“Vinyl Scratch!” Rainbow Dash called out at the top of her lungs.

Vinyl popped her head into Ponyville’s Library, smiling intensely. “You rang?”

Rainbow Dash was looking at a rather lewd note left addressed to her from an “anonymous pony.” Lewd letters from anonymous were always Vinyl Scratch in origin.

“Why do you continue to do this to me?” Rainbow Dash asked in annoyance.

Vinyl climbed in through the open window, regardless of the fact of the unlocked front door less than a metre away.

“Because it’s hilarious to see you blow up like this,” Vinyl said.

“I hate you so much,” Rainbow Dash scowled in annoyance.

“No you don’t!” Vinyl said, rubbing the top of her head against Rainbow Dash’s chest. “You love me and you know it.”

“Out you! Stop leaving me these notes!” Rainbow said.

Vinyl stuck her tongue out at Rainbow Dash and climbed back out the open window.

“Please use the door like a normal pony!”

“I am not a normal pony!” Vinyl called back.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Rainbow Dash said with a scowl.

Episodes like this were entirely normal in the friendship between Rainbow Dash and Vinyl Scratch. It was how they showed affection for each other. Tia on the other hoof did not know this, and assumed that Rainbow didn’t like Vinyl Scratch at all.

Tia frowned, Vinyl wanted to be Rainbow’s friend, and Rainbow just wasn’t giving her a chance, she decided that she needed to take matters into her own hooves and fix it!

She stared intensely at Rainbow Dash, reaching into her mind and planting the right thoughts.

Good as new! Tia smiled at her handiwork; Rainbow Dash was going to be a lot nicer towards Vinyl Scratch from now on! Things couldn’t possibly go wrong!

...

Vinyl Scratch knocked on the door to the Ponyville Public Library.

“Come in!” Rainbow Dash called from inside.

Vinyl Scratch pushed open the door and found Rainbow Dash lying on the sofa, sitting on the table was a bottle of wine and two lit candles.

“Hi Vinyl,” Rainbow Dash said sensually. “Come sit with me!”

Vinyl Scratch knew, or at least, thought she knew what Rainbow was doing, she was trying to get back at her for all the jokes she played on her. Vinyl decided to play along, she if she could turn the joke back around on her friend. She trotted over and sat down next to Rainbow Dash was sipping on a glass of wine, she poured one for Vinyl and offered it to her.

Prank or no, this sent up a red flag. Vinyl was a recovering alcoholic, Rainbow Dash was very well aware of this, and wasn’t cruel enough to actually offer her alcohol... was she? If so, this was turning into a very bad joke. Vinyl refused it, but found that she was unable to take her eyes of the glass as Rainbow set it back down on the table. Rainbow Dash set hers down as well, flipping herself over and crawling towards Vinyl.

“Ha ha. Okay Rainbow, you got me! You can stop pretending now,” Vinyl said uneasily. She didn’t think it could happen, but Rainbow Dash had finally outdone her.

Rainbow Dash looked up at her and smiled coyly. “Who’s pretending?” She leaned in close and planted a kiss right on Vinyl’s lips.

Red flag number two.

Vinyl pushed Rainbow Dash off her, sending the cyan Pegasus into the other corner of the sofa. “Okay... I know that we joke about getting intimate with each other all the time, but that is NOT okay! Rainbow, what would Twilight think about this!?”

“Who says she has to know?” Rainbow asked.

Red flag number three.

“I cannot believe I just heard that from you of all ponies!” Vinyl Scratch exclaimed. She smacked Rainbow Dash hard across the face, snapping her to her senses.

Rainbow shook her head in confusion. “Huh... what just happened?”

“I hit you is what just happened!” Vinyl cried out. “You had better explain yourself before I start hitting you again!”

Rainbow shook her head again. “I... don’t know I knew what I was doing... but it was like something was keeping me from acknowledging that what I was doing was wrong.”

“Aww! You’re not supposed to be fighting!” called a soft voice from the stairs.

Vinyl Scratch and Rainbow Dash looked over at Tia, who was standing there looking terribly disappointed. She had lot of explaining to do.

...

“You did what?!” Twilight cried out in anger.

Twilight, Vinyl, and Rainbow Dash were standing around the filly, looking upon her in anger at what she had done.

“Rainbow Dash was being so mean to Vinyl Scratch! So I made her be nice... with my mind!” Tia explained again.

“Tia! You can’t do that to ponies! You can’t make them change who they are! It’s not right!” Twilight called out.

“Well why not?!” Tia called out in frustration. “I did it to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon! And now they’re way nicer! Everypony is happier for it! Especially them!”

“Tia!” Twilight Sparkle called out. “You need to go undo it right now!”

“No!” Tia called out; she looked into Twilight’s eyes intently.

“Oh no you don’t!” Twilight said breaking eye contact with the filly. “Tia... I am so disappointed in you that you would actually try and do that to me.”

Tia tears began to flow from the filly’s eyes, she started crying, pushing past the three mares and running out the door.

“Tia! No! Come back!” Twilight called out.

...

Tia kept running, not paying attention to the direction she ran to, she kept on going, sobbing her eyes out. She just wanted to make the world nicer, was that so bad?

Tia ran headlong into somepony, causing her to stagger backwards in surprise.

“Oh... my! Are you all right?” the pony she ran into said.

Tia looked up to find that a pink maned, yellow coated Pegasus was standing over her.

“No...” Tia said truthfully. She looked around, she had run out of Ponyville and was near a small cottage next to the Everfree forest, luckily she stopped when she did otherwise she would have been halfway through the forest before she knew it.

“I’m sorry to hear that. What’s your name?” the Pegasus asked.

“Tia...” she managed.

“Nice to meet you Tia, I’m Fluttershy. I was just about ready to put on a kettle for tea, would you like some?” Fluttershy said with a smile.

Tia didn’t really want any tea, but she felt it would be rude to say no; instead she nodded in affirmation, and followed Fluttershy into her house.

Tia was hit by a horrific smell upon entering the cottage, unlike anything she had ever smelled before. She couldn’t help but cry out in surprise.

“What is that?!” she asked.

“Oh!” Fluttershy cried out. “My pie! I almost forgot!”

Fluttershy dashed into the kitchen and pulled a pie out of the oven.

“Phew! Didn’t burn!” Fluttershy said, sighing in relief. She turned towards the filly and with a smile asked if she would like some.

Once again, Tia didn’t really want any, but she didn’t want to sound rude, so she accepted a small piece of pie that Fluttershy offered her. Fluttershy put a kettle of water on to boil, and returned to the table where Tia was sitting at.

“Do you like the pie?” Fluttershy asked with a smile.

Tia did not, not only did it smell funny, it tasted funny, and the texture was unlike anything that Tia had ever eaten before in her entire life, but once again, she felt it would be rude to criticise it, so she simply nodded in affirmation, causing a bright smile from the Pegasus.

“Oh I’m so glad it turned out all right! This is my first time making it! It’s my own special secret recipe that I’ve been working on!” Fluttershy said enthusiastically.

Tia smiled, she’d made Fluttershy happy, and she hadn’t even needed to influence her mind. Twilight was right; she didn’t have to make ponies happy with her mind. She could do it through her actions.

Fluttershy poured Tia a cup of tea, which too tasted funny, but she didn’t say anything about it, she was a guest, after all, and a guest must always be polite.

“If you don’t mind my asking, what was troubling you?” Fluttershy asked the filly.

Tia looked at the floor guiltily. “I did something I shouldn’t have... it was wrong of me to try and force somepony into doing something they didn’t want to, even though it would help them... Fluttershy? Thank you for helping me see that.”

“You’re welcome,” Fluttershy said, knowing full well she hadn’t done or said anything.

“I need to go and apologise, thank you so much for the tea and pie! It was... nice!” Tia said with a smile.

Fluttershy smiled back. “You’re welcome! Feel free to come by and visit again sometime Tia!”

“I will!” Tia said, she got up from her seat and trotted outside the door and back towards Ponyville. Not realising that the Pie she had eaten had been made from the organs of DS Lucky and DC Banana Crème.