Iridescent Plant

"Mm. Yeah, like that," she whispered, "Like you stepped out of a dream. A really good one." She leaned back a bit, looking in his eyes, then glanced down at his decidedly not-pony-shaped body. "Maybe a little bit of a weird dream, but still a good one."

AnonPony, "Xenophilia"

* * *

"I can not believe that in all of it implicated Rainbow Dash!" with voice seething of rage said Scootaloo. "I thought she is cool, not a fool! What made her change so much?"

"Maybe she was such from the beginning," said Sweetie Belle. "How do you know?.."

"She always seemed normal and constantly napped in the clouds," corrected Apple Bloom. "Only the last two months she was hardly to be seen."

"Oh!" Sweetie Belle stopped abruptly in front of the door to the Directorate. "I think I can guess!"

"What…" began Scootaloo, but Sweetie Belle continued with wide eyes:

"She fell in love!"

"Well, this is really too much!" objected Apple Bloom. "In who? Zephyr? You've seen that freak!"

"Not him! But there's something unclean! Exactly telling to you!"

Sweetie Belle grabbed her friends by the neck and quickly whispered:

"I accidentally passed by the library and accidentally heard Twilight spoke to Dash. I would never would eavesdrop, but Twilight said that the love between a pony and hellish creatures is impossible!"

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom opened their mouths.

"And then?"

"And then she just said that Dashie should break up with her boyfriend if she doesn’t want the worst. It seemed to me less interesting, but she said something about disastrously changing weather at the border and various disasters and threats from the underworld… it was almost two months ago."

Sweetie Belle released her friends.

"Or maybe she possessed by daemon?" said Apple Bloom.

"I do not know. But it sounded as if they meet separately. And they even were kissing!

"Pshaw!" Scootaloo and Apple Bloom exclaimed.

"Be careful. Maybe she was fully gone crazy."

"Wait, but she knew that we are here from the beginning!" said Scootaloo. "Isn't probably better to slip away while we are alive? Nothing good will come if we just perish, and otherwise we at least tell the truth about the plant!"

"And how are you going to go down?" Apple Bloom asked skeptically. "If they know we're here, all the exits blocked. You can try, but it is unlikely. In Cloudsdale we can do nothing: only you can walk on clouds, and there certainly is full of agents of Dash. Besides Fluttershy to the ears in all this shit, and Twilight also surely aware. Even if we go down and try to tell anypony about the plant, they would say that we just went crazy, and all. Nopony seen pegasi in gray, Miss Cheerilee and my brother got sick from what is unknown, in all involved factory workers, and they in no way admit. They all care about their skin."

"Well, what do you suggest?" said Sweetie Belle. "Humbly walk into the jaws of timberwolf and hope that he will not much to chew?"

"We know on what they are ready," said Apple Bloom, "but they do not know what we are capable of. And then, they were not going to kill us. Anyway, for now."

"Continue," asked Scootaloo.

"I think Rainbow quite realize what she was doing. Otherwise she would not have a factory director. Such growth – and in just two months!"

"And I think that she was a fool to go mad!" interrupted Sweetie Belle.

"Unlikely," said Scootaloo. "Well, or she is a very deep schizophrenic."

"Okay, let me tell!" Apple Bloom raised her voice. "I have so many thoughts that I'm afraid to forget!"

Friends nodded.

"So, if she is something to tell, we must keep in mind the goal: what all of them need? Why do they need so much rainbow? Why Zephyr said that department for assembling clouds altered to destroy it? What is the role played in all of this Twilight and Celestia? Need to find out as much as possible, maybe it still is useful. Scootaloo," continued Apple Bloom, "Rainbow have with you a more intimate relationship. You can try to play on it. Sweetie, don't be afraid. We're going to the right thing, and even if Rainbow Dash finally gone mad, there are things that must be done, because we can't stand aside when so many ponies suffer!"

Scootaloo looked around absolutely empty hall.

"In any case, it would not hurt to know where she hides her pony. If all goes worse than you think."

"On this point I have something, just do not know will it work or not," said Sweetie Belle. "I got somehow into one book of Twilight…"

"Are you sure?" asked Apple Bloom. "What if something terrible happened?"

"It was in the tutorial for beginners," Sweetie waved her hoof. "Nothing dangerous in this spell is not assumed."

She focused; her horn momentarily blinding burst, and then Sweetie Belle sank to the floor at his feet tucked in suddenly.

"How is it?" asked Apple Bloom.

"Oh, something is not what I expected," said Sweetie Belle quietly. "Look: on this floor in a laboratory are three unicorns, one of them, obviously, professor, the other two – assistants. Low level. Zephyr Mengele – the magician midrange and high-level manipulator, experimental scientist. In office are four pegasi and three unicorns. Three pegasi and unicorns are soldiers, trained high, fast, strong, enduring, the fourth seems – Rainbow Dash. She is something unimaginable! Speed exceeds the limit, she is very hardy, and she also has some thread runs… I do not understand where. She seems to be faster than any alicorn if they will not teleport. She is chief here and may prohibit anything, she invents all sorts of terrible things. On the other floors only prisoners – more than five hundred – and technicians of medium and low levels." Sweetie Belle rested. "I think I did something wrong. The book has been said that the spell lets you know whether anyone nearby. But I easily recognized not external characteristics at all!"

"Maybe Zephyr or someone else helped you that you scared?" asked Scootaloo.

"We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders, we are not afraid of anything!" said Apple Bloom. "Whoever she was, we'll show her! Remember what I said?"

Friends nodded.

"Then let’s go!"

"Wait a second," stopped Scootaloo. "Don't you see anything strange?"

"Strange?" Apple Bloom repeated. "Actually, I find that everything is strange!"

"Yes," agreed Sweetie Belle. "Everything that happens is an outrage!"

"I'm not talking about that," said Scootaloo, "but what happens to us. Have you ever used magic?"

"Honestly, never. Only telekinesis."

"And you?" Scootaloo turned to Apple Bloom. "You've never told such complicated things! And in general, what kind of conversation – "there are things that must be done"? Is not that a paraphrase of "the end justifies the means"?"

"No way!" Apple Bloom indignant. "And in general, I was not talking about this! What 'bout you? You too did not know these words! We really went crazy: I build some ingenious plans, Sweetie Belle uses magic like a princess, and what can you do?"

Scootaloo looked at herself.

"I… do not know. And I don't like it! So you say sensible things, but I'm still scared."

"Apple Bloom was right," said Sweetie Belle. "And you too. Something changes us, but if we can help the prisoners, we should do it!"

Apple Bloom raised her hoof:

"Cutie Mark Crusaders, onwards!"

Her friends hit in her hoof and turned to the door to the office.