//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: "If you ain't got anything nice to say..." // by ManlyDerp //------------------------------// “... So… are you sure she ain’t a princess now?” “Yes, kid; she’s not a princess now…” “... You really, really sure though? Cuz I got to see that mark Twilight left behind when she exploded into one and it looked awfully similar…” “... Okay, I’ll admit it kinda looks the same, but it’s totally not.” “... But… are you for sure sure?” “Yes!” “...” “...” “... But…” Letting out a frustrated grunt, Rainbow Dash turns away from Apple Bloom and looks over to her sister for assistance on explaining the situation. The cyan pegasus soon discovers that said assistance was never to come as her eyes quickly fall upon the currently breathless orange filly; breathless due to the bonecrushing hug she was receiving from a bawling Sweetie Belle. “D-d-don’t explode again!” the distraught unicorn wailed, her eyes red with tears. “N-never again! Not even a little bit…” “Going… to… die…” the glomped Scootaloo tried to gasp out. “Seeing… the light… Heading into… it… happily...” Rainbow Dash sighs again. Between returning the filly to school, explaining to a near catatonic classroom of foals that she had, in fact, not spontaneously combusted, and then explaining to Apple Bloom how this didn’t mean she was now friends with a secret alicorn princess, the speedster was starting to get anxious. She had been gone for hours; hours in which her friends were probably still dealing with a mouthy stallion. Said stallion… well Rainbow Dash was finding it hard not to think about him. At first she hated him for what he did, for going behind her back and telling ponies mean things about her. She still kinda hated him for his actions… … But she couldn’t deny the results. She hated that fact even more. By going behind her back, foals didn’t imitate her. Nopony got hurt because of her. Because of his actions, because he risked his friendship with her, the foals of Ponyville were more risk averse today then they probably would have been otherwise. It still hurt though, knowing that he had thought so poorly of her ability to be self conscious of others. It really hurt… but she couldn’t find herself blaming him now. The talk with Scootaloo had actually helped, Dash found surprisingly. At first she thought that it’d be very one sided, with her saying things and the filly only listening, but the tiny pony had proven in the end to be a great help. She asked questions that made Rainbow rethink things; she provided encouragement when it was needed. Scootaloo gave her a more complete picture of things, and had even helped form an idea in Rainbow Dash’s mind; an idea she was more than willing to follow through on. But, for it to work, a certain pony would need to be talked to. A certain pony who was currently not here in the schoolhouse, in her own classroom. Cheerilee was not here, and Rainbow eventually saw this as a good thing; she still needed time to organize her thoughts on the matter and to run some things by Princess Egghead first before she could really do anything with it. It was something that could wait for now, she figured. Besides, Dash was unsure if her friends still had their hooves full with Big Mac or not. It had been several hours since she talked to Twilight, sure, but any number of things could have happened in that time. Knowing how things usually went down during one of their ‘adventures’; Dash was certain that something must have happened by now. Anything from him talking to the wrong pony to a magical mishap or one of her friends snapping and turning into a creature of unimaginable darkness (Probably Rarity, Rainbow figured); Dash was certain that her friends probably needed her right now. First though, she needed to make sure that Cheerilee’s classroom didn’t start singing about the coming of Princess Scootaloo, The Princess of Scooting, the moment she left. Rainbow felt she owed the filly that much at the very least for her help. Apple Bloom’s adamancy on the subject though was starting to get on the sky blue pegasus’ nerves. She was at the point where she was simply tuning the apple pony out; it was nothing more than white noise to her now. White noise she only now realized had stopped playing. Blinking, Rainbow Dash returned to the present to discover the yellow filly staring at something in the distance. Turning, the rainbow pony found the once again breathing Scootaloo and the more emotionally stable Sweetie Belle staring at the same thing. Looking forward, Dash soon discovered what it was that could render foals silent. A solemn looking Discord is usually enough to give anypony pause… … A determined looking Cheerilee talking to him though is enough to leave said ponies speechless. Dash looks back at the crusaders, who in turn look to her expectantly. With a nod of her head, the elder agrees to go in the recessed children’s place, to get them their answers as the bell to return to class begins to ring out. ________________ Meanwhile, in a crystal palace far away, frightened gasps escape three mares’s lips as their fourth casually knocked out her brother with a well practised buck. This makes her track record for pacifying ponies for the day now two for two. “Gentlecolty spawn of a lady Diamond Dog,” Applejack cursed to herself, shaking out one of her hind legs. “Forgot that the damn lug has a boulder for a skull… No clue how long that’ll hold ‘em...” “A-a-applejack?” The orange pony turns to Rarity, who takes a cautious step back from her recieved glare. “E-er…” the unicorn mummbles for a bit, trying to find ground. “I-I won’t argue that Twilight didn’t need to have a little… ‘time out’... but did you really need to incapacitate your brother as well? W-we still need to cure him in order to end this horrid day once and for all…” Narrowing her eyes harder, Applejack grunts. “I know that, Rare... but I also know that he doesn’t need to be awake for that bath neither.” With an angry scowl, the earth pony adds “Excuse me for tryin’ to make his now ruined life just a tad easier for him to handle!” Rarity frowns at this, regaining some of her earlier strength and composure. “I don’t think that his life is completely ruined now, Applejack,” the fashion pony tries to explain to her clearly frazzled friend. “You heard what Twilight said; nothing he’s spoken today has been completely true or completely wrong! It was all cruel and opinionated, yes... but not truly evil. The Cakes and Twilight understood this; others will in time too, I believe.” “Not Caramel,” Applejack retorts snappily, sneering at Rarity. “I was there! That poor stallion got absolutely wrecked, girl. I doubt he’s ever gonna recover from the lashin’ he got, let alone actually forgive Mac for it. “That’s just one friendship ruined so far today; I’d hate to think about the ponies we didn’t get to see him talk to! If you think for even a second that this isn’t the, worst, possible, thing that could have ever happened to him….” “Applejack, I wasn’t trying to argue this point…” Rarity attempts to reply, trying to drop the subject altogether. “Well it sounded like you were!” the farmer quickly fires back with a growl. Rarity swats this barb aside with a wave of her hoof. “Applejack, dear, you need to take a breather…” “I will when you admit that I’m doin’ Mac a favor here!” the pony huffs angrily. Her alabaster friend huffs back. “I wasn’t trying to argue this point either!” “Ummm…” suddenly whispers Fluttershy from the other side of the room, Twilight’s passed out form draped over hers and Pinkie Pie’s backs. “W-we’re going to put Twilight in her bed now, you two… okay?” “Then what were you tryin’ to argue, sugarcube?!” Applejack demands, ignoring Fluttershy’s once again timid voice. With some of the stress having finally been relieved, both the major instigators Twilight and Big Mac having been neutralized, the pegasus was finding it growing increasingly harder for her to raise her voice against the third instigator, Applejack, as she had in the past. How Rarity was able to, despite having just witnessed her choke out one of her friends not five minutes ago, the animal lover could only speculate. Thus does the pegasus and the earth pony silently carry their alicorn friend deeper into the Friendship Death Castle, leaving the two remaining mares to their talk. “Okay, Applejack?” Rarity asks firmly as she sits down, holding her front hooves out in the ‘please stop’ position. “Breathe and then listen. I wasn’t saying that what you did was wrong; Celestia knows Big Macintosh probably deserves the rest just as much as Twilight does right now. What I’m saying is that now that the end goal is within our sight, you’re allowing yourself to get just as twitchy as poor Twilight was; allowing the stress to make the decisions for you. Breathe, and then permit me to say what it was that I was trying to say to you.” “...” Though it takes a bit of angry grumbling Applejack eventually does what she’s told, even going as far as to give the princess breathing technique, the one she witnessed Twilight use earlier with Discord, a shot. Her hoof raises inwards, she sucks in air, then she brings the hoof outwards and exhales greatly. Relaxed and thinking straighter, no longer fueled by the adrenalin brought about from taking down a super powered, temporarily insane, demi-goddess by her lonesome, the earth pony is now able to listen properly.          “... Okay, Rare; what were you tryin’ to say to me?” Rarity smiles softly as she places a hoof on her friend’s shoulder reassuringly. “Applejack,” she speaks slowly. “Applejack, darling; putting Big Macintosh to sleep may have seemed like the right thing to do at the time… but how are we going to move him to a bath now? Especially considering that there is none here?” “...” Applejack looks back at her large, heavy brother and then at the distance between where they currently were and the entrance to the death castle. She didn’t need fancy mathematics to calculate how much she had just done goofed. “... Horseapples,” the blonde pony whispers under her breath, realizing her heated mistake. The unicorn in the room simply continues to smile knowingly at her rather silly friend. “Forgot that little detail, didn’t we?” Taking off her hat, burying her frustrated face in it, Applejack reluctantly admits with a sigh “Eeyup…” With the power of magic, and with white hoof firmly planted under the farmer’s chin, Rarity places Applejack’s hat back atop her head and lifts her face forward, looking meaningfully into the mare’s green eyes. “Please listen to me, dear; listen to my words. You’re about to hit your limit, Applejack” she states plainly. “You taught me how you understood me more than even I do, back during the incident that shan’t be named? Remember that? Well, I believe that the opposite is just as true; I understand your limits better than you do. All of your friends do, to an extent; we’ve been watching you slowly slipping away from us all day long. You’re not quite there yet, if your… ‘unique’ handling of the situation is any indication, but you are becoming dangerously close to going overboard into a realm of irrationalness I dread to imagine.” Though she tries at first to return to giving her friend an angered glare for her accusations, Applejack’s ears fold against her head as she exhales regretfully “I… I just want it to be over already…” “Well then try not to get angry; don’t allow it to cloud your judgment like it did to our dear friend.” “But… its gotten so hard… So much bad has happened already today; so much hurtin’...” “Then we cure him; simple, no?” “But… b-but I just screwed everythin’ up…” “No, not at all! I wasn’t saying that you had! I was simply trying to set you back on the right path; to prevent it from happening again! Look; a four pony wagon should be enough to pull him, shouldn’t it?” Rarity asks the mare gently, calmly patting her hoof with her own. “All of us working together… that should be just enough to get him to my boutique at least, correct? I can assure you that one of my bathtubs should be large enough to accommodate him!” Applejack blinks at the suggestion. “Y-you’d do that?” she asks the unicorn hopefully. The Element of Generosity simply laughs. “Do you even need to ask?” Applejack pauses before chuckling halfheartedly herself. “H-heh, yeah... I guess that was a stupid question, wasn’t it ...?” Rarity’s smile becomes even more genuine for her once again level headed friend. “I think it’s fair to say that we’ve all been quite… stupid today,” Rarity admits in good cheer. “A comedy of errors, I’d say... though it would appear that somepony has neglected to bring the comedy to this little soiree of ours.” Applejack exhales slowly and tiredly. “You can say that again, filly.” “Well, rest assured that it is almost over.” With a small smile finally appearing on her own lips, Applejack replies “Yeah, it is, and thank Celestia for that. Gonna take awhile for all this to heal though… if Mac’s even willin’ to let it heal, that is. The town itself… I’m not sure. It forgave me time and time again for my screw ups… but this one... I can only pray that it’ll be willin’ to give him the same chance.” “At least he didn’t speak to us,” Rarity points out politely, hoping to alleviate things. “He at least doesn’t have that on his already heavy conscious. You were worried about that just as much as me; I could tell.” The tired farmer suddenly grows quiet. “... Yeah…” she admits in a tiny voice. “Y-yeah… Maybe it’s for the best that he didn’t… “Maybe…” “...” White forelegs are soon wrapped around Applejack’s suddenly dejected form. “Applejack,” soothes Rarity quietly. “... There was something you wanted Mac to say to you, wasn’t there…? Something you wanted answered…” Applejack blinks blankly. “H-how did you…?” A light grin is all she receives from the pony next to her. “Mare’s intuition, dear,” chimes the unicorn with the purple mane. “... Isn’t ‘mare’s intuition’ just the hogwash fillies tell stallions to make them fear us?” Rarity shrugs. “A little bit of column A, bit of B… but regardless; are you going to be okay with not knowing your answer? Once we cure him, I highly doubt Big Mac is going to be a very active pony anymore. He’ll probably seclude himself somewhere and become even more of a mute unless we do something to prevent it from happening… force him to see that this isn’t the end of the world for him… “Even if we do manage to make him see the light in the dark, I doubt he’ll ever be able to speak his heart again like he’s done today, Applejack… This may very well be your last chance to get the answers you seek…” “...” Applejack’s sigh was one of equal parts sadness and reluctant defeat. “I… I-I don’t know what I want, Rare,” the farmer confides in her friend shakily, her voice wobbling in her throat as her strength slowly begins to ebb away. “I-I think I’m too gosh darn afraid to hear what he has to s-say about m-m-me. I-I’ve known him a-all mah life a-a-and always saw h-him as mah kind a-and loving b-big brother, s-s-so I... “I… “I-I…” Sniff With a weak sniffle, the dam finally breaks inside of Applejack’s heart; her earlier fear and anger replacing themselves with the deep pain she tried so very, very hard to ignore all day long. Tears begin to flow freely from the stressed mare’s green eyes, dotting the floor and Rarity’s coat in the process. “I-I just d-don’t want things to change between us! Is that s-so much to ask?!” the strong pony weeps loudly, leaning her head closer to her friend’s in their sudden embrace. Her stetson, one of her much loved reminders of her mother, slowly slips off of the pony’s lowered cranium and unceremoniously falls to the ground as she buries her face deeply into Rarity’s white fur. “I-I don’t want to hurt him by makin’ him talk anymore, b-but if I don’t... I-I’ll never get rid of these doubts in mah head! “I-I-I don’t want to second guess mahself whenever I see him everyday; don’t want to… t-to… t-think t-t-that… t-that…” The only sound left in the room at this point is Applejack’s incoherent sobs and the constant swiveling of Spike’s quill against a piece of parchment. Rarity, with the earth pony firmly wrapped in her forelegs, can only sigh mourningly as she gazes at her still hypnotized little friend from across the room. “I-I…” Applejack speaks up after a time, sniffing back her tears. “I-I-I need to cure him... I-I’ve made up mah mind…” “Oh Applejack…” Rarity coos softly, watching from her seated position on the ground as her honest friend rises to her hooves. “Are you absolutely sure?” “... Nope,” she admits . “But… it’s the right thing to do. I-I know it is… “...!” Suddenly, Applejack’s now reddened eyes grow large as something crosses her mind. “S-shoot,” she spits with another sniff of her runny nose. “The Poison Joke cure is still in Twi’s bags!” She turns her head around, discovers that Twilight is gone, reviews her memories, and then remembers that Fluttershy and Pinkie had taken her away to her bedroom to rest. Applejack yells “Be right back, Rarity!” over her shoulder as she quickly begins to gallop off in search of the two, even leaving her hat behind in her sudden haste. “Applejack, wait!” the fashion pony tries to cry out, returning to her hooves. “Let the girls or me get it!” she yells at her still very emotionally unstable friend. “This is what I was talking about with making rash decisions while being emotional! Y-you should stay here and watch over your brother instead! In case he wak-” Rarity’s warning words are smothered to death over the sound of Applejack’s echoing hooves striking the crystal flooring. The white mare watches as her friend’s tail disappears around a corner at the top of the staircase and scurries away. The room is now completely silent. “... Drat,” Rarity says to herself, or perhaps to the discorded Spike. “In one ear and out the other... O-oh well. This castle isn’t that large. S-she’ll probably be right back in two shakes of a lamb’s tai-” The lone mare’s ears suddenly shoot upwards as she hears a surprising noise. A noise that sounds quite a lot like a large stallion waking up. … Rarity doesn’t even need to turn around to know what is happening, for she already has a pretty good idea in her mind. “O-oh come on!” she cries out loud, dancing on the tips of her hooves as she darts away from Big Mac’s now moaning form. “No no no no no! Applejack!! Applejack come back here right now!!” Though her words echo, Rarity receives no answer. “C-calm down, Rarity,” the fabulous pony tries to comfort herself. “Just… j-just use the mirror! The one Discord made for him! Right! J-just have him talk to that inste-” Turning around, Rarity’s gaze falls on the small pile of broken glass that once formed a complete mirror. The sight of it quickly reminds her of how the enchanted object was destroyed earlier when Big Mac bumped into it, trying to escape Twilight’s perceived fury. In desperation, the unicorn grabs one of the shards with her blue magic and brings it forward, but sadly the reflective surface now only shows the image of the pony holding it and nothing more. “Oh of course,” Rarity growls angrily at the offending shard. “Of course.” Out of the corner of her eye, Rarity spies the stallion in the room slowly returning to his hooves. Panic sinks in as the unicorn begins to hyperventilate. “Ha, ha, ha, ha,” she wheezes scaredly. “J-j-just need to knock him out again! Yes! That will solve this!” Once again darting her eyes around, Rarity tries to take stock of what is in the room with her. “Scrolls? No. Worn out stetson? Same. Hypnotized baby dragon? Too cruel for the both of them. Broken glass? Last resort only. Hooves? Can’t buck hard enough... Magic?” Igniting her horn, the white mare rummages through her mental list of spells and tries to locate one that can be of use. After a moment of spellweaving, Rarity’s large, red fabric lined fainting couch magically appears out of the aether and lands with a loud thud against the ground. The fashionable unicorn hums to herself frantically as she looks from the couch to Big Mac and then right back again. “Hmmm... No… no I rather like this couch too much to do something so vulgar as turn it into a blunt weapon… But desperate times… Oooooo, no! No I just can’t! “... Ha! Idea!” She suddenly squees happily, using her magic to make the couch disappear. “Nothing is keeping me here; I’ll just head home and get his bath started for him so we can add the cure quickly! Hmph, there; problem solved!” Quite pleased with herself, having found her solution, the happy pony begins to trot on past the still awakening stallion and head towards the exit. She is halfway there when she pauses, a thought having entered her mind. “... W-wait…” she speaks to herself. “If… if I leave… w-who will Big Macintosh talk to?” Shakily turning her head, the unicorn’s blue eyes fall on the only other pony now in the room… The pony who was not a pony at all, but instead a dazed and grey scaled dragon. Rarity begins to sweat as her eyes bounce back and forth between the two boys. “D-discord said that he can’t hurt him, Rarity,” she reassures herself. “H-he can’t hurt him… “... But… b-but how do you know he wasn’t lying?” She asks herself.          “W-well… I don’t…” She answers herself. “So he very well c-could just start talking to him the moment you leave…” She points out to herself. “P-possibly, self. Possibly… I-if not him, then… t-then I suppose, logically, he will just seek somepony else out… either somepony in this castle right now, or he’ll simply wander out into the streets of Ponyville… “... And then this wild goose chase will start all over again… “...” With a small whimper escaping her trembling lips… … a resigned Rarity approaches Big Macintosh all by her lonesome, head bowed low. ______________ “There we go,” quietly sings Fluttershy, setting Twilight’s sleeping body down gently in her bed and placing her star branded saddlebags off to the side. The pegasus uses her mouth to grab the end of the bed’s sheet and drape it over the alicorn’s neighing/snoring form. “Sleep tight now…” Fluttering slowly out of the room, the pegasus doesn’t make even the slightest of sounds as she enters the hallway and closes to door behind her. Pinkie Pie waits for her here, being uncharacteristically quiet. “Is she good?” the party pony asks as Fluttershy lands beside her. “W-will she be okay now?” Looking at the door, the yellow mare sighs as she answers “Well, sleeperholds don’t usually last very long; ten minutes bare minimum, at least...” Pinkie blinks. “... Fluttershy, w-why do you know tha-” “But she was already so tired,” Fluttershy continues quickly, promptly tossing the question aside before it could fully form. Pinkie reluctantly allows it to go unanswered. “We can only hope that she’ll do the right thing and just go back to sleep if she does wake up… Maybe we should leave her a message, telling her that the situation is under control… Pinkie Pie? Um, do you happen to have…?” Moving solely on autopilot, her good cheer tanks sadly depleted today, Pinkie Pie shoves a hoof into her mane and pulls out a piece of paper with sticky tape on it, said tape being the only reason she was able to pull it out at all. She then sticks her head into her equally poofy tail and retrieves an already ink soaked quill with her teeth, presenting it to Fluttershy along with the earlier parchment. The shy filly simply nods her head in thanks, she being too concerned about Twilight to consider Pinkie Pie’s pinkieness. She had grown quite used to it by now, after all. Two minutes pass before Fluttershy spits out the quill and admires her mouthwork. Frowning, the pony picks up the quill again and adds the image of a smiling bunny next to her signature. There; if this didn’t convince the princess that the situation was fully under control and that she had no reason to rise and shine, Fluttershy’s complete understanding of the universe at large would need to seriously be reavaluated. “There; I think she’ll be fine now,” the pegasus proclaims somewhat confidently. “Still though, we’re going to need to do something for her when she wakes up; suggest for her to take some time off or go visit her family… anything to take her mind off all this scary stuff...” “... Y-yeah,” Pinkie timidly agrees after a time. “That… that sounds like a good idea, Shy…” “...” Fluttershy turns towards her friend, a look of concern clear on her face. “You’re not going to suggest a party?” She asks plainly to the pink pony. “A get well soon party was something I was about to suggest myself…” Pinkie looks away. “I-I’m… I-I-I’m just not in the partying mood right now,” the mare admits in a mumble, refusing to meet her friend’s eyes. “It’s just been such an icky day a-and… and I’m not sure suggesting a party would be the smart thing to do right now.” “... Maybe,” Fluttershy says in response. “... But it would certainly be the Pinkie thing to do, and that’s all that really matters in the end.” This doesn’t have the desired effect the pegasus wanted it to have, as Pinkie’s face only cringes as a result. She still refuses to meet her friend’s warm gaze. “A-are those two things really that interchangable?” the earth pony asks aloud, not really expecting an answer. “What do you mean?” her friend is quick to ask, sensing the pain in the pony’s words. “I… I’ve just been… thinking a lot today,” Pinkie admits. “Even after Mac talked to me, I’ve been thinking... about… stuff…” “...” Fluttershy steps closer, placing a wing on the downed pony’s back. “Do you want to talk about it, Pinkie?” she asks as she directs her down the hall, back towards the foyer. A moment passes in silence with the two of them simply walking before Pinkie sighs, stops, and says… “I-its’... it’s just that this whole Big Mac thing is making me think of another pony. S-seeing him making everypony sad by just talking is reminding me of somepony else… Somepony who usually never stops talking… “Somepony… close to me…” “...” It doesn’t take Fluttershy long to realize what was just admitted to her. She looks away herself, biting her lip as she tries to think of what the proper words to say right now would even be. It takes her a bit, but they eventually come to her. “... Big Mac’s situation is reminding me of a certain pony too, Pinkie Pie… P-probably not the same pony you’re thinking of right now though...” The normally cheery pony finally looks at her friend, meeting her gaze. He mouth hangs open slightly, not sure what to actually say in response. “I-it…” she mumbled weakly to her friend. “I-it does?” “... Yes,” Fluttershy confirms with an exhale. “I’ve… been thinking about… how… similar all this is to s-something that happened in the past. Something… nasty...” Pinkie leans in closer, waiting expectantly for the pegasus’ reply… … only for her ears to perk up when they hear the sudden sound of galloping. The pink mare turns her head towards the noise, and so too does the yellow. They both watch quietly as a frantic and hatless Applejack turns the corner, spies the two, then gallops closer. She stops before them, huffing loudly. Without saying a word to the gathered ponies, she open’s Twilight’s bedroom door and quietly enters inside. Closing the door behind her as she leaves, Applejack emerges from the chamber with the princess’ saddlebags firmly strapped to her back. She check’s their contents, finds the Poison Joke cure, breathes a sigh of relief, then places the baggie back in. Fluttershy and Pinkie watch all this without saying a word, simply being nothing more then observing bystanders. Raising her head, Applejack looks at her friends and frowns sadly as they both cringe away. The farmer lowers her head, looking ashamed. “... I-I’m sorry for scaring you two…” the orange earth pony says shakily, her voice strengthless, borderline pathetic. It was how she felt right now, deep in her heart, so the mare did not care how she looked or sounded. “I-I… I-I-I didn’t mean to make y’all so jumpy a-and frightened of me. But… b-b-but, just, Big Mac… I-I…” Glomp “J-just don’t turn into ‘Nightmare’ AJ on us… please?” Pinkie begs in a small voice as her hooves tighten around Applejack’s saddened being in a heartfelt hug. “That’s a-all I’m asking for…” “... Heh…” the hugged pony chuckled unenthusiastically to herself. “N-no promises there, Pinkie. Don’t rightfully trust mahself right now, after what I did… It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, b-but now I’m not so sure...” “Sometimes that’s a good thing,” Fluttershy adds, forcing herself not to shrink away as her friends’ eyes fell on her. “N-not trusting yourself, and rethinking your decisions. You think you know yourself sometimes… But … b-but then you…” Pinkie Pie notices the shy pony’s eyes dart her way momentarily before returning to Applejack. “... do or say something that hurts somepony close to you, and you suddenly don’t know. Maybe it’s safer to be quiet sometimes...” “...” Applejack sighs, wiggling out of Pinkie’s embrace. “Shy,” the orange mare replies. “I can’t agree with that logic. If Mac had been more talkative, more able to trust me or at least his friends, then this whole mess wouldn’t have hurt him so badly. I-I understand why he never said any of this, considerin’ how poorly he thought of Twi...” “Do you really think he saw Twilight like he did though, Applejack?” Fluttershy responds quickly to the work horse's assumption. “Do you really think he stole her doll out of spite, or do you think that was just how he saw it himself?” The farmer opens her mouth, to say “Sure”... but the words never come. She ends up standing there, in a daze, trying to organize her thoughts on the manner. “... No,” she finally replies after a time. “He… he’s very opinionated, I knew that way before all this, and maybe he saw her as trouble somedays, but… b-but…” “H-he was crying a lot when he was yelling at her,” Pinkie adds helpfully. Fluttershy smiles meekly at the two of them. “... Twilight was right,” the shy pegasus says gently. “He’s very noble. I don’t think he trusted himself enough to share his opinions, fearing what he would actually end up saying. Some of the things he said to her probably surprised him just as much as it surprised us. “... I’m speaking from experience, girls. We’re a lot alike… him and I.” The other two mares simply stare at Fluttershy, watching as her smile transforms from being sad to being something close to content. Neither pony understood why. “I believe that ponies… that everypony... has a ‘shadow’,” Fluttershy explains, speaking lightly. Forcing herself to be strong and to do what Mac had been doing all day long to others; laying her soul bare, speaking her mind unrestrained. “The shadow is the side of ourselves that we don’t want to share with others; that w-we deny even exists. It’s made up of all of our icky thoughts and feelings about ourselves and others that we all secretly hold deep inside.” The timid mare then shivers. “... I-it’s a scary thing, girls; our shadows… They think and do nasty things whenever they’re let out, so we hide them away in the furthest corners of our minds… of our souls…” The mare then stands firm, her shakes having subsided. “... It’s still a part of ourselves though. A-as much as we wish it wasn’t, it’s still apart of us all. We wouldn’t be who we are i-if we weren’t constantly fighting it each and everyday. As we fight it, w-we grow... “... T-that’s what I think, at least… What I’ve always b-believed in… Why I thought Big Mac never talked, b-because it’s why I rarely do...” The two remaining ponies can only continue to stare at their once upon a time perceived weak friend; a view that they were just reminded, yet again, was never a truthful one to begin with. Stepping forward, Applejack rubs her head gently against the side of Fluttershy’s own. With tears in her eyes, the yellow mare does the same. “I’m sorry for what happened at Sugarcube Corner…” both ponies spoke at the same time. Blinking, they look at each other, chuckle lightly over the silly occurrence, then return to their pony nuzzling. “I know you are…” Pinkie smiles warmly at the scene... … but, suddenly, she begins to shake violently where she stands. Just as quickly as the spell of jitters started it stops. As all eyes turn to her, Pinkie’s own grow large. A shocked expression crosses her face. “P-pinkie sense?” Applejack asks the pony scaredly, breaking off from Fluttershy. Pinkie looks at Applejack, then quickly turns away. “... T-t-the dark one…” the party pony whimpers quietly to her friend, her face full of concern and fear. “... The dark one?” the orange mare parrots. “But… b-but ain’t that the one where Big Mac is hur-!!” Green eyes shrink to pinpricks as dots are connected inside of the owner’s blond head, and as a detail the mare had foolishly overlooked in her rush quickly flouts to the surface in all it’s pristine white glory. “Rarity!!” Realizing her colossal mistake, too emotionally spiked to even berate herself for it, Applejack gallops away back towards the foyer at a breakneck speed. Though momentarily stunned, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy didn’t need to think twice as they soon gallop and fly after her with equal speed. ______________ “Rarity!!” Applejack calls out again as she rushes down the staircase, returning to the grand entrance hall. She spies her brother now back on his hooves, looking crestfallen, but her eyes are focused elsewhere. Specifically on the spirled purple ponytail in the distance; the one that had just passed through the castle doors and left the Friendship Death Castle altogether. With hoof frozen forward, having failed to resummon her friend, a wave of fresh anger blankets AJ’s mind yet again. Rounding on the spot, she death-stares her brother directly in the eyes. “What,” she shortly demands, her fuse having been lit. “Did you do to her you blasted dunderhead?!” “I… I actually have no idea.” The response didn’t come from the now air deprived Big Mac, but instead from a reading Pinkie Pie. She was sitting on her hind quarters next to the still discorded Spike, his latest written scroll firmly cradled in her two forelegs. Fluttershy slowly appears in the room as well after a moment, prompting the pink mare to continue. “It’s… mostly compliments, guys” she explains as her eyes jump across the parchment. “You’re so very kind and generous,” Pinkie reads off passively. “A beautiful heart… Started the Ponytones with noble intentions and honorably stuck to your principles, never heading down darker roads for your own goals… Excellent fashion sense in most regards… A truly inspiring individual…” Applejack and Fluttershy simply blink at this glowing praise. Raising an eyebrow, the younger sister looks at her elder queerly. “If that’s true… why did she leave in such a gosh darn hurry?” “... Weeellll…” Pinkie goes on, her eyes still glued to the ‘letter’. “There is a sentence here that has Spike and Tenderhoof’s names together in it, and the words ‘Should stop leading the little guy on like you do… Should sort out your own feelings on the matter before you hurt somepony,’ were mentioned… Overall it isn’t icky though,” the party pony explains plainly. “Not really go-home-crying, trigger-Pinkie-sense kind of critique, really… a-at least not in my opinio-” Still reading the scroll intently, Pinkie Pie’s eyes suddenly widen. “Oh!” she expels with a gasp. “Oh, wait, nope; I was wrong, guys! I was super duper wrong! Waaaayy wrong!” Looking up, holding the parchment out, Pinkie points her other hoof at a specific line on it. “I found the word ‘gaudy’ in here,” she explains frantically. “It was used to describe her hats! Her hats, fillies! She definitely went home to get sharp objects…” Her eyes momentarily wander to the pile of broken glass on the floor. This causes the party pony to cringe slightly. “... Well, more sharp objects, that is. M-maybe a sword or two? I’m pretty sure she has one in her closet for ‘medieval inspiration’... sharp ones too. Y-you know how much she likes to aim for accuracy with that stuff...” The other two mares are silent, letting it all sink in. “... Dagnabit!” shouts Applejack as it does, turning towards her too frightened to breathe, starting to turn blue, brother angrily. “Now we can’t go to Rarity’s to cure you! Dang it all; we’re just gonna have to go to the spa! I should have just corralled you there in the first place! I was tryin’ to avoid havin’ you talk to ponies, but I guess that doesn’t matter anymore now does it?!” Gasp Being forced to inhale deeply, the once again breathing stallion mutters “Lifetime ban,” pathetically. Applejack simply blinks at this. “... Now when in the hay did you even get the chance to talk to the spa ponies today?!” Mac blushes deeply. “Park… s-sent them runnin’...” “...” Applejack sighs frustratingly. “Do I even want to know?” “N-nope.” Another frustrated groan. “I see… Well horseradish! Guess we’ll just go talk to the neighbors…” “He already insulted Vinyl’s friend,” Fluttershy points out quietly. “At Sugarcube Corner… She’s Twilight’s neighbor.” AJ growls. “Well then we’ll talk to the other neighb-” “That’s Pokey Pierce’s place,” Pinkie interrupts the slowly growing frantic cowfilly. “H-he was at Sugarcube Corner too, from what Rarity told us…” “Well then the nex-” “C-carrot Top’s,” the friend of everypony, Pinkie Pie, interrupts Applejack again. “Followed by Cloudchaser’s, followed by Bon Bon and Lyra’s, followed by Roseluck’s, f-followed by…” The names kept coming, bringing with them then the mental images of angry ponies to Big Mac’s mind. With each one mentioned, the stallion would reply with a quick “Nope.” Applejack’s irritation kept growing with each uttered name, with each ‘Nope’. Her angry scowl grew and grew and grew until it nearly engulfed her entire face. Her ears began to twitch and so too did one of her eyes. When the names finally reached residents from near the town’s borders, the stressed filly let out a primal roar of pure frustration and anger right before… WHAM … bucking Big Mac right in the head, sending him into sleep’s loving embrace. Again. The room is once more silent as Applejack huffs heatedly to herself. “Huff!” she wheezes forcefully. “F-FINE!” she then screams. “FREAKIN’ FINE! Can’t go to Pinkie’s, Fluttershy’s is too far away, the spa is out of the question and so is literally everypony else in town?! If that’s the darn case I guess I’ll just have to drag your sorry flank right back home and cure you there mahself!!” Taking the stallion’s stubby tail in her mouth, Applejack begins to slowly drag the downed pony across the room. Despite her best efforts, he doesn’t budge even an inch. “Damn it damn it damn it,” curses the angry pony. Spitting out Mac’s tail, Applejack shouts over her shoulder to her friends “Well?! Are y’all gonna help me here or not?! Somepony get a cart or somethin’! Hop to it, fillies!” “... Applejack,” Fluttershy speaks her friend’s name sadly, her voice gaining unnoticed strength. “... What are you going to do when he wakes up again while we’re pulling him, like he’s done already?” “BUCK HIM IN THE HEAD AGAIN!!” the mare answers fiercely, not turning to look at the pegasus. “You’re… going to keep bucking him in the head everytime he wakes up…” the yellow mare translates plainly. Just as plainly, she inquires from her friend “Don’t you think that will hurt him though?” “No more than he’s already hurt himself!!” the blond filly wails fanatically, still trying to drag her brother. “No more than he’s already hurt Rarity and Twilight and Pinkie and the Cakes and everypony else! Who the buck cares if he gets brain damage from it?! Maybe I’ll be doin’ him a fluffin’ favor!!!” “...” Though it is faint, Applejack somehow still hears the tired sigh that leaves Fluttershy’s lips over the sound of her own grunting. A sense of unease settles over her from this; a justified feeling, as suddenly... “... Applejack…” Fluttershy says softly from behind her friend. “... look at me…” Applejack’s joints suddenly lock up. Silence reigns. Pinkie Pie watches scaredly as Applejack’s knees begin to buckle and as she slowly turns around. Her eye’s watch as Applejack’s and Fluttershy’s own meet in the center of the room. “...!!” Applejack is taken aback. She expected to be pulled into those blue orbs, to be paralyzed under the force of The Stare once again for her actions.This doesn’t happen. Fluttershy’s eyes conveyed an emotion, but it wasn’t pure disappointment as it had been earlier that day. Instead, they were warm and understanding. With a flap of her wings, Fluttershy gently sends a breeze flowing forward, towards Applejack. The earth pony winces slightly at the sudden gale, but nothing comes from it... Her ears do pick up a peculiar sound though. Looking down, Applejack watches as shards of the broken mirror are pushed towards her, scraping across the ground under the pegasus’ power. Once enough of these scattered shards are brought before her, she cannot help but stare at her reflection. In the mirror’s gaze, the pony sees not herself, but a completely different mare entirely. Her mane was dirtied and full of split ends; now more noticeable with her hat’s removal. Her face was worn out and stressed; stained with both sweat and obvious tears. Her eyes were bloodshot and twitchy; reddened and clearly bugging out. The pony was certainly a broken mess. But, worst of all; in the mirror’s reflection, Applejack didn’t see herself at all. With weathered look on her face, mane in disarray, and uncontrollable twitchs happening all over the place; Applejack didn’t see herself... … she saw Twilight from days long since passed. A younger and less experienced Twilight from right before she had foolishly enchanted a doll and nearly destroyed the town. “W… w-what?” the young farmer asks weakly, looking up at her friend yet again. “You’re not thinking straight,” Fluttershy says bluntly, her smile still warm and inviting. “You can’t keep bashing your brother in the head; you can’t do something so cruel to him.” “B-but it’s the only option we have left!” the stressed pony argues, pleading for her friend to see. “No… it isn’t. It’s the only option you’re letting yourself see.” “I-I-I…” Applejack mumbles before slamming her hoof down. “W-what else is there, Shy?!” she demands. “What else?!” Fluttershy’s smile never wavers. “... We let him walk there by himself. It’s a valid option.” Applejack takes a step back, horrified by the mere prospect. “W-we can’t!” she screams, slamming her hoof down again and again. “H-h-he needs to talk! H-he would n-need to… t-t-to…” “To talk to me.” All jaws in the room drop at Fluttershy’s answer… ... even Spike’s. Color suddenly returns the the dragon’s scales as he slumps to the ground into a passed out pile of scales and sweat. Whether this was from the pure shock of it all or Discord’s malfunctioning magic simply wearing off, everypony was too distracted to decide. “W-what?!” sputters Applejack, Pinkie Pie being too stunned to even speak. “B-b-but, Shy! Y-you can’t! Y-y-you just can’t!” Shaking her head slightly, allowing her pink mane to flow freely, Fluttershy holds her content expression together as she explains “I’m the only one who can, AJ. Please; I’m more than just a pretty… flank. Mac never spoke to me fully; he only told me what was on his mind when he trotted on past me and I ran away. He’ll have something to say to me; I’m sure he will. “... I know he will.” At a loss for words, Applejack shakes her own head rapidly as she tries to think of a counterargument. “Y-y-you’re… t-t-too sensitive, Fluttershy!” the orange mare shouts, praying her friend would see reason. “He might e-eat you up and spit you right on out!” “That’s a risk I’m willing to take… “... alone.” she adds, her eyes still full of determination. “You shouldn’t follow, Applejack; you’ll just get frustrated and make a mistake again. You should head home and start the bath for Mac instead. It takes awhile for the herbs to dissolve… And maybe you should rest yourself while you’re there. You really need it too.” Applejack wasn’t having any of that. “B-but there’s no way h-h-he’ll have enough things to say about y-you to get you both all the way to Sweet Apple Acres!!” Fluttershy concedes this point, but only slightly. “Well… we won’t know until I try,” she answers. “N-n-no!!” Applejack proclaims, slamming both her front hooves against the crystal floor, cracking it. “I’ll do it i-instead! By mahself! I can’t let you s-sacrifice yourself like this!! I-it’s… mah responsibility as his si-... as his family…” Clip clop clip clop Closing the distance between them, Fluttershy channels Rarity’s kind heart by lifting up Applejack’s chin with her hoof. The canary pegasus' warm smile continues to burn softly. “... Do you honestly think you can handle it any better than even me right now, Applejack?” “... I... I-I…” Applejack eyes look downwards, towards the shards of glass below them. Her reflection comes to mind instantly. She knows the answer to Fluttershy’s question, but her lips can’t produce the words. Tears brim the cowfilly’s eyes as she stares at her friend’s own. “Y-you… you won’t last neither…” “... T-that’s why I’ll be with her…” Pinkie’s sudden words frightened both other ponies in the room. Turning their heads left and right respectively, they stare at the once quiet party pony before them. “P-pinkie?” Fluttershy asks timidly, the first sign that her strength and resolve weren’t as sturdy as they first appeared to be. “B-but… you’ve already been talked to…” Pinkie shakes her head, her poofy mane bouncing back and forth as she does. “Y-yeah,” she confesses. “B-but… not as long as everypony else. I-I was one of Mac’s first… ‘victims’, you guys. M-maybe he forgot a few things?” The pink mare’s friends are not convinced, and she clearly sees this. “... W-well I can at least make sure Fluttershy doesn’t run off!” she adds helpfully and hopefully. “I-I’ll make sure she stays strong for the eennntttiiireee trip there! I can do that! You guys know I can do that at least! “... Please? I-I want to help everypony somehow…” With this last line, Fluttershy’s resolve towards not allowing Pinkie Pie to follow her on the daunting task shatters completely. She just couldn’t say no. “... Alright, Pinkie. I’d love for you to join me.” The smile that appeared on Pinkie Pie’s lips was not as large as the ones the Element of Laughter was used to sharing, but simply having it was more then enough for her for now. Applejack was still not convinced. “P-please don’t do this…” she whimpers lowly. “P-p-please don’t let Mac hurt you two… P-please don’t give him the chance...” A hoof touches the scared mare’s shoulder. “He won’t,” Fluttershy reassures. “Bu-” “He won’t,” Pinkie Pie states as well, placing her own hoof on Applejack’s other shoulder. “But…” “It’ll be okay.” “B-but…” “H-heh, head on out, cowgirl! G-get that bath all nice and steamy for that silly brother of yours already!” “B-b-but…” “We’ll be ready to forgive him for whatever he says, Applejack. He’s our friend too, after all, and we know he’s really a good pony. Please trust us.” “B-b-b-but!” “... C-cross my heart and hope to fly…” Applejack’s watery eyes turn to Pinkie, her mouth agape. “Stick a c-cupcake in my eye,” the pink pony finishes her most sacred of vows, placing her hoof back on the farmer’s shoulder. “I Pinkie Promise that everything will be a-okay, AJ… everything. You have my Pinkie word… “... Please trust me… Please trust us... P-pretty please?” For the third time, a silence fell upon the castle. “...” Sniff With one final sniff of her runny nose, Applejack wraps her forelegs tightly around her friend’s neck, hugging them. “B-be safe…” she whispers to them. “P-p-please be safe.” Tightening her hold for a brief second longer, the farmer lets go of the two ponies, reluctantly picks up her discarded stetson from off the floor, and gallops away onto the streets of Ponyville. The two remaining mares watch this quietly until their friend is nowhere to be seen. “... I-is… is it mean that I thought she was about to…?” Pinkie Pie asks Fluttershy passively, letting the words hang in the air. “Give us her… ‘special’ hug like she did with Twilight?” Fluttershy finishes for her, her cheeks bright red. “I-it kinda is… but for a second there… yeah… It’s just been that kind of icky day though...” “... Yeah…” A comfortable silence forms between the two ponies as they turn around and watch the resting stallion sleep. Fluttershy didn’t feel like talking, having exhausted herself confronting Applejack as she had. The mare would have loved nothing more then to rest up for the inevitable, and surely scary, ‘battle’ she was about to endure. But Pinkie’s presence prevented this. Not because she talked first and broke the silence, oh no; quite the opposite, actually. “... You’re not like this, Pinkie,” Fluttershy says, seemingly at random. But the pink pony knew better; she knew what Fluttershy was referring to. “... Y-yes I am…” Pinkie chokes up, reaffirming for Fluttershy what was admitted earlier in front of Twilight’s bedroom door. “I-I do talk all the time… Just like Mac... ” “No… you’re not like this at all,” Fluttershy states again, turning to look at the weeping pony next to her. “Mac is saying everything he held inside his heart, that he didn’t want to ever say. You don’t do that at all, Pinkie.” Pinkie Pie buries her head in her bent forelegs, wiping her sudden tears with her knees. “B-but I’m a-a-always saying the first thing on my mind… Isn’t that just the same thing…? Big Mac thinks it is… and I agreed with him when he said it… I-I thought I was okay with it, but as I kept watching him make ponies sadder and sadder...” The pegasus next to her shakes her head fiercely, standing by her words. She then turns to her friend with purpose, looking brave as she says “No, you’re not like this at all, Pinkie!” With the slamming of her hoof against the ground (really more of a simply tap, but to Fluttershy it felt like slamming), the pegasus continues. “Yes Big Mac is doing that too right now, talking nonstop, but that isn’t what’s making ponies upset. They're upset because they don’t understand that we all have those same kinds of icky thoughts in our hearts. You’re not doing that at all when you talk! Not at all!” “But I do make ponies upset!” Pinkie answers tearfully. “I-I...I made you cry before!” A stunned expression appears on Fluttershy’s face as Pinkie points a hoof at her. Said hoof wavers after a bit before returning to the ground. Pinkie’s face soon joins it, looking downwards. “... I’m not really good at long jokes,” the sniffling party pony confesses. “But… b-but sometimes I think funny thoughts, s-so I share them right away hoping to make ponies laugh… Sometimes they do, sometimes I get lots and l-lots of smiles… “... Sometimes though I accidentally make fun of something that ponies don’t w-want made fun of; like their silly bald heads, or their goofy plump bellies, o-or…” Once again, Pinkie must look away, unable to face her friend. “... O-o-or like somepony’s fear of being on stage. S-sometimes I end up telling scared ponies that the crowd will become a s-seething angry mob and that they’ll never be a-able to return to Ponyville again, n-not thinking that it’ll be upsetting until way, way later… “I… “I-I…” Sniff “J-just… W-w-what kind of friend does that without realizing it?! W-what… what kind of friend am I even…?!” Unable to hold it back any longer, tears begin to gush out of the pink mare’s eyes as she curls up into a ball on the floor and lays there. Fluttershy can only watch as her friend tears herself apart over something she had already forgiven her for; something that should have been water under the bridge by now, but had suddenly turned out to have been weighing heavily on the pony’s mind for far longer than she could have imagined. It was a complicated situation, but Fluttershy was in the rare position where she knew just what to do. Pinkie Pie wasn’t the only one who admitted something back in that hallway, after all. With a deep intake of air, steeling her nerves to the best of her abilities, the pegasus mentally prepares herself for what is about to happen; preparing herself to relive a horrible part of her past. Preparing herself to repeat; to say with all the false strength and misplaced conviction she held that day… “I… I-I can't believe that the two most frivolous ponies in Ponyville are trying to tell new Fluttershy how to live her life when they are throwing their own lives away on pointless pursuits that nopony else gives a flying feather about!!” These words echo loudly in the resulting silence. Panting heavily, droplets of  tears leaving her eyes as she does, Fluttershy watches quietly as Pinkie stops her own crying and simply stares at her, eyes wide. Smiling meekly at the party pony, Fluttershy stands up straight and tries to stop shaking. “I…” she flounders for a moment, trying to regain her nerves. “Mac and I… a-are a lot alike, Pinkie… But while he needs Poison Joke to share the darkness in his soul… I-I just need one confidence seminar t-to turn into… a monster… “D-do you really think I’d stay upset at you, that anypony would stay upset with somepony who dedicates her life to making others happy... when we all have a much darker side to ourselves…?” “...” As was the default solution to most emotional related problems today, Pinkie Pie quickly trots forward and hugs her friend. “S-shy,” she whimpers. “R-rarity and I forgave you for that…” Fluttershy returns the hug and the whimper with her own.”Well I-I haven’t really forgiven myself over it yet…” “B-but you should!” Pinkie argues. “W-we don’t care if that’s how you felt about the stuff that makes us happy, that you don’t care for; we know you for the good stuff, n-not the icky. We know that the old Fluttershy is the one we love, even with all her s-silly faults...” “...” Pinkie receives one of the rarest sights imaginable for her words; a cocky smirk from Fluttershy. “I think that’s just what I was trying to say to you, Pinkie Pie.” Eyelashes flutter as Pinkie blinks, letting the words sink in. “... Oooooooh,” is how she responds. Fluttershy can only chuckle with her now uplifted friend. “Urgh…” Both mares jump out of their embrace as a stallion’s voice suddenly moans deeply. Turning, they both watch fearfully as Big Mac begins to stir once again. “F-friends?” Pinkie asks the filly next to her weakly as she takes a step back. “A-are you going to keep blaming yourself for something we’ll always forgive you for?” Fluttershy asks in return, taking a step back as well. “Something you can’t help?” “W-well… depends… will you?” “... No. I’ll try to change...” “... Same...” “... Friends?” Fluttershy asks Pinkie with outstretched hoof, repeating her own important question for her. Tapping the hoof, then taking Shy’s entire foreleg into her own, Pinkie replies... “N-now and forever, silly filly; no doubts about it… heh… hehe, well, no more doubts about it, that is!” “... Hehehe.” “... Hahah!” “Hahah!” Thus, upon three legs each, arm and arm, smiles large and beaming, the two ponies stood firm in the face of the rising Big Macintosh. So brightly did their friendship burn, so great was their determined drive… … neither pony noticed the blue pegasus that had silently landed by their side.