Morality: has there ever been a notion more infuriating? Of course the alternative is no better, as without our quaint - albeit antiquated - sense of right and wrong, hedonism and anarchy would run rampant, their whims carried out by an army of narcissistic sociopaths. That outstanding point aside, the everyday toll of conscience, scruples, and empathy just makes minding one’s own business so gosh darn inconvenient. What’s worse is when an individual is particularly self-aware, and able to realize the nature of her own displacement.

I have enough issues of my own.

It’s not my family to meddle in.

It’s not even my universe.

Getting involved just runs the risk of making things worse.

All the above were perfectly good reasons for continued detachment; they were logically sound, accurate, realistic, and most of all forward thinking. Unfortunately, I recognized them as feeble excuses all too quickly. There were many words to describe my ongoing affairs in Equestria; however, none of those terms were particularly synonymous with ‘graceful’ or ‘ideal.’ Settling my debts and finding a way home should have been my number one priority. Similarly, Dinky should have been just another filly in a class of kids, empathy disregarded for an attitude of professional distance.

“There she is!” The grey filly’s voice held a mixed excitement, hoof outstretched towards the sky.

Little did I know, I was about to find out exactly how much I sucked at professional distance.

My first impression of Ditzy Doo was… well, utterly terrifying. Her current mode of transportation was something akin to a downward spiral, and if I was estimating correctly, her landing would involve mutual concussions for both her and Equestria’s resident snarky alien. I was mere moments away from grabbing Ditzy and making a last second dive off the bench when the would-be projectile almost leveled out before impact, colliding with the ground at a twenty degree angle away from us with an audible ‘OOOMPH,’ sliding along the grass, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

I had already rushed over when I realized with no small confusion that I was the only one remotely concerned. The small number of ponies I had seen look over with some alarm at the initial impact had continued on their way, unperturbed by the grey pony now sprawled on the ground. Even Dinky looked aloof, more concerned with discarding the remainder of her cupcake wrapper than the collision.

“Ma’am… Are you alright?”

“Doh…” Her eyes blinked open once, immediately squinting shut from the brightness of the late afternoon. I positioned myself to her side between her and the sun, giving her shade. A bright golden eye blinked open again, searching for the source of the light change. It locked onto me, and her eyebrow raised. “An… angel?” Before I could even register that the misinterpreted appearance was probably a result of my position in front of the sun giving me a deceptively radiant aura, she shook her head awkwardly, already answering her own question. Her voice was a deep alto, rich and maternal. “Forgive me; falling isn’t particularly conducive to the thought process.”

“Now that is a problem I know all too well.” I chuckled

She stood abruptly, the haze behind her eyes clearing quickly as the stun from her landing began to dissipate. “Ah, you would be the infamous bipedal everypony’s all worked up about. Kate, wasn’t it?”

“Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Doo. Dinky’s told me nothing but good things about you.” I winced. I’d meant it more as a social nicety, though considering what I had heard from Dinky, it certainly felt like a bit of a lie. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

She shrugged, dusting herself off. “Flying’s the easy part- landing without ideal depth perception… is where things get problematic. That was only slightly worse than my typical landing.” Her eyes narrowed (or tried to) in typical parental suspicion, although the accompanying question was stated much more directly. “Why are you here with my daughter, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Actually, I was just hired on as a TA at the middleschool-“

“-And she was nice enough to stick around and keep me company after everypony had gone home. Three hours ago” Dinky interrupted, trotting between us, the cloaked accusation in her words clear as day. Ditzy’s entire demeanor changed; her ears splayed back, looking almost pathetically apologetic.

“Please don’t be mad at mommy, Dinky. I-

“-got caught up in work at the lab and you couldn’t help it, I know, I know,” Dinky sighed in a much kinder tone, nuzzling her mother’s foreleg. “I’m just glad you’re here now.” Although the relief that flooded her mother’s face was real, I couldn’t help but notice that Dinky’s voice had the strain of somepony repeating words spoken far too often.

The older pegasus sat down, scooping a foreleg under the smaller pony’s belly and giving her a hug. Dinky squirmed, unhappy with the public display of affection, so Ditzy settled for stroking the filly’s mane. “Thank you for looking out for her. I don’t like being late, but work has been-“ she paused, melancholy flickering behind her eyes. “Well suffice it to say I’m operating on borrowed time… ‘burning the candle at both ends’ as it were.” She flashed me another awkward smile. Something about the look bothered me; it just seemed so… empty.

It’s not your problem Kate.

“Well, like I told Dinky, I wasn’t in much of a hurry anyway. It was nice to meet you”

“And you as well. Come on D, let’s get going.” As they turned to leave, the questionable cupcake wasn’t the only issue weighing heavily on my stomach.

“Uh mom? Home is that way”

Just let it go.

Like so many times before, I found myself conflicted. Why not indulge in a little investigating? At the moment, I was far too famished to think things through, not to mention that I also needed to start reading through the curriculum and preparing study aids. I stretched my arms out as I walked back to the library, rather pleased with myself. My worries for Dinky aside, things were calming down to the point where I could actually look forward to the outside activities, like my morning exercise, instead of dreading it. With the combination of the glasses, time with Twilight, and an actual job, Equestria was starting to feel surprisingly bearable.

“I THOUGHT WE HAD SOMETHING SPECIAL!” Rainbow roared, shooting like an angry blue bullet straight towards me.

Note to self: The exchanging of certain uncommon feathers is a method Pegasi use to non-verbally indicate interest. This can be a very subtle process. If you find a loose pegasus feather lying around on your balcony for instance, leave it alone.

“I DIDN’T KNOW!” I zigzagged through the field, occasionally doubling back when her shadow flickered overhead. My situation was not ideal. The lovely field I’d grown so fond of jogging through was going to be the death of me. There was no cover anywhere in sight for miles with what was arguably the fastest pony in Equestria hell-bent on dive bombing me. Even if there was no killing intent this game had gone on far too long, and considering what living here had probably done to my blood pressure I was beginning to ponder the possibility of a premature cardiac arrest. “This is entrapment! It was a mistake!”

“I’m a mistake huh?! I could feel it the whole time I was teaching flight camp! Any normal pony would have put it in her hair, or worn it around her neck! WHAT KIND OF PONY PUTS IT RIGHT NEXT TO HER FLANK AND RUBS IT ‘BY MISTAKE’?”

The woods were fifty feet away. “For the love of god, if it rubbed anything that was from jostling around in my pocket!” I yelled over my shoulder, “and I’m NOT a PONY!”

“Oh really? Fluttershy seems to think you fill in for one just FINE-“

TRIP.

I was really starting to get tired of that particular brand of kryptonite. Had I put any degree of thought into it, I probably would have come to the conclusion that pissing her further wasn’t exactly smart; I had just fallen, completely at the mercy of an airborne attack. However, that was before I picked myself up and found the fresh hole torn in my pants. My new pants.

Oh. It’s on. It’s so on.

“You know, the whole JEALOUS PUPPY act is really starting to grate on my nerves!”

“WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?”

“Aren’t you just the cutest wittle thing.” I patted my knees at the hovering pegasus with mocking condescension. “Come to here and get some wuvvins.” Yeah, I was intentionally making things worse; at that point I knew I wasn’t going to be able to outrun her and get to the woods in time. The way I saw it, I was a matador who’d just flashed the brightest shade of red to an already, angry multi-colored flying bull. One who just so happened to be freakishly fast and easily offended. The resulting charge was inevitable

“NYAAAAAAARRRRRGGH!”

Despite her speed, anger had made her sloppy. I sidestepped the moment she would have tackled me, looping my arms under her and grabbing her firmly under her forelegs to trap her movement, the transferred momentum sending us both spinning in a hysterical human-pony pirouette .

“Now… can we please talk about this-ACK”

With that, the longest two minutes of my life began.

There are no words to describe exactly how hard it is to hold onto a pony that doesn’t want to be held, doubly so when that pony is a pegasus. All the pent up, coiled, and athletic energy stored in rainbow’s body was expended, limbs flailing about wildly.

“Lemmego!”

“Stop thrashing around and I will!” Her flailing wings provided more than enough push to send me stumbling wildly around the field, just barely staying on my feet

“RAPE!”

“REALLY? AS IF-“ A flailing hoof caught me under the chin. It hurt. A lot.

Must. Not. Teach. Ponies. Profanity

“GAH- LUNA AT THE LIQUOR STORE THAT SUCKED.”

“LEGOLEGOLEGOLEGOLEGOLEGO!”

I had thought that if I could get a hold of her, I might be able to buy time to explain myself; I assumed she could see reason if I explained it properly. Murphy’s law seemed to have very different plans: Holding took more effort than being chased, time was totally absent, and reason did not appear to be her forte. I tried again. “Look. Obviously we’re at an impasse-“

“NO YOU”

“AUGH- I think what we’re seeing here is a break down in communication-”

“A break down in YOUR FACE”

My jaw was still throbbing. “Yeah, probably that too.”

“YOU’RE TOUCHING ME FUNNY!” As someone who’s been subjected to an awful lot of sexual harassment over the years, I found myself quite offended at the accusation. The raging tiger being held by the tail shouldn’t have the gall to whine about the point of leverage, so to speak. As such, I settled for communicating said offense in the most mature way possible.

“AM NOT.”

Her response was eloquent, succinct and to the point. “ARE TOO”

I responded articulately in turn. “AM NOT.”

“ARE TOO” The extraordinarily strong flap of her wings was our tipping point, sending us both tumbling over. I somehow managed to keep my grip on top of her, possessing just enough presence of mind to position myself off to the side of her back hoofs, which almost immediately lashed out.

“You think I wanted this?” I growled. “Yes, that’s totally how it went down. I had breakfast this morning and thought to myself: ‘Gee whiz, things sure have been boring around here. Nothing has gone bat-crapping insane for a while. Oh! I know! Maybe when Rainbow Dash gets back from the trip I wasn’t even aware she was taking in the first place, we can play ‘Crouching-Pony-Hidden-Dragon,’ and in the process I’ll find out exactly how much effort it takes to keep a pegasus in a freaking half nelson.’”

Her body seemed to relax, though I wasn’t quite ready to buy it. “If I let you go, you’re not going to punch me in the face?” She shook her head.

“Not going to chase me into through the Everfree until I collapse and do unspeakable things to me?” There was another shake.

“Not going to rain down fire and salt the earth with my remains?” The last comment just earned me a one eyed glare. I suppose it was a bit much. She’s not Pinkie after all. With a small groan I rolled off of her, working my jaw gingerly. “Obviously, today was the day the universe decided I’d be punished.” Still displaying her usual lack of personal space awareness, she rested her head on my stomach, equally exhausted. At the moment, I was just happy I wasn’t being throttled, and there was a sliver of hurt remaining in her cerise eyes I wanted to address. “Any particular reason why you flew off the handle at me? I get the whole jealousy thing, but I would have given the feather back if you’d just asked me nicely.“

“Oh I bet, you know exactly where it is then?” She asked, her tone holding an underlying trap..

Laying my head back I squinted, feeling rather achy all over. “I’ll find it. I’m assuming it’s still in the pants I was wearing when Sweetie Belle stabbed me in the stomach and I almost bled out all over Pinkie Pie’s back in the middle of a musical number.”

“Er- Really?”

“Yeah. You kind of missed a lot. So what was it that set you off?”

She scrunched up her face, deciding whether or not to answer. “Well I got back into town from coastal weather patrol this morning-“

“I thought you said you were teaching flight camp.”

“I was, but a bunch of instructors got rerouted by the Equestrian guard for high-risk weather patrol a few days in. Some of the most severe weather we’ve ever dealt with on the coast, all sorts of incoming storms. Climate seems to be going nutty. See those black clouds on the horizon?” She shuffled her hoofs excitedly. “The most we ever get in Ponyville is light showers. Those aren’t ‘light shower’ clouds. There’s a storm coming Kate.”

Great. Literal foreshadowing.

“Guess we’d all best be ready when she does.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. Please continue.” Rainbow regarded me with a notion of doubt, continuing after a long pause.

“Anyway, I was already kind of mad when I got in town; If you’d just left it alone, I wouldn’t have cared, but I could feel you-er holding it for a long time, and suddenly you just weren’t touching it anymore, so I went to find it.”

“These feathers are that important? You’re actually able to sense their location when they’re removed?”

“Yeah, I guess an alien wouldn’t really get it without being shown.” Dash raised up, balancing herself on seated legs in an amusingly human looking fashion. She pivoted herself away so I would have a good angle from the back, spreading her wings. The expression on her face was uncharacteristically shy as she called out the various types.

“Countour” a hoof indicated the large vaned feathers that lined breadth of her left wing. “Downy,” The wings flexed, revealing a smaller, more soft looking layer beneath. In a moment of total stupidity I almost reached out to touch them; thankfully my experience with Flutters was still rather fresh on my mind, and I froze.

“Sorry. Sometimes I’m too much of a hands-on learner.”

“Sokay” she grinned wryly, cocky attitude returning albeit still dampened by the awkwardness of the anatomy lesson. “If I were you, I’d want to touch me too.” Her hoof moved around to the top of the wing. “Last but not least, see the short ones there?” A forehoof indicated the smaller line of feathers closest to her neckline. There weren’t many, maybe two dozen total. “Those are filoplumes: they control mana flow throughout the entire wingspan. If it wasn’t for these babies, pegasi probably wouldn’t be able to lift their own bodyweight.”

“What happens when you shed- er- molt?” She shrugged, relaxing her wings

“Then we collect them, break them down, and reabsorb the mana essence. That’s why we can sense them, in case they fall out in flight.” Basking in the sunlight, she stretched with a wide yawn, plopping her head back onto my stomach. I tried not to laugh. For all her assertions to the contrary, she really did remind me of a puppy. Nothing like Fluttershy, whose beauty and natural elegance was... was…

...something I shouldn’t be dwelling on. Ahem.

“I didn’t realize they were so important. We can go back to the library and look for it now if you like.”

“It’s not at the library, or it wasn’t anyway. I tracked it down earlier, when I first came into town-“ she trailed off, reddening face giving her an almost purple appearance. “…at Fluttershy’s cottage.”

Oh.

“…in her bed.” Said a much smaller voice

Ooooooh.

“Sorry. I may have not known anything about what was going on-“ at all “but regardless. I imagine that was awkward, to say the least.”

“Anypony less awesome than me probably wouldn't have been as cool about it, that's for sure. It’s probably best Flutters got over that school-filly crush anyways.” She noted cheerfully.

“School-filly cru-“ I cut myself off, spotting a bit of red on her chin. “Huh. What is that? Are you bleeding?” In the process of tilting her head down to check with a hoof, she stopped, eyes fixated on my midsection.

“Not-"

“Er, Rainbow? My eyes are up here.”

“N-Not my blood!” She pointed to my stomach, looking rather traumatized. I followed her gaze.

“Crap.”

What a typical day in Ponyville.

I trudged in the general direction of Fluttershy’s cottage, keeping a hand firmly pressed to my abdomen. Rainbow helicoptered around me as I walked, continually eating away my patience.

“It wasn’t really my fault-“

Sigh. “Never said it was.”

“You could have torn your stitches open while you were running-“

Double sigh. “Too true. It must have been the light jog, definitely not the aerial onslaught.”

“I could fly to the hospital and get the med-evac ponies.” I could almost see nurse Redheart at the entrance to the hospital, giant syringe in hoof.

‘Welcome back Ms. Winsor. We’ve missed you.’

“Nope. Not going to happen. No hospital.”

Hovering at my side, she crossed her arms accusingly. “You just want to see Fluttershy.”

“Yes. You caught me. I’m a masochist and this pain is really getting me in the mood. My state of arousal is so troubling in fact, it’s probably best to stop following me, as at this rate she’ll have to get the whips, rope, and black latex out of her basement to meet my needs and you really don’t want to see the fifty-shades-of-gay that comes next.” The following moment of blissful silence was heartbreakingly short.

“… … … Really?” The pegasus squeaked.

“Of course not” I snapped.

“I’m not going anywhere!” She snapped back. “If you keeled over and died because I left you… well... I’d have a lot of guilt.”

It’s hard to explain exactly why I was so upset. To be frank, I’d been through worse since my arrival, and some small part of me had wanted to see Fluttershy anyway (though, admittedly, every other part of me wanted to run screaming in the other direction.) Undoubtedly, some portion of my frustration stemmed from it was extended moments of peace that had given way into chaos; while that alone was infuriating, it was something deeper… something much more familiar.

It took a long time to put my finger on it. This moment was a prime example of what so often made my life maddening. Yes, I wanted to go see Fluttershy again. I enjoyed spending time with her, and some part of me needed to know who the object of her affections was, if only for the sake of closure. The problem was I wanted to choose to go visit her; needed to choose. Instead, I felt like I was being pushed towards her by forces outside my control. Sure, generally speaking I could have gone to the hospital, risking the effects of the malign anesthetic and racking up several more bills, bills that a friend I was already far too indebted to would have to take care of... but that simply didn't make any sense.

Stop whining and suck it up.

By the time we arrived at the bridge just outside her cottage, I found myself growing more than a little light headed. A squirrel sat in the middle of the bridge, nut held in his paws. I didn’t realize at the time that he was probably one of the animals that had witnessed my electrocution of the sparrow. Paying him no mind, I tried to step around to the left… a movement that he casually mirrored, black eyes taunting me. Attempting the right side garnered exactly the same results.

“Shoo.” No response.

“Pretty please?” Nothing. Just the empty accusing stare of his eyes. Getting a little desperate, I took a sudden threatening step in his direction. Not even a blink. As much as I hated him at that moment, I had to admit, the squirrel had stones.

“Maybe he wants a passcode.” Rainbow sniggered. Had I not been a little lightheaded, I probably would have laughed it off and rolled my eyes.

“Fluttershy.”

“Cottage.”

“Angel Bunny”

“Saddles”

… Realistically speaking, I was more than a little lightheaded. Dehydrated and borderline delirious might have been a more accurate term

“Kate…” The pegasus hovered over into my field of view. “I was joking. You do realize you’re yelling random words at a squirrel right?”

“Open sesame!”

“Mellon!”

“Avada Kedavra!”

Even in my haze, I was getting more than fed up with Mr. Squirrel’s obvious lack of pop culture appreciation.

“Would you kindly move your bushy, self-important rat’s a-“

THWACK

The acorn that had previously been held innocently in the hands of the oversized gerbil pegged me square in the forehead. I grit my teeth as he sauntered past me, reminding myself that punting the fuzzball into orbit wasn't exactly going to win any brownie points from Fluttershy.

“OH, SORRY, DID I VIOLATE SOME RIDICULOUS SOCIAL TABOO I COULDN’T POSSIBLY HAVE FORESEEN AND UPSET YOU TOO?” The little bastard scampered away without so much as a parting glance in my direction.

Rainbow seemed utterly confused by the exchange. Path uninhibited, I resumed my slow walk towards the cottage. What her reaction lacked in timeliness, it made up for in volume a few moments later.

“Wait- What was THAT supposed to mean?!”

“Thanks-for-walking-me-gotta-go-bye!”

AN: Well, I intended to make this chapter more about Dinky and Ditzy... Damn you RD, Damn you. I had originally meant to do the RD scene much earlier on in the story, having laid the groundwork for it at the end of chapter 3 (when Kate pockets the feather), I just got overly focused on Fluttershy and forgot about it. After careful consideration, I decided the Dinky/Ditzy sideplot is going to be spread over the next few chapters, interwoven with the rest of the main story. I’m wanting to build things up a bit more and work on a little more characterization before it all inevitably goes to sideways again. It’s the slow twist: the one that takes its time that cuts most deeply, as they say.

Also, I really need to stop referencing TDKR.

Special thanks to Meeester and MisterMoniker for the proof reading, ya'll are awesome as always.