Homecoming of a Jumper

by tosety

22 Rejection

Steelskin was trotting past The Grain Bucket after his third productive day. He wasn’t sure whether or not to be happy about school being put on hold for two weeks. On the one hoof, he was getting a chance to get his house built almost for free, but on the other hoof, he missed the days of lazy learning.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Cheerilee at the bar again. She was spooning salt into a cocktail. Berry Punch looked ready to pull the salt away from her.

She had put at least three spoonfuls in by the time Steelskin approached her.

“I don’t think it’s dissolving anymore,” he said by way of introduction.

Cheerilee turned a tear streaked face towards him and sniffled.

“H-how could I have missed it?” Cheerilee’s breath smelled more of salt than the Manehattan in front of her.

Steelskin sat down next to her, staring at the counter and trying to figure out if there was anything he could say.

Ginsu licked at my multiple wounds. For some reason, he was always the first to recover, although this time that was almost a certainty. I was thankful for that healing spell just before I jumped... and the fact that Shining Armor was more interested in having fun than killing me.

Still, his shield blades had cut quite deep.

I heard a manic voice off towards what I assumed was town. “Yes! Somepony to help!”

I felt myself picked up in what tasted like Twilight’s magic and heard Ginsu meow indignantly. As my vision cleared, I saw Twilight bouncing like Pinkie Pie as she carried me towards the library.

Something was off in a very, very scary way.

“I can’t believe that that... that...” Cheerilee let out an inarticulate scream before resting her forehead on the bar. The drink started to tip over, caught at the last moment by Berry Punch.

“...And it happened right under my muzzle,” she added disconsolately.

Steelskin, not knowing what to say, put a hoof on her shoulder.

Turning to him, Cheerilee tried to defend herself. “I tried to punish her and Silver Spoon the first few times they were caught bullying, but Tiara’s mother kept threatening to launch an investigation... If I had known just how horribly she was bullying them, I would’ve risked it, despite being sure her mother would find a way to find something to hit us with.”

Steelskin continued to sit there, doing his best to comfort.

“She told Scootaloo she was worthless because she couldn’t fly!” Cheerilee screamed, punctuating it with a strangled sob, then a gulp of her drink. “How could somepony say such a thing to somepony who’s been hurt as badly as Scootaloo has?”

She turned her tear soaked face to Steelskin imploringly. “And I didn’t stop it. How am I any better?”

Steelskin found himself choking up in sympathy for both Cheerilee and Scootaloo... and, in a way, Diamond Tiara as well.

Sadly, no words would come.

Twilight stopped in her tracks and I felt her field slip a little as she opened the door to the library. Inside, I saw Princess Celestia waiting for her.

“Nononono! I still have time! It’s not sundown yet!” Twilight cried in terror.

“Time for what?” Celestia asked sadly.

It was clear that she already knew Twilight’s answer.

“For my friendship report! I found this colt and I’m going to fix him up and then tell you what I learned!”

Celestia closed her eyes and tears leaked out.

“Don’t you think you should just take him to the hospital?” Celestia asked tiredly.

“But...” Twilight began. “My friendship report? How will I learn anything about friendship by just dropping him off at the hospital?”

Celestia let a hint of anger show in her eyes. “Do you think you can help him better than the hospital?”

Twilight looked everywhere but at Celestia.

Celestia took me in her own aura and I felt her healing spell wash over me even as she set me down on a couch. Ginsu clung to my back the whole time, hissing angrily.

“It’s not friendship when you care more about yourself than the wellbeing of somepony else,” Celestia said with a sigh.

Steelskin left the pub with his ears down, a tear in his eye, and a sad frown on his lips. He wished he had something to say to Cheerilee, but there were no answers.

He headed to The Cube for a bite to eat and a morale boost from Pinkie.

Maybe Alex could help Cheerilee... No, Alex means well, but he stumbles over pony problems. Maybe Weyul... no, Miss Introspective would be best.

As he entered Sugarcube Corner, he noticed Diamond Tiara and Crafty sitting at a booth.

“What I’m saying is,” Crafty began. “There’s a reason those Chaos Cultists reached out to you.”

“Yeah, I was dumb and ponies were treating me bad.” Tiara’s voice was full of bitterness.

Steelskin trotted up to the counter. “Hey, Pinkie, could I have a milkshake and a cucumber sandwich?”

“Yupperooni,” Pinkie replied. “Take a seat and your cheer-me-up will be right out.”

Steelskin, even though he felt a little guilty for eavesdropping, sat within hearing range of Tiara.

“...So who acted the most like Discord?” Crafty asked in a gentle tone.

There was a long silence before Tiara replied.

Just at the edge of hearing, Tiara murmured “Me.”

“Here you go, Steely,” Pinkie said as she popped up beside Steelskin.

Steelskin jumped like he always did when Pinkie appeared out of nowhere, but quickly accepted his food with a smile.

“So what’s got you all frowny today?” Pinkie asked in a tone that was gentle for her.

Steelskin took a long pull from his milkshake as he thought about how to answer. “...I talked with Cheerilee...”

“Ooh...” Pinkie replied. “Yeah, she’s not been too good after...” Pinkie’s frown suddenly reversed. “Well, I guess we’ll just need to get her one of my special ‘you’re not a bad teacher’ cheer-ups.”

“I am sorry, Twilight, but I cannot bear it anymore.” Celestia’s eyes ran with tears. All decorum was gone.

“I promise,” Twilight grovelled, “I won’t ever do it again!”

She pawed at Celestia’s hooves, weeping like she’d never wept before.

It was at this point that her friends burst in.

“Wait!” Rainbow Dash jumped in front of Twilight, pushing her backwards.

“You can’t punish her!” Pinkie Pie cried.

“It wasn’t her fault!” Applejack continued.

They were all brought up short by Celestia’s red eyes and running nose.

“I am not punishing her for being tardy. I just cannot take the pain of her seeing me as a tyrant,” Celestia responded hoarsely.

All six ponies’ eyes went wide.

Celestia gave a heavy sigh and closed her eyes. “I admit defeat in breaking Twilight of the notion that I am a cruel, heartless tyrant. For my own sanity, I can no longer be her teacher.”

After a moment, she looked back at Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle, I am not doing this to be cruel. I have watched you grow up from when you were just a foal, but this... This was my doing. I am a yoke on your back and a thorn in your frog. Look to your friends... they can succeed where I have failed.” Celestia lowered her head and walked out the door tiredly. She did not even bother to put on her royal mask of impassivity.

I wished I could do something, but what do you say to somepony who has just lost the pony that means the world to them?

Twilight’s friends consoled her, though they didn’t know what to say either.

Having my wounds completely healed by an alicorn, I didn’t mind having been forgotten. I sat and watched, thinking back in the hopes that I could remember something that could help.

After a little while, she pushed away from her friends and turned to Spike.

“What did you tell her in that letter?” Twilight asked angrily.

“N-nothing!” Spike replied fearfully. “I just said you were having one of your panic attacks about the friendship reports.”

“You said something to get her mad at me!” Twilight accused.

“No, really!” Spike cowered as Twilight loomed over him.

“Out!” Twilight screamed, enveloping him in her magic. “I have no use for an assistant that backstabs me!”

We all watched in shocked horror as she opened the door and threw him out so hard he hit the building across the street.

“Dear,” Rarity sniffed. “I don’t think-”

Twilight rounded on her. “You’re siding with him?”

Steelskin sat for a while, staring at his empty milkshake and fighting off his own feelings of failure. It was almost amusing to him that the one thing he knew he could do was ask Miss Introspective to talk with her, but his feelings of failure were keeping him rooted to his seat.

“Nopey dopey, mopey,” Pinkie Pie said, popping up next to him. “Time’s up for frownies. It’s time to help Miss Cheerilee get her smile back.”

As Pinkie headbutted him out the door, Steelskin gave a wry smile of appreciation. Somehow, Pinkie always knew the best way to help a pony feel better.

After he was fully out the door, Steelskin turned, smiling, and asked “How do you do it?”

“Do what?” Pinkie replied, sticking her tongue out at him jokingly.

“You always know the right thing to do to cheer somepony up,” he replied, stifling a laugh at Pinkie’s expression.

Pinkie’s face grew serious and she stared right into Steelskin’s eyes.

Raising her hooves slowly and miming a pair of binoculars, she replied “Constant vigilance...”

Steelskin broke into a full laugh at Pinkie’s hyper serious tone and Pinkie smiled back.

“No, really. To be the ultimate party planner pony,” Pinkie continued. “I need to know everything about everypony. I need to know what will make them happy and when, so helping with a case of the frownies is easy peasy.”

“I’ll show her,” Twilight mumbled to herself. “I’ll show her that she was wrong to dump me as her student. I’ll show her that I can be the greatest unicorn ever!”

Twilight had five books levitating around her head and was taking notes with a sixth field as she paced around the library.

I had gotten a bed at the orphanage, but was spending almost all my time at the library because I was concerned for Twilight. Her actions on this day were even more worrying.

She obviously wouldn’t listen to me when I suggested she talk with her friends and even ignored them when they came over. It was even worse when Spike tried to talk to her; she threw him out with more and more force. She was always studying and insisting that she had to show Celestia that she was a good student, but she quickly went off the deep end and started intentionally looking into forbidden magics.

By the end of the first week, she had uncovered references to Starswirl’s unfinished spell and almost immediately recognized its purpose was to turn the caster into an alicorn.

“Steelskin! It’s so nice to see you!” Miss Introspective gushed. “Are you here to talk with Weyul?”

Steelskin returned her smile. “It’s nice to see you, too, but I’m actually here for something else.”

Miss Introspective’s smile fell. “I’m sorry, but I’m not allowed to talk about my sessions with Diamond Tiara. Besides, she decided to see Weyul instead.”

Miss Introspective shook her head in confusion at her own statement.

“Oh, sorry, no. I actually wanted to ask if you’d be willing to talk to Cheerilee,” Steelskin replied, embarrassed.

“Oh... Oh!” Miss Introspective exclaimed, the reality of Cheerilee’s position sinking in. “She must be horrified at what happened...”

Steelskin nodded his head. “If she’s not at home, she’s probably at The Grain Bucket.”

I sat there, utterly helpless, looking through a locked window as Twilight sat in the middle of five gems that she had filed with magic stolen from other ponies. Between them, lines were drawn in aluminum, turning it into a star inside a circle. She had a sixth gem that she had pumped so full of her own magic that it hummed continuously.

The rest of the mane six arrived and were knocking on her door.

Purple and green magic flowed from her horn as she read from a black book before her as she spoke. “From one to another, the six are one. A mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled.”

Magic coursed through the lines. I would have called it rainbow colored, but the colors were wrong. There was a darkness to them that spoke of... wrongness... twisted... perverted... Those were all too simple and gentle. I don’t know what to call it besides ‘evil,’ but even that didn’t do it justice.

I heard Twilight scream in anguish, but the light/darkness had gotten too bright for me to see what was happening to her. All I could see was the light consuming the gems and the lines as it coalesced into an oily ball around her.

An eruption of magical force blew out the window and knocked me back. I quickly picked myself up, noting a scorch mark on the floor and Twilight’s twisted body in the center. There were scorch marks surrounding her, marking out where the lines and gems sat.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and stood. Her eyes had turned blood red, her coat had darkened to a deep purple, and her mane had reddened almost to a burgundy. Her horn had lost its spiral and was now curved and sharp.

She unfurled her new wings and hissed in pain before gingerly pulling the twisted and deformed parodies of pegasus wings back against her sides.

“Twilight!” Applejack’s voice screamed from the door. “Are you okay in there?”

The door was blown off its hinges by a blast of confetti. In piled all five of the other elements.

As the five ponies rushed in, Twilight glanced at them with a calculating smile.

“Why don’t you just go back to playing with your good friends,” Diamond Tiara replied in pained anger. “You don’t have to pretend to care about a nopony like me.”

“Please?” Silver Spoon begged.

Diamond scowled for a minute before huffing. “Fine, but don’t think I’m dropping my guard with those twerps. I know they’re planning something mean.”

“They’re not planning anything, Di. They’re really willing to be friends, and this has nothing to do with them. I got the spa appointment from... somepony else.” Silver looked uncomfortable and Steelskin assumed she promised not to say who it was from.

“Hey, Silver, Diamond. Let me guess, Fluttershy wanted the spa to be anonymous?” Steelskin asked as he trotted up to them. “Diamond, I wouldn’t pass that up if I were you. I’m guessing you’re still kinda sore from all the work you’ve been doing and that’ll help a lot.”

“Hmph.” Diamond stuck her muzzle up in the air and turned away, but not before Steelskin noticed a tear leaking out of her eye.

A sparkling, midnight blue cloud hovered, unnoticed at the corner of a building.

“Twilight, you must stop this,” Celestia pleaded, tears streaming down her face.

Twilight glanced at her friends lying unconscious on the floor of the library and smiled. “Why? With this power, I can show you how much I’ve learned about magic!”

Celestia was appalled by the thin, gangly wings that fluttered out from Twilight’s sides.

“Yeah,” Twilight admitted. “They’re not much to look at yet, but if I can take an alicorn’s magic, I’m sure they’ll be perfect!”

Celestia instinctively put up a shield at the sight of Twilight’s predatory smile.

“They’re already looking better now that I have my friends’ magic.” Twilight dropped her parody of a smile as she concentrated.

A purple aura spread over Celestia’s golden shield.

I watched in abject terror as I saw Twilight’s magic seep into Celestia’s shield and start absorbing it. Within seconds, Celestia’s horn glow started to fade and her cutie mark took on a ghostly pallor. Soon, both had vanished entirely and her mane lost its ethereal beauty, fading to a pale pink and hanging limply around her tired face.

Twilight, on the other hoof, grew larger; her wings finally taking on a healthy form. “See, Princess? Only a pony like me could complete Starswirl’s unfinished spell. Too bad I’ve surpassed you, so there’s no point in taking me back as a student.”

Celestia stared sadly at Twilight even as Twilight’s smile went from proud to gloating.

“It might work, however,” Twilight said with a smirk. “If you became my student...”

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me into the Everfree Forest.

After hanging with the CMC for a while, Steelskin returned to the orphanage.

“Daddy?” Diamond Tiara’s voice sounded from across the hall. “Why are you here?”

“I’ve come to apologize,” Filthy Rich’s voice replied.

A heavy sigh sounded, but without the arrogance she normally put into it. “It’s okay, Daddy. You couldn’t have a daughter like me and still have ponies shop and Barnyard Bargains.”

“No.” Rich’s voice was choked up. “I’d take you back in a heartbeat, business be Discorded. I... I had to do it to save you.”

A long period of silence followed this.

“When I finally saw what your mother... my wife, had done to you... Keeping you from the consequences of your actions, making you an entitled...” Rich’s voice broke at this. “...making you think you were better than everypony else...”

“Daddy.” Tiara’s voice had gone cold and her normal veneer of pride was back. “Don’t bother lying to me. I know what I am. I don’t deserve love. You did what you had to.”

“I’m telling the truth!” Filthy yelled, his voice breaking. “I love you, but I had to get you away from your mother.”

“That’s enough, Daddy,” Tiara said sadly. “Stop before somepony hears you. Don’t throw away the most important thing in your life.”

Steelskin shut his own door and settled into bed with a heavy heart as he heard hoofsteps echo down the corridor.