//------------------------------//
// Nothing Else Matters. 
// Story: Equestrian Eeveelution. 
// by Symphonicdysonince 
//------------------------------//

[Yomega]

I looked around the new area I found myself in, idly bleeding off Rainbow's momentum as she appeared near me. The snowy forest here looked so calm and serene, I almost mistook it for Leo's Sanctuary.

"What the-?" Rainbow looked around in confusion. "Where'd the shadow thingy go?"

"It would be more accurate to ask where you went." I answered, looking closer at one of the trees. "I pulled you here from that fight so that you can help me with Leo herself."

Rainbow squinted at me. "... Yomega?" I nodded. "Why?! We were winning!"

"No you weren't." I felt a ripple bounce off of my whiskers and started following the impression through the pine forest. "Fighting that thing would have been a losing battle of attrition. You're better off here to help me with this than buying me the time to do it."

"Okay." Rainbow drew out as she flapped along behind me. "And you know that how?"

"I can see the future." I turned into a clearing.

"Uh-huh. So you know what's going on then, right?"

"Nope." I stopped walking and began to telekinetically clear the snow. "Due to being in constant flux, I can only really predict only a little ways ahead with any sort of certainty. After that, it becomes too muddled. Too contradictory. But every choice we will make prunes off some of those then false futures, and knowing that lets me narrow down the choices I will then need to make to remove those futures and oh dear I've gone cross-eyed." I heard Rainbow snort behind me. "The short of it, Rainbow, is that predicting the future is similar to time travel: If you don't get a headache, you don't understand it."

Rainbow landed beside me. "Okay, so what are we going to be doing then?"

I lit the uncovered fire pit. "Tracking down the entrance to Leo's Sanctuary, and talking to her."

"Her what?"

"Mental terminology, terribly confusing, don't worry about it." I shrugged.

"Right..." Rainbow looked at me, then the fire. "How does this help us, and how did you light it? Zann's the fire one, right?"

"Don't know, and this is a mindscape. We can breathe underwater if we so choose."

"'Don't know'?!" She poked my chest with a hoof. "You just said that you can see the future!"

"aɪm nɒt ˌɪntəˈrʌptɪŋ ˈɛnɪθɪŋ, æm aɪ?" We both looked over at a large humanoid ape creature, an Eevee pelt on its head.

I noticed Rainbow tense beside me. "You must be the Angry Monkey, then?" I asked.

It nodded.

"How many of you assholes are messing with Leo?!" Rainbow growled, only held back by my mental grip on her tail.

The Angry Monkey Glared at us. "aɪm hɜː tuː, ˈæsˌhəʊl. lʊk, aɪm hɪə tuː hɛlp. aɪm ɒn jɔː saɪd hɪə."

I shivered as the move passed through me. "Yeah, we can't actually understand you, and I'm not sure if you understand us, either..."

"ˈfɪɡəz."

"We need help in finding Leo's Sanctuary, can you nod if you know where that is?" I asked.

"You just said that..." Rainbow was cut off as the Angry Monkey nodded. "So you do understand us! This will be easy!"

"dəʊnt ɡɛt ˈkɒki..." The monkey grumbled as it turned away, beckoning us to follow it. It led us through the pines, past copy-pasted clearings, and even over an icy creek. It remained silent the entire way. Eventually, it stopped at a dense stand of pines, and pointed through a small gap in the branches.

"Through here?" Rainbow asked, her wings fidgeting. "Are you going to come with us?"

"nəʊ." It stated, shaking its head. "hiː wəʊnt lɛt ʌs kʌm təˈɡɛðər, ænd hɪz ˈmæʤɪk ɪz tuː strɒŋ."

"Good luck, with whatever you need to do to keep that shadow away from here." I gave the Angry Monkey a slight bow. "C'mon, Rainbow."

The Monkey seemed to sigh, before turning and loping away. I led Rainbow through the pines, threading our way between clawing branches and scratching needles for several minutes. Eventually, we exited out into a clearing. A lamppost illuminated a large slab of wood ensconced in a stone arch. A lighting bolt shaped indent decorated the keystone and a sign hung from a nail on the slab.

"Is that a door?" Rainbow asked as we got nearer. "Where's the handle?"

"This door doesn't open so easily." I explained. "It guards the final bastion of Leo's mind. Nothing enters here unless she so wishes."

Rainbow looked back at me. "... What's a bastion?"

"A very strong castle." I sighed.

"Huh." She turned back at the door and squinted at the sign. "'No admittance, except on party business'? Do... Do we need to get Pinkie in here?"

"No." I snorted. "It's just a thing from a book Leo read once. She's always loved her references."

Rainbow landed beside me with a frown. "So. How are we getting in?"

"We need Leo to let us in." I repeated. "So we need to get her attention." I frowned in thought. "But anything we can do to let her know we are here would just alert the Shadow to our location. Which means that it'll need to be either something small or something direct. Maybe an array of psionic energy set to a stutter pulse? Or could the Shadow notice that? Maybe send mental spikes into some of these trees and what are you doing?" I focused back on Rainbow.

She lowered her hoof from where she was rapping the wood. "It's a door." She snarked. "You knock on it."

"No, thank you!" Leo's muffled voice came from beyond the archway. "I don't need anymore visitors, well-wishers, distant relations, or eldritch brainwashers!"

I held a paw up to stop Rainbow from speaking. "And what about very old friends?" I called back.

The wooden slab rippled and flowed like a cloth curtain as Leo poked her properly coloured head around it. "Yomega? Rainbow?" She looked around the clearing. "... What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you!" Rainbow hovered above Leo's head. "Princess Luna and Abes are fighting that shadow thing so that we can even talk to you!"

"Rainbow!" I snapped. "Look, Leo, we need to talk to you. In there." I pointed at the door.

Leo squinted at us. "How do I know that you aren't just another trick of the Shadow or the Claw?"

"You've got a Soul Bond with Rainbow, right?" I asked.

Leo, Rainbow and I all began to faintly glow red. "Rainbow!" She cried, glomping Rainbow before pulling her though the slab. A moment later, she pulled me through as well.

I stumbled into a studio. Two walls were taken up by shelving, a few shelves holding clay models. In that corner, a table was set up with clay shaped into a vague quadrupedal lump. There was a computer I recognized as Leo's old one from earth sitting on a desk, crowded by more figurines. The desk, in turn, took up a wall by itself. There was an easel and small bookshelf on either side of where the archway would've been. In its place was a large framed picture, showing a bust of Rainbow framed by the Pack, Tank, and a few other Eevee's I didn't recognize.

As Leo conjured up some cushions for us to sit on, I took a closer look at the figurines. It took me a moment to realize that they were of us, all of us, frozen in time. Likely key or favourite memories of us. I paused in my examinations upon spying a covered model, hidden at the back of one of the shelves behind a set of the eggs.

"Can I get you anything? Water, cider?" Leo asked, trotting over to the desk.

"You, uh..." Rainbow awkwardly coughed. "You know that we're in your mind, right?"

"Well obviously." Leo rolled her eyes. "Kinda not that hard to figure out. Especially with you holding me down then starting to meditate, Alpha." Leo shot me a half lidded glare. "Those roots hurt, by the way." She returned to rummaging through the desk drawers. "Still! Doesn't mean that I can't be a courteous host." She pulled a kettle and a hot plate out, setting them up on the desk.

"I'll have some tea, then, if you'd please." I sat on a cushion, and nodded for Rainbow to do the same.

With a sigh, Rainbow landed on the largest cushion. "I'll have some too, I guess..."

"Tea for three then!" Leo chirped, fishing out some dried Leafeon tail leaves from a tin, the kettle filling by itself. Popping them in, she turned the hotplate on and bounced to join us. "So! What's up?"

I shot Rainbow a look. "Well, I'd like to know what's going on with that Shadow thing, for starters."

"Is it tied to how you've been lately?" Rainbow demanded, causing Leo to flinch. Rainbow's eyes widened as her ears folded back. "Er, I mean..."

"No, no..." Leo sighed, all of her cheer and pep vanishing. "It's... I guess..." She blew out an explosive sigh. "... Let me just..."

"Take your time." I soothed.

Nodding, Leo took a sip of her tea. I gently blew on mine to help it cool off as Rainbow twitched, looking between her cup and the now empty spot on the desk.

Eventually, Leo spoke up. "Rainbow, I... I'm not a happy person."

"But-!"

"I can do a very good mask." Leo cut the pony off. "But it's just that: a mask to cover up the rain clouds in my head. And I've always been this way. Long before coming to... Ponyville, I met and talked with a professional and came to terms with it. I acknowledged that part of me, and got on with my life. Whenever the clouds got too heavy, I would take some time for myself. Then I came here."

Leo smiled up at Rainbow, tears glistening in her eyes. "Sure, I was worried about this new land we were in, if I would be able to see our old Pack again, but those clouds didn't bother me as much. I... I found myself wanting to stay here more and more. And then I met someone. Someone I could relate with, could let myself be my weird wacky self with, and be taken as normal. She chased those clouds away. After so, so long, I felt like I could be truly happy."

Rainbow swallowed thickly as Leo sniffed and rubbed at her eyes. "I'm so happy that you've let me into your life, Rainbow."

"So... What changed?" Rainbow rasped out.

Leo shrunk into herself, raising the cup to her lips. "... The wedding..." She admitted around the rim.

"We split up, hoping to help." I explained. "Leo, Zann, and Lulu were all in the Scholar's District."

Rainbow's eyes widened. "The mana bomb!" She exclaimed, missing Leo's flinch. "Leo, if you're feeling guilty about not being able to stop it from going off..." She trailed off as the covered model floated in front of us.

I gently placed it down, looking at Leo. "This is the memory of that moment?" She nodded. "Do you want me to...?"

"No, no. I've gotta..." She hesitantly reached out and bit the edge of the cover. Wincing, she whipped the cover off, revealing a snarling canine being clutched by a terrified changeling, a large ball with wisping energy tailing it dominating the base. It was unpainted, unlike the rest of the models and figurines in the room.

I looked at Rainbow, watching her stare at it, watching for her reaction. "Is... is that you?" She asked at length. Wincing and shying away, Leo nodded. Rainbow frowned in thought. "... There wasn't a mana bomb, wasn't there?" Another flinch and nod. "Leo... Did you blow up Canterlot?"

"... Yes." Leo whispered.

"Why?!" Rainbow yelled.

"They were harming children!" Leo shouted back, anger clear on her face. But her wrath quickly faded. "We freed them, I told Lulu and Zann to get the foals to safety, and I stayed to buy them time... But I lost myself to my rage." She took a deep breath. "There's something that... creatures like us can learn, although I didn't learn about it until after I... blew up Canterlot. It's a set of super powerful abilities, stronger than my Solar Flare. They require a tra-, er, summoner and either a strong bond or strong emotions to fully use."

She waved at the model. "That... was an R move, powered by rage. I..." Leo sniffed. "I understand if you hate me, if you don't want me around. I'll, I'll-"

Rainbow kept her hoof pressed to Leo's muzzle. I could see Rainbow's thoughts churning behind her eyes as she struggled to look at Leo. "Do you regret what you've done?" She whispered.

Leo nodded against Rainbow's hoof.

"Would you have used this R move if you knew that you could do it beforehoof?"

Leo paused in thought. She leaned back to speak. "I honestly don't know. Maybe? I would've definitely been more careful and watching my emotions, but I would always do everything I can to protect a child. To give them the childhood that I never had."

Rainbow nodded. "What about going forward? Would you use it again?"

"No!" Leo emphatically shouted.

"Not even to protect or save me?"

"I-" I was treated to the rare sight of watching a canine blue screen.

"Yeah, I figured as much..." Rainbow sighed. "Look, Leo... Neither of us is good at this whole word thing, but..." She looked around the room before her eyes alighted on the bookshelf. "You like reading, right? Collecting stories and referring back to them, right?"

"Be warned, she misquotes all the time." I tried to inject some levity into the conversation.

"I've noticed." Rainbow sighed.

"I'm a proper malaproper." Leo weakly chuckled. "Don't worry, when I write my autobiography, I'll write them right."

"Anyway!" Rainbow forced us back on track. "How many stories have you read where one of the good characters has a super move that they can use, but they rarely do for one reason or another?"

"That's just a trope used to make a story last longer." Leo shot back. "You and I both know that they would use those abilities as soon as it was safe to do so."

"That's not the point!" Rainbow growled out.

"Then what is?!"

"I don't know any more!" Rainbow threw her hooves up.

"If I may?" I waited for both of them to give me the go ahead. "Leo, is it fair to say that part of your current depression is a fear of unleashing an R move again?" 

"... Yes..."

"If there was a way to make sure that you could only use an R move after a set circumstance was met, would that help alleviate that fear?"

"I... Maybe?"

I nodded. "Leo. We're in your Sanctuary." I reminded her. "With your permission, I could put a mental blocker in place so that you could only use an R move if you are ordered to by select individuals. Don't just say yes. Think it over."

Leo sighed, tears starting to well up. "It'd still be easier if I just left."

"Leo..." Rainbow started.

"I can't hurt those I care about if I'm not there!" Leo interrupted her mare as she let her tears fall. "I can't kill anyone if there's no one around me! No one will need to worry about the monster in their midst if I'm gone!"

"YOU'RE NOT A MONSTER!!" Rainbow cried, her own tears falling. "You're my friend! No, you're more than that! You're half of my soul, Leo! Just as I am half of yours!"

"I've killed ponies, Rainbow! Do you know how many ponies died in my R move?! I don't. But I know it was too many! Do you honestly think that the Princesses would let me off with a warning and a slap on the wrist for that?!"

"Then I'll share your punishment!" Rainbow was standing now. "They could imprison us, banish us, or have us cleaning out Tartarus for eternity, I don't care! I'd be there with you every step of the way because I care about you too bucking much to let you go through it alone!

"And this, this depression stuff?! I don't care about it! You're Leo, my awesome friend, who regularly goes up against the sound barrier and wins! If that means that you have days where you don't... don't feel happy, that you feel like you don't matter, that you'd rather run away from everything, then that's okay! We'll stay in bed and read sappy books together! And, if you really were a monster, then I'd still want you by my side."

Rainbow stood there panting for a moment before sitting back down. "I... I can't imagine a day that doesn't have you in it anymore, Leo. And I know you feel the same about me."

Leo sat on her stained cushion, staring at Rainbow with tear-matted fur. Her fur and lips trembled, barely holding a whimper back. Rainbow was a silent mirror to her.

The silence dragged on. I took the opportunity to read the ripples on my fur.

Eventually, Rainbow gave a slight cough. "Uh... Leo?"

"I'M SO SORRY!!" Leo bowled Rainbow over and began bawling into her barrel.

I quietly sipped at my tea, letting Leo finally release everything that she had been holding in. Closing my eyes, I monitored the fight going on on the upper most layer. I frowned.

Luna and Abes were starting to flag.

"I really hate to interrupt, but we're going to need to reinforce Luna and Abes sooner rather than later." I prodded Leo.

She curled up around Rainbow's hooves. "Do it. You and Rainbow only."

That caught me flat footed. "I- What?"

The Eevee just rolled her eyes. "That mental trigger thing for R moves? Key it to just you and Rainbow."

I nodded and began to focus. Two padlocks appeared and hooked themselves to the now coloured Leo-and-Changeling model. One was gold with Rainbow's cutie mark etched into it, the other was silver with a stylized green Espeon head. A pair of matching keys appeared hanging from Rainbow's and my necks.

Once done, I huffed out a tired sigh. "Alright. Now we just got to evict an unwanted Shadow, and we'll be good to go."

Leo scrunched her muzzle up in thought. "... I think I know what to do." She looked up at Rainbow. "Once everything is said and done, we really need to find me a therapist."

With that, we all fell through the floor.