//------------------------------// // The End // Story: Returning Home // by ferret //------------------------------// Applejack wasn’t ready, but this was something that needed to be done. Rosy couldn’t just be left like that, crumpled over in that cell like a broken doll. The orange farm pony had her stetson on her head, and her Element of Harmony clasped around her neck, both a symbol of her authority and a representation of her power. The power to do right to others, to stay true to them and rally them by your side. It was a power that had saved her farm time and time again, before she even knew what it was. It lay within her, always reminding her that she needed the ponies in her life, sometimes so much that Applejack wished she could do it all on her own, alone. Well, she was alone here, and anypony would agree she was doing right to others, but as she approached Rosy’s cell, Applejack just couldn’t feel good about it. “Sorry for lockin’ you up,” Applejack said to the cream furred lump on the floor in the corner with the pink tail sticking out of it, “We wanna see if a night’s rest don’t get Twilight feeling better, before we try to fly you back to the Rift.” From Rosy, there was no acknowledgement that Applejack even spoke. Applejack spoke anyway, saying, “Ya really don’t wanna go home, do ya?” Rosy lifted her head at that, and turned to look at Applejack, her eyes still red with tears that hadn’t fallen since they left the hotel. “I... am home,” she said dully, still a little out of it from the salt, even an hour later. “Ah meant your home back in the other world,” Applejack replied crossly. “That’s not my home,” Rosy insisted bitterly, “Not anymore.” She added softly, almost as an afterthought, “It never was.” “What about your friends an’ family?” Applejack asked, “You gonna just leave them all behind?” “Why do you care?” Rosy moaned, flopping flatter, “You’re just going to force me back anyway!” “Look, sugarcube, sometimes things don’t work out the way you wanted them to an’—” “Will you just shut up!” Rosy snapped, rolling on her back and flailing her hooves overhead dramatically, “Shut up with your stupid moralizing and your stupid lessons, and stop trying to say you’re so superior and I’m just deluded. Why can’t you just leave me alone?!” “You know we cain’t do that,” Applejack said with an unhappy grimace, “Y’gotta listen to reason. The fate of Equestria depends on you!” “Fuck Equestria,” Rosy replied darkly, curling up. “What about your family?” Applejack pleaded. “Fuck my family.” “What in tarnation’s that supposed to mean?” Applejack asked angrily. “I never wanted them to be my family,” Rosy replied resentfully, looking distantly forward, “They were just people who forced me to live with them, growing up.” “Family ain’t that. Family’s...” Applejack shook her head, trying to find the words, “There’s a deep bond that goes beyond anything you can make by friendship. They’re your kin, by blood!” “Maybe not every... everypony is lucky enough to feel that way, Applejack,” Rosy replied with a look that almost seemed like pity. She managed to roll onto her belly, mumbling, “Anyway I have pony blood now, so we’re not even related by blood anymore.” “Th’ Rift’ll fix that...” Applejack said desperately. Rosy looked at her again with those deep blue eyes, and said in a haunted voice, “Why d’you think I don’t want to go through it?” “Ah don’t...but...” Applejack didn’t know what to ask, or what she even wanted to ask even. Then oddly enough, Rosy helped. “You were really uh... worried for Apple Bloom, weren’t you?” asked the pink-haired mare behind bars, still laying there staring at Applejack on the floor, looking salty as all getout. “Well y–yuh. On account of you was just bein’ a mare so Apple Bloom’d think you were a mare, so you c-could...” Applejack stammered, trying to say it, but too afraid of what could’ve happened. “Y’know ponies like me...” Rosy said with an uncharacteristically silly grin, “Like... me are safer, statistically speaking ’course, with young childr—foals. All the stallions’ll be all over her one day, but not me ‘cause I’m... I’m not that... way, I think.” “So you wouldn’t?” Applejack asked, her heart in her throat, “D-d-do anythin’ to her?” “If I would, then why didn’t I?,” Rosy said with a dramatic roll of her eyes, “I had plenty of chances, so why... didn’t I? Because I wanna be a mare not some kinna freakish pervert.” Applejack was trying to understand and just... not seeing it. Stallions followed mares, not other stallions, so Rosy couldn’t have been a stallion, yet she wasn’t denying it! How was disguising yourself as a mare in order to get a stallion to mount another stallion not some kinda dangerous, sick perversion? “Did ya really just... raise your tail for a stallion?” Applejack asked, staring at the strange not-stallion stallion in confused horror. Any warmth in Rosy’s eyes died at that stare. Turning away from Applejack, her head sank to lay on her hooves, and her tail scrunched up against her rear as she said, “...I don’t wanna talk about it.” “You see how wrong that is?” Applejack persisted, “Even you feel ashamed of... of havin’ that freakish perversion.” “Fuck you,” Rosy mumbled into her hooves. Applejack didn’t really want to talk about it either. She didn’t want it to be true at all, it was just terrible to think that Rosy’d be a stallion who thought he was a mare. She wanted Rosy to be an ordinary mare, just... like Rosy wanted. Just like deep down in her gut, Applejack secretly wanted Rosy Pink to stay in Equestria. Applejack wanted it to be true, and yet she didn’t want to have to choose between Rosy and her friends. There was nothing doing though. Rosy had been right all along. Applejack could try to get Twilight to grudgingly listen to reason, but as long as that Rift was hanging over their friendship, Twilight Sparkle and Rosy Pink could never be friends. Some time later, Fluttershy crept into the cell block, a hoof against her Element for strength, the shadows large and dangerous around her as she risked approaching Rosy’s cell. Rosy was just lying there on the floor, so Fluttershy forced herself to say as loudly as she could muster, “Rosy, I’m... sorry.” Rosy stirred and looked her way, but Fluttershy had time to continue, so she said, “I’m sorry I may have... hurt you so badly, so many years ago. I didn’t realize it... it turned you away from mares.” A laugh escaped Rosy at that, one that seemed to surprise them both. With an incredulous look, Rosy replied, “You think that bothered me? I mean it did, but it wasn’t gonna work between us. I got over it. What really hurts me is that you told them that I... have a problem. Is it really so hard to think of me as just another mare?” “How many years were you a stallion?” Fluttershy asked, “A-and lusting after mares? You can’t change that. It’s not right for you to be a mare. It’s not natural.” Rosy looked at Fluttershy with a sorrowful sort of pity, saying softly, “You could save me, you know.” “What?” Fluttershy asked, backing up a step. “Tell them that I’m a normal mare, that you... did stuff to me, and it didn’t work out,” Rosy pleaded, “Just... tell your friends that I belong here, and there’s nothing unnatural about me. You could convince them, I know you could. You’re not the smartest, or the most clever, but you have the most heart out of all of your friends. I wish I could show you how strong you are. I don’t care if ponies think you’re weak, you are not—” “Maybe I want to be weak,” Fluttershy said hastily, resentfully, unable to make eye contact. “Fluttershy, wait—” Rosy said, but Fluttershy had already turned tail and fled. “Shit...” A certain somepony’s cream colored rear hooves clanged loudly on the bars and she again shouted, “Shit!” “Sorry, I can’t do that on command!” a different mare shouted from a distant cell. “Rosie?” Pinkie Pie asked, creeping up to Rosy’s cell. It looked like Rosy had kicked over the little table in there, and was standing silently over by the sleeping cot, with her back turned to the bars, “How you doing in there? You gonna be okay?” “How can you even say that,” Rosy spat out abruptly, turning to glare angrily at Pinkie, “You’re throwing me to the wolves, and you think I’m going to be okay? Maybe what you’re asking is if you’ll be okay. Well I hope not. I hope you stay up late every night thinking about what you did to me!” “Rosy, this is... wrong! Something is wrong,” Pinkie replied with difficulty around the tears fighting to escape her eyes. “We’re not gonna do anything bad. You’re just going home!” “I am home,” Rosy grumbled in reply, as if she’d said that already, stalking up to the door of her cell, and up to Pinkie Pie, “You want me to go home. How about you let me go home? Stop attacking me in my own house, and let me live with you in Equestria!” “I wish you could...” Pinkie said weakly. She didn’t want to do anything bad to Rosy, not this, not the Rift, not anything. But who would ever listen to her? Shrinking back to her belly before the prison cell, Pinkie Pie was too crazy to be trusted with making decisions, and that was a good thing! She wasn’t okay, and so Pinkie’s friends could take care of her. Pinkie Pie would try to repay them as best as she could, but she couldn’t be the one to make decisions, or she’d decide wrong. She just whimpered, and said... “I really wish you could.” Rosy was at the bars of the cell then, reaching through them and touching Pinkie Pie on the shoulder, lifting Pinkie’s spirits enough for the pink pony to stand again. “Pinkie, I... I’m sorry I called you crazy,” Rosy said in a shaky voice, “Sometimes I think you’re more sane than anypony in this crazy world. You understand how things work if you’d just let yourself...” she huffed in frustration, looking desperately into Pinkie’s eyes, “I don’t want to hurt you either. I just want to live here. That’s all I want. I want to live here, and never go back.” Pinkie Pie shrunk back from Rosy’s pleading gaze. She didn’t understand, yet she did. Pinkie wanted to go back, to find her family again alive and well, but... she had a pretty good life where she was. There was nothing to return to but memories, and while she treasured the memories, she didn’t want to... go back there. Her home was in Ponyville now, just... just like Rosy. “Were you trying to be a real mare?” Pinkie Pie asked anxiously, “To... to prove you weren’t a stallion, when you... presented for him?” That made Rosy glare at Pinkie. Pinkie Pie didn’t like being glared at. She liked it even less than being glared at! “You didn’t give me much of a choice,” Rosy said bitterly. “What else was I supposed to do?” “But you didn’t have to do this! Nopony really cares if you were a stallion,” Pinkie said in an appeasing tone she hoped, “They just want you to go home, and stop being... weird,” Just like Pinkie Pie.… “You think I don’t know that?” Rosy countered, “You’re obviously gonna force me to go back. It’s just what happens in these things. But if I...” Through the bars, they stared at one another for a silent second, Rosy looking less and less at what was in front of her, until the imprisoned mare said distantly, “I thought maybe you couldn’t send me back, if I was... with foal. If I was pregnant, you couldn’t...” Any remaining humor in Pinkie’s expression shattered and sank as Rosy continued to speak, telling her, “What would you do, send an innocent foal through the Rift? If I had a foal in me, I’d at least have another year to live here. And even if you forced me to give up the foal, and they had to live in an orphanage, at least... some part of me would get to stay in Equestria. It was a... it was a stupid idea, and I should have known you’d show up right in the middle of it.” “I hadn’t... I didn’t even think...” Pinkie said in horror. “We can’t... you’re not even a mare in your world! What would happen? How could you do that to yourself? To a little... your little foal...” “I guess you’ll have to let me stay here then,” Rosy replied crossly, “Because I could be p-pregnant, with a foal.” Her shoulders sank. “But... but he never finished!” Pinkie contested desperately. “We found you in time, we saved you from... from your foal!” Rosy blinked at Pinkie, then glanced down and mumbled, “That wasn’t... the first time.” “What?” Pinkie squeaked. Rosy glared at her again, saying, “We did it every day. That was the seventh time.” “The what time?” Pinkie asked in horrified confusion. “The—” Rosy grimaced, “We did it ...onetwo times, all the way. You can’t stop it now because he’s... it’s inside me now and it’s been a week. So tell that to your friends, and then leave me alone for the next... 23 months.” Rosy turned around then and flopped onto the sleeping cot ungently, shifting her hind legs against each other as if she wasn’t comfortable about what was between them. To her back, Pinkie Pie said, “I’ll—I’ll tell the others, and it’ll be okay and we’ll f-figure something out. I’m sorry Rosy I... you... I’m sorry!” Pinkie kind of felt like Rosy then, having trouble choking out those words around her knot of dread and sympathy that made her really really not want Rosy to return home. Pinkie left begging apologies, without any idea of how to make things right again. Twilight would know what to do. When Pinkie was too silly and... and crazy to understand, Twilight always knew what to do. “So... you really wanna be a mare,” Rainbow Dash just casually suggested, after having snuck up to Rosy’s cell that afternoon, some time after Pinkie Pie’s rather tumultuous confession to them all. “...I dunno,” was Rosy’s unenthusiastic reply. “You sure seemed to know back at the hotel!” Dash retorted, still trying to get her head around how a stallion could want... that. “Maybe that was a mistake,” Rosy sighed, standing and looking at her hindquarters because uh—yeah. “It was just so... weird. I tried to be ready for it, but... have you ever... been with a stallion?” Well, that was... not the question Rainbow Dash expected to receive. It was kind of obvious in hindsight though. Rosy was just a lost little filly who didn’t know anything about how to be a mare. And also a stallion, somehow. “You remember the hundredth episode of season 1, where I finally managed to do a Sonic Rainboom?” Rainbow Dash asked hopefully. It didn’t look like Rosy’s eyes could go any wider when she openly stared at Rainbow Dash and asked, “You saw the show?!” “Yeah, Twilight got her hooves on it from the research team, and I kinda acquired it from her,” Rainbow Dash said sheepishly. “She put a lid on it after season four, after Pinkie freaked out over a... thing. But I watched that much at least.” “Did you... like it?” Rosy asked cautiously. “Hay, yeah!” Rainbow Dash declared with a hoof pump, “The show is awesome!” “So, what did you think about the Sonic Rainboom?” Rosy asked hopefully, “You saw what I meant about generosity, right?” “Oh sure,” Rainbow Dash said with a smile of rememberance, “But I brought it up because the show kinda sugar coats stuff. You remember how the episode ended, right?” “Yes? Where you won the contest and—” Rosy blinked, then sunk her head, groaning, “Oh no...” “Yeah, that was the first time I ever did it,” Rainbow Dash said abashedly, “With... two stallions.” Rosy lifted her head. “I’m a good looking mare with a lot of confidence and not a lot of family obligations,” Rainbow Dash explained with a shrug, “Stallions just... dig me. You know?” “Well, I didn’t know,” Rosy said in a small voice. “Seriously, don’t spread it around,” Rainbow Dash said, while a smirk crept onto her face, “I don’t want ponies to start thinking I’m easy, because I’m not. I’m just that good.” “I guess you wouldn’t understand then,” Rosy replied glumly, “When I felt... him going in there, it was really scary, and I couldn’t stop it, and I couldn’t want to stop it. I just had to stand there until it was done, and I felt him... you know... impregnating me.” “I guess you’re right, I don’t understand,” Rainbow Dash said testily, asserting, “That’s the best part! But not in season! What were you thinking? You can’t go having a foal, even less than I can! What are you going to—how can you even name them when you don’t even have a... a mother, or a father anymore?” “I don’t... I can’t even imagine what it’d...” Rosy said, holding an arm around her belly. “I don’t even know if it worked. I probably have s-somepony in there but...” “Oh hey, yeah,” Rainbow Dash realized, fumbling with something in her pocket, “I might be able to help with that. I stopped at a local clinic today... you know what these are?” Rainbow flipped a long, flat, sticklike object off her wingtip, to land lightly in front of Rosy. “Of course you have these,” Rosy groaned, staring down at it. “Hey you’re the pony who wants to stay in Equestria,” Dash protested, “You get that done, and we’ll be so plucked. Our hooves’ll be tied for the next whole year!” It looked like Rosy had a million things to tell Rainbow Dash, but what Rosy ended up doing was staring at it and just saying, “I wish these were better circumstances...” Rainbow Dash’s ears went down at that, and she was acutely aware of the bars in-between her and Rosy. “Yeah, I wish there was another way,” she said glumly, “I just don’t want anypony skipping out on checking if you have a foal. But Twilight knows what she’s talking about. The Rift really does endanger Equestria.” “That’s the truth,” Rosy said plainly, “But it doesn’t seem very honest.” “So what would be honest?” Rainbow Dash asked defensively, “Lying? If you think you can lie to be honest, then you’re just lying to yourself.” “Your element is Honesty, right?” Rosy asked cagily. “The show never showed the time where Twilight freaked out when she found out she got it wrong,” Rainbow Dash said with a smirk, “Woulda made a good episode.” “Well... honesty isn’t about telling the truth,” Rosy said. “It’s about understanding each other. Communication. Like, I’m going to tell you three lies right now. The sun is made of cheese, your name is Prumpy Fundlepants, and Scootaloo doesn’t love you more than anything in the world. Do you believe any of that for a second? I’m lying to you, I know I’m lying, and you know I’m lying, but you still thought about Scootaloo and how much she loves you. That’s what honesty is.” “That’s... huh,” Rainbow Dash said distantly, “I guess that makes sense... in a complicated sort of way.” She smirked at Rosy and added, “You’re pretty cool for one of those eggheads, y’know. I just can’t see why you and Twilight have so much trouble getting along.” “It’s because... okay, here’s one more lie I’m going to tell you. Something that’s not true at all,” Rosy replied mysteriously, then said, “I am not a real mare.” She was... lying. “If you do tell Twilight,” Rosy added, laying down on her cot again, and pulling the blanket over herself, “Please don’t lie to her. She needs to hear the truth.” “Bruce.” Rosy didn’t even lift an ear. “Bruce, we need to talk,” Twilight Sparkle said, shifting uneasily on her hooves, glancing at a scroll floating in her magic beside her, “About something important.” Rosy wouldn’t reply. It was well into the evening that Twilight came to her, but she couldn’t have been asleep yet. “Bruce, you are not a real mare,” Twilight Sparkle said tiredly to the pony in the cell lying on her small cot. When Rosy continued to ignore her, Twilight said, “I know you think that you’re going to get away with it, but look what you’re doing to yourself! Do you think pregnancy is going to be a pleasant experience? Do you even care what happens to the foal?” Nothing. “I told Bluebell,” Twilight lied, and that made Rosy stiffen up! “And she’s very upset with you for deceiving her all these years,” Twilight continued, “She knows you’re supposed to be a stallion, even if she wishes for you to stay. You may have fooled her into protecting you, but the only way she and her foal are going to heal from this is if you stop manipulating them, and just let them live their lives with everything as it should be, you in your world, in your true form, and they in theirs.” Rosy sighed, but not much else. Twilight was getting frustrated now, saying angrily, “You think you’re so clever for indulging in such... unimaginable debauchery. With the disgusting pornography you had on your personal laptop computer, I honestly should have expected this!” Placing a hoof on her chest, Twilight took a calming breath, then said through clenched teeth, “We’re going to wait until we can verify you have conceived, but you have nothing more to look forward to. If you are with foal, you’ll be spending your pregnancy in prison, with no freedom to do anything in Equestria other than bear it to term. As Twilight was speaking, Rosy at last showed a reaction. The pink haired pony sat up on her cot and turned to silently face Twilight. As though fueled by Twilight’s words, Rosy climbed down from the cot and squatted on the stone floor in her cell, settling her creamy furred haunches to the ground, while Twilight told Rosy Pink the harsh truth. “You already know you won’t be able to keep the foal. Once you return to your world, it’ll all be for nothing. All those years you spent fighting to stay here will be nothing more than a bad dream. We’re going to save the world from you. We’ll be heroes, and you’ll just be some kind of sick, twisted failure.” In her soft soprano, Rosy replied furiously, “When I came here, Equestria took away all of my fingers, except for one. But I only need one finger to do this.” Then she pointed one forehoof at the ceiling, rotated so that the back of her arm was facing Twilight, bracing her other arm on its elbow, crossways. Rosy glared defiantly at Twilight as she did it, as if that was supposed to send her a message, or... something? Twilight couldn’t help but feel terribly insulted by the crude gesture. “Why do you even want to stay in Equestria so bad?” Twilight asked the angry mare in exasperation, “You think Equestria is some sort of paradise? Ponies die here! There are monsters, and old mines, and— there are places that suffer harsh winters and terrible summers, where what few pegasi who are willing to work with such terrible conditions can do little for the ponies on the ground without making things even worse. Ponies get eaten! How could you want to live in a place with so much... suffering?” Rosy’s anger broke at that. Settling her forehooves back to the ground and looking at Twilight sadly, Rosy replied, “Has anypony ever had to spend their entire life as the wrong pony, with no way to ever feel like they are who they should be?” “Well... yes, probably?” Twilight said insecurely, “That’s too specific; maybe Equestria has different forms of suffering that are even worse!” Rosy sighed, looking at the floor and saying, “I really shouldn’t blame you for all this. I knew as soon as you started talking about returning home that you were the part of my delusion that let me know I was waking up.” “Delusion?” Twilight asked warily. “There’s no way this is real!” Rosy protested with glimmering eyes of blue to the purple princess, “It’s too beautiful! But you know what? I don’t care if it’s real. Feeling this and seeing this, and being this is all I want, and I don’t care if I never wake up.” “What’s so beautiful about a prison cell?” Twilight asked in bewilderment. “There are hearts on the walls!” Rosy shot back, waving a hoof at the wall decorations. “So?” Twilight asked in confusion. A moment passed, yet Rosy’s answer was just, “Never mind. You’re not going to listen. You can’t listen.” Then she climbed back on her cot, and started to lay down, as Twilight shouted, “Wait! This wasn’t—the reason I came to talk to you.” Rosy’s ears perked, and she turned to face the princess again. In Twilight’s magic, a scroll eased in through the bars and floated over to Rosy, unrolling in front of her. “Can you read this?” the princess asked testily. “...no?” the pink haired pony replied, squinting at the scroll, “What alphabet is that?” “Yours,” Twilight replied darkly, “The Rift destroyed your ability to read your own language.” Rosy’s eyes widened as she took another look at the human writing that had been photo-copied therein. “...wow,” she concluded. “Wow?” Twilight said fussily, dropping the scroll carelessly to the floor, “All you can say is wow? You threw me through the Rift!” “Yeah, but you’re still here,” Rosy said with an appeasing smile, “I figured you’d just come back—” “I can’t read!” Twilight shouted accusingly. In the silence, the words, “That’s what I told the judge!” floated over from one of the other cells. A dawning horror growing across Rosy’s face, she stood from the cot staring at Twilight and said, “Oh applesauce I didn’t—oh no, I did. I was just trying to get away! I just wanted to distract you—oh no, you can’t read? But you’re like the princess of books!” “Well, not anymore!” Twilight shouted in reply, even more enraged by the fact that Rosy was acting horrified about all this, as if she actually cared about Twilight. “All because you wouldn’t do the one thing that you are supposed to do. Thank you so much, ‘Rosy Pink’” Twilight seethed, “Now you have something to think about every night. I hope you’re happy with yourself.” “No, no, no,” Rosy said, strutting up to the bars, “I’m so sorry I just didn’t know what else to—” “Liar!” Twilight shouted at her angrily. Rosy froze, deep blue eyes meeting glaring violet for a moment, before Twilight turned her back to the mare and trotted off, grumbling, “I don’t know why I even bothered to come here.” “I’m sorry!” Rosy shouted after the princess. Twilight didn’t look back. She just sped up into a run, before any tears could start to fall. From the darkness of the cool night, Rarity strutted up to Rosy’s cell and said acidly, “Well? Go ahead, give me your best shot. You have everypony else under your spell, and there’s no reason I should be an exception.” Rosy didn’t answer, and Rarity whispered more heatedly, “Do you think I don’t care about you? That I’m just some heartless nag who’s too stupid to realize that you are a person? You think I’m so cloistered that I cannot bear even the slightest deviation from what normal ponies do? Well? What do you think? Going to tell me how greedy I am, just because I want you and your verse to stop ruining Equestria?” Rosy didn’t answer. After some time, the sound of a quiet snore emitted from inside her cell. Rarity screamed inwardly, and slightly outwardly, then just stormed off. She should have come earlier. Rarity couldn’t be letting herself put it off all day, if she was ever going to... apologize. There was nothing to be done about it. She would simply have to wait until morning. Because waking Rosy would be... selfish. Now if only Rarity could get any sleep herself, without staring up at the ceiling and dreading the coming day. Twilight Sparkle awoke bright and early. The sun was shining through the window of the hotel room that she and her friends had reserved. The sounds of ponies playing and laughing drifted in through the window. Twilight looked out at the morning parade with a smile. Twilight was a good pony. She stretched out, and stumbled as another wing muscle threatened to cramp. But that was alright. Her unicorn magic rubbed and soothed the misbehaving muscle, and Fluttershy could fly them back, just as well as Twilight could. Twilight did make a mental note to practice flying more often. Honestly these wings sometimes were more trouble than they were worth. Twilight was a good pony. She was doing the right thing, she told herself as she shuffled out of the room. Everything was fine, and it’d all make sense again once they got Bruce into the Rift. Twilight told her friends the plan as they ate breakfast that morning, saying, “Alright everypony, I know you’ve been through a lot, but here’s how things are going to work.” Looking at Applejack, Twilight said, “I’m sure you understand now that this is about Bruce’s family, not just himself. He might be ungrateful about the gift of family, but they’ve been devastated by the loss no doubt, and we’re helping them return him home, not just helping him. We’re doing it to help his family, and saving Equestria, to boot, so I’m afraid if he’s feeling alienated, he should get psychological counseling for that, not turn himself into a pony all higglety pigglety and come cause chaos in Equestria.” “Fine, fine,” Applejack groaned skeptically, her muzzle messy with going through her bowl of grits while Twilight went on. To Fluttershy, Twilight said, “I’m sorry Bruce has hurt you so much, but you have to realize he’s not a normal pony, or even a normal human. He’s a very disturbed individual, who doesn’t belong here. So... I hope you don’t hold it against him, acting out of his mental illness. What happened to you was tragic, but the problem was with him, not yourself. If you need somepony to talk to after all this... I’m here to listen.” “Thank you, Twilight,” Fluttershy said disconsolately, nibbling at the scone held in her wingtips. “I know you think Rosy... Bruce is on your side,” Twilight told Rainbow Dash, “He’ll continue trying to twist his words to make you sympathize with him. He’s a pathological liar, who will say anything to get what he wants, and it can sound and feel very convincing. But he can’t change the fact that he is a stallion, and Equestria is in danger as long as he stays here.” “Whatever,” Rainbow Dash said grouchily, sipping at the cup of coffee held in her wingtips, “I know I’m outvoted. We can’t even do anything about her yet, for the next year, and after that I bet she’ll figure out another way to stay in Equestria.” “By my calculations, she only has a 23.3% chance of impregnation,” Twilight replied. “We’ll put her on watch, and if she isn’t pregnant, then there’s nothing to worry about. If she is with foal, she’s going to be spending a long time in prison, because we aren’t going to let her get away this time. “So much for that idea,” Rainbow Dash grumbled under her breath. “Now Pinkie, what Bruce told you is very serious,” Twilight said to her magenta maned friend, who paused on her third cherry danish to look at Twilight with baby blue eyes, “But I’m not sure you should have talked to him. He would have told us anyway about what he’d... done, whenever he thought it would hurt us the most. I think Rarity had the right idea by not approaching Bruce at all.” Rarity hesitated on her toast and blushed, but did not otherwise comment. “We have to be objective about all this,” Twilight Sparkle urged the worried party pony, “We can’t let him manipulate our feelings to try and stretch this ridiculous quest out any longer.” Pinkie Pie looked back at Twilight and asked, “Why aren’t you eating anything?” Twilight groaned inwardly at that, and her friends just could not stop bugging her about food lately. “I already ate,” she said cleverly, smiling with relief that she’d finally thought up an ironclad alibi to stop ponies from worrying over nothing. Twilight would bother with breakfast once they’d picked up Bruce and transported him into a secure location in Ponyville, and actually Twilight would probably have to do some retrofitting of the facility, as the Ponyville jail saw even less use than the one here in Las Pegasus. Berryshine liked to refer to it as her spare apartment, but otherwise there was a lot of work to do if they were going to prepare to care for a criminal over the long course of her pregnancy. “Okay,” Pinkie said without smiling. She didn’t say anything further, just went back to eating her danish while pondering what she was eating at the same time, like it was going to reveal to her some great and profound mystery of life. It was kind of hypnotizing to watch... but Twilight didn’t have time for that right now. “Alright if everypony’s ready, let’s do what we came here to do,” Twilight said in relief once all that distracting food had vanished down everypony’s gullet. She headed with the others down the streets of singers and revelers, with a destination in mind that very few ponies sang about or reveled in. The prison guard looked up from his newspaper as the Bearers walked in. “Oh, hello princess,” he said with some unease, “Ready to pick up the prisoner?” “Don’t worry, we’ll take him off your hooves now,” Twilight said accomodatingly, “And thank you for watching the creature while my friends rested and recuperated.” “It’s no problem, princess,” the grey policepony said with a lazy glance to the back area beyond the drunk tank. “You gonna go back there now?” he asked a little hopefully. “Y...es?” Twilight replied, “We’ll just be going, thanks.” “You’re gonna want the keys!” he called after her as she and her friends trotted off, mouthing a thick ring with several bulky metal keys on it. “Oh, right!” Twilight said, blushing and catching the keyring in her magic as he tossed it at her. “The cell key is the big silver one,” he replied, then went back to reading his newspaper. Heading into the cell block, Twilight felt a little tired and achy still, and kind of... tired, and achy, but it was a bright new day outside, and Twilight was eager to get out into it, finish the business with Rosy Pink, and prepare for whatever their next adventure was going to be. She walked with her friends up to Rosy’s cell, saying loudly, “Bruce? It’s time to go.” The creature didn’t respond, and just lay there on the cot ignoring her. Stalling to his last breath, it seemed. “Bruce,” Twilight said in a strained voice, and as Twilight reached towards him, her hoof came to rest on the bars of the cell, which swung open freely as she leaned on them. “You have to understand that—” Wide-eyed, Twilight just smoothly pulled open the door to Rosy’s cell which wasn’t even locked. What was... no! Twilight’s head snapped up, and her magic enveloped the blanket on the cot, pulling it away to reveal the pillows piled underneath in as bulky a manner as possible. “She’s gone!” came Rarity’s shocked squeal. “No no no no no,” Twilight chanted frantically, spinning around and bounding in a rush away from the cell, past her friends and back out into the front area. “What. Is the meaning of this?!” she demanded, waving the keys in the policepony’s face. He looked at the floating keyring uncertainly, saying, “Meaning of what? I told you which key to use.” “There is no key, because the door is unlocked!” Twilight shouted. “What?!” the portly officer shouted in reply, struggling off his chair. With him in tow, both he and Twilight galloped back to the cells, where Rarity and Pinkie were inside looking around, while Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash questioned the other few prisoners back here. “I haven’t seen nothing, lady!” the one prison mare crudely protested in wide-eyed terror, “Lay off me already you’re freaking me out!” “You have to have seen something!” Fluttershy demanded, desperately reaching through the bars to pull the mare’s face to her, “We can’t let her escape! “ Twilight was a good pony. “Yeah, I saw something,” a rough looking orange mare told Rainbow Dash, as the prisoner lounged on her cot with a smirk, “Sittin’ in the dark in the middle of the night, I heard the door open, and she just walked right outta there!” “Why didn’t you say anything?” Rainbow Dash demanded angrily. “Why don’t you kiss my ass?” she replied crankily. Then she called out, “No offense!” “None taken!” shouted the donkey in the cell on the end of the hall. “There’s no sign of her!” Pinkie reported anxiously, “Nothing under the bed or on the bed, and she’s not clinging to the ceiling; that’s the first place I checked!” “Oh. Oh dear,” Rarity suddenly said, in utmost dread. Twilight rushed over to where her friend was inspecting the cell door, saying, “What? Did you find something?” Rarity didn’t answer in words, so much. Her magic illuminated something in the lock (not the lock itself, of course) and in a sparkling blue aura, out of it floated a bent and twisted hairpin. “She picked the lock,” Twilight said, staring at it dumbly. “It would seem so, dear.” “She picked the lock?!” Twilight exclaimed in aggravation. “How are these locks even pickable? They’re magic shielded, and heavy!” “My guess is she folded the hairpin in half to strengthen it, then aligned the tumblers one at a time until she got the right ones,” Rarity suggested dazedly, peering at the twisted metal in her magic. “This can’t be happening,” Twilight said, crumpling to the cell floor and just covering her head in her hooves. Shaking her head helplessly at the princess, Rarity placed the hairpin neatly on the little table, and went to pore over the dissheveled bedding for clues. “You!” Rainbow Dash shouted, zipping up to the police officer looking at the scene in horror, “Did you see anything? Did you see her leave? How did you miss her?!” “I–I–I didn’t see anypony leave,” he said, backing up from the irate pegasus, “I have to sleep too, you know! She musta got out when I was... resting my eyes!” Glaring at him suspiciously, Rainbow Dash said, “I don’t think you’re being very honest with me!” “I’m telling the truth!” he said desperately, “She couldn’ta just walked outta here. I swear I was watching her!” “With your eyes closed?” Rainbow Dash replied skeptically. “I... what do you want from me, mare?!” he demanded, “There hasn’t been a breakout in weeks! Who even gave that pony a hairpin?” Twilight was still lying in a heap while Rainbow Dash flew away from the prison guard in disgust, and went stalking into Rosy’s cell to join the others in looking for clues. Well, almost all the others. With utmost concern, and not just a little fear, a butter yellow pegasus sought no clues, and instead fluttered over to Twilight, laying a hoof on Twilight’s withers. “Twilight, are you okay?” Fluttershy asked the miserably crumpled pile of princess. “No, I’m not okay,” Twilight wept, “I’m never going to be okay, because Rosy—Bruce is still out there!” She struggled to her hooves, saying, “We have to find him! We have to warn everypony. We have to...” then she just kind of... faded out a moment, staring blankly forward before saying dizzily, “We have to find him.” That was when Rainbow Dash burst into laughter. Again. “Bahahaha, she actually did it!” the pegasus declared enthusiastically, swiping with her wing something that was sitting on the sink next to the toilet. “Twilight, check it out!” The sticklike object went flipping end over end as it hurtled at the princess, and Twilight snatched it in her magic, looking at it curiously. “A pregnancy test?” she asked, “Where’d Rosy get one?” “Does it matter?” Rainbow Dash asked teasingly, “Now she busted outta jail, and we can’t send her through the Rift for the next year!” “That... changes nothing,” Twilight seethed, glaring jealously at the stupid thing that no doubt Rosy peed on, “We’ll simply track her down again, and—” That was when Rarity burst into helpless, sobbing tears. Alarmed, everypony looked again to the white unicorn, who had sunk to her belly facing Rosy’s cot. It was a blue scarf she found, levitating it out from where it had been left discarded between the pillows. A keening wail forced its way out of the pale unicorn’s throat as she clutched the scarf to her cheek, utterly inconsolable. Surrounded by her worried friends, Rarity’s tears ended as mercurially as they began, and once composed, Rarity would not speak a single word of what happened. Instead, she put the scarf away, took a deep shuddering breath and said, “We need to check the last places we’ve seen Rosy Pink,” then trotted on out of that cell with barely a toss of her carefully groomed mane. Rosy’s hotel room was abandoned. The stallion had apparently reserved it for today, but he packed his bags and left town the moment Rosy was arrested. Twilight had his name though, Golden Grape, and Pinkie Pie knew him as a Ponyville pony. If he hadn’t managed to vanish off the face of the earth too, Twilight would certainly be questioning him. He was probably just... a... victim somehow, despite not having the capacity to bear a foal, or any other direct consequences Twilight could think of. He was... emotionally hurt, she concluded, and she was sure that with a little coaxing, she could get him to tell her everything he knew about Rosy Pink. Knowledge which obviously didn’t include Rosy’s true identity as the human male, Bruce Connell, because what stallion would do that with... another stallion? Las Pegasus wasn’t quite as happy a place with the Elements of Harmony tearing the whole place apart looking for Rosy Pink. It was not a city that usually entertained adventures and danger, so ponies took notice when the entire police squad was summoned to search the streets and interrogate ponies. All thought of tact and subtlety was lost, as the need to find this mare took priority over all else. Once again, impossibly, Rosy Pink seemed to have slipped their grasp. It was as if the mare had simply vanished off of the face of the earth. Twilight was so tired halfway through the day that she was falling over her own hooves, and she tried to eat something just to pacify her friends, but the food here was just terrible! She ended up having to covertly scrape off the egg salad into a nearby potted plant, because it just tasted like sand. On the bright side, if ponies kept serving food like that, Twilight would be back to her old unicorn weight in no time! This whole business was making Twilight sick to the stomach, anyway. Chasing Bruce, and hunting him down like a pack of wolves. All the unfriendly looks she got from ponies around her as she just tried to do the right thing. Her friends probably hated her by now, and they were right, because if Twilight wasn’t making a horrible mistake, then why did it feel that way? She had to be in the right, because if she wasn’t, then all this time, everything she did to Rosy... Twilight was a good pony. The trip back to Ponyville was a solemn one, though amazingly less solemn than if they’d actually gotten Rosy and took her with them. Twilight was curled up in the corner of the cart, trying to conserve her energy for... something, and she got to watch Rarity saying loudly to nopony in particular, “Well that was an utter blunder. I don’t think I’ll be able to show my face in that city ever again!” “At least we’re headed home, now,” Applejack said in relief. “When Rosy rears her head again we’ll deal with it when it comes, but for now we can just get back to our normal lives.” “I still can’t believe she picked the lock!” Rainbow Dash said exuberantly as always, “I didn’t know she was such a badflank! It’s just like when Daring Do got captured by the Empire of Evil!” “Is everything they do so ethically questionable?” Whatnot whispered to Spike, who looked up from his comic long enough to whisper back, “You learn to stop questioning it.” “We’re not the Empire of Evil though, Dashie,” Pinkie Pie said chidingly, “They were just a few cities on an island, anyway, and they weren’t called the Empire of Evil either.” “That’s just the title of the book, Pinkie,” Dash replied drolly, “And they thought they were an empire, because their king didn’t let them know about the other lands!” “Pinkie, could you please stop riding on Rainbow Dash?” Rarity asked with a raised eyebrow, “You’re liable to fall and get yourself hurt!” “But I wanna talk with her about the Jamarecan empire!” Pinkie whined. Nevertheless, she leaped across the dizzying drop with the ground far below them, hopping off of Rainbow Dash’s back... then landing solidly on Fluttershy’s. “I don’t know much about that empire,” Fluttershy said appeasingly to Pinkie, “But I do know that island is famous for its hummingbirds. There’s one that has a tail just like a swallow!” “Really?” Pinkie asked in terminal curiosity, “What’s it called?” “The swallow tailed hummingbird,” Fluttershy replied. “Jamareca is home to many winged creatures, in fact, including bats and butterflies!” “Pinkie, please,” Rarity snapped, and with a bashful squeak, Pinkie jumped off of Fluttershy’s back, landing with a clatter of hooves in the wooden cart that carried the half dozen non-pegasi high above the ground. “Can’t Twilight take a turn pulling the cart?” Rainbow Dash shouted behind herself, as she flew along, “I wanna talk about stuff too, you know!” “Twilight is... resting,” Rarity replied, looking solemnly Twilight’s way. Twilight just groaned tiredly where she was laying, and muttered, “Whatever.” Pinkie smiled at Twilight with a terrible sadness in her bright blue eyes, and said, “Aww, don’t worry Twilight. You’re gonna be okay.” Twilight groaned, struggling into a sitting position, saying, “I’m not... whatever.” Pinkie left her alone then, and went to bother Rarity, who had an uncomfortable amount of knowledge of foreign societies. Pinkie didn’t bother Applejack, who was hanging on the side of the cart, looking wordlessly back in the direction of the city they’d left behind, Las Pegasus. The farmer wasn’t the only one feeling let down by all this. As they flew away from there back to Ponyville, it was pretty clear that nopony was looking forward to nothin’. Somewhere just across town, and then out of Las Pegasus, then past the surrounding farmland, and then beyond the forest ranges to the distant city of Tall Tale, a mare was coming around the mountain. With the Smokey Mountains to her right, a bustling borough came into view, nestled in a cradle of farmland below her. It was a sprawl of pine wood cottages, and a small but dense urban center mostly built of skyscrapers. The air was cool up here, warmer down on the floor of the coastal valley that the town lay in, but certainly no Appleoosa. The mare had a warm, cerulean coat of fur, with a rough cut magenta mane that covered her forehead in thick, slightly wavy locks, along with her straight combed but lush tail. The mane did not obscure her intensely violet eyes. She plodded along in a mile-eating gait, on sturdy earth pony hooves. On each of her hips, there were three simple pink berries that somewhat matched her mane. She looked weary and relieved to see the town she was approaching, after her long walk from the south. She was wearing a cheap set of simple saddlebags, but had little else to her name. She took a long, circituous route, avoiding the town until she’d reached the northern road. Heading down that road into town, if anypony had been walking past her, they might have heard her quietly chanting, “Blue Raspberry. Blue Raspberry. You are Blue Raspberry. Gotta remember Blue Raspberry.” She quieted down when ponies did pass though, so for now, her name remained a mystery to all. Blue Raspberry headed first to town hall, to remedy that. Her next destination: the local pony shelter.