//------------------------------// // Okay How About Happily Ever After? // Story: Returning Home // by ferret //------------------------------// The portal closed with a snap. There was a second snap, as Twilight’s head whipped back around to stare at the central rift. It had fallen back to microscopic size, but the air around it was glowing an angry red, and twisting about with eerie distortions. “Oh no,” Twilight said, lighting up her horn and—and it was like trying to wrestle an alligator. Her magic just didn’t work right around these disturbances. She surrounded it in a shield bubble, and smoothed out the spatial distortions one by one, wincing as each of them scraped against her magic unsettlingly. “Don’t just stand there,” Twilight shouted anxiously, staring at the unstable rift, “Somepony go get her!” “On it,” Rainbow Dash said, firing off into the sky above the clearing. “Are you okay, Twilight?” Applejack asked tilting her head worriedly at the princess’s preoccupation with the glowy portal thing. “The containment chamber,” Twilight said tensely, sweat trickling down her brow. “I need you to bring it here. Hurry, I don’t know what this thing is trying to do!” Applejack zipped over and hefted the hundred or so pound thing on her back and zipped back to where Twilight was, saying, “Just plunk it down?” “Don’t let it touch the rift!” Twilight instructed. “Open the front half and slide it around it, then close it around the rift.” Applejack did so... very carefully. When she shut the two halves of the shell together, a hissing, whining hum that they all had been not hearing stopped sounding out, and Twilight relaxed, a little bit. “This is only a temporary solution,” Twilight said undaunted. “I have to monitor this to make sure it doesn’t start to degenerate its containment. Thank you, Applejack.” She looked away from the silvery egg for a moment to give Applejack a grateful smile. Then Twilight looked back, and her magic started crawling all over the surface of the silver. The other four stood there a while, before Rarity asked, “Darling, is there something we can—” “Yes, could you help me with this?” Twilight asked, without looking away from it. “I’m having a really hard time keeping it stable, and not just breaking it.” “So you could use a subtle touch, is it?” Rarity said somewhat smugly, striding up to the sphere and lighting up her horn. “Oh that’s,” she said, wincing as she looked at it, “Oh my.” “Yes, could you just... smooth out the whorls?” Twilight asked. “I can reseal any broken runes. And please Applejack, just... hold it steady while we’re working.” “Can do, sugarcube.” Rarity did what she could, while Twilight took care of the brunt of the work. She may have been the magical equivalent of 2.20 very powerful unicorns, but these containment chambers were usually managed by no less than three unicorns, and two earth ponies. And Twilight might have been part earth pony now, but she was actually kind of not that great as far as earth ponies went. She didn’t like to admit it, but she definitely had a long way to go in that regard. So while she appreciated Rarity’s unparalleled skill and finesse, Twilight honestly felt like the pony really keeping this together was Applejack. “Pinkie!” she called out. “Pinkie Pie could you help Applejack do her... thing?” “Ah ain’t doin’ no thing, but have some sensitivity, Twilight!” Applejack called out in aggravation, sort of... leaning against the sphere and eyeballing it. “Ain’t you seen what that mare did to Pinkie?” Twilight’s eyes snapped away from the containment unit. Pinkie Pie was with Fluttershy, who was doing her best to comfort the pony, but Pinkie looked absolutely distraught. She had tears running down her cheeks, and whimpers fighting with sobs, and her hair was worryingly limp. Rainbow Dash said something about that once, that Twilight wasn’t supposed to hear about it, but... There was a metallic bang from inside the containment chamber. Twilight snapped her attention back to it, shouting, “Rarity, could you help Pinkie too? Rosy did something to her!” Rarity nodded, delighting her horn, while Twilight lit up hers again. Twilight had to wait, while Rarity and Fluttershy dealt with whatever Pinkie was going through. She hated the idea that one of her good friends was upset, and all she could do was smooth out the antidimensional vibrations that might have damaged the containment. But that’s what she had to do, so she made sure to do it well. Rainbow Dash returned then, with a whoosh and a heavy thump as her hooves hit ground. She crunched through the snow right over to Twilight, who looked at Dash questioningly. The first thing Twilight noticed was Rainbow Dash did not bring back Rosy Pink. The second thing Twilight noticed was Rainbow Dash looked positively furious. Rainbow Dash blasted off away from that... hole in the air that made her wings ache from the wrongness of it. She soared over the trees, peering through the twisted bare branches of the White Tail woods, trying to make out where Rosy had gone. It was hard to see the pastel pony against all this snow, a little pink swatch of color Dash’s only clue that she’d found the mare, running down the trail making a beeline for Ponyville. But Rainbow Dash’s keen eyes soon picked her out, and the pegasus descended into a dive. “And just where do you think you’re going?” Rainbow Dash said, slamming down in front of Rosy Pink. The mare scrambled to a halt, her eyes wide in terror as she said, “No, I can’t—I can’t go back there! I’m not ready!” “What you’re doing, is you’re bothering my friends!” Rainbow said angrily, fluttering up to stare the pony in the face. “Making life hard for everypony, and you know what? I don’t even care what’s so scary about an empty room with police tape on it. What, did you think they weren’t going to notice you disappeared? Come on,” she said, grabbing the mare about her forelegs and heaving her up into the air. “Let’s just get you home, and we can all call this problem solved.” As her hooves left the ground, Rosy screamed, “Let me go, you monster! ” “She blew me off!” Rainbow Dash shouted at Twilight anxiously. “She was being a total jerk! She called me a—a featherhead! I didn’t say anything to her, and she just... she just called me something really bad!” “Well, that’s hardly called for,” came Rarity’s voice behind Rainbow Dash, “But you shouldn’t be disturbing Twilight. She’s in the middle of a very delicate operation at the moment. But please, do tell us why you returned without her?” The mare hit the snowdrift hard as she plummeted out of Dash’s arms. Crawling to her hooves, Rosy glared defiantly up at Rainbow Dash, instinctively lowering to a defensive crouch, a glare Rainbow Dash never wanted to see again, a word she never ever wanted to be called again. “I’m not a m-monster!” Rainbow shouted down to the mare shrilly, “What is your problem?!” “Yes you are,” the mare snorted out, “You all are! You do everything you’re supposed to do and everything always goes just like it should. You don’t even listen, and you don’t even think, and you don’t even care. I don’t want to go back! I never wanted to go back! You didn’t even notice! I changed my mind I’m not going. I won’t go! So just—just leave me alone!!” “Fine!” Rainbow Dash shouted angrily, as the mare ran away, ignoring her. “Fine then, be that way!” With nothing to be done about the swiftly departing mare, the shaken pegasus flew up into the air again, heading straight for mission control, where she could find out what the buck that mare’s problem was. “She said she didn’t want to do it anymore!” Rainbow Dash told Rarity grumpily. “I don’t know why, she just... got scared, and changed her mind. So she’s not coming back! What was I supposed to do, drag her here?” Rainbow Dash noticed she was rising off the earth a little, and fluttered herself down to relative stability. “So, she’s not coming,” Rainbow Dash said resentfully, “She’s not coming back.” “You have to bring her back!” Twilight shouted abruptly. “The fate of Equestria depends on it!” “Fine, you bring her back, then!” Rainbow Dash said resentfully, turning her head towards her unicorn—er, sorta unicorn friend. “I’m not gonna be bullying ponies just because they won’t listen to me.” “I can’t, because I’m trying to stabilize this—uggh,” Twilight turned back to the shell. “Just... everypony, go catch up to her. Fluttershy, Pinkie please. I don’t even know what’s wrong I just need you to help calm Rosy down and find out what’s wrong!” Twilight risked a look, and Pinkie Pie was standing, looking shaky, but nodded in understanding. Fluttershy gave Twilight a long, sideways glance, and simply rose into the air, melting into the surrounding forest as she followed along the earth mare’s noisy trail. Rainbow Dash followed Pinkie Pie, the two trotting quickly after the quiet pegasus. And Pinkie Pie was quiet too, which made Rainbow Dash really worried. “What’s wrong, Pinkie?” she asked her friend. “You seem really upset!” “I... I don’t wanna talk about it,” Pinkie said tensely, “Just ask Fluttershy; she’ll tell you all about it. In the meantime we have to find Rosy and help cheer her up!” “Fine, you’re right,” Rainbow Dash said, “You know me, always flying straight into it.” Pinkie actually managed a giggle at that and said, “Oh Dashie, you’re fine. Let’s just find her, and we can all get this worked out like nice friendly ponies, even though she’s a human... not a pony.” They trotted for a while, then looked up as hurrying their way was Fluttershy, and she was not accompanied by a pink haired earth mare. “Did you find her?” Rainbow Dash asked worriedly. “No,” Fluttershy said in grave concern. “I tried to follow her hoofprints, but we’ve all been walking along this trail today. I don’t know how far she could have gotten!” Rainbow Dash recalled her encounter with Rosy, with the hurt, angry pegasus flying away as Rosy beat her hooves in the other direction, in a solid, steady gallop. “She could’ve gotten pretty far,” Dash said wincing. “You two stay on the trail. I’m gonna check the way outta the woods. Meet me there, okay?” Rainbow Dash zoomed out to the edge of the forest, but there was no pink haired pony to be seen. Dash looked around, but none of the ordinary Ponyville townsponies in the outskirts here fit that description. There were a few pulling a wagon toward the market, from the wheat fields filled with giant rolled up bales of hay. There were some working on breaking the ice in a pond, so they could cart it into cellars for refrigeration purposes. Rainbow Dash knew Rosy wasn’t all that fast. If she had been out here, there wasn’t any sort of cover, so Dash’s keen vision could’ve spotted her, but the 12 had been arguing for a while, so maybe Rosy had run all the way into town? No, she was probably still running along the trail, and would come bursting out any minute now. While the strange rainbow pegasus waited there at the mouth of the forest, another pegasus and a pink earth pony came running out of the forest to meet her. Conferring together, the three of them were shaking their heads at each other. Two went running back into the forest together to try to spot where Rosy had left the trail, while the third gallopped into town, searching around for the pony she was looking for in the dying light. Meanwhile, 3.32 unicorns and Applejack slowly but surely managed to get the portal stabilized again, sealed off inside its silver runed chamber. But later when the three met with the other three, there were more heads shaking all around. A deer rose her head up from where she’d been sleeping in the thicket, waiting until twilight. Ponies were being awfully noisy today. The Bearers were combing through the forest, looking for one extremely lost mare, and making a big mess of things in the process. Come twilight, the deer joined with several others, and politely asked the ponies to stop tromping up the woods. So the ponies left, and that resolved that matter, for everydeer’s concern. The ponies’ problems though, were just beginning. “What do you mean you saw her at the market?!” “Ah mean what ah said! I saw her at the market!” Twilight leaned her forehead against a nearby bookcase. Applejack had come running into her library the day after they had to give up searching for her. And supposedly Rosy was... at the market? “She was just... at the market?” Twilight asked, unnerved. “What did she say? ” “She didn’t say nothin’,” Applejack said angrily. “I tried to talk to her, and she just ran the other way. Ah’m sure it was her, though!” “Where did she go?” Twilight asked hopefully. “Ah dunno!” Applejack stomped. “She wouldn’t even say howdy, so ah just came to tell you I saw her, like you wanted me to do!” “Yes, but...” Twilight squirmed in place, “I suppose it wouldn’t be right to chase her, but still. We were searching all evening for her!” “Well, maybe we shouldn’t have,” Applejack retorted. “Maybe she’s scared of us now, on account she thinks we’re gonna force her through some strange tear in space.” “I wouldn’t do that!” Twilight exclaimed in horror, but Applejack frowned, replying, “You could’ve fooled me! Don’t we need her to go through, to close off that rift thing?” “Well, yes,” Twilight said uncomfortably, “But that doesn’t mean we need to be rude about it. Why wouldn’t she want to go through? Her home is on the other side!” “Ah dunno, but I do know that she ain’t talkin’ to me, so there’s not much I cain do about it,” Applejack growled. “Now I did my part, and ah wanted you t’know that Rosy’s fine. So ah’ll be at the market selling apples to ponies who ain’t afraid of me, if’n you need me.” Twilight’s ears were down when Applejack left, but Applejack didn’t care. She was downright peeved at this whole messy business with Rosy. Couldn’t they just lock that rift up in that container thing and stop worrying about it? Obviously not, but Applejack wasn’t all that great at understanding the details, especially when explained to her by her recently bewinged friend. Rosy’s position on the matter made enough sense though. She didn’t want to go back, and she liked being a pony for some reason. But to abandon her friends? To give up on her family? Applejack just couldn’t believe that was true. Rosy had to have somepony waiting for her on the other side. Family didn’t just up and disappear when it wasn’t convenient to have ‘em. Applejack didn’t know why Rosy was ignoring her responsibilities to her family, and she didn’t understand why anypony would do that. So instead of grumbling about it with Apple Bloom, over at her apple stand, Applejack went trotting off to let the rest of her friends know that Rosy was alive and well. Well, alive at least. Rarity was downright driven to find out about everything that happened. She was as plum curious about the whole thing as Applejack was. Applejack couldn’t help much though, as she still hadn’t talked to Rosy about this, and she couldn’t answer half the questions Rarity brought up. Rarity said she’d ask around, but she wasn’t gonna push Rosy to directly confront her, which suited Applejack just fine. It was probably a good idea to give that human mare some space for a while. Even though they just didn’t know what went wrong, something sure as hay did go wrong, and that kind of thing is dealt with best after a good steady timeout to think about things. Pinkie Pie was... underjoyed to hear about the news. Applejack wasn’t surprised the pink pony already had an idea that Rosy made her way back to town. Those two both made the same sort of nonsense, if that made any sense. But Pinkie had been seriously shaken by what transpired over by the rift, and it didn’t take a lot to get a pony like Pinkie Pie to start doubting herself. Applejack did end up finding out what was the matter with Pinkie Pie, and it was as simple as the fact that Pinkie Pie made Rosy cry. Applejack reassured Pinkie Pie that she was a good friend, and that there was something suspicious going on about that rift business. The fact that Rosy couldn’t even look at Pinkie Pie without crying, well that was something wrong with Rosy not Pinkie, and in fact it meant that Rosy cared about Pinkie Pie most of all. That’s how Applejack figured it at least. That Applejack was the third to last pony Rosy’d talk to was... interesting. Rosy’d interacted with Applejack a whole lot since the shadow thing went down. But Pinkie was the one who first found her, and brought her in, and it took Applejack a while to warm up to Rosy at first, so it made sense in a way, if Rosy had saved Pinkie Pie for last. It was easier to part ways with your boss than with your friend after all. Except one thing didn’t make sense about it. Applejack may have been less trouble for Rosy to part with than Pinkie Pie, but Rosy had not saved Pinkie Pie for last. Rosy had saved somepony else entirely, a pony who hardly even considered her a pony... Without answers, and reluctant to approach Twilight herself about all this, Applejack galloped down to Fluttershy’s Critter Care. Applejack had to hurry at this point, because it’d taken a while to tell Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie Pie, and she still had two more friends to go. Applejack sure didn’t want to know what Apple Bloom was gonna do back at the cart all by herself, if sales started to pick up again. Applejack had tried to teach the filly about the economics of market bits in past years, but frankly Applejack felt like she was the filly sometimes, with how well Apple Bloom understood things. It was great how that filly just snapped up ideas like candy tarts. Trouble is the filly had an ornery streak in her, and when Apple Bloom had her mind set on something, it was hard to convince her it was dead wrong. That’d happened far too often, and Applejack frankly wasn’t sure the filly was ready to watch the cart for ten minutes, much less an hour or so. She found Fluttershy caring for a manul who according to Fluttershy had become injured while hunting pika and falling into a ravine. Out on the lawn behind Fluttershy’s cottage, the overly fluffy feline had a bandaged paw, and Fluttershy was trying to feed him a dead—eugh, well the cat’s reaction to it was sorta the same as Applejack’s. The wildcat looked at the not-living thing with a haughty disdain. And Applejack hated to break up such a touching moment, but it really wasn’t all that touching-like. “Psst, Fluttershah,” Applejack said at a cautious distance so as not to spook the critter. The manul looked up at Applejack first, with a patently bored expression on his face. “Hello, Applejack,” Fluttershy said with a smile, turning to face her friend, while the manul took the opportunity to limp away from her and go hide under the critter cave Fluttershy had set up by her cottage. “Hey Flutters,” Applejack said, smiling back, “Got some good news for ya sorta. Rosy made it back into town, it turns out.” “Oh?” Fluttershy said, idly combing at her long, flowing mane and looking away. “Yep, just wanted you to know,” Applejack said in relief, “She’s still right miffed at whatever happened, didn’t even wanna talk to me.” “Oh, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy replied quietly. “Ain’t no trouble. Anyway, I gotta git,” Applejack said, turning on her hooves for the road, “Gonna see if ah cain find Rainbow and tell her, then I gotta get back to mah apple stand.” Fluttershy nodded, and Applejack tipped her hat, her hooves shortly pounding down the road leading away from the cottage. Applejack didn’t find Rainbow Dash on the way back to her apple stand, but she did catch her that afternoon. Shouting up to the rainbow pegasus on a cloud, Applejack said, “Hey Rainbow Dash! You hear about Rosy?!” Rainbow fluttered down with a frown on her muzzle. “What about Rosy?” she asked, making Applejack a little nervous to say, “Ah saw Rosy earlier today and she’s fine, just avoiding us on account of the whole... thing or another.” “Well good,” Rainbow snapped, “I’m glad she is too scared to even tell us that she’s okay. It’s not like we searched for her all night yesterday or anything.” “I don’t think she means harm,” Applejack said uneasily. “She’s just havin’ problems.” “Maybe she should tell us what her problems are, if she’s having them,” Rainbow replied, “Until then, she can just take a hike!” Rainbow blasted off then, leaving Applejack looking up the brim of her hat after Rainbow Dash with concern. In the days that followed, Applejack worried for her friends, and worried for Rosy’s ultimate fate. It was an unsettling feeling of wrongness about this whole thing that Applejack hadn’t felt before, not since one lonely morning long ago in Manehattan. Applejack was not near as worried sick as Twilight was, though. Of course, Twilight wasn’t even thinking about Rosy at the moment. But boy was she worried! “Oh my. Oh. Oh dear. Really? How could they possibly—how do they know? ” Twilight murmured in progressive agitation from the confines of her tree library. She stared in astonishment at what she’d managed to get her projector to show. A familiar song had begun coming out of tinny sounding crystals, as what Twilight was watching unfolded before her eyes. It was a very old, if popular Equestrian folk song she heard, that just about anypony would know, but it was a song that the other verse didn’t have any evidence of ever having heard before the as-yet-unexplained arrival of Rosy Pink. The humans had some form of particle accelerator, but it was highly experimental, and not nearly the energy density needed to unravel superstrings. How had they heard the song from Equestria then, if they couldn’t leave their own world? Their verse was stitched together tighter than one of Rarity’s garter belts! Twilight’s research was at a dead end here, as she saw herself, a unicorn, arriving in Ponyville. She was on Cherry’s balloon, for some reason, along with her dragon assistant Spike.The song then took an odd turn, with percussion, and some kind of poorly tuned piano as accompaniment. Twilight Sparkle heard herself singing words she’d never sang, of what she learned, then each of her friends contributing to this mysterious song. A letter sent to Princess Celestia, with a photograph that had never been taken. Yet it was Princess Celestia who received it, and Twilight and her friends gathering together for that photograph, just as Twilight would have done if it had actually happened. Though Twilight was fairly sure Fluttershy would never agree to be front and center in a group photograph. The purple princess turned off the projector, and shook her head. The film that they’d decoded from the humans, it couldn’t have been a film of actual events, yet it was uncanny how vividly it portrayed their world, and themselves. How had the other verse known of Twilight and her friends at all? None of the research indicated any human technology that could do more than your basic, ordinary quark manipulation. Nothing that could rip a hole through other dimensions, whether deliberately or otherwise. Had Rosy’s arrival just been some one-time freak accident? But then how did they know about Equestria, and the Elements of Harmony? And how did they create this footage? The human verse didn’t even have the same... color that Equestria did! It was all muted browns and greens. Though the sky was the same color, everything below it was just... greyer. It was as if you turned the saturation down on everything, just like when... no, that’s completely impossible. The fact of the matter is, Twilight Sparkle did not fly Cherry’s balloon out of Canterlot, and she certainly would remember a photograph like that. Yet she had been researching the Elements of Harmony on that fateful day, just like it showed. Was the extra footage at the opening being played by actors? It made no sense! And Twilight hadn’t even watched ten minutes of it! The only thing Twilight was sure of was that her friends absolutely had to see this. ...as soon as she could figure out how to get them to speak to her again. “Heeey Rosy, watcha dooin?” “Ugh, Pinkie—please, Pinkie Pie. Can’t you find some... other friends?” Rosy had just dropped the sack of groceries she was carrying, because she wasn’t too good at carrying things with her butt yet, and so she tried to talk while carrying the bag in her mouth. Pinkie bumped the canvas sack up onto her own butt with a bright smile at Rosy, saying, “Don’t be such a silly grumpy pants. I’ll help you carry your groceries, so you don’t have to worry about it at all!” “I’m not—ugh,” Rosy groaned, her head dropping forward as she gave in, striding slowly as Pinkie Pie hopped beside her fellow earth pony, who was not strange in any way, or party to any scary stories that Pinkie would really rather keep secret. No, this pony was certainly not the same pony as that sorrowful, terrified, crying mare that Pinkie Pie had forced to do something she hated, and never even thought about Rosy’s feelings once, except how much Rosy would love it. “And here we are!” Pinkie said brightly, standing beside the door and waiting for Rosy to open it. “How you feeling? Happier today? Or kind of sad? Anything I can—” “I really would rather if you didn’t come in this time,” Rosy said in pained exasperation. “Just... let me have my groceries, and let’s call it even. Please?” “Oh, I don’t have to do anything, silly, I’m doing this because I just love you to pieces!” Pinkie said happily to Rosy, bumping up her groceries into the air, to cascade down on Rosy’s rump in an orderly manner that seemed to surprise Rosy again for some reason. “I just want to make you smile, see?” Rosy kind of clenched her teeth and spread her lips with a desperate look, saying, “Shee? Shmilig!” “That’s pretty good for a first try,” Pinkie said, squinting at Rosy comically. “But maybe you should try it one more time, and this time try to get your eyes to smile too. Those are really important to smiling.” “Pinkie, it’s... I’m hungry Pinkie Pie,” the mare whined impatiently, “I need to eat dinner and... and I have some—” “Hey, why don’t you eat at Sugarcube Corner?” Pinkie asked excitedly, “I’ll be happy to treat you! Whatever you want, it’s yours!” “I want you to leave me alone. Please,” Rosy said flatly. Pinkie smiled nervously at that saying, “Oh, you kidder. Getting tired of little old me? Don’t be silly.” Rosy was already backing into her door though, and Pinkie added a little desperately, “And next time we meet, I’ll be much better! You’ll never get tired of me then!” “I’m not... okay, maybe I am tired of you, but just... sorry,” Rosy griped, ducking the rest of the way into her house and shutting the door. The sound of a clicking lock shot through Pinkie’s chest, making her heart hurt for some reason. “Okay, Rosy Posie!” Pinkie shouted through the door, “You have a good dinner! And maybe we can have some fun after dinner? I could show you more Ponyville movies! I know you like those!” Silence. Pinkie hopped away from the house, a happy smile on her face, even though the twisted serpent that coiled around her heart seemed even meaner than the actual draconequus that they’d fought once. This new one wasn’t as easy to fight as Discord though, because Rosy just didn’t seem to like Pinkie Pie anymore. Well, that’s okay, Rosy could hate Pinkie Pie worse than any other pony. As long as Rosy was happy, Pinkie was happy. Rainbow Dash wasn’t a monster. She was a pony, a real pony. She soared through the open sky just like everypony else. So she was faster, and tougher, and smarter than everypony else. So what? That was just because she worked hard, and practiced every day. And she wasn’t that smart. Twilight Sparkle was way smarter than her. Rainbow Dash was pretty much 100% sure of that. Okay maybe 23.2% sure. Rainbow was taking some time out to herself to fly out to the coast, for... reasons. The forests that rushed past below her seemed endless; she knew they were not. But it was comforting to think the rolling hills of solid green were endless, bigger than her, that she was just a tiny piece in the part of a greater whole. Up here in the sky, it was easy to think about... stuff like that. There were no obstacles, no distractions. Unfortunately it was also easy to think of other thoughts. Thoughts she didn’t want to think. Rainbow Dash dropped her altitude until she was just barely avoiding clipping the topmost branches. Her surroundings were now more stimulating and distracting, as she had to account for the ups and downs of the land below her. She wasn’t a monster. Lots of ponies flew like that, and sure it was dangerous, but it wasn’t anywhere near as crazy as her own stunts, which... other ponies couldn’t do. Rainbow Dash tried to ignore the other foals at school back in Cloudsdale, the ones who called her that thing she didn’t want to be called. The ones who told her that she wasn’t even a real pony, just because she didn’t have parents. The parents who stood by their foals and called her... that. Well, they were wrong. She wasn’t a monster. She was a hero! Rainbow Dash had saved the world more times than ponies even knew. And it wasn’t because she was better than everypony. It was because she had such amazing friends, that she had to rely on or she’d totally fail just like everypony else. Sure they were all exceptional ponies too, but it meant that Rainbow Dash wasn’t the unstoppable force ponies thought she was. It meant that there were ponies who could match her, keep her honest. There were things she couldn’t do, that they could do, and that meant she had flaws, just like anypony else. The trees thinned out and grew scraggly as she approached the coast. Soon, she could see the sparkling ocean spread out before her. The beaches were small and rocky around here, but that’s okay. Rainbow Dash wanted to just perch on a rock and let the soft sounds of the steady ocean waves calm her mind, alone. Her azure wings folded, as the polychromatic pegasus stayed there atop a stately pile of granite, and stared out into the horizon across the ocean, lost in thought. That mare had called her a monster. Why had Rosy called her a monster? Why was it bothering Rainbow Dash so much? It was just a lie, wasn’t it? The mare was just an evil bully, and was trying to get under Rainbow Dash’s skin, to try to get Dash to back down, wasn’t she? But then, why did Rainbow Dash feel like a monster? Even way out here in total solitude, with nothing but the sounds of the waves to distract her, Rainbow Dash had no idea how what she thought were innocent, helpful actions had gone so wrong. Her attempt to retrieve Rosy had brought Dash face-to-face with such a stare of fear, and hate and ruin. A stare Rainbow Dash should never have gotten anymore, because everypony knew she wasn’t a monster. She was just a pony, like everypony else. Rainbow Dash wasn’t a monster... right? Then why did she feel like one? Rarity was... concerned for Rainbow Dash. Though her friend was right here at the moment, it had only been a few days ago that Rainbow Dash had gone off alone on another one of her excursions to the coast again, and that meant that something was bothering this adorable barbarian of a windblown pegasus. Probably something to do with Rosy Pink. Everything seemed to be that way these days. Rarity couldn’t believe Twilight went and did that to the oneun of them, put them in between a rock and a hard place regarding Rosy. Rarity could understand if Twilight was having trouble dealing with that terrible... thing, but did she have to put her friends on the spot? Rarity wouldn’t mind at all if Twilight just took care of the problem cleanly, and quietly on her own, but when she had gotten them involved, it meant Rarity had to interact with this Rosy, and listen to her, and see in Rosy’s eyes that desperate hope that the snowy dressmaker knew was ultimately foalish. It was a child’s desire Rosy felt, a petty greed for what she had right now, with no concern for her own future, or the well-being of others. That was the only reason Rosy could possibly have been so resistant to returning to her own life, and her own responsibilities. Rarity quickly cooled to any idea of that overgrown filly having any sophistication whatsoever, when Rosy simply couldn’t appreciate sensible, mature things like garden parties, high society, and large hats. She just wasn’t capable of seeing the big picture! Rarity could have dealt with Rosy’s reticence. She was certainly of the opinion that the filly’s tantrum shouldn’t be tolerated. If they didn’t throw Rosy through the portal kicking and screaming, she would continue to test her boundaries, and push their limits worse and worse. First it was a delay, then an excuse, then outright denial of her own responsibility. Rosy was simply not a pony who Rarity wanted to have to deal with. And yet here we are. “Lift your leg please, Rainbow Dash,” she said politely, adjusting a buckle on the latest ensemble she’d made for her speed loving friend. “Ugh, I’m fine, Rarity,” Rainbow Dash replied, lifting a leg so that Rarity’s magic could pull another ribbon around there, and... perfect! “I just go down to the beach to chill sometimes. I’m a pegasus! I need to fly!” “I have to say, this ensemble really compliments your mane,” Rarity said, tweaking the any dye to be just the color she envisioned. Perhaps something crimson red, no, something spicy, something roguishly rouge! “Was it just because I have a weird colored mane?” Rainbow asked in reply. “But I thought she knew something about our pasts? Did she know about the Institute? I don’t want her to tell everypony.” “Hang on now, a few pockets might work beneath your wing slots,” Rarity said, levitating over some pocket patches and pins. “Yes, that looks marvelous, and functional too!” Lifting her wing, Rainbow Dash said, “I know ponies aren’t going to just... turn on me if they found out. It’s just a little weird, and everypony already knows I’m a big hero. So why is it bothering me so much?” “And, a buttercup and cornflower bow, to rein in that rowdy tail of yours,” Rarity stated, attaching the last bits of fabric. “And... done! Voila, you are a new mare, Rainbow Dash!” Rainbow looked in the mirror, and a surprised smile danced across her face. Not surprised at what she saw, as much as surprised that it made her smile. Rarity sighed. This was not something a beautiful new outfit for the upcoming bloom festival would fix. “Well, I thank you for putting up with me, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said, “Having a friend such as you has done wonders for my ability to conceive of designs that fit a so-called ‘ideal’ pegasus frame. Now, I’ll have your dress ready within the week, but before we clean up here, I would like to ask. Are you worried about hurting other ponies?” Dash’s smile grew greviously tainted with nervousness as she said, “I’d never hurt anypony, so no I’m not worried about that, even if maybe by accident I might have almost hurt Rosy it—” she hung her head and mumbled, “fluff bunnies.” Rarity nuzzled under Rainbow Dash’s chin, lifting her head and saying to the smaller, but certainly much more powerful pony on the podium, “You had the chance to hurt Rosy, and yet you didn’t. Because you are a wonderful mare, as you can see in the mirror here. You listened to Rosy, and even though she said terrible things about you, and even though you resented her terribly, you have done no harm to her. Why, I might even suggest that she was the one doing harm. Because who hurt whom in this affair, and has she apologized since then?” “Well—I haven’t exactly... asked her to apologize,” Rainbow Dash said glumly. Rarity frowned, saying, “I wish it were that easy, to simply be forgiven by asking for it. But remember that Rosy is not really a pony. She doesn’t think in the same ways we do, and you might find yourself disappointed again, if you try and make her act like a pony. When we ponypomorphize inequine creatures, we have to understand that sometimes they will act in ways that no pony would expect.” “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Rainbow Dash said with a bit more of a confident smile. “She really was just reacting because I... backed her into a corner like that. It’s not like she really thinks I’m a mo–monster or anything.” “Oh... Rainbow Dash,” Rarity sighed, her face falling, “Is that what she called you? How could she? That she knows of your life’s history makes it all the worse. Knowing what happened, and what that word means to you? It’s just unforgivable! You are not a... a monster, Rainbow Dash, and never let anypony, or anyone convince you differently.” Rarity stood before her friend and smiled saying, “So when Rosy referred to your... past in a way that made it seem like she hated you, in fact you were seeing nothing more than a cornered wolf backed up to a corner, lashing out like the animal that it is. You should feel sorry for her, really. If she’s incapable of seeing that what she called you is wrong, it shows how much of a monster you are not. It was just an instinctual reaction of hers, not anything wrong with you at all.” “That... sounds kind of weird,” Rainbow Dash admitted uneasily, “But if you insist. You’re not wrong, I guess. She probably didn’t even mean it when she said it.” Rarity sidled up alongside her well dressed friend saying, “You are my friend, and the greatest flyer Equestria has ever seen. You are a pony who deserves every bit of love and kindness any other pony should get. That’s the difference between you and her. She lacks that essential kindness, honesty, generosity and... qualities that a pony has within them, while you are as much of a pony as I am. Would you ever call her a monster?” “What? No! Never!” Rainbow Dash said in surprise, “Even though she’s kind of weird and scary sometimes, because uh... no. I would not.” “Then worry not about it,” Rarity offered with a comforting hug. “For all we know, perhaps Rosy will suddenly gain an intrinsic equinity. But you never have to worry about losing yours. You have a story mark, Rainbow Dash. That’s something that nopony can ever take away.” “Yeah, except...” Rainbow Dash shivered. Rarity had to join her in that sentiment. “And we... got them back!” Rarity said in artificial cheer. “No harm done! So it’s an entirely different situation than with Rosy, who lacks the compassion needed to get one in the first place. He may have stolen your mark away from you, but you were the one who created it, because you are an amazing pony, Rainbow Dash. No monster could ever hope to match the beautiful deeds that you have done.” Rainbow Dash flew off feeling much better about herself, and Rarity watched her go. Then the dressmaker’s thoughts drifted to little Sweetie Belle, and her own mark troubles. With Rosy around, it had taken Rarity quite some time to calm Sweetie Belle down when she and her friends saw an adult pony walking around town in plain sight without a mark. Rarity did not want to dredge up old worries like that. So Rarity took a deep breath, and pushed all those troublesome thoughts about monsters and ponyhood out of her head, and prepared herself receive her sister’s attention for the duration of the afternoon, in peace and happiness. “Rarity!! Guess what??” ...best case scenario. “Why don’t Rosy like you?” came the axe blade of a question, swinging at the sturdy tree trunk of the convictions of a pony who didn’t want to hear it. “Aw it ain’t like that, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said over a dinner of apple dumplings, peas and corn cakes. “She’s just a lil’ slow to warm, you know? We had a... a misunderstandin’ that’s still wearing on her awful hard.” “But cain’t you make it better?” Apple Bloom insisted worriedly. “You always told me to apologize when ah hurt somepony, even if I don’t wanna.” “That ain’t... precisely the case, Apple Bloom, but this is... different,” Applejack said. “Ah did apologize to her, and she just... wasn’t ready to hear it. So she’s got her life, and ah got mine, and... she ain’t comin’ back to the farm because... she just don’t like me much no more.” “But why doesn’t she?” Apple Bloom whined. “She was comin’ round here all the time, before! And now she’s just ignorin’ us? What if she was gonna get her story mark in—” Apple Bloom quieted down, staring at her plate. Granny Smith looked at the filly, saying with compassion, “Apple Bloom, some ponies just ain’t... ah mean lots of critters don’t get story marks. Rabbits an’ pigs, and deers an’ possums...” “She looked so much like a pony, ah thought she was one,” Apple Bloom replied unsatisified. “She acts like a pony, and she feels like a pony, so what if we—” “She ain’t a pony, Apple Bloom, she just looked that way on a temporary basis,” Applejack said confidently... mostly confidently. “There is no way no how that you ain’t gonna get your story mark. You’re a pony and an Apple through-and-through. She seemed like it, but... she just ain’t one of us.” “But ah don’t have my story mark,” Apple Bloom said resentfully. “How is she different besides me, besides older? Just because she used to not be a pony, don’t mean she cain’t—” “She cain’t get a story mark, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said firmly. “She was supposed to go home to her family, where she don’t need a mark. But she didn’t, because... because ah don’t know, she was just bein’ ornery about it. So she’s just gonna be here a little longer, until we cain convince her she don’t belong here.” “Applejack’s right,” Granny said sagely. “Ah don’t wanna here none of you fillies tryin’ to go get that Rosy mare no story mark. It ain’t a thing that cain happen, and it ain’t for you to try to be makin’ her feel welcome, when she’s just bein’ stubborn about goin’ home.” “Right,” Applejack said as she ate her hearty meal, “Stubborn.” “Ah guess so,” Apple Bloom sighed. She didn’t press the issue though, instead leaning forward and eating her own food, quietly and without protesting any further. Applejack kind of wanted her to, though. Fluttershy watched her cute little birds and squirrels eating the nuts and seeds they’d stored in her cottage with a disaffected air. She just couldn’t concentrate on her task at hand these days. The quiet, slender yellow pony was seriously disturbed by the actions of her and her friends as of late. Fluttershy found that Applejack seemed to treat Rosy like she was some kind of a circus oddity now. Rainbow Dash pretended to be angry, but kept Rosy at a fearful distance, a behavior that Fluttershy was familiar with, but had never expected to see coming from her old friend. Pinkie Pie went out of her way to befriend Rosy now, but her actions were more from a fear that Fluttershy didn’t fully understand, not out of compassion for the pony. Rarity had so little to do with Rosy that she didn’t even seem to realize Rosy somehow still had her scarf. Rarity seemed to think of Rosy as more of an object than a pony, or a nuisance that didn’t have any feelings. Twilight Sparkle was simply not dealing with the unusual situation and character that was Rosy Pink. While it was understandable if Twilight wanted to return to her comfort zone, it was still wrong of her to try to force the world to conform to her expectations, however reasonable they may be. And worst of all of them, Fluttershy was not saying a word of any of these concerns to her friends. Fluttershy just didn’t know how to tell them that they needed to change their behavior for the better, and she wasn’t sure herself what about Rosy was provoking her friends in such unfortunate ways. For Rainbow Dash, it was obvious, but for the rest of them... it was far more likely that Fluttershy was just seeing monsters in the shadows again. Who did Fluttershy think she was, deciding whether her friends were right or wrong? Fluttershy was the one who was wrong, and she just wasn’t a good enough pony to see how her friends were the ones who were right. The worst thing is, Fluttershy had been talking with Rosy until recently, and helping her, and enjoying her company, and Fluttershy was just too afraid to even tell her friends about it. She was willing to face her fear, and knew she should tell them her feelings despite her concern, but then Fluttershy just froze up whenever she tried. She wasn’t afraid of losing them—she couldn’t be afraid of losing them! Fluttershy knew they would be her friends forever, even if they didn’t really talk with her all that much. But just the thought of hurting them, of having them look at her judgementally, and know that she knew what she did was hurtful, Fluttershy just couldn’t work up the nerve. She’d been working with Rosy off and on in the time where Rosy had been working at the homeless shelter, where Fluttershy had met this unassuming pony one day last winter. Fluttershy’s animal duties were few and far between in the winter, and she usually spent her time helping out ponies as best as she could, generally from very far back in the soup kitchen. There, Fluttershy met a pony struggling to find her place, struggling to even walk, a pony who had no real idea of what to call herself, who suffered from a profound loss of identity; Rosy just didn’t know who she was. And yet, she was so happy, just to be. Just to wake up in the mornings, and come join the ponies in their efforts to help each other. Rosy seemed to thrive on her strange identity crisis, only becoming more motivated to make a name for herself, more motivated to find herself, and show them all who she really was inside. She truly was like a filly in that respect, approaching every day with wonder and trepidation. It was strangely heartwarming to see this, and to hear of Rosy’s struggles to fit in. At first Rosy didn’t even know how to make friends. She faltered at acts of bravery that even a foal should have already overcome... that even Fluttershy had overcome. Once Rosy had some friends, she seemed at a loss to keep them, how to tend to her friendship. Fluttershy showed Rosy as best as she could, but Fluttershy had to admit she was the last pony one wanted to approach when it came to attending to your friends. Fluttershy always felt tempted to just let her friends stay out in the big scary world, while she hid inside where it was safe, and it was usually they who attended to her, taking Fluttershy out of her comfort zone, and showing Fluttershy how she could become a better pony. But in a strange perversion of reality, the situation seemed to be reversed. Fluttershy found it easy to help dear, sweet Rosy out of her shell, to grow and blossom as the pony she wanted to be, and to grow closer to her. Fluttershy never found Rosy disturbing to talk with at all, and in fact it was heartwarming that Rosy had heard the story Fluttershy loved to tell other ponies, about how she became a friend to the animals and gained her story mark. Fluttershy felt safe with her secrets in Rosy’s wings, because Rosy understood Fluttershy so well. It was so lovely to talk with her, and spend time with her, Fluttershy dared to think that just maybe they had been becoming friends. Then Fluttershy just had to go and ruin everything. Perhaps Fluttershy didn’t have any underlying issues anywhere near as troublesome as the ones her friends had to struggle with, but she did have some troubles. Fluttershy didn’t know what was wrong with her, to only feel this way about... Rosy and... her friends, and... also some other mares she’d known. Fluttershy’s issues were frustratingly nebulous, and she couldn’t point to the Perfect Pegasus Project to blame. She could only blame herself, for never learning her lesson, for being afraid of confrontation, again and again. For being unable to tell her friends what she thought they were doing wrong. For being unable to help Rosy, despite the poor mare’s fear and desperation. For taking that fear and desperation, and doing something unforgivable to Rosy Pink. Fluttershy wanted to ease that pony’s tormented heart so bad, it made her want to kick something! But she just—couldn’t—! Fluttershy knew, on some level, that her friends couldn’t possibly understand what Rosy was going through. Fluttershy didn’t understand it herself. She’d only briefly been anything other than a pony, and she hadn’t found it unpleasant, but she wouldn’t want to live that way. What happened to Rosy was so much more extreme, and the thought that she would actually enjoy it was just... terrifying! When Rosy confessed her darkest secret to Fluttershy in the heat of the moment, Fluttershy couldn’t deal with what Rosy had to face, with what she really was, or with what Fluttershy herself had done. Fluttershy wanted to tell her friends, but she feared they might hate her, or come to believe Rosy had been lying to them. Because in a sense, Rosy had. But in the same sense, Fluttershy had been lying to them too. Lies of omission and cowardice, but still lies. There was something seriously wrong with Rosy Pink, that terrified the soft yellow pegasus even to look at her, and Fluttershy may have been the only pony in Equestria to know. Fluttershy could only hope that she would find some way to express to her friends just how terrified Rosy was of becoming what she had been before.