Flashfics, Gifts, Scraps, etc.by ViTheDeerChaptersStory 1: Twice Upon a MidnightStory 2: Dark Zero's TaleStory 3: Twillera's DreamStory 4: Polka DotsStory 1: Twice Upon a Midnight "Are you sure you can't call it off?" Midnight Love fairly purred into the ear of her lover, who was currently curled up against Midnight's warm body, letting her loving legs envelop her. "Love, you know I can't turn down a personal summons from the Princess!" Twilerra flicked her tail over her lover's haunches playfully. They were both basking in the afterglow of a particularly aerobic session of lovemaking, and Midnight was unwilling to let go of her partner so soon, even though she knew she had only an hour before she had to leave for Canterlot, to answer Princess Celestia's summons. These visits were a fairly regular occurrence, Celestia wanting to make sure that her grandniece was in good hooves, but this was the first time she had been called since the fillies had been born, and Twillera was worried about Midnight having to care for all three, without the benefit of her fiancee and handmaiden's assistance. "But I'll miss you!" Midnight nibbled on Twillera's ear a bit. "Just this once, please?" Twillera sighed. "You know she can banish me to the moon, right?" "So,I'll just bring you back. You know I can!" Midnight held her lover closer, as if the force of her embrace alone would change the inevitable. "But I'm not dressed for the moon! I'd have to go shopping for a whole new wardrobe, and to do that I'd have to leave this bed anyway." Midnight laughed, which took away an edge from the pain she felt at having to part from her lover. "I'll be there and back before you even know I'm gone." Before Midnight could reply, a sudden wail arose from the adjoining room, which was quickly joined by two other voices. "Well, they're awake. Right on schedule." Twi chuckled and, disentangling herself from her lover’s many, many limbs, she took a moment to compose herself before opening the door to the nursery and tending to the foals. Midnight only lay in bed for another moment before joining her, Within minutes, the triplets were fed, changed, and put back into their cribs, and Twillera bid her farewell to Midnight. "Give my love to Auntie for me!" Midnight kissed Twillera one last, long, lingering moment, before watching her fly off into the distance. Then,she turned to the door, closed it behind her, and wasted no time in levitating a spellbook over to her. Midnight figured, if she couldn't spend her precious moments while all three fillies were asleep with her fiancee, the next best thing she could do is practice her magic. Today she had discovered one particularly interesting spell that, should she be able to pull it off, would ensure she had some help to assist with the foals later on. She set the book down, turned to the appropriate page, and began to study the spell once more. Satisfied she knew what she had to do, she moved into the bedroom, and moved over to the full-length mirror that stood in one corner. She looked her reflection over, and, nodding to herself, took a step forward and recalled the spell. Her horn glowed dark blue as she gathered her magical energies, and once the light reached its peak intensity, she touched her horn to the mirror. The surface of the mirror rippled, as though it were a still pond into which a pebble had been thrown, then began to glow. Midnight opened her eyes and watched as her reflection also opened its eyes, no longer bound to Midnight’s movements. Midnight stepped aside, and her reflection, momentarily disoriented, took a few steps forward, crossing the threshold of the mirror as though it were not even there. "Hello." The original Midnight was the first to speak. "Hello." The mirror Midnight's voice sounded foreign to Midnight's ears, as she never had an opportunity to hear how her own voice sounded to others. The two Midnights stared at each other for a long moment, before being interrupted by the sound of a screaming foal in the next room. As one, the two Midnights cantered to the door, Midnight ceding the passage to Mirrornight first. The foals seemed nonplussed by the sudden addition of a second mommy, and the two Midnights were quickly able to settle the foals down. Together, they made light work of the household chores. They barely spoke, both knowing what the other was thinking, while they swept, washed, and cleaned, tasks that her lover usually took over herself. Finally, when all the chores were done, and the fillies began to wake up again, the two Midnights spent the remainder of the afternoon playing with them together, their laughs filling the house alongside of those her foals. As Luna rose the moon, Twillera flew in and landed on the front porch. Opening the door, Twillera made a beeline for her fiancee. "Welcome back love." Midnight kissed her passionately, keenly feeling her absence. "Do anything interesting while I was away?" Twillera wrapped her forelegs and wings around her lover. Her visit with the Princess had been routine, but she sorely missed Midnight while she was away. "Oh, you could say that." At that, Mirrornight, who had been waiting in the next room, walked in with a smile on her face. "Hello Twi!" Twillera could only gape, her jaw almost on the floor, looking first at the one Midnight, then the other, then back to the first. Then her face finally began to form into a smile. "I tried a new spell. It will only last until tomorrow morning though." A mischievous glint entered Midnight's eye, and Twi glanced at Mirrornight to see that she had the same glint in hers. "Ladies," Twillera wrapped a wing around each Midnight and led them towards the bedroom. "We had better make use of the time we have left as best we can..." Story 2: Dark Zero's Tale Dark Zero awoke, peering over the edge of the cloud he had chosen as a bed, and trying to work out how late it was. The sun was just over the horizon, and he could see all the ponies below bustling around, setting up the marketplace and carrying parcels around. The colts and fillies were already trotting into the classroom at the schoolhouse under Cheerilee's watchful gaze, so Dark estimated it to be around 8 am. He was not used to the rhythms and patterns of daytime life yet, and staying out in the sun too long still gave him a headache. Even though it had been months since his beloved leader, Nightmare Moon, had been defeated, leaving the princess Luna in her place, but having lived most of his life asleep during the daylight hours made the adjustment to daytime living difficult, yet necessary if he was to flow his new mistress' commands. "You have belonged to the night for far too long." Luna's eyes showed pride at his dedicated service, yet sorrow at the fact that he had no longer any place in the royal service. "You should try to live during the day, get to know the ponies, make friends!" So, he endeavored to do just that, though he was not finding it easy. He had tried to keep his former employer a secret, but that lasted only as long as it took for Rainbow Dash to catch him practicing fight drills in the blue sky. "I recognize those moves" Her violet eyes were full of accusation. "The only ponies that flew that formation were the Shadowbolts. You were one of them, weren't you? That's why you showed up here right after the last Summer Sun Celebration, isn't it?" He had tried to fly away out off shame, but Rainbow Dash' speed was no match for his. He had to endure her endless questions about life as a Shadowbolt, their training habits, their techniques, until he was able to take solace in the one place he knew she would stay out of - the stallions' room of the library. And even then, he got the impression that, had the door not locked, she would have trotted right in. To his great relief however, the librarian Twilight was able to distract her, and he was able to slip out unnoticed. He scanned the skies even now for her tell-tail rainbow streak but, as he suspected, it was far to early for the weather pony to be up and about. A perfect time to practice his routines. He stood up, shook out the morning dew from his coat and wings, and, taking a step off the cloud, allowed himself to plummet towards the earth for a few seconds before opening his wings and letting them bite into the air and give him enough lift to shoot forward. His stomach dropped from the sudden acceleration, and the wind blowing through his mane and coat cooled him off and made him almost forget the sun's oppressive heat. He flapped his wings a few times for altitude, and began running through his basic flight drills. His joy at flying was interrupted, as he say a speck of color on the horizon. He couldn't make it out at this distance, but judging by the speed at which it moved, it could only be Rainbow Dash, up at an unprecedented - for her - hour. Undaunted, Dark decided that, if she was going to be awake, she might as well be witness to his signature move. Perhaps if he impressed her enough she would leave him alone, he reasoned. Or at the very least, she could convince her friends that he was someone to be respected, and not cast aside as he felt when he first met them. He had fled out of the library and run immediately into a pink pony, knocking over the tray of cookies she had been holding in her mouth, causing them to go flying in the air, some landing on the ground, and others on the coat of the elegant white unicorn standing next to her. "My mane! You've gotten crumbs in it! I just washed it this morning!" She frantically tried to shake out the crumbs with her hoof, while the pink pony started collecting the cookies and putting them back on the tray. "If you wanted a cookie, you could have just asked!" Dark tried to avoid looking the pink pony in the eye, and backed away from her, looking apologetic... causing him to bump into another pony behind him. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there." He turned to see a butter yellow pegasus, apologizing despite having not been at fault in the slightest. Dark had had enough, rushing away from the cluster of ponies before spreading his wings and leaping to the air. Behind him, he could hear a pony shout after him in a thick drawl, but he was already too far away to make out the words. He shot upwards into the air, the wind blowing past making his eyes water, masking the tears he could feel welling up. He knew he could never be accepted into the ponies' lives, he was sure of it. His thoughts back on the present, Dark rose into the blue sky, feeling the air thin around him as he gained altitude. Satisfied with his height, he spread his wings wide to pull a sharp turn, the forces threatening to tear his limbs from his body. Facing the earth again, he drew his wings in tightly against his sides, making as low as profile to the air as possible, using only the very tips of his wings to keep his flight stable. He could feel the air around him start to push back as he neared that invisible barrier of speed that he had broken through only a few times before. Out of the corner of his he caught glimpse of the blue pony turning flips and loops in the air, and only hoped she could see him. Drawing on the magical gift that Nightmare Moon had bestowed on her flight squadron, the air darkened around him, as though the sun itself had chosen not to shine in his direction. With the darkness, the invisible barrier seemed to melt away, and his speed increased until finally, just at the point where he would break the speed of sound and pull off the Sonic Darkboom... ...a streak of color crossed his path, and he had to pull out of his descent quickly to avoid plowing into the blue pegasus that been frolicking beneath him, unaware of his rapid descent He threw his wings out wide in a braking maneuver, and he heard a sickening crack and a shot of pain coming from his outer pinions. instinctively, he drew in that wing, which only succeeded in the resistance from the other wing to send him into a maddeningly dizzy spiral. He watched panicked as the ground spun around and around, growing ever nearer. One wing useless and broken, pulled tight agains his side, he tried desperately to slow his fall with his one good wing, to somehow stop his spiral. But try as he might, he only succeeded in aggravating the erratic spin. He could make out details on the ground now, and the colorful shapes of ponies milling around below. He braced for impact. When the impact did come, it wasn't what he had expected. Rather than the sickening thud of his body hitting hard ground, it was soft, like falling into a down comforter. When he opened his eyes, he saw why. He wasn't lying broken on the ground, but on the back of a blue pegasus pony, gently slowing his fall and guiding him to a safe landing in a field just outside of town. Dark tried to open his mouth to thank his rescuer, but only managed a soft squeak, one that was eaten by the wind. "Don't worry, nopony's going to crash on my watch!" Rainbow Dash alighted in the field, and gently helped Dark to his feet. "Especially not because they happened to cross my flight path. What were you trying to do up there, copy my awesome Sonic Rainboom?" Dark staggered a bit "Th-th-thank you, you saved me!" Dark suddenly felt that maybe he wouldn't have such a hard time fitting in after all. Story 3: Twillera's Dream "Just a sip, to help me sleep, I promise!" Twillera reached a hoof towards the bottle of whiskey sitting on the center of the table. "No! You promised!" Midnight slapped her hoof away with a disapproving glare at Twillera. Twillera looked back at her, the look both hurt and pleading. She gave a frustrated scream and trotted up the stairs, slamming the door to the bedroom Midnight and she shared. She could hear Midnight follow her up the stairs, but she paused in front of the closed door, hesitating before deciding to give Twi some time to herself. Twi climbed into the bed she and Midnight shared, and sometimes invited Double Click, their mutual fiancee, into. She curled up, holding a pillow between her legs, and gently began rocking as sobs wracked her body. Despite all her expectations, she was asleep in minutes. Shapes, indistinct and fuzzy. Sounds, words perhaps, but beyond comprehension. Twi feels like she is in a familiar, comforting place. The shapes and sounds coalesce into her family. Father, mother, and younger brother, sitting around the dinner table. Words, still indistinct, but raised in anger. Twi speaks up. Father raises a hoof and brings it down across Twi's face. Tears streaming down her face, she gallops out the door. The door leads not outside, but into the kitchen. There, she finds a box of matches. She idly strikes one after the other, tossing them to the floor as they burn to the bare end. She strikes one and watches it intently. She drops it before it burns out, watching the flame flare up as it tumbles end over end, landing in the wastebasket. Instead of trying to put it out, she flaps her wings a few times to fan the flames. The papers in the basket quickly catch fire, and soon the flames begin to reach higher, a cascading inferno that swallows the wall of the kitchen, and quickly spreads to the rest of the room. Twi is in the center of the flames, but somehow is not burned. The flames for faces. Her father, her mother. Her younger brother. His face cries out in pain, as the flames consume his body. Twi reaches out to stop the burning, but can't reach him. She trips and falls, tears rolling down her face as she watches her brother writhe and shriek... then silenced. The flames turn into trees. She is on the floor of a forest grove, looking at the smoking ruins of their house in the first rays of Celestia's sun. No, she tried to say. It wasn't me! I didn't do it! Not this time, I swear! The trees stare her down with disapproval and hatred. They fade away, and Twillera is alone. She is in darkness. In the distance, she sees a light. She gallops towards it. The wind rushes by her ears. The wind begins to form word. You are not welcome here, you are no daughter of mine, you killed him, you, you, you... She reaches the light. It's the door to a small room, lit by a single bulb. She steps through, and the door vanishes. There are no doors or windows in the room. She lies on the ground, sobbing. Suddenly, she is in pain. Blows rain down on her body from an unseen assailant. She puts up her hooves to ward off the attack, but that only causes them to fall harder. She blinks the tears out of her eyes, and sees her drill sergeant from fight academy. You are a failure, a washout, you are a black mark in the history of Cloudsdale flight school. Tears fill Twillera's eyes, and the shape of the room faded away, walls disappearing into the distance. The attack stops, and Twillera shakes her head to clear away the tears. She stands, and tries to get her bearings. She starts slowly walking in a random direction, but doesn't get far before her hoof strikes something lying on the ground. It clatters across the stone floor. She looks down and picks it up. Her reflection stares back at her in the gleaming metal knife. Her regularly golden eyes look red from crying. The red spreads from her eyes to the rest of her face. She drops the knife, now covered in a red, sticky substance. It lands with dull thud, and Twillera looks down to see a body, slashed and covered in blood. Horrified, she backs away quickly. The ceiling closes down on her. The body begins to stand, blood dripping from its sliced sides. It stares at her, eyes glassy. Twi stares back, and begins to see her own face overlaid over that of the pony. Confused, she blinks, and realizes she is staring through a pane of glass. A light flares up on the opposite side, and once Twi’s eyes have adjusted, she sees that the form of pony on the other side of the glass has changed to that of her dear friend and ward, Midnight. She runs to the glass, pounds on it, screams against it, trying to get Midnight’s attention. It’s no use, midnight turns from her and sits on the ground. Her body shakes with tears that Twi can’t see, but knows are there. She flings herself against the glass, putting her whole weight into each throw, It buckles but does not give. On the third throw she feels her shoulder pop out of its socket, feels a rib crack. Midnight continues crying, and Twillera collapses in a heap, pain coursing through her body. Midnight is growing more and more distant. Twi cries out once more, and Midnight turns to face her. Then she is gone, and the light extinguishes. Twillera lies there, broken and alone. Flashes. A knife cutting into warm flesh. Hooves being held over a raging fire. A piano wire being pulled tight against a throat. Screaming. Crying. Fire. Blood. Pain. Twillera sees her own body, as if hovering above herself. She is bleeding from many cuts and scratches. Her wings are broken and tattered. There is blood everywhere. Suddenly, her eyes open, and Twi realizes that it’s not her body, but Midnight’s lying beneath her. She was too late. Too late. I’m sorry, Midnight, I was too late! Too late! too... Twi jerked upright in bed. Where is she? Where’s Midnight? Frantically, her eyes dart around the darkened room, but her ears perk up at the sound of regular breathing nearby. Cautiously, she turned her head towards the sound, and saw Midnight there, eyes closed peacefully, the hint of a smile curled on her lips. Twillera reached out a hoof to the bedside table, behind which she had hidden a flask of whiskey for those nights she couldn't get to sleep without the warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. As she reached for it, however, one of Midnight’s hindlegs kicked out in the throes of some dream. Twillera pulled back her hoof, used it to wipe the sweat from her brow, rolled over and cuddled close to her lover. She closed her eyes. Shapes, indistinct and fuzzy. Sounds, words perhaps, but beyond comprehension. Twi feels like she is in a familiar, comforting place... Story 4: Polka Dots"Taffeta Epiphany Sundae, you get down here this instant, or you'll be late for your first day of school!" Taffy started when she heard her mother's voice. She was still staring into the mirror on her dresser table, still in shock at what she saw. She knew she was going to be late to school, but she couldn't stop staring. There was no way she was going to leave that room, not today, not ever again. Even drawing the curtains was more than she could handle. So she stared into the mirror, muttering the same phrase to herself over and over "Polka dots. Why did it have to be polka dots?" Taffy carefully climbed the ladder to the treehouse outside her family's back door. It was late afternoon on the last day of summer vacation, and Celestia was readying the sun for its slow descent below the western horizon. The schedule called for a light drizzle in the early evening, but the clouds were only just being corralled along the horizon by the teams of the Manehatten Municipal Weather Authority, so Taffy knew she still had a good hour or two before the rain started to come down. She planned to be cuddled up warmly in a blanket in Shenzi's treehouse by then, giggling and listening to the rain's pitter-patter on the corrugated metal roof of the shed that somehow never leaked, despite its makeshift construction. She could almost smell the air as the first drops of rain hit the ground dry from a week of sunny skies, as she reached for the next rung of the ladder. The treehouse was not designed for earth ponies, of this she was sure. Pegasi, sure, and even unicorns that could, like her green-maned friend, teleport themselves at will - or, as seemed to be the case with Shenanigans, at whim - but the ladder was tilted almost vertically, with nothing in between the rungs, looking like something a monkey in a zoo would have for climbing, rather than the types of ladders normal ponies used. Still, this WAS Shenzi's treehouse, and the arduous ladder into it was the least strange thing about it by far. Taffy could list more, such as the way it seemed to be bigger on the inside, or the way the tree seemed to shift a little each night, or the way all the windows seemed to have an amazing view of the East River, no matter which wall they were set into. But doing so for too long made Taffy go dizzy, and losing her balance while hanging precariously from the ladder was something she could ill afford. Besides, she knew full and well if she ever asked her friend to explain these strange phenomena, she would get a one word reply: "Magic!" Well, either that, or an immediate, gravity-defying struck pose and the phrase "Shut up! I'm Pony Gaga!" After all these years of knowing her, she still was no closer to discovering who or what a "Pony Gaga" was, but the utterance made her giggle each time. With a grunt, she cleared the final rung and pulled her hindquarters to the shallow dock outside the front door. She didn't knock, since she knew Shenzi wouldn't be expecting her to, but instead walked right in through the door, wiping her hooves, hanging up her scarf, and closing the door behind her. The sun was still bright in the autumn sky, but the wind was already starting to pick, giving the day the bite of autumn. Soon it would be time for the Running of the Leaves, and she and Shenzi would be right in front of the crowds cheering at the finish line in Central Pasture as her brother Spumoni hopefully took first prize again. As she looked around the four-room treehouse (with attic and, somehow, basement levels), she found no trace of her friend, but Taffy was used to Shenzi being off on adventures of her own. Sometimes she would come home with wild tales that were too impossibly crazy for Taffy not to believe. Other time, she wouldn't say a word about what had happened. In most of the latter cases it seemed that Shenzi was covered in some substance or another, usually smelling either extremely sweet, or extremely unpleasant. Taffy found her favorite spot on couch, grabbed a warm comforter, and curled up looking out the north window, inexplicably seeing the clouds rolling in from the Appleantic. She wasn't aware she had dozed off until the crash of thunder woke her from her snoozing. Taffy was confused, the weather schedule called for a light drizzle, not a thunderstorm, unless she had read the chart wrong. But once her eyes adjusted, she realized the source of confusion. The loud sound wasn't thunder, but instead Shenanigans bouncing around the kitchen, no doubt trying to make one of her favorite ketchup-infused after-lunchtime meals. Taffy just grinned as she watched her friend alternately use frying pans as hats, then as shields, then, finally, as cooking utensils, frying up a delicious-smelling Ketchup Stir-Fry. "Mmmm, that smells delicious!" The sound didn't seem to register with Shenzi, who continued her mock kitchen-utensil battle, shouting out narration and battle orders while this stir-fry slowly sizzled on the stove. Finally, with a mighty stab at the dragon who, if Taffy had been following correctly, was also a policepony from the moon, Shenzi struck the pan on the handle and sent it flying... somehow managing to make the food land evenly in two plates that had landed on the floor during the epic battle. Shenzi took a plate in each forehoof and, somehow ignorant of the effects of gravity, walked on two legs into the living room, setting the plate down in front of Taffy. "Thanks Shenzi, it smells delicious!" Taffy eagerly started chewing the saucy red vegetables. "Hmm, no, it's still missing something. Oh, I know!" Before Taffy could finish chewing to ask what it was missing, Shenanigans returned with a small metal shaker in her mouth. "Here we go." She shook the shaker, and a small amount of ruddy brown dust emerged from the opener. The smell of it reached Taffy's nose at that moment, and she only had the chance to get out the words, "Shenzi, that's Cinna..." before them was a mighty flash accompanied by the one sound Taffy had come to dread hearing from her friend. "Ah-CHOO!" For perhaps the hundredth time she looked over her coat, fist in the mirror, then by craning her head from side to try and take in the scope of the damage. Her coat, once a pistachio green, had changed to a pure white hue, which itself wouldn't have been so bad. In fact, she and her friend Shenanigans would have matched quite well, had Shenzi's accidental magical outburst had no further effect than that. But, polka dots? Her coat was covered from head to hoof to tail in brightly colored spots, about the size of a hoofprint. Vibrant reds, yellows and greens dotted her fur, and her mane had transformed from its usual flowing pink to a bright, puffy orange-red. She looked nothing so much - and it brought a tear to her eye every time she thought this - like a circus clown. All that was missing was a bright red nose, but thankfully she had been spared that bit of embarrassment. Small comfort that may have been. The problem with living with a magically unstable unicorn like Shenzi was that, from time to time, strange things happened. And though they usually happened to her twin brother Spumoni, she did not escape their friendship unscathed. In her case, more often than not, it seemed to be sneezes that set it off. It seemed Shenzi only ever sneezed while she was standing nearby, and the explosive release of magical energy that accompanied said sneezes always tended to leave her... changed in the process. She had been unicorns and pegasi, red, yellow, brown and purple. A sneeze had made her the tallest filly in her class once. One unfortunately short-lived sneeze had had no effect other than making her eyes a bright yellow, incidentally curing her of her shortsightedness for the duration of that alteration. Unfortunately, it was the very next day that a sneeze turned her eyes, as well as her mane and coat, a deep lustrous black... and returned her need for wearing glasses. A sneeze had made her an alicorn briefly and once - and Taffy still blushed at the memory - she had spent a few minutes between sneezes as a colt. But this! All the other changes she could live with, get by with only minimal teasing by her classmates, who all knew Shenanigans and her talent for randomness well. But of course, she would have to sneeze on her on the day before she started high school, the day before her first day at the prestigious West Saddle Private School. And it would have to be polka dots. A banging at the door finally snapped her from her dreamlike state. "Taffeta, I know you're nervous about your first day at school, but you really must get going. Your father and I would be very disappointed if you began the new year with a tardiness record." Taffy sighed and gathered her saddlebags. Adding a few last minute necessities - spare eyeliner, lip gloss, not that anypony would be looking at her face, and the latest Filly Beat magazine, she slung the bags over her back, and headed out into the world. Covered in polka dots The foals laughed, of course. Of course, they laughed. The laughed when she walked into the schoolyard. They laughed as she found her locker. They laughed before, after, and even during class. She had names, some original, but most some variation of the word "clown" hurled in her direction. She had to endure ponies trying to honk her nose and asking where her tiny carriage was all day long. If it hadn't been for Spumoni and Shenanigans flanking her every moment they were out of class, Taffy felt fairly certain she would have run, crying, from the school and never, ever returned, choosing self-imposed exile to somewhere, anywhere else, over the unrelenting humiliation she had to face. During lunch, she even tried to get Shenzi to sneeze again. She tried a feather under the nose, pepper, even a bit of cinnamon - a spice that elicited a particularly explosive allergic reaction from Shenzi under most conditions - that they were able to scrounge off a classmate's oat bar. But none of it had any effect on Shenanigans, somehow seemingly impervious to the necessity of clearing ones tickled nasal cavities. At the end of the day, Taffy was exhausted. She walked out the cast iron gates of West Saddle with her head lowered beneath her shoulder level, and finally broke out crying. As her friend escorted her to the subway, foreleg around her shoulder, Taffy let the tears flow freely. She was barely even aware of Shenzi pushing her onto the subway car, her body wracked with sobs as Shenzi lent what little comfort she could. At the next station, a mother and her foal got in and sat down opposite the two ponies. Taffy's eyes were too filled with tears to notice, until the young foal, after having watched her crying silently across the subway car, trotted over and tapped her on the knee. "Missus clown, why are you crying?" Taffy looked up, and into the deep brown eyes of the filly staring up at her, and began bawling in earnest now. "Pl-please don't cry Missus clown!" the young fillies' eyes began to water themselves. "here, want my dolly?" At this, Taffy finally looked up, choking back her tears. In front of her, she saw the young filly holding out her doll - a polka-dotted clown, with a coat the closely resembled her own, with a huge, friendly smile embroidered on her muzzle. Taffy looked back at the filly, then back at the doll. The filly's face looked hopeful and expectant, and suddenly Taffy felt a huge smile coming to her own face. The filly's face echoed her own, and taffy couldn't restrain a burst of laughter. The filly giggled too, just before her mother yanked her away at the next station. That evening, Shenzi and Taffy lounged in the treehouse once again, giggling and chattering. Shenzi was drinking Hot Cocoa with Marshmallows, and Taffy was practicing making balloon animals. Whenever the situation began to make her feel blue, all she had to do was remember that, though she may look like a clown, the look on that filly's face reminded her that being a clown had its upsides too.
Story 1: Twice Upon a Midnight "Are you sure you can't call it off?" Midnight Love fairly purred into the ear of her lover, who was currently curled up against Midnight's warm body, letting her loving legs envelop her. "Love, you know I can't turn down a personal summons from the Princess!" Twilerra flicked her tail over her lover's haunches playfully. They were both basking in the afterglow of a particularly aerobic session of lovemaking, and Midnight was unwilling to let go of her partner so soon, even though she knew she had only an hour before she had to leave for Canterlot, to answer Princess Celestia's summons. These visits were a fairly regular occurrence, Celestia wanting to make sure that her grandniece was in good hooves, but this was the first time she had been called since the fillies had been born, and Twillera was worried about Midnight having to care for all three, without the benefit of her fiancee and handmaiden's assistance. "But I'll miss you!" Midnight nibbled on Twillera's ear a bit. "Just this once, please?" Twillera sighed. "You know she can banish me to the moon, right?" "So,I'll just bring you back. You know I can!" Midnight held her lover closer, as if the force of her embrace alone would change the inevitable. "But I'm not dressed for the moon! I'd have to go shopping for a whole new wardrobe, and to do that I'd have to leave this bed anyway." Midnight laughed, which took away an edge from the pain she felt at having to part from her lover. "I'll be there and back before you even know I'm gone." Before Midnight could reply, a sudden wail arose from the adjoining room, which was quickly joined by two other voices. "Well, they're awake. Right on schedule." Twi chuckled and, disentangling herself from her lover’s many, many limbs, she took a moment to compose herself before opening the door to the nursery and tending to the foals. Midnight only lay in bed for another moment before joining her, Within minutes, the triplets were fed, changed, and put back into their cribs, and Twillera bid her farewell to Midnight. "Give my love to Auntie for me!" Midnight kissed Twillera one last, long, lingering moment, before watching her fly off into the distance. Then,she turned to the door, closed it behind her, and wasted no time in levitating a spellbook over to her. Midnight figured, if she couldn't spend her precious moments while all three fillies were asleep with her fiancee, the next best thing she could do is practice her magic. Today she had discovered one particularly interesting spell that, should she be able to pull it off, would ensure she had some help to assist with the foals later on. She set the book down, turned to the appropriate page, and began to study the spell once more. Satisfied she knew what she had to do, she moved into the bedroom, and moved over to the full-length mirror that stood in one corner. She looked her reflection over, and, nodding to herself, took a step forward and recalled the spell. Her horn glowed dark blue as she gathered her magical energies, and once the light reached its peak intensity, she touched her horn to the mirror. The surface of the mirror rippled, as though it were a still pond into which a pebble had been thrown, then began to glow. Midnight opened her eyes and watched as her reflection also opened its eyes, no longer bound to Midnight’s movements. Midnight stepped aside, and her reflection, momentarily disoriented, took a few steps forward, crossing the threshold of the mirror as though it were not even there. "Hello." The original Midnight was the first to speak. "Hello." The mirror Midnight's voice sounded foreign to Midnight's ears, as she never had an opportunity to hear how her own voice sounded to others. The two Midnights stared at each other for a long moment, before being interrupted by the sound of a screaming foal in the next room. As one, the two Midnights cantered to the door, Midnight ceding the passage to Mirrornight first. The foals seemed nonplussed by the sudden addition of a second mommy, and the two Midnights were quickly able to settle the foals down. Together, they made light work of the household chores. They barely spoke, both knowing what the other was thinking, while they swept, washed, and cleaned, tasks that her lover usually took over herself. Finally, when all the chores were done, and the fillies began to wake up again, the two Midnights spent the remainder of the afternoon playing with them together, their laughs filling the house alongside of those her foals. As Luna rose the moon, Twillera flew in and landed on the front porch. Opening the door, Twillera made a beeline for her fiancee. "Welcome back love." Midnight kissed her passionately, keenly feeling her absence. "Do anything interesting while I was away?" Twillera wrapped her forelegs and wings around her lover. Her visit with the Princess had been routine, but she sorely missed Midnight while she was away. "Oh, you could say that." At that, Mirrornight, who had been waiting in the next room, walked in with a smile on her face. "Hello Twi!" Twillera could only gape, her jaw almost on the floor, looking first at the one Midnight, then the other, then back to the first. Then her face finally began to form into a smile. "I tried a new spell. It will only last until tomorrow morning though." A mischievous glint entered Midnight's eye, and Twi glanced at Mirrornight to see that she had the same glint in hers. "Ladies," Twillera wrapped a wing around each Midnight and led them towards the bedroom. "We had better make use of the time we have left as best we can..."
Story 2: Dark Zero's Tale Dark Zero awoke, peering over the edge of the cloud he had chosen as a bed, and trying to work out how late it was. The sun was just over the horizon, and he could see all the ponies below bustling around, setting up the marketplace and carrying parcels around. The colts and fillies were already trotting into the classroom at the schoolhouse under Cheerilee's watchful gaze, so Dark estimated it to be around 8 am. He was not used to the rhythms and patterns of daytime life yet, and staying out in the sun too long still gave him a headache. Even though it had been months since his beloved leader, Nightmare Moon, had been defeated, leaving the princess Luna in her place, but having lived most of his life asleep during the daylight hours made the adjustment to daytime living difficult, yet necessary if he was to flow his new mistress' commands. "You have belonged to the night for far too long." Luna's eyes showed pride at his dedicated service, yet sorrow at the fact that he had no longer any place in the royal service. "You should try to live during the day, get to know the ponies, make friends!" So, he endeavored to do just that, though he was not finding it easy. He had tried to keep his former employer a secret, but that lasted only as long as it took for Rainbow Dash to catch him practicing fight drills in the blue sky. "I recognize those moves" Her violet eyes were full of accusation. "The only ponies that flew that formation were the Shadowbolts. You were one of them, weren't you? That's why you showed up here right after the last Summer Sun Celebration, isn't it?" He had tried to fly away out off shame, but Rainbow Dash' speed was no match for his. He had to endure her endless questions about life as a Shadowbolt, their training habits, their techniques, until he was able to take solace in the one place he knew she would stay out of - the stallions' room of the library. And even then, he got the impression that, had the door not locked, she would have trotted right in. To his great relief however, the librarian Twilight was able to distract her, and he was able to slip out unnoticed. He scanned the skies even now for her tell-tail rainbow streak but, as he suspected, it was far to early for the weather pony to be up and about. A perfect time to practice his routines. He stood up, shook out the morning dew from his coat and wings, and, taking a step off the cloud, allowed himself to plummet towards the earth for a few seconds before opening his wings and letting them bite into the air and give him enough lift to shoot forward. His stomach dropped from the sudden acceleration, and the wind blowing through his mane and coat cooled him off and made him almost forget the sun's oppressive heat. He flapped his wings a few times for altitude, and began running through his basic flight drills. His joy at flying was interrupted, as he say a speck of color on the horizon. He couldn't make it out at this distance, but judging by the speed at which it moved, it could only be Rainbow Dash, up at an unprecedented - for her - hour. Undaunted, Dark decided that, if she was going to be awake, she might as well be witness to his signature move. Perhaps if he impressed her enough she would leave him alone, he reasoned. Or at the very least, she could convince her friends that he was someone to be respected, and not cast aside as he felt when he first met them. He had fled out of the library and run immediately into a pink pony, knocking over the tray of cookies she had been holding in her mouth, causing them to go flying in the air, some landing on the ground, and others on the coat of the elegant white unicorn standing next to her. "My mane! You've gotten crumbs in it! I just washed it this morning!" She frantically tried to shake out the crumbs with her hoof, while the pink pony started collecting the cookies and putting them back on the tray. "If you wanted a cookie, you could have just asked!" Dark tried to avoid looking the pink pony in the eye, and backed away from her, looking apologetic... causing him to bump into another pony behind him. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there." He turned to see a butter yellow pegasus, apologizing despite having not been at fault in the slightest. Dark had had enough, rushing away from the cluster of ponies before spreading his wings and leaping to the air. Behind him, he could hear a pony shout after him in a thick drawl, but he was already too far away to make out the words. He shot upwards into the air, the wind blowing past making his eyes water, masking the tears he could feel welling up. He knew he could never be accepted into the ponies' lives, he was sure of it. His thoughts back on the present, Dark rose into the blue sky, feeling the air thin around him as he gained altitude. Satisfied with his height, he spread his wings wide to pull a sharp turn, the forces threatening to tear his limbs from his body. Facing the earth again, he drew his wings in tightly against his sides, making as low as profile to the air as possible, using only the very tips of his wings to keep his flight stable. He could feel the air around him start to push back as he neared that invisible barrier of speed that he had broken through only a few times before. Out of the corner of his he caught glimpse of the blue pony turning flips and loops in the air, and only hoped she could see him. Drawing on the magical gift that Nightmare Moon had bestowed on her flight squadron, the air darkened around him, as though the sun itself had chosen not to shine in his direction. With the darkness, the invisible barrier seemed to melt away, and his speed increased until finally, just at the point where he would break the speed of sound and pull off the Sonic Darkboom... ...a streak of color crossed his path, and he had to pull out of his descent quickly to avoid plowing into the blue pegasus that been frolicking beneath him, unaware of his rapid descent He threw his wings out wide in a braking maneuver, and he heard a sickening crack and a shot of pain coming from his outer pinions. instinctively, he drew in that wing, which only succeeded in the resistance from the other wing to send him into a maddeningly dizzy spiral. He watched panicked as the ground spun around and around, growing ever nearer. One wing useless and broken, pulled tight agains his side, he tried desperately to slow his fall with his one good wing, to somehow stop his spiral. But try as he might, he only succeeded in aggravating the erratic spin. He could make out details on the ground now, and the colorful shapes of ponies milling around below. He braced for impact. When the impact did come, it wasn't what he had expected. Rather than the sickening thud of his body hitting hard ground, it was soft, like falling into a down comforter. When he opened his eyes, he saw why. He wasn't lying broken on the ground, but on the back of a blue pegasus pony, gently slowing his fall and guiding him to a safe landing in a field just outside of town. Dark tried to open his mouth to thank his rescuer, but only managed a soft squeak, one that was eaten by the wind. "Don't worry, nopony's going to crash on my watch!" Rainbow Dash alighted in the field, and gently helped Dark to his feet. "Especially not because they happened to cross my flight path. What were you trying to do up there, copy my awesome Sonic Rainboom?" Dark staggered a bit "Th-th-thank you, you saved me!" Dark suddenly felt that maybe he wouldn't have such a hard time fitting in after all.
Story 3: Twillera's Dream "Just a sip, to help me sleep, I promise!" Twillera reached a hoof towards the bottle of whiskey sitting on the center of the table. "No! You promised!" Midnight slapped her hoof away with a disapproving glare at Twillera. Twillera looked back at her, the look both hurt and pleading. She gave a frustrated scream and trotted up the stairs, slamming the door to the bedroom Midnight and she shared. She could hear Midnight follow her up the stairs, but she paused in front of the closed door, hesitating before deciding to give Twi some time to herself. Twi climbed into the bed she and Midnight shared, and sometimes invited Double Click, their mutual fiancee, into. She curled up, holding a pillow between her legs, and gently began rocking as sobs wracked her body. Despite all her expectations, she was asleep in minutes. Shapes, indistinct and fuzzy. Sounds, words perhaps, but beyond comprehension. Twi feels like she is in a familiar, comforting place. The shapes and sounds coalesce into her family. Father, mother, and younger brother, sitting around the dinner table. Words, still indistinct, but raised in anger. Twi speaks up. Father raises a hoof and brings it down across Twi's face. Tears streaming down her face, she gallops out the door. The door leads not outside, but into the kitchen. There, she finds a box of matches. She idly strikes one after the other, tossing them to the floor as they burn to the bare end. She strikes one and watches it intently. She drops it before it burns out, watching the flame flare up as it tumbles end over end, landing in the wastebasket. Instead of trying to put it out, she flaps her wings a few times to fan the flames. The papers in the basket quickly catch fire, and soon the flames begin to reach higher, a cascading inferno that swallows the wall of the kitchen, and quickly spreads to the rest of the room. Twi is in the center of the flames, but somehow is not burned. The flames for faces. Her father, her mother. Her younger brother. His face cries out in pain, as the flames consume his body. Twi reaches out to stop the burning, but can't reach him. She trips and falls, tears rolling down her face as she watches her brother writhe and shriek... then silenced. The flames turn into trees. She is on the floor of a forest grove, looking at the smoking ruins of their house in the first rays of Celestia's sun. No, she tried to say. It wasn't me! I didn't do it! Not this time, I swear! The trees stare her down with disapproval and hatred. They fade away, and Twillera is alone. She is in darkness. In the distance, she sees a light. She gallops towards it. The wind rushes by her ears. The wind begins to form word. You are not welcome here, you are no daughter of mine, you killed him, you, you, you... She reaches the light. It's the door to a small room, lit by a single bulb. She steps through, and the door vanishes. There are no doors or windows in the room. She lies on the ground, sobbing. Suddenly, she is in pain. Blows rain down on her body from an unseen assailant. She puts up her hooves to ward off the attack, but that only causes them to fall harder. She blinks the tears out of her eyes, and sees her drill sergeant from fight academy. You are a failure, a washout, you are a black mark in the history of Cloudsdale flight school. Tears fill Twillera's eyes, and the shape of the room faded away, walls disappearing into the distance. The attack stops, and Twillera shakes her head to clear away the tears. She stands, and tries to get her bearings. She starts slowly walking in a random direction, but doesn't get far before her hoof strikes something lying on the ground. It clatters across the stone floor. She looks down and picks it up. Her reflection stares back at her in the gleaming metal knife. Her regularly golden eyes look red from crying. The red spreads from her eyes to the rest of her face. She drops the knife, now covered in a red, sticky substance. It lands with dull thud, and Twillera looks down to see a body, slashed and covered in blood. Horrified, she backs away quickly. The ceiling closes down on her. The body begins to stand, blood dripping from its sliced sides. It stares at her, eyes glassy. Twi stares back, and begins to see her own face overlaid over that of the pony. Confused, she blinks, and realizes she is staring through a pane of glass. A light flares up on the opposite side, and once Twi’s eyes have adjusted, she sees that the form of pony on the other side of the glass has changed to that of her dear friend and ward, Midnight. She runs to the glass, pounds on it, screams against it, trying to get Midnight’s attention. It’s no use, midnight turns from her and sits on the ground. Her body shakes with tears that Twi can’t see, but knows are there. She flings herself against the glass, putting her whole weight into each throw, It buckles but does not give. On the third throw she feels her shoulder pop out of its socket, feels a rib crack. Midnight continues crying, and Twillera collapses in a heap, pain coursing through her body. Midnight is growing more and more distant. Twi cries out once more, and Midnight turns to face her. Then she is gone, and the light extinguishes. Twillera lies there, broken and alone. Flashes. A knife cutting into warm flesh. Hooves being held over a raging fire. A piano wire being pulled tight against a throat. Screaming. Crying. Fire. Blood. Pain. Twillera sees her own body, as if hovering above herself. She is bleeding from many cuts and scratches. Her wings are broken and tattered. There is blood everywhere. Suddenly, her eyes open, and Twi realizes that it’s not her body, but Midnight’s lying beneath her. She was too late. Too late. I’m sorry, Midnight, I was too late! Too late! too... Twi jerked upright in bed. Where is she? Where’s Midnight? Frantically, her eyes dart around the darkened room, but her ears perk up at the sound of regular breathing nearby. Cautiously, she turned her head towards the sound, and saw Midnight there, eyes closed peacefully, the hint of a smile curled on her lips. Twillera reached out a hoof to the bedside table, behind which she had hidden a flask of whiskey for those nights she couldn't get to sleep without the warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. As she reached for it, however, one of Midnight’s hindlegs kicked out in the throes of some dream. Twillera pulled back her hoof, used it to wipe the sweat from her brow, rolled over and cuddled close to her lover. She closed her eyes. Shapes, indistinct and fuzzy. Sounds, words perhaps, but beyond comprehension. Twi feels like she is in a familiar, comforting place...
Story 4: Polka Dots"Taffeta Epiphany Sundae, you get down here this instant, or you'll be late for your first day of school!" Taffy started when she heard her mother's voice. She was still staring into the mirror on her dresser table, still in shock at what she saw. She knew she was going to be late to school, but she couldn't stop staring. There was no way she was going to leave that room, not today, not ever again. Even drawing the curtains was more than she could handle. So she stared into the mirror, muttering the same phrase to herself over and over "Polka dots. Why did it have to be polka dots?" Taffy carefully climbed the ladder to the treehouse outside her family's back door. It was late afternoon on the last day of summer vacation, and Celestia was readying the sun for its slow descent below the western horizon. The schedule called for a light drizzle in the early evening, but the clouds were only just being corralled along the horizon by the teams of the Manehatten Municipal Weather Authority, so Taffy knew she still had a good hour or two before the rain started to come down. She planned to be cuddled up warmly in a blanket in Shenzi's treehouse by then, giggling and listening to the rain's pitter-patter on the corrugated metal roof of the shed that somehow never leaked, despite its makeshift construction. She could almost smell the air as the first drops of rain hit the ground dry from a week of sunny skies, as she reached for the next rung of the ladder. The treehouse was not designed for earth ponies, of this she was sure. Pegasi, sure, and even unicorns that could, like her green-maned friend, teleport themselves at will - or, as seemed to be the case with Shenanigans, at whim - but the ladder was tilted almost vertically, with nothing in between the rungs, looking like something a monkey in a zoo would have for climbing, rather than the types of ladders normal ponies used. Still, this WAS Shenzi's treehouse, and the arduous ladder into it was the least strange thing about it by far. Taffy could list more, such as the way it seemed to be bigger on the inside, or the way the tree seemed to shift a little each night, or the way all the windows seemed to have an amazing view of the East River, no matter which wall they were set into. But doing so for too long made Taffy go dizzy, and losing her balance while hanging precariously from the ladder was something she could ill afford. Besides, she knew full and well if she ever asked her friend to explain these strange phenomena, she would get a one word reply: "Magic!" Well, either that, or an immediate, gravity-defying struck pose and the phrase "Shut up! I'm Pony Gaga!" After all these years of knowing her, she still was no closer to discovering who or what a "Pony Gaga" was, but the utterance made her giggle each time. With a grunt, she cleared the final rung and pulled her hindquarters to the shallow dock outside the front door. She didn't knock, since she knew Shenzi wouldn't be expecting her to, but instead walked right in through the door, wiping her hooves, hanging up her scarf, and closing the door behind her. The sun was still bright in the autumn sky, but the wind was already starting to pick, giving the day the bite of autumn. Soon it would be time for the Running of the Leaves, and she and Shenzi would be right in front of the crowds cheering at the finish line in Central Pasture as her brother Spumoni hopefully took first prize again. As she looked around the four-room treehouse (with attic and, somehow, basement levels), she found no trace of her friend, but Taffy was used to Shenzi being off on adventures of her own. Sometimes she would come home with wild tales that were too impossibly crazy for Taffy not to believe. Other time, she wouldn't say a word about what had happened. In most of the latter cases it seemed that Shenzi was covered in some substance or another, usually smelling either extremely sweet, or extremely unpleasant. Taffy found her favorite spot on couch, grabbed a warm comforter, and curled up looking out the north window, inexplicably seeing the clouds rolling in from the Appleantic. She wasn't aware she had dozed off until the crash of thunder woke her from her snoozing. Taffy was confused, the weather schedule called for a light drizzle, not a thunderstorm, unless she had read the chart wrong. But once her eyes adjusted, she realized the source of confusion. The loud sound wasn't thunder, but instead Shenanigans bouncing around the kitchen, no doubt trying to make one of her favorite ketchup-infused after-lunchtime meals. Taffy just grinned as she watched her friend alternately use frying pans as hats, then as shields, then, finally, as cooking utensils, frying up a delicious-smelling Ketchup Stir-Fry. "Mmmm, that smells delicious!" The sound didn't seem to register with Shenzi, who continued her mock kitchen-utensil battle, shouting out narration and battle orders while this stir-fry slowly sizzled on the stove. Finally, with a mighty stab at the dragon who, if Taffy had been following correctly, was also a policepony from the moon, Shenzi struck the pan on the handle and sent it flying... somehow managing to make the food land evenly in two plates that had landed on the floor during the epic battle. Shenzi took a plate in each forehoof and, somehow ignorant of the effects of gravity, walked on two legs into the living room, setting the plate down in front of Taffy. "Thanks Shenzi, it smells delicious!" Taffy eagerly started chewing the saucy red vegetables. "Hmm, no, it's still missing something. Oh, I know!" Before Taffy could finish chewing to ask what it was missing, Shenanigans returned with a small metal shaker in her mouth. "Here we go." She shook the shaker, and a small amount of ruddy brown dust emerged from the opener. The smell of it reached Taffy's nose at that moment, and she only had the chance to get out the words, "Shenzi, that's Cinna..." before them was a mighty flash accompanied by the one sound Taffy had come to dread hearing from her friend. "Ah-CHOO!" For perhaps the hundredth time she looked over her coat, fist in the mirror, then by craning her head from side to try and take in the scope of the damage. Her coat, once a pistachio green, had changed to a pure white hue, which itself wouldn't have been so bad. In fact, she and her friend Shenanigans would have matched quite well, had Shenzi's accidental magical outburst had no further effect than that. But, polka dots? Her coat was covered from head to hoof to tail in brightly colored spots, about the size of a hoofprint. Vibrant reds, yellows and greens dotted her fur, and her mane had transformed from its usual flowing pink to a bright, puffy orange-red. She looked nothing so much - and it brought a tear to her eye every time she thought this - like a circus clown. All that was missing was a bright red nose, but thankfully she had been spared that bit of embarrassment. Small comfort that may have been. The problem with living with a magically unstable unicorn like Shenzi was that, from time to time, strange things happened. And though they usually happened to her twin brother Spumoni, she did not escape their friendship unscathed. In her case, more often than not, it seemed to be sneezes that set it off. It seemed Shenzi only ever sneezed while she was standing nearby, and the explosive release of magical energy that accompanied said sneezes always tended to leave her... changed in the process. She had been unicorns and pegasi, red, yellow, brown and purple. A sneeze had made her the tallest filly in her class once. One unfortunately short-lived sneeze had had no effect other than making her eyes a bright yellow, incidentally curing her of her shortsightedness for the duration of that alteration. Unfortunately, it was the very next day that a sneeze turned her eyes, as well as her mane and coat, a deep lustrous black... and returned her need for wearing glasses. A sneeze had made her an alicorn briefly and once - and Taffy still blushed at the memory - she had spent a few minutes between sneezes as a colt. But this! All the other changes she could live with, get by with only minimal teasing by her classmates, who all knew Shenanigans and her talent for randomness well. But of course, she would have to sneeze on her on the day before she started high school, the day before her first day at the prestigious West Saddle Private School. And it would have to be polka dots. A banging at the door finally snapped her from her dreamlike state. "Taffeta, I know you're nervous about your first day at school, but you really must get going. Your father and I would be very disappointed if you began the new year with a tardiness record." Taffy sighed and gathered her saddlebags. Adding a few last minute necessities - spare eyeliner, lip gloss, not that anypony would be looking at her face, and the latest Filly Beat magazine, she slung the bags over her back, and headed out into the world. Covered in polka dots The foals laughed, of course. Of course, they laughed. The laughed when she walked into the schoolyard. They laughed as she found her locker. They laughed before, after, and even during class. She had names, some original, but most some variation of the word "clown" hurled in her direction. She had to endure ponies trying to honk her nose and asking where her tiny carriage was all day long. If it hadn't been for Spumoni and Shenanigans flanking her every moment they were out of class, Taffy felt fairly certain she would have run, crying, from the school and never, ever returned, choosing self-imposed exile to somewhere, anywhere else, over the unrelenting humiliation she had to face. During lunch, she even tried to get Shenzi to sneeze again. She tried a feather under the nose, pepper, even a bit of cinnamon - a spice that elicited a particularly explosive allergic reaction from Shenzi under most conditions - that they were able to scrounge off a classmate's oat bar. But none of it had any effect on Shenanigans, somehow seemingly impervious to the necessity of clearing ones tickled nasal cavities. At the end of the day, Taffy was exhausted. She walked out the cast iron gates of West Saddle with her head lowered beneath her shoulder level, and finally broke out crying. As her friend escorted her to the subway, foreleg around her shoulder, Taffy let the tears flow freely. She was barely even aware of Shenzi pushing her onto the subway car, her body wracked with sobs as Shenzi lent what little comfort she could. At the next station, a mother and her foal got in and sat down opposite the two ponies. Taffy's eyes were too filled with tears to notice, until the young foal, after having watched her crying silently across the subway car, trotted over and tapped her on the knee. "Missus clown, why are you crying?" Taffy looked up, and into the deep brown eyes of the filly staring up at her, and began bawling in earnest now. "Pl-please don't cry Missus clown!" the young fillies' eyes began to water themselves. "here, want my dolly?" At this, Taffy finally looked up, choking back her tears. In front of her, she saw the young filly holding out her doll - a polka-dotted clown, with a coat the closely resembled her own, with a huge, friendly smile embroidered on her muzzle. Taffy looked back at the filly, then back at the doll. The filly's face looked hopeful and expectant, and suddenly Taffy felt a huge smile coming to her own face. The filly's face echoed her own, and taffy couldn't restrain a burst of laughter. The filly giggled too, just before her mother yanked her away at the next station. That evening, Shenzi and Taffy lounged in the treehouse once again, giggling and chattering. Shenzi was drinking Hot Cocoa with Marshmallows, and Taffy was practicing making balloon animals. Whenever the situation began to make her feel blue, all she had to do was remember that, though she may look like a clown, the look on that filly's face reminded her that being a clown had its upsides too.
