Twilight walked home, her stomach full of soothing tea, her mind full of soothing words.
She smiled as she thought of the Ponyville hospital, using the mindset Zecora had told her to use, knowing that in the dead of the night, her two friends probably slept arm in arm once again, their presence helping each other get through the darkness of what they had seen.
Maybe if Rainbow Dash can help Peter with what he saw in the Stare, then Peter can help Rainbow Dash with what she sees in her dreams...
The unicorn's purple mane glistened in the moonlight as she passed Fluttershy's cottage.
Hmm...I haven't spoken to her since we parted ways when I went to Zecora's at least an hour ago...maybe I should talk to her, if only to make sure she's okay after using the Stare on Peter.
She nodded to herself in consent, and walked over to Fluttershy's cottage door.
"Coming," the small voice responded to Twilight's knocks, revealing nothing of how the yellow Pegasus was feeling.
The door was answered by a teary-eyed Fluttershy. Twilight looked inside, and saw her Harmony Necklace on the table behind Fluttershy.
"Uh, do you mind if I come in, Fluttershy?"
The Pegasus' pink mane jiggled as she shook her head in invitation.
The two friends walked over to the table where the Harmony Necklace of Kindness rested, sitting beside each other in the moon's tired light.
The yellow Pegasus simply blinked as Twilight broke the silence.
"Why's your Harmony Necklace out?"
Fluttershy sighed. A small silence filled the next five minutes.
"I was wondering if I really deserve it..."
Twilight looked at her in amazement. "Of course you do, Fluttershy! Why wouldn't you?"
Fluttershy looked deep into Twilight's eyes, and explained what she had done after they parted ways.
---------------------------------Fluttershy------------------
After Twilight and Fluttershy had parted ways, Fluttershy to the comfort of her small cottage, Twilight to the counsel of Zecora, Fluttershy decided to take out her Harmony Necklace.
As well as something else she hadn't taken out in a long time.
She placed the Element of Kindness on her wooden table and sat down, placing her bottle of Manehattan wine besides the necklace.
She looked at the wine, apprehensive. I normally only take this out on special occasions...should I really...
She shook her head. She needed a drink right now, even if it went against her morals.
She poured herself a small glass, steadying the ornate wine glass with a hoof as she poured the wine with her mouth.
Sighing, Fluttershy sat down in front of the Harmony Necklace and took a small sip of the wine.
The fear in his eyes...my Stare almost broke him...what if I've actually done some mental harm to him? Celestia would banish me for being the worst psychiatrist ever...
Fluttershy took another small sip of her wine. It was already making her dizzy, its alcoholic properties strong on the docile Pegasus. She placed the sweet liquid aside, trying to avoid its seductive aroma.
And what he said about twelve years of no friends...how can he call us his friends after we assumed the worst of him? And I willingly used the Stare on him...
A single tear dripped down her cheek. It was quickly joined by more.
She stayed there for about an hour, sipping lightly at her Manehattan wine from time to time, not getting up to close the shades on her window as the day turned to night.
She started as a knock reverberated on the door.
"Coming," she said, surprised at her steady voice.
She opened the door to a lavender unicorn, eyes full of worry.
--------------------Twilight---------------------
"So you sat here for an hour and asked yourself if you deserved the Element of Kindness?"
Fluttershy nodded, her pink mane covering her eyes.
"Fluttershy, you deserve it. You were angry, and all because we assumed the worst of Peter. You were just a victim of the assumption."
The Pegasus' eyes met Twilight's, calming as the sparkle of sincerity evident in her eyes fortified her speech.
"I...I just want to say that I'm sorry to him..."
Twilight put a foreleg around her friend in an attempt to comfort the shaking, yellow Pegasus. She waited there for some time, simply holding her friend as she sniffed quietly. Twilight subtly used her magic to put away the wine bottle and glass, placing the glass in the sink while placing a stopper in the wine bottle.
Finally, after about twenty minutes of sniffing and being comforted, Fluttershy spoke.
"You know, Rainbow Dash wasn't always like she is now..."
"I know. She's normally so hardy and confident, and is more blunt with her friends than compassionate."
Fluttershy shook her head, confusing the lavender unicorn. "I mean how she normally is. She used to be so...different. More like how she was with Peter in the hospital."
Twilight looked at her, a smile on her lips. "Fluttershy, are you sure the wine isn't getting to you?"
The yellow Pegasus shook her head. "I'm serious. it was about a year before she got her cutie mark that she changed...before that, she was so...different..."
"How so?"
"She was more like...me. She was more...shy, and careful with how she spoke to other ponies. She was still confident, just...not as confident as we're used to seeing her. When the other Pegasi in Flight School started calling her 'Rainbow Crash', she just...changed. She stopped being so shy, and started being more like...well, Rainbow Dash. She made a shell of inflated confidence, and then eventually grew into that shell. It wasn't until she did the Sonic Rainboom for the first time that she actually totally filled out her shell of confidence...and somehow, despite all my efforts to find that old, gentle Rainbow Dash, Peter somehow broke down that thick shell...he somehow broke through to the old Rainbow Dash. The Rainbow Dash that, instead of being so direct with her views, always cared about how other felt."
Twilight nodded. The Rainbow Dash she knew could be surprisingly upfront about things, like when she remarked on the dresses Rarity had made everypony for the Gala. But the Rainbow Dash Twilight saw in the hospital was so...different.
"When I realized that in the hospital...I immediately knew that I had to stop the Stare, but I just...couldn't..."
Twilight looked at the yellow Pegasus, curiosity peaked. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that...I wanted to stop it because Rainbow Dash sees something...special in him that let her be so...open with her inner personality, and I didn't want to hurt him, because that would hurt her...but I couldn't stop it because I was afraid that...that he had already hurt her. What with the idea that he had slept with her...but when he started talking about twelve years without friends...it made me realize that he wouldn't ever hurt Rainbow Dash."
Twilight smiled, but the smile quickly faded as she remembered something Rainbow Dash had told her...about dreams.
"Fluttershy, I think there's something I should tell you..."
"Hm?"
"Rainbow Dash...she told me that she was seeing images in her dreams...of everypony she cared about...dead. She said it started about three days after we defeat Discord, and after she abandoned us for her wings, after she disregarded Loyalty...could that possibly have opened the old her?"
Fluttershy looked at her incredulously.
"And you never told me about this?"
Twilight shrunk back, blushing slightly as Fluttershy let out a sigh.
"Well, it doesn't matter now. All I can hope for is that...whatever it is in Peter that brought out the old Rainbow Dash...can help her with those images."
Twilight looked back to Fluttershy in surprise. "You're not mad?"
Another sigh escaped the Pegasus' yellow lips. "Well, no, not really...I just would have preferred it if you had actually told me about Rainbow Dash's dreams before now. But at least now I can rest assured, knowing that Peter really comforted Rainbow Dash..."
Twilight smiled, but instantly jumped into action as Fluttershy began to sway.
"Uh, Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy's face reddened, and she stood, unsteady on her hooves. "Twilight...I think I'm drunk..."
"How many glasses of wine did you have, Fluttershy?"
"Uh...one."
Twilight held down a hearty bout of laughter, still unable to get over the fact that she was less of a lightweight than Fluttershy...
"Well, let's get you to bed before you pass out on the sofa. No more partying, you hear me?"
Fluttershy chuckled lightly.
"Yes...let's..."
Fluttershy stumbled up the stairs, following Twilight's guiding hoof to her bedroom.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Once the yellow Pegasus was safe and sound in her bed, Twilight left the house, remembering a promise she had made to Rainbow Dash back in the hospital.
---------------------------Peter-------------------
The cyan pony, fore-leg draped around Peter, hoof sliding up and down on his broad shoulder, cried with the human, images from her own time of being bullied raising, only to be quelled by her drive to comfort her friend.
"In junior High School...I thought I could make some friends...I didn't know what a true friend felt like until two years later, when the kid who was getting everyone to torture me was expelled..."
She hushed into his ear, whispering comforting words, amazed that he had managed to stay sane this long, what with not having any social interaction for twelve years...
"But you have friends now, Peter. Me, Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity. And not only us, there are other ponies in Ponyville who would definitely love to be your friend..."
Peter sniffed. "And you're all the best friends I could ever ask for..."
Rainbow Dash held him to her as he calmed down, the images from his past life finally calming, the tempest in his mind easing its ballad of images that Peter had chosen to forget long ago...
It's over now. You have friends, not only the ones you left back on earth, but even better ones here in Equestria...the new ones in your true home.
He hugged Rainbow Dash back even harder now, grateful for how kind she was being.
"Thanks, Rainbow Dash...you're a true friend. All of you. You're...you're all like family to me."
He slightly withdrew from Rainbow Dash's comforting embrace. He looked her right in the eyes, a tear blurring his view of her.
"I..."
He halted, faking a large yawn to cover up his pause. What if she takes it the wrong way? Things could get pretty awkward if she takes it too far...
Rainbow Dash looked at him with an understandably confused look, her head slightly cocked to the side, sending her already messy mane askew. "'I' what?"
Peter was about to answer with a remarkably stupid line when his stomach released a loud roar, bringing a blush to Peter's cheeks.
"I...I guess I'm pretty hungry..."
The two friends, still embraced, laughed lightly, Rainbow Dash eying the box Pinkie had left behind.
"Well, Pinkie Pie left some cupcakes for you. Might as well eat them!"
Peter turned around to see a small, white box, a ribbon adorning its surface.
"Yeah, might as well."
He untied the ribbon, scrambling to open the sealed box, and beheld the most amazing thing he had seen in the past five hours.
"Wow...they look..."
Rainbow Dash looked sideways at him, already prepared to snap at him that Pinkie worked hard on them.
"Amazing!"
The cyan pony sat bolt upright, looking over Peters' shoulder. They did look amazing. They all had white bases with different colors of icing, and each one had a different symbol on it.
"Pinkie Pie must've been up all night making these, Peter! They look insane!"
Peter reached down to a cupcake with blue icing, a white balloon adorning the surface. He bit into it, anxious to see what it tasted like.
His taste buds were assaulted with colors, as he bit right through a layer of sugary paste made of every flavor. He chewed it slowly, savoring the taste, and swallowed, looking at the interior of the cupcake.
"Wow! Look at that, 'Dash! There's icing inside of the cupcake!"
Rainbow Dash gasped as she saw the interior, and immediately picked up a cupcake of her own, one with a pink balloon on white icing. She bit into it, and her taste buds were assaulted in turn as well by the same kind of paste that was in Peter's cupcake. She swallowed it, savoring the taste, eager to speak.
"This is really good! Pinkie Pie must have worked so hard to get every flavor in the icing..."
As soon as she said 'every flavor', Peter couldn't resist saying it.
"I guess we're really, 'tasting the rainbow' now, huh, Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow Dash burst out into laughter, remembering how Pinkie Pie had dipped her hoof into liquid rainbow when she was in cloudsdale, on the same day Rainbow Dash had performed a Sonic Rainboom.
Peter burst into laughter as well, a certain part of the My Little Pony episode 'Sonic Rainboom' running through his head, in which Pinkie Pie had dipped a hoof into a liquid rainbow.
"Well, Peter, this is the best-tasting rainbow I've ever had!"
Peter let go of another chuckle, and threw his arm around Rainbow Dash, holding her as two friends would when sharing a great joke. Which they were. Well, at least two friends sharing a...joke.
He had a sudden spark of inspiration, his giddiness driving him on. He dipped his finger into the rainbow icing in his cupcake, taking a rather large glob of it with his hand...
And slathered it all over Rainbow Dash's face faster than she could react to his random movements, the prank shocking her with how upfront it was.
She sat their, blinking as the rainbow icing slowly fell down her face.
Oh, crap, I hope she's not angry...
He was about to apologize when he received his own face full of rainbow icing, Rainbow's carefully poised hoof-tip slathering icing all over his face.
He wiped the icing off of his eyes, and looked to Rainbow Dash, meeting her grin with one equally as large.
They both burst out laughing, the image of their friend's face covered in rainbow icing too much for either of them to handle.
Just as they were about to clean the icing off of their faces, a purple dragon carrying a burlap sack burst into the room, staring incredulously at the sight before him.
-----------------------------------------------------

So, if you haven't noticed, I've adopted the method of using chapter segments as each chapter instead of slowly releasing each chapter bit-by-bit. Anyone who has been reading this from the beginning knows what I'm talking about.
I think I may just use this as a new way of posting chapters, it depends on how large a chapter is.