This fanfiction is intended to be a proof-of-concept for ideas that could be used for in the future for Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise; therefore, the author of this work hereby grants Hasbro Inc. and its affiliates and licensees, including but not limited to DHX Media, express, written permission to use, create derivative works of, sell, claim as their own intellectual property, and in general take any action they see fit with all and any content of this fanfiction, including, but not limited, to narration, dialog, story elements, story events, names of characters, names of fictional locations, names of fictional objects, fictional properties assigned to objects that exist in real life, character traits and backstories, worldbuilding elements, lyrics, and fictional magic spells. The author of this work relinquishes all and any intellectual property rights for all and any content of this fanfiction work to Hasbro Inc. and its affiliates and licensees, including but not limited to DHX Media.
Fluttershy felt strange about the experience of travelling from one world to another, but she felt much safer knowing that she was making the trip alone, with no ponies to yell at her or take her things or be mean to her. She didn't know what Cumuland would be like, but she did know that her brother and Rarity wouldn't be there, and that was enough to make her want to say the spell that Twilight had told her. Oh, thank goodness she had a good memory, and could remember it word-for-word!
Cumuland rushed at her suddenly, a blue and white marble that exploded towards her from the blackness of space. The next thing she knew, she was sitting on a cloud, still wrapped up in Twilight's rain poncho, underneath a starry sky with a bright full moon shining down on her, with Shining Armor's saddlebags sitting next to her.
She gasped when she saw those saddlebags-she hadn't meant to steal their precious jewels! Now she was a thief...! She'd been so afraid, she hadn't realized that she had been stealing Twilight's raincoat, stealing the jewels Twilight had trusted her with that were hidden in her raincoat's pockets, stealing Shining Armor's bags, and even stealing the star emerald she'd used to get to Cumuland at all! She didn't want to be a thief!
She started crying again-Twilight and Applejack and Shining Armor had been so nice to her, but if they hadn't started to hate her before, now they certainly must hate her for stealing their rubies and emeralds!
After a few minutes of crying, Fluttershy consoled herself with a reminder that she'd always known it'd be a only matter of time before those three would start hating her, so no matter what she did, that hate was inevitable. Yes, she thought to herself, It's only logical...nothing I try to do, nothing I try to avoid doing, would make any difference in the end. Ponies hate me. That's just how it is.
But now she began to wonder whether there was a way she could return as much of the stolen goods as possible...Maybe I could use the spell again with a rainbow diamond to go back to Unicornia and give them back as many of their things as I can? But then she remembered that Shining Armor had told her that they'd traded all their rainbow diamonds for rubies and just a few emeralds. Maybe I could use a mountain ruby to travel to Ponyland and leave their things there? ...But just where in Ponyland would I end up? And how would they know where they should look for their things? I don't know my way around Ponyland-and I couldn't ask another pony for directions once I got there, because they'd hate me! Fluttershy sobbed again. There's nothing I can do to make up for everything that I just stole!
After a few more minutes of sitting there, feeling sorry and sorry for herself, Fluttershy looked around and saw that the cloud she was on didn't connect to any land. There was a huge, crashing sea dotted with forested islands beneath her, and lots of other clouds in the sky around her-some huge, some small, even some in the distance that looked like they had cities built on top of them. But she saw no way to get from one cloud to another.
She took down her (well, Twilight's) hood so she could have a better look around. After all, there were no ponies to see her, so she didn't need to restrict her field of vision any more, not like she'd needed to in Unicornia-
"G'day!" a shout came from above her.
She gasped and shrank down to the floor-whoever had said that had seen her, and would undoubtedly hate her already! And she couldn't use the world-travelling spell to get away, either, since it takes so long to cast the spell: they'd see her and take the gems away before she could finish, just to be mean to her!
"Are you a unicorn?!" a second voice shouted. "Hey-you are a unicorn!"
"Cadence's mane! I thought unicorns were a myth!" the first voice shouted back, getting closer by the second. Fluttershy looked up through squinted eyes and saw it belonged to a blue pony with a rainbow-colored mane and wings! She'd never seen a pony with wings before!
"Me too," the second voice answered. Fluttershy turned her head and saw a second flying pony, with bubblegum-pink fur and darker pink, curly hair. This pink pony continued, "I thought the myth started when a traveler was describing a rhinoceros, but then a lot got lost in translation, and then when somepony said 'I don't believe in no unicorns,' somepony else decided 'I'll just make some proof that they're real!' And then he went and got some pony fossils and some narwhal tusk, and-hey, why's she wearing a rain slicker? Ooo, don't you think rain slickers make everything look so much cuter?"
"'Course I think that!" the rainbow pony answered. "And that's why you wouldn't see me dead in a rain slicker!"
"Well, of course I wouldn't see you dead in one!" The pink pony giggled, "That's the whole point! You wear a rain slicker so you don't catch pneumonia, and then, you live!"
They both laughed-the rainbow pony because of how the pink one had missed the point, and the pink one because she thought the blue one was just being silly.
But laughter had a completely different meaning to Fluttershy. What was an expression of fun and contentment and silliness and stress-relief and all the good things in life to other ponies was to Fluttershy an expression of hate and exclusion and cruelty and despair and horrible loneliness. The moment she heard those two ponies laughing, she knew: there was no hope left. They absolutely hated her already, and she had nowhere to go!
Out of tears, she undid the clasps on the front side of Twilight's raincoat and let it fall to the cloud beneath her. It wouldn't do her any good now. She sadly walked up to the edge of her cloud and looked down at the ocean below. If she jumped, one of two things would happen: either she'd die, or else she'd have a chance to find some friendly animal in the ocean who could take her someplace safe, someplace far away from ponies. Either of those possibilities was better than this. So she closed her eyes and jumped.
For a few seconds that felt like hours, Fluttershy felt the cold ocean winds ruffling her yellow fur and her pink mane and tail. They even made her horn vibrate in ways that added to her dizziness in freefall. She kept her eyes closed; she figured that the sight of the ocean rushing up at her would terrify her even more, and her poor heart was so exhausted of being terrified! At this point, she was actually hoping that this would be death. She'd been told by her mother while she was still alive that ponies who did their best to be good would go on to a better place called paradise after they died, and she had done her best. She'd failed at times; she didn't mean to steal those rubies and emeralds, or even steal Twilight's raincoat or her brother's bags-those were on accident! So maybe, just maybe, if this killed her, she'd go on to paradise, where she could finally be free of all this fear!
Just as she was thinking about this, she felt warm arms wrap themselves around her front legs and back legs, and felt her fall get slower and slower, until she was going up instead of down. This is it! she thought. I've died, but it must have 'appened so fast, I didn't feel any pain. That was nice! And these must be angels, coming to carry me away to paradise! Maybe now I can see my mommy again!
But then it occurred to Fluttershy that the curse might still be on her: what if, while she was in paradise, every pony who looked at her would still hate her? What if the justice of that place allowed her inside, but she still caused hate in everypony there? What if her own mother would hate her as soon as she saw her?
Fluttershy's heart sank at this thought, but an even worse thought came up after that-one that made her wish she could shrink and shrink until she became nothing at all: she wondered if she would spoil paradise simply by being there! Hate was a terrible thing, a thing that shouldn't exist at all in a wonderful place like paradise. And if she was a bringer of hate, then no matter how well-behaved she was, she shouldn't go to paradise at all! But the thought of going to the other, awful place for ponies went who were bad was terrifying to Fluttershy!
She had kept her eyes shut this whole time, and now she clenched them tighter, terrified that, if she opened them, she'd be greeted by the sight of wicked ponies being tortured with fire and lava and monsters and cruel, sharp things! In desperation, she pleaded to the two angels that were carrying her soul, "Please...is there some...quiet corner of Paradise where you can leave me, so I'll be alone, where I won't disturb any other ponies?"
Up until now, Fluttershy had no idea that it wasn't angels, but the very same pink and rainbow pegasus ponies who had been flying above her that had snatched her out of her death-drop and were carrying her up to another cloud, and that she was still alive. But she got an idea as soon as she heard the pink one say, "Paradise? But...you're not dead!"
Fluttershy took a few moments to process this, and in that time, they'd already set her down on another, larger cloud not far from the cloud where she'd first appeared. But before she'd fully processed the fact that she wasn't dead, something else happened-something that, for the first time in ten years, had been something a pony did that meant "I love you" to Fluttershy instead of meaning "I hate you": the pink one had hugged her. And she'd hugged her in a way that a unicorn never could: her hooves were wrapped around her shoulders, and her wings were wrapped around her back and head like cozy, feathery blankets. Fluttershy had been so cold from her fall that the feel of that warmth felt like paradise to her! Fluttershy couldn't help herself-it had been so long since she'd felt a hug from another pony that she just had to hug her back and cry into her shoulder!
She couldn't get many tears out, but her breaths were gasping and quick.
"Pinkie Pie, I ain't so sure you should be hugging a loonie!" the rainbow pegasus warned her.
"But she needs a hug! Can't you see she needs it worse than anything?"
"I'm just worried about what we're getting involved in, here! I mean, if she's mad, shouldn't we be calling the jacks or something?"
"Shh! Rainbow Dash, don't say anything that might upset the poor shiela! Just go get her things!"
Rainbow Dash didn't say anything else; she just flew over to the tiny cloud where Twilight's raincoat and Shining Armor's saddlebags were resting. Fluttershy worked up the courage to open her eyes and saw Rainbow Dash on that tiny cloud, but she did something Fluttershy hadn't realized was possible: she stomped her front hooves on the cloud, and a bridge made of magic rainbow colors jumped out of the small cloud, arced toward the cloud she was sitting on, and a moment after the rainbow connected the two clouds, Rainbow Dash walked on top of the rainbow as if it were a solid bridge, carrying the saddlebags and cape over her back. "Ooof!" Rainbow Dash complained. "What do you have in here, rocks?"
Fluttershy swallowed hard. "Yes!" she whimpered.
"...What?!"
"But they're not mine!" Fluttershy sobbed.
"...WHAT?!"
"Oh...I didn't mean to steal them, honest I didn't!" Fluttershy sputtered. "But I 'ad to get away; I only meant to take one star emerald to use the spell to come 'ere, but then Shining Armor's saddlebags were so close to me that they came with me!"
"...WHAT?!"
"Rainbow Dash, stop saying what all the time!" Pinkie scolded. She looked back at Fluttershy, but Fluttershy looked down as soon as their eyes met. "I'm sure you'll explain everything, in a way we can understand, once you're ready, won't you?" she asked.
Fluttershy could only sob back.
Pinkie's reply to that sob was to pull Fluttershy in closer, rest her head on her shoulder, and hug her even tighter. "Of course you will!" she added, nuzzling Pinkie a little.
Rainbow Dash dropped the raincoat and the bags on the cloud. "Did she say something about a star emerald? Aren't those the most valuable gems that exist?"
"Shh. She'll tell us all about it after she's had a good cry. Just let her be for a little longer."
After a few more minutes, after Fluttershy had gotten quieter, Pinkie lifted Fluttershy's chin and asked her softly, "Now...can you explain who you are, and how you got here, and what you mean about star emeralds, and about rocks that aren't yours?"
Fluttershy sniffled back a tear and began, "Me name's Fluttershy. I'm from Unicornia."
"What-another planet?!" Rainbow Dash asked, getting excited.
"Yes...and there's a 'orrible curse on me that makes anypony who looks at me 'ate me!"
"Well, my cousin Rainbow Dash and I don't hate you, do we?" Pinkie looked at Rainbow Dash for an answer.
Rainbow stammered, "Wha-'course we don't! We wouldn't have saved your skin if we did!"
Pinkie looked back at Fluttershy. "Now...how did you get here from another planet? We didn't see a spaceship, but we did see a light in the sky that fell down around here-was that you?"
"I...I don't know if it was me, but it wasn't a spaceship that brought me 'ere; it was a magic spell."
Rainbow Dash's wings spread upwards in excitement. "A magic spell? You've got magic?"
"Of course she does, she's a unicorn!" Pinkie insisted.
"Now you've got me real interested!" Rainbow Dash smiled. "How's the magic spell work? Can anypony do it, or is it just unicorns?"
"I...I think anypony can do it. You need a gem in your 'ooves, and which gem you use decides which world you get to. I think rainbow diamonds get you to Unicornia, mountain rubies get you to Ponyland where the earth ponies live, and star emeralds get you 'ere to Cumuland."
Pinkie's and Rainbow Dash's jaws dropped. "A star emerald? It takes the most expensive gem to get here!? ...Crikey, I knew we were special! How'd you find out about this spell?"
"Twilight told me about it-it goes like this:
Magic gem with magic might,
Unleash your magic, lovely light!
Through airless space be safely hurled
My party to another world!
"That's very pretty," Pinkie told Fluttershy, trying to encourage her. "But who's Twilight?"
"She's the earth pony explorer who found the spell. I saved her life and her brother's life and her friend's life from a bear with me animal-talking magic...but..." Fluttershy suddenly grew sad as she remembered: "But by now...she must 'ate me!"
"Why?" Pinkie asked, still holding Fluttershy. "How could she hate you if you saved her life and the lives of two other ponies she cares about?"
"B...because I accidentally took her brother's saddlebags with me when I cast the spell, and they're full of 'er rubies and emeralds! Oh, but I didn't mean to take all those precious gems away from 'er and 'er brother!"
"So...you jumped off the cloud to drown yourself so the jacks wouldn't get you? Sounds like a song I heard once..." Rainbow Dash asked.
"J-jacks?"
"Don't say things that might scare her!" Pinkie hissed, hugging Fluttershy even more tightly.
Fluttershy hugged her back and howled, "That's not the only thing-I cast the spell to get here because I just 'ad to get away from me brother and Rarity! They were 'orribly mean to me when I was a filly, so mean that I ran away from 'ome before I finished school!"
"And the way they treated you was what made you think everypony hates you?" Pinkie asked.
"And the way everypony around me just laughed at me when they stole me teddy bear! I knew they 'ated me, and that any grown-up I could ask for 'elp would 'ate me, too!" Fluttershy began sobbing and shaking uncontrollably. "Oh...I feel so cold!"
"Hush now," Pinkie whispered, putting Twilight's raincoat back around Fluttershy's shoulders. "If there's going to be any trouble about that bag, Rainbow Dash and I will just take it to the police and say we found it lying around. If Twilight comes chasing a jewel thief, the first thing she'll do is go to the police, so the police will just give it back, and once she's got it back, then she won't have to chase you anymore, see?"
Fluttershy shuddered. "Thank you!" she whispered, pulling the hood back up over her face.
At that moment, another light flashed down onto the same small cloud that Fluttershy had landed on.
"Uh-oh," Pinkie thought aloud, "That looked just like the light that brought you here!"
"We might not have time to take that bag to the jacks, after all!" Rainbow Dash cautioned.
Fluttershy looked at the cloud, and gasped. "It's them!" she whispered.
As the light faded, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie saw five ponies-two unicorns and three earth ponies. One of them spotted them with a pair of binoculars and shouted and pointed down at them.
"Run for it!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "Leave the bags; maybe they'll be satisfied!"
The three mares sprinted away as the five ponies crossed the rainbow bridge to their cloud. "Where are we going?" Fluttershy shouted between gasps.
"We'll make another bridge to the next cloud," Rainbow Dash explained. "And as soon as you're across, we'll break it so they can't follow-if you didn't know how to make a rainbow bridge, then maybe they won't, and then we'll have lost them!"
Shining Armor rushed up to the saddlebags that the three mares had abandoned, and recognized them immediately. "Fluttershy must be one of those three mares!" he shouted, giving Twilight's saddlebags back to her.
"This doesn't make much sense," Applejack thought aloud. "If Fluttershy thinks everypony hates her, then why would she be with two other ponies?"
"I don't know," Zephyr admitted. "How I wish I knew how her mind worked now...! Ten years living like a wild animal...what does that do to a pony's mind?"
"Do we still go after her?" Twilight asked. "I mean...she's afraid of us, now! Isn't chasing her just going to make her feel more afraid?"
"I've spent every day for the last ten years regretting something I did as a schoolcolt, wishing I could see my sister again," Zephyr protested. "If we stop now, we may never get another chance to track her down! And for all we know, those two pegasus ponies she's with are going to hold her for ransom, as they may know that we are a wealthy family." Zephyr raised his sword, still mostly in its scabbard, and clacked the hilt against the scabbard. "If that's their plan, they've made a terrible mistake!"
"That's not likely," Shining Armor observed, looking in his bags. "All the gems are still here; if they were after money, they'd have taken these!"
"Unless they didn't know they were here," Rarity pointed out.
Meanwhile Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were ushering Fluttershy to a different cloud. As soon as she was off the rainbow bridge, Rainbow Dash flew to the side of it and bucked it. The rainbow seemed to crack, then faded away in a shower of sparkles. "Keep running," she shouted to Pinkie and Fluttershy, "I'll keep an eye on them to see if they're still following us!"
She turned and saw that the five ponies had stopped at the saddlebags and were talking to each other, which was definitely giving them a head start. She crouched down on her cloud to try to make it harder for them to see her and waited to see what they'd do next.
Twilight spoke up: "Listen...if all five of us keep chasing her, then it'll just scare her more. If Zephyr and I go ahead and try to talk with them, then maybe they'll let Fluttershy come back with us-I've spoken with Fluttershy before; she might trust me."
Zephyr nodded, using his unicorn magic to levitate a diamond and an emerald into his jacket pockets. "The emerald if we need to offer a bribe, the diamond to get her back," he explained. He set his umbrella down by Shining Armor's saddlebags and gave his wife a kiss.
"Stay safe, darling," Rarity whispered.
"I shall, dearest."
"Don't do anything too dangerous, Twilight," Shining Armor cautioned her. "We're a long ways up!"
"We'll be careful," she insisted.
They walked up to the edge of their cloud, looking at the cloud where they knew Fluttershy had fled to. "How are we to proceed?" Zephyr asked.
"I thought I saw them making a rainbow bridge by stomping down on the cloud at the edge...let me try it..." Twilight reared and brought her hooves down hard on the cloud's edge. A jet of colored light flew high up into the air, at a much steeper angle than Twilight had intended, and then came crashing down and fell and fell until it hit a wave on the ocean below. As soon as the magical light touched the water, the whole proto-rainbow disintegrated.
Rainbow Dash was still watching them, and when she saw this, she burst out laughing. Those greenhorns had no idea what they were doing, or even how to get around in Cumuland! Of course, if they hadn't known she was there before, the certainly knew it now that they'd heard her laughing, but Rainbow didn't care, because they couldn't reach her!
Twilight frowned. "Okay," she growled, "Let's try that again...!" Twilight stomped the cloud's edge with less force and more of a slight forward push as her hooves connected. This time, the colored light fired almost straight forward, but didn't arc upwards at all. In fact, it arced downwards and disintegrated when it hit the sea.
Rainbow Dash laughed even harder. "You drongos couldn't catch a cold!" she taunted them.
"Now see here," Zephyr shouted back at her. "That's my sister you're carrying away!"
"Carrying away? What're you on about?! We're helping her get away from you! She just tried to drown herself about ten minutes ago because she was so afraid, and it's you that she's afraid of!"
Zephyr froze, but for a reason Rainbow Dash couldn't have guessed at: her accusation had scored a bullseye. If he hadn't been so tense at the time, he probably would've shed a tear at that.
But his guilt was interrupted when Twilight again slammed her hooves on the cloud's edge, this time with more forward momentum and just the right amount of force, and the rainbow light arced right into Rainbow Dash's cloud and formed a solid bridge.
Rainbow Dash gasped and flew back toward Pinkie and Fluttershy. "They're coming!" she shouted. She looked around and saw a small cloud that was pretty far away from any other cloud. "I know how we can lose them! Pinkie, get up to that cloud-we're going to do a double!"
"A double?" Fluttershy asked as Pinkie Pie flew toward the small cloud.
"It's a special kind of rainbow bridge-takes two pegasi to make one; they send out rainbow bridges from two different clouds at the same time, and the rainbows meet in the middle. Lets you make much longer bridges, and since none of the ponies chasing you is a pegasus, they won't be able to follow us-all I have to do is crack the bridge behind us once you're over. But get ready to run!"
Pinkie had alighted on the small cloud, and she spread her wings as some kind of signal to Rainbow Dash, and Rainbow spread her wings, too. They both began to rhythmically wave their wings until they were synchronized, and then they gave three progressively wilder waves, then both slammed their clouds at the same time. Rainbow light arced from cloud to cloud and met in the air in the middle, and then formed a solid bridge.
"Go, go, go!" Rainbow Dash shouted to Fluttershy. "Run for it!"
She turned around, and saw that Twilight and Zephyr had already made it across their rainbow bridge and were running across the cloud toward them. They could already hear Twilight crying, "Wait! Wait, Fluttershy! You don't need to run!"
But Fluttershy, convinced that Twilight hated her, ran all the faster across the long rainbow bridge. Rainbow Dash flew after her, keeping herself between Fluttershy and her pursuers.
By the time Fluttershy's hooves touched the small cloud, Twilight and Zephyr were already halfway up the long rainbow. Pinkie Pie held Fluttershy tightly in another hug, and Fluttershy hugged her back, trembling, eyes clenched shut in terror.
Rainbow Dash wheeled around, pawed the ground, and snorted at Twilight and Zephyr. She spread her wings wide to make herself look bigger, and shouted at them, "Rack off!"
Twilight and Zephyr stopped in their tracks. Zephyr drew his sword. "I'm warning you," he growled, "I'm a championship fencer. I could clip your wings before you could so much as say the word 'sword'!"
"Oh, so we're making threats now, are we?" Rainbow Dash sneered. She took off and flew next to the rainbow with her hind legs poised to buck it. "Then how's this threat sound: before you can move your sword an inch, I can buck this rainbow into nothing, and then you two can drown in the ocean! How's that threat for ya?!"
Twilight whispered to Zephyr, "Put that sword away! It isn't going to get Fluttershy back!"
Zephyr glanced at Fluttershy cowering in Pinkie's embrace. At that sight, his eyes widened-these strangers were Fluttershy's comfort, and he was her terror-this was the exact opposite of how it should've been! But then again, Fluttershy was crazy...and it was his fault she was. He put his sword back into its scabbard.
"I...I suppose I shouldn't pretend that I've not been the villain in this story..." he admitted sadly, looking down at the ground.
"I'll say you shouldn't!" Rainbow Dash snorted. "She tried to drown herself not half an hour ago! She nearly carked it!"
Zephyr looked up, stiff as a board. After a few moments, he swallowed hard. Finally, in a voice so hoarse it was almost a hiss, he asked, "She...she tried to kill herself tonight?!"
Rainbow Dash nodded.
Pinkie Pie lifted up Fluttershy's chin. "Is that your brother?"
Fluttershy nodded, not looking back at him.
"He looks awfully sorry for making you so miserable!"
Fluttershy said nothing.
"I think...I think you should forgive him. I'm sure Twilight forgives you for accidentally taking her rain slicker and her brother's bags!"
"Absolutely!" Twilight shouted. "You can keep the rain poncho-I can just buy another one!"
"See? She doesn't hate you after all."
Fluttershy still said nothing.
"Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie asked.
"What?" she answered, not taking her eyes off of Zephyr and Twilight.
"I think this has all been a misunderstanding. I think Fluttershy's not right when she says that everypony who looks at her hates her; I think she's just had one too many mean things happen to her, and she's just afraid...and I think that she doesn't need to be. And I think you can let those two offworlders come up here and make up with Fluttershy."
Fluttershy gasped and hugged Pinkie back even tighter. "Please don't make me face them!" she howled.
Zephyr again swallowed hard. "Fluttershy...please, listen to me!" he finally shouted to her. "Ever since the day you ran away, I've believed you were dead, and that I was the reason you'd died. I cry every time I think of you!" Tears began to drip down his nose. "Ever since that day, I've tried to be a kinder pony-"
"PLEASE! Just-go away!" Fluttershy sobbed. "I can't talk to you!"
Zephyr froze, wishing so much that his sister would forgive him and come back with him and begin to heal from all the hurt that he'd layered on her...but he began to despair that it was even possible!
"Wait," Twilight thought aloud. "...Maybe you can't talk...but can you read something he's written to you?" Twilighted asked.
There was silence for a few moments, then Pinkie nuzzled Fluttershy and answered on her behalf, "I'm sure she can."
"I think I know what can help, here. But we need to go back to my saddlebags to get it. It's my journal."
"Your journal?" Zephyr asked.
Twilight nodded. "There's a lesson about hate that Applejack learned by reading my journal, and that I learned when I read something that Applejack wrote in it, too. And we learned that, when you really get to know a pony by reading their deepest thoughts, you...you can't help but lower your defenses. Maybe if Fluttershy reads my journal...she'll get to know me, and she'll feel like she doesn't need to be afraid, anymore. And if she reads an apology letter from you and Rarity...I think she'll be less afraid of you, too."
Zephyr swallowed again, and this time slung his sword over his back, intending to make it clear that he was putting it away for good, this time. "I expect you'll want to break this bridge soon, so that we can't cross over, and so that Fluttershy will feel safe. After you break it, will you carry a few small items to her?"
"What items?" Rainbow Dash asked, suspicious.
"Just three stones-two emeralds and a diamond, her journal, and this." He drew Fluttershy's teddy bear out of his pocket with his magic.
"You can give us the teddy now," Pinkie answered.
Fluttershy's ears immediately perked up when she heard the word "teddy". Zephyr thought to press his luck and try to get Fluttershy to come to him immediately, but then he thought he'd better not try it-putting pressure on Fluttershy, when she had just attempted suicide less than a half an hour ago, wasn't a good idea! So Zephyr simply set the teddy down on top of the bridge, turned around, and walked back towards his wife and the two earth ponies.
Rainbow Dash scooped up the teddy and carried it to Fluttershy. Her eyes widened as she picked it up and held it up to her cheek with her magic. After a few moments cuddling it, she finally whimpered, "It seems so much smaller now that I'm not a little child anymore!"
Pinkie whispered to Fluttershy, "Now...I think you should go and forgive your brother, but you don't have to if you don't want to."
Fluttershy suddenly looked very torn. She felt like going to him and forgiving him was the right thing to do, but her only memories of him were of the times where he had bullied her, and those memories scared her too much to allow her to move. Tears began trickling down her cheeks, and she began trembling again.
"Hush, now," Pinkie whispered. "I can see you want to, but you're not quite brave enough-not yet, anyway. But I think maybe you will be brave enough once you read that journal. Meanwhile, let's just get cozy here. C'mon, lie down for a bit. Like this."
Fluttershy lay down on top of the cloud, and its surface felt fluffy and soft. Pinkie tugged at the cloud's surface and pulled a cottony mass of it up like a blanket, and wrapped herself and Fluttershy up in it. Within minutes, they both felt very warm.
"Hey!" they heard. Rainbow Dash turned around and saw Zephyr, holding up a shiny notebook with his magic, along with Rarity's purse. She flew down to him, took the book and the purse with the gems in it, and flew back with them. She turned around and saw the three earth ponies clustered together in a circle, and the two unicorns looking at each other nose-to-nose. Each of the two groups was holding up a gem between them; the unicorns had a blue diamond that occasionally seemed to have other colors in it, and the earth ponies had a bright red ruby. After a few moments, both of them disappeared in flashes of light that leaped off of Cumuland in two different directions-they had gone back to their homeworlds.
"Guess that spell really works," Rainbow Dash mused.
Pinkie Pie nuzzled Fluttershy again. "Now, the ponies who scare you have all gone back to other planets, now-they're millions of miles away. They don't even want to scare you, anymore! All they've left behind is your teddy, some gems, and this journal-all filled up with the things that're in their hearts. And you know what? I think there isn't any hate in their hearts-none for you, anyway, dearie. Why don't we open it up and have a look, and see what's really inside?"
They opened the journal to the first page, and there was a loose note inside it-kind of like a foreword:
Dear Fluttershy-
I know what it's like to lose the thing that's most precious in the world to me. This journal is the most precious possession I have...that may sound strange, coming from a pony who owns the mineral rights to a cave system full of diamonds, but it's true. And Applejack stole this journal two nights ago and gave it back to me just last night. Since I don't have autism, I may not know what it's like to lose a comfort-item, but it felt amazingly good when I finally got my journal back-I hope that, when Zephyr gave you your teddy back, it felt ten times as good as it felt when I got my journal back. I can tell, you need to feel that good.
I can also tell that you need this journal way, way worse than I do. I've torn out and kept the pages that have my map of the mountain on them so that we can find our way back home to Ponyville when we get back to Ponyland, but other than that, it's all here-my story and Applejack's story is a story that I think you need to read. It's a story of years of hate that finally got a chance to heal when we really got to know each other for the first time. And I hope that after you read this, after you've read a story where hatred is finally put to rest, you'll find healing for yourself.
I should probably tell you that, when I bought this journal three and a half years ago, I bought it so that I could record places I've been on the mountain so Shining Armor and I could do a systematic search to find the diamonds caves, so most of the entries here are about places we've searched. You can skip those; there's not much of a story in them at all. But scattered around these pages here and there are the bits and pieces of Applejack's and my story.
I hope this does you good-and, whatever you decide to do after you've read this...if it's not TOO much trouble...is there any chance I could get this journal back from you? I know that it might be too much trouble, so please don't feel guilty if you can't arrange it, but...but I'm giving away a piece of my heart when I'm giving you this journal, and I'd like to have it back someday if I can.
Hoping that we meet again as friends someday soon,
Twilight Sparkle
The three mares sat on the cloud, snuggled together under its blanket-like fluff, faces cooled by the night breezes, the pages illuminated by the glorious full moon, reading all the same stories from Twilight's journal that Applejack had read. They read about the sacrifices Twilight had had to make to afford to be able to explore. Their blood ran cold when Shining Armor was dangling off the side of the mountain in the first thunderstorm they'd encountered. They breathed a sigh of relief when Twilight finally pulled him back up, smiled when she found her first diamond, and wanted to give her an encouraging hug when she told them that it'd take all her courage to go back up on the mountain. They felt like clapping the day she'd found three diamonds and finally felt like she could afford ice cream. They got mad at Applejack when she turned down the invitation and when she tried to give Twilight garbage. Their hearts went out to Twilight when she broke her leg, and they again felt like they wanted to hug both Twilight and Shining Armor when she said she'd be strong for her brother just like he'd been strong for her. Their jaws dropped with joy when they read the page where they finally found the mother lode, and their hearts warmed when Twilight related how Shining Armor had sheltered her when her poncho tore. They frowned when Twilight talked about taking Applejack down a peg, they were on the edge of their seats when they read Applejack's entry, and their hearts melted when they read Twilight's last entry where she realized she was just as bad as Applejack.
Finally, they came to the last entry before the blank pages began:
Dear Fluttershy-
This is Rarity. Zephyr Breeze and I have wished we could say this every day for the last ten years, and now, thanks be to Princess Luna! We finally have a chance to say it:
We're sorry.
We're sorry that we took away your teddy bear ten years ago.
We're sorry we pushed you further and further away from other ponies, until you felt convinced that everypony who laid eyes on you would hate you.
We're sorry we treated you like you were merely a source of fun, when you're really a heart and a soul that deserve love and happiness just as much as we do-probably more.
We hope you'll somehow find it in your heart to forgive us.
We'd like you to know that it was never hate that motivated us to do those awful things to you; we did them because we thought it was funny to bully you. But now we can't see any humor in it at all.
We want you to know that you will always be welcome at our house; I've put a rainbow diamond in this purse for you so that you can come back any time you like. You know the spell, and if you come back tonight, there'll be a steaming hot bath and a cozy warm bed waiting for you. And we'd like you to know that, thanks to the explorers whose lives you've saved and the gems we've traded with them, we've become very, very rich indeed. We can hire the best therapists to help heal your heart and mind, and we can hire the best etiquette trainers to teach you how to be a functional adult in Canterlot society-you can have a happy life here in Canterlot, and it's our deepest, deepest wish that you'll come back, so that we can be a family together. We miss you terribly, and we promise never to make fun of you again.
I've also packed two star emeralds, one for each of your two new pegasus friends. We've noticed a pattern: mountain rubies are the gems you use to get to Ponyland, but they're rare and extremely expensive in Ponyland, and rainbow diamonds are the gems you use to get to Unicornia, but they're rare and extremely expensive in Unicornia-so it follows that star emeralds are rare and expensive in Cumuland, so your new friends should get a lot of value out of them. And by showing you kindness at the moment when you need it most, they've done a very good deed and proven themselves to be very kind and very brave. If your brother and I had been that kind, we wouldn't be in this mess.
Before I forget: Twilight and Shining Armor say that the rubies in your raincoat-pockets are now yours, and that raincoat is now yours, too-you needn't feel bad about taking any of them. Should you choose to stay in Cumuland and try to build a life for yourself there, those rubies should be valuable enough to help you start, but we hope oh so much that you'll come back to us!
The letter continued with different hoofwriting:
This is Shining Armor, Twilight's brother.
Listen...family is a very, very precious thing. It binds our hearts together, even when we're far apart. If you've read through this journal, then you've seen how our families have struggled together in the face of poverty, injuries, and even just the hard work of our daily jobs. What's amazing about family is that even the toughest of those times had their silver linings, because they brought us closer together.
My family is the joy of my life, and...and I think you deserve to have that happiness, too, and I believe that it's safe for you to try to get it, now. I believe Zephyr 100% when he says that he's so sorry for what he did to you, and that he'll never do it again.
I know what it's like to have a sister-she's always been the most precious thing in the whole world to me, and now I know how lucky I've been to always wake up with her by my side, never having to wonder where she is of if she's safe. Please-don't put Zephyr through that. He might've done something terrible to you, but ten years of guilt, thinking you're dead, and that it's his fault-that's got to be a steep enough price to pay for what he did! Please don't make him wonder where you are or whether you're happy for too much longer!
One last thing before I forget: I know you're not a thief, and that you only took my saddlebags with you by accident. I'm not mad about that, and even if I was, I've got them back, now. Please don't feel bad about taking them!
That was the end of what was written. The rest of it was blank pages, still waiting for ink to touch them and tell more stories.
Fluttershy felt like a huge burden had been taken off of her shoulders: she'd felt horrified and terribly guilty about stealing Twilight's raincoat and Shining Armor's saddlebags, but now her every sin had been forgiven! The plush insides of that red cape felt so much softer and warmer now that she knew it was legitimately hers, and that there were no hard feelings on the part of her new friends.
For the first time that night, Fluttershy smiled.
"Wow...!" Rainbow Dash said. "I can't believe that story! That'd make an ace novel! But...but all of it really happened!"
"And we got to be a part of that story!" Pinkie added, getting excited. She jumped out of the nest of cloud they'd made for themselves and began bouncing on the cloud in absolute glee, shouting in an almost sing-song voice, "I can't believe how awesome it is that all that happened, all that healing and adventure and danger and money and friendship and meetings and FUN! And Fluttershy was right there in that story HEROICALLY saving them from that bear! And now WE'RE in the story, too!" She suddenly stopped bouncing and looked at Fluttershy with a new expression-not quite sad, but not quite happy, either. "But...our part in that story isn't quite over yet, is it?" Pinkie stepped up to Fluttershy and nuzzled her again. "Fluttershy...there isn't anything about you that causes ponies to hate you when they see you! You've taught yourself to expect that there is because you got picked on a lot in school, but...that expectation has built a wall around your heart, just like it did with Applejack and Twilight! That wall is keeping you away from other ponies, so you can't make friends and can't be part of a family.
"But the truth is: there isn't any curse on you! Rainbow Dash and I have seen a lot of you tonight, and we haven't begun to hate you at all-not even a little! You don't need to be afraid, anymore. And I think your whole adventure proves it!"
"Let's have a look in that handbag Rarity gave us!" Rainbow Dash suggested, eager to see the gems inside.
Fluttershy opened the purse, and inside it was a shiny blue rainbow diamond and two shiny star emeralds.
Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped. "I can't believe they gave us these! You could probably buy three cloudominiums with each of those emeralds! ...Whoa...I guess those ponies weren't so bad, after all... ...Now I feel bad about fighting them...!"
Pinkie Pie gave Fluttershy another nuzzle. "You brother and your sister-in-law really are good ponies. And they're very, very sorry for what they've done. I really think you should go back to them, tell them you forgive them, and take them up on their offer and live with them."
"And not just because they're rich, either," Rainbow Dash added, "Though...that's a pretty good reason, I'd say!"
"You don't need to be afraid to go back to Canterlot. If you get lost there, you don't need to be afraid to ask a pony for directions, because they won't hate you for just being who you are. You're safe, now."
The first few rays of dawn began to peek over the horizon. Fluttershy looked at the diamond resting in her hoof.
She was shaking a little.