Chapter 15 – Shattering Expectations
Applejack and Spike did not need to wait long before their friends began showing up one by one. They honestly were not sure why they were there other than something happened involving Twilight and she needed their help. Rainbow Dash had been very vague with the details, mostly due to the fact that she didn’t know much more about what was going on than any of the others.
Rarity arrived first, looking concerned yet confused by the interruption at her boutique. She had been hesitant to leave her work for what may have been as mundane a task as helping pick up books, but Rainbow Dash had been so insistent that she had reached the conclusion it must be something worthy of at least minor crisis status.
Pinkie Pie showed up only moments later in typical Pinkie Pie fashion, randomly hopping out of nowhere and running toward her friends, looking oddly happy considering the urgency of the meeting. It turned out that she had not listened to Rainbow Dash at all. She had launched instantly, like a sugar-fueled rocket, the instant Dash mentioned they were all going to Twilight’s place.
Only a few minutes later Fluttershy appeared at a distance, worriedly trotting along and mumbling quietly to herself, while Rainbow Dash flew slowly, but impatiently, along at her side. The timid pegasus had almost been thrown into a panic at Dash’s sudden arrival at her cottage, and hearing that there was a problem at the library had seized her wing muscles in tension, snapping them to her sides.
Fluttershy knew that when Twilight needed everypony’s help with something, it was seldom pleasant and usually included something dangerous, frightening, or both. Rainbow Dash almost had to literally pry her from her home to get her to come, and now Dash was keeping a close eye on her friend to keep her from running home and hiding.
When they had all finally reached the library, all eyes turned expectantly to Applejack and Spike, who were obviously in a state of uncomfortable restlessness.
“So, why exactly are we all here?” Rarity’s tone registered frustration at being bothered in the midst of inspiration. “Rainbow wouldn’t give me any details, and my designs were so close to being finished.” She finished her complaint with a pout at the obvious injustice of the disruption of her inspiration.
Pinkie chirped up happily, “Maybe she came up with a super-duper totally amazing spell that would let us all party for hours and hours without ever needing to stop unless we wanted to eat some cake or something and I have the best cake back at the shop if we need to go get it but that shouldn’t take long if – mmmph!”
A blue hoof lodged in the pink pony’s mouth as Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes in annoyance. “C’mon, AJ, what exactly is goin’ on in there?” Her voice was icy and contemptuous, and her eyes pierced the farmpony.
Fluttershy squeaked at the harsh tone in Dash’s voice and hid behind Rarity, wondering if anypony would notice if she slipped away. A glare from Dash at her movement guaranteed that they would.
Applejack shifted uncomfortably. She wasn’t exactly sure how much she should be telling everypony, but she knew that she needed to explain the problem with some detail at least.
“Derpy’s in there with Twi right now… they had an accident with one of Twi’s spells.” She shot a scowl at Rainbow Dash to keep her quiet; she knew the pegasus was itching to ask what Derpy had screwed up, and she didn’t want the entire group to get the wrong impression immediately.
“They’re both okay,” she continued, “but Twi’s not feelin’ too great about it an’ Derpy ain’t doin’ any better.” She noticed a slightly confused and deflated look cross Dash’s face. She had obviously been expecting Applejack to go into a description of Derpy’s failure at life in general.
Applejack felt a tug at her mane and looked down at Spike.
“AJ, shouldn’t we tell them about Derpy and Twi being–” The mare gave a small but violent shake of her head to signal him to keep quiet. Twilight and Derpy hadn’t explained their relationship to any of the other three ponies yet, and she wasn’t about to explain it for them.
Everypony else caught the slight exchange and gave each other inquisitive looks.
“Everything will make more sense inside, but it ain’t mah place to be givin’ the details right now. If you have questions, y’all will hafta ask them.”
Having said her piece, Applejack turned around and gave a small knock to the door. “Twi? Derpy? We’re all here now, ya okay with us comin’ in?”
There was silence for a moment, and then the doorknob glowed purple before turning and creaking the door open. The friends filed in, wondering what in Equestria was going on.
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Twilight and Derpy sat silent as Applejack and Spike left the library. Though the pair was still tightly embraced, their thoughts were very far apart. Twilight was left thinking about what could have gone wrong, going over her research in her head and trying to find some clue to what she had missed.
Derpy, on the other hoof, was thinking much more practically. All of Twilight’s friends would be gathering outside soon, and out of the five ponies, two knew of their relationship, and only one of those two had seemed to accept it, albeit begrudgingly. She thought of how Rainbow Dash would react; the prismatic mare had made it clear that she did not think highly of Derpy. The thought left Derpy with an involuntary shudder, which Twilight immediately responded to.
“Derpy, are you alright?” Her look of concern was lost on the sightless pegasus, but her worry was evident in her voice.
Derpy was slow to respond, unable to decide the best way to voice her concerns to Twilight.
“Well,” she began, “all of your friends are going to be here, and we haven’t really told any of them. The only ones who know are Applejack and Rainbow Dash, just because they figured it out on their own.” She laid her hooves on her lap, looking dejected at what she suspected would be coming.
“They’re all going to be here because we had a problem with the spell, but we’ll have to tell them about our relationship, too. How are we going to handle telling them about that, along with explaining the accident with my eyes?”
Twilight hadn’t even considered the fact that Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy still knew nothing about their relationship, and she felt grateful that Derpy still had the clarity of thought to recognize the problem about overloading them all at once. She thought for a moment about how best to handle the situation.
“I think it would go best if I explained it to them, and we should probably start by letting them know about us being together,” Twilight said thoughtfully. “I think starting at the beginning and explaining how everything happened in order would make the most sense to them, and we can end with the accident. By the time we get to that I think they’ll have gotten over the announcement of our relationship.”
Derpy nodded in agreement, though she still had a problem with that plan. “What about my eyes, though? They’ll notice that right away, and if we don’t explain that right away they might panic.” She began to feel slightly panicked herself; she could hear voices of several ponies outside the door already.
“Not if you just keep your eyes closed until we finish explaining.” Twilight pointed out.
Derpy facehooved at the obvious solution she had missed. She nodded again. “That sounds like a good plan. I guess it’s up to you to take it from here, then.” She felt around to find Twilight’s head, and when she found it she pulled them together, giving Twilight a slightly misplaced kiss.
Twilight felt another pang of guilt at the off-target sign of affection, but she moved her lips into the right position, returning the gentle brush of the mare’s muzzle with a more passionate kiss of her own. They shared a short hug, each drawing courage from the embrace of the other.
They were startled out of the moment by a small knock on the door. “Twi? Derpy? We’re all here now, ya okay with us comin’ in?” Applejack called in.
Derpy closed her eyes and gave Twilight a smile and a nod to indicate she was ready. The unicorn gathered her nerves, concentrated her magic on the doorknob, and slowly pulled the door open.
****************
As the five ponies and one baby dragon shuffled into the library, they could feel tension flowing through the room. Nopony knew what was going on except Applejack and Spike, and even they didn’t know what was going to come next. As Rainbow Dash entered, she quickly scanned the room for Derpy, shooting a venomous glare at her almost instantly.
She was disappointed to notice that her expertly timed expression of disdain went unnoticed by the pegasus, who for some reason had her eyes closed. Regardless, Rainbow Dash kept her gaze locked on Derpy, intent on repeating her glare the moment Derpy was looking.
A small smile crept over Dash’s face though, as a revelation occurred to her. She’s ashamed for whatever it is she did to Twi and can’t own up to it. She gave a smug sneer at the pegasus sitting next to Twilight, certain she was right about her assumption. Can’t even look us in the eye. She’s a disaster and a coward. Dash nearly snorted out of disgust at the thought, and wondered how in Equestria Derpy had messed up whatever Twilight was trying to do.
As soon as everypony was situated comfortably in the room, all eyes turned to the mares sitting together on the couch. A mutual sense confusion flowed through the group at the sight of Derpy, who sat motionless with her eyes clenched shut. Twilight broke the silence, interrupting the curious gazes being cast at her marefriend.
“Thank you for coming, everypony. I’m sorry we had to call you all here like this, but there’s been a lot going on over the past week that we haven’t been able to talk about with all of you yet. I’m not sure how much Applejack has told you about why I asked you all to come here so quickly, so I’d like to start by letting you know that we don’t have a crisis or problem that Princess Celestia requested we take care of,” she paused as Fluttershy gave a quiet exhale, visibly relaxed at that announcement, “and also that both Derpy and I are okay.”
The rest of the room gave a relieved sigh at that news. Applejack’s terse explanation had served only to frighten them about the situation.
“I really wanted you all here mainly so we could explain everything that’s happened. There’s a lot to go over, so I’m just going to start at the beginning up to now, just so everypony knows what’s going on.” Twilight fidgeted a bit, and her ear gave a slight twitch of nervousness.
At that, Spike simply wandered away for a while to clean up until they got to whatever it was that had happened that afternoon. He had been looking away when Applejack confronted Derpy, unable to watch the carnage about to unfold, and had missed whatever it was that had stopped Applejack short. The rest of all this stuff he knew, so there was no sense sitting and listening to it again.
“First, we have some good news,” I hope, Twilight thought, biting her lip as she looked around at her audience.
Twilight took a deep breath. “Derpy and I are together, as marefriends.” She bit her lip again and gave a small wince, looking around the room expecting to find reproachful looks from the other ponies. The moment was tense, since nopony responded immediately. It took a few seconds for what Twilight had said to sink in.
To Twilight’s relief, smiles and grins began to light faces around the room.
Rarity gave a bit of a squeal, jumping up and clopping her hooves together. “How wonderful, darlings! I believe some congratulations are in order!” She bounded over to Twilight and gave her a quick hug, then gave another hug to Derpy, who was extremely startled at the sudden appearance of hooves wrapping around her.
Derpy gave a bashful smile back toward Rarity’s direction and gave a meek “Thank you, Rarity.” She was careful to keep her eyes closed throughout the encounter, earning a confused look from Rarity, but the unicorn eventually shrugged it off and returned happily to her seat.
Fluttershy flushed at the news, happy for her friend, though it was quite a shock to her to hear Twilight had found a companion. She hid behind her mane, slightly embarrassed, but she still offered a genuine smile at the couple and extended a timid “Congratulations, Twilight. Congratulations, Derpy. I hope you two have a lovely time together.”
Rainbow Dash made a quiet scoffing sound and folded her forehooves at the scene, giving a disapproving look to Derpy, though nopony noticed. All eyes had turned to Pinkie Pie, of course with Derpy being the exception.
Derpy was almost radiating happiness; she had received acceptance from two of the three mares instantly, though she was confused at Pinkie Pie’s silence. Derpy had thought if anypony would be happy for them, the pink mass of energy would have been the first to express it.
She couldn’t have known that since the moment Twilight made their relationship public, the party pony had begun trembling almost violently, with a manic smile playing across her face. Everypony else, however, noticed the change in Pinkie’s demeanor instantly, and quickly and quietly began edging away from the incoming explosion of noise and activity.
Twilight barely had time to whisper a warning to Derpy before Pinkie erupted into a jubilant frenzy of celebration. A party cannon appeared out of virtually nowhere, blasting confetti in the air, though the confetti couldn’t even come close to reaching the height Pinkie had leapt to. She gave an almost earsplitting “WOOHOOOO! Omigoshomigoshomigosh, I can’t believe you two are in love! It’s so wonderful I can’t even explain it, but I just want to run around and give you all hugs and high-hooves, and I really can’t believe this is happening! And if you guys ever need a foalsitter you can call me anytime! Oh, wait, you can’t have foals but besides, you can call me anytime anyway, and we can celebrate some more!”
Pinkie charged directly at the couch and almost tackled the two stunned mares. Twilight at least had the advantage of being able to see what was coming, and she attempted to dart over to help brace Derpy for the incoming pink onslaught of affection.
Twilight partially succeeded in blocking the blow that Derpy was obviously not prepared for, but after the outburst of noise and half-assault, the pegasus had almost turned to a shade of white, clutching her chest and trembling slightly.
Rainbow Dash snickered at the sight, while behind her Pinkie was now hopping around the room making nonsense refrains in a singsong voice. For a few minutes, everypony tried to recover from the insanity that had materialized and taken form as a pink pony. The Element of Laughter had clearly checked out of the conversation for a while, so even though Pinkie would likely not hear a word she said, Twilight decided to press on.
“After we started being together, we thought it would be nice to see if there were any ways that we could fix Derpy’s exotropia.” Twilight garnered puzzled glances from everypony in the room. “Her eyes not pointing together.” Twilight huffed at having to phrase it in such an unsavory way, but it got the idea across and everypony gave a simultaneous ‘ahh.’
“I researched spells to mend her eyesight, even though I love her regardless,” Twilight stopped momentarily to give Derpy a peck on the cheek, gathering a blush from the pegasus, three ‘awww’s from Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy, a gagging sound from Rainbow Dash, and no reaction whatsoever from Pinkie Pie, who was still bouncing around the room as though somepony had injected her with pure sugar and a good dose of caffeine on the side.
Twilight resumed where she had left off. “After researching all my books here, I still wasn’t able to find anything. I tried looking at the Canterlot Archives, and after a while I came across a magic spell intended to cure the exact problem Derpy has. There were a few… problems, though.”
Twilight paused to let her friends think about what she was telling them; she knew that now would not be a good time to go into lecture mode and speed past everypony, leaving confusion behind. Rainbow Dash yawned disinterestedly, Applejack glared at Rainbow Dash for acting so cold, Rarity and Fluttershy seemed to be digesting the information, and everypony continued to tune out Pinkie Pie’s incoherent blathering.
“The problems with the spell kind of compounded each other,” Twilight said as she returned to the topic. “If done incorrectly, the spell could do damage instead of healing – the worse the mistake, the worse the damage. The second problem made the first worse – the scroll the spell was written on was in poor shape, smudged, smeared, and covered with authors notes and additional information scribbled in on the sides. I basically had to translate it into something that was readable so I could study the spell.”
She sighed heavily. “We tried the spell out this morning.” Now she had everypony’s attention. Spike came back from his cleaning to listen, Rainbow Dash was leaning forward to hear how Derpy had screwed it up, and even Pinkie Pie fell silent and watched, though she continued to bounce around the room – Twilight guessed from gained momentum.
“I performed the spell exactly as I wrote it out, down to every last detail. Derpy didn’t move or flinch for even an instant. Regardless, the spell didn’t work right. I must have transcribed it wrong at some point, maybe misread a blotchy word or something, but when I had done the copy everything seemed to make sense, so I really don’t know how I messed it up. But, I did.”
Twilight’s voice started to crack toward the end of the statement, and her eyes began to well up with tears. Derpy picked up on the emotion in Twilight’s voice and put a forehoof around her, pulling her closer.
After the admission, Applejack faced Rainbow Dash, a grim look on her face that communicated everything the pegasus had wanted to know earlier, and the glare gave her a shudder. It ain’t Derpy’s fault, numbskull. Leave the poor thing alone, for once.
“But, darling, nothing seems to be out of order with you,” Rarity commented, breaking the silence. “You both look just fine; whatever could have happened?”
Twilight placed her hoof on Derpy’s leg and gave her a light peck on the cheek, to indicate that it was time. Derpy turned her head toward Twilight and nodded, then turned back to face the room. Slowly, she raised her eyelids, though her eyes did not invite any light in. The chalky orbs were revealed to the room and its occupants, and all shared a multi-voiced gasp.
Spike’s eyes grew wide at the sight. He now knew what had turned Applejack from raging mad to meek repentance.
Rarity gave an overdramatic swoon that, for once, wasn’t faked, and the unicorn fainted immediately.
Fluttershy gave a frightened squeak, shrinking back further behind her mane. She felt her eyes filling with tears, and wanted desperately to rush forward and give the poor mare a hug, but the sight of those eyes froze her to the spot. All she was able to do was whimper and shiver.
Applejack wasn’t surprised at the outcome, but it reminded her of her behavior earlier. That, and the fact that the view was so unnerving, prompted her to pull the brim of her hat down over her eyes in shame.
Pinkie Pie, in the middle of a bounce at the time of exposure, had forgotten about momentum and came to an abrupt halt upon landing, face-planting on the floor.
Rainbow Dash’s jaw went slack, her mouth hanging open at the sight. Derpy didn’t hurt Twilight… Twilight hurt her. Her mind almost cracked at the thought, but she couldn’t just leave it at that. If Derpy hadn’t been so selfish and pressured Twilight into getting that spell, then it was her own fault that it went badly, and her fault for putting Twilight in such distress after so much work. It was a pitiful excuse, she knew, but it let her somehow keep a bit of blame on Derpy, and then she wouldn’t have been wrong about her.
“So that’s what the panic was about,” Twilight mumbled. “Thankfully, we think that since the spell only lasts a short while at first, we’re hoping that her sight will come back soon. Until then, I was hoping I could ask for your support, and I may need a little help from some of you.”
The group nodded in unison, even Rainbow Dash. Horseapples to Derpy, but I’ll do anything Twi wants me to if it’ll help her.
Twilight smiled at her friends. “Thanks, guys. I knew I could count on you.”
All eyes were on her, apprehensive about what her plan would be now.
“I want to know what went wrong. I’m going to pore over that scroll, and I’m not budging from my desk until I figure it out.” Twilight bluntly stated.
Everypony looked at her as though she were quite insane, and even Derpy was surprised, not to mention slightly nervous at the prospect of Twilight wanting to try again, but she decided that if that turned out to be the case, she’d stand by her word of trusting Twilight. Besides, if her vision wasn’t coming back, it couldn’t get worse, and if it did come back and Twilight messed something up again, it should come back a second time, too.
Twilight continued, apparently oblivious to the fact that her friends were under the impression that she was a nutcase. “Mostly, I’m going to need to be free from distractions for a while, but Rarity, if you’re able to stay for a little while I could use your help studying the spell.”
The white unicorn looked at her curiously; she wasn’t exactly the type to be any good with studying.
Twilight noticed her confusion. “Your attention to detail might catch something on the scroll that I missed. You also haven’t seen it, so you won’t skip something that I might think wasn’t worth a second look.”
Rarity nodded, though she much rather would have gone back to her boutique. Helping her friends always came before personal goals though, so she pushed the thought of fashion out of her mind and prepared to spend the day scrutinizing the spell for any hidden details.
Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, I’d also like to ask you for a favor, if you don’t mind.”
The pegasus responded without hesitation. “Of course I don’t mind. What did ya need?”
“If I’m going to be trying to focus, it’d be best if I was left alone, aside from Rarity helping me, of course. I think Derpy should go home to rest for the day, but she can’t see anything, so she’ll need help getting home, as well as finding her way around the house. You and Fluttershy are the only other pegasi here, so the rest of us can’t do it. Fluttershy doesn’t really like flying at the height’s Derpy’s house is, and I’m not sure that she’d be able to help Derpy fly back up. So, you're the best pony I can think of for the job.”
Rainbow Dash’s face turned pale, her eyes widening at the shock of what Twilight was asking. Derpy was the absolute last pony in Equestria she wanted to spend the day with, and truthfully the request was almost infuriating, but she had given Twilight her promise to help, so she was stuck with no other choice.
She ground her teeth in irritation, and gave a curt response, trying unsuccessfully to disguise the coldness in her voice. “Yeah, I guess I can do that.” She suppressed a revolted shudder at what she had just agreed to do.
All the life seemed to drain out of Derpy’s face at the request as well. Derpy knew that Rainbow Dash didn’t like her, and spending the afternoon with her would be extremely awkward. The animosity was evident in Rainbow’s response, and she knew that the mare disliked the idea as much as she did. She did want to go home, though, and she couldn’t do so alone.
“Thanks, Dash. I knew I could count on you.” Twilight turned to address the rest of her friends. “Alright, everypony. I think I’m going to get started, but I’ll be sure to let you know if anything important happens.” She walked over to Derpy and gave her a kiss on the cheek and a nuzzle.
“I know you two don’t get along all that well, but give her a chance to get to know you, and I’m sure it’ll work out,” she whispered. “Unless we get Dash to give you a chance, it’ll be pretty weird around here every time she comes over.”
Derpy understood what Twilight was trying to do, but it didn’t make her feel much better about it. She shuffled a bit in discomfort, but gave Twilight a soft, but weak, smile.
“I’ll try my best, but I don’t know how well this will go. Are you sure about this, Twi?” She had a difficult time speaking with the apprehension that clutched at her.
Derpy received another peck on the cheek. “It’ll be ok. I promise.”
The group mumbled some words of encouragement as they left, and Dash walked over and gave Derpy a bit of a rough shove toward the door. “Okay, Derpy. Let’s go.”
Derpy slowly plodded out of the room, guided by Rainbow Dash, and neither of them looked happy. Twilight watched them leave, feeling slightly uneasy herself, but she trusted her friends. They had their faults, but they had never let her down, and she didn’t expect Rainbow to start now.
Twilight turned back to Rarity, who was still sitting at her chair and was warily eyeing the pile of books surrounding the desk. “Alright, ready to get started?” She levitated a chair next to hers at the desk, and headed over, followed by Rarity. The two unicorns sat together and silently began to read.