“So hey, Maud!”
Pinkie asked as she and her sister bounced down the road inside the Crystal Empire, though Pinkie was mostly the one bouncing, Maud was just walking, but for Maud that was kinda like bouncing. Maud wasn’t much of a bouncer, unless she was hired by a bar to keep scallywags out, which she would be pretty good at! She’d be good at anything she put her mind to honestly, cuz Maud was amazing! Uhhh where were we? Oh right!
“How are you enjoying the Crystal Empire?” Pinkie asked.
“I’m not,” Maud replied flatly, which did kinda take the wind outta Pinkie’s sails a little bit, but not too much cuz honestly she couldn’t have agreed more.
“Yeah me neither,” Pinkie sighed and hung her arms down limply in front of her. She didn’t want to admit it, but she really hated it here, especially after hearing about the whole underground prison thing. “I really wish I was anywhere else right now.”
“Everywhere else is the same,” Maud shrugged. “It’s all the same wood, just different coats of paint. You can’t escape the bigotry that seeps into every pore in Equestria, no matter where you go. Equestria is just like that.”
“Oh yeah, I guess you’re right,” Pinkie said bleakly, feeling herself deflating the more she thought about it. She hated that, but she couldn’t exactly argue with it. There was no safe haven in Equestria free from bigotry, because for a thousand years Equestria had been built with intention on the back of that bigotry. “So what do we do? How can we make things okay?”
Maud took a deep breath, and then she sighed.
“I have no idea.”
“Ah,” Pinkie croaked. Not the answer she was hoping for, admittedly.
“Maybe I’m being too grim,” Maud pondered.
“No, I think you’re right,” Pinkie groaned and plomped onto a nearby bench on the side of the road, squishing her fists into her cheeks.
“I am right,” Maud said and sat down next to Pinkie, “but I don’t need to be such a downer about it. I think there’s a line between accepting reality and giving into hopelessness, and I’m still trying to find where it is.”
“I know what you mean!” Pinkie groaned furiously, digging her nails into her face and throwing her head back. “It sucks! It’s really hard to have hope sometimes when the reality of the situation is so—so—so SHITTY!”
“And we have it easy,” Maud said. “We’re ponies. Things seem hopeless to us, but we’re not having to carry this burden directly on our backs, and it’s important to keep that perspective.”
“Yup,” Pinkie sighed and it felt like her spirit was practically leaving her body. “So what do?”
“We do what we can,” Maud looked over at Pinkie and affected a tiny smile, but despite its size it totally reinvigorated Pinkie Pie! “There sure are a lot of ways to help people, and the world needs all the help it can get. So whatever you can do that can help? You do that.”
“Yeah, that sounds good to me, I can do that,” Pinkie said confidently, pumping her fists.
And she knew what she could do to help right now, or at least the next time she saw Rarity.
There was no more time for messing around. As soon as she got ahold of Rarity, she was gonna get this party started, and they were gonna talk to Gladmane.