Intake
“I guess now we know what it takes to close the school early,” Scootaloo quipped, trotting back up to Apple Bloom, there outside the school on the bright green lawn. Apple Bloom forgot to laugh.
Scootaloo’s earth pony friend looked kind of lost actually, like there was something bothering her that she was having trouble letting go. “You okay, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked. She glanced over toward the center of a mess of adults, where a blonde haired boy sat on the ground, with a blanket on him for some reason, staring off into nothing.
“Ah dunno if ah like magic,” Apple Bloom said resentfully, drawing Scootaloo’s attention again.
“Are you kidding?” Scootaloo exclaimed, incredulous, “Your magic... thing helped everyone stop him!”
“It don’t make any sense, though!” protested her glum, yellow and red friend, “Ah wasn’t using no magic. I was just thinking about it, and I figured that he wasn’t just up there admiring the view. But... but... and if ah had thought that a second later, it mighta been too late.”
“It couldn’t have been a coincidence that he was up there!” Scootaloo insisted, “I think it was your ‘earth pony intuition’ or whatever they’re calling it.”
“I sat there all through class, wondering what wasn’t... what wasn’t quite right with it all,” Apple Bloom said disconsolately, “What if ah had sat there longer? What if Perfessor Berry hadn’t reminded me?”
“She did though,” Scootaloo pointed out, “And you didn’t just sit there. You were there just in time.”
“Why couldn’t it have been earlier?” Apple Bloom responded angrily. “All this time, ah never thought the bullying was getting to him that much. None of us knew anything was going on until he was already up there. How long was he sitting up there, waiting for someone to stop him?”
“Earlier would have been nice,” Scootaloo admitted, “But none of us noticed anything was going on. He was bummed about Diamond Tiara, and some kids were picking on him for doing it to her, and then... this,” she waved a forehoof around the scene in general. The students were still milling around outside on the courtyard while the staff decided what to do with everyone. The day was bright and sunny, and the grass was green underhoof. The big, rectangular building sat there like a somber edifice, inserted in the middle of a beautiful day.
“If it’d been earlier, he would have just hidden it,” Scootaloo assured Apple Bloom, “You had to be there right then, or nobody would know for sure there was something wrong.”
“We coulda been a little more attentive,” Apple Bloom grumbled glaring at the grass. “We all knew there was something wrong, just didn’t do anything about it until... until some magic thing forced me to.”
“You saved his life! ” Scootaloo pleaded to the droopy bowed filly.
Apple Bloom looked over at Scootaloo sadly, and replied, “Ah couldn’t stop him from jumping, though.”
Scootaloo didn’t really know what to say to that.
Sweetie Belle did though. “Hey you two!” she said brightly, trotting over to them, “You are missing the announcement! The principal said we should take the rest of the day off, but be ready to hit the books in the morning.”
“Guess two days is too much to ask,” Scootaloo said with a weary yawn.
“At least we have some time to talk with the pony girls,” Apple Bloom said. “Never thought a dream’d lead us to pulling some boy offa roof.”
“I wonder what was really bothering him?” Sweetie pondered, with a steady look at the boy who was being led to a white van labeled “Canterlot General Psychiatric Services” with all the enthusiasm of an execution.
“Besides the bullying, and making Diamond Tiara pregnant?” Scootaloo offered wryly. Sweetie Belle nodded.
“He talked to me a little,” Apple Bloom said quietly. “About what he did to her, and feeling useless. He’s gonna be a little kid pony just like us, but he might have a baby!”
“So, like Piña Colada,” Sweetie Belle prompted unhelpfully.
“That girl/mom is so cheerful, so that can’t be the only problem,” Scootaloo agreed with a roll of her eyes. “There’s definitely something else wrong.”
“The only other thing he said was about being an orphan and all. You know, without a family?” Apple Bloom said uncertainly. “Maybe he just misses his momma.”
“I miss my mom,” Sweetie Belle said glumly. “And my dad. It’s so strange that I’m technically... you know, and Apple Bloom is too.”
“Hey, cheer up Sweetie,” Scootaloo said, laying a hoof on her shoulder. “Maybe your parents are... wherever the dream princess is being held captive.”
Sweetie shrugged unenthusiastically underneath Scootaloo’s arm. “I still have Rarity,” she said, “And you have your mom, and Apple Bloom has a wonderful family too. But kids like Dinky and Diamond Tiara, they don’t have anyone.”
“Pretty sure Diamond ain’t gonna jump offa building,” Apple Bloom said dryly.
Sweetie Belle groaned at that and slumped her head. “So much for that theory,” she grumbled in frustration.
“It ain’t really our business, figuring out what pushed him over the edge,” Apple Bloom told her soothingly. “Let’s leave that up to th’ perfessionals, and try to take care of our own business.”
Dinky had a lot to think about. He didn’t even know Canterlot had a mental ward. What kind of a psychologist was he shaping up to be, if he didn’t even know that? He did know that he was absolutely terrified to be here. People here had problems. The doors had locks on the outside. They watched you and watched you, because they didn’t trust you. It was a place for people who couldn’t speak in anything other than rambling made-up words. People who needed assistance eating, because they didn’t care enough to do so themselves. No seriously, Dinky actually saw people like that here.
In retrospect, when the intake counselor asked Dinky why he felt he had to jump off of a building, Dinky’s answer shouldn’t have been because he didn’t know how to get access to a car in a small garage. That was seriously the most effective and painless way to do it though! He looked it up after he’d been... considering it. He wasn’t actually gonna do it though, just sort of trying to find out how to do it with the least amount of trouble.
He didn’t even mean to jump off the building. He was just up there to think, and maybe he had been thinking about it, how much attention it would attract, how the kids who hated him would see what he had done for them. They’d feel guilty, and regretful, and even horrified, but she wouldn’t—hate him anymore. And then Apple Bloom started yelling at him, and trying to stop him, and caring for him. She just... she just didn’t understand he was doing this for other people, and she made him feel all the hurt that he didn’t want to feel for himself. Dinky realized she didn’t really care, that she was just stalling him, so he pushed off the edge before she could stop him. And then, he...
And then he really, really did not want to die. Falling like that, knowing he wasn’t going to make it once he hit the ground, it was this gut feeling, a primal need to live that Dinky honestly hadn’t felt before that moment. He didn’t even realized they caught him right away, those ponies with wings. He just... huddled there in shock, unable to believe that he’d just almost done something so horrible. Literally in shock, he felt so cold he was shivering at the time.
So it didn’t make sense that they’d take him here. He didn’t want to kill himself now, just like a normal person! Dinky didn’t have problems. He was just a normal boy, who’d gotten tired of being such a screw-up, and made a mistake about what to do about that. He wasn’t going to do anything like that again, probably. It’s better to just keep suffering, than to feel like you’re going to die, right? He never wanted to feel like that again.
“I’m afraid the only reason you’re trying to get this over with so quickly is because there’s something you’re afraid to face, and you want to just sweep it all under the rug,” the intake counselor had said. “But if you do want to get this over quickly, why don’t you tell me why you jumped off that roof?”
“Because... kids hate me, and I was just tired of it?” Dinky tried.
“And has that problem gone away?” the counselor smoothly replied.
“Well... no,” Dinky had to admit.
“And do you know how to deal with it?” said counselor continued to press.
“Not... really,” Dinky said dimly.
“An orderly will show you to your room,” he said curtly. “We’ll have someone you can talk to about this by tomorrow morning, but until then, we wouldn’t feel safe not keeping an eye on you.” At Dinky’s darkening gaze, the counselor added, “It’s okay to be frustrated. Just be aware that you would feel like we’ve thwarted you, only if on some level you still intended to do something drastic. I’m optimistic that you’ll be out of here quickly, once we’ve had a chance to work with you. It’s not too much to ask that you stay alive for just a few more days, is it?”
“No it...” Dinky blinked in surprise, “It’s really not,” he said. “Long as someone actually wants me to... um.” And he was blushing now. Why did he even have to say that?
Thus, Dinky found himself most thoroughly owned. They even confiscated his shoes, and gave him slippers to wear instead. He had a lot to think about, and a lot of time to do so. Halfway through that contemplation, an orderly came to Dinky’s room, white coated and everything. A pleasant, pink, portly lady who smiled a little too much and told him, “As long as you’re here, why don’t you come down by the cafeteria for some lunch!”
Dinky didn’t really think it was optional, though.
So he was served his food, along with the other crazies, and got to eat his meal as always: in a cafeteria. It was here that he started to realize just how much he didn’t belong here. Dinky had never been so glad to just blend in with the background before. Most of the people eating just seemed moody or glum, but then there was a butter yellow haired lady with an off white complexion trying to have a conversation with a very... very grey man, who didn’t seem to realize she was there. That wasn’t a problem for her though, because the lady didn’t ever seem able to finish a sentence, saying something along the lines of, “Did you ever side for weeks have left me flying terrible wind black get the robe tinder sand will be sure to leave left weeks weak super potato when I wanted for five weeks back robe...”
There was a bright pink lady with dissheveled purple and white tresses, holding up a spoon and announcing that the paper wrapped chocolate brownie wasn’t home cooking because kitchen counters are polished with fluoride, a white lady with purple stripes in her hair who was crying into her custard without even realizing it, a blonde boy with ridiculously fluffy hair and pure white skin who was having a conversation with empty air beside him, and to make a long story short, Dinky really didn’t feel like he belonged here. He was pretty sure he wasn’t hallucinating at any rate, when he saw a blue lady with grey hair in a poorly fitting gown, sitting on the floor against the wall and worrying at a chew bone.
After his first talk with a counselor, Dinky was a little clearer on how long he was going to be in this place.
“Hello there,” the counselor said to a nervous Dinky with his hands clenched in his lap. A middle aged man, the counselor had short, messy reddish brown hair, a light brown complexion, and pale orange eyes. Not that Dinky was particularly making eye contact. It was embarassing; he didn’t want to be the one being counseled.
“My name is Sunny,” the man said with a smile, consulting the papers on his desk, “Sunny Song. Says here your name is Dinky Do?”
“Uh, yeah,” Dinky said unenthusiastically.
“Why don’t you tell me a little about yourself?” the counselor asked, readying his pen.
Dinky stared at the counselor like a deer in headlights. Did he want Dinky to admit to what he did? Just... talk about himself? “I’m uh... a student?” he said cagily, just as the older man gave a thick laugh,
“Ha ha! That was a little joke, don’t worry about it,” he said. “All I need to do today is tell you about what we think of you, and how we’re going to treat you here. You can take however long you need to tell me about yourself, if you don’t want to say anything. Have you been to the cafeteria yet?”
“Y-yes,” Dinky said. “But you would know that, wouldn’t you?”
“Hah, fair enough,” he responded. “We’re gonna make sure you’re clean and fed at least, though it looks like you aren’t going to have any problem with cleaning yourself. Mostly we have you here because we want to make sure you won’t have any repeats of that stunt you pulled yesterday. Doctor Saavy was your intake counselor, and he thought you might still be at risk of doing something drastic.”
“You even...” Dinky started resentfully, clamming up and turned his head away.
“Go ahead, I’m listening,” the counselor said. “You’re not gonna offend me if you say something stupid.”
“You even—” Dinky said with a heavy blush as it was still hard to say. Why was he such a pushover? “Took my shoes,” he forced out on a mumble. His voice got slightly more confident as he spoke, “These stupid slippers, did you think I was going to strangle myself with my own shoelaces?”
“Well, in most incidents, patients try to use them to cut their wrists open,” the counselor replied smoothly to Dinky’s horror, “But no it wasn’t a huge concern with you.” He looked Dinky in the eye and said seriously, “People have lots of different reasons to commit suicide. Some want it so bad, they’re hurting so much inside, that they’ll do anything to stop the pain. Some can’t control their emotions, and fall into such a terrible low that they can’t control their own actions. Some people hate themselves, some people hate their life. And then there’s you.”
He glanced at the clipboard again, saying, “You got a lot of reasons to kick the bucket, yet here we are having a nice normal conversation. You’re not being overwhelmed by your emotions. You’re lucid, and pretty smart for your age. I’m confident we can work together to convince you that life’s worth living, and until I at least give it a shot, you’ll be too curious to think about doing something creative with your shoelaces. I want you to trust me, Dinky. If you want your shoes back, I can arrange it. It’s just a precaution for people who might be desperate.”
“I think I’d like that,” Dinky said distantly. He was torn between the respect and even awe he had for this guy, and his masterful delivery, and between the fear that someone this calm and capable could easily manipulate Dinky into doing something he didn’t want to do.
“Alright,” the counselor cheered, writing a note down. “Now I would like to ask you a few questions to see where you are on this whole situation. Some of them might hit too close to home, and if they’re making you upset I want you to let me know if we should talk about something else, but I can’t know if it’ll bother you unless I ask. Are you alright with that?”
“What if I’m not?” Dinky asked in genuine curiosity.
The counselor looked at him thoughtfully. “Then, we take you to your room, and you have to stay here for a while, until you can find a way to convince us that you’re not gonna go jump off a building.”
“But I can’t go, even if I answer,” Dinky replied resentfully.
“You can go,” the counselor assured him, “It might take some time. I guess what I’m saying is, it’s fine if you don’t want to work with me at all, but working with me is the only way you’re gonna get outta here. So, I’m gonna ask you the questions I have and there isn’t really much of a choice, but all I ask is you try to answer, and that’ll help me work on getting you out of here. Now, is that okay? Sorry I have to ask, even if it seems dumb.”
He has to... oh, so it’s just policy. “Yes it’s fine,” Dinky replied. “I was just curious what would happen if it wasn’t.”
“Curiosity is good!” the counselor said happily, “Shows you still have a passion for knowledge. Now stop me if this is asking too much, but pretend I’m completely clueless about even the most obvious thing, like you’re explaining yourself to an alien who doesn’t understand how human brains work. Could you give me a few reasons why what you did to Diamond Tiara is a bad thing?”
Dinky couldn’t look at the counselor again. “I didn’t mean to do it,” he said anxiously. “It just sort of happened. I never wanted to hurt—”
The counselor had laid a hand on Dinky’s shoulder, startling him with the lightest pat before drawing back to sit down again. “I have two kids,” the man said, “A beautiful son and daughter. I know how you feel. My wife and I, we’ve been there. At least twice, heh!”
Dinky blushed at that and started to look away again, as the counselor said, “It just seems like you’ve been beating yourself up over that a lot, and I’d like to know why it’s a bad thing. Imagine I’m some clueless boy who’s asking you for advice about that.”
“Wish I could’ve had some advice,” Dinky grumbled under his breath.
“Didn’t catch that,” the counselor said.
“Sorry, you’re right,” Dinky said looking at the counselor again. “I’ll try. I mean, it’s really obvious, but you said to imagine like it wasn’t.”
“Precisely!” said the counselor, “Now lay it on me.”
“It...” actually it was hard to come up with reasons on the spot, but Dinky knew they were there. He just hadn’t been thinking about them during all this time he had been... beating himself up because of them. Hm. “The baby—Diamond Tiara is 15,” Dinky said. “A-and I’m 14. We’re too young to be allowed to do that together.”
“You sound like you’re more resentful of that, than think it’s a bad thing,” the counselor stated entirely too perceptively. “What do you think is actually bad about it?”
“Well it—I don’t have a job,” Dinky said. “I can’t afford to feed a baby, or Diamond Tiara. I need a job or I can’t be a good... father. But if I get a job, that’ll mess up my schooling. It’s bad because I’ll end up a... unskilled worker who didn’t even get out of high school.”
The flood gates were sort of opened by then, and he said, “And I’ll probably have to give the child up for adoption, which is terrible by itself, and Diamond Tiara has been getting sick and feeling tired and it’s my fault for doing it and making her pregnant. Nobody respects her because she has this huge I mean she’s obviously pregnant. And labor is going to hurt her so bad, and she’s not even worried about it!”
Dinky blinked as silence descended in the room again. “I–I’m sorry,” he said at his outburst, “I’m just a little—”
“No, it’s fine,” the counselor replied, “These are good reasons you got, now keep ‘em coming! She’s not worried about labor?”
“I–I wish she didn’t have to go through labor,” Dinky said, feeling bizarrely flattered as he went on. “I saw it on T.V. before, and the girls are always screaming, and really angry at the husband. It’s funny—supposed to be funny, at least, but that’s really going to happen to her! And I just... sit here uselessly, while she gets bigger an bigger, and I’m sort of... I don’t know... jealous?”
Dinky shook his head, saying, “No, I’m not jealous that’s silly. I just don’t want someone else to suffer just because I wanted to do the—thing that makes the baby.”
“You’re worried she’s going to suffer. That’s a great reason why what happened is bad,” the counselor said, “Anything else?”
“I...” and yes, there was something else, but Dinky wasn’t sure he wanted it to be real. “I can’t even be a father,” he explained uncertainly. “It would be terrible to ruin my life and get a job and stuff, just for her, but I can’t even do that. Because I’m going to be a... little filly.”
“A little what?” the counselor asked, caught off guard.
“Filly. It’s a young... female horse,” Dinky said. He couldn’t even imagine what it would be like. What was it even like to do that without an... erection? Was he going to start liking other guys?
“Oh, the whole pony thing,” the counselor realized, looking up from his notes. “That’s really happening all over now, isn’t it.”
“I–I suppose,” Dinky said, “But the um... alien pony girl knows a lot of us, sometimes knows what sort of pony we’re going to transform into. She said I was going to be a young filly. I can’t even imagine. That’s just... I don’t know how to deal with it.”
“Few of our patients have become ponies,” the counselor said uneasily, “They seemed surprisingly fine for the most part. It’d be nice if it cured their head problems too.”
“They’re not turning into fillies, ” Dinky said resentfully, then paused and stuttered, “I–I mean maybe they are. There’s a 50% chance any guy will be a girl after the transformation. Um... I don’t know much else about it, but I doubt many people will be turning into girls, and little kids, and expected to be big, strong fathers.”
“Sounds like it bothers you a lot,” the counselor said solemnly.
“Yeah it—yes,” Dinky said frankly. “I just... I just don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Nothing,” the doctor quipped, “If you jump offa building.”
Dinky had to laugh at that outrageous statement. “I guess that was one reason I did it,” he admitted, just a bit before realizing what he was saying and clamming up again. Dammit, this doctor was good.
“So you’re um... changing into a pony, who’s also young, and also a girl,” the counselor said, “And you’re worried for the baby?”
Dinky nodded. “They say kids need a father to grow up right,” he said, “And I can’t be one.”
“Not worried for yourself at all?” the counselor prodded, “You’re gonna lose your gender and everything?”
“No, I’m... not,” Dinky said in mild bemusement. “It seems really weird and all, and I can’t even imagine what it’d be like. Until it happens, I can’t really say whether I’ll hate it or not. I’m just an ordinary boy, who’s never done anything transformey at all. If anything, I’m more worried about losing my fingers!”
“Huh... kind of odd. I’d flip if I woke up as a girl one day,” the counselor said unironically.
“And then there’s Diamond Tiara,” Dinky grumbled. “What if she doesn’t want me as a girl? What if I’m not into her?”
“If she truly loves you then it won’t matter what you are,” the counselor said confidently.
“Sorry if my love’s not truthy enough for you,” Dinky said irritably, “But there are certain things a filly cannot do, that Diamond Tiara really, really likes to do.”
“That you and Diamond Tiara like to do?” the counselor asked.
“Ye–yes,” Dinky said, less than confidently. The counselor made a note on his clipboard.
So Dinky had problems, that much was clear. He hadn’t even really even thought about them himself. He didn’t think they were all that bad, but they just festered inside him, some things bothering him more than they should have. He didn’t remember a lot of details from those sessions, just a feeling of mental exhaustion from going over everything that was bothering him. He wasn’t sure how that would lead to a solution, but he really had nothing else he could do.
Ditzy Do wanted to die. She groaned, and fell back onto her bed, an open letter clutched in her hands. How did she mess up that badly? As if she wasn’t already feeling horribly guilty over what she’d done. She just wanted Dinky to take his relationships seriously. She didn’t want him to kill himself! And like a big bully, she didn’t tell him that, and just slapped him, and... and... and the next day there was a fire drill.
After that day, Ditzy wasn’t sure if it was possible that she could feel any worse. She had been afraid to tell someone about the love letters, about Dinky’s seduction of her, because then she’d have to tell them she looked him in the face and—and almost killed him! Or... did the thing that makes him almost kill himself. She wasn’t sure how that worked.
Ditzy was just going to keep her head down, and not make any trouble, and let Dinky deal with his weird boy problems on his own. The doctors would find out he’s been seducing girls over the mail, she thought. They would fix him, so he stopped being so... hurtful. It wasn’t her responsibility to help him, just because she was almost his next victim. Nobody had to know.
That’s what Ditzy had thought, and so she just let things get worse and worse for Dinky. And now a week later, as she lay lifelessly in bed, the letter in her hands felt like it was going to burn her. Ditzy only got a letter once a week at most, and this was no exception. She locked herself in her room and opened it, because she didn’t know if she wanted her parents to know what was in it.
Why did he send her another letter? Did the looney bin allow him to write letters? Was it an apology letter? Begging her forgiveness for his creepy attempts to warm her up to getting pregnant? Was it more creepy attempts, that would make her face flush red and her heart beat fast as that boy relentlessly tried to steal her virtue?
But no, it was something else entirely.
I’m not Dinky, you ninny!
Ditzy wanted to die.
A bright day in the early summer, Rainbow Dash woke up ready and raring to go. She went with the level 2 flyer teams, hoping for the best, and with her wings finally cared for properly, she was not disappointed. They practiced vertical wing pushes with heavy grounding at first, but once Dash got that down, it was pretty easy to get aloft.
“Alright, now your feathers have natural channels underneath them, through which you can cause something like a sort of levitation. It has very little to do with how hard you flap, so always keep in mind that your flaps are for steering, not propulsion,” the pink and purple pegasus mare who was leading the group stated smartly, while everyone else tried to look at their own wings.
“Everyone, extend your wings and hold them like this,” the lead mare said, standing and spreading ‘em. “Flat out to either side. I want you to partner up, and trade off with this exercise. What you’re going to do is put one of these baskets on each of your wings, and your partner will fill them up with rocks. Then you switch places. You should be able to hold your wings up without exerting your muscles. That is how you’re going to get up in the air, by using your innate magic to push your wings upward. Yes I know it sounds crazy, but believe me it works. Magic is very real now, and we all need to learn how to use what we’ve got.”
The instructor looked at each of them, pointing with her hoof as she did so, saying, “So, you and you, go get a couple baskets. You and you, go. You and you. You and you. You and you.” she finally pointed at Rainbow Dash and another mare with a deep purple coat and a fluffy blonde mane. “I’ll keep an eye on your progress and help out if I can,” the instructor added, “But remember I’m new at this too. I’m just telling you what my instructor told me, and what her instructor was told, by Scootaloo and Twilight Sparkle. Everyone along the way has added their own discoveries too, so I’m pretty confident it’ll work. But don’t expect me to have all the answers. If you have any questions, you might be on your own for answers.”
All-in-all it seemed like a pretty efficient system, and as a bonus it saved Rainbow Dash from having to get instructions straight from Scootaloo, which would have been totally embarassing for them both. “Name’s Rainbow Dash,” she said, raising a wing to her partner.
“Oh, um,” the purple mare said in a dopey alto, raising her own wing, “Berry—Blueberry Banana.” Neither of them could really figure out how a handshake would translate to wing motions, but Dash smiled anyway.
“You want to go first?” Rainbow asked. Blueberry nodded with a cautious smile, holding her wings out flat. Rainbow used her mouth to lift the baskets up onto each wing, and said, “Okay, just tell me when you’ve had enough.” Then she went to the box full of rocks, and started tossing them, one in each basket.
Blueberry swiftly adopted an alarmed expression, and her wings started shaking, as she blurted out, “Wait! Enough!”
Dropping her latest rock, “Okay, hold on, let me just...” Dash said worriedly, craning up and catching the basket’s handle in her teeth right as the mare’s wings dipped alarmingly, and Blueberry lifted them up with an alarmed squeak. Then, they just... stayed there.
“Thanks,” Blueberry said, hanging her head in relief, “It was getting really heavy there.”
Dash blinked at her, and looked down at the basket her mouth was carrying, full of rocks. It felt lighter than it should have. She placed the basket down, and said, “Blueberry, I only got one of the baskets.”
“What?” Blueberry said in surprise, looking at her right wing which still had a basket suspended on it. “Oh, huh...” she said in wonderment. “It doesn’t even feel like I’m lifting anything.
“I’m gonna put the other one back,” Dash announced, picking up the basket and returning it to Blueberry’s wing. She started with the rocks again, and the box got pretty empty as the other pegasus just stared at her wings with curiosity. Blueberry tried rearing up, as if she was going to lift off the ground, and that... tilted her wings backward. The two baskets slid right off, and with a surprised whinny, Blueberry Banana flipped backwards, tumbling right through the air in an uncontrolled spin.
“I gotcha!” Rainbow shouted, leaping forward to put herself in the path of the other pony’s descent. She spread her wings to try and soften the—Blueberry collided with her, the two going down into a crumpled heap as the instructor galloped over.
“Are you hurt?” she asked with worry.
“Just my pride,” Rainbow Dash grumbled, flicking her tail irritably, and the base of it squished up against Blueberry kind of funnily with how it was stuck in—oops. The other mare squeaked in surprise and jumped right off of Rainbow Dash’s back, landing stiff legged, and blushing.
“Looks like we’re both fine,” Rainbow Dash covered for her, standing redfaced between Blueberry and the instructor. “Guess we can get back to it.”
“How many rocks were you using?” the instructor asked, staring at the fallen baskets.
“...all of them?” Dash tried.
“You weren’t supposed to—okay hold on I need to make an announcement,” the instructor said, galloping back to the front of the meadow.
“Can I have your attention please!” she said loudly, drawing all ears her way. “I forgot to mention, you do not have to use all the rocks. There should be a point that you feel it suddenly become easier, and that’s when you should stop. I just want you to get familiar with the feeling. This isn’t a test of wing strength.”
“Gosh, I messed up,” Blueberry said, still red-faced to Dash.
“We both did,” Rainbow Dash said, a little self-conscious herself. “And uh, sorry for um, getting kind of close there for a second. It’s so annoying how we have to go around without clothes, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s fine, I’m just not used to feeling like that down there,” Blueberry said, toeing the ground shyly. “Girl parts are weird... no offense.”
“Oh, so... you used to be a guy,” Rainbow said looking a little sideways at the mare.
“Yeah, but don’t worry, I’m okay with it, just not used to everything yet,” Blueberry said with a soft smile. “I guess I got lucky; I was one of those who actually wanted to be a girl.”
“There... really?” Rainbow Dash asked in surprise, “There’s guys who want to be girls?”
“Oh, you’d be surprised,” Blueberry replied chattily, “There are actually a bunch of us. Before this all happened, I never knew how many guys weren’t exactly... okay with being guys. It’s not exactly something you talk about.”
“Huh, that is weird,” Rainbow Dash said thoughtfully, and at the dip in Blueberry’s ears she added, “But kind of cool, I guess. You got what you uh, wanted?”
Blueberry gave a sad smile at that, saying, “Yeah, I feel sorry for anyone who can’t get over having changed like that. But I mean, we’re ponies! What’s a little ...girly stuff compared to that? I miss my hands more than anything.”
“Hah, we are pegasi, ” Rainbow Dash said proudly, lifting a wing, “We still get to have hands.”
Blueberry spread one of her own wings, and lifted a single feather on it briefly. “Not the same,” she grumbled, letting it fold closed again.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Rainbow Dash said, sort of bummed by that, “But hey, at least we get to fly?”
“We do! ” Blueberry replied happily, and both immediately brightened up again. “So let’s see if you can do it! I bet you can.” Blueberry demonstrated what she was talking about by picking up one of the fallen baskets in her mouth. Dash... wasn’t sure all this mouth holding was sanitary. But she grinned nonetheless, and spread her wings confidently. Rainbow Dash was gonna figure this out, or die trying!
The baskets got heavier and heavier as Rainbow Dash tried to call on her innate flying thingy. The weight wasn’t so much a strain in her chest, which had very strong flapping muscles, but rather a strain in her shoulders, where the wings pivoted, under more and more stress. She couldn’t hold it straight, and almost lost it, but then caught something and her wings smoothly lifted right up flat to the ground again.
“Hang on, I think I got it,” Rainbow said excitedly, looking at the baskets on each wing. “Try putting more rocks in.”
“But she told us not to do that,” Blueberry said uncertainly.
“Just a couple!” Rainbow pleaded. “I just want to see if it stopped getting heavier or not.”
No matter how many rocks Blueberry mouthed into each basket, it was like they didn’t weigh anything at all. Dash tried to pay attention to what her wings were doing. It felt like there were... wispy things underneath them, like a wind that was completely still. Dash was tempted to repeat Blueberry’s mistake, to test if she could get any aerodynamic lift with this, but though the consequences probably wouldn’t have been as dramatic, she managed to restrain herself.
“Oh man, this is so awesome!” Dash said excitedly, overjoyed at standing in one place and holding up rocks with her wings.
“Can I try it again?” Blueberry asked with equal excitement.
“You bet!” Dash said confidently. Then she looked at her wings again and said less confidently, “As... soon as I figure how to stop doing this.”
“Oh, hold on,” Blueberry said, trotting up and helpfully removing rocks from each basket on her wings. Rainbow Dash almost felt like her wings’d... buoy her right up into the sky, but with the pressure lifted, she managed to release the... wispy feeling. And so quiescent, when the baskets were removed, her wings folded naturally against her sides, as though she was born to have these babies.
The two of them traded off more, until they had it down pat, and from there it was almost self evident. It felt good to spread her wings, better than it had felt before. Rainbow Dash had just preened this morning in preparation, and everything was feeling sleek and smooth. As days went by, some ponies in her team had just started flying, but it was still amazing when it happened to Rainbow Dash. The moment Rainbow Dash herself popped right up into the air, and stayed, a delighted cheer escaped her.
Sure she was doing uncontrolled backflips, a little shaky from the twisty irregularities she felt in what broken feathers remained, but Rainbow Dash was in the air, and she was staying in the air. She was flying! The wing pushy... thing kept her aloft no matter what angle her wings were at, just like the instructor said. Wing movements were all about steering, not lift. Flapping gently seemed to stabilize herself, and once Blueberry joined Dash up here, the two hugged like old friends. They were flying! They were here! And everything was gonna be okay.
Everything was gonna be okay.
Saturday morning dawned peaceful and sunny at Sweet Apple Acres. Oblivious to this, Sunset Shimmer was sleeping face down on the bed. In the bed beside her, Twilight considered getting up, if she could do so without rousing Sunset and Spike. Ever dutiful, Twilight’s number one assistant was sleeping curled up on top of Sunset’s prone form. It was good that Sunset got some sleep anyway. She’d been stretched to the breaking point lately, first by the startling revelation about her alternate universe counterpart, and now with what the news had been going on about all today...
Twilight didn’t want to admit it, but the whole city was going through a trial that they might not all come out from unscathed. Emotions were high, and there was starting to be a risk of panic setting in. Everyone’s lives were being overturned, even the ones who were not transformed into ponies. And that boy in particular...
He’d never done anything so drastic, not in any of the loops in Sunset’s memory. That was terribly hard on Sunset because not only was it a preventable tragedy, but it was something that hadn’t happened before. A powerful reminder that the security and safety of Sunset’s prison was coming to an end.
And Sunset’s counterpart was a princess. After going through so much, after failing so hard trying to become a princess, after coming to terms with the fact that it was wrong for her to want to be a princess, that it just wasn’t her lot in life, now Sunset was confronted by the very vivid journals from a world where she was a princess, and she did deserve it. Twilight decided not to disturb Sunset, because Spike was sleeping on her, and because Sunset was losing so much sleep worrying about this. She needed all the sleep she could get.
There was a small knock at the door.
Twilight slipped out from under the covers, standing up and hurrying over to the door, before whoever it was decided to knock harder and risk waking Sunset.
“Yes?” she whispered quietly, opening the door to see four fillies standing before her door, wreathed in the misty morning light. The foals Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Noi, probably because of another dream they’d had.
“Please, quietly,” Twilight urged the foals, walking out into the chilly night, shooing the fillies away from the portable. “Sunset’s had a hard day, and she needs her sleep.”
“Uhhhm....” came Apple Bloom’s voice very uncertainly. “So we... had a dream with you in it, and...”
“Aren’t you cold?” Noi asked blatantly.
Twilight looked down at herself, and then nodded to Noi, “Yes, but I can spare a few minutes. Summer’s well on its way, after all.”
“No I mean... ugh,” Noi facehooved.
“We’re just used to you... wearing clothes,” Sweetie Belle said leerily.
Twilight blinked.
“Ack, sorry girls!” Twilight said with a blush. “I have just been such a forgetty forgetterson these days. I’ll go get some clothing for you.” She hurried into her portable and padded on the soft balls of her feet to grab her nightgown, and struggle it on over her head. Then she padded back outside, pausing to shove some slippers on just to make it easier to walk across the rough ground.
“Now,” she said once she’d gotten the girls safely outside, and away from the trailer. The four fillies crowded anxiously around her. “What was it you wanted? Something new about the dream princess?”
The four seemed conflicted over what they were going to say. Scootaloo spoke up first though saying, “You said there was an... infinite chaos thingy at the boundary of our city. Could you have... created something like that? When you were a unicorn? I mean princess?”
“Goodness no!” Twilight exclaimed. “That magic would be more in the realm of impossible to extremely impossible, or possibly Discord impossible.”
“There’s really a category of impossible dedicated to Discord?” Sweetie Belle said skeptically.
“Well... no,” Twilight admitted, “But there should be!”
“We had a dream, princess,” Noi said urgently. “You were—the other you was in it. We talked with her, and we explored the old castle.”
“The old castle?” Twilight asked curiously.
“You remember, from Scootaloo’s dream?” Apple Bloom asked.
Twilight looked at her blankly.
“Gawsh darn it,” Apple Bloom grumbled, “We probably oughta have told you about that at some point.”
“Scootaloo was dreaming about a castle town,” Sweetie said urgently. “Like a medieval castle town, with a castle. And she was taking us to it in a wagon, right out of Apple Bloom’s apple orchard, and past a bunch of fields.”
“I was really weird when that happened,” Scootaloo said. “I don’t remember it at all, but they said I didn’t have a face or something? I remember after that though. There was this huge town, with these old style cottages, with straw roofs, and wood borders, and white painted walls.”
“They were pink painted,” Sweetie Belle corrected Scootaloo.
“They looked white to me!” Scootaloo protested.
“They were light pink,” Apple Bloom said to them.
“It sounds a lot like Ponyville to be honest,” Twilight said. “But I’ve described my town before, and you probably just incorporated that into your dreams.”
“Maybe it’s our Ponyville?” Sweetie asked unsurely.
Twilight shook her head, saying, “If Ponyville existed at all, it’d be on top of the suburbs of Canterlot City, over by this ranch. This world doesn’t even have the same geography though. In my world, Canterlot is high up on a tall mountain, not in a valley like this world.”
“So... whatever the case, the dream village had a castle in it,” Apple Bloom stated excitedly, “But this shell thing came down. It covered the whole castle, and the surrounding area! We barely got inside it before it... cut us off or something.”
“And we went into the castle,” Sweetie Belle continued, “The princess managed to dream her way right into it, so that we could explore.”
“Somehow her dreams were mashed together with theirs, or something,” Noi said uncertainly. “But we ended up at the very top of the highest tower, and the princess pony... did something.” She frowned frustrated. “It’s... it was like...”
“She expanded the barrier. She called it a barrier,” Sweetie Belle said. “She doesn’t remember but sometimes little things like that slip through. And she made it go really big, because she said she failed and wanted to save as much as she could.”
“So... what’s this got to do with me?” Twilight asked in confusion. “I know how to surround a city in a barrier in theory. It would depend on the nature of the barrier. Do you think the dream me was trying to tell me something?”
“We’re saying it wrong,” Noi whined. “I’m trying to explain and—and I just want to—” She sniffled.
“Ssh, ssh,” Twilight said, squatting down to the dirt and hugging the small pony against her. Noi didn’t seem all that upset though, and pushed Twilight away with a hoof, muttering,
“I’m fine, I’m fine.”
Twilight nodded, folding her hands in her lap, saying, “Let’s just calmly go over what you all wanted to tell me.”
“You know all the strange architecture, and the secrets all over Canterlot High?” Apple Bloom asked cautiously. “And how there’s a sorta barrier thingy around our whole city, stretching out in an eggy shape from the high school to mah ranch?”
“...yes, but I told you that I couldn’t create a ‘barrier’ out of pure chaos, much less bound space with it,” Twilight said. “There’s nothing beyond the Edge but an endless sea of Chaos.”
“Yeah, but th’ shape, ” Apple Bloom said urgently. “You know the shape about, right?”
“Yes...?” Twilight said very unsurely.
“In the dream, that barrier, the princess stretched it out so far, you almost couldn’t see the far edge from the top of the highest tower, but Scootaloo could see it,” Apple Bloom said vindicatively. “And we all could see it, but she could see it absolutely one hundred percent fer sure.”
“Apple Bloom’s house,” Scootaloo said. “The dream princess remembered it. She could only remember bits and pieces of things, but she was the one who remembered it. At the very edge of her barrier was Apple Bloom’s house, and her ranch, just like here, where the Boundary is right outside her property!”
“If you go onto the roof on Canterlot High,” Sweetie Belle said. “We checked this and it’s the same shape. ”
“It’s true,” Noi said. “Sweetie practically scanned the photo we took right into her dream, and it matches up exactly.”
“What matches up?” Twilight asked in confusion.
“Twilight,” Apple Bloom said in an urgent tone, “Canterlot High was built on top of that castle!”
Twilight looked at Apple Bloom seriously.
“And Canterlot City was built on top of that castle’s village!” Sweetie Belle said. “It’s in just the right place for that!”
“The dream princess keeps dreaming of a place that looks like your world’s Ponyville,” Apple Bloom urged, “Maybe it was her world’s Ponyville too. And her world had an Apple family farm, just like our world does, because it’s the same farm! ”
“The dream princess must remember what our world was like before the time loop,” Noi clarified. “It used to be a medieval town, and that town had a castle. Then this happened! It’s the only explanation!”
“But... but your city is in the wrong place, if it used to be Ponyville,” Twilight contested unhappily. “The Everfree Forest would cover half the city! And Ponyville does not have a”
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And there is the realization from Ditzy. Poor lass... Dinky's confusion over his own issues is pretty good through. The two of them at just... *sighs*
So the entire verse is... kind of like the TARDIS' emergency protocol where it locks the console room in a timeloop. But that would mean something destroyed the rest of the world... Lovely. A world that seemed to have four well established Alicorns kicking in it.
And now...is the mirror an accidental fortunate happenstance, or the official rescue mechanism? So many questions.
So... is Canterlot high built over where the Castle of the Two Sisters (Mainverse timeline) is? It is the only Castle near to ponyville. The other idea is just that Twilight's Ponyville just didn't have a castle yet.
A..... A what? I'm thinking she wants to say castle but ...
BAD,
bad writer, if you have to end on a cliffhanger then at least finish the sentence.
And as always, the highlight of my week.
keep the chapters coming 
8115348
It's so easy to misinterpret someone's words, when you already have a lot of messed up preconceptions.
Sorry I don't watch Doctor Who.
Mmmmmaybe?
8115445
A BOUNCE HOUSE
She didn't even have time to say —!
8116021
You are allowed! And a clip if it helps.
Segment one: I think it would be appropriate to play the theme song from M*A*S*H 4077 now. Suicide...
Segment two: So most of them are ones who didn't even feel it was right to begin with, and ones who are discontent are the exception rather than the norm, a sharp contrast to you-know-what where man-to-mare scenarios are the rare exception to the rule. The MC is the only confirmed one, and there is one other who is only implied to be a possible one but never confirmed.
Segment three: There are no seconds, only firsts they are one and the same, only the time alterations have suppressed their memories. It has been implied on more than one occasion. The universe has been compacted, and it has been implied several times prior.
8116254
I never liked that song. It sounds like the song to welcome you home, except that your home is a broken elevator in an abandoned building, and there are rats. Somehow it manages to be both vapid and dreary, and leaves me lessened for having heard it.
Well, she did say there were a "bunch" not necessarily a majority. It could just be that the minority are being brought out into the open by this. I guess you'll just have to wait and see.
Wat
8116341 it's not that common. According to some fics. Not this one by any means. TS and SS hypothesis is quite obviously incorrect in every way. These aren't even mostly AB companions.
Beyond this, I was mentioning the alternates aren't a thing. Time has simply messed up their own recollections, and these are the originals, they just don't know it yet, or they have been made to forget.
8116392
Ah, I think I understand what you're saying.
Really starting to enjoy the story, though I could do with less of the drama regarding Dinky and Diamond. =/
That said, glad that this Rainbow Dash is finally airborne. ^_^
8117140
Eh, some people like the drama. I have a reason for it vaguely, I guess. Mostly it's just people around the city dealing with the consequences of all this.
Rainbow Dash is definitely airborne.
8120633
Oh no! How could things possibly get any worse??
As if that ever stopped Celestia from adopting a new student.
I was going for when cell phones had capacitative touch screens, so only a conductive thing like a fingertip would work.
He'll pick up the phone when he's good and ready! He's not sulking! He's a big boy now!
8120550
They got in trouble twice, but then they got in trouble, while they were getting in trouble. It was like troubleception.
"Well, in most incidents, patients try to use them to cut their wrists open"
With... shoelaces? I... what, trying to use the plastic things on the ends?
"but all I want is you try to answer"
"but all I want is for you to try to answer"?
"That’s a great reason what happened"
"reason why what"?
"at that outrageous, statement"
"outrageous statement"?
"did the thing that makes him almost"
"made"?
"find out he’s been"
"he'd"?
"Neither of them couldn’t really figure"
"could"?
"little self consciously herself"
"little self-consciously herself"?
Oh, in the previous chapter:
"and laying on the bed"
"lying"?
What I was looking back for, though:
Has the number of beds in that portable building changed? Last chapter, there were explicitly two, with floor space between them. Here Twilight, Sunset, and Spike all seem to be sharing a bed.
Ah, and in At World's End, it was stated that there were two beds. Are all of them sharing a bed due to the various problems, leaving the other bed vacant?
"the startling revalation about her"
"revelation"?
"The three seemed conflicted"
"four"?
"She frowned frustrated."
"She frowned, frustrated."?
"Apple Bloom said vindictively."
...Vindictively? Why?
And you end the chapter in the middle of a sentence. :)
8408362
I imagine through pressure and friction. Unless I'm reading these records wrong. People can be ridiculously motivated to commit suicide, if they're stupid enough to think that death is a release rather than an eternal prison. (Also stupid enough to think you slit your wrists across the street, rather that down the road.)
Sometimes, I imagine. But in this case it said Twilight was beside Sunset. It didn't say she was in the same bed as Sunset, I think...
Dammit Noi, stop being such a background pony!
She felt... vindicated while saying it?
Kind of curious what you thought of the actual story so far, rather than just corrections to the grammar. I sure appreciate both, though.