The Cutie Mark Crusaders were not stupid. Any children capable of perfectly brewing a potion on the first go, regardless of their intent or purpose for making it, cannot be classified as stupid, regardless of what certain other fillies said. This was in part the reason Midday had admitted to them that she was from the future. That and the fact that Scootaloo had already realised she was telling the truth, and would probably have worked her way around to telling Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, which would have caused a whole domino chain of madness. And then Apple Bloom had recognised what she'd said about Twilight Sparkle's future. This had called for immediate action. In other words, bribing them with cupcakes (She had already made then promise not to tell anypony about her being from the future, but had made no such guarantee about anything else). It seemed to work, though every few seconds one of them would think of something, before deciding not to bother. Then a thought occured to Sweetie Belle.
"So, does anypony else know about you being... you know?"
"Well, there's Spike."
"Figures. 'Cuz you seem him as bein' like a big brother, 'cuz Miss Twilight Sparkle hatched him, right?" Apple Bloom smiled, proud of her deduction.
"Yeah." Midday said. "And Celestia, and Luna."
The three fillies just nodded. But then, at their age and even with their above-average intelligence, they still probably thought Celestia knew everything there was to know. Which as Midday knew was only mostly true.
"And I'm fairly certain, though I have no idea how, that your grandmother has me figured out" she said to Apple Bloom. The filly didn't even react to that, except a slightly proud smile.
"That's cuz she's Granny Smith. She's seen everything." Midday chortled, which caused them to give her quizzical looks.
"What?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"You just remind me a lot of when I was young." She paused and considered this. "Younger, that is. Seeing as I am in fact eighteen, and therefore only just qualify as a young adult."
Their eyes went wide with shock, and Midday remembered Ponyville had a curious lack of teenagers.
"You're eighteen?" they said as one.
"You don't look like it." Scootaloo finally said.
"Accident with magic. Which is curious because there are ways to alter age, so I'm wondering if it's just because altering your own age is against the rules, but of course that doesn't make sense because Tw-... my mother tried to dispell whatever I did to myself." She said, frowning as she did.
"That's gotta be awful. Agin' yourself" Apple Bloom said. Midday just nodded slightly.
"It was awful. And so was the physical therapy, and going from being twelve to being sixteen, which-" She was suddenly aware of what she'd been about to say to a group of pre-teens. "Well, stay away from age-altering spells" she said sharply.
Eventually, the girls finished their bribes and decided to go off and continue their 'crusading', though not before asking whether she could give any hints about what their special talents would be. She considered this for a moment before saying:
"I don't think I can give you any hints, and nothing that anypony has told you before. 'Find out who you are' and such."
"Oh, forget it then" Scootaloo said glumly.
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS AWAY!" They yelled, before rushing off into the distance. Midday just watched, shaking her head.
*****
Midday returned to the library to find an alarming sight. Twilight was staring at a piece of paper, a quill hovering over her head, her expression one of irritation.
"Afternoon, Twilight." Midday said. The mare gave no indication of her arrival. Midday slowly walked her way over to the mare. She looked at Twilight, and then to the paper, which only had the words
"Pinkie Pie"
written on it. Midday stared at the scene in front of her, and raised an eyebrow.
"Did something happen?" she asked. The quill floated towards the desk. Twilight looked at her and blinked.
"I've been trying to write an apology letter to Pinkie Pie, but I can't think of what to say." She looked... heartbroken, now that Midday thought about it.
"What happened?"
"Well, you know Pinkie Pie wanted to foalsit Pound and Pumpkin Cake?" Twilight said slowly. Midday nodded. The pink pouncer had mentioned that every now and then since they were born, sometimes subtly inserting her opinion into a conversation, and much more often doing the exact opposite. "Well, the Cakes had some work they needed to finish, and so they were asking everypony around town. I was too busy summarising my notes to the Princess, and eventually they acquiesed and let Pinkie look after Pound and Pumpkin." Twilight looked around the room.
"Well, eventually I managed to finish my work and I went over to offer Pinkie some help and... I said the wrong thing and she threw me out and I haven't seen her since because I wanted to apol-" Midday held up a hoof.
"Ease up, Twilie, before you sprain something" she said. She looked at the mare, who appeared genuinely confused as to what she'd done. "Now then, can you take a deep breath, and tell me exactly what it was you said?"
Twilight nodded. "The first thing I said was explaining that I came to help. Pinkie was enthusiastic at first, and explained that she was having trouble looking after the foals. I said 'I figured you could use some help'."
Midday bit her lip. Then she realised she was biting her lip. "Go on." She said.
"Pinkie suddenly got annoyed and asked me to explain what I meant. And I said that..." She frowned in concentration, "I said 'Babies take a lot of work. Some ponies are just not cut out for the responsibility.' Midday? Midday, why are you doing that?"
Midday removed her face from her hooves (or her hooves from her face, depending on how one viewed it.) "Sorry, sorry. Tell me you didn't actually say that?" she asked. Twilight nodded.
"And then Pinkie shoved me outside and slammed the door in my face."
"No kidding." Midday saw the look of confusion of Twilight's face. "Okay, Twilight, I can see what went wrong there." She placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Your intention and meaning? Perfect, ten out of ten for friendship. Phrasing and tact? Minus several quadrillion."
"That's not a word" Twilight mumbled.
"What you did was tell Pinkie you were expecting her to fail. Or at least that's how it would sound, especially since a pony who's been dealing with month-old foals all day isn't going to take the time to analyse the subtext of what you were saying." There was a slight pause as Twilight tried to work this out.
"Now then, how long ago was this?"
"A few hours."
Midday blinked as Twilight's words sunk in. "You've been trying to write a letter for 'a few hours'?" She asked, her voice raising slightly in concern. Twilight just nodded. Midday suddenly felt herself at a loss for words, beyond a simple "Oh my."
For a few seconds the two sat there, before Midday just smiled. "Well, I am reasonably confident that Pinkie Pie has forgotten about this whole thing, or forgiven you, so here's an idea: We go over to Sugarcube Corner and see if Pinkie's done that, and you can apologise in person."
Twilight opened her mouth to apologise, but Midday stared at her.
"Or have you been planning to write a letter because you were concerned Pinkie might instantly dismiss your apology?"
Twilight's mouth snapped shut.
"Well, how about we go see what's what, then?" She nudged Twilight slightly, and the mare stood up. "Honestly, I'm a bit amazed you haven't tried this yourself."
*****
The two mares walked through the streets of Ponyville, Twilight's mood already having improved, not least at the prospect of having a new letter to write to her mentor. But as they did Midday noticed something bothering Twilight.
"What?" Midday asked. The mare was glancing at her, and appeared nervous when she asked.
"I was just wondering, how did you know I had a foalsitter?"
Midday smiled. "I met her while I was in Canterlot."
Twilight suddenly broke out in a wide grin. "Really? Did she mention me?"
"She did. You lucked out with her for a foalsitter." Twilight's smile grew, and Midday could swear she was thinking of the 'Ladybug' dance she did. It helped that Twilight's ears started twitching and her backside noticably shook, though Twilight herself didn't seem to remember.
"I haven't seen her in years." The mare said quietly. "I wonder how she's getting on. Maybe I should send her a letter." She said, absent-mindedly turning around. Midday's horn glowed and the purple unicorn quickly found herself facing the way she was supposed to be going.
"Pinkie Pie first." Midday watched as the mare's expression shifted slightly to one of worry. She did briefly wonder who would have gotten Twilight to apologise if she hadn't been there.
*****
Spike had finally finished cleaning up the kitchen, and decided to go check if Twilight was there. He had heard voices earlier, but had given them no mind, since Twilight frequently dictated her letters as she wrote them (or more often when he wrote them for her), which made the times she wrote essays maddening. He walked through into the main room to find Twilight was gone, but the letter she'd been preparing to write was still there, unfinished save the opening line. Spike took in the scene, and eventually came to the conclusion that Twilight had taken his advice to just go talk to Pinkie Pie after all, and nodded approvingly.
*****
Twilight stood in front of the store, looking hesitant. Midday stood behind her, saying nothing.
"Would it help if I said you can do this?"
"Yes" Twilight said.
"You can do this, Twilight."
The mare smiled at her, and nodded. She walked through into the store, Midday instantly behind her just in case she tried to flee.
Instead they found numerous banners, and ponies standing there wearing conical hats and identical grins, along with a massive banner reading 'Apology Accepted'.
Midday and Twilight stared at the scene in front of them, then at each other, then back to the party, before the royal blue mare suddenly started laughing uncontrollably.
"It's okay, Twilight" a voice that belonged to a puffy-maned pink pony said, as she placed party hats on the mares' heads, "I know you meant well!"
Midday reigned in her laughter after a few minutes and shook her head. "I gotta hand it to Pinkie, I wasn't really expecting that."
*****
The party was a low-key affair by necessity, since little Pound and Pumpkin Cake were asleep, and the Cakes had just returned from several hours of working, meaning it only lasted half an hour. Several party-goers even noted that Pinkie appeared much more subdued than her usual self.
"Midday?" Twilight said as they walked out of Sugarcube Corner.
"Yeah."
"Thanks for the advice. You and Spike."
"Spike?" Midday asked.
"He said pretty much the same thing Well, okay, he said 'snap out of it' once or twice and you didn't."
"We're just doing our jobs." Midday said calmly. Twilight grinned and shook her head.
"And what job is that?"
"Being friends, obviously." Midday paused. "Did I just say that out loud?" She said with mock-horror.
"Yeah."
Midday paused, and considered this. "I can live with that" she finally said.
"We all make mistakes, Twilight Sparkle. Just don't be afraid to ask for help."
Twilight frowned, before a small grin appeared on her face. "Did you get into the salt lick?"
*****
The next few days were reasonably peaceful, or peaceful as a town can get when it includes ponies like Rainbow Dash, Rarity or Pinkie Pie around to liven up dull afternoons. Midday wandered downstairs on the saturday after the Wonderbolts show, to find Twilight and Trixie both sitting around looking concerned.
"Morning, everypony. Why so concerned?" She asked on seeing their faces. Trixie spoke first.
"Ditzy's late" the blue showmare frowned. "Ditzy Doo is never late."
And then Midday realised something. She hadn't seen the amicable mailmare since the near-destruction of the old town hall. It was a sobering thought to be thinking on just waking up.
"Do you think something happened to her?" she asked. Twilight shook her head.
"No, but we are concerned."
Trixie nodded emphatically. "Deeply concerned."
"Maybe she's just ill" Midday suggested, though a part of her brain was actually questioning whether she'd been foolish enough to say that, which seemed to be shared between the three mares.
"Hasn't anypony seen her?" Twilight and Trixie shook their heads. "Has anypony been to her house?" Their heads shook again. This was getting all too alarming. "Has anypony seen Dinky?"
Trixie raised a hoof. "I've... seen her around and about the town, but we haven't talked. Which is a shame because she seemed to enjoy watching Trixie practice. I was..." She trailed off into mumbling.
A thought occured to Midday. "Pinkie Pie would know. Why not just ask her? She knows everything about everypony."
"Not everything" Trixie said confidently.
"I'm pretty sure she knows about how you feel about socks, Trixie." The showmare looked aghast.
"You talk in your sleep." Midday said at that.
"I-I do not!" Trixie said, evidently trying to fight the embarrassed look on her face.
"You do." Twilight said, before Trixie turned on her.
"You stay out of this, sock-lover!"
"Anyway" Midday said, "Pinkie."
"Trixie will come with you. If only to make sure Pinkie Pie does not know of her weaknesses." The two mares then marched outside, leaving Twilight alone to read her book. Then there was an almighty crash, and glass scattered all over the room. Fortunately Twilight was smart enough to put up a forcefield before any of it hit her, though she did sigh wearily as Rainbow Dash slammed into the ground and rushed over to her.
"Twilight, ya gotta help me!"
"Okay" She said, but before she could ask what was wrong the distressed mare continued.
"It's a disaster, an emergency! It's unbelievably unfairly uncool!"
Twilight stood there for a second, waiting for Rainbow Dash to explain what the problem was. The mare's lip quivered.
"Yes?"
"My lamp broke!" Rainbow Dash wailed. "Now I can't read Daring Do in bed!"
"Why don't you just read them here?" Twilight said. Rainbow Dash paused for a moment.
"Oh, yeah" she murmured sheepishly. "Could just do that." She smiled, before rushing out of the library again, leaving a confused Twilight to wonder what had just happened.
*****
Midday knocked on the backdoor to Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie opened the door, and for some strange reason was dressed like she was going for an early-morning jog.
"Pinkie. Good, just the mare we would like to talk to." Midday smiled.
"Why exactly are you dressed like that?" asked Trixie, apparently unable to contain her confusion. Not that Midday wasn't wondering about that.
"Practicing my comedy." Pinkie said as she lead the two mares up into her private room where Pound and Pumpkin were staring expectantly at the mare.
"If I get Pound and Pumpkin Cake to smile then I know I can get everypony to smile today, because what sort of day would it be if nopony ever smiled, I mean that wouldn't be fun-" Trixie and Midday exchanged looks.
"Pinkie." Trixie uttered.
"Yes. Do you need helping getting a smile on your face today Trixie Lulamoon?"
There was a noise from Trixie indicating she was holding back the urge to yell, most likely because of the two infants staring at the scene in front of them. "No. Trixie is merely wondering if... do you know where Ditzy's gone to?"
Pinkie's smile changed. Midday, for the life of her, couldn't honestly remember seeing the expression on Pinkie's face go straight from pure happiness to total confusion.
"Gone? What do you mean gone? You're not making sense, Lulamoon. Ditzy hasn't gone anywhere."
"Pinkie, she didn't deliver the mail today. Not even a newspaper, or a bill. Nothing. Not even dropping by unannounced on her route." Trixie said, her voice almost calm. There were a few seconds of near silence, save the occasional noise from Pound and Pumpkin. Pinkie's hair seemed to deflate slightly.
"I'll check" she said, her voice noticeably lacking some of its usual energy, before she began beaming again. "Don't worry, your auntie Pinkie will get to the bottom of this mystery right away" she grinned, patting the two grown mares on the head and gently nudging them towards the stairs. As they walked down the stairs they heard Pinkie mutter something about her 'bubble pipe'. The two walked in silence all the way out onto the street. Trixie looked around.
"What are the chances that she'll forget to look for Ditzy?" The mare asked. Midday felt defensive of Pinkie.
"She will. Pinkie doesn't break her promises." She said quickly. Trixie stared at her.
"Though she does get distracted easily, I must admit." The two mares stood there.
"Okay, let's see. Who are the ponies that would know where she is? I mean, there's Dinky, obviously, and probably Cheerilee would know as well. And there was that mare that she was with during the Sisterhooves Social."
"Amethyst Star. Or Sparkler. I can't remember which." Trixie said, "She occasionaly chaperones Dinky. I wouldn't have pegged her as Dinky's sister, myself. I mean, they don't look like sisters."
Midday shrugged. "Well I barely look like my mother, so Dinky and Amethyst can be sisters all they want. Anypony else?"
Trixie contemplated. "Carrot Top." She said eventually.
"Really? What would a mailmare have to talk about with a farmer?"
Trixie blinked. "No, I was just thinking about carrots. You seemed to be handling the thinking just fine without Trixie" she said, archly. Midday rolled her eyes.
"Rainbow Dash?" Trixie suggested, "She seemed to know Ditzy fairly well."
"Good idea. Shall we go then?" Midday said. The two stood there.
"Where first?"
"Let's try Cheerilee first."
*****
As it turned out, Cheerilee wasn't willing to tell either Trixie or Midday where Ditzy was, and even when they did convince her to tell them, she wasn't sure, and noted Dinky hadn't appeared in a while either. Then they went to the post office, where it turned out Ditzy had just up and vanished shortly after Applejack returned from Dodge Junction, and the Post Master suggested asking Amethyst Sparkler, so they travelled all the way across town to the mare's store, where she informed them (in no uncertain terms) that she hadn't seen Ditzy or her half-sister anywhere for some days, and Fluttershy wasn't at home. Feeling slightly curious, Midday went to check and found the odd blue box that belonged to the pony calling himself the Doctor was missing.
"Curious" she muttered. She remembered the stallion saying something about 'couldn't take off' and something about a paradox. She stared at the spot of flattened grass where the box had been.
After that, the two mares returned to the library, Trixie occasionally pondering something. The two stood outside the library door and Trixie frowned.
"I'm going to keep looking for her." The showmare said. Midday raised an eyebrow.
"That's altruistic, for you." She noted. Trixie stared at her.
"I like Ditzy. And nopony seems to have noticed or even cared that she's missing. Or her daughter. Doesn't that strike you as being strange?"
"Yes." Midday said instantly. "But aside from rummaging around, I don't think there's much more that can be done." She looked at Trixie, who looked furious. Midday felt slightly lousy herself. She knew of Ditzy Doo, in her time, the mare still being around and alive, and of Dinky. Again she wondered if their absence had some connection to her, some counterbalance for her going through time. What was it the pony had said... 'timey-wimey'? Trixie was still looking furious.
"Very well then." She said, "Don't bother helping Trixie. She shall look for Ditzy and Dinky by herself, if she must." And at that the mare stormed off, cape billowing behind her.
"Wrong way, Trixie." Midday called out, as the mare stopped walking the way they'd came, and turned to head in the other direction. Midday walked into the library, her mind still trying to analyse the situation, and then something else occured to her. She had travelled into the past, but time still seemed to be happening on more or less the same lines as before. The implications were making her head spin. Why wasn't she having any effect on time? Or was time fighting back somehow, making everypony else follow the pre-set plan it had laid out.
"Whoa, somepony looks terrible" a voice said. She looked up to see Rainbow Dash looking at her and smiling, with an ever-so-slight hint of smugness. A Daring Do book was resting on her hoof.
"Rainbow Dash, in a library? I must be hallucinating." She smirked. Rainbow Dash briefly looked nervous.
"My house is getting... fumigated," she stuttered. "For... cloud... termites?"
Midday walked over to her, noticing Twilight reading another Daring Do book. Well, the purple unicorn had been reading a Daring Do book, but at the moment she was shaking her head. Then when she was done she went back to reading. Midday looked at the book she was reading.
"You're still on the Sapphire Stone? I thought you'd finished it."
"Yeah. I did. And now I'm reading it again, okay?" Rainbow Dash said defensively, before going back to her book. Midday stared at the mare.
"Hey, Rainbow Dash?"
"What?"
"Have you seen Ditzy or Dinky around?"
The mare looked up from her book, a look of genuine confusion on her face.
"... No" she said quietly. "I haven't seem them in... almost a month." Alarm came over her face.
"So you and Trixie couldn't find her?" Twilight asked. Midday shook her head.
"It's weird. Nopony seems to have recognised she wasn't there. It doesn't make any sense. Trixie and I looked everywhere, but... she's just vanished into thin air."
"That's really not like her. That's not like her at all." Rainbow Dash frowned. The three mares sat there in silence. All three sat thinking of reasons for Ditzy's abscence, but none made any sense to them.
"She'll turn up eventually." Rainbow Dash said. Twilight and Midday said nothing, though they were thinking along the same lines. Suddenly a small smile began to appear on Rainbow Dash's face. "She'll be back."
Midday stared at Rainbow Dash for a moment, and just for that instant she could swear she was looking at the Rainbow Dash she knew, and she began to smile herself. Then she realised she hadn't eaten at all yet, having missed breakfast because of the fruitless search for Ditzy, and went into the kitchen to get herself something to eat, meaning she missed Pinkie's arrival. However, she did catch the tail end of the mare's explanation. From the way she seemed to keep repeating the same basic facts, she sounded uncannily like she was in shock. She glanced at Twilight, who was looking sympathetically at Pinkie.
"I know this is hard for you, Pinkie, seeing that you're friends with everypony, but you just have to accept that Cranky is gonna be an exception. He just..." Twilight paused as she searched for the most fitting term, "Doesn't want to be bothered." There was a sudden snort from Rainbow Dash.
"Yeah, he doesn't want to be bothered by your over-the-top super-hyper antics." Rainbow Dash smiled, punctuating her statement by waving her hoof around in a circle by her head and rolling her eyes about.
"Rainbow!" Twilight immediately responded.
Strangely enough Pinkie just nodded to this. "No, no, it's okay Twilight. I get what you're saying. What you're both saying." She sighed, and Midday felt a rising sense of alarm, "And I guess... I guess I can leave Cranky alone." Twilight smiled in vindication. Then Pinkie smiled again.
"Right after he accepts my apology!" Pinkie walked out of the library smiling, while Twilight decided to inspect the book at much closer distance.
"Shouldn't somepony stop her from bothering this... 'Cranky'?" Midday asked. There was a pained groan from Twilight which sounded like (In a very euphemistic sense) her way of saying 'That's what I just did'.
"Nah. Pinkie'll get distracted by something in about ten minutes." Rainbow Dash said, looking at her book again. "Now can I get some peace and quiet? Daring Do's about to get the stone."
"Yeah, but... would you really want some mare barging into your life and not going away when you asked her no matter how much you-" Midday stopped when she saw Rainbow Dash raising an eyebrow. When Rainbow Dash was raising eyebrows, it was definitely time to stop.
*****
As it turned out, Midday's concern was misplaced, since Pinkie managed to reunite the donkey named Cranky Doodle Dandy with his long-lost sweetheart, which made him accept her apology and her offer to be friends. Of course, Midday found this out when Rarity visited the library to impart the news, occasionaly taking small crying fits at the 'romance' of it all. Spike seemed to materialise from nowhere to hand Rarity fresh tissues every moment.
"Imagine it" Rarity said, "Being seperate from the one you loved for so long. It's so... so..." And she descended into another bout of overly-dramatic sobs. Midday lost all interest in the conversation at that phrase, and quickly found something else to do.
*****
The next week passed without any real incident, save one or two of Pinkie's partys. Trixie had returned the day after she had vowed to find Ditzy, having (in her own words) found nothing. So, after much debate, they decided Ditzy was a grown mare who up until recently had always tried to do the right thing, especially by Dinky, though possible reasons as to why a mare and her child would disappear after what happened to the town hall loomed throughout the conversation like ominous shadows. Twilight quickly declared that worrying about Ditzy was unlikely to make her randomly appear, and the topic was quickly dropped, though it did remain on everypony's mind.
On the Saturday after, Midday was chosen for the specially designed rota for fetching the week's groceries.
"I don't remember this" she uttered, to which Twilight smiled an alarmingly eager smile.
"That's because I just designed a new schedule for who gets groceries each week" she grinned. Midday stared at it. And then she stared at it further.
"Makes sense" she finally said, to which Twilight's grin actually grew, which didn't seem to be scientifically possible to Midday until that point. This meant she had to go to the small farmer's market on the edge of town. It wasn't that she had anything against the farmer's market, more the gouging, and the gouging on top of that. There was just something about the place that seemed to bring out the worst in ponies. Actually, now that she thought about it, everypony had been acting moody all morning. As she approached the market she saw Rarity and Pinkie Pie talking with Fluttershy.
"Good morning, everypony" she said as she walked over to them. Pinkie beamed and waved, Rarity just nodded while Fluttershy gave out a small, depressed sounding sigh.
"Something the matter, Fluttershy?" The mare looked startled at that.
"Oh, no, no, not really, though I'm just having bad luck buying food today." Midday raised an eyebrow.
"Ah, one of those days." She said, in the way only an eighteen year old stuck in a twenty-two year old's body could. Not that she couldn't tell what was happening.
"Is it me, or is everypony being kinda insensitive today?" she asked, sniffing the air. It smelt like apples, and the day's mystery scent from the Everfree, which actually smelt like a variety of soup.
"I haven't noticed" Rarity said, calmly. Pinkie rapidly shook her head in agreement with the fashionista.
"At least try and purchase a cherry yourself." Rarity said, returning to the conversation she and Pinkie had been having with Fluttershy before Midday got there. The pegasus looked from Midday to Pinkie to Rarity.
"Okay" She said. She walked over to a stand which apparently sold cherries, and only cherries (and apparently only one variety of cherry, which had nearly sold out on top of that). Midday had a sinking feeling about the whole situation, and watched as Fluttershy somehow managed to get herself confused enough to make the store-owner all the way up to twelve bits ('Take it or leave it' she heard Fluttershy proclaim) at which point Rarity and Pinkie rushed over to drag Fluttershy away. She saw a pony rapidly approaching the stall, and was sure she heard Fluttershy exclaiming something in shock. Apparently the stall owner could smell desperation, and had increase the price beyond the Fluttershy price-range. Then the pony (Lemon... something, if she remembered correctly) bought the cherry for all of two bits, said loud enough for a lot of ponies to hear. At this, Fluttershy looked more miserable than Midday had ever seen her before, and she found herself amazed she wasn't trying to smother the pegasus in hugs and warm blankets already. She quickly trotted over to the pegasus.
"Come on, Fluttershy, it's not like it's the end of the world." The mare looked up at her.
"But Angel Bunny really wanted that cherry, and I needed to get it, otherwise he won't eat his meal, because he's such a fussy eater."
Midday stared at the mare in front of her. How had this mare become the pony who raised Wisp, who by all appearances managed to fight off at least several changelings single-hoofed and survived an attack by a lot more, when she couldn't even manage to buy one single cherry. She decided to just go buy one for Fluttershy, only to see the stall-owner had installed a sign declared that he was closed.
'Of course you are' she sighed. She looked back to Fluttershy.
"Can't you just... I don't know, convince Angel to eat his meal without the cherry, for once."
"I guess I'll have to." Fluttershy said, walking on ahead of Midday, who for some reason found the strength to argue sapped from her. She was aware of Pinkie Pie and Rarity appearing behind her.
"The poor girl" Rarity commented, shaking her head. Midday had to agree, though her pity was tempered by the knowledge of how much stronger Fluttershy could be. Then she remembered she had groceries to buy.
*****
Midday found grocery shopping herself much easier, despite the fact that Rarity and Pinkie Pie were both talking away behind her about Fluttershy needing to 'assert' herself. After five minutes of this she turned around to them, smiling as polite a smile as she could manage.
"And tell me, Rarity, the socialite, the toast of the town, the pony everypony should know, how exactly should this assertion manifest itself?"
Rarity paused in thought. "Well, she should... stand up for herself more. And be more confident."
Midday nodded slowly at that. "More confident." She repeated.
"But how will she go about gaining this confidence?"
Rarity blinked. "She should tell herself she isn't going to take any nonsense from anypony anymore" she declared. Pinkie nodded at this.
"No nonsense from anypony. So that would include the ponies constantly telling her she's a pushover and a doormat?"
Rarity looked uncertain. "Well, obviously we were only doing it to..." her voice trailed off "Encourage her?"
"And I know you meant well, Rarity, but, and here's the problem, you want Fluttershy to stand up for herself, right?"
Rarity nodded instantly.
"Then who's she standing up to? Something to think about." She said, walking back to the library.
Rarity turned to Pinkie. "But that's obvious. It's everypony who's ever pushed her around."
"Of course it is." Pinkie smiled. "Once Fluttershy learns to stand up for herself, she'll be just fine."
*****
Midday quickly returned to the library, and deposited the groceries in the kitchen. She walked back into the main room to find Twilight carefully analysing piles of paper.
"Hey Twilight, what'cha up to?" She asked, making the mare jump. She looked at the dates and notations and the calendar very barely visible underneath all the notes. "Tax returns?"
"No" said Twilight, who didn't seem to recognise the flippancy in Midday's voice, "I'm organising my schedule for the month."
"Oh, yeah." Midday said as she saw several red notations saying 'Lunch with Pinkie Pie' followed by the word 'urgent' underlined several times. The urgency probably came from the fact that Pinkie was more fanatic about scheduling than Twilight. Many was the tale of the unfortunate pony chased beyond the brink of exhaustion while running in terror from the deadly phrase 'Is next Thursday okay'. Although the way Rainbow Dash had told her a version of such a story when she was younger had made it sound far more interesting, including one instance where she and Pinkie Pie had fought off a roving gang of sky pirates. It was around the time Midday had learnt that nearly every story Rainbow Dash told was at least slightly 'enhanced' as the mare put it, save what she called 'The Party of One Incident' which she always bluntly informed anypony who questioned her about it was the truth.
Midday looked at the pile of mail sitting by the door, and raised an eyebrow.
"Has Spike not cleaned out the junkmail today?" She asked. Twilight gave no response, too busy as she was trying to determine a good time to arrange her letters to the Princess (the private copies, of course) in catergorical order. Midday looked through them, mainly because she was feeling slightly antagonistic at the moment. Then she saw a flyer with a picture of a minotaur flexing it's fore-arm muscles.
"The Incredible Iron Will turns doormats into dynamos. Assertiveness seminar today, hedge maze centre." It proclaimed. Midday gently folded it back up and placed it in the nearest waste-basket. Iron Will, she thought. Iron Will, Iron Will, that sounded familiar somehow. Then she remembered where she heard it before.
'Oh, that's not good'.
Quickly she rushed out of the door, only to remember when she was halfway through Ponyville that'd she'd no idea where the maze path was.
*****
"Okay, I feel good. I feel 'ready' to attack the day, as Iron Will says."
*****
It took Midday some time to find the 'hedge maze' as it was called, located on the edge of town, and by the time she'd got there, all she found was a minotaur yelling at some goats not to eat his stage curtains. Midday quickly turned around and headed back into town. It had taken her twenty minutes to find the maze, and it took several minutes more to reach town. On her way she crossed one of the small bridges across the river running through the village, and regretted that instantly. Somepony had managed to spill garbage over the entire bridge, save for eight hoof-shaped gaps. She was aware of a crash, followed by varied screams. She rushed to what appeared to be the source of the screams, Sugarcube Corner, where a pony was lying dazed in the wreckage of the sign hanging on the front of the store. She was aware of somepony yelling.
"Nopony pushes New Fluttershy around! NOPONY!"
Midday stopped dead in her tracks, which caused her to flip head over hoof, right next to Pinkie Pie and Rarity, who didn't seem to notice her.
"Old Pinkie Pie is not so sure New Fluttershy is such a a good idea after all."
"Old Rarity agrees."
Midday slowly got to her hoofs. "What just happened?" She asked.
"Fluttershy's got nuts! She's throwing everypony about and speaking in the third person and then, when I gave her punch, she just went all rhyme-y, and then you saw the rest."
Rarity frowned. "Midday, dearest, did you know this was going to happen?"
She stared at the fashionista, and tilted her head.
"Sort of."
"Sort of" Rarity repeated, her voice cold.
"Well, I did see the flyer for Iron Will's seminars, and if you take somepony like Fluttershy, who's been pushed around all her life and give her the chance to push back... she's going to take it. Like, I don't know, kids that've been bullied, I guess. Everypony just has a point where they snap and today was apparently Fluttershy's."
The three mares stood there, looking at her. Rarity didn't look quite convinced, while Pinkie just looked worried about Fluttershy. Midday smiled. "Now, why not try and think of a way to stop 'New' Fluttershy before she does something she'll regret." She paused to consider the average mindset of the Fluttershy, "Regret more than she usually does, I mean."
"We knew that!" Pinkie said, "We're not scatterbrained id- The punch is dripping everywhere!" She squealed, before rushing over to the counter inside, where there was in fact a large puddle of punch dripping everywhere.
Rarity coughed the sort of polite cough that silenced rooms. "So, Midday, if you know so much about Fluttershy, and what ails her, then what do you suggest we do to get her back to normal?" she asked. Midday looked uncertain, then noticed the pony by the sign beginning to stir and walked over to him.
"You okay?" She asked.
"Something hit me" the dull-grey stallion muttered.
Midday did a quick check. "Well, you'll live, but I'd recommend seeing a trained medical professional just in case. Go on, hospital, now." The stallion looked around, slightly confused, before Midday turned back to Rarity.
"I think we should find Fluttershy, and talk to her."
Rarity raised an eyebrow. "Talk to her? She doesn't exactly appear to be in the most talkative of moods."
"Yeah, you didn't see her!" Pinkie announced from inside Sugarcube Corner, "She was all 'rrr' and 'grrr' and 'I'll take what's mine' on everypony." Her voice lowered. "Fluttershy's turned into a... a meanie."
"Then it's a good thing she's got two friends who are willing to do whatever they can for her." Midday said, "Right?"
Pinkie looked at her in confusion. "Who?"
*****
Half an hour of aimless wandering later, the three mares noticed a pony flying through the air. From the looks of him, he was a tourist, though exactly how Midday managed to figure that out from a three-second glimpse, she wasn't sure. Fluttershy was flying about in the general vicinity of where the pony had been thrown from, looking quite pleased with herself.
"Fluttershy" Rarity called out, "What are you doing? That's no way to behave!"
She glowered at the three of them. "Didn't you see what he did to New Fluttershy? And he thought New Fluttershy was a pushover." She smirked.
"No sweetie, he didn't. We saw the whole thing. We think that you've taken your assertiveness training a little too far." Fluttershy looked incensed.
"What?!" She leaned in close to their faces. Her breath smelt like cherries, strangely enough. Presumably she'd taken advantage of her confidence to purchase and eat some before they'd found her. Her increased self-esteem would also have explained why she was flying. "You just want New Fluttershy to be a doormat like Old Fluttershy! But Old Fluttershy is gone!" she roared triumphantly.
It shocked Midday, Pinkie and Rarity just how much venom the mare had managed to infuse into the word 'doormat'. Pinkie then blinked.
"New Fluttershy... old Fluttershy?!" she asked, her head rotating at odd angles. "What happened to Nice Fluttershy? We want that Fluttershy back."
Fluttershy's voice went low, and despite it being late afternoon, everything seemed to go momentarily dark.
"No, you want wimp Fluttershy. You want pushover Fluttershy! You want do-anything-to-her-and-she-won't-complain Fluttershy!" Pinkie looked like her head was about to burst from confusion, she opened her mouth to say something but Midday interrupted.
"No. We want Sweet Fluttershy. We want Agreeable Fluttershy. We want the Fluttershy who was kind, and gentle, and loving and lovely. We want the Fluttershy who was brave, even when she was terrified, who managed to resist Discord's mindgames. We want the Fluttershy who not only earned the right to be called the Element of Kindess, but deserved it!. Not whatever you've become. We want the real Fluttershy. The who was our friend."
Pinkie Pie and Rarity paused, and then nodded in agreement at this. Fluttershy, or New Fluttershy or Fluttercruel or Flutterjerk or whatever she was going to be named, just looked at her. For a moment her expression softened. Then it returned to scowling.
"Nice try" she said, icily, before flying off. Midday stared in shock, before suddenly saying a set of words she never thought she'd say, much less shout.
"Fluttershy, you get back here right now!" The yellow pegasus stopped, and slowly turned to look at her.
"Do you really think you're the first pony to ever be picked on, the first pony to ever feel miserable, to feel isolated and victimised unfairly? Because I've got news for you, New Fluttershy, you really aren't. Everypony feels like that. Hay, even Celestia's felt like that. You think you have a hard life because ponies seem to automatically ignore you? There are ponies out there who would do anything to have your life! You've got five of the best friends there will ever be, every pony who knows you has never had a single negative thing they could say about you! And yet you seem to think you're reality's punching bag! You've been the idol of dozens, you were a successful super-model, you've stared down mad gods and lived to tell the tale to your children and grand-children, and-and great grand-children, so don't... don't throw a fit just because you had one awful day. Okay, so your day was bad, terrible, a total complete mess, but you..." Midday stopped, her exasperated tirade suddenly evaporating once she realised she had no idea where she was going with it, and that she'd just paused for breath. She looked down at her hooves.
"You are so much stronger than you think you are." she whispered. Fluttershy stared at her. For a few seconds there was silence.
"No." Fluttershy said, dropping to the ground. Tears fell from her eyes, and she appeared to be staring into her own reflection. "I'm not. I'm a monster." She said, before rushing away. For another few seconds, nopony said anything.
"That was far less successful than I'd hoped." Midday said after several minutes. "Should we-?"
Rarity shook her head. "No." she said calmly, "Not today. Right now, we all need time to heal."
"Tomorrow morning, then." Pinkie said. And that was that. When Pinkie Pie set the time, that was the ending to it.
*****
Midday returned home to find Twilight still going over her schedule for next month.
"Hello, Twilight" she said automatically as she slouched through the front door. The mare looked up to see Midday sitting in the comfy chair, staring straight ahead, eyes unblinking.
"Are... you alright?" she asked. Midday made a noise that sounded neither like no or yes.
"What happened?" Twilight asked. Midday turned to stare at her.
"I... It..." She frowned, and tried to collect her bearings. She explained the story of Fluttershy's time as New Fluttershy in as much detail as she was aware of.
"I see." Twilight said eventually. Midday finally blinked.
"Pinkie suggested we talk to her tomorrow morning." Twilight nodded, slowly, before realising she wasn't sure why she was nodding. She looked at the somewhat worried expression on Midday's face, and once again felt concerned for the mare.
"Do... you need anything? Something to eat, or drink?" Midday just looked puzzled.Then she smiled slightly. A thought floated through her mind, from some long-forgotten and abandoned part of her mind.
"Why don't you tell me about your day?" she asked.
Twilight smiled gently. "What?" Midday asked.
"I'm pretty certain all I did was organise my schedule for the next month, and the groceries rota."
"Well, you could try and make it sound exciting" Midday suggested. Twilight frowned.
"What do you mean 'make it sound exciting'? Organising is always exciting!" she said with almost deadly-earnestness. Determined to right this wrong inflicted against her passion she quickly launched into an explanation of the system she'd made up for her schedule, all the little tricks she'd made, the special ways of indicating important dates, and continued on explaining for several hours, well past her appointed bed-time.
(Of course, in her excitement to lecture, she forgot to plan out next month's schedule. But she would've forgotten anyhow.)
*****
The next morning, Midday woke early, cleaned herself up, had breakfast, and travelled over to Sugarcube Corner to find Pinkie, and then the two travelled over to the Boutique to find Rarity. As they travelled silently through the streets of Ponyville in the early morning, they couldn't help but notice the sky getting more and more forboding, the ground beneath their hooves becoming rougher, and the foiliage looking... dead, almost. Then they saw Fluttershy's cottage.
In the space of not even eighteen hours, it had transformed, and now looked like it had been abandoned for years. Every possible opening was boarded over. The windows, the doors, even the rabbit burrows and the bird nests. And as they approached, they heard a wolf howling somewhere in the distance.
"This is less than encouraging." Midday said, before realising she'd been the one to break the spell of silence. They walked over to the boarded up doors, and exchanged glances. Rarity raised her hoof and knocked politely.
"Fluttershy" she called out, "Are you in there?"
"It's Pinkie Pie, and Rarity, and Midday!" Pinkie Pie added. For a moment, there was nothing, only more silence, that seemed to almost have physical presence. Midday briefly wanted for there to be some other noise, just to get rid of it, but then realised that a giant multi-limbed colour from beyond the veil of existance could probably make noises, and decided mind-numbingly terrifying silence was not as bad as she'd presumed.
Then Fluttershy spoke. "Go away! Go away before nasty Fluttershy strikes again!"
The three mares exchanged nervous looks.
"Oh, sweetie, we all said things we regret!" Rarity said, upon realising neither Pinkie or Midday were adequate for speaking at that moment.
"We did?" Pinkie asked, before Rarity quickly jammed a hoof in her mouth, and shushed her.
"No, Pinkie and Midday are right." Fluttershy's voice echoed through the door, "I'm the only one to blame for what happened."
Midday made the universal gesture for confusion.
"But don't worry" Fluttershy continued, "I'm never coming out of my house again. Everypony will be a lot safer with me and my mean mouth locked away."
"Fluttershy, don't do that" Midday said, "You aren't to blame for what happened, nop-... no-one is. You just had a bad day. We all have bad days. They're what make the good days better, and the brilliant days brighter. I know what it feels like to be hurt and upset with everything around you. I know, I know how that feels. But you are not a monster, you're not a demon, or a bully. You're just somepony who made one little mistake. That's all. Don't let it destroy your life."
"Yes." Rarity said, "You just made one mistake, taking bad advice from this Iron Will character"
"YEAH!" Pinkie declared, having freed herself from Rarity's reach, "He's the one who made you super-duper nasty. What I- what we mean is that there are other ways to express yourself other than being nasty."
"Actually, that wasn't what I was saying." Midday pointed out, before being shushed by both ponies.
"You can stand up for yourself without being unpleasant about it" Rarity said.
There was another pause.
"I-... I'm not sure I can. I'm too far-gone. Whenever I try to assert myself I become a monster." At that moment lightning struck, and Midday was fairly certain Fluttershy had some variety of startling vision, rather than being spooked by the lightning.
"You're not a monster" Midday and Rarity said at once. Pinkie noticed something.
"No, but he is!" she smiled, pointing toward a minotaur standing atop a goat. It was a strange sight, considering the size of the goat compared to the minotaur.
"Iron Will's my name, training ponies is my game." He paused to give a thumbs up to a non-existant audience. The three ponies exchanged confused looks.
"What a... darling catch-phrase." Rarity smiled awkwardly.
"Your friend Fluttershy loved Iron Will's catchphrases. Word on the street is that she takes no guff from nopony!" He smiled, and then his smile disappeared. "So Iron Will is here to correct his fee."
"Well, Mr Will" Midday said as calmly as possible, "Fluttershy is really in no condition to see anyone right now, she's feeling incredibly... unwell?" The half-bull, half-something else ignored her, and moved towards Fluttershy's door. Pinkie whispered to Rarity to stop him, and the unicorn walked up to the minotaur, trying to look polite.
"I'm sure a big, brave, powerful and rich monster- I mean minotaur, like you, doesn't need that money right away. You can afford to come back later."
For a second he stared at Rarity. "Are you kidding? Fluttershy's overdue as it is. Iron Will collects now." At that he lifted Rarity out of the way, marched over to the door, and began removing the boards from it.
"Do something" Rarity suggested. Pinkie zipped up to Iron Will and smiled nervously.
"We're not even sure Fluttershy is home right now." Her eyes darted nervously, "She might be off frolicking with some woodland creatures. Why don't you give us some time to track her down for you?"
The minotaur paused.
"Iron Will does have some grocery shopping to do." He said, slowly, lifting a small piece of parchment with a list on it out of what looked like nowhere. "Iron Will will come back this afternoon."
"But that's only half a day!" Pinkie snapped. "We need a full day at least."
"Iron Will will delay for only half a day and no longer!"
At this point Pinkie began to use a technique that Midday had heard of, but never seen in action, which was for some reason known as the 'Duck Season Argument'. As Pinkie did that, Midday placed herself in front of the door.
"We need half a day and no more!" Pinkie declared.
"Well you'll get a full day and no less!" At this, Pinkie smiled, although for some reason she was now floating in mid-air.
"Okie-dokie, then. See you tomorrow" She said, her voice sickly sweet again, as she walked away, in midair.
'It's a good thing I didn't just see that, or I'd think I'm mad' Midday observed.
Then Fluttershy sneezed.
"Sounds like the search won't be necessary. Iron Will collects now!" The minotaur declared in triumph. Pinkie's eyes blazed with fury.
"But we had an agreement! You gotta come back tomorrow!" The minotaur looked at Pinkie.
"When somebody tries to block, show them that you" he lifted Pinke up by her tail, and threw her into the air, "Rock!"
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, there was a small splat of pony hitting mud. This left Midday staring down a minotaur. She tried smiling politely. He didn't respond in kind. He repeated his catchphrase, and then tried to grab Midday. Only his hands bounced off the forcefield she'd established. He tried to walk around her, only to bump into the other forcefields she'd set up.
"Kid, move out of the way. Fluttershy's gotta pay." Midday prepared to make some remark against that, only for her to hear the door opening slowly. She turned to see Fluttershy, the mare's face emotionless. Midday stopped casting her spells, and there was a slight crackle as the magic barriers vanished. Iron Will snorted.
"You were nothing but a doormat, and Iron Will turned you into a lean, mean, assertive machine." He punctuated each remark with a different pose, "Now pay Iron Will what you owe Iron Will!"
For a moment, Fluttershy said nothing. Then she remarked, "Um, no."
It wasn't very loud, or loud at all. It was the usual Fluttershy vocal level of near-whisper, but it sounded like a thunderbolt to everyone present.
"What did you say?" Iron Will asked, the strength of his voice blowing the mare's hair backwards.
"No." she repeated. An alarming smile came across Iron Will's face.
"Oh, I'd hate to be you right now, because Iron Will is gonna rain down a world of hurt unless Iron Will gets his money PRONTO!"
Fluttershy just looked up at him, a very, very minute smile on her face. "As I recall, your workshop promised one hundred percent satisfaction guaranteed, or you pay nothing." There was a slight pause.
"Well, I'm not satisfied."
Iron Will looked confused. "What do you mean you're not satisfied? Everypony has always been satisifed!"
Fluttershy shrugged. "I guess I'm the first then. But since I'm not satisfied, I refuse to pay. It's as simple as that."
Iron Will actually looked shocked now. "Are you... sure you're not just a little bit satisfied? B-because maybe... we could cut a deal, I-I mean we're both reasonable creatures, aren't we?"
Fluttershy just shook her head. "I'm sorry" And everypony could tell she meant that, "But no means no."
Suddenly, and without Midday noticing, Iron Will was standing on one of his goats again, his face downcast and his shoulders slumped. "No means no, huh? Nopony's ever said that to me before" He appeared to contemplate this, and wherever his train of thought went, he seemed to like it, "I gotta remember that one. That's a good catchphrase for my next workshop." And at that Iron Will and his goats left, leaving the four mares standing there.
Then they hugged.
"That was amazing!" Midday declared.
"Oh, I-"
"You were amazing!" Pinkie smiled, "You totally stood up to that minotaur!"
"In fact, you didn't change at all!" Rarity smiled, "You're still the same old Fluttershy we've always loved!"
"The one we missed!" Pinkie added. Fluttershy smiled further at that.
"Not exactly" she said. The three ponies stared at her.
"Now I know how to be confident, without going overboard. And I know there are ponies who will always be there to make my days bright." As she said this, the gloomy clouds above them began to disappear.
"My friends." She said, as there was the sudden sound of birdsong.
"All's well with the world." Midday said.
"So what now?" asked Pinkie. The three ponies paused. They were fairly certain they knew what the answer was.
As it turned out, they didn't have the right answer. Pinkie Pie suggested writing a letter to Celestia about their experiences. And then partying. Though Twilight Sparkle declined because she was still organising her monthly schedule.