Twisted

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Pinkie Pie moaned and shook her head, turning away from Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, who had been waiting to speak to her. Pinkie was crying loudly still, and it made both of the waiting mares feel sick; especially Fluttershy.

"Rainbow Dash wont understand!" Pinkie pouted, her bottom lip quivering violently.

Twilight Sparkle's library was a dimly-lit mess, and the ex-Cutie Mark Crusaders noticed right off the bat. As the three young mares entered the library, they could see Twilight violently shuffling papers and kicking things aside. She'd clearly not had any visitors in a long time.

"It's a maht bit dark in here," Apple Bloom muttered whispered to the other ex-crusaders, who responded only with nods. As their eyes adjusted to the darkness the mess only seemed bigger and bigger.

"Place seems a little messier than usual," Sweetie Belle frowned. She realized that Spike had usually been the one cleaning. Even though Twilight Sparkle was generally organized and clean, Spike did the manual labour most often. The realization slowly hit each of the friends individually.

"Well, Twah, we were jus' thinkin'-" Apple Bloom began, but stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed the unicorn's current condition. She appeared to be pretty regular except for her wide, darting eyes. When Apple Bloom's eyes met with Twilight's she felt an alarming sensation tingle down her spine. They were wrong. During their bi-weekly classes, the zebra Zecora taught the earth pony how to quickly diagnose a pony if they were coming down with something. Looked like the purple pony was coming under a bad case of Black Magic. Or as Zecora would say, "Giza Uchawi!".

"Ya see, Twah," Apple Bloom continued, "We were goin' t' discuss what's goin' on. How things went t' heck with our friendships after Granny Smith's fun'ral, but it looks lahk yer gonna need some helpin' yerself! Have ya been dabblin' with magic that ya shouldn't be? Does Princess Celestia know 'bout this?"

The red-maned pony wanted to just roll up a newspaper and smack the older mare with it until the evil magic fell out, but it would be far harder than that. The rest of the ex-crusaders watched in shock, Apple Bloom continuing on fervently.

"Ya need t' cut it out with the whole 'dark art' nonsense, get Spahk back, an' start fixin' things! Maybe this is where it all started!" she glanced at the mare before glancing back at her friends, who were blushing and backing away. Had they angered Twilight? The violet mare actually just looked surprised, not a hint of anger in her eyes. She looked down at Apple Bloom, pretending not to know what she was talking about.

"Haha, you've got quite an imagination, Apple Bloom! Dark magic? Surely you should know I would never try any of that stuff!" She tried to ignore the three of them, taking Apple Bloom's statement as an insult. "Now, if you just came here to insult my honour then you can leave. I wont hear anything like that from you or anypony else!" Twilight held her head high and started to gather a few pieces of scrap paper, mumbling to herself as she did.

"Ah'm not accusin' ya of anythin'!" Apple Bloom defended herself, standing in front of the other crusaders protectively, "Don't think jus' cuz we're younger than ya we're stupid. Ah've been studyin' under Zecora for years now, an' she's taught me a lot! Ah'd never be able t' use magic lahk a unicorn or even come close t' makin' the potions she can. But Ah do know when a pony has gotten into somethin' she shouldn't. Zecora told me that Dark Magic, or Giza Uchawi as she called it, is almost lahk a drug. It's easy t' learn an' use, an' it seems t' make it's users powerful strong! But in reality it slowly corrupts ya, makin' a user darker in body an' mind, an' eventually mentally and physically weaker. Usually ends in madness an' then death!" the young mare pleaded with Twilight, even more concerned than before. "Ya don't understand how much ya changed Ponyville when ya first stepped hoof off of that carriage all those years ago. This place used t' be borin' before ya came along. An' if ya go down the 'dark direction', you're gonna take Ponyville an' even all of Equestria down with ya. Now do ya really want to do that, Twahlaht?"

Rage began to awaken once more as Dash opened her mouth to complain, but she managed to close it again before she could say anything. She looked to Fluttershy and met her eyes, feeling the anger dissipate again before giving a solemn nod.

"It's alright, Pinks. I've got to clear up that rain out there anyway. I'll be sure to catch you both later." Dash then turned away and trotted back out of the house. Feeling her old energy return, she bounded into the sky with a leap and set about demolishing all the rain clouds. With a quick kick there- and a buck over here- the rain began to thin. She zoomed to-and-fro, dealing with the heavy rain-clouds with her swift, well placed kicks. While not exactly ten seconds flat, she did get the sky cleared within a minute. She hovered a little in the sky with a smile and nodded appreciatively of her work.

With that mindless task taken care of, she once again began to dwell on what had happened today. She'd spoken with Fluttershy and Pinkie, yet she still hadn't quite cleared things up with Twilight. After Pinkie's accident, Twilight had froze. A complete opposite to her usual take charge attitude. She obviously needed a dash of loyalty too. It's not like Dash had anything better to do. Dash was soon at Twilight's library and burst inside suddenly.

"Hey, Twi!" Rainbow called. Suddenly she noticed a very, very familiar orange coat. "Scootaloo?" Dash asked confusedly, "W-What are you doing back with that freak?!" she shouted suddenly as she noticed Sweetie Belle and completely forgot what she was doing there. All the anger from the morning rushed the floodgates of her self control and broke through. "That fucking punk insulted us both yesterday!" Dash ground her teeth and took a few steps towards Sweetie Belle menacingly.

Twilight saw Rainbow Dash taking a stand and felt immediately inspired. She held her head high, somewhat controlled by her dark magic, and stood beside her friend as they rebelled against the ex-Crusaders. They had accused her of dark magic! How dare they!

"Yeah! What do you think you're doing? Coming into my house and throwing about random accusations?" she felt happy, glad that she and Dash saw eye-to-eye on some things even though they were only partially going against the same enemy. The three young mares took swift steps backwards, confused and frightened. When did this happen?

"She's not a freak!" Apple Bloom defended Sweetie Belle, who looked absolutely petrified. "She's not well, but Ah'm doin' mah best t' help 'er! Ah want t' help you all. Don't ya see how things have gotten? This ain't raht! We need t' set everythin' raht. What if somepony terrible were t' interfere with us now?"

"As if you'd be helpful in a fight!" Rainbow Dash spat at Apple Bloom, "We both know you haven't got the traditional Apple strength! And what's Sweetie going to do? Bleed on them? Everypony knows she's the worst spell-caster in town!"

"We can't fight like this," Sweetie Belle said rationally, "I'm sorry about what I said, but fighting over these things isn't right. There's something wrong with everypony...can't you see? Even I've been affected now."

"You think there's something wrong with me? Why don't you look in a mirror, freak!" Rainbow Dash screamed, lifting a hoof. Sweetie Belle skittered back and crouched fearfully. For once she wasn't eager to be hit. Scootaloo's eyes filled with tears as she stood like a statue, looking Rainbow Dash in the eye and stepping in front of Sweetie Belle protectively. Could Rainbow understand? She needed friends more than ever before.

"Dashie! P-Please, I don't want to live my life friendless! I love you, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders have talked it out. We're back together again." she giggled, nervously, looking at the scowling Rainbow Dash. Memories filled her head, good and bad.

"Scootaloo. You don't have to live your life friendless. Just without these dweebs. There's a ton of young ponies out there. These guys'll just hold you back."

Fluttershy was now alone with Pinkamena Diane Pie in the dark house. She didn't feel safe, and panic began to fill her heart. Even though she was almost certain Pinkie wouldn't hurt her, she could never be too safe. Pinkie was rather violent now.

"P-Pinkie? I'm sorry, but could you turn some lights on? I'm really scared."

Pinkie sighed and got up with a yawn, still in tears. She trotted slowly to the light switch and flicked it on.

"Happy?" she asked calmly as she returned to bed and laid down again. Fluttershy smiled nervously as Pinkie flipped the light switch. Fluttershy still couldn't get over how different Pinkie looked now, stick straight hair and contorted facial expressions. It honestly did scare her, she had been hoping to see her smiley best friend when the time came. Instead, she was face to face with a sullen, angry pony on the verge of either murder or suicide.

"Yes. I am happy now, thank you. What did you want to say to me?"

"Fluttershy, you have it all wrong. You know?" Pinkie Pie didn't waste a second of time. She sat up and looked at the mare next to her. It was a blank expression, but her eyes showed care. "I tried to visit you but as our friends fell apart your animal companions held me back," she began to cry a bit, "I wanted to be next to you, to comfort you, to be there when you needed someone, and because I thought we together could get our friends back!" she looked down and sobbed a bit more, "But when I couldn't see you my world shook, it crumbled, I lost all happiness and hope without your sweet smiling face. I always felt so close to you, and after that night it only became stronger. That night meant to world to me!" Fluttershy was astounded, her whole world turned inside out.

"Pinkie, w-what are you talking about? You told me that night was all in good fun! But I really loved you after that! You mean to tell me you felt the same way?"

Silence overtook the room, despite the lights on it felt dark and empty.

"Do you still feel the same way, Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked, almost a whisper, looking Pinkie's sky blue eyes as straight as she could. Fluttershy missed Pinkie's curly, bouncy hair, her regular eyes, her overall cheerful and pleasant demeanor. She missed the shoulder to cry on, the constant adoration, and the overall love Pinkie had for her. Even though she refused to believe that her animals would stop PInkie from visiting the cottage, she did begin to see that Pinkie was not over her.

"I...I love you, Pinkie Pie." Fluttershy whispered, breaking into tears.

Scootaloo couldn't take it. Rainbow just didn't understand, and it was heartbreaking. Scootaloo thought that of all ponies Rainbow Dash would be the understanding one. She drank, partied, and slept with all kinds of mares every single night. But, as always, she saw nothing wrong with the way she was doing things and was the first to throw the stone.

Scootaloo wanted so badly to protect her friends, but if she lost Dash...she would lose everything. She would be living on the streets again, not a penny to her name. She might starve, and after her earlier performance with Dash that really wouldn't go well. She stood shaking, unsure what to do for a moment. Then, she found her courage, an overwhelming storm of emotions long bottled up spilling out.

"Nopony likes me, Dashie! Nopony! Everypony hates me because I don't know how to get along! I never learned!" Scootaloo wailed, tears rolling down her cheeks and making her throat burn. It felt good standing up to Dash, but at the same time she felt guilty and scared of retaliation. "Dashie...nopody likes me! Ditzy Doo is still scared of me because of that prank, Pipsqueak thinks I'm a total bitch, Featherweight dumped me in grade school and we haven't spoken since, Silver Spoon is dead, I haven't spoken to Archer, Half Note, Bee Bop, or Berry Pinch in years," Scootaloo gasped in air, beginning to feel faint with nerves. "Diamond Tiara hates my guts, Twist and Snails are hitched! I haven't seen them in years!!" Scootaloo broke down crying, suddenly missing all of her childhood friends. "I'm a loner, Dash! A LONER! NOPONY CARES ABOUT ME!"

Apple Bloom looked up at Rainbow Dash defiantly, shaking her head slowly.

"Ah an't gonna fight ya Rainbow Dash. But come on! Dweebs? Holdin' ya back? That sounds lahk somethin' a certain griffin used ta say. Remember her?" she glared at the pegasus before turning over to the former Cutie Mark Crusader, embracing the orange pegasus. "Ah'm here for you, Scootaloo, as is Sweetie. Ah promise never t' turn mah back on ya. Ah'll introduce ya t' the gang and yer gonna have more friends than ya'd ever need. Ah promise."

Apple Bloom then turned to Twilight Sparkle.

"Twah, y'all are better than that. Yer the greatest spell-caster in the history of ever. Ya don't need no junk-magic t' make ya stronger! Ya got us all! Ya still got Spahk, jus' send him a letter. Ya got Shinin' Armor, the princesses, ya got us all."