Author's Notes:

Added- 27 Dec 2015

“This is my life!” cries Trixie.

She throws a bottle of wine at a unicorn stallion standing in front of her. He has the same color scheme as hers, but with pudgy mane, and his cutie mark is a hammer and scroll crossing over each other. The unicorn ducks as the bottle flies overhead and shatters against the wall behind him, leaving a red splash all over like a little pony had splattered.

“You did nothing for me!”

“I did nothing? I did nothing!? I gave you everything! Food! Shelter! A chance to be somepony great, and what do you do? You squander it with you stupid shows!” screams the stallion.

Trixie tries to throw another bottle at him, but his magic overpowers her and he throws it to the ground next to her. Upon shattering Trixie jumps away, and while she’s distracted the stallion pushes her to the ground and presses his hoof against her chest. Any attempts at resistance are quickly crushed.

“I tried to help you! I tried to get you to the best school I could afford, but you failed and let the Sparkle’s take what was rightfully the Lulamoons. You failed all those exams in the academy. You failed yourself and the Lulamoon Family.”

Trixie closes her eyes and sobs, and when the stallion releases her she curls up on the floor, not wanting to see him or the accursed mansion that they are staying in. The stallion shows zero signs of remorse as he walks away, leaving Trixie to cry on the floor. A few minutes later she hears a thump and the floor shakes next to her head, she opens her eyes and sees a suitcase in front of her and the stallion behind it. Trixie sniffles, wipes her eyes, goes into the sitting position, and stares at it blankly.

“Get out,” says the stallion. “You want to be alone? You want to travel the world and perform like a court jester? There is your ticket. You obviously want no part in the Lulamoon Family, so will have no place for it.”

Trixie’s jaw drops and a new bubble of anguish rises up in her throat. “Father?”

Her father’s eyes narrow and he lifts her and the suitcase up with his magic and tosses her out of the mansion, into the cobblestone road. Other ponies in suits look at Trixie and then stare at her father, completely horrified with what they are seeing. And as Trixie awkwardly gets up, her father trots outside and one of the guards approaches him.

“Eclipse, don’t you think-”

“Shut up!” snaps the stallion, then he glares at Trixie and she shrinks under his gaze. “All your life I have shielded you, but now I see just how ungrateful you have been. If you want fortune and fame, you will do it by your own sweat, and when you fail, do not come crawling back to me for escape!”

Eclipse turns tail and marches back into the mansion, using his magic to slam the doors shut, leaving Trixie to weep on the ground. When she looks at the guards for help, but they all either look at her with pity or look away, some even pretend to go on patrol. Seeing their negligence, Trixie grits her teeth and stomps on the ground, prompting more tears to roll from her eyes.

“Fine! I don’t need you! I don’t need any of you! Trixie will be better than all of you!” She then turns to the mansion and sees her father staring at her out of the safety of one of his rooms. “I hope you die a horrible death,!”

Eclipse looks down slightly, and Trixie picks up her suitcase with her magic and walks towards the gate, making sure to give each guard a taste of her wrathful gaze. The guards step aside and a couple of them push open the steel gate, which she eagerly trots through, and blindly goes down the road, never looking back at the mansion on the hill.

“Trixie will be great. Trixie will be powerful. Trixie doesn’t need anypony. Trixie just needs herself,” mutters Trixie to no one in particular.

She continues her walk down the road, it is all but dead with the only life being the trees planted along the sides. Normally they would give shade, but the sun is blocked by a thick layer of gray clouds, and when a strong wind blows through the trees, Trixie shivers and puts on her stage cape and continues her trek.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie will matter, he will see, oh yes, he will see.”

An hour of walking later, Trixie comes across a trolley bus stop, and she goes inside for shelter. Her timing could not have been any more perfect, for as soon as she goes there is a rumble of thunder and rain starts falling. The pattering noise that the rain makes against the cover is peaceful, but the chilling air and being disowned by her own father kills the mood for her.

“You’re too late, the last trolley came and went thirty minutes ago,” says a familiar voice.

Trixie looks up and sees the Shadow Stallion again, and she furrows her brow and pushes her suitcase against the edge of the bench. “Well, it looks like Trixie is going to be enjoying a nice bench for the night.”

The Shadow Stallion steps inside, strangely not wet from the rain. “You do know that your father loves you, right?”

“Sure he does, that is why he disowned me.”

The Shadow Stallion takes a seat next to Trixie and looks straight ahead at the mountains. Or at least Trixie thinks he is doing that. It is of hard to know where someone is looking when they have no face.

“Why don’t you have a face?” asks Trixie.

“It is the way I was created. Nothing more. Nothing less,” answers the stallion.

“That is a really dumb answer. Can I at least get your name?”

“Custos.”

“What kind of name is that?”

“It’s the name that was given to me and a name I’ve held since the inception of time.”

Trixie chuckles and shakes her head, now looking at the pouring rain.

“Wow, creepy,” she says mockingly.

Custos has no reply. He just sits there in total silence, and Trixie sighs and sits up to look at him directly. She opens her mouth to say something, but the question she wants to ask disappears, leaving her with a blank brain, so she frowns and lays against her suitcase. A few more minutes of silences passes before Custos turns to Trixie.

“You do know that your father loved you, right?” he says.

“What?” says Trixie while glancing at him irritably out of the corner of her eye.

“Your father. He has always loved you.”

“Didn’t we talk about this a few minutes ago? Oh yeah, we did, and no loving child disowns a child!”

“If you could only see-”

“Him fight for his life? That would be nice.”

“Are you sure?”

“Oh yeah, I would love nothing more than to see him squirm and beg. I think it’ll be great. He’ll deserve every ounce of it.”

Custos is silent, but a couple of seconds later he gets up and stands in front of Trixie. She stares at him defiantly, but she’s secretly terrified that he might do something to her, and when his horn glows her fear becomes uncontainable.

“What are you doing!” demands Trixie while frantically backing away from Custos.

“You wanted to see his death. Now you shall see.”

The glow from Custos’s horn engulfs the whole bus stop and blinds Trixie. When she can see again, she is in her father’s Canterlot loft, and everything has been destroyed with the utmost brutality.

Trixie can feel that most of her bones are broken, her breathing is labored to the point where it is almost impossible to breath, and the overall pain is so unbelievable that she just wants to scream, but she can’t. She cannot even move, and when a bloody and shaking hoof is raised, it is not by her command, even though it has her color.

“What's going on?” asks Trixie, terrified by what she is seeing and feeling.

There is a flash of lightning and a storm outside shakes the windows with its rain thunder. When another flash appears, Trixie sees a dark figure wearing a cloak towering above her. She cannot even see his eyes or fur.

“Custos, get me out of here!” begs Trixie.

“You wanted to see him suffer, and I am granting your wish,” says Custos, who is nowhere to be found.

“P-Please... d-don’t...” begs her host.

Trixie recognizes the voice, but she does not know if the panic and weak heart is hers or... “Father?”

Her father’s weakened heart starts racing and Trixie feels tears wash the blood from his face in little streaks as the figure towering over him stares down at him. But she also feels more than just fear, she also feels an empty shell breaking down and not knowing if it should be thankful or terrified of the end that has come.

Eclipse turns to his side and stretches his hoof out towards a picture nestled in a broken frame. A picture of him, Trixie, and her mother at the hospital the night Trixie was born. Eclipse looks overjoyed and Braille, while tired, is smiling down at a sleeping baby Trixie.

“There is only black and white,” says the figure after another flash of light deafening thunder.

The picture is smashed under the intruder's hoof, and Eclipse cries out as if he just saw his family murdered in front of his eyes, but due to his near death condition it comes out more like a weak whimper trying to scream. His vision, as blurry as it is, becomes even more so from the tears to where Trixie can barely see anything.

“There is never gray.”

The attacker slides the picture out of reach, and he kicks Eclipse on his back, shattering some ribs and making Eclipse cough out blood. Eclipse gasps for air as he turns to his stomach and tries to crawl towards the picture again. The barbaric growl from the attacker is enough to send a shiver down even the bravest of souls, and in the blink of an eye there is a back-breaking stomp and Eclipse stops moving, hoof outstretched towards the picture. Trixie can still hear him breathing heavily and whimpering.

“For justice is absolute.”

Trixie wakes up screaming and flying into the sitting position; she tries to calm her racing heart by putting a hoof over it, and she wipes sweat off of her face and mane with a shaky hoof.

“It was just a dream,” whispers Trixie with little to no relief.

“Trixie!” calls Minty.

She looks at her blanket and sees that it’s covered in her sweat, then she realizes that she has a tingly taste on her tongue. She scratches her tongue against her teeth to get the taste out and she becomes even more panicked when she tries to levitate the blanket off. Her horn sputters, but doesn’t work.

“Oh no,” whimpers Trixie. When Minty bursts into the room Trixie jumps off of her bed and scrambles into a corner, crying and pointing an accusing hoof at Minty. “What did you do to me!”

Minty skids to a stop and carefully approaches Trixie. “Trixie, I-”

“You gave me those mushrooms, didn’t you!”

Minty approaches Trixie and when she tries to run out of the room Minty grabs her and hugs her, tightly. Trixie immediately slumps to the ground, crying into Minty’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Trixie, but I had to do it,” she says over Trixie’s sobs while gently rubbing her back. “If I -if something had happened to you I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.”

Trixie’s body shakes as she cries, remembering what Sunshine did, and tried to do, to her, then unwanted memory of the pain she endured from Brisk Wind’s torture with those plants return.

Minty continues her attempts to comfort Trixie with a warm embrace and soft strokes while apologizing. A minute later, Trixie pulls away from Minty, tears soaking her face, and hurries to the bathroom. Once inside, she closes and locks the door and pulls out the container from the medicine cabinet, which now has plywood instead of a mirror covering it that has “You’re Beautiful” written on it in marker.

Trixie has trouble getting the cap off without her magic and ends up breaking the container in half by smashing it against the sink. The pills fly out and a good portion roll down the sink, much to Trixie’s panicked dismay, while the rest scatter all over the floor.

“No, nonononono, please no!” cries Trixie while frantically trying to prevent the pills from falling into the sink’s abyss.

She manages to save a few and pushes them over the edge of the sink so that they fall to the floor, and she drops to the ground and licks two off of the floor and swallows them dry. The dry pills taste horrible and sickly feeling of wanting to puke surges up instantaneously, but with the way her throat closes up, that will not happen. Trixie slumps to ground and coughs violently into her hoof, and a few seconds later, it all ends like flipped a switch. Her throat relaxes, the coughing fit goes away, and all despair is replaced with bliss.

Trixie smiles broadly and relaxes by the bathtub.

“Wow, Trixie feels so much better now.” She picks up the broken container and holds to her chest, her blissful smile growing bigger. “Trixie loves you, pills, Trixie loves you all.”

Trixie gets up a moment later and heads back to her room with a skip in her steps, and she stops dead in her tracks when she sees a box at the foot of her bed. She cocks her head and cautiously approaches the box, and when she’s towering above it, she opens it up to see a costume inside.

“Oh, cool!” says Trixie.

She giggles and she eagerly takes them out like a child opening her gift on her birthday. The costume’s jumpsuit and cape are dyed dark purple with messy stitchwork all over them, and the cape is being held by a simple clip. The pads are hoofball pads that have been painted black and there is a large fedora that has been stitched around a bike helmet as well as durable goggles worn by Weather Patrol, and to top it off, it has a black apparatus that goes around her muzzle.

After taking a few difficult minutes to put on the suit, Trixie does a test run by galloping around the room, jumping on and off her bed and fighting invisible ninjas. When she is done she stands proudly on the edge of her bed, puffing out her chest and sticking her nose in the air like the proud slayer of evil she knows she is.

“The Dark Mare cometh,” Trixie says in her disguised voice, which is muffled by the apparatus around her muzzle, followed by a cackle.

Then she looks over the edge of her bed and imagines herself on the rooftop of one of Canterlot’s gleaming skyscrapers. Trixie grins and turns around so that her back is to the edge of the bed and-

Pinkie Pie is slouching on her bed, completely dumbstruck about what happened. She hadn’t known Trixie would react in such a way after finding out she was fed the healing mushroom that she had stolen from a clinic, which, in itself, took forever to find a clinic that even had them.

Pinkie Pie is trying to figure out a way to apologize to Trixie for her mistake, however, with Trixie running around like a filly on a sugar rush in the other room, it makes it a little difficult to think. That, and Pinkie Pie is fairly certain that there are quite a few ponies who are clutching pillows around their ears and gritting their teeth, thus adding to her worry that she’ll be getting a “friendly reminder” to tone it down by the staff and neighbors. But Pinkie Pie’s train of thought is derailed when she hears a THUMP, a few seconds of silence, and then Trixie groaning: “Ow.”

Pinkie Pie immediately jumps off of her bed and runs into Trixie’s room and sees that her roommate is lying on the floor, on her back, and wearing the suit that she made. Pinkie Pie is about to help her up, but stops when Trixie starts laughing, which makes it hard for Pinkie Pie to not laugh because the sight of a vigilante clad in store bought armor, laughing like an idiot, is something one does not see every day.

“They can’t call me a liar now!” laughs Trixie.

Pinkie Pie walks over and helps Trixie sit up, smiling and brushing her off. “What do you mean?”

“I told Fancy Pants that I was covered in boo-boos because I punched a mirror and did a back flip off of my bed.” Trixie pulls off her helmet, apparatus and mask with some difficulty and smiles at Pinkie Pie. “And now I have punched a mirror and done a back flip off of my bed.”

Pinkie Pie sighs and stands up with Trixie, and while her roommate talks about how amazingly comfortable and flexible the suit is, she starts to wonder what exactly is in those pills that she takes.

“This suit awesome! Why didn’t I get this earlier?” asks Trixie while bouncing around Pinkie Pie in such a way that it painfully reminds her of how she used to be around her fake friends.

“Well, you see, I was going to give it to you earlier, but I ran into some snags,” says Pinkie Pie. Her whole body sulks when she thinks about all the time that had been wasted and the risks Trixie took due to these complications.

Trixie starts chasing her tail. “What was wrong with it earlier?”

Pinkie Pie watches Trixie spin in circles and when the unicorn stops, she wobbles in place, making a sickly moaning sound. Trixie then coughs and gags like she’s going to puke, even going as far as keeling over with her tongue hanging out, and just when Pinkie Pie is about to grab a bucket, Trixie swallows the puke. Pinkie Pie cringes in disgust and Trixie’s eyes widen she she realizes what she had done, but that doesn’t kill her mood by any means.

“So, the Great and Powerful Trixie demands to know what was wrong with the previous suit!” says Trixie using her degrading tone from her years as a showmare. Trixie bursts into a laughter a second later and falls on her back, kicking her hind legs in the air while clutching her gut with her forehooves. “Wow, Trixie sounds funny. Do you think the Great and Powerful Trixie sounds funny?”

Pinkie Pie arches an eyebrow, her concern now reaching new heights. “Um...”

Trixie stands up and dismisses Pinkie Pie with a theatrical wave of her hoof. “Of course Trixie does. How crappy was the last suit?”

“I had to get those pads replaced and reinforced because when I tested them they kinda didn’t last long. But, these ones are more durable,” says Pinkie Pie, and to emphasize her point, she punches Trixie’s chest with enough force to make her stumble backwards. “I also did some work on the cape, but I don’t think its a good idea to test it out right here.”

Trixie laughs and looks down at the chest pad.

“I didn’t feel a thing!” says Trixie happily, then she looks at Pinkie Pie with a challenging smile. “We should wrestle.”

Pinkie Pie tilts her head. “What?”

“Wrestle! It’ll be fun! Trixie gets to test out this super cool suit and you get to be a good friend and punch me!”

“Um... I don’t think friends punch each other. I mean punching like what you want, because when I punched you that was to show you how well the suit is. Besides its late -or technically early, and we-”

Trixie lowers herself and swishes her tail like a predatory feline ready to pounce. “C’mon, Minty, you know you wanna do it.”

“I don’t know. I might hurt you or something.”

“Scaredy cat.”

“No, I just-”

“I triple dog dare you to wrestle!”

Pinkie Pie smirks and cracks her back. One cannot turn down a triple dog dare, after all.

“Okay,” says Pinkie Pie, now shaking any tight spots out of her body, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you when I have you pinned.”

“That’s why we have rematches,” says Trixie with an eager smile.

“Okay, fine, we’ll do best two out of three.”

Trixie jumps to the sitting position and claps her hooves together.

“Yay! You make an awesome friend, Minty!” cheers Trixie.

Pinkie Pie’s smile fades and she looks down, a motion that Trixie is too excited to notice.

“Sooooooo, is that a yes?” asks Pinkie Pie hopefully while bouncing next to Applejack so the farm pony can see her with her peripheral vision.

Applejack sighs and bucks one of her apple trees with the usual amount of force that shakes all of the apples loose. All the apples landed in the buckets around the trees perfectly, as usual, and she starts loading each one on a steam powered cart with a decent sized flatbed that has more than its fair share of apple filled buckets.

“Sooooooo, is that a yes?” repeats Pinkie Pie.

“Look, Pinkie, Ah’d really love t’ help ya out an’ all, but Ah already have t’ help Twi with her spell thingamajig, Dash with her practicing, Fluttershy with disciplining Angel, and Rarity with her dresses,” says Applejack.

The farmer gags and shudders after mentioning having to help Rarity with dresses, but this makes Pinkie Pie grin from ear to ear.

“AJ helpin’ Rarity, eh? What will you to be doing? Will you be trying on different dresses?” asks Pinkie Pie.

“No,” says Applejack.

“Making dresses?”

“No.”

“Is it something athletic and you guys are just using dresses as an excuse?”

Applejack glares at the pink pony while pushing one of the baskets farther back. “Ah’m just tryin’ to explain to Rarity the ‘fashion’ of us simple folk since she’s lookin’ fer rustic ideas.”

Pinkie Pie snickered and gobbled up one of Applejack’s apples in one bite; the farming mare did not take too kindly to that.

“Dang it, Pinkie! How many time do Ah have t’ tell ya not t’ eat mah apples!” scolds Applejack.

“Oh relax, you’re just as uptight as Rarity when it comes to your apples,” teases Pinkie Pie. “What’s the big deal anyway? It’s only one apple.”

“Well that one apple is life or death!”

“En garde!” shouts Trixie as she charges Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie quickly side steps and rams Trixie on the side, thus knocking her over to her back. Then Pinkie Pie stands over Trixie and holds her down with her forehooves.

Trixie laughs. “That’s one!”

Pinkie Pie stares at Applejack, completely shocked by her words and now feeling like a jerk for eating that apple. A moment later, Applejack climbs in her vehicle and Pinkie Pie hops in the passenger seat.

“Ah’m sorry fer snappin’, Pinkie, but finances are tight fer me and mah family,” says Applejack with genuine regret.

“What do you mean?” asks Pinkie Pie. “I know you said you were trying to save some money, but you look like you're well off.”

“Ah don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Why not?”

“Because Ah don’t and that’s final.”

“Don’t make me go into a tangent about cherrychangas again.”

Applejack looks down, and when Pinkie Pie opens her mouth to unleash the cherrychangas, Applejack is quick to explain her situation.

“Ah found a great place fer Apple Bloom t’ go to so she won’t be stuck on this here farm. She can get a proper education and go somewhere and do somethin’ meaningful with her life.”

“Oh, that’s nice. What school is it?”

“The Smoky Mountain Architect Academy, but Ah still have t’ pay fer the expenses of Granny’s funeral, and Big Mac is payin’ some hotshot from Canterlot t’ fix the problems he and Cheerilee have. Sixty bits an hour is the cost, Ah believe.”

“Wait, Big Mac and Cheerilee are having problems?”

“Eeyup.”

“They don’t need a somepony in a suit with glasses to tell them how to fix their problems, what they need is a party! Yeah, a party to remind them how much they love each other!”

“A party won’t fix this one. This whole thing with him and Cheerilee has driven mah brother to drinking and now I have to help him pay for rehab after he did that stool thing with Vigilance.”

“Ooh, I didn’t realize he was drunk when he did that.”

“Big Mac is terrifying when he’s drunk, so Ah have t’ do this before he hurts himself or any other pony. Also, add that to the repair costs, maintenance, employee payments, the dozen and a half bills and new taxes, and the one thousand pages o’ regulations and mah family is left with crumbs. So fun and money is something Ah need, but don’t have a whole lot of right now. Every apple counts.”

When Applejack finishes her venting, Pinkie Pie notices she is trying to hide the tears in her eyes, so she quietly pulled out a bag of bits from seemingly thin air and plops them on Applejack's seat.

“What is that?” asks Applejack with a raised a brow.

“My chess tournament winnings,” replies Pinkie Pie. “Why didn’t you tell any of us that you were having this much trouble?”

“It wasn’t yer guys’s concern. This is mah problem, and it wouldn’t be right t’ bring others into a problem that ain’t theirs... And when did you play in a chess tournament, anyway?”

“When I visited Donut Joe in Canterlot when he needed my help in making one of his cities. I got to make little marshmallow ponies that had all the clothes and everything! It was hard making the little sugar dresses, but it was worth it.”

Applejack smiles. “Sounds like it was quite a sight. Did it taste good?”

“Oh yeah! It was like a eating a rainbo-ohhh nevermind, rainbows are spicy. It was like eating all of the candies in the world baked inside all of the pastries in the world and then mixed inside a mixer that put in all the flavorings of the world and it was so good that I hallucinated from its goodness.”

“Say what now?”

“By the way, that’s yours.”

“What is?”

Pinkie Pie points at the bag of bits. “That is.”

Applejack stops the vehicle and points at the bag. “That bag of how many bits?”

“Two thousand three hundred and fifty four. It was originally three thousand, but I bought some gifts for all of you guys and a vet visit for Gummy.”

Applejack continues to stare at the bag of bits, eyes wide in a trance, but a moment later, she shakes her head and gives the money back.

“Ah’m sorry, Pinkie, Ah can’t accept it,” says Applejack. “It’s yer money and ya can't blow it all on one pony for charity. Just ain't smart.”

“I’m using my money how I want to, which is helping a friend who needs it more than me. Besides, a nonexistent business can wait. Existing payments can’t,” says Pinkie Pie.

“But-”

“Take the money or I’ll slap you to last week!”

Applejack’s eyes widen, and she leans back as if she is afraid Pinkie Pie has such devastating powers to breach the space and time continuum with a mere slap. Pinkie Pie then pulls Applejack in for a hug, and at first the farmer is uncomfortable at first, but then she loosens up and returns the hug. A moment later she starts crying, and tightens her hug, and Pinkie Pie does the same. She closes her eyes and pats Applejack on the back as her friend trembles in her embrace and her tears trickle down her face.

“Thank you,” Applejack says softly. “You have no idea how much this means t’ me.”

Trixie tries to tackle Pinkie Pie again, but she once again uses her superior speed and agility to move out of the way. However, the sudden bursts of movement causes a spike of pain in her back, which is only made worse when Trixie jumps on her. Pinkie Pie buckles under the sudden weight, but manages to push Trixie off. While Trixie flops on the floor like a fish out of the water, and Pinkie Pie pounces on her and pins her down again.

“That was two out of three, time for bed, Trixie,” says Pinkie Pie sternly.

“Awww, but I don’t wanna go to bed!” whines Trixie.

“But you have to, you have to go to work tomorrow.”

“But I’m not tired!” Trixie bangs her hooves on the floor and pouts. “This is fun! Aren’t you having fun?”

Pinkie Pie sighs and reluctantly releases Trixie from her pin.

“You want to talk about the good old times?” asks Pinkie Pie.

Applejack pulls away and wipes the tears off of her eyes. “Like what?”

Pinkie Pie shrugs. “I don’t know... Some of our whacky adventures. Like the time we fought all those changelings.”

Applejack smiles. “Or when we took a trip to Los Pegasus.”

“And we swore to never let you near a casino ever again.”

“Too honest for poker!”

The two of them burst into laughter, remembering the good times they had at the casinos. Such as Rainbow Dash trying to count cards, leading to them being kicked out and almost getting arrested, or worse. Applejack trying her hoof at Palomino Hold ‘Em, which lost them all their money that Fluttershy thankfully won some back. Rarity and Pinkie getting trashed at a bar and almost marrying a couple of Saddle Arabians, and Twilight being too scared to try any of the casino games because none of them were in her favor. Then they talked about how broke they were after their horrible gambling spree and how Fluttershy managed to convince a bus driver to take all of them back to Ponyville free of charge.

“Do you know what Fluttershy said or did t’ get us back t’ Ponyville?” asks Applejack.

“Nope,” says Pinkie Pie coolly while leaning in her seat, “but she was one happy little filly for a while.”

“Ain’t no denyin’ that.”

The two share another laugh, and then they fall silent. Both of them stare at the seemingly endless supply of apple trees and the beautiful sunset, which is giving everything a more peaceful feel to it. Add that to the warm, summer breeze and anyone could fall asleep on the spot. It is moments like this that remind Pinkie Pie why Applejack likes to sleep outside.

“Hey Applejack, do you miss it?” says Pinkie Pie suddenly.

“Miss what?” asks Applejack.

“Playing hero.”

“‘Playing hero’?”

“Yeah, you know that whole Mare-Do-Well thing? Do you miss it?”

Applejack scoffs. “Nope.”

“Really?”

“Pinkie, it may have been fun fer you guys, but it wasn’t for me.”

Pinkie Pie sits up and leans closer to Applejack. “Why not? You did great when we did that whole thing with Dashie and was awesome when Eclipse came to town.”

Applejack sighs and shifts her position so that she could start the vehicle. “Well fer one, we made Mare-Do-Well to mess with Dash, and Ah never really forgave mahself fer that. Ah mean, what kind o’ friend does that t’ another friend?”

Pinkie Pie looks down to ponder Applejack’s remark.

Trixie lays on the ground for a couple of more seconds before she gets a devilish grin and prepares herself for another pounce. Pinkie Pie merely tuts and wipes her nose with the hoof that Trixie burnt during that fateful night.

“Are you seriously going to try it?” asks Pinkie Pie.

Trixie nods. “Oh yeah, and you’ll soon feel the wrath of the next great hero!”

Pinkie Pie goes in the sitting position and spreads her forehooves out, and then Trixie charges Pinkie Pie, but with one swift swipe to the unicorn’s head, she goes down like a sack of potatoes.

“And another thing,” continues Applejack, the vehicle now rumbling to life. “Ponyville got all screwy with the sudden accidents when we put on those costumes. It was weird and every time Ah think about it Ah get the shivers.” To make her point Applejack shudders for a second before regaining her composure. “Thirdly, we never thought about protecting Ponyville, it was all t’ mess with Dash. Sure her attitude reminded me of the Great and Powerful Trixie, or whatever she called herself, and we had t’ take care of it, but what we did was... awful and downright rude, to put it lightly.”

Applejack starts driving towards the enormous barn where she stores all of her apples.

“And finally, Ah woulda liked t’ have somethin’ more than a towel between mah noggin and a hoof, like a suit o’ armor worn by Captain Equestria or somethin’,” says Applejack.

“What do you mean ‘towel’?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“Yer jumpsuit didn’t feel like a towel?”

Pinkie Pie shakes her head. “Nope. It felt like I was wearing somepony else’s skin.”

“...That’s creepy.”

Pinkie Pie leans over Trixie and pokes the side of her head, prompting an obnoxious snore from her.

“Okay, let’s get you to bed,” says Pinkie Pie.

She tries to wake up Trixie again, except this time with a shake, but all that does is make her mumble something about mint gum. Pinkie Pie sighs and drags Trixie to her bed, but does not bother taking the costume off, and when Trixie is tucked in, she heads back to her room and flops on her bed.

Pinkie Pie stares at the doorway as if expecting someone to walk in, and the more she stares, the tighter her jaw and the wetter her eyes become. She never really thought about Applejack’s words that day on the farm. She just figured that the farmer was being pessimistic, but now that she thinks about it, Applejack was right. Mare-Do-Well was never a hero. Her very design was for humiliation, they never had the intention of protecting anybody from anything, only to break down Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie presses the sides of her head with her hooves, closes her eyes and whimpers. Now that she thinks about it, she wants to save Equestria using a lost soul who doesn’t even know what she’s being conditioned for while using an idea that had a vile inception. Pinkie Pie starts trembling and she shakes her head, not wanting to remember all those nights she had to comfort Rainbow Dash for what she had only viewed as a prank. She understood why she was upset at first, but never grasped the severity of it until just now.

Then the memory of Spike bleeding all over her returns, as well as the pain that Twilight and Rarity went through. She can hear both of them crying and Spike’s heavy breathing, and she can practically feel his blood on her, and the heat from Twilight’s fire, and the shock wave from the building collapsing in Ponyville.

Pinkie Pie’s eyes slowly open and she looks at her hooves, hyperventilating, expecting to see blood on them. She starts to tremble and rock herself back and forth while her lips quiver and tears pour out of her eyes as she curls up on her bed with her tail to her face, sobbing and stroking her tail, ignoring the pain she’s putting her back through.

She knows she is responsible for Shining Armor’s condition and all those killed and injured in the name of defending Ponyville from harm. Everything she did led to Spike's death and the deaths of the guards and innocent people, and Big Mac and Fluttershy almost getting killed, and Twilight getting hurt when she fought Trixie. It is all her fault what has happened, and there is nothing she can do to fix it.

“I’m sorry,” whimpers Pinkie Pie . “I’m sorry... I’m sorry... I’m sorry... Please forgive me.”