Twilight Sparkle and the Stupid Original Pony

The mares watched as their dear friend left. They were hopeful that her optimistic assertions were correct. And still in shock from her revelations. The one and only Princess of Friendship, treating her own special friend so poorly?

“Does friendship really mean anything at all?” Fluttershy asked, forlorn.

“’Course it does. This here was not a failure of friendship, this was a failure of– of– of one particular pony.” Applejack sniffled just a bit. It hurt like dickens to criticize her friend, no matter how honest the words were.

“Don’t fret, Jackie, Twilight has us and we’ll all help her get things straightened up.”

“If it ehn’t too late,” Applejack grumbled. “She should have talked to one of us, or all of us, if she was so mixed up that her response to feeling attracted was to kick him. Thank th’ holy one she don’t kick like Ah do.”

“Twilight isn’t the only pony who kicked Tangent around,” Rainbow Dash confessed.

“Yes, dear, but did he lie there and take it when you had your little tiff?”

“No! I needed stitches and a splint by the time we were done.” Her wing was still immobilized. “And he walked me to the doctor’s office instead of leaving me in the sticker bushes where I deserved to be.”

“Therein lies all the difference in the world. You see that don’t you?”

“Yeah, but I don’t feel very awesome about myself.”

“You were fighting with him? What about?” Fluttershy’s eyes were wide with surprise. Dash’s explanation for the injury had simply been that she hit a tree – no mention of how.

Dash looked down at the ground. So much for Tangent's promise not to rat on her, she’d just blown her own cover.

“You.”

“Me?” Fluttershy didn’t understand.

“I told him that I was worried about Discord’s influence on you. He told me to mind my own business and I got mad and threw the first kick.”

Fluttershy frowned slightly.

“I thought you said you approve of us. Didn’t you mean it?”

“Yes, I mean it, I swear I do, Fluttershy! I swear by my mark! But I couldn’t have said that to you if he hadn’t helped me get my head sorted out. I’m sorry it took me so long. It’s your choice and if I don’t support you one hundred percent, I’m not a good friend.”

“You are a good friend. And it’s very loyal of you to make such an effort to do the right thing even when it’s hard for you.”

Conversation lapsed until Applejack broke the silence.

“I tol’ him that Twilight probably thought he was useful to have roun’.” She shook her head and laughed at herself. “Yeah, it could be worse, but I still musta’ sounded like an insensitive clod. Maybe that was a little bit too honest.”

“Pinkie, you’ve been very quiet. Is there anything you’d like to get off your chest?”

“I already said my piece,” the pink one said. “There was me like a bucking idiot!” Her hair went down even as her voice rose to resay her piece in more detail. “Essentially telling him ‘well at least us buck ups didn’t get our mistakes microscopically critiqued’ while he cried into his ice cream, post microscopic critique. He needed consolation and maybe a representative to confront his commander, and all he got was extra pickles. I thought he was crying because they’re super spicy.” She waited a beat. “At least they were damn good pickles.”

The mares chuckled at Pinkie’s punch line. Leave it to her to successfully get a laugh during a downer meeting like this one.

Rarity took the opportunity to start wrapping the gathering up.

“Well, as far as I know I haven’t committed any especially egregious faux pas but I confess that I did wonder about borrowing him from the princess one day. I begin to wonder now if I should ever give him back. With clear consent that steamy three way would be quite—”

“Rarity!” Fluttershy scolded, “you’re awful!”

“I jest, I jest.”

“Like fun y’do.”

“Hush you, Jackie.”

“Guys, are we going to tell Twilight about the crystal reading we tried to do?”

“Puh-lease, Dash, I only just barely avoided a lengthy prison stay over that tiny little quibble about Spikey’s age last year. Let’s not get me put away for unlicensed divination unless that is the only way to save their relationship.”

—

Why, why, why, why?

Twilight repeated the questions as she trotted home.

Why didn’t she open up to her brother about her missteps?

The girls were a great bunch of mares and her close friends, but now they were all alarmed for nothing.

True, she had screwed up, but now everything was under control, she reminded herself again.

Shining would have had some advice, or at least emotional support.

After a disastrous confrontation, she owed herself a day off.

—

“So, um, what do we do now?”

Rarity paused in thought – her suggestions would skirt the technical definition of insubordination.

“We wait for Mister Tangent to return. If he does, we will be staging a tiny little intervention. In the mean time, let us all try to shield Twilight from any duties or disruptions that will pull her away from her magic work on the barrier.”

“What’s up with the dang barrier, anyway? Sounds like some kind of royal malar—”

Applejack was interrupted by a cry as the most timid member of the group panicked and skittered her way under the table.

“Now look, you’ve gone and scared Fluttershy. It’s probably a sin to doubt Twilight, and yet, here we are. Nevertheless,” Rarity said sternly, “we do not question Princess Celestia. Come on out dear.”

Rarity lifted the edge of the tablecloth and gestured for Fluttershy emerge.

Fluttershy could be brave enough in a pinch, if the situation demanded it and there was no other alternative. But even a hint of sacrilegious rebellion was too much for her. She glared resentfully at Applejack as she crawled out from under the table.

“Isn’t that right, Jackie?” Rarity prompted, “We do not cast aspersions on Princess Celestia’s motivations.”

“’Course not,” Applejack grumbled, “not even when she—” there was a steely glint in Rarity’s blue eyes as she contended with Applejack “—is far beyond the reckonin’ of a dumb hayseed like me!”

“Twilight needs to break that spell, like, yesterday.” Pinkie pushed her way between Rarity and Applejack before they could antagonize each other further. Why did they always know exactly how to trigger each other? “How can she be so relaxed about it? What is she thinking?”

“Well, she’s got the five of us.”

“I’m still worried.”