The Strangers in Ponyville

by PhycoKrusk

What Nymphs Want

The quiet night that greeted Dash and Driftwood when they stepped out of the barracks stood in defiant contrast to the pandemonium that had characterized the earlier evening. Hooves and tarsi clopped and clacked against the paved walkway that connected the giant oak tree that housed the barracks to one of the other four oaks surrounding the central tree that still held the Golden Oak Library, collectively the Golden Oak Estate. Neatly cut grass flanked either side of the walkway, and there were equally neat hedges deeper in the courtyard near the center oak. Two pegasi Guards flew a circuit overhead to keep watch, but otherwise there wasn’t a pony in sight.

“You know, you can fly instead of walking,” Driftwood said, attention focused forward on the path. “I know you want to, and I don’t know what stories have been going around about us, but I know the stories about you. If I try to run, you’ll catch me before I even know you’re moving.”

“I’m fine,” Dash replied with a huff.

Driftwood did not reply in kind and remained silent until they were nearly halfway to the next oak, and then spoke up. “Let’s stop here a second. I wanted to talk to you without anyone else adding their opinion.”

“Fine.” Dash cantered suddenly and came to a stop in front of Driftwood with a stomp. “Talk.”

Driftwood was quiet for a moment more, looking at Dash evenly. “I’ll be honest, Rainbow. I haven’t figured out how to change your opinion of us. I’m not sure there’s anything that I can do to change it, in fact,” he said. “But I’ve been thinking about it since we left Hoofington, and seeing you back there gave me an idea, if you’re interested in hearing it.”

“Why would I be interested in anything like that?” Dash asked. “I already told you there’s nothing about changelings that I need ‘help’ with.”

“Maybe you don’t, but Twilight does and I know —”

Dash’s wings snapped opened and she stomped a hoof on the pavement.

“I know that’s low, but Twilight asked me to help her change her opinion, and that’s hard because she doesn’t actually want to change her opinion, but she feels like she has to. I can’t help her by myself, Rainbow.”

Dash snorted, but folded her wings again. “So get Rarity to help you. Why do you need me?” she asked.

“Because foals don’t want to be Rarity. They don’t want to be Applejack or Fluttershy or Pinkie, either. They want to be Wonderbolts and action heroes. Foals want to grow up to be like you, Rainbow, and I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that changeling nymphs want to grow up to be like you, too,” Driftwood replied.

Driftwood’s expression remained even, but Dash’s washed over with surprise for a moment before she covered it with a scowl that wasn’t quite as angry as her previous ones had been. She took a sudden interest in the space to her left, shut her eyes and clenched her teeth, and then heaved a sigh and looked back to Driftwood. “Talk fast,” she said.

Driftwood nodded. “Changelings tell their nymphs to model their lives after someone virtuous. They tell them that’s the best way to go back to Shamayim. Someone who’s forthright, devoted, who perseveres through difficult times, and who’s compassionate towards others.”

Dash knitted her brow and recoiled slightly. “I helped beat up a bunch of changelings in Canterlot, and they’re telling their foals they should be like me?” she asked.

“I’m almost totally certain they’d prefer some changeling from one of the old stories their parents told them, but for the nymphs? Those changelings are all make-believe. Just some story they get told before bed sometimes. But Rainbow Dash isn’t make-believe. She’s real. They can read about her in the newspaper. Some of them may have even seen you flying overhead, or they know someone that has. And they know from what they get told every night before bed that Rainbow Dash is virtuous. Maybe no one ever actually says it, but they know it’s true. Rainbow Dash is real, and she’s virtuous. She could go to Shamayim if she wants to, and they can be virtuous and go to Shamayim too if they’re like she is.

“Nymphs want to be the same things that foals do, and foals want to be Rainbow Dash.”

Dash snorted in response again. “I’m not stupid,” she said sharply.

Driftwood quirked his brow. “I don’t think I implied that you are,” he replied.

“So you didn’t think I’d notice that you were trying to trick me into doing stuff for you?” Dash took a forceful step forward, not yet in Driftwood’s face.

Driftwood recoiled and took a step back, eyes widened. His eyes narrowed slightly, and then relaxed as he drew himself up as tall as he could — Rainbow Dash straightening up and slightly extending her wings in response. “You’re absolutely right, Dash. That is exactly what I was doing,” he said, and Dash recoiled and took a step back. “I didn’t realize I was doing it, but that’s exactly what I was doing, and I shouldn’t have tried to do it even accidentally, and I’m sorry.”

“Miss Dash!”

Both pegasus and changeling looked across the courtyard and spied one of Twilight’s Guards cantering straight towards them, not even bothering with the paths. Dash turned back to Driftwood with a scowl. “We’ll finish this later,” she said before turning back towards the approaching Guard. “What’s up, Hat?”

“Well, it’s a bit complicated, but we’re escorting Miss Golden Harvest to Princess Twilight’s office, and one of us is going to get her,” Corporal Hard Hat said before she looked to Driftwood. “The Lieutenant feels that, given the circumstances, you should be there, too.”

Driftwood furrowed and quirked his brow, mouth opening just slightly before he looked to Dash, who looked back with her brow just as quirked and furrowed. They both looked back to Hard Hat and Dash asked, “Why? What’s Golden Harvest even doing here?”

“She turned herself in,” Hard Hat replied. “Apparently, she’s a changeling too.”

Author's Note:

This scene underwent several revisions, but the underlying interaction and relationship between Dash and Driftwood has remained more or less exactly the same. It isn’t that they’re incapable of getting along or even liking each other, but Driftwood is behaving in a way that a changeling typically does not, and that neither one of them is expecting.

I, myself, behave in a way that (I believe) a professional consultant does not behave, and also suffer from a degree of incongruity because of it.

Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

Well it's not like he didn't outright say he wanted Dash's help with Twilight. Just because he immediately swept into a tangent to hook her prideful side doesn't negate the stated purpose and intent of the conversation.
🎶 you try your best but it's not quite there, you kick a hoof and say it's just not fair!