The day was young and the sky was was filled filled with an abundance of soft, white clouds, ones just perfect for any pegasus to enjoy. They swirled and floated through the blue, each one giving off a sweet fragrance that Rainbow Dash had never put much thought to before but on a day like this she almost regretted removing them before. Why should she destroy these wonderfully soft creations when they meant no harm? They didn't threaten a storm and they were so high up they couldn’t possibly be blocking the sun, in fact the sun wasn’t even there to be bothered with but she didn’t care as it was still daytime anyway.
Floating around the clouds she stretched out her wings before letting them close again, for some reason she didn’t need to use them to stay flying and to her it had become perfectly normal. The cyan pegasus couldn’t even remember a time when she’d needed to obey physics, it almost reminded her of a friend but she couldn’t quite recall who.
Lazily she drifted upwards into a spiraling purple mist and gazed around the now star-filled sky before reaching out and tapping a small star with her hoof. The tiny light bounced and floated away at her touch, as though it were playing a game. Grinning mischievously she drifted along after it following it through a maze of night-colored swirls until it eventually flickered out, leaving her alone but not lost.
One quick survey and she spotted Equestria far below her, sure the sight was something to behold but the sight caused her to feel something she hadn’t in a long time, alone. She imagined all the ponies who were going about their day on the ground, and even the pegasi that never flew up to greet her. It was a thought she hadn’t had for as long as she could recall and she had to wonder why she’d never thought of it before. She had friends right? Or were they just something she’d imagined in passing? Were there even any ponies in Equestria, or was she the only one and the whole universe was simply put here to keep her company? Maybe if she focused enough she could change things, be less alone.
“Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?” Rainbow Dash quickly spun around at the sound of somepony’s voice, but upon doing several scans of the area she couldn’t find anypony. The sound of a voice was so foreign but felt comforting at the same time, and seemed to have answered her thoughts, no matter how vague a reply.
“I don’t know.” Her own voice felt strange in her throat, as though the sound was being muffled but still went perfectly clear to her ears. She really had nothing to lose by talking, maybe she’d lost her mind like that friend she’d almost recalled from before, but out here… It didn’t matter.
“It’s never too late to go back, to make a change.” Upon the voices last words one of the darker swirls began to come together, a bright light forming around it as it began to take a shape. Rainbow Dash had to cover her eyes at the bright assault but the second she was able to she stared wide-eyed at a magnificent alicorn pony, one who she knew she should remember but couldn’t quite recall the name of. Her coat was almost as dark as the sky around them and her mane flowed in a way that made it look like the sky had gathered in it. “I’ve been trying to reach you for some time now, Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow Dash stared in awe for a few seconds before her mind focused and remembered how to talk. “Why doesn’t anypony else come out here?” It wasn’t exactly how she wanted it to come out, and she knew it could be taken offensively but the alicorn simply gave her a small smile and walked through the air to stand beside her and gaze down at Equestria below.
“Only I am able to walk here with you, and only now have you allowed me in.” Rainbow Dash was about to protest that she hadn’t done anything but a wave of the other’s hoof told her wait. They sat in silence for a few seconds giving the words a chance to sink in before the alicorn looked back to her. “Your friends have missed you, you know.”
Friends? Right she’d briefly recalled their possibility, but… “Noponies here.” Was there ever anypony here?
“I am here and I believe we could have been friends, had time played a different role.” Rainbow Dash didn’t say a word, she tried to wrap her mind around this pony, she was so familiar, so important looking… Regal even.
That had to be it, she had to be royalty of some kind, but she didn’t seem harsh enough to be a queen. “Are you a princess?” It sounded stupid even to her, as she knew she knew this pony and to ask such a basic question just sounded… Uncool, which was another thing she hadn't thought about in a long time as she had no reason to impress anyone if she was alone.
“I am Princess Luna.” She gave a small dip of her head, her previously unnoticed crown sparkling in the starlight and further cementing her regalness in the smaller ponies eyes. The name rendered familiar with her and she could almost remember a past fear of this alicorn, but seeing her standing there with such a kind expression she couldn't possibly imagine why she would have ever wanted to be afraid. After all, what was fear to her here? “I must admit, I am disappointed to find that you’ve forgotten me, have you forgotten everypony else as well?”
Looking into her eyes Rainbow Dash could see the hurt her simple question had caused, she could almost feel the pain the ali- That Princess Luna felt. It was so foreign, but she could also feel her own sadness, the loss of something, a forgotten history of a sort. It took all her focuses to think back on that day, to recall what it was she’s briefly caught wind of earlier. She tried to think back, to a time before what was maybe an hour ago only to find nothing, only today, and only briefly.
She wished that she could recall whatever she lost, and in that moment she wanted nothing more than a friend to tell her. A friend who always knew what was going on, and Rainbow Dash knew in the instant that such a friend did exist. It was almost like an instinct, she didn't know exactly how she knew it, but she could imagine such a pony, a lavender one, and she could just about picture the shape of her in her mind.
“Twilight?” She didn’t mean to sound it as a question but it just came out as such, she was sure that was her name, and the look in Princess Luna’s eyes told her all she needed to know that she was indeed correct. It didn’t take long, only a few moments of silence for her to star picturing the colorful shapes of five mares, she couldn’t make out their faces or who they were but she knew they were her friends, and she knew she wanted to see them again. “I want to see Twilight.”
Princess Luna flared her wings in a happy manner, looking down upon her and bathing her in a look of pride. “I can take you to Twilight, but you’ll need to come back to Equestria first.” Rainbow Dash watched as her horn ignited and the space around her began to swirl and mist over until Princess Luna had vanished completely leaving behind no evidence that she was ever there to begin with.
“But how do I-” Before she could even finish the thought a cool, bright light enveloped her in it’s glow. She felt a moments peace, she knew her friends would be waiting for her, and that they’d be happy to see her. Simply letting the light surround her she watched, no, felt as it began to fade into nothing. She was suddenly alone, and the world felt different, hard, and cold. She tried to move but she found her limbs wouldn’t respond as they had before, yet she was able to slowly open her eyes to the blurred world around her.
Her eyes had barely time to register her surroundings before they were assaulted with another blinding light that unmercifully shone as bright as it could. Instinctively she shut her eyes and flinched back, gasping as a loud crack sounded from neck that was followed quickly by a quick, sharp pain. Quickly she snapped a hoof to the area and regretting it as a few loud cracks sounded from her leg as well. In her brief moment of panic she didn’t noticed a pair of gentle hooves come to rest on her shoulder, or the way the light had suddenly dimmed, leaving the area to be bathed in the warm glow of -candlelight.
“Relax, Rainbow Dash, you shouldn’t move too fast, not yet.” The pegasus quickly recognized the voice she’d heard a while ago, Princess Luna was with her, and that knowledge alone gave her enough comfort to relax and allow herself to breathe. She slowly opened her eyes, finding the blurred world to be less violently bright now and she was able to focus her vision enough to make out the princess beside her. She noted she was laying on her side in what was just a simple bed, the room mostly barren save for a few candles and a table upon which they sat. It almost looked to her like the guest room she’d stayed in before at the Canterlot castle, but she couldn’t place why she would be here, or with the princess for that matter.
Suddenly and without warning reality came crashing back down to her. She recalled Discord, remembered Princess Celestia in her weakest moment, and her friends… Visions of Twilight looking at her teacher with deep hurt in her eyes as Celestia had beckoned to her, silently asking for the young princess to join them. She knew the others had been standing with her beside Twilight but she couldn’t quite recall anything more about it, or how she had gone from there to here and she needed to know what happened.
“Is everypony okay?” Her voice cracked as though she’d not spoken in a long time, and Princess Luna readily floated a glass of water to her. Rainbow Dash accepted the drink without a second thought and gulped down several mouthfuls before her stomach twisted, giving her barely enough time to maneuver enough as to not throw up on herself and instead hang her head over the edge of the bed. Painful heaves wracked her body for a while after she’d nothing left to give, and a layer of sweat clung to her body as she tried to catch her breath.
“I-” She looked up to the princess who seemed to be at a loss for words, unshed tears visible in her eyes. “Sorry, Rainbow Dash, I just thought your body would want some water. I-”
The pegasus’s breathing was slowly returning to normal and she slowly relaxed a bit, feeling that the worst had passed at this point and she gave a weak smile before reaching out to the glass and taking a few small sips, this time giving the water a chance to trickle down slowly. “It’s okay.” She rasped, raising a hoof to rest against Luna’s shoulder for a moment. “I guess that was more my fault.”
“I apologize, I’m not a nurse, I should have-” The princess took a deep breath and Rainbow Dash could almost feel the air around them tensen with the weight of what was to come. “You asked if everypony was okay. I wish I had better things to tell for them, but they are okay in this world.”
Confused by this Rainbow Dash tilted her head and placed the glass on the table before moving so she was laying on her stomach and facing Luna. “What do you mean? Are they okay or not?” Her raspy voice hinted at anger but instead of feeling it she could only hear its echo. She wasn’t given time to further think on this as Luna’s horn began to shimmer with a cool blue aura.
“I can show you the last I’ve seen of them.” Watching in awe as dream-like visions washed before her eyes and engulfed the world Rainbow Dash began to see the familiar town of Ponyville. Everything looked to be the same, the ponies were still trotting to and fro, nothing seemed to be out of place save for a maybe a few new vendors but that wasn’t anything to be concerned about.
As like some dreams she found herself unable to move of her own accord but instead was seeing things through the princesses eyes, and just as she was beginning to wonder if anything bad would show up the scene drifted into another, putting her right next to the library. To the pegasus it looked the same as it always had so she wasn’t quite sure what she was to be looking for and wondered what she could possibly be missing.
Seconds later the scene seemed to fast forward as when she looked around nopony seemed to be out and about anymore save for one or two who were packing up their goods for the day. It didn’t seem to be any darker though and the sky hadn’t changed any, the sun was still floating above them like it always-
Wait, wasn’t the sun normally brighter? As Rainbow stared at the sun, something she’d normally been unable to do, she felt a strong wave of sadness rush over her and she knew she was feeling the emotion from the princesses memory. She couldn’t explain it, she just knew, and she was clearly missing the big picture here.
It wasn’t long before she heard the sound of a door closing and the scene turned back to show Twilight sparkle standing on the doorstep, a black cloak wrapped around her body and as she pulled the hood up to cover her head she turned and face Rainbow Dash directly.
“You can’t stop me, Luna, Ponyville holds nothing for me anymore.” With those haunting words the scene faded into a fog which slowly began to take the form of the outskirts of Ponyville, Fluttershy’s cottage standing alone against the backdrop that was the Everfree Forest.
She could hear a couple of voices from within, muffled by the cottages walls and she briefly registered that she was getting closer to it. Nearly at the the door she was taken by surprise when it suddenly slammed open to reveal a very stressed looking Rarity followed by a sobbing Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash watched in horror as she noticed several cuts and bruises on both mares, some looking minor while others so severe she felt her stomach flip. “I simply refuse to help you anymore with that beast, Fluttershy.” The white unicorn snapped just as the wind began to pick up. “Either send him to the Princess or kill him if you’re so compassionate.”
The out of character anger in her voice was countered by a pained sobbing from Fluttershy who looked to be just as horrified by her friend as Rainbow Dash felt. Sure she didn’t know what the context was but to see her friends in such a state and hearing Rarity telling Fluttershy to kill something… It was wrong.
“I promised her I’d fix him! You did too!” The yellow pegasus’s normally quiet voice was raised to be heard over the wind, and in her crying state it sounded almost hysteric to the onlooking pony.
Rarity must have thought the same thing as she did as her expression quickly softened and she turned to embrace Fluttershy in a hug, pulling away a few moments later to hold her chin up with a hoof so they were eye to eye. “I’m sorry for being harsh, but look at yourself.” Her words were now soft, laced with a certain compassion that Rainbow dash had often heard the unicorn use when comforting Sweetie Belle when she had even a minor problem. “I know we promised we’d fix him but that was a long time ago, and I don’t think Princess Celestia ever thought this would happen. She would want us to do the right thing, and I know you want to keep your promise but you already did. We need to do what’s best for you now and…” Rarity stepped back from Fluttershy and turned to Rainbow Dash, giving her an eyeful of the unicorns exhaustion. “We need to make things right again.”
Another loud cry sounded from Fluttershy before the scene faded back to Ponyville, at least it seemed to be a more cheerful setting despite the last scene still haunting Rainbow Dash’s conscious. Sugarcube corner looked the same as it always had and as the scene moved forward and into the bakery she began to brace herself for some kind of horrible thing to happen here, and with Pinkie who she assumed was here, she could never be too certain of what was to happen.
It wasn’t long until she heard the sounds of multiple sets of hooves rushing down the stairs and coming into view were two ponies roughly the same age as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. One of the two, a little tan pegasus colt, came up to her and bowed before waving a hoof for the other to do the same. Hesitantly the orange unicorn came closer and did the same, smiling sheepishly at who Rainbow Dash had to remind herself was the princess and not her.
“Auntie Pinkie’s upstairs.” The small colt said with a proud look on his face that Rainbow Dash was clueless to but she didn’t have long to ponder as they were suddenly upstairs and gathered around a dull, straight-maned, pink pony who was clutching onto a photograph of what looked to be Mr. and Ms. cake.
Odd in comparison to the last two scenes this one ended much quicker and before she knew it she was standing beside Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres.. The change here was apparent as the trees were mostly bare of apples and the leaves didn’t look nearly as lush and green as they normally did. Applejack also had her maen free of it’s normal tie as it now fell in loose waves over her shoulders. Rainbow typically only ever saw her this was if they’d spent the night together, so it confused her as to why she hadn’t tied it today. She wonder also if she was over analyzing the subtle changes, but then again isn’t that what a good friend does?
She got a good look around before her vision fell upon a very familiar pony that she instinctively knew as Applebloom despite the fact that she was a fully grown mare. She hadn’t changed too much it seemed, but what was clearly different was that she wore Applejacks hat. Sure it didn’t seem to be something that she should worry about but when a taxi came up pulled by a strong looking pony, Rainbow Dash began to get the feeling the hat was her parting gift. It’d almost seem sweet and sentimental if it weren’t for the tears in both her and AJ’s eyes that told a different story entirely.
In a flash the taxi was gone and so was Applejacks strength as she fell to the ground and began crying. Rainbow Dash could do nothing but look on as she was forced to watch her friend in pain while being unable to comfort her. This was probably the single most horrible thing she’d seen yet, being so helpless to help Applejack yet being right beside her. Why wasn’t Princess Luna doing something? Why was she just standing there and why was it going on for so long?
She was so focused on her inner thoughts that she didn’t notice that Applejack had moved until she was looking up directly into her eyes. “A’hm sorry Princess, ‘ah know ‘ah shouldn’t be so worked up over this, ‘specially when there’s greater things at stake, but she was my sister. Ah loved her more than anything and she hated me, even though ‘ah done my best to keep her safe. Made sacrifices so she could have a good filly-hood through all this…”
Her words began to fade out as a fog previously unnoticed began to fade and Rainbow Dash felt the world coming back to her. Her eyes readjusted to the soft light fairly quickly but the last image still haunted her. She almost wanted to call out the princess there and now but she found herself lacking the energy needed to be that mad at the pony who was showing her nothing but kindness. Instead she subconsciously chose to move the topic onto another road. “What happened to everypony?”
Princess Luna took a moment before responding, clearly trying to keep her resolve. “Do you remember much of what had happened before you were cursed?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head instinctively before fully hearing the words, but before the princess could continue Rainbow Dash’s attention snapped to the last word and she stared wide-eyed up at her, a hint of fear glimmering in her eyes. “What do you mean I was cursed?” She quickly recalled the strangeness of waking up here, the entire bizzareness that she’d so easily seemed to accept before. “Tell me, why am I here, what happened?”
She could almost see Luna’s desire to back away from her and she was sure her eyes were shooting daggers, but nothing could really prepare her for what she was to hear from the alicorn before her.
Author's Note
I really don't know how chapters work, sure I read a lot, but I never can quite figure out where to end a chapter on what I've written, so for now I guess I'll just try and figure things out as I go.
Please feel free to tell me what you think I can improve on. Do I put too much useless detail, do I need more detail, less dialog, more dialog? Any word is very much appreciated~