Too Far In

by joe mother

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Rainbow Dash, Sad
Length: 5754

Twilight tries to revive Rainbow Dash from a coma.

Rainbow Dash has been in a coma for three years. It's taken it's toll on Twilight, who pays to keep Rainbow Dash alive. But when Twilight stumbles upon a spell in the library, that may all change.

A one-shot.

Published 2013-06-20 23:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-07-17 22:21:08 UTC

Chapter 1 (Complete)

TOO FAR IN

"It doesn't matter how many times you ask, Ms. Sparkle; your friend is not going to wake up."

The doctor looked the purple unicorn in the eyes, exasperated.

"But-"

"She is NOT going to come out of the coma. She has already been under for weeks, and her brain activity is next to nothing. No treatments- magical or otherwise- do anything to improve her mental or physical state."

Twilight pushed away the tears that threatened to overcome her, tears that had tugged at her since the day it had happened.

"Why can you not call Celestia? Why can nopony else help?"

"Because nopony else is a doctor or a surgeon. Not even the best in this field can do anything. She is going to die eventually, whether it be when she can no longer afford the care, or when her brain stops."

There was a slight tick as Twilight ran from the building, biting back angry retorts and letting her tears fall down her cheeks.

THREE YEARS LATER...

Twilight took a long look at the hospital, her eyes focused. She took a deep breath and turned away, walking towards the library.

She opened the door and examined the slowly decaying room. Ever since Rainbow Dash had fallen into the coma, trying to keep her in the hospital had become increasingly difficult as her income lessened. Every day, Twilight considered to stop paying the bills, to let Rainbow Dash go, but she also cared too much for her to do that.

She went up to her bedroom and took a quick glance at the old pet bed Spike had once slept in, bringing back a slew of memories she suffered through nightly.

~

"Twilight, what do you mean?"

The dragon's voice was choked with tears as he looked up at the lavender unicorn who stood over him, crying.

"Spike... you need to grow up."

She turned away, her heart broken, tears running down her face in rivers.

"Why, Twilight? Why do I have to go?"

There was a moment of choked silence as the two turned away from each other. Twilight closed her eyes and spun back to Spike.

"I... it's for Rainbow Dash, Spike. I can't help her pay the bill for the hospital if I have to keep you. Besides, you can finally become the dragon you always wanted to be."

"I don't want to go! I don't want to be the dragon I want to be because I never will be! I'll just become a monster who kills and hoards jewels and destroys villages full of innocent ponies!"

"And that is natural. It is the way the world works. I don't care if you become a terrible thing when you grow up, because I will still know you as my number one assistant."

Spike ran foward and hugged Twilight, his sobs escalating in volume as he cried.

"I can't go! I don't want to leave you, or Rarity, or anypony else I know!"

Twilight ran a hoof across the dragon's head, whispering words of comfort into his ear.

"It will be alright, Spike. Don't worry so much. If it helps, I don't want you to leave either. But it's for Rainbow Dash. You can live if you go and learn to be a true dragon and not just a friend of ponies, and Rainbow will, too."

Spike tightened his hug, slowly losing his tears. When he stopped, he looked Twilight in the eyes.

"I can be strong for Rainbow Dash."

Twilight smiled sadly, nearly breaking down again as she heard his words of near-parting.

"Yes, you can."

There was a small nod from the scaly dragon and a smile.

~

Twilight pressed her head against her pillow, exhaling quietly against the coarse fabric. She pulled her blanket over her form and stayed in that position for a while.

When she broke the body lock, she did so by sitting up, taking a long, loud breath. Taking a steady look at the wall across from her, she stood.

"Maybe today I'll let go of Rainbow. Maybe today I can stop losing money and going broke."

There was a little bit of conscience in her head that scolded her for the statement, but she pushed it aside, slowly making her way downstairs.

Upon reaching the bottom, she levitated a piece of bread from the kitchen to her mouth, which she bit into half-heartedly. She finished the stale morsel and opened up the door, walking out into the dying town that was Ponyville.

Ever since Twilight's friends had left, the rest if the village migrated with them, following them out to the big cities.

Rarity had gone to Canterlot to be a famous designer, Applejack had become the owner of the number one apple producing company in Equestria, Fluttershy went to the borders of the country to raise and breed her animals, Pinkie Pie had become the premier party planner of most cities, and Rainbow Dash had, well, gone into a coma.

Now, the city was turning into a ghost town, only a few ponies bothering to stay in what was left for sentimental value.

As Twilight led herself to the hospital, she passed one of the ponies who had remained in the town.

"Hey, Twilight," Lyra said, walking out of her house.

"Hey, Lyra," Twilight replied.

"You're going to Rainbow Dash again?"

"Yeah. It's not like I don't go there every day."

There was a stiff, dry chuckle as the joke was made, but the humor was quickly cut off.

"Has anything changed in her condition?" Lyra asked to break the silence.

"No. She's been in the same state ever since the accident, and I don't think it will ever change."

"I'm sorry to bring this up, but why don't you just let her go? If she's not going to get better, why do you continue to pay her hospital bill and keep her in stasis?"

Twilight cast her gaze at the ground.

"She's still my friend. I care for her, and I will not just let her die until I can no longer sustain her."

Lyra nodded and smiled. She stepped away from the lavender unicorn out into the world.

"Bye!" she told Twilight, waving as she went.

As she left, Twilight turnes back to the hospital, ready to continue her journey.

The sun had reached the place of noon in the sky when Twilight arrived at the hospital, which was in Mareiana, which was a new town outside of Ponyville, established after the Elements of Harmony went their seperate ways and Ponyville collapsed.

Twilight said hello to a few of the town's residents that she knew and went inside the white stone building.

"Hello, Twilight," the nurse at the desk said, looking at her with tired eyes.

"Hi, Redheart," Twilight replied, deadpan.

The nurse got up and began to walk down the hall, Twilight following. They turned a couple times and then entered a room marked "57."

"She hasn't changed," Redheart told Twilight as she went in.

"I know," was the only response.

The nurse left the unicorn alone with Rainbow Dash, who looked mall and defenseless under her covers. Twilight lightly touched the cyan mare, who was thin and bony from her time while comatose.

She looked at the pegasus' gaunt face and winced. It seemed to her that every time she visited, the daredevil looked worse than the previous visits.

"Wake up," she whispered, her eyes closing. "I want you to be awake again, to be with me and your friends."

Rainbow Dash did not move or acknowledge having heard the statement, and only lay quietly on her bed.

"Why?"

~

The storm raged loudly, thunder clapping in the air, and lightning flickering brightly in the sky.

Rainbow Dash could care less as she flew through the maelstrom, flying with a headwind. She reached the speed of Mach 1, and the dark clouds were briefly illuminated by a blast of prismatic color.

"Awesome!"

These words were whisked away into the wind, only to be heard by the pegasus as it was cast away into sonic oblivion.

The boom from the Sonic Rainboom took several seconds to reach the ears of Ponyville's citizens; they assumed it was just spectacularly loud thunder.

Rainbow Dash's grin was fit to burst as she dipped and dived across the sky, slowly losing speed and altitude as her adrenaline vanished.

The moment she began her full descent with the intention of landing, there was a flicker of white light, a piercing pain right between her shoulder blades, and it all went black. That was the last thing she remembered.

~

Trickle. Trickle. Clank. Clang. Ring. Trickle. Trickle.

"Wake up...

"Wake up..."

A unicorn came out of the whiteness and stepped forward.

"Wake up!"

~

Twilight levitated a book over to herself, a book that she had been reading for weeks but had not yet had the mental focus to finish.

"Mind-Conecting," she read aloud. "Mind-connecting is a quite simple art in which a unicorn can tether their mind with the mind of another and see the thoughts they are experiencing. It has many uses in the medical field, from curing the mentally insane to reviving the... comatose..."

Twilight stopped, and she dropped the book to the floor. She gathered her wits and levitated the text back up to her face.

"It has since been outlawed, as it can also be used as a way to manipulate the minds of those it is used upon."

Her heart dropped as she read this.

"Buck," she said, any hopes she had dashed.

But something overtook her, a feeling that her friend was more important than any law, especially a friend that had been in a coma for three years.

"I must help her. I don't care about the law if it means helping Rainbow Dash."

Twilight felt a bit surprised at her sudden change of mood. She had gone from ready to let her go to feeling the need to break the law to save her.

"I... I care more than I thought," she said.

That hit her hard, and a smile crossed her face.

"I thought I was ready to give up on her, but I still care. I still love her as a friend."

She let the sentiment settle on her mind, and she began to cry tears of joy.

"I still care."

~

"Wake up!"

"Who are you?" Rainbow Dash called out to the unicorn, which was slowly coming into focus, turning purple in the whiteness.

"Wake up! I need you to wake up, Rainbow Dash!"

"Twilight?"

~

Twilight had prepared a plan in order to try the spell to attempt to bring Rainbow Dash from her slumber. Her plan was written down in list fashion, and she had memorized it the moment she had finished. It went:

Learn the Mind-Connecting spell. Done

Be able to perform the spell without error twenty times in a row. Done.

Break into the hospital.

Reach Rainbow Dash's room and get in.

Use the spell on her and go into her mind.

If all goes well, I wake Rainbow Dash without a hitch.

Get Rainbow Dash out.

All is good.

Twilight sighed. The list was crap and she knew it. There were so many variables she did not have time to account for. So many things could.go wrong; a nurse could walk in, a guard could spot her performing the spell, Rainbow Dash could be less receptive of the spell then she thought, or so many other dillemas.

"What if it doesn't work?"

She became angry with herself at the idea and slammed her head against the wall, sending a vibrating, high-pitched ring through her cranium.

"Buck!"

She gripped her skull between her hooves and swore violently. As the pain receded, she looked up and saw Celestia in the room.

"Celestia?" she asked the goddess.

"Do not do this, my dear student. Do not allow yourself to succumb to the evil in you. It is not the right way."

Twilight stood and gazed angrily into the eyes of her mentor.

"And what is the right way?" she asked, a bit of blood trickling from her mouth. "How else am I going to help my friend?!"

"Sometimes you must let one you love go. You must be willing to allow them to take a long delayed path that until then only contained suffering. She will be in a better place."

"Like you would bucking know! You're not the one who has a friend who is in the hospital and on the edge of death!"

"Do you think I would not know your pain?!" Celestia's voice turned threatening and took on a tone of anger and sadness. "Do you think I have not had friends die? I've seen so many ponies that I loved be placed in the ground or engulfed in flames! Do you not think that during the times I have fought in wars against the enemies of my nation, I did not see things that would drive the normal pony mad?! I watched so many die and fall, while I could only live on past them!"

Twilight backed away in fear, her eyes still locked with Celestia's.

"I- I'm sorry..." she told the flaming leader.

"It's okay. But you will not be if you continue with your plan."

Celestia vanished into thin air, leaving the lavender unicorn sitting alone in the room, staring at the empty space.

"Wha- what was that?"

She pondered the occurence through her muddled brain for a minute, slowly connecting a few dots. She finally reached a conclusion on what the apparation was.

(I will leave you guys to figure out her conclusion and what the apparation actually was)

"I don't care she said. I want Rainbow back. I need her back."

~

"Follow me!'

"Twilight, what is that?!"

"It's a construct of your mind, protecting it!"

The cyan pegaus took off, a loud roar screeching from behind her.

~

Twilight grabbed the handle to the hospital, breathing deeply as she steeled her nerves for the approaching task. She opened the door and went in.

"Here to see Dash again?" Redheart asked, looking a lot more refreshed than earlier.

"Yeah," Twilight replied dryly, following it with a cough from nervousness.

"Alright."

The two went down the same halls as earlier into the room, and when the nurse left, Twilight pulled out the checklist and marked off a few things.

She looked at Rainbow Dash and charged up the spell, not wasting any time on sentimental pleasantries.

"Here goes nothing."

~

"Twilight, where are you?!" Rainbow Dash cried as the monster barreled at her, every second ever closer to her.

"Help me!"

~

At first, there was nothingness. There was no color, no anything; it was like looking through glass at more glass stretching onwards in all directions. There was a flicker of purple, yellow, and blue, and a swirling portal appeared in the air. It was labeled with a wooden sign that read:

EXIT

Twilight chuckled.

"It worked! The spell worked!"

She took a step foward, half expecting herself to plummet to her death. When it appeared that the nothing would support her, she felt confidence surge into her.

She leapt and hopped, every time she landed safely was a time of celebration and self-confidence addition.

Eventually, the nothingness faded, slowly becoming white. She took one final step, and the white overtook her, filling her vision and all of her senses.

She looked around and saw a familiar form hunched over a good distance away, shivering and breathing deeply.

~

"Can I see her?"

"No, Twilight, she is in critical condition. It's a miracle that she even survived at all."

"But what happened? Tell me!" Twilight pleaded with Redheart.

"Ugh... I guess lying to you will make matter any better. Twilight, she was struck by lightning at a high altitude. She fell from over fifteen thousand feet to the ground. Accidents like that never leave a pony living, let alone with a ten percent chance of survival."

"Ten percent?" Twilight asked in fear.

"I thought you'd understand that those odds are incredibly fair considering you know what happened to her."

"Yes, but it's just... she's my friend."

"I know that, but sometimes things that you thought would only affect a pony that you didn't know happen to you or a friend."

Twilight tried to push past the nurse into the room beyond.

"I said no!"

Twilight decided against another attempt and left, running from the hospital in tears.

~

"Wake up!" Twilight called to Rainbow Dash, hoping that would be enough.

It was, and the prismatic-maned mare raised her head and looked around. She seemed to be bleary for a moment, then gathered her senses.

"Twilight?" was the clumsy response from Rainbow Dash, who was blinking wearily.

"Wake up!"

The pegasus stood and looked at her friend, who stood all the way across the space.

"Twilight!" she called, rushing foward to embrace her friend.

~

The door burst open, and a nurse walked in, levitating a clipboard and quill in front of her face. She stepped around Twilight's form, barely noticing that she was there, and went to Rainbow Dash's side.

"Hello, Twilight!" she said as she saw the unicorn mare sitting on the floor, horn glowing and eyes screwed up in concentration.

There was no answer.

"I said hello!"

Once again, no response.

"Twilight, are you just going to-"

She saw the object on which Twilight was using her magic, transferred those images through her many years of med school and knowledge of dozens of medical fields, and stopped herself from finishing her sentence.

"Shit," she said, not bothering to use what most ponies considered to be appropriate swearing, just saying the first thing in her head. The clipboard clattered to the floor, where it rattled around until coming to a complete stop.

~

Twilight took Rainbow Dash's embrace happily, tears spreading from her eyes down her cheeks.

ROAR!!!!!!!!!!

"Twilight, what was that?" Rainbow Dash asked, sounding concerned.

"I don't know. I think running may be in order."

They released each other.

ROAR!!!!!!!!!

They turned to where the growl echoed from and saw a sight they would rather forget.

"What in the name of Celestia is that?!"

There was no answer from Rainbow Dash, who was shaking in fear.

Her terror was completely founded of course; the creature was a nightmare. It had a head of a dragon, but covered in thousands of spines and sharp spikes, dripping crimson with blood. It's teeth were an unclean yellow under the saliva-dripping jaws, tints of red across various spots. The eyes of the beast glowed a deep black, a color that seemed to come straight from hell. The body of it was as hellfire-red as the maw, coated in three times as many bloody needles, and scales that had a demonic sheen to them. The arms were spiked as well, ending in open claws, which extended for more than a foot, coated in crimson sleekness.

"Run. No arguement."

And the two were off, fleeing as fast as they could, the monster following in their wake.

~

"Where is she?" the black-clad pony asked the nurse, looking around the room.

"Follow me."

The pony followed her down the hallway into the room with Twilight and Rainbow Dash. He approached the unicorn and examined her.

"Yep. Just as you said. She's performed the Mind-Connecting spell. I'll have to go in."

"What are you going to do?" the nurse asked him.

"I'm gonna follow them."

~

"You think somepony followed you?!" Rainbow Dash screamed as they ran for their lives, the monster's thuds echoing throughout the world.

"Yeah! Somepony probably found me!"

"Found you doing what?!"

"Found me performing an illegal spell to bring you back from your coma!"

"Uh... what?!"

"It's not important right now! I'll tell you when you wake up!"

A ball of fire hit the ground nearby and exploded, showering the area with flames.

"Damn it!" Twilight screamed.

~

The nothingness was silent. It made no sound, no disturbance broke the quiet.

ROAR!!!!!!!!!!

"Of course I awoke the Guardian. Just like always."

~

"Follow me!"

"Twilight, what is it?!"

"It's a construct of your mind, protecting it!"

A clawed hand slammed down inbetween the two, sending them flying in different directions, seperating them. Twilight picked herself up and continued, now more concerned for her own safety than for the location of Rainbow Dash.
ROAR!!!!!!!!!!

~

"Alright, where's this little beasty at?" Lion asked aloud, examining the area.

ROAR!!!!!!!!!!

A stomp sent his attention to the distance, where a wall of whiteness awaited him.

"Freaking athelete brains."

~

Stomp. Stomp. Flash. Bang. Burn. Stomp. Slash. Cut.

"Crap!" was all Twilight could say as the creature bounded upon her, coming ever closer to her body with each attack.

There was a snap. A crack, a whip, a few loud explosions.

"I'd think the ever-praised Twilight Sparkle, savior of Equestria, would be able to protect herself with magic."

"What?" Twilight said, turning to the voice.

"You did something disagreeable, Miss. What was the reason for this? You may be an Element of Harmony, but you're not on the outskirts of the law."

"I'm aware of that, and I'm willing to face the consequences when my friend wakes up."

"Ah, so this is for Rainbow Dash? Trying to revive her from her trio years of slumber?"

"Yes."

"Sometimes, you've got to just let them go. Even this is not worth it. Did you even bother to continue the reading into the subject?"

"N- no." Twilight felt a twitch of fear.

"Well, you'd be surprised to know that every attempt to bring back somepony from a coma has failed. There is only one known theory that is considered functional and will work."

"What?"

"You see, every time it is tried, the pony who performed the spell leaves first, and the one in the coma stays down, and usually dies. The theory is that the coma patient should leave first, but it would leave the doctor trapped inside."

Twilight reflected on this for a moment, and decided to cover up her thinking with small talk.

"What did you do to the monster?"

"I vaporized it with a couple magic blasts. That was a pretty damn nasty Mindguardian."

"You mean you've seen them before?"

"Yeah. My job is the head of Mind-Magic in the Canterlot Police Department. I get called out anytime we've got a case. I see those things all the time on field calls."

"I see..."

She had decided. She knew what to do.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go find my friend."

~

"Twilight, where are you?!" Rainbow Dash cried as the monster barreled at her, every second ever closer to her.

"Help me!"

It took a moment for her to notice the absence of thuds and fireballs, and she stopped when she did.

"Hello?" she called into the whiteness.

"Rainbow Dash!"

The pegasus turned to see Twilight running towards her. There was a speck of red on her lavender coat.

~

"You will not go to your friend. You broke the law, and you're coming back without her."

Lion reached a hoof foward to grab Twilight's shoulder, but the unicorn darted away from it, her horn beginning to glow.

"No!" Twilight said. "She's my friend, and I will help her, law-abiding or not!"

"Very well. I guess I'll have to do this the hard way."

Whatever way was the "hard way" Twilight never found out, for she shot a spell at the pony, and he began to stiffen.

"What... what did you do?"

His legs started to turn red.

"You'll make a great wax statue," Twilight said jokingly. "Very law-abiding." She chuckled and trotted off, hearing the officers panicked screams from behind her.

She winced.

~

"You turned him into a wax statue?! What in the hell is wrong with you?!'

Rainbow Dash was releasing three years worth of tension, and it was driving Twilight buggy. The cyan mare kept flailing her hooves around and had taken to yelling a lot, screeching at the top of her lungs whenever an oppurtunity to do so presented itself.

"I do wish that I had not done it, Rainbow, but it was I did, and I can't go back," Twilight told the pegasus, exasperated.

"But, you never do anything like that! Ever! Why did you not do that to Discord or all the other freaking villains we ever fought?!"

"I just recently learned the spell. It's high level magic."

"But why would even use it? That's a terrible thing!"

"Be quiet. He was trying to stop me from saving you, so I did the first thing I thought of."

"That was still a stupid move."

Twilight sighed, and the walk continued.

~

"Here it is. This is the portal from your mind."

Rainbow Dash marveled at the spinning mass, her eyes reflecting the colors.

"This is it? The way out?" she asked, obviously doubting it was that easy.

"Yeah. You just have to step through. I'll be right behind you."

The cyan mare took a hesitant step foward. She turned back to Twilight.

"You're a terrible liar," was all she said before stepping into the portal, which dissolved her essence into dust.

The wormhole suddenly collapsed into oblivion, leaving Twilight stranded in the mind of a daredevil.

~

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes and took her first unaided breath in three years. Her eyes were blinded as natural light burned into her retinas. She groaned as a bout of pain overtook her.

"Lion, is that you?" a voice from somewhere said.

A door opened, and there was a sharp gasp. The sound of glass shattering filled the room.

"Oh my."

The door slammed shut, and suddenly the light on the pegasus' eyes lessened, and she could see, if only a small amount

She turned to her right and saw two shapes on the ground; one was black, the other purple. They were not moving.

"Twilight?"

There was no answer, not a breath.

"Twilight?! Twilight!?"

After several more attempts, she began to charge foward to her friend's body. She pulled and tugged away from the cords and cables on her, making her wincein pain; the breathing apparatus in her nose tore out, and she screamed as blood trickled across her face.

"Twilight!"

She landed by her friend and touched her chest. She put a hoof on her neck and waited. There was no pulse. A wave of dizziness washed over her, and her vision tilted, and a sense of vertigo pulled at her head and stomach.

"Get her back on the meds!"

Rainbow Dash's vision began to develop dark spots, growing in size until they consumed her sight. She felt something soft under her, and there were a few pinpricks across her coat. The last thing she had enough strength to focus on was the lone tear rolling down her cheek.

~

The fog swirled and twisted, making the damp.grounds where she stood even scarier. The trees around her loomed with threat, feeling as if they were alive.

A light suddenly broke through the air, clearing the fog and undermining the fear the gnarled trees had imposed.

"Rainbow!" a lone voice called out, calling for her.

"Twilight?" was Rainbow Dash's only response, recognizing the voice.

A lavender unicorn appeared, a black-clad other by her.

"I'm sorry for lying, Rainbow Dash. It's just that, you needed to go first so you could wake up."

"What do you mean?"

"It means that I'm dead. I let myself die to wake you up."

"You- you damn idiot, Twilight. You didn't just kill yourself to wake me up, you killed that stallion right there! Don't you imagine he might've had family or friends who cared, who will want him back?"

"I- I-"

"Save your breath. I don't want it. You just commited murder to bring me back. Is that worth it?"

"Rainbow Dash, you don't even understand what I've been through."

"And what sort of shit's bad enough to allow yourself to kill to get a friend back? I don't see any reason."

"Rainbow, I was in Ponyville for three years while you were down. I payed for all of your bills until I could barely afford anything."

"That's still not enough to force you to kill."

"But I never intended to. It was supposed to go smoothly and orderly, but it didn't. Somepony found me and called Lion."

"But you still killed to get me awake. It doesn't matter what excuses you make."

"And I'm sorry for this. But you still don't understand how much it took to keep paying for your medical bills. How much I sacrificed to keep you alive!"

"It doesn't matter because you killed! You ended somepony's life to wake me up, and it's not worth it! You should've just let me die!"

"I let go of Spike to help you."

"You did what?! Damn it, Twilight! You've already done so many terrible things, but now you tell me you let go o Spike?!"

"He did it for you, so you could stay alive!"

Rainbow Dash had had enough. Her anger flared up and she leapt across her mind onto Twilight, her breath coming in short, animalistic snorts.

"You fucking monster! Whatever happened to all of your high-held morals? Whatever happened to your loyalty that you had?! The fucking things that kept your mind straight and kept you doing the right thing, not fucking up somepony's life without a second thought?!"

"I'm sorry to say this, Rainbow, but you sent me to this. You indirectly caused me to spiral to this. When you wouldn't wake up I kept trying to find ways to help, asking so many questions, pestering all the doctors dozens of times over. When I finally found out a way to help you, I hardly cared for the law, and I only wanted you back and well."

Rainbow Dash only growled and stomped her hoof down on Twilight's right foreleg. The unicorn screamed in pain and curled up in a defensive ball. Tears began to fall from her eyes, and Rainbow Dash stepped away.

"You bitch!"

This insult came from Lion, who had been standing to the side this whole time, watching the scene unfold.

'She's your Celestia-damned friend!" he yelled, approaching the angry mare. "And she went to some incredible lengths to wake you up! She fought against the damn law to get to you, and now you're hurting her like she's some kind of fucking monster! Why?!"

There was no response from the pegasus, who was starting to slowly calm down, taking long, deep breaths.

"Well?"

"Because I care for others," Rainbow Dash began. "I'm the Element of Loyalty, and I'm loyal to everypony who is loyal to Celestia. If they can't abide by the rules and uphold their loyalty, then why should I be able to protect them? If she'll break the law for somepony who would never want it to be broken, then why should I show pity on her?"

"That doesn't matter," Lion said angrily, coming face-to-face with Rainbow. "You know damn well that you're wrong."

Rainbow Dash fidgeted, rubbing her foreleg.

"You're right," she said with a sigh, turning away. She went to Twilight, who was still lying on the ground, clutching her forelimb and crying. "I'm- sorry."

"I'm sorry, too," the pained unicorn responded, gritting her teeth. "I know what I did was wrong, and I hope that you can forgive me for it."

Rainbow Dash grappled within herself, trying to make a decision. The side of her mind tied to the Element told her to harm her again, for she had broken the one thing it stood for, loyalty, but on the other side, the friend side, told her to help her and forgive her. She closed her eyes and let the two personas fight it out, waiting to see who won.

"I forgive you," she said. "But it was still stupid."

Twilight did not respond, only bracing herself against the waves of injury attacked.

"Are you going to be okay?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I should be," Twilight said, wincing. "I don't know how long it'll take to get better."

"It should heal soon," Lion said, coming forward. "Injuries here get healed when the mind wants them fixed.

As if on cue, Twilight's leg began to glow, a white ball of energy surrounding it.

'What's going on?!" she asked in a panic.

"Rainbow Dash is healing you," Lion simply responded.

"What?" the prismatic pegasus asked. "How?"

"If the pony's mind cares for you or trusts you enough, their mind can heal injuries to the friend."

Rainbow smiled a bit, some of her guilt from hurting Twilight earlier fading.

"But, what will I do about you?" she asked. "I can't leave you here trapped."

"Yeah, you can," Lion said. "We're trapped. However, your mind should be able to do something for us. Just gotta dream it up."

The ball of energy around Twilight's leg vanished, revealing a healed leg. She stood and tested it out.

"Cool!" she said. "And, Rainbow Dash, you'll have to get used to the fact that we're stuck in here forever. You have to help us by giving us food and a life."

Rainbow Dash looked at the two of them, thinking.

"Will do," she said, saluting. "But, I'll miss you, Twilight."

And she began to cry, letting her tears go.

"Your dead!" she yelled. "All of our friends will be sad! I- I don't know what we'll do without your egghead knowledge!"

Twilight hugged her.

"It's alright, Rainbow," she said. "You can give us a place to survive, and we can be happy. You could remake all of Equestria in here and we could live our normal lives."

Rainbow Dash's eyes lit up.

"I could," she said.

She let go of Twilight and closed her eyes, a look of concentration coming onto her face. The area around began to shimmer, slowly turning into Ponyville. Soon, other ponies began to appear, pacing around and laughing.

"There," she said. "How's that?"

Twilight smiled and laughed.

"Thanks," she said. "I'll miss you."

Rainbow Dash felt her body begin to fade.

"Huh?" she said, looking down at her dissipating form. "No! I don't want to leave Twilight! No!"

And she was gone, leaving Lion and Twilight to live in her mind until they died.