Madmare's Paradise

My eyes open slowly. It’s hard to see. My head hurts. My leg hurts worse. Something is on my leg. I can’t tell what it is. Don’t know what happened.

“Hey,” calls out a familiar voice.

I turn my head and try to focus on the pony like shape in front of me.

“Bon Bon?”

“I’m here,” says the shape as it coalesces into Bon Bon. “How do you feel?”

I look down at myself and see that my leg is wrapped in a makeshift splint. I must have fallen out of the sky when the magic hit me.

“Everything hurts. Just give me a second to clear my head.”

“Alright,” says Bon Bon.

I lay still and focus on my body. My leg is broken and I might have a concussion. That is never a good thing for me to have.

IB focusN on my leg.

R K bo he l together. Splint comes o f f.

O E ne a

I slowly get my hooves underneath me and start to stand up.

“Careful,” cautions Bon Bon.

I look around and find myself in a room. It appears to be part of the blue mare’s house. There are other ponies unconscious on the other end of the room. Two ponies that I don’t recognize enter the room and start to check on the others.

“I don’t know what you did,” says Bon Bon. “But you saved the town.”

“No I didn’t. She did.”

“Who?” asks Bon Bon.

“The blue mare did it. She sacrificed herself to fix everything that she broke. I must have convinced her that it was the right thing to do.”

Bon Bon stares at me for a second. Then she smiles at me.

“Don’t smile at me. I was going to kill her.”

“What?” Bon Bon frowns at me.

“She hurt you and Lyra. I got really mad. I almost lost control but I re… Where is Lyra? Is she alright?”

“Lyra is fine,” Bon Bon reassures me. “She is securing our antagonist. It seems that she has had a mental breakdown. Lyra wants to take her back to Ponyville with us so that she can receive proper medical care.”

Bon Bon pauses and gives me a stern look. “What did you do to her exactly?”

“While we were fighting I noticed that something was wrong with her. I got her to start talking to me and she said that she had a brain injury. She was using the amulet to repair her brain by damaging others’ minds. I took her up into the sky to show her what she was doing to the town and she felt bad about what she did. Then she jumped. A burst of magic hit me and I blacked out.”

“So you didn’t hurt her at all?” Bon Bon asks me.

I shake my head quietly. I am still upset with myself for wanting to hurt the blue mare. I lost control. I should never lose control.

“Don’t look so down. You did save the town after all,” Bon Bon reassures me. “Why don’t you go find Lyra. She will be glad to see that you are alright.”

I nod my head and slowly walk out of the room. As I make my way down the stairs I see more of Marenonia’s residents. Some of them still look dazed but the majority of them seem to be normal again.

I step outside and notice that the storm has passed into the distance. Lyra is nearby, fiddling with a box. I walk over to her, curious as to what she is doing.

“Hey,” Lyra calls out to me. “Look who’s up.”

I stop next to Lyra and watch her place the blue mare’s amulet in an ornate box. Lyra closes the box and casts a spell on it before placing it in her saddlebags.

“Looks like you saved the day, Pandemonium Princess.” Lyra nudges me playfully in the side. Sometimes I wish she would stop coming up with these silly names for me. “I’m just locking away the evil amulet. Did Bon Bon tell you what happened to the bad guy?”

I nod my head quietly. The two of us stand there in silence for a moment.

“Am I a monster?”

“Where did you get a screwball idea like that from?” asks Lyra.

“The blue mare asked me if she was a monster before she fell.”

“And,” Lyra looks me in the eye, “What did you tell her?”

“I told her that she was not a monster.”

“Even though you may not think so,” Lyra says, “you are a kind hearted pony. You really don’t need to second guess yourself and hide all the time.”

Everything Lyra says is true, to an extent. Somehow I still can’t bring myself to believe it. Maybe I am the only one who thinks that I am a monster. A sensible conclusion to make since the only other ponies that know I exist are Lyra, Bon Bon, and the Princesses.

I had always worried that others would see me as a monster. So I made myself empty, kept myself hidden. Now I know that I am not a monster, nor am I empty. The question now is, what should I be? My brow contorts as I think hard about this dilemma.

“You really are a screwball sometimes.” Lyra starts laughing. “But only when you aren’t trying to be all quiet and brooding.”

Lyra and I laugh together for a moment. I’m not even sure why I am laughing. Am I really a screwball? Acting weird and playing pranks should come naturally to me but I never let myself behave that way. Not after seeing what was done to my father when he was acting that way.

“Come on you screwball,” Lyra calls out to me. “Let’s get ready to go home. The train will be here in an hour.”

Does she have to keep calling me a screwball? At least screwball is better than ‘Pandemonium Princess.’ Actually, anything would be better than being called ‘Pandemonium Princess.’ Even Mare of Misdirection wasn’t that bad. I suppose that all of this name calling could have been avoided if I had simply picked a name for myself, or if my father had thought to give me a name before he was imprisoned.

Since I have nothing to pack up before we leave I decide to meander around Marenonia before heading to the train station. The feeling of oppression and loneliness is much less prevalent now. Some of the farmers who are back on their hooves have begun working together to repair a few of the houses. Others are carrying on conversations, most are curious about what happened.

As I watch them I remain inconspicuous, mostly out of habit. It is a habit that I may want to start breaking. I don’t want to keep hiding forever. At least I don’t anymore.

Eventually I end up at the train station. There are a surprising amount of ponies waiting for the train. Listening to their conversations I realize that they are all from out of town. They are travelers who stopped by and ended up trapped here.

I sit and wait quietly amongst the other travelers. A few minutes pass and I see Bon Bon walking towards me.

“Hi,” Bon Bon says as she sits next to me. “Lyra is going to be busy securing our prisoner. She said that she would meet us on the train. So, how are you feeling? Are your wounds all healed up?”

I nod at Bon Bon silently.

“You were more talkative earlier,” Bon Bon comments. “It seems that you’ve gone back to being quiet and mysterious again.”

“Would you… like me to talk more often?”

“Well I definitely would not be opposed to it,” Bon Bon says cheerfully.

“Maybe I will then, occasionally.”

Bon Bon smiles as we continue to wait for the train. It does not take long for it to arrive. Once it pulls up Bon Bon and I board and find our seats. The train sits idle for a time, even after everypony has boarded. Presumably this is due to Lyra making special arrangements to transport the blue mare safely.

Once the train starts moving I feel relieved. The thought of returning to Ponyville is comforting for some reason. I am not sure why. Shortly after the train starts up Lyra enters our car. She comes over and sits next to Bon Bon.

“Well, I am glad that that is all done,” Lyra yawns. “I'm looking forward to taking a nice long travel nap.”

A railway employee enters the car. It somehow is the same one that checked our tickets on our way to Marenonia. As he makes his way through the car he recognizes us.

“Oh, it’s you three again,” he says happily. “You guys aren’t going to prank me again are you?”

Lyra pops her head up. She stares at me with that mischievous smile across her face. Bon Bon doesn’t notice as she is handing over our tickets. The ticket taker looks them over then hands them back to Bon Bon and moves on. Lyra pouts and sinks back into her seat.

I guess it couldn’t hurt pulling a little prank. As the ticket taker leaves the car I concentrate and focus my mind, then let go of my inhibitions. ReEnter a ra a rail wy

A railWay

A railway employee enters the car. It is the same one that checked our tickets before. As he makes his way through the car he recognizes us.

“Oh, it’s you three again,” he says happily. Then he looks confused. “You guys were in the last car weren’t you? How did you get here?”

Lyra pops her head back up. She stares at the ticket taker then looks at me. A smile comes across my face. Lyra bursts out laughing as she falls back into her seat. Even Bon Bon chuckles a little.

“Looks like you got me again,” the ticket taker says. “You are good at this Ms… umm Direction was it?”

“You can call me Screwball.”

“Alright Ms. Screwball,” he says. “I hope you and your friends have a pleasant trip.”

As the railway employee leaves again Lyra looks over at me. “I told you that you were a screwball,” she gloats.

I am beginning to think that Lyra was right.