//------------------------------//
// Choices 
// Story: Pony POV Series Season Zero: Discorded Ponies 
// by Alex Warlorn 
//------------------------------//

"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