The Pony That Never Was

by Scootareader

Chapter 5 - Cottontooth's True Colors

Enigma woke up to an enormous pillow in her face and an extremely distraught-looking Twilight looking fearfully at her.

“Who in the hoof are you and why in the hoof are you in my home!?” Twilight screamed at her. Enigma groaned and rolled over. “Get out of here! How did you even get in here? Spike, help me get this intruder out of here!”

“It's fine, I was just... going.” Enigma spoke these words sadly, resigned to knowing that Twilight wouldn't remember her, or care at this point. She walked out of the tree house without a backwards glance, knowing there would be no pity or hope there. She'd dared to think she stood a chance at being remembered, but there was no recognition to be found here.

Upon exiting the door, Enigma realized it was still the dead of night, and Twilight had woken up to see if she could remember her. So, it looked like sleep cycles were what triggered it. It appeared she wasn't going to sleep tonight. Or maybe tomorrow night would be better. She'd have a chance to start things fresh with Twilight then.

So, the question remained: What was she to do today? As far as she could tell, there was no Cottontooth in her reality, so there was no point in looking for him. There was very little to do, though she was somewhat hungry. She decided to get a tulip and daffodil sandwich from the sandwich shop just down the road.

She'd just settled in and took her first bite of her sandwich when she heard a voice behind her say, “Yyyup.” She twisted around in her seat to see Big Mac nod happily at her; the acknowledgment had been directed toward her.

She immediately bolted out of her chair and tackled him to the ground. “Who am I!?”

In retrospect, probably not a good reaction. He immediately ran off without another word. Was he just being polite? He didn't seem the type to greet someone he didn't know. She would need to give it some time, then ask again. And maybe do some explaining.

This was getting exasperating. Nopony would remember her after today to her knowledge, and her life would just get worse and worse. She needed to find a way to stop this from happening; four days was already starting to get to her. How she acted towards Big Mac was probably not too out of the ordinary, considering the last several days. This was not a good way to live.

She finished her sandwich and began aimlessly wandering the streets of Ponyville for what felt like the tenth time; she had at least a portion of each of her days dedicated to wandering Ponyville for lack of anything better to do now. She began to follow one of the roads out of Ponyville. Slowly, the landscape of roads and buildings became more dotted with trees, until houses became very infrequent and almost stopped altogether.

Upon entering this thickly wooded area, Enigma quickly began hearing somepony flying at high speeds up ahead. She set off through the trees in the direction of the noise, eventually coming to a clearing where a rainbow-colored blur was practicing aerial acrobatics to an ooh'ing and aah'ing audience of Pinkie Pie and a white pony with a very expertly styled purple mane.

Emerging from the trees, she was immediately accosted by Pinkie Pie, who bolted over to her and started once again pelting her with questions: “Hello! What's your name? I'm Pinkie Pie! You must be new to Ponyville because I know everypony in Ponyville, and I mean everypony, but I've never seen you before and--” She then elicited another gasp, bolting off to prepare for Enigma's party.

The white pony gave the rapidly retreating Pinkie Pie a sideways glance before looking at Enigma. “She's like this often. You get used to it.”

Enigma nodded. “I think I'm already used to it.”

The white pony laughed. “Oh, you may think that, dear, but nopony ever really gets used to Pinkie Pie. There's no telling what she'll do.”

“Well, I knew she was going to prepare a surprise party for me the next time she saw me.” Enigma gave Rarity a very serious look. “She's done that the past several times we've met.”

“Oh, well... um... you two have met? I thought she said she didn't know you?”

“Yeah, we've met. She just doesn't remember me. Nopony ever does.”

“Oh, um... well, I shall definitely recall this conversation at a later date! Now, I believe introductions are in order! I am Rarity, and I run Carousel Boutique here in Ponyville. And your name is...?”

“Enigma.”

“Oh, that's, um...” Rarity gave Enigma the most passive look she could muster. “That's a very... interesting name! Considering what we were just discussing...” She immediately looked nervous, as if she may have insulted Enigma. She tossed her head up toward the sky to where the rainbow-colored dash was streaking across the sky. “Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow Dash slowed down, coming to a halt a few feet above the air in front of the other two ponies. “Who's this?” She had a very strange color for her mane; instead of a solid color or two, her mane was an entire rainbow. Her body was cyan-colored, the same shade as Enigma's hair.

Rarity said, “This is Enigma. She says nopony can remember her.”

Rainbow Dash said, “Uh... huh. Well, Enigma... you ever seen the best flier in Equestria? As Enigma confirmed that she hadn't, Rainbow Dash then asked, “Do you wanna?” to which Enigma nodded.

Rainbow Dash bolted up into the sky, Rarity and Enigma tracking her with their eyes, seeing her perform some pretty spectacular tricks, though not the best Enigma had seen. Still, Rainbow Dash had talent, and Enigma acknowledged that, though she wasn't the best flier she'd ever seen.

After several minutes of entertaining acrobatics, Rainbow Dash came back down to reap the attention from her crowd. Rarity said, “Most entertaining! I particularly liked when you made the cloud rings and pulled them all together!”

Rainbow Dash then turned her gaze upon Enigma. “So, what did you think?”

Honesty, right? “I think you have some serious talent. Not the best flier I've seen yet, but they'd been at it their whole life, and if you continue practicing, you'll easily surpass anypony I've seen in skill, and I've seen the Wonderbolts.”

Apparently, that was the right thing to say. Rainbow Dash lapped up the praise, beaming at her when she mentioned the Wonderbolts. “Y'hear that, Rarity? This is a pony that knows skill when she sees it!”

Rarity looked approvingly at Enigma. “Yes, you are quite the flier, aren't you? You're definitely going to make it into the Wonderbolts at this rate!”

“Yeah! Now watch this!” Rainbow Dash took off into the air again, Enigma and Rarity's eyes glued to her as she performed more feats beyond the capabilities of the average pegasus. She gradually slowed down as she became tired, eventually coming back to her onlookers, panting but happy. Definitely the kind of show that Enigma would pay to watch.

They said their goodbyes and went their separate ways as dusk settled in, Enigma going back to her pseudo-home and silently wishing she could stay with ponies who would remember her. She tucked herself in and hoped for a better tomorrow after her dream.

She woke up on Twilight's guest bed. Sometimes these dreams felt so real, it's like she was waking up to a new day. It was already becoming a routine, albeit one that left a bad taste in her mouth. What was there to do, other than bother Cottontooth? She couldn't make any friends, couldn't be seen by anypony other than one that didn't think she should exist... this just wasn't her vision of how she should live out the rest of her days.

She wanted to find a good stallion—or, hoping against hope, mare—that she could settle down with, somepony who could make her happy. Isolation and longing were not kosher with her idea of the future. She had simple wants and needs, she felt; mostly to not be alone anymore, but that wasn't going to happen, especially while she was dreaming.

Was this really a dream? Or was this reality, and was she a dream pony? Sometimes, ponies remembered tiny figments of their dreams; could she keep something in a pony's head? These questions rattled around in her brain. She had no answers. She had no truths. She had only her gut instincts and ponies who would never help her past a day.

While pondering her own reality, Twilight and Spike were beginning the day's work, kicking things off with a very sleepy and irritated Spike having to be constantly badgered for 5 minutes to wake up by an increasingly frustrated Twilight. When he finally rolled out of bed, he and Twilight began dusting the library. Boring work, but better than anything Enigma had planned for this day. When they finished, Twilight left to take care of something, leaving Spike to finish the small errands himself, and set off into town for something, likely writing supplies, seeing how much she wrote. Enigma decided she would follow Twilight for lack of something better to do.

As she exited the library, Twilight was immediately accosted by a loitering Cottontooth. Creepy much? “Oh, hi! Fancy seeing you here, Ms. Sparkle!”

“Please, call me Twilight. Hello, Mr.--”

“Cottontooth... just Cottontooth. Where were you on your way to?”

“Oh, just to pick up some supplies for the library! We do tend to keep pretty busy, you know!”

“Oh, yes, I was going to pick up several more books today!”

“Really? Well, Spike is there and he'd be happy to--”

“Oh, no, I think I'll take care of my other errands first. What supplies did you say you needed?”

Twilight was starting to look a little overwhelmed. “Oh, mostly just quills and parchment. Maybe some laboratory equipment, though that's usually pretty rare here in Ponyville. What do you need?”

Cottontooth seemed like a shark circling a helpless swimmer. “Really? That's so strange! I was going to pick up the same things! Strange, isn't it? That we have such similar interests!”

This was just painful to watch. She had to do something. “Hey, Cottontooth, she can tell you're lying. You're buttering her up way too hard. You should just give up. She's not interested in you, anyway.”

Twilight seemed blissfully ignorant of Cottontooth's obvious plans, nor did she notice the daggers that Cottontooth glared over her shoulder briefly. “That is strange! Would you like to go shopping with me?”

“Would I! Lead the way, Twilight!”

What followed was quite possibly the worst day of Enigma's life. She watched the most amazing mare she'd ever met get seduced by a silver-tongued, arrogant, rude stallion, and she was powerless to help at all, despite seeing it all happen. Events happened, ponies came and went, and constantly, Cottontooth was there, insinuating things that were wrong, that were dead wrong. He shouldn't have been allowed to commit these atrocities in the first place. Twilight was better than this; she deserved a stallion... no, a mare of a better stature than this groveling excuse for a pony. This just plain wasn't fair.

Enigma watched all of this happen with cold, calculating thoughts. She digested every bit of information that Cottontooth gave her, about his methods of fooling Twilight into falling for him, as well as Twilight's likes, dislikes, what she responded to, how to get a positive reaction from her. This all added to the fire that was building inside Enigma. She would destroy this stallion for trying to destroy Twilight's future and happiness, even if it drove her crazy.

It wasn't until late afternoon that Twilight finally finished her day's shopping, guided on several detours by Cottontooth to give him more time to play his game. He invited her to walk around Ponyville with him some more and see some of the sights, but she thankfully declined, earning a happy sigh from Enigma. Both of the mares would be spared any more torture of having to spend time with Cottontooth.

The rest of this rotten day passed uneventfully, at least. Fluttershy came to visit briefly, but was quickly pulled away by a very annoying bunny named Angel that she apparently was taking out to eat. Twilight and Spike had small token conversation, but nothing of importance.

Eventually, finally, Twilight began yawning, quite some time after Spike had disappeared into his bed. She finally curled up under her covers and sighed contentedly. Moments later, her regular breathing indicated to Enigma that she was fast asleep.

On a hunch, Enigma decided to explore outside the library. There, in the dark, just outside the entrance, was Cottontooth. She gasped as she opened her eyes and saw him staring at her. “Cottontooth! Don't you think this has gone far enough?”

He gave Enigma a bewildered look. “You've never heard of love at first sight? This is my dream pony, Enigma. She's like you... except she actually exists. Isn't that the kind of pony you want to meet someday?”

Enigma seemed taken aback at this. “Like... me? You mean, you think I'm like her?”

“Oh, yes, definitely. You're not as good with numbers as her, but you're still really smart in your own way. She's just the pony I hoped for... but she's not as perceptive as you, I think. I... did make it way too obvious today, didn't I?”

Now was the time to cut into him. “Look at you! Groveling over somepony you barely know, stalking her, overbearing her, forcing yourself into her life... what can you possibly hope to accomplish by pushing yourself into somepony's life like their opinion doesn't even matter?”

“The only opinion that doesn't matter is yours, ghost. I don't need to take insults from you, and I know you don't matter. Just give up and leave me in peace. Twilight is everything I dreamed and more, and you'll never be able to convince me that she's not, so save your breath. I have a mare to romance.”

That... hurt. Can ghosts hurt? Of course they can't; she wasn't a ghost. She existed, just as Cottontooth existed, or Twilight, or Rarity, or Big Mac, or anypony. Didn't she?

She decided not to reply to the stinging remarks of Cottontooth, resolved more than ever to ensure he wouldn't have a chance, but still unknowing of how to do it. She entered the library once more, curled up on the guest bed, and slowly, unhappily, fell asleep.

Ugh, about five days late on this! Stupid writer's block. Hope you guys like it so far!
--Scootareader