Mistress Do Well: Fractured Elements
by milesprower06

Confrontation

There were no bars, chains, cuffs, or restraints of any kind. But as an earth pony sitting in an airborne chariot, with a Royal Guard accompanying her, Applejack certainly felt like a prisoner. They had awaken her in her room in Dodge Junction in the middle of the night, and told her to accompany them to Ponyville immediately, by order of Princess Celestia. They escorted her to the waiting chariot, and they were off without another word. They wouldn't tell her what it was about, but she figured she already knew. A mandatory summons from Princess Celestia could only mean one thing in this case.

Now she could see Ponyville coming into view under the rising sun. She had to hold on to her hat as they began to descend towards the town. Their speed slowed, making the morning wind a bit more bearable, and in the next minute, they had come to a landing just outside of Golden Oaks Library. She was allowed to get out, and she saw Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy already waiting near the entrance, also with their own royal guard escorts. She was the only one who had come via chariot, as she was the one who had gone the farthest once the restraining order had lifted. The other two had merely gone to the outskirts of town. She guessed they hadn't moved since. They hadn't kept in touch at all. Applejack could barely say anything to her own family upon her departure, let alone her friends. As ashamed as she was at all this, the devoted worker in her refused to go completely into exile, so she had managed to get minimum wage work at a cherry orchard in Dodge Junction, several hundred miles southeast of Ponyville. Cherry Jubilee was thrilled to have a tireless worker return for more employment. AJ wasn't sure how far the news of what they did in Ponyville spread, but if Jubilee had caught wind of any of it, AJ was none the wiser. She felt she didn't deserve to be near extended family in Appleloosa. She had also been the first one to leave, not even 12 hours after the house arrests had been lifted, at that. She had wanted to get as far away as possible as fast as possible. Now she thought herself a bit dense to not consider that Celestia would have kept an eye on her whereabouts all this time.

As Applejack approached the other two, the awkwardness in the air was so thick you could nearly see it. This was not helped by the fact that they just glanced at each other, not saying anything to one another. What was to be said?

"You're wanted in the library. Please proceed inside." one of the Royal Guards said. The front door was opened for them, and they were ushered in.

The two earth ponies and pegasus slowly filed into the library. The guards closed the doors behind them, and they laid their eyes on Twilight, sitting in the center of the room at an oval coffee table. There was a ceramic tea kettle in the center, and four teacups at each of the five seats. There were two on the far side, and three on their side. Twilight was sitting at one.

"Twilight...?" Applejack called out.

Twilight turned to them, a saddened, defeated look adorning her face.

"Twilight, what's going on...does this mean what I think it does?" Fluttershy asked softly.

"Yeah...did they finally gather enough to charge us...?" Pinkie asked last, as they gathered in front of her at the table, each of them coming up to the open seats on their side of the table, Pinkie Pie on the right, AJ in the center, and Fluttershy on the left.

Twilight, glancing at all of them only for a moment as they uneasily took their seats on the south side of the table, lowered her gaze to the floor, and announced plainly, "They're here. All of them."

At first, they wondered who she was speaking to, then they heard hoofsteps up on the second floor.

The first thing to come into their view was a messily kept rainbow mane, followed by the cyan fur, and finally, the magenta eyes, as Rainbow Dash walked slowly to the railing.

She gazed down at them emotionless.

The three of them stared up at her, speechless, as Twilight merely stared down at her reflection in her tea. Rainbow glanced momentarily at each of them as she made her way along the railing to the stairs, her hoofsteps the only sound in the silent library. She descended the stairs, and silently took her seat to the right of Twilight, at the remaining cup of tea at the table. They knew this seat had been more or less reserved, as there was a saddlebag next to that stool.

The silence was overbearing, and seemed to draw time to a crawl. They sat there, barely being able to glance at the cyan pegasus as she took her first sip of her tea. It was a full minute before anypony said anything.

"H-h-hi, Rainbow." Applejack finally greeted, unable to look Rainbow in the eyes. In return, Rainbow merely glanced at her, constantly scanning her eyes across the table at the three new guests.

"Twilight, you said all of us? Where's...where's Rarity?"

"Dead." Rainbow answered. Fluttershy closed her eyes solemnly for a moment.

“You're all looking well, I see.” Rainbow continued, her words dripping with malice.

“When did you get back?” Pinkie asked uneasily.

“Two nights ago.”

“Well, I'm glad you're back.” Fluttershy offered timidly.

“And why are you glad?” Rainbow asked, setting her tea down, halfway to another drink, before continuing.

"From what I heard, you're fairly certain that you've all been brought back here for judgement. That the prosecution found me, and convinced me to come back here to put all of you away. Is that it? You're glad I'm back because you haven't dealt with the guilt, and now here's your chance to."

She paused again, judging their reactions, of which there was very little.

"Why should the courts give you the solution to your guilt? I'm told you all scattered. Twilight was the only one who stayed in town, and she tells me she nearly drank herself to death for the first 6 months. So did you all go through your own personal hell like Twilight? Or did you run away, and tried your best to pretend that nothing ever happened?"

She allowed the unanswered questions to sink in while she took another sip of her tea, before continuing.

"What do you dream of at night? I mean, me...I frequently found myself surrounded by friends whom I thought loved me. But it ends the same every time. They didn't. They used me. So what about you? Are your friends loyal to you in your dreams? If they are, how does it feel when you wake up alone?"

Rainbow paused yet again, as if she had to carefully construct her sentences before speaking them to the four ponies around her.

"We...we were only trying to help y-"

Applejack was cut off when Rainbow violently swung her right forehoof across her quarter of the table, sending her cup of tea smashing against a bookshelf ten feet away, shattering it on impact.

"HELP me?! Have you had to choke on that lie every night since I ran off? Just goes to prove that the Elements really don't belong with us anymore." Rainbow said. She leaned forward, getting her face as close to Applejack as the table would allow.

“Prove me wrong, oh honest Applejack. Look me in the eyes and tell me you still believe you were helping me.”

Applejack couldn't speak, or even look up, as tears rolled down her face, and she started to cry.

“Didn't think so...” Rainbow said, leaning back to her side, returning to her seat.

"Here's what I want to know...if Twilight hadn't gotten me out of there...would any of you?" she asked, gliding her outstretched hoof, pointing to all three of them.

"Twilight saw that a line had been crossed. Far too late, but she saw it eventually. What about you? Where was your line?"

"Hmm? Pinkie? Where was yours? How many times would you have had to 'play with me' before you started feeling wrong? Probably would've been awhile, because everything's a fucking party with Pinkie!"

As Rainbow's magenta eyes glared at her, Pinkie couldn't bring herself to look at her former friend, as she too began to quietly weep. Meanwhile, Rainbow once again looked at Applejack.

"You. How many rope burns would Twilight have had to heal? Hm? Would I have had to dislocate something? Break something? Maybe you never would have done anything. After all, when you lie to yourself over and over, eventually you start believing it's true.”

This comment kept the farmer's tears coming. Rainbow continued to Fluttershy.

"You...you were my best friend. You could have stopped this before it all started. BDSM can be a healthy part of any relationship. The key is knowing where the line is...what is healthy and what's completely fucking psycho! You didn't know and neither did that slut of a marefriend who kept you under her boot. Or maybe you did know and you just didn't have enough of a spine to put a stop to it. You willingly let her use you to break me!"

"Rainbow-" Twilight began, only to have Rainbow's hateful glare fall on her.

"And you. You just fucking sat there. You sat there and you wrote about it. Neutrally. Tell me, Twilight. What valuable, educational knowledge came out of your firsthand research?"

“Please...please stop..." Fluttershy asked shakily, on the verge of full-on sobbing.

"'Please...please stop...'" Rainbow mocked, "Seriously, Fluttershy? You're seriously asking ME to STOP?"

With that, she ducked out of view, leaning down to the right side of her stool. They heard her rummage through her saddlebag. She came back up, and stood up on her stool, and they saw what was in her hoof.

She threw the basement video tape down on the table towards Fluttershy, knocking over her tea and startling her further.

"Let's watch the fucking tape! Let's all watch it, and count how many times I cried, how many times I screamed, and how many times I fucking begged all of you to STOP!!!"

The other four ponies at the table were all in tears.

Rainbow's chest was heaving as she glared at each other pony from her heightened position, as their gaze was fixated on either the tape, or the floor in front of them. They were all visibly shaking with grief by now. Another ten seconds passed before Rainbow slowed her breathing, and got off of her stool, and slowly sat back down. She waited another half minute for the crying surrounding her to decrease in volume before continuing.

"I hope...I hope you all realize...that if I didn't take that on my way out of town...that every single one of you would be in prison. That is if Rarity didn't destroy it first. I can't help but wonder if you all would have been thanking her then." she said, at a drastically lower volume.

She turned to Twilight, who was silently weeping.

"Twilight, I'm betting during all that drinking, you were wondering where I was, what I was doing."

She glanced at the others.

"What about all of you? Just the least bit curious to know what I've done before coming back?"

Rainbow leaned down and reached into her saddlebag once more, and came up with a folded piece of paper. She unfolded it, and set it down into the drops and puddles of tea on the table. It was a map of Equestria.

"Nothing."

The map had dozens of red marks on them, all connected. It was an impossibly random path throughout the country.

"I wandered everywhere...trying to find myself again, living off of the 20,000 bits I sold Rarity's ruby for. It never got any better. I cried myself to sleep most nights. I either had nightmares of being down in that basement, and wake up scared half to death, or I'd dream of what it was like before all this...with friends who loved me, and I'd wake up alone."

Rainbow took a shaky breath, finally losing a bit of her composure.

"That...that was the worst part of it. The longer I traveled, the lonelier I felt. It was mind-numbing. And every single night, before falling asleep, I thought of you." she said, turning to Twilight for a moment, bringing fresh tears from the lavender alicorn.

"So...down to my last 500 bits, I worked my way back here. I hated it. I hated myself for failing, hated that this was my last shot at regaining my sanity. But here I am."

She took the red marker from her saddlebag, and drew the last red line back to Ponyville, marking it with an X.

"And based on what I see around this table, I'd say that none of you have come to terms with what you did. None of us have moved on. We have all been completely and utterly alone. I know you haven't been able to live with it because none of you can look me in the eyes."

More silence. No one challenged anything Rainbow said.

"One reason I came back is because I wanted to know why. I wanted to know why all of you did what you did to me. I don't know why, and now, I no longer think any of you do either. For all I know, Rarity used her magic to fuck with your sense of right and wrong. What I was doing was wrong...making promises I got distracted from and didn't keep. But the punishment has to fit the crime."

Still, none of them looked her in the eyes.

"Bottom line, Rarity was the first victim of her own twisted mind, and then we were next. She destroyed all of us. She broke each of us, in one way or another...and the only way to fix this is if we help each other heal from this. Together."

This finally brought all eyes to her.

They glanced unsurely at each other.

"But...I thought...you were going to the Wonderbolts after...after you charged..." Twilight began.

"The statute was up at midnight last night. I didn't file any charges..."

Everypony's eyes widened.

“...and I'm not going to the Wonderbolts. Two reasons. One, I doubt I could function there in the shape that I'm in, and two...doing that, while the rest of you get locked away...”

Rainbow paused, taking a deep breath.

"It's what society says all of you deserve. Maybe they're right. But me? No. Maybe it's because of the unstable state of mind all of you helped put me into, but I don't think it's right. Like I said, the punishment has to fit the crime. All of you rotting in a cell with three hot meals a day is too easy for you. No. The truth is, none of us have gotten through this by ourselves. So whether I like it or not...whether we like it or not, the key to overcoming this is in each other. Do you understand me?" Rainbow said, her voice shaking even more, tears pricking her eyes.

“This is going to be your punishment and salvation. You're going to look at me every day, seeing what you all did. You're going to help me, and in return, I'm going to help all of you. We're going to be there for each other. We're going to help each other. All of you are coming back here. I don't care what Celestia or Mayor Mare say. It's going to be some of the most awkward moments of our lives, and we're going to hate it sometimes, but we're going to overcome this, and prove to Equestria that friendship is magic, and even though it seems shattered and irreparable between all of us, that it can be put back together again.”

This brought fresh tears from everypony at the table.

Twilight got up, her whole body heaving, and barely able to walk, she fell into Rainbow, throwing her forelegs around her, and began sobbing into her shoulder.

"Damn it all..." Rainbow said, her voice cracking, tears flowing down her cheeks for the first time since she returned to town. She slowly returned the embrace, the shell of distance and bitterness shattering as she began crying, and glanced at the three shuddering ponies still at the table.

"Well, come here. What are you waiting for? Come here, all of you!" she sobbed.

Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, their vision blurred and wet, their legs weak, and hearts pounding, got up from their seats, ran around the table, and wrapped themselves around the pair.

No more words were shared. The sounds of the five grieving ponies filled the library. Time was forgotten as they stood there, holding onto each other for dear life, letting out their sorrows, their worries, their fears, and their pasts. None of them knew what would come, but for certain, it was the first step towards healing.

Author's Notes:

Please note: Just as with Cupcakes, I have chosen to withhold specific events that happened in the original story after Kaidan's events and my events split.

As such, for this ending, please disregard the scene with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo in Kaidan's ending. Please keep this in mind for the Epilogue.