//------------------------------// // Welcome Party // Story: Faith and Doubt // by defender2222 //------------------------------// We don't know where our first impressions come from or precisely what they mean, so we don't always appreciate their fragility. - Malcolm Gladwell "Hi there!" Twilight blinked. Then she blinked again. Then she closed her eyes, counted to 10, and opened them. But no matter how many times she looked away only to turn back quickly to stare, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were still standing on her doorstep with a basket full of muffins and cookies on each of their backs "We'd heard you'd just moved in and we wanted to say hi!" Rainbow Dash said happily. "Can we come in?" Twilight screwed up her brow in confusion. "Did I give you brain damage when I smacked you around the club?" Rainbow Dash merely flashed the dark alicorn a smirk. "You must have me confused with some other pony. But have to say, sounds like you enjoy partying pretty rough!" Fluttershy nodded. "Yes, you must." She looked down, scuffing her hoof against the ground. "So... may we come in, please?" The librarian stared at her two former friends ('Are they truly former?' a traitorous part of her mind whispered) before rolling her eyes and motioning for them to follow her inside. She didn’t know what they were up to but she didn’t feel like slamming the door in their face. "So... we've never met, huh?" "No, we haven't. I'm, uh, Fluttershy, by the way." She helped Rainbow Dash set her basket down on the table before turning to let the cyan pegasus do the same. "What's your name?" "Twilight-" the dark alicorn stopped, giving them each a sour look. "Ok, I don't know what your game is but let's stop it right now." "We're not playing a game, Miss Twilight," Rainbow Dash said simply, taking a seat on the couch. "Yes, you are," Twilight snapped. "You are pretending to have never met me but you two have. You've known me for two whole years!" Fluttershy shook her head. "We knew a Twilight Sparkle... she was a friend. But she wasn't like you." She took a step forward, surprising the dark alicorn with her boldness. "You're like her but you are different from her and thus we've never met you before." "Not that there is anything wrong with you, or her!" Dash added quickly. “You’re just different from our friend.” "Girls... what are you doing?" Her horn flashed when the two pegasi opened their mouths to speak. "And stop saying we don't know each other." Rainbow Dash dropped her head, her shoulders slumping. "Twi... listen..." Fluttershy spoke up. "We don't want to be ourselves anymore." "...huh?" Twilight said in a manner that was completely not befitting an immortal alicorn. "We don't want to be ourselves anymore," Rainbow Dash repeated, looking nearly as bashful as Fluttershy. "We don't want to be Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, so we were hoping we could become two new ponies." Twilight shook her head in annoyance. "What are you talking-" "Fluttershy was a bad pony!" the buttercream colored pegasus exclaimed, tears in her eyes. Twilight was so startled by the outburst that she could only stare, jaw hanging, as the pink maned mare sobbed. "She... she abandoned her friend and was mean to her and I am nothing like her! She was horrible and disgusting! How could she be so stupid to do that to her friend?” Twilight's lips puckered. "Fluttershy..." "No!" the mare shouted, causing the dark alicorn to take a step back in shock. "Don't call me that! I am not her! I… I don’t abandon my friends! Even if they make a mistake… a huge mistake… I don’t walk away from them! Not like Fluttershy!" The cyan pegasus stepped forward to join her friend. "Yeah! And I am nothing like that selfish, arrogant, disloyal thrill-seeker Rainbow Dash." She grit her teeth, hot tears stinging the corners of her eyes. Normally she would never let another pony see her getting all sobby, but at this point she just didn't care. "I... I don't fight with my friends! I don't walk away from them when they are sad and I don't leave them behind just for some stuck-up princess! I don’t fight with them in a club and I don’t make them cry in their hotel rooms. I... I don't do that." Her eyes popped open and she jabbed her hoof at Twilight. "Rainbow Dash did that and... and that just proves how horrible she is! If Rainbow Dash doesn't realize how great of a friend Twilight Sparkle is then I don't want to be Rainbow Dash!" Twilight trying to come to grips with the strange twist the conversation had taken. "Girls... I get what you are trying to say..." "NO!" Fluttershy shouted, stunning Twilight silent. "We were horrible! Digusting! Vile!" Her eyes blazed with fury and to Twilight's shock Fluttershy brought her hoof up… …and punched herself in the face. Twilight heard another smack and turned in time to see that Rainbow Dash had just jabbed her hoof into her eye, growling to herself about how 'bad' she was. "You... you don't deserve to be Twiight's friend!" Fluttershy screamed at herself, striking her face over and over. "You are evil...horrible...stupid!" "STOP IT!" Twilight roared, using her magic to freeze the two in place. "Please." Rainbow Dash stared at her former friend. "No. No, we won't. You are awesome and smart and the best friend a mare could have and neither of us want to be ponies who would hurt somepony like you." Dash began to fight against the magic, trying to bring her hoof up to strike herself much as Fluttershy had done. Twilight felt like she was swimming against the tide. She wanted to gloat, to make the two of them tell her just how wrong they were and why they were lucky to have her as a friend. She wanted to cheer them on, to use her magic to make the blows hurt worse. She wanted to collect their tears and bathe in them. It was what she had dreamed of that dark night, laying in her hotel room, tears stinging in her eyes and her brother’s words ringing in her ears. Even before she had opened herself to the dark magic that had been hidden within her she had played the scenarios out: her friends realizing just how wrong they had been and crawling to her on their bellies, begging for her forgiveness. She had thought about what she would make them do to earn her forgiveness, all the hoops they would have to jump through before she would even think about looking at them with a touch of kindness. And yet now, when the time had come and all her dark dreams had come true… it left her feeling emptier than she had felt after the rehearsal from Tartarus. "Stop it," Twilight said sternly, strengthening the bonds that held the two. "I don't want you hurt!" "Why not? We deserve it!" the two of them shouted. "No you don't!" Twilight shouted in frustration. "You screwed up and you hurt me really bad but I don't want to see you hurt!" "Why... not?" Fluttershy repeated. "Because you're my friends and I don't want to see you hurt!" Twilight screamed. And with that everything clicked into place. "...you two are way too clever," she grumbled, dropping her restraint spell but not before she cast the same healing spell she had used in the club to remove the minor damage the two had done to their faces. Rainbow and Fluttershy walked up to her slowly, craning their necks to look at her. "So... how far were you willing to go to get me to admit that?" Twilight asked with a huff. "As far as we needed to," Rainbow Dash said, "then even further." She placed a hoof on the dark alicorn's leg, wishing they were the same size so she could hug her. "Because we meant every word, Twilight. We don't want to be the kind of ponies that hurt a friend." Fluttershy nodded in agreement. "We... we know it doesn't make up for what we did... but we want you to know we are going to do everything we can to make it up to you." The cyan speedster clapped her hooves together. "You're not the only one that can change yourself, Twi. We might not be giant alicorns but we are not going to be the same Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash again. We will prove to you we've changed, that we are different ponies." "And we hope the ponies we become... can be friends with the pony you become," Flutthershy said, turning towards the door. Twilight watched as the two began to head out, her heart feeling like it was being ripped in two. Stay or follow, scream or cry, shove or hug... "You never gave me your names!" The two pegasi turned back to look at her. "I mean... I know we just met and I don't know if we'll be friends or not... but I should at least know your names... in case we see each other around." The cyan mare smiled. It wasn't much, but it was a start. She wouldn't be picky with what she got. "Rainbow Dash." "Fluttershy," the buttercream mare said softly, a bashful smile forming on her lips. After her show of bravado she suddenly found herself once more wanting to sink into herself. "Nice to meet you both," Twilight said softly. "I... I hope to see you around." Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy nodded, heading out the door. On one hoof it was painful to remember how things had been between them and their lavender friend. The casualness they'd once held had been shattered. While the two had approached this first meeting much like a game they knew that now they were truly starting at square one with Twilight Sparkle. But that was ok. They could accept that; more than that, a part of them welcomed it. Spend any time with another pony and it was easy to slip into roles. Twilight was the egghead leader, Applejack the down to earth ‘mother’, Pinkie the irrelevant partier, Rarity the posh drama queen... Rainbow Dash the snarky speedster and Fluttershy the meek tenderheart. Twilight's transformation and the fight that had come before offered them all a chance to become something new, to reveal parts of themselves that no pony, even themselves, knew existed. It was a rebirth, a do over, a chance to forge new bonds and strengthen old ones. "I really wish Ponyville had a night club," Dash said as they walked away from the library. "I really didn't get a chance to see her there,” Dash grimaced when she remembered the reason for that, “but from what Spike describes it might be real fun to see Twilight dancing to rap music." "I... like to dance," Fluttershy admitted. "Mostly in my living room..." Rainbow grinned. "Hey! I bet we can find some night club near here... one of the towns south of us must have one. We should totally ask Twilight to go clubbing with us!" Any other time Fluttershy would have gone screaming home at the thought of going to a club. And yet... she found herself wanting to do nothing more than to give it a try. Worse come to worse she could always hide in the bathroom till it was time to go. "You both are doing quite well." Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy let out twin yelps, whipping around to find that at some point they had gained a stalker. "Doubt," Dash snapped. "Indeed," the lord of reflections said, bowing his head slightly as if he had been paid a compliment. Fluttershy, who had jumped behind Dash, peaking through her long mane at the abstract given form. "What... what do you w-want?" "I merely wish to express my congrats. You two have adjusted well and I believe you deserve kind words and encouragement." Rainbow Dash grit her teeth. "What are you playing at?" "Nothing at all. I applaud how you treated my Twilight and wanted to thank you personally for your actions.” Fluttershy gulped, fearing the worst. "Did... did we do something wrong?" "Of course not!" Doubt said, slowly walking around the two. Rainbow covered her eyes, the sunlight bouncing off his metallic wings. "I merely wished to thank you for your treatment of Twilight. Nothing sinister." "Yeah, right," Rainbow Dash said turning her back to the mirror alicorn. "Fluttershy, let it go. He's just trying to play mind games with us." Dash took a step forward, only to find that Doubt had warped in front of them. "Look at you, grasping at straws, trying to find somepony to take your aggression out on." Dash rolled her eyes. "Listen, don't try your little dark magic corruption thing on us. We are on to you!" Doubt looked at her as if the thought had never even entered his mind till she said it. "It is little wonder you lose friends so easily, the way you shove aside those who offer thanks." "You aren't offering anything," Fluttershy said, flashes of 'New Fluttershy' shining in her eyes as she moved to defend Dash. "You just enjoy corrupting ponies!" "Like Twilight?" Doubt goaded. "Like Applejack and Cadence." Doubt frowned at that. "Applejack would have been fine. She is an honest mare and I merely was helping her enter a new world full of color. As for Cadence… ask yourself why she would have such a reaction to my words. Is it because of me? Did I do something to her, fill her with power and twist her into my puppet? Or is there is something within her, something she repressed, much like my Twilight, that when unleashed upon the world brought forth a great darkness?" Doubt shrugged. “I can only work with what is provided to me.” "And we are supposed to believe that?" Rainbow Dash charged. "Believe what you wish. I have said my piece. Whether you are honest with yourselves is your choice." "W-we aren't going to let you win!" Fluttershy called out as Doubt turned to take flight. "You w-want to take Twilight away from us and...and we won't give up without a fight!" "If you are thinking this is a game then you have already lost." Doubt looked over his shoulder, his smile gone and his eyes radiating sadness. "What I want and what I will do if pushed are two entirely different things. You must not be scared to dream a bit bigger, darling. The world depends on it." And with that, Doubt took flight, leaving the two pegasi puzzling over his words.