//------------------------------// // Rock Wall // Story: Little Keys // by Skijarama //------------------------------// For the remainder of the day, Twilight found herself struggling to focus. Her confrontation with Maud—and all of Midnight’s subsequent comments about her past actions in Canterlot—left her distraught and distracted. Rainbow and Spike had caught on pretty quickly and were always moving to either cheer her up or, at the very least, make sure she didn’t forget that she wasn’t alone. Their efforts were successful, by and large. Though they were unable to undo her fears and anxieties, they were, at least, able to make her feel not so overwhelmed by them. Their presence and affections grounded her in reason, allowing her to tackle her anxieties one at a time and with a clear head. The night eventually came, and Twilight was thankful for a dreamless slumber. No nightmares haunted her, and when she woke up, though it was far from the most restful sleep she had ever had, she nevertheless felt ready to move on and take on whatever the new day brought to the table. She opened her eyes when, at last, she felt the warmth of the sun washing over her face. The light of morning streamed in from between the blinds, casting the silent room into shades of orange and yellow. Twilight gave off a quiet yawn before nuzzling into the back of Rainbow’s head, the pegasus held to her chest in Twilight’s hooves. “Mmph. Is it morning already?” Rainbow mumbled, stirred awake by Twilight’s ministrations. “Looks that way,” Twilight replied, lifting her head from Rainbow’s mane to look at the window again. “Guh. I don’t want it,” Rainbow lamented. She rolled over and buried her face into the pillow with an indignant huff. “Go tell mom to put it away.” “But she’s your mom,” Twilight pointed out with a roll of her eyes. “Not mine. You tell her.” “But then I’d have to fly and stuff. I don’t wanna move.” “Well, you can take one of three options here,” Twilight reasoned with a playful giggle. “You can either A, Fly up to Canterlot to request that Celestia put the sun down for another few minutes, all of which you would then use up on the flight back, B, lay here and ignore the day, or C, get up on time.” “Twilight?” Rainbow said, turning her head just enough to glare at the alicorn from the pillow. “Yes?” “You suck.” Twilight giggled again. She gave Rainbow another affectionate nuzzle. “And yet you’re dating me,” she said in a teasing voice. “Who sucks more? The sucker, or the sucker who dates her?” “The purple egghead who’s teasing me.” “And that is a fair point,” Twilight conceded. The two fell into blissful silence after that, simply enjoying the warmth of the other while along with the slowly growing heat of day. Every so often, they drifted into idle chatter, being sure to keep their voices down to not disturb Spike. Eventually, though, they had to get up. The day wasn’t going to wait for them, no matter how much they may have wanted it to. Twilight was up first, as Rainbow insisted on another ‘five minutes,’ or, as Twilight had long ago translated into ponish, ‘until Twilight makes me get up.’ Not that she minded. She took the chance to hop into the shower and be alone with her thoughts for a little while. Her mind inevitably wandered back to Maud and Pinkie, and what the excitable one of the two was bound to try and make them do to bond with Maud. Of course, she knew that Pinkie had gone off yesterday to meet with each of their friends one by one, hoping to make them bond with Maud via one-on-one time. In fact, unless Twilight was mistaken, that had been the whole point of bringing Maud to the library and having her recite rock poems for a while.  “Such a shame it didn’t work out,” Midnight sneered from the depths of Twilight’s thoughts. She scowled and closed her eyes, trying to drown out the voice in her head with the white noise of the shower.  “Why are you ignoring me?” Midnight asked ‘innocently.’ “You know I’m right. She wasn’t even here to be friendly with you, but to interrogate you!” “She’s just worried about her sister!” Twilight bit back, her teeth grinding together behind her lips. “And with you still hanging around, she has every right to be!” “She doesn’t even know about me!” Midnight countered with an audible roll of her eyes. “But I suppose that makes sense. She’s worried for her poor, sweet, delusional, and willfully-ignorant sister. The one who can’t see the monster her friend turned into.” “The only monster here is YOU!” Twilight shuddered as an unnatural chill crawled down her spine from the base of her neck. It was horrible, like a malevolent grasper was reaching for the base of her tail and making sure to slither all along her body on the way for the sole intention of making her uncomfortable in her skin. Then, for just an instant, a pair of ghostly eyes flashed at her through the darkness of her eyelids. “What’s the difference?” A series of deafening booms filled Twilight’s ears, making her heart skip a beat and land in her throat. Her eyes snapped wide open, the unnatural chill in her body growing infinitely worse. She took a series of deep breaths, trying to calm herself down from the sudden onset of anxiety she had just undergone. The booms came again, now recognizable as a series of knocks on the door. A moment later, she heard it open just a crack before Spike’s voice came through. “Uh, Twilight? You gonna come out of there anytime soon? You’re gonna use up all the hot water.” Twilight blinked. Use up all the hot water? She hadn’t been in the shower for all that long, had she? She poked her head out from the curtains to look at the baby dragon. “What are you talking about? I’ve only been in here for a few minutes.” Spike raised an eyebrow. “Um, no? Twi, you’ve been in there for over half an hour. Rainbow’s already up and waiting for her turn.” Twilight blinked again, her mind taking a second to register that fact. Glancing behind the dragon, she could just make out the brighter glow of light from the bedroom beyond. There was no denying it. Somehow she had quite literally lost track of time. “But how? It hasn’t felt like that long! A few minutes at most!” She nodded her head a moment later, a lump forming in her throat. Now that she thought about it, this wasn’t the first time she had experienced a moment like this. She recalled a moment mere days after she had gotten her memories back when Spike had gone for groceries, and before she had even noticed, he had been back for a while. “Is this a side effect of Midnight?” she wondered to herself, a pit of dread forming in her gut. “To make me lose time? To lose myself in my head?” A few seconds passed before Twilight shook her head and shut off the flow of water. It didn’t matter. Not now, at least. “Sorry, Spike,” she called as she stepped out, reaching for a towel with her magic. “I guess I got lost in my head.” A bit of an understatement, but not a lie in the slightest. Spike raised an eyebrow. “Again? You okay?” “I’ll be okay,” Twilight assured him with a small smile. “Go let Rainbow know I’ll be out in a bit, okay?” Spike eyed her for a moment longer before slipping out, closing the door behind him. Once she was alone again, Twilight released a heavy sigh, lifting a hoof to rub at the bridge of her nose. What other nasty tricks was Midnight going to pull on her? It was worrying to ponder. Especially if Twilight wasn’t able to quell her little inner demon. If Midnight managed to egg her on enough, spur her to enough rage and anger... She quickly shook her head, dispelling the notion. It would do her no good to dwell on such a hypothetical scenario. Midnight’s influence, while agitating, was mercifully limited. Twilight just had to focus on ignoring her and finding her peace, as Luna said, and soon enough, these little bouts of personal insanity would end. Midnight would not get any new powers to lord over her or dictate her actions. She wouldn’t. “But what if…” Twilight again shook the thought away. Once she was dry, she slipped from the bathroom to the sight of Rainbow waiting impatiently on the bed, looking about as tousled and unkempt as she usually did when she first woke up. The pegasus smiled on seeing Twilight emerge. “Finally! Did ya save any hot water for me?” she asked as she leaped from the bed. Twilight nodded, hiding her worries behind a smile of her own. “There should be some left for you, sleeping beauty.” “Hardy har,” Rainbow mock-laughed back as she passed, lightly thwacking Twilight upside the head with the back of her wing. “Spike’s making breakfast downstairs. Go eat something.” “Right, I will!” Twilight replied just as Rainbow vanished into the bathroom. She made her way downstairs, and her nostrils were met with the ever-stimulating scent of Spike’s cooking. She followed the smell like a bloodhound and soon found the drake working away in the kitchen. He glanced over at her. “Well well, look who finally came back from the realm of eternal rain!” he chirped in greeting. “I get it, I lost track of time!” Twilight shot back with a roll of her eyes. “Ya don’t need to rub it in.” “Actually, I kinda do,” Spike countered without missing a beat. “I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t, and it’s all part of that sprainbow therapy!” Twilight’s expression flattened into a deadpan. “This again? What even is sprainbow therapy? I mean, I know it’s supposed to be therapy for me from you and Dashie, but what’s the format? What are the principles? What are the moral and ethical guidelines? Did either of you take the time to figure all of that out?” Spike’s lips curled up into perhaps the cheekiest grin she had seen on his face yet. And it scared her. “Why, I am so glad you asked! Because yes, as a matter of fact, we did!” Twilight’s jaw dropped. “What? How?! WHEN?!” “To answer your questions in order, with a lot of patience from me and grumbling from Dash, and when you weren’t looking,” Spike replied before holding his head up with pride. “And I think I like the end result.” Twilight’s eye twitched. “Oh yeah? Well, go on then,” she said, stalking over to the dining room table and taking a seat. “Tell me about it.” Spike turned to Twilight and lifted a claw. “The practice of sprainbow therapy is founded on three core principles. Principle one, you need Spike the dragon, Twilight Sparkle, and Princess Rainbow Dash. Principle two, Spike and Rainbow Dash then tease and harass Twilight wherever they get the chance.” Twilight’s expression flattened. “Gee, that sounds so therapeutic.” Spike lifted the third claw. “And third, we don’t let her forget that she isn’t alone. We let her know she can always count on us to listen to her and lift her spirits however we can, whenever we can.” Twilight snorted. That was about as cheesy as could be expected. Nevertheless, she smiled at him. “Well, while your methods are a bit… questionable,” she said slowly, leaning back and holding her head up as if she were a professor at an upper-class university. “I cannot say I can totally argue with your results.” “And that,” Spike declared before turning back to his cooking. “Is the whole point.” Rainbow came down to join the duo soon enough, and Twilight took some time to grill both of them on the finer points of this ‘sprainbow therapy’ practice that Spike had actually taken the time to organize and define. Spike was happy to go into detail, but there was no end of mildly-disgruntled grumbling from Rainbow. Though she loved to tease Twilight to no end, she didn’t like trying to codify it like this. Too ‘eggheady,’ as she had eloquently put it. Spike, on the other hoof, had decided to sit down with Dash and get it all sorted purely so that they could have it on hoof to show Twilight that their affectionate teasing and whatnot came with due diligence and proper procedure. While it was invariably a joke as a result, Twilight could still appreciate the effort, at least. Though that did nothing to make the constant jokes about her lack of cooking skills any less annoying. She could learn how to cook whenever she wanted! Seriously! Eventually, their discussion wound down, and the trio was content to enjoy their breakfast in peace. When it was all gone, they remained at the table, happily chatting away the morning, enjoying some time to themselves. That was until a knocking came to the door. Twilight looked up from a book she had pried from the shelves and turned toward the sound. “Huh?” “I got it,” Spike said, hopping down and making his way out of the room. Twilight watched him go before turning back to Rainbow. “Who do you think it is?” Twilight asked curiously. The pegasus shrugged her shoulders. “Meh. Dunno. Probably Pinkie, though, if I had to guess. She’s been kinda off-the-wall active lately.” Twilight frowned, turning her attention back to the living room. “Yeah… she has,” she said, her tone dropping somewhat. Her thoughts began to wander to her conversation with Maud again. Rainbow’s expression soured. “Twi?” Twilight was quick to cast aside the thought. She shook her head and smiled at Rainbow.  Before either of them could speak any further, an unexpected sight made itself known in the form of Spike returning to the room with a trio of mares following close behind him. Twilight leaned back in surprise at the sight of Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack stepping forward. “Girls,” Twilight greeted, genuinely stunned by the sudden arrival. And so early in the day, too. “What are you all doing here?” Applejack frowned, taking the lead of the pack. “Howdy, Twi, RD. Er… We all know it’s kinda early and all, but we were wonderin’ if y’all had a little bit of time to talk about somethin’.” Rainbow craned her head back to look at the others with a knowing frown. “Lemme guess. Maud?” Rarity blinked. “How did you- Oh, hum. I suppose it’s not exactly hard to deduce, is it?” she asked, her snout wrinkling. “Should we really be talking about this when Pinkie isn’t here?” Fluttershy asked meekly, her ears drooping. “I mean… it’s her sister.” Applejack sighed, turning to her. “Ah know it ain’t exactly upfront of us, but y’all and Ah both know that if Pinkie were here, she’d never let us really get goin’...” Twilight raised a hoof like a foal in school, for she had a question. “Uh, excuse me. What are we talking about?” she asked. Applejack turned back to her, her brow furrowing. “Well… Pinkie and Maud went round Ponyville all of yesterday. Did ya know that?” “I recall Maud mentioning that she sent Pinkie to talk to all of you about ‘one on one time’,” Twilight said slowly. “But I didn’t know if they actually committed to it.” “Oh, they did,” Rarity said, stepping toward the table. “Would you all mind if I sat down?” “Oh, not at all,” Twilight said, gesturing to the empty chair. Rarity took the seat with a relieved sigh. “Whew. Thank you, dear.” “So, Pinks and Maud went to see you all yesterday,” Rainbow recounted, leaning back casually in her chair. “And how did that go?” Several seconds passed in a tense, awkward silence. Twilight’s eyes flitted from one face to another, and she saw some variation of the same thing on all of them. Not one of these mares had established a meaningful connection with Maud, did they? “Bad, got it,” Spike said what everypony was thinking with his customary bluntness. Fluttershy shied back. “Well, bad might be a bit extreme… Maybe, a teensy bit underwhelming?” “That’s a word to use,” Applejack muttered. “Darlings, please,” Rarity gently scolded. She took a deep breath before meeting Twilight’s gaze. “Yes, it was… less than ideal. Pinkie had hoped that one-on-one time would suffice to bring us all closer, help us connect more, and see the things we have in common with her more clearly. For example, she brought Maud to my boutique in the hopes that we could connect over our shared sense of fashion, or so she claimed.” “Didn’t go great, I’m guessing,” Spike said. Rarity sighed, resting her face in her hooves. “I know she doesn’t mean anything by it, but the mare’s tastes are just… incomprehensible to me. I mean, when I volunteered to make a lovely new outfit for her, she just pointed at a dish towel—a dirty dish towel—and said she’d take that! I mean,” she shot up with an aghast look on her face. “Far be it from me to offend Pinkie’s sister, but goodness gracious, Maud, it looked like it fell in the dirt! And heavens save you if you even attempt to have a conversation with her on the finer nuances of fashion design!” Rainbow cringed. “Youch. I mean, I’m no fashion geek or anything, but a dish towel?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “That’s a bit weird even for me.” “You at least know stylish when you see it,” Rarity said, planting her face in her hooves again. “You only really lack an understanding of subtlety.” “I can vouch for that,” Spike agreed. Twilight thrust her hoof into the air again. “I second that.” Rainbow pouted at the two with her cheeks puffing up and a tiny red tint coming to her cheeks. “Do ya gotta? Right now? When the others are right there?” Twilight smirked playfully at her other half. “Oh, please, tell me that there is a better time.” “You are disgustingly sweet to that moron, you know that?” Midnight asked with a gagging noise. Twilight’s smile twitched, but she otherwise did not respond. Rainbow’s wings ruffled in annoyance before she turned to Fluttershy. “Okay, Fluttershy, be my bell here. What was your time with Maud like?” Fluttershy tilted her head, looking confused. “Your… bell?” “As in saved by the bell,” Spike clarified. “She wants you to change the subject.” “Oh. Okay,” Fluttershy agreed with a warm smile before clearing her throat. “Ahem. Well… my time with Maud wasn’t so bad. She went along with me while I walked a forest trail around the edge of town. A lot of my little animal friends tend to relax around there, so I can spend time with them and hear about anything I should know about deeper in the woods.” “Sounds relaxin’,” Applejack noted. Fluttershy nodded. “Oh, yes, very relaxing,” she confirmed before her smile faded. “Maud was quiet for the most part, just following along. When I saw her looking at a particularly scary-looking spider, I told her all about how they’re actually very sweet and helpful, and keep other, more dangerous insects away.” “Huh. So she actually was interested in the wildlife?” Twilight asked in surprise. Of course, if anypony was capable of connecting with Maud, it would be- “No. she was looking at the rock it was standing on.” Absolutely none of them. It was official, Twilight decided. They were doomed. “Go figure,” Rainbow snorted in dismay. Fluttershy sighed. “I honestly should have known. She’s going to that big university about rockology, so of course, she’d be more interested in the rock then the spider,” she lamented. “If I just knew something about rockology or even geology, then maybe I could have struck up a conversation and held it.” “Rockology, geology,” Spike parroted before lifting his head. “Is there a difference?” Twilight leaned forward. “A bit, yes. Geology is the science that deals with the physical characteristics and substance of the world, its natural history, and the forces that act on it. This heavily involves rock formations and minerals. Rockology is similar but exceptionally more in-depth and technical. It’s not just about the physical characteristics and the forces that act on them, it’s also the forces they exert back on the world. It’s a science heavily used when using magic crystals to create enchantments since you need to know exactly how the crystal will react to what magic to create your desired effect.” Spike nodded along slowly. “Okay, okay… I think I get you… I think… maybe.” “Well, it definitely flew over mah head,” Applejack said. “Just like most things about Maud. When Pinkie brought her over, Ah thought it’d be good to have her help me make up a batch of apple cider. Ya know how easy it is to chat it up with somepony when yer cookin’ together, right?” “I know that,” Spike agreed before glancing at Twilight. “Twilight, though-” “You can stop right there, buster,” Twilight shot him down with a saccharine smile before he could finish that sentence. Applejack chuckled at the bit of banter before shaking her head. “Well, try as Ah might, ah just couldn’t hold a discussion with her. She just didn’t talk much. One or two words… Ah even gave her the easy part of peelin’ the apples. Not a lotta attention goin’ into that part. But, well… Ah guess they peel things differently on the rock farm, cause she just took a rock and beat the thing into a literal pulp!” Twilight blinked in shock. “She beat it?!” “Yup. When Maud was done, there weren’t no apple left, just a smear o’ juice soakin’ into the table. Left a mighty impressive stain, too.” “So suffice it to say,” Rarity picked up, lifting her face from her hooves again. “None of us had a particularly stellar time trying to bond one-on-one with Maud.” “And Pinkie Pie’s still goin’ on and on ‘bout sharin’ this friendship necklace tradition with us…” Applejack added. “But we’re just not sure we’re really friends with Maud,” Fluttershy finished with a solemn frown. “Even when we all really tried…” Applejack stepped forward, adjusting her hat on her head. “And that’s why we came here to y’all. We were hopin’ that maybe y’all saw somethin’ we missed, and had a better time with her. Maybe give us some insights or somethin’?” Twilight and Rainbow shared a glance.  “Oh, boy,” Rainbow grimaced. “You wanna recount it, or should I?” “I will,” Twilight volunteered, though she felt uncomfortable doing so. She took a deep breath before shifting to face the others directly. “Maud did come by here yesterday before she met with all of you. And… well… I don’t think she was planning on being friends with me.” Rarity blinked. “How do you mean?” Twilight fidgeted anxiously in place for a moment, wrestling with her thoughts. She took another breath before she went on. “You see, before she sent Pinkie to talk to all of you, Maud recited a bunch of poems she wrote to me, and, while they were all structurally fine, they were all about rocks. I couldn’t find much to say about them. So already, there was a bit of a disconnect. But then…” She adjusted her wings and looked down. “She sent Pinkie off to talk to you, and used that time to… confront me.” Fluttershy gasped. “Confront you?! About what?!” “About… Midnight,” Twilight eventually forced the words out, a chill racing down her spine. A heavy silence fell over the room. Everypony glanced between themselves for several seconds, only adding to Twilight’s growing discomfort. She tried to continue, but all that came were false starts and worthless workings of her jaw. Finally, Rainbow saw fit to save her and picked up the tale. “See, that was the incident that drove her to come here in the first place,” Rainbow said, gesturing vaguely. “To Ponyville, I mean. Maud heard about what happened with Twilight, about what she did when she was Midnight, and she was scared that Pinkie might have made friends with a dangerous pony. She more or less admitted to keeping an eye on Twilight specifically, watching her like a hawk the whole time. And when we were alone, she interrogated Twilight to make sure she wasn’t going to be a problem to Pinkie or something.” Applejack sighed, sliding her hat off. “Aw, shoot. Ah can’t really blame her fer that, honestly…” “Indeed,” Rarity agreed with a slow nod. “I say this with no offense meant to you, Twilight, but if I heard that Sweetie Belle was close friends with somepony who I knew had committed horrible crimes, I would certainly be worried for her until I could take her friend’s measure for myself.” Fluttershy frowned. “Zephyr didn’t have many friends when we were growing up… but most of them were a lot like him… and not in good ways.” Spike raised an eyebrow. “That guy has good qualities?” “Spike!” Twilight chastised lightly. “He’s stupid, stubborn, lazy, and clueless,” Rainbow said bluntly before meeting Fluttershy’s gaze in understanding. “But he’s not a bad pony. But Zephyr’s not the point here.” “Right…” Applejack agreed, turning her attention to Twilight again. “So, judgin’ from all that, Ah’m guessin’ y’all didn’t hit it off once ya showed her ya ain’t a threat?” “Not a threat, huh?” Midnight mused absently. “Hm. That’s an idea time will test.” “If you lay a single hoof on them…!” Midnight laughed at that. “Lay a hoof on them? Oh, heavens no. Why would I ever do that? After all… they’re your friends.” Twilight shuddered before sighing and shaking her head, both in answer to Applejack’s question and to dismiss Midnight from her thoughts for the time being. “Ugh… I just feel so helpless, dears!” Rarity complained, throwing her head back as if to shout at the heavens. “Pinkie Pie is going to such lengths to try and have us bond with her sister. And I want to, heaven knows I want to!” “But we’ve all tried,” Applejack lamented. “And we’ve all hit rock walls,” Rainbow finished with a sigh. “So… what? We throwing in the towel?” “I don’t know if we really have much of a choice,” Twilight said sadly, looking down at the table with her ears drooping. “Pinkie wanted us all to bond with her so Maud could see that Pinkie’s in good hooves, and so we could all share their rock candy necklace tradition. But… that tradition is only for the best of best friends, and…” “We aren’t,” Applejack finished with resignation. “Are we?” A general muttering of acknowledgment passed throughout the room. As much as it pained all of them to admit it, in spite of their individual best efforts over the course of the last couple of days, none of them had really managed to click with Maud at all… And that just left one final question. Spike sighed and leaned against one of the table’s legs. “So… who gets to tell Pinkie, then?”