The Truth Comes Out
Written by TheCrimsonDM
The blue crystal walls caught and reflected the small light of the candle as it hovered in the air. The candle being the main source of light in this small room was a little haunting but Twilight was used to this kind of lighting at night. Out of the few bookcases that lined the walls in this private library she was only after one in particular. The Starswirl collection, a collection of her rarest and most difficult to obtain books on the famous magician.
Twilight skimmed the tittles of the old books carefully, she didn’t want to be in here this late at night but some manner of noise had gotten her attention. One of the books had been placed upside down and awkwardly into the shelves, it was her rare first edition copy of ‘Starswirl’s Secrets’.
A pink glow surrounded the book as it slid free from its home and floated in mid air. Twilight examined the cover of the book, its worn face was damaged but she still loved this old thing. She reminisced about when Celestia gave the book to her last year, her own parents had neglected to give her a present again that year. Celestia however always found some way of making Twilight forget about her parents disinterest in her own life, and with such good friends, last year’s birthday party had been the best one she had ever had.
A powerful chemical smell overcame Twilight’s senses snapping her back to reality as she stared intently at the dusty old book. Something was wrong. Twilight opened the book slowly to the middle of it too find the old yellow page was now covered in a thick white goo that covered almost the entirety of the page. Orange and green crayon’s had been used to draw a picture of a tree and a small house over the page.
Twilight’s mind was frozen in fear as she turned the page. Another page painted white with a crayon drawing over it, and another, and another. She continued turning through the pages with an increasingly frantic pace until she reached the end of the book.
Twilight set the book down gently on the floor and saw a pool of white liquid with a suspicious square dry spot in the middle of it. A small can of white paint was lying on its side next to the shelf, empty. There was also a box of crayons lying on the floor, opened.
Twilight looked over towards the window. and upon seeing it open, walked over to it. She stuck her head out feeling to cold night air brush against her fur. Twilight leaned over and kicked something with her foreleg by accident. She looked down at her hooves and saw a metal curtain rod with a rope tied around it. The rope extended out and over the window seal and down into the road below, where it dangled loosely.
Twilight’s mind was beginning to turn from frozen shock, to burning rage as she put the clues together. Somepony had come in, and destroyed her cherished book. Somepony had then snuck out of the window using a rope. Somepony was going to, tomorrow, regret ever being born.
***
The next day Pinkie Pie found herself sitting in Twilight’s living room. She was lined up with four of her other friends as Twilight paced back and forth in front of them. Twilight had an impatient look on her face which Pinkie thought looked a little silly. Spike entered the room and Twilight looked over at him quickly before saying, “Finally. Get over here and stand next to the others, Spike.”
Spike looked a little confused as he complied with Twilight’s command. Pinkie always enjoyed being with her friends but even she could tell that something was off about this whole affair, and she didn’t like it at all. With a huff Twilight reexamined the six sitting before her and at length she said, “Last night I had a break in. And somepony did this!” She then pulled an old book from off the table behind her and dropped it onto the floor, hard.
Everypony stared at the open book, at the white paint stains inside, and at the simple drawings inside. Twilight stared at each one of the five sitting before her, making sure she made eye contact with each of them. When it came Pinkie’s turn, Pinkie Pie had a hard time keeping eye contact but forced her way through it.
Pinkie Pie looked to her right at Fluttershy and then to her left at Rarity. It was beginning to dawn on her that Twilight had called them here, and lined them up for a reason. This situation was turning out for the worst.
Twilight waited until everypony was good and uncomfortable before explaining in a cool even tone, “Last night somepony broke into my private library. I don’t know why they did this to my copy of ‘Starswirl’s Secrets’ but whether this is some kind of sick prank, or act of evil against me. The outcome is the same, I’m absolutely livid with them.”
Pinkie Pie wasn’t sure what livid meant, but she was sure it wasn’t a good thing to be. With the scene that lay before her, Pinkie Pie was tempted to put on her detective hat and grab her bubble pipe, but she wasn’t sure that this was a good time for Detective Pinkie Pie to make a return.
Twilight smiled suddenly, surprising everypony. “I have good news though, I have narrowed down the list of who could of possibly done this to me. You see my private library is warded by protective spells so that only the seven of us can get into that room. Anypony else would come across an invisible wall, and even if they could get passed it I have alarms set up for any tampering with the spell.”
“Are you are implying that it was one of us?” Rarity asked.
Twilight gave her a nod before explaining, “One of you did this to me. One of you took my birthday present from Princess Celestia and destroyed it completely. One of you betrayed every bit of trust that I had in you.”
Pinkie’s heart sunk painfully as she heard Twilight’s words. This book had meant so much to Twilight, and now it was ruined.
Rainbow Dash quickly said, “Wasn’t me.”
Twilight gave her a suspicious glance before looking away and saying. “I called you all here today because I need to know who did this to me. I’m going to be angry with whoever did this no matter what. But if you confess what you did, and tell me why you did it… the punishment will be less severe.”
Nopony dared speak for a while as Twilight continued giving them all dirty, angry looks. Finally Rarity said, “Darling, I would never do this to you. You know that right?” Twilight didn’t respond.
After another moment of silence Applejack said, “Ah didn’t do this. Heck Ah didn’t even know you had a private library.” Still no response from Twilight.
Spike quickly added, “I didn’t do it either. I have to live with you, Twilight. There is no way I’d do something like this to one of your Starswirl books.” Twilight gave him a glace.
The tension was building up in the room, and it was getting hard for Pinkie to handle it. Pinkie let out a sigh before saying, “I didn’t do it.”
After a few moments of silence everypony began looking towards Fluttershy. Fluttershy’s cheeks began turning a light shade of pink as she looked nervously about. Fluttershy finally managed to say, “Y-y-you don’t t-t-think that I-I-I did it… do you?”
Twilight closed her eyes and let out a very depressed sounding sigh. “I’m so disappointed in you. Whoever just lied to me, I’m just so disappointed.”
Pinkie Pie couldn’t help but look down at the space between her hooves. She felt like crying but she had to stay strong. There was no way she could break now.
“Okay,” Twilight said as she opened her eyes. With a renewed conviction she said, “I’m going to have to do this the old fashioned way then. I’m sorry everypony but this is the only way to find out who it was… and it’s going to hurt, a lot.”
Pinkie didn’t like the nervous feeling she got deep inside her chest. Twilight couldn’t be serious about doing something that might hurt them, right? As Twilight walked towards Fluttershy, Pinkie’s heart began sinking even deeper.
“Fluttershy, I’m sorry but I’m going to start with you okay,” Twilight said.
Fluttershy nodded ever so slightly and Twilight’s horn began to glow. A strange red beam of light began reaching out for Fluttershy and Twilight said, “It will hurt, but this is the only way I can find out who hurt me. I have to use this spell.”
Pinkie cringed as the red light reached Fluttershy’s forehead and Fluttershy yelped in pain. Pinkie Pie couldn’t handle it, her heart was aching and her mind was racing. All of this was too much for her to bear, let alone seeing her friend hurt like this.
Pinkie Pie threw herself at Twilight’s hooves and cried, “It was me! I was the one who destroyed your book, please stop hurting Fluttershy!”
The red light stopped suddenly and Fluttershy fell on her rump. Pinkie looked over at Fluttershy and quickly asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, it didn’t hurt at all. I was just a little startled,” Fluttershy said.
“Of course it didn’t hurt,” Twilight stated. “I would never hurt you girls. I just needed to get Pinkie Pie to admit what she did.”
Pinkie looked up at Twilight and felt her eyes watering up. Pinkie tried not to cry as she asked, “How long did you know it was me?”
“Since last night. First of all you used a rope to climb out of the window, so a pegasus was out of the question. Second of all you completely destroyed the book by coloring in it, so that alienated everyone else,” Twilight explained quickly. “So tell me this, why did you hurt me like that?”
Pinkie Pie was quiet for a few seconds as she felt tears beginning to spill out of her eyes. She closed her eyes shut tight before explaining, “It was an accident, I came up here last night because I wanted to learn more about Starswirl and then I accidently spilled the paint I had. Then I dropped the book. I tried to fix it, but I didn’t know what was in the book so I drew pictures of what I thought was in there and… and I ruined everything.”
Silence filled the room after Pinkie Pie finished. Pinkie Pie was still laying on the floor with her eyes shut and hot tears running down the side of her face. She knew that she had screwed up, and she also knew that all of her attempts to fix it were horribly wrong. There was nothing that she could do now except wait and hope that Twilight’s revenge wasn’t so severe.
Twilight drew in a quick breath before nearly shouting, “So you snuck into my home in the middle of the night to read my private collection, for some reason you bring a paint can with you, and then you proceed to destroy one of my most precious books and call it an accident!”
Pinkie Pie opened her eyes and looked up at Twilight who was staring down at her with bright furious eyes. A sudden fear took hold in Pinkie’s heart as Twilight’s horn began glowing and all Pinkie could do before the light blinded her was beg, “Please, Twilight, no.”
A few long seconds pass and everything was white, but then her vision began to return. She was still lying at Twilight’s hooves and tears were still running down her face. Pinkie Pie released a breath that she didn’t realize she was holding as she tried to figure out what Twilight just did to her.
Twilight grinned at Pinkie Pie. “Try lying to me now.”
Pinkie Pie wasn’t sure what happened but she didn’t feel any different. Pinkie slowed down her own breathing before asking, “What did you do to me?”
Twilight turned around and walked away before saying, “You’ll figure it out.”
Pinkie Pie tried to stand but felt too shaky to push herself up, so instead she chose to just lie their crying silently. Twilight finally asked, “Why were you in my library last night?”
“I wanted to read some of your books so that I could be smart like you,” Pinkie Pie admitted.
Twilight looked a little weird as she asked, “Why would you do that?”
“Because I’m not that smart. I thought that if I was smarter maybe you and I could be closer, I’m sorry I ruined your book though,” Pinkie Pie said in a quiet voice. For some reason if felt very easy to tell Twilight about this now.
“We are friends, even if you did hurt me like this, we’re still friends,” Twilight said in a kinder tone than normal.
“How can I expect you to stay my friend after I did something like this to you? How do I know you won’t abandon me like my parents did?” Pinkie Pie asked her voice becoming shaky again. Twilight was taken aback by Pinkie’s words and suddenly Pinkie realized what she had just told Twilight. Pinkie Pie didn’t mean to say that out loud, it just slipped out… that was something she had never meant to tell anypony.
Pinkie Pie laughed nervously and decided to fix what she had just said by lying. “My parent’s abandoned me because I was too crazy,” Pinkie said truthfully without thinking.
“Pinkie Pie, I didn’t know that. I’m sorry,” Twilight said.
Dread and fear seized Pinkie’s heart and she jumped up into the air and said, “You don’t have to be sorry, my parents hate me that’s all. Shortly after getting my cutie mark, they sent me to live with my aunt and uncle because a party pony doesn’t belong on a rock farm. So I didn’t get to see my sisters ever again until I was much older, and that made me very lonely, so very lonely, and scared, and why can’t I stop telling you about this?” Pinkie Pie finished and her mane was drooping over heavily, tears were still streaming down the side of her face. She could feel herself breaking inside, and that scared her.
Twilight looked really guilty and couldn’t meet Pinkie’s eyes as she said, “I used a truth telling spell on you… it’s going to last all day. I’m sorry, I just wanted you to stop lying to me.”
Pinkie Pie’s heart skipped a beat and she could only ask, “What?”
“I used a spell that makes you tell nothing but the unabridged truth. It also has the side effect of making certain things, like repressed thoughts or feelings come out more easily. There isn’t really a counter spell, save for time,” Twilight explained.
Pinkie Pie was frozen in her tracks and her mane was threatening to completely deflate at this point. Pinkie Pie gulped and asked, “So you mean I’m going to tell you guys about how horrible my life is and how worthless I am?”
“Pinkie, darling you are not worthless,” Rarity said gently.
“Oh that’s easy for the pretty one to say, but what if I told you that you had a really ugly mole on your left butt cheek?” Pinkie countered.
Rarity’s eyes grew wide and she quickly checked her rear and her eyes grew even wider. Rainbow Dash began laughing and Applejack shot a stern look at Pinkie.
“Now, sugarcube that wasn’t very nice. Ah know you have a spell affecting you an all but that doesn’t mean you can get away with saying stuff like that,” Applejack said.
“Oh really, I think it means just that. It’s not like I meant to tell her that anyway. I was content on keeping it a secret while I stared at her butt all day,” Pinkie Pie said without thinking. She gave it a second and then sat down before saying, “I was only staring because she’s hot.” Pinkie groaned and covered her eyes with a foreleg and added, “Please shut me up before I tell Twilight about my secret crush on her.”
“What?” Twilight exclaimed.
Pinkie laid her head down on the floor and whimpered. She very carefully chose her words as she said, “Please stop me from talking. I don’t want to lose you guys by saying things that I shouldn’t say out loud. You are the only the reason I haven’t tried to kill myself yet.”
Nopony made any comments after that instead they just gave each other guilty looks, Twilight’s was the absolute worse of them all. Twilight couldn’t bear to look at anypony; instead she just looked at the hard floor. Pinkie felt the tears running down her face and it wasn’t long before she began crying softly. Normally Pinkie was able to handle hard situations by deflecting the truth with her outrageous lies, but now that she was unable to lie, the only defense that she had was finally gone.
Pinkie stood up slowly and walked to the door. “If you need me I’ll at home crying. I’d lie about that like I usually do and tell you that I was planning a party or something but I can’t stop telling the truth right now, I’m sorry.”
Nopony stopped Pinkie as she walked away, even though she had really hoped that somepony, anypony would. Her only destination now was home, and her plan was simple; she was going to grab her teddy bear crawl underneath her blankets and sob her heart out. After this she knew that things would be different between her and her friends, especially with Twilight Sparkle.
***
With several thick blankets lying on top of her, Pinkie hid herself away from the rest of the world. She tried to sob quietly at first but failed and gave up completely. After awhile of sobbing and hugging her teddy bear tightly to her chest there came a light knocking at her door.
“Pinkie,” Misses Cake called from the other side of her door, “Are you okay?”
“Twilight… she…” Pinkie tried to explain but she her throat was sore from all the crying so she gave up. “Please leave me alone.”
“Okay, I’ll be downstairs if you want somepony to talk to,” Misses Cake offered before leaving.
After that Pinkie quickly returned to sobbing all alone underneath her blanket. It was another half hour before Pinkie heard another knock at the door. She quieted down and stayed silent for a minute, it was her hope that if the pony outside thought she was asleep then they would leave. The door squeaked open slowly and a large number hooves tried to quietly sneak into her room.
Pinkie poked her head out from underneath her covers, and with her soft blue eyes, she saw her five best friends carrying a large box wrapped in gift paper.
Twilight spoke very quietly as she said, “Okay everypony, Pinkie’s, asleep right now so we’re just going to leave this here and sneak out. If I’m lucky she will forgive me after this.”
“I’m sure that she will forgive you if you simply apologize, darling,” Rarity whispered in response.
“Ayep big expensive presents aren’t gonna make things better between ya’ll. You need to talk to her,” Applejack explained.
Pinkie Pie let out quiet pained noise as she continued watching the ponies attempt to be stealthy. Suddenly everypony looked her and their expressions turned to worry. Twilight took one look at the pink pony and closed her eyes tightly before saying, “Oh, Pinkie. I’m so sorry, I didn’t think about how hard this would be on you.”
Pinkie stared quietly at Twilight for a moment before saying, “I did something really bad and… I’m sorry. I’m just in love with you, that’s why I bother you so much.” After hearing what she said she ducked her head underneath the covers and whined, “It’s not fair that I keep saying things like that. Can’t I continue lying about everything to make it all okay?”
“Pinkie Pie, we aren’t going to hold anything you say right now against you. Even if some of the things you say are rather… blunt,” Rarity said gently.
“Do you want to open your present?” Twilight asked.
It took all of her strength but Pinkie managed to crawl out of bed and walked over to the box. The gift was as large as she was and after poking it with a hoof she found it to be very light. Her mind could only wonder at what the contents of this box were.
She reached up and grabbed the ribbon with her teeth and pulled it off. Then she tore through the wrapping paper and tossed it aside, as one does with any properly wrapped gift. Finally she opened the lid of the giant box and the prize inside not only brought a smile to her lips but made her giggle.
Pinkie Pie reached in with her hooves and pulled out a giant teddy bear that was as big as she was. She sat down hard and stared at it with a silly grin before wrapping her legs around it and embracing the giant stuffed animal tightly.
“How did you know that I always wanted a giant teddy to cuddle with?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Remember that one time that I was spying on you for an entire day… well I learned all kinds of things that day, I just wish that I’d have learned how much you cared for me. Then maybe I wouldn’t have done something so horrible to you,” Twilight said. “Can you ever forgive me?”
Pinkie Pie looked up at Twilight with giant wide eyes and smiled at her. “Of course I forgive you.”
“I… you… you can’t lie right now. You are physically incapable of lying to me right now, and you still forgive me,” Twilight replied astonished at the pink pony’s kindness.
“Of course I do silly. You are the only true friends that I have, nopony else is willing to deal with my depression, or my anger, or any of my crazy. But the five of you still care about me,” Pinkie Pie admitted. “It’s because I have friends like you that I’ve chosen to continue to live.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“It means that I’ve thought about suicide before, actually I used to consider it a lot before Twilight came into my life. But that’s what happens when your own family disowns you for being a party pony, and not a rock,” Pinkie explained. Pinkie stopped, thought about what she just said, and decided to groan and bury her face into the giant teddy bear. “I wasn’t supposed to ever tell you that. I don’t like not being able to lie, that was the only defense I had.”
“Pinkie, you don’t need defenses against us,” Fluttershy offered. “We all love you for being you.”
“But I’m nothing but a giant mess inside,” Pinkie Pie admitted.
“Oh who here isn’t a giant emotional wreck. Pinkie, we are all emotionally damaged in one way or another, I had to adopt my little sister because my parents are criminally irresponsible,” Rarity said.
“And my mom left me when I was a filly, my dad died a few years ago and I’ve been all alone since then,” Rainbow Dash added. “But I’m still awesome.”
Applejack rolled her eyes at Rainbow Dash’s comment before smiling at Pinkie. “Ah have had to raise mah little sister cus mah parents are gone. Ain’t been easy.”
“Um,” Fluttershy said quietly, “I’m an orphan… please don’t judge me.”
Twilight was the last one to speak, “My parents are so scared of my power that they gave me to Celestia to be raised. Seriously, none of us are right in the head. But we all found each other, so damaged as we may be, we can take comfort in one another. You see, Pinkie, you are never alone. You have us.”
This raised Pinkie’s spirits and she couldn’t stop smiling at her friends for how forthcoming they all were with their own problems. It really began to sink in then that she wasn’t alone, and that other ponies did understand her torment. She stared up at her group of friends and said, “I love you guys.”
“We all love you too, Pinkie,” Rarity replied.
Despite Rainbow Dash’s displeasure they all gave Pinkie a group hug and laughed. Bad things had happened but they weren’t going to let this get between their friendship. They spent a few minutes talking before Rarity decided that on a day like this it would be perfect to have a picnic. Get outside and get some fresh air and all. Everypony left except for Twilight who stayed behind to comfort Pinkie some more.
“Pinkie,” Twilight said quietly.
“Yes, Twilight,” Pinkie asked.
With a gentle hoof Twilight stroked Pinkie’s cheek even though the fur was still damp from all the crying. “Pinkie, I have feelings for you too.”
“What?” Pinkie asked as her mind began racing. It seemed impossible that Twilight could actually have feelings for her after all of this.
“I said that I have feelings for you, and… if you still want me, I’d like to give us a chance. What do you think?” Twilight’s cheeks were beginning to turn pink as she asked this.
With more joy then she could ever imagine having, Pinkie jumped up and wrapped her hooves around Twilight’s neck while shouting, “YES I’LL HAVE YOU!”
“Shh, Pinkie, I don’t want to let the others in on this yet,” Twilight whispered.
Pinkie waved a hoof in the air and said, “Okay, okay. We can make them all jelly in due time.”
For one blissful moment they stared into each others’ eyes. They found comfort, and love in there. A moment later they walked side by side out of the bedroom door. They knew that if they waited too long their friends would begin to suspect something, and that would’ve spoiled the surprise. Despite everything else that had happened today, Pinkie now believed that this had been one of the best days in her life.
The End
