Vinyl Scratch, Mentoring is AWESOME!

Chapters

Dorks
Family Matters
Vignettes
Vignettes part2
Therapy
Practice for Comback!
Threadbare
What Might have Been
Music and Family Theory
Help!

Dorks

“Salt, pepper, milk, oranges, music... something like Mozart.” Yea, only the necessities she says. I kept reading down her shopping list. I felt like a house wife these days.

As I went through town and passed by the old record shop, I had to stop. An old “DJpon3”, my stage name, poster was half ripped off. Wrinkled, the tape about to give, the owner didn’t even care about it. And why should he? I hadn’t so much as released a single in over nine months.

This pause was not for lack of inspiration. Seriously, this is Ponyville some awesome monster attacks or catastrophe happens nearly every month. I never ran out of awesome images to compose to after the fact. Heck Discord himself now lived among us and if I couldn’t get inspiration from the lord of chaos himself just being there, I had no right to call myself a DJ.
I straightened out my poster. It was of my last big hit CD.

Oh come on! I’m not a sentimental pony for Celestia sake, so why was I getting teary eyed?! Like it had any right to, the memory of that day played in my head.

Right after the fall of Tirek, our brave mare defenders celebrated in their new castle of friendship, thinking the whole of Equestria had just been returned to normal. However a good 20% of the population of Ponyville lost something of their talents forever. Good to know I wasn’t alone I guess.

Still it hurt to remember.

(***)

I had woken up with a group of random ponies, an assortment of unicorns, earth ponies and pegasi. Last thing I remembered before blacking out a huge bull ape like creature with terrifying horn had attacked me and my sister Octy. The bull wasn’t around now but…

“Octy?” I tried to yell, however nothing came out. I rasped a few times, but nothing. Octavia wasn’t in the crowd. My mind raced, she had to be okay, she just had to be!

I took off running, seeing the buildings of Ponyvillie in the distance. Home was right there, home was alright, my sister had to be too. I ran into the empty town, noticing I wasn’t the only one coming in. Crowds of lost ponies started to swarm in. “Octavia!” I tried to yell, but again, nothing came out. The best I could do was cough. Finally she came into view. I was relieved.

She started to yell my name frantically looking about. All I had to do was yell out to her. Nothing came out… just rasps and coughs.

I watched my best friend and sister actually start panicking when she couldn’t find me in the crowd. I wanted to yell to her, but all I could get out were those stupid small rasps. I thought to try yelling again, but it finally hit me like a freight train. I tested my voice once, twice, three times. NO! This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t be! My voice! It wasn’t just different, it was GONE! I was completely mute. I kept watching my sister, but I didn’t bother trying to call again. I sat down, tears streaming down my face. Finally my sister found me.

Seeing me crying, which I don’t often do, she immediately hugged me. “Vinyl!” she yelled. She squeezed me to herself, finally saying “What’s wrong?”

What was I supposed to say? Well nothing I guess. I wanted to say something so badly, to comfort my panicking sister, but sick, sick irony, nothing came out. When that monster attacked he had officially made my last words and girlish scream of terror. That was it.

I just pulled in Octy closer, crying silently, cursing the fates.

(***)

I sighed. Well… ‘darn it no!’ I thought. ‘I’m not gonna wallow! It’s not gonna be like that. If I want music, I’m going to get REAL music! Besides, every freakin music store in town sells Mozart.’ I shoved through the music store door.

The bell rang, oh sweet bell, hearing that bell always meant I was in a new world. The record store! Lordi, Iron Savior, Sabaton, Styx, Electric Samurai, Sevendust, so many awesome songs and musics by so many awesome mares and stallions.

The stallion behind the counter nodded at me. I was still a little disappointed that he didn’t get excited like he would have months ago. But I wasn’t in here to continue my funk. I was here to find some tunes to drive it into the ground. Out with the bad vibes, in with the good.

I grabbed a basket with my magic. I tossed an old Beethoven CD in. It looked like one with a cover I never saw on Octy’s shelf so there was probably something different for her on it.

Now, on to the important stuff. Electric Samurai. I sighed, just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s not good! After a good twenty minutes of searching, finally I found Guitar Hotei in the back. Where was it… Battle… Battle Without… Honor … oooh… “Kill the Target”! I picked up the CD and viewed the songs. KT was the cover song, but “Battle Without Honor” was still on it.

At the front counter I heard a filly arguing with the shop keep. “But I can’t find the right color!”

“Look kiddo, that’s what I have.”

“But… but… she would never like these… maybe you have more on back order in the right color?”

“We don’t order specific colors unless it’s for somepony very important.”

“But we’ve been all over town looking for-“

“I’m sorry,” he said with a sigh. “I hate disappointing customers. This is what I have… blue is close.”

“Yea, it is.”

I walked over to the counter with my soon to be purchases. Sheesh, kids these days. Always looking for the best cover art on jewel cases. I wanted to tell her “the case isn’t important, it’s the music that it’s all about,” but well, mute remember? I looked down when I got to the check out. I was now standing behind two foals. A colt and the silly filly arguing with the shop keep. She was all that stood between me and musical escape… I could wait, so long as she didn’t turn rude. I liked the shop keeper after all, so she wouldn’t be if she knew what was good for her.

Out of curiosity, I looked over her items currently on the counter. A pair of blue sunglasses (eh, not purple enough), a Smash mouth CD (hey, can’t fault good taste, gotta give her that) and my latest CD. Glad to see at least someone still liked me.
The filly dropped some bits on the counter. The stallion on the other side counted them and then paused. “You’re a little short.”

“What?! I saved all month for these!”

The stallion shrugged. “I don’t set the prices. Put something back.” The filly looked at her stuff. She took my CD and pushed it forward. (Really, I would have thought a generic DJ Pon3 CD would be first to go), push the sun glasses forward and then pushed aside Smash Mouth.

Really? A pair of sun glasses over Smash Mouth? An atrocity! I sighed, dropping a few bits on the table over the filly’s shoulder thinking to myself ‘eat your heart out Rarity!’.

“Thanks miss!” the filly shouted. She grabbed her purchases and jetted away from the counter before the shop keeper could get change.

He chuckled watching the door as the filly’s… brother I guess… colt friend maybe, followed. “Quick little bugger!”

I quickly retrieved my note pad from my saddle bags and wrote out, ‘Reminds me of me at that age.’

The stallion grinned. “Yea Probably. Guess the change is yours anyway.”

I made my purchase and walked out, another Electric Samurai CD all mine. NOW, I was ready for shopping. Scratch that, almost. I levitated my head phones out of my saddle bags along with my CD player.

Just as I did I heard a raspy sound. It was that little filly from inside the shop. I decided to get a little bit of a look at her this time. She was a pegasi, yellow with a blue mane that looked like it hadn’t touched a brush since birth (good, who needs a brush!). Her colt friend was an earth pony, cyan with a dark blue mane and yellow highlights. The filly looked at me with wide eyes, looking like she was trying very hard to choke out some words. I heard those all too familiar rasps coming from her and I started to panic. I wasn’t just going to stand there and watch as another pony lost her voi-

“DJ PON3!!!” She screamed.

I grinned a little in embarrassment. I didn’t mind praise, but ponies stopped to look now, like I was this loud filly’s mom or something. “Calm down kid… oh and folks around here just call me Vinyl.” Is what I wanted to say, however again, mute… you adjust to it… even still but it’s frustrating sometimes.

The filly took a marker out of her saddle bags and held up her copy of my last mix in her mouth. “Autograf?” she said through her stuffed mouth. I sighed, anything for the fans… wait… how many fans does a has been musician with mediocre fame have anyway? Who was this filly? I levitated the CD and marker and started signing. “Make it out to Lightning Strike and her brother Dusty.”

“Dusk,” said the colt. “My name is Dusk,” said the colt.

“That’s what I said, Dusty.”

I smiled. This was a little familiar. Even when I was first adopted Octy loved to mess with my head when we were foals. Thus I had always been on the receiving end. I knew what was the right thing to do… and I did not care. I signed to “DJpon3, to my fan filly Lightning Strike and her brother Dusty!” I levitated the CD back to the foals, Lightning grinning and Dusk twisting his lips in frustration. I could tell he was just here with her anyway so I didn’t care.

She put the CD back in her saddle bags saying, “can’t wait to get this back home.” She then looked back up at me. I heard a faint electric sound and blinked. She was then standing behind me. I looked back and suddenly, after another quick electric charging sound, she was standing to my left. “It’s you, it’s really you, I can’t believe it!” Another charging sound and she was above me. Sheesh I knew pegasi were fast but this was ridiculous. “You’re the most awesomest thing ever!” I grinned. This girl was a trip. She was now back in front of me. “So… when is the next CD coming out?”

I looked off to the right. To tell the truth my funk had made me seriously consider quitting. The last event I had done as a DJ was a wedding, and that was only because Octy was there. I don’t think there was even a recording of it. I tried working on a few singles, but I kept coming to parts that needed vocals and well…

“Why aren’t you talking to me?” She slumped her shoulders a bit. “I’m annoying aren’t I?” Her brother nodded behind her, her shooting him a fast glare and him grinning sheepishly. I did smile to see the teasing was mutual.

Still I didn’t want the girl think I was giving her the brush off. I didn’t run around blabbing about my disability, but I wasn’t going to just let a fan think she was annoying me with the sin of praising me to the high hills. Thus I bit the bullet for her.

I levitated my notepad out and wrote. ‘Sorry I’m mute.’

“Oh, okay, so just write things down… you sing but you’re mute, how does that work?”

‘I was changed after the incident with Tirek.’

She looked at me with pity. I hated that look. I was just waiting for her to move on from her broken hero. “So, what are you working on?” She zipped off to the left, then for no apparent reason, back to the right. “Anyway can I convince you to give me a sneak listen?”

I did have a few trunk songs I was working on, as music was still my thing.

Lightning just kept… jumping from one place to the next, almost like a unicorn practicing teleporting, but pegasi can’t do that so… what was she doing? She shot left, right, up down, behind me, in front- I stuck out a hoof and put it on her head.

I looked at her with big eyes, trying my best to communicate the message of “clam down, you’re gonna hurt yourself” with just a look. I’m hyper, but this kid was making me look like a slug.

“I’m freaking you out aren’t I?”

I shook my head and decided to just write it out. ‘It’s not me I’m worried about. At that pace you’re gonna give yourself a heart attack.’

“Well gee I hope not. Though I guess all the electricity could hurt me in the end, I just don’t have any way of getting rid of it so I just hope not ya know? I got powers when an evil scientist experimented on me. I was rescued by LunaandsheprotectedmeandnowIcallhermommaLuna and can you take your hoof off my head you’re forcing all the energy to go to my mouth.” I obliged and she shot behind me. “Anyway, please tell me you have something.” Well, the base cannon mix I had in my saddle bag was only there because I forgot to take it out but it was decent. I put away my pad and took out my CD player and head phones. “Those look expensive,” she commented nervously.

They were, as were my sunglasses so seeing those blue versions of them in her saddle bag, I quickly remembered my rather negative thoughts about her with an invisible cringe. Still I didn’t want this hyper active kid to accidently damage my equipment. I put the head phones on my own head. My horn glowed with a small purple hue. “I thought you were gonna-“ she stopped talking as two balls of energy affixed themselves to either of her ears. What I heard, now she would hear. This spell helped when I wanted critiques or to share with a friend, like right now.

As the intro music started to play I started taking mental notes on the filly’s reaction. Again her motor mouth started up. “Is this a kind of spell to share music or… wait… what is-“ she stopped talking, her eyes going wide. Well that had the desired effect. I watched as the beat was dropped and the little filly started rocking her head back and forth, bucking her back legs, a huge smile on her face, her eyes closed tight. She was getting down to it alright.

She spun a few times, which made me glad I had decided against giving her the head phones. She even started flying, her flight a little messed up by trying to flap with the beat.

She was having a good time until the music came to a point where I decided to add a few record scratches without any base accompaniment. She cringed and dropped to the ground. ‘Okay’ I mentally noted, ‘fix that part’.

Back to the base and she was rocking out again. It was a mess of a dance, but it was one that told me I had to be doing something right. She was making a scene and ponies were watching. Still, long as she didn’t mind.

There was quiet in the head phones, the song abruptly ended. Lightning sat up, looking around. ‘Okay, another note, fade out, abrupt ending is too jarring’.

As the next single came up, there was a hiss. Lighting furrowed her eyebrows. Louder and louder until a loud base BOOM! Lightning Strike jumped and then started to rock out again as the song proper got going. Her head and legs starting to shoot through completely random asymmetric patterns.

She was helping me lose my funk (unintentionally but whatever) so I had to help her. I tapped her shoulder. The base went down and I stomped my front hooves on the ground. It went up and I stuck out my right hoof. Lightning started to copy me. I did my best to also get her to notice how I was moving my hips. Even rocking to a beat had a pattern to it after all, if you wanted the best experience anyway. The experience is of course made complete when you’re rocking out with a kid you barely know in public with every pony now staring at you.

Screw it! I had a fan filly!

“You guys are dorks,” Dusty said. I quickly moved on his right, Lightning currently on his left. In my head this was a perfectly coordinated dance number. In reality whenever I opened my eyes to check my fan filly, she was doing her best to keep up, but it looked better when she was just rocking out on her own. Dusty looked at his sister chuckling. He then turned to me, the grown mare dancing in the street just cause and he busted out laughing.

Many have made the mistake of thinking I have shame. I don’t. I levitated Lightning’s sun glasses out of her pack and planted them on her nose, no mean feat as she was still trying to dance. Still watching her I decided to let her lead, doing my best to signal with my head for her to “take it away”.

Who was I kidding? She had no pattern to her dancing so me following her looked even more ridiculous. Even more mares and stallions were staring now. Wait for it…

Pinkie appeared next to me and started dancing right along.

Bolts of electric energy started shooting off the hooves of the filly. They didn’t bother me until I started to notice them starting to turn into lightning bolts, shooting into the air. ‘The heck?’ I thought.

Lightning spread her wings, bolts of energy striking around her. She started to levitate, the energy pushing her up. Her brother’s eyes went wide. Bolts of electric energy were tearing out from his sister, ponies running for cover. “Lightning, stop!”

Lightning Strike dropped to the ground. As I watched she completely tuned out my music, looking out over the empty street. I stopped my CD and spell.

Lightning Strike was silent and still, slowly looking around. Her eyes started getting moist as she looked back at me. She then looked at the ground, closing her eyes in shame. “Go ahead, run away.”

Pinkie looked around. “Why? That was weird, but I like weird.”

I levitated a note in front of her brother, ‘She didn’t hit anything… what was that?’

“I can’t entirely explain. She has some control over the power the mad doctor gave her… she's kinda a living weapon... but we have nothing to fight and we don’t want to be mean… so we’re just kinda lonely.”

‘But she didn’t hit anything…’

“Yea, she can easily not do that. But she can’t just change what she is. If you’re gonna walk away just do it. Thanks for dancing with us. It was fun.”

I looked at Lightning Strike. The filly who just shook off my disability like it was completely irrelevant. She didn’t look like she was feeling so good. Course how would I feel?

I shook my head. I wanted to speak up, to say, “Don’t worry Dusty, I wouldn’t dream of letting myself abandon someone who idolizes me.

I closed my eyes, concentrating. Balls of energy appeared in the ears of both Dusty and Lightning. The only I answer I had to give was pushing the play button again.

Hey, this time there was no one to stare.

By the way, Dusty totally dances like a dork too.

Oh and I think I forgot something… eh, probably not important.

Author's Note

So, news to everyone reading this. This story is about Lightning and Dusk themselves to a degree and if by chance you are interested in following them on even more adventures through this version of they have an ask tumblr: Ask Lightning and Dusk

Family Matters

The day after our first meeting, I found Lightning and Dusk outside the music store again, Lightning was pretty much in her own world, zipping around with her toys. Dusk let me know they had been out there half the day while Lightning waited for me. Course her not being able to stay in one place for longer than a few seconds, meant that by the time I arrived Lightning Strike had a full on puppet show going, I had watched for a few moments before trying to get her attention. Apparently the Shadow Bolt and Wonder Bolt toys were going to war and Rainbow Dash (played by Lightning Strike) and Apple Jack (played by Dusty) had to save the Wonder Bolts from imminent demise (because let’s face it that’s what always happens). There was an argument about Dusk wanting to play Soarin, but Lightning shot him down pointing out he couldn’t fly. To which he pointed out he wasn’t a girl. To which she pointed out he was ticklish and proceeded to demonstrate. It was all very cute, but I figured before Dusty suffocated on his own laughter, I needed to let Lightning know I was present, and then let her get back to business of getting back at Dusty for ruining her show. Course once I tapped her on the shoulder, I became the show so to speak.

Lightning had all kinds of questions for me, she wanted to know everything about being a DJ, or more importantly, about me. I steered her away from anything personal, but it was still all very encouraging.

Dusk was worried them waiting around for me like that was creepy, but actually I was flattered and just let them know what times I usually frequented the store so we could hang out more. Why not?

I still hadn’t really gotten back to DJ’ing, but after a few weeks of visiting with a filly who thought I walked on air and her unbelievably patient little brother (seeing as I realized he himself was only there for his sister for some reason, and wasn’t really into dance music) I was certainly feeling jazzed. Maybe I could find inspiration for my next single in that little pony fire cracker? Maybe not, but I was starting to think about it.

In fact, I was feeling so jazzed come one Tuesday, that I actually tried to single out the most egotistic mare in all of Ponyville to see if I could out do her on at least something other than musical and magic talent (those two just coming more natural to me).

Rainbow Dash walked by me while I was shopping, myself just coming down from an ego trip from spending time getting interviewed by a fan yesterday, and then having fun goofing off and tormenting her little brother. (Dusk was fine by the way, I was sure things weren’t taken too far, he was annoyed, but not hurt.) I started dancing around Rainbow, by pen and pad levitating in front of her as I wrote ‘I have a fan filly, I have a fan filly, I have a fan filly, I have a fan filly,’ with my mouth open in a big smile and my head bobbing back and forth. ‘Haven’t seen your fan hanging around. She used to follow you around all the time. What, she outgrow you?’

Rainbow chuckled. “Kiddo… you mean Scoots right? I mean, you read the papers right?” she asked.

‘Well… the music section. Seriously though, where is the little flapper, haven’t seen her in days.’

“WHAT!? What did you call my daughter?”

‘Daughter? I just said little flapper.’ Now, seriously, I was riding the ego express from Tartarus, I wouldn’t have been able to read social cues if they were on actual cue cards by this point. Rainbow Dash pulled my pen and pad from floating between us and tossed them to the ground with her mouth me just dodging a hoof to the face, still feeling a fair amount of pain in my horn.

A quick levitation spell put Rainbow Dash in the air too far away to hit me, but she was still fuming mad and screaming at me, swinging her hooves, her struggling starting to break my hold. “What the heck is wrong with you!? What the heck makes you think you can mock a little filly whose had to live with-“

“Rainbow Dash!” came the stern voice of our local Princess. “What are you doing?”

Rainbow stopped struggling in my levitation spell but still pointed a hoof and me and yelled, “She called Scoots a flapper!”

Twilight walked up to me and swift slap finally knocked something loose in my head. I had heard Scootaloo referred to as a flapper several times, but until that moment I had never put two and two together and realized it was an insult to her flying ability, or lack thereof.

I hung my head contritely as I let Rainbow Dash down, levitating up my pen and pad again. I knew she wouldn’t hit me in front of Twilight, but I still felt bad enough for what I had just written. ‘Sorry, I’ve heard lots of ponies call her that. I didn’t mean to offend, I thought it just meant little pegasus. You see-’

Rainbow glared at me. “Others?! Names.”

‘I don’t remember right now.’

Twilight looked at her frustrated friend. “That’s probably for the best. Rainbow, you’ll just embarrass Scoots if you go on a revenge campaign anyway. Besides, I believe Vinyl.”

Rainbow nodded, sighing, and giving me a half smile.

‘Anyway, since when is Scootaloo your daughter?’ I wrote.

“About a week ago,” Rainbow said with a smile, then she almost growled, “It was all over the papers, them saying I was such a “charitable” pony for rescuing her from a neglectful home, especially considering her disability. So now my little family’s problems are circulating all over town. Sorry if I’m a little testy.”

I touched my horn to see that it was okay, seeing that it was, I wrote, ‘No harm no foul.’ I tried to think of how to rescue myself. ‘That WAS nice of you. Scoots is lucky. You always were pretty fond of that filly.’

“Well not always, but these last few years she’s been growing on me. Besides, you know me, I can’t just leave a filly in distress.” She smiled and looked right. “Anyway, about this filly fan, anything like Scoots was?” She then looked back.

'Well she’s a pegasus, but that’s where the similarities end it seems. My goodness but she’s a ball of energy. Thinks I’m the end all be all… which I am of course.'

“No, that would be me,” Rainbow shot back. Twilight shook her head at her friend, smiling. Rainbow looked at her. “Twilight told me to do something that might help me with my frustration these days. Really I’m mostly pissed at Scoots’ parents, they’re the bad guys in all this.” She twisted her face in frustration. “I’m trying to raise awareness about foal neglect and abuse.” She nodded. “So, not to concern you too much, but is there anything off about your little fan? You should take the chance to take notice, foals can’t just defend themselves ya know.”

I thought for a moment. Lightning was a little hyper but as to problems… well there was certainly a fear of rejection there, but I was sure I had already seen the reason for that. ‘Nothing in particular. She’s a little afraid of rejection, but she’s a little different from other fillies so that’s probably why, not abuse.'

Rainbow nodded. “That could be an indicator, but I’d doubt it. Really unless she shows up injured or half starved, there’s probably not much to worry about. Just keep an eye on her”

‘Will do!,’ I said, my pen and pad still floating, but I saluted Rainbow with a smirk. ‘I’m gonna meet her in a minute here anyway.’ I started walking to the music store. I looked up, a small shadow gliding over the group. Her brother riding on her back, Lightning Strike touched down awkwardly.

As Dusk got down, Lightning started stumbling.

“Speaking of suspicious,” Twilight said.

Both mine and Rainbow’s jaws dropped. Lightning had a black eye and was favoring her shoulder like crazy. Finally she hissed and
dropped to the ground, trying to bite her lip to keep from crying.

Dusk looked at her. “Lightning… you’re starting to worry me here. You said that was no big deal.”

“I was acting tough- trying to- I’m not very tough, OW, OW, OW, OW, OW, OW, OW, OW, OW!” Lightning started to yell. Dusk started trying to help her up but she snapped at him. “I can’t walk! It just won’t move.” Both foals looked to be panicking.

Rainbow looked at me. I nodded and put a spell on my little fan. Lightning levitated into the air. I trotted to the hospital, her floating by my side. She whined and hissed, but nothing that indicated she was getting worse as I went. As I went, Dusk had to break into a gallop to keep up. Rainbow started asking him questions.

“How exactly did that happen?” she asked.

Dusk answered as we came into the building and got to the front desk. “She crashed into a wall while we were at home.”

The nurse at the front counter, herself a red Pegasus, reached over and touched Lightning’s shoulder as the colt spoke. Lightning yelped. “Um… a wall inside?” asked the nurse.

“Yea…” Dusk replied.

“Um… that felt broken.”

“Broken!?” Lightning squeaked out.

“We can probably fix it with time but it’s still good you came in when you did.” The nurse floated some paper work to me and took her from me with her own levitation spell. “You fill that in… Parent or good Samaritan?”

“The latter,” Rainbow shot in, probably knowing levitating my note pad would be hard to do along with the filly.

“Fill out here then,” the nurse said. “Doctor Grave Digger will see her right away.”

As my little charge was levitated away I only had one thought… okay two, first- I levitated my pen and paper again. ‘Doctor who?’ But the nurse wasn’t looking at me. That’s an irritating thing about not having audible speech. However Rainbow saw my note.

“Oh yea, he’s a good one. Fixed up one of my wing a while back.”

‘But his name…’

“Pinkie’s not a pink pie,” Rainbow replied. She looked down at Dusk, moving on from that rather… interesting topic, like it was
meaningless. “She crashed into a wall inside your house?”

Dusk nodded. “How serious is it?” he asked.

“We won’t know until the doctor does, but I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Twilight said.

“Heh, no- we’re not leaving this alone,” Rainbow said. “Where do you live?” she continued interrogating the colt.

“Under Canterlot Mountain,” the colt replied. “Kinda long way away, but not really if you fly… which right now well… kinda more concerned about my sister than…”

Rainbow started to glare at him. “We’ll being going home with you, now. Vinyl, you stay here and make sure the filly is okay.”

I didn’t like this. I understood her concern, but Rainbow was going into overdrive. Dusk was about six and probably scared himself. I shook my head. ‘I’m coming with if you’re going to his house. You’re getting a temper Rainbow.’

“Gee, I had to save my own sister from squalor via adoption and all our problems were published in the freaken’ news paper. Temper? I wonder why!” Rainbow started to yell.

“Okay, okay,” Twilight said. “I would be nice to have someone besides me to reign you in Rainbow.” She looked at the door.

“I’m going,” Rainbow said, grabbing the colt. I started to glare at her myself, horn lighting up. “Fine. You can come.”

(***)

Rainbow carried me and Twilight carried the colt as we headed for Lightning Strike’s home. Rainbow offered to carry Dusk, but Dusk was starting to get leery of her.

Finally Dusk pointed us to where he said his home was. A cave at the base of Canterlot mountain. Twilight and Rainbow looked around as we came in for a landing. “This is where you live?” Twilight asked.

We touched down. Rainbow looked at the right wall of the cave, commenting, “Well, I guess I can see running into a wall in that case… but who keeps foals in a cave anyway? What do they just feed you and leave you here alone or something? Where are your folks?”

Rainbow wasn’t sounding like herself. Like she was fishing here. I motioned for Dusk to lead the way into the cave. Dusk was much more receptive to me than the others and I was pretty sure as to why. I lit my horn as we went further into the cave, but to my surprise that was pointless, as the hall way was lit up with huge torches on either side. We came into a large room in the cave and my heart sank.

There was a huge pile of gold dead center in the cave. The other two mares started looking around with shock in their eyes as well. What was going on? This was a dragon’s cave!

The ground started to shake as we heard a ferocious sounding flapping outside and then a crash. Twilight levitated Dusk and myself to her sides, a force field going around us. Rainbow then quickly flew in front of us. “Rainbow, get back here with the rest of us,” Twilight shouted at Rainbow Dash.

“No, you guys run, I’ll hold him off!” Rainbow yelled.

“That’s my job Rainbow, you’re a mother now. You need to get home alive.” However their conversation was cut short by a huge shadow falling over all of us. I pulled Dusk in close, more scared of impending doom and watching a child die, than questioning why he had brought us to the home of a dragon in the first place.

The dragon was huge, walking on four legs and possessing massive wings. In the light of the fire behind him his green scales glistened and his orange yellow stomach looked like a fire might be taking hold inside him already. As he looked down at us, I swear his eyes started to glow.

The dragon’s voice boomed, shaking all of us with just its sound. “Who dares disturb the sanctity of the cave of the dragon bearer of courage?”

Rainbow Dash glared up at him defiantly, but as he lowered his head, all of us took a step back- that is, all of us except Dusk. He looked up at the dragon. “Hey dad.” Twilight's force field faltered and failed, probably not able to last forever.

“D-d-dad?” Rainbow said.

“Well yea, guess I should have mentioned I was adopted.” He looked at the four mares. “Well um… so… my dad’s a dragon… cool right?”

Rainbow stood her ground between the rest of us and the dragon. Dusk ran forward, but Rainbow then jumped in front of him and shoved him behind herself again. The dragon looked down at Rainbow, sat down, and then laid down, holding up his head with one hand. “You come with a purpose. If you wish to threaten my son, you should know, you’re that close to being a collection of stains on the cave wall. He moved to snap a finger at Rainbow Dash, the mare continuing to hold her ground.

“I would never threaten a colt!” she snapped. “We’re here for answers. What kind of a dragon adopts pony children?”

The dragon looked past Rainbow at myself and Twilight. “I do believe someone here has done the inverse.”

“Spike isn’t exactly my son, but that’s hardly the same thing anyway,” Twilight responded.

“Oh?” asked the dragon. “Still, what are you doing in my home? I am a citizen of Equestria. Even as a princess you are subject to the laws of the land. Including those against home invasion. Have you a warrant?”

“Probable cause!” Rainbow yelled back. “Your “daughter”,” she air quoted her words “Came all the way to Ponyville carrying her brother with a broken shoulder. The hey is up with that?”

The dragon’s head went back, shock in his eyes. He then looked down at Dusk. “Is this true?”

“Um…” Dusk began. “Well she ran into a wall, but she said she was okay so we went out.”

“She had a black eye!” Rainbow shouted.

The dragon continued to look at Dusk. “Now Dusk, you know your sister has her tendencies. You should have insisted. Our messenger dragon could have sent me a message that something was wrong in seconds. And then I would have arrived with help.”

“Well…” the colt said, trailing off.

“So they’re taking care of themselves?” Rainbow demanded.

The dragon nodded. “To some degree. Dragons have complete autonomy at their age, they just stay here for the company and for food. They are as any of my treasures. More valuable in fact. I protect them just as ferociously-“

“There’s more to having kids than protecting them!” Rainbow interrupted. “Can you raise them?”

“I provide love, a roof, food, someone to talk to, instruction, protection, what do you want?”

“How about a parent who won’t kill them rolling over in his sleep?”

“They sleep up there,” The dragon pointed at a large cleft above. “It’s inclined so they won’t slip off too. Of course I thought of that. You think I’m the first dragon to so much as have a pet? I know how to not hurt them. Much like a pony owning a rabbit.”

“They’re not pets!”

“Are you here to ask questions, or conduct an inquisition?” the dragon asked. Rainbow did not back down even a step. “I’m sorry but, why am I taking this? You invaded my home, you’re holding my son, you’ve told me my daughter is injured and have yet to tell me where she is and now you seem to be accusing me of child abuse.”

I levitated a note pad in front of me, walking in front of Rainbow, barely finding my courage. I began to write. ‘Back off Rainbow. You’re too close to this.’ Rainbow waved a wing at me to get back again, but I pretty much ignored her. ‘Do you understand how to raise foals?”

The dragon looked at my note. “Why do you not speak?”

‘I can’t.’

“Too afraid?”

‘I don’t know why, but my voice hasn’t worked for nine months.’

“No insult, but that’s… disarming. Which is good, because your friends were about to be pulverized for threatening my family.” Rainbow kept glaring at the dragon. Finally Twilight’s magic surrounded her and she was dragged back along with Dusk.

“I have to protect-“ Rainbow began but this time Twilight snapped at her.

“YOU... HAVE... A... DAUGHTER!” Hosting her own glare that could have annihilated a cockatrice, Twilight continued. “I’m happy you’re committed to helping, but could you TRY to remember you’re responsible for a foal’s life these days? If you died before it was just your problem, but don’t you think Scoots has been through enough?” Rainbow looked away.

I was happy that Rainbow was no longer there making things worse, but then I looked back into the glowing orange eyes, each of which could have crushed me in a blink. My whole body started shaking of its own accord. I almost lost track of my writing spell realizing I was standing before an fully grown dragon all by myself. I tried a more tactful approach. ‘I don’t know much about dragons, but a little about reptiles. Do you raise your young or just watch them from afar?'

“What’s the difference?” asked the dragon. “We provide for them if that’s what you mean.”

‘But you have to watch over them. Pony children are…’ I looked at Dusk, trying to consider my words. But I decided bluntness was the correct route. ‘Kind of dumb.’

“What exactly happened Dusk? How did your sister get injured?” asked the dragon.

“Well she wanted to see if the adage that a watched pot never boils was true. She started flying and watching it at the same time and well… ya know. Splat,” the colt explained.

The dragon blinked. He then sighed. “Well… that’s Lightning alright,” the dragon looked at me. I sensed concern from the massive creature. “Are you sure? Can you not think of a way they can have some autonomy?”

‘A little, but…’

The dragon looked at Dusk, his eyes now softening. “But… Celestia herself said I could keep them. I would be observed raising them, it was part of a treaty, it was a show of trust.” He continued to look at the colt, who seemed to be paying attention now himself. “Over these last few months I have grown to care for them deeply… but if Lightning was injured because of me then… maybe it’s best they go.“

“NO!” Dusk yelled. “You don’t know what foster care was like. Don’t send us away!” He ran forward and grabbed one of the dragon’s claws. “Please! I’ll talk to Lightning, she’ll be more responsible, I promise… please!” The dragon looked at him. “I don’t want to leave again. I thought you said this was my home now. Not again!”

The dragon looked up at Twilight who spoke herself on the matter. “I don’t mind them spending time here if they’re safe,” she began. “And I don’t understand Celestia’s reasoning, but I doubt you can raise them by yourself. I don’t mean to challenge a solar sister’s ruling, but-”

“Princess sminsess,” said the dragon. “What matters to me is my children. If they’re not safe here then-“

‘Wait!’ I quickly wrote. I didn’t know what I was writing, but my spell seemed to have a mind of its own. ‘Look, the dragon can keep them in a sense. What if they just lived with a pony while he’s away-a pony like me?’

“And just how are they supposed to get from this place to yours-“ began Rainbow Dash, but as she spoke the dragon breathed deep and to my horror I saw a huge blue flame engulf Dusk, the colt disappearing into ashes. We all stood stunned. The dragon then pointed at the treasure pile.

Dusk stood on top of it, looking bewildered but fine. “Getting back might be more difficult, but I think we can work something out. If this pony is up for it.”

‘Just know, I’m not adopting… I’m just gonna be a… mentor, yea a mentor.’

“That’s acceptable to me. Will that be enough to placate the princess of friendship?”

Twilight let down her guard. “I’ll take the matter as acceptable for now."

Dusk ran up to me and gave one of my back legs a quick hug. “Thanks DJ!” he yelled. He then ran over to Rainbow Dash and kicked her front leg.

Rainbow bit her lip, Dusk glaring are her. However I used my own magic to pull Dusk back and calmly sat between them, seeing the tears in Rainbow Dash’s eyes. My pen and paper moved between us. ‘I promise, they’ll be safe. You don’t have to save every foal in Equestria.’

“You don’t know… I ignored all the signs… Scoots could have died… I never want to see something like that again. Never again.”

As unsure as I was about sharing life in any way with a dragon or what he considered to be his children, I still wrote, ‘I’ll be careful. I promise, I’ll protect them.’

Rainbow Dash flew slowly past the dragon and out of the cave. Twilight looked at me. “You sure you can handle this?”

‘I hope. I just don’t want to see a family broken up. Even if it is a strange one.’ Twilight nodded and flew away herself. I looked up at the dragon. ‘Name’s Vinyl Scratch.'

The dragon smiled. “Torkuda.”

Author's Note

In this story, let me quickly note, NO, I'm not trying to make Rainbow Dash look bad. I'm just writing how I think she might start to act in the aftermath of adopting Scootaloo if there really were bad circumstances leading up to that like all the Scootadopt stories usually imply. Basically, Rainbow is a little traumatized, so try to understand her rather than judge her eh?

Vignettes

Author's Note

Here are a series of short stories I made for our growing cast of characters, just to get to know them and their situations a little better. Not sure how many more times Rainbow Dash will show up, but she and her now daughter Scootaloo will be in this fic for a while.

Not sure if I was able to get Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle distinct enough in personality in the CMC story. BTW, that one is just for fun.

Anyway, guess if anything, for certain reasons the Tickle story might be the most popular. No, it's not THAT kind of story, but it does have ponies getting tickled so there ya go.

Vignettes

The Universe is Messing With Me:

“Stamp on the ground, jumpin’ all around!” and so I did. I love the Itolabrothers! My head phones told me what to do and I always obeyed the music, no matter how many ponies were watching. You think I learned that from Lightning? No other way an adult pony would just be doing that? Hah! Common mistake. You think I’m an adult. I’m just older than most kids!

So there I was, rocking out in the hospital waiting room. It didn’t hurt that Dusty started participating despite himself, rocking his head and shoulders, but really he was doing his best to just stay in his seat while I got down in the middle of the floor.

Several of the mares around started acting uncomfortable, but weirding out snobs is just another one of my services. The primary would be being there for my fans!

My biggest was still being operated on. Not sure what a broken shoulder entails as far as operations, but I was pretty sure it was similarly as painful to what they had to do for me when I broke a shin at ten. Apparently Lightning was deep under right now as the doctors worked their magic.

Thus I had worked some of my own. I knew of two ponies Lightning and her brother were also wild about, so I figured I would call in a few favors. I wanted it to be special when I told the filly she was to be my… student?... half daughter?... friend I hope? The terms of the arrangement between me and Torkuda were kind of vague.

In any case I had long since closed my eyes to better hear the music, tuning out the complaining adults. I was waiting to hear Dusk’s hooves joining me. Finally I heard the clicking of… two sets of young hooves?

I opened my eyes to see I was not being joined by Dusk, but two fillies, one orange pegasus, flittering her wings without lifting off, and one yellow earth pony with a bow in her hair. “Scootaloo!” I heard a shout. “Oh no ya don’t!” Suddenly my cd player was stopped. I looked down to notice Dusk by my side. “If you don’t mind…” I looked at him with curiosity, he wasn’t usually anywhere near that forward. “Head phone spell?” I figured I should have scolded him for touching my stuff, but I decided against it, I was curious to see where this was going. I complied, casting my sound sharing spell on him, two energy balls appearing on either side of his head. “Start her up!”

As the music started playing, the colt stood on the floor closing his eyes. Me and the two CMC members started watching. “Stamp on the ground,” he stomped both front feet. “Move it all around,” he spun. Then he stamped again. Then he jumped four times. Then he spun. I recognized this as just the dance prescribed by the song but wasn’t sure where Dusk was going. Then came the music bridge.

For a few seconds Dusk stood still, smiling. Then, his feet started skittering on the floor in perfect rhythm. It was… tap dancing? AWESOME! My eyes doubled size and a grin shot across my face. The two fillies just stood there bewildered until I remember to cast my audio sharing spell on them.

Just like that the two CMC members were on either side of Dusk, watching his feet. Both were trying their best to keep up, but tap dancing… heck I haven’t been able to figure it out myself and I’m twenty.

The first verse came and the colt stopped again. He smiled looking at Scootaloo. “Dance… please?” Scootaloo shrugged. “River dance, I’ll lead!”

“What?” Thus he started, a river dance of sorts. I’m not sure if Stamp on the Ground is a river dance song, but if it were, some six year old was convincing me it was. Well, Dusk was, Scootaloo was completely lost, but obviously doing her best. She started tripping over herself, probably still trying to tap dance, as was Apple Bloom. Really all three kids were doing their own thing.

As the CMC members were tap dancing… sorta… Dusk changed back to that. “How long av’ ya been practin’ this?” asked Apple Bloom, tripping over her own feet.

“Tap dancing? Since I was four! Only started River Dance a year ago.” The three kept going. If I had to guess, the pegasus filly that caught Dusk’s attention in the first place, Scootaloo, seemed to be catching onto the dance faster. Poor Bloom was utterly lost.

Finally came the voice of the filly I knew was missing. “Hey! Don’t leave me out!” I chuckled to myself as Sweetie Belle ran up. I knew all three of the fillies pretty well. The CMC pretty much went all over town on their adventures and had messed with me several times. DJing was apparently out for them and I was sure they had already tried dancing, but if they were having fun, they would do whatever. Sweetie looked up at me with pleading eyes. I shared the spell with her. The song was ending, but she did her best to join in.

In a few minutes the song was over. The three girls sighed in disappointment. However Dusk wasn’t disappointed for some reason. “Did ya like that?” he asked Scootaloo.

“I think so,” Scoots replied. She checked her flank. “Nothing though… you’re pretty good though.”

I looked at the colt curiously. “What?”

‘If you can dance that good, why didn’t you earlier when we first met?’

“Well Lightning’s a lot faster than me, I couldn’t keep pace so I just said “screw it” and did whatever.” He looked down. “Not sure why, but it’s easy to do that when she’s around.”

“Can we do another song?” asked Sweetie. “I kinda missed out.”

The three foals nodded. I moved to start my player again, however Scootaloo put up a hoof. “Hold up!” She trotted around Dusk a few times. “You’re really good at that, and… you’re younger than me I think… doesn’t that mean you should have well, ya know?”

“Ya, why don’t ya have yer cuitie mark?”

Dusk looked at his flank. He shrugged. “I don’t know. My friend Lightning- I mean my sis says- the universe is messing with me, whatever that means.”

The three fillies just stood still for a while. Finally Apple Bloom spoke up. “Ya… ya… ya mean we could find something we like, we could find what we’ll have our future talents in an’ still not get cutie marks?”

Again Dusk shrugged. “I guess, maybe? My sister is a little nutty.”

“You pretty much made up that dance didn’t you?” asked Scoots. “But you don’t have a mark in dancing or at least tapping?” Eyes wide all three fillies started walking away together, my spell leaving them.

“Um… can me and my sis join the crusaders?” asked Dusk as they started to go for the door.

“Ah… um… yea… um” Apple Bloom started. “Talk ta us tomorrow. Um… we got some um, thinkin’ ta do um… yea.”

The two fillies left.

“YEEEEEESSSSS!” Dusk shouted.

Myself I just stood there, dumbfounded. Did a six-year-old just unintentionally teach the CMC a life lesson?

(***)

Lightning the Bard

No the members of the CMC were not the ponies I invited over. Dusk had left to go visit his sister while I was still stuck waiting for the two I had invited. A bit of a perfectionist, I wanted to enter her room with them in toe. Finally they walked into the waiting room.

Excitedly I lead the two mares into my little fan filly’s room. As we three walked in, I only got a preview of what the foals were doing, I think Dusk was reading to his sister. Sweet and all, but that book was suddenly slammed shut and I heard two declarations almost in unison. Still they were somehow discernable.

“Honest Apple!” yelled Dusk.

“Rebel Rainbow!” Lightning yelled.

Apple Jack, on my left, smiled big and proud. Rainbow Dash on my right however looked more confused.

“Rebel Rainbow!” Lightning shouted again. “She’s twenty percent cooler!”

Rainbow Dash grinned, her friend asking, “Now exactly how the hay did that catch on?”

“They can only tolerate each other when the forces of evil threaten the fillies of the world!”

“Now hold on a sec-“ AJ started, but RD interrupted.

“What about the colts?” Rainbow asked.

“Details! Who cares about colts?” Lightning yelled.

“Hey!” Dusk shouted.

“You can just hit my shoulder if I get too annoying,” Lightning quickly told him. Probably the worst advice in the universe but, as a positively awful parental figure, I wrote nothing in response. “You two are the most positively amazing ponies in the universe!” both mares smiled, Rainbow nodding. “I can’t believe you’re here. Only one pony in all the cosmos is better, DJpon3 and I get to see her all the time,” I smiled and nodded. “I’ve got to be the luckiest filly alive!- Minus the broken shoulder- and the fact that my bio parents abandoned me when I was a baby-but anyway-” All three of us mares started to look at each other with concern at that line.

“Ya know I’m not really a reb-“ began Rainbow, but she was interrupted.

“I had this really cool story with you guys in it, ya wanna hear it?” Rainbow and AJ shrugged their shoulders and sat down by the filly’s bed.

(***)

One night, the evil Dr. Dusk Nighttime *OW* kidnapped the gentle and ever feminine Apple Bloom Flowers after she had just finished picking daisies and chasing butterflies.

*Ah recon it’s a good thang ma sis ain’t here*

He carried her off to his evil cave layer where he planned to weave a magic spell on her. However Scootaloo the bravest filly who ever lived saw him carry her away.

*Scoots might like to hear this though.*

She followed him.

There stood Scootaloo, hiding behind a large stone column in the cave. Despite their many differences, Apple Bloom was Scootaloo’s dearest friend. She watched, even her bravery not enough to concur the horror of seeing a friend being hurt. Dusk cursed the fair filly that she would forever believe she was alone, blind to any love for her in all the world.

“The only thing that can set this filly free is the love of a true friend!” shouted the villain.

Scootaloo watched her friend. “They’ve all left me!” she cried. In her mind the planted memories of ponies walking away played over and over. Soon she started to believe no one had ever loved her. She sobbed into the floor of the cave.

Scootaloo pulled out her wooden sword. She had been planning on reporting what was happening to the great protectors of Ponyville, but she couldn’t leave her friend, not like this.

She charged out from her cover at the evil Dr. Dusk, her sword just missing him. Dr. Dusk being a powerful pegasus, he took to the air.

Scootaloo swiped at him several times, jumping in the air, but each time, the evil Doctor managed to just dodge.

Finally the Dr grabbed the brave filly by her small wings, yanking on them so hard the pain caused her to drop her sword. Scootaloo’s wings had never allowed her to fly and now they were causing her to be taken prisoner.

Hearing the screams of her protector, the spell on Apple Bloom was broken, but the evil Doctor still had Scootaloo in his clutches. Apple Bloom screamed for him to let her friend go, but he didn’t listen. He flew for the entrance to the cave. Apple Bloom ran after them, screaming and yelling, tears coming to her eyes as she saw the two leave the mouth of the cave.

“Please… no!” she yelled as she ran out of the cave. She could only watch helplessly from the ground as Scootaloo was carried into the clouds. Higher and higher the Doctor flew, Apple Bloom only able to glimpse Scootaloo’s struggling before they disappeared into the clouds.

The young red haired filly’s breath caught in her throat. “Please… no…” she started to gasp out.

She then heard screaming and looked up. She could only feel as a lump of a sob started to come up her throat. Scootaloo was falling to the ground, faster and faster, her wings flapping uselessly as she continued her decent. Scootaloo was going to fall close to her, but Apple Bloom just knew she would never catch her friend in time. Apple Bloom closed her eyes waiting to hear the crash.

Apple Bloom felt something fly over her and then heard two hooves hitting the ground.

Apple Bloom’s eyes flittered open, suddenly seeing Honest Apple. Honest Apple had caught her friend and rode a few feet forward, carried by momentum.

Honest set down the brave filly. Apple Bloom ran to her friend. Scootaloo was seriously hurt, but breathing.

Honest glared into the sky at Dr. Dusk, the stallion flying just out of reach. “Really?” Dusk said. “A pathetic earth pony? It just keeps getting better today. I’ll just drop you all-“

Dr. Dusk had to duck just in time as a blue hoof flew over his head. He stared with despair at the furious Rebel Rainbow! He flew back a few feet, but Rebel quickly covered the distance. Rebel grabbed Dusk by his forelegs and threw him to the ground, the evil pegasus managing to catch himself just in time in the air with outstretch wings.

Dusk started to fly away, but Rebel cared about those two fillies he had threatened. She wasn’t going to let this attack go unpunished. Her hoof pulled back she took off after him. She was ready to rip his head off but…

(***)

Lightning’s tone suddenly started to stutter. “But… but…” she looked over at her brother. “Dusk got away. He didn’t get hurt… no one hurts Dusk… no one… no one.” Lightning started looking around. “That wasn’t how the story was supposed to go… it… it…”

“That was… kinda intense…” Rainbow commented.

“Yea… kinda…” Apple Jack agreed.

“I mean wow,” Rainbow continued. “I really didn’t expect the Doctor to almost kill Scootaloo like that. Right out of nowhere, but it worked. I mean, I thought Apple Bloom was the one in danger, but woosh! Had Honest been just a little late well… KEEER SPLAT!” Lightning didn’t look happy at this praise. Her eyes went wide and her mouth was fixed in a position of pure horror. “But-but… um… good thing that didn’t happen I mean… Scoots is my daughter in real life so that would be sad. I-I… okay the mood here changed really fast, what’s going on?”

Dusk held out a hoof to his sister, which she grabbed with her own.

Apple Jack looked at me with concern. “What was that?”

I looked at the scared filly. My pen and pad floated out. ‘I don’t know,’ I wrote. ‘But I have a sneaking suspicion that something in that story was more real than Lightning meant it to be.'

“Something about that was… almost creepy. Why does a filly get scared of her own silly adventure story?” Apple Jack continued. Rainbow Dash left my side to walk around the bed and sit by Dusk. She put a hoof on the scared filly’s head, smiling as warmly as she could manage.

‘I heard too,’ I wrote with a nod. ‘Maybe we should change the subject for now though. She’s really scared.’ Apple Jack nodded.

I gave Lightning the news that I would be her half guardian. I wasn’t sure how exactly to word it for her but eventually she kind of understood. She yelled in glee.

I heaved a sigh of relief. Crisis averted. Now… why had there been a crisis in the first place?

Mute

About a week later:

“I can’t believe it!” Lightning yelled. “Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!” she said to Dusk as they walked. “I’m on the Apple Farm!” She looked ahead, “The CMC… the CMC club house!” The three fillies chuckled, Apple Bloom starting to blush. “I heard all about you guys in Manehatten. The Great and Musical Bard Trixie talked all about your adventures. Is it true you guys defeated a dragon?” she asked the girls.

“Well actu-“ began Apple Bloom, but she was interrupted.

“Absolutely!” Scootaloo shouted.

Lightning seemed to pause. “It was a mean dragon right?”

“Of course,” Sweetie answered, Apple Bloom seeming a little uncomfortable as her friends continued what I was guessing was a lie more colossal than Torkuda himself. “But that’s in the past, sure did happen, but hey, we got new members to initiate!”

Really I had a kinds of questions about why the CMC was so popular as to be heard about by my two charges, but I decided it could wait. I wasn’t needed for a bunch of foals to have fun. Lightning looked at me, as if to ask my permission to join her new friends. I nodded and turned to leave.

Behind me Apple Bloom spoke up. “Wait… ah was wondering… ah mean Sweetie was wondering-OW- we were all wondering… if ya could answer a few question?” I turned around. “It’s about yer um… problem… how am ah supposed to say um-“

I rolled my eyes and had my pen and pad float out. ‘Just say disability. It’s an okay general term.’

“Okay then, disability. Ya don’t mind do ya? Ah just… we’re just curious.”

Normally I actually might have told them to mind their own business. For a few months not being able to speak had been a sensitive issue for me. Even after my experience with Lightning had broken the ice by giving me someone to relate to a little about being different, I still didn’t like being questioned about my “problem” like I was some kind of exhibit.

However, I looked over at Scootaloo for a minute. For the longest time I had always felt sorry for her, which these days I’m ashamed to admit. I had always been one of the ponies who told her she should just stop trying to fly. It had gotten around a while ago that she had a birth defect and would never fly, so it always seemed so sad to me that she tried anyway. That is until I got my own issue. Ponies then started to treat me the same way, telling me not to try so hard to communicate. Eventually I got to the point where I could write fast enough to hold a normal conversation, but it was hard and the last thing I had needed was for someone to tell me to stop trying. I knew I would never speak again, or at least that such was unlikely, and Scoots had to know flying wasn’t in the cards, but we were both ever searching for something. We knew we couldn’t have what was denied us, but we wanted something like it. That was probably where her scooter came in, and where my pen and pad came in. I decided to go ahead and let them ask their questions. I knew I wouldn’t be able to teach Scootaloo anything about being disabled that she didn’t already know, but maybe she would get that she wasn’t alone.

Scootaloo waved at me. “What are you looking at me for?” she asked. I shook myself out of my thought process. I looked properly at the filly who had asked me to “talk” and nodded to her.

The three CMC members looked a little excited. “I was wondering how you write so fast?” Sweetie started.

“What happens when you run out of paper?” Scootaloo asked. “Oh better yet, where did you get the idea for that anyway, makes it like you can still talk… well I mean-“

‘It’s okay, I know what you mean,’ I wrote.

“Really ah was just wondering if yer issue is the reason you stopped makin’ music. Ah been missin’ yer stuff. Not always my kind of music, but it was fun ta watch others dance to it an’ ah always loved seein’ ya at Pinkie’s parities. By the way, Pinkie let me know, she misses ya.”

I smiled. Good old Pinkie. I had snapped at her when she started to press me about not helping with her parties anymore. That was wrong. Lately she had decided to give me some space, but I was happy to hear she still wanted me around. Really I never should have doubted it.

I figured go in order, that way I could put off the tough questions from Apple Bloom. ‘My writing speed came with practice. Octy was actually a good help with that. She sat and talked with me for hours helping me speed up by making me talk to her about my DJ music. I’m pretty sure she never understood a thing of the technicals of what I do, nor do I really think she cared, but having to write things out for her gave me the experience I needed. She even missed out on a concert to sit with me once and just talk. Really I was just feeling extra frustrated that day, but it must have been the fastest I’ve ever written.’

I turned the page. ‘Now as to where I got the idea to write… well I’ll take credit for thinking of that myself. I thought about communicating through music, but to be honest, in practice that’s more poetic than practical.’ Scootaloo looked at me crossed eyed. ‘It doesn’t work. In any case, I never run out of paper. Did you not think to ask where my papers go when I’m done with them?’

“Don’t you just stuff them in your saddle bag?” asked Sweetie.

‘Nope. They instantly erase. Actually I’m just writing on paper clones. They can’t retain writing for long, nor can they even exist for very long. It’s all thanks to a series of spells I learned from Trixie before she left for Manehatten. I always liked that mare. Really never sure why she and the bearers got off on the wrong hoof. She went through her own problems and all but well… not like we don’t all have a few.’

“Yea, we all know about her “problems”” Scootaloo mumbled. I thought about writing something to defend my friend, but I knew what Scoots was referring to. Maybe the bearers were too harsh on Trixie and her magic show, but there was no defending her later out and out attack on Ponyville.

‘Yea well, she’s moved on these days. You should go to her shows if you get the chance… she’s a bard now?’ I looked over at Lightning, who was currently flying over the group. She seemed to be paying attention, but she was also doing tricks while no one really paid attention.

“Oh yea, she’s really good too, some of the best song stories ever I tell you what!” Lightning spat out.

I nodded. Trixie always had a flare for the dramatic. I’m pretty sure she’s were “Rebel Rainbow” came from. Not that whole story mind you, that was Lightning’s own work, but the character itself definitely. ‘Moving on, as to my music well… that’s harder to answer. You see, it’s not easy to lose the ability to do something. When something bad happens and you realize all that it means, you sometimes go to a… I guess a dark place. Do you know what I’m talking about?' Both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom started to avoid eye contact with all of us. I looked up at Lightning just to notice she had suddenly landed and was looking at the ground. Dusk had bitten his lip.

Only Sweetie Belle shook her head. “Not really.”

Some might have criticized her for saying that, but me, I was just happy for her. From what little I knew of her, there wasn’t much tragedy in her life. No abandoning, no dead parents, no disabilities, she was lucky. I smiled at her despite myself. ‘You might not understand, but this is one of those things you should just enjoy not really understanding.’ Sweetie cocked her head sideways. ‘Trust me. You’ll have hard times in your life too eventually. Enjoy it while you’re blessed.’ WOW! How many ponies had told me that when I was younger. I always thought it was just a flowery speech but now, I wish I had taken that advice! Not that I didn’t enjoy life before, but I would have even more had I known what was coming… or would I have? I’m not sure… maybe?

But still… I looked at the foals in front of me. All of them so young. Apple Bloom’s parents were gone and I wasn’t sure if she ever even knew them. Apparently Lightning’s parents had left her as a baby, eventually she even confided to me she was a dumpster baby. Dusk was also an adoptee so I could only assume he had a similar past to her. Then there was Scootaloo. It was like the cosmos had it out for that filly. Disabled, neglected, I even remember hearing that her own mother told her to her face she didn’t love her, I couldn’t even imagine how that must have felt. Compared to them, just how bad was a lost voice? I had been adopted at four, so a life with a full family and all my abilities was all I had ever known for most of my conscious life.

And then when I got my disability, like the worst hearth’s warming present ever, my family and friends surrounded me. Octie, Trixie, Pinkie, my parents, it was like I had a net of ponies just waiting to catch me. Lightning and Dusk certainly didn’t get support like that as foster kids, I could only hope they felt they were getting it now. ‘I’m coming out of that dark place now,’ I wrote. ‘I… I um…’ what could I write? I still hadn’t started making music again, I had only thought about it. My sister kept me working to keep my mind from going to dark places, Pinkie had invited me to so many parties, Trixie had even gone out of her way to show me some tricks that she normally guarded. I was suddenly starting to feel a sense of owing them all. My eyes fell on Lightning again. Abandoned by her parents, her abilities scaring other ponies off. If I stopped playing, would that be like me abandoning her too?- Well of course not but… she believed in me. Even someone who barely knew me was supporting me.

‘I stopped for a while but ya know what? You foals have fun! Tomorrow why don’t you all come to my house. I’ll have a brand new song started by then. Not sure how close to done it will be but-‘

“YES!” shouted Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Lightning all in unison. The other two foals just smiled. Hey, dance music wasn’t really their thing. They were still great.

Vignettes part2

Apple Jack’s Hat:

I turned to leave again. “Can ya hang out for a bit?” asked Scootaloo. “We just haven’t seen much of you is all. You used to be so much fun.”

‘”Used to be?”’ I thought to myself. That kind of stung. Not sure if I deserved it or not, but still, it stung all the same. Well, AJ did invite me to stick around if I wanted. I shrugged and joined the group as we all stuffed into the small tree house. Lightning tried to fly over head as I ducked in, running into me. I was finally getting a little annoyed with her antics and decided it was high time I did something. I captured her in my magic and stapled her to the ground, using my magic to start ticking her stomach. She started squealing and laughing, squirming under my grip.

Finally she yelled for me to stop and I did. The other CMC members had stopped to watch, looking to actually be waiting for a cue to join in rough housing. Guess I disappointed them, oh well.

Scootaloo jumped over to a small pair of old fashioned drums. She looked at them and then at me excitedly. I rolled my eyes, but still sat down by one of the drums, her at the other. We beat out a rhythm for the initiation of two new foals into the CMC. Scootaloo had actually worked with me once on a drum solo she wanted for this, but so rarely did someone want to join their group.

Sweetie pulled out their long intro paper. But before she started, Apple Bloom jumped in front of the small podium they had saying, “Ah screw it yer just in! Welcome to the CMC!” I watched as Dusk and Lightning hoof bumped and grinned. For some reason unknown to me Scootaloo gave AB a quick glare. “Yea yea, but who has idea for what to do today… ah… ah kinda forgot ta plan something again…”

“Do you guys pull pranks?” asked Lightning.

“On occasion,” said Apple Bloom, looking away from me especially. I was the only adult in the room so I figured out what she was saying by that look. I winked at her, trying to let her know I was “on the level” so to speak. I was fine with pranks.

“Ever tried to hide Apple Jack’s hat?” asked Lightning excitedly. The three original CMC members looked at her with concern.

“She loves that hat Lightning,” Apple Bloom objected, standing up for her sister.

“I don’t mean ruin it. I wouldn’t dream of ruining Honest Apple’s hat, but ya know, just hide it. She’d probably chase us all over town trying to get us to tell her where it is!”

“Umm…” Apple Bloom and the others still looked uneasy.

“What’s the worst that she’ll do?” Dusk asked. “Tickle torture until one of us spills its location. She’s not a mean mare.”

“Not normally…” Apple Bloom said. “Listen, ya need ta understand something. If she lets ya wear it for a bit that’s one thing, she drops it on ma head all the time. But you do not, I repeat, you do NOT, mess with that hat.” Lightning looked at her with confusion. “She would never hurt one of us per say… let me tell you what happened last time we tried.”

(***)

Like ah said, AJ loves that hat. So ya’ll know ah could never damage it. Scootaloo wanted to throw it in the pig pen and Sweetie said she would hide it with the hats in Rarity’s shop, however the pigs would have messed it up and someone might a’ purchased it in the boutique. I’m not sure why AJ likes that hat so much, but ah wanted to mess with her, not hurt her.

During a sleep over I took her hat while she was asleep an’ just hid it in ma closet. Me an’ the other girls then waited in ma room until a frustrated Apple Jack knocked on ma door. “C’mon in sis,” I shouted, all three of us standing in the doorway.

“Gosharnit Apple Bloom. Ah know ya probably don’t know either, but… hrrrr… ah just can’t find ma’ hat anywhere. Ya know ah just can’t start ma chores until ah have it… just don feel right.”

“You sure you checked everywhere?” asked Scootaloo. “I mean it’s a big farm. You could have set it down anywhere.”

“Could have blown away in the wind if you set it down,” Sweetie blurted out, getting a quick glare out of me.

“Ah… ah hope not. I’ve had that thang forever,” she said. “Sheesh… how could ah be so irresponsible?”

“Weeellll… you could have left it… or somepony could have taken it… ya know… not sure who… rr… maybe ah am… ya know,” I started.

She smiled at me. “Ah see what’s goin’ on here.”

I grinned. Me and my friends got ready for bolt for the door as soon as she gave chase. It would only be a matter of time before she caught one of us and tickled her until she spilled the hat’s location, but we were gonna make it last as long as we could.

“Now… no… ah can’t hurt ma sister… no… hat… ya gotta get it ta me sis… before it’s too late… sis the voices, they’re comin’… they’re comin’.”

“AJ, what’r you talkin’ bout?” I asked. Suddenly her face went blank and she just stared at us from the door. “AJ?” She didn’t move. Sweetie and Scootaloo started moving away from me ta start running. However ma sis just stood there, her eyes stayed on me, big and unmoving. Ah edged to the left, those eyes following me. Her eyes weren’t even blinking, or at least they were taking longer than normal to do so. Her eyes were wide, but she had no expression at all.

Scootaloo and Sweetie started looking around, shifting uncomfortably. “Shouldn’t we start running?” asked Scootaloo.

“Where?” ah asked. “We’re on the second floor of the barn. She standing in the only exit.”

“Um…” Scootaloo began, looking around.

Sweetie looked at her, speaking out of the side of her mouth. “Get the hat- get the hat!”

Scootaloo threw open ma closet door and pulled out AJ’s hat, bravely jumping on her back and putting it on her head where it belonged. It broke whatever spell was on AJ.

(***)

Apple Bloom shook her head. “She was normal the rest of the day so ah figured not ta make a deal of it an’ all. Just leave that hat alone. Ah don’ want no one takin’ ma sister off to da looney bin r’ nothin’ so ah just make sure she always wears that hat.”

Lightning chuckled. “Oh brother. You’re lying.”

“No ah’m not,” Apple Bloom said, watching Lightning, who was now flying about three feet above the ground. “Can ya stop that? Ah mean is it so hard to just sit still? Ah was tellin’ a story, we’ll start doing things soon enough alright?” Lightning looked out the club house window.

“Harder than you might think,” Lightning said. “Oh here comes AJ right now.”

The sound of the hooves of the yellow pony came up the tree house ramp. Apple Jack opened the door and looked around the room. “Am makin’ dinner in a little bit, whose all stayin’ over… Vinyl you joining the CMC too or something?” I looked around, starting to think about how I should reply to that. “Oh sheesh sugar cube, don’t be so nervous. They’ve had me stay up here a few times too teachin’ em’ rope tricks.”

“Hey Honest Apple!” Lightning yelled. AJ looked at her with a grin. “Heads up!” Lightning shouted. She grabbed Apple Jack’s hat and shot out of the club house.

The three original club house members stood shocked as she flew away. Myself I smiled. Until I saw that look on AJ’s face. “Well…” she started. “Um… I recon ya’ll better hope she just comes back.

Those eyes… they just didn’t move. And there was no way out… I looked at the CMC members and Dusk. I was too scared to write.

Tickling

Rainbow Dash had come to eat at the Apple farm as well.

After the meal, we three mares started walking through the Apple family corn crops just talking.

‘Now I guess I’m going to have to do an all nighter to keep my promise,’ I wrote.

“Ma sister and her friends el’ understand if you can’t write a song by tomorrow,” AJ tried to assure me.

‘I’ve been letting my fans down for long enough!’ I replied. ‘No more!’

AJ and Rainbow both smiled. “You know it. That’s the attitude you need!” Rainbow cheered.

“Been meaning ta ask ya Rainbow, how’s Scoots doing these days at home? She seems normal enough now but ah’m just wonderin’,” AJ said.

“Actually that’s one of the reasons I came over today,” she looked at me. “You and Scoots have some things in common… I was hoping you wouldn’t mind giving me some pointers on dealing with an adoptive foal. And maybe… on dealing with a disability?”

I rolled my eyes, that was coming up a lot recently. Well she was asking for a pretty honest reason so I shrugged. ‘Ask anything you want, but not sure how much help I’ll be. Scoots was born unable to fly, and I was adopted at four. I remember Octy helped make the transition easier, but I can’t remember specifics on how. She did prank me a lot.'

“Well I’m kind of afraid to do that,” Rainbow replied. “I’m the prank queen and all, but I think Scoots’ trust is kinda fragile these days, at least as far as adults are concerned. Can’t blame her either.” Rainbow Dash stopped walking. She appeared to be gritting her teeth.

“Still rememberin’ that day in the hospital sugar cube?” AJ asked.

“Wish I could forget,” Rainbow replied. “Scoots has woken up in the middle of the night yelling for her mom three times this week alone.”

‘Hospital?’ I wrote.

“She was a neglected filly,” said Apple Jack. “There were a few things the docs had to take care of. Scoots' then mother, Mrs. Purple, stopped by ta’ let us all know she wasn’t givin’ up her daughter without a fight.”

“As if she had any right to fight!” Rainbow almost shouted. “That house was empty of any food and Scoots let me know recently that she sometimes went months without seeing that… that… mare… She went to talk to Scoots in the outpatient room. That’s when it all happened. The squirt started asking Mrs. Purple all sorts of questions about what was going on. And then she asked her mother if she ever loved her.” Rainbow paused. “That bitch went into this long winded speech about the pains of labor and giving up four years of work to care for Scootaloo. Mrs. Pruple asked how anyone could ever even like doing that. She told a filly to her face that she was nothing more than a burden she was keeping alive so she wouldn’t look bad. She even said it “no, I don’t love you, I never did”.” Rainbow snorted in fury. “Rarity was there at the time and chewed that bitch out and she’s lucky the nurses dragged me out or she’d have lost more than the two teeth I knocked out with the first punch.” I gave Rainbow a quick side hug. “Yea… Scoots needs that more than me. I’m just not always sure what to do.”

Apple Jack punched her shoulder. “Hey, but there was some good news right?”

“Yea,” Rainbow said with a chuckled. “Turns out the castle of Friendship has a dungeon. Twilight put Mrs. Purple down there when she was finally sentenced for foal neglect. I’m not allowed to go down and deliver the fear of Celestia to that freak, but I’m happier just knowing she’s gonna be stuck down there for a LONG time!”

‘I’m pretty sure I can’t say anything to help with that,’ I admitted.

“Well she’s in therapy for that.”

‘As of… well you two remember what happened,’ I looked towards the club house. ‘Lightning is in therapy too. I thought if she went it would have been for her hyperactivity, but like you two saw in the hospital, something much more serious than a little ADD is going on with her.’ I smiled. ‘So about that hat thing AJ…'

“Oh that?” Apple Jack asked, starting to laugh. “Ya have to know ah was just messin’ around.”

‘Scared me for a minute there all the same. You could have let someone go get Lightning.’

“Wouldda messed up the joke.”

“Dinner was an hour late because of that joke,” Rainbow said rolling her eyes. “Oh and by the way, I didn’t tell you it was okay to prank Scoots yet now did I?”

“Well no, but she seems okay,” AJ said, giving a small side grin. “Maybe I should have let the prank go, but c’mon sugar cube, do you have any idea how long ah had to practice in front of the mirror to get that scary face just right? Apple Bloom has seen some scary things in her time, short as its been. Ah had to be smart about it. Pranking her with just a face is hard work.”

Rainbow grinned. “I understand, and you’re right, Scootaloo seemed okay. Still, you’re going to have to come clean if she starts freaking out alright?”

“Course.”

“And then there’s the issue of well…” Rainbow reared back and shot into the air over Apple Jack, grabbing her hat in midair. “You mess with my daughter you mess with me!” Rainbow shot up into the clouds.

“Ha ha… that’s funny sugar cube,” AJ said looking up. “Sugar Cube… look ah didn’t think ah would tramatize Scoots… in fact ah’m pretty sure ah didn’t.”

“I know that,” said Rainbow, sitting on a cloud fifteen feet up from us. “Still, it’s a nice hat. Think I’ll keep it for a few weeks ya know?”

“Gosharnit… Rainbow that’s a gift from ma’ father!”

“I’m not gonna hurt it,” Rainbow said. “Still, you messed with my daughter, I’m a good mother. It’s mine.”

“It’s yers huh? Is that so? Vinyl?”

Rainbow, Pinkie and AJ were always close to each other, but not me. Still we had all hung out in our teen years for a while. In that time, we all learned a quick trick for reigning Rainbow Dash in. I cast my spell at her quickly.

I then listened. “Hey you guys aren’t even gonna try to get me? I… wait… Vinyl that’s not fair… no, nope… no-“ She shot down to the ground. As she touched down she quickly dropped AJ’s hat, but it was too late. Rainbow dropped to the ground snorting and snickering. “No, stop!” she flapped her wings out of unison squirming. “Not the tickle spell! NO, that so unfair!” Finally she stopped trying to resist “HAHAHAHAHHAH! STOP PLEASE!” I released her. Panting she stood up, looking at Apple Jack as the earth pony put her hat back on. AJ grinned. “Oh yea? Tickling like that isn’t easy to take… bet you can’t take it as long as I can!”

“Oh brother Rainbow, r’ ya really wantin’ that as a challenge? I thought ya hated ticklin’.”

“Technically I’m getting used to it with Scoots, it’s a quick way to get her to smile sometimes. Besides, don’t tell me you’re a fan.”

“Ah’ve got a big brother who tortured me all the time growing up. He knows better now but then well… you’ll never beat me Rainbow. Not on this. Really ah’m only ticklish if ah wanna be.”

“You think so?” Rainbow asked back. “Care to put your hoof where your mouth is?”

They both looked at me. Were they serious? The tickle spell was one of the easiest to pull off, but still, most ponies weren’t fans all the same. Fun to cast, but only fun to be a victum of if… well if you liked being tickled. I didn’t have a problem with it personally, but Rainbow hated it and it didn’t sound like AJ liked it any more than she did.

“Well?” Rainbow said. “Neither one of us is laughing. C’mon. We could just go ta Twilight to settle this… but she likes tickling a bit too much.”

“Not even gonna chance talkin’ ta Pinkie!” Apple Jack said. Both mares looked wide eyed at that statement. “Don’t make us go over to the town with this challenge, kinda an embarassin’ one.”

I shrugged and cast my spell.

I have never seen any ponies ever last that long against the tickle spell without yelling for mercy. They rolled and laughed loudly but kept egging each other on. Soon enough the foals were out watching with bewilderment. They kept going for a whole fifteen minutes, both of them starting to hyperventilate. Finally I just released the spell on both mares, them laying the field still laughing. “Ah c’mon, *chortle*” AJ protested. “She was about to give, ah’m sure of it…”

“Ha ha! Not likely. I’ve crashed into a brick wall without flinching you think tickling scares me?”

“Ah wouldn’t brag about that sugar cube.”

“True!”

The five member CMC all seemed to grin at me at the same time. “I’m wondering,” Sweetie said. “What does it sound like when a mute pony laughs?”

I rolled my eyes. As if any of them could get me before- and just like that Lightning was next to me. She poked my left flank and zipped away. She suddenly appear on my right side and poked me again.

Over the next few minutes I learned a few things. First off, something about Lightning Strike’s powers allowed her to move pretty fast, way faster than I could cast a spell at her. Next, yes, a series of pokes to the flank can eventually bring you down laughing. Finally, eventually isn’t too long when the filly you’re trying to fight as a set of batteries in her that just won’t quit.

Oh yea and, never get in a tickle fight in front of five foals, they’re liable to join in. Guess this was all the universe’s way of reminding me that I was, in fact, a little filly. I was laughing like one anyway.

Author's Note

I split the Vignettes so the chapter didn't feel too long.

Therapy

When I went to tell Lightning the good news- well really bazaar news from my perspective- that I was going to be her part time care taker, some odd things happened.

First, when she met my surprise guests for the occasion, Rainbow Dash and Apple Jack, Lightning Strike proceeded to tell us all a story. The story itself was actually pretty good, especially for a kid, but something went wrong. Lightning somehow scared herself with the story and I had a lingering feeling that making her brother the villain who gets smashed at the end wasn’t the only thing her young mind had a problem with. In my own mind I started going out on a limb and suspect the story was actually an unintentional allegory for something. Course for the life of me I couldn’t tell what.

What worried me more, was what happened after the story however- or rather what happened before that I wasn’t around for.

After Lightning Strike’s story and my revelation, I left my new charge in pretty high spirits. Her brother, whom I suppose by consequence was also to become my charge, stayed with her as myself and the two element bearers walked out of Lightning Strike’s hospital room.

A nurse who had been in the room when I told Lightning my news, waved for me to come talk to her while the other mares left. She gave me a clipboard with a series of notes scrawled on it. “So I take it you’re her care taker as it were?” I shrugged and nodded, looking at the notes. “Then you should probably be the first to know why she was put under such heavy sedation while you were gone.”

I put the clip board on a nearby table and levitated out my own pen and pad. ‘I thought that just seemed normal for such a big operation.'

“You don’t normally need to be sedated to have a broken shoulder set and wrapped. Local anesthesia and a MILD sedative should have been enough.” I raised an eyebrow. I was supposed to know things like this… how? “I’ll just get to the point. While you and the colt, Dusk, were gone, Lightning Strike had a panic attack. She was hyperventilating and moving so fast she was making her injury worse. Normally we need permission to give powerful drugs to a minor, but something had to be done to protect her from herself.”

None of this was processing well. ‘Panic attack?’ I wrote. I remembered when I first met the filly. Lightning had the ability to control electricity for Luna sake, sure there were ponies out there who would laugh at that, but it was a respectable power in its own right. What did she have to be afraid of?

“She kept yelling for her brother “Where’s Dusk, where’s Dusk?”” over and over. “Eventually turning her cries into a pitiable “why would he leave me?” repeated as well. She started crying and struggling and just throwing a fit like she thought her brother had abandoned her for good.”

‘I think I may have noticed a fear of rejection from her but nothing like that.’ I noted.

The nurse nodded. “We took the liberty of signing her up for a consultation with an in house therapist. Foal psychologist Killy Filly.”

I had to think for a minute. ‘Do you not have a… “Happy Filly” on staff or something?’

“Sued for malpractice.”

‘I might have known.’

She smiled. “His name makes a lot of ponies nervous, but I assure you he is one of the best in his business with a very calming demeanor. Also, an added benefit, given Lightning’s unique physiology, he’s a doctor who believes very little in drug based solutions.”

‘Unique phyzi-fizi… screw it-biology?’

“High iron and bazaar micro electro magical constructs can be found throughout her blood stream. We’re not sure what they do, but they did neutralize one of our sedatives entirely… by the way, we will be keeping her for observation for a few days regarding the two sedatives we had to give her… we just want to make sure we didn’t do anything bad there.”

‘Um… that doesn’t sound very… well…’

“Like we know what we’re doing? She shocked one of the doctors with that electricity she throws around when she gets upset and like I said, neutralized a sedative entirely. We understand the basics of her biology to be the same as any pony, but there are differences. By the way Dr. White is alright. The shock was mild.”

‘She did say she was in a lab experiment…'

“You should seek out the notes from that experiment.” I nodded. “Now, just to make sure she is at ease with all this, would you mind escorting the filly to her therapy appointment tomorrow? Oh and make sure to assure her that her brother will be waiting outside the door.” She nodded, looked ready to turn, but then turned back to me. “Um… considering we don’t want her to start shocking everypony again, we can provide him with an extra bed, can Dusk stay here for a few nights?”

‘I’ll see if Spike can send a letter to their father.'

“You have access to Spike as a message service?”

‘Sort of. Twilight is letting me use him to communicate with the foal’s father… who is a dragon… so yea, Twilight seems to think it’s important that we keep him informed as to what happens with his kids while they’re here, something about not wanting to play with fire.’ I winked, hoping the nurse would get my joke. Instead her eyes went wide. ‘I’ll just take care of things, trust me.’

(***)

The following day, with some concern, I read over Dr. Killy Filly’s notes. Interestingly enough he had a decent narrative to his writing so it wasn’t a technical mess… I’m learning to just roll with all the weird things happening to me. Anyway, so I read:

Greetings care takers of the young Lightning Strike. Here I have made an account of your charge’s words and behavior during her visit with me. These notes are to be considered confidential however you have been given permission to view them by the state and by the foal herself.

When I heard about young Lightning Strike’s outburst, I already had my suspicions as to what her issues might be, but I tried to reserve my judgement for when the filly and I actually met.

Still it may be of use for me to list my first guesses as to her issue. Lightning screaming for her brother marks him in my mind as someone very important to her. Why beyond simple familial bonds, I’m not sure. He is a source of security for her. Perhaps in less familiar environments his presence helps her to feel a sense of normalcy. I doubt there’s anything he does in particular, especially after discovering he’s only six years of age, however she has attached much value to him.

I suspect a strong fear of being abandoned by him, though I can only speculate on why. One key to keeping Lightning able to speak freely during my visit with her, may be to assure her that her brother is simply on the other side of the wall, and not gone. I may even have to let her check a few times. This should not be an issue as even if his guardian has to excuse herself, other nurses can be summoned to watch him. Entertainment can also easily be provided in the form of a few books and toys for him. If he does prove to be her security blanket I must admit that there will be no way around what may end up being a rather unpleasant prescription, as attaching oneself to another pony like this is not acceptable behavior. It could be damaging to both foals and their growth as individuals. I will have to design a program to slowly adjust her to being isolated from him. I seriously doubt she will like that, but it may be necessary.

When walking into my office, Lightning Strike seemed to be an, at least outwardly, happy filly. She smiled and moved quickly to the center of the room, her eyes darting about the room to and fro. I did notice her checking the open door several times, looking to be looking for someone. I got up from my chair and walked over to that door and moved to close it, however I hesitated, seeing some distress in her eyes.

“I want you to feel comfortable here, however I also want this visit to be confidential. Would me shutting this door upset you too much?” her eyes grew wide and she bit her lip. I gamboled that my earlier deductions might have had some basis in truth. “This is about Dusk?” She didn’t respond, simply looking out the door. I looked out in the same direction. Sure enough she was looking at a small colt sitting on the floor reading a children’s book with their current care taker Vinyl Scratch. (I might note that Vinyl herself didn’t seem very interested in this activity, but I will compliment her apparent patients.) “He’ll be just outside this door during this appointment. You can trust me.” I chuckled. “You do let him go to the bathroom on his own of course right?” She nodded. “Well just pretend it’s like that.” I closed the door, watching her expression.

Lightning watched the door for a few seconds with concern. “Trust me, he won’t leave.” The filly appeared to relax and then started looking about the room again. Seeing that my plan was working at least for the moment, I returned to my chair and motioned to the couch next to me.

“That’s a weird looking couch!” the filly enthusiastically commented.

“Yes, I suppose it is. Do you want to have a seat?”

“I guess…”

“If you would be more comfortable standing that’s alright.” Lightning just sat in the middle of the room on her flank. Her eyes were still darting about the room. I also noticed her right hoof was silently tapping. “Do you find it difficult to sit still?”

“Um… do I need to?”

“Not really, I’m just asking. I want you to be comfortable while we talk. I’m noticing that you keep moving. Do you mean to be doing that?” I watched with some hidden amusement as she consciously stopped her tapping foot, and her tail started wagging like a dog’s behind her. “I didn’t say you had to stop. It doesn’t bother me.” Her left hoof started tapping and her tail was still again. I was about to start speaking when she quickly started flying, literally darting around the room. I smiled, but nonetheless felt the need to reign her in a little. “Alright, we’ve established that you like being active, but I am going to need you to settle down.”

“I have so much energy… I can’t stop!” she yelled hovering by my desk to the right.

“It can feel that way I know.”

“But a mad scientist put all kinds of electricity in me, it makes me go fast all the time,” she said hovering in the middle of the room.

“I will accept that that is true, but I’ll ask you to what degree? After all, you were able to sit for a while just a few seconds ago. Did something change?”

Over by my bookcase on the left side of the room she looked to be thinking. “I don’t think so.”

“Then I want you to try something. Come sit in the middle of the room again.” She did so. “Now let your mind wander a little, even as you still listen to me. Imagine yourself flying, but don’t actually do it.” Lightning’s foot was still tapping, but she seemed to be thinking. “Are you still listening to me?” She nodded. “What’s two plus two?”

“Four.”

“Good. Why don’t you keep doing that.”

“Won’t I get distracted?”

“The mind can occupy itself with more than one task at a time. Some ponies actually find it easier to have more than one thing going at a time. For instance, did you know most writers love to listen to music while they create?” Her eyebrows lit up at this revelation. “See? Your need to be constantly in motion, at least in your mind, is not that unusual. In fact fidgeting, like what you’re doing with your foot, is normal long into adulthood for many of us. I have many friends who do it, you’ll just eventually learn to make it less obvious.” Lightning smiled at this. I’m not sure, but I have some inclination that she felt better having me tell her that she wasn’t as unusual as she might have thought.

“I’m thinking about more than just flying.”

“What are you thinking about?”

“DJing! I’m thinking about scratching records, listening to the crowd and making up dances from a booth. Did you know I’ve never actually seen a DJ really dance, just tell others what to do? My brother can dance, maybe he can help me be a dancing DJ!”

“So I take it you want to be a DJ some day?” Lightning nodded vigorously. I looked at her flank, which was blank. I had to think for a moment on that. Lightning clearly knew what she wanted to be, she was fantasizing about it and was even attaching herself to Vinyl Scratch from what I had been told. So why was she still markless? Of course this was not something she herself would know the answer to no doubt, so I didn’t ask. “Something I’m curious about. Your brother, he seems to be very close to you. Do you think about him often?” She nodded again. “You seem afraid when you suspect he might not be around. Do you feel like this when he’s just in another room?”

“Sometimes… not always.”

“When you’re separate at home, do you feel the same fears as when you’re out and about?” She shook her head. “Do you think you might know why not?”

“Because we’re home!” she proclaimed. “I know he’s safe there. Besides the cave mouth overlooks a cliff, he can’t simply walk out.”

“So I take it you have two fears regarding him. You’re afraid of him being hurt, do you often find yourself afraid of that?” Lightning’s foot stopped tapped and her eyes starting looking at the carpet. She nodded slowly. “And you’re afraid of him leaving you. You’re afraid of this often?” Again she nodded. “Has he ever threatened to intentionally leave you for good?” Lightning looked up, but instead of the fear I believed my suggestion might elicit, she shook her head with confidence. “He’s the only pony who hasn’t- or just ran away- well Vinyl hasn’t.”

“Aren’t you exaggerating there?”

“Well, my parents left me and because of this,” Lightning struck the ground with her right hoof and a bolt of lightning blasted out from it, ripping through the ceiling of my room. I quickly hit an outgoing button on my in office phone and informed a nurse that nothing was wrong. “You’re not running away. Why not?”

“I’m a pegasus myself. Every pegasus I know can use some electricity, nowhere near that much that easily, but why should I be afraid? You can do something I think looks unique, but you have yet to threaten me.”

“I wish most ponies looked at it that way.” I made a mental note that she may need a magic discipline teacher. I’ve actually met a number of young unicorns that have difficulty with their powers. They rarely hurt others, but often their powers seem to have a mind of their own and even cause others to be afraid of them, causing them to feel isolated much like Lightning Strike.

However, I’m afraid a feeling of isolation and Dusk being some salvation isn’t enough to explain Lightning’s connection to him.

“Do you know why you’re afraid of him being hurt?”

The filly closed her eyes and nodded.

“Can you tell me?”

“I… he… I told you about the scientist who made me like this?” I nodded.

“You mentioned it.”

“He was trying to make me into a weapon, but he was also experimenting with immort-immo… making ponies live a long time. I was used to him tying me up all the time during experiments. I didn’t like it, but one time… I was scared by more than just not being able to move. Ever since the scientist pony adopted me, he adopted Dusk, telling me he would hurt Dusk if I didn’t cooperate and sometimes when I fought him… he did. However this one time, I was tied down and… and… so was Dusk. He said he was going to sacrifice Dusk to make me immor…immor… immortal. I was scared, Dusk was screaming, I don’t know what the scientist pony did to him, but it hurt him. He was hurting him so much… He said he was gonna kill him. He was going to kill Dusk… MY DUSK!” I did my best to shown concern, but keep from looking afraid. Her story was scaring me though. “Dusk stopped screaming… seconds passed… minutes maybe. I started screaming for Dusk to talk, to see him, I wanted to move… I couldn’t move!” Lightning started to fly again, but I decided not to mention it. Of course I started to rethink my calmness when a blue haze started to surround the fill and sparks began to manifest in the air all around her. The blue mist was growing thicker and thicker

“But you both survived. You’re both here, together, yes?”

The mist started to fade. “Luna saved us. She had talked to me in my nightmares. She found us. I don’t know what she did to the scientist… but it didn’t sound like he was happy with it. She wasn’t happy with him. She broke the straps holding me down. I asked if it was okay if I called her momma Luna and she said, “We do not care how you refer to us, you are not our-“ what was that word… “progeny, but if this gives you comfort, than for the moment, we will accept the title. Again, just so you understand, we are not thine mother. Nor do we accept the responsibility.” She made me feel better. She took me to Dusk. He was just sleeping. He had a lot of injuries, but he was just sleeping. He was breathing… he looked really hurt. Luna looked… upset. She didn’t like looking at that. She carried us both to a hospital and then left us… I kinda wish she stuck around. She looked upset when she left.”

‘Oh dear’, I thought to myself. Seeking an audience with the princess of the night herself to understand more fully what happened that night would be difficult for any pony, let alone a lowly child therapist. For the time being, I contented myself to believe there was nothing significant about Luna’s appearance. She was only upset at seeing children hurt. That would upset any reasonable pony. “So you’re afraid of him being hurt, because someone really did hurt him?” Lightning nodded. “I see.” I had to think for a minute. So, trauma? This is always a difficult subject.

My time was running out for the visit, so I started trying to figure out how to let her leave without letting her just dwell on a terrifying memory. Such would probably make her dread coming to see me. “Why aren’t you afraid at home?”

“My daddy is a dragon now. He adopted us. No one wants to fight a dragon, I know Dusk is safe with him!” I nodded.

I started reaching in my mind for something that would match that in normal life. What would make her feel he was safe? “You are aware of the bearers of the elements of harmony?” She nodded. “They live here, you know right?” Again she nodded. “Well, you’re aware they protect the foals of Ponyville right?”

“All of them?” I knew I was creating little more than an illusion for her for the moment, but I nodded.

“Discord has joined them too. There’s probably very few places safer for him than Ponyville. He’s just as safe here as with you father you see?” She nodded and smiled.

I’m under no illusion that I solved her problems right then and there, however I let her go after leaving her on this thought. For now I would recommend follow up visits as well as working with a magic discipline teacher to help her control not only her unusual ability, but her constant desire for motion. This too may be a problem rooted in her traumatic experiences but we should give her a chance to overcome it separately, just in case it is unrelated.

For her anxiety, I’m not entirely sure what to do. I strongly recommend against removing her from her brother without her knowing. This carries the chance of making her even more afraid in the future, even making her afraid of anyone she see’s as isolating her from him. There is the hanging carrot approach, telling her she can do something she likes if she’s away from him. Whatever we do, for the moment I would recommend making sure she knows he is safe. I wouldn’t seek to hide the fact from her actively, but I also wouldn’t look to remind her that she may be bothering him by staying too close, this will probably have the effect of making her feel trapped, wanting to give him space so he isn’t driven away, but afraid to because he might be in danger.

For now, I would like Vinyl scratch to indulge me in a small experiment. I want her to give Lightning a little bit of schooling in being a DJ. If at all possible without driving her to anxiety, have Dusk do something in a different room or just outside, so she knows where he is, but is functioning without him. I want to start putting on the path to pursing her own interests separate from Dusk.

(***)

Well… I guess I just got my first real assignment as a mentor. Lightning would be released from the hospital eventually… good, because I have no idea had no idea how to give a class and I’m pretty sure Lightning knew very little about how to DJ. We would be equally lost… yay… help!

Practice for Comback!

It didn’t take long after her hospital release for Lightning and Dusk to become full-fledged members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders which… I’m not sure what to think about that, good or bad. With her injury the former trio were having to slow down a few of their antics, but when they kept talking about how eager they were to get back to things like, artillery testing… I started to wonder if I was developing a mother’s worrying tendency.

A week and a half went by and finally I had developed what I believed would suffice as a lesson plan for teaching a foal to DJ.

I would start by having her just listen to different music and see if she could sense how to move with it. This was different from dancing, as a DJ you have to add to a song, not just react to it. You have to respect a song and figure out where to add your special touch, without ruining the original product. Writing your own music was of course an advanced form of DJing and I wasn’t sure if Lightning even wanted to do that yet, so I wasn’t planning on going into it.

I decided I would concentrate mostly on teaching her how to perform as a DJ and appeal to a crowd rather than write music. She wanted to incorporate dance, which would mean less song writing and more doing shows. A DJ has to move around a lot and tell a crowd what they’re supposed to be doing… hence why it’s not easy to figure out what to do when you’re mute, but that’s off subject. Most DJs do a little dancing when on stage, so I’m not sure what she meant about incorporating dance and saying not many DJs dance. Course after a while dancing and DJing become different things, as you can’t change the records and keep your feet moving the whole time. Course, Lightning was eight, so there could be many misconceptions in her young mind about the art she wanted to pursue.

As I got a feel for how she reacted to music, I would start trying to get her a small audience to see how she wanted to work with a crowd.

I would eventually get to the technicals of everything, how to read music, what everything is called, that kind of thing. Actually I was planning on just incorporating some of that naturally into other lessons as I went along. For me, long vocabulary lists were boring and learning to read music sheets was the hardest and least fun thing about my job. Even as much as I incorporated the technicals, I knew eventually I would have to sit down and make sure Lightning actually understood them. For that… I wondered if Twilight was still hosting those foal teaching classes. She used to teach the CMC after all… did she still? Twilight loved technicals, but I was hesitant to ask her for favors, seeing as she was a princess after all.

There was an added angle to all of this though. After Lightning’s first therapy visit, I was assigned to try to use my lessons to try to instill in the filly an interest that drove her away from obsessing over protecting her brother. Killy Filly (gotta love that name for a therapist) made it clear Dusk had to be somewhere else when she was learning. In another room, across town, anywhere that made him not visible to Lightning.

Anyway, so Tuesday came, the first lesson’s day. Was I waiting to hear a knock… hey, who’s supposed to be who’s fan here? I was rocking out to Atreyu and some other heavy metal albums trying to get into a groove for making some new songs of my own.

‘Like a whisper to the dusk, an oath against the shadows denying the dark!’ Why yes, I was writing to no one while listening to music. What, you don’t sing to no one?

“Knock, knock, knock,” on the door.

‘Like medals of hope, like medals of hope’. Finally Octy had to tap me on the shoulder and show me that Lightning was there with her brother.

Lightning was of course flying while her brother was just sitting on the floor.

Personally my head was still rocking but I slowly started putting things away. I switched my CD to something more quiet. Evanescence oughtta do. I levitated Dusk over to Octavia.

‘Can you keep him in here, I think he could use some practice of his own.’ Octy looked at me cross eyed. ‘Well of course, if you can’t handle making a tap dancing melody, I’m sure there is a better celloist out there…’

“First off Vinyl, it’s spelled c e l l i s t. Second… how good is he?”

‘He tap danced to Itolabrothers. He makes it up pretty much as he goes.’

“So… that’s interesting.” She looked down at the colt. “Think you could stand doing something more formal?”

“Um… maybe?” Dusk asked. Octavia nodded and shrugged, waving with her hoof for Dusk to come to her side of the room.

“Oh cool can I watch?” Lightning asked.

‘Nope.’ I walked out, levitating the startled fully capable of flying filly alongside me.

I went around back pulling the filly behind me, not hard as she probably weighed a grand total of fifty pounds. I walked over to a small mix track set I had set up in the back yard of mine and Octavia’s house. “But… Dusk…” Lightning started when I set her down on the ground on the opposite side of the record set. I remembered the therapist’s recommendation not to scare her.

‘He’s just inside my house, Octavia is watching him.’

“Is she powerful?”

‘She has a black belt.’ She did actually. As I said that I remembered all the times little sis Vinyl decided to be helpful in that pursuit and ended up on the floor in pain.

“Is that good?”

‘Yes. It’s very good.’ Had to remember this kid was only eight. ‘She can beat anyone up.’

“She won’t hurt Dusk, right? He’s not very tough.”

‘If she does, I will hurt her. And she knows that.’ Lightning still looked worried. I took my headset off and listened… there is was, tapping hooves. ‘Hear that? He’s happy, he’s dancing.’ Lightning listened and slowly started to smile.

“He likes dancing.” I nodded.

‘Now to this business I worked out with your father, something about teaching you to DJ… you wouldn’t happen to like that idea would you?’ Lightning’s eyes lit up.

“The most awesome DJ in Equestria teach me? YES!”

Wow, this filly was a trip, my ego was approaching cloud nine. I cast my audio sharing spell and put my headphones back on. Lightning hesitantly looked at the house. ‘He’s fine.' I noted. She nodded, looking wide eyed at me.

It was a looked that said, “That’s my brother in there… I’m trusting you…” all by itself. This filly sure knew how to tug at a pony’s heart strings.

‘Now, I need to see how good you are at gaging music, following a beat.’ I switched CDs again. Icon for Hire seemed like a good choice. Something more subtle might be a little difficult for her to get a feel for. ‘I’m gonna play a song and I want you to do just whatever comes natural. Do whatever you feel like, move with the music.’

“Can I sing along?”

‘If you want.’

“Can I dance?”

‘Kid, this is me you’re talking to. Go crazy. Actually…’ I thought for a moment. ‘Consider this a warm up. Cut loose a little.’ Lightning smiled.

The music started. Lightning just stood there, closing her eyes. She seemed a little like her brother in this. When the main singer came in, suddenly so did she. She spun around and started to pretend she was singing to a crowd.

“Cause everyone so scared, we don’t wanna go there, we don’t wanna make a move!”

As she kept singing, yelling the lyrics, I’m sure others could hear. Lightning was your typical kid in that regard. She could barely hear herself over the music so she started to belt out the lyrics… it was good for what it was.

The CMC must have heard her, and being the supportive friends they tended to be, they actually ran around the house and suddenly were there in front of us. They looked rather confused, Apple Bloom chuckling, so I decided to start playing the song on my mix track along with the appropriate accompaniment. Not an easy feat… well unless you used to do it for a living.

Scootaloo started to rock her body with the beat, apparently loving it, Sweetie just smiling. As for herself, Apple Bloom just sat there. She rolled her eyes, but stuck around.

Lightning must have opened her eyes because she suddenly stopped singing during the second verse. Sweetie nodded her head however, doing her best to encourage. I started revving up for the chorus.

Lighting started to fly, electric bolts surrounding her in the air. She began singing again.

“Somepony make a move!” BOOM! A powerful bolt shot out from one of her wings. The three filly audience jumped, Sweetie Belle shooting behind her braver friends. Another lightning bolt shot out, the sound shaking the ground.

True to Lightning’s title for her as the “bravest filly alive” Scootaloo actually walked towards Lightning, grinning and watching as weaker lightning bolts came off of the flying filly in near perfect time with the beat.

As the song climax hit, I hit on an idea.

I cast an audio amplification spell, one I often use at clubs. It’s a spell I use to draw a crowd, or get them off their flanks and on their feet.

“Pointing my finger the problems still linger!” Lightning pointed her hoof at the CMC members a bolt of energy flying over them. It missed them by a mile but still startled Sweetie.

In seconds Rainbow Dash had a cloud set up over the group, a big grin on her face as she watched what was happening. I had to agree, this was something to see. On the one hoof, it was hilarious to hear the filly’ singing so out of sync with the music, on the other she was so into it, and her bolts were so well timed it would have been worth an admission fee just to see it.

Lighting sent out two more bolts as she screamed “Somepony make a move!” She then shot down to the ground and three bolts shot out from her front hoof as she touched down. The ground shook and every pony there jumped, including Rainbow Dash on her cloud. I nearly fell off my feet behind the mix tracks. I think I was supposed to be teaching a music lesson, but that got derailed somewhere.

By the way, Rarity showed up too. It’s always fun to see the resident fashionista dance, as she is amazing at that!

The slow down hit and I quickly made the mix track silent, punctuating the song’s statement. Then I slowly started to build the sound up again. Honestly by this point, I was getting into the song myself and kinda reminiscing about DJing parties. As the chorus hit again, I ramped up the volume, not failing to notice Pinkie had showed up, along with Derpy and her daughter Dinky, the two having chocolate shakes.

Lightning’s electric shocks got weaker and weaker so they weren’t completely drowning out the music, or at least I suspect that was the reason. However at the end of the song, “We all know what’s going on!” BOOM! As Lightning hit the ground a huge bolt was sent into the sky and the ground shook, the sound almost making me deaf as well as mute.

I had closed my eyes for a few seconds, hearing the cheers of our small audience. And then of course I heard “What the heck was that?!” from a certain purple alicorn.

I looked at Twilight, producing my note pad. ‘Cool right?’

“Cool?! There was lightning shooting out of your back yard!”

‘Did it hit anypony?’

“If it did I would have been here a lot quicker.”

Rainbow Dash flew down next to her. “Calm down Twi, I think this was a practice for Vinyl’s come back concert… right?”

I was about to write down that no such thing was in the works… but oh boy was I caught here. Was I supposed to say I just wasn’t paying attention and allowed a filly with dangerous powers to just spontaneously start using them, especially with the CMC around? Honestly I wasn’t thinking of the potential consequences of my actions until just now. I had gotten used to Lightning’s abilities to an extent. However I was going to have to make sure Lightning was being careful in the future… odd how she never hit anyone I might note.

I nodded. Twilight looked down. “I… were you going to invite me?”

‘When I know the date.’

“Can’t wait!” Twilight shouted. I’m not sure if she actually was a big fan, or if she was just being supportive. “However… your back yard is not a place to start practicing a pyrotechnics display.” I grinned sheepishly. “You scared a lot of ponies… and you made a certain colt very upset that he couldn’t come and watch.”

‘Dusk? There’s an issue there. I’ll explain later if you’d like.’

“Actually Button Masher.” Twilight said with a chuckle. “His mother was afraid for his safety, but he so wanted to see what was happening back here.” Twilight sighed. “Look, I don’t want to look like a party killer, but you’re going to have to move this out to a field or something. Given how many ponies you made happy,” she waved at my growing audience, “And how excited everypony will be to know,” she turned around and shouted, “DJpon3 is back everypony!” Yells and cheers began from just that small audience. Twilight turned back to me. “I’ll let you off with a warning. Next time however, I’m gonna have to fine you for disturbing the peace.” I sighed and nodded. She was right of course.

Twilight flew away.

I smiled, beaming at Lightning Strike. “What?” she asked.

‘I love you kid!’

“Huh?”

I learned a couple things that day. First, I seriously need to get some advice from a real music teacher because dear Celestia did I get off track. Second, my student was becoming a bit of a… I don’t know what. She inadvertently lifted me out a slump and now she had somehow forced me into my own comeback concert. Not even knowing what she was doing, Lightning was bringing back my career.

Threadbare

Author's Note

As this series seems to often be an excuse for some admitidely experimental writing, I decided to give "day in the life" style a try. A story of a few characters just spending time together, no real central conflict, we just follow the characters for a while. Nothing critical is in this story for the rest of the Mentoring is Awesome series, but I still would like to know people's impressions.

Also, the chapter is part of an art trade I did for a drawing, the drawing being here:
http://endjinda.deviantart.com/art/Request-drawing-OC-Lightning-Strike-557682747

The central character probably won't be appearing again, but still, I hope I made everyone want to know more about her. Oh and yes, I would like to do other art or writing trades if anyone is interested.

Here is an image of Threadbare:
http://endjinda.deviantart.com/art/Threadbare-is-stuck-552506422
Threadbare does not belong to me and in fact belongs entirely to this artist:
http://endjinda.deviantart.com/

Threadbare

The next day.

Well now I had done it. Or more to the point, Rainbow Dash and Lightning Strike had done it. I was stuck having to plan a comeback concert. Okay so that’s not so much a bad thing but it complicated matters. Lightning was still coming over to visit on a daily basis now and I needed time to concentrate, a task which was darn near impossible around a pegasus filly with a worse penchant for hyper activity than even myself at her age.

I was making up plans for the lighting arrangement as she came bouncing in my front door (yesterday I gave her a key so she could just come in and out). She immediately started flying over my work, like a giant bumble bee and asking questions. “What’s all this?” she asked. “Can we do another lesson… I’m not sure I learned anything yesterday, well not about DJing anyway. You just had me dance in a field for a few hours. Sure was fun though.”

I cringed on the inside. Truth was, she was right. Yesterday I had completely abandoned the idea of teaching Lightning and I was pretty much getting set to use her to my advantage. Her electricity seemed to radiate with the beat of any given song and when she danced, just like any little kid, she liked to try to make big moves during significant changes in the music. Normally this would look kind of silly, but whatever silly move she made would be punctuated by huge bolts of lightning, which not only gave me a kind of pyrotechnics display, but a loud boom to punctuate my musical statements and shake a crowd off their hooves. In a word it was AWESOME!

To be fair, I wasn’t entirely being selfish here either, or dishonest. If Lightning was a star attraction at my show because of her powers, this would no doubt help with her issue of constantly scaring other ponies away with her powers. Also, in order to get her to practice right I did have to tell her I was helping her with her dance moves and her timing. It’s not like she was a robot and just did things automatically.

Still, DJing was what Lightning wanted, not pyrotechnics performer… which… I’ve never heard of the latter.

“What’s this symbol… and this one-or this one- or this one?” Lighting was about five feet above the paper so I actually didn’t know what symbols she was pointing to on my light display anyway, let alone could I answer. “Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me!”

I finally broke out my pen and notepad. 'So… I see you stopped by Sugar Cube Corner before coming here.'

“How’d you know?” Lightning asked.

‘I am totally psychic.’

“That’s amazing!”

‘Yes, yes I am.’ I sighed. Toying with a philly’s head and getting ego trips was great but it didn’t get things done. I had actually planned for somepony else to look after Lightning today, but strange to say, her antics were growing on me and I liked the company. Still, ‘Lightning, would you mind staying with a friend of mine today?’

“Rebel Rainbow?”

‘Rainbow Dash lives about fifty feet in the air and I don’t know the cloud walking spell to keep your brother up there.’ Dusk was there by the way, he was just being his usual much quieter self. 'Just come with me.'

I walked out my front door and a few blocks away from my home, the two foals trailing behind. Finally I reached my destination. I knocked on the door of a kind of mint colored house. The door opened to reveal my gray hoodie wearing friend Threadbare.

Threadbare was green with brown hair and red eyes. She and I had been buddies since we were about ten and we discovered we both had red eyes. Yep, a decade old friendship started over eye color… we were kids. I’m not gonna say she was like another sister, but she was still great to hang out with and there for me in a pinch. Also I loved to argue music theory with her. Oh and before you ask, yes, DJ’s know music theory better than some more classical composers, we have to.

‘These are the kids I wanted you to watch,’ I wrote, looking at my friend. She smiled at Lightning and Dusk, which was easy to do simultaneously because at the moment Lightning was carrying her brother.

“They’re adorable. You say they’re brother and sister. Looks like they get along.”

‘Oh you wouldn’t believe how well,’ My eyes went wide as I realized that statement. As often as they were around each other and as different as they were, I very rarely saw a fight come up and stick for these two. Dusk was pretty docile, however Lightning always conceded to him almost immediately when he stood his ground on something. ‘The colt is quiet, a breeze to watch. Keep both eyes on the pegasus though, you really never know what she’ll do next.’

“What makes you think any kid is predictable?” Threadbare asked. I nodded over at Dusk. “Is he now?”

I looked at him. ‘Well… he is a pretty good dancer and I think… I think Scootaloo is his role model.’

“Iffy choice there.” I shrugged at this. “Well you want to come in for a bit before you go?”

‘Got work to do, sorry.'

“Good luck with the upcoming show!” I nodded for Lightning to carry her brother into Threadbare’s home.

(***)

Threadbare’s Point of View

Once inside my home, Lightning gently set down her brother and took off. She started zipping from one side of the room to the other, looking at the books on the one side of my house, and then in the blink of an eye she was buzzing around my coats.

I looked at the two foals. Lighting was yellow with a blue mane and her brother was cyan with a blue mane with yellow highlights. They both looked cute. That was about as far as my assessment of them could go however as I had to keep up with Lightning.

“Do you wear all of these?” Lightning asked, picking through several of the coats. I didn’t really care as long as she didn’t hurt anything.

“Oh goodness no kiddo, I sell them, only during the winter though… well Rarity buys my scarfs out of season, but I think those are for accessories.” I thought for a moment. “Doesn’t make a lot of sense that.”

“Who can understand Rares? She’s a dweeb,” Lightning said.

“Hey!” I scolded. “Would you like someone to call you that?”

“Hmmm?” Lightning asked going through a nearby stack of scarves. “Wouldn’t that mean they stuck around long enough to get that impression?” she chuckled. “I guess I WOULD like that.”

“Stuck around?”

Lightning sighed and touched down on the ground. “Let’s get this over with.” She stomped her front hooves on the ground and a bolt of electric energy shot out from her form, blasting through my roof and sending me into impulse mode. Before I knew it I had grabbed little Dusk from his spot on the floor near my books and hid behind a desk. “I should leave right?” the filly asked, avoiding looking at me.

I stood back up and shook my head. “Well… my poor roof! I hope it doesn’t rain today.”

“I could stack a few books over the hole-“

“You most certainly will not! Water destroys books!” I shouted. Lightning backed up a little, biting her lip. She didn’t seem afraid, just like she was waiting for something bad to happen. Dusk ran from behind the desk with me to stand beside his sister. He didn’t say anything, he just smiled at her and she seemed to almost instantly relax. Still she wasn’t smiling.

Vinyl was right, they were an odd pair. I nodded at them. “No, I won’t kick you out… would it be too much to ask that you not do that again?”

“Well for one THAT powerful to come out I have to mean it, or get really mad, but no matter what, when my mood changes lightning starts to appear around me. Really happy? Sparks and blue haze. Really mad, bolts. In fact I think there’s always something happening even when it can’t be seen.” Lightning shook her hoof, staring at it. “Can’t prove it though.”

“I won’t piss you off alright?”

“Just don’t hurt my brother, you should be fine.”

I walked over to them and hugged Dusk to me. “How could I ever hurt a cute little thing like this?” Dusk smiled, not giving the usual disgust of a colt his age.

Lightning finally smiled. She started flying again. “If we had a unicorn here we could just plug the hole with piece of wood or something.”

I looked at the hole. I was counting on protecting my walls from crayons and my books from being randomly ripped apart. A hole being torn through my roof by a little filly though… I shrugged. I had actually experienced something like this before while watching foals. Foalsitting has nothing to do with my cutie mark, which is a needle and red thread, but it brings in money.

Not too long ago I had taken care of Dinky. Dinky had two parents that weren’t unicorns, Derpy Hooves and Dark Writer. As a result, her magic lacked many of the natural inhibitors that a normal unicorn has. I took one of her toys away when she was being cranky and she blew a hole in my wall. I knew better than to be afraid of this however. Most unicorn foals with poor inhibitors at least had their life preserver inhibitors still intact, meaning they didn’t hit other ponies with their magic unless they really wanted to.

However I wasn’t really aware that pegasi even had enough magic for that to be a problem. I actually was a little nervous here. Then again, I trusted that my friend Vinyl would not intentionally put my life in danger… a warning still would have been nice!

I rummaged through a small toolbox I had on hoof and pulled out a staple gun. I then pulled out a small bit of tarp fabric. “Can you staple this up there for now? I’ll contact a carpenter pony later.” Lightning took care of it quickly. Yes I trust kids with staple guns, not like it’s a complicated tool. She did a sloppy job but oh well, the tarp stayed in place. “Now, lunch is a ways off, so what do you two want to do?”

Lightning landed back next to her brother. Dusk shrugged, but Lightning got a huge grin on her face looking at him. She crouched down like a cat. I realized immediately she meant to rough house. Dusk just stood there looking at me, boy was he in for a surprise.

Lightning rocked back and in an instant was- knocked right off her hooves and onto her back, Dusk moving with a sudden speed and slamming straight into her. I smiled watching them rough house. “So the colt is the docile one?” I mused to myself. Lightning was much faster and more coordinated, but it was like a dog fighting a cat. Dusk used his whole body to keep her off balance and he was actually dominating her. That is of course until she took to the air and crashed him into the ground a few times (gentler than it sounds, but still rough).

This was cute, but I knew it would probably get out of hoof pretty quick. I pulled a book off one of my shelves. Pinocchio. “Would you two like to hear a story?” I asked. They both immediately stopped fighting, looking at me with enthusiastic eyes.

And so I read to them, Dusk laying on the floor next to me and Lightning buzzing above my head. As I started to tell the tale, I made sure NOT to keep to the story proper, because where’s the fun in that? Pinocchio, in my version, had a crazy sister puppet that followed him everywhere he went. They both wanted to be real foals and together they faced the challenges of the story.

There were several points in the story where Lightning seemed scared, like when she and her brother were swallowed by a whale and when they were transformed into lizards. However a quick tug to her tail usually changed her mood quickly, letting her get out of her trance. She was really into the story!

Dusk wasn’t so much. Instead he was apparently listening, but also looking around the room and basically exploring with his eyes.

Lunch was a few pp&j sandwiches, three for Lightning as she was extremely hungry.

We visited the hardware store to find someone to fix my roof. There was a large brown earth pony with a pub cap who was very rude to me when I asked for his help. Around strangers I’m actually very shy, at least strangers over age of twelve.

“I said two hundred bits!” he yelled.

“I-I… I don’t have-“

“You don’t have? You don’t have what? You must have it somewhere! You want your roof fixed or not?”

“Well I do, I do, but you see… well… I think I’m just gonna go to somepony else-“

“Oh no you’re not! You’re going to sit there and wait for me. I’ll fix the roof and you’ll owe me, got it?”

“Um… well… you see-“

“Got it!?” He started glaring at me.

I heard a loud clap and a light flashed. I looked to my right, seeing the ground smoldering a few feet away. I looked back to the stallion to notice a little yellow pegasus was now flying in his face. “Leave,” she said simply. He did, very quickly I might note. She could be handy, I started to wonder if I could “borrow” her from Vinyl more often.

As I walked away I heard a familiar sing song voice. “Oh darling I was actually hoping I would find you… Threadbare is it?” I turned around to look at Rarity. I knew Rarity as a customer but only as a customer, what she wanted I had no idea. I looked at her nervously, eyes wandering to the left a little. “I’ve been creating this dazzling red dress for ponies of your particular complexion.”

“What complexion is that?”

“Well… green. It’s a difficult color to offset properly.”

I looked at my hoodie. “I just wear gray,” I said, starting to wonder if it looked wrong.

“Oh yes I can see that gray… can… go with anything in a pinch,” I could easily read between the lines on that statements. For my part it might have been better had she started cussing me out, it would have been easier to know how to feel then. Also Lightning would have scared her off too but that was just a temporary bonus. “Look, I don’t like putting ponies on the spot…” If she didn’t like doing it, Rarity sure was good at that. “Perhaps, if you like the dress, I could trade for a few scarves or a discount?”

“Well um….”

“I really need a green pony. You would be surprised how many customers I have that are green and I have to get this right.”

“I-I” I needed a way out, an excuse. I spotted Lightning Strike flying overhead. “Might be up for it later but as you can see,” I pointed a hoof at Lightning who was currently hovering about twenty feet in the air. “I’m foal sitting right now. That one in particular- I’m not even sure where she gets her energy from, but I’m a little nervous about having her just wander off.”

“She looks old enough to run with my sister and her friends… oh dear,” Rarity began, looking at the foal. She called up to Lightning. “Darling, can you come down here?” Lightning Strike flew down in an instant a huge grin on her face. Rarity chuckled, “You weren’t kidding about her energy.” Rarity turned her hoof in the air, “If you would be so kind child, just spin once, let me get a look at you.”

I had never really taken in Lightning Strike’s appearance, but now that somepony was calling attention to it… she was adorable. Yellow and blue was a common color combination for ponies, but she had other traits that stood out. Lightning’s mane was jagged, coming out in three long spikes which receded in length as they reached the top of her skull. On the top of her head then were three long hair spikes, like long weeds growing out of her scalp. Her tail was just a normal long haired pony tail, thick and not really styled, just looking natural. Then there was the poor filly’s face. The right side of her face was swimming in a random arrangement of freckles. However the left side of her face was clear. Honestly with children you see all sorts so even with really strange ones you tend to just pass things off.

Rarity looked concerned. She held a hoof up to her chin. “I can fix this… I’m pretty sure I can fix this- come with me.”

“Why?” asked Lightning.

“How do you feel about make overs?” Rarity asked back.

“Never had one.”

Rarity nodded and mumbled to me, “I can see that.” She then spoke up. “Darling, you’re cute to some adults, but I think your current appearance may turn other children away.”

“You think others not liking me has something to do with the way I look?” Lightning asked.

“Well I won’t say it's right of them, some of the best ponies I’ve met have been the ugliest-“

“Ugly?” Lightning asked, starting to look dejected. I glared at Rarity. That was beyond uncalled for.

“No-no, you’re not ugly… not particularly…”

“Um… I need to be fixed?”

My glare started to intensify, no one messed with my charges. Rarity started stumbling on her words. “Fix… um… fixed is the wrong word… improved upon. You no doubt have a beautiful personality, why don’t we make sure you’re outside matches the inside yes?” Hearing that statement I choked back a laugh. To be honest, Lightning’s outward appearance rather did match her personality, goofy, full of energy and a little hard to predict at times. Still, looking at her and remembering the hint she earlier dropped about not having many friends, Rarity fixing up her appearance couldn’t hurt. I sighed and decided maybe Rarity was in the right, just not so good at wording things.

Lightning looked over at Dusk, who just shrugged. “I’ll have to talk to Vinyl about you giving her a makeover however,” I noted. “I don’t really have the money for such things right now. Actually I’m just looking for someone to fix my roof-“

“A carpenter? I know several darling and…” Rarity half whispered in my ear, “Besides the filly really needs help, this is practically charity, I’ll do it for free just let me help.” And there was Rarity’s famed generosity and not so… complimentary tongue, both on full display. “Listen, you can model for me tomorrow, but I simply cannot allow this to go unaddressed, both of you, come with me.”

“Her brother?” I pointed at Dusk.

“He can follow if he likes… I didn’t even notice him, he’s quiet.” I nodded and shrugged at this. We all walked into Rarity’s small dress boutique.

(***)

After about thirty minutes, Rarity came out with Lightning Strike. Lightning looked… different. Her back mane had been slicked back and fluffed out a little and her front spikes had been laid down, the hairs made even. Rarity gave an awkward grin and walked away from her a short distance with me. “I’m at a loss for what to do with her freckles. My first instinct was to just cover them up with makeup, but they’re just too many and they’re too dense, she would look lopsided with that much make up on only one side of her face, even more than she does right now. And evening it out would look like she applied the makeup herself. However the hair was easier. Honestly I’m not even sure how it got-“ Behind us both we heard what sounded light a subtle electric shock followed by a loud clap. Rarity and I looked back to see Lightning’s mane returned completely to its former self. Lightning had been looking in a mirror and her smile started to fade.

In only a few seconds Lightning looked ready to cry, Dusk running over to her from the waiting room where he had been playing with a set of blocks. Lightning looked at the ground as he stood beside her, trying to give her a huge smile chalked full of its own energy. “I’m ugly!” Lightning shouted. Dusk put a foreleg over her shoulder, again trying to show her a big smile.

“No you’re not,” Dusk said so casually it was like he had not a single doubt in his mind that she was wrong.

Lightning looked back at the two of us adults, I tried to smile, but the shock on Rarity’s face blew away any positive vibes I could manage. Lightning started crying and ran out of the boutique.

Watching the filly run out Rarity just stood there. “Um…” She stammered. “That’s… that’s never happened before. I mean I’ve heard of unruly hair but that was ridiculous.” She reached out a hoof as if to pull back the filly who had just run off. “Um… I didn’t mean to upset her.”

I sighed, partially enraged.

“I’m not good with kids. Maybe I should just-“

“Oh no, you’re fixing this. Follow me,” I walked out.

Just as I suspected Lightning hadn’t run far, she was just sobbing outside the store. I walked around the filly. “Lightning, you’re not ugly.” I said. Rarity walked on the other side of the filly. Dusk finally appeared running out the doors after us. The filly actually was ugly by this point, tears streaming down her cheeks, snot coming out her nose and her face scrunch up with her lip protruding. “Rarity, you’re going to have to be the one to set this straight.” I said, trying to calm down. Lightning was fast becoming a bit of a friend to me and I didn’t like ponies hurt my friends. Still I tried best I could to realize Rarity’s point of view. Rarity wasn’t a mean pony. Still, she had messed up and she needed to own it, at least in my mind.

Rarity put a hoof on the filly’s chin and lifted her face. She smiled warmly at the filly. “Listen child. I guess I can forget that a lot of us aren’t very blessed when it comes to physical appearances,” Okay that didn’t sound like it was going to help, but I bit my tongue for the moment. “You should have seen me at your age. You’ll change as you grow, trust me. However for now… now that I look at you… you’re different. You actually pull that look off, which isn’t easy to do- what’s you’re secret?” Lightning looked as confused as I was. “Well I simply must know. I mean, the freckles, the strange mane, the non-matching tail, but you pull it off… well not right now. Let me see that big grin you were wearing earlier.” Lightning grinned at Rarity slowly. “There! I knew it was there. You’re look is very… well just very you. I’m honestly a little jealous. I’m generic by comparison. They should call you Rarity.”

“And you Lightning Strike?” Lightning asked.

“Well that name might not fit me very well, but I think you get the idea.” Rarity nodded to herself. “You’re not always going to feel pretty, but when you don’t, just remember all the ponies around you who accept you anyway.” She looked up at me. “There’s Threadbare, apparently Vinyl Scratch, you’re brother and me, just to name a few. You can’t be as bad as I’m sure you’re thinking, if we still like you, now can you?” Lightning’s grin faded, but it was replaced with a far less forced normal smile.

(***)

My little group, minus Rarity, left the boutique. Rarity did however give me the contact information for a few good carpenter stallions. She also apologized profusely. Before I went to the carpenters, I did however stop by sugar cube corner to give the foals strawberry shakes. Lightning seemed to need a pick me up after all.

(***)

I finally hired someone far less expensive than the pony Lightning scared off.

After hiring the mare that was to fix my roof, she informed me I would need to stay outside while she worked. I was about to suggest to the two foals that we design a game, however Lightning almost immediately preoccupied herself flying over the roof and watching the carpenter pony. We also got some rather unexpected company.

Seeing us outside a young orange filly turned her scooter sideways and skidded to a stop, hitting Dusk with a small dust cloud. She hopped off yelling “Hey Dusty!” I was about to come to my charge’s defense, however as he growled at her, he still had a bit of grin on. “I got something to show you.” She parked her scooter by the side of my house. “You’re not the only one with sweet dance moves. Check it out.” And away little Scootaloo went. Spinning, jumping and a few odd slides. Instead of the expected shouts of “cool” or “sweet” like one would expect, Dusk just watched the filly with rapt attention. Course I just then realized I was doing the same thing.

Finally the filly had done her whole routine, whatever it was supposed to be and trotted to a stop. “So, what do ya think? Pretty cool right?” Dusk just nodded. “Oh just a nod huh? Think you can do that stuff?” she asked. Dusk seemed to think for a minute.

“Maybe?” he asked. “I mean, it did look kind of hard. Maybe if you showed me again?”

“Hmm?” Scootaloo asked. “You mean you want me to teach you?” He nodded. “Well… for a teacher you could certainly do worse.”

“Well before that, I’ve been kind of wondering if you could show me how you do things on that scooter of yours.”

“Oh that?” She looked over at her scooter. “It’s nothing special. Do you have a scooter?”

“Not right now.”

“Well I can’t really teach you without one.”

Dusk grunted. He then looked back to Scootaloo. “Well how do those dance moves work, they were really neat.”

“Neat?” Scootaloo didn’t seem to know how to take that statement.

“Yea.”

“Okay…” Thus I witnessed a kind of junior teaching session. Dusk was actually rather graceful for a kid his age, not to say he didn’t fall flat on his face several times. However the colt was determined and in about an hour he had at least a few steps memorized.

As this took place I also watched Lightning circling overhead, not seeming to be doing anything in particular, just flying for the heck of it. Finally I pulled out a book I had with me and started reading, every so often looking up to make sure the kids weren’t getting out of control. Mentally I noted to myself that with the amount of energy my two charges had, I was so glad I wasn’t going to be taking care of them into the evening. Putting them to bed would no doubt be a chore.

Scootaloo ran over to me. “Hey Threadbare, got any stories for me… please?” Oh yes, I was a bit of a story teller in general, sometimes making them up on the fly. Before I could say anything Scootaloo yelled back, “Dusk, Lightning, c’mon you guy have got hear one of her stories, they’re really good.”

Dusk was quickly beside his friend while Lightning didn’t seem so enthusiastic. She was still flying, but actually starting to look tired for her part. I had to think for a minute.

“Well um… Let’s see…” However it was just then that I noticed Vinyl coming over to me. I sighed, actually kind of wishing to keep going with these two, but all things come to an end I suppose. However instead of interrupting, Vinyl took a seat in front of me and smiled, waving for me to continue.

Lightning dropped down beside the older mare. She smiled and then laid down. She fought her eyes to keep them open and then I about laughed out loud as she suddenly just lost the fight and passed out.

“My audience seems to be growing… and shrinking somehow.” I chuckled. “Let’s see, a story… where to I begin?”

What Might have Been

Author's Note

So yea, this is my experimental story after all. So, another experiment. How do you reference something happening, without fully explaining it? Can it still have an emotional impact if you don't?

Yes, the story of the evil Gray can be found here:
I'll Always Protect You

However, I already know not all of the readers of this will feel compelled to read that first. So, can I still create something interesting with that as my cannon in this story?

What Might have Been

So... something happened during and after my comeback concert. I'm kinda not supposed to talk about it, even in a journal like this that I'm pretty sure no one is supposed to be reading. Still, don't want my journal burned up so, guess I'll choose my words carefully.

In the last several months Lightning Strike had been... put in danger... the point is her life was threatened. That was scary, I mean, really, really scary. Lightning was one of my friends, best friends even.

It had been a few weeks since the “events” had occurred. I was doing my best to move on, which wasn't too hard, since everyone was forbidden to talk about what happened anyway, unless they were speaking only with those who had witnessed the events. Standard “gag order” I've been told. Not sure what I thought about it, didn't seem right, but Celestia assured us she had good reasons for her order. She was kinda mum about what would happen if you violated the gag, but I didn't want to find out, and most other ponies didn't either.

What else was I to think about though? I looked at the dining room table in mine and Octy's kitchen. A stack of bills sat on it. I started going through them.

Good thing to think about Vinyl. I shook my head. Well, this was distracting alright. Come what may, the bill collectors still wanted their money. I looked over at Lightning's room.

Oh yea, Lightning had a room in my home now. It belonged to her and her brother technically, but Dusk, being so quiet, isn't the first pony you think about... ever really. This would be their third night in that room.

Why was it there? Well ya see... I may have... said something... more than once... and it got back to Octavia and she kinda insisted on us giving Lightning a room. You see, after some particularly scary events, I called Lightning my um... I might have said the word “daughter” a few times. I mean she's totally not my daughter, ponies say weird things when they're scared ya know? I even talked to Killy about it afterward and he said- what I said might be significant- but it totally could have been the result of the emotions I was having at the time.

All that aside, that room was cutting into mine and Octavia's budget. I sighed. Bills were so uncool. I smiled, thinking about how things were about a year ago. No, not before Lightning, but before I lost my voice. Octavia and I were both successful, and we had a ton of bits. I ate pretty much whatever I wanted back then, Octy and I both did, and we paid our bills without even thinking about the cost. See we lived in this budget home together, sharing expenses and all. We started living there at first to help each other get started. But later we could have moved out, and we thought about it, but just never got around to it. When you have two ponies who bring home six digits or more a year, and they live in a home that only costs a couple hundred rent a month, yea, you can buy pretty much whatever you want.

However, after I went mute, we immediately lost half of our income because I didn't think I could perform anymore. There were therapy bills, classes on how to just get along and Octy sometimes having to skip shows because I was, once again, either fuming mad at the world, or crying my eyes out and as she said “I couldn't leave her like that”. Sheesh, I sure was lucky to have a sister like that.

Because of... what happened... my comeback concert had earned me a freaking goose egg. After all the money I... well Octavia... sank into it too. I had worked a few odd jobs here and there before, all minimum wage, to try to help Octy with the bills, but still she was paying for the lion's share of everything. Course when she had to take care of her own sister like a child, she kinda lost like half of her own income. No one wants to hire a mare for shows who might not even show up ya know?

Octy had always been so good to me, and this was how I was repaying her? Making her go into debt, and only finding ways to make it worse? She was even budgeting her food and what little entertainment she had left, to build Lightning's room on the off chance that my “daughter” comment was somehow legit.

I looked back at Lightning's room. Her dad was a dragon... could I ask her to take a few gold pieces from his big horde... he wouldn't miss them right?- Oh good Vinyl, encourage a little filly to steal for you. Bad enough you're thinking of stealing, at least have the guts to do it yourself.

There I was going again, into a slump. I had to think of something positive. Hey, the concert was a bust, but I still had all the equipment, and a good number of ponies showed up to the first one, so another could work out. Lightning and I did have a chance to show everyone what we could do at that concert, even if everyone wanted their bits back after a one hour concert barely lasted five minutes.

My mind wandered to that filly again. She had stayed up for almost an hour after I had to practically put her in that room. She had just been talking her head off. I probably should have shushed her, but honestly I didn't want to fight. I just closed the door and could barely hear it anyway. Talking herself to sleep seemed to be her nightly ritual. You would think that would be a problem for Dusk, but the first night they stayed over, I had checked. He had been out like a light after maybe fifteen minutes of her rambling.

I chuckled. I had an evil idea. Lightning's phobia probably would have prevented my diabolical plan but still, what if I separated them one night? Would Dusk lay there unable to sleep until the wee hours of the night? Maybe he would even have to go into her room, wake her up and get her talking just get to sleep. Hey, it's not unusual to need sound to go to sleep... my inner Twilight wanted answers, “science this!” it said.

My eyes traveled back to the bills... they hadn't gone anywhere.

It had been months since my failed comeback and no one was even asking if I was gonna try again. I let out a quiet frustrated grunt... frustrated even further by remembering that I was, ya know, incapable of frustrated grunts. What was I gonna do?

I opened the fridge for a snack. Then I closed it again. Oh yea, you have to budget snacks if you're not doing very well. I'd already had mine. I just sat down. Maybe a little music?

I put on my headphones. C'mon Nightwish... give me something… End of All Hope… not helping. Let’s try a more positive artist. Van Canto-why?... Tribe of Force!

In minutes I was on my hooves, dancing around the kitchen. I say dancing, but mostly I was pretending to be a samurai with one of the wooden spoons in the kitchen. I danced back and forth with an invisible opponent, trying to remember a few scenes in this one movie. Just as I delivered the final blow to my evil foe, I heard the sound of hooves clapping.

I rolled my eyes at Octavia as she walked into the kitchen. “Did he die with honor?” she asked, as she took a cup in her hooves. I just smiled, blushed, and rolled my eyes. She then sighed looking at the table. “So you looked at the bills?” I nodded. “I've got most of them and after the incident Celestia has been giving a small stipend to the victims of... what happened. You did remember to deposit your stipend check right?... Right?” I grinned sheepishly. “Oh what am I going to do with you?” She looked over at the kids' room. “Lightning enjoying her new room?” I put my right hoof under my head and laid my head on it, closing my eyes. “Sleeping? Well she should be its- my goodness is it really that late?” she looked up at the clock. “Why do you always stay awake so late? Honestly Vinyl, it's not good for a lady to not get her beauty rest. I myself was just getting some water before heading back to bed-” I rocked my head side to side, smacking my lips together rapidly, “No, I'm not nagging you.” She filled her glass and drank. She then put it back down and headed back to bed. She paused. “Oh Vinyl, since you'll be staying up anyway, would you mind terribly much doing the dishes? I forgot a few and I'm beat.” she turned back. “Please?” I nodded. She walked away again.

Yes Octy and I argued, we were sisters, what would you expect? Still, most of the time, Octy's lectures came from honestly caring about me, and my back talking wasn't really me being resentful, just having fun. I started on those dishes.

As I picked up the dish rag it morphed into a mustache. Because of course it did. And I jumped almost five feet in the air- because what the crap?! Discord materialized from his mustache, because that's what chaos spirits do. “Good evening... DJ Pony was it?” I shook my head. I started scanning the kitchen. I wanted to say that was just a stage name but… where had I left my note pad? “Well it's not like we're on those kind of terms, you don't have to ignore me. So I forgot your name, we barely know each other.” I so wanted to snap at him about why they heck he was in my house if that was the case, still I opted to just point at my lips. “Oh right, the no talking thing.” Well that was polite. “Here.” He snapped his fingers and a multi colored note pad appeared in front of me. The cover was freaky looking and I think it winked at me. Still, it had paper in it, and a pen was sitting on the table, so it would do. “Okay so here's the deal. Fluttershy is depressed after all that happened. Mostly because all her friends are depressed. I've been asking everypony if there's anything a little chaos magic can do to make them happier,” he grunted, “Not that any of them are even grateful for the offer. All of them yelling about, “privacy” and “knocking before I enter” and other such nonsense. They don't seem to want anything though. Hmmm... even Pinkie didn't seem to like my cotton candy clouds.”

'Okay, so what are you doing here? I don't hate Fluttershy but we're not close friends.'

“Oh you know Fluttershy. She gets upset if a random animal cries. Besides, you were one of the ones hit worst by what happened. I figure if I can help you the others will see I'm genuine in my desires to help and can be effective, ya know.” I wasn't sure just how, “genuine” this sounded, but whatever. “So is there anything I can do to help you?”

'Help me what? I got bills to pay, you got bits?'

“Oh that would be easy, course if a certain someone,” Discord pointed both fingers at his head as it suddenly morphed into Celestia's head and started talking with her voice, “found out, she would lecture me again about the oh so grievous crime of counterfeiting.” A halo appeared over the Celestia head and Discord put his hands together as if to pray. The Celestia head disappeared and Discord's normal head reappeared. “Anyway, anything but money, please.”

I grinned. 'Can I wish for more wishes?'

“I'm the spirit of chaos not a genie.”

'You want to help me feel better?'

“That's the gist of it.”

I would have said he was being too kind, but really I wasn't too sure he was. 'Can you change time?'

“Hmmm?” he asked. “Now that is an odd request. I have no idea what happened to cause the events of the last several months, so no I can't undo that. Time travel is risky as it is. You only want to change ONE thing. That's what you mean of course, right?”

'No.'

“No?” Discord smiled. “Oh... so what do you mean?” he asked, sounding intrigued.

'It's probably wrong of me to ask this... selfish even... seriously, is it that hard to just guess what I want? I'm a mute DJ, what do you think I want?'

“You want your voice back? Rainbow has asked a few times if I can fix Scootaloo's wings too. I don't do fixing pony bodies with chaos magic. It usually back fires. I fix Scootaloo's wings and I'll make her go cross eyed for the rest of her life. Don't ask how those are connected, I'm not sure myself.”

I shook my head. 'Not sure how much getting my voice back now would help anyway. I mean, could you undo my losing it in the first place?'

“Well what caused you to lose it?”

'Trek took it away when he stole my magic. Now you see, a couple ponies actually escaped him. I would have been with them, but I saw a stallion being attacked and instead of running, I tried to stand up to Trek... that turned out to be ultimately pointless, but I didn't know that at the time. If you and I could go back and keep my past self from doing that... well there you go.'

“You're serious? It would be that simple?”

'Yes.'

“I should be able to do that... I don't suspect it would interfere with my reform that day... no that seems very unlikely to be related. But how would the girls know what I did for you if we change the past?”

'Could I keep my memories of this life?'

Discord thought. “That would take a lot of magic, even for me. And time spells don't always go how ponies expect- in fact they almost never do. Still, I think I could give you three days to decide if the world you made by changing things is really one you would want to live in. We could have a chance to put things back- but three days would be all I could give you to decide.”

'That sounds like plenty of time. Besides, I'm getting rid of my dumb disability, why would I regret that? My singing career wouldn't have ended, Octy wouldn't be in debt, I'd be able to support myself again, and hey, I'd be able to freaking TALK again…' I thought for a minute. ‘Only thing that might change a little is my relationship with Lightning Strike. Hm… actually it probably won’t happen.’ I shrugged. ‘Not like that should matter too much. Just me, she could survive without little old me, no doubt.’

“Well... you're going to have to help a little... but let's go for it... let's get you back your voice.” Discord snapped his talons.

(***)

I opened my eyes, looking around. Discord was floating next to me. “Well... oh dear that's not good,” Discord dropped to the ground. He started tapping it with his talons. “My magic should be back any second now... you weren't too specific about where you lost your voice, but I assumed Ponyville- tell me I'm right, or I just lost my magic for nothing. You have no idea how boring life is without- oh right that's how you ponies live your lives pretty much. Well we're close to where you were right?” I looked around. Was this really the past? I started to hear screams and the ground rumbled under me. Well, that really did sound familiar. “Eh em,” Discord said. “I'd hurry if I were you. Personally I was still on his good side by this point, but I can't help you if Trek finds you.” I galloped away.

I scanned the area. There they were! And there was I. I was running away from the approaching monster with a group of ponies. Now... where was that stupid stallion? I scanned again.

There! I ran to a stallion running behind the group. He had tripped over a crack in the ground the first time. I saw the crack and him running to it. Fate was trying to just ignore me, but I was here to screw fate, not have it screw me again. I ripped several papers from Discord's note book and tossed them at the crack just before the stallion was about to hit the crack.

The stallion slipped slightly on the papers, quickly recovered his hooves and dashed away. He caught up to the group... there he went... there I went. My heart started to beat faster, was this really working? The rumbling continued.

Oh shoot, Celestia knows what would happen if Trek caught modern me. I ran back for Discord.

Discord was looking around, now floating. I tried to write something to him, but he wasn't looking at me... oh of all the times to- “DISCORD!” Did I just... I yelled. I tripped over my own hooves and landed face first in the dirt as well but... I had freaking yelled!

There was a snap.

(***)

“And here we are! Back in the present” Discord announced. It was still late so the lights were still out. I looked around slowly, letting my eyes adjust to the light. I kinda expected that not much would have changed... sweet Celestia was I wrong...

Octavia's cookies! Oh yea, Octy was a pretty decent cook when she tried. She only knew a few recipes, but she loved to make them and share with just anyone who showed up... well that is before we went into debt. We didn't have the money anymore. Well... that's right, I never lost my voice so... all that nasty stuff never happened. I grabbed a cookie in my magic. Lemony goodness, this was so awesome! Yes I'm channeling Rainbow Dash, shut up!

“Um... hey I can talk!” I said.

“That was the idea wasn't it?” asked Discord back.

“Dude, it's been a freaking year, you’d think my throat would be soar or something,” I breathed a few times on my hoof.

“Actually now it hasn't. And hearing you now, I don't think you've shut up for-”

“Me? Shut up? I'm never shutting up again!” I yawned. “Why am I tired?” I looked at the clock. “Oh right, ten o'clock... oh hey, Cord, am I like, a second version of me? Am I gonna find another version of me sleeping in my bed? Because that would be weird.”

“No, you're you, the only you, trust me on that... You're going to just run around Ponyville seeing what's changed right?”

“You know it!”

“Right, sounds boring, I'll find you in a few days.” he snapped his fingers and disappeared.

“Wait how could I contact you if... well I'm sure I'm not gonna regret this any- oh no, I'm not jinxing it!” I looked around. “Um... three days... is tonight part of those three days or... how is that gonna work? I mean, my voice is back, that's really cool and all, but... I kinda wanna go ta bed.” I sighed. “Well, I don't think running around sleep deprived is gonna help me... evaluate things. Sides what can I really determine when all the other ponies are asleep? G'night voice... oh it's so good to have you back!”

In my room I looked around. Posters were all over the walls. I fancied for a minute my bed would be better than what I left in the old world, but really, it was the same bed. Comfy, and it got me to sleep every night, why throw it out right? Even if I could afford to now. Oh and yes, I was already, just from the posters, seeing evidence of concerts I didn’t remember. I was definitely gainfully employed in this time line. Looked like at least a show every month. I looked at a calendar on my wall… oh… every week.

Hmm… I did wonder how performing concerts I didn’t know much about would go. When I touched the calendar with a hoof, it was like fate answered my question. Memories started to flood my mind. Songs, performances, the details were hazy, but I had impressions of what I had been doing in this time line. Hopefully that would be enough. Apparently there was some kind of magic that could let me channel memories of this past… I would have to explore how it worked tomorrow.

Before sleeping, I had to check a few things. First I examined old Mixy, my mix track, which was just sitting by my bed. Mixy was a few years old, but I knew all her settings and had her set up just a particular way. I examined her. Yep, everything was in order. Good, no surprises there.

I then looked around at the posters. Oh yes, a certain someone’s fate being altered by my choice DID occur to me. She had to be up there though… Lightning… Lightning… THERE! There was a small section of my wall devoted to pictures I had taken with fans. There was little Lightning Strike flying next to me, a HUGE smile on her face. I looked at the dresser next to my bed. In my old time line there was a picture of her and her family right- wasn’t there. There was a picture of me and Octavia, and one of my adoptive parents, but no Lightning Strike.

My horn glowed and I looked around the room. Any yellow feathers from when she flew around in here?… No. I sighed. It looked like I couldn’t have everything after all. If I hadn’t lost my voice, there would be no reason for me to be so available to her. I wouldn’t have had a reason to relate to her so quickly. Which meant… I might have been a part of her life still, in that she was still a fan, but it didn’t look like she was part of mine.

As I laid down in my bed, thinking to just say that I could fix that by just visiting her in a few days- a horrible thought occurred to me. With the events of the last few months… what if she was dead? I bit my lip.

Celestia no, there was no way if she was dead that I was keeping this time line. I would just have to have Discord set things “right” again. No way would I accept Lightning being dead just so I could talk.

With that resolution, I laid down to sleep.

(***)

The next day came, my alarm beeping at me and waking me up. Yep, same alarm clock, not that I really cared much about that.

In the kitchen I met Octavia. We ate together for about ten minutes before Octavia finally said, “Okay Vinyl, what’s wrong?”

I looked at her and cocked my head to the right. Was I frowning?

“You’ve been quiet all morning. No teasing me?”

Oh I wouldn’t say no teasing her- she hadn’t tried her coffee yet… and there she went. “You see- oh what the- VINYL!” I levitated the sugar and salt in the air in front of my face. “That’s the fifth time this month.” I chuckled, shaking some “salt” onto my cereal. The entire contents of the shaker plopped onto my cereal along with the lid. “Like I said, the fifth time this month.” I reassembled the shaker, and resumed eating my now DELICIOUS cereal. Octy rolled her eyes and I was already getting a sugar buzz. “I hate that that didn’t work.” I shook my head at her. “Still, why haven’t you said anything all morning?”

I leaned back. What was I supposed to say? ‘I’m used to being mute?’ ‘I’m not used to talking?’ It was like I was in the body and life of a pony who was me, but wasn’t. This was Octavia, my Octavia, my sister, and she knew me, but then again, she wasn’t my Octavia and she didn’t know me. “Ya know what?” I asked aloud. “Screw it. We’re not doing the whole, pointlessly keeping it all from you bit.”

“Keeping what from me?” she asked.

“I’m not Vinyl- not the Vinyl you know.”

“You’re about to start rambling aren’t you?” she asked.

“I do that don’t I?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Yea I remember that. Here’s what’s going on. I’m Vinyl Scratch, but from an alternate time line…” she just looked at me flatly, like she was waiting for me to have a point. “No, seriously I am. In my time line, I went mute after the incident with Trek and in this one I was able to get to safety before he attacked Ponyville. You see Discord helped me change things.”

“Discord? Since when are you friends with him?”

“Cordy and me? We don’t exactly go way back even in my time line, but you see, after the events of the last few months, I was one of the hardest hit… at least in my time line. Fluttershy was upset by all the… upset ponies, so he was going around trying to help ponies out. I somehow talked him into letting me set right my past. So you see, here I am.”

“What events… of the last few months?” she asked.

“Well… um… c’mon, what else could I be talking about. Twilight is still recovering in the hospital, Apple Jack basically had to give up farm work and I’m surprised Rainbow Dash isn’t mumbling to herself in an asylum by this point.”

“Ya know Vinyl, at times, I find myself out of the loop, but rarely even then do I find you better informed. You’re saying something happened to cause Rainbow to go insane, Apple Jack to- no what are you talking about? All the ponies you just listed are fine.”

“But… the stallion who attacked us…”

“Who attacked us? How?” Octavia asked.

I leaned back in my chair, jaw slacked. A stallion had attacked all of us, leaving his mark on all of the element bearers and many others, how could she not remember that? I was limited in how much I could say about things because of that gag order but… in this time line all that never happened? How? Why not? Yes I supposed these were all good things, but have you ever had a sense that something was WAAAY too good to not have a catch? “I...” and it slipped out. “What about Lightning?”

“Who?”

Of course she didn’t know Lightning. Lightning was just a fan here, not my mentoree. But then, Octavia was often very well informed, and hey, a dragon adopting a little filly, maybe that made some papers that she would have read. “I can’t think of why my time traveling would have changed this. There was a dragon that adopted two foals. One of them was named Lightning Strike. In my time line she and I are pretty good friends.”

Octavia looked like she was about to speak, but she paused. “Well… okay so there was a small article about that in one of the papers I read a while back. I remember because it sounded positively absurd, a dragon adopting foals.”

“Sounds awesome to me.”

“You would say that.”

“I would write it too.”

“Don’t see why that has significance.” Octy replied.

“Mute remember?”

“Oh right, that’s the subject here, you being mute.”

“In another time line… what no jabs about me finally shutting up?” I asked.

“Vinyl that would be incredibly crass.”

“Right. Still, you heard about the kid right?”

“I don’t remember their names. There were two of them by the way, not just one.”

“Yea Dusk. He’s a quiet one, I sometimes forget to mention him,” I said. “Those are their names right?”

“Vinyl that was in the paper months ago, I have no idea. It barely registered as important to me at the time.”

I tapped my chin with my hoof. “She’s my biggest fan pretty much, Lightning I mean. Trust me, no one on this planet is as obsessed with me as that kid. Wonder if there’s a way to visit her.”

“Uninvited?”

“I just want to make sure she’s alright here. I’ve only got three days to make sure this time line is okay before it becomes permanent.”

“Really? Seems arbitrary.”

“Hey Cord and I are being cautious.”

“I’m still debating if I believe you,” Octavia replied. “I’ve heard of crazier things than this, particularly with Discord, however you have no proof. If you did, I would be screaming at you about the very idea of indulging in a real life “what might have been” scenario. Do you have any idea how much damage you could have done? How many ponies you could have hurt? Everything is connected Vinyl.”

I shrugged. “Really everything seems fine so far. I can still talk, we aren’t having trouble paying the bills-“

“We can’t pay the bills in your world?”

“Barely. Going mute tends to hurt your singing career ya know?”

“You don’t really sing Vinyl.”

“Hush, my voice is beautiful.” I smiled. “Pretty sure I kill germs when I sing in the shower.” Octavia chuckled.

“You kill things alright.” She shook her head. “But what’s the punchline to your joke? I don’t get it. You don’t honestly expect me to believe you changed the past.”

“I did.” I said with the straightest face I could manage.

“You… you’re serious aren’t you?” I nodded. “You… of all the ignorant… Vinyl it’s been a year since Trek was defeated. You changed history after that much time? You have no idea what the effects could be!”

“Whoa, hey, three days remember.”

“Three days? Three days? What if something horrible happened and you don’t find out in time?”

“I’ve got time.”

Octavia gritted her teeth. “I thought you were the sci-fi fan here.” She sighed. “Still… for all I know things could be better in this world than yours after all.”

“They could.”

“I have a bad feeling though.” She noted.

“Why?”

“This filly you’re talking about, I’m supposed to know her aren’t I?” I nodded. “Well I don’t. It’s pure chance I’ve even heard of her. You removed yourself from another pony’s life. That… that… I don’t know what that could mean.”

I waved a hoof. “Octy, I know ya like me and all, but I’m not that important. I’m sure she’s fine.” She looked uncomfortable at that statement. “It would be like if your family never adopted me. I guess I would be pretty worse off, but you’d be fine right? Octy?” she stared at me in near horror.

“Vinyl… you’re my sister… I love you… I don’t even want to think about what it would be like if we never adopted you.”

“Well in this case you wouldn’t even know what you missed. Time travel can be hard to wrap your head around, but I think I get this little bit. The ponies who aren’t travelers don’t have any knowledge of the other time line.”

“So if I missed out on something wonderful like having a sister, I wouldn’t even know?” she paused again. “That sounds so cruel.”

“Octy, we’re talking about me here. It’s not like I’m one of the element bearers. Again, you wouldn’t even know.”

“And again, that sounds horrible.”

I gritted my teeth. “Look! I lost my voice, my job, and now to top it all off, something horrible happened in my world so bad I’m not even allowed to talk about it. Apparently none of that happened here. Heck, my voice is back, I’ll bet you that means I can effect MORE ponies now.”

“You have no idea the price of what you’ve done.”

“Neither do you!” I shouted. I looked away. My mind was racing. Could I really have this? This time line, in less than a day seemed loads better than what I knew. And hey, really, Lightning was only eight years old. If I wanted back in her life, couldn’t I just get involved now? It wouldn’t be exactly the same, I couldn’t pick up where I left off, but c’mon, nothing’s perfect. So I wasn’t part of her life here, what difference could that really make? I wasn’t that important.

“No… no I don’t.” Octavia said. “I’m worried is all.”

“Why?”

“Vinyl, you’re special… to me at least. I know it would be a pretty big deal if I lost a year with you myself…” I smiled at her. She stood up. “C’mon, we need to get to find out where your little fan is.” I raised an eyebrow to her. “Like I said, I have a bad feeling about this.” She walked to the door.

Not sure why not to, I just followed.

(***)

So… who do you think we visited? The answer pony herself, Twilight Sparkle. In her castle library the lecture I got about “causality” from her was long winded and went right over my head. I was starting to understand why in all those time travel shows the main character never tells everyone what he did… course that never ended up being as easy as it sounds so I figured I was saving myself a head ace.

“Now as to this filly you’re talking about…” Twilight started looking through some record books. “If she were just some random kid I wouldn’t be able to tell you much. But as luck would have it, her father is the dragon bearer of the element of courage. Pretty big deal and all. I kept up with events with that family for a little while-ya know- topic of interest. The two foals were pretty cute. Off topic but apparently that element of his stopped working for some- Ah! Here it is.” She started reading in her book. “It looks like…” she stopped. Her eyes went wide.

“Looks like what?” I asked. “What is that? What book are you reading?” I read the cover of the book as it floated in Twilight’s lavender magic. “Hospital records… is she dead?” my heart started to sink.

“No…” Twilight said. “Um…”

“Phew, you really had me going there Ms. Sparkle, I tell ya. See in the other time line, she’s kinda one of my best friends… think the word daughter might have even been tossed around so… why are you looking at me like that?” Twilight blinked. “Okay where is she?”

Octavia joined Twilight in looking inside the book. “Um… Vinyl this time travel story of yours… you’re serious right?”

“Octy… Twilight… why are you two talking like this?”

“Are you telling the truth or not?” Twilight practically shouted at me. “Because trust me, this is NOT funny!”

“I’m not joking guys. I’m not from around here,” I said.

Twilight closed her book. “No… no if you’re serious, you need to see what you did for yourself.”

“I don’t understand…” The two ponies walked out of the library. Again, not knowing what else to do, I followed.

(***)

Twilight got us into the hospital and passed a few nurses. Apparently Lightning was only to be visited by “friends and family”… that didn’t sound good. A couple times I joked that I thought she had just picked up a bad case of kleptomania, but… I was scared.

Finally, we were at a door with flowers on it. The flowers had muted colors and the door was a simple brown color. Why was this foreboding? “This… this is just where she’s been for a few months right?” I asked.

“Vinyl… Lightning lives here,” Octavia said. “If you could call it living…”

I blinked and took a step back. I bit my lip and pushed open Lightning Strike’s hospital door.

There she was, laying on a pink mattress. A few feeding tubes were hooked up to her. She stared straight ahead. I waved a hoof at her. She didn’t respond. “Lightning?... Lightning?” I slowly approached her and pushed her head with my hoof. It was like I just pushed a toy, no reaction at all. “What is this?”

Twilight slowly walked in front of me. “It’s what happens when a pony with a psychological disorder never has someone really get to know her. It’s called “catatonic” by the way.” Twilight sat next to the filly on the bed. She gulped. “The story of this kid’s life… she was neglected, abused and finally adopted by someone who couldn’t have possibly cared for her.”

“I don’t-“ Twilight glared at me.

“You’re daughter!?” she asked. “You changed history that influenced how you met your own daughter? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?” she finally started to shout.

“She’s not my daughter, she belongs to Torkuda the- wait- couldn’t have possibly- he’s a great father. You’re just like Rainbow Dash, she didn’t think he could- oh shit…” I looked at the foal. “If I didn’t meet her…then I didn’t stand up for him…” I looked around the room. “Where’s Dusk?”

“They think that might have been what triggered this,” Twilight said. “See, Lightning has- or rather I suppose now- had, an ability that kinda scared other ponies. So, not wanting to keep him from ever having a family, the Melony Foals orphanage adopted him separately. She put up a fight but the mare who ran the orphanage assured everyone the filly just wanted attention.”

“The heck is wrong with you ponies?!” I demanded. “She wanted her brother, not attention. You can’t just take ponies away from each other and expect nothing to happen- oh…”

I sat on the other side of the filly. “You’re not really her mother?” asked Twilight.

“Not exactly,” I said. “Really just a mentor slash care taker. Kinda a poorly defined position to be honest.” I gently petted her mane, but got no response. “C’mon Lightning… I… I’m so sorry.” I sighed. “Discord?”

“What about him?” Twilight asked.

I ignored her. “DISCORD!” I shouted. “DISCORD!”

“What are you…” Octavia started to ask but suddenly the one and only draconequus of chaos appeared in the room.

“My but aren’t you making a racket.” He said. “What is it you want?”

“Well you never told me how to contact you,” I said first.

“Well you figured out a way didn’t you? For the moment we’re connected… somewhat. I can hear you shouting at me anywhere, that is, if you really believe you need me that badly. It’s a failsafe. Time travel can go terribly and all… you see there was this one time I traveled with Fluttershy and the CMC-“

“I don’t care- look maybe tell me later, anything just… please… let me undo this,” I looked back at Lightning Strike. She still wasn’t moving. This was horrifying. Lightning Strike was one of the most active ponies I had ever known. It was like looking at a mannequin of her. I pushed her side a few time, her just rolling lifelessly over on the bed. I jumped back, my skin starting to crawl. “What we did… I cannot let this happen to her.”

“Honestly I kind of like this timeline,” Discord replied. “Fluttershy is happy, the rest of my friends aren’t injured or worse, and apparently that bad pony never showed up. Why would I want to mess with this?”

To the side of me, Twilight teleported out of the room. I looked at where she had been standing, kinda shocked she did that. “Um… princess of friendship there… thanks for the help Twi-“

“It’s not her problem,” Discord interrupted. “This is between you and me. My friends are happy, I’m not undoing this.” Behind me I heard the door to the room click shut, probably because of a nurse.

“You are undoing this. Or I’ll-“

“Or you’ll what?” Discord folded his arms. “A DJ unicorn threatening the lord of disorder. Isn’t that cute?” he snapped his fingers and boxing gloves appeared on my hooves, me slipping to the floor. “Oh what’s wrong? You sounded so confident a moment ago.”

“Discord!” Octavia shouted at him. “If you hurt my sister I swear-“

“I don’t have to hurt her. I don’t have to hurt anyone. I snap my fingers and this trial stage will end. What we changed will be history, and this will be the real world.”

“How will that-“ Octy tried to talk over him but he kept going.

“Vinyl won’t even remember the alternate time line. I have what I want. Thankyou Vinyl,” I ripped the gloves off of my hooves with my magic and quickly wrapped my forelegs around the unresponsive filly.

“But what about Lightning? If don’t remember her… she’ll just be forgotten in here… Please! Don’t make me forget her! Don’t make me forget my friend!” Discord raised his claw, no concern at all on his face. “Please no!” I begged. I closed my eyes, squeezing the filly as hard as I could. Maybe there could be some magic in a hug? Maybe my love could bring her back in that second… something… not like this, how could it all end like this?

“THAT IS ENOUGH!” I opened my eyes to see a yellow pegasus standing in front of me and the foal. “Discord!” The draconequus held his hand without snapping. “How DARE you!”

“Fluttershy you don’t know what happened,” Discord became angry. It would have occurred to me that this was a side of Discord few ponies ever saw, if I wasn’t so scared of having my mind wiped. “I told you about the other timeline, but I didn’t tell you what happened specifically. Rainbow Dash is paranoid, you’re a wreck, Apple Jack is permanently injured, Twilight was horribly burned and even little Scootaloo was made permanently barren by the pony that attacked us. I don’t know how restoring this pony’s voice undid all of that, but I’m not going back.”

“You will not hurt a foal!” Fluttershy shouted back. “You honestly expect me to believe that little filly did all of that to my friends?”

“She didn’t do any of that, like I said, we were attacked. She was too… I’m not helping my case here am I?” Discord asked.

“No you’re not,” Twilight said, walking into the room.

“But… what about all the bad things that will happen?” he asked.

“If it means an innocent foal doesn’t have to end up like that,” Fluttershy pointed with her hoof at Lightning, “I and my friends will take a few bumps and bruises.”

“More than bruises,” Discord replied, looking away.

“I was speaking in hyperbole,” Fluttershy said back.

“I wasn’t,” Discord said with a sigh. “Is this really what you want? All your friends to suffer for ONE filly?”

“She’s a foal Discord, we’re adults. We don’t put ourselves before children,” Fluttershy said back.

“And Scootaloo?” he asked.

“I’m pretty sure catatonic and forgotten trumps barren and surrounded by friends and family.”

Discord clenched a fist. He looked about to say something, then he clenched his jaw. “I can save all of you. All I have to do is sacrifice one pony,” Fluttershy glared. Discord closed his eyes and let both hands flop to his sides. “It’s your call.” Fluttershy walked over to me and Lightning, and put Lightning in a wing hug. “I’m going to regret this.” Discord raised up his hand again to snapped. I hugged Lightning as tight as I could, screaming in my head, begging that he not wipe my memories-

(***)

I fell on my butt, still holding my catatonic… I’ll say it just this once… daughter.

Don’t expect me to say it again.

“I could just reset this all myself, but I will not suffer alone,” Discord said next to me. “Go, stop yourself if you really want to. If you do, remember, you will never speak again.”

“If I don’t, she’ll never do anything again,” I looked at Lightning, and hugged her one more time.

The ground started to rumble. I looked up to see a crowd of ponies running away and my past self running with them. To my right, I saw another me running to change history. I levitated Lightning next to myself and ran after… myself. I had to set this right.

(***)

I was in bed.

My memories were now weird. I remembered showing myself the catatonic Lightning Strike, I remembered the alternate timeline and I remembered creating it. And then I somehow remembered talking to myself on the other side of the despondent foal… yea, never try to completely wrap your head around time travel, it’s a head ace.

Had it all happened? Was all that just a dream? I opened my mouth and tried to speak. Nothing came out. I was relieved. I got out of bed, pushed open my bedroom door and walked back into the kitchen.

I gently opened the door to Lightning and Dusk’s room with my magic and looked in. She was sleeping peacefully in her bed… was she?

I walked in and pushed on Lightning’s head a few times, my heart beating faster and faster as she didn’t reply at first. Finally she groaned and sleepily and a little crankily looked up at me. “What do you want?” she practically snapped. I just smiled. I shook my head and waved with my hoof for her to ‘never mind’. She rolled over, grumbling “Grownups are weird.”

I smiled, walking back out of the room straight into the mismatched form of Discord. I jumped back and silently gasped. He was glaring at me. “So I trust your friend is alright?” I gulped and swallowed. “Mine cried herself to sleep.” I looked at the ground. “I think it’s best we never speak again.” He snapped his fingers and disappeared.

I sat down on the floor, looking around the empty kitchen.

What is, is. I’m not saying it must, I’m just saying it is.

For what it’s worth… I’m sorry Discord.

Music and Family Theory

I woke up, the house was quiet. No kids, just me and Octy today. Lightning and Dusk were at Rainbow Dash’s house for a sleep over. I looked at my night stand. On it was another letter I had tried to write to Fluttershy thanking her for protecting Lightning… and again, I was dead certain she wouldn’t understand what the letter meant so yea, I probably wasn’t going to send that one either.

I got up, smiling at all the pictures of my student and me in my room. Yes I had pictures without her, I wasn’t that much of a… mom… I guess? I kept struggling with that question. Was she my family?

I popped in some music, Riptide… eh why not? I listened for a bit and was overwhelmed by the wimpy complaining tone and- screw it- Celldweller, Switchback! Way more positive! I flipped on my sunglasses, continuing to ruin my vision and danced into the kitchen, being told how the world should be out to kill some guy.

After a small breakfast I got out my mix track. I saw some music sheets Lightning tried to make that were utterly unreadable. Oh yes, I had been honest with her about them, however they were hilarious, as I tried to actually play the implied song and it was terrible… but I had a mission. I would remix that song into something awesome, it was a challenge, and I did NOT back down from challenges.

Lightning said she couldn’t wait to see what I came up with. That’s what I liked about that kid, a lot of ponies probably would have taken offense from what I was doing, but her attention span was too short to take offense.

I set up the track and closed my eyes. I envisioned an action scene in head. There a brave stallion stood, the forces of evil all around poised to overwhelm him. This is when I set up a slow rise in my music, it started quiet, a mostly base tune with a slow rumble.

In the scene I joined the stallion, as I did, I added a high pitched tune, kinda like that of a violin.

The forces of evil charged in, a deep but loud tune starting, the base thumping. They closed, the base thumping louder and louder. I charged up a spell, the high pitched tune starting to hum.

I fired off my spell, evil stallions and mares flying every which way, the high pitched tune growing louder and louder the deep tune becoming quieter and quieter.

The stallion charged into the forces of evil, a fast paced kind of thumping guitar started, the thumping being a deep rapid strum. Each hoof he shoved into a face, each horn he broke, wing he destroyed and hench pony he threw to the ground, the guitar thumped again. There were a lot of ponies so this made for a fast paced and long guitar solo. I was enhancing his power with my spells in the background, adding in the high pitched hum in the background as the guitar thumps sped and slowed.

Of course, puritans would point out I wasn’t using real guitars or violins, simple reproductions. I’ve been told repeatedly that my talent is simply in taking what others had created and twisting it to sound like I created something, when all that I did was just make a musical collage. As my music wrapped up, I thought on this fact. The piece ended.

Was there some truth to that? Was Octavia’s music more genuine than mine? True one could say Octy was also borrowing from others, after all, she didn’t make her cello, nor do I suspect she would have any idea how to. It’s true, I can’t play a violin or guitar, thus I can’t construct the parts that go into making my music, but a violinist can’t construct a violin, so can’t the same be said of them?

Even still, I didn’t always credit the music clips I used, should I have been more concerned about this? Most of what I used were prerecorded sounds on the mix track and emulated sound. However some of what I used was record from other songs, or made to replicate it. Was I stealing? Don’t other music creators also set out to replicate other songs? Was it more important that I give credit if it was a direct recording? I gave some credit… how much was needed?

Oh? What’s that? You’re waiting for when I shook my head and got back to rocking it out? Any kind of art, if you’re any good, requires LOTS of thought and an ability to engage in introspection. I enjoy musical philosophy actually. It’s one of the things Octy and I discuss at length.

I did eventually decide to check my tapes to ensure they were recording. What I had just created was probably interesting, but it would have to be edited at least if not completely remade, large chunks being thrown out and some not even replaced. In fact I looked at the time… ten minutes… yea I would probably need to cut that down a bit.

The next few hours were spent correcting a piece that only took ten minutes to create. Then I spent another fifteen minutes lamenting how much that piece would probably have to change for my publishers to want it… I had several times considered that in the wake of all that happened, it was high time I left behind official publishers and just allowed myself to gain fans naturally… but then I remembered I had to feed myself and until publishers did start paying me well again, I was still living practically off charity here.

Shopping would now need to be done. I marched out the door and ran straight into Octavia. “Oh hello,” she said politely. “So, where’s my niece and nephew at?” I lowered my eyebrows at her. “You are so becoming a mother.” I lowered them again. “Are too!” I huffed, “Are too infinity!” I raised a hoof, huffing again. “Oh please we haven’t used infinity plus one since we were children!” We both laughed and I pointed down the street to Rainbow Dash’s house. “Hm… who do you think they’re favorite crusader is?” I put up my front hooves and put them on my sides flapping them up and down. “Scoot? You just instinctively knew that huh? Almost like they’re your kids or something.” She winked and walked in. I huffed in frustration. I don’t know why she loved that topic, she just did. I had to find something to rile her up about some time, but… ah shopping would give me time to think of something.

Returning home from shopping I had the perfect plan to get under Octavia’s skin. I was grinning in anticipation of using it all the way home. As I walked through the door Lightning Strike slammed into my neck and started crying into my fur.

I held her for a bit to calm her down. Then I used my magic to gently set her down. I looked into her big sad eyes and did the best “friendly writing” that I could ‘It’s okay kiddo, what’s wrong?’

“Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had a fight, Scootaloo says she’s leaving the crusaders!” I looked down at Dusk, who nodded and confirmed what she was saying. “I barely got them here to listen to some music- C’mon we gotta save the crusaders!”

I rolled my eyes, how many times a week was there a spat between the crusaders? Lightning always thought it was a crisis. But, sure, music brings ponies together and all. Octavia watched me as I went through the house and started getting out my speakers and several music CDs, ones I knew Bloom and Scootaloo loved. She blinked. “So on command you’re breaking out expensive equipment for that kid. Oh yea, you’d so do that for any neighborhood kid right?” I rolled my eyes and continued my work.

Lightning actually was partially my responsibility, so why I shouldn’t I have… why was I doing this?... I paused, looking at the equipment. I knew these kids would probably work things out in a few days so why did I even care that Lightning was upset? I looked over my shoulder at the filly, herself staring over the horizon, watching for her friends to come so we could help them in our own way.

I could do it. I could tell her this was ridiculous. Easily I could do it. I could tell her how I didn’t really care what neighborhood kids are friends and which ones aren’t, why should I? She looked back at me, tears in her eyes, biting her lip. Her head turned quickly to watch for her friends again. I sighed… I cared.

As much as the crusaders were just a bunch of often annoying kids to me, they were idols to Lightning. I set things up and in a few minutes, everything was ready.

In no time at all Scootaloo and Lightning were rocking out to Masquerade by Thousand Foot Crutch… oh screw it, that made me feel good! Say what you want about my strange relationship with the kids, they had good taste in music. I stomped my hooves and rocked my head, Octavia laughing at me. Finally I grabbed my sis and challenged her to a dance off.

She started stomping her front hooves in tandem, me stomping them in an alternating rhythm. I started rocking my shoulders as she started to stomp forward and back, creating a rhythm to match the music. Finally I grinned, shooting out a spell of lights around both of us.

The song wrapped up.

Octavia eventually left to go do some shopping of her own.-Totally not because I schooled her in said dance off.-

Rainbow Dash was there too, but she wasn’t really participating in events. I got the sense she liked the rock songs from Thousand Foot, Pantera and Sabaton, but when I eventually broke out some country songs for Apple Bloom, she just went inside to get some soda.

It was disappointing to not have any dancing partners for crazy country songs, that’s half the fun of country after all. Rock dance is more a solo or competitive thing, along with pop and Rap. Country and other more classical forms encouraged group and couple dancing. Course that didn’t stop Dusk from doing his usual tap dancing. Apple Bloom, as usual, did try to copy him, but as usual, his hoofs were moving way too fast for her to keep up. It was actually hilarious to watch him school her.

The whole time while I played this music, I did notice how Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were keeping their distance. I didn’t know what was going on between them, but yea, apparently it was serious.

Shania Twain came on and I watched Dusk become finally rather confused about how to adapt tap dancing to what he was hearing. Honestly, I had no advice to give, I never liked Shania, I only had her on hoof because she’d been popular for a while.

Finally Dusk sighed looking at Apple Bloom. “C’mon Dusk,” she said. “Ya cn’ think a somthin’ can’t ya?” He held his head to think… wait… that wasn’t a thinking pose…

Dusk fell sideways to the ground and ceased moving at all. My eyes went wide. Apple Bloom and Lightning froze as the music continued to play. Any Stallion of Mine kept going… Dusk’s breathing was slowing.

Lightning shot over to him and started to scream “DUSK! DUSK!” She shook him hard, but he wasn’t moving. Electricity started to surround her and I quickly grabbed her with my magic, yanking her back. She started screaming his name louder and louder.

And yea, listening to her scream, watching Apple Bloom run and hide, watching Scootaloo cover her head in fear and watching that colt completely cease everything…I… what was… was I watching my son die?

Author's Note

Trying the multi perspective thing again, this time on a shorter story. Fans of "You're wanted" might quickly figure out what's about to happen.

Help!

Thank goodness Rainbow Dash was around. She shot away to get help immediately. In minutes, which at the time felt like hours, the doctors had arrived and were carrying Dusk away to the hospital. Lightning kept crying as all this was happening and eventually I held her in my forelegs.

She kept screaming his name, her heart racing. Soon Rainbow took Lightning’s little friends too. I wanted to protest, didn’t she see Lightning needed her friends now?

I started to write my objections, but she took off before I could finish. I sat there, holding my student, not having even finished the first word. Lightning finally started just sobbing.

I wasn’t sure what I could do. Yes, I could take her to her therapist, but Lightning never really saw Killy as family or a best friend, I wasn’t sure he would be able to do much of anything. Maybe he could give ME advice, but I seriously doubted LIGHTNING would be listening to him. I used my magic to put the crying foal on my back and took her inside, placing her in her room, in her bed. She just laid there sobbing.

I clenched my teeth. I was scared to leave her. I had no idea what she would do in this state- would she hurt herself? Would she even need to do that intentionally? Still, I needed to get word to her father.

I bit my lip, looked left, looked right, and then looked back down at my student. She had curled up into a fetal position, eyes tightly shut. I finally surrounded her blanket with magic and wrapped her in it. I rushed out of my home and held my horn high as I could, setting off fireworks, shooting them into the sky, making them as big and loud as I possibly could.

Ponies angrily yelled at me to keep it down, but no one came towards me. I have so seldom wished harder than that to be able to yell for “help”. Everyone thought I was just trying to get attention and I was told to keep it down several times. Finally Fluttershy passed by, apparently on her way home from the market. “Knock it off Vinyl you’re- Vinyl?” she must have seen my face- I have no idea how I looked but I’m guessing it was terrible. She ran over. “Vinyl?- Vinyl stop, I’m right here, stop setting off the fireworks-“ I blinked. I was so scared I was barely paying attention to the world around me, but her words were waking me back up. I finally forced my horn to stop. “You haven’t looked like that in a long time, what’s wrong?”

I grabbed her mane with my magic and nearly dragged her into the home, not willing to waste any more time. “You know you can just write!” she said, still letting me drag her. Finally I pulled her into Lightning’s room. Fluttershy looked at the filly. She rushed over to Lightning’s side. “Lightning?” She nudged the foal, but Lightning just kept sobbing, her throat obviously sore. “What happened?”

I shook my head. ‘Dusk is in the hospital, he just passed out, I don’t know what’s wrong but she’s taking it horribly.’ Fluttershy gently petted Lightning’s mane. ‘I have to get word to Torkuda. I’m going to Twilight’s place. Please watch her for me okay?’ Fluttershy nodded. ‘I don’t know how I can ever thank you.’

Fluttershy shook her head. “You don’t need to.”

‘But-'

“Go!” she shouted at me. I backed up. She was right of course, we couldn’t waste time. I turned and ran.

I tore out of my home, racing down the street, the palace of friendship in the distance.

I nearly ran into the door and started pounding on it hard as I could. “Alright alright, I’m coming, I’m coming. Sheesh you’re not even gonna talk or anything, just pound and pound,” Twilight opened the door. “I- oh- um… shoot… um- I’m so sorry I-“

‘I don’t care, why would anyone honestly ever care about stupid misunderstandings, you’re all always so worried about bullsh** like that…’ I swallowed.

“Calm down, what’s wrong?”

‘Lightning and Dusk, they’re both in trouble, big trouble. Dusk was dancing and he just passed out, we don’t know why, he just went out like a light. Lightning is panicking and I don’t know what to do, you know how chronic she is. She’s cares a lot about her brother, that poor girl needs him.’ I clenched my teeth and looked at the ground. ‘What am I gonna do Twi? I lose one I lose them both. They’re both wonderful kids, but they’ve been through so much- we have to get through to Torkuda.’

“What do you think their dad can do? He’s a dragon, he can’t help Dusk that’s for sure.”

‘I don’t know what he can do, but he certainly has a right to know what’s happening with his children.’

She nodded. “Of course. C’mon,”

Spike sent a message to Torkuda in short order. As the dust from the burnt message faded, Twilight turned to me. “Someone is with Lightning right?” I nodded. She put her wing around me. “How are you holding up?” I looked down and squeezed my eyes shut. “That well huh?” she said with a small joking tone, still sympathetic.

‘What do I do? I know she has a problem…’

“What about Dusk?”

‘What do you mean what about him?’

“Well, Lightning’s problems are psychological, Dusk… I’m not trying to accuse it’s just… If he went unconscious, we need to start making plans to be there when he wakes up.” She nodded to herself. “Yes, you worry about Lightning, I’m sure you have SOME ideas right?” she turned to some papers on her desk and started making a list. “I’m gonna contact my friends and work on making sure someone is there when he’s awake. Sounds like Rainbow was already there and I’m guessing AJ will know soon enough, but Fluttershy and Pinkie usually have a roll they can play in these kinds of things. Pinkie is great at making the sick at least FEEL better and Fluttershy understands way more about medicine than even I could hope too, she can talk to the doctors. Rarity won’t have much to offer, but Sweetie is still Dusk’s friend so her support will be important to him too.” She turned to me. “And Lightning… Vinyl... something else bothering you?”

‘I wasn’t even thinking about what to do for Dusk.’ I smacked myself once and went to do it again, but Twilight quickly stopped me with her magic. ‘What, because he’s a boy? Do I not care because he’s a different gender, is it that-'

“Vinyl!” she shouted at me. “You’re not a misandrist okay? I’ve never heard you say anything bad about stallions okay? You saw her last, I’m sure you’re worried about them both, now stay on task.”

‘Still, I’ve let it slip several times that maybe Lightning is my daughter, shouldn’t I see Dusk like a son? They’ve had all the same experiences, just from different perspectives. Lightning worships the ground I walk on but Dusk kinda treats everyone equally... I mean I really shouldn’t ignore him for that, I should admire it. Especially since he’s so young.’

“You care for them both Vinyl.” She held up my head to look into her eyes. “Vinyl… just like no one is ever going to be the same as anyone else, you’re never going to have the same feelings about any two ponies and try as you may, you will always value some more than others. No one is perfect. I can only ask if you cared about him and did what you thought was best for him.”

‘I’m pretty sure I did…’

“Then it’s okay. Now you know more about what Lightning is going through than I do. What do we need to do for her?”

I shook my head. ‘She’s gonna need her therapist, but that’s not exactly an emergency service so we’ll wait and make sure she’s safe for now... She’s with Fluttershy so I’m pretty sure she’s okay-‘

“So Fluttershy is up to date… good.” We started to hear the flapping of massive wings but we both decided not to pay it mind just yet.

I nodded. ‘yes, like I was saying, we’ll need to keep her away from anything sharp or dangerous, in case she tries to hurt herself, she’s never done anything like that before, but I’ve been warned before that she might if things get too bad. We need to get her to a place where she feels safe… I think she needs to go home to her dad. She’ll need someone to stay with her besides her dad though, she’ll need physical contact. She’s a very tactile person and as loving of a father as he is, Torkuda has trouble with that.’

Twilight thought. “So how about Fluttershy stays with her along with one of her friends?” I nodded. “Alright, I’ll round the ponies up. You-“ Outside ponies started to scream. Twilight face hoofed, “He’s visited Ponyville how many times now?”

‘They liked him when he was defending them,’ I wrote, looking out the window at the ponies scattering from Torkuda as he landed.

“I should scold him for coming without warning- no, he should have the right to come to his daughter’s aid… let’s play this by ear a little okay? You get Apple Bloom, Fluttershy and Lightning, I’ll calm everyone down.”

(***)

It took a little doing, but finally I rode with Lightning, Fluttershy and Apple Bloom back to Torkuda’s home. Fluttershy gently took Lightning to her’s and Dusk’s room, placing the now rather despondent filly on her bed.

I looked around the room.

The room was composed of two parts, one blue, one yellow. The blue side was Dusk’s. On his side was his bed with faded green blankets. All around were his toys, mostly large duplo legos but there was also a set of much smaller legos in a box, along with a rolled up dance matt. On his side the walls were decorated with black and white posters of old tap dancers, as well as a big color poster of a river dance group. I didn’t know most of the tap dancers, but the river dancers were in a set up I recognized. They must have been the current Hooves of Flames group, a river dancing group I had heard recordings of a few times. There were a few signatures on the poster along with a message that said “Looking forward to seeing when you get your dancing cutie mark. It’ll happen, we have no doubt!”

I said a prayer, to by myself. Dusk had his whole life ahead of him. ‘if anyone can hear me, let him recover!’ I thought.

The yellow side, which Lightning was laying on, told the story of a very different pony. I must have counted ten different balls, from soccer balls to a few ping pong balls, all pushed under the bed and spread out over the room, but no other equipment. I almost chuckled, remembering Lightning’s tendency to make up sports on the fly. None of us ever did know what she wanted to do half the time, and I don’t think she did either. Then again, it was always fun to just try to keep up or just watch if I was too confused.

I then had to look at how she was now. Apple Bloom laid next to her, reading a book, but the sentiment of her caring was there. I also had to be stupid enough to look at the middle of the room.

On the dividing line between the two sides of the room were several board games. Dusk adored board games, but Lightning not so much. Anything for Dusk though. Still her ridiculous ADD kept them playing multiple games that she helped Dusk write up notes for so they never lost their places.

I closed my eyes. So much more than even me, Lightning’s entire life revolved around Dusk. I prayed he was okay again.

Fluttershy nodded that I could leave. I shook my head. ‘Consider my schedule just freed up.’ I wrote. I laid down on the floor to go to sleep. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

(***)

The next day we got to the hospital. The way Lightning was looking around when she walked, it was eerily similar to how she looked in the alternate universe.

I talked to a doctor in a private room, while Fluttershy watched her and Apple Bloom.

“We have a diagnosis, but I need you to remain calm,” I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Malnourishment.”

‘Excuse me? I feed that kid, and so does Torkuda. You’re way off if you think-‘

“I don’t think I know. Now am I accusing you? No I’m not. He’s a little kid. We have Lightning and Dusk’s histories on record and we’ve been watching for signs of depression in both of them for a myriad of reasons. You know that right?”

‘I feed him…’

“It’s not that simple. One of the primary symptoms of depressions is loss of appetite and yes, we think that’s what this is. It’s hard to recognize that in someone so young and new in your life. He’s probably been eating progressively less and less, and you may have accepted it as “six year olds can only eat so much”. Not being a doctor, it’s hard to always recognize things like this.”

I looked down. ‘Don’t take him from us.’

The doctor shook his head. “We’re not looking to do that.” I sighed in relief. “But you do need to take this seriously. If he had starved himself too seriously too quickly or intentionally, he would have been emaciated and you would have noticed, but this was progressive. You need to start insisting he eat more and reporting to us on how he’s doing and exactly what he eats. Of course keep regular appointments with your therapist and follow his directions. Are you willing to do that?”

‘Anything.’

He nodded. A hoof was placed on my shoulder. “Vinyl, when you took in these kids, you took on an incredible challenge. You have to remember two things. First, you can’t always blame yourself when things go wrong. Second… hang on to the good things, there are gonna be enough bad things… for instance on good things, I seriously doubt he’s gonna stay asleep for very long.”

‘You’re not just lying to me?’

“I wouldn’t say I was if I were… I’m not… just have a seat in the waiting room. The doctors will call you and Lightning in to see him in a bit.”