//------------------------------// // CH 4 // Story: The Edge Of Harmony // by Alazak //------------------------------// "They are quite lovely, Twilight," Rarity levitated a copy of a beautiful copy of a book with the adventures of Twilight Sparkle on its cover. "The name could have been a little better." She let it lay on the table and opened it to reveal the pages underneath. "I guess functionality over fasion as always." "It's just a book, Rarity. Nothing that special," A quick tomboyish voice came from behind its owner's own copy of the book. "It's all gibberish to me." The cyan pegasus hovered above the group and twirled in circles at a sad attempt to make heads or tails of her new possession. "That's 'cause it's upside down thar, Rainbow." Applejack flipped Rainbow Dash's book the correct way as she put her own copy in her bag. "Tis mighty good of ya'll to just give us ah copy of it like that." the cowpony gave her friend a hug. "Musta tak'n a heap of time ta write them all." Twilight just laughed at her friend and explained that she only wrote one copy and had the rest printed at the Canterlot publishing. "It's very nice, but Twilight, I've looked it over cover to cover but I can't find my name anywhere. And who is this Pink Smile?" the chipper pink pony rolling on the floor stood up and walked to Twilight's desk. Pinkie had her copy and was furiously flipping through the pages at breakneck speeds. "I mean it's a funny name for a funny pony, but it all seems so familiar." She scratched her dark frayed pink mane, "But if you think she's funny, you should see the other four ponies." Pinkie had set the book down and started to laugh. "That silly Pink Smile and Rainbow Flash, they do the silliest things." Pinkie went to leave the library. "Pinkie, I just gave you that book. Why leave it," Twilight called to her friend as Pinkie closed the library door and caused the memory to flicker. The Twilight from the scene had a confused look on her face as she faded from existence. "Don't you want it?" She sounded so sad as she reached out to the darkness. The gray scene was gone, "It was funny looking back on it now." The real Twilight's voice filled the darkness. "It wasn't that she didn't want it..." she trailed off. "She had already read it." Pearl remembered an entry from the torn book. "I can remember it all so well. I had given the whole of Equestria our story," The gray screens flickered and flashed as they went by, as if watching a play. Pearl could recall the moments not only through the power of Twilight's spell but that she had read her books dozens of times. "But it wasn't until after Applejack finished the book things went wrong." The darkness warped and the inside of the tree was all around Pearl. It wasn't a memory but the real thing. It was dingy and moss crept across the walls like vines of kudzu strangling the inside of the dying tree. It had invaded everything upon closer inspection, from the discarded tables to the shelves of corrupted books. The smell of age hung pungent in the air. How could Twilight live like this? Pearl was thrown for a loop. Why had Twilight taken her into the library? And then a faint glow of purple appeared next to the stairwell as it appeared from the dimly lit room, but it wasn't the Twilight she had seen before this Twilight was much healthier and had a smile that brightened up the dead room. And then other ponies began to appear. Their bright pastel colors clashing with the darkness. A low ghostly roar filled the inside of the library; the specters passed through Pearl and greeted the younger Twilight. Pearl recognized a lot of them from her trips into the town and some who frequented her shop. "So busy today. So many will want their copy signed." Twilight smiled bigger and brighter than before. "Now, now, one at a time please and don't crowd the other patrons, please." "It was so beautiful that day, all the ponies had come from as far off as Trottingham to get there books signed. I knew it would happen though, I tried to contain the overflow I saw coming since the book would be so popular. I changed the names of my friends to protect them." A solid, older Twilight stepped from shadows next to her past self. The ghosts poofed out of existence, and the real Twilight stepped away as another moment of her past came back to life. Five ponies stood in a semicircle around a cornered scared Twilight. "How could you change the names like that, and on top of that you, made us look like foals." Applejacks words cut the Twilight deep as tears formed in her eyes. "No use in getting all misty eyed now. Why Twilight?" Applejack stood tall over Twilight. Very much like the Applejack she had met that afternoon, strong willed the cowpony gave off a menacing aura even though she was nothing more than a phantasm of the past. "Please Applejack, I'm sure she had a reason," Pearl recognized the timid sound belonging to the cream yellow Pegasus. Fluttershy stepped between the enraged cowpony and the cowering Twilight. "Isn't that right, Twilight?" Fluttershy gave off a beautiful smile that seemed to break the tension. "That was very brave for someone described as a spineless coward." Pearl stepped through the moment and next to the much younger Fluttershy. "And I turned kindness away, I can see it now." Pearl was taken back by the meaning of what she had read of the event. "If she was kindness, and what Applejack said was that you lashed out after..." Pearl turned to watch a cyan blur move through her and into Twilight's face. "Well... or is her question not worth the great Twilight Sparkle's time," Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes calling out the cowering purple unicorn. Rainbow Dash hovered and poked Twilight in the chest demanding an answer from her distressed friend. Pearl could hear the thumps of the blue mare's assaults as her pressing question bruised the younger Twilight both mentally and physically. And time stood still. "It was too much for me, I had done so much I thought was right and she dared to get in my face about it. I panicked," The real Twilight explained from the shadow of her shame as the memory started up again and Rainbow Dash was thrown across the library and into a shattered book shelf. The ghostly image vanished as it landed leaving only the present damaged area and a nasty deep stain in the wooded floor. 'Loyalty' the words were unable to escape Pearls dry lips. And at that moment a massive slap echoed in the room as well as long gasps. Pearl saw the standstill frozen memory of Applejack giving Twilight a powerful back hoof. "That was a painful hit," the real Twilight walked out and rubbed both her face and the past images cheek. "I think she was more disappointed in me than Celestia." All the images disappeared and the two ponies were left face to face. "I put Rainbow in the hospital for 2 months, after that she left Ponyville. And to think I never went to visit her once. I had lost it all, I stayed locked up here as atonement for my crimes against friendship. Fluttershy use to come by and tell me things that were happening on the outside world but I just didn't care anymore." Pearl thought back to Fluttershy beating the library door that first night. She seemed so determined to destroy the door that kept her friend prisoner and pull Twilight from her own darkness and into the light of her love and affection, like so many a strayed animals that gathered around her. Pearl turned to Twilight. "Why me? Why tell me all this and go this far to make me understand?" Pearl was careful she didn't anger the aged mare. "To what end, Twilight Sparkle? Have you turned a blind eye to those who want to help you? Ms Fluttershy praticaly killed herself beating your door down." Pearl was confused, she felt betrayed by her foalhood. She only wished she had never idolized Twilight as much as she did. Her friends Silver Spoon, and Diamond Tiara never spoke of the events that occurred but she was beginning to understand why they had left for Manehatten so many years ago. There had been more to the book that Twilight didn't show her but she didn't need to see a reenactment to know its tragedy. "I heard you the other night. Your cries, they were genuine. You lived on the very lies I feed the world to bolster myself. I have been in here for so long and the message began to pervert." Twilight gave a loving rub to a decapitated book. "Did I really write the story so that Equestria could see what we accomplished, or did I do it for myself? I changed their names to protect them from being confined to the roll of the book, to let them find others under their own power. Or was it all just a self image boost?" Twilight questioned herself and made Pearl wonder what she was getting at. "I don't think I could ever show my face to Fluttershy after what I had done to her, she had witnessed something no pony should have to see. Before Rarity left she told me that Fluttershy had gotten married, I didn't even shed a single tear for her happiness." Twilight waved a hoof and her past vanished as quickly as it came. "You wrote that there are no bad ponies, just bad choices. As long as you can see they were bad you can make better choices and help heal the bad ones." Pearl thought back to the lessons at the end of the chapters of her childhood. "I know time heals all wounds, but you have to forgive yourself or time is nothing but a word." Pearl felt all high and mighty for a moment as she recalled the words mixed from Applejack and Twilight's. "You saw me as a hero at one time, and you traveled all the way here just to meet me. Did you know any of the others by sight, or were they just the companions I wrote about so long ago?" Pearl was a little embarrassed and it showed, she had read the stories so many times but when she met the ones that filled it with light she could only see one pony. "It's written all over your face. It's alright, I don't blame you." Twilight slowly walked to the door. "Twilight Sparkle isn't a hero kid, I never was, and she's a dead husk of a pony. Now go home and forget about me, live your own life. Don't walk in the shadow of another pony, and don't strive to be a hero. Heroes only bring pain and suffering." Pearl went to say something, anything, to Twilight, but that sickening feeling came over her again before she could interject and Twilight suddenly vanished as did the tree library and it was all replaced with the sugar cube corner where Apple Bloom and Autumn Breeze were sitting staring at her. "What in tarnation was that Pearl?" Apple Bloom rubbed her head at the sight of her sudden appearance. "I haven't seen somethin like that since..." she put a hoof to her lips to think. "Oh horseapples, you didn't go see her did you? It's the only explanation." Apple Bloom stood up from her seat and slammed her hooves to the table top, "Twilight's lost to us. Autumn's mom beat herself to death on that door for years to get her to come to her scenes. Meh big sis even tried to make amends to her and was met with nothing, not even a whisper or nothin." Apple Bloom was loud and other ponies began to stare. But Pearl was lost in a swirling daze of information. Her hero was gone, not physically, but mentally. "Pearl, listen to me. I've lost a lot of close friends to that madness that she brought that night. Scootaloo chased after that self-absorbed Rainbow, and Sweetie Belle was whisked away to Canterlot in the night. I never even got to say goodbye," Apple Bloom began to cry as she wiped her swollen rage-filled eyes. Pearl was taken back by Apple Bloom. She had been indirectly hurt by Twilight, and it showed. Twilight had spouted off some deep stuff, and her new friends may have been able to help, but would they? She couldn't comprehend Apple Blooms expression "I'm so sorry girls to run off again, but there's too much happening. I need to think, I need to be alone." Both Apple Bloom and Autumn could only watch as their distressed friend left them in a slow, wispfull motion. As she went, she could her Autumn call to her. 'You don't have to go at it alone, you know.' it was enough to make her cry and run but Pearl sucked in the brooding emotion and kept at her pace. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The past few minutes raced through Pearls mind as she began to comprehend the whole of it all. The five ponies that confronted Twilight in the memory she recognized. Applejack and Fluttershy easily enough, and the other three were just as they had been described in the book and then from the picture in Applejack's office. Rainbow Dash, she reconized her. Yes, it had to be the very same from the Wonderbolts. Her rainbow mane was unique to her. No other pony could replicate it. She had even seen her in Manehatten years ago; she was spectacular, but nothing like Rainbow Flash. A tomboyish pony who feverishly chased a hapless dream from her cozy cloud bed. The mare she saw that day was strong and accomplished, and then again in the library, there she was again, an overconfident, quick to anger, just as she was in the book. Applejack had said it was all true but in the worst of ways, had Twilight published a farce of her friends only to make the main character seem that much more impressive? Or was the Twilight the same, nothing more than the worst version of herself? The Twilight she had met in the darkness was sheepish, cowardly. She didn't seem at all confident in herself or others. No, there was more to it than that. She truly believed that she had been doing her friends good by putting the life altering fame that was to come with the popularity on herself? Pearl had only known Fluttershy for a short time, but it was easy to see she wasn't far from the Butterfly of the book. Yes, Butterfly was spineless and depended upon Twilight to help her through the most trivial of things, but it wasn't far off the mark from what she knew of Autumn's mother. Timid to a fault and mostly scared of her own shadow. Autumn was only a little braver, but not by much, hiding away in her long mane like a hood on a cloak. But it had more to do with her father. From what Pearl had gathered from their cottage she had visited on occasion; Autumn's father was a Wonderbolt, as far as the only picture that Pearl could find of the three of them together would suggest. Pearl had always read and heard that the Wonderbolts were the bravest fliers in all of Equestria. To think, one would not only be Fluttershy's friend, but she'd marry one also. Pearl could only wonder if just maybe, it was an unacceptable truth that Twilight had written. Of course, the others would be upset when seeing themselves from a third persons prospective. And then there was Applejack, a stern and upfront pony. Applejack had given her no reason not to believe she was the same Apple Orchard from the stories. The Apple Orchard character was always blunt and told Twilight what she thought of something whether or not it was needed. Abrasive and harsh to a fault, she was one of Pearl's least favorite side characters in any of the stories. But Applejack seemed to have more tact than her storybook counterpart. She had seemed deeply regretting the attack Pearl had witnessed moments before. I guess it really did take a true friend to tell you what was what, no matter how much it hurt. 'Honesty huh' Pearl thought to herself, it made a lot more since after meeting her in person. The other two ponies; Beauty Gemstone must have been the white unicorn Fluttershy called Rarity; even Applejack mentioned the 'prissy' pony. Pearl thought to the storybook character and what could have made her like the others, Beauty Gemstone was always on and on about the proper way of going about things and getting wasn't always a bad thing. Pearl giggled to herself, thinking back to one story of the two of them arguing about how the sky would look much better in a light emerald green more so than the sapphire blue that it was. And then there was Pink Smile, the strangest of characters. She didn't seem as far off from the real Pinkie Pie that she saw in the past vision. Unpredictable and impulsive, Pink Smile was always the random comic relief of Twilight's books. Pearl had truly wondered if she was secretly a unicorn or there had to be some book liberties with her character. 'That's strange,' Pearl thought to herself the weather center didn't call for an overcast. Pearl looked to the darkening sky and realized she wasn't in Ponyville anymore. Pearl had been so lost in her thoughts that she entered the Everfree Forest without noticing. The Everfree Forest was dark and uninviting, it made sounds that confused and scared Pearl. It creaked from every direction and she swore she saw things moving in the distance. She warily looked behind her hoping to see her path out so she could just backtrack her way home, but it was no good. The slowly darkening forest seemed to devour all the visible paths leaving nothing but dead ends and endless wandering. Pearl had read many books on the Everfree and its dangers. Twilight's recount of the Everfree were both frightening and quizzical. But this wasn't the time nor the place to reminisce, she need to hurry out of the forest before it gobbled her also.