Truth-telling Lies

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Written by: Oneimare

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Generosity

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Rarity stood like an axis of the world—perfectly calm as everything revolved around her; she gestured for her guests to take a seat at the table. However, the tension hung so thickly in the air of the peaceful room at the back of her boutique, that the four other mares moved slowly as if they had to physically wade through it. On some semi-subconscious level they knew that as long as they hesitated, they might enjoy the peace.

The inevitable happened—everyone sat down, Rarity’s ears pressed to her skull and everyone else mirrored that—for a somewhat different reason, though, still knowing what was to come.

“Girls!” Rarity shrieked in an explosion of hysteria, abruptly rising from her seat; her voice broke as she wailed accusingly, “How could you?”

Her scathing teary gaze swept the table.

Pushing back the grimace, Applejack reacted first, “Now, Rarity—”

The white unicorn continued to weep with abandon, “This whole project is so important, why won’t you understand that? That means so much for Twilight, don’t you see?”

Even with the sound muffled by the white cloth an orange hoof hit the table hard enough to draw Rarity’s attention. “All I see ‘s Twilight havin’ no idea what’s goin’ on.”

Applejack immediately regretted that—Rarity loomed over her and the accusations sank their venom-dripping fangs in her ears, “And whose fault is that? All of us were supposed to help Twilight, not do the opposite.”

“Am doin’ all I can,” she neighed back.

But Rarity pressed on without missing a beat, her words cutting deep, “Is it why the group of changelings supposed to be working at Sweet Apple Acres is never seen there?”

“All I can.” Applejack’s response sounded less convincing this time.

“I’m sure you can do better for your friend,” impatiently snapped the fashionista; with that her interest in reprimanding the frowning mare began to ebb and her eyes tried to catch those of the others—with little success.

However, Applejack still had a fight in her, its flame only kindled fiercely by that castigation. “Ye stop draggin’ Twilight’s hap’ness ‘to that. I wanna ‘er t’be happy no less than ye, but what ‘bout us?”

With that, her green eyes tried to follow Rarity’s example and find support in the other three mares about to share her fate; and everypony evaded her all the same.

The purple mane whipped around as the unicorn fixed the orange mare with an icy glare.

“What is wrong with you, Applejack? What makes you so unhappy about the changelings?”

“I—”

“Since they arrived in Ponyville, they haven’t harmed a single pony, haven’t done anything to deserve fear or mistrust.” Horrible sweetness poisoned Rarity’s voice with its silky smoothness. “So why don’t you work with them, Applejack? Maybe you also would prefer to not work with… unicorns or pegasi?”

Letting everybody know she was there and conscious, if barely, Fluttershy gasped.

“Rarity, listen to yourself!” Pinkie Pie bounced from her place; her mane didn’t. Staring in dismay at the stricken earth pony and the unicorn towering over her, she pleaded, “Applejack would never do something like that and you know that.”

In her turn, Applejack slowly rose from her place with her ears flattened, to stand face to face with Rarity.

“Listen ‘ere, sugar cube, I ain’t holdin’ a grudge fer whatcha just said cos we’re ‘ere friends,” she spoke levelly, almost sadly; then her tone got a subtle edge to it. “But if I was ye, I’da be ca’ful ‘bout throwin’ ‘round ‘cusations like that again.”

Rarity opened her mouth, but Applejack repaid her by not letting her speak as she continued, more emotion slipping into her voice with each word, “It ain’t ‘bout what them changelings do—they decent folk s’far‘s it goes—it’sa ‘bout what we do. An’ I ain’t likin’ it, not even a little bit. Twilight’s a smart pony, but even them smartest ponies make them real stupid mistakes. What’s goin’ on right naow ‘s an honest mistake ‘n she hafta know.”

“It’s just a rough patch and if we put more effort in this,” Rarity retorted, hotly, as if it was her project to manage. “Things are going to smooth out before we know it—before Twilight knows.”

“No, they ain’t. It’s only goin’ t’get worse!”

“Says who? The pony who refuses to do her part?”

“Am doin’ all I can,” the orange pony insisted again.

“No you don’t and everybody knows that—you know that. Only Twilight doesn’t… yet.”

Applejack narrowed her eyes.

“Ye’re gonna tell ‘er, innit?”

“No.” Rarity cooly stared at her. “Are you going to help her or not?”

“Don’t put it like that.”

“You know I’m right.”

“No, ye ain’t. Nuffin ‘bout it’s right.”

“So, we’ve come to an impasse.”

With a deep sigh, Applejack all but fell back into her place on an uncomfortable chair; covering her eyes with a hoof and shaking her head, she muttered, “Whate’er ye say, Rarity. Twilight hafta know—the whole thing—‘n ye know that? Let’s ask them others.”

Once more she tried to summon some support from her friends by boring into them with her gaze. The first one who got her attention—Pinkie—hesitated for a heartbeat or two; then her expression hardened into something alien for her face and she turned to Rarity.

“It’s no fun for anypony or any changeling.”

From the corner of her eye, she shot Rainbow a pointed look—a very pointed look.

Pressing her lips together as Applejack’s plan bore fruits, Rarity took her turn; as no amount of looking would help in her case, she called, “Fluttershy?”

Half-submerged under the table and hiding the rest of herself behind her mane, the mare in question answered by mumbling and whimpering a series of incoherent noises.

“Fluttershy, please,” the unicorn insisted, less patiently than she should have.

The pegasus would have disappeared under the table completely, were Pinkie not pat and rub the yellow hunched back; in doing so, sent a warning glare across the room. “Don’t force her, Rarity!”

“I don’t force anyone here—whatever you might think. We all choose freely if we want to help Twilight or stab her in the back.”

This time everybody gasped; even Rainbow couldn’t hold back her shock at Rarity’s choice of words. Furthermore, she felt her own words forming on the tip of her tongue, eager to be thrown at Rarity—who wasn’t as innocent as she wanted to present herself.

But she kept her jaws clamped.

Pinkie’s icy eyes burned her like coals; she stared at the tablecloth like it was the most important thing in the world.

An eye glistened with tears from betwixt the strands of unkempt long pink mane, followed by a half-whisper, half-sob, “Twilight is trying so hard to make it work—we can’t let her down.”

Are we still even friends?

“Rainbow?” Rarity called again, annoyed. “Rainbow, are you listening to us?”

“Yes,” she muttered. “I have nothing to say.”

Applejack was at her side at the moment, trying to look her in the eyes and Rainbow turned her head away; keeping her attention on the pristine cloth, she shivered, realising, Soon there will be nowhere to look without seeing their hurt faces.

“Whatcha ye meanin’, ‘nuffin’?” Applejack all but screamed in her ear.

Leaning away with her ears angled back, Rainbow couldn’t help but meet Pinkie’s eyes—fixing her with utter dismay. Paralysed by that look of debilitating disappointment, Rainbow didn’t care as the farm pony continued to rage, “Ye visit the hive ev’ry week, ye know—”

“That’s enough, Applejack. Two for two and one abstained.”

“What’s that sup’sed t’mean?”

Applejack whipped her head to glower at Rarity, who met the anger with a nearly condescending expression.

“It means we keep things as is,” the unicorn deadpanned. “Though if I were you, I’d share your faith with Fluttershy and I try at least a bit harder.”

The emerald eyes held the hard look for a few long moments, then Applejack turned away with a scowl, whinnying, “Ain’t gonna end well—this all.”

Rainbow continued to feel Pinkie’s sombre look burrowing itself under her twitching skin; grimacing, the pegasus grumbled, quietly, “Don’t look at me like that—I warned you.”

Not quietly enough, however, as Rarity whirled around, her narrowed eyes shooting daggers of sharp sapphire betwixt the two mares.

“Warned about what?” When silence answered her, a note of fury appeared in her demand, “What’s going on?”

“Nuffin,” Applejack grunted, looking at her hooves.

“I wasn’t asking you,” Rarity spared her a snapping reply; her intense gaze then returned to studying Rainbow and Pinkie. “Are you conspiring against me?” She gasped, her face twisting into a mask of horror and disgust. “Against Twilight?”

In the following silence, all mares—save for Fluttershy—exchanged looks fast as flashes of lighting; still, they lasted long enough to carry animosity, reproach and guilt.

Finally, Rarity broke the standstill by proclaiming in a cold voice, “I’m not going to tell you how disappointed I am with this… foalisheness. You’re forgetting that we are in this together. And there is something else to consider—if you want to make some clandestine plans again, just remember—right now Ponyville is housing twenty dozen natural-born spies.”