Ponyville is still the same as it ever was. It never really changes. Well, I guess that's not true. It changes all the time, but in such little increments and with such consistency that it feels like nothing ever changes at all. From a bird's eye view the town is static, but on street level it bustles and grows. That's true of a lot of places, though. A bench gets painted, a new shop opens, and then one day you walk into town and you realise it's a completely different place from the one you got used to.
Whenever me and 'Shy go shopping, we never buy too much. We go through a lot of birdseed, I guess. I know AJ usually plants some corn in whatever land isn't fit for apple growing, and we buy her out pretty much every time she gets a harvest. Apart from that, we mainly buy little bits and pieces like bandages, cotton swabs, disinfectant – little things we need that we run out of or that get busted when we deal with the animals. There's usually enough bits left over for me to get a sports magazine without stretching our budget. I like to keep an eye on the up-and-coming stunt fliers.
As we wander our way through the shops and squares of Ponyville, we occasionally get hailed by the other villagers. It's a little village, so everypony knows everypony, but everypony knows me and Fluttershy. I tell them what the plans for the weather are, and 'Shy has a quiet word with them about their pets, giggling with them about whatever stupid thing their cat or dog has done this week and repaying them with a story about her otters. Angel's too clever to do anything funny, and Tank has a subtle, understated style of humour that only I really understand, but the otters are cute enough that ponies wanna hear about 'em, and ditzy enough to be hilarious once in a while.
…Even though it sounds dumb, I feel really proud of 'Shy at times like this. I still remember when she used to go super quiet whenever anypony spoke to us, and how she used to move around in a way that put me between her and them, like some kind of shield. Her being able to just stop and chat with whoever speaks to her on the street, without getting all worried and anxious like she used to, is like this huge achievement. They say she's not as talkative when I'm not around, but it doesn't matter. It just makes me realise how far she's come since we started living together.
I've changed too since I moved in. There was just something about living with 'Shy in that little cottage that made me quieter, I guess. AJ I always used to shout at, and Pinkie I always used to shout with, but there's never any need to shout when I'm with her. It's not like I need to compete with her, and I don't need to try and get her attention because I've already got it. When I stopped talking so loud, I started to learn how to listen – I mean, really listen. Listen like Pinkie listens, sometimes, how to listen to the pony and not just the words they're saying. And after a while, 'Shy learned how to talk a little louder. We changed each other, basically. We didn't quite meet in the middle, but we moved so close that it got hard to be apart.
When the shopping's done, we start to make our way home, laden with bags that smell of grain and medicine. We split them pretty much half and half, which always surprises everypony for some reason. They seem to think that I should be the one carrying all the stuff, since I'm the quote-unquote 'strong one'. I get sick of explaining that races and stunt-flying aren't the same as weightlifting, and that 'Shy used to carry all her own groceries for years before I moved in.
“Um, Dash, would it be okay if I invited the girls over for supper tonight?” she asks.
I agree without even thinking about it. By 'the girls', she means the old Cutie Mark Crusaders. Well, I guess they're still the Cutie Mark Crusaders, since they still haven't gotten their marks yet. They're so close that even I can almost taste it, though. Twilight says that they probably haven't got their marks because, on some level, they want to keep having wacky adventures with each other, and once they get that they don't have to stop, the marks will appear just like that.
Still, those three are crazy when you stop to think about it. I mean, back when they were fillies, it was pretty funny how they used to try stuff and fail all the time, but now that they're a little older, they try stuff and actually get good at it. I've got a suspicion that they're actually come of the most competent ponies in the whole town, and I honestly don't know how I feel about that. Sure, I'm happy for them, but the bit of me that's competitive always thinks, “Maybe they're slower than you, but they can beat you at practically anything else.” It's really weird.
The main reason I'm so pleased about having them over, though, is that I'll get a chance to talk to Scootaloo. Not that I don't like Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, but y'know. Scootaloo thinks I'm the best thing since sliced bread, and I'm pretty fond of the kid. She's a weak flyer, just like 'Shy is, so once every couple weeks we all go out and do some passes over the village together. I've also been teaching her the ropes of weather duty, so she can earn a few bits to keep up with those crazy hobbies she's always trying.
There was a while where we didn't get along so well. It was about the time I first moved in with 'Shy, actually. They say kids are perceptive, but… I think that Scootaloo realised I was starting to change, even before I did. I can only imagine what was going on in her head. She'd put me on this huge pedestal, where I was the coolest pony in the world who could do anything, and then suddenly I was starting to talk differently, and I wasn't doing as many stunts, and was just generally moving away from the image of me that had been her idol. For the longest time, she couldn't see me without getting this hard look in her eyes, and she never stayed in the same room as me if she could help it. She never said it, but I think she blamed 'Shy for the way things had turned out. That must've been hard for her. All three of those kids were really fond of her, and she was basically their aunt.
Even now, I still have mixed feelings about the whole thing. On one hoof, it wasn't my fault. You can't live up to everypony's expectations all the time, and if they want something from you that you haven't got, it's nopony's fault but theirs. But disappointing a kid like that? It just didn't sit well with me. It was like I'd betrayed her somehow. Nopony wants to feel like that.
Maybe if I were Pinkie or Twilight or AJ, we'd have gotten the whole thing worked out in a week, but I'm not. It was about a year before we managed to see eye-to-eye again. She was starting to grow up, and was in that awkward part of life where you're not quite a kid and you're not quite an adult. She hadn't got her cutie mark yet, and she had all the usual problems you get at that age on top of it. I guess she needed some help. I caught her sitting by herself, this big mess of gangly legs that she hadn't grown into and big ideas that she couldn't quite grasp, right after she'd had an argument with Sweetie and Applebloom. It was pure chance that I ran into her. So I said, “Hey. You wanna talk about it?”
She basically told me to screw off, but I sat down with her anyway and started telling her about all the stupid stuff I'd done when I was her age, like getting kicked out of flight school and all that mess. It took a while, but eventually I got her to open up about what was bothering her – which was pretty much everything, really. We've all been there. You've got problems like an adult, but you just don't have the options to deal with them that adults do, so you end up trapped.
We stayed out chatting for a while after that. Not just about what was wrong, but what we wanted to get out of life. She didn't know, and I didn't really know, either; I was still getting used to the idea of one pony being my entire future. Come to think of it, Fluttershy was pretty steamed when I got back that night. She though I'd gotten lost in the Everfree Forest, or blown away by a storm or something. It was weird, having her be all protective over me; usually, it's the other way around.
Anyway, long story short, things started to get better between me and Scootaloo after we had that chat. It wasn't like somepony had just waved a magic wand and fixed things, but it was a start. I think we both started to realise that we couldn't really go back to the way things had been before – I couldn't be her hero again, because I was a different pony now. But maybe she didn't need a hero anymore. Maybe she just needed a sister, somepony who'd already done all the stupid stuff she was doing, who knew what it was like and that it'd get better. The old me could never have done that for her, but the new one? Time will tell, I guess.
“That's wonderful,” 'Shy says, back in the present day. “In that case, we should visit Sweet Apple Acres on our way back. I'm sure Applebloom will be there, and she can tell Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.”
“You want to give me your half of the bags? I can drop them off at home,” I say, after a cautious half-second's silence.
“Don't be silly, Rainbow Dash,” she says in that tiny, heartbreaking voice she uses when she's hurt, or sad. “You know how I feel about this.”
I sigh. I do know how she feels about the whole thing with AJ. I just wish I could persuade her not to.