//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Secret of the Pies // by Player 4 //------------------------------// (Fire Jewel's bedroom) Fire, after a train ride packed to the brim with emotional anticipation, and perfect length for dwelling on that anticipation, with embarrassing shivering involved, takes a step of her life onto the dock of the Ponyville Train Station, where the ones, the six multi-colored mares, behold. Standing and staring right at her and her husband. "Hi, Fire Jewel and Golden Arrow! Nice to meet you!", Twilight says with a wave. "You too, friend of Pinkie's!", Fire Jewel says, shaking a hoof with her. And you would be..." "I'm Twilight, and this is Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash.", she said as each friend performed a signature greeting as she sounded off their names. Fluttershy flapped, Rarity smiled, Applejack tipped her hat, and Rainbow Dash... was amused. "Hah! I still can't believe Pinkie Pie was adopted!", Rainbow Dash says. Twilight stares at Dash with a grunt, but Fire brushes it off and says "Well, I'm sure Pinkie couldn't believe it either." Pinkie doesn't respond with any words. Fire decides to just move things along. "So, Twilight and Co., where should we go?", she says, taking in sights of the grassy-green and blue-skied landscape. Much unlike the brown dirt look of her home. "I reckon a meetin' at Twilight's house.", Applejack suggests. "That'd give us a place to ask questions and stuff without it gettin' too embarrassin' in public or bringin' the news frenzy out." Fire was saying "Aww" inside. She loved Applejack's accent. Twilight doesn't comment about the news frenzy thing, but agrees on her castle as the destination. "I mean, it is the Castle of Friendship.", she said. Fire's heart warmed. "It's so good to know that this place is so caring about friendship that we literally have a princess and a castle for it." "You don't have that on your world?", Twilight asks inquistively, her princess of friendship instincts activating. "Sadly, we don't.", Fire Jewel responds. "Draconequi don't really see the beauty in friendship the way that you ponies do. I have been trying to change that; I'm the head of an organization in my town dedicated to teaching our species about the magic of friendship." "And I bet you could help with that, Twilight.", Fire suggests, sensing a dream coming along. "If you want to go to my world and such." "I would like to someday." Fire loves the imagined scene. Her and the Princess of Friendship sitting down in one of her convention meetings for Twilight to give a lecture about friendship to her neighbors who don't really get it. How awesome would that be. But for now, she made her way to Twilight's castle, along with her daughters Pinkie and Maud and their friends. She looked forward to getting to know them better and to explain the adoption situation. ... "So, you're saying you gave away Pinkie and Maud because the world they were born in was too dangerous for them.", Rainbow Dash made sure. "That is correct.", Fire responds, taking herself back to that moment. "I knew it was what was best for them, but oh boy, was it awful. I cried my eyes out that night." "Well, why didn't you just move here along with them?", Rainbow asks. "Draconequi were very not welcome in this world when Pinkie and Maud were born. Discord was trapped in his statue form and everypony was super wary of our species." "I had to make it as quick as possible and go in the dead of night to drop Pinkie and Maud off at their adoptive house, so nopony would notice what creature I was." "Plus, I didn't think it would be a very good idea for me to live here anyway. Draconequi feed off of chaos, and I didn't want to mess up your peaceful world. I mean, you went so far as to banish Discord into a stone for a reason." The ponies remain completely silent, Fire thinking they don't know how to respond. She understands that; this was quite the heap of info to process, and she was reminding them of actions they took... that just so happened to play a major role in this life-shaking event for Fire. "Well, I'm sorry that had to happen to you, Fire Jewel. And to you, Golden Arrow.", Twilight says sympathetically. "Thank you.", Golden Arrow says. "You all seem so nice." "And please let it be known that Maud and Pinkie Pie have turned out spectacular in this world.", Rarity adds. "They are happy here, they see Equestria as their home, and the parents you chose for them raised them well." "They did, mom! Please do know that!", Pinkie says, hugging Fire. Fire smiled warmly at the hug. Rarity's words did strike her well. Honestly, Fire really was happy for her daughters. She felt good that the giveaway ended up a success in terms of quality of life for them. And now, with this meeting having taken place, she doesn't feel like she has to worry about how she could have made things work out somehow, or that maybe she didn't have to spend so much time away from her daughters. What's done is done, they've had a good life in Fire's chosen destination, and she did have them back now. ... The eyes have opened. Whoa! What was that dream?!, Fire thought excitedly, hoping she saw what she think she saw. Yeah. I remember... I was with Pinkie and Maud's friends... in the castle home of one of them. I explained why I couldn't keep my daughters, and why I also didn't move to Equ... Shoot! Fire realizes she's forgotten an important detail. An easily ask-able question, when explaining everything to Pinkie and Maud. She never said why she didn't tag along with them to Equestria. Why she had to split back to the draconeqqus world. I sure hope they're not wondering about that in their heads..., she thinks, as she tries to lay her head back down to finish out the night, with all this jittery motivation to do a certain something. Pinkie had stuck the landing onto the below ground, and was waiting for Maud to join her. "You ready, Maud? For the big, final jump?!", Pinkie shouts. "I'm... ready!", Maud responds as she pairs the "ready" with the plunge from her last bounce into the inflatable pillow, featuring... wow, how many front flips can she do?! Landing made perfectly on her hooves, and Maud was up for some more fun. "Want to go to the hide-and-seek house of mirrors?" "Yeah!", Pinkie exclaimed. "Let's go!" Pinkie bounced up in the mirror house's direction, in her usual bouncy self, but later, says "Huh?" when she sees a moving patch of gray out the corner of her eye. Turning her head to the right, she notices the smiling Maud running along with her, at full catch-up speed. "Yep. You're seeing it, Pinkie. I'm running now. Race you to the house of mirrors!", Maud says as she speeds up and races in front of Pinkie. Pinkie instantly had to kick into overdrive mode while she was already at confusion mode. Maud was racing her? Pinkie uses her now-known-to-be draconeqqus powers and zips to the mirror house at the speed of Rainbow Dash, leaving a pegasus trail behind. She won the race, but not by much, with Maud's last runs being right in her view as Pinkie panted from the exercise. "Good race. We should keep doing those.", Maud says, high-hoofing Pinkie. Okay, there was no dispute. Something was really off about Maud here. ... Pinkie, while in Maud's (Fire Jewel house) bedroom preparing for a cuddly night with her sister, finally musters up the courage to ask her what's going on, feeling like it was necessary before going into something so intimate. "Maud, I've been thinking..." Pinkie was about to trail off, but snapped herself in and cut to the chase. "Have you been changing? By any chance? Like, you seem a lot more smiley... and energetic... and silly..." Maud was still shameless. She walked right on over to Pinkie with a smile, looking into her eyes, and did the hoof-on-shoulder thing again. "To be frank with you, Pinkie, I have changed!", Maud says. "I've decided to let loose and be shameless a little." "You know what spawned it? This adventure with you. While the circumstances are stressful, the fact that I got to spend so much time with you, on an event that affects us so deeply... with an adventure, and uncertainty... that made me start to let go." ...Wow. "So, you can start doing things like... playing with me?", Pinkie asks. "Doing silly, funny things with me?" "That's just what we were doing today, Pinkie Pie!", Maud says, still looking into her eyes. "You're the best, sis.", Pinkie says as she wraps Maud into a teary, warm hug. "You're the best too.", Maud responds, petting Pinkie's shoulder. "Now, what do you say we take this hug into bed?" "I say let's do it!",Pinkie says, as she dives onto the mattress while still holding Maud in her grasp. Maud, in her newfounded fashion, giggled at Pinkie's random explosiveness. She then hugged her sister tighter, symbolizing the perfect result of this whole saga. Sibling love. "I love you!", Pinkie said, starting to tear up again. ... Pinkie wakes up feeling a patch of wetness at the bottom of her eyes, as she remembers the dream. Whoa, did I actually cry there? Wow. She did, and she sees no reason why not to have done so. That moment..., her eyes start wetting again ...that was beautiful! Maud told me that yes, she had changed, and then she cuddled with me, after I held her on my dive into bed... hehe. And the thing is... she's displayed the same behavior in real life. Or at least, it seems like she's progressing to it. Pinkie can sense the looming presence of, literally, a dream come true. Might I ask her?