Beginnings
Dusk in Canterlot, and two groups of ponies were standing in the Royal Courtyard before the throne room. The twelve ponies had been summoned by the Princesses for something considered to be of great importance, and at that very moment Twilight Sparkle and Fine Crime were inside getting the details.
That left the rest to wonder what half of them were doing there.
“So let’s see if I have this right,” Rainbow Dash declared, eyeing Nye skeptically. “You and these guys are all supposed to help us in whatever Princess Celestia wants us to do?”
“Something like that,” he answered nervously. “I know it sounds… off. But it’s true.”
Applejack appeared no less uncertain. “No offense ta any o’ ya’ll, but ah’m not sure abou’ tha’ idea.”
“Hey,” Jimmy declared, “we find it unlikely, too.”
Octavia stood before the others with purpose. “We are here at Princess Luna’s request. She would not ask for us to assist you if it were not necessary.”
Nopony could argue that, and some didn’t bother trying. “Well I think this is good thing,” Rarity announced.
“Yeah!” Pinkie cried, jumping between the two teams and tossing a bunch of balloons. “More friends means more fun!”
Rarity rolled her eyes with a smile, her response not unlike that of the rest of the ponies. “Ahem, yes, of course. What I meant was… there’s surely strength in numbers, and is it not better to have the extra help?”
“I agree,” Upper Crust said, but glanced to the great doors behind them. “Still, what’s so big that they have to call all of us here?”
“Oh, maybe they wanna throw a big party!” Pinkie exclaimed. “And I bet they want us to set it up! Oh oh oh, I’ll make the cake!”
Applejack gave the pink pony a bemused look. “Uh, I don’t think we’re here for a party, Sugarcube.”
“Yeah,” Lightning Dust declared, doing an eager flip in the air, “I’m hoping for some kind of adventure!”
“I hope it’s not too dangerous…” Fluttershy noted.
“Aren’t you supposed to be looking after Keen?” Jimmy asked Lightning critically.
The pegasus waved a dismissive hoof. “Nah, I got Lyra and Bon Bon looking after her today. Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”
He flinched. “Don’t remind me… I’m going to be a whole day behind because of this, and probably longer.”
At that moment the great doors to the throne room opened. As all eyes turned, Twilight and Fine Crime came trudging out. They both looked just a bit worried.
“So?” Rainbow demanded, flying over Twilight eagerly, “What did the Princess want?”
“Yeah,” Lightning threw in, similarly hovering over Fine, “What’s the mission?”
The two unicorns shared a concerned expression and gestured for their respective teams to gather close.
Fine was the first to speak. “I’m afraid we have a very long distance job ahead of us.”
“Oh come off it,” Nye declared dismissively, “I’ve traveled all across Equestria. Can’t be that bad.”
Fine raised an eyebrow. “Ever been to Nildia?”
That made the laid-back earth pony sputter. “…N-Nildia!? That’s on the other side of the world!”
Most of the other ponies shared similar reactions… save one. “I’ve been there,” Octavia noted abashedly.
“You?” Rainbow asked in alarm. “Why would you go all the way to Nildia?”
“My mother’s from there,” she noted in explanation, then turned her attention back to Fine and Twilight. “But why go there?”
“Over the past year the Nildian coast has been suffering,” Twilight answered seriously. “Tsunamis, freak storms, rogue waves. Entire communities have been wiped off the map, often with no survivors.”
“Hold on,” Rainbow interrupted, “you mean we’re supposed to go all the way over there just because their weather teams aren’t doing their jobs?”
“Nildia is a wild country,” Octavia noted expertly. “And even if it weren’t, almost the entire population is made up of nilgiri tahr.”
“Nilgawatsis?” Pinkie asked.
“Nilgiri tahr,” Fluttershy noted helpfully. “They’re like a goat. In Equestria they’re called ibex.”
“Ooh, ibex!” Applejack declared, “Ah’ve heard o’ them.”
“But don’t call them that to their face,” Fine noted helpfully, “they find it degrading.”
Twilight clapped her hooves to catch everypony’s attention. “The point is, these disasters are happening too often and too regularly to just be an unusual oceanic phenomenon.”
At everypony’s confused looks Octavia translated: “The disaster’s can’t be normal weather.”
“Then what is it?” Lightning asked in annoyance.
“That’s what we’re supposed to find out,” Twilight declared, but then her tone became uncertain. “I… have no idea how we’re going to do that.”
“I don’t understand,” Rarity noted when the group went silent. “This kind of foreign aid is usually Princess Celestia’s kind of work, or perhaps Princess Luna’s. Why are they having us do it?”
“Princess Celestia’s got her hooves full trying to negotiate the location of the next dragon migration,” Twilight explained. “I’m sure you girls remember what it’s like to negotiate with a dragon? She’s negotiating with the entire race. It’s not something she can be pulled away from.”
Fine Crime continued the explanation. “Meanwhile Luna’s performing her evening duties while at the same time trying to make up for all the work Celestia’s not doing because of the dragon negotiations. Her hooves are full, too. On the bright side,” he added with a weak smile, “we do have one big name to help out.”
“Really?” Upper Crust asked, “Who is it? Princess Cadance?”
“I wish,” Twilight muttered weakly. “…it’s Discord.”
“Discord!?” The chorus of shocked cries made the two unicorns back away at the volume.
“Yes, Discord,” Twilight muttered while rubbing her ears. “He’s already in Nildia looking into the problem. The team will meet him there.”
“The team?” Jimmy asked, “You mean we aren’t all going?”
“No,” Fine answered. “Half of us will go to Nildia. The rest will stay in Ponyville, as a precaution in case anything else comes up.”
“Then why not just have the Element Bearers go?” Upper Crust noted with a gesture to the mares in question. “Isn’t it our job to be the support?”
“The Princesses think this will be a good chance for us to start working together,” Twilight announced smartly.
Fine nodded. “Which is what we’re going to have to learn to do. So right now we need to decide who’s going.”
“Well it’s a given that Twilight and Fine are going,” Applejack noted.
At that Fine, eyes wide, reared back and waved his hooves in denial. “Me? No way! Not a chance in hell you’re getting me over the open ocean.”
Before anypony could question this, Twilight spoke up. “I’ve already volunteered to lead the Nildia team. Fine will stay behind to lead the others. I need two Element Bearers and three others.”
“I’ll go,” Rainbow declared confidently with a gallant pose. “You’ll need an ace flier.”
“Ain't no apples ta buck this time of year,” Applejack noted helpfully, “so Ah can spare the time. Ah volunteer.”
“If Rainbow’s going, so am I.” Lightning declared with a dark glance at her rival.
“No, LD,” Fine Crime interrupted, “I want you here.”
“What!?” The pegasus was clearly offended. “But they might need me over there! You can’t accept…”
“There’s no need for two ace fliers,” he pointed out severely. “And I’d like one of you to remain in Ponyville. Rainbow called it, Lightning.”
“But I… I mean…” Lightning was trying to form some sort of compelling argument, but in her anger she just let out a frustrated growl and landed with a huff.
“I’ll go,” Octavia announced calmly. “I can speak Hindi fluently, so I’d be useful, and I have family there who might help with lodgings.”
“You speak Hindi?” Nye asked, sounding impressed.
Pinkie bounced in excitement. “Oh oh, say something, say something!”
Octavia smiled. “Lagbhag.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Something.”
“Ooooh, say something else!”
“Ahem.” Fine caught everpony’s attention again. “I was going to suggest Upper Crust…”
“Me!?”
“…yes you, and Jimmy.”
“…alright.” Jimmy didn’t seem to have any problem with being volunteered.
Nye, on the other hoof… “Hold on, you’re asking Jimmy to go and not me? But we’re twins!”
“It’s alright, Nye,” the elder Stone noted.
“No, it’s not alright!” Nye shot back. “We should be sticking together.”
“And you need to learn to get along without from time to time,” Fine declared.
“What about me?” Upper Crust asked. “What am I supposed to do?”
But Twilight already had an answer. “We’ll undoubtedly be meeting with important Nildian figures. Having somepony who knows how to work with elite ponies will be a big boon. Rarity’s not going…”
“I should hope not,” Rarity noted dourly.
“…so you’ll make a great substitute as an expert in working with high-society ponies.”
“W-well… I guess…”
“So: the team is chosen,” Fine declared. The others didn’t look so certain, but kept quiet. “The team leaves in two days. Hopefully this won’t take but a couple weeks.”
Lightning was trying to learn her lessons, she really was. So when she was told that she would be staying in Ponyville she shut her yap, even though it took every ounce of her willpower to do so. But now, as they rode the train back home, she couldn’t help but think about Rainbow Dash, and thinking about that blue pegasus always pissed her off.
To think that arrogant little creep was going to go and be the hero while she sat around in Ponyville doing everyday work was unbearable. So she found her way to the cabin at the back of the last car, where she knew Fine was. She just couldn’t let it go.
She slid the door open, her presence interrupting what appeared to be a serious conversation between Fine Crime, Twilight Sparkle and Octavia. Curiously, Fluttershy was there too.
“Hey Lightning,” Twilight announced in her friendly tone, “come on in. We were just trying to figure out who’d be doing what on the foreign team.”
Lightning nodded to the unicorn politely, but then turned to Fine Crime seriously. “We need to talk.”
“I figured as much,” Fine admitted. He glanced at Twilight, who nodded.
“Come on, girls,” the purple mare said, “let’s go talk to Jimmy about what he’ll be doing.”
The three left, Lightning waiting impatiently for the door to close. As soon as it did she spoke up. “I want to go to Nildia.”
Fine sat next to a window and nodded. “I know, but I don’t think you should.”
“Why?” She hopped into the air, hovering overhead to show her frustration. “What makes you think Rainbow would be any better than me? I need to show that I can do this!”
“It’s not about who’s the better flier, LD,” he claimed.
“Like hell it isn’t! This is because she’s a Wonderbolt, isn’t it?”
“You really think Twilight and I would make the decision based just on that?”
“What other reason is there!?”
Fine Crime sighed and, before she could react, reached a hoof up and tapped heavily against a familiar spot under her left wing. Lightning cried out in pain and dropped to the floor with a heavy thud, clutching at the old wound.
“The muscle’s never going to be the same,” he noted apologetically. “The doctor said if you try to fly to the best of your previous ability it would break apart again.”
She groaned, breathing heavy as the fire-like pain began to subside. “It’s my risk to take, Fine…” she muttered as she began to get back to her hooves.
“Lightning, I’m trying to help you!” Fine glowered and shook his head. “You’ve got to stop this tough act and face reality. If you overwork yourself and the muscle breaks, there’s no guarantee it will be able to heal again. And that muscle isn’t just for your wing. You could spend the rest of your life in a damn wheelchair!”
“I know!” The pain subsided, she was finally able to give him the full effect of her glare. “You think I don’t? But I can still fly, and fly well. Just let me…”
He interrupted. “Stop competing with Rainbow Dash! I know you want to prove your worth to this team and yourself, but that’s not the way to do it. You just can’t match her anymore, Lightning. I’m very sorry to say it, but you can’t.”
She glared at him in silent fury. But her anger was more focused on the bitter truth behind his words. There was a time when she could have matched, even surpassed, that damn blue pegasus, and maybe she could do it again. The cost of doing so, however…
“…I still want to go.”
Fine sagged, rubbed his face with his hooves. He stared at her for several long seconds, and she tried to keep him locked in a determined glare. At last, with a sigh, he answered. “This isn’t the military, Lightning. If you really want to go, I can’t stop you.”
She let out a satisfied but grumpy ‘huff’ sound and turned to leave.
“…but hear me out.”
No, she got what she wanted. She wasn’t going to let him stop her with words. She reached the door and began to open it…
…and suddenly he was there, slamming it back closed. He loomed between the door and her with a dark expression. “No, Lightning, you need to hear me out. Now sit.”
But she wasn’t intimidated. “Or you’ll what?”
“I won’t do a thing,” he declared. “I won’t have to. There’s a thing called social services, Lightning.”
She blinked, caught entirely off guard. “Social services? What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about Keen,” he snapped. “If you care about her at all, you will sit and listen to what I have to say.”
Lightning's eyes went wide as she realized what he meant; a lifetime living in an orphanage had made her well aware of the process. “Are… are you saying you’d…”
Fine shook her angrily. “I’m not the one you have to worry about! You’re the one who will be doing the damage.”
Now she was entirely confused. “Me? Why would I hurt Keen?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be raising her?” he asked. “Isn’t that what you decided to do?”
“Well… yeah…” She blushed, the idea still very new to her even after almost a month.
Now that he had her attention Fine left the door, walking back to his spot by the window. “Think about it, LD. Going off on adventures every time one comes up? When will you take the time to raise her? You have to stay in Ponyville for her.”
Lightning had to admit it was a good point. She liked Keen… and she felt an obligation. But what about what she wanted? “I… well… Fluttershy can…”
Fine shook his head. “You haven’t even legally adopted her yet, have you?”
Lightning blushed once more. “I’m… not really sure what to do…”
“What you need to do is be there for her,” he declared. “Keen needs you, Lightning. Not Fluttershy, not Twilight or Octavia. You. You believed her story of monsters, you rescued her from being turned into a changeling, you protected her when nopony else could, you took her under your wing and brought her to Ponyville.”
Lightning sat unhappily, head bowed. “Since when did you know anything about foals…” she grumbled.
“I don’t,” he admitted, “but I know this: you need to make Keen the most important thing in your life, and you need to do it now. If you don’t and you mess this up, they’re going to take Keen away from you and she’ll end up in another orphanage.”
“They can’t…” Lightning whispered fretfully, “she’d… she’d never survive. She still has nightmares. She still sleeps with me, so that when she wakes up in tears she can snuggle up to me and… and…”
Fine nodded. “I understand. And so do you. You need to make a decision, LD: your glory or Keen.”
Damn him, he was right. Damn it all to hell. She wanted to refute his words, to claim she could raise Keen and go on these little adventures with the others. But now all she could think of was her timid little filly trembling under the covers, wondering in terror which of the children in the bunks around her was a changeling waiting to pounce. Most foals were just the victims of over imagination, but for Keen it had been real. To risk making her go back to one of those orphanages…
She just couldn’t do it.
“…all right, Fine,” she whispered sadly. “…alright, you win. I’ll… I’ll stay…”
“Uppity!”
Upper Crust was grinning like a schoolfilly as her husband engulfed her in a joyous hug. “Oh so eager,” she whispered into his ear. “I thought maybe you’d have given me up for a new model by now.”
“No mare could possibly substitute you,” he declared happily, pulling her into their home by the hooves.
Home. It was so familiar. Also, so high end. Living with Octavia for so long had made her forget just how big her real home was. There was a time when she’d loved it… but now all she could think of was that it was far too spacious for a mere two ponies.
But Jet Set was still here, and that made it worthwhile. She grinned at his infectious happiness. “So how’s my husband getting along without his uppity queen?”
“Oh… I’m getting along,” he said in that way that long experience told her he was lying. “It’s not the same without you, hon.”
She snuggled up against him for a moment. “I miss you, too.”
“I like the surprise visit,” he admitted, giving her a peck on the cheek, “but if I’d known ahead of time there’d have been a gourmet meal waiting for you.”
“I didn’t know I’d be coming, either,” she told him. “It was important that I did , though. Something’s come up, Jet.”
“Come up?” He gave her a wary look. “What kind of something?”
She sighed and lead him into their living room, where they sat on the couch. “I’ve got to leave for a while. I don’t know how long it will be. Two weeks was the best guess.”
“Two weeks?” he asked with alarm. “What in Equestria would keep you gone for two weeks? Does this have something to do with your new job?”
“Not the one you know about,” she answered, knowing its cryptic nature would catch his curiosity.
“…what do you mean?”
She could think of no better way to say it. “Princess Luna wants me to go to Nildia on a diplomatic mission.”
Jet Set looked as if she’d just confessed to being the princess herself. “…Nildia? Come on, now, Uppity. You really think…”
“This isn’t a joke, Jet,” she told him sternly. “Me and five others are going to Nildia to help with their coastal problems. Two days from now I’m going to get on board a boat and travel farther in four days than I’ve traveled in the rest of my life combined.”
He stared, dumbstruck for almost a full minute. “Uppity… you’re serious…?” She nodded. “But… why you?”
She sighed and leaned against his shoulder. “I… I’m still trying to understand that. They chose me for some special team, Jet. I agreed to help around a month ago, before I knew it would lead to this.”
He wrapped a leg around her shoulder comfortingly. “I… don’t know what to say. I mean, I know what I want to say, what first came through my mind… but I don’t think it’s appropriate…”
She smiled. “You were thinking ‘Thank Heavens, my wife knows Princess Luna! We’re as high class as Fancy Pants, now.’”
He chuckled guiltily. “…something like that.”
She reached a hoof up and scratched his mane in that way she knew he liked. “It’s not about the prestige anymore, Jet.” He didn’t say anything. Perhaps he didn’t want to admit to her that such things were still important to him. She didn’t mind. “The Princess picked me to be part of this team, and she expects us to get results. I… don’t know how good I could possibly be, or how helpful. Part of me doesn’t want to go at all.”
“Then don’t,” he whispered hopefully in her ear. “Don’t go, Uppity. Stay in Ponyville. It’s what you want, right?”
She shook her head. “I promised I would help. I gave my word. I might not know what I can do to help, but it’s my responsibility to try.”
He considered this for a few quiet seconds. “…if you don’t know how you can help… why’d you agree to be on this team?”
She turned to look him in the eye. She wanted to be sure he understood how important her answer was. “I joined because I want to be proud of myself. Because when we have kids and I’m old and grey, I want them to look up to me. Because I’m a nopony, Jet.”
“You’re not a nopony!” He caught her up in a tight hug. “You’re not a nopony at all.”
But she pushed him away. “I am a nopony. I know you don’t understand, but think about it. When I lived in Canterlot I had to pretend to like what everypony else liked, act friendly with the dumbest and meanest ponies around, and buy all the fanciest clothes and designer toys just for other ponies to consider looking at me. And I needed them to. Don’t you see how pathetic that is?”
She realized that by insulting herself she was also insulting him. She couldn’t help it, because it was the truth. He stared at her, his feelings clearly hurting. “…Uppity, you really mean that?”
She nodded. “We thought of ourselves as Important, but in the past three months do you know how many ponies I’ve met who knew our names? One. Just one pony who lives outside of Canterlot knew who we were, and then only because we’d treated her like dirt for not living in Canterlot. …I don’t feel very important anymore, Jet.”
He stared at her, looking as if he’d just come to understand a very complicated puzzle. He lowered his head, thoughtful eyes shifting anxiously. “But… but I thought…” He glanced around the house, at the finery and expense. “…what do you mean, nopony knows us?”
Upper Crust sighed and leaned back against the couch. “Canterlot’s not the world anymore, not for me, and my new world has a very different concept of what makes a pony important. I joined Princess Luna’s little group because I want to be important in that world. I want to be appreciated, and to be appreciated I have to actually go out there and earn it.”
Jet thought on her words for some time. She didn’t know if she was getting through to him, but she hoped she was. She needed for him to understand. It was their only hope.
At last he embraced her, and gave her another little kiss. “I’m trying to figure it out,” he confessed. “I don’t really get it… but I think I’m starting to. You go on this trip, Uppity, and you do whatever you have to. I’ll be waiting right here when you get back.”
She snuggled up against him happily. Somehow she found she could believe his words. Maybe, just maybe she was finally getting through.
It was the next day at the Golden Oaks Library. Twilight had spent much of her day talking with friends and getting ready to go. She’d just given her extra Library key to Cheerilee, who had agreed to take over the place while she was gone in case anypony needed a book for whatever reason. Just when she thought she’d done everything, however, somepony came to her door.
“Octavia?”
“Twilight,” the cellist nodded politely. “I was hoping to catch you today. May I come in?”
“Sure,” she agreed, gesturing into the library’s main room. “What can I do for you?”
The pony entered the room, head held high. “I was looking for an outside opinion… and you seem like the best pony to offer it.”
Twilight followed, the door closing quietly behind her. “An outside opinion on what?”
“The team.”
Twilight paused, giving the earth pony a confused look. “The team going to Nildia?”
Octavia shook her head solemnly and gestured to herself. “About my team. Luna’s team. What do you think of it?”
Twilight stared at the pony for a few seconds. In truth this was the first time anypony’d bothered to ask her opinion on the matter. It would have been one thing to talk to Princess Celestia about this, or anypony else, but to someone who was on the supposed team? “I… dunno.”
But Octavia didn’t accept the dodge. “Do you like the idea? Do you think it’s terrible? What about the selection?”
Twilight wilted a bit under the bombardment. “Well… umm…”
Octavia lost her high-class look, replacing it with a troubled expression. “Please, Twilight, speak plainly. I simply must speak to somepony about this! What do you think of Luna’s team?”
Realizing the cellist wasn’t going to stop, Twilight finally sat and sighed forlornly. “Okay, I get it! …the truth is, I’m not sure of the lineup. I understand Princess Luna wants to help her big sister with this, and it’s really not a bad idea overall. But Nye Stone? Upper Crust?”
Octavia sagged at her words. “As I thought… I feel much the same way.”
That caught the unicorn off guard. “You do?”
Octavia nodded. “Supposedly Fine Crime personally chose who would be in this team…”
“He did?”
“…and he’s proven capable in the past. But I just can’t help feeling that he simply picked a bunch of ponies out at random!”
Twilight was rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “I had no idea he was the one who picked the members. Of course, the fact that he’s there at all…”
“It bothers me, too,” Octavia confessed. “He claims to always be around, but who in Ponyville really sees anything of him? He spends a lot of time with Fluttershy, true, but he’s supposed to be our leader and he’s never with us!”
“He does seem to be really antisocial…” Twilight confessed. She was coming to realize that Octavia had come to vent her frustrations, and in her mind this didn’t bode well for Luna’s new team.
“And not just him,” the cellist declared, “look at the others! Nye, who spends half his time lazing about. His brother Jimmy is strong, smart and capable, but can’t stick his nose out of his workshop. And then there’s Upper Crust who – bless her heart – has finally found something productive to do but is completely lacking in self confidence!”
“And you?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I’m a musician,” Octavia answered grumpily. “I don’t see how I really add to this team’s functionality.”
“Wow,” Twilight shook her head, “and I thought I was going to be harsh.”
Octavia sighed. “I’m sorry, Twilight. Really, I am. It’s just… I’m trying to have faith in this group, and it’s proving difficult.”
Twilight smiled and patted the pony on the shoulder. “You’re looking at this in all the wrong ways, Octavia. I mean yes, I admit, I have my doubts, but you should look at my team.”
The cellist raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
The unicorn grinned. “Well we have Pinkie, who spends all her time throwing parties and vacuuming down sweets to maintain her sugar rush. There’s Applejack, who lives, eats, breaths and sleeps apples. Rarity is so prissy and high brow it’s a wonder she can step outside her boutique for getting her hooves dirty. Then we have Fluttershy, who spends all her time playing with animals and is scared of her own shadow. We’ve got Rainbow Dash, who is so high on herself that her picture shows up in the dictionary under narcissism. And I spend all my time with my nose in a book.”
She laughed at her own descriptions. “I exaggerate of course, but you get the idea. Now, just based on those descriptions would you ever have thought that we would make for a great team?”
Octavia blushed and kicked at the floor anxiously. “Well, when you put it that way…”
Twilight nodded. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but a group of mishmashed ponies like us saved Equestria and the Crystal Empire. Based on that alone I think your team has a real chance, no matter how much I question the individual members’ abilities.”
The cellist sat and thought on this carefully for several seconds. “That’s a very enlightened way to look at it.”
The unicorn beamed. “Why thank you!”
“…I suppose I should reserve judgment,” Octavia confessed uncertainly. “It’s just that what I’ve seen so far hasn’t been encouraging. I don’t really feel like we’re a team.”
“I felt the same way about my friends,” Twilight confessed, “right up until we fought against Night Mare Moon. You just need to give it some time, Octavia.”
“Yes,” the earth pony agreed with little enthusiasm, “I suppose you’re right.”
Jimmy walked along the road quietly, his mind busy crunching numbers and worrying. He’d spent an entire day writing letters to clients explaining that he wouldn’t be working for a while as he was on royal duty. He anticipated that some of those clients would move to other firms to do the jobs he’d taken, and he didn’t blame them. It was a true annoyance, and he wondered how a business was supposed to stay afloat with interruptions like these.
But he knew someone whom he could ask about this kind of thing.
He paused in the street when he saw a certain familiar filly heading his way. “Hey Jimmy,” Sweetie Belle cried happily with a wave. “Going to see Rarity today?”
He nodded with a friendly wave of his own. “Yeah, I was hoping she could give me some advice on something.”
Sweetie blinked and gave him a perplexed look. “Advice? I dunno that she’d be any help with engineering.”
“Oh, it’s something else entirely,” he declared.
Sweetie eyed him with a mischievous grin. “Is that so? I wonder.” At his confused look she added, “You visit my sister an awful lot.”
“She has my favorite tea,” he declared, then gained an annoyed expression. “Nye doesn’t drink tea. I gotta enjoy it with somepony, y’know?”
Sweetie facehoofed, realizing that he’d missed her meaning entirely. “Ugh, you just go… enjoy your tea. I’ve got some crusading to do!” And with that she was off, running past him and in the general direction of Sweet Apple Acres. He chuckled at the filly’s enthusiasm and pressed on.
“Just a moment, please,” Rarity declared when he entered the Carousel Boutique, the bell on the door announcing his arrival. “Feel free to take a look around.” She was busy applying ribbons to a rather large-looking gown and hadn’t bothered to look to see who her guest was.
Jimmy waited until he was certain she was done before speaking up. “How’s it going, Rare?”
As soon as she heard his voice she turned to him with a beaming smile. “Jimmy! Always a pleasure to see you. Usually a surprise, too.”
“And today?” he asked.
“A big surprise,” she confessed. “I thought for certain you’d be spending all day contacting clients and talking things over with Nye. He didn’t seem all that happy about not going with you.”
Jimmy laughed. “Trust me, it’s not me he was worrying about!” She tilted her head at him inquisitively. “He only said all that because he didn’t want to embarrass Rainbow.”
“I see,” the white unicorn said with a sympathetic but amused smile, “so he’s really fretting that he won’t see her for a while?”
“That’s it.”
“Oh, the poor stallion is hopeless,” the unicorn declared knowledgeably. She then added seriously, “and your clients?”
“Dealt with,” he declared unhappily. “At least, as much as they can be dealt with. I’ll probably lose a few jobs to this.”
She nodded understandingly. “I know exactly how you feel. How about some tea to take the edge off?”
“Please,” he replied eagerly. “This day has been just horrid! I could use some.”
He followed her into her kitchen and took a seat at the table. He spent a quiet moment watching as she began to heat her kettle and gather the tea bags. “Can I ask you a question, Rare?”
“But of course.”
He gestured to the door leading to her store. “How do you keep things running so smoothly when you keep getting interrupted to do things? As an Element-Bearer, I mean.”
She cast a smile over her shoulder. “With a positive attitude and persistence! And high-quality work. My clients can forgive me for being late on occasion, because they know in the end they’ll get the best product they can.”
He sighed. “I wish I could share your confidence.”
Rarity studied him for a moment, her face etched with concern. “Jim… you’re taking this much too seriously.” The kettle began to whistle, so she filled their cups and went over to him. “I work hard too, but you can’t stress so much over this kind of thing.”
“Says the drama queen,” he noted, reaching for his cup of tea.
She pulled it out of his reach with a dour expression. “Perhaps I am. I must admit, when it first happened to me I was beside myself with worry. Almost in tears. Yet after over three years of being an element bearer and going on little sojourns, you know what I learned? Some things are just more important.”
He stared at the tea she was denying him, then looked up at her sourly. “Like what?”
She thought about her answer for a couple seconds, then smiled and set his teacup down on the table. “Like tea with a friend.”
He looked down at the steaming cup and smiled weakly. “Well… I must admit I do enjoy the visits.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Rarity noted smugly as she sat opposite him.
“But I’m trying to build a legacy,” he noted seriously. “I was going to inherit father’s, but now I have to start from scratch.”
Rarity made an annoyed sound. “Is it really so important, Jim? What about your brother, or your friends? You spend all your time in that workshop. We worry about you.”
He blinked, caught entirely off guard by her words. “You… worry about me?”
She blushed and let out an anxious giggle. “Well yes, of course I do. It’s what friends do, isn’t it?”
He sighed, cheek in a hoof, and stared at his cup. “…friends. I used to think that Nye was the one who never made friends. Now I realize he just wasn’t with the right group. And me? I was too busy trying meet our father’s expectations to worry about making any.”
Rarity frowned uncertainly. “If it meant so much to you, why did you leave?”
Normally the thought of why made him angry… but today, for some reason, he just felt depressed. “Because he hated Nye, and was just using me. I needed some affection in my life, Rare. Once mother died, Nye was my only source of love.”
For a long time they said nothing. Jimmy devoted the silent moment to trying not to think about his father. He hadn’t any idea what Rarity was thinking. So when she reached a hoof over the table to touch his, it caught him entirely off guard. He looked up and found her azure eyes locked seriously with his own.
“Jim…” she told him steadily, “…at this rate you are going to be just like your father, and all the love you have left will be gone.”
Her words were… strangely piercing. He leaned back from her, letting her meaning sink in. He didn’t want to be another Stikin Stone. He already looked like the stallion, and that was bad enough. But… “But how am I supposed to achieve my dream without working for it?”
“Is a legacy really what you want, Jim?” she asked with a self-assured flick of her mane. “Are you really sure that’s what you need? Because if it is then perhaps you should have stayed in Manehattan.”
That hurt. He didn’t even know why it hurt, but it did. He wasn’t angry with her for her words, though. He wasn’t’ angry at all. Just… confused. He stared at her, her chin raised importantly as she sipped her tea and her face locked in that better-than-thou expression she took on so often. For once he felt she had the right to use it, even if he wasn’t sure why.
The bell in the store chimed, and Rarity was on her feet in an instant, tea forgotten. “Oh, a customer. Sorry Jim, I’ll be right back.” And she trotted out the door, a welcoming smile already having replaced her snobbish expression.
He watched her leave, turning in his chair as he did. His wing bumped his teacup, spilling its contents across her table. Jimmy didn’t notice at first. He was too busy pondering over her words. Somehow he felt as though she’d hit upon something of extreme importance. Something that should be plain and simple but was just beyond his mental grasp.
Fine Crime’s head rose out of the water, mouth opening wide to swallow as much air as it could. He splashed around in the water helplessly for a moment before abruptly finding himself on dry land once again. He crawled along the muddy beach, away from the waves, and fell on his back. He lay there for several seconds, heartbeat slowing and breath steadying. When at last he opened his eyes, calm once more, he was gazing up at a peaceful, beautiful world of stars.
A sapphire blue face came into his vision, looking down at him with an expression of mild annoyance. “Someday you will stop having this nightmare, Fine, and when you do I will kiss you for sparing me the trouble of having to come to your aid.”
“Nice to see you too, Luna,” he muttered weakly.
She glowered and shook her head, but stepped back. He turned onto his belly and tried his legs. They wobbled, but held. “I appreciate you coming again,” he confessed, “but I did say you didn’t have to. After what I had to go through in the Door of Fears, these nightmares really aren’t so bad.”
She raised her eyebrows critically. “You’re shaking like a leaf.”
“I didn’t say the nightmares don’t scare me,” he noted unhappily. “They’re just not as scary as the real thing.”
The Princess sighed in a tired manner. “I did not come here to debate the difference between dreams and reality, Fine. And for once I didn’t even come here to help you.”
She had his attention. He stood tall and gave her a serious look. “This is the first time you’ve come to my dreams on business. It must be important.”
But Luna shook her head once more, her face deathly serious. “I am not here on business either. At least not directly. I am here because I just read the scroll you left in my room. Remind me later to have a different talk with you about the privacy of royalty.”
He didn’t have to ask the question. The answer was clear on her face. “You don’t approve of my plan.”
“No Fine,” she answered solemnly, “I do not.”
He cringed. “I included my references. Surely you saw the documentation. It could work!”
She stomped her hoof fiercely, and when she did the entire dream world erupted in a flash of thunder. He backed away cautiously, suddenly a little worried. When she spoke her voice had that regal tone that made her anger clear. “That was not evidence, Fine. It was a handful of tales recorded from hearsay. You are proposing a dangerous gamble that could endanger not just the lives of innocent ponies, but one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony! And what of your life? Have you even considered what we – what I – might have to do should this plan fail?”
She wasn’t just a little annoyed with him this time. He knew better than to keep to his informal nature: he dropped to his knees and bowed. “Princess, please! Hear me out.”
“Your letter explained everything I needed to know,” she snapped forcefully. “And I am telling you now: I will not assist in this fool’s errand. You will give this plan up, Fine Crime, and you will do so immediately!”
He jumped to his hooves, desperation filling him in the face of her anger. “You can’t ask me to do that!”
She took an ominous step forward, her horn glowing threateningly. “No?”
But this was too important for him to be cowed now. “I don’t want to kill anymore!” He stepped forward into another bow. “Please, Princess! This might be my only chance for a solution. Let me try!”
“Fine!” Suddenly her tone was no longer angry; it was urgent, worried. “You are a smart pony, more so than most. Surely you must see that the chances of this plan working are slim!”
He looked up at her imploringly from just before her hooves. “Yes, I know. I know that. But I have combed through countless tomes, explored every avenue of research. In all my life I have never found so much as a hint of a cure, except for this. I know it’s risky, but I have to try! Please!” He was in tears. He didn’t even know why, but he was. He miserably lowered his head into the muddy sands. “Don’t condemn me, Luna. Please, don’t make me spend the rest of my life like this. I never wanted to be a bloodmane.”
The Princess listened to him solemnly for several unhappy seconds, then finally sighed and knelt before him. “Fine…” she whispered, “…I know this is hard for you, but…”
He jerked away from her, anger filling him. “Do you, Luna? Do you really? Have you stood over your father while he was sleeping and seriously thought about taking a knife to him?”
“Calm down,” she ordered patiently. “Sit.” He wanted to argue, to say something mean, but even if she weren’t the Princess of the Night he just didn’t have the emotional energy. So he sat.
She studied him for a moment, as if to make sure he wasn’t going to interrupt, before speaking again. “Fine, there are so many risks to this plan. I do not approve of it, and I want to be certain that you understand why. To begin, just because a few guards insisted that a bloodmane who lived centuries ago was extremely calm during the last week before execution is no proof that she was cured. And that’s not considering that the accounts of these guards were taken as hearsay.”
He glowered, but only looked away without saying anything. He knew she was right, and so did she.
“Second,” she went on ominously, “you are talking about sealing yourself off, possibly for months at a time, to suffer from severe withdrawal. Are you sure your mind can take that kind of torture?”
He’d considered that too, and even now he wasn’t sure. He didn’t have to answer, though; his expression alone was enough to make his doubt clear.
“Third, the pony you’ve chosen to look after you is perhaps the least prepared to do so. What if Fluttershy cannot handle the pressures of taking care of you? What if she doesn’t agree to do it at all? I would think she’d not dare try.”
Now that he could speak towards. “Fluttershy will help,” he told her seriously. At her doubting look he added, “you also didn’t think she’d help with the Door of Fears.”
“This isn’t anything like walking through a dream state, Fine,” the Princess lectured darkly. “She will have to feed you, clean you, look to your health in every way. She’ll have to do so while putting up with a dangerous stallion who one can only imagine will be raging to be freed. What if the bonds holding you fail? You are putting her life on the line.”
“I won’t hurt her,” he declared forcefully. “I can’t: she’s immune to the visions.”
But Luna was by no means comforted. “You don’t have to have a vision to harm a pony, Fine. You know that. Can you be certain?”
“I can,” he declared with no less gravity. “I would never hurt Fluttershy, Luna. Not ever.”
“If only I could be so certain,” she replied gravely. “And what about your fate in all this? What if you are wrong, and this method doesn’t cure you at all? Eventually a decision will have to be made, Fine, and you will be in no condition to make it. If we freed you then, you may be uncontrollable. You could kill countless ponies in your bloodlust!”
He bowed his head, knowing he had no argument against this.
“If it came to that point, Fine… If I had to make the choice between trying to set you free or… or the alternative… I’d take the alternative.”
“And you’d be right to,” he admitted sorrowfully.
Even then, she wasn’t finished. “Months. Months with you not around to help the team we only just finished forming! Months gone by without the Mane Archon leading his organization at all. Will your responsibilities take a back seat to this? And should it fail, should I have to take extreme measures, what then? This team still needs you.”
“I know all that,” he whispered, looking into her beautiful cyan eyes. “I know all of it. But believe me, Luna: in my mind it is nothing compared to what I might gain. This is more important to me than anything I have ever done in my life, because it is my life. I’m tired of being scared of what I might do. I’m sick of having to enter the dungeons every month looking for some poor unlucky bastard to gut. I would give anything to just be a normal pony again.”
There was a long, uncomfortable pause as they stared at one another. Her expression was entirely unreadable. Had he gotten to her? Was she not moved at all? He had no way of knowing, but those eyes were boring into his as if they could see into his very soul. He couldn’t match them, so he lowered his head miserably and awaited her verdict. What else could he do?
At long last, she sighed. “I do not want to help you with this, Fine,” the Princess confessed, “but I can see how important it is to you. I need to think on the matter for a while. Perhaps you should think on it some more, too.”
She stood and turned, her magnificent wings opening wide and majestic in the night sky. Just before she lifted off he answered her: “I have been thinking about it, Luna.
“I’ve been thinking about it for twenty years.”
The ponies were all gathered at the Canterlot air docks, a large passenger blimp readying for departure. The place was alive with activity, from the workers piling luggage into the undercabin to the stewardess ponies seeing the passengers to their places.
Everyone was saying their goodbyes. Near the boarding platform Upper Crust was kissing her husband in a manner that hardly seemed appropriate for public display. Applejack wasn’t far away, saying goodbye to her relatively large family. At a spot rather far off from the open-air edge was Octavia talking with an uncertain expression to Fine Crime and Rarity. Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Lightning were laughing together. And there was Twilight and Spike, having an animated discussion with Princess Celestia, who had come to see everypony off.
And among all of it Nye was sitting before his brother, shuffling anxiously. “You’re going to write to me when you get there, yeah?”
Jimmy rolled his eyes with a smile. “Yes, bro, for the last time! How in Equestria did you ever survive a year on your own?”
Nye shrugged unhappily. “Back then I thought you were in pop’s lap. Besides, I’m really more worried about what you’re going to do without me.”
“Me?” Jimmy asked incredulously. “You really think I can’t take care of myself?”
“Not really,” his brother confessed.
“That sounds amazing coming from you,” the elder twin noted with a chuckle. “Don’t worry, I’ve got five ponies to work with. It’s a diplomatic mission, Nye. Stop acting like I’m going off to war.”
“I know,” Nye grumbled. “I just can’t shake the feeling that we should be going together.”
“Oh, come off it! We both know you only want to go so you can be with Rainbow Dash.”
Nye sat up straight and gave his brother a harsh, angry look. “You never did get it, Jim. Even when we were colts.”
Jimmy was clearly caught off guard by his brother’s abrupt change in tone. He tilted his head uncertainly and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Forget it,” Nye grumbled unhappily. “Just… be careful, alright?”
Jimmy looked as though he wanted to press the issue. Nye was hoping he would. But he didn’t. “Don’t worry, bro, I will. You stay out of trouble while I’m gone, y’hear me?”
“Yeah yeah.” The two shared a brief hug, his sarcasm coming out despite his mood. “No crazy drunken parties or anything like that.”
“Exactly,” the elder brother agreed with a grin. “Besides, that’s Pinkie’s area!”
Nye watched his brother head for Rarity, feeling less worried and more annoyed. That stallion was going to be just like their father if he didn’t figure things out soon. The worst part was that Nye had no idea what he could do about it. Maybe there wasn’t anything he could do…
“Hey, Nye!” It was Rainbow, who abruptly appeared over his head with a grin. “How the heck are you gonna get by without me to look after your hide?”
It was supposed to be a joke, but he was in no mood for them. He was glad to see her, though. “Rainbow… can we talk?”
“Sure, what’s up?” He glanced around at all the ponies wandering about on the busy dock. He couldn’t say the things he wanted to here, not if she was going to talk properly, so he gestured that she should follow. He made his way behind some large cargo crates where nopony was around, and she followed behind uncertainly. “Nye, what’s this all about?”
He turned to her and sat. For once he knew exactly what he wanted to say. “It’s about me. What am I supposed to do while you’re gone?”
She landed, looking not just a little confused. “What do you mean? I’m sure you’ve got plenty of things to…”
He shook his head unhappily. “That’s not what I’m talking about!” He sighed at her puzzled expression. “I mean… you’re gonna go off on this mission, maybe be a hero again.”
She smiled smugly and posed. “Well yeah, that is kinda what I do.”
“What about me?” he asked, lowering his head forlornly. “I wanted to go with you.”
“Hey, your job’s important too,” she noted helpfully, patting him on the shoulder. “What if something goes wrong over here?”
But he shook his head. “You don’t get it. What’s the point of me doing anything if you’re not around to see it?”
Now she really looked confused. She sat and scratched her head in a nervous manner. “Nye… I’m not sure what you’re trying to say.”
“You’re a hero, Dash,” he explained. He waved a hoof towards the blimp. “You, Twilight, all the others, you’re all heroes in your own way. What am I? I’m just me. I don’t feel like I contribute anything to any of it… being left out of this mission just seems to hammer that fact home.”
Recognition dawned on her face at last. She smiled comfortingly and sat next to him, bumping him lightly with her shoulder. “Come on Nye, you’re not so bad. I mean you did help me out in the Everfree Forest, right?”
“Well yeah,” he agreed, though he wasn’t comforted. “I had to. But I haven’t really done anything else, have I?”
“It was important to me,” she noted. “And Scootaloo, too. I’m sure when the time comes you’ll be just as awesome as you were then! Everyone will know that you’re a great guy, and…”
“Rainbow.” His serious, sad manner cut her off. “You know you’re important to me, right?”
The blue pegasus blushed and shifted nervously. He was putting her outside her comfort zone again. “Well… yeah… I guess…”
“I’m afraid, Dash,” he confessed, not daring to look at her. “You’re so… everything. Strong, confident, athletic, respected, pretty…” her face went an extra shade of red, “…fast, capable, brave. There are so many things you have. Compared to you I’m nothing. I need to DO something, Rainbow. I have to measure up. If I can’t… I want to deserve you. I don’t, not right now. What if a real stallion comes along, one who can really impress? Like a Wonderbolt. What am I gonna do then?”
For a long time he simply sat there with eyes on his hooves. He’d finally said it, the thing that had been bothering him ever since this dumb mission had been announced. To him it was important that she knew, even though he couldn’t imagine what her response might be. A hundred possibilities ran through his mind, none of them pleasant.
And the response she picked didn’t match any of them: after glancing around to make sure nopony was watching she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
He gaped at her blushing, smiling face, his entire body rigid with shock. Did she really just…?
“That’s… sweet,” she confessed, looking as if the word felt strange on her tongue. “You don’t have to prove yourself to me, Nye. You’re already a hero in my book.”
He felt his face burning. “You mean it?”
“Yeah, I do. But,” she pressed a hoof against his chest warningly, “if you tell anypony I did that I swear to Celestia I’ll drop a Sonic Rainboom so hard on your head they’ll be feeling the shockwaves in Manehattan!”
He stared at her hoof as if it were dangerous for a moment, then smiled. “Alright… then I’ll just have to tell them I did it to you, instead.”
“What…?”
He leaned forward and pecked a kiss right on her lips. She fell back from him into a sitting position, blushing even more wildly than before and looking about frantically. “W-would you stop it already? I have a reputation to keep!” She was grinning, though.
He laughed for a moment, and then stared at her happily for several seconds. She blushed and shifted, for once at a loss for words. He was so glad he’d met her… “Come back soon, okay?”
She grinned and hopped into the air. “Y-yeah, I promise.”
“And take care of my brother.”
“I will. Now stop trying to butter me up! You’re throwing me off my groove.”
Abruptly there was a loud cracking sound. The two ponies looked up to see Lightning Dust, who’d apparently just landed hard atop one of the crates. Keen was on her back, peering down at them from over her mane. “Hey, love bird,” Lightning barked with a smirk, “the ship’s gonna leave without you if ya don’t hurry up!”
“Oh, right,” Rainbow replied with a blush as she rose up into the air. “Keep the skies clear for me while I’m gone, LD. See ya later, Nye!”
And just like that she was gone, a rainbow in her wake. Nye watched it fade with a happy smile, then noticed that Lightning and Keen were both watching him with interest. “…what?”
Lightning shrugged, the motion nearly toppling the unicorn filly from her back. “Nothing. I’m just wondering how a stallion like you netted a mare like her.”
He grinned and shook his head. “I have no idea.”
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still amazingly awesome
Your enthusiasm pleases me.
Still loving it though one little thing.
I have two ideas about this.
A: I do not know English.
B: You might have made a mistake :P
At this point I am leaning towards option A, whats your opinion?
5347300
Option B. Issue has been located and culled.
Missing t
*going
Extra space
The LUS, the saidisms, and the excessive adverbs are starting to grate. I know you warned me about the lack of editing, but I just have to put it out there that it's starting to grate.
At this point, I'd like to know how Jet Set got rich and stays rich, because if he does do some work to maintain his holdings, then what Upper Crust said to him is astoundingly arrogant. The poor bastard is in an abusive relationship. His wife insults him to his face because of her self-loathing and he barely has a clue why. I don't think she's grown. I think she's shifted from one extreme to another and, instead of sneering at the peasants, she's sneering at the nobby folk. A quote I'm fond of in the Book of Exalted Deeds goes something like this: "More than any other hero, it is the redeemed villain who truly understands that no one is beyond salvation." Upper Crust may not be a villain, but she was a rich bitch who saw her folly. She doesn't reflect this given her attitude towards the other Canterlot nobles. She has no sympathy for them and doesn't consider that they might be as misguided as she was. Her husband seems the only exemption, but the way she talks about "getting through to him" sounds like so much talking down. There's no sense of equality here that one might expect from a married couple. It comes off more like he's a student and she's the teacher.
I like Jimmy's conversation with Rarity. He's got a lot going on inside that's pulling him in different directions. I like that he is his father's son in some ways and this stirs up some fears in him. Nye seems more like their mom, so it's easy for him to reject heir father, but Jimmy might nit find that as convenient.
Sweetie, get your mind out of the sidewalk (not quite the gutter)
Right
Forgot these two were together
I mostly assume Rainbow is dating Applejack but that's just me and reading too many fics
I don't think Jimmy would ever end up like his father, not completely anyway. For all the jokes about Rainbow's ego, Stickin Stone was a true blue narcissist who aside from his deceased wife loved only himself. His legacy trumped everything else, and he didn't care who he stepped on, used, or hurt in the pursuit of this goal.
Jim might be a chronic workaholic, but I don't see him being the type to happily stab competitors in the back for his "grand legacy".
True, he could do better about not caring as much about his PR and take more time to "smell the roses" but considering how he was raised, his foibles are not entirely his fault.
I think it's a little rich that Rarity of all ponies is the one to lecture him.
10665663
That Rarity has made the same mistakes is exactly what makes her the perfect pony to do the lecturing.