard...
7254845
That spoilered speculation is so unbelievably sad, I just don't know how to respond to it.
Of course it is possible that my earlier speculation that it's all in everypony else's head, including Twilight, and that this was an attempt to shatter the Elements of Harmony by removing the binding sixth element of Friendship. I'd prefer that over your speculation being true because there is, like, literally no right answer to that.
It also strikes me, your speculation, as the kind of thing Discord would do, since seeing her trying to get her 'friends' back, who never were, would be hilarious from rather mean perspective. Up until the point that Twilight harmonizes with them anyway.
7254852
Loyalty is, at its most basic, a sense of obligation and duty. Apathy and abandonment, not being there when needed and in general treating their troubles with a "not my problem" is one of the more obvious ways.
Of course, on the more extreme end of that, you go a step further. There, you have betrayal.
Glad to hear it.
7254852 Lightning Dust did a pretty good job of it, for one potential way
7254852 o-oh... Well I wasn't expecting a 50 chapter epic but... I was hoping for around a 10 chapter exploration into how each element was handling the situation and what each friend would have to do to reverse or even just repair the effects.
Or maybe just 6... Cause each element would then have their own... I had hoped... I don't really have much place to say how much you will write but I can hope my wishes somewhat align with your own plans!
7254925
I mean, is there really any difference between the two? Either way, you have five ponies who believe something different from the entire rest of the world. If both histories lead to the exact same present, does it really matter which one of them was objectively truth? If you want to 'fix' things, you end up having to erase the existence that somebody knows, and it's sort of a choice on who's.
It's a very interesting, and kind of depressing, question.
7255531
Lightning Dust wasn't disloyal, as much as she was reckless. She never actually let anypony down. You could say she wasn't "loyal to the greater good" or something, but ultimately her independence kept others from depending on her. I suppose it was disloyal how she didn't care about Rainbow Dash's wing getting hurt, but she wasn't deliberately trying to screw Dash over, since she genuinely thought as a Wonderbolt, Rainbow Dash could shake it off.
Plus I kinda like Lightning Dust
7254967
Not being there for who? Everyone? Was Rainbow Dash being disloyal to the Wonderbolts, when she threw away her badge, because she cared about her friends more than her team? What about when she told Gilda to cluck off? It may be cruel to let someone get hurt, but Disloyalty is promising you'll look out for them, then letting them get hurt. There's got to be at least some prior expectation, or obligation, that the person so disloyal actively supported at some point.
7255722
I could go more into it, I suppose... but mostly I just wanted to get this out there. A tight, self contained story where I didn't have to think about a million things that cropped up in previous chapters. I could elaborate more on it I suppose, but... there's other stuff I would rather write, if I can. Also, this story is pretty much from Rainbow Dash's perspective the whole time.
7256088
Well, it does matter because one way implies the elements can re-bond to other ponies on a whim, and that the bearers aren't so special. The other way, they are special and there is only one bonded group at a time, and changing that is a big deal. Besides, if it was the whole world changed kind of thing, the tree of harmony was obviously immune somehow since its bonded group didn't change, so there may be a way to restore reality. The people who suffer in this case are the ones who thought they were Twilight's friends but weren't, and Twilight can always try to make more friends in that scenario.
The other scenario means that somehow there were 5 ponies that few liked that suddenly had their personalities change for the better to the betterment of all. (I do find it ridiculous to imagine this scenario as true though. No animal would go near Fluttershy in the first place, no one would go to Pinkie's Parties, no one would frequent Rarity's Boutique, no one would buy apples from Applejack, and Rainbow Dash probably couldn't hold her weather job. The fact that they had jobs is, I think, a big hint.) The former bearers are kinda shafted in this case, but they weren't there to defeat Discord, so others were chosen instead. Sad, but thems the breaks. Changing the new bearers back to who they used to be is probably bad for everypony, especially the new bearers since they are honestly good characters now.
It does bring up the question: If the elements can change who they are bonded to so easily, can't they just be given back to the others and the new personalities kept? That way they get the opportunity to be good ponies while the old bearers aren't shafted.
I do, however, have a nasty suspicion that Twilight will attempt to resolve this in the worst possible way thinking it was for the better. She is failing as a friend hardcore here for everypony involved; If she is unable to be friends with the others, they can't use the Elements of Harmony again. That means that it may be she who is next to be replaced as a bearer (if that is what happened) if she can't broaden her group of friends. She should come clean as to what the deal is and work with everypony involved in trying to sort it out instead of lies, deception, and even more manipulation. Plus, you know, as the ponies affected, they really should have a say in all this.
7256126
Well, like said, obligation. Loyalty is a kind of moral duty. It is 'owed' and 'commanded' both. Disloyalty means breaking with that duty and refusing to give someone what they have a right to receive from you. Loyalty is putting your desires and needs under those of something or someone else. Self-sacrifice is an essential part of it. Promising someone you'll help them and then not doing it is just lying. There's a reason why, many times in history, it has been the case that promises to outsiders just didn't carry the same weight to certain groups as promises within the group. Loyalty was to the tribe. Everyone else was owed nothing.
It's really probably the most complex and nuanced of the elements and I actually kind of wonder sometimes why they even put it in there. It's like "honor," just too complicated of a topic to teach children in a way they can easily understand in such a simplified format.
"Rainbow Dash got to working with Drizzle"
"got used to"?
"her self confidence"
"self-confidence"?
Well now, I'm a bit tired and rushed at the moment, but looks like another good story from you. :)
My current hypothesis:
If you see only part of someone's life, and if even that part is filtered through your own perception and relationship with them... just how likely are you to be able to perfectly reconstruct the entirety of their personality?
And how much worse is dealing with your errors if they've made the other person better?
Some interesting other hypotheses in the comments, though, it looks like.
7256126 Lightning Dust was given a duty as part of her training, by pushing her own recklessness without thinking of others she was being disloyal to them, and then when her actions caused problems she attempted to shrug them off
Ooooh. Well, this is interesting... and Twilight clearly knows something that she's not saying...
Well, this story has me hooked. Seriously intriguing stuff, here. My speculation isn't much different from what others have said, except that the mane 5 here might have volunteered to use the Elements with Twilight, with nopony knowing the consequences.
7256160
I hate when that happens in a story. It's like people look at Lesson Zero and use that as an excuse for Twilight to do some stupidly terrible things. It's in character for Twilight to make bad decisions sometimes, but then you have stories where she casually throws around dark magic because 'greater good' or whatever. If Twilight makes mistakes, it's because she's inexperienced or over-eager, not because she's the kind of pony that would ever say something like "the ends justify the means." In the show, she's often the designated audience surrogate, and as such she's meant to be learning things, hence Twilight making dumb mistakes sometimes. I don't mind 'Twilight solving problems in worst way possible' much in AUs where Twilight is meant to be some kind of antagonist, but when cleaving towards the show I'd argue that it's stretching her character too far. /rant
Whelp. I've never actually seen someone do this, despite the speculation coming up now and again. Do you do this in your other stories? I think it only came up once in this chapter, but seeing "When the eleven of her best friends met for a weekly picnic," was really confusing. I had no way of knowing that eleven actually equals five until I read the author's note, which had me do some weird speculation while I was reading.
7257225
Well, a few thoughts:
1) This is Lesson Zero territory, as in the time-frame matches up exactly. This is Twilight's Lesson Zero. And similar to Lesson Zero, she probably doesn't want Celestia finding out she messed with the minds of 5 random ponies, completely altering their personalities, if that is indeed the case, so she'll be under pressure to resolve the situation in secret. In Lesson Zero, she did this on an entire town, admittedly on accident, though her first try was targeted at three fillies.
2) If Twilight believes all the bearers are false bearers and thus not Twilight's friends, she'll have less restraint in her actions.
3) If the spoilered stuff is true, then in my mind the Worst Possible Action is Twilight attempting to restore the status quo. Reversing any character change or development of the bearers, without their consent or even input, just so she won't get in trouble with Celestia for mind controlling ponies against their will (the first time) and also have made a substantial change like changing whom the Elements are bonded to. Did I mention that she isn't their friend, and the elements probably couldn't be used in the current scenario because of that reason? Elements that we have seen are absolutely needed to keep threats like Discord in check. So that is also hanging over her, again, if the idea in the spoilers is true.
Honestly, Twilight doing that would probably render her unfit to be the bearer of the Element of Magic (and friendship). And it's very easy to see her do it, thinking it was the Right Thing To Do. I'm sorry if that sounds pessimistic, but consider the circumstances and time-frame. If she rises above this, I'll actually be impressed.
*edit*
This is an interesting theory. I like it, as it removes culpability from Twilight like the other suggestion implies. It's still tragic for the rest of them, but they willingly agreed to it on some level beforehoof, and it may have a decent, if still slightly sad resolution. I can't see Rainbow wanting to return to how she used to be. The thought may make her physically ill, if she really knew.
7257283
You've pretty much hit the nail on the head, here. I can't argue against any of that.
Uh oh.
7256883
I don't recall her ever being ordered not to act recklessly. Well, not until it was too late that is.
7256224
Well said.
7256457
It's a colloquialism that pretty much means "Rainbow Dash began to work with Drizzle on a regular and habitual basis," except it doesn't sound all pretentious and snooty.
7256913
Yep, she's having problems too.
7257225
Don't worry, I won't write a compellingly sympathetic Twilight Sparkle throwing around dark magic for the greater good, until I get to my ponies on earth story.
I had ponies counting in base 3+1 previously, in Feeding Problems but I'm sure there's at least one other author out there who has ponies counting in fours. ...somewhere.
Now you know what I go through ahahahaha!
7257283
Yeah, the timing of that episode was not lost on me... sadly, this story is not from her perspective, so I don't get to go into Twilight's mental breakdown, over whatever she's worried about this time. I think it might be a bit more serious than just being tardy on your friendship report though. Well, at least I get to have Twilight being all delightfully anxious, right?
derpicdn.net/img/2014/7/6/668652/thumb.gif
Isn't she just adorable?
7258166
Great, now you have me believing that everything was caused by Twilight on purpose, but got out of control, as the basis of a friendship report instead of what happened in Lesson Zero.
I hope you are amused by all my speculation because that's all I can do in absence of new material.
7258166
Ah, thanks.
Good story buuuut...
My Honors Chemistry and Pre-Calculus are hurting my brain from the fact you put "mililiters" (the unit) instead of just ending that as a method of measure such as "meter" and arcing the tangent would just be taking the inverse of the tangent. Even my AP Psychology hurts due to your use of the word Correlation. My brain just hurts from that one sentence. It hertz.
7259484
Well that's just what you get, for going to school, and getting an education.
My personal theory here is that Discord didn't actually mind control Twilight's friends, he just found an alternate version of them who were inherently jerks and swapped them with the nice ones. And then Twilight mind controlled the jerks into thinking they were the nice versions, while the real ones remained stranded in the alternate dimension.
7259484 Especially since they're supposed to be using Base 4.
7259890
What I'm curious about isn't what you think happened so much as what you think's going to happen, and how they're going to react to it.
perhaps something like this?
7261394 Clearly, Twilight needs to use a spell to dump a bunch of memories of the local versions of them being jerks into their heads.
While an interesting mystery story, it might be better as an original fiction.
I'm worried this story kinda misses the point of the mane six, yes they're deeply flawed (Twilight included), but they still embody the virtues they chose them, a big point of the mane is that you don't HAVE to be flawless, or just have token flaws to BE virtuous.
Where's Spike? I'm surprise this story is from the POV of RD and no mention of Scootaloo.
Interesting story, but the writing could use a serious tuneup. You're suffering from a bit of lavender unicorn syndrome, I'm seeing informal shorthand like "cya" which is kinda alarming, and there's the occasional misused turn of phrase.
I'm also not going to criticize your decision to use base four, even though I feel like I should. That's definitely one of those things that's pretty jarring to the audience and makes it unnecessarily difficult to read, but I figure you're doing it mostly for fun, so I can't really stop you.
Some criticisms:
That base-4 thing is gonna drive me crazy. I really don't like it, it brings me right out of the narrative.
On the whole, this chapter feels rushed. Everything just kind of jumbles together. Individual scenes could use a whole lot more meat to them, a build up of strangeness that is more than Dash does something -> people say something weird that implies Dash is regularly an asshole -> Dash comments that people are being weird. Also, scene breaks would be good. The most egregious example of what I mean is when Dash is having lunch with Twilight, it is shown that Twilight is bored and annoyed with Dash, and Dash picks up on this. Then immediately the next paragraph Dash is going to the library thinking the world of her awesome friend Twilight Sparkle. The tone shift is jarring, and the lack of scene break is very confusing.
The fact that I know what's coming might cheapen the suspense for this story, but so far it seems like a cavalcade of evidence for Dash not being who she thinks she is also doesn't make the twist hard to spot. You're basically bludgeoning us about the head with "She was a jerk!"
7297269 base 4? Where?
Geez. Everyone is giving Rainbow Dash, and to some extension Applejack, a hard *ss time. I wonder what the hell is going on?
Coming into this so late in the game, it's interesting to see what everyone's guesses and issues were. Myself, my hypothesis after reading the first chapter is nothing so dark as Twilight having brainwashed five random ponies into thinking they're the rest of the Mane 6. And come on, if the Remane 5 were replaced, then how could our author, RBD, know the intimate details she does (e.g., how much money she has or how she organizes her bills)? And if the author is really, e.g, Lightning Dust, why is everyone referring to her as "Rainbow Dash" and not as "Lightning Dust"?
My hypothesis is that the Remane 5, if not the entire Mane 6, are somehow in an alternate dimension; the inhabitants are expecting their version of the Mane cast, but have our version instead.
Well, onwards to see what the real deal is!
It's a good thing Rainbow Dash dropped out of high school, because anybody who's passed even bare minimum high school science and math already can tell Twilight is using bulls
psychobabble to avoid talking to Rainbow Dash. Of course, by the end of the chapter RD has clued in that Twilight seems to know what's going on but is entirely not willing to talk about it, like at all. At this point of course, Dash should be talking to someone else who might know what's going on, like Celestia, but I'm guessing that won't happen.
I'm guessing something Discord did broke things a lot more than canon, and Twilight botched things up fixing things. While there's no brimstone and fire scenario happening if she doesn't fix it, it's still something bad, like maybe a dimensional switch or whatever.
I have a theory! Discord didn't just change how the Mane 6 were acting for the duration of his reign, he made entirely different beings that replaced the Mane 6. And the show Mane 6, are trapped in Discord Mane 6 world with the Discord Mane 6 trapped in the show Mane 6 world. That's why everyone's acting weird, the Mane 6 they know are entirely different people all together.