Chapter 16
Applejack and Fluttersy stood silently as they watched the emotional scene on display before them. They both shot one another questioning looks, as if to glean any answers as to how they should feel about this new development. When Twilight's tears of joy had finally died down, a full minute passed before Fluttershy finally broke the silence.
"Umm...so...what now?"
Twilight and Rainbow Dash both jumped, apparently having completely forgotten about the two other ponies present. Twilight cleared her throat and spoke.
"Well, to answer Dash's question, yes I could recast the spell. All I'd need is to gather the right ingredients again. If we're going to do that, we should head back towards Ponyville and the Everfree." She closed her eyes to think for a few seconds before raising a hoof toward the horizon. "Which should be that way."
"And you think that'll just wrap up everything with a nice tidy bow?" Applejack interjected. "Twilight just gets to walk and everypony forgets about the whole thing and pretends it never happened? You know it ain't that easy, right?"
"Why not?" Rainbow Dash responded, a defensive tone in her voice. "I said I'm fine with it. I kinda get why nopony cared about my opinion earlier, but I'm not under any spell at the moment. You and Fluttershy are both witnesses. Those doctors can even scan my head and confirm it, and I'll sign whatever in front of whoever to make this happen."
Twilight gave a sad shake of her head. "She's right, Dash. "Whether or not you forgive me for it now, the original act was extremely illegal. Even if nopony was ultimately hurt in the end, it's not the kind of thing the princesses can afford to set a precedent for letting slide."
"Well screw them, then! I'm going forward with this, and I'm not gonna do it just to have them tear us apart afterward for what's in the past. I'm sticking with you, and if that puts me on the wrong side of the law, then I guess that's just where I'll be from now on."
Applejack huffed and muttered something under her breath. Rainbow Dash turned and leveled a glare her way.
"What? You going to stop me?" The note of challenge to the question was unmistakable.
"I reckon I'm obligated to at least try to knock some sense into you before you go throwing your life away like this."
"Try being the key word there. Even without Twilight backing me up, anypony looking to stop me is going to have a fight on their hooves. I like you AJ. Along with Fluttershy and Twilight, you're one of the closest friends I've ever had. But don't think that means I'd hold anything back."
The two rivals and ex-lovers continued to stare one another down, both tensed and ready to spring into action as seconds ticked by. Twilight and Fluttershy held their breath as they looked on. Finally, Applejack spoke up.
"So you're really serious about this then? This is what you want?"
"Yeah. It is."
"And ain't nothin' nopony can say to change yer mind?"
"No."
"...Alright then. Fine." Applejack relaxed her stance as Rainbow Dash blinked in surprise. "The main reason I came out here in the first place was to find you and make sure you were alright, and to get you help if you weren't. Getting answers outta Twilight was secondary, and dragging her flank into custody would have been in the interest of getting her to fix you up. But if you ain't hurt and you don't need freeing from any spells anymore...I guess it ain't really any of my business anymore is it?" Rainbow Dash slowly began to relax. "Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't approve of any of this. None of it sits right with me, but I figure you've at least got time to sleep on it and change your mind before Twilight's got the stuff she needs to recast her spell. If you're still set on this when the time comes, well, I can't tell you how to live your life. If this is what you really want, I won't get in your way."
Rainbow Dash gave a sigh of relief. "Thanks, AJ. I appreciate it."
Applejack kicked at a loose pebble and pulled her hat down over her eyes. "Shucks, I know I wouldn't have a chance of stopping you anyhow. I know it'd be somethin' of a tossup whether I could take you one on one, and Twilight would probably squash me flat before I even got close." She cast a quick glance to the scorched devastation around them and rubbed a hoof at her throat while Twilight blushed and fidgeted in discomfort. "And I doubt Fluttershy here would tip the balance, assuming she didn't just straight up join your side to begin with."
A startled "eep" escaped Fluttershy's lips as attention shifted back to her. "Oh! Um..."
"Relax. I know your heart weren't exactly set on seeing Twilight dragged away in chains this whole time."
Fluttershy sighed. "No. To be honest, I'm mostly just relieved I don't have to pick sides between Rainbow Dash and Twilight. Or you now, I guess. I am still worried about one thing though. If we don't try to stop you, does that make us...um...what's the term?"
"Accessories?" Twilight suggested.
"Yeah."
"I don't think so," Applejack replied. "As there's no way the two of us can physically stop them, we should be fine as long as we're not directly helping them. Sure we're probably obligated to report what we know to the guards the next time we find ourselves in town, but as we don't really have a clue where we currently are, we can't do that. Unless Twi and Dash feel like giving us directions to the nearest town, in which case we would be legally bound to go there and make a full report to the authorities, we'll just have to follow the way Twilight pointed earlier back to Ponyville."
"And if that just so happens to be the way we're traveling as well..." Twilight added with a smirk.
"It's better to keep an eye and ear on ya both as long as possible so we can make a more detailed report on your activities and last known location when the time comes." Applejack nodded.
"And if, say, you happen to stop and make camp where we do?"
"It's not our fault if you happen to set up your camp close enough to ours that they start overlapping. And seeing as we left our supplies behind in a wagon that's now who knows how far away in who knows what direction, we really have no choice but to scavenge whatever happens to be nearby out of necessity. And if we happen to find some food to cook and end up with more than the two of us can eat by ourselves, well, there ain't no crime in leaving leftovers sitting around unattended is there?" Applejack questioned innocently.
"No, I suppose there isn't." Twilight replied with a smile.
"Peachy. Well, best get going. We're burnin' daylight."
***
"So let me get this straight," Rainbow Dash said as she finished stacking the pile of firewood. "You kicked Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria, right in the horn and then melted her face off?"
Twilight looked up from her work snapping the ends of the last few tent poles into position. "Well, she definitely got burned. I don't know if it burned off her whole face, as she regenerated pretty quickly, but that's basically what happened."
"Bullshit. You're just messing with me now, aren't you?"
"Nah, she's tellin' the truth." Applejack called out from the campfire where she and Fluttershy were occupied cooking dinner. "We found that hideout, and it sure looked like one doozy of a rumble went down there. We even found one of Luna's feathers next to some bits of blood, so I'm pretty sure Twilight got at least one good lick in."
"Wow, she must have been pissed."
"Yeah. She was." Twilight shuddered.
"So what did you do?"
"Well, I freaked out, threw a tree at her, somehow managed to dodge a lot, got a lucky hit in and managed to throw her into a bush, and then threw everything I could think of at her."
"So what happened?"
"She got really pissed off, and then I woke up the next morning in a cage with a headache and a high end magic inhibitor on my horn."
Rainbow Dash raised a hoof to her mouth to muffle a short series of giggles.
"Yeah, well it wasn't terribly funny at the time."
"Sorry. So how did you get out from under Luna's nose without magic? Or did you have to break out of Canterlot somehow?"
"Well, that's where things got kinda weird, cause then the changelings got involved."
"Soup's on everypony!" Applejack called out. "Come and get it!"
The retelling of Twilight's adventures was put on hold as both ponies hurried over to the fire to fill their bellies. Twilight and Rainbow Dash both helped themselves to a steaming bowl of soup that sent their eyebrows skyward as soon as it touched their lips.
"Whoa! I don't know if it's just because I've been eating hospital food for the last few weeks, but this stuff is great!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"That would be Fluttershy's doing. Turns out she's got a real knack for spices." Applejack shot a proud glance over at her sous-chef, who fidgeted at the attention.
"Umm, yes. Applejack has been giving me some cooking lessons. I've still got a ways to go until I'm as good as her, though."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that. I may still have the edge in baking, but when it comes to campfire cooking, you're pretty much on the edge of passing me up. Plus you're scary good at scavenging all kinds of herbs and mushrooms and stuff from the wild. My pigs would be downright jealous of how quick you can scrounge up some quality tubers."
"I...umm...thanks." Fluttershy gave a small nod, sending her mane forward to hide the slight pinkish tinge in her cheeks at the unexpected praise.
"Well whatever you guys are doing, it's definitely working," Dash said before diving back into her food.
"It truly is delicious, Fluttershy. Thank you," Twilight said with a beaming smile.
She quivered slightly, as if caught by a sudden chill, and stared down at her own bowl of soup. "I-I think I need to gather just a little bit more sage, actually. You girls go ahead and keep eating. I'll be fine."
Placing her bowl back down next to the fire to keep it warm, she quietly slipped away into the long shadows of the surrounding trees. Twilight joined Rainbow Dash, who continued to stuff her face without pause, while Applejack stared after Flutterhshy's departure with a single raised eyebrow.
After a minute of pondering her own bowl, Applejack stood up and stretched. "I'm gonna get us some more firewood. You two just keep eating."
Rainbow Dash, too busy to raise her face from where she continued to shovel food into it, simply curled a wing into an approximation of the 'thumbs up' gesture Spike occasionally gave, while Twilight responded with a silent nod. Taking a moment to readjust her hat, Applejack trotted off into the trees in the direction Fluttershy had left.
As she searched for her friend, the quiet of the surrounding woods left her alone with her thoughts.
She had started this little adventure to find Dash and make sure she was okay. Now Dash was certainly found. She at least wasn't physically hurt, and her usual pigheadedness was still undeniably intact, but 'okay' still wasn't a label she would be willing to stick on the pegasus. 'Okay' really didn't apply to anyone involved in this entire situation.
Rainbow Dash had had her brains scrambled with magic. Twice. In addition to being confined to a bed for weeks. An unbearable situation for someone who lived and breathed flying.
Twilight, for her momentary victory here, was still the most wanted fugitive in Equestria, not only for scrambling Dash's brains, but for further resisting the shit out of arrest to the point of assaulting royalty, all of which she appeared to be completely unrepentant about. If the lingering soreness in her throat and the singe marks on the edges of her hat were any indication, Twilight was also barely holding onto sanity by a thread. A multicolored thread named Rainbow Dash. As much as she seemed like the same lovable bookworm now that Dash was back, Applejack had gotten a long, hard look at the storm of fire and rage that would just as soon reduce the world to ashes should that no longer be the case.
Is it weird that I still think of her as my friend, though? For a mare who spent so much of her life in voluntary isolation, she always was oddly skilled at getting ponies to like her and follow her lead without even trying. Maybe it's just nostalgia from all those 'saving the world' adventures, but I look at her and I still see the mare with the plan that will lead us to victory and make everything turn out alright.
Then, of course, there was Fluttershy. It was painfully obvious she wasn't over Twilight in the slightest. That torch still burned like Celestia's sun. Add in the fact that Rainbow Dash was her oldest and closest friend from fillyhood, and she didn't even want to guess about how many directions the poor mare's mind had been torn recently.
And then there's me.
Applejack's thoughts were interrupted by a barely audible sigh, uttered just before she let out the heavy breath from her own lungs. She looked around for the source, but couldn't find it. A second sigh, more like a whisper, carried through the air. Applejack looked up and spotted a low floating cloud next to a small hill several paces away.
Trotting up the hill, Applejack saw Fluttershy sprawled listlessly over the top of the spacious cloud and staring off into the distance. It looked as if her thoughts were heavy enough to send the fluffy mass of vapor plummeting down into the dirt at any moment.
"Howdy."
Fluttershy shot up into the air with a choked "EEP!" and whirled around to face the unexpected intruder.
"A-Applejack! I-I was—"
"Looking for sage?"
Fluttershy's shoulders slumped as she cast her face down towards her hooves, kneading the cloud below.
"Of a sort, I guess."
Applejack nodded. "Not sure I have any to give. Could actually use some myself. Still, it's always easier to find with a friend than alone."
Applejack gave two quick pats to the top of her head and crouched. Fluttershy was about to ask what she was doing but was interrupted by the farm pony leaping from the top of the hill into the open air. Her eyes widened, and she was just about to scream in horror when Applejack landed next to her on the cloud with a smile.
"What? How...?"
Applejack slowly reached a hoof under her hat. When she pulled it out, a gold chain was draped around her foreleg. At the bottom of the chain was a small, lightly glowing pendant, slowly twisting from the motion of being retrieved. On one side was engraved a trio of apples, while the other bore a lightning bolt striking out from a cloud.
"An old gift from Dash. Back when..." she let the rest of the sentence go on unfinished. "Apparently, she secretly enlisted Twilight to enchant it with a cloud walking spell for her so me and Dash could spend more time together at her place." Her fond smile morphed into a frown. "Now that I consider the context...it's kinda messed up, really."
"And you...kept it." Fluttershy murmured, hoping she didn't sound like a fool for stating the obvious.
"Yeah."
"And, umm, you just...keep it on you all the time, then?"
Applejack didn't respond. She simply let out a sigh as she pushed her forelegs forward from her sitting position until she was lying completely prone and stretched out on the cloud. Fluttershy silently assumed the same position next to her. From their elevated position, they could spot the soft glow of the campfire and the outlines of two ponies chatting happily beside it. One could almost imagine the last few weeks had never happened and Ponyville's latest power couple was simply enjoying a romantic camping trip.
"Do you think...?" Fluttershy murmured with hesitation, wary of of breaking the moment of silence. "Do you think it would have worked out? Twilight and Rainbow Dash, I mean. If none of this had ever come out in the open. Do you think they would have...?"
"Made it for the long haul?" Applejack finished.
"Yeah."
"Well, nothing's certain, but with nopony the wiser, I imagine Twilight would be able to keep Dash magicked up and under her hoof as long as she wanted." Her pensive expression dropped into a scowl.
"No." Fluttershy gave a brief shake of her head. "Remember? She said the magic was set to fade out over time. After another month or two, there wouldn't be any magic at all, just them. Do you think they would have lasted past that point? Without the magical support, would the relationship just kind of...fizzle out and slowly die? Would all the love Rainbow was made to feel earlier be enough for them to just kind of coast forward for years until they've been together so long that it's just easier to stay together rather than face being single again? Or...or maybe...?"
"What?"
"Maybe, their relationship is wildly successful because they really are great for each other, and it really just took a bit of horribly unethical magic to get the ball rolling. What if, in some alternate timeline, Rainbow Dash had given Twilight a shot, gone on a few dates, and they'd both ended up just as perfect together as we all thought they looked?"
Applejack closed her eyes in thought. True, Dash and Twilight had some undeniable chemistry together, but it was impossible to tell how much of that was due to the spell Dash was under. They had fit together so naturally, so effortlessly, that it had been days before she and her friend could fully wrap their heads around it being artificial. There hadn't been anything approaching a red flag. No small oddities to look back to in hindsight and kick oneself for not suspecting that Dash wasn't acting like herself. No smile was just a little too forced. No gaze just a little vacant. Just Rainbow Dash in a happy relationship.
Was it so ludicrous to believe that maybe that was just what happy relationship Dash looked like? It wasn't like she didn't have some personal memories of their own relationship to compare with, and the comparison checked out. Was it so big a leap to think that maybe, in addition to Twilight's damned spell, the two of them had some natural compatibility of their own and made each other happy in a way that was independent from magic?
That doesn't make any of this right, though!
"Applejack?"
"No use tying ourselves up in what ifs and could haves. There ain't no way for anypony to really know one way or the other about things that didn't happen, so worrying over it won't do any good. Better to focus on what to do next."
"Right." Fluttershy gave a slightly disappointed nod. "So, umm, what do we do next?"
Applejack lifted herself up from her prone position just far enough to give a casual shrug. "Hay if I know. Keep an eye on those two and hope Dash comes to her senses? And if she doesn't, try to bring myself to at least support her decision even if I don't approve or understand it. As for the whole Twilight and the law situation, I guess I'll just have to cross that bridge when I reach it. What about you?"
"Me? I-I don't know. I just...I want..."
"What?"
"No, it's dumb."
"Yeah, probably. Tell me anyway."
Fluttershy dropped her face forward between her forelegs and mumbled through a mouth full of cloud.
"Gee, thanks."
"Feelings and desires are dumb all the time. For all the cliche's about 'following your heart', hearts ain't exactly built for thinking. It's no surprise that what they spit out is downright idiotic more often than not. And yes, I know that ain't how it literally works. I know emotions and what not are all handled by a part of the brain and that's pretty much at the core of this entire mess, but my point still stands. Twilight's the smartest mare I know, likely one of the smartest if not the smartest in Equestria, and listening to her heart (or whatever you want to call it) set her down the most damn foolish path I've ever seen. Point is, don't worry too much about wanting something stupid. Happens to everypony. Happens to me all the time."
Fluttershy said nothing, but a slight quiver passed down her body, which soon grew into a solid shake. Muffled noises rose from where her face still pressed against the cloud as tremors continued to rack her body. Applejack was just about to reach out a hoof to console the distraught pegasus when Fluttershy raised her head, bringing the clear sound of laughter as a few stray beams of sunset gave her smiling face a golden glow.
"What is it? What's so funny?" Applejack asked as a slight tinge of pink reached her cheeks.
"Nothing. It's just, you get so into it when you start in on one of your 'folksy wisdom speeches'. That's what I call them anyway. It kinda reminds me of Twilight rambling on in lecture mode."
"F-Folksy wisdom speeches?" The color in Applejack's cheeks was steadily growing brighter. "Rambling?"
"Oh, don't worry. It's very endearing. Cute, even."
"Uggh!" Applejack pulled her hat down over her face, hiding what at this point could be mistaken for a second set of apple cutie marks.
"Anyway, thanks. Rambling or not, they do always make me feel a bit better. The truth is..." she let out a tired sigh. "Even though I know better, I keep thinking that somehow there must be some secret way to make everything work out. A way to make this whole mess go away and just put everything back to normal. Some impossible scenario to make everypony happy. You, the princesses, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and all of our friends."
"And?"
"And what?"
"I can't help but notice you left a certain pony off of that list. So, what scenario ends up making you happy?"
"Me? Oh, uh, you know. As long as everypony else is back together and happy, then I'm fine."
"Really, now?" Applejack responded, skepticism dripping off of her flat expression.
"Y-Yeah, of course," Flutershy replied, her no longer glowing smile starting to drop at the edges.
"So if we all just went back to how things were a few weeks back, minus the magic none of us knew about at the time, you'd be just peachy?"
"Y-Yes!" Fluttershy squeaked out, suddenly very interested in absolutely everything that wasn't Applejack's face.
Applejack said nothing, but maintained her stony gaze, secretly wondering if maybe she should have just let the subject drop so that radiant smile from a few moments ago could have lasted a bit longer. It was too late for that now.
"I-I just..." Fluttershy struggled to force words past a lump developing in her throat. "As long as Twilight and Rainbow Dash and everypony else are..." She willed back the water threatening to creep over her eyes. "All I want...I want...I want..." She bit down hard on her lower lip until she started to taste blood. Slowly, she inhaled and exhaled through her nose until the shaking in her body had finally stopped. Calm at last, she opened her mouth to reply that she was perfectly fine as long as her friends were happy.
But that wasn't what came out.
"I WANT HER TO LOVE ME!" Her head fell back to the cloud where it was promptly covered by her forelegs while the rest continued to spill out. "I want her to somehow discover feelings for me and that we were meant to be together all along and somehow Rainbow Dash ends up being completely okay with it. Then everyone just forgets about the whole love spell and fugitive business, you and Rainbow Dash somehow get back together, and the four of us go on double dates just like we used to, only this time SHE LOVES ME LIKE I LOVE HER!"
Unable to come up with anything appropriate to say, Applejack settled on placing a comforting hoof on Fluttershy's back and rubbing gently.
"And I KNOW there's no way that's going to happen. I know it. But I had to go look for her because staying at home and not seeing her, maybe never seeing her again, was killing me. And even though I know what she did was wrong, I still want to help her because when I look at her and the way she looks at Rainbow Dash, I can't help but feel like I'm looking in a mirror. Like I can somehow, I don't know, vicariously be happy by helping her find happiness with Rainbow Dash, while still burning up with jealousy. Then I'd usually feel horribly guilty because Rainbow Dash was under a spell and I should be working to free my best friend instead of helping the pony that was keeping her enchanted, which makes me a bad pony and a terrible friend. And on top of that, I was still jealous and a bit angry at Rainbow Dash for stealing her from me, despite her having no choice in the matter, which is just completely insane! So now I'm a crazy pony in addition to being a terrible friend."
Applejack continued her silent back rub while Fluttershy took a few haggard breaths before continuing.
"And now! Now Rainbow Dash says she's okay with it and wants to be with Twilight anyway, so at least if I wanted to help Twilight that no longer means betraying Rainbow Dash. That should make things simpler, but it really doesn't because I still want her to love ME! I want so badly to see Twilight get what she wants, even if she's done bad things, even if she doesn't deserve it, but I want what she wants to be ME!"
A few minutes of cloud muffled sobbing passed. Applejack kept up the steady rhythm of her hoof until Fluttershy's breathing grew steady once again.
"Is that dumb enough for you?"
"Bout what I expected really. It ain't that dumb, just...an unfortunate position to be in."
"A bit of an understatement."
"Definitely. Feel any better?"
"Marginally? I'm still miserable, but..."
"But it's nice to finally say all that out loud for a change?"
"Yeah."
"And just so you know, you're a great friend, and the furthest thing imaginable from a bad pony. You're probably the best pony I ever met, and I mean that in the sense of just being fundamentally good inside. I know circumstance has got your head all twisted up with self-doubt, but I thought you should know that."
"Umm...thanks?" Fluttershy replied, unsure how else to respond to a compliment of that magnitude. "You're, uhh, great too?"
A few minutes passed as the two ponies stared off into the reddening horizon. The sounds of nature were beginning their transition from day to night, the songs of birds fading out as crickets began to stir. With a tired sigh, Applejack finally spoke.
"Sorry for your crappy situation. I know there's nothing I can really do to make it better, but...if you ever need to talk, or just get your thoughts out loud for a bit, I'll be there to listen. For whatever it's worth, you don't have to be miserable and alone."
"Thanks. And actually..." The slightest hint of a smile began to pull at the corners of Fluttershy's mouth. "It's a very distant second, but there is kinda something else I want. You'd be the one to see about it too."
"What's that?"
"More of those apple turnovers?"
"HA! Well, shoot. We just need to see if Twilight has any cinnamon packed away. It's a bit more difficult to make baked goods with a camp fire, but I know a few tricks. I'll even teach 'em to ya."
"I can't wait." Fluttershy's unsteady smile grew as she wiped the remains of tears from her eyes with a wing."
"Come on then, let's head back before Dash eats all the soup. I don't know about you, but I'm starved."
The two made their way back to the camp, grabbing a small hoof full of kindling and herbs on the way. When they arrived, Twilight was back to regaling Rainbow Dash with the stories of her adventure, having reached the part about sneaking into Chrysalis' bedroom while she slept.
Fluttershy took her seat and resumed eating, feeling her mood immediately begin to improve by the addition of food to her empty stomach. She settled in to listen to Twilight's exploits, but was soon distracted by something on the horizon.
"Umm...girls?" Three heads turned towards her. "The sunset. Was it always that shade of red?"
"Well the red color is due to the differential scattering of higher frequencies of light as it travels through the atmosphere, and variances can be caused by the pockets of high pressure along the line of–"
"What about angry throbbing?" Rainbow Dash interrupted.
"What?" Twilight spun around to look at the setting sun and was struck speechless.
"That's bad, right? What's it mean?" Rainbow Dash asked, squinting at a sun that looked as if it had been dunked in a mixture of blood and kerosene.
Twilight gave a nervous gulp. "I'm guessing it means we should stick to tree cover and give Canterlot a wide berth."
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And we're back, folks.
I'm scared to click on it. I can uncheck that check box, but a chapter can never be unread.
OK, I bit the bullet. Good chapter; I really enjoy your writing style. It's elegant but direct. AND POSSIBLY CUTE AND/OR EPICS THINGS ARE HAPPENING.
If you need to head to Guam for two years for some soul searching go ahead, don't let a few mentally deranged fans chain you down. Or keep teaching, children are our future, right? /j /s
And of course Rainbow is okay with being with her rapist. Lift some guilt off Twilight shoulders. This chapter disgusted me. Twilight did something horrid and it ruined the lives of two people who were in love but it's okay because SUDDENLY Rainbow is okay with staying with her rapist.
Holy crap this is still going on! I admire the author's dedication!
Glad to see that this is still going. There are consequences left unresolved.
Edit attack!
Applejack and Fluttersy stood
"Whoa! I don't if it's just because
her no longer glowing smile starting drop
"I can't wait." Fluttershy's unsteady smile grew as she wiped the remains of tears from her eyes with a wing."
I had just gotten to reading this story through not but a week ago, and was wondering when, if ever, a new update would come. Imagine my surprise.
8051886 Makes the story more interesting, doesn't it? Is Rainbow suffering aftereffects of the spell physically altering her brain? Is she actually making her own decision on the matter? And if so, is she doubling down on Twi due to loyalty of her own, or because Twilight's actions come across as an insane kind of loyalty to Dash? (She did literally take on demigoddesses, the country's ultimate authority, and wreck a reinforced secret installation to free Dash, after all.) Is Rainbow subconsciously responding to that display of dedication and commitment because it's something she's been looking for a relationship? Or perhaps because she's stubborn as all get-out and is backlashing against everypony telling her she *can't* have a relationship with Twilight? Or even just because Twilight broke the rules and went toe-to-toe with authority and power, and came out victorious? That's a very Rainbow Dash thing to do.
Not to mention that Twilight's current fragile emotional state could be seen as damage sustained while freeing Rainbow, and Rainbow isn't the type to walk away from that without paying her dues, logic be damned.
8051995 It's making me fucking hate this story. This is Stockholm Syndrome at the very least and just plain OOC moments times eleven. I hope to Celestia this is just after effects. This story has damn near ruined Twilight.
So glad this is alive! Great job in extending the hallmark of this series - delicious emotional complexity. Amazing portrayals of conflicted
and 
8051975
Fixed. Thanks. There are definite downsides to not having an editor.
8052542
I'd be willing, if you're looking for one.
8052732
Maybe. The problem is that I update so erratically, I'd leave an editor on standby for ages. Then when I finally write something, I'm always in such a rush to hit publish because it's been so long.
8052900
I wouldn't mind waiting, I'm always around anyways.
The offer is always open.
Sigh.
Are we really going down the Dash/Twilight happily ever after route? And are we now supposed to pretend this is a good thing?
I'm STILL holding out hope for this story, but the last two chapters are making that hope difficult to keep a grasp on.
8051886
Some people have really fucked up ideas about what love is. That as long as it's pure enough or something they want bad enough, that doing anything in its name is okay. What scares me most about the outcome of this story is that this very idea is professed during AJ and Fluttershy's conversation. That this turn of events is okay because RD and Twilight were 'meant for each other'. Holy hell that's some messed up thinking.
Everyone. Please remember this story started with Dash **explicitly** stating that she didn't care for Twilight, and now she's only doing it because she can't feel anything. How are any of you actively cheering for this outcome?
8053649
Careful not to fall into the "If I don't like it, nobody should" mindset. It's ok if you don't; not every story is for everyone. But you are not the arbiter of what other people should and shouldn't like.
Dash said that she didn't have feelings for Twilight, true. But just because she doesn't now have that emotional connection doesn't mean that the things they did together, the actual love that they experienced, was fake. It was manipulated and developed, but it became a real thing. Dash obviously DOES like her time with Twilight, and even though she's not happy about what Twilight did, the feelings that she developed during their relationship was obvious and it's something Dash wants to go back to, because while she might not feel the emotion for Twilight now, she KNOWS she felt it before and is pleased with the outcome enough to make the choice to go back now that she's out from under the spell and the emotional connections.
A lot of people are saying this is like an addiction, but it's not. Or if it is, then "love" is simply a chemical dependency that develops naturally (which biologically, it is). Anyone courting someone else, is that person manipulating their love interest into loving them back. Buying them things, taking them out, taking an interest in their hobbies and personal life, wanting to know how they think; it's all done to learn more about the person you love and an attempt to grow that feeling of affection within them for you. Twilight took an extreme measure that violated the bounds of personal freedom and free will, but as uncomfortable as it may make you, sometimes the lie CAN become the truth.
8053649 THANK YOU.
Don't listen to people who say it is wrong, they do not know shit about love. Let the hate flow through you
Trolling aside, the both sides are right, in some aspect, so really, do what you want. You are the author. That being said, I still expect you to flip a bird at us all who want a happily ever after, so yeah... *checks the emergency crying kit* ...yeah, I am ready.
Also, while this was not as perfect as the first story, it still hit more than enough right strings to land in my favourites regardless of the final outcome. Well done, and thanks for a great read. I will await new chapters eagerly
At this point, I'm sure you're going to have people upset at whatever ending you pull out of this. Listen to 8054418 and do your thing, it was a good ride. Also calling the FlutterJack in case no one else did already, it's been awhile.
8055565
Yeah, I made peace with that fact a ways back. No matter which way the story goes from here, a substantial portion of the readership is going to be pissed off by it. I'd almost be disappointed if that weren't the case. Not that I'm trying to troll people, but the story is basically a giant exercise in playing around with the Protagonist Centered Morality and Villain Protagonist tropes.
At this point the ending is already set, and it's just a matter of actually writing my way there. If people want, maybe I'll even write up the alternate ending that I was half-considering before scrapping for being a bit too convenient/out of left field/ass pull. It involved Twilight being confronted with the question of why she never considered casting the spell on herself to make herself love somepony else (answer: For the same reason you generally don't perform surgery on yourself). Discord offers to send Twilight back in time (after having a good laugh at her quaint notions of causality and paradoxes and time travel only working in closed loops) to cast the spell on her past self to fall in love with Fluttershy, thereby appeasing any Twishy fans who still want to murder me over chapter 8 of Then Tomorrow Came.
8053956
No. NO. A THOUSAND TIMES NO!
This has nothing to do with liking a story. This isn't you liking R&B and me liking Rock. This isn't you being a DC fan and me being a Marvel fan.
This is people celebrating a truly vile circumstance because they like a certain pairing (and before you ask, I'm ambivalent about any pairing when it comes to fandoms). If Twilight kidnapped and raped Rainbow Dash until she finally gave in (scarily enough it does happen) would that be love? If she kidnapped and tortured her to achieve that end, would that be love? Okay, you know what, fuck the extreme examples. They'll just be ignored anyway. Instead, how about if this story didn't set up such a pain free scenario for Twilight to do what she did?
What if Twilight didn't wait until RD and AJ broke up? What if there relationship was going great and Twilight said screw it, she'll be happier with me anyway. What if she destroyed that relationship to make it happen?
What if AJ went a different route in this story and ran to Applebloom and said, "Hey remember that love potion you gave Big Mac? How did you make it". After all, Big Mac and Cherilee were insanely happy that entire episode. Whose fake love is the 'correct' one in that case?
What if Fluttershy's brother just so happened to be a unicorn and brainwashed Dash instead? Still think its great?
I guess as a stupid 'what if' fantasy, this isn't better or worse than a lot of other things in the world. So I guess my real question is, if you had the same power as Twilight, in real life, would you use it in the same way as this story and would you think it's morally okay to do so? I've asked that question a few times in these comments and have gotten some very scary answers.
That's what bothers me so much.
8056223
What if, what if, what if.
It doesn't matter. It was written one way, so going off on flights of fantasy dreaming up ways it could have been worse is stupid and nowhere near relevant. I don't care about the pairing in the slightest, I like the story because of the morally gray areas it goes. And I don't care what does and doesn't happen in real life: this story is fiction, stop conflating it with reality and trying to be the moral arbiter of what people should and shouldn't like.
Your question is pointless, since there is no real scenario wherein I'd gain these types of powers. My morals, whatever they be, are my own business and not for you to judge.
8058719
You certainly have the right to choose your morals, but I most definitely have the right to judge you on them. That's just the way it is.
As for 'what if'? Sorry if those questions offer up some uncomfortable facts to counter this 'morally grey' area. If an action can only hold up under the most perfect of conditions, conditions that Twilight had no way of knowing, than how morally grey can it really be?
8060030
Your questions didn't bring up any "uncomfortable facts" in the slightest. I simply found them annoying and useless and deigned not to give them the dignity of an answer. Same with your final question.
You're trying to get me to feel bad about liking a story. But I don't care about what you want. And I don't feel the slightest guilt.
This conversation has wasted enough of my time.
8056223
There is a quick and easy answe to your pRobles here. Just ask the question: Does the action taken cause harm? Or conversely, bring happiness?
All of your scenarios rely on Twilight causing harm to get what they want, either from physical harm in your extreme examples, to loss of free will with the potions and brainwashing. And yes, since Dash was not friends already with Fluttershy’s brother, he would have needed to use far more controlling magic to get her.
If any action brings happiness and causes no harm, then it can be argued that the action is good. What harm did Twilight's spell cause? The obvious answer is that it impinge RD's free will. But it did so in a rather benign way. <<warning, these are extreme examples>> Does makeup infringe on free will? It can make a person be physically attracted to someone else who otherwise wouldn't be. Making it pleasurable to look at a person, similar to how Twilight's spell made it pleasurable to think of her. Rainbow didn't have a choice in it, but neither do men when women make themselves look good, nor do women when men put on muscle and look good themselves. Both examples cause hormonal reactions in the targes, making the opposite sex find them desirable. Or what about people's choice of religion? Who ever had a choice about being indoctrinated as a baby? People are raised from birth to love a person that they will never see above all others. They are given no more choice than Rainbow was given. Does that make all people associate with all churches evil?
Okay, extreme examples aside, what Twilight did with the spell was unequivocally wrong. No one denies that. But once Rainbow asked for it? That's another question. Yes, you can draw similarities to drug use, but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of perfectly legal drugs that mess with brain chemestry. The problem with illegal drugs is that they cause harm. While Twilight's magic is immoral when used like it was, it does not cause harm in a willing subject.
8065176
Does it cause harm?
The easy answer is no, and that's why it's so insidious. It makes it too easy to justify. Too easy to ignore all those little things that you know are wrong. Too easy to assuage your guilt. After all, your giving out free happiness, what's not great about that?
Now I did say 'no' was the easy answer, but it's not the correct one.
What's Dash's number one goal in life? To be a Wonderbolt. Assuming this story doesn't go completely off the rails, what's never going to happen now? That's okay, I hear you say. She'll at least be with her 'love' Twilight, which is still the same fake love that is at the heart of this whole tragedy. Sounds like that's some harm right there and that's just one example.
As for the idea this spell is the equivalent of makeup? That is ridiculous for a number of reasons. Yes, men and women do things to make themselves attractive to the opposite sex. 'Make themselves' being the key phrase. Twilight didn't change herself to appeal more to Dash. She forced Dash to change what she was looking for in a companion. It's the equivalent of telling a long haired woman that you prefer short hair and her brainwashing you into the opposite. Also, the man or woman can still choose. I've known lots of gorgeous women that I wouldn't want to spend a moment alone with, let alone the rest of my life.
Now for the next part, I want to take a moment to be perfectly clear. I am NOT comparing anyone here or whatever they believe in the story to my next subject. It's simply to highlight a parallel in my thought process.
You know why this line of thought, this idea, that 'it's okay to do this just this one time because it's good and beautiful and perfect and blah blah blah' is such bullshit? It's because everyone who would do this thinks their one time is that one in a million exception. Want a real life example? Go on Reddit or some other board that has a 100% dyed-in-the-wool pedophile.
Listen to them go on and on how it really doesn't harm kids. You just have to find that 12 year old who's really mature for their age. How you just have to find that one in a million that would be perfectly fine with it and wouldn't you know it she just happens to live down the street from me and what are the odds and blah blah blah.
Twilight is like that pedophile. She has no way to know that this is that one in a million exception. Hell, she actually has evidence to the opposite. Dash specifically told her that she wasn't interested and Twilight couldn't have cared less about what her wishes. What a completely pure and unselfish love she has for Dash...
Now as to your last point, how it was unequivocally wrong at first (and I'd retract the statement how no one denies that. There are quite a few in these comments that do and that's what bothers me so much) but it's okay now since Dash is asking for it. I still have issues with that.
Now I've posted in these comments before that if Twilight had asked pre-brainwashed Dash and Dash had agreed to it, I'd be okay with that. I still wouldn't like it and would think it degrades Dash's character, but as two consenting adults, have at it. Now however, that chance is forever gone, or at the very least extremely premature. You don't detox a drug addict in a few hours, throw them back on the streets and declare them cured.
Think about everything that's happened to Dash and all she's learned in the last 24 hours. She needs time, and probably shit loads of therapy, just to get a handle on all this. Twilight also needs to spend some time in pony prison for everything she's done.
If after all that, Rainbow still wants to get zapped again, fine, but this heat of the moment decision with AJ and Fluttershy acting like this is the most normal thing ever is so far off the bullshit meter it beggars belief.
Lastly, I'd just like to say that I don't hate anyone for liking this story. I don't even dislike people using it as a sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy. I mean, do you know what the statistics show for the number of people that fantasize about rape, men AND women? It's upwards of 40 percent of the population, but the vast majority still knows that it's wrong. The difference is that there are some commenters here that don't think what Twilight did was wrong, and while they're unlikely to get magic powers anytime soon, it still doesn't reflect all that well on their character or how they would treat potential romantic partners if they had even the slightest bit of power over them.
That's what bothers me so much.
8065518
But the real answer is yes. I made the comparison to drugs before, and I'll do it again. Twilight's magic acted like many medications in that it made a specific change to Dash's neurochemistry. This took away an aspect of her freedom of choice. I have a hard time taking anyone seriously who would argue that robbing a person of their freedoms is not harmful.
I seriously disagree with your statement that this is "still the same fake love that is at the heart of this whole tragedy". There is no such thing as fake emotion. Feelings are real, no matter the source. Even drug induced feelings are real and have real consequences, even though they fade as soon as the source is removed. And the feelings in this case would have never faded without actual brain surgery. That's about as real as it gets.
No, she did not. She forced Dash to be happy when she though of Twilight. If Dash did not see Twilight as a potential companion on some level, then her subconscious would have interpreted the feelings she was getting as either friendship or lust.
Yes, and this is because your distaste for them overpowers your bodies reaction. Those reactions are still there. It's actually a fairly nauseating feeling to be physically attracted to someone that you hate.
Please don't try to derail the conversation. There is nothing comparable to pedophilia and drugging someone. Those are two different crimes.
Everything about this statement is incorrect or misleading.
Twilight never thought she was an exception.
She DOES care about Dash's feelings. By her own admission, she could only perform this act because she didn't know Dash DIDN'T want it. That uncertainty was what allowed her to justify this to herself.
Dash said "There's no spark. It would be great if the spark was there". That is VERY different from "I'm not interested".
Again, by her own admission and a continuing theme in the story, it's a VERY selfish love.
Yea, but I don't think she'll get either time or therapy. In the story, Twilight has racked up a ton of criminal activities in her pursuit of Dash. If she gets caught, I think it will be a bit more severe than some "time in pony prison".
Oddly enough, although I greatly dislike your presentation and see holes in your logic, I generally agree with you on almost every point.
8065653
Seriously?
I typed out a whole intro paragraph about the pedophilia thing and it still didn't take? Sigh.
It wasn't the pedophilia that I was comparing this situation to. It's the idea that someone justifying a bad decision on the premise that it's okay this one time only is doing it from a biased point of view. That they are the same as a guy buying a powerball lottery ticket, KNOWING that they have the winning numbers. That's what people are basing a lot of their support on, that it was 'meant to be'. That it's that one in a million. Again, Fluttershy and AJ are used in this story to spout this very same idea and it's bullshit.
Really? In what way does what you say here show that Twilight cared about Dash's feelings? I really don't want to break out the stupidly obvious examples, but "Well, I don't know she doesn't want me to sleep with her when she's passed out drunk" or "I don't know that my buddy doesn't want me to borrow $50 out of his wallet while he isn't looking".
Twilight cared so much for Rainbow Dash's feelings that instead of asking her opinion on the matter, she assumed the most favorable outcome for herself?
Come on. You even highlight the fact that the whole point of that ridiculous reasoning was simply to justify her own actions in her own mind.
As for your other points. Not sure why you refuted my answer about causing harm, I literally said it did. I made a point that the easy answer was no, but it wasn't the correct answer.
As for the fake love bit? Semantics. The 'love' is real as in that's the emotion that Dash felt under the magic influence, but the source of that, what created it was artificial, which is the heart of the problem.
Quote from the first story
You're making an assumption not supported by the text. Twilight herself says that the spell was intended to affect Dash emotionally and then have her brain interpret said new emotions as growing attraction and affection. Lust and friendship could be accounted by one of those perhaps, but both would only make sense romantically. I don't trust much of anything that comes from Twilight in this story, she's deeply disturbed and needs some real help, but when it comes to magic I'm willing to believe what she says.
Except, once again, Dash had no choice in this matter.
Rainbow literally cannot find any interaction with Twilight disgusting. 8 hour study session? Positive feedback. Day trip to Canterlot library? Positive feedback. Listening to Twilight give a two hour lecture on magical studies? Positive feedback.
You're trying to justify a relationship between Twilight and Dash based on the unsupported belief that if there wasn't something between them Dash would somehow be able to resist. Twilight's spell, in her own words, actively prevents that.
It's like when you reference the letter from the first story as some kind of proof of Dash's connection with Twilight. Has no one here ever heard the "It's not you, it's me" speech? That was about as standard a rejection letter one could write when trying to spare another person's feelings.
You say there's holes in my logic but then try to refute my points with assumptions and conjecture that is unsupported by the story. I get trying to play some devil's advocate, but there's just so little in this story to paint Twilight in any kind of good light here. I mean, she was seriously considering killing AJ in the first story.
Maybe you could turn this story into a morally gray tale with some heavy rewrites, but as the story stands now, there's just next to nothing in it to support that argument.
8065843
Please... do everyone a favor, yourself included, and stop with the terrible examples. They are disingenuous and misleading. They don't represent the actions of the characters or even the themes being talked about. They only serve to muddy the waters of the discussion.
Don't be so dead set on being right that you ignore anything that disagrees with you. Rainbow ALSO gets positive feedback. She has her usual set of emotional responses with that addition. If she was unhappy with Twilight, she would have gotten both responses, just like anyone else with an emotional connection. Like eating candy with a toothache. It's still sweet, even if it hurts.
I don't know why you keep latching on to this idea that Twilight thought her actions were okay or justified. I never saw anything implying that she thought she was right to do what she did.
She. Was. Scared. She was scared that she would never have a chance. It's not that she thought it was okay because Rainbow might say yes, it's that she could literally not live with the alternative. So rather than risk being rejected again, she pacified her conscience with that seed of 'maybe' from the rejection letter and gambled that Rainbow would never find out.
I disagree, so I guess we'll leave it at that. If you choose to hand-wave them away so as you don't have to address them, go for it. As for being disingenuous, you literally argued this with a straight face:
Were my examples over the top? I don't disagree, but this reasoning was so ridiculous that there was no other way to address it. If you can't see the parallels, I don't know what else to say.
Says the person that brushes off half of my points with an emoticon, and not just the real life examples, acting like they don't exist.
Again, the above text is pulled straight from the story. You keep stating your baseless assumptions as facts with nothing to back it up. Twilight designed her spell with the sole intent to make Rainbow Dash love her. When a conflict would arise in Rainbow's mind as to why she feels the way she does, the brain would compensate by creating elaborate stories and justifications to resolve the issue in Twilight's favor.
You keep trying to inject some morale grey area into this text where it doesn't really exist. That there has to be a part of Dash that wants to be in a relationship otherwise this couldn't possibly work so that maybe, just maybe, what Twilight did is okay. Except at no point does Twilight ever state that her spell relies on that criteria in order to work. Go back and reread those chapters, it never comes up once. We know from actual episodes that love can be created from nothing in this universe (love poison), so without supporting evidence in this story, there's absolutely nothing to back this conjecture that Dash has to love Twilight on some level or this wouldn't work.
Maybe it was the author's intent to inject some grey morality into this story, but if that was the case they did a poor job of it. Twilight is mentally unstable and clearly only about satisfying her own wants and desires in the first story. Is she a sympathetic character that deserves help, absolutely, but understanding why a character may have did something from their point of view does not then make their actions or its outcome any less abhorrent.
Oh well, I'm getting off here so if you want the last word it's all yours. At this point, I'm just going to wait until this story concludes to see how it ends. Watching Twilight trying to escape and get to Dash was one thing. Watching Fluttershy and AJ enable a clearly unstable Twilight while rationalizing it as the right thing to do? That's a bridge too far for me.
8066185 You really just sort of glossed over that whole quote from what Twilight actually did to create a positive feedback regardless of what Dash thinks.
8067906
8068127
I generally avoid interjecting into any arguments in the comments section (don't want to tell anyone what their reaction to events should be, and saying too much is likely to spoil which way future events are likely to turn), but I just wanted to clear up what might have been a misinterpreted minor point.
This seems to be implying a slightly more active role of the spell than intended. The spell isn't imposing those stories and justifications. That's just something brains do on their own. The spell just provides that emotional feedback and relies on the context of them already being close friends for "romantic attraction" to be the natural and almost inevitable conclusion jumped to. Is it still essentially Pavlovian conditioning? Totally. But it's a soft touch.
Additional Side Note: I might have fumbled the point slightly in the latest chapter, but I didn't mean to make Fluttershy and Applejack appear quite so okay with the situation. Fluttershy's obviously somewhat biased and inclined to be sympathetic towards Twilight, but knows her original act was by no means a good thing. Applejack's still very much not okay with any of this, but unwilling to try to physically fight Dash over the point while she's currently claiming it's what she wants.
That's all.
I second Fluttershy's wishes here, for the most part. Dash still ain't thinking straight, hope Applejack can help her understand that.
8068130
Thanks, I glad to see that my interpretation of the events portrayed in the story were not far at all from what you just said. Reading all the discussion really made let me wondering if my understanding of the English language was becoming dull, especially all that stuff about AJ and Shy "being ok with everything"
For what is worth I'm really enjoying the story, I love how you took Twi who's the very definition of a Hero in pony form and made her walk the path of a villain, its a good use of the "love makes you evil trope" and I'm glad to see a villain Twilight who's not drunk with power.
Can't wait to see how this develops.
I came back to this after a long break of not reading it because the last chapter had been completed and then this chapter wasn't out. I still love this story, and reading this chapter makes me want to reread this and the story before it. And on top of that, I'm not really reading anything right now, so perhaps I'll be able to convince myself to do that!
wow... just wow this story was so damn good.
Overall it was an emotional adventure, the part where twilight had to confess what she had done literally made me cry.
In the end i just wanted to see Rainbow and Twilight happy together again, twilights crimes dropped and everything being okay again. Well, too bad the story is unfinished. Still one of the best TwiDash's ive read, awesome story!
8336227
Ouch. Okay, point taken. Nothing like talking about an incomplete story in the past tense to guilt me into getting back on the writing train.
8337864
ah no, dont wanna force you into it, it just wouldve been nice to have some kind of conclusion.
8338844
No, it's fine. I am actually writing more (in starts and stops whenever I remember to). The next chapter already has a bit over 6200 words written, and i do actually have the ending all planned out. I just need to make myself sit down and finish it without getting distracted.
8339234
i would love to read more of the story
8339234
Oh hey, seems like I'm kinda in time to guilt trip you into finishing it. Read the first part waaaay back when it was first posted, and been putting off reading the sequel before it gets finished.
So, what I'm saying is - despite the years (I didn't actually check, but I think it's been years now), I still remember the first part and still waiting for the second. That means you've done something right.
8361462
you really gotta read the sequel, its awesome
I suggest they do a threesome