My fault, my fault, my fault, my fault… Twilight heard those words ringing in her mind over and over and over again. Every step she took felt like it took an eternity to complete, each one felt like an earthquake inside of her skull when her hoof came down upon the tainted soil. Her eyes were closed and she refused to open them. Her ears were folded down and she refused to listen to anything. Water, cola, chocolate milk and other such downpours would occasionally assault her from above and she refused to shake herself.
I pushed them away. I failed. It’s my fault.
For a moment, she stopped and dared to open her eyes. Everything around her was… completely and utterly unrecognizable. Twisted, malformed and shaped specifically to fit Discord’s wild sense of humor. All of this is my fault. We could have taken Discord down if I had just had more patience…
In the back of her mind, she screamed and struggled against that thought, knowing that it was wrong. Sadly, the uproar in her head was shoved back down almost as soon as it roared up. ...My friends are gone… I drove them away. They deserve better than me.
Her eyes turned away from the center of town and towards the edge. ...So I’ll go. She began walking for the edge of town, fully intent on trotting away and leaving all of this behind. They’ll be better off. Rarity… Twilight thought back to the fashionista, the laughs they had shared, the time Rarity had made their dresses for the Grand Galloping Gala, how Rainbow Dash had hounded her over the ‘limitations on her flight.’ ...She’s crafty and independant. She runs an entire business and is creative. She doesn’t need me or my numbers.
Applejack… Twilight remembered the first winter wrap up in Ponyville she had been a part of, she had remembered how Applejack’s physical strength and agility had saved the whole town on a few occasions by now. She recalled how competitive the farmer was, especially with Rainbow Dash. She remembered watching their contests and, on rare occasion, teaming up with Rainbow Dash (much to the apple farmer’s dismay.) ...She’s strong. She’s practical. She doesn’t need a worry wart like me…
Pinkie Pie… Twilight remembered all of the party’s the pink pony had thrown over these last nine months. Once Twilight had gotten a bit more into the swing of things, she remembered the blasts she had had at those get-togethers. She recalled games of pin-the-tail-on-the-pony, she remembered bottle spin games of truth or dare. She remembered more than one occasion where Rainbow Dash has gone a little overkill with the cider at the more energetic parties, and the subsequent hangovers that left the pegasus out of commission. She’s friends with everypony in town. She doesn’t need a mare like me to be one of them…
Fluttershy… Twilight remembered how it was the butter colored pegasus that had saved her life from an eternity of silence, darkness, and stillness by freeing her from the effects of a cockatrice. She remembered how Fluttershy had been there to help her take care of Rainbow Dash when she broke her wing that day when they were still fillies, all the way in Cloudsdale. She remembered how it had been Fluttershy to make it across the bridge of Nightmare Moon’s castle with her while everypony else fell into the chasm. ...She has her animals, she has the others… she doesn’t need me or my lack of consideration or empathy…
Rainbow Dash… Twilight stopped. She remembered her oldest friend, a filly who had been with her since almost the beginning. She remembered their games, how they could talk about Daring Do for hours and hours, she remembered how Rainbow had stood up for Spike one day when Twilight had succumbed to anger and cruelly lashed out at her number one assistant. She remembered how Rainbow Dash had saved her life against Nightmare Moon… ...Rainbow Dash is grown up now… I don’t have to help her anymore.
Not all friendships last forever.
She kept moving, closing her eyes and letting her head hang down again. She glanced over her shoulder at Ponyville once she reached the edge, looking into it with guilt and grief on her face. “Goodbye, everypony… Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rainbow… Spike…” Twilight turned, then stopped. Her eyes widened and a sharp throb went through her skull. Her eyes lost focus and all other sounds became muted in the face of the loud ringing filling Twilight’s mind. She lost her footing and fell to her haunches, gasping for breath before reaching her hooves up to cover her eyes.
Her vision was flooded with white.
“Pack your things, Spike. We’re leaving,” Twilight said harshly as she walked into the loft of the library. The baby dragon in question was on the floor, curled into a ball and clutching at his belly. Twilight didn’t pay him any mind as she brought over a suitcase with her magic. “Don’t ask me where we’re going because… I don’t know yet. Just not here.” from atop her head, the tiara that was the element of magic drifted over and past the suitcase before Twilight let it fall uselessly into a trash bin.
“How could I leave Spike behind…?” Twilight thought as the flash unfolded before her. “He’s still so young…”
“Can’t… move…!” Spike groaned out in extreme discomfort before rolling over. It was only then that Twilight saw the enormous pile of sealed scrolls sitting next to Spike on the floor, taller even than Twilight was. “The Princess… has been sending these since I came back upstairs- HRRK!” His cheeks puffed up before a jet of green dragonfire burst out, a scroll appearing in its wake. “Make it stooop,” Spike begged pitifully.
Curious, Twilight lifted one of the scrolls in her magic. Instantly, she realized what she was looking at. “These are all the letters I’ve sent to the princess since I moved to Ponyville… but why would she send them back?” she whispered to herself, lifting up the first one she saw and reading it off.
“Real friends don’t care what your cover is. Friendship is a wondrous and powerful thing, and just like the path through the orchard, there will always be a way through. The best thing to do is to stay true to yourself…”
Twilight read the letters alongside her previous self, feeling a fog gradually lift from her mind. Even though she knew full well that her other self couldn’t hear her and would never know, Twilight Sparkle felt her mind brighten with her next thought. “Thank you… thank you so much.”
The vision shattered.
Twilight’s eyes snapped open as a sharp gasp rattled her shaking body. She reached out her hooves to catch herself from falling face first into the soil, sweat trickling down the side of her neck and down her back. “Woah… that one was intense…” she mumbled before slowly, carefully rising to her hooves. She dusted herself off and noticed that color had returned to her body. Slowly, she smiled. “...On the off chance you ever see this…” she closed her eyes and focused on the memory of her alicorn self, the one whose own time was still fading away. “...thank you for what you learned. I think that if I hadn’t seen that… I’d be too far gone…” she opened her eyes and nodded in determination. “I won’t waste this second chance… I promise.” with that, she turned and galloped away back into Ponyville.
She knew what Discord was doing. He was trying to pull her and her friends apart. He was trying to destroy their friendship, to sow seeds of disharmony and hatred between them. The elements would never work if their bearers weren’t themselves in harmony with each other. I know where they all live… the only one that’s going to be hard to find is Rainbow Dash. with her eyes narrowing and her heart alive with determination and newly rekindled hope and enthusiasm, she began her search for her fillyhood friend.
“Grrr… Where is she?!” Rainbow growled under her breath from her cloud, squinting into the horizon. She hadn’t caught any sign or trace of her target this entire time, and it had felt like weeks to her. Yet even with no results and no progress whatsoever, the fiery anger burning in the back of her head had not once died down at all. She grit her teeth and moved along, taking her cloud with her. “She’s lilac colored. She shouldn’t be this hard to spot…”
Rainbow then brought her cloud to another stop and examined her surroundings again. No matter how hard her trained eye looked, nothing of note was visible that could lead her to Starlight Glimmer. She let out a frustrated yell and opted to vent her excess anger into the cloud by violently pummeling it with her hooves. For a good minute, she was at this, striking over and over again. She was so focused on this one task that she didn’t even notice the slight lavender glow that surrounded the cloud.
At last, she took a deep breath and looked up, her anger sated for now. As her eyes returned to examine her environment, she was met with the worried face of Twilight Sparkle, the gazes of the two friends immediately meeting. Rainbow grimaced. “Go away, Twilight.”
“Rainbow, wait,” Twilight said sharply, stepping up onto the cloud. Rainbow shifted back, remembering that Twilight did indeed have a cloud walking spell she could make use of. Once Twilight stood on Rainbow’s cloud with her, she hesitantly reached out. “Please, just hear me out.”
“No. Get off my cloud.” Rainbow growled angrily, her wings flaring out.
Twilight’s uneasy face turned into a mildly annoyed frown. “This isn’t you, Rainbow Dash. You’re brash, arrogant and reckless, but you aren’t selfish or cruel.”
Rainbow leaned forward until her forehead was pressing harshly into Twilight’s, just under her horn. Her eyes narrowed even further as she grit her teeth. “Maybe you just don’t remember me very well.”
“It’s you who’s forgotten, Rainbow.” Twilight said simply before lighting up her horn.
Rainbow shoved her and launched into the air. Twilight cried in surprise, her spell fizzling out. She grunted in pain as her back collided with the ground before she shot Rainbow a dirty look. Rainbow stuck her tongue out at Twilight tauntingly. “Try and catch me when I’m up here!” she called.
Twilight sighed heavily, not at all liking what she now had to do. “Rainbow, I am really, truly sorry. You made me do this,” she said softly before her horn lit up. Rainbow raised an eyebrow in mild confusion. Then her eyes widened and her pupils dilated when she was enveloped in the magical glow of a telekinesis spell.
“LET ME GO!” She screamed almost immediately, thrashing and jerking, trying to get out of the spell. Already all of the anger was gone from her voice, replaced with desperation and even fear. Her breaths were coming in panicking gasps and her wings completely went out of sync.
“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…” Twilight repeated over and over while quickly bringing the struggling and flailing pegasus down to her. “Please hold still!” she said as comfortingly as she could, trying to restrict Rainbow’s movement with her magic.
“PUT ME DOWN!” Rainbow cried out, fresh tears already spilling out. “NOW! PLEASE!”
Twilight felt a rapidly growing hole of guilt in her chest. “Please forgive me…” she whispered before touching her horn to Rainbow’s forehead, enacting the memory spell that she hoped would undo Discord’s manipulations. For several seconds the area was illuminated by bright light. Finally, Twilight took her horn away from Rainbow’s head, watching as the color slowly returned to her fillyhood friend.
Immediately, she set Rainbow gently down on the ground and let go of her, dispelling the telekinesis spell. For several seconds, Rainbow Dash merely lay there on the ground, breathing in shaky, ragged gasps. When at last the pegasus turned to look at Twilight, rolling over so she could, her eyelids were swelling and her cheeks were smeared by fresh tear stains. “T-t-twilight…” she whispered out, no small amount of guilt in her voice. “I am s-so s-sorry-”
Twilight silenced Rainbow by kneeling down and gently pulling Rainbow into an embrace. “I forgive you, Rainbow… it’s okay. It’s okay. Let it out. I know you have to.” she said softly, patting the other mare on the back and holding her tight.
Rainbow didn’t say a word. She just buried her face in Twilight’s shoulder and began to cry as loud and hard as possible.
Even with all of the chaos surrounding them, even with Rainbow Dash sobbing her eyes out into Twilight’s shoulder from the flashbacks brought on by being handled by magic like that, even though they were alone right now with nopony else to offer comfort or support, Twilight managed to feel happy and proud. She may have been crying and in distress, but the fact remained that Twilight’s Rainbow Dash was back. She was here and she was herself.
And that meant that Twilight could still get the rest of her friends back, too.