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// Somepony was left behind 
// Story: Very different beneath the surface 
// by Slick Dash 
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“Umm, please don’t be too angry with Fluttershy... she’s been through a lot.” Dashie obviously wasn’t very confident in what she was saying, her voice trailed away into nothing quickly under the many watchful eyes of the ponies around her.

“What do you mean Dashie?” Asked Twilight, she craved to know how the Pegasus was so different from the Fluttershy they all knew and loved. The rainbow mane’d Pegasus bleated with nerves, and quickly curled back into her shell, letting her fringe fall over most of her face once again. However, the only other inter-dimensional pony in the room came to her rescue.

“We didn’t quite get here with everyone we had meant to.” AJ said sadly, she looked at her hooves and scuffed them against the polished wooden floor. 
“Yeah...” Murmured Dashie from the sofa. She nuzzled her muzzle into her foreleg, leaving only her uncovered pink eye visible for all to see. It seemed to brim with small beads of tears. “Someone decided to stay behind and... Fluttershy didn’t want to go without him...” 

Big Macintosh knew it! The way she had refused to make eye contact with him, the way she had changed her attitude the second her had confronted her. “Who was it?” He asked the little Pegasus. He needed to know for sure. 
“Oh... ummm...well...” 
“You know it was you Mac.” Confirmed AJ from across the room. Mac looked at her to see her eyes filled with tears as well. “In our world, Mac was one of the ones who helped us get into the castle library. He helped hold of the guards, he did everything he could to keep me... and Fluttershy safe.” She took a deep breath and whipped her nose on the back of her hoof before continuing with obvious difficulty. 

Mac wanted to stop her, to see the face of his sister so miserable tore him apart inside even if it wasn't really her, but yet AJ continued without pause nor falter. “When Twilight finally got the spell she was looking for and opened our way here, Mac decided the last thing he could do to keep her... to keep all of us safe, was to stay behind and fight off the gua-rds.” Her voice cracked as she gave into the tears. She looked to the ground and cried, the tears splashing to the floor in quick succession. 

Applejack laid a hoof on the shoulder of her weeping double, now she knew what Rainbow had meant by this being weird! To feel the fur of her own body on somepony else was the strangest sensation she had ever felt. But that didn’t matter right now, all that mattered was comforting this poor pony. 

Dashie picked up where AJ left off, she spoke in a monotone obviously distancing herself from what she was saying in an attempt to keep away the pain. “Fluttershy went after him, she was begging him to go with her, she didn’t want to live without him. She loved him, they had been together through everything over the last year, and now it was finally over.” She looked up at the group surrounding her. Her eye meat Mac’s, almost as though she blamed him for what his copy had done. “But Mac wanted to stay.” She finished coldly. Rainbow looked down at the pony beside her on the sofa, incredulous to hear how terrible these ponies journey’s had been. She wanted to comfort her lookalike, and yet, though tears hung over her eyelids ready to fall. None ever followed and pushed them off. She seemed to be frozen in a state of misery and indifference, and it unsettled Rainbow too much to offer a shoulder to cry on.

Twilight looked around the room to see that almost every eye in the room was bleary with tears. Rarity-who fell to pieces at the slightest sad story- was holding on to spike as silent tears began to trace down her cheeks. The dragon seemed to be holding it together, barely, his shoulders seemed to shiver from some unknown cold as he listened to the horrible words that came from both the alternate ponies’ mouths. Fluttershy seemed  to be distraught, she had fallen to the floor and lay there her eyes brimming with tears as she listened to the story of her other self. 

Applejack was trying to fight away the pearly invaders, but one single straggler got away, and ran down her left check and pooled in the corner of her mouth. Twilight herself felt the burning in the corner of her eyes that threatened her to cry herself. She sniffed hard, trying to fight off the sadness with the mental discipline she had taught herself over so many years. 

AJ whimpered for a moment. “He-he...” She looked up and into the green eyes of Big Macintosh once again. “He told me to look after her. And I said I would! But... she just seems so damn angry now! She was never that calm, but never like this!” Fluttershy stood shakily, she approached the weeping AJ and put her forelegs around her neck and squeezed caringly. AJ’s eyes were visible over the Pegasus’s shoulder, they simply grew round and amazed at the unprovoked sign of kindness.

For a long time nopony said a word. Then Fluttershy broke the embrace and stood back. “W-were you the one? Back when you first got here, we heard somepony crying.” Fluttershy asked.
“Yeah! It’s what made me call out to you guys!” agreed Twilight. AJ shook her head, she couldn’t talk, her voice had given out. 
“It was Fluttershy...” Whispered Dashie. “She was crying, but the second she heard ponies around us she went back into fighting mode.” Dash couldn’t believe it.
“You mean she switched from THAT kind of misery to... that?” She waved a hoof at the empty sofa the Pegasus had been sitting on. Dashie merely nodded as she stared at a knot in the plank of flooring at the base of the sofa.

“Mmmaybe I should get out of here before she comes back, keep everything as peaceful as possible?” Asked Big Mac, he looked primarily to his sister. She frowned, unsure of what to say. “Maybe, if you don’ mind that is. Do you?” 
“Nnope.”
“Ok, well I’ll see yah back home then bro. We won’t be much longer I don’ think.” Big Mac headed for the door. He nodded in thanks to Twilight, as he always did whenever he did when he left somepony’s house, and pushed open the wooden door to the house and left. 

As the door was opened, so was the entrance to the spare room. The two alternate ponies came out and rejoined the group. The suddenly calm looking other Fluttershy looked around, knowing somepony had left. She looked to the front door just in time to see an orange tail whip out of sight and into the dark of the outside. The door came to a close, and sensation like a pin pricking her pressed against her chest. It wasn’t painful enough to register on her face, but she felt it. She felt the heartache.