“I can find him! I should be the one to go!” Lt. Pinkamena argued.
“Be calm, my little soldier.” Though her voice carried the weight of law, her smile was kind. “This ‘other Equestria’ interfered greatly in our war efforts. A near bumbling former human private became a master wizard and turned the tide in our final battle. One of my most promising researchers was spotted in the food production centers, and the factory worker who spoke to her swears that she was an alicorn. And this a mere mile from a table that is unmistakably an artifact of the tree of harmony. And then there was Sgt. Ki’s disappearance.”
“I won’t forgive that green whorse! He was supposed to be safe.” Lt Pinkamena gritted her. “He was supposed to be waiting for me. Me and Charlie were going to retire and open a bakery after the war. Please, your majesty, I have to find him. It has to be me, I’m the only one who can see the writing between the walls. I can make those smelly words take me to him!”
“I’m sorry your majesty.” Cpt. Rainbow Dash stepped forward. “Pinkamena… she gets emotional where the Sergeant is concerned.”
“My sister has a point.” Lt. Maud Pie said tonelessly. “If there is anypony who can successfully navigate the void between worlds, it is Pinkamena. She’s motivated, and she will find him. In all likelihood, if we find out where he went, then we will find the source of the temporal anomalies.”
“I have no doubt of your sister’s talents, or her resolve, Lt. Maud.” Celestia heaved a sigh and smiled sadly. “I only fear that this could well be a one-way journey from which there was no return. The Pie family has given so much, I cannot ask any more sacrifices from you.”
“I lost one sister to that war, your majesty.” Maud’s even voice betrayed no hint of emotion. “If you deny her, then I will in every real way lose another. Pinkamena hasn’t smiled since our return. If she smiles and I never see it, it is still better than if her smile dies in front of me. If you allow that, then you allow laughter to die, your majesty.”
Celestia’s smile broke for only a moment and she stepped back. “These are the core values of our nation, Lt. Maud Pie. I will consider your words. My decision will be made by daybreak, And Lieutenant… I want you to know that Cpt. Limestone’s sacrifice saved so many ponies… you cannot imagine the entirety of what she prevented.”
“I don’t imagine your majesty.” Lt. Maud replied evenly. “It’s easier that way.”
-=-=-=-=-
I didn’t want this. I didn’t want any of this. I just wanted to make ponies smile. There’s magic in a smile. I didn’t get the magic of smiles though, I got the magic of rocks , and rocks are great too. Don’t get me wrong. The stones remember. You can talk to a red brick, and it’s all like “I used to be mud and now I’m a house and now ponies live here.” Or the big stuffy castle stones, and they're like, “I used to be a part of a whole mountain.”
And that’s great, but there’s no “I am” in a rock. That’s what’s special about a rainbow, a rainbow is all “I am, right now, so you better be looking, because later I won’t be there and if you gotta ask then you really don’t know.”
Charlie wasn’t rock special, you have to understand. He was rainbow special. And If I didn't plan every step just right then I would miss it. And then I would just be some poor putz of a pony asking, “Did you see the rainbow?”
I don’t know if you get what I’m talking about, but it’s why I had to try. A rock will be there forever. It doesn’t need you to see it. It will be there when you come back, waiting to tell you about how it used to be a mountain.
If you miss the rainbow... Well I can’t help but think I missed my rainbow. Maybe that’s why I get so mad when I hear the troops call me Pinkie… even Charlie, but he’s only slipped once or twice.
Maybe he was right about the spoilers.
Why am I doing this? One human. One Pony, We’re not that important in the scheme of things. I know that because the scheme of things just said, “Hey Pinkamena, lets see what happens when we rip him out and just leave a big hole there. Do you know what happened? Nothing. We won the war. Just one little pony didn’t get her bakery. No big woop.
And that’s why. Because rainbows don’t just happen. There’s no big rainbow explosion. Nope. Never. Really. Happened. You have to find your smile, and when you do find it, you have to keep it. And if anypony get’s in the way of that, well there’s friendly and less than friendly ways to deal with it.
War. War is a big stinky thing that chokes rainbows in their crib. And if anything Charlie ever said about his world is true, I’m going to dive snout first into a whole heap of war that would have made Sombra wet his fuzzy red cape.
I’m probably not coming back. Even if I find him, the chance of finding a unicorn or alicorn on that end who can stitch this back together is less than a big fat zero. But I’m going to meet this with a smile, and I’m going to do everything that I can, and I’m going to find that rainbow, And gods in hell can defend any pony that tries to take that away from me.
You’re the best Sis,
Pinkamena Diane Pie