The Mystery of a New World

by Fanthrose


The Issue is Trust

Chapter 36

Rainbow had a content smile on her face as she lazily glided through the sky. She had just gotten back to Ponyville after spending some ’quality’ time with Braeburn down in Appleloosa. She didn’t have to go back to work until tomorrow, and she planned on using the rest of the day to just relax. Maybe take a nice long nap. It’s not like she got much sleep while in Appleloosa after all.

A yawn escaped her lips as she looked for a good enough cloud. After a bit of searching, she finally found the perfect one. As she landed on the cloud, she took it in. It was a decent size. Under the sun, it was nice and warm. Nothing too warm, but just the perfect temperature. It was also light and fluffy enough where, if she needed to, she could burrow into it to help block out any interruptions. It was, without a doubt in her mind, the perfect napping cloud.

As Rainbow stretched her limbs, memories of her time in Appleloosa danced through her mind. She had so much fun. She was able to join Braeburn in a good old fashioned hoedown. She couldn’t remember having that much fun dancing. The two of them also went to visit Little Strongheart and the rest of the buffalo. She even helped out in the orchard. She also had a bit of a talk with Sheriff Silverstar that she won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

********************

Everything was going great. Rainbow and Braeburn had just gotten back from visiting Little Strongheart, and were now sitting on the porch of Braeburn’s house; watching the sunset together. Dash was leaning into Braeburn, resting her head on his shoulder, and he was resting his head on hers. After a little bit, Rainbow felt something nudging her in the side. “Hmm?”

“Hey Dashie, would ya mind gettin’ off fer a minute? Ah gotta use th’ little colt’s room.”

Dash leaned into him even more. “Mmmm you can hold it. You’re too comfortable and warm. If you leave I’ll freeze my little hooves off.”

Braeburn chuckled. “Well alright, have things yer way. Just don’t come complainin’ ta me when everythin’, includin’ yerself, get all wet.”

“Ewwwww!” Rainbow said with a giggle as she pushed herself off of the light gold stallion. “Just go.”

Rainbow watched with a smile as Braeburn walked into the house. She turned back to look at the sunset when she heard hoofsteps approaching. “Well howdy Rainbow Dash.”

Turning her head, she smiled at Sheriff Silverstar. “Hey Silverstar. What’s up?”

“Ah was just wonderin’ if Braeburn was around?”

Rainbow chuckled as she looked back to the house. “He’ll be right back. He just went to the bathroom.”

“Hmmm.” Silverstar slowly nodded his head. “Good, cause Ah also wanted ta talk ta you ‘bout somethin’.”

Rainbow cocked her head in confusion. “What’s going on? I didn’t do something wrong when I helped with the harvest yesterday, did I?”

Silverstar shook his head. “Now, now, ya didn’t do nothin’ wrong. Ah just had a question about th’ weddin’.” He walked over and sat down next to Rainbow. “Ah’ve been wonderin’ where th’ two of ya are goin’ ta live.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened slightly. “Where we’re going to live?”

“Mmhm.”

Rainbow looked down as she ran the question through her head. “I guess…I guess I never thought about it yet. There’s still so much time before the wedding, and there’s so many other things to think about I guess where we’re going to live kinda…slipped my mind.”

Silverstar smiled and put a hoof on her shoulder. “As ya know, Braeburn is probably mah best friend, so trust me when Ah tell ya that Ah haven’t seen’im this happy in a long time. Probably not since we finally finished Appleloosa. You mean everythin’ ta him. Yer a good pony Rainbow, so know this. Wherever ya plan on settlin’ down, yer always welcome here in Appleloosa.”

A tear of happiness rolled down Rainbow’s cheek. She wrapped her legs around Silverstar. “Thank you.”

“Th’ same goes fer all’er friends, right Silverstar?”

Both Rainbow and Silverstar looked towards the door. Braeburn was standing there with a smile on his face. A blush could be seen on Rainbow’s face as she let go of Silverstar. Silverstar chuckled. “Course they are.”

“So what did ya need ta talk about?”

Silverstar stood up. “Ah was just wonderin’ how th’ buffalo were.”

“Well, why don’t ya come on in? Me an’ Rainbow were about ta get somethin’ ta eat. Yer free ta join us.”

“That’s mighty kind of ya.” Silverstar nodded to Braeburn as he walked past him, and into the house.

********************

The smile on her face slowly widened as she lay her head down on the cloud. She closed her eyes as sleep quickly took her.

“Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow’s ears twitched as the sound of calling out to her reached her.

“Hey Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow groaned in protest as she pried open the cloud and crawled into the fluffy surface; hoping the offending pony would get the hint.

“Hi Rainbow.”

Rainbow’s ears twitched again. The voice sounded a lot closer that time; despite being buried in the cloud. With an irritated groan, Rainbow opened her eyes. She saw a bluish grey face with amber eyes. “Heeeey,” Ditzy said with a smile.

“Ditzy? What do you want? Can’t you see that I’m trying to take a nap?”

Ditzy giggled as she reached into her mail bag. “Sorry Rainbow. I just came to deliver your mail.” She handed Rainbow a couple letters. “Hold on, I think there’s one more thing.”

Rainbow looked at her mail with indifference. It was more of the same. She sighed internally as she made a mental note to get rid of them later. As she turned back to Ditzy, a look of confusion crossed her features. In Ditzy’s mouth was a yellow envelope. “What’s that?”

“Ay dunnow,” Ditzy said through the envelope.

Rainbow took the envelope from Ditzy and tore the top off. Inside was a decorative letter. “Dear Rainbow Dash,” she read aloud. “First things first, we would like to thank you for being a fan of Everfree Radio. Its fans like you that make us love what we do. We would also like to thank you for entering our contest to meet the always awesome Vinyl ‘DJ Pon-3’ Scratch.”

Rainbow blinked a couple times before looking to Ditzy. “I completely forgotten about that contest.”

“I didn’t even know there was a contest like that.”

Rainbow looked back at the letter. “As you probably already know, many ponies had entered the contest. You’ll be happy to know that…” Rainbow’s eyes got wide as a gasp escaped from her. She tossed the letter away. She took up the envelope and began digging through it.

Confused Ditzy grabbed the letter out of the air and began reading. “You’ll be happy to know that you have won. Enclosed in the envelope with this letter are three tickets, and three backstage passes, to The Sun and the Moon, the biggest music festival to ever grace Equestria. You’ll be able to meet artists like Dead Hor5, and Wooden Toaster, and bands like Disturbed, and Green Hay. And of course you’ll be able to meet DJ Pon-3 herself. Congratulations on winning. Eight Track.”

Ditzy had to quickly cover her ears as an overly loud, fangirl squeal filled the air. “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! I can’t believe it! I get to meet Vinyl Scratch! THE Vinyl Scratch!”

“That’s…great Rainbow,” Ditzy said as she made sure she hadn’t just gone deaf.

“Oh my gosh! I have to go tell Pinkie! She is going to freak!”

Ditzy smiled. “Hey, what a coincidence. That’s my next stop. We could go there to…” Before Ditzy could finish, Rainbow blew past her; sending her spinning. After she stopped spinning, she shook her head and began following the rainbow trail. “W-wait Rainbow! I’m coming with you!”

********************

While Ditzy wasn’t able to keep up with Rainbow, they did meet up again once Ditzy made it to Sugarcube Corner. Ditzy sagged slightly as she tried to catch her breath. “Why…why didn’t you…wait for…me?”

“Cause I know Pinkie’s going to freak when she hears the news!” Without another word, Rainbow blew through the front door of Sugarcube Corner and began looking around. “Pinkie! Hey Pinkie, where are you!?” As she looked around, she noticed the distinct lack of anypony. “Where is everypony?”

“Well…Mr. and Mrs. Cake…are out for…a couple days,” Ditzy said; still trying to catch her breath. She took a few seconds before continuing. “They told me to just give all their mail to Pinkie.”

“Well where is she then?”

Suddenly, a loud thud could be heard coming from up above. Ditzy and Rainbow looked at each other. “I’m going to guess she’s upstairs,” Ditzy said as she began walking towards the stairs.

“Of course. I knew that,” Rainbow said before following her up the stairs.

“So which room is hers,” Ditzy asked as she looked down the hallway.

“Second one on the left,” Rainbow said as she began walking down the hall. “Come on. I can’t wait to see her rea…”

Rainbow stopped as a sound hit her ears. “What’s that?”

“Huh? What are you…”

Rainbow stuffed a hoof in Ditzy’s mouth to silence her. “Shhhh. I hear something.” Removing the offending hoof from Ditzy’s mouth, she began walking closer to the source of the noise. She stopped once she reached the door to Pinkie’s room. Pressing her ear to the door, she listened in.

Ditzy watched as Rainbow’s eyes slowly got wide, and a blush crept its way onto her face. “Rainbow, what’s going on?” she asked in a whisper.

“Ditzy, I think you’re going to want to hear this,” Rainbow whispered back; moving over to give Ditzy some room.

As Ditzy got closer to the door, she began to hear what Rainbow was talking about. She began to blush as she heard the masculine grunting. “R-rainbow, we should be listening to this!” she said in a loud whisper.

“Just keep listening!”

Unsure of what to do, Ditzy pressed her ear to the door. “P-pinkie…I don’t…I don’t know how much longer I can last!”

Ditzy’s eyes got wide and began to separate. Her jaw practically hit the floor. “A-AJ?”

Pinkie could be heard giggling. “Come on! Just hold out a little longer!”

“I-I-I can’t hold iiiit! Aaaahhh!”

A commotion could be heard from inside the room. After it died down, the only sound coming from the room was AJ’s heavy panting. “Wow! That was awesome! It sprayed everywhere!” It went silent again. “But it sure did make a mess. I mean look at you, you’re covered in it.”

“G-gee…I wonder…how that…could have happened,” AJ said between breaths. “Maybe if…you hadn’t… have aimed it…at me…I wouldn’t have…gotten so much…on me.”

“Well don’t worry. I’ll just lick it off of you. I’m sure it’ll taste amazing.”

“P-pinkie…wait!”

Rainbow couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to believe it. ‘Are they really…’ She took a look over to Ditzy. Her head was down and she was shaking. Rainbow didn’t know what to do. She took a tentative step forward and carefully put a hoof on Ditzy’s shoulder. “Ditzy, are you…”

Rainbow let out a squeak of pain as Ditzy gripped her leg and started to squeeze with all her might. Rainbow looked on in fear as Ditzy raised her head. Her eyes were full of hatred and anger. She was grinding her teeth together so hard, Rainbow could’ve sworn she could see sparks. Ditzy removed Rainbow’s hoof as she turned around. She bucked Pinkie’s door with all her might, sending it to the floor. With the door out of the way, she dashed into the room. “GET YOUR HOOVES OFF MY MAN YOU TRAMP!!!”

Rainbow slowly entered the room after Ditzy. Her eyes got wide as she took in the sight. Over half of the room was covered in whipped cream. Off to the side sat a discarded whipped cream can. The top of the can was mysteriously missing. In the middle of the room sat both AJ and Pinkie. AJ was completely covered in whipped cream, and Pinkie was on top of him; licking him clean. Both of them were looking at her and Ditzy in complete confusion.

As Rainbow took the scene in, she realized something. Aside from the awkward situation they were currently witnessing, nothing sexual had been going on in this room. ‘Oh crap.’

Pinkie licked up one last glob of cream off of AJ’s body before climbing off of him. “Hey guys. What’s up?”

“W-what’s going on in here?” asked Ditzy.

“We’re experimenting!” Pinkie said as she bounced in place.

“Experimenting? What kind of experiment could you possibly be doing in your room?” asked Rainbow.

“How magic affects a can of whipped cream,” AJ said as he flicked some whipped cream off his hooves. He was still lying on the floor trying to wipe as much of the whipped cream off of himself as he could. “Turns out it makes all the cream erupt from the can.” He glared over at Pinkie. “And all over any pony you aim it at.” Pinkie ignored the glare.

“Why were you using magic on a can of whipped cream?”

“To see if it would taste any better silly,” Pinkie said as she put a leg around Rainbow’s withers. Using her freakishly long tongue, Pinkie took a bit more cream off of AJ’s snout and gulped it down. “Nnnnope! Still the same.”

“She asked Twilight to do it, but she refused. Said she had better things to do or something like that.” AJ got himself to a sitting position, only to start wobbling. After steadying himself, he put a hoof to his head. “Whoa…dizzy. I think I may have…overdone it a bit there. Mind if I lie down for a bit Pinkie?”

“Sure! Go ahead.”

“Awesome.” AJ got up to unsteady hooves and began stumbling over to Pinkie’s bed. When he got there, he unceremoniously plopped down. As he rested his head, he noticed something very odd about the pillow. “Pinkie?”

“Yeeeees?”

“Is…is your pillow nothing but a big bag of candy?”

Pinkie let out a snort as she giggled at AJ. “Of course not silly. That’s my late night candy bag you’re sleeping on. My pillow’s right there.” Pinkie pointed to the floor next to the bed.

AJ leaned his head over the edge to see that Pinkie’s pillow had fallen off the bed. He looked back at the bag of candy with a glare. He pushed it to the side before reaching down; taking the actual pillow in his mouth.

As AJ got situated on the bed, Ditzy tried to take this all in. “S-so, that’s all you two were doing? Experimenting on the can of whipped cream?”

“Uh huh.”

“So you weren’t doing…other things?”

AJ rolled over and eyed Ditzy suspiciously. “And just what are you implying exactly?”

Ditzy began to sweat. She took a nervous step backwards as AJ’s unrelenting gaze held firm. She knew telling him the truth could only lead to trouble, but she didn’t know what else to do. Her mind was drawing a blank. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she tried to look at anything but the pony before her. “I-I-I-I just heard the noises through the door, and thought…” Ditzy took a deep breath before continuing. “I-i-it sounded like the two of you were…doing it.”

The room was filled with an awkward silence for a moment. A chortle of laughter suddenly filled the air as Pinkie lost it. “We weren’t having sex you silly filly!” Rainbow let out an awkward laugh as she scratched the back of her head.

While Pinkie found the mistake hilarious, AJ found it much less so. Gone was his look of suspicion. It had been replaced by a look of betrayal. Ditzy refused to look him in the eyes. She kept looking at everything but him. “Ditzy…” Ditzy finally looked at him. “How could you even think I would do something like that to you?”

Ditzy took another step towards the door. “I-I-I-I…”

“You what?!” AJ pushed himself up on the bed with a hoof. “You thought I would actually cheat on you? Whiii…” AJ put a hoof to his head as another dizzy spell hit him. “W-with Pinkie of all ponies?! For Celestia’s sake Ditzy, she’s like a sister to me! Not to mention she’s going out with that DC guy.”

“Hey, calm down! To be fair to Ditzy, it did sound like Pinkie was…well, you know,” Rainbow said to try to back up Ditzy.

“That still doesn’t change the fact that Ditzy would even think that I’d cheat on her. What have I done to make you think that I would do something like that?” AJ let out a frustrated groan. “I thought you trusted me Ditzy. I guess I was wrong.”

Ditzy had tears rolling down her cheeks at this point. “I…I…”

AJ let out an angry snort as he flopped back down onto the bed. “Maybe you should just go.”

Without another word Ditzy turned and ran. She wanted to get away as quickly as possible. Neither Pinkie nor Dash could believe what they had just witnessed. Neither of them had ever seen AJ get that mad at Ditzy before. “What was that!? Rainbow said, breaking the silence. “So she made a mistake! That’s no reason to just flip out at her like that.”

“Dash, please just shut up,” AJ said as he rolled over to face away from the cyan pegasus.

“Dashie’s right Mr. Grumpy Gus.”

“See, even Pinkie’s with me on this,” Rainbow said triumphantly.

AJ rolled back over to glare at Rainbow. “Okay, if you think I was wrong to get mad, then let me pose a question to you.” Rainbow and Pinkie looked at each other in confusion. “Tell me, you would never even think of cheating on Braeburn, correct?”

Rainbow looked at AJ as if he had just said the dumbest thing in the world. “Of course I wouldn’t! Why in Equestria would you even ask something like that?!”

“Okay then, how would you feel if one day Braeburn came up to you and accused you of cheating on him with somepony? Anypony? It doesn’t matter who, or for what reason. Just accused you of cheating on him.”

The anger slowly fell from Rainbow’s face as she finally began to understand where AJ was coming from. “I…I would feel…”

“Betrayed? Angry that he would even suggest such a thing? Stop me if I’m wrong.”

Dash backed down now that she understood what AJ was feeling at this moment. “That still doesn’t mean you should have been such a mean meany pants to her.”

“Yea. I mean, okay. I would be angry at Braeburn, but I would at least give him a chance to explain himself.”

“Yea!”

“I…I really don’t wanna talk about this right now,” AJ said as he rolled back over; closing his eyes to try to shut out the rest of the world. After a few seconds, he felt some shifting around on the bed next to him. As he opened his eyes, he saw Pinkie lying on the bed next to him; looking him straight in the eye. “What?”

“You need to go talk to her.”

“Pinkie, I just said…”

Pinkie put a hoof to AJ’s lips to hush him. “Ssshhh. Save the talky talk for Ditzy.”

AJ groaned as he pushed Pinkie’s hoof away. “Fine. I’ll to talk to Ditzy…tomorrow. I’m just too angry right now. I’ll probably just make things worse.”

********************

Ditzy burst through the door of Sugarcube Corner into the streets of Ponyville. As she did, she managed to startle a few ponies that were walking nearby. She tried to hold back as many tears as she could. Much to her dismay, they wouldn’t stop.

As she ran home, she ended up running through the town square; the main shopping hub for produce and other miscellaneous items. As she ran, one certain Earth pony looked on with a worried look. “Uh oh. This can’t be good,” Carrot said. As she watched Ditzy run, she could only wonder what happened.

“Excuse me, I would like to buy some carrots please,” came a timid voice.

“Huh?” Carrot turned to see who was there. “Oh, umm sorry Fluttershy, I’m not open yet.” Carrot looked between Fluttershy and her open sign for a couple seconds before quickly taking it down; smiling sheepishly at the butter yellow pegasus.

“O-oh, um, sorry for bothering you,” Fluttershy said before walking away. “Ohh, Angel’s not going to be happy about this.”

With any potential customers out of the way, Carrot quickly maneuvered through the crowd until she got out of the square. Once she was free of the crowd, Carrot quickened her pace until she finally reached her house. As she walked through the door, she saw Ditzy’s discarded mail bag lying on the floor. Taking a quick peak inside revealed that some of the mail had yet to be delivered. ‘She didn’t even finish delivering the mail. This must be bad.’

As she closed the door, she could hear the sound of Ditzy crying from the other room. Hanging the mail bag up so it would be out of the way, she made her way into the living room. She walked up to the couch where Ditzy was crying into a pillow.

Ditzy gasped when she felt somepony put a hoof on her shoulder. She looked up to see Carrot looking at her with concern in her eyes. “Ditzy, what happened?”

Ditzy took a long, ragged breath before answering. “I-I-I-I-I messed up Carrot. H-h-h-he hates me now.”

“Who hates you?”

Ditzy wiped some of the tears from her eyes. “AJ. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t want anything to do with me now.”

“Wha? Why would AJ hate you? The two of you were so happy together.” Ditzy buried her head in the pillow again; sobbing for all she was worth. Carrot sighed; making a mental note to castrate AJ if he hurt her in any way. “Why don’t you just start from the beginning.”

********************

AJ took a deep breath as he stood in front of Carrot’s house. After getting back from Sugarcube Corner, AJ went straight to work. Despite being his first day off in a couple weeks, he asked if there was any work that still needed to be done. After being grilled on his bad attitude by Applejack, being forced to tell her everything, she finally gave him some work to help blow off some steam. He didn’t stop until Knight got home from school and asked for help with his homework.

By the time he went to bed, most of his anger had been vented into the trees he had been bucking all day. After he had gotten off of work today, he took a while to collect his thoughts before finally leaving for Carrot’s house. As he knocked on the door, thoughts of how this could turn out ran through his head.

Carrot eventually opened the door with a smile on her face. That smile quickly dropped when she saw who it was. “Oh…hi.”

“Hey Carrot. Is Ditzy home?”

Carrot was conflicted. She was angry at AJ for getting mad at Ditzy and making her cry, but after hearing what happened from Ditzy she couldn’t find it in herself to be too angry at him. “She just left not to long ago to go pick up Dinky from school. She’ll be back in a bit.”

“Oh. Maybe I’ll just come back later then.”

Carrot groaned as she stepped to the side. “Just get in here. If you have something important to say, you can just wait here for her. Besides, I wanna get your side of the story, and this will give us some time to talk.” With a sigh, AJ walked into the building.

********************

“So Ditzy accused you of cheating on her. And because of that, you felt betrayed and angry that she would even assume you would cheat on her. Do I have that right?”

AJ nodded. “Eeyup. Sounds about right. I just thought that, after everything we’ve been through, she would have a bit more faith in me.” He shook his head. “I don’t know, am I in the wrong here?”

Carrot put a hoof to her chin. “Well, I can definitely see why you would be angry. Ditzy did jump the gun with her accusation. But when you’ve known her for as long as I have, I’m surprised she’s as trusting as she is. Every time we would see each other when we were fillies, she would always have a new story about her getting harassed by the other kids at her school. Not to mention what happened with Morning Glory.”

AJ pondered over his thoughts for a moment. “So what do you think I should do?”

Carrot laid her ears back before answering. “Well…while I hope the two of you can talk things through, I’m probably the last pony you should ask for relationship advice.”

“Why? You’ve had a coltfriend before…right?”

Carrot anxiously fidgeted around. “Nnnnot exactly.”

“You mean to tell me that you’ve never had a romantic relationship with another pony? Ever?”

“It’s not like I haven’t tried,” Carrot quickly said to defend herself. “It’s just that everypony I’ve tried asking out has turned me down. Ginger Snaps back in middle school. Juicy Fruit and Spring Melody in high school. Daisy, Ace, Ambrosia…the list goes on. I even asked out Ditzy when we were foals. I couldn’t bring myself to see her for months after she turned me down.”

“Hold on a minute. Daisy? Ambrosia? Ditzy?!”

A light blush crossed Carrot’s features. “I-I guess the cat’s out of the bag. I’m, uh…I’m bisexual.” She anxiously rubbed her legs together. “It’s not really something I like telling ponies very often.”

Carrot looked down with a sigh. “W-would you believe that Ditzy’s the only pony I’ve ever kissed?”

“What about your brother at that one party?” AJ was pretty sure he felt the blood in his veins go cold after witnessing the glare Carrot fixed him with. “Sorry, sorry.”

Carrot let out a sigh as she composed herself again. “Sometimes during our sleepovers, we would…well, practice kissing. It was usually pretty tame.”

Carrot closed her eyes and became lost in her memories. Both her smile and her blush grew as she remembered locking lips with the wall-eyed pegasus. When she finally opened her eyes, she noticed AJ staring at her with a look of interest. Her already flushed face grew even hotter. “W-what? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Nothing, nothing. I just can’t help but picturing you and Ditzy in the middle of a hot make out session.”

“W-well stop it!”

“What? You tell me that you and Ditzy, two attractive mares, use to make out with each other, and I’m not supposed to fantasize about it?” As AJ looked at Carrot, he noticed that she was just gawking at him with a light blush. “What?”

“You think I’m…attractive?”

“Well…yea. You’re pretty easy on the eyes.” AJ just sat there; waiting to see what Carrot was going to do next. The one thing he didn’t expect was a hoof flying straight for his face.

********************

The door slowly opened as Ditzy trudged in. Dinky ran past her into the house. After discarding her bags on the floor, Dinky turned back around to face her mother. “Mommy?” Ditzy raised her head to look at her daughter. “Why won’t you tell me why you’re sad?”

Ditzy closed the door before lowering herself to her haunches with a sigh. She couldn’t tell Dinky that she blew it with AJ. Dinky adored him, maybe even more so than she herself. Telling her that he was probably no longer part of their life would devastate her. “Well, mommy made a mistake Dinky. A really bad one, and the consequences of that mistake have made me very sad.”

“What did you do?” Dinky asked innocently.

Ditzy nervously scratched her leg as she tried to think of what to tell her. “W-w-well, I…”

“Carrot, just come out of there. I said I was sorry.”

Ditzy froze as the two of them heard AJ’s voice. A bright smile grew on Dinky’s face as she turned into the house. “AJ’s here! AJ’s here!” She took off to find him.

Ditzy remained frozen in place; to afraid to move. ‘Why is he here?! What does he want?! Does he just want to tell me how badly I messed up again?!’ Her eyes grew wide. ‘What if he tells Dinky what I did?!’ With the fear of everything being exposed, Ditzy found the strength to push herself forward.

As Ditzy made it to the living room, she saw Dinky climbing the stairs. Somepony could be heard knocking on a door upstairs. “Come on Carrot, at least tell me what I did wrong.” Ditzy quickly followed Dinky upstairs.

AJ knocked on Carrot’s door once again. “Why won’t you just tell me what’s going on?”

“No! Just go away!” shouted Carrot from behind her bedroom door.

AJ let out a frustrated groan as he looked to the side where he was instantly blindsided by a flying, pale purple filly. AJ went down as Dinky clung to him; nuzzling into his chest. After shaking the cobwebs from his head, he looked down at the filly. “D-dinky?” Dinky looked up at him with a bright smile. “If you’re here, then…” AJ trailed off as he looked down the hallway. It was as he expected. Ditzy was staring at him from the top of the stairs; a look of fear on her face. “Ditzy.”

The only response Ditzy gave was a pathetic squeak. AJ sighed before looking back down at Dinky. “Hey Dinky, me and your mom have to talk. Why don’t you go to your room and play for awhile. If you’re a good girl, I’ll take you out for some ice cream later. Sound good?”

Dinky let out a loud gasp at the mention of ice cream. “ICE CREAM!!!” Dinky leapt off of AJ, and ran straight into her room to go play.

After Dinky’s door was slammed shut, the hallway remained quiet for what felt like hours. AJ got up off the floor and brushed himself off. “Ditzy, I think the two of us need to…”

“W-w-what happened to your eye?” Ditzy said to try to distract AJ.

AJ blinked in confusion before turning to the side. Using the picture on the wall as a mirror, he looked at his reflection; cringing as he did. His right eye was bruised and had swollen shut. The right lens of his glasses was also cracked and would need to be replaced. “Let’s just say that Carrot’s stronger than she looks, but that’s beside the point. Ditzy, we need to talk.”

Ditzy’s entire body drooped. She knew what was coming. “I-I-I know you must hate my guts right now, and probably won’t want to see me again, but please…” Ditzy stopped to wipe some tears away. “Please don’t take it out on Dinky.” She sniffled as she looked back at AJ. “She’s gone her entire life without being able to call anypony her daddy. Please don’t take that away from her. She’s done nothing to deserve it.”

AJ stared at Ditzy for a moment before looking down. A deep, saddened sigh escaped from him. “We…should go down stairs. I don’t want Dinky to hear any of this.” Without waiting for Ditzy to answer him, he stood up and began walking towards the stairs. He passed Ditzy without a word.

********************

It took Ditzy a few minutes to gather the courage to follow AJ down the stairs. As she slowly made her way down the stairs, she saw AJ sitting on the couch. Aside from the sound of her walking through the house, it was completely silent. She eventually made her way to the couch; sitting on the opposite side. After a minute of silence, she looked over to AJ. His head hung low. He hadn’t looked at her since she came down. Ditzy took a deep breath to try to calm herself down. “I-I-I…”

“I’m going to be blunt Ditzy. No beating around the bush.” He finally turned to look at her. “I want to know why you thought I would cheat on you.”

Ditzy nervously rubbed her leg; her tears threatening to return. “I-I-I-I…” Her words turned to a whine as she turned away.

AJ’s head fell again. “You can’t tell me, can you?”

Ditzy took a deep, ragged breath to try to calm herself down. “It’s just…It’s just that I haven’t seen you in a few weeks. When I did, y-y-you were always busy to stop and talk.”

“That’s because things have been hectic around the farm,” AJ said. “It took a week before Applejack forgave me for missing work two days in a row. Not to mention I was trying to avoid any mare in this town like the plague if at all possible. The next two weeks were spent getting ready for the upcoming cider season. Between us all, I think we finally finished bucking all the trees. I was actually planning on surprising you with a visit yesterday when I was done at Sugarcube Corner.”

Ditzy couldn’t help but feel even more foolish now. She sniffled before going on. “I-I guess I just had this feeling that maybe you were avoiding me, and I guess deep down I started having…doubts. When we heard you and Pinkie through the door, i-it sounded like the two of you were having sex. After hearing all that, something in me just kinda snapped.”

AJ sighed. “I’m not going to lie. When you were avoiding me during your heat, I did think that maybe you no longer loved me, but not once did I think you were doing…things with other ponies. I had too much trust in you to believe something like that.”

Ditzy sniffled again; wiping away a tear before it could fall. “Do you…still love me?”

AJ finally looked back at Ditzy. At this point his own tears were threatening to fall. “Of course I do. That’s why it hurts so much.” Unlike Ditzy, he didn’t stop his tears from running their course.

Ditzy couldn’t help herself. She leapt forward; wrapping AJ in a big hug. “I’m sorry!” she cried as she tightened her hug. “I’m so sorry!”

With a ragged breath, AJ returned her hug. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“I should have trusted you more,” said Ditzy as she cried into his shoulder.

AJ sniffled before speaking. “I-it’s okay. This is just a…bump in the road for us. W-w-we’ll work through it. We’ll get through this, even if we need help.”

AJ gasped as he felt somepony suddenly hug him from the side. Looking down, he saw Dinky clinging onto his side for all she was worth. She looked up at him with sad eyes. “Does this mean we can still be a family?”

He continued to take ragged breaths as he stared at Dinky. Curiosity must have gotten the best of her; causing her to follow them downstairs. She heard the entire thing. He looked at Ditzy who was looking at him with hopeful eyes. A smile slowly grew on his face as he looked back at Dinky. He lifted her up so he could hug them both. “I promise I’ll never leave you Dinky. I’ll never leave either of you.” He tightened his hug as tears of another kind continued to flow down his cheeks.

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((As I said in the vent blog, so I could get this out in a somewhat decent amount of time, I split it.

My little pony © Hasbro
Friendship is magic © Lauren Faust))