When a changeling gets a bright idea

by Rarity Belle

Chapter 13

The sun was setting once more over the land. From all across the fields and houses had they come to gather. The six friends who were oblivious as to why they were called, were on their way. None of them spoke a single word on the way to the castle. Rarity didn’t even grant Rainbow a glance while Rainbow didn’t say a word to Pinkie, Fluttershy was too terrified to even look at Applejack, who had returned earlier that day, and neither the farmer nor Pinkie had even the slightest idea what was truly going on. Something had happened, but what was it?

Clouds had been drifting in and just like the mood, they were gloomy. A storm had been predicted to fall later that evening. It was all setting the scene for something that could terrorize even the toughest hearts. But what would have happened? Nopony dared to speak a word and they moved in silence. Other ponies that they came across all became silent at the sight as well. None of them dared to make a remark, fearing whatever wrath could be called upon them.

Had somepony they knew passed away? Had somepony they loved broken their bonds? Had Twilight gone too far with something? Something had happened, the village just didn’t knew what it was. Ponies just returned home, awaiting the storm that would erupt over time. It would be safer to stay inside if the six of them decided to battle it out among one another.

The five of them all wandered through the streets, not even Rainbow Dash was flying. In the distance had it bloomed up once more, the crystalline castle in which Twilight had taken her residence. The sight of even the castle had been gloomy, nopony felt good with the sight as it was. It was only more pressure on an already ticking time bomb.

When they approached the front door, they could see Twilight just standing there and awaiting them. Judging eyes stared over each of them. Applejack already made a conclusion but would still have continued on. She wanted to be there when all hell broke loose of course. The rest didn’t particularly care, as long as the situation got resolved, one way or the other.

“Ah, good, you’re all here. If you would please go to the throne room, I’ll be with you there shortly. And please, don’t try to tear the place down, okay?” Twilight said to them in a neutral voice. If anypony had to be the voice of reason for the maddened minds she was surrounded with, it would have been her.

The ponies all nodded and didn’t even greet the alicorn in a friendly manner. They made her feel that there was something terribly wrong of course. Twilight let out a deep sigh afterward and shook her head. The last thing that she wanted was to break the friendships that had been forged. Everypony grew to each other as a friend and hinted even as a potential lover from time to time. She shook her head and huffed, blocking those thoughts from her mind.

It was time to settle the debts made with everypony. It was time for Twilight to finally get a good view of what was going on after all. She wandered back in the castle and shut the door tight, locking it not just via its mechanism, but also via a couple of powerful arcane spells. Time of judgement had fallen upon each of them, it was time to speak.

~~~~

All of them sat down in the throne room, each of them on their own throne while Twilight wandered in. Before any of them could have said even a word, Twilight slammed the door shut and opened her mouth to speak. The confrontation would be hard and head-on. “So, here we are, the six of us... Over the past few days it has come to my attention that bad blood has begun to run between all of you, not directly with me, but between you all. My question is: what the freaking, flippity, flip-side happened?! I thought you were all friends of each other and wanted to support it!”

Those words roared the argument in existence, one that never should have been.

“Pinkie tried to assault me, remember! We had spoken about the possibilities of a relationship, but we both figured it was best to not engage in it!” Rainbow bellowed, capturing the attention of Pinkie Pie.

“What?! I did not!” the pink mare returned, rising up from her throne. “When!?”

“A mere few days ago! If you start lying about the fact that you weren’t there when you did it, you’re even a worse pony than I could have imagined, Pinkie!” Rainbow snarled in return, locking the pink mare in a staring competition.

“Not to forget that you almost killed my sister, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity growled loud enough for the others to hear it. Naturally were they all surprised to hear that, and shot glares and glances in her direction. It wasn’t true, right?

Rainbow backed away the second she caught the words. She lowered back down in her own throne and had a good look to Rarity. She genuinely didn’t knew where the fashionista was talking about. It was madness to even say words like that! Sexuality, fine. But accusing her of near straight-up murder? That was a whole other point of interest. “I didn’t! I wasn’t even close by Sweetie! When did this happen Rares?”

“Don’t you try to deny it!” Rarity growled again, charging her horn to capture Rainbow and shake her. “Earlier today, you took Sweetie out for a flying trip!”

The watchful eye of Twilight prevented it and she cancelled the spell without a sound.

“I didn’t! I woke up far in midday and heard Twilight wanted to see us tonight, then I went on to do my chores! Where do you get this nonsense from, Rarity?”

“Are you calling me a liar, of all things considered?!”

“No! I just want to know where you got this from!”

“Quiet y’all!” Applejack shouted loud and clear. Silence took over the room and everypony had a glance to her. Her hoof pointed to Fluttershy who had been eagerly awaiting her turn to speak something. “Go right ahead, sugarcube.”

“Don’t you ‘sugarcube’ me, Applejack, you’re the worst of the lot!”

“Beg yar pardon?” the farmer returned to the timid pegasus with a risen eyebrow.

“Did you forget that fruitbat invasion from the night before or something?”

“Fruitbat invasion? What in tarnation are ya talkin’ ‘bout?” Now it was Applejack who was confused about the entire matter. Something wasn’t right, she had left town for the markets and just as Rainbow, only heard about Twilight wanting to meet them.

“Don’t you dare to deny it, Applejack!”

“Ah ain’t denying anythin’ here!”

“Would you all just be quiet for the moment?” Twilight said in a raised voice. She took place on her own throne and sighed deep. She had listened to all of the words spoken and realized that some hadn’t the faintest idea what was going on. Which meant that there might have been a lot more trouble than originally thought about. It was a matter Twilight would look in at a later point, first she had to settle the bad blood with her friends.

It was too early to jump to conclusions for the time being, but the words of Spike continued to linger through her mind. Speaking of the little dragon, the alicorn deemed it better if he wasn’t there with them while they were having their powerful talk. She had given him an evening off, but no doubt he would be eavesdropping on them and maybe already stood listening by the door. That, or he was just doing his own things. Not that it really mattered in the moment.

Twilight would lie if she said that she didn’t notice the cracks in the friendships emerging between them. She saw them clear as day and only a small amount of extra pressure would have shattered what was left of it. “So many moons ago, we came together in order to fight a common enemy, Nightmare Moon. We were crowned the Elements of Harmony during that event and we remained friends afterward, not because we had something in common, but because if what we didn’t. Our differences made us to the mares we are today and it helped us conquer things we never even dared to imagine. But listening to you lot now... It tears through my heart with pain.”

All of them had a look to Twilight, silencing their own arguments in the process. Each had to admit that it rung a form of truth, however small. But they wouldn’t listen to it with both ears. The hatred and disgust that came for the other mares was greater than the wisdom of Twilight.

“It brings me so much pain to see you all bickering like this, talking about things the other doesn’t even have knowledge about. But we have to solve it, somehow, together.” Naturally had the princess hoped that her words would have done the trick to let the other five listen to her, because of it didn’t, a lot more could have been at stake. “What happened these past few days might have been the greatest ordeal that our friendship has ever gone through, but remember the wonderful moments that we had together, isn’t that just worth it to keep the friendship going for? I never thought that remaining friends would be easy, but we share a bond. I hope you see that too.”

Silence filled the room while the mares began to think and ponder the words of Twilight. They had to admit that she had a point of some sort, but on the other end were their own emotions. Everything from the past week was just troublesome to live by. Everything that had happened previously, in comparison to what happened the past week, wasn’t worth it. So many bad and terrible things had happened, to remain silent about the shatters they had already felt in their hearts.

It would be impossible to remain friends with such a terrible past behind them.

“If you have any way that we might solve this, other than to bury the hatchet and forgive each other, I’ll gladly hear it,” added Twilight, smiling even a little bit.

“And just casually forget that somepony nearly killed my sister? Or that another pony wanted to say something about my family?” Rarity growled up. She pressed her fore-hooves against the table, rising her body up from the throne. “I am sorry, Twilight, but we can’t just forgive and forget this. This is madness of the biggest sort and with the situation as it is, I much rather go my own way. I have no quarrels with you, it’s just the other five I’m having the unfortunate pleasure of despising.”

Whether Rarity realized it or not, but she had spoken the thoughts of everypony present outside of Twilight. Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack all felt the same way. They either had something terrible happen to them, or were accused of something that they had never done. How could they have remained friends with a situation like that? It was maddening and heartbreaking for certain, but on the other end was it maybe for the better as well. Maybe it was better to just break their friendship? Twilight didn’t think so.

The levels of stress and urgency of the matter became much more clear to the alicorn after Rarity had spoken her words. The next few words spoken should have been picked with care, or all hell would break loose and there would be the castle to pay. “I don’t know what happened between the five of you in the past few days, but I can clearly say that it isn’t something good at all. And we need to solve this madness before it gets way out of our league.”

“Twilight,” the cyan pegasus started, glaring at the mare with cutting eyes, “ this problem is on each and every one of us, with the others. You have nothing to do with this, so why are you making such a fuss about it anyway? Don’t give me that speech about how we’re your friends and friends help each other. You have nothing to say on this!”

The thought was shared among the others. It was true that Twilight had no business with each of their quarrels and troubles. So why would she have even tried to do such a thing to start with? Of course did the thought process of the alicorn run much deeper than they were capable of and Twilight’s reaction showed that. “No Rainbow, it’s because all of you are friends of mine and I don’t like to see them fighting each other like this. There’s something that we should be able to do and there’s nothing you can do to change my mind! It’s my business, as much as it is yours!”

“Hmpf, if you think that,” grumbled Rainbow and shoved her throne back, “then we’re done talking here.” She stood up and wanted to make a leave. Twilight wanted to just leave the place as a whole and be done with it. Staying there any longer in the same area with the other five had made her sick. Rainbow had to leave the castle and just soar through the clouded skies to get a clear head.

The others actually thought about the same thing but didn’t knew when the time was ‘right’ for them to take their leave. Grumbles and growls all came from the mares while they never spoke a single word. Everypony was just about ready to go and leave Twilight, who couldn’t stop them with all the power in the world. The situation was doomed and pulverized.

~~~~

On the other side of the door had a pair of ears indeed been eavesdropping on them all. Fortunately had Spike the dragon heard everything that the mares had spoken to one another and wasn’t ready to let them leave just yet. He had to do something that he had never done before, keeping them all together. A swallow came and he hadn’t the faintest idea what to do next, but the idea had to be forged quickly. Mainly since Rainbow had already made her way down to the door.

He opened the door and looked straight in the eyes of Rainbow. The pegasus stopped dead in her tracks and didn’t knew what to do next to face him. “Uhm, hey, Spike, how’s it going?” She tried to act cool, like nothing had happened. But the dragon didn’t fall for it.

He had another look to the pegasus and pointed a finger to her. “You, are going back to that throne, take a seat and just talk about the matter! Because in everything that you discussed, you forgot one tiny thing, Rainbow. You all did, by the way!”

Could it be that Spike had turned in their voice of reason? Twilight certainly hoped in that little fact. But if it wasn’t, the biggest meltdown in Equestria’s history was about to commence. Twilight placed all of her hopes on the fact that Spike could choose his next words carefully.

Rainbow on the other end was having a glance at the little dragon, wondering what it was that he could have meant with his words. Something obviously had hit the spark inside of him. “Then,” the pegasus said after looking at the other mares, “do tell what it was we missed.”

The dragon could almost facepalmed so hard in response to those words. Their anger for each other had blinded them to a degree unseen before. Spike didn’t knew how he had to word it any differently. He then just spoke it the way he knew that they all understood what he mumbled about. The entire situation now depended on him. “The thing that you forgot, was to ask! Pinkie didn’t knew what you were talking about and you went straight in the defence, Rainbow. You should have asked what she was doing that day!”

A bright red blush of shame appeared on the cheeks of the pegasus, followed by an awkward chuckle. The dragon was having a point there, one which she didn’t wanted to admit to him. Without a word had she turned back around, hung her head low and started walking back to her throne.

Spike nodded once and then hurried over to the table, climbed atop of it and had a good look at each of them. He wasn’t done with his words, not by a long shot. “You have been through so much together, so much that things like this shouldn’t shatter your friendship. You should have done the one thing that you didn’t want to do, which was talking. Just talk about the matter and maybe, just maybe, it could reveal a lot more than you could have thought it would. Talking is a powerful thing, but only if you give it a chance. That’s, that’s all I’m going to say, hehe.”

The more he spoke, the more he realized that everypony was looking at him with a disgusted face. They didn’t wanted to speak about the troubles that they had been going through, they didn’t even wanted to see the pony with whom they had beef with. Yet amidst it all had Twilight to admit that she was glad. He was a little voice of reason between them all. Though she couldn’t help but to feel that everything was hanging by a threat. Doubts rose in her mind, trouble was blooming, maybe a very, very good night’s worth of sleep might have given her another way to look at it.

“Maybe, it’s time that we all go to bed. Please, stay in the guest rooms for the night, and just think about what could happen, or happened. I’m not forcing you to make it up, but I am asking you to weigh all the options before doing anything that you might regret,” she said to them, charging her horn and opening the door. They were allowed to leave with the thoughts surging like mad.

The time had come for them all to decide, whether or not they would give Chara the way she wanted, or that they would prove that their friendship was maybe the strongest one in all of Equestria. A thing it certainly didn’t feel like in the moment.

All of them would leave their thrones and in silence accepted the offer given. They were ready to hit it for the night, maybe even speak about it in the morning. But nopony could deny that the amounts of red flow that went through the room were astronomical. It began to spread through all the cracks and openings, spreading itself through Ponyville.

Danger was knocking at the door and the changeling got a literal taste of the action. Times changed, something had to give and something had to happen, fast.