Our Day in Disdain

by Rainb0wDashie

Rating: everyone
Tags: Main 6, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Horror, Tragedy, Slice of Life
Length: 29467

Rainbow Dash is forced to confront the ghosts of her past and the life she left behind. Lest the one she built for herself crumbles in her hooves.

“All plant seeds kind of look similar. They share many traits. You put them in the soil, water them, and provide sunlight. They grow, but they don’t always grow up to be the same. It could be just as well that when the seeds have sprouted, grown up to be six feet high, is when you realize that they’re completely different and share not even a single trait.” - Lesson from Celestia | Part 5

As Rainbow Dash prepared to return home from the Wonderbolts on winter leave, she expects to attend the gala and spend the rest of the winter season relaxing with her friends. Instead she receives an urgent telegram summoning her to Ponyville where she is greeted by an angry mob and a shadow of her past.

When it starts to threaten her friendships, Rainbow Dash realizes just how dangerous the situation is, and is forced to confront the ghosts of her past and the life she left behind. Lest the one she built for herself crumbles in her hooves.

We all have days we feel we can’t survive. Sometimes our dreams are crushed. Sometimes our friendships fall apart. Sometimes the ones we love betray us. Sometimes sickness overtakes us and we may even lose the ponies we love.

One thing that is guaranteed is that we all have our day in disdain.

------

Quotes about the story:

"By the end of the first part, Cheerilee's blind in one eye, Dashie's had her nose broken among other wounds, and Twilight is paralyzed from the neck (or shoulders?) down. <.< And the plot just barrels ever onward" - Present Perfect

Published 2019-11-03 21:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2022-05-24 07:52:57 UTC

Chapter One: A Groan of Tedium

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter Two: A Poorly-fitted Mask

The ember-red leaves of autumn burnt slowly as Ponyville made it’s preparations for the coming winter. Apples swollen from the summer’s intermittent rains were chosen for Sweet Apple Acres’ cider season while the rest were left to dangle on the branches for a few more weeks before the final harvest.

The deadwood was cut away to stock the town’s hearths and the sheep were sheared so their wool could fasten the cloaks, scarves, and boots the citizens would wrap around themselves just like the season of fall had wrapped itself around their little town.

Most importantly of all, the townsfolk were preparing themselves for their yearly trip to The Grand Galloping Gala; the annual royal ball held in Canterlot on the eve of the autumnal equinox.

Buying perfumes and colognes imported from out of town, buying the best jewellery they could afford, and, most, if not all of the town would be buying their night’s attire entirely from the town’s dress maker, who was currently hoof deep into her latest project.

“The Grand Galloping Gala is less than a month away! Visit Rarity at Carousel Boutique for all of your Gala fashion needs!”

That was the first thing Sweetie Belle saw as she entered the town; wild postings with that statement all throughout Ponyville. They all wore that same phrase at the top in a fancy horn-caligraphy and were posted everywhere from Sugarcube Corner to the hoardings around the construction sites of soon-to-be houses. A pony couldn’t go a block without seeing one of Rarity’s signs at least a hundred times. and this was her plan.

The Grand Galloping Gala is the greatest social event in Equestria. More importantly, the gala is the greatest source of revenue for Rarity's boutique; and Sweetie Belle knew this. Since most of her sister’s usual orders came from out-of-town ritzy areas that Sweetie Belle had never been to, Rarity had to do a great deal of local advertising.

She’d be up for days, quill gripped in her magic, writing the headline on page after page “a personal touch just like the dresses themselves” she would say to sweetie belle who was often drafted into helping. Each poster was hoof crafted, just like each one of her dresses, and the only similarity between them, besides them paper they were printed on, was the ink stamped silhouette of carousel boutique on the center of each page.

It was a tiresome labor.But just like the first appearance of autumn's leaves told the citizens of Ponyville that summer was ending, Rarity's signs reminded them that the gala was close around the corner.

Sweetie belle made a face at the sign, remembering her sister talking about how hard she had tro work during the fall season, taking on fifteen to twenty orders a week, sometimes even ignoring her own health, just so Rarity could close the boutique for the winter and spend the season with her.

Sweetie Belle readjusted her saddlebag as she crossed the bridge into Ponyville Proper. One of the pouches hung heavy from the added weight of Rarity's coin-purse, knocking into her abdomen with every step she took. She had to adjust it several times already, unable to find a comfortable way to wear it. Either she'd tie the straps too tight, or it would lean too far to one side or the other. She attempted to change her gait to compensate, but she eventually just let the bag swing off of her right side.

"I deserve this," Sweetie belle sighed as the straps dug into her back. "Rarity's working herself to exhaustion just to spend time with me and I can't even do a simple favor for her without complaining."

She entered the town square feeling ashamed. Thinking about how disheveled Rarity looked back at the boutique. The guilt hung just as heavy as the bag on her back, and she decided to use at least some of the money her sister had given her to buy a gift in appreciation for all of her hard work, but mostly to serve as an apology for her previous defiance.

The small filly trotted absentmindedly through the square with thoughts of gift ideas churning around excitedly in her head.

“Maybe I could get her a new jewelry box,” She said to herself as she looked inside the antique store’s window, pressing her muzzle against the glass. “Or a fancy antique lamp or a music box. There are plenty of things I can buy in here for less than twenty bits!”

She was about to enter into the store to get a first-hoof look instead of one from behind a foggy window, but was stopped as she reached for the door by the sound of harsh laughter and the pounding of hooves from the alley just ahead of the shop. As she trotted closer to investigate, the hoofsteps ceased and were replaced by the sounds of bottle glass scraping across the pavement. Rounding the corner, Sweetie Belle looked into the alley and saw several adult-sized ponies standing around something in the middle of the alley.

Each pony had their faces and cutie marks covered. Some reminded Sweetie Belle of the guillotine henchmen she’d read about in the fairytale books she had back at home; but the ponies in those books were stong, hooded in black, and served a king. The ponies in front of Sweetie Belle had crudely made hoods like scarecrows. Some wore ski masks and others had burlap sacks over their heads, like they were in a hurry to find anything they could to cover their faces. There were five, maybe six of them, but they moved in and out of the shadows so frequently that Sweetie Belle couldn’t get a good idea.

“It’s in my eye!” A mare in a white, hooded robe stumbled away from the group. “There’s glass in my eye!”

The mare was clutching her hooves to her left eye, and Sweetie Belle could see a stream of blood flowing between them, steadily flowing through what little of the pony’s cerise body hair that was showing through her disguise.

Another pony stepped out of the shadows to tend to the wounded mare and revealed the object of the groups attention: a young mare, about Rarity’s age and size, with no Cutie Mark and a cerulean coat. Or light blue. Maybe grey. Sweetie Belle couldn’t tell since the mare was covered in the dirt and grime of the alley floor.

One of the ponies was holding her down while another kicked the broken bottle out of her hoof. The rest spoke harsh, frightened words at her. Some threw stones and cursed at her. Some of them even spat on her.

“You shouldn’t have come back, Dashie.” a pony said, throwing a rock that caught the mare just below her ribcage.

“She told you to never come back,” Another said. “You should’ve listened to her.”

Sweetie Belle couldn’t understand what she was seeing. Something about the whole scene didn’t completely register with her. She knew what was being done to this mare wasn’t right and she wanted to say or do something to make it stop; but something about what the group was saying dumbfounded her. Who is Dashie? Is it the mare on the ground? Isn’t Dashie Rainbow Dash’s nickname? Is that Rainbow Dash on the ground then? Why would they hurt Rainbow Dash? Did Rainbow Dash do something wrong? It can’t be Rainbow Dash, she hasn’t been in town for weeks. Then who is that mare on the ground?

Her brain was running on loop like a short-circuiting wire, so she could only remain frozen in place. Unable to move. Unable to speak.

“...She blinded me!” The wounded mare shouted as she pushed past the group and swung a vicious kick at Dashie’s head. Dashie tried to move out of the way after struggling to free herself from the group, but she was too slow. The mare’s kick caught her in the side of the head and sent her sprawling across the ground.

“Look at what you did to me, you blinded me!” The mare howled above Dashie. Another kick caught her in the stomach and rolled her over onto her back. “I said look at me!”

A few drops of blood fell onto Dashie’s face, causing her to move her head to the side. The mare pulled her hoof back again, and Dashie tried to put her hooves up to protect herself, but the mare’s kick caught her in the face again. The mare kicked at Dashie again and again and again, hitting her in the face, stomach, and ribs. She vomited weakly onto the cobblestones in between the kicks and eventually laid unresponsive to the mare’s violence; practically unconscious except for the occasional groan.

The rest of the group stood motionless, stunned by the mare’s display. They exchanged surprised and worried glances and weren’t sure weather to join in or intervene. All they wanted to do was scare Dashie and make her leave town. They never intended for her to get hurt. As they looked at her, brutalized, unconscious, and in a pool of her own vomit, they stood frozen themselves, similar to Sweetie Belle; who was still standing unnoticed in the mouth of the alley.

Suddenly, Sweetie Belle heard a noise and craned her neck. It was the bell chime to the Antique Store.

She took a step back and could see the store owner maneuvering through the rows of antiques and disappearing somewhere in the back of the store and In an instant she remembered something Cheerilee had taught her at school: “If you’re ever being bullied, find an adult you trust. They can help.”

The filly felt her hooves move on their own. She didn’t want to leave, she wanted to stay and try to help the mare, but she soon found herself inside the antique store, looking for the owner…

“Be with you in just a moment!” Came a cheerful voice from the back of the shop.

Sweetie Belle looked around, trying to find the source of the voice but her eyes only fell upon antiques and furniture covered in a fine layer of dust, shelves lined with old vases, baubles, and dozens of tiny knick-knacks made of old metal and faded leather. None of them could help Sweetie Belle though. She was practically dancing with distress.

“So what can I help you with?” a grandfatherly-grey stallion emerged from around a shelf. He was elderly and stooped over a cane, but he smiled warmly at Sweetie Belle through his wrinkles “looking for a gift for your grandmare?”

Sweetie Belle looked up, her eyes frantic. “Help Mister, something's going on in the alley. I think somepony is getting hurt!”

The old stallion looked puzzled, as if he couldn’t decide whether the tiny filly in his shop was telling the truth or playing some kind of prank on him. He studied her face, and after seeing the fear painted across her face he felt the skepticism slowly spill out of him.

“Well we can’t have that,” the old stallion said heading for the door “now can we?”

Sweetie Belle didn’t follow the stallion as he exited the shop and disappeared around the corner. Instead she stood in place, her small body shaking from adrenaline. She took a moment to calm down; as she did she let her attention wander around the shop. It seemed different now that she wasn’t frantic: The side by side, ancient-looking furniture and old-fashioned china. The ruffled pink glasses and souvenir spoons. The smell of varnished wood and old memories…

This shop was a safe place, a refuge of sorts for Sweetie Belle. So much so that she had almost forgotten about the ordeal she had just witnessed outside in the alley if it wasn't for another round of shouting she could hear from outside.

“Yeah that’s right, run!” the old stallion yelled as the ponies galloped down the alley and disappeared around a corner. "And I don't ever want to see you lot in my store. I'll remember your faces!"

Dashie remained on the ground, even after the hoofbeats of the fleeing ponies faded into silence. She just laid motionless, clutching her stomach with her hooves and groaning softly. The stallion knelt down to try and help her up just as Sweetie Belle came outside.

After a while, Dashie rolled over and stood on her hooves, taking a few shaky steps to test her balance as Sweetie Belle came slowly into the alley.

“Are you hurt?” The shop owner asked, reaching out to Dashie. “Do you want me to take you to the hospital?”

Dashie jerked away, almost falling.

“No!” Dashie meant to shout but it came out as a soft croak. ”Don’t touch me.”

Sweetie Belle couldn’t tell if Dashie was angry or afraid. Her voice was shaking and she had to lean on the wall for support after staggering a few steps away.

“I’ve got somewhere I need to be” Her voice cracks as she reached the corner. She tried to hurry away as fast as she could, but the edges of her vision were growing darker with each step. She tried to continue forward but fell to her knees and blacked out in another alley.

***

Scootaloo and Applebloom shared a table at Sugarcube Corner, picking idly at a plate of cupcakes as they waited for their friend to join them. The cafe was filled with the low murmur of conversation, punctuated occasionally by laughter of the clink of a plate, yet the fillies themselves did not partake in any conversation.

Scootaloo was sitting quietly across from Applebloom, looking out the window and watching the stream of ponies pass by on their ways though the market, but the short fuse of her patience soon burnt out and she began pointing out different fillies in the marketplace.

“Hey, Is that Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo asked with a mouth half-full of cupcake.

“For tha third time no,” Applebloom replied annoyed. “That’s Tootsie Flute.”

“What about that one?”

“That one ain’t even a unicorn.”

Scootaloo put her hoof down, and for a moment the two fillies sat in silence again as they looked out the window. Eventually, Applebloom pushed her chair back and came to her hooves.

“A’h think we should meet her at school tomorra’, she’s already an hour late.” Applebloom began to trot away from the table when Scootaloo noticed something in the marketplace and pointed out the window again.

“No wait, she’s over there!”

Applebloom looked through the window and saw a filly standing next to a collections box.

“That’s just one of them Foal Scouts.” She said dismissively.

“No, not by the vegetable stands,” Scootaloo said pressing her hoof to the window “over there. The one with the green saddlebag going past the bridle shop.”

When Applebloom spotted the pony Scootaloo was pointing at, they both rushed out of the cafe and into the crowd.

The fillies ran after their friend, their tiny hooves clopping against the rough cobbled streets and splashing through puddles. They almost slammed into Sweetie Belle at a dead gallop if it wasn’t for a wagon pulled by a grey stallion that had come between them and interrupted their run.

Sweetie Belle was on her way back from the gem store, heading to Carousel Boutique. Her head was trained to the ground, the events from earlier banging around inside of her mind like an angry hornet. Everything else was a blur to her as she replayed the events over and over again, and she didn’t even notice that her friends were now right beside her, prying for her attention.

“Huh?” Sweetie Belle said looking up from the ground. “Oh, hey guys...”

“What’samatter, Sweetie Belle” Applebloom asked, noticing the unease on her friend’s face as if it were a poorly-fitted mask.

“Yeah, what’s wrong? You completely trotted past Sugarcube Corner.” Scootaloo added. “And you're an hour late.”

“Really? I’m sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose... “ Sweetie Belle said dolefully. “I’m just, a little confused about something.”

“About what?” Scootaloo asked.

“It’s nothing just… just forget it.” Sweetie Belle said evasively. “Let’s just go to Sugarcube Corner.”

The three friends headed towards the cafe, Scootaloo and Applebloom taking up the front and Sweetie Belle pulling up the rear; looking past them with a thousand-yard stare that went unnoticed as they returned to their table. Applebloom and Scootaloo ordered another round of cupcakes for the table and made friendly conversation with each other about things that preoccupy the minds of school-fillies, but Sweetie Belle was far away from them; staring off into space in the direction of two mares at the next table over.

“You know you shouldn’t boil your vegetables?” One of the mares said to her friend. “I was talking to somepony in the market who said that boiling them destroys all the nutrients; she said you should roast your vegetables instead.”

“I’m not roasting my vegetables.” the other mare said hotly. “I’d rather eat two-day old oast than roasted vegetables.”

“But boiling them leaches all the nutrients into the water that you pour down the drain.” The first mare said back. “Roasting is obviously better, there’s so much more flavor and it doesn’t turn them to mush.”

The second mare wasn’t hearing any of it, and sweetie belle wasn’t hearing it either. She didn’t hear much of anything at the moment, in fact, but she didn’t notice that either. She didn’t even notice that she had been staring for quite some time at these two mares.

Her mind was blank. The gears in her head were stuck.

Just as the two mares Sweetie Belle had been dissociatively watching entered into a rather spirited debate about the proper way to prepare their vegetables, Mrs. Cake had stepped in between the two tables to drop off the fillies’ food order, and Sweetie Belle turned her head just in time to see Scootaloo take too big of a bite of a raspberry cupcake and recoil as a stream of red goo shot into her face.

“Aww man, it got in my eye!” Scootaloo exclaimed as her hoof shot up to her eye.

Sweetie Belle, seeing the of warm warm pasty filling stream down Scootaloo’s hoof, began to softly hyperventilate. Her tiny chest was tight, and her rapid breathing went unnoticed by Scootaloo until Applebloomn pointed it out to her.

“Whoa…” Scootaloo didn’t what to say. “What’s happening?”

“Yeah, what’s tha matter Sweetie Belle?” Applebloom said, leaning in.

Sweetie Belle took a shaky breath and described what she had witnessed earlier in the alley. The ponies in their make-shift disguises, the young mare on the alley floor being brutalized by an older, half-blind mare. Things that mothers try to shelter their foals from and things that Sweetie Belle was too young to even understand.

“And they kept calling her Dashie.” Sweetie Belle said, her voice quivering softly.” Have you girls ever heard of a mare called Dashie?”

“Don’t ya’ mean Rainbow Dash?” Applebloom cocked her head.

“It couldn’t have been Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo corrected. “She’s been in cloudsdale ever since she got accepted into The Wonderbolts last week.”

“Are ya’ sure it wasn’t Rainbow Dash?” Applebloom frowned “What did this mare even look like?”

“Well she was c-covered in dirt so I couldn’t tell if her coat was blue or grey,“ Sweetie Belle said “But she had colorful hair like Rainbow Dash... But I’m pretty sure it wasn’t her.”

“Colorful hair? Blue coat? It’s gotta be Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said. “She’s the only pony in Ponyville with that kind of look. I wouldn’t be surprised if she trademarked it!”

Sweetie Belle shook her head. “It wasn’t Rainbow Dash. This mare didn’t have a Cutie Mark.”

"Are ya' sure you just didn’t see one?" Applebloom asked. "You did say she was on the ground.”

Sweetie Belle shook her head again. " I'm sure, I even stood next to her and saw. Her flank was as blank as a piece of paper."

"I've never heard of an adult pony not having a Cutie Mark." Scootaloo looked worried for a moment."You don't think that could happen to us, do you?"

Applebloom gave scootaloo a friendly smack with her hoof and pointed to their flanks.

"Oh yeah, we already got ours.” scootaloo said rubbing the back of her head. “Sorry, force of habit.”

"Now that I think of it, " Sweetie Belle said. "why would Rainbow Dash be attacked anyway? Everypony in town loves her, or at least nopony hates her enough to want to hurt her..."

“Well maybe we could ask an adult about this Dashie pony.” Applebloom looked thoughtful “Somepony like Applejack.”

“Or Rarity.” Scootaloo interjected.

“Well I do have to bring these gems back to Rarity.” Sweetie Belle motioned to her saddlebag. “Maybe she’ll know more about this...”

Sweetie Belle was about to get up, but was stopped when Scootaloo reminded them about the bill. Sweetie Belle remarked about how Rarioty had actually given her enough money to treat them to lunch but after checking her saddlebag che swiftly put her knead in her hooves.

“Actually can you girls spot me?” Sweetie Belle said through her hooves. “I accidentally spent all my money.”

***

It was late in the afternoon by the time Sweetie Belle had returned to Carousel Boutique. Pale and uneasy, she came up the stairs and into the dress room, her green saddlebag still on her back.

Rarity had already finished Pinkie Pie’s dress long before Sweetie Belle had returned and just needed the emeralds, so the two of them were waiting in the common room; making small-talk as they waited for the filly to return with the gemstones.

“Working the boutique in the winter is no great chore, since there aren’t many customers,” Rarity said as Sweetie Belle entered the room. “Most of the time I’ve spent just trying to find ways to amuse myself before I decided to just close the business entirely for the season and spend time with Sweetie Belle... I think this year I’ll take her to the Crystal Empire, she's been asking to go for quite some time now and the empire is just beautiful in the winter-"

Rarity looked over when she heard the door close behind Sweetie Belle. “Speaking of, I think our gemstones arrived!” She said with a flourish as she turned to greet her Sweetie, but her expression became anxious as she too noticed the cloud of uneasiness hanging over her sister’s head.

“Merciful Celestia, What happened to you?” Rarity asked Sweetie Belle, her expression grave. “You’re as pale as a newborn foal!”

“Do you know who Dashie is?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Silence filled the room like a cold sweat. Upon hearing that name, Pinkie Pie’s shoulders sagged and she raised a hoof to her head, averting her eyes as if pretending she wasn’t there. Rarity, on the other hoof, stared aghast at her sister and made wordless, startled sounds. Their reactions almost like a nervous twitch.

“Where did you hear that name?” Rarity asked softly.

“Why?” Sweetie Belle asked confused. “Who is she?”

“Where did you hear that name?!” Rarity repeated herself, almost yelling.

“I-I saw a mare being attacked in an alley earlier. “ Sweetie Belle dropped her ears and took a step back.. “They k-kept calling her Dashie...”

Rarity’s head was bowed slightly, as if a great weight had just settled onto her. “I want you to forget you heard that name, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said, a numb anger in her voice. “Forget what you saw in the alley...”

“But why?” Sweetie Belle pleaded, confused by the sudden shift in her sister’s emotions “Who is this mare? Why was she being attacked-”

“Please Sweetie Belle, listen to your sister and just forget about it.”

“-and why did they keep calling her Dashie?”

“Listen to your sis-”

“Isn’t ‘Dashie’ Rainbow Dash’s nick-?”

Rarity’s anger exploded. “Don’t you ever call Rainbow Dash that, don’t even ask her about it! Just listen to your big sister and forget you ever heard that name.”

Sweetie Belle’s breath stopped when saw her sister’s face. The dressmaker’s countenance was like a shattered mask. Underneath, Rarity’s expression was haunted, her eyes half in this world and half in another; remembering something that may or may not have happened.

“Why are you yelling at me? I didn’t do anything wrong” Sweetie Belle asked, close to tears. “I just wanted to know why ponies would attack another mare like that.”

The room became ultimately silent again. For a long moment, only the sounds of the pre-autumn breeze rapping against the room’s windows kept the silence at bay. Soon, Rarity sighed out a long breath.

“I’m sorry Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said as she put her mask back on and regained her composure. “You’re right, you’ve done nothing wrong. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“But why were you so angry?“ Sweetie Belle asked. “Why did you start yelling at me once I asked about Rainbow Dash?”

Rarity thought about how to answer her sister as best as she could.

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand, Sweetie Belle. You’re just a child.” Rarity sighed again. “A filly like you shouldn’t ever have to worry about something like this; you should be worrying about playing with your friends, or completing your homework on time... Not something this painful.”

Sweetie Belle was silent, and looked at her sister with an expression of quiet perplexity.

“Dashie’s a bad mare.” Rarity said “A bad mare who has done awful things to hurt your big sister and all her friends. The last thing I ever want is for her to hurt you as well.”

Author's Note

Musical Inspiration:

The Bones of Baby Dolls - Acid Bath

____________
There used to be an interlude between chapter 1 and 2 that was removed because it'sd weird having an interlude after the first chapter, but below is what happens between chapter 1 and chapter 2. I didn't want to scrap it entirely because it's a nice section

Outside Carousel Boutique the weather was warm and dry, and Sweetie Belle could smell the approaching autumn on the breeze that was softly whispering through the trees. The wind had come straight in from the sea, and had brought with it various aromas from all corners of Equestria:

Sweetie Belle could smell the Apple family’s farm, Sweet Apple Acres, where pomace from the cider presses sent a fragrance of seasoned spice wafting into the wind. Behind that, she could smell the perfume of goldenrods from the pastures and fields outside Ponyville. She could smell the paint from the shaky pasture fences, the sun-warmed hides of the grazing animals, the coolness from the stone roads that lead into Canterlot, and - if she focused hard enough- she could even smell some of the fouler odors coming from the more industrialized cities like Manehattan and Baltimare; the urine, the sweat, the coal smoke, and tar; And, just for the briefest of fleeting moments, she could even pick up the faintest hints of Appleloosan sand.

Every touch of wind against Sweetie Belle’s face was a caress; like a quick, sweet kiss that reminded her ever so gently that autumn was coming.

As the filly continued to trot down the road, she heard a commotion, and found herself looking up into the branches of a grand old oak tree. The breeze tussled the yellow leaves and sent them spinning down like gold coins, and the branches bent and swayed and appeared to be waving at Sweetie Belle like she were an old friend it hadn’t seen in a long time. And there near the top of the tree was the cause of the commotion; a pair of songbirds hopping from branch to branch, chirping loudly at one another.

Sweetie Belle wondered if the songbirds were singing to each other, or discussing when would be the appropriate time to leave their nests for the winter, or if they were simply just surprised and curious about the presence of the tiny pony at the base of their tree; but before too long another gust sighed through the branches and the two birds caught the wind and flew off into the great sky, far out of sight of the small filly below.

Chapter Three: Grin and Grim

“So sorry I’m late, Twilight.” Rarity raised a hoof to tame her main as she stepped into Sugarcube Corner. “I meant to be here sooner but I was helping Sweetie Belle with her homework. You’d think that filly would be able to do her fractions by now...”

“It’s alright.” Twilight looked up in such a way that her head moved up but her eyes stayed trained to the pages of the book she was reading. She had been leafing intently through it, trying to ignore the silence of Sugarcube Corner’s empty cafe, for the better part of the evening. “I was so involved in my book that I hadn’t even noticed you were late. I hadn’t even noticed the wind was picking up either.”

A warm and moist wind was tumbling litter and leaves into the shop as well as the petrichor of soon-to-be rain. The local weather team was herding a particularly ugnly snarl of clouds above Ponyville, and the first mumblings of thunder were already strong enough to rattle the cafe’s windows. Rarity caught the hint and shut the door, before opening it again and kicking out some of the leaves and muttering something unladylike about them.

“Did you know that you can only remember anything once?” Twilight read aloud as Rarity sat down at the table. “After that you're just remembering the last time you remembered it.”

“That’s fascinating.” Rarity said trying to sound sincere, although her words came across sarcastic and cynical to Twilight since she wasn’t looking up completely; she could practically hear Rarity rolling her eyes at her.

“Oh.” Twilight said, now looking at her book as if it was just a children’s book. “Well I thought it was interesting...”

“No no, darling. I didn’t mean it like that.” Rarity said as Twilight finally looked up from her book. “I’ve just had a dreadfully long day. I’m not in the best of moods.”

“Oh it’s fine.” Twilight closed the book and placed it facedown. “It’s just a book about metaphysical theories. There’s really no scientific backing to them either... so you said Sweetie Belle is having trouble with her fractions?”

“Like you wouldn't believe.” Rarity sighed “And it’s not just fractions either. She’s struggling with math, geography... Even her hoof-writing leaves a lot to be desired.” She said with a flippant gesture. “Cheerilee says that if she doesn't start showing improvement soon she might have to hold her back a year.”

“Have you tried getting her a tutor?” Twilight said with a grin that suggested her services were available.

“We’ve tried everything from private tutors, to alternative teaching methods...She’s just not getting it.” Rarity thrusted her hooves forwards, exasperated. “At this point I’m ready to just throw my hooves in the air and tell her ‘you better start making friends with the foals from the previous grade because they’re all going to be your friends next year’.”

“That probably wouldn’t be the best approach.” Twilight said matter-of-factly, as if reciting from one of her books. “Foals want to please their parents and teachers; They want to learn and succeed. Before you blame Sweetie Belle for these problems or allow Cheerilee to do so, be sure to check if there might be a reason for her lack of success.”

“I know that wouldn’t work, it just gets really frustrating.” Rarity said. “You can only explain fractions to decimals so many times before...” Rarity put her head in her hooves and rested them on the table. “It’s just so monotonous!”

“Maybe the problem is environmental?” Twilight pondered aloud. “Foals tend to emulate their parents, the ones they look up to, or those in authority. So if the ones they are emulating have negative personality traits such as laziness or forgetfulness, those traits tend to become imbued onto the child’s personality.”

“Are you saying I’m forgetful?” Rarity looked through her hooves at Twilight with narrowed eyes. “I’ve went through that filly’s math book with her so many times that I can practically recite every page by heart.”

“I’m not saying you’re forgetful.” Twilight attempted to reason. “it’s just tha-”

“I know that book better than I do sewing and dressmaking,” Rarity retorted. “and I know those like the back of my hoof.”

“I didn’t mea-”

“Before you can add or subtract fractions with uncommon denominators,” Rarity recited. “you first have to change the fractions so that all fractions being added or subtracted have the same denominator.”

Twilight stopped trying to explain herself and let her friend continue uninterrupted.

“Numerators and denominators are like sisters and brothers.” Rarity continued. “They need to be treated ‘the same’. Whatever you give to one, you must give the exact same to the other or it ‘wouldn’t be fair’...”

“Wouldn’t be fair” Rarity imitated sarcastically while making air quotations with her hooves. “it’s like it was written by a foal.”

“Well they are meant for small ponies..” Twilight said sheepishly.

Rarity scoffed and placed her hooves on the table with a generous thud. “Well they’re not meant for me.” She said indignantly “I’m reading that stupid book to Sweetie Belle so much that I don’t even have time for my own sewing anymore.”

“How is your sewing anyway?” Twilight asked, delighted at a chance to change the subject. “Pinkie told me you’ve been working nonstop.”

“Exhausting.” Rarity sighed again. “I’m up to my neck in orders and I’ll be lucky to even finish in time for the Gala next month. I’ve sewn so much lace today I think I’m getting carpal tunnel.”

“Speaking of, I just remembered. I brought a gift for you!” Twilight levitated a stack of gold tickets out of the saddlebag she had sitting on the chair nearest to her. As the tickets floated over the table her eyes fell upon the book that had served as her evening’s entertainment and paused. She looked from the book, to the tickets, to her bedraggled friend, and back to the book before dutifully stashing it into her bag and turning her attention back to the tickets. “One, two, three. Three Gala tickets!” she counted aloud as she placed each ticket onto the table “One for you, one for me, and one for Pinkie whenever she gets out of the kitchen.”

“What is she doing in there anyway?” Rarity asked while using her own magic to take her Gala ticket from Twilight. “I arrived late and even I was still here earlier than her.”

“She said she had a new cupcake recipe she wanted us to try”. Twilight said while putting her own ticket back into her saddlebag and leaving Pinkie’s on the table.

“Let’s just hope it’s better than the last ‘new cupcake Pinkie wanted us to try’.” Rarity air-quoted “You remember? the ones where she mixed up the measurements for the sugar and salt and the things came out tasting like a salt-lick with frosting?” Rarity’s lips tugged up into a small smirk.

“I remember.” Twilight said through a giggle. “Spike couldn’t get enough of them though!”

***.

Dashie tried unsuccessfully to open her eyes, they were fused shut.

She felt weak, confused, and rather frightened. Seconds before it was a bright and sunny day, It felt like she had closed her eyes for only a second, and now it was pitch black. Something was wrong, something strange had happened to her. Something was making her eyes itch incredibly bad.

She rubbed her eyes, dislodging the crust of dried blood that held the lids shut, and opened her eyes only to see that her vision was still black. It was night time. The sun had set behind the mountains hours ago and the landscape had faded into darkness, and even though she was unable to blink her eyes into any form of focus, she was glad at least that she couldn’t see the painful crowd from the earlier afternoon.

She didn’t entirely know where she was. She knew by the feel of it that she was laying on the ground, but which town or which city’s ground it belonged to she wasn’t aware. What she was aware of, however, was how her nose felt larger than the rest of her head. She prodded it delicately with her hoof, but flinched as the gentle touch sent slivers of pain shooting up her muzzle, and resigned herself to laying on the ground. Her nose might’ve been broken, but she wasn’t entirely sure. She didn't want to touch it again to find out because the pain was too great, but the longer she waited for the pain to subside the more she began to realize that it wasn’t going anywhere. It was staying, increasing in fact, and had moved from her nose to the entirety of the front of her head, like her brain was pulsing routinely against the walls of her skull.

She pulled herself up into a sitting position and was made aware of several more lines of bright, clear pain crossing her body and a dull ache that pulled at her left side every time she drew a breath. Her skull felt like it was trying to exit her body through her very skin, and it was all she could really focus on. Not her nose, not her side, not even what looked to be the the hallmarks of a back-alley she could see as her vision re-focused a little more. She couldn’t focus her mind on anything for too long, as the steady throb in her head continually washed out any thought or memory she could form. Who was she? Where was she? How did she get there? What happened to her? What even was her name? Her entire life before the alley felt dim and far away, like it hadn’t even existed at all. It could just as well have been that she was born on that very alley floor a few moment ago.

***

Twilight was silent. Not out of rudeness or as a comment on what Rarity had just said. She just didn’t know what to say in response.

“...And Sweetie Belle was so upset about what she saw this morning that she spent all the extra bits I had given her at the gem store.“ Rarity said while pouring herself some coffee from a pot Pinkie had brought earlier while waiting for her cupcakes to cool. “Unintentionally of course. Poor filly came back with almost sixty emeralds.”

“Maybe it was some other pegasus she saw.” Twilight gave a smile that was a strange mix of grin and grim. “Or maybe if it was her she was just passing through?”

“No, it was definitely her.” Rarity retorted. “She’s been gone long enough for everypony to forget her name, and she left long before Sweetie Belle was born; so there’s no other way she could have picked up the name; at least in that context.”

“Dashie...” Rarity grumbled after swallowing a sip of coffee. “No doubt here to cause more trouble for Rainbow Dash, and I thought we had gotten rid of her after the incident with Honey Drop.” She practically spat the name.

Twilight was at a loss for words. She could feel the growing tension in the air as Rarity brooded and wanted to say something to lighten the mood, but was unable to find a way to safely navigate the minefield she was about to step into. Luckily Pinkie had just pushed through the kitchen’s swinging doors carrying a plate of gourmet looking cupcakes in her mouth and set them on the table her friends were sitting at.

Pumpkin cake, with little ribbons of toasted coconut sprinkled around the frosting.

“Wow Pinkie, those look amazing!” Twilight said, relieved she had an excuse to change the subject.

“I agree, darling.” chimed Rarity. “They look more delicious than anything ever sold by Sugarcube Corner. However did you make them?”

“Oh, it’s just an old recipe Granny Pie taught me,” Pinkie said with a dismissive roll of her eyes. “Pumpkin spice, with a little extra spice.”

“What do you mean, extra?” Rarity raised an eyebrow, inspecting the cupcake like she would a gemstone.

“Rum!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Spiced rum and extra cinnamon.”

“Tastes… Rich. “Twilight said with a cough. “Very… warming.”

“You do know you’re supposed to bake the alcohol out of the cupcake, right?” Rarity said.

“Of course I know, silly fillies” Pinkie Pie giggled. “But these cupcakes don’t have the rum baked in. You’re supposed to poke them when they come out of the oven and are all soft and mushy and use a pastry brush to coat them with the rum; they’re not for our normal customers.”

“Well who are they for?” Rarity asked after taking a bite, grimacing as the kick from the rum was more intense than she expected.

“They’re for good friends on those chilly autumn nights!’” Pinkie said whilst doing her best Granny Pie impression. “So what do you think? Did I add enough sugar this time?”

Twilight swallowed her own bite of cupcake. “Well, after you get used to the.. kick, they’re actually very good!”

“agreed,” Rarity said after daintily finishing her own first bite. “And you sure did pick the perfect night for these, this storm is going to be absolutely dreadful. Twilight, be a dear and close the window please.” Rarity waved her cupcake towards an open window on the other side of the room that was now letting in some stray raindrops.

Twilight got up from her chair and trotted over to the window. With a short burst of her magic she slid the wooden frame shut and was about to draw the blinds out of habit when she thought she saw something dart away from the window outside.

“Twilight?” Rarity asked when the lavender unicorn didn’t return right away “Twilight are you ok?” Rarity turned around to see Twilight gazing intently through the glass, trying to look through her own reflection to see the outside. “Twilight dear, what are you looking at?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m not looking at anything,” Twilight stammered. “I just thought I saw something…”

***

Dashie limped out of the alley and into the empty market streets. Not so much limping, more so she was stumbling and holding onto the sides of buildings to support her upright position. She was dizzy and nauseous when she moved too quickly and she found that standing made her headache worse, so she compromised by holding onto the walls and shuffled towards the mouth of the alley. This was her best attempt at ambulation, as her vision was only focused enough to a couple feet in front of her muzzle. This was fine for her, she just wanted to go home.

The connecting alley wasn't any longer than 20 or 30 feet, but it still took Dashie quite some time to walk her way through it. She was vaguely aware of where her limbs were but they were so unresponsive and sluggish that she had to grip the wall tight as if her life depended on it. She stepped out into the marketplace despite only be able to see the vaugest shapes of the buildings that surrounded the square, but she guided herself by following a trail of bright glowing orbs that came from the light of the town’s streetlamps. She couldn’t look at the lamplight directly, as having her vision fall anywhere near the source of the light made her brain feel like amd imploding star. The roads were lit at regular intervals so she was able to compensated by shielding her eyes when she passed underneath the lamps and cast her gaze towards the leperous yellow-grey fog above her head that made up the lower tatters of the stormclouds.

She stumbled down the road, passing a mare who shielded her foal from the sight of Dashie, muttering something about her being a drunk; but the mumbling shape held no meaning to Dashie. Even if she could register it as another pony she wouldn’t have cared because she was more concerned with the fact that a life-sized gingerbread house had just taken up the entirety of her distorted vision.

Dashie was looking up at the facade of the town’s bakery, Sugarcube Corner, but she could not perceive it as anything close to what resembled a building. Not with it’s chocolate bark roof shingles. Not with it’s icing swirls around the eaves. Not with the peppermint candy cane pillars. Even the Spire was built to look like a frosted pink cupcake.

And it was at that moment, Dashie finally realized she was hungry. She could smell yeast and cinnamon and frying fat and coffee, and her stomach was in a hard knot. Her mouth was awash with saliva and her stomach was telling her to eat the bakery, to sink her teeth into the crispy-cakey walls.

She trotted up to a section of wall painted a graham-cracker brown, but stopped just short of getting a mouthful of wood and paint once she heard a voice coming from a nearby window.

Dashie rested her hooves on the wall to stop her body from falling and poked her muzzle over the sill. She still couldn’t see too well. She couldn’t see the bell that hung above the entrance or the glass display cases. She couldn't see the baguette barrel near the cash register. But she could smell an aroma of wholesome goodness as the winds pulled out the air from inside the bakery.

“...And Sweetie Belle was so upset about what she saw this morning that she spent all the extra bits I had given her at the gem store. Unintentionally of course. Poor filly came back with almost sixty emeralds.”

Dashie looked at the far side of the room where the voice had come from, but still could only see shapes.

“Maybe it was some other pegasus she saw. Or maybe if it was her she was just passing through?”

“No, it was definitely her. She’s been gone long enough for everypony to forget her name, and she left long before Sweetie Belle was born; so there’s no other way she could have picked up the name; at least in that context.

“Dashie...No doubt here to cause more trouble for Rainbow Dash, and I thought we had gotten rid of her after the incident with Honey Drop.”

Dashie wondered who they were talking about, she also wondered who they were as well. Their voices sounded familiar, but unfamiliar as well. She felt stable leaning on the window so she stayed and listened while she tried to remember who the voices belonged to, they felt just on the tip of her tongue...

“-this storm is going to be absolutely dreadful. Twilight, be a dear and close the window please.”

Dashie had stopped paying attention to the conversations coming from inside, choosing instead to focus on looking at milkshake glass laying on its side underneath a table, the first thing her vision was able to focus on since she had woken up. She hadn’t even noticed it had started raining, she was too busy tracing the shape of the glass with her eyes to notice the lavender unicorn approaching the window, until they were almost a hoof’s-length apar; startling Dashie and causing her to fall to the side as her vision became unexpectedly awash with purple.

She panicked and scrabbled across the ground away from the building with as much grace as a newly born foal, bumping her head against the row of houses across the square and re-igniting the fire in her skull. She sat against the wall, half-soaked with rain, head in her hooves, hoping if she clenched her teeth hard enough the pain would go away. She tried to breathe but the pain in her ribs cut her breath short. She couldn’t even hear the window sliding shut from across the market because of the newly found rining in her ears.

She cried out in anguish. She wanted the pain to stop, but she didn’t know how to make it stop.

Author's Note

Musical Inspiration:

Change (In the House of Flies) - Deftones

Chapter Four: Her Body Was Numb

Rarity looked up from the table and gazed at her friends. Twilight and Pinkie pie were enthralled in a conversation about the upcoming gala. Did they realize that at some point Rarity had stopped talking? She had been staring at her hooves for the past ten minutes or so, saying nothing.

She found herself doing this a lot lately, zoning out for large tracks of time. She’d take a break from her dress-work and walk around the penthouse above her dress-shop and find herself blankly staring out the window for half an hour.

It was a stress response for sure, one that only seemed to get worse during her busy seasons, one that happens when there’s too much on her mind; like a backed-up assembly line that bottlenecks until everything has its chance to get through.

Rarity doesn’t know where she picked up the habit. Perhaps it was a learned behavior, like how she began smoking through long cigarette holders after associating with the upper-crust of Manehattan’s fashion industry; that would certainly explain why she noticed sweetie belle doing the exact same thing when she is stressed. No expression,blankly staring at nothing. standing motionless like she’s frozen in time, until suddenly springing back to life.

But Rarity herself hadn’t sprung back to life yet, instead she was looking up at her friends.

Did they notice too? Or had the alcohol in the cupcakes finally taken hold of their emotions and made them too happy to notice the dress maker’s silence?

Rarity looked down at her hooves again, and could feel herself growing angry, at herself mostly. Why couldn’t she enjoy the company of her friends tonight? Why couldn’t she delight in talks about the gala? Why couldn’t she be happy like everypony else was?

These were the questions Rarity kept running through her head, and she began to feel like some kind of alien being and her friends were speaking a language that she couldn’t understand; and this only made her anger intensify until her hooves started to tremble a bit.

“-and Rarity just finished my dress today!” Pinkie said, placing an extra emphasis on her last word. “I’m so excited, I don't think I’m going to be able to wait another four weeks for the gala. I might just have to camp outside canterlot castle ‘till then!”

“I don’t doubt that,” Twilight said, her cheeks a little redder than normal. “She says she’s exhausted from how hard she’s been working lately. Right Rare?

“Yeah…” Rarity looked up and gave an insincere smile. “Exhausted...”

In truth, Rarity was more worried than exhausted. Worried about what Sweetie Belle had seen in the alley that morning, worried about Sweetie Belle’s academic struggles, and more importantly, worried about how her business was going to fare over the winter.

Shortly after she finished Pinkie’s Gala dress, she received letters from some of her out of town customers cancelling their orders in favor of a cheaper boutique that had just opened in Canterlot. Most of the orders Rarity had already started, so she had no choice but to scrap them. Sure she receives a commission up front, but that only secures the material cost and partial labor, so she ended up losing a modest amount of bits in wasted materials. Now she had less than a month to find enough work just to make up her material loss, let alone enough work to break even for her final quarter.

The more her friends praised her for her expertise, the more the dress-maker feared for the future: The future of her business and the future well-being of her and her sister.

“With how many orders she says she’s working on,” Pinkie continued ”I bet half the gala-goers will be wearing one of Rarity’s dresses!”

“But then half of Equestria would be wearing her dresses and the other half would probably want one too,” Twilight began to ramble. “And then she’d be even more exhausted.”

“I’m sure she won’t be too exhausted” Pinkie pondered. “Rarity’s the best dress maker in town, maybe even Equestria. I’m sure a few extra orders wouldn’t be too much work for her.

“A few extra orders would be nice…” Rarity said quietly to herself as she looked back down at her hooves.

***

Dashie circled around the dilapidated facade of an abandoned cottage on the outskirts of town, searching for ingress, until she finally found a loose board and slipped in through the kitchen window.

The motion of climbing did not mix well with her vertigo and her hoof slipped off the counter. She hit the floor with a loud thud and lay in a heap, breathing hard and coughing haggardly from the decades of dust she had just kicked up. When she was finally able to pick herself up off the floor she sat roughly against a cupboard, still fighting for her breath.

The air in the kitchen was stale, and the dust tapered in the strips of light that came in through the cracked plywood. Her coat was soaked from the rain, matted with blood, and caked with dust and dirt. Her head hurt as if it were being crushed by iron. She pressed herself against the moldy wood and grit her teeth as everything started to fade.

***

Twilight levitated another cupcake with her magic and took a bite. Her third one. “You know…” Twilight said between chews. “These cupcakes are very good once they had time to soak up all that rum.” She swallowed and floated another over. “They don’t have that nasty kick anymore and you can feel all the flavors blending together on your tongue. I can’t stop eating them!”

Rarity and Pinkie exchanged glances.

“Uhh, I think you should slow down Twilight.” Pinkie said.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, her voice catching on the last word.

“Pinkie used some really strong rum in these cupcakes, darling,” Rarity said taking another bite of her first cupcake. “ and you’ve never really drank before.”

“Oh don’t be silly girls.” Twilight said cheerily, the blush in her face more pronounced now than it was before. “I’ve had like four and I feel fine! I’m sure they can’t be that bad!” Twilight finished her fourth and wiped the crumbs from her mouth with one of her hooves. Her friends sent questioning glances at her and she returned with a smile before Rarity floated a napkin over to Twilight .

“You missed a spot, dear. Well, several. You’ve got crumbs all over your muzzle.”

Twilight blushed and grabbed the napkin from Rarity’s aura field. She brought it up to her mouth but missed and wiped her cheek.

“Whoopsie.” Twilight said with a soft giggle and brought the napkin back to wipe her mouth this time.

Twilight had never been drunk before, in fact she actively avoided drinking. When she had to drink, be it a social occasion or otherwise, she would always stop herself when it started feeling like the air was putting pressure on her face. However this was the first time she had ever pushed herself past her own limits. She figured that since she was in the comfort of her friends she didn't mind all that much, In fact she was actually really enjoying the warm wobbly feelings spreading through her body, and wanted more.

***

Dashie woke up to complete and total darkness, feeling on the edge of sleep and death. She was sitting alone, at least she thought she was sitting. More or less it felt like she was floating listlessly on her back through a void between this world and the next.

Everything was silent, save for a low, deep, muffled rumble that shook the entire realm at odd intervals; and filled Dashie with a cold, animalistic fear.

She tried to call out for help, but honestly didn't know if her voice was above a whisper or if she even did anything more than form the words in her mind. Her body was numb and felt like static, like the fuzz on a old television stuck between channels. The next thing she knew was that she had already opened her eyes and was vomiting in the upstairs bathroom.

She didn’t feel nauseated, it was more like her brain told her to vomit and her stomach obeyed. She threw up every few minutes for what felt like hours, even after there was nothing left in her stomach to bring up, and after the violence in her stomach had subsided she slinked down the wall again and sat next to the toilet.

She wiped some foam from her muzzle and gazed lazily at nothing. Her breathing was labored and the entire world felt like it was spinning on the wrong axis, slowly teetering back and forth like a top-heavy pillar on the brink of collapse.

Dashie dug her hooves into the floor in an attempt to stop the world from turning. In doing so she had slipped out of consciousness again. Maybe she was lulled to sleep from the rain steadily pelting the plywood over the bathroom, or maybe it was just the swelling in her brain, either way she woke up sometime later, shivering and soaked to the bone.

The rain was coming down much harder now, and the water was effortlessly flowing in through a hole in the ceiling and down the wall; creating a puddle around her. She felt strange, dizzy, and ill at ease, and huddled herself against a different wall. She spent the next hour drifting in and out of a restless feverish sleep.

She had no memory of getting back onto her hooves. She didn’t remember making her way halfway down the hallway and slipping into a dark room. She only remembered falling into a bed that was too small to support her frame and knocking her head against the headboard.

Too tired and feverish to react to the pain anymore, she simply laid in the bed smelling of dust and foal powder, and drifted much easier back into sleep now that she was on something that was padded and not a hardwood floor.

***

I think…” Twilight said abruptly, stopping herself form taking a bite of another cupcake “I think I need to go to the bathroom.” She quickly excused herself and sloppily trotted to the bathroom, leaving pinkie pie and Rarity alone with each other.

Pinkie Pie swayed softly back and forth on her chair, giggling to herself

She wasn’t the type of pony to regularly consume alcohol either, since the kick alone was usually enough to leave her coughing for at least an hour. But she found that when she mixed it with her baked goods it was actually palatable, and created a wonderfully warm feeling all the way down her throat the soon spread throughout the rest of her body and it made her just want to hug everything and share this special feeling with everypony around her. More than anything, she liked how unbalanced everything would start to feel, how when she tilted her body to once side it would took a few seconds for it to feel like her body caught up with her; so for the most part she was just rocking to and fro, giggling the whole time.

Eventually she looked across the table at her friend. Rarity was silent, gently resting her hooves on the table and gazing absentmindedly at the cupcake which she had only taken a few bites out of. Her expression was somber and she looked terribly upset. Rarity sighed quietly, and Pinkie followed her eyes down to the cupcake and assumed Rarity didn’t like it.

“How come you haven’t finished your cupcake?” Pinkie asked to Rarity. “Didn’t you like it?”

“Hmm..?” Rarity hummed in response, seeming to take longer than usual to acknowledge she was being addressed.

“Oh. No no, I liked it.” Rarity said dolefully. “I’ve just, got my mind on other things and I’m just a little too distracted to eat right now…”

Rarity hoofed at her cupcake “But I did like it,” Rarity said with an unconvincing smile. “very tasty!”

“Oh… Ok.” Pinkie’s ears drooped slightly. She couldn’t tell if her friend was being sincere or not. “I can make you something else if you’d like.” She said looking down at her own cupcake. “Some cinnamon sticks or maybe a doughnut?”

“No, I’m fine.” Rarity said flatly.

“What about a croissant or a cannoli?”

“No.” Rarity’s brow furrowed

“We got some pie left over I think.” Pinkie Pie said, not noticing Rarity’s hobbes shaking. “Would you want cherry or apple?”

“I said I’m fine.” Rarity said a little more forcefully, but the inebriated pony wasn’t picking up on the subtext.

“You sure? It’s really good pie!” Pinkie said in a sing-songy tone. “I can even bring you some ice cream to go along with it!”

“I said I’m fine!” Rarity shouted. “Celestia almighty, in what universe does “no I’m fine” not mean ‘I’m fine’? Why do you gotta keep asking and asking and asking!?” Rarity thumped her hooves on the table with each repetition.

“I…” Pinkie pie sank into her seat.

“I what?” Rarity interjected sarcastically. “I got half a cake that we just have to let thaw?”

“I’m just trying to be a good host…”

Twilight returned to the table and slumped into her chair. Having just thrown up in the bathroom, she didn’t realise that Rarity had just shouted at Pinkie Pie or even register that both both of her friends were now upset.

“W-what about you, Twilight?” Pinkie asked softly. “Would you like another cupcake?”

Pinkie placed one of the cakes in front of the queasy Alicorn, who at this point was resting her head on the table and clutching her hooves to her stomach. A pained expression flashed across her face and when she saw the baked good.

“I think she’s had enough already.” Rarity said. “Wouldn’t you agree, dear?”

Twilight groaned a response and gave a slight shake of her head.

“Oh no, you didn’t like my cupcakes either?” Pinkie asked, a hint of real sadness resting on the edge of her voice.

“I think she just ate too much.” Rarity said candidly. “I think we should take her home, she doesn’t look so good.”

Rarity rose from her seat, thanking Celestia under her breath for an excuse to leave, and trotted over to Twilight. Pinkie remained seated as Rarity helped the Alicorn to her hooves and guided her to the door.

“Pinkie dear, are you coming?” Rarity asked as she looked over to see Pinkie still in her seat. “Twilight could use some help standing. She seems to be falling under her own weight.”

“Oh uh.. I actually need to clean up the kitchen.” Pinkie lied, she had cleaned the kitchen while the cupcakes were still in the oven. “I’ll just see you girls tomorrow or something.”

“Oh ok then, see you tomorrow darling.” Rarity said as she helped Twilight outside.

Pinkie sighed as she heard the door click shut and rose from her seat. She took Rarity’s cupcake and placed in on the tray, which still had half a batch left, and dumped them all into the trash can by the kitchen doors.

“Well I liked the cupcakes…” Pinkie sighed again as she took the empty tray back into the kitchen.

***

Dashie blearily awoke after sleeping for some time, and discovered that she had bundled herself underneath a blanket while she had slumbered. The next thing she discovered was that a tight, painful knot had formed on her forehead, as well as that her entire body seemed to have also stiffened into a tight, painful knot.

She tried sitting up, but the room began to spin after lifting her head only a few inches, and made her too nauseated to even want to attempt lifting her body; so instead she decided to lay on her side and blink the sleep out of her eyes.

The room took longer than usual to come into focus. Aside from a few vague outlines of the window, Dashie could only see complete blackness. As her eyes began to adjust more to the darkness though, the first thing that came into focus was the shape of a large toy chest across the room. A little while longer and she was able to make out the outlines of the room and the rest of its furniture.

Even though she could only see very little It didn’t take Dashie long to realize that she was in a foal’s room, her room, at least she thought she remembered it to be her room. Truth is that she had slipped in and out of consciousness so many times that she didn’t remember much of anything. She didn’t remember her own name. She didn’t remember why her head hurt so much. She didn’t even remember how she got into this house, but the room felt familiar to her, and that was good enough of a touchstone for her.

But she didn’t care, she was in a bed and she just wanted to go back to sleep. And so she did.

Author's Note

Musical Inspiration:

House of 1000 voices - Candlemass

Chapter Five: Little Posessions

The late evening found Dashie behind Ponyville’s crystal castle, arguably one of the biggest structures in Ponyville and, oddly enough, the home of the town’s princess and librarian. Dashie was behind the castle, hidden behind its large shadow, contemplating her plan as she fidgeted nervously with her saddlebag.

Although she was practically invisible in the castle’s shadow, she tried to tuck herself as close to the castle as she could. As if to somehow make herself even more unseen, because not only was she going to be trespassing in Ponyville’s local library, she was also intruding upon the personal home of the castle’s owner; Twilight Sparkle.

Dashie tried not to dwell on the fact that that what she was planning had every chance of ending badly. Breaking and entering, trespassing, theft… It took her an hour alone just to get out of bed and another to get used to the several new aches and pains that had now taken up residence in her joints, if she were to caught sneaking around Twilight’s home she would undoubtedly be unable to escape.

She tried to justify to herself. She only needed one book, only a book, and it wouldn’t take her long to find it. She’d sneak in through to the back window, find the book, and slip back out.

It was an easy plan, but Dashie knew from the moment she stepped back into town that it was wrong, and not just the wrong she was used to; really really wrong. But at the same time she also knew it was the only chance she had to get what she was looking for. She didn’t know of any bookstores that had what she needed, she didn’t even know where to look. And besides, no shop-keeper in town would do business with her, she wasn’t even supposed to be in Ponyville.

For some reason, this was reason enough, and Dashie lifted the window and hoisted herself over the sill. However, She wasn’t very good at climbing through windows, so as she was manipulating her way through the window her back hoof got caught on the sill and she came down hard on the crystal floor. She didn’t feel the window catching her hoof, but she did feel the floor knocking into her stomach, a big flat whap accompanied by a sudden paralysis and the contents of her saddlebag spilling out in all directions. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. The fall had knocked the wind out of her and the pain in her side had flared up again and was now collecting in her lungs.

She impulsively cried out in pain but attempted to choke it down, resulting in her breath hissing through her teeth and sounding something like a deflating balloon. She surely made enough noise to alert anypony in the room to her presence, but the only one in the castle besides herself was Twilight’s dragon assistant who could be heard steadily snoring from somewhere within the caste. The sound of her fall wouldn’t be enough to wake him since it wasn’t nearly as loud as the storm outside, but her screams would certainly be enough to rouse even the deepest sleeper. So she tried with all her might to not yell despite every dull pain from earlier now brilliantly awake and tearing at her body; as well as some new pains where her hoof scraped against the sill and where her chin hit the floor.

Pain stabbed at her side as she picked herself up and she could also taste blood. The inside of her mouth was bleeding. She must’ve bitten it when she fell, or worse, she thought, her ribs could have been broken and her lungs were filling with blood.

Although her ribs were painful and the jolt from the fall had awoken the pains in her head, her breathing didn’t feel too labored and her pains didn’t feel too out of the ordinary. In fact, the only thing that was out of the ordinary were her possessions that were all over Twilight’s kitchen floor.

She moved slowly around the room, stuffing what little possessions she had to her name back into her saddlebag. Old quills, an empty inkwell, scraps of paper, a candle and a match, and a broken manebrush.

Under several sheets of paper Dashie found an old picture frame she took from her house containing a picture of two fillies, Dashie and her big sister, flying through the air; more so her sister flying her as Dashie was too young to even extend her wings yet.

It lay face-down, glass shattered, but the picture was more or less still intact save for a few superficial scratches from the broken glass. She removed the picture, folded it neatly, and stuffed it carefully into her saddlebag; casting the broken frame aside.

Finally, Dashie picked up her last and most important possession, a pair of souvenir earrings from the Celestial Sun Museum. She found them tucked neatly away under her dresser. The embossed lettering had faded away years ago, but the cardboard packaging retained most if it’s integrity. The same couldn’t be said for the sun-shaped earrings themselves, as they were badly tarnished from years of neglect. Instead of the little silver supernovas they were supposed to be, the metal had turned murky and green, and was ultimately the reason Dashie had snuck into the library to begin with; to find a book on how to restore the earrings.

Dashie felt around the dimness of the room, until she eventually found the door to the hallway that lead to the library. The library was filled with a silvery darkness, save for a pool of light spilling in from a lone canopy window. Dashie removed the candle from her saddlebag and placed on a nearby reading table, lighting the wic with a match. She went to the shelves next and started looking over the books; recognizing maybe one or two of them.

The only sound in the room was the low rumble of the storm outside, the infrequent snoring of Twilight’s assistant, and the occasional creak of the crystal walls as the wind sighed against the castle. Rather than being unsettled, Dashie found the ambience rather comforting.

She found the atmosphere of libraries in general rather comforting. The calm quiet. The smells of old leather and parchment, the forgotten secrets. She felt safe.

It didn’t take long for Dashie to get distracted and forgot all about the reason she had snuck into the library. Eventually a book called Ancient Equestrian History caught her eye and she took it over to the reading table where her candle was steadily burning; a thick bead of wax dripping down it’s stalk.

“... And it is written that Celestia’s law of Malfeasance is broken if any Equestrian is found to have harmed or controlled another Equestrian against their will, or assisted in the commission or concealment of a crime committed by mundane means. This includes the hooves of an Earth Pony, the horn of a Unicorn, or the wings of a Pegasi.

Use of any of these means to attack or bring harm against another Equestrian is considered use of deadly force, regardless of whether it is in defense of the Equestrian’s own person or the life of another.

Under Celestia’s law, any Equestrian found guilty of Malfeasance is sentenced to have the source of their means forcedly removed - the hooves of the earth pony are to be permanently bound, the horn of the Unicorn is to be removed with a grinding wheel, the wings of the pegasi are to be broken at the joint and/ or surgically removed- and must receive a prison sentence up to and including public execution by way of the gallows.”

Dashie read for almost an hour, eventually growing bored of the dry educated investigations into several of Equestria’s myths and legends and returned the book to it’s spot on the shelf in exchange for another book.

She opened this book to a page with a carefully detailed illustration of a pony being dipped in molten bronze by a set of pincers and flipped to the cover: “Necromancy, Elementals, Alchemy, and other magics of the pre-classical era”

***

“Are you sure you’re feeling alright. Twilight?” Rarity asked as she helped her friend through the streets of Ponyville. “I could come in and make you something to drink if you’d like, some ginger tea’d be sure to settle that stomach of yours!”

“I’m fine, Rarity.” Twilight groaned. “I think I just need to lie down. I’m sure I'll be fine after getting some rest.” Twilight let out a mix between a hiccup and a burp and tightened her hold on her stomach. “Oohh, maybe a little more than some.”

“Well be sure to have that cute little Spikey-wikey come and get me if you need anything.” Rarity propped Twilight up onto the stoop of her castle. “I know what it’s like to drink, or in your case, eat too much alcohol, and trust me darling, it does not do wonders on your stomach.”

“I appreciate the concern.” Twilight said, holding onto the door handle for balance. “But I think I can handle myself from here. Thanks for walking home with me.”

“Anything for a friend “Rarity said with a pleasant smile. “Are we still on for tea tomorrow?”

“Three o’clock” Twilight said with a matter-of-fact wink. “If I’m not too incapacitated.”

The two mares shared in a laugh and parted ways after saying goodnight to each other. As Twilight opened the door and moved through the familiar darkness of her castle, she spotted the flicker of light coming from under the library door, and opened it to see the silhouette of a mare in the back of the library; illuminated by the tiny flame of a candle and placing a book into their saddlebag.

Twilight’s face flushed furiously, and it took her a long moment to find her voice.

“Hey, thief!” Twilight shouted with too much intensity. “You’re stealing one of my books!”

Twilight quickly flicked on the lights and was dumbfounded to see Dashie slipping a book, her book, into her saddlebag.

“What do you think you’re doing with my book, Dashie?!” Twilight shouted, stepping into the library and over several books tossed carelessly on the floor..

Dashie froze at the sudden confrontation. “I, I was just” Dashie stammered, unable to craft a response.

“You were just stealing my books.” Twilight used her magic to violently rip the book out of Dashie’s saddlebag, tearing it off her back and knocking Dashie to the floor in the process.

“You broke into my castle and made a mess in my library” Twilight said with a hitch. She was was shouting now, completely unable to control the volume of her own voice “...and now you’re stealing one of my books!”

“No no, I wasn’t” Dashie tried to explain. “I just needed to borrow it-”

“You’re not even allowed to be in Ponyville,” Twilight didn’t let Dashie even attempt to explain herself. She prided herself in her extensive book collection and relished in the fact that it brought joy and knowledge to the citizens of Ponyville. Twilight’s books were a kindness she extended to the town. Sure she got a little upset when books were overdue or returned damaged, but she knew nopony in town would go as far as to actually steal the books she so graciously lent out. To her, Dashie stealing her books was like stealing knowledge itself, and this was the greatest offence in her mind.

Twilight was standing over Dashie now, looming over her like a tower of anger “You’re not even allowed to be in my castle. But here you are, in my library, stealing my books.”

Her expression was filled with a cold, terrible anger, buoyed even further by her inebriated state. The thought of somepony stealing her books, stealing her knowledge, was so deplorable in her mind that she couldn’t stop focusing on it. Dashie tried to move, but Twilight rounded on her and slapped her hard across the face. She was filled with an unbridled anger.

Twilight continued to yell and berate the intruder of her library, who had slunk into the floor with her ears folded back like a filly who was being scolded by her mother. Her yelling was so loud that it even disturbed the off-interval snoring of her Dragon assistant.

Eventually came another voice, this one from outside library door.

“Twilight, is everything alright? I heard shouting. Well, everypony heard it. You can hear it from clear across town…”

It was Rarity.

“Ahah it’s Rarity!” Twilight smiled angrily down at Dashie. “She was so right about you, just here to cause us trouble. Like you didn’t cause enough the last time you were here.”

Twilight turned to answer the door “And to think I even tried defending you…” She said as she trotted to the door. “Now she’s going to come in and see she was right about you, then we’re going to take you to Ponyville Police station for theft and breaking Celestia’s orders to stay out of Ponyville.”

Dashie bolted upright and towards Twilight, pleading with her not to turn her in. Twilight would hear none of it. Dashie begged like a child as they crossed the room, fear and anger welling up in the bottom of her stomach and mixing into a sour adrenaline which filled her chest and limbs with an anxious energy.

She tried to stop Twilight from reaching the door, but in doing so she lost her step and tripped over one of the several books she had strewn across the floor, and came crashing down on the librarian.

Twilight didn’t move, she didn’t struggle while underneath the weight of Dashie or even attempt to get up herself once Dashie pulled herself off the downed Alicorn.

“T-Twilight?” Dashie stammered looking down at the unicorn, her hooves twisted and bent.

Twilight didn’t respond, save for a low painful groan.

Rarity, hearing the dreadful sounds of the crash through the door, took no moment to hesitate and flung to door open, only to see her friend on the floor, books thrown everywhere, and Dashie clambering out the window she came in.

“Sweet Celestia, Twilight!” Rarity rushed to her friend’s side, who still hadn’t moved from the floor or corrected her hooves which were twisted and bent at impossible directions. “Twilight, what did that ruffian do to you?”

“She hurt me, Rarity.” Twilight whimpered. “She hurt my neck and back...”

Chapter Six: Some Day For a Storm

While Pinkie Pie mashed a banana for Pound Cake a knock came at the door to Sugarcube Corner, and it was the same dark-brown tone from which the door was made. The pink mare pulled off her apron, and as she stepped through the pools of light and shadow the knocking came again, only heavier, and this time with a sense of real urgency.

Opening the door revealed Rarity, standing in the morning rain underneath a rather ornate saddle umbrella with jewels along the length of the skirt and even the shaft of the umbrella itself. She wore a blue and white raincoat with a matching pair of horseshoes, as well as a pair of dangling fringe earrings that looked like little chandeliers hanging from her ears.

Her hair was also done up in a brilliant up-do, and despite the near-constant wind and high humidity from the day-straight rain, not a single hair was frizzed or out of place. She looked rather elegant, and appeared to be paying more attention to her personal appearance than she did the day before. She even wore a little rouge to cover the bags surrounding her eyes, but it did little to hide their puffiness or how heavy they looked.

“Sorry to bother you so early in the morning, Darling” Rarity said, motioning to the kitchen where Pinkie had Poundcake’s breakfast warming on the stove. “I just wanted to come by and tell you Twilight’s condition has stabilized and they’re allowing visitors now.”

“Oh… Thats great news!” Pinkie gave a chagrined smile.

Rarity interpreted Pinkie’s distressed countenance to be on account of their friend’s tragic condition and not the real reason that Pinkie had actually forgotten Twilight was in the hospital.She was too preoccupied with making breakfast for the foals and making extra sure they didn’t make any noise But thinking about it now, however, Pinkie wondered how she could've forgotten, especially since she and Rarity both had to carry Twilight through the rain all the way to the hospital because no taxis were running that late at night.

“Would you like to come visit with me?” Rarity said with a half-smile, slightly amused at Pinkie’s facial reactions as she thought quietly to herself. “I brought you an extra umbrella.”

“I don’t know if I can.” Pinkie relented as Rarity floated Pinkie a similarly ornate umbrella “Mrs Cake isn’t feeling very well today, so I’m in charge of the foals while Mr. Cake is out on deliveries.”

After the pregnancy, Mrs. Cake became the victim of frequent migraines that debilitated her for days. Often the nausea alone would be enough to overwhelm her, but mostly the pain would throb so violently around inside of her skull that she was sure it was about to crack. Today was one of those days so she was sequestered inside of her room with all the curtains drawn and the door inflexibly closed.

“I was just trying to use a polite way to get you to accompany me.” Rarity said as the smile ran away from her face. “The truth is, the doctors have something important they need to discuss with us, so we need to be be there.”

“But, I have to take care of the foals today.” Pinkie looked panicked. If the twin’s fussings were to invade Mrs. Cake’s room, her head would surely explode. “And I don’t know how long Mr. Cake is going to be on deliveries. He’s going all the way to Hoofington today!”

“Not a problem,” Rarity said, rather self-assured. “We can have Sweetie Belle foal-sit them while we’re gone. She has the day off from school because Cherrilee had a medical emergency to deal with, and I wouldn’t imagine the doctors taking more than an hour to talk to us.”

“Oh.. yeah... I guess that would work,” Pinkie said rubbing a hoof to her chin. “Just let me grab my raincoat from upstairs and then we can go!”

But before Pinkie could even turn around, a matching blue and white raincoat was draped onto her by Rarity’s magic; gently like a mother would dress her own foal.

“Already got you covered.” Rarity said with a chuckle. “ Literally.”

***

It was just an hour before nine when the two ponies departed from Sugarcube Corner, leaving Sweetie Belle in charge of the Twins who were cooing peacefully in their cribs. Celestia’s sun was shining, but it was shielded behind a thick layer of rainclouds and a damp wind that cut through their clothes and clung to their skin.

It was pouring outside, so hard in fact that the rain was gushing over the tops of the gutters. The town, absent a sewer system, was filled to capacity; the downpour forming huge puddles that made lakes in the streets.

The town square was deserted, save for a hoof-full of ponies with identities hidden behind umbrellas and raincoats frantically galloping through the puddles; irritated that the Weather Team had disrupted their hurried day.

"Some day for a storm, huh?" Rarity asked with a dark sarcasm as the two walked through the square. "The Pegasus ponies sure have outdone themselves this morning."

The storm was actually a continuation of the one that had started the day before, and was scheduled to last well into the afternoon. Ponyville had just entered it's rainy season and the weather team spent the previous day preparing this storm, double and triple packing the storm clouds to overcompensate for their lack of rain In the previous season.

“We’ll be lucky if we make it there without getting our horseshoes stuck in the mud,” Rarity said, shaking some mud off her front hoof. “and I think mine’s already got a pebble in it. "

She removed her horseshoe and dislodged a small stone from her hoof with her magic. Instead of dropping it she hovered it close to her face for a moment, turning it over in her magic field and inspecting it like she would one of her own gemstones.

The rock wasn’t anything special, unquestionably indistinguishable from every other stone in equestria. It’s tone was a flat grey, accented only by a dull shine as the wetness of the rock reflected the light from the sky. It was a worthless ordinary rock, but as Rarity turned it over in her magic, she noticed small, rust-colored grains running along the curves of the stone.

To any average pony, this would mean nothing, considering the average pony wouldn’t even stop to look at an insignificant pebble, and if they did a few rust colored spots on the rock wouldn’t be enough to arouse any feelings. It wasn’t really enough to arouse a feeling in Rarity either, except for maybe slight discomfort from stepping on it, but Rarity knew from her gem studies of the area that the reddish grains came from the abundant deposits of Hematite, a mineral composed entirely of Iron and Oxygen, that were buried underneath the town.

‘Just like rusted metal, the iron grains begin to rust when exposed to oxygen in the air and water.’ Rarity recalled from her studies. “Hematite also gets its name from an ancient equestrian word meaning ‘blood-like’ because of the color of its ore. Ancient superstitions held that large deposits of hematite formed from battles that were fought and the subsequent blood that flowed into the ground.”

Rarity also remembered from her Magic studies that Hematite was a mineral commonly used to keep one’s self connected to the Equestrian plane during magical rituals. Most strongly used to ground the caster or stabilize them for protection.

However, the Hematite used in these rituals were of the crystal variety, not simply just an unrefined mineral. It was believed that Hematite crystals could be used to bring mental organization and could help with original thinking, logical thinking, or any type of thinking which requires significant mental organization; But this was also during a time when little was understood about Unicorn magic.

Because of all the recent extensive studies of Unicorn magic as well as the several schools created expressly for the purpose of teaching it. Everypony knows now that there was never any need for crystals when using magic, and that the usage of crystals in these archaic rituals contribute nothing more than decoration; and the spiritualistic qualities given to them were merely superstitious at best.

Rarity herself wasn’t superstitious, but still delighted in the flights of fancy that crystals do hold specific individual benefits. Which is why she sometimes wears a pair of red Hematite earrings while working on her dresses when she needs that little extra flicker of inspiration. She knows the earnings do nothing more than look pretty, but as a designer Rarity knew better than to deny a source of inspiration, so she kept wearing them; almost like her own little ritual.

But the stone she held in front of her face offered no inspiration to her. It’s color was too dull to be used in a dress, there wasn’t enough hematite to be made into a gemstone. It was just a simple ordinary rock.

And with that thought Rarity released it from her magic field, letting it drop into the puddle at her hooves; landing in the water with an indistinguishable splash that blended in with the rest of the rain-drops.

“Now then, what were we talking about? Rarity asked Pinkie as she pulled her shoe back on. When she didn’t get an answer she looked up to find Pinkie several blocks ahead jumping from puddle to puddle.

Rarity suddenly realized she had been standing alone the entire time, and could only imagine how strange she must’ve looked. Bare-hooved in the middle of the square looking at a rock. She did a quick look around town, a modest blush burning her cheeks. She didn’t see anypony, not in the streets or looking through their windows, but she could only imagine what they would’ve thought if they were watching.

With her blush burning through her rouge, she quickly galloped ahead before somepony could come out to see her.

Up ahead, Pinkie had gotten bored of splashing in the puddles and was now standing in the middle of the street, listening to the rain pelt against her umbrella.

“Sorry to dawdle” Rarity said sheepishly when she finally caught up to Pinkie Pie. “I had a pebble stuck in my horseshoe and I didn’t know you had continued on ahead.”

Pinkie didn’t respond, or even really acknowledge Rarity’s presence.

“Pinkie?”

Pinkie was mesmerized by the rainfall: The wet sounds, the cold smells, the goosebumps rising on her body. It all reminded her of the many times her and her mother would get caught in the stormy weather on their frequent trips to town.

“Pinkie, I’m talking to you...”

Pinkie was savoring the sound of the raindrops hitting her umbrella. It was rhythmic and purposeful, like morse code sent down from the clouds. She wished she could decipher it. She got lost in the sound so easily that she didn’t even notice her friend beside her vying for her attention.

“Pinkie!” Rarity shouted, pulling pinkie out of her trance.

“Oh, sorry Rarity…” Pinkie said with a dopey smile,. “I had a pebble stuck in my horseshoe too.”

Rarity was a little unprepared for the absurdity of her friend’s statement. “Pinkie, you’re not even wearing horseshoes…”

“I know!” Pinkie giggled. “I just thought it would sound funny!”

But before Rarity could respond properly, Pinkie began bouncing through the puddles again, this time down a dirt path that bridged the town square with Ponyville Hospital.

Rarity began to follow, but hesitated as her hoof sunk several inches into the mud..

“Oooh,” Rarity whined as she felt the mud seep into her shoes. ”these are designer horseshoes!”

***

A strange sound brought Dashie out of an unpleasant sleep.

She listened, motionless amidst a nest of dusty pillows and shabby blankets she had constructed in the living room of the abandoned house; but the gentle whirr of the rain against the rafters allowed her to fall back asleep once more…

A murmur disturbed the quiet and Dashie roused again. She lay frozen, concentrating; listening. Voices, not her own. Outside, moving closer.

She bolted from her makeshift nest, only to have her body betray her and cause her to drop to her knees a few feet away. She sank down on the floor and felt the aches and pains of a dozen injuries she’d received in the previous day.

She had several painful ribs, her teeth and jaw ached, her right eye was half-swollen shut, and she road rash all along the length of her hooves with bits of stone still stuck in the wounds.

The latter being the most recent. After her altercation with Twilight the night before, Dashie stole away from the library and ran like a frightened deer; speeding past shops and alleyways at a full-gallop fueled by her own frenzied adrenaline.She made it nearly a quarter-mile outside of Ponyville before the lights from the town began to fade. She ran until she could no longer see past the slurry of darkness and rain or even the panicked tears in her own eyes. She ran until she slammed headlong into low-hanging tree branch, smacking into her right eye and sliding across the rough cobbled road in a painful heap.

She dragged herself back to the abandoned house and found a collection of spare blankets and pillows in a downstairs closet. Unable to summon the energy to ascend the stairs, she collapsed in the living room, overcome by fatigue.

Dashie picked the bits of gravel out of her wounds and cursed at herself. If only she hadn’t gotten distracted, she could’ve taken the book she needed without Twilight catching her. Better yet, if she had listened to her bad feeling and stayed out of the library then she wouldn’t’ve hurt Twilight at all..At least she had enough sense to grab her saddlebag before she ran out of Twilight's…

Dashie’s head shot towards the living room window. The voices were louder now, clear and distinct, and sounded like they were coming from the front yard. Dashie didn’t run and hide like her instincts told her to, she recognized one of the voices. Instead she hobbled her way to the window and peeked out through a slat in the wood.

“Pinkie, did we really have to take the dirt roads? My hooves are getting positively muddy,” Rarity whined while trying to dislodge her hoof from a particularly deep section of mud. “I’m ruining one of my best pair of horseshoes, why couldn't we have rented a taxi like I wanted to?”

Dashie could see Rarity and Pinkie Pie walking down the road towards the abandoned house, about half a block down road before the tree-line gave way to the front yard. She couldn’t hear what was being exactly was said, in fact all she could hear through the rain were the cadences of Rarity’s voice, but what she could hear was neither anger or vengeance. Like a conversation you’d have with a good friend on a sunday-morning stroll. Whatever the two ponies were doing outside the house, it wasn’t as sinister as Dashie had originally thought.

“We couldn’t’ve, Rarity.”Pinkie said, bouncing down the road, splashing through the mud with childlike enthusiasm “The roads are too muddy for the taxis, they’d get stuck in the mud just like your hoofsies there!”

Rarity cowered behind her umbrella just in time to deflect a splash of mud from a particularly large puddle Pinkie had just pounced into.

“Well could you as least stop jumping into every puddle we come across?” Rarity said, displeased with the slick of muddy water dripping down her umbrella. “You’re going to ruin the finish on my umbrella!”

“Aren’t umbrellas supposed to get wet?” Pinkie said, sticking her tongue out and bouncing from hoof to hoof in the middle of a puddle. Rarity’s face twisted into an angry pout, but at the same time pulled into a giddy smile.

Even though Pinkie Pie was uncouth at times and enjoyed messes more than the dressmaker was comfortable with, Rarity found it hard to stay mad at Pinkie for too long. Even at her worst, when Pinkie’s obnoxiousness seems to know no bounds, she usually pulls it together by making a funny face or saying something completely absurd that Rarity can't help but laugh at.

Such is the way when it comes to best friends. it never did take much to influence a smile. A simple silly conversation or just her random idiosyncrasies were enough to bring a smile onto Rarity’s face.

However, Rarity found it hard to keep the smile from falling away from her face again as she thought about Twilight, her other good friend, in such a wretched state.

Rarity was wishful, as anypony would be, that Twilight would come away unscathed, but her rational side was holding onto niggling doubts that Rarity just couldn't seem to shake. In the back of her mind, Rarity knew that Twilight was badly hurt, and didn’t know if she would come out ok or not. She knew simply by the fact that she had to carry Twilight to the hospital, that Twilight lay limp like a rag-doll in her hooves. And If it wasn’t for Twilight’s constant coughs and gurgles as she desperately tried to keep her throat clear, Rarity would have thought for sure she was carrying a rag-doll and not a fully grown mare.

Thinking of Twilight in this way made Rarity’s heart turn sideways in her chest, and her anguish was discernible enough to make Pinkie stop splashing around in the mud...

“I’m sorry if I got your umbrella muddy.” Pinkie said after a few moments of watching Rarity’s bothered expression. “I know you’ve told me to be more mindful of your fashion stuff, I was just trying to have a little fun.”

Rarity suddenly realized just how she was acting. The dress-maker prided herself on her ability to control her own emotions, a skill that she found very useful in her more high-pressure business-dealings. As a young dress-maker, Rarity had to learn very early on in her career to be mindful of her emotions and how she expressed them, lest they got the best of her. A wrong slip of the tongue could mean the loss of a contract or a sudden lack of self-confidence could result in a sale falling through. In order to respond to the ongoing demands of her business and social life, Rarity had become a master at controlling her immediate emotional reactions. However, as the events of the current week played out, Rarity found it increasingly difficult to keep her emotions in check. Her smile would disappear too easily or she’d find herself becoming distracted and unable to accomplish her present tasks.

She feared that if she didn’t get her emotions back in check she might become irrational and do something she’d regret.

“Nothing to be sorry about, dear.” Rarity said, donning an expression of cool composure. “Come, let’s keep moving, this wind is cutting right through coat and making my skin all clammy.”

The two walked with reticence until the tree-line broke and gave way to a medium sized yard with a two story cottage, stoutly built and blocked off by a gate that spanned the entire property. The silent, almost grim desolation of the house was a curious and striking contrast to the cheerful aspect of all the other cottages in Ponyville, and was enough to make Rarity stop dead in her tracks and study it’s abhorrent features.

It was unapologetically modern, a coupling of wooden cubes with a hoof-full of windows and small porch. The stairs were slapped against the porch as if they were an afterthought. They fell too close to the entrance and were uncommonly narrow. The rail was simply a plank of wood supported by three small spindles. It looked like the house was slapped together in less than a day and could come crashing down with even the weight of a child.

The windows were barred up with timber that was giving way in some places. The door, which was solid oak, was the only part of the house that seemed firm and well secured, and over it Rarity noticed a plaque on which some words had been carved, but were almost completely taken over by lichen.

“The ash fam ly s hous “

The grass had pushed itself high over the threshold of the porch and almost reached the windowsills in some places.

From the house led a pathway through the overgrown yard down to the gate the two ponies were standing before. The gate was hung upon two stone piers covered with moss. On the top of one was a stone globe. The other had been removed, or had fallen off over during the course of time.

“I’ve lived in Ponyville all my life,” Rarity said to Pinkie, suddenly. “and I never knew who lived in this house. I passed it all the time on my trips out of town and I never saw a single pony or a family inside.”

Pinkie was silent, looking stone-faced at the house.

“It looks almost sad. “Rarity continued. “Like it wants to weep. I remember once as a filly seeing somepony inside, but that was almost fifteen years ago, and every year since the house has fallen further and further into disrepair.”

“This was Dashie’s house.” Pinkie said flatly without looking away from the house.

“Dashie’s house?” Rarity said, her inflection souring. “How do you know it’s her house?”

Pinkie’s expression didn’t change. Her sudden solemnity seeming completely uncharacteristic to Rarity.

“Dashie was the first pony I met when I came to Ponyville, when I moved here from the rock farm.” Pinkie said sullenly. “She was playing by herself by that window,” Pinkie pointed her hoof at the living room window on the bottom left side of the house. “She looked so sad and lonely, like she needed a friend, so I went to introduce myself but when she saw me she ran inside.”

Pinkie turned towards her friend, only to be met with a scowl.

“Then when I went to school, she was in my class and all the other foals were making fun of her because she couldn’t fly, so she probably thought I was going to do the same. I wasn’t going to, I just wanted to be her friend…”

“Worthless villain.” Rarity spat. “For the way she’s hurt my friends she deserves all the ridicule she gets, and then some.”

Rarity made an obscene gesture towards the house and continued down the road, marching through the mud. Pinkie pie hesitated for a moment, stealing a long glance at the house, and ran to catch up with Rarity.

Inside the house, Dashie sighed in relief from the window, She placed a hoof over her chest in an attempt to calm her rapid heartbeats. Once Pinkie pointed to her window, Dashie almost ran off like a frightened foal. Her body trembled from the panic. All the same, Dashie was awash with relief once she saw Rarity storm off.

She limped back to end of the room and resumed her place underneath the nest of blankets. Despite her many injuries, she found herself slipping into unconsciousness once more. She was safe, for now.

Author's Note

Musical Inspiration:

Say you'll haunt me - Stone Sour
On Impulse - Animals as Leaders

Chapter Seven: Mourning Rain

Inside the hospital lobby, Rarity and Pinkie Pie trotted up to a large reception desk where a young mare stood, cloaked in hospital attire, looking over several charts spread across the desk.

“Good Morning, I am Miss Rarity” Rarity introduced herself as regally as she could, placing extra emphasis on the last syllable. “My friend and I are here to visit Twilight Sparkle, could you tell us what room they placed her in?”

The mare gave an uneasy smile. “You don’t need to introduce yourself again, Miss. I was attending last night when you both brought her in.” She pulled open a ledger book. “I heard she’s doing better now, she was in pretty rough shape last night.”

“Were they able to find out what was wrong?” Pinkie blurted out after absentmindedly staring at a stuffed stallion toy the mare had in a corner of her desk.

“They’re not sure yet, they have to run a few more tests.” The mare flipped a few pages in the ledger. “Twilight Sparkle, first floor, east, room 147. You should be able to go down the hall to your left, past the operating rooms, and it should take you right to the in-patient rooms.”

The mare attempted to offer her condolences, but as she looked up from her ledger book Rarity had already began towards the door with an unnerving quickness to her gait. As the unicorn pushed past the doors, the hospital-mare looked back to Pinkie Pie who had returned her attention back to the stuffed toy on the mare’s desk; it had a pink mane, like Pinkie Pie, and she found that peculiarly interesting.

“I think your friend went that way” The mare said to Pinkie, breaking her concentration on the toy.

Looking around, Pinkie looked confused. Not by the absence of Rarity per se, but for a moment she appeared to not even know where she was.

“Uh,” Pinkie stammered, wearing an embarrassed grin. “What room did you say Twilight was in again?”

“147” the mare deadpanned.

“Right, thanks!” Pinkie began towards the set of double doors off to the right of the desk towards the maternity wing, before looking back at the mare, confused.

“The doors on the left” the mare pointed over her shoulder towards the correct doors.

Pinkie trotted a few steps, then stopped, and looked back at the desk; at the stuffed toy this time.

The mare saw a puerile expression complicating Pinkie’s face, and it reminded her of the ones the foals make when their parents tell them they can’t have any of the candy from the mare’s candy dish. it was an expression of childish desire conflicting with her mature composure.

The mare then looked at the stuffed toy she had on her desk, the kind the hospital had hundreds of in a storage room and gave to foals to distract them from their injuries. She then made the connection and gently pushed the toy towards Pinkie.

“Take it.” The mare said, smiling at Pinkie.

Pinkie gasped. “Really? I can have it?” A smile flashed across her face. “I mean, I don’t want it, but If you don’t want it…”

“No it’s fine,” The mare returned a smile. “We have hundreds of these, if you want it, you can have it!”

Pinkie didn’t say anything, but responded with a cheer, and then grabbed the toy off the desk and trotted away to find Rarity.

The mare let out a mix between a sigh and a laugh. The toys were meant to cheer up little foals with broken bones, and while Pinkie wasn’t a foal the mare took pleasure in knowing that she was still able to cheer somepony up. It was a delightful change of pace from usual crowd of mourners rushing in and demanding information and trotting off before they can even exchange pleasantries. The mare hummed quietly to herself as she returned back to her work.

***

Rarity swiftly made her way through a series of several shorter hallways before eventually coming to a set of doors with the words “In-patient & Visitor Check-in” written on a plaque next to the doors.

She took a moment to catch her breath, as she was trotting rather quickly through the halls and the horseshoes she was wearing were made more for show than for traveling or quick movements.

Rarity took short lungfuls of air, trying to use her teeth to filter the hospital air.

She wasn’t the biggest fan of hospitals. She disliked how naked and drab the walls looked with their flat colors and lack of decorations. The low ceilings made her feel constrained and claustrophobic. But what she disliked the most was the sterilized smells that clung to her nose hairs for what would seem like days.

Rarity could forgive the dull decorating or the bland colors, not everypony was blessed with her keen eye for aesthetics after all, but she at least wished they could pump in a pleasant perfume or some kind of lilac; anything to chase away that nasty odor of disinfectants and sanitizers.

Rarity then realized that in all her rushing and subsequent fussiness about the hospital’s design, she had lost track Pinkie Pie.

Backtracking the hallways, she didn’t have to go far to find her wayward friend standing in front of one of the operating rooms, reading a chart on the wall.

“Ah there you are, Pinkie” Rarity sighed as she caught up to her friend. “I was worried I’d lost you.”

“Helloff Wawityf” Pinkie mumbled through the toy stallion she was holding in her mouth. Spitting it out, she tried again. “Hello Rarity.”

“Pinkie, what are you doing over here?” Rarity asked, not the least bit surprised that Pinkie somehow acquired a toy on her way through the hospital. “The mare at the front desk said to go past the operating rooms.”

“I know that, silly filly” Pinkie said with a particular tone of nonchalance that made Rarity’s muscles tighten. “Hey, where did you say Cheerilee was today?”

“Excuse me?”

“Cheerilee,” Pinkie repeated. “Didn’t you say she was at the hospital today?”

“Yes dear, for a medical emergency.” Rarity stated, surprised by the sudden questioning. “I don’t see what that has to do wi-”

“She’s in there.” Pinkie pointed a hoof at the operating room doors, then at the chart on the wall. “Says she having eye surgery to ‘remove a foreign glass object from patient’s cornea and outer-sclera area’” Pinkie read aloud as she read the chart.

“How unfortunate!” Rarity said, bewildered. “Remind me to make her a get-well-soon outfit, she’s always been so helpful with Sweetie Belle.” Rarity read over the chart herself, and the two ponies shared in a moment of silence. “But we really need to get to Twilight’s room, Pinkie. It’s important.”

***

The in-patient ward was alive with sound; a symphony of machine clicks and beeps, wheezes, and susurrations of air ventilators. The halls were filled with such sounds.

Being a small community hospital as it was, Ponyville Hospital didn’t have very many wards, so many of the adult surgery patients were mixed in with the patients that would normally be housed in Intensive Care. But since Ponyville Hospital was no bigger than the hotel building it converted from twenty years ago, and because the closest hospital was the larger teaching hospital in Manehattan, it didn’t have the resources for a separate ICU ward or the time available to send patients to a more specialized hospital; thus, the patients were mixed into a single ward. Resulting in a crescendo of noise that could rattle the brain of anypony who listened for too long.

Twilight’s Room, however, was much quieter. There was only one machine beeping, one machine chirping, one machine wheezing, and only one pony in one hospital bed.

Twilight was laying on her back, unconscious and with her head turned to Spike, her dragon assistant, who was sitting in a chair off to her side and nervously watching her heart monitor.

Strands of lilac hair clung to Twilight’s face, matted down and tangled from being shuffled around as the doctors tried to resuscitate her, while several tubes snaked around her left hoof and carried fluids into her veins. Another tube ending somewhere deep inside her throat was connected to a machine that made her chest rise and fall at a steady rhythm.

Spike didn’t know what caused Twilight to end up in the hospital. He remembered waking up to a lot of commotion in the library’s foyer, and when he made his bleary way downstairs Twilight was already being carried out by Rarity and Pinkie Pie. He followed them all the way to the hospital, asking several times what had happened, but neither Rarity or Pinkie would tell him, and by the time they had reached the hospital he was forced to stay in the waiting room while the responding residents worked on her.

By the time he was finally allowed to see her, Twilight had already slipped unconscious and had to be placed on life-support just to keep her vitals stable. Now Spike didn’t know how to feel, watching his mentor and best friend laying motionless except for her mechanical breaths. All he knew is that it made his own chest feel tight, like something was pressing against his diaphragm, and it caused him to only be able to take short, shallow breaths.

Spike scooted the chair a bit closer to the bed and was about to take the Alicorn by the hoof, but as he reached his claw forward the door to the room was opened and in walked two of Twilight’s friends.

“-and honestly Pinkie,” Rarity said mid-lecture. “just because some of the patients are in the hallways doesn't mean they want to make friends.”

“Aww, but they looked so sad and lonely.” Pinkie said as chipper as ever. “Especially that older stallion with the funny beard.”

“Well even if he wanted to be your friend,” Rarity continued. “ trotting up and hugging the daylights out of him is no way to make a first impression.”

“First impressions or not, hugs are the most funneriffic ways to brighten up your day.” Pinkie said, finally registering the other occupants of the room. “Oh hi Spike!”

Rarity rolled her eyes as she shut the door. For all she knew, there was a constant stream of elevator music running through Pinkie’s head instead of thoughts.

Spike didn’t respond to Pinkie Pie. Instead, he jumped from his chair and ran to Rarity’s side, clutching at her leg like a foal would to it’s mother. “Oh, Rarity, did the doctor’s tell you what’s wrong with Twilight yet?”

It didn’t take long for Rarity's motherly instincts to take over and gingerly held her hoof against the back of Spike’s head. She didn’t have any children of her own, but living with a little sister less than half her age she had to learn early on how to take care of foals. From cleaning up after to feeding and even comforting when upset, caring for foals was as much of a familiarity as her dress making, and she would most likely have a foal of her own if she weren’t so devoted to her work.

“They haven’t told us anything yet Spikey-dear, that’s why we’re here” Rarity said gently, practically cooing. “They told us to come as soon as we could because they needed to talk to us. Why? Did they tell you anything?”

“No!” Spike called out, almost yelling. “They haven’t told me anything. I’ve been here for hours and nopony will tell me anything. All I can do is watch Twilight sleep and it’s making my chest hurt!” Spike clutched a claw to his own chest in a demonstrative motion but all rarity could focus on was Twilight and all the machines keeping her alive. She wasn’t sleeping.

Rarity looked at Spike again, noticing his shallow breathing matching the rhythm of Twilight’s ventilator.

“Spikey dear, you mustn’t let yourself get so excited.” Rarity said in a soothing, almost cooing, tone, “If you keep yourself so worked up you’re going to wind up in that bed right next to Twilight. All that stress isn’t good for the heart.”

“I’m trying to remain calm,” Spike said, looking like he’d either cry or faint at any moment. “ but I don’t know what to do. I want to help Twilight but nopony will talk to me.”

Rarity wasn’t surprised by this, Intense anxiety or anger can get in the way of proper medical treatment and care. When emotions run high in a hospital, communication becomes problematic, and being under-staffed as they already were the doctors couldn’t afford to have Spike get in the way while they were reviving Twilight, and having a distraught child would only complicates things further.

Rarity however was a little more considerate towards Spike’s anxiety. She didn’t expect the hospital workers to be since they had other patients to attend to, but Rarity was being very careful with how she talked to Spike, taking care to not mention Twilight’s severely damaged state; even though it was tearing her up inside more than she was letting on.

“Whatever it is it must be pretty bad for her to be hooked up to all those machines.” Pinkie said, meaning well but sounding wildly inappropriate.

Spike made an audible sound of despair and Rarity stared daggers at Pinkie Pie. For everypony’s sake and, more importantly, her own sanity Rarity had to get these two out of the room. If they were dealing with a pregnancy and Rarity were a midwife she’d have ordered them to go boil some water and rip up a few sheets, mainly as a ploy to get them both out of the room for a good long time. Since that wasn’t the case, Rarity had to think of another course of action.

Rarity took out her coinpurse and opened it to the sound of two meager bits rattling against each other. She was hoping to have had a full coinpurse as a result of all of her dress sales, but one after another were cancelled and she was left with almost nothing to spare after her material costs.

She floated the two coins out of her purse and looked at them in the air for a split second. Her instinct was to horde the coins like a dragon’s treasure, at least until her next dress sold, but at the same time she needed to diffuse the powder-keg of a situation she was certain would explode if Pinkie Pie and Spike were to be in the room.

“Here Pinkie,” Rarity ordered, giving the coins to Pinkie. “Take Spike to get some tea from the vending machine and stay with him in the waiting room so he can calm down a little bit, I’ll talk to the doctor and afterwards I’ll take you both out to lunch and we’ll discuss it there.”

“Thanks Rarity.” Pinkie and Spike said in unison as they exited the room. Little did they know they were walking out with the last of Rarity’s money.

“And keep him away from that nasty coffee stuff” Rarity called to them. “His little heart can’t take any more stress.

“I’ll be sure~” Pinkie said in a sing-songy voice.

Rarity let out a long breath as the door shut behind them.

“What a mess.” she sighed and over to Twilight’s hospital bed.

“oh Twilight, what did that monster do to you? Rarity said, combing twilight’s hair with her magic. Tears welled in her eyes. “I knew it was bad when we brought you in here but I didn’t expect all this” Rarity emphasized while holding some of Twilight’s drip fluid chords in her hooves. She let let them down gently and simply stared at her friend, trying not to weep.

After a few minutes of silence, a nurse popped into the room:

“The doctor said he’ll be just another moment, I’m sorry to keep you waiting so long.”

“Yes… Thank you.” Rarity said almost unable to speak, and the nurse stepped out of the room, leaving the door open a crack, letting in the mechanical chorus from the neighboring rooms.

Rarity sighed again, this time a shaky and haggard breath akin to Spike’s breathing from earlier. It seemed that anypony that stood next to Twilight for too long had their breath stolen away, or at least caught off-guard and unprepared.

Rarity looked around the room and figured that while she waited for the doctor the least she could do is spruce things up a bit and hopefully drive away the bad vibes in the room.

Rarity opened the window to the room. It was still raining outside, and the clean white curtains fluttered in the breeze in a heavy, lazy motion. LIke waves. Rain was blown in slowly by the wind, absorbing into the fabric until it became too saturated and fell against the windowsill; almost as if the rain too was mourning the state of Twilight’s health.

“Miss Rarity, it’s a pleasure to see you again” a voice came from behind. “So sorry it’s not under happier circumstances.”

Rarity closed the window and wheeled around. The sprucing had to wait.

“a-hem, uh Yes!” Rarity said as she cleared her throat. “Sorry about the curtains, I was just trying to get some fresh air to vent out that terrible antiseptic smell out from the air.”

“Not a problem, miss.” The doctor chuckled, noticing the wet curtains. “They’re cleaned daily so it doesn’t matter if they get a little wet.”

The two of them engaged in small talk about the weather and Rarity was able to get a better look at the doctor than she did the night before.

He was a unicorn, as most of the surgeons in the hospital were. The aid of unicorn magic allows for finer motor controls than any pegasus or earth pony could achieve; although he looked rather young to be a surgeon. Rarity suspected that he must’ve been at least three years younger than she was, and probably fresh out of medical school.

While she was rushing Twilight into the hospital she was only able to catch a few flashes of his white lab-coat and his brown hair, but looking at him now she could see it was more of a dark-grey orange, like a tangelo that’s been left out in the sun for too long. HIs coat was a lovely shade of amber and he smelled like latex and antiseptic and the smell seemed to linger in the air around him.

“He must’ve just come out of surgery” Rarity thought. Which would explain why he was late, but the topic never came up in their conversation.

The conversation then quickly changed to talks of the upcoming gala and the following winter and what their plans were when an itchy nervousness began to rise up Rarity’s spine as she took quick glances back to Twilight lying in the hospital bed, unconscious, gone down some deep dark hole.

“So…” Rarity said abruptly, interrupting the doctor’s telling of his future vacation to the Vanhoover countryside. “How is… she”. Rarity was at a strange loss for words at the thought of Twilight’s condition.

“Ah yes… Miss Sparkle” The Doctor said as he levitated Twilight’s chart over to him. “Do you want me to give it to you straight or sugar-coat it?” Even the doctor had a shake to his voice.

“Straight.” Rarity said, swallowing hard.

“Alright then” The doctor began. “You said last night that another pony had tackled her to the ground from behind. The force from the tackle caused her neck to snap back and then the sudden downward pressure caused a severe compression fracture close to her bottom cervical vertebrae” The doctor flipped through the charts to a page full of x-rays and showed them to Rarity.

“You can see here the vertebral body has been badly damaged” The doctor pointed to the base of Twilight’s neckbone. “As a result the bone fragments have been lodged in the spinal canal and are pressing on the spinal cord.”

“And… what does that mean?” Rarity said flatly, although she never actually felt herself speaking. In fact, she didn’t feel much of anything at all.

“Due to the location of the fracture Miss Twilight has a total loss of movement and sensation below the point of injury.” The doctor said flipping to another chart. “She’s unable to move her torso, hips, or any of her hooves, essentially paralyzed from the shoulders down.”

“Is she going to die?”

“Thank Celestia, no!” The doctor said sympathetically. “She’s unconscious right now because we have to place her in a medically induced coma to get her vitals to stabilize. But because of the paralysis she’ll need 24 hour care. She won’t be able to clothe, feed, bathe, or even go to the bathroom by herself. Would you know anypony able to take care of her? Family perhaps?”

Rarity didn’t respond. she just stood there, breathless, and unable to move. She felt far away from her body, far away from reality. Eventually her ability to move returned, but she felt sluggish and dazed, and when she moved her head it felt like the tracking was off, like there was a couple seconds of delay between point A and point B.

“Ma’am?” The doctor asked after rarity didn’t respond after a minute. “Do you know anypony she can stay with?”

The words came out slow to Rarity, and the words she heard didn’t seem match the doctor’s lip movements. She asked him to repeat what he said but all the while he was talking a great ringing came up through Rarity’s ears and drowned out what the doctor was trying to say.

Another few more moments went by and the doctor noticed Rarity’s suddenly paling complexion and shortness of breath. She had no emotion on her face at all and looked mostly like she was frozen in place. Without another word the doctor brought over the chair at Twilight’s bedside, but before he could urge Rarity to sit down the door to the room flung open and Pinkie Pie bounced into the room waving the stuffed stallion toy from earlier.

“Rarity I know you told me to wait outside for you, but I forgot to give Twilight Mr. Brown hooves here!” Pinkie then noticed the doctor standing before Rarity. “Hey, he has brown hooves just like you, doctor.” and Pinkie began to laugh a loud, snorting laugh.

The last thing Rarity remembered was a bright searing rage take over her body and Pinkie Pie running, crying, out of the room before her vision went completely white.

The Doctor, however, witnessed the entire scene play out before him and remembered Rarity exploding with such a hot, sudden anger that the he took a step back without meaning to. She accused the pink mare of never taking anything seriously and needed to stop acting like such a child. Her language was heavily peppered with expletives and topped of with a final put-down comparing Pinkie to that of a mare’s genetalia; causing her throw the stuffed toy at Rarity and run crying out of the room.

Rarity left the room soon after, leaving the doctor alone in the room with Twilight and only the sounds of the morning rain. The doctor stood watching her. Did she even know he was there? Did she hear any of the terrible things her friend had said?

Chapter Eight: Runaway Curiosity

Sweetie Belle and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders were walking through one of Ponyville’s alleyways, just west of the housing district and a stone’s throw away from the market square. The rain had cleared up a few hours into the afternoon, and by half-past three the clouds had given-way to Celestia’s sunshine. All of Ponyville was lit by the day’s first rays of sunshine, although the town’s Weather Team was already corralling clouds for another storm scheduled for the wee hours of the night; so the sun shone through a thin layer of grey like a stained glass window.

“So what did you girls do with your day off?” Scootaloo asked as the group passed under an archway between two buildings. “I got a letter from Rainbow Dash so I spent the entire morning thinking of what to write back!”

“Ah just spent the whole day doin’ chores,” Applebloom said with a hint of defeat. “Applejack said ‘since you don’t have to go to school today it’d be the perfect day to wash the hogs’... I still have a little bit’a mud in my mane.”

Scootaloo laughed, creating a look of irritation on Applebloom's face. “What about you, Sweetie Belle?”

“I just took care of the Cake Twins all morning while Rarity and Pinkie Pie visited Twilight down at Ponyville Hospital” Sweetie Belle said, kicking a pebble. “You’d be surprised how cranky Pound Cake can get if you don’t make his lunch just right.”

Scootaloo and Applebloom stopped in their tracks, surprised.

“What’d’yall mean?” Applebloom asked after sharing a confused look with Scootaloo.

“Well Pound Cake gets really upset if you don’t make his food exactly the way he likes it.” Sweetie Belle said, stopping a few feet ahead of her friends “If the temperature or ingredients are off by even just a little bit he starts crying and pounding on everything… I don't even know how he can tell the difference, he’s just a foal.”

“No, no no.” Applebloom said, shaking her head. “About tha’ other part.”

“About Twilight being in the hospital!” Scootaloo added.

“oh right, that.” Sweetie Belle blushed from embarrassment. “The thing is, I don’t know what happened. Rarity just woke me up and said I had to watch the Twins for a few hours while they went to see Twilight.”

“Well did she tell you why she was in the hospital?” Scootaloo asked impatiently. “Anything at all? What about Pinkie Pie?”

“No nothing,” Sweetie Belle said. “All they told me was how to look after the Twins. What food they like to eat, when to change them, when to put them down for a nap. Those kinds of things.”

“What about when they got back?” Scootaloo said, no longer hiding her brusqueness. “They had to’ve told you something!”

“Scootaloo.” Applebloom said shooting scootaloo a not-so-enthused glance before turning to Sweetie Belle “I’m sure what Scootaloo meant to ask was,” Applebloom said returning the glance again back to Scootaloo. “Did Twilight or Pinkie Pie give you any explanation why Twilight was in the hospital? Maybe Twilight had hay fever or sprained her hoof or somethin’?”

“Hey, that’s exactly what I asked!” Scootaloo argued. “I just didn’t beat around the bush.”

“Nopony told me why Twilight was in the hospital.” Sweetie Belle said matter-of-factly. “I don’t think anypony was supposed to know. Rarity told me not to tell anypony. Not even you girls.”

“Why aren’t ponies supposed to know she’s in the hospital?” Scootaloo asked despite the glares she was getting from Applebloom. “Doesn’t Twilight want visitors? She’s like the friendliest pony in Ponyville, you would think everypony in town would want to wish her better.”

“I don’t know, but you can’t tell anypony, Scootaloo.” Sweetie Belle said with a sense of real panic. “Rarity’s very upset today and she’s going to ground me if she knows I told somepony.”

“I remember I was in the hospital once for a broken wing,” Scootaloo started rambling. “And nopony came to visit me. It was like the loneliest thing ever!”

“You fell off your scooter at recess” Applebloom cut in, determined to get Scootaloo to take things seriously. “You only lost a few feathers. And you weren’t even in the hospital, it was the school nurse.”

“Still, nopony visited me.”

“Still” Applebloom reiterated the seriousness of the conversation they were having. “You’re upsetting Sweetie Belle, you have to promise not to tell anypony that Twilight’s in the hospital.”

“Please.” Sweetie Belle said desperately.

“Oh fine.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “I was just trying to have a little fun. I promise I won’t tell anypony Twilight’s in the hospital” She emphasized her promise with a slight sarcasm to her tone.

“And ah promise too.” Applebloom said. “Now ya’ll don’t have to worry about getting grounded. What say y’all that we change the subject now?”

Applebloom lead the group into a pathway between buildings and down a flight of stairs to a small garden area and the three of them sat down on one of the benches. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle began to small-talk about school and other boring things that Scootaloo didn’t care about, so the orange filly threw her hoof over the back of the bench and looked around the garden.

The garden itself was in fact just a small square courtyard created by the junction of three different houses that somepony had planted a tree in. But over the years the tree had shot up well above the rooves of the houses so somepony else decided to build a garden around it, planting flowers and shrubs and paving the dirt so it connected to the rest of the town; creating one of the most popular shortcuts from the housing district into the market square.

When Scootaloo finally got tired of listening to the wind, the birds, and the handful of ponies chatting at each other from their balconies above the garden, she finally decided to inject herself into whatever boring conversation Sweetie Belle and Applebloom had been having the whole time.

“Hey girls. I wanted to throw a party for Rainbow Dash when she comes back from the Wonderbolts tonight, do you think Pinkie Pie would be able put a party together this soon?”

“I don’t think Pinkie Pie is in the partying mood right now.” Sweetie Belle said. “She came home crying after she got back from the hospital earlier today. She didn’t say why or even let me finish feeding Pound Cake his lunch, she just pushed me to the door and said I had to leave.”

“That’s awful strange of Pinkie to do that.” Applebloom said. “Something bad must’a happened at the hospital.”

“Or something bad must’ve happened to Pinkie.” Scootaloo added. “Did you try asking Rarity what happened.”

“Now don’t go startin; this again, Scootaloo” Applebloom interjected. “Ah told you before Sweetie Belle’s too upset to want to talk about this stuff so would ya stop-”

“No it’s ok, I want to talk about it” Sweetie Belle interrupted this time. “Rarity was really angry when I came home. She locked me out of the house and told me not to come back until dinner. She said ‘your sister needs some time alone.’”

“So that’s why you were just wandering around Ponyville when we found you earlier.”

Applebloom just put her head in her hooves, defeated.

“She’s been getting upset a lot recently, “Sweetie belle said dispiritedly. “and at the littlest things too. Just a few days ago we went out for dinner at Mane Event and she yelled at the waiter because her salad had croutons in it. Croutons!”

For a moment, nopony said anything, unable to think of what to say next.

“I just don’t know what she’s so upset about” Sweetie Belle finally said, wistfully drawing in the dirt with one of her hooves. “I’m trying my best not to make her angry. I help her with her dresses, I go and run her errands… She doesn’t think I’m a bad sister, does she?”

“a’course not.” Applebloom said. “You an’ me both know she doesn’t think you’re a bad sister.”

“But she’s yelling at me about everything!” Sweetie Belle threw her hooves out and began to parrot her sister. “You only have two more months to figure out fractions. Take the plates to the sink when you’re done using them. These emeralds you bought are cabochon cut, everypony knows gown-jewels need to be faceted.”

Sweetie Belle gave one of Rarity’s famous huffs and slumped back into the bench.

“I”m just tired of being yelled at.”

“Ah come on, everypony knows fractions are hard. “Applebloom said trying to be supportive. “but… ah, I’m sure she doesn’t mean to yell at you. And besides, isn’t she like super busy ‘round this time a’year? Ah’ know Applejack has to work the cider-presses almost non-stop just to keep up with all tha cider orders that come in around this time.”

“She does have a lot of orders.” Sweetie bell said. “She’s also been working round the clock too. She even worked past the time she sets aside just to spend time with me. I wanted to take her to the park and show her-”

Scootaloo lost interest in the conversation again and began to fidget. She started tapping her horseshoes on the cobblestones to the tune of the Wonderbolts Theme, but somewhere between the third and fourth measure she found herself becoming more interested in the conversations other ponies were having as they passed the fillies by on their way into the market.

At first it was just idle conversation. What this pony was going to buy in the market, what this other pony did on her vacation in Las Pegasus, how Twinkleshine was in a love-triangle with three other mares. Nothing too interesting, at least not for a filly as inattentive as Scootaloo. But it wasn’t long before the local chatter got more and more suspicious:

“Do you think it has anything to do with what’s been going on lately?”

“It can’t be because of her, can it? I thought she was gone for good...”

“I heard she was found in the alley, trying to sneak into town…”

“From the neck down! I heard she won’t be able to move…”

“First Honey Drop, now Twilight? I thought we were safe from her...”

“What the hay is going on?!” Scootaloo shouted at her friends, interrupting a conversation they were having about the Crystal Empire.

“Huh? What?” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle both said in unison.

“Something happened last night, and nopony wants to tell us what.” Scootaloo said jumping up from the bench, unable to contain her impatient energy any longer. “But somehow everypony else seems to have their own version of what’s going on!.”

“Scootaloo does have a point” Applebloom said. “But what if it’s something really bad?”

“Something we’re not supposed to know about?” Sweetie Belle reiterated.

“Not supposed to know?” Scootaloo dashed up and grabbed Sweetie Belle by the shoulders. “Sweetie Belle, half of Ponyville seems to know what’s going on. A whole bunch of ponies just walked into the town square talking about it!”

“Maybe it’s-”

“Well I’m tired of sitting around not knowing.” Scootaloo said letting go of Sweetie Bell before dashing off towards the Town Square. “I say we find out what’s going on.”

“Scootaloo wait!”

***

The intermittent rain and sunshine made the air crisp and sweet like an apple, and each breath gave a renewed vigor to the townsfolk who were trying to squeeze in another market day before the next storm.

Vendors at food stalls crowded the town square, selling loaves of bread and fresh fruits, or vegetables cooking on roasting skewers. Lovers and good friends trotted side by side, casually browsing between the stalls and the cacophony of new deals being heckled at them whilst housewives haggled over turnips, swede, fat carrots and bunches of cilantro.

Scootaloo galloped into the market and paused for a moment to catch her breath in the middle of the throngs of ponies milling about.

“Scootaloo!” Applebloom called out once she and Sweetie Belle finally had a chance to catch up. “Now what’r’ya thinking running off like that? What’r’ya plannin’ to do?”

“I’m planning to find out why none of the adults are telling us anything,” Scootaloo said between breaths.” what happened to Twilight.”

“We’re not supposed to know, Scootaloo.” Sweetie Belle wailed out, practically on the verge of tears. “Rarity said we’re not supposed to know, and I don’t want her to yell at me again.”

“Aren’t you tired of being treated like a foal?” Scootaloo asked, getting jostled by the river of market ponies as they pushed past her. “Arent you tired of the grown ups telling you what to do?”

“We are foals” Applebloom said as she guided Scootaloo away from almost being run over by a distracted stallion pulling a vegetable cart. “For Pony’s sake we’re not even in the 5th grade yet.”

“But you can still run the farm when Applejack isn’t home.” Scootaloo said derisively.

“An what’s that supposed to mean?” Applebloom replied hotly, starting to lose her own patience.

“It’s supposed to me that we may still be foals but we’re old enough to have responsibilities of our own.” Scootaloo said, taking a step back from the yellow filly pressing a muzzle into hers. “We should be able to know what’s going on. We’re too old to be told we’ll tell you when you’re older.”

“Well what do you plan to do, Scootaloo?” Applebloom’s temper started to rise. “Just walk up to every pony you can and ask ‘Why’s Twilight in the Hospital?’? It doesn’t work like that. If we weren't told and they were, then it’s probably for a good reason.”

“Good reason or not.” Scootaloo said in a calmer tone, trying to diffuse her friend’s vexation. “I still want to find out what’s-”

“I don’t!” Sweetie Belle burst out, tears of fear, frustration, and confusion running down her cheeks. “I don’t want to know anything about what’s going on. Not about Twilight. Not about why everypony knows, or why Scootaloo cares so much about it. I’m not getting Rarity mad. I’m not getting yelled at again!”

Before Scootaloo could think of something to say, Sweetie Belle ran crying, headlong into the throws of the market crowd.

“Now look what you went and did” Applebloom scolded. “Ah’ told you to drop it for this very reason” and with a quick about-face Applebloom took off after Sweetie Belle.

Scootaloo sighed, buffeted slightly by the fact that she managed to upset both of her friends. But she was not dissuaded. She took a long breath. Primed by the crisp, pre-autumn breeze, and set out with a renewed determination to discover what the whole town was chattering about. But like a candle in that same pre-autumn breeze, her determination was quickly extinguished when she realized there was really no way to go about getting the information she needed.

She couldn’t ask Rarity and Pinkie Pie because, like Sweetie Belle said, they were far too upset. Twilight was obviously a no-go since she was in the hospital miles away. Rainbow Dash wouldn’t be back for a few hours, and even then she’d be as clueless as Scootaloo was. She had no idea where Fluttershy was, so the only other adult Scootaloo knew would be in town was Applejack.

A flicker of inspiration flashed through Scootaloo’s mind. Applejack has to know what’s going on. She’s been working the market all morning, and with this many ponies talking about Twilight she’d have to have heard something. And what a bit of serendipity too since Scootaloo didn’t have to go too far. Just a few quick gallops and a shortcut through the alfalfa stand before arriving within earshot of Applejack’s stall and her trademarked countryisms.

“Apples, git yet apples here!” Applejack called across the marketplace “We got all kinds! Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, Braeburn, Golden Delicious. And I don’t just mean my family!” Applejack added with a flourish and one of her famous yee-haws. “Oh hey there Scootaloo, what can ah’ do ya for? You hungry for some apples?”

“Hey Applejack.” Scootaloo greeted the orange earth-pony. “Sorry no, I didn’t come here to buy any apples.”

“Lookin’ for Applebloom then.” Applejack said, tipping the brim of her cow-pony hat to shield her eyes from the sun. “I would’a reckoned she would’ve already been with you by now. Y’all three are tighter than an oyster in a riptide!”

“I was with Applebloom earlier.” Scootaloo smiled slightly in hopes to hide her embarrassment, but it came out mousy and insincere. “We had a fight and well… That’s actually kinda why I’m here.”

“Aww shucks. if I know you three you’ll be made-up and back to playin’ with each other before sundown” Applejack jack said, looking away once to accept some bits from a stallion buying a bushel of apples. “What’d you youngin’s fight about anyway? Applebloom hog the swingset? Sweetie Belle eat the last cupcake at Sugarcube Corner?”

Applejack was speaking in earnest, in the same way an uncle or another elder would would speak before tussling hair. Scootaloo knew Applejack didn’t mean to patronize her, at most is was good-natured teasing, but because Scootaloo had actual fights about that stuff, Scootaloo couldn't help the flush of embarrassment from washing over her face.

“We were fighting about Twilight.” Scootaloo said sheepishly. “You wouldn’t happen to know why she’s in the hospital, would you?”

Applejack cocked her head to the side. “Hospital? Ah’ head she was doing just fine. Now where’d y’all hear such a rumor like that?”

“It’s… all over the town?” Scootaloo said confused. “You really haven’t heard anything about it? I heard two mares talking about her on my gallop over here.”

“Ah’ haven’t heard a thing.” Applejack bit her lip. “Maybe it was another mare.”

“It was definitely Twilight. I heard her name mentioned at least four times.” Scootaloo said positively. “Sweetie Belle said she heard it from Rarity. Did Rarity tell you anything?”

“Ah’ haven’t heard anything from Rarity either.” Applejack stood very still. “Ah’ve been working the Apple stand since the market opened and Ah’ haven’t seen hide nor hair of Rarity since last Tuesday.”

The was a slight gloom of tension to their conversation, despite the jovial market scene. Scootaloo couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it was, but attributed it most likely to the nature of the conversation they were having. Scootaloo got thoughtful for a moment, rubbing a hoof to her chin.

“Well do you know anything about mare called Dashie?” Scootaloo finally asked. Applejack’s eyes widened.

“Where’d y’all hear that name?” Applejack said, moving her straw-yellow hair out of her eyes despite not making eye-contact with Scootaloo.

“Sweetie Belle saw a pony going by that name being attacked by the antique shop a yesterdat and things have been pretty weird since then. Do you know her?”

“Do I know here?” Applejack shook her head a little too eagerly. “Only Dashie ah know is Rainbow Dash, and she ain’t to partial to that nickname neither.“

“But Rainbow Dash has been out of town for almost two weeks now, and this mare was attacked only yesterday” Scootaloo said, running a hoof through her hair. “They have to be different ponies, don’t you think?”

“Ah’ don’t think” Applejack said, her voice becoming shallow, almost as if she were out of breath. “Ah’ don’t think so at all.”

“Well I think so” Scootaloo said. “There’s no other way for it to make sense. They have to be different ponies… Do you think it could be somepony related to Rainbow Dash?”

“Sorry Scootaloo” Applejack said, pointing past the filly. “Ah’d love t’ chat but I’ve got customers to take care of. Yes sir we do have green apples!”

“But there’s… Nopony there” Scootaloo said, turning around to see the crowd thinned down dramatically for the lunch-time lull. Turning back, Applejack refused to meet her gaze. “Yes sir, two bits for a bushel!”

Scootaloo tried to stay and talk to Applejack, and maybe find out some more information but eventually left when she realized she was being deliberately ignored. As she walked through the market, she spotted her friends again sitting at a table on the outside patio of the milkshake shop.

“How did you search go?” Applebloom asked flippantly before taking a sip of her milkshake. “Find out everything you wanted to know?”

“No, I didn’t.” Scootaloo said defeated, hesitating to join the two at the table since Sweetie Belle was still clearly upset. She had her head in her hooves and looked like she hadn’t even touched her milkshake. Even the little cookie was still on the straw and that’s like everypony’s favorite thing to eat first. “You were right, I couldn’t really ask anypony. The only one I could talk to was Applejack and she was acting all weird about it.”

“Weird?” Applebloom asked in the middle of drinking. “What d’y’all mean? Weird how?”

Scootaloo was part way through her retelling of her conversation with Applejack when Applebloom suddenly burst out.

“She’s lyin’!”

“Lying?” Scootaloo asked her to explain.

“She always doe the same thing when she lies.” Applebloom stated factually. “Turns her head up, bites her lip, and if you keep pestering her she’ll just ignore you entirely. She does it all the time when I try to tell her I’m old enough to stay at home by myself.”

Applebloom saw a smug little smile forming on Scootaloo’s face at the utterance of her last sentence and refused to let the orange filly use it as proof she was right. Instead, the three departed from the milkshake shop, deciding to walk Sweetie Belle home since she was far too upset; she had even given her entire milkshake to the bus-pony to throw away while they were talking about Applejack.

“This is awful strange” Applebloom said as the fillies walked. “Applejack hardly ever tells a lie.”

“I told you.” Scootaloo said, pleased with herself.

“Ah just don’t understand it. “Applebloom said with the same run-away curiosity Scootaloo was showing earlier “She’s the element of Honesty for pony’s sake!”

“Do you really think she was lying?” Scootaloo asked as the filles trotted back into the housing district. “She didn’t seem like she was lying to me, but you’re her sister so you’d know better than anypony.”

“She knows something, I know that much.” Applebloom said, checking behind her to make sure Sweetie Belle was still walking with them. “It’s not in her nature to lie, so if she is then something really bad must be happening.”

“Something bad is happening” Sweetie Belle said. Applebloom and Scootaloo both looked back to see Sweetie Belle pointing to a sign they had just walked past.It was on of Rarity’s signs, the ones she had plastered all over town advertising her autumn sale, except they had been painted over with a new message.

“Meeting tonight at the Town hall. 9 pm after you’ve put your foals to bed.”

Nearly all the signs had been replaced by the time the three fillies had found them.

“This is the busiest time of the year for Rarity.” Sweetie belle said as if the last piece of a puzzle finally fit together inside her head. “She puts these signs out every year to get as many orders as she can.”

Sweetie belle turned to her friends. “This explains everything. “The mare in the alley, Rarity’s anger-”

“The whole town being in on it but refusing to tell us anything” Scootaloo said, picking up on Sweetie Belle’s train of thought.

“Applejack’s lying.” Applebloom added.

“-And now Rarity’s signs.” Sweetie Belle said. “It has to be something really bad if Rarity would sacrifice her advertisements for it.”

“There’s no doubt there’ something the grown up aren’t telling us.” Scootaloo said. “I don’t know about you girls but I really want to know what it is.”

Scootaloo proposed that the three of them sneak out once the adults leave for the meeting and stake-out outside the town hall. Applebloom was finally on board and agreed immediately.

“What about you, Sweetie Belle?” The two turned to the unicorn.

“Well…” Sweetie Belle said reluctantly, but her curiosity was getting to her as well. “Just as long as Rarity doesn’t find out.”

Chapter Nine: Barely Contained Rage

The creak of hinges brought Dashie out of an unrestful sleep. She listened, but all she could hear was the wind fighting with the silence. She fell back asleep.

Again she was roused, by coughing this time, not her own. She laid very still, listening for the source of the noise, but again, she heard nothing.

“Maybe she’s in the living room?”

She opened her eyes. Darkness draped over the furniture, the curtains, and the walls. There was nothing there.

A rustle disturbed the quiet. Dashie moved her eyes towards the direction of the sound and in the doorway two ponies peered into the room.

She froze. A third pony appeared, this one carrying a small lantern in his mouth that lit up the entire room. Dashie swallowed.

“I see her there, in the corner!”

***

It was well past 9 pm by the time Rainbow Dash made her way back into Ponyville. The town was silent and dark, except for the Town Hall which was full of light, piercing through the dark night sky like a lighthouse on the coast. A beacon in an otherwise shadowy town; drawing her like a moth to a flame.

Rainbow Dash made a quick descent and glided to a landing on the Town Hall’s’ portico. There she was greeted by Pinkie Pie, who was practically dancing with anxiety.

“Pinkie Pie, what’s going on?” Rainbow Dash said, removing her flight goggles. “Why did I get an emergency telegram saying I had to be here as fast as possible? I didn’t even have time to change out of my Wonderbolts outfit.”

“It’s really bad, Rainbow Dash,“ Pinkie Pie dragged Rainbow Dash by the hoof. “You have to see this.” She said as the two mares passed through the double entrance doors.

Rainbow Dash could hear the rumble of a crowd before she even stepped into the foyer, but as she entered the assembly it sounded like the inside of an angry beehive. The room was packed to the rafters with the entire town’s adult populace; all shouting over each other trying to make themselves heard.

Rainbow Dash removed her hood, and her rainbow-colored hair fell over her forehead. She looked around the hall in mute confusion, trying to understand the demonstration of fear and anger that was raging on in front of her. some of the ponies were crying, others held their hooves over their face in shock and disbelief, a few even looked full of rage they were barely able to contain; and everypony was talking at once.

“...it really her?”

“...she was going to do it again, I just know it....”

“...paralyzed from the neck down and...”

“...not safe in this town as long as…”

“What’s going on?” Rainbow Dash pantomimed to Pinkie, who only responded by pointing to a separate bit of commotion going on somewhere deeper inside the crowd.

Rainbow dash pushed her way through the crowd, leaving Pinkie Pie by the entrance as she worked her way towards the center of the room where she could see a grey-coated pony tied to a chair. The town’s mayor was also there, trying to keep the crowd at a respectable distance while one of her staff members tried to talk to the pony.

And as Rainbow Dash pushed through the last layer of crowd, she could see the pony’s coat wasn’t actually grey -but blue- like her own, but soiled with dirt and dried blood. The pony’s head hung weakly, and Rainbow could see splotches of purple, red, and pink in the peeking through the pony’s dirty mane.

“All you have to do is tell us why you did it, Dashie.” The staff member said to the pony in the chair. “we’re not going to hurt you.”

“What the hay is going on here?” Rainbow Dash said as she approached the scene. “What are you doing to her?”

“she’s a murder!” Voices shouted from the crowd.

“She tried to kill Twilight”

“She’s a monster”

“Please everypony.” Mayor Mayor mare said, failing to keep order “One at a time.”

Rainbow Dash asked again, having to yell just to be heard, but the crowd grew louder and even more incoherent.

The rainbow mare grit her teeth and her wings flared. With one strong beat of her wings Rainbow Dash whipped up a gust of wind powerful enough to force everypony in the crowd to take a reflexive step backwards, and before they could even think to react the wind was followed by a resounding clasp of thunder the rattled the clerestory windows in their frames; and in a moment’s instance everypony was silent.

“Now does somepony want to explain to me just what the hell is going on?” Rainbow Dash ordered as the last echoes of her thunder finally faded. “Why is she tied up like this?”

“Ww-we were just trying to find out what she was doing in Ponyville” The mayor’s staff members said. Rainbow Dash knew him as Rocky Inkwell, an earth pony with sandy brown hair and a silver coat who, for lack of better words, Rainbow found to be very generic. Not that there were any hostilities between the two, she just never had an affinity for somepony as by the books as he was “She sent somepony to the hospital and we just wanted to know why.”

“It was Twilight!” a mare from the crowd yelled with a hilt to her voice. “She broke Twilight’s back!”

The crowd began to murmur again, but before they could get any roudier Rainbow Dash barked at the crowd to be quiet. She then turned back to Rocky.

“What’s this about Twilight now?” She said before finally getting a good look at the mare in the chair. “Dear Celestia, what did you do to her?”

Rainbow Dash pushed past the staff member out of the way and inspected the mare’s wounds.

“Her nose is broken and her right eye is almost swollen completely shut.” Rainbow Dash said. “You just tied her up like this? Why didn’t you take her to the hospital?”

“We… We weren’t trying to hurt her...” Rocky said timidly.

“Well what were you trying to do?”

Rocky couldn’t formulate a coherent answer under Rainbow’s intimidating tone and line of questioning.

“Answer me!” Rainbow yelled as she grabbed Rocky by the scruff of his collar “If you weren’t trying to hurt her then what were you trying to do? Because she looks pretty hurt to me.”

“We were just trying to make her leave town” Rocky managed to whimper out after Rainbow Dash tossed him to the ground. “Rough her up a bit, you know? Scare her into leaving.”

“We?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Who else was doing this with you?”

“There weren’t many.” Rocky said. “Just a few ponies I was able to get together when we saw her coming into town. Pulled her into the alley as she was walking past the antique shop.” Rainbow Dash leaned forward to shift her weight and the pony instinctively covered his face as if Rainbow Dash was going to strike him. “But we weren’t going to hurt her. Honest! We just wanted to scare her into never coming back. But that was before she hit cheerilee with a bottle and Cheerilee went berserk on her.”

“And she deserved it too!” Cheerilee shouted from the crowd.

Rainbow Dash turned to face Cheerilee and was greeted by the angry purple mare looking back at her through several bandages covering one half of her face.

“And what happened to you?” Rainbow Dash said exasperated. “What did you all do to each other? I leave for a week and you all practically kill each other.”

“She blinded me, that’s what happened.” Cherilee spat with barely contained rage while she talked. “Hit me right over the eye with a bottle and the glass destroyed my cornea. I’m completely blind in my left eye now.”

A small murmur started brewing in the crowd again, responding to cheerilee's energy.

“Have you all gone crazy?” Rainbow Dash practically yelled. “ Celestia could have all of your hooves for malfeasance if word of this got back to her.”

The crowd reeled back as if in horror and the murmurs changed to that of fear instead of anger; even Cheerilee’s.

“..really do that, can she?”

”... ancient law..”

“...I’d flee to Griffonstone before I let somepony cut off my hooves...”

“That law was written over a thousand years ago,” a pony finally spoke up. “There’s no way it still holds true today.”

“Well what else would she do in a situation like this?” Rainbow dash looked back at Dashie, who had not moved at all since she’d got there, and then at Rocky who was still on the ground. “We have at least five ponies pre-meditatively attacking another mare way past the point of physical harm.” she looked at the crowd this time. “And what would you all have done to her if I didn’t show up today? You all would’ve probably killed her. And what then?”

Nopony spoke.

“And what then?!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “What would have happened if you cowards ended up killing her? What would Celestia do?.. What would I Do?” Rainbow Dash paced frantically. “She’s just one pony, for crying out loud. One pony, beaten to a pulp and tied to a chair. Look ‘it! Nopony even bothered to take off her saddle-bag. How fair is that?”

“Now wait a minute” Cheerilee said with real fear in her voice. “We didn’t do any of that to her. I only hit her in the stomach.”

“You kicked her in the face, Cheerilee.” Rocky said, too afraid to get off the ground. “You kicked her hard enough to flip her over, then you started hitting her in the stomach.”

“Yeah… I guess I did.” Cheerilee said, hints of shame starting to flavor her tone. “But I don’t know how any of that other stuff happened. Her eye, the cuts on her hooves. That had to’ve happened after we left.”

“She couldn’t have just done it to herself” Rainbow Dash said, her voice giving out slightly at the end, her throat sore from all the yelling. “And why would you just leave her?”

“We had to get Cheerilee to the hospital” Rocky said, looking up at Rainbow Dash. “She was going to bleed out.”

Rainbow Dash shuddered violently before reeling around.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TAKE HER TO THE HOSPITAL TOO?!” Rainbow hollered as she picked the pony up by the collar again and slapped him repeatedly. “HER. NOSE. WAS. BRO. KEN.”

She left him on his hooves this time.

“Why didn’t any of you think to take her to the hospital the minute you saw her like this?!” She said to the crowd, pointing back at Dashie. “Look at her, the damn thing can’t even hold her head up.”

The members of the crowd were slowly starting to come back to their individual senses. Some mares in the crowd could be heard audibly sobbing. “I’m so sorry, Celestia.” another could be heard calling out, and ultimately the angry hive-mind had departed once they saw Rainbow Dash repeatedly strike the staff member of the mayor. who had been completely silent during the entire commotion.

“Untie her right now.” Rainbow Dash said after regaining some of her own composure. “I’m taking her to the hospital.”

Rocky Inkwell didn’t argue and untied Dashie as fast as she could. Dashie got up from the chair slowly. Crying out in pain as just the motion of standing up clawed at the many different wounds on her body. When she was finally standing on all four hooves she shook like a newborn foal.

“She still needs to answer to her crimes” a stallion called out “She’s seriously injured three ponies now.. Something has to be done about it. “

“She hasn’t said a word since she was brought here,” another pony in the crowd responded. “I think she has a concussion.”

“We can’t just let her trot on out of her though.” The stallion replied. “She put Twilight in the hospital, she committed a crime and she has to answer to it.”

Rainbow Dash pressed a hoof to her forehead and let out a frustrated sigh.

“Alright, fine.” Rainbow said. “I’ll take her to the back room and try to get her side of what happened. But if she’s in no condition to talk I’m taking her right to the hospital. She needs serious medical attention.”

The crowd murmured to themselves before ultimately agreeing, and Rainbow Dash began to take Dashie to the back room. Dashie tried walk on her own but could not even support her own weight, so Rainbow Dash slung Dashie’s hoof over her shoulder and helped her to the back room.

“We have to go to the hospital.” Dashie said weakly.

“I know.”

“...Where are we going?” Dashie said, confused, as if forgetting what she had just said.

Rainbow Dash shut the door behind them as they stepped inside the backroom which served as a reserve waiting room for clients waiting to have meetings with the mayor. Rainbow Dash laid Dashie down on of the couches and took a moment to collect herself. She took some steady breaths as she listened to rhythmic ticking of a nearby clock, the sigh of the wind coming through one of the windows that wasn’t closed properly, and the far away chatter of office workers in other rooms trying to get the last of their work done for the night.

Rainbow Dash’s ears were ringing, and her body shook from adrenaline. When she was finally able to compose herself, when she was sure she wasn’t going to throw up her dinner, she looked down at the mare on the couch and asked flatly:

“What are you doing here, Chroma?”

Dashie didn’t say anything, or even look at Rainbow Dash for that matter.

“Chroma, I’m talking to you.” Rainbow Dash said with more authority this time. “Why did you come here?”

Dashie shut her eyes, like a child being scolded.

“Answer me Chroma!”

“I came here looking for you.” Dashie finally said.

“But.. why?” Rainbow Dash said “Why this town? You know after what happened last time how this town is. You know you were ordered never to come back.”

“I didn’t have anypony else to go to.” Dashie was actually crying, which is why she wasn’t meeting Rainbow Dash’s gaze. “You know that.”

“But you were all the way in Manehattan.” Rainbow Dash said, taking care to try and control her tone. “Didn’t you get picked up by a family out there?”

“No!” Dashie cried out “Everypony else did. Nopony wanted a foal as old as I was, a foal who couldn’t fly, a foal ‘who had tendencies like mine’” She said with sarcastic air quotes. “Then when I got too old they told me I could no longer stay at Second Stable. They kicked me out!”

“Aren’t they supposed to give you money or something when that happens?” Rainbow Dash was having a hard time maintaining her anger. As tough as she was, she was still a woman and with the mare before her - bruised, dirty,crying- she could feel maternal instincts taking control and wanted nothing more than to nurture this mare, to hold and coddle her and wipe her tears away; even though it would most likely stain her fur with how dirty the mare was.

“They did.” Dashie said wiping her eyes to no avail. “But it was only enough to afford a train ticket. It’s nothing but luxury apartments and studio homes in Manehattan. I couldn’t even buy any food out there, let alone a flat or an apartment. So I came here to look for you.”

“Look Chroma” Rainbow Dash sighed. “I-”

“It’s Dashie.” She said sheepishly.

“What?” Rainbow Dash said.

“Dashie…” She said again. “My name is Dashie.”

“No…” Rainbow Dash’s voice rumbled like thunder. “It’s Chroma.”

“But everypony calls me Dashie.”

Something snapped inside Rainbow Dash. Some complex emotion that comes from the combination of the fatigue from flying an hour straight in a spandex flight-suit that doesn’t breathe, the adrenaline from standing up to a pissed off town ready to lynch a seriously wounded mare, and the confusing maternal instincts swelling up inside of her. Something that her brain was not ready to process yet and instead defaulted to her anger.

“Your name is Chromatic Strokes.” Rainbow said with such sudden intensity that it caused Dashie jump back in shock. “My name is Dashie. Was Dashie, but you stole it from me.”

“I didn’t steal it” Dashie said indignantly. “Everypony started calling me that.”

“No!” Rainbow Dash was yelling now. “Pinkie Pie started calling me Dashie, and you liked the way it sounded so much that went around introducing yourself as Dashie. That was my nickname, and you took it from me just like you took my clothes, my toys, and whatever else that I had but you didn’t” Rainbow Dash pressed her hoof twice into Dashie’s chest for emphasis.

“I just wanted to be like you.” Dashie said almost inaudibly, trying to choke back the pain in her chest.

“Look Chroma, I don’t care!” Rainbow Dash said.“Just like always I’m stuck cleaning up your messes. This is supposed to be my weekend off from the wonderbolts. I was expecting to come back home and celebrate the biggest accomplishment in my life but instead I have to go back out there and try to convince an entire town not to murder you… And I don’t even want to know what you did to Twilight,”

Rainbow Dash turned her back on Dashie “Knowing your history she probably said something you didn’t like and you attacked her for it.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt her.” Dashie said ashamed. “it was an accident.”

“I said I don’t want to know.” Rainbow Dash waved her hoof dismissively “Just get out of here before the whole town decides to kill you. And if you go anywhere, take yourself to the hospital first.”

Dashie tried to reach out to Rainbow Dash, to get her to turn around and speak to her, but it was no use. Rainbow Dash was dedicated to her stubbornness and would say nothing more to Dashie.

“Fine… I’l leave” Dashie said after a moment, but not before fishing something out of her saddlebag and offering it to Rainbow Dash. “Here, I want you to have this before I do.”

Rainbow Dash looked back to see Dashie holding a photograph in her mouth.

“Fine.” She sighed and took the picture.

Rainbow Dash looked at the picture, and Dashie memorized the details of her face, as if she were seeing it for the first time.

Rainbow Dash did not look away from the picture, nor did she say anything in response. Instead, in a moment of looking, her face regained all the tired lines the pleasures of her life had smoothed away. The comforts of Ponyville and the accomplishment of becoming a Wonderbolt were erased in a second, leaving nothing in her eyes but emptiness and ache. For a moment, fierce longing and regret fought across her face.

Then they were gone, and when she looked up so too was Chroma; leaving only the faded photograph of Rainbow Dash and a mare called Dashie.

Part 1: A Mare Called Dashie

An edit I made of a wonderful piece of art my friend from college made for my story

Part One: A Mare Called Dashie

"Perhaps all of the dragons of our lives
are princesses who are only waiting to
see us once, beautiful and brave.
Perhaps everything terrible is in
its deepest being something
that needs our love."

Author's Note

Musical Inspiration:

A Horse Called Golgatha - Baroness

Our Day in Disdain is a MLP fan-novel written by author Rainb0w Dashie. Conceived in June of 2011, inspired by the popularity of Pen Stroke’s Past Sins and Sargent Sprinkles Cupcakes, Our Day in Disdain was sidelined in pre-production for the next two years as Dashie worked on developing a synopsis and ironing out several plot-holes created from the first rendition of the story.

The story is considered to be Grimdark, Sad, and Tragedy according to the brony fandom’s jargon, but as any story it also has it’s fair share of cute, humorous, suspenseful, bittersweet, happy, and heartwarming moments. So the genre tags shouldn’t be what turns you away from the story.

For those curious readers, the actual genre of the story is Psychological Horror with a little Dark Romanticism and Gothic horror mixed in, and more information about these genres can be found below.

I hope you enjoy reading my story as much as I do writing it.

-Rainb0w Dashie

A Little information about Psychological Horror:

“Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror fiction that relies on characters’ fears and emotional instability to build tension. It typically plays on archetypal shadow characteristics embodied by the threat. The elements of psychological horror focuses on the inside of the character’s mind. This includes emotions, personality, mental attitude of individuals, where characters are in a perversive situation that includes high-level immorality, inhumane acts, and conspiracies.” For more information, click here.

A Little information about Dark Romanticism:

Dark Romanticism is a literary subgenre that presents individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom. G. R. Thompson describes this disagreement, stating “the Dark Romantics adapted images of anthropomorphized evil in the form of Satan, devils, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, and ghouls.”. Finally, whereas Transcendentalists advocate social reform when appropriate, works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better. For more information, click here.

Honorable mention to descriptionari, as thanks for all the times their website helped me find jumping off points when I was fighting my way through writer's block and learning to write this story.

Late Summer Interlude: Catch The Wind

Late Summer Interlude: Catch The Wind

Outside Carousel Boutique the weather was warm and dry, and Sweetie Belle could smell the approaching autumn on the breeze that was softly whispering through the trees. The wind had come straight in from the sea, and had brought with it various aromas from all corners of Equestria:

Sweetie Belle could smell the Apple family’s farm, Sweet Apple Acres, where pomace from the cider presses sent a fragrance of seasoned spice wafting into the wind. Behind that, she could smell the perfume of goldenrods from the pastures and fields outside Ponyville. She could smell the paint from the shaky pasture fences, the sun-warmed hides of the grazing animals, the coolness from the stone roads that lead into Canterlot, and - if she focused hard enough- she could even smell some of the fouler odors coming from the more industrialized cities like Manehattan and Baltimare; the urine, the sweat, the coal smoke, and tar; And, just for the briefest of fleeting moments, she could even pick up the faintest hints of Appleloosan sand.

Every touch of wind against Sweetie Belle’s face was a caress; like a quick, sweet kiss that reminded her ever so gently that autumn was coming.

As the filly continued to trot down the road, she heard a commotion, and found herself looking up into the branches of a grand old oak tree. The breeze tussled the yellow leaves and sent them spinning down like gold coins, and the branches bent and swayed and appeared to be waving at Sweetie Belle like she were an old friend it hadn’t seen in a long time. And there near the top of the tree was the cause of the commotion; a pair of songbirds hopping from branch to branch, chirping loudly at one another.

Sweetie Belle wondered if the songbirds were singing to each other, or discussing when would be the appropriate time to leave their nests for the winter, or if they were simply just surprised and curious about the presence of the tiny pony at the base of their tree; but before too long another gust sighed through the branches and the two birds caught the wind and flew off into the great sky, far out of sight of the small filly below.

Author's Note

Musical inspiration

Catch the wind - Annihilator

Part 2: A History of Bad Mares

Part Two: A History of Bad Mares

Hello stranger, can you tell us where you've been?

More importantly, how ever did you come to be here?

Though a stranger, you can rest here for a while.

But save your energy, your journey here is far from over.

Come the sunrise, we'll descend through Judgement Valley,

And weigh your worth before her majesty, the Verde River.

Author's Note

Musical Inspiration:

Green Valley - Puscifer