“Well, I can only speak from my perspective, but if either of you wish to chime in, then you may after you raise a foreleg for attention. This shan’t become a disorganized mess or I’ll silence you all again, understood?” Rarity looked at the foals, then to the adults around the room. Twilight had a stack of scrolls, ink pots, and several quills ready while the rest waited in their own ways.
“When I began speaking with Snickers in the hospital room with Sweets--”
“Don’t you mean ‘Sweetie’?” Twilight interjected.
“No, she’s changed her name to Sweets. I was Gem, and Snickers… well, he is who he is,” she smiled at the colt who nodded and pointed a hoof at himself. “May I begin, please?”
“Yeah, sorry,” Twilight said.
“Quite... well, I began speaking with Snickers in the hospital room and my sister was naming the virtues of Harmony, as we represent them.”
“Question,” Rainbow raised her foreleg and started. “You mean elements, right? ‘Cuz we’re there Elements of Harmony, not the Virtues of Harmony.”
Rarity sighed loudly. “The elements are representatives of virtues we possess and exemplify. You are loyalty, and you’re loyal with or without the element you’re attached to. So, it’s a virtue to be loyal… why am I explaining this?” Rarity asked herself. “If you have any questions about what I’m saying then please wait until we take a break, everypony.”
“Ugh, fine. I thought that was a good question, though.”
“It was, sugarcube. Rarity’s just a might upset ‘cause she wants ta tell her story but keeps gettin’ interrupted.”
Twilight waved her quill in the air. “Exactly, so can we please have calm and quiet so she can tell her story?”
“Yeah,” Pinkie shouted from behind Twilight and ducked down, popping up between Applejack and Rainbow. “If you can quiet down, then we can get to the story and then it’ll be done and we can have more cake!”
“Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow asked the mare bouncing beside her, “why don’t you eat cake now while she’d telling the story?”
“Because, it’s still in the oven!” She bounced behind Applejack’s chair and confetti showered down from above Rarity and Sweetie. “And there’s no better way to have cake then fresh from the oven, right?”
Pinkie was surrounded by a purple aura. “Pinkie, please sit down. This’ an important moment, Rarity’s going to tell us all about the spell that they were under and why they think it’s been longer than five days. Is it some kind of psychosis or was it an effect of a lost Starswirl the Bearded spell?”
Fluttershy raised a hoof. “Pinkie, if you have a cake and ice it, won’t the icing just melt away?”
“Most of the time, but there’s a super secret to baking a cake and icing it right away. I’d tell you--”
Rarity sat back with her forelegs crossed and blew confetti from her snout. Twilight looked around the table and shook her head. Her horn lit and everypony was frozen in place. “There, now you can tell me about the spell.”
“No, Twilight. This is more than the spell that was cast, or moreover the spell that took us away. We were talking about our virtues as ponies and what each of us brings to one another as a collective; what makes us ponies and how we live with one another. Snickers had a partial spell cast on him when he was sent here.
“Partial, because it sent his body and mind here, but left a piece of him where he’s from. When he opened his heart to Harmony, part of the spell activated to bring him back with the power to fix everything, or so was the plan. By us being there, and him connecting directly to me, the spell didn’t work as intended and it brought all of us with him.”
Snickers raised his foreleg. “Yeah, only it wasn’t the right time or place. It was one third of the way and right here,” he tapped the table.
“Yes,” Rarity agreed, “we went one third of the way to his actual time and home, stopping here, in the future. Or, rather… a future.”
“So,” Twilight asked, “he’s from the far future and was sent back, but when he went back, he only went somewhat in the future because you two,” she hesitated, “cut the spell into thirds?”
Rarity sat up and nodded. “Yes, exactly, Twilight.”
Twilight chuckled. “That’s not how time works, Rarity. You don’t just divide by how many ponies are traveling to get to where you’re going; otherwise if I could send this quill into the future an hour, then two quills would only go thirty minutes with the same spell.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow. “That’s exactly what I just said. The spell was to take him 650 years ahead, after everything was terrible and to a future with little hope but it wasn’t that bad. We went ahead two hundred and forty years, to a future we can stop with relative ease, as long as things go a certain way, or don’t.”
Rainbow groaned loudly. “Can we get on with this? I’m dying from boredom,” she whined.
“Ah agree with Rainbow. This’ interestin’ and all, but yer talkin’ over my head and Ah’m not followin’.”
Sweetie cleared her throat, getting the attention. “I’m leaving.” She slipped from her seat and Snickers followed her, with a look between then, Rainbow and Fluttershy followed, leaving the adults in the room with Spike.
“Well, I’ll begin then…”
Sweetie opened the door and the group left, following Sweetie and wondering where she was going. She returned to their given room and climbed onto Rarity’s bed. “Why’re you following me?”
“Um, you look unhappy,” Fluttershy said softly. Snickers agreed with a nod and Sweetie turned her head, looking at the wall.
“I’m fine, you should go back to the others.”
Rainbow flew to the bedside. “Look, you’re messed up, Snickers is messed up, Rarity’s messed up. You’re not getting away from us, so don’t bother trying, because we’re gonna make you feel better or I’m gonna follow you everywhere you go until you talk about it.”
Sweetie looked at Rainbow with a hint of anger. “Why, so you can stalk me? Foalnap me, make you tell you everything? Real life isn’t a book, Rainbow. You can’t just follow a filly and get what you want.”
Fluttershy moved between the two and looked at Rainbow. “She’s right, Rainbow. Your method isn’t going to work with her, not right now. Sweetie, may I talk with you alone? Just us about how you’re feeling?”
“Why do I need to be alone? I’ll tell everyone. I’m mad, and angry, and sad. I want to hide under a rock, I wanna run away,” she felt deeply sad and her voice hitched. “I want to be like I was last week. I just wanna… be happy and… innocent.”
Rainbow looked away and rubbed her foreleg with her other forehoof. Snickers looked away as well. Fluttershy climbed onto the bed and draped a wing over the filly. “It’s okay to cry, Sweetie Belle. Everypony does sometimes.”
“I…” she sighed a shaky breath, “don’t know who I am anymore.”
Snickers huffed and reared up to lean on the bed, he looked at Sweetie. “Don’t give me that, Sweetie Belle. You know who you are; you’re cute. You’re sweet. You sing better than anyone I’ve ever heard, and you’re my auntie!”
She snorted a little. “You’re older than me.”
“Psh, by, like, two years. You’re the best aunt I could have or want, you can’t take that fact away. Even if you move under a rock and I have to send you a letter every day.”
Sweetie giggled and wiped her eye. “You’re a dork, you know that?”
“What? Me? No way. You’re a booger.”
“I’ll give you a booger sandwich,” Sweetie said back and inhaled.
“None of that, thank you,” Fluttershy said covering Sweetie’s nose with her primary feather. “See, Sweetie, you’re still the filly we all know and love. Why do you feel so confused, what would you like to tell me, us?”
Snickers climbed onto the bed and lay under Fluttershy’s wing beside Sweetie. “Yeah, you’ve been a weirdo for a while now. C’mon, let it out.”
She smiled and felt the warmth of the ponies comforting her. Rainbow moved to sit by the window, watching the sky and listening to the conversation on her own.
“It was a long time I was gone,” Sweetie said softly and nuzzled into Fluttershy. The mare’s coat smelled of wildflowers and calmed her. “Don’t even know how long, but we all did things to make it to the next day. Some things weren’t good, others weren’t as bad. I dunno, maybe it was just being somewhere else that started it all.
“It wasn’t clean, I had to watch what I stepped on because I got hurt without shoes. The food would make me sick if I ate too much, the water wasn’t clean unless we paid extra in a town. There wasn’t a safe place anywhere…”
SNickers sighed and leaned into Sweetie some more. “Sweets, ya gotta look at the positive too. You had us, we made a couple friends on the way, right?”
She smiled and it turned into a grin. “Yeah, they were pretty cool.”
Snickers grinned. “Remember when Clem snuck up on Rarity and tugged her tail?” Sweetie laughed and giggled. “How about when Rabbit made that face and hopped around like a bunny?” Sweetie kept laughing and started snorting. “How about when Clem would cuddle with anypony she could grab when she was asleep?”
Sweetie’s laughter tapered off and she had a happy tear in her eye she wiped away. “Okay, they weren’t all bad times.”
“I’d like to hear your stories, if you’d like to tell me, that is.”
Sweetie nuzzled under Fluttershy’s wing getting a nervous whinney from the mare and a slight blush. “You’re so comfy, Fluttershy. I forgot how much I missed fluff.”
“Oh, um… thank you? Your welcome?”
Sweetie hummed and sat up, shaking a little to get an uneasy feeling off her back. “Well, maybe I can tell you a story or two.”
Snickers got up and hopped from the bed. “Okay, I’m pulling a Sweets and leaving. I don’t need to hear stories to get my rocks off.”
Rainbow perked up and flew over to him leaving a contrail behind her. “Finally, let’s get outta here.”
Sweetie called to Snickers. “Um,” she traced a line in the bed linens, “c-can you call me Sweetie again? I… think I wanna be Sweetie again.”
He smiled and nodded, turned, then left with Rainbow following over him. They closed the door and Sweetie’s voice became muffled and then silent as the two moved down the hall. “So, little dude, where’re we going?”
“Outside.”
“Sweet, I can’t stand being inside sometimes. Hospitals are the worst, too.”
“Yeah, they’re just so uncomfortable.”
“I know,” Rainbow said loudly and gesticulated, “and the place is so boring.”
“The smells are awful.”
“The staff is gone when you need em and there when you don’t.” A memory of both happening when she twisted her ankle and was forgotten about in a room played in her mind.
“The undead are the worst! They jump out at you,” he looked down a hall to get his bearings, “and they’re always hungry. Why unlive in a place where noone goes?”
Rainbow looked at him, following above, wondering what he was talking about. “You’ve seen zombies in a hospital?”
He nodded. “That’s why I don’t like ‘em. Being in this one’s unnerving, but it’s not dangerous. Some of them, you’re a walking buffet,” he chuckled softly, with his young voice it sounded sweet. “You’ll never have to know about that, though.”
She flew to block him and looked at him, reading his expressions; from his ears to his posture, even the placement of his hooves from behind to front told her he was being honest. “Wow, dude… You gotta tell me about that.”
“Outside,” he said again and then followed where she pointed. She followed him, waiting for the warm air to buffet her body and flow through her feathers. Once they were near the waiting room, Rainbow darted ahead and left him trotting after her contrail out of the front doors. A nurse shouted after Rainbow for the wake her trail left and the papers that were scattered.
Once outside, Snickers inhaled and exhaled. A smile crossed his features and he moved to the grass off the path and rolled around for a few seconds, scratching an itch he couldn’t reach as well as savoring the feel.
He heard a squeak and rolled to his belly, looking at the source of the noise. He hopped to his hooves and looked at Diamond Tiara. “Hi,” he greeted her and she froze in place. “Lemme see your muzzle.”
She whimpered and hesitantly took a step toward him, then another until she was close. She bowed her head until he could see the back of her tiara. He looked at the stitches and hissed. “Ouch. Hey, look up, filly.”
She looked up with her eyes and he had to use his hoof to lift her chin. She flinched and trembled across her body. “Look, I’m sorry for what I did. I still think you’re an awful pony to bully such nice fillies, but you didn’t deserve to get hurt so bad. Close your eyes.”
She squeezed them shut and trembled even more, fearing what he’d do next. She felt lips kiss the top of her muzzle and her eyes opened wide. She stumbled back and then blushed brightly. She managed several squeaks before running into the hospital and leaving him behind her. He rolled his eyes and looked up for Rainbow.
He saw her tail hanging off a cloud farther away. “Hey, Rainbow! Zombies! Run,” he shouted and ran toward her. She got up so quickly the cloud darted away. She dove to him and picked him up. “Hurry, we’ve gotta get help. I’m not fighting a zombie horde.”
That was when she noticed Snickers laughing and she landed. “Not funny, dude.”
“...Yes it was. Hey, do you have something in you dinnuh?” he giggled at her.
“It’s DNA, okay? I get it, Twilight laughed so hard she cried when I said that,” she rubbed her neck awkwardly.
“Hey, I’ll never forget ‘dinnuh’ for the rest of my life. I might even start a religion. ‘The Monastery of Dinnuh, where we build ourselves from the ground up’.”
Rainbow bopped the crown of his head. “Stop teasing and start tell.”
He motioned to a spot in the grass and they lay down, Rainbow’s wings unfurling several times before she got them to her sides. “Ready?” He asked with amusement. She nodded excitedly.