• Published 16th Dec 2012
  • 4,146 Views, 118 Comments

Thirty-Minute Pony Stories - Silvernis



Stuff I wrote for Thirty-Minute Pony Stories.

  • ...
1
 118
 4,146

PreviousChapters Next
283: Where I Belong

283: WHERE I BELONG


Rainbow Dash told herself she was just seeing if the new Daring Do novel had arrived. She was just dropping by the library to check before she flew home. She wasn’t looking for anything else. She wasn’t upset to see a pony she barely recognized sitting behind the circulation desk.

It was a lie, of course, but then, she wasn’t Honesty. She was Loyalty. She stuck by her friends no matter what—unlike some ponies who just up and left to be frilly princesses.

Rainbow cringed, hating herself for even thinking that. She knew she wasn’t being fair. Twi hadn’t asked for her destiny to show up with wings and a tiara. Twi hadn’t asked to be a princess, or to be whisked off to Canterlot.

It still hurt, though. It hurt a lot.

Rainbow slammed the book she’d been looking at back onto the shelf. The new pony at the desk frowned at her, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care about that pony. She didn’t care about the book. She didn’t care that the library felt cold and empty. She didn’t care about the squirmy ache down in her chest. She was better than that. She was tougher than that.

That was a lie, too, but if she tried really hard, sometimes she could almost believe it.

She sighed and started towards the door, stomping her hooves a little louder than was necessary. “When will it be in?” she asked over her shoulder.

“In three months,” said the new pony frostily. “Like I told you yesterday, and the day before that, and the day—”

“Fine, fine, three months, got it. Just checkin’.” Rainbow scowled as she pushed open the door, grumbling, “No need to get your tail in . . . a knot . . . Twilight?”

“Hi, Rainbow,” said the purple pony on the other side of the door. She was pale and haggard, but still smiling in that adorkable way that only Twilight could.

Rainbow stared, not daring to believe her eyes. “But . . . what are you doing here, Twi? I thought you were in Canterlot.”

“I was,” said Twilight, her smile shrinking a little. “I . . . I decided to come home.”

“Isn’t Canterlot your home now?” asked Rainbow. It sounded more accusatory than she’d expected.

Twilight flinched. “No. Ponyville is my home. It just took me a little while to remember that.”

“So you mean . . . ?”

“This is my home, Rainbow. I’m staying.”

“But you’re a princess now, Twi—”

“Not anymore,” said Twilight, fidgeting.

“Huh? Whaddya mean? Did you quit?” Rainbow couldn’t keep the hope out of her vocie.

“Something like that,” said Twilight. She turned slowly from side to side, and Rainbow gasped: instead of wings, Twilight’s back bore two thick, jagged scars.

“What happened?” cried Rainbow, unable to tear her eyes away from the ghastly sight.

Twilight was trembling, but she still smiled. “I remembered who I am.”

“But Twi, you—I thought it was your big destiny to be a princess!”

“That’s not the pony I want to be! I . . . ” Twilight lowered her head; when she raised it again, there were tears running down her face. “I felt so alone, Rainbow! I don’t want to be a princess. I don’t want to be an alicorn. I just want to be Twilight Sparkle. I just want to be here in Ponyville with my friends.” She raised a tentative hoof and murmured, “With you.”

Rainbow tried to speak, to say something, but she couldn’t. She settled for flinging herself at Twilight and hugging her fiercely. The now-wingless unicorn hugged her back, crying into her mane.

“I missed you so much, Twi,” Rainbow eventually managed to whisper. “Well, we all did.”

“I missed you, too,” Twilight whispered back. “All of you.” She squeezed tighter. “Especially you. I . . . You mean a lot to me, Dashie.”

Rainbow’s heart very nearly burst with joy, but the terrible scars on Twilight’s back reminded her of what the erstwhile alicorn had given up.

“Did you . . . did you take them off yourself?” she forced herself to ask.

Twilight shuddered and nodded. “I had to. They weren’t mine, and I didn’t want them.”

Rainbow’s wings curled in sympathy. “What did the Princess say? And what about Luna and Cadance?”

“They were pretty upset,” admitted Twilight, “but they’re going to respect my decision. Plus, Celestia said I’d taught her something important about friendship, and about loyalty.”

Rainbow chuckled and leaned her head against Twilight’s. “I’m glad you’re back, Twi.”

“Me, too, Dashie. This is where I belong.”

“And Twi?”

“Yes?”

“ . . . You mean a lot to me, too.”

Author's Note:

In hindsight, Twi seems more troubled here than I'd planned. I ran out of time on this one, but I was originally planning to add a little more dialogue regarding her drastic and admittedly self-destructive choice to remove her new wings, and the princesses' and RD's reactions. As I imagined it, Celestia and the others didn't know about it until after the fact, nor do they approve of it, but what's done is done. I was going to have RD crack a well-intentioned joke about how the wings were cool and that nopony would've minded if she'd kept them, but then I thought that seemed horribly insensitive given the circumstances.

PreviousChapters Next