The truth and the veil

by TwiwnB

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Random, Pinkie Pie
Length: 4783

Twilight is granted the ability to see "the truth". But she is way too frightened by it and loses control. Her friends try to help her, mostly Pinkie Pie who seems to know just exactly what to do for some reason...

"I wish to know the truth" said Twilight.
And thus, she is granted the ability to see and know the truth. Only problem is, the truth begins to scare herand she decides to face it, slowly showing signs of madness to her friends who try to help her the best they can.
But one random pink Pony seems not too worried and actually enjoys the situation, even if she also accepts to help in the end, in her own way.

This is no adventure, this is no "lesson zero" or "party of one" in any way. This is merely a reflexion about the truth and the veil.
Nothing more, but, I hope, nothing less.

Published 2013-01-14 18:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-01-14 18:10:01 UTC

The truth and the veil

The more you know…

Maybe you once wondered why, after saving Equestria twice, even three times counting the crystal empire, nopony ever got rewarded. If you still haven’t found out the answer to that question, just know that you haven’t looked for an answer nearly enough. They have, in fact, been rewarded at multiple times, just not as publicly as one would have thought they would be.

Nonetheless, this story began when no other than the all powerful queen of Equestria, mother of the princesses and creator of all that was, is and ever will be – at least it’s what most ponies say – came in person to thank the main six for all that they ever did for her beloved ponies, critters and flora in the whole land.
You may have never heard from it for two main reasons. First off, it was done in great secret as the queen didn’t want to disturb the world too much by her presence. The second one is that, for the most part, Equestria’s heroes didn’t take the reward they were offered.

The queen had offered them one wish each, so seven wishes in total as Spike got the right for one, officially because he was the one returning the crystal heart, and in reality, but the queen never said it, because she liked him a lot.
But Applejack and Fluttershy just couldn’t think of anything to wish for. Of course, both had some sort of wishes, like money for one of them we won't name, and some legendary critters for the other that will stay anonymous, but both thought that it would just be too selfish of them to ask for those things as they had already all that they could want. For a moment, Rarity wished to become the most popular dress maker in all of Equestria, but, having learned her lesson in a previous adventure, let it go and said she was really happy the way she was.
The fact still is, she wished for the most beautiful fire rupee in all of Equestria, without saying what she would do with it and has owned it since then without using it in a way that I’ve known of.

Spike actually had to think a lot, but finally figured out that, being a dragon, he would be able to get all that he would ever want by his own means. All but one thing maybe, and he finally asked for a really good book that Twilight couldn’t have possibly read, so that he would be able to offer it to her at her birthday.
He enjoyed seeing Twilight asking about that book a lot before her birthday finally came, with a very satisfactory conclusion as the book was, in fact, one of the best if not the best possible. At least in Twilight’s opinion.

Rainbow Dash asked the queen in secret something she didn’t want the others to hear. But the queen just looked sorry and replied that it was the only wish that she couldn’t grant, even with all her powers. She added that it was also no use to ask for it, as she was dedicating most of her energy to it.
But as she could see the sadness in Rainbow Dash’s eyes, she proposed to grant her the immortality. Rainbow Dash refused after she had looked at all of her friends around her. She answered that if her only wish couldn’t be fulfilled, she would face the reality as the pony she always was.
She had wished for an eternal peace.
One has the right to dream.

But all of that is for others stories to be told. The part of interest for this one began with Twilight’s wish.

She was the second to last to tell her wish. As most of the others, she was very confident in her own abilities. Her goal in life was to master magic and she was sure that she would, one day, become one of the best magicians in existence, to be only topped by the princesses themselves. And she didn’t want to rush that process and just wish she would become the greatest already, as she had learned that the journey is almost as important as the result.

But she had another idea, something that had bothered her for a long time.
She wished to know the truth.

Her logic was simple. She had to read a lot of books to know about things and there had never been one day that she wouldn’t learn something new. And don’t get me wrong, she loved learning new things. But she had a major complain about it:
Some books were wrong.
In fact, most of them. Every time she read something, she had to verify it with at least a dozen of other books to make sure the author wasn’t wrong, which was taking way too much time. And even with all those precautions, it happened that what she thought was true turned out to be as wrong as could be in the end.

So, in order to earn time for her passion and eliminate the frustration of being lured in false statements, she wished to know the truth.

The queen asked her three times if she was sure it was what she wanted, but Twilight was decided and so her wish got granted. The queen created a little magical spark that went into her head and would let her see the truth.
Twilight thanked the queen and let Pinkie Pie make the last wish.

The pink pony sighed, but then began to think about it.

“Well, I don’t have much of a choice now, do I?” she asked herself out loud, “Oh this is a tough one. Let’s see. I could wish for cards, lot of them, but it wouldn’t be very practical and cards are lost so easily. And then, I would have to go and seek after them, we almost didn’t found the last one last time, the poor baby was so afraid. I should wish for big glasses with a moustache: that would be great. Big glasses are funny. I just don’t know if she would like them. Come on, Pinkie, think.”

The other were looking at her, not really understanding what the logic, if there was one, behind the nonsense was.

“Oh, I get it, I need a box!” shouted Pinkie Pie with joy, before adding: “Oh but no, there is always something in the bottom. Turned out well the last time, but who knows, we can’t take such risks, now can we? A puppy so that she could caress it? A bridge so that she could be under it? A cradle, so she could rock it?”

It was taking a long time, but Pinkie Pie finally decided what she wanted to wish for:

“I know, I wish for a veil.” she said, “a veil of it would be perfect.”

“You wish for a veil?” asked the queen.

“Yes” answered Pinkie Pie, “You know, that kind of veil.”

“Oh, I see.” replied the queen. “Then you shall have it. Just tell me what color you want it to be.”
“Oh, the color doesn’t matter.” answered Pinkie Pie “I just want to be sure.”

So the queen gave Pinkie Pie a white veil and, after a few last words, she had to go back to her duties that only the gods know about, letting the ponies and their dragon companion go back home.

Can’t you see…?

For the first few days, Twilight couldn’t be happier about her new gift. She was spending time saying how wrong all the people who had written books were, but still congratulate them for being on the right track, having perceived the real truth or, sometimes, even being very close to it. She had taken one book out of the other and told Spike that the pony who had written it was an incredible genius, which didn’t really amazed the dragon as it was a cooking book.
More problematic for her assistant was the fact that they were practicing almost three times more than before, with so less time for naps between two sessions.

But after some time, they began training less and less, since Twilight was spending most of her time reading and studying in a frenzy that finally prevented her to even go out, keeping Spike with her to help for various and very difficult to describe tasks.

It was the hint for her friends to think that it was going out of hooves. So they went to her and saw how right they were.

Twilight was on her way to cover the library with sheets of aluminum and had poured flour all over the floor as well as drawn concentric circles on every wall. When asked if she was feeling okay, she answered:

“I’m more than okay, at least in the way you understand it.”

Then, she gave them all brushes and blue paint and told them that it was imperative that the library’s color was changed to that of a real tree. Her friends quickly discussed together and decided to play along as one of them, Rarity, as she didn’t want to go near the paint to not ruin her coat, would go talk to Twilight.

“So…” began Rarity, stopping Twilight as she was preparing a fire in the middle of the library. “What is going on? Why is it so important that it would require us to risk to stain our coats to repaint the tree in blue?”

“Oh Rarity.” replied Twilight, “If you could only know. It’s not important, it’s imperative. Next we will only need to add some yellow and red and it will be perfect.”

“Right…” said Rarity, not sure how to reply.

“We are in danger” told Twilight to Rarity, “I’ve got to take the matter in my own hooves. Well, if I had hooves that is.”

“What?” asked Rarity who was losing the feeling she had any grasp on the situation.

“Well, It’s not important.” said Twilight, “What is, right now, is that I want to continue to exist, and I know you want that too, so I’ve got to take the adequate measures.”

But Rarity was still on the “no hooves” thing and made a remark to Twilight that she was a pony and, therefore, had hooves, just like her.

“No.” answered Twilight, “Can’t you see? That’s the best part actually, you’re not a pony and, therefore, you can’t have hooves. Isn’t that amazing?”

Rarity didn’t know if she had just been insulted and, in consequence, if she should be worried or upset at that very moment. She had the feeling she was talking with a brick wall.

“STOP BREATHING!” shouted Twilight suddenly.

“What?” asked Rarity.

“Just stop breathing. It’s going to kill you.”

And before Rarity could ask for some explanations, Twilight lay her hear on the floor and made a sign that she needed calm to focus on her hearing. After a dozen of seconds, she finally said:

“ Okay, we are good, they are still asleep.” said Twilight, “I need to make sure every now and then, we don’t want to be eaten without warning, right?”

Rarity backed away, let Spike handle Twilight and went back to the others who quickly came back for information, except Pinkie Pie who was having fun painting the tree blue.

“Pinkie!” shouted Rainbow Dash, “Come, we need to talk about Twilight.”

Pinkie Pie accepted and let the brush continue the painting alone for a while.

“Why are you wearing your veil? You’re not getting married.” Said Rainbow Dash, a little weary about Pinkie Pie behavior in such circumstances.

“Of course I’m not! If I was getting married, I would be like “Yay! It’s the greatest day of my life!”, and my groom would be like “Yay, just what she said!” and we would be like “Let’s get married tomorrow too, this is way too much fun for only one day”…”

They figured out it was just a waste of time trying to get her to stay serious and just discussed the case between them.

“The poor dear is losing it.” told them Rarity, “She talks nonsense and if we had to believe her, there is a grave threat upon us, well, under us or something… She didn’t make sense.”

“I don’t know…” said Applejack, “Don’t forget the wish the queen granted her. If she says there is a threat, we should take it seriously, it’s very probably the truth.”

“I agree” said Rainbow Dash, before she added, to comfort Fluttershy that was terrified at the idea of a threat, “We will find out about the threat and make sure it won’t harm anypony. We are heroes after all, aren’t we?”

“Well” replied Rarity, “I don’t know if we are heroes and I personally would prefer not to think of myself that way, but I must add that Twilight actually told me that I wasn’t a pony and that I should stop breathing to avoid dying.”

“Oh, hum, well… It… may be true?” said, with a lot of doubt, Applejack, realizing at the same time that stopping breathing couldn’t in any way be good for somepony’s health.

“Okay, she may be losing it. At least that means that there is not threat.” Replied Rainbow Dash, still concerned about Fluttershy’s fear.

“So what are we going to do?” asked Rarity.

They discussed their options. Applejack was to go and talk sense into her, which Rarity sarcastically challenged her to do as well as to talk sense into a tree, which, in return, Applejack said it was absolutely possible to do, which led to another debate that Rainbow Dash broke by proposing to take Twilight to the hospital. Fluttershy tried to propose a relaxing massage, but as it involved a bear, the others weren’t really sure that would be as relaxing as Fluttershy wanted to convince them it was.

At one point, Applejack, noticing Pinkie Pie was just agreeing with everything they were saying as if it was always the best proposition possible, asked her what she was proposing.

“Why not let her do what she wants?” asked Pinkie Pie, “She seems to be having a lot of fun and it looks totally harmless.”

They regretted they had asked her and went back to debating, finally agreeing on calling in for a doctor, which was the most logical choice.

But as the same time, following her own idea, Pinkie Pie had gone into the library to have fun with Twilight.
But when the purple unicorn saw her, she welcomed her with the strangest statement possible:

“Oh Pinkie Pie, you’re just so beautiful.”

“Of course I am” said Pinkie Pie, amused, “You’re beautiful too.”

“I know, right?” replied Twilight, “This is so wonderful.”

And Twilight noticed Spike listening to them, so she grabbed him and told him he was beautiful too, which he didn’t want to hear. He left them alone, saying that he would come back when the girly things would be over and keeping for himself that he was flattered.

“Pinkie Pie, this is incredible.” continued Twilight as in a trance, “I can see. Can you see?”

“Of course I can, silly.” answered Pinkie Pie, “I’ve got eyes.”

“Come on Pinkie Pie, we have got a lot of work to do.” told her Twilight, “I would have never thought that we were in such a crisis, but we can solve all of that if we do it right.”

“But…” began Pinkie Pie, “I wanted to play and have fun. Can’t we take a break from saving Equestria and just go eat ice-cream together?”

“Ice-cream?” asked Twilight in shock “I don’t want my tongue to touch ice-cream as long as I’m conscious of existing, it’s just way too gross!”

“Then could we just have some fun? It’s going to be fine.” asked Pinkie Pie, with hope in her voice.

“No.” answered Twilight, “We don’t have time for fun, there is way too much at stake. We need to save reality. It’s going to be hard, but it’s possible. We just have to reverse the polarity between atoms, reduce by half the force of gravity and prevent any magic to be used ever again and then, we should be totally safe. We will just have to face some side consequences, but that shouldn’t be too much problem, don’t you think?”

“I think we should really just go eat ice-cream. It’s really going to be fine. Come, they’ve got new flavors.” replied Pinkie Pie with still hope, but also sadness in her tone.

“No.” said Twilight, “No ice-cream, I’ve got to save reality.”

And after she had said those words, she rushed in a hurry to find Spike and have him paint himself and her as well in yellow, pushing Pinkie Pie in the process. The pink pony saw her veil fall on the floor. She saw Twilight go away and understood that the others were right and that they had to act.
She picked up her veil and went to get an ice-cream bowl.
That would be her contribution.

It takes a little work, faith and a lot of passion.

“Rarity, I need one of your dresses right now.” asked Pinkie Pie as she entered the carousel boutique.

But Rarity wasn’t really ready to hear her friend out. She was listening to the doctor they had found and who had talked with Twilight. The news weren’t good in any way. Twilight had threatened the doctor of putting him in a stasis time bubble if he was to jeopardize her work to save the universe or something in those lines as the doctors had been pretty scared just by looking into the purple unicorn’s eyes.

Pinkie found a dress and came to Rarity:

“I will take that one.” Pinkie Pie said, giving a whole lot of bits at the same time.

“Pinkie” replied Rarity, “This is hardly the time.” And she added, in shock “And this is no dress. It’s a suit. For stallions.”

“It is?” asked Pinkie Pie, surprised, “Well, it will do just fine, thanks a lot.”

And she left Rarity dazed to go and find Rainbow Dash.

She found her in a field with Applejack, nailing wooden planks all around the farm.

“What are you doing?” asked Pinkie Pie, “Is this some sort of decoration for a party that will be so incredible that you think you’ve got to reinforce the windows?”

“Well…” answered Rainbow Dash, “We just thought it would be good to take some precaution, with Twilight speaking about a threat and all.”

She didn’t say she had warned the guards in Cloudsdale and put the army into an alarm state. She was feeling kind of stupid about all that, just like they were all overreacting, but couldn’t prevent herself to help Applejack for the farm.

“Good” said Pinkie Pie, “I need a picture of the wonderbolts, and I thought you would have one.”

“Sure, why is it for?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Well, I need food for my veil.” answered Pinkie Pie.

“You’re going to eat it?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Of course not.” answered Pinkie Pie, “Why would you think I would eat it? I don’t like paper, except when it’s sweet paper, then I can’t resist, but that’s just between you and me, okay?”

Rainbow Dash gave Pinkie a small picture of the wonderbolts she had on her – she had many of them – and Pinkie then turned to Applejack.

“Applejack, did you meet misses Veil?” she asked, showing her veil to Applejack.

“Huh, no, I haven’t, didn’t know it was alive.” Said Applejack, not sure how she had to react.

“She is not alive silly” replied Pinkie Pie, “But she needs you to tell her the truth and a lie, could you do that please?”

“Why would I lie? And about what subject?” asked Applejack, completely lost.

“Well, just tell miss’s veil if you like her. And don’t forget to lie.”

Applejack tried to find a way out of it, saw none and so she took a deep breath and told the veil that she liked her – she actually said her – and that she didn’t like her very much even if she was sorry about it and that it was a lie and that she actually really liked her.

The face and look of Applejack made Pinkie smile and she thanked her before walking happily away to go and find Fluttershy.

The shy pegasus greeted Pinkie with happiness and asked her what she could do for her.

“I need something from you, but I just don’t know what yet.” told her Pinkie Pie with a big smile.

“How am I supposed to give you something if I don’t know what it is?” asked Fluttershy.

“I don’t know, don’t you have anything?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“I don’t think so, I’m sorry. I’m not a very important pony, I don’t possess anything of great importance here. Please forgive me.” answered the pegasus with a very sorry face.

“Thanks, that’s all I needed. See you later, have fun.” answered Pinkie Pie, hopping away.

Just put on the veil back on

Twilight saw all of her friends except Pinkie Pie enter the library and ask about the pink pony. They had figured out that she had asked something from anyone of them and thought it had something to do with Twilight state.

And as if to confirm that, Pinkie Pie entered the library with the stuff she had gotten from Rainbow Dash and Rarity, plus her veil still on her head and a cone of ice-cream. Seeing her, Twilight reacted very violently, shouting:

“No, I need to save them all. I need to save myself. I know what you’re up to! Don’t do that.”

“Don’t worry, you know it’s going to be okay.” said Pinkie Pie. “You know I only have your best interest at heart.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.” answered Twilight, and then she said to the others: “Don’t let her come near me, it’s the fate of reality herself that is at stake here!”

But none of them moved, as they didn’t know what was going on.

“I need you to trust me.” said Pinkie Pie to Twilight, “Please trust me, it’s going to be fine.”

“But the beast…” answered Twilight.

“It’s going to be fine.” said Pinkie Pie, with a smile.

“You don’t know that. What about fear?” asked Twilight.

“It’s going to be fine.” replied Pinkie Pie with another smile.

“But what about the void…” asked Twilight.

“Just let me help you, it’s going to be just fine, trust me.” said Pinkie Pie.

Twilight looked at the pink pony straight into the eyes. She was clearly trying to see if she should trust what her friend was telling her.
“It’s going to be fine.”
Those words meant nothing. She knew they were neither true nor false. They just meant nothing at all. There was no way to know if it was going to be fine. In fact, she knew it was probably false, there were just so many reasons to be afraid. But still, it was “probably” false; the truth was it wasn’t false.

She gave up and asked:
“What do I have to do?”

“Just put on the suit, look at the picture, taste the ice-cream and I’ll put the veil on your head.” told her Pinkie Pie.

And they did just that, with some help from the others who still couldn’t understand what was going on.

Twilight put on the stallion suit, looked at the wonderbolt picture and Pinkie took the veil off her head.

“You know, I had hoped I could keep it for myself.” She said with one of her beautiful smile.

“I’m sorry.” said Twilight.

“Believe me, there is no reason to, it just looked really cool on me.” and she laughed, just before putting the veil on Twilight's head and letting it go before her eyes.

Everything is going to be fine

“Come on, wake up sleepy head.” said the voice.

Twilight opened her eyes and saw all of her friends surrounding her. Spike was also there, looking very worried.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Well, you put on the veil and you fainted.” said Applejack, “Then we saw a sparkle that made the veil disappear and we pretty much hoped that you would explain it to us, because there is nothing to understand from Pinkie Pie’s explanations.”

And in fact, Rainbow Dash was asking Pinkie Pie, who was just answering that she had given Twilight her natural gift back.

“But why has the veil disappeared? What was that Spark?” asked Rainbow Dash, losing patience.

“Well, I turned it into an illusion veil, of course it disappeared, duh, you can’t see illusion.” answered the pink pony laughing.

Rainbow Dash gave up before she went all worked up.

“I can’t see anymore.” said Twilight.

“Oh my, are you blind?” asked Fluttershy in horror.

“No, I can see, but I can’t see the things I was seeing before… I know it doesn’t sound very right thought. “ answered Twilight.

“Of course you can see, you’ve got eyes.” replied Pinkie Pie. “The fact that you’re blind doesn’t prevent you to see, even if I can see how it might to be hard to picture…”

And Pinkie Pie lost herself in how blind ponies weren’t able to see but were still seeing things as everypony else, but that it was rude to say it that way but that she knew no other way and that she was happy she wasn’t blind even if she wanted to get the super awesome super power that comes with it.

You’ll have to forgive her about that, but as neither Sweetie Belle nor Applebloom were there, she just couldn’t find the fitting words she needed.

But even if Twilight wasn’t able to see the truth anymore, she felt quite happy, because she still had the memories of how horrible and worried she had felt during that time, and proposed to all of her friends to go out and have some fun together, postponing the time when she would have to find a way to clean the library…

“Let’s go have ice-cream!” said Pinkie Pie happily, because she had wanted to share some with somepony since this very morning.

They all agreed and went out of the library. On their way to the ice-cream shop, Rarity asked Pinkie Pie how she had even known how to create an illusion veil.

“Well” said Pinkie Pie, “My grand grand grand grand grand grandmother had had the exact same problem back then and since, we have that story more or less running into our family.”

“Your grand grand grand… whatever grandmother could see the truth?” asked Twilight.

“Oh no, she was just totally crazy, so they asked the princess to help them.” answered Pinkie Pie.

This was believable, but for a reason Twilight couldn’t tell, she wasn’t sure if Pinkie Pie was really telling them the truth about all that.
But as there was no way to figure it out and as it, in the end, didn’t matter that much, she just went along to enjoy the ice-cream.

“It’s going to be fine.” she thought.

THE END

Author's Note

I never thought that story would be so long... At first, I thought such a simple story would be done in a thousand words at most.

I tried to use more direct dialogue. But I'm bad at making ponies talk. I feel I'm making them say stupid things.

The story is a reflexion about the truth and the veil of illusion that is hiding it from us. The principle idea is that knowing the truth isn't a bad thing, but that it is scary (and beautiful at the same time). Of course there is no way to know that, but that's what concepts are for.
That's why Twilight wants to face the threats and finds things amazing.

The stuff Pinkie Pie asks from everypony are illusions. Art is an illusion, fame and faith are illusions, truth and lies as well, and believing we know ourself as well. Even if I didn't know what illusion Fluttershy could have (which explains how I treated that part).

I shouldn't be writing two text in a row like that, but I wanted to write that story even before I even thought of writing for ponies, so... Had the idea running.

The "everything is going to be fine" comes from another story "Higher than hope" that I've tried (and failed) to write three times. I just love that sentence.