//------------------------------//
// Truth 
// Story: The Stranger Among Friends 
// by PhycoKrusk 
//------------------------------//

	The first thing Driftwood noticed when he returned with Fluttershy was that Rainbow Dash was gone, and he had no doubts that her absence was due to the argument he’d heard starting when he left. Applejack, meanwhile, had settled back onto the cushion she’d occupied earlier and regarded Driftwood with cool caution.

With far more visible caution, Driftwood looked to Fluttershy, who simply replied with a warm smile and nodded her head towards the cushion before she continued over and settled down on one of them. Taking a deep breath, Driftwood made his way over, pausing just before the cushions. When Applejack offered no protest, he carefully selected the empty cushion nearest to Fluttershy and sat down on it. He watched Applejack, not saying a word, and she responded in kind. Fluttershy’s eyes danced back and forth between them as she scrambled for something to say, when after several seconds of nothing, Applejack huffed.

“Look, Rainbow’s already stepped in it, so I’m just going to out and ask,” she said. “What’d you mean when you said changelings ain’t got a queen?”

“Applejack!” Fluttershy said as admonishingly as she could, although she was not able to say more before Driftwood stepped in.

“I meant exactly what I said,” he replied with some amount of force. “We don’t have a queen, and even if we did, she wouldn’t be that-that tramp from the wedding.”

“Well, if she weren’t, then why’d she say she was?” Applejack asked.

“She was probably trying to sound impressive. You’d know all about seeming impressive, being the heiress to the largest oil fortune in Equestrian history,” Driftwood said accusingly.

For a few moments, Applejack was stunned and confused into silence. “I most certainly am not,” she finally said.

“But I just said that you were,” Driftwood said.

“Just ‘cuz you said it don’t make it true.”

Driftwood responded by quirking his brow, and after a moment, Applejack huffed.

“Ok, fine. Maybe just ‘cuz she says she’s the queen don’t mean she is, but then why were so many changelings happy as clams to follow her, huh?”

Driftwood looked down at the floor for a few moments. “Well, when you were a filly, did you ever believe something just because you heard it from some other pony that was bigger and stronger and older than you were?” he asked once his gaze returned to Applejack. “And if Princess Celestia told you to do something, would you do it, even if you thought she was wrong, because she’s the Princess and more knowledgable and more powerful than you are? What if she told you to hit your neighbor in the back of the head with a birch stick if you thought they were a changeling, to force them to change?”

Applejack quirked her brow then. “That work?” Applejack asked.

“Why wouldn’t it? Princess Celestia told you that it would, so it has to work, right?” Driftwood said. “Why would she say to do it if it didn’t work?”

“Well, ok, since we’re talking hypotheticals here, let’s say she did tell me to do that because it does. What if this neighbor we’re hypothetically speaking about ain’t a changeling? What if I go and brain some poor sap just ‘cuz they was having an off day? Maybe even put ‘em in the hospital or kill ‘em?”

“I guess you wouldn’t know until after you hit them. So would you? What if you didn’t like this neighbor? What if you hated them? Would you do it then? What about someone you’d never met before?”

A silence that was anything but comfortable fell over the conversation. Fluttershy glanced nervously between Driftwood — whose expression was neutral even if the muscles in his shoulders were visibly tense — and Applejack — whose expression was quizzical. “Ok,” she finally said. “Why didn’t you follow her, then?”

“I like Portside,” Driftwood replied. “There’s a lot of good ponies there that care about their neighbors and never did anything to deserve having the energy drained out of them. Maybe she had the right idea with turning ponies into chattel. Maybe it would’ve been better for changelings to do that, but what if it wasn’t? What if she was wrong? What if she was lying? How would I know until after it was already too late to change my mind?”

Applejack did not offer a response to that for a few seconds, and then stood up from her cushion. “Mister Driftwood, you may not be a pony, but I reckon you’re a pretty good one all the same.”

“Where are you going?” Fluttershy asked as Applejack turned to leave.

“See if I can’t find Rainbow,” replied Applejack. “Can’t promise she’ll be in any mood to apologize, but I owe it to Driftwood at least to talk some reason into that rock she calls a head.”

With a final nod to them both, Applejack took her leave, and Driftwood was free for a time to ponder exactly what had happened.