Rose yawned as she stretched in her bed, a little sleepy after going to her sister’s favorite restaurant again. After their first time they found out that Gordon Ponsey had bought the restaurant, the pony made it a point to sit down and speak to the sisters saying he was curious why Rose herself was hiding behind a cloak. Despite him trying to get her to put her hood down, Rose had refused and she ended up admitting what had happened to her. Gordon was shocked and angry that something like that had happened to her and gave the sisters a lifetime free pass to the restaurant and a promise to personally cook for them whenever he was in town and had done so the several weeks since.
Groaning a little as her stomach started bubbling as she thought about the Hay Wellington she had eaten last night. It was her favorite dish and one of the best things she had ever tasted. Well, at least she was pretty sure it was. Her eyes flew open as she flung herself from the bed and galloped as fast as she could to the bathroom to end up vomiting the toilet. It was the third time that week so she knew that it wasn’t the Hay Wellington. In fact it seemed like certain smells were setting her off, not only in the morning though it was the most common time so far. She was beginning to wonder if maybe she had suffered some kind of internal damage…but she didn’t start getting sick until the last few days. Surely she would have been sick by now if that was it, so she brushed it off as some kind of stomach virus.
After emptying her stomach contents she leaned back panting a little. She had found out something else about herself…she hated being sick. She hated being sick with a passion and was glad that her father’s personal doctor was coming by to give her a checkup. She could ask him if she was sick and maybe get some medicine for what ever it was wrong with her.
Her father was something of an enigma to her as he often left the sisters to run the shop while leaving at a moments notice to take care of some ‘business’ that Trixie didn’t seem to like. He also seemed to be eagerly waiting for something from the postal system that seemed to agitate him and make him ecstatic at the same time. He seemed to get so excited when it was about time for the days deliveries yet so angry when they either got their mail or nothing came. Neither Nomad or Trixie would say what he did, or what he was waiting for though Rose was sure her sister didn’t know what was coming in the mail as she seemed to be just in the dark as Rose was.
“Sick again?” Trixie asked startling Rose. Turning around she found her sister watching her with a worried expression.
“I’m ok.” Rose groaned out as she looked for her cloak to pull it on. She didn’t want to make her sister continue looking at her mutilated ugly form any longer than she had to. There wasn’t a point in making Trixie sick to the stomach as well.
“Sis, Trixie doesn’t think you need that cloak anymore.” Trixie said softly as if she was moved to nuzzle Rose. “Your coat has grown back and the stitches are out. You look great.”
“You don’t have to lie to spare my feelings.” Rose sighed as she used her magic to pull her cloak over her and pulled the hood up over her head. She loved her sister, but she wished her sister wouldn’t try to spare her feelings like this as it only made Rose feel worse. Taking a deep sigh she headed out towards the main floor of the shop. “Come on, I want to see if there is any medical reference books. I want to do some research.”
“Trixie thinks it may be better to wait for the doctor. They will be here in a couple hours at most and can see what’s wrong with you.” Trixie suggested following close behind her sister, shaking her head in disappointment as she failed to convince her sister that she wasn’t the freak Rose believed herself to be.
“Its fine, I just want to go over some stuff. I’m not going to start freaking out or anything you know.” Rose said as she started looking over the shelves in the medical tomes section. Trixie couldn’t help sighing in defeat knowing very well that if Rose put her mind to something there wasn’t much chance of changing it. Trixie also now knew that Rose also had panic attacks very easily, and not just over what happened to her. Rose was simply put, a control freak. Not that that actually bothered Trixie much, but she hated seeing her sister get like that.
“Here, let Trixie help.” Trixie said in resignation. She was kind of hoping to redirect Rose until the doctor here because Trixie already had a suspicion of what was wrong. She really hoped she was wrong, but it was the most likely reason and if Trixie was right then she wasn’t sure what to say or do. In the end she supposed all she could do is support her sister and what ever decision was made.
“Trixie, come with me, we need to have a little talk.” Nomad said gruffly as he came in through the front door, saddlebags on his back.
“Trixie will be back in a few minutes.” Trixie said as Rose just looked up with a small smile and nod of her head in acknowledgement before continuing her search. The look of trust and love in Rose’s eyes once again made Trixie feel guilty for the negative feelings she once held for Rose. However much her feelings had changed for her sister, her feelings for her father hadn’t changed much.
“I have the report from my contact in Canterlot.” Nomad said as Trixie closed the door behind her as Nomad pulled a folder from his saddlebag and tossed it onto the table making a few pages and pictures slide out. Trixie came closer to the table and looked at the picture that hung farthest out of the folder. It was a picture of Rose, or Trixie guessed it would be more accurate to call her Twilight as it was before her sister showed up here. Twilight looked like she was about ready to cry as she stood in the middle of a wrecked hall, part favors…or…maybe it was wedding props strewn around the room though it looked like there wasn’t too much damage upon closer inspection.
“What…what is this?” Trixie asked, swallowing nervously as she used her magic to open the folder.
“Read it and tell me that we should tell her the truth.” Nomad said, the first hint of actual emotion in his voice. After sifting through the documents in the folder, Trixie wanted to deny everything…but she couldn’t. While most of it was personal accounts from some pony, there were some official documents in there as well that matched up with what the rest claimed. Twilight’s closest friends not only turned their backs on her, but crushed her. So did her family…or was it her family? Was Shining Armor their brother, or the son of the ponies of the family that had raised Twilight? It didn’t matter though as he threw Twilight from his life and Princess Celestia hadn’t made things easier while she more or less blamed twilight for it.
“How could they?” Trixie demanded, a few tears forming at the corners of her eyes. For the first time all doubt about keeping Twilight here without telling her the truth was washed away. Nomad was right, Twilight…Rose didn’t need to go back to that. Trixie didn’t like it, not really, but maybe Nomad was right about lying to Rose in order to protect her.
“Now will you stop trying to undermine me? I’m trying to put our family back together and you keep trying to get Rose to go out in public without her cloak. What do you think is going to happen if Rose goes back? Do you honestly think they will give her the support she needs? The help and support you give her? If she goes back, she will be dead within a week when they force her to remember everything.” Nomad said softly, though his voice was like steel.
“Trixie…Trixie is sorry father. Trixie will do whatever she can to protect Trixie’s sister.” Trixie said, lowering her head in shame. She had been trying to secretly undermine Nomad, but at the same time she was really trying to get Rose to feel better about herself. She understood the fact Rose needed the cloak as support, a security blanket of sorts. What she didn’t want was Rose wearing it to hide herself believing she was a monster or freak.
“Look, Trixie, I know I haven’t been the best father. For that I am truly sorry, but I truly want to put our family back together. I want us to be happy.” Nomad said softly, reaching a hoof out to stroke Trixie’s mane. “I love you.”
“Trixie…Trixie loves you too, Daddy.” Trixie sobbed out throwing herself at Nomad who hesitantly hugged her letting her cry. Though he acted like he really cared, he knew it was only an act to get what he wanted. He only wanted to get Dancer back…so why did he feel an actual need to comfort Trixie?
~~~
Rainbow Dash looked around her living room as she lay on the floor, devastation all around her. After she was forced to return home along with the other Element Bearers, she had locked herself in her home and pretty much wrecked it in a fit of rage. She was mad at the Princesses for ordering them to return to Ponyville and watch for Twilight to return home though no pony actually believed she would return there. They were told that they would only be in the way there and none of the girls could really afford to pay for their own passage to go searching for Twilight.
As mad as she was at the Princesses and Shining Armor, no matter how much she was mad at her friends, the pony she was most angry at was herself. She represented the element of loyalty and yet she was the most disloyal out of all of them. She had promised to always be there and protect Fluttershy, yet when they returned to Ponyville Rainbow locked herself in her home and refused to answer it to anybody until a Pegasus came claiming Fluttershy was in the hospital. At first Rainbow didn’t want to go, but she finally did step out of her cloud home and ran into Rarity on the way to check up on Fluttershy. It turned out that Rarity was keeping Fluttershy at the Boutique after the meek pegasus tried to kill herself.
She had utterly failed to keep her promise to protect Fluttershy, but now she failed to keep her promise to Twilight. She had promised to never again take unicorn’s worries lightly, yet she did when Twilight claimed that, what they now knew was a fake Cadence, Princess Cadence hadn’t been acting right. In all honesty, Rainbow wasn’t sure why she ignored the unicorn’s warnings. She wasn’t like Rarity and Applejack who was excited about serving royalty their product. Pinkie herself was just excited about the biggest party she had ever thrown. And Fluttershy was just excited to meet Twilight’s brother and help do something nice for Twilight’s family. None of those reasons were Rainbow’s when it came to wanting to perform at the wedding.
Of course she wanted to perform a sonic rainboom, she was always up for showing off her skills, but that wasn’t why she wanted to perform at the wedding so much. Why would she want to perform in front of a bunch of stuck up nobles, well most of them being stuck up? Now if the Wonderbolts was going to be there, sure she would be more excited than any of the others to be there. They weren’t though and Rainbow was a tomcolt, so she didn’t really care all that much for a wedding as it involved stuff that was too…well it was more up Rarity’s alley than Rainbow’s.
The only reason Rainbow could come up with was she was following the group, letting the peer pressure so to speak make her choices for her. Sure she wasn’t exactly the best at comforting any pony, but she knew she should have stayed with Twilight when the others went to check up on the fake Cadence. There was something…something urging her to go with the others. Something that was impossible to resist she realized the more she thought about it…
“Could…that freak enchanted us!” Rainbow gasped as for the first time over the last few weeks a fire started to burn within her. She wasn’t sure why she never thought about it before, but it was barely noticeable. Just a simple suggestion that was hard to ignore…impossible to ignore.
Still, no matter if a spell was used on them or not, the damage was done. Twilight was gone and they played a large part in it. Maybe if they didn’t avoid her trying to keep the unicorn’s surprise birthday party under wraps, Twilight wouldn’t have been crushed under the overwhelming pain they caused her when they left her at the rehearsal. It was too late though to go back and change any of it, all they could do was hope they could find Twilight and be better friends when they did. Rainbow swore to herself that never again would she betray her friends or her element, she would be the most loyal pony there ever was. She would give up on her dreams of becoming a Wonderbolt until Twilight was found and they proved to the unicorn that they loved her, no matter what.
~~~
“I’ve never stopped loving you, Shiney. I never will stop.” Cadence sighed as she nuzzled the depressed unicorn. She did love him, yes she was mad at him, but she could never hate him. They were soulmates and after Luna checked him out they had found proof that he wasn’t in control of his actions. All of Shining’s love was forced to focus the changeling queen while anyone else he had powerful feeling for suffered his resentment, anger and hate.
“It still doesn’t change the fact that I drove Twiley away.” Shining sighed, looking out their room’s window. Despite the suite belonging to the couple, Cadence had moved into Luna’s suite and for the first week refused to speak with Shining for the most part. Now that they were back on better terms, Cadence still refused to marry Shining until Twilight could be found. Cadence would have Twilight by her side during the wedding or there would be no wedding no matter how much she loved Shining.
The palace had been a bit of a wreck since the invasion, many of the visitors and residents of Canterlot being angry that there was even a wedding being held in a time of impending threat such at there was. Cadence would never have agreed to have it during the time herself as she planned on putting it on hold once they heard the rumors of danger threatening. That was about the time she was ponynapped though and was replaced by the Queen of the Changelings who demanded the wedding be held…and Celestia actually gave in…
Cadence was still angry at Celestia, it hurt that her aunt was actually tricked for so long into believing the fake. How could her own aunt actually believe cadence would be so self centered to demand her wedding go on with a threat hanging over every pony’s head then go on to treat every pony like dirt under her hooves. Any pony that knew Cadence knew that she would rather die than put those she cares for in danger…and all of the ponies in Equestria were ponies that she cared for.
“She’s gone Cadence…she’s gone and it’s all my fault.” Shining said as he gave out a tired sigh. He truly looked terrible, but getting no sleep and hardly eating for so long will do that to a pony.
“No, it isn’t all your fault my love.” Cadence said as she settled beside him and hugged him to her with a wing. “Out of every pony, you are the least to blame.”
Cadence tried to keep the building tears at bay knowing that she was partly to blame for his state. It looked like every pony was still hurting each other after the invasion, from the populace at large blaming their leaders to said leaders being angry at each other. And sadly it all could have been avoided, but maybe it was time to stop playing the blame game all around since it wasn’t helping any pony. They needed to work together, they needed to find Twilight.
Twilight was important to them all, and they were all suffering for causing the loving pony so much pain. In a way, maybe they deserved to suffer, to feel even a little of what they inflicted on Twilight. Well, maybe they did deserve to feel some of her pain. No, she couldn’t think like that. Not if they wanted to find Twilight.
“Shiny…listen to me…I need you. I need you to pull yourself together.” Cadence said, her voice showing much more strength that she had ever since Twilight vanished with no trace.
“But Twiley…” Shining groaned, not looking at Cadence.
“Listen to me Shiney! Your sister needs you…I need you. We need to pull yourself together, you know Twilight better than anyone else. If any pony can find Twilight, it’s you.” Cadence said, a part of her embellishing it as she didn’t completely believe that. She didn’t want to see Shining waste away either and it would be much easier to search for Twilight if they all worked together instead of against each other.
“Do you think Twiley will ever forgive me?” Shining asked pulling away and turning to face Cadence. “Will you ever forgive me?”
“Once we explain to Twilight that you were under that witch’s power she will understand…there’s nothing that you need forgiven for Shiney. As for me…if any of us needs to apologize it’s me. You were under a spell Shiny and I’m sorry for blaming you for it.” Cadence asked nuzzling Shining. “Will you forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive my love.” Shining said as he leaned in to kiss Cadence. She couldn’t help melting into the kiss, but she also knew that no matter how much she loved Shining there would be no wedding until Twilight was found.
~~~
Rose laid in her bed, her father letting her take the rest of the day off from helping in the store after her doctor appointment with the pony who came to checkup on her. She was physically fine, her injuries healing up nicely and actually mostly healed though both the doctor and her father advised her to keep the cloak on to not freak out other ponies. Trixie seemed a little angry when they told her that, but with a look from their father the mare relented and left them alone.
That she could deal with, it was something that she was prepared for. No, it was the news that they were told after explaining that all of her physical injuries were healing up nicely. She wasn’t sure what to do with the news as she collapsed in shock, before she curled in on herself and cried herself to sleep. She wasn’t sure what to do, she didn’t want this…yet there wasn’t much she could do, was there?
Of course her father had urged her to follow the doctor’s advice, yet no matter how much she didn’t want this…she couldn’t do what they wanted. Trixie had been so supportive though when she heard the news upon her return, telling their father that it wasn’t up to him and to stop pressuring Rose. For the first time since Rose returned home here she saw Trixie completely stand up to their father and actually see him back down.
What should she do though? Should she do what her father had pushed for her to do? A part of her, for just a moment, actually considered it. Yet it would be paramount to murder she believed and no matter how scared or upset she was, there was no way she would kill anyone. Even if…even if it happened because of what those creeps did to her.
“Sis, you okay?” Trixie called softly as she slowly pushed the door open, a tray of crackers and a cup of tea floating in her magic.
“I’m scared, Trixie.” Rose admitted as she raised her head to look at her sister who was slowly making her way to the bed. The tray was gently placed on the nightstand while the mare sat next to the bed.
“Trixie will be there for you, no matter what choice you make.” Trixie said giving a reassuring smile.
“What if I…keep it?” Rose asked, her voice barely above a whisper though Trixie heard it. The mare’s eyes misting over as she reached a hoof out to stroke Rose’s mane.
“Then Trixie knows you will be the best mother in the history of equestrian.” Trixie replied as Rose jumped from the bed and into Trixie’s comforting embrace.