Twilight looked up at the yeti, trying to stare at it straight in the eyes as it growled and swung its arms about. She took a moment to adjust her sunglasses so they wouldn’t fall off but didn’t dare blink. Twilight could tell it didn’t like making eye contact. It kept looking away, growling and looking back, getting more frustrated each time.
It was built like a gorilla, but could stand perfectly upright when it wanted to, like now, and had gnarled claws and horns. It was already big when it was skulking around on all fours, but on its hind legs it was big, could probably lob Twilight clear over her house. She kept assuring herself that Applejack’s advice was right, cause if this thing attacked her, she had zero confidence she’d get away.
If Applejack wasn’t right next to her, she wouldn’t be able to do this. It’d occasionally look in her direction too, but Twilight got the feeling it knew she was the weaker of the two. Applejack said you don’t want to run or fight when dealing with one of these. Just stand there, make eye contact.
These were rare, the worst ‘normal’ monster you ran into, so this was the first time Twilight had seen one. Applejack was the one who noticed it, stalking towards town and came over to invite Twilight to chase it off with her. Twilight agreed to go, wanting to get some experience dealing with yetis before she inevitably ran into one when she was alone.
At first, the yeti certainly seemed interested in eating the two ponies. The yeti had charged right at them the moment it noticed the two. But when it got closer and noticed they weren’t trying to run from it, the monster suddenly became less sure of itself and stopped moving in.
The yeti took a step back.
“Okay,” said Applejack quietly. “Now we start moving forward.”
The yeti stood its ground for about one second before turning and running away back into the forest, getting down onto all fours to run faster.
“Oh geez. Thanks.” Twilight let out a sigh of relief. That was the most intimidating thing she’d run into so far. “But why is that thing afraid of us? Cause don’t tell the yeti I said this, but I could not fight that thing.”
“I don’t think it’s scared. Just lazy,” said Applejack. “They don’t wanna bother with anything that’s gonna fight back.”
“What if one of them sneaks up on me?” Twilight asked.
“Best bet then is to just start punching it.” Applejack thrust a hoof forward. “But only if it’s already got you. If you hit 'em hard enough and keep trying to look them in the eye, they back off. Had to do it once.”
“I don’t think I can punch half as hard as you.” Twilight imitated the thrust. “But I guess I’ll try. If I ever have to.”
After this, Applejack had now gone through all the common monsters with Twilight. She’d shown Twilight how to deal with jackalopes and timberwolves and now this.
Twilight did occasionally see a monster, but like Applejack promised when she first got to Ponyville, they were getting less scary every day. She almost felt like she could handle things now.
Though of course, there was always that tiny threat of running into something truly dangerous. If a dreadstalker showed up, and Applejack or Rarity wasn’t around, well there was no advice to give at that point. And there were even worse things somewhere deep in the woods, things that might not stay there much longer… vampires even, if you believed Applejack.
But those things only came out at night and these days Twilight was never alone at night.
It was closer to sunset now. The two of them walked past Applejack’s farm. Applejack was having a bad year. A lot more of the trees looked like they were melting now and Applejack had to spend a great deal of time uprooting those infected trees and burning them. Neither of them talked about it much, but if this infection got much worse… well Twilight didn’t know if she’d have a neighbor next year.
They got close to Twilight’s house and Twilight noticed a plunder vine, one of those thick, spiny black vines from the forest, growing on her lawn.
That was another thing that came with living close to the forest, but it wasn’t too big a deal in the short term. If one of these forest plants showed up, you just plucked them and put them in the burning pile. It’d keep the area from getting overrun as fast.
Twilight grabbed the vine with her magic and struggled to pull it up. She could still move smaller things around pretty easily, but lifting heavy stuff like this was getting harder these days. She did eventually get it out and threw it in the pile. Applejack noticed this right away but hesitated before saying anything.
“Your magic seems to be a bit weaker than when you first got here,” said Applejack. “You uh, okay?”
“I’m not in the sun as much is all,” said Twilight. “My job’s indoors, I’m up all night. Not enough sunlight to fully recharge. But it’s not like I had a promising career as a mage ahead of me anyway.”
“I just know that unicorns need sunlight a bit more than other ponies,” said Applejack. “I’m worried maybe you aren’t getting enough. I think you shouldn’t stay up so late every night. Them asking you to stay out of the sunlight, well it doesn’t seem to be doing you any good.”
Twilight groaned. She knew where this was going.
“Well,” said Twilight, “I could ask them to come out during the day instead sometime, but they’d die. And it’s not because they’re whimsical fairy creatures. They-“
“Yeah, yeah. They all got phantom termite syndrome.” Applejack rolled her eyes. “Real shame.”
“You get on their case for using the L-word, but then you turn around and openly mock them for being disabled? Either you think we should be sensitive of disabilities or we shouldn’t.”
“I don’t think being a vampire counts as a disability.”
This was how things went. Applejack would be cool for days on end and then suddenly bring up vampires, or occasionally Twilight's lifestyle changes, back up and everything would go to crap.
“I thought we were done with this vampire cra-“ Twilight froze. She felt like she just narrowly missed getting hit by a train. “Crud.”
Applejack didn’t buy that save for a second. She gave Twilight a look that made the unicorn bow her head in shame.
Applejack snatched Twilight’s sunglasses away and the world became far too bright. Twilight winced as the unfiltered light hit her eyes. It was so bright now, she had to squint until her eyes were nearly closed.
“Look how cloudy it is!” Applejack looked up at the sky, covered in gray clouds just waiting for a pegasus to kick them and start a downpour. “And you need sunglasses on a day like today? This is exactly what I said would happen. Remember?”
“Hey! Those are very expensive!” More importantly, Rarity bought them for her since Twilight could hardly afford them. Twilight tried reaching for the sunglasses, but her strained eyes made it difficult to get them back. “Look, anypony could predict that my eyes would get more sensitive. I'm almost always in the dark now, so of course, I need sunglasses during the day! I'm not some- some daywalker anymore!"
“You’re really fine with all of this?” Applejack let Twilight take her glasses back. “Losing your magic, developing eye problems, turning foul-mouthed?”
Twilight felt a bit of relief when she finally got her glasses back on. Truth be told she was getting a little dependent on them for protection. She couldn't go outside during the day without them anymore, not like she'd say that to Applejack.
“It’s not that bad!” Twilight turned her back on Applejack and moved to her door. “I don’t care about any of that stuff and having friends is worth all of it.”
“I don’t think those three are your friends, Twilight.”
“They are my friends!” Twilight spun around, saying that a bit rougher than she meant to. “You know, Rarity has a lot of good ideas about how society is terrible and it’s messing up our lives. You’ve just been brainwashed by the system and are too close-minded to get over the initial emotional response society conditioned you to have towards dissenting ideals.”
Both of them paused after that one. Twilight really didn’t mean to blurt that out and Applejack wasn’t expecting it either.
“Okay, fine.” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “If this is the only way to get to you, then what are these good ideas?”
“Oh! You do want to hear about it?” Twilight asked.
Twilight honestly wasn’t expecting that.
“Well-“ Twilight hesitated.
It wasn’t that she didn’t have anything to say, she could go on for hours. She just didn’t have anything she wanted to say in public. It was one thing to complain about Celestia or the academy in front of her friends, where nothing seemed to matter and everything was acceptable. Repeating it in public still felt wrong.
Was she supposed to tell Applejack that she no longer believed the academy knew everything? Or thought Celestia wasn’t perfect? Should she admit to thinking a lot of the rules didn’t make sense? Admit she liked watching horror movies? Or openly talk about the things she’d read in banned books? That she didn’t even think books or movies should be banned? Should she tell Applejack that she liked how affectionate her friends were? That she basically cuddled with them?! And- and thought that was okay?!
There was no way she could admit to any of that in public, not without drowning in shame.
In the end, she refused to speak for too long and Applejack took it as an admission of defeat.
“Sounds to me like she’s just smooth-talking you.” Applejack tapped at her head. “Rarity’s real manipulative like. She knows how to get in your head like this.”
“It’s not like that.” Twilight’s brain was scrambling for ways to get out of this. “I’ll uh- write you an essay about it or something.”
“Um. Okay?” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “But if you need me-“
“Yes. The second Rarity reveals she’s a vampire to me, I will call you.” Twilight nodded and pointed at Applejack as she walked backward into her house. “But I gotta go write that essay now.”
Twilight closed her door as fast as she could and slumped down on the other side of it. She was not going to write Applejack and essay. Nopony could ever know Twilight had these thoughts.
With one obvious exception, that is.
Twilight got back up and went to get ready for her. Rarity was going to come over to Twilight’s house tonight and they were finally going to watch Crocpocalypse 3: The Final Apocalypse. All three of them were going to be there for the first time.
Her house was a bit better than it’d originally been. She had the same black and purple curtains Rarity did at her house, incredibly fancy ones lightly enchanted to block light. When they were closed it was pitch black inside, even in the middle of a sunny day. Those and a dimmer switch were things Rarity bought for Twilight, insisting they were really for herself. If they were going to be friends, she said, then there was a chance one of those three might end up stuck at Twilight’s house during the day for some reason. They’d need these things to stay safe until the sun went down again.
So right now it was the same dim lighting in Twilight's house that her friends usually stayed in. Now that it was the middle of summer, the darkness felt cool and comforting. Twilight was just more comfortable in the dark.
Rarity bought Twilight a few other things too, like her new couch. Rarity was generous. It felt a little bit like Rarity was colonizing Twilight’s house, given the similar decor, but at the end of the day, it did look far better than anything Twilight could hope to do on her own. And those curtains made it so easy to sleep through the day, too.
The first thing Twilight did was take down all her Celestia posters. She was living a double poster life at this point, taking them down at sunset and putting them back up at sunrise. That way she never got crap from anypony.
But today there was a phase two. Twilight took out her secret project that’d been hidden under the bed until just now.
Finding clothes like the stuff her friends wore was hard and finding it in Twilight’s non-existent price range was impossible. Before long, she decided it’d be faster to make something herself. She got two black leather bands and glued blunt metal spikes around one side. It resulted in a bracelet that looked a lot like the ones the gang often wore.
Twilight put it on and looked at herself in the mirror. She did like it. Clothing was something she always saw as an unnecessary expense, but the more she hung out with her new friends the more she liked how clothes made them look. They looked cool and tough. And she wanted it too.
Plus she knew Rarity would be super-impressed by this!
There was a knock on her door. It felt just a little too early for her friends to be here, though they could come out a bit earlier when it was cloudy. Twilight pulled back her curtains and peeked outside to see it was Applejack again.
That was bad!
“One second!” Twilight yelled out.
Twilight panicked and rushed to put the Celestia posters back up on her way to the door. She didn’t get all of them and they were crooked, but that should work!
Twilight was panting by the time she opened the door to greet Applejack. Just after Twilight opened the door, she remembered she hadn’t taken that bracelet off and found herself paralyzed with fear. She had to keep her one hoof on the door and the other- well she slid that a little bit, so it was hidden too! Though now she was panting and standing in a weird position.
“You okay?” Applejack asked.
“Pffft.” Twilight forced herself to smile. “Are you kidding? I’m the most okay. Um. What’s happening?”
“Well I was on my way back and I thought, well why don’t you come over to my house for dinner tonight! My brother, he’s actually a really good cook, you know.” Applejack offered a friendly smile.
“Um, thanks.” Twilight inched the door closer to shut. “But I kind of have plans tonight.”
“Well what about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow’s Friday. They always have a party on Friday and I’m not missing that.”
“Uh. Saturday?”
“I’m having a sleepover at Rarity's house. Then Sunday me and Rainbow Dash are going to the old millhouse and she’s gonna show me how to-“ Twilight decided at the last moment that Applejack didn’t need to know about that. “-play marbles!”
“Is there any time you are free?” Applejack asked. “Or are you just booked with them forever?”
Now that she mentioned it, Twilight did seem to spend all of her free time with at least one of them, or else fact-checking Rarity and writing her essays. Even when she was just reading something, one of her friends was usually around somewhere. But it was a good thing. Twilight wasn’t lonely anymore and that was just what having friends was like.
And she did occasionally not have them around. Namely…
“Well I’m free on Wednesday,” said Twilight. “I guess.”
“Okay! Then why not then?”
“Well.” Twilight thought about it. She did like Applejack, but being around her got awkward sometimes. Having two friends who hated each other wasn’t easy.
Twilight looked down the road and saw the Blue Diamonds not far off. Her time was up! They'd be here in like two minutes!
Twilight hadn’t seen Rarity and Applejack in the same place since she first came into town. It felt like they existed in two parallel universes and crossing them would cause the world to explode. She didn’t want to see both of them in the same place. She’d have no idea what to do!
“Yeah! That’s great!” Twilight nodded. “Wednesday. See you there! Goodbye!”
Applejack’s instincts were too keen for her own good and she turned around to check what's made Twilight nervous and saw the Blue Diamonds. She made eye contact with Rainbow Dash who, unlike the yeti, took it as a challenge and flew right up in front of Applejack in a flash.
“Ah, hey.” Dash started circling around Applejack, the two of them keeping eye contact the whole time. “Didn’t I see you around somewhere? Yo Sparks! Is this dork bothering you? Want me to get rid of her?”
Sometimes Twilight felt like she decided who lived and who died.
“No!” Twilight shook her head. “She wasn’t bothering me at all.”
Pinkie hissed at Applejack as she got closer, stopping at her right side. She did that to everypony they walked up to, but Applejack was less phased by it. Rarity, meanwhile, trotted around to Applejack’s left side. If you counted Twilight, Applejack was surrounded.
“What’s she doing here?” Pinkie glared at Applejack suspiciously.
“She lives next door to me,” Twilight said. “She, uh- she’s not that bad!”
“Really?” Rarity looked over at Applejack with a smile that was a bit too wide. “Well you know, I just adore my Twilight. If she says you’re not so bad, then maybe I was wrong about you. Would you like to be friends from now on instead? Hm?”
Applejack didn’t have a response for that one, other than to glare daggers at Rarity.
“Well that’s too bad.” Rarity made a shooing motion instead. “But if that’s the case you should run along now. I have a bit of business with Twilight.”
“Actually.” Applejack held her hoof out to Twilight. “Twilight wanted to come over to dinner at my place tonight.”
“I didn’t-“ Twilight took a step outside and realized her mistake.
Everypony saw her bracelets now. She got a smug little smile from Rarity and a look of shock from Applejack which made Twilight blush in shame. It felt like Applejack had just ruined the moment Twilight had worked all day for. That settled the matter in Twilight’s mind.
“I didn’t say yes to that! She just asked me!” Twilight trotted over to Rarity’s side. “But the answer is no.”
“You don’t have to do whatever they want you to,” said Applejack.
“You’re right, Applejack.” Rarity put her hoof on Twilight’s back. “Twilight doesn’t need my permission to do anything. And I’m not the least bit threatened by her talking to somepony else. In fact, why don’t you go with her? Trying new things is excellent for your education. Hearing other viewpoints is good.”
“I don’t want to!” Twilight insisted. “I want to hang out with you three."
“Good mare!” Dash nuzzled Twilight’s cheek, which made Applejack cringe a little.
Twilight had to admit that she still wasn’t comfortable with touching in public either and felt herself tensing up.
“Don’t worry. It’s not you, it’s me.” Rarity put her hoof on her chest and rose her head proudly. “I don’t think anypony would choose somepony else over me. But maybe you could ask her about Wednesday? I won't be around to compete with you then.”
“Can you just drop this nice mare act?” Applejack took a step towards Rarity, staring her down like she stared down the yeti a few minutes ago. “We both know what you are and what you're doing to Twilight.”
Applejack was glaring harder and Rarity was smiling more smugly with each second. This was going bad! There's was a small chance they might beat Applejack up if this went too much further.
“Hey.” Twilight ran in between the two of them before it could go any further. “Why do you all hate each other so much? I know you don’t agree with each other on a lot of things, but you’re both nice in your own ways. I feel like we could all be friends if we just talk all of this out! Rarity, why don't you tell her about how like, they shouldn't ban books and we should have freedom of speech?"
Twilight was confident that Applejack would change her mind about this stuff too if she heard about all the stuff Rarity taught her. Really, anypony with half a brain should change their minds once they saw all the data.
And Rarity looked like she was considering it, but then Pinkie interrupted.
“Applejack threw a bottle of acid at my face.” Pinkie pointed her hoof in accusation. “It was the third worst thing anypony ever did to me.”
“Wait! What?!” Twilight looked at Applejack.
“I did not.” Applejack rolled her eyes. “You’re taking that completely out of context.”
“I got burned. I still got the burn mark and-“ Pinkie rolled up her sleeve, but her leg was fine now. “Oh, I guess actually it healed. But I did have a burn there! You remember that, right?”
“Yeah.” Twilight did remember Pinkie having a wound on that leg when they first me. “Is that seriously what happened? Applejack, throwing bottles of acid at ponies is incredibly rude! Especially if it’s at their face.”
As Twilight said this, Pinkie pointed to her and nodded in agreement.
“It sounds crazy because it is,” said Applejack. “That wasn’t acid, that was holy water from Canterlot. Celestia’s magic burns them cause they’re from the forest. And I didn’t just walk up and throw it at them. They started taunting me. They literally told me to do it.”
“We talk like this with everypony, even ponies we like,” said Dash. “Most of them don’t attack us for saying ‘buck’ or ‘lame’ or whatever. Most of them don’t carry acid, either.”
“And there’s a big difference between foul language and trying to melt sompony’s face off,” said Rarity. “It’s not my fault if you can’t restrain yourself. But Twilight, you know I don’t like you just taking my word for things. Lots of other ponies saw the acid incident and you can ask them how it went. Isn’t that right, Applejack?”
And the two of them locked eyes like Rarity had just gotten Applejack into check.
“Okay.” Applejack raised her eyebrow. “Well if y'all like looking for the truth so much, why don’t we just buy an entire bathtub full of the stuff this time?”
“I’m not spending thousands of bits on a few vials of holy water just to prove I’m not a literal vampire, let alone millions for enough to swim in. You’d probably just come up with some excuse for why it didn’t work anyway.” Rarity held Twilight in a hug. “Now if my Twilight seriously needed proof of this, then I’d certainly do it for her.”
“No,” said Twilight. “I would feel horrible about wasting that kind of money.”
“There,” said Rarity. “Any more questions?”
Applejack glared ineffectually at Rarity for a moment, looking for some way to push back.
“Yeah.” Applejack pushed past Twilight to but heads with Rarity again. “Where’s Bonbon? She disappeared the night of your last party. I noticed that’s when ponies are most likely to go missing.”
“Oh, I’m certain a monster from the Everfree got her.” Rarity took off her glasses and looked Applejack in the eyes, smiling. “But she wasn’t at my party, so I don’t feel responsible for her. I can’t babysit the whole town.”
“Well I’m pretty sure I know which monster it was.” Applejack stared Rarity right back in the eyes.
“Yeah it was me.” Dash raised her hoof. “I couldn’t help it; my airhead brain just pushes me to kill. Us airheads are all violent maniacs, you know. That’s why we won the war.”
Applejack glared at Dash. She didn’t like that but wasn’t sure how to respond to something like that.
“Sides, she was just a lowly mud pony anyway.” Pinkie shrugged. “Do mud ponies really deserve to live, Applejack?”
“What did you just say?!”
“Mud pony!” Pinkie crouched down playfully in front of Applejack and looked up at her. “Cause we live in the mud and also that’s what our brains are made of.”
“These are the ponies you want to be friends with, Twilight?” Applejack looked at her.
“Well it’s not a racist if Pinkie says it cause she’s a-“
“Mud pony.” Pinkie cut her off. "But at least I'm not a lame mud pony like Applejack. Right, Twitwi?"
That was one way to put Twilight on the spot! Everypony turned to hear her response.
"Well-" Twilight panicked a little, scratching the back of her head with her bracelet. Her gut told her to side with her friends. "You're not the coolest pony, and you did that thing with the acid, so logically we can conclude that you're kind of... a loser."
That came out way harsher than Twilight intended! She hadn't wanted to say 'lame' and 'loser' was just the first replacement word that came to mind!
But before she could take it back, all of her friends were laughing and Applejack was blushing with anger, glaring at Twilight while Twilight stared back blankly.
"Fine!" Applejack turned and started trotting. "Look just- I'll see you later."
Watching Applejack leave, Twilight didn't feel good at all. Maybe she'd apologize later, but at least she'd saved face with her best friends. She'd choose them over Applejack, over anypony, any day.
And of course, Pinkie hissed loudly as Applejack left.
“You know,” said Twilight, “you don’t have to hiss every time a pony walks away from us.”
“But that’s my thing, Twitwi!”
“Your thing is hissing?”
“I’m the crazy, hissing one.” Pinkie gestured to herself. "Every vampire group has a crazy hissing one, Twilight! You should know that by now. Dash is the tough one who threatens you and sometimes suddenly appears behind you. Rarity's the eloquent, classy one. And you, Twitwi? You shark ponies, slowly circling around them and explaining Rarity's plans and stuff."
"Except I've never done that."
“Give it time.”
Twilight certainly hoped she wouldn’t end up sharking other ponies, though her new friends were starting to influence Twilight more these days. So who knew anymore?
And yet she still opened her door and waited for them to go inside.
“I still feel like maybe we went too far with Applejack?” Twilight suggested.
“Applejack has been harassing me since I got here.” Rarity strode into Twilight’s house. “And now she’s spreading rumors I’m a serial killer? I think I’m being too nice to her.”
"Yeah, why you sticking up for Appledork?" Dash asked.
"Oh, I'm not defending her!" Twilight's answer came in a reflex. "Applejack's a dor- daywalker scum. Attacking you is way less cool than anything we said, right? Being out in the sun too much must have fried her brains."
"You got that right," said Dash.
This was the first time Pinkie had been in Twilight’s house and the first time all four of them were here too. Pinkie was already zipping around checking the place out and Dash was looking around curiously too, despite having already been here.
“You put those lame posters back up?” Dash looked up at one of the posters of Celestia. “Didn’t see that one coming.”
Twilight just remembered those were still up!
“Yeah! But see, I put them up crookedly. Cause Celestia is crooked! That’s what I was going for.” Twilight realized they weren’t remotely buying this. “Okay, fine! I put it so Applejack wouldn’t give me cra- C-word.”
“Hee!” Pinkie rubbed her cheek against Twilight’s. “You wanna say crap, don’t you Twitwi? I’ll say a non-curse word if you curse!”
Truth be told, Twilight had cursed once or twice already, but never on purpose. Not yet.
“You know, I blame you for this.” Twilight turned her chin up and away from Pinkie. “You are a bad influence!”
“I blame me for this too! Pinkie is a good bucking influence! I wanna influence you more!” Pinkie started trotting in place. “Here! Crap crap crap crap crap-“
Pinkie started trotting in place rapidly, saying ‘crap’ over and over again.
“We ain’t bucking doing that, Pinks!” Dash grabbed Pinkie from behind and forced her mouth shut. But Pinkie resisted and the two of them fell to the floor wrestling.
"So what did you get up to yesterday?" Rarity lied down on Twilight's couch like she owned it. "Studying, no doubt? You're always looking into something interesting. I want to hear all about it."
“Well I’ve been re-watching all of those PSAs recently. I watched twenty of them last night and- They’re all just lousy propaganda films! Everything in them is just lies and manipulation! And you know, I could understand if one or two of them was like that. But all of them? They’re making them this way on purpose. They’re actively lying and trying to manipulate me!”
“Obviously.” Rarity nodded expectantly, waiting for Twilight to go on.
“They aren’t made by anypony wise or kind! And then I got to thinking about what you said, how shame is just something they weaponize as a form of thought control! And I- well I read that book, You’re Basically in a Cult and-”
Twilight hesitated to continue, though Rarity looked rapt with anticipation. That was one of the banned books Rarity convinced Twilight to read. It listed all kinds of techniques cults use to control their members. So much of it sounded familiar, made sense of things that never made sense to her before. And it made Twilight angry.
“And it was right! I was basically in a cult!” She couldn’t say that anywhere else, but here it came flooding out like a dam had just broken. “All of the manipulative stuff the book talks about- it happened constantly back at school! Watching the same PSAs over and over again, the focus on repetition, the way they wanted us to snitch on each other for saying anything critical, controlling what information we had. They did all kinds of emotional control techniques! They try to make you scared or ashamed of having certain thoughts and ideas! They try to make you disgusted by anypony questioning the rules!”
Rarity watched, smiling, from the couch as Twilight trotted back and forth giving her a rant.
“You know, we can't exactly have our little arguments if you don't say anything I disagree with," said Rarity. "Does this mean no essay today?"
“Huh? Oh! No, I was busy with something else.” Twilight rubbed the back of her head, feeling the bracelet scratching her. That’d take getting used to.
“Ah! Don’t think I didn’t notice that!” Rarity grabbed Twilight by the wrist and pulled her closer so she could look over the new bracelet. “You did a great job with it. I can see you’ve gained an appreciation for the deliberate chaos that I carefully weave into my own fashion. These little spikes are glued on with such precise disorder. Yes, I can see the emotion you poured into it, can feel something of that rant from just a moment ago.”
“Yeah!” Twilight nodded. Actually, she just didn’t have enough skill to glue them on perfectly straight. “That’s what I was going for.”
“Oh. And there is the small matter that it makes you look absolutely lovely.” Rarity nuzzled Twilight.
“You’re looking less like a dork,” Dash added with a shrug.
“Yeah! One of us!”
“Oh, well. You know.” Twilight blushed.
Totally worth it!
“But you know.” Rarity lounged on Twilight’s couch like it was her own and put her hoof on her chest. “If you ever want my help looking nice-“
“Gonna warn you right here, Sparks,” Dash cut her off. “She’s offering you one of those demonic contract things. You let her in and she will never stop playing dress-up with you. Do you think I come up with a new outfit every day myself? No. Rarity gives me the outfit and I don’t have the energy to say no to any of it anymore. I’m completely at her bucking mercy now.”
“Oh please, Dashie.” Rarity pouted at Dash. “You like how cute I make you! Besides, I’m the one who looks at you so it’s only fair I decide what you wear.”
“By that logic, I should get to pick out your outfits.”
“Go ahead,” Rarity called her bluff. “I’ll wear whatever you design.”
“Bah!” Dash fell onto the couch next to Rarity, defeated. “Okay you got me.”
“You see? I always win.” Rarity winked at Twilight. “So how about signing my ‘demonic contract’, hm? We do have a party tomorrow; it’d be perfect timing. Maybe I could find you a few things to go with your bracelets?”
The suggestion sparked a twinge of fear in Twilight.
“I can’t wear this in public!” Twilight covered one of her bracelets with a hoof. “Not even just this much! Everypony will think that I’m- I’m-“
“Cool?” Dash suggested. "Everypony who isn't lame is gonna think you're cool. And the ponies who are lame? Well they're lame so who gives a buck?"
"Are you perhaps worried about the fines?" Rarity suggested. "Because I'd be happy to pay any disharmony fines you get hit with. It's hardly a lot of money to me and buying your freedom of expression would be worth it to me."
“I mean!” Twilight protested, but she didn’t have any arguments against what they were saying. “Don’t get me wrong. I kind of agree with you that all this fashion police cra- stuff is completely stupid and it doesn’t accomplish anything. And is society just using shame to emotionally manipulate me into conforming to their narrow-minded standards? Yes! And maybe I resent being lied to and manipulated my whole life, sure! And maybe the whole bucking-“
Another curse word slipped out! Twilight’s entire body tensed up. Fear washed away all of the anger that was just building up. But nothing happened other than Dash laughing and Pinkie stomping her hooves in applause.
“That’s three points for Pinkie!” Pinkie was keeping count.
Rarity gestured for Twilight to come sit down next to her. Defeated and with her head hung low, Twilight slunk down next to her friend.
“How about we think of it like this?” Rarity stroked Twilight’s mane and that did help. “If you had absolute freedom from both the law and judgment, what would you do?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I would dress like you?” Twilight kept her head and ears down. “I think you three look cool. And I wish I could dress like you.”
“Well you can!” Rarity chuckled. “You’re brave enough. I’ve seen it.”
“I could?” Twilight looked down at her bracelet.
She could!
“I could!” Twilight lifted her head. “There isn’t anything stopping me, is there? It’s just years of shame and social programming stopping me, right? They’re totally controlling me and stuff, right?”
“Yeah!” Dash laughed and smacked Twilight’s ear. “You learned that way faster than I did, Sparks! You’re smart.”
Twilight felt a sudden sense of freedom, greater than any she'd ever had before, like she’d just been let out of a cage, like she could do anything now! She tried to think of the most extreme thing she could do with this new realization.
“Rarity!” Twilight turned to the other unicorn. “I- I want you to give me the most pegasus haircut in the entire world!”
Rarity giggled.