Don't even get me started

by Mcmuffinator

Rating: mature
Tags: Romance, Sex, Human, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 11117

We all have to start somewhere, and when he took the name Double Down, that was as far as it ever went. Come a calling and he'll tolerate you. In need of a helping hand and he'll even offer two. But don't try and get him started.

New world. New species. New customs, laws, and all the things that should excite and openly invite throwing caution to the wind. It would be a long road ahead to get involved and anchored to a society that seems all too eager to give you a chance to be part of it. But in their enthusiasm mistakes are bound to be made, and for the only one able to put his best foot forward, it came with a name. Double Down.

He never asked what it meant to them nor did he explain what it meant to him. He just gave his answer, for any question asked, even for where he would go the day he left the Princess's protection. They couldn't send him home, and in trying to help, had taken his language to make room for their own.

But winners do not need consolation prizes, and Double Down knew this true. Even as the world continues to turn and events that should scare him witless come and go, he continues to do things as if he is the only one in his tiny little world. Plotted just west of Apple Acres, where no pony really cared to be, he had all the time in his world to make a fresh start if only the ponies would stay in their own.

Published 2016-01-01 23:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-01-10 03:27:46 UTC

Breaking to make amends. Saga of the privacy fence.

Thwack!

The sound echoes out across the hills until it hits the trunk next to their upward pointed ears. Thinking they had been far enough away to just observe without getting further involved, the two mares fold back their ears in a twitch before pivoting them forward once again. Long into the day, the clear sky above comes with the price of one who has already done a good days work. Bored, she would do her usual routine of finding another of a more earth bound pony that had been taken to another routine of the more ornery kind.

Thwack!

"So how many times?" Rainbow Dash leads off, sitting on her rear with an amused stare down the hill.

"At least once a week, for the last six darn months." Applejack replies after spitting out a stalk of wheat. "Nothing."

Thwack!

"So why still do it?" Rainbow glances over, looking at the ever determined look in her best friend's eyes. "Dude isn't going to budge no matter how many times you smash his shy fence. Besides, you're the one who put it up in the first place!"

"I don't care!" Applejack curls her upper lip. "I made a stupid mistake, let things get to me, and thought he'd take a hint and see how it feels. But then I felt bad, and I went and smashed it all to pieces." Snorting loud. "But he rebuilt it."

"And you went nutty?"

Thwack!

"I ain't nutty, Dash. I'm annoyed." Applejack makes sure to correct the assumption, just like she is sure to use the ball of her tail to wack away a bee filled rotten apple. "One you ain't aware of, the other..." She softly growls. "Keeps you up at night."

"You sneak out at night to go and smash some furless stallion's fence at least once a week in the hopes that you'll get some kind of reaction." Rainbow rolls her eyes with a puff of air pushed between her teeth. "Even Rarity doesn't get that batty."

"Rarity done gave up on the guy a long time ago. Like a lot of pony that think it's some sort of game. But you all don't get to see him everyday. I do, so does my brother, and my little sister. Even Granny done gone and tried, and nothing. Good or bad, nothing."

"Really getting under your coat, isn't it?" Rainbow teases. "Getting you all riled up and bothered, with nothing good enough to scratch." Encouraged by the angry expression forming on the apple pony's face, she pushes it a little too far. "Pounding like thunder, in the night, so much that you wake up in a sweat that makes you gallop to the one thing you can't wait to get your hooves on and-"

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

"Buck you!"

Thwack!

"Seriously? Well I think he said okaaaaarrrgh!" Rainbow tumbles to the grassy ground on top of a few rotten apples, causing her a quick yelp before the light buzz of a bee whizzes away. "Hey, what's your problem?! It's not like I mean't any of that stuff!"

Applejack just continues to stand over Rainbow who does her best to squeeze or buck out from under. In perhaps taking lessons from her less than neighborly neighbor, Applejack doesn't look down even as she shifts her weight just enough to reminds Rainbow who the has the home turf advantage. Making sure not to actually hurt her friend, Applejack waits for Rainbow to tell her she is ready to talk.

"AJ! If you don't get off me I'll-!"

"What do you go and do when you get hurt, Rainbow?" Applejack simply asks, finally looking down at Rainbow.

"Hide from all of you?" Rainbow shrugs to the honest truth. "Then get forced to go see Nurse Redheart."

"Even if it isn't nothing serious?" Applejack clamps her hooves inward to deter her friend's struggle like a vice. "It's not just because we're all worry worts you know. Hay, I'm the same way, and I get away with it less than you do with my brother and granny, but it's nice you know bruising or serious, you got a place you can go for help." Leaning her head down until their muzzles touch. "He doesn't."

"Horse radish!" Rainbow aggressively smudges her nose against Applejack's. "We've all tried and the best it's gotten us is a disappointed letter from Princess Celestia. I've got too much on my plate to worry about a stallion with hurt feelings."

"There's a path, leading from Double Down's house into the Everfree all the way to Zecora's. He uses it so he never has to go into town to go to work." Applejack raises her head, but continues to stand over an upside down Rainbow. "Thank goodness, because if there wasn't my Apple Bloom wouldn't be here, and neither would Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo." Speaking louder for the last name. "Swear."

"Swear? Why!?"

"Swear you ain't gonna tell Rarity or the others, and especially not to any of those three fillies."

Distracted by memories of something she'd rather not remember, Applejack fails to react to the brief look of surprise in Rainbow's eyes before a flash of anger flips her up and over, forwards. Landing on her back with a thud and squish, she hasn't the time to open her eyes before the pressure hits her sides along with the hot breath bearing down that almost overpowers her own.

"Best friends never need to swear." Rainbow's nose grinds grass stains into the back of Applejack's mane. "Now spill."

With Applejack square on her back pointed head first in the direction of the not so distant fence, she cannot help but try to no better success what Rainbow had with her. Lighter but more dexterous, Rainbow seems to have little trouble keeping all the squirming and light bucks from setting Applejack any more free. But even as both push the letter of roughhousing play, they are content to keep it only up to that.

Snorting loud and wet, it is at least enough for Applejack to get Rainbow to remove her nose from her own.

"Six months ago Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, an Scootaloo nearly took the farm house door off the hinges. It was dark outside, but clear as Luna's moon could make it. They were cold, wet, and Sweetie Belle had a bloody nose. Didn't know quite what to think, since they wouldn't come out from underneath the couch." Applejack voice shimmers up and down throughout her words. "They were plain scared to death."

Looking up and then back down, Rainbow seems to grasp at dangerous assumptions.

"Now don't go getting any ideas until I'm done talking, Rainbow." Applejack reaches up and presses her front hooves over either of Rainbow's wings to keep her grounded, whom growls in appreciation. "Took a while to coax them out, and even longer to find out what had happened. Wasn't any mentioned of Double Down, and as far as those fillies are concerned and to be concerned, it's gonna stay that way."

"Then get to the point." Rainbow tries to wiggle her wings free, with no success. "Cause you really suck at this stuff."

"So. Turns out those three decided to go and visit Zecora without letting anypony know, or tag along. Then, lost in their little world, they forgot the time of day and ended up really getting lost in the dark when trying to make it back to Fluttershy's. Now if that weren't enough, one of them rascals decided to get curious and got into something back at Zecoras, which riled those Timberwolves like a case of rabies."

"Do you know what Rarity is going to do to you if she ever finds out you kept this from her?"

Thwack!

"Do to us, best buddy of mine." Applejack grins. "I say we got a split chance on who gets taken down first. She ain't no Twi, that's for sure." Sending out a bout of laughter that is not shared. "Hey, you wanted in, and now you're in it for the long haul."

"How the hay was I supposed to know knocking down a stupid fence was code for Sweetie Belle getting chased by Timberwolves?!" Rainbow lifts and jabs a hoof down at Applejack's muzzle. "How the hay those squirts kept from blabbing all this already..."

"They can't blab what all they don't know." Applejack tilts her noggin to emphasize just how much more there is to be told. "They were scared Rainbow. They just ran down the only path that should'a been, and had they found the one to the old castle there of been nopony there to protect them." Nodding up direct down the hill where the crack of metal and wood had grown mostly silent. "Understanding, now?"

"The fence?"

"No, you darn fool, Double Down!"

"Yeah, right." Rainbow puffs air through her teeth. "No way I'm buying that."

"I didn't either, till I went and followed their tracks back this way the following morning. Till I got mighty curious about the plank blown right out from his side onto mine like he done kicked it good. Maybe even more, when I saw the blood right there on the blank from Sweetie Belle herself." Applejack mimics Rainbow's puff of air with her own. "I almost turned back, and If I had, I never would have known the truth."

"So what if they ran through his run down little plot of land? That doesn't mean anything, AJ. Especially not when for the last year the only thing he's made sure we all knew what just how much he hates us." Frowning towards the fence line. "Waste of time, too."

"I found her ribbon on the ground." Applejack speaks loud and clear, about something with no doubt in her mind.

"What? What ribbon?"

"They had been close enough to the back of her neck to snag the ribbon with their teeth. There were a few puncture marks going through it, but no tearing, and I couldn't understand why if she broke free." Applejack closes her eyes. "That's cause she never did. The ribbon had been cut clean through the threads with a sharp edge, and when I got home Granny was still trying to loosen the knot left in Apple Bloom's mane."

"You're still just guessing." Rainbow refuses to believe in mere assumptions, instead only in the facts. "He's still a jerk."

"Yeah, he is." Applejack agrees without any hesitation. "Or that's fine with him letting us think that way."

"Still haven't said anything that's going to change my mind."

"Never tried to." Applejack taps a hoof against Rainbow's side, making sure not to hit the wing when doing so. Standing up after Rainbow jumps up into the air, Applejack stretches herself a once over. "Just telling you why I'm out here."

"Feeling guilty is a waste of time unless you're able to do something about it." Rainbow soars around in order stretch herself out, refusing to admit how much strength her pony friend has on her, many times over. "And you haven't."

"Don't mean I won't."

Applejack just plops back down in front of the apple tree, looking on down the hill towards the rebuilt fence. Moving her eyes in small spurts at random sections of the fence, she seems to search for something that she still cannot find. So distracted, but undeterred, she fails to notice the gusts of downward breeze hitting her left twitching ear. Flapping her lips with a breath, she turns to her left side.

"About all there is..." Applejack just keeps turning, even as her body must get up follow to do so. "Rainbow?"

"What in blue hell is that pony's problem." Double Down glares across all the damage to the planks that he had just barely repaired from the weekend prior, many chipped and warped from pressure. "Doesn't she know I got better things to do than to fix this stupid fence?"

Trying to shake his mind of wandering thoughts.

"Not enough that comes to break my stuff when I'm busy." Shaking his head even more. "Now she's bringing more and fucking them in plain sight. Rolling over apples and slobbering on each other like I ain't got enough to deal with on my own!"

Twirling the hammer handle in his hand with a forceful jerk of his wrist, his agitation slowly gets the better of him. Catching a lone nail head that had somehow escaped him earlier, he twists on one ankle while bracing on the other with a full swing spewing blue sparks on impact. Driving it all the way in, and part of the hammer head right after it, he instantly regrets when the fence cracks and creaks.

"Damn it." He presses his free hand palm flat on one the thicker post driven down into the ground, hoping to somehow ease and support what he just didn't have time left to mess with. "What the hell else is going to go wrong today."

Breathing easier as the fence seems to give him a break, and not itself, it suddenly leans his way forcing his feet to dig into the dirt to become a living brace. Held in place, and just a little confused, his long unkempt bangs spread away from his eyes under a hot breeze.

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash leans down towards Double Down from atop the fence like a perched bird of prey, somehow agile enough to hold herself from teetering over forward. "Don't think just cause Applejack puts up with it that I'm just going to accept being ignored."

Controlling his breathing by only using his nose, Double Down just continues bracing the creaking fence.

"Must be nice to mess with ponies by just existing, huh." Rainbow yells the last word, her front hooves between the hind ones holding her steady even at an almost ninety degree angle off the fence. "But the one thing you ain't got is the one thing you messed with of mine."

Concerned for the fence that might buckle any minute right on top of him, Double Down takes the anger rising from getting a little spit from the loud mouth pony leaned right into his face to buy a little more time. Gritting teeth behind a closed mouth, he pierces his gaze into the wooden fence post in a tactic that had even turned this particular pony away not so long after he first met her.

"But if you think things are rough now, wait until ponies find out how three little fillies came running from here, scared out of their mind with one even having a bloody muzzle." Rainbow throws any foreplay to the winds and goes straight for the main event. Flapping her wings not to take flight, but only to entice a fight. "Wait until Rarity finds out that it was her little sister. You remember Rarity, right?"

Like he was sucker punched into a different mood, Double Down raises an eyebrow to such a notion, which is entirely lost on Rainbow who only grits her teeth for a few seconds from the obnoxious expression. Glaring towards where his vision holds all interest, her mane hits the top of Double Down's head like a whip when she looks down and under to finding absolutely nothing but a misunderstanding.

"All of this..." Rainbow whips her mane onto her back and uppercuts her nose into his. "Is going to end."

Expecting something, maybe even anything for all her genuine effort for the pony still sitting back at the apple tree up the hill behind her, Rainbow lets her jaw fall when all Double Down does is turn and walk away. No words of anger, or even a physical reaction with a swing of his long arms, comes her way but the shine of the sun off the beads of sweat running down his bare back.

"Hey!" Rainbow yells even louder than she had when she utters the same word on her arrival to her perch on the fence, but with another emotion riding shotgun to her anger. "How did you get those!?" Pushing down hard to jump into the air. "I'm talking-!"

But as the fence bends back towards Apple Acres, it holds long enough to be whipped towards Double Down's plot. Sending the first wave down either side like a bunch of domino, the second wave meets the first on it's way back in an impression explosion of planks, beams, and braces. Thrown into the air and across both Apple Acres and Double Down's like a bloody battlefield of timber, it ends what never began.

"...to you."

Losing full sight of Double Down's retreating form from the dust and debris kicked up in the air, Rainbow's brain begins to process all the smaller details she hadn't paid much attention to in their brief reunion after nine months. Where his brown mane had been cut short and clean like many stallions, it was now ragged and long in all the ways that would make Rarity shriek. His clothing, once tidy and perhaps overly form fitting, had worn and torn down to barely hanging from his waste to halfway down his two legs. Barely, if that.

But he didn't look unhealthy outside of perhaps needing to take a good long bath. Not used to seeing something without a coat of fur or body of feathers, she had only always thought it looked embarrassingly funny. But while no where near what she would imagine a Bulk Biceps as whatever the hay Double Down was, it just didn't so embarrassing anymore. He looked healthy.

"I'm no Rarity but the very least you could do is throw yourself in a river for awhile you stinking jerk!"

Having watched the loud but mostly inaudible confrontation between Rainbow and what she assumes was a concealed Double Down just behind the fence, Applejack continues to sit patiently at her apple tree with widened eyes. Having never accomplished such destruction, she doesn't know whether to be impressed, or worried.

"I can be both, right?" Applejack mutters to herself as Rainbow turns and starts her way back. "Well that sure went-"

"Not my fault." Rainbow lands on the grass in a short skid. "So don't even start with me, alright?"

"Gets you so darn mad you just have to bust stuff up, don't it?"

"What did I just say?"

"Don't worry Rainbow, I know how it feels to try and make amends and not be given the time of day. I ain't judging ya, long as you don't go and judge me." Applejack shows a honest smile. "Got some chores if you wanna tag along before we go see the girls?"

"Yeah, I guess." Rainbow shakes her head to her discontent. "I don't know how you haven't just bucked him at least once."

"Oh, I've wanted to for-" Quick on the uptake, Applejack just isn't quick enough. "You know what you are?"

"Quicker than you?" Rainbow looks down with a long smirk.

"A darn stinking rattler!" Applejack snaps her teeth towards the pegasus. "Striking when you ain't expecting it."

Leading off in laughter, It soon travels from the air down to the ground as the two rowdy ponies speed off towards what they both know is more important. Their work, their friends and family, and their ongoing lives that already asks so much of their time. Thankful or not, such distractions separated by a tall fence will have to wait for another day to try and see if amends can still be made.

But as Applejack and Rainbow go back to their lives, they miss the long stare of who only wishes they'd stay there.

"Don't count on it." Double Down twirls the hammer in his hand like a bad habit. "But bring it, all the same."

Walking back and onto the small porch of his shoddy little shed, Double Down gives one last look back just to make sure, having no time left in the day to make a show for the ponies who just cannot take a hint. Raising his head to look up into the sky, even the sun gets the same treatment with just a little more confrontation. His hammer raised in point to drive one home, he gives the sun some acknowledgement.

Thwack!

Branding to make a friend.

Branding to make a friend.

"Mmmm."

Release. It is what we all must do from time to time, no matter the pace of life we choose or are forced to take. From a hard days work in the fields to the wing bruising battle against the thunderclouds high above, there isn't a pony who wouldn't enjoy the moment of release that a relaxing soak in the bath might grant. To lick away the lashes of the day, and soothe the ache of their ambition, they would give anything.

"Ooooh."

But as far as Equestria had come in their age of magic and wonder, they often required the expertise of other cultures for the technological that had to be hand crafted to fit the needs of a hoof. Their trains. The dams. Even the complex water systems that still have many years left to go under Canterlot and other major cities were bought or borrowed from beyond their shores. They were wise, and they were quite powerful, but they were also easy to be satisfied. Outside of magic, creation was just something ponies did not do.

"Ah, yes. There it is." She stretched her neck and then bends to the side, letting the heat of her muscles come to the surface to be soothed and tickled. Turning around, she continues to flex and flaunt all of her form to the one who can satisfy their cry. "Oh! Hehe, new spot."

Having a good old time, she even opens her wings to show the most delicate place, with the softness that no pillow would ever hope to best. It was soft, it was hidden, and to let any come to nestle would be one of the most intimate she could offer. But none has dared try and touch, nor has she allowed any her tolerance for such a thing, until now, as she shudders her breath from the countless nerves catching fire.

"Hmm, if I find out the minotaurs had hidden this from us, I just might have to levy a sanction." Celestia giggles, kicking out like a filly when she twirls to give all of her a turn to enjoy her heated waterfall. With a bathroom the size of a living room, and over a dozen shower heads shooting with all their might down onto her, her mind wanders perhaps a little too far. "But you weren't a minotaur, were you."

Lowering her wings from their high perch in what was a most provocative pose, she uses her magic to turn each and every nob clockwise. Joined for just a few moments in the drip onto gritted tile below, she sighs before giving herself a mighty shake. Rearing up and onto two hooves, her wings unfold once again with a snap that plasters the ceiling and walls with the chill running down her coat.

With no need to uphold image or status, she allows her mane and tail to remain fallen and stilled as the drip of lingering water marks her trail from her shower room to her traditional bathroom. Grabbing a few long fluffy towels, she robs them of their dryness through rubbing and dragging them all over her body from the hooves all the way to her perky ears. Using her magic to lift her tail like a riled canine, she vigorously rubs a towel in the most unladylike fashion to scratch a itch on her rear, thinking nothing else of it in her privacy.

Looking into her mirror as she continues to dry herself, she flings open several draws to pull out a mass of large yellow and pink curlers that she begins to roll into her mane. Routine, but just a little rougher and harsher than normal, she does the same for her tail until even it is but a foot long stub that sticks up more than down. Trying not to look directly onto her own reflection while she tries to tidy up in front of the mirror, a mishaps flashes her back to where her thoughts currently remain trapped and held down.

Over one year prior

"Pardon?" Princess Celestia sits upon her throne, regal and proper, as one of the palace attendants remains knelt down upon the red carpet before her steps. "Why was he in the dungeon? Who ordered him placed there? Why was I not informed sooner?"

"U-uh, uh, I-I'm terribly sorry your highness!" The stallion attendant in a top butler jacket profusely grovels. "I came as soon as I found him, for he had left his room without the guards noticing. If it wasn't for one of the cleaners, we never would have known ourselves."

"While the dungeons are thankfully without a need for a post, this is precisely why I informed the ones ordered to fill one with a need to accompany if he were to wander." Celestia stretches the corner of her mouth. "I know ponies are curious, and harmless pranks are bound to happen, but we know nothing of his culture." She raises a foreleg. "Where is he now? Did you see him back to his room?"

"Um, still in the dungeon?" The attendant lowers his head from his failure. "He won't open the door."

"Door?" Celestia begins to step down the steps before her throne, but not in a threatening manner. "The main door has no lock, only a latch from the outside." Coming to just up before the shamed attendant. "Look upon me. I just wish to understand, not punish."

"He locked himself in a cell." The attendant finally looks up, somewhat relieved but still upset to having caused his princess anything but happiness. "We opened it, but he just shuts it again. We tried several times, but he simply refuses to leave."

"Did..." Celestia looks around the throne room when she hangs upon the word. "Did something else happen?"

"No. Not that I am aware of. He doesn't seem afraid or angry, and when one of us tried to get inside the cell he was careful to hold us back before shutting the cell bar door." The attendant seems just as confused as Celestia. "He's just sitting there."

Celestia closes her eyes and nods down towards the attendant to show her gratitude for his honesty, holding her eyes shut for a few lingering seconds before opening them with a snap. Trotting forward and up past alongside the attendant, she approaches the door that begins to open for many whom have come up behind her to follow. As appreciative as she is, she stomps a hoof instead.

Wasting little time once she moves past the large throne room doors, she just teleports away to just outside the much smaller dungeon door. Wooden, with only a few anchored metal slabs to grant the farce of something more sturdy, the dungeon door had no handle to speak of. Instead, there is a small thin metal hook that holds inside a round metal loop embedded in the wall.

She thought it looked pitifully weak and all around non threatening for a dungeon. But she designed it to be that way.

Using her magic to grab the tiny hook, she pulls the door open as quiet as can be even as a conversation she could not understand fills her ears the moment the first crack allows it. Unable to just turn back, she resides herself to playing an audience in the dark.

"Jack! Holy shit man, you're still alive!" A male voice emits from the closed fist of another who sits inside the most amusingly comfortable and lavish dungeon he'd ever mused. "Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you got all of us into?!"

"I guess that depends on how it looked on your end." Jack holds his fist to his lips while in whisper. "But before that, mind toning it down a little? Last thing I need is for anything to here to flip out on me and get stuck here any longer."

"W-wait... you found something?" The other male voice quiets down, mostly.

"Actually, it found me." Jack sighs. "It was like all the other times. Little orbs of different color lights everywhere, and I was pushing it farther than I should have. I should have turned back when the drag behind me got that heavy, but then one came right up and acted funny."

"Funny?" The other male voice seems to rise with impatience. "It tried to interact with you?"

"Interact? The damn thing came up and touched me. At first it was just another orb but as it got closer it started to take form, and when it was right in front of my face I could make out the eyes." Jack rubs the back of his neck to soothe the skin clenching up. "Big eyes, teal. Just staring at me." Rubbing even harder than before, to which he still doesn't understand why. "So I waved."

"You waved?"

"What the hell else did you want me to do? Say hello and sound like I was foaming at the mouth? I did the only thing I could, and then she just grabbed me!" Jack finally begins to feel at ease. "She avoids me like the plague now. I guess I wasn't what she thought I was."

Jack laughs softly, hoping to hear the same from the other side, but goes silent when all he can hear is heavy breathing. Knowing well who the voice belongs to, even something as plain as a heavy breath cannot hide the context between good friends.

"Anthony." Jack tries again, starting to feel the heat spread across his chest. "Starting to worry me, man."

"Are they nice?" Anthony voice flat lines.

"Does that really matter, now?" Jack cannot help but raise his voice. "All you gotta do is-!"

"We got shut down, because of what happened." Anthony seems to grunt and blow air as if to hush a few blips of background noise. "There was a nasty feedback when your brainwaves went flat. Janet and Donald were both trying to keep your body from breaking itself from the seizures when it hit our end." Anthony takes one heavy breath. "Donald is okay, but Janet... Jack? Jack, calm down!"

Having clenched his fist so tight his fingernails started to dig down into his skin, Jack's mind had already jumped ahead on what would have happened when his tether was cut. Walking in circles, he would count his graces to having been where he was when the first clank of metal echoed out. Followed by an even louder impact, the noise echoes out several more times until a hollow snap brings it to an abrupt end.

"Fucking... Son of a bitch!" Jack's free hand spasms with fingers spread wide apart, the light in the room catching a reflection from the blood dripping down between the index and middle finger to the floor. "W-where... Then how the hell are we even speaking?"

"The brain of the machine you were hooked up to was so badly damaged it was going to be scrapped, and since they wanted me to sign a non disclosure it worked out. The official report was that a direct strike from the lightning that night caused the feedback." Anthony's voice distorts when he turns around halfway through his last sentence. "I'm supposed to be teaching quantum field theory, not ghost hunters."

Jack widens his eyes when a few screams start loud until they shimmer into nothingness.

"I'm pretty sure I'll at least get a few better offers after this, and at least a few lawsuits." Anthony laughs. "I'm surprised this thing even turned back on." Anthony's voice becomes more clear, as if he turned back around. "Are they nice?"

"They've fed me, given me a place to sleep, and have tried to watch over me even if I've made it difficult for them." Jack grimaces towards his hand, still unaware of an audience on his side of the conversation. "Communication issues and all."

Hearing a growing commotion on the other side, Jack gives Anthony no time to take a turn.

"Are you in trouble because of me?"

"I think I'll finally get a good nights rest, actually." Anthony speaks louder from having stepped back. "What about you?"

"I don't know."

Jack looks down to his closed hand, opening it up to notice the bright light on his palm flickering rapidly in short bursts.

"Been giving them the run around since I didn't want to give them a reason not to let me go home."

"Jack." Anthony's voice distorts, but not enough to overpower the words. "Do you remember Jared?"

"You shouldn't have to ask me that." Jack almost yells. "I was the one there, remember?"

"The anomaly in the brainwaves just before... Same was starting to happen to you." The other voice sounds sympathetic, even as the choppiness gives them a more harrowing context. "We had been trying to pull you back, that's why you felt so heavy and-!"

Jumping when the last word pops and echoes, the light in his hand wanes to almost nothing.

"And what?!" Jack can only watch as the light fades away, leaving only his bare palm. "Anthony?!"

Celestia continues to stand as silent and still as a statue where the light cannot cut through, waiting through all that would normally bring her a rise in concern. But there was no sense of happiness or cunning mischief in his voice, or even the one which had just echoed out of existence. For she had heard such sounds before, and she knew her realm would never hear this new one ever again.

"I have seen many creatures in my time, many far more strange than yourself." Celestia speaks from the darkest part of the dungeon, causing her guest to jump back in surprise. "It would be easy if we all spoke the same, but then we wouldn't know how to listen."

Stepping forward, she keeps it nice and slow as to not alarm or give a false impression of her mood.

"I may not have been able to understand the words, but I could feel them all the same." Celestia looks down upon both hands, but puts her focus mostly on the one still flowing with red blood. Using her magic to slide the jail bar door open, she widens her eyes when the creature grabs the door with his injured hand to stop her. "You are injured, and you do not belong down here."

Finding herself the one who decides, she remains perplexed when the more she puts into opening the door, the more blood runs down the bars from him trying to keep it closed. Relaxing her hold to let the door almost slam entirely shut, she cannot help but stop him at the last second, hearing the ear twitching grind of a bone grinding against another. Just enough, to sap any strength left in her magical grip.

"Do not make me teleport in there, young one." Celestia chastises, her own frustrations growing from the creature's one risen eyebrow to her lowered tone. "I know well that look, and I shall not be deterred, even if I must push a little harder."

Back to present time

"Maybe I pushed too hard, too soon." Celestia continues to stare into the mirror, unaware of just how much time had passed her by. Looking down to the partially dried puddle, she sighs when she finally realizes just how much. "If only you could still remember, too."

Shivering from a draft under her bathroom door, she sighs again to having left open her balcony doors. Bracing herself before fighting the chill night breeze attacking her from her bathroom to the balcony, she reaches them just in time to hear something else upon the breeze.

"Laughter?"

Celestia turns her head to let one ear hone in on the noise and it's source. Surprised when she realizes from whom, she treads carefully as to not end what happens so seldom, that it may as well not have happened ever. Ignoring the chill riding up where a unbound tail would normally curtain, she becomes so rigid the blood in her cheeks rise into a light pink. But for what she wishes to hear, she didn't really care.

Reaching the very edge, but not enough to even look down below, she remains only in audience Princess Luna who seems enthusiastically entertained by something so far away no eye can see. Causing Celestia to be quite perplexed by the situation, the eruption of laughter and cackles is enough for her to bite her tongue and curiosity for the time being.

Far away, to where the moon has the best view.

"Dang it!" Applejack holds her muzzle pointing straight up towards the full moon as she trots on the tip of her hooves in a circle, sucking in air through her clenched teeth with her tail lifted higher than usual. "Dang it! Dang it! Confounded thing is booby trapped!"

Rainbow seems to ignore her friend and her stinging red rump, instead focused on the plank she had kicked from the top edge while in hover flight. Perched on the tips of those right next to it, she bats the top of the fence plank, causing it to twirls like a windmill.

"Dude is getting creative."

"Naw!" Applejack spits like a viper, rubbing her rump with a hoof. "Ya think?"

"Hey not my fault he's finally stepping up to the plate." Rainbow hovers on their side of the fence, front forelegs crossed over while she lightly flaps her wings. "Trying to tell me this entire time he never once changed how he did things?"

Growling, Applejack grits her teeth. Scanning the entire fence line, she narrows in on the plank just behind Rainbow.

"Yeah, he did." Applejack dashes forward with enough speed to get to the fence plank before Rainbow can react, sliding her tail forward before a resounding crack from one hind hoof splits the wood in two. Broken free, the bottom falls to the ground while the top half, anchored by a metal rod near the top, swings up and bashes Rainbow right across both cheeks.

Confused herself, Rainbow's face slowly distorts as nerves knocked unconscious come back alive screaming.

"Mmmmmaaaaahhhhhhh!!!"

"Oh stop your crying. I didn't even-!" Applejack never finished her sentence from the blue haze tackling her. "Gah!"

"That hurt you crazy horse!" Rainbow seethes and whimpers, her hind legs trembling. "I can't even feel all of it yet!"

Applejack grins, regardless of how infuriated Rainbow remains over top of her. Acting like she was bored, Applejack smacks her lips and glances to either side which only angers Rainbow more. Reaching up to try and move away the nostrils pelting her in the face with heated steam, she pushes left and slides right just as her eye catches something off the fence.

"Hey Rainbow. Mind letting me up so I can go and check you out?"

"You're not getting out until I figure out how I'm going to get you back!"

"Think it out later." Applejack rolls her eyes. "I think he got you good."

"No shit!"

"I reckon, if he did, that'll be the time you know for sure. But just to give you a heads up, let me up?" Noticing Rainbow slowly losing her anger in place of growing worry, Applejack tries to be supportive. "It's as good or bad as you wanna take it, so it's all up to you."

Growling loud, Rainbow Dash jumps back for Applejack to roll over and get back up, wincing and sucking air in through her teeth. Still angry, she eyes Applejack extra hard when she twirls a hoof pointing down for her to turn around. Unsure, and ready for any tricks, she takes her time with each step of ache until she faces the fence from Tartarus.

"Whoa Nellie!"

"Will you just tell me already?!" Rainbow feels a hoof swing her tail out of the way, grazing just enough to cause her to clench up and groan. Baring her teeth, she watches Applejack walk up alongside her and back towards the fence. "You suck."

Applejack just ignores her irritated best friend in order to do what she had been asked to. Moseying on up to the half split eight inch wide plank, she raises up on two hind legs to take the bottom of the board into her mouth, having to fight like Winona to break it loose. Turning and dragging the plank back with her, she lets it fall in front of Rainbow, Double Down's side up.

"He done branded ya right on the keister." Applejack casually mentions, pointing her hoof to the normally upside down smiley face cut deep into the board. Turning the board like a clock hand so Rainbow can clearly see right side up what everypony else will, Applejack just nods.

With her muzzle agape and eyes darkened through downward tilt from the moon's light, Rainbow remains deathly silent.

"Wanna know something funny?" Applejack leads off, and continues without any encouragement. "I don't think he understands."

What happens in the Everfree is nopony's business.

“Just... just do it alright?” Rainbow tries to hide the blood spreading through her cheeks, getting worse with each passing moment of silent non compliance. Feeling the heat rising, she opens her wings just to shimmer. “Will you stop looking at it and do something?!”

Biting her lower lip in anticipation of what she hopes will be but a brief moment of pain, her body surges forward as a groan erupts from her lips, soon brought into a seething inhale. No matter her image, no matter her inhibitions, she was prepared to see for herself what she was promised would be worth all the pain and discomfort. Holding her trembling wings just a few inches out from her sides, they vibrate like a hummingbird getting ready to take it's first flight.

“Wha, why'd you stop?!” Rainbow glances back with one eye twitching in anger and embarassment while she remains braced by her front hooves. Pushing back with small forceful jerks with muscles already pushed to the limit, she just cannot accept the cruel hesitation. “Who the hay offers something like this and then just pulls back when I make a little noise?!”

Breathing hard like she had just ran the Running of the Leaves, her body begins to twitch as a job barely touched takes her back to where she had started. Unsatisfied, exposed, and agitated. But in her most powerful emotion yet, glistening in the only visible eye for the briefest of moments, she finally turns her head forward again.

Hanging her head for a few moments, feeling the air crack like a whip on what begins to dry and ache once again, she lets out a most uncharacteristic sigh. Closing her wings and folding her ears, Rainbow readies to slam shut the door she herself cracked open in invitation. She felt embarrassed and made a fool, but in hindsight, it began to hurt more to think she wasn't the only one.

But faster than she can properly react, the sudden pressure and chill sent shooting up and down her back spreads to her wings with a bone popping spread even the biggest stallion couldn't compare. Pushed forward, she would in turn throw it all behind her.

“More, dang it!" Rainbow leads off overly strong, a mare without compromise to what she was offered and accepted with far more indifference than she'd expected of herself. “Screw the towel! I don't care if it gets messy!” Fluttering her eyes like the sun was right in front of her eyes. "You can take your time, next time!"

Looking forward and away, with her body tensing up, she sharply inhales and whimpers when her body jerks forward, soon brought into a watery rhythm. Resisting at first, she throws herself into the heat of the moment as pain and discomfort begins to numb to the caress of an overpowering pleasure.

“Ohhhhhhaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh...” Rainbow's head bobs up and down like a rag doll, her body moving on it's own to meet the pressure where she needs it most. “Don't stop.”

“You're making my animal friends uncomfortable.” Fluttershy looks as sour as she could possibly be, her hoof covered in a goop that also smears and pops over Rainbow's swollen cheeks. “You haven't even come to visit in over a week and you won't even explain why. You just push your way in through my bedroom window and scream if I have any butt cream.”

"That's what it is!"

"No, it's a specially made paste that relieves swelling while also soothing the inflamed..."

"Mmmm" Rainbow decides enough is enough, and just leans her rear in one direction to choose which cheek gets the message they both desire. Stretched out with her wings held just off her side in a rather private display, she soon begins to force how much pressure by grinding backwards with absolutely zero bucks left to give. "Yeah, yeah. Just hold it still, right there."

Standing with her hoof held straight out, remaining still so Rainbow can do what she needs to do just how she wants it, Fluttershy looks over towards the observations all the little critters give to what happens before them. At first, innocent enough, they only cause Fluttershy glance away in slight embarrassment. But slowly, as the noises Rainbow etches out get louder and more intense, so do the animals.

"What?!" Fluttershy folds her ears back as her cheeks blush. "No no, she's my best friend."

Ignorant to Rainbow pivoting one ear back towards her, but otherwise still focused on her own problems, Fluttershy starts to forget who might hear as she becomes focused in on her own.

"It's different." Fluttershy tries to explain to the otter.

Then a ground squirrel starts squeaking and carrying on, Fluttershy starts to get a little defensive.

"Mr. Squirrel, that is quite enough." Fluttershy nods sharply towards the squirrel, who just shrugs, followed by a bird that flaps it's wings while chirping rapidly. So shocked her muzzle hangs open, she becomes even more so when Angel enters the picture. "A-Angel!"

Lifting her free hoof into the air as if to stop her little bunny, her cries or extended hoof cannot stop the little demonic rabbit from taking each and every animal that bucked up right back down. Whether by bash of carrot, double bunny kick, or a plain old paw slap in the kisser it matters not. When all said and done, with an exerted Rainbow Dash collapsing to the floor, so does each animal that needed reminded.

"Angel." Fluttershy chastises her little bunny, Angel, who holds down a squirrel with a carrot to it's head. "Angel!"

Angel, still caught up in the moment, jabs the tip of his carrot into the squirrels head several times before stomping with both feet. Looking around to see if any other wishes to break the rules of his home, he twitches his nose before disappearing into the kitchen. With loud crashes upon the floor coming loud and clear into the living room where Rainbow and Fluttershy remain, the other animals remain in cower.

Mumbling something inaudible, Rainbow remains on the floor.

"You're welcome." Fluttershy still stares towards the kitchen, ears flicking and folding with an unease shining in her eyes when the noise finally stops. Hearing the kitchen window open, she sighs in partial relief. "He must be taking food to his bunny friends."

Mumbling a little louder, Rainbow seems intent on staying exactly as she is, hind legs somewhat stretched behind her, but not entirely level against the floor. Content to not caring how it looks, she just mumbles with a little more force.

"Surely you would be more comfortable on the couch?" Fluttershy moves over to alongside the down and entirely relieved Rainbow Dash, causing Fluttershy herself to slowly settle down at the sight of her friend being so comfortable. "Perhaps a nice fluffy pillow?"

Rainbow grunts, instead of mumbling, causing Fluttershy to fly away and come back with a pillow. Not wanting to move, but going wide eyes with Fluttershy tickles the outside tip of her wing, Rainbow jumps up just enough for the pillow to slide underneath.

"Ow."

"I'm sorry." Fluttershy sits down next to Rainbow, staring down at her friend with concern. "Will you tell me now?"

"You worry too much. I was just doing what I normally do." Rainbow turns her head to glance up and over. "Will you stop?"

Fluttershy looks down into the one eye looking up to her.

"I've been with Applejack doing stuff. You know how it goes." Rainbow half closes her eyes to the insistent plea in Fluttershy's stare. "Sometimes you start messing around and things get out of hoof, and you just get bucked and have to fly it off."

"Are you and Applejack fighting?" Fluttershy lowers herself to the floor, positioning so that Rainbow needn't strain her eyesight or move. "I know things have settled down quite a lot and we've been so used to needing to spend all we have for Equestria, but..."

"We've been messing with Double Down."

"Oh!" Fluttershy seems to understand, but looks no less worried. "Oh."

"What do you mean, oh?" Rainbow grumbles to having to go into greater details, but finds she may owe it to her friend for having helped her so delicately. "Applejack was messing with him, and somehow I got involved so we're both testing out our luck. Seems the dude has a fence, kind of like you, but it's taller than Princess Celestia's horn and it's really ticking AJ off." Snickering. "Real- Ow."

Fluttershy tries to process the information.

"It's just something to do." Rainbow opens her eye a little more. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Relaxing on the floor, Fluttershy kicks out from underneath herself to get more comfortable. With the morning sun creeping just above the nearby treeline, her living room casts itself in just a few beams of light from the shuttered windows. Lost in her thoughts while even the animals calm down and watch in silence, the timid pegasus finally finds a voice.

"He's not a toy you play with until you're bored." Fluttershy stares intently towards Rainbow Dash. "He has feelings."

"Like the one planted right under my tail?" Rainbow slowly, but eventually, slides down into a more relaxed position on top of the pillow. Letting it hold her up more than her hind legs, she eases through without even a murmur of pain. "He isn't a pony."

"Rainbow." Fluttershy's cannot help but shake her head. "That doesn't mean he's worth any less."

"You sure about that?" Rainbow turns to place both eyes on Fluttershy, who looks back in confusion and maybe even a little hurt. "Cause I didn't notice back then cause I never had anything to compare him to." Tilting her head. "Now I do."

"There's another one of them?" Fluttershy raises her voice, but not only in excitement. "Oh, I hope they get along."

"No!" Rainbow grumbles. "I'm talking about the the Double Down I saw two weeks ago. Needs thrown in a river and groomed but he looked healthy." Curling a corner of her muzzle to her frustrations in finding the right word. "Maybe even happy."

"Happy?"

"I dunno. I just got the vibe he's doing better."

"So... it really was us, then?" Fluttershy looks down with her voice dipping lower. "Or just some of us?"

"I... dunno, alright?" Rainbow realizes what she'd done, a little too late. Mentally bucking herself in the face, she does so again when she sees Fluttershy looking down with a self inflicting stare of guilt. "It wasn't you."

"How do you know?" Fluttershy rubs the area above her front hooves together, one of many bad habits she carries for the world to see. "I stayed away the farthest, even from the very beginning. I never got a chance to really give him a chance."

"You remember when we first learned about him? Back before Twilight changed." Rainbow hangs on the last word used, not exactly feeling right about it. "Back before Twilight got cooler?"

Fluttershy nods, but otherwise remains silent, shifting about to get more comfortable with ears in forward tilt.

Almost ten months prior, Ponyville Library.

"Thank you all for gathering, on such short notice." Princess Celestia smiles towards each of the five mares in the room, having passed on taking up any of the seating for her short intended stay. "I am sorry for having woken many of you."

Still smiling, Celestia smiles a little more towards how hard her little ponies try and stay awake. Watching with the patience afforded to her, she almost lets out a snicker when Applejack starts tapping her hoof on the back of a sleeping Rainbow Dash. With both on the couch along with Rarity on the opposite end of Applejack, Rainbow simply refuses to give a damn when a wing smacks Applejack right back.

"I swear this pony sleeps as hard as she flies." Applejack begins to become apprehensive, stopping a pat with her hoof while eyeing wide the wing that twitches when halfway extended out. "Hey Rarity, mind helping me tag team this sleeping pony?"

"Hmm?" Rarity looks over, eyes half closed with a dopey slant on one side of her muzzle. "Oh. Oh! Why, certainly."

Beginning to hum, Rarity goes to work with her magic. Pulling up Rainbow's mane, she pulls a fancy brush from somewhere and begins to brush it. Calm and delicate, her thoughtful smile hides something far more devious as Rainbow begins to quiver and groan in her sleep. Earning the attention of Fluttershy, who sits beside Pinkie Pie on a smaller sofa, even the latter looks aware of the consequence inbound.

Quick to realize and even quicker to jump over the back of the couch to safety, Applejack stands up to peak back over. Shifting back down until her eyes can barely see over the fabric, she has to bite into the couch to keep from getting busted up for busting up.

"Oh, good morning!" Rarity claps her hooves to her work's perfection, the ruffled spiky mane of Rainbow Dash now looking closer to something of a shortened Fluttershy's. Now pulling over a mirror, Rarity seems too tired to know any better. "You look-"

"Quite lovely." Celestia offers her compliments to Rainbow Dash and Rarity, both of whom look as if they had suddenly realized who had been standing there this entire time. "But I think it is important to look how we wish the world to see us, regardless of how rambunctious."

"What do you mean she's here? It's two in the morning!" Spike's voice can be heard upstairs, obviously riled up and tired like all of them. "This better not be another trick to make you a snack, Twilight."

"Spike, please." Twilight awkward laugh as she backs out of her bedroom door lowers into inaudible but noticeable shushes and chastises. Picking Spike up with her magic to help speed him along, she teleports them both back downstairs to just in front of the main touch, facing Princess Celestia whom seems no less worse for waiting. "I'm sorry for the delay. We just weren't expecting you and-"

"What in blue blazes happened to you?" Spike looks up, eyeing Rainbow who simply growls.

Twilight decides to just bow down, like the others save for spike who still seems frozen with all talons over his mouth. "It's just that you usually send me a letter through Spike before you come to visit, or conduct local business."

Celestia motions with a front hoof, her normally perfect regal demeanor just a little off that in turn helps bring focus to the tired ponies and dragon before her. Waiting still, without a word or peep for having to do so, she only speaks when all are ready.

"Shortly after the Changeling invasion of Canterlot, there was an incident within our borders. While I feel some details need to remain hidden until certain things have aligned, I can tell you what all will soon know. We had a visitor." Celestia glances between all those assembled for reactions thus far, noting curiosity remained most prevalent. "Who has since become more permanent."

Thankful, and perhaps a hint guilty to having purposely waited until all were less than peppy like in the mid day, Celestia notices only Twilight coming back into her own. Scribbling, glancing away, and then back again, words are not needed in explanation for what currently happens inside Twilight's mind. Sadly, this would also be exactly why Celestia came herself, on such short notice with even shorter time to explain.

"Initial interactions were amiable. While we could not directly communicate through our words, we found ways to symbolize well enough, and given the situation it was decided the former would need rectified." Celestia stays focused towards Twilight, who lets the slip between her lips seal as quick as they had parted. "That was a mistake, looking back after all that has transpired because of it."

"But..." Twilight doesn't focus in on Princess Celestia, but nonetheless directs her vocal thoughts. "How?"

"You're the egghead, and you don't know?" Rainbow ruffles her mane. "Sounds like a spell to me."

"That's not what I-" Twilight turns her head to look at Rainbow Dash, who just spits in a hoof and rubs her mane almost violently while giving Rarity the look of death. "Uh. I mean... the spell requires a medium! Just like with the Minotaurs and the Griffons, it was a pony who spent their entire lives learning each of their languages that allows us all to understand each other. Without that-"

"Then mistakes can be made." Celestia speaks up loud and firm, snapping a surprised Twilight back towards her. Caught in each other's gaze, Celestia words catch in her throat without a voice wishing to be heard. "That others have to decide on how to live with."

"So you want us to look after them until they get better?" Fluttershy speaks softly, but lose some of her mustered courage to speak up when Princess Celestia seems to not have heard her. To embarrassed to try again, it is another who rolls her eyes that does it for her.

"Fluttershy volunteered to foalsit." Rainbow comments loudly, still not quite able to get Celestia's attention.

Not falling on deaf ears or blind eyes, Princess Celestia's demeanor begins to cause some concern. But as Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash look between themselves, they find familiarity their worst enemy.

"Twilight?" Rarity lifts a hoof to scratch into the air. "Is everything alright, darling?"

"I don't reckon I'm understanding quite like the rest of you, but sounds like you got a pony down on their luck." Applejack stretches to rest her muzzle over the top of the sofa along with her front hooves from behind it. "Can't get started without em, though."

"What makes you so sure you'd even want to?" Rainbow doesn't even turn her head to look back towards Applejack. "All we know is that something bad enough happened that the Princess came here in the middle of the night to warn us."

"My Pa always taught me even a bruised apple has a core worth saving." Applejack stretches up even more.

"Sounds dumb." Rainbow catches herself too late, already feeling the hairs on her back rising. "Aw, crap."

Rarity, who had also realized a moment too late, just screams bloody murder when the couch flips backward hard enough to land cushions down. Trapped underneath with an equally surprised and trapped Rainbow Dash, she frantically pushes a foreleg out from the small hole left between the couch side rest and floor. Reaching for help, the overpowering smell of apples causes her to try harder.

"Somebody, help me!" Rarity shrieks, the couch jumping and rocking back and forth. "Back! Back I say, you ruffians!"

"Ow!" Rainbow yells, causing the couch to buck into the air. "Oh, wanna play it that way, huh?!"

"I wanna play!" Pinkie jumps off the half couch and hops over, smacking the extended white hoof. "Tag!"

"Ah! Pinkie!" Rarity looses her grip, quickly pulled back completely under the couch.

Wishing she could just up and leave, letting what she sees be what she shall continue to believe, Princess Celestia finds herself locked in silent stare between her and her prized pupil. Without the need for words, do they come to a temporary truce.

"He, and it is a him, is not like a pony. He had become restless, and while he seems to lack some natural ability that many of this realm take for granted, even that has been flipped around to be in his favor." Celestia speaks loud, but serene. "He was not satisfied with what we wanted to show him, and instead took it upon himself to explore a great many things."

"Is he fun?" Pinkie gleams towards Princess Celestia, hopping once for her curiosity.

"A different kind of fun, perhaps." Celestia smiles towards Pinkie, glad the atmosphere was becoming a little less heavy. "He made sure to keep his attendants guessing, and the guards assigned to him from relaxing. He found most of the places he wasn't ever supposed to go by letting the guards search for him at all the places he was supposed to be."

"Huh?" Pinkie tilts her head.

"He gave the impression he sought to turn the only place no pony wished to be into his own." Celestia hesitates, but not in anger. "To be more specific, he replaced the locks on the palace dungeons with a different kind of locking mechanism. Even unicorns couldn't quite get the grasp of it, since there were little tricks and traps within. Why, I remember when even I tried, and asked Luna if she wanted a turn."

"Did she win?" Pinkie hops like a bunny in place, entertained by such a small insignificant task.

"She broke the door." Celestia catches her own smirk before it overpowers her smile. "In half."

"I hope she didn't hold a grudge." Fluttershy thinks back to Princess Luna's temper. "For too long."

"She didn't break the door because she couldn't unlock it." Celestia looks towards Fluttershy. "He switched the door hinges, and instead of pulling out, it pushed in from the wrong side. He had two princesses, three dozen royal guards, several butlers and maids occupied for several hours while he left the palace grounds."

"Alright!" Rainbow manages to squeeze her muzzle out from underneath the couch, groaning and breathing hard. "So the dude is a jerk and you all were going too easy on him." Pulling herself all the way out, kicking the couch when finally free. "Bring him to us and we'll have him whipped into shape in no time, or I'm not the fastest pony in Equestria!"

Celestia steps forward, but loose enough to actually bring more confusion than worry from doing so. Coming to just before Twilight and Rainbow Dash who stands just behind her, Celestia uses her magic to gently lift the couch and flip it upright in mid air. Doing the same with Applejack and Rarity, Celestia sets the two ponies on the sofa cushions before the couch peg legs touch the floor.

"While I love seeing my little ponies be the pony they are, no matter how energized or silly they may become, I believe you are already befalling to the same misunderstandings that we did." Celestia backs up before sitting down on her haunches, beckoning any other not already to follow in mimic. "Do you think such was for but a prank, or to purposely ridicule and embarrass?"

Finding full attention onto herself, but no answer dared, Celestia mentally sighs.

"Hopefully, if he heads this way, then perhaps you will be able to let me know."

Back to present, Fluttershy's Cottage.

Still laying about the floor, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash both seem to remain somewhere in the past as they both take unique perspectives on what had been. But as the minutes passed by, Rainbow seemed unable to do anything but what she normally never.

"Rainbow?" Fluttershy tilts her head, leaning into the lean to watch her usually loud and quick to act friend doing nothing but stare down onto the floor. "Maybe you should take a nap. It always made you feel better."

"Son of a horse." Rainbow casually lets the curse fly, now looking up towards the wall facing her.

"Is it hurting again?"

"Only my head." Rainbow does a double take towards Fluttershy who jumps up to get something. "I mean't cause I'm thinking too much! Ow!" Rainbow shifts her outstretched hind legs, regretting but still pulling herself up off the pillow, until she lets out one long breath when finally firmly on all four hooves. "Think I'm finally understanding what Princess Celestia was talking about."

"About Double Down?" Fluttershy flutters backwards, coming up to a tall open cabinint where she first got the paste for Rainbow's swollen derriere. Swiftly reaching in for more, her muzzle hangs open to having nothing left. "Oh no!"

"What?" Rainbow looks over, still preoccupied with her own thoughts.

"I'm out." Fluttershy moves things around on each shelf just to make sure. "I wanted to give you some of the medicine before you left, since it will take several days for it to be absorbed through all the fur." Shifting a glance to Rainbow and then away. "I'll need to go see Zecora."

"Well, let's go." Rainbow, already turning towards the door, grunts before taking into the air in hover as well

"You're going too?" Fluttershy flies over towards the door, getting in front of a visibly agitated Rainbow, who just waits for the door to be opened. "I thought you didn't like going to Zecora's?"

"Gotta ask her something." Rainbow elaborates no further, and just flies out of the opened doorway towards the nearby Everfree, only to groan to a stop. "Hey, I'm not going to cause any trouble, alright? I just need to ask her something."

"Do you promise?" Fluttershy tries to look as stern and serious as she can muster.

"Yeah yeah." Rainbow rolls her eyes. "Just don't go forgetting my dang butt cream while you're worrying, alright?"