Secrets Shine Brighter

Chapters

Chapter 1: Twilight's Secret
Chapter 3: Pinkie Pie's Secret
Chapter 4: Applejack's Secret
Chapter 5: Fluttershy's Secret
Chapter 6: Rainbow Dash's Secret
Chapter 7: Everypony's Truth
Chapter 8: Everypony's Lie
Chapter 9: Everypony's Resolution
Chapter 2: Rarity's Secret

Chapter 1: Twilight's Secret

The night had been restless for Twilight. She had spent the majority of the night rolling around in her bed, desperately trying to get comfortable. Normally, falling asleep never took longer than a few minutes, even if she had had been on one of her all night study sessions. However, last night was not the case.

She let out a guttural groan upon waking up for the umpteenth time that night. She just wished her brain would cooperate with her and,let her fall asleep and get the rest she needed.

A dull light fought through her closed eyelids, prompting her to sigh. It must be morning, great…

She peeked open an eye, but only barely, to get a look at her surroundings. None of it was new to her. Her room had been the exact same as it had always been. Her lavender bedsheet was a familiar sight, for certain. The bedstand to her left, which held a still full glass of water and her hairbrush prompted her to open both of her eyes a little wider. Her throat was incredibly dry and scratchy. She let out a light cough as her throat came in contact with air.

Even though her thoughts were scrambled from the lack of sleep, that did not stop her from accurately using her magical abilities. She sat up in bed, shivering as the cold air hit her damp coat. She greedily gulped down the water, grasping it in both of her hooves as well as her magic. The water felt like absolute heaven as it slid down her throat, and when her lips parted from the glass, she panted for air.

Only when she set the glass back down on the bedstand did she notice that the entire room was enveloped in a dark grey. She wondered if it was perhaps raining outside, but tossed that idea aside almost immediately upon multiple small realizations.

With a pained noise, she removed her covers and slipped out of bed. She had many things that she needed to get accomplished today, however it seemed as though her curiosity was going to be her highest priority. After doing a tiny stretch, and a moment of attempting to wake up her aching mind, she wandered over to the window.

She rested two hooves on the windowsill and peered outside. Her mouth parted just a little upon the sight. Ponyville was completely blanketed by a thick layer of fog.

Everything was a dark grey, a shade that she had really not come to like. The fog was so dense, she struggled to see the nearest house, which was only about seventy-five feet away.

“Rainbow Dash didn’t tell me there would be fog today…” Twilight mused aloud. It was strange, that was for sure. Rainbow Dash always knew what the weather would be, as she was one of the main weather managers for the Ponyville area. She was always kind enough to share when the weather was going to take a turn for the worst. That being said, Twilight didn’t even talk to Rainbow yesterday. Surely the pragmatic pegasus would've warned somepony of the incoming fog, right?

Twilight sighed inwardly, and turned tail. She was too tired to think about it. She had things to get done, and lots of studying and tidying up to do. She magically grasped her hairbrush and ran it through her mane, which was currently an absolute mess. She had a terrible habit of rubbing her head against her pillow while she slept, and it had less than favorable results.

“Twilight? Are you awake?” A small voice hollered from downstairs. Twilight’s ears perked upwards at the sound of her assistant. She finished brushing her mane, and hurriedly tossed the brush on the bed, not wanting to keep Spike waiting.

“Yes! I’m awake, Spike!” Twilight called back down to him. His response consisted of what Twilight thought to be the sound of dishes hitting the floor. Twilight grinned, and rolled her eyes as she made for the stairs. Spike may have been a klutz, but he was her klutz.

Twilight Sparkle trotted downstairs, through the library, and into the kitchen. Everypony had always said that it was strange that a library came with kitchen, even though it was also a house. Twilight thought it odd at first as well, and after a little research she found out that the library was once an activity center.

“Hey, you!” Twilight greet Spike happily. Somehow, she had already gotten over her sleepiness. She was more of a morning pony, anyways.

“Hey, Twi!” Spike replied, chipper than ever. He was wearing a cooking apron that read “Kiss The Chef!” in purple letters. Twilight had actually gotten him that for his birthday a few months ago. Ever since he had been putting it on every time he picked up a single dish. Spike flipped a haycake into the air, and Twilight watched as it flopped back into the skillet.

“Sleep well?”

“Absolutely not! That the was most horrid night I’ve had in a long time!” Twilight groaned. She ran a hoof over her face, humorously stretching it out. Spike giggled.

“Well what do you expect when you stay up until two in the morning staring at tiny letters in a book?” Spike countered. He expertly flipped a haycake onto a plate, and slid it over to Twilight, who quietly thanked him. “I like a good read every now and then, but I’m sure doing that isn’t healthy for you.”

Twilight shrugged, and poured a little bit of maple syrup over her haycake before picking up a fork. “There just aren’t enough hours in the day, I suppose…” Spike nodded half-heartedly and turned back to his cooking.

There was a small awkward silence between the two before Twilight spoke up again.

“I can’t believe that Rainbow Dash forgot to mention this fog to me. I mean, it’s so visually impairing that I’m almost sure that there are ponies outside running into each other,” Twilight said, before sticking another piece of her breakfast into her mouth. Spike was going to speak up, but Twilight had already swallowed by that point. “The weather sure is a strange thing.”

“I’m not an expert, but I think that somethings are even too harsh for weather control to fix. I’m sure Rainbow Dash will come by soon and whip this fog away.” Spike replied. Twilight agreed, though she couldn’t be too sure. Rainbow had a tendency of…putting off important things that needed to get done. It was how they met, after all.

“Enjoying breakfast?”

Twilight nodded, her mouth once again full of food.

Suddenly, a knock rang throughout the library. Twilight tilted her head, and turned to look at the mounted clock on the other side of the kitchen. It was 7:45 in the morning.

“Huh, that’s strange,” Twilight mumbled. Spike turned off the stove, carefully took off his apron, and followed Twilight to the door.

“Coming!” she hollered.

In a flash, Twilight jerked open the door. The butter-colored body on the other side slightly jumped, before regaining its composure. “U-u-uh. H-hello, Twilight…” Fluttershy said, trailing off to look at the ground. For some reason, she just could not seem to look at Twilight in the face. Behind the pegasus, was a complete wall of grey, however Twilight ignored this. She grinned at her friend.

“Hi, Fluttershy. You’re here awful early.” Twilight said. Fluttershy peered upwards for a second, before it darted back to the ground, nearly locking eyes with Spike.

“Y-Yeah, I a-am.” Fluttershy stammered. Twilight noticed her incessant shaking, and Spike noticed her gaze. It was even more off-putting that unusual.

“Uhm, can I do something for you? I can’t really talk or hang out right now. I got a few things I have to do first.” Twilight explained, taking a small step forward. Fluttershy reeled back, her eyes wide. Twilight flinched as she saw tears begin to form in the poor mare’s eyes.

“Are you okay?” Spike asked seconds before Twilight. To their surprise, Fluttershy actually responded with a vigorous shake of her head. For a minute, Twilight thought that she was about to have a panic attack. She had a feeling that Fluttershy would be at risk, and she silently considered asking her to lie down for a moment. This was way too much, even for her.

“Twilight…” Tears freely fell from Fluttershy’s face as she finally managed to look Twilight in the eyes. “Something b-bad is h-h-happening…”

Twilight and Spike shared strange glances, before they turned back to her. “What do you mean ‘something bad’?”

“N-no pony knows w-who could have d-done it. Everypony woke up this morning to find horrible things written on their house. It’s...the red paint… it won’t come off…”

Twilight put a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder, but she quickly backed away. Things written on the walls? What is she talking about?

“Wait, hold on! Calm down!” Twilight felt a tinge of sadness at having Fluttershy pull away from her, but then again getting close to her probably was not something good to do at this point in time. Fluttershy glanced at Twilight, then Spike, and then the floor. After a few good minutes, Fluttershy’s shaking ceased.

“Please, tell us what’s going on…”

“Everypony woke up this morning, and…” her eyes began watering, but she blinked furiously, determined to not begin crying again. “Somepony did something horrible. S-Somepony knows our deepest darkest secrets, T-Twilight. So they wrote them in big letters on our houses…”

Twilight’s jaw dropped as Fluttershy continued. “The paint won’t come off…”

There was a long pause before Twilight held a hoof out to Spike. “Uh, stay here for a second.” Spike cocked his head, before crossing his arms and pursing his lips.

“What? Why?”

Twilight ignored Spikes protests, even though he obeyed. Walking slowly, she maneuvered past Fluttershy, who followed her. Using her magic, Twilight closed the door, slamming it in Spike’s face. An audible “ow!” was heard from the other side.

Twilight walked out a ways with her friend, before turning around. She immediately felt a stinging pain in her chest. Her heart had plunged deep into the ground as she read the words on the branches and tree trunk of her home. They were written in red, and projected themselves perfectly.

I HAD AN INCESTUOUS EXPERIENCE WITH MY BROTHER

Twillight was dumbstruck as she felt a large flow of blood rush to her cheeks. “I...I…” She felt something new burn inside her. She could not tell if it was that of embarrassment, or fury. When she fell upon her haunches, she confirmed that it was the former. “Who would… who would write these kind of things..?”

“I-I don’t know…” was her only response. Twilight’s mind flashed bright lights, and she almost felt like fainting. “But it won’t come off. I was up very early this morning to feed my chickens when I saw it written on my house. I scrubbed for an hour before I came over here…”

“This… is horrible! Why would somepony do this? I haven’t done anything to anypony!” Twilight stomped her hoof, before letting out a sigh. She hung her head low.

“It’s happened to everypony, Twilight. Everypony’s secrets are out in the open…” Fluttershy looked back down at the ground, still not able to look Twilight in the eye. She breathed in the cool air that the fog provided before mustering up her courage.

“Is… is it t-true?”

Twilight’s eyes snapped open with worry, and her pupils shrunk to the size of peas. With a tremendous mood shift, Twilight jumped to her hooves. “Of course not! Shining Armor is my brother! That’s disgusting!”

As if on cue, a small ding was heard before both mares turned their gaze back to the message. Twilight gulped as she realized that the letters were beginning to shine through the fog, radiating like beacons. Twilight knew what this meant.

“What… why did it do that?” Fluttershy asked, her gaze frequently shifting between Twilight and the letters. Twilight was the only one who knew the actual truth. It did not take her long to piece it together. She did not want to admit it, but if she refused, then she risked her hypothesis of the letters getting brighter. If they shone brighter, they’d protrude through the fog. And soon, everypony in town would take one look at the sky and see her secret. At least, that was what she thought would happen. She let out a large sigh.

“F-fine…” Twilight felt a little bit like crying, and dropped back to her haunches. She buried her head in her hooves. “Fine, yes. It’s true! Okay?!”

Fluttershy brought a hoof to her mouth, and gasped. “Twilight, how could you?”

“I… I was a child, alright?” A few tears streamed from Twilight’s face. Fluttershy bit the inside of her lip and set aside her judgement. She scooted a little closer to the unicorn and wrapped a hoof around her. “I was just a kid and I didn’t know any better…”

When Twilight did not hear a response, she continued. “It happened a while ago…”

***

“Oh come on! Where is it!?” Twilight exasperated. She shoved boxes, clothes, and even jewelry out from her parents closet. She knew it had to be there. There was nowhere else in the house she had not looked. While her parents were out, she had the perfect opportunity to do a little bit of snooping. Her rump was in the air as she made a mess out of the closet. “It’s gotta be in here!”

Behind her, Smarty Pants was sitting slumped against the adjacent wall. She stared at Twilight with a strange sense of curiosity. “Twilight… what are you looking for?” she asked. The stuffed animal stood up and wandered over to her, peering over her shoulder to get a look at just what Twilight was freaking out about. Twilight rolled her eyes.

“I already told you! My Hearth’s Warming Eve gift has to be in here! I checked all over the house! The attic, the pantry, even the basement, but nope!” Twilight smiled and grasped her stuffed doll, and set it down on the ground just a little bit closer to her. “I know they got me that new book on the pythagorean theorem! It’s all I’ve ever wanted and I wanna read it now!”

Smarty Pants pinched the bridge of her nose. “But Twilight, isn’t that the point of Hearth’s Warming Eve? As well as the fact that it’s supposed to be a surprise?”

“So?”

“Touché.”

With a need sense of confidence after winning an argument with a stuffed doll, Twilight grinned and turned back to the mess of a closet. She had been looking for the last ten minutes, but she refused to give up hope. She needed every single shred of information that she could get, and that pythagorean theorem formula was right in her to-do list!

“Twilight, it’s been a while. I don’t think it’s in there…” Smarty Pants finally spoke up. Twilight had noticed her shifting around in a bored manner. “Why don’t we go and do something else? I kind of wanted to make another book fort, or perhaps discuss the mental ability and superiority of the unicorn race?”

“Nah, we already did that like three times today.” Twilight replied. She had to admit, however, she was getting increasingly bored. But that was when another idea crossed her mind. The gift was not in her closet, nor her parents. So that only left one pony in the house. “I got it! It must be in Shining Armor’s room!”

Smarty Pants groaned loudly.

“Come on! Let’s go!” Twilight shouted, grasping Smarty Pants in her mouth. The doll waved around wildly. Two sounds could be heard: one was of a gleeful giggling, the other was a pained scream.

Within moments a filly and doll both appeared on the outside of Shining Armor’s room. She had remembered that she needed to knock before entering, lest she bring the Wrath of Shining Armour down upon herself.

She rapped on the door twice but she received only silence in response. Twilight’s smile grew larger as she dropped Smarty Pants on the floor. She quickly stood up when Twilight opened the door. “Whoops! No one’s home, time to go!” Smarty Pants tried to make a quick escape, but Twilight had already enveloped the doll in her magic. She tried to fight the magic, but it was in vain.

“That’s the point, Silly-Pants!” she chuckled, before setting the still-struggling doll on the floor, leaning up against the wall right next to the door. “Keep watch for me! Say something if he comes into the hallway!” Before Smarty Pants had the chance to say anything, the filly had already disappeared inside.

“Aye, aye, captain…” she sighed.

Once inside, Twilight immediately ran for the closet. She knew her brother. If there was anything worth stashing, surely it would be in there. She was certain that her mother had set him up to this. She was too smart for them though! She opened the door to the closet…

And hollered as a small mountain of stuff fell on top of her. She squirmed and fought her way from under the smelly pile of worn clothes. Looking back on it, she probably could have thought that through a little better. As soon as she reached the surface, she gasped for air. She embraced the fresh air as she tried to get the intoxicated mess in her lungs out. “I’m… okay…!”

Only when she tried to adjust her body was when her hoof came in contact with paper. Her expression shifted from disgust, to a cheerful grin. “Bingo!” she shouted. She scrounged around the pile in search of the item in particular, but at this point it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

After a few minutes of tossing dirty clothes everywhere, she had finally gotten a grip of it. “Aha! Gotcha!” she cried, as a brand new feeling of fulfillment washed over her. Her mission was a success! Now she just needed to reel in her prize. She used her magic to finish fishing it out.

It was a soft book, and much smaller than she would expect a book on mathematical equations to be. On it was a silhouette of what she thought was an earth pony mare, showing herself seductively to those who wished to gaze upon the cover.

Twilight cocked an eyebrow, and read the name of one of the articles on the cover of what she just now realized was a magazine. “Fellatio, and other ways to thoroughly please a stallion”. Once again, her childish ambitions got to her, and she couldn’t resist herself as she flipped open the pages. If there was something in the world she did not understand, then it was her job to figure it out!

Very quickly, she opened up to the page with the article on it. She was not sure what “fellatio” meant. It was rare when she came across a word that she did not understand, but she assumed that if it made stallions feel good, then it must be some kind of unique massage.

Twilight read the entire article left to right, absolutely awestruck at the words that flowed from the page, not to mention the helpful pictures and diagrams. Never had she learned so much in just one sitting! It was like walking out of a toy store, only to find out that you still have money left and there is an even better store right next door.

By the time that she had finished reading the entire magazine, she felt a new sense of accomplishment. “Well! That’s enough research for today!” she exclaimed, slamming the magazine shut and throwing it back into the pile. She realized that it was too late when a bulky figure appeared in the doorway.

“Twilight!?” it roared. “What are you doing in my room? Everything’s a mess!” Shining Armor shouted. His coat was stained green, and his mane was still matted down with sweat from hoofball practice. Twilight rubbed her hooves together, nonchalantly.

“I’m sorry, I thought that… uh… my Hearth’s WarmingEve present was in here…” she sighed, finally coming to terms with the error of her ways. Shining Armor groaned. He never was one who enjoyed fighting with his little sister. After all, they had barely ever done it in the first place.

“Just… get out of my room.”

Twilight wiggled herself out from the pile she was still stuck in, and stared at her disappointed brother. She walked with her head down low, before an idea popped in her head. She quickly turned around, much to the chagrin of her brother. “Wait, Shining, you look a little stressed…”

Shining Armor was not amused. “Yeah, a little. I come home from a lousy game to find that my sister had ruined my room.” The grin on Twilight’s face grew a little wider.

“I think I have an idea!”

***

“...and that’s what happened...we didn’t do anything extreme, but I guess it still counts…” Twilight, for the first time in ten minutes, turned to look at Fluttershy. Her face was covered in a horrendous blush that painted almost her entire face. She tried to hide it with a cleverly placed hoof, but that just served to bring more attention to her face.

“I-I don’t know what to say…” she stammered. Twilight felt her own face grow hot. She felt absolutely miserable, and she honestly wanted to cry.

“I didn’t tell anyone this, until now. Shining and I made a pact upon realizing what had happened that day was wrong. I just didn’t want anyone to think of me any different…”

“Twilight! Oh course we don’t. You were a child, kids do… uhm, mischievous things at that age.” To Twilight’s surprise, Fluttershy gave her a warm smile. “You’re still the smartest pony in the world to me. Everypony, even.”

Twilight grinned back, but just not as brightly as she would have liked. “Thanks.” Twilight sighed, and looked back at the letters on her home that would continue to haunt her for the rest of her life. But there was something strange about it…

They were gone.

“Fluttershy!” At the sound of somepony calling her name, Fluttershy jumped. She realized how silly that was upon remembering that the only other pony with her was Twilight. “It’s gone!” Twilight’s companion looked up at the sky, and parted her lips. She was right. The letters that were there just a moment before were now gone, and the tree was back to looking like its usual self.

“But… how is that possible?” Fluttershy was not sure whether or not to express utter fear, or to be curious instead. Twilight tapped her chin with her hoof and thought. Occasionally mumbling to herself as she paced around Fluttershy, who remained quiet. After a few minutes of thinking, Twilight shouted.

“I’ve got it!” Fluttershy practically fell over at the loud noise, but she managed to keep her ground. “The letters glow when you don’t admit or just flat-out lie about your secret. They’re magically enchanted with a high-ranking spell. That’s what’s going on!”

“But… how do they-?”

Twilight was on a roll. “But! The moment that I fessed up and explained myself to someone close to me, then the letters began to dim until they eventually just disappeared.” Twilight stopped pacing, and Fluttershy was actually having a difficult time keeping track of the unicorn in the fog. “Don’t you see what the whole point of this is?”

“No…” Fluttershy trailed. She actually did understand, but she just did not want to be the one to say it.

“Somepony’s trying to teach us a lesson. Come on, we have to go and find the others!”

Chapter 3: Pinkie Pie's Secret

Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy stared in disbelief at the words that spread across the sky, like a lighthouse beacon. Twilight’s entire body twitched involuntarily as even more questions wracked her brain. “I...I...uhm...I…” She could not speak correctly, all that came out was jarbled nonsense. For a moment, Fluttershy could have sworn she saw smoke around the unicorn’s head, but then again that could have just been the fog messing with her.

“Twilight…? I thought you said you dealt with your… issue?” Rarity asked. In her initial shock, she had managed to lose her magical grip on her hairbrush. After looking through the fog for a moment, she gingerly picked it back up and continued to run in through her mane, which was looking better by the minute. Fluttershy turned to Twilight, but did not say anything.

“That… that doesn’t make any sense! I told my secret, and the words disappeared completely…” Twilight once again began to pace around Rarity and Fluttershy. She twitched nervously with every other step that she took. Her eyes darted from side to side, causing Fluttershy to tilt her head. It took a while before Twilight finally registered Rarity’s question. “I did deal with my ‘issue’! The words disappeared, and here it is -- twenty minutes later -- and they’re still on my library… for all the town to see…” Fluttershy bit the inside of her lip, and rested a hoof on her friends shoulder.

“Perhaps there’s something else to it?” Rarity guessed, poking her bush into the air. A slight realization made Rarity gasp. “Do you think mine will come back as well? Even after I explained everything?” Fluttershy stayed silent, not having an answer for her. Twilight, however, was not paying as much attention to Rarity as she should have. Although she did stop pacing to turn to her.

“Something else? I’m trying to think, but it’s not making a lick of sense!” Twilight stamped her hooves on the ground, childishly. Her mind was in overdrive trying to organize all the possible theories in her head. She let out a tough sigh. “Okay, let’s go over this again. I explained my secret entirely to Fluttershy, and the words disappeared. I’m a hundred percent sure that they were gone when we left.” Fluttershy brought a hoof to her mouth, as she did a little bit of thinking of her own. “We walked over here, where we talked to Rarity about her secret. After some ‘chatting’, we find that Rarity’s has disappeared, and mine have reappeared…”

“I’m sorry if I am jumping to conclusions, but by any chance were you lying about your secret?” Twilight’s pacing stopped on a dime, and Fluttershy gasped. Rarity instantly regretted letting her thoughts through her loud mouth. “I didn’t mean it to come out like that, but it’s a reasonable thought.” she added. Twilight was going to say something, but she simply sighed and nodded.

“Not a bad one, really. However that can easily be proven false. Let’s go back to the library, I need to clear a few things up with Spike. I’m sure that he got curious and saw the secret…” Another reluctant groan came from her, before she began to stomp back the way she came. Fluttershy and Rarity exchanged glances, before following the unicorn’s tail.

***

About fifteen minutes later, three ponies and one uncomfortable dragon stood outside of the library. They stared up at the words on the library’s branches and tree trunk. Spike had to actually hold up an arm just to keep from blinding himself. “So, that’s what was going on…” Spike said. He had remained obedient to Twilight’s request, and stayed inside the library the whole time, albeit a little worried. “Why haven’t you told me this before? You’re like a sister to me.” he frowned.

“Because you’re too young to know what that kind of stuff is.” Ding! Twilight shuddered as the letters grew even brighter. The three other bodies simultaneously raised a questioning eyebrow. “Ugh. Because I kept it a secret for a reason.” Apparently, the words on the library deemed that just vague enough to be truthful. Twilight was silently ecstatic about the lack of dinging, she really did not want to explain it further. She was already fairly sure she had scarred Spike for life.

Rarity was getting slightly restless. “Twilight, we came here for a reason, correct?” she asked. Twilight gave her a small nod.

“Right. Let me try another experiment.” she said, holding up a hoof before turning back to the words. She unnecessarily cleared her throat. She spoke loudly, just to make sure that there are no variables. “I have told the entire truth about my secret, and I have nothing else to share!” A half-second of anxiety passed by, before the group saw the letters visibly dim. “Aha!”

“So… you didn’t lie. It would have caught you if you did, right?” Spike asked. “What does this prove?”

“It proves that one, I am not lying or hiding anything, and therefore the letters recurring is most likely not my doing. I told my entire story, so it has no reason to start glowing again. Also, I just told two more souls about my secret. What was weird was that it didn’t brighten nor dim when I explained to you and Rarity my secret. Only when I made a true statement about the secret itself.” Twilight concluded. Spike was more that confused, at this point

“So… the letters react to when you tell the entire truth? But then why did it appear like that?” Rarity asked quizzically. Twilight simply shook her head.

“I have no idea. There’s got to be some kind of answer to this.” Twilight replied. To everyone else’s silent disgust, Spike let out a semi-smug grin.

“Good thing I don’t have any secrets to tell.” he said, pridefully. A lightbulb went off inside of Twilight’s rattled skull. “At least I’ve got that going for me.”

“Wait!” she felt a few things in her mind finally piece together, thought it did not form anything much. “I never realized… Spike, you live here too.” Spike was going to reply with something witty at the way she had phrased that, but luckily nobody was very eager to hear it. “How come a secret of yours isn’t being shown?”

Spike shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno. Maybe whomever did this doesn’t have anything against me?” he replied. Twilight pondered the thought, but she sighed when she realized that he was right. No one in Ponyville had a problem with the baby dragon, as far as she could remember.

“To think that anypony could have anything against my little Spikey-wikey!” Rarity cooed, slightly nuzzling the dragon, who in turn blushed brightly.

“Maybe there’s a book inside on this. I doubt it, but it couldn’t hurt to look.” Twilight said, with another defeated sigh. Using her magic, she opened the door and patiently waited for the other three to wander inside, which she did soon after.

The library was tinted a sullen gray that almost seemed to ricochet off the walls. The fog had most certainly made its way inside of the tree, but it was just not at the same degree as it was outside. It was easy to see a pony on the other side of the room. Twilight mentally compared it to somepony filling the air with spray paint. Rarity sat down on the floor, being extra careful as to where she set her rump, while Fluttershy joined Twilight and Spike over by the books. “Twilight, do you really think there could be a book that talks about this?” Fluttershy whispered.

Twilight shook her head, as she began to levitate books off the shelves. “Probably not. But maybe this happened sometime ago also. I don’t recall reading about it, but if there is a record, then we may just be onto something.”

“Twilight, that’s a little ridiculous.” Spike completely missed the glare that Twilight had casted upon him. “We’ve been here for how many years, and Fluttershy and Rarity -- most of their lives! If whoever did this did it in the past, and these two haven’t seen it happen anywhere else,” Spike threw his arm over in Fluttershy and Rarity’s direction. “then that original pony may have passed on.”

“First of all, I don’t even know if it’s been done in the past. So calm yourself, bud.” Twilight let out a soft smile after regaining her composure. “Second, it could have easily happened somewhere else, and we could have just not heard about it. Think about it, would you be reporting to authority about your most darkest secret being written on your house, and risk them reading it and possibly going to jail? I’ve read a few of them outside that belong to other ponies, and most of them are more than harmful.” Twilight raised her hoof to prove her final point. “And three, who says this was even a pony?”

Fluttershy looked absolutely horrified. “N-Not a p-pony? Then w-who could have d-done it then?” Rarity scooted over so that she was sitting with the rest of her friends.

“Anything, and anyone. But we have to put in some thought.” Twilight continued to skim through books while she spoke, and Fluttershy eeped when she simultaneously pulled ten books off the shelves with her magic. “Someone must have been planning this for a while, watching each and every one of us for a good, long, time. Also, they must have some kind of magic that allows them to do that spell on the paint. Charming it, basically.” Spike gazed at Rarity, but she was not paying attention. “Also, how does one get enough paint to do this, and a better question is how did they do it overnight without anyone hearing anything?”

Her three friends shrugged, and Twilight’s brain was in overdrive.

“So many questions, and absolutely no leads whatsoever.” Twilight muttered under her breath. She considered sending a letter to the Princess about what was going on here, but like she said, attracting attention to every pony in town’s secrets would be less than beneficial. Also it was dangerous to fly through this kind of weather, assuming that she sent some kind of authority into town. “It’s like everything is so perfectly set up.…”

Fluttershy glanced up at the clock, and was somewhat surprised when it read quarter to ten. The fog had completely taken her sense of time away, with the sun not being around and all. However she kept her small observations to herself, and stayed quiet.

“I think we should go find the rest of the girls. I’m sure they’re suffering right about now.” Rarity chimed. Her mane and tail had been turned back to their original, gorgeous selves a while ago.

“But we’d have to read their s-secrets…”

“Fluttershy, we’re all going to have to read their secrets. I think it’s the only way we can solve this.” Fluttershy’s head dipped as she felt a newly found sorrow embrace her body. Twilight set her books back on the shelves after not finding a single thing. She had checked every single logical book that could have had the answer. Yet there was still nothing.

“Let’s go to Pinkie’s. Celestia knows how she’s doing right now…” she sighed. This is the most miserable day of my life...

***

It was a short while later when everyone, save for Spike, were walking through the fog towards the Sugarcube Corner. They had to take a small detour, however. The town was most certainly in pieces. Yelling and crying had been a common sound throughout the streets. They had even seen a few houses on fire from ponies who took the matters into their own hooves. No matter how much Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight wanted to help, they knew that there was nothing they could do to soothe those aching ponies troubled conscience.

“I never knew that ponies could resort to such drastic measures once everything was out into the open…” Twilight muttered. Rarity nodded lightly.

“Just goes to show what ponies will do to keep up self-made facades and charades.” Rarity chided. Her friends kept their mouth shut in an effort to spare her feelings. Unlike Fluttershy and Twilight, Rarity walked slowly and painfully. She was dreading talking to Pinkie. She knew what she was going to have to do once she saw her, and she tried to silently figure out how to say it without causing any kind of conflict in the end.

It had only taken a few minutes later for them to reach the Sugarcube Corner. It was also very easy to find. Given that they had also made this trip so many times that they could have each individually gotten there blindfolded, the rosy pink building stood out like a sore hoof.

Much to the three’s surprise, their puffy pink friend was bouncing around the front of the building with some kind of oblivious stupor. She was singing a song that none of her friends were able to pick up on, so they assumed that she had once again made something up on the spot.

“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted as the group wandered closer to her. Pinkie stopped almost mid-bounce, and practically toppled over.

“Oh, hey girls!” Pinkie shouted, waving a hoof in the air. “Can you believe this? This is so super-duper!” Fluttershy cocked her head, not entirely sure about how she should feel about her comment. Then again, she was not sure how she should feel about what was going on, either.

They approached the mare slowly, but carefully. Pinkie Pie had actually stood in the same spot waiting for them to approach. She had that same eternally apparent grin on her face. “Pinkie… what are you talking about…?” Rarity questioned. She could see the red letters in her peripheral vision, although her brain told her to fight her building curiosity.

“This town wide campfire somepony set up!” Somehow, Pinkie’s smile grew even wider. She actually had to close her eyes for a split second. “The smoke is a little bit much, but it feels like I’m in some kind of wonderland! Hehe!” Pinkie let out a laugh accompanied by various snorts and giggles. Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy all stared at each other, as if they were silently deciding who was going to be the one to tell her.

Rarity’s curiosity was the first to overcome. She could not resist the words that were stapled all over the Sugarcube Corner. There were actually three sentences: one on the roof, one on the front of the building, and another written in the windows. It was as if the entire establishment was covered in semi-dried blood. Rarity paid no attention to the other two. She knew who they belonged to, and would rather not know anything else about them. Their family was already fragile. Pinkie’s secret lied in the windows of Sugarcube Corner.

I DON'T HAVE THE COURAGE TO SHOW EVERYPONY MY TRUE SELF

“Pinkie, haven’t you noticed that something… strange has been going on…?” Rarity asked, not taking her eyes off of Pinkie Pie’s secret. Twilight followed Rarity’s gaze, but her determined grin remained on her face. Fluttershy looked away entirely, squeaking as she resisted her inner temptations.

“Nope!” she chimed. Pinkie Pie said her words with a ridiculous sense of pride. Her head bobbed to some kind of inaudible tune inside of her head, and her mane shook with every word she uttered. Twilight resisted the urge to facehoof. There was a loud ding, as the sentence in the window grew just a little bit brighter.

“You haven’t noticed the words written all over ponies houses? All over Sugarcube Corner?” Twilight knew that Pinkie was rather unobservant at times, but she was more than suspicious. Pinkie shook her head happily. Twilight wondered if she actually heard the second ding.

“You mean you haven’t noticed your deep, dark secret written in the windows behind you? Or do you just refuse to admit it?” Twilight asked. Pinkie’s smile faded for a half second, but before any of the three could blink it was right back on her face. It was brighter and louder than ever.

“Eheh,” Pinkie turned her head briefly, before looking back at her dumbstruck friends a few milliseconds later. “Oh, that. I never noticed that there before. I’ve been enjoying the fires and cooking s’mores all morning!” Another raucous bout of giggling was heard, as well as another familiar sound:

Ding!

“Pinkie, we know you’re lying to us… that dinging tell us that, as well as the fact that your letters are getting brighter. I really don’t have time for this…” Rarity added. Twilight resisted the urge to shoot Rarity a nasty glare, until she realized what she said was technically true for her. Pinkie, on the other hoof, did not seem to hear the unicorn’s pleas.

“Does somepony need a party pony to cheer them u-”

“No!”

“Pinkie, your secret on the window explains everything. Acting oblivious is not going to make it go away.” Twilight argued.

“But… but I have no idea what it’s talking about!” Pinkie scoffed, and waved her hoof dismissively at the building behind her. “I’m Pinkie Pie, and I always have been!” Pinkie Pie audibly gulped when another ding was heard. Twilight stared hard at the mare, who was looking around nervously.

“Pinkie, please…” Fluttershy begged, stepping out from behind Twilight. She was somewhat surprised when Rarity stepped in front of her.

“Hey Pinkie, if I share my secret with you, will you explain yours?” Rarity asked. Fluttershy and Twilight went wide-eyed, the former actually backing away. Fluttershy knew that the time would be coming eventually, but she quietly wished that she did not have to be around to hear it. She wanted to disappear into the fog entirely.

“Sure!” Pinkie said. Rarity was slightly taken aback by the sheer amount of joy in her voice, but she did not expect anything less.

Rarity sighed, and mustered up everything inside of her. “I… I am addicted to terokain pills.” The smile on Pinkie’s face drooped until it was unexisting. “I take them so that they’ll help me fall asleep, even though I know that they’re bad for me. I couldn’t help myself. It’s the only way that I’ll be able to get the much needed sleep that I deserved…” Rarity paused to look her dear friend in the eyes. “Darling, I’m sorry about this, but… I stole most of your medication so that I could feed my addiction.”

There was a very awkward pause that rang throughout the four of them. Nothing was heard, nothing was said -- and most importantly -- nothing was felt. Pinkie just stared at the unicorn dumbly. For once in her life, Pinkie Pie had nothing to say.

That was until she exploded into another fit of giggles.

“Teehee! That’s okay, Rarity!” Pinkie Pie trotted up to Rarity beaming, and wrapped a hoof around her. Rarity had to force herself to keep her tears at bay, though Pinkie’s demeanor only egged it on. “It’s okay to share, sometimes! All you gotta do is ask! Sure, if I don’t take the pills I get all-” Pinkie paused to wobble around with a silly face just to prove her point. “But I don’t mind, because it makes me feel silly inside!”

Twilight’s brain almost short circuited. She mouth was agape as she tried to mentally process Pinkie Pie’s train of thought. However, she had zero to no luck. Pinkie Pie teetered back to her spot in front of the Sugarcube Corner.

“Uhm… so Pinkie…” Fluttershy spoke up, seeing that nopony else was rightly able to. “Do you mind sharing with us what your secret is all about… uh, if you want to, that is…”

Pinkie Pie stood happily on the other side of the group, her toothy grin yet again showing itself. She stayed absolutely still, like a marble statue. Her eyes were closed, as usual when she smiled. It was as if somepony had simply pressed pause. “P-Pinkie…?” Rarity asked. However, no amount of prompting causing Pinkie Pie to move. Fluttershy had almost assumed that she was stuck.

Pinkie Pie did not open her mouth. She simply stayed put, causing the other three to look at each other confusedly. Only until the tears started pouring out of the mare’s closed eyes did the three of them let out a relieved sigh.

It was a picturesque moment as they watched on. Her body and face revealed nothing but pure bliss and elation, but the tears running down her face showed otherwise. Some of the tears landed on Pinkie’s muzzle and still-grinning lips. It was as if she refused to let her smile go away. “Pinkie! Are you okay?” Twilight had finally put Pinkie’s comment earlier behind her, and had finally managed to regain her focus.

“H-Hahaha!” The mare sniffled continuously. “O-Of course I-I’m fine! W-Why wouldn’t I-I be? Hah-haha!” Her ears were pinned against the back of her head passively. Twilight knew exactly what was going on now, and she felt that both of them could be at ease as she said those few fateful words.

“Pinkie, quit smiling.”

As soon as Pinkie Pie opened her eyes, and saw the frown on Twilight and Rarity’s face, she gave up. She dropped to the ground into a bawling, heaping mess. She cried loudly into the dirt, covering her face with her hooves. She did not care about her coat being covered in soil. She did not care about what he friends thought of her. All she wanted was to have that moment.

“I-I’m so t-tired…” she cried and sniffled so much that her friends were just barely able to understand what she said. The three of them exchanged nods, and went to comfort their friend, who was trying to speak. Pinkie kept choking on her words.

“There, there…” Rarity cooed, softly calling to her. Rarity’s comforting talents came from her mother, who would always calm her when she needed it. Rarity picked up on it, but this time, she was the mother, and Pinkie was her baby. “Let it all out…”

“I h-have s-s-so many ponies w-who look up to me. I… I just w-want t-to sit d-down f-for a while. I-I want to rest, b-but I can’t a-anymore. I-I’ve dug myself t-too deep, a-and n-now it’s e-expected f-f-from me…” The three of them nodded, but Twilight was the only one with a response.

“Pinkie, only a few things matter in life, and personality is not one of them.” She bent down towards to sobbing mare. “What does matter, is who they are, and what they can accomplish.”

Twilight stood back up when she noticed Pinkie vigorously shaking her head. Her entire face was stained with newly acquired tears, thought the mare in question did not seem to care. Twilight was curious. She looked back to the words in the Sugarcube Corner windows, only to notice that they are all gone. Twilight did not smile. “What is this all about, anyways…?” She swiftly turned around, and sighed when she saw a very familiar phrase peek through the fog:

MY LIFESTYLE MAKES IT HARD TO RELAX, SO I LET THE PILLS DO IT FOR ME

“...Wait a minute…”

Chapter 4: Applejack's Secret

Twilight felt something stir deep inside of her brain. It was as if something was just out of her grasp, and she was struggling to reach it and pull it aside. She began to mumble to herself in an effort to organize her jumbled thoughts. “When I talked to Fluttershy this morning, my secret dimmed. When we both talked to Rarity about her secret, her secret disappeared and mine reappeared…”

Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was still an absolute mess behind her. Fluttershy and Rarity were doing as much as they could to comfort the wallowing mare. Fluttershy could not help but to pity her for reasons she held close to her own heart. She ran her hoof through Pinkie’s mane in a tender effort to get her to stop crying. Fluttershy frowned when she realized that her efforts were in vain.

“Dear… do you want to talk about it?” Rarity asked. She was sure that the mare would, but even if she said no, Rarity would get her to talk some way. Pinkie’s secret may be gone, but perhaps talking could get her to calm down a little bit, Rarity thought.

The amount of pent-up sorrow inside Pinkie was almost too much to bear. She had not let herself cry sincerely since she was younger. It was as if her eyes were raining the freedom that she so desperately desired.

“I… I- I don’t want to be hyperactive like that anymore.” Pinkie choked, mustering up the strength to wipe her tears away with a soggy hoof. “I’m tired of acting happy when all I want to do is cry. I don’t want to be forgiving when somepony is mean to me.” Pinkie Pie cast a knowing glare upon Rarity, who took the hint. She nervously smiled, and made a mental note to never wrong Pinkie again.

“Have you ever noticed how they treat me?” Pinkie Pie asked, staring up at Fluttershy with eyes that now glistened in the fog.

“Who?” Rarity asked. Pinkie did not even turn her head.

“Everypony.” she replied despondently. Rarity was almost heart-broken at her words. She had never seen Pinkie so depressed. Though, she figured no one truly had before now. She was a shell of her former self. What pony wouldn’t be after living a lie and suppressing their true selves for so long? Rarity’s head bowed and she pawed at the ground. She understood entirely.

“They call me names behind my back,” Pinkie continued. “They all think I’m too dimwitted to understand, but I hear and recall every single word, and I can never forget them.”

Pinkie’s gaze fell back to the ground, and Fluttershy and Rarity feared the inevitable when Pinkie’s mane and tail straightened out. In her position on the ground, she almost looked like she was in the embrace of a bright pink blanket.

“Pinkie explained her secret, and now Rarity’s is showing again…” Twilight was still quietly mumbling to herself. The answer was right on the tip of her tongue, she could feel it. “When you reveal one, the one revealed before gets brighter? But that doesn’t make much sense…”

“It’s alright, Pinkie. Courage is something that ponies are born with.” Fluttershy added with a genuine smile. “Much like myself, being brave isn’t something somepony can just do. Especially when it comes to telling everypony something so secretive and personal.”

“No…” Pinkie began coughing for breath when the tears managed to choke her up again. She was letting her mind speak for itself, for once in her life. “You’re not like me in the slightest.”

Fluttershy’s mouth parted, and she flashed her wings for a brief moment in surprise before sighing softly, “If you… If you’re different than what you set out to become...” the pegasus mare smiled encouragingly. “Then who are you really?”

Pinkie Pie’s head perked up, and her ears stood at attention. “W-What?” Pinkie was not sure whether to feel hurt, insulted, or miserable. So she just went with a strange combination of the three. “What do you me? I’m me. Always have been, always will.” she gave the two an insincere, and obviously forced grin. Nopony fell for it.

“But what about the real Pinkie? Not the facade Pinkie that you’ve been doing. I’m talking about the actual you.”

Pinkie Pie could only hold back so many tears. “She’s a stranger to me.” she choked out.

Rarity, whose conscience was heavier than ever, turned to watch Twilight. She could not bear seeing Pinkie so distraught. However, she felt even worse because she was the one responsible for stealing Pinkie’s medication in the first place. She couldn’t help feeling like some of Pinkie’s suffering was her fault. Whether it was some sort of domino effect, or Pinkie blaming Rarity herself, she would never know, but her guilt was too much to bear. Twilight gave Rarity a cursory glance, before returning to her thoughts, leaving Rarity to turn back to Pinkie and Fluttershy.

“I just want to sleep... to rest… and for once in my life I want to eat something green…” Pinkie muttered. Rarity rested a reassuring hoof on Pinkie’s back, and opened her mouth to agree with the mare’s first point. But she closed her mouth a moment later after thinking a little more carefully about it.

“You can, Pinkie. You can do all of that starting today-” Fluttershy squealed and jumped back when Pinkie Pie launched into the air and raised a hoof, as if she wanted to swing at her timid friend.

“No!” she screamed, her voice grating at their ears like gravel. “I don’t want to!”

Rarity spoke up from behind Pinkie, who was scowling for the first time in years. “E- Excuse me? Pinkie, I thought you said-”

“I know what I said!” she said through gritted teeth. Something in Pinkie snapped, and Twilight decided to set aside her thoughts for a moment.

“Nopony is going to say anything about this. I’m Pinkie Pie, the one and only party pony extraordinaire!” Pinkie purposely ignored the loud ding in the background. “I’ve worked too hard for this! Slaving over the happiness of others for years... I’ve spent most of my life building myself up, and I can’t let some paint ruin that for me!”

Pinkie Pie was scowling like a menace. Her mane swayed dangerously close to the ground, shielding much of her face from her friends’ startled gazes. She stood precariously on all fours, although all of her legs were spread wide. At first glance, one would think that Pinkie Pie was bracing herself for something.

“Pinkie… calm down…” Rarity said as soothingly as she could manage while backing away with a shivering pegasus at her side. Rarity raised a hoof, as if to gesture to Pinkie. “We can work this out, dear…”

“Please!” she spat. “You don’t care about me. If you did, you wouldn’t have asked any questions.”

Fluttershy lifted up a hoof to take a step forward, but decided against it. No matter how much she insisted that they all cared for her, Pinkie would most certainly not want to hear it.

“That’s ludicrous!” gasped Rarity. “We’re your friends! Of course we care about you!”

“You ‘cared’ about me enough to steal all of my pills.” Pinkie shot back. Rarity’s eyes widened, and she stammered, looking for a proper response. “Do you know what happens when I don’t take those pills? Bad things, Rarity! Bad things!” Fluttershy was hiding behind Twilight at this point, shivering like a madpony.

Twilight looked at Pinkie’s letters, which were slowly returning, and turned to Rarity’s letters way off into the distance. She felt another light bulb warm up inside her head. “Pinkie, what’s the matter with your secret? Just show everypony the real you.” she spoke calmly.

“No! I’ve worked too hard! I already explained this!” Pinkie spat out. “Creating this new Pinkie Pie was a way for me to be more social. Ever since I’ve gotten my cutie mark. Ponies only like the hyper, dumb, random Pinkie. I couldn’t be myself if I tried.”

Twilight turned her view to the letters, which were slowly starting to dim again. She then looked at Rarity’s words directly behind her, which seemed to get a little brighter.

Hmm…

“I’m not going back. There’s no hope back there. So you three better keep quiet about this, or I’ll broadcast your secrets all over Equestria!”

Twilight watched as Pinkie’s words brightened immensely, bathing the four of them in a scarlet glow. It turned the fog into a bloody mist that Twilight found uncomfortable to look at. When she turned to Rarity’s letters, they were still shining, but barely visible. Twilight grinned. That’s… that’s it!

“I got it!” Twilight suddenly shouted. She had forgotten that Fluttershy was directly behind her, which resulted in the pegasus toppling over. Pinkie Pie’s scowl disappeared slowly as she stared at Twilight with an intense curiosity.

“You have what, dear?” asked Rarity, whom was fairly glad that Twilight had managed to temporarily halt the arguing.

“Well, I’m not sure if I have everything, but I think I’m onto something. Look at Pinkie’s letters.” Twilight pointed behind the mare in question. Her secret was excessively bright.

“Now look in the distance.” She pointed a hoof behind her, at the very dim letters that protruded through the fog. It was blurry, the letters were legible, for the most part.

“Is… is that my secret, now!?” Rarity looked like she wanted to faint, and everypony else watched as she dramatically swayed. She even put a hoof to her forehead theatrically, making Twilight want to roll her eyes.

Twilight continued before the unicorn passed out completely. “Pinkie, say something truthful about your secret, and I need everypony to watch what happens.”

Pinkie rudely stuck her nose in the air.

“Truthful? Like that’ll ever happen…”

Ding!

All four mares watched in surprise as the words on Sugarcube Corner grew brighter. However, the mares were all rendered speechless when Rarity’s words disappeared entirely. The only thing that they could see was the same old fog that had been plaguing them all morning. Twilight felt a newfound sense of accomplishment that tickled her pleasurably. She knew it. Her hypothesis was wrong before, but she knew she was onto something now.

“W-What just happened?” Fluttershy asked. Twilight turned to Pinkie, who appeared to be finished with her angry tirade.

“I think I’m onto something.” she said again. She cleared her throat. This was going to be good. “These secrets are somehow connected.” Pinkie and Fluttershy furrowed their brows, and Rarity seemed to lose focus. Her mind was on other things that were, at least to her, more important than what was currently at hoof.

Twilight began explaining her theory. “I bared my secret to Fluttershy this morning, and from then on it started to get brighter or dimmer, making me believe that the secrets are almost neutral before they’re explained. It’s why no one could see Pinkie’s before this, and why we haven’t seen Applejack’s or Rainbow’s yet.”

Fluttershy cocked her head as Twilight continued. “However, when Rarity told me her secret, our secrets connected. Or something like that, at least. When Rarity told me about her addiction, hers dimmed, and mine shone brighter.”

“So… you’re saying that only one secret can be dim at a time?” Pinkie asked, quizzically. Twilight took one look at Pinkie and held back a shudder. The old Pinkie was nowhere to be seen, and the new one just stared vacantly at whomever was unfortunate enough to step into her line of sight.

“That’s what it seems. So, when Pinkie revealed her secret, mine got kicked out of the connection, and Pinkie’s connected with Rarity’s, which is why when one gets brighter, the other gets dimmer. The only part that eludes me is why they’re connected in the first place, and why mine was thrown out of the connection so easily Twilight tapped her chin lightly, as even more questions entered her thoughts. Fluttershy and Rarity nodded their heads in unison. Pinkie, unfortunately, was having a little bit of trouble.

“I… they- what?” Pinkie asked.

“What we need to do is find Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Once all of us are together, maybe this will make some more sense.” Twilight turned to Fluttershy, and shook her head gently. Fluttershy knew what that meant, and dipped her head sullenly.

“But… but…” Fluttershy stuttered.

“So then what do we do now?” Pinkie asked. She rolled her eyes only halfway, then let them rest on her friends. Twilight was slowly regretting coming to Sugarcube Corner.

“...I just said we should find Applejack and Rainbow Dash. We need all of us in order to figure this thing out once and for all,” Twilight said, starting off in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. Her friends trotted behind her, while one resorted to grumpily dragging her hooves.

***

Twilight was starting to get a little nervous about all of this. She could honestly say that she was unnerved before, but now she had a whole new feeling of dread welling up in her belly. She hadn’t seen anypony other than Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie in a while, leading her to believe that everypony had resorted to either holing up inside their homes, or had left altogether. The latter was the most unfortunate, but made the most sense.

Fires still burned from when the townsfolk had set fire to their homes in a panic, and most of them had succeeded in getting the letters off of their buildings. It seemed that if the house was not in completely and utterly destroyed, the secret would still shine over the black smoke that the fire created.

Rarity had passed the time by reading the secrets that filled the air in the distance. She figured that if she didn’t know whose house the secrets belonged to, then no harm would be done. Besides, Sweet Apple Acres wasn’t exactly a hop, skip, and a jump away, and she needed something to distract her.

I CON PONIES AT FRUIT STANDS SO THAT I CAN GET FREE FOOD

“Hm.” she mumbled softly to herself. That secret wasn’t that bad when she thought about it. She would willingly trade the words on the boutique for something like that pony’s instead.

I HAVE NOPONY THAT WILL VISIT ME WHEN I’M ON MY DEATHBED

Rarity sighed. Well, that was certainly depressing. Rarity had never felt loneliness on that level before, but she sometimes would wish for somepony to cuddle with at night. But even she knew that was nothing compared to real loneliness. Just the thought of dying with nopony by her side, suffering in solitude… she couldn’t bear that, and a part of her wondered who that pony was, if only so she could offer them her friendship and give them the attention they needed.

I TOLD HIM TO DO IT. I FELT NO REMORSE WHEN I SAW HIS NAME IN THE NEWSPAPER THE NEXT DAY

“I… I think that’s enough…” she mumbled to herself. I shouldn’t be reading those anyways, she thought. Twilight wasn’t lying about the fact that some of these secrets could land ponies in jail. They were approaching the Acres, anyway, so she had better things to focus on, now.

The cobblestone of the town roads quickly turned to gravel as they passed under a large sign that read “Sweet Apple Acres!”. It was a new sign that Pinkie had been nice enough to build for Applejack and her family. She said it took her “only a few minutes”, but Twilight sincerely doubted that. She was sure that Pinkie started making it a few days beforehand.

“Applejack?” Rarity asked, beating Twilight to the punch. With the fog in the way, and the road to the orchard being a rather meandering trail, Rarity was unsure whether the farmer was there or not.

Fluttershy had kept her head down the entire walk, her mane draped over her head. Every now and then she would nervously twitch her tail. Twilight was mere muscle movements away from asking what was wrong, but looking back at how Pinkie reacted to the same question, she set it aside. It was almost as if Fluttershy was having a panic attack.

Pinkie walked grumpily down the trail, stomping her hooves on a leaf or twig whenever the opportunity presented itself. She had been taking to her new ponysona quite well, really. Fully embracing the fact that she did not need to be hyper or silly anymore. Rarity could not help but wonder if the mare would ever smile again.

They rounded the corner to Sweet Apple Acres and saw the newly constructed barn easily overcoming the fog. For some reason the fog was less dense in that area, and even though they were still walking down the path, they could see a bright orange pony sitting in the front yard.

“Applejack!” Twilight yelled. Somehow, the mare in question heard her friend’s shout and turned her head towards them. She pulled off her Stetson and waved slowly. Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie sped up their pace to a quick gallop, leaving Fluttershy to trot nervously behind them.

It was only when they had come within actual speaking distance that the group could read the sentences tattooed on the walls. There were two of them. One was on the roof, while the other was written across the windows and door.

SPEAKING PHYSICALLY HURTS ME

Everypony assumed that was Big Macintosh’s, however the only pony who really paid any attention to this was Rarity. The other three were much more focused on the words on the roof.

I USE MY WORK AS A WAY TO GET MY MIND OFF OF MY SADNESS

“Howdy, girls!” For some reason, Applejack was chipper given the circumstances. “Mighty weird day, that’s for sure. Somepony had the guts to vandalize the farm last night!” she threw a hoof in the air towards the barn, and stuck her hat back on her head angrily. Nopony said anything, and Fluttershy refused to look in Applejack’s direction at all. She just couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“Big Mac’s been inside ever since he read them. I think it hit ‘im hard, seeing that out here in plain sight. The nerve of some ponies!” she growled. “When ah find out who did this, they’re goin’ to pay!” Once again, nopony said anything. She tilted her head in confusion. “What’s gotten into you girls, and didn’t ah see Pinkie walkin’ with you?” Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight looked around only to see that Applejack was right.

Pinkie was gone.

“Applejack…” Twilight began slowly. “We need to talk to you...”

Chapter 5: Fluttershy's Secret

“Uh, beg yer pardon? So that’s the deal with all this here fog?” Applejack asked. Her eye had been cocked for the last fifteen minutes as Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity all explained just what was going on. It was ridiculously difficult, however, considering they did not even have the slightest idea themselves. Applejack found herself with more questions than she originally started with.

“We haven’t completely figured everything out,” Twilight concluded. “but I have started putting a few pieces together… but not much of this is making sense.”

Applejack nodded, but did not say anything else. Rarity had been subtly dancing in place behind the two of them. “Ugh, no matter how many times I come to the acres, I will never get used to all of this filth!” she complained. Applejack broke her gaze with Twilight to glare at the prissy mare behind the unicorn.

“Hey! That dirt may be filth! But it’s mah filth! Ya hear?” she called. Rarity nervously groaned, and looked to the dirt below her uneasily. After another few moments of jittering about, she found a small, desolated spot of clay. She let out a relieved sigh when she realized that she was temporarily safe.

“Uhm… s-should we go searching for Pinkie now?” Fluttershy asked. She had remained deathly silent throughout Twilight’s explanation. She cast her gaze upwards, but upon seeing Applejack’s hooves she turned back to the ground.

“No… she’s going through a tough time. I think that’s already been established. We’ll catch up with her later. Hopefully she’s calmer by then.” Twilight took one look at Fluttershy and felt her heart jump in its place. “Are you alright? You seem a little… off?”

Fluttershy looked away, hiding behind her mane in a neutral effort to conceal her nervous face. Applejack nodded in agreement. “Yeah, sugarcube. Ya haven’t looked at me once since ya got ‘ere.”

Fluttershy’s face grew a blistering red, and Twilight just could not read just what Fluttershy was feeling. “Y-Y-Yes…” She stammered. Fluttershy looked back at Twilight, completely ignoring Applejack in the progress. Twilight and Applejack stared at the pegasus, waiting for her to continue. When she did not, both mares shrugged and turned back to each other.

“Applejack, dear, if you do not mind my asking,” Rarity piped up. She was standing on the same spot of clay from about fifteen feet away. Twilight had already discarded the question of asking her to scoot closer. “What is your secret talking about? Sadness?”

That sparked something inside of Twilight. “I was kind of wondering the same thing. You don’t strike me as a pony that feels… sad. No offense.”

Applejack raised a hoof. “None taken.” She tipped up her hat upwards, and shifted her gaze from pony to pony. Twilight was not sure how to feel when she watched a playful grin spread across the cowpony’s lips. “Speakin’ of which, I have no idea what that’s talkin’ about.”

The other three glanced over at the letters behind her. They did not dim or brighten. “That’s… odd.” murmured Twilight. “Why didn’t it change…?”

“Beats me.” said Applejack, turning around to gaze at the letters herself. “Ah’ve been tryin’ to scrub all mornin’. It ain’t gonna come off.”

Twilight, once again, turned to Fluttershy. She silently hoped that the pegasus would utter something of relevance. She sighed when Fluttershy did not. “Yeah. It’s… been a bad day like that.” Twilight brought a hoof to her forehead. She was forming a small headache. “Nothing… nothing is making sense…”

“It probably isn’t supposed to,” replied Applejack. “Ya never know with these types ‘a things.” Twilight cocked her head.

“You’re… awfully calm about this. Your secret is up for everypony to read, and you couldn’t care less?” she asked. A small suspicion rose up inside of her, but after remembering who she was talking to, she tossed it aside.

“Psh, are you kiddin’? I ain’t got any secrets.” Applejack looked to her side and nonchalantly scratched the back of her neck. “Well, none that I wouldn’t answer truthfully if ya asked. Somethings are kept secret for a reason, ya know?”

“But that’s irrelevant!” Twilight exasperated. “Everypony’s secrets are kept hidden away for their own reasons. Your’s are no different.”

Applejack’s gaze hardened. “I know that, Twi. I’m no better than the next pony, but that don’t mean squat.” Twilight was getting slightly antsy. She knew that whenever Applejack gets frustrated, that could only mean bad news. However, her inner irritation for the whole situation was beginning to grind her gears.

“What are you trying to say?” she asked. Rarity opened her mouth, but nothing came out save for a soft sigh.

“I ain’t try’na say anything!” Applejack stomped her hoof.

“You’re being defensive. Why?” Twilight tried to view this from Applejack’s point of view, and was having a difficult time doing so. It was always a difficult task for her, and this time was no different.

“Defensive? Ah already admitted it. That secret ain’t true. You’re the one who’s gettin’ all mad at me!” Applejack hollered.

Twilight’s eye twitched, and she was moments away from saying something that she’d regret. Luckily, she caught herself. “So you’re telling me that you’re not sad in the slightest? You can say that truthfully?”

It was Applejack’s turn to sigh. “Yeah. I’m the Element of Honesty for a reason, Twi.” Twilight almost rolled her eyes at this. “I ain’t got no secrets, alright?” The unicorn stared long and hard at Applejack. The cowpony was a horrid liar, and she had a nervous tell every time she tried. She would look left and right, and scrunch up her snout. Unfortunately, Twilight failed to see it.

Rarity was subtling listening in on their conversation behind them. “Hmm…”

“That’s not possible.” Twilight casted a quick glance upon the letters on the barn, which still have not gotten brighter or darker. “If you lie, the letters shine. If you tell the truth, they dim. Something’s up here, Applejack and I don’t like it.”

Applejack took a step back, slightly hurt. Twilight wasn’t sure if it was genuine or not. “Twi, we’ve been friends for years! Ya think Ah’ve got any clue about this either? Ah’m not a liar, and ya know this.”

Twilight frantically shook her head. “No. Applejack everything was on a perfect track up until now. The rules made sense -- or at least what we already knew about them. Then we stop over here and suddenly everything’s jumbled again. It doesn’t make sense why the rules with your secret don’t match up with ours. You’re hiding something and you need to tell us.”

Applejack scowled, and from Rarity’s distance she almost thought she saw smoke come from the cowpony’s ears. “How am ah supposed to know? Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Then maybe you’re not lying. Maybe you’re just twisting things around.” replied Twilight. Applejack raised an eyebrow.

“I was thinking the same thing, Twilight.” Rarity, once again, shouted from behind them. At this point, her voice was tiring itself out, so she dealt with the squishy feeling of soil under her hooves so she wouldn’t have to put up with it any longer. At this point, she was face to face with her friends. “Think about what she said earlier.”

Twilight was a little confused herself, and she pondered how Rarity could be onto something before her. Perhaps she just wasn’t paying enough attention. Twilight thought back to what Applejack said during their conversation, and a single phrase stuck out to her:

“I ain’t got any secrets, Twi.”

It took a moment for Twilight to realize that she actually said the phrase out loud. Applejack pursed her lips. “Are ya making fun of mah accent now?”

“You aren’t lying.” Twilight took one look at the barn, and smiled as she finally figured it out. “You’re just not sad.”

“I told ya!” Applejack spat.

“But you are using our assumptions to lie.”

“What do ya mean?” Applejack furrowed her brow this time.

“You’re not sad. That’s not your secret, is it?” Applejack simply stared at Twilight. Her eyes were calm and relaxed, yet at attention. Twilight almost assumed that the mare was lost in thought. “Your secret is the other one. That’s why it didn’t dim or brighten. Because it can be perceived as not only a secret, but a fact.”

Applejack said nothing. The other mares did not know that intense amount of strategic thinking going on inside of her head. “Huh, well then…” she muttered after a few minutes. She gave them a strong shrug.

“That’s it? That’s all you have to say?” Twilight asked. Rarity stopped for a moment and looked around. She wasn’t surprised when she realized that Fluttershy had disappeared. Fluttershy was a mare of silence, but that was suspicious even for Rarity. She quietly assumed that the mare had gone to look for Pinkie.

“Well, it’s true. Speaking hurts, so what?” Applejack replied. For once, Twilight actually learned something new about one of her friends that didn’t completely devastate her. At least to the same degree as the others.

“But what does it mean?” Rarity asked. Applejack’s gaze cast upon the ground, sweeping through it before it landed back on Rarity herself.

“It ain’t much, really-” Applejack was cut off as a loud ding emitted from the letters. They began to glow a smidgen brighter. “Oh, so that’s what ya meant.” she said, remembering a small detail that Twilight had mentioned earlier. “Well… how do ah put this…” Applejack looked at the ground, and tapped her chin with her hoof.

There was an awkward silence, before the cowpony groaned. “Well, ya know how ah’m the Element of Honesty?”

“Yes?” chimed two voices in unison.

“Well, it kinda stinks. Ah tell the truth because ah’m a terrible liar, not because it’s the right thing to do sometimes. Bein’ brutally honest just isn’t the best thing to do sometimes, and because of that ah’ve said things that ah wish ah didn’t say.” Applejack explained. Rarity nodded in understanding, however Twilight’s confusion only grew. She stayed quiet, trying her best to at least be respectful.

“Sometimes ah wish that ah could lie, or at least be vague. Ah know it’s a horrible thing to say, but… it’s true.” she continued. “When you hurt ponies daily, it becomes a burden. It isn’t like ah mean to, either. It’s just who ah am…”

“But, the letters on the barn say ‘physically hurt me’. What does that mean?” Twilight asked. Applejack cocked her head, and turned back towards the letters. She shrugged yet again.

“Ah get headaches every now and then.” she replied, slightly unsure of herself. “Dealin’ with the thought that ah could easily hurt somepony next to me… it kinda weighs me down. Sometimes, ah can’t even sleep, and sometimes ah’m like Big Mac; workin’ all day just to find some way to keep mah mouth shut. Ah know it ain’t very… dark or horrible, but it’s just ah little more truth for y’all ‘bout me.” Twilight looked past Applejack, only to see that her words were now gone. The other one was still neutral, and at this point she assumed that it was Big Macintosh’s. Of course, when she looked at one, she turned around to see another one glowing brightly in the sky.

I HAD AN INCESTUOUS EXPERIENCE WITH MY BROTHER

“Well, that was easy… at least this time there wasn’t any devastation or crying.” Twilight muttered. Applejack glanced at the same words that Twilight had just looked at. However, Rarity and Twilight had already explained it to her, so she didn’t think much of it.

There was four. Four secrets out of six. Rarity and Pinkie’s must still be connected, and now Twilight’s and Applejacks were as well. Twilight couldn’t help but wonder how the connections all work, as well as why it was her secret that connected to Applejack’s, and not Pinkie or Rarity’s. She cast those questions aside for now.

“So… does anypony have any clue as to who’s behind this?” Applejack asked nopony in particular.

“Trust me, we’re all wondering the same things. When somepony finally figures out who did it, that poor soul will have much more than their secret to worry about. Hmph!” Rarity huffed. Another idea popped into Twilight’s head, but after some small thinking, she deemed it irrelevant. Surely the pony who did this would not be so stupid as to let their own abode be the only one without something written on it. She made a small reminder to herself to keep an eye out.

“I’ve been wondering, also.” said Twilight. “This fog, say it was a spell, is very difficult to pull off for this long at a time. Also, the letters and the charms are high-end as it is. We’re dealing with something powerful here.” Twilight peered at her friends. “And a spell that finds the deepest secrets of others? To be honest, I didn’t even know if a spell like that existed!” she admitted.

The sound of soft hoofsteps rang out in the distance. Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight turned around, only to see a blur of pink and yellow. “Pinkie? Fluttershy?” Applejack asked. “Where did y’all go?”

Fluttershy stood as far away from Applejack as she could. Pinkie Pie, however, grabbed the attention of Twilight and Rarity the fastest. She had that same smile plastered across her face. Her mane and tail was once again poofy and unkempt. She was practically bouncing in place, back to her original self. Twilight had a bad feeling about it, and she knew that whatever Pinkie was going through, a single chat wasn’t going to solve it.

“Hehe! My bad! I got a little hungry so I went back to Sugarcube Corner for a little snack!” she squeaked. Twilight was extremely doubtful of this, but didn’t say anything. “But then I got lost in the fog, and Fluttershy found me and helped me find you girls! Isn’t that nice?” Pinkie’s eternal grin only grew in size.

“Uhm… what she said…” Fluttershy muttered. She hid behind her mane in such a way that only one other pony could not see her face, as well as the other way around.

“Pinkie, are you alright, dear?” Rarity asked. She had a tint of hesitance to her voice, as if she was speaking with a child on the verge of a tantrum.

“Of course, silly.” she cheered. “Super-duper! Why do you ask?” Pinkie’s grin slightly drooped as she cast a quizzical glare upon Rarity, who meekly shied away.

“N...No reason…”

“We should go and find Rainbow Dash,” Applejack said. “She doesn’t live all too close to town. Maybe she isn’t affected by all’a this?” Twilight and Fluttershy nodded, the latter more vigorously than the former. Deep inside, Fluttershy was experiencing a new sense of fear that she was not looking forward to facing. However, she hid the fact well.

“Maybe. She lives in a cloud home. I’d like to see just how that turned out.” Twilight replied. Her migraine had only been growing worse over the last few hours, and she was almost excited to get everything over with. She had been doing a lot of thinking today. Hopefully, she would be able to figure everything out sooner rather than later.

***

It was quite the hike to Rainbow Dash’s house. It always was. Twilight knew that the pegasus always did like the seclusion. She must have, since she had the ability to move her cloud house to wherever she’d like. It was at least a thirty minute jog, though. Nopony was thrilled about it, but it had to be done.

Pinkie Pie was almost bouncing along the makeshift trail, back in her oblivious stupor. Twilight was silently afraid. Pinkie didn’t want to be like that -- all happy and hyperactive, but it seems that she’d shifted back into that mindset again. She almost felt bad for her, but she knew that she couldn’t really say much about it. All Twilight wanted to do was help Pinkie, but that didn’t seem likely.

They approached Rainbow Dash’s home. Well, sort of. Rainbow’s house was at least thirty feet in the sky, and the other five simply stared up at it. It was difficult to see, but there was a blue tarp hung up on the side of her home, covering at least two of her windows. The rainbows that usually hung from her abode were gone. Usually, they would drift straight to the ground below. They were now an inky black, and smelled of mildew.

“Rainbow Dash? Are you in there?” Rarity called. There was no answer, just a dead silence.

“Maybe she’s asleep!” shouted Pinkie, unnecessarily loud. “Sleeping in in just one of her favorite things to do!”

“Pinkie… it’s almost one in the afternoon…” sighed Twilight. “Rainbow! Come on out!” she shouted towards the depressing, floating home. Once again, they heard nothing in response. Applejack emitted a deep sigh, and brought her hat to her chest.

“Do ya think she’s alright?” asked Applejack. Her eyes were filled with a silent worry. Her and Rainbow may have been friends more so than rivals, but deep down Applejack had a fierce admiration for the pegasus. The last thing she wanted was for Rainbow to be hurt.

“No idea.” Rarity replied. She turned towards the buttery pegasus to her left with an almost apologetic tone in her voice. “Dearie, would you mind…?”

Fluttershy did a double take between Rarity and Rainbow’s house, before she barely nodded. “Oh, yes.” Without another word, Fluttershy batted her wings and hovered into the air. Her wings flittered quietly and daintily, and Twilight wasn’t sure if the fact that she was reminded of a butterfly was intentional, or downright convenient. She flew upwards towards the cloud home, and hesitated just before the door.

Fluttershy let out a brittle sigh, and softly rapped on the door, three times. There was no reply.

“Try again!” Twilight called from thirty feet below. Fluttershy reluctantly nodded, and knocked two more times. Unfortunately, there was still no reply. The pegasus was beginning to get a little curious, a part of her in which she wished she did not harbor. She landed on the cloud, and wandered over to one of the windows nearest the doors right. Fluttershy placed one hoof on the glass, and peered inside.

It was empty.

With another sigh, Fluttershy flapped her wings and flew back down to her awaiting friends. “Well?” Rarity asked mere moments after Fluttershy’s hooves hit the ground. The pegasus shook her head.

“S-She’s not home…”

“That’s… that’s just perfect. I should have seen this coming…” Twilight groaned. To her, this was just another complication. However, looking back on it, Rainbow Dash flying away was a completely realistic thought. Perhaps her secret was too much to bear. The only question that plagued her mind was where the mare was now.

“Where do ya think she went?” Applejack asked. Pinkie opened her mouth, but Twilight was in no mood to hear anything out of her mouth. She knew that it wouldn’t be helpful anyways, and until Twilight figured a few things out, and Pinkie actually bothered to talk about her problem, she’d rather not hear it. Twilight rudely cut in.

“She could be anywhere. Though I’m sure she isn’t far. It’s impossible to see where you’re going in the sky with this fog, assuming she flew.” Twilight thought out loud.

“Could her secret really be that bad?” Fluttershy whispered.

“Sweetie, everypony’s secrets are considered ‘really bad’.”

“Well she’s probably sulkin’ ‘round somewhere. We can’t just leave her.”

“Of course we’re not going to leave her.” Twilight interjected. “I think we should just come back later. If she is upset and wants to be alone, perhaps we should just let her. Besides, it’d be impossible to find her even if we tried.” Twilight motioned to the intense fog surrounding all of them.

“Then what’s next on the list?” Pinkie squealed. She still had a tiny smile on her lips, despite her inner worry. Twilight did not respond. She just stared at Fluttershy. Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack followed her gaze, and put the pieces together. The four ogled their timid friend, who returned their glances with fearful eyes. The mare took a few steps back, and squeaked nervously.

“I… I… I’m not feeling too well.” Fluttershy replied, bringing a hoof to her chest.

“Fluttershy, you’re the only pony left. We all explained our secrets…” Twilight explained.

“It’s only fair.” added Rarity. Internally, she felt bad for the pegasus, but she knew deep down that there wasn’t much that they could do about it. She also knew that ‘it’s only fair’ was a terrible argument.

“Come on, sugar-” Applejack tried to set a hoof on Fluttershy’s side, but the mare went wide eyed and took a large step back. That was the second time, and Applejack tried to keep from getting upset.

“Why do ya keep doing that? You’ve been ignoring, and stayin’ away from me all evenin’. What’s gotten into ya?” She asked. Fluttershy took one look at Applejack and confirmed her fears: the cowpony definately wasn’t kidding.

“It’s… I…” Fluttershy stammered. She did not have a proper response, and she almost hoped that somepony else would intervene. She let out a sigh of relief when Twilight opened her mouth.

“Let her be.” Rarity cut in. “She’s been like that all day. Surely, it’s the stress?” Rarity asked more than said. Fluttershy nodded wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, Applejack was not amused.

“Good. Then let’s go to Fluttershy’s.” Twilight tried not to look at the mare, who had tears forming in her eyes. After a few milliseconds of silent debating, Twilight turned to her. “We’ll make this quick, I promise.”

***

For Fluttershy, the thirty five minute walk to her cottage was absolutely torturous. She hadn’t had that much anxiety build up inside of her in a while, and multiple times during the walk had she considered simply running away from her friends. She was not the mare that wanted to be unloyal, however her inner demons were prompting her in an irresistible fashion.

Her mind was spinning, and that was an understatement. She had contemplated feigning her “fainting goat” pose in an effort to prolong the inevitable. Though she knew deep inside that it would only speed up the process and only end up with them hurrying to bring her home.

Pinkie still continued to bounce merrily, very much unaware of her friend’s misfortune. Normally, Fluttershy would feel a tinge of jealousy towards Pinkie’s obliviousness. But with all she had learned within the last few hours, she quickly tossed that thought aside.

The town was silent yet and still. The five had not seen another pony the whole trip. Everything was cold and dead, at least that’s what Fluttershy felt. The entire group had been quiet, and didn’t want to disturb the peace by asking a question she was sure that nopony would be able to answer.

Only a few more minutes, she thought. A few more minutes until everything will be over.

After a while, the terrain around Fluttershy began to remind her of exactly where they were. It had almost been impossible to navigate, although Rarity knew the area like the back of her hoof, so naturally she took point. Fluttershy’s heart was getting heavier and heavier upon every step she took. By the time she was only five minutes away, she felt as if she was walking on the moon.

“I don’t want to do this…” she murmured, her head pitifully dropping towards the ground.

“Come on, Fluttershy. It’ll be really quick, then we can go and find Dashie!” Pinkie added. Fluttershy shook her head, and stopped walking altogether.

“Please, no. I really don’t want to do this.” Fluttershy repeated. Her friends stopped upon seeing Fluttershy stop in her tracks. “Can’t we just go back to the library? Or look around for Rainbow Dash?”

“Fluttershy, you know we can’t do that right now…” Twilight replied with a sigh. Fluttershy tried to hold back a few frightful tears.

“Please… I just… can’t…”

“How about this, then. Ah’ll go ahead and read what’s on her cottage, so that way nopony else has to.” Applejack said. Before Fluttershy could utter any sort of rebuttal, Applejack had already barged ahead of the group. “Don’t worry, ah won’t tell anypony. When ah get back Flutterhy and ah can talk it out and meet y’all back at the Library when we’re finished!” Applejack walked into the fog with a playful smile on her face, more to keep Fluttershy calm more than anything. However, it didn’t work.

“No! Applejack, wait!” Fluttershy softly called after her. It was too late. Applejack had already disappeared into the fog. Fluttershy quietly whimpered, and sunk lower to the ground. “Please, don’t go…”

It was a dreadful ten minutes that passed, and a few of the ponies were growing anxious. They were only a few minutes away from Fluttershy’s cottage, but ten minutes was definately long enough. Pinkie Pie had managed to calm herself down, in the meantime, and had resorted to kicking a rock around. She had noticed by everypony else’s body language that they didn’t want her to talk. She was okay with that, if not completely used to it by now.

Seeing as Fluttershy was not willing to talk at the moment, Rarity and Twilight had resorted to chatting between themselves. “Do you suppose that Applejack is alright?” Rarity asked with a raised eyebrow. Twilight shrugged.

“I’m sure she’s fine. Let’s give her five more minutes before we head after her.” In the recesses of Twilight’s mind, she had a few more questions herself. Was Fluttershy’s secret really that bad that Fluttershy needs to have that much of a panic attack? Twilight looked downwards at the shivering mare, and sighed.

About four more minutes passed by before sniffling could be heard in the distance. Rarity, Pinkie, and Twilight all perked their heads up, while Fluttershy did not move from her position. “Applejack? You there?” Twilight called into the fog.

Another sniffle. “You..” a choked voice strained. Not a second later, an orange mare appeared. Her face was absolutely stained with tears, and her eyes were bloodshot. Her face was contorted into a sinister frown as she finally came into view. For some reason, she was no longer wearing her stetson hat, and it was nowhere to be found.

“...Applejack… what happened out there? You’ve been gone for a while.” Rarity asked meekly. Applejack stopped a few feet in front of her friends. She ignored Rarity’s question entirely, and stared down at Fluttershy. Her eyes were filled with a newfound hatred that her friends had never seen before. It was apparent that the cowpony was moments away from pouncing on top of the feeble mare on the ground.

“You… you monster. How could ya?” she choked. A few more tears ran down her cheeks, and unsurprisingly, the same happened to Fluttershy.

“I-I can explain…” Fluttershy started. Applejack wanted none of it.

“Ah treated ya as a good friend. How could you put me through this… mah family? Ya never even had the courage to tell me somethin’ like that? All those wasted opportunities to say somethin’... anything. It was you, Fluttershy, that put mah family through so much pain.” Applejack gritted through closed teeth.

Fluttershy said nothing, and her friends were all too awestruck to say anything. “Yer dead to me.” Applejack concluded. Upon letting the words slip out of her mouth, Appejack’s eyes widened. Before Fluttershy could say anything, Applejack pushed through her friends in the opposite direction of which she came, headed back towards Sweet Apple Acres.

Fluttershy was an absolute mess, and Rarity and Pinkie almost immediately rushed to her aid. Once Applejack had finally disappeared again, Fluttershy let everything out. She wailed louder than anypony had ever heard her speak, crying into her mane with no dignity or care in the world. She had lost a good friend that day, and it was all her fault.

Twilight could only stare into the fog, and think a brand new question. What did Applejack see. “I’ll be right back…” she muttered under her breath. Luckily, none of her friends seemed to have heard her. She slowly trotted through the fog, fearing the worst. She had no idea what was written on Fluttershy’s cottage, but she was about to find out.

Twilight’s breath was caught in her throat. The anticipation was killing her, but she had to know. Not for the sake of herself, but for the sake of the Elements of Harmony. If everypony was going to get over their secrets, there comes a first step. This was number one.

A few minutes later, Twilight had reached the small bridge that lead to Fluttershy’s cottage. However she hadn’t need to cross it. She could already read what was written on Fluttershy’s home, but to fully understand and realize it, she had to reread it a multitude of times. She wanted her eyes to fail her badly, but they wouldn’t. What she read on her cottage was real, and she could only utter one thing:

“Oh no…”

On the walls of Fluttershy’s cottage read a fateful message. One that Fluttershy had been worrying about all day. Now she knew, and she wasn’t happy about it.

I AM INDIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF APPLEJACK’S PARENTS

Chapter 6: Rainbow Dash's Secret

Twilight shivered inwardly and let a cold breath puff from her dry mouth. Her brain was swirling in a stupor that she had never experienced before. She wanted to go numb, but that little voice in the back of her mind was telling her to take action. She didn’t know what to do or say, all she could do was stand there with shaking knees.

She turned her head back to the mist behind her. She could hear Fluttershy’s wails in the distance, and it killed her inside. She had never heard Fluttershy make such a loud noise before, so there was no doubt in her mind that it was genuine.

Twilight shed a lone tear. Her brain was frozen, and something inside of her made her heart feel horrendously heavy. There were many things that could be done, she was merely having trouble organizing them efficiently. Twilight did her best not to look at the Stetson that sat like a tombstone on Fluttershy’s porch.

With a heavy sigh, Twilight mustered up her strength and turned around. This was only the beginning of what might just be the worst to come, and she despised thinking about it. There was no way she was going to let Rarity and Pinkie see the secret. She didn’t care about the rules, or if her secret was projected through the skies. She didn’t care of the repercussions. All she wanted for everything to be alright again, and she was willing to sacrifice her sanity to do just that.

She walked the lonely trail back through the fog with her head held low. It was a quicker trip than she imagined and left her desperately grasping for the right words as she drew nearer to her friends. Rarity was lying on the ground next to Fluttershy, running a hoof through her rosy mane. Fluttershy had done the same thing to her when they had seen her secret, the least she could do was return the favor.

Pinkie Pie was trying desperately to cheer Fluttershy up any way she could. Whether it be confetti, balloons, or whatever else she had on hoof. Twilight knew this, because most of the items in question were lying around near the three of them. Pinkie had desperately resorted to telling jokes and semi-funny stories.

Twilight relented on the fact that each and every one of her friends were delving into their own bouts of sadness and depression. She stood above the three mares and pondered just what would be the best thing to say to them. For once in her life, Twilight Sparkle just didn’t know what to do.

Rarity looked up, almost doing a double take upon seeing Twilight’s return.

“Oh!” Rarity fussed about, ready to stand up to speak to Twilight face to face. However, her common sense told her that she was needed on the ground with Fluttershy. “Twilight… what happened? Why did Applejack say those things?”

Fluttershy shivered just slightly, but somehow Twilight managed to take notice. She responded accordingly.

“I feel as if the words on Fluttershy’s house are… not meant for any pony's eyes.” Twilight said. She already knew what Rarity’s response would be, and wanted to let out a small chuckle as Rarity replied just how she expected. Rarity had a tendency to be slightly predictable, Twilight already knew that.

“Twilight, that’s not very fair to say. Nopony’s secrets are meant for any pony's eyes.” replied Rarity with wet eyes.

“Indeed, but… Fluttershy doesn’t have the ability to share with everypony just what her secret is.” said Twilight. Rarity was beginning to get curious about what was written on Fluttershy’s house, but she felt herself nod after realizing that what Twilight was speaking was correct. “I feel that it should only be those who need to, and that any other eyes are unnecessary.”

Rarity huffed. “Quite the hypocrite, aren’t we? I’m positive that you saw it.” Twilight hardened her gaze, and Rarity could have sworn that Pinkie did as well. “I do not need or wish to know, I’m just stating facts.”

Pinkie’s attempts to cheer up Fluttershy were in vain, so she turned her attention to the two other mares. “I’m okay with that.” Pinkie still had the smile on her face, however her voice didn’t match. It seemed conscious and concerned, instead of bubbly and loud. It was as if another voice was hidden somewhere inside her original one.

She playfully waved a hoof at Fluttershy for emphasis. “We’re all going through something tough here, but Fluttershy is the most vulnerable of all of us. She doesn’t need the emotional trauma.” Twilight waited for Fluttershy to say something, but it was apparent that the pegasus was not listening to their conversation. She had her mane over her ears, like she always did when she was distressed.

Twilight nodded thoughtfully. “So let’s split up. Rarity, could you go and try to find Applejack and calm her down?” Twilight knew that Rarity would learn Fluttershy’s secret if she talked to Applejack, but what Fluttershy didn’t know wouldn’t kill her.

Rarity nodded, and unstuck herself from the still sobbing mare.

“O-Okay…” she stammered, looking down at the ground. “I’ll be back soon. Let’s meet up at the library in a couple of hours, alright?” she added. Twilight nodded with a small smile. Pinkie Pie waved cheerfully, but Rarity didn’t seem to notice. Without another word, Rarity staggered leerily back into the fog. Twilight turned her attention to Pinkie.

“Ooooh! What can I do?” Pinkie’s voice was so upbeat that it was actually beginning to hurt the unicorn.

“Do you think you could go and search for Rainbow Dash? She’s bound to be around here somewhere, and I’m sure it’ll be a cinch for you to find her.” Pinkie brought her hoof to her forehead in some kind of silly salute which Twilight took as a yes. “Great, like we agreed, library in two hours.”

“Okey dokey, artichokey!” In a flash of pink, Pinkie was off.

There was a long pause as Twilight stared down at Fluttershy. She didn’t know what to say at all, but since Fluttershy was no longer crying, she forced herself to rethink her options. Fluttershy simply sat there, her head in her hooves and her nose almost touching the soft dirt. Every time she breathed, some of the soil shifted.

“Fluttershy? How are you feeling?” Twilight asked after a few unbearable seconds. Fluttershy said nothing for a good, long while. Twilight was slightly surprised that the mare had opened her mouth at all. When Fluttershy did speak, however, her voice was quiet and cracked.

“I-I’m s-s-so s-sorry…” Fluttershy gasped for breath between every stutter. She lifted up her head, and attempted to dry her face. Twilight was devastated at the sight of her. Her mane was no longer smooth and beautiful, and it looked like she had just woken up from a nap. Even her eyes had become sunken and depressed.

Fluttershy sniffled. “It was an accident, I-I promise!”

“Come on, Fluttershy. Let’s go back to your cottage and get you all cleaned up. Then we can sit down for a while.” Twilight whispered.

***

Rainbow Dash could only let out a sigh.

“Rarity, why?” she told herself. It was useless. Asking herself questions that she could not answer was pointless. She had woken up late that morning, like usual, and spent every waking moment after that panicking because of the words marring her home.

She held two nails in her mouth and floated near the bright lights shining from Carousel Boutique. Her wings fluttered slowly, just enough so that she could remain in place.

“Come on, come on!” she mumbled hurriedly to herself. It was difficult to speak with the nails in her mouth, so her words came out slightly muffled.

She placed a nail in the hole on the bottom left hole of the tarp she was holding and began to hammer. It was a restless and paranoia-filled job, but somepony had to do it. She couldn’t let her friends suffer like this, and, even though it was only rarely that she ever happened to notice it, her conscience was telling her to do her best to help them.

Rainbow Dash had already read Rarity’s secret, but she was more than confused about it. Without the mare in question there to explain it, Rainbow was left in the dust. All she had left was to simply wonder what any of it meant, however deep inside she really didn’t want to know. She was already planning out who’s house she was going to hit next, and Fluttershy’s was relatively close.

“C’mon, you stupid thing!” she murmured, carefully maneuvering the nail in her mouth so that she didn’t drop it, or accidentally stab her tongue. She needed to hurry. She could have sworn that she heard chatter not too long ago from not very far away.

“Rainbow Daaaash?” a high voice called from the fog as if right on cue. Rainbow Dash jumped and her wings instantly locked up. She tumbled to the ground with an “Oomph!”, and landed hard on the stone pathway leading to the Carousel Boutique. Luckily, the fall wasn’t from very high and Rainbow wasn’t hurt too badly.

It took her a fraction of a second to get back to her hooves, only for her to begin to panic again.

“Oh no!” she whimpered. She needed to hide, quickly. She knew that high pitched voice anywhere. There was no way that she could let Pinkie see what she was doing. The sound of a single pony’s hooves meeting gravel filled the air, causing Dash to look left and right for an escape route. She looked at the tarp hanging crookedly above her. She’d have to come back later to finish the job.

“Um… um…” she didn’t know where to fly. She couldn’t fly home. She was positive that her friends had went there earlier, and who knows if somepony was still lingering around there. She doubted that her friends would be so nosy as to remove that tarp she had placed there, but she couldn’t be too sure.

Rainbow Dash had no place to go. The fog was thick, but she would be easily spotted if she tried to zoom off. She thought for a good excuse as to why she was outside of Rarity’s business, seeing that Pinkie’s arrival was inevitable anyways. Much to Rainbow’s chagrin, Pinkie peeked through the fog sooner than she would have liked. Pinkie’s face lit up like a lightbulb upon the sight of her multi-colored, yet pale, friend.

Rainbow Dash realized at the last second to remove her back from the wall of Carousel Boutique. She coughed, and regained her composure.

“Dashie! There you are!” Pinkie practically hopped in place, before making her way over to Rainbow Dash. She was bright and smiling, and to Rainbow, nothing looked unusual about her. The pegasus sat on her haunches and wiped a bit of dirt from her chest, evidence of her fall earlier.

“Oh, hey Pinkie.” Rainbow said, looking at her hoof and every other way that was not in the pink mare’s direction. Rainbow tried to pay no attention to her, silently hoping that Pinkie would simply toddle off.

“The girls and I have been looking for you for a while now!” Pinkie stated in a high voice. Rainbow Dash rubbed at her ears and groaned.

“Yeah, I… uh, woke up late this morning.” Dash said truthfully. “Pretty weird day, huh? All this fog and stuff…” Rainbow Dash knew that fog was not in today’s forecast. However, she was not a complete idiot. She didn’t even attempt to clear up the sky, for fear of her secret being broadcasted to the whole town. She didn’t know how much longer that tarp would hold up. She wasn’t the best when it came to construction.

“Oh, yeah! It’s been a real sad day for everypony.” Pinkie’s face contorted into a frown, yet the happy gleam still remained in her eyes. Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell what Pinkie’s true emotion was through her mockery. “Everypony has their secrets on their house and-” Pinkie paused for a moment, and sighed.

Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow, and was surprised when Pinkie’s voice shifted into a gristly, hollow form of its original self. “It’s the worst day of our lives, Dashie.”

Rainbow faltered for words. “I… I had a feeling.”

“I don’t exactly view my secret as true,” Pinkie said purposefully. There was a ding that rang out in the distance. Pinkie knew what that meant. She pointed in the direction of Sugarcube Corner, where her secret shone brightly. “But I have no say in it anymore. I feel that since we have been good friends for a while, that you deserve to know just what’s holding me back.” Rainbow Dash was not speaking for two reasons.

The first was the fact that she Pinkie’s secret was poking through the fog like a beacon, the red words shining through and hitting her heart like a depressing ray.

I DON’T HAVE THE COURAGE TO SHOW EVERYPONY MY TRUE SELF

Rainbow took one look at Pinkie, and put the pieces together. Pinkie was looking at the ground and sighing. She had never heard the mare speak this way before. Her words were full of heartbreak and misery, Rainbow Dash couldn’t deny that.

The second was the fact that Pinkie outright told her what was happening. She didn’t dodge the question, or try and stall for time like she had been doing. Pinkie deemed Rainbow Dash as her best friend, and since everypony else had seen just what was killing her inside, Rainbow needed to know as well. Pinkie was searching for help, and she saw it inside of Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie turned back to Rainbow Dash and looked up at the Boutique. “Dashie, why are you putting a tarp over Rarity’s secret?”

Rainbow broke out into a cold sweat. She stammered for the right words, but after a quick second, she rethought everything. She didn’t need to lie to Pinkie. The mare never did anything to hurt her, and was looking for a salvation inside of her as well. She decided that telling the truth could only do good at this point.

“Is this where you’ve been all day?” Pinkie added in a curious voice.

Rainbow slowly nodded, and looked pitifully at the dirt. “Yes. I was trying to do some good while you girls were out.”

Rainbow felt a tinge of pain inside of her when Pinkie’s face changed into that of pure shock. “W-Why would you do that?” Rainbow almost felt like she was talking to a new pony altogether. No happiness, no bubbliness, just the truth.

“What do you mean?”

“Why would you try and cover up our secrets?” Pinkie asked again. “Covering up the secrets that were holding us back only drag us down more, Dashie. Nopony tried to cover up their secrets because they were true. Some ponies were so desperate as to start fires, but those with the will to change left theirs up.” she turned back to the words on Rarity’s Boutique. “You’re not doing Rarity a favor, you’re hurting her chances of changing.” The way Pinkie spoke almost made Rainbow Dash tear up. The old Pinkie was a facade, she knew that now.

“I-I was just trying to help, honest!” Rainbow Dash genuinely felt sorry for herself. “I thought if nopony could see them, then everything would be alright until we sort this out. ...I’ll take down the tarp.”

Pinkie watched with a small smile as Rainbow took her hammer and dug out the nails keeping the tarp up. It only took a few moments for the tarp to flutter to the ground.

“Rarity needs to deal with her secret on her own. She doesn’t need us all to cover it up, but she needs us to be there for her.”

Rainbow never knew that Pinkie had the ability to speak the way she did, and it filled Rainbow with a new admiration.

“Look, Pinkie.” Rainbow started, after landing softly back on the ground. “I want to say thank you, for everything you’ve done for me. You shared your secret with me at the drop of a hat, and… it’s not fair if I don’t return the favor, right? Follow me.”

Pinkie cocked her head as Dash began to slowly fly away, taking her time so that the earth pony could keep up with little effort. Rainbow Dash knew exactly what to do, and how to do it.

Twenty minutes or so later Rainbow Dash and Pinkie arrived at Rainbow’s cloud home. It was dreary as ever, but Rainbow didn’t care. Rainbow spoke no words as she lifted Pinkie onto her back. Pinkie, surprisingly, stayed silent, a brand new smile painting her face.

Rainbow Dash went to work removing the nails in the tarp. She took her hammer in hoof, and wasted absolutely no time. The words underneath were finally going to be revealed to one of her closest friends, and she felt relieved.

It only took Rainbow Dash a minute or so until the words were visible. She only needed to take out the two nails in the top of the tarp for the entire thing to fold over and reveal what was underneath. For a moment, Pinkie refused to look at the words and could only stare soft-eyed at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow flew back to the grass under the cloud house and slid Pinkie off of her back.

“Well… here you go…” Rainbow said dejectedly, a heavy sigh coming from her mouth.

Pinkie turned her gaze to the words that lit up the evening sky.

I USE MY SEXUALITY AS A WAY TO GET REVENGE ON MY PARENTS

Pinkie glanced from the words, to Rainbow Dash, and back again multiple times. “Uhm…” was all that the mare could utter.

Rainbow Dash slid the tip of her hoof through the dirt. “Yeah, go ahead. Make fun of me, call me names, I don’t care anymore. I’ve heard it all before.”

Unbeknownst to Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie was more confused than concerned. She knew what the words read, she just couldn’t piece them together efficiently enough to form any sort of conclusion. So, she took a shot in the dark. “Dashie, I didn’t know you…” Pinkie hesitated. “Liked… mares…?”

Pinkie instantly regretted saying that when Rainbow Dash sharply raised her head to glare daggers at the earth pony. “No.” she uttered sharply. “I’m not gay.”

Pinkie cocked an eyebrow. She wasn’t too much concerned with how she phrased her words. All Pinkie wanted was some kind of explanation. “But... your secret says so.”

Rainbow Dash grunted loudly, and shook her head so furiously that her mane became frazzled and unkempt. “I said I’m not gay!” she shouted. Pinkie frowned and took a step back, and Rainbow let out a defeated sigh. She took the hint.

“Dashie…”

“I’m not, it’s just…” Rainbow didn’t know how to start, but eventually it all came to mind. “Back when I was a teen, that was when it all started. I loved my parents a lot, but I grew distant. I didn’t need them, I would think to myself. They were clingy and embarrassing.”

She looked at Pinkie with tear-filled eyes, refusing to let any fall. As long as they didn’t fall, she wasn’t crying. “I was stupid, and I did really dumb and bad things that my parents didn’t like. I went out to parties, I snuck out of the house at night, I skipped school... the works. My parents eventually caught on though, and they weren’t happy about it.”

Pinkie could only watch as Rainbow Dash choked over her words, the rough barricade that the pegasus had created was beginning to fall down in a mighty crash. “I hated them so much. I didn’t care about them, or myself, even though they just wanted what was best for me. I did know that they only truly hoped for one thing, and that was to be grandparents. I heard them talking about it at night when I was supposed to be asleep."

Pinkie was starting to catch on.

“They were so happy when I went on my first date the year before with some colt. They took pictures, picked out an outfit, and sent me on my way. I will never forget that. But a week later, when I came home from my friend’s house at two in the morning. I don’t know why, but I was just so angry, and even though they were upset at me coming home so late, my parents didn’t even yell at me. They just said they were disappointed, nothing more, nothing less. I knew what would devastate them, and I used it to my advantage. I screamed that I hated them, and that I wasn’t interested in dating stallions.”

Pinkie’s frown came into view again, but she flipped it over. She took a step closer to Rainbow Dash, who still hadn’t let a single tear fall from her eyes.

“They were heartbroken, and I smiled when I realized that I had won an arguement that shouldn’t have even happened in the first place. They never looked at me the same after that. They were always quiet and submissive whenever I went out with a friend, especially if it was a mare. I had won, Pinkie. I never went on another date, just to keep up the lie. I never told them the truth…”

There was a long pause, before Pinkie put a hoof on Rainbow’s side. “You know, you can cry if you want.” Pinkie said encouragingly. Rainbow wiped away the tears that had been forming in her eyes, leaving no traces. She put on a brave face.

“I don’t cry, alright?” she cracked. “I don’t even have a reason to anymore-” Rainbow was cut off when a ding was heard, and the letters behind her grew noticeably brighter. Rainbow Dash sighed, barely even paying attention. “I don’t even talk to my parents anymore…”

“You don’t need to cry,” Pinkie said, bringing her best friend in for a hug. Rainbow didn’t object, and wrapped her hooves around her pink companion. “But I think your secret wants you to.”

Pinkie felt something warm drip onto her fur not even two seconds later. That realization, truly, made her smile.

***

“Are you ready?” Twilight asked. She was sitting on a small pink chair in Fluttershy’s living room, while the pony in question was lying, huddled under a blanket, on the couch at the other side of the room. It had taken Twilight much longer than she had liked to calm the mare down. She had made the mistake of asking Fluttershy to clean herself up in the shower. It proved to be flawed when Fluttershy refused to come back out.

Fluttershy was sipping from a mug filled with hot chocolate. Her eyes were still low and darkened, but her mood seemed to slightly improve. “I-I don’t know about this…”

Twilight responded by taking out a notepad and a pencil. She was ready for this. “It’s the only way, Fluttershy. All you have to do is talk, and when things get too emotional for you, we can stop and try again later, alright?”

Fluttershy kicked around the inside of the blanket for minute, rubbing her thighs together awkwardly before she nodded. “Okay, Twilight, I’m ready.” Twilight brought the pencil to the notebook, and patiently waited. “I was a child at the time…”

***

Fluttershy’s childhood was grand, for the most part. Her mane and tail were much shorter than when she would become an adult, however she was much taller than those her age. She hated that. It made her stand out more.

After discovering her love for the ground, she somehow managed to convince her parents to let her come down from Cloudsdale every now and then into the nearest town of Ponyville. Her parents thought that this would be a great idea, and that she could even make some friends in the process. Fluttershy, however, had seen this as a win-lose situation, but she didn’t argue.

After two months of rushing out of school at breakneck speed just to gain extra time to traverse the ground, she had only made one friend. She wasn’t very happy about him, but she had to at least make one friend, or risk losing her ground privileges for good.

He was loud, obnoxious, and a clown. However, he approached her that day in class, and she really didn’t have the heart to reject him. She needed a friend, and he considered her one. There was nothing to complain about, even though Sticks would occasionally make fun of her timidness. He had a sleek, yet incredibly soft inky black mane, as well as a bumblebee yellow body to boot. He didn’t even have his cutie mark yet, though Fluttershy was eager to talk with him about just what he aspired to be when he did get it.

Almost every day, Fluttershy would sneak away from him when school ended, and make her way down to Ponyville. It was a tedious journey, as she was still not the best flier. However, she got better and better with each trip.

One day, she was followed. She had no idea, but she had learned too late. She was roaming around the Ponyville marketplace when she saw a yellow blur run up to her, and a very familiar voice. Fluttershy almost had a panic attack.

“Hey! Wait up, will ya?” Sticks shouted, his unnaturally high voice almost hurting the poor pegasus’ ears. The colt had an annoying mischievous grin on his face that Fluttershy was scared to see.

“Sticks? What are you doing here?” Fluttershy asked once she had gotten her bearings. She didn’t know whether to be surprised or irritated.

“So... this is where you run off to!” he announced, loud and proud. Fluttershy tried to shush him, but he didn’t seem to hear her. It wasn’t until later that Fluttershy realized that it really didn’t matter if anypony in town heard her anyways, and that it was just her paranoia getting to her again. “I always wondered where you zoomed off to every day!”

“Why would you follow me?” Fluttershy was already close to crying at this point. She really hadn’t want anypony to know where she went. Even though the ground was already occupied by many others, she still thought of it as her own special place. Somewhere for her to relax and enjoy the life and nature on the ground.

“I was bored, that’s why.” He poked Fluttershy’s chest roughly, almost sending her sprawling to the ground. Fluttershy squeaked loudly, and brought a hoof to her aching chest. “I’ve never been down here before! Come on! Let’s have some fun!” he shouted, turning and running off down the street.

“W-Wait! I don’t think that’s is a good idea…” Fluttershy stayed put. Sticks wasn’t amused, and stopped running for a moment to glare at her.

“Don’t be a pansy! Surely there’s tons of things that we can do down here!” he walked back to Fluttershy with an angry look in his eyes.

“I… I don’t want to anymore. I-I’m going home.” Fluttershy began to slowly flap her wings, but Sticks reached her first. With an angry tug, he pulled Fluttershy back to the ground, and shoved her in the direction he wanted to go.

“You’re not going anywhere!” he shouted. Somehow, none of the ponies nearby managed to hear him. “Now that you have company you’re just gonna chicken out? Not on my watch!” He pushed her again, and Fluttershy meekly obeyed. She walked down the street on her own, a few tears gathering in her eyes.

“Come on. We’re gonna have some fun! Even if it kills us!”

***

The rest of that evening had been horrible.

Fluttershy had never felt so depressed, being forced to wander around the ground, her sacred place, with her so-called best friend. She didn’t really do anything, deciding instead to remain mainly in the background while Sticks did less than kind things to unsuspecting ponies. He had already taken a few apples from a stand while the merchant wasn’t looking. He made off with a few bits worth of the fruit, and Fluttershy’s heart felt heavy.

No matter what Fluttershy said, Sticks refused to listen to her pleas. Sticks was having too much fun to control himself. He knew that there was no way he could get in trouble, seeing as he wasn’t even from the area. He viewed it as a free pass, and Fluttershy couldn’t have been more afraid of this.

Sticks bit down on his third apple. “Wow, that mare is stupid.” he exclaimed through a mouthful of fruit. Fluttershy turned to the ground, not agreeing and afraid to say anything about it. “I was right freakin’ there. It’s like she was practically letting me take them!”

Fluttershy didn’t reply. She just stared pitifully at the ground. She already knew why the merchant didn’t see: Ponyville was a very peaceful town with little to no crime. Surely the mare didn’t expect somepony to steal from her stand while she was standing right there. Fluttershy had roamed around enough beforehand to know this.

They had found a desolate spot in the woods nearest town, and Sticks wanted to rest for a bit. Fluttershy didn’t like the woods, she was certain she could hear things growling. Sticks continued to ramble on despite how quiet Fluttershy was being. He sat against a tree stump and stared distractedly at the branches above him.

After a minute, Fluttershy tuned Sticks out. She was lost in her own mind, and she was dreading it. She was regretting coming to Ponyville today, even though there was nothing that could have been done to stop her initially. Now her place of peace was being ruined by somepony who didn’t even deserve to be there.

“What do you wanna do, Fluttershy?” The filly in question poked her head up as soon as she heard her name. Sticks was staring at her with those devious emerald eyes of his, the one that she had come to dislike. Fluttershy didn’t know where he got them, but he was holding a pack of matches in his hooves. The buttermilk pegasus did not question it.

“Uh… I… I wanna go home…” Fluttershy stammered. Sticks simply scoffed, and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah ‘I don’t wanna be here!’, myeh myeh myeh!” he mimicked with his tongue lolling out. Fluttershy pursed her lips and felt a tear well up in her eye when she realized that she was being mocked. “Well, I’m having fun down here. Let’s go and do something dangerous!”

To Fluttershy’s surprise, the colt held up his matches into the air. Fluttershy felt her heart skip a beat. “W-What do you plan on doing with t-those?” Somehow, Fluttershy had viewed his matches as something unimportant, giving him the benefit of the doubt that he had simply found them and wasn’t planning on doing anything horrible. She had never been so wrong.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out! Let’s go and… I dunno…” Sticks searched through his pea-brain desperately for something that they could do. Fluttershy shuddered when his face finally lit up. She had never realized that the colt looked so… devilish.

“...burn something?”

Fluttershy’s heart stopped entirely, and there had been a moment where they had simply stared at each other. One face shone of true malice, while the other feared for its life.

“I...I…” Fluttershy stuttered. She was in no way expecting Sticks to say something like that, or now that he had the ability to actually do something of that very same nature. Sticks beckoned to her, leaning closer with a grand smile.

“Come on!” he pleaded. “It’ll be fun! You don’t even have to start them, I’ll do all the work!” Sticks eye twitched, and Fluttershy jumped off of her haunches. She looked left and right, as if she was plotting an escape route.

“Why? Why would you say something like that? Matches aren’t toys!” Fluttershy repeated the direct words of her mother. One time, Fluttershy had tried to light an incense burner inside of her room while nobody was home. Needless to say, her curtains were ruined.

“Because there’s nothing better to do! That’s why!” Sticks was getting noticeably angry and began gritting his teeth in irritation.

“I… I don’t wanna!”

The malicious smile on Sticks’ face grew to that of a tired smirk. “Fluttershy, you wanna know why I’m your only friend?” Fluttershy’s fear remained even when she cocked her head. “Because no one else has the patience to put up with you. You’re no fun! You’re so shy and boring that everypony would rather do homework instead of hang out with you!”

Sticks jumped in front of the filly, causing her to fall on to her back. Fluttershy squeaked involuntarily. “But I thought ‘hey, I’m going to give her a chance! I’m going to try and be her friend’, and I shoulda known better! I try my best to amuse you and make you laugh, but no! You just continue to try and hide from me!”

Fluttershy, for the life of her, could not understand what he was talking about. Sticks’ eyes hardened.

“Nopony likes you! That Rainbow chick might’ve stood up for you that one time, but has she ever talked to you since? I don’t think so!” Sticks brought his face closer to Fluttershy, and their noses were practically touching. Fluttershy tried to shy away, but it was in vain. Tears freely fell from the filly’s eyes, and landed on the dew-ridden leaves below. “I try my best to befriend you, and this is how you repay me? Is this how you treat your one and only friend?”

There was a pause as Sticks waited for the filly to reply. Fluttershy never caught on. She just stared at him with awfully wide eyes. She jumped when Sticks yelled at her: “Well!?”

Fluttershy tried to speak, but her words kept jumping as she struggled to breath through her tears. “I… I don’t want to hurt anypony… please just leave me alone!”

Sticks reeled back, and clocked the mare in the bottom of the chin with strong hoof. A loud “crack” was heard as he connected with her face. Fluttershy’s head flew back, and the tears flows freely as she clutched her aching jaw. For a moment, she was afraid for her life. She expected the punches to keep coming, to impale her flesh and take her soul right out of her body. However, there was no more. Fluttershy could taste copper in her mouth.

“Stupid filly! Freakin’ stupid is what you are!” He broke eye contact and walked away in the direction of a locally known farm. “Fine! I don’t need you! I can have fun on my own! I’ll make sure to tell everypony in school that you’re even more of a chicken than you let on, and how you stole all of those apples from the merchant!”

Fluttershy said nothing. She continued to shake on the ground, like a scared puppy. She knew that Sticks wasn’t lying. He would blame everything on her, and everypony would believe him. But there was nothing she could do. She was too afraid to stop him and to stand up for herself. In a flash, Sticks disappeared.

***

“It was the next morning.” Fluttershy took a sip of her hot chocolate, trying to warm up despite the fact that she was violently shivering. “I went into school the next morning only to see Sticks’ desk was empty”

Twilight had stopped writing down notes a long time ago. She didn’t feel the need to anymore. All she could do was listen.

“What happened to Sticks, Fluttershy?”

A tear rolled down Fluttershy’s cheek. “He never came back. He burned down one of the barns at Sweet Apple Acres, the one that Applejack’s parent’s were tending their farm animals in…” Fluttershy tried her best to regain her composure, but she was faltering. “Everything burned. Her parents, the animals… even Sticks.”

Twilight resisted the urge to drop her jaw.

“Because of me… my inaction, I got two innocent ponies killed, five farm animals, and one little colt who didn’t know any better.” Fluttershy sat up on the couch, only to stare at the maple floor. “I think about it every night. I think about what I could have done to stop him before he did what he did. I was too afraid. It’s why I don’t like going inside of the Everfree. It reminds me of the horrible thing that happened because of me. Sometimes when I go into the woods there, I’m certain that I can feel the spot he hit me ache."

Twilight only had one question, and after some self-urging, she opened her mouth. “Fluttershy, why do you live so close to Everfree forest?”

Fluttershy looked up, locking eyes with the unicorn on the other side of the carpet. She gave a weak and empty smile.

“My memories can only keep me away for so long.”

***

“Why should ah care?” replied the same country voice that Rarity had come to grow accustomed to. The unicorn sighed. It had been a hopeless ten minutes of trying to talk to Applejack, and nothing was going well. Rarity and Applejack had gone into the latter’s room so that Applebloom and Big Mac wouldn’t overhear their conversation.

“What do you possibly mean? I’m sure it was an accident, Applejack.” Rarity said, having since learned of Fluttershy’s secret. “It did say ‘indirectly’ after all…”

Applejack stomped her hoof. “That doesn’t mean anything!” she roared. “She’s still responsible, and Ah’m not gonna let ‘er git away with this! Ah’ll go to the police if ah have to!”

“Fluttershy is your friend.” Applejack opened her mouth. However, Rarity already knew what her response was, so she purposefully continued talking. “You know that she would never do anything like that on purpose. Remember who we’re talking about, dear.”

“Ah do recall, loud an’ clear! We’re talkin’ about a murderer! That’s who!” Applejack grit her teeth, and Rarity could hear them grind against themselves.

“Fluttershy is not a murderer!” Rarity was beginning to get frustrated. She was not in the mood to argue with Applejack about this. “You would learn that if you went back to her cottage and talked to her.”

“Do ya know what she put me through? Mah family, Rarity?” Applejack appeared to calm down, but deep inside Rarity knew that there was still a fire in there. The unicorn sighed, tiredly. “Granny Smith had to raise all three of us like we were her own. She worked those fields for hours on end, just to have enough money to feed ‘er gran’kids! She would go out there at dawn an’ not come back until next mornin’!”

“Applejack, ple-”

“No! Granny Smith worked herself to the bone! Most nights, she didn’t have enough food to feed herself. Just us. She’d go to bed hungry only to git up in the mornin’ and start all over! Ya don’t understand, Rarity!”

“I-”

“If it wasn’t for Fluttershy, ah would have my parents, and mah sister would have ah better role model! Fluttershy got two a’ us! Two of the Apples!” Applejack’s face drooped, and she looked out the nearby window. “But really, she managed to kill six.”

“Applejack, you are a great role model for Applebloom. I know for a fact that she looks up to you, and strives to be just like her big sister.” Rarity finally managed to slip a few words in edgewise, and she was careful about which ones they were. “Your life turned out fine, and you are fully capable to taking the workload off of your grandmother’s back. She took care of you, and now you can return the favor.”

“She’d have ah better role model, then..” The country mare paid no attention to anything Rarity said beyond that point. Applejack felt a rage burn inside of her heart. Her eyes were glazed and more or less pitiless. Applejack felt dead inside, and she knew just how to fix it.

“Fluttershy took two lives away from me.” Rarity took a fearful step back. Something inside her dear friend had snapped, she could tell.

“A-Applejack...?”

“And now ah’m goin’ to take one from her.”

Chapter 7: Everypony's Truth

It was about forty five or so minutes later when Twilight Sparkle magically opened the door to the library. It had been a weary day, and the unicorn silently wanted to take a nap and forget anything ever happened. Unfortunately, that little wish of hers was not about to be granted any time soon. “Hello? Is anypony here?” She idly waited a moment to hear a pre-pubescent voice shout from somewhere else in the library. It didn’t.

Twilight wandered inside with a jaded Fluttershy at her tail. “I-Is anypony here?” Deep inside, Fluttershy was having a small panic attack, hoping that she wouldn’t have to confront Applejack any time soon. Unbeknownst to anypony else, Fluttershy could hear everything that was said while she was sobbing on the ground earlier, after Applejack had said those mean things to her. It was difficult sharing the story once, but if she had to share it a second time just so her friends can forgive her, then so be it. She just wouldn’t be too thrilled about it.

Twilight held off on answering Fluttershy’s question. “Spike? Spike!” Fluttershy closed the large library door behind her quietly, and did her best to hide her shivering. Twilight cocked an eyebrow at the absence of a certain baby dragon. “Where did he go…?”

Fluttershy glanced at the clock that hung on the other side of the library, nearest the many bookshelves. “It’s 5 o'clock, Twilight. Perhaps he took a nap?”

“Possibly.” Twilight replied quickly. She had never really thought about what time it was in a while. It was still foggy, and blurred the sky. It was nearly impossible to tell, and would be until night fell, which Twilight dreaded. Everypony’s secrets would shine excessively bright after the sunset. Even with the fog, there would be nothing that they could do to cover their secrets up then, should they say anything against the truth. However, Twilight knew that something was up. There was more to this than it seemed, and she believed that she was onto something great. It was a simple theory, but she purposefully waited until everypony was there to say anything. But then again, she could always be wrong. She put that thought back into the dark recesses of her mind.

She knew it wasn’t going to be easy, that was for sure. The tension between Fluttershy and Applejack was massive, and Twilight wondered if there was anything that could be done to repair the damage that had been done on both of their parts. Applejack was not about to forgive the buttery pegasus anytime soon, and Twilight knew that this was only to calm before the storm.

Twilight trotted over to a nearby closet, and magically hauled out six small lawn chairs that matched her coat, as well as a tape measure. Not saying a word, she set them in the middle of the library in a fashion similar to that of a discussion circle. “Twilight, what are you doing?” Fluttershy asked, standing as far back as she could.

The chairs were spread out so that each chair was no more or less than five feet away from the next one, and Twilight made sure of this, perfectly measuring every chair and the spaces between them. She wanted this to go as smoothly as possible. Twilight also took into account how far the chairs would have to be in order for the nearest pony to avoid being touched by the one on the other side, in another effort to contain something that may occur sometime within the next hour or so. Luckily, the library was big enough for such a set up. “We are all going to talk.” Twilight muttered, spreading out the tape measure just to double check her work. There was no room for errors. “When everypony gets here, we’re going to be calm and act like adults. We’re going to put our heads together, and try to figure out just what’s going on.”

Fluttershy wasn’t all too excited about this. “But… what about Applejack?”

“I’m sure Rarity did a decent job with calming her down.” Twilight droned, monotonously. “I understand how Applejack feels, and you two are going to have to find time to settle this. If she gets here sooner than everypony else, then there you go. Then you’ll have time. Until you two talk, we’re going to try and get Ponyville out of this mess.”

Fluttershy frowned, and looked towards the door. Twilight stood up from her crouched position, and snapped the tape measure. “We are the Elements of Harmony, Fluttershy. It is our job to keep the peace throughout all of Equestria, to minor things, to changeling invasions. Whomever did this, knows that. They’re doing their best to pull us apart, and they appear to be doing too good of a job at it.”

“Twilight, I know.” Fluttershy replied. “I wish things to go back to the way they were. I don’t want to fight with Applejack in the slightest! I just wish that we didn’t have to. Though I guess it’s kind of… inevitable.” Twilight heard the restlessness in Fluttershy’s voice, and let out a sigh.

Twilight didn’t know what was wrong with her. Her sympathetic thoughts seemed to have disappeared upon hearing Fluttershy’s story earlier. She was tired, stressed, and sick of herself and her best friends crying. She wanted it all to end, and that was her new mission. Frankly, Fluttershy and Applejack solving their problem was not, though it was a close second. She did care, and did not want their friendship to be ruined over what Fluttershy felt she caused, but there were more important things at hoof.

Twilight, for once in her life, had lost her empathy. Because of this, she felt absolutely sick to her stomach.

“Don’t worry,” Twilight looked at the chair in front of her, rather than the nerve-wracked Fluttershy. She just couldn’t bring herself to do it. “Everything is going to be alright. We can get through this, I know we can.” It was the only thing Twilight could say at this point. Until the rest of their friends showed themselves, only fate could decide what would happen then.

Fluttershy sadly nodded, and took a seat in the chair farthest away from the door. She really hoped that she didn’t have to sit next to Applejack, but with her luck, that is most likely how it would turn out.

After figuring out the rest of the calculations silently in her head, Twilight plopped down on the seat next to Fluttershy, much to the pegasus’ undying, yet unknown, happiness. They had no idea how long they were going to have to wait. There was no telling how long it would take for Rarity to calm Applejack down, and convince her to come to the library. There’s also no telling if Pinkie Pie is having any sort of luck in locating Rainbow Dash. Twilight had to admit, she had no idea where she would even start looking had she been in charge of looking for the speed-demon.

Rainbow Dash could literally be anywhere with those wings of hers. Twilight tried to pass the time with a few calculations. If Rainbow Dash woke up at the same time that she did, and her immediate action was to fly as far as she could, she’d most likely be somewhere around Canterlot. But then again, Rainbow Dash was never the mare to run from her problems, anyways. However, she didn’t completely rule out the thought.

Twilight turned to look back at Fluttershy, who was sitting in her chair with wide eyes and a shaking body. She looked absolutely petrified of what was the come, and Twilight could not bring herself to say anything that she had not already explained. She was tired of the lying, the secrets, and the tears. So she resisted saying anything she knew would be false, such as her and Applejack’s relationship will stay the same when this was all said and done.

Applejack was a mare of honesty, and Fluttershy threw it right back into her face. There was nothing more that could be done in that department.

It was nearing around six o’clock when the familiar jingle of the bells above the library doors. Twilight and Fluttershy jerked their heads, the latter more hesitantly than the former.

It was Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie bore a grin like no other. It was quiet, yet it spoke a million words to Twilight and Fluttershy. Her eyes were soft and kindhearted, and it made Twilight just a tad more nervous. She didn’t know what was to come from the pink mare’s mouth, whether it would be angry and spiteful, or caring and concerned. Pinkie Pie was a mystery and a bomb. Pinkie, smartly, took a seat on the other side of Fluttershy. “Hey girls.” she said. Fluttershy and Twilight stayed silent.

Rainbow Dash was a new story entirely. Her eyes were bloodshot and red, and her cheeks seemed to bleed from the constant eye wiping. Twilight knew what that was from. She wasn’t an idiot. Rainbow stared at the ground and took a seat next to Pinkie. She didn’t say or do anything that wasn’t necessary at the moment. She looked like a downtrodden zombie. Twilight held back her aching questions, as she pondered where exactly Rainbow Dash was the whole day.

Rainbow Dash already knew of the situation, and refused to make eye contact with Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie had explained that there was a strong tension between her and Applejack, though she didn’t explain much. For now, she decided to do something that she never would have thought that she would see herself doing: she kept quiet.

There was a deafening silence, and Twilight couldn’t bear it any longer. “Rainbow, are you okay?” Immediately after the words left her mouth had Twilight realized just how stupid that question was.

“I’m fine.” Rainbow uttered, staring at the ground. Her voice was monotonous and dead inside. Rainbow Dash could feel something inside of her begin to slip away, though she had no idea what it was.

Twilight didn’t believe her one bit. “Are you sure? You seem a little upset?”

Rainbow Dash didn’t reply. She just continued to stare at the floor. Twilight turned to the multicolored mare’s companion, and cocked an eyebrow. Pinkie Pie smiled, warmly. “She’s fine. Trust me.” she spoke. Twilight shrugged. She had to admit, the temptation to ask Rainbow Dash about her secret was staggering, but she managed to avoid conflict by holding it back. In retrospect, it really didn’t matter.

They sat in another stunning silence. They all wanted to speak, however nobody was willing to ask the right questions. They were all afraid, to say the least, of what the next words out of somepony’s mouth was going to be. Each one of them expected another to yell, scream, or fight, even though they knew the possibility for such was very low. Pinkie had silently whispered Rainbow Dash's situation to Twilight, her secret. Not because she wished to gossip, but she truly believed that Twilight could help.

They knew that this was only the calm.

And the storm arrived when that door opened for the last time.

The lungs of everypony stopped at that one abrupt moment. That single point in time where everypony believed that the world had simply stopped spinning, and came to a horrendous halt. Fluttershy buried her head in her hooves in a terrible attempt to avoid the conflict, even though it was inescapable anyways.

Twilight could only stare helplessly as Rarity and Applejack trudged through the door. Rarity bore a large frown, while Applejack wore a mask of content on her face. She appeared indifferent, unconcerned, as if she was a different mare. She didn’t look angry, or resentful, and it made Twilight just a little bit nervous. It was the lack of emotion from everypony’s favorite farmer that did the trick.

Pinkie gave the duo a kind smile as she saw them wander through the door. Her eyes were still soft and gentle, and she raised up a hoof that didn’t even manage to find it’s way above her head. Pinkie turned towards Rainbow Dash, but pursed her lips when she realized that Rainbow was still looking towards the ground.

Rarity and Applejack stood as the door slammed shut behind them. Rarity stared at the near-semicircle, while Applejack’s eyes were full of unworry. Rarity turned to look at Applejack, who refused to return her gaze. The cowpony had her wearisome eyes set on Fluttershy. Twilight pounced on the fated moment of silence.

“Please, sit.” She said, quietly. The two did not move. “We have some things to discuss,". Rarity sighed, and took a seat next to Pinkie Pie with a small sense of urgency. Applejack shifted gazes between all of her friends, slowly, as if she was lost in a deep thought. It was as if only a certain part of her was with them and the other was somewhere much farther gone than any of them could ever realize. Steadily, very steadily, Applejack mosied her way through the library, and took a seat between Rarity and Rainbow Dash.

At first, no pony said anything. The only sound being the ticking of the clock, and the occasional sounds of Spike’s snoring from upstairs. Twilight was getting anxious, although most of her other friends were not very eager to begin anyways. Pinkie seemed genuinely excited, but not in her usual way. Although, she didn’t wish to be the first pony to speak anyways.

“So, we have a lot of things going on in our lives right now.” Twilight said. Pinkie was the only one to give Twilight the eye contact that she deserved, and she nodded furiously. “As well as a decent amount of tension between us.”

Rarity couldn’t help but stare at the only shivering pony in the group, and felt queasy.

“In order to properly discuss the solution to this plague amongst the town, we must first confront ourselves as well as our issues.” she said, choosing her words carefully. In the moment of silence earlier, Twilight had figured out just what she had wanted to say to everypony. Surprisingly, Applejack was the first to speak up. Her forelegs were crossed, and she stared at the books that were behind Twilight’s back.

“Ain’t nothin’ to discuss.” she said slowly.

“What do you mean?” said Twilight. Rarity finally turned her attention to the others, snapping out of her inner self.

“Just what ah said.” Applejack replied. “Ah just wanna find out who it was who wrote these blasted words on our homes.” Pinkie’s smile flipped. She would have rested a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder, had she not been out of hoof’s reach. Pinkie was by no means a psychiatrist, but she knew each and every one of her friends like the back of her hoof, despite the irony of her secret. She knew that Applejack was holding everything in, bottling up her emotions like a mare in quicksand. Pinkie knew that Applejack was going down a horrible path, but she found herself unable to do anything about it.

“Applejack, what are you talking about? What we need to do first is to sort out our own problems. We can’t go and search for answers with all this anger and sadness.” Twilight responded, rationally. However, Applejack didn’t want to hear it.

“Anger? Sadness? I don’t know what your talkin’ ‘bout.” she said. Fluttershy poked her head up from it’s comfortable spot in her hooves. “Ahm here to get answers.”

“S-So you’re not mad at Fluttershy anymore?” Twilight stammered, after she had momentarily dropped her jaw. She was awestruck, dumbstruck, and most of all entirely confused. She held back a small, disbelieving scoff when she saw Applejack slowly nod. But that was when she realized that she didn’t see Applejack’s tick.

“I’m upset, that’s for sure.” she said. Fluttershy let out a small whimper. “But it doesn’t matter right now. I wanna figure out just what’s goin’ on here.” Rarity sighed again, and shook her head, putting her hoof to it.

“Me too.” Rainbow Dash said, finally taking a brief moment to look up from the ground. Her eyes were wet, so she wiped her face again, only making it becoming a darker shade of red. “This is stupid. Why don’t we just try and figure out who caused all this first, and deal with our own problems later? There are other’s suffering out there besides us, you know!” Rainbow Dash’s inner rage was rising, and she threw an angry hoof towards the door for emphasis.

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight barely kept back her innate urge to yell. “How are we supposed to solve all of this when we’re all like… this?” she asked. Rainbow stood up, out of her seat.

“And what is that supposed to mean? What is ‘this’?” she asked, she stamped her hoof. Rarity shushed her.

“That’s a good question.” she huffed. “This is the point! To answer all of our questions ourselves before we try and use our brains which aren’t even in the best state of mind.”

“But what about those ponies out there?” Rainbow Dash hollered, she snorted noisily. “They’re suffering out there! We need to help them!” she sighed. “Not like I care about what happens to me anymore.”

“I-I agree…” Fluttershy added. Twilight could not believe what she was hearing. Pinkie sunk deeper into her chair, fearing the worst.

“How are we supposed to help them when we can’t even help ourselves? Look at you, Rainbow Dash, acting like some kind of brute.” she said, the final parts accidentally slipping out of her mouth.

“Brute? You think I’m a brute, just for caring for the well-being of others. And who are you, Mrs. Generosity, so quick to help yourself and completely ignore those poor ponies suffering outside!” Rarity grew an apple red.

“Excuse me?” she growled. “If you think that I don’t care a bit about those outside, then you are sadly mistaken! I care deeply, unlike some ponies. We need to solve our own problem! How can we possibly help others when we are yelling at each other like barbarians?” The bickering continued, and Twilight felt her own blood boil. Applejack groaned loudly at what she had started, and considered leaving altogether.

“Nopony is leaving until we sort some things out!” Twilight shouted over the other two. Her voice boomed and echoed throughout the library, causing Rarity and Rainbow Dash to stop in their tracks and turn to look at the mare. “We are going to sit down and talk! It is the only way we are going to make any headway in anything!”

Rarity and Rainbow Dash scowled at each other, before taking their seats once again. Twilight cleared her voice. “Obviously, Fluttershy,” the mare in question snapped to attention. “Applejack has forgiven you. Is there anything of which you’d like to say?”

Fluttershy took one look at Applejack and shuddered. The cowpony was staring at her with dead eyes that reeked of sorrow. Her forelegs were still crossed in a bemused manner, as she opened up her ears to listen to just what the pegasus had to say. Fluttershy opened her mouth, however the words didn’t come out until ten seconds later. “I-I am so sorry, Applejack.”

Applejack cleared her throat, as if she was expecting more.

“I didn’t mean for it to happen! I really mean it! I’m so sorry that I didn’t say anything about it sooner, and I know that I should have. We’ve been friends for so long, and I didn’t want to tear us apart, and…” a few tears ran down Fluttershy’s cheeks. Applejack closed her eyes and held up a hoof.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s in the past.” Applejack said. Twilight squinted at her, unsure. “Ah just want to get to figuring this entire thing out. Fluttershy and ah can talk about it when this is all done and over with.” Twilight wanted to get angry. She wanted to scream and shout. The secrets were tearing them all apart. This was what they wanted, whoever it was that did this. They want them to fight and shove each other around, destroy their friendship from the inside.

They were falling apart.

Twilight’s gaze shifted from Rainbow, to Rarity, to Pinkie, to Fluttershy, and then to Applejack. She stared at them long and hard. She almost immediately calmed herself down and a small, pinprick of an idea popped inside of her head, one that she hadn’t thought about prior. Her friends.

Her and Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie and Rarity.

Fluttershy and Applejack.

And that was when everything made perfect sense.

“Wait.” Twilight muttered. Unfortunately, nopony in the room seemed to hear her. While Twilight was momentarily lost in her head, Rarity and Rainbow Dash had gone back to arguing. Twilight didn’t waste another second. “Hold on!”

“What!?” Rainbow Dash hollered. Her nostrils were flared, as if she had just been interrupted giving(or more or less screaming) an extravagant point. Rarity didn’t scream, but she did have an extremely peeved look on her face.

“I understand.” Twilight said, simply. She didn’t know any other way to put it. Something clicked. Something called out to her, and she managed to grasp the missing piece that she had been looking for all day. Pinkie Pie knitted her brows. Applejack only gave Twilight a quizzical glance. Her face remained the same, though, but Twilight could just tell.

“Huh?” Pinkie asked. Her mane flowed with every turn of her head.

“I think I know what’s going on. What the words mean, well the dimming and brightening portion of it, at least.” she said. No one in the room spoke. In fact, a few of them seemed to be slightly skeptical.

“Pfft, right.” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes. “All of a sudden, you just happen to figure everything out?” she asked. Twilight didn’t feel like recognizing Dash’s tone. She knew her fairly well, and how she’ll put up a superior front in a desperate effort to hide her emotions. She was doing too good a job at it, in Twilight’s eyes. Maybe this would explain some of her past behaviors. Just how long had Dash been keeping her secret?

Rarity pursed her lips, and glared at Rainbow Dash. Her ears flattened against her head. Rainbow Dash easily ignored it. But, yet again, she refused to open her mouth.

“What do you think’s going on, Twilight?” Pinkie asked. Fluttershy finally lifted up her head. Sometime during the yelling, the pegasus had resorted to curling up into a ball on the floor.

“Everyone, come with me. We’re going to watch the sky lights.”

***

A few reluctantly, a few more willingly, and one more confidently, Twilight and her friends strode up to her room on the second floor, which was completely filled with Spike’s snoring. Nearest Twilight’s bed, the little dragon had wrapped himself up in a blanket cocoon and slept like a hushed baby. His chest rising and falling slowly. Upon entering the room, Twilight enveloped him in her magic, and carried him downstairs in the library. As much help as he was, the dragon was exhausted from all of his worrying earlier. It was best to let him sleep.

Twilight, after taking Spike downstairs, cantered back upstairs to her awaiting five friends. Rainbow Dash was tapping a hoof, agitatedly. “Come on, I don’t have all day.” she snorted when Twilight had finally reappeared. Twilight ignored her.

“So, what do you think’s going on? Why do we have to be up here to talk about this?” Fluttershy asked. Once again, she remained on the south end of the room, farthest away from Applejack. She was slightly paranoid that the mare was going to snap and start pummeling her out of nowhere, even though she was sure that that would never happen. Applejack was a good mare. That didn’t stop Fluttershy from shivering, however.

“I know, now. I figured something out. Somepony is targeting us. Something with our secrets differentiate us from the other ponies in town. This hasn’t happened to their secrets. Only ours.” Twilight explained. Pinkie tilted her head, causing her mane to slide against the floor. Rainbow rolled her eyes.

“Wrong!” Rainbow’s sudden yell made almost everypony in the room jump, save for Applejack, who was still in her same mysterious stupor. “Everypony’s secret in town gets brighter and gets dimmer. I would know, I figured that part out myself.” Rarity found the perfect time to speak.

“That reminds me, what were you doing this entire time?”

“Uh… nothing. Just, roaming around.”

“You were looking at other ponies secrets, weren’t you?”

“Not entirely.”

“Anyways,” Twilight cut into their irrelevant conversation. “that’s not what I was getting at. While looking for you five, and talking about our secrets, I learned two things: when a pony tells the truth about a secret, it gets dimmer. When they lie or be vague about it, it shines.” she explained. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to yell and inevitable “duh!”, but she was interrupted when Twilight kept going.

“Obvious. Correct?” She didn’t wait for a response. “But, there’s one other thing I noticed. When a pony tells you their secret, the pony you told’s secrets shone instead. This happened on numerous occasions, such as outside Rarity’s house, and Pinkie’s house with my secret. But why?”

Once again, Twilight didn’t wait for a wrong answer from her friends. Instead, she turned tail and headed out towards the balcony. “When you’re not sure about something, do an experiment!”

Awkwardly, Twilight’s friends followed her out into the wooden balcony. Twilight moved the telescope that usually resided there so there would be more room, so her friends would see her point entirely. The night air stung the friends’ noses at the same time. It was riddled with smoke, desperation and revelations. The stars in the sky did little to change their moods. In fact, it made Applejack frown a bit. The library’s balcony looked over practically all of Ponyville, and all of the surrounding area. Rainbow Dash flinched when she realized that the secret on her house was clearly visible, although blurred through the clouds. Pinkie’s secret and Applejack’s were also shining, proudly.

Neither of them were happy about it.

“Our secrets. Our friendship. They are all connected, like a fly in a spider web. Our community of six is stronger, and somepony figured that out. That’s why I have a good feeling.” Twilight motioned to her now dim secret right underneath them. One couldn’t see the words from the position, but the lack of light let them know. “Watch Rainbow’s secret, as well as mine.” Twilight tried not to read Rainbow’s secret from their position, but that was seconds after the fact.

Rainbow Dash did a double take.

“I did nothing, at all, with my brother when I was younger.” Twilight said. For some reason, a triumphant smile was on her face, like she had just conquered her own realm inside of her head. The six watched in awe as Twilight’s secret visibly grew brighter, shining much more than what she had originally expected, billowing light over the rest of the downtrodden town.

And Rainbow Dash’s secret dimmed.

“Rainbow, now you.” Twilight said. Rainbow Dash’s face grew pink, fuming.

“If you think that I’m going to acknowledge anything-”

A loud ding was heard from a mile away. Rainbow’s secret grew, while Twilight’s did the opposite. Twilight grinned, her hypothesis being more correct than she had originally thought.

“I… I don’t understand.” Fluttershy quivered. Twilight gave her a brief nod. Twilight had figured that some sort of explanation would need to be involved. Fortunately, she had it all sorted out inside that gigantic brain of hers.

“Our secrets are connected. Perhaps through the Elements of Harmony, or our friendship, or whatever. Whoever did this was targeting us, specifically, seeing as our secrets are the only ones to do this. My secret is connected to Rainbow-”

“But how? And why are they connected? Huh, Miss Egghead?” Rainbow butted in. Twilight tried not to acknowledge Rainbow’s attitude, yet again.

“Because of a similar theme we all share.” Twilight said, bluntly. “We’re connected because of our past, Rainbow. What I did to my brother, when I was younger, and how you treated your parents. We have remorse, regret, in common. The nagging feeling that tugs on our shoulders, telling us that’s it’s impossible to change the past.” Twilight silently debated if she could continue, but did anyway.

“You know what holds others back, Rainbow Dash? Keeps ponies from reaching their true potential? Two things, and only one is applicable to us directly. The first is sloth, or not living up to what one could be. The second is the past. It’s unchangeable, and it’s a horrible thing. Being unable to take back what you say, or to quit doing something that hurts. That’s why we are connected. My quest for knowledge, and your desire for fame is linked by our pasts. Do you understand?”

Rainbow’s eyes fell.

“Then there’s Applejack and Fluttershy-” Twilight noticed Fluttershy crouch closer to the floor when Applejack turned back to look at her. Unconcerned. “Your’s is, well… obvious, yet not really.”

“It’s sadness, isn’t it?” Fluttershy squeaked. Twilight cocked her head. Somehow, someway, Fluttershy had mustered the nerve to stand back up. “Applejack’s secret outright said it, how she was sad.”

Twilight continued her sentence for her. “Yes, Fluttershy.” she said, trying not to let her eyes dip. “Applejack’s secret was straight to the point, just like her.” Applejack held back an emotionless scoff, and looked off the balcony. Twilight locked eyes with Fluttershy. “Your secret is strange. At first, sadness is not the underlying threat. It’s death. But when we look a little deeper, into Fluttershy, we can all tell what the real lasting impression is: her fear and sorrow.”

“Twilight, I don’t mean to be rude.” Applejack cut in. “But I really don’t care. I forgave Fluttershy. Enough is enough.” Twilight could tell that Applejack’s blood was beginning to boil, but she wasn’t concerned.

“No you didn’t.” Twilight shot back, slightly peeved after being interrupted. She was on a role. “You simply said that to appease the rest of us. You’re hurt, dying on the inside like your parents did the outside-”

“Hey-”

“But that’s the problem, Applejack. Your dejection is in the same category as Fluttershy. She spends every day thinking about her mistake. She lives with it on her mind every day. You’re stuck with it physically, without your parents. You deal with the fact in life, while she deals with it mentally.” Applejack, instead of arguing, sat on her haunches and crossed her hooves, fuming.

Fluttershy nodded at Twilight, as if to say “thank you”.

“So…” Pinkie spoke up. For the first time in a while, Twilight had almost forgotten that Pinkie was even among them. “That leaves Rarity and I… but I don’t see anything in common with us, save for the fact that she…” Rarity blushed, while Pinkie tried to find the right words that wouldn’t put Rarity on the spot, even though it was too late. “uhm, pilfered my things?”

“You two seriously don’t see it?” Twilight asked. Twilight didn’t feel like explaining their connection for two reasons. One, she opened her fat mouth and now three of her other friends were either grumpy or upset, and two, her throat was starting to hurt, surprisingly.

“Not really. Besides for the medicine, we don’t have much in common besides the pills.” Rarity admitted. However, a split second later Twilight noticed that Rarity appeared to have a lightbulb go off in her head.

Pinkie was absolutely clueless, so Rarity tried to explain it to her. “Dear… think about it. My addiction, your facade…” Twilight looked over at the rest of her friends. Applejack was still seething on the floor next to her and staring up at the night sky, Rainbow Dash was sniffling wildly, like she was forming a cold, and Fluttershy was still trying to piece everything together.

Pinkie brought a hoof to her chin, before she let a single word slip from her tongue, filling the night air with the cool sense of depression:

“Obsession…”

“Yes, Pinkie.” Twilight added. “Rarity’s obsession with drugs, and rest. Pinkie’s obsession with fitting in, acceptance. It falls into place perfectly. I know now. I know, whoever did this did this it purpose. They want to hurt us, and they want us ourself to do it. Like I said, this was aimed at us.” A few things in Twilight’s head didn’t make sense, such as the fact that Rarity and Twilight’s secrets weren’t like, but Twilight’s secret still shined the first time. Perhaps it was because Rainbow’s wasn’t even discovered at the moment in time by her friends. She didn’t know, but that little snippet of detail wasn’t all too important.

“If they wanted us to hurt ourselves… to break our own friendship…” Rainbow Dash’s voice cracked with almost every word she spoke. She didn’t let a single tear that formed in her eyes fall. “What… what a coward. They want to pick fights, they do it directly! So I can sock them in their stupid mouth!” Rainbow Dash’s chest puffed up, and Twilight wanted to grin.

“Yeah. And then to get the whole town involved? Ruining the lives of everypony in town? Their innocent lives?” asked Rarity.

“Not exactly ‘innocent’.” Applejack grumbled. Fluttershy pretended not to hear, and folded her ears.

“Whoever did this is going to pay.” Rainbow Dash muttered. Twilight’s wish to grin quickly disappeared.

“Whoever did this has some sort of vendetta, by the looks of it.” said Pinkie Pie, her surprisingly eloquent tone of voice never failed to catch Twilight off guard. She pondered how much time Pinkie had actually spent in the library over the years that they’d been friends.

“Yes. That much is true.” Twilight said. “And you know what? I think I know a way to track them down.”

At the sound of that, everypony’s head perked up. Even Applejack. “Girls? We’re going monster hunting.”

Chapter 8: Everypony's Lie

The stench of hopelessness did not falter inside of the library.

Twilight could sense this in a multitude of ways--in the air, in her mind. Just by taking a brief look around could she see how plain it was. The unbridled misery that surrounded her and her friends, like a rainstorm had hung under each and every one of them. Boom. Thunderbolts and freezing, stabbing rain. Yet Twilight found herself outside of the clouds, the storm. She let the gloom make its way around her and whisk itself away with the wind.

Nothing. Nothing was going to bother her anymore. Not her past, not her friends’ pasts and mistakes. She knew, after all, that this was all going to be over soon. She knew what she had to do. There would be no more crying; only wet spots on the floor where their spirits once were. No more regrets and sorrow. No more withered bodies and emotions.

Soon, oh so soon, will Twilight teach them to hold their heads high. “Pride is what will destroy us all, in the end,” Twilight’s mother said, not too long ago. Twilight couldn’t remember what lead to this conversation, but she could hear her mother’s voice clearly. “But there are two kinds of pride: The vanity of boasting about your accomplishments and the things you own. The second being the act of standing up straight, a wide smile on your face, and admitting that you have learned from your experiences.”

She had never completely understood the sincerely of that quote until today.

A new day.

“I don’t understand,” Pinkie said. Twilight noticed that the more she explained, the more confused Pinkie actually became. “What do you mean?”

“What do you think I mean?” After a few milliseconds of contemplation, Twilight changed her tone. “We’re going to find out who did this, that’s what.”

Rainbow Dash, for the umpteeth time in the last thirty minutes, rolled her eyes disbelievingly. For some reason, she held back a crude remark. She had taken to the sky, flying in mid-air over her friends, as if she was some kind of Lieutenant. Her mouth was turned into a large, upside down “U” that didn’t seem like it would be going away anytime soon. Whenever Rainbow Dash heard one of her friends speak, her beating wings would churn faster.

“Darling,” Rarity said cautiously, like she knew what she was about to say wasn’t going to help the situation. “The population of Ponyville is fairly high..” Twilight already knew where she was going with this. She bit the inside of her lip.

“Yeah. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to go door to door interrogating the townsfolk,” Applejack muttered. When another thought crossed her mind, she perked up her ears, wearily, and gave Twilight the slightest of glances. “How do we even know if the culprit even lives in town, anyways?”

Twilight did not let this great point falter her. “Good thought. However, it’s simple,” she said. “That being the case is just highly unlikely. Unless this is some kind of gigantic conspiracy involving more than one pony-”

“Which is entirely possible,” Rarity chirped.

“...Er, right.” Twilight replied. “There is no way somepony outside of the town is responsible for this. Whoever is responsible for this has such a deep, ghastly hatred for Ponyville, as well as the Element’s of Harmony.” Twilight felt like she was some kind of stuttering record. The thought that someone had such a severe distaste for her and her friends jarred her thinking, and she felt a large lump form in her throat.

She had already put into mind a few suspects. A certain Draconequus, Changeling Queen, boisterous showmare, and Crystal King came to mind. But trying to imagine either of them behind something like this just didn’t fit into place like Twilight had hoped it would. Deep in her mind, she knew that they weren’t the cause of this. There was just no possible way. She tried to turn to the dark corners of her head, where she knew the answer would lie. She knew it was there. Hiding, waiting, laughing malevolently while Twilight struggled to reach it. However, it just continued to keep dancing out of her grasp, every time she thought she had gotten a little closer.

Rainbow Dash clapped her hooves together, the noise making a horrible cracking sound that ground against Twilight’s ears. “Lightning Dust!” She grunted. Twilight sighed. “It has to be her! She’s been out to get me ever since that so-called “tornado accident!”

There was an awkward silence, before Fluttershy--the last pony anyone expected to speak what everypony was thinking--opened her mouth. “Rainbow Dash… I-I’m not too sure about that…”

“Are you kidding me? She hates me! Did you see that look in her eye when that lead flyer’s badge was taken for her? She lost her position with our help. There’s no reason why she wouldn’t try and do this!” Rainbow Dash hovered in midair, her mouth upturned in a proud grin. Obviously, her ingenious mind has solved the mystery. The other five didn’t see it as such.

In the end, they all decided to ignore Rainbow’s hopeless and poorly thought out solution. When the mare in question realized this, she stuck out her lower lip and turned her gaze to the ceiling.

Twilight wondered to herself about Rainbow Dash, and what her real motives were. Did she really want to free the town from their sins, or did she just want to be the hero again? Twilight sure hoped not. Perhaps the mare just wanted her secret off her home, and that was all that mattered. Either way, Twilight was positive that her intentions were good. If they weren’t… well, that was just not the Rainbow she knew. If that was the case, then whoever had done this had succeeded. Twilight refused to let it come to that.

“Somepony hates us. Somepony wants us to suffer and pay, and for some reason, they tried to cover up their goal by involving the entire town.” Twilight sighed. Luckily for her, it was practically inaudible. She couldn’t show weakness--sadness. Her mere strength was the only thing she had, as well as her friends. Her brain was too strong to let her down now.

While the six of them talked, Twilight made her way back down the stairs. Getting to her library was her main objective now. Everything she needed to solve this fiasco was down there. Why she had not realized this earlier wasn’t exactly a mystery. Her friends followed absently, walking only so they could continue to hear Twilight’s voice. The voice of truth. The voice of answers and disclosure.

“Well, who?” Rarity asked. She bit the inside of her mouth. “Who did this, Twilight?”

Twilight truthfully didn’t expect the question. She didn’t answer for a moment. She was slightly busy. They had reached the book shelves quickly, and Twilight was scanning them intently. She knew it was in there, and because of it her horn was already aglow. She was lost in two different kinds of senses--her sight and her hearing.

Anyways, when Twilight didn’t answer immediately, Applejack grew inexplicably hostile. “Twi!” she hollered. “We’re waitin’!” Twilight resisted the urge to throw her a dirty glare, unsure of her initial motive. Twilight’s mind was becoming a little fuzzy, as her brain focused in on some of the key books on her shelves. It had to be around there somewhere. Meanwhile, she spoke absentmindedly.

“Whoever did this…” Twilight was speaking slowly, still focused on the books in front of her. “It’s strange. A magical spell like this takes an unhealthy amount of concentration and power. A fog spell, an irremovable paint spell--some kind of deep dark secret revealer spell. It’s very difficult for somepony to do this, as well as carry it out over the course of a day. Whoever did this is drawing a huge amount of magical energy.” Pinkie Pie maneuvered her position so that she was standing directly next to Twilight. The unicorn hadn’t noticed this until the pink mare had already spoken up.

“Do you think the Alicorn Amulet…?” Pinkie didn’t even bother finishing the sentence. Twilight was positive that she didn’t even know how to finish it anyways.

“Definately not. Remember last time a pony had it? Trixie went bonkers. It turns you evil, remember? Somepony who has that much power isn’t going to hide in the shadows.” Twilight’s eyes almost shone like her sin when she found what she was looking for: a large black tome. It was nothing but a dark rectangle. No title, no author. It reeked of ancientry and wisdom in a way that Twilight just couldn’t explain. She hid her inner excitement, even though she wanted to scream like a filly. It didn’t stop her from harboring a monstrous grin. “Somepony is hiding. Who ever did this… I cannot tell if they want to be caught or not. But they will soon. If somepony is hiding, and using that much magical energy, we should be able to trace it.”

For a split second, the room grew absolutely silent. The other five were listening on, frozen in place like a deer in front of a moving carriage. Maybe it was the shock of such an idea. Maybe it was the fear of actually finding the answers that they craved so badly. Fluttershy looked like she was ready to vomit, and sat down in a chair. The other three crowded around Pinkie and Twilight, who were skimming through the large tome already.

“S-so we’ll have t-to go… confront them? Face to face…?” Fluttershy asked, clutching her stomach for dear life. “But they’ve done all this magic… they might be d-dangerous.”

“True, but it’s the only way to make things right.” Twilight turned to the page where the instructions for a rather complicated looking spell were. She looked over to Applejack. “AJ, you know Winona, and her great sense of smell?”

For a moment, Applejack gave the slightest of grins. “Yep, why?”

“The spell works kind of like a dog’s sense of smell would. Whenever magic is used, it creates an invisible link between the magical creature and the object they are touching with their magic. Sort of like how I am holding this book.” She motioned from her horn, to the levitated book in front of them. “I’ve created a link. You just can’t see it. When I do this spell, I’ll be able to see them, and if we just follow the links, we’ll find out exactly where the magic is coming from.”

Rainbow Dash snickered. “Well? What’re ya waiting for! I’m ready to kick some butt!” She threw a hoof in the air, then another, repeatedly--as if she was boxing.

“Are you sure we should do this right now?” Rarity asked. “I still don’t think we’ve solved any of our problems. Specifically, the ones that should be dealt with immediately.” Twilight bit her lip when Rarity motioned towards the pony right next to her--Applejack. The mare in question didn’t hear--and if she did, she obviously didn’t think they were talking about her.

Twilight had been thinking about her, and honestly she didn’t know what to do. Applejack admitted that she didn’t care about Fluttershy and what she had done, when it was obviously a lie. Twilight could tell that Applejack was fuming at Fluttershy. The two haven’t shared eye contact ever since the farm pony read Fluttershy’s secret a few hours ago. Unfortunately, Twilight couldn’t solve that right now. She couldn’t stop everything just to have another sit-down session that wouldn’t work. The last one sure didn’t. The counseling would have to be saved for another better time.

In the end, Twilight ignored Rarity entirely.

“So… this is it?” Pinkie asked. Despite the joyful comment, she bore a creepily large frown. “After this, we’ll know who did it? We’ll know who hates us so badly?” Twilight nodded. Pinkie turned to the floor.

“B-But what are we going to do when we meet the pony that’s responsible?” Rarity asked. The fashionista was starting to confuse Twilight. Didn’t she want the secret wiped off her boutique? Twilight would have imagined that Rarity would be eager to heal her now-broken relationship with her sister. There was probably an underlying reason that Twilight just didn’t know of. Maybe Rarity was just afraid that it wouldn’t work, and it would all be for nothing. In the back of her mind, Twilight wondered if perhaps Rarity slightly felt better after having her secret shared with the town.

“Then we talk to them and sort all of this out. Surely, they know what they’re doing is wrong.” Twilight was getting distracted, and tuned out the other voices so she could concentrate. She focused her mind and soul, her entire being on this one little image in her mind. The picture that she dreamed for, longed for, and wanted to project to the heavens. Twilight closed her eyes. She let it warm and enter her. She needed this. Ponyville needed this.

Acceptance.

Twilight opened her eyes when she was sure that the spell had been properly casted. It was strange, the feeling she had. She felt like her mind was in another reality, and her eyes tingled with discomfort. Her entire vision almost shifted into that of water. Everything that was standing perfectly still in the room--including her friends--would move in a manner that mimicked floating in an ocean with rocking waves. It was suddenly getting increasingly difficult to balance, and she wobbled. To her, the earth below her hooves were moving.

Pinkie Pie caught the off-balance unicorn effortlessly. “Whoa… you okay, Twilight?” Twilight gave a small nod.

Twilight would have preferred to regain her bearing before anything was done. Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash had a different idea. Using her wings to propel her, she flied from one end of the library to the other, and slammed into Pinkie Pie, eager to speak to Twilight now that the spell was clearly casted. Pinkie let out an “oomph!”. “It’s done? Do you see things now? Let’s go already!”

Rainbow stopped when a small “urk” was heard not even two steps away from her. Rainbow’s face turned so red, Applejack could have picked it off one of her trees. She promptly helped Pinkie back to her hooves. Twilight sighed. “Everything looks… weird. But I don’t see anything yet. Probably because whatever’s affecting outside isn’t specifically doing anything in the library… let’s go outside for a second…”

***

Twilight had done this spell once before. Unfortunately, it was on a very small scale. This time was much larger, and understandably more effective. Twilight didn’t know what to think, except that the only way from now on was up. She could feel it, the ending. She knew that the secrets would not be up for much longer as soon as she saw the colors. She needed to end this, and she lusted for it.

The moment Twilight wandered outside, everything was changed. The sky was colored in three very different types of hues and strange lines. It floated and tore across the sky like a demonic rainbow, and Twilight could barely see anything of the decadent night sky. Every house had letters, and two straight lines pointed to each and every one of everyponies secrets. They surrounded the letters, engulfing them in magic. One line was a dark blue that imitated the color of blueberries and violets. The second one was a bright pink, like that of a heart.

There was a huge sunflower-colored dome over all of Ponyville, shrouding Twilight and her friends in an indirect falsification of the sun. It chilled her, and hated her. She hated it back.

Yellow, pink and blue. Unicorns, with magic of this color. Twilight knew now that Rarity was correct. It was more than one pony who did this. In fact, there were three. Three unicorns. It just had to be. The lines all ran off east, towards the edge of town. Twilight’s heart skipped a beat.

“Well? Do ya see anything?” Applejack asked. Evidently, none of Twilight’s friends could see what Twilight was envisioning, and all the colors. They looked upon nothing but an eerily foggy night, complete with despair and embarrassment. Twilight hesitated to answer.

“I… yes…” Why Twilight was skeptical was beyond her. “The magic… all of it… it’s coming from the east side of town, near the edge it seems.”

As the words left Twilight’s lips, it felt like she was giving a silent order into insanity. She felt like she was leading a troop to war, even though this was definately not the case. But how was she supposed to know? She couldn’t read the future, but she could sure worry about it. It brought herself to ask the question “Which is more worrisome? The past or the future?”.

Twilight didn’t say another word. Applejack’s face hardened into that of pure determination and dedication, like she wanted to right the wrongs that have been brought upon her that fateful day, get back at those who wrote the message, rather than who let the secret play out in the first place.

Fluttershy’s face was frozen in fear, a frightened face for a frightened soul. She looked dead set on walking away, leaving, letting her sin broadcast to the rest of Equestria. She was shaking uncontrollably, but somehow, she stood strong.

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. One looked eager for vengeance, the other looked eager for resolution. The game had been the same--but they just went about it different ways. Twilight looked upon them with a frown, and then ultimately a sigh.

She knew what she had to do. “Come on. Let’s go end this, once and for all.” Twilight, not taking another look at her friends, followed the blue and pink lines in the sky. She heard the hoofsteps behind her. This was why Princess Celestia chose her, for her magical ability and her leadership prowess. She kept her face stoic and centered, ready to face what just could be one of her biggest enemies yet. But… nothing would make her happier than to do just that--to fix this.

They strode in absolute silence. The crickets chirped and jumped around as if they were doing the dance of death. The dying grass under their hooves crunched and bent, creating a noise that Twilight Sparkle quickly got annoyed with. Pinkie Pie would fade in and out of reality and hum a small tune every now and then. After ten minutes, she stopped entirely. Twilight could hear her sigh unhappily.

As the group began to reach the outskirts of town, the path widened out. The buildings that occupied Ponyville soon where that of the past. The area opened up to soft patches of grass and a dirt road. The air began to nip at them, like a puppy dog. The colors never seemed to falter, shining just as brightly. The bright pink, the exuberant yellow, the foreignly eerie blue.

Not too far in the outskirts of town, the lines came to a stop at a dinky little log cabin.

The windows were shot, and shards of glass made them look like monsters with missing sharp teeth. The grass surrounding was uncut, and came up to the group’s knees. The roof was covered with holes and missing shingles. There was nothing left from the chimney save for a few bricks scattered here and there. The wood on the cabin itself was dead and rotted, eaten away by various insects over the years. It looked like a horrid place to stay.

“This is the place?” Rarity asked. She stuck out her bottom lip. “Looks like your average fixer-upper, if you ask me…” The fashionista looked almost disturbed at the thought of having to go inside.

“Pffft!” Rainbow hovered in the air, a sick sneer on her face. “Good. At least we don’t have to worry about property damage.”

“Rainbow, quit it.” Twilight had been becoming increasingly annoyed with Rainbow’s threats, and she had just about had enough. The last thing she needed going in there, while trying to have a civil discussion, was Rainbow Dash flying in and trying to throw unnecessary punches. “Yes, this is the place,” she said. Twilight’s horn dimmed, and the effect of the spell washed away. Twilight was almost ecstatic when her vision returned to normal.

“Uhm… W-What’s the plan…?” Fluttershy asked. She was hiding at the back of the group with Pinkie Pie. Of course, that meant Applejack was near the front. The farmer was staring at the log cabin intently, like a predator.

“Why not just go in and talk to them?” Pinkie said. She gave a knowingly glace to Twilight.

“That’s what I was thinking.” Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash specifically when she spoke. “We don’t know who we’re up against. I saw three beams of magic, so three unicorns…” Twilight trailed off a bit when a thought came into her mind. What if they weren’t even unicorns? As much as she wanted to scour her brain for other creatures with abilities like unicorns, she just didn’t have the time for it.

“Well, there’s six of us and three of them,” Rainbow groaned. She crossed her forelegs childishly. “Even if we don’t knock them silly, we’ll still have ‘em outnumbered. Hah!” Rainbow puffed out her chest, as if she had just come up with an ultimate strategy. Twilight had already thought of this, but decided to humor the pegasus and not say anything at all.

“Well, we need to do somethin’,” Applejack added. “Sittin’ here ain’t gonna do any good.”

“But...but…” Fluttershy started. The more everypony spoke, the more the mare shrunk closer and closer to the ground, timidly. At this point, she was lying on her belly.

“Girls. If we want answers, if we want acceptance for what we’ve done, we need to do it right. Whoever did this… they had their reasons. Just like how we had reasons for our secrets. The act doesn’t define the pony, it’s the intention that shines. We need to go in there-” Twilight threw her hoof over in the direction of the cabin not even fifty feet away, “-and act like adults and settle this.”

“Twilight’s right,” Pinkie exclaimed. She took a step forward. “In order to forgive ourselves, we need to forgive whoever it was that did this. Getting angry and hostile won’t solve anything. It’ll only make us feel worse in the end when nothing changes.” Pinkie, for once in her life, gave a genuine smile. One that showed no trace of the old Pinkie that she used to hide behind. The smile was truly hers.

“So what do you say, girls?” Twilight asked. “Let’s go and end this.”

With that, Twilight turned tail. She strutted up to the cabin door in a matter of a few seconds. Almost immediately, all five of her friends were at the door, by her side--through thick and thin. This was what friendship was and meant to her. It meant having your friends and those close to you at those times of suffering and depression. It meant having somepony to have your back in cases of strife. It meant having somepony who cared enough about you to look right past your faults and your past.

This was what Twilight believed when she knocked on the door.

It would have been a really touching moment, had somepony answered the door. Twilight cocked her head, and knocked one more time. Surely, whoever did this couldn’t be serious. Knock, knock.

Another minute passed by. Rainbow Dash was practically doing a dance in anticipation. The lights were on, and there was movement coming from inside. Even still, Pinkie begged to ask, “Do you think anypony’s home?”

Then the door opened. The door was fractured way more that Twilight had thought. It creaked and bent, and almost fell apart in the mares hooves when she pulled open the door. Three sets of eyes stared back at Twilight and her friend. Three ponies. Three unicorns.

Their horns were aglow. One was a mare with a white body and a pink mane. Her horn glowed coral. Her mane was long and curly, and she had a cutie mark consisting of three stars. This mare merely scoffed at the sight of them, and wandered back into the cabin of which she came. The other two stared the six of them down.

One mare was grinning, the mare with the horn that glowed yellow. Her body was that of soap, a light green. Perhaps even a turqoise. Twilight found it hard to decipher considering that the lighting was downright terrible. Her mane was a similar color--maybe a little lighter of a color--with a white streak going down the middle. Her cutie mark was a lyre.

The last mare was the one holding the door open. Her face was contorted into a disgusted grimace. Her mane was two colors: royal blue and white, and her body was the color of the everloving sky. Her cutie mark portrayed some kind of hourglass. For some reason, she stood tall and proud, like she knew exactly what she was doing. Her eyes bored into Twilight’s like a jackhammer.

Twilight had no time to react before Hourglass gave the six of them a quick, toothy grin. As if her attitude had just done a 180. “About time you all show up. We’ve been waiting all day.”

Chapter 9: Everypony's Resolution

There was a sickening chill that overcame Twilight Sparkle, something unimaginably tangent and disturbing. Her veins were bolts of electricity that ran itself up and down her body. Her mind was a battlefield--explosions, impaired senses, pain. It all coursed through her. Her blood had turned to diamonds.

The game had played itself out. The inevitable truth and its ending had reared its ugly head at her. There was absolutely nothing left. It was done. But Twilight didn’t see it that way. In some way, Twilight viewed this as the beginning of something else entirely. Maybe, it was effecting her brain differently, emotionally as well as mentally jarring. Her brain fizzed and spasmed, and she felt a migraine coming on.

These three ponies. Star, Lyre, Hourglass, whoever they were. They hated Twilight and her friends so much that they would destroy the entire town. They wanted their lives to be ruined, and in shambles. They wanted them all to suffer in their own self-guided version of misery and disappointment. They wanted the Elements of Harmony’s friendship to be no more.

“Hourglass” continued to stare at them, her blue eyes boiling over with hidden rage. Twilight only gaped at the mare. She looked familiar--so familiar. She just could not remember her name. It was on the tip of her tongue. “Hourglass” licked her lips, and grinned. “Well? You all just going to stand there?” Her voice was husky, sounding like it should belong to a full grown mare. Fortunately, the mare looked about Twilight age--if not younger.

“Hey, Lyra, look.” The pony with the lyre cutie mark smirked devilishly at her accomplice. “Lyra” then turned her attention back to Twilight and her friends. “Looks like a cat’s got their tongue.”

Lyra chuckled, a sound that made Twilight’s blood turn to ice. Twilight simply stared at her, gears running. Did she ever hear that name before? Why is there some kind of voice in the back of her head shouting at her? Yelling the name over and over again? “I’m sure they wouldn’t just appear at our doorstep for no reason… hmm?” Lyra cast a curious look their way.

“Oh, we have a reason alright…” Twilight heard Rainbow Dash mumble behind her. She heard a small “scrunch” behind her. Twilight sneaked a peek backwards. Rainbow Dash was digging her hooves into the rocky soil underneath them, holding back her uncontrollable anger. She had a horrifyingly large sneer on her face, and her eyes were narrowed and deadly. Pinkie had noticed Rainbow’s shift in temperaments. The pink mare put her foreleg across Rainbow’s chest, like a barrier, as if telling her “please, calm down for now”.

Twilight could tell Rainbow didn’t take joy in heeding Pinkie’s silently given advice. But Twilight watched as her glower disappeared in size. She could still see the veins in Rainbow’s neck protrude, and her wings flex every now and then. Should the time call for it, Rainbow was ready to pounce.

Was Rainbow’s attitude justified? Twilight didn’t know, but she was pretty sure so far. Rainbow, as well as the rest of her friends, had their secret exposed to practically everyone in town. The pegasus was surely emotionally and mentally corrupted and frazzled. And, given Rainbow’s natural sense of loyalty that earned her a spot in the Elements of Harmony in the first place, she would do anything she could to protect her friends. This being one of those times--and when Twilight took this into consideration, she was almost surprised that Rainbow Dash didn’t fully snap.

“You.” Applejack’s voice cut through the air like a butcher knife. She spoke carefully and powerfully. “You’re the ones who did this.” Applejack was unusually calm and collected, which almost frightened Twilight. Her placid voice and her indifferent looking eyes must have struck a nerve with Lyra and “Hourglass”.

“Excuse me?” “Hourglass” put a hoof on her chest innocently, and meagerly shook her head. The tiniest of smiles was apparent on her lips. Her voice was littered with sarcasm. “We have no idea what you’re talking about.” “Hourglass” stuck her head out the door for a brief second, and looked around. She got almost uncomfortably close to Twilight’s face. She was sure that that was on purpose. “Wow, sure is foggy out here.”

Twilight’s eye twitched. Rainbow Dash huffed from behind her. Rarity and Fluttershy looked at Twilight, and then back to the two mares at the door. “I… we know. May we come in? I think we need to have a chat.”

Lyra looked at the mare with the hourglass cutie mark, before the former shrugged. The hourglass mare stared at Lyra for a short second. Lyra grabbed the edge of the door, and started to allow the six to enter the rinky-dink cabin. That was before “Hourglass” planted a hoof on the door, creating a loud “clang”. Apparently, Lyra had read “Hourglass” incorrectly. “Wait a second,” she said. Her smile quickly shifted to a frown. “Why should we let you in? We don’t just let random strangers into our house.” Lyra looked like she wanted to hold back a snigger.

“Please!” Rainbow Dash exploded. Twilight was almost hoping that the three mares wouldn’t prod and instigate her, but it appeared that her wishes were short lived. “We know it was you that did this!” “Hourglass” rolled her eyes.

“Rainbow, please…” Pinkie begged. Rainbow Dash took one look into Pinkie’s pleading eyes, and let out a soft sigh.

“We need to talk. You know who we are. It’ll be over before you know it.” Twilight didn’t smile, nor did she frown. She tried to act as mature as possible, and as if she was reasoning with criminals--weapons drawn and aiming at her--threatening to strike at any moment.

Lyra exhaled sharply, and gave “Hourglass” a mocking stare, as if she was silently telling her friend, “Are these mares serious?”. Twilight’s eye twitched again. Lyra viewed them as nothing more than a gigantic joke, it seemed. “Hourglass” as well. At least, that was what Twilight felt. The resentment in their voices, and the rudeness in their body language tipped her off. Something wasn’t right with them. Somehow,Twilight could just feel the hatred resonating off of them. It made Twilight’s heart hurt just thinking about it.

“Hourglass” looked at each and every single one of the Elements of Harmony, and then gave a disrespectful grunt. “Well, I guess.” Lyra chuckled, as if her response was a riot. Twilight nodded their direction as Lyra and “Hourglass” moved out of the way of the entrance. Twilight, being at the front of the group, wandered inside. Pinkie would have been the second pony to enter when Lyra held out a hoof, keeping her outside.

“Hey…” Pinkie whined. “Hourglass” coughed.

“Uhm, no,” replied “Hourglass”. Lyra was about three inches taller than “Hourglass”, but she was still acting like some kind of bodyguard. Twilight felt confused, and tricked for some reason. “Just Twilight. Sorry, but you all gotta wait outside.”

“Pardon me?” Applejack replied. Her inner anger finally starting to show through after umpteeth hours of supreme tranquility.

“No way!” Rainbow shouted, disregarding Pinkie entirely and almost shoving her aside to get closer to the door. When she reached it, however, she stood at the entrance. “You’re letting us in! All of us! I’ll… I’ll force myself in if I have to!” Rainbow Dash shot the two mares a look that could have killed. The two didn’t seem fazed in the slightest.

“Yeah! Ain’t no way we’re gonna let Twilight go in there by herself! You messed with all of us, ‘member?” Applejack replied. Applejack nodded at Twilight, as if she was saying: “Don’t worry, ah got your back”.

“Yeah, no.” Lyra said, waving as the five stood dumbstruck outside the doorway. “Sorry. Buh-bye.” Lyra tried to slam the door, but Rainbow held out a hoof. Twilight cringed.

“Dearies, please let us in,” Rarity pleaded. “We won’t cause trouble. We promise. Right, girls?” Rarity looked specifically towards Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who were still seething. They didn’t appear to be acknowledging Rarity. “Hourglass” and Lyra only gave the five of them bored, half-lidded stares.

“I’ll be fine, girls,” Twilight replied. She was sure that if she didn’t intervene, Rainbow or Applejack would say something that’d ruin their chances for peace for good. “I’ll be in and out in a jiffy. Trust me.”

The remaining members of the Elements of Harmony frowned in very different ways. By this point, Fluttershy was in the back of the pack, looking as if she was about to bolt. Even still, she appeared pretty leery about the entire situation. Rainbow only gritted her teeth. She punched her hooves together. “Well… gah! Fine. But as soon as we think something’s starting to go wrong, we’ll be bustin’ down that door.” She gave the other two mares a dreadful look. Applejack grinned herself.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” replied Lyra. Rainbow gave her a completely appalled look, before turning back to Twilight. Pinkie Pie, surprisingly, was the one that opened her mouth.

“We believe in you, Twilight. We love y-”

The door slammed shut. The wind from the motion rushed past Twilight like the stray wind from a tornado. It watered her eyes, but Twilight wasn’t sure if it was because of the door. Twilight’s heart began to beat a little faster. To her chagrin, Lyra immediately took out a large piece of chain, and a lock. She got to work closing the door for good. Since her horn was still aglow and at work because of the spell, she was forced to use her hooves.

Twilight’s friends had faith in her. That was all that mattered to her. Her friends knew, deep down, that Twilight was absolutely capable of reasoning with the three mares by herself. Was that the reason why? Did they remain outside simply to improve their chances of getting the spells undone? Did they remain outside because they knew it would have been a smart decision? Did they remain outside because they thought that, if all six of them went inside, nothing good would come out of it? Perhaps Pinkie and Rarity figured that if Applejack and Rainbow went inside, nothing would get solved. Deep inside, Twilight knew the answer lingered.

Twilight turned back to the middle of the cabin. She was met by the disapproving, and rather intimidating, eyes of three mares. “Star”, the white bodied mare with three stars for a cutie mark, was sitting upon a single bed to the right of the door--near a broken window. It was nothing more than a dirty mattress, and a worn yellow blanket covered in stains of varying colors. The entire cabin was that of a single room, save for a single door that must have lead off to a bathroom. In the northeast corner of the room, was a refrigerator and sink with a mirror. The mirror was smudged, and the refrigerator was left open. It must’ve not been running. There was no food inside.

In the middle of the room, was a round rug the color of lilies. At least, it was. Now, it was very dirty and covered in different substances and crumbs. There was a cracked television screen in the southwest corner of the room, and a rotted wooden chair in front of it. The room itself stank of mildew and dirt. Personal belongings riddled the floor. Twilight hoped that the three mares didn’t actually live there. It looked like an absolutely horrid place to live on first glance.

Lyra had finished locking the door, and had wandered to the other side of the room next to “Hourglass”. Everypony was shooting Twilight a look of pure detestment. Twilight felt herself wanting to redden.

For a few moments, nopony said anything. Twilight could almost hear the gears turning in the other three mares’ minds, as if they were secretly plotting what to do with her. Twilight swallowed her nervousness. However, she waited. She waited for the other ponies to explain themselves. They knew full well what they did. Twilight knew. They were caught.

A full minute passed by, before “Star” opened her mouth. “You gonna say anything?” she asked, boredly. She yawned on her bed, and lied on her belly.

“Excuse me?” Twilight said, automatically. She shot the other mares a look of amazement. They, were questioning her?

“You decided to knock on our door. Now what do you want?” Lyra replied. Twilight, to say the least, wasn’t expecting this. Her train of thought was thrown off entirely. She faltered.

“I--uh--I’m here to talk a-” Twilight was cut off by a raucous bout of laughter coming from Lyra.

“Minuette, are you hearing this?” Lyra asked, pointing a hoof at the lavender unicorn. Twilight’s mouth was open in sheer astonishment. For some reason, a little bit more heat decided to settle in her cheeks. “She knocks on our door with her posse, and when she gets what she wants, she babbles like an idiot.” Twilight regained her posture at the sound of this, straightening her back and projecting her voice.

“Excuse me!” she almost yelled. “I am not an idiot.” Lyra rolled her eyes, as if she was simply pardoning a joke that she never wanted to hear in the first place. “And you know why I’m here. Let’s not try and beat around the bush. The least we can do is act like adults here instead of calling names…”

Twilight couldn’t take her mind off the pony named Minuette, the pony with the hourglass cutie mark. Why was that name so familiar? That cutie mark? That voice? Twilight just couldn’t place a time or situation where she remembered these two mares. Twilight wasn’t even sure of the real name of “Star”, but even if she did, she knew she’d have no idea of who she was anyways. Twilight was completely in the dark. It didn’t help the situation.

“Twilight, we know what you’re trying to do.” Minuette shot Twilight an empty gaze. Her eyes were almost glossed over, as if Minuette was thinking about something else as she spoke. “And I’m going to tell you right now. Stop it. We don’t care.”

Twilight’s heart froze. Her eyes widened at the sudden crude remark, and she suddenly knew that there was no way that this was going to end well. Twilight wondered how long it would take for her friends to break the door down, should it get worse. What did she do? Twilight didn’t know. What did she do to make these mares hate her so much? Twilight had enemies, sure. But… none that hated her on a scale like this.

“Lemme guess,” Lyra interjected. She stuck her nose in the air. “You did a Magic-Tracker spell in order to find us, right?” Lyra gave Twilight a smug smile, one that almost made Twilight shiver. Twilight didn’t need to explain that Lyra was, indeed, correct. She needed to get a hold of herself, quick. She needed to hold her head high, and take control of the situation.

“That doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t. We know what you did. We know that you’re the ones that turned Ponyville into a warzone.” Twilight returned their glares with one of her own. The moment she locked eyes with Lyra, the mare turned to look at “Star”, almost awkwardly.

“Warzone? Nah.” Every syllable that dripped out of Minuette’s voice was like that of poison--threatening to intoxicate and render Twilight immobile. “We didn’t do that.”

“Are you kidding? So you’re saying you're not responsible for what’s going on?” Twilight refused to believe this. It was them. No way in Tartarus it wasn’t. Twilight had the nagging feeling that, for some reason, she was to blame.

“No,” Minuette replied. “That was us.” She pointed her her horn, which was still glowing a bright blue, the color of her eyes and coat. “As a matter of fact, we’re still doing it. Can’t believe it took you schmucks almost fourteen hours to figure that out.”

Twilight had to hold herself back, had to keep herself from getting angry. Meanwhile, “Star” was looking like she was about to burst out laughing. Twilight wasn’t sure if it was because of the face she was making, or not. Nevertheless, she frowned.

She was right. Twilight was right. These three were responsible for this. These three were responsible for making her friends cry. For almost ruining what they had, their ultimate friendship. For causing some ponies to burn down their homes. For absolutely destroying the mental state of those in Ponyville. For posting her darkest secret on the front of the library. Spike will never think of her the same way again. Rarity will never truly regain her sister. Applejack will always resent Fluttershy for what she did.

Here she was, in front of the ponies who caused it all. She couldn’t form a word.

“I mean, it’s not like we hid our tracks well. We actually made it pretty easy to find us. Kind of a shame, really. We’ve been running ourselves ragged, keeping these spells going for this long. We’ve had to switch off countless times, really. We expected to be found after a few hours. But a whole day? I’m kind of shocked, Twilight Sparkle.” Minuette said Twilight’s name as if it was a mockery.

Twilight didn’t know what to say, except for one thing. “W-Why? Why would you do this?” Her voice was surprisingly kind and serene, but that was only because she was desperate and pleading. She needed answers. Nothing made sense. She wanted her life back to the way it was not even twenty-four hours ago. She wanted her friends to have their lives back.

“Why?” “Star” suddenly repeated. Her words held so much contained anger that it was almost hurtful to hear. Apparently, Twilight had asked the wrong right question. “Why?! You really don’t know why we did this Twilight Sparkle?” All of a sudden, “Star” was off the bed, and standing not even two inches from Twilight’s face. She was heaving breaths, holding back an innermost rage that kept itself inside of her. Twilight moved back a ways, but “Star” was still there in front of here. “You dare ask us? Who in Tartarus do you thin-”

“Twinkleshine, chill for a second,” Minuette replied. “Let’s see what she knows first.” Twinkleshine grumbled to herself, and switched glances between Minuette and Twilight Sparkle. It was as if she was debating listening to her friend, and clocking Twilight with a clenched hoof. After ten more seconds of silent mental arguing, she took a seat back on the dirty bed, cursing to herself quietly.

What she knew? Twilight couldn’t get it out of her head. What did they mean by that?

Another awkward few seconds passed by, before Minuette opened her mouth again. “So, it’s true. You really don’t know why we did this, hmm? Why we revealed your secret, your friends’ secrets, the town’s secrets? Why we decided to do everything we did? Who we are, even? You have absolutely no idea?”

Twilight, as of now, knew their names. Lyra was the green pony with the lyre cutie mark. Twinkleshine was the bad-tempered mare on the bed. Minuette appeared to be in charge, standing before her with a hourglass for a cutie mark. Unfortunately, she just didn’t know who they were. They did seem familiar. Twilight had a hunch that she knew them from somewhere. It killed her inside to shake her head.

Twinkleshine groaned, loudly. “Here we go…” Lyra and Twinkleshine almost appeared amused by her reply. Minuette only grinned.

“Here’s the deal, Twilight Sparkle. We’re going to leave up your secret--everypony’s secrets. We’re going to leave them up for as long as necessary until you remember just who in Celestia’s name we are,” said Minuette. Twilight turned to Lyra, who was now sitting in the creaky wooden chair by the television, and Twinkleshine. Both mares were glaring daggers.

“Girls, I’m sorry, but I really cannot remember. Maybe we-”

“Think. Now,” Twinkleshine spat. Twilight sighed sadly.

She thought in her mind. She needed to remember. Twilight knew, deep in the recesses of her mind, that the answer lurked and lingered. Somewhere back there, the answer was hiding. Twilight felt as if she was holding but a mere butterfly net, but trying to catch a bird flying a hundred feet above her. The thinking game was one that Twilight had mastered. The reality game, Twilight was leery about.

Who were these mares? Lyra. Minuette. Twinkleshine. Twilight kept repeating those names to herself. Over, and over, and over, and over. Why didn’t they click? Why did the names seem so foreign to her, yet again feel so near and dear to her? She thought about their faces, their bodies, their gestures, everything about them that she had learned in the last few minutes that could possibly tie her, and these three mares together.

The pressure was on. She needed to come up with an answer quickly. If she replied incorrectly, she wasn’t sure what the consequences would be. She needed to think long and hard, and answer accordingly. She thought about everything. She thought about everything in Twilight’s life leading to this.

Who was Minuette?

Who was Lyra?

Who was Twinkleshine?

And when, while thinking those three questions to herself, did she come up with a completely plausible answer. She looked up from her gaze towards the floor, and let the soft words come flowing forth. “The wedding.”

“Excuse me? I didn’t quite hear you,” replied Twinkleshine, who was sitting no more than two feet away from Twilight Sparkle.

“The wedding,” Twilight said, louder this time. “I remember you three. The wedding. You were the bridesmaids for my brothers wedding.”

“Yes… and?” Minuette pushed. Twilight wasn’t sure what else to say. Therefore, she gave the wrong answer right after her correct one.

“And… you… you attacked me. You attacked Cadence and I in that cave.” Twilight felt just a little bit sick as the words made themselves noticeable. She felt just a little bit self-conscious as soon as the mares stopped cold. They simply stared at Twilight, dumbfounded and jaw’s dropped.

“What?” Lyra was the mare to break the silence. She put a hoof to her ear, and rubbed it. “Did I just hear her right?”

Minuette nodded. “You know what, I think you did. I don’t think she’s kidding either.” Twilight immediately regretted what she had said, and wished she could have taken it back, and tried a different answer.

“She had better be,” piped Twinkleshine. She was kneading her hooves, keeping them busy.

“That’s how you view it, Twilight?” Minuette replied. She was squinting her eyes, as if she just could not believe the words that came out of the lavender unicorns mouth. Twilight refused to back down, or remain passive.

“What do you mean? Of course that’s how I view it. How could I have not known sooner? You three were under Chysalis’ mind control last year during the wedding, and tried to keep Cadence and I in those caves forever. Is that it? Is that why you did all of this?”

Another silence.

“Twilight… if you know what’s good for you, just stop talking. You’re digging yourself into a deeper hole.” Minuette sighed, and turned to the two other mares. “What did I tell you both? I knew she wouldn’t remember. And if she did, she’d have this whole one sided view of it.”

“Huh?” Twilight couldn’t believe it. That had to be the reason! Twilight didn’t know those three from anywhere else. The answer lied somewhere in the wedding. She knew it.

“Don’t play dumb,” shot Lyra. “That’s not the reason. Though, I’m still peeved about it.” She crossed her forelegs. Twilight’s mind was beginning to wane. Nothing was making sense to her, anymore.

“You… you’re mad at me… and watched as this town went to ruins… because I defended myself and Equestria? And Cadence? From Changelings? The three of you tried to ruin my friendship and the lives of everypony in Ponyville because of that?”

“Are you deaf?” Minuette insulted. “We just said that was not the reason.” Twinkleshine stood back up, and began to scream at the top of her lungs.

“It’s not the main reason! It’s just another reason why we hate your guts, Twilight Sparkle!” Twilight’s mouth parted. Her mouth was dry, and it felt like she had gargled sand. “We couldn’t help it that Chysalis used us! She took over our bodies! Messed with our minds, dammit!” She picked up a horseshoe from the floor, and whirled it in a fit of rage. It missed Twilight’s head by three inches, and smashed into the television. Glass shattered and hit the floor, and the machine itself sparked dangerously.

“Twinkle, we needed that…” Twilight heard Lyra groan.

Twinkleshine didn’t appear to listen. She was in the zone, Twilight could tell. Twinkleshine’s main focus was her. “We couldn’t do a thing about it! Do you know how much that wedding meant to us? Did you know that Cadence was not only your babysitter, but Minuette’s good friend? Did you know that you and your friends were taking our place as bridesmaids? I bet you were crying with joy, watching them get married, huh?”

Twilight didn’t know what to say. She stayed absolutely silent.

“Did you know that we were locked in that cavern for about three days? No food, no water, nothing to keep us warm but dirty white dresses that we never even got to use? Knowing full well that nopony would ever know that you’ve disappeared, and are begging for salvation two hundred feet under the ground where nopony can hear your cries for help? Did you know that you almost got us killed that day, Twilight? And you have the guts to sit here and say ‘I don’t remember you’.” With this, with the end of her rant having come and gone, she simply stopped speaking. She held a hoof to her probably aching throat, and sat back down on the bed. She was grumbling.

Twilight couldn’t believe it. She just couldn’t believe it. Twilight hadn’t thought about her battle with Chrysalis in a long time. In fact, she had forgotten about it entirely. So much had happened since then. She hadn’t stopped to think about what had happened to the three after she had escaped the cavern. She remembered. She was so worried about stopping the wedding, and getting the real Cadence back to the altar that she had completely forgotten. Twilight didn’t feel like being unpassive anymore.

“I… I’m so sorry.... I never thought about it. I never stopped to think about where you ponies were, and how I’d have been taking a bridesmaid position that was already filled.” She turned to cast a sad gaze upon Minuette. “I didn’t know you were Cadence’s friend.”

Twinkleshine huffed, and looked away. Lyra looked at Minuette. Minuette shrugged indifferently. “That’s all fine and dandy. We don’t accept your apology. Mainly because that’s not the main reason why we resent you. I’m pretty sure that I’ve said this about three times, now.”

Twilight’s brain threatened to stop entirely. That… wasn’t the main reason why she was hated? Why her friends were hated? Why? The three of them had almost died, but there was a deeper reason as to why they did this? What could be more harsher than death? Almost dying on account of somepony else? Twilight knew that there was no way she’d guess correctly. She just didn’t know.

“I don’t know the real reason,” Twilight said honestly. “If I did, I would have said it. Please tell me. I want to make this right. Ponies are still suffering outside, suffering because of their secrets.”

There was another pause. Lyra and Twinkleshine only stared at Minuette, as if the three were having a small conversation with their eyes. Twinkleshine was the mare who seemed most against what Minuette wanted to do, shaking her head every so often. Lyra appeared indifferent. In the end, Minuette sided with Lyra. “Think back, Twilight. Who are we? Think back to two years ago.”

Twilight only stood there, in awe. For a moment, she hesitated. “Come on, Ms. Element-of-Magic. We know you can do it,” Lyra egged on mockingly.

Who were they? Why… why couldn’t she remember? Twilight was starting to get irritated--started feeling the sweat trickle down her forehead as time went on. Her brain was beginning to hurt, and she felt a migraine slowly starting to form deep inside her mind. Everything must fit into place somewhere. She must know. She cannot risk it to not know. Her brain had never betrayed her before. Why was it starting now.

“Think. Two years ago. Think!” Minuette’s voice was slowly growing is volume. It didn’t not help her think. It took her a second to find her train of her thought? Two years ago. What happened two years ago? Two years ago, she was milling about Ponyville, making friends. She was reading with Spike in her library. She was studying. She was just meeting Trixie. She was putting an end to Nightmare Moon. She was just meeting her new friends, and the future Elements of Harmony. She was just moving into the library, itself. She was…

Twilight stopped. She knew. She was sure that she knew the three from somewhere before. And now, that she was saying the three words out loud, she felt like the worst pony to ever walk Equestria.

“You...three were my friends. You three were my friends all those years ago.”

A small grin creeped across Minuette’s face. Lyra absentmindedly stared at Twilight, yet into space. Twinkleshine was glaring at her, a look of pure hatred masked her face. Twilight felt so horrible. She remembered why she knew them, now.

“Took you long enough,” Minuette said. A smile was abhorrent, but her eyes showed a slight kindness. “Do you understand, Twilight? Do you understand why we hate you now?”

“I left you, back in Canterlot. All of you. I left you all for my new friends here in Ponyville.”

Twinkleshine opened her mouth, something Twilight hoped wouldn’t happen. “Yes, you did. You were a real jerk to us, Twilight, you know that?”

“Always had a head in a book, Twilight,” Minuette said.

“Always picking your books before us. Ponies who actually thought of you as a friend, Twilight,” Lyra croaked.

“Always disregarding our feelings, Twilight,” Twinkleshine seethed.

Twilight felt sick to her stomach again. On top of that, she felt absolutely horrible. She turned towards the floor, unable to look her former friends in the eyes. “We invited you to a party the same day you disappeared. You turned us down, for what? To read a book by yourself. You didn’t even stick around to tell you whose party it was,” said Minuette.

“You didn’t do anything. We wanted to be your friend. We wanted to hang out with you. But you just wouldn’t… do anything. You just read books all the time. You disregarded how we felt.” Twinkleshine scooted towards the edge of the bed, and leaned over. “Do you know how it felt, Twilight, to have somepony you considered a friend completely ignore you. Now imagine that this same pony moves the very same day, only to make a bunch of brand new--cooler, friends someplace else? Were we not good enough for you, Twilight?”

“No!” Twilight interjected the moment she saw an opportunity. “You three were great friends. I… didn’t appreciate you as much as I should have. I went to Ponyville to learn the Magic of Friendship, and… I made friends while doing so. I’m sorry that I acted that way…”

“You’re sorry?” Twinkleshine exasperated. “That’s all you have to say? You ditch us for new friends, you ignore us entirely, you almost kill us...the list goes on and on! And all you have to say is… ‘I’m sorry’?”

Twilight was holding back tears. “Why the town… why everypony else? Why not just me?” Behind Twilight, the door shook and rattled. Perhaps Twilight’s friends--more specifically Rainbow Dash--had started to become impatient. It wouldn’t be long before the girls assumed something was wrong. She’d already been inside for about ten minutes. For them, it must seem like an eternity.

“Did you know, Twilight, that after we escaped from the caves, we thirsted for revenge. You know how you left you old library completely open and uninhabited? We used it. We took full advantage of your generosity.” Lyra’s eyes were bloodshot, as if she were digging through repressed memories. “We read, and read, and studied--just like you.”

“We read and plotted ways to get back at you. You needed to learn another lesson in friendship,” Minuette explained. “We learned so many wonderful spells! We learned and practiced them! We learned how to make fog! We learned how to uncover secrets! We learned how to make magical paint! We learned how to perform and share monstrously large spells, over a large area, and still have a bit of energy left over. We did our research.”

“We were gonna getcha, Twilight,” Twinkleshine whispered, creepily. “But then we stopped. We thought to ourselves. Maybe we should wait a minute. Maybe, it wasn’t all worth it. Perhaps, if we went to Ponyville, we’d figure out what the big deal was. We’d realize that there was no need to do all this, and that we could be friends there instead of Canterlot.”

“Wait…” Twilight stopped her. Too much information, even for her, to process. “You all live here?”

“Yes,” Minuette replied. She said it in a way that told Twilight that she really wasn’t surprised by that question. “We’ve been living here for six months. We’ve been wandering around town for that long, watching you. Watching your friends. Taking note of every single thing that you did. I even took up a job here. I’m a dentist, you know. Do you even know how rudely I’m treated here? As an orthodontist?”

Twinkleshine just shook her head, as if she didn’t even want to get started explaining her troubles. Lyra spoke up instead. “I’m flat broke. Wanna know why? Because I spent my entire savings paying bills and moving down here so that maybe, we could rekindle our friendship.”

There was nothing Twilight could say anymore. She couldn’t even bring herself to say sorry. All she felt like doing was breaking down. She didn’t know if she could live with what she had done to these three mares. She inadvertently ruined their lives, simply because they wanted to be her friends. She had paid them no mind, and it had come with terrible consequences. They’d even been living in the same town as her, suffering, and Twilight didn’t even have the gall to realize. She felt so bad, and at the same time, she wanted to make it right.

“What can I do… how can I make this right?” she asked. There were tears in her eyes. That must’ve been the question that Twinkleshine was waiting for. A malicious grin spread across her face. Lyra and Minuette shared a grand smirk. Twilight felt outnumbered--bullied and hurt. She felt like she was back on the playground, forced to confront the children who didn’t like her.

“We’re going to give you one opportunity. We have a proposition for you.” Twilight’s ears perked up, and she flicked her tail in anticipation. Twilight both dreaded, and couldn’t wait to hear it. She wanted to make everything right. She wanted the secrets down. She wanted to appreciate her old friends for who they were. She wanted everything back to normal, for the most part.

“What? What can I do?”

“Ditch your friends, Twilight,” Twinkleshine murmured malevolently. “Ditch them, and be our friends instead.”

Twilight’s hopeful attitude shifted once again into one of absolute depression. “I… I can’t do that! I can’t just leave them-” Lyra cut her off, and Twilight had immediately realized her horrible word choice.

“You can’t? You can’t just ditch them? Weird. It appears that that’s exactly what you did to us? Why is it so hard to ditch us, but not them?” Lyra’s eyes widened as she spoke, only unnerving Twilight a little bit more. Was she talking to insanity?

“I… no… no, I can’t do that!” Another jiggle of the door handle. Twilight didn’t have much time. “No way. I’m not ditching my friends. Not for you.”

“Excuse us?” Minuette said. She pointed to her horn. “Either be our friend, or we make this spell permanent. It’s your choice.” Twilight was growing dizzy. She needed to sit down. Her head was spinning so fast, it felt like she was on an amusement park ride. She knew of the risk she was taking. She knew of what this might mean for Ponyville. But there was no way.

“My friends mean everything to me. They’re my rock, my salvation when I have a problem or need a helping hoof. They are always at my back when I need them. You… you’re not my friends. You never were. You just wanted me to attend parties and small get togethers. That’s not what friendship is. Friendship isn’t forced, it’s grown. You can’t make me be your friend, especially after being threatened this way. Especially after ruining the lives of innocent ponies in town. Especially after ruining my friends’ lives. You three did a horrid thing. Why would I be your friend?”

Silence.

“I’m sorry for the way I treat you. I’m sorry I almost got you killed and ditched you for another group of friends. But you know what? It helped me learn. I learned so much. And I just want to thank you. My secret is out into the open, and I feel brand new. I honestly feel like you may have helped us, instead of hurt us. You’ve helped us all learn what needed change about who we are. So, keep the secrets up if you wish. I will never be friends with mares that intentionally try to hurt others, whether you succeeded or not.”

More silence. Minuette, Lyra, and Twinkleshine only stared at her. One pony in amazement, the other with pure hatred, the other with indifference in her eyes. Twilight wasn’t sure what to think. She wasn’t sure about anything. She was sure that she had spoke the truth, and she sure wasn’t going to change her mind. It was all said and done. In a matter of a few moments, Minuette’s horn stopped glowing, ending her part of the spell that was being cast all over town. Seconds later, Lyra’s horn stopped. Twinkleshine’s horn dimmed soon after, though she wasn’t happy about it.

“You’re going to regret this, Twilight Sparkle.” Minuette flashed her a malignant grin. “You’re going to regret this, so bad. Soon, when this game ends, you’ll know just what pain truly is.”

It was at that moment the police burst through the door.

Author's Note

There is one more chapter left. Don't beat the shit out of me, yet.

Please, calm down and wait. Can already see where this is headed.

Thank you.

-Cyneryk

Chapter 2: Rarity's Secret

Fluttershy squeaked at Twilight’s sudden outburst. She inspected her friend, only to see that same look on her face that only made Fluttershy nervous. Her head was held high, like she was ready to overcome yet another kingdom at the drop of a hat. She stared deep into the fog as if it were her worst mortal enemy. Twilight was determined to prevail over yet another obstacle in her life, and Fluttershy could not help but to admire her grit.

Fluttershy got shivers, and she was halfway sure that it was because of the cool mist that surrounded them. Inside, something was swirling around -- like a leaf through water. She stared back at the emptiness of Twilight’s library, and then back to her. Was it really that easy? she wondered. She let out another sigh. Once again, the words printed on her own cottage came back to haunt her. She knew sooner or later somepony would come by and read it. She could only try and hold it off for so long.

“I… I’m not too sure about this,” Fluttershy murmured. Twilight turned back towards her with a single, swishing motion. Fluttershy subconsciously flicked her tail.

“Wait, what? Why not?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy suddenly felt her body grow a little heavier. She had been resisting the urge to faint ever since this morning, but the silent wish was slowly trying to persuade her as time went on.

“Well… in order to do that… we’d have to… uh, read our friends secrets…” Fluttershy trailed off so much that it took Twilight a moment to realize just what the pegasus had actually said. She caught herself and refrained from asking her to repeat herself. Twilight took one examination of Fluttershy to know that she had not been thinking in the clear. “I’m not sure if I feel comfortable.”

“You’re right… that just might not be something that we’d want to do. But Fluttershy, you have to understand that if we don’t, the paint will not come off. If one of our friends denies or lies about their secret to another pony, then they risk the whole town seeing what they don’t want out into the open. We’re not reading secrets for personal satisfaction. We’re going to try and right the wrong that somepony in this town did.” Fluttershy looked down at the ground again, majority of her face hiding behind her mane.

Internally, Fluttershy was having a mini-heart attack. She did not judge others at all, even when she read Twilight’s secret. She was surprised more than anything. But she knew that if even one of her friends read her secret, the feelings would not be mutual.

“Who would do something like this?”

Twilight took Fluttershys change of subject as a subtle acceptance. She turned back towards the fog and began to somberly trot. Fluttershy reluctantly followed suit. Twilight would have moved faster, but she deemed that a bad idea after realizing that she could easily run into somepony if she was not careful. “I have no clue. Perhaps a certain God of Chaos thought that this would be a funny prank?” Twilight raised a single eyebrow, and Fluttershy put a hoof on her chest in realization.

“Discord may have been bad before, but he’s changed now. There is no way that he’d do something like this.” Fluttershy said in rebuttal.

Twilight bit the inside of her lip. Fluttershy had a point. Besides, Discord and Fluttershy were very good friends. It was very unlikely that he would do something to hurt her like that, much less her friends. Twilight had silently decided to walk towards Carousel Boutique first, considering that it was the closest of her friends’ houses.

They walked in a deafening silence after that, however that was for a multitude of reasons. Twilight and Fluttershy had been quietly staring at the beacons of words that had been shining through the fog. Even though the mist had cut their visibility, they could still see the damage that was being caused.

About halfway to the Carousel Boutique, the passed a bright pink house. Everything about it was normal, except for the writing on it. Outside, a bright yellow stallion and a magenta mare were fiercely arguing and screaming at each other. They threw their hooves in the air, and looked like they were seconds away from throwing punches. Fluttershy squeaked yet again in dismay as she read the words on the house behind the duo:

I DRINK MY PROBLEMS AWAY. GUESS WHAT HAPPENED WHEN I WAS PREGNANT

The stallion was absolutely furious, but the mare also had a reason to be angry. The mare’s words were written on the roof, while the stallion’s were written on the doors and windows:

I HAVE MADE A SILENT PACT WITH MYSELF THAT I WILL VERBALLY ABUSE MY FOAL

Fluttershy cringed as she read both of their secrets. She wanted to motion to Twilight. She wanted to help them resolve their problems so much, but she could not bring herself to do it. For some reason, she almost wanted to stay out of it. She did her best not to judge, and she was doing a fairly good job at it. However, she knew that mare. Fluttershy saw her around town pretty often buying berries and grapes. She just found it difficult to believe what she was reading was true. It did not take long for her to notice that she was being a gigantic hypocrite after remembering what she had told Twilight earlier. She quickly turned away.

Twilight was not looking in that general direction, and she had somehow managed not to hear the estranged yelling. She had been trying to ignore all those floating red words that surrounded her peripheral vision. She tried not to think about the pain and humiliation that her other friends were feeling. But she knew that they were all going to be shared at one point or another. She just hoped Rarity would understand.

Twilight had memorized the route from her library to the boutique so well that the fog did not hinder her trip. It had taken a mere ten minutes, tops. Twilight had honestly not been paying attention to time. “Rarity?” Twilight called as she slowly approached the boutique. The familiar feeling of the stones that lead up to the establishment hinted that the two were no more than fifty feet away. Fluttershy took notice that the fog seemed to be a little more dense in this area compared to that around the library. “Rarity, are you there?”

“Please, no!” A lightly accented voice called through the air, causing Fluttershy and Twilight to stop in their tracks. “Please don’t come any closer!”

“Rarity, it’s me! Something weird is going on!”

The same voice uttered a response from the fog. “Darling, I think that’s already been established!” Twilight turned to Fluttershy, who simply shrugged.

“Rarity, we need to talk to you! We have a way to fix this!” Twilight yelled back. She could honestly hear the shake of Rarity’s mane.

“I… I refuse! Don’t come any closer! Come back later when I get this blasted paint off my boutique!” Rarity replied. Twilight could hear a soft squish coming from further down the path, followed by a sorrowful grunt. “Sweetie Belle already saw the words, and she ran off crying! Everypony around me is going to leave… so just save yourselves the trouble!”

To Twilight’s surprise, Fluttershy spoke up from behind her. “Rarity, we’re not here to judge. We’re here to help you get through this!” Fluttershy’s holler only came out as a loud whisper, however it served its purpose.

“I don’t wish to get through this! I wish for you all to stay away! My life will be in ruins! Shambles! Pieces! Oh, this is the WORST. POSSIBLE-”

Twilight and Fluttershy both subconsciously tuned out the last part. They knew Rarity enough to know just what she was going to finish that with. “Rarity, we don’t have much time! We’re coming over there!” Twilight replied. Rarity’s begging was in vain as the sound of clopping hooves once again became apparent. Fluttershy followed her friend with a large frown on her face. “Don’t read it! It’s not true!”

Twilight knew that Rarity was lying when a loud ding was heard, and she could see the letters getting slightly brighter. She toned out Rarity’s desperate pleas. As much as she cared about her friend’s feelings, she knew what she had to do.

By the time Twilight and Fluttershy reached Rarity, they came across two things: Rarity, sitting on her haunches, her mane and makeup an absolute mess as tears stained most of her face and the scarlet words that peeked out from the boutique. Rarity let out an audible groan as the two simultaneously read her secret.

MY LIFESTYLE MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE TO RELAX, SO I LET THE PILLS DO IT FOR ME

Fluttershy shook violently upon reading the haunting words. Twilight was absolutely dumbstruck, and Rarity continued to be a wallowing, a crying mess on the ground. She sobbed in a manner that Twilight nor Fluttershy had ever seen before. Rarity was always one for being dramatic, but they both could tell that the tears and pain were real.

“Rarity…” Twilight murmured. Fluttershy refused to look down at Rarity, not because of her secret, but because she felt that same feeling a dread deep inside of her.

“There. Are you happy?” Rarity’s tear stained eyes glared up at the two. “Now you know…” Rarity stood up, and tried her best to compose herself. However the tears that slid down her face continued to give away how hurt she truly was.

“Rarity, what pills does the message mean?” Twilight asked. Rarity flipped her mane, and her ears flopped on the top of her head. With a new sense of independence and pride, she lifted her nose into the air.

“I don’t know what it’s talking about…” she spoke. Twilight and Fluttershy knew it was a lie after the performance she just recently gave. The icing on the cake was the loud ding, followed by the letters glowing a little brighter. Two sighs were heard, as well as a horrified scream.

“Please, Rarity. The more you deny the brighter the words get. Just talk to us. We’re here to help you.” Fluttershy practically begged the white unicorn to comply. Rarity simply looked away, unwilling.

“You got what you want. You know my secret. I assume that you’re going to run away, just like my sister.” Twilight and Fluttershy opened their mouths to interject, but Rarity continued. “Don’t let me suffer more than I already have.”

“Talk to us, please!” Twilight was becoming desperate. She knew that Rarity was a tough egg to crack at times, so she jumped ahead in her advances. Twilight’s begging almost came out as a pleading whine. “The words won’t come off until you explain yourself. Trust me. Fluttershy and I are both going through the same things you are. So is everypony else in town.” Twilight stepped forward a bit, her face showing no remorse for what she was speaking.

“The fact that I had a sexual experience with my brother was shown to almost everypony in town.” Rarity’s jaw dropped dramatically, while Fluttershy stared at Twilight with admiration. Twilight was on another roll, and nothing could stop her now.

“We all have secrets, Rarity. I had to explain mine, even though it hurt me deeply. I kept that secret hidden inside me for so long that I almost forgot about it myself. You have to understand that you’re not the only pony hurting here. Think about Sweetie Belle. Your secret has most likely changed her perception of her older sister. But you cannot let that hinder your relationship with her. You have to talk to us, and you have to make this right.”

There was a long pause. It was so silent that Fluttershy could actually hear the same couple a few blocks down arguing still. But she was sure that no one else could hear them. It was a few minutes until Rarity sighed, and nodded her head.

“Do not think of me as any different.” she mumbled, her defenses completely shattered. “But the words are true. I take pills to help me relax and sleep on a daily basis. If I didn't, I’d be even worse off. I can’t possibly sleep or rest without them, no matter how much I toss or turn…”

“Surely, you know those drugs are bad for you?” Fluttershy interjected. “What kind were they? If… uhm, you don’t mind answering.” Once again, Fluttershy took another step back. She was practically hiding behind Twilight at this point. She instantly regretted what she said, even though Rarity could not blame her for being curious.

“T-Terokain"

“What?” Twilight furrowed her brow just slightly upon hearing that word. Fluttershy tilted her head.

“Uhm… what’s that?” she asked. Twilight turned to look at Fluttershy, who was now beginning to slowly reappear from behind her. Twilight opened her mouth, and Rarity and Fluttershy got ready for a science lesson.

“Terokain is a drug that was created for ponies with Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. They can be inhaled or swallowed, it works either way. They numb the nervous system in an effort to calm down hyperactive ponies that suffer from said behavioral disorders. Some of the side effects only occur in minor cases, or barely at all. However sleepiness in one of the main side effects after the drug itself wears off. It’s also a fairly addictive… and they’re really quite hard to acquire without permission from a doctor…” Once Twilight made the realization, she turned back towards Rarity.

“Rarity, how did you get this medicine…?”

Rarity turned a bright red, and began to shy away from the two others. “Eheh… you see… very rarely when I take trips to Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie sometimes leaves her bedroom door open…” This time, Rarity saw both Twilight and Fluttershy’s jaws simultaneously drop.

“You… steal Pinkie’s medication!?” Twilight’s mouth was open in shock, but after seeing yet another one of Rarity’s pained expressions, Twilight calmed herself down. Fluttershy was still slightly confused. She did not know enough about the medicine, and the only part she understood was that Rarity put bad things inside her body.

“Y-Yes! But only sometimes!” Rarity replied. Another loud ding was heard, and the letters grew just a little bit brighter. Twilight and Fluttershy looked back at Rarity, expectantly. The mare in question stomped her hoof in frustration.

“Fine! I do it when I get the chance to! But only then!”

Ding!

“Er, I take them more often than not!”

Ding!

“Ugh! Okay! I steal the medicine every chance I get!” A few more tears ran down the poor mare’s face. “I have a problem! I’ll get up in the middle of the night and sneak into her room and take a few!” Fluttershy was appalled, but even more so when another loud ding was heard.

“I take a hooful!” When no dinging was heard, Rarity let out a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, the words on the front of her boutique were so bright at this point that Twilight was certain that it could be seen for at least a few blocks.

“But… but why? Why would you do that to yourself? To Pinkie? Is that why she’s been acting weird lately?” Twilight asked. Rarity lowered her gaze, feeling another tinge of self-pity.

“I could not, for the life of me, help myself.” She replied. She refused to turn her eyes upwards. “It started as an experiment to see if it would help me sleep. Needless to say, it worked. But… then I felt myself wanting them more and more, even when work was not in the way. I needed them to function, and it felt… nice.” Rarity cringed internally as the words exited her mouth. Fluttershy spoke next.

“Do you need professional help? We’re alway-”

“No!” Rarity suddenly exploded. Her yell frightened Fluttershy so much that she actually lowered herself to the ground. “Please! My image will be ruined! A drug addict will never make it big among the stars in Canterlot.” Twilight deadpanned at Rarity, who quickly caught her friend’s drift. “Also, I do not want to put my family through that… I can’t stop thinking about Sweetie.”

“Rarity, your image doesn't matter when you overdose on pills.” Twilight said, rather bluntly. Rarity’s eyes widened as another wave of realization swept over her. “You need help, and as your friend, I cannot let your addiction run your life any longer.”

“Same here.” Fluttershy echoed. “Would you rather Sweetie Belle know what you do, and the fact that you do not wish to change? Or would you rather that she knows that you left to go somewhere to get help for your problem?” Twilight and Rarity stared at Fluttershy, who slowly began to creep away. I need to stay more quiet…

Rarity let those words sink in. Her mind and heart knew exactly what she wanted to do, even though her body continued to betray her. “You’re… you’re absolutely right!” she exclaimed. “I must do something about this…” Her gaze dropped again. “For my dear sister, I need to go and find her.”

Twilight held up a hoof. “Let her calm down first. I’m sure Sweetie Belle’s all worked up at the moment.” she said. Rarity nodded in understanding, although she was not happy about it.

All of a sudden, Fluttershy smiled grandly. She raised up a hoof and pointed behind Rarity. Both mare’s followed the pegasus’ hoof. The letters on the Carousel Boutique were now gone. Rarity smiled, and let out another sigh of relief. “I… I feel so much better now. I’ve been holding that in for a while now.”

“Secrets can keep even the strongest ponies down,” Twilight spoke, “but those who embrace and recognize them are the only ones who can grow.” Fluttershy and Rarity nodded their heads. Rarity levitated a hairbrush out of seemingly nowhere, and got to work on fixing her disheveled mane. A brief thought had crossed Rarity’s mind, but she tossed it aside. If Twilight knew, surely she or Fluttershy would have mentioned it. She stared at the buttery mare for a moment, before going back to her mane.

“So… what do we do now?” Fluttershy asked. To be honest, she was just following what everypony else was doing at this point.

Twilight did a few mental calculations.

“Well, Sugarcube Corner isn't that far away… but then again, Fluttershy, your cottage is even closer…” Fluttershy shook violently in retaliation.

“Uhm, I’d really rather not… as much as I’d like the words to come off, I don’t want to.. uhm…” Fluttershy tried to look for a valid excuse, but her words failed her.

Twilight pursed her lips.

“Well, we’re going to have to go over there sooner or late-” Twilight was cut off as she noticed Rarity’s strange gaping. Fluttershy followed her gaze, only to completely mimic the unicorn’s face.

Twilight tilted her head. “What? What is it?” Twilight turned around, only to find a single, crimson sentence lighting up the fog. Twilight was almost blinded as she read those fateful words coming from the direction of the library:

I HAD AN INCESTUOUS EXPERIENCE WITH MY BROTHER

Author's Note

To all those wondering, I fixed the mistake with the kind of drug Rarity stole and used. Thanks to everyone for the corrections!

-Cyneryk