//------------------------------// // Decisions // Story: Independence Eternal // by Leafdoggy //------------------------------// Day Nine “Are you sure you don’t want to just go home?” Twilight asks as she tugs the strap on Fluttershy’s leg, making her wince in pain. “I mean, Rainbow Dash isn’t exactly in danger. We’re the only living creatures in the entire world. What’s she gonna do, break her leg?”  Twilight chuckles at her own joke, but Fluttershy has to hold back a sour look. “I’m sure,” Fluttershy tells her. “I can’t just leave her. It wouldn’t be right.” “She has me here, though.” Twilight takes a seat opposite Fluttershy and leans on the table. “I’m her friend.” “Why did she run away from you, though?” Fluttershy asks her. Twilight shrugs. “No idea. Although, from what you’ve told me, it sounds like she ran away from you at first too. Maybe she’s just skittish after being alone for so long.” “Yeah…” Fluttershy sighs and shakes her head. “That’s all the more reason for me to stay, though. She’s warmed up to me. It could take weeks for her to be willing to talk to you, and I can’t let her be alone for that much longer.” “If you insist,” Twilight tells her. “Hopefully she realizes you’re still here.” “Oh, I’m going to go look for her,” Fluttershy says. “Uhh, I don’t know about that,” Twilight responds. “It can’t be a good idea for you to go traipsing all around Ponyville on a broken leg.” “I don’t have a choice. If I don’t, I would just be abandoning her out there.” Twilight sighs. “Well, I can’t stop you.” She gets up and heads off towards the basement. “Just be back by sundown. I can’t let you stay longer than that.” “I still don’t understand why,” Fluttershy tells her.  “I told you,” Twilight says, “it’s dangerous.” “But how?” Fluttershy frowns in frustration. “Because the longer you stay here, the longer your Twilight has to panic about you being gone.” She takes a deep breath and hangs her head. “I just… I can’t take that chance.” “Alright, Twilight.” Fluttershy nods slowly. “I’ll find her fast.” Fluttershy has to shield her eyes when she walks out into the blazing sunlight a few minutes later. The temperature is beautiful, but the unrelenting sun makes it hard to actually appreciate it. She’s more or less walking blindly for the first minute or so as her eyes adjust, just moving where her hooves take her. “Dusty!” she calls out once she’s a way into town. Her voice echoes through the streets and back to her like a distant conversation. The air around her is so still that even the noise feels like a disturbance. On either side of every nearly identical street, faceless homes stare down at her stoically.  The aimless searching turns up nothing. Fluttershy only gets through four or five calls before she decides that, if Dusty was going to respond, she already would have. After all, it isn’t like there’s any other noise in town to drown out her yells. She won’t be covering any more ground if she insists on pressing forward that way. Well, now what? she thinks to herself. She could live anywhere. I can’t just search every home in Ponyville. She looks down at the road in thought as she wanders aimlessly. Other than messing with me, all she ever did was bring me apples. She shrugs. I guess I’ll check the farm. The eerie stillness follows her into the orchard. None of the trees are rustling in the wind, there are no leaves falling to the ground. The snap of twigs under her hooves sound like cracking whips as they resound through the forest.  The creak of the farmhouse door as she pushes it open is a welcome relief. Finally, a noise in this silent world. The door swings wide and thunks into the wall, and Fluttershy follows it, taking a few tentative steps inside. “Dusty?” she shouts from the doorway. “It’s Fluttershy!” The floorboards groan under her as she shifts her weight between hooves, waiting for a reply. Even her breathing sounds like a monsoon through the silence around her. Her heart beats away in her chest like a mad drummer, pounding their frustrations away. There’s no response from inside the house. Well there goes that, Fluttershy thinks. She turns around and walks back out into the sun. Maybe I should check the barns? Or… An idea strikes her. On a whim, Fluttershy strikes off into the orchard, weaving around trees and trampling over leaves as she moves decisively onward. Shivers of pain start to trickle out from her leg, but she ignores them, becoming more and more sure of herself with every step. The treehouse is bigger than Fluttershy remembers it. Not actually bigger, probably not at least, but it looks bigger. Like the Crusaders made it cozier just by being inside it. She floats up and onto the landing before setting down and walking, slowly and calmly, through the open door. The inside of the treehouse looks like a lot of things. It looks like a dump, with trash and dirty dishes scattered all around. It looks like an art exhibit, with statues and paintings and all manner of other creative works dropped haphazardly into corners. It looks like a shrine to Ponville, with memorabilia and pictures from all over town put meticulously around the room. All of Ponyville except for Rainbow Dash, at least, who had obviously been cut from any photos that once contained her. Most of all, though, it looks like a home. There, in her home, is where Fluttershy finds Dusty. She’s curled up on a thin mat in the middle of the room, her hood pulled tightly over her face, light snoring coming from inside. If she didn’t already know her, Fluttershy would have no idea who she was, because her cloak is covering every inch of her body. Fluttershy walks up and tries to gently nudge Dusty without having to put any weight on her bad leg, which is easier said than done and winds up being a bit less gentle than she wants. “Dusty?” she asks as the black mass on the floor starts to stir. “It’s Fluttershy.” Dusty looks up and locks eyes with Fluttershy. It’s obvious she’s been doing a lot of crying. “Fluttershy? Why are you here?” Fluttershy sits on the floor beside Dusty. “I came to find you. I haven’t seen you in a bit, and I was getting worried.” “No, I mean…” Dusty frowns and glances down. “Why haven’t you gone home?” “I wanted to make sure you got home too.” Dusty drops her head onto her hooves. “I am home.” Fluttershy puts a hoof on Dusty’s sympathetically. “Why don’t you want to go back with Twilight?” For a brief moment, Dusty scowls. “I just can’t.” “Dusty,” Fluttershy says, “whatever happened, I’m sure you can just talk it through and—” “I can’t!” Dusty snaps. Then she winces and pulls back into herself, dropping her voice to a whisper. “She’s the one who put me here.” Fluttershy leans back in shock. “W-What? That can’t be true, Twilight would never do something like that.” “It is true,” Dusty says. “I don’t know how, or why, but… Look, just read it for yourself, okay?” “Read what?” “On the shelf over there.” Dusty points to a small bookshelf by the door. “There’s a book about Rainbow Dash.” “Oh!” Fluttershy gets up and floats over to the ramshackle bookshelf. It’s messy and packed full, well-read books shoved in wherever they’d fit. There’s a little of everything, from adventure stories to history texts, although a lot of them look like they haven’t been touched in years. It takes a bit of looking, but eventually Fluttershy finds it. A tattered little notebook, crushed into a corner with its pages bent. It takes a hefty tug for Fluttershy to pry it loose, and a couple of other books fall onto the floor in the process. “Just leave them,” Dusty says as Fluttershy fumbles with the books, trying to tidy them up without using her bad leg. Fluttershy is hesitant at first, but then takes her up on the offer and just brings the notebook back over. “I figured you probably had this,” Fluttershy says as she lies next to Dusty and flattens out the notebook. “It isn’t easy for me to read,” Dusty tells her, “but I can’t bring myself to get rid of it completely.” Fluttershy opens it to find that the inside is in even worse condition than the outside. Large swaths of the pages have been torn out entirely, no doubt lost forever, and many of the sparse pages that remain have been scribbled on and blackened out.  “This book has seen better days,” Fluttershy comments. “After a while, every time I opened it, I’d find some new thing that I couldn’t stand to read anymore,” Dusty explains. “Like I said, I would have just destroyed the thing, but… There’s things in there I need to keep.” “Like, memories of Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asks. Dusty shakes her head. “No. Definitely not those.” Fluttershy looks over at Dusty and frowns, then shuts the book and pushes it away before laying a hoof on Dusty’s shoulder. “Why don’t you like Rainbow Dash?” Dusty sighs. “It’s not that I don’t like her. It’s just that I don’t know her.” “You could learn about her, though,” Fluttershy says. Dusty stares at her hooves. “It hurts, Fluttershy. Every time I look in a mirror I see somepony else’s face. Every time I hear her name it’s a reminder that she’s gone and I’m here. I just hit a point where I couldn’t take it anymore. I’d lost too much of her. I just had to block the rest out.” “Do you think that might be part of why you don’t want to go see Twilight?” Fluttershy asks. “I don’t know,” Dusty mumbles. “I really don’t trust her.” “You can’t let that get in the way of being happy, though.” “I can’t just ignore it.” Dusty reaches out and slides the book back in front of Fluttershy. “Just read it.” Fluttershy sighs and flips the notebook back open. “What am I reading?” “Right at the end,” Dusty says. “The last thing.” Fluttershy flips through and finds the final entry. It’s short, and the writing is sloppy at best, but she can just about make it out. Rainbow Dash is gone. Nopony else has noticed. We never really bat an eye if she doesn’t show up for a day or two. But I know she’s gone. I messed up a spell. I just wanted to use it on an apple, but I was stupid and testing it outside and… Well, Rainbow Dash showed up. And then she was gone. It’s been a day and she hasn’t come back. I’m too scared to tell anypony what happened. I mean, how do you tell somepony that you sent your friend off to Celestia-knows-where and don’t know how to get her back?  I’m writing about it here, though. I guess I just can’t stand holding it all in. I’ll tell everypony eventually, but for now… I just need to get her back. The entry ends there. After it are more torn out pages, but there’s nothing to actually read. Fluttershy shuts the book solemnly and taps a hoof on the floor. The silence is thick around them as she thinks, trying to fit everything together. Finally, she turns and looks up at Dusty. “I’m sorry.” “Mm-hm,” Dusty hums. “What did the rest say?” “I don’t remember,” Dusty says. “It doesn’t really matter to me, anyway. It’s not like I was there anymore.” Fluttershy puts her leg around Dusty to comfort her. “You know it was an accident, right?” “Of course it was,” Dusty says. “It doesn’t make her easier to trust. The last ‘accident’ got me stuck here for half my life. I really don’t want to find out what the next one will do.” “You can’t just stay here,” Fluttershy says. “What choice do I have? I’m not going to let her anywhere near me.” “But you’ll be alone again,” Fluttershy tells her. “Yeah.” Dusty sighs and rests her head on her hooves, looking at the wall. “I know.” “I… I can’t let you do that to yourself,” Fluttershy says. “You can’t make me go to her.” “I know, but…” Fluttershy takes a deep, slow breath. “I can make sure you’re not alone.” Dusty looks at Fluttershy with wide, sad eyes. “You can’t. You have friends and family waiting for you.” “And I’ll have to apologize to all of them, because I’m not going home until you’re ready to go with me.” “Why?” Dusty wipes her damp eyes on her cloak. “You were so angry at me.” “I still am,” Fluttershy says. “That doesn’t mean I can leave you behind.” “I’m sorry,” Dusty says. “I’m sorry I can’t bring myself to go to her.” Fluttershy gives her a light, reassuring squeeze. “You’ll get there.” “Thank you, Fluttershy.” A shaky smile grows on Dusty’s face. “Will you, um… Do you want me to wait for you here in the morning?” “Uhh, about that,” Fluttershy cringes nervously, “I don’t think I can go back to the library. Twilight seemed pretty adamant about sending me back at sundown, and… I mean, I’m sure I could explain things to her, but I don’t think I’m up to it right now.” “So you’re just going to hide from her?” “I guess so,” Fluttershy says. “Besides, I don’t want to leave you here alone. Not even for one more night.” “I…” Dusty pushes herself up off the floor. “I’ll go get some extra blankets.” Fluttershy nods and smiles softly, and Dusty takes off towards the setting sun.