The Land Unspoken

Fluttershy had managed to sleep for a few hours, but was awoken by a commotion in a nearby room. She opened her eyes and raised her head as the noises grew louder and louder, then gasped as Ditto was hurled bodily through a side door into the room to crash, dazed to the floor. Xerox followed the little pony in, clearly in the middle of a rant.

“-useless! Can you never do anything right? Why I would bother raising such a worthless child is beyond me, but this is how you repay my kindness? You have one day, ONE DAY, to prove to me I should keep you, and if you don’t then you’re gone. This is the LAST STRAW!”

With that, he spun and exited the room, slamming the door and leaving the sobbing foal behind. Fluttershy cleared her throat and cautiously spoke up.

“Ditto?”

The little pony twitched, but ignored her. She looked over his sad little form and, despite everything he had done to her on the journey there; she felt nothing but pity for the crippled pony. She tried again. “Ditto, please, let me help you. You’re in a bad shape, and you might die if you’re not helped.”

“Why should I care?” came the muffled response “I’m nothing.”

“Nopony is ‘nothing’” replied Fluttershy, “we all have our talents; just because yours don’t match your father’s doesn’t give him the right to call you useless. Now, please come over here. I’ll do my best to help you, and it’s cold so you’ll need warmth.”

Reluctantly the pony began to move towards her, his limp even more pronounced with his fresh injuries. Fluttershy looked on, feeling sadder with every tortured step the pony took. Almost as soon as he had reached the relative safety of the cage he collapsed and passed out. Fluttershy quickly took him in (his tiny body was easily small enough to fit through the bars) and began to look over his injuries, assessing which were life threatening. Nothing seemed broken, but the pony’s skin was a mass of cuts, bruises and scars, old and new. Most of the healing would be done naturally by his body, but she made an attempt to close over any cuts that were still bleeding. Once she had done all she could, she placed his limp body on the ground and curled around it, hoping to insulate him with her warmth. Surprisingly quickly, she returned to sleep.

It was some time later she woke again, and found the space she had been curled around now empty. She looked up, alarmed, and met the eyes of Ditto who was standing outside her cage. The little pony seemed to have made a remarkable recovery; he was still standing awkwardly and seemed tired, but was otherwise unaffected by the rough treatment he had received. Fluttershy had only previously seen him with either a mocking or pained look on his face, so it was surprising now to see something resembling shyness in his battered features.

“I just wanted to say... thank you,” he said quietly, “I think you saved my life. I’ll find some way to pay you back.”

“Don’t be silly” replied Fluttershy “I don’t need a reward; the fact that I was successful is reward enough. Nice to see you back upright!”

The concept of not wanting a reward seemed alien to the little pony, but he nodded and scampered out of the room. Fluttershy returned to staring at the walls, her thoughts preoccupied.

Rarity was in a quandary. She was sat by the anguished Pinkie Pie, trying desperately to find words to comfort her, but no words came. Pinkie had fled the scene shortly after Rainbow Dash had shouted at her, and now she sat with her back against a tree, tears running down her face. Rarity had followed, and now merely stood by, desperately racking her brains for something to say. Yet anything she tried sounded meaningless.

“Don’t mind Rainbow Dash,” she had begun, trying and failing to inject some cheerfulness into her voice, “Most of us are really grateful for the laughter and cheer you bring us, you’ve been a great support these past days.”

Gaining no reply, she tried again. “Dash is just a little bit tetchy at the moment because she can’t fly; don’t take anything she says to heart.”

This time she got an answer. Pinkie spoke for the first time since the incident. “I’m just trying to keep people happy!” she cried in anguish. “Is that really so hard?”

“Sometimes, dear, you just need to leave people alone. Not everypony wants to laugh all the time. Sometimes, ponies just need their solitude.”

“I know that…” replied Pinkie, and sighed. Rarity was unable to find any words to say and an awkward silence fell. After a brief delay, Pinkie stood and began walking slowly back the way she had come. “Well I guess I’d better go back and apologise” she said sadly.

Meanwhile, Applejack was having an identical problem with Rainbow Dash. Dash’s anger had swiftly worn off after shouting at Pinkie Pie but the guilt that now filled her wasn’t yet enough to convince her to apologise. Applejack had followed her after the incident, correctly anticipating the change of heart, and hoping to help her find the courage to apologise. But she was having trouble finding words for the grieving pegasus who was led down, her face hidden in a pile of leaves and dirt. Eventually, Dash retracted her head and spoke.

“What have I done?” she whispered, anguish in her voice. “I thought Pinkie was mocking me, but she was just trying to help! Now I’ve alienated her and she’ll never want to talk to me again.”

“Of course she will” replied Applejack “a true friend won’t abandon you after such a silly incident. You just need to go up to her and apologise, and everythin’ll be fine.”

“But I can’t!” the pegasus replied, “she won’t listen, she’ll just ignore me.” Her face fell, if possible, even further “I really hurt her, didn’t I?”

“Don’t you worry yourself about that, sugarcube, everypony makes mistakes.”

“Gah” the pegasus snorted, then sighed. “I guess you’re right. I’ll go and apologise then.” With that she trudged back to the camp, Applejack following on behind.

Meanwhile, Twilight had been left alone with Derpy. She was still shocked at the outburst, and felt an acute sadness in the pit of her stomach. She sighed and dropped her head, too distracted to continue reading her book. Derpy noticed the movement.

“Don’t worry Twilight,” she said confidently, “I’m sure everything will be fine! Rainbow Dash is headstrong, but she knows when to apologise. And Pinkie’s recovered from worse than this before, I’ll bet she’ll be back to normal really soon!”

The cheeriness sounded forced to Twilight, but she appreciated the sentiment all the same, and aimed a smile at the pegasus. Just then, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash re-entered the campsite from opposite ends and froze, staring at each other. There was a tense silence, which was eventually broken by Dash.

“Pinkie” she began, awkwardly. “I just wanted to say. I… I’ve been really tired lately and I’m a bit tetchy because I can’t fly. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. I’m… sorry”

Pinkie unfroze at the words, and she met Dash’s eyes. “I’m sorry too. I should have realised earlier that you wanted to be left alone. If you like I can stay quiet for the rest of the journey?”

Dash began to walk across the clearing towards Pinkie Pie. Twilight’s eyes widened in alarm as the pegasus moved nose to nose with the earth pony and spoke.

“Pinkie Pie,” she began, then grinned. “If you stop making jokes, I’m going to throw you off a cliff. Okay?”

Pinkie paused, but then a smile passed across her face. “Yes ma’am!” she replied dramatically, rising onto her hind legs and saluting. She then dropped back down.

“Incidentally,” she added cutely, “there’s a leaf stuck to your nose.”

Derpy, who had been attempting to stifle giggles for the entire conversation at just this fact, now dissolved into laughter. The other’s joined her as Dash’s eyes crossed. Pinkie’s eyes were wide with innocence and, laughing, the pegasus batted the leaf away and tackled the earth pony to the ground. They rolled around for a few seconds, until Pinkie extracted herself and ran to her pack. From here she produced her party cannons, some balloons and a large pile of odd hats, exclaiming “This calls for a party!” punctuating the point with a volley from the cannons.

There was a loud explosion and confetti was blasted into the sky. Derpy took off like a rocket and began chasing the confetti around, trying to grab as much as she could, watched by Rarity and Twilight. Both the unicorns were laughing, their horns glowing as they nudged pieces of confetti this way and that, leading the pegasus on a wild chase across the night sky.

Fluttershy received another visit from Ditto in a similar style to the last one. The pony ran in, frantically, and Fluttershy could hear the sounds of Xerox in hot pursuit. Quickly, she motioned to the terrified foal who ran to her and into the cage. She led down, hiding his body from sight, and feigned sleep. Seconds later Xerox smashed through a doorway and she raised her head. He looked deranged and glanced around wildly, sparing her a suspicious look. The chase had clearly been going on for some time.

“Where is he? Where is my damn son!? Tell me!” he bellowed.

Fluttershy didn’t need to feign her fear; the furious, dishevelled face was enough to make her shudder. She nodded her head towards a side entrance and Xerox ran out, his thundering hooves gradually fading to nothing. After assuring herself that the coast was clear, she carefully unwound herself from around the shaking Ditto and nuzzled his head. He looked up fearfully.

“It’s okay now,” Fluttershy said soothingly, “he’s gone. I’ll keep you safe until he calms down.”

“He won’t” replied the foal tearfully “I failed him again; he’s going to kill me the next time he sees me.” The sadness in his voice struck Fluttershy to the core and she hugged him tight.

“Don’t worry” she replied “I’ll protect you from him. I always protect my friends.”

“Friends?” replied Ditto. For a moment Fluttershy was alarmed, thinking he had never heard of the word, but the little pony merely followed up with; “I’ve never had a friend before…” His voice was dejected, and Fluttershy’s heart went out to him anew.

“Well you have one now!” she replied with false cheer. “When we get out of here, I’ll introduce you to my other friends, you can stay with us!” She spoke with a confidence she didn’t feel, but the sentiment seemed to lift a great weight from the foal.

“Thanks miss, but don’t worry about me, I can look after myself now,” he replied. “I’ll be back soon, and we can talk some more!” With that he smiled, turned, and vanished down a side passage. Fluttershy smiled back, unable to keep the tears from her eyes. She was no stranger to being bullied, and was well accustomed to people laughing cruelly as they ridiculed her, but in all the time she had known Ditto, among all the times the little foal he insulted and mocked her on the journey there, this was the first time she had ever seen him smile.