Honest Acceptance (Morpheus) Part 3

“I…! You…! She…!” After a few seconds of Applejack staring at the former tree and Rainbow wordlessly growling, the sounds in Rainbow’s throat were finally coming together into words. Ve tightened the filter an extra notch to adjust to the similarly congealing emotions.

“How can you possibly ask that after everything you’ve done – after everything your mom has done?!”

The pegasus flew into my face, and the itchiness started to escalate into a slight burning sensation. The taste of brimstone filled the air – a remarkable feat given the current strength of my filter – and ve started searching the Archives for something stronger that wouldn’t block both incoming and outgoing emotions. A repeat of the other day would be rather undesirable, after all. The last thing ve needed was for my emotions to lock up again.

With that in mind – along with the fact that every attempt to be civil had backfired – ve reluctantly decided to try things Rainbow Dash’s way. That is to say, ve were going to let my emotions do the talking and hope to the Azure Veil that whatever I said didn’t blow up spectacularly in my face.

It was a monumentally stupid idea, of course. Ve knew that, and the analysts agreed, but I didn’t know what else to try. The stronger the emotion, the more irrational the pony. Ve might not have a chance with Rainbow unless I tried a less conventional approach.

Thus I let loose for once – willingly lowering the mask rather than waiting for it to crack.

“Don’t you dare try to push my mother’s crimes on me! I may make my own mistakes, but I am not – and never will be – that monster!” She retreated slightly as I pushed forward. Some small part of us savored the faintest waft of sour milk in the air. There was a brief chink in her armor – a small crack in her mask – and from that ve knew she wasn’t invulnerable.

After all, courage is not an absence of fear, but the will to overcome it.

Quick as a whip it was drowned out again by spicy anger and bitter distrust, and ve had to lock my joints in place lest I balk in turn and beg for mercy.

Gnashing my teeth, I continued to vent. “Mother is at most an honorary title – nothing more. I do not, and never will, think of her as family. She’s not the one who raised me or cared for me or did any of the things you ponies call part of being a family. The teachers did that. The servants did that. The other nymphs did that. They were my family, and I refuse to be anything like my mother if I can help it.”

Stomping forward again, ve found my face almost snout to snout with Rainbow as the pegasus refused to show any sort of weakness a second time. “You are an Element of Harmony. You’re supposed to encourage peace, not try and pick fights with me when I’m trying to make up for my mother’s mistakes. In fact, that’s pretty much the exact opposite of harmony, so Hive help us all if this is the best the legendary Rainbow Dash can do!”

A hoof met my face faster than I could see, and I felt chitin crack but not break. I reared back from the force, falling backwards to hit my head on a nearby apple tree. As I opened my eyes I found the oddest little spots in my vision – dancing to the beats of my pounding headache.

I bemusedly held up a hoof to see if I could match the holes in my vision to the holes in my hoof before it occurred to us that ve should have expected more than one punch. Wobbling up onto my haunches, ve found a rather determined Applejack pinning Rainbow to the ground. The grass was matted from what appeared to be a rather aggressive tussle, and as the ringing in my ears died I finally started to hear the second argument ve’d started between them.

“That doesn’t tell me why you and everypony else are taking his side!” Rainbow was a whirlwind of emotions too dangerous to try and taste.

Applejack sighed, half-hugging half-strangling Rainbow as she made another break for me upon seeing I was up. “Consarn it, Rainbow! We ain’t taking his side! We’re givin’ him a chance to prove us wrong, and you’re just provoking him, thinking it’ll prove you right.”

“See! That’s it right there!” Rainbow snarled. “When was I suddenly not included with the rest of the gang? You were with me the other night!”

I saw the pegasus’ wings try to unfurl, but Applejack is as strong as they come. “Don’t go twisting mah words around, Rainbow. You know ah didn’t mean it like that. All Ah meant is that you’re trying to be so dang protective of us right now that you’re forgetting somepony else might be in need of a little loyalty.”

“He! Hasn’t! Earned it!” There was the distinct sound of bowling pins being knocked over as Rainbow broke free and streaked off into the distance.

I shook my head – wondering if I had something worse than a concussion – only to wince as the headache spiked with the motion. “Hive damn it all. Something tells us ve just made things worse. Again.”

“Actually, Ah think you made more progress there than with any of your other stunts.” Applejack dusted herself off before picking her Stetson up off the ground. “Sure, you were still trying to manipulate the pants off of us with that little tantrum, but that was the clearest picture of you Ah’ve gotten all day.”

Turning to me, she adjusted her hat before continuing. “Might be just the thing Rainbow needed to hear, too. Oh, she’ll need to cool off, but that ain’t anything new.” She frowned, briefly looking off into the distance where Rainbow had flown. “Ah’m a little worried about how long it’ll take for that to happen though.”

In the epitome of diplomatic fashion, I stared vacantly at her for several seconds. “Huh?” I nearly toppled back to the ground when I tilted my head.

“Shoot.” She frowned. “Ah hope that ain’t a concussion.”

It was, but ve were a little too busy attempting to evaluate the situation to immediately confirm her suspicions. Ve barely even registered the farmer helping me to my feet.

“Darn it. This was not what Ah needed today. There’s no way in Tartarus Ah’m bringing ya to the hospital like this. Can ya fix yer disguise?”

“My disguise is fine.” I wobbled slightly as ve waved my hoof in front of her to prove a point.

“Ponies don’t have holes in their hooves, hon,” came the reply.

“My hooves don’t have holes in them. That’s probably just the spots in your vision. That’s what it is for me.” Ve frowned as ve realized the hole in my logic. “Wait. You don’t have a concussion, do you….”

“Aww, horseapples,” Applejack sighed. “Definitely can’t take ya to the hospital like this. Ah don’t even know if they can treat ya, much less how they and the rest of the town’ll react. Better to just get ya situated at the farm for now and see if Zecora has anything to help.”

Trees passed by in a blur as Applejack began to nudge me along. We weren’t moving quickly, by any means. In fact, ve estimated our speed at roughly 0.8 meters per second, which was only around half the preferred walking speed of the average pony. I simply couldn’t find the focus to pay attention to the physical world as ve kept getting distracted by all sorts of fascinating things – such as figuring out how fast we were moving or calculating the change in applied force levels as Applejack started to get more insistent on dragging me along.

“Okay. We’re back. Now to get ya inside without anypony seeing, ’cause Ah ain’t gonna lie if you’re caught.” Applejack’s voice cut through the haze, and ve realized we were indeed already at the farm house. I was definitely more out of it than ve realized. Cautiously lowering the filter, I let the ambient love flow in and ease the headache a little so ve could properly process what happened.

As I was doing so, Applejack peeked inside. “Good. Granny’s napping, and Big Mac should be out in the fields for a while yet. Let’s get ya situated in the guest room before anypony notices. Ah’ll need to have a word with the others about making sure Bloom doesn’t bother ya, though.”

As I was pulled through the door and placed in the homey and – more importantly – inconspicuous guest room, ve found ourself being buried under at least five different kinds of bedding before Applejack hurried for the door.

“Wait!” I raised a hoof to stop Applejack as ve rushed to find out how far today’s plan went off track. “What about the bet? I can’t exactly make it through a day on the farm like this.”

The farmer deadpanned. “Hon, that bet barely meant anything to begin with, and it definitely doesn’t mean anything now. Y’all should know ya can’t just manipulate me and Dash, and that bet was nothing but shameless manipulation. The others might – and Ah say might – tolerate it ’cause it’s pretty clear to us ya can’t just turn that part of yourself off, but it really rubs me and Dash the wrong way.”

I sagged into the covers. “But ve could taste it. Both of you were less angry and everything….”

“And how long did that actually last for Dash?” An eyebrow arched. “Competition is just that – competition. Twilight said y’all read our reports to the Princess, so ya know about the Iron Pony incident. If competition shouldn’t make any difference among friends, then why should it make any difference among enemies?”

Ve stared at her for a moment. “That is a surprisingly logical standpoint. It’s almost changeling really. I don’t know why ve didn’t think of that.”

Applejack snorted. “It ain’t logic, hon. It’s just common sense. Approaching it like some fancy logic problem means you’re overthinking it. Ah better be off to grab Zecora, though. Ya may be sounding better, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Try and rest up while I’m out.”

With a tip of her hat, the farmer left me to my own devices, and I quickly cocooned myself within the mish-mash of fleece, wool, cotton, silk, patchwork quilts made with all of the above, and the odd duvet that was pretending to be a blanket. My head had barely hit the pillow before I was out like a light, although there was the odd sense ve were forgetting something.

“Probably not as important as rest...” was all I managed to say before falling asleep.

“Rise and shine, flyboy! Don’t make me bring out the swatter!” A raspy voice almost yelled with all the forced cheer of a clown with an eight year degree in theater and drama. “I’m missing nap time cuz of you, so if I don’t get to sleep neither do you.”

Getting over the spike of pain that was from both a return to consciousness – and thus my headache – and the near shout that woke me up, ve were about to question what was going when a mini-deluge hit me. I understandably shrieked at undetectably high frequencies that were not at all feminine.

“Cold!”

“Geez. Stop being such a pansy. I thought your were supposed to be tougher stuff than that.” Ponyville’s lead weather mare bucked the cloud above the bed again, letting the last of the moisture rain down upon me.

“Sounds like you’re in a better mood,” ve snarked.

“Does it taste like it?” She smiled back smugly.

I snorted while I attempted to extricate myself from the now soaking cocoon. “Not really, no. Cotton candy doesn’t really taste good when I know it’s probably just sadistic glee, and you have awful choice in dipping sauces. Liquid rainbow and hemlock just doesn’t appeal to me.”

The grin got smugger. “Good. That’s all I need to hear. Much better than a ‘thank you’ for saving your life.”

I frowned, dumping everything but the mattress in the corner before looking in the closet to see if there were spare blankets. My magic flickered to the pounding in my head. “What do you mean by that, and why are you even back?”

The cheer remained as overly chipper as an axe. “Well, I just happened to be starting a nap on a spare cloud that blew in from the Everfree, when Applejack came running towards the path towards Zecora’s. That didn’t make much sense since she had to deal with you bugging her all day, flyboy, so I foalishy decided to see what was up.”

I could hear her teeth grinding for a second before she continued. “Of course, you had to get a concussion from one measly punch. It wasn’t even a proper scrap or anything! And if you couldn’t handle one hit, chances were you’d never had to deal with a concussion before. I figured you’d be sleeping it off rather than simply resting, and that’s the last thing you want to do before you’re sure the injury isn’t bad enough to leave you in a coma or worse.”

I swore in Chitri. Ve knew ve had been forgetting something.

Rainbow narrowed her brow, glaring at me from above. “Do I want to know what that means?”

I shook my head, and she shrugged. “Whatever. Basically, I raced back to make sure you didn’t kick the bucket. I might wanna beat you to a pulp, but that doesn’t mean I want you to become a veggie or end up dead as a doornail.”

Her emotions were cooling, and I couldn’t help but tilt my head as I stared at the prismatic puzzle in front of me. It seemed there was more than one enigma among the Elements besides the Pink Menace. “Well, I guess I should tha-”

“I said I didn’t need your thanks!” The snarl was back, along with her more colorful emotions. I sighed, seeing whatever moment there could have been break the sound barrier as it left faster than it came.

Rainbow was about to follow it out the window when she called back. “Oh! I almost forgot. You totally owe me for saving your skin. Big Mac saw me on my way back, and he’s probably gonna be coming through the door any minute. You get to take care of explaining things, because I can’t make promises that my explanation wouldn’t get you squashed like the bug you are. Later, flyboy!”

Ve contemplated following Rainbow out the window. Seeing I was on the second floor, a few seconds of buzzing wobbily above the ground caused us to discard this notion. This was quickly followed by an attempt to bolt out the door so ve could hide before sneaking back to Ponyville later that night. That plan was discarded as well when I heard the front door open and hoofsteps climbing the stairs.

Barricading the door was tossed to the side after quickly estimating the mass of the approaching giant compared to the mass of the little bit of furniture in the room.

A last ditch effort at illusions and a disguise confirmed it was indeed monumentally stupid to cast magic or shapeshift with a concussion, and so ve took the only other option and sat in the center of the bed ve had yet to remake. Trying incredibly hard to control my breathing, ve started weaving a web of possible scenarios as fast as was safely possible.

This also turned out to be a rather bad idea in retrospect. A concussion requires as much mental rest as physical rest. Of course, our thoughts on the matter were phrased much less elegantly as ve flopped to the bed with a railroad spike in my brain for every possibility ve had briefly managed to consider.

“Are ya alright in there, Mister….” The door opened, and there was silence.

A couple moments passed as ve waited for the explosion.

“Ah reckon that explains the Pinkie Promise.” A simple drawl was not what ve expected.

Managing to look up, ve found myself under a scrutinizing gaze. Ve briefly wondered why I couldn’t taste his emotions before realizing the filter was too high from my encounter with Dash. As I lowered it, ve were surprised that all I could taste was oranges. “You aren’t afraid or angry or suspicious?”

“Should Ah be?” Despite the stoic face, one could hear the eyebrow arch – even if it was on a microscopic scale.

Ve looked at him helplessly, completely out of our depths. I gestured to the chitin and holes. “Well, you know….”

“Ah ain’t one to let mah emotions run wild,” came the reply.

“That’s an understatement.” I snorted. “There’s not a shred of negative emotions as far as I can tell.”

“No point in negativity.” His gaze was starting to unnerve me.

I sighed. “You might say that now –”

“Ah trust Applejack.” There was a small slice of a very large honey-glazed apple pie with that statement.

“So does Rainbow Dash, and she gave me this.” I gestured to the new cracks in my face. Ve needed to get to treating them soon or they’d leave marks.

“Eeyup. She’s a hot head.”

I snorted, failing to hold back a laugh. “That’s putting it mildly. When I met her the other day, her emotions set me on hallucinogenic fire. Hottest head I’ve ever seen, although ve can think of a couple others.”

Big Mac simply noded with a small smile. “Need anything then?”

I stretched before getting up and finishing remaking the bed. “Can you get me a mirror and make extra certain the Cutie Mark Crusaders get nowhere near me? I saw Applebloom had her Cutie Mark this morning, but ve know what those three can do. Applejack said she was going to mention it to you, but I can’t stress how much I’d rather not face Cutie Mark Crusaders Vermin Catchers. We might look like bugs but most of us aren’t vermin.”

The stallion left chuckling. “There’s more than three now.”

Ve stopped briefly to contemplate that with the proper amount of horror it deserved. “May the First Father have mercy on my soul…”