We Stopped Checking for Monsters in the Everfree...

After Dash took off the suit, she entered Twilight's room. Twilight was writing in her journal while Spike looked introspectively at the ground.

"Hey, Spike." Dash said.

"Hey." It was hard to tell what he felt. His tone was... odd.

"How's it going?"

"Good, I think. Twilight's busy writing a book about this whole event."

"I didn't think Twilight would be one to look for fame in this case." Dash chuckled, but she didn't mean it.

"She says it's for the future. So that, when we have to deal with people like this again, our descendants won't ever feel alone. It sounds like a nice idea."

"It does..." Dash said. When we have to deal with people like this again.

"...Dash?" Spike almost whispered. "Have you...? What's been going on? I only hear Twilight mumbling about you 'practicing'... Are you OK?"

"... I think so, Spike... I just really want to stop the Joker..." Spike looked at her, unsteady.

"So... everything's alright?"

"... It's hard..." Dash said, and she suddenly became aware of the pain in her joints from yesterday, from sleeping through all that day.

"I understand... At least it's over..."

"... It... I came here to talk about that..."

"Isn't it over?" Spike's voice raised with a hint of anxiety.

"I think so Spike. It's over."

"That's great..." Spike said, still with a hint of emotion Dash couldn't identify.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"It's over." Was Spike crying.

"... Yes." Rainbow had a tear of two in her eye.

"I'm going to the main room... You might have to get Twilight's attention when you tell her." Spike said, leaving, already at the door.

"I love you, Spike." Dash all but whispered. She wouldn't have known he heard her if not for the slight halt in the door's motion before closing. Maybe Spike had whispered something back. If he did, Dash didn't hear it.

Presently, Dash looked over at Twilight, who was writing at very highspeeds. After a few moments of trying to get Twilight's attention, Dash finally succeeded. "What do you want, Rainbow?" Twilight didn't sound irritated, though Dash was certain she was.

"I... I came to tell you... I..." Dash felt a catch in her throat. What words should she use? "... I'm very happy to have a friend like you... I... Just thank you. My friends are the best ones ever... So..." She looked to her friend for what she knew wouldn't be the last time, but it still seemed so final.

"You're a good friend, too." Twilight wasn't looking directly at Dash anymore. She kept her head down, which caused tears to drip from her eyes and stained her lavender fur.

"Are... are you OK?"

"..." Twilight bit her lip. In an act of trust in Dash's sanity, Twilight looked up and said: "I---There have to be more out there." She started crying now.

"What do you mean?" Dash's voice shook.

"The Joker... He can't be the only one of his kind... I must have been blind to it... Must not have wanted to see it... But I'm going to stop all of them!

No, no, no, no, no The voices in Dash's head were back, whispering and conspiring together in an unconscious orchestra of madness. It showed in her voice. "What do you mean?" To Dash, her own voice sounded as if it were under water. To Twilight, she could only hear what she feared. But Twilight already started with the truth, and couldn't stop here. She just hoped her friend remained sane.

"I... Where did the Joker come from? I--I can't believe that he's just there... He's... He must be a secret part of equine nature we've hidden---hidden from ourselves. The Joker can't be the only manifestation of... evil. I was blind to it all this time..." When Twilight talked again, her sadness was clear. "I have to stop them."

"That's dangerous!" Dash couldn't hear her own voice over the chaos in her head. The voices were speaking to fast for her to understand, in languages Dash didn't know. They all said the same thing to her. There's more of him. Flashes of the Joker's demonic smile made Dash shiver, as his voice joined the fray.

"I'll be fine, Dash. I promise." Dash somehow heard Twilight, though she was almost whispering.

"Why haven't the police stopped him?" Dash's body said independent of her mind, for her mind was incomprehensible.

"I don't know."

"Maybe... Maybe the law on it's own isn't good enough." Dash's head seemed to agree. That seemed like a translation of her thoughts. That and You can't stop them all.

"I've been... thinking... A sort of utilitarian idea. That one pony sacrifices their personal harmony for others... It seems like a sad idea... Do you want to help with my book? It would be a group effort, and would reinforce harmony and friendship for the next trial we face."

"Maybe... Yeah..." Dash said in a deadpan voice that reminded her of Pinkie Pie. And the mere memory of Pinkie sent the chaos in her mind into even greater overflow. It hurt. The voices, never saying anything but somehow still sending a clear message. Dash put her front hooves to her ears, wincing as she fell to the ground from lack of support. She felt tears escape from eyes despite, or perhaps because her eyelids were squeezed so tightly shut.

"... Are you OK?" Was that Twilight's voice, or one of Dash's own?

"Yeah... I think so." Dash got to her hooves robotically. Dash watched helplessly as she went through motions she couldn't understand.

"Do you need any help?" That voice was from Twilight.

"No, I'm fine." Rainbow answered, deadpan. The voices were gone. It was all silence, but not of Dash's volition. She couldn't send her own thought into the empty void in her head, and she couldn't feel anything at the fact that the voices were gone.

The next thing she new, cold air was pushing against her in the windy skies of Canterlot as her wings ached from yesterday and the practice she'd subjected them to. She soared through the sky, only now in control. Over the city, slower than normal due to the pain. She felt tears in her eyes, from the wind, she thought.

Over the edge of the city, she dived. Several hundred feet, the pegasus fell, the stress threatening to rip her apart. She broke the sound barrier, and so a million droplets of water shot off of her. The starry light reflected and refracted into a rainbow disk that spread from her, cracking the mountain near her. She wound up the mountain, which seemed purple to her. At last she arrived at a chateau that must have been regal-looking at some point, but was now dilapidated and had an garish purple and green paint job.

A voice in Dash's head, Pinkie Pie's voice, said Purple and Green, the Colors of Evil! Except for Twilight and Lyra a--- Dash banished whatever abomination in her head thought that it could imitate Pinkie Pie, and dived through a window.