Six Standard Deviations from the Mean

by ArtichokeLust

Ask for help

"...Very well," Celestia gave in. "However," She stared back at her sister, "I will want to keep an eye on him, and keep Clair's powers in check."

'This doesn't sound good...' Clair and Dom thought at once.

"I don't agree to this," Dom protested.

"Silence," Celestia glared.

Luna nodded, then cast her magic on Clair. Clair doubled over and clutched her stomach once again, and tried teleporting out of the way of the magic, but teleporting was exactly what Luna's magic was meant to counteract, as well as any other magic, just to be safe. Clair glared at Luna.

"My apologies," Luna said once the magic was cast, "but 'tis the safest course of action. For thee and for us."

Celestia produced a bracelet with her magic and clamped it onto Dom's left wrist.

"This is a huge invasion of privacy," Dom said.

"The bracelet will only warn me if you come close to harming any of my ponies or go into places you shouldn't," Celestia explained.

"And what does it do other than warn you?" Dom asked.

Celestia stepped back a bit in surprise, then just glared back. The bracelet also kept a history of his movements, any magic used around him, and a video recording. But he didn't have to know that. "Nothing," She lied, staring Dom directly in the face.

Dom stared back at Celestia, unsure.

Celestia walked towards the door, "I'll remove it once I feel I can trust you." She said.

Luna looked at Dom apologetically, then cringed a bit when she saw the bracelet. She sighed, "Thank thee for reminding us of that law. We shall have it changed posthaste." She yawned, "Tomorrow, night..." She made to walk out the door.

"Wait," Dom spoke up. Luna stopped and looked back.

"You never told us your names," Clair reminded her.

Luna jumped slightly in surprise, then face-hoofed, "Forgive us," she said, "we were caught up in the moment and forgot our formalities."

"We-- I am Luna" She placed her hoof to her chest, "The white alicorn was Celestia. We called her Tia, but thou should refrain from doing so."

"The other--" Luna stopped herself, "Actually, we will let them introduce theirselves." She walked out the door, glancing back once at the battered human male and the tired looking female.

Clair pushed herself up and walked to the window. She observed the mid-day sun.

"It's been one and a half days," She spoke to Dom, not looking away from the window.

"..."

"You realize that by now your family has probably filed a missing person's report." Clair continued.

Dom sighed.

"One more day and it will be Monday. You'll need a good excuse for your absence for your work and school, and your friends." She said.

Dom looked out the window.

"And if you're gone for more than a couple weeks, your work may fire you, you will have to repeat your last semester, and it will be even harder lying to your friends about your absence," She turned around. Dom noticed that her clothing was perfectly clean; you couldn't even see a single speck of dirt on the red heart on her chest, "And that's assuming you don't wind up back in your room at home. That would make explanations even harder."

Dom and Clair stared at each other in silence. 'Wait a minute,' Dom thought, 'wasn't that heart supposed to be pink?'

Clair glanced down at it, then shrugged.

"Come on," She said, walking out the door.

Dom followed.

"Oh," Clair spoke up, "You might want to ask Rarity for some new clothes."

Dom made it out of the door.

...

"Suurrrpriiisssssss!" Pinkie threw confetti everywhere and opened her arms as the lights turned on, but stopped when she saw Dom.

"What?" Dom asked.

"Maaaybe the surprise can wait untill later," Pinkie, fell back down to four hooves, "Come on, we have to see Rainbow Dash," She turned back around, "and you could use a visit to the hospital too." She turned back again, "I'm Pinkie Pie by the way." She turned and darted out the door in a hurry.

Clair and Dom chased after her.

"Nice to meet you," Clair spoke up, "I'm Clair, he's Dom."

"Hmm," Pinkie thought out loud while jogging to the hospital, "those are strange names. I can't even shorten them... unless," She turned to look at the humans, "C & D!"

"Please don't call me D." Dom deadpanned.

"...Fine," Pinkie slumped.

"Actually," Clair said, "Dom's already short for Domenic."

"Oh." Pinkie said, then stopped abruptly, "We're here!"

She ran inside the hospital and up the stairs, straight to Rainbow Dash's room.

"Hiya!" Pinkie waved. the other five ponies in the room smiled at her, then looked confused at the humans behind her.

"Pinkie!" Twilight yelled, "How could you bring them here"

Dom noticed something strange about his hearing. Was he dehydrated? This only happened when he was seriously dehydrated.

...

'But I'm in a hospital,' Dom thought, 'I'm safe.'

Dom felt intense pain throughout his entire body. He passed out.

---

"Well there's your problem," The doctor said, "I treat ponies, not... humans."

'Oh no not this shit,' Dom willed himself awake.

Clair came into existence grasping the doctor's neck. She didn't look like she was faring well either; she looked exhausted.

"We are going to die!" She said.

"I'm sorry, but--"

Clair picked him up by the neck, "Check for broken bones, bruises, internal bleeding. Everything! It doesn't matter if we're different species!"

The doctor swallowed, "Yeah, but--"

"I will fucking murder you with the last of my energy!" Clair yelled.

"Stop!" Fluttershy yelled.

A white light formed in the center of the room, creating a blast of power strong enough to knock a few pictures off the wall. Celestia stepped out.

"This didn't take long..." She sighed.

Clair slumped, awaiting death. She dropped the doctor.

Celestia walked over to Dom, "so you finally show your true colors. Now I'm curious why you refrained from killing my ponies before?" She thought, "Perhaps you weren't able to..."

She put her hoof on the table.

"Celestia STOP!" Fluttershy swooped in and stared directly into Celestia's eyes.

Celestia could have easily countered the effects of the stare, but she was too shocked that Fluttershy was actually using it on her.

"This is a wounded creature fighting for its life!" Fluttershy yelled, "And you are the one of the ponies who wounded it! I will not let this creature be wounded further because he was frustrated that he wasn't getting treatment."

Fluttershy swooped over to the doctor, "And you!" she yelled, "Clair is right, there is no difference between internal injuries in ponies and most other animals, and if we take the time to move him to a vet, he may die."

Celestia glared at Fluttershy. Fluttershy glared back...

Celestia pondered ignoring Fluttershy and bringing Dom back to the castle for a trial... But Fluttershy was Twilight's friend. Not only would it alienate Twilight and the rest of her friends, it could potentially be dangerous, depending on how vocal Fluttershy and her closer friends could be. After hearing Fluttershy at the gala, she assumed she could be pretty vocal when she wanted to be.

"...Very well," Celestia submitted, then looked at the doctor, "He will be treated here..." She looked back to Fluttershy, "and will receive the best treatment possible." She looked back to the doctor, "That is a royal order."

"V- Very well, your majesty," The doctor bowed, almost stumbling.

Celestia glanced at Fluttershy once more, then walked out of the room.

Dom closed his eyes and fell back to sleep. Clair disappeared.

Fluttershy shuddered, remembering Dom and Clair as they walked in behind Pinkie. Dom had a broken nose along with a huge bruise on his face, bloody knuckles, and was slouching at an odd angle, as if to compensate for a thrown back or a spinal injury. He was also covered in sweat, and looked starved. Clair looked uninjured, but similarly starved and exhausted, and the heart on her shirt looked like it was made of blood-red crumpled paper. She could've sworn it didn't look like that before Dom and Clair went into the room with Luna and Celestia.

Then Dom fell down. Clair tried to stop him from falling, but faded out of existence. Luckily, Pinkie Pie caught him.

Each time she remembered the scene, she questioned Celestia once more.

She remebered Dom countering both the effects of her stare, and her argument. From what she heard from Pinkie and from Rainbow Dash's doctor, Dom should have easily been able to at least kill Rainbow Dash. And if Dom thought purely logically like many of the Everfree animals, he should have killed the elements to make sure they didn't attack him again, and then he should have fled the scene. In fact, he might be in better shape right now if he did that.

He chose to trust the ponies.

Well, Fluttershy was determined to show him that he had not made the wrong decision!

---

Dom woke up to the sound of some beeping noises... a heart monitor...

He moved to get up, but Clair's voice stopped him.

'Dom,' She thought, 'wait before getting up... They don't know when we're supposed to be conscious again, and who knows what will happen next.'

'Right...' Dom let his muscles go slack, and concentrated.

Fire of every hue sprouted from from a single point in front of him, then moved downwards, spreading out into a floor beneath his feet. He raised the floor, touching it to his feet.

The fire spread infinitely in every direction. The sky filled with fire in intricate dance, matching memories as one watched it. The ground twisted and squished into buildings of multi-colored fire around him, forming houses, rooms, and bending space into non-euclidian forms. Dom knew that if he went through one entrance, he was just as likely to be the same distance away from his starting point as you'd expect, as he was to be somewhere else entirely. The ground curved above him, swallowing him in a 3D labyrinth where only he knew directions.

Clair stepped out from behind him and produced a chair for herself, also made of fire.

"It's been a while since we were last here," she smiled, looking around.

Dom was staring at her chest, bemused. He chuckled, "...Is that a status indicator now?" He said.

Clair looked down at the large heart on her shirt. It looked a little too red and shattered, but there was also a band-aid on top of it.

"Huh," She looked down at it, touching the band-aid, "...I guess it is..."

"Anyway," Clair snapped her fingers. A table burst into existence between them and a chair burst into existence behind Dom. The table had a black and white checkerboard built into it, and the chair was the same as Clair's. Dom sat.

Clair waved over the board, several chess pieces came into existence in likeness of the mane six, Celestia and Luna, and several question mark pieces, one of which has nurse attire on. Dom waved his hand on his side of the board, bringing Dom and Clair chess pieces into existence. Clair thought for a second, then waved her hand over again, placing a door behind Celestia.

Clair tapped the Celestia chess piece. A holographic display popped up in the air, showing Dom all the information he had on Celestia.

"Here's our main problem," Clair started. "Celestia holds extreme prejudice against humans, but is key to finding out about any magic that may get us back home, or, even better, open a passage way between Equestria and Earth, and keep it open."

Dom looked at the hologram above Celestia. Blurred data turned into scenes involving her. Scenes played of her fighting Discord, Chrysalis, and Sombra. She mostly preferred to fight from behind the scenes. 'Unless,' Dom hypothesized, 'She thinks she can reliably defeat her enemy by herself, or maybe if she doesn't have time to plan. Or perhaps she wants to level Twilight and her friends.' The scene showed Celestia being defeated by Chrysalis.

"Luna," Clair touched Luna's chess piece, destroying Celestia's hologram and creating a new one by Luna, "Is somewhat of an unknown." The scene of Luna arriving after Chrysalis's defeat showed in the hologram.

Clair continued, "She shows a love for performances," the scene changed to Nightmare Moon showing off in front of everybody, treating take-over like a play, "And she's much closer to the ponies than her sister." A scene appeared above Celestia, showing rows of ponies bowing to her, and her running away from a failed gala. The scene above Luna changed into her talking to Pip during nightmare night. "If the sisters are both political leaders," Clair summarized, "Luna should specialize in public relations."

"Also," The scene above Luna changed to after she was defeated by the elements, and beside it was the scene of Luna guarding Dom and Clair, shouting, 'It would be the height of hypocrisy not to!', "It appears she can relate to our situation."

Clair grabbed the Luna piece and slid it over to Dom. Dom caught it, and placed it in front of his pieces, facing Celestia and the others.

"Fluttershy," As Clair touched the Fluttershy piece, several scenes popped up above its head. One was her crying for Angel. One was her facing the mirror in her boarded up house, believing she was a monster. One was her caring for Discord when he was sick. One was her scolding a dragon. The last one was her screaming at Celestia, "is protective, perhaps overly. She's a motherly type, and has a strong sense of righteousness."

Clair slid the chess piece over to Dom, carefully.

Dom gently caught the piece, continuing where Clair left off, "as long as she believes we are in the right, she will help us."

Dom pointed at Twilight, scenes popped over her head as well. They were of her constantly abusing magic, trying to disprove Pinkie's rare ability instead of truly testing it, and constantly, blindly following Celestia. "She's self-righteous, and she trusts Celestia more than she does herself."

The scene above Twilight changed to one of Celestia failing Twilight, seen when facing Sombra. It was her worst nightmare. "Perhaps we can convince her that she should trust herself more..."

Clair shook her head, "If we tried to do that ourselves, it would take days, if not weeks."

Dom nodded.

Clair moved the piece directly in front of Celestia.

Dom pointed to Pinkie's piece, several scenes with her throwing different parties showed up, "She is at heart a party planner, and needs other ponies' approval" The scene above Pinkie changed to the one in Party of One, "If we were to pit her friends against each other, she would side with the majority."

Dom and Clair picked up Pinkie's piece together, and placed her directly in the center.

Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack's pieces lit up.

"Applejack," Dom said, "Strong family ties, of which Pinkie is now a part of," Pinkie and Applejack in a raft on a river showed above Applejack's head, "and Fluttershy is strongly Pinkie's friend," the scene with Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie shopping showed up, "and Applejack constantly disagrees with Rarity." The scene with Rarity and Applejack's sleepover showed up.

"Rainbow Dash," Clair continued, "Strong ties to Fluttershy, and growing ties to Pinkie Pie" Scenes appeard, showing Rainbow Dash protecting Fluttershy as a filly, Rainbow Dash playing pranks with Pinkie, and Pinkie throwing Rainbow Dash's birthday and Ponyville anniversary.

"Rarity," Dom pointed, "Loves fashion," Dom's clothes showed up above Rarity's head, "and high-society," Twilight showed up above Rarity.

Clair moved Rarity closer to Dom, Applejack closer to Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash closer to Fluttershy and Pinkie.

"Show connections," Clair commanded. Several lines appeared on the board, some much stronger than others. The lines between Fluttershy and Pinkie were very strong, and the lines between Celestia, Luna, and Twilight were very strong. The combined line weight between Twilight and the mane six seemed just as strong as the line between Celestia and Twilight. But the line between Celestia and Luna was stronger, though the line from Luna to Twilight was also much stronger than between Luna and the rest of the mane six.

"What about the unknowns?" Dom asked.

Clair slid the question mark in nurse's clothes next to Dom and Clair, opposite of the mane six. It had an env. with a plus above it, meaning it had power over hospital environments. "Nurses will typically be on the side of their patients, especially if you appear kind and thankful," Clair explained.

Dom paused, looking at all the lines...

"The connections between the nurse and Fluttershy are the strongest for us, we should use them to convince Pinkie to side with us," A scene appeared above Pinkie's head. This time it was one of Dom calling up an old friend from middle school, and hearing that his entire group of friends broke apart after he left. They said they just didn't have anything to talk about anymore. "Since Pinkie's the lynchpin for the mane six..."

Clair reorganized the mane six into a hexagon. The lines between Pinkie and everyone else were clearly the strongest. "It's true," She said, "If Pinkie were removed on top of the Elements of Harmony being removed, the six would probably break up into Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and maybe Rarity as friends, Rainbow Dash and Applejack as friends, and maybe Rarity and Twilight as friends and the rest as acquaintances in the long term... though that's only if they don't feel any obligation to join, which Twilight would provide."

"Oh," Clair spoke up, "Perhaps we can get Rainbow Dash to like us if we apologize and give her a few pointers on fighting, then that might get Applejack on our side, and we'll have the strongest connections to Fluttershy... and we'll already have a half of the gang. Then we just need Rarity, who you can talk about your fashion problem with."

Dom looked down at his one pair of clothes. It was drenched with sweat.

The world faded into black. Dom woke up, and tried to sit.

"Whoa there," Nurse red-heart placed a gentle hoof on Dom's chest and gave him an apologetic smile. Dom looked down and noticed several bandages around his feet, hands, abdomen and back, as well as a few things on his face, probably for a broken nose.

He looked around. The rest of the mane six were here, continually looking between him and another gurney. Apparently he was in the same room as Rainbow Dash. That was lucky...

Seeing that Dom was finally awake, Twilight stepped forward.

"I see Celestia didn't find you so trustworthy after all," she smirked, looking at his left wrist, "That bracelet is meant for monitoring past criminals. It keeps a record of their locations, surrounding magic, and video in case they try to plot anything."

'Fucking bitch,' Dom thought, then smirked, "Actually, I think she wanted to keep that a secret from me,"

Twilight blanched.

"But I'm glad I already have good friends who will tell me the truth." Dom tried to keep his shit-eating grin to a friendly smile. It was hard.

Twilight snarled, then turned back to Rainbow Dash.

Dom thought for a bit. He almost spoke, but berated himself from almost saying a name he shouldn't know. Then he noticed the a label, "Rainbow Dash", near Rainbow Dash's bed.

He turned to nurse red-heart, "Could you move me close to Rainbow Dash?" he asked, "I have something I need to talk to her and her friends about."

Red Heart looked between the gurneys, shrugged, and finally nodded, "Okay." She rolled the gurney to the spot directly beside Rainbow Dash, then moved the empty gurney where he was previously.

"Thanks." Dom smiled.

"You're welcome." Nurse Red Heart smiled back.

Dom opened the curtain between them, "So you're 'Rainbow Dash'."

The entirety of the mane six turned to look at Dom.

Author's Note:

Dom's mind-scape:

...

Good lord I could have had this done Friday morning... Why can't I just say no to people?

Comments

[poisedanimeBloke]

Loved it. I especially loved the 'mindscape' and the chess board.

It is a perfect way to plan out their course of actions.

[Changeling-Drone]

As long as he doesn't try to pull a sunset shimmer and completely destroy there friendship (for a whil at least) and keep him logical but kind I'll smile smile smile

[ArtichokeLust]

3952443

Thanks!

3952732

Well, I don't think it really makes any sense for him to try and destroy their friendship right now.

Then again, I'm not really sure it made sense with Sunset Shimmer... I think what she did may have just been out of spite.

[Godiswithus3]

You sir got a very strong imagination. I'll give you that.

[Teikan]

Refutation is verification. She did the right thing when she didn't believe in pink

[Teikan]

Rainbow Dash can move at the speed of sound. It is worth saying "why did you let me win? I saw how fast you can be and if you used all your strength, I would not even have time to turn around."