//------------------------------//
// Backstories Revealed! A Tearful Reunion Under the Moon! 
// Story: The Adventures of Derpy, Lyra, and Octavia 
// by IsabellaAmoreSirenix 
//------------------------------//

I'm coming, Derpy, Octavia thought to herself.  At that point, between the burning in her lungs and the cold wind nipping at her face, that thought was the only thing pushing her forward.  She kept glancing over her shoulder to the train station, now just a pinprick of light.  Before her was another light, the light of the abandoned barn.  And there was Octavia, suspended between the two dots of gold, just as she had been so many other times between Derpy's pleading eyes.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Octavia shouted with a fierce growl to the withered corn stalks as she pushed them to the frozen ground.  "How could I have been so stupid?"

"You're not, Octavia," said a familiar voice.  "Well, maybe a little for stepping on my face."

With a yelp of surprise, the earth pony jumped a good two meters straight into the air while Lyra simply continued lying on the ground and goofily smiling up at her.  "What the hell do you think you're doing this time?" Octavia demanded.  "Were you trying to give me a heart attack?  Or no, I get it.  You're out here looking for ridiculous nonsense like aliens or spaceships or hum--"

"Sheesh, just when I thought we had finished arguing."  The words didn't come out nearly as lighthearted as Lyra had hoped.  "Can't I be here for the same reason you are?  Derpy's my friend too, you know."

Octavia's widened at her mistake.  "I-If that's so," she began, her voice strangely mellow, like watered-down cider, "why are you lying here?  Derpy's inside the barn."

"I lost my nerve," Lyra answered simply, gazing up at the sea of stars above.  "Pounding heart, locked joints, constricted throat, everything.  I couldn't do it.  So I've been sitting here, trying to pull myself together, at least until I heard you coming.  Would you mind giving me a pull instead?" Lyra held out her hoof.

Ignoring it, Octavia lay down next to Lyra instead.  "I don't know if I can," she whispered.  "I don't know if I can pull anypony up.  All I seem to do is sink farther down."

Octavia sighed, breathing in the quiet country air.  "I haven't felt like this in such a long time.  I suppose farms get to me."

"How so?" Lyra asked.

"Well, I'm a country girl, for one.  You probably pieced that together by my accent.  My father was a rock father; my mom was an apple farmer."

Lyra gave a low whistle.  "Sheesh, talk about crazy family reunions.  Bet you had a bunch of hyperactive ponies hugging stone statues."

"I wouldn't know," said Octavia with a shrug.  "I haven't associated myself with my family in a long time."

"It wasn't like I ran away or anything," Octavia added hastily when Lyra raised an eyebrow.  "It was just that... after I got my cutie mark in classical music... you could pretty much tell I was the odd one out.  My father picked up on that quickly.  Sharp as his pickax, that one.  Mother was hurt, but it slowly dawned on her after a while that the life I live now would make me the happiest.  I suppose the one who took it the hardest was my sister."

"Sister?"

"Uh-huh.  Quartz Clarity."

"Don't you mean 'crystal clarity'?"

"Nope," Octavia answered, "it's quartz.  It's pretty fitting, considering that she's so indiscernible.  You'd probably like her."

"Oh really?" Lyra asked.  "What does she look like?"

"Take me," Octavia said, "and swap black for blue and grey for green."

"I feel like I hear that a lot." Lyra tapped her chin in thought, then shook her head.  "Probably nothing.  Anyway, so she seems nice."

"She is," Octavia agreed.  "Nice, charming, outgoing, vivacious.  Describe me, then use the antonyms to describe her.  As sisters, we got along fine.  Not super-close like a lot of Apples are, but we were reasonably well-adjusted.  No talking late at night about our darkest fears, no dressing up like twins, no following each other around everywhere.  We were just two mares who lived in the same house and played the fiddle together."

"The fiddle?"

"Yeah.  Not what you expected from me, most likely.  Even when I started studying the classics, I still enjoyed playing Appaloosan duets with her.  I feel like... like that's the only time we really understood each other.  When I left for the academy, she hoofed me my violin, and... I felt good.  Like she understood why I was leaving, in her own special way.  That was the only reason I was able to get on that train, because of that violin."

"That's really sweet," Lyra said.

"That was the violin you destroyed with grape jelly.  So, more fruity than sweet, really."

Lyra turned over to face Octavia.  Her bright green eyes had flown open wide.  "Oh Celestia... Octavia... I-I'm so sorry, I... I had no idea what... that violin... oh Faust, oh Faust, I'm so stupid!"

"You're not, Lyra," said Octavia.  "Well, maybe a little, but I suppose you can't survive in this world without a little stupidity."

"But Octavia, you just made everything I did ten times more horrible!"

"Guess you need to buy me a violin ten times more expensive then," she answered.  "Seriously, Lyra, don't... don't worry too much about it.  It... it did what Clarity wanted it to do.  It got me on the train to Canterlot.  And right now, both of us need to get on the train to Derpy.  So let's... err, pick up our violins and... err, wait..."

Lyra chuckled.  "Right there is a prime example of why you're not a writing major." Then she looked back up at the stars.  "But yeah, I get what you're saying.  We can't be afraid of anything, not when something so important is on the line!  We've got to take action, and with a good friend to stand by us, we can--"

Then the barn roof flew off.

Lyra was the one who summed it up the most eloquently.  "Oh buck."





"Oh Celestia, she can't be dead, right?!" Octavia screamed as she ran.

"You're telling me!" said Lyra, right on her back hooves.  "Do you have any idea how hard eulogies are to write?"

As Octavia screeched to a halt in front of the door, a million possibilities flashed before her eyes.  Explosives caused from mixed drugs, an insane drunk with a weapon, a whole herd of drunks with weapons, a whole herd with explosives, the list went on and on.  But even within that vast list in her mind, there was no scenario that could have come close to preparing Octavia for what lay inside.

Or, more precisely, what didn't lie inside.  No empty bottles of alcohol, no strange-smelling substances, nothing seemingly harmful of any kind.

All she and Lyra could see was Derpy whooping with joy as she crowd surfed on the world's largest beach ball.





"I'm sorry I made you two worry about me."

From their place on a nearby hill, the three ex-roommates could hear the music sending slight tremors through the ground, and the multi-colored lights illuminating the dance floor.  If Derpy squinted, she could make out the faint silhouettes of ponies forming a conga line.

"Holy Celestia, Derpy!" Lyra exclaimed, looking down at the party.  "What magical artifact did you steal from the castle, and what did it do with Berry Punch?"

Derpy giggled, embarrassed.  "Oh, I don't think I really did anything, other than a few suggestions. Tonight was all Berry's doing.  Though, it was nice how she when she saw me... umm, well, you know... she asked how she could cheer me up at the party.  She really is a great friend."

"You're absolutely right, Derpy," said Octavia, "and we're sorry that we couldn't be good friends like she is.  Instead, I doubted you and treated you like a child.  That was wrong, and..." She took a deep breath.  "...I'm sorry."

"Aww, thank you, Octy!" Derpy shouted before lunging in for a hug that for once Octavia did not resist.

"Though to be fair," Lyra said, "Octavia was just trying to look out for you."

"You're right," Derpy said, untangling herself from Octavia. "I appreciate that a lot, Octy.  Just... I don't want ponies to think I can't take care of myself.  I know it seems like I can't, because I don't talk about drinking or those kinds of things, but that doesn't mean I'm oblivious to them.  Does that make sense?"

"Yes, it does," said Octavia, "but what I don't understand is what happened to you back at the dorm room."

"Oh." Derpy's ears flattened against her mane. "It's... it's n-nothing, really..."

Lyra lifted up the little pegasus' chin. "Kid, it seemed pretty important to you, so it's important to us.  Now, come on, talk to us."

Derpy nodded and closed her eyes. "I guess that seeing you fight made me remember when my parents fought when I was a little filly."

"Sheesh," Lyra grumbled, "when are we getting to my tearful backstory?"

Octavia sharply kneed Lyra in the ribs.

"It's not like their relationship has scarred me forever or anything," Derpy continued.  "I understand why they split it off.  My dad drank a little too much, and Mom spent a little too much money.  They're both doing better now that they're apart.  They seem happier, and I wouldn't want them to stay together for my sake if it made them both sad.  I guess that I just didn't want the same thing to happen between us three at the academy."

Tears started to well in Derpy's eyes. "I-I see what I did now," she said.  "I tried to make two ponies be friends when they didn't want to, and--"

"Oh Derpy, it wasn't your fault!" Octavia cried.  "You just wanted to make sure we would all get along for the month!"

"Yeah, kid," Lyra agreed between sniffles. "You didn't do anything bad, okay?  It was all me and evil alien changeling."

"Thanks, you two," said Derpy, "but I want to get this out, just so you understand, okay?  I know that I can't force everypony to be friends with everypony, that there will always be those ponies who just can't reconcile their differences.  And... and that's not necessarily a bad thing.  And I know that smiling when somepony has a bad day can't fix all the problems, and... and..."

"I think it'd fix a lot of problems if you smiled right now," Octavia barely managed to choke out.

"O-Okay." Derpy's trembling little smile could have outshone the moon.

"The feels!" Lyra wailed.  "I can't take it!"

"Hey, it's okay," Derpy said as the two other mares converged for a group hug. "Can I just ask you two for one favor?"

"Anything, kid," Lyra sobbed.  "Anything at all."

"The next time something's bothering you, can you please just tell me instead of trying to hide it?  I can handle it, I promise."

"I th-think that can be arranged," Octavia said. "Oh Faust, where's a tissue when you need one?"

"So does this mean the group's back together?" Lyra asked eagerly.

"After tonight?" Octavia asked.  "I don't think even an alien demon changeling could be heartless enough to refuse.  Especially if it means getting to complain about all the weird things you do, Lyra.  Derpy, honey, when we get home, I'm giving you a very, very long list of grievances."

"Hey, but we're not going home just yet!" Lyra protested.  "From the looks of it, there's still a major party going on down there!  I don't know about Octavia, but I'm definitely not missing it for anything."

"Oh no! I need to get there quickly to warn everyone of the impending disaster!" Octavia laughed over her shoulder before running down the hill.

"Hey, wait up!" Lyra called before glancing behind her.  "Derpy?" she asked.  "You coming?"

Derpy just nodded as she dried her eyes.

"Hey kid, you okay?" Lyra asked.

"Yeah," whispered Derpy, smiling up at the full moon. "I'm just so glad to have two wonderful friends."