Author's Notes:

Shitty chapter title. Eyy.

So yeah, this is a day with the triangle. Lilly catches up, and Dash gets some disapproving eyes. :D

Will it progress in time? lol, probably, we all need a threesome sometimes, amirite bbs

Here's the question nobody wanted answered: Will Swift make a return? Well yes, but when he does, he'll be dying that same chapter. It will probably be long, and it will probably end up being pretty pointless, but I feel like his story at this point should end. You're welcome. :D

I mean, maybe someone will take his place for a brief time and fucking die, or maybe I'll kind of make it seem like they slowly withered away instead of trying to come back. :)

Enjoy, bbs. Let's try and get this featured! I mean, you don't have to, I'm just an attention whore. lel

With a gentle push, the mighty metal doors of the hospital open with a swift motion.

And just like that - you were greeted to the outside world.

Brand new, just for you.

The sun was blinding, but only for a moment. You squinted as your eyes attempted to balance themselves out, to get used to it. You could already feel the gentle brush of the cool summer air on your face and within your fur. You felt like you hadn't felt it in such a long time - it felt like such an alien feeling.

In a way, you weren't all too far from the truth.

You stumbled, but only slightly, the sensations already getting to you, but the pills were already doing their work just fine.

"Easy now," Rainbow said as she held a hoof on your back to balance you.

"Slowly," Lilly added.

Taking their words wisely, you let in a deep breath, just one to relax you. By the time you let it out, your eyes adjusted to the outside light.

And the view was...definitely something. You were at a loss for words, a loss for thought. Your eyes took in everything - the whole place was surrounded by vast mountains and hilltops. Parts of them were green and growing to be healthy. But some of the other parts were gray and brown, like they were dead.

You assumed them to be.

Your eyes then became fixated to the town in front of you, no more than a quarter mile away.

With a single hoof, you point to it.

"Ponyville, right?" you ask. It seemed like such a silly thing to ask, but you had to be sure.

Dash nodded. "Yeah."

Then your eyes turned to the city standing on the mountains. You noticed it before Ponyville, but as stated, you didn't want to blindly blurt out names.

You pointed your hoof to it.

"And...Canterlot?" you ask again as the city captures your attention. "That's the capitol?"

"That's right," Dash adds.

It felt so childish the way the conversation went, like a mother and her child - but you remembered that you didn't exactly ask her or any of the others about these places. You heard about Canterlot and Ponyville on the radio. In a way, you already knew the town was Ponyville; at the same time, you were still unsure, and still so uninformed.

Had you remembered everything, you likely would've been embarrassed.

"You good?" Rainbow said to you.

She noticed you had been holding in your breath; you didn't even notice that you were.

With a nod, you assured her that you were fine. "Just...stunned, that's all."

You weren't lying.

After a few moments, you started to walk forward. You knew how to walk just fine, but you were still careful in case the pills had some other side effects - whatever they may be. Dash and Lilly walked with you - Dash beside you, still keeping her hoof on your back.

You wanted to tell her it wasn't necessary. But...in its own little way - it felt nice.

Kept you at ease.

It was interesting, really.

Weird, maybe?

As you walked, you continued to look up towards the city of Canterlot, and as you looked, you happened to notice something odd. A large chunk of the city had been either missing or seemed to be in the process of being built.

Curiosity striking, you just had to ask what happened.

But as you were beginning to assume, Dash explained.

It was the fire that Twilight Sparkle had told you about; the fire that raged across Equestria and killed millions. Apparently, there was an explosion long before the fire had actually hit the city, and when the fire actually hit...well, it just...rolled down the mountain like an avalanche, or so Dash had said.

You didn't ask how many had died, but your guess was hundreds...maybe thousands even.

A part of you wondered why you seemed so...calm about all of it. Millions died in a single night while you slept peacefully, and it hardly phased you. Maybe it was because you didn't have the displeasure of experiencing it yourself, or maybe you held the knowledge that everyone you knew lived.

Or, well...so you assumed.

You stopped thinking about it, and you decided to end the questions.

Right now, you just wanted to see the world. Even if it wasn't the same one you know - well, knew - you just wanted to see it again.

And so you did.

Rainbow felt a great lump in her chest - a lump that only grew the closer they got to the town.

She knew what the lump was, and all it could do was make her nervous.

One would think three months was plenty of time to forgive and forget, and most of the townsfolk had forgiven her. They might not have forgotten it, but why hold a grudge over the past?

Him nearly dying couldn't have been her fault...could it?

That's what the few thought. The great minority of Ponyville still believed she was responsible for her friend being where he is right now - a broken brain and a forgotten past.

She could remember the first time someone pelted her with rocks. They weren't big enough to cause long-lasting harm to her, but they definitely hurt.

'Murderer,' they called her.

He's not even dead.

But what if he did die? What would they do? What would the majority do? Would they cast her out of town? Would they try and lock her up? Would they lynch her in the middle of town and scream it as justice?

No...no, that was stupid to ever think that. They would never think that, no matter what happened.

I'm just overreacting, that's all.

It was the lump, definitely.

Still growing, bigger and bigger the closer they were.

What did the minority think of her now? That incident was a long while ago. Would they still pelt her? Or would they just apologize and make it up somehow?

How would they?

Could they?

Would they even want to?

She could hear him take another deep breath, and she looked up.

The town was right there. They were close enough that she could see the townsfolk walking about - shopping, talking, laughing, dating...

Living.

How would they react?

Guess she'll have to find out.

"Well," Dash said to her stallion friend as she looked over to him, "Here we go."

With mere steps, they walked into Ponyville.

At first, nopony seemed to notice the trio, so it was nothing more than business as usual. But the further in they were, the more ponies started to notice.

And when they noticed - they didn't hesitate to stare.

A few of them stopped and looked right at them as they walked. Others noticed too, but it didn't stop them from doing their jobs or buying their food. They kept on going about their business.

After a moment, the stallion seemed to notice the attention he was getting. He knew that at some point, he knew these ponies. They were probably his friends, maybe some of them family. At the same time, any of them could have been a complete stranger and happened to know about him from gossip.

Nonetheless, he chose to smile and wave to a couple of them.

But some of them weren't looking at him.

They were looking at her - the ones that hated her, they were staring right at her.

And she could feel every stare burn straight into her. Their expressions were near blank or showed disappointment, but Dash could tell that they were staring at her with simple, subtle anger.

She could feel their eyes looking right at her.

And yet, the stallion didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary.

Perhaps she was still overreacting, and they weren't as angry?

No...she couldn't be. She's lived long enough to read someone's face, no matter how blank or how different it is from their true emotion.

If only she...

With...

She drowned out the thoughts. Those were the old days.

This is now.

So she kept walking with him - ignoring everyone.

Let them hate her.

He was alive.

Wasn't that enough?

After a few minutes of wandering through the downtown area, the townsfolk stopped staring at you - well, the majority of them. A few still looked or simply glanced, but for everyone else, it was back to business.

His house shouldn't be too far now.

That was the intention since this morning. Before you, he, or Lilly went anywhere, the first stop would be his home. It'd been months since anyone probably stepped a hoof in it. As far as you know, only Twilight had actually looked after the place while tending to other duties. If she went away on business calls to other cities, Fluttershy would take over.

You somewhat thought it was ridiculous. There was no way that the house was going to fall into disrepair in a matter of months.

Then again, the apocalypse did happen last month.

No, believe it or not, ponies were actually calling it that. Sure, in some ways, anyone could see it as that...

But things were fine now, or as fine as they could be for the time. Ponyville was just about rebuilt and better than before, and the princesses were aiding the country in any way they could. You guessed it was be less than a year before everything would be back to normal.

Well...as normal as it could be.

Finally, after enough time passes and enough wandering - you see it.

His house was exactly the same - not a single change. Even when all of the houses around him had been reinforced or gained an extra floor, his home didn't have even a tiny bit of difference from the last time you saw it.

And you only saw it rarely - even more now.

As the three of you walked up to the door, you only now started to realize something.

None of you had a key. Clearly, he didn't.

But then you remembered something.

"Hold on," you say to them.

You were wearing his satchel.

Well...yours, really. Up until now, you actually forgot you had been wearing it.

With a quick pull of the zipper, you open it up and quickly scrounge through it, making sure everything that was inside was untouched.

Especially everything.

It has to be in here somewhere. Maybe...aha!

After a few seconds, you successfully pull out a small silver, slightly dirtied key! Surely, it was the one to unlock the front door. You walk to the front of the house and insert the key into the slot.

Sure enough - thankfully - it was the right one.

With a gentle twist to the left, the sound of the cranks turning and the lock releasing was heard. You grabbed the doorknob and pushed.

The door slowly and surely opened to reveal the dark interior of his home.

It chilled you. Not a single sound could be heard. There was no radio playing or the sound of buzzing electricity, and not a single lightbulb was on. The only form of light that shone into his home was the light from the sun as it came through his windows.

Even then, it was still dark.

Still empty.

Not for long, though.

"Welcome home," you say as you turn on a single lamp.

And the room comes to life.

The light of that single lamp was enough to illuminate at least a good portion of the living room, which was still just as roomy as it had been just a few months ago. Not a single bit of the place seemed damaged - and if it had been, Twilight or Fluttershy fixed it up pretty well, despite the circumstances.

The stallion walked carefully around the living room, taking glances at the pictures hanging on the walls, or the other small decorations place all over the place.

"So this is my home?" he asked the two of them - well, particularly Dash, who nodded as he looked to her.

He shivered just a bit.

"It's a little chilly in here."

"The heating's off, I think," Rainbow replied.

He wasn't wrong, it was chilly. Even being in the middle of July, the air was a lot cooler than it usually had ever been. Dash assumed it had to have been the pegasi workers getting us ready for the rain.

Regarding that, she started looking around the windows to see if there was a heater anywhere. When she went into the kitchen, she found an heater built into the wall. Pressing a few buttons, she turned it on, and it immediately sparked to life. Within moments, she could feel the heat brushing against her fur. It sent goosebumps down her spine, but she felt snug already.

She went back into the living room and saw Lilly sitting down with the stallion, asking him questions, like if he was feeling okay, or if the pills seemed to be working. He replied back that he wasn't sure, "But I'm feeling a bit better than I was before."

"That's good," Lilly answered, "The effects are kicking in now. They'll last until your next pill."

"And that's tomorrow - right?"

She nodded.

A moment later, she got up from the couch, announcing that she had to use the bathroom.

"Do you know where it is around here?" she asked Dash, as she might know more than he did - by far.

She actually came to his house once years ago, visiting for something he borrowed.

Then there was that second time.

"I think it's upstairs."

"Thanks." Lilly gave a kind smile and went off upstairs.

And for some reason, that started to send another quick chill down Rainbow's spine.

She got nervous.

He noticed too.

"Are you okay?"

When she looked at him, he had that questionable look on his face. It wasn't the same kind that he used to have in the past - but it didn't have that same form to it.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she lied.

Once she heard the sound of a door closing upstairs, Dash asked, "Uh, could you...wait down here for a second? I need to check on something."

"On what?"

She came up with an excuse.

"Just making sure nothing was stolen upstairs, that's all."

It was a lie, but it could've also been used as truth. Owner in a coma and hardly anyone coming over for three months? Someone was bound to steal something. But Twilight and Fluttershy were smart; they wouldn't let that happen.

But it was still a good lie.

The stallion understood and continued to stay seated on the couch, while Dash started making her way up the stairs. She never went upstairs the first time, so the layout was completely new to her. Luckily, there were only a few doors to choose from, and one of them - apparently the bathroom - was closed. The other three doors must have been bedrooms or closets.

She tried the first door on the right. Just as she had guessed, it was a bedroom, but it didn't appear to be his bedroom. At first, she asked herself why there would be more than one bedroom; she then assumed it was likely a guest bedroom, as they were pretty common in houses nowadays.

Closing the door, she went over to the next door. Opening it up, it was revealed to be a closet, with nothing more than a broom and a few spare blankets.

But it's just all carpet up here, Dash thought to herself as she looked at the broom.

Then again, it was a closet.

She closed the door again and made her way to the last door straight ahead.

Twisting the knob, she opened it up, and sure enough, it was the right one this time.

She was standing right in his bedroom.

Dash had never seen his bedroom before, but she wasn't expecting anything extravagant or spiffy. The room had a few cabinets, drawers, a dresser, even a desk, and - of course - his bed, with a rug beneath it.

A few pictures hung on the wall of various places or things. One of them was of the Appleachian Mountains, seemingly during one of its harsh winters.

When Dash looked closer, she saw a pony standing in winter gear.

It was him. Or, at least, it looked like him. He had to have been no older than ten years, maybe less.

Only a child, it appeared.

Another picture detailed that of a wedding. Before Dash could assume, she saw that it wasn't his wedding, but of the pony next to him, the groom.

I remember this, she thought. That trip to Los Pegasus.

He went on about what happened before, during, and after the wedding; he had a whole story for all of them to remember.

She remembered laughing when he mentioned the bride.

"She was awful," he said then.

Looking closer at the picture, she could see the bride in the distance, looking anything but happy.

"Wasn't too far from the truth," she said quietly.

But one of the other pictures caught her eye even more.

It was a picture of all eight of them, standing all bunched up - smiling, faces lit with joy.

She remembered this picture. Hell, she remembered the day it happened. It was an August, no more than a few years ago. He had only recently then moved to Ponyville. He wasn't a stranger to them, but they were still knowing a lot. He told all of these interesting jokes, some of them she hadn't even heard of before. Then he started talking about his life in Chicacolt - which, now that she thinks about it, was more likely a great lie.

Then again, knowing the things that happen in that city, she couldn't blame him too much.

Dash looked at the picture intently. She took in every detail that she could find. The smiles, the poses, the...atmosphere of it all.

It was the last time she was ever that happy around him.

...

Why couldn't she just have been happy like that?

The moment she felt the tear on her cheek, she wiped it away.

Getting distracted, she thought.

Ignoring the pictures, she started to look around the room. Whatever place was accessible, she opened, searched, and closed everything, or put everything back the way it was when she found it.

She felt around the inside of vases, or behind cupboards, or deep inside drawers - but she couldn't find it anywhere.

Opening up the drawer nearest to the door, she started digging through the clothes, hoping to find it somewhere in there. She was amazed at how many clothes he had, as opposed to how many times she's seen him never wearing clothes.

But she kept looking.

It had to be in here somewhere.

Wait...is that...?

She felt a small slip of what felt like paper hidden beneath one of his shirts. Dash flipped the shirt open.

And there it was.

It was the picture.

The photograph.

Dash presenting herself to the camera.

She remembered that day as it went along. It was one of her 'worse-for-wear' days. It was during the time of the Gabby Gums debacle - or was it before that?

Regardless of the time, she was definitely tense then.

It was also a time where, for a brief time - she actually liked him.

She never told anypony that she had a thing or liked anyone in that way. It was her only secret, and she didn't want even him to find out about it. Dash was still unsure of him, but she knew she could trust him just enough to keep something like this a secret.

And she was much dumber then. She was in love - kind of - and horny and maybe something like this would get a message across.

But in the present - all these years later, all this time...

She could've just talked to him instead of sending him a picture of...her...

Did he even know it was her who sent it? Or did he think someone else did?

...

It didn't matter now.

She picked up the picture with a hoof and looked at it. Immediately, the memory came back to her as crisp as she could remember it. She had just turned twenty then - still just out of her teen years and much more...daring. Her house was still a decent walk away, and she was far from anyone to be seen.

She had Twilight's camera at the time - she borrowed it for a prank, and she was on the way to bring it back.

But then that urge came along, and she...just couldn't resist.

Some part of her wanted to capture the moment - either for herself to remember or for him, or...

The next thing she knew, she was lifting a leg in the air and showing everything she could, waiting for the timer to go off.

And here it was again, after all these years.

But...goddesses, she felt stupid. Why the hell would she do it?

...

And then suddenly, those thoughts came around again the longer she stared at the picture.

To think she actually gave this to him...

Knowing that he...

To her...

The things he might've done just looking at it.

She could already imagine the things he wanted to do to her.

Her breathing-...

No!

She didn't let the thoughts plague her - at least, not right now.

Letting out a quick breath and clearing her throat, she opened the satchel and quickly stuffed the picture inside. She didn't mind him having the picture then...at least, when she remembered that she actually took it and gave it for a short time...but with this kind of him around, it was like unsure to trust him all over again.

He would've been confused or flustered or...something, maybe.

But the last thing she wanted was for him to raise questions about stuff like this.

He'll never find out about it.

At least, not for a while.

Maybe.

Dash cleared her throat one more time and headed for the door. It opened first, as Lilly walked in. The sight of Dash startled her.

"You scared me!" she semi-yelled.

"Sorry!" Dash semi-yelled back, startled herself.

Lilly took a quick glance around the room, before looking back to Rainbow.

"What were you doing in here?"

"Uh...just-...looking around, making sure everything was in here...you know."

Lilly looked at her, somewhat confused.

"Like...not stolen?"

"Yeah," Dash nodded. "What were you doing?"

Pointing a hoof back to the bathroom, she answered, "I just heard someone talking in here. I thought he came up to look around. Is he still downstairs?"

The mare nodded again. "I just told him I was looking around, making sure everything was still here or nopony broke in or anything, that's all."

"Oh."

Lilly seemed to believe it - but she was quick to notice the blush on Rainbow's face.

"Are you okay?"

Dash quickly felt her cheeks. They were warm and red slightly.

"Oh! Yeah, I'm fine. Just got a little emotional, that's all," she answered, using the pictures on the walls as an excuse. Lilly looked at them.

"Oh."

She turned back to Dash.

"Hey, come here," the nurse said, bringing Dash in for a warming hug. "It's gonna be okay. I know it's hard, but...we'll get through it. I know I don't know him all that much - but I know he's strong."

"You're sure about that?"

She could feel Lilly smile just a little and laugh a bit.

"He went out of his way to help a complete stranger...and he survived all of this. I'm more than sure."

Rainbow laughed back.

The two pulled away with smiles on their faces. Lilly gave Dash a comforting pat on her shoulder.

"You ready to go?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm good," the mare answered.

"Alright."

The mares left the room, Dash closing the door behind her on the way out.

It was lunchtime, wasn't it?

It was.