Chapter 8: The "You" Inside

"Okay, so I'm in my own head, talking to myself, is that what you're saying?" you ask while wandering aimlessly around the white room you're in.

In a way, yes, but also no. I am not you, I am a part of you

"Same thing!"

No it isn't!

"Okay, fine!" you say while glaring in a random direction, "Anyways, why am I here, shouldn't I be dead or in a coma after being hit by lightening?"

Yes, but your thoughts just before you were hit caused your brain to bring you here so you could resolve the issue

"Great, so what's your job in all this?"

To help you with your decision

"Okay great, but can you take a form I can talk to, the omniscient voice thing is kinda annoying"

One moment

Suddenly there was a flash of light and you noticed a shadowy form standing in a cloud of smoke. The smoke was clearing very slowly, but you were able to pick out what looked like wings and slicked back hair.

"Hello there, this form good enough?"

Your jaw dropped so fast it probably broke the sound barrier. Standing there, in front of you, was Soarin. Why your inner mind picked him, you have no idea, but he did pick a form you could talk to so...

"Okay, so where do we begin?" you ask the fake Soarin.

"We start with this" he answers as 5 screens appeared in front of both of you.

"What the hell are these-"

You were cut off by surprise as one of the screens changed to an image of Spitfire, and by closer inspection, all the others had changed as well. Only they weren't Spitfire. One had Rainbow Dash on it, another had Pinkie Pie, and another had Applejack oddly enough.

"What the hell, how did you do this?"

"We're in your head remember, we can do anything if you can think of," he calmly replied, "although, it would be best you don't try to think of a anything crazy, it might end up hurting the real you"

"Great," you roll your eyes, "So what are these things for?"

"Each of these screens is one of the girls who has a crush on you, the strength of that crush in ranked in order of how they appeared in front of you"

"Why is the fifth one blank?"

"Because, that one is the one you must find out for yourself"

"Wonderful, now, how do we do this?"

"Jump into the picture and you'll find out"

You shoot him a look of confusion, but he simply stands there looking at you from the other side of Spitfire's image. Knowing that he won't explain anymore you take a few steps back, and you jump into the image of Spitfire...

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You find yourself in your house, and you see Spitfire walk into the kitchen. You know this is the very moment you had remembered on the cloud. Unsure of what to do next you follow her into the kitchen and then you watch the whole scene play out. You laugh slightly at your stunned state, and realize that Spitfire had in fact said she had fallen in love with you.

"Man I made a fool out of myself here, how did she still manage to fall for me even after that?"

Suddenly the image changed, and you remember it as being where Spitfire had first asked you to join the Wonderbolts. She had been staying with you for around a week due to the blizzard outside, and when she say how fast you could get things done, she asked you how fast you could fly. You then proceeded to tell her that you were the fastest flyer in the area, no one could even match up to half your speed. She took that as a sign that you were extremely fast and she asked you if you would like to be a Wonderbolt with her, and you refused. After that you walked away to make lunch, and only now did you see how crushed Spitfire was that you had turned her offer down.

"Man I feel like such an ass right now..."

Again the image changed. This time it was the night of your race against Rainbow. You watched the whole scene play out, but afterwards you followed Spitfire as she flew away from you. She had been crying as she flew to where you had found her later that evening. You stayed there watching her as she cried on the cloud she had landed on, hearing a few times that she would never love anyone as much as she loved you. You swore that you could feel your heart breaking while you watched her cry, and then you saw yourself coming over the horizon, and suddenly the image disappeared.

"What the hell, what's going on now?"

You've seen all you needed to see, now you're coming back

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You suddenly awoke on the floor of the white room.

"Welcome back, how was the trip?"

"Shut up, let's get onto the next one before I get tired of hearing Soarin's voice"

With that said you jumped into the picture of Rainbow Dash...

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The first image you were greeted with was you at the party that Pinkie had thrown to welcome you to Ponyville. You couldn't see the importance of it at first, but then you saw Rainbow talking to Pinkie and Applejack. You decided to hover in closer to figure out what they were talking about.

"So what do you think his cutie mark means?" Rainbow asked.

"Probably something to do with flyin', guessing by the wings" Applejack responded.

"Yay, but he also has a chocolate covered apple on it too" Pinkie responded, surprising calm despite having mentioned chocolate.

"Hmm, by the way, anyone else noticed how toned his muscles are, he must work out" Rainbow said while glancing at you when you were talking to Berry Punch.

"Yeah, we have, he might be the first Pegasus that could buck apples correctly..." Applejack said  while staring at you.

"He looks as good as a fresh cupcake..." Pinkie said while slightly drooling.

You quickly looked over at yourself, trying to find the qualities the three mares were pointing out, but you couldn't see them, that's how you've looked since you learned how to fly. You then noticed yourself quickly lifting Berry Punch off the ground and flying her to a toilet while covering her mouth with one of your hooves.

"He's also pretty nice to people he just met" Applejack said while grinning.

"Yeah.." the other two responded.

You saw the scene change, something you were getting used to. This time it was the night of the race again, only this time it showed Rainbow and her friends after you took off to go find Spitfire. Everyone was there except Twilight.

"Man he's fast..." you heard Rainbow say dreamily.

"Do you have a crush on him Dashie?" Pinkie asked suddenly in her face.

"No!" she said while blushing quite a bit, "Well, ok, maybe a little..."

Fluttershy then walked over to her and put one of her forelegs around her neck, "It's okay Rainbow, I'm sure if you tell him he might like you back, you'll never know unless you try"

"Yeah I guess, maybe I'll tell him tomorrow during the party for his win" Rainbow said while flying away towards her home.

You felt the scene change, and you recognized where you were. You were inside Dash's house, only thing was, it was dark, and you could see a small light from under her bedroom door. You made your way up the stairs, only now wondering if this being a recreation would mean you can't go through the door. Thankfully you could and you entered the room to see Fluttershy hugging Rainbow.

"It's okay Rainbow, he's strong, there's no way he'd be dead"

"But it's been a week, and despite everyone's best efforts there's been no sign of him anywhere!"

"I know, I know, but he's strong, and I know he wouldn't run away from Ponyville after just arriving"

"I told you already, I know he wouldn't run away, but what if he got hurt and died out there?!"

"He'll have found a way to survive, I know it" Fluttershy said while pulling Dash in closer, "I'm sorry, but I have to head home now, I have to feed my animals and get some sleep"

Dash didn't answer, but instead she curled up into a tight ball, and cried. You swear you could feel your heart breaking again, you had made another girl cry. You wished you could punch yourself right now for being such an idiot.

Time to come back...

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You found yourself on the floor of the white room again, and this time you stood up, now even caring what the fake Soarin had to say to you, and you made your way into the image of Pinkie Pie, the pink party pony that had a thing for all things sweet...

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You realize that you had already seen the first part of Pinkie's story, but you couldn't exactly figure out why you were outside of the bakery. Then you noticed that there was a certain blue Pegasus walking up to the door. You recognized this as being when Soarin came in after the party. You silently watched the scene play out, and noticed that the entire time Pinkie had been eating the chocolate you made, looking like she was in heaven at every bite.

After everyone had left you saw Pinkie go up to her room, with the rest of the chocolates no less, and sit down on her bed. She was staring at the treats like they were made by Celestia herself.

"He is so good at making chocolates..." she said after around 5 minutes, "I think every bite is like him kissing me with how good these are.."

"Thinking of the new stallion in town Pinkie?"

Mrs. Cake had entered the room and was now heading towards Pinkie, she must have heard everything Pinkie had said.

"Did you hear what I said? You know about the chocolates and stuff?" Pinkie asked, her face becoming a darker shade of pink.

"Yes I did," Mrs. Cake responded, making Pinkie turn pinker, "and I think you have a crush on him"

"Well, maybe, but if I did, what should I do about it?"

"You should tell him as soon as possible, you never know when someone else might beat you to it"

"Okay, I'll tell him next time I see him!"

Again you felt the scene change, and there you were, the day of the race against Rainbow. You saw Pinkie pacing back and forth, muttering to herself. You tried to figure out what she was saying but you couldn't, it was probably something like, "You can say it Pinkie, you can say it!", but then she saw you coming towards her. You watched her talking to you, now noticing her face being a slightly darker shade than the rest of her body. You then proceeded to watch the race, hearing her cheer for you louder than anyone else.

The scene changed yet again as you saw the end of the race. This time you were back in the bakery, but something was different. The lights were off and the familiar sound of Pinkie doing something silly were gone. It was as if the place had been closed down for a while as well. You made your way upstairs toward Pinkie's room, and saw the one thing you thought you'd never see. Her hair was straight, and she was entirely a shade darker. Even her usual smile was gone. As you got closer you noticed she was crying quite a bit, wall while holding onto the last piece of chocolate from the night of the party.

You couldn't manage to feel disgust that she still had it, guessing that it was the only thing keeping her even slightly happy right now, with it being the only thing she could remember you by. Again you felt your heart break at the sight, when you heard the ever familiar voice...

That time has come again...

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This time you were standing up rather than being on the floor when you came back. This time you saw the Soarin figure that had been your helpful guide laughing at you.

"You're crying! I can't believe you're crying!"

Without a second thought you raced up to him, held him against the wall with your hoof across his neck. "What's the big idea?! Showing me all this, how do I even know this really happened? How do I know you aren't just showing me this to screw with me?!" At that exact moment you felt yourself pulled away, into a black room, and screens appeared, showing everything you could remember, and showing every moment in time that had anything to do with you. As you looked around you saw the 5 screens still there, and this time with yourself standing behind them.

"You want to know what this is all for? You want to know if this is all true? Just head into the Applejack picture, and you'll see the truth"

Cue dramatic music (Open in new tab)

"No!, I'm tired of this stupid dream! I'm waking up and you can't stop me!"

You proceeded to smash the picture of Applejack rather than jumping through it, and you made the other pictures disappear.

"You can't do this, you have you find out who you really love or you'll never be happy!"

"I can find out on my own! I don't need some figment of my imagination to tell me what to do!" you say while stomping over to the you in your head, "I'm tired of you showing me all these things! I'm going to find out who I love on my own, without your help you useless sack of shit!" You smashed the image of yourself at that moment, which let out a flash of light.

You figured out what we were trying to tell you...

"What?!"

You had to figure it out on your own, without anyone's help, or the love you had, wouldn't be real!

You suddenly opened your eyes, and found yourself on the cloud again, and now you had everything decided. You were going to talk to the girls, and find out which one you wanted more. Right. Now.

Better get moving, or you may miss your chance...

"I thought I told you to shut up! I'm going to do this on my own, and I don't need any help from you!"

Fine, have it your way...

You then bolted off the cloud and headed to Ponyville, hoping that there would still be enough time for you to make set things straight...

Hopefully you read at the same pace I do, as the music I chose happens to fit quite well if you manage to read everything after that in under a minute

(That also means only the first minute of the song was meant to go with this ;3)