> Stream of Consciousness > by BellChime > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Why Trixie Hates Wheels > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It all started a very long time ago in early July. Trixie was at a courtroom on account of her hippie cousin Dixie, and her favorite Aunt, Aunt Mixie, had been arrested for operating carriages under the influence. Trixie's smart cousin Lixie and a very pretty cousin Pixie were there as well. Trixie had another cousin named Rixie, who was there too. Aunt Mixie and Cousin Dixie's attorney was very fond of wheels, and kept acouple as pets. Eventually Rixie and Lixie managed to bring in evidance to acquit them. Trixie just so happened to see the last bit, and decided to go and join up with the others. So she runs up, announcing herself. However, one of the attorney's wheels just so happened to be there, and snatched Trixie up mid-sentance, and rolled her away. Trixie screamed for help, but her family just laughed, and laughed, and laughed, like it was the funniest thing ever. Trixie struggled with all her might, but it was no use and soon she went limp and lifeless in the wheel's clutches. Her family, when they were through laughing at Trixie's misfortune, got acquitted and went home. The wheel's on the other hand, kept Trixie's body and had great fun parading it around as a souvenir of their exploits." "And THAT," Trixie finished, "Is why Trixie distrusts wheels." "...Wait a second," Twilight said. "If the wheels actually murdered you, then how are you still here telling us this?" "Much To Trixie's family's disappointment, Trixie was only knocked out by the wheel's shenanigans." Trixie continued. "After waking up quite a bit of time later in the wheel's habitat, Trixie feigned dead a bit longer and escaped while the wheels were asleep." "And they ALL laughed at you as the wheel attacked?" Starlight demanded, wide-eyed. "Even your favorite Aunt Mixie?" Trixie looked up, a single tear trickling down her face. "Yes." She said mournfully. "Even my favorite Aunt Mixie. Needless to say she is not really Trixie's favorite anymore." "Those...Those MONSTERS!" Starlight yelled. "How can they get away with that?!" without waiting for a response, she got up. "Don't worry Trixie! Starlight Glimmer may be my name, but VENGEANCE is my game!" She ran off. "Starlight, wait!" Twilight got to her hooves as well. "What have we said about exacting revenge?!" "Sorry, Twilight, but this is for a good-" CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!! "Urgh! I'm so, so, SO SORRY SPIKE!" "That was my favorite nacho server! What the heck?!" "OK, clean up nachos, then exact vengeance. Please Spike, this will never happen again-" "IT BETTER NOT!" Twilight glanced back at Trixie. "Yeah...don't get between Spike and his nachos." "And don't get between Starlight and Justice!" Starlight added. "As soon as I clean up these nachos..." > Dream > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Apple Bloom lay curled under her covers, eyes shut. She was half asleep, just awake enough to be aware of her surroundings, but too tired to do anything but lie silently with her eyes shut. And then she floated away. She still could feel her bed, her head on her pillow, her blankets pulled over her, but she was also somewhere else, floating through a dark void of nothingness. Apple Bloom moved with a sense of purpose, though exactly why she couldn't remember. Someone else, someone else was there. Someone slid past her and toward where she had came. Apple Bloom backtracked in the direction of her bedroom slightly, but nudged against someone. Apple Bloom then continued where she had gone, and soon there was a little white dot in the distance, like light at the end of a tunnel. Apple Bloom moved toward it and slipped into it like water in a container. Here the scene vastly changed. She was in a...city of some sort...? Lots of white, and a bit of black and gray, but only on the buildings. Apple Bloom felt different, but she couldn't put her hoof on it. Did she have hooves? Apple Bloom walked forward. She felt as though she knew where she was-even though she had never been there before. She walked out into the city. As per usual for cities, there were a decent amount of ponies. There was something different about them...and that was besides the fact that most of them were four to five times Apple Bloom's size. Another odd thing was how out of all the large ponies, none of them was quite looking at her, almost deliberately avoiding making eye contact with her. She walked, and other ponies got out of her way quickly. After a few minutes of this, Apple Bloom passed a group of ponies that were doing something different from the crowd-they were looking at her. Directly at her. They moved towards her. Apple Bloom stepped back, not sure what to do. She moved away, but they quickly gained on her and picked her up by the tail. They moved into the alley so they were surrounding her. Apple Bloom twisted to and fro in the big pony's grip, trying to get a better look at her captors. She thought she caught sight of a pony with a pink mane, and a colt with black hair that stuck up funny. It was actually one of the stranger hair-dos she had seen, and she had indeed seen some strange ones. Apple Bloom ceased movement and found herself face to face with another pony, a mare, her face hidden with a purple cloak. Apple Bloom noted the odd shape of her eyes, which were narrowed, and reminded Apple Bloom of a cat's. She was smirking, and soon a little pink laser beam shot out of her cloak, striking Apple Bloom. It stung. She shot a few more, hitting Apple Bloom, to the delight of her companions. She was smiling, funky-hair was laughing, and Apple Bloom was squirming and yelling to be let down. Eventually they grew tired of her and dumped unceremoniously on the ground, and walked off, satisfied. Apple Bloom got up and left, feeling slightly disturbed and more uneasy. As she emerged, five ponies turned tail and fled. A beefy brown pony, wielding what seemed to be a large laser canon, leaped up and blasted Apple Bloom directly in the chest. Apple Bloom was engulfed in yellow light pounding down on her, and put up her forelegs to shield herself. Then she floated away. Quickly. The somebody that lying in her bed was still there. Please, Apple Bloom remembered thinking, and they floated up and Apple Bloom was back... Apple Bloom's eyes flew open. There was a vague burning sensation in her chest, tingling where she had been blasted in her dream. *** "And that is you make a shrinking po-Apple Bloom, are you OK?" Apple Bloom looked up from where she was staring into space. "Oh...yeah, Ah'm fine, Twilight. Ah didn't get that much sleep last night." Apple Bloom had also been thinking of her dream, but she didn't tell Twilight that. Something held her back. Twilight gave her a compassionate look, and her eyelids shut slightly as she did so. Apple Bloom started. She had seen eyes shaped like that before! Then the cloaked pony turned back into Twilight, who was looking even more concerned. "Apple Bloom, are you sure you're OK?" "Ah'm hunky-dory." Apple Bloom responded, a little too quickly. "Um, uh, it looks like Sweetie Belle needs a bit o' help there." "Oh!" Twilight turned in alarm, completely distracted. "Sweetie, don't move! Hold that right there! Spike, get some tape, on the double!" Thankfully, Twilight rushed away to assist Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom sighed to herself. Ah don't know what ah'm thinkin. Miss Twilight would never do anythin' like that. Ah didn't start around Pinkie this morning, just because she had a Pink mane, did Ah? So why should- but those eyes flickered into her vision again, and out... Apple Bloom gently pushed the image to the back of her mind went back to her potion, though the tingling sensation had started up again. > Outside > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I thought I was doing everything right Believe me I tried I tried The good old days feel far away And I remember when everyone would say, "Do what you're told, do what's right, Behave yourself, and you'll be alright." I did what I was told. I did what was right. I did my best to behave. I thought I was alright. So why am I sitting outside? Why am I alone in the cold tonight? Now-a-days everything's upside down. Change at a moment's notice, "No good deed goes unpunished" "No bad deed goes unpraised." If I do bad I am punished. If I do good I am punished. If I do nothing, I am punished. If I exist I am punished. I must be cautious with a little flick of light, I only have so much time. Don't be sad, I'm used to it. but sometimes it does get a bit lonely outside > Is or Isn't? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- You tell me. I want to write more but I cant figure out how to say what I'm thinking. Or maybe I can but I'm just scared > Twilight and the Mysterious Pony of Mysteriousness > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a fairly quiet day for the guards of the Canterlot Archive. Too Quiet... *FLASH* Pointed Spear shielded his eyes as a beam of light flashed before him. Seconds later, it vanished, leaving a purple alicorn with a messy mane. Red Flag 1: The Messy Mane "Archives." She rasped. "Now." Pointed Spear gulped. "Identification, ma'am?" "Former Bearer of Magic, Princess of Friendship, yadda yadda." Twilight rasped. Her gaze was fixed on the archive. "Official Identification?" With a flourish, Twilight produced from her saddle bag a scroll with Celestia's official stamp on it. "Not THAT identification." Pointed Spear explained patiently. "Paper work licensing permission to use the elements?" Twilight asked. "No." "Royal Zoning Board Decree?" "No." "Uh...Birth Certificate?! Library Card! Zip Code!" Twilight shouted. Pointed Spear shook his head at each one. "ID Card?! Tax Returns?! Oh! Wait! Wait! Flying License!" "No." Twilight's eye twitched. Then she grinned widely. "Ohh...wait! Of course! Here you go sir!" She handed her graduation diploma from Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns. "...No." "Report Cards! Got straight A's! Library receipts!" A particularly long scroll joined the pile. "NO." "THEN WHAT IN EQUESTRIA DO YOU WANT FROM ME??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Pointed Spear cringed. "You could have just asked that first. That'll be 70 bits." Twilight relaxed. "Oh, no problem." She held out a bag. "That should cover it." "No, that's to pay for your identification." ______________________________________________________ "My former student, is there something the matter?" "Princess!" "Why are you attacking one of my royal guards?" "Princess, I'm trying to find a pony named Cherry Blossom. I checked my library. I checked newspapers. I checked comedy clubs. I checked everywhere...By the way have you heard of Cherry Blossom?" "Yes." "Wait, what?! For reals?!" "Yes..." "Cherry Blossom , the comedian?!" "Yes." "The writer?!" "Yes. Twilight, if you really wanted to know so much, couldn't you have simply looked her up in a library or made inquiries?" "I did! Multiple times! NOWHERE!" Twilight bit her lip. "Um, sorry for the outburst..." Celestia looked thoughtful. "Huh. You'd think they'd have more on her." "Well, I thought she was just a private pony." "Twilight, Ms. Blossom is a STAND-UP comedian. Does that sound like the type of occupation for a private pony?" "...Well, no." Twilight blushed. > "No, Can You?" > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Diamond Tiara stared at Scootaloo, dumbfounded by her response. She stared at her own wingless back. Silence. Scootaloo smiled. Diamond Tiara sweated. Diamond Tiara scowled. "That's not fair! That's...that's racist!" "You should be one to talk, Diamond Tiara. Pickin' on somepony with a disability like that." "Hey!" Scootaloo shouted at Apple Bloom, offended at being called disabled. "Exactly. I'm not disabled." Diamond Tiara grinned, regaining her hoofing. "So, can you fly?" Apple Bloom asked. "N-No...I'm not a pegasus!" "Then what the hay do you know about my wings?" Scootaloo snapped, hopping on her scooter. "Come on, girls," She said, gesturing at the wagon hitched up behind the scooter. Let's go." And then she and the CMC rode off in the sunset. And Diamond Tiara never picked on Scootaloo's wings again. > Maybe the end of the tale will be like this... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- And then it was over. Well, nearly. The truth came as a shock to several ponies, and some of them were angry. But in the end it was for the better. Eventually the hubbub died down and the ponies came out better then before. They realized how silly and pointless their spite had been, and they did their best to make amends with the others that they'd ignored and diminished before. Even Meadow eventually came to her senses. Despite the backlash, she managed to keep her job, and learned a valuable lesson about making assumptions. Her friendship with Flicker was preserved, though she never could look Rainbow Dash in the eye. Rainbow Dash was pardoned and returned from exile shortly afterwards. A lot of ponies still didn't trust her, but they kept their minds open and their heads on their shoulders, and thus peace was preserved. Whether the same could be said of Rainbow's friendship with the other element bearers was difficult to say. Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity had made a severe friendship mistake, but they still knew enough to understand that what they had done could not be amended in a half hour, or a day, or a week, or even a year, if ever. They resolved to try, though. Rainbow Dash went to see a therapist to deal with lingering wounds. Days passed, then months, then years, then decades. An event like that was not easily forgotten, and the tale was passed on in the form of a fairly accurate, if somewhat simplified, urban legend. Then, somewhere along the line, the Flim-Flam brothers became merged into one being, Rainbow Dash's exile was compressed from 8 years to 12 months, then 6. Scootaloo was usually forgotten, her part in the story was mostly merged with Rainbow Blaze's. What had once been the going ons over the course of nearly a decade had been transformed into a single extraordinarily eventful year. The most important bits survived on, though, Scootaloo made sure of that. She never told of her role. She never had to. She told of the Flim-Flam brother's dishonesty exposed, the betrayal of the element bearers, the hypocrisy of the Princesses. Good triumphing over evil, truth over lies, love over hatred. It was relegated to a campfire tale for campers, a cautionary tale for foals. But it still survives to this day, as a warning. Perhaps if little foals hear the tale, perhaps then, they will learn from it. > Elements of Courage > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Rainbow Dash, for putting your own personal safety on the line to ensure your friend's survival, you embody the element of self Sacrifice!" "Applejack, for, in the face of danger, death, and discrimination, you never broke down and you never gave up, thus connecting you with the element of resilience!" "Pinkie, for your determination to right a wrong in the face of embarassment and shunning, you embody the element of Humility!" "Rarity, you have-" "I don't deserve an element of courage." "Rarity, we need six." "Fine." "Rarity, you have experienced first hand danger like nobody else. Yet you never let it break you. And you never let it stop you. You have the element of determination." "I don't know if-" "Fluttershy...you embody the element of Responsibility. Sometimes to much so. Don't be so hard on yourself. It takes a lot of bravery to take responsibility, but you need to learn when it is truly your punishment to bear. Still, your element is nothing to be ashamed of." "Twilight, for defying authority in the name of the greater good, you embody the element of Resolution. Together the six of you demonstrate what it really means to show courage!" > Body Swap Idea > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Twilight! Twilight! Look!” Twilight turned to see her body and her voice running towards her. “I’m you! How cool is that? I CAN FLY!” She flapped unsteadily into the air, landing on a nearby building. “Pinkie, stop it!” Twilight shouted, instinctively attempting to fly after her, but only crashing Applejack’s wingless body into the dirt. She lifted her(Applejack’s?) bruised face. “Don’t do that!” She yelled. “You don’t know how to fly, sooner or later you’ll hurt yourself-myself-please just take care of my body!” “Okie dokie lokie!” “Now just spread out your wings and let yourself float down,” “WHEEEE!” Pinkie, caught up in her delight, forgot to keep her wings outspread and promptly fell to the ground. “Ouch.” “Pinkie Pie!” Twilight stood up, glaring at her through a black eye. Applejack’s. Twilight made a mental note to apologize Applejack as soon as possible. “I know you’re excited, but I’m going to have to ask you not to do anything with my body that you couldn’t do with your own.” When her own face frowned, she sighed, “Even though we’re in different bodies, it’s still my body, and I have the final say on what’s done with it. Thus, I’d like if you could respect my wishes concerning it.” Slowly, Pinkie made Twilight’s head nod. “Afterall, how would you feel if whatever pony is in your body decided to go all helter skelter with your earth pony magic, which screwed something up big time?” “I guess that wouldn’t be very fun,” Pinkie sighed. “Oh! But then I could teach them how to use it properly so that they could have tons of fun! Hey, that gives me an idea…” She blinked to Twilight. “I’m sorry, Pinkie, but we’ll just have our hooves too full with trying to fix this mess! And then when we’re done, will be back to normal, and that’ll be that.” “Awww…” “Though I am flattered you’re so excited to be in my horseshoes, there’s no time to play around. We need to find AJ, and-” “Someone talkin’ bout’ me?” Twilight turned around in surprise. “Uh, Rarity? Why are you talking like...Applejack? Is that you?! Oh, please tell me you’re Applejack.” “Sure am, sugarcube.” Applejack had the voice of Rarity combined with her own accent. “Oh, thank goodness!” Twilight embraced her, subconsciously spreading her wings to balance...except she didn’t have them anymore and fell over, dragging Applejack over with her. “I’m not quite used to your body.” She said awkwardly. Applejack turned to face her. “Pardon, but ‘zactly which one ‘o mah friends are ya? Ah thought your mind might be Rarity, ‘cept yer not throwin’ a fit about bein’ scuffed up…” “I’m Twilight,” Twilight clarified, “And that,” She added, pointing to herself, “Is Pinkie Pie.” Pinkie grinned. “Anyway, we were just on our way to look for the other swappees so we can fix this mess. Does that sound good?” “O’Course, but can I say somethin’ first?” “Of course.” “You hafta help me! I got no idea how to pretty myself up fancy schmancy the way Rarity likes, and Rarity’s gonna kill me if we find her and she sees herself all screwed up like ah am!” “You’re not screwed up, Applejack,” Pinkie comforted, taking in Rarity’s bodies smeared make up, missing eyelashes, and torn and tangled mane where Applejack, with no knowledge of telekinesis, had gotten her hair curlers out “Well, maybe only from a certain perspective…” “Don’t worry, Applejack,” Twilight said confidantly. “I’ll just use my magic and…” She paused as she remembered. “...And I don’t have magic right now.” “Don’t be silly, Twilight, of course you do!” Pinkie exclaimed, grinning. “No, I don’t, because you are in my-Oh, I see.” “Eh?” Pinkie asked, raising an eyebrow. Twilight sighed, hoping that she wasn’t about to make a decision she’d regret. “Only as I tell you, not a bit more,” She warned, watching as her own face was decorated with  the biggest, toothiest, grin Twilight Sparkle had ever seen on herself.