Pinkie slammed her fist into Rainbow Dash’s door, knocking frantically even as no answer came. She kept knocking, harder and faster, until she fell to her knees, her fist sliding down the door as she banged her head against it, before collapsing onto Rainbow’s porch and just all-out weeping.
Between running to the library, then everything that happened with Rarity, then running to Rainbow’s house, there were plenty of things to distract Pinkie from the reality of her situation. But as she stood there, with nothing to do but wait and see if Rainbow would respond, the thoughts crept up on her.
Twilight really was a dragon.
Pinkie knew that, she already knew it, but she didn’t believe it. She didn’t want to believe it. She couldn’t possibly bring herself to believe that one of her best friends was a monster, was like that horrible beast that haunted Pinkie’s nightmares, the one that killed her granny and destroyed her village.
But there was no escaping it now. Pinkie couldn’t hide from the truth anymore, and now she just had a big ol’ dollop of shame to go on top of it, wondering all the ways that maybe this horribleness could’ve been prevented if Pinkie had told sompony sooner.
Then again, who would she have told? Who could she have told that wouldn’t immediately try and take Twilight’s head? And for as long as Pinkie didn’t know for absolute sure that Twilight was what Pinkie thought she was, there was always a chance Pinkie could be wrong.
But she wasn’t. Twilight was a dragon, and there was nothing Pinkie could do about that.
Pinkie’s head jolted up as the door opened, and her cheeks burned up as Rainbow looked down at her, looking groggy. Pinkie felt sick in her stomach, thinking she had woken Rainbow up even though she knew how hard it was for Rainbow to get to sleep.
“I’m sorry,” Pinkie croaked. It was the only thing she could think to say.
Rainbow dropped to her knees and just gave Pinkie a hug, and that set off the waterworks real fast. Pinkie grabbed onto Rainbow for dear life, just apologizing over and over, and Rainbow pet Pinkie’s mane.
“You don’t need to apologize, Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow said softly. “Everything’s gonna be okay, somehow.”
“I saw the library,” Pinkie sniffled, “Rarity told us everything.”
“Yeah, I figured,” Rainbow sighed. “Sorry it took so long to answer the door, I had to get dressed and stuff.”
“It’s okay,” Pinkie said weakly. “It’s okay.” Pinkie took a deep breath and tore herself away from Rainbow, letting out an awkward, high-pitched giggle. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be blubbering all over you!”
“Nah, it’s cool,” Rainbow shrugged and gave a little half-smirk. “What’re friends for, right? Blubber all you need to, Pinkie Pie!”
“No, it’s fine,” Pinkie said, wiping her eyes. “We all have enough going on, y’know, without me putting all my gunk onto you too.”
“We do all have a lot going on,” Rainbow grumbled, “with all the hunting crap, and trying to make ends meet, and the dragon attack in Baltimare yesterday-” Pinkie hadn’t actually heard about that, and the mere mention sent such a chill up her spine that she was sure she was gonna throw up for a sec, but she made the mental note to ask someone for the details much, much later “-and now all this bullshit with Twilight, it’s like, enough already!”
“Yeah,” Pinkie said weakly, “so I don’t wanna burde—”
“You’re not a burden, Pinkie,” Rainbow said firmly, booping Pinkie’s nose, which got a little giggle out of her. “You’re my friend, and it’s when we all have a ton of shit to swim through that we need to help each other, to help carry the burdens for each other.
“Like, when you’re carrying something heavy, you don’t put all the weight on your back, that’ll kill ya! You gotta distribute it between your back, your legs, yours arms and shoulders. Wherever you can, just not all in one place!
“And I think emotional stuff is like that too. If you try to hold onto everything on your own, instead of letting your friends help you—I guess your friends are like the legs, and you’re like the back in this metaphor? Anyway—if you try to do everything on your own, it’ll kill ya. That’s the long and short of it, you get me?”
“I think so,” Pinkie gave a little laugh, and just knowing that Rainbow cared enough to say all those nice things made her feel really happy inside, which was a huge relief after this morning.
“Now then,” Rainbow groaned and got up to her hooves, “we gotta go find a dragon, yeah?”
“Yeah, but we’re not killing her!” Pinkie huffed.
“Honestly, Pinkie?” Rainbow said. “I dunno how I feel about that. I dunno what I wanna do about— about the dragon. But I do know that at the end of the day, I’m gonna follow Rarity’s gut. She’s my partner, and she was Twilight’s—” Rainbow took a deep breath and sighed. “I just think it’d be best to let Rarity decide.”
“We’re not killing her,” Pinkie repeated, puffing up her cheeks.
“I thought you were super scared of dragons?”
“I am!” Pinkie insisted, feeling her breath hitch just at the thought of Twilight turning into an awful monster like that. “But she’s our friend! Spike’s our friend! And I don’t wanna lose her!”
“Pinkie,” Rainbow groaned and rubbed the back of her neck, “I don’t think she was ever really—”
“Don’t say that!” Pinkie screamed, tears wetting her eyes even though she’d just gotten rid of them! “Do you really believe that?! Please, Rainbow, tell me honestly! Do you really believe that everything we had with Twilight was all just— all just some big lie?!”
Rainbow closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“I dunno.”
Not the answer Pinkie was looking for, and she felt herself deflate a little bit.
“But,” Rainbow added, giving Pinkie a little spark of hope that she was too scared to reach for, “I wanna find out the truth, the real truth, no matter what.
“There’s a buncha stuff that doesn’t add up, and I wanna know what’s going on.” Rainbow flashed a daring grin at Pinkie and held out her hand. “So what d’ya say? You wanna go with me? See if there’s still something left in the ashes of the library? Not literally, obviously, but y’know what I mean?”
“I do,” Pinkie beamed, happily taking Rainbow’s hand.
“Great!” Rainbow grinned ear to ear and nodded her head confidently, though her smile quickly turned nervous. “Granted, I got no idea where to start. Rarity says she doesn’t know where Twilight might’ve gone.”
“I know where she went,” Pinkie said seriously.
“You do?” Rainbow cocked her head. “How?”
“Cuz there’s only one place a dragon like her could go, if she needed to go into hiding,” Pinkie took a deep breath, forcing herself to face the ugly truth one more time. “She’d go to another dragon.”