It was the biggest mistake Discord would make in a thousand years. There was no way that silly, souped up librarian could... actually turn the ponies he sent her into the friends that she imagined they were. They were the opposite of the ideals that Twilight would try to impose on them. She would try to make the compulsive liar the avatar of Honesty, and that cruel animal hoarder as the spirit of Kindness, and so on. The Elements would have no choice but to fizzle out, and remain flaccidly impotent... forever! Or, for however as long as he could find absolutely terrible representatives to fail to take up their mantle.
Discord was starting to get worried though, because as he gloated atop his dark throne, the Elements were actually responding, even on the necks of these ponies. He had his eyes closed; he’d been so confident they were just going to burn the damn things out from trying, and narrowly missed a bolt of pure Magic trying to clip him in the face. As the anodes gathered behind him, Discord reflected that the other five Elements hadn’t tried to take a chunk out of him in their passing. Maybe he shouldn’t have laughed so hard at the Element of Magic lying there in the trash bin.
It was just like the last time the Elements had gone off, but the situation was still salvagable. This time, they couldn’t activate, with the liar, the back stabber, the thug, the greedy cheat, and the cruella he’d managed to find for them. Though the ponies fought bravely, it was only a matter of time before he could tear those awful pendants right off their brawny little necks. But they were so insistent on making them work, it concerned him, so Discord took one more look into the thoughts of these ponies futilely trying to fight his benevolent rule.
“What’s this?” he murmured, as the ponies he thought he knew were somehow different ponies entirely, and their minds were just crawling with a cheerfully magenta tinged aura of magic. It was almost as if she...
“No...”
“I cursed you all,” Twilight said soberly. “All my friends had abandoned me, so I made new friends. I made you my friends. I didn’t just confuse you or beguile you. I overwrote you, with who I thought you should be. Anything that didn’t fit with my preconceived notion, I thought it was Discord’s beguilement, so I f-fixed it.
The Golden Oaks library was a rather foreboding place at the moment, with the front lobby taken up by a whole bunch of ponies who were unsure of whether to fight, flee, or friend. Anypony who poked their nose in, quickly pulled it out again, not wanting to even think about trying to check a book out with a possible fight brewing in here. Certain very smart, small, purple and green creatures had made themselves scarce. Indeed the nachos had been served, yet the shocked ponies could only idly munch on them as the purple unicorn confessed.
“I was so afraid,” Twilight said. “I tried to keep you from knowing, because I didn’t want him to escape. I didn’t want your enchantments to break; I thought... I didn’t want him to do this to me again. He tricked me into doing this to you, and I just don’t trust myself anymore if he gets free. So I tried to keep you from waking up from my b-beguilements.”
“You... you’re serious, aren’t you,” Rarity said, employing the full spectrum of her community college magic degree. “But... but the sheer amount of power, and finesse... one tiny error and it would all come crashing down, and the pony you so perverted... beguilements don’t last, Twilight! Every foal learns that in elementary school! Our minds are... are...”
“Supernaturally resilient!” Twilight said in agreement. “And you’re right. It shouldn’t have worked! Our friendship should have been utterly ruined, as soon as you overcame my dark magic! You would have become the ponies you were before, or you may possibly have gone irrevocably insane, but there’s no way it would actually work without a hitch! I’ve been sitting here waiting for the next shoe to drop, but I couldn’t let it drop because... because you’re all the new Elements of Harmony!”
“The new Elements of Harmony?” Applejack said skeptically. “Who were the old ones?”
Twilight blinked at her, and gave a look of incredulity to the five ponies gathered together: Derpy, Golden Harvest, that... unicorn, uh... 5 ponies that Rainbow Dash wasn’t entirely familiar with.
“Nevermind,” Applejack mumbled, using her hat to hide the blush. “Forget ah asked.”
“H-how long do we have?” Fluttershy asked Twilight, looking absolutely miserable. “Isn’t there anything you can do? I don’t want to be... her again.”
“I... I don’t precisely know, Fluttershy,” Twilight said to her. “But you need to be her again. I know you’re scared right now, but you can’t just go denying your true self forever.”
Rainbow Dash had to hover up to Fluttershy worriedly, as the butter yellow pegasus slowly broke down, saying to Twilight, “I don’t remember it, but in strange bits and pieces, like a horrible nightmare. I can’t remember any events, but I remember feeling so... empty. I don’t know how to describe it, it’s like I wasn’t feeling anything, and that felt even more than any feeling I’ve ever felt. I must have wanted to hurt them just so that I could... could stop not... being... not being.” She choked back a quiet sob.
Dash hugged Fluttershy from behind, and Fluttershy turned to her, lost to tears. And Rainbow was probably the worst pony at doing this, but Fluttershy didn’t seem to care at this point whose chest fluff she had to cry into.
“You um...” Twilight spoke up, standing over the two of them and looking at Fluttershy with concern. Her words sounded so loud compared to Fluttershy’s quiet weeping. “You were... well, the hospital records suggest you were clinically insane. I mean, you are living on financial aid for disabled ponies, and it certainly isn’t because you’re a weak flyer.”
“Oh... I thought it was because of that...” Fluttershy mumbled into Dash’s shoulder.
“No, I kind of... added that part too, accidentally,” Twilight said, nervously twitching her ears. “But you were about to get in very big trouble pretty soon, because you weren’t supposed to be allowed to own erm... animals. Your special talent apparently involved being... cruel to them. It didn’t stop with just pinning butterflies up on the walls. And you know how hard a life a pony has, if they can’t express their special talent.”
“Oh, I hope that is not my special talent,” Fluttershy said in a tone of total hopelessness, staring at the butterflies on her hip, “I want to be friends with the animals, not... do bad things.”
“You can be whoever you want, Fluttershy,” Twilight said comfortingly, “A cutie mark is what you make of it. It’s your story that really matters.” They were wise, noble words, but Fluttershy looked away; she didn’t seem convinced. Dash had to admit it was totally hard to believe, since evil Fluttershy had a whole wall of cages and cruelty to establish that no, you can’t just give up on your cutie mark. It may have seemed like a nightmare, but those cages proved that the evil Fluttershy had been real all along.
“Whoever you were seems... really gone,” the cream mare with the red and blue locks said to Fluttershy, in a dissatisfied tone. “It’s outright unsettling! I’m afraid losing your special talent may be the least of your worries, dear. Even the Elements chose you, over well, us! I suppose even relics of power can be fooled sometimes, but I mean, you are very much ...changed.”
Fluttershy had separated from Dash as the other ponies took the conversation away from her. At least she wasn’t crying anymore and that’s good, plus Rainbow Dash kind of was more comfortable with being by herself right now. She just wanted to... think about things.
“We don’t hold it against you,” Derpy said in an easygoing tone, “I don’t think we really enjoyed all that dangerous adventuring, anyway. Well, maybe Lyra did.”
She looked at Lyra who just shrugged.
“When the Elements chose you, they were right to do so,” Bonbon assured Rainbow Dash and her friends, in a way that sounded like a sort of toned down Rarity, “You five really do deserve the Elements you were given... even if you were... made to deserve them.”
“But they didn’t choose us!” Applejack protested vexedly at the candymare’s kind words, pointing an accusing hoof at Twilight. “They chose her! We’re not even real ponies! We’re just something that purple unicorn dreamed up! Mah own family don’t even know me!”
Applejack huffed and looked away from Bonbon, who was smiling sadly at her strong words, accepting them without backing down, just like Rarity did so well, as far as Rainbow Dash remembered at least.
Twilight didn’t answer Applejack, but one of the other 5 did. “I don’t know how much the Elements really think, but they sure thought you were the real deal,” the other orange farm pony said, with a much lighter accent than Applejack, but it was still there. “We figured it wouldn’t last long, though. Your true selves reassert themselves, the Elements go all to pieces, and Discord breaks right out of his prison. Twilight here was tryin’ to prepare something for when that occurred. Then, we were gonna have to go and... take them back, and defeat him somehow.”
Golden fell to an uncomfortable silence at that. That other cream mare then sighed and admitted in Goldie’s place, “It was such a tenuous longshot, that you couldn’t even see the target over the horizon. But it was all we had.”
“It doesn’t matter, Bonnie,” Twilight told her in an admonishing tone, “Whatever we have, this is just... wrong. Even if they don’t change back on their own, we don’t have the right to ask that of them, to stay like this. There has got to be another way to save the world, if I could just... find it!”
“Twilight, how much have you slept in the past 2 weeks?” Bonbon asked with a somewhat disapproving squint.
“Enough?” Twilight said with a pleading smile, and a nervous twitch in her left eye. “That’s not important. I have to—to figure this out, so I can safely undo what I did to these ponies!”
She turned to the main 5, saying fearfully, “I had no right to overwrite you as ponies. You all think you were so bad before, but even you were important, each and every one of you! You had a special place here in your community, and I violated that. Even the Elements. You think just anypony could have done what you—what the old you were capable of? The ponies you once were, they saved my life! Not you, them!”
Firming her jaw, Twilight said a little more steadily, “The Elements of Harmony have been wielded by one pony before. Not one mortal pony, but it has happened, in desperate times. Six of us are needed to lend our strengths, our personalities, and—well—our life forces to the Elements, so that they can amplify them beyond measure. So what I did would have failed, and it definitely would have killed me, but...”
With a sigh, Twilight looked away from Rainbow Dash, to her old friends, saying, “He convinced me I had found you again. My old friends. Each and every one of you were so strong in my mind. Things were so clear to me now that I could hear you. I could see you. I had the wrong ponies, but... I think each of you gave me so much of yourselves over the years, that... I could wield the elements on my own. Somewhere inside my memories of you was all you taught me about honesty, kindness, generosity, laughter, and loyalty. And that was... what the Elements needed.”
Twilight turned and looked at her new old friends, saying somewhat disparagingly, “Well, that and the life force of a pony several times over. So my point is that... if any of you had the power to resist, or break this somehow, it probably would have backlashed on me. If you somehow refused the Elements, and brought your true selves forth, whatever’s left of them, it might all have failed. But you didn’t.
“You couldn’t fight for the truth,” Twilight said earnestly, full on entreating them now. “Not in your former state of mind. You had no power to resist, no friendship to keep you strong. You were all a bunch of weak willed failures, and you didn’t even try to fight. On some level I think you were all really... unhappy with your lives, if my research is accurate. So... yes maybe, hypothetically I used the Elements by myself, but I still couldn’t have defeated him, without you being the horrible, flawed ponies that you were!”
Twilight pulled back at that, blinking at her own words. She sighed, and looked at the floor, saying, “And now I’ve made you all twisted amalgamations of my imagination, my memories of my friends, and parts of who you once were.”
Rainbow Dash had to shake her head at this. “This is so messed up,” Rainbow Dash and ... Derpy said at exactly the same time. Rainbow cracked an eye open and gave Derpy a look, and Derpy sort of gave her a look back.
After they both carefully paused, Derpy said slowly, in her more squirrely voice, “It makes sense though,” cautiously keeping an eye on Dash who deliberately remained silent. “Discord was gonna win, and we all just abandoned Twilight, and didn’t even think about her. Why shouldn’t she wield the Elements by herself? She was more loyal than I was...”
Twilight looked from Derpy to her rainbow colored pony double, and said in a somewhat detached manner, “You, Rainbow Dash, I actually knew before the... incident. I only knew that you liked vandalizing my library with your reckless stunts. According to my research, you also had a number of petty crimes on your record, but nothing that would stick enough to have you incarcerated.
“You were... lazy, for lack of a better word,” Twilight said, her face twisted in confusion as she struggled to tell Rainbow Dash who she should be. “Which is to say, you worked very hard for yourself, but whenever some other pony depended on you, you let them down. I don’t know your reasons for that, but that’s why he chose you. Your coworkers and teammates reported that you seemed to take a perverse pleasure in ruining another pony’s day. That doesn’t ring any bells, does it? You don’t... feel that sort of thing appealing at all?”
“No, man, mare, I...” Dash shook her head incredulously. “I can’t believe I was even capable of that! I kinda hoped that it was just... fake or something. Or magic, or I dunno. So, every diary entry where I cheated on my shift, so that other ponies had to do the work to catch up, that all really happened?”
Twilight didn’t break her gaze, so Rainbow Dash had to, looking at the ground and scuffing at it. “I guess that explains why everypony hates me...” she said miserably.
“And let me guess,” Rarity then put in humorlessly, “I was greedy and stingy, and wouldn’t even give anypony the time of day.”
“Discord selected you five based on how poorly you embodied your Element of Harmony,” Twilight said, walking back and forth in front of them. “That is not to say you were all horrible ponies, but he was trying to disrupt their power, to stop anypony from defeating him. So he found the least generous pony he could—” She stopped at Rarity, and said, “You were not a horrible pony.”
Twilight faced the dressmaker impassively, telling her, “You were... you are a shrewd, savvy mare, who pulled herself up from nothing to the sole proprieter of a successful business. There are newspaper articles about you, Rarity! Not front page news, but everypony loves a self made mare. Just because you were a little... abrasive doesn’t make you evil. It happens to ponies who try to go into business, sometimes they lose sight of what they really want, and start only thinking about the bottom line.”
Walking away from the white mare, Twilight closed her eyes and uttered, “So yes, you were greedy, and stingy, and bitter for... how you thought other ponies thought of you. And that still doesn’t make what I did a good thing!”
“An’ you’re tellin’ us all this, just because you’re tryin’ to fix us? ” Applejack asked in a less than friendly manner. “Ah don’t even want to know what kinda pony you thought I was, and that’s the honest tru—that’s the truth!”
“But it’s not a good thing!” Twilight implored of them, “I unknowingly hurt you all on a very deep level! I thought you were enchanted. I made you better! I—I made you my friends! What kind of friend am I, if I have to—to dement you into being friends with me?!”
“Why are you trying so hard to make us act like our old selves again? Wasn’t that the whole point?” Rainbow Dash demanded of Twilight, waving her diary around overhead. “Have you even read this? I can’t be like that again. Even I hate me!”
“I wouldn’t even know how,” Rarity said, gazing pensively at her polished white hoof. “I barely recall any of the time I was Discorded... which I suppose is my true self. But it all seems so...”
“Stupid!” Pinkie Pie cut in.
“Silly!” Rarity agreed. “I’d just feel like a bad actor, playing the villain in some sort of tawdry stage production.”
“But... but you can’t trust what you feel now!” Twilight protested. “I made your feelings up! You’re not even real ponies. You’re just figments of my imagination! Can you really say your old self deserves to die just so you can be... be nice ponies?”
They all fell guiltily silent then, and as she was the one who said them originally, Applejack was the only one of them who could answer her own words spat back at her. After that somber silence, Applejack said, “Y’all know mah sister, Apple Bloom, right?”
There were a few nods all around. “Well,” Applejack said uncertainly, “Ah was tuckin’ my little sister in for bed the other night. She said to me all quiet like, that she liked the new Applejack. Ah told her I didn’t know what she was talkin’ about, and she called me a liar. Not saying it serious-like this time, but with a laugh, like she knew it weren’t true no more. She asked me if ah was going back, and I told her I wasn’t going anywhere. Thought she meant like, Manehattan or somethin’ ah dunno.”
Applejack took off her hat and held it in a hoof, staring down at it pensively as she said, “Mah little sister started cryin’ then. Told me she didn’t ever want me to leave. Ah didn’t know what to say to that, so I just told her ah ain’t goin’ nowhere again.”
Looking up at Twilight, Applejack said, “Ah dunno who you think I am, or who you think I was, but—” She clapped her hat back on her head and said seriously, “Ah ain’t a liar. I told her I wasn’t goin’ nowhere, and I ain’t goin’ nowhere. You ain’t got no right to make me somepony ah’m not, even if you already did it once before. Ah might be a little mixed up in mah head now, but I am a real pony, standin’ right here in front of you. And ah ain’t goin’ nowhere.” Applejack puncuated those words with a determined stomp, glaring challengingly at Twilight, and the other 5.
“What about you, Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking around for the soft yellow, soft spoken pony, “You’re with us, right?”
“...Fluttershy?”
Ten ponies were way too many ponies in a crowded library for everypony to panic at once. “We have to find her!” Twilight said shrilly, “She was the worst of you all! There’s no telling what she could do!”
“Okay, don’t panic!” Rainbow Dash said, searching under the seat cushions, “It’s Fluttershy! She probably just went and hid somewhere. I think?”
“Ah swear, if your crazy stories hurt poor Fluttershy, so help me—!” Applejack said, furiously butting up to Twilight while Golden Harvest got in her way, shouting,
“They ain’t crazy stories! Aren’t crazy stories! Oh golly, now you got me talking like you! ”
“We talk like each other!” Applejack shouted back. “We’re neighbors! Our families been friends forever! Ah always talked like you since we were fillies!”
“You ain’t mah neighbor!” Golden Harvest shot back, tear stricken, “Ah don’t even know you anymore!”
“All those horrid things that we said!” Rarity wailed in horror. “What if she feels like she’s regressing? What if she is regressing?!”
“If she’s anything like Flitter, it would break that poor filly’s heart!” Bonbon replied in alarm.
“What if she tries to stop it!” Rarity demanded of Bonbon frantically, “What if she refuses to be Old Fluttershy? What then?!”
“She could hurt herself!” Bonbon replied, with an equally panicked look on her face. “Or worse!!”
“The horror!” the two ponies cried, holding onto each other, “The horror!”
Lyra appeared in a puff of logic, shouting, “I found her!”
Everypony turned to look her way, and Lyra repeated less confidently, “Okay, I didn’t find her. But I found where she went! Misty Flowers saw her running down Halter street!”
Pinkie Pie burst into the library then, shouting, “I found her!”
Everypony turned to look her way, and Pinkie said awkwardly, “Okay, I didn’t find her. But I found where she—”
“Are you for real?!” Lyra shouted to her, getting right up in Pinkie’s face, but Pinkie persevered shouting back in Lyra’s face,
“It doesn’t matter! Misty Flowers said she ran down Halter street. She must be going back to her cottage!”
Lyra backed up a step, looking at Pinkie Pie tensely. “You know where she lives?” Lyra asked.
“You don’t?” Pinkie said, looking at her just as earnestly.
“She never said!” Lyra whined in protest, her ears going down, “She always just yelled at me, and kicked dirt in my face!”
Pinkie blinked at that, but shook her head, saying, “Never mind! We have to go save her!”
Everypony piled out of the library, half in pursuit of their troubled friend, the other half in pursuit of a very dangerous wildcard. Dash hung back at first, feeling like she was missing something. She wanted to make sure they were all going in the right direction, and not just outright panicking. Thankfully, Dash wasn’t the only one who noticed something was off, because Lyra came galloping right back into the library, to drag out the barely responsive Flitter, who was still staring off into space and murmuring “Fluttershy? Kindness was Fluttershy? ”
Dash dropped out of the sky in front of Lyra and Flitter, shouting, “Come on, snap out of it! We have to go! Fluttershy might be hurt!” It seemed like they both heard her, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t bear to wait any longer. She rocketed away from them, faster than Flitter could murmur, “Fluttershy? She replaced me with Fluttershy? ”
Rainbow Dash was there first, of course. Even before her rainbow contrail could fade away, she hammered on Fluttershy’s door shouting, “Fluttershy? Open up!” but there was no answer. “I know you’re in there, Fluttershy!” Rainbow shouted. “You can’t get better if you just lock yourself away! We’ll figure this out. We’ll figure out something to do. We always do!”
“We... always do...” Dash repeated, leaning her forehead on the door as her gaze dropped downward.
“She’s over here!” Derpy called out from off in the distance, and Rainbow could see now the other ponies and her friends had come galloping up the road already. Derpy was off in Fluttershy’s yard waving her hoof at them, around back behind Fluttershy’s cottage, over on the Everfree side of it. Over to the wall-eyed grey pegasus Rainbow Dash flew, with a flutter of hope in her chest, that Fluttershy would be okay.
They found her sitting in a little grassy plot some distance away from the burbling creek. There wasn’t anything there, besides grass and a... marker. It was too small for a pony’s. It wasn’t even a real... one of those. It looked more like an out of place rock, stuck in the ground on its side next to a small raised bed of earth, and it had been like that for quite a while. Any signs of digging were gone, and a lush carpet of green grass covered it, but the way Fluttershy was sitting mournfully before that out-of-place rock, it was... pretty obvious what it was.
“I found this, a few days ago,” Fluttershy said quietly, before anypony else could think of anything to say. “I don’t know who it is. There’s no name on it.”
The breeze whispered overhead as Fluttershy said, “It’s the only one. There are no others. I don’t know where the r—” She took a breath. “...rest of my missing animal friends are.”
“I won’t go back, Twilight,” Fluttershy said as her chest shook with emotion, “I can’t go back—to... to that. I... I can’t be that mare, I’m sorry. I’m just not strong enough...!”
“Fluttershy...” Rarity said, making to approach the distraught pegasus with utmost care.
“I-if... I must become that, I don’t want to live that way,” Fluttershy said in a hollow voice, plastering her cheek against Rarity’s shoulder. “I want to e-end it now, while I still can!”
Twilight was standing shakily before Fluttershy and Rarity, like she was afraid to approach, or like she didn’t feel she had any right to do so. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, Fluttershy,” she told the frightened pegasus, in a quivery nervous almost whisper. “You... you don’t have to change. You don’t have to be the mare you once were.”
Fluttershy looked up at Twilight, soft teal eyes brimming with forgotten tears, beyond hope, yet hoping beyond hope for somepony to save her.
“I guess I started thinking that was the problem, not the solution,” Twilight told Fluttershy a little bit more steadily. “But I want you to know that I couldn’t change you back, even if I tried. That’s the problem I’ve been working on all this time. I don’t know how I did it, but what I did to you... there are no flaws in the shaping, no cracks that could shatter. You should have reverted the moment you realized what was happening. I know it’s wrong to deny your true self, but... you’re having no problem in doing so! The fact that you can want to remain this way, means you won’t stop being this way! The magic I used is forbidden, because once the magic has faded, even the slightest bit of pressure would shatter the changes to your mind, and quite possibly your mind as well. But you...”
As the butter yellow pegasus fought back the sobs, Twilight at last managed to put a hoof on Fluttershy’s back, saying, “You endured this. You experienced the worst day of your life, and you’re still you. You’re still the mare I created, in my worst judgement call ever. Somehow, everything I love about Flitter is a part of you now. And I don’t see any way that could change.”
“So... so...” Fluttershy sniffled, pulling free from Rarity and looking at her friend—at Twilight Sparkle. “So I don’t have to? It won’t just... happen to me?”
“This has never happened before,” Twilight said soberly. “It was supposed to be impossible. Fluttershy, I can’t know the future, but I do know that I’ll do everything in my power to keep you from falling into your old patterns again, if you truly don’t want to be who you... used to be.”
“I just don’t know, Twilight,” Fluttershy sighed with a hoof to her chest, “I can’t see anything good at all, with how you say I’m supposed to be. I-if she really will do so, maybe we should just let that mare rest in peace. I think...
“I think I may still need counseling,” Fluttershy admitted worriedly.
“You and me both, sister!” Pinkie groaned, flopping face down on the grass.
“I’ll be honest,” Twilight said, backing up to address everypony again. “I didn’t really know any of you were living like this. Were you really such terrible ponies, that you couldn’t even stand being yourself? I didn’t even know there were ponies in this town who were in so much ...suffering.”
“Well, Fluttershy’s got it the worst,” Rainbow Dash said, gulping and admitting, “I wouldn’t... kill myself over it or anything. I just don’t like what I read, and I was hurting ponies, so they wouldn’t like it either. Why should we have to be something nopony wants, just because you think it’s wrong?”
“Ah could get mah family to love me again, like this,” Applejack said softly. “But like they think I was? It just wouldn’t end well. I know you don’t want us to be livin’ lives of denial, but why should we deny what you did to us then? Isn’t forcin’ it back as much of a lie as goin’ forward with what we got?”
“If you’re curious, Twilight, you meet a lot of troubled ponies, volunteering at the welfare shelter,” Flitter put in quietly. “That’s how I um, met Fluttershy, actually.”
“Oh, I used the welfare shelter before?” Fluttershy said curiously, “But I have low income housing, so why would I need to?”
Flitter coughed, and stated, “Actually, you’re... not allowed to visit the welfare shelter anymore, without approval from your social worker. You um... went there for a while, but once you had housing you felt it necessary to um... express your opinions about ponies who didn’t have housing... so, just a head’s up.”
“Oh,” Fluttershy said, hiding behind her hair and backing away from Flitter. “Okay, thank you...”
Twilight needed a lot of time to think about this stuff. Applejack said some pretty heavy stuff, and Rainbow Dash said some... less heavy stuff, but still pretty heavy. And Fluttershy freaking demolished them with her heavy stuff. She came in like a... really big demolishy thing. So, Twilight couldn’t give them the answers right away, but the immediate crisis appeared to be ...salvaged, at least. Flitter cautiously, gently led Fluttershy away from the small grave, and everypony ended up convening together for a final time in Fluttershy’s cottage, in what may have been the strangest tea party in history.
The cottage was still very bare, even more so from the removal of the cages, but many cages were still there, for the animals who still could not handle being free. The ones who could live freely didn’t come greet Fluttershy in loving paws, but ran for every nook and cranny they could hide in, once anypony came through the door. Fluttershy assured everypony that the animals were fine, they just had some trust issues they needed to work through, but damn if it wasn’t unsettling to have those beady little eyes staring at you from the dark places.
The tea quickly became lukewarm, as ponies involved found other things to occupy themselves with. The five of them faced off with the 5 of them, not out of fear or malice, but simple, befuddled curiosity at this point.
Rainbow Dash stood facing Derpy chest to chest, looking across the table at her as she chatted up the wall eyed pegasus. “So, you’re a pretty fast flyer, Derpy?” Rainbow asked her larger, blonde, weirdly alternate pony.
“Oh yes,” Derpy replied with a proud smile. It faltered when she added, “But I can’t really see very well, so I’m not gonna win any races.”
“You made your eyes go straight once,” Rainbow said curiously.
Derpy nodded, and closed her eyes. When she opened them, they were straight. Then she blinked, and they weren’t again. “It just doesn’t come naturally to me,” she said, blushing and wingfluttering at the attention. “Lots of ponies have eyes like mine at one point or another, but seeing right comes naturally to them.”
“I dunno what I’d do if my eyes ended up like that,” Rainbow admitted nervously, “Twilight really coulda screwed me up a lot worse than I ended up. I mean, not that you’re a screw-up, just,”
“Oh, it’s okay,” Derpy said unconvincingly. “I know you don’t really mean it in a bad way. It’s true I can’t be in the racing circuits, but I can do a lot of other really cool things!”
“Yeah, like what?” Dash asked in return. “I mean, what do you get up to that’s really cool?”
“Well, once me and my friends had to scare away a dragon!” Derpy said excitedly. “You remember, when the smoke from his snoring was covering the sky?”
“How could I forget?” Rainbow Dash laughed. “And of all ponies it was Fluttershy who stood up to the big guy!”
Derpy looked at Rainbow Dash uneasily, saying, “Um, no actually it was Bonbon, who sweet talked him into sleeping somewhere else.”
Rainbow Dash’s nervous smile matched Derpy’s then, as Dash said, “Oh, right... the whole, fake memories thing...”
“What is it you remember, I’m curious?” Derpy asked, leaning forward.
“Well, Fluttershy didn’t want to go, so we basically had to drag her up the mountain,” Rainbow said, “And we did that because... huh, now that I think on it that was a pretty nasty move on our part. But it was all worth it, when she got really freaky angry. She stared that dragon down and ripped him a new one. He was actually crying!”
Rainbow Dash blinked again, and rubbed her chin with a hoof, saying, “Wow, that does not sound like Fluttershy. She was just worried about her friends, so she acted differently. Except before, when she didn’t.”
She looked up to meet the eyes of a concerned Derpy.
...sorta.
“It’s that bad, huh,” Rainbow Dash said glumly, fiddling with her teacup.
“It’s kinda cool actually, if it’s not a bother to you,” Derpy said, ruffling her nervous wings straight again. “Twilight did get angry at him, when he knocked out Flitter, and it almost looked like she was gonna try to do that, but then Bonbon showed her that he wasn’t a bad dragon, he just made a bad decision. It wasn’t Fluttershy, but it did sort of go like that. Do you remember the avalanche?”
“Yeah, um, did ...Flitter start it going?” Rainbow asked uncertainly.
“Lyra actually,” Derpy said. “You’d think it was me, but not then. I wasn’t even in the air. Just some pebbles hit her rump and she started freaking out, and next thing we knew we were dodging boulders!”
“So uh, what do you do when you’re not with your friends?” Rainbow asked. “I mean, just so we can talk about something Twilight didn’t dump into my head sort of.”
“Well, I’m a lightning specialist,” Derpy responded, smacking her forehooves together in an impressive spark. “So, that’s something. You wouldn’t believe how many ponies think I zapped myself, on account of, you know,” She stuck her tongue out and pointed at her googly eyes.
“I know what you mean,” Rainbow said to Derpy, rolling her own eyes. “You wouldn’t believe how many ponies think I have the hots for a mare! You know, on account of the whole hair thing. I mean, who says I don’t, right? But I totally don’t.”
Derpy just blinked cluelessly, her eyes unnervingly switching orientations as she did so.
“You know, rainbows?” Rainbow Dash said teasingly, giving a little hip wiggle and flicking her tail in Derpy’s direction to illustrate. Derpy seemed to have a difficult time answering, so a little self consciously, Rainbow Dash said, “...what?”
“Well it’s just, I don’t know how appropriate that conversation is here,” Derpy smiled awkwardly. “I really don’t need to know if you... ‘have the hots’ for me or not.”
“Oh,” Dash said in cold realization, dropping her tail straight down. She didn’t talk about that stuff, did she? Or, did she? “Right,” she said blushing, intensely, “Um... I get a lot of flak since my mom was a rainbow drinker? I mean duh, obviously, but ponies think it makes you stupid, or deformed or um gay or whatever. But I came out fine!” Calmly looking in the other direction and tossing her mane so casually, she said in a nonchalant voice, “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is... I know how you feel, even if it doesn’t hurt my racing career.”
Derpy nodded at that, and sipped her tea. Rainbow Dash settled her haunches back down at the table in Fluttershy’s cottage... an unfamiliar table that looked kind of shoddy and bleached, with a few cracks in the boards, like Fluttershy had just grabbed it from the junkyard or something. Actually she probably did, come to think on it. Where else was she gonna get cheap furniture on short notice? Trying to take her mind off how there were a few newspapers stuffed under one of the table legs to keep it from wobbling, Rainbow Dash tried to think of how to salvage Derpy’s friendship, and maybe a teeny little of her respect.
“So, you bottle lighting,” Dash prompted hopefully, “Sounds pretty cool. I always wondered how to do that.”
“It’s pretty tricky,” Derpy admitted, glad for at least something to talk about, “It took me a while to learn, and I still mess up sometimes. But I could show you some time, just the basics.”
“Yeah, that’d be pretty awesome actually,” Rainbow Dash said. “I could do some incredible tricks if I knew how to use lightning!”
“Well, how far did you get in weather school?” Derpy asked her curiously.
Rainbow Dash blushed, turning away and saying, “I’m uh, well I’m pretty good at cloud busting, but I haven’t exactly been formally ...trained in weather work, so... that’s okay, right?”
Derpy looked shocked at Dash’s awkward confession, but she quickly recovered, smiling brightly and saying, “You bet! Just name a date and I’ll be there!”
Well they worked out a time and place, and Rainbow Dash actually felt pretty good at that. She was usually sort of... ashamed to let other ponies know all the stuff she hadn’t had a chance to learn, but it was just easy to get along with this derpy eyed pony, now that Rainbow had a chance to get to know her.
Applejack and Golden Harvest were talking with each other too, laughing heartily over some sort of farm related pun or something, like they’d always been old friends. Though from Applejack’s perspective, they had. Fluttershy and Flitter were pretty quiet, but Fluttershy seemed a lot more at peace with herself than when they chased her over here. Rarity and Bonbon were trying to have a conversation, but Lyra kept doing something that made Bonbon laugh. And she always laughed. Pinkie was watching that exchange with a curiously adoring expression, but not contributing anything herself. And Twilight Sparkle was sitting... at the other end of the table, keeping to herself. Alone.
“Scuse me a moment,” Rainbow Dash said, standing and trotting around behind Derpy’s impressive posterior to approach her moody looking unicorn friend.
“Twilight, what’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash asked the purple unicorn, sitting her rainbow tailed rump right down beside her.
“What’s not wrong?” Twilight responded cynically.
“Okay fine, a lot of things are messed up, but you aren’t talking to anypony,” Rainbow said worriedly, “You’re just sitting here off by yourself. Aren’t we your friends?”
“Who, you 5, or the other 5?” Twilight asked, glancing at Dash with a probing gaze.
“Both,” Dash answered. “You’re friends with everypony here. Nothing bad happened, we didn’t go crazy or anything. So what’s the problem?”
“Everypony is friends with me, is the problem,” Twilight said, turning to Dash with a conflicted tightness in her vividly violet, yet bloodshot eyes. “Are you my friend, though?”
“Of course!” Rainbow said in confusion at her distressed friend, “Isn’t that the same thing?”
Twilight gave a sigh that shook her shoulders. “I... I don’t remember you, Rainbow Dash,” she explained, “I never knew you very well, any time before you just... were my friend all of a sudden.”
“But... didn’t you—you know—make me up or... or something? How do you forget that?” Rainbow asked, tilting her head. “I mean, all this stuff I remember is really your ideas. I would be more upset, but without you, I’d be a... I dunno... a mean, lonely, friendless jerk. ”
“That’s just it, though,” Twilight said, “Anything I... impressed on you wasn’t a memory I had of you. It was a memory I had of her!” She waved a hoof in Derpy’s direction. Derpy waved back cluelessly.
“From my perspective,” Twilight said mutedly, “You just came out of nowhere, and suddenly you were the best friends I could ever possibly have. You all remember me being friends with you, but I just... feel like this is all a fantasy of mine come to life! I never did anything to earn your friendship. I know you think I did, but I can’t remember any differently.”
Rainbow toed the floor, saying, “Yeah, but... you’re still friends with the other five, right?” Something about that just really hurt to say, aching in the rainbow pegasus’s heart. It was true, but Rainbow Dash just felt really... envious of them. They got to be friends with Twilight the easy way, and Dash had to sit here fighting to even be recognized as a friend.
“I can’t help but feel like I betrayed them too,” Twilight said, ears lowering, so ashamed. “I should have found them. I should have ignored Discord and brought them together again, no matter how much it hurt to do so. But it was so easy to just abandon them. I gave up on them, and went and made my own friends. I just wanted my friends back, but it hurt too much to try, so I just pretended you were all my old friends. And eventually, I couldn’t tell the difference. I wasn’t the Element of Magic. I was a little filly playing with dolls. And—”
Twilight rubbed beside her horn with a hoof, gesturing with said hoof as she said, “And it worked! And that somehow makes it worse! Am I such a bad friend that even the Elements of Harmony can’t tell how deluded I am? How do I even talk to anypony in this room? Half of them, I betrayed and replaced. The other half I... I don’t even know. How do I deserve to be friends with you, if I don’t even know anything about you!”
Twilight blinked, then added frankly, “You know, besides all the research I did on your backgrounds, after we sealed Discord away.”
“I can’t—I’m not good at this stuff, Twilight,” Rainbow said, ruffling her wings and standing up. “I don’t need a reason to be friends with you. I’m just friends with you, and that’s that. I can’t tell you how. It just is. You need to ask Applejack for the straight answer, or... Golden Harvest I guess. Or Rarity, she’s real smart about social stuff.
“You need to talk to us,” Rainbow said, flapping up and putting her forehooves on Twilight’s withers. “All of us, not just me. I can’t... I can’t figure this stuff out alone, Twilight.”
“But what do I say?” Twilight asked. The sad, sleep deprived, dissheveled unicorn looked so pitifully out of her element here. Rainbow Dash wished she knew more about what Twilight’s element was, though.
“Just tell them what you told me,” Rainbow suggested. “Tell them about the problem with you being their friend, or how you can’t do it or whatever. See how quick they shoot down that idea, and tell you the real important stuff. I mean... I don’t really know what you should tell them, but I don’t think it really... matters? Just talk to them. They’ll tell you what to tell them!”
Dash scrunched her muzzle in confusion at that line of thinking, saying, “I mean, but if they already told you what to tell them, then you can’t tell um...”
Stilling Rainbow’s confused stuttering, Twilight climbed to four hooves herself, saying, “I think I know what you’re saying, Rainbow Dash. You’re right. I can’t just... sit here by myself. Even if I don’t deserve it, none of you deserve me locking you out. Thank you, I’ll go have a talk with everypony... Dash.”
Dash had to smile; that last part did not go unnoticed by her. Rainbow Dash didn’t know what Twilight talked about with the others, all the others, one at a time, but it made Twilight feel better, and that’s what’s important. The cute purple unicorn looked brighter, and more relieved with every pony she spoke to. She was even laughing together with them, at some of Pinkie’s hilariously bad jokes towards the evening.
“And that’s how the chickens got in the trees!”
Amid laughter, Rainbow cried out, “Pinkie Pie, you are so hilarious!”
“Aww, I’m not so great,” Pinkie said with a blush.
“Don’t sell yourself short, Pinkie,” Rarity said warmly, “I dare say you’re the funniest pony in the room right now!”
Pinkie’s smile froze at that, and she looked nervously over at Lyra, who waved her hoof saying, “Don’t worry about it. Everypony knows my jokes are terrible. Why do you think I’m friends with Bonbon!”
“Don’t you dare say that!” Bonbon shouted, albeit with a smile. She wrapped Lyra in a headlock, and ruffled her stripey mane, saying, “Your jokes are amazing, even if I am easy to please.”
“I dunno, I think Pinkie Pie has a real gift for this kind of stuff,” Lyra said, her eyes turning up to Bonbon with a smirk on her muzzle. “Get it? Gift?”
Pointing at Bonbon, Pinkie squealed in realization, “Because she said please! ” And that set the lot of them falling over laughing again.
You had to be there.
“The only thing I wanna know, is how am I going to plan a party for this?” Lyra asked, wiping tears out of her eyes.
“A party?” Pinkie said curiously, sitting up to face the mint green pony. “What do you wanna do?”
“Well, of course there should be music, and games,” Lyra said, “And you’re a baker, so why don’t you bring a cake? Oh that would be perfect! ”
“And streamers? ” Pinkie said with a face eating grin.
“And balloons!” Lyra agreed excitedly.
“But sweetie,” said Ra—oh, no it was Bonbon. “But sweetie,” Bonbon asked Lyra, “What has you thinking of a party now? Because we’re all friends again?”
“Most of us, technic-ally for the first time!” Applejack pointed out.
“It sure has been a crazy day...” Derpy said wearily.
“I think Twilight is passed out in the coat closet,” Flitter mumbled informatively.
“No, no, no,” Lyra said, rearing up and waving her forehooves dismissively. “You girls don’t even realize?” She turned slowly, looking around excitedly, exclaiming to half of the ponies in the room, “It’s your very first birthday! ”
To say the room fell into stunned silence would not be accurate, because somewhere in there was an almost impossible to hear high pitched squealing noise coming from a certain pink party pony who didn’t look like she could possibly smile any wider.
When does mind warping become something almost acceptable? And what are the rights of the new individual that it produced? I'm... going to go sit in the corner and contemplate...
On other topics, how will Celestia react to this? Discord did hijack her letters, putting in the role of an unwilling and unknowing factor in the matter too...
7308501
It isn't. The ones who would care are the ones who are compromised, or the ones that have to deal with them. And in both cases, they prefer the new to the old. Kinda terrible for their old personalities, even if what Twilight suggested is right, and they were really unhappy and unfulfilled in their old lives. Well, Reform spells exists for a reason and no one will fault Twilight for doing it under the influence of Discord. She should clean up after her mistakes regardless, but if the others don't see it as a mistake, well, she'll just have to get used to it.
Though that part about them being unhappy before... does give a bit of an idea if really taken seriously as a premise. That ponies live to exist in harmony and when they aren't in harmony, they are twisted and sad on a soul-crushing level. Something that the Elements could use, and render their temporary change permanent.
I do kinda want to see Celestia's reaction to this, as well as more of Rainbow and the others pushing for their new lives to be their official ones, and how to handle their past actions.
How does Twilight have access to those? Does that world not have medical confidentiality or did Twilight steal everyone's files in addition to mindfucking them?
Talk about backhanded compliments. Even I don't put my foot in my mouth that badly.
I do wish more stories acknowledged that. It's one of the reasons Rarity is my favourite character. She's a talented young businesswoman who built up a successful enterprise with nothing but her talent and her dedication to her work, while still making the time to care for friends and family. That's a much better moral message to young children than... whatever it is that most of the others are.
I really like the little rants Twilight gave in this chapter. It really summed up all the various and reasonable arguments for why what she did was wrong. It even makes all the mistaken, actually not that good arguments that I'd criticize myself for even while I say them. You don't see a lot of stories that actually manage to really face and acknowledge the mistakes their characters make this way.
I do actually kind of have to agree with Applejack here,though, for once. Changing for the better is hard, so why wouldn't you jump at the opportunity if someone could fast-forward the process for you?
You beent taking your writing cues from Joss Whedon again?,
7308501
More like how did Celestia react to it? And the answer is the most "awkward smile" filled victory ceremony in the galaxy.
I don't think mind warping is acceptable, not because it's bad, but because the people with the power to do it always do it for such horrible reasons. But there are good reasons to do so, and there are even people who wish someone could just reach in there and fix all the problems that they're helpless to fix themselves. I know I do...
7308792
After that victory ceremony in the actual show, I don't think I could possibly write anything that would better capture her reaction.
The 5 aren't out of hot water just yet. There are a lot of problems they're going to have to face in the future. They weren't jerks for no reason, after all. I just don't really want to write about it.
7308839
She's under a lot of stress, okay? They won't even miss them!
But more seriously, she didn't say how many of the hospital records she had access to, and even human society hasn't been so tight lipped about its mentally troubled population for a very long time, historically speaking. Plus the fate of the world kind of hung on Fluttershy's mental stability, so I imagine doctor/patient confidentiality wasn't as much of a concern.
Yeah, Rarity is kind of a hero to me too. She is such an incredible businesswoman that she's made a good living out of selling clothing to nudists!
I think the best point Applejack made was that any attempt to fix them would be just as invasive and mind warping as what originally happened to them. Two wrongs don't make a right.
Literally the only thing by that guy I've seen was Titan A.E. And frankly, I think Titan A.E. is exactly the kind of movie Rainbow Dash would love to pieces.
7309002
That's hilarious. I didn't even know about that. Wow, they really did a good job with that. The kind of lengths this show goes to to make its references really is impressive every time.
One of those things people really like to forget about. Being a dick to people is a choice you make (unless you're mentally ill like Fluttershy) but most people tend to have reasons for choosing so, reasons which, from their perspective, are very compelling and pressing.
Still kind of sounds like someone should lose their job for that.
And speaking as a sometimes-nudist, that isn't nearly as easy as it sounds.
That's really one of the things stories of this type tend to usually not acknowledge. The original inviduals are, for all intents and purposes, gone now. They might as well be dead. Repeating the crime in their memory, just to resurrect someone who already doesn't exist anymore and presumably killing someone else in the process, that's the kind of thing you could write a treatise on ethical philosophy about. There's no easy answer to that, but "two wrongs don't make a right" certainly is a compelling argument.
I liked Buffy. Don't judge me.
But yeah, that's a classic Whedonism. "She was angry like a, a really angry thing!" He does that all the time, it's actually kind of notorious.
7309002
Seeing as how it's one of the big questions about the story, (how does
the governmentPrincess Celestia respond to this,) I think you should at least mention that scene in the story itself. Until you mentioned it in the comments here, you're the only one who re-interpreted that scene. (Or even knew it actually happened.)derpicdn.net/img/2016/5/27/1164293/thumb.png
Fabulous!
7309113
It's really not all that terribly relevant to the story, though, is it? It's a story about how the affected individuals deal with the situation. What some random politician thinks of it, even if that politician is Celestia, isn't really particularly important in any real way. It doesn't actually affect her meaningfully.
7309175
Yes, and how does it affect Twilight Sparkle? The mane 6 have always been a little involved with the princesses as well, since they're the ones who operate the giant friendship laser. I only kinda brought up 'the government' as more of a joke anyways. As 7257283 said here, this story is close timeline wise and thematically to Lesson Zero, so I think Princess Celestia is quite relevant.
7309090
Oh, not sure when I'll get to that (once it's up), but thanks. :)
7309202
Maybe, but cutting away from the focus on the characters that are actually central to the story just so that Celestia can go "I am middlingly annoyed by this and will do nothing about it" doesn't strike me as the best writing decision.
7309229
If I was doing it, (and I'm not,) I'd have a few of the characters mention Celestial briefly. Slide it in the middle of some idle chatter. That's where stuff that's below sub-plot usually goes: mentioned or shown as (a) relevant-ish background detail(s) somewhere. I've seen stories that literally jump cut to a distant character to get their personal comment on things, but that only ever works in the most random of stories.
7309295
That seems reasonable enough.
"Rarity said employing the full spectrum"
"said, employing"?
"5 ponies"
...What is that strange S-like symbol?
"Fluttershy asked Twilight looking absolutely"
"Twilight, looking"?
"the two of them looking at Fluttershy"
"them and looking"?
"other 5 did"
There it is again! From context, it must equal 11, but wherever did you get such a thing?
"then sighed and, admitted in Goldie’s"
"and admitted"
...Um. Hm. New hypothesis: the Elements did hit Twilights mind magic. By making it permanent. "Oh, nice job, Magic-Bearer! This is much better! And very proactive; we knew we chose you for a reason!"
"the main 5"
Is it some higher base? A shorthand for 10_11, b_20, that sort of thing? Or maybe it's something from a sign-value notation? Hm, perhaps the culture that made it used the curve to represent 3 and the straight lines to represent 1s? Implying that their writing system evolved in a medium in which curves and right-angled lines were both practical... Perhaps their symbol for 12 looked like an S, or even the numeral 3? Though naturally it need not have been so systematic...
[11]...Okay, I imagine the gag is probably wearing thin by now...[/11]
"You had a special place here in your community"
Aye, someone has to serve as the pony all the parents nervously warn their children away from! Why, look and Luna! She was doing an excellent job of that until... um... you... blasted her with the Elements and made her nice. So bad example.
...So... Um... The reason why they should undo the brainwashing... is because they're so good at being brainwashed? Yeah... Twilight, about that "sleep" question...
"her rainbow colored pony double"
"rainbow-colored"?
"lazy for lack of a better"
"lazy, for"?
"No, man, mare"
Ought that "man" to be there?
"sometimes they lose sight of what they really want, and start only thinking about the bottom line"
Yes, and that is your true self you must return to, the pony who's lost sight of who she is!
"Can you really say your old self deserves to die just so you can be... be nice ponies?"
And can you, Twilight, say that the new deserve to die to resurrect the old?
"9 ponies"
Hm. I was going to do a bit more of the gag here (new numeral, after all!), but, um, I'm counting 10_10 (22_4) ponies, not 9_10. Six ponies from the Nightmare-Moon-Fighting Mane 6, then four others from the Twilight-Created Mane 6. Am I missing something?
"said searching under the seat"
"said, searching"?
"furiously butting up"
"furiously, butting"?
"shot back tear stricken"
"back, tear"?
"burst in the library"
"into"?
"the library, to drag"
"library to"?
"gallopping"
"galloping"?
"I thought that was the problem, not the solution"
I'm afraid that I'm not sure what the antecedent of that "that" is.
"to her chest saying,"
"to her chest, saying," or just "to her chest."?
"even stand being yourself"
"yourselves"?
"in this town, who were in"
Hm... I could see this indicating a speech rhythm, but maybe still "town who"?
"just for sake of the"
"the sake"?
"you’re curious Twilight"
"curious, Twilight"?
"so from removal"
"the removal"?
"as she chatted up the wall eyed pegasus"
"walleyed"?
"she blinked and they weren’t"
"blinked, and"?
"she said, blushing and wingfluttering at the attention'
...Maybe I wasn't wrong to read that "chatted up" with the British meaning after all... :)
"want to go, but we basically"
"and we"?
"Twilight didn’t dump into my head sort of"
That "sort of" at the end I think kind of works in the dialogue, but you might want to examine it anyway.
"You know on account"
"know, on"?
"hip wiggle, and flicking"
"wiggle and"?
Ah, so no, after all. Not that the hip wiggle and tail flick helped, of course. :)
"she said blushing furiously"
"said, blushing"?
"this derpy eyed pony"
"derpy-eyed"?
"sort of farm related pun"
"farm-related"?
"behind Derpy’s impressive posterior"
...Are you teasing us deliberately here? :)
"her moody looking unicorn"
"moody-looking"?
"her rainbow tailed rump"
"rainbow-tailed"?
"asked tilting her head"
"asked, tilting"?
"with every pony she spoke"
"spoke to" or "spoke with"?
And the chapter ends on a high note. Literally, from Pinkie Pie. :D
I don't know why, but when I read this story I constantly picture their sky as being black. Not night, the sun is up and everything is perfectly lit, but the sky is just straight black. It's just subtly off from how things should be.
Giving that Celestia would know what is going on soon after five random ponies join the team; it is not too uncommon that Twilight would have access to their files. Twilight was the one that cast the spell, and one of the most powerful magic users. Also, there would be few mental health professionals that have the clearance to know what really happened, and would be able to take care of the five without being found out.
So Twilight would likely need the files to help her new friends and head off anything going wrong.
Now they know what going on, they can get Twilight's help in fixing mistakes of their past. Like figure out why Scootaloo was not being looked over right. It seems like she never been told that stealing is wrong. Also, who would let their foal be around with the old Dash?
Also help Pinkie and Fluttershy with their issues. More to the point of getting them free from restrictions based on mental health. Maybe Celestia can make Twilight their social worker? So Fluttershy can have animals and the like.
Applejack is slowly clearing her issues and gaining the confidence of her kin back. Rarity just need to get her sister to see her has changed.
Looks like everyone but Rarity, and maybe Pinkie, may have legal trouble that needs to be cleared.
When trying to think about what they could tell others about why they have changed, the 1st thing that came to mind is; blame it on the elements. It is at least somewhat true.
"They turned Nightmare Moon into Luna, and cleaned up everything after taking out discord. What do you think they did to me when I used it? Why do you think I started acting odd after the whole discord thing?"
Really that whole think makes me think of Babylon5's Death of Personality. They should not legal be punished for what five other mares did, just because they shared the same body parts. If a serial killer kills himself and donated his organs, should you prosecute anyone who got the donated organs?
7309208
Here ya go.
7309113
I do still have an epilogue to finish up after all.
7309175
Celestia certainly is relevant for one thing in this story.
7309627
Yay! Thanks for corrections!
Hey don't ask me. I think a bunch of apes were screaming something about it the other day.
I can't win...
Yeah, she was laying it on pretty thick there.
Wow, it's almost like Twilight isn't concerned about mind rape at all, if it makes you lawful good!
Rainbow Dash makes accidental references to the human world all the time. I think she might actually be one.
Well, Fluttershy is missing, and Flitter is catatonic.
", furiously butting"
English is frustratingly shackled when you're trying to not talk about one person, but about each person in a group.
Yeah it was intended to be the hurried sort of clarification that someone makes who doesn't really understand what's going on, and gets anxious about claiming anything at the last minute.
You know, it's okay for adverbs to exist sometimes. Words that modify verbs aren't actually absent from the language.
I had to replace my wine glasses, but it was worth it!
7311390
"Here ya go."
Ah, thanks; that's next on my list of things to read after this.
"Yay! Thanks for corrections!"
You're welcome!
"I can't win... "
Sorry. :) You know what they say about pleasing everypony, though...
And I don't plan to scream at you, at least, so this is probably more pleasant for you even if I'm less satisfied with it.
"Wow, it's almost like Twilight isn't concerned about mind rape at all, if it makes you lawful good!"
...Arrrrrgh, and I just noticed I made a typo in that.
*at Luna
But yeah, bit of internal conflict there. Helping ponies be good is good! Curing mind rape is good! Curing mind rape that makes ponies bad to make them good is even better than the two apart! Curing mind rape that makes ponies good to make them bad is... um... give me a moment...
"Rainbow Dash makes accidental references to the human world all the time. I think she might actually be one."
...Okay, well, now there's something on my list of things to read before I get to your blog post. :)
"Well, Fluttershy is missing, and Flitter is catatonic."
Ah, not counting Flitter; okay. That wasn't clear to me from the text, though.
"", furiously butting""
Ah, yeah, that would be another option. It depends on whether the "furiously" is meant to apply to the "said" or the "butting".
"English is frustratingly shackled when you're trying to not talk about one person, but about each person in a group."
Hm. My spellchecker reads that as a valid word, at least. Of course, spellchecker's aren't 100% reliable.
"Yeah it was intended to be the hurried sort of clarification that someone makes who doesn't really understand what's going on, and gets anxious about claiming anything at the last minute."
Ah, good, that's what I read it as. It sounds somewhat awkward, but then, it would sound somewhat awkward.
"You know, it's okay for adverbs to exist sometimes. Words that modify verbs aren't actually absent from the language."
Fair enough. This is probably a matter of style.
""
:)
"I had to replace my wine glasses, but it was worth it! "
And also :)
7311814
I said 9 ponies panicking. Just a stupid little joke.
It's short, and a good read IMO. and I wish it was an epic
7310490
Well, I don't know where you got that from, but Rainbow Dash did call her hooves "sky blue" at one point? It does seem a bit silly that a story from the perspective of a pegasus pony wouldn't pay more attention to the sky. I should fiddle with that a bit.
7310926
Scootaloo knows that stealing is wrong. She said herself that she didn't get caught.
In particular, Fluttershy's ban on owning animals is still very much in effect. Have to smooth that out soon or it could get pretty ugly...
Yeah, all Pinkie's criminal offenses were juvenile, so she's pretty much clear. Keep in mind, only Discord so far knows about Applejack's double dealing, but I imagine she won't find it easy to pull out of that industry. Rainbow Dash will probably be okay if she keeps her head low.
Twilight's going straight to the moon.That has a very simple answer, actually. The reason it seems like a conundrum is because of the misimpression we have in society, that criminals must be punished. But the reality is that the punishment is merely the means to an end. We punish criminals to try and stop them from doing it again. Thieves can't steal without their hands, f/i. What that means is, if you have some way to ensure beyond a doubt that a criminal will not continue to do the thing that you don't want them to do, there's no need to punish them at all. You already got what you really want.
Now, if every recipient of their organs suddenly becomes an axe murderer, then you do want to incarcerate those people, yes. But for the most part the only organ that'll cause that to happen is the brain.
7311906
"I said 9 ponies panicking. Just a stupid little joke."
Ah, thanks; sorry for missing that.
"It's short, and a good read IMO. and I wish it was an epic"
Aye, it was good, I thought. I was very glad it didn't end with Rainbow Dash exiled "for her own good".
This made me smile.
Hmm...this chapter and more broadly this story. I get where it's trying to go, a sort of pseudo-tragedy and a nifty idea, but I'm truly just not feeling it. Maybe more could be made of how Discord's 'brilliant idea' backfired on him. Overall, it feels like this was trying to take a different spin on the reformation spells: instead of screwing up the reformation spell, Twilight's spell works perfectly, the ponies who got affected don't want to go back to whom they were, and it's the moral issues that drive the story instead. As a result, though, it just feels a little bit lackluster. I suppose some drama could be made about how "Of course you don't want to go back to how you want to, because the reformation magic is that thorough that it'll stop you from wanting to revert", but that's slapped down by Twilight's mention that the magic should have broken down once the reformed 5 realise they've been brainwashed, but it's not because they have no desire to go back to how they were.