Well, no one seems to be complaining so far, so here is the chapter I really wanted to write. Enjoy.
Marc looked up at Rosewood Cottage on its rustic hill. He hadn't bothered to look at it at all the night before. The entrance faced the path that led, eventually, to Fluttershy's cottage at the farthest reach of what was considered Ponyville. Either side of the entrance were the two housing wings made up of a series of arched rooms with low wide eaves under a turf roof. The building was quite old, having been a rest stop for travelers in the early days of the town. Now, it was basically a free bed for any decent pony who just wanted to crash there. Now that Marc thought about it, it was an awesome idea, something that humans would never manage to get right just by the nature of it's generosity.
Marc, though, had a far more important thing to be looking for. A certain Pegasus, in fact.
Marc stepped up to the doorstep. The door was wide open, as would be usual. He gulped and called into the quiet building, "Ditzy? Are you here?"
He heard a scuffle in both wings as two sets of hooves trotted towards the door. An Orange pegasus with a purple mane and a grey unicorn with a straw coloured mane, both fillies, popped from both sides at once, just to stop dead at the side of the Human in the doorway. "Oh! Hello mister... We were playing hide and seek, but...She was in the kitchen a minute ago, maybe you should look there."
Marc nodded his thanks and walked randomly down the west wing. "Uh, mister? the kitchen is that way...?" said the pegasus.
Marc turned and smiled at her. "Oh, thank you. What are your names?'
"I'm Scootaloo, and this is Ditzy's sister, Dinky." The filly pointed a hoof first at herself, then at her friend, who waved a hoof, politely.
"Thank you for your help. I need to speak to Ditzy now." Marc waved good bye to the slightly smiling fillies, then headed to the end of the east wing.
When he got to the door way, he saw Ditzy standing over the oven, frying a selection of fish while watching on some roasting vegetables on the other pan.
For a second Marc wondered whether such an undeniably clumsy pony should be cooking over an open flame, but he pushed it to the back of his mind before nervously knocking on the doorpost.
Ditzy's eyes were still a little red from crying earlier. She snuffled a little as she made supper. She may have been a clumsy mare usually, but when it came to caring for her little sister and anyone else who ever stayed at Rosewood, no one could question her determination to succeed. As she was vengefully prodding the fish and vegetables around in their respective pots, she couldn't help thinking about Marc.
Why hadn't he liked Rosewood? He'd been upset the night before, for no reason, and when he had woken up, he had looked stricken and angry. He had shouted at Rainbow Dash about not wanting to be friends and wanting to leave Ditzy's precious home, before storming out without a word. How could he?
That was why she was all the more surprised to see him standing at the kitchen door.
"Hey, Ditzy..." He whispered.
She didn't reply. She couldn't. Words that normally formed slowly on her tongue anyway now seemed to choke her as tears began to build behind her eyes, which totally lost focus. She couldn't take any more mean things he had to say.
Marc looked at her, a tone of heartbreak slipping into his voice as he saw how much pain he'd caused, "Ditzy, I'm sorry for this morning...And I owe you an explanation..."
Marc went on to explain to Ditzy all he had told Vinyl and Pinkie, along with his own private realizations about his mistakes that day. Regret leaked out of every word he spoke, as he looked at some point just past Ditzy's shoulder, unable to look her in the eye for shame of what he'd done.
"Ditzy," He said in closing, the emotion of the day and his past beginning to break him, "I understand if you want me to leave now, but I had to apologize for being so terribly, terribly cruel to you, you didn't do anything to deserve it..." Seeing no reaction, Marc began to stand away from the door. "Well, I'll get going-"
He didn't get any further, as Ditzy dashed away from her oven and hit him square in the chest hard enough to knock him flat on the floor.
She punched him with a hoof as she lay on top of him, and said, "T-there...n-now we can s-say we are...even." She nuzzled his neck as she stood up and flew out the door...again.
Marc was more than a little confused at this show of aggression/affection, before realizing that the kitchen was now unattended, since he had once more upset the caretaker.
Well, he couldn't go wrong by finishing up dinner.
It didn't take to cook the fish (for Scootaloo and Ditzy he assumed) and the vegetables. There wasn't enough for him, but he wasn't hungry after the very emotional day, and he wouldn't have had time anyway; His stomach was still in a knot as he remembered that he now had to do it all again with Rainbow Dash.
As if summoned, he heard Pinkie Pie calling him from the main door. Marc dished up the three servings and left them on the counter. He turned off the stove and steeled himself for a very difficult apology to come.
He walked out and immediately saw Rainbow hovering unhappily above a bouncy Pinkie Pie. Marc was a little taken aback by how Pinkie had retrieved the recalcitrant pegasus: a piece of rope lead from Rainbow's waist to Pinkie's foreleg.
'Pinkie said I had to come for some reason. This better be really good." Mumbled Rainbow Dash, obviously peeved with the turn of events.
Marc ignored the impossibilities of Pinkie's methods (Rainbow should have easily been able to just carry Pinkie off) and got right down to what he had to say. Ditzy sat in her tree watched as Marc tried to explain to the irate mare why he had made such a an idiot of himself that morning. He explained the time he'd spent in the system of the state, without freedom, or friendship, and how difficult it had been to earn the right to freely see those left that cared for him, and the struggle it had been for him to keep those friends close despite the apathy of the organization that had controlled his life.
But when he tried to explain why he was in that system in the first place...his family's murder before his eyes... He stopped, and trailed off. He couldn't say it again, not in these circumstances, not with Rainbow just hovering there, no change to her expression.
Mac cleared his throat, and said in ending;"I hope that you can see through to forgive me my actions, it's all I can ask."
Rainbow was so confused. Yesterday, Marc had been so calm and sweet, befriending half the town in half an hour while she had watched in amazement from a cloud above the square. She had waited all night at Rosewood just to apologize for her bungle of an introduction, but he had flipped, turning her away as she tried to open up to him. Now here he was, doing exactly what she had tried to that very morning.
Asking forgiveness.
Everypony watched Rainbow hover undecidedly in the air. Marc was beginning suspect an unhappy ending to this evening. He looked down, accepting her rejection. He had hurt her. She had the right.
Suddenly Rainbow shot up into the sky, so sharply that it snapped the rope holding her to Pinkie, earning a squeak from the pink mare as she was flipped over.
Then she dropped to the ground, her nose inches from Marc's as she rested her hooves on his shoulders to look him straight in the eye. "Never, EVER, say anything like that again."
Pinkie cheered as Rainbow pulled Marc into a hug. Ditzy jumped around on her branch, beaming with joy.
Marc sighed with relief.
Then Pinkie barreled into them and began pushing them towards town, "Come on! Marc has to visit Vinyl!"
Marc ignored how she even knew that as he allowed himself to be pushed, but not before calling over his shoulder. "Ditzy? Come with! I finished dinner, the fillies can find it in the kitchen!"
She flew over without hesitation, bumping into him accidentally on landing. Marc smiled and patted her on the back, banishing her embarrassment.
When Pinkie knocked on Vinyl's door, the grey mare from the concert the night before, the cellist Octavia, greeted them and ushered them up to the sounding room.
Soon, they were all seated on puffy beanbags in front of Vinyl's personal sound booth. "Ya all set?" She asked by way of greeting.
Three ponies and a human all nodded in agreement.
Otcavia began pulling her cello from behind her, saying. "Marc, Pinkie came and told us about your predicament today, and Vinyl and I," She nodded to the smiling unicorn in her booth, "decided that considering the circumstances, this deserved a special song, so here you are..."
As the notes of Octavia's expert movements mixed with Vinyls' perfectly complementary playback, the room was filled with hauntingly beautiful music that filled company's hearts with a spirit of joy and contentment. Rainbow Dash sat up straight, her head gently moving in time with the song, a smile spreading across her face.
Marc looked over to her for a second, happy, before his attention was drawn to Ditzy, who snuggled up to his side and nuzzled her way into his embrace, resting her head on his chest, her expression radiating her relief and joy.
Marc held her as he listened to the two musicians as they swept away all his misgivings and his heart began to soar. He smiled.
Pinkie could be heard to squee into her hoof in the background as the friends let themselves be floated away on the mesmerizing music.