Exit Through Canterlot

by TheBrianJ

13. Long Overdue

"Everypony get your tickets ready, we will be arriving in Ponyville in ten minutes."

Octavia glanced out the window. She had never been to Ponyville before, but if the outskirts were any indication there wasn't much to the town; there was nothing but green hills and valleys as far as the eye could see. She had often read about Ponyville in the news, given that the Elements of Harmony lived there, but she had never actually been to the town until now. Octavia had long assumed it would be at least moderately-sized, but as the rooftops came into view, she was surprised by just how small the town was. As far as she could tell, it was made up almost entirely of two-level cottages and small shops, a far cry from the extravagance of Canterlot.

She shifted in her seat and looked down past her hooves to where her suitcase stuck out. She was only going to be in Ponyville overnight, so she had packed only what she needed: a plethora of spray paint cans and her disguise. She surreptitiously nudged the suitcase a bit further under her seat and sat back. She looked back up at the town and the first thing that caught her eye was what hung in the distance: a huge building made of clouds floating in the sky.
 
"That must be her house," Octavia muttered to herself. "There's no chance I can reach that one..."
 
She reached into the pocket on the side of her suitcase and pulled out a small piece of paper. Scrawled on it were very basic details of the houses of the Elements of Harmony. Finding info on the rest of the Elements of Harmony had been as easy as it had been frustrating; all she had to do was read articles about them in archived newspapers at the Canterlot Library. Seeing the abundance of articles on them—mostly after the return of Princess Luna and the events of the Gala—had only exacerbated Octavia's frustration, but she got the information she needed and moved on. She wasn't planning on being in Ponyville for long: just long enough to locate and "touch up" the houses of her targets.

"Is this your first time visiting Ponyville?"
 
Octavia looked up and across the aisle to find a stallion looking over at her. He was tall and lanky with sunken, tired eyes, but he still wore a smile despite his clear exhaustion.
 
"Yes, it is,” she answered with a brief nod.
 
"It's a great town," the stallion said as he gazed out the window and yawned. "My wife and I live here."
 
"Oh?"
 
"Yes, our whole lives," he said. For a moment there was an excited sparkle in his eyes as he looked at the town in the far distance. "I don't expect we'll be moving any time soon. Especially with the twins due any week now."
 
"Oh, well congratulations!" Octavia replied with a smile. The stallion blushed a bit.
 
"Thank you. It's a bit nerve-wracking, but that's what I love about Ponyville. Everypony has just been so supportive of us, I'm sure things will go just fine. So, how about you? What brings you down to Ponyville?"
 
Octavia glanced down at her hooves and scooted her suitcase a little further under her seat. She returned her sight to the window, trying to hide the slight scowl on her face.
 
"I'm just taking care of some long-overdue business."
 
"Are you going to be in town long?"
 
Octavia shook her head. "No, only for a day or so. The business shouldn't take that long."
 
"That's a shame, Ponyville really is a nice town to spend time in," the stallion said. "We're actually going to be having a little celebration tomorrow afternoon! Once the Elements of Harmony get back from Canterlot tomorrow morning..."
 
Octavia found herself tuning out the stallion; the last thing she wanted to hear was another pony discussing how amazing the Elements of Harmony were. Instead she focused on the town slowly growing in her field of vision and made mental notes about the locations of buildings. She scanned what she could of the town until she found the canopy of a large oak tree.

That must be Golden Oaks Library, she thought to herself as she glanced back down at the paper in her hoof. It's right in the center of town… there's no way I'm going to be able to do this without other ponies seeing. Ah well, that's not exactly new to me.

"...so you should come to the celebration!" The stallion finally finished what he was saying and Octavia responded with a half smile.
 
"Well, I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it. Again, my business is going to be taken care of pretty quickly."
 
"If you have the time, you are more than welcome to attend," the stallion finished, giving a happy tip of his cap to punctuate it. "The option is always open."
 
There was a ringing in Octavia's ears as the ticket taker walked by and held out his hoof. She pulled her ticket out and handed it over, all the while the sentence bouncing around her head.
 
The option is always open...

Octavia sat in her room, calmly putting supplies away into her suitcase. She paused to flip through her sketchbook before she selected a few more colors to pack. The door to her room slowly inched open before Vinyl stepped inside. Octavia looked up at her for only a second before continuing to pack. Silence filled the room for what felt like an eternity to Vinyl.

"Octavia, can I just level with you?" Vinyl finally said.

"Go ahead."

"Look I..." Vinyl started, then stepped forward and sat down on the bed next to her. "You're my best friend. We've known each other our whole lives. So I'm just going to say this straight: I don't like what you're doing here."

Octavia stared at Vinyl for a few seconds, then turned back to her luggage. "I understand that, but I'm not going to change my mind."

"I know how angry you are, but since when do two wrongs make a right?" Vinyl responded. "Yes, they ruined your night, but is that any reason to attack them?"

"This is Flanksy's first time outside of Canterlot," Octavia said as she folded her jacket up on top of the paint cans. "I'm going to Ponyville to make a point, not to ‘attack' them."

"Well, what about Pinkie Pie!?"

Octavia didn't answer. There was a long silence as she just stared at the cans of paint in her suitcase, then finally shook her head.

"I stand by the fact that she deserved it."

 "Why?" Vinyl asked "No, better question: how? Just cause she was being a nuisance doesn't give you—"

"We have been over this," Octavia calmly replied. "She was being far more than a nuisance. She was ruining everything she touched, as she tends to do. I gave her the comeuppance that she deserved."

"First of all, calling what you did 'comeuppance' is wrong," Vinyl said. "And secondly, did you even stop to consider the consequences?"

"What consequences?"

"How about the fact that, I don't know, you threw paint on her!" Vinyl suddenly yelled. "That stuff can be dangerous! What if some had gotten in her eyes, Octavia? Did you ever think about that?!"

There was a pause. Octavia stared at the can of paint in her hoof, thinking about the sight from just the day before: Pinkie Pie standing in front of her, her entire body dripping with red paint. For just a moment, Octavia saw the sadness in Pinkie's eyes, the look of almost pure anguish as she stared back. Octavia opened her mouth to say something, but the image in her mind shifted. Now, it was Pinkie standing in front of the wall, painting over her own art.

"She was in Canterlot; there are plenty of doctors and ponies around,” Octavia calmly said. “She was going to be fine."

"That’s your excuse?" Vinyl said. "That's pathetic, Octavia! You're trying to justify hurting her like that, but there's no way you can justify what you did to her! Dammit, stop being so stubborn and admit that maybe, just maybe, you were in the wrong here!"

"I was not," Octavia replied as she zipped up her bag. "After everything they did, I'm not in the wrong."

"Agh!" Vinyl grunted, standing up and pacing. "You should hear yourself!"

"I do!" Octavia yelled, standing up and trotting next to Vinyl. "You said it yourself just before the Gala: I should be more expressive. Well, that's exactly what this is—"

"There is a difference between expressing yourself and just being a jerk!" Vinyl interrupted. Octavia just stepped forward.

"I am expressing the fact that the Elements of Harmony are worthless, pathetic, and deserve to finally be held accountable for what they did at the Gala, for what they did at the Canterlot Garden Party, and for the fact that they get away with whatever they want!"

"I know!" Vinyl shouted right back. "I get it! They ruined the Gala and they ruined the Garden Party! It was awesome how you channeled all of that into the whole Flanksy thing, but geez, don't you think maybe it's time to just…"

Vinyl very suddenly trailed off. Octavia stepped right in front of her and stared her down.

"Time to just what?" Octavia said.

"Nevermind," Vinyl muttered as she turned around. "I don't want to argue with you right now, especially if you're not going to listen to a damn thing I'm gonna say."

Vinyl trotted out of the room in a huff. Octavia glared after her, then sat back down on her bed. She picked the can of paint up in her hoof and quietly looked it over for a moment before slowly packing it away in her bag on top of her coat.

Octavia sat in the only private area she could find: an embankment of trees just on the edge of town. She had snuck into the trees just as the sun was starting to set, waiting for Ponyville to be shrouded in darkness so she could get to work. As a lone pony trotted the streets and lit the few street lamps scattered about town, Octavia unzipped her duffel bag and put her Flanksy attire on. Once the pony was out of sight, Octavia slung the bag over her shoulder and trotted towards town.

Although she was there with a purpose, a nagging curiosity had been hanging in the back of Octavia's mind. Up until now, she had done all of her art in Canterlot, one of the highest-class and busiest cities in all of Equestria. But Ponyville was clearly a different, much smaller and quieter town. For as focused as she was on the Elements of Harmony, a part of her was curious as to what the reaction would be like in a different city, one that wasn't as busy as Canterlot.

She made her way behind a building and did one final check of her bag to make sure everything was there. She took in a deep breath of the cold air and looked up in the distance—amidst the starry sky, she could see the outline of Canterlot on the mountainside. With one last breath, she turned the corner and stepped out into the streets of Ponyville. Other than the gentle flickering of the lanterns, the town was completely still. Only a few of the houses still had lights on, and there was nary a pony in sight. She slowly trotted through the street, half-expecting to turn the corner to find all the ponies gathered at some sort of celebration, but instead she found each street just as quiet and empty as the last.
 
"Does Ponyville just shut down after a certain time?" Octavia muttered to herself as she looked around for any sign of life, finding none. "I guess it doesn't matter."
 
She shook the unease out of her mind and looked around at the buildings for a minute before she finally found the one she was looking for: a large building modeled after a carousel, adorned with tactful curtains on every side. Her eyes narrowed as she trotted to the building and unzipped her bag, using what little light there was to find a black can of paint. She quickly tossed the bag aside, popped the lid off of the can, and began to spray.
 
Octavia just stared forward as she painted. She was used to losing herself in her art, to the world around her disappearing while she worked. But as she switched over colors, the only thing going through her head was anger. She momentarily paused writing and looked back into the window in front of her. Inside the boutique she saw beautiful clothes set up on mannequins and designs lining the walls.

"I would have expected nothing less from a fashion designer,” she said as she continued to write on the building. Minutes ticked by as she tried not to pay attention to the inside of the house, instead just focusing on her work. Every few minutes she would glance around, half expecting to suddenly see a crowd around her, but the streets remained as silent as when she had first stepped onto them.

She finally finished writing and dropped the can back into the bag. She paused and instead took a few steps back to admire her work. Painted in massive black letters across the front of the building was a single sentence.

“Ugly on the outside. Uglier on the inside.”

She smirked to herself, then trotted back to her bag. She was about to zip it up when she glanced up again through the window into the boutique.
 
There was just enough light from the street for Octavia to make out the room she was looking into. It was an absolute disaster, with clothes strewn about on the floor and papers depicting unfinished designs covering every surface. But what drew Octavia's attention more was the far wall, the only wall that wasn't covered in designs. Instead, it had several pictures perfectly positioned along the wall, and the top two caught Octavia's eye. First was a picture of Rarity, Fancy Pants, and Fleur-De-Lis at the Canterlot Garden Party, mingling and having a good time. The other picture was her in a small shop, wearing a tattered dress with a messy mane. But it was her company that Octavia noted.

She was with the rest of the Elements of Harmony, all smiling and laughing. And behind them was Princess Celestia, laughing as well.

She… she wants to remember the Gala, Octavia thought to herself as her hoof tightened around the can. She still thinks it was a nice time. None of them feel the least bit remorseful!

Octavia's face trembled as she stared at the ponies on the wall, all of them enjoying themselves. But her anger grew the more she looked at the the face of Princess Celestia, the ruler of all of Equestria, who seemed to be having the time of her life.

"They get nothing but support from her," Octavia said to herself. "They get nothing but support from every pony around them. Support that they do not deserve!"

She tore the can back out of her bag, turned away, and slammed the back of it into the window pane, shattering it in an instant.

"Look, I get it," Vinyl said, resting her head back against the wall with her hooves behind her head. "I get why she's so angry at the Elements of Harmony. But I'm not cool with her going down to Ponyville to embarrass them, and especially not when it involves hurting another pony! Pinkie is my friend!"
 
"I can see why that'd upset you."
 
"It's just so damn frustrating!" Vinyl continued. "I mean I thought she figured out exactly what she wanted to do with the whole Flanksy thing. What she did with the park was seriously the most amazing thing I've ever seen in Canterlot. I'm worried she's forgetting about that awesome art and making this about attacks. No, I'm not even worried about it because it's already happened!"
 
"Maybe it was just a slip-up? She let her anger get the better of her."
 
"That's exactly what concerns me. I've known Octavia my whole life and she's always sorta held in her feelings when she's angry. She's been able to channel them lately, but now I don't know if she knows when she’s going too far, when to stop. On one hoof I could just tell her that and risk her being pretty upset at me, but on the other hoof I could not tell her, and risk her ruining everything she's done!" Vinyl sighed. "I mean, what would you do?"
 
"Um, I really don't know her all that well."
 
"Yeah, but you were all inspired by her, right?"
 
Amethyst Star finally looked up from the canvas she had been balancing on her lap. "Yes, but I barely know her personally. I don't think I'd be the best to ask about the situation."
 
Vinyl went quiet as a pony trotted over and picked up one of Amethyst's paintings. The pony examined it for a few seconds before glancing at the "Art By Amethyst - Free!" sign, then nodding at Amethyst before  slipping the painting into her saddle bag. Amethyst blushed as the pony walked away.
 
"You don't know her, but you're doing all this art because of her!" Vinyl said once the pony was out of earshot. "You can't just have no opinion on it!"
 
Amethyst looked away for a moment at Canterlot Park in the distance. She gazed through the fence at the leafless trees, then sighed. "I guess I'd really prefer if she just created art,” she responded. “I think her stuff is really pretty, that's all that matters to me. I'm not a big fan of the violence or anger, I just want her to paint stuff, ya know?"
 
"See? I knew it!" Vinyl triumphantly responded. "She's totally losing herself here. She's so angry at the Elements of Harmony that it's getting in the way of what she was doing. Not to mention what she did to Pinkie! Do you have any idea what it's like to see a friend get mistreated like that?"
 
"Um, but..."
 
Vinyl glanced over at Amethyst. She had put the painting down and was lightly twirling the paint brush between her hooves, gathering her thoughts.

"I mean, you keep saying that Pinkie is your friend, but Octavia is your friend too," she finally said. "Couldn't you have stepped in to stop Pinkie? Maybe that's why Octavia got so angry, that you were just there but didn’t do anything?"

Vinyl stared at Amethyst for a few seconds as she shifted nervously in place. Finally, Vinyl laid her head back on the wall and looked up into the sky.

"I can't."

Amethyst cocked her head. "What? You could have—"

"I don't mean I physically couldn't do anything. As soon as Pinkie started painting the first time I was ready to step in, but I just… I don't know, something came over me," Vinyl said, pausing to think. "I just looked at Octavia and suddenly I couldn't bring myself to do anything. It's like, I thought she was going to far, but I didn’t think I could actually do anything about it.”

There was another pause as Vinyl looked around to make sure no ponies were in sight. The streets of Canterlot were empty, so she let out a long sigh and turned back to Amethyst. "I've known Octavia since we were little fillies. She's my best friend. But she's never really been very expressive. She's always been really quiet, never spoken her mind, always been all prim and proper. Then, the Gala happened. And I know it was horrible for her, I know how awful it was, I would never wish that on anypony. But…"

Amethyst waited, then leaned in. "But?"

Vinyl looked down at the ground. "But at the same time, what came from it was so amazing. I had never seen Octavia so dedicated, so expressive, so determined in her life. Not only that, but she was doing it in a way that caught me totally off guard. Heck, it caught all of Canterlot off guard! It was so amazing and so dang inspirational. Heck, you're proof of that!"

Amethyst blushed. "Yes, I guess I am…"

"No guessing, you totally are. What she did to the statue, to the park, all that was some of the coolest stuff I've ever seen in my life. But then…” Vinyl laid her head back on the wall and waved a hoof at the park. “This whole thing happened. Somehow, the Elements of Harmony getting rid of Discord erased her art. Then they showed up at the Garden Party and ruined that. And now, Octavia's all out for revenge. I know it's wrong, I know she shouldn't be doing it, I know she should go back to just creating art, but I can't bring myself to tell her that. It's like every time I want to, I suddenly think about her going back to clamming up all the time, not speaking her mind…” She paused and hung her head. “I don't want that."

Amethyst looked over at the paintings scattered in front of her. She then looked at the one that was only half-finished, a picture of Canterlot Park with all the trees drawn in different colors. She glanced over at her paint supplies and sighed. "Yeah, I wouldn't want that either."

"It's just so hard for Octavia to get past the whole Elements of Harmony thing," Vinyl continued. "I know she's upset, but she's letting her anger get the better of her. I've never seen her get so angry at other ponies in my whole life. Heck, I've never seen her get that angry at anything, period. I'm… I'm worried she doesn't know when it's time to back off, let it go, and move on. But I have no idea how to tell her that. She's my best friend in the world. I'm closer to her than I am any other pony in all of Equestria. I want to tell her to stop, but I don't want to lose her as a friend, no matter how she's acting, no matter what's happening…"

Vinyl closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She slowly opened them again, looking out at the empty, darkened park in front of them.

"How am I supposed to tell her that it's time to just let it go?"

Octavia trotted down the path away from Sweet Apple Acres, taking one last glance at the barn she had just left. She let out a satisfied snort, then turned back and continued down the path, reaching the edge of Ponyville and looking around.

"Only one place left," she said to herself, scanning the rooftops of Ponyville before finally finding the library. Having long since realized that the streets were empty this late at night, Octavia calmly made her way through town without making an effort to hide herself and walked straight up to the side of the library. She paced around the building before walking up to the window closest to the ground and glancing in. The room was lit by a single lantern, and much like the houses of the other ponies, she could see several pictures adorning the walls, all of them of the pony posing with her friends. But for as many pictures as there were of the rest of the Elements, there were just as many pictures of the unicorn with another pony: Princess Celestia herself.

"Figures," Octavia mumbled. "She is Celestia's protégé…"

Octavia placed her hooves on the window and pulled it open as far as she could. She popped the top off of a can of red paint and reached in, but found that she could only reach a table directly beneath the window and the edge of a bookcase. She pushed her hoof as far into the room as she could and began to spray anyway, covering the table with the red paint. As she was, she looked up at the pictures on the wall again and noticed the same picture of the Elements of Harmony after the Gala, posing with Princess Celestia. Hanging above that picture was a much larger picture of the unicorn as a filly, sitting on the back of Princess Celestia.

Octavia stopped spraying and slowly pulled her hoof out of the window, just staring at the pictures across the room. Then she grabbed her bag. "To heck with it," she muttered, then pulled the window open fully and climbed through. She vaulted over the still-dripping table and picked up the first can of paint she got her hoof on, then began to spray jagged lines on the multitude of books and bookshelves. Every few seconds, she glanced back up at the pictures on the wall, each time her grip tightening on the can.

"I cannot believe they still celebrate that," she said to herself, her tone becoming more irate. "They really have no idea what they did. They have no idea that they have been ruining the lives of the ponies around them. And Celestia still celebrates them? She just stands there, smiling and letting them do whatever they want. Why do they get such a free ride, while I've had to fight back against them at every turn just to do what I love? Why do they deserve any of this?"
 
Something in the back of her mind clicked and she spun around, immediately covering the picture of Celestia with red paint. In her anger she continued to spray over every single picture she saw, until she finally got to the one of all the Elements of Harmony.

"Why does everyone love you?" she said even louder as she pulled the picture off the wall. "Why am I the only pony to see how horrible, how worthless you all are?!" She turned around and hurled the picture across the room. It slammed into the edge of the paint-covered bookshelf, shattering the glass and falling onto the ground with a bang.

Octavia stood in the middle of the room, her whole body trembling as she took long breaths in and out. She thought back to the night of the Gala, and the image of the ponies standing and practically celebrating with Princess Celestia. She thought back to the Garden Party, where the ponies invaded and made everything about themselves yet again. She slowly looked around the room, at the paint covering the walls and the shattered glass in the corner, along with the now-torn picture.

All she could do was smile at the scene.

"Hello?"

A nervous pulse shot through Octavia's body as she heard a voice come from upstairs. She glanced up and could see a small figure moving around.

"Who's that?" the young voice said. "Is that you, Twi? What was that crash?"

Octavia grabbed her bag from off the ground and hurled it out the window, then followed it and climbed out of the room. She ducked her head beneath the window, staring up as she saw a light flickering from inside.

"I thought you weren't coming back until tomorrow, wha—" the voice suddenly cut itself off and gasped. "Oh geez, what happened?! Owlowiscious, was this you?!"

Octavia carefully crept away, leaving the sound of the panicking voice inside the library. Once she was far enough away from the building she took off right back to the forest where she had first changed and hid behind the trees. She jammed her clothes into the bag and stashed it in the nearest bush, then calmly trotted back out of the forest towards the bed and breakfast she was staying the night at. She spared one final look towards the library, where she could just make out a figure frantically running around the room.. She smiled.

"Serves you all right."

"I apologize for calling you all in so late, gentlecolts, but this is a pressing matter."

Several royal guards stood at attention as Prince Blueblood paced in front of them. One of them stifled a yawn and Blueblood glared at him for a moment before continuing.

"It was brought to my attention that two days ago, there was an incident involving Flanksy in downtown Canterlot. However, this was not like the previous incidents, where all she did was bring her own style of ugliness to our wonderful city. No, this was something else. This was something different: a direct assault on a fellow pony. Do you all understand what that means?"

The guards looked at each other, unsure of how to respond. Blueblood just smirked and stood confidently in front of them.

"It means that as of right now, Flanksy is under my jurisdiction. What was previously about 'art' has crossed the line. There is no longer a grey area, like at that pathetic city hall meeting where nopony was willing to support me. No, what she has done now is clearly wrong, which is why I have called you all here."

Blueblood paused to gaze out the window at the night sky of Canterlot. He took in the sight of the lit-up city, then turned back to the guards.

"I want you all to watch Flanksy very carefully, because I guarantee you she will cross that line again,” he said, leaning closer to them. “And the second she does, I want you to be on her. I want you to grab her and bring her in. I want you to arrest her. You have my full authorization."

The guards all nodded.

"Good. Also, I want you to find the pony who she attacked, bring her to me as well. I'd love to have a talk with her; I bet she would love to speak out against her assailant…” Blueblood smirked. “Perhaps if I showed Canterlot just what Flanksy was capable of, I could get more ponies on my side."

"Yes, sir," said one of the guards. "I will head down to Ponyville tomorrow."

Blueblood stared at the guard. "Ponyville? Wait, the pony was from Ponyville? Who was it?"

"Her name is Pinkie Pie," the guard replied. "She's one of the Elements of Harmony."

There was a long silence as Blueblood blinked a few times, then looked back out over the city. "One of the Elements of Harmony got paint thrown on them…" he muttered to himself, before a very sly smirk appeared on his face. He eventually turned back to the guards, returning to his stoic expression.

"You know, in that case, disregard getting her."

The guard tilted his head to one side. "Sir?"

"She's probably busy,” Blueblood replied with a shake of his head. “We don't want to bother her."

Blueblood nodded his head and turned around, walking out of the room and leaving the guards.

"Not that I'd want to have anything to do with those ponies anyway…"

Octavia sat calmly at a table in the bakery and sipped a cup of tea. Every few moments she would look over at the counter, where three ponies were standing. Two of them were older ponies, one of whom Octavia had shared her train ride with, while the third one was one Octavia was more familiar with. Pinkie Pie paced back and forth at a rapid rate, constantly looking up at the clock.

"Pinkie, dearie, you have to calm down. They'll be here," Mrs. Cake said.

"But they said they were just going to check on their houses and come back!" Pinkie whined. "After what Cheerilee told us when we got back this morning, it sounds like something really really bad happened last night! What if the badness was still there? They should be here by now!"

"Just be patient, Pinkie."

“And by the way, just what was this?” Mr. Cake said, reaching behind the counter and placing something down on it: a single can of red paint with two balloons tied to it. “Was this a gift or maybe some kind of delivery? I don’t remember ordering any paint. Why would somepony leave a can of paint at our front door?”

Pinkie stared at the can of paint, then shuddered. She awkwardly turned away. “I… don’t want to talk about it.”

Mr. and Mrs. Cake glanced at each other in confusion as Pinkie continued to pace.

Octavia took another sip of her tea, trying to hide the smile on her face. Then there was a jingle at the front door and Twilight Sparkle trotted in. Pinkie leapt clear over the counter and landed directly in front of her friend.

"Well well well well well what happened what's your place like how is everypony else are you hurt was the library hurt were the books hurt?" she blurted out. Twilight took a deep breath and Pinkie went quiet, then she went to go sit down at the nearest table, her head in her hooves.

"The library is a disaster," she mumbled. "Half the bookshelves are going to take a lot of work to clean up, the books themselves might have to be replaced, and all of my pictures were destroyed." She shook her head. "The one of us at the Gala… that was irreplaceable. And now—"

She didn't finish as the door to Sugarcube Corner swung open and Rarity staggered in. Pinkie leapt towards her.

"How about your place?!"

Rarity only stared at Pinkie for a second, then turned away dramatically and held her hoof to her head.

"Annihilated!" she moaned, drawing another smirk from Octavia. "Every dress around that shattered window—months worth of work—all completely destroyed! Those dresses, my windows, painted over! But far, far worse was what was written! They called me… they called me…”

Rarity slowly swooned backwards across the two chairs next to Twilight. She stared blankly at the ceiling for several seconds before continuing.

“Ugly,” she whispered, barely audible. “They called me ugly.”

“Ohhhh, Rarity, you know that’s not true!” Twilight said as she patted her friend on the head. “I don’t know who did this, but whoever it is is an awful pony!”

Pinkie's ears fell. "Maybe it was the same meanie who threw paint on me in Canterlot…"

Octavia held the cup up to her mouth to make sure the ponies couldn't see the smile plastered on her face. She had seen the Elements of Harmony plenty of times, but this was the first time she had seen them in a more vulnerable state, as the victims instead of the oppressors. She wanted to revel in the moment, but she knew she had to keep a low profile until she got back to Canterlot. Instead, she just calmly drank her tea and watched the scene unfold.

"Maybe it was Flanksy?"

Octavia's ears perked momentarily as she heard the name said by Twilight. Both Pinkie and Rarity looked over at her.

"Flanksy? What on earth is a flanksy?" Rarity asked.

"Not a what, a who,” Twilight replied. “Princess Celestia told me about her. She's an artist in Canterlot. Well, not an artist… more of a vandal. She spray paints walls and buildings all over Canterlot. She painted a statue of Celestia green, she completely changed the color of Canterlot Park, but it's seemed like she was more angry at Princess Celestia."

"Why does she hate the Princess?" Rarity asked. "No, a far better question is, why does she hate us?"

Twilight shook her head. "I asked Princess Celestia that the first time she wrote me about Flanksy, but she had no idea either. It just started one day out of nowhere, suddenly this pony was going around spraying anti-royalty messages on walls against her, then against Prince Blueblood."

Rarity smiled. "Perhaps I can take a little solace in knowing that pompous prince got at least a little of what was coming to him…"

Octavia chuckled, quickly covering it up with a cough.

"After that, she sorta stopped going after royalty,” Twilight continued. “Instead, she was just painting these really colorful murals around Canterlot. Then she went after Canterlot Park, she sprayed all the trees and the fountain…"

"But that doesn't explain why she did this!" Rarity interjected. "Why does she hate us? What could we have possibly done to her?"

"I don't know!" Twilight replied. "I can't think of anything!"

They really have no idea, Octavia thought to herself. No idea whatsoever. They really are as ignorant as I thought.

She took another sip of tea as the front door of the bakery swung open and a grey pegasus trotted through, her head hanging low as she walked up to the three Elements.

“Derpy?” Twilight said. “What’s wrong?”

Derpy shook her head. "I, um, just came from Fluttershy’s house.”

Twilight leapt to her hooves. “Oh no, Fluttershy! How is she, what happened?”

Derpy pawed at the ground a few times. “There were these big red letters drawn on her house. They covered almost the entire roof with the same word, over and over.”

Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie all nervously glanced at each other before Twilight took a step forward. “W… what did it say? What word was it?”

There was a long pause. Octavia closed her eyes, just savoring the silence in the room before Derpy finally spoke up.

“‘Freak.’”

The three ponies in front of her all gasped. Pinkie stepped in front of Twilight.

“How is she? How is Fluttershy?!”

“She's completely distraught over it,” Derpy said. “She’s locked herself in her room and has been crying since she got there. Applejack is taking a break from cleaning up the paint on the barn to try to console her, but I don't think it's working very well."

Rarity laid her head down on the table. "Poor Fluttershy… Somepony out there really hates us."

"I wish Rainbow Dash were here," Twilight said. "She'd be able to cheer up Fluttershy. When she gets back from Cloudsdale tomorrow, maybe she can console her. Come on, let's go over to her cottage, we should at least try to make her feel better…”

The three ponies slowly stood up and shuffled out of the bakery. Octavia slowly leaned back in her chair, just smirking to herself as she watched them walk into the distance. Serves them right, she thought to herself, then looked up behind the counter.

The stallion who she had been on the train with was looking at her, one of his eyebrows raised as if he was putting something together in his head. He and Octavia locked eyes for a few seconds before Octavia reached into her saddle bag, dropped a few bits on the table, then took her leave of the bakery.

The front door swung open and Vinyl stormed through, clutching the day’s newspaper under hoof. She went straight to Octavia's room and shoved the door open. Inside, Octavia was in the midst of playing her cello, and the sudden intrusion of Vinyl caused her to draw the bow noisily across the strings.

"Vinyl!" she shouted. "What are you—" she didn't finish as Vinyl threw the newspaper down on the bed, then just locked eyes with her friend. Octavia slowly reached over and took the paper, reading the headline: "Elements of Harmony's Homes Attacked."

Octavia blinked. "What about it?"

"What about it?!" Vinyl yelled. "You were talking about going down to Ponyville to do some more of your art. Yeah, 'art' my eye. You broke into their damn houses! What the hay is wrong with you!?"

"Nothing is wrong with me!" Octavia shouted. "You should be asking what is wrong with them! What's wrong with every pony who interacts with them! They deserved that, and—"

"Stop saying that! Every time this happens, you use the 'deserved' word! Nopony deserves that! I don't care what they did to you, ever hear of two wrongs don't make a right?"

"You don't care what they did to me? You don't care that they were directly the cause of the worst night of my life? Vinyl, the Gala—"

"I know!" Vinyl yelled, turning away. "I get it! The Gala sucked! So did the Garden Party! For Celestia's sake, I've heard it! But the Gala was months ago, Octavia! Do you really want to hold on to that grudge for the rest of your life? Maybe it's time to just…"

Again, Vinyl trailed off. Octavia stepped forward.

"Just what? You said the same thing to me before I left for Ponyville. Are you ever going to finish that at any point?"

Vinyl slowly looked away. There was a long silence hanging in the room as she took a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

"No, I'm not," she finally said, her voice far quieter than it had been just moments before. "Octavia, I don't want to fight any more. I don't want this to keep going, where every time you do something we end up screaming at each other. That's the last thing I want. I just want this to be over. This whole war against the Elements of Harmony, this whole thing where you're replacing your art—some of the coolest stuff I've ever seen—with personal attacks… Please, please, just tell me you're done with this. Just tell me Flanksy is going to go back to changing Canterlot."

Octavia sat down on the bed, looking back at the newspaper. She read through it quickly, everything she had done—the details of the attacks on each of the houses— and she sighed. She opened her mouth to reply to Vinyl, but paused as her attention fell on a paragraph near the end of the article.

"This has put a damper on the planned event in Canterlot to officially commemorate the statue celebrating the Elements of Harmony's victory over Discord several weeks ago. The event will still take place as planned, but it appears that the Elements of Harmony will not be an attendance.

Octavia's grip on the edge of the paper tightened. She shook her head.

"It's not over. Not quite yet."