The Perfect Little Village of Ponyville
Chapter 9: Gut-Wrenching Truths
“I think you can unchain her now,” said Applejack once they were beyond the town’s boundaries.
Rainbow Dash sighed theatrically. “I wish you’d make up your mind,” she joked.
They all knew that the chains were solely to calm the enraged populace, and that there was no way that the mournful unicorn walking behind them would ever think of fleeing. Besides, all of that weight was not only slowing her down, but the entire group, and it would be a long trek to the Fluttershy Forest.
This group included not only Vinyl Scratch and four of the six “Champions of Celestia” she had named to Pinkamena, but also Graphite, Big Mac, Soarin’, and four pegasus guards.
Vinyl would have complained at this, since it so clearly contradicted the story she was trying to follow so far, but this Nightmare Moon had herself an army already, so some sort of adjustment was required in any case.
But that didn’t mean she had to accept all of them.
Vinyl stepped in next to Applejack to ask her a question: “I can understand why you’d want to bring Big Mac, but why Graphite?”
The pony being asked looked coldly back at her. “First of all...” she started, before turning her head. “Graphite, could you please join us?” She turned back to face Vinyl as her assistant joined her. “I prefer not to discuss my employees behind their back,” she said politely. “Somehow, it always gets back to them in the end, and this way they have my exact words to judge me by instead of some second- or third-hoof account. And second, Miss Scratch,” she said, letting a veritable arctic storm of coldness into her voice, “could you kindly remove your eyewear and repeat the question? I’d like to know if you’re insulting me before I answer, and I’m a lot better at judging that when I can see the eyes of the pony I’m talkin’ to.”
Vinyl grudgingly accepted the reasonableness of the request, and removed her sunglasses. “I was just asking,” she said, “why you considered Graphite a necessary part of an expedition that I believe will probably not require his skillset. I’m thinking above all about the safety of this party, and what will be necessary to guarantee that safety. And I’m not sure how you could consider the question insulting,” she added, hoping what she said didn’t sound insulting.
“Well...” Applejack drawled, doing her impersonation of a much dumber pony, “you’re a unicorn, and I’m a earth pony...with a unicorn as an underling. You might have thought that against the natural order or somethin’.”
Vinyl pulled her head back. “Now I am the one who is insulted. Some of my best friends...”
“Oh!” Applejack quickly interrupted in anger. “So we’re going to play the ‘Some of My Best Friends’ game, unicorn from Canterlot? The same place where they still insist on calling our princess a ‘winged unicorn’, as if a particularly clever flying spell was the only thing that separated her from you and kept her forever separated from us? There’s no room in that little worldview for a rich and successful earth pony, is there? One rich enough to hire one of your own to do the things that I could do quite easily if I happened to be born with a silly horn putting a hole in this here hat. I pay Graphite here quite well. Enough to reward the versatility and creativity I demand of all of my top employees, and a bit extra for putting up with everything I have to say about unicorns. You see a bookish secretary, while I see at least three extra senses. I’d sooner dock my tail than go anywhere dangerous without Graphite.” She then changed her voice again, sounding a great deal like her sister Applebloom after finding a lizard. “So do I get to keep him or not?”
Vinyl Scratch seethed. There was a great deal she wanted to say.
And none of it will do a bit of good, will it? It was the internal voice of DJ Pon-3. Take my advice, and don’t feed the troll.
“He can stay,” Vinyl said curtly, and adjusted her pace to allow Applejack to pass her.
As she reviewed the strengths and weaknesses of the party in her mind, Vinyl briefly reconsidered her decision to leave Spike behind, but eventually concluded that he would be “more of a liability than an asset”, to use a phrase more expected from the mouth of this world’s Applejack than that of DJ Pon-3. She also decided that she might be seen as more accessible of a leader if she kept her sunglasses off, and so she tucked them into her saddlebags.
Vinyl was finding it difficult to keep her facts straight. Now that she had her original memories back, they were all that she could recall easily. It took great effort to remember the things that this world’s Vinyl knew and remembered. Considering which version of Vinyl commanded the more powerful magic, this could prove problematic.
“So,” said Pinkamena, sidling up to Vinyl and speaking low enough for them not to be overheard. “How are we doing so far?”
“Well,” said Vinyl, “two of the Elements are at least within the general ballpark. Rarity was criminally generous in forcing happiness upon every resident of Ponyville, and Rainbow Dash has been catastrophically loyal to her pegasi at the expense of every other pony in Equestria. The other two have a long way to go yet.”
Pinkamena, knowing that she was one of those two, smirked humorlessly. “So that’s how the Elements work,” she said. “And I suppose you’re the mysterious sixth Element?”
Vinyl nodded then grinned mischievously. “Promise you won’t tell anypony. It’s much more dramatic to realize the truth at the last possible second.”
Pinkamena raised one eyebrow. “Indubitably,” she said. “By the way, I’m Honesty, aren’t I? The teller of truths so painful they rip your guts out.”
“No,” said Vinyl with a grimace. “You’re not Honesty. Applejack is.”
Pinkamena pointed at the pony who was walking several paces ahead of them. “So why don’t you tell her?” she asked. “Tell her who she really is. Tell her who you really are.”
“I’ll never get through that granite skull of hers,” said Vinyl. “I mean, what am I going to say? ‘You’re living a life that doesn’t belong to you’? ‘You’re a stranger in your own head’? It was hard enough to get her to come along on this quest. She’d never accept something like that without proof. I’d never accept something like that before I had proof. You can’t get a pony to go in those sorts of directions just by telling it to them, believe me. You have to trick them into finding it themselves.”
Pinkamena poked Vinyl in the chest. “You are one stubborn pony. I on the other hoof think Applejack and I could take it.”
“You’re the Element of Laughter,” Vinyl told her.
“No. No, no, no. NO, NO, NO!” Pinkamena shouted, covering her ears with her forehooves and racing away past Applejack on her hind legs. “The last thirty seconds are officially NULL and VOID!”
“The prosecution rests,” Vinyl said to herself, shaking her head.
Applejack looked back at Vinyl and gave her a mysterious look. Vinyl noticed that Applejack was now wearing a pair of apple-ornamented earmuffs, a completely unneeded accessory on a warm morning like this.
Vinyl returned to the dilemma of keeping her memories straight, and came up with a solution that doubled as a way of resolving several other mysteries that had been bugging her.
“When I was a little filly,” Vinyl said loud enough for everypony to hear, “I saw the Princess raise the sun at a Summer Sun Celebration with her song. From that moment, I dreamed of being a magical musician. I devoted my every waking moment to that dream and finally on a day ten years ago, I had the chance to make that dream a reality.
“It was the day that would later be known as Skybreak. I was in Canterlot Castle to take part in the entrance examination for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. I had studied all of the classic compositions and memorized the complete life stories of dozens of famous mages, so naturally I aced the written portion of the examination. Unfortunately, this was followed by a challenge: each of us was placed in a room with a potted century plant and a trio of judges. We were asked to compose a new spell to make the plant bloom. In this task I completely and utterly failed. I could not come up with an original tune to save my life, and the School was for composition, not study. I had been fooling myself for all those years.
“As I was walking forlornly out of the castle,” Vinyl continued, “I heard screams of panic behind me. Suddenly, a room on the side of the castle burst open. That room was the hatchery, where dragon princes left the eggs that guaranteed their good behavior and where the next generation of dragon diplomats would be born. Out of the rubble of the demolished hatchery stepped a full-grown rampaging dragon. The dragon started stomping his way through the capital, toppling buildings left and right and trying to trample the fleeing ponies underfoot. The buildings he didn’t crush were soon set aflame from his fiery breath.”
Vinyl decided to leave out the part about the mad purple unicorn riding the dragon and screaming “VENGEANCE!” at the top of her lungs. Well, at least she’d leave out any obvious references to her.
After a moment, Vinyl continued. “Behind me,” she said, “I heard a tremendous ‘BOOM’ and saw a band of rainbow in the sky cross over my head. At that moment, I suddenly heard the harmony that exists between all creatures, and the melody of the Princess that subtly intertwines itself with the whole of creation, and behind that a song of sorrow for something lost so very long ago. I could hear the musical potential that hides in every silence, and I heard the furious solo from the vicinity of the dragon that struggled to be heard.
“And so I sang. I sang the song of forgiveness. I sang the song of balance, the song of goodness and love. And the rampaging dragon turned back into an egg.”
Vinyl stood there silently for a few seconds.
She soaked in this memory that was not really hers, as the others watched her.
“The Princess found me resting beside the egg,” she finally said. “I then stood up, looked her straight in the eye, and asked for a make-up on my earlier failure.
“Princess Celestia rested one hoof on the shell of the egg and concentrated for a few moments before smiling at me. ‘Hatch the egg of this innocent dragon,” she told me, ‘and that will be make-up enough.’”
“And did you hatch the egg?” asked Soarin’.
Vinyl nodded. “You can all meet Spike when we get back to Ponyville.”
“You can take this as the beginning of my confession,” began Rarity.
“In my fillyhood years, I suffered under the delusion that I was meant for something special. I had a unique vision, I told myself, a vision that must be shared with the world!
“Years passed, until I was the only member of my class without a cutie mark. We were putting on a school play. Having no skill in the realm of acting, I took it upon myself to design the costumes and scenery. What I came up with was adequate, perfectly adequate under the circumstances. But I would not allow myself to accept this. I told myself that I must create the most artistically pleasing setting for my fellow students’ performances. No, my silent work must utterly and completely eclipse anything they might attempt to do from within the strait-jacket of my clothing and the prison walls of my sets! And so I set up my own fall from grace.
“One day I let my magic run wild. ‘Do anything,’ I bid my horn, ‘just make this play into my triumph!’ Suddenly, my horn lit up, brighter than a thousand suns. It sought out a kindred source of magic, and then PULLED! My horn dragged me out of Equestria, through the fields, over mountains and across deserts. I crossed trackless wastes too numerous to count! But was I worried? Never! I was convinced I was being pulled towards MY DESTINY! And, as it turned out, that is exactly where I was headed.”
Rarity looked around her, to see how thoroughly she had drawn the other ponies into her tale. But then she shook her head violently, as it was just this sort of pride that had ruined her. “Now we come to the fatal moment of choice. My horn’s light went out, and with it the mysterious force that had been pulling me. Before me was a gigantic rock. This was the destiny I should have chosen, if only I hadn’t been such a fool. The rock was telling me that my life should be hard, that I should work myself to the bone in order to deserve the fruits of an honest day’s labor. That is what I should have seen. But instead my prideful heart only saw an ugly behemoth. ‘This is my destiny?’ I demanded of the rock, and the Fates. ‘This is just a stupid rock! I reject you!’ And I reached out a feeble forehoof and kicked it.
“At that exact moment, the sky burst into a rainbow, and my fate was sealed. The tremendous explosion caused the rock to vibrate extremely rapidly, then fall over, nearly killing me. Oh, if only it had! For when the rock fell a piece of it broke off, revealing that it was hollow inside. Originally, that rock was a geode full of precious gems, but that vibration was so strong as to shatter the gems inside into powder. What I pulled out of the hole in that rock was pure diamond dust.”
Even though it’s not strictly “diamond...” I’m sorry. I really should let this go.
“This I eagerly accepted as my fate,” said Rarity, referring to the gem-derived fragments. “I collected as much of the stuff up as I could fit in my saddlebags, and I made the long, arduous trip back to Ponyville. Several times I was tempted to leave the heavy bags behind to ease the suffering of my journey, but my greed and ego prevented me. When I returned home I sequined the dust liberally over all of the costumes. The result was a complete transformation. They were now utterly stunning to look upon, and completely stole attention away from the poor actors. But I didn’t care, because all of the attention was now focused upon me!
“There was one most disturbing incident during the performance of that play. A drunken pony wandered up onto the stage and began trying to push the actors around, getting covered with diamond dust as he did so. I was paralyzed with fear, so I wished with all my might that he would stop and go away. And...that is exactly what he did. That was my first inkling of the power of the dust.
“Five years later was the first Winter Wrap-Up that I was ever involved in. It was an utter catastrophe from the very start, and I became deeply ashamed, not only for my own failures, but for what the other towns would think of us. And so I ran back to my home and got my supply of diamond dust. I dusted every single pony, and although I could not salvage our town’s score, I at least rescued our dignity.
“But this was the birth of my crisis,” the bedraggled unicorn continued. “The next morning the ponies of Ponyville woke up, and knew that I had controlled them. They came to me; probably to offer a perfectly reasonable punishment after I promised to get rid of the corrupting dust, but instead I dusted all of them and kept them under my control, continuously, for five whole years.
“It was an incredibly exhausting ordeal. Every time I slept I lost control over the ponies that were furthest from me or most resistant to me, so I was forced to sleep in the close vicinity of those that would hate me the most, were they ever to break free during the night. The Dreaded P.D.P. arrived in town, to become a living symbol of my guilt. And certain individuals arrived to turn my dilemma into their own profit.” She did not name names. She didn’t need to. “The rest...you know.”
“Pass,” said Applejack.
Everypony stared at her.
“Ah, come on!” she exclaimed. “If you’ve heard one tycoon’s life story, you’ve heard them all. I started out dirt poor and alone in the city. I was inspired, as it appears so many others of you were, by Skybreak. And so I set out to create something as all-encompassing. A network of apple orchards that would supply the whole of Equestria. Run by one family, for the benefit of all.” She looked around in disgust at the faces of those who actually bought that last lie. “The maximum profit, for the fewest number,” she added spitefully, glad to see how many she disappointed.
“Next!”
“I can actually say pass and mean it,” Pinkamena said quietly, gesturing at her blank flank. “I remember Skybreak, though. You’ll probably say this is impossible, but as a tiny little filly looking up at the mid-day sky, it looked like the rainbow front actively bent around our farm. Just couldn’t handle the certainty of our misery, I guess.”
“My best friend at flight camp was this timid little filly who could barely hover off of the ground,” said Rainbow Dash. She seemed to be talking more to herself than to anypony else. “Fluttershy was her name. That name was a bit too ‘on the nose’, I’ve always thought. She was always teased, because she was the worst student there, because of her odd appearance, and because she wouldn’t stand up for herself. Bullies love nothing better than a victim who cannot defend herself. So one day I stepped forward to defend her. The bullies weren’t going to back down so easily, so it came down to a race.
“The moment it started, I knocked Fluttershy off of the cloud she was standing on to cheer me on. That was an accident. What wasn’t an accident was my decision to continue the race rather than see if she was alright. I told myself that I was doing it for her, and that surely she could catch herself. The guilt built up, but it made me fly even faster, like I was trying through sheer speed to escape my responsibilities. I kept pushing and pushing and pushing, until finally I didn’t just break the sound barrier, I utterly demolished it. Pegasi from all parts of Equestria saw what I did, and were inspired in all sorts of crazy ways. I was just trying to protect my friend from a beating. That’s all.” She looked utterly and completely lost.
“But what about the land-dweller spies? What about the bomb set to destroy the rainbow factory?” asked one of the guards in confusion.
Soarin’ got right in that guard’s face. “There’s the story for all of the pegasi everywhere,” he said very carefully, “and what you just heard was some story the Empress told for fun to relieve tensions on the way to fight against our foe. Do you think you can tell the difference?”
The intimidated guard nodded quickly.
“Good.”
Rainbow Dash sighed. The Elders had explained it all to her very carefully, why the official story needed to be the way it was for the good of the Pegasus Nation, but at least for once she was glad she had managed to tell the truth.
“What happened to Fluttershy?” asked Vinyl.
“She fell into the Everfree,” said Graphite. “She became one with the forest, and the forest became one with her. It speaks with her voice now, and none who persist in ignoring her warnings not to enter live to tell the tale.”