//------------------------------// // Separation // Story: Harmony's Clown // by SciWriter //------------------------------// It was one of those days again. Rainbow Dash didn’t age, but time still moved for her, and she still had a heart that longed for what was. Time stood still for her, but not her family. She walked through her mansion.                 Seventy years of actually saving her money instead of spending it… really she had never gone beyond being a weather manager, but it turns out, with a 1% savings plan, working hard, a few raises and lots and LOTS of time, you can get a lot of money. Well that, and about a half of the country seeing you as a key piece of history and you becoming a celebrity. Rainbow couldn’t deny, she had a great life, one that probably wouldn’t end soon, if it EVER did. However, there was a feeling that it was all hollow sometimes.                 She flew up the stairs and into her memory room. In her cloud mansion, she had a trophy room, but that had long ago been demolished when she adopted a disable pegasus filly. Her foal came first. Now… she had lost track of almost every trophy she ever won and this room was filled with memories far more precious.                 She flew in. In front of her was a small bed, the bed she got for her first adopted daughter. Scootaloo out grew it in a few years, Rainbow never knew why she kept it… until the foal left on her own, no longer a foal, but a very strong, independent and beautiful mare. The bed had stayed in her small home for several years, until, what Rainbow knew had to happen, finally happened. Scootaloo was long into her eighties when she finally died. Rainbow wiped away her tears, swearing she saw the body of a small pony in the bed, but it wasn’t so.                 On a small stand next to the bed was Rainbow’s wedding ring, next to a picture of her on the day that was one of the happiest of her life. Her heart had found one that belonged with it. Her big strong stallion, Silent Storm, one who commanded the wind itself, who was faithful to her, even when they learned she was immortal and couldn’t have children. Even with that news, he longed so much for her. It had been so hard to watch him age. But no one else was good enough for her, only his heart, only his body. In a few decades, the strength he took pride in was gone, he could barely fly and he had to walk with a cane. In his old age he had become sentimental… why did he have to do it? The memory played in her head. The young stallion grabbed a bag of bits from an old mare, Silent used his powers to move in front of him and stop him. Rainbow had seen the knife, she moved with all the speed of an athlete superior to all wonderbolts- but it found it’s home anyway and took her home away. The ambulance only arrived in time to tell her what she already knew, he was gone.                 She then smiled, looking at three more beds in the room. She adopted them as a trio, part of a buddy system set up to keep orphans from being isolated while in the system.                 The first was of her new youngest, Faded Light. She got the excitable little colt when he was four, and he ran, played and flew his way straight into her heart. It was a good thing she never found the mother who left him to die in the trash when he was a baby, they never would have found that mare’s body… He was nineteen now, she just watched him leave her home for his own just last year, she had to force herself not to beg him to stay. He was her last baby! There was a picture of him when she first adopted him as an orphan on a stand behind the bed, along with one from every year since. She chuckled looking at him and his developing freckles, him with his first crush- they were still together- she better know how to treat her son!                 Next to that was her second daughter, First Dawn. A girl who, for a little while, had loved to cuddle, and fell in love with just about any soft toy or animal she could get her hooves on. Then she discovered soccer. Rainbow could relate a lot better at that stage. Then she discovered math… she was in business college now and anything she talked about with school, flew right over her mother’s head. Who knew where she got it all from, her biological parents had died a while ago, so Rainbow couldn’t meet them or anything. She had talked to First’s grandparents a few times… seems sports might have been a mom thing and math a dad thing, but it was hard to tell.                 Finally, the largest bed, Dark Sky. Her first interracial adoption. Ten years old and she knew where he got things from. His anger he got from his father, his cynicism, from his mother, who laughed while he was hit. She met the mare, not the stallion, Twilight forbidding her to meet him. When she talked to the mare, the girl had kept saying she never raised a hoof to him- Rainbow broke her jaw for not raising a hoof to help. She paid a fine for that- well worth it.                 Time for Dark had been troubled. He loved his siblings with all his heart, but his new mother was a monster he was just waiting to have to fight. Rainbow had never been passionately cussed out by a ten year old before, looking at him through a black eye… she had slipped while rough housing with Faded and stepped on his wing, making the colt scream in pain and-WHAM! Dark stood there, staring her down, hiding his brother behind his hind legs, head down, horn flashing like with a magical warning. She had had to fight him over and over after that. He was fast and strong and… so scared. Rainbow never knew what to do, she tried so hard not to hurt the colt, but she couldn’t let him hurt her so… Pinkie had been the only adult he trusted at first.                 Rainbow however remembered that one magic day, what had caused it she didn’t know. He was thirteen. First Dawn’s puppy had died after an incident with a carriage. Dark had been so gentle and so caring for her, just as Rainbow expected, but suddenly, crying himself, he turned around and ran to his mother for the first time, hugged her, and buried his face in her fur. Rainbow’s breath had been taken away, all her patience was finally paying off, he was finally coming to her! How she had earned his trust, she would never know, but as the years continued, she was so happy.                 Dark was never a touchy feely pony, and never became one, that was fine. He loved jokes and martial arts. He also loved magic defense and took to learning it like a fish to water. Twilight taught him, but often he did frustrate her, as he had almost no interest in magic theory, just application.                 Last Rainbow heard from her oldest, he had been applying to teach at a dojo. That was…                 Rainbow shook her head. Had it really been that long? Nearly one and a half years. She sighed. It must have been a guy thing. She had a much easier time keeping up with First Dawn than either of her brothers. Why couldn’t Silent have told her anything useful about boys before he passed away?                 Rainbow left the room and spread her wings. “Lets go see my boy girls” yes, in her old age, she often referred to her wings as “the girls”. It was a thing… she didn’t know why, it just was. She flew over the banister, out her door and kicked into high gear, shooting across the sky. Hey, maybe she and Dark could have some fun when she arrived. He was a grown stallion now, but Rainbow bet that maybe, with all the time and skill she had, she could probably take him.                 He lived in a small apartment on the outskirts of Ponyville… to think Ponyville actually had outskirts these days. After how famous Rainbow and her friends had become, this city became a tourist town and a center of industry soon after. She flew past the four growing skyscrapers, zipping around them for fun… a thing that had pretty much recently been invented, marvels of magic and technology. They were buildings that actually went past the clouds and looked like they could rival mountains. The largest was seventy stories… largest here anyway, the largest in all Equestria was eighty.                 Rainbow passed the church her son frequented, thinking to check it quickly. As she looked down, she saw the two pony statues in front of it, Lighting Strike, the great mother and Dusk, the comforter… yea… things can get strange over eighty years.                 The cyan mare landed, tucking in her wings, shivering, out this far, winter was starting to commence with much more fury than the suburbs. She smiled up at the statues. “Hey there kids,” she said. “Well, you weren’t kids at this point were you?” she asked. She looked at the statues, made so accurate. Lightning’s messy front mane and back mane arrange like a cutie mark lightning bolt, even her freckles on only one side of her face, it was all dead on to what she looked like at about twenty six. And then her brother, by this point, bigger than her, still had that unflattering belly fat… well he was a janitor, what would you expect? They were so close, even when one became a cop and the other just a service employee.                 She chuckled, putting her hoof on the statue, “Religious icons… never saw this coming… wish you guys were still here.” She read the inscription of the words of… frankly her passed away friends.                 Words of wisdom they were purported to be. Lightning Strike: “Be awesome to each other- or Imma kick your butt!” Oh yea, that was Lightning. Dusk: “I know you’re strong, stronger than you know, and when you’re not, I’ll be strong for you.” Yea… that was him, he was quiet, but as he got older, the earth pony was worth listening to when he actually spoke.                 “Many of us do,” said a stallion in pastoral robes. The brown pegasus with a light blue mane walked over to her in a way only a religious pony can do, like he was walking softly, but with a purpose at the same time. He looked up at the statue, “But why they were taken from us, the cosmos has yet to reveal.”                 Rainbow sighed. “Because Dusk was hit by a carriage and Lightning committed sui-“                 The stallion cut the air to cut her off. “That was an illusion from the dark one,”                 “You mean Captain Gray? The guy we killed decades before either of them died?” Rainbow asked. He shook his head. She rolled her eyes. “Religions.”                 He smiled. “Rainbow Dash, yes?” She nodded. “My name is Snow... you probably know that from your kid. So you were alive and conscious when they were still with us. Tell me, how inaccurate are we? Would you not describe this “Captain Gray” as a devil?” Rainbow looked down, remembering the blue eyed pony… well maybe his eyes were blue, before he made them glow along with his teeth… before he tortured an innocent filly and almost killed her brother in front of her eyes. “Not too far hmm?” she couldn’t respond. “And Lightning, we call her a great mother and protector, you would say she had no children, she never even had sex that you know of yes? But did she not protect those she loved, and eventually, protect many, much like a mother?” Rainbow bit her lip. She still remembered Lightning many times risking her life for her and her daughter Scootaloo. Then later, as an officer, the mare would often risk her life to try to stop criminals without killing them.                 “She wasn’t the mother of impulses,” Rainbow said. “Captain Gray-“ she shook her head as he was about to object, “Fine- the dark one- used a mixture of science and magic to change a pegasus filly with abnormal psychic abilities into the first of a new kind of weapon. He made her able to control electricity on a whim.”                 “Strange that psychic power of hers hmm? Ever remember her using it?”                 “No… it probably just transformed into her electric powers.”                 “How many ponies born impulses have other abilities transform into their powers? Even the Dark One, wasn’t he just a normal pegasus at first?” he asked back. “Don’t answer. From what you know, that’s just not how it works right?” She nodded. “So, where did her powers go?”                 “That’s not proof of anything.”                 “An entirely new race of ponies exists, and she was the first of our kind.” He closed his eyes, the snow around him moving suddenly and in an instant, a snow pony that looked exactly like him was standing next to him. “A race, each able to control one element each. Mine is snow. My grandfather’s was self duplication and his son, metal.”                 “Then Gray is your mother, he made the impulse race.”                 “Did he now? Gray didn’t know how to make impulses without months of exposing ponies to an element, dulling them to the pain of being hurt by it, basically torture. But then, the ponies he made had children, and they had powers, powers the same in nature, but over different elements from their parents. Explain that to me. How would that happen?”                 “Questions you can’t answer aren’t evidence that the spirit of a mare is choosing and watching impulses…” Rainbow shook her head. “Look, she was the first of an entire race, it’s not a shock to me she’s a big deal to someone. I’m not here to tick off your religion okay? Do what you want, it’s fine. I’m looking for my son, Dark Sky.”                 The pastor shook his head. “I haven’t seen him in months.”                 “Why does he come here? He’s not an impulse.”                 “Well the other welcomes all, but I’ve told you before, I think he is.”                 Rainbow shook her head, “And I’ve told you before, snow boy, I mean no disrespect to your faith, but a mother knows her son. If he had powers, I would have seen them in ten years of raising him. Sides, he’s a unicorn, ninety percent of impulses are pegasi. Safe bet he’s not one of the other ten percent.”                 “I am connected to the mother, through my worship. And I can sense her moving in him.”                 Rainbow had to struggle not to laugh. “Lightning Strike moved a lot alright. I think she had ADHD or something. Buddy, if you really sense her spirit, you would have a constant craving for donuts and flying twenty-four seven-“ he pulled a donut out of his robes and started to munch. “Moving on! Look, think what you want, but has he contacted you recently?” The stallion shook his head.                 “Like I said, not in months.”                 “More than a year for me.”                 The stallion shrugged. “Well, he’s still a stallion, we’re not good at staying connected.”                 “How bad is that?” Rainbow asked. “I mean is it like, a physical thing, does it have to be… I’ve ever had colts before. Never been one either ya know?”                 “That in particular? Varies. Not like stallions are all cut from the same mold. If you’re wondering, no, you can’t track him through gender differences.” He laughed. Rainbow sighed. He raised an eyebrow.                 “It was a stab in the dark okay? A year and a half is a long time.”                 “Well, you know his home isn’t far. Service is already over, want some company checking it out?”                 “Don’t think I’m being overly sentimental?” Rainbow asked back.                 “That long would concern me too, no. I doubt he’s in trouble, but if nothing else, I can support you chewing him out for making you worry.” He said. She smiled and nodded.                 (***)                 As the two entered the apartment where Dark lived, it looked very neat. Rainbow smiled walking in, her eyes wide. “Well, he keeps himself organized, better than when he was a kid.”                 The pastor walked into the small one bedroom place behind her. He cringed. His tail swiped the floor a few times. “Lots of dust for someone cleaning a lot. I hesitate to bring it up, but most guys aren’t very neat on their own Rainbow… and there’s dust everywhere, don’t you see it?”                 “Don’t you know denial when you hear it?” Rainbow asked, her face showing panic.                 “Um stallion um… we’re also dense.”                 Rainbow shouted, “Where is he?!”                 “It’s not like I have him in my robes,” Rainbow’s eyes shot around the room as she turned several times.                 “WHERE IS MY COLT?!” she demanded.                 “Calm down okay-“                 “Don’t tell me to calm down!” Rainbow shouted. “Don’t think I don’t know what the Stemist say, this isn’t toxic femininity, I care about my kid… I have watched my ENTIRE first family die okay…” Rainbow started breathing hard.                 “Toxic- yea everyone knows that’s crap they just say it for ratings. I’m not a stemist okay? All the same, you do need to calm down. Who can we talk too? Who all was close to Dark?”                 “All six of us element bearers, but other than that he was always a solitary kid, few friends, never a filly friend… he wasn’t anti social… well maybe a little- okay maybe a little is a lot… oh my goodness… where’s my colt?... Am I panicking too much cause I’m a mare-no that’s stupid, my kid, I want my kid-he’s missing- he-”                 “Enough. Anyone would be scared okay? Buy if something is going wrong, you panicking won’t help. Now just breathe okay?” She forced a few breaths in and out of her nose. “Now you have five friends, one has royal connections, all of them are connected at least a little, and all of them are… frankly over a hundred years old. I’m going to call the police… considering how famous you are, for the moment, stay away from camera okay? Last thing we want is someone to sensationalize this.”                 Tears started to come to her eyes, “Make it black and white for me… this is bad isn’t it?”                 He put a wing over her back. “Let’s wait okay? We have steps to take, something’s going on, but… let’s just wait okay?” he bit his lip looking at her wide eyes. “I’ll pray too okay?”                 Rainbow swallowed a few times. “Yea, do that.”                 (***)                 President Starlight Glimmer lay on the royal couch watching the royal TV… with piles of royal paperwork. Most of it was just allocating tax payer money here or there, nothing that particularly required her undivided attention.                 Most of the news was about the latest scandals with the stars- who honestly ever cares about that stuff? Starlight barely even paid attention, just having background noise as she filled out numbers. Finally a story caught her eye.                 Five jail breaks, four in Baltimare and one in Ponyville, but they had strong connections. Starlight turned up the volume-then turned it back down as apparently that was just bait for the commercial break- searching her papers to see if anything about this had been pushed her way and she hadn’t gotten to it or glossed over it.                 She found a report just as the commercial break came to a close. “Reports are coming in today about the fifth jail bombing in two weeks.” started the anchor. “Fifteen inmates have been found dead, but despite what one might expect, the evidence says all of them were murdered personally. A masked individual of some kind, in each instance, drove the inmates and police out of the prison before any bombs went off. Five officers have been seriously wounded and one died of shock. At each prison, hundreds of prisoners escaped in the chaos. ”                 A mare co-host followed him up. “Though, to be fair, the officer who died was suffering from a heart condition before this. It seems a number of earth pony activist groups are weighing in with mixed feelings. As is well documented, earth ponies are over represented in prison, but many of these ponies, during their brief escapes, were able to make contact with their families. There have only been a few reports of criminals attempting to reactivate as of yet. A list of criminals the police have yet to bring back into custody has begun to circulate. Protests are already under way due to the sheer number of earth ponies on the list. It would seem groups that have a history of bad relations with the law, particularly the Earth Pony Equality movement, would have every reason to love this new pony or group of ponies. Some have started to sing his praises… or did, until a series of disturbing hate messages were found outside of each jail.”                 Photos were shown, Starlight scribbling down notes as she watched. “The first message was accepted by minority communities,” a photo of street graffiti like writing outside a bombing appeared. It read “Eagles, more like Vultures”. “This message is believed to be against the Pegasi supremacy group which in recent years has grown in following. However, other messages have appeared outside of a much more troubling nature,”                 Four more images from obvious different locations, but still devastated prisons were in the background. They were disquieting to Starlight, but not exactly offensive. Each had prominent graffiti. “Stemist-more like supremicists.” Stemists, stallion total equality activists, were a group Starlight knew well and one she even considered herself a member of. For hundreds of years stallions had experienced oppression under Celestia before there was an actual revolt, the same that force Celestia to abdicate the throne. This had caused wide spread anti male sexism, and Stemist were mostly just trying to set things right. To call them supremacists, someone would have to be pretty misandric. “Earth Pony Equality- Equal in misery!”. Earth ponies were the least powerful race, they just wanted other races to be equal with them. “Rape is not a stallion issue-pony issue!”. Probably one of those dumb MRAs got ahold of this asshole. Looks like these jail breaks doubled- or maybe tripled- as a means of getting attention. At least he did set stallions free from the prisons where they were being raped. “Child abuse is a mares issue too”. Most of the abused were colts- whatever! Mares of course needed to be concerned, but that wasn’t the same thing as having a “mares issue”.                 Whoever this pony was, clearly wasn’t a friend of minority groups. “In spite of any sentiments anyone may have about those who this pony set free, the police are encouraging citizens to come forward with any information. Cash rewards are being offered.”                 Starlight looked at her reports. Was this a hate group? But if it was, most of those who escaped were stallions… though none of the victims were mares, so maybe? Or what about the large number of earth ponies also set free? True, everyone would probably be put back in prison eventually but, if these were the actions of a hate group, what was the point?                 Starlight sighed, she was a princess not a detective. Best leave this to real police. Still, she set the papers aside on a coffee table.                 In walked Trance, one of her advisors. The brown griffon collected a few papers she had finally finished. “Good morning Ma’am.” She nodded. “Ah- here,” he pulled a paper out of a certain stack. “The Mares Rights Activists are petitioning to speak-“                 “Whatever,” she said, waving it off. “Put it in the special bin,” he dropped it in the trash. She flipped up the report on the jail breaks. “So what’s your take on this guy?”                 “What makes you think it’s one guy?” the griffin asked back.                 “Hmm… consistency.”                 “Would have to be someone pretty powerful. An impulse?”                 “Maybe… so, you think he’s a hater or just nuts?” she followed up.                 “You think he just wants attention?”                 She sighed. “I don’t know. Just heard about it really… if he’s a nut, to knock over five prisons, he’s a scary one. But if this is for hate… he could have massacred those earth ponies, instead he just let them walk. But he killed others… gotta wait for details I suppose.” She stood up. “So, how are the kids?”                 “Cesal is well, but Full Bright just got chicken pox.”                 “Ohhh,” she cooed. “Poor colt.”                 “Still saying how he wants to be prince someday. He’s funny the way he’ll play like a leader addressing an invisible crowd,” Starlight sat listening. “He moves his hooves like he thinks he’s calming a cheering crowd.” Trance shook his head. “Hate it when he’s just lying there. He should be up and playing ya know?”                 She nodded. “He’s lucky to have you for a father.”                 “Lucky to have a father at all… still wants to know if you can locate his old sibling,” Trance replied.                 Starlight shook her head. “I abolished the buddy system so more ponies would get adopted. It’s not healthy for him to keep looking for her, she wasn’t really his sister, just a girl kept with him for a few years to help him put down roots in another person. When Lightning Strike pushed for that system to be set up… probably was trying to do something good, but… well pegasi often think they have the solutions to everything. Back then, race wasn’t thought to be very important. She thought her solution would help all orphans. She had a friend Dusk in foster care and it helped her, so I guess she assumed it would help others. But really, earth ponies, for instance, shouldn’t be subject to pegasi solutions. Thinking you have the solutions for other races- the pinnacle of supremacy I think… your son will understand in time. He’s an earth pony himself, and the filly was a unicorn. Requiring orphanages to keep small groups of children together even when they moved around, was a silly idea.”                 The griffin walked over to the coffee table taking a bottle of wine that Starlight had placed out. “What year?” he asked.                 “Hmm? Oh, ten AHD.” Starlight sighed. “These pegasi, such… the other races have moderate support for it, but my bill for a privilege tax, they just don’t support.”                 “You do say they are the most privileged. So the tax would hit them hardest.”                 “Well they are the most privileged. I guess privilege is hard to give up,” the griffin poured two glasses and gave one to Starlight.”                 “I’m sure it would be, but myself, I’m an immigrant, so of course I don’t have any. You seem to target pegasi a lot though…”                 “I do,” she replied. “More than a thousand years ago their armies nearly conquered all pony kind. They converted their military into an industrial complex with millions of steady jobs, jobs other races often have a hard time accessing. They have been benefiting from a system set up to benefit them for a very long time, even if they’re not aware of it. The other races take jobs anyone can take, but pegasi are exclusive. I even had to force them to ground Cloudsdale. They kept saying they needed a floating city…” she rolled her eyes, “Only a few hundred ponies died in the natural disasters that followed, and only because they were so poorly prepared, but we all figured out how to cope. Their insistence that the city wasn’t about racism… of course it was, why else would you literally elevate your own race in its own city?”                 “The weather in Equestria used to be famous for how calm it was… think I would have preferred to be here in those days.”                 “Other countries didn’t enjoy the benefits of that, another example of elitism.”   Starlight drank her wine slowly, savoring it. She pulled it back down. “Hmm… well, it’s only a matter of time. The pegasi and mares have been on top for too long, the time is coming to reorganize. Mark my words, so many ponies believed in me, my ascension was not in vane, there will be equality in Equestria.”