private A Cultural Exchange 1x1 with DwhitetheGamer

[Illiad Easle 3,135]

@,

 

Midnight's smile grew as he approached the pair. "Hello again Ditzy, it's good to see you again. I was wondering if you would be inclined to talk later today. I'd assume you'd appreciate a more private setting to sit and talk about your history. I'm mostly interested in what's happened since you and your sister left the castle."

 

(From my canon: The sisters Doo left Archback soon before an alternate version of the events in the story I sent you earlier, namely the love interest in Saddle Arabia that led to the fight and Ditzy's head trauma which in turn led to her eye condition and her having Dinky Doo as a daughter. That is the short of it, feel free to expand it a bit. The most notable difference between this and the story is the lack of extra alicorns.) 

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

@@Illiad Easle, 

 

Ditzy looked rather surprised, then grew a more depressing look, but nodded slowly.  "Sure, Midnight.  If that's what you want."

 

Copper saw the depressing look and said, "You don't have to tell us, Ditzy if you don't want to."

 

Ditzy shook her head.  "It's cool.  I think it's about time I had told somepony.  Both of you can keep a secret, right?"

 

Copper nodded.  Both he and Ditzy looked at Midnight for his answer.

[Illiad Easle 3,135]

@,

 

Midnight gave a slight smile, "I've kept your other secrets this long haven't I? I'm sure I could be trusted to hold a few more."

 

Deep down. Midnight was worried about what had happened since she left that she would want to keep a secret. It was clear to him that something had happened between or to the Sisters since last they met, and he feared for the worst.

 

(Have you read The Sisters Doo yet?) 

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

@@Illiad Easle, 

 

(A little bit, enough to know what happened between the two.)

 

Ditzy nodded.  "Then let's hurry up with Copper's job.  His boss doesn't want him waiting any longer."

 

Copper nodded as well.  "Let's go guys."

 

With Copper leading the way, they went through the entire town of Ponyville, with Midnight and Ditzy having idle comments about random things while Copper went about with his work.  When they got finished and out of the Mail Service building, Copper said, "Why don't we head over to my place and talk about what had happened?"

[Illiad Easle 3,135]

@,

 

Midnight simply listened as the other two talked, it was clear that they were good friends or at least close acquaintances. He looked unsure at the suggestion of meeting at Copper's house. "Perhaps Ditzy would be more comfortable to share her story in her own home. I personally have no preference but to defer to whichever place she would prefer."

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

@@Illiad Easle, 

 

Ditzy nodded at Midnight on his statement.  "He's right.  It's better if I make myself more comfortable than somewhere else."

 

Copper understood.  "That's fine.  Lead the way, Ditzy."

 

Ditzy led the two stallions down to her home, where, when she led them to the living room, it had a larger seat at the top section of where two other seats were with near a fireplace.  Ditzy took a seat in one of the smaller ones and said, "Have a seat."

 

Copper took a seat in the other side and looked at Midnight.

[Illiad Easle 3,135]

@,

 

Midnight couldn't tell why Ditzy would have a larger chair, it wasn't as if she would be expecting him to visit her. He supposed there could be others that would be more comfortable in a larger chair.

 

Midnight took a seat in the larger chair and looked towards Ditzy. "So, how have you been? Last I saw you... you and your sister were still after that flying carpet yes? I gave you the tip that it might be over in Saddle Arabia and off you two flew. Were you two successful?"

 

(This exchange happens before Daring comes back and the Cake twins get foalnapped by the way.)

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

@@Illiad Easle, 

 

Ditzy... more or less gave a nod at Midnight's statement.  She sighed before responding.  "Yeah.  Well, SHE was successful.  To make a long story short, and I really hate to say this, but we both fought each other over a stallion after we went to Saddle Arabia and, well, the end result was what you're seeing out of me right now."

 

Copper looked shocked.  "What?!"

 

DItzy nodded again, after closing her eyes.  "Yeah.  It's true."

 

Copper was so shocked at that point that he couldn't think of any words to say about it.

[Illiad Easle 3,135]

@,

 

Midnight did not look happy. "I always knew Daring was brash, but I never thought she would fight you. You two were so close when you left, a dynamic duo where the weaknesses of one meshed seamlessly with the strengths of the other."

 

He sighed, "He must have been some stallion to have come between the two of you. If I had to guess, he loved you and Daring loved him, so she fought you as a way to earn his love leading to your present condition. But you didn't love him which is why you aren't still with him."

 

He looked more directly at Ditzy, "Was I close? I suspect the head trauma you sustained may make it difficult to remember the specifics of those times." 

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

@@Illiad Easle, 

 

Ditzy shook her head.  "No.  I did love him.  We fought for his affection.  We never spoke to each other after my very last adventure."

 

That is... until now.

 

There was a knock on the door.  Ditzy got up and said, "I'll get it."  She walked to the door and opened it to reveal her sister, who had a VERY depressing look on her.  "Daring?"

 

Daring motioned with her hoof to the inside of her sister's house.  "May I come in?"

 

Ditzy reluctantly nodded.  "S-sure.  Please."

 

Daring walked in, and sat on her flank, still depressed.  Copper had an angry look on him as he said calmly, "Why Daring?"

Edited May 5, 2016 by Unstoppable Luck

[Illiad Easle 3,135]

@,

 

Midnight only looked mildly surprised at the happening. "Daring, I do wish this reunion were under better circumstances, but at the moment it seems I am rather cross with you. It seems your brash attitude finally lost you the one thing you said you cared about most. I wish I could say I was surprised, but to be honest I saw something like this coming." 

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

@@Illiad Easle, 

 

Daring only closed her eyes.  It had never happened before, but she was starting to cry.  Copper saw this and now felt bad for the adventurous mare.  "You're crying.  It's not like you to cry."

 

Daring suddenly got up and embraced her sister, who had walked to the fireplace with her, crying and all.  Ditzy looked surprised.  "Sis?  This isn't like you."

 

Daring said, "I'm so sorry, Ditzy.  I wish I could take back what I did that day."

 

Ditzy only continued the embrace.  Copper looked at Midnight, then at Daring.  "Did something happen, Daring?"

 

Daring nodded.  "A couple days ago I got into a fight with my friend, and she hit me on the head.  That pain reminded me of the day I hit my sister on the head, and now... I'm so sorry, sis."

[Illiad Easle 3,135]

@,

 

Midnight did not look appeased by Daring's words, in fact he simply looked skeptical and slightly off put. "After all this time you come back with just words? It's been years since you left Ditzy behind in Saddle Arabia, did she ever see one bit of the money you made selling the stories of your adventures? From which you removed any mention of her. Quite frankly I am ashamed of what you have done. To your own sister even. And you come back with nothing more than words? To simply ask her forgiveness?"

 

His expression softened. "She'll give it to you anyway won't she. She was always so kind and forgiving, even to those who had hurt her in the worst possible ways. You knew she would forgive you outright so you didn't think to make it right."

 

Midnight rose from the chair and made his way to the door. "Twice now I have seen ponies seek to right egregious wrongs with little more than their words. Words don't fix wounds, words don't support foals, not mine nor Ditzy's. Words don't return stolen time." 

 

Midnight left the house, he paused as if he were going to say something else, but shook his head. "I need to walk around for a bit. I'll be back if you want me to, but I understand if you don't."

 

With that he trotted off, not in the direction of town, but out of it towards a hill which could be seen in the distance.

 

(Why is your world so perfect? So Flawless? It feels unreal to me and it gives me the chills.)

Edited May 5, 2016 by Illiad Easle

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

@@Illiad Easle, 

(Don't worry, this all leads to something BIG I've planned.)

 

"Midnight," Ditzy said before the older stallion left.  All there was now was Copper, her and Daring.  Daring wiped the tear off of her and said, "He's right.  Words can't fix the damage I've done.  I have to do something to forgive you truly, Ditzy."

 

Copper got up from his seat, a determined look on him.  "I'll talk to him, and see if I can-"

 

"No, Copper.  I'll talk to him," Ditzy said.  She got up and left her house to find Midnight, which wasn't hard to do.  She found him on top of a hill and trotted there.  When she reached Midnight, she said, "Midnight, I'm disappointed at you and your behavior.  You know that Daring's a mare of action, and she'll do anything for me to forgive her.  You realize that, right?  She could turn back time and prevent the disaster you're seeing right now, if she wanted to.  She just has to ask Princess Celestia to let Twilight take her back in time and change it for the better, and you won't see this Ditzy anymore.  You'll see the Ditzy you first met.  Give her a chance, and she'll make things right between us."

[Illiad Easle 3,135]

@,

 

Midnight's face grew serious, he had not expected this sort of reaction from her. "Turn back time? You're the smart one of the pair Ditzy, act like it. Let's think, even if Daring could somehow convince Twilight and Celestia to allow it. Would you want that? It would mean giving up everything you've gained since then, including your foal. Though you may still have one they will be nothing like the one you have."

 

Midnight sighed as he looked towards the sky, "Let's go through your life since the fight then to see more clearly what would be different shall we? If the fight never happened, you wouldn't have been injured, thus retaining all of your memories and perfect eyesight. You'd likely stay with the Saddle Arabian, and find the artifact you were after, potentially even save your father. You'd live as the Sultana and your foal, should you have one, would be raised completely differently and thus be completely different from the one you have now. Daring may never write the books or write them much differently than before, affecting everyone who ever read them. You'd never go to work at the Ponyville post office, affecting everyone who ever worked with you. Perhaps Copper would never get the flyer for the exchange, then Celestia would never have come to make amends and war would likely sweep the nation a year or so from now. Now, none of these may happen, but my point is to not mess with time. Even the smallest of changes can have the biggest impacts, and these effects are compounded the further back you go."

 

Midnight looked towards Ditzy, "It is sad that things happened the way they did, but we need to move forward from them and work to make them better. We are who and where we are because of the past, to change it is to change who we are at our core. Don't worry about the past, work in the present to fix what has happened. There are many ways that Daring can make it up to you without doing something so brash as temporally undoing her mistakes." 

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

@@Illiad Easle, 

 

Ditzy face grew as serious as his, as she would not tolerate this any longer.  "Midnight, even if I had wanted to be with the Saddle Arabian, I would've come back home, because this is where I belong, not in some foreign country.  Have you ever had bad things happen to you or your loved ones to want you to turn back time and reverse it?  Everypony wishes they could fix their wrongdoings in their lifetimes, including you.  I'd allow it, because I wouldn't have to deal with being made fun of because of this condition.  I may not have Dinky, but I still would help Copper in the Post Office.  But why bring princess Celestia to MY changes?  I wasn't the one who gave him the flyer about the exchange.  It came in his separate mail slot where he worked, so the current events would still have taken place."

 

She sighed.  "Why would you act this way?  You didn't act like this when I first met you, why now?  Maybe I was in the wrong to have met you that day, so I would know you acted so cold-hearted as you do now."

 

Unbeknownst to Ditzy, though, she was being watched.

[Illiad Easle 3,135]

@,

 

Midnight stamped the ground as he rose to his full height, it was clear he was not pleased. "You would trade your own foal away just so you wouldn't have slightly askew eyes? Maybe we should never have met for I never realized how shallow of a pony you are. If that is your attitude towards your own child then... Regardless, it is clear you fail to grasp the true magnitude of the forces you are dealing with. Every part of the past influences the future to some degree, small actions have big consequences over time. You may not have given him the flyer, but you influenced him and the others at the post office. Look around you! Maybe changing the past could give you a better life, but it could be much worse. You Could Be Dead, and I won't risk losing another friend to meddling with time."

 

His expression softened. "While I entertained the notion of going back to Save Sir from being turned to stone, from suffering for a thousand years, I thought about what I could change, and I realized that no matter what I did it would end up the same, or worse. Despite how bad it was it was the best way for it to end. Sometimes we have to accept that we can't have all good things, we have to take some bad with the good."

 

He turned away from Ditzy and began walking, his voice shifted a bit deeper as he moved. "I am absolutely disgusted that you would give away your foal for something so trivial as your appearance." 

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

@@Illiad Easle, 

 

DItzy sighed.  It was clear that she wouldn't win, and she teared up.  She yelled at Midnight.  "FINE!  BE THAT WAY!  I'LL CHANGE THE PAST MYSELF, SO THAT I NEVER MET YOU TO BEGIN WITH!"

 

She ran off into town, crying her eyes out, before smashing her head into a wall.  She then fell to the ground, knocked out.

 

(We just blasted my plan out the window, now. )

[Illiad Easle 3,135]

@,

 

(It's a pretty flimsy plan if I can stop it by simply speaking) 

 

Midnight shrugged off Ditzy's words and kept walking away from town. It wasn't the first time his understanding of the world had lost him a friend, and it certainly wouldn't be the last, unfortunately.

 

Midnight sighed, this was supposed to be a happy reunion, he was finally going to meet the little filly he had periodically sent resources to help support, he kept tabs on his friends after all, so he knew most of what had happened in Ditzy's life, including her child. /she would really trade her away for her own appearance? How did I not notice this sooner? Was it caused by the head injury? To make her so uncaring of others? The Ditzy I knew would do anything to help others, so self-sacrificing. This Ditzy is hardly like that.

 

He was only slightly worried about her threat of changing the past, he was sure Celestia was smart enough to not allow it to happen. Hopefully Twilight would be smart enough too.

 

Midnight soon found himself at the edge of the Everfree forest, he didn't enter as he didn't have his armor on him, so he simply walked the border as he contemplated his thoughts.

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

@@Illiad Easle, 

 

"Ditzy!"

 

Daring rushed over to her sister and had picked her up by the upper body, sobbing.  Copper and the Mane Six followed her to the fallen mare, Copper infuriated at what he had overheard Ditzy say.

 

Daring cried.  "This is my fault!  I shouldn't have fought her! I want to change it, NOW!"

 

Twilight looked worried.  "I learned that we shouldn't mess with time.  It was probably only the best if you did what you did."

 

Copper was still fuming when he started to go after Midnight.  "I'm going to have a talk with Midnight.  Take her back to the Castle."

 

He left without any word for them.  When he had come up a short distance from the older stallion, he said, "Words can destroy.  I have heard time and again what ponies have said that ended relationships.  They can be just as bad as actions, if not worse.  But on the other hoof, words can heal.  They can bring friendships together just as well as actions.  I hope you realize that, Midnight.  Tell me, what did Ditzy say that made her end up blasting herself on the head by a wall?"

[Illiad Easle 3,135]

@,

 

Midnight did not pause in his walking when Copper approached, the black fur of his coat stood on end as if electrified and the area around his hooves seemed to be covered in mist, just enough that his hooves could not be seen clearly. He was muttering to himself, "Trade away her own foal for her appearance? Does that count as murder? What of the other effects? Would she then be accountable? I suppose so, she doesn't know what she's doing and if allowed to proceed she could destroy everything. War is a distinct possibility given what I know of that Saddle Arabian. He might accuse Equestria of stealing away his wife."

 

He shook his head and turned to face Copper, having finally noticed he was there, a faint mist seemed to emanate from his eyes. "She wants to go back and never have met me. Forever changing everything that's happened since then, a veritable decade of history that will be rewritten, and all for her own selfish desires."

 

He turned away, "It is unfortunate that she injured herself in her rage, she used to be so calm and collected, what changed? why would she want so bad to give up the life she's lived these many years? Does she really consider herself so important that the lives of countless others mean little to her?"

 

He started walking again, "Perhaps the darkness on the horizon was not the future, but the past that was in turmoil. If that is the case then..." He shook his head, "We are all doomed if that is to be."

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

@@Illiad Easle, 

 

Copper kept pace with Midnight, going a little faster than him.  "Midnight, I know that isn't the real reason.  Did she want to change the past so that she wouldn't have her trauma?  If that's so, then I can see why she would want to, but it's not right."

 

He soon went in front of Midnight, stopping him from going any further.  "Listen, you're being too frank on us.  You're not in Archback anymore, and we're certainly not in the past, the time that you remember.  I know that you're used to it, but times have changed.  I understand that the truth hurts, but it's the way you say the truth that matters.  If you say it the same way you've said it for a thousand years, being frank, that is, chances are nopony would like you for the way you are.  You have to change the way you say things to the times in order to get them to understand.  You're saying the same thing, but nicer."

 

He sighed, knowing that a remark would come.  "You're torn between what you remember and what's happening right now, aren't you?"

[Illiad Easle 3,135]

@,

 

Midnight sighed as he stopped, he rubbed his still misting face as he thought up a response. "Times certainly have changed, you ponies have grown soft, unable to handle the cold truth. Your actions don't have the same consequences due to your princess' doting. My children know how to handle the truth and understand how their actions have consequences and how best to remedy their mistakes to a degree that I fear most of you would never understand. You're taught that words are enough to fix your mistakes, but I know that isn't the case."

 

He sighed again, "Is it really so antiquated a notion that you ought to try to repay your damages? To make right what you did wrong?"

 

He shook his head, "Perhaps you are right in saying my bluntness has prevented the formation of friendships for me, but Celestia's doting has not earned her many true friends either. Loyal subjects yes, but how many can say they know her truly? It's a lonely path us long lived ones walk, I've lived a few dozen times longer than I ever should have, seen the cycles of development in action, helped my children to grow and develop. I am frank because that is what they need even if they don't want it. It won't make me friends yes, but it is my role in this world. To rebuke and rebell, to keep the others from becoming complacent and to keep the cycles of development turning."

 

He sat, the mists of his eyes growing slightly. "When Sir was gone I was so alone, a thousand years I had only the dragons to share a lifespan with as Celestia still blamed me in part for her sister's decent. Who I am now is a result of that, and though it was difficult and painful I wouldn't go back and change it. When you get as old as I do you see how most things happen for a reason, we just need to make the best of our situation and move on, leave the past behind and..."

 

He sighed as he laid himself on the ground. "In all? I too understand her plight, so I won't stop her. But to give up her own child... what happened to the Ditzy I knew? Does she not love her child?" 

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

@@Illiad Easle, 

 

Copper saw the meaning of his words and he smiled, nodding at him.  "You need to explain that to them, tell them that you're this way, so they can understand and tolerate it.  I've only seen it once, but ponies who explain themselves for who they are can be given great friends in the long run.  I tolerated you being frank, because I adapted to your ways.  You can do the same... or not, it's to your preference.  If you choose not to, just tell them.  They'll understand, trust me."

 

He started back to Ponyville, but stopped and motioned to Midnight.  "Come with me.  I'm sure we can talk Ditzy into not turning back the clock."

[Illiad Easle 3,135]

@,

 

Midnight sighed, it seemed much of what he said had not registered with Copper. He waved a hoof dismissively, the mist following it. "You go on ahead, for once I'd like to spend a bit of time alone."

 

He looked to his misting hooves, "Oh, if you could send Twilight over here, I do need some help renewing these enchantments."