//------------------------------// // Mending Bonds // Story: Change in Perspective // by Quicksear //------------------------------// Marc stared up the quaint garden path that led from the South Road of Ponyville up the sunny hill to the building that offered peace to all comers. Rosewood cottage was gorgeous in the early afternoon sun, bathed in light and happiness that Marc had so willingly ignored in his own melancholy. Now with the veil of the past cleared, he saw the building for the first time. Following the path with his eyes, he traced the bright trails of flowers all the way the peaked entrance that stood over the unassuming wooden door. Either side of the entrance swept the two housing wings, each with a series of arched halls where the patrons of Rosewood Cottage could find dreams and hope and rest. Now that Marc could see clearly, he recognized the simplistic beauty of, and concept that, underscored this place’s existence; a wholehearted generosity that on earth would simply have been crushed for being so selfless. Marc, though, had a far more important thing to be considering than the prejudices of his home, which were responsible for his current situation. He had a pony to find . A certain Pegasus, in fact. Marc stared awkwardly at the building for a few moments more, fumbling with the bunch of assorted roses that reminded him constantly of the pain he had caused with guilty thorns. He wished he had taken the time to learn the meanings of the different colours, but that hadn’t seemed so important when he had no one to hurt. With a sudden shake of his head, he stepped up to the doorstep. The door was wide open, as would be usual, come to think of it. He gulped and called into the quiet building, "Ditzy? Are you here?" He heard a scuffle in both wings as two sets of hooves trotted towards the door. An orange Pegasus with a purple mane and a grayish-purple unicorn with a straw coloured mane, both fillies, popped from both sides at once, a cheerful greeting on their lips, just to stop dead at the side of the Human in the doorway. "Oh! Hello mister...” the young Pegasus stammered, “We were playing hide and seek, but...” "She was in the kitchen a minute ago, maybe you should look there!" The even younger unicorn trilled out. Marc nodded his thanks dazedly and walked randomly down the west wing. "Uh, mister? The kitchen is that way...?" said the pegasus. Marc turned and smiled at her. He realized how rude he had just been, and replied, "Oh, thank you. What are your names?' "I'm Scootaloo, and this is Ditzy's sister, Dinky." The filly pointed a hoof first at herself, then at her friend, who waved a hoof politely. "Thank you for your help. I do need to speak to Ditzy now." Marc waved good bye to the fillies, who smiled unsurely, before he headed to the end of the east wing. It seemed like such a long walk down the vault-like building. Marc saw the doorway at the end, a bright light shining from within, and the faint sizzle of cooking food beginning to reach his ears. Marc stepped past his nervousness up to it, peeking in. Ditzy stood facing away from him, standing sentinel over two pans in a shaft of sunlight. The scent of frying fish and vegetables reached out to him, and for a second Marc wondered whether such an undeniably clumsy pony should be cooking over an open flame, but he pushed all of it to the back of his mind before nervously knocking on the doorpost. ***** Ditzy's eyes were still a little red from crying earlier. She snuffled a little as she made supper. She may have been a clumsy mare usually, but when it came to caring for her little sister and anypony else who ever stayed at Rosewood, nopony could question her determination to succeed. After all, it was what she loved doing, and relished in sharing with everypony she met. As she was vengefully prodding the fish and vegetables around in their respective pots, she couldn't help thinking about the one creature unwilling to share in her proudly proffered gift. Why hadn't Marc liked Rosewood? He'd been upset the night before for some reason, and Ditzy had been worried about him. She still felt bad about crashing into him and Rainbow Dash, but Rainbow had said that he was probably just tired, and that she’d come back in the morning and make everything right again. But when he had woken up, he had looked stricken and angry. He had shouted at Rainbow Dash about not wanting to be friends and wanting to leave Ditzy's precious home, before storming out without a word. How could he? That was why she was all the more surprised to see him standing at the kitchen door. "Hey, Ditzy..." He whispered. She didn't reply. She couldn't. Words that normally formed slowly on her tongue anyway now seemed to choke her as tears began to build behind her eyes, which totally lost focus. She couldn't take any more mean things he had to say. Marc looked at her, a tone of heartbreak slipping into his voice as he saw how much pain he'd caused, "Ditzy, I'm sorry for this morning...And I owe you an explanation..." He trailed off as he pulled forth a bouquet of magnificent roses “…I know these aren’t-“ Ditzy stared at the flowers in confusion. “Why did you b-bring snacks…?” Marc seemed nonplussed by that, but reanimated to discard the flowers on a counter with a humourless chuckle. “Heh, yeah, what was I thinking…? Forget about those, but Ditzy, I really need to tell you something, and I just hope you’ll listen…” Marc went on to explain to Ditzy all he had told Vinyl and Pinkie, his history, and his previous situation, his parents and their loss, along with his own private realizations about his mistakes that day. Regret leaked out of every word he spoke, as he looked at some point just past Ditzy's shoulder, unable to look her in the eye for shame of his misunderstanding. "Ditzy," He said in closing, the emotion of the day and his past beginning to wear on him, "I understand if you want me to leave now, but I had to apologize for being so cruel to you. You were nothing but gracious, and you didn't do anything to deserve it..." Seeing no reaction, Marc began to stand away from the door. "Well, I'll get going-" He didn't get any further, as Ditzy dashed away from her oven and hit him square in the chest hard enough to knock him flat on the floor. She punched him with a hoof as she stood over him, and said, "T-there...n-now we can s-say we are...even." She nuzzled his neck briefly before she stood up. “And…I’m s-sorry…about your p-parents. I’m… I’m j-just going outside for a m-minute…” And she flew out the door for the second time that day, once again choked up with emotion. Marc was more than a little confused at this show of aggression/affection, and certainly surprised at Ditzy’s explosive reaction, and her ease in giving him not only forgiveness, but…acceptance? He had expected righteous anger, or at least a cold agreement, not any form of sympathy. He couldn’t process that which he was unfamiliar, and suddenly Marc, in lieu of philosophizing, found himself realizing that the kitchen was now unattended, since he had once more upset the caretaker. Well, he couldn't go wrong by finishing up dinner. It didn't take long to cook the fish (for Scootaloo and Ditzy he assumed) and the vegetables. There wasn't enough for him, but he wasn't hungry after the very emotional day, and he wouldn't have had time anyway; His stomach was still in a knot as he remembered that he now had to do it all again with Rainbow Dash. The thought of it nearly made him ill. As if summoned, Marc heard Pinkie Pie calling him from the main door. Marc dished up the three servings and left them on the counter. He doused the fire of the stove and steeled himself for a very difficult apology to come. He jittered all the way to the door, in time to see the two young fillies skipping away under the lowering light. Marc could not give them more than a cursory glance, as his attention was taken up by Rainbow hovering unhappily above a bouncy Pinkie Pie. Marc was a little taken aback by how Pinkie had retrieved the recalcitrant Pegasus: a piece of rope lead incongruously from Rainbow's waist to Pinkie's foreleg. “Pinkie said I had to come here for some reason. This better be really good." Mumbled Rainbow Dash, obviously peeved with her awkward position, halfway between freedom and emotion, hanging in the sky. Marc ignored the impossibilities of Pinkie's methods (Rainbow should have easily been able to just carry Pinkie off) and got right down to what he had to say. He tried to begin in the same way he had before, noticing a gentle snapping of twigs from across the garden. Ditzy sat in her tree watched as Marc tried to explain to the irate mare why he had made such an idiot of himself that morning. Knowing that Ditzy was watching gave Marc some small boost in confidence. He explained the time he'd spent in the system of the state, without freedom, or friendship, and how difficult it had been to earn the right to freely see those left that cared for him, and the struggle it had been for him to keep those friends close despite the apathy of the organization that had controlled his life. But when he tried to explain why he was in that system in the first place...his family's murder before his eyes... He stopped, and trailed off. He couldn't say it again, not in these circumstances, not with Rainbow just hovering there, expressionless and frozen. Mac cleared his throat, and said in ending; " I’m sorry…I hope that you can see through to forgive me my actions, it's all I can ask." Rainbow simply continued hovering in confusion. Yesterday, Marc had been so calm and sweet, allaying the fears of half the town in less than an hour while she had watched secretly in amazement and shame from a cloud above the square. She had waited all night at Rosewood, unable to sleep, just to apologize for her bungle of an introduction, but he had flipped, turning her away as she tried to open up to him. She had apologized more to this human than to most ponies, and he had turned her away. Now here he was, doing exactly what she had tried to that very morning. Asking forgiveness. Everypony watched Rainbow hover undecidedly in the air. Marc was beginning suspect an unhappy ending to this evening. He looked down, accepting her rejection. He had hurt her. She had the right. Suddenly Rainbow shot up into the sky, so sharply that it snapped the rope holding her to Pinkie, earning a squeak from the pink mare as she was flipped over. Then she dropped to the ground, her nose inches from Marc's as she rested her hooves on his shoulders to look him straight in the eye. "Never, EVER, say anything like that again, and next time, maybe I won’t drop you." Pinkie cheered as Rainbow pulled Marc into a hug. Ditzy jumped around on her branch, brightening at the heartwarming scene. Marc sighed with relief. Seconds later, he was grinning. But a certain force of nature crashed through the moment. Pinkie barreled into them and began pushing them towards town, "Come on! Marc has to visit Vinyl!" Marc ignored how she even knew that fact when he himself had forgotten it as he allowed himself to be pushed, but not before calling over his shoulder. "Ditzy? Come with! I turned off the stove and set out the food; I want you with us!” She flew over without hesitation, bumping into him accidentally on landing. She ducked her head on reflex, but Marc smiled and patted her on the back, banishing her embarrassment. They walked towards the house in the distance, with Pinkie’s bouncing and Rainbow Dash’s aerial feats to insulate them all against the past day. ***** When Pinkie knocked on Vinyl's door…with her face… the stone-grey mare from the concert the night before, the cellist Octavia, greeted them gracefully and ushered them through the much tidied living area up to the sounding room. In a blur, they were all seated on puffy beanbags in front of Vinyl's personal sound booth. "Ya all set?" She asked by way of greeting. Three ponies and a human all nodded in agreement. Octavia walked up to her instrument’s heavy case, saying. "Marc, Pinkie came and told us about your predicament today and Vinyl and I," She winked to the smiling unicorn in her booth, "decided that considering the circumstances, this deserved a special piece, something to hopefully ease you all after what must have been a draining day, so here you are..." As the notes of Octavia's expert movements mixed with Vinyls' perfectly complementary playback, the room was filled with hauntingly beautiful music that filled company's hearts with a spirit of joy and contentment. Rainbow Dash sat up straight, her head gently moving in time with the song, a smile spreading across her face. Marc looked over to her for a second, happy, before his attention was drawn to Ditzy, who snuggled up to his side and nuzzled her way into his embrace, resting her head on his chest, her expression radiating her relief and joy. Marc held her as he listened to the two musicians as they swept away all his misgivings and his heart began to soar. He smiled with a peace he rarely knew before, a joy the music promised would come again. Pinkie could be heard to squee into her hoof in the background as the friends let themselves be floated away on the mesmerizing music.