//------------------------------// // If A Dog Could Apologise // Story: Wallflower's Bud // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// Wallflower sat alone on the edge of her bed as the sun began to set that evening. It was a feeling she had been quite well-versed in. For her, loneliness was just another word. Invisible to the majority, always cast aside, and even now when Sunset’s little idea to give her someone to keep her happy backfired. She should have been more upset than usual, but she couldn’t muster up the disappointment to feel tears. It was all just another day in the life for her as a sigh escaped her lips and the clock ticked on. Another thought flickered into her mind as she sat in solitude. The prospect of magic and what could have been different if never happened in the first place. Before Smolder started talking, before she found the Memory Stone. Even long before the other Twilight came through from that mirror world she had been hearing so much about. But as she did so, another thought came to mind. How different would everything else had been? Not just her own experiences? Before magic came along, everyone else stayed isolated; closed off to their little circles and nothing else. Where would she have fallen in such a world where magic didn’t exist? And how would it have been in comparison to her own situation with a talking dog in her care? But then again, it never mattered what she thought. Everything happened and she had zero input or say in any of it. The only thing she ever had any control of was her life and even now, she was having difficulty trying to maintain herself after having thrown Smolder out. Anger for how she had been given a rough time by her, yet also sorrow for throwing away the closest friend that she had ever had. A double-edged sword of emotions that was repeatedly hacking and slashing away at her soul until it was nothing more than a pile of pieces on the metaphysical ground. “Hey, Wallflower?” The door creaked open and there on the other side of it was Fuchsia. She pushed it wider and stepped inside the room, taking a seat next to Wallflower’s side. “Are you alright? You’ve been sitting in your room for almost an hour.” Wallflower didn’t respond. “Hey. C’mon now. You can tell me everything, Wallflower.” Fuchsia wrapped her arm around Wallflower’s shoulders, pulling her in for a sideways hug. “We’re sisters. They’re supposed to be super-close with each other, right?” “Fuchsia. I don’t wanna talk about it right now.” She blew a singular strand of hair up as she turned to face Fuchsia. “Let’s just say that, after today, I don’t want to see another magical talking dog for as long as I live and breathe.” What happened, Wallflower?” Fuchsia responded with folded arms. “And don’t just give me the whole ‘I don’t wanna talk about it’ skit. That’s only gonna make it even worse. Y’know that, right?” “Yeah, yeah. I know.” Wallflower just let out another sigh as she flopped backwards onto the bed, flattening the covers under her weight. “But chances are, you wouldn’t understand unless you know the ins and outs of Equestrian Magic.” "Which I don't. But that still doesn't mean I'm just let you sit around and be a misery-guts about this whole thing." Fuchsia patted Wallflower on the back slowly and rhythmically. "Seriously, Wallflower. You're not one to end up crying like this. Sure, you've been known to just shy away and hide whenever things go bad, but this isn't like you at all." "I know, I know. But this just feels like a betrayal of the highest caliber. Not betrayed by Sunset or any of the other Rainbooms or my friends, but this is something completely different. It feels like I've been betrayed by something that I just started making a friend with..." Wallflower just put her hands against her eyes again. "Why, Smolder? Why did you just have to be you? I know you have a mouth and wanna use it, but not in school time! Now I look like a bad dog..." "Oh... It's about Smolder? Now this, I need to hear from you." Fuchsia's hug on Wallflower tightened, immediately causing her to lower her guard and turn to face Fuchsia. "C'mon, Wallflower. Spill it. Not talking about it is only gonna make things worse." "Well. When I took her to Canterlot High today, she met with Spike. Y'know, that dog that Twilight Sparkle's always carrying around with her? The talking one?" Wallflower, still with small tears in her eye sockets wiped them dry as she told Fuchsia Blush the story. "Out of nowhere, after a little chat, Smolder decided to go in and kiss Spike." "Kiss?" Fuchsia's tone of voice warped slightly as one of her eyebrows climbed to her forehead. "Didn't know that your little puppy was frisky. It's not even the right time of year either..." "It's not that at all. Basically, when Smolder kissed Spike, she got the ability to talk. She got a mind of her own and her mouth started running a mile a minute..." Wallflower jolted her arms to the ground, glaring ferociously at the floor. "Then, she decided to talk some more. And some more. It got to the point where she was interrupting every class and giving her own little thoughts and feelings on EVERYTHING. At the end of it, Principal Celestia decided that I needed to make somewhere at CHS where I could curb her, or I'd get in real trouble if I ever brought her there again..." "And... what's so upsetting about—" "Because of everything that had been said, because of all this chaos, and now the fact that Equestrian Magic has once again caused me problems, I'm now starting to question whether or not I could ever consider Smolder my friend, or just another... thing that's been twisted by another world's stupid magic..." Wallflower pouted as she pulled herself out of Fuchsia's hold. "Aaaaaand, screaming at Smolder like that, running away from her? Not gonna sit well in either of our books." "You yelled at Smolder?" Fuchsia's eyes widened. Then, as the picture came together, she couldn't help but sit there, looking at her sister for a good few moments. To picture someone like her snapping at a small animal was almost unheard of. But given the scenario, the problems, the result of Smolder's interventions, Fuchsia sucked up her emotions and wrapped herself around Wallflower as tightly as she could, hugging her so tightly that her arms stuck up. "Fu...Fuchsia?" Wallflower's emotions, forcibly dropped along with her guard, could only look at her sister's closed eyes with hers wide open. "Sister, I know this is hard for you. Coming hot off of the heels of an Equestrian Magic plot yourself. But you can't just let your anger reach out towards dogs..." Fuchsia muttered as she kept the hug up. "At the same time, I can't just meet your anger with more of it for what you did. It wouldn't be right to add fuel to the fire. What you need right now is this; a hug from your super sister bestie." "Fuchsia... I know that you mean well, but I think it's gonna take more than a hug to cure this. I mean, after all, it feels like my heart was just ripped out in front of me by Smolder and now I'm the one suffering for it." Wallflower slid out of Fuchsia's embrace, walked towards the door and glanced back at her. "I get it, though. Dog that learns how to talk wants to never stop talking. I understand and appreciate the concept. But there is a time and a place for everything. That was neither the time or the place in my eyes." "Then when WILL it be the right time or place?" Fuchsia stood up, walking back to Wallflower's side. "You can't expect her to stay quiet forever, sis. And you certainly can't expect her to speak when you want her to. Now, you want my advice? You need to go back out there, find Smolder, apologise to her and make things up. If you don't, then both you and her are gonna end up miserable." "After what happened back there? With all the pressure mounting up? I... I... I'm not sure if I can." Wallflower clutched her hand, bringing the knuckles to her chest as she peeked down the corridor of her house. "The deck's already stacked too high and too unfairly against me, Fuchsia. I'm not sure if I can play through like this." "Well, whether you're ready or not, I'm pretty sure that Smolder's heartbroken that you've just left her like that. She's your dog; your friend. You threw them away because they got you into trouble. If Sunset Shimmer were here, she'd give some long speech about her friends always stick by each other, even when one's causing the other small little nitpick-style problems like this." Fuchsia wrapped her fingers around Wallflower's shoulder, looking into her eyes again. "Also, consider this; you could have had some friends of yours help with this pet place for CHS, right? Why shoulder the burden all on your own?" "It's just that... given everything that's been seen in this world so far. Between demons, seahorse people, tree monster people, all kinds of other things, I don't know whether other people would think I'm completely sane or if I'm lost in a delusion and wanna send me to the crazy house." Wallflower twisted her wrist. Again, the memories of the Memory Stone incident hung on her mind. "Call me a hypocrite with that rune I used to blank everyone's memories of Sunset, but my point still stands. No-one on this planet is going to believe that Equestrian Magic is going to be the be all and end all of everything. And the people who've never heard of Equestrian Magic when I try to present the story are gonna think that I'm a total whackjob. So help's pretty sparse for me." "Yeah, but it's better than absolutely no help whatsoever and to go through your chores on your lonesome. Especially with this big pet corner job that I've heard you've got. That kinda stuff is something that you can't make all on your own..." Fuchsia's grip tightened slightly. "I just... I need... I mean..." Wallflower tried to find a word that would continue the discussion, but nothing came to mind. Defeated in the verbal showdown, she ran down the corridor as fast as she could, not even bothering to look back. All she could hear were her own footsteps and that of Fuchsia's as she made it to the door, threw it open, then stopped at who was on the other side. Standing there, right before her were Sunset Shimmer, the rest of the Rainbooms, and Smolder in Fluttershy's hands. All of them standing on the garden. Wallflower threw herself backward so as not to crash into her guests, yet the sheer sight of Smolder again after all that had been said and done was too much for her to bear, so she ended up tumbling onto her back, knocking her head against Fuchsia's knees and causing her to topple over Wallflower as a result. "Uh... is this a bad time?" Smolder asked, hopping out of Fluttershy's grip with a hint of hesitation in her voice. "No. Not a bad time at all, actually. I was just... showing Wallflower to the door so she could meet you guys!" Fuchsia made some lame chuckles as she tried to make the best out of the situation. "Anyways, if you don't mind, I'm just gonna... uh... head back upstairs so I can do... stuff! That's right. Good ol' Fuchsia Blush stuff." She sped off back to the top of the stairs, only to poke her head back out. "Uh. And, also, don't tell Trixie or Lavender about this, okay? The less they know, the better, right?" "Al...right?" Sunset Shimmer blushed, rubbing the back of her head as she walked into the house, with the other girls close behind. "Well, that was certainly awkward." "What are you all doing here?" Wallflower was the first to ask. "Ah think the better question is what in the hay were you thinkin'?! Leaving Smolder all alone like that with no-one to protect her?" Applejack's brows lowered into a small glare. "Don't you know what happens to dogs when their owners decide to dump 'em like that?!" "Don't you know what happens to humans when their dogs decide to get them into trouble every single waking moment of their life? Do you?" Wallflower glared right back, jabbing a finger at Applejack's chest. "They get wracked with stress, rough lives, and don't need other people to rub salt in the wounds!" Once she had let off her little tirade, Wallflower took a deep breath, exhaled, then hung her body to the ground. "Look, girls. You probably don't get it because you and your pets are on the best terms with each other, but this is me with a new pet with the ability to talk. So I can't help but feel majorly put off by the fact that our relationship's a little... fractured." "I'll say it's fractured! Throwing a dog away like that is one of the worst things that a human could ever hope to do!" Rarity swung her arm out in a sweeping motion, almost as if she were karate chopping the air. "I mean, of course, pets can be rambunctious little ragamuffins, but the one thing that we NEVER do is wish harm or abandonment on them!" "Girls... this isn't what we were planning to—" Fluttershy found herself silence by the next Rainboom to raise their voice. "I mean, yeah, it's a total downer when we get into trouble for stuff that's totally not our fault, but that doesn't mean that we should be mean and nasty to the ones who actually got us in that sticky situation in the first place! And no, I don't mean the kind of sticky when the spoon's stuck in the bowl and you can't for the life of you get it out even if you hired the best people in the city to do it for you!" Pinkie barked ferociously. "If we could all just calm down a bit and try to speak rationally for—" Fluttershy's words were once more shut down by the next person to speak. "Go ahead, then. If this is all one big circle of how Wallflower's a terrible pet owner that shouldn't be allowed to raise a talking dog, then let's keep the train rolling. Let's see what you've gotta say next..." Wallflower grumbled, folding her arms over. "Come on. Lay it on me! Let me hear just how much you dislike the fact that I ran away from the fact that a MAGICAL. TALKING. DOG. FROM. A. PONY. PLANET. GOT. ME. INTO. DEEP. TROUBLE!" "I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say that this isn't how we planned it at all, right?" Smolder tilted her head towards Fluttershy, who finally lowered her brows, created a fist with her hand, grabbed her geode with the other, and called in a horde of creatures to hold the girls down. "If all of you could just LISTEN to yourselves for once and let me SPEAK, we wouldn't be in this mess!" Fluttershy howled, looking into the eyes of each of the Rainbooms with tranquil fury as she gently walked over to Wallflower. "Now then. I believe that you and Smolder need to have a little talk. Not one about how your differences make it harder for you, but one where you apologise. Unlike my friends, who seem to think where you're bad because you didn't get along that well." Fluttershy stepped back and clicked her fingers, causing the animals that were holding Wallflower to release her. Wallflower dropped to her knees and looked Smolder in the eyes, watching the small puppy raise a paw gently, then retract it for fear that she would get another verbal shredding. When neither side spoke up for a few minutes, Smolder was the first to do so. She took a sigh, then walked forward with her neck craned upwards so that she could see her owner's face. Then, the words came. "Wallflower. I'm so, so, so sorry about what I've done to you." She said, rubbing her pawprints against the ground. "I've just... been so focused on myself that I didn't think about you. I let my words get ahead of me and I put everything else on the backburner. It's just that... I've not had a good owner like you for a long time now, not since Ember decided to let me go when I was raised in Dragon Town." Some tears began to form in Smolder's eyes as she took another step forward, planting her paw on Wallflower's chest. "I just... I don't wanna be abandoned anymore. It's not a fun life to live; one where you're stuck on the streets, stranded and struggling to survive. And that shelter? It was nice, but it didn't feel right. I can't go back to either." "Dragon Town? Wh-what are you saying? You came from that... horrid, rough-and-tumble place?" Wallflower felt her heart begin to wobble like jelly as Smolder took another step forward, leaning her whole body against hers. "I... I didn't know that. I thought that you just came from a regular old place on the street; not that place." Wallflower couldn't help herself any more and wrapped her arms around Smolder, bringing her into a small hug. "Come here, Smolder..." Both Wallflower and Smolder stood in their hugging posture for a few moments, with the other Rainbooms watching with awe. Fluttershy had released them from their furry, fauna shackles and let them get back under their own control, then sent all of the critters off with a wave of her hand. Wallflower and Smolder eventually couldn't hide their emotions anymore and decided to cry into each other. Wallflower into Smolder's furry body and Smolder onto Wallflower's cheek. Both of their wails touched the heart of everyone around them. "I... I know it's a bit sudden, but... do you think that we could be owner and pet again?" Smolder asked inbetween sobs, her eye sockets still damp and runny from all the crying that she had already done. "I promise that I won't talk if you don't want me to. Promise." "I'm sorry, Smolder. Of course I'd love to be owner and pet again, just like before you learned how to talk." Wallflower was still in the middle of her own cry-fest, but still found the time to use her sleeve to sponge up the tears and give her a somewhat clear gaze at the dog. "And I promise you... I'll try to be a bit more dog if you want." Wallflower and Smolder cried for a bit more, then finally let each other go and stood together, walking towards Fluttershy with a small, quivering smile on both of their face. Fluttershy strode up to the both of them with her hands clasped together. "There you go. Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" She asked, tousling Smolder's head and giving a pat to Wallflower's back. "See. You shouldn't meet each other with anger because of how different you all are. You should be able to learn to appreciate and respect each others' differences and learn from them." "Y-yeah." Wallflower sniffled one last time and gave her eyes another rub with the back of her hand. "I see that now. I'll be sure to let Smolder loose, but not too loose. You'd like that, wouldn't you, girl?" "Of course. And I totally understand if you wanna be a good girl in class. I'll pipe down if you don't want me talking." Smolder looked up at Wallflower once again and laid a paw on her shoes. "Now. Let's see about this pet corner." Wallflower, with a pumped-fist, looked at the girls with confidence. "Um, actually... we've been thinking about that and, why not, instead of a whole corner, we make a whole 'nother wing in the school so that students can learn how to take care of pets?" Fluttershy lifted a finger as some of her hair drifted over her eye. "And, on top of that, I could organise a special extra-curricular club inviting students with pets of their own to come in and work together with each other. I think it'd be much better than just some stuffy old corner where people could just leave them behind like that." "You sure about that? I mean... it's such a big ask and we're just... a group of teenagers." Wallflower looked away and idly rubbed her arm, still thinking about the size of the project and just how much time and effort it would take. "A group of teenagers with magic." Twilight clicked her fingers, causing a magenta aura to pluck a couple of small daisies from the nearby hedge and stick them in Wallflower's hair. "Don't worry about a thing, Wallflower. We'll be glad to help you out. What's so wrong with reaching out for a little help these days?" "Don't ever feel too afraid to ask others for help, Wallflower Blush. And don't ever think that you can just hide away and shoulder all your burdens by yourself." Sunset Shimmer finally came around and pulled Wallflower into another sideways hug. "Because, hey. There's always gonna be someone who'd be glad to lend you a hand or two when things get rough." She stretched her hand out towards the other girls, who couldn't help but smile at Wallflower. "Th-thanks, girls. For everything." Wallflower finally conceded and smiled herself, her cheeks turning crimson as she motioned everyone in for a hug, which she responded with a hug of her own. "Now, let's make this pet wing!" Fluttershy, with a determined grin looked out into the distance. It wasn't long before she turned back to Wallflower. "And let's all make it together. As a group; not just by ourselves." She closed her eyes and returned herself to the hug, nuzzling Wallflower's neck slowly.