“So that’s how it is.”
Twilight finished her tale, the story of the dragon prison underneath the Crystal Empire, and braced herself for the inevitable deluge of questions from Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy about what they should do, how they could help, how they would fix this.
“Okay, that’s pretty heavy,” Applejack sat up and steepled her fingers. The four had been lying underneath the large tree on the hill just outside the Empire’s city limits.
“What do you need?” Fluttershy squeezed Twilight’s hand.
“Yeah, this has gotta be rough on you,” Pinkie added sadly, sitting up and hovering concernedly over Twilight.
Twilight stood up like a shot and brushed the others off of her.
“What do you mean, ‘what do I need’?!” Twilight snapped. “This isn’t about me! I’m fine! I’m not the one being imprisoned and having the magic siphoned out of me! I’m not the one suffering!”
“Hon, you might not be in prison, but yer still sufferin’,” Applejack stood up and took a cautious step toward Twilight, who stepped back and Applejack froze. “We can all see it, plain as day. You can’t pretend like this stuff ain’t traumatic. And if we’re gonna do anything about any of this, we gotta start first with what’s right in front of us, and what’s right in front of us is you.”
“We can multitask, Twilight!” Pinkie added, hopping to her hooves. “We can take care of you, our friend, and work towards dismantling this shitty prison situation we have going.”
“We’re all suffering, Twilight,” Fluttershy stood up and approached Twilight, who didn’t move and so Fluttershy took her hands. “Our suffering all looks different, but we’re all going through this together. And it’s not fair to yourself as someone dealing with this trauma to say that your pain doesn’t matter, and it’s not fair to the rest of us for you to say that one of ours’ pain doesn’t matter.
“We love you. You’re family to us. We’re all in this together, and we all need each other.”
Twilight felt her eyes misting up, and her face twisting into a frown. Fluttershy pulled her in close, letting Twilight rest her head on Fluttershy’s shoulders as the other dragon massaged her back. Twilight took a deep breath.
She would cry, she would put it in her schedule, but not right now.
“That goes for you too, y’know,” Twilight muttered at Fluttershy, who giggled under her breath.
“I know,” Fluttershy said with a shaky smile. “I haven’t quite figured out how to process this yet. I’m thinking of going for something between ‘pure abject horror’ and ‘crippling existential depression’.”
“Both excellent choices, you have good taste.”
“Thank you,” Fluttershy laughed, and it made Twilight laugh too. “My point is, I’m not sure how to deal with everything just yet, I’m still kinda working through it. So for my sake, I would like to focus on you.”
“I feel that,” Twilight took a deep breath and nodded. “I am also not quite ready to grapple with everything just yet. I’ll talk to Rarity when she gets back, she’ll know what to do.”
“I’m sure she will,” Fluttershy smiled brightly, and Twilight just thought she was so cute.
“But for now, I would like to focus on finding a solution,” Twilight said, and Fluttershy nodded, so Twilight kept holding her hand but went back closer to the others. “Sorry to keep you two waiting.”
“Not a problem, hon,” Applejack raised her hand. “There’s some stuff that y’all need to deal with between you two, without us, since yer both way more affected by this than me or Pinkie here.”
“Mhm, mhm,” Pinkie nodded wisely, her arms crossed. “And once you gals have figured out your stuff, I will be happy to throw you a party!”
“Thanks, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said fondly.
“We could really use one,” Fluttershy added with a laugh.
“And thank you, Applejack,” Twilight said, and Applejack responded by grabbing Twilight and Fluttershy and bringing both of them into a tight hug.
“No problem, hon,” Applejack said happily, and kissed Twilight on the lips. She was already starting to feel a little bit better. “So, where do you wanna start?”
“Well, actually,” Twilight drew herself up, “I sent a letter to an old friend of mine from back home. Another dragon, and a very wise and intelligent one at that. I’m looking forward to hearing his response and his advice, if he has any, before making my next move.”
“Any idea when he’ll hit you up?” Pinkie asked.
“Nope,” Twilight shrugged helplessly. “I honestly have no clue. It could be—”
A fireball of black flame roared in front of Twilight’s hands, her friends jumping back and away from it but Twilight was entranced by the intimate familiarity, the sense of coming home.
It was him.
“Well,” Twilight said as the letter fell into her hands, “I guess that answers that.”