Path To Sanity

by Ciao-

Lesson 2: Do The Best You Can With What You Have

"Hey, Twilight?" I asked, not daring to face her.

"Oh, hey Pinkie Pie! Back for a late nighter, hm?" She beamed back, placing a hoof upon my shoulder, as delicate as she always had. Her touch made me shiver, her eyes nummed my muscles, and her voice took away my stress. I always knew I could count on her to calm me down; she was the reasoning side of me, that would welcome me with warm milk, chocolate cookies, hugs... Whenever I needed it. I slouched on her chair, moaning in annoyance. I knew she'd never press me to tell her things. Sometimes I'd come in, just needing a hug, but end up giving her company while she studied. "What's up?"

"There's a thing, Twilight."

"What kind of thing? Oh hold on, I'll get some milk started up."

Once her figure had left my vision, my heart sunk to my hooves.

'You can't throw this on her. You can't. You can't. You can't.'

I though that it'd be easier to tell Twilight, because she's super duper understanding. Hopefully she'd do it quietly, end the pain, move on, be happy. That's what I want for her. To be safe and happy. She really deserves it.

"Here." A small biscuit was being levitated to my mouth, I took it enthusiastically.

'Wrong move. If you tell her now, she'll know how psycho you are.'

"Twi, I need to get something off my chest..." I spoke, barely above a whisper. My voice cracked violently, as I smashed my hoof to my mouth, tears slowly pouring to the ground. Hyperventilation. Damn, panic attack. Why? Why am I like this?

"It's ok Pinkie, everything's ok, I'm here, I'll always be here. Take however long you need." She stated empathetically, scooping me up in her arms.

'Make something up'

I couldn't. My mind completely blanked on me.

'You kill your kind.'

That'd destroy her.

'You love her.'

She's my best friend, she knows.

'You're pregnant.'

Out of the question. It's not even true.

'You spilled cake batter.'

That wouldn't justify a panic attack from me. The only option left is to just keep crying, now. I'll wait it out. At least I'm not alone like this. She's got my back.

***

Clink.

"Post's here."

"We're being invaded, Pinkamena!" The purple pony pointed accusively, petrified.

The earth pony rolled her eyes, allowing a smile, as she collected the papers. "Newspaper, vouchers, spam, advertisement, magazine..."

"They explode!"

"Actually, they send money. Your protect-y ponies wrote back."

"Oh, so I'm going to jail, then?"

Pinkie chuckled, handing the note to Twilight.

"Nopony's taking you to jail, but, with this money, we can go shopping."

The unicorn stared her down suspiciously. "Why would they give you money?"

Distance decreased between them. "We need it. It's like how I'm here right now, because you need it."

"But there's no trading... It's got to be a trap sort of thing, right?"

"Element of generosity, my dear." Diane breathed, placing the bits in to Twilight's saddle bag. Staring up, she hummed. "Come here. We need to make a list."

Twilight blinked, coking her head. "What for?"

"If I am to stay by your side through ill health, I'm going to have to cover up- the wanted criminal issue. There are some things that we can do here, though for the most part we're going to need a fairly generous amount of dye."

"We can't survive on dye! We need-"

"I'm going to ask my parents to support us, I'm sure they'll be willing, they know of my problems after all."

"Support?" The unicorn winced.

"The institute can only give you certain amounts, what we have now is a bulk of what you'll get in the next few weeks. Hopefully, my parents will donate the cause, though I may have to cause a bit of a scene. Really milk it, you know?" She squeaked, her eyes meeting her patient's. "Nevertheless," she started, coldly, head dropping down, as stringy strands of dark magenta hair draped over her shoulders as if they were curtains. "there's never going to be enough support for this little establishment. Unsurprisingly, I'm not the most stable of beings; if either one of us experience personality flutters moreso than you're having presently, the results could put our entire project to waste." A dull pink foreleg wrapped itself around the tender neck of the second body, pulling it closer to it's own origin. "We've just got to stay resilient. Do the best we can with what we have."

Twilight's eyes averted to the bright wooden oak flooring in anxiety, biting her lip violently. Pinkamena pulled the mare's head to her own chest, resting her hoof to feel the heartbeat of the shaking child. "Yours is so much slower that mine..."

"Then trust me. We can do this."

Twilight's hoof reached to Diane's, holding it close. The two embraced the rest of nose, before either of them spoke again.

"Pink...ie?"

"Hm?"

"What kind of disguise are you going to do?"

"I think that it'd be best if my features were changed as much as possible. Actually, I should get on that now, just wait here."

The period of solumn loneliness was long, harsh, yet endearing. No clue had been given to what the killer was going to change. Face, ears, body, it was all an endeavour. There was but only the gentle swaying of outside creatures to break the tension, yet, somehow, they only caused time to pass slower. After a lifetime of waiting, Pinkamena stepped out of the kitchen, pressing her head to the wall. Her mane had been cut in layers, roughly, evidently having been caused by a knife. The parting was reversed, and her ends beared a few gently woven waves. As oppose to a long mask of hair, she now sported an ear lobe length bob, with matching tail. "How do I look?" She asked, showing anticipation stirred with dread within the rasp of her voice.

"There are no words."

***

Cool, clear air consumed the duo's lungs, as they stared contently at the fluffy clouds above. The two of them had been having a passive morning, cleaning up the library, reorganizing, share sorting, and organising their epic comeback plan. Twilight's head lay softly resting upon Pinkamena's chest, synchronizing her own breathing to the other mare's heartbeat. For the first time in years, she had felt ultimate tranquility, as if the entirety of her pain and suffering through the years were nothing but a bad dream. The smoothness of the pink pony's touch gave her this jolting, electrical wave of excitement throughout her spine, truly being the perfect mix of adrenaline and comfort, beyond anything previously experienced. Each intimate moment brought back all of the ecstacy Twilight had felt in the moment that she locked eyes with Pinkie for that first time, in her bedroom. The way their bodies pressed against eachother, the way their breath covered the other's faces. Their hooves trailing across eachother's chests.

Pinkamena wrapped her arms around Twilight's head, bringing their faces closer, gazing into her eyes, quickly finding herself becoming mesmerized in the deep, purple abyss, like their souls were intertwined.

After 'borrowing' a variety of dyes, they had decided to go in strong, transforming the convict's coat to a shining, innocent white, freckled with grey spots, dyeing her mane's main colour to a more purpleish pastel, and highlighting with a crystalline blue. Then, for extra measure, added two fake piercings.

As it stood currently, they had hitched a ride to the rock farm from a young mare, no older than a teenager, who had amused them with tales of her two friends, and their shenanigans. Her southern accent did arise sympathy from Pinkamena to Twilight, ergo, they were getting familiarised.

'It's good to show your feelings, and to make sure they're not hindered, or hidden, but it's even better to get to know your weaknesses, as well as those that frighten you, so that you may gain strength in their shadows.'

The cart came to a halting stop, springing the freeloaders upright. "We're here!" Twilight sang, jumping out of the vehicle, gawking at the distanced farm house.

Diane climbed out carefully, making sure to acknowledge the driver. "Thanks, Applebloom. We really appreciate it."

Quickly, the white and lilac mare began a slow trot to the building, without looking back.

Author's Note:

Exams are over (sort of), now, all that's left is for me to do is destroy a few energy drinks and I'll update like a functional human. This chapter was so short so that I could write more quicker, because I was originally planning to have a lot more in this chapter, but I think there'd be more lessons this other way. I'll get the next chapter out soon, I swear.

Comments

[God Praiser]

Beautifully written. Thank you so much.

[Hyper Star]

Well... this is on hiatus and not cancelled but the author is dead and there is still there's no new chapter, I'll keep my fingers crossed tho!