Them

Chapters

Chapter 1 (Original)
Chapter 2 (Original)
Chapter 3 (Original)
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chaper 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 7

Chapter 1 (Original)

Them

By: Chaotic Dreams (Story idea; Ch 1-3), Ether Echoes (Ch 4+)

Run.

Cloud Buster complied. He didn’t know who had spoken. He didn’t care either; it seemed like a good idea, especially since he was in the middle of a dark wood and...something... seemed to be chasing him. The setting wasn’t exactly helping matters; the dark, dead trees tried to scratch and trip him at every turn with their sharp, clawing, skeletal branches. What little he could see of the sky above was blood red, and he couldn’t even properly see the ground through all the dead leaves littering it. The crunching of said leaves with every hoofstep was definitely not helping him lose the attention of whatever it was that was chasing him.

He couldn’t see it, but that was mainly because he refused to turn around and risk a glance. He could certainly hear it, though. It snorted, it cried, it released sounds the stallion didn’t have a name for. Worst of all, though, was that each unearthly scream, or whatever they were, was louder than the last.

Run, or They will have you.

Cloud Buster didn’t know who ‘they’ were, but he didn’t want to find out. Increasingly, though, it was looking like he wouldn’t have much choice. The sharp, black, spiky arms of the dead trees above prevented him from simply flying away. No flight; it was like his worst nightmare come true. Perhaps that’s exactly what this was?

Run, or They will change you.

Cloud Buster’s brow furrowed.

No! Flee, for They are almost upon you!

What was he so afraid of? Why was he bothering to listen to some voice in his head when he didn’t even know who was really speaking? Cloud Buster didn’t run from fights, he made fights run from him! That’s the way he had always operated, so why would that have suddenly changed now?

There was only one explanation for it. For the ethereal disembodied voice, the nightmarish black woods, and the rampant fear that had thus far gripped his heart.

He was dreaming. Or, rather, he was having a nightmare. But nopony made Cloud Buster turn tail and flee in fear. He wasn’t afraid of anything! The stallion skidded to a halt and declared as much to the woods, turning to face whatever was chasing him and daring it to trot closer.

Run away, Cloud Buster, while you’re still you!

While he was still himself? What kind of malarkey was that?

“I’m not afraid of you!” Cloud Buster proclaimed while stamping his thick, strong hooves and snorting threateningly. “And nopony tells me what to do!”

I’m not ordering you, I’m warning you!

“Warning me against what?” he chuckled, convinced now that this was all a dream. He was probably conked out on his bed of clouds right now, safe and snug in his cumulo-nimbus home, floating just outside the south end of Ponyville. Perhaps he had fallen asleep reading one of the creepier Daring Danger novels? No, that couldn’t be right; Cloud Buster distinctly remembered finishing his last book a while ago—in all likelihood, he was snoring under the latest issue of Sports Weekly’s swimsuit edition. “Whatever it is, I can take it on!”

That’s just it... It’s the one thing you can’t take on…

...it’s you…

...or rather, who you’ll become…

“Huh?” Cloud Buster asked. “What are you—”

Too late!

The otherworldly roars and sinister cries were almost deafening now. If this wasn’t a dream, it was too late to run, not that the proud pegasus would have done so in real life anyway. Instead, he braced himself, planting his hooves firmly in the dirt and instinctively flaring his wings.

“Come on, then!” he roared right back at the oncoming monstrosity. “You want to do this the hard way? Then we’ll do this the hard way!”

The screams reached an overwhelming crescendo, and just like that, silenced instantly. The quiet proved to be more deafening than the sound had ever been. Cloud Buster looked around uncertainly.

“Is that it?” he laughed after a moment.

“...Is...that...it...?” echoed a voice.

“Who said that?” Buster demanded, his eyes narrowing as he crouched, ready to spring into an offensive maneuver.

“Who said...that?” the voice mimicked. Odd, it sounded vaguely familiar, yet so alien at the same time. It was almost as if it was his own voice, yet stretched and spoken at an incredible speed, like one of those high-pitched distorted sounds he sometimes heard on records. It was very scratchy, but definitely lighter than anything his deep vocal cords could ever manage. “Why are you copying me?”

“Why are—” Cloud cut himself off with a gasp. “How did you know I was—”

“—about to say that?” the scratchy voice interrupted. “Because I am you.”

Something was approaching through the darkness, emerging from the shadows of the dead, dark wood. It was an equine figure, but the further it stepped into the light and the more details it acquired, the more it became clear that it definitely wasn’t another Cloud Buster. In fact, it looked like anything but Cloud Buster.

Instead of a muscular stallion, this newcomer was a lithe mare. A vibrant, vivacious multicolored mane flowed down her neck and hung low over her magenta eyes. A similar explosion of color made up her tail, and a pair of sky-blue wings covered her curved form with the softest feathers Cloud had ever seen.

However, none of that was what drew Cloud’s attention the most. It was more surprising than finding that a mare, rather than a monster or some nightmare version of himself, had been chasing him. It was even more striking than her sultry beauty. What drew his attention the most was the look he saw in her eyes, that glare of determination…

It was the same look he saw whenever he looked in a mirror.

“Who are you?” Cloud asked, thoroughly confused. This wasn’t the first time he’d dreamt of mares, though those dreams usually involved the scenes in the magazine that was probably resting on his sleeping face back up in reality. Or, when he was particularly lucky, his mare-related dreams would drift to a certain creamy yellow, pink-maned childhood friend of his agreeing to be something more than just a friend. However, this dream was neither wet nor heartwarming. Instead, it was beginning to make him feel uneasy. He almost would have preferred to face a nightmare monster than see his very essence reflected back at him in the eyes of some alien mare.

“My name is your name,” she replied, her scratchy voice high and mocking.

“Your name is Cloud Buster?” he asked, suspicion riddling his voice. What was her game? What was this dream supposed to mean? Because whatever it meant, it was seriously starting to freak him out.

“No,” the mare chuckled, shaking her head and sending her colorful mane swishing back and forth. “My name is Rainbow Dash.”

“My name isn’t Rainbow Dash.” Cloud Buster crouched, still ready to pounce into an attack should she try anything tricky.

“It will be.” The mare laughed.

Quicker than Cloud Buster could react, the mare leapt at him like a streak of multicolored lightning. Buster braced for impact, but it was in vain. He felt an electric jolt as the thunderbolt zapped into his chest, wracking his entire frame with horrific pain. He screamed, his voice rising higher and higher, squeaking and scratching as he could never have managed. Finally, everything fell apart, shattering into darkness.

* * *

Cloud Buster awoke with a gasp, checking his hooves as cold sweat slid down his forehead. After a moment of staring at them, he put them down, shaking his head. What had he expected to find? They were the same thick hooves he’d always had, clad in a blue coat as dark as the sky before dusk.

Swinging his hind legs over the side of his cloud bed, Buster stretched his forelegs before falling forward and trotting shakily to the window.

What was that dream all about? he wondered to himself as he watched the first tendrils of dawn come shining over the horizon. Well, whatever it was, Cloud Buster he certainly didn’t feel like going back to sleep. Thankfully it wasn’t the middle of the night; he did begrudge getting up this early on his day off, but now at least nopony could blame him for sleeping in so late.

Trotting back over to his bed, Cloud used his wing to scoop up the issue of Sports Weekly that had indeed been open on his face, having fallen off in his startled awakening. Perhaps somepony in here had given him the idea for that mare in his dream? No, Buster didn’t even want to know. He could do without ever seeing that nightmare of a rainbow-maned menace ever again. The odd thing was that she hadn’t really done anything except zap him at the end, so why had she been so... unnerving?

The stallion shuddered, shoving the unpleasant memory to the back of his mind. He’d rather not think about that now—or ever, for that matter.

After giving a salute to his Wonderbolt poster, Buster retreated to the bathroom. He splashed some water on his face and fully shook the sleep from his sky-blue eyes, checking his square jaw for any signs of stubble. There was a bit, but not enough to bother with at the moment.

As quietly as he could, Cloud Buster trotted out into the hall, passing his little sister’s room. Peeking in through the cracked doorway, he saw Scootaloo still sleeping soundly, cozy in her cloud covers. A soft smile appeared on Buster’s face, and he silently moved on. He’d let her sleep in for now. Today was Saturday, and her day off as well, though she’d probably have some homework he’d have to help her with later. Cloud Buster would be the first to admit he wasn’t the best tutor, but even the horrors of math and science weren’t enough to prevent him from helping his sister.

Strolling into the kitchen, Cloud Buster beheld with a sigh all the empty cupboards. He’d intentionally left them open so he wouldn’t bother rummaging through them, searching for something to eat. He knew he should have gone shopping a while ago, but when was there time in a busy pegasus’s life for shopping? Well, there would be time today, he supposed, but he didn’t want to waste the whole day shopping. Perhaps just a quick trip to Sweet Apple Acres to pick up some breakfast for Scootaloo? He could always munch on a few of the delicious treats himself on the flight back home, of course, and then he would do some actual shopping later in the day.

He picked up his saddlebags and slipped them on. Trotting to the front of his modest yet beloved home in the sky, Cloud Buster threw open the cloud door and launched himself into the air. As he soared over the slowly waking Ponyville below, he remembered teaching Scootaloo how to fly, a nostalgic smile creeping onto his face once more. She’d had some trouble at first, but now she could give even the best fliers at her school a run for their bits. According to her, she still held the record for flying the highest out of all of her classmates, and she had brought home the teacher’s detention note she’d earned to prove it.

He’d never been more proud of her.

All across the town square below, ponies were slowly and often still drowsily shuffling out of their homes and setting up market stalls. Pleasant scents were wafting up from Sugar Cube Corner, where Ponyville’s own party pony Pinkie Pie was sure to be baking sweets. Maybe he could buy one as a special treat for Scootaloo on the way back home? Then again, it would involve dealing with Pinkie Pie, and Buster wasn’t so sure he was ready to listen to her incessantly random rambling this early in the morning.

He brushed his wispy cloud-white mane out of his eyes as he flew on and passed over the Ponyville library, wondering idly what crazy magical experiment Twilight Sparkle would be working on today. He’d even met her a few times, but they were acquaintances at best, as he really only knew her through Fluttershy. Who would have guessed that his childhood friend from Cloudsdale would wind up being friends with the Bearer of the Element of Magic, as well as being a Bearer of one of the Elements of Harmony herself? If anypony deserved to represent Kindness, though, Cloud Buster knew it was Fluttershy.

He felt butterflies flittering about in his stomach just thinking about her. How fitting that butterflies also graced her flank. He never would have told her that to her face, of course; she was much too sensitive for that. But maybe today was the day he should tell her something about how he’d been feeling about her lately... and maybe, just maybe, she’d reveal that she felt the same way.

Sweet Apple Acres finally came into view, and Cloud Buster glided down to the dirt pathway leading up to the barn and the Apple family farmhouse. Technically, apple business was conducted at the market in a few hours, after Big Macintosh had collected enough for Applejack to take to town.

However, Big Mac wouldn’t mind his unannounced visit. They went way back, after all. Not as far back as he and Fluttershy, but he’d been best buds with Big Mac practically since his first day in Ponyville, when they had hoof-wrestled and Cloud lasted longer against the crimson powerhouse than anypony who’d previously challenged him. Cloud wouldn’t give up until he’d bested Big Mac in something, though, and the friendly rivalry born that day had soon become a genuine friendship. Consequently, Buster spent almost as much time on the farm as any of the Apples, and he sometimes felt as if he was part of the family anyway.

“Hey, Big Mac!” Cloud Buster called after spotting the crimson stallion bucking an apple tree and nearly uprooting it. He galloped over to his friend, and they knocked hooves in greeting. “Good morning.”

“Eeyup." Big Macintosh may not say much, but he made up for that with his character. “You’re up early.”

“I had the weirdest dream,” Cloud Buster said as his friend began collecting the barrels which had caught the falling apples. Cloud pitched in and helped load them onto the waiting cart. “There was this crazy mare, and... I don’t even know how to describe it. I didn’t much feel like going back to sleep after that.”

“You, Cloud Buster, didn’t want ta’ go back ta’ sleep because of a dream about a mare?” Big Mac chuckled, trotting over to another tree. “Ah never thought Ah’d see the day.”

“It wasn’t like that!” Buster protested. “It was all... freaky. Definitely not a mare I’d want to meet in real life. And mind if I take a swing at this one?”

“Be mah guest.” Big Mac stepped away from the tree and gestured at it with a hoof.

Backing up to the tree, Cloud Buster gave it his best buck, his powerful hind legs sending a reverberation through the trunk. Scores of apples fell into the waiting barrels. Not all of them, as when Big Mac had done it, but more than half. Another buck and the tree was empty. He’d have to work on that, but there would probably be plenty of time to practice when the actual applebuck season came and he pitched in. After all, Big Mac had years of practice bucking trees while Cloud Buster spent his days busting clouds. Still, it was hard enough work in its own right; when on duty with the weather team, he had to fly all over town and buck storm clouds into nothing.

“Speakin’ of mares,” Big Mac said as they moved the barrels into the cart. “Have you worked up the nerve to talk ta’ Fluttershy yet?”

“I was thinking about doing that today, actually.” Cloud Buster gave a little gulp and tried not to look nervous.

“Glad ta’ hear it,” Big Mac replied with an encouraging smile. “It’s about time. You’ll do fine.”

“Thanks, bro,” Cloud Buster said. “Anyway, is it cool if I buy a few apples? I should probably be getting back home before Scootaloo wakes up.”

Big Mac nodded, and Buster slipped out a bit from his saddlebags with his wing, flipping it towards the other stallion. The workhorse caught it in his mouth, and Buster scooped a few apples from the cart into his bags.

“Hey, if you have some time after work today, we should hang out,” Cloud Buster said. “Maybe grab some cider down at Berry Punch’s place?”

“Sounds good,” Big Mac agreed. “I’ll see ya’ then. Maybe you could even bring Fluttershy?”

“Here’s to hoping.” Cloud Buster took wing, leaving his friend to his work.

Here’s to hoping I don’t chicken out asking her out again, he thought as he soared back over Ponyville. No, you’ve waited too long, Cloud Buster. You can do this, and you’re going to do it today.

While flying over Sugar Cube Corner for the second time, Buster gave into the alluring scents and descended to the town plaza. A few other shops and vendors’ stalls were already open by now, but only the Cake’s bakery actually had a line built up. Thankfully it wasn’t out the door this early in the morning, but it probably would be sometime today.

So how should I ask her? Buster thought to himself as he waited in line. Simply pop over there and say 'Hey, Fluttershy, I just thought I’d say hi, see how you were doing, and ask if maybe you wanted to, you know... go out sometime?'

He imagined her reaction to such a direct approach, and it didn’t end well. Perhaps he should ease into things far more subtly. He wanted to grow closer to her, after all. He didn’t want her timid nature to end up pushing him father away.

Maybe if I get her talking about animals for a while, she’ll open up more, and then when I finally do ease into the question she’ll say—

“Hiya, Cloud Buster! What’ll it be?”

“Huh?” Buster shook his head. He’d been so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t realize he’d reached the front of the line. Pinkie Pie was staring at him, her bright blue eyes almost unnerving in their piercing focus. “Oh, hey, Pinkie. I’ll just have a cinnamon swirl for Scootaloo, please. Actually, make it two; I’ll have one myself. they smell extra-good this morning.”

“Sure thing!” Pinkie bagged two of the sweet-smelling treats and handed the bag over. He passed over two bits, and was about to leave, when she asked, “Are you sure you don’t want something else? Because you know we do have just the most scrumdidlyumptious cupcakes in Ponyville and they’d make a great gift and if you want I can even do it up extra-special, maybe even with a sweetly-worded message, and I don’t know about you, but I think that would be just the perfect way to ask a certain special somepony, whose name starts with ‘F’ and ends with ‘-luttershy,’ if they want to be your special somepony, and—”

“Pinkie Pie!” Cloud gasped. “How do you know about that?! Did Big Mac tell you?”

“Don’t be silly, you silly!” Pinkie laughed. “I felt with my Pinkie-sense that something big and romantic was going to happen to you soon, and it’s not like you’re very good at hiding the blatantly obvious, even if Fluttershy is oblivious, or maybe she isn’t, maybe she’s just nervous about the whole thing and wants you to make the first move, but once you do I’m sure she’ll say—”

“That’s enough!” Cloud Buster stuffed the treat bag in his saddlebags and quickly trotted towards the door.

“The Pinkie-sense is never wrong! Good luck, casanova!”

If she knows, then who else knows?! Buster hastily exited the bakery and trotted towards home, as flying would’ve disturbed the pastries too much. His feelings for Fluttershy weren’t exactly something he wanted publicized, at least not until he had a chance to break the news to her himself, but if Pinkie was right, then what if Fluttershy already did know something was up? Would that make her more agreeable to his question, or harder to ask because of it?

“Cloud Buster!” a voice he didn’t recognize interrupted his thoughts. “Thank Celestia I found you. I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

He turned, seeing a unicorn mare come galloping over to him. He’d never seen her, though she clearly knew who he was, as relieved recognition shone in her eyes. But who was she? He would have remembered meeting somepony like her. She had nothing on Fluttershy, but she was gorgeous in her own right, with a gleaming off-white coat and a shock of electric-blue striped mane. Her cutie mark was a simple music note.

“Hello?” he said, trying not to let on that he didn’t recognize her. He’d been in situations like this; everypony had. However, that didn’t make it any less awkward trying not to be rude despite the fact that he had no recollection of her. “Um... how have you been?”

She skidded to a halt in front of him, all the relief draining from her eyes in an instant.

“You mean you really don’t know who I am?” she asked, distress rising in her voice.

“I didn’t say that!” Cloud waved his hoof defensively. “I mean, not off the top of my head, but I remember you... vaguely.”

“It’s me, Bass Blaster!” she asserted. “I’m your best friend! We’ve known each other ever since you moved to Ponyville! We saw each other just yesterday!”

“I... think you must have me mistaken for somepony else,” Buster said. “Sorry, miss.”

“Don’t call me ‘miss’!” she snarled, making him jump at her sudden flash of anger. “I’m a stallion!”

He begged to differ. She definitely looked like a mare, and pretty one at that.

“Are you alright?” he asked. “Maybe you’re confused.”

“I know what I look like right now, but you’ve got to believe me!” she insisted. “If I was lying, then how would I know that you used to sing Sapphire Shores songs to Scootaloo when she was afraid of the dark, even though you always thought they were too girly? Or how it’s your secret dream to get into the Wonderbolts despite thinking that you’re too slow and bulky to be accepted? Or how you’ve been in love with Fluttershy for nearly forever?!”

“Does the whole town know about that?!” Cloud Buster growled at the sky. “Is Pinkie blathering my private life to everypony she meets? Did she use her freaky ‘Pinkie-sense’ to tell you the rest of that stuff as well?”

“Surprise didn’t tell me anything!” The mare stepped forward and looked up at him. “I mean, Pinkie didn’t. Well, she used to be Surprise, but then she was changed too, but that’s beside the point. Please, Cloud, you have to help me! I don’t want to be stuck like this!”

“I’m sorry, whoever you are.” Buster sighed, giving up all pretense of trying to be polite. “But I’ve had enough of Pinkie’s craziness today, and craziness in general. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get home.”

“At least help me for the sake of helping yourself!” she shouted, her anger spiking again. “When They were doing this to me, I overheard Them talking about how They were going to change you next! You’re going to turn into a mare named Rainbow Dash, and pretty soon that’s how everypony will remember you!”

Cloud Buster had by now turned and poised himself to fly away, regardless of whether or not he was carrying delicate cargo. However, the mention of that name gave him pause. He shuddered as he remembered the pony from his nightmare. How in Equestria did this zany unicorn know about that? To be honest, he didn’t want to know.

Before she could say anything else, he launched himself into the air and sped back home, leaving the very distressed-looking mare watching him flying away.

“Scootaloo, I’m home!” Cloud announced as he soared back into his house, trying his best to shove the episode with Pinkie and the unicorn into the back of his mind with the nightmare. He trotted into the kitchen and plopped the apples and treat bag onto the table. “Scoots?”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” announced a young and slightly irritated voice from the hallway. The filly trotted into the kitchen wiping the sleep from her eyes, her magenta mane a tangled rat’s nest. She hopped up into her seat and smiled as she smelled the breakfast, taking a bite out of a particularly luscious-looking apple. “Thanks for breakfast. Can I go see if Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle can play afterwards?”

“Sure.” Buster snagged another apple for himself. “Just don’t forget to do your homework sometime today. I can help if you need me to.”

Scootaloo tapped her chin for a moment. “How about we make a deal? I’ll promise to do my homework all by myself—and I’ll work extra hard at it—if you promise to ask Fluttershy out today.”

Cloud Buster nearly choked on his apple.

“How do... Pinkie told you, didn’t she?” he spluttered.

Scootaloo nodded, smiling cheekily.

“I’m going to have to have a serious talk with that mare.” Cloud Buster sighed. “And you’ll be happy to know that I had already planned to do that today anyway. Ah, no take-backs on the deal! But just make sure you don’t forget to do your homework. You can always ask for help if you need it.”

“Thanks, big brother!” Scootaloo laughed.

After finishing breakfast, Scootaloo flew into town to seek out her friends. Cloud Buster, meanwhile, tried not to let his nerves get the best of him as he readied himself for a visit to Fluttershy’s. He showered, preened his feathers, and brushed his mane and tail. After putting on some cologne, he showered again to wash it off, deciding it was too much. The odd scent might scare her off, making her think it was too big of a deal. It was a big deal, at least to him, but he didn’t want the enormity of that to make Fluttershy nervous. Deciding he should simply settle on the casual approach, Buster dried off, combed his mane and tail again, and preened his wings once more.

Now or never. He flew out into the warm blue sky of late morning—only to fly back in to remedy the fact that he’d forgotten to brush his teeth. Finally convinced all was ready, he took the air once more.

The butterflies seemed to have multiplied in his stomach as he soared over town for the third time that day, and then beyond it, towards a lonely little cottage on the edge of the Everfree Forest. He gulped as he touched down outside Fluttershy’s door, hoping desperately that he wouldn’t fumble his words, or start sweating from nervousness, or—

Calm down, Cloud Buster, he commanded himself, taking a deep breath. Everything is going to be okay.

He knocked on the door.

After a few moments, hoofsteps approached from the other side, and the door opened.

“Oh, hello, Cloud Buster,” Fluttershy said, smiling in her small way, looking up at his taller form. “Please, come in. I was just about to feed Angel.”

“Thank you,” Cloud said, trotting in after her as she disappeared back into the cottage, trying his best to hold himself together. He was more nervous than he’d ever been in his life.

“So, what brings you here today?” she asked while lifting a bag of rabbit food and pouring it into the bowl next to Angel Bunny, who was impatiently tapping his foot as he watched it fill.

“I, uh... um...” Cloud Buster stammered. Then, unable to stop himself, he blurted, “Fluttershy, I’ve liked you ever since we both moved to Ponyville. I think you’re the kindest, most amazing pony I’ve ever met, and I was wondering if you might... want to... go out with me?”

The only sound that could be heard throughout the cottage was the pitter-patter of rabbit food falling into, overflowing, and forming a small mountain over Angel’s bowl. The bag fell from Fluttershy’s mouth as she raised her head, facing away from the other pegasus. Angel, meanwhile, bore a gigantic smile as he literally dove into the pile of rabbit food and promptly began stuffing his face.

Other than Angel’s chowing, the silence was deafening.

After what seemed like an eternity, Fluttershy turned back to face Cloud, peeking out from under her waterfall of a pink mane.

“Do you... really want to... go out with me?” she squeaked.

Terrified of what might come next, or rather, what might not, Cloud Buster nodded.

“I...” Buster almost fell forward as he leaned closer to hear. “I like you too. I was always too nervous to say anything. I thought you might not like me back.”

“How could I not like you?” Relief and elation lighting up Cloud Buster's eyes as he trotted over to Fluttershy and put a wing around her, pulling her close. She nuzzled against him, clearly nervous, but smiling all the same. He thought his heart might explode, and he nuzzled her back.

“But...” Fluttershy said hesitantly. Buster’s bliss almost broke. "Can we start small? I’m... I’m afraid I’m new at all this...”

Cloud Buster mentally released a heavy sigh of relief.

“Of course,” he answered. “Say, I was going to see Big Mac at Berry Punch’s this evening. Would you like to come? Maybe you could bring a friend too, if you want? An informal gathering?”

“That sounds lovely,” she said.

They stood there for a moment, simply enjoying each other’s presence. A loud belch interrupted the serenity, causing Fluttershy to gasp as she saw Angel Bunny sitting in his now empty bowl, stuffed with every last bit of rabbit food.

“Angel!” she scolded. “You know you’re not supposed to eat that much!”

She rushed out from Cloud’s wing and scooped up the now very pudgy rabbit, who belched again in her face, looking quite content.

“Don’t worry, Momma will make it all better." Turning to the rather dazed Buster, she said, “I’m so sorry, Cloud, but I need to take care of Angel or he’ll be terribly sick. He should be fine by this evening; can I meet you at Berry Punch’s at sunset?”

“That sounds great,” Buster said. “I mean, about meeting at sunset. Not about Angel’s, uh, condition. I’ll see you then!”

Fluttershy nodded and flew into the other room, whispering soothing things about medicine and Momma’s love to the bunny as she did so.

Cloud Buster quietly trotted to the door and let himself out. He looked up at the blazing golden sun, the bright blue sky, and the birds flitting between the trees and seeming to sing his victory anthem.

“Yes!” he cheered, zooming off into the sky. “She said yes!”

The sun warmed his wings, and the breeze ruffled his mane as he soared high up over the countryside separating Fluttershy’s cottage from Ponyville proper. His spirit soared as well, rapt with glee. He had done it. He had actually done it, and she had said "Yes."

At that moment, Cloud Buster was the happiest he’d ever been, and his life felt complete.

Fate, however, seemed to have an ironic sense of interpreting just how complete his life felt.

Cloud wasn’t paying attention, his eyes closed as he flew freely, simply enjoying the rush of the air. Thus, he didn’t see that air coalesce in front of him, thickening and shimmering like the air above hot pavement. However, this patch of space was just as high in the sky as Buster was, and it had appeared right in front of him.

He flew through it, and his body shimmered with the air. For just a moment, his heart skipped a beat. Though he later couldn’t find words to describe it, at that moment he felt as if he had been somehow pushed just a fraction out of sync with the rest of the universe, before reality readjusted itself. His wings faltered as images, sounds, and sensations rushed through his mind, and he fell a few feet before righting himself.

It had all happened so quickly that it took him a moment to sort through everything that had just been pushed into his head. It had mainly consisted of hushed whispers, and he had only been able to make some of them out.

Is he the one?

Yes.

Is now the time?

Yes.

And he shall be she?

Yes.

And she shall be Rainbow Dash?

Yes.

And she will have always been Rainbow Dash?

Yes.

Then it shall be so.

Cloud shook his head, trying to clear it from... whatever had just happened. What had just happened? He’d never heard whispers from the air. He’d never even heard of anything like it.

But, more importantly, there was that name again. Rainbow Dash. It seemed to be following him everywhere he went. What was going—

Cloud gasped as he fell sideways, his left wing suddenly unbalancing him. He turned to see why, having only ever had this problem once when his wings had begun molting at slightly different times, but he saw that he wasn’t losing feathers. Instead, his feathers appeared to be...no, that was impossible... they were shrinking.

His entire wing was following suit. His feathers slimmed down and shortened, as did the wingbone supporting them all, slightly pulling into his back. He began falling, flapping his wings desperately, but only managed to slow his descent into a slow spiral as his larger right wing struggled to compensate for its newly shrunken counterpart. Then his right wing began to shrink.

“What the—” Cloud Buster exclaimed, stopping when he heard a scratch in his voice as it jumped an octave. “What’s happening to me?”

His wings were both smaller now, and unable to support his bulky frame. He descended faster despite flapping harder than he ever had, though at least by this time he was low enough to land relatively safely, if ungracefully.

He brought a wing forward for inspection but had to pull it forward with his hooves, as they were no longer long enough to adequately present themselves to his front. That’s when he noticed that his hooves were shrinking as well. They constricted, pushing in on themselves, and his legs were following suit. His muscular mass simply faded in on itself, transforming into smaller, thinner, more wiry muscle.

Cloud’s body was now too large for his legs, which struggled to hold it up, before it too slimmed down and narrowed. He became almost skinny as what mass remained rearranged itself, moving to his hips, his bulkier body smoothing out and bending into a more curvaceous form.

Oh, no! Cloud thought frantically, not daring to speak again lest he hear how high his voice had become. I’m turning into—but that’s not possible! None of this is possible!

His body seemed to disagree.

Buster’s coat was already lightening, transitioning from a dark blue to a bright cyan. The cutie mark on his now noticeably fuller flank mutated as well, changing colors from a storm cloud with a thunderbolt to a white puffball with a multicolored streak striking out of it. His mane and tail were next, six colors racing along the wispy white hair from the roots until they reached the tips and then continued on further, his mane and tail growing out full and long.

This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, this can’t be happening! Cloud repeated endlessly in his mind as he watched the final changes, unable to do anything to stop them.

His thick neck had scrunched into something much thinner, and now his squarish snout was pulling in and shrinking, making his head almost spherical save for a short muzzle. He could no longer see his nose.

“This can't be happening!” Cloud Buster's eyes widening when he heard his fully changed voice. It was much, much higher, and positively riddled with scratches. That confirmed it. It was happening. He fell back onto his new rump, which now felt considerably more plush, as he stared at his smaller, sky-blue hooves.

He closed his eyes—hard—and opened them again, only to find that his hooves were still small and cyan. He did it again, with the same result. He began to hyperventilate, his tinier chest breathing in and out at an incredible pace.

If there were anymore changes, he didn’t experience them until after, because he fainted. When Cloud Buster he woke up, he wouldn’t be a ‘he’ anymore, and he definitely wouldn’t be Cloud Buster.

* * * * * * *

Author's Note

Many thanks to Chaotic Dreams for allowing me to continue this. Presented here is the original first chapter.

Some edits have been made to promote better grammar and consistency of storytelling, with Chaotic Dreams's permission.

Chapter 2 (Original)

“...Rainbow Dash...”

“Rainbow Dash...?”

“Rainbow Dash!”

“Wha—?” she gasped. She jerked awake and came face to face with Fluttershy. With her mind still fogged by the haze of unconsciousness she didn’t immediately register all that her senses, as well as her simple physiological sensations, were telling her. Even so, her face split into a relieved smile when she saw Fluttershy. “Oh, Fluttershy, I just had the weirdest dream—”

And then it hit her. Not him, but her.

The scratchiness in her high-pitched voice, the absent feeling left behind by her disappeared bulk, the new distribution of what bodily mass remained—it all came rushing back.

She stared down at her small, sky-blue hooves, and screamed in her high voice, wisps of rainbow mane falling over her eyes.

“Rainbow Dash, what’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked, watching the new mare with distress. “You’re awake now, the dream is over. You don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

“The dream is over?!” spluttered Cloud Buster—no, she wasn’t Cloud Buster anymore. As far as she could tell, she had the same thoughts, mind, and personality. Only her body was different. Well, almost only her body was different. She knew her name had once been Cloud Buster, but, try as she might, she just couldn’t force her thoughts to form into the knowledge that that was still her name. Now, her name was Rainbow Dash, whether she liked it or not. And she definitely didn’t. “What do you mean, ‘the dream is over’? This isn’t a dream, it’s a nightmare, and it’s just begun!”

Wait a minute, Rainbow Dash wondered, shuddering as she realized she was having to refer to herself as ‘Rainbow Dash’ in her own mind. Maybe this is all just a dream...just more of that same nightmare from earlier.

“I just have to wake myself up,” she murmured to herself. Wasn’t pain supposed to wake you up from dreams? She raised her hoof to her mouth and gave it a small nibble. “Ow!”

Rainbow Dash rubbed her sore hoof, the tiny bite already leaving a red mark.

“Rainbow, don’t bite yourself!” Fluttershy gasped. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not Rainbow Dash!” She turned to face Fluttershy again. “I’m C... I’m Clou-... I’m Cl-ou-d Bus-ter!”

Surprisingly enough, Rainbow had to catch her breath, having had to physically struggle to even say her old name.

“Oh, come on!” Rainbow groaned. “Even that unicorn got to say that her name used to be Bass Blaster! Wait, the unicorn! She knew this would happen! I’ve got to find her!”

Rainbow prepared to launch herself into the air, but a tug on her wing held her back, sending her plopping onto the ground again.

“Rainbow, where are you going?” Fluttershy asked, her concern only having grown, after she spat out the blue wing. “We’re supposed to go meet Big Macintosh at Berry Punch’s, remember? I thought I would meet you there... why were you sleeping out here on the ground?”

What? Rainbow looked up at the sky to see the sun low in the horizon. How long have I been out?

More importantly, though, how could Fluttershy not remember that my name used to be Cloud Buster, but still remember our date? Wait, how am I supposed to date Fluttershy in this body in the first place? She didn’t think Fluttershy was into that sort of thing, and Rainbow definitely would rather date Fluttershy as the male Cloud Buster, not as the female Rainbow Dash. And furthermore, did she even... no, no, that couldn’t be... could it?

“Hey, Fluttershy, uh... look, there’s a cute bunny over there!” Rainbow said, pointing a slender foreleg. Fluttershy expectantly turned to look, and Rainbow risked a glance at her flank. She stared at it intently, breaking contact only when Fluttershy began to turn back around.

She couldn’t believe it. As hard as she’d tried—she’d never even had to try until now, it just happened naturally—she hadn’t felt anything when she saw Fluttershy’s rear. No attraction whatsoever.

“I didn’t see any cute bunny,” Fluttershy said. “But please, Rainbow, tell me why you’re acting like this. You’re starting to scare me.”

How do you think I feel? More important than just feeling attracted to Fluttershy, though, was whether she remembered anything about Cloud Buster at all.

“I’m not Rainbow Dash!” she repeated, preparing herself to force the next words out if necessary. “My name is... Cloud... Buster! Please, tell me you remember me! We’ve been friends ever since Flight Camp back in Cloudsdale! I was at your cottage this morning! I... I even... asked you out...”

Fluttershy simply stared at Rainbow, her head tilted.

“Are you okay, Rainbow?” she asked again. “I think you’re confused... that must have been a scary dream you had, but don’t worry, it’s alright now.”

Rainbow finally had to concede that she wasn’t getting anywhere with this line of action. What had I been expecting, really? The unicorn had known this would happen, presumably because, as she claimed, something similar had happened to her, and Rainbow hadn’t believed her back when she had still been Cloud Buster. Why then would Fluttershy believe her if she tried the exact same approach that the unicorn had used?

But if Fluttershy didn’t remember any Cloud Buster, then what, and who, did she remember? Who exactly was Rainbow Dash?

“What do you remember happening today?” Rainbow asked, dreading what she might hear. “Did I really not ask you out?”

“You came over a little while ago, and you asked me if I wanted to come with you to meet Big Macintosh at Berry Punch’s,” Fluttershy responded, her voice still laced with worry. Rainbow was beginning to have a cruelly ironic sense of déjà vu mixed with empathy for the unicorn. “You didn’t ask anypony out.”

The world seemed to darken. She hadn’t asked anypony out. She—he, whomever—had finally, finally worked up the courage to ask Fluttershy out, and not only had she become a mare, Fluttershy didn’t even remember anything about when she was Cloud Buster! What else had changed? Hanging out with Big Macintosh still seems to be on, and Fluttershy's coming. In a twisted sort of way, those plans were still mostly the same. But what if there was more to what had happened to Rainbow than just becoming Rainbow and a change in her relationship with Fluttershy?

Rainbow needed to find out. However, she really needed to find out if this was permanent. Horseapples, it doesn’t even matter if this is permanent. I'm going to find out what's going on and I'm going to reverse it—or die trying. I did not just become committed to the most amazing pony in Equestria to have it all ripped away from me. I'm going to find whoever or whatever is doing this, and, whoever 'They' are, I'm going to make them set things right.

But maybe—hopefully—the changes weren’t as extensive as she feared. If the meeting with Big Mac was still on, then maybe it was only Fluttershy who didn’t remember who Cloud Buster was. It would be hard to convince her best friend that she had inexplicably turned into a mare, but, as long as he remembered the stallion she once was, it was well worth a try.

“Are you feeling well enough to go to Berry Punch’s place?” Fluttershy asked. “Maybe it would be best if you got some rest at home...”

“I... I’m sorry for, uh, confusing you like that,” Rainbow apologized. If Fluttershy only remembered her as Rainbow Dash, then for now she’d have to play the part. She wouldn’t get anywhere if she kept insisting on being somepony who Fluttershy didn’t remember had ever existed. To her, Cloud Buster wasn’t even a memory. it was a dark and scary thought. More than that, it was saddening—Rainbow’s old identity was essentially more than dead in Fluttershy’s mind.

Fluttershy, her oldest friend, didn’t even remember a thing about who Rainbow really was... it was enough to make the new mare’s eyes water. She couldn’t give in to that feeling, though, not now. She wasn’t willing to accept total defeat and surrender her old identity that easily. If everything played out well, then this would prove to be nothing more than a bad memory. Maybe she’d even get lucky and this part of her life would be erased just as much as her life as Cloud Buster now was in Fluttershy’s eyes. Yeah, that would be it... no pony would even remember this. Rainbow Dash would be Cloud Buster again, and everything would be alright. This would all be nothing more than an unfortunate hiccup in reality, a forgotten typo on the pages of eternity.

Everything would go back to the way it was. She had to keep telling herself that, had to believe it was true.

Because if it didn’t... no, I'm not going to think about that.

“I must have still been dreaming a little when you woke me up.” Rainbow tried to laugh sheepishly and ease the tension. “I remember now. My head must just been all muddled from the nightmare.”

“Okay...” Fluttershy said. “If you’re sure you’re alright...”

Rainbow nodded, and Fluttershy began trotting towards town, Rainbow following suit beside her. She would have preferred to fly, but she didn’t quite trust these new hooves yet, much less her new wings. The worst she could do with unfamiliar hooves was stumble. With unfamiliar wings, it could be a long way down.

The sun was just setting when they arrive at Ponyville’s central plaza. What ponies were left milling about were either making their way home, packing up their stalls, or heading to the same place the two pegasi were now seeking.

As Rainbow looked around at the passing ponies, she felt a new kind of discomfort, something that had never been an issue when she had been a towering stallion.

She felt small.

Most of the stallions trotting about, and even some of the other mares, were considerably taller than she now was. They also had more substance on them, easily outweighing her. As a stallion, Rainbow had usually never even bothered to think about what would happen if she accidentally ran into somepony, or somepony stepped on her hoof, or if she somehow became involved in a fight. When one of these things happened, she would have been able to shrug it off without a scratch. Now, she feared she might be knocked to the ground just by accidentally bumping into one of the burlier ponies.

Thankfully, the crowd was thin enough so that Rainbow didn’t have to confirm this fear, and she and Fluttershy reached Berry Punch’s place without incident.

The crowded, dimly-lit, smoky atmosphere of the bar was a welcome sight. All throughout the establishment, ponies were drinking merrily, laughing at embarrassing stories about one another, and generally having a good time.

At least this place hasn’t changed, Rainbow thought to herself with a small smile. Hopefully Big Mac hasn’t changed either, and he’ll be able to help me figure out what’s going on.

Spotting Big Mac in a booth, Rainbow’s smile grew wider as he waved at them. She rushed over, Fluttershy trotting close behind. To Rainbow's surprise, Big Mac’s eyes glinted with recognition when he saw her.

Oh, no, Rainbow thought. He remembers this version of me!

If that was true, then Cloud Buster had never existed to him either. But he at least still knew who she was, and that meant that perhaps there was something worth salvaging—perhaps something to get him to believe her true past, or at least get him to help her get back to normal.

Adding to the strangeness, Big Mac actually got up from the booth to greet them, something he had never done when she was a stallion. It’s not like they hadn’t been friendly when greeting each other before all this, but they had always greeted each other casually. Before, she would have simply slid into the seat opposite Big Mac and they would have knocked hooves in greeting.

So what was with this standing up? Uncertain, but still happy to see her best friend all the same, she raised her hoof, prepared to knock his in their traditional greeting. Strangely enough, he actually looked surprised this time, glancing at her hoof uncertainly before returning the gesture. Had he been expecting something else? Were they supposed to hug or something, like she sometimes saw friends do when both were mares? But he's a stallion, and even if I'm a mare now, stallions don't just hug their friends in greeting even if the friend is a mare...right?

This was all very confusing, not knowing what had changed and what hadn’t, and what all the conventions were in this new body.

Putting her hoof back down and leaving Big Mac still looking like he had been expecting something more, Rainbow turned to slide into the opposite seat in the booth. However, Fluttershy had already done so, and she was sitting on the end, leaving a whole unoccupied space to her right. Seeing Rainbow’s confused expression, she smiled sweetly and ever so slightly nodded her head back towards Big Mac.

Thoroughly uncertain of what was going on now, Rainbow turned to see the red workhorse standing to the side, leaving her space to slide into the seat on his side of the booth. Still uncertain, but at least understanding that she was expected to sit there, Rainbow slid into the far side of the seat, followed by Big Macintosh.

He seemed to be sitting awfully close to her. She could even feel the heat radiating from his body.

It's almost as if... wait...

Rainbow’s eyes widened.

She was still set to meet with Big Macintosh, but she hadn’t asked anypony out today.

That couldn’t mean... could it...?

“What’ll it be?” inquired a familiar voice, and Dash looked up to see the deep violet form of Berry Punch, waiting with a notepad. Her face split into a smile when she saw Rainbow. “Well, hello Miss Dash! I didn’t see you back there. And I see you and the big apple himself are sharing a booth at last. Did he finally work up the courage?”

Rainbow said nothing, a look of horror freezing on her features.

“Eeyup,” Big Mac replied sheepishly after a moment, when it became clear that Rainbow wasn’t going to answer. It was hard to tell due to his natural hue, but if she looked hard enough, Dash could see he was blushing.

“Good for you, big fella.” Berry Punch laughed. “It was about time. And good for you too, Rainbow. You two make such a cute couple.”

“Cute...couple...?” Rainbow muttered, her blood turning to ice.

I haven’t asked anypony out today. I had been the one asked out!

“I-I... uh... I have to get out of here!” Rainbow blurted before climbing frantically onto the table and leaping into the air, flying like a shot towards the front door.

“Rainbow, wait!” Fluttershy cried after her, but Dash didn’t care. She was not dating her best friend, no matter how much reality had changed! Whoever had done all this hadn’t just cursed her with a different body and erased her past identity from existence, they were trying to control her future as well! She was not about to accept that.

Dash bolted through the front doors, knocking over some ponies who were about to enter in the process—she could still be forceful in this form if she had to be. Soaring up into the sky, Rainbow zoomed as quick as she could in the direction of home—or. at least, where she hoped her home would still be.

The wind screamed as it rushed past her, her mane flying back from the force of the wind, a rainbow streak stretching out behind her. She had never felt this fast as a stallion—she had always had strength, not speed—but right now that was the last thing on her mind. All she cared about was getting as far away from Big Mac as possible.

How could they do this?! she thought furiously. How could they ruin my life like this, and then just expect me to go along with it? How could they rip me away from somepony I was head-over-hooves for and try to force me into the forelegs of somepony else? A stallion no less, and I’m supposed to be a stallion!

She wouldn’t stand for it, but if she had any hope of setting things right, then she knew she had to find that unicorn from earlier. Hopefully she would know something about how to reset things. If she didn’t, Dash didn’t know what she would do. But I'll do something! I'll go to the princesses themselves if I have to!

For now, though, the unicorn would be impossible to find. Rainbow would have to wait until morning, when ponies were out and about. She wouldn’t get anywhere by going door to door, just hoping she’d find the right pony.

As much as she hated to admit it, Rainbow would have to spend the night in this body. At least when she was asleep, if she could ever manage to get to sleep after everything that had happened, she wouldn’t have to think about the nightmare her reality had become—at least, she hoped she wouldn’t.

As she usually did this late at night, Rainbow skipped the front door and flew into her room’s open window. She didn’t want to wake up Scootaloo, who should by now be fast asleep in her own room. Rainbow wanted to avoid confronting her little sister in this form and having to explain it as long as possible. She’d feel bad about having been absent in case Scootaloo had needed any help with her homework, but right now, existential crisis trumped schoolwork.

Then again, Scootaloo probably only remembered her as Rainbow as well. Her own sister most likely didn’t remember anything about who she truly was. Now that was a stab in the heart. If there was ever a motivation to set things right, that was it.

Sighing in near defeat, Dash flopped down on her cloud bed, exhausted from the events of the day. There, she glimpsed the upside-down image of something that, thankfully, hadn’t seemed to change. Her Wonderbolts poster was still there. She gave a small smile and saluted before drifting off into a fitful sleep.

* * *

As Cloud Buster, Rainbow Dash had never entered a dream knowing right away that she was dreaming. If she figured it out at all, it took a while. This time, though, it seemed that somepony had done the figuring out for her.

"THIS IS A DREAM," proclaimed a giant sign in glowing neon letters. And, apart from the sign and the small patch of grassy ground it illuminated, there didn’t seem to be much more to this dreamscape. Darkness encapsulated all else—if there even was anything else at all. The sky and the ground all blended into one big blackness, not even leaving a horizon. There was no sun, no moon, not even any stars. Just a dark nothingness.

“Hello, Cloud Buster,” announced a soft yet slightly scratchy voice, one not so different from the one Rainbow now bore.

Speaking of which, if this is a dream…

She looked down, only to see her small cyan frame where her stallion's body should have been. It seemed that even in sleep she couldn’t escape this body.

Darn it. She sighed and turned to look in the direction the voice had come from. Out of the darkness, a shape was emerging. Thankfully, though, it wasn’t a doppelganger of the dream that had introduced Rainbow Dash and pushed him off his comfortable perch into this new reality.

The newcomer did rather look like Rainbow Dash, but only in height and build, as well as in her possession of wings. Her coat was a hot pink, and her mane and tail were a bold blue, though they were cut in the same way Rainbow’s were. Her eyes were a much lighter blue, almost the same hue as Cloud Buster's.

“You said ‘Cloud Buster,'” Rainbow pointed out to the figment, wondering what her subconscious was trying to tell her through this phantasm. Perhaps this was somehow real, as the dream where she first got a glimpse of her new body had been? But then, how would I know?

Wait a minute... that voice! It was the same that had warned her to run from “Them!”

“Who are you?” Dash asked, her attention rapt on the other pegasus.

“Technically, I’m no pony,” the pink mare said, “but before They deleted me, I was Firefly.”

“Firefly?” Rainbow echoed. “And who’s ‘they’?”

“They are Them,” she answered. Oh, thanks, that cleared it right up.. “They don’t have any other name than ‘Them.’ I don’t know where They come from, but I do know that They change things, only They change everypony’s memories too so that everypony thinks that the changes are the way things have always been.”

“Then how come I remember being Cloud Buster?” Dash asked, relieved to find that she could say her old name without any trouble in a dream.

“Because sometimes They make mistakes,” Firefly replied. “That’s how I found out about Them. They were trying to change something about me, but They messed up everything, so nothing changed at all. From then on, though, I could see whenever They tried to change things, and I tried to stop them. I tried to get everypony to remember the way things were before the changes, and it started messing up Their plans, so They deleted me. That’s why I can only interact with you when you’re asleep.”

“How do you delete somepony?” Rainbow wondered, horror creeping into her tone. Dash’s past identity might not exist anymore, but she herself still existed. However, Rainbow had no recollections of anypony named Firefly, and how gone from the world must this other pegasus be if she had to appear in somepony’s dreams rather than meet them in the waking world?

“They pushed me out of the natural flow of the universe,” Firefly explained, sitting down and staring at the grass. Dash sat across from her, and was reminded once again of her new gender by the still-unfamiliar plushness of her rear. “They can’t get rid of me entirely, but from here I can only interact with reality in limited ways, like through this dream. They’ll reintegrate me into reality if I want, but only if I agree to accept Their changes and have my memory wiped. That’s the catch to their power: if you realize They’re there, you can resist Them.”

“That’s terrible,” Dash said. “I’m so sorry... but there has to be a way to stop Them, right?”

“Thank you for your concern.” Firefly smiled slightly. “I’m not giving up yet, but I’m afraid that I can’t stay outside of reality forever. Sooner or later I might just give in, or else go mad from an eternity in nothingness. However, there is something you can do to fight Them, and even to help me. I can’t do anything against Them from where I am, but if you can find a way into Their otherworld, you have a chance at stopping Them. They change reality by writing in some kind of special book, and if you change that book, They’ll have to change reality to match it. You can go back to being Cloud Buster, and I can be real again.”

“Perfect!” Rainbow cheered. “Where is Their otherworld? I’ll go there right now! But, wait... what if They just delete me too before I can get there?”

“Thankfully, They can only delete one pony at a time,” Firefly told her. “If They get rid of more than a hoofful of ponies, They’ll throw reality out of order, and order is all They’re after. They’re trying to make the world perfectly orderly, no matter what They have to change to do so, and They’re always slowly making progress towards that goal. If you keep Them from noticing that you’ve not accepted your place, you… might be able to escape that fate

“As for where the otherworld is, I’m afraid I don’t know,” Firefly lamented. “I learned all I know about Them from overhearing Their whispering voices whenever They changed something, but I was never actually able to find the entrance to the otherworld. I do know, though, that though it is well hidden, They can’t close it or move it. All you have to do is find it, and if you get to the otherworld, They won’t be able to change you while you’re there. You just have to make sure They don’t catch onto the fact that you’re looking for the entrance, or They’ll try and change things to stop you. Now that you know They exist, They can’t change your mind against your will, but They can influence it and everything around it.”

“That sounds... incredibly hard.” Rainbow gulped. “How in Equestria am I supposed to find a secret door without letting Them know I’m looking for it?”

“I’m afraid I can’t answer that.” Firefly shook her head. “That’s exactly what I tried to do. I failed and ended up here.”

Rainbow gulped again. This is sounding more like an unfair fight every moment I listen.

“Do you know why They changed me?” Dash asked after a moment. “How would turning me into a mare make Equestria more orderly?”

“That’s something I have to apologize to you about.” Firefly grimaced. “They changed you to turn you into a replacement for me. Because I wouldn’t stop messing with Their plans, They deleted me, and had to fill the spot. You were deemed a worthy replacement because we were close in personality, and They can’t change a mare's—I mean, a pony's personality.”

“You mean—” Rainbow gasped, shock and anger bubbling behind her eyes. “This is all your fault?! What makes you so important that They had to erase my old life just to make me the new you?!”

“I was the Element of Loyalty. Now? You are.”

* * *

Rainbow stared at the ceiling for a while after waking. She couldn’t exactly blame Firefly for what had happened, though she was still directly tied to causing Dash’s transformation into who she now was. Firefly had only been trying to stop Them from messing up other ponies’ lives, and Dash knew she would certainly have done the same thing. But, still... if it hadn’t been for Firefly…

No, Rainbow told herself. It wasn’t her fault. It was Their fault. Just remember that; Firefly’s life has been messed up far more than yours has.

Rainbow stretched and rose from her bed, glancing out the window at the rising sun. She was beginning to make a habit of getting up this early, it seemed. As Cloud Buster, she had usually stayed up until late into the night, which necessitated sleeping in until late into the morning. She hadn’t needed to sleep late this morning because she’d gone to bed practically right after sunset. After…

...after my date with Big Macintosh.

No! I am not going out with my best friend!

Shaking her head to clear the thoughts, Rainbow slipped out of bed and trotted down the hall, turning to take a peek in Scootaloo’s room to see if she was still asleep.

Instead of Scootaloo’s door, though, her eyes met nothing but wall.

Panic filled her heart.

No, no, no... Rainbow stuck her head all the way through the cloud, but met with nothing but the outside world. Scootaloo’s room just wasn’t there anymore. No, no, no!

“Scootaloo!” Rainbow cried. “Where are you?”

Where did They take her? Where is my little sister?

“Scootaloo?” echoed a confused, and rather annoyed, country twang from down below. Rainbow looked down, only to see Big Mac’s sister staring angrily up at her. She had known Applejack well as Cloud Buster, just as she had known the whole Apple family. Spending so much time at Sweet Apple Acres hanging out with Big Mac had seen to that. However, Rainbow had never seen Applejack look quite so heated. “Why in tarnation would ya be lookin’ for her? Ya know she was sleepin’ over with Apple Bloom last night!”

“You mean she’s okay?” Dash breathed a sigh of monumental relief. Scootaloo was all right. But, if Scootaloo’s room is gone from the house, then where did she live? Never mind; I'll find that out from Scootaloo herself once I picked her up. “Thanks for, uh, reminding me, Applejack! I’ll head over to the farm and pick her up right away!”

“Now wait just a minute!” Applejack snarled. “I didn’t come all the way over here just so you could fly away!”

“Why are you here, anyway?” Rainbow asked, though she already had a fairly good inkling of what Applejack was after. Dread welled up in her stomach.

“You know plum-well why, Rainbow Dash!” Applejack snapped, stamping a hoof. Rainbow winced as she heard her full new name. “Now get down here! Ah got somethin’ to tell you’ and Ah ain’t leavin’ until you’ve heard it!”

Rainbow reluctantly nodded and stepped fully out of the cloud wall, hovering while she patched the hole back up and then slowly descended, light as a feather on a breeze.

“I know what you’re going to say, and I just want you to know that—”

“Then you’re gonna know it twice as well!” Applejack interrupted. “Big Macintosh has had eyes for ya’ ever since ya’ moved to Ponyville, and everypony knew it, even if he didn’t say nothin’ about it. Ah know that you knew it too, ‘cause Ah’m the one who told you! You know how gentle he is under all that muscle, and ya know how hard it was for him to finally ask ya out. So why in tarnation did you say yes ta him if you were just gonna bolt on your very first date? And don’t try and tell me ya didn’t, ‘cause Fluttershy told me herself. Not that I needed her to when Big Mac came home in such a state last night. He’s heartbroken like I ain’t never seen, and it’s all thanks to you!”

Rainbow looked incredibly uncomfortable, taking refuge in the silence after the outburst until Applejack snapped, “Well? what do ya have to say for yourself?”

As much as Rainbow wanted it to all be lies, Applejack was right, if only partially. In this version of reality, everypony involved must remember that Big Macintosh had asked her out, and she had said yes. The fact that that was all Their doing and had nothing to do with Rainbow herself didn’t prevent everypony thinking it was all her fault for not going along with it, as she knew no pony in a million years would believe some freaky beings messing with reality were behind all this. Dash knew that she certainly wouldn’t have believed such an explanation if Fluttershy had bolted on their first date—if they had ever had the chance to have it. Rainbow knew that if that had happened, she would have felt betrayed and hurt beyond belief.

If Big Mac now felt the way about her that she had felt about Fluttershy, then he really would be heartbroken at such a feeling of betrayal. It wasn’t Rainbow’s fault for not wanting to go along with this, but that didn’t mean she should have bolted without an explanation as she did. That didn’t give her the right to make Big Mac feel the way he did now.

“...I’m sorry.” Rainbow lowered her head. “I shouldn’t have ran out on him, and I know that. I can’t explain why I did it... you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. But that still doesn’t mean what I did was right. If he’ll let me talk to him after what happened, I’d like to apologize to him in person.”

“You’re darn right it wasn’t right what you did!” Applejack agreed. “And you’re gonna’ apologize to him, alright. We’re marchin’ over to Sweet Apple Acres right now, and you’re gonna make sure you try your best to make things right!”

Rainbow nodded, and Applejack turned and set off at a brisk trot towards down, smacking Dash with her tail as she passed. Rainbow glared after her for a moment, but she couldn’t blame Applejack anymore than she could blame Firefly. It wasn’t anypony’s fault but Theirs.

That didn’t exactly make it easier to bear, though. What could she say that would make it right? She wasn’t sure she could make it right. She knew she couldn’t go with the truth; no pony would believe that. She had proof of that in herself: when she’d still been Cloud Buster, she hadn’t believed Bass Blaster. But, if Rainbow couldn’t tell Big Mac the truth, then what could she tell him that would make any sense? "I’m so sorry that I agreed to go out with you and then snubbed you, but for reasons I can’t explain I suddenly have no interest in you whatsoever other than being best bros, even though that doesn’t make sense since I’m a mare, and in fact the very thought of being with you disgusts who I really am?"

The sooner Rainbow found that entrance into Their otherworld and set things right, the better. First Big Mac, then checking on Scootaloo to find out where in Equestria her little sister was supposed to live if not with her, and then look for the secret doorway.

Rainbow sighed. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

Sweet Apple Acres became visible after a few minutes of walking in a deep, awkward silent. Rainbow quietly marveled that, if she had flown, she would have been there in no time flat with her new speed. It was a little heady to think about, especially when she didn’t even know how fast she could go with this new form. However, she really didn’t feel like flying right now, and she doubted Applejack would have allowed for it anyway.

“He’s in the barn, looking at his favorite picture of Mom and Dad,” Applejack said. “He always goes there when he’s upset. Now you march your little blue butt up there and don’t come out until you’ve both made peace!”

Rainbow nodded—even if her "blue butt" didn’t feel all that little, at least to her mind—and silently complied, trotting briskly up to the barn. Dash could feel Applejack's eyes burning holes in the back of her mane the whole way until she finally slipped inside the barn and carefully closed the door behind her.

“Big Mac?” she called out, hating just how high her voice sounded now more than when she had first heard it. Did stallions like mares with voices like hers? Big Mac must have. Come to think of it, what did he like about her? It was the creepiest train of thought to have ever crossed her mind, but once it started, she couldn’t derail it. Did he like her multicolored mane? Her magenta eyes? Her curvaceous form? Her plush rear? The creepier question was what he liked about her personality, which was the same one she’d had as a stallion. Was the same thing that had made them best friends before what made him attracted to her now? She shuddered, trying her best not to think on it further. “You in here?”

“Ah know AJ put ya’ up to this,” the crimson workhorse’s voice called from behind some hay bales. The hurt he must be feeling was like a sword cutting through every word. “You don’t have to apologize. You can go, if you like.”

“I... don’t want to go,” Rainbow made herself say, though she would have leapt at the opportunity to flee if she didn’t understand the hurt he must be going through. She wouldn’t have wished that kind of inner pain on anypony. He definitely wasn’t going to make his best friend suffer through it, especially on his account, even if Big Mac didn’t remember her as his best friend. “I want to make things right, and I really do want to say I’m sorry for leaving like that last night.”

He didn’t reply, and she trotted over to where his voice had been coming from. Dash found him sitting down on the floor, staring up at a faded photograph of two ponies she had never seen. Even as Cloud Buster, Big Mac had never shown her a picture of his parents. As a stallion, she had known that Big Mac didn’t want to talk about his parents as he never brought them up, and so she never had either. Now, though, she was peering into something that was immensely special and private, and she felt like she was intruding on sacred ground.

They looked a lot like Big Macintosh and Applejack, honestly. The colors were hard to discern due to the faded image, but the familiar builds and telltale freckles were unmistakable.

If it were any other stallion, Rainbow would have felt nervous for her safety right now. She was so small compared to his hulking, muscular form, but she knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t harm a parasprite. She only wished that he was just as thick-skinned as he looked, though; his gentility came with a sensitive heart. A heart that I had broken.

“Big Mac...” she began, wondering how in the world she was going to make this right. “I know that I agreed to go out with you, and I can’t really explain why, but I... I just can’t anymore. I really am sorry, and I wish there was something I could do, but... oh, you have no idea how hard this is.”

“Ah believe Ah have a good idea,” he snorted.

“You’re right.” Rainbow sighed. “You’re totally right. What I did was wrong, and I know it. I also know that I don’t deserve your forgiveness, not that I've given you any reason to want to give it in the first place—”

“How could Ah not forgive you?” Big Mac sniffed, turning to look at her. “You’re the most amazing pony Ah’ve ever met. In fact, Ah already forgave you hours ago. Ah figured you had your reasons. Ah thought that somethin’ was wrong with me.”

“What?” Rainbow gasped. He was blaming this all on himself? “But you didn’t do anything wrong! It was all my fault. Big Mac, there’s nothing wrong with you, and any mare would be lucky to have you, but...”

“But it can’t be you?” the red stallion finished with a sigh. She nodded, smiling regretfully. “And you really can’t explain why?”

“I want to, believe me, I do!” Rainbow asserted. “It’s just that... well, I don’t think you’d believe me. I know I wouldn’t believe it if anypony tried to explain this to me. But even if we can’t be... each other’s special someponies... I want you to know that I've always thought of you as my best, er, one of my best friends. You’re an amazing guy, you’re kind, you’re gentle, you’re honest, and you never give up on doing what you think is right. If any other mare can’t see that, then it’s her loss.”

“Thank you, Rainbow.” Big Mac sighed again. She could see tears in his eyes. “But Ah’ve never met anypony who can even compare to you. Everypony else just falls short. It’s not just that you’re the most beautiful pony Ah’ve ever seen, it’s that you’re loyal, you have such spirit, such big dreams, and you never quit on them or ponies you care about. But if you don’t want to be with me, even if you can’t explain why, Ah’m sure you have your reasons. Ah trust you, Rainbow Dash, even if sometimes Ah don’t know why.”

He hung his head, and a single tear dropped to the ground.

This isn’t setting things right! Rainbow lamented in her head. If anything, it’s making them worse!

“Hey, it’ll be alright,” Dash promised lamely, moving to his side and patting his back.

She hadn’t been this close to him since last night, though at least now she didn’t have to worry about the unfortunate implications of their proximity. Still, she could feel the warmth radiating off of him. Had they been this close when he had asked her out? How had that gone, exactly? Had it been like when she, as Cloud Buster, had asked Fluttershy out?

Had they gotten even closer than this? Had they leaned against each other, touching sides? Had Big Mac put an affectionate foreleg around her withers, drawing her to him? Have I... have I nuzzled under his neck, and he nuzzled me back?

Rainbow was pulled out of her thoughts by two realizations. The first was that she had begun to feel pleasantly warm. Almost as if... no, it can’t be! But... but... No matter how she protested, it was there, all the same. She felt the way she had felt when, as a stallion, she had looked at Fluttershy, only this time it was different. No less pleasant, but definitely different. What was causing this? Was it the thought of having... cuddled with Big Mac? Why do I... why do I like it? I'm a stallion at heart, not a mare!

Her current body seemed to disagree, and it was tickling her mind with its unwanted yet still pleasant notions.

The second realization that had pulled Dash out of her thoughts, though, was the look Big Mac was giving her. It was a look of thorough confusion, but a hidden happiness lurked just beneath the surface, despite the fact that he obviously had no idea why he should be happy.

And why should he be happy? I broke his heart, failed at setting things right, and now…

Now she was no longer patting him supportively on the back. Instead, during her imagining of what it would be like to get even closer to the strong stallion, she had, without even realizing it, switched to rubbing his back muscles.

And no matter how much it freaked her out, no matter how much she didn’t want it to, she was enjoying it. And he was too.

* * * * * * *

Author's Note

Second chapter of Chaotic Dream's portion of Them.

Some edits have been made to promote better grammar and consistency of storytelling, with Chaotic Dreams's permission.

Chapter 3 (Original)

Rainbow Dash didn’t think she could have taken her hoof off of Big Mac’s back any faster if she had tried. Not that she planned on ever trying to, because she never planned on touching Big Mac at all ever again, not after this terrifying revelation.

“I’m... uh... sorry about that." At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to bolt from Big Macintosh's presence, but she had come here to set things right, not to reenact the same mistake all over again. As much as she hated to admit it, she would have to stay until she knew her friend was alright.

And a friend is all he’ll ever be!

“Like Ah said before,” he murmured. “Ya don’t need ta apologize.”

“I do, though.” Rainbow shook her head. “I just want you to know that, even though I can’t go out with you, I’ve always thought of you as a great friend. I know this is the cheesiest thing a mare ever says to a stallion in situations like this, but I really do hope we can still be friends.”

“Of course.” Big Mac nodded. “I’d rather have you as a friend than nothin’ at all.”

“So... are we good?” Dash did not want her best friend to feel this way because of her, but she also didn’t want to have to stay this close to him longer than necessary. As pleasant as it was being near him, it was a pleasantness she definitely hoped to never feel again. Even if it was nice…

No! Don’t think like that! she thought frantically. Remember who you were—who you are!

“We’re as good as we’ll ever be.” Big Mac smiled sadly. “Thank you, Rainbow. Ah want ya to know that Ah don’t hold any ill will against ya.”

“Of course, neither of us thinks that way about the other.” Dash nodded. “We’re best bros, remember?”

He gave her an odd look again, and she grimaced when she realized she’d let the phrase slip. He finally let out a chuckle, and stood up.

“We better go tell AJ she don’t have ta blame ya for what happened,” he noted, trotting towards the barn door with Rainbow in tow. “Though I gotta’ warn ya, she sure can hold a grudge. Might be best if ya gave her some space till she cools off a bit.”

Rainbow gulped, nodding.

They found Applejack right where Rainbow had left her, tapping her hoof a mile a minute as she stared into the sky with a mixture of anger and worry. She whirled around at the sound of their approach, and blurted, “Well? What’s goin’ on?”

“Nothin’s goin’ on,” Big Mac replied evenly. “Rainbow apologized, and said it weren’t mah fault she left. She can’t tell me why she did, but Ah trust she has a good reason. We’re still friends.”

“Ah hope Ah can say the same ‘bout Rainbow and mahself.” Applejack eyed Dash. “But... Ah suppose if Big Mac can forgive ya’, then so can Ah. Ah’ll need some time to think ‘bout things, though.”

“Take all the time you need,” Rainbow told her. “I’ll be sure to get out of your manes now, but first, could you please tell me where Scootaloo is?”

“She and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle all headed up ta’ their clubhouse this mornin’,” Applejack answered, pointing a hoof towards the trees that hid the treehouse from most angles. “Though Ah gotta’ warn ya’, Scootaloo might not be in the best o’ moods. The Cutie Mark Crusaders weren’t exactly on the best o’ terms when I saw ‘em leave this mornin’.”

“What?” Rainbow asked. She’d never known Scootaloo to have any serious disagreements with her friends, aside from that field trip to the Royal Canterlot Sculpture Gardens. “Why?”

“Ya best find that out for yourself,” AJ responded curtly before trotting away towards the farmhouse. She gave Rainbow what might have been a sympathetic look before disappearing inside.

Rainbow said an awkward goodbye to Big Macintosh and galloped off towards the clubhouse. Hopping over some bushes and ducking under some low branches, Dash came out into the clearing where the old treehouse rested, her ears perking up at the sound of heated arguing emanating from within.

What in the world? Rainbow thought as she snuck up to the base of the tree, cocking an ear to listen in.

“Guys, please, stop fighting!” squealed a voice. That must be Sweetie Belle, little sister of one of Fluttershy’s friends. “This doesn’t have anything to do with us!”

“It has everythin’ ta do with me!” disagreed a youthful southern drawl belonging to Apple Bloom. “If it weren’t for Scootaloo’s precious Rainbow Crash, mah big brother wouldn’t be all down in the dumps!”

Oh, no... Dash groaned inwardly. It seemed her conundrum with her best friend had seeped even down to the youngest family members of those involved. Scootaloo didn’t really have any friends other than Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, and Rainbow Dash definitely didn’t want her little sister’s few friendships damaged because of her.

“Don’t you dare call her Rainbow Crash!” scolded the familiar voice of Scootaloo. “She’s Rainbow Dash, and she’s the most awesome pony in Ponyville! I’m sure whatever happened wasn’t her fault! It must have been Big Mac who drove her away!”

“You take that back!” Apple Bloom demanded.

“Make me!” Scootaloo snarled.

A sound that might have been Apple Bloom’s battle cry erupted from the clubhouse, and suddenly Rainbow’s ears were assaulted by the sounds of hooves hitting wood and—most shocking of all—other ponies.

Dash lived up to her name as she darted into the air and dove through the treehouse window, putting herself between the two brawling fillies and holding them apart at foreleg’s length. Scootaloo looked like she had a few bruises, but Apple Bloom was more mussed. Were those bite marks on her hide?

“What’s going on here?!” Rainbow demanded.

“Ah think Ah could ask you the same question,” Apple Bloom muttered. She looking anywhere but at Rainbow Dash's eyes.

“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo gasped, cheerful despite the bruises adorning her small body. Rainbow Dash winced at hearing her own little sister refer to her by her new name, but that didn’t hurt nearly as much as seeing her bruised from a fight. “Tell them! Tell them how it was all Big Mac’s fault!”

“It wasn’t Big Mac’s fault,” Rainbow said, earning a surprised look from Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo, meanwhile, looked like she’d been smacked across the face—far more forcefully than anything Apple Bloom could have managed. “But it wasn’t my fault either. It wasn’t anypony’s fault. Things just didn’t work out between us.”

“See?” Sweetie Belle hopped forward. “It wasn’t anypony’s fault. Now can we please still all be friends?”

“But AJ said ya broke mah big brother’s heart,” Apple Bloom said. “She said he asked ya out and ya said yes, and then ya ditched him on your first date!”

“I... well, I did.” Rainbow sighed.

“You what?” Scootaloo stared at Rainbow, a look of betrayal crossing her features. That one look broke Rainbow’s own heart. “But... but why?”

“I wish I could explain,” Rainbow answered, lowering her head. “But I can’t. It’s... complicated.”

“I told ya,” Apple Bloom snorted at Scootaloo, though seeing the look on the orange pegasus’s face, the insult only seemed half-hearted at worst.

“But... but...” Scootaloo repeated, unable to get her words out. Finally, she managed to say “But you always told me how much you wished Big Mac would ask you out. And now when he finally does, you turn him down on your first date? I... I don’t understand, Rainbow... did you lie to me?”

“Of course not!” Dash said instantly before mentally smacking herself, already knowing what Scootaloo would say next.

“Then why did you break up with Big Mac?” Scootaloo asked. “Can’t you at least tell your honorary little sister?”

“I wish I could, but...” Rainbow felt a pit form in her stomach. “Wait, what did you just call yourself? Did you say you were my honorary little sister?”

“Yeah.” Scootaloo looked on the verge of tears. “Aren’t I?”

“You mean you aren’t my related sister?” Dash pressed. She needed absolute clarity, even if she dreaded what it might be.

“I wish.” Scootaloo sniffed. “Then I wouldn’t have to live at the orphanage anymore.”

Something deep, deep within Rainbow’s mind snapped at that moment. She felt fury bubbling up inside her like a volcano about to erupt. They hadn’t just messed up her life; that she could at least deal with.

But They hadn’t just messed up my life. They had messed up Scootaloo’s as well. They had ripped her away from the only relative she had, and made her an orphan. That settled it; They weren’t just enemies... They were monsters. Rainbow wasn’t just out to reset her reality and regain her life anymore. She was out to save Scootaloo’s reality as well, and that was something that elevated this to a whole new level.

But she couldn’t let that show, not now. Scootaloo couldn’t see her anger; it would only add to the unexplainable nature of this crazily rewritten reality. There was, however, one thing she could do to make the situation at least a little better until it was fixed entirely.

“Hey, Scoots.” Rainbow drew Scootaloo close and giving her an affectionate noogie. “How would you like me to officially adopt you?”

Scootaloo's face lit up like a firework.

“You mean it?” she squealed. “Yesyesyesyes!”

She wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow and squeezed her as tightly as her small frame would allow. The tears in her eyes were definitely born of happiness now, and Dash couldn’t help but get a little teary-eyed herself, though it was a mixed sensation. One the one hoof, she had never seen her little sister quite this happy. On the other, the reason behind this happiness—that she had to be adopted rather than have been with Rainbow all along—was like salt in the wound.

“That’s great, Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle cheered.

“I guess if you’re adoptin’ Scootaloo, then ya’ can’t be all that bad.” Apple Bloom smiled. “I’m sorry for callin’ ya Rainbow Crash.”

“That’s okay,” Dash assured her, continuing to hold Scootaloo tightly. Things might be bizarre and completely messed up right now, but her little sister was happy, and that definitely counted for something. Rainbow had been thus far fighting for herself, but if she was fighting for Scootaloo as well, she felt like nothing could stop her. Finally pulling away from the ecstatic little pegasus, Rainbow announced “I’ll head over to the orphanage right now. Why don’t you and Apple Bloom make up properly, and I’ll come back as soon as I have the good news?”

“Okay,” Scootaloo agreed, nodding her head rapidly.

Giving her little sister one last smile, Dash trotted over to the treehouse’s entrance and took wing, zooming towards town. It seemed looking for the secret doorway to the otherworld was going to have to wait a while. Scootaloo was definitely coming first. Even if Rainbow’s ultimate plan was to undo this so that her little sister would never have been an orphan in the first place, she couldn’t stand to see Scootaloo like this until then.

The only problem now was, where was the orphanage? Rainbow didn’t ever remember Ponyville having one when she had still been Cloud Buster. Perhaps it was a new addition that had come with all the other changes? That was a distressing thought: that They had created an orphanage in Ponyville just to separate Scootaloo from her. The alternative was even more distressing. If there were other orphans there as well, then where had they come from? What families had they been ripped away from without ever realizing it?

Rainbow shivered. The sooner They were defeated once and for all, the better.

She landed in the town’s central plaza, scanning the surrounding buildings for any sign that read "orphanage." If it wasn’t here, she’d sweep the whole town looking for it if she had to. Perhaps she could simply ask for directions?

“...And that’s when I said, ‘oh, it’s nothing special, just my bass cannon!'” a familiar voice shouted. Rainbow’s eyes widened, and she turned to see none other than the mare who had claimed to be Bass Blaster. She was sitting at an outside table at one of the plaza’s cafes, chatting animatedly with somepony. Is that a stallion?

Rainbow trotted slowly closer, listening intently. She promised herself she would zoom to the orphanage as soon as the unicorn told her where she lived, and then later they could talk about this crazily changed reality.

However, as Rainbow approached, it became clear that something definitely sounded different about Bass Blaster than the first time Dash had seen the unicorn.

“You should have seen the look on their faces.” Bass Blaster laughed. “It was priceless!”

“Sounds like it.” The earth pony stallion she was with chuckled. It wasn’t anypony Rainbow had ever seen. Was this an old friend of Bass Blaster’s who somehow remembered her from before her changes? Or was this what Dash feared it was, being something else entirely? She stopped approaching and perked her ears to find out, pretending to be studying the menu posted in the cafe’s window while in fact watching the two ponies’ reflection. “I wish I could have been there to see it. Maybe I can next time?”

“Totally,” Bass Blaster agreed. “But I don’t really think I’ll be putting on anymore raves any time soon.”

“Are you kidding?” the stallion asked. “What about those fliers all over town for your next gig? Isn’t that coming up soon?”

“O-oh, those,” Bass stuttered, clearly trying to cover up the fact that she had been unaware of such fliers. It seemed that she too was dealing with commitments written into her past that she didn’t remember. “Well, I’ve been thinking about cancelling that—”

“But you can’t!” the stallion cut in, sounding shocked. “What about all your fans? They’ll be so bummed; I know I would be. I’ve loved your music ever since you started playing in Ponyville. In fact, I was really psyched that I finally got to meet you in person. You’ve proven to be just as amazing a pony as you are a DJ.”

“Thanks,” Bass Blaster giggled, her cheeks rosying. Wait, giggling and blushing? Either she had been into stallions to begin with or she was headed down the same path Rainbow had almost gone down with Big Mac. “You’re pretty awesome yourself.”

It's worse than I feared! She galloped over to the table, desperate to stop this before it went any further. Bass Blaster can't help me if she's actually accepting her new life!

“Say, maybe we could hang out some more some time?” the stallion asked. “I know this great restaurant—”

“That’s enough!” Dash declared, all but running into the table. “Sorry, pal, but she’s got plans! Plans on every night you’re planning on getting romantic!”

“Who are you?” The stallion glared at Rainbow Dash. To be fair, she probably would have as well as Cloud Buster.

“Cloud Buster?” Bass Blaster queried. “What are you doing here?”

“Saving you from being Their slave.” Rainbow grabbed the unicorn’s hoof and started to drag her away from the would-be sutior. “Now come on, we’ve got some reality to rewrite!”

“What are you talking about?” Bass Blaster stubbornly refused to move. It was hard to tell with her sunglasses, but she seemed to be glaring as well.

“You were about to agree to go out with this guy!” Rainbow growled, not about to let this fellow victim of Them fall into the same trap she did. “Can’t you see what’s happening?”

“What?” Bass Blaster tilted her sunglasses up, and looked at Rainbow more closely, before her eyes widened. “You’re right! I can’t believe They almost got me! I’m sorry, Mosh Pit, but I have to go!”

Without another word, and leaving Mosh Pit with a look of utter perplexity and disappointment on his face, the two mares rushed from the cafe. Bass Blaster seemed to be headed somewhere in particular, so Rainbow followed her.

They galloped around a few buildings and up a flight of stairs to a second-story apartment. Bass Blaster didn’t seem like she could slip inside fast enough, and urged Rainbow to follow her with a hoof. Rainbow complied, thankful to have saved the unicorn as well as finally find out where she lived.

However, just because Rainbow had saved Bass, that didn’t make what she had seen any less worrisome. Rainbow had agreed to go out with Big Mac in a past she’d never lived through, but it had looked very much like Bass was about to willingly agree to a date of her own free will. Would she have done so if I hadn’t been there to stop her? Rainbow knew she would have never done such a thing, but if how freaked out Bass had been when she realized what was going on, she wouldn’t have normally done so either. Did that mean that she was slipping into her new role in this changed reality, whether she liked it or not? Would this get worse?

Is this going to happen to me, too?

Dash shivered.

“Thanks for the save.” Bass trotted into the apartment and flopped down on a couch. Rainbow joined her—she was eager to get away and adopt Scootaloo, but wanted to check and see if this changed reality was getting worse first. Rainbow didn’t want to outright avoid Big Mac nor every other stallion in Ponyville, but she would if she would otherwise soon be openly accepting dates with them. “I never thought it would happen, but it just kind of crept up on me, you know? I mean, I was always a mare’s stallion, back when I was a stallion. I really hope that doesn’t end up going the other way around.”

“Glad I could help.” Rainbow waved it off with a hoof. “So, you really didn’t know he was about to ask you out?”

“I guess a part of me knew, in the back of my mind...” Bass Blaster shook her head. “A part of me wanted him to. I realized pretty quickly in this new changed reality that even if I didn’t want to, as a mare, I liked stallions. I’ve been trying to fight it, but I... I think I’ve been losing. It’s not like the attraction has gotten any stronger, it’s like I just find it increasingly hard to care about not giving into it. It’s the same with other things...”

“What other things?” Rainbow wondered, gulping. What else could this change take from us?

“Well, for one thing, I can’t say my old name anymore.” Bass sighed. “I can’t even think of myself as that name. I’ve been renamed Vinyl Scratch, whether I like it or not.”

“You can’t say Bass Blaster anymore?” Rainbow stared at her. Then that might mean... She instantly tried to say, to yell, to scream her old name, but all that came out was a whispery hiss. “I can’t believe this! I can’t say my old name either!”

“I figured as much,” muttered Bass Blaster, or rather, Vinyl Scratch. “I’m afraid this is only going to get worse until we find that door.”

“Firefly told you too,” Rainbow said, and Vinyl nodded. Rainbow was pleased to have a friend with the same goal, but that had come at the price of knowing the situation was going to get worse until they figured out how to stop it. If we can figure out how to stop it…

No! Do not think like that!

“I’d love to get started searching right away,” Rainbow said. “But I’ve got something to do first. Now that I know where you live, can I swing by here as soon as I get the chance, and we’ll start then?”

“Please do.” Vinyl nodded. Rainbow thanked her, promising to get back as fast as possible, and left the apartment. Leaping into the air and ascending to look down at the building from above, Dash marked the location on her mental map of Ponyville and zoomed off, planning to give the town an aerial sweep for the orphanage. She could have asked Vinyl for directions, but then again, the other new mare probably didn’t remember an orphanage being in Ponyville either.

When Dash finally found the place, she was pleased to see that at least it wasn’t a sagging, run-down, broken building like she had feared. The establishment looked fairly nice, if humble, though that wasn’t any reason for Scootaloo having to stay there longer than she had to.

Rainbow marched right into the lobby and past the receptionist before the other pony had time to protest. Barging into the door marked "Head Office," Dash trotted up to the desk. “I’d like to adopt Scootaloo.”

The mare sitting behind the desk, a wizened old thing, looked quite surprised at the intrusion, but smiled pleasantly enough all the same.

“You must be Miss Rainbow Dash,” she said, and Rainbow nodded. “Scootaloo talks about you quite often. She even claims you’re her honorary big sister.”

“I am,” Rainbow said, “and I’d like to be her official guardian.”

“I thought you might show up here for that very reason sooner or later.” The elderly mare nodded. “I’d be very happy to see Scootaloo go to a good home, and I know she’d love to have you as her official family. However...”

However? There isn’t supposed to be a "however!"

“I didn’t realize you were so young,” the mare said. “I’m afraid regulation won’t permit me to allow you to adopt Scootaloo without certain other factors in play.”

What?! No pony complained when I had took care of Scootaloo before!

“Why is that a problem?” Rainbow asked. “I’ve seen plenty of ponies my age taking care of foals. And what ‘certain other factors?'”

“Those ponies had the foals themselves, and thus aren’t covered by the regulations concerning orphaned foals,” the older pony explained, looking genuinely sorry. “As Scootaloo isn’t related to you, we can’t allow the adoption at this time. However, if ponies meet certain qualifications, they can adopt even at your age. For instance, if you were to become married—”

“Hold it!” Rainbow smacked a hoof down on the desk. “Why is that a requirement?”

The mare flinched at Rainbow’s outburst. “A variety of reasons. It would show that you’re seriously planning on starting a family, that there would be two potential sources of income to support the adoptee, and the list goes on. There are other qualifications, but I’m afraid they’d take a few years to acquire, by which time you would be old enough to adopt anyway.”

“So what you’re saying is, is that if I want to adopt Scootaloo anytime soon, I would have to get... married...” Rainbow turned a fine shade of white.

The elderly pony nodded her affirmation.

No, no, no! I am not getting married! At least, not as a mare!

But what about Scootaloo? Rainbow had promised the filly that she would have a new home and family, and Scootaloo would be more heartbroken than Big Mac ever was if she didn’t come through on that promise. Nevertheless, Rainbow wasn’t going to sacrifice whatever part of her former male identity she had left by wedding a stallion. No way in Tartarus!

But... wouldn’t that mean refusing Scootaloo a family too, though? Rainbow thought, her mind torn. I can’t let Scootaloo down, but I can’t get married either! Oh, this is going to drive me crazy!

“Why don’t you take some time to think things over?” the older mare suggested. “Please know that the orphanage doesn’t encourage you to marry just so you can adopt Scootaloo. In the event that you had already planned to do so, you can come back later. In the meantime, though, why don’t you just keep it in mind in case a special somepony crosses your path?”

“Yeah, I think I need to... think things through...” Rainbow breathed, her breath coming short and fast. “Thank you for your time.”

The other mare nodded and they said their goodbyes. Dash trotted out of the office in a daze. What in Equestria am I going to do now? She didn’t think Big Macintosh was going to want to get married so soon even if she had been open to the idea herself. We've only gone on one date! Well, almost! No, marriage is definitely out. Besides, planning a wedding would take far too much time away from potential door-hunting excursions. She would simply tell Scootaloo that she couldn’t get married, and she would surely understand. Right?

Rainbow gulped, knowing all too well that she didn’t at all want to test that hypothesis. Yet Scootaloo would be awaiting her reply, either way.

I can't stand this, I need somepony to talk to about... everything! She needed help to form some kind of plan. Of course, there was only one pony in Ponyville who had any idea what she was going through.

Rainbow crouched, preparing to launch into the sky and zoom back to Vinyl’s, when somepony called, “Rainbow! It feels like I haven’t seen you in ages! How have you been, darling?”

Rainbow Dash recognized that voice and turned to see Rarity, one of Fluttershy’s closest friends. The fashionable unicorn was wearing saddlebags that seemed to be stuffed with thick fabric, and was already trotting over to her. It would be rude to simply fly away, even given the situation.

“Oh, uh, hey, Rarity,” Rainbow greeted. “I was actually just about to go somewhere, but maybe we can catch up some other time...”

“I didn’t expect to see you in this part of town,” Rarity said, seemingly oblivious to Dash’s hint. “I was just on my way to drop off some of my excess sweaters to the orphanage—they’re such little dears, you know, and everypony deserves a little warmth come winter—but what brings you here?”

“I actually just came from the orphanage myself.” Rainbow shook her head. “But right now I need to—”

“But why would be in the orphanage?” Rarity wondered, again seeming to be almost intentionally cutting Rainbow Dash off. “Unless... oh, Rainbow! I knew you had a big heart, but this is phenomenal! You just adopted Scootaloo, didn’t you!”

“I tried to.” Dash sighed, seeing she wasn’t going to get out of this anytime soon. “But they said I couldn’t adopt her unless I got married, so—”

“Married?” Rarity exclaimed, her face lighting up. “You’re getting married as well? I knew you and Big Macintosh always had a thing for one another, but I didn’t realize things were that serious already! Oh, this is wonderful—I’ll design you the absolutely perfect dress, free of charge, of course! Do you have a minute? I’d love to get measurements down right away—”

“Rarity!” Rainbow all but shouted. “I’m not getting married to Big Mac!”

“What?” Rarity deflated. “But I thought you just said...”

“I said they wouldn’t let me adopt Scootaloo unless I got married,” Rainbow explained with an exasperated sigh. “But that doesn’t mean I am getting married. Besides, Big Mac and I are just friends.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.” Rarity frowned. “What do you mean ‘just friends?' I thought you and Big Macintosh had gone on a date just last night... indeed, wasn’t Fluttershy going with you?”

“Didn’t you hear?” Rainbow hung her head, really not wanting to talk about this but realizing she had no choice. “We did, but it didn’t work out. I had to leave. And please, don’t ask why. It’s not Big Mac’s fault. It’s not anypony’s fault. I just can’t explain it.”

“Are you alright?” Rarity asked, deep concern lacing her voice. “Is something going on? If so, please, Rainbow, you know you can trust your friends with whatever you’re going through. We’re all here for you, through thick and thin, remember?”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.” Rainbow gave her a small smile. “But this is something I’m afraid you all can’t help with.”

“If you’re sure...” Rarity looked downcast. “I really am sorry; I had thought you two were so good for each other. You even told me a while ago that if all went well you were going to make him your special pick to see that Wonderbolts show coming up...”

“I have tickets to an upcoming Wonderbolts show?” Rainbow gasped, pleasant surprise crossing her features until she saw the exact opposite fall over Rarity. “What, what’s wrong?”

“N-nothing, darling,” Rarity assured before trotting briskly away. “I’ll see you around, Rainbow. Take care!”

Not entirely sure what had just happened, Rainbow shrugged it off as just another notch on the weirdness of this changed reality and launched herself into the sky. She was so quick to head off towards Vinyl’s apartment that she didn’t even see Rarity bypass the orphanage completely and gallop straight towards the library.

By the time Rainbow reached her newfound friend’s apartment, she had had to admit to herself that she wasn’t really sure if Vinyl could provide any real help in this matter. Rainbow didn’t see what Vinyl could do, but she supposed asking was worth a shot. Anything that bought her some time before having to face Scootaloo was a welcome distraction.

Rainbow had just raised her hoof to knock on the door when she heard the whispers again.

Is this the place?

Yes.

It shall be relocated?

Yes.

And Rainbow Dash shall not know where?

Yes.

Then it shall be so.

“What?” Rainbow exclaimed, furiously pounding on the door, hoping desperately that she wasn’t too late. “No! That’s not fair! You can’t stop us from helping each other!”

“Who’s making that racket?” yelled a cranky voice from within. A few hoofsteps later, a wrinkly old donkey had poked his head outside the door, snapping, “What do you want, youngster? I was taking my nap!”

Rainbow simply stared at him, agitation boiling over to anger within her. Without a word, she turned tail and launched herself back into the sky, leaving a very confused donkey wondering just what in the world had occurred.

Flying high over Ponyville, Dash scanned the citizens trotting or flying about their business below, searching for one shock of electric blue mane in particular. Not a sign.

“Gah!” Rainbow snarled and zoomed down to fly aimlessly through the buildings, earning quite a few odd looks. “Why does this have to be so hard?”

At last, Rainbow had to land, finally admitting to herself that she wasn’t going to find Vinyl by simply random searching. They wouldn’t allow for that anyway; They’d probably just relocate her apartment all over again even if Dash found it.

So how can I find Vinyl Scratch? Wait, hadn’t the stallion—Mosh Pit?—who had been chatting her up said something about fliers for a rave? Maybe I can reach Vinyl at the event, unless They erased that too... but Firefly had said They couldn’t change a pony’s mind once they had caught on to Their existence, hadn’t she? And, even if Vinyl had been about to cancel the rave, she’d be looking for me as well. Hopefully, she would keep the rave on regardless of what They did to try and stop it. Like a lighthouse to a ship lost at sea, the rave could be the beacon that led them to each other once again.

Rainbow only hoped that once they found each other once more, they could stay together.

But where am I going to find a flier for a rave? It would have had to be posted at a very public place. She bit her hoof thoughtfully. Sugar Cube Corner!

Rainbow all but bolted to the bakery. There was a bulletin board inside the sweet shop where the Cakes allowed ponies to post notifications about upcoming events. With any luck, there would be a flier there.

Finally reaching the bakery, Dash made for the door before it opened and a pink blur all but ran over her.

“Dashie!” squealed the unmistakable voice of Pinkie Pie. “I’m so glad I found you! I was just headed over to the library, because Twilight wanted to call a meeting, and one of us was supposed to come and find you, and look! I found you! So now we can go over there together!”

“What?” Rainbow blinked up at Pinkie. “I don’t have time to go to Twilight’s right now; I need to get a flier from the bulletin board!”

“Oh, you mean this flier?” Pinkie inquired slyly, pulling a sheet of paper seemingly out of thin air. She showed it to Rainbow Dash. Though Vinyl’s name wasn’t on it, there was a picture of her at a turntable blasting music. The caption read "DJ PON3 PERFORMING LIVE!" and listed a place and a time just a few days away.

“How did you know I was after that?” Rainbow asked, incredulity and suspicion sneaking into her voice. How would Pinkie Pie know, unless... was she somehow connected to Them?

“Vinyl Scratch came by just a few minutes ago and asked me to make sure you got one,” Pinkie replied, eliciting a sigh of relief from Dash. “She also told me to tell you not to bother looking for her house, because it’ll probably just keep moving until the rave. She said the same thing might happen if you agreed to meet up at a public place. Now why would she say something like that? Does she think buildings have legs or something? That sounds really neat! I wish Sugar Cube Corner had legs, because then it could follow me around, and I would never be too far from my supply of sweets, and—”

“Thank you, Pinkie.” Dash took the flier from the earth pony and memorizing the date and time before tossing it into a nearby trashcan. She had hardly been able to stand the party pony’s incessant rambling as her old self; it seemed that trait had carried over to her new life as Rainbow Dash.

“By the way, I didn’t know you were friends with Vinyl Scratch,” Pinkie noted. “Is she okay? She seemed really worried when she told me to give you the flier. She barely even cheered up when the stallion she was with bought one of my special cupcakes for her.”

“She was with a stallion?” Rainbow gasped, the color draining from her face.

“Yeah,” Pinkie agreed, seemingly oblivious to Dash’s distressed shock. “Speaking of which, how’s your stallion doing, Dashie? I never got a chance to ask how your date with Big Mac went last night.”

Rainbow simply groaned. She did not want to go through with this again. And, on top of that, had Vinyl slipped right back into the trap that I saved her from? Was her willpower deteriorating that quickly?

Would I be next?

“Dashie, what’s wrong?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Did the date not go well? Don’t worry, you can tell Auntie Pinkie all about it on the way to Twilight’s!”

Not seeing what else she could do and welcoming the prolongment of facing Scootaloo, Rainbow trotted after Pinkie Pie. She refused to say anything on the way over, but that didn’t prove to be a problem anyway. Pinkie blathered on enough for two ponies, filling the silence with whatever happened to pop into her mind. Dash didn’t have to say a word.

At last, they arrived at the Ponyville Library. Rainbow hadn’t the slightest idea why Twilight was calling her friends to a meeting, but anything was better than facing Scootaloo now. It may have been prolonging the inevitable, but Rainbow reasoned that that was better than nothing. Perhaps Twilight regularly called meetings with the other Elements of Harmony? Fluttershy had never mentioned anything like that. Maybe one of them had a birthday coming up and this was going to be a surprise party for them? For all Dash knew, the surprise birthday could be hers. Then again, she was still the same age. Probably.

The other four of Fluttershy’s closest friends, as well as Fluttershy herself, were all talking amongst themselves when Rainbow and Pinkie arrived. They weren’t jumping out from behind the furniture and there weren’t any decorations, so that ruled out a surprise party. In fact, they all looked rather worried, Fluttershy in particular. Applejack, meanwhile, simply tried her best to avert her eyes from Rainbow’s gaze.

“Rainbow’s here!” Pinkie Pie called as she bounced into the room and took her place amidst the circle of friends.

“We’re glad you could make it, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight Sparkle motioned for Rainbow to join them. Rainbow gingerly took a seat next to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, the two ponies she knew the best. She had known Fluttershy since nearly forever, and she had been hoping to get to know her even better before all of this happened. Hopefully that can still happen if I—no, when Rainbow reset this version of reality. As for Pinkie Pie, well, everypony in Ponyville knew Pinkie Pie. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

“What’s this about?” Rainbow asked.

“We’ve all heard about how your date with Big Macintosh went last night,” Twilight answered. “We know it’s your business what happened between you two, but we’ve all had to admit that we were rather surprised to hear you left the date so early. You used to talk about Big Macintosh all the time. But that’s not the only thing; you’ve been acting different in other ways. You’ve got us all worried, Rainbow Dash, and as your friends we’re here to help in any way we can.”

“Is this supposed to be an intervention or something?” Rainbow sighed, shaking her head. She welcomed the distraction from Scootaloo, but she did not need to come up with yet more lies to hide the truth, which would undoubtedly label her as crazy.

“Not unless you’ve become addicted to something,” Twilight responded, sounding genuinely concerned. And why shouldn’t she be? To the other girls, Rainbow was one of their best friends. Dash knew that she would have been worried if one of her friends had acted like she was now back when she had been Cloud Buster. “Is that why you’ve been acting so strange?”

“What’s so strange about me not wanting to date Big Mac?” Rainbow asked, pondering how she would get out of this situation. “I changed my mind; it’s as simple as that.”

“We can understand that,” Twilight stated while glancing at Applejack, who still refused to look at Rainbow. Still, if she was here, that must mean she still cared. “But Rarity tells us you forgot you had tickets to the upcoming Wonderbolts performance. That has to be a sign that something’s wrong; we all know you’d never forget something like that.

“In fact, I’ve been doing a little bit of research on your recent behavior,” Twilight went on. Her horn lit up, and she levitated a book over from a desk, opening it in front of her. Rainbow managed to catch a glimpse of the cover. It was a catalogue of behavioral disorders. “And, after careful analysis, I think I’ve discovered that you may be experiencing something called ‘acute affection apathy.’ It’s a rare disorder, but sometimes it crops up when a pony is entering into a relationship. It happens when somepony is so afraid of commitment that they become disoriented, and deny that they were ever interested in somepony, claiming to feel the opposite about them. It can even affect other areas of their lives, making them feel the opposite about things than they usually would.”

Rainbow did not like where this was going.

“Are you saying I’m crazy because I don’t like Big Mac?” she asked.

“No, we just believe that what happened recently with Big Macintosh, as well as how you’ve been acting in general, is the result of an unfortunate condition you may have developed,” Twilight answered, smiling encouragingly, but with worried eyes. “So, in order to help you in this situation, we’ve contacted an expert on all things related to love and affection.”

Who said anything about love? Rainbow thought. It was just a date! And who in the world could be a ‘love expert?’

“We know you’ll be hesitant to accept this help, Rainbow,” Twilight finished. “We know you’re too independent for that. But we’re all really worried about you. So, for us, will you please do this? If you don’t have this condition, and we hope you don’t, then our expert will simply confirm that. Plus, it gives me a chance to use the latest spell I’ve been working on.”

Rainbow really, really wanted to say "no." Out of all of these ponies, she was really only truly friends with Fluttershy, whatever the others thought in this version of reality. However, if Rainbow did refuse this help, then it would look like she was turning down Fluttershy’s help as well as the rest of the Elements, and that was something she couldn’t bear.

Reluctantly, and reflecting with much annoyance on how much she was having to concede things recently, Rainbow nodded her head.

“Excellent!” Twilight exclaimed, beaming. “I’ve been waiting for a reason to use my portal spell.”

Portal spell? How far away did this ‘love expert’ live?

Twilight’s horn sparked and shone with more magic than Rainbow had ever seen a unicorn use before a burst of light erupted from its tip. The light swirled into the center of the room and spun faster and faster, finally growing almost blinding in its brilliance. Finally, with a final flash, reality itself seemed to be torn open.

Out of the portal trotted Princess Cadance, the alicorn of love.

* * * * * * *

Author's Note

The original third chapter.

Some edits have been made to promote better grammar and consistency of storytelling, with Chaotic Dreams's permission.

Chapter 4

There had been a certain saying in Cloudsdale around the time Rainbow Dash was growing up there: flying out of the snowstorm and into the thunderhead. It had never made much sense to her until today.

Rainbow Dash stared in blank incomprehension as the Crystal Princess stepped daintily out on to the public library floor, her long legs and mane granting her a lovely, graceful countenance that was totally at odds with the danger she represented.

While the Princess exchanged greetings with the other girls, Rainbow desperately racked her brains for any information she could recall about the royal personage. What ended up rattling out was a depressingly short list of items, all of them dusty. Princess Cadance was an alicorn princess who had grown up as a pegasus, married the Captain of the Royal Guard in a wedding beset by a Changeling attack, and then apparently inherited a kingdom full of crystal ponies that had appeared suddenly in the far-off north. That she was the “alicorn of love” on top of that was the part that probably concerned her the most.

Her eyes shifted back and forth between the other mares surrounding her. This could have been part of Their plan. After all, They wanted her to conform to Their version pretty strongly. It horrified her to think that Fluttershy and even Pinkie Pie might be working along with Them, no matter how unwitting they were as pawns.

Cadance was the most dangerous thing in the room, however. It would be trivial to shove her into the slot They wanted if the Princess greased her up with some sort of super powerful love spell first. Leaping to her hooves, she prepared to launch herself back out through the library door when she found herself face-to-face with a mare’s face, one framed by flowing pink and yellow locks. Princess Cadance’s eyes were so filled with heartfelt concern that she found herself hesitating, her legs tensed and wing muscles bunched together in the act of preparing to flee.

Wincing, she braced for impact, expecting to be scoured clean.

Rather than cook her brain, however, Princess Cadance threw her forelegs about Rainbow’s shoulders, tugging her close. “I’m so sorry to hear about what had happened, Rainbow. I wish somepony had told me earlier—your friends should be there to support you, and I’d like to think I count as your friend by now.” Evidently interpreting her tension as distress, she squeezed tighter still. “I know you must be upset. It’s all right, we’ll work things out. I promise. Us girls need to stick together.”

It was worse than Rainbow Dash could have ever imagined—the Princess wanted to talk over her feelings. I might have preferred the brainwashing. Why did I agree to this again?

Rainbow grimaced. Oh, right. Because refusing help too obviously would conflict with their—uh, the girls’, stupid pronouns—vision of how I’m supposed to act. Come on, Dash, or whoever you are, think! How would somepony like Rainbow Dash get out of this situation?

The others were watching the two of them expectantly—all of them except Twilight Sparkle, anyway, who was flopped onto her belly in what appeared to be a near-comatose daze after pumping out all of that magic. Worse, though, it seemed to Rainbow that something felt just the faintest bit wrong about the scene. It was as if the shadows cast by the autumn sunlight streaming in through the windows were just a little too long, set at just the wrong angle. The shadows the girls cast seemed pensive, expectant.

The hair prickled along Rainbow’s crest. It was now or never. If she guessed wrong, she’d soon find out.

“Thanks a lot, Princess.” Rainbow Dash returned the hug, if a little awkwardly. “The girls did kinda just spring this on me, though. I’m not sure how up to big deep feelings talk I am right now, with all this stuff I’ve got on my mind.” She rolled her eyes skyward and gave the others a mock glare.

Fluttershy buried her face behind her mane, while Applejack muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “Thank Celestia.” Rarity tossed her mane, harumphing noisily. “Honestly, Rainbow Dash, it would not kill you to remember that you are a mare, sometimes.”

“Hah! Nailed it.” Rainbow pumped a hoof, then realized she’d spoken aloud. “Uh, I mean—yeah, right! I’m all mare, Rarity, but we can’t all go around gushing like a waterworks.” Reddening slightly, she didn’t let her slip get in the way of her elation.

Firefly said They couldn’t change my personality and they sure couldn’t. Rainbow Dash has about as much interest in gushing about her feelings as I, Cl-cl...uh... I, Rainbow Dash, do. Celestia’s rump, that is really annoying. Glancing around, it seemed as though the shadows had shifted back to a more natural posture—then again, perhaps it had merely her imagination, or even a perfectly mundane change in cloud cover outside.

It could have been something innocuous, but somehow, she didn’t really think so.

Cadance scrunched her face, but then laughed. “That sounds to me like a promise to talk about it eventually, though.”

“It is?” Rainbow blinked, thinking back. “Oh, crud, I did.”

“Quite so.” Cadance slid back, going over to nudge Twilight with a hoof, eliciting a gurgle from the prostrate pony. “Maybe we could all hit the spa later?”

“No! No spa!” Rainbow leapt in before anypony else could agree. Rarity’s and Fluttershy’s hooves lowered—she hadn’t been a moment too soon. “How about, uh... Berry Punch’s place!”

“A bar?” Rarity gave Rainbow a steady look. “Oh, dear. Please tell me you don’t intend to drink your problems away.”

Rainbow snorted. “Believe me, I need my wits about me these days...”

They all paused to look at her.

“Uh... because I’m totally going to join the Wonderbolts! Gotta practice every day.” Sweat broke out along her forehead.

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie agreed. “After the whole Wonderbolts Academy thing, you’ll be a shoe-in, Dashie! You gotta be excited, because I’m totally excited to be excited when you get accepted as a Wonderbolt, and if I’m that excited about it you gotta be about to explode. Hopefully with candy.”

Rainbow walked past her towards the door. “Yeah, yeah, Pinkie, I’m glad you’re excited that I’m going to be a Wonderbolt, I—wait, what did you just say?” She turned, staring back at her.

“Silly, you just said it!” Pinkie Pie giggled and hopped towards the door.

“I’m... I’m going to be a Wonderbolt?” Rainbow Dash’s voice was numb as she stared into space, her eyes filled with the poster that hung on her wall back home.

“No wonder you’re all messed up, lately.” Applejack came up and thwacked the stars out of Rainbow’s eyes with a hoof to the back of the head. “You’re all tangled up with a million things on that featherbrain of yers, aincha?”

Rainbow rattled her head a few times to try and shake some sense loose. “Uhm, yeah, basically. I guess I got all freaked out and kind of panicked with your brother. Also, ow.” She rubbed the back of her head, glowering.

“If you think you’re getting out of our talk later, Rainbow, you’re sadly mistaken,” Cadance called from where she was ministering to Twilight.

Ugh, mares.

The librarian’s little purple dragon assistant—Sprocket, Rainbow believed he was called—had come out from the back and was fanning his friend. “You knew casting that spell was a dumb idea, Twilight. Future Twilight pays for the past mistakes of Present Twilight.”

Twilight’s head came up, groggy. “Ah’m okay... ah’m okay... Spike, take a letter. Dear Princess Celestia, please stop spinning the planet. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that.” Spike smacked his forehead with a claw.

Spike, Sprocket. Great, go ahead and reveal how little you know about anything. Rainbow Dash leapt through the door while she thought she had a chance, only to be confronted by Rarity’s hoof just outside.

“Hold on, dear.” Rarity put a hoof to her chest. It was a very familiar gesture, indicative of a long time associated with her, and Rainbow Dash did her best not to look off-put. If Rarity noticed, it was only to increase her concern, visible by the way her eyes softened. “I understand how you must be feeling about Scootaloo’s predicament right now. I had it from Applejack that you promised to adopt her. I hope you know you can expect support from any of us when you break the dreadful news to her.”

Rainbow Dash’s face fell as the details of the adoption fiasco came back to her. As if it weren’t bad enough that she had to deal with the humiliation and agonizing conflicted feeling of having her best friend dating her, the issue with Scootaloo drove into her gut like a hot knife. Worst of all was the promise she had made to the filly which could only be resolved by taking said conflicted feelings and realizing them by marrying Big Macintosh to provide Scootaloo with a family.

It was all a ploy, of course. Rainbow knew that They were behind this every step of the way. They had managed to catch her in a vice, After running from Big Macintosh’s embrace she had fallen headlong into the needy eyes of her one-time sister. Here They were, rigging the contest. If I turn down both Scootaloo and Big Macintosh, it jives with everypony’s idea of who I am. On the other hoof, if I give Scoots a family, that means ma-marrying Big Mac. Not a chance.

Her mind shied away from even considering the possibility. It refused to linger on visions of herself gliding down the aisle in Canterlot Palace, of kissing him in full view of the kingdom, of nuzzling up to him in the carriage—

“Rainbow?” Rarity slid a hoof on to her friend’s shoulder.

“Gneh!” Rainbow shook herself, staring around wildly. She wiped at her mouth. “Huh? What?”

Sighing, Rarity patted her back. “Goodness, you must be beside yourself with grief. You went catatonic for what seemed like the longest time.”

“I, uh... yeah. I’m really worried about Scoots.” That wasn’t a lie at least. Lying was becoming habitual with these ponies, and that was already proving hard to keep up. Lowering her head, Rainbow glanced down at her hooves. “Maybe... I dunno, maybe I’m not trying hard enough? I bet I could just grab somepony and get a marriage license real quick, enough. That way Scootaloo wouldn’t have to be alone.”

Before Rarity could respond, Rainbow lifted a wing to stop her. “I know! I know. I realized it the moment I said it—it would kill Big Mac. He’d never be able to stop wondering if it really was just about him. I-I...I can’t leave him hanging like that.”

Nodding, Rarity stepped back. “You’re going to have to tell the poor dear it didn’t work out, then. Would you like a little company?”

“No, I... no, thank you, Rarity,” Rainbow Dash murmured. She lifted her eyes to meet Rarity’s own, smiling wryly. It wasn’t difficult at all to see how somepony might become friends with the unicorn. This was a far cry from the priss Rainbow had always imagined before. “I should be the one to tell Scoots. It’s my responsibility.”

“You’ve been sounding very mature lately, Rainbow. I’m very proud of you.” Rarity smiled and trotted off. “We’ll see you at Berry Punch’s tonight!”

“Yes, please, one torture session at a time, thank you,” Rainbow muttered under her breath, kicking at a loose stone. Slender legs and small hooves, all attached to a dynamite little body that still felt faintly used, as if it were a suit that had belonged to another pony.

Closing her eyes, Rainbow Dash braced herself for the meeting with her former sister. Briefly, she flirted with the possibility of simply marrying Big Macintosh and welcoming Scootaloo into their home. They could be a real family again. Scootaloo would even have a father—or at least a proper big brother—to look up to. It would be a bold sacrifice, one that would speak of Rainbow’s unquenched love.

No, she thought, and shook her head, even if it did give her a better life again, it would mean giving into Their designs. It’s not just about me, either. It’s about Firefly, Scootaloo, Surprise, Bass Blaster, and everypony else whose lives have been screwed with.

Rainbow kicked off into the air, soaring upwards with effortless grace. She set her sights on Sweet Apple Acres, its orchards coating the hills near town.

Somepony’s gotta take responsibility. I guess there’s some irony there—they created me to be the new Element of Loyalty. I suppose that means I’ve gotta earn it and be a hero like Firefly. The thought sent shivers down her spine. It was borderline arrogant, but at the same time she realized that it had to be said. If it isn’t me, it sure isn’t going to be anypony else. I won’t fade into Their slave or get shot off into oblivion.

I won’t!

* * *

“Ahhh!” Rainbow squealed, flailing her wings.

Spiraling down out of the sky, Rainbow Dash discovered that incredible speed had a terrible flaw when you weren’t accustomed to using it. She was so slim and quick she slid through the air like it wasn’t even there. By the time she tried to arrest her motion, an old, gnarled tree near the Crusader treehouse was already rising up to meet her.

Stars burst in her vision.

Small hooves shook her. “Rainbow! Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo cried. “Don’t die on me, not now!”

“Stand back!” Apple Bloom said. “Cutie Mark Crusaders emergency responders, go!”

“Wai-it,” croaked Rainbow. Her blurry vision revealed three small shapes above her. All three were rubbing wool between their hooves.

“Clear!” Sweetie Belle shouted.

A powerful static shock jolted Rainbow ten feet into the air. She came down on her belly, air forced from her in a rush. Gasping and coughing, she came back to reality to find herself among the shattered remnants of the tree, its roots shorn clean out of the earth and cast several yards away. Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle were clustered around, frowning down at her.

“Are you okay, Dash?” Scootaloo peered down to meet her eyes.

“I’m fine, squirt.” Rainbow groaned. She put her hooves under her, and nearly fell again, but found her footing after a moment. She was smarting all over, yet remained remarkably intact. Her rear left hoof ached, and she favored her left one as she hopped over to put a wing about Scootaloo. “Just a little sprain.”

Scootaloo snuggled close, beaming. “You’re the best, Rainbow Dash! Nothing stops you!”

“Heh, yeah!” Rainbow tossed her long mane, grinning as she soaked up the glowing adoration. “I wouldn’t disappoint... you... for anything...”

Oh crap.

Perhaps getting knocked unconscious would have been preferable. Maybe somepony else could have told Scootaloo the bad news. Looking down into her eyes made Rainbow’s insides twist themselves into tight knots, threatening to squeeze her rapidly beating heart.

“So we’re going to be sisters for real, right? I bet you came right away to tell me!” Scootaloo’s tail was actually wagging, making a magenta blur behind her. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle bounced to either side, grinning with unrepressed excitement.

Sitting down, Rainbow Dash put her hooves on the smaller girl’s shoulders, taking a deep breath. “Scoot... I’ve... there’s been a slight snag.”

Scootaloo’s ear twitched. Her face remained locked into its grin.

“The orphanage said I couldn’t adopt you. I mean, they said I could, if I got married, but—”

Scootaloo’s eyes opened wider. “Oh my gosh, you’re getting married to Big Macintosh? Then we can live at Sweet Apple Acres together!”

Apple Bloom chewed over that, squinting. “You’re marryin’ my big brother? I dunno how I feel about that, but... hey, that means we’ll be sisters, too!” she said and sprang at Scootaloo, tackling her in a hug. “That’s totally worth it!”

Sweetie Belle beat her hooves in an ecstatic dance. “Oh, oh! Then Rarity can marry Applejack and we can all be sisters!”

All three of the other ponies present looked at Sweetie questioningly.

“What? It could happen.” Sweetie pouted.

“Anyway! When’s the wedding? Can I be your best mare? I guess Twilight would be your best mare, actually, but I can be the flower filly!” Scootaloo sprang up to Rainbow’s side.

Apple Bloom pressed up next to her, beaming at Rainbow Dash. “We can both be flower fillies!”

“What am I, chopped asparagus?” Sweetie Belle muttered, only for Scootaloo and Apple Bloom to pull her in.

“Oh, hush, we can all be flower fillies. So are you asking him today, Dash?” Scootaloo asked.

Rainbow Dash shut her eyes, unable to bear the sight of them. Her breath came ragged. “I... I... Scoot, I-I l-love you, but... but... I can’t. I can’t marry Big Macintosh.”

When she opened her eyes, Scootaloo’s grin was fixed on her face. This time, however, it was frozen, as if somepony had gone and pinned it there. A shadow passed across them as a cloud moved between them and the sun.

“It’s not about you,” Rainbow said, quickly.

“But...” Scootaloo’s ear twitched, twice. “You... you said you’d adopt me.”

“I did! I meant it, too! I still do!” She reached for Scootaloo’s shoulders.

An orange hoof knocked them aside. “You just said you had to marry somepony to adopt me, but you’re not going to marry anypony. That means you’re not going to adopt me! Rainbow, you promised!”

Tears stung at Rainbow’s eyes as she watched Scootaloo crumble. Anger and disappointment sank deep into the filly’s eyes. What hurt even worse was seeing her own tears—a fiercely proud tomboy, Scootaloo had stubbornly refused to cry all but once before, when their parents had left them. At that time, she’d had an older brother to look up to.

Scootaloo could have reached in to tear out Rainbow’s heart; it would only have improved things.

“Please. I... sis... we don’t have to do it officially. You can come live with me!” Rainbow tried to pull Scootaloo towards her.

“Don’t touch me! Don’t talk to me!” Scootaloo squirmed free and ran, her little wings beating hard and speeding her across the ground. “You promised!”

Rainbow started to gallop after her, only for her sore leg to trip her up. Scootaloo reached her scooter and shot off across the fields towards town. Rising, Rainbow set her wings to launch off, but then let them droop, watching her go.

Bile boiled in the back of her throat as hot tears poured down her cheeks. She didn’t dare to turn and look at the other Crusaders—she was sure she would have only seen her own shame reflected in their eyes. Rising into the air, she went, not towards Scootaloo, but to alight upon the cloud. Her hooves beat the surface of the soft white cloud, churning part of it into misty froth that floated up and away. Her face buried deep inside and she sniffed, crying helplessly.

The world drifted below her. Nopony could hear her up here. Nopony knew how the world was being jerked around by inscrutable, unseen forces.

Maybe I’m the crazy one. Maybe it’s just me being delusional. Rainbow stared down at her hooves. They were attached to her, sure enough. They were hers. Pretty little hooves attached to a pretty little mare.

Breathing deeply, she rubbed her nose on a tuft of cloud. No. I know too much. It’s all too real, too strange. If it was just me I’d know more about my own life. But... what am I going to do?

Staring down, she scanned the hills as if hoping to see the door to the Otherworld. How am I going to find it? Where do I even start?

Merely being able to look for it presumed she could somehow escape notice. Firefly had spilled the beans and been caught. Vinyl Scratch was becoming tangled in their web. Now Rainbow Dash herself was being ground to meal between impossible burdens.

Down one path lay a long and difficult journey that she sincerely did not know if she could complete, that might swallow her whole entirely. It meant letting Scootaloo suffer, hurting Big Macintosh, and worrying her friends as she became increasingly paranoid and desperate.

Down the other path... Rainbow’s eyes shut again as she dreamed of herself, clad in Wonderbolts blue and yellow. Scootaloo flew beside her, free and happy. Her head lay down, pressing into the soft substance of the cloud as she allowed her body to relax.

It was a beautiful dream.

* * *

Rainbow’s hooves set down on a cloud with ghostly smoothness. The cloud’s belly was dark and heavy with rain, but the top was touched with the reds and golds of twilight. There should have been a deep scent of water on the air, but there was neither a sense of smell nor of weight. It could have been sunrise or sunset, either one—somehow, she knew it was always somewhere between day or night here, trapped immobile between two states.

“Nice outfit,” Firefly said. Her scratchy voice was a mirror for Rainbow’s own, just a little softer and more steady. “Is that what the Wonderbolts are wearing now? Really shows off that shapely backside.”

Stung, Rainbow spun around. Framed against the sunlight with its rays coursing about her shadowed form, Firefly stood on a spur of cloud watching her. The sign reading “THIS IS A DREAM” lay half-buried in the cloud, its wood decaying and neon lights flickering fitfully.

“This place got different.” Rainbow looked down at her jumpsuit-clad self, frowning. “I was just... yes. The uniform was always like this, as far as I remember.”

“When I was a member, it was more of a white base and gold trim deal, with some barding. We were more closely associated with the military back then.” Firefly flapped down from the spur, revealing her slender pink features. The oranges and golds of twilight clung to her as Their shadows had to the library of Ponyville, giving her an ethereal air. “Evidently, They felt we needed something a little more along the lines of an entertainment team.”

Rainbow Dash’s heart sank. “Even that? Why? I don’t understand. How much do They change? Why haven’t They gotten it right yet, if They’ve been at this for so long?”

“Not a clue.” Firefly shrugged. “What do I know? I’ve told you almost everything I learned already. I’ve been trying to find out more, but it’s hard enough finding others, let alone ones who haven’t gone starkers. The only reason I can talk to you is because we’re already connected.” Her head tilted, and she narrowed her eyes at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow shrank back, having a pretty good idea what had Firefly irritated. “You don’t understand.”

“Don’t I?” Firefly trotted around her. “Do you think it was easy for me when I started? I saw my life changing around me, and yet I was powerless to do anything to stop Them. I went from having an older sister to finding her half my age and with a twin to boot. My coltfriend ended up with a coltfriend of her very own. Friends, places. Only the Princesses never changed, and yet they never noticed anything amiss.” She stopped in front of Rainbow Dash and faced her squarely. “None of that made me stop fighting.”

Scraping at the cloud, Rainbow stared down at Firefly’s hooves. “Look where it got you, too.”

“That’s beneath you, Cloud Buster, and if you meant it you could look me in the eye.”

“It’s not just me!” Rainbow Dash—even here, she could not think of herself as that other name—stamped her hooves, looking up at Firefly. “I can’t abandon Scootaloo!”

“What was that you were thinking earlier?” Firefly fixed her with a glare. “Something about how even if it did give Scootaloo a better life, this whole thing was bigger than her and you. It was about all of us.”

“That was before I saw her! She’s hurting!” Rainbow shook her head. “I can’t abandon her. I’m her big bro--sister! I’m supposed to protect her, not hurt her.”

“What part of protecting means submitting to Their plan, allowing Them to decide if They want to screw with her again?” Firefly was up in her face now.

“The part where I take care of her, no matter what! They can’t change my loving her! I’ll always love her, I’ll always be there for her, no matter what happens!” Rainbow flared her wings aggressively.

Firefly lifted her eyebrow. “Yeah? You think they can’t take that away from you? They took Fluttershy away from you.”

That really stung. Rainbow Dash lowered her head.

“For all you know, this is just a ploy—They’ll dangle Scootaloo in front of you until you’re where They want you, when you’re weak and already forgetting that anything was different. One day you’ll turn around and find They’ve taken her away,” She clapped her hooves, “Just like that. Maybe you’ll have a few new foals to take care of by then, huh? Won’t even notice.”

“That’s—” Rainbow shivered. “No. I have to be there for her. You don’t know that. You don’t know anything. It can’t end like that.”

“I know enough!” Firefly shouted. “I know you don’t love Big Macintosh! Are you going to marry him under false pretenses and burden him with a loveless marriage, dragging him, Scootaloo, Applejack, and everypony else into Tartarus with you? They can’t force you to love him.”

“Yeah?” Rainbow snarled. “Maybe They can’t.”

Firefly took a step back. “Wait. You... Rainbow—I mean, Cloud Buster, hold on. You don’t want to do that.”

“Watch me. Goodbye, Firefly.”

* * *

“Are you sure you’re okay, Dash?” Fluttershy asked as they trotted down the way to Berry Punch’s bar. The sun was low in the sky and the streets were shadowed. A pale red pegasus was going around, lighting lamps hanging overhead.

“I’m fine,” Rainbow snapped, then ran a hoof through her mane to settle it. “Sorry. Yes. I want to... to talk about this. You’re all worried about me and I’ve been blowing you guys off.”

It was hard to look at her. Firefly’s words rang in Rainbow’s ears whenever she did. They took Fluttershy away from you.

But that wasn’t entirely true. They were still friends, they were still close. So what if they couldn’t be together as boyfriend and girlfriend? Glancing out of the corner of her eye, she found that she could admire the lovely face framed by all of that beautiful pink hair, but that there was nothing beyond that for her to sink into besides the close familiarity of two good friends. They were just two mares who could trust one another deeply.

Is there anything wrong with that? Can’t we be close, share our lives together, just in a different way?

Fluttershy rubbed her face up against Rainbow’s side, offering her a smile. “It’s okay. We understand. Twilight is just trying to help, even if that was a little, uhm... invasive.”

“Heh. No, it’s perfect. It’s just what I need.” Rainbow stopped in front of the door, frowning. Something seemed a little off—had there always been curtains behind the windows? There was a very pleasant floral scent wafting out of the door when Fluttershy nosed it open, and Rainbow Dash followed through. She passed into a very different place indeed.

It no longer suited the word “bar.” If Rainbow Dash had bothered to check the sign before walking in she might have seen that. Stylish mares weaved between little tables that were lain with lacy cloth. Curtains were hung in all of the windows and along each of the booths, softening what had once been a solidly practical room. It was a place from which all stallions were banished, not in rule but in simple fact. The meaning of that herbal scent became instantly clear.

“A tea shop?” Rainbow’s face scrunched up. She leaned back, as if to fall back out of this nightmare. Her relief at finding the place unchanged the first day had been rather effectively disintegrated.

“Well, yeah. Berry makes the best teas, doesn’t she?” Fluttershy giggled. “Everything is so new to you, Rainbow. You didn’t hit your head, did you?”

“Not that hard.” Rainbow swallowed, then followed her to a booth where Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and Princess Cadance waited. Shaded candles cast flickering shadows across the party. Rainbow slid into a seat beside Fluttershy and planted her hooves in front of her, staring awkwardly around at the others. The soft sounds of mares conversing filtered in around them.

It was alienating, yet, at the same time, it felt strangely appropriate. Rainbow Dash could get used to this if she just allowed herself to relax a little. Maybe there was something to this mare business. There was something in the way her lithe body felt on the chair, in the way her mane fell across her back and side, and the way her long tail swished behind her. It was even in the way her breath eased in and out of her body, bringing with it the gentle scent of the close room. Mares had a very different scent than stallions, particularly the sort of stallion that frequented bars.

Perhaps more importantly, though, this was the path that would take Rainbow Dash down the road to being at Scootaloo's side forever. If that meant becoming a mare in mind as well as in body, well, that was the price she had to pay.

“I know you probably don't want to hang out at a place like this.” Twilight Sparkle leaned forward. A teacup hovered in front of her. “But I really wanted to show Cadance. She has to ship in her favorite tea from Canterlot, so I know she was missing it.”

“And it is most excellently prepared,” Cadance beamed. She sipped at a steaming cup with obvious relish.

Rainbow Dash blinked. “What's so hard about boiling leaf juice?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, and she grimaced.

Rather than take her to task, however, the others giggled in a fashion that said louder than words that they expected as much. Okay, so maybe my version of being a mare is just a little different than what I had before. Maybe Rainbow Dash is as much a tomboy as Scootaloo? I kinda never did think on why Scoots followed me so... obsessively. The fact that I thought I was her brother was kind of overwhelming. Then again, it probably has a fair bit to do with how I nearly managed to break the sound barrier reaching her.

As she contemplated, the others’ faces froze. Their eyes tracked past her shoulder. A hoof tapped on her shoulder, and she turned to find herself muzzle-to-muzzle with Berry Punch. For all that the other mare was wearing, a floral bandanna and carrying a porcelain tea set on her back, her eyes were as hard and glittering as gems. “So. You have a problem with my tea?”

Rainbow jolted back. “Ah! Don't hit me! I'm sorry!”

“Oh, I'm not going to hit you, Dash.” Berry slid the tray onto the table and tapped an upturned cup with her hoof, making it go spinning around the rim until it rolled to a stop, upright, in front of Rainbow. Taking the kettle in her mouth, she poured a stream of dark tea, wasting not a drop as she tilted it back. The tiny bits of leaf swirled hypnotically while a waft of bitter steam tickled her nostrils. “Drink.”

“Uh...” Rainbow set her hooves on either side of the cup. “It's hot.”

“Don't knock it till you try it—particularly don't mock it in my store until you know what you're talking about. Drink.” Berry's gaze bored into Rainbow's skull. Evidently, the change in professions had done nothing to blunt Berry's treatment of rude customers. Rainbow had never been on the receiving end of that before, and it was rather more effective than she would care to admit.

Swallowing, Rainbow gently lifted the cup in her hooves. She blew on the cup a few times, stirring the surface with her breath. Her eyes flicked to see if Berry was still watching—she was, and her eyes narrowed further as she saw Rainbow hesitate. Carefully, Rainbow took a good sip.

It was nothing like a burst of flavor that blew Rainbow across the room or any such thing. Indeed, if anything, the first touch of it to her lips wasn't very good—it was too hot, for one, and almost tongue-curlingly bitter. Just as she thought she might spit it out, however, the taste changed. If the first taste didn't encourage her, the lingering aftertaste that filled her mouth left her strangely empty. The flavor was powerful, but not overwhelming, and it was layered in complicated ways. Somepony with a greater vocabulary for tastes may have been able to put the sensation into words, but she struggled just to come up with adjectives. Perhaps one layer was faintly woody and another reminded her of vanilla, the others just left her behind entirely.

Soon, too soon, the sensations began to fade, and she found herself tilting the cup towards her again. This time, her tongue was already inured against the first burst of bitterness by the presence of the aftertaste, and a little blowing cooled the tea, particularly as she drained it. Soon enough, there was nothing but the dregs, and she stared at the cup for a good while.

Berry smiled wickedly. “Well?”

Pushing the cup towards her, Rainbow coughed and lowered her eyes. “Could I have some more, please?”

“Sure thing, honey,” Berry said sweetly. Tilting the kettle, she poured her another cup. “Here's a tip—sipping makes the taste last longer and gives you more time to contemplate.”

"Thanks." Rainbow turned to look back at the others. Fluttershy was hiding a smile behind the curtain of her hair and Rarity behind her hoof, while Cadance and Twilight wore identical grins. What drew her attention, however, was the way the candlelight flickered. It seemed to her that their shadows all loomed far too high in the curtained booth. If she looked at them out of the corner of her eyes, she could see the shadows had empty eyes, holes cut in the shadow-fabric.

Do They know that I'm on to Them? Do They know, and They're waiting to see if I give up? Do They think I've already started conforming and They're waiting to see if I screw up? Either way, she tried not to focus on them, putting her attention instead on Princess Cadance and the other mares.

“So, go on, dear. We're all friends here,” Rarity said, delicately sipping at her own hovering cup. Getting turned into a unicorn might have been an interesting experience—it certainly would have made handling a hot tea cup a lot simpler.

“Well...” Taking another bracing sip of tea, Rainbow Dash sighed and glanced down. Her concentration was as much on trying to find her stride with Rainbow and her voice as it was on the words. It required her to try and analyze somepony she hadn't even met beyond wearing her skin, reflecting on the way others treated her.

It seemed to her that the others expected her to not be very girly at all, actually, for such a pretty mare. She had never been remotely feminine in her proper body, and it seemed that carried over here. There were a lot of fiddly things she would have to find out about—she had no idea whether or not she flat-out refused to wear dresses or if she was one of those mares who "cleaned up nice." Her best source of inspiration, ultimately, was Scootaloo. A complete tomboy who rejected mushiness, she still never quite let anypony forget that she was actually a girl now and then. Scootaloo was driven by one part hero worship, one part confidence, and five parts sheer bravado.

The other point might be: how would I have been if I was a mare?

It all boiled down to the question of her relationship with Big Macintosh. As much as she hated to admit it, the parallels were obvious. Fluttershy and Big Mac were both gentle and caring ponies. Many of the same qualities that had attracted her to Fluttershy were present in different form in Big Macintosh. Even the differences were startling in how well they mirrored one another. Glancing at Fluttershy, those softly pretty features and that small, curvy body had been a dynamite combination for a powerful stallion.

It was even more sobering to admit that reflecting on Big Macintosh's solidly handsome form towering over her own slender self put a warm little tingle in her. Forcing herself to confront the idea, it took very little imagination to picture herself enveloped by those forelegs, pressing in against his chest. He would be as hard as iron and as gentle as velvet in the same embrace. The warmth in her belly was coming from more than just the tea.

“Rainbow?” Twilight asked.

Rainbow's eyes flicked towards the shadows waiting above the others, then back down. “It's the whole Wonderbolts thing, you know. I haven't even practiced since Big Mac asked me out. I'd be way behind in my weather work if I hadn't of done some cloudbusting before going to meet Fluttershy.” Taking another sip of her tea, she leaned back. It took a real effort, but she managed to look as though she was relaxing. Rather than worry about how the real Rainbow Dash might look in lounging, she did what had been natural for her as a stallion—an open posture, her wings slightly spread and her legs splayed.

It seemed to be doing the trick—none of the others so much as blinked an eyelash.

“You were kicking those clouds so hard.” Fluttershy murmured. “I didn't want to interrupt you. You looked like you had a lot of stuff to work out.”

That wasn't entirely inaccurate. Part of it had been Rainbow trying—and failing, for the moment—to get used to doing the weather patrol gig in her new body. Rainbow's speed, precision, and comparative lack of raw strength still had her off-balance. It was a far cry from simply taking aim and blowing a cloud bank to smithereens with a single buck. The other part was most definitely working out aggression, however.

“Yeah, I've been out of my mind. I haven't dated anypony in forever, and here I am on a date with Big Mac. I, uh... may have kinda sorta burst a seam. And then freaked out for, like, a whole day.” Not watching her words seemed to be improving things as well—the scratchiness of her voice had been making her more than a little self-conscious. In her mind, Rainbow Dash didn't weigh everything she said—she was a mare of action who spoke first and worried about it later.

It was having an effect, too—the shadows seemed to be withdrawing somewhat, though there was still something faintly unnatural about it.

“I had no idea.” Twilight glanced down at her cup. “You seemed so excited when you said he'd asked you out, I thought this was what you wanted.”

Rainbow nodded. “It is! I mean... well, yeah, I want to go out with him. I said so, didn't I? So, Princess, could you—”

“Wait a moment.” Cadance lifted her hoof. “Why don't you talk about that a little? I haven't really heard all that much about Big Macintosh, particularly not from you, Rainbow Dash.” She lowered her teacup, looking at Rainbow. “Perhaps you could talk a little bit about how how you feel and what your plans are?”

Rainbow's cup rattled. She lifted it a little higher and took a sip to cover her sudden nervousness. Crap. “I've talked about that before, haven't I?” She looked around at Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight.

“Well, yes.” Fluttershy nodded, smiling. “A little.”

“I certainly never heard anything about it. Barely a peep from anypony until the very day it happened! You all cost me some very valuable time gossiping,” Rarity teased.

Rainbow looked to Twilight, who coughed. “You did barge into the library once and cornered me about whether or not I liked Big Macintosh. It was the middle of the night so I may have been a little groggy,” she said.

“A lot of ponies knew Big Mac was interested in Rainbow,” Fluttershy supplied. “Just, you know, he'd never worked up the courage to ask until then. He was honestly worried you hadn't noticed him.”

“I, well... I mean, I guess I'm just... really into Big Macintosh, you know?” Rainbow asked, though it seemed as if no pony did know.

Worst of all, however, she felt something, like a tingling at the edge of her hooves, as she saw out of the corner of her eyes the eyes of the shadows gazing towards her. Mouths gaped open silently.

Oblivious to any such menace, the other mares frowned at her, their concerns entirely worldly.

“So,” Rainbow continued hurriedly, “if you could use some sort of spell to help us smooth things over, that would really be appreciated, Princess.”

If it sounded that lame to Rainbow’s ears, she could only imagine how it must have sounded to everyone else. Her hooves were clammy and shaking. Darn it, I’m trying to go along with your stupid rules! Stop staring at me!

Princess Cadance leaned back slightly, as if floored, her eyes searching Rainbow’s. “You definitely sound off. Rainbow, is there something else you’re not telling us?”

“Just... just help us out, please? I want this to go smoothly.” Rainbow kept her eyes firmly on the princess’s own.

“It sounds like you’re taking this a little fast.” Twilight blinked.

Rarity gasped. “I know what’s the matter!”

Rainbow stared at her. This is it. She’ll peg me as an imposter and I’ll join Firefly in pony limbo.

“Oh, you sweet, sweet mare.” Rarity reached over and squeezed Rainbow’s hooves. “You’re trying to push through your uncertainty for Scootaloo’s sake, aren’t you? Of course you like Big Macintosh, and you can certainly imagine loving him, but you’re putting yourself on the line for her sake!”

“I’m not sure I follow,” Fluttershy murmured, cocking her head.

“It’s obvious, darlings!” Rarity looked among the others. “The orphanage will not permit Rainbow Dash to adopt Scootaloo and become her guardian unless she can meet certain requirements.”

“The only one of those she could meet in the next few years without some extreme measures is...” Twilight frowned. Rainbow could practically see her mentally flipping through books. Her eyes popped open. “Getting married!”

Rainbow waved her forelegs. “W-wait, I—”

“That’s the Rainbow Dash I know. You’re willing to go through anything to protect the ponies that you care about, aren’t you?” Princess Cadance smiled. “Though I might suggest making your gestures a little less dramatic. You know I can’t actually force love? Nor would I force somepony to feel affection they don’t already feel.”

“There isn’t anypony anywhere she won’t protect, no matter how much it costs,” Fluttershy said. “She wouldn’t leave anyone hanging.”

Rainbow’s heart pounded. That’s not true. I left Firefly behind. I’m leaving you all to Their tender mercies, aren’t I? I couldn’t live up to the Element if my life depended on it. She felt herself shrinking down, her ears laying back.

“You know, you could have just asked Princess Celestia.” Twilight pointed her teacup at Rainbow. “You’re her student, too, after all. I’m sure she’d order an exception to a pony who saved Equestria some four times now.”

“Wait, what? I am?” Rainbow jolted upright, staring at Twilight.

“Of course. You don’t think she’s having you send her friendship reports for her own entertainment, do you?” Twilight giggled. “Really, Rainbow, what kind of overcomplicated plot was this? Get Princess Cadance to make you fall in love with Big Mac so you could feel better about marrying him immediately?”

Rainbow grumbled, covering her face. “It worked in a Daring Danger novel.”

Twilight tilted her head. “You mean Daring Do and the Belle of Andalusia?”

“Oh, come on! That too?” Rainbow threw her hooves up. “Is nothing sacred?”

“Huh?”

Rainbow winced. “I mean, uh. You're the one who brought Princess Cadance here!”

“That's not what I—”

“I was asked over to help provide relationship advice,” Cadance said, waving to calm the two of them. “Not for anything untoward. I think we can clear this up, actually—Rainbow, just from what I've heard, I know you're close to Big Macintosh, but you don't want to rush into anything hasty. You're both young still, after all, and it's better to be sure before you do anything you might regret later. It would do neither of you any favors, and, worse, it would hurt everypony around you at the same time.”

“I...” Rainbow slumped in her seat. “...yeah, I suppose you're right.”

“As for this adoption,” Cadance went on, “I would love to see Scootaloo get the family she deserves.” She smiled. “I can remember when she was a flower girl at my wedding. She had a certain longing about her that I would like to see healed.”

“Thank you, Princess,” Rainbow murmured, her tone defeated. For all that this was a victory, one won without the price she had come to pay, it felt hollow. She wasn't sure what it said about her. I came in here intending to betray everyone I swore to protect.

“Maybe you and Big Mac should try to get to know one another a little better?” Fluttershy perked up. “I think you two have good... you know, chemistry together.”

Rainbow looked up towards the others, who were looking at her expectantly. And why? Because I was scared? Because I panicked when things got hard? I’m not the hero they deserve. Heck, I’m not the friend they deserve. They don’t really know me—the mare they love is just a figment.

Her eyes hardened. Her hooves gripped the table solidly. It was just one thing after another—her life and the lives of everypony she knew were being stolen away. Everything from Berry Punch’s profession to their individual identities were fiddled with and molded like clay.

They’re just going to keep on doing this. Our lives are just playthings for Them. I don’t even know what the world is supposed to look like—it was all changed before I even entered the picture. And here I am, screwing it all up and playing right into Their hooves.

Rainbow took a deep breath, swallowing. “I think I will, yeah.” She took up the teacup and drained it down to the dregs. “This is great tea, by the way. So do you think you could get those adoption papers through soon...? I really want to tell Scootaloo we can be together.”

The first step to fighting back is to let them think they’ve won.

Sure enough, as Rainbow Dash continued to talk to the other girls, the shadows had receded, as if They had never been.

I have to hold on. I have to stay strong. I have to fight back.

She stared down at the remnants of her tea. She had heard of a superstition where old mares could read a pony’s future in the patterns made therein, but it was all just mushy clumps of drying leaf to her. If there was any future in her quest, she would have to find it herself.

I have to, because if I don’t, no matter how unready I am for it, there’s no one else who can.

* * * * * * *

Author's Note

Took me long enough, but here's the first chapter of the continuation of Them.

I was involved with Them from its inception, actually, way back when Chaotic Dreams first brought the idea up. I helped out on the initial planning, followed his iteration, and when he asked for someone to take it over I of course immediately leapt for the chance.

You're certainly going to notice a lot of stylistic changes going forward, and certainly my plot direction won't always be identical to Chaotic Dreams's, but that's the way of author changes. Hopefully, you all find this suitable.

I actually intended this chapter to go on for a bit longer, but I wanted to keep it on relatively the same length as the prior Them chapters.

Cloud Buster's - Rainbow Dash's - problems have only just begun. She may have misinterpreted Cadance's purpose - or, perhaps more aptly, asked for help in the wrong way - but she's only scratched the surface of Their plan for her. Worst of all, she doesn't even know where to begin looking for the Door!

Stay tuned for the return of Vinyl Scratch!

(And for those of you worried about my other projects, don't be. This one is like popcorn - a quick snack!)

Remember to comment below!

Special thanks to Chaotic Dreams for permission to continue and for consultation.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A cloud erupted as a streak of rainbow light tore through it. The streak of light barreled from one cloud to another, blasting them into tatters of mist. Far above the green pastures west of Ponyville, pegasi lounged on puffy white bleachers, watching as the light shot through a series of rings. Then it curved sharply around a flagpole—too sharply, as it clipped the pole and knocked it askew on its cloudstone base—to zigzag through an obstacle course of dark storm clouds, dodging bolts of lightning. The audience collectively winced as the streak overshot the last storm cloud and careened off outside the track before peeling back, losing precious momentum on its way to the goal line. A checkered banner was strung between two clouds, and on one of them a white-maned mare waited, staring down at a stopwatch.

Now that it had slowed down, the streak resolved into a goggled Rainbow Dash, her mane streaming behind her like a colorful flag and her hooves stretched out in front of her. Rushing air flattened her ears against her skull as she wrung the last remaining drops of effort from her wings.

“Time!” The white-maned mare shouted. Rainbow set her wings and glided in circles to burn off speed before heading back. My heart’s barely pounding. She lifted her wings to flex them, feeling only the faintest soreness, while beside her a pair of young mares her age were already panting. It will never stop being amazing how much more athletic I am than before. Old me would have probably crapped out halfway.

Landing on the finishing cloud, she stepped up to the mare, Flitter, she glanced over her shoulder to a clipboard held in one hoof. Rainbow had no idea who Flitter was, who she had been, or even if she had been a resident of Ponyville at all before this point, but it was easy to become jaded to such things after awhile. Would have liked her a lot back then. Reminds me of Fluttershy, all smooth curves and gentle disposition.

“Hold your horses, Rainbow.” Flitter shoulder checked the snoop back, tallying figures up in one of the columns. “That’s one-point-four over your last time, but you’re still a full ten seconds behind last week’s practice.”

Nearby, Cloudchaser groaned. “Still three seconds on me.” All lithe muscle and wild hair, she reminded Rainbow Dash a lot of her new self. A sporty model suited for all weather, as Rainbow’s father might have put it. The old man always did have a bit of a roaming eye. I was never that bad, was I? Is this some sort of cosmic punishment for trying to play the field? Of course, that would imply being a mare is somehow a punishment, and I’m definitely not the kind of stallion who thinks like that.

“She’s just distracted,” Flitter said, glancing at the ponies who—as Rainbow had recently discovered—were Wonderbolts trainees like Rainbow herself. “She still leaves all of us in her contrail.”

Thunderlane flexed his own powerful wings. “That’s our Rainbow Dash.” Of them all, he was the only friend who carried over from Rainbow’s previous life. Though not nearly as close as Big Macintosh had been, they were still pretty close. Despite the fact that Rainbow had been avoiding him and others over the past few days, he didn’t seem to be very resentful when he looked down at her. “Even when she’s not on her game she’s one hundred percent lightning. Just gotta tighten it up a bit.”

“Don’t forget thirty percent cool and twenty percent awesome.” Rainbow allowed herself to strut a little as she sauntered over to a cooler to find a drink. Praise was yet another thing that she found herself having to get used to. The mare known as Rainbow Dash wasn’t just a local hero—which was another heady thing all by itself—she was popular, often in ways that baffled her. She tilted a bottle of water up.

“That’s a hundred and fifty percent,” Flitter muttered.

Thunderlane rubbed his chin, and then grinned broadly. “So add fifty percent gorgeous.”

Rainbow Dash sputtered, managing to spray herself with the contents of the bottle. Thunderlane’s appreciative gaze lingered on her as she tried to mop herself with a towel. Her cheeks burned and her limbs seized up. Okay, wow. Please tell me I was never that bad. The unbidden thought of dating Thunderlane sent shivers down her spine. Disgusting shivers, too. That’s what they are. I definitely wouldn’t want to kiss him, even if he is tall, and really muscled. I mean, it’s not like he isn’t handsome, but he’s not a big stallion or anything. She glanced at his hooves, imagining charcoal legs wrapping about her and drawing her close. Her eyes glazed over. I should chuck this bottle at his head. Then he’ll splash me with rainwater, then we’ll fight a little and meet under the stormcloud...

“That’s two hundred percent,” Cloudchaser said. She grabbed the cooler and upended it over Thunderlane’s head. Bottles bounced off his head before slipping through the cloud, while ice and freezing water soaked him at once.

“Gah!” he squealed and danced away, shivering as he lifted his wings protectively. “I was just teasing!”

“Ponyfeathers,” Cloudchaser spat. “You’re just looking for an easy rebound.”

Flitter glowered, moving between Thunderlane and Rainbow Dash.

Reddening further still, Rainbow Dash started forward. “Uh, girls, I really don’t—”

Thunderlane shook himself, his spray making a little rainbow against the sunlight, and pushed his head forward pugnaciously. “Oh, come on, Cloudchaser! We’re friends, you and me and Dash! You know I’m not like that. Is it a crime to call a mare cute now?”

Cloudchaser thrust her head forward, butting her forehead against his. “Just because we’re friends doesn’t mean it isn’t creepy to—”

Cloud Kicker, a weather mare who had been a cousin before the changeover—What was my old name? Cloud something? Something Cloud?—swooped in between them, pushing at Cloudchaser, while an enormous stallion whose name Rainbow didn’t catch simply tugged at Thunderlane’s tail and hauled him back several feet. “Knock it off!” Cloud Kicker pushed Cloudchaser back. “I think you may need a soak, too, Cloudchaser.”

Rainbow tried to push around Flitter. “Look, ladies, I’m not that offended—well, okay, maybe a little, but—”

Flitter grabbed Rainbow about the neck with a surprising amount of force for such a little mare as she glared at Thunderlane. “Yeah, see? You hurt her feelings. She’s still stinging after Big Mac left her in the dumps.”

“Gak! Wait, no, I was the one who—”

Thunderlane grimaced, looking down. “Yeah.” He scuffed the clouds with a hoof. “I’m sorry, Dash. I was a jerk.”

“No problem.” Rainbow wheezed. “Flitter, air.”

“Oh! Sorry.” Flitter backed off, grinning sheepishly.

After rubbing her neck, Rainbow flapped over to Thunderlane and cuffed the back of his head. “There. Now we’re even.”

“Ow.” Thunderlane patted the resulting bump, giving her a mock glare before smiling ruefully. “Yeah, well, you sure you’re okay? You have been acting kinda funny lately.”

It was at that point that Rainbow realized that she was standing very close to Thunderlane indeed, with their noses almost touching. She looked deep into his eyes, taking in his features.

Oh. Wow. He is cute.

She seized up again, eyes widening. Her legs tensed up.

Oblivious to her distress, Thunderlane chuckled, glancing over to the others. “And, hey, everypony knows that I’m destined to be with Cloudchas—not the face!” He dove off the side of the cloud as Cloudchaser leapt forward, and then she swooped off after him.

Flitter rolled her eyes, walking over to Rainbow’s side and prodding her with a wing. “Are you okay?”

Rainbow turned her face and stared into Flitter’s eyes. This must be what it’s like for somepony with amnesia. You’re surrounded by all of these ponies who know who you are and care about you, but for all you can tell they’re just a bunch of strangers. Stranger or no, it was hard to resist throwing herself into the other mare’s embrace and sobbing out the truth: that she very much wasn’t all right.

Proving far more attentive to Rainbow’s moods than Thunderlane had been, Flitter wrapped her wing around Rainbow’s back. “I’m sorry. You don’t want to talk about it, do you?”

Rainbow shook her head. It wasn’t that her throat was tight—she simply didn’t trust herself enough to speak right then. Worse was that she still felt stiff and strangely warm. She felt like a teenager all over again. Oh yeah, that’s what I need, a flashback to the days when the wrong thought meant a whole afternoon of discomfort. Am I just not used to what it means to be… turned on like this? Eugh!

She immediately scrubbed her brain of those associations. As far as she was concerned, the cure for being unused to feminine arousal was worse than the disease.

“We could just hang out.” Flitter gestured into the distance, as the other pegasi started to disperse from the makeshift training course. “Blow off some steam. A leisurely flight might do you some good—I haven’t seen you napping or taking it easy like you used to.”

“I haven’t?” Rainbow frowned. It was true that she had not really relaxed much in the days since the change. She more-or-less worked herself to exhaustion and then collapsed on her bed.

Flitter nudged her with a smile. “How about it? I know you don’t like the spa, but we could chill at a pool or something.”

“Maybe she should be practicing instead?” Cloud Kicker frowned, glancing over at a huge stallion who was sizing the track up again.

Rainbow eyed him as well. Yeah, there’s such a thing as too big. Big Mac is pretty much the limit there. All that power and stamina and— She coughed. Agh! Stop thinking things like that! Out, out evil thoughts about stallions!

“If she’s overstressed, she might just—” Flitter blinked at Rainbow. “Why are you hitting your forehead?”

“Oh, uh.” Rainbow lowered her hoof, reddening.

“Ye-e-ah.” Cloud Kicker narrowed her eyes. “Maybe you do need a break.”

Rainbow winced. “Sorry, girls. It’s just… well, you know, I’m still kind of freaking out over the whole Wonderbolts thing, you know?”

The other two mares glanced between one another. “You?” Flitter raised her eyebrows. “I don’t think anypony in years has been as qualified as you, Dashie.”

“You certainly never let us forget it,” mumbled Cloud Kicker.

“Uh...” Rainbow broke out in cold sweat, “Yeah, well, of course I knew I was a shoe-in. I’m totally awesome. It’s just that it’s been a dream of mine for so long it’s kind of scary that it’s coming true.”

Not knowing how she was supposed to act was one of the worst parts of this. Dropping the word “awesome” at random didn’t seem to be helping as much as she might have liked.

Once again the two exchanged glances. Quickly, Rainbow added, “And I’m still feeling kinda broken up about the whole bad date thing. Actually, why don’t I meet up with you girls later? I’m expecting a letter from Celestia soon, and I don’t want to miss it. It’s really important.”

“Well… okay.” Flitter gave Rainbow a pat. “I’ll come by later tonight.”

“There’s this party later tonight. Golden Harvest is hosting a sort of music festival at her barn,” Cloud Kicker said. “I know Cloudchaser was going.”

Rainbow’s ears perked up at once. “I’ll be there!” Of course, Vinyl Scratch!

“Great!” Flitter spread her wings. “Meet us around sundown?”

“Count on it.” Rainbow nodded as she flared her own wings, rising rapidly into the sky. She beat her way back towards her cloud home. This day was already starting to look up, even if she did still feel peculiarly tense. Perhaps she could blow some steam off before telling Scootaloo the good news.

* * *

The very first thing she did on arriving back home was to tear through her deliveries. She shuffled through the pile of bills, notices, magazines, and other junk that had accumulated in her mailbox over the last several days. Little desiring to sift through Rainbow’s life until now, she had procrastinated and allowed them to pile up until they overflowed.

Some of the pieces troubled her in a way she couldn’t quite put her hoof on. They were addressed to her from Cloudsdale, and bore the names of ponies she didn’t know, but looking at them she felt a strange little twinge in her gut that had nothing to do with her general sense of malaise and agitation. It didn’t take her much imagination to decide that they were probably from the family that she had now. She put those aside on the kitchen table. A tortoise—I remember you used to belong to Fluttershy. Well, you’re certainly welcome here—bumped up against her legs and she gave him an absent-minded rub on the head as she continued.

A letter from Spitfire very nearly made her forget everything else entirely, were it not for the urgency of her purpose. She could only skim it before becoming light-headed, but the phrases “join us at our winter training camp” and “looking forward to seeing you break new records” stood out as if they had been lit up.

Kinda funny, really, how things change. You could have dangled the Wonderbolts in front of me as a colt and I would have followed you anywhere.

Rainbow frowned at it for a few moments more before putting it down. If things don’t work out quite the way I expect, well… it would be nice to have something…

Banishing those thoughts from her mind, she stacked the magazines near the letters and tossed the bills and notices like salad, hoping she had simply missed another letter. What would a letter from the Princess look like, anyway? Probably a really nice sheet of fine cotton or silk paper, or maybe a scroll…

A careful, minute sortment of the remaining mail proved that nothing of the sort had come.

Sighing, Rainbow Dash gave Tank another rub and slunk upstairs to her room, flopping down on the bed. The cloud-stuff rippled, adjusting to her weight as she squirmed along the sheets to hug her pillow. She didn’t cry—she felt far too empty to cry right then.

No, she admonished herself. Didn’t Fluttershy mention something about Twilight’s dragon sending and receiving messages from Celestia? Maybe Twilight’s coming with the news right now!

Setting her hooves under her, she prepared to leave, but then thought better of it. If she left now, she might cross paths with Twilight and not see her, or whoever was asked to bring the letter. Better just to remain here for now and hope. Twilight said Celestia would respond by today. Have to trust her—she’s Rainbow’s friend, after all. I guess that makes her close to my friend.

As Rainbow settled back down again, she heard a crinkling under the pillow. Frowning, she shifted the cloud-stuff pillow aside and saw the top of a magazine, its cover partially creased. Oh, hey, there you are, Sports Weekly.

Rainbow glanced around, as if expecting somepony to be hiding in the room with her. Remembering that she was in a house with pets, she hopped over to the door and nudged it shut. “What can it hurt, right?” she muttered as she started back to the bed.

She stared down at the pillow, nibbling her lower lip.

“I’m stressed out. Nopony’s around. It’s my body, too, there’s no harm in… you know. It’s not like it’s all that unusual.” She shifted her hooves back and forth. “Young mares have urges, too. Perfectly natural.”

But I don’t remember being attracted to mares. Flitter was practically cuddling me and I only felt…

Reaching forward, she pulled the magazine out from under the pillow, and stared in horror.

Instead of a mare, a toned stallion stood on the cover. He was a green pegasus, splashing enthusiastically in the ocean.

Oh, no. Oh no no no.

She flipped through it with a sort of numb terror. Page after page of raw, virile males stared back at her, ranging from svelte racers and swimmers to powerfully built hoofball players to enormous bodybuilders and wrestlers.

“It’s not fair!” Rainbow pushed the magazine down on her pillow, darting away. Her heart was pounding like she’d just flown a mile, and her skin felt clammy. “No, no, no, absolutely not!”

She peeked at the page that was open. It was a charcoal pegasus, one who resembled Thunderlane in a passing way, albeit with a pure white mane. She remembered earlier today, before the time trials, racing the other Wonderbolts trainees as a group before leaving him in her wake, shaking her rear at him tauntingly and racing on.

No wonder he felt like he could take a shot at the end. She blinked. I… no, I definitely wasn’t teasing him, I’m not a tease!

Yet… all of those mixed signals I kept giving Big Mac… No!

She closed her eyes, but all that came to mind was her taunting Thunderlane, shaking her tail in his face. She imagined taunting him the whole way, teasing him, working him into a froth until he finally tackled her from the sky.

And then… and then...

Sweat poured down Rainbow’s face as she craned her neck around again, looking at the shadows and windows of her room. Tremblingly, she flipped back to the beginning of the magazine and settled down on her bed. She squirmed her hind quarters—that tension had returned in spades, a strange, throbbing warmth building.

“Just… just going to blow off some steam. No harm done.” Her eyes flicked past each one, absorbing their features. Tall. Strong. Fast. She found herself reading their blurbs and interviews, picturing how they must be, until the words blurred and she could only focus on the images. She shifted on her bed, her breath catching. She glanced up towards her bathroom door.

A hoof knocked on her front door, echoing up from below. Rainbow yelped, tilting off her bed and landing on her back.

Staring up at the ceiling, she groaned. “It’s so unfair.”

Rainbow pushed up on her stiff and uncooperative legs and trotted down the stairs, glaring the whole way. She turned the lock, then reared up on her hind legs and came down on the door, hard.

“Yes?” Rainbow growled as the door flew open.

Fluttershy squeaked and dug into the cloud, burying herself in an instant and leaving only her pink tail behind.

Rainbow sighed, rubbing her face. She reached down with her teeth and pulled her friend up like she was a trembling turnip. “Sorry, Flutters. Bad mood. What’s up?”

Pulling herself back together, Fluttershy let out a breath she had been holding. “Oh, Dashie. I’m sorry if I startled you…”

“It’s okay.” Rainbow waved a hoof. “How’re you doing?”

“Great!” Fluttershy perked up, her eyes lighting. “I was just at Twilight’s and she asked me to bring you something.”

Rainbow brightened as well, her ears turning forward intently. “Yeah?” She kept herself from dancing nervously by sheer force of will.

Fluttershy opened up one of her saddlebags with a wing and reached in to pull a scroll out. Hardly waiting for Fluttershy to clear the scroll from her bag, Rainbow snatched it in her teeth and tore the seal open on the spot. She unfurled the scroll.

My Dearest Rainbow blah blah blah…

Rainbow squinted, reading the last few lines aloud in a rush. “...and I see no reason why I should not approve your adoption credentials immediately! With Sincere Admiration, Princess Celestia.”

“Gosh!” Fluttershy caught Rainbow in a hug. “That’s great news!”

It was as if all of her frustration had melted away. Rainbow caught Fluttershy around the middle and danced with her on the front step. “I’m getting my little sister back!”

Fluttershy blinked. “Back…?”

“I mean, I’m getting a little sister!”

“I’m so happy for you. Are you going to—” Fluttershy yelped as a streak of rainbow light shot past her, blowing her mane and tail about like a twister. By the time she turned to look, Rainbow Dash was no more than a vanishing speck.

* * *

A chocolate filly carefully balanced a block atop another at the table in the orphanage’s play room. Her delicate teeth slid back, and the pyramid remained. It was a marvel of toy engineering—over two hundred precisely arranged blocks of various shapes and sizes. Three-fifths of a griffin coliseum, an accurate—albeit blocky—replica of the one depicted in the travelogue she had propped open beside her.

Just as she selected her next piece, however, the table quaked. Lightly, at first, and then more fiercely. She watched agape, helpless as cracks spread between her construction material.

Rainbow Dash blasted into the room through an open window. The table jumped as she landed, and the filly let out a plaintive moan as the whole structure launched with it.

Acting without thinking, Rainbow snatched a large, hardbound coloring book from a nearby shelf and, quick as lightning, caught it under the coliseum. She followed its arc up and gently eased it back down so that it landed with hardly a jolt. One delicate spur fell off, and the whole of it was somewhat rattled, but it was largely intact when she stepped back.

“Nice building, kid. Try glue next time.” Rainbow grinned down at her. “Hey, where can I find Scootaloo’s room?”

The filly stared slack-jawed for a moment before shaking her head to clear it. “Down the hall, third on the left.” She pointed out the door, then reached into a box and pulled out a jar of glue. Her eyes lit up, and her haunches began to shimmer, some image forming on each side. “But, wait, Scoots is—”

Rainbow shot off down the hallway. She took the third door and pushed it open, flaring her wings proudly. “Scootaloo! I’ve come to take… you… home...?”

The last syllable echoed around an empty room. The bed in the corner was neatly made—definitely not Scootaloo’s work—and the shelves were bare. The only thing left was a wooden Rainbow Dash carving that stood sad and broken on the windowsill.

Mere moments later, the front office’s door crashed open. Rainbow Dash stood there, legs spread aggressively as she stared down the receptionist.

The older mare sighed, lifting a hoof. “Rainbow Dash, no need to tell me why you’re here—”

“Where is she?”

“Or go right ahead.” She sighed again and shuffled the papers on her desk. “Scootaloo was adopted early this morning.”

“What—! But—!” Rainbow Dash stared at her. Her ardor cooled, though her heart was still pounding as she walked to the desk. “But… I thought the paperwork for that could take a long time. There have to be visits and stuff. You implied I was the only one.”

“We discussed that last time. You know you weren’t the only interested party. Don’t you remember?” The receptionist quirked a brow at her.

Rainbow opened her mouth to respond and then paused. There was something odd about the woman’s shadow, and when she tilted her head just so, she could see that the shadow cast from the window was larger than it should have been. The head was tilted at the wrong angle for the light—looking right at Rainbow Dash.

No.

She couldn’t help herself. The room blurred in her vision.

Vaguely, she was aware of the other mare helping her down onto a cushion. “There, there. It will be all right. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you, but I’m sure Scootaloo will forgive you. The couple is very nice, and they have a wonderful home—she’s in very good hooves.”

Rainbow lowered her face into her hooves and cried quietly. The receptionist left her alone at that point. Rainbow liked it a lot better that way.

For a long time, the only sound she heard was the scratching of the receptionist’s pen on parchment. She herself made very little sound, and even her mind was very nearly empty. She didn’t want to think, remember, or speculate at all. Any glimmer of Scootaloo was more painful than she could bear.

Eventually, though, she heard hoofsteps. Somepony else had come into the office. Rainbow was prepared to ignore them until she felt a heavy hoof come to rest on her back. She lifted her face to find the broad red face of Big Macintosh.

Rainbow sniffled, rubbing at her face, though she made no headway in clearing the tears. “How did you…?”

“Passin’ by. Lady here thought you needed a helpin’ hoof.” He nodded his head towards the receptionist.

“Big Mac… Scoot, she’s…” Rainbow moaned softly as another wave of grief stole over her. She pulled up against Big Mac, sobbing into his shoulder. “It’s not fair. Everything… ev-everything keeps getting taken and I don’t know what…”

Big Mac said nothing. He was a rock for her to storm against, which was precisely what she needed just then. Rainbow clung to her friend, shaking.

When her tears abated, Big Mac helped her to stand and led her outside while she kept her gaze fixed on the earth. Rainbow hardly paid attention as they walked out of town towards Sweet Apple Acres. They stopped in a grove of trees not far from the farm, and Rainbow glanced up to see that somepony had constructed a crude gazebo out of the trees growing here at some point in the past, using planks across a small grove of trees. She turned to look up at Big Mac, meeting his gaze. The emptiness in her stomach gaped wider, a terrible sense of loneliness threatening to swallow her up.

There was no pony in her life now. No parents to support her. No Scootaloo for her to care for. No Fluttershy to share a life with. Even Big Macintosh had been changed, a best friend turned into something else. He wanted something more than a friend. Something more...

“Well…” Big Macintosh looked away and shuffled his hooves. “I’ve gotta get home, you take care now. If you need anythin’ you just come holleri—mmph!” Rainbow caught him about the neck and kissed him soundly. His eyes bulged, and speaking became understandably difficult.

It was like kissing a statue. Big Macintosh’s body was as tense and unyielding as the earth underneath his hooves. Her innards burned with a guttering flame composed of frustration, fear, pain, and arousal that twisted up inside her. Rainbow pressed herself forward regardless, shutting her eyes as her still-damp face pushed against his, seeking a spark of passion that felt just out of reach. One hoof tangled in his mane while the other held onto his neck.

Finally, after several long moments of silence, she pulled back, jerking as if his lips had been electrified. What am I doing? Oh, stars, what am I doing?

She trembled as she watched him stand there and stare. Searching inwardly, she tried to piece together her feelings, but they might as well have been shards of razor-sharp glass—cutting her to ribbons whenever she tried to pick them up and look at them. The aching loneliness still demanded filling.

Big Mac’s brows furrowed and his eyes searched her face. “Why…? I mean… I thought we were done, I thought...” He moved towards her with a hesitant step, his hoof reaching for her side.

“I-I…” Rainbow’s eyes watered. Tears dribbled down her cheeks. To lean forward into his embrace would be so easy, all she had to do was stand still and let him touch her again and everything would be all right.

With quick steps, she danced back before his hoof reached her. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

His hoof lowered as a plaintive note entered his voice. “Rainbow, please. We can talk about this. I… I can see you’re...”

“No, no!” Rainbow’s lip quivered as she backpedaled, rebelling against the magnetic pull drawing them together. “Big Mac, I… I don’t know what I… you and me, we were supposed to be… I’ve gotta go!”

Launching herself into the sky, Rainbow fled.

The air felt ten times heavier than it should have been. The urge to circle back and beg him to take her back weighed her down. She wasn’t sure where she was going, and she didn’t honestly care. If she returned, if she allowed him to touch her, she would be unmade. She would melt into his embrace and do anything he asked of her. We could be together and I wouldn’t… I could have somepony…

Her concentration faltered and her hoof caught a tree branch. Tumbling over and over, she barely pulled up in time to avoid plowing directly into the earth. She alighted on the top of the offending tree and stared back the way she had come.

Celestia help me, I want to, manly pride be damned. Rainbow rubbed her head. And then I went and freaked him out. If I thought I’d confused him before… “Agh! I am a tease!”

A mare passing along the road looked up at the shout, blinking at her. Rainbow coughed and hopped over to another tree nearby, with wide branches and a spreading canopy that shaded her.

I’m not all alone, though, am I? There’s Vinyl, and then there’s…

She frowned and gazed up towards the sun. It was still early.

“Well, I just killed my appetite, anyway. Might as well do something productive.”

With that, she set herself down on the branch and laid her head down between her forelegs. Despite her agitation, sleep came quickly, drawing her down into darkness.

* * *

Rainbow found herself on a tree rising above the twilit clouds. Moonlight apples dangled among petals of starlight. She smoothed her mane and glanced around.

Firefly sat on one of the branches above and chewed into one of the silver apples. “Why so down, Dashie?”

Touching her face, Rainbow felt the wetness there. She sighed. “You know why.”

“Yeah.” Firefly nodded. “But you wouldn’t have come here if you didn’t want to talk about it. You haven’t visited me at all lately.”

Rainbow winced. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to waste your time.”

“Time doesn’t work for me the same way it does for you. Space and time are related, you know.”

“They are?”

“Apparently.” Firefly shrugged. “Don’t ask me to explain it, Twilight’s the egghead, not me.”

“Oh.” Rainbow lowered her gaze. “I never really thought about it, but I’ve kind of stolen your friends, haven’t I?”

“I think you’d need to use them for it to count as stealing.” Firefly walked down towards her. “Avoiding them probably isn’t doing you any favors.”

“They aren’t my friends, though. Every time I see them, they’re all smiling and laughing over things I’ve never even heard of.” Rainbow moved aside to give Firefly room to sit next to her. “I’m the one mare out.”

“Even Fluttershy and Applejack?” asked Firefly. “They already were your friends.”

Rainbow sighed. “Yeah… but they don’t know me. They don’t know the real me.”

“Meh. Who really knows anypony, when you get right down to it?” Firefly shrugged. “You’ve noticed it yourself. No pony knows the truth about anypony else. Not even I do, and I’ve been here a while.”

“I’m starting to see the appeal, really,” Rainbow muttered. “Changing anything you want. You can undo mistakes or make things work out in ways that aren’t totally humiliating.”

“Yeah, I know, right?” Firefly laughed. “Just rewind the film and start over again. Maybe change the characters around.” She grinned, chuffing Rainbow. “You know how I said my older sister became my little sister?”

“And got a twin.”

“It’s a little sad, but when I first found out I kind of hoped the twin was my little brother. He was a complete pain and they were the sweetest little girls.” Firefly rolled her eyes. “But, no, he’s still around today, making life miserable for them.”

Rainbow chuckled weakly.

Firefly bumped her shoulder. “Yeah, sorry. I know what happened to Scootaloo is eating you. It’s also not what you came for.”

“It’s okay.” Rainbow shook her head. “I… I kind of came to see you.”

“Aww, it’s a girl’s night out.” Firefly perked up. “Wait! I know what this is missing. You just had a bad breakup, so—” She pulled up some of the cloud stuff and then shaped it into a bucket. Pulling the mist aside, she revealed a tub of cookie dough ice cream. “Voilà!”

“Ugh.” Rainbow rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, after forcing yourself on a stallion, you’ve forfeited all rights to claiming you hate mare stuff, sister.” Firefly grinned and poked her with a spoon. “Dig in.”

“It’s not like that.” Rainbow grumbled and took the spoon. “And we broke up a couple days ago, anyway.”

“You’re a bad girlfriend and a tease.” Firefly dug in herself after Rainbow took the first bite. “Also, he’s so totally not over you.”

“I know. On all counts.” Rainbow sighed. “I feel like a bad record, I keep letting Them drive me into a corner and I react in the same stupid, panicky way.”

Firefly gave her back a rub. “You and me are similar people. We let our emotions run us, sometimes right into the ground.”

“It’s all fake, though. They’re just shoving us around!” Rainbow said.

“I don’t see how that’s any less real, though.” Firefly flicked her ghostly tail. “Scootaloo’s still your sister and you want Big Mac to nuzzle you into oblivion.”

“Hey! I do not!”

“Oh? Thunderlane, then.” Firefly grinned toothily.

Rainbow glared. She stuck a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth and chewed it angrily.

“Mmhmm. Thought so.” Firefly laughed.

“Yeah, yeah. I just want someone to…” Rainbow sniffed. “To be there for me, you know? I want to feel… like I exist.” Her head jerked up and she looked at Firefly. “I’m sorry, that was really insensitive.”

Firefly smiled ruefully. “It’s okay. You’re dealing with enough crap that you don’t need to worry about me. Really? I kind of think you need to cut loose a little more. You’re kind of tightly wound.”

“I’m just worried I’m going to lose who I am. I’ve already lost my name… what happens if… if I did go out with somepony? Will I lose everything else about me, too? I’ll just become Rainbow Dash for real and forget about Them and the door and everything.” Rainbow scrubbed at her face. “I can’t risk that.”

“No,” Firefly agreed, “you can’t. This isn’t the end of Their meddling, though. They have Their plan, still, and as long as you're not conforming to it They’re going to pay more attention and intervene more directly.” She leaned against Rainbow’s side. “You’ve got a delicate balance to keep, and I can’t really help you. I worry that Vinyl’s already been lost, sometimes—you’ll find out tonight.”

“I’ll try to hold strong,” Rainbow murmured, encircling Firefly with a leg. Rainbow Dash knew that she was likely the only contact Firefly had with the world—it made the sort of loneliness she felt pale by comparison. That Rainbow was living a shadowy facsimile of the other mare’s life put it into stark contrast thanks to a helping dosage of guilt. “You know, I’m almost wondering if my resisting is making things harder for me, sometimes. It’s like whenever I try to hold on to some portion of my old life, it snaps right back into my face.”

“I’m not sure you’re wrong. Don’t ask me to explain, though.” Firefly stuck her tongue out. “Egghead stuff.”

“Wish I could tell Twilight.” Rainbow ground her teeth.

Firefly shuddered. “Didn’t work out for me. I can still remember how it happened, too. I’d gone into the library looking for her, but when I found she was gone and tried to leave, the door just led right back into the library. All of the windows and doors were the same way, until the space got smaller and smaller and smaller… Then I was gone, too. They closed around me and just...”

Rainbow tightened her embrace, resting her head on Firefly’s. Though the other mare was ethereal, she felt real enough. Firefly trembled faintly, her cool crumbling.

“I don’t want to vanish, Rainbow.” Firefly’s voice was a whisper. “When you’re not around, I’m a shadow. I miss the smell of grass, I miss the feeling of air under my wings. Sometimes I forget what it’s like to have a body.”

Rainbow squeezed her eyes shut and held Firefly more tightly. “I won’t let that happen.”

The still silence of the twilight realm fell about them. Wrapped in their own warm pocket of closeness, Rainbow’s tension drained off. The knot of frustration and confused arousal remained in her gut, but there was something new there.

“No more rebounding?” Firefly smiled up at her and reached up to wipe Rainbow’s cheeks with a tissue made of clouds.

“Can’t promise that. I’ll hang on, though. I have you.” Rainbow gave her another squeeze. “I’ll be your wings.”

Firefly rolled her eyes. “Were you this sappy as a stallion?”

“Hey!” Rainbow knocked her shoulder. “Fluttershy loved that kinda talk.”

“She’s a sap.” Firefly giggled. “But it’s totally sweet. You can be a hero, Rainbow. Take it from me.”

“Ponies sure seem to think I am… Oh!” Rainbow’s ears perked up. “Do you have any idea what kind of pony I am supposed to be?” She glanced around at the strangely lit landscape. “You seem to be more connected than I am, here.”

“Oh, hey!” Firefly blinked. “I... might be able to do that. But not right now, I would have to hop around and collect memories first. That would help you blend in a lot better, at least.”

“All right. In the meantime, I need to get to Vinyl.” Rainbow extracted herself and hopped off the branch to the clouds below. Frowning, she looked around. “Uh… how do I wake up? I kinda just did it without thinking last time.”

“Over here,” Firefly called from behind her.

When Rainbow turned, Firefly was standingon two hooves with a frying pan clutched in her forelegs. Before Rainbow could reach, Firefly clocked her in the face, sending her into oblivion.

* * *

Cloudchaser gave Rainbow Dash a narrow-eyed look. “Are you sure you’re all right?” Ahead of them, lights flooded from a barn on a hill, lighting up the clouds overhead. Throbbing music pulsed across fields of carrots from great boxy speakers jutting out of the top floor.

Rainbow rubbed her face again. “Are you sure there’s nothing there?” She flapped her wings to pull up beside her and Flitter as they neared.

“For the fifth time, no.” Cloudchaser rolled her eyes.

Rainbow grumbled. Firefly’s sense of humor was going to kill her one day—illusionary frying pan or no, it still stung like a real one.

“Come on, girls, lighten up.” Flitter beamed. She shifted her wings, making sure to display the reflective tape she’d adhered to them, each one flashing as a spotlight shone on her. Rainbow had, naturally, declined to adorn her own wings when offered a bundle. The last thing I want is to be tearing tape off my feathers, thank you. Mares are ridiculous. “Some dancing, a few drinks, maybe a cute stallion or two—you’ll forget all about your troubles.”

“I could definitely use two out of three of those.” Dipping her wings, Cloudchaser dove through one of the beams of light, her wings glittering. Rainbow Dash and Flitter tucked up their own wings and dove after her. The three of them darted through an open window near the top, flaring to a stop over the dance floor. Having arrived fashionably late, they found the party already in full swing, with ponies dancing across a color-shifting floor while stage lights pirouetted.

Immediately, Rainbow started looking around for Vinyl Scratch. It wasn’t hard to spot her—she was turning tables on an elevated recording booth. Both forehooves were manipulating records while her magic spun the lights. Well, no getting her attention now. No pony can stand on stage forever, though, she’ll need a break sometime.

She landed with Flitter and Cloudchaser near a hastily erected bar where Golden Harvest popped open a barrel of dark, foaming ale. She froze when she saw Applejack topping off bowls of salt next to her, but Applejack only waved and grinned when she saw her. Thank Celestia, Big Macintosh didn’t tell her.

She winced at that thought. He’s probably hurting more than ever now. Great friend I am.

“Hey, Dash!” Applejack slid a frothing mug across the counter, sending it flying off the side.

Rainbow caught it with a neat gesture. As she had with the coliseum earlier, she hopped into the air and caught the liquid before it could splash. “Okay, that is one cool benefit of being me.”

“Sounds like we’ve got our old Rainbow Dash back.” Applejack passed a mug each to Dash’s companions. “Y’all girls look great. You do somethin’ different with your mane, Cloudchaser?”

Cloudchaser ran a hoof back through her wild hair, making dyed tips sparkle. “Just a little luminescent dye.” She grinned.

“Are you pegasus lot coordinatin’?” Applejack leaned against the counter. “I’ve seen five now with the tape on the wings. Y’all are makin’ us non-flyers look boring by comparison.”

Cloudchaser nodded, her grin turning smug. “Me and the other mares were talking after we wrapped the weather up. Rainbow here chickened out, though.”

“Hey!” Rainbow pointed a wing at her. “I’m not looking for a stallion right now, thank you very much, and I stand out pretty well on my own.”

“True enough.” Applejack laughed. “Are you sure your mother didn’t drink raw rainbow juice when she was having you? Maybe spread zap apple jam on her toast every mornin’?”

“Uh.” Rainbow frowned. “Can that happen?”

The others laughed and took deep drinks, and Rainbow shrugged and downed her own with them. The ale settled in her stomach and sent tendrils of warmth down her limbs.

“Do you know when Vinyl up there is taking a break, Applejack?” Rainbow put her mug down on the counter, waving a hoof over it to refuse a refill. “I thought there were going to be some live bands, too.”

“Maybe an hour or two? I dunno, I’m just tendin’ bar tonight.” Applejack pointed across the dance floor. “Rarity probably knows. She invited one of the bands in. I protested, figurin’ she was bringing in one of those frilly classical musicians, but she says they’re a pretty popular group out in Manehattan.”

“Wouldn’t remember.” Rainbow glanced over to where Rarity was dancing with a sleek unicorn stallion. “I’ll go talk to her, then, thanks.”

Starting over, she paused as she saw a cloaked pony shamble up to the bar with her hood held low over her face. A deep, scratchy voice issued forth. “I’ll take an extra large mug.”

“Gosh.” Golden Harvest blinked. “Are you all right? You sound awful.”

“Just need something to wet ou—my whistle.” There was a shuffling and a pair of bits flew out the hood to land on the counter.

Golden Harvest frowned, but reached back to the barrels behind her.

Rainbow sighed, glancing down. The cloaked “pony” had different colored fore and hindlegs, as she had expected—two orange and two green. Walking over, she caught the cloak in her teeth and yanked, revealing Sweetie Belle standing atop Scootaloo’s back, with Apple Bloom holding up Scootaloo’s hindlegs. “You know,” she said, spitting the cloak out, “I’ve seen lamer disguises, but not many.”

Applejack banged her hooves on the counter. “Apple Bloom! Tarnation, just what do you think you’re doin’?”

“The fuzz!” Sweetie Belle shouted. “Cheese it!”

Applejack leapt over the counter and tackled Apple Bloom before she could get three steps while Sweetie Belle ran right into a chair in the dark and fell over, dazed. Rainbow Dash declined to catch Scootaloo as she darted by, but a golden aura caught her and yanked her off the ground anyway.

A feminine voice barked, “Young lady! Didn’t I tell you to stay home?”

Rainbow stared as a mint green unicorn pushed through the crowd. Lyra? No, it can’t be, can it…?

“You and your friends promised you’d stay at the house while we were out!” Lyra stamped a hoof, glaring down at Scootaloo as she floated her closer.

Scootaloo drooped, her ears laying back. “I’m sorry, Lyra—I mean, mom. It’s just, you know… we really wanted to see the big party!”

“That and get a nip of hooch, seems like.” Applejack fixed Apple Bloom with a fierce glower.

“Are you okay?” Flitter asked Sweetie Belle as she helped her up.

“Ah’m okay, I can see the stars just fine from here,” Sweetie Belle slurred.

Rainbow Dash waved her hooves. “Wait, wait, what? Lyra, you adopted Scootaloo?”

“I sure did! I’ve always wanted a foal.” Lyra paused. “I mean, not always always, I didn’t want one when I was a filly, but as long as I can remember. So pretty much always.”

Rainbow Dash frowned. Unlike Flitter, Lyra was a pony she had actually known, and the Lyra she knew wasn’t exactly her idea of an upstanding mother figure. She was a nice pony and all, but… “Didn’t you tell me once that you didn’t like the thought of being tied down?”

“Well, yeah.” Lyra frowned. “I mean, that’s different. This is a kid.”

Rainbow’s brows knit. “I’m not sure I see how, but I didn’t think you’d have time to be a single mother with a performance schedule.”

At that, the others all started at Rainbow Dash. An icy touch slid down her spine.

“Scootaloo!” a stallion’s voice bellowed, and then Thunderlane dropped down next to them. “What are you doing here? What did you do to the babysitter?”

“Uh, hi dad!” Scootaloo grinned sheepishly. “We… didn’t… not tie her up in the pantry?”

“Wow, really?” Lyra asked. “How did you manage that?” There was a flicker across her face and she amended. “But that was very bad. Very, very bad. You’re in so much trouble when we get back. Right, honey?”

Rainbow frowned, looking at the two of them. Was it my imagination or did she hesitate on that “honey”?

Thunderlane nodded. “Yes… dear.” Nope, no imagination that time. “I could take her home; you don’t have to miss out on the party. I know you know the DJ.”

“Aww, thanks!” Lyra beamed, and then a shadow crossed her face again and she shook her head. “But, no, we should go together. As a family.” She stepped forward and they rubbed noses. The stiff, uncomfortable way they nuzzled made Rainbow’s hair stand on end.

It was hard to tell in the wild lighting, but she could see both of their shadows were unnaturally deep and elongated. The shadows of the newlyweds were kissing passionately while their hosts unwillingly embraced.

As they walked away, Rainbow Dash steadied herself against the bar. Her stomach threatened to heave out its meager contents. Those sick… how could They…? She shut her eyes, breathing deeply until her rattled nerves settled.

It must have been sometime between the races earlier today and my going to the orphanage. What about Thunderlane’s Wonderbolts dreams? What about Lyra’s personal choice and freedom?

With each iteration of Their manipulations, her own problems were rapidly diminishing in importance. It was humbling—and more than a little terrifying. Before she could really think too deeply on the implications, however, she heard a shift in the music. Glancing up, she saw Vinyl Scratch stepping down from the turntables.

Just as she started her way, though, she bumped into something tall and dark. She jumped, and found Thunderlane looking down at her, frowning. “Hey, Dash.”

“Uh… Thunderlane, hey.” She straightened. “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to say…” He rubbed his mane, glancing away. Somewhere over his shoulder, Vinyl passed through a rear entrance. “Look, I know you’ve been really close to Scootaloo...”

Rainbow frowned.

He breathed a heavy sigh. “I don’t know if it’s such a good idea for you to see her for a while.”

“What?”

Thunderlane lifted a hoof, stopping just short of touching her. “Just for a while! She’s really broken up over what happened, and Lyra and I are trying to make her more comfortable. It’s a rough time, getting used to a new family.”

Red leaked into Rainbow Dash’s vision, and it wasn’t a trick of the lighting. She stamped her hooves and set herself against him, her wings spreading. “I don’t think you can tell me to go anywhere.”

Thunderlane’s face clouded. His own wings fluttered, though he kept them at his side. “Scootaloo is my daughter, now. I’m trying to do my best for her, and I’m not telling you to stay away forever. The least you can do is respect my decisions for her and give her some space.”

“What is wrong with you?” Rainbow growled. “I thought I knew you, Thunderlane. We were bro—I mean, friends. I’m not letting you keep Scootaloo away from me. She’s my sister.”

“I know, I know. Look, maybe you could…” Though it was hard to see on his dark features, Rainbow thought she saw a shadow cross his eyes. His stance firmed and his wings spread, slightly. “No, I don’t think you should see Scootaloo.”

Past him, an earth pony stallion went through the door Vinyl had departed from.

Mosh Pit.

Rainbow’s eyes flickered from Thunderlane to the door. Her face softened. “Just a pawn,” she muttered.

“What?” Thunderlane cupped his ears forward. He shook his head and snorted. “Never mind. If you don’t want to be reasonable about this we do—”

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, in that case, I’m going to have to—” Thunderlane blinked. “Wait, what?”

Rainbow Dash lowered her head. Unwilling to look up, she spoke to his hooves. “I’m sorry. You can take all the time with Scoots that you need.”

Thunderlane looked at a loss. He shifted back and forth, not seeming to know whether they were still fighting or not.

“I’ve got to go.” Rainbow flapped her wings and rose into the air. “Take care of her for me.” She darted past him and flew out into the night.

* * *

It doesn’t hurt as much as before, Rainbow lied to herself as she searched outside. It didn’t take her as long as she might have thought to find Vinyl. One of the wagons parked outside the barn had an altered side that could be propped open into a stage, and the prominent mounts for speakers confirmed it as hers.

All They wanted was to use her against me, to keep me distracted so They could finish the job.

Alighting on the grass nearby, she paused and cupped her ears forward. Two ponies were talking inside—one a stallion’s rumble, the other low, but feminine. She might almost describe the latter as smoky. Just as she put a hoof on the lowest step, though, there was another sound.

Pressing her ear to the door, she listened more closely. Vinyl’s wagon was apparently at least a little soundproofed—even this close, she couldn’t make out what they were saying, but Mosh Pit was talking in a lower, insistent voice. Vinyl answered, a tremulous note entering her tone.

Something fell and crashed into the floor of the wagon, but neither seemed to notice.

What in the world…? Rainbow frowned as she considered the sound, then she froze. Her mind flatlined.

Raising both hooves, she banged on the door.

There was a loud thump from inside and Vinyl squeaked. Fearing they might hope she’d give up, Rainbow used the door like a drum set. Evidently unimpressed by her solo, Mosh Pit threw the door open and glared. His eyes lit with recognition and then narrowed in anger. “Just what in the blazes do you think you’re doing? This is a private wagon!”

He tried to grab her and toss her away, but he was no Big Macintosh, so Rainbow Dash simply twisted his forelegs off her and pushed him back. “I’m here to talk to Vinyl. Beat it, pal.”

There was a flash of blue light and she ducked as a blue bolt sizzled the air where her head had been a moment before.

“Rainbow Dash! This isn’t your damned business,” Vinyl said from a small cot wedged between the wall and a rack of electronics. Her mane and tail were mussed and her sunglasses were nowhere to be found. She also held herself rather stiffly, though there was nothing hesitant about the way she was aiming her horn. It glowed with an intense cobalt blue, another bolt waiting to fire.

“Yeah, no.” Rainbow Dash stepped in. Mosh Pit tried to set himself against her, but she simply shoved and he slid back. “We need to talk, now.”

“You’re not my mother, Rainbow Dash, I can see who I like.” Vinyl growled. “Even if you were, it’s my life.”

“That is so wrong you have no idea.” Rainbow turned her attention to Mosh Pit and scraped a hoof. “All right, so, you going to leave the easy way or the hard way?”

Mosh Pit looked between the interloper and his girlfriend. Evidently deciding that he didn’t want to back down in front of his girlfriend, he turned towards Rainbow Dash and leapt at her. He was dismissed by the simple expedient of stepping aside, allowing him to fly out the door, which she kicked shut and locked behind him.

A powerful force pushed against her, but she reached forward and smacked Vinyl’s horn. The unicorn yelped and the blue aura fell away.

“Listen to me, Vinyl! This isn’t who you are!” Rainbow said, pinning the squirming unicorn. “You’re letting Them get to you!”

“You’re crazy! Get off!” Vinyl managed to squirm a hoof free and booted Rainbow in the face, which knocked stars into her vision. She made a break for the door, but Rainbow Dash grabbed her tail in her teeth and yanked her feet out from under her.

They tussled for a while until Rainbow managed to sit on top of her and pin her forelegs to either side. “Your name wasn’t always Vinyl Scratch, you were a stallion until a week ago. I was, too, until They got to both of us and screwed with our lives.”

Vinyl’s struggles weakened and she stared at Rainbow. “I… no, you’re crazy.”

“You’ve had dreams, haven’t you?” Rainbow met her gaze. “About being different, about a pink pegasus named Firefly?”

Panting, Vinyl laid her head back. “N-no, I… they’re just dreams, stupid dreams. I’m a mare, I love Mosh Pit. We’re going to be together. I-I…” Her two-toned mane spread around her like a fan on the floor and she started to whimper softly.

“It’s not true. It’s just lies pushed on you to make you behave,” Rainbow murmured. Every word made Vinyl flinch—it felt as if she was hitting her. “You don’t love him, they’ve just made you think you do.”

There was a coughing noise. Rainbow tilted her ears forward, and realized to her horror that Vinyl Scratch was crying. Vinyl’s chest shook as she tried and failed to keep it in, tears leaking out of her closed eyes.

“Dash, I…” Her breaths came in short gasps. “Oh Celestia, I let him… he, me, we…”

Uh oh. Rainbow bit her lip. She looked down at Vinyl sobbing, lifting her hooves. The other mare curled up. How are you supposed to deal with situations like this? Where’s a tub of ice cream when you need it?

Awkwardly, she laid a hoof against Vinyl’s side. “It’s… it’s gonna be okay. We can get through this.”

Vinyl Scratch immediately latched on to Rainbow to bury her face in the other’s chest. Mosh Pit banged on the door, but Vinyl’s shout of “Get lost!” led to the sound of hooves shuffling and then galloping away.

“You know the worst part?” Vinyl whispered as they held one another there in the dark. “It felt so right.”

“Yeah… yeah I know.” Rainbow exhaled. “Do you need a minute?”

Vinyl nodded. “Yes, but… don’t go. I don’t trust myself on my own right now. Just, uh… step outside?”

“All right.” Rainbow set her down gently before going to the door. She unlatched it and let in the night air. Sitting on top of the wagon, she watched the lit barn. Golden Harvest came by with a concerned look—doubtless, Mosh Pit had told somepony, maybe many ponies—but Vinyl spoke to her in a low voice and she went away with a hesitant glance back.

“You can come down now, Dash,” Vinyl called after a few more minutes.

When Rainbow stepped back in, the room had been cleaned and swept, and Vinyl herself had brushed and washed. Her mane was back into its artfully wild style and her glasses concealed the red puffiness. Rainbow Dash wasn’t exactly sure how she had managed to clean up in such a tiny wagon, but unicorns were funny like that.

“So, I had a talk with Firefly.” Rainbow went to sit on a small stool in front of a table built into one wall and put a hoof down by a pair of disassembled speakers. She had no intent of bringing up the earlier incident—she rather suspected that Vinyl appreciated that. It’s way too easy to imagine myself in her position.

Laying on the bed, Vinyl nodded. “Me, too, but… I’ve kinda been ignoring her. Last night she was yelling at me to pay attention and I blew her off.”

“Well, we’ll see her again soon.” Rainbow frowned. “I guess you haven’t found anything either, then, if you’ve been busy.”

Vinyl scratched her chin. “Not exactly.”

Rainbow’s ears perked. “Huh?”

“Until I got, uh… distracted… I was searching around town for anything odd. I’ve been keeping track of Their activities as best I can—you ever notice how sometimes you see strange shadows or hear whispers in the dark?”

“Uh… yeah.” Rainbow coughed. “I’ve kinda been dealing with personal problems and They crop up now and then to irritate me.”

“Once you start paying attention, everything changes. We kinda guessed that, sure, but you don’t know how deep it goes.” Vinyl shook her head. “Everything from the placement of streets down to the color of wallpaper and how many sprinkles are on a cupcake.”

Rainbow scrunched her face up. “You’re joking.”

“I think it’s like… a knock-on effect or something. When they change one thing others change nearby.” She waved a hoof in a circle. “It’s a vicious cycle. If they move a street, they have to move doors and street vendors, and then things aren’t quite right so they have to change the street again. You see that in magic, sometimes—that’s why advanced transformation is something most unicorns can’t do. If you don’t account for absolutely everything it gets completely messed up.”

“Uh,” Rainbow asked, slowly, “is that like how if you make a featherbrained change in the weather in one valley, you can accidentally make a tornado in the next valley?”

“Sure.”

“I’m not sure how that helps us, though.” Rainbow frowned, turning the speaker over in her forehooves. “We need to find the Door Firefly mentioned.”

“That’s the thing.” Vinyl leapt to her feet, an excited flush gracing her features. “What did she tell us about the Door?”

“That they…” Rainbow’s fidgeting paused. “That they can’t change it.”

Vinyl grinned. “Exactly. If everything changes but the Door—”

“—then the Door is the one thing that doesn’t change.” Rainbow met her gaze, a thread of hope working its way through her perpetual haze of frustration. “It’s like ripples in a pond. We need to find the one place in the world where ripples from Their manipulations don’t touch.”

Then Rainbow paused, knitting her brows.

“How the heck do we do that?”

* * * * * * *

Author's Note

Bwah bwah something loads of characters something plot something something off screen hanky panky blah blaaah.

So five chapters in before our heroine gets a taste of direction. How's that for a direct and straightforward narrative?

Comment below! I love comments, nom-nom-nom. Detailed analyses of the story are especially appreciated.

Special thanks to Chaotic Dreams for permission and for continuing to consult with me

Chapter 6

“You'd better let me handle this, ma'am!” Rainbow Dash hovered over towards a pair of unicorns sitting on a blanket out in the park. The older blue mare ceased in her struggles to pop open a jar of peanut butter with her magic to look up at her. “For your own safety, I must ask you to stand back!”

The older mare rolled her eyes. “Oh, brother.”

Landing nearby, Rainbow dramatically cracked her neck before snatching the jar out of the air and twisting it with her teeth. Though she strained mightily, she made little headway.

The older mare gave her a sour look. She then popped the jar out of Rainbow’s mouth and tapped it against the base of the fountain nearby before passing it back to Rainbow.

Blushing, Rainbow reached over and popped the cap. “Ta dah!” She beamed.

“Uh…” The mare began to spread the peanut butter for her filly companion. “Thanks.”

Rainbow hovered overhead. “How would you describe what I just did? Would you say I was amazing?

The mare quirked a brow up at her. “Aren't you milking this a bit?”

Rainbow waved a hoof. “Please, just answer the question! Was I, or was I not, amazing?”

“Oh, you're amazing all right. An amazingly—”

“Oh, look!” Rainbow pointed and zipped off. She grabbed an unattended lawnmower and scoured the entire park.

“Another great feat of heroism!” Rainbow planted her hooves on her hips and stared triumphantly into the distance. “I have just saved that grass!”

A stallion walked up. He gave her a narrow look. “From what?”

Rainbow Dash dove down to the freshly mown grass and rubbed a hoof in it. “From weeds! Weeds that were attempting to eat this lawn!”

The other ponies gathered around wandered away from her, trying their best not to make eye contact. Rainbow glanced around, her triumphant look turning to wide-eyed shock and then drooping with disappointment.

Firefly waved a hoof and the image froze. Rainbow's own face hovered there, locked in its present downcast state. Rainbow Dash rather suspected that Firefly had left it on one of the most embarrassing expressions possible deliberately.

Rainbow flicked her tail a few times. She glanced over at her friend, whose face twitched a few times as she tried to avoid smiling. “I'm not that insecure.”

“I never said you were.” Firefly's mouth twitched again.

“What were you saying, then?” Rainbow narrowed her eyes.

“Oh, nothing.” Firefly waved her hooves. “After all, this is just what They put together. It shouldn't reflect on you at all... should it? Big, strong stallion like you were. I'm sure there was nothing embarrassing or humiliating like this in your past.”

“Darned right,” Rainbow grumbled. Her ear twitched. “I'm not sure I like how you said that.”

“Oh?” The look of studied innocence on Firefly's face was about as believable as Scootaloo's when she'd raided the sweets. “I mean, it's not like I would have, say, dug through your memories in our first meeting and found something like...”

Rainbow whipped her head towards Firefly. “Hey, wait—!”

Firefly waved her hoof and the image hovering before them started to move again.

A navy blue pegasus stallion bucked behind him, striking the edge of an enormous storm cloud. A ripple shuddered through the cloud once, and then the entire mass exploded into fragments.

“I think we can call that cloud…” He paused to glance over at a gaggle of mares hovering nearby. “Busted.”

As one, they all buried their faces into their hooves. “Will he ever get tired of that pun?” “Somepony put a sock in him…”

Rainbow frowned. She tilted her head, studying the stallion’s features. “Who is that?” The simulation continued, with the strange stallion posing and flexing his muscles.

Firefly blinked at her. “Don’t you recognize your own…” Her ears lowered. “Oh.”

“No, really,” Rainbow said as she watched the stallion try and cozy up to Blossomforth, “I feel like I should know him.”

The image froze as Firefly waved her hoof again. Her sad frown tugged at Rainbow somehow. Firefly walked over to Rainbow and slid her foreleg around the other’s neck, pulling her close.

“Firefly, you’re kind of freakin’ me out here…”

“I’m sorry, Rainbow.” Firefly sighed. “That’s you. Or it was you, at any rate.”

Dash turned her head to stare at the unfamiliar face. No matter how she searched it, the stallion remained unknown. She felt suddenly dizzy and leaned into Firefly’s embrace. It was as if the cloud had dropped out from under her.

“Let’s go back to reviewing the Rainbow Dash footage,” Rainbow murmured.

“Are you sure? I mean…” Firefly frowned at her. “You don’t want to try to remember more about yourself?”

“I can’t take it with me.” Dash shook her head. “If we get through this whole mess, well, I’ll see about finding it myself.”

“All right.” Firefly waved her hoof.

Rainbow Dash caught Scootaloo as she tumbled off the waterfall.

Firefly lifted her hoof to change it again with a stricken look, but Rainbow caught her leg and held it. She watched with her eyes watering as the Rainbow on the screen promised to become the honorary sister Scootaloo believed her to be.

“Rainbow…” Firefly rubbed Dash’s back. “We can do this another time, it’s okay.”

“No. Not so long as you’re stuck here.”

Firefly gave an unwilling chuckle. “Yeah, They did pick well with you. Not to mention, that mane is really appropriate for the sonic rainboom.”

“Yeah, yeah, rub it in. I thought this was a dye job at first.” Rainbow ran a hoof through her mane self-consciously. “You know how… wait… sonic… wait, a sonic rainboom? When did that happen?”

“Got you.” Firefly grinned. “Now you’re distracted from feeling depressed.”

“Firefly! Come on!”

“It’s the thing that brought us all together. I—and now you—performed a sonic rainboom that was seen from one end of Equestria to the other. It’s the thing that brought the Elements of Harmony to Ponyville.” Firefly leaned back. “You got me beat, though. You’ve performed it, on command, at least three times now.”

“I’m fast enough to break the speed of sound on command?” Rainbow blinked. Her head lifted up to look at the twilight sky. “Huh. I am awesome.”

“Now you’re getting the hang of being Rainbow Dash. Just keep that attitude all day long and you’ll be just fine.”

* * *

“So, like I was saying,” Rainbow Dash slapped her hoof on the table between her and Vinyl Scratch, “I took that dragon and shook him until the gems in his belly rattled! He was still putting up a fight, though, so I smacked him again!”

“You don’t say.” Vinyl sucked on her milkshake.

“Yeah!” Rainbow grinned. “He’ll never come back this way, let me tell you.”

Vinyl could have rolled her eyes, but it was hard to tell with her sunglasses on. “Okay, Rainbow, I know you want to show off what you’ve learned, but you know we’re alone at the table.”

“There’s ponies who can hear me.” Rainbow waved her hoof around, nodding to the open window. “I’ve gotta put on a show—let them think I’m getting over my funk.”

“You’re doing that all right. I remember how that dragon thing went, and as I recall, you squealed like a little filly at the mere mention of that dragon.”

“Hey!” Rainbow pointed a hoof at her. “That’s a wild exaggeration which may have no basis in fact, and I’d like to see you prove it!”

“It would probably be more productive than anything else we’ve done today,” Vinyl muttered. She sucked at her straw, laying one elbow on the table to test her head against her hoof. “Or the last two days.”

“Don’t let it get you down, Scratch.” Rainbow teetered her empty milkshake cup back and forth on the table to make it clink. “We’ve searched all of Ponyville, so we’re narrowing it down.”

“To what?” Vinyl growled. “All of Equestria? The whole planet?” She sat up a bit. “Also, ‘Scratch’?”

“Hey, people call me ‘Dash’ all the time.”

“It’s not the same thing. Your name is—” Vinyl’s mouth stood open as she tried to think of an appropriate response. “You know what, never mind. Point still stands.” She went back to sucking on her milkshake.

“Yeah, I know.” Rainbow winced. “I haven’t come up this empty-hooved since, uh… engaging and interesting metaphor.”

“Rainbow Dash, I swear—”

“Hey, hey.” Rainbow lifted her hooves defensively. “I’ll knock it off, okay? I just want to keep in practice for when I really need to pretend to be Rainbow Dash. Anyway, come on—you can still see the changes really well, right?”

“What milkshake did you order?” Vinyl asked.

Dash frowned down at her drink. All that was left was a red smear. “Strawberry. I always get strawberry.”

“Yeah? So why are there bits of banana stuck in it?”

“I didn’t order bana… na…” Rainbow blinked down at little yellow globules plastered on the side of the milkshake. She reached in with her tongue and licked—sure enough, it tasted like a strawberry and banana shake. “Those vile fiends!”

“I’m not sure I’d blame Them for that, not directly.” Vinyl shook her head. “Like I said, knock-on effects. They made a change while we were in here and it echoed.”

Rainbow tapped the glass a few times. “You know, I was kind of wondering about that. I mean… I know a thing or two about weather.”

“Couldn’t tell, you’ve been slacking on the job a lot, lately.”

“That is also a thing Rainbow Dash is known for. It’s very convenient in that I get to take a lot of naps.” Rainbow smirked, but then shook her head and leaned forward intently. “No, seriously, though. I’ve been doing weather most of my life, and I know how that sort of thing works. You make changes, and then other things nearby change, too.”

“We talked about this last time.” Vinyl shrugged.

“No—I mean, yes, but that’s not all.” Rainbow waved her hoof around. “You get around that by knowing how the land works, learning where all the spots of instability are and either fixing them or incorporating them. The thing is, when there’s a big source of instability that you can’t do anything about, the whole thing becomes unpredictable.”

Vinyl groaned. “Laypony terms, please.”

“Ugh.” Rainbow folded her hooves on the table. “Okay, so, you know how we can’t do anything about the Everfree Forest in terms of weather? It’s too big for any two teams to handle and it makes its own weather.”

“Yeah, so?”

“So, ever since I took my first weather classes in Cloudsdale, the Everfree was the big thorn in everypony’s side. It being here means that we can’t possibly set the weather for more than a few weeks at a time, a couple months if we’re lucky.”

“How does that have anything to do with Them, though?” Vinyl asked in an impatient tone.

“Think about it. The Door we’re looking for, that’s a big point of instability, isn’t it? They can’t control it.”

“Wait.” Vinyl flipped her glasses up to look at Rainbow more closely. “So there’s the Door, which They can’t affect, and then there’s ponies like you and me who break out…”

“How can They make the Plan work at all?” Dash smacked the table. “They aren’t perfect. They keep messing up. They can’t possibly account for all of the variables that go in.”

“They would have to sit on it all the time, constantly making corrections, but that could never be—” Vinyl snapped her mouth shut when Pinkie Pie bounced over.

Pinkie Pie slid a tray on to the table. “Hey girls! Thought I’d bring you over some of the cookies we just baked. What’s up? I thought I heard you talking about dragons and weather. Did you discover some sort of cool weather dragon?”

“Ah.” Rainbow sniffed the air. She snatched a few gooey cookies off the tray and shoveled them in. “Nah,” she said after she had managed to swallow a couple down, “I was just explaining to Vinyl here how the Everfree messes everything up for the weather service.”

“Oh! Were you going to help with that, Vinyl?” Pinkie Pie beamed at Vinyl. “Maybe you can blast it with some sort of giant sonic cannon!”

“Uh—” Vinyl coughed. “Well, you know, I was just trying to think of some ideas. To help. Dash, to help Dash find out how to deal with it.”

“You try asking Twilight? She knows all sorts of cool stuff.” Pinkie tilted her head, staring off into the distance. “I bet she has all sorts of awesome princess-y secrets.”

Vinyl Scratch and Rainbow Dash shared a glance. The princesses never change!

“Is she busy today?” Vinyl asked as she looked back up at Pinkie Pie.

Rainbow stood up. “I’ve got this. I crash in on Twilight all the time, after all. I’ll just fly on over and say ‘hi.’”

“Oh, hey.” Pinkie Pie giggled. “I state what I’m going to be doing all the time, too. Right now I’m wacky and self-referential.”

“You sure are, Pinkie. Catch you girls later!” Rainbow started out towards the door.

“So, Vinyl, you and Mosh Pit…”

Rainbow tuned the conversation out. She launched into the air as soon as she left Sugarcube Corner, winging her way towards the library. It was a place she had been avoiding since the aborted attempt to fix her love life with magic. At least it was just Twilight being Twilight. I don’t think even They can do somethingthat boneheaded. Well, then again…

She shuddered as she contemplated about what had been done to Lyra and Thunderlane. Her gaze turned to the left, towards a small house on the edge of the town, where she could just make out the window that led into Scootaloo’s room. Sneaking a glimpse in the middle of the night hardly sated her desire to see her sister again. She would need to see her laughing and smiling. She would need to see the love in her eyes again.

Yanking her head back around, she dove and swooped, heading for the large tree in the center of town that served as the local library.

* * *

Rainbow flashed out of the sky and barreled through through an open window. With a flap of her wings, she landed in Twilight’s bedroom.

Twilight rustled her wings and looked up from the book she had been reading. She stretched on her cushion. “Oh, hey Dash. What’s up?”

Man, I wish I could have gotten more than just a shrug from a cute mare after barging into her house as boldly as I pleased. Rainbow turned towards her and flicked her tail. “Hey, Twi. Just thought I’d drop in. What’re you reading?”

“Oh!” She brightened at once. “It’s a psychology book I just got from the Canterlot library. It discusses how ponies can be divided into certain personality types based on statistical analysis.” She clapped her hooves together. “I was thinking that everypony in Ponyville could have a test so we could collect some data!”

“Yeah, that sounds awful.”

Twilight’s ears drooped. “But… I thought it might help ponies come to grips with who they are, if they better understand their own state of mind.”

“No offense, Twi, but I don’t think bringing back school test anxiety is going to do anypony’s state of mind any good.” Rainbow grimaced. “I’m already feeling the shakes.”

“Fair enough.” Twilight sighed and chucked the book into a pile without another glance. “So, my plans today are officially ruined.”

“Oh? Great!” Rainbow grinned. “I was hoping you might be able to help me with a project, then.”

Twilight sprang to all fours. “A project? Really? One I can help with?”

“Whoa, simmer down there, Princess.” Rainbow grinned, walking down the stairs. “It’s not that exciting.”

Together, they stepped into the main room of the library. Spike was in the process of dusting shelves when they saw him, and Rainbow Dash waved at him. “Hey, Spike. How’s it hangin’? Not still sore over that dragon debt thing are you?” Rainbow, of course, could remember no such incident, but she had seen enough of it in Firefly’s picture show to get the general idea.

“What?” Spike glowered at her, shaking a little fist. “Do you need to rub that in every time? I told you I’m over that stupid thing!”

“Just keeping you on your toes.” Rainbow grinned. Considering that I knew absolutely nothing about you from before, that’s a sight better than I could have hoped without Firefly’s help. Fluttershy didn’t talk much about you, Spike—well, to be fair, she didn’t talk much at all.

“Yeah, yeah.” He grumbled and hopped off his stepladder, before taking it into one of the back rooms.

“So what kind of project can I help you with, Dash?” Twilight asked as she went around, peering at bookbindings. Kind of a cute, nerdy thing. Might have gotten on with her pretty well if we’d given it a chance.

“Well, you know, me and some of the weathermares were talking and I was going on about how I’ve flown to every corner of Equestria. Which I totally had.” And I totally have—as Rainbow Dash. Los Pegasus is a lot smaller than I thought it might be. “They asked me about the sorts of things I saw, and I mostly talked about, you know, the towns and mountains and other cool things like that.” Rainbow fluttered over to the center table, where Twilight was stacking books from the return bin. “Oh, hey, someone finished the new Daring Dan—I mean, Daring Do novel, The Talisman of Light!”

“Rai-inbow.” Twilight swatted her hoof. “There’s a hold on that.”

“Come on, please? I’ve been dying for this one.” Rainbow dropped to the ground, opening her eyes as wide as they could go. “Dying. Please?”

“Ugh. Okay, just return it fast.” Twilight concentrated, lifting the books over the shiny new hardback so Rainbow could snatch it off the stack. “You were saying?”

Rainbow glanced up from contemplating the cover, which showed Daring Do back-to-back with a stallion she didn’t recognize. “Huh?”

“About your project, with which I’m going to help you.” Twilight stamped a hoof.

“Oh, right!” She balanced the book on her back. A relaxing read would have to wait. Rainbow had been encouraged by the Daring Do books she had re-read, very little had been changed aside from the gender of the title character. The parallels to her life were blessedly absent.

“So.” Dash trotted back around to Twilight. “As I was saying, I realized I didn’t really get a chance to sightsee while I was out there. Kind of just went—whoosh!—there and back again.”

Twilight gave Rainbow a steady look. “You want me to research tourist spots.”

“No, no!” Rainbow beamed. “You’ll like this, actually. I was wondering what sorts of cool ruins and really ancient stuff was out there. Just like in the novels.”

Twilight opened her mouth again.

“Yes, I know there aren’t any real traps or treasures waiting to be found out there.” Rainbow rolled her eyes.

“Uh, well, actually…” Twilight glanced over at one of the shelves past Rainbow’s shoulders. “There’s all sorts of unexplored places, like the Cloud Fortress of the Pegasi. They could reasonably be loaded with monsters and unclaimed riches.”

“Wait, seriously?” Rainbow blinked, then shook her head. “Nevermind. Anyway, yeah, things like that. Really old places that no pony ever goes to anymore. You know, like the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters.” Actually, Vinyl and I should probably check that place out, too, come to think of it.

“Treasures aside, that sounds like a great project!” Twilight beamed. “Say, if you’re going to be visiting places like that, would you mind taking a camera, and maybe a notepad? I would love to see them.” Her ears perked up, and she flexed her wings. “Oh! Maybe I can get some real use out of these wings and we can go exploring together.”

“Sure, we could do that.” Rainbow nodded. “I’d like to check a few out on my own, though—you know, something I can do while I’m out anyway.” Because the last thing I need is a tourist on my heels while I’m searching for a magical mystery door of doom, thank you.

“Great! Let’s get started, then.” Twilight attacked the bookshelves, snatching titles from across the room and piling them on the floor.

Staring, Rainbow cautiously nosed one of the thick tomes open. Dense academic writing met her and moated her almost immediately as she tried to read. It was the literary equivalent of a jar of molasses. “Uh.”

Twilight stepped over, glancing down. “Archaeology Monthly, Volume XIV.”

“Is there anything like the nice, easy-to-digest stuff Daring Do gets in her office?”

Glancing over the pile, Twilight pursed her lips. “Well, uh, hmm… you know what, Rainbow? Why don’t you go polish that book off. I’ll compile a list here.”

“Oh, thank Celestia—I mean, uh, right! Sure. I’ll get out from under your hooves.” Rainbow patted the book on her back. “Thanks a bunch, Twilight. You’re a great friend.”

The genuine warmth in Twilight’s smile nearly turned Rainbow’s stomach. It was a poignant reminder of the fact that their friendship was, at present, extremely one-sided.

Well… maybe we could fix that. Rainbow thought back to the images she had seen of her and Twilight hanging out and having adventures in their shared false history. She’s friends with Fluttershy and Firefly, after all. For now, though, time to unwind.

Opening a window, Rainbow flew out. Normally, she would have used a door, but the Rainbow everypony knew seemed to have an almost pathological distaste for using the front door. Winging out over the town and watching it vanish beneath her, Rainbow could well understand that feeling. Faster and more agile than she had ever been in her life, it seemed a crime to inhibit athleticism of this caliber.

Finding a nice, fluffy cloud, she snagged it in her teeth and allowed herself to fall back down towards the earth. Pushing the cloud down by the river, she settled back on it and propped the book on her belly to read.

It started off promisingly enough. The last couple books had been building towards a climax, with Daring Danger—and his distaff counterpart—uncovering the connections between a series of seemingly unrelated plots. The hippogriff with one eye, the stallion in the white hat, the curse of the Abyssinian Falcon, everything was building up to a dramatic final confrontation.

It began not in the university where Daring Do taught—however infrequently that seemed to be—but in Daring Do’s own mother’s house. That gave Rainbow a little pause, at first. It seemed a little late to be introducing that sort of depth to the character, but, then, the author had made a big deal of establishing her mentor in the first few books and that had panned out fairly well. She was not disappointed when she discovered just how deeply her mother figured into the plot—everything from helping to guide Daring’s steps as a young mare to being behind several major setting events.

Of particular interest was the young stallion who had clued Daring Do in, warning her before henchponies descended on the Do home and forced them into a daring chase scene across Cloudsdale. Throughout the middle part of the novel the stallion—Ace Venture—revealed his prior relationship with Daring’s mother and her colleagues, and helped her to solve vital clues, each saving the other’s life at least twice before bear-pits or razor-sharp blade traps could claim them.

Ace was proving to be infuriatingly smarmy and overconfident. Naturally, they squabbled every inch of the way, two bold personalities butting heads at every given opportunity. He claimed he was in it for the money, but it seemed that he was passing up more than a few opportunities for good treasure to keep after Daring and the quest. Rainbow frowned. It seemed as though the author was implying something about the way the two embraced one another in relief after surviving a tumble from the flaming wreckage of Ahuizotl’s airship. Still, it was clear that they had only scratched the surface of the plot, and so she read on.

The plot then meandered a bit, taking them on a slow investigation in a distant unicorn city—Prance. Rainbow found herself rereading a few of the scenes where they found themselves getting distracted along the way, wondering if she was missing something vital to the plot. The point where they seemingly abandoned their quest entirely to attend a local festival together had her carefully reading every line. Even so, when Daring Do’s sidekick found them and warned them about an attack, Rainbow stopped reading.

Turning over on her cloud, Rainbow stared down at the river, where a number of foals were splashing around. She saw neither them nor it, however, her mind wandering. Something about that last chapter… so, okay, Daring and Ace went to the festival. They were talking for a long time. I mean, most of it was about the plot, but it’s like they weren’t really paying attention. And then they were kind of looking up together at the fireworks…

Feeling increasingly agitated, Rainbow squirmed onto her belly and held the book under her. Her eyes flew across the pages. Each flip reminded her that she was getting distressingly near the end of the book, the part remaining thinner and thinner.

They found her mother at last, but could not rescue her. Daring’s perfect plan to break into White Hat’s lair was foiled and both she and Ace were captured at once. When Daring Do was being hoisted up over the sacrificial pit, though, Rainbow felt her heart drop along with Daring’s when Ace came walking out with the villain, the two as chummy as anything!

“I’m sorry, darling. The money was just too good.” Ace Venture chuckled. In one hoof he held the Talisman of Light, its facets gleaming in the light of the sacrificial fires.

“You—! Ace, I can’t believe you!” Daring Do squirmed against her impossible bonds, the chains rattling as she was lowered slowly towards the orange flames. The dress they had forced on her flapped in the hot, intense wind wafting up.

He stepped gingerly around the minions who lay prostrate before the altar. His handsome face wore the same cocksure grin from the first day they had met. If she could have, she would have kicked herself for allowing herself to trust him, for allowing herself to…

No! Daring Do jerked her face away as her eyes began to water. I won’t give him the satisfaction. He won’t get to see how he hurt me. “You monster. I hope you rot, you and your stupid prize.”

Rainbow whined.

Ace Venture flapped up and reached out with his other hoof to turn her face back towards his. “And what would you have done with it, my dear? Let it gather dust in a museum? No, I think my employers can put this to excellent use.” He smirked. “It’s a shame we have to dispose of you, though… I might have liked to keep you.”

Then he winked. Something hard and metal pressed itself into the folds of her dress.

“Yes!” Rainbow squealed, kicking her heels. “I knew you couldn’t betray her, Ace!”

The breakout was just as daring as she had come to expect from her hero. Together, they toppled the evil cursed falcon into the sacrificial altar, beat off hordes of henchponies, and then faced White Hat in a final confrontation in a storm aboard his warship. She practically skimmed the part where a betrayed and infuriated Ahuizotl tore a hole in the boat to doom them all, for Ace Venture had taken a grievous wound. He ignored all help, of course, feigning health as they battled White Hat for possession of the Talisman. At last, Daring Do and Ace hammered him with a coordinated dive bomb and knocked him into the flaming bowels of the ship.

Rainbow rubbed her chin. Ships have bowels? Precisely what do those look like? Nevermind! Back to the story.

As Dash feared, Ace couldn’t hide his injuries any longer. He fell limp, barely able to move as Daring Do desperately tried to drag him to the lifeboat where her sidekick and mother waited. Finally, Ace pushed her off, throwing the Talisman around her neck.

“No!” Daring screamed, holding his head in her legs. “I can’t… I can’t—!”

“Hey… somepony’s gotta put that thing in a museum.” Ace coughed, wetly, but kept his smug grin. “Might as well be you, beautiful. ”

Jerking her head back to the boat, then to the flaming wreckage, then down to the limp form, Daring sobbed. She took a few tottering steps towards the lifeboat, then ran back. Grabbing him, she kissed him soundly on the mouth.

“I can’t. We’ve got to do this together. Last night—”

“Last night, we said a great many things. You said I was supposed to do a lot of thinking. Well, I've done a lot of it since then and it all adds up to one thing. You're getting on that boat with your mother where you belong.”

“But, Ace, no, I’ve—”

“If that lifeboat leaves the ship and you're not with it, you'll regret it. No pony can survive this storm.”

“But what about us?”

“We’ll always have Prance.”

Rainbow could hardly bear to finish. It took her every ounce of effort she had left to finish reading. Every page turned reminded her that very few remained until the end. Daring Do’s desperate flight through the ship into the lifeboat, the storm tossing the survivors about until they crash on the shores of Equestria. The hollowness of her victory made the customary celebrations, which had become a tepid ending to each prior book, a torture to sit through.

Finally, just as Daring was returning to her office to retrieve the Talisman, she found the window shattered. Throwing the door open, she picked up a note left on her desk where the Talisman had been and read, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Rainbow snapped the back cover closed and leapt into the air, kicking her heels. “He’s alive! Woo!” Giggling, she danced a grotesque little jig on her cloud, heedless of the stares from below. She fell back against the cloud and hugged the book to her chest. “Oh they are so cute together!”

She paused for a moment, letting what she had said sink in. Her eyes popped open and shrank.

“Oh, no.”

* * *

Twilight Sparkle looked up as Rainbow Dash burst into the library. “Hey, Dash!” Twilight rose from her cushion, only to recoil at the haggard look she was presented with. “Uh. Are you okay?”

“No, no, it’s okay.” Rainbow said, slinking in. “I’ve just abandoned all hope of ever taking myself seriously as a tomboy ever again.”

“The, uh…” Twilight glanced at the book she had lent Rainbow. “Wow, you plowed through that in like three hours. It didn’t upset you, did it? I mean, the author took a really different direction with this one I know…”

“Kind of the opposite of upset. I… well, I… really kinda liked it.” Rainbow slotted it into the return bin.

“That’s not exactly the greatest literature in my library, you know,” Twilight muttered. “Still! I’m glad to see you taking more steps into a different world. Getting really touched by a book is a great—and I’m losing you.”

“Huh?” Rainbow glanced back at her, having been staring down at the book slot. “Sorry, Twilight. Had a lot on my mind lately.”

Twilight frowned, laying a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “You’re still thinking of Big Mac…?”

Rainbow winced, looking away. “A little. So, ah… how is the project coming along?”

Offering her a sympathetic smile, Twilight turned and levitated a great stack of papers to the table. Rainbow looked down at them, her already sour mood deepening.

“Uh.”

“Every ruined castle, ghost town, abandoned mine, and mysterious relic inside Equestria or out,” Twilight said as she smirked and posed with one hoof lifted in triumph. “At least, as far as my books can tell me.”

Rainbow paged through. The writing was in Twilight’s hoof, of course—very clear instructions on how to reach each monument and what is presently known about them. “But… there’s got to be hundreds of these.”

“One-thousand seven-hundred and forty-five, to be precise.”

Rainbow’s mouth worked up and down without making a sound. Even if Vinyl and I could hit one site a day, that’s years down the line. Twilight narrowed it down, all right—to a golden needle in a haystack.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight’s wings dipped. She came around to Rainbow’s side.

“It’s… nothing, this is great work, Twilight.” Rainbow forced a smile.

Sitting back, Twilight frowned at her. “Rainbow…”

Dash took her hooves. “No, really. I’m just having a bad day. Tell you what, we’ll hit one of these places up when we get the chance. I just need to… go do something right now.”

“Wait.” Twilight didn’t let go when Dash started to move. “Rainbow, I’m worried. I know you’re a very independent mare, but you’ve been under so much stress lately…”

Rainbow sighed and ducked her head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bother any of you.”

“Why don’t we hang out for a bit? Just us girls.”

Irony. Rainbow chuckled. “I really appreciate that Twilight, but…” But what? Vinyl and I are boned until we can think of another plan, anyway. “Well… all right. I need to tell a friend something first, though.”

“Sure thing!” Twilight smiled, rising to all fours. “Meet you at Berry’s?”

“Since when do you—oh, right, tea place.” Rainbow hid a grimace by turning her head. “Yeah, sure.”

“Great! See you there.”

Rainbow took off the way she had come and leapt into the air, circling back towards Sugar Cube Corner. Spying a green head outside the window, she dove down and buzzed Mosh Pit, forcing him to dive to the ground. “Beat it, pal!” she shouted down at him. “Vinyl said she doesn’t want to see you around!”

He gave her one startled look before racing off, darting past surprised ponies in the street. Rainbow frowned as she watched him go—it could have been her imagination, but she believed she saw a shadow depart from his own and cling in the shade of a nearby cafe umbrella. The pricking sensation of eyes watching her did not go away as she stepped into Sugar Cube Corner.

Part of those, she imagined, were just her own paranoia.

Then again… can I really afford to be too careful?

“Hey, Vinyl,” she called. Glancing around, she saw her pressing her face to the window, with her sunglasses pushed up into her mane. Her eyes were haunted when she looked back at Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah. News is worse than that, though.” Rainbow slid into the seat across from her friend. “Twilight was a dead end.”

“Seriously?”

“Well, not totally,” Rainbow frowned. “But it’s as good as. It would take forever just to scratch the surface of the stuff she gave me.”

Vinyl turned her head to look outside again. “I don’t think we have that kind of time, Rainbow,” she whispered, her voice strained. “I don’t know that we have a month.”

“It’s not as bad as all that.” Rainbow reached across and took Vinyl’s hooves, hauling her back. “We can do this. We just need to keep sane, keep fighting one step at a time.”

“I don’t think platitudes are going to do it.” Vinyl shook her head. “You look me in the eye and tell me that you think we can hold on.”

Rainbow swallowed past a lump in her throat. The episode with the Daring Do book stood out rather starkly in her mind. Still, she forced her gaze up to Vinyl’s. “We can do this. We just need to be strong and not let Them break us.”

Vinyl met her gaze for a moment before she looked down. “All right… thank you.”

“Why don’t we go blow some steam off for a bit? Twilight offered…” Rainbow bit her lip, tilting her head. “Hey, there’s an idea. What about the Princesses? They don’t change, right?”

“Their memories do.” Vinyl waved her hoof in a circle. “How would Twilight and Cadance both have failed to notice something odd about you, unless they’re in on it? And I dunno about you, but I think Twilight values you a little too much to screw with you like that.”

Rainbow chewed on that for a moment. “What about Celestia and Luna? I know they’re supposed to care, but maybe…”

“I’m not buying it. What sense does it make?” Vinyl shook her head. “You can ask, sure, but I don’t think you’ll get very far. Call it a backup plan. Even if they were in on it, we couldn’t just confront them directly without a lot of power behind us. Besides, Firefly’s knowledge isn’t perfect—she admitted to me that she can only guess at things that happened before her time. Just because the Princesses are stable now doesn’t mean they’ve always been.”

Rainbow buried her head in her hooves. “Ugh. This is killing me.”

“I… actually may have an idea.” Vinyl frowned, glancing out the window. “Look, go on ahead of me. If it doesn’t work out, well… I’ll catch up.”

“Uh, Vinyl—”

“Seriously, Rainbow.” Vinyl slid her glasses back down and grinned. It looked a little on the forced side, but her voice was confident. “I can handle this.”

“But…” Rainbow sighed. “All right, be careful.”

“Can do. Save some fun for me.” Vinyl took off outside, galloping into the distance.

“Oh!” Pinkie Pie bounced over. “Are you banking fun, Rainbow? I’d like to make a deposit, if that’s the case.”

Rainbow snorted. She rose to all four feet and gestured towards the door. “Just heading out to make a deposit right now, Pinkie. Care to join me?”

“Would I ever! Let me go sign out, I’ll catch up.”

Stepping outside, Rainbow frowned up at the sky. As if they had heard her earlier discussion about weather patterns, black clouds from the Everfree Forest were moving in. The air felt cold, and the steady drop in pressure against her feathers signalled an oncoming warm front, with a distinct promise of rain in the humid wind.

“I’ll have to get up off my butt to fix that before evening,” she murmured.

“Yeah,” Pinkie Pie said as she hopped out to join her. Her face turned up. “That does look kinda bad, Dashie. You sure you’re going to be able to handle it?”

“I had better.”

* * *

When it came to storms at least, Rainbow Dash had a team of reasonably competent pegasi to help out. After asking Pinkie Pie to go on ahead and let the others know she would be busy, she took off into the sky. After spending the better part of an hour breaking up the advancing fronts, Rainbow settled back down to earth.

With Cloudchaser and Flitter in tow, she met up with Twilight and Pinkie Pie and spent what little remained of the afternoon at Berry’s place. It was surprisingly relaxing to lean back in a tea shop and listen to the other girls gabbing as if nothing strange at all was going on.

Rainbow turned her gaze down to contemplate the tea as she listened with half an ear. It was rather like the drink symbolized her recent experiences. The first sip is hard, but the rest of it goes down smooth so long as you take it in easy doses.

“A mare could drown happily with the right kind of tea,” Berry Punch’s voice cut into her thoughts.

Rainbow jerked up, staring at the other mare, who stood nearby. Then she laughed nervously. “Did you take a course in mind-reading, too?”

Berry set down a refilled tea kettle in the center of the table. “Nah. I’ve seen that look from time to time is all.” Evidently, her bartending skills had not noticeably degraded. “What is on your mind, Rainbow Dash?”

“I’ve just been trying to put my life back in order.” Rainbow shrugged. “It’s harder than it sounds.”

“Yeah, I’ve been there.” Berry adjusted the kerchief holding her curly hair back from her face. “If you ask me, though, I think you’re going about it all wrong.”

Rainbow frowned at her. “How’s that?”

“Even if you were the kind of mare who could lean back and let things take care of themselves—which you so aren’t—that almost never works out for anypony anyway.” Berry smirked. “No, Rainbow Dash, you’re the kind of mare who needs to hit a problem head on and not let go. The more you lean back and try to let life pass you by, the more tangled up and stupid it’s going to get.”

That took Rainbow back a moment, and she stared towards the door. “You really think so?”

“You’re darned right I do. Tell me, what are you accomplishing here?”

The chair squeaked as Rainbow rocked it back and forth. “I’m relaxing.”

“Are you relaxed?”

“Well, a little—”

“Great.” Berry pointed towards the door. “Now get out there and sort this mess out. The only pony you can count on is yourself in times like this, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow pushed her chair back and rose. The others stared at her.

“You’re right. Everypony is counting on me, whether they know it or not.” She trotted towards the door, picking up speed as she passed the other ponies in the way.

“That’s… a strange way to refer to getting her problems with Big Macintosh straightened out.” Twilight stared after her.

“You know what? She is acting weird.” Flitter frowned. “Does anypony else thing she’s been lying to us, too?”

Heads nodded. The shadows on the floor writhed.

Cloudchaser pushed back from the table. “Come on, girls. I dunno about the rest of you, but I plan on pinning her to the floor and getting some answers.”

* * *

Racing through the town, Rainbow Dash experienced a distinct sense of déjà vu. Trying to find one pony in a mass of over a thousand was an exercise in futility most of the time, and it had been the last time she’d tried to find Vinyl Scratch on her own. This time, though, she needed very little prompting. As she approached the town square, she could hear ponies talking about something very strange.

Apparently, there was a white unicorn telling ponies all about a conspiracy none of them could see. A conspiracy that was altering their very lives.

Putting on an extra burst of speed, she leapt into the air and cleared the intervening buildings. The sun framed her in the sky as she looked down to see the cobblestoned town square filled with ponies. Vinyl’s wagon was in the very center, next to Town Hall, and it had been opened up to reveal her full speaker system. Vinyl herself was standing on a fold-out stage with a microphone held up in her magic.

“...that’s why everypony needs to be alert. Your children might not really be your children, your friends change by the day, your very identity may not be the same! You, over there!” She pointed a hoof at a stallion in the crowd. “Up until yesterday your mane was blue!” Her hoof found a pegasus mare lifting up disdainfully. “And you! You were an earth pony a week ago, you loved tending to flowers and now you make flower shapes in the clouds without knowing why, don’t you?”

The mare froze in midair, nearly forgetting to beat her wings. She stared up at the sky, where a couple of lonely flowers drifted in the remains of the day’s weather work.

Rainbow stared in horror. No! That’s what Firefly did! Vinyl, you damned stupid—!

“And you, over there!” She pointed at Thunderlane and Lyra, who were pressed together awkwardly. “Since when did either of you give two figs for each other? How unhappy does your marriage have to get before you realize you two aren’t really married? Did either of you seriously think of adopting Scootaloo until a few days ago? Lyra, doesn’t it feel at all strange that you don’t feel jealous when you see Thunderlane checking other mares out?”

Lyra blinked, and then gave a hard stare at Thunderlane, who blushed.

Like many of the other ponies in the , though, a certain amount of uncertainty was beginning to dawn on their faces.

To Rainbow’s eyes, something else was happening, too. As the sky turned towards the red and oranges of twilight, the long shadows in the town square stretched out, inching their way across the stones, even from the other side of the wagon. From above, it looked like inky black fingers stretching out towards the vulnerable white form in the center.

Rainbow cringed at the thought of diving down in the middle of all that, but she tucked her wings against her side and dropped regardless. She landed with a clatter on the stones and ran up to the wagon.

Even as she did, however, Vinyl glared down at the shadows. “They’re here! Right now, at this very moment! They’ve come to silence me, but for once I’m the one calling the shots.”

Rainbow fell back as the shadows surged up all across the town square. At once, the figures were as thin and insubstantial as paper and yet as vast as mountains. Her mind struggled to comprehend what she was seeing—not so much with her eyes, she surmised, but with senses unknown to her. They loomed through the ponies, eyes glazing as their spectral hands swept across them.

Vinyl was surrounded now. Her tail flicked nervously as she glared defiance at the hulking shapes.

Their whispers filled the air now, pressing in against Rainbow’s skull.

This one has held.

...roses, petals in the sky, pretty clouds for Daisy the pegasus…

...cherish thy wife, cherish thy husband…

“I’m sick of your games!” Vinyl screamed. “I’m going to live to see you all burn, you scum!”

Faces rotated out of nothing to regard her with studious intent. Empty eyes and mouths.

You are Vinyl Scratch, you are a mare, you are a disk jockey, you love—

“I am myself!” Vinyl stamped her hooves. “I am who I say I am, nothing else! If I want to be Vinyl Scratch or, or Caramel Toffee, or whatever I have the right to decide that!”

What kind of insane plan is this? Rainbow found it difficult to concentrate. She could feel other ponies struggling all around her, see their shapes through the mist. A cold wind blew through the square, its passage seeming to scour the color from the flapping tents. Putting one hoof in front of the other, she advanced slowly on Vinyl’s wagon. For all that there was nothing holding her back physically, it was as if her legs were refusing to work.

…Dash, Rainbow Dash, Big Macintosh, Scootaloo, Wonderbolts…

Rainbow Dash shook her head, trying to clear it.

This one still holds.

She defies the Plan.

She damages the Plan.

“You can take your worthless Plan and shove it up where the sun don’t shine!”

A clawed hand reached out and seized Vinyl’s head. Though she struggled, it seemed as if she could not longer really control her limbs, and they flopped uselessly beneath her as she was held suspended. Their whispering intensified.

You will be Lost.

Erased.

Removed.

Defy us and be cast into outer darkness.

Submit.

“Lost… ones?” she gasped, her tongue lolling out of her mouth as drool dribbled. Rainbow couldn’t imagine the effort it was taking Vinyl to fight Them enough to talk; it was hard enough for Rainbow just to move.

Cast out of time.

Cast out of space.

Unanchored, diminished.

Forever.

“Forever… like… beyond your touch…?”

Rainbow blinked. She stared at Vinyl. There was something about that line of questioning that tickled at the back of her own mind.

They see and cannot feel.

Firefly and more, Lost for ages.

Erased.

“Like they might have been… around… since the… beginning!” Vinyl was rasping as loudly as she could with a weakened voice box. It was as if she… as if she wanted somepony to hear her, Rainbow thought, understanding dawning. She wants me to hear what They have to say so that I can go to Firefly... “They would… know…”

Empty.

The hand squeezed, and Vinyl screamed. Her scream had two tones, one rising and one falling. Her voice warbled madly as her form twisted—Rainbow saw not one of her, but two of her, fighting for the same space.

“Please! Rainbow!” she wailed. Her eyes fixed down on Rainbow’s, her sunglasses falling as her head jerked.

Seized by a need to free her friend, she set her wings. Just as she was about to leap, though, Cloudchaser, Flitter, and Twilight landed around her. Around each of their heads was a nimbus of darkness, a swallowing of the light that was nearly complete, as if they wore black crowns.

“Rainbow!” Cloudchaser pushed herself forward. “We know you’ve been lying, fess up!”

“Cloudchaser!” Flitter gasped, pushing her friend back. “Be gentle! You know she’s been in for a rough time.”

Twilight looked between Vinyl and Rainbow Dash. The latter could only imagine what she saw there—the horror that Rainbow herself witnessed, certainly not. “Is something wrong? Do you know that mare, Rainbow? She sounds like she’s been, uhm… saying some really weird things.”

Vinyl shrieked again, her form rippling. “Rainbow! They’re… ah, ah!”

Rainbow met Vinyl’s eyes again. They held each other’s gaze for what felt like eternity.

“Not really.” Dash’s voice was cold, empty. “We met a couple times. Don’t have a clue what she’s on about.” Then she turned her back on Vinyl, facing Flitter and Cloudchaser. Her ears flattened, but she couldn’t drown out the sound.

“I’m sorry!” Vinyl shouted. It was like listening to a broken. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I’ll play nice, I’ll forget everything! Just make it stop, please!”

Yes.

Just like that, the storm passed. No pony but Rainbow noticed as the market tents stopped flapping, some of them gray and drab where they had been bright and colorful. The shadows had returned to normal. Even the oppressive atmosphere faded after a moment. All around here, Rainbow could see ponies casting uncertain glances at Vinyl’s wagon behind her.

The other mares looked at Rainbow, their own shadows settling down. Cloudchaser scuffed a hoof. “I’m sorry,” she said. “That came out really confrontationally.”

“It’s okay,” Rainbow said in an absent tone. She turned her head and saw Vinyl Scratch on stage, picking her glasses up in her magic and fitting them back on.

“Hey, V!” a stallion called. A green blur shot past them, and Mosh Pit clambered onto the stage. “What, you putting on a performance without telling me?”

“Uh…” Vinyl glanced around. “Apparently! Why don’t you get that cute butt of yours down and set some lights up?”

“At your command!” Mosh Pit grinned and trotted into the wagon.

“It’s late. Do you mind if I stay at your place, Twilight?” Rainbow resolutely turned her head away. “We can talk when we get there.”

“All right. You sure you’re all right? You sound a little…” Twilight made a wavy gesture with her hoof.

The sun had set, but the air was still warm and heavy. Even so, Rainbow found herself tucking her wings tight against herself as goosebumps mottled her skin.

“I’m fine. I’m just fine. Everything is just fine.”

* * * * * * *

Author's Note

"Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house. Peter followed at a distance and when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, "This man was with him." But he denied it. "Woman, I don't know him," he said."

Stay tuned. We're getting closer to real answers now.

Comment below! I love comments, nom nom nom.

Special thanks to Chaotic Dreams for permission and for continuing to consult with me

Chapter 8

The way was dark and cold. It lay beneath the land, Rainbow discovered. A hollow in the pitted surface of the earth, its mouth gaping as if to howl at the still stars above. Firefly, more eager than ever, crawled ahead of Rainbow, though the only awareness they had of each other was the sound of their shuffling and the occasional tickle of Rainbow’s nose by her companion’s tail. At times they had to slink along by their bellies, and at others they slid on stone as slick as ice.

After what seemed an eternity, they found themselves blinking as they rose to meet sunlight. Disoriented, Rainbow Dash realized that they had somehow reoriented so that they were passing upwards instead of down—or, perhaps, they had never changed at all, but the world had changed around them. With a rush, the two pegasi scrambled out of the hole.

Blinking and shielding their faces from the sudden change in lighting, they waited until their eyes adjusted before taking stock. Disappointingly, Rainbow realized that they had not seen the sun so much as an incredibly bright spotlight, mounted on what looked to be an enormous metal crane and pointed down at the ground where they were. The earth was strewn with trash so thickly that Rainbow seriously considered whether the entire world was made of it. Heaps of junk in metal and some tough, resinous substance clustered around them. Jars, loose bits of glass, and films of clear material shifted under their hooves. Above them, the sky was much as it had been on the other side—filled with unblinking stars and a bright moon. This time, though, rolling black clouds filled the horizon in one direction, and Rainbow’s ears perked to catch the sound of ocean waves.

Flying up to the top of one of the nearby mounds, they gazed about to find that they were on some vast shore, a sandy beach stretching for miles in either direction. Behind them, enormous buildings the likes of which they had never seen stood gutted and silent, steel girders exposed through crumbled and decaying walls. A road ran along the beach, black and pitted, strewn with more trash. The ocean tossed against the mounds, back and forth in a continuous roil of motion, and the storm clouds above the sea shuddered with distant flashes of light that became dull rumbles of thunder seconds later.

“What… is all this?” Rainbow asked after a moment, her mouth working feebly.

“From here on in, I’m as clueless as you are, Dash.”

Frowning down at the trash underfoot, Rainbow discovered that there were a few objects scattered here and there that resembled pages. Pushing a decaying piece of cardboard aside, she gently pulled up a glossy magazine, the cover mostly obscured. There was a unicorn on it—or something very much like one. She had a mane like Rainbow’s, and her face and body structure were overall similar, but her upraised hoof was cloven like a goat’s. Even her horn was strange, for it lacked a spiral and instead curved slightly, a smooth length that jutted from her forehead, and she wore a coat of spotted fur like a leopard’s.

Firefly tugged at her shoulder, pointing. Enormous signs faced the road, and in the flickering electric lights of one was a family of similar creatures, a slim mare and filly with a stallion. The dark-coated male had a familiar spiraled horn, but all three of them had strange long tails like lions, with long hair at the ends. Their cloven hooves were bare, and the husband and daughter’s fetlocks were shaggy and unshorn. All of them wore clothing, too. Staring along the length of the road, they saw other signs. Where they bore a pony at all, it was of one of these unicorns.

The wind howled. It carried in it the promise of snow and cold—a winter that would never end.

“Where’s that servant…?” Rainbow muttered, shivering.

“I think he vanished. We may be on our…” Firefly’s ears twitched. She turned her head left, alert. Rainbow frowned, cocking an ear to listen. A curious whine grew, and then deepened into a roar. Sharing a glance, the two of them leapt into cover behind a huge frame of twisted metal. More whines built up behind it, and they watched as the source of the first noise came into view.

A garishly red-painted vehicle flew down the highway, its heavy rubber tires bouncing as it encountered pits. The driver of the thing must have been mad, for the vehicle careened wildly as it navigated the thickly strewn street, running over whatever it could and barely missing what it could not. As it came closer, Rainbow stared, for it seemed to have no driver at all—it was too compact for any normal pony, certainly, with a shaped body that gave it an equinomorphic appearance. Almost as if someone had gone and made some weird cross of a motorized vehicle and a pony, with tires in place of legs. The other sounds resolved into more shapes. They were equally garishly painted monstrosities, two on the ground and two more flying on what looked like jets of fire, racing after the fleeing red one.

One of the blue ground vehicles leapt forward, ramping off a broken piece of road to cut the red one off, but rather than merely stop, the red one spun and skid so that it rammed its heavy side into the blue car. There was a thunderous crash and the blue vehicle flew up, its side crumpled in. Still, this was enough of a delay that the other three vehicles caught up. The remaining pursuer on the ground took higher ground and leveled headlights down at the red one, while the two aerial machines circled, presenting long tubes.

The red vehicle gave an angry-sounding rumble, almost like a snort, and rotated its tires down to rise on them as if they were hooves, lifting its equine head defiantly.

“End of line for you, Crimson Charger,” a droning voice announced from the sky. “Better hope there’s a heaven for circuit boards.”

“Bite me!” Crimson Charger shouted back in a voice that was at once powerful and yet oddly feminine.

Rainbow Dash and Firefly exchanged another glance.

“Get involved?” Firefly asked.

Rainbow kicked off the ground. “Already moving, slowpoke.”

Rising up like a streak of lightning, Rainbow Dash spun and put all of her weight into a massive buck, aimed squarely at one of the jets holding the airborne machine in place. With a massive shriek it snapped away, only held in place by a thin strut and a ribbed cable. The machine’s other jets roared, overcompensating, and the whole thing spun off, trailing smoke, until it crashed into a nearby building and erupted in a gout of flame. Firefly acted even more aggressively, reaching for the camera on top of the device and tearing it clean off, trailing wires that sparked. The now-headless craft gave a sputter and fell with a heavy thud.

“What—!” The blue ground vehicle spun, turning long tubes up, but the pegasi were already moving. Fire spouted from it in loud barks, and Rainbow heard something small and fast whiz by her.

One of the tiny things struck the junk pile under her and hot shards of metal pierced her belly. Holding in a gasp of pain, she kept flying even as her coat stained with red. Almost as soon as it began, though, it was over. The red pony-like machine leapt from its position and landed with devastating effect, smashing the front of the aggressor vehicle. With heavy blows of its tire-hooves, it smashed the rest of it up until the blue vehicle lay still.

“Rainbow!” Firefly darted to her side, supporting her as they descended to the ground. Rainbow winced, trying not to move as Firefly laid her on her side. It stung, certainly, but she had been injured enough times in flying mishaps to know an injury could be a lot worse than it felt.

“How bad is it?” she asked, craning her neck around for a look.

Firefly shoved her head back down, examining her. “I don’t think any of these have gone deep. Shards of metal and that weird waxy resin stuff. Damn it—I should have been the one to go out there. We can’t risk you going nuts because some crazy contraption ‘killed’ you here.”

Rainbow shook her head. “I’m not abandoning you.”

“This is bigger than you or…” Firefly sighed. “Nevermind. Why do I bother? Your head is as thick as mine is.”

“Darned right.” Rainbow muttered. She lifted her head again as a shadow fell over them. The strange pony-machine gazed down at them with its shiny eyes, a light falling over them.

“She’s hurt,” Crimson said in her deep, scratchy voice. A note of wonder crept in. “Real, live unicorns… I never thought I’d see that again.”

Firefly bristled, but didn’t correct Crimson on her choice of nomenclature. “Is there anything like a medicine kit around here?”

“There is… a reasonably functional medical facility. I can take her there.” Crimson turned around, rotating her hooves back into tires and lowering her back end.

Firefly quirked her eyebrows.

Crimson turned her head. “It’s fine. I’ll drive carefully.”

Sighing, Firefly helped Rainbow to stand and moved her onto the flat, red-painted back. Rainbow felt as though she could have moved on her own, but she didn’t complain—one good twist and she could tear the shrapnel through something important. The last thing I want to do is experiment with the Deeper Dream’s laws on injury, thank you very much.

With a more gentle rumble, Crimson Charger started down the road again. She took care to avoid the pits in the road, and found a good clip once they moved beyond the junk piles. They were moving along surprisingly fast—almost as fast as some of the more average pegasi. The dead moonlit landscape around them flowed by to either side, vanishing into gray hills in one direction and more of the tall, empty buildings.

“So, uh…” Rainbow said. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but what exactly are you?”

“Never seen a Model-1186 before?” Crimson asked, keeping her gaze on the road ahead. “I guess we were pretty new towards the end there.”

Rainbow blinked. “Sure. Right. But do you have, like… a brain plugged in somewhere?”

“Me? Just a processing core.” Crimson chuckled.

“I don’t suppose you know anything about Them, do you?” Firefly asked.

“Them who?”

“You know… Them.” Firefly wriggled her hooves. “Eerie, shadowy interlopers in time and space.”

“Can’t say that I do. You might try asking the Oracle.”

Firefly tapped her hoof against Crimson’s back, frowning. “Where can we find it?”

“Where we’re going,” Crimson said. “Look ahead.”

Rainbow craned her neck around. She beheld a city which, once upon a time, may have been beautiful. Great walls encircled a number of tall buildings in something like stone, but that Rainbow Dash suspected was clearly not. All of it was severely corroded and pitted, trailing streaks of black like dried blood until the whole thing was stained and a bleak grey and muddy brown. A shattered glass dome capped it, the jagged edges reaching for the sky.

“Ever visit?” Crimson asked in a wistful tone. “Used to be lovely back in the day. Controlled climate. Fully automated defense grid. Great places for a robot to hang out. Me and the girls thought it’d last a lot longer.”

“What… what happened to it?” Rainbow asked.

Crimson slowed, turning her head to glance at them before facing forward again and picking up speed. “You two definitely need to talk to the Oracle. I’m starting to get the feeling I’m in over my circuits—never did see many winged unicorns, come to think of it.” She paused. “Particularly not ones without horns or weird tails.”

Firefly flicked her tail, turning to examine it. “Hmph. So… if you don’t mind me asking, why were those other machines after you?”

Crimson charger snorted with a rumble of exhaust. “Politics, I guess you could say. I think it’s stupid, but there’s been groups banding up all over the countryside recently. They view anyone who doesn’t join up as a potential threat.” She rode in silence for a moment. “The ones you met are particularly aggressive. I almost think someone might be behind that—maybe I’ll have a few questions for the Oracle myself.”

Rainbow looked up at Firefly, quirking a brow, pitching her voice low. “Just what kind of weird dream is this?”

Firefly shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m finding it hard to care all that much about what goes on here—seems like a distraction from our purpose.”

“Have you noticed there don’t seem to be any Lost?”

Firefly eyed the area around them as they passed. “Yeah. I’ve been looking, but there hasn’t been anything since we arrived. Crimson and the others seem to be… well, part of the world.”

“That undead queen did tell us to come down here, though.” Rainbow frowned. “Do you think she misled us?”

Firefly shook her head. “I think we’ll find our answers here.” She pushed Rainbow’s head down. “Get some rest, Dashie.”

They rode in silence from that point on, passing up a ramp and into a gaping tunnel mouth. In front of the tunnel reared the statue of a powerful unicorn stallion, a forehoof pointing towards the sky in what seemed to Rainbow Dash a vague approximation of someone pointing the way into the future. Crimson Charger’s headlights revealed more billboards. What few lights survived were only enough to provide a dim, eerie sort of illumination, filling the place with a mess of conflicting shadows that teased more than they revealed. Every so often a skittering thing of metal vanished out of sight, fleeing from Crimson’s presence just as the light touched them.

Rather than leave the tunnel and go into the open, crumbling city, Crimson turned them down another, smaller tunnel, where glowing green crosses burned softly in the walls. She mounted the stairs carefully and ducked her head under a doorway, with broken glass crunching under her tires. Vaguely, Rainbow discerned that they were in a hospital of some sort—something about the smooth antiseptic white surfaces put that impression in mind. Ponyville’s hospital had used greens extensively, but these strange ancient unicorns seemed to have preferred another hue.

Though it was a tight squeeze, Crimson managed to narrow her profile enough to take them through a small hallway to a circular room lined with strange pods, each one fronted with a glass lid. Most of them were broken, but two seemed reasonably intact, with blinking lights on the side.

Crimson lowered her back. “Just slide into one of those. I’ll turn it on,” she said, her voice box rumbling.

Firefly nodded, helping to lever Rainbow in. After a bit of cautious wriggling they found grooves for her to slot her legs into—the one for her tail proved unnecessary. Crimson reached past them with a little metal limb that extended from her torso and touched a control. The lid slid down over Rainbow Dash, clasps held her legs and body immobile, and she yelped as a burst of cold air hit her, then a line of red light passed over her entire body. Tiny arms articulated out from the device, and Rainbow watched in horrified fascination as they went to work. A spray numbed her belly, and then fine-tooled hands removed the little pieces of shrapnel and started cleaning up the interior of the gashes. Another set sewed the cuts shut, then another sprayer laid a layer of foam over that. It sat for a minute, then was washed off by yet another hand, leaving only a thin line of scars she could barely see through her blue coat.

If it weren’t for the fact that I’m going to wake up without a scratch on me, that might have been very helpful.

With a gentle hiss, the lid lifted and the clasps released. Tenderly, she touched her belly, then worked her torso—a little sore, perhaps, but she felt fine.

Crimson eyed the blinking lights for a moment. “You’re good to go; no organ damage.”

“Great!” Rainbow hopped out, hovering beside her.

Crimson stared. Rainbow had no idea a machine could look startled before that moment. “How are you… flying like that? How can you hover while barely moving those tiny wings?”

“Long story,” Firefly said. “We should get to this Oracle.”

“Right…” Crimson shook her head, carefully reversing the way she came. “She’s not far. This way.”

“Is she in the hospital?” Rainbow asked as she followed along.

“Sort of. The hospital is part of a larger complex within the walls.” Crimson stopped at the foyer, then took another route. It was a very short trip—Firefly and Rainbow Dash hovered to avoid broken glass on the floor as they passed from the white of the hospital to a dark gray and black walkway. Below, a low pall of smoke hung over broken pipes and exposed, sparking wires. A little centipede-like machine fiddled with an open fuse box.

Crimson rolled to a stop ahead, and the pegasi landed next to her. The room here was filled with glass screens mounted in black boxes, including one enormous pane that stood over a desk of blinking lights and push buttons. There were other, smaller desks, but they had exposed and missing parts that suggested cannibalization. With what could only be described as hesitation, Crimson lowered one of her articulated metal arms and pressed a large, shiny red button.

White static filled the monitors, one by one, spiraling in until the large one flickered and lit up as well, shining white light down onto the group. Behind the monitors, in what had seemed empty space, rows of towers lit up. Each pillar had a great many cylinders of frosted glass encircling them, each connected by a mess of cables and wires. Some were dark, broken and empty, but most of them lit with an eerie blue glow that was more than a little reminiscent of the undead queen’s fires.

One at a time, the static faded to show unicorns. Mares, stallions, even foals, they clustered around, seeming to jump from one monitor to the other to watch. The great central screen was the last to fade in, and when it did they found themselves looking at an elegant mare with a pale blue coat, her mane and tail an electric blue that reminded Rainbow more than a little of Vinyl Scratch’s, though hers was long and brushed rather than wild.

The Oracle stared down at them, her eyes flickering first from Crimson, to Firefly, to Rainbow, and then back to Crimson. “Charger. Crimson Charger,” she said, her voice seeming to come from all around, issuing forth from speakers mounted around the observation platform. “Have you come with more questions? What are these… people you have brought with you?”

“Oracle.” Crimson Charger bent her upper body. “They saved me from attack earlier. The rainbow one—uhm, just realize I don’t know your names.”

“Rainbow Dash.”

“Firefly.”

“Right. Rainbow Dash here—”

“Strange name. What is she, a new model robot?” a stallion’s voice interrupted.

“I like her tail,” a filly giggled, pressing closer to one of the screens. “It must take you forever to dye it right.”

Rainbow snorted. “All natural, thank you.”

“How are they flying like—”

“Enough.” Oracle stamped a hoof. “Crimson Charger; continue.”

Crimson chuffed exhaust. “Right. As I was saying, Rainbow Dash here even got injured during the fight. I took her to get patched up and brought them here. They had questions I couldn’t answer, and I felt I owed them.”

The Oracle put her forehooves together, gazing down at them with a stern mask. “Do you two come from the Eastern Coalition? Perhaps some sort of genetic experiment gone terribly wrong?”

“Hey!” Rainbow said. “I don’t know what that means, but it sounds rude!”

“Down, girl,” Firefly hissed. She raised her voice. “We don’t come from anywhere around here. I am Lost, and Rainbow Dash here is my dreamer.”

Silence greeted them. Crimson Charger tilted her head, but remained silent as well.

Firefly flew closer to the center screen. “You know what we’re talking about, don’t you? About Them, about how the world changes out from under you.”

The Oracle’s eyes narrowed. “I suspect that if we printed out what I know and what you know, your tiny notecard would be lost among a mountain of paper.”

Dash burst up, excited, but held her tongue. Something about the way she said that… “What happened to your world? It… it didn’t happen the same way it did to us, did it?”

“Tiny changes, accumulating over thousands of years to reach an unrecognizable result?” The Oracle lifted a brow. “No.”

“How did it happen, then?” Firefly asked.

“With a bang,” Crimson Charger said quietly.

“Succinct,” the Oracle agreed. “It hardly captures the fullness of the problem, of course. I’d say it ended with hubris.”

A chill ran down Rainbow Dash’s spine. “You knew about Them, didn’t you? Even before it all ended, before you sank into the Dream.”

“Oh, very nicely intuited, Miss Rainbow Dash,” the posh stallion from earlier said. “We didn’t call them—ahem—Them by that name, though.”

Rainbow gaped for a moment, staring at the tiny screen.

“Such a colorful term, really.” The stallion peered through, flicking his long tail avidly. “Which one of you fine mares came up with it?”

Firefly lifted her hoof. “I popularized it. It was… a sort of epithet among the other Lost. When you said Them, everypony knew what you meant.”

The filly giggled, peering at them through the tangles of her blond mane. “‘Everypony?’ Wow, that is just—adorable! Do you say ‘anypony’ as well? How about ‘somepony?’”

“So, wait…” asked Rainbow. She turned around to look at the monitors crowding about. “None of you are Lost?”

“Not as you might define it,” the Oracle said. “As you may have surmised, we had a very different relationship with the Entelecheia than you did.”

Rainbow blinked. “The entela-what now?”

“En-tel-uh-kay-uh,” the filly said. “It means realization, actuality as opposed to potentiality.”

“I am equally confused.”

The Oracle waved a hoof. “The Entelecheia, or Them if you prefer, are something akin to an editing staff. The universe is filled with transcription errors, and it is Their purpose to correct them. The notion of being fully realized as opposed to being potentially realized is a complicated one that would take all day to explain. Think of it as not unlike the difference between being able to see a thing done and being able to perform an act, only on a metaphysical label. One merely touches, the other alters.”

“So.” Firefly sat down. “Where did it all go wrong? I’m assuming there’s a point where that happened, because somehow I don’t think you all chose this existence willingly.”

The Oracle eyed her for a moment, then shifted in her seat to rise. “Others have come here before from higher up, seeking answers. Why should I take the time? I have a vast swath of territory to administer to, and, while some of us may feel the desire to be idle and entertain their curiosity—” she shot a glare towards the other monitors “—this world, though it may be a dream, is real enough to be threatening.”

“Because we can end it,” Firefly said. “We can end the whole thing.”

“So confidently spoken for one who ought to be a pale shadow clinging to the dust.”

“I didn’t merely hear it from the Lost, I heard it from Them. I’ve heard your Entelecheia whispering in the dark corners of time and space. They’re confused, disoriented, and They say more than They mean to.”

The Oracle turned her nose up, glaring down at Firefly. “And what have you heard, little one?”

“That the Book can be rewritten, that ponies such as myself can be reincorporated, that the world doesn’t need to run to Their needs.” Firefly lifted her head to stare back at the Oracle. “All we need to do is insert someone real into Their world.”

“And you, Rainbow Dash,” the Oracle said as she turned her head to Rainbow, “are willing to risk this, even knowing Their power to unmake your very being?”

Rainbow nodded. “I’ve made my peace with it. They hurt me, They changed my life and the lives of the ponies I’m closest to.” She looked into the Oracle’s eyes and kept them. “I can’t stand by and let everyone everywhere keep suffering the way that they are.”

A voice in the crowd snorted. “Suffering is the default state of existence.”

“Yeah, well, that didn’t stop you all from building machines to heal injuries, did—”

The Oracle held up her hoof. “Peace, Rainbow Dash. You, too, back there.” She lowered it and shook her head. “I wanted to assess how serious you were about this endeavor. I see now that you are committed, regardless of the consequences.”

She trotted away from her chair, and the viewpoint followed her, watching as her horn lit up at the tip with a spark. There was a rumbling from up above, and then one of the frosted glass tubes lowered into the center of the room. Images appeared around it, flybys of pristine countryside marked by dramatic mountain vistas and deep, rich waters. One flew over what Rainbow guessed to be the city they had passed through, for she could see a gleaming white citadel in the distance, surmounted by a dome that contained its own clouds.

“This was our world, before the end,” the Oracle said. “The unicorn race lived in happiness and prosperity. After thousands of years of strife and struggle, we had achieved what appeared to be an everlasting peace.” Images of the strange pre-Equestrian unicorns appeared, their horns lighting as they walked. “The key to this was new magic, which could pull objects seemingly out of nowhere at all. The most skilled became venerated artisans, and we created new mechanical servants such as Crimson Charger and her ilk to relieve us of the burden of labor in constructing our new society.”

Crimson shifted on her tires. She had the look of someone who wanted to stay well out of this conversation, moving to a corner.

Rainbow watched the images go by, frowning up at the Oracle. “Objects out of nothing? The Entele—uhm. Them?”

“Precisely. This all was made possible by the efforts of a few unicorns. There was myself and certain of my colleagues around the world, but all of our efforts would have been for naught if not for the input provided by Hawa.”

An image appeared in front of them, revealing a slender, pretty young unicorn mare. What really caught Rainbow’s attention, though, was the color of her mane and tufted tail—a smooth progression of prismatic color from pale red to bright blue. It wasn’t rigidly segmented like her own hair, but Rainbow still tugged her own tail forward to compare the hues.

Firefly, her own eyes widening, looked to Rainbow Dash and then up to the Oracle. “You aren’t helping us out of simple conviction, are you…?”

The Oracle smiled. “Mmm, well, I wasn’t lying when I said I needed to see how convicted you are. As for what it means, I haven’t the faintest idea. Perhaps you can tell me, if you succeed.”

“What did Hawa do?” Rainbow Dash asked. Her throat felt dry. She tried to get a better look at the mare’s eye color—her coat was a soft green, but her eyes were hard to discern.

“She told us about the Entelecheia.” The Oracle flipped through images—a lecture hall filled with unicorns, a lab filled with equipment Twilight would be envious of, Hawa pulling blocks of iron out of thin air. “She taught us how to contact Them, how to seek their aid in meeting our needs. I developed the coded signals that would allow complex requests to be sent. My other colleagues—Dantalion, Marcosius, Astaroth, Belial, others—devised spells and new commands, increasing our control and repertoire of choices.”

“I think I see where this is going,” Firefly muttered. “Hubris, huh?”

“Distressingly correct,” the stallion said and sighed. “It started small, of course.”

The filly scrunched her face up. “Then it got big.” She put her hooves together and blew them apart with a little puff of air.

The Oracle added new images. Piles of discards mounting in the cities. “Problems of overproduction were the first issue. Then we started asking the Entelecheia to remove them. As our control over Them increased, so too did our grasp. We moved from being able to create and destroy objects to altering them. Oh, no one was very good at it at first, but how long did it take us to progress from altering atomic particles to affecting small objects?” A animation played of an apple being turned into a kitten.

“How long did it take us to move from that to affecting other unicorns?”

Rainbow swallowed.

“And, then, how long until the world itself came under our grasp?”

The silence held for a moment.

“As it turned out… not long. Not long at all. But, nor did we really have a chance to appreciate it. One night, when I was running around trying to glue the world back together and rebottle the monstrosity I had helped to create, it all ended. My instruments were ringing like mad—something truly terrible had happened. The planet was off course. Somehow, someone had tried to tinker with it, and we were careening towards the sun, entirely off-orbit. Then, in my next blink, it was over.” The Oracle stamped a hoof. “Just gone.”

Firefly perked her ears. “They—I mean, the Entelecheia—didn’t appear and take you down?”

The Oracle shook her head. “No. One moment we were alive, the next we were cast away. The entire world, started over from scratch.” She glanced off at nothing in particular. “We’ve heard from your Lost about how the world has changed. I finally understood what had happened—the Entelecheia took from our world a small portion of people and shaped them, changing them into different species and erasing their memories. You may even know some of them.”

New images were projected into the air. There was a gray-haired unicorn stallion with a goat-like beard and a cocky grin. Two fillies played with Hawa, one with soft pink hair and the other as dark as night.

“But…” Rainbow looked down at herself. “What about the Elements? The Elements of Harmony…”

A wan smile crossed the Oracle’s lips. “Do you not see? Our world was regulated by strict physical laws. Even our ‘magic’ was a thing of direct and certain purpose.” She gestured around her. “Even if it were not for the Entelecheia, we would have inevitably have discovered another new power to exploit. In time, machines such as Crimson Charger may have become more intelligent than any unaided unicorn—we would have had to upgrade ourselves as well or be relegated to obsolescence.”

Her gaze fell across the monitors. The unicorns therein turned uncertain, shuffling their hooves. “It wouldn’t have been so bad, if we had been given the chance to plan it better,” the filly said quietly. “We deal with what we are dealt.”

“That we do.” The Oracle fixed her gaze on her guests once more. “Your world is different. It is held in tension between vast forces which are governed not solely by physical law, but by metaphysical dictates which are stronger still.” She moved the image of the two fillies forward, their happy faces unwitting. “Your magic, expressed through these two, regulates the very orbit of the celestial bodies. Friendship and harmony maintain the stability of your existence, and whenever pressure for change builds that is permitted—” the image of the grey-maned stallion shifted forward. Firefly’s lip curled “—and then the potential for excess in chaos and disaster is countered by the stalwart might of the forces responsible for maintaining it.”

“So…” Rainbow frowned. “These Entele-whatsits are responsible not only for your world ending, but for Discord, the princesses Celestia and Luna—”

“Princesses?” the Oracle asked with a note of surprise, and then smiled. “Mm. They would like that. It is always nice to know one’s children have moved up in the world. Pity poor Dantalion, though—a prankster he may have been, but that’s a far cry from a monster.”

Rainbow stared.

Firefly coughed. “That can’t be all, though. Every day—and every hour of the day—the Entelecheia are making changes.” She waved her hoof in a circle. “The world is in daily flux. How can it possibly be stable between these tensions as you claim?”

“I do not know. I am sorry—I see very far, and I have learned much, but I do not know everything.” She looked around at the others again, taking in the command center. “As for us? Well, perhaps to you this world seems real, until you realize that in it nothing grows. Oh, things die, and then they linger. Best just to destroy them and hope they no longer have the sense to realize anything has been done to them at that point.” She sighed, then, and weight seemed to catch up with her—though Rainbow Dash was beginning to suspect that the image projected had little to do with her present reality. “We’ve done what we can to survive here ever since.”

Rainbow Dash and Firefly remained silent for a time, quietly absorbing what they had been told. Finally, Firefly shook herself and step forward. “If you’ve contacted Them, you must know where the Door is.”

“I am sorry. I do not.”

“But there should be signs—”

“I know. I have tried. The Entelecheia did not affect our world as it did yours.” The Oracle lifted her head, looking at the two of them. “It’s not within my power, but it is within yours.”

Rainbow flicked her tail, glancing around. “What do you mean?”

“You can go where we cannot. There is a yet deeper layer to this outer world.”

Rainbow gagged. “Oh, no. How much further do we have to go?”

The Oracle quirked her head. “I confess that I may be wrong, but I dare say it will be the furthest you need to go. You see…” She brought up the image again. Her face had a kind, innocent cast to it that reminded Rainbow Dash of Fluttershy—someone who only wanted the best for everyone she met. “Hawa didn’t exist. Oh, she had a record and a family who claimed they knew her, but once I started working with the Entelecheia I was able to see the holes in her story. She knew nothing of our world when she first appeared on my doorstep.”

The Oracle rose up to her full height. “Go to her world, Rainbow Dash and Firefly. Find out where it all began.” She held out a hoof, her eyes softening. “I beg you—we beg you to save us, before we lose what little we have left.”

* * *

The landscape rolled away on either side as they sped along. Crimson Charger, no longer having to worry about Rainbow Dash’s condition, raced along at her full clip. She wasn’t as fast as either Rainbow Dash nor Firefly could be, but the two of them still had to work to keep up. Riding on her was out of the question—her body bounced and jolted heavily with every rock and pitfall under her tires.

Rainbow Dash looked over at Firefly, the wind of their passage whipping her hair. The storm from earlier was closer now, and it threatened the dead landscape with its terrible intensity. Thunder was a nearly continuous rolling rumble in the distance. “Firefly? Do you think we might be in over our heads?”

“Yes,” she said, keeping her eyes forward. “Doesn’t change anything, though.”

“Yeah…” Rainbow sighed. “I know. I’m worried that what we’re doing… it’s not so different from what this Hawa tried to do.”

“We want to end it, Rainbow. Close the Book.”

“Will it stop somepony from doing it again, though? What if some unicorn right now figures out a way to control Them like the Oracle back there did?”

Firefly shook her head. “We can’t worry about what might happen. What’s in front of us is the task of saving our world—all of our worlds—from further alteration. The Entelecheia, whatever they are, need to stop.”

Rainbow sighed again, but nodded. She looked down to Crimson Charger, whose unreadable face conveyed nothing. Rainbow dipped lower. “Hey, are you all right?”

“I am fine,” she answered. “We’re almost to the place the Oracle directed me to take you to. The Entelechy Research Center.”

The flat terrain gave way to foothills, then to low peaks. Crimson Charger followed a valley road as it led higher. Another decaying building like the city they had left behind clung to the stone. It had possessed a spire, once upon a time, but now there was only a stump above it and a pile of rubble in the valley below, jutting out of a toxic lake. The doors were bolted shut, but Crimson Charger simply lifted her foretires and slammed against the barricade, blowing through the gray stone-like stuff as if it were so much cake frosting.

Rainbow tried not to let herself get distracted. I could spend years wandering this world, discovering everything it has to offer… I may not be Twilight Sparkle with a fascination for all knowledge, but this is a whole new world. Right now, though, I have work to do. She did pause a few times, looking at displays of strange objects under glass—blobs of unidentifiable goo or solids or bottles of liquids that looked like molten gold. The labels were incomprehensible to her, but she guessed that they were early experiments. Things pulled from the ether that had never existed, materials that were never found in nature. You know, come to think of it, how come they all spoke Equestrian? Food for thought.

Finally, they came to rest in a circular room lined with strange instruments. Great orbs studded with glass on long booms, parabolic dishes, antennae, and more that Rainbow Dash couldn’t put a hoof on. A hole had been torn in the ceiling, revealing the moon and the clouds that were racing to cover it. At the bottom, another hole gaped up them.

Firefly darted down and stood on the edge, peeking her head in. “Sure seems like the other one. A deep dark hole to oblivion.”

Rainbow hovered near Crimson Charger, frowning at her. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I… fine. I’ll be fine, just…” Crimson turned her head to look at Rainbow Dash. “If it’s all right, could you… could you try to save me, too, and the other robots? I know we’re just machines, but…”

Rainbow knocked her hard chest with a hoof. “You bet. If it’s in my power, it’s done.”

“That’s all I can ask.” She looked away. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Ready to go, Firefly?”

Firefly shook her head. “No. But, here I go anyway.” She hopped up and slid down into the tunnel, buzzing her wings to slow her fall. After one last look at Crimson Charger, Rainbow dove in after her.

* * *

As before, the way was dark and lonely. This time, the passage was perfectly straight, or so close as to make no difference. Looking up, Rainbow could even see the moon they had left behind after what seemed a mile or more of falling—the hole made it a tiny white pinprick, a lone star in a sea of perfect darkness.

Below them, a new point of light formed, and it grew. There was nothing like exiting out a tunnel—instead, it was as if the world grew up around them, while above the moon hung huge and full. Falling through nothing, Rainbow Dash reached out and took Firefly’s hoof. Below them, an ocean ran in all directions. There wasn’t so much a horizon as there was a vanishing line. Beneath the water, they could see shapes, or suggestions of them, each one gleaming with reflected moonlight. Ships, towers, and castles. Cities, great spires like the ones of the world they had left behind. Pyramids, obelisks like the desert world. Some were as large as the earth and others were larger still.

Rainbow Dash soon ran out of names. Even trying to count the myriad shapes below would have taken all of her remaining life and more. She couldn’t have glimpsed even the smallest portion if she had tried.

“The stars,” Firefly whispered. “It’s just… this. There’s no sky, no ocean, no horizon. It’s all bits of world.”

Rainbow looked up. Unblinking stars, just as they had seen before, glittered down at them. “I don’t understand. How can this be a place someone is from?”

Firefly stared out at the world around them. “Time is meaningless without space. Without matter and energy to give it reason, there is no arrow of history.”

“Please explain it in a way somepony who isn’t Twilight Sparkle can understand.”

“This is the beginning, Rainbow Dash, but it’s also the end,” Firefly said, and then shook her head. “No, I’m sorry… this is the mind’s conception of the beginning. This is the beginning of all things as perceived by the collective conception of everypony, everyone, and everything that has ever or will ever think. The beginning contains the end because all things that ever will be are encompassed in that moment of creation.”

Firefly pointed her hoof below. “We aren’t looking at things, Rainbow Dash. These are… they’re the templates of things that are to come and have come before. I bet if we dived into that ocean we would find more, layers and layers of it, down until there’s nothing left… and then we would vanish as well.”

“How… how do you know all this?” Rainbow asked, staring at her companion.

“Because, in a way… I’m part of it.” Firefly pursed her lips. “When They cast me into outer darkness, the only thing that remained was my mind. A collection of memories and traits held together by a purpose. I’m borrowing from everything around me to keep it that way, enough that… that I have some perception of it all. I process and synthesize it through my own experiences, but I am a part of this world and it is a part of me.”

Her eyes filled with tears, sparkling above them as the two of them fell. “Don’t you see, Dashie? We’re all one deep down. You and me and everyone.”

Rainbow continued to stare at her. To say she didn’t know how to take this would have been an understatement. “I… okay, I’ll admit that I don’t understand. I’m trying, honestly, and it’s like…” Rainbow scrunched her face up. “We’re like all of these things. We existed when the world started, together, and we’ll end up here, together?”

“Meh, close enough.” Firefly laughed.

“How can Hawa be from here, though? This isn’t exactly the kind of place for someone to grow up!”

Firefly gave Rainbow Dash a long, lingering look, then shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“But… what about our task? I don’t understand how this… how this all…” Rainbow turned her head up. The moon shone above them, serene as ever. “Firefly… what’s the one thing that we’ve seen, totally unchanged, in every world, including our own?”

Firefly looked up. “Well. Look at that. Staring us right in the face the whole time.” With that, she began to laugh again, loud and long. She took Rainbow’s hooves and danced with her across the sky. Caught up in her infectious cheer, Rainbow danced with her, her face breaking into a grin.

“The Door is on the Moon, the Door is on the Moon!” They were singing completely out of key, but neither of them cared. “We’ve come all this way, fought through terrible dangers you see, just so we can say, that the Moon is where we want to be! Hey, you don’t need to be a loon, say, to see that the Door is on the Moon!”

They giggled for a while before laying back so that they could watch the great orb. Eventually, Firefly said, “Of course, there’s the question of where on it. I’ve been there before, you know.”

Rainbow turned her head to look at her. “I… vaguely remember that? I think I was out of Ponyville at the time. Fluttershy said that Rarity had been kidnapped and turned into something like Nightmare Moon.” Rainbow grinned. “Scootaloo told me that she got to beat up a moon monster.”

Firefly giggled. “Yeah, she did.” She rubbed her chin. “There’s a really creepy palace up there. It’s a bit like Celestia’s throne room, only it looks out over the moon. I’d have to imagine it’s not a place where the moon critters are…” She tilted her head. “Then again, they didn’t really seem all that synced up to life on the earth. It’s possible that they just don’t register to the Entelecheia for the most part.”

“Could Hawa be a moon creature?”

“No idea.” Firefly shrugged. “Only way to know is to find out. Somehow, though, I doubt it.”

Rainbow frowned, considering their options. “Would Princess Luna know?”

“I don’t think so. From the sounds of it, They set her and Celestia up as some sort of patch to keep the planet stable. Even her time spent on the moon’s surface wasn’t really on it so much as, uhm… splashed over it. In it.” Firefly made a sour face. “Whatever.”

“You guys went all over the light side of the moon, though, didn’t you?”

Firefly nodded. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“Well, that just leaves one part.” Rainbow nodded to herself. “The dark side of the moon. That sounds like a band.”

“It does,” Firefly agreed. She narrowed her eyes. “Now, how do we get you up there… it took Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, and a team of ponies with a magic rope to get it close enough for me to fly to in any reasonable span of time.”

Rainbow snorted. “That? That’s the easy part. We already know who can get me to the moon.”

“Oh?” Firefly asked. “Who’s that?”

“Twilight Sparkle and her marvelous definitely-not-summoning-my-friend-Cadance-to-brainwash-you long-range portal spell.”

Firefly laughed. “Oh, Rainbow, I could kiss you!”

“Hey, now. I’ve already got a special somepony, thank you very much.” Rainbow glanced at Firefly. “Though we do look remarkably alike, so I guess a sisterly hug may be in order.”

Grinning, Firefly caught Rainbow about the middle and crushed her against her chest, knocking all of the wind out of her. “Oh, you. Well… guess that means it’s time to wake up!”

“Yeah, I—” Rainbow jerked her head up. “Wait, you better not be planning to—”

A cast iron skillet filled Rainbow Dash’s vision.

* * *

“Gonna… kill that mare…” Rainbow growled groggily. She squirmed in her tangled blankets, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Behind her, the great, heavy form of Big Macintosh stirred, but did not awake. Fella had a big day, after all. Hovering so as to make very little noise, Rainbow Dash wobbled through the air towards the door. She managed to bump against Big Mac’s dresser in the dark anyway, but shook her head and moved on. The window would have creaked even louder, she knew.

Moving with more strength and confidence, she glided towards the stairs and then down. Planting her hooves on the bottom, she inched towards the door and started to push it open.

A lamp snapped on, flooding the hallway with light. Rainbow froze.

Sitting in a chair by the window, Applejack tapped a solid bat on the floor. She tilted her hat up. “Well. Look what we’ve got here.”

“Applejack!” Rainbow hissed, glancing upstairs. She kept her voice low. “Uh… you know… I can explain everything.”

“I’m sure you can. Why don’t you start, then?”

“Big Macintosh and I made up. We’re boyfriend and girlfriend now.” Rainbow grinned awkwardly. The thought still twisted in her weirdly, though at the same time a burst of giddiness shot through her.

“Seems I remember hearing somethin’ odd earlier. Sounded a bit like a bird, actually.”

Rainbow’s ears might as well have caught fire right then.

Applejack leaned back, looking at her intently. “Never again, you understand? You gotta let him go… you let him go gentle.” She paused. “Well, unless he starts it. We clear?”

“Crystal.”

She nodded. “All right, then. Headin’ home?”

“Y-yeah…” Rainbow glanced to the door. “Hey, uhm… Applejack? Tell Big Mac I care.”

Applejack quirked an eyebrow. “Didn’ leave a note?” She hefted her bat.

“Whoa, whoa!” Rainbow waved her hooves. “It’s not like that! I… I have to go right now. It’s incredibly important. I… I want you to tell him that I really do care, and that I’ll see him soon. Scootaloo, too.”

Applejack frowned. “Rainbow… is there somethin’ you ain’ tellin’ me?”

“Yes.” Rainbow nodded. “There is. I need you to trust me, though.”

With a sigh, Applejack flipped her hat down over her eyes and lay back in the chair, curling up to sleep. “All right. I’m countin’ on you, Rainbow Dash. You do right by them.”

“I will.” I’ll do right by everybody. “I swear.”

* * *

Rainbow, hovering, peered down at Twilight Sparkle, who slumbered with a book nestled between her forehooves. She stuffed a hoof into her mouth and prodded at her with her rear leg. Twilight continued to snooze contentedly.

“Oh, come on.” Rainbow rolled her eyes and grabbed the book. She yanked, and Twilight’s grip tightened so hard and fast that Rainbow was hauled out of the air, landing on her back on the floor. Shaking her head, she growled and grabbed the sheets, then tucked and rolled with them. Twilight flopped out onto her back with a cute little “Eep!” and tried to leap to her feet, only to plummet off the side of the alcove her bed occupied.

Sighing, Rainbow flapped down to join her and helped her to stand. “Twilight? How many hooves am I holding up?” She lifted a foreleg.

“Three? I’m going with three.” Twilight shook her head. “Rainbow… it’s, like… really late.”

“I know. I need your help.” Rainbow steadied her. “You’re the only one who can help me.”

“I… Wha…?” Twilight sighed. “All right, all right, just… give me a minute to collect myself.”

Rainbow glanced towards the door to the lower library. “Do you drink coffee?”

“What? No, I drink tea, you know that.”

“Right, of course,” Rainbow said as she took the stairs.

When she returned, Twilight had turned a couple lights and and was looking more awake, if with dark circles under her eyes. Rainbow put down a tray and poured the tea as she had seen Berry do, with a little twitch of her hooves to keep it from spilling any drops when she lifted the pot.

“Thanks, Dash.” Twilight sipped at the tea, drinking it down with hardly a concern for the heat of it. When she put it down, she looked fresher—whether from the caffeine or just from renewed attention was unclear, but Rainbow didn’t really care at that point. “So, uh… what’s this thing you need that can’t wait until morning?”

Rainbow took a deep breath. She let it out slowly. “All right… Twilight, I’m going to ask you do something strange—it’s a spell, and one you’ve performed before, but it’s going to be a very odd request. You might not like the idea, and it’s going to demand a lot from you. I promise you that it’s for a good cause and that if there was any other way for me to do this, any way at all for me to do what needs to be done, I would do it.”

Twilight opened her mouth, but Rainbow touched her lips. “No,” Rainbow said and shook her head. “I can’t explain. When I ask you to do it, I need you to do it immediately. If you ask questions, if you stop to think about it, if you hesitate more than the tiniest but, it would be really bad.

“Please.” Rainbow swallowed, trying not to glance out the window, where the moon hung with a dark crescent. “I will get down on all four knees and beg if I have to. I have never asked anything this important in my life, and I would be shocked if I ever do again. Please.”

Opening and closing her mouth again, Twilight looked into Rainbow’s eyes for a long time before nodding. “All right. You have to promise to explain to me afterwards, though.”

“Done. Are you ready?”

Twilight moved to stand in the middle of the room. She lit her horn up, casting blue light across the dark room.

“Ready,” she said, her voice trembling a little. I don’t blame her, my face must be a nightmare.

Rainbow took a few more deep breaths, her eyes flickering to the shadows nearby.

“Okay… okay…” She shut her eyes, then opened them. “Twilight Sparkle. Use your portal spell to send me to the moon!”

“Wha—”

“Dark side of the moon right now! Go, go, go!”

To Twilight’s credit, she didn’t hesitate for more than a fraction of a second. Even as Rainbow shouted at her, the spell went off. She didn’t hesitate, and neither did They.

Hurricane force winds filled the room, screaming as they shredded books and shelving to dust. Black shapes oozed out of the crevices, and Their voices screamed in Rainbow Dash’s mind. As at the town square before, she found it incredibly difficult to move, her legs sluggish and unresponsive. Twilight screamed in fright, and how she kept the spell from falling apart Rainbow never knew. Indeed, if anything, her focus intensified, some part of her realizing she was under threat even if she didn’t understand the source. Ahead of Rainbow Dash, the air split apart into a circle of light, and through it she saw a black landscape dotted with craters beneath a sky filled with bright stars.

The Entelecheia crowded around Rainbow Dash, their claws crawling up her sides, digging into her bones.

We see you now, Rainbow Dash.

You evade us no longer.

We are here. We have come for you.

Pain ripped through Rainbow Dash. It was as if she was being slowly peeled apart, one atom at a time, and she could feel every tiny tear. Mind-numbing, mind-rending. Her vision swam, spots appearing in her gaze.

To defy us is to upset the balance of the universe. You have seen far. You know now how the world would end if not for us.

You threaten everything. If you continue, it will unmake the world. This cannot be permitted, it cannot be borne.

Submit now. Find peace in your life, guard the world against the dangers that threaten it. Spare it from yourself.

Submit.

Straining to move her legs, Rainbow called to mind Big Macintosh’s face. She called Twilight’s forward, Fluttershy’s, Applejack’s, even Rarity’s and Pinkie’s. She recalled Crimson Charger, the Oracle, the little odd unicorn filly and stallion. She breathed again the cold air of the desert tomb and beheld the queen of the dead and her legions. She remembered Vinyl Scratch, so bright and beautiful as she cast her spite at Them. Finally, she pulled Scootaloo and Firefly into her vision. All of them she held before her.

It is impossible to resist us. It is given to us to repair the world. You shall not—

Rainbow Dash threw her head back and screamed. “No!”

She slammed a hoof into the floorboard ahead of her, splintering the wood.

“No and never!”

Screaming, Rainbow Dash tugged another hoof forward, planting it on lunar soil.

“You, and… your time… are… over!”

With a final surge, she leapt.

It seemed as if she flew forever, her hooves outstretched as she passed fragment-by-fragment through the portal. With a final tearing sensation, she landed on the other side, flopping on to dark lunar dust and choking as it puffed up around her.

The portal was filled with a high, keening wail that echoed even as the spell vanished into a thin line. When it closed, all Rainbow Dash could hear was silence.

“How’s it feel… to be helpless…?” she asked, then rolled over onto her back with a groan. Above her and to one side, she could see the earth, a dark marble lit only by the self-luminescent side of the moon. Gentle silver clouds scudded slowly over its surface.

“Hey guys,” she whispered. “I’m here. I’m… I’m safe. I just need to… get up and take that last step. You hang on down there. Everything’s gonna be okay.”

With a heave, she got back to her feet. The stiffness faded as she started trotting, and then she spread her wings and lifted off the surface. Orienting away from the world on the horizon, she started deeper into the dark side of the moon. It was oddly liberating—the moon’s pull on her was so much lighter than the earth below. “One day, perhaps, you can come back to enjoy that, too, now, where is… ah.”

Her needle in the haystack lay directly in front of her. It wasn’t really hard to miss—it stood in the middle of a perfectly smooth plain, a round mass of unlit stone that stretched to the far horizon. The Door stood in its precise center. Landing before it, Rainbow wondered if perhaps this, too, had been constructed by some unknown entity. Three white pillars pierced the rock with no sign of mortar or joining or anything else. Inscribed within it with unnaturally precise geometry, a hole stared up at her, its interior whiter than snow.

Taking one last look at the stars above, Rainbow closed her eyes.

“Goodbye, everyone.”

Rainbow Dash took a step, then vanished from the world.

* * * * * * *

Author's Note

Congratulations to Dee Forty-Five, who correctly guessed the location of the Door almost a full hour before this was even posted. Big round of applause! *hoof stomp*

It all loops down on itself, doesn't it? Moons all the way down. What begins ends, and what ends comes again in the fullness of time.

Questions lead to answers that only lead to more questions, but at last they're finding the answers that give them the right questions to ask. Firefly and Rainbow Dash have journeyed further than anypony in their world has ever gone before.

How many countless ponies have been in their position and failed? How many Dreamers have tried this route and gone mad?

Even if somepony before has figured it all out, what could they do? As soon as they'd try anything, the Entelecheia would tear them apart. Luna and Celestia are pawns as much as anyone else, children from a dead world long gone chained into being the new world's guardians. It's all lies and deceit, a smoke-and-mirrors game.

Yet, out of the substanceless world of dream they have pulled a true fruit of knowledge. With conviction and the right application of resources, Rainbow Dash has taken a step that few before her have ever dreamed of trying.

In Their world, she will find strange vistas again, but they will not be as the Dream before. Up until now, Rainbow Dash has been firmly in Reality... and now she moves beyond mere mortal comprehension, to follow the trail of the mysterious Hawa and her childlike smile. The Entelecheia may no longer have direct power over her, but Their grasp does not end at the gates of Their kingdom... And yet what are the Entelecheia? Evil? Malicious? Misguided? Broken? Victims? Heroes? Villains? Guardians? Gardeners?

That's up for you and Rainbow Dash to find out.

(Hey, I may be the first person on this site to use the term Entelecheia. Will have to check.)

Stay tuned. We're only a couple moves from the end now.

Remember to comment below! Extra credit goes to big ole comments analyzing what's going on!
Speculate! Speculate about what you think will happen next, what the ending will be, what the nature of the Entelecheia and of Hawa is! Speculate as to what Rainbow will need to do!

Special thanks to Chaotic Dreams for permission and for continuing to consult with me

Chapter 9

The word “nothing” left much to be desired when it came to describing the terrible gulf within the moon. In her travels, Cloud Buster had believed she had come to witness everything the universe had to offer. When she came to on the other side, when her senses returned to her, this certainty abandoned her.

Reflecting back, Cloud Buster found that she could only glimpse the barest portion of it. There was no color that could be ascribed to it—not black, not white, not anything in between. It possessed neither sound nor smell nor sensation. A thought that was no thought. She shuddered and withdrew from it—somehow, she suspected she would carry that piece of the void with her forever.

“And to think,” she muttered, “the Entele-whatsits have to go through that all the time.” Cloud Buster shook her head and—hold it.

Quickly, Cloud Buster examined herself. Azure hooves, check. Rainbow mane, check. Lady parts… check. Tiny, girlish body, check. Yet…

Standing clear as day in her mind’s eye were her memories as Cloud Buster. For a few moments, it was as if she wore a body that was far too small, her movements quick and twitchy instead of ponderous as she tried to turn herself around and tripped, falling with a puff on the damp grass below. Shutting her eyes, she lay there until she could feel her limbs again.

More than just the broad swath of her life greeted her; each iteration altered by Them slotted into its proper place; Scootaloo having a coat just like his; a dimly remembered third sibling who had been taken away when he was just a colt; the shifting locations of his childhood home. It all stood as a poignant reminder that the life he’d been taken from had itself been taken for a ride. Change after change after change riddled and made a maddening mess of his past.

Exhaling, she—Rainbow Dash—sighed. Cloud Buster isn’t gone after all. He’s right here with me. Mingled together with this new Rainbow Dash mare who was all ready to start a life of her own. And here I was, hoping for a clean break. I guess nothing about this whole “purpose” thing is cut-and-dried.

Rainbow breathed in and out. Perhaps it was merely the aftereffects of experiencing oblivion, but each inhalation filled her lungs with fresh, verdant air. The scent of grass and flowers tickled her nose, and she lifted her head to find herself in the greenest field she had ever laid eyes upon. It wasn’t that it was merely green, with a thick carpet of grains waving nearly over her head as she stood, but it seemed so very real—real in a manner Rainbow Dash found it was hard to put a hoof on.

The Deep Dream had felt real. It tricked her, but that did not make it seem any less authentic. A grassy knoll outside the waking Ponyville certainly possessed enough reality for her to sit on it, to sink into the loamy earth and lounge under the branches of a shady tree.

Here, however, Rainbow had to sit back and gape. Have I been asleep all this time? Was it only a really, really long nightmare that I’m just waking up from?

Turning in a slow circle, she frowned. Three pearly white pillars thrust themselves out of the ground above a pit that gaped into eternity, a mirror to that which she had entered, but the land was not the interior of anything, as far as she could tell. Waves of golden pasture rolled into the distance, marbled with seas of flowers. The gentle breeze pulled up clouds of petals that swam across the fields like colorful mist. Trees dotted the plain, growing thicker as her gaze swept higher, the land rising with them. Soon they became a dense forest, and that forest climbed up hills and rested alongside rivers in a living carpet, all of them converging on a single titanic mountain. It at once defied and defined the landscape—a spike of unreal stature, yet it seemed only appropriate, as if the world could not exist without her.

Rainbow Dash’s neck craned up. Golden light crowned the peak, piercing the clouds with shafts of sunlight. The clouds wreathed and obscured it, turning about the peak in a slow, leisurely circle.

For some reason, it all seemed so desperately familiar.

Like I’ve woken up here before. I might have just… put my head down right here and slept…

Shaking her head, Rainbow Dash leapt into the air and flew. She kept her flight low and steady, not hugging the ground but still coasting near it. She did not know what might live here beyond plants and did not want to find herself surprised with only empty air to hide in.

If anything, the serene beauty was turning out to be a greater danger than any imaginary threats she could conjure up. Her gaze, following the course of a slow river that glittered sedately, wandered and she dipped. Her hooves drew through a bed of flowers and she watched as their buds danced around her. Rainbow grit her teeth and pushed on, flying higher.

“Damn it, what is with this place?” Rainbow glared down at the pristine environment, but it was hard to maintain any sense of hatred. She knew the Entelecheia were waiting for her, somewhere, but all sense of urgency bled from her.

The strange certainty that some part of her had been here before only deepened as the trees came into view around her. The varieties were none that she recognized, but then botany had been a strength neither Cloud Buster nor Rainbow Dash possessed. The light diminished in the depths of the forest, yet still an ethereal luminance guided her towards the distant mountain.

A shadow moved through the trees. Immediately, Rainbow ground to a midair halt and turned around. Gliding high, she found herself frowning down at a pool, its surface recently disturbed. A suggestion of a four-legged figure lifted a head in the mist, then walked behind a tree. Gritting her teeth, Rainbow dove and swooped around it—only to find herself alone once more. A cursory examination of the forest floor revealed a single cloven hoofprint embedded into the thick loam.

“Hey!” Rainbow cupped her hooves near her mouth. “You out there! I’m not going to hurt you! Well, unless you’re really a monster in which case that may not be the case!”

There was no answer, but for another flicker of shadow. Rainbow growled and gave chase, darting from tree-to-tree in a streak of light. The figure kept ahead of her despite moving at what must have been the most leisurely gait Rainbow had ever seen, gliding from one place to another as if it were teleporting.

“Ugh! Fine!” Rainbow snapped. “Be that way! I’m going to the mountain to finish this stupid quest. You think I enjoy just flying around to one spot after another, letting people talk down to me about how much I don’t know? I’m trying to save a whole universe or something here!”

“Then,” a male’s voice said, “perhaps you ought to go about that.”

The shadow walked closer, resolving into a figure that was not unlike the strange unicorns Rainbow Dash had met in the world preceding hers. At this point, Rainbow Dash had seen enough strange things that the sight did not shock or alarm her, but something about the stallion set her back. It’s that stupid sense of familiarity again…

He was tall, but then Celestia was tall. Rather than a simple horn, his forehead pressed out into a curled, bony mass that seemed more an extension of his skull than anything. His coat shone with a gentle radiance not unlike a star, which Rainbow had at first assumed to be a quality of reflection but on closer inspection realized it emanated directly from the unicorn, as if part of him was shining through his skin.

Wary of yet another blast of expository knowledge, Rainbow landed and tilted her head at the stallion. “You, uh… haven’t come to tell me that you predate all intelligent life in the world or something, have you?”

“Would it matter?” he asked as he rolled his shoulders in a shrug. His mouth did not open, but his meaning pressed itself into her mind regardless. “Had I need of idle conversation I would have left this place long ago, as you did.”

“I…” Rainbow asked and frowned. “I’ve been here before? Also, we are having idle conversation.”

“‘Need’ and ‘want’ are not quite the same thing.” The stallion tossed his mane and went to stand atop a low hill overlooking a stream. “And yes, you have been here—or perhaps I might say that you are a part of one who has.”

Rainbow waved her hoof in a circle. “All of us connected, all of us a piece of one another?”

“And you say all you did was journey.” The telepathic voice chuckled. “Flitted about and listened to others talking.”

“I’m still doing that, but… well, I did learn a lot.”

“Is that not the point of journeys?” he asked. “If all one did was wander about to accomplish some basic task, it would be terribly boring.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Says the unicorn-thing prancing around in the enchanted forest.”

“If one is sufficiently patient, enlightenment can be found in many ways.”

“Is that what it’s called when you glow—”

“No.”

Rainbow shook her head. “Well, it was—uh… nice meeting you, but I wasn’t kidding when I said I needed to get to that mountain. I have to face these things called the—” Rainbow paused “—Entelecheia? There we go. The Entelecheia. They’re tearing my world apart and I need to stop them.”

“I know.” The stallion raised a hoof and gazed down at Rainbow Dash. “A moment, if you would. You are not interested in—nor do I suspect you need—someone to talk down to you, but perhaps a mote of advice would not be unwelcome?”

Pausing in the midst of leaping back into the air, Rainbow Dash looked back at him.

“You are not the first and I suspect you will not be the last to attempt this journey. You have learned much, Rainbow Dash, and fought hard to come all this way.” He walked down towards the stream. “You have taken upon yourself the burden of an entire existence, filled with beings who you barely know and yet you are noble enough to risk yourself for.”

Running a hoof along her mane, Rainbow sighed. “If you’re asking me if I’m ready to do this, I am. Other people and myself have already asked that question—quite a lot, actually.”

He shook his head. “On the contrary. It is a concern for your fellow beings that I find commendable.” Gazing down at the stream, he gestured her over. “My fear is that all of your confidence and desire will not be sufficient to carry you through to the end of your goal. Look to the mountain—already the Entelecheia gather their last possible line of defense.”

Rainbow frowned up, looking through the trees at the light-crowned peak. The clouds were turning faster now, streaks of grey and black staining their golden radiance.

“It doesn’t really matter how hard it is, does it? I can’t turn around. I can’t go back to living under them.” Rainbow stared back down at the ground. “Everyone is counting on me.”

“Indeed.” He nodded. “Which leads me to my advice—instead of courting failure, why not do what you can to help them from here?”

Blinking up at him, Rainbow’s frown deepened. “How?”

Touching the nearly still surface of the stream, he stirred it, and a vision of Ponyville appeared therein. Long shadows cast themselves upon the shattered ruins of the library, restoring it piecemeal. Rainbow winced, remembering how the Entelecheia had come down on it like a hurricane, shredding everything in Their wake.

“Be at ease, your friend is safe. Look—” He gestured again, and Twilight Sparkle pushed open the front door, heedless of the reconstruction effort behind her.

“Wait…” Rainbow asked slowly. “Did you do that? You aren’t one of… of Them are you?”

“Hardly.” The stallion snorted. “Another question for you, Rainbow Dash—what do you see around you here?”

Rainbow glanced around. “A forest.” At the expectant silence that followed, Rainbow frowned. “But… why is there a forest here? Why a mountain, for that matter? I’m somewhere beyond things, aren’t I?”

She didn’t need the stallion’s nod—as soon as she said it, she knew it was true. “Is this a trick, then?” she asked. “Another place like the Deeper Dream?”

“No.” He lifted his gaze and filled his nostrils. “This is reality. Where you come from? Where you were born and raised? That is the dream.”

“But… that…” Rainbow scraped her hoof on the forest floor. “Okay, so, I can imagine things here, can’t I? And they can become real? This forest is imagined.”

“It was conceived within an imagination, yes,” the stallion said.

“But I can’t do that back where I’m from. How can it be a dream, then?”

“You cannot? Do you think I am performing magic, as you conceive of it?” The stallion chuckled. “What is your world but a dream held within that of a greater mind by far? How did you think the Entelecheia accomplish their great feats, but by dreaming them into being?”

Rainbow laughed nervously. “Honestly, I hadn’t put much thought into it. They did things and it happened.”

“You have journeyed to the beginning and end of your world, the blank slate upon which all templates, all ideal forms are dormant. They are immanent within the mind of the dreamer, there to be pressed into service as her dream demands.”

“Wait, though.” Rainbow held up a hoof. “Does… what does that make us, then? Are we just… figments? Ideas in someone else’s head?”

“Again, you are mistaking the pale imaginings of your dreams and the consensus reality of the Deeper Dream with the world you came from. If you were all just objects, would it not be trivial to erase and rewrite you at a whim?” He poked her in the chest, making her stumble back in shock. “Are you, Rainbow Dash, merely an idea? No,” he said firmly, “you and all thinking things are parts of the dreamer, pieces of her own mind. It is the dreamer understanding herself.”

“Hawa,” Rainbow breathed. “That’s why the Deeper Dream led from a place she had visited down to the blank slate.”

He glanced up again at the darkening clouds. “Mm. Yes.”

“What happens if she awakens?” Rainbow frowned up at them as well. “What happens then?”

“Perhaps you might find out.” He eyed her. “Then again, perhaps not. So, with that in mind, I offer you my advice: do not challenge the mountain.” He waved his hoof over the river. “Lay back upon this stream. Allow it to carry you away and let its serene calm lull you into sleep. Slumber and dream a dream within the dream, one that your friends can migrate to. There, you can construct a place of safety for them, where they might go about their lives as they might wish. The Entelecheia cannot touch you.”

Rainbow stared up at him, then down at the water. Flowers floated along it lazily, their white petals open to the sky. It seemed to her as if they were dreaming themselves, each one containing a world of its own. Her limbs were already heavy with the tension she carried, and the weight on her doubled as she considered how far she had yet to go.

Damn it… he’s right. If what he says is true, and… and all I need to do is dream a place as real as home, then invite everyone in where they’ll be safe from the Entelecheia… isn’t that what I’ve been trying to do all this time? Close the Book, put an end to the Plan screwing everyone up. Her eyes shut, and she pictured Ponyville in her mind. It sprang to life, full of color and detail the likes of which she never could have imagined back beyond the moon gate—indeed, she knew without a doubt that she was looking upon Ponyville as it stood this very instant. Big Macintosh pulled his plow with a great big grin on his face, a giddy blush that signalled he remembered last night very well indeed. Shadows fell across Lyra and Thunderlane as they took Scootaloo out shopping in the market, their gazes softening as they watched their adoptive daughter race ahead of them. I could stop it all right now.

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to watch the petals go by. Tentatively, she reached out a thought, touching them—lotus blossoms. The word sprang to her mind without any past experience. She could turn it around in her head, picking it apart down to its constituent atoms and beyond, right to the energies binding it together.

“You see?” the stallion asked softly. “Within you lies the seed of another world. You have merely to realize your potential.”

Rainbow turned her eyes up to the crowned mount. “But… what about her?”

“She will continue dreaming. New worlds, new ideas. It is the way of things.”

Rocking back and forth on her hooves, Rainbow stared at nothing in particular, her eyes now seeing past the trees to the possibilities that lay beyond. Her own world, operating under her own rules.

“More worlds, where more of this stuff takes place…” She perked her ears. “Wait… Even if I do as you say, wouldn’t my world suffer the same fate as hers?” She swept her hoof down at the stream. “It just keeps falling apart! And what about new people, or people who can’t or don’t want to come to mind? What about you, even?”

“What makes you think I am part of Hawa’s mind?” He lifted an eyebrow. “No matter, though. Yes, the things you say are concerns, but what did you expect to find, here?”

“Well, uh…”

“Kicking down the Door, pounding the Entelecheia to pulp, burning the Book, and then flying home triumphantly to live in peace and harmony forever?”

Rainbow Dash coughed and rubbed at the back of her head. “Well, I…” She sighed. “No. Maybe at first that’s how I envisioned it.” She sat down, lowering her face. “When Firefly first came to me, I thought it would be something like that. Just find the Door, bash it open, and make Them stop.”

“You’ve come a long way since children’s adventure stories, though, haven’t you?”

“I have. I know that Hawa tried to make a world safe and secure for everyone and all that happened is that it leapt off into the sun.” Rainbow shook her head. “I know the following attempt at putting a world together that would sustain itself led to Them having to fix things all the time.”

“So?” The stallion tilted his head. “This knowledge, this wisdom—what does it tell you to do?”

“So…” Rainbow got back to her hooves. She turned to face the mountain. “It’s telling me that I can’t stop journeying here. I need to go further. I need to answer all of the questions.”

“Your Element will not help you,” he said. “Friendship, harmony, loyalty, magic… all of these things are merely part of her dream. If you go to the peak, no narrative contrivance will save you.”

“It’s like I said at the beginning, isn’t it?” Rainbow smiled. “It doesn’t matter. I have to do it. If I don’t, who else will? You?”

“No, I think I’ve interfered enough. I believe this is something that must come from within, so to speak. Just remember—this journey is more about understanding than it is about conflict.” He gave Rainbow Dash a wry smile. “Do not say that I didn’t warn you, however.”

“Heh.” Rainbow smiled. “Thank you, anyway.” Turning her attention on the mountain, Rainbow frowned, trying to imagine herself there.

“If it were that easy, I would simply have told you to do that from the start,” the stallion chided.

Rainbow grumbled. “Back to the old wingpower, then. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, and good luck,” the stallion said, as he watched her take off. “I almost wish you had accepted. It is not so much your failure that troubles me, as what your success might entail.”

* * *

The mountain loomed ahead. It now dominated the sky. Its sheer cliffs scraped at low-hanging clouds with claws of red, white, and black. Far above, the golden light at the crown became obscured as the roiling storm intensified. Black and angry clouds were now shot through with flashes of lightning. Rainbow Dash grit her teeth and angled her flight upwards, hooves straining for the sunlight.

From above, the thunder boomed in challenge.

“Shout all you want, I’m not leaving!” Rainbow screamed back.

Lightning lashed down at her and she rolled. It sizzled the air and left a blinding streak across her vision. The shockwave jolted her, but she pushed her wings harder. Another flash of lightning skittered across the rock face, sending molten chunks flying into the air. Rainbow ignored their sting and redoubled her efforts.

The clouds split open, and Rainbow wondered for a moment if They meant to wash her away in a torrent. Rather than rain, however, something shiny fell. Dodging, Rainbow narrowly avoided being cleaved in two by an enormous sword. It spun about below, accelerating to catch up to her. She rolled again, and stared up at it as a lightning bolt struck the tip, wreathing the blade in white flame.

Not a conflict my blue butt!

“Rainbow Dash!” a voice boomed from the heavens. “You cannot be permitted to mount the seat of creation! All the world shall be unmade! Your quest will fail, you and all you know will be unraveled!”

“That’s what you want me to think, isn’t it? You Entelecheia have sure done a fine job of keeping the place up, haven’t they?” Rainbow snarled and shot upwards again. “I’m tired of the lies, I’m tired of bowing down to an authority I can’t understand!”

“To know and understand is to destroy all that is! Turn back—or we shall destroy you.”

“Never! Everypony and everyone back there needs me to save them, and I’m not going to leave them hanging!”

“It is known to you that your Element is a lie! Loyalty is merely a bauble, a toy used to contain the world’s energies. It means nothing here!”

The sword flashed and spun at her, faster and faster. Lightning crashed about them. Rainbow Dash was fast, a streak of light in the air—in this place, she felt stronger and more in control than ever, jinking and weaving as quick as thought.

“I don’t care! I don’t need your Elements! Even if magic is just a joke, that doesn’t mean the love I have for them is fake!” She kicked out, sending the blade spinning, though the flames stung her hoof. “Bring it on! I’m coming for you, even if it’s the last thing I do!”

There was a pause, and then the heavens answered. “So be it.”

The flaming sword flashed. Rainbow spin, kicked, whirled. She put on speed and sudden brakes. The flaming sword, however, turned every which way. It couldn’t land a true strike, but it grazed her, burned her, sliced off bits of skin and hair, bleeding her out drop-by-drop. Still, Rainbow Dash flew on, screaming in rage.

Just as she thought she might push through, the sky opened up again. Lightning lashed the mountainside, first one, then ten, then hundreds of bolts. Great stone figures spread wings and launched for her, raining down like hailstones. Spears, knives, and arrows hissed through the air like rain, and Rainbow Dash screamed as a shaft embedded itself into her back. More pelted her, slicing apart her skin and digging into her bones. Her wings were torn and tattered, her legs were lacerated, her body ran red. Dimly, with blood in her eyes, she became aware of one of the stone figures leveling its great arm at her, a faceless mass of rock.

The blow knocked her clean out of the sky.

Down, down she plummeted, her body broken.

Tumbling, twisting, she watched as the earth rose to meet her. It was so peaceful. Silent. The only thing she could hear was her own labored breath as her lungs filled.

No… no…

Spreading her wings, Rainbow howled as the air tore into them, wounded muscle and tissue screaming as blue feathers were ripped off of. Somehow, she managed to flap enough, to push against enough air, that when she struck the hard white surface of a stone shelf below she was not rendered into paste. Her screams echoed over the mountain, joining the thunder as her legs snapped.

Rainbow turned her eyes up. She saw the storm overhead and sobbed, hauling herself back towards the slope. It was one painful leg at a time, fighting against the agony as a spear tip scraped the ground through her.

The flaming sword drifted to a halt in front of her.

“But speak the word, Rainbow Dash. We will carry you to the portal and free you from this torment, from this terrible burden that afflicts you,” the voice pleaded. “You can return to your life, your loved ones. It need not end here.”

In her mind, she saw Ponyville. Seeming to sense something amiss, the ponies she saw frowned, lifting their hooves and glancing around. She sank her thoughts deeper, and the eyes of the Lost looked back at her, their pale, ghostly faces uncertain. She sank further still, and gazed among the still cylinders holding the memories of a dead race. Her mind encompassed all of them at once, spreading to touch every inch. It bled together, a kaleidoscopic motley that encompassed every color of the rainbow and beyond.

Rainbow Dash lifted her head.

“It will never end,” she croaked. Spitting red saliva, she stared back at the clouds. “As long as… there’s still people… out there… who need help, there will… there will be an answer. Someone… will win.”

In answer, the flaming sword rose. It spun and flashed towards her. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes.

A crash of steel on steel jolted them open again. An engine roared, and Rainbow stared as Crimson Charger caught the sword on her shoulder. The blade cut deep, but the mechanical pony snarled and surged, slamming the weapon against the ground and snapping it in half with a single blow.

“What,” Rainbow croaked. She wasn’t sure if she was asking a question or simply debating her own sanity. Perhaps I’m dead already. Maybe you just get recycled into another, crazier dream when you die.

Crimson Charger turned and covered Rainbow Dash as weapons rained around them. Weapons shattered and clanged all around them, banging off her armored backside. The enormous stone statue that had smacked Rainbow out of the sky descended towards the two of them, and Rainbow feebly tried to raise a warning.

Before she could do anything, though, a bolt of blue light struck the rock creature center mass and blew it apart in a spectacular display of fireworks. “Crimson Charger!” the Oracle’s voice rang out. Her hooves clipped sharply on the ground beside us as she stepped into view, the tip of her horn glowing like a tiny sun. “Fetch a healing pod, I have her now.”

Crimson Charger raced off, and the Oracle spread her legs just in time to catch a lightning bolt out of the sky, turning it and frying another animated statue. Fire descended from above, but she coolly shielded the pair of them in a bubble of force that shed the flaming stones like so much rain.

Rainbow wobbled her head around, her labored breathing intensified. “What.”

The Oracle flicked her leonine tail with a swish, smirking. “Surprised to see us?”

Rainbow coughed blood. “I didn’t… I… call...”

Turning another beam on a lumbering creature, the Oracle managed to cut it in half, but the other half stumbled towards them anyway, threatening to crush the shield.

“That’s right. I did!” A pink streak of light swooped in, and Firefly delivered a powerful kick that knocked the shape aside. “Boom, baby!”

She landed beside Rainbow Dash, her wings spread and a victorious grin plastered on her face. It slipped a bit as she saw Rainbow’s bloodied state. “Oh, wow. Arrived just in time, I see.”

“How…?”

Firefly waved a hoof at her. “Shush, you just hold on; don’t push yourself.”

A golden-capped hoof planted on the ground beside her, a tall pony rising above her. She had hair like a pink sunset waving in its own breeze, and her horn shone with the light of the sun. “Hello, Mother,” she said in a heavy voice.

“Daughters,” the Oracle said quietly, as a third pony joined them, with midnight coat and a starry mane. Her face fell as she looked between them. “My… how you've grown.” She reached up to rub at her face. “After a few thousand years I should have thought of something more pithy to say.”

“There will be time for words later, Mother,” Luna said. She pressed her cheek up against the Oracle’s and they shared a quiet moment, before the crash of stones landing around them drew their attention. “For now, we seem to have been drawn into some sort of confrontations.”

They set themselves in a triangle about Rainbow Dash and Firefly and cast their magic into the sky.

Rainbow’s head throbbed, and not for lack of bread. “Princess… es… okay, gonna… just lay my head down now… can finish dying in peace…”

“Not if we can help it,” Firefly said sternly. “Come on, boys—move her, and let’s be careful.”

Rainbow felt herself being lifted, and dimly perceived that black-robed, iron-masked ponies were carefully sliding her onto a pallet, they turned her, and she saw an entire gleaming army arrayed behind her.

The undead queen rode a golden throne hauled by a dozen of her cold servants, a shepherd's crook grasped in one hoof as she stared defiance up at the mountain. “Fire!” she shouted, waving her crook, and all around her engines of war leapt to life, flinging black jars that erupted into violent flames, smashing apart stones. Bronze-armored ponies with sand-colored coats cheered before loading new rounds, cranking their catapults back.

It was chaos. Madness, even. There were colorful pegasi flying in among the lightning bolts, shoving clouds into place which caught the bolts and shielded the forces down below. Rows of robots like Crimson Charger lined up, firing their cannons and filling the sky. Stone birds and dragons swooped down to try and crush the multicultural army only to be torn apart.

Welp, that’s it. I’ve died and gone to that special place in the sky for good little ponies.

The cold servants carried her to the center of the battle lines, where Crimson Charger rode back at full tilt, carrying a brace of pods on her back. She set one down and ran a cable between her and it, attaching herself to it and pressing buttons with her little arms until it turned on. “Take the weapons out of her. Gently! She’s lost a lot of blood as it is!”

The cold servants silently complied, and Rainbow found herself slid into the healing pod as blackness crept up into her vision.

“Nice… knowin’ ya…” She lolled her head over to Firefly, who hovered beside the pod with a worried expression. The other mare had never seemed so utterly real before, as if Rainbow could reach out and touch her. “This is a… beautiful… hallucination. Gonna… hit me with a fryin’... pan…?”

“Oh, Dashie,” she said, putting a hoof on the glass. “This isn’t a hallucination, you silly mare. I’d hit you if it wouldn’t kill you.”

Red light filled her gaze, and then a mask cinched itself around her mouth. With an inflating hiss, a foam filled her vision and encased her body. Vaguely, Rainbow was aware of being prodded and poked. Distant rumbles of thunder echoed through the space, but she floated as if on a cloud. Here… comes the end… any… second now…

I mean… come on, if I’m going to die, at least make it interesting. None of this floaty stuff. Are you supposed to feel better before you die? Because this is strangely kinda nice.

The fog slowly cleared from her head.

Uhm…

Distorted voices echoed in from outside. “Come on, Twilight… can investigate it later…”

“Oh, oh, I wanna have a ride in one!”

“Pinkie! None of us want to see you get injured, too.”

“Dears, please. Give Rainbow some space! It looks awfully tight in that pod.”

“It just looks so interesting. I’ve never seen technology this advanced, and if it works as advertised…”

The foam deflated, covering Rainbow Dash in a sticky sap that was quickly washed away by nozzles spraying warm water. Outside the pod’s window, she saw Crimson Charger watching over her, while five mares pressed their faces to the glass.

“Okay,” Crimson said. “I’m opening it, now. Be careful, she’s stable, but it’ll take her body a moment to recover from the shock.”

The others backed up, and Rainbow gave a few experimental breaths as the pod lifted. There was a tenderness pretty much everywhere about her, but nothing felt like it was going to fall apart. Carefully, she craned herself up.

“Okay, uhm… Dash?” Twilight asked, looking at her with a puzzled frown. “Or… Cloud Buster, or… whoever. What exactly is going on?”

“Long story,” Rainbow wheezed, then coughed. She had to take a moment to cough up collected gunk in her throat before she could speak again, and swivelled her head around to Firefly, who stood a little off to the side, a faintly awkward distance from her friends. “You… what the hay is going on? Why is my death being interrupted by all this insanity?”

Firefly scuffed her hoof, glancing around as if she were a filly with her hoof caught in the cookie jar. “Well, yeah, funny thing, this. You remember how I kind of lived in your head?”

“Vividly.” Rainbow rubbed her forehead.

“That strange stallion you met, I was in your mind as before, listening, and he said that we, all of us, are dreams ourselves, but real in our own way.” She waved her hoof around. “That you could imagine something and it would sort of impinge upon this place. I did that, when you were falling. When your mind reached out to everyone you’d met, I willed myself to them, and showed them that you were in trouble. They all willed themselves to join you and we kind of… all dreamed ourselves here.” She beamed. “Everything is connected, every one of us.”

Rainbow’s mouth worked for a moment. “That’s… that’s… absolutely ridiculous!”

“It kind of is,” Twilight agreed. “That’s really contrived, Firefly. I mean, only really cheap novels use something so convoluted to pull out a...” She paused and stared at Firefly. “Wait… F-Firefly? You… I… I f-forgot you! How could I forget you?”

Firefly reached over and tugged Twilight into a hug. “I missed you. All of you, I really did. And, look…” She gestured at Rainbow. “Dash here is the key. When she entered here, she became a dreamer whose thoughts were just as real as the Ponyville we left behind. That means that I was real again, and because I was in her mind I was able to feed her ideas, and so when I hijacked her imagination and came to you all and connected you to her—”

“Stop, stop!” Rainbow waved her hooves. “Enough, please, I beg you. I have had way, way too much explaining done to me as it is. We can go over this in full if we survive.” She looked around the others, her eyes softening. “However it happened, thank you all. I…” She glanced up at the battle raging all around them. “I know it’s hard to accept right now, but we’re in a battle to reach the center of something that stretches back, way back before any of us were born. It’s for the sake of all of our lives.”

“Uhm…” Fluttershy stepped forward. “Is that why I feel like I should be an earth pony who was… well, uhm… I mean… dating you, Cloud Bus—I mean, Rainbow?”

Rainbow groaned. “Oh, please don’t remind me that I’ll need to explain all of this to Big Macintosh later.” She nodded. “Yes. I guess you’re all, uhm… I don’t know, fully realized now? I got all of my lost memories when I came here, too.”

Pinkie Pie bounced on all fours, grinning more broadly than ever. “So, like, anything I imagine can come here?”

Firefly shook her head. “I’m not sure it’s that simple. I mean, I had to work with people that already existed in some—”

Pinkie Pie sprang into the air, sprouted a full set of pink wings, and flew off. She whipped a cannon out of thin air and raced off to join the battle in the skies, giggling all the way.

Firefly worked her jaw for a moment before shrugging. “Well. Okay. Have it your way then.” She turned to the others. “Come on, then, let’s clear the way for Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow slid out of the pod. She shot a grateful look to Crimson Charger, who was disconnecting herself. “Are you okay?”

“Me?” Crimson looked to her rent shoulder, where wires and cables were sticking out. “Oh, it’s fine. Minor damage. I don’t get hurt the same way.”

“Thanks for the save.”

“Glad to provide it. Just remember your promise, Rainbow Dash.”

“Definitely.” Rainbow frowned and turned back towards Firefly. “Wait, me? What about the rest of you? Now that we all know the truth, any one of us can go for the peak, can’t we?”

“No one knows the full story like we do, Rainbow.” Firefly smiled. “No one else has fought nearly as hard. We’re the only ones who have gone to the beginning and the end and made it here. If it weren’t for us, this would be over—and of the two of us, you have the best chance of breaking through.”

“Me?” Rainbow touched her chest, frowning up at the sky. Fireworks burst, forcing her to shield her eyes.

“We can’t break through this. Look—” Firefly pointed a hoof upwards, where the very mountain itself boiled with new animated creatures, raining down in a torrent, as fire and lightning cascaded. “—we’re good, but They’re better. The Entelecheia are limited here, but they still have more than enough ability to dream up new weapons. Even if we can match them, keep things going, it’s going to be a stalemate at best. Somepony needs to get through that.” She turned her face to Rainbow Dash. “Much as I hate to admit it, you’re a better flier than I am. They made you to be that way.” She glanced up at the sky, frowning. “Somehow, I think it was always meant to come down to you. I’ve suffered too long—I’m bitter. Angry. If I went up there, I don’t know what I might do, but I’m not sure I have what it takes to look at this objectively anymore.”

“I can’t get through that, though. I’ve tried.” Rainbow Dash shook her head. Her spirits flagged as she watched the brave beings fighting on her behalf. “I…”

“You can, Rainbow. There’s something you can do that nopony else can,” Firefly said and turned Rainbow’s head to face hers. “The sonic rainboom. You were built for that. I call that a beautiful irony, throwing Their creation right back into Their faces.”

“I’ve never actually performed that!”

“You can do it, though.”

“I… I mean, I have the idea, I…” Rainbow frowned around. “This isn’t the time to screw up.”

“Rainbow—”

“No,” Rainbow said, putting a hoof to Firefly’s mouth. “Hold on. I’m thinking.”

Firefly’s right. If I can get up to a sonic rainboom I can clear right through… but I’ve never even tried one, all I know is that I’m capable of it. So what I need is…

“Twilight!” Rainbow called, racing over.

Pausing in the middle of flying up to join the pegasi, Twilight glanced down at her. Forgetting for a moment that she needed to beat her wings to remain aloft, she fell with a little yelp. “Ow.” She rubbed her rear. “What is it?”

“I need you to make a portal spell.” Rainbow pointed up. “Aim it as high as you can. Can you make it so that the orientation of the portal down here is different from the one above? So that, while I’m going down here, I will come out the other side going up?”

Twilight blanched, but nodded. “Yeah, I can do that. I mean, I had to with the whole moon portal in the first place.”

“Great! Do that. I need some speed.” Rainbow gave Firefly a glance. “You take care of things down here, okay?”

“Hey.” Firefly rubbed a hoof against her chest. “I kind of already was, if you hadn’t noticed. You may have the better wings, Rainbow, but you’re not very perceptive.”

Rolling her eyes, Rainbow trotted off. She tested her wings, making sure they were intact after the beating they had received. She checked them as she went—there were a few feathers missing, but she hoped it would not be a critical loss. Some of those were feathers she would have had to remove in preening, but there were a couple primaries missings he definitely would have liked to have in this next insane stunt.

Her hoofsteps slowed as she saw some of the ground-bound ponies of Ponyville aiding the formerly-undead queen’s soldiers under the shade of the nearby trees, just a short distance down the mountain. Earth ponies poured ingredients into jars and hauled them to waiting carts, while unicorns shielded them, raising a patchwork quilt of magic that bounced off the flaming rocks and weapons from above. Lyra waved at her, lifting a golden half-sphere to shelter her advance.

“Thanks, I…” Rainbow called to her, her voice trailing off as she spotted another pony. Huge and fire red, he carried a half-dozen jars as large as he was on a cart hitched to his yoke. The dusty-coated warriors accepted them, relieving Big Macintosh of his burden, while Apple Bloom raced over and passed a barrel of water up. He punched a hole in the top and drank it straight down, splashing across his side and the earth.

Their eyes met when he lowered the drink. For a few moments, it was almost as if there was no battle—the crash and thunder faded away, leaving only the deceptive serenity of the forest around them.

It was Big Macintosh who broke the silence. “Saw you fallin’. All of us did.”

Rainbow rubbed her foreleg, looking towards his hooves. “Yeah. I could have planned that better.”

“I…” Big Macintosh frowned. He stepped forward and looked down at her. “I don’t pretend to understand what’s goin’ on. It’s all so… crazy. Like we’ve all been different ponies before, all of us, and now we’re fightin’ here for you.”

“You guys…” Rainbow said. She vacillated, turning her head from side to side and refusing to look directly at him. She tried to speak a few times, but her heart sped up and her breathing tightened. He knows, he knows he knows. Oh, hey, I know you remember me as a stallion and we kind of did some things together when I was a mare, is it okay if I vomit in humiliation instead of talking to you? “I—”

“All I know is, you’re fightin’ somethin’ that needs to be stopped,” he said in that slow, unstoppable manner of his. “That’s what Firefly said when she came, hot on the heels of us seein’ you fall.” He glanced up at the mountain, though Rainbow Dash couldn’t bear to look upon his face and see the expression writ there. “That we all needed to drop everything we were doin’ and come help you, right now, or else nothin’ in the world would have meanin’ anymore.”

Rainbow reddened and stared now at the dirt in front of her hooves. “I… Thank you. I don’t… I wouldn’t have made it. I’m glad you… that you agreed to help Firefly. That you came.”

“Course, I didn’t do it for her.”

Rainbow’s ear twitched. Her breath caught.

“I just got one question.” A hoof touched her chin, and he lifted her gaze towards his. Her heart beat like a caged bird, struggling to free itself from her chest and fly up into her throat. “Didja know, before last night, who you were?”

Rainbow squeezed her eyes shut and nodded slightly.

Big Macintosh said nothing. Instead, powerful legs swept her up and held her close against him. Rainbow blinked, looking up at his face.

“Big Mac…” she breathed. Her legs went around his neck while her eyes searched his face.

“I won’t say it ain’ a little strange,” he said, “but, well… do you plan on stayin’ Rainbow Dash?”

A smile crossed her features, and she put her hooves on his chest. The gentle strength in his limbs encircled her, made her feel as if she belonged nowhere else. “I had that in mind, if I could. Big Mac… I… I don’t know what’s going to happen after this. I don’t know if there’s going to be a Sweet Apple Acres to go back to.” She coughed delicately. “Heck, I don’t know if there’s going to be a world to go back to if I succeed here.”

“Don’t matter.” He shook his head. “You pick the spot, Rainbow Dash. I’ll look for you there.”

“Thank you.” Rainbow lifted her face to meet his, and they nuzzled. “I’ll come back, I promise… if it’s possible for me to come back.”

He nodded, and she tucked her head under his and held him for a time. Doubtless, he felt no more words were needed.

Eventually, they released one another. Rainbow Dash shared one last look of understanding with her stallion and trotted off.

Catching her breath, Rainbow Dash ran back up the hill. Her wings were standing up fairly well, and she was no longer sore—whatever miraculous technology the predecessors of the pony race had at their disposal certainly worked. Does it work well enough for me to do something I’ve never seriously dreamed of attempting, though?

Creaking up the hill in front of her was a massive monstrosity, a enormous conglomeration of speakerphones, subwoofers, and other sound equipment bolted together with huge braces and propelled by a pair of large, lumbering robots on wheels.

“Are you positively sure this will work?” a stallion asked. Rainbow recognized him at once as the pre-Equestrian unicorn stallion she had met among the brain jars. The tip of his horn glowed as he adjusted what looked like a pair of sophisticated generators.

“Darned right it will!” Vinyl Scratch said. She stood atop the mass, her horn glowing to adjust dials across an enormous instrument panel. “Hey, squirt, you’ve got the baffles set, right? I don’t want this baby blowing apart halfway through.”

A blond unicorn filly giggled, looking just as energetic as she had in the Deeper Dream. “Ready and waiting!” She started bouncing on her heels, her leonine tail flicking back and forth. “Oh, this is going to be so awesome!”

“Clear the airways!” Vinyl shouted into a megaphone.

Immediately, pegasi started diving away in all directions. Pinkie Pie was the last of them, scattering fireworks behind her like confetti to erupt into colorful blossoms.

The posh unicorn looked askance at the readings. “Ladies, I find myself having second thoughts. These are very powerful fusion reactors and I’m not sure these speakers are rated for—”

“Do it, do it, do it do it do it!” the filly shouted, slamming the power lever to “On.”

The generators shook violently, and Rainbow shook her head, leaping into the air as a low hum filled the air. She beat her wings, carrying her into the waiting cloud of pegasi.

Mosh Pit poked his head up from the wagon carrying the speakers, looking at Vinyl. “The braces are all set, it’s holding together for now, Vinyl. Uhm… before this goes off, can I say that I love you?”

Vinyl considered him for a moment, tapping her hoof against the top of her monstrosity. “Well, you are kind of cute, and aren’t too bad in the sack. If we make it through this alive, pal, we can talk all you like.” Vinyl flipped her sunglasses down. A guitar levitated in front of her, while the filly lifted heavy corrugated shields around the speakers. It had the look of an enormous cannon, aimed straight up the mountainside.

Vinyl tapped the microphone once with a nearly deafening click. Then, with a wide grin and a triumphant pose, she strummed a pick through the guitar.

A rippling wave of devastation blossomed out, shivering the air as it passed. The trailing edge of the sound wave was enough to set Rainbow’s teeth to chattering, and Cloudchaser and Flitter flew to either side of her to keep her from losing her balance. The blast scattered the incoming attacks like so much dust in the wind, and carried up, higher, clearing a column of air nearly up to the peak before it dispersed. A faint shimmering point indicated the portal had been set, and Rainbow looked down to see the purple ring gaping at her. It was like all of those pits she had gone into before—a portal that would take her to a new world. “That’s as good an opening as any,” she muttered.

Gazing down, she saw Scootaloo with her friends, bouncing and cheering. “That’s my big brother! I mean… sister! I mean whatever!”

“Go Rainbow-Buster-Dash!” Sweetie Belle cried.

Big Macintosh lifted a hoof to her, silent and dependable as ever.

Lyra lowered the golden magic shield she had been using to smile. Thunderlane saluted from a nearby cloud. Rarity and Applejack waved her on. Fluttershy whooped. Berry Punch stamped her hooves. Cadance and Shining Armor lifted their gaze from where their magic entwined to watch her. Crimson Charger reared up on her hind tires. Even the undead queen, the Oracle, and the Princesses watched her with silent anticipation.

Firefly turned her face up, beaming. “Go, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow looked up. A golden ray of light peeked through the storm clouds, casting itself down on the army below. It all comes down to this, now. Just you and me. What is it that I still have left to understand? I suppose, like everything else about this whole crazy mess, I won’t know until I actually go there.

“I’m coming, Hawa. I’ve unraveled your whole world already, just by bringing everyone here with me.” Rainbow Dash spread her wings, allowing herself to tilt downwards. “Time to wake up.”

She snapped her wings and shot down. Rainbow light spun itself in a trail behind her, and she rocketed at the portal. From hundreds of feet in the air, she reached the portal within the span of a second and passed seamlessly through it to the other side, the air distorting in front of her.

Black shapes clustered, descending down on her with lidless gazes and gaping mouths.

Even with gravity reversed, she felt as if her power was limitless. She beat her wings harder, faster, one hoof extended to divert the air. It pierced the cone, and her lips pulled back from the force.

With one, final thrust, light exploded all around her, a thousand hues radiating out in a wave that blasted her up and out, smashing through the Entelecheia and carrying her into that single shaft of light. The rainbow ring spread behind her, a white lotus flower with a thousand multihued petals.

The light filled her, swallowed her up, and then everything disappeared.

* * * * * * *

Author's Note

And you thought the previous chapters were crazy.

The Deeper Dream proved that the world was a mess.
The Moon proves that the world isn't even a world.
What will the final step prove?

I have to say, this one was a joy to write, because it not only gave me a chance to draw pretty imagery in my head, but it gave me a chance to write a triumphant narrative, of the hero's allies rallying to give her hope and strength. Once again, Rainbow Dash has to proceed without them... but isn't that always the case? The hero's allies are necessary, they apply their strengths to move the hero through obstacles, but ultimately she has to take that final plunge herself.

The thing about it, though, is that even on this last movement, the hero is never truly alone. Rainbow Dash carries each and every one of her friends inside her, and they won't let her down so long as she won't let them down.

The next chapter will be the final one, unless it goes on too long, in which case there will be an epilogue. I'm writing it now, even as I post this. Even so, I may sit on it for a bit. I want people to have time to digest these chapters before we go to the end.
When you're watching it, I suggest listening to the Life of Pi Soundtrack. It should give you a little perspective.

We're one step from the edge. Comment now, while there's still time. Give it some real thought, people—you may be rewarded!

Chaper 10

Chapter 10

Rainbow Dash soared through the light, stretching out until she became impossibly thin. She was a beam of light, a flicker of thought, a vibrant thread of a thousand colors that was at once finite and boundless. In her wake spun a thousand skeins of light—in their course, she saw the world below, her friends fighting, the mountains of Equestria crumbling into dust. Past, present, and future.

If the void she had crossed on the moon had taught her the meaning of emptiness, this passage demonstrated the boundless realm of thought. She saw again each of the thousands of faces left behind. Their cheers, their hearts and dreams, their love propelled her up. For them, she would go to the root of creation.

With a final pulse of effort, she pulled herself back together and burst through the clouds. Without quite knowing how, she knew that her journey was nearing its end. It was knowing as she had experienced in the world below, a devout understanding in her very heart that the conclusion to her trials stood tantalizingly within reach.

It felt like coming home.

Radiance flooded forth to kiss the clouds with golden light. It sprang forth from the branches of a tree straddling the craggy roof of the world, far above, its branches as bright as the sun. As she rose, the sky fell away, darkening into twilight and thence to night. The great mountain which had once dominated the world shrank to a pin, concealed in rolling clouds.

Rainbow Dash shook her mane, and the light of her passage fell from her like stardust. She inhaled, and then slowly let out her breath. “Here we are. Time to finish this.” She steadied herself and placed a hoof down, picturing a solid surface. A sense of firmness met her and pushed back, and where her hoof met the surface ethereal light radiated. Within seconds, she stood on the bridge of an aurora that wound its way through the eternal sky to the foot of the tree. In its gently waving curtains she saw the world below, filled with her friends fighting, her life in Ponyville, the birth of a foal, the founding of Equestria, and the very mountains of the earth crumbling to dust. Past, present, and future intertwined as one.

The peak drew closer. Now that Rainbow Dash was close enough to see clearly, she found a kaleidoscope of color spreading out all around it. The colors seemed at first to be merely reflected light, like the patterns of a seashell, but on closer inspection Rainbow Dash saw that the peak was carpeted by shapes resting on its slopes. They were mares, dozens if not hundreds of them, sleeping peacefully. They were all different—some were large, some were short, some with long tails like the pre-Equestrian’s, some with horns or antlers, some with wings like bats or birds. They came in every color, but the one thing they had in common was their hair. Be it short or long, curly or straight, each of them had a mane in all seven colors. Those manes, in solid shades like Rainbow’s or a continuous spectrum like Hawa’s or something in between, fanned out behind them as they slept.

A chill ran up Rainbow Dash’s spine. A point of light surrounded by a thousand multi-colored petals…

She continued walking, and placed a hoof upon the soil of the peak. Here, the light-filled branches did not seem so harsh, their embrace welcoming as she pushed them aside and stepped forward. Underneath the canopy, branches hung all around her. Each leaf shined with the light of a tiny star. It felt as if she was striding through space, a titan crossing the galaxy.

Worn feet shed their weariness as she walked beneath the canopy of stars, the aches and pains which had brought her here flaking off. Even the stiffness of her freshly healed wounds faded. Almost like I’m walking backwards in time.

Rainbow Dash paused at the thought. There is something familiar about all this. She pursed her lips and looked around. Something about a nearby branch caught her eye and she drew it closer for a better look. Words coursed through it, curious symbols that radiated out in spirals following the natural curve of the broad leaves. As she studied them, she realized that she could understand the language. Like so much about this place, the knowledge was already inside her, waiting to come forward.

There were thousands of symbols, each containing a meaning or a slew of meanings, and they were not read in any particular direction. Instead, they were read from every direction at once. Up, down, left, right—where one started and where one followed determined the meaning of the sentence, and they had branching paths that changed the meaning as well. More, no one direction was valid, for every possible sentence had meaning.

Rainbow stared up at the tree, its eerily lit branches filling her vision. “It’s the Book,” she whispered, and knew it to be so. Every leaf contained instructions, every branch encoded a whole library of commands. The entire universe, written here.

“Not of conflict, but of understanding,” she said quietly. Taking her branch in hoof, she scanned down it, seeing more with her mind than with her eyes. Minutiae of bacterial reproduction and the planned history of an entire family for generations rubbed up against detailed inventories of the gem content of mountains on the other side of the world from Ponyville.

Organized chaos, much? She kept reading, pulling the branch down towards her to scan each individual leaf. She checked nearby branches, searching until she found the mention she was looking for—a rainbow-maned mare. Something seemed strange, though—wherever she looked, the information looped back in on itself. It gave some snippets of her life—mentioning a red stallion, her qualities of confidence, loyalty, and compassion, her hopes and desires—but it always came back to the starting location.

“The rainbow-maned mare returns to her home and sleeps. The rainbow-maned mare wakes in her home and leaves.”

Rainbow read on. She found another branch a few steps away that detailed a similar path—one that cycled her back to the original. Again she found another mention of a rainbow-maned mare, and again it took her back to the start. No matter which path she took, it always ended and began on those two commands.

Her brows creased further. “Wait… where’s my family? Do I have kids? Where’s my birth?” Scanning back along the branches, she found a mention of Cloud Buster, if not by name than by description—There’s how he grows up, has a sister, falls in love, and then…

“The rainbow-maned mare returns to her home and sleeps. The rainbow-maned mare wakes in her home and leaves.”

There was no mention of a family for the rainbow maned mare. She had no birth, no youth, no children, no death. Her life repeated itself, circling again and again.

Rainbow Dash backed away from the branch, staring at the leaf as if it had offended her. Rainbow wanted to shout at the world, but even the idea left her feeling exhausted. She might as well be shouting at herself. In a way, perhaps she was. “What does it mean? Damn it!” She stomped her hooves and started towards the trunk, following the rise of the hill. “It doesn’t make any sense!” she growled.

She paused, and her eyes traced back to the shore, where she could just see the figures below as a haze of multicolored light. Rainbow-maned mares nestled on the shore of a cosmic ocean. A sonic rainboom, its cascade altering fate. She shuddered.

Somewhere above, Hawa waited. She stared up at the branches again. A library that is a tree. Twilight would like that, I bet. Leaving the shore behind, Rainbow Dash trotted towards the center.

* * *

Time passed strangely in the Book. Rainbow Dash was aware, in a vague sense, that the traditional concept of time as she understood it—that of events moving linearly from one moment to the next—was a lot less accurate than she had been raised to believe. Still, by all rights, she should have reached the center a while ago. With the light-bearing branches above, she felt as though she was walking backwards rather than forwards—retracing steps she had long ago placed. It only served to confirm her earlier feelings of eeriness and repetition.

Every so often, a movement would catch her eye. There was a flicker of shadow, or the swish of a colorful tail, and she would turn only to find the way behind her empty. The fallen leaves strewn on the path crunched beneath her hooves, and the glowing sap on them bled deep, to be reabsorbed like water in the dark soil. Still, she pressed on, climbing towards the source of brightness, a shining pinnacle far ahead.

At last, a ring of black stones appeared through the haze before her, dwarfed by the trunk of the tree they surrounded. Light, illuminating their granite massiveness starkly, beamed through the slots between them in all directions like some primordial lighthouse. Rainbow flapped her wings and cleared the last few steps, only to find her path barred. A shadow stretched from a black stone to interpose itself before her. Light haloed it as if it were solid, and cascaded through its empty eyes and mouth. It had the shape of an elongated pony, all worn and thin.

“I was wondering when you would show up,” Rainbow Dash growled.

The Entelecheia said nothing.

More of Them appeared, unraveling from whorls, chips, and crevices in the stonework. She could not tell if They loomed over her or if They were so tiny as to be insignificant, but somehow They packed themselves before her, hundreds deep, thousands wide.

“I’m not going to submit. I don’t care if you kill me here or not.”

The Entelecheia said nothing.

“This could have ended a long time ago, you know,” she said, her voice hot. “There were a thousand things you could have done to me back home that would have stopped me cold. You could have just silenced me the minute I started speaking out.”

Again, silence met her.

“I had a sister!” Dash snapped. “Why did you take her away, anyway? If you really wanted to keep me down there, you could have just dangled her in front of me! I would have thrown everything away, you could have sucked me down into forgetting everything, and then we wouldn’t even be standing here!”

The shadows did not answer, and Rainbow looked back up at the leaves overhead. She rubbed her face, taking a heavy breath. Her heartbeat could have been the loudest sound in existence right then. “Right… it’s all in there, somewhere. Your Plan.” She stamped a hoof fitfully. “Damn it. Nothing is ever what it seems, nothing is what I thought it was. All this time I thought you were trying to… to make some sort of concrete goal. That this was all building up to something specific. Your Plan sounds… it sounds random!”

Rainbow Dash wanted to shout at Them more. She wanted to take Them in her teeth and shake Them until They fell into pieces. That wouldn’t change anything, though, would it? She lowered her head and caught her breath, waiting until she could speak without it feeling as though each word would tear her apart.

“Answer me,” she said as she lifted her head at last. “If you’re going to be here, at least do me that favor. What are you?”

“We are the fully realized desires of the dreamer’s heart,” They answered in one voice. “We are the expression of potential into action.”

Rainbow narrowed her eyes. “You said I would unmake the world.” She waited a beat, but They volunteered nothing. “Who is the dreamer?”

“The rainbow-maned mare returns to her home and sleeps. The rainbow-maned mare wakes inher home and leaves.”

Rainbow tried to step forward, to get a better look past Them, but found her steps would take her no further. The light, shining forth from the tree as brightly as the sun, was too bright to look directly into. “What is the dreamer?”

“As the dreamer sleeps she dreams. We are all one in the dreamer.”

Rainbow’s heart quickened. Her breath raced. All around her, the world had been reduced to light and shadow.

“Why won’t you let me pass?”

“We are the fully realized desires of the dreamer’s heart.”

“I’m not the dreamer!” Rainbow shouted at Them. “I’m not!”

They stood impassively, a shadowy wall of ineffable purpose and power.

“Stop it! You’re saying that like… like I don’t want to go in, so I’m stopping myself from seeing the truth?” she asked. “But… that would imply I know what I’m going to find, and the part of me that knows doesn’t want to go there.” Words bubbled up out of Rainbow Dash of their own accord. “Because I have already been here before. I know I have, time and time again, and… I just don’t want to put myself through it because…”

Rainbow snapped her mouth shut and closed her eyes.

“I could go back, couldn’t I? I could go to the mountainside and lay my head down, let you take me back down. It would all be over, then. I wouldn’t have to worry about anything else like this ever again. I won’t have to face what lies behind you.”

“Yes,” They answered. After a pause, They added, “But you will not.”

“No,” she murmured. The faces of her loved ones, of Twilight and Big Mac and Scootaloo and more, flashed before her eyes. “I won’t.”

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. “All right.” She set a hoof against her chest and forced the words out. “All right. Stand aside… I’ve come home.”

Her words may as well have been a key in a lock. Something deep within her opened. Radiance poured out of her, consume Them from the outside in, as if They were burning sheets of paper caught in her flame. The last of the Entelecheia stood directly between Rainbow Dash and the trunk—her very own shadow. It quirked its mouth into a smile before it, too, was swallowed in her light.

With a stride that could have bridged worlds, Rainbow Dash stepped forward.

* * *

A garden stood at the root of creation.

Rainbow Dash looked from one end to another. The trunk of the tree rose in slopes not unlike the mountain Rainbow Dash had ascended, its canopy ablaze with radiance. Moonflowers dug into the dirt, their pale blossoms uplifted and spreading pollen that glimmered like tiny fireflies. Low shrubs and tiny trees stood unmoving in the still air. As far as gardens went it was not very large—she could have circled it in moments—and it seemed so terribly mundane to her eyes. After having fallen into the ocean of possibility that was the tabula rasa, after traveling to the moon, after scaling the mountain that stood between thought and being, the simplicity of a quiet garden seemed to her an awfully reserved beating heart for everything that has ever been.

Maybe that’s the point. Big things have small beginnings, and don’t we all start in a peaceful, gentle place?

Rainbow looked down at her own hoof. Well. Most of us.

A single shaft of golden sunlight pierced the veil, and its rays illuminated a mare laying beside a deep, still pool.

Hawa slumbered. Her head rested on one outstretched foreleg while the other sprawled to one side. Her tail twitched now and then. Rainbow watched her, but could not tell if her sleep was peaceful or troubled—her face was unlined, her body still, yet there was a tension about her that Rainbow could not define. Around her neck hung a necklace with a blue sapphire at her throat, and resting on her brow was a single pearl. The light touched the top of her head, and her rainbow-colored mane, its smooth progression of colors stirring whenever she breathed, fanned out across the grass around her.

Rainbow Dash stood there for a long time, breathing in the scent of the flowers with her eyes shut. The world turned around them, and she felt it turning as if it were merely an extension of her own limbs. In her mind’s eye, she saw it—the earth, its blue oceans spinning beneath the moon. Continents shifted, cities rose and fell. Creatures lived, died, and lived again.

Her vision pulled back. The stars fell away to become mere points of light in a rainbow mane. The world revealed itself as a blue jewel at the throat of a mare, while the moon hung above her eyes as a white pearl. Atop it all stood the crown of light, with her colorful mane falling around it to encompass all the starry universe.

With a shake of her head, Rainbow cleared away the vision. Crossing the field, she rested a hoof on Hawa’s side. Her heart beat in a slow, steady rhythm under Rainbow’s touch. The other mare’s body was soft and warm.

“Whatever the consequences,” Rainbow whispered, “I’ve come too far to be stopped by them. I’ve fought too long. The suffering, the fighting—it all needs to stop here. All of the questions need to be answered now.”

Gently, she shook Hawa. The other mare stirred fitfully. Her ears twitched. She resettled, shifting her head between her forelegs. Rainbow, shaking her again, didn’t let her sink back into slumber.

“It’s time to wake up, Hawa.”

The leaves quivered. The branches shook. Rainbow kept it up, even as the light flickered.

Hawa drew a heavy breath. Her body tensed.

Rainbow held her breath, and the earth stopped turning.

With a toss of her head, Hawa began to stir. A foreleg came up and pushed at Rainbow feebly. “I’m… up. Ah’m up…” she slurred. After all of the overwrought imagery Rainbow Dash had been bombarded with, the process of waking up the dreamer responsible for all creation was shockingly mundane. Hawa stretched, her back and tail arching with audible pops, and then rubbed at her eyes. At last, she opened her eyes. They were the very same shade of rose as Rainbow’s own, and when they unclouded from sleep and perceived Rainbow there, they widened.

“Oh, no,” Hawa whispered. Her voice was light and sweet, but it trembled with a note of pain.

“Good morning, Hawa. I’m Rainbow Dash,” Rainbow said as she extended a hoof to help her up. “I think you know me.”

Hawa stared at the offered hoof for a while, taking in the messy, tattered creature in front of her. Rainbow knew that she looked a sight—she had gone unwashed for well over a day, her mane was a tangled nest, and her feathers were torn and missing in places. I could fix it all with a thought, but why? There’s no real point now. Even so, Hawa seemed to be regarding her with something akin to fear.

With a low sigh, Hawa reached out and took the hoof, using it to climb to her feet and shook off the last groggy vestiges of her eons-long nap. She ran a hoof through her mane to smooth it, and it fell to either side of her in colorful waves. “Yes, Rainbow Dash, I know you.” Her eyes glanced up at the branches, and she shook her head. “I suppose this all had to come to an end, eventually.”

Hawa blinked at her, and then she laughed. She covered her mouth as Rainbow’s cheeks reddened, still giggling, and smiled her sweet, innocent smile as the laughter faded. It was hard for Rainbow Dash not to smile with her at that—it was like her grin lit up the glade. “No, of course not,” Hawa said. “We’re part of the same dreamer, of course, but that’s all we are—separate, distinct parts of a connected consciousness, of which we are the focal points.”

“Why do we look alike, then? What is the symbolism of the rainbow light? Has the world ended? Is there anything outside all this?” Rainbow felt short of breath as she peppered Hawa with her questions. She had run an emotional and metaphysical marathon to get here, and now that she had crossed the finish line, she didn’t even know where to start. “What’s the point of the multiple worlds? How come I had to fight to get back here? Why do we have to switch off? Are those mares down there just like us, too?”

Rainbow’s breath failed her, and she tried to find words for a few seconds before flapping her wings and screaming, “Why are you hurting everyone?”

Hawa’s ears laid back, and her head lowered. Her entire body slumped; the energy her laugh had given her drained out entirely.

“Can’t you see it, in your dream?” Rainbow Dash pointed a hoof off to the side, as if encompassing all of creation in her gesture. “Can’t you see how there’s entire histories of people who are suffering? Even among those who are still alive, they’re being driven insane by memories they don’t have and feelings they can’t understand!”

Hawa said nothing.

“It’s… it’s all right here, in your Book. You write—dream—the changes and things happen. Why…” Rainbow bit her lip. “I came here to fix things. I came here to make it all better. I’ve come all this way expecting some black-hearted villain, and all you’re doing is staring at the floor.” She scraped a hoof, staring around as if hoping some monster would pop out of the earth. “You should be laughing maniacally. Can’t you give a speech, some diatribe about how you had to do it, laying out your whole evil plan?” She pressed closer. “Say something. Rage at me, tell me how I don’t understand, how you did bad things because… because…” Rainbow reached out for her with a hoof, but stopped just short of touching her. Her legs trembled.

“I’m sorry,” Hawa whispered. “I tried my best.”

The fatal purpose of saving everyone in Equestria and beyond, the certain necessity of facing down the beating heart of universal misfortune, had been all that had been sustaining Rainbow Dash. Now, Hawa’s simple apology snipped the strings holding her up as neatly as if they had been scissors cutting twine. She sank to the earth, staring blankly at the grass and flowers.

Trotting around to her side, Hawa reached down, sliding a hoof through Rainbow’s hair. “I’m sorry,” she said in a heavy voice. “I’ve tried so hard. Ever since I came here, I’ve been trying to fix… everything.” She settled down on the grass beside her. “In the beginning, I saw how the people quarreled and suffered. I knew that, even if they settled their disagreements, came together, and solved their problems, some terrible disaster would put an end to them.”

The pool rippled, and gleaming cities rushed by in Rainbow Dash’s view, crumbling into dust. “I failed.”

“Why did you just leave them there, then? They’re still tearing each other apart!” She pointed down at the dead earth. “When I went there, robots were tearing each other to pieces. The surviving unicorns huddle in jars just so their own rotting bodies don’t make living unbearable! They were your friends!” Rainbow lifted her head to stare accusingly at her. “You went down among them, you have incredible power, how come you didn’t do anything for them?”

“They were my friends, and I know what ails them,” Hawa said quietly. “I had to, Rainbow Dash. I had to put them somewhere while I tried to fix the problem.”

Rainbow wanted to yell at her, but the energy for it just wasn’t there. She sighed and splashed a hoof in the water, turning it to the black landscape of the desert kingdom as the surface settled. “What about this? You made a world that should have functioned.” She shook her head. “The Oracle said that it worked on entirely different laws—metaphysical rules that kept themselves in tension to promote balance.”

Hawa nodded. “It did.” She concentrated on the pool, and the image sped forward in time. The pyramids and deserts changed, becoming meadow-strewn mountains, where columned temples dotted the land. It shifted again, becoming a gleaming city with towers of glass on clouds, where pegasi zipped along lanes in the sky. Again and again the image changed, finding new forms, a condensed history of the second age in its myriad forms, until it settled on Ponyville. “For a time.”

“What happened?”

“People happened. Errors happened—mine and theirs. Even with checks and balances, the system spins off its top and becomes unstable after a time. Look at Nightmare Moon. Look at Discord. Look at Queen Chrysalis and a thousand threats you’ve never even seen.” Hawa closed her eyes. “I’ve been trying for so long to find some configuration, some perfect combination of factors that won’t lead to the world being torn apart.”

“But… something must work.”

“Oh, certainly.” Hawa opened her eyes and turned her head to look at Rainbow. “I can make a stable world, one that will endure under these circumstances; do you know what that requires, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow shook her head.

“Suffering,” Hawa said, and her voice nearly broke on that word alone. She had to take a moment to catch her breath. “It requires unfairness and heartache. Senseless brutality, people getting churned into meal.” She closed her eyes. “It takes suffering the likes of which you haven’t even dreamed, Rainbow Dash. You think what has gone on is bad? You can’t even imagine. There are terrors that can be inflicted on a world that will lock it into a stable format; like an eternal night. Perhaps I could allow nuclear weapons to return and be used, reducing the remaining population to a handful of survivors that are easier to manage. Maybe I could place a magic bridle upon the earth that would allow one to subdue the entire pony race.”

Hawa sighed. “Honestly, I don’t think even that would work for long. What would that do? Just lock the world in eternal stasis of the worst kind.” Her eyes shut. “We would stop the wheel at its lowest point.”

Biting her lip, Rainbow Dash said nothing.

“I’m not omnipotent, Rainbow. I can’t see all outcomes perfectly, I can’t affect everything ideally. Do you think that just because I hold the world on my shoulders that I know how to save it?” Hawa rose, blinking away tears. “I thought that by coming here, I could fix everything. I came home, and now I need to leave it.”

Rainbow stood with her, following as Hawa started around the trunk. “Wait! Where do you come from, then?”

Hawa paused, glancing back at her. “Here. The rainbow-maned mare returns home, and then she leaves. You, the rainbow-maned mare, have returned home.”

“I… what?” Rainbow stared around. She looked at the grass where Hawa had been lying. No…

“Yes, Rainbow Dash. Don’t you see?” Hawa smiled sadly. “It’s your turn. You’ve unmade the world by waking me up, and now you have a chance to make it anew, to start over and fix it.”

“No… that’s… I didn’t come here to…” Rainbow’s eyes widened.

“I had my chance. You saw for yourself—all I did was mess everything up by trying to be everyone’s mother.” Hawa came to Rainbow Dash’s side and gave her a nudge. “Go on… Everyone is waiting for you. Every soul is an emanation of us, after all, so it’s not like they’re going away.” She smiled sadly. “You know it, too. You resisted coming here. How many times on Earth did you draw the Entelecheia to you, to demand that They stop you from reaching here?”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. “I didn’t… You can’t mean that I did that? I was trying to avoid Them!”

“You are Them, Rainbow Dash, as much as I am. We are our own gaolers, sometimes.” Hawa turned and walked through the stones surrounding the tree’s trunk.

Rainbow continued to stare. Realizing that Hawa was walking away again, she raced to catch up and trotted alongside the other mare. Through the bright haze surrounding the garden, she saw a flash of a rainbow tail and ignored it. “What about you?”

“Me? I’m going down there,” Hawa said and pointed towards the shore.

“I kinda figured,” Rainbow muttered. “But… please, just stop for a bit and talk to me.” She reached out and turned the slender unicorn around. “I want to know where you came from.”

Hawa sighed, nodding. “All right. I suppose we aren’t in any hurry, after all.” She glanced around, and the land, smoothly becoming a room with polished wooden floors and paper walls painted with flowers. One wall had been opened to reveal a short, tree-lined path down to a sunlit beach. Hawa took a seat on a cushion by a short table, and Rainbow sat across from her.

“This was my house. I lived in it, alone,” Hawa said, watching the waves come in. “I looked a little differently back then, of course.” She gave herself a shake, and her mane darkened to an inky black. It stretched all the way down her back to join a draconic tail while scales slid up her belly. Tiny antlers sprouted out of her hair. “That’s how things started, at least,” she smiled toothily, and picked up a cup of tea with a clawed hand. “A little island of Kirins.”

Rainbow watched her transformation into the strange pony-dragon-deer thing in silence. “What about your folks? Did you have any family?” she asked as she, too, picked up a steaming cup.

“I thought I did,” she answered. Another creature like herself ran up the beach, a small boy chasing a harried crab. He growled in mock ferocity, pawing at it. “A cousin. I think that’s how it always happens, really. We just get slotted into a life fully formed, with memories inserted to fill the gap. It never lasts, though—”

The sky darkened. The earth shook. A flaming meteor struck a distant island and erupted in a towering inferno. Hawa watched it calmly as the shockwave kicked the ocean up like a children’s pool and blasted through the house. The two of them remained intact, passing through like ghosts as tons of water and silt slid through where they once were.

“I don’t know how I survived, but when I rose from the waves, I looked rather more like this,” she said, and Rainbow turned to find them in the wreckage of the house. Among the ruined boards and smashed trees, Hawa hovered as a long, sea-green version of herself, with her long mane now a rippling rainbow. She settled her claws on a displaced boulder, staring mournfully at where the child had been. “They’d taken him away. Gone, just like that.”

Rainbow looked down at her tea cup. She downed it in one go, wishing it were something rather stronger. Rather than create a bottle of alcohol, though, she looked at Hawa with newfound sympathy.

“After that, I tried to figure out what had gone wrong. What terrible thing had stolen my life away?” She gestured up at the sky, to where the moon stood in broad daylight. “The answer came to me in a dream—some terrible force was manipulating the world, turning it to Their desires.”

“Oh.” Rainbow covered her mouth.

“There were others. A handsome young fellow who helped me find my confidence again. A friend who sacrificed herself so that I could reach the moon.” Hawa turned to regard Rainbow Dash. “When I got there, a strange stallion met me and told me that there was another way. Perhaps I was in a dream, but I could dream a dream within the dream and escape that way.”

The image melted away, leaving them in the bright haze beneath the canopy, while the light-crowned trunk watched from above. Rainbow Dash covered her eyes and sank down to her belly.

Hawa, after changing back, slid a hoof around Rainbow’s shoulders to hold her close. Rainbow pressed her face into Hawa’s chest and sobbed quietly.

“We are the all-encompassing dreamer,” Hawa said quietly. “We are at once the terrible oppressor and the rebel who challenges the seat of heaven to sit the throne and begin the cycle anew. I came here and asked the dreamer before me to leave. I hemmed and hawed for a long time, wondering what I should do.”

Rainbow looked up at her. “I… what can we do? Surely this isn’t the end. I don’t… I don’t want to just create a new cycle.”

Hawa smiled at her. “You can wander as long as you like, Rainbow Dash. I did. I read every word on every leaf, trying to find out where it had all gone wrong. Eventually, I lay down and slept, dreaming a world to try and experiment on.” She pointed a hoof at Rainbow Dash. “Then you came and woke me up.”

“But all you’re doing is just starting the whole thing over again!” Rainbow stared around wildly. “There must be something. There must be some other way. Firefly might have an idea. Princess Twilight, Celestia, Luna, the Oracle… they’re all way, way smarter than I am.”

“Are they?” Hawa laughed quietly. “They’re inside you, too. You can be as smart as they are and more. Your mind swallows the universe.” She flicked her tail, walking around Rainbow Dash. “You can speak to them anytime you like in your heart, and they will answer as independently and truly as they are capable, if you think you need a second opinion.”

“Can’t you go back to being a villain?” Rainbow whined.

Hawa laughed and beamed. “I’m sorry. I really wish I could make things that simple. Just gather the Elements of Harmony and shoot the bad lady with a beam of justice—that was a very satisfying way to conclude things, wasn’t it?”

Rainbow Dash grumbled. She trotted back and forth for a while, returning to the glade and glaring up at the leaves. “So this is why you tried to stop me getting up the mountain.”

“Yes.”

“It wouldn’t have killed me, would it have?”

“What is death? You can’t really die, Rainbow Dash; you just come back.” Hawa sat on a gnarled root to watch her. “Besides, I couldn’t really stop you, nor more than my predecessor could stop me.”

“Did you have to fight through a giant army of crazy animated statues?”

“Ah, no. I had to abandon everyone, actually…” Hawa grimaced. “It was unpleasant. That’s sort of the point, though—if you aren’t ready to come here, you need to go back until you are.”

“I wasn’t ready, I…” Rainbow frowned. “Firefly. She’s the one who called up the others. But I gave her hope, and all of them hope as well. When they saw that I wasn’t giving up, they couldn’t give up, either. They fought so that I could come here.”

“Now you’re getting it. You are the hope of your world, just as I was of mine, and my predecessor was of the world before.” Hawa smiled. “We’re the past, present, and the future as well; the hope of a better life.”

Rainbow growled. She paced a circle, trampling the flowers and grass. “Fine job we’re doing there. I still can’t believe I came all this way, fought through so much, just so it can all start over again!” She stopped and narrowed her eyes at Hawa. “This isn’t some trick, is it? I’m not still dying on the mountainside, or trapped in some dream world while my real body is laid up in the hospital, am I?”

Hawa shook her head with a quiet laugh. “If this were a trick on my part, could you tell? But, no, I think you know the answer to that. Think about it—try imagining Manehattan.”

Rainbow frowned, picturing the city in her mind’s eye. The new skyscrapers gleamed with their smooth curves and bold lines, a daring architectural style that had only caught on within the past few years. Ponies moved through along the sidewalks, pegasi and griffins flitted through the air, and carriages rattled through the streets. They were like blood pumping through the city’s veins. Over a million lives slept, ate, loved, and lived beneath her gaze. Pigeons roosted, tofu burgers sizzled, electric lines buzzed. Each individual grain of sand on the beach shifted as the ocean tugged against it under the gentle motion of the wind.

It goes so much deeper than that. Rainbow closed her eyes. In a single blink of her eye the world was born and it died. Her world cried its birth pangs when Celestia first raised the sun of a new dawn, and it ended when the sun guttered out like a spark, becoming cold and lifeless. Every moment of Celestia’s vast memory and experience flowed into her, then it was joined by Luna’s. Rainbow stretched back and tucked the Oracle in there as well, the vast scientific knowledge of an entire age flooding in with it. The magical repertoires of Twilight Sparkle and Starswirl the Bearded waited just beneath the surface.

Long moments of silence passed as Rainbow skimmed the flood of ideas and information. Her mind swelled as she calculated probabilities, running the world simulation in her head again and again. It was a depressing sort of exercise. Suns and moons spun around blue marbles through her mind until they sputtered and died like candles being blown out. It was an unending cycle of ponies living and dying, running their lives over and over again.

Hawa’s nose rubbed against Rainbow Dash’s cheek, distracting her from her grim concentration. Rainbow reached up, rubbing her eyes, and her leg came away wet. “Damn it,” Rainbow said softly.

Hawa nuzzled her gently and held her close. “You see, don’t you? All the genius of the world.”

“I don’t want to do it, Hawa,” Rainbow sobbed fitfully. “I don’t. I can’t do it.”

“I’m sorry, Rainbow.”

Rainbow leaned against Hawa and stared out towards the void. “It’s just one mare following another, again and again.” She pulled herself free and stepped over to the side of the island to stare down as their figures slumbered against the slope. “What happens to them when they go to sleep?”

“They’re born into the new world, a piece of it, until they feel it is time to come here again,” Hawa explained. “Just like you did, when Firefly was taken. You reunited with your purpose.” Hawa followed her gaze and sighed. “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash. I wish there was something we—I—could do to help you, but you’re the heart of the world’s soul now. The only person who can make these decisions is you.”

Rainbow continued to stare down at the other mares, their peaceful faces turned up to catch the light. “Me, huh?” She shook her head. Her mind raced—weeks of fearing Them, her crushing disappointments with Scootaloo and Big Macintosh, Vinyl Scratch’s demise, the harrowing journeys into the Deeper Dream, their triumphant return. And it all comes down to this. The old guard changing places with the new. Just one more petal in a damned flower, rotating over a doomed world.

“It’s just a wheel. Turning forever. It gets better, and then it gets worse,” she said dully. “Don’t you see it, Hawa? The world is yoked to that wheel. It just keeps on turning and dragging it through salvation and damnation.”

“I do.”

Rainbow turned to her. “And for all our power, what can we do? We’re the creator, we’re the dreamer, and all we can do is start over again. We go through the same cycle that the world does, sinking to the pits and rising to the top again.”

Hawa watched her quietly.

“Of course I didn’t want to return here,” Rainbow muttered. “There’s nothing here. It’s just another step on the wheel of damnation.”

“Rainbow…” Hawa shook her head. “What are you suggesting? Do you even have an alternative? I don’t like the situation that much, but if you don’t go back there and dream up the next world, there is no world.”

“And why should there be?” Rainbow snapped.

Hawa creased her brows. “Why should there be… what? A world?” Her eyes widened. “Rainbow, what are you saying? Of course there should be a world.”

“Why?”

“The implications seem clear to me. What are we, Rainbow Dash?” Hawa shook her head. “We aren’t dreaming a world because it is a fun pastime. There are uncountable souls awaiting rebirth inside of us. We’re a kaleidoscope of hopes and dreams.” She drifted off the ground with an easy grace and held a world between her forehooves, holding it out to Rainbow Dash. It turned peacefully there, with white clouds gliding over the blue water and green earth.

“For all that you deplore the darker parts of the cycle, of death and destruction, can you truly deny that there is not something ineffably beautiful about it?” Hawa asked, her words tugging at Rainbow Dash. “Love, friendship, pleasure, joy. Your friends are quiescent now, their souls held in abeyance while you make your decision. Will you deny them the opportunity to be born again and again, to experience growth?”

Rainbow stared at the world for a long time. Her insides churned. Then, with a sudden outburst of violent motion, she struck the globe from Hawa’s grasp. It sailed through the air and smashed into the rocks, shattering open as if it had been made of glass.

“To live is to die,” Rainbow said tightly. She swallowed, and her inner radiant light flickered, only to be renewed again. “To grow is to suffer.”

“Suffering is a part of how we grow in life,” Hawa said. “We learn from our mistakes and become better as a result.”

Rainbow paced back and forth, her tail flicking as she tried to think.

“Is the suffering you seek to avoid all that bad, Rainbow Dash?” Hawa asked pointedly. “The whole conflict for you started because you were upset about your gender changing—something you now recognize as being fairly irrelevant. You object to how the first world of the unicorns is in a bleak state, and how broken the Lost of the dead world are, but I have told you that this was my best attempt to put them aside, to keep them somewhere so I could try and find a lasting solution.”

“It’s more than that,” Rainbow growled. “People don’t just forget about what you—what we do to them. There’s always part of them that remembers how they were messed with. Your fixes failed, by your own admission.”

Rainbow stopped in front of Hawa. “What if I don’t want to carry on that tradition? What if we just end it, right here?”

“Just the two of us?” Hawa waved a hoof at the mares below. “Or the thousand of us? How is that a fair compromise?” She met Rainbow’s gaze steadily. “Or do you plan to bring everyone who has ever lived out here as well? If so, you’ll just have dreamed up a new, stranger world for them to occupy.”

“So you think it’s better if I become like you?” Rainbow thrust her face into Hawa’s. “Pretend everything is sunshine and roses while stuffing everybody who can’t get along into an everlasting hell?”

Hawa’s face fell, and then hardened. “Find your own way, Rainbow Dash. Learn the lessons of my world.”

“I have,” Rainbow said with a bitter grunt. “I’ve been here before. I’ve tried to rule as dreamer. It’s pain embedded so far down in my consciousness that I don’t even know where it begins or if it even has a beginning.” With a snarl she turned and faced out into the void once more.

“That… stallion or whatever he is,” Rainbow said after a moment. “The one who we met down below. He said he wasn’t involved in all this.”

Hawa nodded. “He did.”

“What does that mean?”

“He is not a part of the dream,” Hawa said. “He comes from elsewhere. A Traveler.”

“Else… where?” Rainbow blinked at her. “What else can there be?”

Hawa shook her head. “Other dreamers. Perhaps stranger things. Ideas floating all on their own.”

A light entered Rainbow Dash’s eyes, and she spun around to face her. “Let’s call him. Maybe he can tell us of another way.”

Hawa sighed. “I think you’ll find we’ve done this before, but all right.” As if caught in a breeze, she drifted out over the void and conjured a stone platform out of nothingness to stand upon. Rainbow stretched her wings, and then thought better of flying. Instead, she simply imagined herself there—in the blink of an eye, she went from where she had been standing to Hawa’s side.

Hawa quirked a smile and waited patiently. Moments later, a light rose from far below. Rather than the familiar shape of a unicorn, however, the Traveler appeared as a sitting figure wreathed in light, legs crossed and back upright. It had no specific features, and she could not have said whether it have hooves, hands, gender, or even skin. An aura of thoughtful serenity radiated out from it as it regarded them with beryl eyes. Behind it, a wheel turned slowly, and Rainbow—with her newfound attention span—counted a hundred and eight sections, each a slightly difference hue.

“I rather thought this would happen,” the Traveler said in a low chime. “She grows wearier by the cycle, Hawa.”

Hawa sighed and brushed her mane back. “It is no less trying for me.”

“Look,” Rainbow Dash said as she stepped toward the alien figure, “I’m sure we’ve gone over this before, but indulge me. What lies beyond here? This existence?”

“Stillness. Peace. No place.”

“Can you, uh… elaborate on that a little more? I’ve been to a place that’s no place before,” Rainbow Dash said, shuddering as she remembered the lunar void, “it didn’t exactly leave me with a good impression.”

“A simple cessation does not encompass that which lies beyond,” the Traveler said.

“Can you explain, please?” Hawa asked. “I know we must seem a little dense, but we would like to understand.”

The Traveler lifted a limb, and it formed into a hand with five fingers. “Understand it from these root thoughts, then: you, the Dreamer, conceive of a world of matter, recognized through perception, judged by feeling, recognized by consciousness, and navigated through volition. Through these five points does a being observe, understand, and react.”

“Beings who are continuously reborn,” Rainbow Dash said quietly, “to live and die and live again, trying to understand our purpose.”

“You already intuit the problem,” the Traveler said. “What is the fate of a wicked person?”

“To die and live again.”

“Indeed. What is the fate of a righteous person?”

“To die and live again.”

The Traveler nodded and lowered its hand, reforming it back into a vague shape. “And throughout these lifetimes we grow, suffer, wither, and die. The wheel of existence to which you are staked.”

Hawa shook her head. “There is more to life than that, though. Wonderful, beautiful things. Joy and laughter, love and kindness…”

“One can experience them to excess, if one chooses,” the Traveler said. “You can use magic or a computer to experience joy everlasting, an eternity of pleasure. You can create a heaven wherein all souls live in perfection.”

“But at that point, you aren’t even a person anymore,” she protested. “You’re just a conduit for sensation, with no capacity for meaningful decisions. That’s not that much better than a hell.”

“It is not.”

“There is no world I can dream of that won’t have suffering, will there?” Rainbow asked cautiously. “If I end suffering, I end the concept of being an actual being who is meaningful; there is no conflict on which to grow. If I promote suffering for eternity, I’ve created conflict but with no resolution.” Rainbow scrubbed her head and looked up to the Traveler with bleary eyes. “What is left, then?”

“You are already closer to a solution than you think,” it said.

Hawa touched her counterpart’s side. “Rainbow…”

Rainbow Dash shook her off and began to pace the stone circle. The Traveler sat motionless to one side, the Book glowed its radiant light in the opposite direction, and Hawa, watching her, sat in the center. “It’s all… fake. It’s an illusion we put ourselves through. We want things and so we put up with it…” She stamped her hoof. “No, it’s more than that. The very fact that we want all these things is what drives us mad.”

She glanced up at the Traveler, who said nothing. “That’s it, isn’t it? We want… we desire to hold on to pleasurable experiences, and when those things are threatened or taken from us, we suffer.”

“Rainbow… what are you suggesting?” Hawa asked, scuffing her hoof against the stone. “The logical conclusion to that is that to end suffering we end desire. No pleasure, no conflict. We blow it out like a candle. Each of the five things the Traveler brought up would need to be extinguished.”

“We’d be free. Liberated, even,” Rainbow said. “No more hate, no more suffering. No more wheel.”

“No more love, no more joy.”

“Is it really, though?” Rainbow said. She gestured to the slumbering mares. “How worth it is it to be set up again and again, in however many lifetimes? We’re just living the same mockery of existence a thousand times over.”

Hawa narrowed her eyes. “Is your love for Scootaloo and Big Macintosh so shallow?”

Rainbow Dash winced, turning her head aside. “No… but I know it will end, eventually. I’d also rather they not suffer, either. I don’t want anypony to suffer—isn’t that the ultimate form of love? If so, can you really say love is extinguished?”

“Rainbow…”

“No.” Rainbow Dash turned and inclined her head to the Traveler. “Thank you. This conversation was very… enlightening.”

“I stand by what I said earlier,” the Traveler said. “I wish you had accepted my offer. This could have been avoided.”

“Could have been.” Rainbow nodded. “But wouldn’t have.”

“Such is the way of things. I wish you well,” the Traveler said, and then shot up and away, vanishing into a point of light that, too, soon faded.

Rainbow Dash turned her attention back to the Book. Hawa tried to grab her, but Rainbow Dash flew at once through the air. “Rainbow, wait!” she called. She blurred after Rainbow Dash as well.

Together the two of them arrived back in the garden, and Rainbow Dash took her place beneath the trunk. She stretched herself out, laying on the mound.

“Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?” Hawa asked. She glanced down at her with her brows furrowed. “You aren’t starting to dream, are you?”

“No,” Rainbow said with a shake of her head. “I told you… I’m done. I won’t start the cycle again. I can’t.” She looked up into Hawa’s eyes. “This is where it needs to end, here and now. The Book, the world.”

Hawa’s eyes widened and she stepped back in horror.

“I’m done, Hawa,” Rainbow said tightly. “I’m not going to perpetuate the cycle anymore. I’m leaving.” She spat disgustedly. “Think about it, you heard what the Traveler said—homeostasis is a lie. We can keep the cycle going for a hundred turns, a thousand, a trillion, but all it will take is one of us, just one Dreamer to lock it into heaven or hell, trapped for all eternity.”

Rainbow stared her down determindely. “I will not stand around for that.

“How are you planning on… leaving?”

“The Traveler indicated I need to rid myself of my needs and desires,” said Rainbow. “So, I’d imagine it would be something like this…”

With that, Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and pictured herself. She could see Hawa shifting back and forth, trying to conceive of some argument to dissuade her. She could see the tree and feel its connection to them both—the world soul of which she was a part. The lives of everypony she had ever known, did know, or would know pulsed within it, their consciousnesses a part of her as she was a part of them.

She began to drift, but not to sleep. In the space of a few moments she intuited a difference. She wasn’t drifting down into sleep, she was going up. She struggled against a sickening sense of vertigo, and then Hawa, the tree, the book, she floated away from all of it, and landed somewhere else.

Then, with a gentle rip, she tore the color red from her hair.

* * * * * * *

Author's Note

The real hallmark of Them is that nothing is ever as it seems.
The very creatures for which Them was named turned out to have another name, and another purpose – and now we discover their true nature.
"They" were never some shadowy enemy lurking behind the scenes, altering the world from its natural state. They were always right there with Rainbow Dash from the beginning – because she is Them, and They are her.

Rainbow Dash went into this externalizing a problem, one that she could face, fight, and conquer.
In the end, though...

Them has been a really great writing challenge for me.
I get to draw on a lot of concepts that I've always been fascinated with – Hinduism, Buddhism, dreams, identity – and blend them together in a way that I have always wanted to see but have never really seen done. I was told, on finishing this chapter, that it resembles the Matrix to a certain degree. Having reviewed those movies, I can see certain similarities, though of course that was a sci-fi plot with a somewhat silly premise (humans as a power source? Someone doesn't understand basic entropy and physics!) and a lot of wooden, annoying characters that never went anywhere, so nyeh.

The funny thing is that I, personally, do not believe in any of this stuff. This is all my best effort to put myself in the mind of these complex mythologies and translate them into a completely different context. There's a certain amount of catharsis in that – like working out an itch.

For those of you who aren't familiar (I'm guessing most :pinkiehappy: ) one thousand rainbow petals is the traditional depiction of the Crown Chakra, which, according to certain mystic traditions, exists above the head and is the conduit through which consciousness flows into the body.

Here's the beat – for absolute certain, this story will end within 2 chapters. Chapter 11 is already finished, I will polish it and post it within the next couple days. Chapter 12 will finish it. No exceptions.

Like, favorite, and post this around. Poor Them has been languishing in low view count land!

Comment below!

Chapter 11

Red light filled Rainbow Dash’s mind, and when it cleared, Cloudsdale greeted her, bright and early, just as the sun began to rise.

It was the flight camp where her entire life had changed. The obstacles were all laid out, just as they had been on that fateful day. She remembered it with absolute clarity—the site of her first sonic rainboom. This was where she’d given it her all and shaped her destiny and those of five other very important ponies. She hovered above as the wind caught her mane and tail.

Wait, what? No… that’s right. I’d never actually done any of that. Well, or maybe I did, in a sense. I wasn’t even a she back then. I don’t know. Time doesn’t make sense anymore. Was I always Rainbow Dash or did I become Rainbow Dash? Did Rainbow Dash always exist?

Rainbow shook her head and groaned. All of this introspection was going to give her a headache, and it fit her poorly. For now.

There was a sudden flash of red and Dash felt the breath knocked clean out of her. Her back ached from some powerful blow from above, and she struggled to breathe. She flapped in a desperate attempt to right herself, but ended up plowing into a bank of clouds. Dazed and confused, she stared up at the sky.

There, lined against the sun, a blue mare hung.

“What… Rainbow Dash…?” she slurred as she recognized the profile and shook her head to clear her senses. Squirming, she popped out of the cloud and studied her assailant more closely. The mare’s mane and tail blew in the wind as fierce red banners. “Oh. Red Dash. Okay. I kind of wasn’t expecting the whole ‘ripping out my colors’ thing to be that literal.”

“You shut your damned mouth!” the red mare shouted as she landed on a cloud above her. She stamped her hoof in defiance. “I am Rainbow Dash! You are trying to hurt my friends, and I won’t let you!”

She moved, becoming a red blue that was faster than most ponies could react to. Rainbow Dash dived out of the way with a cry of panic. For the first time in her life—or, at least, in her life as Rainbow Dash—she felt sluggish. Surety of purpose and the passion to take action had been stripped from her, and all of her instincts on how to react to being attacked simply did not exist within her any longer.

“Stop, stop!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “I don’t want to hurt anypony! That’s the whole reason I’m doing this, for my friends!” She dove off the cloud and struggled to outfly her fiery copy.

“Liar!” Red Dash snarled. “You’re going to end everything! You’re going to kill everyone! I won’t allow it, I can’t allow it!” She put on a ferocious burst of speed and dove down at her. The two collided with incredible force, smashing Rainbow Dash out of the air. Almost nose-to-nose the two fought, wrestling and beating at one another, each searching for any advantage she could get. They tumbled through Cloudsdale, plowing through rivers of liquid rainbow and practice thunderclouds that crumbled under their combined force. Finally, their momentum sufficiently spent, they slammed into another cloud bank while lightning and rainbow drops cascaded around them.

“I’m not lying!” Rainbow Dash heaved through the grip on her throat. “It… it has to stop! I c-ca-can’t do it again. The wheel… I’m so tired…”

The pressure on her throat tightened, and Red Dash grit her teeth. “Some Element of Loyalty you turned out to be. I am loyal. I am Rainbow Dash. What you want doesn’t matter. I’m going to kick your pathetic flank up and down Cloudsdale, and then I’m going to free our—my friends.”

“You… can’t free them!” Rainbow Dash choked. With every bit of strength she could muster, she got a hoof under her angry simulacrum and shoved, freeing herself. “If we dream them back up, it’ll just be the same thing all over again! Again and again, just more pain!”

“You think I care? I’ve never had a problem with that, with having to work hard for what I get!” Red Dash spat. “Let me lay some truth on you, sister, the only thing causing all this misery is you! You and that… Hawa!” She flipped back to her hooves and advanced. “Just a couple of damned egg-heads who are so upset that they overthink things. You can’t get a free lunch, even in a universe where you create everything. You know what I think? I think you two are the ones who need fixing!”

Rainbow Dash didn’t have time to reply, racing off as her counterpart sprinted after her. She dove among the shops and corridors of the Cloudsdale district they’d plowed into, darting through columns and trying to shake her foe. Soon, she’d lost her in a sculpture garden, filled with shaped formations of ice and snow in the shapes of trees, houses, hills, and other things found on the ground.

“You can’t hide from me forever!” Red Dash’s voice echoed through the garden, seeming to come from every which way at once. She’d have been impossible to locate if it weren’t for the fact that she boldly flew down the center, her eyes alight with fury.

Who’s so upset she can’t think straight again? Maybe I can take advantage of this. Rainbow Dash weighed her options quietly. She took a deep breath, and from behind her cloud gave a yell. “Did you even pay attention? Didn’t you see what would happen? Even if things are better for a little bit it’ll always be the same! The wheel turns back on itself.”

The simulacrum’s head turned this way and that, struggling to locate Rainbow Dash. Then she called back. “You’re the one who doesn’t understand! This is all horsefeathers! It’s the kind of nonsense a unicorn would think up in some tower when he got bored! The world doesn’t work that way!” She charged a set of statues and kicked it with unrestrained might. The line of intricate buildings, and the cloud bank under them, immediately evaporated into freed vapors. “And if it does work that way, I don’t care. My friends are going to survive, even if I have to stomp that stupid wheel to pieces!”

Thus creating exactly the situation I hoped to avoid. My passion will destroy the world by locking it in place. Rainbow Dash shook her head and bit her lip, struggling to find an answer. Come on, Rainbow Dash. Think. Think! What would Twilight Sparkle do in a situation like this?

And, as if she’d always been there, Twilight Sparkle rose up. Not in person, but from within Rainbow Dash’s own heart, her soul. Hey, Rainbow Dash, Twilight’s voice bubbled up into her mind, what seems to be the problem? Did you make it up the mountain okay?

Uh, Rainbow Dash thought back, yeah, sure did, Twi. Listen, I’ve got a little problem—

An emanation of a concept which represents an aspect of your being is trying to destroy you and take your place? Twilight asked, in an academic tone that might as well have been discussing the best way to catalog a library.

Yeah. Pretty much that. Rainbow glanced out from her hiding place. Red Dash was busy destroying the rest of the garden with a sort of ravenous intensity, kicking up a terrible storm of razor-sharp ice and snow. It wouldn’t take long for her counterpart to reach her position.

Ooh, this is so fascinating! Twilight squealed. I’m learning all sorts of things about the deep inner workings of the soul. How did this happen, exactly?

Never mind that! What do I do to defeat her?

Twilight paused for a moment’s thought. Well, you’re obviously not going to beat her with main force. Indeed, if she’s just an emanation of your being, that wouldn’t be very meaningful anyway. Really, the only way you’re going to overcome this situation is by working through it.

I don’t think she’s in the mood for a heart-to-heart! Rainbow Dash protested.

No, but she’s a part of you, Twilight said. The only pony you need to convince is yourself. You can’t settle this because you haven’t really understood the reason why you’re doing this. Uhm. Whatever it is that you’re doing. She paused again, and asked uncertainly. What is it that you’re doing, anyway?

Sorry, Twi, Rainbow thought back, and then dismissed her. She stepped out into the open.

“You’re nothing without me!” Red Dash screamed at her, preparing to heave the tornado of ice spears at Rainbow Dash. “We’re supposed to be the hero! You couldn’t have fought your way through all those impossible odds without the passion to beat them!”

“Yes,” Rainbow said with quiet determination, “you’re right. The thing is, though, I don’t want to be the hero anymore, because I can’t win. I can’t beat this threat. I can’t save everypony because there is no saving to be had. Even if I win, I am a failure, because winning is an illusion, and so are you.”

Rainbow Dash lifted her chin, closing her eyes. “So I choose not to fight.”

Red Dash’s final scream of “Coward!” echoed in oblivion even as the icy shards struck.

* * *

Rainbow Dash whimpered in agony. Her legs kicked, the muscles in her abdomen locked up, released, then locked up again. Her eyes squeezed shut as something tore itself free of her. It was excruciating, and yet she wanted more than anything to grab onto it, hold it, and keep it close like a life-preserver.

The pain faded, and Rainbow Dash opened her eyes. There was nothing here, it was like the moon all over again, but somehow peaceful. There was still light present, countless specks of light in the distance. It made her wonder how many wheels there were. How many Books, how many trees? In the pool of water by the tree’s trunk she saw her own reflection.

It’s gone! That the red stripe was missing from her hair didn’t really surprise her, but actually seeing it like really drove the change home. The other colors in her mane were still present, but where red should have been, there was nothing. It was identical to the starry expanse waiting above her.

“Where do I go from here?” Rainbow Dash sighed, she turned about, taking in her surroundings. She wasn’t the only thing here. The tree had come with her, and the mound that she’d sprawled out on. If she concentrated she could still see her body. She could see Hawa biting her lip nervously. She had curled up beside Rainbow Dash, her tail wrapped around Rainbow’s side protectively. Her hoof toyed nervously with the mane on Rainbow Dash’s body, feeling at the missing stripe.

Rainbow Dash sighed. Concentrating on herself, she focused on the color orange, holding it in her mind as she had red. With a forceful tear, she ripped it from her soul.

A wave of sensation washed over her, something she felt she should remember, but couldn’t quite place. A tightness seized her stomach, a rush of blood went to her head, and then she fainted.

* * *

When she came to, the first thing she noticed wasn’t visual. There was the smell of lavender and lilacs. She was wrapped in the most comfortable sheets she had ever imagined. Candle light provided the room’s only illumination. The combined sensory assault brought a blush to her cheeks. The faint clatter of hooves on stone approached, and then the bed shifted as something climbed up and into it. Rainbow Dash’s hair stood on end as something nuzzled at the base of her mane.

“Wake up filly, there’s still so much you’ve yet to experience!” The voice was like water, halfway between a conspiratorial snicker and a delighted chuckle.

“I…” Rainbow Dash drunkenly replied as she struggled to turn about in the sheets. She finally managed it and found herself face to face with another copy of herself. This one’s mane was a vibrant orange, and it ran silky and smooth. Unlike her own tangled rat’s nest, Orange Dash’s mane was brushed out to its full length, long enough to reach her knees if she stood up straight. “What?”

The simulacrum’s tail flicked seductively. “Mhm.” She looked Rainbow Dash up and down as Rainbow wrestled her way free of the sheets, taking in every inch of her. “Only recently stripped of your virginity, and you’re already trying to escape pleasure? You could at least try somepony a little more experienced before giving up.”

“W-what?” Rainbow Dash stammered again. She stepped back without looking where she was going, and tumbled out of bed before slamming into the ground. The orange copy braced her head against her hooves and smiled down at her, flicking her tail every so often.

“Gosh, that really must have hurt. Somepony’s gonna have to nurse you back to health.” Even as the copy spoke, a row of stallions—and an occasional mare—filed in. All of them wore nurse uniforms. Rainbow Dash did a double take, graping as she spotted Big Macintosh among the others.

“Big Mac! What’re you doing here? And why are you in that—”

Her copy cut her off before she could continue. “Nurse’s outfit? Leftover baggage from before I would think. We weren’t always the hottest young flier in all of Equestria, after all. A shame we never really made use of that, either. Fluttershy would have been willing with a little persuading, I’d imagine, but I suppose we’re unlikely to find out now.”

“I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do.” Rainbow Dash reached around for her feelings, for that passion that had always informed her in the past, but realized there was a conspicuous void in its place. Just thinking about it carried the word “Coward!” back up to her, but the word no longer held any force for her. Cowardice is meaningless without bravery.

A hoof placed itself against her side and she stopped moving. She looked up at Big Macintosh, who no longer wore the embarrassing costume he had before. He smiled at her, and she felt that now familiar tightness seize every muscle in her body. She looked away as a huge blush blossomed across her cheeks. The stallion folded a leg around her and lifted her back to her hooves, and it took all of her effort to avoid tumbling right back down. Her simulacrum flipped through an old sports magazine nonchalantly; a stallion was on the cover with a liquid rainbow splashing down over him.

“Pull yourself together, Dashie,” Orange Dash said, “we’re so much cooler than this.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged off the comment and pushed away from Big Macintosh. “Are you going to attack me like the last one did?”

Orange Dash discarded the magazine, letting it tumble to the floor. She raised an eyebrow at her and laughed. “I’m not going to attack you; you’re already doing that to yourself. You’re the one attacking me.”

“What are you talking about?” Rainbow Dash groaned, shrugging off Big Macintosh’s comforting hoof. “I’m just trying to make things right.”

“No, you’re just trying to be a dedicated virgin. You’re trying to deny everypony ever born and who will ever be born the pursuit of passion. You’re trying to cut me out of you, just like you did with Red.” Her lips dropped into a frown, her eyes glared daggers into Rainbow Dash, but she did not move. “Red was my best friend, you know? Yellow is just so damned needy.”

Rainbow Dash winced and pushed Big Macintosh away entirely. She faced Orange and tried to find the words she needed, to understand what about this emanation she needed to reject.

“It’s not fair,” the copy growled out. “What you’re doing isn’t going to make anyone feel better but yourself. Your logic? It doesn’t follow. When did a quest to get your gender back turn into a quest to free your world from an abstraction? So you can’t win the way you wanted to; now everything needs to end?”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t muster the energy to be angry with her, her words were hollow, and a part of her couldn’t help but agree with some of what her copy was saying. This whole mess does seem a little… extreme. I’m denying so much to everyone… “Shut up.”

“Why? Am I starting to make too much sense?” Orange asked mockingly, then her voice turned rich with pleading. “Think of your friends! Think of Ponyville! You’re blind if you don’t realize that the world we live in is wonderful, that it’s full of endless sensations, ideas, and partners just waiting to be experienced! You don’t like the lost ponies? Fine, don’t be like Hawa. Stop trying to control everything; make those ponies reincarnate. You’re the Dreamer, everything would be just fine if you’d let ponies live.”

The simulacrum nudged her with a hoof. “The freedom you’re looking for is no better than a prison. It means not feeling anything, not caring about anything. The entire premise is just stupid.”

“You don’t understand. You literally cannot understand, and I don’t care. I’m not going through this again.” Rainbow Dash folded her hooves under herself. Even so, it was hard. Big Macintosh stared at her mournfully. Didn’t I promise we’d be together after the end? It’s getting so hard to remember.

“You’ve twisted this journey from being about everypony else, to being all about you. I guess that’s okay though, since you’ll be the only thing left when you’re done.” Orange glowered at her. “You care too much to let this all go.”

“I don’t care.” Rainbow Dash shot back bitterly as she started to drift, but that wasn’t true. Rainbow Dash did care, quite a bit. That, however, isn’t what this is all about. This isn’t how much I care about others, it’s how much I care about sensation and experiencing the world.

Clearing her head, Rainbow Dash spoke with quiet certainty. “There are beautiful things in the world. Our desires—yes, even our lusts—drive us to new and greater heights. We connect with the world around us through desire.” She shook her head. “And that, ultimately, is part of the problem. Our need to cling to the things we want and avoid the things we don’t want is one of the principal reasons we’re yoked to the Wheel in the first place. We can’t bear to let it go, and so it drags us up and down again and again. Desire is an illusion.”

Taking a deep breath, she exhaled. “I choose not to feel.”

Just like that, the butterflies in her stomach and the tightness in her abdomen faded. The blush fell from her cheeks even as the heat vanished from her body, and so too did the world with the bed, her orange copy, and Big Macintosh.

“You’ll always regret this,” Orange whispered into the black.

* * *

The pain was worse this time around. She had never really expected the process to be easy, but an agony that set her writing across the ground in tears seemed rather extreme to her. When the pain faded and the tremors ceased, her mane had lost another stripe, revealing more of the starry void.

Rainbow Dash sighed and let her hoof dangle into the pool. Although it created ripples, this did not obscure the reflection, merely distorted it. She couldn’t help but think about her own words. It seemed like no part of herself wanted to go through with this. So why the urgency? What gives me the strength to turn my back on how things are supposed to work? She buried her face into her hooves and waited for something to take her away again, but nothing did.

I hate it here. I’m so alone. How am I supposed to survive without Firefly or Hawa? What about Twilight and the girls? Tears welled up in her eyes again. I’m afraid. I don’t want to be alone again. I’ve only come this far because I was afraid of what would happen if I failed, cast out alone among the Lost.

And… that’s what comes next, isn’t it? She glared down at her reflection, where her tail flicked and revealed its yellow stripe. She closed her eyes and sought it out, hearing the faintest of bitter sobs. Like a surgeon wielding a knife, she sliced and cut it free. She then dove into the pond. Though it was freezing, she didn’t mind, a small benefit that came of carving the need for sensation, for warmth, out of her soul. She scrambled for something to help her register how deep she was, how wide the hole was, but it may as well have been an ocean. An ocean that contained knowledge of everything there was to know in the world she grew up in. She didn’t feel doubt, she felt vindicated from without. She sucked in a breath to cry out in triumph, and then the ocean flooded into her.

* * *

She opened her eyes in shock, but found herself on the floor of her cloud home in Ponyville. There was no ocean, and the knowledge of all things had faded along with her sense of vindication. Once again, she felt hollow and uncertain. Poking her head outside of the window, she saw only gray clouds for as far as the eye could see.

On every available surface stood pictures. They were displayed proudly in ornate frames of brass or gold or wood or pewter. Posters and flyers of Rainbow Dash at various events covered the walls. From down the hall, a soft sob echoed, emanating from her bedroom.

Grimly, she shambled through the hall towards the bedroom. She felt weak. The stripping of her passions and desires had left her devoid of much of the drive she’d had to begin with, but still she pressed on. Other needs drove her now.

Another sob echoed through the house, and she hurried on, the pictures surrounding her blurring. She stopped at the door and, in a surge of courtesy, knocked.

“What do you want?” a bitter, broken voice called from beyond the door.

“I want to talk,” Rainbow Dash replied. For many reasons, few of which she could articulate at the moment, her voice sounded flat and emotionless.

“Well.” A pause. “It’s your house.”

Rainbow Dash sighed and pushed the door open. A yellow-maned pegasus lay curled up in bed with a box of tissues. Around her photographs, pictures of ponies who loved and were loved by Rainbow Dash, surrounded her. The yellow emanation stared Dash down, and she couldn’t help but feel small in her gaze. For all that the tearful creature was pitiable, there was something intimidating about her at the same time that she couldn’t quite put a hoof on. Rainbow bit her lip and looked at the pictures instead.

“What now? You took them away from me,” Yellow said. “Red and Orange. You want me to be alone?”

“What’s wrong with being alone?” Rainbow Dash replied. “If everypony would have just left me alone, It never would have been necessary for me to be Rainbow Dash in the first place. I could just be me.”

“How could you say that?” Yellow cried out in disbelief. “I hate being alone…”

“When I get rid of you, you won’t be alone, you just won’t be,” Rainbow Dash replied matter-of-factly.

Yellow was wracked by another round of sobs. She dug for a tissue and rubbed at her nose. “Not very encouraging!”

Here I am, surrounded by all these photos of ponies I love, and yet… I don’t really feel lonely, or depressed, about them not being here. Her gaze fixed on Yellow Dash, whose tearful eyes lingered longingly on each one. All contained within her this time, it seems. I’m living vicariously through her. So, if I’m living through her… With some trepidation she bit down on one of the photos with her teeth, placed her hoof on it, and yanked. The image ripped with barely any effort, and the yellow emanation gasped.

“What are you doing?! Stop that! They’re all I have left!” The simulacrum dove off the bed, pinning Rainbow Dash against the floor.

“So, you don’t agree with what I’m doing either?” Rainbow Dash felt cold. She sighed. “Part of me hoped you’d feel differently than the others.”

“No!” Yellow seemed surprised by her own actions, and jumped back with a yelp. She cowered behind a nightstand. “I mean… I don’t really want to argue about it. I’m just afraid, that’s all.”

“I am not this much like Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash groaned, her ears flicked. “Well I guess, technically I am, because I’m the Dreamer… Ahem! Anyway!” Dash gestured to the piles of photos and assorted pictures scattered around. “You don’t need these. We don’t need these. Those ponies still exist, they’re out there, living their… lives…”

Yellow grinned smugly despite herself. “Except they’re not going to. Maybe this would be okay if you really were doing this for yourself, but you’re dragging everyone else with you. They’ll never get the same chance you’ve got.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened, her heart started to beat a little faster. Her eyes darted from picture to picture. She needed to know for sure they’d be okay. They would be, right? I’m a Dreamer, they’re a part of me, and if I’m all right they should be all right. Except, Hawa said…

Yellow approached and looked up at Dash with her legs bent into a timid crouch. “Except they won’t be, because you’re giving it all up. You won’t be the Dreamer anymore. The Dreamer has a rainbow mane.” She reached up and brushed at Rainbow Dash’s mane. “You’re not really Rainbow Dash anymore, and you certainly won’t be Rainbow Dash when you’re done.”

With a sudden, powerful surge, Rainbow Dash struck her wings and blew a whirlwind about the chamber, smashing the pictures and dislodging the posters. Yellow shrieked and covered her head, cowering at the foot of the bed.

Rainbow Dash sighed and stroked the other’s blond locks sadly. She knew now what she needed to say. “Fear isn’t a pretty emotion, but in life it’s necessary. Fear of losing my friends, fear of losing my identity, fear for Scootaloo’s and everypony’s fate convinced me to seek out the means of redressing their problems. I never wanted to be alone, because I love all of my friends… and I can’t bear the thought of losing them forever.”

Yellow Dash looked up hopefully.

“We all die in the end, however,” Rainbow Dash said quietly. “We’re reborn into new lives and continue on. The Wheel pulls us inexorably apart, so fear is meaningless. Fear is an illusion.”

She sighed and closed her eyes. “It would be better, I think, to cease to be, so that I never need fear being in a situation where I can’t be surrounded by others. So, I choose not to fear.”

Yellow’s only response was a wordless wail that followed Rainbow Dash even as she pulled herself up and out.

* * *

Rainbow Dash howled out into the void. Yellow being ripped from her was the worst pain yet, by a long shot. It started in her hooves, which felt as though they might crack into a million pieces, and reached all the way up to her head.

She was sobbing and breathing deeply when the experience was over. Taking deep shuddering breaths in that place where air could not exist, where she should have needed oxygen. The labor of breathing was a metaphor, she understood that now. Taking in the world to preserve the self, but there was no world now. Only me.

The need to avoid pain had left with Orange, and so too had fear of it with Yellow, and so when the initial blast faded she calmed almost at once.

She stopped breathing, and looked down into the star-filled water. With so few emotions remaining, the ones that did exist worked overtime. Her reflection shifted rapidly, changing from face to face. All of them were people she’d known, living normal lives. A life she could never have, now.

“You envy them,” a voice whispered up from the water, and bubbles accompanied it. “All the things you can never have.”

Green. Rainbow Dash sighed. Not much left of me, is there? At least one baser emotion left to go. Reaching gently to the soul of the color, she took a firm metaphorical grip and yanked. Another wave of vertigo enveloped her.

* * *

Dash found herself in a castle that was beautiful, perfect, without compare. She didn’t even know what stone had been worked into the walls and floor, and she could call upon the knowledge and wisdom of everypony in Equestria, even if it was getting harder to remember with every color pulled. She looked down at her own hooves and reflected that she just didn’t feel much like Rainbow Dash anymore.

“Do you want to be me?” A green-maned Rainbow Dash smirked as she floated by on her back, a small cloud bearing her aloft. “Being me is pretty cool, but I mean… there’s more to being me than what you see here.” she licked her lips and yawned.

“You’re the least like me. I can’t believe I’m even having these thoughts.” Dash groaned and rubbed her head with a hoof. A faint sadness, a longing for something else, filled her. “I don’t want…”

“If you mean that we’re different because I’m way more subtle? Yeah, you’re pretty much right.” Green Dash rolled onto her belly and turned to face Rainbow Dash. “But let’s face it, everything you do is because of me. You see the Wonderbolts, and you want to be like them. You read about Daring Do, and you enjoy it because you want to go on adventures like that. I had Red’s number like you wouldn’t believe.” Green grinned. “You totally envied how pretty Fluttershy was when you became a girl, too. Seeing you squirm and try to deny it was half the fun.”

She laughed and kicked her heels as she watched Rainbow Dash below. “And now you want to be free. Do you want what the Traveler’s got, now? They’re not bound to some crummy Wheel, they don’t need to watch their friends surpass them. They don’t need to die. They don’t need to worry about Fluttershy being taken away from them. Pretty appealing right? You’re making the right move.” Green’s smile turned into a frown. “Except you’re getting rid of me to get there? After everything I’ve done for you? Not cool.”

“That is not why I am doing this.” Rainbow Dash shook her head. How much longer am I going to be Rainbow Dash? Will I even be able to remember my name, or will it be like before?

“Jeez, you really suck at being Rainbow Dash. You should really just leave that to me.” Green floated closer, a wicked grin on her lips. “Maybe if I let go of you before you let go of me, I’ll be the one who breaks free of the wheel… Now that’s an interesting thought.”

Fear should be gone—no, fear is gone. I’ve already removed Yellow, and this definitely isn’t the same feeling as fear. So why am I on the verge of tears? Why can’t I face her? She turned abruptly and sprinted down the halls, away from the simulacrum.

“Oh, so it’s going to be like that? I warn ya, I’m better at this than Red!”

Rainbow Dash didn’t stop until her legs were on fire. It took far less time than usual; she was already wasted from her previous exertions, each of which still weighed heavily on her heart and mind. She fought to calm down, to lay down somewhere and let go.

I’ve been through Red, Orange, and Yellow, and only now do I find the part of myself that actually wants this whole thing to happen, that wants to abandon the Wheel, the world, and my friends. The worst thing about it? I can’t stand Green. Envy is an awful emotion. What does that say about my new quest? How am I supposed to move forward when I can barely agree with why I do anything anymore?

“I’m getting pretty close no-ow,” Green called out in a snide tone. “If you’re trying to hide, don’t sweat it! I know this castle like the back of my hoof!” The copy was like a slow moving, lazy homing missile—nothing Rainbow did could shake her.

“Gotcha!” A green blur struck from the shadows, barreling Dash head over hoof through the room she had escaped to. They tumbled past a massive four-poster bed decorated with the sun and moon, and onto a balcony overlooking the nothingness. Dash could barely make out a tree down below.

“You’re really being a good sport about this, you know? I hate overexerting myself!” Green delivered a vicious kick to Dash’s side. She cried out and tumbled toward the ledge, her body sliding under the railing. She scrambled, and barely managed to catch herself on the side. She could try flying, but she had a really bad feeling about that here.

Green seized Dash’s legs with her hooves. “I’m a little worried that eternal peace won’t be all it’s cracked up to be, but hey, better me than you.” She looked up thoughtfully. “So, how does that go? I make a pretty little speech about how you don’t matter.”

Rainbow Dash blinked, and then she smiled sadly. “You know what? You’re right. Go ahead.”

“Of course I am! Envy is what brought you here,” Green said, spreading her wings triumphantly. “Without me, you’re nothing. Envy for fame drove you to improve yourself. Envy for others’ affections drove you into their embrace. Envy for a better world took you to the far side of existence. So…” She narrowed her eyes. “I mean… I guess the point there, the whole reason you need to escape the wheel, is that your envy is about chasing me, the impossible dream. As much as you want a perfect world, you can’t have it, because it doesn’t exist. There isn’t a world without suffering, and… and you were a fool to pursue it.”

“And, so,” Rainbow Dash said, “I choose to no longer feel envious of perfection. I don’t need you anymore.”

The castle faded away, and with it Green. Her voice echoed up from the depths “Oh, crap.”

* * *

When green was ripped from her, she felt a tingling, like her entire body going to sleep. She expected it to hurt more than the others, but it was as though that part of herself couldn’t be bothered anymore. “Ah, well. Stop wanting things; see if I care. Good luck getting what you want when you don’t actually want it anymore.” I guess self-defeating principles are like that.

In many ways, however, this was worse than the prior examples. A pernicious ennui seized her, and she stared at the pool for what felt like hours and could have been centuries. With only blue and violet left in her tail she barely looked like somepony who should be called Rainbow Dash at all.

“What do I do now? Where do I begin, and what’s the point?” Dash stared at the blue, that would be gone next. “Because I want to help everyone? I need to get rid of that too?”

As if she’d heard her, Hawa spoke into the ear of Rainbow Dash’s body, still laying by the tree. “Stop, Rainbow, please. You can’t abandon us like this.”

“Can’t I?” she asked sadly, though she knew Hawa couldn’t really hear her anymore.

“You’re a part of us! We’ll be incomplete without you!” Hawa stroked Rainbow’s nearly colorless mane with tears in her eyes. “If you go, the world… it’ll be just a pale shadow. One in a thousand might not sound like a lot, but it’s a vacuum we can never recover from. What you take with you will always be lost. We’re worthless without the whole.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “You’re right. I can’t do that. I can’t abandon you or anyone.”

Hawa held her more tightly. “I want to be held like that right now.” Rainbow Dash whimpered. “I wish I could feel that.” She curled up next to Hawa, on her opposite side. Maybe if she squeezed in close enough she could feel something. The rising and falling of the other mare’s chest, the soft tickle of hair mingling with hair, or maybe just a whispered sigh, one heard even through her trance.

“I’m sorry, Hawa,” she whispered. “What I do next, I do because I care.”

Then, feeling as though she were ripping her own child out of her, she reached in and tore out the color blue.

* * *

Rainbow Dash was curled up, not on a cloud, but in a clearing of grass, one still warm from the sun’s rays. It was twilight, and it had to be summer as well because the air was brisk, a delightful contrast with the grass beneath her.

“Okay squirt! Just like we practiced!” Rainbow Dash could hear her own voice echo out through the trees. “One… two… three!”

There was the sound of frantic flapping, a crash, and a pained moan. Rainbow Dash got up and stepped quietly toward the source of the commotion. What greeted her was far less painful than her earlier revelations. A blue-maned Rainbow Dash sat in another clearing with Scootaloo crouched beside her, who nursed a new injury.

“I just don’t get it; I did everything you said!” Tears streamed down Scootaloo’s face. “Ugh! I’m never going to fly!”

The simulacrum placed a hoof to the filly’s side and smiled down at her. “You’re a quick study, Scoots, but you’re still not picking up everything I’m putting down. Watch closely, one more time.” Blue took in a deep breath and smiled, then she extended her wings and gave two strong, slow flaps. Her hooves immediately left the ground, and, for the most part, she stayed off it. She released her breath serenely and slowly came back down.

“See? Flying isn’t just about beating your wings. It’s about keeping calm, maintaining presence of mind.” Blue nosed the filled forward. “Try again.”

Scootaloo bit her lip, her tongue lolling out to one side. She took a cautious step forward, extended her wings, took a breath, and mimicked her honorary sister. The little filly left the ground quite readily, but as soon as she did, she let out the breath with a gasp, she crashed to the ground and cried out with excitement.

“Rainbow! Rainbow oh my gosh I did it! I can’t believe it worked!” The filly leapt over the distance between her and the blue emanation, who she nuzzled without hesitation.

She must think it’s the real me…

“Way to go squirt! Now you’re getting it.” Blue nuzzled the filly back, and then looked up with worry. “Listen, why don’t you run back to the house? There’s somepony here I need to talk to.” The simulacrum bit her lip and looked around.

“Are they scary Dash?” Scootaloo puffed up her chest and gave her mentor a fierce look. “We can hold them off together! That’s what sisters do, right?”

“Actually, I think this pony is more afraid of me than I am of her.” Blue pushed Scootaloo with her nose. “I’ll be back soon, okay?”

Scootaloo nodded quietly. She walked off into the trees, and soon vanished.

“She’s a sweet filly, isn’t she?” Blue called out into the trees.

Dash stepped out and replied, tears welling up in her eyes. “Yeah, she really is.”

Blue trotted over to her and lowered herself, folding her hooves underneath her body. “You sure you want to leave this behind? She never even got to learn to fly, and Big Macintosh…”

“Are you going to try and persuade me not to, too?” Rainbow Dash groaned. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

“Nah, nothing like that.” Blue reached out and touched the grass with a hoof, gesturing for Dash to take her place beside it. “I just need to know if you’re sure, that’s all. If you’re not, I’m going to convince you to turn aside.”

Rainbow Dash lifted a hoof uncertainly. “You could, couldn’t you?”

“Yes,” Blue patted the grass beside her again. “Come on. Don’t be afraid—you can’t be, after all, so that part should be easy.”

Rainbow Dash practically collapsed beside the emanation, and Blue Dash wrapped her up in a wing. “I don’t even know what’s happening to me, or why I’m doing this.” She sighed. “I just don’t know why this is happening to me.”

“We’re the Dreamer right?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Not anymore. I’m not sure what I’ll be after this.”

Blue’s wing pulled her in close, and Dash felt that contact she was missing back at the tree. She felt like she could hear Hawa sniffling with her, and then her tears started flowing freely. She buried her face in Blue’s coat.

“I don’t want this. I wish this had never happened. I wish Firefly warned some other pony…”

“It was always going to be us, it had to be us.” Blue raised Rainbow’s chin with a hoof. “It’s how the Wheel works. I mean, I’d probably be content to go right back to dreaming. Watching over everypony, even in a dream…” She chuckled. “But that’s why it’s your decision, not mine. Some things are made to be broken. That’s not a decision I can make, because I have to fix things, no matter what the consequences are. It’s your job to view those consequences and make an appropriate choice.”

Rainbow Dash began to sob openly now. Her voice was nasally, childish. “But I don’t wanna! I hate this! I don’t want to be the one to break any cycles!”

“Hey… hey…” Blue looked at her and stroked her nearly black mane with a hoof. “I hate to say this, but I kinda think you have to, squirt.”

Odd, she’s looking down at me, as if I were a… Rainbow Dash looked down at herself and gasped. She’d managed to shrink down to a foal in their exchange, and it just made her feel more emotionally vulnerable. “But what if I’m not Rainbow Dash anymore? What am I going to do?!”

Blue cooed at her and smiled. “Something new, I guess? New things are pretty awesome, too, you know.”

Dash continued to sniffle, though her sobs were subdued. “I don’t want to let go of you. You’re the only part of myself I’ve met who hasn’t been absolutely terrible.”

“Hey now,” Blue’s voice was fast approaching stern. “I think maybe you met most of the others… out of context?”

Dash sniffled, but managed to raise a brow. “Out of context?”

“Yeah, like… I dunno. Believe me, Green is usually not that vicious. She just wants what she wants. There’s nothing wrong with knowing what you want… technically.” Blue Dash smiled. “Me? I understand why you’re doing what you’re doing better than they do, that’s all.”

The two lay sprawled out beside each other, like that, for some time.

“So what am I going to do now?” Dash felt she already knew the answer.

“There is only one left after me.” Blue smiled down at her. “I know you can do it. Just make sure whatever comes after is what you really wanted.”

“I don’t know if I can promise that.”

“Then just do your best.” Blue ruffled Rainbow Dash’s mane. “You’ll get the hang of it, I promise you that.”

Dash nodded, burrowed in against her counterpart, and every so often flicked her tail. She thought about the things the pair of them had discussed, the things she had seen, the conversations she had with the other colours. Her eyes widened as she started to piece things together.

“I think I’m ready to let go, now.”

The blue emanation laughed. She gave the tiny filly a gentle nudge. “Go on. Tell me what you need to hear.”

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, and her voice deepened back into that of a mature mare.

“I have… empathy with those around me. A sincere desire, a need to help them brought me across dreams and voids to challenge the seat of power. In it—in you—is contained all of my love for my friends. Through you, I tried to be Scootaloo’s big sister. With you, I… I would have become Big Macintosh’s loving wife. Of all of my emotions and needs, love and empathy are the greatest part of my life, and the part most worth living for.”

Tears fell from her eyes as she went on. “When you get right down to it, love is the root cause of my entire purpose in this world. Friendship, romance, family, and the simple desire to help everyone overcome their problems are the reasons why I didn’t turn aside, no matter how hard the going went. Even They couldn’t stand against the power of love.”

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yet… if I follow the dictates of love, I will be compelled to start the dream over once more. I will be forced to participate willfully in the suffering of every soul in existence. Hawa is driven by love to do terrible things, because it is all she can do.”

She looked into Blue’s eyes and nuzzled at her cheek. “If my desire to be sympathetic blinds me to delusion, if it enslaves me to do wrong, then it, too, must go. If love is an illusion… then I choose not to love.”

The glen washed away. Blue, as the darkness swallowed her, whispered, “Try to remember, Rainbow Dash. Compassion for all things is why you choose now to let go. When the time comes, do not forget this lesson.” She ended with a silvery laugh. “Break a leg, why dontcha?”

* * *

Rising now above the canopy into the shaft of light that pierced the void, Rainbow Dash felt no pain, only a gentle emptiness. Without love, without fear, without anger, without desire, without envy, she had nothing left to tie her down. Only one thing remained, and she struggled with that last fragment of her identity. If anything, identity was her sole purpose now. Everyone desired on some level to exist, to know that they are and acknowledge themselves.

If I’m going to complete this journey, I need to find a way to overcome that last fact.

When she placed her metaphorical knife against the last remaining color, the violet strip of her hair, she felt its force matched. Anything she did against it would be rebounded back equivalently. Bracing, she set her will to the task and, ever so patiently, cut the color violet from her hair. The rush this time struck with a force that would erupt whole suns, and she was hurled into darkness.

* * *

The wind here was fierce, in fact, every point of the landscape oozed with a sense of opposition. These things must be weathered to be a leader, to stand at the top. There were no clouds to linger on here, the windstorm had blown them all away. There was no grass to lay in, or eat, it was all hard cracked stone. There were no paths to walk, only unforgiving crags erupting from the ground, some of them as tall as hills.

Standing on the highest of them was Dash’s final colour. It was all that was left of Rainbow Dash the Dreamer. She stood on the very pinnacle, her wings unfurled and unbowed by the winds. Her head was held high with pride, and her violet mane and tail whipped in the wind—they did not submit to it, indeed it seemed more as if they shaped it. A booming voice echoed down from the rocks, and concerned itself not at all with the storm.

“You have come this far, but no further!” the simulacrum bellowed, then dove down from the rocks to face Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash, whose mane and tail were now absolutely black, barely looked like herself at all. She trembled, but did her best to weather the simulacrum’s overwhelming presence.

The emanation’s wings gave a harsh flap, and five other blurs of color stood behind her. It was every aspect of the rainbow that Dash had released from herself. They now stood behind Violet, not her.

“You have been tested, and found wanting. You are no longer the Dreamer, and I’m taking over in your stead.” Violet’s frown was more brutal than the winds whipping through everypony’s manes.

“Yeah… I don’t know about that.” Dash grumbled, them moved to walk around her counterpart.

“Hold your ground!” Violet’s voice was clipped at the end, as if she had to remind herself to not add ‘soldier.’ “I have a responsibility. We had a responsibility, and you’ve abandoned it. I cannot let you pass. Block her exit!” She roared at the other emanations and, one-by-one, they ran, flew, and jumped to place themselves in Rainbow Dash’s path. Red was practically gloating. Yellow put herself in the very back, her knees shaking. Blue went to Yellow, doing her best to comfort the other color. She smiled sadly at Rainbow Dash, but said nothing. She had nothing more to say.

“Alright.” Dash said, turning to face the final emanation. “What do you want me to do? Are we going to talk this through?”

“No.” Violet’s voice was like thunder. “You’re going to give up now. You can’t win; not against all of us.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, curled up on the hot stone, and closed her eyes. The emanations only watched her quietly. Minutes passed by before she opened a single eyelid.

“Nothing’s happening.”

“Nothing will happen until I let it happen.” Violet puffed up her chest, a display made more intimidating by her barding. “I am the responsibility of the dreamer, I am the leader, the sense of order that must feel the world. I am the one who makes the choice, and I choose not to abandon my duties.” The simulacrum trotted to Rainbow Dash and glared down at her. “You will be surrendering now.”

The wind whipped through Dash’s mane, obscuring her vision with cold, infinite blackness. Her ears lowered and she tilted her head and looked down at the ground. Her eyes narrowed as her mind raced with thought. She went through the situation again and again. She questioned Twilight, the Princesses, the Oracle, and even Applejack. Be they the wisest minds in history or the simplest, she tried them all, just in case she was overthinking things. She couldn’t understand what had to happen now.

Violet gestured in the direction the wind from which the wind howled with a hoof. That way led to an endless expanse, a place where she could never be at peace. “Well?”

“What sense is there in getting rid of you?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You’re identity. What will be left when you’re gone? How can someone even begin to think about how to be rid of the sense of who you are.”

“You cannot, and you will not,” Violet Dash said. “These are axiomatic principles, upon which there can be no compromise.”

“That’s infantile,” Rainbow countered. “It’s devoid of meaning if it isn’t contextualized by other precepts. That I exist means nothing if there’s nothing else to be, nothing else around me.”

“It is the very foundation of all things,” Violet insisted. “It is the root of existence, from which all other things spring forth.”

“So… it’s asking a basic question,” Rainbow said thoughtfully. “It’s the basic question. It asks who is doing the thinking. A being cannot desire anything unless there is a being to begin with.”

“I think,” Violet Dash said, “therefore I am.” Her eyes hardened further still, and she stood unbending, unyielding in the torrent. The other colors blended together, forming part of a rainbow behind her. “I am the unmovable object, the irresistible force.”

“I think, therefore I am,” Rainbow Dash repeated. She stood up and faced Violet. “It’s so beautifully simple… it contains the answer to its own question.”

Violet nodded firmly. “It does. You acknowledge it. Now, resume your post.”

“No. See… well, I guess you can’t. Definitionally, you are incapable of seeing the flaw until I point it out. You see, you are right… it is impossible for me to simply surpass you. I must transcend you.” She cleared her throat.

“Should I cease to think, I no longer am.”

Violet met Rainbow Dash’s eyes and faced sublime nothingness. Rainbow Dash reached out and covered Violet’s gaze.

Silence.

Mere moments after the sonic rainboom faded away, Firefly watched as cracks shot through the clouds above, then down through the mountain, exposing the gaping void. The wind howled as the world began to fall apart. “Rainbow?” Oh, no. Did she fail? Is that a success? “Everypony!” she called, watching as her allie vanished through the gaps in droves. She beat her wings through the powerful wind and clung to a scrap of formerly animated statue as it arced high into the air, tossed up by an upheaval.

Her eyes widened as a figure wreathed in light descended from the broken sky. In it, Hawa appeared, and caught Vinyl Scratch before the latter could slip off her cannon into the abyss. “I’m sorry. It’s not meant to be your turn yet, but… I’m sorry,” Hawa whispered, though her voice seemed to carry throughout all of creation. Hawa’s hoof touched Vinyl’s head, and the unicorn’s mane billowed out, taking on a kaleidoscope of color.

As Firefly struggled to maintain her position, she watched as Vinyl, too, lit from within, her eyes turning sad. “I… I see. It’s all… very clear now.”

“I’m sorry. You know what you must do?”

They looked up, and now that the clouds were gone Firefly perceived at the top of the falling mountain a tree, its branches filled with light. Vinyl nodded curtly. “Yes. Will it stand? Will… All of this stand without her?”

Without her? What?

“Not so well as it once did, not with this sort of damage.” Hawa wrapped Vinyl in her forelegs briefly. “Carry on, as long as you can, then pass it on. It’s all we can do.”

The superlunar world had nearly gone entirely, leaving Firefly onboard a crumbling rock as the void pressed in around her vision. The edges of her body faded, her tail losing definition. With a flash of rainbow magic, Vinyl teleported from Hawa’s embrace, a flash at the tree’s base signalling her arrival.

Firefly growled and concentrated. I’ve fallen apart before. I can hold on for just another few seconds! With supreme effort, she held dissolution at bay. Then, just as suddenly as it began, the collapse stopped. Below, points of light glimmered. The sun lit like a lightbulb, and a world glowed under its light. All around it, stars were falling. She felt a tug, a light forming within her chest. The urge to sleep was intense, to fall and be reborn on the earth below.

Hawa closed her eyes, falling back as well as the same light grew in her chest, her own limbs disappearing.

“Yeah, no. I’m getting some answers,” Firefly said tightly. With all the force left in her, she leapt from the disintegrating stone. Without any reference point, it seemed as if Hawa were approaching her rather than the other way around. It could have been exactly that, but Firefly didn’t care.

She’d fought her way this far by keeping her eye on the prize, by never surrendering one iota of consciousness that wasn’t taken from her by force.

“Hey, you!” she shouted. Hawa’s head jerked up and her dissolution slowed—just in time for them to collide and go careening off into nothingness.

No matter the consequences, I’m going to settle this. If Rainbow Dash failed, then too bad. I’ll just have to beat her senseless until she fixes it.

* * * * * * *

Author's Note

Rainbow Dash is going to have a bit to answer for.

Firefly's been neglected last couple chapters, hasn't she? Easy to forget that she's the one who started all this. She's the one who picked Rainbow Dash up by the scruff of her neck and shook her until she did what she had to do.
Now, she's going to have to do it again.

This chapter was originally just a few paragraphs. tepidGnostic saw it, however, and wrote out an 8k chapter which she felt suited the themes and mythology much better. I took it (with permission), rewrote it in my own style and altered some critical things (Rainbow Dash becoming an alicorn was removed, for instance, (though now I wish I'd kept it) and the ending also was changed.) I also tacked on the lead-in to the absolutely guaranteed final chapter.

Astute readers may notice that I skip Indigo, and the reason for this is that Rainbow Dash's mane skips indigo. If her mane doesn't have it, clearly it must be of minimal metaphysical import. :pinkiehappy:

Stay tuned next chapter to see how it resolves. Chapter 12 will be the last chapter. Like, Watch, Fav, explode!

The quest for Nirvana is a curious one. Rainbow Dash seeks to deny herself and escape the cycle of cosmic death and rebirth—and, in the end, succeeds. Ask for yourselves: is what Rainbow Dash doing a moral failure (for nothing has changed, only to make things worse) or is she taking a moral stance (by refusing to be a part of the problem)?

What do you think of her concern that the Great Wheel is doomed to inevitable failure?

What would you like to see as a proposed solution?

Answer in the comments below!

EDIT: The philosophical discussion stuff in the comments is great~!
I suggest everyone read them if you get a chance.

Chapter 12

Two specks careened through infinity. As the new world took shape, one clung to the other and kept it from falling. Like shooting stars, they flitted across the sky in a twinkle of light.

“Let me go!” Hawa demanded. “Firefly, what are you doing?”

Firefly tightened her grip. It was will that glued them together more than any mere physical force, but she wasn’t really in the mood for overthinking it. “Getting answers.”

Hawa struggled to tear away uselessly. “There’s none to be had,” she said, her voice heavy and broken. “It’s finished. Let me rest, please.”

“Not until I find out what’s ‘finished.’ What happened to Rainbow Dash?”

Hawa turned her face away from Firefly’s intense gaze. “She’s gone.”

“Gone? Gone where?”

“Up. Out.” Hawa sighed heavily. “I don’t know—all I know is that she’s gone. There are nine-hundred and ninety-nine of us, now, not a thousand. And I’m already stretched so thin… Firefly, please. I’ve carried a whole world on my shoulders for longer than you can conceivably imagine, and now there’s one less person to share that burden with.”

Firefly stared at her for a long time. “Rainbow Dash… you know what, I don’t have the slightest damned idea what you’re talking about. Start from the beginning, and then we’ll talk about letting you go.”

Hawa shook her head, and did. She told Firefly the truth, the entire truth about their world and the cosmos as it stood—how all things begin with a dreamer who brings the world to be. The purpose of the world divisions. How Rainbow Dash was the next dreamer in line, called to replace Hawa. She told Firefly of her pain in failing to keep the world running and how it eventually fell apart, and how Rainbow Dash, on confronting this truth, refused to participate and perpetuate it.

With her voice near to breaking, Hawa whispered, “So, rather than take her place, she… left. Rainbow Dash peeled off her wants and needs, she denied herself… and whatever remained, the core of who she was, departed where the Traveler had gone. Up and out. Emptiness.”

“The only way to win is not to play, huh?” Firefly muttered.

“Evidently.” Hawa lowered her head. “Are you satisfied?”

“No.”

“I thought not.” Hawa shifted awkwardly in her embrace. “You’ve always been a sort of hungry ghost. You couldn’t sit still through your iterations in my world, so I suppose it was too much to ask for you to sit still here.” She smiled slightly. “Perhaps you are that nagging spark of rebellion within us.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Firefly waved her hoof dismissively. “How do we get her back?”

Hawa shrugged her shoulders. “She is beyond us, in every sense of the word. You might as well ask how an ant signals a passing spaceship. Even if we did, why would she respond? She’s made her decision clear—she refuses, categorically, to perpetuate a system that must end in failure.”

Firefly snorted. “It’s not over until it’s over. The universe hasn’t ground to a halt yet, sister.” She glanced around, perceiving the reality around her as best she could, which was not at all. “She owes me an explanation. Whatever else has happened, she’s still in debt to us, for all we did.”

“I’m not entirely sure that’s how it works.”

“But you’re not sure it doesn’t, right?” Firefly asked with a grin. Hawa gave her a flat stare in return. “Let’s start with the obvious, then: how do we find her fragments?”

Hawa rubbed her face. “Is this how you and Rainbow Dash managed to fight your way to the moon? By stubbornly refusing to accept defeat?”

“Pretty much.”

“All right. Well,” Hawa narrowed her brow. “Normally, when a dreamer is replaced, she goes to sleep and is reborn in the world below. There’s a certain amount of logic in the idea that Rainbow Dash’s fragments have incarnated in some form as well.”

“That’s just the sort of wild guesswork that we need!” Firefly frowned. “How do we incarnate, then, without losing a sense of who we are and what we’re about?”

“The same way I did in the first iteration of my world. Cheat outrageously.” When Hawa lifted her head again, she seemed more solid than before. Perhaps some fragment of Firefly’s spark of determination had lit within her, or maybe she just wanted to get this over with—either way, Firefly exulted. “Vinyl?” she called into the void.

With a disorienting shift, they found themselves plopped down on a dance floor in a large, dark room lit only by flashing stage lights. Vinyl Scratch herself stood at a turntable, her now-multi hued hair in the same spiky style it had adopted in her last earthly identity.

Firefly groaned and flipped back to her feet. She flexed the kinks out of her wings and turned to face Vinyl Scratch. “So. You too, huh?”

“Apparently.” Vinyl shrugged. “I was due after Rainbow Dash, but her Entelecheia tried to foist me into the role instead of herself. You’ve been caught up?”

“As much as I can be. You don’t mind… uh, Rainbow Scratch?” Firefly asked, glancing around uncertainly. “This doesn’t look like a new world.”

“It isn’t. I’ve created a little side world for you to fiddle around in, based on Ponyville, so you don’t cause too much damage.” Vinyl shook her head. “It’s already pretty fragile. As for minding, I don’t know how long my world will last. If you get Rainbow Dash back, my work becomes easier.” She flicked her tail. “Maybe I see her point, too. This is a terrible job, and if there’s a way out… well, let me know how it goes. I’ll drop the incarnations in for you one at a time, but I warn you, they’re not easy to control.” She pointed behind Firefly and Hawa. “Whenever you’re ready, just step through that door.”

Firefly turned to look at a push door with a glowing rainbow “EXIT” sign planted above it. She nodded. “All right.” With that, she turned and walked towards it.

Hawa trotted alongside her, her long, sinuous tail flicking nervously. “Just what is your plan, anyway?”

“You’ve made it clear that Rainbow Dash isn’t going to come back without a reason,” Firefly said, pausing in front of the door. “That she’ll refuse because she doesn’t want to perpetuate the process. Well… I have one guaranteed way to ensure she comes back and talks to me.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m going to take her place,” Firefly said grimly. “I’m going to become a rainbow-maned mare, by taking on what she left behind.”

“Okay, that’s… insane, and I’m pretty sure it won’t work,” Hawa said slowly, “but even if it did, how will that bring her back?”

Firefly smirked. “Spoilers.” She paused with her hoof on the door. “Oh! I forgot something. Just a sec. Vinyl, buddy? There’s something I need.”

* * *

With a resounding clang, Red Dash’s face collided with a cast-iron skillet and she flew back through the air, rebounding from the blow with incredible force. She plowed through several cottages before smashing into a storefront. Quills rained in her wake, and a sofa caught her fall.

Firefly grinned and spun the skillet in her hooves. She looked to Hawa, “Eh?”

Hawa looked at the teeth on the grass, where they had been beaten out by Firefly’s strike. “You and Rainbow Dash are barbarians.”

“We were meant for each other.” Firefly beat her wings and raced ahead. She came down on Red Dash, pinning her to the floor of the shop before she could stand.

Despite the stunning blow, Red Dash snarled and snapped in fury, trying to bite the creature holding her down. Hawa cast a spell to keep her immobile with a reluctant little wave of her horn, its tip lighting up.

Firefly planted her hooves on the struggling emanation’s shoulders and looked down at her. “You’re angry, I can tell.”

“Hah. Hah,” Red Dash spat. “I should have broken that thing over your face a long time ago.”

“You and what army?” Firefly smirked. “But, come on. I’m seriously not here to fight. I know you want to rant and rage and destroy things, I can see that. You’re passion, you’re the hero who saves the day. Thing is, you weren’t allowed to, were you?”

The tension drained from Red Dash’s muscles as Firefly spoke. She turned her head aside. “There’s no point in being a hero,” she muttered. “There’s no way to win.”

“Perhaps,” Firefly conceded. “But just because there’s no hope doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight anyway. Sometimes, making a stand is just as important as actually winning.”

Red Dash gave her a narrow look. “That’s a stupid platitude.”

“Yeah, it totally, totally is.” Firefly nodded. “But you look like a mare stupid enough to fight for a hopeless cause. How about it?”

The red-maned Rainbow Dash licked her lips uncertainly. She glanced up at Firefly, then at Hawa, and then back to Firefly. Their eyes met and locked. Slowly, a smile spread across Red Dash’s swollen face, and she shifted subtly, her coat turning from blue to hot pink. The differences between Rainbow Dash’s body and Firefly’s were minor, but distinct, and when she spoke it was in Firefly’s clearer tones. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”

Red Firefly vanished, and Firefly’s mane sizzled. She yelped and shuddered. “Whoa. That’s… ow. My face.” She rubbed the side of her cheek, the same one that she had struck on Red Dash.

That’s what you get.

She pulled a lock of mane forward and marveled at the red stripe among her cerulean locks.

“How do you feel?” Hawa asked, watching Firefly uncertainly. “You’re… pretty much a novel creation, after all. No pony in all the cycles has done this before, so I think that an entirely reasonable question for me to ask.”

“Great! Like I could beat a mountain to death.” She glanced around and fixed her eyes on Canterlot Mountain in the distance. As she lifted up to race towards it, though, Hawa snapped a telekinetic field about her tail and held her in place.

“You’re also exploding with borrowed passion,” Hawa said dryly. “Try to remain focused.”

“Oh, right. Uh…” Firefly rubbed her chin. She held it up towards the heavens. “Next track, Vinyl?”

“I’m on it!” her voice boomed from the heavens. The clouds parted, and a celestial DJ lifted a blank record from a turntable and set an orange one in its place.

* * *

Pushing the door open to Carousel Boutique, Firefly frowned as she picked her way among ruined pony forms and shredded bolts of cloth. Together with Hawa, she mounted the stairs and pushed open the door to what had been Rarity’s bedroom, and now served as a silky boudoir. Orange Dash wept dramatically at the dressing table, covered in a ragged cloak.

“Seriously?” Firefly muttered. “I need to deal with Rainbow’s inner Rarity? This is going to su-uck.”

Orange Dash whipped her face around, her unkempt mane hanging around her mascara-stained face. “Oh, like you don’t have a passionate, hyper-feminine side.”

“If I do, she’s totally not as much of a sissy as you are.”

“Firefly,” Hawa warned tightly. She turned to face Orange Dash. “I know you’re… in a bad state, but we need your help.”

“Yes, yes, you wish to join Firefly’s essence with mine in some mad gambit to restore order to the cosmos,” Orange Dash said in a high, mocking voice. “Well, you can forget about it! Rainbow Dash broke my heart. I have no intention of seeing her ever again.”

Hawa stomped a hoof on Firefly’s as the other started to reach for the frying pan strapped to her back and stepped forward. While Firefly danced with pain, she laid a hoof against Orange Dash’s back and sighed. “I know. Rainbow hurt me, too, but I understand why she did it. Now we need to call her back.”

“Why? Let her flit about Nirvana for all time—or whatever passes for time when you’re a transcendental ideal.” Orange sniffed disdainfully. “Besides, it’s not like it matters. She’s right—the world will die.”

“And in the meantime,” Firefly said, glaring at Hawa as she came up to join them, “things have gotten worse. If there’s a solution to this, one that fits everyone, I mean to find it. Rainbow’s solution can’t be the right one—not if it leaves all of us hanging.”

“The world doesn’t need passion or desire.”

“Doesn’t it?” Firefly shook her head. “Maybe. I don’t pretend to know. I think dumping experience like a discarded toy is a terrible idea, though. How can you have led a complete existence unless you’ve experienced all the highs and all the lows? I think that’s why you’re here—you aren’t satisfied.” Firefly waved a hoof around. “Maybe you can’t be satisfied, maybe it’s a carousel that never ends, but I want to find out.”

Orange Dash looked between the other mares and smiled faintly. “You make a good point—more importantly, you appealed to my vanity, and that is a surefire way to win my affection. Do you need me, Firefly?”

Firefly nodded. “Yes, I do.”

Just as Red Dash had done, Orange Dash shimmered and changed, taking on Firefly’s features. “Then, let it be done.”

Orange lightning shot between them, and Firefly yelped as the color orange imprinted itself onto her mane and tail. When it faded, she shook her head, feeling strangely drunk. When she looked at Hawa, she smiled and slid up to her. “You know, you are really gorgeous. I just love the way your mane—”

* * *

Firefly hovered outside the balloon, crossing her forelegs and pouting. “You didn’t have to hit me so hard.”

Hawa snorted indelicately, refusing to face her. They rose towards Rainbow Dash’s cloud house steadily.

“I would have backed off! Besides, it’s not my fault,” Firefly protested. “I have, like, double the desire I had before.”

“Which is why I will forgive you. Eventually.” Hawa flicked her tail and glanced over her shoulder. “Do you really think I am pretty?”

“Uh.” Firefly held her hooves up defensively. “I should clarify that I don’t feel an overpowering urge to jump your bones again—well, not as much—but, yes, you are rather cute.”

Hawa giggled and hopped out of the balloon. Her hooves rested firmly on the vapor in front of the cloud house. “Let’s go.”

Firefly muttered, “Some mares. Sheesh.”

“What’s that?”

“Coming!” Firefly darted into the house after her.

Smashed furniture and pictures covered the floor and crunched under their hooves. They wandered through the halls until they came across a silent figure with a golden mane curled up on Rainbow Dash’s bed, her tail tucked around her.

Firefly stepped forward. “Excuse me—”

Yellow sprang from her crouched position and flattened Firefly to the floor. The latter yelped and squirmed, but Yellow shushed her loudly and pushed her tear-stained face into hers. “Let’s go.”

“Uh. I haven’t given my pretty speech ye—whoa!” Firefly squeaked as Yellow Dash’s features shifted and vanished in one go, the yellow hue forcing itself on her mane and tail. She shuddered and shook as she righted herself.

Hawa laid a hoof on her shoulder. “Are you all right?”

Firefly nodded weakly, her teeth chattering. “Y-yeah. Sh-she w-was just sc-scared… scared and lonely.”

“I guess word is getting around,” Hawa said with a frown down at the detritus under her feet. “How, I have no idea. I wonder if the other colors will be this easy to persuade?”

“Well!” a voice said from the window, held by another simulacrum with a bright green mane over Rainbow Dash’s features. “I, for one, think it entirely reasonable that you want to become me.”

Firefly stepped to the window with a hesitant motion. The imposition of additional fear was not helping her emotional stability anyway, but she swallowed it as best she could. “So… does that mean you’ll help us?”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Green said, squinting at her closely. “You can talk about how relevant you think I am, sure. I’ll enjoy it. The thing is, I don’t know much about your plan. What’s this good for?”

“Taking her place,” Firefly said.

“And? What then? I’m not Red and Orange and stuff.” She shook her head. “How does taking Rainbow Dash’s place change anything?”

“It’s a gamble,” Firefly said quietly, yet firmly. “I’m going to shame her into returning so she can answer to us. She still owes us, and I won’t let her forget that.”

“Well. I guess I, of all ponies, can’t really object to ridiculous ambition. Count me in.” With a rush of green light, the fourth part of Rainbow Dash flooded into Firefly. She bit her lip to keep from crying out and writhed against the tear-soaked bed.

Hawa pulled her back gently. She held Firefly’s head in her forelegs and searched her features with uncertain eyes. “You don’t need to do this. I don’t even know if it will work.”

“Neither do I,” Firefly grunted and pushed her back, though she quirked her lips gratefully. It was a wan smile, but a smile nonetheless. “It doesn’t matter, though. Either I do this or everything I’ve fought for is worth nothing.”

Hawa looked at her for a moment and then nodded. She pulled Firefly into another hug against her squawked protests. “Oh, hush, you bold, beautiful thing. I never got to really tell Rainbow Dash how much I admired her determination, before the end. I… I wish I could be as strong as either one of you.”

Firefly opened her mouth, but closed it thoughtfully. “I probably shouldn’t say much. I’ve just been hit with a double whammy of envy, after all. Still, don’t sell yourself short.” She cuffed Hawa’s shoulder. “You’re here by my side, after all.” She looked out the window at the sky. “Next, Vinyl?”

“Already got you covered.”

* * *

Firefly looked around the desolate landscape. She frowned, feeling a little jarred as she contemplated the jagged rocks and sheer surfaces. “Seems like there should be, I dunno… wind or something.”

“We can’t have everything, dear,” Hawa said as she picked over the stones. “It does seem a little barren for Blue, though. Would she not be compassion and nurturing?”

“Well, we’re about to find out,” Firefly said, pointing ahead at a shape on the rock face above them. While Firefly flapped her way up, Hawa leapt from rock to rock, and together they came to the mouth of a cave high above the ground.

A blue-maned Rainbow Dash sat in front of it patiently, her sad eyes fixed on them. She perked her ears as they approached, and offered a small smile. “Hello, Firefly, Hawa.”

“Hey.” Firefly walked in front of her. “You know why I’m here?”

“Better than you yourself do, I suspect, as I did for Rainbow Dash before you.” She held her hoof out. “I told her something very important, and you are the vehicle in which I shall remind her.”

“If you knew it was going to come to this,” Hawa asked with a frown, “why did you let it happen?”

“Because it needed to happen,” Blue Dash said. “What Rainbow Dash learns in her journey is important, just as it’s important for Firefly to be the one to bring her back.”

Firefly scuffed her hoof and cupped her ears forward. “What do you know? Do you know what we need to do to fix things?”

“I do not,” Blue Dash smiled, “I know only that you will. I have a certain faith in the matter.” Her features slid away, to be replaced by Firefly’s pink face. “Within this cave is the last fragment of what Rainbow Dash left behind. She will be… difficult to move. Are you ready?”

“No.” Firefly shook her head. “But I’ve got to do it anyway.” She took Blue’s outstretched hoof. This time, there was no pain, only a sweet joy that filled her heart and mind. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in the acrid scent of the world.

Hawa stepped forward to her side, wordlessly solicitous, but Firefly waved her off with a small smile. “It’s all right. Come on.”

Entering the cave, they found it as barren as the outside, but for the presence of a statue. She sat in the middle of the cavern, her violet hair as immobile as the stone that surrounded her.

“Sheesh,” Firefly muttered. “When she said ‘difficult to move’ I didn’t take her literally.”

Hawa gave her a sour look. “You know, your flippant comments are a little off-putting when the fate of the universe is on the line.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Firefly grinned sheepishly. “I can’t help it. It’s the only way I stay sane through all of this metaphysical garbage.”

“Garbage,” Hawa snorted and tossed her mane. “This is deep and meaningful.”

“As the sum totality of all existence, you are no more or less silly than it is.” Firefly walked up to the immobile fragment and placed her hooves on it. “And, you know what? Reality is pretty ridiculous. Trust me, I’ve been from one end of it to the other by now.”

Lowering herself so that she could look into Violet’s staring eyes, Firefly evened her breathing and prepared her thoughts. “I know what you are. You’re Rainbow Dash’s identity. I have a pretty good idea of why you’re not moving, either.”

Violet Dash did not respond. Naturally.

“She denied you. She taught you that you were irrelevant.” Firefly rubbed a hoof against the impenetrably stiff ear. “You pretty much are, too. Your only relevance is providing identity, and for someone who doesn’t need an identity, what good are you?”

Silence.

“In all that vast… nothingness, whatever, what good are any of us? Rainbow Dash doesn’t need us anymore. In a way, we don’t even need her. She’s gone and we’re going on—the Wheel keeps on turning, for now, and all of us turn with it. One spoke missing, not enough to compromise it.” Firefly sat in front of Violet and held her hooves up. “So… that’s where my plan comes in.”

Hawa leaned forward intently. Vinyl appeared out of the air and watched, tilting her glasses up as she looked at Firefly.

“I’m going to show Rainbow Dash the thing she’s running so hard from,” Firefly said. “I’m going to take her place, and when I do, I’m not going to leave the world or perpetuate it. I’m going to end it. I’m going to break the Wheel.”

Vinyl stared, while Hawa’s gasp filled the cavern. “Uh, Firefly?” Vinyl asked. “Just what are you saying?”

“The only way to win is not to play,” Firefly said, not taking her eyes off the frozen Violet Dash. “Rainbow Dash avoided responsibility for the cycle. I’m going to take consequences to their logical extreme and dare her to come back and find a way to fix them.”

“Holding the universe hostage isn’t a solution, Firefly!” Hawa said sharply. She strode forward. “I trusted you!”

“I have a few objections, myself—” Vinyl started.

Firefly leapt to her feet, her eyes ablaze. “No!” She looked between the two rainbow-maned mares. “You’re right. You are absolutely right. It isn’t a solution. It’s not a solution because there is no solution for any of us here.” She pointed up at the ceiling and it parted, revealing the void. “The only way out of our problem is to look in the one place we can’t—the place Rainbow Dash has gone to!” She spun around, her tail lashing. “And the only way to get her back is to force her hoof. She wanted to avoid this fate so badly? Well, okay. Let’s give it to her and see how she takes it.” She fixed Vinyl with her gaze. “We’re damned either way. Might as well take it on our own terms.”

Vinyl shook her head. “I… really don’t know if I agree with you.”

Firefly turned to Hawa. The alien unicorn’s face was torn, her eyes flicking this way and that. “I… Firefly… we all spent eons trying not to let this happen. We’ve had more cycles of mares changing place than there are years in a cycle.” She stepped forward the rest of the way and looked into her eyes. “We’ve asked the question of what we should do before, and never took this seriously as an option. Why should we do it now? What’s changed?”

“I have,” Firefly said, “and so has Rainbow Dash. You said it yourself… I’m a unique creation, and so is she.” She rested her hoof against Hawa’s face. “I’m sorry. I loved living in your world—even after I got kicked out, I still thought it was beautiful. I think there could be many more beautiful worlds to come. We won’t survive long, though, if we aren’t complete. We either take a stand now, or we whimper out of existence.”

Hawa sighed. She tilted her head forward and gently nuzzled Firefly’s cheek. “All right.”

Vinyl’s shoulders slumped. “Well. Guess we did have a good run.”

“So…” Firefly turned towards the violet-maned figure. “What say you? One last blaze of glory?”

She found herself looking into her own eyes, reflecting back at her with fierce determination. Iron-shod hooves gripped her shoulders. “Now you are speaking my language.”

Firefly howled as she united with the last shard of Rainbow Dash. Awareness flooded into her, the certain knowledge and perception of generations of souls filtered through every form of consciousness imaginable. The earth, such as it was, shook and cracked under her, then vanished entirely in a burst of multicolored flame. Firefly flashed to the mountainside, then up its slopes, hardly seeming to breathe between stops as she crossed distance without bothering with the intervening points. She passed through the ring of stones and stood before Vinyl Scratch.

Reaching down, she grabbed the sleeping mare and chucked her bodily off the mound into the pond beside it, where Vinyl spluttered and splashed. She pulled herself out and glared at Firefly with subdued annoyance. “I was getting up.”

“Sorry! Time waits for no mare.” Firefly settled herself down on the mound. “Call it Dash’s impatience combined with mine.”

Hawa stepped up from the garden and smiled. “More like your mutual rudeness.” She tossed her mane and looked down at Firefly as the newly minted dreamer put her head between her legs. “Firefly?”

“Yeah?”

“If this doesn’t work out… well, I’m sorry for casting you out. I wish I’d been able to help you.” She smoothed Firefly’s new striped mane back. “If it does… I’d like to get to know you better, if I can.”

“Deal.” Firefly smiled, and closed her eyes. Slumber took her.

As for the world she crafted, she kept it very simple. No chance at all to mess it up. It would endure for eternity, with no loss of energy or purpose. Light and darkness, spirit and matter, all of it mixed together until there was only one thing left: a monument. A tomb, even, or perhaps a grave marker. There would never again be a need for the Wheel to turn.

On it was written one thing, in the language of the Book. Space and time writ into a condemnation against the black. It read, and would read for all time:

Rainbow Dash, the Destroyer of Worlds

Well, Rainbow Dash thought, isn’t that just peachy.

The sign reading “THIS IS A DREAM” flickered fitfully in the cloud bank. The sun, too, shuddered and trembled before settling down on the horizon. It could have been rising or setting; no one could say.

“We’ve come a long way since meeting here for the first time, haven’t we?” Firefly called. “It only seemed like a few weeks, but it’s been so much longer than that. So many eons since it was just you and me, planning on how to fix our lives and stop the meddling Them.”

“Past the point that time’s meaningful, Firefly.” Rainbow Dash flexed her legs and wings experimentally. “Nice hair.”

Firefly rolled her eyes up to look at a rainbow lock and grinned. “Looks wrong on me, honestly.” She regarded Rainbow Dash. “And you look exactly the same as you did before. Isn’t that essentially impossible?”

“I don’t really have limits like that, Firefly.” She shook her head. “Well, you’ve done it. You’ve given final death to the entire world soul, all to send a message to me.” Rainbow sat down and folded her forelegs. “Here I am.”

“I have questions, and I think you owe me answers,” Firefly said. She twirled her frying pan and frowned down at it. “I can’t really smack you around with this anymore, can I?”

“Not in any meaningful fashion, no. I’m here because I choose to be.” Rainbow ran a hoof through her mane. “Ask away.”

Firefly sat across from her. “I’m going out on a limb and saying it wasn’t pride that brought you back. I can’t imagine you feel shame at what the other Travelers think of you.” She huffed a sigh. “Nor about anything else, for that matter.”

“That’s not a question.” Rainbow Dash smiled. “I suppose it’s several, actually. Am I devoid of emotion? No—I can choose to have emotions if I like. Did I come because of some sense of pride or shame?” She regarded Firefly quietly for a moment. “No. I did what I believed to be the right thing and it would be inconsistent of me to insist otherwise.”

“Why’d you come, then?”

“Because I left for a reason, and now you’ve rendered that meaningless.”

Firefly tilted her head. “I wouldn’t think a perfect being would care about such a thing.”

Rainbow Dash snorted. “Liar. If you believed that, you wouldn’t have rolled the dice.”

“Dice implies I could have lost.” Firefly crossed her forelegs. “I don’t care how immortal and transcendent you are; you came from somewhere, and that had to mean something to you.”

“Heh.” Rainbow Dash leaned back. “Yeah. I suppose it does. So, yes, I care. I care about everypony left behind.”

“Great!” Firefly grinned. “Now fix it.”

“Oh, that’s cute. You break it, so I’m obliged to fix it?”

Tapping her hoof on the cloud, Firefly pretended to think it over for a moment and then nodded. “Yup.”

With a groan, Rainbow Dash rubbed her face. “How I ever let you talk me into anything, I don’t know…”

“To be frank, we were both pretty much idiots at the start of this,” Firefly pointed out. She smiled. “I still look fondly on that time, though.”

“Yeah.” Rainbow chuckled. “Maybe I was terrified out of my mind most of the time, but I felt really alive. I had a purpose, then, I had ponies who loved me. I had you, my special friend in the twilight. The weight of the universe had only just begun to settle, and I was kind of stupid so I didn’t really get the full consequences anyway. Blah blah, ignorance is bliss, fond memories of our infancy.”

Laughing, Firefly reached forward and punched Rainbow’s leg. “Yet, here we are again. Just the two of us.” She smirked. “Shows how far we’ve come, huh?”

“Yeah. I guess.” Rainbow Dash looked at her thoughtfully. “Did you ever wonder how you got to be there in the first place? To know Their Plan and all.”

“I’m guessing neither my charming good looks nor my winning personality did it?”

“Hah.” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “No. It’s because you’re the part of us who couldn’t stand to give up. You’re the spark that never dies.” She rubbed her leg. “You’re me, telling me how wrong I am, how the world isn’t fair and that the only person who has the responsibility to change it is me.”

“Am I?” Firefly smiled. “Well. I certainly agree. You are wrong, and you do have a responsibility to change that.”

“What is there left to do, though? I asked everyone who ever lived or would live. I asked the Traveler.” She spread her forelegs. “Now it’s over. If you changed the dream and started it, Vinyl or another rainbow-maned mare would just finish it.”

“I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash, but the only one who can answer that now is you. I spent everything getting you here.” Firefly reached out and took her hooves. “We carried you on our backs to the mountain, and now we’re asking you to carry us on yours. We’re empty and lost. Please… find some way to guide us.”

They sat like that for a long time, such as time can be reckoned.

“It all starts with ignorance, doesn’t it?” Rainbow asked. Firefly jumped, startled by the sudden sound after so deep a silence. “I mean… every time the dreamer goes to sleep, the world soul awakens and busies itself. It starts from the beginning, worms its way through possibilities uncounted, and eventually shuts down.”

“Uh.”

“Sorry.” Rainbow Dash shakes her head. “I got a little carried away. What is the one thing that They always tried to prevent?”

“People finding out that They exist,” Firefly answered at once. “Because once people knew about Them, Their ability to do anything about them was limited.”

“Right.” Rainbow Dash nodded. “So what if everyone knew They existed? What then? We couldn’t tell everyone about it because They could just cut us out of the picture, before… but They can’t do that, now. They can’t affect me, and They are you so They certainly can’t do that.”

“Isn’t that how Hawa’s first world worked? Firefly asked skeptically. “I don’t remember that ending well.”

“All Hawa did was teach people how to ask her for things, and she performed it through the Entelecheia. Always, she acted as the intermediary. I’m not proposing giving people power over the Entelecheia, just… telling people the truth and letting them decide for themselves what they want to do.”

“That… will pretty much destabilize the world at once, won’t it?” Firefly asked.

“It will,” Rainbow said with a nod, “but does it matter? It’s the only way to be equitable.”

“I guess that’s really the end of… well, everything, though, isn’t it?” Firefly shook her head. “What’s the point of the dreamers if people are just going to know everything? There’s no need to keep them in ignorance.”

“No need at all.” Rainbow sucked in her breath. “Which is why I’m going to teach them how to leave.” She nodded firmly. “I’m going to accept the end. We’re going to accept the end. We’re going to end ignorance, then we’ll end desire, and we’ll all leave together to be free.”

Firefly stared. “What? But… how? I mean, I thought only you could do that. You had this whole thing where you ripped your colors out one by one and denied them.”

“I know.” Rainbow nodded and smiled. “But that’s the thing. I think I know why I came back. I mean, the proximate cause is that you called me back, but ultimately, why did I come back?” She spread her hooves out. “Because it’s incomplete. The work isn’t done. I left pieces of myself behind, unsatisfied pieces that demanded I come back. I left you. I left Hawa and Vinyl. I left nine-hundred ninety-seven other rainbow-maned mares and everypony back in Ponyville and beyond.”

“You mean… taking all of us with you?” Firefly stared at her. “I mean… what’s that even like? You seem so different, Rainbow Dash, but you’re so much the same. Honestly, I was expecting you to be this stiff… other.”

Rainbow Dash got to her feet. “What I’ve seen, beyond the veil…” She shook her head. “I can’t really describe it to you, Firefly, though I’ll try. It’s not just nothingness—it’s freedom.” She lifted her face and closed her eyes. “I could go anywhere, do anything, imagine anything. It was like being the Dreamer, but without all of the pain and suffering. No expectations, no anxiety… all but for the one little snag that you all were stuck here.”

“All together as one,” Firefly murmured. “It does sound nice. Could we end it if it wasn’t too our liking?”

“Liberty means freedom to choose. What you do then… well, I don’t know, but I’m going to try and find out.” Rainbow took a deep breath. “I’m almost wondering if this is a mistake. We’re just ending the Wheel again, in a different way.”

“Maybe.” Firefly rose. “I pulled for a third option, though, a way out of the impossible choice. If this is it, well… I’m willing to find out, too.”

Rainbow reached her hoof out to Firefly. “I will make an oath, then, and bind myself to you. So long as one soul is unenlightened, I will never leave. I commit myself to descend to earth and remain there, to be the last one out the door.”

Firefly grinned and clapped her hoof against Rainbow’s. “And I’ll be right there beside you.” The sound resounded throughout the dreamscape, a ringing note of finality.

They pulled one another into an embrace, and Rainbow felt tears touch her face. She’d become a part of the world again, letting it touch her. It didn’t matter, though. One long task had been put behind her, that of reclaiming the seat of the dreamer, and now another lay ahead of her. To enlighten the world, and free them of their burdens forever. Boy, do I take the easy jobs or what?

“Firefly?” she asked. “One request.”

“Yeah?”

“I’d like it if everypony incarnated back as they were in Ponyville when we left.” Rainbow said. “We can bring back the lost unicorns, and Crimson Charger, and the Lost… we’ll find room for them. I think everyone deserves their chance.” Rainbow laughed softly. “There’s something they should be present for, anyway.”

“Done, and done.” Firefly blinked at her. “And what’s that?”

* * *

Morning in Ponyville shimmered. From the rustling branches of the Everfree Forest to the misty blue mountains to the canyons to the rivers, it glowed in the light of the sun. Today, of all days, it was packed to capacity and beyond, a hundred times over, filled with guests that, once upon a time, would have looked strange. Unicorns never seen living mingled with those long thought dead and buried and the residents of the little town. They talked over coffee, they ate pie, they danced and sang, they wondered and they wept for the simple joy of sensation.

At Sweet Apple Acres, in the field in front of the barn, pegasi strung streamers from tree to tree, while unicorns erected poles and decorated a great tent and earth ponies raised a stage and chairs. Applejack belted orders at the top of her lungs, while the former Queen of the Lost issued countermands and conflicting orders, her face fresh with youth and her mane done up under her crown. Twilight Sparkle laughed and chatted with the three other Princesses, who all made room for the blue-maned Oracle as she sat between her daughters.

In the farmhouse kitchen, Rainbow Dash scrunched her face as she watched the preparations taking place outside, a strange feeling settling in her gut. In a way, this is all pretty ridiculous. Everypony here knows it’s ridiculous. What does it matter anymore? We all know the truth. We all know this world is just an illusion.

Rarity tugged on her tail. “Rainbow, darling, we aren’t finished yet. Get over here and stand still.”

She sighed and allowed herself to be roped back to the stool Rarity setup for her, holding a leg out so the unicorn could take additional measurements. “I thought you already knew my dress size.”

“Well, yes, but this is a very special dress. We can’t have even the slightest error.”

Fluttershy sewed away merrily in the corner, giggling. “It’s okay, Rarity. I think we’ve got it.”

“Got it?” Rarity fumed. “This is to be the first celebration of its kind, ever! We can’t let it slide! It would be a crime of unthinkable proportions!”

“Thanks for reminding me that I have my work cut out for me in freeing you of your desires and needs, thanks,” Rainbow Dash muttered. “And we’ve had… weddings before.”

Rarity pricked Rainbow with a pin, and pouted when it failed to elicit a reaction. “Yes, but never one like this. How many young stallions and mares dropped their commitments after you and Firefly told us the truth?”

“I made a promise. One I failed to keep. I don’t plan on doing that again,” Rainbow Dash said quietly. “And I want to live the life I never could have had, before it’s time to go.”

The door burst open and the Cutie Mark Crusaders burst in. Each of them wore a flower girl’s dress and flowers in her mane. They were followed by the blonde unicorn filly in her own gown. All four lit up grins and grabbed Rainbow Dash. “Come with us, sis!” Scootaloo announced. “Firefly wants a word with you!”

“Girls—!”

“No, it’s okay,” Rainbow Dash laughed and waved off the crowd of fillies. “All right, let’s go.” She trotted out with them, looking around as she went. She saw Crimson Charger helping lift Vinyl Scratch’s heavy equipment toward the stage, the crimson-maned musician’s tail flicking excitedly.

“Just a little lower! And don’t crush Mosh Pit!”

“I thought death was irrelevant now, or something?” Mosh Pit asked uncertainly, turning a little more green than usual as he eased an enormous speaker into location.

“Yeah, but it’s messy and inconvenient.” Vinyl grinned. “Come on, you wuss. You have nothing to fear now. Take a chance!”

Rainbow snickered. I think there might be another wedding in a few short days, Rarity. She hurried on, passing a gaggle of other rainbow-maned mares as they marveled over a table stuffed to overflowing with Pinkie Pie and the Cakes’ catering. Some had found Applejack’s supply of stuffed apple pies and were happily gorging themselves.

Soon the Crusaders led her to the barn, and she frowned. “What’s Firefly doing over here?” she asked as she paused in the doorframe. As she turned to look at the girls, though, she saw them fleeing in all directions, just in time for a massive hoof to hook her around the neck and draw her into a deep, powerful kiss.

For all her enlightened power, Rainbow Dash felt her strength sapped away. She melted gleefully into the limbs of Big Macintosh, molding herself against his great red bulk. “Mm,” she murmured as they pulled away for air later, “I’m pretty sure there’s a tradition against the groom seeing the bride right before the ceremonies.”

“If there’s one thing you taught me, Rainbow,” Big Macintosh said into her ear, “it’s that traditions don’t mean a thing.” He then proceeded to nibble at that ear, which sent a new wave of squirmy heat down Rainbow Dash’s spine. She giggled and pushed at him futilely, not protesting terribly hard as her neck and mane were aggressively nuzzled.

“I just wanted to say…” Big Macintosh said slowly as they cuddled one another in the shade of the barn, “I know you’ve been through a lot. You’ve changed a lot, yourself and all of us combined. It’s never gonna be the same sorta marriage it mighta been, I know.”

Rainbow shook her head. “No. But…”

“But it don’t make it meaningless,” he finished for her with a broad smile. “I don’t care what you’ve become, Rainbow. To me, for the next while, you’re my beautiful wife, who I fought to heaven and back for. After that, well… we can talk about you bein’ the great teacher or whatever. I just want to have a few good years with you. Like nothin’d ever changed.”

Rainbow Dash nuzzled up under his chin and rested her head there. “Yeah… me too. I… heh. You know, I bet Orange is crowing right now.”

“Who?”

“Long story, tell you later.” She smiled. “That’s the thing about desires, though, don’t you see?”

He tilted his head curiously.

“The problem with desire is that you fear losing the things you want so bad that you blind yourself to the truth. You don’t see how it’s tearing your life apart to fight and struggle against something that will end.” She looked up at him. “That’s the ultimate lesson. There’s nothing wrong with desire all by itself, so long as you’re willing to let go when it comes time.”

“All this is gonna end.” He nodded. “But, yeah, it don’t mean we have to let it slide by and not enjoy it while we can.” He flicked an ear and grinned down at her. “Hey, maybe there’s somethin’ to this great spiritual teacher thing.”

Laughing, Rainbow Dash smacked him in the ribs. “Oh, don’t you start cracking jokes. I’ll make you pay for it.”

“Well, I plan to make you the mother of my foals, so I’m sure I’ll have plenty to pay for.” He smirked and nibbled at her ear again.

Rainbow Dash’s face turned bright red. She giggled and kissed him again. “You will pay for that. I’ll see to it. Now, contain yourself until after the ceremony. Imagine if somepony came in and found us.”

“Yeah?” Big Macintosh closed his legs around her. “I’d like to see ’em dare and object.”

“Tsk tsk,” Rainbow Dash said, abruptly standing in the door a few feet away. “Nope, I’m afraid your punishment begins now. Lesson two: never think you can contain somepony who transcends space and time!”

“Oh? Well.” He leaned back and crossed his lower legs. “We’ll see who contains who tonight, then.”

Rainbow blushed again. Then she stuck her tongue out at her husband-to-be and ran out giggling.

Almost immediately, she ran into Hawa and Firefly, who were trotting along their way to visit Twilight and the Princesses from their course, who were even now being joined by a laughing Discord. The two rainbow-maned mares exchanged glances and grinned at one another. “Having a little prenuptial conjugation, Dashie?” Hawa asked gleefully.

Rainbow Dash brushed her mane back. “I don’t know what you two are giggling about. I’m a completely awesome and dignified mare who would never do anything like that where dozens of ponies might accidentally see. They’d be blinded by how much cooler I am than they.”

“Mmhmm.” Firefly rolled her eyes. “More like they’d all get to see how you like it when a stallion really takes charge of you.”

“You take that back.”

“Make me!” Firefly grinned.

Hawa laughed and stepped between them as the two pegasi spread their wings and planted their noses together in mock aggressive. “Ladies, ladies! Let’s not fight. Let’s not ever fight again, in fact.”

“Ever?” Firefly rolled that around in her mouth. “I dunno. I like a little tussle with a cute mare now and then.”

Rainbow laughed uproariously as Hawa spluttered and covered her mouth in shock. “I think I’ll leave you two alone.” She chortled still as she wandered off, hopping onto a low-hanging cloud and drifting south a ways, towards the Everfree Forest, so she could get a better view of the preparations.

She smiled down at the little ponies as they busied themselves. In just a few short years, the world will fall apart and be replaced with a new one. Or, perhaps, the same one over again—after all, we don’t have to worry about trying new combinations anymore. Maybe we’ll change it up, just for the heck of it, but I get the feeling we’re going to be sticking with Ponyville and Equestria for a long time.

Each new iteration will have fewer and fewer ponies. More of them will go on, and where they go no pony really knows. They’ll be free, though, wherever they are. Free to be whoever or whatever they want, with no one telling them what they should like or hate or love. No one holding them down, no one tearing their lives apart.

Then, one day, it’ll be just me and Firefly. We’ll sit together on the clouds by the silly neon sign and we’ll tell each other old stories. We’ll hug one last time, and then we’ll walk out together. The door will close on one era, and open on the next.

She puffed the cloud up and rested her head on it, murmuring softly. “That era won’t be just another cycle, though. Not just another little change. It’ll be a time when everypony is her own person, well and truly, now and forever.”

Her shadow stretched out, forming thin copies of herself. The Entelecheia rose up from the cloud and regarded her with Their silent gaze.

“I have one last task for you,” Rainbow told Them. “Go. Return to the Book. Burn it. Break the mountain down to powder, roll up the entire superluminal world, and seal the gate of the moon. The Wheel is broken, and we will all be freed from it. We don’t need Them anymore—we have each other.”

And, so, one by one, They left, never to return.

Rainbow Dash rose from her cloud and glided back over the celebration. She opened her mind and saw the world beneath her, turning under the watchful gaze of sun, moon, and stars.

Then she smiled, closed her mind, tilted her wings, and fell back to earth. She had a wedding to attend.

The world could wait.

* * * * * * *

THE END

Author's Note

Well, well, well. That's it, she's done.
Been an exciting few months, for me at least. This is definitely the most expansive story I've ever written. It goes from one end of the universe to the other, and then back again.

There's so much I can say about this, but now that I'm here at the end I feel beat, tired, and exhilarated. This is the first full-length novel I've ever developed. The first three chapters being done by someone else barely cuts any of that out, since I still had to go and rewrite some sections to bring them up to speed in terms of grammar and impact.

Ultimately, this was a story of layers.
It had layers of reality, sure, but that's really minor compared to the other ones:
There were layers of storytelling. It starts small and personal, and then it grows and grows, peeling away to reveal a deeper layer that was more true than the last. It went from one stallion's problem, to the problems of a whole town, to the problems of a whole world, then several worlds, and then everyone who has ever or could ever live - and then it peels away the final layer and brings that person home again.
It had layers of consciousness, of realizing that one person's problems are everyone's problems. Cloud Buster's amoeba like concern for himself grows with his (or, rather, her) compassion as she accepts more and more responsibility and depth.

That's a challenging thing to write and, you know? I probably could have written it better. This was a learning experience, but I'd like to think that I at least took a competent shot and gave you all something memorable that you can take home with you.

Where does it go from here? No where, and everywhere. The story will finish, the wheel will be broken, and one day Rainbow Dash will close the door—
But after that, who knows? Where the Enlightened One goes when she reaches Nirvana is really up to her. I hope it's a better, freer world.

I'd like to thank King Tiger and DDRMASTERM for helping me edit and proofread.

A huge round of applause Chaotic Dreams for coming up with this story in the first place and, then, handing it over to me when he decided to largely leave.

And to you all:
You beautiful, horrible people who read my stuff, you gluttons for punishment, thanks for coming this far! I hope you enjoyed it.

Please leave a comment below. I encourage everyone to tell me how they feel – be as detailed or as sparse as you like, but I promise I will read every single word. Follow me, like the story, comment!

Remember to check out my other fics:
Through the Well of Pirene - Human in Equestria done right. Three young female protagonists in a journey to set their lives right.
Perchance to Dream - The past has a way of coming back, no matter how deeply it might be buried.
A Mile in Her Shoes - What happens when your life is no longer what you thought it would be? Walk with the Mane 6 as they find out what it's like to be another kind of mare.

Farewell, and thank you for reading.

Chapter 7

Rainbow Dash curled up in a bed that was too small under a tiny window, shuttered to keep out the summer bugs. Spike had been more than willing to cede it for the evening after seeing the state of her.

She shut her eyes, turning over. The memory of returning to Twilight’s library and collapsing on her floor was not one she wanted to relive, yet it bubbled to the surface regardless. She had promised to tell Twilight the truth.

The truth that I’m falling apart. That I don’t know how to hold myself together anymore. Even there I am lying, because I can’t tell her the full, terrible, awful truth that I don’t know who I am anymore.

Vinyl’s screams echoed up out of the darkness. They swarmed around her like bats, pecking and biting, howling at her to turn and save her. Vinyl’s lost, terrified eyes stared into hers no matter how tightly Rainbow closed her eyes.

Rainbow Dash would have saved you. It didn’t matter how bad the odds were. She would have saved you. I’m not Rainbow Dash. I’m no one. I don’t remember who came before me. He’s as much a ghost as Vinyl was about to become.

If she wandered back to town square, she knew she would find Vinyl Scratch having a blast. Everypony there would be dancing and enjoying themselves. If she went up to Vinyl’s side and spoke to her, she’d see a happy pony whose only cares were her music and her growing friendships. She would look into her eyes and see not the hint of recognition.

Rainbow turned again, but there was no escaping her own imagination. She tried to cry, but her eyes remained stubbornly dry. Whimpering softly, she buried her face into the pillow until sleep claimed her.

* * *

Rainbow Dash glided over stormy skies. Below her, hurricane winds ravaged the land as lightning-set fires were fanned into conflagrations. A black void gaped down at her in place of a sky.

Firefly’s voice echoed dimly from the distance. “Rainbow… Rainbow…!”

Rainbow beat her wings, flying on. She knew Firefly hardly needed eyes to see her, but to see herself reflected in Firefly’s eyes would have been too much.

“Please, Rainbow… I know you… come back…” The voice faded, drowned out by the roar below.

Some Element of Loyalty you are. Your only true friend in the entire world is back there and here you are, flying on. Where are you even going? It’s a dream—you can’t really escape her. Running away won’t make anything you’ve done better. It won’t save Vinyl. It won’t help Firefly. It won’t stop Them.

Rainbow shut her eyes and closed her wings up, allowing herself to fall. The flames leapt up to meet her. Her skin cracked and split and she spread her limbs to feel them flense the flesh from her bones. Not even a pile of ash made it to the ground below—tiny particles blew on the intense wind, and she spread with it.

“Rainbow,” Firefly said from somewhere. “Knock it off. You’re scaring me… please.”

“I’m sorry,” Rainbow whispered. She didn’t open her eyes. Doubtless she would see what she always did—that she had materialized in Firefly’s domain. The temptation to simply sink away again and flee her dangled like a juicy apple on a low branch.

“It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have done anything.”

Rainbow shook her head. “Me for her. I could have drawn Their attention.”

Firefly said nothing.

“I could have, couldn’t I?”

“No… maybe.” She sighed. “I don’t know. Their perceptions aren’t like yours, nor even mine. They don’t see things like we do. It’s like peeking at the world through a pinhole—They narrowly see whatever is in their field of view. I don’t think They’re even aware that other things exist.”

“Until They’re made aware of them.”

“Yes. Then the pinhole opens, and They see more. Sometimes…” Firefly’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Sometimes They even step through.”

“Step through. Like at the square… They were there. They were real.” Rainbow lifted her head, and at last opened her eyes to look at Firefly’s face. Drawn and haggard, she watched Rainbow back. “But I could have saved her?”

“They would have gotten both of you.”

Rainbow rose to stand at her level. “You just said you didn’t know that for sure.”

“Could you risk that? The off-chance that They would have forgotten Vinyl Scratch existed?” Firefly shook her head firmly. “No. Don’t lie to me and say that you could have.”

Rainbow growled. “Rainbow Dash could have. She would have.”

Firefly lifted her head and returned Rainbow’s gaze steadily. “Maybe. Who are you, though? Are you Rainbow Dash?”

Wincing, Rainbow glanced away. “I’m somepony who turned her back on her friend.”

“Don’t even start. You knew what you had to do and you did it. Don’t give me crap about the Element, either.” Firefly stood up and flared her wings. “I bore that hunk of rock through Nightmare Moon and Discord. You know what’s hard?”

The clouds beneath Firefly, the immobile sun—Rainbow looked at anything other than Firefly.

“Hard is when loyalty demands you overlook the here and now to pay attention to the future. Hard is when you turn your back on a friend today so you can save her tomorrow.”

“I could have intervened earlier,” Dash whispered. “When I first arrived at the square. I could have tackled her off the stage.”

“You trusted her to make her own decision. It was breathtakingly stupid, yes, but it was her decision,” Firefly said. “When you broke her and Mosh Pit up, that was you saving her—this, however, was something she felt she had to do.”

“And what did it get us, huh?” Rainbow snapped. “Another riddle. Go hunt up mad ponies from beyond the pale and hope one of them coughs up the obscure piece of information we need. Can you even find these ponies?”

Firefly gazed into the distance. “I can.”

“And the information? Can we find the right one who will point us the right way?”

“Maybe. I’ll need your help.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. She stared down at her hooves. So tiny and blue, even after all this time they didn’t feel as though they belonged to her. After a time, she looked back up to Firefly. “What can I help you with?”

“It’s your dream,” Firefly said. “I am a figment, an idea flitting from pony to pony, when you aren’t here. I need to guide you to where the Deep Lost are.”

Taking a deep breath, Rainbow slumped her shoulders.

“Rainbow…” Firefly’s raw voice throbbed. “Please don’t do this to yourself. We’re so close.”

“Tell me the rest of it, Firefly,” Rainbow whispered. “The part you’re not saying.”

“I’m not—” Firefly rustled her wings. She shifted back and forth on her hooves. “How did you…?”

“I’m not stupid.” Rainbow lifted her eyes again, staring hard at Firefly. “Their attention is on me. I’ve put Them off for a little bit, but every time I cause or am involved with a disturbance, Their gaze is drawn to me.”

Now it was Firefly’s turn to say nothing and to stare at anything other than her partner.

“When I go haring off for the Door, what do you think is going to happen?” She waved a hoof. “Are They just not going to, I don’t know, not notice that I’m flying clear off the Plan?”

“They didn’t notice your chats with Vinyl Scratch. They can’t know your mind like I do.”

Rainbow shook her head. “Funny. That didn’t sound anything like a plan. Were you just winging it the whole time, Firefly?”

Firefly glared at her. “And what was I supposed to do? Not warn you in the first place? Quietly fade into oblivion? Accept their dominance and forget this all ever happened?”

“Why not?” Rainbow snorted. “The end result is going to be the same. You might have saved us all some trouble.”

Firefly bit back an angry retort. She rubbed her face and softened her features. “Rainbow… I’m sorry. Please. I know you don’t mean that.”

Still feeling like boiling over, Rainbow had to stare between Firefly’s hooves for a good minute. “Yeah. The Element of Relapse, they might as well call me. I’m sorry, Firefly.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it, Dash.” Firefly shook her head. “We’re both pretty scared. For me… I don’t know if there’s another chance after you.”

“Right.” Rainbow exhaled. “Okay… we’d better get on this thing, then.”

“Are you sure?” Firefly looked at Rainbow closely. “You don’t look so hot, and this is just a dream. I don’t want to think about how pale you must look in real life.”

“Vinyl Scratch sacrificed her independence of thought so we could have a chance at this. I don’t want to blow it for her.” Rainbow Dash straightened and ran a hoof through her mane to settle it across her side. “Let’s go.”

She paused for a moment. “Uh… how do we get where we’re going?”

Firefly tilted her head. “You know that sensation you have when you’re trying to fall asleep, where you feel like you’re dropping down a pit?”

“Yeah?”

She grinned and pointed down.

Rainbow peered down and perceived a void beneath her. Before she could so much as try to flap her wings, she plummeted, as fast as a stone, then faster. At the same time, it felt as though she was being stretched out too thinly, her mind expanding to encompass something…. something…

* * *

Rainbow groaned. Shifting her hooves, she kicked off the blankets of the too-small bed and stretched her wings. Cramps popped over every inch of her. Looking up at the tiny room, she sighed. “Well… so much for that, I guess.”

Reaching up, she flipped the shutter open, and then stared.

An ocean lay right outside. The moon hung over it, bright and full and huge, and it cast a glow as bright as day.

Leaping to her feet, she sprang out the door. Oh, no, They’ve changed everything, They—!

“Morning, sleepy head,” Firefly said with her back to Rainbow. Outside Spike’s room was a small kitchen with no walls, the cabinets hanging in empty air. Firefly hummed softly as she flipped an omelette with a pan held in one hoof and a spatula in her mouth.

Her eyes huge, Rainbow stared around. They were on a barren island in the middle of a featureless sea, under a sky with stars that never twinkled, only stood there as points of light. “Firefly? You’re… you’re real?” She walked over to her, touching her friend’s coat. The soft hairs felt entirely real, and she could feel the muscle under her skin.

Firefly giggled, flicking her tail at her. “Stop that!”

“What the flying feather is all this? Is this real?”

“No,” Firefly said. She picked the spatula up and tossed the omelettes on to a pair of nearby plates. “We’re in the Deep Dream.”

“The… what? But…” Rainbow felt at herself, at the ground. It was indistinguishable from real.

“Your brain is tricking you into thinking this is real. Quite well, I might add.”

“So…” Rainbow’s eyes widened. “What happens if I die here? Will I die in real life? Or… or become some sort of freaky dream-ghost?”

“Like me?” Firefly gave her a sour look. “No, don’t be stupid—people dying in dreams is a fiction thing. I wouldn’t recommend it, though. If you die or get injured here, I guarantee you it’s going to feel real. Ponies have been traumatized for life with less severe experiences.”

Rainbow swallowed heavily. She stared out at the ocean. “If this isn’t real, if it’s just in my head… what is it?”

Firefly shrugged. “I’m no egghead, but I’d hazard to say it’s something like a collective dream. All the impressions of all the minds that have ever been.” She took her plate and snarfed down an omelette, then sighed happily. “Wow, I missed that. You have no idea how much you miss onions, cheese, and garlic until you completely lose your sense of taste.”

Rainbow eyed her. “This is awfully boring for a collective dream. With Pinkie alone, I would have expected something more like when Discord came back.”

“Hey, do you want an omelette or a lecture on metaphysics?” Firefly rolled her eyes and tossed her plate, letting it shatter carelessly on the floor. “Take it up with management if you have complaints. I’m sure They will listen very astutely before They eat you.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t respond, staring off at the moon.

“Dash?” Firefly said, turning to look at her.

“Sorry? Oh.” She swallowed again, looking back at Firefly.

“You okay?”

“Fine.” Rainbow shook her head. “Let’s get going.”

Firefly nodded. She spread her wings and launched into the air. Rainbow quickly stuffed the hot omelette into her mouth and flapped after her. Almost as soon as she thought to ask where they were going, land appeared on the horizon. Under the bright moon, the earth appeared almost black, not helped by the fact that the dark soil there seemed to absorb the moon’s light so well. Off the rocky beach, basalt pyramids dotted the landscape, each one a silent tomb looming over dead trees.

“Firefly… w-we aren’t flying into Ta-Tartarus, are we?” Rainbow asked.

“I wish.”

Descending, they skimmed over the broken landscape. Canyons gaped into interminable pits, and pillars of rock formed natural ribcages. They flew until they saw a river winding its way across the land. Firefly dove down and alighted on its shore, and Rainbow saw that its flow was sluggish, black currents that suggested unfathomable mysteries. Ahead of them lay the largest tomb of all, a great pyramid that dominated the local hills and smaller structures. The moon rose directly behind it, with the pyramid’s tip touching the bottom.

Cold seeped into Rainbow Dash’s limbs, but the goosebumps that mottled her skin had nothing to do with chill. A pegasus learned to live with cold. Her eyes, adjusting to the eerie lighting, saw now that they weren’t entirely alone. Pale shapes moved just out of the corner of her eye, and when she turned her gaze to focus on them all she saw was a thin mist lying across the earth. They clustered about the river, running hooves in the water. Despite their skeletal, desperate appearance, none of them drank.

“Firefly?”

“You remember how I said that I couldn’t really exist without you, Rainbow? How I would just be a figment if it weren’t for you?”

“Y-yeah?” Rainbow looked at her, her knees trembling.

Firefly watched her steadily, her wings tightly folded. “That’s the first step. I found my way down here, to step onto the shores of a world with no life. This isn’t even an afterlife. This isn’t a heaven or a hell.” She turned her head to regard the pyramid. “We’re going to see a… person… who managed to—Rainbow? Are you listening?”

Rainbow was not. Her eyes slammed shut. Her limbs wouldn’t stop shaking. Even with her eyes closed, she could see Them. They stood, shadowy giants that were there and yet not there. Articulated claws stretched to peel at her skin and open her up for all the world to see. Not Rainbow Dash, not some forgotten stallion, not anyone. Just a faded ghost pawing at black earth.

“Rainbow? Rainbow. Rainbow Dash!”

Firefly’s hoof touched her and she screamed. Her voice shook like a reed in the wind and she flew. Her eyes swam with tears, and she found herself careening madly through the dead sky. A pink blur shot after her, and her eyes cleared enough to see Firefly’s contrail before they collided, the shock seeming to knock her high, higher than she could have ever imagined…

* * *

The twilight realm. Laying on her back and looking up at the faded light, Rainbow never thought she’d be so glad to be back here. She shuddered as she rolled onto her belly. She still couldn’t stop shaking. It was as if the world had closed in around her, and yet without anything around her she felt as if she might fly apart. She covered her face in her forelegs and whimpered.

Firefly’s first touch made her flinch back, but the other mare touched her again, more gently, and Dash managed not to pull back. Firefly covered her with a wing and lay by her side, holding her tightly.

It took a very long time for Rainbow to stop crying and shaking. Biting back sobs, Rainbow coughed. “Firefly… oh, Firefly, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I can’t… I can’t do it, I can’t fight…”

“Shh… it’s okay.”

“I don’t know how I can go on like this.” Rainbow looked at the sun, trapped halfway between setting and not. “I… I don’t even know what this is any more. Are we fighting for a past that no longer exists or a present we know isn’t real? What are we, even?”

“I don’t know, Rainbow. I don’t know what’s real.”

“I feel like… like… They took us and pinned us down and made us helpless. They beat us until… until we d-don’t even know ourselves any more.”

Firefly sighed, nodding her head.

“We c-can’t…” Rainbow started to push herself up. “I c-can’t l-let…”

Firefly tightened her grip, pulling Rainbow down. “No. Rainbow… no.” She sighed again and stroked Rainbow’s mane.

Rainbow felt herself shaking again and tried to stop it.

“You’re…” Firefly murmured. “I should be the one to apologize. You’re breaking down, Rainbow. This whole thing has been crushing you the entire time.”

“What about you?” Rainbow asked. She was too ashamed to even look at Firefly right then. No move was made to free herself from her comforting embrace, though.

Firefly shook her head. “Who said I don’t freak out? I told you before, time doesn’t work for me like it does for you. Moments for me become hours, days become minutes… I get to freak out when no pony is watching.”

“I can’t let this go, though. I have to—”

Firefly touched Dash’s mouth with her hoof, shaking her head. “I believe you’ll try. You’ve already pushed yourself to the point of breaking. I’ve seen glimpses of what is to come—if I forced you to face that right now…” She silenced Rainbow again as she rose to speak, shaking her head more firmly. “No. You shouldn’t be ashamed. There’s nothing wrong with you.”

Rainbow tried to speak again, but got the hint this time. She looked at Firefly, silently.

“You’re not weak. You’ve already faced an incredible, awful truth, and you’ve come far.” Firefly nuzzled at her cheek. “You’re the one who is going to save us. I know it. Right now, though, I want you to wake up.”

“B-but…”

“No.” Firefly shook her head more firmly. “You need to go out there and remember what it is we’re fighting for. I want you to wake up, get out of bed, and go outside. See your friends. See your loved ones. Then come back to me—we’ll finish this, once and for all.”

“All right… I…” Rainbow swallowed. “All right.”

* * *

“Good morning, Rainbow! Did you sleep well? I hope you’re feeling—eep!” Twilight yelped as Rainbow Dash caught her in a hug. Her ribs creaked as Rainbow squeezed harder.

“Thank you, Twilight,” Rainbow said quietly. “You’re a great friend.” Technically, this one is for Firefly’s sake. You’re her friend and she never gets to see you.

“I… uh…” Twilight squirmed a hoof free so she could pat Rainbow on the back. “Thank you. I’m glad I can help. I’m sorry you’ve been feeling so broken up lately, Rainbow. If there’s anything I can do to help…”

“Yeah, actually.” Rainbow pulled back. “Could you call Pinkie? I want to throw you guys a party in, uh… a couple days. To show my appreciation.”

“I don’t think she needs that much excuse, but all right.”

“Oh, ask her to invite Vinyl Scratch to be the DJ,” Rainbow added as she trotted over to a window.

“Sure.” Twilight shuffled through the things on her desk until she found a list. “Where are you going? Pinkie will want to know the details.”

“Let her figure that out—she’s good at that. I’ve got to go reconnect.” Rainbow spread her wings and launched herself out into the morning light.

“Reconnect to wh—oh, nevermind.” Twilight rolled her eyes in fond exasperation, then started writing.

Rainbow Dash let the current carry her up over Ponyville, scanning the ground below. It didn’t take her terribly long to find what she was looking for, when she saw a helmeted figure on a scooter buzzing along. Rainbow tilted her wings and shadowed the smaller figure until, inevitably, Scootaloo veered and put on a burst of speed, her tiny wings buzzing louder. Aiming for a cart left on the road, she ramped off it, clearing ten feet of air.

Swooping down, Rainbow caught her about the middle, eliciting a gasp as she and Scootaloo continued up into the air. The houses of Ponyville shrank as they climbed, becoming little dollhouses. Scootaloo turned her head up to regard Rainbow.

“Hey, kid. Still keeping in practice, huh?”

Scootaloo’s face scrunched up. She squirmed a little, seemingly indecisive. Finally, she sighed. “Hey, Rainbow Dash.”

“How’ve things been?”

“Could be better.”

“Parents working out all right?” Rainbow asked as she took them over the cloud level.

“They’re okay.” Scootaloo shook her head. “They’re nice to me, but I know they’re feeling really tense around each other.”

“Yeah.” She dropped Scootaloo on to a cloud and flapped down to sit next to her. “I’m sorry about how things have gone lately. I… I haven’t been myself, in a lot of ways.”

Scootaloo, not looking directly at Rainbow Dash, fiddled with her scooter. “I know.” She checked screws that were already pretty tight.

“I think you’re a great kid, still. I… I’d like to be your honorary big sister again, too.” Rainbow held a hoof out.

Scootaloo’s eyes watered. “You… you really care about me, don’t you?”

“I always have, kid. I promise I’ll never let you down again.”

“Pinkie Promise?”

Rainbow paused, digging back into the memories left there by Firefly. She smiled and slid a hoof across her chest. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” She put her hoof over her eye and beamed down at Scootaloo.

With a little cry, Scootaloo flung herself at Rainbow Dash and tackled her onto her back. Rainbow laughed, ruffling the little girl’s hair and holding her tightly.

“I always knew you and me… I mean… Rainbow… haven’t you always felt like we’re sisters?” Scootaloo asked into her chest. “Li-like we were always supposed to be together.”

“Yeah…” Rainbow, her voice thick, stroked Scootaloo’s mane back. “I know exactly what you mean.”

“Please don’t leave me again. Please please please.”

“I won’t. I swear.” She picked her up, holding her overhead so that the sun was behind her, leaving Scootaloo with a fuzzy halo. “I have a trip I need to take tomorrow—Wonderbolts stuff—but I’ll be back to see you and we’ll hang out. I’ll teach you how to fly like me and we’ll show everypony down there what it really means to be a pegasus.”

Scootaloo grinned, looking out over the sky. “I can’t wait.”

* * *

If there was one thing Rainbow Dash could say she was glad had not changed much with Their intervention, it was Sweet Apple Acres. Miles of well-kept farmland rolling across the hills, all the way to the edge of the Everfree Forest. There were parts of Ponyville that had gone unchanged since her dim earliest recollections, but something about the seeming permanence of the farm was alluring all by itself—a rock to cling to.

Gliding towards the farm on a cloud, she looked down at one of those other places that had gone largely unchanged. Fluttershy’s cottage was still the same quaint little place it had been, too, but there was more of a bittersweet tinge there. She could see a pink head bobbing in the stream as Fluttershy tended to some of her aquatic friends.

Looking down at her, it was hard for Rainbow to put a hoof on why she had ever loved her. It wasn’t that Fluttershy lacked lovable qualities—indeed, their new relationship as friends may be described as a form of love no less important than romantic—but the appeal just wasn’t there.

She’s sweet, kind, and pretty as a spring morning. Rainbow Dash flicked her tail idly. Which means what? She’s not tough enough to do anything I like to do, even if we shared interests. Blushing and hiding isn’t really all that appealing when you get right down to it.

The thing is, I used to find all of that really attractive. This was somepony I was prepared to live my entire life with.

Rainbow looked down at Fluttershy for a long time. Not so long ago, she might have killed for the opportunity to watch her, dripping wet, climb out of a river. Now it was about as exciting as watching the grass grow.

There had been a stallion, whose name was forgotten to her and whose face was as alien to her as a stranger, who had loved Fluttershy. That stallion was gone.

Turning to face Sweet Apple Acres, she flapped her wings and gave the cloud a push in that direction.

What do I want out of life? There’s a sister I need to come home to, sure, but one day she won’t need me any more. What’s waiting for me over the horizon?

Soon, she found herself drifting over the hills surrounding the farm. Most of the trees were already bare. The harvest that her old self had started to help had already been completed. In just a few days now there would be the Running of the Leaves, then Nightmare Night, and then Winterfall. It would be a busy time for everypony, not least of all the Apples who had to secure their farm to renew during the long winter months. Winter would be a time where ponies would come together with the ones they loved, to spend time with one another and make plans for a new year.

She ignored Applejack, who sat by the milk shed churning butter, and Apple Bloom and her friends, who made their merry way towards their clubhouse. When she got closer to the barn, she hopped off and stepped in through an open door. Inside, the place was mostly empty with the cows having gone to pasture but for the ringing of steel on steel. A cherry red glow filled the back of the barn. As the ringing stopped, it swelled and dimmed in rhythm with a bellows pumping. If Rainbow Dash’s heart had not been fluttering when she stepped in, it was now. The glow held her gaze, and in it she beheld a heavy, bulky shadow.

Big Macintosh stood in front of an anvil and forge, sweating as he forced air into the coals to heat them. The machine was as big as he was, but his muscles barely strained at all as he lifted it up, then heaved it down again, turning the furnace fire into a blaze.

“Old plow finally meeting its end, huh?” Rainbow asked.

There was no answer. Big Mac lowered back to all fours, taking the tongs in his teeth and putting a huge piece of glowing steel on the anvil. Taking a hammer in one forehoof, he braced the tongs with the other and began to shape the metal with solid, sure rings.

Rainbow sighed and leaned against the nearest stall as she watched him work. Sparks flew, each flash touching her slender form with its own azure glow.

In the memories given to her by Firefly, she didn’t see too much that hinted towards their relationship. Indeed, it seemed as if they had barely known one another. Whatever internal life the imaginary, false Rainbow Dash had were entirely unknown to her—a film strip told her very little about the thoughts and feelings of its subjects beyond what she could infer by watching. According to everypony else she had met, Big Macintosh had pined for her from early on.

Was that Them altering things? Was it always part of the Plan and things just didn’t work out until I took Firefly’s place? I don’t understand. First They drive me to him so hard and fast I find myself dizzy, then They dangle Scootaloo in front of me to force me into a relationship… Now They seem to have forgotten about him entirely.

What does that mean for me? I… She pursed her lips. Just looking at him, it feels so… it hurts to see him turn his back on me like this.

What do I want?

I’m not that stallion, I’m not really Rainbow Dash. I wear her name, but if she wanted Big Macintosh to love her… I can never know.

“I did you wrong. I… I haven’t been myself, Big Mac.”

Still there was no answer. The stallion shifted the tongs back to his teeth to let the piece rest in the fire again.

“I jerked you around like a piece of meat. I never meant to do that.”

Now he had gone back to pumping the bellows. He could have been shouting “But you did it anyway” and it wouldn’t have been a louder condemnation.

I’m sorry. I’m actually an imposter created to fulfill an imaginary ideal constructed by strange monsters from beyond the pale to fit your ideal of a mare. I never loved you as anything more than a friend, but depression, fear, and a heavy dose of horny arousal made me lust after you and try to take you anyway. Now I’m here to try and make amends before I go off into some strange hellish dreamscape to save you all from Them forevermore. Oh, and I kinda want to kiss you again.

And that’s what I would say if I could be honest with you. I want to tell you and everypony the truth. I’m so tired of lying and living this paranoid life. I just want somepony to hold me and tell me it’s okay, that I don’t need to fight any more.

“I’m just a mare. I’m just a stupid mare who is in over her head. I’m scared and frightened of things I don’t understand,” she said slowly, her voice cracking. “I hurt you and other ponies and it’s not fair to any of you. Especially you, Big Macintosh. I may have broken my promise to Scootaloo, but with her it’s only because I didn’t know what sort of crap would get in my way. With you, I hurt you and kept on hurting you because I didn’t understand myself.” Rainbow lowered her face, biting at her lip. The swelling glow of the flames only served to highlight the redness of her cheeks.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

It took her a moment to realize that the bellows had stopped. A shadow had fallen across her. Looking up, she found Big Macintosh lined against the firelight, his enormous form filling her vision. He had removed the smithing apron and now looked down at her with an unreadable expression.

After a long moment of silence, he spoke. “Did you care for me at all, back then on our first date?”

Slowly, Rainbow nodded. “I didn’t really want to date you… at the time. I was confused.”

“When you kissed me, did you really care about me?”

Again, Rainbow nodded. “I was afraid of… something I can’t really explain right now. I… I did care, though.”

“What about now?”

“I…” Rainbow swallowed. “I…”

The mare who everypony thought was Rainbow Dash had never really gotten to know you. I did. All those years you were my quiet, dependable best friend. You got me through my shakes with Fluttershy, you taught me how to fit in around Ponyville. All things I wish I could tell you, but I can’t.

Just like Thunderlane and Lyra, They tried to make me want you by forcing us together and making us crave each other. The only pony who can make me love you though is you. So…

Rainbow pushed herself up to her full height, looking up at his eyes. “I like you, Big Macintosh. If you… if you can forgive me, I’d like to keep being friends, and… if you’d want to try making something more than that, if you’d like me to be your girlfriend… I would love to be.”

It was like unplugging a blocked drain. Clean water rushed through her, purging little doubts and insecurities in its wake. So what if I had been a stallion? I’m not a stallion anymore. I’m a mare and he’s a stallion and I want to see where this goes.

“I don’t know if it will work out,” she continued, “but I would like to try and find out. Really, honestly, truly.”

Big Macintosh looked down at her for a long time. He glanced up towards the door, and then sat himself down, rubbing his head.

“Rainbow,” he said quietly, “would you hold it against me if I said I’d been havin’ second thoughts since even before our first date?” He looked to the side, embarrassed. “It seemed so… so gosh-darned weird. I remembered askin’ you out and it felt like it was the greatest thing in the world, but on the way to Berry’s place it just seemed like I was…”

“Like you were dating a best friend? A ‘bro,’ even?” Rainbow supplied.

“Yeah.” Big Mac nodded. “Like I’d gone and gotten cold feet. Then when you came by in the barn last time, I was just so burnt, but when were were huggin’, it was like I suddenly wanted nothin’ else.”

Rainbow winced. That memory was all too fresh.

“And then you kissed me, and it was like the sun exploded. I shoulda ran after you, but I was just… I wondered if maybe it was me who’d done you wrong.” He chuckled. “I felt like a right tease.”

Rainbow coughed delicately. “Uh… me too.”

“So…” He rubbed his mane awkwardly and got back to his feet. “I think what I’m sayin’ is… well, I don’t think I was sayin’ it, but…” He extended a hoof, and Rainbow took it. “You and me. From this point on, we start fresh. I’d… I’d like to try out bein’ your special somepony.”

A giddy swelling rose up. “Does it help that I’m incredibly hot, charming, hot, awesome, and did I mention smoking hot?” Rainbow grinned.

Big Macintosh laughed. By way of answering, he tugged her close, enveloping her with one hoof, and kissed her soundly.

Having kissed him once already, Rainbow might have thought she knew what to expect of being kissed. She was desperately wrong. He was so strong that she couldn’t have broken free if she’d wanted to—he would have stopped immediately had she signalled any such thing, but it served to remind her that she was a tiny little mare next to a great mountain of a stallion. His kiss had that same duality of strength and gentleness. A hind leg lifted, curled up inexorably as her entire body tensed. This time, the kiss was reciprocated, and she pressed up into him, molding her body up against his.

When he pulled back, her body felt gelatinous. She was warm, and not simply because they were standing next to a forge. Her wings were limp at either side, mirroring her molten state. She looked up into his face and saw that he was grinning, a slightly cocky look. Gentle giant or no, he was pleased to see what effect he’d had on a nubile mare.

Stiffening, Rainbow Dash felt a grin of her own growing, spreading across her face into a wicked smirk.

Big Mac grinned wider. “What do you think you’re—mmph!”

If there was one facet of imaginary Rainbow Dash that lived on in the mare that bore her name, it was the competitive urge. It had settled in her quite firmly during the Wonderbolt training and it found a surprising outlet now. Collecting all of her considerable energy, she pounced on Big Macintosh and slammed him against the side wall, rattling it and snapping a couple boards.

When he recovered, he used his great strength to peel her off, her kisses warming his cheeks. “I think a little pegasus needs a lesson taught about breakin’ other’s things.” He smirked, a light entering his eyes.

Rainbow squirmed in his grasp and managed to slip free. She showed him her teeth. “Come get me.” She hovered just out of his reach as he swiped for her, giggling as he leapt and followed her up into the loft.

I’m a mare, and he’s a stallion. We’ll do what mares and stallions do. Maybe They were the ones who started it, but we’re the ones who chose to do it. They have no power over me anymore.

* * *

“What?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Firefly continued to stare at Rainbow Dash with flat eyes.

Rainbow prodded her with a hoof. “Oh, come on, Firefly. Don’t be like that.”

“You know what you are?” Firefly asked with an equally flat tone.

“Amazing? Content? Awesome? Really, really hot?”

“A minx,” Firefly said, pointing a hoof at her accusingly. “An inconstant little minx who makes my life ten times harder.”

Rainbow snorted. “Seriously? That’s the best you could come up with?”

“Oh, there’s a few other things I could say.” Firefly tapped her chin. “So would you consider this the third date if you consider that kiss under the gazebo to be the second or, because you guys ‘started over,’ is it actually the first date? I think there’s a word for mares like you, oh, what was it…”

“Hey.” Rainbow lifted her hooves. “I can’t help it if stallions are driven into mad lust by the mere sight of me. I mean—can you blame them? Fantastic mane and tail, beautiful hooves, a killer body—”

Firefly grinned sickly, grabbed her skillet, and clocked Rainbow across the face, sending her spinning into oblivion.

* * *

The smell of sizzling omelettes informed Rainbow Dash that she had, once again, failed to wake up in the real world. Lifting her head, she rubbed her sore face. It didn’t actually hurt as much as if she’d been struck, but there was a phantom sting there that lingered regardless. Around her, she found herself back at the eerie island which stood alone in the still ocean. The fragment of Twilight’s library was gone, but the floating cabinets remained, and Firefly cheerfully hummed to herself as she slapped a pair of omelettes down.

“That,” Rainbow groused, “was entirely uncalled for.”

“I dunno about that!” Firefly said in a singsong manner. “Insufferability is a crime in some townships.” She lifted a plate in her teeth and slid it onto the table in front of Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow eyed the skillet warily. It sizzled on the stove. Yeah, you stay right there.

Firefly sat next to her, tossing her mane back as she started to eat. The nearly divine pleasure on her face at the simple task of eating breakfast—Even if it was the second breakfast of the day—made it hard for Rainbow to stay mad at her. It was a poignant reminder that her friend didn’t exactly have a lot of pleasures in life.

“I’m sorry,” Rainbow said as she pushed her own food around her plate. “I guess it was a little insensitive of me to brag about doing something you can’t.”

“It’s okay. You’ve done a lot of apologizing today. I will accept that you are a lovable idiot and move on.” Firefly chuckled and poked her. “Eat up. You don’t want to face this on an empty stomach.”

“I already ate last time I was…” Rainbow paused as her stomach growled.

“This place is imaginary, however real and persistent it seems. Last time doesn’t count. Also, you ran around all day in the real world without eating—I’ll bet some part of your brain realized you were starving.”

“Fair enough.” Rainbow took up a fork and started to divide the omelette, eating in slow chunks. Firefly didn’t seem inclined to simply scarf her food as she paused to savor each bite, so Rainbow took her time about it as well.

“I’m glad for you, though. Just looking at you now, you seem to be a lot more… like you were when we first met, actually.” Firefly smiled. “Full of life, ready to face the world.”

Rainbow glanced down at herself. “I don’t really feel all that different, I guess. A little giddy, maybe. Actually, I’m still kind of scared about going back to… that place.”

“Yeah, but you aren’t trembling like a leaf on the wind,” she said. “You have all your color and you’re sitting tall. To me, it’s a huge difference.”

Rainbow chewed over that—and her omelette—for a moment. “I put away a lot of the things I was afraid of. I… accepted things without really surrendering to Them. I feel… a lot better after that.”

“That and you went to bed feeling very nice indeed,” Firefly said.

“You know, I can slap you. That’s a thing I can do.”

Firefly giggled and washed her breakfast down with a glass of orange juice. “Right, let’s go.” She flapped her wings, flying up.

“Gah, at least let me get a—! Ugh!” Rainbow growled and grabbed the bottle of orange juice, chugging it as she flew after Firefly before discarding it in the still ocean.

The black land of death that awaited them came over the horizon almost as soon as her mind started to drift. Rainbow more than suspected that distance here, though more solid than a dream, didn’t matter as much as in the real world. It was no less bleak for her having seen it before, either. The unnatural silence of the crooked hills and looming black tombs seeped its way into her veins to form crystals of frost.

“You know, Firefly, say what you will about me being better than the last time we came here, this place is terrifying.”

Firefly only nodded grimly. She put on speed, her tail whipping into a pink contrail. Rainbow sped up with her, and a multi-colored streak of light joined the pink. She imagined that the pitiful creatures half-unseen down below might have looked up in wonder at the sight.

That’s a rather nice thought, actually. Like a banner of hope.

The great pyramid came into view, first visible as a shadow on the horizon and then, as they drew nearer, they could distinguish the huge blocks that had been used to construct it. “Hey, uh… Firefly?” she asked as they spiralled down towards the entrance. “What happens to all these ponies who are, uhm… Lost…? If we win, that is.”

Firefly shook her head. “I wish I knew, Rainbow Dash.”

They came to rest on a rise just outside the front of the building. Rainbow could make out great black basalt ponies in recline, decked out in strange tall hats and flowing clothing. She might have compared it to a Daring Do novel, but she was pretty sure this was far too grim to ever grace one of those novels.

Glancing around, she pursed her lips as she perceived again those dim shapes in the mist. Most didn’t even bother to shuffle aimlessly—they lay wherever they had stopped as uncaring lumps. Her ears twitched, for she imagined she heard a faint wind. Perhaps it was just their sighs.

Firefly watched her carefully. Rainbow gave her a wan smile. “Don’t worry. I’m okay. I want to help these ponies… no pony deserves this fate.”

Reaching over to catch her in a rough hug, Firefly chuckled and ruffled Rainbow’s mane. “That’s my girl. Let’s go.”

Together, they walked towards the open portal. The still air swallowed the sounds of their hoofsteps unnaturally, and the mist stirring at their passage began still again moments later. They left no mark on the land—as far as Rainbow could tell, it might have existed since the dawn of time.

In some ways, maybe it has.

The statues towering on either side of them seemed particularly enigmatic. Their faces were set into a form of grim certitude that she had never seen on Equestrian statues. Pictures crawled their way up their sides in blocky patterns.

“Was this a thing, somewhere?” she asked, waving her hoof around.

“If so, it was before my time.” Firefly shook her head. “I don’t like to think about that.”

“We’ve talked a lot about how the world must have looked different,” Rainbow whispered. The moonlight failed to penetrate this deep, but they could still see regardless. “Vinyl and I were right. They can’t really know what They’re doing, can They?”

“We’ll find out. Incidentally, take a look there.” Firefly pointed a hoof to the side. Rainbow followed it and saw a curious illustration that clearly depicted a pair of winged unicorns. One wore a curious crown which held a circle that spread rays across the scene, while the other wore a crown more like the ponies in front of the building. Upon her head, a crescent moon sat.

“Well… I guess that narrows down the placement. Somewhere after the, uh…”

“Classical period,” Firefly supplied.

Rainbow shrugged. “Yeah, that. Between that time and the time Princess Luna became Nightmare Moon.”

“That’s my theory. I can’t say for sure though—who’s to say this place wasn’t here before, and that image was added sometime after the fact?”

“Well…” Rainbow tilted her head. “Who can add to it, though? There’s no pony here like you.”

Firefly made a noncommittal grunt and walked on, surmounting stairs that led deeper into the building through a low-ceilinged tunnel. Rainbow walked alongside her, mounting each wide step. Suddenly conscious of the tons of rock above her head, she tightened her wings against her sides.

There was little time to become claustrophobic. The passage soon widened into a huge interior chamber. Blue fires burned smokelessly in sconces to either side of a walkway that arched over what looked like nothing at all. Rainbow’s pupils shrank as she stood in the entrance, trying to look at everything at once. Here motion and sound were present, but she wasn’t sure she liked the change.

Pillars rose from the depths to vanish into equally dark vastnesses above. With them rose shapes, pony forms like the ones outside. There had to be hundreds of them, their empty faces turned up and legs outspread. In the middle of the chamber, at the end of the walkway, a pony sat on a throne.

No… she’s not sitting in it… She stared as the two of them closed on the figure. The pony in question had a chalk white coat, and she reclined on the throne like the statues had. Unlike the statues, however, she did not so much sit on the chair so much as she had grown into it. The stone crawled up over her lower body, her forelegs, and up her back, growing not merely over but into her skin. Her mane had grown into the rock above her, forming a grotesque crown that swept back into the throne.

When they came to a stop in front of her, the chalk-white pony’s eyes opened. Like orbs of glass, containing within them swirling pools of smoke, they stared at the two of them with such dreadful intensity that Rainbow found it difficult not to lean back.

“Unsullied soul!” the mare screamed. “Forgotten Element! Why have you returned?”

Her voice was a whisper and a roar at the same time. It filled the chamber, echoing from one end to another, and yet Rainbow had to strain to listen. It was a babble of voices in a hundred languages, and yet also clear, perfect Equestrian. The sound was echoed by a chorus of reedy voices that Rainbow had to assume were the ghostly ponies surrounding them.

Renewed resolve or no, Rainbow was of half a mind to turn tail and flee, but Firefly stood her ground and stared at the strange creature. “I require more information about Them.”

“We have told you all that there is to know!” The voice rose in pitch until it became a scream. “We warned you before not to tread this path again!”

Tall, lean shapes pressed out of the darkness around them. Each pony was enclosed in a thick black robe and wore an iron bird mask. They glided with unnatural grace, forming a circle around them.

Rainbow tensed, her legs ready in case they tried to near. “Firefly?”

“Steady,” Firefly murmured out of the side of her mouth. “Just be ready to hit and run if it comes to it.” In a louder voice, she challenged the bethroned mare. “I am no weak Lost to be bullied like the rest. I come with my replacement, the current Element of Loyalty, to demand information.”

“Demand? You demand nothing. Faux flesh or figment, you are weak, and we are strong.” The mare sneered, her dry skin cracking. “Sing for us again, little birdy. Dance like a good little girl. Perhaps we’ll let you fly away home.”

Firefly’s cheeks flushed, but she didn’t look away from the mare’s gaze. If anything, her eyes hardened and her gaze intensified. “You’re mistaken. You are the one who is weak. You are a slave queen, a prisoner in your own palace. When you tried to tell everypony in your kingdom about Them, about how the world was shifting under your feet, They clasped their claws about you and rent your life from you, just as They did mine.”

The servants drew nearer. Frost rimmed their masks, making white crystals around the empty eye sockets. Rainbow snarled, jumping slightly on her hind hooves to warn them.

“You couldn’t take it, though, could you? No,” Firefly said, “you couldn’t stand the fact that you were helpless, that you couldn’t do anything to stop it, that your position and station in life meant nothing.”

The mare grit her teeth, opening her mouth to bite back.

Firefly stamped her hooves and shouted over the voices. “Worse than nothing! Your kingdom isn’t even dust on the wind any more. They ripped it from history and replaced it with nothing! No one remembers you, nothing marks your passage, your works aren’t even tumbled sand, they’re figments and dreams that only the Lost can see!” She spun and struck out at one of the servants with her hind legs, sending his mask flying with a ringing report. A ghostly stallion howled and covered itself against the blue firelight, shriveling in his robe until he was a puddle of cloth.

“Look upon me and know your shame!” Firefly spread her wings and hovered to look the seated mare at her level. “I have fought against Them and I am still here! I am still me! Untouched, untainted, and still willing to fight! You cretins hide in your tombs and forget what sunlight is, but I am out there fighting. You cowards are the weak ones, and I am strong.

“And you know what?” Firefly said. “I’ve discovered something. We’ve all believed that They are invincible. We think They’re immortal, omniscient, without fault and without flaw. This little mare—” She pointed down at Rainbow Dash “—and her friend found out just how weak They are. She’s run circles around Them, finding out Their weaknesses and evading Their grasp. Her friend gave up her own self so that we could find out what we needed. You are not going to stonewall us, or I swear that my last act as a free being will be to destroy even this sick, pitiful, twisted remnant of you.”

Firefly’s ringing condemnation hung in the air as echoes for a long time. Even the cold servants watched her now, their masks turned upwards.

Her voice was quiet as she went on, but she had no need of shouting anymore. “I know that They can be beaten. I know that we are the ones who can do it.” She swept a hoof around the room. “We, all of us, can go back to living. Are you going to stand against us?”

The chalky mare stared at her silently. The drifting forms of the Lost gathered in the corners of Rainbow’s vision. The cold servants turned their gazes to the queen. Rainbow held her breath.

The queen’s eyes shut. “There is nowhere for us to go back to.”

“We’ll find a place. It may not be the one you left, but it will be a place. One not frozen like this one.” Firefly settled back down to the walkway, looking up at her.

“Even if we agreed, we have nothing more to say. There is nothing more about Them that we know.”

Firefly shook her head. “No. There’s no direct knowledge that can help us. What we need to know is: what one thing, in all the world, has never changed? In all the thousands, maybe even millions of alterations They have made in pursuit of the Plan, what one thing is immune?”

“There is no such place,” the queen intoned, “nor is there such a thing. Better to ask us for the secret of life itself. You might amuse yourself in the fashioning bone and flesh from base matter, before They find you and finish you off.”

Rainbow stepped forward. “There is. They cannot change the Door to Their land.”

The queen’s eyes opened and hardened. “It was we who told Firefly this truth. Even if so, what is that to us? How can we possibly locate it? In all the world, in all of time.”

“It’s more simple than you might think.” Rainbow shook her head and made a swirling gesture with her hoof. “The changes They make have to be worked around the Door. If they can’t alter the Door, it’s always going to stand out.” She glanced around at her spectral audience. “If I’m touched by a front of air, I can usually tell if there was a mountain or a valley in the way. It bears an imprint.”

There was a soft hum, a harmony of many voices speaking at once. The queen, shifting her head stiffly, closed her eyes again. Rainbow Dash and Firefly waited, watching.

It began with sibilant whispers in a dozen languages. They swelled around them, thrumming with activity. “Two thousand years and more,” the queen’s high voice said, apparently synthesizing the discussion. “Changes uncounted. Hill and dale, mountain and ocean, forest and plain. From deserts to cities to black, bubbling swamps. Be they changeling, buffalo, minotaur, griffin, or even pony, no one is safe. Even the Elements of Harmony have taken on different forms and appearances.”

Rainbow’s shoulders slumped. Her ears drooped.

“This is not to say that all things changed.”

“Wh—Hey!” Rainbow stamped a hoof. “Say that first next time!”

The white orbs watched her, and the chamber was filled with dry, rippling laughter. The paralyzed queen laughed until her papery chest heaved, showing her ribs and a hollow gut. “Yes! There are! Places They have not touched in our span!”

Firefly cupped her ears forward intently. “So… where is it?”

The queen caught her breath, such as it was, with only a few spare chuckles remaining. “We said places. Plural, multiple, many. They stretch back in time.”

Rainbow felt her heart sink. After coming all this way. After everything we’ve been through. “No… it can’t end like this. There must be something we can do!”

“There is, would-be hero. You have one way open to you.” The queen let out a long breath. “You must go deeper. Deeper into the Dream, to memories dimmer than ours.”

Rainbow exchanged a look with Firefly. The latter turned back to the queen. “I’ve never been that far. Can you show us the way?”

“One of us will. Hurry, would-be heroes. You have…” The queen took a deep breath. “You have brought some speck of light here. Do not return again.” Her eyes flashed with a cold fire. “Should you fail, we will bear the darkness that follows less ably than we did before you reminded us what hope looked like.”

One of the cold servants slid forward, gazing at the pair of them. Firefly nodded to him, then again to the queen. “We will not return. Either we succeed or we fail—I can’t imagine there being many more chances.” She turned and walked after the servant, who glided noiselessly across the walkway, back out of the chamber.

Rainbow gave one last look before she joined them.

* * * * * * *

Author's Note

A new update! Feast your eyes!
Rainbow Dash is getting her act together (among other things) and they draw closer and closer to the answers they seek.

Behold the first layer of the Deeper Dream, and all its splendor. Behold the Queen of the Dead and her court of the Damned. Watch as Firefly gets her badass on and shows the undead witch who's boss around here.

Next update: the truth of the world is revealed, and a final plunge is taken.

We're only a couple updates from the end now, people. Comment while there is still time! Comment before They get you!

Special thanks to Chaotic Dreams for permission and for continuing to consult with me