Mirror: Book I - Mind

Quiet, undispelled and unprovoked focus loomed around the schoolhouse like a pond undisturbed for three days straight. Not a fish to break the surface, not a pebble nor a petal to touch the water, or any company to invade its extended solitude for that matter.

Utensils drove into parchment and all eyes aimed at their desks as the students focused on their work. Miss Cheerilee reclined at her chair and peeked back out at the window for a moment before looking down at the plethora of paperwork and grading she was absolutely thrilled to delve into later tonight. Only now did she think of the outdoors and the world beyond, the ponies she had once schooled before and where they might be in the realm, where they were going and what they were doing.

Then, there was a whisper in the back row, a “psst” and a snicker. Cheerilee told herself to ignore it for the time being, but it did not cease.

“Psst!” Snips hissed to his friend. “Pass the biology notes.”

“But I don’t do my homework.” Snails answered back. “Like, ever.”

“No no, I mean the biology notes.” Snips winked emphatically.

Snails stared at him blankly. Snips rolled his eyes and quietly made a gesture of making a hole with one hoof and letting his other hoof pass through, however that was supposed to be done. Snails had to cover his snout with both hooves to stifle his snickers as he returned a similar wink to his friend and cautiously looked around before secretly levitating the biology notes over to the waiting colt.

Without warning, Miss Cheerilee stepped in and observed the behavior of her two students. The “biology notes” were floating midair between them, and as the teacher looked to them to and fro, finally setting out a hoof to reach for the notes…

“Thief!” A rasp echoed. “I knew it was you!”

The teacher flinched and spun around, a quarrel between two students took place at the door of the school. One was a furious, orange little bundle of feathers whilst the other stood at odds with a white unicorn next to the pegasus’ side.

“Scootaloo, calm down.” The white unicorn pleaded with her friend.

“No way I’m letting her get off that easy.” Scootaloo pushed forward. “She stole your binoculars, Sweetie Belle. I’ll bet she’s taken my comic book, and Apple Bloom’s note pad!”

“I didn’t steal your binoculars, I found them.” The thief pleaded. “I was just trying to give them back.”

“Oh yeah, how about giving us some respect? If you had any!”

“Girls, that’s enough.” Cheerilee marched up. “What’s going on here?”

The teacher peered down at the supposed thief in question. Dinky, standing timidly at the frame of the door, a dejected and sorrowful expression filling her eyes. Cheerilee blinked at her student for a short moment, not exactly sure what to say or do in that short second of idling.

“She stole Sweetie Belle’s binoculars.” Scootaloo accused.

“Did not!” Dinky countered.

“I’ll bet she’s the reason half of the lost and found is missing!”

“All of the lost and found is missing, Scoots…” Apple Bloom corrected.

“Yeah well, whatever! You know what I mean!”

Cheerilee trained her sights back on Dinky, crouching down to her eye level and waiting for the girls in the background to cease their bickering. The teacher looked deeply into her student’s eyes for any sign of hesitance or dishonesty. She knew it was difficult for anypony to keep a straight face in such situations, but Cheerilee simply sought to do her best. She began calmly.

“Dinky.” Cheerilee asked calmly. “Did you take Sweetie Belle’s binoculars?”

“No, I didn’t.” That familiar lump formed in the little unicorn’s throat. “I found them lying on the ground when I was walking home last night, honest.”

“Were they next to the hedges?” Sweetie asked her.

“Yes, they were, I swear.”

Sweetie Belle calmly looked down at the binoculars in her hooves and closed her eyes. She knew her fellow student spoke the truth, and thus she lifted her head to give the pony her thanks. Alas, the pegasus intervened.

“Search her bag, just to be sure.” Scootaloo revved her wings.

“There will be no need for that.” Cheerilee attempted, holding out a hoof.

Scootaloo was quick, however. She pounced up and over her teacher’s hoof and dove for the gray unicorn’s bag. The two tussled for a moment until an orange limb plunged inside the sac, only to find an oddly shaped, small, wooden structure. The little pegasus cocked a brow in confusion and pulled the item forward, questioning its make and origin.

“Don’t you dare!” Dinky charged and pushed the pegasus over, her face hitting the earth. The two were outside now, and the rest of the class followed to find two dusty and dirt matted ponies standing between a small, wooden boat lying on the ground. One of the masts had been broken, and Dinky could only look down with water welling up in her glossy eyes.

She held her little boat close to her chest and turned to the rest of the class with a snot boiling snarl. “None of you know what it’s really like to have things taken from you! None of you go home to an empty house or a handicapped mother! None of you-” She choked, gasped and screamed. “None of you had a dad who never stayed to watch you grow up!”

The dispirited little unicorn shoved the boat back into her saddle bag and hoisted the bundle with her teeth. Slippery tears streamed past her cheeks, into her mane and on the ground as she trotted for the hills leaving little plumes of dust in her wake.

“Dinky!” Cheerilee trotted after her for a second or two, only to watch the tiny dot on the horizon shrink beneath the green hills afar. She sighed and lowered her head, unsure of the future for her little student. Meanwhile, her students stood at the entrance of the school, looking on with shocked and confused gazes.

“You think she stole that boat?” Scootaloo asked.

Apple Bloom slapped her upside the head.

「My name is David,
and I am a brony.」

The boy stared at his writing, wondering what it meant to himself, wondering what it meant to others, and in the vast scheme of his thinking he wondered if any of this at all, everything he saw, touched, smelled, tasted and heard had any ounce of credibility to begin with. For as far as he had convinced himself, the dream was still real. Like a prison he could not wake from it, and like any sane inmate he sought to play along with the time spent within to maintain what sanity he did have left. He questioned then if in context of the dream, of the talking ponies and magical entities, the cities in the clouds and the unicorns in the streets, had any ounce of sanity to begin with. It was him and his book, the boy and his fanaticism that kept him alive, and he looked back down in his book to reassure himself. The words remained, his name and his status. Alas, something felt as though it were missing, something was always missing. He continued to write.

「I am convinced that this is a test from God. I have played around with my life for far too long, and in the process I have tested his patience. This is where he places me, not in hell, nor in heaven, but on a plane of irony. I can only imagine he has done this to test me, to teach me a lesson, to fulfill a purpose. But, what? 」

His hand ceased movement and the utensil fell from his fingers. He drawled a palm over his eyes and sighed drearily, gazing upon the vacancy of the room he was in. Candy cane columns connected between chocolate coated trusses and railing, a minty green floor complete with an open glass display of sweets and pastries for sale, but not a pony in sight. He sufficed with the solitude and supposed he could do for quite a while without the company of one of those perky equines trotting about. The trotting of their hooves, the whipping of their tails and that oh so subtle flicker of their ears, it was nearly enough to make the boy go mad from time to time. At the spell of silence he allowed his mind to delve back into the momentary critical thinking stage.

「What is the message? Why am I so blind? What is this dream trying to tell me? I hear that in every great story there is a lesson to learn, an epiphany to behold. A message. So, is the goal then to discover this message? To embark upon a journey where as one will lose more than they might gain at the end of it. Is that to say that the message is embedded within the corridors of the journey one walks, and that the effectiveness of the lessons learned are only dependent upon the realization of one’s situation? The reality of my situation is…」

The thought could not be finished. As he sat there, stagnant, a bright, pink-frosted cupcake with deep, red streaks laid upon the table mere inches from his book. How had it gotten there? He blinked at the pastry, looked up, and stared directly into brilliant, sparkly blue eyes dancing with wonder and majesty. The pony’s mane was a deep pink, and her coat lighter. Finally, the pink one had arrived.

It’s her… David thought.

“It’s me!” She hopped and giggled, settling back down into her seat as she looked upon the boy with great concern. “What’s got you in a pickle, friend?”

“Friend?” He repeated the word cautiously, almost as if it were taboo. “I’m sorry, you must have the wrong table.”

“Ah, Davy.” She rested her cheek to her hoof, elbow to the table. “There are no right tables or wrong tables, only tables.”

It’s her, David thought, but then again it can’t truly be her. The pink one, she’s only a smaller piece to this mind-pulverizing puzzle I call a brain hernia or something other. Any of these ponies could have showed up, but it had to be the pink one. I don’t want it to be her. I’m sure plenty of these ponies have plenty of reasons to resent her presence, but I don’t have the same reasons they do. I just don’t want any of this to be happening right now.

“Why not?” She asked. “You wanted a different flavor?”

“Uh…” He hesitated. Note to self, suspend all conscious thought in this pony’s presence.

“Sheesh, it’s not like I’ll be reading your mind all the time, silly.”

“Starting now.” David spoke. “Um, how much do I owe you?” He eyed the cupcake before him.

“My charity comes free of charge, friend.” She smiled in response. “Rarity taught me that one. In fact, she’s on her way to come talk to me about you in a little less of an hour here!”

“The one who makes the dresses? Ah jeez, I better not be seen then.” He made to scurry away.

“Is that what you’re in such a fuss for?” The pink pony giggled and squeaked delightfully. “I sorta took you for more of an Applejack guy, but whatever floats your boat.”

“No, it’s not that.” He disregarded the odd statement. “I had my run in with the unicorn, and trust me the lasso girl already hates my guts.”

“Sounds like mister popular to me.” She took her own share of the cupcakes and began eating them one by one, the wrapper included.

“Yeah, and I’ve got one question for ya’.” He looked her in the eye. “How come you weren’t among them?”

The pink mare emphasized sweat streaming down the side of her face. This one’s good. She thought. Just like Rarity said, perceptive.

“Where’s that voice coming from?” David looked around.

“Maybe it’s your conscious speaking to you again.” She suggested.

“And how would you know that? How do I know that you’re not just my conscious, too? Telling me the things I want to hear and not what I need to hear.”

The sweat drawling down the puffy mare’s face didn’t seem all the emphasized any longer, but rather it carried some weight to it, as though she’d lost the inability to fake it and was actually trying to hide something from the boy. She grinned, smiled, and burst out in a bubbly fit of laughter as she went down snorting and giggling, kicking and holding her tummy. “Alright, you caught me, I give up!”

The boy was more or less at a loss of words, waiting for the pink mare to pick herself back up and rest to the table to continue her explanation. “It’s true, I was just playing fun and games with you. I wanted to see how long I could hold before you figured it out.”

“Figured what out?” He pressed both palms to the table. “I’m not asking for the spoon-feeding anymore, alright? I’m demanding it. I want to know what’s going on here and where you play a role in this grand scheme of shits and giggles.”

“Hush, my child! You are in Pinkie’s house.” She pressed a hoof over his lips. As she drew away he smacked and licked his chops. Tasted like bubblegum and cookie dough. “Thou shalt maintain a clean tongue in thine house under the rock. Teehee! Neat, huh? That’s what papa always used to say, but really I don’t want you potty mouthing around the Baby Cakes. Mama Cake and Papa Cake will be upset, for sure!”

“Okay, no swearing.” He held up his hand. “On the condition that you explain to me what the-” He thought over his next words. “What the…heck is going on here.”

“Well, duh! It’s my Pinkie sense.” She justified. “Everypony knows about my gift, even Twilight. Did you know there was a time when she didn’t believe? I was walking around Ponyville minding my own, and then all of a sudden Twilight burst in a gigantic ball of flames! Or wait, maybe that was Fluttershy? I thought she was the one who exploded, and then she exploded again! Or no, wait-wait, I got it-!”

“Stop.”

The pink pony froze mid air, a garble of cupcake paper in her mouth. David timidly reached for the sloppy wad of wrapping and threw it in the trash can. He followed up with his own speech. “Before you get ahead of yourself-”

“Yuh-huh?” She unfroze.

“This ‘Pinkie sense.’” He began. “I imagine it’s a very important factor in your life, and not just yours but for the other ponies, too.”

“Yupperoni!” She perked up. “Only, it kind of saddens me to break it to you, but you’re not in it.” All of a sudden, the fluffy pink mare sunk like a ship beneath the surface. “It’s almost like saying you’re not invited to the party, which would totally never happen!” And she was back to her old self. “I would do everything in my power to make sure every party you’re invited to has everything you could ever wish for in your life! Like, that engineering degree you never got. Or, or! Your crush from eighth grade. You missed like seven signs from her, pal.”

“Slow down, what the hell are you talking about?” He slapped a palm over his mouth.

“Hell is a place, I’ll let that one slide.” She took another breath, and David almost instinctively pressed his palms over his ears. The pink pony continued. “It took me a while to figure it out myself. The Pinkie sense, it doesn’t work on you. Why? Beats me, bub. I was going to ask Twilight to run her super scientific gizmo gadgets to run some tests but she was too busy writing papers and reading books, how unlike her! Anyways, I knew from that point on I was on my own, and so I repeated the words in my thinking bubble. What would Pinkie do? What would Pinkie do? The exact opposite of what Pinkie would do, of course! It’s not just that the Pinkie sense doesn’t work on you, it’s almost like it avoids you! Like that opposite polar bear thingy Twilight was talking about with magnets one time. In any case I did the exact opposite of what Pinkie Pie would do and sat here all day doing absolutely nothing, like watching paint dry. Did you know I had to do that once? There were like 88 of me in one room! Crazy, huh?”

“Take a breath, Gonzalez. You’re taking up more paragraph space than I am now.” David surmised the situation and began again. “So let me get this straight, if what you say is true in that the Pinkie sense is avoiding me, then how is it that in this moment you and I are sitting at the same table speaking to one another?”

“Y’know, that’s a good question.” Pinkie said.

“…”

“…”

“Does that mean you have an answer?”

“Nope.” She chirped.

“Right.” He sighed tiredly, and then felt another pink hoof push up on his lips.

“Ah-ah-ah, no sighs of sorrow shall enter this shop nor leave thine lungs.”

“Now you’re just making things up.” David concluded. “I’ll bet your supposed Pinkie sense isn’t far from that tree, but who am I to judge? If Twilight couldn’t understand it, how could I? You don’t even understand it yourself, do you?”

“Perhaps I can offer you one of the many Pinkie special proverbs?” The party mare suggested.

“Is it something that might go on one of those motivational posters?”

“Take it as you will:” She said. “Some things in life aren’t meant to be understood, you just have to accept them as they are. If you can’t do even that, then maybe that’s the lesson meant to be learned.”

“The lesson…” David whispered back. In that rare moment of silence within the presence of the pink one, he took the opportunity to think over his matters.

Maybe this isn’t really all a dream. No, it can’t be. If it were a dream then some super, bizarre, inexplicable shit would be going down right now, like…like…talking ponies. He shook his head a little in frustration. Even if this is a dream, then what would that make it? Another form of consciousness? No, dream is like a synonym for slumber, to be unconscious. So like…a separate state of mind?

“Did you know that our consciousness is completely separate from our minds?” Pinkie added. “Weird, huh?”

“Where did you get that one from?” He asked.

“Just a hunch.” She shrugged and smiled.

David sat at his chair, knees above the table, hunched down to compensate for the miniature height of the furniture. He looked around with glances of doubt and dejection, and it alarmed the pink mare so.

“Hey, don’t let me stop that train of thought you got going!” Pinkie hopped up onto the table. “Trust me, I’ve dealt with ponies like you before. Of course, you’re not a pony, but wouldn’t that be kind of cool? Then again you wanted to keep this a traditional human in Equestria fic, right? But hear me out, what if the reason you haven’t fully accepted your reality is because you’re not all there?”

“I was told I had arrived here with a case of amnesia. As to how severe? Hard to say when there’s no one around to remind you of how much you’ve lost.” He began to figure. “That being said, maybe you are right, Pink. Maybe there are a few parts of my consciousness I have yet to collect…”

“Like a shopping list?” Pinkie suggested.

“Huh?” The boy blinked.

“The missing parts of your memory are like a shopping list!” She declared. “You have to write down what you know on a list so that you won’t forget it.”

David sat still and stagnant as ever, blinking unbelievably at the mare, as a tiny spark lighted the bulb floating over his head. He blinked again with confusion, batted the strange phenomenon away, and returned to the pony.

“Pinkie, I really don’t know how to say this or if I even should say it, but that was probably the smartest thing to come out of your mouth since we’ve met.”

“Which was only twelve minutes ago, right?” She chirped again.

He nodded subtly, raising his pencil and flipping his book open to a blank page. With the graphite to the paper, his list began muttering from his lips.

“Let’s see…I know my name, some things I did back on Earth…”

“What about your family?” Pinkie tried.

“My…family?”

“And your friends! Don’t you remember them?”

“I’ve nearly forgotten their faces.” A discouraging shadow loomed over his complexion. “I can only imagine the stress I’m putting them through now. If I’m not all there in this world, then who’s to say I’m all there in my own world? For all I know I could be a lifeless, unresponsive body, lying in some hospital bed somewhere.”

The tone and the gaze of the boy hit Pinkie’s gut in a place it didn’t like. An odd sensation overwhelmed the mare, something she hadn’t felt for a long time, and what was worse was that she couldn’t quite place it. Neither where and when she had felt it before, nor how to deal with such stomach twisting uncertainties. In a sense, she felt as though she wasn’t all there either, and at the worst of times, too!

“I think I’m beginning to understand it now.” David continued. “I’m my own separate entity in this realm that my mind has concocted together somehow. I’ve heard radical things going on in people’s heads when they’re in comas, and maybe…that’s what’s happening to me right now.” A palm pushed to the side of his head, elbow rested to the table as he looked down with gloomy disfiguration. Strikes of pain in his eyes. “How long have I been in this state, then? A few weeks? A month? If it’s been that long then what’s happened to my body? I can imagine it like a news paper article or something similar. One morning I didn’t wake up, one of my family members bound to come along sooner or later to get me out of bed, but to no avail. They took me to the hospital, and now I’m a husk hooked up to all these machines and life support. Everyone outside must be waiting for me to wake up and return to the real world, but…” He shuddered. “What if…What if I never wake up? Oh God, what if one of them decides to pull the plug on me?!”

David stood abruptly, panting to catch his breath as he hadn’t realized how heavily he was breathing. He stared at Pinkie, mixtures of confusion dotting her gaze. It couldn’t be helped.

“Pinkie, I’m sorry. Maybe someone else could have that cupcake? I…I’ve got to go.” And he sped off, remembering in the nick of time to duck beneath the entrance before flinging himself to the outdoors. The pink little mare sat small and lonely in her chair, staring at the abandoned cupcake with a stoic stare. For the first time in a long time, Pinkie wasn’t sure whether she had just helped somepony in a good way, or a bad way.

The boy leapt through the streets and came face-to-face with an earth pony. He wore a dusty brown coat, a brown mane and a green tie about his neck. His cutie mark was that of an hourglass, the sand rushing through from one side and to the other.

Time, it seemed, was running thin.

Quiet, undispelled and unprovoked calmness had loomed about the water for three days straight, not a fish to break the surface, nor a pebble nor a petal to touch the water, or any company to invade its extended solitude for that matter. The vast pool was like that of a cool blue mirror, the sunlit sky and clouds above, the sandy horizons and the green-rich trees reflected perfectly within. The reflection invited a new addition, a small pony making tracks in the sand as she approached the waters and calmly observed its still intent. She looked over and beyond her tracks to find what appear to be another set of tracks trailing about in the sands. They certainly weren’t shaped like hooves, nor of any creature the pony could attempt to imagine. They were almost alien like. She stared at the odd tracks for a moment longer only for her curiosity to cease as she reminded herself what she came here to do.

Reaching into her saddle bag she pulled forward the small, wooden boat, the lonely sail pole still broken. She ignored the detriment and set upon the water without a sail, rendering ripple after ripple through the quiet, calm blue as the structure floated at the surface. The boat was kept at bay near the shore via the young one’s supervision, knowing how quickly the shallow gave way to deeper waters if she were to simply take a few more hoof steps out into the lake. For that moment then, staring at her little boat floating on the water, Dinky reveled in the peace and quiet, the finesse and what recluse it provided to her to simply forget about the events of the day and be alone with her thoughts. Alas, like many things on this planet as she had come to understood in recent days, the moment was short-lived. Several more hoof trails came trotting up from where she had entered the lake space, three to be exact, one flanking to her side and the other two marching up with robust, obnoxious gaits. One pony rumbled so loudly she could have heard him coming from a mile away. She dared not turn to greet them, she knew what was to come next.

“How come you were avoiding us, blank flank?” A feminine drawl stretched over the scene. “Didn’t your mom ever tell you it’s rude to avoid your friends?”

Not my friends. Dinky muttered within. Never will be.

She knew the filly’s voice, she had been classmates with the pony for nearly her entire academic career. Silver Spoon, a haughty, spoiled brat. That was the best way Dinky would describe her. Something about her behavior in recent months had told everypony that although she was putting part of her past behind her, there were still some things she was struggling to let go of, resulting in the same sassy and unforgivable attitude she had always claimed in the old days.

However she had come to such conclusions was of short concern to the little unicorn, as all she wanted to focus on now was ignoring the three bullies as much as possible, praying to Celestia that they would get the message and leave her alone. It never seemed to work though, as they teased her, called her names and kicked sand in her face. As the little unicorn was busy rubbing the dust out of her eyes she was caught off guard and held to the ground by the pegasus of the group, his brute strength proving itself as she failed to squirm her way out of his hooves. She watched with desperation as Silver Spoon, the lone earth pony, approached the small wooden boat and planted her rear hoof to the stern. She kicked off, and the miniature model was sent drifting towards the middle of the lake. The poor little unicorn wanted to scream and cry all over again, there was no way she could get her boat back now, not in a long time.

“You bring that back!” Dinky wailed.

“If it’s so important to you then why don’t you swim out and get it?” The boy bully laughed.

“I…” She hesitated.

“Oh, that’s right, you can’t swim. Just like so many other things a filly your age never learned to do!” He was cackling wildly now.

“No wonder that flank’s still blank.” Silver Spoon teased her. “Face it, you probably won’t get your cutie mark until you’re an old mare. You might never even get your cutie mark!”

“Now hold on, guys, I think we’re going about this all wrong.” The bully spoke up. “We should give her a chance.”

Dinky’s heart began to pound upon her chest in irregular beats, an odd sensation of dread and uncertainty washing over her as it seemed the bad guy was doing a one-eighty all of a sudden. For what purpose then? What sort of mischief was he planning with that fake demeanor? She laid on the ground quietly and listened.

“I think she will get her cutie mark one day.” He declared “In fact, I’m pretty sure I already know what it is.”

“What…?” Dinky asked quietly.

“Drowning.”

Her eyes like pinpricks and her heart racing at a million beats a minute, even her frantic squirming and wailing could not allow the little unicorn her escape. The stronger pegasus was already on top of her and pushing her towards the water, sprawling his wings and hoisting her upwards as they soared over to the deepest center of the lake. Below, a black-blue trench of certain demise opened its maw in patience for its next meal, and the unicorn looked up at the mercy of the bully floating her over the water. In that moment, a gut wrenching sickness overcame Silver Spoon’s belly and suspended her heart for a good few seconds. The earth filly went pale, she swallowed hard and began to back away, doing nothing to save the unicorn from this fate. A lasting tear fell from Dinky’s face and into the lake as, a second later, so did she. Silver Spoon’s horrified expression was the last thing the little unicorn set eyes upon before plunging into the water.

She gasped, kicked and squealed, sputtered and choked on the murky blue climbing above her nostrils and filling her lungs. The wailing had done her no good in the long run, expelling tremendous amounts of air and ceasing her buoyancy almost entirely. For a final time her head sunk beneath the blue, bubbles swam in spirals for the surface, and the desperate clawing of her hooves grew shorter, slower, weaker… The worst pain she had ever felt in her life thus far was the empty, unfulfilled pit that which lied in the bottom of her heart. She had never met him, her father.

She opened her eyes one last time, and there was a small light at the end of the soundless, black and blue tunnel. The sun? Fate had it that second chances often came in the form of miracles. Some slow, some wild, and most in shapes and sizes completely and utterly unexpected to the beholder of such phenomena. One pink limb wrapped around and cupped her like a child, and the other clawed for the surface. They climbed closer and closer, reaching for the light. Bubbles surfaced, and there was a great splash. Dinky chocked for air.

“Run! Run for it!” The bullies cried and sped for the hills.

Dinky stared dumbfounded in their direction, and suddenly came to wonder why she had even surfaced at all. She looked up, a bright pink face smiling down at her with reassurance. She gasped wildly and flailed in the monster’s grasp.

“Take it easy, kid.” The boy held her close. “I gotcha.”

She remembered the deep waters and more or less clung to the human like a baby chimp to its mother, shaking and soaked all over. The boy continued a steady pace across the expanse of the lake as he mumbled encouragements and affirmations into the little unicorn’s ear.

The shallows ran up to his toes, and so the boy assumed a walking stride as the water climbed down his waist and past his legs, Dinky beginning to visualize just how tall this monster really was. The warm sands drew near, and the boy crouched to let the little pony familiarize herself with the earth once again. She didn’t know whether to start kissing the ground or run away screaming in terror just like the rest of the ponies, but she vowed never to be caught dead following their suit. She stayed put, frozen and silent, and looked to her left as she watched the lanky monstrosity ease himself to his haunches with an exhausted sigh of relief. He spun his head vigorously to whip the water from his hair, and returned to the pony with that same, warm smile.

“Are you okay?” He asked her.

No response.

“Catch your breathe yet?”

He studied her a little closely. No signs of hyperventilation, nor asphyxiation. Though she seemed alright, there was still no response. Perhaps she was in shock? The boy wondered.

“Listen,” he said. “I know I ain’t a ‘Hasselhoff’ but I wanna make sure you’re okay before you run away screaming like those other ponies did.”

“The other…?” Dinky started. The bullies, she remembered.

“Why, if those kids were still here, I’d-”

“You…saved me?” The little unicorn looked up at him with wide, wondering eyes.

He swept his hair back and grinned again. “Guess I chose the right day to go for a swim.”

“Thank you.” She said gratefully. “I…I don’t know what to say.”

“Got a name, kiddo?” He held out his hand.

“Dinky.” The pony answered, laying her hoof to his palm. “Dinky Hooves.”

The lake waters were calm once again, tiny waves lapping at the shores and at the human’s strange little stubs on the ends of his feet. Dinky traveled her eyes up his legs and about his torso, studying his limbs and looking upon his face carefully. Without a doubt there was that feeling of an alien like creature to his complexion, but the expression he held and the look in his eyes didn’t seem so bad when you studied it for long enough. In fact, Dinky could almost say there was a certain glint in his eyes, a quiet charm, a hint of motivation. The boy caught her staring, and though the filly only turned away for a second, she looked back to see that smile upon his face once again. It seemed he often did that for no reason.

“So, you’re that monster everypony’s been talking about?” She inquired.

“I do give off that vibe, don’t I?” He joked.

“Well, I don’t think you’re a monster, I think you’re very kind.” The filly continued. “You’ve got a heart just like the rest of us.”

“Wow, I’m touched.” He palmed his chest.

“It could use some color, though.”

“Huh?”

“Your heart.” She pointed with her hoof.

David looked down to find the piece dangling from his neck. The heart locket, just as gray and dull as it was when he had first arrived here.

“Oh, that.” He held it in his hand, and the filly got a closer look. David continued. “I found this when I first came to this place, but I have no idea what it means. It’s got this strange aura to it that I can’t quite place, like I’ve held it before but I don’t know when or where. Maybe that’s why I haven’t let go of it.”

“Maybe it belonged to somepony else?”

“You think so?” The boy looked down at her.

“Things don’t just appear out of nowhere unless they have a special purpose.” Dinky thought for a moment. “I think you have a special purpose.”

“You’re a very kind young pony, Dinky.” The boy smiled sweetly at her and rubbed her mane. She was one of the first to allow him to do so and not recoil or runaway. “I could never imagine why those kids would want to pick on you.”

“I can think of a few good reasons…” Dinky sulked and looked upon her rump, still no mark to be seen.

The two sat with their rumps to the sand and beheld the scenery for a while longer, basking in the splendor of the grand blue sky, not a cloud in sight. The reflection at their feet and hooves held a familiar little vessel in the center of its expanse, ripples waving away as it bobbed and bounced along the waters with a little spark of confidence. The boy, in his mind, compared it to that of a candle flame in the hollow void of a dark, empty corridor. It was the only thing to go to now, the only thing to reach for, the only thing in this world to hope for. That one single chance at redemption. David looked to Dinky, back to the boat, and breathed with extensive bliss and tranquility.

“She sails beautifully.” He mentioned.

“It’s a toy model my mom got for my birthday.” Dinky admitted. “But now…” A dreary, gloomy complexion overshadowed the dispirited little girl. The boy could only watch her for a moment and respond with silence.

David stared out at the boat floating upon the waters one last time before standing up and approaching the shore line. He let his feet sink into the shallow as a single thought overcame his mind. The pony watched him quietly, wondering what he might do.

“Hey, Dinky.” He called. “C’mere for a minute.”

Dinky got up on her hooves and shook the sand from her haunches as she timidly approached the waters, not daring to let her hind hooves sink into the shallows. The boy knew deep down that if he didn’t do this for her now, it would hinder years of progress for her.

“I’m gonna teach you something.” He said.

The little pony and the young boy were floating about in the far shallow region. In actuality, David needed only to stand as the water came up to his gut, while Dinky desperately flailed her rear hooves around to keep afloat, clutching onto the human’s limbs with everything she had. There was a worried gaze about her eyes still, a tightness in her jaw as though she were fearing the worst might happen in a single instant. Though the boy knew this was possible, he was bound to not let it happen, and simply set her forth upon her goal.

“Just keep kicking, that’s the key.” He told her. “Kicking and breathing, be sure not to panic.”

“It’s a little too late for that!” She squirmed.

“Dinky, look at me.” He grabbed her attention. “I was just like you when I was your age. Trust me, it’s way easier than you think it is. You’re just overthinking it, that’s all.”

The unicorn recalled what her teacher had said about her, in how she had thought differently apart from her fellow students. Just a different learning curve, that’s all. Miss Melody wasn’t so different either, expelling the truth of the unicorn pianist and how Dinky was unique from the rest of them simply because she couldn’t use her horn. She wished she could use her horn, she wished she could use magic right now! Alas, she was neck deep into this situation already, at the mercy of this gentle giant she had met only mere minutes ago.

“Life isn’t always going to be about thinking, it’s going to be about surviving from time to time, too.” He said to her. “When you’re surviving, you can’t overthink things. You need to act, you need to just go.”

Keep kicking, keep breathing. Dinky spoke to herself from within. Keep kicking, keep breathing. Kicking, breathing. Kick, breath. Kick, breath, Kick-

Dinky gasped, her muzzle just hit something. Was it David? No, it was her boat. Where did the boy go? How did she get all the way out here on her own? The little swimmer turned around to see a delighted pink figure raising both his arms in triumph. She had done it, she swam the distance to her boat all by herself!

Of course, it wasn’t thanks to her efforts alone, and so the pony grabbed a hold of her vessel to deliver her thanks to the boy once again. The excitement, the sensations and the happenings all gave her hope as if she was finally about to get somewhere. She dashed for the shore and emerged from the lake, spinning around and staring upon her flanks to see if anything might happen. She spun around again, this time in the other direction. Still, there was nothing. She slumped to the wet sand and hung her head low.

“What’s the matter?” David walked up. “Catch a leech?”

“You wouldn’t understand.” She pouted. “It’s my cutie mark, or rather lack of one.”

“Hey, don’t worry, kiddo. I’m sure you’ll get one soon.”

“That’s what they all say.”

He felt himself subtly recoil to her remark, taking it a bit too personally. He saw potential in this little pony and insisted on the better for her. “So swimming ain’t your shtick?” He said. “Doesn’t mean you should just give up. Why not try something else?”

“That’s exactly what I’ve been doing.” She listed. “Piano lessons, toy models. But it’s not like I want a cutie mark in something I don’t enjoy doing.”

“Why would you do something you don’t even enjoy in the first place?” He asked.

“Because my mom paid for them.”

The boy found his next words caught in his throat, and at that Dinky continued.

“This whole cutie mark culture is so stupid and it always has been.” She declared. “Parents and teachers rush to get their kids involved in so many different activities, but how do they know what their destinies are supposed to be? How do they know that what they’re doing for their kids is right? They don’t, they just throw them into the blender and hope for the best. I wish I didn’t have to live in a society so adamant on finding a ‘special purpose’ for every single pony.”

At this, David realized that he was supposed to be the adult in the conversation. Any attempts at providing his own half-assed or petty sympathies and relations would prove rather fruitless. Instead, he knelt down to her eye level and chose truthful words.

“Look, I’m not going to act like I know that much about cutie marks because, well, I don’t.” He told her. “If it were me, I would look to somepony for help, a pony that really knows their field.”

“If Doc couldn’t help me, then who can?” Dinky rubbed her eyes. “Unless you’ve got some special leprechaun magic you haven’t told me about yet.”

David looked around in wonder for a moment and then smiled. “Y’know, I think I have just the right kind of ‘doctors’ for you.”

The lecture pointer slapped harshly against the flank of the pegasus depiction on the chart above, circling around the colorful drawing and tapping a few times against the board to draw in attention to the front of the room. The light glistened through the dirt stained window in murky brown rays, shimmering through the dusty curtains and illuminating the only three ponies present in the room.

“Exhibit A.” Scootaloo announced. “As we can see here, the top of the mane consists of the first three pigments: red, orange and yellow. We follow down the nape where the pull consists of green, blue and purple in that order.” The tiny orange pegasus prepared her lecture stick elsewhere. “Exhibit B. The tail consists of all six of the previously mentioned colors, once again in similar order. You may be asking yourself, where is the seventh color to complete the spectrum? That is where it takes us to-” The pointer re-positioned. “Exhibit C. Or, as I like to call it, Exhibit see.” The pointer was resting on the pony’s eyes, and Scootaloo was giggling. “Get it?” She wiped a tear away.

Her two friends stared at her, dumbfounded and unimpressed.

Scootaloo cleared her throat. “As I was saying, Exhibit C. The final color of the spectrum lies within her eyes, which are magenta.” The little pegasus slammed the pointer to the board’s tray and crossed her hooves. “And there you have it, the most awesomest and best flier in all of Ponyville, in all of Equestria for that matter, isn’t named a one Miss Rainbow Dash for nothing!”

A long gawk of silence overcame the ponies huddled up in the clubhouse. Sweetie Belle coughed and looked disinterested, and Apple Bloom made to speak up.

“So you’re telling me you stole the old blackboard out of the dumpster just to tell us this?” She quizzed.

“You don’t understand!” Scootaloo leapt over the lectern and to her friends. “This isn’t a matter of style alone, it’s genetics! Or something in the water, like a radioactive time bomb or those cheesy animatronic dinosaurs you see in the movies.”

“What the hay are you on about, Scoots?”

“Something scientific, that’s for sure.” Scootaloo insisted.

“And what’s so scientific about it?” Sweetie Belle joined in. “All you did was talk about your idol’s mane colors.”

Scootaloo frowned and pushed a hoof into her forehead. Her friends simply weren’t getting the big picture here, and so she had to spell it out for them. “All I’m saying is, doesn’t it seem a little strange that Rainbow Dash is the only pony, aside from her dad of course, who has six colors in her mane? Think about it. Apple Bloom, you and me only have one color for our manes. Sweetie Belle, you have two, and so do ponies like Miss Cheerilee and Mrs. Cake. Twilight is the only pony we know with three colors in her mane, and that’s rare enough as it is, isn’t it?”

She had the two prodding their chins. “She might be on to somethin’.” said Apple Bloom.

“If it’s already hard enough as it is to find a pony with three colors in their mane, why shouldn’t we bat an eye at Rainbow Dash’s?”

“So, have you asked her about it?” Sweetie Belle wondered.

“Huh?”

“Did you ever even think about walking up to her and asking her why she has such a rare color scheme?”

“Well…no.” Scootaloo sweat beads.

Sweetie squinted inquisitively. “Let me guess, you couldn’t accept the truth?”

“Not true!” The pegasus shot back. “I mean-it would be true, but-!” She grunted in frustration. “Fine, I admit it. I was too afraid to ask her because I felt like I already knew the answer. If it turns out that her origins really weren’t that extraordinary to begin with, then wouldn’t that mean she’d stop being such a special pony? To me, at least.”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked at one another with uncertain looks, worried about their friend. After a long, much needed moment of silence, the little farm pony stepped forward.

“Listen, y’all.” She began as always. “We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders, we all know what makes a pony special, and that’s not just because a pony seems different from all the others. Now isn’t that right?”

Sweetie Belle nodded, and Scootaloo raised herself to wipe a tear away. They looked to their friend with perked ears and confident gazes.

“We’ve been gifted to see the potential in everypony not for our own benefit, but for theirs. When we help another pony find out what makes them special, that’s what makes us special, too. So who are we, girls? Are we the Cutie Mark Crybabies?”

“No!” Sweetie Belle justified.

“Are we the Cutie Mark Quitters?”

“No way!” Scootaloo triumphed.

“We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Apple Bloom leapt for the ceiling and raised her hoof high. The remainder of the Crusaders leapt along with her and smashed their hooves together, falling back to the floor and embracing one another in a bundle of laughter and high spirits.

A short second later there was a knock at the door, and Apple Bloom bellowed for the visitor to make their entrance. The portal opened to a towering figure craning his neck downwards as though compensating to crawl his way into a miniature dollhouse. There stood the boy, peeking down and grinning at the three girls with a look that said he had something to say.

“Say, humans can get cutie marks too, can’t they?” Scootaloo wondered.

“Me? Oh, no. I’m not looking for one of those.” The boy chuckled. “But I do know somepony who is. C’mon, kiddo, don’t be shy.”

The Crusaders looked at the boys feet in question, speculating and awaiting the arrival of this supposed cutie mark wisher on their doorstep. As the gray little unicorn slowly inched her way into view, the Cutie Mark Crusaders all of a sudden didn’t really feel like being the Cutie Mark Crusaders anymore, at least for the remainder of the evening. A hum of awkward silence and raw tension loomed about the four ponies, and the human was almost completely oblivious to the matter.

“I’m sure you’ve met Dinky?” David spoke. “I was hoping you girls could help her, because well, I sort of can’t.”

“I think I ought to head home now.” Dinky mumbled timidly.

“W-What do you mean? We only just got here.”

“I have, um, a test to study for.” The little unicorn fumbled down the steps and looked back at the boy for a final time. “See you around.”

As the sound of her little hooves trotted away into the orchard trees, David spun his head back to the Crusaders with an open jaw and a cocked eyebrow. “Was it something I said?” He asked them.

The girls had sat themselves around the circular table with the boy invited in, crouching and sitting criss-crossed with a focused look upon his face. Fine, plastic plates and swell little tea cups with nothing in them at all laid over a neatly woven blanket to compensate for the table cloth. They all gave their fair share of the story in an attempt to have the boy understand their predicament and what they might try to do next. David nodded again and again, eyes closed. He took the plastic plate beneath his teacup in one hand, and the cup in the other. Raising it to his mouth he blew lightly, made a slurping noise, smacked his lips and nodded for a final time.

“I see.” He said calmly. “This is the first you three have spoken to her since the incident, I presume?”

“We hardly even talked to her before.” Apple Bloom informed. “She’s a real quiet one, that’s for sure.”

“I don’t even think she has any friends.” Sweetie included. “It’s no wonder she got used to you so quickly.”

“Thanks, I guess?” David shrugged.

“When I think about it…” Scootaloo piped up. “Maybe we were a little harsh on her? No, I was a little too harsh on her.”

“Scootaloo…?” The company looked to her, concerned and wondering.

The young pegasus was looking down at her hooves, a sorrowful shade crossing her lips. “You guys heard what she said, right? About her dad…When she’s lived a life like that, you kinda can’t blame her for her outbursts, can you?”

It was for the first time that since arriving here, David had felt a great sense of impairment wash over him. In the days he had spent getting up close and personal with these ponies it seemed as though their lives had transformed from simple television conflict to that of existential dilemmas deep within the psyche of every one of these equestrian creatures. For all he knew he could very well be sitting before an invisible camera this very instant, but it didn’t change what he was feeling in that moment. It didn’t change the fact that not only did he know he was the adult in this situation, neither did he know what to say or do next.

Then, the sound of metal prongs clanging against one another echoed through the orchard, snapping the boy from his daze.

“Soup’s on~!” Came a distant call.

The three ponies looked up in surprise, and Apple Bloom quickly stared out at the orange streaks of light from outside.

“Is it that time already?” She stumbled for the door. “Suppers’ comin’ around, and that means my sister is too.”

“Applejack?” David recalled. He started up and bonked his head on the ceiling, crouching back down and crawling for the door. “Where is she?”

“Trust me, she hasn’t been in a good mood lately.” Apple Bloom warned. “You should go before she catches you-”

“Nonsense, I’m sure her and I just got on the wrong foot. Er, hoof?” David insisted. “Just watch, this time will be better.”

Apple Bloom knew she had no power in stopping the boy anyways. He made his way for the threshold of the clubhouse and took a deep breathe before making his exit. Knowing that sooner or later he’d have to make amends with nearly every single pony this town held in its populace, the agricultural head of the village wasn’t a bad place to start. Applejack was at the edge of the trees when she called for her sister once more, and upon answer David emerged from the clubhouse and peacefully hailed the farm pony from afar.

The hellish flare in the mare’s eyes told the boy nothing about this was going to be so peaceful anymore.