//------------------------------// // I Said The End // Story: Returning Home // by ferret //------------------------------// “How well do you think you knew Rosy Pink?” “Sorry, what’s this about?” the tawny, blue haired stallion asked, blinking in the sudden spotlight, trying and failing to back out of the library’s brand new interrogation room. “I thought this was the bathroom?” “I’ll ask the questions, Mister Golden Grape,” the mysterious voice replied, “What did you know about Rosy Pink?” “She was my friend?” he said uncertainly, blinking in the glare of a blinding spotlight, looking around in confusion, “What’s this about, Princess? I didn’t knew she was in any kind of trouble. There ain’t anything illegal about having foals!” “Were you aware she was a traveller from a fourth dimension?” the mysterious voice continued. “Not really?” he replied, testing the door again, the poor fool, “Seriously lady, am I in trouble? I chose Rosy for the season, so sorry if I disappointed you. I didn’t even know you wanted in!” “I said I’ll ask the questions!” the mysterious voice answered shrilly, “Do you know what she was doing in Equestria?” “She was workin’ the fields, I think?” he said in confusion, “Though she’s real good with mathemagical stuff so the Ponyville Interior Designer League was—” “Was she plotting to humiliate me?” the voice demanded, “Ruin my reputation? Turn my friends against me? Did she ever tell you any of her secret agenda?” “Please Princess, Rosy was just a friend!” he said, thoroughly intimidated by the bright spotlight illuminating the lone pony in the darkness, “I was gonna take her in, honest! I don’t leave a mare to foal alone! Please you gotta tell her I’m sorry. She can come back any time she wants!” He was confused it seemed as to exactly what the mysterious voice’s problem was. Well. The mysterious voice would have to fix that! “It so happens,” it said, “That Rosy Pink cannot be allowed to foal as she is not a real filly, and her—” There was a disembodied crashing sound. “Pinkie, what are you doing here?” the mysterious voice intoned, “I’m kinda busy at the moment.” Then in a different mysterious voice that was higher and more strident, it said, “Don’t act like I don’t know. I’m not stupid. I’m not letting you do this!” “W-why are you bringing in medical personnel?” the original mysterious voice continued, around sounds of hoofsteps, while the blue haired stallion stared upward, looking around in confusion. “Twilight, this is an intervention,” the squeaky mysterious voice said, “You’re hurting yourself and it hurts me to see you like this.” “What are you talking about?” the princess’s mysterious voice echoed around in confusion, “I’m perfectly fine! Now let me get back to—” “Twilight,” the pink voice interrupted, “When was the last time you ate something?” There was a long pause of silence. “This morning,” the mysterious voice insisted, “I had a bagel and... coffee.” “Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” the second disembodied voice replied, “I need you to just go with the nice doctors, and—” “No!” the mysterious voice squealed in outrage, “I do not have an eating problem. Why are you—” “You have a problem,” the pink one replied, “And I don’t know what it is, but you’re not eating, and it’s making you really sick.” “You have the problem,” came furious reply, “You’re delusional if you think that I have a problem!” The whine of powerful magic started charging in the background as the mysterious voice said imperiously, “I think I have heard enough of—” Then the whine abruptly cut off, and there was a burst of static from overhead. The mysterious voice cut in and out to static, saying, “Pinkie stop—” then “—tting my horn you—” then “—uining everything!—” There was a clatter of the movement of several ponies as the mysterious voice continued to say in a disjointed fashion things like, “—get—way—need anesthese—this is—stupid stop—” The last thing Golden Grape managed to pick out was the curiously clear and lucid sound of the mysterious voice saying, “Look at the pretty lights....” Then any mysterious voice or other sound faded out, and the spotlight flickered and died, leaving him in darkness. Sound suddenly started broadcasting from outside, as there was a clunk of a hoof on the door, a mare’s voice drifting through saying, “Are ya gonna be in there foreva or what?” Golden Grape worried for the future of Equestria. Some time later, too much time later, many frustrating days and nights later, a certain troubled unicorn whom nopony would have heard of plodded into the local soda fountain. She was blue-furred with dark, shiny purple hair, and at her wit’s end. She checked and re-checked her figures at the bar, but her grammar was impeccable. She couldn’t see a solution to this, at least not an easy one, or a fast one. The Rift had become a much greater hazard in the suplex disaster of the past year that had lead to the princess seeking Whatnot’s aid. The Rift’s aperture was vastly wider in its poorly collapsed state, so more information could in theory be gleaned from it than before, but ponies were still trying to safely interact with it, without disrupting the containment vessel, or further endangering Equestria. Worse still, Whatnot was kind of out of the loop there, so she had no way to tell what human language they’d discovered since then. Whatnot already had an almost comprehensive list of the human terminology, but there was no convenient pony-human dictionary, and a lot of the semantics were missing in context, semantics that the spoken word would have provided implicitly in its carrier wave. The fact is, Whatnot could write a human alphabet, but lacked the knowhow to write a human book, and without that knowledge, her ability to undo the mixed-up half-translated literacy in Twilight Sparkle’s head was limited at best. Whatnot was poring over some cladograms, making a lot of memetic connections, but struggling to translate them into the pony knowledge space. And also sipping at the dregs of a soda. She was outside of the library right now, trying to study in a change of venue. The soda fountain in Ponyville was great: you could get it straight from the tap here, and of course Ponyville was the home of the famous Applejack cider. That just made Whatnot think of the real problem at stake, though. Lighting up her horn, the blue unicorn angrily swept her diagrams out of the way, resting her overworked head on the edge of the bar. “Hitting the books really hard, huh?” the proprieter of the soda fountain asked, a pretty tan pegasus mare with pink hair by the name of Creamsicle. “It’s... personal,” Whatnot mumbled, laying her cheek next to her mostly empty soda glass, “Have you ever met somepony who was your hero, and the one time they needed your help, everything you did was... almost enough, and then they just...” Whatnot sighed and sat up, uttering glumly, “She needed my help, not just wanted it, and I couldn’t help her, and then she... something bad happened to her. I keep feeling like this is all my fault, that if I could have found a solution, she’d have been less stressed out, and wouldn’t... have something bad happen?” Creamsicle probably didn’t really need to listen to that whole rambling wandering question, but she did anyway, saying, “The princess sure is in a bad way. I’ve never seen her this troubled before.” “What do I do though?” Whatnot groaned, “Even if I could restore the rest of her reading ability, she’s already...” “All I know is she’s seeing doctors,” Creamsicle said, “I hope she’s on the way to recovery?” Whatnot scrunched her muzzle and she said, “She’s ...stable. it’s just hard seeing her like this. I don’t know if the princess has ever really just totally... failed before.” “Everypony’s failed at one time or another,” Creamsicle said, putting a glass down beside Whatnot’s, full of a pink cherry cream soda, and taking the empty one up on a wing. “It’s so hard to get through to her,” Whatnot said, lifting up her head, “Princess Celestia told her to take care of herself, but Princess Twilight just keeps thinking how she can’t find a solution to other problems, and neglecting herself. I can keep her talking but... if she won’t focus on getting better, I don’t think I’m good enough to do anything more without her help.” “Focus on what you can do, I guess,” Creamsicle said uncertainly, “The princess will come through in the end. She always does.” “And what about the time when she doesn’t? What do we do then?” “I... don’t know.” Twilight Sparkle was jolted awake by the unwelcome sting of bright illumination, her dreams burned away by harsh, nuclear light. “Somepony turn off the sun,” she groaned, trying to roll over and cover her head with a pillow, but the sheets had betrayed her, immobilizing her in a tight cocoon. Relief was impossible, and also she found that she really had to go pee. Surrendering to the relatively inconvenient, she cracked open one eye, then scrunched them closed again, blinking back tears. Trying to shut the blinds, her horn wasn’t working for some reason, and that left the sleepy librarian with only one option. “Spiiii ke,” she croaked, ignoring her stiff neck to lift her head. Trying to rub her eyes, she found herself unable to move more than a fraction of an inch. Had she really tossed and turned so much last night, that she was this tangled up in her sheets? Their tight embrace pinned her legs to her side. Too annoyed to feel foolish, she grumbled, “Spike, shut the blinds already. I’m in no mood for your games right now!” Silence mocked her. Twilight vowed to have a talk with Spike about opening the blinds when somepony is trying to sleep. Grumbling about baby dragons, she squinted through narrowed eyelids, and tried to spot him in the room. Almost reluctantly the library began to fade into view, rising out of the shadow of dreams to resolve into clear, sharp reality. Twilight blinked again, this time in surprise. She found herself in her bedroom in the library, because where else would she be? But what was surprising was both Spike, and Pinkie Pie standing there with chiding expressions on their faces. Letting her head fall back to the pillow, Twilight groaned, “What time is it?” “Adventure time! ” Pinkie Pie declared imperiously, stepping up to Twilight’s very ordinary looking bed surrounded by the warm, wooden walls of the second story of her familiar tree library. “What?” Twilight replied in confusion, struggling in the bedclothes that were wrapped around her. “Duty you mean ‘What’ shopper inner?” Pinkie asked, and Twilight’s brain took a moment to catch up. Struggling a hoof out of her blanket cocoon, Twilight waved it weakly, giving Pinkie Pie a pleading expression, hoping she’d realize what was going on. “Your adventure person noticed downstairs, ” Spike said in childish worry, “So don’t accessory so long! ” Twilight tried to recall what words she hadn’t managed to learn reflexively yet. Adventure meant breakfast, “help” was “history,” and corereview meant either blankets or bedding (Twilight wasn’t sure) so she said, as near as she could figure, “Help blankets then breakfast.” To Twilight, it sounded like “History corereview then adventure” but Twilight had to tell herself that it meant something different, if she was ever going to get over this. Spike and Pinkie Pie understood Twilight well enough to get the blankets unwrapped from around her, and the princess stood groggily, stretching out her wings, and said the one word she was absolutely sure of, “Ballad.” That roughly translated to “Whatnot,” of course. Applejack was smiling pleasantly to ponies passing by, building up a day’s worth of bits by hoofing off the apples and apple related products in her apple cart. In the advent of autumn, apples were ripening like gangbusters, necessitating the help of two or three more worker ponies: Bubblegum, Vanilla Sweet, and... Strawberry Sunrise, a groundling pegasus who wanted some extra bits for travelling during the winter. Smiling pleasantly, Applejack greeted everypony who came to her stand in a friendly and downright neighborly manner. “Applejack, I...” came the dulcet tones of Fluttershy’s voice. “No,” Applejack snapped, “Don’t say anything, don’t even talk to me. Ah’m gonna say this once that you’re mah friend, and you’re always gonna be mah friend, just like the other four of us, but y’all are completely crazy about Rosy Pink!” She was angry and glaring and breathing hard, staring down at the startled pegasus, “One word,” Applejack told her, “One word bout Rosy Pink an’ ah’m out.” The standoff between them was as intense as it was long. Applejack knew Fluttershy was struggling, and she didn’t care. Maybe let Fluttershy be the patient, understanding pony this time, because Applejack was done with it, and done with them. The longer they remained trapped in that silent distance, eyes embracing each other in anger and worry even though they stood separate and alone, the more Applejack fumed. Was it so hard to come up with something to say that wasn’t about tossing Rosy to the sharks? “I would like,” Fluttershy said evenly and quietly, “To buy some apples.” It took Applejack a few seconds further to change gears. “Well okay then,” she said warily, “How much cain ah do you for?” “Just a bunch,” Fluttershy replied, glancing away as she added self consciously, “For the extra bunnies this year.” Applejack couldn’t help but recall when Fluttershy’s critters started getting ornery last year. It was because Fluttershy’d been trapped, foalnapped even by that Starlight Glimmer. It took Fluttershy a while to calm the animals down and clean up the mess they made, and it looked like she was still dealing with... stuff in that regard. “Sure thing,” Applejack said, counting out a bunch of apples on the counter. Fluttershy was never particular of the kind, long as they weren’t cooking apples. “It’s on th’ house,” Applejack added with as gentle and un-strained a smile as she could manage. Fluttershy gave Applejack a long one-eyed look from behind her bangs and said, “I don’t like this.” “Ah said—” “No, I was just leaving,” Fluttershy said, sweeping the apples off the counter with her wing, into her saddlebags. She trotted away without a word, just like a certain librarian Applejack knew, just like all her friends lately. “Cain’t talk about nothin’ without her, cain’t not talk about her, what’s that Rosy Pink doing to us?” Applejack said, looking after Fluttershy in a lost sort of confusion. Then she jumped over her cart and ran off after her, shouting, “Fluttershy, wait! Maybe we should talk about this!” Hello? Can anyone hear me? Hello? Um... Pinkie Pie wasn’t sure but there was something odd about the wall she stared at, different from the other three. Was it the picture frame? She might never know, but she still smiled in recognition at that picture, because Pinkie Pie saw a very pleased-looking and familiar pink pony staring back at her, surrounded by all her best friends who she hugged so tightly that she never wanted to let them go. Pinkie Pie blinked, and then stumbled back as this weird shifting feeling came upon her. “Gummy, how did you get out of your cage?” she asked the little alligator chidingly as Gummy continued to shift against her hind legs, staring off into infinity with his weird, slitty eyes. Pinkie blinked again, and looked back at the picture frame, which continued to show a very content-looking Pinkie Pie, along with a very skinny looking Twilight Sparkle... ... ...and of course all of Pinkie Pie’s friends looked skinny in that shot, because she was squeezing them so tight, and it was one of those optical illusion thingies that the camera sometimes picks up. It wasn’t because any of her friends were that way. They were all happy! They all had relieved expressions, and full cheeks; no sunken faces among that group of ponies! Pinkie Pie looked at that picture and she remembered what it wasn’t a picture of: off-camera was the tastiest most delicious cake in the whole world, because her friends got it for her and Pinkie Pie loved them. The cake they all shared, because they loved... her. She blinked tears out of her eyes, and it started sinking in that this was real. But it couldn’t be real. Her mom was just... Twilight had no reason to do that! But it was real. But it just couldn’t be... “Gah!” Pinkie shouted as some weird green thing snapped its snappy jaws around her hoof. Lifting her hind leg, she squinted back at Gummy again with an accusing expression. He just hung onto her hoof sideways as she lifted it, eyelids slowly sliding over his eyes, roughly, but not quite at the same time. Pinkie couldn’t help herself, she giggled. “Gah,” she repeated to Gummy in an affectionate tone. He immediately let go of her hoof and dropped to land on his back, reptilian feet waving slowly in the air, and that made Pinkie giggle some more. “Gah!” Pinkie repeated to him teasingly, “Gah gah gah. Gaaaah!” She couldn’t stop laughing though at the sheer absurdity of yelling at her alligator for fun. “Gaaaahahahaha,” she giggled at Gummy’s expense (he had a very large bank account when it came to personal slights) just as a voice asked suddenly, “Everything okay, dearie?” “GAH!” Pinkie squealed, jumping back stiffly from her alligator, and looking wide-eyed at the frosting-maned giver-of-hairpins herself, the one definitely, for sure, absolutely certain mother of Pound and Carrot, Mrs. Cup Cake. The blue cake matron was looking back at Pinkie with something between concern and amusement. “I was just... practicing making noises!” Pinkie said sheepishly, “For Gummy, you know. Pretty magnificent, huh?” “It’s pretty something at any rate,” Mrs. Cake replied wryly, no doubt thinking Pinkie Pie was 100% crazy, maybe even more. “I’ll be right down,” Pinkie told Mrs. Cake all calmly and normally, “To make sure everything is ready for today.” “That’ll be great, Pinkie,” Mrs. Cake says with a relieved smile, “Don’t know what I’d do without ya.” Pinkie Pie knew somepony else who didn’t know that, besides just Mrs. Cake. A lilac furred somepony who had told her that many times, even when Pinkie Pie couldn’t see exactly why. But how to help that pony? How to be the friend she needs? Well, the brownies were starting to smell wonderful, and the cinnamon rolls were preglazed and ready to bake, along with the eclairs and the danishes. So Pinkie Pie had a little time, and she snuck out—wait no she tried to sneak out, but suddenly found herself nose-to-nose with Mrs. Cake. The big blue mare had a weary, but sympathetic look on her face when she blocked Pinkie Pie’s stealthy exit and said, “Worried about your friend, Pinkie?” “I wasn’t leaving early, I’m just... okay maybe I was,” Pinkie said, ears a-twitching down, “I just wanna make sure she eats her breakfast.” “You know the doctor ponies are taking care of her,” Mrs. Cake urged kindly, “You don’t have to do this every morning, just because she...” Pinkie may have whimpered a bit, looking at Mrs. Cake with big, pleading, baby blue eyes. “...oh go ahead, you know you can,” the older mare said, rolling her eyes and stepping aside for Pinkie to pass, “Honeybun and I can manage the morning crowd. Just hurry back, and remember that the rest of us are counting on you too. Now get on going. It’s high time you went to find your friend.” Deciding to listen to that one voice outside of her head, Pinkie Pie thanked Mrs. Cake for being so understanding, and hurried for the tree library, where her friend lived, the super-brainy, nerdalicious magical prodigy who... who... Who hated herself. Several minutes and an encounter with a zucchini cart later, and Pinkie Pie was making her way into the part of the library that was Twilight’s house, bringing Twilight a nice nutritious zucchini smoothie. It wasn’t the best tasting thing in the world, but Twilight was less likely to throw up if it wasn’t solid food, and she didn’t seem to care about how it tasted anymore. All Twilight cared about these days was... Pinky lashed her tail. Rosy Pink. “Great, you brought her breakfast! Can we wake her up now?” the young Spike asked Pinkie Pie minutes later. Her hair was still worryingly droopy, but she forced her ears up from where they were flat against her skull, and smiled at him brightly saying, “You betcha! And I bet this time Twilight’s gonna really feel betterrific.” With the curtains pulled back and golden sunlight shining on the beautiful princess’s face, it wasn’t long before she muttered something, cracked open her eyes and groaned, “Tuuuuu mmmy...” Huh? The pony and the dragon shared a confused glance, silently. The poor princess was snug as a bug in a rug as Twilight said, “Tummy worst the evandevelop steady. Be sheet finesheet worst games right need.” Oh no, Whatnot’s spell must have worn off again. Pinkie tried to remember where in the library Whatnot was sleeping, but couldn’t recall. Twilight had finally focused on them anyway, asking, “Lymph time is it?” “Breakfast time!” Pinkie announced in great cheer. Twilight wasn’t laughing though. “Lymph?” Twilight asked in confusion. “What do you mean ‘Lymph’ Twilight?” Pinkie wondered mostly to herself, watching the princess weakly wiggle her hoof out of the blanket cocoon. “Your breakfast is ready downstairs,” Spike told her, “So don’t sleep in too long!” Twilight gave both of them a long, calculating look, before responding, “Help blankets, then breakfast.” Help...? “Oh!” Pinkie and Spike both realized at once, helping the princess out of her prison of sheets, because she couldn’t exactly get herself out of that. Not with that rather heavy white clothlike sheathe buckled onto her horn. Pinkie was honestly more worried how Twilight didn’t seem to care about that thing, not how upset she was about it. Twilight just passively let them unwrap her, and allowed Pinkie to lead her to breakfast, while Spike ran to find out what Whatnot was up to. Once Twilight had regained the ability to speak again, had taken her medication for the morning, and had drunk every single drop of the smoothie under Pinkie’s watchful eye, Pinkie Pie leaned forward on the table and said, “So... whatcha gonna do now?” Twilight sighed, and pressed her hoof against her forehead. Then she glared at Pinkie balefully, saying in a dull tone of voice, “I’m not doing anything, Pinkie, doctor’s orders. Focus on my recovery. Let the guards and the police deal with the issue of Rosy Pink, for now.” “Oh, I’m sure you can recover though,” Pinkie Pie said warmly, “You made it through the hard part and you’re going to be okay now.” “Yes I can recover,” Twilight replied in irritation. “Yes, you can recover?” Pinkie Pie said in confusion to Twilight, “I think? It feels like we’re disagreeing even though we’re agreeing.” "Pinkie Pie, that's ridiculous," Twilight said with obviously strained patience, striding away from Pinkie Pie, out of the kitchenette towards the library, "Now, I have a lot of work to do, so I don't have time for wordplay right now." “But you aren’t going to search for Rosy Pink, are you?” Pinkie Pie said, trotting out of the kitchen after her. “Pinkie, I—” Twilight stopped again with a barely concealed hoof stomp. “I need to work on learning to speak again, without this spell, and fix my ability to read, too,” she said, staring at a spot on the wooden floor, “That’s all I’m going to be working on, nothing involving Rosy Pink.” “Can you promise?” Pinkie asked, contorting her neck down to get in the path of Twilight’s downturned gaze. “Pinkie Promise?” she pleaded with liquid eyes. “Pinkie I can... I...” some sort of fear flashed in the back of Twilight’s eyes as she said, “I... can’t.” “Twilight, please?” Pinkie asked desperately. “I’m not going to search for any solutions regarding Rosy Pink,” Twilight said assertively, looking Pinkie straight in the eye, “I just can’t... promise that.” They stood facing each other in silence, the princess unable to say anything that would have made Pinkie feel better, because... Twilight couldn’t stop thinking about Rosy Pink. “That’s... okay, Twilight,” Pinkie finally just said, turning away to give the princess her much desired space, “You just take care of yourself, and I’ll be back with some nice lunch for you!” “Pinkie... I’m sorry,” Twilight said, looking after the pink pony with so much pain in her eyes, it was like looking into a mirror. “Me too, Twilight,” Pinkie said somberly. Then she trotted off to go save the Cakes from being cooked and eaten in the morning rush again. Saddlebags filled with possibilities, with a fetching scarf subtly enshrouding her neck, Rarity truly was standing in front of a very well known library. There was the entrance, a bright red door into the hollow of a tree library once blessed with the magic of harmony, a Tree of Harmony if you will. The pale furred seamstress swung the door open, resting it against the tree, looking down the newly opened path. The library foyer was as would be expected: a room full of books, with flat wooden boards forming the floor from the pith carved out from the center of the old oak tree many, many years ago. Rarity lit up her horn to close the door behind her, as she stepped out into the well lit room. The scent of ink and fresh paper was in the air, probably indicating Twilight’s continued correspondence with her former mentor and dearest friend, albeit with the assistance of some... other ponies. There were a couple of desks in the library, some with a pony reading at them, some with several books lying on them, open or closed. Neither the librarian herself, nor her newest (non-draconic) assistant were anywhere to be found though. “Yoo hoo, Princess Twilight~!” Rarity called out, wandering through the narrow shelves that spidered out from that main reading area, poking her head around bookcases and looking down aisles. “Twilight?” No luck. With a toss of her mane, Rarity decided to skip the game of cat and mouse. She noticed a small stack of books nearby and raised one dainty hoof, delicately pushing the first book off of the pile, as Twilight shouted from behind her, “Hold your horses, Rarity! I’m coming already!” Rarity turned and smiled as her friend trotted up to her, an annoyed scowl on her face. “You don’t have to mess up the order of my books to get my attention every time you come here,” the princess griped, “I was getting to you!” “I am sorry, Twilight, it won’t happen again,” Rarity politely lied, then switched to the happy note of, “It is so good to see you! I was wondering if you might help me find a book, and we could perhaps spend some time catching up with each other? I also have a few books to return, if you’ll show me where they go.” “That’s great, Rarity,” Twilight said with a mechanical smile, “It’s always nice to see you come by. What sort of book were you interested in picking up?” “Well, as you know, winter wear is in,” Rarity replied, trotting along with her friend, “And I was looking for some gemstone related inspiration. Diamonds can only get you so far with all that glittering snow, after all.” “So, The Complete Encyclopedia of Precious Rocks?” Twilight suggested. Half nodding, Rarity said, “I was thinking of looking through volume S-through-T and possibly A for Amethyst. It is so wonderful that encyclopedia includes pictures taken with a photographic camera! Too often one’s fashion decisions must come from abstract drawings, rather than true to life images.” Princess Twilight didn’t seem nearly as excited as Rarity wanted her to feel. “Alrighty,” Twilight said pleasantly, stopping at the reference section for minerals and gemstones, the location of which Rarity had long since memorized, “Looks like you’ll find what you want here.” Twilight began the time consuming and laborious process of removing the books one by one, by climbing up the ladder and gripping them in her mouth, but after the third, Rarity just levitated the rest of them out in a sparkling blue aura of control. Her magic strained a little at the weight of the volumes, but she said pleasantly, “I’m sure to find just what I need in here. Thank you, Twilight! There’s a wonderful chiffon that I was hoping to adorn with something spectacular. The Harvest Festival is coming up and well, Trottingdale ponies have a very formal affair around that holiday, which means they need to look fabulous! This year it seems I may be the mare to help them do that. But... enough about me. How have you been?” “...fine,” Twilight said noncommitally, “Seems like you’re keeping yourself pretty busy.” “Oh yes, I’ve just been busy, busy, busy!” Rarity replied, laying her books on a reading table, “There was the photo shoot for the Harvest Festival, and several local ponies needed some last minute adjustments on their vegetable related costumes, but don’t you worry I’ll have them all spic and span by the time of the parade. Then there was the nursery up in Canterlot, which Fluttershy had fallen in love with since the gala, and I just had to accompany her. The city is as beautiful as ever, and as luck would have it I may have run into a rather dashing guardspony, who...” Rarity trailed off, looking at Twilight’s increasingly dull expression. “Well, it’s not important,” Rarity said, waving a hoof, “But enough about me. How have you been?” To Rarity’s friendly inquiry, Twilight just stared at her flatly, then walked past Rarity, saying hastily, “Alright, that should do it. Enjoy your books, Rarity. Good luck, and if you need help finding anything else, feel free to ask a staff member for help.” “You mean... Spike?” Rarity said uncertainly. “Whatnot is also helping with reshelving,” Twilight replied casually, “You can address your concerns with her, Spike or any other staff member. Now if you’ll excuse me, I really must be going.” “But you’re the only staff member, besides...” Rarity started to say, but Twilight was already trotting away, hurrying around the corner and gone. “Ohh!” Rarity groaned, stomping a hind leg sharply on the floor. “Fine job indeed, Rarity,” she whispered to herself harsly, as she was stalking out of the library, “You always know just what to say. No matter the situation, you can always find a way to stick your hoof in your mouth!” Rarity took a long look back to the library, saying wistfully, “If only I knew how to reach you holed up there in that library of yours, in that mind of yours. I just know there is a wonderful mare trapped in that terrible shell, desperately reaching out for help, and if somepony could just coax you out... but if I cannot do it, then...” The pale unicorn sighed, looking down at the earth, asking, “...who can?” With the sun at its highest, Applejack entered a small library. It was an old wood building, with used tomes lying on the shelves, along with new ones, and bright sunlight filtering in through the windows and sundry. Like it always was. “Do you have maps?” she asked, taking care to pronounce every word. “Applejack, I can understand you just fine,” an irritated Twilight Sparkle said, tail lashing, “The translation spell is in place. I’m doing just fine. Thank you for asking.” “Right, sorry about that Twi,” Applejack said, rubbing the back of her head, “Just havin’ a hard time wrappin’ mah head around this whole head injury of yours.” “It’s temporary,” the purple princess quietly seethed. “Ah need some maps of Germane, Bitaly, and such,” Applejack said uneasily, “Cain you do the gettin’ and findin’ of things still or—” “I can, indeed!” Twilight said happily, turning and trotting off down into the belly of the beast. Applejack followed along, as Twilight asked, “So, why are you looking for maps of the lands east of the gryphon kingdoms?” “It’s fer a geography assignment,” Applejack replied, “Apple Bloom’s been lookin’ for idears, and ah wanted to try her for somethin’ exotic.” Twilight reached some shelves of maps, and scanned them with scrutiny, muttering, “It’s fascinating, really. I’ve been able to quickly relearn my cataloguing system, even if the particular idiosyncracies of the written language are a bit elusive. So I can tell that this is the international section, but I would have told you it was the pudding section just from reading the sign, and here we’ve got eastern kingdoms... and by process of elimination, this particular set of glyphs must be Germane.” The princess’s wings spread slightly in what looked like an unconscious reflex, as forgetting them she climbed her forelegs up onto the shelf. Twlight bit down on a rolled up map, pulling it out of the cubby hole and presenting it to Applejack, much like Winona had been known to present a chewed up rubber ball. Applejack really hadn’t realized how much she’d come to expect Twilight to use magic, until Twilight didn’t exactly have that option, doctor’s orders. The thing wrapped around her horn was quite conspicuous to the both of them, say nothing of Twilight’s hornless behavior. It was strangely unsettling, yet oddly adorable, like seeing a pony who lost all their legs trying to dance. Applejack took the map balanced on her upraised forehoof, and Twilight asked with bright eyes, “Did I get it right? I got it right, right?” Took Applejack a moment, but she glanced at the map and nodded with a smile. She laid a hoof on a particular word, saying, “Yep, says Reitlande right here.” Twilight stared at the word Applejack pointed out intently, committing it to memory... again. “Great,” Twilight said curtly, maybe a little bit too curtly, hurrying back to the shelves. Returning with another map in her mouth to deposit before Applejack, Twilight said, “Now I’m pretty sure Bitaly is this one here.” “Right again, Twilight,” Applejack said upon checking the map. “Is there anywhere else you’d like to look into?” Twilight asked, “Yakyakistan, perhaps? Or Surane?” “Half the class is doin’ Yakyakistan on account of the whole shindig in Ponyville a couple years back,” Applejack said grimly, smiling and shaking her head, “An’ ah’m pretty sure there ain’t, there never has been, nor ever shall be a kingdom of Surane. What kinda name even is that?” “M-might want to go find Whatnot, and have her look over my speech assistance spell,” Twilight mumbled, her eyes dimming with shame. “Aw, Twi it’s okay,” Applejack said, trying to lay an arm across her withers, but Twilight brushed it off, looking at Applejack and saying, “No it’s not okay. Rosy’s actions were totally unforgivable, and I’m going to be paying for them for a long time, now that we failed to... send her home.” There was a fire in Twilight’s eyes that quickly died as the weight of recent events weighed heavily on them both. “Well ah’d better be gettin’ these back to Apple Bloom,” Applejack said reluctantly, “You take care of yourself, okay Twi?” Twilight Sparkle just turned around and walked back into the depths of the library. Applejack watched a while, then tossed her hat down in frustration. She could reach that beautiful librarian, but Applejack didn’t know what to do, or what to say that would make any of this better! And if she couldn’t help her, then who could? Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. A pair of shaded goggles refracted an emerald world as she tilted her gaze earthward. Wings cutting through the high currents, Rainbow Dash glided effortlessly over bright green plains crisscrossed with well beaten roads and ponies carting along those roads. She glided some more. Jeez, how long was it going to take to get to Windtoss? Wow, was that a lot of grass. Rainbow Dash’s expression hardened as she saw the town coming over the horizon. A sleepy farming hamlet nestled in between two rivers, it was the perfect place to hide out. Anypony here barely got out of town, and news would be slow to travel out here in the boonies, pegasi speed notwithstanding. It was frustrating to try all these towns, but Dash had to follow any lead she could at this point. The rainbow pegasus landed smoothly, and trotted into town, feeling its packed dust firm beneath her azure hooves. It was a well tended town, not a lot of stray weeds choking the path, but it certainly wasn’t the fanciest place in Equestria. She looked around idly at the slowly turning water wheel, milling hay into flour and sugar into granulated sugar. The straw roofed houses each had chimneys in them. This far north, it’d get cold in the winter, but for now the summer sun beat down overhead, and the chimneys were free of smoke. There was a pony out front sweeping dust off the porch of a shop with a bread sign out front. She was a platinum blonde with pink fur, an earth pony judging by the fact that she held the broom in the crook of her hoof instead of how pegasi were always winging it. “‘Scuze me,” Rainbow Dash said, as the earth pony mare looked on warily at her approach, “You happen to see a new pony around here, with curly pink hair and whitish fur? She’s gonna be pretty pregnant by now.” “Well ain’t that a howdy’do,” the mare said in an unimpressed tone, leaning on her broom, “Haven’t seen you here round these parts.” “Yeah I’m from Ponyville,” Rainbow Dash replied, lifting a wing and pointing in its vague direction, “It’s central Equestria, but I’m trying to find somepony named Rosy Pink, so I’ve been flying around places ponies might’ve seen her.” Nodding slowly, the mare continued, “Ah don’t know no Rosy Pink, but there’s a new mare like that who showed up a few weeks ago outta nowhere. She ain’t in trouble, is she?” “Kinda, yeah,” Rainbow Dash said with a wince, “I just really need to find her, so we can stop this Rift from blowing up Ponyville or something.” “You ain’t making a loada sense,” the mare replied with a suspicious eyebrow lift, “But talk to Thresher, if’n you need a place to stay. She’s runnin’ the local B&B, not that it sees much use. Hope you don’t mind sleepin’ in a hayloft,” “Oh I wasn’t gonna stay, just wanted to check if Rosy’s here,” Rainbow Dash said, “I’ve got a ton of—” “Now hold on there filly,” the mare said, putting down her broom and strutting up to Rainbow Dash, “You cain’t expect ponies to bend over backwards for you when y’just got here. Stay awhile and help with the waterin’ a bit, and then ah’m sure anypony’d be happy to talk to you about your friend or... whatever she is.” “Right... of course,” Rainbow Dash said, her head sagging at the mare’s admission, “I’ll help out for a while to make sure ponies know me. You ever heard of Rainbow Dash?” “Rings a bell. Mighta been one of them tale tellers travelin’ through here,” the mare said, relaxing as Rainbow Dash stopped demanding stuff on the spot, “You some kinda somepony then?” “Yep,” Rainbow Dash said, slightly puffing out her chest, “I’m pretty big news where I’m from. And you’re not gonna regret having me around. Say, I didn’t catch your name?” “Cookie,” the pink mare replied simply, holding out a hoof, “Put ‘er here, pardner!” Rainbow Dash hooked a hoof in Cookie’s hoof, and got a fierce hoofshake in reply. “Thanks for letting me know what’s what,” Rainbow Dash said, “I didn’t get nearly as warm a welcome in Muddy Creek.” “Ain’t no thing,” Cookie replied happily, “And there’s a loaf of travel bread for ya if’n you help mah friends with their waterin’ duties.” “Weather work? No problem!” Dash said smugly, “Who do I talk to about that?” “Windy,” Cookie replied happily, “She’s our pegasus.” “Your... pegasus?” “Eyup!” Small towns were weird. Fluttershy was running through Ponyville, her heart beating against her chest with every stride as she tried to escape the butterflies. Every building around her was engulfed in shivering clouds of pastel pink, yellow and blue. She rounded a corner to Sugarcube Corner, which was a Corner on the corner, but she only found the blank stares from yet more butterflies. What horrified her more were three dead bodies outside the shop, but then she realized it was just the Flower Trio, fainted again. Then the butterflies carried them away, leaving Fluttershy fleeing from the scary swarm in fright, heading for the library to try and check out a book on butterfly migration. She passed more bodies, some laying on the ground, some floating through the air. One pony was still asleep in her bed, and the butterflies had stolen it along with her. Just like Fluttershy had... but enough of that. Fluttershy was in the library. “Help me,” a quiet whisper came to Fluttershy. She turned her head and saw a unicorn walking towards her. It took her a moment to realize it was Twilight Sparkle, because wasn’t Twilight supposed to have wings now? “Help me,” the pony croaked sorrowfully. Her horn alight in magenta magic, it levitated out from amid the choking clouds of butterflies... a foal’s first reader book. “Twilight!” Fluttershy shrieked, staring at the book in horror. Twilight took another agonized step and collapsed to the ground, the book landing open over her face as she mumbled, “I before E except after what? After what?!” Tears streamed from Fluttershy’s eyes; she wanted to help her friend, but Twilight couldn’t even tell that she was reading Script, not Symbol. The butterflies were closing in on Fluttershy as if they were chasing her. With tears running down her face, that had very recently streamed from her eyes, Fluttershy ran. She already let her friend lose what she loved most dearly. Fluttershy hoped she wouldn’t be losing any more today. Fluttershy ran past Rainbow Dash, who looked worried for her, and Rarity, who was laughing at a pillar of gumballs for some reason. The yellow pegasus felt a gust of wind from behind her, and turned to face what was chasing her. Fluttershy’s pupils shrank to points at what she saw. An eye peered back at her, emerging from the butterflies, with a single black pupil in the center, as one would expect in an eye, and a turquoise iris ringing it. The eye sharpened at the sight of her, and the whole mass of butterflies flew away, as what they were covering soared forth and loomed over Fluttershy. Facing the cowering mare was a giant floating head of Fluttershy. It smiled sweetly, and puckered up its lips. “No, please, no,” Fluttershy said, and she didn’t sound like herself! Her fur was too pale, and she couldn’t feel her wings anymore. Her story mark was gone, flown off with the rest of the butterflies, leaving Fluttershy looking just like Rosy Pink! She backed up in terror as the kissing face floated towards her, like it was going to envelop her in Fluttershy’s soft, pliable lips. “No, I don’t want this!” Rosy shouted tearfully, trying to push the head away, trying to stop Fluttershy from hurting her. “What’s wrong?” Fluttershy’s giant head said with a cruel smile, “You’re not even a mare. I can do whatever I want to you, and just throw you out like a piece of garbage, when you needed me the most!” “Enough!” an imperious voice shouted, two dark blue hooves slamming into the giant head, sending it flying over the horizon to vanish with a ding. The majestic night princess was there in regal blue, standing before the shivering pony, looking down at her judgementally. “I could hear your nightmare from Canterlot,” Princess Luna declared, helping her to her hooves. “I’m sorry, Princess,” Rosy replied guiltily. “I said enough,” Luna countered, and Rosy’s colors blew away from her like a shell, leaving Fluttershy feeling like herself again. Fluttershy did not want to feel like herself again, not in front of the princess, not knowing what Fluttershy had done, or, wanted to do. “It seems you have some explaining to do,” Luna told Fluttershy, with an unsympathetic frown. “Åh jävlar ,” Fluttershy swore under her breath. After hours at the library was a peaceful time of evening, disturbed by a curly haired pink baker kicking open the door and singing sweetly, “Oh Twiliiiiiight! I brought lasaaaaagna~” Pinkie Pie didn’t expect an answer really, but she didn’t want to spook her friend or anything. It wouldn’t help to upset Twilight just when it was time for her to eat again. The important thing was to keep Twilight eating, and the key to that was making her food too irresistable to put down. Lacing your baked treats with salt was kinda super illegal though, so Pinkie Pie instead resorted to the next best thing: making it super extra tasty! Inside the old oak tree, the lights were dim, and the shadows long, until Pinkie Pie woke up the overhead lights making everything look bright and cheery. Pinkie bounded around just enough not to disturb the casserole on her rump. The delicious smell was already pervading the air, and no doubt this time Twilight would really truly honestly enjoy it, instead of just eating it because Pinkie Pie bothered her to. “Twilight?” Pinkie asked, poking her head into the back of the library, but nopony was around back there. Stopping to drop off the casserole, Pinkie still saw nor heard any sign of the librarian lurking around after-hours. “Twilight?” she called out, checking the reading rooms, the conference room, Twilight’s bedroom. It looked like Spike was having a sleepover with Rarity... again. “Come out, come out wherever you are~” Pinkie said cheerfully, scanning the ceiling, checking under the bed, nosing around in the closet... still nothing. “Did she leave her house?” Pinkie Pie pondered, “I didn’t see her leave. The markets are all closed, too! So where is she, then?” “Pinkie Pie?” the wrong unicorn said, standing at the base of the stairwell. “Oh, Whatnot!” Pinkie said joyfully, hopping down the stairs to stand shoulder to shoulder with the adorably cheery purple haired unicorn, “Have you seen Twilight? It’s time for her to eat her dindin!” The blue unicorn winced at Pinkie’s choice of words for some reason, saying, “Yeah... she’s here. I just saw her sorting books down in the basement.” “Thank you sooo much!” Pinkie Pie cheered. “Anytime, Pinkie,” Whatnot said with an easy smile. Roots and earth embraced Pinkie Pie as she headed down the stairs to the library’s basement. The basement laboratory hadn’t seen much use lately. With Twilight all unhornified and her teeny little reading problem, she wasn’t really doing any magic experiments. Or much of anything, now that Pinkie thought about it. Did learning how to read again count as something? Continuing on, Pinkie reached book storage, where boxes of unsorted incoming and outgoing books were stored. Outside of the boxes, there were piles of books lying around everywhere. It was a bit of a mess down here, not nearly as well organized as the library above, but there was a certain logic to it. Twilight had her own formula to sorting everything, and it all started making sense once it reached the shelves in the stories overhead. “Twilight?” Pinkie said, zipping to and fro, but no horse was to be found among the books. “I have lasaaaaaaagnaaa!” she cheered, checking under rugs and glancing up at the ceiling, “Come out, come out wherever you are!” The library answered with all the silence of a tomb. Pinkie scrunched in thought. She was absotively sure that she didn’t see Twilight. And she wasn’t hearing any sign of her. So what did that leave? Then she had a lightbulb moment, whatever a lightbulb is. Pinkie Pie sniffed. She still smelled delicious lasagna faintly drifting down from overhead. She smelled the musty scent of books and cardboard, and the smells of the earth walls and ceiling overhead. She smelled the sweet pink scent of Pinkie Pie, but Pinkie knew where Pinkie Pie was, so instead she focused on the other smell in the room. Twilight always smelled like tarragon, Pinkie found. Pinkie’s friend didn’t use any perfumes like Rarity did, so it was pretty easy to identify wafting around. Pinkie Pie sniffed the air, until her nose took her to a stack of sorted books, and from there down along the ground across the room. The smell of Twilight was everywhere of course, but it was strongest where she had last been, so Pinkie could follow along with Twilight’s recent movements, to get an idea of where Twilight was around here. The scent led to the mountainous pile of unsorted books and boxes of books against the wall. Pinkie crouched down, and squeezed her way into a little space between those boxes. There were more unsorted books back here, but they’d been stacked in a way that you could get through them without disturbing them. After squeezing in deeper, Pinkie found she could stand without trouble. She paused, worried, and looked back the other way at the light shining in through the piles of books she was behind. She should have reached the wall by now. Turning forward, it was like Pinkie Pie was standing in a tunnel. A tunnel of books. She had a really bad feeling about this. Nonono, you don’t understand. Pinkie Pie had a really bad feeling about this. She started to run. The tunnel opened up into a relatively small chamber, which lit up as Pinkie ran in, disturbing the jars of glowflies placed in strategic locations. The walls of this chamber were covered with paper, papers plastered all over it at odd angles like some kind of demented wallpaper. The papers were covered in strange symbols, weird looking diagrams in harsh black scratches over multiple pages, and some sort of incomprehensible language, written in an alphabet Pinkie Pie had never seen before. It looked like Twilight had invented her own language... again. The only comprehensible part of it was the center of all this giant mess, where all the diagrams pointed, and where all the arrows led to. Letters were written there in rough, but legible Script, carved in harsh, long, repeated strokes from a pony with a ragged quill in her mouth, the letters “ROSY PINK.” Something on the ground struck Pinkie Pie’s hindfoot as she backed away from those menacing diagrams, and she looked down to find a thick, heavy sheathe in the form of a cone, what should have been the horn suppressor, now blackened and burnt, and faintly smelling of soot.