Twilight's Canterlot: RotE Episode 6

by Dream Volt

Marshmallow's loyalty

"Really darling I don't see why you're so surprised?"

We were on our way to Sweet Apple Acres, and only my strong desire to find AJ kept me moving instead of stopping to stare at Rarity. Pinkie was once again off sampling the chocolate rain, and cotton candy clouds. I hoped she'd be there when we really needed her, but once again cursed her ability to fly. Mostly because it still made no sense whatsoever, but now because the double treat of the clouds was twice as hard to resist as if she had still been land bound. Though I suddenly had the horrible thought that might not have stopped her wings or no wings.

"Come now Twilight, I thought I explained it clearly enough."

"Rarity I heard you, I just don't get it. Vanity should not lead to you breaking though Discord's curse and restoring your generosity."

"How rude." Rarity then turned up her snout a bit. "Really Twilight, just because looking in the mirror at my awful state is what snapped me out of it does not mean vanity has anything to do with it."

"Then what was it? I'm just trying to understand this."

"You don't question that your pen pal restored Pinkie with random gibberish, but you think somehow my shock at seeing my reflection is so unbelievable."

"But it's Pinkie. With her nonsense makes sense. There must be some reason. Something that you felt when looking in that mirror."

"It wasn't really a mirror per say…" Rarity laughed. "It really is an amazingly gorgeous stone. But there really isn't much to say. I looked, I was shocked, and couldn't help but think of how I was letting down all the ponies of ponyville allowing myself to look such a mess, then all the memories came flooding back and I realized what a foal I'd been."

I blinked. "Wait, that sort of sounds like…" I then looked around, but decided to take a chance anyway. "Pinkie!"

Pinkie fell from the sky and hit the ground with a wet splat. Then she reformed into a solid pony once again. This time I did stop, and Rarity and I both cringed.

"Well, did you want something? I was sorta busy."

"Pinkie, was there anything other than what Moonfire said. Was there something you felt at the time for example?"

"Well I thought it was real nice that even though you were being all, giving into the pointlessness of life, like I said, you still bothered to go see Moonfire, a mare you didn't know that well, and was still really pleasant to her."

I smiled broadly. "I have it. The words barely mattered. They aren't all gone. Generosity and kindness are things you still valued. Rarity in her own way was loyal to all of us. We may most clearly represent one element, but all of us are more than that, and we can use that to remind us of how we should be."

"She isn't at the farm ya know."

We all turned to see Rainbow Dash in a Wonderbolt costume. She had betrayed us outright, and I at least I had some idea for what now. After using the elements she showed up and demanded her payment. Discord said "Done." Then gave her directions somewhere. Right now she was being followed by a bunch of chickens and orange fillies in Wonderbolt costumes. As the got closer I realized all of them looked like Scootaloo. Then one of them clucked.

"Anyway, whammy me back to normal so I can get my vengeance on that creep. This isn't what I wanted at all."

"Are those the Wonderbolts?"

"Ah, but of course they are Twilight."

Discord was in front of us in a flash. He smiled broadly then frowned seeing Rarity. He then shook his head.

"You know I must say you are all being far more bothersome than I planned. I mean I still don't understand how you ended up with a real diamond. I'm surprised you left it unguarded. Let me guess, Twilight offered you more?"

"How dare you suggest such a thing you ruffian. I…"

I then shoved a hoof in Rarity's mouth. He couldn’t tell. It was obvious as could be to me but for some reason he couldn’t tell. I then nodded.

"You don't have to keep lying Rarity, he knows. I will fix them Discord. All of them. Just because I don't have it all figured out doesn't mean you'll win."

Discord laughed, then turned to Dash. "So my little turncoat, is being the captain of the Wonderbolts all you wanted. All you dreamed?"

"This isn't what I wanted at all. They're miserable. I can tell they are. I don't owe Twilight or anyone else anything, but you lied to me. Not even to get out of trouble or anything, but just to be mean. That isn't what I want."

Dash was suddenly already a bit more colorful. I then found myself in the air engulfed in a familiar blue glow. Oh yea, I should have pulled my hoof out by now. Then I thought of something. I think I knew how to fix Dash, but I didn't want to risk Discord still being around. He might not be able to tell something has already happened, but if we do it right in front of him he'll know for sure. Then Rairity dropped me on the ground. It wasn't a far drop, but clearly even if she understood why I did it she wasn't happy. I looked in her direction and gave a brief smile.

"Also I still don't get what's up with the scootachickens." Asked Dash. "I mean that's just outright dumb.

"Actually they were all supposed to be just normal chickens, but for some reason half of them ended up this way. Sometimes a little bonus chaos like that just happens."

I was now next to Pinkie and leaned close to her ear to whisper. "Pinkie I need you keep Discord distracted as long as you can."

"Okay Twilight." Pinkie yelled. "I'll keep him distracted as long as I can."

I face hooved. I should have seen it coming, but some how I didn't see her answering that loudly. Then Pinkie was a mostly pink draconequis. There was also a lot of blue and yellow, and a few other colors. Mostly she looked like Discord, but had a more feminine muzzle and her normal big poofy hair. Discord just stared, saying nothing. I decided that was as good as we were going to get, and ran back to town. I hoped Dash and Rarity were following behind me.

Comments

[BenRG]

Interesting - remember that Rarity has already demonstrated an ability to 'default' back to her normal appearance when she uses her fire elemental powers. This establishes that it also restores her personality defaults too! That's going to probably leave Twilight sweating over quill and parchment for a few months trying to work out how it works in terms of orthodox magical theory. However, I think it might be a 'fire' thing.

Interesting - Discord has just inadvertently revealed a weakness: He's a prisoner of his own nature. Because he is chaotic, he has only fractional control of the outcome of his own powers. The outcome will, by necessity, be chaotic and, therefore, be impossible for him to specify more than the general shape of it.

Twilight's realisation that the elements are being restored by interaction with the other aspects of Harmony is also interesting. It works towards my theory from Episode 5 that they are collectively the reincarnation of Gaia, Celestia and Luna's mother. This means that they are stronger united but it also means that they all contain echoes of each other's natures and elements that resist alteration in the others. Wow! You are good at abstract magical theory aren't you? It's little touches like that that make these stories worth the reading!