Some years ago...
"Come on, hurry up Spring, we haven't got a whole lot of daylight left." Glitter Drops urged her friend along the forest path as the orange rays of the afternoon sun shone through the trees.
"Glitter, I just want to go on the record and say that I think this is a really bad idea." Spring said, the nervousness in his voice all too apparent.
"Spring, Fizzlepop has been missing for three months now. They've searched all over the forest except for that cave. I... I just have to be sure."
Spring Rain had very serious doubts that if Fizzlepop was in that cave, that either of them would be psychologically prepared to deal with seeing something like that. But he couldn't argue with how worried they were. When they had come back early this morning on a long weekend from school, they were looking forward to spending a few days with their best friend. They were both hoping that she'd started to move on from her injury early last summer.
The last thing they were expecting to hear was that she had literally moved on. Soapberry had told them that she vanished shortly after they had left for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, and that they hadn't found any trace of her. The only things missing from her room was her saddlebags, bit bank, and a hooded cloak. To Spring, it didn't sound like she was planning on going back here.
"And if she's not in there?" Spring whispered as they got closer.
"Then I want to see if we can find the tip of her horn." Glitter replied.
"Are you crazy?! Do you have any idea how long it'll take to look, and with that ursa—"
Glitter put a hoof over his mouth, as they were only about 25 feet from the cave.
"Spring..." She began in a whisper, leering at him frustratingly. "It's my fault she went in there in the first place. If you don't want to help me, fine. But you're good with low-level illumination spells, and I can cast muffling spells without too much effort. Working together is our best chance."
Spring Rain wasn't entirely convinced.
"If that thing twitches in its sleep, I'm out." He replied.
"Deal. I think the first trick is to not be as loud as we were that day. Now come on." Glitter said, stepping up to the mouth of the cave. She cast tacet gradibus on all eight of their hooves, and Spring cast humilus lux, and a dim beam emanated from the tip of his horn. It wouldn't be so bright as to disturb anything sleeping, but it would more than suffice for a pitch black cave once their eyes adjusted. Lastly, now that they knew what to watch out for, the ursa, if it was still present, would be easy to spot from a distance.
Their hooves softly sparkling, they slowly stepped into the cave, silent as the grave...
These spells might help them out here, but they certainly wouldn't help when they had to return to school. Muffling and illumination spells were learned and memorized quickly in the first two weeks; the school's coursework was becoming increasingly more advanced. They had begun to wonder what they were getting themselves into when during orientation on the first day, they were informed that the dropout rate was roughly 30%, and that students were expected to keep up with the curriculum. Perhaps Fizzlepop would have had a knack for this sort of thing, but for the two of them, they were quickly becoming overwhelmed at barely three months in, and both of them were wondering just how much longer they would last before their exam marks would start to slip.
It was otherworldly to not hear one's hoofsteps on a hard surface such as this, especially when dripping water reverberated off of the cave walls. They made sure to keep within reaching distance of each other, as Spring's illumination spell only shined about three meters in front of them. As they went further into the blackness, Spring couldn't get Fizzlepop's scream when she was attacked out of his head.
Suddenly, Glitter placed a hoof on his chest, and silently pointed to the ground about six feet in front of them. Spring wouldn't have noticed it, because he was mentally looking for something that matched Fizzlepop's coat. It hadn't really occurred to him until he laid eyes on it; of course the dark orchid coat would have rotted away after a matter of weeks, let alone six months. But there it was, on the stone floor of the cave; the white skeletal remains of a filly's horn.
Spring calmed his breathing as Glitter inched towards it and knelt down to get a closer look. She quietly reached into her saddlebags and magically pulled out a small zippered plastic bag, very carefully depositing the horn inside before slipping it up. After that, she got to her hooves and came back to Spring's side.
"I know someone at the school who can help us preserve it. Now come on, let's go. Hopefully we can make it back to town before dark."
Fizzlepop sat in the dirt in the clearing, about thirty feet away from the mouth of the cave, staring into the gaping maw, perhaps waiting for something to change, or a revelation. Her past was as black and deep as what was right in front of her.
She was fairly confident this area wasn't as dangerous as it was in her fillyhood. Ursas frequently outgrew the caves they had chosen to dwell in, and as they increased in size, they always moved further up the mountain to more isolated areas. This is why ursa minor appearances were considerably more common than ursa majors.
Her full gallop down here had calmed her down a bit, though her emotions still churned inside her. She wanted that reunion to go more smoothly, but when she saw the state of what used to be her bedroom... Something inside just snapped. It just reinforced her belief that she shouldn't have come back here and just left well enough alone... Even if it wasn't very well to begin with. But if she hadn't, she knew Starlight would have been right, and it would just slowly eat away at her, and—
"Fizzlepop?"
The unicorn felt herself nearly jump out of her skin at the voice behind her as she leapt to her hooves and turned around, looking at another familiar face from so long ago.
"C... Comet?"
"Here you go!" The middle-aged stallion logger said as he tossed a yellow rubber ball over to the trio of youngsters playing in the neighboring front yard.
"Wow, thanks Mister Comet!" the young Fizzlepop replied, catching the ball with her magic.
"Well, it was just collecting dust in an old chest. Figured you kids could use it to practice your magic. Everypony knows how much you three want to get into Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. Have fun now!"
The dark gray earth stallion was her old neighbor Comet Crescent, only a year or two younger than her mom. She remembered that he was the one that had given them the ball to play and practice with. The beard she remembered him having was a bit thicker, and had grayed noticeably.
"I knew my eyes weren't starting to fail me just yet. I thought I saw you come into town. Just... Wow, just look at you. You've become a fine mare, Fizzlepop. But it sounded like things didn't go too smoothly with your mom, though."
The unicorn felt a short sting in her chest. She was wondering if anyone had heard the commotion as she slammed the door to her old home and galloped away.
"I came out to see what was going on, and she pointed me in the direction that you ran off in. I told her that I'd try and find you, and see if you were okay. I mean, it wouldn't be the first time, right? Is everything okay, Fizzlepop? You've come back out of the blue, and, well, you've clearly been very busy." Comet asked, motioning to her horn and the sash around her chest.
"I'm currently wondering if it was a good idea to come back at all, Comet. As I told her moments before storming out, all of this is a lot more recent than you think. The rest of it is... Considerably more complicated." She told him.
"Well, it certainly sounds like you have a story to tell. Maybe over hayburgers?" Comet asked, turning back to face they way they had come.
Fizzlepop stood there, uncertain of what to say for a few moments.
"Come on, you at least owe me that much for organizing the search parties. I've been scratching my head for quite a long time, wondering that if you were alive, how you got so far, so fast. So come on, lunch is on me, Fizzlepop, and I'm all ears."
With that, he began walking back down the path to town, and Fizzlepop knew she wasn't going to get out of this without being insensitively rude to an old pony who had been completely civil so far. With a deep breath and a sigh, she broke into a walk and followed him back towards town as the sun approached its highest point in the sky. Luckily, he didn't expect much in the way of conversation as they made their way back to what passed as the central market, and they stepped into a small diner. They took a booth in the back corner, and a waitress immediately came up to them, setting two glasses of ice water in front of them.
"Good day, sir, ma'am. What can we get started for your lunch today?" She asked, pen and notepad at the ready, with the pair of ponies quickly glancing over the menu.
"Two carrot dogs, celery, onions, and mustard, please. With a sweet tea." Comet ordered, the server quickly jotting it down, before turning her attention to Fizzlepop on the other side of the table.
"Classic hayburger, the works, and an apple cider, please." She said, before sliding the menu across the table.
"We'll have that out to you in just a few minutes." The server replied, taking the menus and trotting back to the kitchen.
"So, do you want to start at the beginning?" Comet asked. Fizzlepop sipped at her water, not making eye contact, but instead kept looking down at the paper placemat.
"Being back here does jog the memories a bit. I initially thought I had followed the tracks east, and at first I did, but then... I saw a train coming the opposite direction once I had followed them about a half a mile. It... It was a freight train, and the sun was fading fast, so I knew the chances of me being spotted were low. I got up enough of a gallop along side to where I was able to jump on in between two of the freight cars. I nearly fell asleep, but I rode it all the way to Detrot. It... It slowed down on the approach to the train yard, and I got off before anypony saw me." The unicorn explained.
"Well, that certainly explains how you up and vanished. You're awfully lucky you made that jump onto the train."
"I certainly didn't stay at that pace. I headed south after that, I think. Resupplied at Appleloosa, before heading to the border. When I got to one of the border towns on the other side, I forget the name, I saw that my bit bag had torn open, and didn't have any money to pay for my supplies. I spent a few months in a restaurant kitchen, working off my bill, and also building up a wallet again. After that, I just... chased rumors, sought out mystical healers, and listened for where artifacts could be hidden. Nearly all of them turned out to be shams and wild goose chases. There's not much more to tell than that, Comet, because that's what encompassed nearly all of 16 of the last 20 years; just surviving; whether that was by working, or fighting, or stealing."
The old logger's expression was attentive, but not judgemental as he took in what Fizzlepop had to say, as their meals were brought out, and the conversation slowed as they began to eat. The hayburger took her back, she remembered it being one of her favorite fillyhood foods.
"So what about after that? You clearly eventually made your way back." Comet commented.
"Yeah, I did. And frankly, I'm lucky to be alive, and not spending the rest of my life in prison. After years and years of charlatans and con artists, I encountered a creature, an army-leading conqueror, that was able to back up his words with action. He said if I pointed him to sources of power and magic, that he'd use that power to reward my loyalty, to restore what I had lost. Believing him... Was the biggest mistake of my life."
Comet saw the unicorn shudder at those last sentences.
"He had spent years raiding and pillaging nations farther south and east, and was looking to eventually head north when I ran into him."
"You're talking about the Storm King?" Comet asked, beginning to connect the dots.
"I became his chief enforcer. I led a raid on the Hippogriffian Kingdom, and when what we were after vanished underwater, I had waited long enough, and was desperate enough to point him straight north. To Equestria."
Comet didn't need any more narration. The Storm King's attack on Canterlot three years ago had made headlines all across the nation.
"And when he got all the power I had promised him... He tossed me aside. When I was of no further use."
The stallion saw how this part of her history truly bit at her composure, how her voice sounded when she talked about it. She was completely ashamed of it.
"I can certainly understand the prison part, now." He commented, continuing into his carrot dogs.
"That's where I definitely would have ended up, for high treason, if it wasn't for Princess Twilight Sparkle."
He heard the inflection in Fizzlepop's voice shift again, as she said that name with such a high degree of admiration.
"Against Princess Celestia's better judgement, she took complete responsibility for me, brought me down the mountain to Ponyville, and immediately made plans to form an E.U.P. division for the town, and put me at the head of it. So that's what I've been doing since then. It was like a fresh start, a second chance. I've built up the Ponyville E.U.P., I've reunited with Spring and Glitter, they've become the caretakers for Twilight's castle, and I even got the opportunity to return to Mount Aris and help with the rebuilding efforts. That's how I got my horn back, by proving to Queen Novo that I had truly changed. So Glitter asked me if I'd been home at all, and I told her I hadn't. I didn't know if coming back here would be a good idea."
"Why not?" Comet asked.
Fizzlepop took the last bite of her hayburger and washed it down with a gulp of cider to get a moment to find her reasoning.
"Nopony told me the truth, Comet. The truth about my horn; about how there was no chance of getting it back, short of the miraculous magic of pearls with trans-figurative powers. And in the absence of that truth, my mind created a sense of false hope, that there was something out there that could help." Fizzlepop said, sliding her empty plate to the middle of the table.
"Is that why you're so mad at your mom? Because you think she didn't make you face reality enough?"
"She told me that I probably wasn't remembering it like it really happened, that it was so long ago. She turned my bedroom into storage. She was never expecting me to come back."
Comet noticed the mare's face twitch in anger for a second, and so collected his thoughts carefully, not wanting to make a scene in the middle of the diner.
"Fizzlepop... Twenty years is a very long time. And she's right; a lot of memories slowly change and warp in the ripples of time. Not just yours, but hers, and mine too. But I'll tell you something, for everything that changes, a few select memories burn so intensely that they stay exactly the same for the rest of your life. One of mine... Will be the look of heartbreak on your mother's face when we came back from searching for you night after night, with nothing. Eventually, she just told us all to stop, to get on with our lives."
Fizzlepop slowly looked over to her old neighbor.
"One of mine is in the throne room in Canterlot... Twilight standing between me and Celestia, refusing to recognize the charge of high treason." She told him.
Comet reached into his saddlebags and came out with ten bits for the meal and a two bit tip.
"Come with me, Fizzlepop." He told her, stacking his plate on Fizzle's empty one before sliding out from the booth and getting to his hooves. She followed him outside to just a few buildings down, to another familiar location. The pair walked through the sliding double doors of the Foal's Peak Critical Care Clinic, one of the larger buildings in town, and stepped up to reception.
"Yes? What seems to be the problem?" The white-uniformed mare asked.
"No problem, I'm wondering if Administrator Wellhoof is available. There's somepony out here he'll want to see." Comet told her, motioning to the unicorn beside him.
Too young to know who she was, the receptionist merely nodded at the two of them.
"We aren't too busy right now, let me go see if he has a few moments." She said, turning her chair and getting up to go to the offices behind reception.
Fizzlepop had a fairly good idea of where this was going. Another trip down memory lane.
Sure enough, one minute later, a middle-aged stallion in a white medical coat came out of the double doors into the waiting area.
"Hello, how can... Oh sweet Celestia... Fizzlepop? Fizzlepop Berrytwist?" The physician asked disbelievingly.
The unicorn managed a half-hearted smile.
"Wow... Just... Wow! Look at you! My goodness, you've grown. And your horn! I can't believe it!"
"It's... Good to see you, Dr. Wellhoof. It's been a long time." Fizzlepop offered, shaking his hoof.
"It's just... Wow, I'm beside myself. E.U.P., huh? I was wondering where you had gotten off to." Wellhoof commented, looking at the medals on her chest. "So how's your mom?"
Fizzlepop's smile faded, and she turned to Comet, who stepped up.
"That's why I wanted to bring her by. Fizzlepop here has been pretty conflicted about coming back to town at all, and it sounds like meeting her mom again after all this time... Could have gone better." Comet explained.
"Oh. Well, if there's something you need to get off of your chest, Fizzlepop, I'm all ears." Wellhoof told her, guiding her over to a pair of chairs in the waiting room, where they sat down next to each other.
Fizzlepop briefly glanced back over at Comet, who waited over by the reception desk, knowing that it wouldn't be appropriate for him to speak for her. She took a deep breath, then looked at her former pediatrician.
"Why didn't anyone tell me the truth about my horn? It is nothing short of a miracle that I got it back at all, and it wasn't even three years ago. I ran away, and wandered for a very long time because no one here; not you, not her, nopony made me face reality."
Wellhoof swallowed, taking in the accusation as professionally as he could, taking a few moments to come up with how to explain himself.
"Fizzlepop... The night your mom brought you in... You caught me in a moment of weakness, and I'm sorry to say that I wasn't strong enough to overcome it. Foal's Peak has always been small, and ponies tend to get to know each other. I knew how much your magic meant to you and your friends, and I didn't want to shatter that. She told me that she'd come up with some way to tell you, and even if she didn't..." The stallion paused, running a hoof through his mane. "Fizzlepop, being the bearer of bad news is part of my profession, literally part of my job description, and I didn't do it that night. If you want to blame anypony for not telling you what you believe you needed to hear, then blame me, please. Alright?" Wellhoof asked softly.
Fizzlepop took a breath, looked him in the eyes, and nodded.
"Alright. Thank you, Doctor Wellhoof." Fizzlepop told him.
"I'm thrilled that you've found your place, and there are a quite a few of us that are now going to get closure on what happened to you. I hope you come back and visit us, but if it's too painful, then I'll do my best to understand, and so will the rest of us. Have a great day, Fizzlepop, and thank you for stopping in to see me."
Wellhoof departed with a smile, and Fizzlepop got up and joined Comet back at the front doors, and they made their way back outside.
"Fizzlepop, I'm not saying the rest of us are blameless. No doubt we all could have done a little more to help you along. Me, Glitter Drops, Spring Rain, your mom... But... Have you considered how brave and bullheaded you were back then? How you might still be? No doubt that's how you survived out there on your own, and got some of those medals there. I want you to think real hard, and wonder if us telling you the cold hard truth would have made a difference. Two decades is a very long time, but you know what? You did find what you were looking for, eventually."
Fizzlepop didn't say anything, but did appear to think on what he had to say.
"From your story over lunch, I think what you've been doing is splitting your life up; everything that happened before Princess Twilight took you in, and everything that happened after that. Maybe even into more pieces; before your accident, and after, or before you met the Storm King, and after. Maybe part of you didn't want to come back because you prefer to keep them separated, because you can't quite figure out how to put all of them together. But all of those pieces, Fizzlepop? Some of them may be unpleasant, or jagged, but each of them together make up a whole pony. They are all part of who you are."
The pair of ponies turned back onto their road of homes, heading south towards the mountain forest.
"I don't know, Comet. If a mirror shatters, if a window breaks... You don't put it back together. You sweep the shards away, and then you get a new mirror, or a new window. Just putting it back together isn't going to do much good; you would always see the cracks; your broken reflection in the mirror, or feel the cold air that seeps through the cracks in the window... And I'd also say that there's a pretty good chance of getting hurt if you try to piece it back together, instead of just starting over."
Comet mulled over the unicorn's response. Either he chose the wrong metaphor that was too easily turned on its head, or he chose the right one, and his neighbor had a good counterpoint to his argument. He glanced at his watch as they came to their houses, stopping at the front walk of Soapberry's home.
"So what do you think the chances are of starting over with your mom? I know you've probably got a train back west to catch, but do you think you could do that for her before you leave?"
Fizzlepop checked the pocketwatch she kept on the inside of her dress coat. It was a 15-minute walk back to the platform, so she would have to hurry, but Comet was right, she should give it another go.
"Yeah, I'll try Comet. Thank you." She answered with a sincere smile. The two ponies shared a brief hug.
"That's all I ask. If you feel like you want to come back, I'd love to see you again." Comet asked, before continuing a short pace down the way and went back into the home next door, waving one last time as he did so.
Fizzlepop took a deep breath, and turned to the front walk, and thought about knocking again, but heard digging around back. She stepped off of the front walk, and went around the right side yard to the backyard. This row of homes had a shared, wide open field before the forest beckoned about a hundred meters back.
There knelt her mom, in the process of digging planting holes for a wheel barrel of new berry shrubs next to her. It looked like she had barely gotten started. She'd be at this for most of the afternoon, unless...
Fizzlepop lit up her horn, and Soapberry's work paused as she saw a small hole form in front of her trowel through sparkling, glowing light, along with two dozen more in four rows. She glanced back, and saw Fizzlepop in time for her horn's glow to fade. She got to her hooves as the unicorn silently stepped forward. Giving a smile, her horn lit up again, and the thirty planters of raspberry seedlings were levitated out of the wheel barrel, and gently set down next to each hole.
"I never did like farming, even when I was younger, so... I'll let the expert get them planted. Just figured I'd save you a bit of time with the holes."
Soapberry smiled.
"Thank you, Fizzlepop."
The unicorn cleared her throat, determined to keep her emotions in check this time.
"Look, mom, I honestly don't know if I'm ready to pick up where we left off, or start over, but I didn't want to leave on that bad note; I definitely could have gone about that better, and I'm sorry. If... If it's enough for you, to know that I'm okay, to know that I've found my place in Ponyville... Just say so, and I'll leave, and not come back."
Soapberry forced herself to swallow the lump in her throat.
"I remember how your accident absolutely devastated you, and I honestly didn't know what to say or do to make you feel better when Spring and Glitter left. I guess I was afraid of making things worse. I know I probably wasn't the best mother I could have been. Maybe it would have been different if your father was still alive, but that's all ancient history now, I suppose. Berries don't plant themselves, after all. I thought I did the best I could to keep a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. Fizzy, if being here brings back too many painful memories... Then you don't have to come back on my account. Even if we have some other things to work on and figure out, seeing you alive and well means the absolute world to me. We can always write to each other. Ponyville, was it? I'll definitely go and write that down."
The mother and daughter smiled at each other, before the earth mare came in for a soft hug.
"I love you, Fizzlepop. Never forget that."
Fizzlepop couldn't remember the last time she had heard those words as she returned the embrace.
The two ponies parted, and Fizzlepop cleared her throat again.
"Well, I've got a train to catch. Best of luck with your berries."
Soapberry didn't say anything more, just smiled and nodded with wet eyes, as her daughter smiled and turned back the way she came, and disappeared behind the side of the house.