Pillow Thoughts II

Chapters

Are you a Spy?
Who would do that?
Can't we just stay put?
Where is the limit?
Talk, dammit!
We need to talk
NOW you wanna talk?!
Celestia's oldest student
Wings of Trust
Spelling the Truth

Are you a Spy?

Pillow Thoughts II

Chapter 1
Are you a spy?

The sun shined through the window, filling the little chamber with warm, playful colors. A distant bird was chirping happily, announcing the beginning of spring as the wind kindly caressed the tiny new-born leaves that were decorating the old apple trees.

Apples...

The blue pegasus lazily opened her eyes, slowly looking around the room. The wooden walls reflected the orange light of the sunrise, as if they were quietly chanting to the rhythm of the clouds, slowly waking up along with the entire farm. A table with a small mirror was resting in a corner, along with a chair and a simple red chest. Rainbow looked at the white, transparent curtains that were swinging slowly, embracing the gentle breeze, as her gaze fell upon the orange pony that was lying next to her, still asleep.

She’s so beautiful...

Rainbow let out a small sigh as she looked at her marefriend. It felt so good to finally be able to admit all these thoughts and to freely allow herself to think and explore her own feelings.

She had been working on the farm all winter, helping out with the usual chores to the delight (and surprise) of the Apple Family. The weather was bad for exercises anyway and she would’ve rather spend time with Applejack as much as she could. At first, it wasn’t so difficult to hide their relationship. They did discuss it over and over, if they should reveal it to the Apple Family or not, but ultimately decided that it was best to keep it to themselves. For now.

Both ponies worked hard to keep the farm in shape during the harsh season, each cold day being endured with thoughts of warm embraces at night. Thus, the winter days passed, with Rainbow exiting her room every night, tip-hoof-ing towards Applejack’s chamber and spending the night with her. Then, each morning, before the family members woke up, she would’ve had to go back to her own room and wait to be called down for breakfast. Nopony suspected anything.

Most of the times, Applejack would wake her up. She felt so happy knowing that her own simple presence there was fulfilling the orange pony’s dream of waking up to somepony she loved. This morning, however, she was the one enjoying the benefits of watching her marefriend sleep peacefully. They both worked hard the day before and needed their rest.

Gosh, I love how she looks with her hair untied...

She giggled to herself as she remembered how long it took to reach this point. Not to mention how Applejack reacted back then. It didn’t seem so long ago and it really wasn’t... but, at the same time, it felt like an entire era had been left behind. She placed a foreleg on the earth pony’s waist and snuggled in close to her. The faint smell of apples was now so familiar to the pegasus. She could hear Applejack’s heartbeat as the orange mare was breathing calmly, her dreams not roaming far away from home.

Rainbow was happy and she just wished that she was making Applejack happy too. She wasn’t as good as her marefriend when it came to hard work, but she did her best every time. Besides, after all they’ve been through, one would think that—

“What are you guys doing?”, asked Applebloom as she, apparently, entered the room unnoticed.

***

Rainbow jumped on the bed, covering herself with the blanket (as if that would help the situation).

“Uh, nothing! We’re doing nothing! Nothing at all!”, she quickly responded.

“Uhhh, why are you in mah sister’s bed?”, continued the filly, tilting her head to the right, a gesture that could be found at most Apple Family members.

“I, ummm, I uh...”, started Rainbow, while nudging Applejack.

The orange pony woke up and lifted her head off the pillow: “Huh? Wha? What’s the matter?”

“Hey, AJ, morning! Heh, funny thing happened, Applebloom wants to know what I’m doing in your bed! Haha, funny, huh?”, the pegasus replied, waving her hooves around.

“Ah dunno... tell her...whatever, just....”, Applejack yawned and continued, turning to one side, with her back at Rainbow: “Just don’t tell her we’re bucking or something... ya know...”

Rainbow’s face fell with a loud THUD.

The little filly frowned a bit, trying to understand what was going on.

“Applejack... she is right here, in the room, with us!”, the pegasus said, through her teeth, faking a fake smile (if that is possible, under stressful conditions).

“Trees!!”, yelled Applejack, lifting her upper part of the body at ninety degrees. “Bucking trees! Yeah, you can’t buck trees in the bed! Cause, ya know... bed’s fer sleepin’! Nothin’ else!”

Thank Celestia, she finally got it!, thought Rainbow as both ponies turned towards Applebloom.

“Ooookay... but what are y’all doing then?”, asked the filly.

“Nothing! I, uh... I fell!”, said Rainbow, trying desperately to come up with an explanation. “I just came here, in this room, this morning and wanted to wake up AJ... when I tripped, on the floor... and fell in the bed!”

To their surprise and half-relief, the young filly started laughing: “Haha, you’re funny Rainbow! Nopony is that stupid!”

“Hey! ‘tis true!”, said Applejack, frowning. “That’s how I landed in Rainbow’s bed at her place last time I visited!”

“AJ, you’re... not... helping!”, replied the pegasus through her teeth again, then turned towards Applebloom. “Heh, of course we’re kidding... truth is, AJ and I just had some fun last night—“

She paused, thinking that was the worst choice of words possible... but continued nontheless, hoping that the young filly’s mind would see and understand the “innocent” version of the story.

“—uh, sharing stories and such! Yup! We talked and talked until we felt sleepy and I don’t even remember when I fell asleep. Haha! Imagine my surprise now!”, she concluded, looking at the orange pony for support.

“Uh, yeah... what she said!”, replied Applejack, promptly.

Applebloom smiled happily: “Awesome! I can’t wait to be old enough to have my own slumber parties!”

“You already had slumber parties!”, replied the earth pony.

“Oh, that wasn’t a slumber party. The Cutie Mark Crusaders worked all night long to find their cutie marks”, she paused, remembering why she was there in the first place. “Oh yeah, breakfast’s ready! Hurry up or we’ll eat all the grilled cheese!” And with that, the filly ran down the stairs, towards the kitchen.

Both ponies let out a loud sigh as they dived back into the pillows.

“That... was freaky”, said Rainbow after a while.

“Ah’m sorry ah overslept. Should’ve woken you in time”

“Nah, it’s alright, no harm done. Besides, I did wake up early, sort of... I just thought I had more time to... watch you sleep”

Applejack turned on her side, towards her pegasus.

“You’re so beautiful, AJ”, said Rainbow, softly.

The orange pony blushed and caressed her marefriend’s hair: “Thanks, sugarcube... but not as beautiful as you”

With the ears pricked and ready to catch any sounds (like hooves coming up the stairs and invading their privacy), they shared a quick kiss. “We’ll just be more careful next time”, said Rainbow as she got out of bed and headed towards the door.

She then quickly turned towards Applejack and asked, alarmed: “You don’t think Applebloom will tell anypony, do you?!”

***

“And then you know what Ah saw?”, said the filly, continuing her story as she chewed on another piece of grilled cheese. She didn’t have time to swallow the bite as Rainbow was already hovering above the table, talking loud and waving her hooves around, as if she was trying to direct traffic.

“Hey, Big Mac, good morning, wonderful morning isn’t it? I love mornings! So, what’s for dinner? I mean, breakfast, you know...food! I love food too! Let’s talk about food!”, she blurted out and quietly took a seat at the table once she was satisfied with her interruption.

Big Mac raised an eyebrow... and that was his only contribution to the discussion. He then returned his gaze to the plate in front of him and continued eating. It wasn’t that he didn’t listen... he just replied only if he had something relevant to say. As the case was, the plate needed much more attention than the actual table conversation.

Granny Smith was outside, sweeping the porch, not really paying attention to anything else, humming a little song of her own.

Applejack grabbed a chair and sat near Rainbow, with an expression-less face: “Y’all sounded like Pinkie Pie for a second. Which reminds me, I invited the girls over today. We don’t have much to do on the farm so Ah figured we could all use some time well spent together”

Rainbow swallowed a bite of grilled cheese and cringed.

“Rarity... too?”

“Rarity too”, sighed AJ as she poured herself some apple-cider.

Rarity was their only friend, besides Twilight, who knew about them. Ever since that night when she found out about their relationship, Rarity started surprising them with certain... unexpected presents. From matching tiaras to matching bracelets, from matching galoshes to not-so-matching-unless-you-look-at-them-from-a-certain-angle earrings, all hoofmade from various semi-cheap materials... these presents were a real pain for the couple, especially since they had no use for all this “frou-frou” stuff, but didn’t want to hurt Rarity’s feelings either. At the same time, they had to be discreet about their relationship, so they asked Twilight to keep all those things at her place, at least for now. The last thing they needed was for Applebloom to find matching lingerie in her sister’s bedroom.

And, yes, they received three pairs of... that.

It was understandable, in a way. One of Rarity’s dreams was to work her hoof on couple-oriented designs and it just didn’t feel right if she didn’t work on an actual couple. She understood the entire “be discreet” thing, but how could one support that when the latest design always looked so—

“Gorgeous!”, the white unicorn shouted as she just tied the two cape-like-thingies to the necks of Rainbow and Applejack.

It was around 1 PM and their friends entered the main gate. Before anypony could say anything, Rarity was already checking various angles.

“Um, what exactly are these?”, asked the orange pony.

“I’m not exactly sure”, replied Rarity, as she hovered some weird sparkly thingies in the air. “I’m experimenting”

“Could we do this later? We really just wanna hang out with you guys”, intervened Rainbow as she took off her cape. “We just wanna relax and have some fun. Besides...”, she continued, approaching the white unicorn and whispering into her ear: “...we shouldn’t do this in front of Pinkie and Fluttershy. We haven’t told them yet, remember?”

Rarity nodded and smiled. Even so, Rainbow could’ve sworn that she was just thinking of another dress or... “experiment”. The group slowly started walking around the farm and towards the apple trees. The sun was shining and it was a truly beautiful day, perfect for taking long walks or simply relaxing on a bench somewhere and reading. Applejack pointed towards her trees, proudly.

“Yessir, this new batch will be full o’ apples in no time!”, she said, smiling and trying to ignore the fact that Pinkie was tying balloons to the branches.

“Pinkie, what are you doing?”, asked the blue pegasus, being slightly less patient than her marefriend.

“Balloons make anypony happy, so I’m making the trees happy so they give us big juicy yummy apples! A happy tree is a... happy tree!”, she replied in her usual cheerful voice. “Besides, they’re so bare right now... balloons make them look prettier!”

As the ponies giggled their way through the trees, both Rainbow and Applejack were thinking the same thing. They felt that the situation has changed slightly since they admitted their feelings to each other. The gang was no longer... the gang. Sure, they spent time together, they had fun, nothing changed in the dynamics of the group itself. Still, the way the couple saw the group was now a bit different. It was no longer “Me and my friends”... it became “Us and our friends”.

The mares didn’t feel like they were being treated differently. Well, except for the whole “Rarity-is-experimenting-again” part. Still, there was something different about the situation. They wanted to stick together, to go to various places together... if one of them was called for something (for example, when Fluttershy asked Rainbow to help her clear out the sky above her hibernating animals’ homes, on a bad snowy day) the other wanted to go too (despite the fact that Applejack can’t fly)... and that was a new feeling for both of them.

They felt a certain... need to be around each other, along with a hint of possessiveness towards one another. They talked about it, they shared their feelings directly, with honesty, and figured out that things will balance themselves out in time. After all, they spent just two or three months together. They felt more and more comfortable discussing things that were related to their relationship and, overall, they were both doing quite well, despite all the new ways of seeing things. At least, they thought they were doing well.

Twilight was always there with a good advice or opinion.

“Every couple is different”, she told them, whenever they stopped by her treehouse (and there was nopony around). “You just have to figure out, together, what works and what doesn’t work for you two”

She also offered them, as usual, a few books on the subject. But where’s the fun if you don’t experiment yourself? “Besides”, she told them, smiling, “you’re doing great”. Even if it was just a small, polite, reassuring thought... it was really helpful for the couple, since this was all a new territory for them.

Regarding Pinkie and Fluttershy, they both agreed that it was best to postpone the “news”. Fluttershy was very sensitive and they needed to figure out if something like that would’ve bothered her or not. As for Pinkie, well, they just didn’t want the entire population of Ponyville to find out if she “accidentally” threw a party in their honor and invited half the town. They will tell her... eventually.

The mane six spent their day together, laughing, enjoying themselves and getting up to date with everypony’s lives. Nothing interesting really happened lately, but it was always fun to talk about silly little insignificant things with friends. As the sun was slowly setting, they waved goodbye to the group and started walking towards the farm.

“Hey, AJ?”

“Yeah, sugarcube?”, replied the earth pony as night crickets started their tiny symphony around them.

Far away, small groups of fireflies began their nightly routines, as if responding to the sight of the first evening stars that were lighting up the horizon.

“I feel kind of bad that we still need to hide from Fluttershy and Pinkie. And from your family. And from Ponyville. I know we’ve talked about this... but I’m starting to feel a bit like a spy or something, you know? It’s like I infiltrated your house.”

“Ah know how you’re feeling right now, but all Ah can tell you is that mah family welcomed you with open arms. They can easily pick a good apple from a bad one and, to be honest, ah never saw them being so welcoming to somepony from outside the family. It’s almost as if they see you as part of us... and that’s no small thing, Rainbow”, replied Applejack.

“I know and I’m grateful for that... but it still feels like I’m lying to them... and that you have to lie too because of me.”

“Hey, we ain’t lying... we’re just postponing the truth until they’re ready to hear it. It’s the right thing to do. Honesty and Loyalty are at their best when they’re used to protect the ones you love... As for Pinkie and Fluttershy, Ah’m sure they’ll be even more understanding than mah family. We just need time, Rainbow... we’ll figure this out. We won’t be hidin’ forever”

The pegasus smiled at her marefriend. She changed so much, for the better, since they started talking about all their doubts and fears. They both have changed.

Celestia should make a seventh Element of Harmony... Communication.

As they approached the kitchen entrance, they resisted the need to share a kiss, holding it for later.

***

The family already set up dinner. Things were calm at the farm, so the dinner was calm as well. Nopony really said anything and they all enjoyed their meals and each-other’s company.

“Ah think I’m gonna hit the hay”, said Applejack, patting Rainbow on her back. “G’night, Rainbow. G’night, everypony”

Everypony wished her “sweet apple dreams” and soon, one by one, they all went to their rooms, except for Granny Smith and Rainbow, who was just finishing up her cup of hot chocolate, as she usually drank every night.

Granny smith cleaned up the last plate from the dinner table and then, with a soft sigh, she turned towards the pegasus.

“Ah’m mighty glad, Rainbow dear, that you are helpin’ us with the work around here. Applejack sure is lucky to have a friend like you!”, the old mare said, looking directly into the pegasus’ eyes.

“Eh... heh... I know, Granny Smith. You already told me that several times”, she replied, politely.

“And Ah’m gonna tell you that for as many times as it’s necessary. This ain’t no easy thing to find... friendship like that. Even so... there is something that I’d like to talk to you about”

Rainbow pricked up her ears. Granny Smith usually told them stories about her youth and funny tales that she heard from other ponies... but she never “talked” about ...”something”.

The old mare grabbed a chair and sit down at the table, calmly, while looking straight into the pegasus’ eyes. It almost seemed like she didn’t blink at all, just to make sure she gets her point across. Granny Smith leaned over the table, placing both her front hooves firmly on top.

Rainbow already forgot about the hot chocolate she was drinking and started wondering if she did something wrong or broke any plates lately. She knew that sometimes she was clumsy but, as far as she remembered, everything was fine. No accidents, no clumsiness lately. Nothing.

Granny Smith squinted her eyes a bit and her smile faded away.

“I heard y’all been sleepin’ around with mah grand-daughter”

-End of chapter 1-

Who would do that?

Pillow Thoughts II

Chapter 2
Who would do that?

Dash closed the door to Applejack’s room behind her and threw herself in the orange pony’s bed, letting out a grunt. The candle that was lighting up the tiny room flickered a little as the pegasus flapped her wings once and drew them closer to her body.

“You okay?” asked Applejack pricking up her ears.

Dash mumbled something facedown in the pillow. She then turned toward her marefriend and facehooved, “Your grandmother has a twisted sense of humour.”

“Huh?” asked the confused earth pony.

“Lemme explain...”

***

“I heard y’all been sleepin’ around with mah grand-daughter”

Dash choked on her hot chocolate and it took a few seconds to catch her breath.

Granny Smith widened her smile and started giggling at the surprised pony, “Hehehe, y’all should’ve seen yer face. Hehehe!”

Dash didn’t really know how to respond to this so she smiled, somewhat apologetically.

“But, seriously now,” the old mare continued, “I can understand you young fillies spending the night talkin’ and whatnot, but mah grand-daughter does need her rest. And y’all do have a guest room, ya know”

“Yes, Granny Smith, of course. It won’t happen again!”, Dash quickly replied, praying that her blush would be interpreted as 'being sorry', rather than 'remembering the fact that they weren’t exactly... talking'.

Either way, Granny Smith seemed pleased with the answer and went on to sweep the floor before heading back to her own room.

***

“I thought I was gonna die, right there and then. Two more of these scares and you can dig me a proper hole somewhere in the garden,” said the poor pegasus, rubbing her forehead.

Applejack, once she understood there was nothing to worry about, gave out a small chuckle as she embraced Rainbow.

“Oh, sugarcube, you worry too much.”

“Do you think she suspects it?”

“If she suspected it, she wouldn’t have joked about it. Relax.” replied Applejack, giving her a small peck on the cheek.

Rainbow smiled, but then frowned, not being able to get the recent shock out of her head.

“I... I think we should probably sleep separately tonight,” she said. “JUST tonight,” she quickly added, seeing the expression on Applejack’s face. “You know... to be safe”

The earth pony opened her mouth to say something but then closed it and lowered her eyes. They had been extremely lucky so far... Not getting caught and all that, but maybe Rainbow was right. It’s not like Granny Smith would come spying on them at night but, then again, one never knows. She pondered a bit and then lifted her head.

“Alright, Ah guess it’s fine.”

“Are you sure you’re okay with that, AJ?”

The pony lowered her ears, “No, Ah’m not okay with it... but we don’t really have a choice now, do we? We can’t really afford to buy a place of our own yet and Ah’m sure not gonna let Twilight experiment her magic on me just so we can both stay at your place. You know that cloud-walking-thing wears off sooner or later.”

“Hehe, yyyeah,” replied Rainbow, as her mind quickly constructed an image of Applejack, falling through the cloud-bed at 3 AM in the morning. While sleeping.

As funny as that image looked like, especially the sound she imagined as the falling pony hit the bushes underneath, she quickly tossed it away and focused on the conversation.

“Besides,” Applejack continued, “Ah need to be here every mornin’ and take care of the farm.”

“I know, AJ, I know. Remember what Twilight said... we have to learn to be discreet about this”

“Then again, we don’t have to go panicking at the first sign of ponies findin’ out,” replied Applejack, nodding her head. “After all, it’s our business, not theirs”

“Yeah, well... we’ll see,” said Rainbow as she got off the bed and started walking towards the door. “Good night, Applejack.”

“What?” replied the orange pony, raising an eyebrow. “No... No kiss?”

The pegasus slapped herself over the forehead, “Ah, sorry, sorry! Of course, kiss, yes.” She hugged her marefriend and kissed her gently. Applejack returned the hug and the kiss, but she figured something was off. As the pegasus left the room, the earth pony got into her bed and, with a sigh, rested her head on the pillow.

It was the first night in which they slept separately since their first kiss in that very same room.

Eh, no big deal... She’s just a bit scared but she’ll get over it tomorrow.

She will, won’t she?

Her thoughts began to swim around, unwillingly revealing different scenarios through which their relationship might end.

Ah must stop thinking about all this nonsense. Rainbow is loyal... the most loyal pony Ah know.

Images of crowds laughing and pointing at them, with the pegasus freaking out and flying far away, caught roots in her head, slowly making Applejack feel uneasy and angry at situations that never happened.

So what if ponies might find out? None of their business... Rainbow knows that... I’ll stand by her and she’ll stand by me. We won’t back off at the first sign of trouble, no siree!

The images in her head melted away into the candle’s flickering light. The pony turned into her bed, staring at the wall in front of her. The light casted playful shadows that seemed grim in her eyes, as she couldn’t see Rainbow’s protective wings anymore, wrapped around her shoulders. She suddenly felt cold, despite the fact that the window had been closed for quite some time.

The thoughts started peeking again from beyond her unspoken fears so she tried shrugging them off by blowing out the candle. The room fell into the darkness that seemed to deepen without her marefriend around to cast away all worries. She never truly appreciated what it really meant to sleep with the pony you love, until now.

She didn’t like this. Not one bit.

And she forgot to kiss me...

***

Morning took Rainbow by surprise. She opened her eyes all of a sudden and shut them tight again due to all the light that was filling up the guest room. She shifted in the pile of bed sheets, realizing it was freezing cold.

Ugh... just a dream... stupid, stupid dream.

She opened her eyes again, slowly. Letting them get used to the white light that was invading her room, almost in a mocking manner, urging her to get out of bed.

A quiet breakfast and a quick shower later, the two mares found themselves on an errand through ponyville. They trotted along silently towards the center of the town. Applejack was carrying two saddlebags in which they were supposed to bring back wool for Granny Smith. The old mare woke up with the idea that, if she knitted enough blankets, (“pretty warm blankets” as she called them) they might sell those for a nice little profit and finally get the barn door fixed.

The couple passed ‘Quills and Sofas’ and one of the plenty fruit carts, still keeping to their thoughts. Applejack noticed that Rainbow was keeping a certain distance from her.

‘Is this also supposed to be a 'safe-thing'? Or maybe Ah’m just imagining stuff here?’, thought the earth pony.

Imagination or not, Rainbow was visibly trying to look anywhere else but at her. Applejack didn’t really know if she should say something about it or not. It wasn’t like she felt too comfortable either. After their first kiss, when they started going on little errand like these, both mares had the impression that everypony was starring at them. Soon they learned to ignore that and just enjoy their normal conversation.

It seemed that Rainbow didn’t quite get over it entirely as she was reacting now exactly as she did back then.

“Uh, hey...” started the orange pony.

“Hm, what?” replied the pegasus.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, why do you ask?”

“Well, Ah noticed that you’re walking at about six feet away from me”

The pegasus silently measured the distance between them, to judge by herself, “It’s within acceptable limits.”

“There’s one thing being careful and another being crazy. If Ah didn’t know any better, Ah would say y’all are going a bit over the line with this.”

“Well, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re trying to get us in trouble!”

Applejack frowned and rolled her eyes: “Seriously, Rainbow... Ah’m starting to wish that Granny Smith actually figured out about us so y’all can stop this ridiculous behaviour!”

“Shhh!” hissed Rainbow, lowering her ears and looking around, “Not so loud, Applejack!”

“Well, come closer then and Ah won’t have to talk so loud!” the orange pony replied, picking up the pace. Rainbow trotted closer to her as they both entered the Woolies shop.

The tiny bell above the door rang as the two mares entered the building. There were rows and rows of multi-coloured balls of yarn, wool and other fabrics. The smell of old wood and naphthalene tickled the ponies’ nostrils in a rather strange way. Although the shop itself was clean and looked brand new, it had a certain vintage-appeal to it somehow.

Applejack couldn’t put her hoof on it, but she quickly started focusing on the task at hoof, “Howdy, Miss Needles!”

“Why, hello Applejack! Good to see you, dearie!” the mare from behind the counter responded, after which she turned towards the pegasus. “And who’s your friend?”

“This here’s Rainbow Dash,” started Applejack, not before being interrupted.

“Yup, that’s me! Friend here. Juuuust friend! We’re good friends. We’ve always been good friends and always will be! ...friends!” burst Rainbow in a sprinkler of words and gestures that would’ve been a lot more impressive if she had been a circus performer. She ended her... response... with a weird grin on her face. Applejack genuinely thought that Miss Needles will see the pegasus as an ex-convict that just escaped from the looney bin.

Thankfully, that was not the case. Or maybe she was just too polite.

“Oh, how wonderful! Any friend of Applejack is welcomed in my store!” said the shopmare as she used her magic to levitate a bunch of yarn balls back to their shelves. “Now, what can I get you?”

The orange pony filled her small bags with everything Granny Smith required, paid for the merchandise, said her farewells and exited the shop before Rainbow got the chance to do anything... less than smart. She practically dragged the pony to a nearby alley, trying to get some sense into her.

“Ah can’t go with you anywhere!”

“Me? What did I do?”

“You’re acting like you’ve got apples stuck up your rump! And from your grin, everypony will think you like it!”

“Well, I... I’m trying to act friendly here. To you. So ponies will figure out that we’re friends. It’s logical.”

“That’s all a bunch of horseapples! In the best case, they’ll all think I took mah dog out fer a walk... or ah just released from the basement mah ‘special’ cousin we never talk about in public!” said Applejack, stomping her hooves.

“I hardly think anypony would confuse me for a dog! And besides I—wait, you keep your cousin in the basement?!”

“Wha-? No! That was a way of sayin’...ugh, nevermind!”

“Either way, basement or no basement, I can’t be your cousin... that doesn’t sound... platonic enough!” replied the blue pegasus, crossing her forelegs.

“Platonic?!”

“Yeah... We need something foolproof. Trust me, I've heard stories about cousins and—“

“Rainbow!" interrupted the earth pony, thinking that if this is the way it’s going to be, she’ll end up with a bunch of bumps on her forehead due to the upcoming variety of facehooves. “Forget the cousin thing, alright? Nopony will suspect anything! There’s nothin’ to suspect! We’re just two friends, enjoying a nice day, buying stuff for the farm,” she concluded firmly.

“Okay, okay...” replied the pegasus taking a deep breath and exhaling. “I’ll be quiet and I won’t do anything stupid. In public. The earlier, um, behavior was just a...test, yeah. We’re good to go now!”

Applejack frowned and measured her marefriend from the top of her head to the bottom of her hooves.

“Y’all sure about this? No more creepy grin?”

“No more creepy grin. Trust me!”

“Ah trust you about as far as Ah can throw you right now... but, very well, Ah need to get Big Macintosh a new frying pan,” she replied as they walked out of the alley and started trotting along the main street. “Ah know y’all not too crazy about his cookin’, but Ah figured a brand new pan might make it taste better.”

Soon, the two mares found themselves in ‘Pots and Dishes’, a simple shop with, well... pots and dishes, of course. The owners, Mr and Mrs Potter, were kind ponies but lacked imagination. Actually, many ponies figured out that when these two decide to have a kid some day, they’ll probably name him after the first thing they see around the room. Since the birth would probably take place in a hospital, one could only pray for the little foal, considering all the biochemical hazard trash bins and surgical equipments that would be lying around.

'What would it be like to be called Tonsillotome for the rest of your life?’ pondered Rainbow as they browsed through the items, but quickly snapped back to reality.

“This’ll do perfect,” said her marefriend as she picked up a silvery frying pan with her teeth and placed it on the counter.

“Excellent choice!” said the shopmare, Mrs Potter, who was wearing a nice beige hat with a tiny pink flower on one side. Her mane was brown and her coat matched her light-blue eyes. The mare quickly added, jokingly, “Which one of you is the cook in the family?”

Rainbow’s response was quicker than lightning. “I’m not her cousin!!”

Silence between lovers can be romantic. Silence between pony-monks can be a sign of respect and sharing a common wish of self-development beyond the mysteries of this great big world. Silence in a ‘Pots and Dishes’ store, after one says something like that... is not exactly inspiring.

Applejack tried to resist the urge to facehoof.

Think of yer forehead. It is not yer forehead’s fault you fell in love with an idiot. Yer forehead doesn’t say stupid things. Love the forehead... love the forehead.

“Are... you alright?” asked Mrs Potter, looking at the orange pony.

“Yeah, all fine an’ dandy.”

“Why are you... chewing on your hat?” continued the shopmare.

Applejack looked down. She was, indeed, chewing on her own hat in frustration. Without hesitation, she simply placed the hat back on top of her head and replied: “Good fer the teeth... How much?”

“Oh, um, that’ll be ten bits.”

Applejack paid, grabbed the pan, grabbed the Rainbow and headed outside without a word. Mrs Potter looked around for a while... then she slowly took off her hat and tried chewing a bit on one of the edges. She stuck her tongue out in disgust and placed the hat back on her head.

“Must be from a different material,” she concluded and went back to arranging the new set of pots that arrived that morning.

***

“But she totally hinted at one of us cooking! Then she called me a ‘cousin’!”

“No, Dash, that was all in yer head. If y’all don’t stop acting like this, you’re gonna end up sleeping in the attic!”

“Wait,” replied the pegasus, stopping in the middle of the road. “You don’t have an attic...”

“Exactly,” said Applejack, continuing her walk. “And ya’ll best be prepared to buy me a new hat. A whole new set of hats. One fer everyday of the week, ya got that?”

Rainbow resumed her trotting, “Yeah, yeah... I got the allusion. Anything else we need to pick up?”

“Nah, we’re good... all we have to do is return to the farm an—“

CRASH!!

A sphere engulfed in blue flames crashed right into the town’s fountain, breaking it into pieces. The ponies around jumped in fright and covered their heads.

Applejack opened her eyes and saw blue feathers in front of her. Rainbow had used her wings to cover her, shielding the pony from flying pieces of stone.

“You okay, Dash?”

“Yeah, you?”

“Ah guess... thank you.”

Before the pegasus had any time to respond, the blue flames that surrounded the sphere grew higher and higher, engulfing the area in a bizarre light. From within the sphere, a pony emerged. It was wearing some sort of mask and a costume that was covering its entire coat and mane.

Rainbow’s gaze fell upon the strange pony’s horn and... wings?

“An alicorn?!” she asked, without really expecting an answer.

The ponies around started mumbling and talking to each other, wondering if they should approach it or not. Before the dust had any time to settle, a strong white light flooded the town’s center as another sphere descended from the sky. A familiar voice, usually kind and appealing, now fierce and cold, shrieked over the hearts of everypony.

“I have given you a chance to leave this place and one chance is all that you shall receive,” said Princess Celestia, yet her voice pierced the ears like blades of ice. She was angry.

The strange masked pony took a few steps towards her. Even if it didn’t seem to open its mouth, its voice could be heard echoing in and out of everypony’s body, their bones, ribcages... as if it was speaking through them.

“Come now, Celestia... surely you have more faith in your loyal subjects than that. After all, you taught them so many things. I’m only digging around to see just how much they learned,” it said with a chilling voice that seemed neither young nor old, neither male nor female. “Should we start with these two here?” it continued as its horn started to glow menacingly.

Faster than one could blink, two mares were dragged from the ponies that surrounded the town square: a turquoise unicorn that had a lyre as a cutie mark, and a beige earth pony that was known as the candy store shopkeeper. “Let us see what a little honesty can do...”, the masked pony said and the mares started screaming, terrified.

“ENOUGH!!” yelled Celestia as a white beam of energy shot through her horn, fully hitting the masked pony and sending it further back. “Don’t you DARE touch them...” she almost growled through her teeth.

Rainbow and Applejack couldn’t believe their eyes. They never saw the Princess in such a state. Nothing could ever bring her to do something like that, never would she attack one of their own.

The masked pony rose from the ground and resumed its position.

“As you wish, Princess,” it said, menacingly.

All of a sudden, a shot of blue energy, sent by the pony, hit Celestia fully, knocking her back. The royal guards barely arrived in time and placed themselves between the pony and the Princess. Two of them jumped to help Celestia get back up.

'Who is that?', thought Rainbow as she was still covering Applejack with her wings. ‘Who would dare attack the Princess?’

Celestia got back up on her feet. She opened her eyes and saw the blue-orange couple looking at her.

“Get Twilight”, she told them. “NOW!”

-End of Chapter 2-

Can't we just stay put?

Author's Note: MANY thanks to Daniel-Gleebits for joining the team as an editor! Thanks to him and to Flutterbrony, I'm starting to learn more and more about grammar and the differences between my language and English. You guys are the best, thank you!

Apologies for being late with the chapter. Syncing three very busy people is difficult... and I'm working on a new Comedy Series too.

Don't worry, the chapters should flow a lot better now. Thank you, dear fans, for your awesome patience!

* * * * * *

Pillow Thoughts II

Chapter 3
Can’t we just stay put?

Rainbow froze, looking at the Princess, knowing that she had to move.

Applejack snapped her out of it: “Dash, go get Twilight! Go!!”

The pegasus shook her head violently and soared into the air. She heard the pony crowd gasping; that meant the masked alicorn started attacking again. Rainbow could feel the tension in her wings as she desperately tried to gain speed. Finally she saw the library in the distance and was forced to slow down, to make sure she didn't crash into it.

Luckily for her, a window was open. She landed in the treehouse, shouting after the purple unicorn: “Twilight!!”

The bedroom door opened as Celestia’s faithful student poked her head into the room.

“Oh, hey Rainbow... what’s—“

“No time to explain! Trouble! The Princess needs you, now!” and without further explanation, she grabbed her friend and took off. The unicorn was not used to such means of travel. The ground flew rapidly beneath her as she was trying to hold on to Rainbow as best as she could. Twilight let out a scream and started protesting when the pegasus took a few quick and unexpected turns, until her own words were covered by screaming voices getting closer and closer.

Both Twilight and Rainbow landed near Applejack. There were a few guards lying on the ground, still alive, but apparently in pain. The Princess herself was still holding her ground. She seemed unharmed but furious. The masked alicorn was holding its ground rather well, despite the fact that its size was not nearly as big as the Princess’.

“Bringing reinforcements, Celestia? I thought you were above that,” said the alicorn in the same genderless voice, after glancing at Twilight. “Well then, let’s give out this demonstration quickly, shall we?”

Twilight watched in horror as the masked stranger formed a bright light in front of them all, blinding them for a second. There came a shriek, then a strange vibrating sound. When they all could look in its direction again, the alicorn was already finishing up its spell over a poor levitating earth pony. She appeared to be lifeless, hovering in the air. Before Celestia or anypony else could react, with a simple move of its head, the alicorn dropped the pony on the ground, like a forgotten ragdoll.

“This is a warning of things to come, Celestia. You cannot stop the inevitable. Your kingdom will fall. Do you know what the best part is? I won’t even have to touch you with so much as a feather. You will be as healthy as ever so I can make sure you see it crumble bit by bit,” said the alicorn. With a short burst of blue light, it disappeared, leaving the marketplace engulfed in silence.

The ponies turned their gaze towards the light pink pony with white mane that was lying on the ground. Celestia took a few steps towards her.

“Your highness!” protested one of the guards.

“It’s alright... I do not sense any harm coming from her," the Princess promptly replied. She reached the pony and carefully started looking for any signs that she might be hurt. The light pink pony suddenly gasped and lifted herself off the ground.

“Easy there... you’re safe now...” said Celestia, not without a slight shadow of doubt. “How are you feeling?”

All the ponies looked at each other, not knowing what to think of all this. Twilight looked at her friends but they were just as clueless as she was.

“How do you think I am feeling?” replied the pony, terrified. “You are here to protect us yet you failed to do anything! You’re useless!” she continued, angrily.

The ponies around her took a step back, shock clearly written on their faces. The Princess raised her eyebrows, trying to make sense of this situation. She had never been spoken to in that manner before.

A group of ponies that seemed to be the light pink pony’s friends, approached her.

“A thousand apologies, Princess!” started one of them. “It’s the shock... Lilly didn’t mean to—“

“Of course, blame it on the shock!” Lilly said, interrupting the blue pony. “I don’t regret these words even if she locks me up”

“Lilly Fly, that’s enough!” said somepony else from her group of friends.

“Ha! Look who’s talking! The stupidest pony from the group... you’ve got some nerve, Bumbly!” she replied, and then trotted off, leaving poor Bumbly in shock.

The blue pony looked at their friend leaving, not being able to believe her own eyes and ears. She then turned toward Bumbly and, seeing how she was about to burst into tears, hugged her tight. “It’s alright, she didn’t mean it."

“She... she called me like... the other mean ponies used to call me...”

“It was a mistake, she didn’t mean it. She’s just upset and scared,” continued the blue pony and then turned towards the Princess. “I’m really sorry about all this, your majesty. Lilly Fly is a really nice pony, it must’ve been the shock! Please don’t be mad at her...”

Celestia looked after the angry pony then turned her head towards her group of friends and nodded. She then turned towards Twilight: “I think we should talk. All of us. The Library will be fine.”

***

Twilight was desperately putting random books back on their shelves. She did not expect a sudden visit from the Princess and the library was, frankly, a mess. Blushing slightly and concentrating on dusting the place, she heard her name being called out the third time around.

“Twilight, I think that will suffice” said the Princess. The least of their troubles was the cleanliness of the Treehouse. The unicorn stopped and assumed her place near her friends, in a semi-circle, in front of Equestria’s ruler. “We have little to go on so I’ll get right to the point. This alicorn bypassed all security measures and simply appeared in front of me, in the throne-room. It accused me of being a failure as a leader and threatened to show me just how less I cared about my subjects”

“That’s not true!” jumped Rainbow, but her marefriend signaled her to be quiet.

“It then offered to demonstrate it in front of everypony,” she continued. “I tried to keep everything at a rational level, but it didn’t seem to be able to do that. It started talking… mumbling actually… about rights and wrongs, what is fair and what isn’t fair... then it told me that it won’t stop until it sees our kingdom crumble. At that point I gave the alicorn a chance to leave, but it suddenly engulfed itself in that ball of energy you saw and crashed through the window, heading towards the center of Ponyville. I pursued and, well…” she concluded.

The mane six were silent. Nopony knew what this was about.

“Your Majesty,” started Twilight, “do you happen to have any... enemies? Any foes? Any ponies that might want your harm?”

Celestia thought about it for a few seconds, then replied: “No. Even my worst enemy cannot be considered a real foe and he is locked away in stone, beyond anypony’s reach. His methods are quite unique and the alicorn didn’t seem to be one of his doings”.

“Perhaps it’s somepony new," said Rarity, more to herself. She, along with Pinkie and Fluttershy, were brought up to speed with the current events by Rainbow, who went to get them earlier.

“What happened to Lilly Fly?” asked Pinkie. “I know that pony ever since she was born and she never reacted like you guys said she did! What did that big meanie do to her?”

Although her words were rather foalish, the ponies could certainly distinguish the concern in Pinkie’s voice. She wasn’t the only one either... Rarity was looking rather panicky and there is no need to mention how Fluttershy looked. The poor mare was terrified.

“The alicorn mentioned honesty,” replied Celestia, frowning. “If you look at it objectively, I was indeed helpless when faced with the circumstances. The alicorn didn’t seem like it wanted to harm my subjects. After all, its words were directed at me. Only when it grabbed the first ponies from the crowd I reacted, trying to protect them. By the end of the entire thing, it wore me out and I couldn’t react in time to shield Lilly Fly.”

“Y’all tried yer best, yer Majesty! No reason to frown upon it!” said Applejack.

“Applejack, you of all ponies should see the reason to frown...” replied the Princess, turning to her. “Lilly Fly spoke the truth. The entire truth, without hiding it, and crossing it with her feelings of anger.”

“So she was a bit angry and said some stuff, what’s unusual about that?” asked Rainbow. “We all say things that we don’t mean when we’re angry!”

“Yes, but what if we all started saying those things... all the time?” replied Twilight who caught on. “The alicorn threatens to make everypony honest... it is removing their... politeness... their social masks.”

“Harmony is obtained when there is equilibrium,” continued Celestia. “Honesty at heart doesn’t mean honesty through words. It implies it… but we need words to cover our weaknesses, to co-exist, to blend in and to evolve together towards a point where those words won’t be necessary anymore. But if you force somepony to give up on that shield, on that protective form of interaction too soon... there will be chaos."

Fluttershy gave out a small whimper and tried making herself even smaller behind Rarity. The white unicorn placed a hoof on her head, trying to calm her down gently.

Applejack stomped her hoof on the ground, annoyed: “That good-fer-nothin’ alicorn is using truth as a weapon?! Who, in all of Equestria, ever heard of such a thing??”

“Unfortunately, nopony," replied Celestia, looking at the mane six. “...except one, maybe...”

Twilight’s ears pricked up. “Who?”

The Princess sighed: “Ophil Gryasa, one of my oldest students, now a hermit somewhere on an island far away from here to the west. One would have to go by boat, for not even my wings are strong enough to carry me across such an expanse of sea—“

Her words were interrupted by the sound of Twilight packing some books and parchments in a bag. “Not to worry, Princess... we’ll be back as soon as we can”

Celestia smiled. “Twilight, I couldn’t ask this from any of you. It’s a long journey and I’m not even sure Ophil knows any ways of helping us!”

“Either way, it’s better than sitting here and waiting,” replied the unicorn.

“Yeah, we’ll find this Ophil and come back with a solution! Or even better, a cure!” added Rainbow, excited at the idea of a quest.

“Speaking of which, I’ll need to go back to Canterlot with Lilly Fly and try to find some way of reversing the spell. I’ll do anything I can to help you. Anything you need, it’s yours. I’ll arrange for a carriage to take you as close as possible to the Golden Sea” concluded Celestia and, with a nod, she exited the library.

***

The following minutes, all the ponies were quiet. Silence was interrupted by Twilight’s mumbling regarding the books she would need to bring on this quest, and what should the food/books ratio have been. After all, who could’ve studied on an empty stomach?

Applejack looked around the room, thinking that she should run back to the farm to gather some supplies as well. For both of them. Thinking of Rainbow, she realized that her marefriend was unusually quiet. She glanced towards her.

Rainbow was, indeed, too troubled to talk. She kept staring at a bookcase somewhere in a corner and, if one weren’t looking too closely, one wouldn’t notice that she had been staring at the same shelf for over ten minutes.

Applejack came closer to her and, keeping her voice down, she poked her lightly with her hoof: “You okay, sugarcube?”

Dash flattened her ears as she turned towards the orange pony. “Yeah… well no, not really. I keep thinking about this whole… truth-thing.” She looked at their friends. Rarity was comforting Fluttershy across the room and Pinkie was helping Twilight put some books back to their shelves. Spike was nowhere to be seen. Confident that nopony could hear them, Rainbow continued: “What if the allicorn attacked you… or me… We could blow it. I know it might be a bit selfish thinking about this now, but as much as I care for Ponyville and my friends… I care for you more. The last thing we need is a horde of angry ponies to jump on us for being together.”

Applejack frowned. It did sound selfish… but she was right. This spell doubled the danger for them. If they were concerned earlier regarding how their friends would react to the news, one could imagine how scary this idea of vulnerability was to them now. To both of them.

“It’ll be fine, Rainbow. Ah know what ya mean… but no matter what happens, we’ll be alright. You and Ah. Ah can promise you that. Dunno ‘bout the rest of ‘em… but Ponyville survived through a lot more, don’tcha think?” she said, smiling.

Rainbow returned the smile and wanted to give her marefriend a small peck on the cheek. She stopped halfway, realizing that she couldn’t do that in front of everypony else and her smile faded away. The earth pony wanted to say something but she got interrupted by Pinkie:

“This will be great! We’re all going on an adventure together! Isn’t this exciting? Are you excited? ‘Cause I’m excited!” she shouted, jumping around the room from pony to pony.

“Alright,” said Twilight, closing her last bag. “I suggest that everypony goes to her place and stock up on food and necessary items. Fluttershy, you should cover the first-aid kits. Applejack, a few ropes might be of use to us. Rarity, things might break along the way… so anything we can use to stitch things up might prove useful. Rainbow, any flying equipment that will make your life easier, bring it. We don’t know what we might face, so if you need to scout up ahead in heavy rain or scorching sun… you get the idea. Pinkie…”

Pinkie stopped bouncing and looked at the unicorn, putting on her most serious face. Which wasn’t really all that serious.

“Pinkie just… don’t bring… anything. Really, don’t.”

The pink pony’s face fell, looking heartbroken: “No… no cannon?”

“No, Pinkie… no cannon, no sweets, no… usual stuff. Just bring food, real food, you’ll need that," responded Twilight, a bit harsher than she would’ve wanted to. She then turned towards everypony again and concluded: “Don’t forget water. We’ll meet at the town’s western exit towards Canterlot in one hour. The Golden Sea is beyond the castle. I’ll send the Princess a message to send us the carriage. If anypony needs anything, now would be your last chance to say it.”

Rainbow approached Applejack, but ultimately took a step back. She looked towards the floorboards, not wanting to show her frustration to the earth pony. It was, indeed, very frustrating, trying not to raise suspicions. Even if all she needed right then was just a simple hug.

***

“Pinkie! I told you no sweets! That’s a bunch of sweets! Can’t you count?!” shouted Twilight, half amused, towards the pink pony.

“You’ll thank me later!” she responded, passing near the unicorn and climbing into the carriage. The bags were being secured on top of the vehicle by two of Celestia’s guards as the mane six were getting comfortable inside. There wasn’t much room, but they didn’t mind.

At least I get to stay close to Applejack without raising any questions, thought Rainbow. She knew Applejack was thinking the same. Or… maybe she wasn’t thinking the same. Maybe I’m the only one who is really worried about this.

She looked at her marefriend but didn’t really get any reaction from her. Maybe I’m making her feel bad. She dwelled on that thought as she focused her gaze outside the window.

The guard ponies started pulling the carriage, beginning the long and arduous trip to, what everypony hoped would be, an answer. Their orders were clear. They had to take the ponies safely as close as possible to the Golden Sea. The road was long and rather bumpy. The green hills that surrounded Ponyville were soon left behind, being replaced with brown fields and patches of vegetation. The sky’s color seemed paler and paler as the carriage kept going, as if the road ahead wished to convey to any traveler that it was a grim one.

The fillies were silent for the most part. Even Pinkie sat quietly and looked out the window. As soon as they passed Canterlot she closed her eyes for a second and gave out a small sigh.

“Everything okay, dear?” asked Rarity, drawing everypony’s attention.

“Yeah,” replied the pink pony. “It’s just the first time I ever went so far from home, and far from Mr. and Mrs. Cake… and many of my friends…”

“I… I think we all feel like that, Pinkie,” said Fluttershy, rubbing her hooves shyly. The other ponies nodded sympathetically and then fell back to silence once more. Even so, the pink pony didn’t feel comforted by that idea. She couldn’t explain it, and she didn’t try to… but she felt sad. Very sad.

Pinkie kept glancing out the window. One by one, stars started to appear over the horizon as night began to fall over Equestria. They were supposed to reach a nearby town and find a place to sleep there. However, that was not be the case.

The carriage stopped suddenly. Voices could be heard outside, growing louder and louder. Before anypony had any time to react, the carriage doors were engulfed in orange magic and yanked open.

“Everypony OUT!” a hoarse voice came from outside. “Move it, NOW!”

As the mane six bustled out of the carriage, their eyes fell upon two masked unicorns.

Oh no, robbers! thought Twilight.

The unicorns had knives suspended in magic, which were floating near the guards’ throats. Three knives to each throat, making any effort to escape and protect the mane six useless.

“They’re just mares, no threat,” said the first bandit, dismissively.

“Even so, let’s make sure nopony tries anything stupid!” said the other masked unicorn as he grabbed Applejack by her ponytail, exposing her neck, and levitated a knife to it. He then turned towards his partner in crime. “Grab their stuff. Focus on the valuables this time!”

“Yeah, yeah,” said the other, breezily, levitating himself up onto the carriage roof.

Fluttershy was terrified, closing her eyes and covering them with her hooves. Rarity, Pinkie and Twilight were clearly not expecting this kind of danger. Not so soon, anyway. It took them a few good seconds to figure out the situation in which they found themselves.

Applejack couldn’t move, being held by the bandit. Even though she was strong enough to get out of his grip, the knife was far too close to her neck. She could’ve injured herself just by moving. Her eyes shifted to Dash.

“Dash!” she whispered.

The blue pegasus found herself in the same situation she hated. She could’ve easily tackled the bandit, fast enough that the unicorn wouldn’t know what hit him.

But she couldn’t. It was stupid, it was so stupid… but she just couldn’t move. What if… what if…

Applejack stared at her marefriend in disbelief, disbelief that she wasn't doing anything!

“Dash!” she shouted, this time loud and clear.

“Shut up, you!” he yelled in her ear. “Stop struggling!”

The orange pony was furious. How could she just SIT there?!

“Trouble down there?” asked the other unicorn bandit, poking his head over the side of the carriage.

“Yeah, this one won’t stay put!”

The bandit regarded his partner for a moment. He saw that the orange pony started making a fuss. With a bored look, he simply responded: “Run her through.”

End of Chapter 3

Where is the limit?

Pillow Thoughts II

Chapter 4
Where is the limit?

He didn’t even realize what happened. The last thing he remembered was that he was rummaging through the bags on top of the carriage when suddenly he got hit by a hard object and landed on his back. He managed to look towards his older brother, his partner in crime, only to see him on the ground, clutching his face and screaming in pain. Apparently he also got hit by something.

Ropes flew around them, carried by purple magic and they soon found themselves tied up tight. One of the mares… the seemingly “scared and weak” mares, as they used to call them everytime they planned a robbery, spoke to the orange one.

“Good thing you brought your ropes, AJ.”

“That’s nothin’. Thanks for saving mah behind. I knew yer heavy books would come in handy someday!”

“Yes well,” replied Twilight, rubbing the back of her head, “I never intended to use them like that!” She then turned towards the guards that were pulling their carriage. “Please, find a way to drag them along. On top of the carriage or tied to a wheel, it doesn’t really matter… the next town should have a ‘proper’ place for them, so they won’t hurt anypony else.”

The guards nodded, embarrassed that they were unable to protect their passengers. “We… we are…” started one of them but he was interrupted by the unicorn, “No need for any apology. It would’ve done us no good if you would’ve gotten hurt trying to escape their knives. This way, all of us reach our destination safely, alright?”

The guards looked at each other then back at Twilight and nodded decisively. Twilight levitated the books she used to attack the thieves and snuck them back into her bag, on top of the carriage. She then entered the vehicle, followed by Applejack and the others.

Rarity had been slightly out of it during the entire unfortunate event. She had been so shocked at the idea of being robbed that she even forgot to play her usual “I am SO fainting now” routine. Or maybe she just didn’t bring her couch along. Whichever the reason, she blinked a few times and followed her friends, thanking Celestia everypony was safe. Pinkie was carefully helping Fluttershy climb as she was still shaking a bit. She will eventually calm down, but right then she needed somepony to look after her for a while. She nodded gratefully towards Pinkie who hugged her gently.

The only one still unable to move was Rainbow.

She… she could’ve been killed. I didn’t… I didn’t react at all.

She called my name. She called MY name! …and I didn’t react.

I couldn’t react… why….. why…what if….

“Miss Dash, we need to get moving,” said one of the guards after tying up the thieves to the top of the carriage. He WAS tempted to tie them to the vehicle’s backside and drag them through the dirt and the mud, but it would’ve gone against his principles.

Rainbow was jerked out of her thoughts. She just nodded and climbed in, quickly closing the door behind her as if she was trying to escape her own thoughts. She rested her forehead on the cold window glass, not being able to look at her marefriend at all. The carriage started moving, the sound of wooden wheels on the rocky road echoing through the night.

The thought was still bugging her.

I..couldn’t… can’t she understand? What if…. What if the others…

She felt so ashamed for thinking this. Why was she thinking this? It shouldn’t have mattered. Applejack was much more important to her than what others thought. Even so… it was all weird, so difficult, fuzzy, blurry… it wasn’t even funny anymore, the way she couldn’t discern between how a friend should react and how a marefriend should be.

What if the others would’ve discovered that we’re together if I had helped her?

This was stupid. SO stupid! That wasn’t a real reason… was it?

Her own mind echoed answers, which turned out to be only more questions. How could they have found out? It was impossible… was it? Would they have seen it as an act of friendship or an inappropriate act of… more than friendship?

Was she afraid?

Was I afraid? Yes. For her? Yes.

…was I more afraid that other ponies might find out?

…yes…

She hated herself for that last answer. She froze back there just because she started desperately analyzing the situation, trying to figure out if a friend would react more than a marefriend and how much would each react. Thinking about it made her angry.

She hated when she rationalized things out of fear of rejection. She did the same thing when she fell for Applejack and that nearly destroyed their chances of being together.

And look at what I’m doing now… the same thing all over again. I haven’t learned anything.

…at all…

Besides, a friend…a TRUE friend would’ve reacted no matter what. I’m not a good marefriend…and apparently I’m even less than a friend…

She glanced outside looking at the stars covering the dark blue sky, sparkling in the distance. Only a few nights ago she and her orange pony climbed on top of the farmhouse to gaze at the night’s sky in peace. It was so beautiful. They brought a blanket and some snacks to their secret picnic. She didn’t even remember what they talked about. She just remembered holding her lover close to her and kissing her gently as the wind was passing gently through their hair, bringing aromas of freshly picked apples and cut grass.

It was one of those nights that she’d always remember… as well as this one, the night in which she failed her partner. A few lights up ahead indicated that they were close to their first destination, a small town called Horngreen. She imagined how she would’ve been making fun of this name with her, figuring out all sorts of ways to mess it up and maybe make fun of the locals. Of course, Applejack would’ve drawn a few politeness-related lines…

Applejack…

Rainbow slowly lifted her gaze to look towards her (hopefully still) marefriend. The orange pony was sitting on the opposite end of the carriage, looking out the window as well. She was quiet, despite Twilight trying to stir up a conversation. There was no trace of bitterness on her face. She was not frowning, nor did she look mad or upset… she was just looking in the distance, lost in her own thoughts.

This tore up Rainbow inside. She would’ve preferred seeing her mad, hearing her yell. The Pegasus knew she messed up badly and she was ready to accept anything Applejack would’ve thrown at her… but not this. She couldn’t read anything on the earth pony’s face and it was the scariest thing she ever had to confront.

Rainbow felt tears building up in her eyes, so she turned away. She tried focusing on the stars but it was useless. A single thought that seemed to lie in her heart, not her head, kept telling her the same thing over and over again…

I lost her…

I completely lost her…

***

The carriage skipped to a halt in front of what seemed to be an inn. The only light sources were a few street lamps that were standing a good couple of feet apart and the yellow-lit windows that blessed the road and its travelers with warm rays in the cold night.

Twilight climbed out of the vehicle and checked for a name.

“Trot ‘n Hop Inn”, she mumbled to herself, reading off a plaque. She turned around hearing muffled sounds as the guards were bringing down the two thieves.

“We’ll just take these two straight to the Happy House, Miss Twilight. You six go on ahead and settle in”, said the first guard.

“The Happy House?”, asked the second one. “Aren’t we taking them to the jail, Tons?”

“That IS the jail, Gus, you numbskull! It’s street talk!”

“I’m quite sure that’s street talk for the Nut-House!”

“Well, they can’t have TWO houses, can they…? One of them must be the jail!”, concluded the first guard as both of them started dragging the thieves away, through narrow streets.

Letting out a small sigh of relief, Twilight waited for her friends to join her into the inn. As they opened the front door, they were greeted with a familiar, yet rare smell of old wood and traces of hot dinner that has just been taken out of the oven.

A big gray colt, an earth pony, with an equally-appropriate big mustache approached them. He was wearing a dark green vest that went well with his black mane, with an old golden pocket watch attached to it. He appeared to be the inn’s owner.

“Welcome young fillies! What can I do ya for?” he spoke in a gruff but warm voice.

“We’d like to stay at your inn, Sir. There are eight of us… our carriage drivers will be here shortly”, replied Twilight promptly. She was tired, they all were.

The innkeeper didn’t miss a beat. “Of course, of course! We have plenty of rooms to spare. Might I suggest four rooms with two small beds each? We do have bigger two-ponies beds, if you require…”

“The first option is perfect, thank you. We will be paying up front,” said the unicorn, ignoring the innkeeper’s second recommendation and taking out a rather big bag of bits that Princess Celestia gave her. After he counted the bits placed on the counter, the innkeeper smiled, satisfied, and handed them the keys to their rooms.

“I do believe the rooms have all the…sanitary…requirements?” asked Rarity, trying her best not to make it sound like an insult.

The colt gave out a wide smile and made an equally wide gesture with his hoof: “Of couuuurse, young lady! This is the best inn you’ll find in these parts, the only thing we’re missing is a good and fun waterslide for the guests, haha!” He straightened up and glanced towards the semi-confused group. “Uh, but we’re working on that, might add one this summer even!” he quickly added, seeing the expression on Rarity’s face.

The ponies nodded and at least half of them wondered if it would’ve been smarter to check out all the possible inns before picking this one. Either way, judging by the shininess in Pinkie’s eyes and her large grin, she was more than happy to be there. The mere thought of a possible waterslide brightened her mood and spelled ‘trouble’ for her future room-buddy.

Somepony will not be getting much sleep tonight, thought Twilight and quickly added a mental note to remember not to share her room with the cotton-candy-haired pony.

“If I’m not too indiscreet,” the innkeeper started, bringing everypony back with their hooves on the ground, “what was the commotion about, out there?” He mimicked the guards dragging away the thieves when Twilight didn’t understand what he was hinting at.

“Oh… yes, we have been attacked by two burglars… unicorns… a few miles away from here,” she explained as she could’ve sworn she heard a small ‘Yip!’ coming from Fluttershy. “We’re not hurt,” she added seeing the expression of concern on the colt’s face. “The thieves were taken to your jail-house… if you have one.”

“Why, of course we do… but thieves? So close to the town? Outrageous!” he responded, banging his hoof on the counter. “No wonder my clients are getting fewer and fewer these days!”

He recomposed himself and straightened his mustache in an absent gesture as he focused on the mares again.

“Will you be eating as well?” asked the colt, genuinely hoping to receive more bits in this lucky night. After all, he did have a family to raise and every customer was important to him.

“No, thank you. We brought our own,” responded Twilight to the disappointment of both her friends and the innkeeper. She sensed that and she turned to the mares. “Girls, we are not on a vacation. We need to be rational. Every single bit could save our lives later on.”

They were too tired to argue so they just nodded. With an audible sigh, the innkeeper showed them to their rooms upstairs. After regretfully telling Rarity that they had no Jacuzzi, he retreated back to the lobby, leaving the girls to decide how to split up.

“Does it really matter who sleeps with whom? I just want to sleep!” said the white unicorn with her eyelids nearly dropping to the floor. Frankly, she still had enough energy for a long, relaxing bath. Even if it wasn’t taken in a Jacuzzi.

“Fine”, said Twilight, preparing to use her last strengths to organize them quickly. “Gus and Tons, our drivers, won’t mind sharing a room. Pinkie, you go with Fluttershy. Rainbow you go with—“

The blue pegasus flinched almost unnoticeably. She quickly redressed herself but Applejack already saw that. Even so, the cowpony didn’t react in any way. The best Rainbow could do was to ignore that for the moment, otherwise her body language might trigger something that she didn’t need right now.

“—yeah, Rainbow…” continued Twilight who also noticed her reaction. “You go with me… and Rarity, you go with AJ. Everypony okay with that?”

A general nod and a quick key exchange later, everypony was in their room.

***

All the rooms looked similar. Two wooden beds, covered in what seemed to be decent mattresses, a carpet that was more or less in good taste and drapes at the windows. They all gave Twilight a cozy feeling which she didn’t quite come across very often when she was sleeping in another pony’s house, let alone an inn. A couple of nightstand lamps were lighting up the simple place. They also had a bathroom that looked very clean despite having one or two small cobwebs around the ceiling’s corners. Nothing that couldn’t be easily adjusted with a bit of magic.

In each of their rooms, everypony unpacked their food, at their own pace, and ate in silence. The place was quiet. If there were other inhabitants in the wooden building, they were probably all fast asleep, unaware of the impending dangers that could hit Equestria at any given moment. Looking out the window as she finished her sandwich, Twilight spotted the drivers entering the inn. Quietly, she casted a small protection spell over their luggage, above the carriage, just to have that one extra measure taken. It won’t help her sleep better, but the last thing they wanted now was to chase around other thieves in these parts.

She turned towards her bed and saw Rainbow laying on hers, with her back towards the purple pony, ears bent towards the back of her head and tail covering her hind legs. She didn’t even cover herself with the blanket. The unicorn got into bed and turned out the lights using her magic.

A few seconds passed in the darkness with only the sound of an old ticking clock filling the room and echoing beyond their thoughts. Twilight had some clues regarding what went wrong that day to put Rainbow in such a bad state of mind… then again, she didn’t really pay close attention to her friends’ relationship. It was not her business anyway and she couldn’t just flank in.

“Rainbow… everything ok?” she calmly spoke.

Silence.

The Pegasus shifted in her bed, but still kept her back towards her friend.

“No… not really,” she answered after a while. The pegasus felt tired. So many thoughts… so much unspoken fear of losing everything.

“Wanna talk about it?” the unicorn asked, trying to keep the necessary distance so Rainbow doesn’t feel uncomfortable.

“I wouldn’t even know where to start, Twi… Even though you are a very good friend… and I know I’m not…”

“Rainbow--”

“No, don’t… just… at least I know that I have to talk things over with Applejack, and nopony else. That is the only thing I’m certain of right now.”

Twilight lowered her eyes. She was used to helping ponies and making things right for everypony. She could’ve easily adapted when the answers were not written in a book. She didn’t want to feel… helpless.

“I just…” continued the pegasus, more to herself. “Sorry… I think I just want to sleep.”

Twilight looked towards her and then slowly turned her head the opposite way, finding a comfortable position on her pillow. “I understand… Good night, Rainbow.”

“Good night, Twilight.”

The pegasus knew it won’t be such a ‘good night’. Last time her mind wouldn’t let her sleep was right after the ‘slept-on-best-friend’ accident. She would’ve loved to grab all these thoughts with her pillow sack and hold them tight beneath her head so they can’t escape and bother her. Then, in the morning, she’d let them out gently, one by one, and talk to them, analyze them, reach a consensus.

But that was the trouble with ‘pillow thoughts’… one just couldn’t reason with them. She should’ve known best. And so should’ve the pony next door, the orange pony who was tossing and turning under the blanket.

Applejack missed Rainbow… and hated her… and understood her… and wanted her to never complicate things in the first place. Maybe this was all a big mistake, the biggest mistake she ever made. It wasn’t about the fact that her marefriend did not jump to her aid. Anypony could lose touch with reality in such moments… It was the fact that Applejack knew why Rainbow didn’t jump to protect her.

Same reason… Same reason all over again.

She didn’t even remember when exactly it began. Then again, Rainbow always wanted to impress everypony so it was only natural for her to react this way, thinking she might lose her “coolness” in other ponies’ eyes if they found out about, well, their relationship.

There’s no way Ah’m gonna talk to her. This time, SHE has to come up to me and apologize. Otherwise she’ll never learn.

It hurt her to think this way.

And she also was scared that, at any moment, Rainbow could’ve just given up on all this stress and fly off. Then again, the question still remained: What was worse? To be alone or to be with somepony who won’t stand up for your relationship and whose image was more important to them than their marefriend?

Or… maybe… maybe it wasn’t her image that was important to her…
Or maybe that’s just her way of finding an excuse for Rainbow’ behavior.
…maybe Rainbow just didn’t care that much for her…

She sighed, hoping Rarity would’ve been asleep already so she wouldn’t hear her.

End of chapter 4

Talk, dammit!

Pillow Thoughts II

Chapter 5
Talk, dammit!

Dash opened her eyes. Thankfully, the first thought that crossed her mind was not related to Applejack. At least her morning would start off on a different note.

…unfortunately, her first thought was related to the question ‘Why is the room on fire?’

Dash jumped out of her bed. Her first reaction was to look towards Twilight. Her friend was still sleeping, despite the fact that her bed was surrounded by flames.

“Twilight!!” the pegasus shouted as she made her way towards the unicorn. “Twilight, wake up!!”

She started coughing uncontrollably and barely managed to stand up straight as she finally reached her friend’s bed. She started shaking the unicorn, trying to wake her up, but to no avail.

She must’ve passed out! Lack of oxygen!

Trying to calm herself, she looked towards the windows. The curtains became a fiery shield, therefore all her efforts of breaking her way through would’ve been futile. She quickly turned towards the door and saw that the way was clear, sort of. She bent over the unicorn, preparing to lift her and carry her out. Suddenly, Twilight turned her head towards Dash, scaring the pegasus.

“So that’s how it is! Y’all would help her, but not me!” she said, angrily. But it wasn’t Twilight anymore… it was Applejack.

Dash backed up only to stumble over Fluttershy and Pinkie who gasped. “You must like her in THAT way!”

Fluttershy frowned. “It’s not natural!”

“I’ve seen some crazy things in my life,” continued the pink pony, without smiling at all, “but this is NOT normal!”

Dash backed away from them, completely freaked out, as the flames were getting higher and higher. Ash was rising into the air and it slowly became harder and harder to see. The heat was beginning to be unbearable. She bumped into Rarity who was carrying tons of ribbons and dresses, shouting towards her various numbers and sizes. “We just have to dress you up properly!” the white unicorn concluded.

The pegasus found herself covered in the materials as the ribbons caught fire, lighting up the entire pile. She tried getting out, flapping her wings, pushing away the dresses, but she couldn’t move. She heard Applejack’s voice. “Don’t dress her like that! Everypony will know about her if you do that!”

Dash tried to shout but something got caught around her neck. She couldn’t breathe and she could see the flames through the transparent materials, getting closer and closer.

With her last strength, she gasped for air, waking up in her bed.

***

Dash jerked her head from under the blanket, gasping for air. She looked at Twilight’s bed. It was empty… and so was the rest of the room. No flames, just the old furniture being lit up by the morning sun. Particles of dust could be seen dancing in the air as the rays were gently stroking Dash’s mane, as if to comfort her. She sighed, her heart still pounding hard in her chest.

The pegasus tried calming herself down and rubbed her forehead, relieved that it was just a nightmare. Well, she woke up to a less obvious, but equally scary nightmare. She still felt guilty about not helping her marefriend. Even so, perhaps things would be a little better today.

If only…

A quick shower later, Dash climbed down the stairs to find her friends in a corner, at a nicely arranged table. They were apparently just finishing up breakfast and were joyfully sharing impressions related to the town and its surroundings. Apparently, some of them woke up even earlier than usual and took a stroll around the enchanting little shops. At least that’s what Rarity’s new turquoise material hinted at, as she was showing it to everypony.

The unicorn carefully folded the material with her magic and placed it back in the bag, under the table. The entire mini-restaurant looked nice or, at least, it smelled nice. The tables were simple, yet nicely decorated, and the wooden benches that were used as long rows of chairs gave the entire place a rustic look. Not that the pegasus would care too much, but it was an interesting change compared to the restaurants in Ponyville.

A mare, wearing a dark green dress that went well with her brown hair was carrying a magic-engulfed silvery tray. She was placing various glass and plates on different tables, according to her customers’ requests. No doubt she was the innkeeper’s wife.

Nice place to raise a family, Dash thought as she nodded towards the smiling mare who greeted her.

She looked towards Applejack who looked like she was enjoying herself, eating the last pieces of what seemed to have been fried eggs and salad. Maybe things were getting better after all.

With a silent sigh, Rainbow approached her friends. “Hey.”

“Morning, Rainbow!” Twilight responded amongst the others, scooching on the bench to make room for the pegasus. “We saved you some.”

“Thanks,” she replied as she looked at the freshly made sandwiches in front of her. “How come we’re eating here now? Didn’t you say last night that we shouldn’t spend so much?” she continued as she started eating her food.

“Well,” responded Twilight after taking a few sips from her orange juice, “Dinner is always more expensive than breakfast. Besides, I also ordered some extra food for the road. It seems only fitting to grab fresh food when we have the chance.”

“We don’t know what’s out there!” confirmed Rarity who probably had the most sophisticated breakfast in all of Equestria. Dash couldn’t even tell what she ate from the looks of her plate. ‘Plates’ actually.

“Always planning ahead, huh Twi?” responded the pegasus without raising her gaze from her food.

“Always!” said the unicorn, smiling cheerfully. She discreetly looked at her friend, trying to see if there were any signs of last night’s discomfort. Not being satisfied with a clear conclusion, she returned to her orange juice wishing there was some way of helping her friends.

Dash took another bite of her sandwich. It tasted good. Everypony around her seemed to have enjoyed their breakfast.

At least we can all pretend that nothing happened, thought Rainbow, shifting her eyes unnoticeably towards her marefriend.

“I just hope my friends will be fine as long as I’m gone,” said Fluttershy, staring down at her barely touched food. Rainbow barely noticed that her gentle friend was not as cheerful as the others were. “What’s the ma—“

“Oh, Ah’m sure they will be, sugarcube!” replied the cowpony, tilting her hat as she intentionally cut off Rainbow. “Animals sure do know how to take care of themselves! Ah can assure you, everythin’ will be fine.”

Rainbow felt that the remark was somehow aimed at her, rather than Fluttershy. It could’ve been just her guilt playing tricks… or not. Whichever it was, the next few bites of the sandwhich would go down a lot harder. She looked directly at Applejack, but the earth pony completely ignored her gaze.

The yellow pegasus smiled towards her friend and, appeased, started eating some more of her salad. If an outsider would look towards this group of friends, he’d see nothing wrong with it. There they were, six mares enjoying breakfast and conversations. However, something was wrong. Pinkie was uncharacteristically quiet. She seemed to have forgotten all about the waterslide idea.

Everypony knew that the pink-energetic-furball was smart, despite her moments of complete naivety. However, she did rely a lot on the visual and tactile elements when it came to forming a conclusion (i.e. a pony who smiles is a happy pony; a pony who doesn’t smile is a less-than-happy pony… and so on). She clearly saw that Applejack was smiling and that Rainbow started talking about the weather all of a sudden (which was actually quite a controversial subject amongst pegasi… kind of like politics amongst unicorns). Despite that, Pinkie clearly felt something was not okay.

Her tail didn’t twitch at all, she didn’t feel anything related to the Pinkie-sense… but something was off about this situation… especially around Rainbow and Applejack. She did remember another moment that was… not entirely okay. When was that…?

Think, Pinkie, think! she thought to herself, rubbing her forehead in silence. She was convinced that she saw this before… sometime… It was something only she noticed, even though the others wouldn’t have remembered if she just asked directly.

Think! When have you felt this before? Think! she continued, rubbing her forehead in silence, concentrating. She started replaying various scenes in her head. Think!

Was it at the Gala? No… but that was fun! Sort of… Does many animals running around = a party?

She had to concentrate. Food… eating… ah, parasprites? Was that awkward? Well, aside from eating half of Ponyville, everything went normal that day. The mini-parade was nice, too! I should do that again sometime soon.

This was getting her nowhere. She knew that if she didn’t find the answer now, she wouldn’t be able to do anything else all day. She would just sit down and be quiet… and think. And that would be too much for her to handle. Well, she WAS already sitting down and WAS quiet. This was already unbearable.

“Think! Think! Think, Pinkie, think!” she said, starting to poke herself with her right hoof. “Think!” Poke. “Think!” Poke. “Think!” Poke. “Think!” Poke. “Think!”

She realized about a minute later that her friends have gone quiet and were focusing their attention on her.

“Are you… alright, Pinkie?” asked Twilight, not sure if she should interfere with Pinkie’s way of handling internal monologue.

The pink pony stopped poking her head and shrugged as if it was something completely normal. “Yeah, duh, why wouldn’t I be?”

Her friends blinked, confused. She let out a sigh, knowing that she had to explain herself (again). “I just have to figure something out but I don’t know what! If I did know what, I wouldn’t need to figure it out and I would just sit here and smile. Otherwise, I’d sit here and not smile, because I couldn’t do anything else ALL day, except sitting but I was doing that already! Really, what’s so hard to understand?”

After a few quiet moments of confusion, Dash spoke up: ‘”So… as I was saying… I once met a pegasus who tried walking on this gray cloud…” Everypony else turned their attention towards her since her story would’ve probably made a lot more sense, despite the fact that the subject was rather boring.

Pinkie turned back to poking her head, and just when she was about to move the poking-point somewhere above her left eye (in case the information somehow got stuck there again… don’t ask, Pinkie-logic), she finally remembered! Her frown turned into an instant smile as she repositioned herself completely, like a tank ready to fire, with a smile on its face.

…that is, if tanks could smile.

Rainbow was just finishing up explaining the reasons why you can’t stand on certain types of clouds, when Pinkie burst: “Did you have trouble with bedbugs again, Applejack?”

Applejack froze as she was drinking her cider and it took quite a lot of effort to keep the drink in her mouth. Twilight and Rarity just cringed and Rainbow could’ve sworn that one of her own eyes started twitching.

Out of reflex, the orange pony ran her hoof along her neck. She knew she didn’t have any marks. Since she and Rainbow started sleeping together, checking herself in the mirror for bite marks and covering them up with scarves or clothes became a semi-cute semi-annoying habit she developed. She did it that morning too, until she realized that it was her first night in a very long time since she slept without her pegasus. Except that particular night in which Rainbow almost forgot to kiss her.

Gee, thanks fer reminding me all those great things, Pinkie…

“Uh, no, Pinkie. No trouble whatsoever. Why d’you ask?” replied the pony, trying to ignore her own train of thoughts.

“Well, I’m not sure but something is not really okay. I mean, everypony seems okay and eating but something tells me not everypony is okay when eating and last time not everypony was okay when eating was when everypony slept at Twilight’s house and you got bitten by bedbugs and that morning we were eating and it was the same not okay feeling!” she responded, in one breath. She then crossed her front legs and proudly lifted her head up. “You do NOT want to know how hard it was to reach that conclusion!”

“Yup! You’re right!” said Applejack, making Rainbow’s heart skip a beat. Was she really going to tell her the truth?

“Of course I’m right!” replied the pink pony who then blinked once and turned towards her friend. “Right about what?”

“Ah do NOT want to know how hard it was to reach that conclusion!” said Applejack, grinning. Dash, Rarity and Twilight let out a unison sigh. “Now, if y’all would excuse me, Ah need to prepare for the trip ahead of us,” and with that, she got up from the table.

As she got up, Dash was still looking at her and their eyes met for a second. Her look sent chills down the pegasus’ spine.

Nope… the ‘multi-colored broomstick’ thought to herself. Things are definitely not getting better.

***

“Good morning, gentlecolts! Had a good night sleep?” asked the purple unicorn.

The drivers looked up and nodded, smiling. “We sure did, Miss Twilight,” replied Tons. “Thanks for asking! Are you ladies ready to leave?”

“Yup!” she responded cheerfully. Twilight did her best to maintain a cheerful disposition amongst the ponies but she would soon discover that it will become hard… very hard to do so.

Leaving the inn behind, the mane six continued their journey towards the sea. The carriage drivers got their deserved rest and started out with fresh new forces as the wheels seemed to have caught wings of their own, the vehicle soaring with all its might. Field after field, hill after hill, they covered quite a few good miles and the drivers didn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Maybe they still felt a bit guilty after the thieves-incident.

Inside the carriage, the ride was definitely less enjoyable now with the awkward silence dwelling upon the ponies. Twilight knew that Applejack and Rainbow wouldn’t talk no matter what… and they knew she knew, therefore trying to stir up a conversation would only be annoying for them. Rarity didn’t quite catch on yet, regarding the entire situation, but she knew it had to be bad. Then she just drifted into images of pattern designs and, coincidentally, ribbons.

Fluttershy was quiet by nature. She seemed to have recovered from yesterday’s shock. Her friends’ presence definitely helped her a lot and she was grateful for them. She looked sheepishly at the gang, only to feel intrigued by the fact that they all seemed very… out of it. Except for Pinkie.

The pink vortex-of-balloons (a nickname she got from a certain time-travelling pony) was restless. “So if there were no bedbugs… what’s going on?” she said, as if the conversation never stopped an hour ago.

“Huh?” responded Applejack, pricking up her ears. “Oh, drop it Pinkie… everythin’s fine and dandy!”

“But you guys are not… Something is weird! Am I in a dream? I think I’m in a dream… do I get icecream?” she asked, with a big smile as the last words came out of her mouth.

“Pinkie,” started Twilight. “This is not a dream…everypony is fine. We’re probably lost in our own thoughts, admiring the view…”

“Well, don’t worry, everypony,” Pinkie shouted joyfully, as if she didn’t even hear Twilight, “I’ll get to the bottom of this and make everything better again!” and with that she started poking her forehead again in various places.

A few minutes passed in silence. The sound of the carriage almost had a certain hidden rhythm to it. The rocking and the scenery flying past them could’ve easily put anypony in a semi-trance state. Rainbow rested her forehead on the window, trying to think of her flying routine and realizing that it’s been more than two days since her last practice. If this went on, she would be out of shape soon enough… and that meant cramps and pulled-muscles and--

“AHA!” shouted the pink pony making everypony else jump in their seats. “I almost forgot!” she continued and pulled a small object out of nowhere. “Twilight can you fix this for me, please?”

The unicorn looked closer at the object. “What is this? It looks like… the bottom part of a key.”

“Yup, I accidentally broke it when I locked the room this morning. Can you fix it?”

“You’re telling me this, now!?” asked Twilight, who was already calculating how much would it cost to replace it and if they should go back and apologize. “Wait, where’s the other half?”

“In the keyhole,” replied Pinkie. She slowly started to figure out that it might have been smarter to keep that tiny detail to herself.

Fluttershy started to chuckle all of a sudden at the idea, followed by Rarity. Soon, the group started laughing together, imagining and sharing different scenarios of the innkeeper trying to figure out why his guests can’t enter that specific room.

“Oh my,” said Rarity, “I wonder if he’ll start charging ponies for sleeping on the hallway!”

“We certainly can’t spend another night there, ever again!” replied Twilight, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Imagine what would happen if we just came back one day and say ‘We think we might have forgotten something’!”

“The look on his face would’ve been priceless!” continued Rainbow, happy that Pinkie managed to lighten up the mood. Even Applejack had a good laugh out of this.

“Pinkie, darling, you truly are a unique pony,” remarked Rarity, with a hoof placed on her chest. “We all needed that to lift our spirits… Element of Laughter indeed.”

Dash lifted her gaze for just a second, glancing at Applejack. The earth pony stared right back at her. They both were thinking the same thing… Dash’s element. They quickly shifted their eyes towards something else, but not quickly enough. Not even Celestia would know how in the world Pinkie got that… but she did. She noticed the awkward exchange between them. Just when she was about to say something about it, the carriage suddenly stopped.

“Woah! Easy there!” shouted Gus.

“Miss Twilight! I think you’d better come see this,” followed Tons, a trace of concern being heard in his voice.

The girls looked at each other.

“If we found some bandits again, or burglars or…whatever,” started Rarity, “As Celestia is my witness, I swear… I am Going. To. Scream.”

Twilight tried ignoring the image of a frustrated Rarity screaming at thieves and made her way towards the door. She climbed out of the carriage only to discover a young mare. Apparently, she ran… a lot. Her olive coat was covered in sweat and she was gasping for air. Her black mane was a mess and she kept shaking her head to get it out of her eyes.

“Easy, calm down…” started the unicorn. She then noticed that the pony she was talking to was an earth pony. The town was near, judging by Twilight’s calculations, so why would this pony be in this state… since all earth ponies have a distinct resistance to effort and—

“I’m frightened!” the olive pony managed to say, between gasps.

“It’s alright, we’re safe here—“

“No! No we’re not! I’m sweating… I ran… I’m scared. I don’t like sweat.”

“Just… calm down… tell me what’s wrong…”

“I don’t know what happened! I’m confused! And I think that rainbow-colored mane looks stupid on your friend there.”

“Hey!” said Rainbow as she was looking out the window, along with the other ponies. “Why don’t you come over here and say that to my face!”

“Rainbow, stop,” replied Twilight.

“Well, even though I may agree with her, that’s no way to talk to somepony you barely met!” confirmed Rarity, running a hoof through her own mane, as if she tried to make sure it was still ‘perfect as always’.

“Didn’t you hear what she just said?” continued Twilight, a worried look stamped on her face.

“Yeah, she insulted me!” replied the pegasus, climbing out of the carriage. The gesture made the olive pony flinch a little, unsure of what the pegasus might do.

“Leaving that aside, she analyzed her own reactions and she blurted out everything that was on her mind… Girls, she was telling the truth about what she’s feeling.”

Fluttershy took a step back as the other ponies just stared at the olive mare. Twilight turned to her and, calmly, asked: “It’s alright… just tell us where is the alicorn who did this to you.”

End of Chapter 5

We need to talk

Pillow Thoughts II

Chapter 6
We need to talk

“Everypony be quiet!” shouted the colt that was standing on top of an old crate. The ponies settled down. He cleared his throat nervously. “The mayor has received a letter from the Princess herself announcing the possible attack of the alicorn—“

“Why didn’t you tell us?!” said a young mare, followed by a rain of insults and harsh words thrown at the colt. He took off his hat and ran a hoof through his dark blue mane. The sight of so many angry and confused ponies made him nervous. He wiped his forehead as the crowd’s voices grew louder and louder.

“Please, everypony, I’m just trying to calm things down. There was nothing we could do. Look at our officers, for Celestia’s sake!” he replied, pointing towards the group of medical helpers that were carrying stretchers. The ponies that were being carried appeared to be in pain. “We could not defend ourselves against such a powerful foe. The best course of action now is for each and everypony to return to their work. If you haven’t been hurt, go home.”

His last phrase raised an uproar of more insults and unflattering words. He had just about enough of all this mess. Putting his hat back on, the colt climbed down. He started walking in the opposite direction of the crowd, avoiding eye contact with anypony. He could still hear them shout after him. That alicorn did something to many of them.

He recalled the attack. Magic rays were flying everywhere, hitting various ponies and knocking them unconscious. Everypony was running, they tried to hide, but the alicorn kept finding them. It was so strange and scary. The alicorn did not seem to be taller than an average pony… “but that strength…” he mumbled to himself. “Unbelievable.”

In all his years of working for the mayor, he never encountered anything like this. Even if Celestia would’ve sent that letter a month ago, they still wouldn’t have had time to prepare for this. “And that magic… it’s like it… changed them!” he continued sharing his thoughts with himself. He took a glance back to see the crowd breaking up, partially due to the remaining officers asking ponies to return to their business.

The colt sighed and started dusting off his tan coat. He took quite a tumble when the alicorn hit him fully with its magic. He didn’t feel any different but he did make a mental note to visit his regular doctor after this whole mess got sorted out. The colt looked around him. The town had seen better days.

Suddenly, his attention was drawn towards a vehicle approaching him. It was a carriage. The pair of royal guards were panting heavily as they halted to a stop. It seemed they took an extra effort to rush over there. The doors swung open and seven mares climbed out. He quickly recognized Sugar Song, the music teacher.

“Miss Sugar Song! What the hay happened to you?” he asked, approaching the group.

“We found her running outside of town. She was terrified,” replied Twilight.

“Is it still here?” asked Sugar, quickly looking around her.

“No, it’s gone. It’s all fine, miss Sugar Song! You’re not particularly safe here, but it’s better than being killed by wolves out there,” the colt replied. He then looked at Twilight and nodded. “Wait here a minute.”

He dashed off towards the medical group of ponies and came back with one of them. “Please attend to miss Sugar Song. She’s been hit as well.” The nurse put a blanket over the olive pony and they both started walking towards the hospital.

The colt turned to the mane six and took off his hat. “I’m sorry for the rough introductions. I’m Aalden. I’m not too happy to meet new ponies right now, especially after what happened, so you’ll have to excuse my impoliteness.”

“There’s nothing to excuse, Aalden. We know about the alicorn… we were sent by the Princess to find a solution to this problem,” replied Rarity who seemed a bit too understanding regarding the colt’s rather rude way of introducing himself. She blinked seductively at him but he completely ignored her gesture. He measured the group from head to hoof and shook his head.

“Well, good job… you’re too late. It already struck here. I don’t know how many ponies were hit by its magic, but there’s more than a handful. We’re gathering them all and sending them to the hospital to figure out what’s wrong with them,” he said, putting his hat back on.

“We think we know what is going on… where can we talk about this without the risk of spreading… rumors?” asked the purple unicorn.

Aalden looked at the group and simply nodded. “Follow me.”

***

“Let me see if I got this right,” started the colt, rubbing his chin. “We don’t know where this alicorn came from, we don’t know why it is doing all this… but we suspect that its magic makes ponies tell the truth and only the truth… and it uses this as a weapon to hurt the Princess and the whole of Equestria. Is that about it?”

“That’s about it,” replied Twilight.

Applejack looked around the room. It reminded her of her own home. The scent emanating from the wooden walls was playing with her memories as she remembered broken glints of her foalhood, of her parents. She looked towards the stone fireplace and noticed that Aalden didn’t put up any picture on the mantelpiece. He only had a few old dusty things spreaded across it.

She noticed that the colt’s home, while welcoming, was rather empty. Nothing seemed to tie him to his family, no pictures, nothing that would resemble a gift received from somepony else. The orange pony started thinking about her own family, wondering what they were doing… if they missed her too.

“Well, that doesn’t help much, Miss Twilight. Besides, how do we know your theory is correct?” asked Aalden, leaning back on his chair and crossing his front legs.

“Alright,” replied Twilight, who tried not to enjoy herself too much at the thought of a challenge. “What do you think of Rainbow’s mane?” she asked, pointing to the pegasus.

“Hey!” jumped Rainbow, pulling her mane with her hooves, trying to get a look at it to see if something was wrong. “What is it with you ponies and my mane?! It’s totally awesome!” she squeaked, annoyed.

Bill chuckled. “A little eccentric for my taste, but it’s alright.”

“Okay,” said the unicorn, not giving up so easily. “What about Rarity? What can you tell me about her?”

The colt looked at the white pony who immediately took a pose. “She strikes me as somepony who would do anything to be noticed. Must be pretty sad being her.”

The white unicorn’s gasp could be heard on a 50 meters radius… through walls. The mares started chuckling, accentuating Rarity’s frown. “Well then, you… sir… are a mule”, she sharply replied, tossing her hair.

“Was she hit by the truth-magic too?” he asked, amused.

“No… she just speaks her mind easily”, replied Twilight with a smile.

“Listen, Miss Twilight, no disrespect… but I have no time to play games with you. Until we can be 100% sure that this is what you claim it to be, we can’t be of use to each other. Yes, I was hit by the magic… but I am also a good judge of character.”

“And, apparently, your thoughts don’t wander too much,” continued the unicorn.

“You got that right. I like keeping focused.”

“Okay, last shot… Applejack,” she replied. The colt sighed and took a glance at the orange pony.

“As Twilight explained earlier… you must be the Element of Honesty, huh?” he asked. Applejack nodded. He measured her in a way that made Rainbow a little uncomfortable, especially since the pegasus noticed a slight blush on the earth pony’s face. “I’d love to get a little bit of that Honesty in private…”

THUD!

Aalden quickly picked himself up from the floor after he accidentally toppled his own chair in shock of what he just said. “Wait, no, that sounded wrong! I meant to say I wanna see you without anypony else bothering us!” He shoved a hoof down his mouth to prevent other words to form and make the situation worse.

“Oh my!” said Fluttershy covering her ears. Pinkie was just giving one of her “not sure if party-time” faces, trying to figure out if she should arrange a special dinner date for them or not. Rarity was too proud to be amused by all this but Twilight had no trouble giggling over it.

“I suppose you don’t usually open up conversations like that, do you?” she said, happy that she proved her point.

Applejack was really blushing now. She didn’t know how to react to that… on the other hand, Rainbow tried her best to hide the waves of emotions that crashed on her head right then. She suddenly felt a gush of fear filling her up that transformed into anger and ultimately breaking into bits of desperation.

Aalden tugged down on his hat and cleared his throat. “Alright, I got it. I’ll make sure the hospital finds out about this. Maybe they can find a cure now that they know what’s wrong. In the meantime, how can I help you?”

“First of all, we need a place to stay for the night. A local inn should be alright, we’ll pay for the accommodations—“

“I’ll hear nothing of it. If the Princess sent you here, she knows what she’s doing. I’ll arrange everything with the mayor, you’re staying for free,” replied the colt. “While I’m at it, I’ll look for a map that will guide you to the nearest town with a harbor. That’s the extent of my possibilities,” he continued.

“That would be perfect, thank you very much!” said Twilight.

“Don’t mention it,” replied Aalden as he headed towards the door. “Oh and, what I said…uh… earlier… to miss Applejack… I’d appreciate it if we wouldn’t mention that either,” he concluded as he drew his hat lower on his forehead and went out.

***

“So where will you go?”

“Nowhere.”

“Oh, you’re staying at home, that’s even nicer! I love home parties… I mean, dinner dates! Well, both are kind of the same thing, only one of them has fewer ponies in it!”

“Pinkie, Ah’m not going on a date with him!”

“But he likes you!”

“PINKIE!!” shouted Dash all of a sudden, making other ponies turn their heads towards them. Pinkie stopped bouncing around Applejack who, surprisingly enough, turned towards the pegasus.

“Anything wrong, Dash?” asked the orange pony. She tried looking bored and uninterested. Emphasis on ‘tried’.

The pegasus looked away, focusing on the pebbles in the middle of the road. “No. I just want her to settle down. We’re in a new town, we don’t want to attract too much attention.”

“Since when are you the caring type?” replied the earth pony as Pinkie watched the dialogue like it was a tennis match.

The other three ponies stopped as well to see what was the matter. Twilight and Rarity exchanged worried looks. That particular choice of words hit Dash full on, but it wasn’t like she didn’t expect it.

“I’m just saying that we should focus on our mission. For all we know, the alicorn could have spies in every town in Equestria. The less we attract attention, the better,” replied the pegasus.

Applejack wanted to snap back at her but she had nothing to reply with. Keeping her straight face, she just turned around and started walking again without saying a single word. Pinkie looked at Rainbow then at Applejack. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked, unsure about her position in all this.

“No, Pinkie,” replied Twilight, comforting her. “We’re probably tired and—“

“Well, you keep saying that, Twilight! I can’t believe we’re all tired ALL the time!” the pink pony said, crossing her hooves. “Something is weird with you guys and by the end of this day I WILL figure it out!”

“Alright, Pinkie… until then, let’s just head to the inn and we’ll see what happens afterwards, alright?”

“Alright,” replied the pony, pouting.

Dash didn’t like the way her unspoken fight with Applejack affected their friends. If this wouldn’t stop, they wouldn’t be able to work as elements of harmony. If the alicorn would attack again, none of them would be strong enough on their own to defeat it.

But how the hay was she supposed to fix things if they only got worse? Not only did she lose Applejack’s trust, she was risking losing her altogether to this ‘stupid colt’ who cannot lie. Perfect match for the Element of Honesty.

She picked up the pace. At least that ‘stupid colt’ said one thing right. Maybe focusing on one disaster at a time might not be a bad idea after all…

They entered the inn. The place seemed much darker than the previous one. The sound of metal hitting the tile-covered floor made Twilight jump.

“Here are your keys,” said the innkeeper. He was a rather big unicorn, but by no means tall. His white, short mane made him look older that he really was and his yellow coat was not helping either. “You’re the six mares I was told about, right? I can’t say that I regret acting this way, but you ARE staying for free at MY inn… The only clients I had all week and I have to offer them free rooms!”

“We’re sorry—“ started Twilight, only to be interrupted by his snort.

“Trust me, nopony regrets this more than I do. All this ‘telling the truth’ nonsense will no doubt affect my clientele… Just go to your rooms and, hopefully, we won’t get in each other’s way,” he concluded as he exited the room, slamming the door behind him.

The mane six looked at each other, a bit confused.

“Does this mean that everypony actually doesn’t like us?” asked Fluttershy, looking down and slightly brushing her own mane.

“I’m sure this is just an… isolated case,” replied Twilight. She then quickly grabbed her key and, with a motion of her head, she urged the mares to do the same.

***

Rainbow lounged into her bed only to discover that the mattress was as hard as a rock. She grunted and shifted, trying to find a comfortable position. The room was not so big and it smelled a bit funny. Twilight was picking up the remains of their lunch, throwing them in the semi-broken basket that served as a trash bin. She looked towards the pegasus, wondering if she should try re-opening the discussion they had a night ago.

Suddenly, Rainbow picked up a noise coming from the hallway. Somepony was giggling. Not just somepony. She got up and quietly opened the door to their room.

“Rainbow, what are you—“

“Shhh!” she prompted Twilight. The pegasus peeked outside only to see Applejack talking to the blue-mane colt. The orange pony nodded, smiling, and both of them started walking towards the staircase. Rainbow heard them exit the inn as the heavy entrance door closed behind them.

She closed the door to her room and dragged her hooves towards the bed. Despite the hardness of the mattress, she threw herself face-down into her pillow. A few minutes of silence passed by. Twilight tried her best to make herself look busy with a book. It was really hard for her seeing two of her best friends acting that way but, as far as she understood about how relationships work, she couldn’t flank in on them. She nearly dropped the book, that was upside-down anyway, when Rainbow called her name.

“Twilight?”

“Yes?”

The pegasus took a deep breath and then sighed heavily. She rolled on her back and gazed at the ceiling, trying to find the right words so she wouldn’t sound… selfish.

“I hate that we agreed to go searching for that Ophil mare or whatever her name is.”

“… Okay…” replied the unicorn.

“And I hate that I messed up…”

“Why don’t you talk with her?” replied her friend, not missing a beat.

The pegasus paused. “And tell her what? That I’m sorry I let her down in a crucial moment? That it can happen again at any given time?”

“Well, saying that you are sorry is a good start”, the unicorn said, placing the book on her nightstand and turning towards her friend. “Many ponies make mistakes, Rainbow. You can’t be perfect in a relationship. Nopony is!”

“But I failed her…”

“And you keep failing her by not talking about it.”

“Well… no point in worrying about that now. She just left for a romantic date with that Aalden-colt,” concluded the pegasus.

Twilight frowned. She wasn’t really convinced that Applejack would do such a thing. Then again, letting Rainbow think that might help her gather up the courage to actually DO something about it.

“Okay… well, since you think there is nothing more to lose, why don’t you—“

“Follow and spy on them?”

The unicorn blinked.

“Not exactly where I was going with this… I just wanted to say that maybe you should actually say what you have to say to Applejack. You could be surprised by the results,” she continued, smiling.

Dash gave it a moment of thought. It’s not like she didn’t want to talk to her marefriend, they didn’t really get the privacy needed for such a talk. Then again, I never really asked for it either. She is right, what else do I have to lose now?

“I’m going to stretch my wings for a bit… Thanks for the talk,” she said to her purple friend as she opened the window and took off.

***

Night fell over the little town when Rainbow returned to the inn. She saw that Applejack’s window was open though the lights were off. She took a deep breath and gently entered the room. After her eyes got used to the darkness she realized that neither Applejack nor Rarity were in the room.

She’s not back yet? …

She sighed and turned on the light.

Then I’ll just wait for her. Might actually be the last time I’ll be entitled to say anything…

She turned to look at the stars, trying to form a tiny speech in her head. Shortly after, she heard the room’s door being opened.

Well, here goes nothing.

“I’m sorry to barge in like this… but I think that we need to talk,” said the pegasus, her voice almost down to a whisper.

“Well, not exactly what I was aiming for, but you’ll have to do, Dashie!”

The pegasus jumped and turned around when the voice she heard was not the one she expected.

Pinkie closed the door behind her. “I think I know what’s going on… and you’re right, we need to talk.”

End of Chapter 6

NOW you wanna talk?!

Pillow Thoughts II

Chapter 7
NOW you wanna talk?!

Muffled voices were running around Rainbow’s mind. She rubbed her forehead trying to make sense of it all.

“Pinkie! What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing, Rainbow!” replied the pink pony frowning. “I understand when you girls hide stuff related to my super secret awesome birthday party, but my birthday is a few months away! So what gives?”

The voices kept growing louder and louder. She was starting to lose her patience.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Well I think you do! And you’re not the only one who does… I think you and Applejack--”

The door suddenly swung open and the aforementioned earth pony walked in. Rainbow’s heart skipped a beat. Applejack stopped, confused, seeing the other two in the room. She quickly glanced at the door’s number.

“Am Ah in the wrong room?”

“Oh, hi Applejack!” said Pinkie, cheerfully, as if she forgot the discussion she was having. “Rainbow and I were just talking about you!”

“Ah see…” the earth pony replied. “Anything Ah should know about?”

“Yes!” said Pinkie and, before anypony could react, a brick came crashing down through the window. Rainbow jumped and dashed towards the other two.

“THAT’S what I think of your ‘quality services’, innkeeper!” shouted a colt, his voice echoing in the night. But it wasn’t only his voice that the ponies heard.

It took only a fraction of a second for Dash to realize that the voices she kept hearing were actually coming from outside. Carefully, she approached the broken glass to look at the crowd of ponies who gathered in front of the inn. The innkeeper seemed to have started a brawl with some of them, which attracted even more unwanted participants who kept screaming and shouting insults.

Twilight bursted into the room. “Is everypony okay? I heard a crash!” Her eyes fell upon the brick and the broken window. “…what are you… doing?”

“Nothing. We’re fine, but it looks like everypony’s gone crazy outside!” replied Rainbow. “Where are Rarity and Fluttershy?”

“Fluttershy’s in her room, under the covers probably. I’ll go get her. I don’t know where Rarity is,” said the unicorn as she ran towards the pegasus’ room.

“Rarity told me something about ‘going shopping’, but Ah can’t imagine where she’d go do that in this small town!”

“She can’t be far, I’ll go look for her.” replied Dash. She bucked the window open, shattering the remaining glass, and took off. Usually she loved flying at night, but looking for somepony was another matter. She could barely see anything on the ground without flying slowly, more like gliding, and when she did that she felt like she was wasting time.

She could hear ponies shouting from various places in the town. The pegasus could barely make out officers trying to break up fights between multiple parties. Things only looked worse and worse with each minute that passed. Her ears suddenly picked up a familiar voice coming from one of the buildings.

“Take it back!! Take it back right NOW!!” Rarity shouted at the shop vendor. The mare behind the counter didn’t back away either.

“I will NOT tolerate stupid customers screaming in my shop!”

Rainbow entered the building to discover Rarity looking as if she just hit a brick wall full on. “S-stupid?!” she muttered as she dropped the ribbons she was holding up with her magic. The pegasus rarely saw her friend truly upset, but she was pretty sure she never saw her jump over a counter with such an ease. The next thing she knew, she was trying to pry Rarity’s hooves from the uninspired-mare’s mane.

“Rarity!! Let her go!! She’s been hit with the truth-magic!!”

“That only makes it WORSE!” the unicorn replied, then turned towards the terrified mare. “How DARE you say I have no sense for fashion!! Take it back, NOW!”

With a final grunt, Rainbow managed to release the mare from Rarity’s clutches. Without waiting for her permission, she grabbed the unicorn and dashed off. “My ribbons!” she cried as she did her best to make them follow her by using magic. Engulfed in a blue aura, it was rather surprising how the few remaining materials managed to follow the two ponies as Rainbow rushed to get back to the inn as soon as possible.

Suddenly, their attention was drawn to an orange glow in the distance.

“No… no no no!!” shouted the pegasus as her eyes gazed upon the flames surrounding the inn. She landed at a safe distance. Rarity didn’t even protest being almost thrown to the ground as she was in shock as well. The least thing that Rainbow was expecting was to be covered in the ribbons of which the unicorn lost control over for a brief moment.

Ribbons… fire…

Snapped back to reality, she shook them off and looked towards Applejack’s window. She couldn’t see much, due to the smoke, and yelling after her friends would’ve proven futile since the angry crowd that was now surrounding the building was loud enough to cover any sound.

“What’s happening?!” asked Rarity, scared. “Are the girls alright??”

“Stay here, I’ll be right back,” replied the pegasus. She flapped her wings a few times and took off, rushing towards the open window. The heat was rising and, by the look of things, the ground floor was already engulfed in flames. It felt like the heat was emanating from the floor itself.

“AJ ?! Twilight?! Pinkie!! Fluttershy!!” she called her friends, but nopony answered. She opened the door and took a step back seeing the hallway invaded by smoke and floating ash. She took a deep breath and ran across, quickly bucking the door towards Twilight’s room only to discover it to be empty. Same with Fluttershy’s room. Her friends were nowhere to be found. She suddenly heard her name being called.

Making her way back towards the first room, she was surprised to find Twilight in the middle of it. “Rainbow! We’re fine, I teleported everypony out! Come on!” Suddenly, the pegasus found herself blinded by a white light and in the blink of an eye she was outside with the rest of them.

“The exits were blocked by the crowd of ponies, I had to teleport us outside. As soon as we met up with Rarity, she told us you went back for us!” said Twilight, panting slightly. She was scared, they all were.

“You okay?” came the unexpected question. Rainbow turned to see Applejack with a worried expression on her face.

“Yeah, I’m fine… you?” she replied.

“Yeah.”

“Everypony is okay, Rainbow,” continued Twilight. “But it’s not over. The entire town has gone mad!”

“Miss Twilight!!” shouted Aalden galloping towards them. Just as he was a couple of hooves away from them, another pony charged towards him from the side. Before anypony could react, the colt hit Aalden and sent him tumbling on the ground. “That’s for what you and that idiotic mayor did to our town! You’re all worthless!!”

The colt picked himself up from the ground and, without a single word, he leaned on his front legs and bucked his assailant right in the face, knocking him out.

“Oh my…” said Rarity, involuntarily. Panting, he picked up his hat, readjusted his saddlebags and approached the mane six. “I’m sorry you had to see that, but he looked like he could use some time out. Things have gone crazy, the mayor’s office is being assaulted. The poor colt is too old for crap like this.”

“What the hay happened?!” asked Applejack.

“The innkeeper said some things that shouldn’t be said to the wrong ponies. There’s one thing being drunk and saying stuff… and another being perfectly sober and saying stuff. Ever since you six told me about this whole truth-magic-thing, I was worried something like this might happen. This is a small town, word travels faster than you could imagine.”

“Can we help in any way?” asked Twilight, looking towards the inn that was completely engulfed in fire. There were many officers trying to break up the crowd. There were ponies lying on the ground and the unicorn could only hope that they were only unconscious.

“The only solution would be to keep them all separated and you can’t help us with that. I need to run back to the mayor. Here’s the map I promised you. I suggest you go, now. The only way you can help us is by putting a stop to this madness.” The colt shook his head and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Miss Applejack. I wish we could’ve met under different circumstances. Thank you… for everything!” With that, he started galloping back the way he came.

Applejack lowered her head, saddened by the sudden departure. Rainbow looked at her and she didn’t really know if she felt sorry for her or if she felt glad that this ‘intruder’ finally left her marefriend alone. Her train of thoughts was interrupted by Twilight. “I told Tons and Gus to wait for us near the town’s northern exit. Our carriage and our personal items are safe thanks to them.”

“We should tell the Princess to give these guys a raise!” replied Pinkie, trying lighten up the mood. Twilight nodded as they all started walking, leaving the inn and the dissipating crowd behind. The mere thought of what could happen if the alicorn would hit a big city with thousands of ponies made Twilight wish she could teleport herself and her friends to their destination so they could put an end to this before it was too late. But she couldn’t… nopony could… so they had to stay focused on their objective.

…she also tried ignoring the fact that none of them knew how to sail a boat.

***

Leaving the small town of Hoofville and its less than original name behind, the carriage was slowly approaching Flint Harbor Town. Rainbow was sitting in her usual place near the window, picking pieces of ash from one of her extended wings. She thought about the many things that happened in less than two days and genuinely wondered how long would it be until Pinkie bursted with questions and accusations. The pegasus hoped that, at least, she’d do it in a private place… not that it mattered anymore.

Applejack shifted her eyes towards the cyan pony. She saw her carefully tending to her wing and she instinctively touched her ponytail to check for bits and pieces of debris left behind by the fire. When she had no partner, her physical appearance was not all that important to her. Once she discovered her feelings towards the pegasus she also discovered new needs, such as the need to impress, to look good, to keep her marefriend’s interest spiked. The earth pony realized that it was might have been pointless in doing so at that moment, therefore she resumed looking out the window. The lack of sleep was taking a toll on her… on all of them. She looked across from her at Fluttershy who was napping, her head resting gently on Rarity’s shoulder.

The earth pony glanced outside again and saw, for the first time in her life, the dark blue ocean stretching into the horizon. The moon’s light rays caressed the topaz waves as they carried black vessels towards happier places. It was beautiful for her and she wished now, more than ever, to be on one of those vessels, to go explore and leave all her worries behind. Not for long… just long enough so she can return to a fresher life, a better set of choices.

Soon the ocean view was replaced by passing houses and other buildings. It was late so most ponies were probably asleep. Following orders, the royal guards stopped the carriage near the entry to the docks. Rarity gently woke up her friend as they all started climbing out of the vehicle. Twilight approached Tons and Gus who were taking down the mane six’s luggage.

“Well, I suppose this is it… thank you very much for helping us,” she said.

“It was our pleasure, Miss Twilight. That was quite a bumpy ride, but we all made it out alright, right?” replied Tons, nodding.

“Yes, we did. Here,” she continued, grabbing a small pouch from her saddlebag. “This should cover up expenses for three days and the night you’ll spend here.”

“That is very kind of you, Miss Twilight, but the Princess took care of everything. We have been assigned a place to sleep and eat until all of you return. Don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere,” said Gus, smiling.

Twilight felt comforted by this. It was like she was being assured that they would return from this journey soon enough. Nodding, she took her farewell and returned to her friends. The colts started pulling the empty carriage and headed towards a good night’s sleep.

“I’m feeling sleepy… veeeery very sleepy,” mumbled Pinkie, trying to keep her eyes open.

“I know… here’s what I propose,” replied Twilight. She took a deep breath and started explaining her idea, knowing that it might not sound like the best one she ever had. “We talk to somepony who has a boat big enough to carry all of us. We pay him to take us to the island—“

“Do we even know the island’s name? Or what are we actually looking for?” asked Rainbow, followed by nods from everypony.

“No… the Princess told us everything she knew. Ophil Gryasa is kind of like a hermit as far as I understood… she might not even be on that island anymore. The last time Celestia spoke with her was over 5 years ago,” replied the unicorn. She sighed and moved aside a strand of hair that was bothering her. “It’s a long shot… a really really long shot… but it’s the only chance we’ve got.”

“Can’t this wait until morning?” asked Rarity, pointing at the yellow pegasus. “Poor Fluttershy is exhausted, and I myself am not feeling too, how to put it… energetic right now.”

“The ideal situation would be to find a boat, pay the sailor to do his job and get some sleep. There aren’t any maps that show the exact distance towards other lands but, according to my calculations, the nearest island is just a day away. Maybe even less, should we have favorable wind,” said Twilight, trying to convince herself that it was a good idea.

“Favorable wind?” asked a passing pony sailor. “Why are six mares talking about wind at this hour, on the docks might I add?” His breath smelled of alcohol but Twilight deemed him as harmless.

“Hello! Do you happen to know anypony who might want to set sail tonight? We have to reach a certain island… far from here,” she said. The sailor looked at her and started snickering.

“Are you serious?” he asked, when he noticed that nopony else was laughing. Twilight nodded. “Well, if that’s the case,” he continued, “I’d say go ask ol’ Timber over there. He’s always sailin’ during nighttime. If you ask me, he’s a little bit short of a few sails, if you get what I mean.”

The mares looked in the direction the sailor pointed. It wasn’t difficult to spot the colt since he was the only one fiddling around with ropes on the docks. The purple unicorn mutter a “Thanks” and the group started walking towards the biggest boat that was anchored there.

The colt was just untying the last rope. He seemed old enough to be their grandfather. He wore a black jacket that complimented his long, white, ruffled hair. His light-blue coat gave him a strange allure of a ghost and one of his eyes shined in an eerie way whenever he turned his head towards the ocean. It took a few minutes for Twilight to realize that it was actually made out of glass and tried, politely, to not look directly at it.

“Good evening,” she said.

“Hopefully, it will be! Got bait, all I need is them fish to bite!” he replied, looking at each of them as if he wasn’t really convinced they were actually there. “Can I help you?”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle. These are my friends… and we all need somepony to help us get to an island that should be about a day away from here.”

The colt seemed like he didn’t hear her. He hopped on the boat and started moving a bunch of fishing poles around. The girls exchanged looks. “Uh, are you Mr. Timber?” the unicorn asked, trying to obtain a response from the colt. He stretched his back and let out a sigh as the boated creaked under his weight. Being satisfied with the way he arranged everything, he looked in the distance and started mumbling something. “That oughta be ‘Adia Island’, right?” the colt responded, turning towards them.

“We don’t really know its name,” said Twilight.

“Of course you don’t… nopony does. I just like calling it like that,” he told her, hopping back onto the dock. “Now I don’t wanna… disappoint young mares, but taking one of you on board might be considered bad luck amongst us superstitious types… not to mention six,” the colt bluntly said, scratching his short, light-gray beard.

“Well, Mr. Timber,” started Rarity all of a sudden, “maybe we can cast away all that bad luck with a few good placed bits. We also have food which we’ll gladly share with you, if you would be so kind to help a few poor, helpless mares across this big, vast ocean.” She concluded her proposition with bating eyelashes, like she was communicating through Morse-code with the sailor’s morals system.

Twilight felt the need to shove a hoof up Rarity’s mouth, had it not been for the Timbers’ unexpected response. “Hahaha… Who would’ve known that such a lovely mare knows sailor-talk!” He hopped back on his boat that was big enough to carry twenty ponies. “Bits AND free food? You should’ve said that to poor ol’ Captain Timber… this old colt’s hunches may be rusty, but his hospitality is nothing short of heartwarming!”

Twilight blinked once, not sure of what to believe. The mares looked at each other and the sailor caught on to their uncertainty. “Few strangers are willing to pay us sailors and I’m just a simple colt trying to survive with what he catches. If you need to go to that island, then I’ll be damned if I let a little bit of bad luck change my fate tonight! Welcome aboard!”

Applejack approached Twilight and whispered in her ear. “Ah feel he’s honest. As long as we keep our end of the bargain, he’ll do his best to help us,” she said, assuring her friend that everything was fine. After what they’ve been through, it was only natural for the mares to become a little bit cautious when it came to new ponies.

“Well, we ain’t got all night. Are we going or not?” the colt asked, throwing one last look over his equipment.

“Yes,” Twilight responded. “Yes we are.”

***

The boat had one big sail attached to its mast and a little door that seemed to lead towards a tiny storage room. Mr. Timber was firmly grasping the shipwheel, gently steering his vessel in the middle of the ocean, the so-called Golden Sea. Nopony really remembered why it was called like that. Some said that it was due to the way the sunrays fell upon its shores every morning, making the sand look like it’s made of gold. Others said that it was the place of birth of Celestia herself and that here is where her parents bathed her for the first time.

Mr. Timber didn’t really care for all that fancy talk. To him, the sea was just the sea. The important thing was with whom he spent time there, exploring it, watching together endless sunsets and sunrises. He missed her… a lot. When it was her time to go, she left behind many memories for him to cherish. She asked only one thing in return, to never be forgotten. Who knows what fate would guide his ship towards that island, the island he never set hoof upon? All he knows is that, fancy-talk aside, it must be some kind of sign from her. A tiny sign… another secret they will share for eternity.

Rainbow felt strangely comforted by the rocking of the boat. It felt like she was on one of her favorite clouds, except the fact that the ground was a lot harder than usual. She looked around and saw that everypony was sleeping. She looked at Applejack, wanting so much to be near her, to hug her and tell her that she is sorry.

…her fluffy orange cloud…

Tomorrow… no matter what happens… no matter who hears it… no matter what… tomorrow I’ll tell her.

She soon drifted into a dreamless state.

***

One can be woken through a series of pleasurable gestures. A kiss… nuzzling… the smell of bacon and eggs in the morning…

Rainbow didn’t wake up to any of that. Instead, she took quite a mouthful of sea water. SPLASH!

“Hey!! *cough* *cough* What-*pffft* what gives?!?” she shouted. It took her a few moments to realize that the boat was rocking heavily, being almost tossed around by the tall waves. She got up and tried keeping her balance as the roaring thunders above her made their presence known. The sky was still darkened, the stars being hidden by thick clouds that hung upon them like gray blankets of led.

“What’s the matter, missy? Got a little wet? Hehehe!” said Timber from behind the shipwheel. “For somepony who flies, you sure can’t keep your hooves together on water!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

Mr. Timber took his eyes off the horizon and stared at the cyan pegasus. “To be honest, I haven’t the slightest idea! …but I’ll tell you this: pray to Celestia that it doesn’t start raining, or we’ll really be in trouble.”

“What, you mean you’ve never sailed through storms before?”

“Oh, I did, Miss… I truly witnessed the fury of this world. I left my mark upon her… and it was only natural that she left her mark upon me,” he said as his glass eye reflected one of the distant lightning bolts. “But I never had the opportunity of doing that with six ponies on board along with their bags filled with Celestia-knows-what!” Seeing the confused expression on Rainbow’s face, he pointed a hoof downwards. “The added weight makes my boat kinda unpredictable, even for me.”

The wind was getting more and more powerful, ruffling her mane, and Rainbow could’ve sworn she started feeling raindrops on her nose. She looked towards her friends who were still sleeping. She flinched as a raindrop hit her muzzle.

“You’re feelin’ it too, aren’t you? It’s not just me, right?” asked the sailor, raising his voice to be able to cover the wind’s howling. “Well, it probably won’t get any worse than thi—“ RRRUMBLE the thunder sound covered his voice.

“Wh---what’s going on?” a tiny voice spoke close to Dash, who didn’t even notice that Fluttershy was awake.

“It’s nothing, go back to sleep Fluttershy,” she replied, trying to appease the scared pony.

The boat was rocking even more, making it difficult for the pegasus to keep her balance. A thunderclap that was a bit too close than expected made her lose it and she soon found herself rolling on the boat’s floor. The noise and agitation started waking up the mares.

Twilight looked around in confusion, trying to remind herself where were they and why. She felt the rain becoming denser as the horizon danced in front of her eyes. “Why are we shaking that much? Are we—“ CRACK! a lightning bolt spreaded its branches over them as Mr. Timber pulled heavily on the rudder. “Easy there, girl!!” he shouted to his boat.

Pinkie shook her wet mane, splashing everypony around her. “Hey, watch it!” said Rarity who did not appreciate this new way of being woken up.

Twilight turned to the old colt. “Should we be worried?”

“Miss Twilight,” he started, keeping that rudder firmly in his hooves, “I’d say we don’t have time to worry right now.” Another thunderclap stroke, as if to confirm his words, and the rain intensified. “Okay, everypony listen up!” he shouted, trying to cover the sound of waves breaking upon his vessel. “If you don’t wanna see this boat sink, two of you go right at the front! Two of you stay in the back! And two of you will have to work on the sail!”

“Which one am I?? Which one am I??” screamed Pinkie, not knowing what to do.

“Rarity, Fluttershy, stay in the back! Hang on to anything you can! Pinkie, you and me, in the front, now! We must balance the boat!” shouted Twilight as they all tried to keep it together. “Rainbow, Applejack, sail, now!!” Rainbow kept trying to pick herself up from the floor, only to fall in the other direction. Applejack was in no better position either. She grabbed a rope but ultimately managed to get her hooves tangled in it. Pinkie and Twilight barely managed to make it to the front by holding onto each other and almost toppled over the side as the boat hit another wave.

“No hurry here, if you were wonderin’!!” shouted Timber, running a hoof through his wet mane to clear his sight. “Sail ponies! Hoist the sail a little more! Don’t let her drop unless you have to! Don’t put too much pressure on it and keep your eyes on the wind changes!”

“WHAT?!” shouted Rainbow, looking completely confused.

“Sweet Celestia, pull the ROPE on the RIGHT a little! If it feels like ripping apart, pull the OTHER rope! Keep it balanced, don’t let it get out of control!”

Rainbow quickly spotted the rope and grabbed it with her hooves. Applejack was already holding the other rope and, after she managed to untangle it, started counter weighting Rainbow’s movements.

Wave after wave, they started getting the hang of it. They were all soaking wet as the seemingly calm sleep-cruise turned into a full blown nightmare. Suddenly, a big wave hit them fully. For a brief second, Rainbow couldn’t hear or see anything as the icy cold water covered her from head to hoof. She coughed, shaking her head to move the hair from her eyes. She looked at Applejack who was in the same situation as her. She lost her hat a while ago, but didn’t even bother with it as she was doing her best to stand up straight and hold her ground.

Rarity was holding Fluttershy who was, strangely, focusing on a distant point, as if she wasn’t even paying attention to the entire situation. Pinkie and Twilight were holding on to the boat as best as they could.

“Mr. Timber!!” shouted the unicorn. “Can’t we do anything to protect the boat?? We can use magic, but you have to tell us what you need!!”

No reply.

“Mr. Timber!!!” she shouted, trying to get the colt’s attention. Again, nopony answered. The rain was so dense, it was difficult to see anything. “Stay here!” she told Pinkie as she started to make her way to the sailor. She found the rudder spinning out of control and Timber lying on the floor a couple of hooves away from it, unconscious.

“Twilight, what’s going on??” asked Rainbow.

“It’s Timber! I think he hit his head! He’s unconscious!”

Another wave hit the boat from the side, making everypony fight to gain balance again. Twilight grabbed hold of the shipwheel, and started pulling it.

“What are y’all doin’?!” shouted Applejack. “You don’t know how to steer this thing!”

“At least I know it’s not supposed to spin out of control!! Keep doing what Timber asked you to—“ CRACK a lightning bolt lit up the night’s sky, offering a glimpse of the tall waves and chaotic sea that they were all facing. The boat felt like a ragdoll being thrown from side to side. At any given moment it could flip over, sending everypony crashing into the icy water.

Rainbow knew that, even if she tried flying, she couldn’t help them all.

“Applejack!”

Not to mention that they would probably be struck by lightning in mid-air.

“Applejack!!”

“What?!”

She wasn’t scared of dying… but she was scared of losing her marefriend.

“We need to talk!!”

The orange pony widened her eyes and then frowned. If she wouldn’t have been holding that rope she probably would’ve strangled Rainbow with it.

“Out of all the—NOW you wanna talk?!”

“I know, it’s not really a good time!!”

“A good time?!? You’re CRAZY, ya know that?!”

Another wave came crashing down on top of them. They both shook their heads. A gust of wind hit them from the back, so Rainbow had to loosen up the rope, lowering the sails.

“I’m sorry!! I’m really sorry!!”

The wind intensified which took the pegasus by surprise.

“And it took ya TWO darned days to say that?! Ah should-- Of all the—would ya STOP flying?!!”

“I’m NOT flying!! Pegasi are LIGHTER than earth ponies!!”

“This is not really the POINT of our conversation!”

“Yeah, well, it’s hard to focus with this STORM around us!!”

CRACK! another lightning bolt flashed, covering their shouts.

“—and furthermore, I don’t remember you complaining about my WEIGHT in BED!!”

“Ah was being polite!!”

“WHAT?!”

The vessel changed its direction again under Twilight’s desperate efforts to keep it steady. The wind started blowing sideways, making Applejack loosen the grip and Rainbow pulling harder, hoisting the sail.

“Ah’m not sure if we’re doing this correctly!!”

“Forget the sail! Didn’t you hear what I just said??”

“Yeah, well, y’all should’ve said that TWO DAYS ago!!”

“I was scared!!”

“Scared of what??”

“Of Fluttershy!! Or the Guards!! Or Pinkie finding out!!”

“Finding out whaaaat??” asked Pinkie from across the boat.

Rainbow turned to her.

“Applejack and I are togetheeeeer!!”

“HOLY CELESTIAAAA!!” she shouted, and the couple wasn’t really sure if she was happy or simply terrified of falling over the side of the boat. “I KNEW IT!!”

“Maybe this is NOT a good time!!” yelled Twilight from the other end of the vessel.

Rarity just sat and watched, wondering why life is so cruel that she couldn’t even die amongst dignified ponies.

“It never is!!” Rainbow shouted back at the purple unicorn and then turned towards her marefriend. “I should’ve been there for you and I messed up!! I know, I let you down!! I’m not asking for another chance… I just want you to forgive me!!”

“Another chance?! What are you talking about??” asked the earth pony.

“I saw you and that colt, Aalden!! I’m not okay with this… but I’d rather let you go than lose you all of a sudden!! But he’d better make you HAPPY!!”

“Alright, now Ah’m convinced… you ARE crazy!! He was askin’ for mah advice on somethin’!!”

“I don’t thi—“ SPLASH another cold wave crashed upon them. Twilight had to use her magic to hang on to the rudder. Pinkie was almost sure she has swallowed a fish. Rarity was just imagining the words on her tombstone: ‘She TRIED to die with dignity… but ended up as a paperweight in a boat’

“*cough* I don’t think so!!” continued Rainbow as if the conversation never stopped.

“Dash, for cryin’ out loud, he’s a coltcuddler!! He didn’t want anypony to know that! That’s why he wanted to talk in private!”

Dash blinked… or, at least, tried to blink with all the rain hitting her from all directions.

“Ah guess it don’t matter anymore since we’re all gonna DIE anyway!!”

“Sorry… I… I panicked!!”

“You ALWAYS panic!!”

“That’s because I LOVE YOU TOO MUCH!! I don’t want to lose you!!” Dash shouted, covering the roaring waves.

“That’s adoraaaableee!!” yelled Pinkie who was probably already planning a double-sided cake-surprise…thing.

“No, Dash, Ah don’t think that’s the main reason!!”

Dash remembered what she felt the past few days. Applejack looked at her and she seemed to nod her head.

“You’re right, it’s not! I love you… but I don’t want to lose MYSELF in other ponies’ eyes! …and I hate that!!”

“You don’t have to hate it, Rainbow!!” shouted Twilight, almost involuntarily. “You just have to learn to work with it!!”

“She’s right!! And Ah understand more than you can imagine!! I would react the same in front of mah family!! …we both have to work on this relationship, Dash!! Nopony is an expert… and it sure is a lot more difficult than growing trees or practicing flying tricks!! ”

Rainbow couldn’t tell if she was crying or if there were raindrops in her eyes.

“I’m sorry!! It won’t happen again!!”

“Even if it does… TALK TO ME!!” her marefriend shouted, smiling at her.

Rainbow nodded, the storm inside her settling down.

“I would totally kiss you right now, AJ!!” she said, tugging on the rope she was holding.

“Ah would kiss you too, Rainbow!! …but Ah don’t think our friends would appreciate it if we all drowned!!”

“How NICE of you!!” yelled Twilight, exhausted. “How do ponies DRIVE these things?!? Who MADE boats?!?!”

CRACK! a lightning bolt was reflected by the black waves. Rarity jumped as Fluttershy shouted “Gotcha!” and simply flew from her arms, diving right into the water.

“Fluttershy!!!” she cried after her. Everypony froze. Moments passed without a single sign from the yellow pegasus when, suddenly, the boat started rising out of the water, shaking fiercely. The boat tilted, making everypony fall to the ground.

Another lightning threw light upon a shiny surface underneath the boat and a yellow pegasus flying towards them. Fluttershy landed near her friends.

“Fluttershy, have you gone mad?!” asked Rarity, baffled.

“Oh, I’m sorry… but I couldn’t risk losing him again. I kept seeing the whale in the distance and I thought I should try asking him to be kind enough to carry us to the nearest island,” she replied, rubbing her hooves together. “I didn’t mean to scare you… I’m sorry…”

“Sorry?” repeated Twilight. “That was… brilliant!! You saved us all, Fluttershy!”

“Well, not me… My new friend did,” said the pegasus, smiling cheerfully. “I’m just glad I managed to see him.”

“Can I stop holding the boat now??” asked Pinkie, shivering.

Twilight let out a small giggle. “I think we’ll survive if you let go of the boat, Pinkie.”

“Oh, finally!” the pink pony said, grateful that she could move her hooves again freely. “I tried my best to keep it straight, but you all were making this really difficult for me with your playing around with the bed sheet and the wheel-thingie!”

“Bed sheet? Wheel-thingie??” asked Rarity, wondering if everypony lost their minds somewhere between here and the docks. “Pinkie you were not holding the boat, you were just using your weight to—“

Twilight gently tapped her hoof, signaling her to be quiet. “I think Pinkie did a good job, don’t you, Rarity?”

The white unicorn blinked… and finally gave in. “Yes… of course… great job holding the… boat. Now, if anypony needs me, I’ll be over there, pondering ways to drown my luck. …metaphorically, of course.”
The ponies giggled as their friend sat down in a corner and started working on her hair.

Applejack looked at her marefriend who was already glancing towards her. Rainbow approached her and placed a hoof on her shoulder. They tightly hugged each other, realizing how much both of them missed this feeling they might have once taken for granted.

“I love you.”

“Ah love you too”

Their coats were wet, their manes were a mess and their hooves were sore. None of it mattered though, because the entire world disappeared for a few precious seconds and they shared a long desired kiss as the whale gently carried them to a new shore.

End of Chapter 7

Celestia's oldest student

Pillow Thoughts II

Chapter 8
Celestia’s oldest student

Rainbow lazily opened an eye. She thought she heard a seagull. She slowly shifted her gaze upwards, blinking a few times, adjusting to the afternoon light. The sun was shining, making her frown. She covered her eyes with a hoof and sighed as she pieced together bits and fragments of last night’s conversation. Her ears pricked up when she recognized the distinct faint scent of apples. She nuzzled her way up the orange coat and snuggled her little orange cloud.

Applejack mumbled something incoherent as Rainbow’s muzzle gently bumped into hers. She stretched out her forelegs and hugged her pegasus as they both enjoyed the warm rays of the sun, shining over them. The big boat didn’t completely dried after last night’s storm but at least it was safely anchored near the island’s shore. On board, a few hooves away from the two lovebirds, the other four ponies were still sleeping and, not far from them, the old sailor was beginning to wake up.

“Oh, my head,” he grunted as he got up from the hard floor surface. He quickly checked his vessel for damage, but everything seemed in order. He glanced over to his passengers, then his gaze took in the beauty of the shore, with its golden sand and huge emerald jungle-leaves that spread as far as his good eye could see.

Adia, my dear, your name truly does bring beauty to everything, he thought, with a smile softening his boney face. Wasting no time, he jumped right near the little pile of ponies. “Rise and shine, or however you young ponies call it nowadays! We made it, we reached our destination and we surely won’t celebrate that by sleeping, so everypony up!”

Twilight lifted her sleepy head and yawned with all her heart. It took her a few good seconds to put her thoughts in the right order.

Ophil… we must find Ophil Gryasa…

She looked around for their bags and noticed that some of the contents have been thrown around the deck during the storm. The unicorn started gathering them as her friends slowly got on their feet.

“How are you feeling, Mr. Timber?” Twilight asked.

“Never better!” the response came quickly as the old sailor still gazed at the beautiful island.

“You took quite a hit last night… do you want me to check that for you?”

“Nah, I’ve had much worse! …but thanks for the offer,” the colt replied. “What truly baffles me is the way you managed to keep this boat floating! Ya used magic, didn’t ya?”

She thought it might be better to leave the details out for a while, until they started their return trip, so she just nodded, smiling, and left the story to the sailor’s imagination.

A few satchels reorganized and a few teleportation spells later, the mane six found themselves on the beach. Mr. Timber preferred waiting aboard for as long as it took. They left him food and half of the settled price, as they agreed upon.

“Well, Ah’ll be…” said Applejack, almost not believing her eyes. Just a few hooves away from them, half buried in the sand, was her hat. “Ah’ll never really understand how this always finds her way back to me, but Ah sure appreciate it!” she continued, placing it on top of her head.

“Well, don’t look at me,” replied Rainbow, smiling. “I had nothing to do with it this time.”

Rather typical of her, Rarity immediately ignored the uncouth behavior that was manifesting around her and took out a pair of sunglasses and a bottle of sun lotion. However, she soon regretted the fact that she told everypony how her favorite brand used orange peels and cocoa tree bark to enhance the protective layer of sun screen. She had to spend the entire rest of the trip hiding the bottle from Pinkie’s grabby hooves.

The jungle was pretty dense and Twilight had to use her magic on several occasions and move the big leaves aside to clear their path.

“Twi, I could take a quick look above the jungle to see if I can spot something,” said Rainbow, stretching her wings.

“Good idea,” replied the unicorn.

“I certainly didn’t expect all this vegetation and having a sense of direction would be very much appreciated,” added Rarity, using her magic again to levitate the bottle higher than Pinkie’s reach.

The blue pegasus bolted upwards through the foliage. The other ponies remained silent for a few seconds. Suddenly, Dash landed behind Rarity and grabbed her sunglasses.

“Sorry, I need these for a sec,” she said, before dashing again.

“Hey!” protested the white unicorn, while Pinkie managed to grab the sun lotion and took a big gulp out of it. Watching her face turn green was something they didn’t see everyday and Pinkie was probably wishing she had tasted rainbows again, only to wash the bad taste out of her mouth.

Rainbow placed the sunglasses on her muzzle so she could see farther away. “Aha!” the pegasus shouted, as she noticed smoke rising in the distance, near the base of a tiny rocky hill. She turned back to her friends and, pausing for a moment to understand why Pinkie was brushing her tongue with a coconut, she pointed them in the right direction. “Someone is having a barbecue or something over there.”

“Might be the mare we’re looking for. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting this to be so easy!” replied Twilight, smiling.

“Ah wouldn’t call sailin’ a boat through a storm ‘easy’, then again… this jungle did look discouraging at first,” remarked Applejack as the group started moving along.

“Well, yes, I meant the jungle-part. Also, think about it: We’re probably the first ponies from Ponyville who got this far and lived to tell the tale! I bet the Canterlot cartographers would give their right hoof to be able to complete a little more of their maps,” she replied, even though nopony else shared her excitement.

“That sounds a bit… dark,” said Fluttershy as Rarity was starting to actually enjoy Pinkie’s torment. The poor pink pony was now rolling up her tongue, trying to squeeze out the bad taste.

The group walked and walked, Rainbow occasionally popped up over the trees to reassess their position and Applejack kept looking after her. The earth pony was glad, very glad, that they talked… but they still didn’t really have had some alone-time to themselves in the past days.

Well, not THAT kind of alone-time… but that couldn’t hurt either, she thought to herself, hoping that the slight blush on her face would go unnoticed by the other mares. She hoped that they could find this Ophil-pony so they could all go home faster. Evil-alicorn or not, she couldn’t let this unfortunate situation get the best of their lives after all.

“Oh, look! We’re here!” said Twilight, pointing at a tiny cave entrance.

That was fast, concluded Applejack, half-heartedly, as they approached.

Outside the cave, something that looked like a hoofmade grill had various fruits and quite a few coconuts engulfed in smoke. Twilight read about this kind of cooking in one of her camping-books and knew that the purpose of this technique was not to actually fry the food, but rather ‘boil it from a distance using the heat and the smoke’. She never had the chance to eat such a special type of food but she guessed it would’ve—

“It’s an acquired taste,” said a voice, making them all jump a little. An old greenish-gray colt came out of the cave, carrying a coconut with his blue magic. “You’re free to try it, if you want, but save some coconuts for me. I love these,” he continued as if this conversation didn’t take place in the middle of a jungle, on an island, but rather in the comfort of a very luxurious home in the middle of Canterlot.

“Oh, uh… thank you, very kind of you. I am Twilight Sparkle and these are my friends. We came a long way looking for a mare, a certain Ophil Gryasa. Does she, uh… live here?” asked the unicorn, looking at the old colt who was carefully and slowly placing the coconut on top of his grill.

He didn’t even seem to have heard her. After he checked his grill again to make sure everything was in order, he slowly turned and started walking towards the cave entrance. The mane six exchanged glances and, before the purple unicorn could say anything else, the colt spoke. “I’m old, Twilight Sparkle. There is a reason for which I am here and not somewhere else… Even so, I can’t say that I do not enjoy having some company. Not that I mind my solitude, but talking to the trees can lead up to some rather rude conversations,” he concluded, more to himself.

“I will take you to meet Ophil,” he added, resulting in a general sigh of relief from the ponies who received a confirmation that they were on the right track. “…but for a price.”

“Of course,” replied Twilight, not missing a beat. She started rummaging through her saddle packs when she heard the old colt laughing his hair off. Since he didn’t have much hair to begin with, his laughter was rather prominent.

“What in the great big world of Equestria could I do with your bits, Twilight Sparkle?” he asked as soon as he got a good breath of air between laughs. “My wish is priceless and you have the exact amount to fulfill it… should you want to, of course.”

The mares were not sure if he was speaking words of wisdom or if he was just babbling whatever came into his head. Still, he was the only lead they had. “Then name your wish, sir…” she said.

The colt’s pale-blue eyes widened, after which the shadow of a frown was casted upon his wrinkly face. He knew he had to reply to her, but so many years of isolation made him react rather slowly to anything involving social skills. He opened his mouth and, after a few seconds, he managed to ask: “Why are you looking for Ophil?”

The entire conversation seemed eerie for some reason. It was as if the lines were not spoken in order. Even so, Twilight continued, hoping that this wasn’t a huge waste of time. “We have a problem, a big problem, and we think her wisdom might help us find a solution.”

The colt glanced at the ground, then lifted his gaze towards the sky, as a lost cloud covered the sun, casting its shadow over the ponies. He mumbled something to himself then turned towards the cave. He started walking towards it, then stopped midway and turned towards them again. “Yes, yes, I see…”

“Can we see Ophil, please? We’re kind of in a hurry,” said Rainbow who was already starting to lose her patience.

“Are you some sort of guardian, mister?” asked Pinkie who was not really paying attention to the conversation, but rather was asking herself if the taste of smoke would be better than the taste of sun lotion.

“Guardian?” repeated the colt, rubbing his chin. “Yes, yes… I am guarding Ophil and you have to play a game with me if you want to meet Ophil,” he told them, as if he was trying to remember some ancient rules written a long time ago.

“Is this some sort of game of riddles?” asked the purple unicorn and then she turned to her friends. “I read about this in several books, seems to be some sort of ancient game.”

“Riddles? Yes, yes, maybe… not sure… here’s the first one anyway,” he replied as he lifted all the food off the grill and placed it on a wooden tray nearby. “Ah, let’s see… you all travel far, far away and you reach an island.”

“Like this one?” asked Pinkie who was already enjoying this much more interesting conversation.

“Yes, sure, like this one… and on this island you meet an old colt who was preparing his food. Now this is the question: how can you make his food taste better?” He looked up at the sky again and promptly concluded: “You have until the passing of this cloud.”

Twilight blinked in utter confusion. “Wait, what? Until the cloud passes?! This isn’t even a real riddle!”

“I don’t make the rules, Twilight Sparkle. Or maybe I do, I can’t really remember… or if I do remember, I don’t think I want to make the rules anymore, hehehe!” chuckled the guardian. “Cloud is passing.”

Twilight groaned, stomping her hoof. “Listen, we haven’t put our lives in danger just to play some idiotic game with you!”

“Twilight!” gasped Rarity.

“I never said you have to play it… I said ‘only if you want to’, heh!” replied the colt as if he’d done this hundreds of times before. To the best of their knowledge, maybe he actually did.

“Fluttershy,” shouted Rainbow, “help me keep that cloud in place!”

The pegasi were ready to take off when the old colt stopped them with his magic. “No, no, sorry… that’s not how it works. That’s cheating.”

“Are y’all serious?!” snapped Applejack and took a few steps menacingly towards the colt, who started backing away.

“If you hurt me, you’ll never find Ophil. That cave is not big, but only I know its secrets!”

“You can’t just throw a made-up question that none of us can answer!” shouted Twilight in frustration, while keeping an eye on the passing cloud. This was ridiculous. They would fail their mission just because an old idiot was in the mood to play games with them.

“Use condiments?” tried Fluttershy as she was still floating along with Rainbow in a blue bubble of magic.

“Good idea, but I don’t have any!” said the colt as he continued to chuckle, obviously enjoying the situation he created. The cloud started revealing tiny rays of sun as it almost completed its passing.

Pinkie looked at the tray of food, then back at the colt… then at the tray and she suddenly had this really weird idea. She quickly grabbed Rarity’s bottle of sun lotion and, before anypony could react, she violently squirted a considerable amount straight towards the colt’s face, making the poor guardian fall on his back.

“Pinkie!!”

“Oh my…”

“My expensive sun lotion!!”

“Pinkie, what have you done?!” asked Twilight, rightfully, seeing how the colt stopped moving.

“Darling,” intervened Rarity, “I think you killed him.”

Pinkie ignored them and grabbed one of the coconuts from the tray, smashing it against a rock on the ground. She quickly grabbed the steamy contents and approached the colt, who started to rub the lotion off his face, parts of it inevitably entering his mouth. “Oh, pffff! What is this?!” Before he could say anything else, he woke up with a mouthful of coconut-flavored treats. “Oh! Oh my, what… what is this? It’s delicious!”

“After eating Rarity’s sun screen, even DIRT would taste delicious,” said the pink pony, smirking. “This is just your plain old food… Everypony knows that if you want to make a good cupcake taste even better, you need to eat a bad cupcake before it!” She turned towards her friends. “Good to see it actually makes sense!”

“I strongly feel that’s a first for Pinkie… you know… making sense,” Rarity whispered to Twilight. Even so, she had to admit, her quick thinking was rather brilliant.

The colt rubbed the lotion from his eyes as the sun started shining on them again. He chuckled as he ate his food, while nodding his head. “Well, first riddle passed, two more to go!”

Twilight wasn’t sure if she should confront the colt right there and then, making him tell them where Ophil was, or play along, hoping that they would somehow succeed. Fluttershy and Rainbow were released from the bubbles as Pinkie spat out the smokey-food she just tried.

“It’s an acquired taste,” repeated the guardian, wiping his mouth with a hoof. “Now, let’s see… second riddle-thingy. Are you ready?”

“As ready as we’ll ever be,” mumbled Dash, crossing her forelegs.

“A little foal is opening a door, peeking into a dark room. ‘I am so scared’, he mutters to himself. What is he afraid of?” asked the old guardian, finishing up his coconut. He glanced over to the tray filled with other fruits and yummy stuff. “You have until I finish my lunch,” he smiled to them, encouragingly.

Twilight facehooved. We skipped from ‘Make my food tasty’ to ‘Tell me stuff about somepony you haven’t even met’! she thought to herself, wishing that the guardian would stop doing this.

The colt started eating slowly, thank Celestia, as the purple unicorn gathered her friends in a circle. “Okay,” she started, “any ideas?”

“How in the hay are we supposed to know what the kid is afraid of?!” whispered Rainbow, annoyed.

“I don’t know, but I’m willing to hear any idea, no matter how silly or stupid it may seem. Don’t hold back on anything.”

“Oh, a brainstorm! I love these! I usually do that with myself, for new clothes-designs, but I heard it’s much more entertaining in a group,” exclaimed Rarity, drawing a few awkward glances towards her.

“Okay, I’ll go first!” shouted Pinkie. “What if it’s a giant monster?”

“The colt did say that it was a room… maybe a monster, even if it’s not giant,” replied Twilight. “Applejack?”

“Ah’m thinkin’ of the darkness itself. ‘twas a dark room, right?”

“Good point. Noted. Fluttershy?”

“Oh, I don’t know… it could be anything…” the pegasus squeaked. “I don’t like this riddle.”

“Maybe it’s a metaphor?” asked Rainbow, not really knowing what she was asking about.

“I hardly think this colt is sophisticated enough to give us riddles in metaphors,” replied Rarity.

They all looked towards him. He had about three more coconuts to eat, so they quickly turned back to their little meeting.

“What if the foal is not a foal, and the room is not a room?” asked Twilight, who was getting a bit desperate. She did not like losing at a mind game, not after all the books she read all her life. It was frustrating for her to see how this old guardian wasn’t playing by normal rules.

“Or maybe it’s all just as simple as that… no fancy stuff, jes’ a foal scared of who-knows-what,” replied the orange pony, adjusting her hat.

A small crack announced that the colt had only two more coconuts to eat.

“What if the foal is… us?” asked Pinkie.

“All of us?” asked Rarity, not really believing this was the answer.

“Well it can’t be just one of us… we were all asked the question,” replied Twilight. “What if it is a fear that we all have… that everypony has.”

“Spiders?”

“Snakes?”

“Sun burn?”

“No, it must be…. ‘sun burn’?! Really, Rarity?”

“Well, to each his own, darling!”

“As I was saying, it must be something that we all share… something deeper than that.”

“Well, ah reckon that these days we’re all scared of that alicorn and what it can do to us and our friends.”

“Yes, but why are we scared of it?” asked the purple pony as another crack told them that they had only one coconut left, time-wise.

“It can hit us with that truth-magic,” replied Rainbow.

“It exposes us,” added Rarity. “Everypony needs secrets, needs intimacy. It’s what makes us function normally.”

“If you get exposed, what happens?” insisted Twilight.

“Well, that’s just dreadful!”

“Thank you, Rarity, but I’m referring to the consequences, not how you feel about it.”

“Well, um… I think…” started Fluttershy, rubbing her hooves together and looking down, “I think some ponies might not like us with our secrets…”

“So is it the fear of being rejected?” continued Twilight.

“Or casted out,” replied Rainbow, throwing a quick glance over to Applejack.

“Or not being loved anymore,” the orange mare said, returning Rainbow’s gaze.

“These are too many fears… what do they all have in common? What is the common fear that includes all of these?”

Crack! went the last coconut as the old colt started eating its contents, quite happy with rediscovering the taste he loved so much, and asking himself if the sun lotion aftertaste will last for more than a week. Then again, it wouldn’t be so bad as long as he still had coconuts.

“We only have a few more seconds… let’s turn this around,” said Twilight, quickly. “Who doesn’t fear all that?”

“Uh, somepony who doesn’t care?” replied Rainbow.

“Okay, who doesn’t care? Why wouldn’t that pony care?”

“There is no such pony, darling… it’s impossible not to care!”

“Humor me… the perfect pony doesn’t care, why?”

“Well,” started Rarity, “I suppose one wouldn’t care when one needs nopony else to agree with one’s own existence.”

“Ouch, mah head is spinning”, complained Applejack.

“Fearing our way of being… that’s just a consequence. A foal is growing up to become himself…”

“So the only thing he can fear most is himself…” whispered Fluttershy almost inaudibly. Five pairs of eyes were instantly drawn towards her, making her feel really, really small. “Did I say something wrong?”

Instantly, Twilight turned towards the colt who was just chewing on his last bite. “Himself! The foal fears himself!”

The colt’s eyes widened as he choked on his food and started coughing. “What?!”

“The answer to the riddle… the foal fears himself! The fear of rejection is only a consequence of fearing and not trusting yourself,” said Twilight, her eyes demanding an answer.

The colt got up and started pondering. He took a few steps and mumbled something to himself. Finally, he turned towards the mane six. “Actually, I can’t remember the answer to that one…”

Twilight never felt such a strong need to strangle somepony in all her life. Luckily for the colt, he quickly added, chuckling: “Hehehe, I’m joking. Yes, the answer is right.”

He yawned and stretched under the ponies’ semi-relieved, semi-furious gaze. “You know why riddles are not so much fun nowadays, Twilight Sparkle? You all know the answers anyway. They are more like questions, rather than riddles. Redundant questions, which will soon end up being rhetorical.”

The guardian looked towards the cave and then turned to them. “We are all alike, Twilight Sparkle. The sooner we learn that, the sooner we’ll be able to live in harmony. True harmony. So let me ask you this, as one final fake-riddle: I am presenting myself as a masked alicorn. My greatest fear will be my downfall. What do I fear most?” He turned his back towards the group and entered the cave. “Ophil will see you tomorrow if you’ll figure out the answer to this one. You have until sunrise.”

***

Applejack was watching the moon and the diamond-filled sky, thinking of home. She used to tell Applebloom that, no matter where life would take them, they will always have the same starry blanket above their heads. She couldn’t write to them, she couldn’t even let them know if she was alright or not. Her life could’ve easily ended in that storm the other night and they wouldn’t even have known about it. Besides, when she would return… if she would return… she’d have to find a way to easily tell them, one by one, about her and Rainbow.

As if summoned, her marefriend softly landed a few hooves away from her. The wind was blowing gently, caressing their coats and manes. “Hey…” she said, approaching the cowpony.

“Hey,” replied Applejack. “Are the others alright?”

“Yeah… they all went back to the boat. I told them not to wait up for us. Rarity started giggling at that thought.”

“Heh… she earned her right to giggle all she wants. She was mighty helpful today, in more ways than one,” said the orange pony, smirking.

“Who would’ve thought… two more of these adventures and we might even let her make us a pair of frou-frou dresses!”

They chuckled, alone, together, on top of that hill on a forgotten island. Applejack slowly buried her face under Rainbow’s muzzle, seeking comfort, as the pegasus wrapped her hooves around her. “Hey, AJ, everything okay?”

“Not sure, sugarcube… Ah lied to mah family and our friends about us, we’ve been so terrified of ponies findin’ out, it almost destroyed our relationship.”

“I… I thought I was the scaredy cat here…”

“Well, Ah am as scared as you. I just hide it better, Ah guess.”

Rainbow nuzzled her marefriend, stroking her mane gently. “I think we both are losing touch with our elements, AJ… that’s why we’re going through this.”

“Ah know… that’s why Ah think we should start telling our loved ones. But Ah’m so scared of that. Maybe it’s a stupid idea.”

“I know how you feel and I don’t think it’s a stupid idea. Believe it or not, this alicorn-trouble did something good after all,” replied Rainbow. “It made me realize that love is not something you can just have as a bonus when you find a marefriend. It’s something far greater and more complex that you can imagine… and it’s definitely something that you can’t learn how to deal with overnight. It’s an ongoing process… love is to be learned and gained, not won in a flying contest.”

“Y’all started sounding like Twilight,” chuckled the earth pony, hugging her blue pegasus. “But yeah, Ah couldn’t agree more.” She paused for a while and lifted her head to look into her marefriend’s magenta eyes. “But what if we will be casted away? What if our loved ones won’t approve? So many fears, Rainbow…”

“Forget those fears, AJ. We are together now. We can fill out any void left by others, together and through each other… I don’t know how to explain this. You are like… like flying to me, AJ.”

The earth pony knew that, coming from Rainbow, it was the most beautiful thing anypony ever told her. It was getting a bit chilly so she snuggled in with her marefriend as the leaves and the grass around them started to move in a faded rhythm.

FAST ENOUGH

Rainbow:
The wind ruffling my mane
The speed, the sky, the rain
I still feel them constantly
When we're together

Sometimes, yes, it's tough
But I Can't rush fast enough
To stand by your side forever...

Applejack:
Oh Rainbow...

Fears and threats
RD: Don't worry AJ: Will we
BOTH: Defeat them

AJ:
Lies, regrets
RD: Forget those AJ: Will we
BOTH: Outwit them

RD:
Can't you see
All that
Really matters is
BOTH: You and me?

AJ:
Rainbow streams
RD:
And apples
BOTH:
Are turning

RD:
Honesty
AJ:
Loyalty
BOTH:
Returning

RD:
If friendship is magic,
BOTH:
Imagine what
Love can be.

AJ:
Family an' sky above
The land Ah know and love
Ah always see them in your eyes
When we're together

AJ:
Diamond in the rough
BOTH:
Ah can't rush fast enough
To stand by you, forever.The night slowly faded around them as they retreated into their own perfect little world, sealed with a kiss.

***

Before the first ray of light made its way through the dense jungle, Twilight and her friends were already in front of the cave.

“Come in, Twilight Sparkle”, echoed a voice from the inside. Carefully, led by Twilight’s lit horn, they entered the cold, rocky place. As the guard said, it wasn’t very deep. After just a few seconds, they reached a room that had a bed, many tables made of either rock or wood, covered in various scrolls, and one large chair in the center.

On that chair sat the old guardian, looking at them, waiting.

“You asked us three riddles, guardian,” started Twilight, “and yet the biggest one was yet to be asked.”

The other ponies looked at each other, wondering what Twilight was talking about. Despite their confusion and the lack of an answer, the unicorn did not back away. “You asked us the third riddle only to take our minds off the most obvious one… so, instead of a repetitive answer, I shall ask you a riddle.”

She took a few steps under the gaze of the guardian, approaching him.

“Who are you really guarding?”

The guard chuckled, his voice echoing throughout the cave in an eerie way.

“Ophil Gryasa,” came the answer from him.

“That’s only half the answer,” said Twilight.

“You asked only half the question,” replied the guardian.

The unicorn nodded. “Then, let’s put an end to this game.” She looked him straight in the eyes and asked, without hesitating for a second: “If we are all scared of our true selves, then who is Ophil Gryasa guarding?”

A smile spread across the old colt’s face as he replied.

“Himself.”

- End of Chapter 8 -

Wings of Trust

Pillow Thoughts II

Chapter 9
Wings of Trust

"How is the dear Princess? Is she still as beautiful as I remember her to be?" asked Ophil with his gaze lost in memories of old times, better times.

"Woah woah, hang on a minute! What the hay is going on here?!" shouted Rainbow, looking utterly confused. "What are you talking about?? Why am I not talking about what you are talking about?! I don't like being left out of confusing conversations!"

"Easy there, sugarcube," replied Applejack, placing a hoof on her marefriend's shoulder. "Twilight is going to explain everything to us… ain't ya, Twilight?"

The lavender unicorn nodded. "At first, I wasn't sure but, after analyzing the facts, the more I thought about it, the more it became obvious that—"

"Twilight!" shouted the impatient cyan Pegasus as she stomped her hooves. "Could you please skip the part about your family's history?! We get it, you think, that's awesome, but say it already! It's like I've been waiting for MONTHS to finish this neverending quest to find what's-her-name!"

Apparently all the frustration that Rainbow gathered during the last few days found a way out. Somewhere, in the back of her head, she knew that she was only letting out all the accumulated 'steam'.

Ophil chuckled. "Impatient little one, aren't you?"

Twilight tried to ignore her friend's sarcasm as she scratched her head. "I just wanted to say that Princess Celestia never told us that Ophil Gryasa was a mare." The ponies looked at each other, trying to remember the Princess' words. "…I mean, we all just assumed that."

"Of course, assuming things can lead to both positive and negative outcomes," the old guardian shrugged. "Still, one of the worst things we can do is assume what everypony really thinks about us. That only leads to blocking oneself and to overprotection. We live in a dual world. Neither extremity is optimal for us. That is the meaning and scope of harmony."

"Allow me to see if I understood correctly," said Rarity, approaching the old colt while she rearranged her mane in an absent gesture. She pointed to him. "This is Ophil Gryasa, the one we've been searching for?"

"Yes," replied Twilight.

"Well, why didn't he say so in the first place?" asked the white unicorn, not without a bit of anger in her voice. "Does he have any idea what we've been through?"

"Can't an old colt have a little bit of fun?" giggled Ophil.

"You most certainly may NOT!" puffed the mare, arranging her mane again as if it was the only thing that could help her stay focused.

"It wasn't only that," said Twilight, turning towards Ophil. "You knew about the alicorn. You knew we were coming. If I'm correct, then you just wanted to test us, to see if we are worthy of your advice!"

The colt stopped giggling and brought his hoof to his chin, thinking. "Hm, actually no… I just wanted to have a bit of fun!" he replied, throwing a real fit of giggles that echoed through the cave, sending unusual chills up Fluttershy's spine. "Even so," he continued, slightly gasping for air, "you were right about one thing. I did see you coming and I know about your tiny… inconvenience."

"Inconvenience? That alicorn is pure evil," flared Dash, practically jumping in the air and positioning herself, in flight, near the colt.

"No more than you are, Rainbow Dash," he replied, dryly. "We are all alike. Unique!"

"Alright, everypony calm down," said Twilight. "You too, Pinkie!"

The pink earth pony stopped licking the big white extruding rock from the cave wall, despite the fact that she couldn't tell yet if it was made out of salt or sugar. Or both. Then again, sugar was not found in caves…. But maybe this was a special cave.

As Pinkie was left alone, a prey to her own thoughts, the unicorn continued. "Ophil, I don't wish to be rude, but we need you to tell us how to stop the alicorn. You might already know, she is using a truth-spell against us."

"Hold on," Dash interrupted for the nth time. "How does he know all this? What if he's hoof in hoof with the alicorn?"

Silence dropped. Fluttershy could actually hear the faint sound of the wind howling outside the cave's walls.

"Well fine then," the colt said all of a sudden, not without a sly smile creeping up his face. "Test me."

The confused mares looked at each other, not knowing what to do. The colt spoke again: "I asked you questions… it's only fair for you to return the gesture. If one question per pony will suffice, I suggest you choose them quickly. You don't really have much time on your hooves."

"Oh, me! Me! I'll go first!" shouted Pinkie, waving and jumping around.

Rarity cleared her throat and, completely ignoring the agitated furball, she took a few steps towards the colt. "Alright, here's a question that surely will show us if you are an ally or not. What is the alicorn's greatest weakness?"

"I already answered that for you a while ago. Need I repeat myself? Wasted question," he replied instantly, waving a hoof. "Next."

"I beg your pardon?!" the shocked fashionista replied in disbelief.

"He's right," came yet another answer, this time from Twilight. "He did tell us that."

Rainbow felt like she would soon lose her hair out of frustration, if her hooves would only allow her to grab it tighter. "What?! When?!"

"That's two questions, Rainbow Dash. I'll answer the latter. I told you that when I revealed my identity with the help of your friend here," he replied, pointing at Twilight.

"Now hold on just a cotton-pickin' minute," Applejack intervened, stomping her hoof. If she started to get angry, there's no telling how the situation might've ended. "Rainbow didn't ask ya a question. Ya ain't playin' fair!"

"I'm quite sure that I am playing fair."

"Says who?" the mare replied, only to cover her mouth quickly once she realized she just wasted her question too.

"Says Celestia herself as this is one of the games she enjoyed playing the most."

At that moment, all the eyes turned to the lavender mare as if looking for a confirmation of the colt's words. "I… I don't know. I never asked her what her favorite games are! She's a princess!"

Ophil shook his head, bitterly. "Twilight Sparkle, labels belong in a library, not in friendships. Princess, mentor, friend; Whichever you choose, you seem to know and care more about the label than the actual pony. This can become your downfall. The alicorn knows this." He closed his eyes and sighed. "You are all so eager to label me as well that you almost forgot what you came here for."

"We came here to find a way to defeat the alicorn!" replied the mare, trying to focus on the task at hoof. How could he know anyway about the special teacher-student relationship that she shared with the Princess? He didn't know a thing.

"Is that so? …funny, I always had the impression that you came here to find a way to protect your loved ones and your homes." He got off his large chair and took a few steps towards the mare who was already eyeing him suspiciously. "Ask your question, Twilight Sparkle."

What if he's trying to confuse everypony? What if this is all just a trick?

She felt angry. So angry.

She glanced towards the cave's floor, trying to think of the perfect question that would clearly show, once and for all, where the old guard stood in this overgrowing conflict. The alicorn wasn't even there and she could already feel its threat hovering above them.
"Answer me this: Who is the alicorn?" she asked all of a sudden. This would surely help them figure out if he was on their side or not.

"You already know that," the colt's reply came faster than expected. "Wasted question."

The lavender unicorn seriously considered the option of lifting Ophil with her magic and shaking the answers out of him, one by one. She tried to get a grip on herself and noticed that her friends were not far behind. Rarity was furious, Applejack as well, not to mention the state of mind Rainbow was in. Fluttershy on the other hoof couldn't really think of a question so she was just sitting quietly a bit further away from the group.
The only mare that was still cheerful was Pinkie, who kept waving her hooves in the air. "Is it my turn yet?"

Ophil blinked and turned to her. Despite her frantic gestures, he almost forgot she was there.

"Of course, Pinkie Pie. Ask away. What kind of question, along with its answer, would not make me an enemy in your eyes?"

"Do you have some anti-bedbugs potion?"

Twilight facehoofed. The others would have done the same, but they saw the colt's face suddenly transforming. He relaxed his worried frown and he smiled warmly to the pink mare. "Why is that, my dear?"

"Well, I noticed that everypony is a bit upset again and that reminded me of the time Applejack and Rainbow were upset. They had some nasty trouble with bedbugs, but it was okay for a while. Then, much later, they started getting upset again and I thought the bedbugs returned. They wouldn't say anything about it but they acted really weird, and now everypony is acting weird. I think if we manage to get rid of bedbugs forever, everypony will be happy forever!"

For the first time since she met him, Twilight could see admiration and warmth in Ophil's old eyes.

"As a matter of fact, Pinkie," he said, "I think I do. You see, love is a very weird thing. In itself, it is something that cannot be quantified or explained. It just is. But the way we perceive and receive it… that can make us incredibly happy or extremely miserable."

"It can make us move mountains or make us immovable. It can be both a blessing and a curse. One thing you must remember… For every force, there is an anti-force. One cannot live without the other, it cannot manifest itself. For up, there is down. For light, there is dark. For love… there are bedbugs."

He chuckled. "Well, it may not be known only by this name, but names are just, you know… labels." He quickly glanced towards Twilight and smiled at her. "One just has to learn to see past them sometimes. It's all one big game with interchangeable pieces, after all."

He turned back to Pinkie and continued: "Bedbugs appear when you become scared of yourself. Of what others might think of you. Of what you might think of yourself. It's the reaction towards the unknown. The uncertain."

Ophil turned towards Applejack and Rainbow, as they could hear playfulness in his voice. "I showed affection to somepony I liked? Oh no, what if that pony rejects me? I'd better blame it on the bedbugs." He pointed a hoof as if scolding them. "The same bedbugs kept you in place, Rainbow Dash, when your marefriend needed you."

The pegasus' ears dropped. How the hay did he know about that and why did he have to bring that up?

"We sorted things out in the end, sir," the orange pony said, gently taking Rainbow's hoof into her own.

"I'm glad you did, Applejack, but those very same bedbugs kept you from sorting them out earlier. You were equally responsible for keeping Rainbow Dash in that horrid state of mind during your trip here."

Applejack winced, she didn't think of it that way. Rainbow just lowered her eyes to the ground. Indeed, she did need her marefriend's help solving that issue back then. Her guilt and the earthpony's stubbornness just made things worse.

"There are the bedbugs that we all face one way or another," the old guardian continued, softly. "Most of us manage to overcome them, at one point. We live and we learn. Yet sometimes, these bedbugs can lead to less than nice thoughts. Especially when we are alone. 'Pillow thoughts' as a friend of mine used to call them."

"What if the bedbugs don't go away? What happens then?" asked Pinkie, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer. Even so, they all guessed it too well.

Ophil nodded and simply replied: "An alicorn is born."

"Surely," he continued, "you understand that this is metaphorical. The so-called 'alicorn' can take many forms, but it always manifests itself the same… with hatred. It is not as enduring as love, but it can become equally powerful."

"What can we do?" asked Rarity, approaching the colt along with her friends.

This time, Twilight was sure of the answer. Ophil was right, she knew the answer all along. "We live in a dual world," she explained, using the colt's own words. "For hatred, we must answer with love, and we must find out what made the alicorn turn away from it."

"Who would turn away from love?" a whisper could be heard as everypony noticed the presence of Fluttershy among them.

"Somepony who felt that he or she was betrayed by it," concluded the lavender mare under the approving gaze of Celestia's oldest student. "The answer lies in how you perceive it."
Indeed, this was the answer they were looking for.

Feeling something brush against her coat, Rarity moved aside to make way for Fluttershy who approached the old guardian. Sheepishly, she glanced into his eyes. What she saw in there, she wouldn't share with anypony else for a long time but, with a simple gesture of approval, she turned towards her friends and said, smiling: "I like him." If that wasn't an official 'Seal of Trust', nothing was.

Rainbow scratched the back of her head. "I'm… not sure I got all that."

"I did," replied Twilight who was already starting to trot towards the cave exit. "Ophil, thank you for everything. I—" She turned to face him once more. It hurt her pride to do this but it was the right thing to do. "I'm sorry we doubted you. …and I'll make sure to talk to the Princess about our encounter. Well, amongst other things too. Not just… magic and studies."

"We're all ponies, Twilight Sparkle. Even the good alicorns. They just have an extra pair of wings that come with a lot of labels," he waved his hoof, smiling. "Have a safe journey home… oh and please, when you meet Celestia again—"

"Yes?" asked the mare, expecting to receive a message that needed to be delivered.
The old colt started laughing again as if he just remembered a very good joke, to the general confusion of the ponies around him. When he barely managed to get a grip on himself, he just splurted: "Pull the crown over her eyes and tell her 'took you long enough!'"

With that, he just fell to the ground, a victim of his own funny thoughts.

He may be old and wise… but he's equally insane, concluded the librarian, exiting the cave both grateful and a bit creeped out.

***

"We're leaving already?" asked Mr. Timber, not without a slight hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Not just yet," replied Twilight who was already starting to look around and note things down on a magical parchment that, apparently, appeared out of thin air.

"What exactly are you doooing?" asked Rainbow, expecting a very Twilight-y answer.

The lavender unicorn did not disappoint: "I'm checking our list of supplies just to make sure we don't forget anything important. Oh, I must note down that Rarity's luggage will be lighter since she lost her sun lotion. Also, I can see that Pinkie grabbed a few coconuts on the way out—Pinkie! Don't stuff those in my bags!"

"Well mine are clearly too full," replied the earth pony. "Maybe I'll just tie them with strings."

Applejack watched the entire scene from afar, smiling. Her eyes drifted towards her marefriend who, as if sensing, instantly returned the gaze. The Pegasus flapper her wings a few times and approached the mare, landing right next to her.

"Everything okay, AJ?"

"Ah think so. Ah keep remembering bits and parts of our little journey, not sure if Ah wanna think about them or just forget them altogether. Heh."

"Well, it sure beats being stuck in a cold cave, underground."

"That it does… but Ah was mighty impressed with how ol' Ophil there knew so much about our adventure, our lives." She turned towards Rainbow. "About us."

"He knew our names as if he'd always known. Well," she said, puffing her chest, "not that I'm not famous enough or anything… but, he's all alone on this island. How could he know that?"

Applejack gently placed her head on Rainbow's chest, nuzzling her. "Ah don't know, sugarcube, but he was right. Ah should've known better than to keep mah mouth shut. Ah'm sorry."

"Hey," replied the Pegasus, slowly lifting her marefriend's chin with one of her hooves and planting a kiss on her lips. "No more apologizing, alright? From now on we'll just be more careful. No more 'bedbugs' and no more hidden thoughts.. deal?"

The earth pony smiled. "Deal."

"—and that should be all," Twilight's voice could be heard, approaching the couple. "Oh, just so you know, I took the liberty of arranging our bags in alphabetical order. That way, we'll be more efficient should we need anything on our way back. The carriage and the guards are waiting for us… hopefully the return trip to Ponyville will—"

"Hang on there! Did you just say you ordered our bags alphabetically?!" asked Dash.

"Uh-huh," replied the happy mare, checking something off her list. "That way I can double-check the backup list to make sure we're not leaving anything behind."

"But we barely unpacked!"

"Ah have to agree, this does seem a bit useless."

"Oh you two… you just don't fully understand the potential and importance of a well made list!"

TWILIGHT:
A list for me
A list for you
Let's double-check everything together
Checked it here,
You checked it too
On any day, through any weather

AJ + RD:
Preparations
and frustrations
All this triple checking is putting our minds in a twist.

TWILIGHT:
Preparations (RD: Preparations?!)
Expectations (AJ: Oh, horseapples)
Everything you'll ever need is
TWI+RD+AJ:
listed on the list.

RD:
Splitting hairs
AJ:
and counting
RD:
Paired in pairs
AJ:
it's daunting
RD:
It must be
AJ:
a rare form
RD+AJ:
of obsession.
AJ:
Checked and checked
RD:
and checking
AJ:
Sanity
RD:
is breaking
AJ:
Probably
RD+AJ:
a rare form
of regression!

TWILIGHT:
Keeping my
life organised
Papers and books, places, locations
Roll your eyes
But be advised
A list has many applications

Be prepared
That's my advice
Half the battle is won by knowing
what you have
and check it twice
RD+AJ:
Like Santa Hooves, she keeps on going

TWILIGHT:
Constellations
Correlations
Everything you'll ever need is listed on the list.
Informations
RD:
Medications
TWI: Hey!

RD+AJ:
Everything you'll NEVER need is listed on the list!

***

The return home was, indeed, without any trouble. The events that took place in Horngreen did leave the town in a bad shape so the royal guards figured it would be wiser to avoid that place for a while. Despite the slight detours, the atmosphere between the old friends was sweet and joyful. Rainbow and Applejack took the time to explain everything, from the moment they started acting weird towards each other, till their first kiss and beyond.

They did keep certain intimate details to themselves, of course, although the slight blush on their cheeks hinted at some scenes that one would find, perhaps, in Rarity's romance novels. The relief of the fact that their friends accepted them, along with their relationship, was almost incredible, compared to the fears they lived and hid along the way. In any case, it has proven a good starting point for Rainbow.

Applejack knew that her marefriend will struggle more than just a bit with the idea of other ponies knowing about them. Sure, it wasn't easy for the earth pony either, but when she did feel scared or uncertain, she would turn her attention towards Rainbow, looking for comfort and reassurance. Most of the time, she would find those feelings in her eyes, but not always. After all, no relationship can be perfect.

As they were passing by Canterlot, the ponies went silent along with the night that surrounded them. Twilight's thoughts were with her mentor, hoping that she had managed to find a healing spell of some sort. She wanted to help, but the mare thought that she would be more useful to Celestia if she would keep Ponyville safe. Or, at least, try to.

"Are you girls scared too?" Fluttershy whispered.

The ponies looked at each other. "Well, Ah know Ah am, ain't no point in hidin' it."

"The alicorn is powerful, but we shouldn't be afraid of it," said Rarity. "To borrow a phrase from Applejack, we are not half bad ourselves."

"I think this big ol' meanie won't know what hit it!" added Pinkie. "Right, Twilight?"
The unicorn remained silent.

"Twi," said Rainbow, lightly touching the mare, interrupting her thoughts, "Ophil said that you knew who the alicorn is."

The unicorn shook her head slowly. "I do suspect somepony, but that would be impossible… unless she used a variation on a spell that I once casted too."

The ponies perked their ears and turned towards Twilight.

"You mean you did know all along?" asked Rarity.

"No… I only began suspecting it when Ophil threw those riddles at us. It suddenly made sense. It was like he was answering questions that I never asked out loud."

"And? Who is it?"

"Well, you might think I'm nuts for saying this but I think that the alicorn is actually—"
SWOOSH! The carriage was lifted high into the air all of a sudden. The ponies screamed as they heard the guards shouting as well. The world started spinning around them, they lost their sense of direction as they kept rolling into a mess of hooves and yells. Then everything stopped.

Looking outside the window, Twilight could see that they were engulfed in a light-violet magical aura and hanging several tens of hooves above the ground. A familiar ambiguous voice could be heard, echoing through the night.

"What do we have here? Twilight Sparkle and her friends?" the alicorn asked, flapping its wings. The mask it was wearing gave out an eerie look that made it look even scarier than before. "How nice of you to come back from your little trip. Heading to Ponyville, are we? Well... allow me to give you a LIFT!" it shouted, as it threw the carriage with all its might towards the town.

Twilight felt her heart jump in her throat as the carriage spun out of control in midair. The mares were screaming. She didn't dare open her eyes, but she took a deep breath and shouted as best as she could: "Rarity!! Focus on the carriage!! Levitation, NOW!!!"

The white unicorn heard her and, more out of pure instinct than comprehension, she engulfed the carriage in her blue magic. To her surprise, they actually started hovering. Picking herself up, she looked towards her friends and noticed their terrified faces, all of them were scared including Twilight, who was also doing her best to support the carriage's weight, her horn glowing bright enough to make the unicorn avert her eyes.

"Rarity," the mare yelled, choking. Were those tears? "Rarity, we need to open the doors, to see where we are guiding the carriage!"

With a nod, the other unicorn did so. As she opened the door on her side, she could clearly see that they were close to the town's center, merely inches away from a house. She looked at the guards who were panting and gasping out of pure fear, despite the fact that they were now safe under the unicorns' magic.

Rarity could hear Twilight opening her own door and, gently, the two of them managed to place the carriage on the ground. They all exited as the guards got out of their harnesses and moved away from the vehicle as if it was possessed.

"Are you alright, sugarcube?"

"Y-yes" replied Dash, visibly shaking. The others were too. "Are you?"

"Ah'm fine," said Applejack, unknowingly squeezing painfully hard her marefriend's hoof in her own.

Fluttershy had tears running down her face yet she was probably still in shock, despite Pinkie's efforts to comfort her. Before anypony could say anything, THUD! the alicorn landed close to the group, making them jump. It was wearing a full body, dark indigo costume. Nopony could make out the color of its coat or its mane.

"Oops, clumsy me," it said, with a cold voice.

"Get ready, girls," said Twilight, rubbing the tears out of her eyes, "this is it."

Out of nowhere, she found herself engulfed in the alicorn's magic. "Oh, no no no, Twilight Sparkle. I couldn't let you fight me like that. You'll just have to step aside and watch me as I break your friends one by one… and I don't mean that in a physical sense." It floated Twilight somewhere to its right and started closing in on the rest of the group.

For a moment, the lavender mare could not ignore the looks of determination that her friends had on their faces. Even Fluttershy tried to hide the fact that she was crying and took a standing pose, being ready to do anything that she could to defend her friends.

I have to distract the alicorn! I have to do something, thought Twilight. As if triggered by a lost memory, she remembered Ophil's words. She remembered about the fears that everypony had and that she shouldn't label ponies. They were all alike, unique, just like this alicorn. This alicorn was a pony too, with fears… and a mask. It hid behind a mask. It placed a mask between it and the world.

It fears itself.

She had one shot at this. If she was wrong, the alicorn would just laugh at her stupidity and attack her friends instantly. She couldn't afford giving it a second thought.

"Nice wings! Too bad they're FAKE!" she shouted.

The alicorn froze. It turned its head towards Celestia's student but didn't say a word.

"I made a similar spell once, not a-as powerful as yours though," the unicorn continued, her voice trembling and her hooves shaking. "Th-then again, I did that to help m-my friends, not to scare ponies away… or to impress them with a mask."

The alicorn stood still, listening.

"You never really gave up on that mask, did you? You just changed it to something physical, an actual mask. How ironic, since I actually once thought you were more than that… but now you've proven me wrong."

She closed her eyes, trying to focus and hoping that she was right. She could hear the alicorn's hoofsteps and knew it was approaching her. With one last breath, she opened her eyes and said without hesitating for a second more:

"Looking at you like this, I can finally see your way of seeing things. I understand. That mask that you are wearing…

…it couldn't suit you more, Trixie."

-End of Chapter 9-

Spelling the Truth

Pillow Thoughts II

Chapter 10
Spelling the Truth

A distant thunder echoed throughout Ponyville as raindrops hit hard the lavender unicorn’s face. Wind ruffled her mane silently, scattering dead leaves and dust while small clumps of hay filled the air with a wet, mouldy scent. She could still feel the strange magic that surrounded her, grasping her, not letting her move.

The alicorn stood between Twilight and her friends and kept looking at her as water drops slithered their way across its indigo mask and gathered underneath its chin. Its indigo costume darkened even further as it soaked up the water, twisting and turning various shades of black with glimmering traces of violet and amethyst.

Lightning lit up the alicorn’s features for a brief moment as it stood there, motionless, with its head turned towards the unicorn, its blind gaze piercing her skin like a dead animal’s cold stare, frightening her, making her want to turn away and run.

Other ponies started coming out of their homes, out of shops and buildings, their small hooves clicking on the icy cobblestone. Their mumbles and gasps were covered by yet another loud thunder that fell closer, announcing the upcoming fury of the storm. Petrified gazes from beyond foggy windows shined eerily in the golden light of the few streetlamps that surrounded the place as the sound of rain grew stronger.

Suddenly, the alicorn shifted completely, turning its back to Twilight. Everypony went dead silent as it approached the unicorn’s friends. It then stopped once more, as if a fleeting thought passed unexpectedly through its mind. It started to notice that the rain became heavier on its back and shoulders, but that wasn’t what bothered it. No, it was something else. Something changed in its plan.

Twilight found herself released from the alicorn magic’s grasp, firmly landing on the hard ground underneath her. She hit her front right hoof and knew she’d be feeling the pain of that later. Without a word, or even a hint of compassion, the alicorn made a swift gesture and flapped its wings a few times as its feathers started falling, in spirals, like small whirlwinds of indigo snow. The ponies watched as it shredded its own wings, which were indeed fake. Along with them, the indigo mask dissolved, revealing the silvery-blue mane of a once trickster pony. Her cerulean coat emerged from under the disappearing costume and it became darker under the weight of the rain. Her horn glimmered briefly with a green light as Trixie turned her gaze once more towards the lavender mare. It was expressionless.

The crowd’s mumbles picked up once more as they recognized her and a few angry ponies even stepped forward in a confronting way. With a gesture of her head, quicker than a blink, the cerulean mare cast a narrow but deep cut in the ground which pushed the crowd back, separating them from the mane six, as pieces of cobblestone went flying everywhere. Twilight’s friends looked in horror as the earth trembled for a brief moment, sending vibrations through their hooves, casting the dread of an unspoken warning.

The trickster frowned. Her horn lit up once more, menacingly. The strong, green light heaved morbid shadows around her as she made it clear, without so much as uttering a whisper, that she wanted this to remain between her and Twilight.

The lavender pony’s eyes widened as she saw a ring of strange origin going around Trixie’s horn. It was less of a ring actually and more of a metallic, golden spiral, encrusted with dark green emeralds and other precious stones which Twilight could not identify. The symbols encrusted in it were unlike anything she ever saw.

“Is that—Is that some sort of—of… magic amplifier?” she asked, her voice trembling, a twisted form of anger clearly making its way through her words. “Hm? Is that how you did all this?”

The trickster’s features were shadowed by a disgusted look as the lavender pony continued.
“Why, Trixie?” she asked, her legs trembling either out of being cold or being afraid. Or both. “Why would you do something like this?”

She wanted to know, she wanted to get an answer out of her.

Puddles began forming around them as Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rarity slowly started exchanging elusive glances, trying to ignore the wind’s merciless bite and the tiredness that crept its way into their bodies. They slowly took a step closer to Trixie. Then another… and another… determined to put an end to this.

Trixie ignored them as if they wouldn’t be able to pose any sort of trouble for her. What was troubling, indeed, was how Twilight managed to guess her identity. Well, maybe not exactly ‘troubling’, more like ‘curious’. She planned everything carefully. She really did. Of course, not every single detail, yet she took extra care in concealing herself in every way possible.

“Trixie,” said the lavender mare in an exhausted voice, “we can still stop this. Just tell me how we can help you, what—what do you need? What do you want?”

Her questions were drowned out by a thunderclap as the wind grew stronger. The trickster, now soaked to the bone like the others, tilted her head, squinting her eyes slightly, looking at Twilight as if she was the oddest being in Equestria. She then noticed movement with the corner of her eye, turned her gaze and saw that the other five were starting to surround her.

The cerulean trickster turned her head back to Twilight and continued to ignore them, along with their quivering hooves and their agitated breathing. She looked at the inferior unicorn, at that uncomprehensive, annoying and absolutely ridiculous pony that she still couldn’t fully understand. Such a silly unicorn—a unicorn who could not see the greatness in magic, a unicorn who would cast aside her own powers in favor of the companionship of lesser ponies… How could she live like that?

Trixie took a step towards the lavender mare, while sensing that the other five ponies tensed up, getting ready to jump at a single wrong move. Cautiously, she took another step, then another until she was close enough. The scent of sweat and fear made her cringe as she recognized those elements as being her own once, a long time ago. When she had been weak. Now, she was strong, stronger than anypony else. Celestia herself feared her.

Trixie opened her mouth and closed it again, trying to find the right words. What could she ask? What did she want to know? What did she need?

“You are the one who is fake, Twilight Sparkle,” she said in a tired, semi-hoarse voice. “You and everyone else.”

She turned to the other five who, instinctively, took a step back. “You called me out for being a trickster, for making things up, for ‘showing off’ as you put it,” she continued, anger growing in her voice. “It is not me who is fake, I was simply putting on a show.”

“We are not fake, we never were,” the unicorn started, making Trixie turn back to her.
The cerulean mare frowned and pointed at her, not without heavy traces of superiority in her voice. “If you think the ponies you know are ‘real’, then let me show you the biggest lie of your life!”

Her horn glowed a bright green and, before anypony could react, she turned around, sending a strong succession of green arrows towards Twilight’s friends, hitting every single one of them. Rainbow was caught mid-air as she was trying to dodge them, which sent her crashing on her back. Rarity and Fluttershy fell on their sides and Pinkie was reduced to silence, a green arrow piercing right through her heart. Applejack tumbled backwards as well, under the weight of the hit.

“NO!” shouted the lavender mare but her words refused to leave her throat as she felt it grasped by an unknown force. Trixie was facing her once more, almost choking Twilight with her magic.

“Be quiet,” she hissed, “and listen.” The cerulean mare proudly straightened herself as Twilight’s friends slowly started getting up from the cold ground, the arrows vanishing.

“Ow, that hurt,” mumbled Rainbow and the she quickly perked up her ears. “AJ? You okay?”

“Ah’m fine, Ah think,” the reply came swiftly. “Was that what Ah think it was?” she asked as she slowly helped Pinkie up. Rarity and Fluttershy nodded at each other, making sure everypony was alright, then turned towards Trixie.

With a triumphant glare, the mare moved away from Twilight, as if exposing the unicorn to her own friends. She released her, allowing her to gasp for air.

“Here you are, Twilight Sparkle. See what your so-called friends truly think of you!” she said, even with a mocking bow towards the crowd of ponies that were still there, looking from afar, not daring to intervene. “Come one, come all, to see how harmonious the Elements of Harmony REALLY are!”

Twilight’s ears dropped, looking at her friends, then back at Trixie, then back at her friends once more. They seemed a bit scared of approaching her as if some awkward secret, a terrible hidden thing, might just unravel in front of them, possibly breaking bonds of years-long friendships.

“Are you all right?” the lavender mare asked, taking two steps towards them.

Looking at each other, her friends nodded.

Twilight’s mind was trying to keep up but her emotional side started interfering. What if they don’t really like me? What if they were just using me all this time because I’m smart and I know things? What if Trixie is right? …what if this means the end of our friendship?

She stopped and looked at each of them. Sighing, she lifted her head and did the only thing she could do. “Listen, you guys… if there is something you want to tell me or if, you know, something is not right anymore, I’ll—I’ll understand. Really,” she said, giving her best smile. “I know you went through a lot because of me and if this means the end of our friendship, well, it’s been great. It really has been. I don’t think I’m saying this enough,” she looked at the ground for a brief moment, as water trickled down from her wet mane. She then looked up at them again and nodded. “Thank you for everything.”

The mares looked at each other curiously for a moment, and then Applejack took a few steps towards the lavender mare. “As Rarity would probably put it,” she started and Twilight flinched a little, expecting the worst, “are y’all dim or somethin’?”

There it was. The beginning of the end. Applejack really thought Twilight was… “dim”.

“Wait, what?” the unicorn asked.

“Sugahcube, we’ve all been friends for so long. Do y’all really think we haven’t said everything we ever wanted to say to each other? Isn’t honesty part of being friends?” she asked, giving her a warm smile, as best as she could while freezing.

“Of course, darling,” Rarity said with a smile, “what did you expect?”

“Oh, so, is everypony okay with… me?” she asked, sheepishly.

“Yeah! Why wouldn’t we be, genius?” Rainbow asked, waving her hooves. “This isn’t even something we should worry about! I mean, the real worry for me is ponies finding out that Applejack and I are together,” she said in a loud voice, only to shove her own hoof in her mouth as reality kicked in. Eyes wide, she turned towards the crowd of ponies that looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“Ah swear,” Applejack whispered to Twilight with a straight face, “there are moments in which I don’t really know how this relationship still works.”

Pinkie giggled and Fluttershy covered her muzzle with her hooves, blushing a bit and mumbling an “Oh my…” underneath.

“Oh Celestia, what have I done?” the blue pegasus squeaked, planting her face in her hooves. “Oh well, so long my-chance-to-join-the-Wonderbolts!”

“That was it? THAT was what was bothering you? Oh, gee, will y’all relax?” Applejack intervened, placing a tender hoof on her marefriend’s head. “Big deal. Ah don’t think ponies care that much about such things anyway. Not even the Wonderbolts!”

“But what if they do?” she continued squeaking.

“Well, if they do, honey,” the orange earth pony concluded, lowering Rainbow’s hooves with her own as she looked her in the eyes, “y’all just show ‘em that it doesn’t matter.”

The pegasus lowered her ears and looked away, not very convinced of Applejack’s words.

“Something tells me that we should’ve had this conversation a long time ago, Rainbow…”

She looked back at her and nodded. “I’m sorry for being silly about it, AJ. We really should talk more about how we feel and stop trying to hide—“

“ENOUGH!” thundered Trixie, her fury building up inside her. “This is not how it’s supposed to be!” She stomped her hooves in anger, her horn letting out tiny gushes of green sparks. “Nopony is that honest! Nopony does the things you do! You are… abnormal!” she snarled at them in disbelief. They were supposed to be angry at each other, to show how dishonest they had been all this time, to finally reveal their true thoughts.

“That’s how the world goes,” Rainbow replied, with a little more courage in her voice. “Some ponies have secrets, it’s normal! It’s their choice. So what if we’re a bit abnormal?” she asked, pointing at herself and the other five, then turned back to Trixie. “You’re abnormal too, you know—I mean, just because we don’t have anything significant to hide from each other… you start fussing about like whiny bitch.”

“Rainbow!” Applejack gasped and the frowned towards her marefriend.

“Oops? Heh, um… I guess this spell is really effective, huh?” the Pegasus excused herself with an apologetic grin on her face.

Trixie was awestruck, her jaw hanging loose, as were the others. Snapping out of it, and taking advantage of the moment, Twilight quickly tried using her magic to grab the ring and pull it off Trixie’s horn. A green force-field shielded the ring from her as the cerulean unicorn turned to her, with a glimpse of panic in her eyes.

“How dare you!?”

“I can’t grab it with my magic!” Twilight shouted to her friends. “Take the ring from her!”

She knew it was stupid to just blurt their only plan out loud, but it made no difference. Their intentions have been clear all along. They had to stop Trixie before she could harm anypony else.

“Get away from me!” the trickster yelled as she backed away, terrified. She had lowered her guard for a few precious seconds and that was all it took to almost lose the ring. The mane six started cornering her into the side of a building. Her heart was pounding. She had to bring herself together, she must not give up so easily.

Her features suddenly contorted in a gaze of fury as she waved her horn towards them, screaming. A flash of green light met with a lavender one, as Twilight protected herself and her friends from Trixie’s spell. The impact threw everypony away from the explosion, scattering them. The cerulean mare was thrown into the side of the building as the others hit the ground hard.

Twilight rapidly got up, still dizzy from the shield-spell she used. “Trixie, listen to me! We don’t want to fight you!”

“I proved my point to Celestia! I don’t need you and your freaks to defy me!” the cerulean unicorn shouted, almost desperately.

“Why are you doing this? What do you want from us?!” Twilight replied as she used another protective spell against a flying stone hurled at her by Trixie. The cerulean unicorn started running towards a more open space.

Rainbow seized the chance and dashed towards the trickster, hooves ready to grab the source of her power. Trixie was quicker though and, with a swish of her magic, she sent the pegasus crashing to the ground. Suddenly, she got tackled from the side by an unexpected orange assailant as both of them hit the dirt. Applejack gave Trixie a mere second to regain her posture. Before the cerulean unicorn could do anything, the earth pony turned around and, without showing the slightest remorse, bucked her right in the face.

The mare groaned and hit the ground, tumbling once more, as lightning struck one of the nearby houses, setting it on fire. The orange pony panted heavily, angry, as the wind ruffled her mane, surrounding her with bits of ash and glowing embers.

“Keep yer filthy magic away from her,” Applejack snarled at the cerulean mare.

Despite the rain pouring down, the fire seemed to have started spreading with an unnatural force. Passing the earth pony and galloping as fast as they could, Pinkie and Rarity headed right for the ring. All of a sudden, before they reached her, Trixie got up. She focused her magic, ignoring the fact that her muzzle was bleeding. With a gesture that also provoked a sharp pain in her abdomen, she surrounded herself with green aura and started lifting herself off the ground. Her horn brightened once more as several rocks went flying towards the two ponies.

Quickly, Rarity used her own magic to parry a projectile. Then another one, and another as Pinkie rushed towards the mare. Behind the pink earth pony, Rainbow, Twilight and Applejack came galloping.

Rarity’s blue magic shined in front of them, skillfully clearing the way, clashing with the unicorn’s green tricks. “Twilight!” the white mare shouted as she focused her energy towards their main target.

While still running, Twilight got the message and focused as well. Two bright streams of magic—one purple, one blue—intertwined and shot towards the levitating mare who, taken by surprise, still managed to dodge in the last second.

Wiping the blood from her lower lip with her hoof, Trixie levitated herself even higher, only to be tackled from behind by somepony who, apparently, managed to sneak behind her, even at that height. Fluttershy tried grabbing the ring with her hooves as both ponies started falling. She barely managed to touch it when an electric shock went through her entire body.

The cerulean mare gained control once more and pushed off the yellow pegasus who would’ve fallen to her death had Rainbow not quickly caught her. Fluttershy was in pain, with her eyes shut. Rainbow flew away with her and gently put her down, away from the fight, into the hooves of the ponies that were still on the other side of the crack. They nodded to Dash, letting her know that they’ll take care of her fallen friend.

“Nice try, Shy,” she whispered to her, then, reluctantly, returned to the others who needed her help.

After receiving a reassuring nod from Rainbow, Twilight turned once more towards the cerulean mare. They couldn’t use magic nor could they touch the ring, that was clear to them so far.

“Trixie!” she shouted, not without a glint of anger in her voice. “You are not giving us any choice! We do not want to hurt you!”

“Speak fer yerself,” Applejack added as she came close to her marefriend. The bitterness in her voice sent shivers down Twilight’s spine as she never heard, or saw, her friend act like this before. “Twilight,” Applejack continued, “Ah don’t think any friendship lesson or good magic can save this one. That ain’t no rotten apple… that’s a rotten apple tree. No good can come out of it.”

“Listen to your friends, Twilight Sparkle!” the trickster shouted to her. “Come face me alone, unless you want anypony else getting hurt because of your cowardliness.”

The lavender mare looked at her, then back at her friends. She sighed. “Whatever happens, do not intervene. Not even you, Rarity,” she said, in a way that nopony could contradict her.

“But,” the white mare started, only to be cut off by her friend.

“No. If she wants me, then I’ll go. I do not want to risk anypony else—“

“That’s bullhay!” Rainbow shouted to her. “We are stronger together!”

“Yes, but maybe not this time… Everything has a meaning and a purpose. That’s what Ophil taught us, didn’t he? We trusted him so far…” she concluded, and with a hesitant look on her face she surrounded herself in a strong, purple aura, as she lifted herself off the ground.

She reached the same level of height, hoping that her choice was the right one. All those lessons she learned, everything she did—there had to be a way to solve this, to make it better. She tried to not look down and focused on the task at hoof. Celestia trusted her. She had to do her best, it was a test, it was all another test that she had to pass.

Lightning broke the dark sky in half as the two mares looked at each other.

“Trixie, listen to me,” she started, calmly, shouting to the other pony who was farther away. “I know that you suffered. I know how it is to be considered awkward or not being able to fit in properly.”

“You know nothing of such things,” the cold response came. “Don’t pretend you understand me. In fact, let’s be honest here. No, I mean it. Let’s be honest!”

Her horn lit up and a green light was cast towards Twilight, who expected that. She didn’t make the slightest gesture of blocking it as it hit, almost making her lose her concentration and fall. The Truth Spell made her feel scared. It made her feel angry. She knew that she had these emotions but she never expected them to be so strong. So overwhelming.

“You were saying?” the trickster mocked her. “You say you understand me?”

The lavender mare shifted, trying to get some sort of control over her emotions. There was no use fighting it, but she could at least try to channel it.

“I… don’t,” she replied, half-surprised by that fact. “I really don’t understand you… and I probably never will. But I think I understand why you are doing this.”

“I doubt it.”

“We all want to be accepted in one form or another, Trixie. You want to belong.”

“Horsehay. Meaningless words thrown together.”

“Trixie, listen…”

“No!” she shouted. “I’m done listening!”

Lighting up her horn, she cast a destructive spell towards the other unicorn.

Twilight dodged it. “This is your last warning!” she shouted back, furiously.

“Do your worst, Twilight Sparkle!” the reply came, along with three big rocks hurled towards her opponent.

Wish a gesture of her horn, Twilight obliterated the projectiles in a blinding light. Her horn then lit up in a strong purple glow as she materialized a glowing fishnet out of thin air and threw it over Trixie.

The cerulean mare did not back down and, using her magic, cut away through the trap, grinning. “Is that all you can do, student of Celestia?” She swiftly created three green-glowing swords that came flying towards Twilight. With a shield, the pony dispersed their attack.

“Twilight!” Applejack shouted from below. “Stop holdin’ back! Just take care of her, once and fer all!”

“We are given magic to do good,” Rarity added. “We tried everything, just end this!”
Pinkie Pie came rushing back from the crowd of ponies, where she had previously ran to. “Fluttershy is feeling worse, she needs help!”

“What’s wrong with her?” asked Rainbow.

“Nopony knows, she’s just breathing heavily and seems to be choking,” she explained and then looked up. “Twilight, whatever you decide to do, do it faster!”

The purple unicorn heard all that, as she dodged yet another attack from Trixie. Everything that her friends, along with Celestia, taught her was going against what she had to do now. Deciding in the last second, she charged her horn with as much energy as she had left and, closing her eyes, she sent that blast of purple energy towards her opponent. Trixie instantly responded with a thick, green bolt of magic that clashed with Twilight’s.

The impact created a shockwave that almost knocked the other ponies off their hooves as it spread the fire even further. The crowd started running away, terrified. Two ponies managed to carry Fluutershy to safety, away from the flames, while others desperately tried finding ways to put it out.

Trixie’s face was contorted in maddening fury as her bolt started gaining advantage over Twilight’s spell. Lightning lit up their faces once more, the storm giving out its last strikes, as Twilight did her best to control the powerful magic. She felt it was too much for her. Celestia herself could not control it. How could she?

With ever second, Trixie’s spell came closer and closer. Purple sparks surrounded the lavender unicorn’s horn as she used all the energy she had to protect herself from the inevitable impact.

It didn’t hurt. There was no loud bang. She just stopped, mid-air. Empty of everything. She failed. Not only herself, or her friends, or even Celestia. She failed Equestria.

With these last thoughts, Twilight Sparkle started slowly plummeting to the ground, defeated.

Ponyville was burning, casting deep shadows on Rainbow’s face as she stood there, on the wet ground, with the lavender unicorn in her arms. Floating embers found their demise as they touched the cobblestones around them. The smell of burning hay surrounded the place as the only sounds that echoed in the once happy town were now ones of loss and despair.

Rainbow didn’t usually listen to anypony, and Twilight was no exception. She couldn’t just sit there and watch her friend die. She barely managed to catch her before she hit the cobblestone below.

Now she was sitting there, with the others near her, watching over her friend as Trixie slowly descended. Despite everything that Twilight said to Rainbow, how could she not hate that cerulean mare?

Ophil’s words rang through her head.

A pony that fears itself.

Had their journey been in vain? Why did they travel so long and so far only to find something they could’ve found in other ways. There had to be other ways to find out that Trixie was the alicorn, so why this journey? Why did Celestia so carelessly sent them off with so little to gain.

A pony that fears itself.

An old pony’s mumblings on a distant island won’t help her now. She feared for herself, she feared for her friends and Ponyville, but mostly she feared for her marefriend. She feared that she won’t be able to protect her.

A pony that fears. Itself.

Then Rainbow realized something. It was almost too sudden, too clear, and made her mentally slap herself for not realizing it sooner. It might probably be too late for it now, but it was all she had. She actually saw it. She actually, really, truly understood.

“I get it!” she shouted, making the cerulean mare stop in her tracks, just a few feet away from them. Rarity, Pinkie and Applejack perked up their ears as Rainbow continued, looking at Trixie. “I get it now, I really do… and it’s okay to be scared.”

“I don’t know what you are saying,” Trixie replied, dismissively, and started approaching again.

“Twilight was wrong… but so were you! You are not doing this to show us our own, true faces. You are not doing this to prove we are fake towards each other.”

“Yes, I am,” she replied.

“No, you’re not. I mean, look at what you are doing. You are using a Truth Spell on all of us.”

“Yes, so you can see that you are all full of lies and deceitful acts!”

“No, Trixie… that’s what you think you are doing,” she replied, as the rain toned down. The sound of fire crackling filled the air, along with the smell of burnt wood. “Look again. You came to us, a long time ago, expecting to be accepted as somepony you were not.”

“No.”

“You wanted to be seen as great and powerful because you felt small and powerless in your own eyes.”

“Stop it!” the mare firmly said, her voice trembling.

“Isn’t it true?” she asked.

“Stop it!!”

“Tell me if I’m wrong or not.”

“You ARE wrong!”

“Yes, but only because the picture is not full. It’s not complete. I know because… I understand,” she said, slowly placing Twilight on the ground, letting the mare rest. She got up and continued. “You are making us unable to lie and you cover yourself in a disguise. Don’t you see, Trixie?”

“See what?” she asked, her heart skipping a jump, almost as if somehow, deeply, she always knew the answer.

Rainbow approached her, gently. “You want us to look at you. To see you for who you really are… You are not a trickster, you are not a bad pony… you just don’t know who you are yet and who you can become.”

Trixie kept looking at her, unsure of what those words made her feel.

“Trixie,” she continued, “you want to belong, but you don’t know where you could belong.”

The mares looked at each other then back at Rainbow. The cerulean unicorn felt a lump in her throat and backed off a few steps, unable to say anything more. How dare she say such things to her? How dare she…

“You and your stupid elements cannot summarize life like that!” the mare shouted, tears forming in her eyes. “It doesn’t work like that! There is so much more you are not talking about! There is HATRED and POVERTY! There is PAIN and s—suffering! There is… fear!”

“Yes, Trixie. You are right. You are absolutely right. The elements focus on the good things because those things are more powerful than the bad ones.”

“How can you say that when you so cowardly used them only to defend your own?! What about me? What about other ponies? You are a coward and you always will be!”

“Perhaps… I know that I am afraid. I am afraid of you. Of what you might do to me, or the ponies I love and care for. I am angry at you. I am furious at Celestia herself! It seems like she does absolutely nothing each time trouble appears… yet she does, doesn’t she? She does so much more than you and I could ever imagine. This, this too… this is meant to go the way it does.”

“What do you mean?”

“We are both cowards, Trixie. You and I… I am utterly afraid of being who I am in the eyes of others. It would be too much to handle, too much to lose if things go wrong… while you—you are also afraid of being who you truly are.”

“Lies.”

“I cannot lie, remember? That is the point of all this, isn’t it? To make us unable to lie to you. Even if you did not realize it at first.”

“You are wrong!”

“Then answer me this. Just this. One question,” Rainbow continued as she looked her in the eyes. “Why did you give up your disguise?”

The other ponies looked at each other once more, daring a small hope. Applejack smiled as she finally understood that Rainbow was right. “Fer a silly pony,” she mumbled to herself, “y’all sure are smart, Rainbow Dash.”

The pegasus continued. “You could’ve simply said that Twilight was wrong in guessing who you are. But you didn’t. You wanted to be found. You wanted to be seen.”

“She guessed out of luck!”

“No, Trixie…”

“Shut up!”

“I really, truly think you are Great and Powerful…”

“I said shut up!!”

“…just not in the way you imagine.”

Tears started running down the cerulean mare’s face. She felt angry and alone. She never lost those feelings, she merely buried them somewhere deep within her. Now, there she was, facing them again.

Rainbow nodded. “You spoke of our Elements. There are plenty more to be discovered, and not only here. We are scattered throughout Equestria,” she said, extending her hoof towards the sky and then placing it back on the ground. “We have to be. We met one, Ophil Gryasa. I only understood now that he represented the Element of Wisdom… and, Trixie, if you want to belong so much, why don’t you become one? Why don’t you become an Element? To use your strong magic to bring good to the world?”

“I am no element, you foolish pony,” the bitter voice of the unicorn uttered the first true words that night, that came from her quivering heart.

“Neither were we. We were not born as Elements of Harmony. We discovered them within, we learned to become what we needed the most.”

“That’s complete and utter nonsense. You said so yourself, I am no more than a coward! What Element of Harmony could I possibly be?” she asked, trying to back away, grinding her teeth, trying to fight back the tears that kept flowing.

“The Element of Courage,” the pegasus concluded.

The mare’s back legs gave and she found herself sitting, her tears mixing with the last drops of rain as she succumbed to the pain that followed her for so many years. Still, there was something more, something new—a glitter of hope. A solution. A salvation.

This was not another escape, it was an end. A possible end to her loneliness. She kept crying, overwhelmed by her emotions, the true victory that she had searched for so long being there, within her reach, for the first time in her life.

Somewhere, in the distance, a few brave ponies gathered to try and put out the flames. Their focused but worried looks reflected in Trixie’s eyes as she looked at them. She looked back at Rainbow and then at the lavender mare that was lying on the ground.

It was clear that the pegasus’ words resonated with something insider of her. Rainbow gently approached the mare. “It takes a lot of courage to exist,” she whispered. “Stop running away from yourself. You are who you are, and you are given limits so you can overcome them. What you cannot overcome, is not given to you to do.” She placed a hoof on the mare’s shoulders.

Trixie felt that touch, that honest and gentle touch. It made her feel… better. Still, she shook her head, her crying reduced to silent sighs. “How could I start to mend something that will never be perfect?”

“I don’t know,” the reply came. “But we all do our best. That is what matters.”

“But where would I begin?” the cerulean unicorn asked, lowering her gaze.

“Well, for starters, I think there are two ponies who would really need your help. You have proven that the magic you wield is pretty strong. Could you, maybe, try to do something good with it as well?”

Trixie knew that she was referring to Twilight and Fluttershy. Hesitating for a few seconds, she slowly got up and started walking slowly towards the lavender mare, her sighs and quiet sobs still with her.

Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie tensed up instantly and looked like they were about to form a wall between the unicorn and their friend. Rainbow nodded towards them and, reluctantly, they let her through.

The cerulean mare looked upon her “defeated opponent”… then looked at her, at “Twilight”—as if she started truly seeing her for the first time. That simple pony, wielding so much power, enough to pose a threat to Trixie’s plan, was just… there. Breathing lightly. Defenseless.

She looked at her, not fully being able to understand her. Not yet. Perhaps, one day… but, until then, she decided to try. After all, what did a pony who lost before the battle begun had to lose now?

She lit up her horn and sent a light green flow of magic, covering the lavender mare.

“Will she be okay?” Applejack asked, doing her best not to let any anger seep out through her teeth.

“Yes,” the unicorn replied, without turning around. “She just lost a lot of energy. I gave her enough to bring her back but she still needs rest.”

The ponies exchanged curious looks as the healer turned to them. “Where is the other one of your friends?”

Somewhere, in the background, a rainbow-maned pegasus let out a hidden sigh, relieved.

***

One of the nicest things about Ponyville was the fact that anypony could get a beautiful view over the entire town by just hiking up one of the surrounding tall hills. As wonderful as the smell of freshly baked pies is, sometimes you just need to get away from it and fill your lungs with the smell of grass, of nature; to listen to the sound of leaves and enjoy the passing clouds.

Applejack took all that in, as she sat down in the tall grass. It had been a week since they returned from their trip and, thankfully, in that particular morning she didn’t have to take care of anything regarding the farm. Her family was safe. It’s true, there were talks and rumors about her, which made things uncomfortable for everypony, especially at home. Even so, they were all safe, that was the most important thing.

Twilight and Fluttershy recovered pretty well and they were now helping the town’s ponies rebuild the houses that had been destroyed during the storm. Nothing surprising there, apart from one distinct element. Trixie.

The earth pony frowned as she closed her eyes, not fully agreeing with the situation at hoof. While Rainbow did an incredible thing, one she thought to be impossible to achieve, she still couldn’t fully trust the cerulean mare. Other ponies seemed to think the same as far as Applejack could notice—frowns and whispers seemed to surround the unicorn constantly yet, for some reason, she didn’t seem to care anymore. But not in a bad way.

“Changed” was too strong of a word at this time but something, somewhere inside that unicorn, started moving after Rainbow talked with her.

The earth pony smiled and opened her eyes. Sometimes, Ah wonder how Ah even survived so long without her beside me. She really is… how did Rarity put it? …ah, yeah… brilliant!

As if summoned by mere thought, the pegasus gently landed near her marefriend right then.

“Hey, AJ! Sorry I’m a bit late. Got caught up in helping Twilight find something,” she said and gave her a peck on the cheek.

“That’s okay, sugahcube,” the pony replied, nuzzling her mane. “Ah was just thinking of you.”

“Really? Heh, I didn’t mess up anything lately, right?”

“No, silly filly… Ah’m just thinking that Ah’m very proud of ya, that’s all,” she said, smiling.
The pegasus returned the smile and scooted closer to her. “Thanks,” she squeaked, unraveling one of her wings to shield her marefriend from the wind.

“Whaccha helped Twilight with?”

“Trixie left her the ring she used to cast magic. She said that she got it from some merchant from the North of Equestria. If there are more dark magic items there, we need to be prepared, so Twilight is studying it and reports everything to Princess Celestia.”

The earth pony nodded in approval. They sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying each other’s presence. Considering the circumstances, they were probably the only ones from their group that had a double-adventure. Not only did they have to fulfill their mission, they almost lost each-other while doing so.

For some reason, they both felt that they also took more out of the experience than the others did. The lessons they learned about communicating with each other and solving their problems together were of a “rare breed”, as one would say. There are no definitive rules in a couple’s development, just rules that they built and agreed upon together.

“Something troublin’ you, sugahcube?” she suddenly asked, noticing the worried look in Rainbow’s eyes.

“I just… don’t know what will happen to us. Things probably will never be the same.”

“Probably,” she agreed, “but who knows, really? What matters is that we have each other and, as long as we don’t start making it too obvious or make a show from it, we should be fine.”

“Yeah… I hope so.”

The orange pony took her marefriend’s cheeks in her hooves and tenderly drew her closer. “I know so,” she said and lovingly kissed Rainbow, taking away all her fears, even if for a brief moment, for there are some fears that only by ourselves we can conquer…

…and we don’t need to be alicorns to do that.

The End

Author’s notes:

My friends, thank you for finishing the story.
I am aware of the huge amount of time that went between Chapter 9 and Chapter 10.
Just glad we finished it together :)
~ W