“Hello, everyone nwah-wuaaah!”
“Hahahaha!” “Heh heh heh.” “Tee hee hee.”
“Yeah, the bark gets pretty slippery right after a rainstorm.”
“Claws help.”
“I’m actually hoping to talk to Gilda. Gabby, she came over from Griffonstone with you, right? Do you know where she would be?”
“Sorry, princess, but she zipped away as soon as the train arrived. But she pretty much only talks about Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, so I’d see if she was with them.”
“Finally found you! Word on the grapevine is you’re moping around.”
“What grapevine are you talking about?”
“Y’know, general gossip.”
“I wasn’t aware my moods were a topic of gossip in Griffonstone.”
“If you must know, it was Scootaloo telling Gabby who told me.”
“Well, all of you don’t have to worry about me. It’ll pass in time. I’ve dealt with these before.”
“It’ll probably pass sooner if you came to your friends for help.”
“Have you talked with Twilight Sparkle?”
“What? No, why?”
“Because that’s the kind of thing that she would say, and she said something about wanting to talk with you last time I saw her.”
“What does she want to talk about?”
“No idea, but I bet if you head back towards Ponyville you’ll run into her.”
“Dash, I’m not going until you tell me what’s going on.”
“Fluttershy has everyone’s attention right now. And rightfully so. I’d be a horrible friend if I was demanding attention now of all times.”
“Sure you’ve always been a showboat, but are you really telling me not getting attention is what’s bringing you down?”
“No! It’s just why I’m not showing off to bring myself back up, the way I normally do.”
“Then what is bringing you down?”
“I feel like I let her down. It’s kinda stupid, I know. All my life, way back to when we were little fillies in Cloudsdale, I’ve had this sense that I should look out for her. So, when I couldn’t get her off that mountain in time—”
“You’ve said your ‘element’ was loyalty. But if it was truly yours, I think it’d be protectiveness.”
“Protectiveness? Really?”
“What if someone was going to hurt Scootaloo?”
“...... Yeah, you’re right.”
“You were even protective to me when I was a chick in flight camp.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Of course, now I should be protecting you.”
“You, protect me? How do you figure?”
“Well, let’s see, I’ve got a beak, talons, claws, I’m bigger and stronger than you—”
“Bigger and stronger? Since when?”
“Seriously, Dash? Since like a decade now.”
“...... Yeah, knowing you since I was a foal, I guess I never noticed how big and strong you became.”
“Dash, are you ... afraid of me?”
“Pfft! Of course not.”
“...... No, you aren’t afraid of me.”
“Gilda, what are you—ummph?”
“Did you find Gilda?”
“Yeah, she was with Rainbow Dash.”
“Well...?”
“Well what?”
“Come on, what did she say when you told her?”
“... I didn’t talk with her.”
“What? Why not?”
“... She and Dash were ... occupied.”
“Occupied?”
“... Yes. ... And I didn’t want to disturb them.”
“Thank you, but I’ll be handling this one myself.”
VERY WELL, MA’AM.
‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧
‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧
“Hello, Scootaloo.”
“You’re Lauren Faust.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t think you were real.”
“What do you think now?”
“You’re the realest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Hm. Care to take a stroll?”
“Through the wall?”
“The wall’s not real. Come on.”
“I’m a ghost now? I couldn’t walk through walls ... before.”
“You’ll only be a ghost if you choose to stay here. And you couldn’t walk through walls when you were alive because your body’s not real in the same way the wall isn’t.”
“Am I real?”
“Yes. You’re real as long as people continue to consider you an individual. But I didn’t come here to discuss metaphysics.”
“Then why did you come here?”
“Because I personally created you, I felt I should explain some things.”
“‘Personally created me’? Didn’t you ‘personally create’ all of Equestria?”
“I created Equestria, yes. But I had a motive in doing so. I thought maybe I could help make the world I live in a better place. If kids saw a world that was nicer and kinder than their own, just because the people in it were nicer and kinder, then they themselves would act in ways that are nicer and kinder, thereby making my world nicer and kinder. So I made Equestria a better, friendlier, happier world than my own.”
“Oh. That’s ... good. But what does that have to do with me? You created everypony in Equestria.”
“I only created a handful of ponies myself. The rest — almost ‘everypony’ — had an existence which was merely due to implication. A world of ponies exists, so ponies exist to populate that world. But I had stories to tell, stories that took place in that world, so I needed some particular ponies to tell those stories with.”
“And that’s where I come in.”
“Yes. Friendship is like magic; it’s what makes the world we live in worth living in. So I made three little girls with different interests, experiences, and talents, whose friendship enhances their lives despite their differences, and more often than not, because of them. Their story is that of people of different races, of different temperaments, of different backgrounds, building up their friendship from nothing to an unbreakable bond.”
“Is that just a long-winded way of saying I existed to be friends with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle?”
“That’s a crude way to put it, but yes.”
“That can’t be all.”
“Oh, not all. Your relationship with Rainbow Dash was also important.”
“And you ... created everything about me?”
“Well, not everything. The thing with your parents and aunts was due to Nicole Dubuc—”
“— Who’s that?”
“Another person from my world. I created Equestria, but other storytellers use it to tell their own stories. I made your world, but most of the stories in it were made by others. I had no stories that included your family, so other creators filled that in.”
“What about my wings? Did you make me with these?”
“Yes, which is why—”
“— You made me a pegasus that couldn’t fly! I’ve wanted to fly my entire life!”
“I know, I made—”
“— How would you feel if you couldn’t fly!?!”
“I can’t.”
“... ... ... What?”
“You see me as an alicorn because that’s how you envision powerful creatures. Or at least powerful ponies. But these? They’re not real — my real body doesn’t have wings. None of my kind does. We can only fly by getting into machines that do it, and it’s not pleasant.”
“So—”
“— Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s not the same as with you. I’m not different from other humans and you are different from other pegasi.”
“What reason could you possibly have for creating me like this?”
“Did anybody ever treat you as inferior for being flightless? Beside the two pettiest bullies in the show.”
“‘The show’?”
“The school, I meant.”
“Well, no. But why would they?”
“It didn’t happen because I made Equestria a society where that didn’t matter. In my society, it does. Not flightlessness, obviously, but there are plenty of conditions it’s analogous to. And the society isn’t as indifferent about them as Equestria’s is to yours.”
“I’m some kind of an example?”
“In a way. It’s a minor aspect of your character. It’s not meant to demonstrate anything about you. Just to show that a society could treat it as something as completely irrelevant to your worth as it really is. It’s something for society to not react to.”
“And then, what?”
“My society isn’t as good as Equestria’s. It does judge people on their disabilities. But I’m trying to make it better, bring it closer. You asked about being an example. Really, it’s Equestria that’s an example. Its handling of your flightlessness is just something for it to be an example of.”
“You did it to to help others like me, but in a worse world?”
“Yes.”
“And now you want to know whether that justifies it?”
“No, I don’t seek your judgment. I came to you because I thought it’d help to explain it, and I’ve done so.”
“Oh. Um, I kinda lost track of the path we were taking. Where the hell are we?”
“Nearly to the exact opposite place, actually. And looks like you have quite the welcoming committee waiting for you.”
