• Published 15th Jul 2021
  • 449 Views, 27 Comments

Mirage on the Horizon - Hope



Eris, student of Luna, faces the spirit of disharmony who already killed her once.

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Ch. 8 The Truth of Our Feelings

As the six close friends left Sweet Apple Acres, Fluttershy took the lead, going not to her cottage but veering off into the woods.

The thin path she followed was barely even there, but it was clear to see that she knew it well.

It wasn't until she walked out into the clearing that everyone realized where they were. Here, Fluttershy had fallen so young, and landed hard enough to break a wing. Alone, she'd gotten her cutie mark while in the most pain of her life, when animals had poured out of the forest and shown her the loyalty of a herd.

She sat, and nodded to Eris.

Eris was beginning to feel the strain of the magic she'd used. It seemed like each time she freed one of her friends from her artificial repair, that ancient and powerful magic was slipping through her claws. Yet it made her feel more mortal, more pure each time.

She stepped closer and pulled Shy into a hug, before snapping her fingers.

Fluttershy didn't pull away, but her breathing did quicken.

"I don't think you should die for me," Eris said firmly.

"You don't want me as a friend?" Shy asked, her tone heartbroken.

"That's not what I said," Eris said quickly. "I want you as a friend, so badly, all of us here do!"

The other four ponies nodded in agreement, even if Rainbow seemed to flicker at the edges like a reflection on a pool.

"But," Eris continued. "You've been holding yourself to the standard that you'd give your life for us. I don't think that's fair. I'd rather you live for me instead."

Fluttershy bit her lip and hunched her shoulders, wings hugging herself.

"But… I just…" she stammered. "Everything is so big… so scary… if I am willing to give everything for my friends then…"

"I'd do a lot for you, Fluttershy," Rarity interrupted. "I truly would. A place to stay? A companion for a long trip? Half the stock of my business, but I would never ask you to give your life, and I'd be a poor friend if I did."

"So I'm a bad friend for wanting this," Fluttershy concluded bitterly.

"No, you want us to show we care! That we're loyal! Your bar for loyalty just got set in your brain by a mob boss, not a care bear," Pinkie said with a giggle.

"What's a care bear?" Rainbow asked quietly in the background.

"But… but I do want it!" Fluttershy cried out. "I do want someone to care enough to give their life for me!"

"That's far easier than living," Eris said firmly. "I could snap my fingers right now. Bargain my life to Mirage to save all of you, heck, throw in a bunch of stuff for Luna so I'll be remembered as a big shot hero. One snap of my fingers, poof. But instead I'm working through the gritty details, the truth of who each of you are, and sticking by your sides no matter what."

Looking into Eris's eyes, Fluttershy shimmered pink, a slow glow that would almost be missed in the sunlight, but then she trotted up to Eris and hugged her tight.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"You're welcome, Fluttershy," Eris replied with a happy sigh, looking at Rainbow over Shy's shoulder.

The blue pegasus met her gaze. There was pain in her eyes, and a lot of fear, but she wasn't running yet.

After a bit, Fluttershy let go and also turned to look at Rainbow Dash.

But it was Rarity who stepped forward first.

"Could I talk with Rainbow alone for a moment?" She asked, looking around at them all.

Surprised at first, Eris nodded and she led the rest of the group out of the woods, following Fluttershy's path.

"You won't be able to fix me alone, Rarity," Rainbow said, not meeting her gaze.

"I know, darling, but I have a feeling I'm a… separate part of this, and I'd like that part to remain private. Between you and me."

Rainbow nodded, but didn't speak.

"You didn't show up to the date yesterday evening," Rarity said softly.

"Sorry. Work ran late," Rainbow lied, badly, blushing.

"It's okay to be scared of these emotions, Rainbow," Rarity whispered. "And I'm not angry with you."

"But you should be!" Rainbow snapped. "And you shouldn't want me to change back, because no normal pony should forget a date they've been looking forward to!"

Rarity stepped closer and put a hoof on Rainbow's cheek.

"I didn't ask a normal pony on a date," she said firmly. "I was angry at first. Hurt, even, I'll admit. But I know you well, Rainbow Dash, and when you called me at midnight, crying, apologizing, I understood."

Rainbow leaned ever so gently against Rarity, sniffling, and looking a little more solid around the edges.

"Now, unless you know the path out of here, you'll probably need to fly me out," Rarity chuckled.

A few minutes later, Rainbow landed on the road next to the rest of her friends, depositing Rarity gently onto the ground.

"Well… I don't need to unsnap you," Eris started, smiling a little. "So…"

"Yeah, because she didn't threaten you with a carving knife!" Pinkie giggled.

"But I… I can be intellectual,” Rainbow said weakly, looking away.

They’d already had that argument, in part, but with her friends around it was harder for Rainbow to stick to her convictions.

“And I could be powerful, if I gave up who I am now,” Eris said softly.

“I just… I want to be better,” Rainbow sniffled, wiping her nose on her arm and scowling at the ground. “I’ve never been good enough, and finally… I can pass all the tests, figure out all the complex problems, and… and you all want me to give it up because it’s not… what, real enough?”

“Because we don’t need you to be perfect, to be irreplaceable and all knowing, to be a good friend,” Eris insisted. “Our lives together, if I wasn’t here and Luna had some other student, you could all still be here.”

The five ponies looked at Eris in shock, as some ancient and strange knowledge gleamed in Eris’s eyes.

“Maybe a unicorn would have shown up that day,” Eris continued. “Maybe she would have been different, but still brought you all together. Just because I could be replaced doesn’t mean that our friendship, me being here, isn’t special in its own way. Rainbow, just because you could be a bit better at some things, that doesn’t mean we don’t want you here. Heck, you could find us another friend and run away, and our lives would continue. But we don’t want that. We don’t want somepony else right now, no matter how smart. We want you.”

Rainbow’s eyes filled with tears as she sniffled and looked down at the ground, before slowly looking back up at Eris.

“I freed Mirage,” Rainbow whispered.

Fluttershy gasped and took a step back, away from Rainbow, as Eris clenched her fists, looking around for the alicorn, waiting for an attack that never came.

“Why, darling?” Rarity asked softly.

“Last night, I didn’t show up at our date, because… I was terrified. I was so scared of being in a relationship with someone who could see all my flaws,” Rainbow explained in a rush. “And I flew all the way to Canterlot, just… Just to get away, just to have somewhere to fly to and… And I was in the garden, and I heard her voice. I didn’t know who she was at first, but she could sense me, feel how… Torn up I was inside, and she offered me…”

“She offered you the ability to be your best self,” Eris concluded, still turning, looking for the threat.

“To be the self I could have been, if circumstances had been different,” Rainbow agreed, hanging her head in shame. “I didn’t know that would free her, and once she escaped, I called you, Rarity, I called you crying because I suddenly understood just how horrible a mistake I’d made. I understand if you all don’t want to be my friends anymore.”

“That right there’s a load of manure,” AJ snorted. “Ain’t abandoning ya, Dash. So stop thinkin’ it.”

“I’d never stop being your friend, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said as she flew over to the other pegasus and put a hoof on her back.

Pinkie giggled. “What’s a little supervillain plotline between friends?”

“And… I’d still like to go on a date with you,” Rarity declared. “Once you’re free of Mirage’s influence.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to say something, but then stopped. In fact, all of the ponies stopped as Eris looked up and down the dirt road, until she realized they weren’t saying anything.

Everything had frozen in place except for the draconequus. Even birds in the air were mid-flap.

“Mirage,” Eris whispered as she backed away from her friends. “Please don’t do this. Please. I was so close.”

The ground shook, and the road cracked in several places, the dry hard-packed earth crumbling and showing clean break lines around them before the ground heaved and trees splintered, nature being torn apart as the everfree forest became visible through the more normal cultivated trees by the road.

The crack in the ground run through the trees, tossing them aside to form a sort of path into the edge of the everfree and then, with a thunderous roar and trembling of the earth, the ground heaved up like a pie crust, chunks of dirt and rocks the size of houses scattering into the wild forest to reveal, pristine as though it had been gently placed there, a cottage that Eris now knew so well.

“Of course I’ll go on a date with you, Rarity,” Rainbow Dash said, blushing as she took a step closer to the unicorn, before looking up at Eris.

Eris looked between her friends and the cottage, and with all her willpower she ignored the cottage for a moment longer, stepping closer to Rainbow.

“We accept you, Rainbow Dash,” Eris promised. “As you are, as you truly honestly are.”

A blue flash flowed over Rainbow, and she shot forward to hug Eris.

“Thank you.”

Author's Note:

Two more chapters to go. I've written them and I also re-edited the first three chapters after some help from ScopeEva, reviewing and offering some edits for those chapters.