My Little Mistakes

Nopony knew what was going on. Each of them had been minding their own business, then suddenly they were here. Naturally, many of the fillies and colts in the room did exactly what they were taught to do upon finding themselves in a room without any consent or prior knowledge of their location.

They panicked.

Several began to cry for their parents, or in the case of a certain orange coated Pegasus, Rainbow Dash. Many of the mares and stallions in the room found themselves having both pity for the foals and rage for whatever force it was that brought them there. The lights on the ceiling above were giving off a pale purplish-pink glow, and the lack of any sort of decoration or design on the walls was unnerving to say the least.

Several theories began to pop up between the ponies trapped there, with "Changeling attack!", "Alien Invasion!", and "Judgement Day!" being the most common.

However, before a full-scale riot could erupt, a voice made itself known to the ears of all those present.

"Calm yourselves, My little ponies," a familiar voice declared, powerful, yet gentle. Princess Celestia now had the attention of every pony in the room, hundreds of eyes pointed to her, desperate for something to calm their fears. "I do not know of the force that brought us here, but I sense no malice towards us in this room. Be patient; violence and panic will do nothing but dampen our spirits and injure your bodies." For a moment, the ponies in the room that had been deepest in panic hung their heads in guilt, before a voice among them spoke up.

"Impostor!" the voice shouted. All heads turned to the new voice, revealing a scowling lavender unicorn mare. "That thing isn't Celestia!"

"Twilight Sparkle, what is the meaning of this?" the apparently-not-Celestia said.

"I'll admit, your voice is spot on, and the way you hold your stance is almost convincing. But your disguise forgets one important thing."

"Twilight what are you-"

"PRINCESS CELESTIA HAS WINGS YOU SHAM!" At this, the white mare stumbled back from the intensity of her students words.

"What do you---!" looking at her back, the unicorns accusation was confirmed. Eyes wide, the lookalike stared long at the place where two large swan-like wings should have connected to her body, and found not even a stump. It wasn't as though they were removed, it appeared to be that they had never been there at all.

The ponies in the room now began to converge on her, believing she would hold some answers. Not-Celestia was not frightened, but all could see the shock in her face.

"Where are we?"

"What's going on?"

"Where's Rainbow Dash- er, Princess Celestia!?"

"Hold it!" The lavender mare stepped forward again. "I'll ask the questions. I know the princess better than anypony, and I already fought alongside my friends in the changeling invasion. I can handle whatever she throws at me."

"Twilight, please listen to me-"

"NO! You listen! I trained under princess Celestia for years, and do you honestly think I'd fall for some unfinished disguise like that? Tell me: Where are we?"

"I do not know, nor do I have any connection with this situation."

"Alright, if you won't answer that then answer this: Where is the princess?"

"I am the princess."

"Listen, the second we get out of here I'm reporting this place to the guard. They may let things go easier if you just cooperate."

"Twilight Sparkle, I have told you, I am the princess, and I cannot explain what we are doing here."

"Last chance: Where Is the princess?"

"No matter how many times I am made to answer my response shall not waver. I am Princess Celestia."

"Fine. Have it your way. If you won't give me the answer I'll force it out of you!"

"You will not command me Twilight Sparkle. I will not give you information that is false. I am your teacher."

"No. YOU'RE, NOT!" Twilight's mane was now sticking out in several areas and her eyes were going wild. "I learned under Celestia for years. I know who she is. If you think some cheap disguise that isn't even finished will trick me you're sadly mistaken."

"Twilight, listen to yourself, you're terrified. Calm down, you need to think this thro-"

"I've had enough!" the lavender one was now obviously frazzled and could barely keep herself still. "You can talk all you want, but unless you tell me where the princess is I'm not interested. Now, if you aren't interested in talking honestly, would you just be-"

"QUIET!" a normally timid voice bellowed, once again bringing silence to the room.

"Umm... I think... maybe... she's telling the... truth... umm... I... here..." The new voice, now identified as a yellow Pegasus mare turned to her side. A few faces gained confused looks, but the purple unicorn gasped.

"You - YOU AREN'T FLUTTERSHY!" Twilight yelled in fear.

"Please Twilight, believe me, I don't know what's going on either."

"NO! NonononoNO! If you're Fluttershy, please explain what MY cutie mark is doing on your Flank!" At this point heads quickly shifted between the two, and even from afar it was clear; their cutie marks were identical. A large six pointed pink star surrounded by five smaller white stars "Fluttershy has three pink butterflies as her cutie mark, and I don't care how powerful your magic is, YOU CAN'T CHANGE A CUTIE MARK!"

The exchange continued, without much success for either side, as cyan figure with a poly-chromatic mane quietly approached the princess.

"You too, huh?" The cyan mare said at great length. The princess turned her eyes from her student and towards the voice that had spoken to her.

"Rainbow Dash?"

"Heh, Maybe. I don't know anymore." The unusually mellow mare turned to her side as Fluttershy had done, and what the Princess saw took away all of her usual resolve, her jaw dropping and eyes growing wide at the sight. Like the princess, Rainbow Dash's pride and joy, her beautiful wings, were simply gone without a trace. This alone would have unnerved the princess, but one other change brought the total shock she felt. Rainbow Dash's signature cloud and tri-colored lighting bolt were completely gone, nothing replacing them, simply a bare flank. Maybe-Celestia thought for a good while about what to say coming up with no logical explanation, or even an illogical one, when a small orange filly ran up to the now-flightless Pegasus beside her.

"Rainbow Dash!" the little filly said with a smile on her face, grabbing her idols front hooves into a tight embrace. "I was so sca- uh, worried! Yeah, worried! Please tell me what's going on!"

"...I don't know, Squirt. I wish I could tell you, but I can't." Rainbow Dash looked at Scootaloo, unable to bring a smile to her face.

"Well... Let's go. You always say you'll never figure out anything sitting on your plot. Maybe you should see if you can see somepony from higher up."

"Sorry Squi-Scootaloo. I don't think I'll be flying anytime soon" The filly's eyes shot open.

"What!? But you're Rainbow Dash! You wouldn't be Rainbow Dash if you were stuck on the ground!"

Those words. Those few simple sentences stung more than anything else in Rainbow Dash's life. Here, now, Scootaloo had said it herself: a Rainbow Dash without wings was no Rainbow Dash at all.

"C'mon Rainbow! You promised you'd give me flying lessons today! You promised!" And now she was rubbing it in, still none the wiser.

Rainbow Dash was furious with herself 'Some element of Loyalty I turned out to be,' she ranted in her mind. 'Can't even keep her promise to teach a schoolfilly how to fly... Am I really this useless without my wings? I even gave in to Discord to get my wings back...'

"Please Rainbow, at least try to look for a way out of here!"

"Sorry kid but any searching is gonna be on the ground. I'm not going to be flying for a while... Maybe not ever again."

"Wh-What do you mean? Of course... you'll..." The filly looked at the barren back of Rainbow Dash who returned the look with tears in her eyes. "This isn't real... THIS ISN'T REAL! NO! NO WAY!" Scootaloo was now crying, unable to take what she had seen.

After a moment, Rainbow Dash had moved in and nuzzled the filly, trying and failing to be strong for her. Celestia felt her heart wrench at the sight, and turned her head back to her student, knowing there were some things even a princess had no place in.

Twilight Sparkle continued arguing with Fluttershy over the identity of the latter, but the Princess could do nothing; when her student made an assumption, it took quite a bit of evidence to convince her otherwise, and Celestia's intervention would likely provoke her. Celestia lowered her head and went deep into her thoughts, trying to come up with some explanation for their apparent imprisonment.

The pair beside her, however, didn't care about any of the events around them. Rainbow had failed herself and Scootaloo, and she was unable to forgive herself for that. As for Scootaloo, she had been wandering and searching for anything that would be normal, something that would give her hope. Naturally, her first thought was Rainbow Dash in flight, and the sudden revelation that even this had been taken was too much.

So the mare and filly held each other and for several minutes, doing nothing but wetting the floor with tears, cursing at what they had lost.