Lessons in Chaos

by TobiasDrake

15 - Belligerent Discouragement

One week ago, Twilight probably would have considered it strange to be sleeping in an abandoned home. She didn’t even know whose house this was, two doors down from the Hay Burger. But the building was mostly intact. The walls still mostly stood, the roof hadn’t caved in, and it had never been set on fire. That was already more than could be said for many of the other houses in the Ponyville ruins.

The air inside was dry and reeked of dust. A two-foot gash ran horizontally along the living room wall, cleaving through a shattered window on the left side. A sofa lay overturned atop the coffee table but appeared to still be in usable condition. With each step she took, a crunching sound alerted her to the broken glass and pottery her hooves were grinding into the carpet.

A single bed occupied the master bedroom, caked in dust, but unlike the houses they’d visited before, the mattress still seemed usable. An unbroken window along the left side provided a path to the outside world for the dust to travel once opened, and the supply kit from their wagon outside gave them plenty of supplies for cleaning.

After two hours of work, the bed was just serviceable enough to be slept in. They also dragged the couch into the bedroom, turning it upright and inspecting the cushions for any unfortunate surprises. Twilight only had to hope now that there were no bedbugs or other nasty creatures that had come to inhabit this abode since its abandonment.

Twilight opened her snout to volunteer for the couch, but Fluttershy had already climbed up and taken it as hers.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like the bed?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, I couldn’t.” Facing Twilight, Fluttershy dropped down on her side and used her legs to push her back into the rear cushion. She wriggled in place for comfort. “This is fine.”

It didn’t feel fine. “You were in that place for a lot longer than I was,” Twilight insisted. It made logical sense, after all. Fluttershy deserved the more comfortable spot because she’d been so long without.

But Fluttershy wouldn’t have it. “The Princess shouldn’t have to sleep on the couch,” she explained. “You wouldn’t let Princess Celestia do that, would you?”

She had a point there, but it still didn’t feel right to Twilight. “That’s different. I’m not the same kind of Princess. I’ve only even been a Princess for a moon or two.”

Fluttershy looked her in the eyes. “You told Sunset Shimmer that being a Princess has to be earned. It’s not a gift or a spell, it’s something that happens to ponies who do great things. So if you’re a Princess, that means you’ve earned it.”

That also made logical sense. “Are you sure about this?”

Fluttershy smiled sweetly. “Twilight, if you make me sleep on the bed, I’m going to feel guilty. I’m going to feel very guilty. Then I’m going to nag at you about how guilty I feel. And then I’m going to keep nagging.”

Twilight laughed. “Okay, okay, you win.”

“Zecora said that one of Applejack’s scouts would be here tomorrow morning, so it’s very important that we get our rest. How are we going to do that if I’m nagging at you?”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” Twilight hopped up onto the bed, grinning widely.

As she settled into bed, Twilight couldn’t help but think of how strong Fluttershy seemed even now. She’d been in Bridle Rock for only a week and already this bed seemed like paradise by comparison. Fluttershy had been there for moons. Perhaps even years. How long had it been since Fluttershy had even seen the sun?

A knock at the window interrupted Twilight’s thoughts. She used her magic to slide it open. She relished the feeling of casting spells again; she feared she had taken her magic for granted. That would never happen again.

A familiar orange face peeked through the window. “How are you two holding up?” Flash Sentry asked. “Everything good?”

“We’re fine, thank you,” Twilight answered. “Have you seen anything?”

“Nothing yet, but I’ll keep you posted.” Due to his role on the night shift, Flash was accustomed to sleeping during the day. This had made him the perfect choice to keep the night watch. Zecora had said that the scout would arrive at morning, but Flash had insisted on making sure nopony saw Twilight before they had a chance to explain anything.

“How are the others?” Twilight asked.

“Sunset and Trixie are in the house across the way,” Flash said, pointing across the street. “They seemed to be doing fine. Sunset’s….” Flash hesitated, covering his snout with a hoof as though trying to think of how to phrase it. He settled on, “Well, she’s being Sunset Shimmer.”

Twilight yawned. “As long as she isn’t starting fights, she can be a tomorrow problem.”

“Agreed. I’ll keep you updated if anything happens. Have a good night, your majesty.” Flash gave Twilight a slight nod of the head, then resumed his patrol. Twilight closed the window behind him, then rolled over onto her back. The cushion conforming to her back felt like a slice of paradise after this last week. She mentally added soft beds to the list of things she would never--

“Hey, Twilight? Can I ask you a question? If it’s too personal, I understand.”

Twilight squirmed on the mattress, rolling over to face Fluttershy. She raised herself on her forelegs. “What is it?”

“I wanted to know about….” Fluttershy stopped herself. She took a couple of seconds to reconsider her question. “How did you know….” She stopped again. “It’s Applejack,” she said meekly. “How did you meet?”

“The same way I met the rest of you,” Twilight answered. “Princess Celestia sent me to Ponyville for the Summer Sun Festival.”

“Oh, that’s right. I suppose that happened the same way for you too.”

“Well, not exactly the same.” She glanced behind her at the window. High in the sky, the Mare in the Moon looked down from her lofty prison. “I visited Sweet Apple Acres to check on the food they were preparing. I was only there to make sure they were keeping on schedule, but Applejack wanted me to stay and try it.” She smiled bemusedly at the memory.

“Did you?”

“I didn’t want to at first. I knew right away what they really wanted; the Apples were trying to convince me to stay for lunch. Applejack was very eager to make a new friend. All I cared about was getting this task finished so I could work on the Nightmare Moon problem.” She held her forelegs out in front of her, shaking them lightly as she spoke. It was all too easy to remember how she’d felt that day. “I didn’t have time for distractions and friend-making. I had work to do and she was making herself an obstacle to that work.”

Twilight looked up to see Fluttershy visibly shrinking away from her. “That sounds more like the Twilight Sparkle I know. You told her no?”

“I tried to.” Twilight looked down at her right foreleg. “But when it came down to it, I couldn’t refuse. Applejack called me ‘part of the family’. That felt very strange. I’d barely even known her for two minutes and she was welcoming me into her home.”

“Was she hitting on you?” Fluttershy blushed and stammered out, “I-I mean, you said you two were….”

“No, I don’t think so. At least, not then.” Twilight looked Fluttershy in the eyes. “She was just nice.” Twilight looked down at her forelegs once more. She idly rolled one hoof over the other. “I have my own theories about what happened that day, but the truth is, I don’t know why I stayed. I had a lot of work that needed to get done and I didn’t even know any of these ponies. But once I saw how many ponies I’d be disappointing if I left, I couldn’t do it.”

“And that’s when you fell in love,” Fluttershy said eagerly. She lay on her front, resting her head on her forelegs with a blushing grin.

“What!? No! I thought she was being pushy and wasting my time with frivolous socializing.”

“Oh.” Fluttershy’s grin faded. “That sounds more like you.”

“I’m guessing that didn’t happen here?”

Fluttershy nodded sadly. “I think Applejack felt really insulted that you rejected her hospitality. She didn’t talk about it much, but she’s always been very quick to assume the worst about you. I was there when she and the others came up with the Shield of Harmony. She said that it was important for us to not have to rely on two-faced self-centered ponies like you to protect us.”

Twilight was stunned by the sentiment. It sounded heartless and cruel at first, but as she mulled it over in her brain, she began to see it. “Applejack has a lot of pride, especially where her family’s concerned. There’s nothing in Equestria that’s more important to her. She also tends to think with her heart more than her brain.” Twilight sighed. “That’s been an adjustment for me.”

Fluttershy smiled. She returned to her stomach, folding her hooves under her head once more. “Going back to my question, though, how did you know? Um…that she was the one who confessed, or did you?”

“Confessed?” Twilight asked.

“Confessed,” Fluttershy repeated. Twilight stared blankly at her for a second, prompting Fluttershy to clarify, “The confession.” As enlightenment failed once more to fill the silence between them, she added, “… of true love.”

“There’s a confession?”

“There’s supposed to be,” Fluttershy said with a pout. “Before the war happened, I used to read about it in my graphic novels. When one pony realizes that they’re in love with another pony, they take that pony aside and confess their true feelings. Then the other pony reveals that they’re in love too, and the two ponies live happily ever after.”

“That’s not at all like the stories I’ve read,” Twilight replied. She smiled, thinking back. “In my books, two ponies would go on an adventure together. They’d save each other and help each other over and over, building a bond of trust and reliance. Then, at the journey’s end, they would look into each other’s eyes and just know. Nothing needs to be said. They kiss, sealing the love that will endure forever.”

“Oh. That’s very different.” Fluttershy watched Twilight lower herself back down into the bed. Once her friend had a chance to get comfortable, she asked, “So, did that happen?”

“Did what happen?”

“The journey with the kiss that endures forever.”

“No, that never happened either.” Twilight frowned. “I don’t think that’s actually how it works in real life. At least, it wasn’t for us.”

“So how did you get together?”

“She asked if I wanted to go on a date. I said yes.”

Fluttershy waited silently for Twilight to continue the story. After a few seconds, when it became apparent that there wasn’t going to be anything more, she frowned. “That’s it?”

“That’s it. Our big epic love story. She thought I was interesting, and I agreed to start seeing her as an experiment in social interaction. I wanted to study what that kind of relationship felt like.” Twilight paused, musing on the events that had transpired since that day. “All things considered, I wasn’t really prepared for some of the results I’ve obtained.”

“Oh.” Twilight could tell that she’d been hoping for more. “Well, why did you pick her for your experiment?”

“Because she asked.”

“That’s it? There was really nothing more to it?”

Twilight grinned wryly. “This isn’t really about me and Applejack, is it? This is about Flash Sentry.”

Fluttershy pouted as soon as Twilight caught her. “I’m worried I might have ruined his confession,” she admitted.

“Do you like him?”

Fluttershy considered the question. “He’s nice, but I don’t know. I know he likes me and he’s done so much for me that I appreciate, but I don’t know if that’s enough to be in love. How do I know if I’ve fallen for somepony?”

Twilight shook her head. “Love doesn’t work like that. Attraction does, but love is deeper than that. You don’t wake up one morning in love with somepony; you have to build love with time and care. The best thing you can do if you think you’re interested is give it a try.“

“But what if it doesn’t work out?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? Twilight had struggled with it for some time now. “Alright, I don’t have all the answers,” she admitted. She wanted to say that if it doesn’t work out, you can just stay friends with the pony. She wanted to say that Fluttershy would be no worse off than if she’d never given it a try. But those were harder words to bring to her lips now.

There was bad blood mixed into her relationship with Applejack. An ugly chain of events had shown her things she never wanted to know about the pony she loved. Now, even though they’d agreed at the outset that whatever happened wouldn’t affect their friendship, it was next to impossible to view Applejack in the same light as she had before.

For better or worse, their time as Special Someponies had altered their relationship on a fundamental level. Applejack had hurt her in ways she’d never anticipated were possible, and even if they became friends, she could never unfeel those feelings. Even worse, her friends had followed suit. The group dynamic would never be the same again.

But did every relationship have to go that way? Or was that just what had happened in hers? She’d never been with another pony, so she didn’t truly know. Then again, there were others who had.

“I’ve never been with anypony but Applejack,” she explained. “But I do have two friends who tried being a couple once. It didn’t work out for them, but they’re still friends. They put it behind them and moved on with their lives. I guess that’s how you’re supposed to do it. If it doesn’t work, if you don’t want to make it work or don’t think you can, then you put it behind you and move forward. And you meet new ponies and try again.”

“What if that doesn’t work?”

“Then you do it again, I think? Put it behind you and move on. However many times you have to….” Twilight stopped. She looked down at her hooves once more, feeling suddenly very ill.

Fluttershy lowered her head. “Did I say something wrong?”

Twilight didn’t answer her. A stray thought had emerged from the back of her mind, and now she couldn’t let it go. It demanded attention that she didn’t want to give it.

What if you have to do it fifteen times?

She hated that question. She didn’t want to think about it at all. She didn’t want to give it the credibility of being reasonable. Fifteen was weird, right? Surely, she wasn’t wrong for thinking that was weird. And besides, Applejack had made it clear that she was always the party who did the breaking up, so it was really her fault that she’d had to try fifteen times already.

She was upset that Applejack had hurt her. That was why she was upset, she reaffirmed. She was mad at Applejack for breaking her heart. Even though she’d already seen efforts to make amends both to her and even to the other ponies that Applejack had hurt. Even though, in her heart, she wanted to forgive her but could never quite bring herself to do it because every time she was alone with Applejack, she couldn’t stop feeling so small. Like a tiny, insignificant link in a longer chain.

Fifteen ponies.

But that had never been why she was upset, she reaffirmed. She wasn’t the kind of pony to be petty about things like that. It was fine that Applejack went through partners the way Twilight went through rolls of parchment. It was the other thing that she couldn’t forgive. The other thing.

“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked. “You stopped talking.”

“I’m fine,” Twilight assured her. She needed to stop thinking about this. She needed to think about anything else but this. “I’m sorry but I need some time to meditate. You should get some sleep.”

She didn’t wait for a response. She closed her eyes and fled from her body. Escaping from the cruel and pitiless confines of tangible reality was becoming easier and easier for her. Within moments, she found her spirit adrift, entering into the relatively comforting non-linearity known as the Space Between.

It didn’t take her long at all to find a physical cottage in non-physical space. Before she’d even knocked at the door, she felt a rush of existence warping around her and found herself standing in the living room. Discord reclined in place where a chair should have been, one leg crossed over the other and fingers steepled. “Oh, good evening!” he said chipperly. “Why, whatever brings you to my door at this late hour?”

Despite his words, he had clearly been expecting her. However, she realized that she didn’t care very much. “Teach me more about chaos.”

---

It’s almost ready. It won’t be long now.

A crescent ring larger than a pony’s length floated in the air, five feet above Twilight’s head. Wooden insulators guarded the edges of the crescent to protect the foundation from any potential overflow in the magic being channeled. A pair of conductor rods rose from the insulators. These would harness the magic flowing through the artifact placed on a podium connected to the rods and direct that magic into the Crystal Mirror.

Using her illusory field, Twilight had shaped an invisible circle beneath this structure to create a platform, then raised the circle ever higher until it cleared the Mirror. She set it down on a large clasp connected to the foundation and closed the latch around it with another invisible field. The clasp settled in between two brown spheres on the lower ring’s backside. She then plugged a pair of cables into ports in the spheres. These would supply a magical current to the rings needed to power the conductors, created by an infusion of powderized gemstones in large tanks around the base.

Finally, she set a smaller mirror, less than a foot in height, into the artifact dais. The mirror rested in a small blue stand on a swivel, which Twilight was able to turn down to face the room. Twelve gemstones decorated its frame in carefully spaced intervals, which would in theory work to attract the magic of the group’s friendship with the other Twilight Sparkle.

“It’s almost ready,” she announced. She made a motion to wipe sweat from the brow, though her image had no such excretion. She remembered what tired felt like. She had memories of physical strain from long nights of studying. She knew how it felt to try and function in class on three hours of sleep after a night of binging textbooks for material her classes wouldn’t even be covering for several moons.

But she couldn’t feel it. In two hours, the sun would rise over the Crystal Empire, and Twilight was still alert and attentive. Fatigue was no longer a part of her. It never would be again.

She liked that. She missed having a sense of taste, of course. She missed the smell of old tomes when their pages were turned. The magic, though, that was what she missed more than anything. She missed the feel of channeling energy through her horn. She missed the burst of energy whenever she teleported. The light resonating buzz when she levitated an object. The twist and curve of magic’s flow when she ran a more complicated spell down her horn.

There was so much that she missed from the experience of being a physical pony, but she didn’t miss fatigue. Never again would she need to waste hours on sleep that could better be turned to more productive uses.

“You’re certain this will work?” she asked the empty room. She knew better than to think she was alone right now.

“Where would be the fun in certainty?” Discord stepped out from behind the Crystal Mirror, inspecting her work. He reached out with his talon, flicking the conductor rod. It reverberated with a metallic twang. “Is all of this really necessary?”

“The Mirror was built to function without unicorn magic,” Twilight explained. “Star Swirl the Bearded knew that he’d need to be able to move through it without having a pony to cast a spell and open the portal, so it opens in response to a set criteria. This equipment will let us manipulate that criteria and open the portal under a different stimulus.”

Discord rolled his eyes. “Of course, what was I thinking?” he asked dryly.

Twilight frowned. “If you wanted to actually help, I wouldn’t turn down the offer.”

“Help?” He slithered around the mirror, examining the smaller channeling mirror in the receiver stand at the top. “I already explained the concept of parallel realities. Well, the abridged version, anyway. You seem to have the rest under control.”

“You could start with the unabridged version.”

Discord paused. Slowly, he turned his body to face Twilight, floating menacingly above her. A deathly severity fell over his face that Twilight had never seen before. “Don’t ask for secrets you don’t want. The truth of what I know would destroy your fragile mind.”

“Is that right?” Twilight asked nervously. “Like what?”

“Why, the secret to Pinkie Pie’s delicious recipe for cupcake frosting, of course!” Confetti exploded from behind Discord, showering the Mirror and illusory Twilight alike. Discord curled over in midair, laughing as Twilight sputtered in place. “What did you think I was talking about?”

---

“What am I holding?” Discord leaned forward from the comfort of his chair, one leg crossed over the other. In his outstretched arm, a single talon gripped a violet porcelain teacup with a white swirl printed along the side.

“That’s obviously a teacup,” Twilight answered flatly. It seemed like a silly question to even ask in the first place. Why wouldn’t it be a—oh. Right. “Wait, this is a trick question,” she said swiftly. She wasn’t about to fall for another ploy or game this time. She studied the cup more carefully, trying to discern where the riddle might be. “It’s a…swirly teacup? There might be something unusual about the pattern.”

“What swirls?” Discord asked, raising an eyebrow. He held up the teacup to inspect it, but as it moved, its color shifted to red. A blue butterfly pattern appeared over it.

“It’s butterfly-printed now,” Twilight explained.

“Is it? I don’t see that at all.” He shrugged, holding it out to Twilight. Its pattern changed once more, becoming yellow with green dots.

“That’s because it keeps changing.”

“Is that right?” Discord asked. He chuckled to himself, clearly savoring Twilight’s confusion. “Why would it do that? That sounds terribly naughty of this teacup you’re proposing.”

Twilight sighed in frustration. “Well, when it started out, it was clearly Fluttershy’s teacup. Is that the answer you’re looking for?” It was clear from the smug look on his face that it wasn’t.

“Now, that can’t be right. I’ve taken tea with many different Fluttershies, and I’ve never seen her teacups fly like that.” He released his grip on the cup, allowing it to flutter in place on tiny bat wings.

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “That’s because you made it do that.”

“Did I now? Perhaps you need to look again.” He waved his paw over the cup. When he pulled it away, there was nothing in the space but his talon, still in its gripping position. “What am I holding?”

“Well, there’s nothing there now.”

“Only now? How can you be sure there was ever anything there in the first place?”

“Because I saw the cup,” Twilight insisted. “It was right there and it had wings. That was five seconds ago!”

“Wings?!” Discord exclaimed. “Why, I’ve never even heard of a teacup with wings. That doesn’t sound very much like a teacup at all.” He waved his paw. “That’s really more of a teabat or perhaps a tearaven?”

“You’re dodging,” Twilight said with a glower. “Is there a point to all of this? Or are you just making fun of me?”

Discord held out his talon, still gripping empty space. “Twilight, I swear to you that what I am holding right now is the same thing I’ve been holding since we started this conversation.”

“Fine.” Twilight studied the air around Discord’s talon, trying to figure out the angle. “Is it an invisible teacup now? Is that the trick?”

Discord scoffed. “You think I would use immense power over the fabric of reality for a cheap glamour? I am the Master of Chaos! Not some parlor magician!”

“Then what is it?!” Twilight demanded. “You keep asking riddles and questions but you never give me any answers. What’s the point of this, Discord? What are we even doing here?”

Discord looked as though he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself. He looked down at his paw for a second, then over at Twilight. Then he stood and began walking, gesturing with his talon for Twilight to follow. “Why don’t we take a walk?” he suggested.

“But we’re in the middle of something.”

“It will be good for you!” he insisted. “Get some fresh air. Broaden your horizons! See what the world has to offer!” Not waiting for her answer, he approached one of the twin staircases that--

Wait.

Every time Twilight had been here, the stairs had been upside-down. She had taken note of them on each visit, unable to keep herself from questioning their bizarre lack of utility. Now, they were righted. If a pony so wished, she could climb them, though as both stairs still led to a blank space on the wall it would still be an exercise in futility.

It was then that Twilight noticed the sofa and coffee table on the green carpeted surfaced above her. A lamp hung down beside the sofa. She was standing, she realized with horror, on the ceiling of Discord’s living room.

Her mind raced. When had the room flipped upside-down? Had it been like this since she arrived today and she just somehow hadn’t noticed?

Had it always been like this?

There would be time for that mystery later. She bounded to her hooves, catching up with Discord. “Are we taking the stairs?” she asked, eager to finally know where they were meant to lead. Still, in the back of her mind, she surveyed her surroundings. On her left, she passed a light fixture. On her right, she could see the top of a wardrobe hanging down from the floor above; a shoebox holding a wooden racecar and two magazines rested in one corner. Next to Discord opposite the staircase was a large potted fern whose fronds touched the ceiling.

No, the room had to be normal when she arrived. She would have noticed this. Surely, she would have, wouldn’t she?

“The stairs, Twilight?” Discord asked incredulously. “Where in Equestria do you think the stairs are going to take us?”

“To some magical chaos training ground?” Twilight suggested.

Discord stared at her flatly. He gestured up the staircase. “It clearly goes to a blank wall. You can try to find something up there if you must, but I can’t imagine it’d be terrible interesting.” Snickering to himself, he parted the fronds of the upside-down fern and stepped through a gateway made of pure light. “Honestly, I don’t know what to do with you sometimes.”

Twilight blinked. She approached the fern, placing a hoof against it. In the back of her mind, something about this told her not to follow. There was a danger here that she couldn’t see, a threat to her very existence she had yet to comprehend. Once already she had defied metaphysical logic, hurling a teacup with desire alone.

In that moment, she felt an unusual hesitation. She was beyond the realm of logic and reason now. Down this road lay the same brand of madness that had created Discord. She knew that. The idea of one day waking up to realize that Discord made some measure of sense to her mind, that chilled her to the bone.

But she had to know.

Of course, she had to know. She had to know because this was her only hope for getting home. Nopony was coming to save her. She knew that. Her friends had lied to her. Her special somepony had moved on by now, surely, as she was so good at doing. This was the only road left for her, and that was the road forward. She would walk it alone if she had to. In the back of her mind, she wondered if perhaps she always had.

Her friends had left her here. They left her here at the mercy of Bridle Rock and the Acting Princess. They left her here with Discord. She knew they had left her here. They had to have left her here. It was the only truth that her heart could accept because if they hadn’t, then she wouldn’t have to know.

And she had to know.

Twilight took that step. She parted the fern and stepped through the gateway into nothing. She gave herself over to the road before her, the one and only road that she could walk. Perhaps here, she would at last find the meaning of her journey, the ultimate purpose for everything that had happened to her since that fateful day when she met her friends in Ponyville.

Before she saw anything, she felt the soft powder of sand beneath her hooves. She looked down and saw pristine white powder. She dug her hoof through the grains, marveling at their fineness. Sunlight streamed down on her from above and the smell of sea salt licked her nostrils.

She stood on a beach in the midday sun. She watched sparkling blue waves crash against the shore, then retreat into the ocean as new waves took their place. Not a single pony or creature could be seen in any direction. Not even Discord was here to greet her. She was alone, basking in light and warmth.

When she turned around, Twilight could see no sign of where she had come from or how she had gotten here. All she saw was a grassy hillside leading up from the beach. “What is this place?” she asked blindly. “Where are we?”

“Where we’ve always been, Twilight.” Discord never appeared, but his voice floated with her nonetheless. “It’s not nowhere, but it’s not exactly somewhere either. I believe we’ve found our way to anywhere!”

Twilight watched the waves roll across the shore. “Are we still in the Space Between?” she asked curiously. Here was a place far less jarring to her senses than Discord’s home had been. It abided by physical laws and resembled the true structure of reality. This similarity to a physical space made it easier for her to buy into the lie. A part of her was already wanting to accept this space as truth.

But she knew it had to be another construct of chaos. Discord had said the Space Between was suggestible, after all. She’d seen it for herself several times. It would be simple for him to create a space like this, but that didn’t feel right to her either. This place, which she quickly took to calling Sensible Beach, lacked his signature style. She was certain he wasn’t capable of such normalcy. No, there was a distinct logic to this world that far exceeded his capacity for reason.

She stepped lightly across the sand, feeling the fine detail of its grains beneath her hooves. On her fifth step, she felt something beneath her hoof. When she raised her foreleg, she saw something lying half-buried in the sand. She dug it out with her hoof. It was a magenta hairclip in the shape of a flower with yellow and blue petals.

She knew instantly that this hairclip was meant for her. It had been waiting for her to come here and find it. It belonged to her.

Twilight accepted the clip. Not with magic and not with hoof; she closed her eyes and knew that it was with her. She could see it in her mind’s eye: a metal flower beside her left ear, pulling the dark blue of her mane to the side and leaving a small gap in the front next to the pink stripe.

With the clip locked into place, Twilight looked to the ocean of sand between her and the waves. She understood the function of this place. Sensible Beach was a place where she could practice free from the seemingly random distractions of Discord and his cottage. This space truly belonged to her, so that she could experiment and gain an understanding of the Space Between.

She gazed upon her workshop. She formed the image in her mind. Then, she began to create. The sand swirled around her, rising in tune with her desire. It molded into the shape of a tree, then expanded outwards from the base. Walls grew out, creating new rooms and structures beyond the trunk’s width. They hardened into the color and texture of applewood, becoming real. Apples sprouted from the branches above, growing from seeds to fully-grown fruit in the span of a second.

The window was slightly crooked, so she rotated it to fit properly, watching the wood around it flow like water to accommodate. The doorframe was an inch out of place, so she slid it over. The mustard color she had initially painted it with didn’t look as great in reality, so she rotated her hoof and the walls shifted around the color wheel, landing on a reddish brown.

“Having fun, are we?” The voice startled her. She jumped and the entire house collapsed into the sand below. In less than a second, the house was gone as though it had never existed in the first place.

“Don’t do that!” Twilight put a hoof to her chest and took a moment to catch her breath.

“Oh, I’m dreadfully sorry,” Discord said. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. I just thought we might want to wrap this up. It’s been nearly two hours since you arrived.”

“Two hours?!” Twilight exclaimed. Had it really been so long? She hadn’t been paying any attention to the sun’s movement across the sky at all since she’d started work on her house. She couldn’t believe she’d let the time slip away like this. Discord was right. She needed to finish up and go.

---

“I understand now,” Twilight said. She had joined Discord in his living room once more, though the room had righted itself in her absence. Indeed, she had no knowledge of how they had returned. She knew only that Sensible Beach had relinquished them, and so now they were here. “I know what you were trying to show me.”

“Is that so?” Discord clapped his paw and talon eagerly. “Honestly, I was beginning to think I would need to chisel it into your mind. So, let’s have it! Let’s hear what enlightenment sounds like!”

“There was never a teacup,” Twilight explained. She watched as Discord’s smile grew wider. “It was here in the room with us the entire time, but it was never truly a teacup. It never flew on bat wings. But at the same time, it had every pattern and there was nothing actually stopping it from achieving flight. It could be any kind of teacup or not a teacup at all, because it wasn’t constrained by physical practicality. What you were holding was the idea of a teacup, which changed as quickly as a mind could allow.”

Discord grinned. “And you figured that out through carpentry?”

“I wasn’t building a house,” Twilight replied. “I was playing with the idea of a house. It’s a spare idea that I used to think about, but I’ve never put much time into the practical logistics.” She held up her hoof and the air swirled above it, then hardened into a tiny plastic model of what she’d constructed on the beach. “I’ve been so caught up in trying to make sense of the madness you surround yourself with that it never really clicked for me until now.

“It’s just as you said: this space is suggestible. The only limitation in the Space Between is the imagination. The non-physical reality here is like clay. It molds to our wishes, our desires, and even to our basic thoughts if we allow it to. Ever since I’ve been here, I’ve been trying to treat this space as though it were real. Without even thinking about it, I’ve constrained myself to the limitations of a physical pony. All I had to do to create what I wanted to create was to allow myself the freedom that this place offers.”

Twilight frowned. “There’s just one thing that bothers me, though. I understand how we can manipulate this space, but you still go a step beyond that. Somehow, you’re bringing the unreality of this space into physical reality. How do you do it? How do you make the teacup real?”

“Oh, Twilight,” Discord said in that condescending tone once more. “You were this close to earning a cookie. But I’m afraid I’ll just have to eat them all myself again. Are you suggesting that an idea isn’t real? Why, if that were true, I don’t know how anything new would ever get done!”

“It’s not the same thing,” Twilight asserted.

“Hmph. Well, that’s just closed-minded of you.” Discord folded his arms. “My teacup is exactly as real as it’s allowed to be. No more. No less.”

---

Twilight’s eyes opened to the dim light of a ruined home in Ponyville. As she had been before, she was suddenly keenly aware of the physical limitations of her body. Her eyelids felt heavy and her neck muscles strained to hold her head up. She greeted the night in a true physical space with a long and profound yawn.

To her left, she could hear the faintest sound of Fluttershy snoozing. Twilight chuckled to herself. Even Fluttershy’s snores were soft and meek; a stark difference from Applejack’s midnight snorts. Out the window, she could see the comforting flicker from Flash Sentry’s makeshift torch; he was still making his rounds, just as he’d said he would.

This was reality. Not her reality, but reality all the same. In a strange way, she almost felt disappointed to be back here. In the back of her mind, she found herself eager to return to Sensible Beach. At long last, she had finally made progress. There was a craving in her now, a desire to see what else she could make in this mysterious practice space that Discord had given her. Her mind raced with the possibilities.

But she would have to find out at another time. Tomorrow would have its own challenges and she would need her rest if she intended to meet them. There would be time to mull over Discord’s parting words when—

“Ow!”

As she lay her head down on her left side, she felt the pillow mush something hard into her ear. She sat back up quickly, lighting her horn with a dim glow and wrapping herself in a blanket to block the light from Fluttershy. With her magic, she plucked the offending object from her scalp and lowered it into her outstretched hoof in front of her. That was when her breathing stopped.

Here before her was the pink metal flower she’d discovered on the beach. The hairclip had followed her back.

She set the flower down on the mattress in front of her. She wasn’t certain whether to take it or hurl it out the window and let it be the night’s problem now. Her breath returned in gasps. She couldn’t even blink, so affixed were her eyes on the offending object. The implications weighed heavy on her mind, and through it all, she heard Discord’s parting words to her.

Exactly as real as it’s allowed to be.

---

Twilight heard the clicking of hooves from down the hall. It was time. Princess Celestia had arrived in her royal carriage earlier in the morning and had taken breakfast with Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. Twilight had kept to herself, uncertain of whether or not it was her place to impose while she waited for her friends.

Now, at last, five sets of hooves alerted her to the fateful moment, but something didn’t sound right. The hooves moved slowly and deliberately rather than with the frantic pace she was accustomed to. She could hear no mirth coming down the hall. No idle chatter or enthusiastic banter broke the ominous quiet. Not even an off-beat comment from Pinkie Pie emerged to break the tension from their approaching hoofsteps.

Something was terribly wrong.

Twilight couldn’t help but feel a profound sense of unease as her friends entered the room. Rainbow Dash entered first; Twilight couldn’t help but notice that she was walking on her hooves rather than hovering in the air. Rarity and Applejack followed quickly behind her, with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie trailing behind. The somber mood followed them in as well, filling the Mirror chamber with its idle dread.

The ponies clustered together between Twilight and the door, leaving the Crystal Mirror behind her. Pinkie Pie’s eyes were full of sorrow and hurt. Fluttershy wouldn’t even look at her. Rainbow Dash scowled but looked more hurt than angry. The hardest to read was Applejack, who stoically nodded to Rarity.

Rarity stepped forward, clearing her throat. “I’m afraid we need to talk.”

Rarity’s tone caused a sharp panic in the back of Twilight’s mind. “Is this about the portal?” she asked, feigning innocence. They couldn’t have figured out that she lied to them, could they? Who could have told them? None of them had the experience with cross-dimensional physics to—

Discord. Discord. Of course it was him. He must have told them the truth just to mess with her. He was trying to ruin everything for fun.

In her most diplomatic voice, Rarity said, “We’ve been discussing it and we simply don’t think it would be a good idea for you to travel through the portal with Applejack. It would be best if you remained here with us.”

Twilight’s heart sank. “But this was my idea,” she argued.

Pinkie piped up. “Actually, using the portal thingy was my idea and Applejack came up with the friendship dealie! You just did all the work and figured out the magical sciencey mumbo-stuff to make it work. And reeeeeeeally Twilight already had a lot of that figured out, according to you!”

Twilight couldn’t dispute that. Still, she felt sick to her core at the suggestion that she couldn’t go. Being alone with Applejack was the whole point of this stupid plan, wasn’t it?

They don’t understand.

“I’ve been working on this all night,” she pleaded.

“We’re still gonna use it,” Applejack said, eyes fixed on the mirror. “We just don’t want you comin’ with me.”

“But it’s my project!”

THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND!!!

They truly didn’t. This was her moment. It was her chance to prove herself to Applejack and they were trying to ruin it. “How can you do this to me?!”

“This isn’t a punishment,” Rarity said diplomatically. “It’s just….” She paused, mulling over her words. “We’re at a very important stage of your growth, darling. Right now, we don’t think it would be wise to expose you to whatever might be beyond that portal.”

“What important stage?!” Twilight demanded. “I’m fine. I’m a perfect copy of Twilight Sparkle. There’s nothing wrong with me that isn’t wrong with her!”

“You’re nuttier than a boar in a peach orchard if you think we’re swallowin’ that line after what you pulled last night,” Applejack retorted.

It was in that moment that it all clicked for Twilight. “You told them about that?”

“We’re just worried about you,” Rarity said quickly, trying to pull the subject away. “We think you might be having a few problems and—"

But it was too late. “How could you?” Twilight asked. “That was a private moment! It was supposed to stay between us!”

Applejack snapped. “There’s no ‘us’! Ain’t never been, ain’t gonna be.”

Fluttershy added, “What you said to her was really mean. I think you should at least apologize. After that, we can talk about what happens next.”

“I agree,” Rarity said. “We only want what’s best for you. Apologize to Applejack, let us send her on her way, and then we can figure out what’s wrong with you.”

Twilight took a step back, shooting glances of outrage from Applejack to Rarity. She turned pleading eyes to Rainbow Dash for help. Rainbow Dash had always spoken up for her. But the pegasus, in a wounded voice, said, “Come on. I vouched for you.”

“What’s wrong with me?!” Twilight sputtered. She couldn’t believe they were doing this. Did they not understand how important this was? It was her chance to be alone with Applejack, to… to….

Listen to them. They don’t trust me. They never trusted me.

Twilight’s heart hardened. “You want to talk about what’s wrong with me?” she asked. “What’s wrong with you?! Look at this,” she said, gesturing to the Mirror. “I did this! None of this would even exist without me!”

“Darling, please,” Rarity urged. “Nothing good can come of letting tempers flare.”

Who do you think you are to talk? You used me. You took advantage of me and then threw me out like I was trash when you were done. I gave everything to you and you betrayed me.

“Why?!” Twilight demanded. “So you don’t have to hear my pain while you stab me in the back again?! Is that it?”

Rarity gasped. “I-I-I never….” She sputtered. She reared up and threw her foreleg over her eyes, then fell backwards onto a conveniently-placed sofa.

“Hey, leave her alone!” Rainbow Dash threw herself between Twilight and the others. Applejack and Spike joined her, shielding Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity from her rage.

Ever the knight in boastful armor. Everything always has to be about you, doesn’t it? But you could never understand what I’m going through. You wouldn’t know true love if it kicked you in the face. All you care about is what feels good to you in the moment.

Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash. “I realize it’s a hard concept to grasp but this isn’t about you. Why don’t you go have another overnight mistake with Pinkie Pie and stay out of my business?”

Shock flashed across Rainbow Dash’s eyes. It took less than a second for that shock to turn to rage. Applejack grabbed her from behind as she lunged for Twilight. Rarity assisted with her magic, pulling Rainbow Dash back while Spike came around to push against her leg.

Behind them, Fluttershy blinked in confusion. Her jaw slid open slightly. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, looking from Rainbow Dash to Pinkie Pie.

Spike looked back over his shoulder at the illusion. “Twilight, please,” he pleaded, approaching her. “You need help. You don’t sound like….” He stopped to consider his words. “Well, I was going to say you don’t sound like yourself, but I mean her. You don’t sound like her.”

I AM HER!!!

“I am her!” Twilight screamed at the little dragon. “You don’t understand. None of you understand. Not one of you knows what I’m going through, so don’t think you can talk about what I say or do to my family—”

“We’re not your family!” Applejack declared.

Twilight fell abruptly silent. She felt as though she’d been kicked in the chest. The words resonated through her, playing through her mind again and again. She struggled to even believe that she was standing here having this conversation. And in the back of her mind, the whispering of her thoughts grew ever stronger.

Do you think I wanted this? That I chose to be like this? To feel these feelings? Do you think I would ever in a million years have chosen a dim-witted backwater hick like you?

“How dare you?” Twilight whispered, falling to a sitting position and grasping her head between her hooves.

Spike released Rainbow Dash, who had ceased her struggling. “We just want to help you,” he said, carefully approaching Twilight.

“Help me?!” Twilight exclaimed incredulously. “You want to help me?! You can’t help me! You did this to me! All of you with your friendship and love and… and her, let’s not forget her, worming her way in my skull and making me feel things I shouldn’t have to feel! DO YOU THINK I WANTED THIS?!?!”

From her place on the sofa, Rarity shared a sharp glance with Applejack. Anger and hurt had suddenly been replaced by creeping dread. They knew what this was. They had both been waiting for this, hoping against hope that they were wrong. But they knew exactly what this was.

Applejack took a cautious step forward. She knew that this needed to be defused now, before it could grow out of control. In a slow whisper, she said, “Twili--"

“No, SHUT UP!!!” A far deeper voice echoed through the room when she shouted. Tears fell in streams from eyes red with fury. She thrust a hoof at Applejack’s chest. “You don’t get to talk, not you. You, most of all. You made me love you, you made me feel these feelings and then you ripped my heart from my chest! Just like you always do. Everything wrong, everything that’s terrible, it all started with you!”

“That’s not true,” Rarity insisted.

“You want to talk about true?” Twilight asked, whirling on Rarity. “Here’s a fun idea. Let’s talk about my birthday!”

Spike reached up for Twilight. “Twilight, please—”

“DON’T TOUCH ME!!!” Twilight shoved back at Spike, who rocked slightly in place but remained standing. She shot one glance back at the mirror behind her. “Don’t any of you touch me! You’re not my friends. You don’t even know me at all.” Then she vanished from sight, leaving the ponies alone in the room.

A few minutes later, far away from the Mirror and its chamber, Twilight emerged once more. She took three steps, then collapsed against a crystal pedestal and weeped imaginary tears. The rage she’d felt just minutes before had burned itself out. Righteous fury had abandoned her, leaving her with only the isolating sting of regret to keep her company.

She remembered the words she had said, but she couldn’t believe they’d come from her snout. She was mean to the only ponies in the world that cared about her. She was cruel and heartless to them. Her friends, the only friends she’d ever had, would almost certainly never want to see her again. And she didn’t even understand why. What had compelled her to say those terrible things?

Here at the frozen edge of Equestria, under the light of the Crystal Heart which shone with the love of the Empire, she knew that she was truly alone.

---

Rainbow Dash and Applejack searched the room frantically for any sign of Twilight or the stone producing her image, but both knew the search to be futile. They both knew that if the illusion didn’t want to be found, it wouldn’t be. Still, it made them feel better to be doing something.

Fluttershy examine the mirror. “It looks like she put a lot of work into this,” she commented. “Is it okay for us to use it? It doesn’t feel right after we drove her off like that.”

“I agree,” Rarity said sadly. “I would hate for her to think we were using her.”

“Ain’t much of a choice.” Applejack came up beside Fluttershy, putting her hoof against the solid glass on the mirror. “Either we find Twilight or we don’t. That’s the only choice we got.” She turned back towards the others. “Are y’all gonna be alright without me?”

“Yeah, I don’t know about this,” Rainbow Dash said, glancing at the open doorway. They had no way of knowing if the false Twilight had left or if she was hanging around invisibly. “This could get bad really quick. The ‘All Hooves on Deck’ kind of bad.”

“It might be better this way,” Fluttershy suggested. “She seems really mad at you, especially. More at you than the rest of us, anyway.”

Rarity nodded. “I’m inclined to agree. I’m not sure how much your presence could actually help matters. What we need right now is a calming voice; you tend to agitate this particular problem.”

“You’re right,” Applejack said. “And if the creek does rise, we’ll need Twilight to use the Elements of Harmony.” She took a deep breath and looked to the Mirror. There were four circles painted on the floor, each with a line connecting it to the mirror. A smaller mirror in the pedestal at the top pointed down with gems aligned towards those four circles. “I reckon y’all are meant to stand on these,” she suggested.

Fluttershy took her place on the third circle. Rainbow Dash took the fourth beside her. Pinkie Pie and Rarity stood on the first and second, respectively. Fluttershy looked up at the mirror, idly asking, “What do we do now?”

“The idea was to create this bridge between worlds with our friendship,” Rarity reminded. “I suppose we’re meant to think about Twilight. Open our hearts to her or something like that.”

“That’s it?” Rainbow Dash asked. “What, I’m just supposed to talk about that time she showed me how cool Daring Do is?”

“That sounds like a great place to start!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “Twilight introduced you to your favorite book series. How did that make you feel?”

“Like I found a cool book.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Rainbow….”

“Alright, it was cool and junk, okay? I always thought reading was just for losers and eggheads, but she showed me that books can be pretty cool.” Rainbow Dash looked to the mirror. “I totally wouldn’t have tried it without her.”

Pinkie piped up. “Remember that time she went back in time to tell herself about her cool birthday present but then she accidentally tricked herself into going back in time?”

“Is that what that was about?” Applejack asked.

“I never made it back to Ponyville for her birthday,” Rarity noted. “I thought for sure she’d be disappointed, but she brought all of you to visit me in Canterlot.” She looked down at the circle painted below her. This was the symbol of her friendship with Twilight, but a pang of guilt struck her heart. The illusion had called her a liar. Was that true, she wondered? “I never did tell her the truth about that day.”

“Wasn’t your cat sick?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“No, that was a lie. The truth is, I was so busy thinking about myself, I’m afraid I spared no time to think of her at all. But she never stopped thinking about me. I was trying to deceive her and she traveled all the way to Canterlot so that I could attend her party. I never even finished her dress, but she loved it all the same.”

Rarity glanced at Applejack for only a second, then turned her gaze to the mirror. “I haven’t always been the best friend to Twilight,” she admitted. “I’m afraid I haven’t always considered her feelings. Some things I’ve said that perhaps I shouldn’t have. Other I kept to myself when she had every right to know. I just didn’t want to lose her. I haven’t had a friend like her in a long time.”

Applejack closed her eyes and sat down, nodding along somberly. She understood exactly what Rarity meant.

“But she never stopped thinking about me. Even when I was being dreadfully inconsiderate, she was there for me.” Rarity stared into the mirror’s reflective sheen. She wasn’t sure what she was doing as she spoke, but she knew what needed to be said.

Rainbow Dash grumbled, “Thanks for making this sappy. Now my story looks stupid next to yours.”

“It’s not a competition, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity replied.

“Hey, I’ve messed up too! I said Daring Do was for uncool eggheads like Twilight. Daring Do! Making fun of Daring Do has to be worth as much as you lying to her was. Plus, I was kind of mean to her after she and AJ hooked up, so that’s double.” Rainbow Dash paused, letting the gears turn in her brain. “I mean, there was also this one time where she got way too into my sleepovers with Pinkie Pie, so we might be square on that second one.”

“I stole Princess Celestia’s pet,” Fluttershy said, looking at the mirror. “I was afraid that she wasn’t taking very good care of it. Twilight tried to help me. She might have just made things worse, but the effort was there. I really appreciated it.”

“Ooh ooh!” Pinkie Pie bounced up and down in her circle. “Remember that time we were on the train and somepony ate the MMMM? And then she figured out that it was actually everypony that ate the MMMM and then we all had donut éclair cake?” She licked her lips, savoring the memory. “I thought I had it all worked out but she always kept her thinky-cap straight.”

Pinkie whispered to Rarity, “I think it’s screwed into her head.” They both looked to Applejack, who closed her eyes and nodded. “I KNEW IT.”

Laughter broke out among the ponies. Rarity wiped a tear from her eye with a hoof, grinning wide despite herself. “She always did—”

“Hey, everypony, Look!” Spike pointed at the Crystal Mirror. It still retained its reflective sheen, but the hard texture of the glass had given way to the slightest ripple, as though the glass had turned to liquid. Spike climbed onto the mirror’s podium, tapping its glass with a claw; the impact sent a ripple across its surface.

“The portal’s open,” Rarity observed. “It worked!”

Applejack approached. She gave a nod to Spike. “Reckon it’s time we get a move on,” she stated, prompting him to climb up on her back. “Happy trails, everypony,” she said, tipping her hat to her friends. Her response came in the form of shouted cheers and urgings of good fortune. Then she bolted, hitting the portal at full gallop. In an instant, both pony and dragon were gone, leaving Rarity and her friends alone in the room.

A minute passed by in silence. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak. “How long are we supposed to stand here doing this?”

“Until Princess Celestia gets their letter, I suppose,” Rarity answered dourly. “Or she doesn’t and they return.”

“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked. She had noticed the somber tone in Rarity’s voice.

Rarity frowned. “I was just thinking. She really did put a marvelous bit of work into this, didn’t she?”

A few seconds passed and nopony had an answer for that. Rarity waved the question off. “That can be tomorrow’s problem. What’s important right now is Twilight.”

Pinkie bounced in place. “Hey, remember that time she did those crazy experiments to figure out why my Pinkie Sense works?”

---

Applejack plunged through a tunnel of light. A brilliant rainbow lit up the world around her, forming into a tube that insulated and guided her motion. She couldn’t make out anything beyond its light; she knew only the brilliant colors and trusted them to take her where she needed to be.

After what felt like nearly an hour of falling, Applejack suddenly emerged to the familiar click of her hooves on crystal flooring. The room she arrived in was dimly lit by sunrise through a far window, but she could clearly make out the distinctive columns of the Crystal Palace.

The room she’d landed in was large but cluttered with dress racks, dressers, and wardrobes. The Crystal Mirror itself was decorated by a pink dress hat on its top and wrapped in a loosely hanging red boa. Next to the mirror was a white vanity housing a variety of makeups and perfumes.

Spike hopped down from Applejack’s back. He patted his chest with his claws, then checked behind him to make sure his tail was still with him. “At least we’re still us,” he observed. “You should have seen what happened the last time I went through that thing.”

Applejack spent a glance around the room. What was this place? It was clearly the Crystal Palace, yet it strongly resembled the storeroom at the Carousel Boutique. She was certain she recognized at least one of the dresses surrounding her as Rarity’s, though she could not for the life of her place where she’d seen it before.

A tug at her side pulled her away from the mystery of her surroundings. She looked down to see Spike rifling through her saddlebag. The little dragon pulled out a sheet of parchment and a quill, scrawling a quick note.

We’ve arrived safely on the other side. Getting ready to set out and find Twilight.

Spike incinerated the letter in his green flame, sending it across time and space to Princess Celestia. He folded his arms and tapped his talon, hoping the connection would still work. But a minute passed with no response.

Another minute passed. Then another. It usually didn’t take this long. After seven minutes had gone by, Spike looked to Applejack. “Maybe it didn’t work,” he suggested.

Applejack took a deep breath. She had so many questions about this room, but there was no sense in staying here if they couldn’t guarantee a return. “We should head back,” she suggested. “We’ll make sure they got our letter before—”

A loud crash interrupted her. Applejack whipped around quickly to see a unicorn standing in the open doorway, eyes and jaw open wide. Pieces of broken porcelain and a splatter of brown fluid lay on the ground at her hooves. She breathed quick, ragged gasps and backed away slowly, shaking her head.

Stuck for what to say or how to explain herself, Applejack settled on a nervous, “Uh, H-Hey, Rares….”

As the sun finished its rise over the horizon, a scream could be heard throughout the Crystal Empire.

Comments

[Yami Vizzini]

Fluttershy smiled sweetly. “Twilight, if you make me sleep on the bed, I’m going to feel guilty. I’m going to feel very guilty. Then I’m going to nag at you about how guilty I feel. And then I’m going to keep nagging.”

Ugh, I’m getting tired of Twilight’s pity party. Her friends failed to inform her of one (admittedly not insignificant) thing, and now they’re completely undependable and “abandoned” her.... And for that matter, even with understandable reluctance on Applejack and the others’ parts to bring it up (and Twilight assuming it wouldn’t apply), you’d think that the topic of past dating history would have come up at some point from some quarter in all this time.