The Pony That Never Was

by Scootareader

Chapter 8 - A Dark Day, After All

Twilight was over her. Asking if she was all right. Not a bad way to wake up at all. Enigma stood up and apologized for passing out on her doorstep, accepting the offer to come inside and sit down for a while. Twilight never asked her name, so no memory of her... but that was expected.

Once inside, Enigma introduced herself, and Twilight returned the favor. Spike stood off to the side, looking awkward and out of place. Enigma, noticing this, asked, “Is something wrong?”

Spike distractedly told her, “Yeah... no flowers.”

Twilight nodded. “The strangest thing just happened! The library was just full of flowers decorating the shelves, and they all suddenly just disappeared! I had been reading and Spike was deep inside a shelf putting a book away, and then we both looked up and they were all gone! We went to check outside to see if we could see anypony making off with them, and that's when we found you. I tried for a full 5 minutes to wake you up before you finally did!”

Enigma reflected on the past few days. This was the first time that she had cut out midday. She always dreamed the day before living it, so this was the dream day for the day that hadn't happened yet. She'd seen Cottontooth getting flowers before... but Twilight and Spike didn't notice them missing before. The ponies didn't remember what happened the day before until she lived them?

Okay, she thought to herself, let's think about this logically. I completed the dream of Twilight when she was experimenting, and then I lived it, but was interrupted in the middle of it. This is the next day, so what happened the rest of that day never happened until I'd lived it. No flowers until I woke up and knew it had happened.

Concluding this, Enigma realized that she did have an impact on her dream world. The flowers had never existed until she knew they did! Despite this, she couldn't influence the real world, though; it was only in her dream that the flowers disappeared. When she had to live this day, the flowers would be back.

Of course, this was all ignoring the fact that Twilight had a piece of paper that had transcended this barrier. Enigma had seen it with her own eyes; and, if it was in the real world, that means Twilight would remember it in Enigma's dream. Right?

“Um, Twilight? Do you remember a piece of paper that you were working on?”

“As a matter of fact... yes!” Twilight produced a piece of paper. The paper that should only exist in this world. As before, several of the i's and a's were on the paper, as well as the symbols that Enigma had drawn as a guide to solve it.

There was nothing else; however, Enigma did notice a small inconsistency. “Did you make this yourself?”

“Well, yes, I did write it myself. I remember thinking of a puzzle, and I was frustrating myself because I could remember it very well, but I couldn't explain why; so, I wrote it down to solve it.”

That was the inconsistency. When Enigma saw the piece of paper in real life, it had been written by Twilight. This paper in front of them was Enigma's handiwork. Sharp eyes honed from a lifetime of puzzles really did pay off after all. Twilight wouldn't notice them.

So, based on Twilight's remembering a puzzle Enigma gave her, Enigma could affect ponies in reality through the dream world. This was established now. Perhaps her likening this world to dreams wouldn't turn out so ironic after all. Ponies could occasionally remember dreams, right?

She'd spent a lot of time looking thoughtful when she could be spending time talking to Twilight. She decided to remind Twilight of Cottontooth, seeing as it now had a point. “So, how are you feeling now that Cottontooth hasn't been bothering you all day?”

Twilight looked surprised. “How do you know about that?”

“I used to be a very good friend of his. He's changed since, becoming obsessive, overbearing, and just overall a rotten stallion. I know how he acts, and this is no surprise to me. He even told me he was going to marry you.” Enigma inwardly smiled at the look of shock that came across Twilight's face. “He's really not a good stallion to be around. I wish I could have helped him, but he's beyond help now.”

Twilight looked even more shocked. “You would say that about your own friends?”

That was unexpected. “Well, um...”

“How could you abandon a friend who needs you so badly, Enigma? Maybe that's why he's the way he is; you never helped him. How could you do such a thing!”

“But I--”

“I'd appreciate it if you left.” Twilight's horn flared to life as she opened the door with her magic. “Now.”

Enigma sighed and hopped off her chair. She walked unhappily through the door. If only Twilight knew the truth... and if only Enigma hadn't tried embellishing the truth. Tomorrow would be better, with any luck.

Twilight also had a point. It wasn't as if Cottontooth wasn't a bad stallion, as she kept saying; he was just undeserving of Twilight, with how he acted, the things he said... he just shouldn't get her. But then, who should?

She shook the whisper of Me out of her head. Twilight wasn't interested, nor was Enigma ever going to get Twilight to remember her that well after one day. It just wasn't meant to be. Enigma didn't mind never having Twilight; she did, however, mind that Cottontooth thought he might someday have her. He just wasn't worth her time, it was as simple as that.

So, why did Enigma feel bad for saying what he did about Cottontooth? He was rude, obsessive, and... and what? He was rude and obsessive. And he was only rude to her. Maybe with good reason.

No, this couldn't be right. She was sympathizing with him? Pitying him, even? He was just way too creepy for anypony, especially Twilight. He had nothing going for him; this much seemed apparent. Yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being harder on him than he deserved.

Maybe he was deserving of pity. He seemed very lonely, very sad. As if he'd lived his entire life alone, and only now was there a glimmer of hope for him.

Even if that were true, however... Twilight wasn't for him. Enigma could see that, and Twilight could see that. Cottontooth ought to give up now, and spare himself from the embarrassment and hurt that gets caused by being rejected. Enigma could tell what was happening, and she was willing to bet that anypony who wasn't Cottontooth could tell just as obviously. Yet, he wasn't willing to give up. He was committed, and it was creepy.

She'd discuss it with him tomorrow, as soon as it happened. In the meantime, she needed something more to do today—just as she saw Big Macintosh walk by. She decided to re-acquaint herself. “Hello, sir! How are you today?”

Big Mac just glanced at Enigma and said, “Eeeyup.” He said that an awful lot.

“That's not technically an answer to what I asked... but it'll have to do! Would you mind showing me around Ponyville? I'm new in town.”

“Eeeyup.” Big Mac continued his forward march, Enigma falling into line behind him. She belted off a few questions, and he always gave as short of answers as possible, but always with a little bit of room for a follow-up question. If Enigma wasn't certain that this stallion was just trying to be friendly, she would have sworn he enjoyed talking to her.

Big Mac had been running an errand, delivering several buckets of apples to Sugarcube Corner. His task completed, he continued showing Enigma around Ponyville, even going so far as to name off locations she shouldn't have known without her asking first. He seemed to be warming up quickly. It would have been the beginning of a great friendship... if he'd ever remember her.

And then, just as quickly as she thought this, her bittersweet day turned completely dark.

They were just passing by the schoolhouse, seeing the little colts and fillies run home screaming from their boring day at school, when they heard a scream from the direction of the town proper. A huge cart that took up the entire roadway came careening towards a small group of schoolfillies, filled with anvils and pianos and other extremely heavy objects. A unicorn's magic briefly flared around the cart, but did nothing to slow its progress. Big Macintosh perceived all of this in an instant, but the fillies on the road had noticed nothing in their carefree afternoon.

Quick as lightning, Big Mac barreled toward the road, seeming fully intent on stopping the cart and saving the unsuspecting fillies. He made it to a slight slope and seemed to prepare his hind legs to try to kick the cart to a stop.

A momentary lapse in judgment was all that was needed. Positioning himself just where he had on the incline, the cart leapt off the road and fell directly onto his back.

Big Mac grunted as he took several tons of weight all at once, and a sickening crunch was heard. Blood immediately began to pool around him, dripping down from somewhere on his body. Enigma dashed to his side at once, attempting to shoulder some of the burden. Big Mac opened his mouth to tell her something, coughing up some blood first, then managing to gasp out, “Go!”

This couldn't be right. Not here, not now. He'd be able to shove the cart off of him. He'd be fine. Right? She just needed to help him. She just needed to offer some encouragement. “Not until you're out from under it, too!”

Big Mac gasped in pain and nearly buckled, but held firm. “Too late for me. Back's broken. Get!” He pushed her slightly with his head.

Torn between still trying to help Big Mac and getting out from under the cart before it fell... she looked into his eyes. There was happiness there, and kindness, and determination. He wanted her to go on. He cared, he knew she was a good pony. But she couldn't save him. Tears sprung to her eyes as she darted out from under the cart.

A few moments later, it was all over. Big Mac was lying on the ground, unmoving, blood having formed a large red blotch in a bit spot on the road overlooking the schoolhouse. There would be no happiness today. There would be no kindness, or determination. Today, those feelings were dead.

Enigma spent the next few hours in Ponyville hospital. She had already cried her tears today, for the stallion who lost his life to save those innocent fillies. It happened so quickly, it was mind-numbing. One moment, she'd met one of the kindest stallions she would ever know. The next, he had disappeared from her life forever.

She saw the parade of friends and family come to see him from the waiting room. She saw an Applejack, eyes filled with tears, escort a wailing Apple Bloom to confirm that it was their big brother who was lying on that bed. She watched Applejack on her way to leave the hospital, stopping for a moment to thank Enigma for trying to save him before collapsing next to her and sobbing into her shoulder. She saw Twilight walk in, having escorted Applejack here, and take her outside. Apple Bloom followed, her tear-stricken face reflecting Applejack's. A filly who should never have to feel such pain... Apple Bloom felt it on this day.

Several moments later, Twilight came back in. She simply said to Enigma, “... I'm sorry. Thank you for trying to save him,” before choking back her tears and having to flee the hospital.

Enigma continued sitting inside the hospital, the numbness filling her entire body beginning to consume her mind. She belatedly realized that she needed to do something, anything, that wasn't simply her sitting here and waiting for a stallion to come out and surprise her that would never happen. A dark day like this would never be given such an ending. So, she jumped off the bench and left the hospital.

She wandered Ponyville in a daze, rethinking what could have happened differently. Had Big Macintosh stood three feet further ahead, he could have easily stopped the cart and prevented anything. He must not have noticed that he was standing downhill, and the cart took off and landed on him, shattering all of his attempts at heroism and instead turning him into a martyr.

If he had been any further back, however, the cart would have rolled right over him. It would have smashed his back to pieces and continued on its merry way until several innocent fillies had been added to the casualty list. It didn't, however, and he managed to stop the cart dead in its tracks. Heh, ironic. Dead in its tracks.

She shook these dark thoughts and feelings from her. Life still went on. Big Macintosh was gone, but life continued, albeit more somberly than before. With this came the desire to survive. Enigma hadn't eaten anything all day, and, though she wasn't hungry and didn't feel like eating, knew that she had to or she would end up causing even more trouble for herself and her fellow pony. She'd caused enough trouble for enough ponies today.

She went to a soup shop and had a tulip and daisy soup, slowly sipping while she mulled over what exactly this meant to her. Mortality was expected, really; nopony was going to live forever. She wasn't sure how she aged; maybe she aged twice as quickly as anypony else, or maybe she would only age for one day, like everypony else. Maybe she didn't age at all. She did live in a dream world, after all.

That's right, she thought. Dream world. It was possible that Big Macintosh hadn't really died, and he would be alive tomorrow. She'd hold onto that hope. In fact, he would probably be alive.

For lack of a better thing to do, she went home after eating. It was mostly dark out, but she wasn't tired. This had been the longest day of her life, and yet she was more awake now than ever. Despite how she felt, though, she knew she needed to sleep. So, she did.

She opened her eyes. She was on Twilight's guest bed. Where she'd fallen asleep the night before. Before Big Macintosh... saved those fillies.

She slowly rolled off the bed, landing shakily on her hooves. Twilight and Spike were performing their morning chores, and Enigma was invisible. She decided to first see how Big Mac was doing.

A short visit to Sweet Apple Acres allayed all of her fears. He was bucking apples and filling up buckets, just as he should. Buckets that looked strangely familiar. As if she'd seen him with those buckets before.

Of course it would just repeat what had just happened. Not all the events of Ponyville hinged on Enigma. That meant... if she wasn't there to drag Big Macintosh, he wouldn't be there to stop the cart. In return, it would continue speeding toward the fillies in the road.

She knew what she had to do. She had to warn Cottontooth of this. Whether he listened or not, she would at least have tried.

She began a mad dash towards Twilight's home once again, hoping to find Cottontooth on the way. She got lucky and found him several moments later, walking eagerly toward the tree house. She slowed to a trot and began keeping pace with him. “Cottontooth, I know what you're thinking, but this is actually urgent. It will save the lives of several ponies.”

He actually stopped and turned toward her. “All right, go.” Several ponies looked toward him, seeing him address what they perceived as thin air, then gave confused shrugs and continued with their days.

“I was just living this day. Not imaginary, things actually happened. I was walking with Big Macintosh, who works at Sweet Apple Acres. We were walking by the schoolhouse, and a big cart filled with anvils and pianos and Celestia-knows-what-else, but it was really heavy, came down the road, and it was going to hit some fillies just out of school, but Big Macintosh ran into the road and stopped it, but he died in the process. I don't want anypony dying today; we need to make a barrier or something to stop the cart so the fillies aren't harmed and nopony has to sacrifice themselves.”

Cottontooth nodded through her entire explanation, finally looking at her as she fell silent. “And you expect me to believe this? You want to keep me away from Twilight that badly?”

Enigma gave an exasperated sigh. “You can choose whether or not to believe me, but I'm the only pony who knows what's going to happen today, and I'm telling you that you can save some lives. I would if I could, but you know I can't.”

Cottontooth stared long and hard at her before finally nodding. “I'll help.”

They spent the better part of the day creating a barrier that would stop a cart the weight of twenty ponies. Cottontooth was no construction pony, but he knew how to perform hard labor; he created a large stone wall with very thick wooden supports to brace it, and rocks around the supports to stabilize them. It looked very well-done. Ponies kept going around the barrier and complaining about what he was doing, and Derpy Hooves even stopped to ask him what he was doing making a wall before knocking several rocks out of place and apologizing, then gliding off and smiling innocently.

Cottontooth finished the rock wall ahead of schedule, and ran to a nearby shop to buy himself a small drink. Enigma was waiting patiently for him at the rock wall. “Well, you'd better be right, or I just wasted a whole day that I could have spent with Twilight.”

“Even if I'm wrong, you still did a great thing today.” Enigma smiled at him. “Just remember that.”

They sat together in silence for a few minutes before the school bell rang and little colts and fillies once again began departing in droves. Enigma nodded; this looked exactly the same. Cottontooth began saying, “Are you sure--” before being interrupted by a scream a short ways up the road. The unsuspecting fillies were once again walking up the road, oblivious to the cart careening towards them.

The cart did not make it to its target today. Instead, it solidly impacted the stone wall, causing the entire thing to shudder and cracks to form along several of the rocks. The wooden supports bent slightly, but held firm, and the rock foundation holding the supports didn't budge an inch. Cottontooth had succeeded.

Several minutes later, ponies had gathered all around to cheer for the pony who had built the wall that stopped the runaway cart. Derpy Hooves wildly celebrated before she accidentally hit the rock wall and half of it came tumbling down, and she immediately backed away and made her celebrating a little more reserved. Ponies marveled at this simple red-brown stallion and his dark yellow mane, how he built a wall in the middle of the road that saved several fillies. One of the fillies, the little orange pony with a purple mane named Scootaloo, remarked that it was “almost as cool as Rainbow Dash, the way he saved us and all.”

Cottontooth, for his part, wasn't a pony for fame. He constantly scuffed the dirt with his hoof, avoiding eye contact, thanking ponies for all their compliments and saying it was really nothing. He did get a big, dumb grin on his face when Twilight hugged him and thanked him for saving the fillies, but that was to be expected. When asked how he knew to build the wall at the exact right spot, he said, “I just had this feeling. It's like my guardian mare was watching over me today.”

An hour later, Mayor Mare had personally shaken his hoof and declared him the hero of the town, the crowd had finally dissipated, and Cottontooth was left sitting next to a half-collapsed wall and a pony that only he knew existed, but that he had more to thank for than he'd imagined he ever would.

“So, um, thanks for the warning.” Cottontooth looked down at the ground awkwardly.

“Not a problem.” Enigma smiled at him again. “You're the pony who acted on it. Building a wall in the middle of the road seems weird, I know, but” --she took a deep breath-- “what you did today was a decidedly good act. You had only me, a pony you don't even think exists, tell you to do something crazy, and you did it. That deserves a little recognition, I think.”

Cottontooth blushed and thanked Enigma for the compliment. He then stood up and declared, “You know, even though all this happened, I'm still going to go see Twilight today.”

Enigma nodded sadly. “I know. You won't give her up. You're being a foal, but you won't listen to me unless it makes you famous. Go and continue your stupid crusade for the heart of a mare who will never love you.”

Cottontooth once again began to pointedly ignore her. Too harsh? No, not for this stallion. He trotted off toward Twilight's home. Enigma got to her hooves and followed him.

After Cottontooth knocked on the door, Spike opened it to admit him. Twilight exclaimed over Cottontooth's visit, very enthusiastic about what had happened and beaming at him for rescuing those fillies. The fillies that Big Macintosh should have rescued, but that Enigma had to settle for Cottontooth saving. She wasn't in the business of letting fillies get run over.

Twilight then apologized to Cottontooth for being so taciturn towards him prior to now, citing that she felt he was stalking her and really ought to not act that way, but he was a really great stallion and she hadn't realized that until just now. Cottontooth tried to explain that it really wasn't a big deal, that it was his guardian mare, not him, who saved those fillies. Twilight just ignored the remark and hugged him again. Enigma made a disgusted face and went upstairs.

About an hour and a half later, Twilight and Spike came up to the loft. Spike proudly declared, “See? Told ya he was a great stallion! And you had the nerve to disagree with me!” to which Twilight giggled and admitted he had been right. She was giddy. As if being around this foalish, rude stallion was actually a positive experience.

Then again, maybe it was. When it mattered most, Cottontooth had listened to her. He knew it was serious, and he acted on it, no matter how bizarre it seemed to him. When ponies needed him most, he was there to help.

All right, Enigma admitted to herself. I may have been just a little wrong about him. He's not all bad.

First chapter from my new home! By the way, I'm mostly just coming up with this stuff on the spot. I don't plan ahead much.
Should be posting a blog in the coming week or so asking about ideas for my next story. You guys get to vote for what I write next! So many ideas, so little time to write.
--Scootareader

Comments

[Hilltopper2]

1849837

DARKER than Background Pony?

Impossible.

Also impossible, being more Purple Prosed.

[Scootareader]

1977684

#1. It doesn't have a "Dark" tag on it; therefore, it wasn't intended to be dark in the first place.
#2. Based on what I read in the comments, it was just incredibly sad. (Oh, look, a "Sad" tag!) I haven't had much time to read lately, as I've been taken up with writing what I've got as well as other duties in my free time, or I would love to read it and give an accurate critique, but my rookie assessment is that Background Pony is as its tags say, and The Pony That Never Was is as its tags say. This was never intended to be a competitive fanfic, anyway; reading the first couple chapters makes that evident, I'd assume.