//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: A Hearth's Warming Swap // by Trinary //------------------------------// Opening night in Canterlot was chaos. Of course, it was a controlled sort of chaos, one that came with any theater group before a show. But for Rainbow Dash, all the hustle and bustle and shouting seemed to be happening to somepony else.   She stood offstage while Fluttershy, Applejack and Twilight had their summit meeting, which dissolved into comedic bickering and insults. Well, mostly comedic; she fidgeted uncomfortably as Fluttershy really seemed to be getting into the role of berating her friends. “You’re useless! A dead weight every pegasi is forced to bear!”   Rainbow flicked her ear. It hardly sounded like Fluttershy was acting at all. But what the hay could Fluttershy have against Applejack or Twilight? Not a thing that she could think of. She didn’t ask Pinkie Pie or Rarity, who were sitting off-stage with her and frowning at their friends’ acting. Rainbow had never seen Pinkie grind her teeth before. It was quite a sight. Every half minute or so, Rarity would tilt her head back and hmph indignantly one of Twilight’s mannerisms. Apparently, she didn’t think Twilight made a convincing princess.   She’d probably make a better princess than I’d be a Private Pansy. Rainbow winced, dreading the prospect of having to get up on stage in front of half of Canterlot and act like somepony who whimpered and simpered and was scared of their own shadow. Guess I can’t blame Fluttershy for wanting to be somepony cool and brave instead of … well, Pansy’s basically the opposite of that.   The scene changed and Rainbow took her position on stage as the set was quickly swapped from the meeting hall to Pegasopolis. The curtain parted and Fluttershy flew in from the left. “Commander Hurricane!” Rainbow called, getting into her role. “How did the conference go?”   “It was a complete waste of time,” Fluttershy groused. “Nothing but mewling whines from the unicorns and inane babble from the earth ponies, as expected. I shouldn’t have gone at all.”   “So what now?” Rainbow Dash asked, uncomfortable as she let a whine into her voice. “It’s so cold and everypony’s starving.”   Fluttershy whipped her head and barked at her. “Enough of that simpering! I’ve heard enough of it from everypony else dirtside and I won’t have it up here!” She flapped her wings in irritation, giving her height over Rainbow. “Pegasi like us are above such weakness, in every way possible! You understand me?”   Forcing herself to be taken aback, Rainbow crouched down and did her best to look feeble, and nodded weakly. “Yes, Commander.”   “Good, because here’s what we’re going to do.” Fluttershy flew around Rainbow like a circling shark. “You and I will scout on ahead to find a new home. Once we locate a suitable new place, we’ll lead others, as only I can.”   “Then we’ll all go and live in this new place that isn’t buried in ice and snow?” Rainbow asked.   “If be ‘all’ you mean the pegasi, then yes. The others can sit here and freeze for all I care!” Fluttershy spat out bitterly. “We don’t need them!” She spun around until she was glaring at Rainbow Dash, eyeball to eyeball. “The weak have been propped up by the strong for far too long! Ponies need to stand on their own, not leech off the strength of others!”   Rainbow’s eyes widened and she unconsciously took a step back, her mind reeling. The way Fluttershy had looked at her when she said her last lines … Fluttershy wasn’t that good an actress. She had meant it.   What in Equestria is going on? “What’s wrong with helping other ponies?” Rainbow asked, going off-script a bit—not that anyone outside the performers would know.   For her part, Fluttershy recovered quickly to the improvisation. “Helping is one thing. But all too often, the strong become a crutch for those who never try to be anything other than what they are.”   “And what’s wrong with being who they really are?” Rainbow asked. “Not everypony can be a warrior.   Fluttershy shook her head. “The weak get walked on. It’s the strong who shape the world and make it better. The rest are just a burden to them. I won’t have it be me—be us who gets walked on anymore.” Fluttershy was starting to slip a bit, but Rainbow Dash wasn’t prepared to let it go.   “But if powerful ponies aren’t being strong for others they’re just being selfish, or worse, being a bully.” Rainbow argued. “We need all kinds of ponies to make a society—not just fighters. We need the farmers, the scholars, the engineers … without them, we’re weak. There’s no shame in not being a warrior; in being gentle instead of being tough.”   There was a long pause as Fluttershy carefully worded her reply. “That just allows others to remain weak and dependent on the rest for strength. It doesn’t do them any favors. It lets them be children forever … and the world doesn’t reward childishness.”   Rainbow let the matter drop, having gotten some measure of clarity. The rest of this talk didn’t need to be held on a stage, in front of everypony.  The scene wrapped up with Hurricane and Pansy setting out to find their new home. As soon as they were offstage, Rainbow hurried to intercept Fluttershy while Rarity and Twilight headed on stage. “Fluttershy, wait up!”   “I—I have to get ready for the next scene—”   “It can wait.” Rainbow blocked her path. When she didn’t say anything, Rainbow sighed and rubbed her head. “So … are you going to tell me what this is about, or do I have to play twenty questions? Because you know I’ll win; it’s kinda my thing.”   Fluttershy sighed and slid Hurricane’s helmet off. “I know. You never give up, Rainbow Dash. Even when you were just a filly.”   Rainbow tried to shrug modestly. “I don’t like losing.”   “It’s more than that.” Fluttershy looked down. “When were young, you were always so brave, defending yourself and me. You tried to get me to stand up for myself, but then you were gone. Derpy and Cloud Kicker tried their best but … they weren’t you.” Rainbow winced, feeling a sharp pain in her conscience. That hurt. “Oh, I’m not blaming you!” Fluttershy hurried to assure her. “I mean, Princess Celestia chose you to be her student! It’s wonderful and I was so happy for you, even though I was a teeny-tiny bit nervous when you were gone. After you left, when the bullies would pick on me, I tried to think of what you would do but … I guess I’m not like you.” She rubbed her forelegs together.   “Shy…” Rainbow struggled for the words. “I—I’m sorry.”   “When you used to write me letters—um, when you remembered to write them, I mean—you told me about how wonderful and amazing your life had become,” Fluttershy sighed. “But I was still the same scared, timid little pony that I always was and, I guess, that’s all I’ll ever be.” Rainbow tried taking a step towards her, but stopped short when Fluttershy moved away. “Whenever we went on an adventure to stop Nightmare Moon or King Sombra, I was always so scared. I wished … I wished I could be…be…”   Seeing her falter, Rainbow picked up the thread. “So when Celestia asked us to do the play, you wanted to be like Hurricane?”   She was stunned when Fluttershy burst out. “I wanted to be like you! Even if it was only for a little while, even if it was only pretend! I didn’t want to be the scaredy pony who always needs somepony to hold her hoof. I—I didn’t…” She looked down. “I didn’t want to be a pony you’d be ashamed of being.”   Rainbow Dash looked as if she had been smacked across the face with a two-by-four. Her mouth opened and closed a few times with nothing emerging. She dimly heard one of the stage-ponies shouting that the next scene with them was about to go on. Fluttershy waited, but when Rainbow couldn’t get her thoughts into words, she slowly put on Hurricane’s helmet and headed to the stage.   After that, Rainbow Dash didn’t even remember getting on stage. She barely even remembered interacting with the others or giving her lines as the three leaders and their aides encountered each other in the new land and set about arguing again.   Watching her friends argue with each other didn’t seem like a fun little play anymore … now it just made her feel uncomfortable. It almost seemed mean-spirited, with her friends parodying each other. She wished she had never agreed to Fluttershy’s proposal to swap roles, that way everypony would be in the part they originally wanted. Rarity would be a princess, Twilight would be a magic scholar, Applejack would be the down-to-earth advisor and Pinkie Pie would be the guy who got impeached for trying to legalize marriage to poultry... It'd be prefect and everypony’d be happy!   Right?   Rainbow barely noticed the three leaders running around arguing over lines drawn on a cave floor, her mind still awhirl. She found herself looking out over the audience, her gaze almost drawn towards Princess Celestia's box seat. Seeing her seated in her own private booth, suddenly reminded Rainbow of Celestia talking to her about what it was like being a ruler. 'Being a Princess is a role. It is not who you are, but what you do. But to others, they only see the role and carry expectations that you must meet. Hence the role is to meet those expectations. There is a danger though, of the role overtaking who you truly are and you run the risk of the mask becoming the face. And others will see the role, and think that's all there is of you.'   The mask becoming the face. Rainbow really hadn't quite gotten what that meant, until now. If I was Hurricane, Fluttershy was Pansy, and the rest had the original parts, how'd we be able to tell where we left off and the role began? We could’ve easily lost ourselves in the role.   Granted, that had happened to Fluttershy anyway, but for a different reason. Lots of ponies see Celestia as this perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing ruler, but that's because they don't really know her, the way I got to know her. Hay, even the Wonderbolts might be jerks if I ever got to know them--maybe. Rainbow’s wings drooped. Fluttershy hasn’t been with me since flight camp, since the Sonic Rainboom. She’s been too far away to see—well, see all the times I really dropped the ball. She thinks she’s trying to be like me, but she’s only imitating this idea of what she think I’m really like. The howl of a Windigo interrupted her. Snapping her attention back to the play, she spied the (fake) ice advancing towards them, Fluttershy, Twilight and Applejack already being fully encased in it. "...this is our fault then, all of us: unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies," Pinkie Pie observed.   "Our fighting froze our old home, and now it'll freeze this new one too," Rarity agreed. "All because we couldn't stop hating each other."   Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to give her line about not hating them but Commander Hurricane--but somehow, that line just seemed wrong somehow. The way to beat hatred isn't to hate some ponies, but hate others instead? Plus, talking about Fluttershy like that, the way things between them were right now ... no. Just no.   But what else could she say? Granted, she preferred thinking on the fly to careful consideration but this was something she couldn’t screw up. Not because of the play—at this point, she really didn’t care about that—but because she wanted to make Fluttershy understand. “We didn't always hate each other," Rainbow started. “That’s not where the problem started.” Pinkie and Rarity traded questioning glances at her. "Unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies all kept to ourselves. Even when we didn't actually hate one another, we still didn't want to do anything with them because we seemed too different." She walked around, looking at each of her three frozen friends. "We got so used to seeing them in a certain way that we thought that was all there was to them: unicorns and magic, pegasi and flight, earth ponies and crops." She stopped in front of Fluttershy, looking at her semi-frozen face. "We looked at them and saw only one aspect of them rather than the whole picture. We saw only the role they played ... not the ponies they were underneath all that." She swallowed nervously as she faced Fluttershy. “Because the truth is? The way we present ourselves to the world … it’s almost never who we really are. And when you’re not happy with yourself, it’s easier to imagine that somepony else you like is so much better than you are, when really, they just have their own flaws you’re not seeing.” Rainbow looked from Fluttershy to Rarity and Pinkie. “It's hard to step out of our usual roles, to try something new. It's scary sometimes, or frustrating to see somepony else do something that you usually do yourself. But if you never try anything new, you'll never grow, never change: frozen in place.” She gave one last sad look to Fluttershy and the others in the ice. She barely noticed the spell--not actually cast by Rarity, but by special effects ponies—driving the ‘windigos’ off and defrosting the others.    They sang the carols and took their bows to thunderous applause, but Rainbow didn’t even look in Fluttershy’s direction until the curtains had come down for good. She was about to go over to her, but Applejack blocked her path. “Sugarcube, can we talk?” “Can it wait?” Rainbow tried looking over her shoulder at Fluttershy, who had darted off stage. “I—” “It’s important,” Applejack stressed. “See, thing is … well, what you said up there made a whole lot of sense, you know?” She paused, giving a weak chuckle. “Ah know, Ah was surprised too.” “Very funny.” “Ah thought so.” Applejack’s mirth faded, removing her hat apologetically. “Thing is, we got so swept up in playin’ these different parts that it felt, well, it felt like you really thought Ah was just a funny talkin’ idjit … and it hurt, thinking that’s how y’all look at me and, well, Ah guess Ah did it right on back. Ah guess the rest of us were in the same boat.” “I’m not just silly.” Pinkie Pie scuffed her hooves. “I mean, I say a lot of nonsense but that doesn’t mean I never make any sense, right?” Applejack leaned over and draped a leg across her back. “‘Course you’re not. You just look at things a mite differently than the rest of us. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.” Twilight nodded, before looking downwards. “I know I was so wedded to the idea of how Clover the Clever should act that I couldn’t accept it when Rarity chose to portray her differently. History is very important to me and it felt like--” “Like by disregarding your interpretation, I was disregarding your values and what made you, you?” Rarity cleared her throat. “I must confess that such thoughts may have led me to take some decisions rather personally.” Rainbow nodded. “I hear you guys.” She looked over to where Fluttershy had ducked out. And some of us actually wanted to be the pony they were imitating. “‘Scuse me, really gotta take care of something…” She flew off stage, intent on tracking down Fluttershy--only to find her right off-stage, prompting her to stop short. “Fluttershy, you okay?” Fluttershy slowly turned around. “I guess so…” she started to duck her head and look away, but forced herself to stop. Instead she looked back at Rainbow Dash. “Did you really mean … everything you said out there? I mean, I didn’t think that’s how we rehearsed it, but--” “No, I did.” Rainbow sighed, rubbing her face. “Look, the way I see it, nopony’s perfect. Not you, not Princess Celestia--not even me!” She joked. “You know that, right?” Fluttershy nodded. “I didn’t think you were perfect … just that you were better than me.” "That’s not … no, forget it.” Rainbow shook her head. “I’m not doing this.” “Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy looked confused. She shook her head at Fluttershy, “I'm not gonna just say 'you're better at some things than me and I'm better at some things than you.' You know that, I know that, it's trite and it's not what's bugging you." She rubbed her neck, fishing for the right words. "When I was a foal I stood up to bullies and did the impossible: a Sonic Rainboom. Then Princess Celestia makes me her student. Couple of years later, I meet back up with you and we saved the world. Twice. Seems really awesome, right?" Fluttershy nodded. “Well, um, yes?” "Well, that's because it is." Rainbow shrugged. "No point denying it. But it wasn't a straight line from beating up bullies to stopping Nightmare Moon." She fidgeted uncomfortably. "I made a lot of mistakes between leaving flight camp and arriving in Ponyville. I got so wrapped up in trying to recapture doing the Sonic Rainboom and showing up a bunch of pampered snobs that I let things, important things, just ... fall away." She looked up at Fluttershy. "Like you." “But Rainbow…” She waved Fluttershy off. “No buts. Yeah, I wrote you and maybe I remembered to occasionally drop Derpy and Dinky a line, but you weren’t where my focus was; it was getting into fights with the elite and arguing with Celestia. I spent so much time trying to prove I was awesome that I stopped really being awesome.” Her wings drooped as she sighed. “And I ended up doing it again. I was so worried about looking uncool in front of all the Canterlot ponies I use to know that I didn’t even notice you were having problems.” “That’s not fair.” Fluttershy argued. “Everypony gets wrapped up in their own issues sometimes.” “Everypony isn’t the Element of Loyalty,” Rainbow rubbed her neck. “You weren’t around to see it, but if the whole Nightmare Moon thing hadn’t happened? I might’ve ended up like one of those bitter old athletes or former foal actors, desperately trying to recapture some former glory and resenting everything and everypony for not being able to do it.” She paused to make sure Fluttershy was listening before she continued. “And in the end, what made me able to do it again was having you girls be my friends. It wasn’t the Sonic Rainboom, or even being the Princess’ student that made me awesome. It was having ponies worth being awesome for. Because if I didn’t have friends like you … I wouldn’t be awesome at all, even if I could do Rainbooms in my sleep.” Fluttershy’s eyes watered. She surprised Rainbow Dash by surging forward and hugging her. “I’m sorry! I never wanted to make things hard for you or our friends, I just wished I could be--” “I know.” Rainbow Dash awkwardly began patting her back comfortingly. “If it helps? Right now I wish I was more like you, because being all comforting and stuff is not my strong suit.” “That’s alright,” Fluttershy chuckled, wiping her eyes. “Like you said, sometimes it’s good to step outside of your comfort zone and try new things. I wish I could get my brother Zephyr to do the same.” Rainbow Dash grinned and clapped her on the back with her wing. “Heh, I know what you mean.” Fluttershy quickly steadied herself. “I would still like to try to be a little more assertive … if that’s alright with you, I mean.” “You can do whatever you want to do and I’ll be there to back you,” Rainbow nodded. “Just make sure you’re doing it for yourself, not because you think it’ll make other ponies happy--that goes for me too.” “Alright.” Fluttershy took a deep breath. “I should go apologize to the others. Maybe I could take them out to dinner to celebrate, my treat?” “We’ll split it,” Rainbow Dash agreed. “Race you back to the others--loser buys dessert?” Fluttershy fidgeted. “Well, I don’t know…” Before Rainbow could say anything, Fluttershy had zipped ahead of her. “Gotcha!” “Hey!” Rainbow Dash charged after her, laughing as she pursued. The End