I don’t sleep long, maybe a couple of hours. I wake up confused. Did I finally pass out? Where did Mac go? Everything hurts. I hurt in places I didn’t know I could feel things. My entire face hurts. I know I won’t be able to see out of one of my eyes because it’s swollen shut. The scent of laundry and shampoo hits my nose, and I realize that I’m holding onto Rarity like a life preserver. Now I remember where I am and why I’m here. Big Mac raped me. Rarity stopped him. Now I’m with Rarity, and she’s keeping me safe

I try to take a deep breath and my chest screams in pain making me flinch.

“Dashie?” Rare kind of flutters around me like she wants to help but doesn’t know how.

“I’m ok,” I scratch out. My throat hurts.

“Did you sleep?” I ask through the tightness around my vocal cords. All the muscles of my neck are sore, but there are bands across my neck that are even sorer than the rest. Those are the places he choked me.

“No,” she answers simply. It makes me feel better to know that she’s been watching over me. The tension drifts away a little bit, and I relax against her again taking shallow breaths this time.

“Thanks.” I surprise myself with how much I mean it. It’s lame, but it’s the only word I have to tell her how much I need her to stay with me and how awesome it is to be here instead of in a hospital bed.

“May I?” she asks. I don’t know what she wants, but I nod anyway. She nuzzles me- so soft right on my neck. I tense at the touch, but it isn’t bad after the first second. As she pulls away her eyes don’t have that worried look anymore. She pulls back as far as I’ll let her go. Then she grabs one of my forelegs and holds my hoof, so she can put a little more distance between us.

“Thanks,” I say again.

“Breakfast?” she offers brightly. Her voice doing that Rarity thing where sometimes it suddenly sounds like everything's just fine, even when everything is on fire.

I look out the window. The sun isn’t as high as I would’ve thought. I really didn’t sleep for very long. I don’t feel like eating. Despite the cheeriness, Rarity’s tone made it sound like I could really say no to breakfast, but the Rarity I know isn’t going to let somepony that just spent the night under her roof start the day without eating. So, I say, “Sure. Something simple, I guess.”

“I can manage toast, tea, and some other basics from here or I can go whip up some pancakes.”

The idea that she might go away freaks me out, and I pull her hoof to my chest. She can’t leave me. I don’t know where Mac is, but he probably knows where I am. All the memories are bubbling under my forced focus on Rarity. I can’t be on my own. I just can’t.

She shifts a little closer to me and leans back against the headboard, managing to casually drape her foreleg over my withers without making me let go of her hoof. Now I can rest my head on her chest. I can hear her calm, steady heartbeat; feel the smooth rise and fall of her breaths and match mine to the rhythm. My good eye stares at the fur on her chest. She didn’t get all of the mud and blood off of herself last night. Focusing on her is how I’m keeping myself from freaking out. She can’t go away. Not yet.

“Don’t worry, Dashie,” she says quietly into my ear, “I won’t go anywhere.”

“Pinkie Promise?”

She could laugh or roll her eyes, but she doesn’t even smile. She just raises her free hoof to make the promise. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Nopony outside our group really understands, but we all know that there’s nothing more serious than a Pinkie Promise.

Everything goes quiet until I hear things happening downstairs. I know what she’ll look like if I look up at her face; eyes closed, muttering silently to herself.

When the tray floats up, I ask, “How does it work?” nodding toward the food. She lifts a piece of toast to my mouth, and I take a tiny bite before she starts to answer.

“It depends on familiarity and distance,” she says taking her own bite from a second piece of toast. “In my own home, certain items are simply familiar enough to command. They are always in the same place, and I understand how they function well enough to govern them without watching them.”

“Like your sewing machine?” I say automatically.

“Precisely.” I almost smile at the shock in her voice. I didn’t know that I knew that either. But, there’s this picture in my head of Rarity measuring me for something, but I can still hear the sewing machine in the next room. I remember thinking the sound was kind of annoying. I think it's a memory of the first time we all went to the Gala. Rarity’s mane is all messy in the memory, and she has bags under her eyes.

I take another bite of toast and a sip of the tea she offers me. It’s a different flavor than last night. I like this one better, but it’s still just tea. Nothing special. Then, I nod for her to continue.

“Certain spaces are familiar although the objects within those spaces change, like my icebox or pantry. For those, it’s less about pre-formulating a magical process and more about sensing what my options might be. I can pick something up and get an approximate sense of its size, shape, and weight. Then, based on my own knowledge of what I may have picked up, I can try to manipulate the object.

“For example.” She levitates an orange off the tray and peels it. “I wasn’t certain that this was an orange until I saw it, which is why I didn’t try and peel it before bringing it up here. As you can see, peeling an orange by magic isn’t difficult, but trying to peel an apple that one thinks is an orange is nearly impossible- which isn’t to say that I haven’t tried to do that very thing on more than one occasion.”

I almost smile again. It’s good to listen to her talk. I want her to keep talking, which isn’t a thing that’s ever happened before. “What happens if you pick something up and you’re wrong?” I ask.

“In the case of mistaken fruit, usually nothing. I discover my mistake and usually go to the kitchen to collect the item I wanted. Or, I make due with what I have. Fruit is really no matter. For something more significant, say I’ve set the sewing machine to a task and I’ve calculated something wrong, then I often have to begin again. There are magical fixes for certain blunders, but I tend to prefer spending time doing the work rather than researching the magical method of correction.”

There’s silence for a few minutes, except for the sounds of us chewing or me slurping my tea. I want her to talk again, but I can only think of one question, and I’m not sure I want to know the answer. “So, you can feel stuff with your magic?”

“Depending on what I’m doing, yes.”

“Could you feel him?” I ask softly.

Her ears fold flat against her head, and she looks down at me. “Yes,” she whispers back.

“What did he feel like?” My eyes are trained on a spot on her chest where I’m trying to flick away a tiny clump of mud she missed.

“Remember that boulder Discord tricked me into thinking was a diamond?”

“Tom?” Part of me wants to laugh at the memory, but I can’t. “Yeah.”

“He felt like a thousand Toms.” Her words are heavy and sad. I can feel the tears running down her face and into my mane now. “I thought I heard something outside,” she continues, her voice choking and the pitch rising, “but I wrote it off as a passing pony or an animal. Yet, I knew something was amiss. I could feel it. I lingered in the shop waiting for something. I thought I heard something again. I looked out the window. I couldn’t see you. I nearly gave up and went to bed.” She shakes her head. “Then I heard you scream and I knew.”

“Rare, I’m not sure I want to hear this.”

“Please,” she begs. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to face you if I don’t tell you the truth.”

I need her. I know there are other ponies that would want to help me, but something about everything that’s happened means that I don’t want them to. Rarity is it. She’s the pony I trust with this, and she says she needs to tell me something so she can help me. Maybe it’s something I don’t want to know, but if it’s what it takes to have her stay with me, then I guess I have to handle it. So, I nod.

“Thank you, Rainbow,” she sighs. Then she takes another sip of tea while she collects her thoughts. “I tried to intervene the moment I understood.” her voice is hollow and apologetic now. “I didn’t know enough. You were hidden from view. I miscalculated. So, my first attempt did nothing. The second I saw him, I tried again, but…”

“It was Big Mac.”

“Yes,” she whispers, squeezing me at the acknowledgment. “I underestimated his size, and I was too far away. I’m so sorry, Rainbow. I should have been there so much sooner. Perhaps if I’d investigated the moment I heard something... I’m so desperately sorry for not coming to you sooner.” We’re both crying again. She’s whispers over and over again that she’s sorry.

“It’s ok, Rare,” I manage to say between sniffles. “Nothing was your fault.”

“Oh, Rainbow. I was so foolish. I ought to have trusted my instincts. I knew. I knew something was wrong and I did nothing. I-”

“You couldn’t have known, Rare,” I cut her off. “This is Ponyville. Nopony would expect something like this here. Plus, wandering around in the dark when there are weird noises is just stupid.”

“I’m so sorry,” she says one more time into my mane.

I sit up and raise a hoof to her chin, so she’s looking at me. “You saved me,” I say. “I don’t think he was going to be one and done. You saved me from something worse. Thank you.”

She dips her chin and presses her forehead to mine. I close my eyes and let everything drift. There’s just that one spot- the place where my world is steady. The rest of me is devastated, and broken, and a thousand other bad things; but that one spot feels safe.

“I almost killed him,” she whispers. “I could have crushed him into nothing. I could have gored him on the top of The Boutique and not felt any guilt.”

I’ve never heard Rarity talk like that, but there’s no doubting what she’s saying. She thought about it. She could have done it, but she didn’t. I’m glad she didn’t. I’m not sure what the fallout of all of this is going to be, but it definitely would have been worse if she killed him.

“I didn’t realize it was you until after I moved him.” The venom in her voice is replaced with so much guilt it almost makes me wince. ”And when I did I didn't care who he was… I wanted him dead.”

I shift up and wrap my legs around her, clinging to her again, and she clings right back. Her mane is still back in the messy ponytail from our middle of the night shower. It’s frizzy and it tickles my nose. So, I bury my face in her neck and cry myself into another exhausted sleep.

Somepony pounds on a door downstairs and I jerk awake. My wings try to flare in surprise, sending pain through each and every one of my nerves like an electric shock. Rarity jumps up and presses her head to mine, trying to get me to focus on what’s real, but the pony at the door pounds again and I instinctively crouch and start looking for a place to hide.

She crouches with me and looks me right in the eyes. “Rainbow, you are safe,” she says firmly. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Do you understand?”

I nod at her, even though I don’t believe her. My heart is racing like I just sprinted for an hour. I’m shaking. My wings keep twitching painfully. My gut says it’s time to run, but run where? This is my safe place.

“I’ll just go make some explanation and get them to go away,” she says quickly, her eyes darting to the door then back to me. “Alright?”

I don’t want her to go, but I really don’t want anypony busting in here. If anypony can get whoever it is downstairs to go away, it’s Rarity. So, I force a nod and say, “Yeah, ok.”

“I’ll only be a moment, Dash. I promise.” Then she’s gone.

I grab one of her pillows and crawl to the far side of the bed away from the door. I plunge my muzzle into the pillow trying to focus on her scent, and the silky smooth feel of the fabric, anything to keep me grounded and stave off the panic of being alone.

I’m alone, but I don’t feel alone, and I hate it. I’m not sure I’ll ever really feel alone again. Without Rarity to focus on, it’s like Mac is in the room taking up all the space and crushing me so I can't move. The persistent pounding at the door blends with the sound of his grunts and his voice telling me to take it like a mare.

I hear the door open downstairs.

“Oh, hello Applejack. This is an unexpected visit.” Rare’s voice is perfect. Her performance is flawless. She sounds happy to see AJ, but maybe like she’s busy or something, and that’s why she isn’t inviting Applejack in for tea.

“Uh, hiya Rarity. You seen Rainbow Dash? Weather team says she missed work today. S’not like her. We met up at the bar last night, but ain’t nopony seen hide nor hair of her today. Fluttershy even looked up at the house. Said Dash must not have been there since yesterday mornin’.”

“Oh, Rainbow is upstairs, darling.” This time Rare says it like a throwaway like it’s no big deal.

“She’s what now?”

“Rainbow is upstairs sleeping. She had a bad night and slept here.”

“Dash slept here?” I can almost see AJ waving an incredulous hoof around at The Boutique. “She ok? Can I see her?”

“No, you may not.” Rare’s voice is firm this time, absolute. “As I’ve said she’s sleeping, and I believe she needs her rest. You may call off the search, but I’ll not disturb her.”

I’m not sure I can handle seeing anypony right now, least of all AJ. I don’t know how I’ll ever look that mare in the eyes again. I close my eyes tight, even though it hurts the swollen one, and say a silent thanks to the four winds for the fact that Rarity is the only pony in Ponyville more stubborn than Applejack. When Rare uses that tone, we all know there’s no getting around it.

“Well, alright then. But I’m tellin’ you right now that if I don’t see RD by this time tomorrow I’m breakin’ the door down.”

“That won’t be necessary, and threats certainly aren’t. We are friends, are we not?”

“You’re the one actin’ like you got secrets to keep, Rarity.”

“Perhaps I am. A lady does have her secrets. Until tomorrow, then.”

The door closes. I hear the icebox open and close, then Rarity climbing the stairs. Two frosty bottles of hard cider are floating in front of her.

“Would you like one?” She offers me a bottle that’s shaking in her magic. I can see why AJ didn’t believe Rarity’s cool, calm, and collected routine. Rare doesn’t look like herself. She brushed her mane out while I was sleeping, but it’s just a spruced up version of bedmane. It’s mid-morning on a weekday and Rarity just answered the door looking like she just rolled out of bed. Even I probably would’ve noticed something was off.

“Nah, I’m good.”

She downs a whole bottle of cider in one long chug, which helps her stop shaking. Then she takes a dainty sip from the second bottle before sitting on the bed again. That’s when I realize that I’m shaking too. I take a careful breath, as deep as I can without making myself tear up, and carefully climb up on the bed next to her.

“Thanks for covering, Rares.”

“Of course, darling. I’ll reinforce the door, in case Applejack was serious about trying to break it down. You don’t have to see anypony you don’t want to until you’re ready.”

“I should probably talk to Fluttershy. She’s probably freaking out about now.”

“Yes, I imagine she is. Do you feel up to seeing her?”

I have to think about this. Shy is my oldest friend, but seeing me like this… She can handle it, but I don’t know what she’ll do. She might want to take me home, but I’m not leaving unless Rarity makes me.

“Not really.” I shrug then grab the cider bottle from Rarity’s hooves and take a little sip. “But I don’t have a choice. It’s Shy.”

“You do have a choice, darling. I’ll be damned and banished to the moon for a thousand years before I let another choice be taken from you.” She’s being dramatic, but she’s also being serious. It’s easy to believe that she’ll protect me and keep everypony away from me if I ask her to.

“Thanks, Rare.” I take a second to think it through again. “I’m not ready, but I want to see Fluttershy. Life’s bad enough without knowing she’s worried. Maybe Pinkie too. Not Applejack. I can’t see AJ.”

“Very well then.”

“How-”

“Opalescence!” Rarity sings out and rings a tiny bell on her bedside table. The demon cat comes shyly into the room and gingerly hops up on the bed. I’ve literally never tried to touch Opal before because I like having all of my hooves, but she comes right up to me and carefully rubs against me purring softly.

“Heh, thanks, Opal.”

The fluffball gives me one more little nuzzle then moves over to Rarity. Rares has a pen in her magic and is writing a note on a piece of fancy stationery. She folds the note, seals it, then ties it to Opal's collar. “Fluttershy,” she says clearly and a little treat floats into Opal’s mouth. Then the cat takes off out the window.

“That’s kinda cool.”

“She really is genius when she isn’t being a pretentious, spoiled, ungrateful, little brat.”

“Remind you of anypony?” I try to raise my eyebrow at her, but that’s the bad side of my face, and I wince a little instead.

“Not particularly, why?”

“No reason, Marshmallow. No reason.” I pause for a second and start to process the fact that Fluttershy is on her way. I’m going to have to face her in just a few minutes. “I feel like I need another shower,” I mumble and get up.

“Do you need help?”

“No. I think I got it this time,” I answer as I walk toward the bathroom. I have to look back to know she won’t leave. She’s pulled out a sketchbook from the bedside table.

“I’m not going anywhere, Rainbow,” she reassures me.

“K.” I start to turn then look back one more time.

“The exfoliating scrub is in the orange tub on the valet by the bathtub. The conditioner is in the blue bottle. The shampoo is the one with the golden flip cap.”

I leave the bathroom door open. Every few seconds, I have to look out and make sure Rarity is still there. She is. She’s just sketching and muttering to herself.

I don’t use soap. I turn the water so hot it burns because I can still feel him all over me. There’s still that slick on my belly where his cock rubbed against me. Bands of bruising around my neck and barrel feel like they’re caked in mud mixed with Essence of Mac. I keep waiting for it to feel like any of the dirt and slime is starting to slip off me and down the drain, but it doesn’t happen.

Finally, I turn the water off and look for a towel. A blue aura pulls one out of the cabinet and wraps it around me. When I’m as dry as I can get while not being able to reach all of me, because every time I start to stretch or twist a different part of my body groans in pain, I decide it’s time to test my wings again. It’s going to hurt like hell, but the worst thing for sprained wings is complete immobility. The muscles can constrict too much and never get flexible again. If I’m ever going to fly again, I’ve got to make them move. The trick is to not stretch too much or push too hard, or I’ll just make things worse.

I toss the towel in a laundry hamper and walk into the bedroom fluffing my feathers as I go. I have to bite my lip, so I don’t cry out in pain. It feels like the nerves attached to every single feather are sending back a flashing red “Stop! Stop! Stop” response to my brain, but I keep pushing for just a few more seconds.

For the first time since Mac slammed his hooves down on them, I really look at my wings. Rare did a really good job on that preen. She stopped a lot of bleeding. There are several dead feathers that are ready to be pulled out now and the rest of them look like shit, but the bruise at the base of my wing joint reminds me that it could be a lot worse.

“How do they feel?” Rarity asks.

“Beat to hell,” I answer. Slowly I flare my wings. There’s pressure and pain along every bone. I grit my teeth and hold the stretch for a few seconds, then slowly fold them back to my sides and do it again. They stretch just a little further each time and I almost chew a hole in my cheek to keep from screaming. “I’m grounded for a few weeks at least,” I finally tell her in a breathless voice.

“Will you please have a doctor examine them?” she pleads.

“Maybe.” I nod. “If I can come up with a good enough story.”

She huffs at me. She doesn’t like that answer, but she isn’t going to push it right now. I climb back on the bed with my wings out and try to let them relax. She’s looking at them, cataloging the feathers that are ready to be pulled out.

“Will you stay here until they’re better?”

I can’t tell if she’s inviting me, asking me to stay, or wondering if I want to stay. The answer is the same no matter what. “If you’re ok with it, then yeah.”

“Of course. To be perfectly honest, I really wouldn’t be comfortable with you going anywhere else at this point. Unless you wanted to, of course.”

There’s a ridiculously soft knock at the window. The window is open. Flutters just knocked to be nice. She’s carrying Opal who hops out of Shy’s hooves and onto the bed. Rarity gives the cat another treat before the fluffball comes to sit next to me. If Shy didn’t already know something was wrong, she sure does now. Opal’s never this nice to anypony.

“D-Dashie?”

I can’t. I can’t look at her. I can’t look at those teal eyes and watch her cry. I can’t watch her look at dark spots all over me and figure out exactly what happened. I look like a stupid warning poster mares see in bathrooms at nightclubs. The ones where you never see the mare’s face, just a body covered in bruises and the words No means no. No stallion has the right to force you. If your stallion is forcing you to have sex contact your local blah blah blah. I can’t be seen like that.

So, I pet Opal. I scratch behind her ears and run my hoof along her back.

Shy just stands in the window staring at me.

Rarity shifts a little closer to me and waves to a spot at the end of the bed. “Why don’t you sit down, Fluttershy?”

It takes her a second, but after a couple of false starts, Flutters steps up onto the bed. With a different vantage point to take in the bruises from now, I’m sure there’s more for her to see. So, I just keep petting Opal until she decides she’s had enough, gets up, and runs her back under my chin flicking my nose softly with her tail.

“Thanks again, Opal,” I say quietly. Then, the cat hops off the bed and walks out the door.

Shy’s voice shakes when she finally manages to speak, “D-Dashie, what happened?”

My answer is even and hollow. “What’s it look like Fluttershy?”

“It- it looks like----- It looks like somepony beat you.” She winces back into her mane with each word.

“Well, that’s not exactly what happened,” I say, staring down at Rarity’s comforter and tracing the little swooping embroidery pattern I couldn’t focus on when I was staring at it earlier.

“It-It looks like somepony raped you,” Shy whispers so quietly, that the only reason I can hear her is that the rest of the room is absolutely, perfectly, almost deathly silent.

I force myself to finally look at her face when I answer in the same empty tone because I only want to say this once. “That is exactly what happened.”

Fluttershy is about to wrap me in a hug. I flinch away from the contact that never comes. When I open my eyes, Rarity has Shy wrapped in magic. “I’m sorry, darling,” Rare says gently to Flutters. “But it seems best that we do not touch Rainbow without permission at this point.”

“S-sorry, Dashie.” Shy’s feelings aren’t hurt, but she feels guilty for making me flinch.

“It’s cool, Fluttershy. Just come at me a little slower.” She does. Slowly, she inches forward. First just reaching for me with her muzzle. I suck in a few of the deepest breaths I can manage and make myself reach out to her until our cheeks brush. I don’t lean into the contact, because I don’t want to get her dirty. All of that slime and shame I couldn’t get off in the shower is still all over me and I don’t want it touching Fluttershy.

She carefully moves to wrap her forelegs and wings around me. Part of me wants to scream for her to stop, but I hold my breath and take it. The hug is soft and careful, but the wings are too much. I feel like I can’t get away. I look at Rarity, who takes a deep breath, and I try to do the same.

“Oh, Dashie,” Fluttershy says quietly in my ear, then pulls back. She strokes my mane, then brushes a hoof across one of my wings and gasps. Only a pegasus would notice how bad things really are with them. “He-?”

“Yeah,” I answer. “Nothing’s broken too bad.”

“Dashie,” she says firmly like I’m in trouble. Her eyes move incredulously around the room, and land for one angry second on Rarity, then come back to me.

“I know. I know.” I raise a hoof defensively. “But I didn’t want to go to the hospital.”

“What?” Rarity asks instantly sounding panicked and irritated that she doesn’t know what we’re talking about. “What don’t I know?”

I don’t want to tell her this. She doesn’t need to know how close it was. I don’t want her to regret listening to me and doing the generous thing of bringing me here instead of making me go to the hospital.

Fluttershy answers the question for me with an edge to her voice that I’m pretty sure Rarity has never heard before. “A good way to kill a pegasus is to stand on their wings and make them try to fly away.”

Rarity gasps in horror and shoots me an angry, but apologetic look.

Fluttershy waits to continue until Rare is looking her in the eyes again. “It’s a natural instinct for a pegasus to try and fly away if their wing gets pinned beneath something. Usually, the only price to pay is the cost of a few feathers, but this level of trauma to the wing itself---” Shy’s angry tone finally breaks into just being sad. “It would cause major internal bleeding. If even one of these breaks were more severe, Dashie could have died within minutes.”

All the blood drains out of Rarity’s face while Fluttershy is talking. Now, she’s gasping for air and reaching for me. I lean into her, and she carefully wraps her forelegs around me in a hug that is strong, but somehow painless, because she knows where not to touch me.

“I knew I should have taken you to the hospital,” she says frantically.

“I begged you not to.”

“You were in no state to-”

“I wouldn’t have gone anyway.”

“I’m so sorry, Rainbow.”

“It’s cool, Rare. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

Silence falls over our hug. I don’t feel the same restrained thing from when Shy hugged me earlier. For a second I felt panicked that Rare would be mad at me for not telling her how bad I was really hurt, but now I just feel safe again. She isn’t mad at me and I’m not mad at her. My safe place is still safe.

“Can I-?” Fluttershy whispers.

“Yeah, Shy. Come join the pony pile.”

A split second after I feel Flutters wings wrap around both me and Rarity, I hear Pinkie from the window. “Did somepony say pony pile?”

I laugh, a real honest to goodness laugh that makes me want to cry because it just feels so wrong. I can almost hear Rarity roll her eyes, and that makes want to laugh too. But before Rare can give Pinkie the speech about not touching me, I say, “Yeah, Pinks. Just be careful about it ok?”

The three of us get swept up in a big soft embrace that smells like cupcakes and balloons. Pinkie only holds on for a second and then lets go. “What’s going on Dashie?”

I hate it when Pinkie Pie sounds like that. Her voice wasn’t made for sounding sad or worried, so when it happens it’s absolutely gut-wrenching. I don’t want to tell Pinkie this. I wish she could go on living in a happy world where this never happened to me, but she’s my best friend and she’ll never forgive me if I try to lie to her. Plus, it’s not like I could hide it anyway- it’s all over my face. Literally.

Luckily, Rarity does the hard part for me. “Rainbow was attacked, Pinkie,” she says carefully. She’s being clear, because she wants Pinkie to understand, but she’s being gentle. This is the kind of thing that we all try to protect Pinkie from as much as possible. “She was raped.”

“What?” Pinkie’s confused response is automatic. “No. Not Rainbow Dash. Dashie’s the toughest, fastest, most awesome pony there is. No silly stallion could-”

While Pinkie was talking, Rarity and Fluttershy were letting go of our hug. Now, Pinkie can see the bruises. Pinkie’s no idiot. The truth is, she’s probably at least as smart as Twilight with much faster processing speed. After she looks me over, our eyes meet, and I watch her denial disappear as the color drains out of her and her mane does that thing where goes all flat.

“Dashie?” Her eyes are full of tears, but there’s this glimmer of hope that I’m about to tell her this is all just a cruel joke. I wish I could.

“Yeah, Pinks. It really happened.”

I try not to cry. Fluttershy has seen me cry a million times, even though I’d never ever admit it to anypony, but Pinkie… well, she just said it. For Pinkie, I’m Rainbow Dash: awesome element bearer of coolness; not, Rainbow Dash: beaten, broken, mounted, piece of shit, that can’t defend herself against one lousy stallion. I feel so dirty crying in front of Pinkie.

A white hoof reaches for me, and I take it. “Thanks, Rares.”

“Can I hug you again?” Pinkie asks quietly. It’s another real question. I could say no, but I won’t. My best friend needs a hug. I’m not going to tell her no.

“Yeah, Pinks. Sure.”

The same warm, soft hug wraps around me and holds me for longer this time. Pinkie’s strong smell of baked goods makes it a little easier to be close to her, because I can try and focus on figuring out what she was making this morning. The hug is just starting to get uncomfortable when Rarity gives a little cough and Pinkie lets me go. Then she suddenly stands up and says in a voice that’s way too cheerful, even for Pinkie, “Does anypony want something to eat?”

She needs a minute. She doesn’t want to be anything but smiles for me right now. It’s totally Pinkie. She isn’t going to let me see her freak out.

“I’d kill for a sandwich,” I say, if only to give her a reason to go take a break. “And some cider.”

“I’ll help you with it,” Fluttershy says.

“Thank you, darlings,” Rarity quietly mumbles as they leave.

Before I can stop to think about it, I’m there pressing myself into Rarity’s soft white coat again. The hugs from Fluttershy and Pinkie freaked me out- they were for them, not me. Hugging Rarity isn’t like that. I know it should be weird, but I don’t care. Everything is all blown to hell, but there’s Rarity. So, maybe, just maybe, things are going to be ok.

“I should have known. I’m sorry,” she whispers again.

“I didn’t tell you, and you don’t have wings,” I answer. “I didn’t want to go to the hospital. I wouldn’t have gone if you tried to make me. You took really good care of me. There’s nothing different they could have done.”

She pauses and says carefully, “You know that we have to report this, Rainbow. He could have killed you.”

“You think he knows that? Or that he cares? Because I don’t.”

“I think he knows he raped you. If he doesn’t know that you could have died, then he certainly needs to. Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me what he knows. If you don’t report this, the fool may strike again against another mare.”

“Another gay mare.”

“What?”

“He said he wanted to help me. He said that he’d show me that I would like stallions if I gave them a chance.” I feel Rarity shudder beneath me. She’s bisexual and has been open about it for as long as I’ve known her. She grew up in Ponyville, which is one of the most open-minded places in Equestria. Ponies just don’t talk like that here.

“I’m so sorry, darling,” she says pressing a kiss to my head.

Pinkie and Fluttershy are trying to hold it together when they come back, but it’s easy to see that they were both crying downstairs. Their cheeks are dry, but there are little track marks from the tears they didn't want me to see. Pinkie’s mane is still all straight, but she seems a little pinker than she was when she left, so that’s good. They each have a tray propped on their back with some sandwiches, a salad, and cider.

Rarity doesn’t let me go. She just uses her magic to open a bottle of cider and offers it to me. Yesterday, I would have thought being fed like this was mushy and weird. Today, I want to tell her thank you for not making me let her go long enough to feed myself.

Pinkie and Fluttershy settle on the bed in front of us. “Ca- Can I ask a question?”

“Sure, Shy,” I answer.

“Why are you here?”

I hear Rarity breathe in to begin explaining, but I want to, because I know Flutters is bugged that I’m here instead of at the hospital. “Rare found me,” I say. “She heard me scream and came to help me.”

“Too little, too late,” Rarity says quietly.

“You came as soon as you could, Marshmallow. Let it go.”

“We both know that isn’t true,” Rarity retorts.

“You mean, you knew Dashie was in trouble, and you didn’t go help right away?” Pinkie asks, obviously not believing that could be true.

“I didn’t know it was Rainbow. But, I heard something, and I knew something was amiss. I looked out the window, but couldn’t see anything. I should have gone to check.” Rare sounds just like she did before, ashamed of herself for doing the smart thing and staying in her house when she heard things go bump in the night.

“You couldn’t have known,” I say again. “The second you knew, you came to help.”

“D- do you know who did it?” Fluttershy sounds like she might not really want to know the answer to that question. Ponyville is a small town, and our group is kind of the center of a lot of things. I’m sure Shy already figures that she knows whoever did it, even if they aren’t friends.

Rarity and I trade glances. Mac is a Ponyville Apple. You don’t just get to call him a rapist and leave it at that. But, Rares is right. I have to report this. I won’t let this happen to anypony else. I’d go through it again before making somepony else his victim. So, they’re going to find out anyway.

Rare must see the decision in my face, because she gives me a nod and a little squeeze of encouragement. I sigh and turn to look right at Fluttershy. “Mac,” I say.

Flutters takes in a sharp breath. Pinkie doesn’t believe it and asks, “Who?”

“Big Mac,” I say again, stronger this time. “I was hanging out at the bar last night with AJ and some ponies from the weather team. He was there too, I guess. When I left, Mac was outside. He kept trying to talk to me. Asked me out. When I said no thanks, he got in my face. Asked if I’d ever given stallions a chance. I said I didn’t need to and started walking. We ended up in the market. That’s where it happened.”

“Rarity?” Fluttershy asks.

“As I said, I heard something but couldn’t determine its origin. I stayed down in the shop listening, because I had a distinct impression that something was amiss. Then I heard a scream. At first, I had no idea what I was seeing. I tried to pull him off, but it wasn’t enough.”

“Well, yeah,” Pinkie interjected. “Big Mac is BIG.”

“Then she threw him at least 40 feet,” I say, honestly impressed now that I think about it.

“The first time,” Rare chimes in almost talking to herself. “I threw him a lot farther the second time. It took everything in my power not to murder him right then and there.”

“Maybe you should have,” Fluttershy says bitterly.

“Shy!” I say.

“What?” She snaps back at me with a glare. “Dashie, he could have killed you! You could be pregnant! He had no right to take something from you like that, and I hope he answers for what he’s done. I’m not going to pretend to feel differently.

“Applejack is a dear friend, and I don’t feel any differently about her than I ever have, but if I see Big Macintosh, then I’m going to give him the stare of his life and tell him to go into that big red barn and castrate himself. It’s what I’d do to any animal that couldn’t keep it to himself.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie joins in with a ferocity in her voice that reminds me she knows how to pound rocks into dust. “Nopony messes with Dashie. Nopony!”

Seeing Fluttershy and Pinkie like this is just so messed up. They don't get mad. They don't threaten ponies. It's just so wrong. I look at Rarity helplessly, but she’s as nonplussed as I am.

“You need to tell Twilight,” Fluttershy says after a few minutes of tense silence.

“Twilight?” I ask. “Can’t I tell, oh I don’t know, anypony else?”

I don’t want to tell Twilight, because I have no idea how she’ll react. She might be awesome, and supportive, and say all the right things to make me feel better. Or, there’s a good chance that she’ll start by asking me a bunch of questions and then making a list of things to do like talking to the police and going to the hospital. Basically, a list of shit I really don’t want to deal with right now.

“She’s right, darling,” Rarity says. She still has a foreleg over my back. “You know this will go to her anyway. I won’t be surprised if she defers it to Luna or Celestia, but the Mayor won’t pass judgment here, and the town magistrate won’t even hear rape charges, let alone attempted murder.”

“Attempted murder?” I ask.

“Attempted ponyslaughter at least,” Fluttershy confirms. “Definitely attempted murder in Cloudsdale.”

“Also, you won’t get pregnant,” Rarity says in a quiet, but determined voice.

“You can’t know that,” I reply forlornly. That thought has been running around in the back of my brain like a wounded rat that just won’t die.

“Yes, darling. I can. I do.” She shifts to look at me. “When I teleported you up here last night, I took the opportunity to perform a little contraceptive charm. Nothing invasive, but absolutely effective. I apologize for not asking your permission. The thought didn’t occur to me until I was in the middle of weaving the teleportation, and I didn’t want to break focus to ask.”

I let out a sigh of relief. Maybe I should be pissed off that she did magic on me without asking, but if she’d asked I don’t know how I would’ve reacted. So, I just nuzzle her and say, “Thanks, Rares,”

She sighs too, probably grateful I’m not mad at her. “Of course, darling.”

“Do I really have to talk to Twilight?”

“So it would seem.”

“Is she even in town?”

“Yeah,” Pinkie chimes in. “She just got back from Canterlot yesterday. I threw her a welcome back breakfast, but you two missed it. That’s what started everypony keeping an eye out for you.”

“Do you mind going to to get her, Pinks? I’d rather talk here than do some formal thing at the castle.”

“Sure. No problem.” Pinkie takes off out the window. Rarity’s horn glows.

“What are you doing?” Fluttershy asks.

“Removing the reinforcements on the door,” Rarity answers with a shrug.

“Applejack threatened to kick it down,” I add.

“When are you going to tell her?” Shy asks me.

“I don’t know,” I answer. “Not yet. I can’t.”

Fluttershy just nods, and I let myself relax against Rarity again while we wait in silence. Shy’s eyes are careful and worried as she watches us. I know that it’s weird for her to see me and Rare like this.

It’s must be weird for Rare too. I’m sure she sees the worried look on Fluttershy’s face as her eyes dart back and forth between us, but it doesn’t seem like Rarity cares. She just takes a bottle of cider in her magic, chills it, takes a sip, then offers me the same bottle. It’s ice-cold, just a little slushy. It’d be delicious if I could taste it.

When Twilight shows up, it only takes her half a second to snap into Princess Mode. It’s exactly as bad as I thought it could be. She asks Rarity for a scroll of parchment and some ink so she can start taking notes. The others keep trying to snap her out of it, but Twi won’t listen. She just keeps saying that we have to report this immediately to The Princess.

First, she makes me stand up, so she can make a list of my injuries. She does everything but count the feathers I’m missing and look under my tail. And the only reason Twilight doesn’t look under my tail is that Rarity finally yells at her and points at the tears streaming down my muzzle. “Can’t you see how much this is bothering her!”

Twi mumbles an apology and moves on to asking questions. She asks me exactly what happened two or three times. If I try to explain something even a little bit differently than I did the first time she asked, she pounces and asks me which version of this story is the right one. It sucks, but I figure it’s better just to let her do her thing once. Maybe then my egghead friend will crawl out from under that stupid crown and ask if I’m ok.

Instead, when she’s done asking me questions, she turns on Rarity. One of her lavender eyes starts to twitch a little bit when Rarity says that she teleported us back here. It takes Twi a full minute to pull herself together and ask her next question, and another, and another, and another.

Finally, Rarity says sternly, “Twilight, that’s enough.”

We’re all shocked when Twilight doesn’t argue. She rolls all the scrolls together and walks down to the kitchen to have Spike send them to the Princess. He’s hanging out downstairs, because Twilight doesn’t think he should see me like this.

Spike calls after Twilight with Celestia’s answer before Twi even gets back to the top of the stairs.

Tell Rainbow Dash to take care. We will deal with this tomorrow. Guards have been sent to collect the perpetrator.

~Celestia

“Shit!” I yell, and the whole room flinches.

“What’s wrong, darling?”

“We need to tell AJ before guards just show up at Sweet Apple Acres. Dammit!”

“Would you like me to do it?” Twilight asks. “It would be an official notification. I couldn’t give any details except the charges.”

I’m about to tell her no, because I don’t want Applejack getting the same formal treatment that Rarity and I have for the last hour and a half, then Twilight adds a little sheepishly “As a friend, I would tell her that you just aren’t ready to talk to her yet.”

“I can go with you Twilight,” Fluttershy offers. “This isn’t going to be easy for anypony.”

“Have you calmed down enough to do that, Fluttershy?” Rarity asks. It's a legitimate question; if anypony is going to lose their cool and do something stupid right now, it feels like it will probably be Shy. She seems to have the most rage about all of it.

“I-I think so,” Fluttershy answers after thinking about it for a few seconds. “I don’t think Twilight will let me do anything I’ll regret.”

“Well, we’d better get going if we’re going to beat the guards,” Twi says as she jumps up. Then she gives me a quick hug without asking. “I promise I'll be more of a friend when I get back.”

“You’re good, Twi,” I say, mostly so that she’ll let me go. Shy gives me a quick nuzzle, then they both take off out the window.

“I’m really sorry, Dashie,” Pinkie says standing up and moving to follow them out the window. “But I need to go help the Cakes for a little while. I’ll come back as soon as I can, if that’s ok,”

I look at Rarity, for the first time realizing that my drama has totally taken over her life and her house today. She just nods and says, “of course.” That gets Pinkie to smile.

“I’ll bring you guys some treats when I come back!” She zooms over and kisses each of us on the cheek and disappears.

“Hey Marshmallow?” I ask as we deflate into the bed.

I hear her roll her eyes at me, and that almost makes me smile. “Yes, Rainbow.”

“Can we just sleep for a while?”

“Of course.”