Stroke of Luck

by Gboyd

Chapter 7: Aftermath

'Someone once asked me, 'How do you fix your mistake?' I said, 'You ask for forgivness. it's the only thing you can do. But forgivness does not only tether itself to the one you sinned against--you have to forgive the transgressions against yourself.' ~Henry Liecht

As soon as the truth spilled, Fluttershy instantly wished she could disappear. The look on Twilight's face absolutely tore her to the core. They had hurt her big time and they knew it. They blew it! There was no chance for their friendship now.

Twilight stumbled backwards. Pinkie took a tentative step foreward to help her, but when Twilight's magic flared, she quelled her efforts; memories of the beach on that terrible day when the Storm King was chasing them reappearing in her head. Twilight choked back a sob, and knives continued to assult the girls. Rainbow dropped completely to the ground, all signs of agressiveness gone. They had seen Twilight in many forms. Excited, nerdy, insecure, hyper, happy, quiet, worried, sad, supportive.... But they had never seen her hurt. This hurt.

Twilight took a step forward and took the skies. Rainbow lifted her wings to go after her, but Appljack stopped her. ''Let her go," she whispered, emerald eyes glittering with tears. Dash didn't respond, just stared after the indigo figure that soon disappeared into the forest. As dusk cascaded over the hills, their friend's namesake, one thought resonated within the girl's minds. Their friendship? It was no more.

***

Lily watched the conversation with piqued interest from her place under the oak. She instinctively flinched. The conversation was getting heated. Her heart spiked with shock when she saw how they were treating the princess. Regardless of how she thought of her enemy, she WAS a princess. Royalty. Who did they think they were, telling at the princess like that? She gritted. She needed to get over there and stop them. Before she could make a move, a lavender blur shot over her, causing a shriek to rip out of Lily's mouth. Several more screams of shock, confusion, and alarm resounded through the streets as the princess raced over them.

A plan entering her head, Lily marched right up to the girls. "What in Equus just happened!?"

The rude pegasus who had shoved her in the dirt whipped around. Lily stopped dead when she saw her. Instantly, Rainbow's magenta eyes locked onto her, burning holes in her head.

"What do YOU want!?"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "What did you just do to the princess?"

Rarity stepped forward aggressively. "Whatever do you mean? What princess?"

Lily just stared at Rarity with a deadpan expression. "Number one: I know for a fact you all are more intelligent than that, and number two: you know exactly what I'm talking about and you're trying to get out of it, so cut to the chase and get on with it. What. Did. You. Do?"

Rarity didn't respond, just folded her arms. As if obeying a silent command, the others formed a line on either side of her, Applejack subtly sliding Fluttershy behind her.

Rainbow fluttered her wings nervously. Her heart was still stinging from the conversation earlier, if it could even be called that, and it took every bit of her self control to not race full speed after the broken-hearted princess. 'C'mon Rare, bail us out,' she pleaded inwardly.

"Well," Lily demanded. Now knowing there was no way out of it, the five girls relunctantly complied. Everyone looked at Rarity, hoping her smooth words and ways would get them out of here so they could fix the huge mistake they had made as soon as possible.

"W-we're friends," Rarity began delicately, her voice shaky, "and sometimes, friends fight. And when they do, they can hurt each other--"

Lily let out a mock shocked gasp. "YOU HURT THE PRINCESS?!"

Rarity stammered. "N-no, I didn't! That's not what meant; I--"

Rainbow dropped to the ground, defeat slamming her down. They were done for.

"We would NEVER hurt her!" Fluttershy protested loudly, a first on her part. Lily raised an eyebrow.

"She just flew off crying, because you DIDN'T hurt her?" she summarized. The girls just stood there, silent. Applejack stepped foreward.

"We had a fight--"

"With the princess--"

"Can I finish? We fought, 'cause we ain't perfect, and that's all there is to it." Applejack stepped forward, anger driving her actions. "But that ain't nothin YOU need ta worry yer perty little head over. We're her friends, we'll take care of her. Go knit yerslef a scarf or somethin'."

Lily grinned inwardly. She had a feeling that the cow-girl would hava a temper and she was right all along. And the country-bumpkin had dragged the rest of them right into their trap.

Lily nodded in agreement. The girls started to relax, feeling relief that they were finally going to be able to do what they so desperately needed to do, but aRairity felt the sharp, unwanted stab of panic. She knew that behavior, having been raised in Manhattan. The girl was plastic, a complete two-edged sword, and judgeing by the gleam Rarity saw in her eyes.

"Oh don't worry, I'll do that," Lily chirped cheerily. She paused. "And I might have a friend at the press who can help me." With a triumphant smirk, Lily placed one foot in front, turned a smooth one-eighty, and walked off, leaving five stunned girls behind her.

A shocked pause followed. When reality came crashing down, panic set in tenfold. Rainbow was the first to break the silence.

"THE PRESS!?" she shouted. She fluttered into the air. "If she gets a hold of the press--" her head whipped up, and she made ready to rocket after Lily. "HOLD IT! Don't you--"

Applejack snagged her foot, emerald orbs pleading. "Rainbow, sugar, please, hold yer wings; we don't wanna make a scene."

"But she's--"

"I know darling, I know. And by the looks of it, she's obviously someone of importance. She could no doubt get the press wrapped around her little finger," Rarity growled. "Point is, if we tried to stop her, we would be the ones on the spot, and believe me, darling--that in itself is more trouble than it's worth."

"Rarty's right, Rainbow. Even if we DID succeed in stopping her and blasting her out of my party cannon for being a no-good party pooper and listening in on our super-private-this-is-just-between-us-and-no-one-else conversation, which I would desperately LOVE to do, we can't." She paused. "Besides, Twi's got nothing against us."

Rainbow buried her face in her hands and refused to respond.

"If thing get to the worst, we'll jest tell 'em the truth. It's all we can do." She placed a comforting hand on Rainbow's shoulder. "It can't get worse than this, sugar. And if confrontation does come, Twi'll be there ta back us up."

Rainbow peered at Applejack. "I hope you're right, Applejack," she said weakly.

There was sigh in response. "Me too, sugarcube. Me too."

The girls turned back to retire their houses, weak and defeated. Few words were spoken between them, and any hope that Pinkie tried to raise was pushed aside, but it wasn't believed either.

Fluttershy hung back and said nothing. 'Oh what have I done?!' she mentally screamed. 'We just came to get answers! If I had just stayed silent--oh WHY did I say that?! I should've just kept it to myself. Saved us the trouble.' She gazed at the spot where Twilight had disappeared, turquoise eyes narrowing. 'All that,' she thought miserably, 'and we still didn't get answers.'

Fluttershy continued to scuff her way down the street. She couldn't explain it, this feeling. Call it women's intuition. She had it ever since Twilight had returned. But now it clutched at her heart, squeezing and constricting in every place it could reach.

If you asked, Fluttershy would have told you that things were about get worse.

Author's Note:

Ouch. That ended on a dark note. Wow. Poor Fluttershy.

I wanted to apologise for my absence. This story is still alive--i promise. As is "Behind the Petals". My PC Chromebook decided to crash on me and it took about two month and a half to replace it. Luckily my parents had a warranty on it( my Lifesavers) Shipping companies are such a joy to deal with.

Thank you all for your patience, and taking the time to read my story.

As always, any constuctive criticism is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Comments

[Dark Rose 777]

Hmm. . .