Evening did not know a creature could talk this much without passing out.
When the tour of Ponyville had first started Evening had tried to pay close attention to everything Pinkie Pie told her. After all, maybe some piece of trivia would prove vital later if she ever needed to escape these ponies. Everycreature knew gathering intel was the first step to any good plan and even if Evening didn’t have a plan currently that didn’t mean she couldn’t get a head start on one.
But after the fifth identical house in a row with at least two rambling stories attached to it, Evening doubted anyone could handle the tsunami of information she was currently receiving. Either Pinkie had a godlike memory or she was making every detailed event up on the spot.
Evening didn’t know which scenario was more impressive. Or disturbing.
At the very least Rainbow Dash seemed to share Evening’s sentiment about the situation. Her eyes would glaze over and unfocus or lazily watch the clouds as her friend rambled on and on. When something semi-interesting caught her attention her ears would perk and she’d come back to the present for a minute or two before fading out again.
Evening felt a strange sense of justification knowing she wasn’t the only one finding this activity extremely tedious.
“And this is SugarCube Corner. The pastry shop where I work part-time and live full!”
The sun was in a rather unfortunate angle so Evening had to squint and shield her face to see the indicated tourist attraction. It was a large building, almost three stories tall, and was designed in a way to make it look like a fully edible gingerbread house. The colors were bright and intense, catching the eye even in this candy-colored town. There was a cheery-looking sign of a cupcake hanging out over the road, indicating to all just what could be found inside.
“Of all the things you’ve told me on this trip, Pinkie,” Evening said, “this is the only one I have no trouble believing.”
The building, and even the whole town to some extent, struck Evening as both repulsive and foreign as well as comforting and homely. It was a strange collection of emotions that she simply pushed out of mind before the contradictions could give her a headache.
Pinkie giggled. “Come on, come on. You’re gonna love it!”
“Hey, Pinks,” Rainbow called, landing in front of Pinkie before she could pronk through the door, “How about after a quick snack we mix it up a bit and I show Evening the sights around the edge of town? There’s plenty of cool stuff there that not even you know about.”
Pinkie beamed at her so brightly Evening almost missed the sun in her eyes. “Sure Dashie, that sounds great!”
Rainbow let out a sigh of relief as she followed Pinkie inside. Neither one glanced back at Evening to see if she would follow and for a moment Evening debated just turning around and exploring on her own, away from her overly talkative pony guides.
Before she could make a decision, however, Pinkie popped her head back outside. “Come on, Evening! You’ve never been to Sugarcube Corner before so you’re in for a really good treat.” She then gasped loudly, as if she had just discovered a horrible tragedy and grabbed Evening by the neck, pulling her close “Evening… you were born yesterday… you’ve never had any cupcakes before, have you?”
“I… have vague memories,” Evening explained, trying to pry the over-enthusiastic pony off of her neck, “from Chrysalis and even Twilight herself. I know what cupcakes taste like.”
“But you’ve never had them yourself,” Pinkie stressed, pulling Evening into the sweet shop proper. “And that is a crime! A crime I say!”
Evening rolled her eyes and just let herself be dragged to her sugary doom. “Well, add that to the list then. My crimes against sweet things are forever growing.”
“Aww!” Pinkie said, beaming at Evening as the two stopped next to Rainbow in front of the counter, “You called me sweet!”
Evening opened her mouth to protest. Then closed it. She shook her head with a scoff and raised her snout over dramatically. “How dare you accuse me of compliments. Do it again and I’ll kidnap you a second time.”
Pinkie giggled and bounced around the counter and into the kitchen, presumably to acquire their cupcakes personally.
Evening gazed around the quaint sweet shop idly but stopped when she noticed the leer Rainbow Dash was shooting her way. Evening raised a brow in silent challenge. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Don’t joke about stuff like that,” Rainbow said, moving into Evening’s personal space and jabbing her in the chest, “It’s not funny that you tried to hurt Pinkie.”
Evening brushed her hoof away. “I fail to see how that’s any of your business. Pinkie didn’t get upset in the slightest.”
“It’s my business because Pinkie’s my friend,” Rainbow explained icily but thankfully backed off physically, “And I don’t let my friends get hurt.”
“Oh, but Rainbow Dash, aren’t I your friend now?” Evening fluttered her lashes sweetly. “I’m turning over a new leaf. You’re supposed to be there to guide me, aren’t you?”
“Sure,” Rainbow snorted, “If you don’t break my trust I’ll have your back like anyone else’s.” Her eyes narrowed again and she crossed one foreleg over the other. “You clones sure aren’t doing a great job in that department, though.”
Evening rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, I can see your dilemma. My Fluttershy made a few crude insults to yours. That completely negates the fact that we saved your Pinkie’s life. Very ‘Loyalty’ of you.”
Rainbow opened her mouth to snap something back but was interrupted by Pinkie Pie popping up in between the two. She had a tray of mixed flavored cupcakes in her hooves and was beaming at them both.
“Are you excited? This is Evening’s first cupcake ever, Dashie! A big moment.”
“That is pretty big,” Rainbow agreed, snatching a pastry off of the tray. “Nothing beats your treats, Pinks.”
Pinkie giggled at the compliment before turning her full attention to Evening. “You ready? I got a whole bunch of flavors here so you can find your favorite!”
Evening eyed Rainbow Dash around Pinkie’s energetic smile. The Pegasus seemed content to ignore Evening now as she was happily going to town on the cupcake she had chosen, not even sparing a glance to the clone.
With a mental shrug, Evening returned the favor and ignored her to instead gaze at the platter Pinkie was practically shoving in her snout.
There was a smorgasbord of flavors represented. From plain vanilla to concentrated rainbow spice. Evening inspected all of them carefully. From memories that weren’t hers she could recall liking chocolate and hating anything overly messy and dripping. So, armed with that knowledge, she plucked a red velvet cake and took a quick bite out of it.
Having food in her mouth was weird. The flavors definitely tasted like she’d remembered them but in a… warped sort of way. There was still that sweet/bitter flavor of red velvet but also more… acidic? It moved oddly on her tongue, like the part of her that was plant life and pure magic was rejecting the idea of physically eating. It wasn’t bad, per se, but it was surprising and definitely not her favorite.
“Sooooo, how is it?” Pinkie asked, leaning closer as if trying to peer into Evening’s mouth and see the flavors she was tasting.
“It’s okay,” Evening answered, taking another lackluster bite. She had no idea if she actually had to eat for sustenance but she figured it was better to be safe than suddenly passed out in the middle of the street.
Rainbow snorted a genuine laugh. “That’s a pretty mild reaction. Most ponies flip the first time they eat one of Pinkie’s cakes.”
Evening shrugged. “Like I said it’s not like I don’t know what they taste like. It’s as good as I expected it to be.”
“But you like it?” Pinkie asked, her eyes wide and anticipatory.
Evening took another bite as she thought it over. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
“Eeee!” Pinkie squealed as she wrapped Evening in another hug, almost knocking the half-eaten cupcake out of her magic, “I’m so glad! We’ll have these all the time when you come to the school.”
“Great,” Evening choked out, shoving the Earth Pony off of her. “You are very generous with those hugs. Shouldn’t we get going?”
“Heck yeah,” Rainbow said and gently assured Pinkie towards the door, “Let’s go see something cool.”
“Is the tour going to last much longer?” Evening asked, throwing away the cupcake wrapper as she followed the two out of the sweet shop. Littering was a crime for peasants.
Rainbow smirked at her over her shoulder. “Why? You got someplace better to be?”
Evening opened her mouth before closing it again lamely. “I suppose not. But maybe anyplace is better than around you.”
“Hey,” Pinkie called, jabbing Rainbow’s side as the three emerged from Sugarcube Corner and back onto the streets, “no fighting.”
“Wha?” Rainbow cried indignantly, taking to the air to get away from more scolding pokes, “I didn’t do anything. She’s the one being rude!”
“But you have to set a good example,” Pinkie explained while Evening giggled victoriously behind her, “Evening’s just a newborn baby. If you aren’t nice how is she supposed to be nice?”
Rainbow opened her mouth to protest but, when Pinkie continued to glare at her, closed it with a grunt. “Fine… I’ll be nice to the little baby.”
Evening was going to fry a Pegasus for that comment. She mentally sorted through the backlog of magical spells she instinctively knew and was immensely disappointed to find Princess Twilight Sparkle, savior of the world at least three times over, did not actually have that much combat experience.
However, she did have a spell for rapidly growing facial hair. So that was… useful.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Pinkie seemed to think the situation resolved and was back to all smiles. “Great! Now we can finish seeing everything in Ponyville! Isn’t there something you wanted to show Evening, Dashie?”
“Huh? Oh yeah.” The Pegasus was snapped out of her glaring contest with the clone and quickly donned a proud smirk as she posed in midair. “You think you’ve seen Ponyville now but you’ve only seen the mainstream parts of town.”
Evening had to wonder how big this seemingly small town had to be if that two-hour walk had only covered the main area.
Very small considering the amount of surface area they had actually covered in that time was probably equivalent to a buckball field.
“Now I’m going to show you the cool parts that barely anypony knows about. You should feel honored.”
Evening rolled her eyes as the Pegasus blasted off and the other two followed with diametrically opposed levels of enthusiasm. I swear if she shows me a cloud or something I’m going to lose it.
***
It wasn’t a cloud. But it was, in fact, just as underwhelming.
“Isn’t this the sickest thing you’ve ever seen?”
Rainbow had taken them to the base of a cliff at the south end of the village. It was taller than anypony would want to fall from but smaller than some trees in the Everfree Forest that grew a few leagues away.
There was no convenient way to climb the sheer rock that Evening could see and she pointed that out to her guide. “What are we supposed to do here? Wait for a rock slide?”
Rainbow only gave her an odd look. “Uh, we’re going to the top, duh.” With that she gripped Pinkie around the waist, causing her to giggle in excitement, and ferried her up through the air.
Evening watched them for a good few seconds before she realized she was expected to follow and no one would be coming back to give her a ride. With a groan of annoyance, she spread her wings and struggled after the fast-moving Pegasus and her package.
The short flight made Evening realize just how strange and foreign her body was.. While her magic was insanely more powerful than she could have ever imagined, her physical ability was disappointingly lacking.
Even so, she managed to fly up the cliff and land next to Pinkie on the relatively flat top without completely embarrassing herself. So wins all around.
“You ready for the time of your life?” Rainbow Dash boasted from where she peered over the opposite edge they had gone up from, interrupting Evening’s subtle attempts to regain her breath.
“Not a high standard at this point,” Evening answered after a moment, trotting over to see what had the Pegasus so fascinated. She sighed when all that she could see was a large pond far down below. “And yet, you still manage to miss the mark.”
“Don’t be like that,” Pinkie said, playfully shoving Evening’s side and almost making her tip off the edge, “Dashie’s right, this is the best diving spot in all of Ponyville.”
Evening turned to said Pegasus with a raised brow. “Why would you need a diving spot? Couldn’t you just fly as high as you want and use a cloud or something?”
Rainbow waved a hoof dismissively. “Yeah, but where would be the challenge in that? This way you gotta make sure you jump far enough to avoid all the rocks.” She nudged Evening and gestured to the water down below. “Five bits says you belly flop hard.”
Evening rolled her eyes and turned away. “As… tempting of an offer that is, I didn’t really come out here for a swim. Shouldn’t we be seeing more of your quaint home town?”
Rainbow huffed. “Fine then. If you want to be lame about it. Maybe next we’ll go to my crib so you can see what awesome really looks like.”
And there’s the inevitable cloud.
Evening peered over the edge again. “Hmm, in that case maybe I’ll drown myself.”
“Well, maybe-GAH!”
One moment Rainbow Dash was leaning over the edge of the cliff with her, the next the Pegasus was plummeting over the side, limbs flailing wildly in an attempt to right herself before she crashed into the water below.
“Parade!” Pinkie spoke up behind Evening in a scolding tone, “That wasn’t very nice at all.”
Evening looked over her shoulder but only managed to catch a glimpse of blue and other colors before she was roughly shoved in the cutie mark and sent sprawling over the ledge.
“Aaaaah!” She definitely did not scream on the way down.
SPLASH!
The water surrounded her and she had a few brief moments of pure terror.
The first was that the sensation of water soaking over every inch of fur, making her heavy, clogging her ears and mouth, dragging her down, felt remarkably like when her flesh was being melted off of her structure by a vengeful friendship tree.
Thankfully, some part of her vague memories reminded her what being wet in general felt like and shut up the newly formed memories with their superior knowledge.
Once she had managed to get over that initial panic she was already a few body lengths under the water and the thought struck her that she didn’t know, consciously, how to swim. She tried to relax and just let her instincts take over but the panic still in her brain and the shock of the cold water overwhelmed her and the most she could do was thrash violently as she sunk deeper and deeper into the depths.
She didn’t know which way was up. She didn’t know how to swim. She was melting. She was going to-
Something jabbed her in the side and Evening instantly froze up, scared and confused and not wanting to be spotted if it was some large predator that somehow found its way to the bottom of a landlocked lake.
Panic really was making her stupid, wasn’t it?
She felt something wrap around her barrel, right under her forelegs, and start dragging her to the light up above. Thankfully, she managed to maintain enough rational thought to stop thrashing and just go limp, letting whatever was pulling her to simply take her away.
She broke the surface only a few moments later, sputtering and gagging. Her instincts finally managed to kick in and she began to paddle enough to keep her head afloat.
“Hey!” a voice yelled directly next to her, causing her ears to flatten, “What do you think you’re doing, you bonehead? You could have hurt somepony!”
Evening glanced over to where Rainbow Dash was floating next to her, glaring up at the cliff above even as one hoof was still wrapped around Evening’s barrel, keeping her from sinking back under.
“Whatever,” Parade snapped back, gliding down until she was hovering just above their heads, “It wasn’t interesting anyway. You both just kind of… fell. Fluttershy doesn’t know what she was talking about…”
Rainbow squinted suspiciously at her clone. “Your Fluttershy isn’t here is she?”
“I don’t know,” Parade answered, lazily flipping onto her back mid-air, “I just thought the castle was lame so I came to see if Evening was doing anything cooler.”
Evening would have been flattered, really, if she wasn’t trying to spit water out of her lungs. “Can you get off of me? I can swim on my own now…”
Rainbow Dash glanced at her before shaking her head. “In a second.”
Evening growled and kicked her legs irritably. “What in Equestria could you be wait-”
“Geronimo!”
Another wave of water washed over Evening, dunking her back under. Thankfully, she was dragged back to the surface almost immediately by Rainbow Dash and was released as soon as she took in another lungful of air.
“Now I can let you go,” Rainbow Dash replied as she paddled away from Evening and over towards the shore, “Nice splash Pinks, but I would have beat you if I had a fair chance.”
Pinkie giggled even as Evening glared at her.
“At least somepony had a good time plummeting off a cliff,” Evening gripped, following Rainbow to dry land.
“I didn’t know you were going to freak out,” Parade said, following just overhead. Evening was sure that was the closest thing she would get to an apology from the Pegasus so she only answered with an irritated snort as she crawled onto the sandy beach surrounding the lake.
Rainbow Dash, however, was not done being upset. “Why did you think pushing us off was a good idea?” She snapped as she shook water out of her coat and feather, “It’s not a diving board, you have to jump or somepony could get hurt!”
Parade squinted at her. “You can fly, can’t you? Why didn’t you just catch yourself?”
Rainbow rose into the air to better push her snout into her clone’s face. “Because I didn’t expect to be shoved without warning!”
“Sounds like you just have slow reaction time.”
Evening tuned them out as she finished clambering out of the water and onto sweet solid ground. A splash next to her turned her attention away from her sandy salvation and to the pink pony following her. Pinkie Pie had a smile on her face as she practically bounced, bounced, where Evening was crawling, obviously not a care in the world.
“Pinkie,” Evening said evenly, staring down the pony with dead seriousness once she had gotten her footing, “Do not laugh, just answer. Am I melting?”
Pinkie, to her credit, she didn’t seem put off by the question. She eyed Evening with grave scrutiny before shaking her head. “Nope! Don’t think so. You do kiiiinda look like a drowned cat though.”
“Good,” Evening said and then proceeded to shake herself harshly, spraying water off her coat and into the air around her. When she finally stopped she looked up to find an also completely dry Pinkie beside her, trying desperately to hold snickers back behind her hoof. “What? What’s so funny?”
“Nothing!” Pinkie said while very obviously laughing, “You just look like a big purple porcupine.”
Evening glanced down at herself only to see every inch of her hair sticking up at odd angles, making her look like a sentient ball of fur more than a pony. With a huff Evening lit her horn and quickly smoothed her coat and mane down until she once again looked presentable.
She glanced up to where the two Pegasi were still fighting and couldn’t help but roll her eyes. It seemed that Rainbow Dash loved nothing more than to shout at ponies who had no desire to listen. Maybe she just liked the sound of her own voice? That seemed probable.
Pinkie had followed Evening’s gaze but instead of bored annoyance her face held a worried little frown as she shifted from hoof to hoof.
Evening sighed, ponies were so annoyingly hard to maintain. She tapped Pinkie on the shoulder to get her attention and gestured back in the direction of town. “Let’s continue. I think they might be there a while.”
“I don’t know…” Pinkie replied, her eyes drifting back to the two rainbow Pegasi in the air.
Evening, however, had not meant it as a request and was already trotting away, predictably forcing Pinkie to rush after her lest she wanted to be left behind.
“Do you think, Dashie’ll be okay?” Pinkie asked once the two had rounded a corner and their companions were out of sight.
Evening snorted. “Rainbow Dash? I’d be much more worried about Parade. It seems like Dash was a wrong word away from hitting her.”
“Mhmm,” Pinkie hummed in response. She gave one more worried look over her shoulder before shaking her head and putting her smile squarely back into place. “I’m sure they’ll be okay. What did you want to do now, Evening?”
Evening eyed her a moment before letting out an annoyed huff and turning her head away. “I wanted to speak to you about something, actually. Now that tweedle dee and tweedle dumb aren’t on our tails.”
“That’s rude.” Despite her words, Pinkie giggled a bit. “Which is which?”
Evening flashed her a smile that was more bared teeth than anything else. “Unfortunately, the dumb one is still next to me.”
Pinkie giggled some more even as she tried to hold a mock offended look.
Evening’s face fell as her eyes narrowed. “You think me teasing your friends is funny. You think teasing you is funny.” It was meant to be a simple fact but Evening was afraid it came out as more of an accusation.
Pinkie shrugged, unconcerned. “Well, yeah! Friends poke fun at each other all the time.” She leaned in, as if telling Evening some deep secret. “Plus, Dashie gets really cute when she’s all flustered and defensive like that. And you should see Twilight’s face when she tries to tease back. Priceless!”
“But back in the castle,” Evening continued, trying to stop the conversation from getting derailed too far, “you were upset when my Pinkie was teasing you. And not just irritated like everypony else. Actually upset.”
Pinkie blinked dumbly at her before shaking her head, her smile not dropping an inch. “Yeah, I guess I kinda was. But it’s okay! I know she didn’t actually mean anything by it. It just… caught me off guard is all.”
“But why?” Evening prodded deeper, not willing to let the topic go so quickly, “What was different about what she was saying?”
“Why do ya want to know?” Pinkie asked back, her face a mixture of amused and curious, “You aren’t planning on using my weakness against me are you? Huh huh?”
The tone was light and playful, obviously nothing more than another tease, but the question stopped Evening in her tracks.
Why did she want to know? Why did she care? If one of these lowly ponies got offended by something her fellow clones said what was it to her? Was she supposed to kiss it better and beg for forgiveness?
No. Her motivations were purely scientific. Simple curiosity. Evening had toted Pinkie around like a particularly beat up kite for a good chunk of the afternoon and the pony hadn’t seemed the least bit put off by the situation. But one joke about stealing her name and she looks like she’s being hunted by Nightmare Moon herself. Something didn’t add up.
Shaking her head, Evening huffed and continued walking. As if she hadn’t just paused to contemplate her own motives at all. “Isn’t that something a ‘friendship student’ should know? Where the line is in teasing?” No reason for anyone to know her internal monologue, however. Knowing her true intent might motivate Pinkie to be less than forthcoming with the whole truth.
Pinkie nodded as she followed Evening’s random path back towards town. “That does make a lot of sense. Okay, let me try to explain it.” She tapped a hoof to her chin and hummed in thought for a moment before answering with a question. “Do you remember how I told you I had an experience with clones before?”
“Yes.” Evening already didn’t like where this was going. “But you said they were nothing like us, not even sentient, so I fail to see the issue.”
“Well, they weren’t,” Pinkie confirmed, “but they sure did look a whole awful lot like me. They looked so much like me, actually, that no one could figure out who was the original. Not even me!”
Evening raised a brow so high she swore it would fly right off her face. “You didn’t know if you… were you? How did you manage that?”
Pinkie flushed and averted her gaze, kicking at the ground with her hoof. “I know it sounds pretty silly right now but it was really scary and confusing when it happened. The clones had some of my memories so I didn’t know if the memories I had were real memories or just magically duplicated memories... and it didn’t help that everypony else was treating me like a pest…”
The other eyebrow quickly followed. “A pest? What exactly does that mean?”
Pinkie winced and quickly looked back up. “Did I say that? Sorry, that was probably really harsh. The clones were just… really destructive. They were hurting ponies and causing a ton of damage. It made sense that ponies reacted… harshly to them and tried to make them go away as fast as possible.”
Evening’s brow came down to furrow into a tight glare. “So these ponies treated you like crap just because they thought you were a clone, hmm? Very comforting. Strong case of friendship indeed.”
“It wasn’t like that at all,” Pinkie protested with a pout. “The clones were hurting ponies, Evening. Plus... I think they were actively trying to replace me? I don’t know how much they could actively do anything but it sure felt that way. Like they were trying to get me to think I wasn’t real so they could… I don’t know, steal my life or something?” She shuddered a bit and looked down to idly draw patterns in the dirt. “I guess when your Pinkie was teasing me it just… reminded me of all that and I got worried.”
Evening took a deep breath through her nose, trying to maintain her composure despite the idiocy she was currently facing. “So the clones were giving you an identity crisis and on top of that your ‘friends’ were treating you more or less like, what, a raccoon going through their garbage?”
“Psh,” Pinkie pshed and waved her hoof as if dismissing the topic entirely, “It really wasn’t that big of a deal, I promise. It’s just one of those things that bothered me but I never ever thought would come up again so I didn’t, um… process it right, ya know?” She shrugged sheepishly. “I’m really sorry it had to interfere with you guys settling in, though.”
Evening stared at her. She was shocked, and appalled, and couldn’t even understand why. But some reason the story struck something… wrong within her. “No, I don’t know. How can you dismiss something like this? It’s obviously been affecting you this whole time. Why…” She glared suspiciously and took a step back. “Why did you help us if being around clones made you so uncomfortable?”
Pinkie stared blankly. As if something Evening had said during this entire conversation was completely nonsensical. “Because… you guys looked like you needed help? And besides, it’s not like it was your fault that happened. Holding a grudge this long over something you weren’t even around during sure seems silly, doesn’t it?”
No. Not at all. Evening had been born with grudges. With hatred that wasn’t her own. She still despised Starlight Glimmer in a completely illogical way and felt the itching need to get revenge on something. “Well, what about your friends? They didn’t stop my Pinkie from making you uncomfortable and it seems they escalated the original situation to a horrible point. Don’t you despise them for putting you through that? For adding to your suffering?”
“What?” Pinkie asked, completely perplexed, “Of course not! Sure it wasn’t a great time, for anypony, but my friends were trying to look out for me. Even if they got some things wrong, they didn’t mean to.” The smile was back now, bright as ever. “Everything turned out alright in the end. That’s all that really matters, right?”
“No,” Evening countered, “of course that’s not what matters! You were used by these other clones and… and betrayed by your so-called friends! You can’t just be okay with that!”
Pinkie frowned at her. “That’s going a bit far, don’t you think?”
Evening was pacing now. Something to get the energy that was building inside a release. “I don’t think it’s going far enough. How can you just stand there and let ponies that hurt you get away with it? How can you continue to let others use your weaknesses against you and not even say anything, let alone try and stop them?” She turned to Pinkie with a glare so fierce it actually caused the Earth Pony to back up a few steps. “What is your game? Do you want the world to walk all over you or are you too stupid to see that everypony is taking advantage of you!?”
Pinkie stared at her as Evening fumed in her face. “Are… are we fighting? Why are we fighting? When did this happen?”
“Answer me!” Evening demanded, stomping her hoof in frustration, “Why would you ever interact with a creature that has been hostile to you in the past?”
“Well, that’s easy,” Pinkie said brightly. “Everypony deserves a second chance, don’t they? Even if they were mean before it doesn’t mean that you can’t still be friends!”
Evening stepped back. “That’s… that’s exactly what that means you… you…GAH!” She couldn’t find any more words. Her frustration had reached a boiling point and it had nowhere to go in the face of Pinkie’s ever present happy-go-lucky smile. With one final scream of frustration her wings opened seemingly of their own violation and she burst into the air and away from the cause of her ire.
Evening didn’t know where she was going as she ignored Pinkie’s confused shouting behind her. There had been a tension building in her for almost the entire day and she felt she needed to do something besides walk around aimlessly. She didn’t even think about flying, despite how difficult it had been only a few minutes prior, instead just letting her body take her wherever it wanted to go.
Pinkie didn’t make any sense and things that didn’t make sense grated on Evening’s brain like a dagger. How could she be so cheerful? So… so forgiving? It defied all logical reasoning! Just in the past day Evening had known the Earth Pony a few egregious things had happened to her and yet she still carried on and helped others like she hadn’t a care in the world.
Helped Evening… despite her very clearly not deserving it.
Evening groaned and angled down to land a bit roughly. That was the problem, wasn’t it? If Pinkie had been holding a grudge over what had happened, was simply lying to Evening to keep her in line until the time was right, then the guilt that she had been aggressively ignoring would evaporate away and Evening would be free of it.
But that obviously wasn’t the case. Pinkie felt no ill will towards those she considered friends, even if they had assisted in hurting her. The offer of friendship was a genuine one.
Without realizing it, Evening had landed back in Ponyville proper, near Twilight’s castle and school. She folded her wings to the side and, with a roll of her eyes at the glittery insult of plant life, started to walk away. Despite the tour she had just been on she honestly didn’t think she could find her way back to Pinkie Pie again, even if she wanted to. But that certainly didn’t mean she was going to march right back into the Princess’s hooves if she could help it.
Lost in thought, it took Evening an entire block to realize she wasn’t walking alone.
“Gah!” she yelped, jumping back as she noticed the pony practically hugging her flank with how close they were keeping pace, “Parade! What in Equestria are you doing here?”
“I followed you when I noticed you flying off,” the Pegasus answered, looking around with disinterest. “I thought you had the right idea ditching those losers.”
Evening huffed and looked away to better watch where she was walking. “Well, I hate to disappoint but I’m not doing anything interesting either. Unless you count wallowing in guilt as the highlight of your day.”
Raining Parade raised a brow at that. “What do you have to feel guilty about? We were born, like, ten hours ago. What could you have done since then?”
“Oh I just aided in the torture and kidnapping of somepony who instantly forgave me,” Evening explained bluntly. She pressed her hooves into her eyes and groaned loudly. “When I get carted around like a prop I plan revenge the next second but when I throw the behavior back on somepony else it’s all dandy and ‘water under the bridge’. Gah, it doesn’t make sense.”
“Uhg,” Parade gagged, making Evening snap her head around to glare at her, “That’s the lamest thing I’ve ever heard. If you don’t want to feel guilty just don’t.”
Evening gazed at her flatly. “Truly no wiser words have ever been spoken. All my problems are solved.”
“I’m serious.” Parade glared right back and even shoved her nose into Evening’s face like her livelier counterpart was wont to do. “Why care that much about what other ponies think? So you wanted revenge on Chrysalis but Pinkie doesn’t on you. Big whoop. Neither of you are morally superior for how you react to crap. You’re just having stupid emotions. Stop caring so much about what emotions you should be having and move on with your life.”
Evening blinked owlishly at her for a moment before furrowing her brow in confusion. “...how was that actually good advice?”
Parade rolled her eyes heavily and retreated out of Evening’s personal space. “It’s not. It’s just advice. Sheesh, you are way too worried about the whole ‘moral high ground’ thing.”
“That isn’t wha-”
“Miss Sparkle!”
Evening jumped at the sudden call and Parade’s eyes slid unenthusiastically to the skinny Unicorn trotting purposefully towards them, a few large Earth Ponies following behind him in an obvious show of force.
“Miss Sparkle,” The white Unicorn repeated once he had gotten closer, “I’m glad to have caught you. I have a few more…” He paused once he was almost on top of them and squinted at the two clones with obvious distaste. “Wait a moment… you aren’t Miss Sparkle at all, are you?”
“She could be,” Raining Parade answered in a dull tone of voice, “Evening hasn’t chosen a last name. Who knows which pony she’ll decide to lamely attach herself to next.”
Evening shot the Pegasus a glare.
The stallion drew back, looking between the two with obvious disgust. “Uhg, more detestable changelings of all creatures. I suppose you two are students at Miss Sparkle’s laughably called ‘school’, then?”
Evening liked this pony less than all the others she had met so far. She wasn’t sure why, exactly, as she agreed with everything he had said so far. Changelings were detestable and the school they were supposedly being enrolled in only sounded good enough for a laugh. But the way he talked… as if he thought he was better than her. And nopony was better than her.
“I suppose we are…” Evening replied testily, eyeing the strange pony and his bodyguards critically. His appearance wasn’t triggering any kind of recognition in her hazy half-memories so he most likely wasn’t even important to Twilight Sparkle or Queen Chrysalis. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business, whoever you are.”
“Listen here bug,” he sneered, leaning into her personal space, “I am the head of the EEA!” Evening had no idea what that meant. “A respectable member of this society. I am here to make sure there are no threats to the kingdom happening in Equestria’s most vulnerable population.”
“Isn’t that, like, the Royal Guard’s job?” Parade asked, looking like she couldn’t care less about the answer. “You look more like a towel someone forgot to dry than an upholder of peace or whatever.”
He took a step back, eyeing Evening and Parade like one would a disgusting yet fascinating bug squished on the underside of one’s hoof. Then a triumphant smirk covered his ugly snout. “You know, I think impersonating royalty counts as a considerable crime. Especially when done by enemy spies. Seize them!”
Both Evening and Parade took a step back as the two large Earth Ponies advanced on them. They seemed perfectly ready to indeed seize them and drag them off to who knows where to be locked away from who knows how long.
Evening lit her horn and crouched down at the ready. If they wanted a fight then she wasn’t about to disappoint them.
She was just about to fire off some spell at the closest attacker when-
“Hey!”
A rainbow blur slammed down in between the two groups, kicking up a good cloud of dust in the process. Rainbow Dash spread her wings wide like a shield as she faced the aggressors, blowing them back a few steps with her explosive arrival.
“What the buck do you think you’re doing, Neighsay?” Rainbow demanded with almost a snarl in her voice.
The Unicorn, Neighsay, recovered from his shock better than his lackeys, who were now worriedly whispering between themselves, and pointed an accusatory hoof at Evening and Parade. “Miss Dash, these two criminals-”
“Are my students,” Dash interrupted with a snap, “And I thought Twilight told you to stop hanging around here and harassing them?”
Neighsay stomped her hoof like a foal throwing a tantrum. “I will not have monsters infesting Equestria under my nose!”
“And I…” Rainbow continued, taking an aggressive step forward. The two goons backed up with her advancement, as if scared of the tiny Pegasus. “Will not have a two-bit noble jerk running around and, what? Kidnapping random students? You don’t have the authority to arrest any creature and you know it. So get out of here before I throw you out of town on your prejudiced flank.”
Neighsay’s white face turned red as he tried to keep himself from screaming. “She is threatening me! Guards! Do something about this.”
The two hired muscle glanced at each other before back at their leader. “Uuuh,” said one of them, slowly taking another step back, “You sure about that? This is… this is Rainbow Dash herself, boss.”
Evening would have thought Neighsay would keep fighting but instead he just huffed loudly and turned up his nose. “Fine. But I will fix this horrible excuse for a school, mark my words.”
“Uh huh,” Rainbow drawled, folding her wings back now that the situation was de-escalating, “And I’ll be here to stop you every time.”
The Unicorn huffed once more for effect before snapping his tail and walking off. His two bodyguards quickly followed after him, seemingly wanting nothing more than to get away from Rainbow Dash as fast as possible.
Rainbow rolled her eyes with a snort as she turned back to Evening and Parade. “Weirdos. I swear if I have to see his ugly mug one more time…”
“What was that?” Evening demanded the moment she was sure the other ponies were out of earshot.
Rainbow blinked and furrowed her brow. “What was what?”
“That!” Evening insisted, waving her hoof in the air in an attempt to gesture the entire conversation that had just occurred, “Why did you just… just… defend us like that? You didn’t have to do that. You don’t even like us for pony’s sake.”
Rainbow made a face like Evening had just said something completely and utterly insane. “What are you talking about? You’re my students, of course I’m going to stick up for you.” She trotted past them, ignoring Evening’s slack jaw stare. “Now come on, you left Pinkie hanging and she’s completely freaking out thinking she did something wrong.”