One Life to Love

Chapters

Burnt Out Blaze of a Loyal Heart
A Leap of Faith.
Cracks
Moments When Time Stands Still.
A Chance for a Choice.
The City of Clouds.
Full Speed to the Future.
All of Her Tears
Facing Her Demons.
Planning.
In Time, Everything Will Change.
Enter the Darkness
The First Dawn.
The Pony With the Odd Blue Box

Burnt Out Blaze of a Loyal Heart

Chapter One: Burnt Out Blaze of a Loyal Heart.

Her fur was hot upon her face as its usual Cyan tint blazed a ferocious fire of red. There was a light tinge of alcohol on her breath, but she hadn’t drank enough that night to eliminate too much of what sense she had within her. The violet snout of the unicorn in front of her blazed a slightly stronger shade of crimson, the smile on the purple one’s face unmoving as she brought herself closer.

Soon, she was feeling the unicorn’s tongue entangling her own, and she loved every bit of it.

***

Rainbow Dash awoke with a start, her fur was matted with so much sweat that her wings felt glued to her body. Her eyes were slow to adjust to the light of the sun that was beaming through the nearby windows, but it did not take perfect vision to see that this was not the home she’d made in the clouds.

The bed she was lying on was harder than the cloud she was used to waking up to, and the room was not as bright her usual cloud home, which seemed to fail at blocking sunlight very well. Not only that, but she wasn’t alone in this bed. She swept her multi-hued bangs from her vision and turned to see the newest stranger she’d spent a night with, and instantly brought a hoof to her maw in fear.

Lying beside her, her dark violet mane disheveled from the night before and her light mauve fur matted far more with sweat than Rainbow’s cyan coat, was one of her best friends. She had woken up next to, and more importantly slept with the night before, her best friend Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight stirred, woken by Rainbow’s waking movements. Right eye opened first, turning toward Rainbow and examining the cyan pegasus with wonder, then closing slowly and reopening groggily as she rose from her laying position in the bed.

“G’mornin’,” Twilight spoke softly, her voice weak with an early morning melancholy. She rubbed her eyes and turned towards her pegasus friend, apparently unfazed by the fact that the blue intruder was in her bed. Then again, if Dash’s memories served her right, she wasn’t exactly intruding on anything.

Memories of the night before flooded through Rainbow Dash’s mind as Twilight smiled at her: a party their friend Pinkie had thrown simply because she could, there had been cider (the local alcoholic drink of choice), but Rainbow Dash had absconded from drinking it, knowing all too well how she acted under the influence of the drink. She had hoped to avoid another night with some random pony, but soon found herself alone with her violet unicorn friend. Rainbow had made to help her friend up to her room, but Twilight seemed to have other plans rather than tucking in and sleeping alone through the night.

"Have a good sleep last night,” Twilight inquired, breaking Dash from her trance of memories. She smiled even brighter at the blush she’d summoned upon the cyan one’s face, even going so far as to let a giggle escape from her lips. The pegasus wasn’t one to be troubled by anything, usually able to keep her cool pony attitude up in even the most embarrassing or nerve wracking of situations, but it gave Twilight great delight to see that she was able to unnerve her brash companion with just one simple question.

“You remember last night,” Rainbow answered nervously. Recalling that Twilight seemed. . .odd night before to say the least the .

Now that she thought about it, Twilight really hadn’t been herself the previous night; the way she acted, the things she said, those weren’t things the rainbow-maned pegasus would expect from her usually calm, collected, and organized friend. Rainbow remembered all the cider at the party, and hoped desperately that Twilight hadn’t been too wasted to know what she was doing. She already felt bad about what they’d done, but the thought of her having taken advantage of her best friend. The thought was too much to bear.

Twilight must have read her friend’s mind as she answered. “Of course silly, what, you don’t think I can be a little flirty when I want to.”

Rainbow felt like doing a double take, flirty was an understatement for how the mare next to her acted the night before.

“But, all the. . .things. . .we did last night,” Rainbow retorted, shuddering. It wasn’t the idea of being with a mare, she actually liked that. It was mare about the idea of whom she was waking next to that scared her. Rainbow Dash knew how it felt when you started things like this with your friends; just as well, she also knew how horrible it could feel when it ended.

Twilight stepped out of the bed they’d been sharing and stretched her legs. Rainbow followed suit, an silence growing between them as she watched Twilight, waiting for a reply.

“What about them,” Twilight responded in an oddly cheerful tone.

Rainbow eyed her nervously, unsure as how to answer. Why was Twilight acting so, unlike herself? In any other situation, Twilight would be freaking out about how things need to be a certain way and how something had gone wrong, but here and now she seemed so calm, so cheerful, so…arrogant.

“Ok Twilight, this is starting to tick me off,” Rainbow snorted, glaring at the overly cheerful Unicorn. “You don’t just wake up to your best friend laying beside you in bed and brush it off like it’s nothing. It’s just not right. . . it’s not you.”

Twilight frowned at Rainbow’s remark and pointed her head downward. An awkward silence fell between them, accompanied by the loud snores of Twilight’s dragon-scribe Spike. Rainbow kicked herself even harder than she had before, but she couldn’t help it, she’d broken a promise she’d made to herself. She couldn’t help but feel angered, but she was taking it out on her best friend, and that just didn’t seem right.

“Why are you so angry Dashie,” Twilight asked, and Dash’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of pained affection in her voice,”don’t you like me?”

Rainbow Dash’s heard dropped to the pit of her stomach, “Twi, it’s not that I don’t like you, you’re an amazing mare and all,” Rainbow answered, walking closer to her friend, all the while unable to gaze into the other’s eyes.

“Then why does the thought of what we did make you so angry,” Twilight retorted, leaning her head forward in such a way as to force her rainbow-maned friend to look at her.

Dash turned her head away, unable to face the violet unicorn, “Twilight, you’re not the first pony that I’ve...um,” she paused, unable to find the right words, “been with; in fact, Twilight, you’re actually on quite the list of ponies that I’ve done this with.” Rainbow Dash hung her head in shame, she felt like trash saying that.

“So,” came Twilight’s response, one which left Rainbow Dash flabbergasted. She had expected so much more from her purple companion, some kind of scolding, not some blatant disregard for her past exploits.

“Well, it’s just that, well,” Rainbow began, not totally able to explain the situation. "It’s like this Twilight, when I feel anything for someone, even simple lust, it feels like I’m in love, I don’t understand why, but I think it’s something to do with my element,” Rainbow finished.

The element she was speaking of, of course, was the Element of Harmony that been bestowed upon her at birth. She had been endowed with the element of loyalty, that meant she could never turn her back on somepony she felt was close to her; however, it also seemed to have a downside, she gave her heart up too easily. In other words, any one simple fancy she took to somepony felt like real love. It brought a tear to her eye, a display of the one emotion her friends never seemed to see her in: sorrow.

“Oh,” Twilight began, turning her head to the nearby open window, putting two and two together as it finally made sense. The silence that had been walking in and out on them reappeared as Twilight thought deeply. She wanted to tell Rainbow Dash that everything would be alright, but she was unsure how. Sure, she was able to pull a miracle the night before and get Rainbow Dash to spend the night with her, but that in itself seemed a miracle for the usually socially inept unicorn.

Look,” Twilight spoke up, after realizing the time, “I have to get things ready for the Summer-Sun Festival tonight, but we can talk about this later, OK.” Twilight began for the door, but stopped as she noticed Rainbow Dash, her head pointed low in a melancholy display.

“That’s what they always say,” Dash said, noticing that Twilight had not yet left, “before they break my heart.”

Hearing this angered Twilight slightly, the thought of Rainbow Dash doubting her seemed madness to her. She stepped over to the pegasus, making sure every hoof fall was audible.

“Listen to me Rainbow Dash,” Twilight spoke, a tinge of irritation in her voice, “I don’t care how many ponies you’ve been with, I don’t even care if you made some sort of promise to yourself about not being with me, I had fun last night.” Twilight was right upon her now, her maw pinned close to her cyan companion’s own.

And I would do it again, Rainbow Dash, in fact I wouldn’t mind doing it a lot more with you Dashie,” she finished, picking up Dash’s head with her hoof. Rainbow Dash blushed brighter than she had all morning when she caught Twilight’s gaze and smiled awkwardly in response.

Twilight returned Rainbow’s gape with a triumphant grin and turned on the spot, walking out of the room and into the hall leading to the rest of the library in which Twilight lived. Rainbow Dash watched her walk away in shock, then suddenly smiled, lifting her wings high. She quickly made her leave, flying out of the library through the open window.

She needed advice, and every mare in her situation knew who to go to if they needed help like she did. Only the sweetest candy maker in all of town and her musical angel could give her the help she needed.

***

Bon-Bon’s shop was almost always busy, even with it being so deep into Ponyville’s town limits, though the reasons were not always her sweets. She and her lyre-playing lover Lyra were probably the best in Ponyville for relationship advice. So it came as no surprise to her and her mate Lyra when Rainbow Dash burst into the shop, sweat covering her body, and a confused look on her face, it was once again that time for their rainbow-maned friend. They quickly went to work after Dash landed, Bon-Bon turned the sign on the door so that the “closed,” side faced the outside world, and Lyra set up a table in the middle of the room, motioning for Rainbow Dash to sit as she did so.

“What were they like this time,” Lyra asked nonchalantly, having been through this same conversation quite a few times before.

Bon-Bon shot a look of annoyance at her green furred lover before turning to Rainbow and speaking in a cheerful manner, “please forgive Lyra for that Rainbow Dash, she’s been in a bit of a rough spot with her latest concerts.” It was Lyra’s turn to be annoyed now, her music problems were something she didn’t like to talk about publicly, but she couldn’t stay mad at her fluffy-maned lover and sighed in defeat, giving Rainbow Dash her best ‘I’m sorry,’ face.

“It’s ok Bon-Bon, I think I deserve the attitude this time,” Dash answered, hints of sorrow and anger in her voice. Dash pointed her head at the floor and sighed, causing Lyra and Bon-Bon to glance worryingly between each other, they knew exactly what Dash meant.

“Someone close this time,” Lyra started, “but I thought you promis-“

“Well I guess I couldn’t keep that promise huh,” Rainbow Dash interrupted, slamming her hoof on the table they’d been sitting at, causing many different colored candy wrappers to go flying like confetti from a cannon. A silence spread through the room like plague, medicated by a sudden screeching from a stove in the dimly lit back corner. Bon-Bon stepped across the large kitchen and the removed the teapot that had been making the horrible screech from one of the eyes, turning off the stove and taking out three dull cups from a nearby cupboard.

Sorry,” Rainbow Dash said as Bon-Bon returned, placing the three tea filled cups upon the table, “it’s just, it feels like I’m loyal to everyone but myself, stupid element of loyalty.” Dash took a sip of her tea and glanced outside, watching the birds in their nests, suddenly mesmerized by their simple existence.

“So, was it,” Bon-Bon began, unsure of what she was about to say, not wanting to incur the wrath of her cyan friend, “one of the other elements of harmony.” Bon-Bon flinched after asking the question, waiting for some kind of reaction, but was pleasantly surprised when Dash nodded solemnly instead.

“It was Twilight wasn’t it,” Lyra spoke up, her assumption causing Rainbow Dash’s body to stiffen in confusion as she slowly turned toward her green friend.

“How did you know?”

“Well,” Bon-Bon started up, turning to her mate as she spoke, “the whole incident with you-know-who kind of threw that one in the trash.”

“And of course there’s Rarity, we’re pretty sure she’s taken,” Lyra continued, both she and Bon-Bon turning toward Rainbow Dash.

“Same with Fluttershy, and we’re pretty sure you’re other friend is pretty much a straight arrow,” Bon-Bon finished, she and Lyra smiling awkwardly at their little moment.

“Wow, you two are just made for each other,” Dash said admiringly, always happy to see her two friends at their happiest, “but back to the problem at hand, what do I do.”

“Well it’s not as simple as asking yourself if she’s ‘The One,’ all the others held that title too,” Lyra said matter-of-factly, frowning at the prospect of all the others that Rainbow had referred to as ‘The One.’

“I guess the question you should ask yourself is whether you want to keep this thing you’ve got going,” Bon-Bon said a couple of silent sips of tea later, “I mean, this is Twilight we’re talking about, she had to have picked you for a reason. The mare can’t even go to a spa without a checklist in order.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled at Bon-Bon’s quip, then thought generously about her situation, she’d be lying if she didn’t say that she didn’t think Twilight was a certain kind of cute, the kind of cute you’d pay precious bits to look like. It was also a pretty well known fact that Twilight was quite easily the most organized pony in all of Equestria; therefore, for Twilight to want Rainbow Dash like that, she obviously saw hope in this…whatever they had going on.

“Thanks girls,” Dash said smiling at the happy pair. Her wings flipped outward and she took to the air, flying out of the shop, gaining a huge amount of altitude, but even the highest height she reached was nothing compared to how high in the sky her heart felt. She had her answer; she knew what she had to do now. Once she reached her peak height, she blasted towards the Everfree forest, toward her favorite clearing. She’d remembered that Twilight liked flowers.

Dash had some flowers to pick.

A Leap of Faith.

Chapter 2: A Leap of Faith.

Twilight sat on her haunches quietly, the soft rays of the midday sun illuminating an ever present smile on her face. She watched as a sunflower-furred pegasus flew from one tree to another, gathering birds for the evening's festivities.

The Pegasus landed in front of her lightly, part of her job done, and asked softly,"um. . .Twilight, you're a bit early aren't you?"

"Why yes, Fluttershy, I am," Twilight started, smiling brightly at her Pegasus friend. Fluttershy cowered under the almost uncharacteristic smile upon the unicorn's face. Sure, Twilight wasn't a dreary sort of pony, but she wasn't exactly the overly enthusiastic pony that some of their other friends could be.

"Um. . . well, what are you doing here so early for Twilight," Fluttershy asked, doing her best to put an emphasis to her words-which, due to her quiet demeanor, took much effort.

Twilight pondered upon the question a moment. She was unsure exactly why she was there earlier than expected. With all the work she'd put into preparations for the night's festival, she was sure she'd earned a break, she'd even wrote added a break to her list of activities for the days. Then, she remembered the morning with Dashie, and a blush covered face. That was why she was here.

"I actually have something I want to talk to you about Fluttershy, something about. . .love."

The Pegasus' face went from a daffodil shade to that of a tomato at the mention of love. Why on earth would her unicorn friend want to talk about that.

"Um. . .Twilight, I. . .uh-that is to say-I kind of already-"

"I don't mean it like that Fluttershy," Twilight cut off her introvert friend. She chuckled at the idea of her shy friend thinking that way. Considering the situation earlier in the day, that was quite an ironic thought. "I want to talk to you about how to know if you're in love."

"Well, um, how would I know," Fluttershy whispered, turning her head away. Twilight could've swore her blush got even worse, that is, if she didn't already know for a fact that it was a physical impossibility. Fluttershy audibly gulped after a few moments. "Who do you think you're in love with?"

Twilight had to do a double-take to realize what her friend had asked. Then it was her time to blush.

"It's Rainbow Dash," Twilight answered, pointing her head to the ground."We kind of, maybe had some. . .fun. . . last night."

Now Twilight was positive that Fluttershy's face had invented an entirely new shade of red. Fluttershy may have been the least social out of all her friends, but she wasn't daft, she knew what Twilight meant, and it wasn't a subject she really felt comfortable about. Then again, she wasn't very comfortable talking about anything.

"Well, Twilight, that. . .um, I," Fluttershy started. She was at a total loss for words. Twilight chuckled at her friend as she stumbled through her words. Although she was used to her pegasus friend constantly losing herself in conversations, but this conversation was slowly turning into something else for the yellow pegasus.

"So, what makes you think you might be in love, other than the. . .fun you've had," Fluttershy asked, her voice somehow even less audible than usual.

"Well that's honestly why I've come to you," Twilight answered, planting her hoof to her face in annoyance. "On paper, everything about Rainbow and I just wouldn't seem to work, but I just can't seem to get her out of my head. To be honest I doubt I would even want to."

"Seems like love to me, what would you need my help for," Fluttershy said nervously. Twilight once again pointed her head down in defeat. With every other conversation in the world, she'd be ready with an answer pretty quickly, but with this conversation she was just out of ideas. Love was beating the crap out of her mind.

"I just don't know, it just feels weird," Twilight answered," this whole situation seems so. . .odd. Rainbow Dash didn't even seem to like me." Twilight hung her head in shame, suddenly feeling like all of this was for not.

"Well. . .um, maybe you should try asking her. . .I mean I know that can be hard to do, but if you really want to know, isn't it worth it,"Fluttershy said nervously in answer. "I..well.. I think you should do that. I mean, if you feel right about it, and you have a good feeling about it. . .then maybe you should go for it; that is to say,um, if you want to."

"Um. . .I have to ask though Twilight," Fluttershy continued nervously, "what makes you think she doesn't like you , she seems to like you enough from what I see."

"What are you talking about," Twilight started, then turned on the spot when Fluttershy motioning towards a spot behind Twilight with her head. There Rainbow Dash stood, a rag-tag bouquet of flowers, an awkward smile on her face as she stepped forward. Twilight couldn't help but blush at Rainbow's confidence as the pegasus stepped up to the unicorn mare and planted a kiss upon her cheek.

"Thought you'd like these," Rainbow Dash said, her smile growing as Twilight's eyes widened. "Call it a leap of faith."

"A leap of faith," Twilight Responded.

"Yeah Twilight," Rainbow said,"what do you say, you willing to jump with me?"

***

It was late in the night and the party had just begun at Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie had accounted for everyone but two very silly fillies. Two of her best friends were quite late for the party. What was really weird was who the two were, Rainbow Dash she could see accept tardiness from easily, but Twilight Sparkle was missing too. She found it just a bit suspicious that both of them were missing at the same time, especially the very organized Twilight. She searched for them for about an hour, but could see neither hair not hide of either pony. She noticed Applejack by herself in the corner, sipping a large glass of cider, and decided to see if she knew anything about the two missing pony's whereabouts.

"Hey Applejack," Pinkie started, smiling brightly as she bounced up to her friend. She was met with an odd sneer from her apple loving friend, something that seemed oddly out of character for the honest farmer. "Have you seen Twilight or Dashie?"

"No, ah haven't," Applejack started, a hint of venom in her thick southern accent,"it's not mah job to deal with either of those crazy mares, especially Rainbow Dash." Applejack grimaced in anger.

"Aww, why are you acting like such a bad apple tonight AJ," Pinkie asked, her cheerful tone only somewhat fazed as she danced around the orange earth pony.

"Ah just wanna be left alone," AJ answered, her voice rising in anger.

Pinkie Pie stopped dancing around her friend and suddenly frowned, making to say something. She instantly gave up on whatever response she was going to say as her mouth fell agape in surprise. There, in the doorway, were her two tardy friends. Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash entered in to the party with their front forehooves wrapped around each other, smiling awkwardly at any and all of the stares they were receiving from the ponies in the room who had noticed them.

"They're here, they're here," Pinkie squealed as she bounced delightedly over to the latecomers.

Pinkie hadn't payed enough attention to notice the rage in Applejack's eyes, but it was enough to bring any normal pony to their knees.

Cracks

Chapter 3: Cracks.

Rarity was by herself at a party yet again, or at least that was the way it looked to any pony passersby. She was sitting next to a darkened curtain, humming a soft tune that by this point had become so familiar to her as she waited patiently for somepony. Within an hour, the tune was repeated, and a sudden brush of silk upon her forehoof told her that her partner was here.

"It's so nice to see you here," came a soft voice from behind the dark curtain. The sudden silhouette of another pony. Rarity stepped into the silk and nuzzled the mysterious visitor softly.

The two of them were used to this by now, one would be out in the open, and the other would take up the role of some mysterious stranger coming to them in the night. It was a wonder to the two lovers why they had not been caught by the others.

Though they supposed some had their suspicions, the sweet maker for instance. She seemed to be keen on their little ploy, though that mattered not to them, they knew their secret would be safe in her hoofs.

"This is all so terrible," the soft voice spoke through the silk much later in the night,"having to stay hidden away like this." The statement troubled Rarity, she knew where this was going, and she'd been hoping to avoid it. She nuzzled into the silk once more, trying her best to relieve her lover's troubled thought.

After a time of silence between the two however, she knew that she could not hide from the conversation for long. "I'm sorry, but you know I can't." She felt her heart drop to the pit of her stomach. She wanted so badly to show her affections publicly, it was true, but she wasn't sure how the reactions would affect her lover; sure, the mare behind the curtain had tried to assure her many a time that her heart was steeled and ready, but still Rarity was hesitant to reveal their love.

The mare behind the silk nuzzled Rarity closely, and she felt the silk surround her as she was wrapped in a quick hug from her mystery lover.

"I know Rarity, and I'm sorry for bringing it up, we'll do this when you're ready. . .I hope."

The protection of the silk surrounding her left as the hug ended, and her heart fell even further. How was it that she was the weak one. She was so unused to this, but then, she supposed that love played with a mare's mind like no other emotion could.

Her hidden lover pulled back the silk just enough to reveal her maw, which was unrecognizable in the darkness of night, and placed a kiss upon Rarity's lips. "I don't want to have what happened to AJ happen to us, I don't want to lose you, so I'll wait until the time is right. If that's OK with you?"

Rarity nuzzled into the silk one final time, she was perfectly fine with whatever came next.

***

Twilight and Rainbow Dash sat in the were standing at the buffet table that Pinkie had set up for the festival, smiling and nuzzling each other as Pinkie danced up to them, her eternal smile bright upon her face. Their Pink compatriot hopped around the two, her mouth running faster than a bullet as she spoke ecstatically. "Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh, this is so awesome, you two look so cute together right now, I should throw a party for you to, oh wait, we're at a party right now, but that's OK, we can have another."

"Hey Pinkie," Rainbow responded, watching the party pony prance around in glee. She and Twilight couldn't help but giggle at their friends almost foal-like behavior sometimes. In fact, if they hadn't known better, they could swear that there was probably never a time where that silly filly was unhappy.

"Look Pinkie, we kinda want to be by ourselves for a moment if that would be OK with you," Twilight told their bubbly friend as she wrapped her foreleg around Dash's and pulling her towards the dance floor.

"Okie dokie lokie," the party pony responded, dancing in place to the music resounding throughout the room.

"Thanks," Rainbow Dash said, kissing Twilight upon her cheek as they moved through the throng of the crowd. They were almost at their destination, an open space among the crowd of dancing ponies, when they were stopped by a very familiar earth pony.

"What in tarnation are you two doing," Applejack slurred, the alcohol thick on her breath as she stumbled slightly.

"I was just about to dance with my lovely marefriend AJ," Rainbow responded, her eyes narrowing at the drunk pony. Rainbow Dash took Twilight's hoof and started to sidestep the farm pony, but Applejack stepped the same direction, impeding their path.

"What, you found some new toy to play around with Dashie," Applejack snorted, the venom in her voice evident even in her overly-intoxicated state.

Rainbow Dash's scowl deepened and she used her free hoof to gently push Applejack out of her way as she continued to lead Twilight toward the dance floor.

"What's wrong Dashie," Applejack yelled over the crowding sounds of music and elated laughter,"can't face up to your old marefriend now that you got yerself a new playmate? Doesn't she know you're nothin' but trouble." At that, Rainbow Dash lost it, she turned on the spot and stomped toward the drunken earth pony.

"OK Applejack, you're starting to get on my last nerve," Rainbow Dash yelled, staring down the drunk pony. "I don't care if you used to be my marefriend or not, what was between us was over. You were a coward when I needed you to be brave, I didn't need someone like that."

"Oh really," Applejack yelled, stepping up towards Rainbow Dash, snarling.

"Yeah, really."

"Stop it," Twilight squealed, tears in her eyes as she spoke. She hated to see her friends fight like this, it killed her inside watching them go at each other like this, and for what. Was being with Rainbow Dash really worth losing a friend like this.

"Twilight," Rainbow started, stepping towards the violet unicorn. Twilight turned away and ran, not caring who saw the tears in her eyes. She didn't know what to do, all she could do was run.

"Hah, looks like she's seen right through you," Applejack snorted at Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus gritted her teeth at the words as tears fell from her eyes as she watched the spot where Twilight used to be.

"Applejack," came a soft voice from behind the two, causing them both to turn around. Suddenly an off-white hoof fell across AJ's face, throwing her to the floor. Rarity, who no pony had seen move from next to those dark curtains, stood over the fallen earth pony, anger painted upon her face. "I ask kindly that you please quit acting like a bitch."

Moments When Time Stands Still.

Chapter 4: Moments When Time Stands Still.

Twilight had been running from the party for a good five minutes before she finally stopped. She wasn't even trying to hide the tears anymore. She'd been sent to Ponyville two years ago from this very night with the responsibility of making friends. Of course, that mission had an entirely different meaning in the grand scheme of things, seeing as how it was that mission that brought her closest friends, those that bore the Elements of Harmony.That night two years previous, they'd cleared the darkness controlling Princess Luna, and through that journey, had created what Twilight believed to be an unbreakable bond.

"A lot of good that turned out to be" She thought to herself. That bond she once thought would never break was now shattering before her eyes, and for what, some silly little crush she had.

"No!",she blurted out at herself, slamming her hoof on the ground in front of her angrily. This wasn't some simple crush. This wasn't some some random little filly that you might give some random assortment of Flowers for on Hearts and Hooves Day, telling that you'll love them forever when you know that's a lie . No, this was Rainbow Dash, this was the mare Twilight had been paying attention to for weeks, trying to understand what drew her to her cyan friend. This was the mare that cared enough not to whine about how much she hated prepping for the festival no matter how roughly Twilight brushed her mane. This was the mare who stayed grounded on the way to the party just walk next to Twilight. This was the mare Twilight loved.

Yet, was it worth it all? Was it worth watching the friendships she'd worked so hard to create crumble beneath her? She just couldn't understand, the decision should be easy, yet, the answer just didn't present itself to her.

"Now what would such a pretty young face like that need to cry over," came a familiar voice behind her. Her eyes, which she hadn't realized had been shut the entire time she was sobbing, shot open as she turned on the spot. There he was , standing behind her, the shine of the moon bringing a certain brilliance to his blue mane. She mentally kicked herself for a moment, her brother, Shining Armor, had caught her crying.

"Brother," Twilight yelped through one final sob," it's so good to see you again."

She trotted up to him and threw her hooves around his neck in a big hug, but his face remained focused when she broke the hug and looked him in the eyes. There was no getting past him, and she would have to explain herself sooner or later.

"Come on Twilie," Shining spoke, a hint of playfulness in his voice as he attempted to get the answer out of her when a good minute of the silent act failed. "You can tell your brother what's wrong."

Twilight broke," I'm just, and promise me you won't tell Mom and Dad about this. . .having mare troubles." She spoke the last words slowly and with emphasis, knowing her brother, dense as he was at times, wasn't always the fastest to catch up with these things.

"Oh," her brother responded, then after a moment, when the weight of the subject hit him he recounted,"ohhh." His eyes widened slightly at the revelation of what his sister just told him, then he started to laugh as he suddenly came to terms. His sister was into mares, and he was totally fine with that.

***

Big Macintosh was a colt of work, not play, so it was always obvious why he was a no show at the celebrations. What people didn't know was that there was a much different side to him. A side that no one other than his two sisters knew everything about, a side that nearly got someone killed.

He kept the secret safe from anyone who he didn't trust, and that meant that hardly anyone knew about it. In fact, the only way anypony, other than the sisters he trusted with his life, would know is if they were his secret. That night, while all the ponies of Ponyville had their party, he was having one of his own in a very discrete meadow in Sweet Apple Acres, one that he'd come to call his own.

Of course, you can't have a real party with only one person, and that's where Mac's secret lies. There in the meadow they sat, side by side, each entranced with the other, Big Mac's coat a sharp red that contrasted beautifully with the dull tones of the night, and his companion blending with those very same tones.

"Thanks for this, Jack," Mac said, nuzzling his coltfriends neck soothingly," ah needed it after all the things that have been happening lately." His companion, Jack Haykness (or Captain Jack, as he preffered), merely smiled at the bright red colt happily.

The two of them laid together throughtout the night, Mac knew that his family would be at the festival, selling their famous Cider as much as they could. He was safe as long as they were there, no one would know what he was doing here with his grey coated lover.

Big Mac admired his lover deeply, taking in every detail from the streak of blonde through his mane and tail that countered with his usual grey coat, to the bright Cutie Mark that rested on his flank. Jack's mark, like the Cutie Marks of all the ponies of the world, meant amazing things to him; however, it also could mean a lot to any pony he met.

Jack's mark was a stopwatch, but not just any stopwatch. The stopwatch on Jack's flank had no hands, a fact that very few ponies took notice to. Those who did were soon thrown into the craziness that was his life, ot at least, what little bit of his life their lives could take up. For you see, the great Captain Jack Haykness was immortal. A fact that wasn't lost on his current apple loving companion.

"What's it like," Mac asked after a moment of sweet silence between the two," living forever?"

"It's hard to explain really," Jack replied, racking his brain for a moment before continuing," it can be fun, at times, loads of times honestly. Then there's those times you just wish it would be over, that the ends of time just came crashing over each other and the forever ceased to exist."

Mac frowned, he knew he really shouldn't have asked, but it was just in his nature any more to be curious about the grey colt laying beside him. After all, Jack was an enigma, always trying to act like the world around him was beautiful and that everything about the life he had was amazing, but inside a storm raged.

"I've had a lot of friends," Jack continued, bringing Mac back from his storm of thoughts about Jack's sorrow," a lot of good friends, Angelo, Ianto. The list just keeps getting longer and longer. Of course, that's not the only list that keeps growing, I've seen a lot of people die."

Big Mac nodded, kissing Jack softly, a tear flowing freely from his left eye. He knew exactly what that meant, and he could only wonder how long it would be before his name was on both of those lists.

***

Twilight and her brother sat on the hill overlooking Ponyville, Twilight's sour mood had long since past and she was now happy to be sitting with the brother she hadn't seen in a year. Reminiscing on the old times happily.

"I remember the first night you came to us Twilie," Shining Armor spoke, his eyes glistening happily in the moonlight," Mom and Dad told me about Celestia having a mission for us all, and then you walked into the door, scared as could be. I was so mad at them for the longest time for just bringing in some random filly, even under Celestia's word, but after a while we got to be great friends." He smiled at Twilight, then chuckled hardily. "Funny how I hadn't realized it until now Twilie, but if it hadn't been for you coming into our lives, I'd have never met Cadance."

Twilight smiled at the revelation. Then suddenly she was hit with a wave of memories, herself as a young filly wandering the streets of Canterlot, tired and alone. Walking up to a small carriage and trying to steal an apple, only to come face to face with the Princess of the Sun herself. Running as fast as she could, losing control of her magic as a sudden burst of color filled the sky. The princess taking her up as her own personal student.

"Twilie," Shining Armor shouted, waking her from her revelry. She had been crying at the sudden wave of nostalgia that had crashed upon her. "You OK sis?"

Twilight nodded, smiling at her brother awkwardly. She didn't like the idea of crying in front of him, he had taught her to be strong, to not cry.

"So, how about Cadance, things going alright between you two?", Twilight asked, giving her brother a playful jab.

"Well," Shining started nervously, mouth curling in an awkward smile," apart from the baby, everything's ju-"

"BABY!", Twilight yelped in surprise, cutting off her brother quickly. "When did this happen?"

"We found out that it's for sure a baby just last month, should be six months 'til it get's here."

Twilight shook her head and smiled at her brother. The thought of being called 'Auntie Twilie,' occured to her and her smile widened. She made to say something about the baby, but was cut off herself when a dazzling light came between them as a familiar alabaster alicorn landed beside Shining Armor, who bowed respectfully and walked way, smiling awkwardly at his younger sister.

"Hello Twilight," Princess Celestia started,"I heard about what happened, and I wish to talk to you about it."

Twilight gulped audibly, something deep within her made her feel like she would not like where this went.

A Chance for a Choice.

Chapter 5: A Chance for a Choice.

Twilight walked into the library solemnly, her friends were all inside waiting for her. Upon seeing her they all smiled warmly, sans Applejack of course, who was sporting a nice shiner from Rarity's astounding left hook earlier.

"Hey girls," Twilight started, and they gathered all their attention upon her," I've got something I have to tell you all."

"What is it darling?" Rarity said, swinging back her unusually tangled hair. Apparently their must have been quite a scuffle if Rarity wasn't interested in her looks as much as she was beating Applejack senseless. "She thinks two months away from Ponyville will do me some good."

They all frowned at the prospect, well, almost all of them. Once again Applejack seemed to be reveling in victory at Twilights sad face, and like before, she was met with another quick strike from one of the others, this time it was from Pinkie Pie, though nopony noticed other than themselves with all of the attention turned toward Twilight.

"There's not all bad news, I can take one of you with me," Twilight said, smiling a half-cocked smile at the rest of them.

Rainbow Dash beamed as she walked up to Twilight, "does that mean you're taking me?" Twilight frowned, unable to hide a tear as she shook her head. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and turned away at her answer, mentally kicking herself.

"Wait Dashie," Twilight spoke up as the cyan pegasus started to walk away," it's not because I don't care about you, don't think that for one second." Rainbow Dash turned back toward Twilight, the look of defeat evident on her face. Twilight made her way over to her friend and pressed her muzzle Dash's own. "I really do care for you, ever so much, but I need to go with someone who won't try to inflluence my decisions, I have to bring someone unbiased. So I'm bringing Rariy."

Twilight turned to her fashonista friend with a smile, but was soon perplexed as Rarity's eyes widened. The off-white unicorn shook her head haphazardly in response.

"I-I-I can't, I just can't, I've got all these things going on here in Ponyville, I mean, there's the boutique, and taking care of my sister, and. . ." She continued to ramble on, trying desperately to get her thoughts in order. It was quite a sight to see for everypony, the fashonista freaking out so wildly. Though all her confused ranting did was leave everyone even more confused. Finally, it all became too much for a certain yellow pegasus, and with a cry of "for Celestia's sake," Fluttershy wrapped her front hooves around Rarity and planted a deep kiss.

When the kiss broke, Rarity's eyes grew even wider (if that was even possible), as her ivory face suddenly resemble a ruby glimmering in the sunlight.

"S-s-sorry Rarity, I just couldn't help it, you were. . .kind of making a fool of yourself," Fluttershy said, pointing her head to the floor. The yellow Pegasus obviously felt like she'd done something wrong. Fluttershy's fears were soon alleviated when she felt Rarity's lips upon her own.

"No need to be sorry dear. I've been a fool." Rarity hugged her marefriend tight, then looked at Twilight apologizingly. "As you can see, I have my reasons for staying here."Twilight just smiled at the cute couple almost victoriously

"Well, I guess I have no choice then, Pinkie," Twilight started, turning towards her party loving friend," would you like to come with me."

"Oh, oh, oh, I love that idea, it sounds like so much fun. We're gonna have such a fun time." Pinkie jumped up and down happily, somehow not knocking down any of the orderbs that had been placed on the table she'd climbed upon during Rarity's babbling.

"Very well then," Twilight replied,smiling brightly,"looks like you're coming with me."

Twilight stood outside of the carriage that would be taking Pinkie and herself to Canterlot. In front of her Rainbow Dash stood, trying her best to keep a cool head as she wished them off. Twilight nuzzled Dash affectionately and smiled, unconvinced by Dash's act.

"Will you be OK Dashie?", Twilight asked, apprehension in her voice. She could only imagine the things Applejack could be planning in an attempt to ruin Rainbow Dash's feelings for her.

"I'll be fine Egghead," Dash replied," I've had plans to go to Cloudsdale this month anyway, I have an old friend who wanted to talk. Yesterday I had made the decision to stay here with you, but if you're not going to be here then why should I. I'll go to Cloudsdale for a month, then I'll stop by Canterlot to check up on you." Rainbow Dash smiled as she motioned for Twilight to get in the now open carriage. Pinkie popped out of the open door and waved at Twilight, in a similar manner, calling her inside.

"Oh, and don't even think about trying to stop me from checking up on you. You might have some thinking to do, but I don't, my mind's made up. I love you Twilight." With that, Dash flew off in the direction of Cloudsdale, leaving her last words burning in Twilight's heart.

Twilight followed Pinkie inside and smiled, sharing the cart with them was a blue alicorn, with splotches of black fur on different parts of her body, her lunar cutie mark glistening in the shadows.

"Your Majesty," both Pinkie and Twilight greeted.

"Hello you two," the princess of the night responded," I'm here to see you both to Canterlot, Tia's orders."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Twilight responded.

"Please, just Luna."

Twilight was about to say something about being uncomfortable speaking so informally to the Princess, but was cut off by the sudden rumbling of the cart that announced the carriage's liftoff. Twilight and Pinkie looked out upon Ponyville as it was quickly swallowed up by the distance. Twilight was suddenly struck with an odd feeling that she could only describe as homesickness. Whatever happened to her in these next two months would be odd for her.

"Looks like we're turning our backs to quite the eventful chapter of our past," Pinkie exclaimed to nopony in particular, leaving Twilight flabbergasted at her friends sudden outburst.

"I didn't think you to be the philosophical type Pinkie," Twilight stated, cocking her head to the side inquisitively.

"There's a lot nopony knows about me you silly filly," Pinkie responded," a lot nopony knows." Twilight chose not to worry about the party pony's answer and went back to looking outside of the carriage. Change was coming, she could feel it.

What she didn't know was how dangerous that change was going to be.

The City of Clouds.

Chapter 6: The City of Clouds

Rainbow Dash settled on the cloud gracefully, settling her wings as she set her gaze upon the graceful floating city that was Coudsdale. A sudden sense of foreboding swept over her as she watched the pegasi in the city move about on their daily routines. She had a lot of memories here, and not all of them were good. To be honest, most of those memories were horrible.

The city seemed to grow above her demonically. The rainbow waterfalls and cloud skyscrapers seemed to only be a personal reminder of the worst moment in her life. Her eyes filled with tears, and she was almost unable to hold back as memories of the day she'd ran away from this place. This place was once her home, but it had lost that title to her long ago.

She was here because of a letter from an old friend. Someone very close to her in the old days wanted to see her again, someone she knew she could trust. She wished she could avoid this city though. Everything she'd ever hated in life came from this place, and yet here she was, returning to her own personal hell.

Of course she'd been here before for many events such as the 'Best Young Fliers Competition,' in order to show off her promise, but that was because of an old promise she'd made. She smiled when she remembered that promise, the only good thing about this city was friends she'd gained within it. Beyond the allure of the happy and colorful decor though, something evil lived in this city to her. A past she'd kept well hidden for quite some time, a secret that only three creatures in this world other than herself would ever know about.

She ruffled her wings and set off into the city, recalling the letter in her head.

Rainbow Dash.

I know it's been a long time since you left Cloudsdale, and I know that there's a certain part of you that never wants to come back, but there's an opening in our schedule that I'm sure you'll find quite interesting. I know how badly you want to prove your strength. Now's your chance Rainbow, please come. Practice with us, just for a month. I'm certain you'll come to terms with things here.

Your Faithful Friend, Your Favorite Wonderbolt.

Spitfire.

The last words burned through Rainbow Dash as she flew through the city. Coming to terms, like that was even possible with the things that happened here.

"Oi, Rainbow Dash," came a voice from below her. Rainbow Dash turned her head in the direction of the voice and noticed a yellow pegasus waving at her, a bright smile on her face. Rainbow Dash landed in front of her and ruffled the tingly feeling from flying out of her feathers. "Looks like you decided to come after all, eh, Dash."

Rainbow Dash nodded at her friend and smiled saying,"yeah, looks like I have."

***

Rainbow Dash stood in Spitfire's cloud home, watching her friend rummage through a pile of clouds used for strorage. Spitfire had brought her Dash over without much of a word, only saying things like,"wait 'til you see what I got for you," and,"the look on your face will be priceless." Finally, they were standing in Spitty's appartment, and Spitty had started to rummage through the storage cloud for a good ten minutes.

"Aha!" Spitfire exclaimed, and then came out from the the cloud holding a blue cloth with a particular design upon it in her teeth. Rainbow Dash noticed the cloth, and her eyes widened as it was thrown to her. "What do you think?"

"I think it's awesome," Rainbow Dash answered," but I'm not a Wonderbolt." Dash looked at her friend bewildered, unable to understand what was happening. The Wonderbolt's already had their max capacity of members, so why was Spitfire giving her this.

"Think of it as a temporary move thing. We need someone to practice with us while one of us is gone on a little vacation. . .and I thought you would be the perfect person for the job."

"That's all well and good Spitty, but. . .you know I can't as long as-"

"I was getting to that. He's not going to be there, so you won't have to worry about facing up to what he did." Spitfire smiled at her cyan friend, who was able to smile back. She should have known her old friend wouldn't have made her face her old demons.

Rainbow Dash took a moment to revel in the idea of finally showing how much stronger she'd become since the day she'd left this terrible city filled with demons. She was going to prove herself now. She was going to be a Wonderbolt, temporary or not.

"Then I guess I'm in. I'm gonna make the Woonderbolts twenty percent cooler."

***

Luna was troubled. Her sleep had been filled with horrible visions, visions of an evil that seemed all too familiar to her. She wondered what these visions meant, but could find no answer. Her sister seemed of no help either, and could only offer worthless suggestions as treatment. She needed answers, and she'd hoped Twilight Sparkle could give her the answers.

She could not, however, and simply offered the same advice as Celestia. Now, as she sat in the carriage on the way to Canterlot watching her companions slumber and wishing she herself could be allowed a peaceful rest, she wondered what would become of her. These demons of her past that haunted her in her dreams could only mean one thing, she knew this now.

A storm was brewing, and she could only hope that it did not sweep away everything she held precious.

***

Fluttershy stood outside the Carousel Boutique, more nervous than she'd ever been in the past. She'd thought a lot about what she was about to do, and she could honestly say that she'd rather fight a manticore. She gulped audibly, telling herself to relax and failing to convince herself at all.

She fidgeted her neck nervously and shook her feathers, readying herself. She pushed out a breath, and readied herself as best she could. She had thought through this decision long and hard, and she wasn't going to turn back now. She put her front hoof forward in front of her, and looked at the door with a scared frown.

She'd rather be walking into Hell.

Full Speed to the Future.

Chaper 7: Full Speed to the Future.

Rarity tore through her boutique at a breakneck pace. She'd gotten a rather cumbersome order that had come completely out of the blue and she most certainly wasn't ready for it. The sudden workload was crashing over her quickly and she found herself wondering why somepony would need a set of 50 dresses so suddenly. Needless to say, this meant Fluttershy's entrance was not as welcome as the daisy pegasus had hoped.Therefore, Fluttershy had kept silent as Rarity dashed about the store, gathering materials and registering how many premade dresses she could spare from her stocks. In fact, she was just about to take her leave when Rarity stopped everything and turned to her

"Hello love," Rarity started, her tired voice filled with as much endearment as she could muster,"I'm so sorry for ignoring you. It's just that, well, I have a huge workload so I hope you can make this quick. Maybe we can talk about this over dinner tonight if it's you'd like, I really have to get this done." She gave her pegasus lover a quick kiss and then started to work once again. This time her pace had slowed as she paid more attention to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy steeled herself once again. As much as she wished she could push this back, she knew she wouldn't have the heart to do what she came here for if she waited for the night. She walked behind Rarity, somehow keeping pace with the ivory unicorn as she prepared.

"I, um, have a few proposals," Fluttershy said, watching her lover's expressions carefully as she spoke. She knew full and well how Rarity could act to the little bombshells she was about to drop. "I have two, to be precise. That is, of course. . .if you want to hear them."

"Go ahead dear, tell me what you want to tell me, I'm all ears." Rarity pushed through one of her stock closets as she spoke, pulling one stock dress after the other, examining each carefully.

"Well, um. . .we've been dating for like, five years now, and, um. . ." Fluttershy froze, her tongue caught in her throat. She knew it was now or never, no matter how bad this may end up. "well. . .I wanna get married and have kids."

She spit the words out quick and loud, throwing Rarity and herself off their guard. Rarity was so astounded by Fluttershy's requests she nearly fell over and died in surprise, and after commanding control of her heart, she could only look at the yellow pegasus in shock.

"Run that by me again dear," Rarity requested, trying desperately to blink away the bewilderment from her mind.

"Um. . .well, I wanna get married and have kids." Fluttershy tried to smile awkwardly at her lover, but couldn't keep her gaze on the white unicorn.

"Let's start with the marriage idea. How would we do that?", Rarity asked, her bewilderment increasing. "What about decree 63?"

Decree 63 was a law passed seven years after Princess Luna had been banished to the moon. The decree stated that no pony could enter into a legal marriage with a pony of the same gender or a creature of a different species. Celestia had said once that she'd made the law to halt a possible conflict that she'd seen in the future, which was thought by the majority to be an acceptable reason for the decree. Now, however, views in Equestria had cycled back to that of acceptance of all relationships, meaning there should be no use for the law; alas, Celestia had been denying any requests to burn the decree (as doing such would nullify the law) for years now.

"We could get married in secret, at least. . .I was hoping we could." Fluttershy turned her gaze to the ground nervously. She was kicking herself hard for this one. She knew this was a bad idea and would sooner be in the pits of Gehenna than here.

"Let's take a step back then," Rarity started, seeing how terrible her shy mate felt,"let's move on to the kids then. I know you, and I know if we were to watch over a little foal then you would hate the idea of adopting, you'd rather it be your own. There's just one problem with that, you and I both know you can't have a child." Fluttershy teared up worse than she ever had before in her life at that.

It was a sad story to be honest. For Fluttershy once had a terrible illness about her. The illness had been so terrible that the doctor's had once believed it to have destroyed her womb, ceasing any hope of her giving birth to a foal. This was just one of the things she held with shame, but she didn't fault her lover for bringing it up.

"Th-that's just the thing, I was wondering if, maybe, you'd be able to bear the child." Fluttershy said those last words almost inaudibly, choking up as she looked up at her unicorn lover pleadingly. An awkward silence passed for a moment, but was soon broken by the sound of Rarity's sister, Sweetie Belle, walking into the boutique and humming to herself. Sweetie had been gone the entire night, but none of that mattered to Rarity at the moment.

"Sweetums, dear," Rarity started, causing Sweetie to halt her progress to her room in the boutique that was also her and her sister's home,"how would you feel about being a mare of honor and an Aunt?"

"Why?", Sweetie asked, a look of sudden confusion on her face as she glanced nervously at the cutie mark she'd obtained-a microphone surrounded by stars-a week ago as if hoping it would give an answer, then turning back to her sister with a continued look of confusion.

"Because, you're going to be both very soon," Rarity answered.

Fluttershy's face shot up to gaze at her unicorn lover, who smiled widely back. Fluttershy suddenly wrapped her hooves around the unicorn.

She hoped this moment would never end. This was better than Heaven.

All of Her Tears

Chapter 8: All of her Tears.

To most, the setting of Celestia's sun in Cloudsdale would have been a sight to behold. For Rainbow Dash, it held no beauty. Where other's saw the brilliance of the many different colored clouds being magnified to such an awe inspiring effect, Dash could only see the shadows that crept around the those clouds that faced away from the sun creeping through into everyones lives now that the sun was no longer holding them back. The customary closing of the flood gates that spewed forth Rainbows reminded her that all good things have their end. This place haunted her, more so in Luna's night then at any other point in the day.

The only bright thing she could find in this place was Spitfire. The golden pegasus inviting Dash here meant she still had friends here in this city of eloquently designed demons. Part of her wanted to believe that the entirety of Cloudsdale was like this now, happy, bright, friendly. She knew better than to be that naive.

They were sitting outside some posh café now, the slow and soothing sound of violins playing in the background. Spitfire had brought her here for dinner, trying to get her to see the beauty of Cloudsdale. Spitty could see how hurt Dash was, how the demons of this place haunted her.

"You've been here a week, one would think you'd have lightened up by now Dashie," Spitfire pronounced, taking a bite of her salad. Rainbow Dash ignored her and took a sudden interest in the food she'd ordered, just as she had every other time Spitty had brought this conversation to the table. She'd already told herself that there was no such thing as lightening up here without Twilight or the others. Even Applejack, with her jealous nature, would've made this place a bit brighter.

That's not to say the cyan pegasus didn't try to have fun, but this place was just too full of bad to see the good anymore.

When Dash didn't respond, Spitty continued,"look, I know this place is Hell for you. In fact, it's probably worse, but you only have three weeks until he returns, and you and I both know you won't be able to. . ." She let herself drift off, Dash knowing full and well what she was getting at.

"I don't know if I can even stay here that long Spitty," Rainbow responded," I-I can't even look at these streets without seeing him smiling that evil smile." A tear fell from her eyes as she spoke. Spitty walked over to her and let her cyan friend rest her head on her shoulder and cry.

Dash's sorrow felt infinite, this place was just too much, she didn't know how she was going to survive this whole month for Spitty. She kept crying through the sunset, and as Luna's moon rose, calling forth those dark shadows that haunted her, the torches being lit around the city and the golden coat of the pony she was leaning on offered her the only solace she could find.

"I have another gift for you," Spitfire spoke after Rainbow Dash's tears had ran their course.

"What is it?"

Spitfire smiled at her sky-coloured pegasus, and opened her saddlebag with her wings. She stuck her maw into the bag and when she came out, revealed an odd contraption between her teeth. It was a mechanical object, made to fit onto a hoof. Five odd appendages jutted out at different angles, yet each seemed to conform to a certain pattern as they surrounded the hoof shaped core.

"It's called a K-law," Spitty started to explain, noticing her friends confused look and smiling," they were originally made during the wars that built Equestria. Modeled after gryphon talons, they were meant to be a type of weapon used in CQC,-close quarters combat- but the weaponised model never saw much action. Very few had a weaponised model, my great great grandmother Firefly was one of them. She left us this set, said it was meant for someone like her. So we've been passing it around the family line, hoping one of us will have earned it, but I think you deserve it a lot more than I do."

Rainbow Dash took the K-law and smiled at her friend. She looked closer at the design and noticed it was full of vibrant colors, all the colors of the rainbow to be precise. She couldn't have been given a better present. "Thanks."

"Just make sure you don't go waving it around all the time, weaponised versions of that are illegal, but if you just wear it around ponies will just think it's a recreation model." Rainbow Dash half nodded and took note of that. It's not like she would be using it to fight anyway, or at least, that's what she thought.

She was wrong.

***

Rainbow Dash smiled at Spitty and the others sweetly. It was the last day before his return, and she had just finished the most amazing moment of her life. After practicing all month, she had finally been ready for her first ever performance as a Wonderbolt. If she ever worked up the nerve to come to Cloudsdale while he was around, she'd have to bring Twilight up here and show off her amazing moves, she could see her favorite filly now, watching her with such amazing awe. It brought a smile to her face as she removed the Wonderbolt suit.

"Oi, Dashie, how bout you come to the club with us, it'll be fun. We can all see how much Fleetfoot can-" Spitfire had started, but she cut herself off. Her eyes darted towards the door of the locker room they were all in as everything went silent. There he stood, in the door, watching everyone with an angry look on his face his blue hair wet with the sweat of an all day flight. Soarin had returned early, too early.

"Well, look at this," came Soarin's voice as he wallked up to Rainbow Dash. Her eyes went wide at hearing him, and she turned around on the spot to face him. His eyes narrowed and his mouth curled in a grin as he watched her cower in fear. "I heard you had chose some kind of temporary replacement didn't know you'd chosen her of all people. Liar Rainbow Dash, trying to spread more of those lies of yours about me?" Soarin laughed as hard as he could, and all the eyes in the room narrowed in a combined assault of scowls.

Rainbow Dash started to tear up, but flew away as fast as her somewhat tired wings could carry her. She flew for hours, in the night, passing over Ponyville and skipping it completely as her tears fell from her face uncontrollably. She had to get to Canterlot.

She needed her egghead now more than ever.

Facing Her Demons.

Chapter 9: Facing Her Demons.

"I just don't understand," Twilight shouted, throwing a small yellow book at a nearby wall. The book she had thrown had been a copy of How To Know if She's the Right Mare For Idiots, and it wasn't exactly very helpful. Then again, the 100 other books she'd been reading on the subject of love.

"Another dud?", Pinkie asked as she walked into the study of the loft they'd been sharing. She was carrying a pan of fresh cookies, one of which she threw to her purple compatriot. They'd been doing this for weeks now, Twilight would look for answers in a new set of books every day, with Pinkie telling her that it was a useless and that she should just pick one answer or the other. Now Twilight was beginning to believe her.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but what use are these books." Twi took a bite of the cookie and frowned at the large pile of books she'd created, she'd have to clean that up. Pinkie smiled at her friends revelation, throwing the pan out onto the table haphazardly.

It had been a month since they'd left Ponyville now, and she was nowhere near an answer. It was late in the day now, and Twilight decided it best to simply watch Celestia's sun set. Luna's moon would take its place in the sky soon, bringing the night to the land. A sudden knock on the door of their loft caught the residents off guard.

"I'll get it," Twilight said, trotting to the door and pushing open. She gasped once she saw who was on the other side.

Rainbow Dash, her mane and fur rough and tangled and her body riddled with sweat, her eyes full of tears, stood in the doorway. She and Twilight stood looking at her, the latter fearing the worst outright. After taking a moment to comose herself, Twiliight motioned for the cyan pegasus to come in. Upon seeing Rainbow Dash's condition, Pinkie picked up a traveling cloak and walked towards the door.

"What are you doing Pinkie?", Twilight asked, watching her pink party pony friend.

"I know what this is about, and I'm not staying here while this story gets told Twilight," Pinkie answered, shocking the mauve unicorn with an unusually serious tone."I'm going out to the clubs, you too can have your little talk here."

With that, the party pony walked out the door, out onto the streets of Canterlot. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle merely stared at each other for what seemed like forever. Twilight was confounded at the cyan pony's appearance. She knew something terrible had to have happened for her to come crying to her the way she was now.

Finally, Rainbow Dash broke the silence, turning her head away from the unicorn in order to hide her tears. "I need to clean myself up Twilight, could you tell me where the shower is."

Twilight nodded toward a door behind Rainbow Dash, who muttered her thanks and made her way toward the room. Twilight stood stock still as the sound of water rushing from the shower head reached her ears. If Dash's appearance had surprised her, the tone in her voice downright terrified her.This was the worst she'd ever seen of the cyan pegasus. What had happened in Cloudsdale to bring a side of Dash out that not even Discord himself could summon.

The sound of Rainbow Dash turning the shower off threw Twilight out of the trance it had coaxed her into, and she found herself sitting upon the couch she'd been reading her books on. Rainbow Dash returned to the main room of the loft and stood in front of Twilight. She was only a tad bit less of a mess than she had been before taking the shower. Her mane was slick with water and fell all over her head, somehow not covering her eyes. Twilight wished Dash's eyes had been covered however, for the sorrow she'd noticed in her friend earlier was still there, burning even worse than before.

"What happened?", Twilight asked, scooting over to make room for Rainbow Dash on the sofa. Dash decided not to take the space she'd opened up, and instead placed herself on the small portion of the cushions that was left in front of Twilight. The unicorn wrapped her front legs around the pegasus in response. At the feel of Twilight's legs wrapped around her, Dash whimpered and snuggled her entire body closer to the unicorn she loved.

"Twilight," Rainbow Dash started, the tears returning to her eyes already,"there's something I've never told you, about my past, and I think it's about time you knew my secret." Dash wiped the tears already in her eyes away with her hoof, she felt so weak, crying in front of Twilight like this.

"What is it?" Twilight asked, resting her maw upon Dash's wet mane in comfort. She noticed how easy it felt to talk to the cyan pony. Even here, when the pegasus was on the verge of breaking down over some untold secret, it felt so natural sitting with her like this.

"Twilight, a week after I got my cutie mark, I went to a Wonderbolts performance, a big one-probably one of their best-but I'll remember that day for a much different reason." The tears were flowing uncontrollably now as Rainbow Dash shifted around in order to face Twilight."That day, Soarin, the colt I looked up to the most in this world, raped me."

The world seemed to turn inwards on Twilight at Rainbow Dash's words, and the pit of her stomach twisted and turned viciously as tears started to flow from her eyes as well. She hugged Rainbow Dash close to her, letting the cyan pony cry freely into her shoulders. Rainbow Dash felt so terrible, she'd been crying so much lately, and she hated every tear that fell.

"That's not even the worst part," Dash continued through sobs,"I tried telling everypony what had happened, but not a single one of them believed me. They were all so caught up by his charm that they thought he could do no wrong. The only ponies in Cloudsdale that believed me were Spitfire and Fluttershy, and they couldn't do anything to help. Fluttershy ran away because she couldn't stand to see me in the pain I was in, and Spitfire couldn't say anything without being scolded for supporting me. Even my parents were so dazzled by Soarin's fame that they accused me of lying. To make matters worse, I was pregnant."

Twilight could only imagine the pain the pegasus she was holding must have felt, to have that happen, and to have barely anyone believe you. She shuddered to think about it.

"I ran away from that place after that, found myself in Ponyville. Then one day I was outside, just on the banks of the river that flows from Everfree Forest, when it happened. I went into labor, a nice bouncy baby boy." Rainbow Dash's voice was filled with venom now. The tears she'd once been crying had apparently been dried out as Twilight felt none upon her fur. "I hated that little baby, everything about it. It felt like it was mocking me, laughing at me. Everything about it reminded me of him. So I took it's head into my hooves and. . ." She trailed off, but Twilight understood. An image of a young Rainbow Dash holding the child she hated so much and squeezing the life out of it crossed the unicorn's mind. She couldn't say she wouldn't have done the same.

They sat there in silence now, listening to the sounds of the bustling city outside. It felt so wrong, all those people going about one their merry way, not knowing the terrible truths about life.

"Gilda was there when I killed it, helped me bury the body and everything. It took every bit of my strength to keep her out of that floating city once I told her why I killed it. She told me how sorry she was, not that she needed to. She told me that I needed to be strong, to keep my dreams of joining the Wonderbolts alive. Not because it was my childhood dream, but because I had to prove to myself that I was stronger than him, that he wasn't going to control my life. After that, I met AJ and we started dating, and then it's just old news." Rainbow Dash sighed. She felt so belated now, after getting all of that off her chest.

"What made you tell me this?" Twilight responded, leaning her head back to look into Dash's eyes.

Dash smiled at the unicorn. She planted a small kiss on the Twilight's lips and hugged her close. "When I was in Cloudsdale, I ran into him. He wasn't supposed to be there, but he got there on early. I thought I was ready to face him, but I lost it. All I could do was cry and run away. When I ran away though, the only thing I could keep thinking about was how much I needed you."

Twilight was about to respond when the door to the loft suddenly swung open and a familiar pink pony entered the room. Twilight looked at the clock on the nearby wall,it read 12:00, she hadn't realized that she and Dash had been alone for so long.

"Looks like you've told her," Pinkie stated, looking Dash in the eyes and smiling.

"Yeah, I told her everything Pinks," Rainbow Dash answered, stepping off of the sofa and smiling. She felt so relieved now for some odd reason. It was like all the weight of the month before just vanished.

Pinkie walked over to the table she'd left the cookies on earlier and threw one in the air. "Looks like you've made your decision as well, huh Twi."

"Huh, Twilight, what's Pinkie talk-" Rainbow Dash was cut off by a sudden kiss from Twilight. After the initial shock of her lips meeting Twilight's own, the cyan pegasus deepened the kiss, wrapping her front legs around the purple unicorn.

"I'm taking a leap of faith, Rainbow Dash, that's what." Dash smiled at her own words from a month ago, and nuzzled close to her unicorn marefriend.

"I love you, Twilight Sparkle." Rainbow Dash said, her voice soft and light.

"I love you too, Rainbow Dash." The words hung in the air like a brightly lit candelabra, filling the room in a happy glow. All was peaceful for the two once more.

Planning.

Chapter 10: Planning.

The blast of the bass could be heard up and down the Manehattan street. Of course, this didn't bother the many residents, seeing as how they were all spending their busy nights in the club that the beats originated from. The DJ spun her records precisely, creating a mystical cacophony of notes that played upon every nearby ear.

Two members of the party were quite unfamiliar to the rest of the mass of ponies. Not that any pony would have noticed the way they danced to the new age symphony. The DJ noticed them though, it was hard for her not to notice such an old friend dancing with such a bright partner.

"OK party ponies," the DJ started, speaking into a microphone in order to be heard over her musical magic," I'm gonna take a break now mares and colts, gonna spend some time on the floor, hope you like my friend Sparkfire!" The white unicorn DJ stepped away from her turntable and was suddenly replaced by a bright red pegasus with light blue eyes and a turntable cutie mark.

Upon reaching the floor, the white dj rushed toward the anonymous pair with a smile. She was greeted by a smile and a hug from the unicorn of the pair, to which she responded by raising her dark shades above her eyes, revealing two crimson eyes.

"Why Charity Rarity, it's been far too long since you've graced one of my shows with your presence." The White DJ chuckled and motioned for the anonymous couple to a table at the outside of the club. The white unicorn and yellow pegasus followed closely behind, pushing through the throng of ponies throughout the club on their way along.

"It's always a pleasure to come to one of your shows Vinyl," Rarity answered, smiling at her old friends as her partner simply watched the two talk.

"I see you're not wearing your contacts Vinyl," Rarity observed, bringing a smile to the DJ's face. The music mare completely removed her shades and placed them on the table, offering a full view of her crimson eyes.

"You know it Rare. The ponies around here are a lot more relaxed than those uptight twits in Canter lot." The DJ stretched out her body upon the large seat and cocked her head at Rarity's pegasus companion. "Um, by the way, who's the mare Rarity, I thought you didn't date models."

The white fashonista laughed brightly at the comment and answered," I'm flattered really, but she's not a model. Her name is Fluttershy, and she's a nature caretaker from ponyville." Rarity smiled at her partner, who's face was covered in blush. The white fashion unicorn kissed lover on the cheek and smiled at her once again.

"Well then," Vinyl started., smiling at the two lovers enviously," what brings you here anyway. I mean, you just waltz up and get all sexy up in this joint with this mare. You have to be planning something big." The fashion pony blushed at the question. Vinyl was just like she always was, abrupt and to the point.

"Actually, we are," Rarity answered," we're planning a secret wedding in Ponyville in two months, all of our friends will all be together and we want to get married. It won't exactly be legal, mind you, but it's a wedding all the same, and we want you to DJ the after party."

"I'd never thought I'd see the day you settled down Rare, and now here you are proving me wrong as usual. Of course I'm in, I'll make it the time of your lives." The DJ shook her head as she spoke, obviously a bit flabbergasted at her old friends announcement.

Rarity smiled, and hugged her old friend. They started talking about old times, laughing about the good memories they shared. Fluttershy tried her best to keep up, but just couldn't stay interested. She chose to let them have fun talking and watch the ponies on the dance floor.

Her eyes fell upon a white hooded pony within the crowd and nearly gasped, she knew that face. The stony gold eyes behind the hood met her own, and her eyes widened. Her heart pounded inside of her chest and her breathing hitched. She had to wonder what a pony like that was doing here. Was he following her, was he there on a mission? If either answer was yes then surely the other would be the same soon enough.

"Are you OK love?" The sudden question caught her off guard. She turned her head toward Rarity and smiled awkwardly in response. The fashion pony just frowned in worry at her lover.

"Everything's fine Rarity, I just. . .thought I saw someone I knew." Fluttershy turned back to see if the hooded pony was still there, but no sign of him remained. Her eyes narrowed, she knew that if it really was one of them, then they would make sure they weren't seen twice. As soon as Rarity and Vinyl finished, she made sure they made their way out quickly. She wanted desperately to get out of Manehattan as her mind raced, she thought she'd gotten away. Not like it mattered now, they were onto her, they would find her.

***

Ditzy Doo was on her usual rounds on her daily mail route, and it was boring. The ponies of Ponyville barely ever noticed her anymore other than to make fun of her obvious flaws. She was beginning to hate this place and all the ponies who pushed her around so much. Not to mention all the things her parents were suddenly putting on top of her. It all seemed just too much for one mare to take, and it was all so boring.

Her life was so mundane lately, and she found herself wishing that something fun would happen to add some spice to her life. Maybe she shouldn't have been wishing so hard, for as soon as the wish entered her mind, a sudden screeching resounded around her as a blue police box suddenly flashed into existence in front of her.

She cocked her head at the sudden appearance, when suddenly the door to the box opened to reveal a yellow pony with no mane and an hourglass cutie mark on his flank.

"You might want to run," he yelled at her, then suddenly he exploded with light.

In Time, Everything Will Change.

Chapter 12: In Time, Everything Will Change.

Ditzy and the Doctor fell into the blue box together laughing, the door shut behind them quickly to keep out the mob of angry wedding goers that was sure to be behind them. They sat laughing at the loud bangs emanating from the door behind them for a few moments before the doctor shot up and trotted to the console in the middle of the box. Ditzy took a bit longer to recover from her fit of laughter after realizing that she was still in her wedding dress. Finally, the blonde-maned pegasus walked up to the Doctor and smiled, removing the large white garment from her flank as she did.

"That was brilliant, amazingly, awesomely brilliant Doctor," Ditzy spoke as she stood and watched the Doctor from her side of the console. The Doctor chuckled at her enthusiasm and kept tweaking little things on the console, obviously preparing it for another trip.

"Yes, yes, brilliant, but then again I suppose it is the TARDIS, she's quite brilliant all the time," the Doctor answered. He turned one final lever, then leaned forward as if directing it. "Aren't you darling."

Dizzy cocked her head to the side and lowered an eyebrow as she smiled at the quirky Doctor.

"You named the box."

"Well why would I not, it seems to me that a ship able to travel through space and time would be in need of a name after all." The Doctor pulled a level and the familiar sound of the TARDIS starting up filled the room."Besides, what's wrong with the name, I think TARDIS is a lovely name, a good name, a proper name."

Ditzy leaned her head back in confusion, thinking she'd hit a nerve with the time traveling pony. She took a moment to let any negativiy the Doctor was feeling let itself out before moving towards him and sitting at his side.

"What's it even mean then?"

"It stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. So basically, it's just a fancy way of spaying spaceship and time machine lovechild."

Ditzy narrowed her eyes in annoyance at the odd time traveler, a look that was replied to with a smile from the Doctor. "OK then, what's a Lorianis?"

"Nasty creatures, parasites in my opinion. They can mate and produce offspring with any creature in the universe. So the mates of their species go out and use other life forms as food factories. Because their food source is babies. Their ranked as one of the most vile species in the universe because of that."

The roaring of the TARDIS suddenly stopped just as Ditzy began to contemplate what becoming a baby factory meant, and the image that implanted into her head was not a fun one. The Doctor made a movement with two of the appendages on his K-law and the doors to the TARDIS swung open. Ditzy and the Doctor stepped outside, and were immediately greeted with a dismal view. The skies seemed to have lost all color, and the streets shared a similar absence. Something was terribly wrong.

Ditzy and the Doctor trotted through the streets of the unfamiliar city, the Doctor seemed intrigued, but Ditzy just felt fearful. The Doctor suddenly stormed towards a large poster and started dancing in place, pointing at the poster with his K-law and smiling. "Look Ditzy, it looks like someone wants us."

Ditzy strode up to the poster, and her eyes widened. The poster was riddled with faces, some were covered over with the words 'apprehended,' or 'slaughtered.' Two particular faces stood out among the random assortment. There, side by side upon the poster, was her face with the word 'Derpy,' posted under it alongside the Doctor's face.

"Doctor, this is not good." Derpy turned to the Doctor, the fear evident in his eyes.

"I think it's awesome, it's exciting." The Doctor smiled, continuing to marvel at the poster."It means something exciting's about to happen."

Ditzy was about to respond, but was suddenly cut off by a large ball of energy shooting between them and frying both of their pictures. They both turned in fear at the origin of the blast to see a purple unicorn with dark hair and an eye patch over her right eye. Her black K-law burned with the same light as the blast of energy from before.

"Hello Doctor," the unicorn started,"it's been a while."

"Yes it has Twilight Sparkle,"the Doctor began,"but not long enough a while for me."

***

The Doctor, Ditzy, and Twilight stood outside of the TARDIS quietly. Twilight had been explaining things to the two time travelers as best she could in the five minutes it had taken to get here.

"So basically, things have went really sour, OK, how can we help?" The Doctor smiled cheerfully.

"Don't Doctor, this timeline ended up this way because you tried to help. I lost all the friends I ever had, all of them, even Rainbow Dash, because you interfered with the Elements of Harmony. So when you take that little blue box and fly away, don't get in the way. " The bright energy burst from her K-law again, and she pointed one of the appendages towards him menacingly as she spoke. Her eyes became filled with tears."I will not let another version of me grow up without Rainbow Dash, not like I did."

With that, the Twilight Sparkle from the future walked away, leaving the Doctor and Ditzy alone. After a moment, the Doctor just trotted happily into the TARDIS, with Ditzy following close behind.

"So what are we going to do now Doctor," Ditzy asked, walking up to him as he started to tinker away at the TARDIS' controls.

"Nothing, that's what, we weren't even supposed to end up in this time stream, but something brought us here, and that's not good." The Doctor suddenly stopped his tinkering and looked up at the blonde mailmare. "Your eyes, I just noticed, they don't always do that do they."

"Do what?"

"That thing where they go to different sides, that's odd, is that why that poster had your name as 'Derpy?"

Ditzy blushed, Derpy was the nickname the ponies of Ponyville had given her. It was true, that the odd name had been given to her because of her eyes, but it was originally supposed to be out of affection that the name was given. Some ponies though, they just couldn't tease someone enough.

"Yeah, it is, but I don't really like it very much. I would rather have some other name than that."

The Doctor cocked his head to the side and lowered an eyebrow in curiosity. "Really, I kinda like the name Derpy, it's a lovely name. Very well then, what name would you rather have?"

Ditzy thought for a moment, turning her head from side to side in wonder. Finally, her head shot up and her eyes widened in delight as she realized her answer. "Rose, I want to be called Rose!"

The Doctor scrunched up his face, thinking hard about her choice. He pressed a button on the TARDIS and the whirring of what Ditzy had by now considered the engine of the Tardis returned around them like an old friend. "Rose huh. Well, it's not what I would have chosen, but I'm not the one in charge of names am I, if I was in charge all the colts would be called Bob and Jerry, and all the mares would be called Miss PrinPim. So anyway, where do we go next Rose."

Ditzy, no, Rose smile at the time traveller as she walked up to the console of the TARDIS beside him. She leaned on a bar nearby and smiled."We have a time machine, let's just press some random buttons and see where it get's us."

"Oh I am going to like you." The Doctor proceeded to press random buttons on the controls and smiled. Ditzy returned his smile and looked toward the door of the TARDIS. Her eyes were drawn to the wedding dress beside it that she'd worn only this morning, or maybe it was a morning that had not happened yet, or even one that happened hundreds of years in the past on some far away planet. Anything was possible.

Everything was ending, and yet at the same time, everything was beginning.

Enter the Darkness

Chapter 13: Enter the Darkness.

The Doctor and Ditzy stepped out of the TARDIS and looked around confused. The view was much more colorful than the dull gray of the future they'd just returned from, but it was also too familiar. Then it hit them, they were back in the abbey where Ditzy had almost married a giant bug.

"Well that's odd," the Doctor started, pulling out the sonic screwdriver he had used to reveal the lorianis that had been at the altar beside Ditzy not too long ago and activating it,"it seems we're back in Ponyville, one month after your almost wedding." The Doctor slid back into the TARDIS and came out, dressed up in a brown coat, which he then placed the sonic screwdriver in it's pocket."Well then, I guess there's no use in wondering about it now, let's take a look around and see what the TARDIS wants from us.

"What it wants?" Derpy raised an eyebrow in confusion at the odd time travelling pony.

"She, what she wants, the TARDIS is a she, at least I think she is. Anyway, she obviously wanted us to come here for a reason, so let's see what that reason is."

Ditzy just followed the Doctor, shaking her head in annoyance at the odd pony as they stepped out of the abbey. They walked through the colorful town of Ponyville.

"Doctor, about the future we just saw, is that actually gonna happen?" The Doctor frowned and walked forward, not sure how to answer.

"It's possible, that version of the future was made possible by something I did in this timeline, possibly even here. The thing is this, time can be rewritten Rose, so much so that sometimes the timestreams can get a bit out of sorts. Obviously a version of me made a bad decision in that stream, but I ended up there as a warning from the TARDIS. The old girl obviously doesn't want me doing anything really stupid." Ditzy rolled her eyes at that remark, something about this pony told her that telling him no to do something stupid would never be very useful.

A sudden ruckus stirred among Ponyville, and the two time travelers watched as ponies all around them seemed to rush suddenly towards the center of the town. Soon enough they were thrown into the ruckus of the crowd and jostled into the mass.

"Rose! Try to stay with me." The Doctor tried to call out to his friend over the throng of the crowd in vain, and was soon ripped away from his companion.

Then came another voice, one that made the Doctor squirm. He turned around to see a grey pony with a yellow streaks throughout his mane and tail. "Doctor!"

He froze at the sound of his name, almost muttering a prayer as he turned towards its source and nearly planted his hoof in his face. Jumping throughout the crowd in an attempt to get the Doctor to notice him was a grey earth pony with a blonde streak running through his mane and tail.

"Hello Jack," the Doctor started, faking a cheerful persona as best he could,"been a while huh, going on how many years now?"

"About twenty I guess Doctor, though I'm sure it's been less for you, time machine and all."

"Doctor, who is this?", Derpy asked, genuinely surprising the time traveler, who had not been paying attention to the blonde pegasus as she returned.

"Rose, hey, um. . . .this is Jac-"

"Capain Jack Haykness, at your service." The grey pony interuppted the Doctor, taking the pegasus mare's hoof with the hoof that donned his Black K-law and shook it vigorously. The Doctor planted his bare hoof into his face and groaned at the straightforward earth pony. Jack never seemed to change.

"Jack, what in tarnation are you doin'," came a voice from nearby, and the three companions turned to see a big red stallion with a green apple cutie mark on his flank trotting towards them with a somewhat annoyed look on his face. The Doctor recognized the look a different way though, already having categorized it as the look a companion of Jack Haykness will always have when he gets out of control, almost like the look you give a dog on a leash when it misbehaves.

"Ah, Mac, Sorry." Jack looked a bit distraught at the look upon the red earth pony's face. He quickly wrapped a hoof around the crimson pony and hugged him tight, planting a small kiss on his cheek. Derpy's eyes widened, she'd never known any colt-cuddlers until now. Jack continued,"oh, yeah, Mac, this is the Doctor, and his new companion, Rose. Doctor, Rose, this is my coltfriend, Mac."

"Which number is he?" The Doctor asked, narrowing his eyes at the grey pony.

"Why do you have to always ask that question Doctor?"

"Jack."

"103. There, you happy."

"Does he know he's 103?"

"Yes ah do, and ah'd appreciate it if you'd not talk like ah'm not here." Mac announced, interrupting the two ponies' argument.

"You're right, that's not important," the Doctor started, pointing at Mac and then storming off, leaving the others to follow behind quickly,"what is important is this, what is supposed to happen, what is the event the TARDIS sent me here for, and why in Celestia's name is everypony marching toward town square?"

The Doctor finished with a hint of aggression in his voice, his eyes widening in annoyance. He was baffled as to why the TARDIS sent him here into such a plain point in time.

"Well, Mr. Grumpy Man," started Big Mac, his eyes narrowed in dissapointment at the Time Traveller Jack was always talking about,"today is the day that Twilight Sparkle returns from Canterlot after two months of being away." At the mention of Twilight Sparkle's name, both the Doctor's and Derpy's eyes shot open. Both of them remembered how Twilight Sparkle had suddenly attacked them in the future.

"That is not good, not good at all." The Doctor searched around frantically for a way out of the crowd, turning his head this way and that, only to find no escape. Suddenly, a large carriage appeared pulled by two magicked unicorns. The Doctor gulped audibly and ducked his head in order to truly be lost in the crowd. He mustn't be for the sake of time itself.

***

Rainbow Dash shifted nervously in the darkness of the carriage. She would have to face Applejack's wrath for sure now. Part of her wished she'd been able to leave Canterlot and return to Ponyville a month ago, but then she'd have missed out on way too much fun with her marefriend otherwise.

Speaking of her violet lover, Twilight nuzzled her maw into the cyan pegasus and smiled. Twilight was much more assured about things between her and Dash now than she'd been a month before when the pegasus had appeared on the doorstep of the temporary flat she'd been sharing with Pinkie Pie.

"Awww, how cute." Came the pink party pony's voice from the other side of the carriage. Pinkie grinned from ear to ear at the two lovers, she was so happy for that two of her closest friends were dating, it filled her to the brim with joy.

Rainbow Dash began to speak, but decided against it. She noticed the carriage slowing down and sighed.

"Time to face the music," Rainbow Dash noted. Twilight gave her a kiss on the cheek and wrapped her forehoof around the cyan one's. Dash could only smile at the violet unicorn as the carriage doors opened, and the two of them stepped out, hand in hand.

To the largest collective gasp they'd ever heard.

Both ponies smiled at the crowd awkwardly, searching the crowd for some happy reactions. The most noticeable being Lyra and Bon-Bon's shared 'finally,' moment as both mares raised a hoof to the air in exasperation. The sight of the candy maker and her lover was quite comical to be honest, and it brought a smile to Twilight and Rainbow Dash's faces.

Then, the mood was suddenly ruined.

Applejack stormed towards the two lovers, a look of pure anger in her eyes. She felt and looked betrayed, and she was ready to unleash her feelings towards the two.

"So this is how it's gonna be huh," she started, coming face to face with Rainbow Dash first," after everything we'd done, you'll throw it away for her." Applejack tossed her head towards Twilight and shot her an angry look. Twilight cowered at her friends anger, she wasn't prepared for this kind of reaction. Applejack turned to start berating Rainbow Dash again, but was met with a right hoof from the cyan pegasus. The blonde earth pony fell to the ground.

"Applejack, you're my friend, and yeah, we used to be a thing, but if you ever so much as look at my marefriend like that again, a simple blow to the eye will be the least of your worries." Dash closed up on the earth pony and narrowed her eyes. Applejack cowered away from the rainbow-maned pegasus.

"You know what," Applejack then started suddenly, stomping her hoof upon the ground and facing Rainbow Dash. Ah don't think I can sit here and call mahself yer friend any longer with this." Applejack turned on the spot at her words, when suddenly a burst of light shot from her body and rose into the air, her knees buckled and her front legs bent in pain from the light leaving her. At the peak of its rise, the ball split into two and shot apart in different direction. With that, Applejack ran off, everypony else with everypony else paying attention to the light show. Yet, nopony could understand what the show meant.

Well, almost nopony.

The Doctor, of course, knew full and well what the light show was about. Suffice to say that being the only pony to know made him instantly intrigued about the subject, and soon after the ruckus, he found himself making his way back to the tardis hurriedly, with his three companions following breathlessly behind him.

"Come on Rose, we've got some work to do." The Doctor flung the doors to the TARDIS open swiftly. Derpy barely keeping pace.

"Oh, what shall you be doing Doctor," Jack mused, smiling at the time lord as he trotted in sneakily.

"Oh no Jack, you have to wait, you have to have someone to play babysitter for you, and right now at this moment, your current coltfriend cannot come to the point we're headed too, at least not yet." With that, the Doctor slammed the door in the immortal pony's face. Then the TARDIS whirred a few times and dissapeared, not to be seen again for a while.

***

It was a tense night in the Apple family household to say the very least. You see, the apple family's patriarch, Red Delicious, was one of those ponies that seemed a bit too happy for decree 63, and the idea of his daughter making such a huge fuss over another filly earlier in the day was not a very pleasing thought to him.

"What did you think you you were doing," Red Delicious screamed at his daughter, his dark brown hair slicked back," Ah told you that ah won't have anything like what I've seen today happenin' with my kin." He stomped his hoof upon the hardwood flooring of the den they'd started this argument in.

Not that one could call it an argument, it was more like a one sided screaming match, with Red Delicious having backed his daughter into a corner verbally and physically. Big Macintosh was in the opposite corner, watching his father berate his sister uncontrollably. Apple Bloom was up in her room, but Mac knew that she could hear every word of what was going on. She always did.

Red's rant kept going, but by now the two older siblings of the family had learn to filter most of his rants down to the basics. He didn't like coltcuddlers or fillyfoolers, them even thinking about such acts was a disgrace to him, and that he was gonna make them stop feeling these unnatural feelings. This time it was different though. This time he'd caught on to his daughter's indifference, and suddenly lifted a hoof to strike her.

Mac was on top of him before he could even try.

The red stallions rolled around the floor, beating each other senseless. Neither cared one bit about the fact that they were family anymore, until a sudden familiar scream caught them both off guard.

At the doorway to the den stood Applebloom, her eyes widened and her mouth agape. Tears were flowing down her face. Seeing her hurt like that, Mac felt sorry for what he'd done, he tried to step towards his younger sister, but to no avail. The young earth pony turned tail and ran into the Apple Family Orchard, which seemed darker that night than any before.

The two elder children ran into the orchard after her, but could not find hide nor hair of her. What they did find came as a bit of a surprise.

During the middle of the night, after a failed search, the two ponies found themselves in the middle of the orchard with what felt like no hope. Then suddenly, the orchard was filled with sound as a blasting whistling echoed throughout.A sudden light appeared nearby, followed by a small blue box, and of course, obnoxiously on time, came Jack Haykness as well, taking his place by Mac and smiling.

Then the doors to the blue box opened up and the Doctor came out smiling.

"Look, I know you don't know a lick about me, well, except for Jack, and maybe Mac," the timelord started," but I think it would be a wise idea if you came along with us." Mac and Applejack looked at each other with Applebloom gone, and there father at home, obviously fuming. Neither option looked very fun, but at least they seemed to be able to trust this strange pony to not hurt them as much as their father could.

They both just shrugged, maybe they might find Applebloom if they came along. They made their way into the blue box.

Into the adventure of their lives.

***

Vinyl took her first few steps into Ponyville with a smile on her face, her glasses were in her saddlebag, and her ruby eyes glistened in the moonlight, from what she'd heard from her friend Rarity, she wouldn't be needing her contacts, and that was a freedom she enjoyed.

It was late at night and she was just on the outskirts of the main hub of town, gazing at the night sky when suddenly a bright white orb appeared in front of her. It circled around her, almost seeming to bounce around her, as if studying her.

"Well hello little guy," the DJ spoke to the orb, generally intrigued by its sudden appearance. It bounced in front of her face at the sound of her voice. Then it suddenly flew straight at her, her body absorbing it. She was filled with a sudden pain that shot throughout her body, making her cringe. She fell over and blacked out, the pain still rushing through her body.

An hour later, she was awoken by two voices speaking over her semi-conscious body.

"Well well, look at our luck, we come here to eliminate the Elements of Harmony, and we find one of their bearers right here." The first voice was rough, as if the body behind it was large and heavy. She couldn't imagine who he was talking about.

"Yeah, and wouldn't you know it, this one looks like she just had 'er cherry popped." The other voice was as gruff as the other, almost raspy to be honest.

Suddenly the realization came to Vinyl that these two mysterious voices were talking about her, and her eyes shot open to see the barrel of an oddly shaped device pointed at her, it's owner's smiling face shrouded by the night.

"Oh, looks like she woke up," came the voice of the one pointing the odd device in her face," just in time." He pulled an odd appendage back upon some part of the device, and there was a loud bang. A bang that echoed into the night.

The dark ones had come.

The First Dawn.

Part Two: Battles of Ponyville

Chapter 14: The First Dawn.

She should be dead, that much she was certain of. She should be gone from the world in a flash. Yet, there she was, with her hooves planted on the floor. Though maybe this was the afterlife and she was standing on some awesome afterlife soil or something like that. She opened her eyes to check, only to see the two ponies from before now joined by a small cloaked figure she couldn't recognize. She was definitely alive, that much she was sure of now.

"You know, I'm used to you Dark Hand creeps being low and cowardly like this, but seriously," the figure cloaked in red spoke as he pulled back his hood to reveal the purple scales and green spikes of a dragon," you have reached a new low in stupidity with this one." The dragon pointed his claws at the two ponies and smirked sharply, obviously trying to offend them.

His boast worked quite well as the larger pony, who had dark brown fur and silver eyes, stomped a massive hoof upon the ground and yelled in protest. "Who are you calling stupid?" The pony's voice was like rough and deep, and his movements and gestures seemed wild as he began an attempt to set upon the small dragon. His smaller partner held him back, his grotesque K-law was covered in mold and the rest of his pale white body was in a very deteriorated state, but even in such a sickly form, he seemed to perfectly menacing.

"Don't toy with us you fool, it's gonna take more than just a simple baby dragon to beat us."

The Dragon just smiled as he grabbed his red cloak and threw it off. Suddenly, his eyes had become a deep and menacing red, and his scales had turned pure white. From his back, two bright white wings took form as his grin widened. The two dark ponies could only stare in shock.

"Well then, since you're so high and mighty, let's rock." The small dragon spoke with an air of perfect confidence.

***

Hidden deep in orchards of the Sweet Apple Acres, there stood a small clearing marked by a large treehouse. To the little foals of Ponyville, this was known as the base of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, a group founded by Apple Bloom and her friends dedicated to the search for finding that hidden talent that was special for everypony.

Luna's moon hung solemnly over the clearing tonight though, as the founders of the crusaders, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo, sat together in the silence, contemplating what could be there last moments together.

"Ah guess there's just no getting by it," Apple Bloom started," Ah'm leaving in the morning and there ain't no pony can stop me." Scootaloo and Sweetie gasped in response. Apple Bloom simply pointed her head at the floor solemnly.

"Why so sudden AB?" Sweetie asked. "I mean, you promised you'd stick around and watch the next set of crusaders, who's gonna do that now."

"Ah'm gonna see Miss Cheerilee before Ah leave, and make sure she watches over them, promise."

"But why?" Scootaloo asked quietly, a tinge of venom in her voice, she'd been as silent as she could the whole time, taking to pointing her head toward the floor, knowing already that one of her friends would be leaving, and now Apple Bloom.

"Scoots?!" Sweetie Belle stated quizically, looking at her friend, whose face was still pointed away from the others, in general shock.

"Why, why do you both have to leave me like this?!" The orange pegasus responded, lifting her head to reveal a mass of tears swelling from her eyes. "It's bad enough Sweets has to leave because of some stupid record deal, but now you're leaving, what am I supposed to do."

"Ah have to leave," Applebloom responded," don't you see, not only with all the family issues I've had, but, out of all three of us, Ah still haven't found mah Cutie Mark." The yellow earth pony turned her flank towards the other two in order to punctuate the statement. "Ah'm not meant for Ponyville Scoot's, that's just how life is."

"Well then life sucks!" The orange pegasus screamed, flying out of the tree house in tears.

"Scoots!" Sweetie Belle called out, as Scootaloo flew off, holding out a hoof as if to stop her. Then placing it on the ground and crying openly.

"You really like Scoot's don't ya?" Apple Bloom inquired, her friend just nodded through sobs, unable to speak."Then go after her, as much as she'd want to, she won't go far. I've seen the way she looks at you, and I know that you and me leaving together's gonna hurt her, but not because I mean anything to her." The earth pony smiled at her friend, who turned her head and smiled back as she sniffed loudly.

"Thank you AB, keep in touch."

"You bet Ah will, now go, before she really does take off."

***

Apple Bloom was right about Scootaloo, she didn't go very far. She just couldn't bear to have shown any weakness in these last moments the three of them would have together; or at least, she couldn't bear to have shown Sweetie any weakness, something she took from Rainbow Dash more than anything.

So she found herself in another clearing, no too far from the crusader base, trying to let her tears out alone and compose herself before she really did say goodbye, when Sweetie Belle approached her.

"Hey Scoots." The unicorn announced, as she entered the clearing and took her place beside her friend. "You OK?"

"What do you think, I'm freaking terrible," the orange pegasus responded, hiding her head in her hoofs. "You guys are gonna be gone, and I"m gonna be here alone."

"That's not what's really bothering you is it?" Sweetie Belle asked, and the orange pegasus started to cry even more in response. The unicorn wrapped her hooves around her friend and waited to talk again.

"Scootaloo, you like me, like, as more than just a friend don't you?" Sweetie felt her friend nod into her shoulder and took it as a yes.

"Then why haven't you said anything, you didn't have hold back your feelings."

"Yeah right." The pegasus responded, lifting her head from the unicorn's body with fresh tears in her eyes and staring her friend down.

"The moment I realized how much I liked you was the day you found your cutie mark. When you sang for everyone i n our classroom, I remember my world stopping and thinking that Celestia herself couldn't be any more perfect, and I was gonna tell you, I honestly was. But then you got your record deal and I didn't want to ruin your future with my feelings."

"What made you think that you'd ruin my life."

"Come on, you're gonna be off in Canterlot, shmoozing it up with the big shots, and I'm gonna be who knows where. There's gonna be other ponies who want you to be with them, and I'd just drag you down, keeping you from having fun."

"If you think that then you're surely mistaken." The unicorn scoffed, planting a kiss on the pegasus' lips."I've seen those, 'big shots,' before, and there nothing like you. I would be honored to have you as my marefriend Scoots."

"But you and Canterlo-"

"FOR LUNA'S SAKE JUST KISS THE MARE." Apple Bloom's voice could be heared through the clearing, shocking the others into turning towards the edge of the clearing to see her smiling figure. The first glimmering lights of dawn shown throughout the clearing, meaning, Apple Bloom would be leaving, and so, soon, would Sweetie Belle. however, in that moment, Scootaloo could care less as she took the unicorn she loved so much into her hooves and kissed her passionately in the light of the first dawn of there new life.

Their future looked bright in the dawn. If only the same could be said for some of the other denizens of Ponyville.

The Pony With the Odd Blue Box

Chapter 11: The Pony With the Odd Blue Box.

Ditzy's eyes widened in shock as the yellow pony exploded into light. She fell on her flank in shock as the force of the explosion caught her off her guard. She heard a cacophony of screams burst forth from the pony covered in light, almost as if hundreds of souls were being thrown around inside the light emanating from within him. Suddenly, the light disappeared, and a chocolate earth pony appeared in replacement of the yellow pegasus that had exited the blue box.

"Hello," the earth pony started, smiling brightly at Ditzy,"what's your name?"

Ditzy stared at the pony for a second in shock, then burst forth at the pony, pointing her hoof at the pony as she spoke. "Y-you, who are you. I mean, suddenly this weird blue. . .thing. . .appears in front of me, and some random pony steps out of it and explodes, then you suddenly appeared." She had her face in hers by the time she finished, and for a second afterwards all the earth pony could do was blink.

Then the earth pony stepped a bit away from Ditzy in order to be heard properly. He opened his mouth to speak, but then suddenly went about spinning around in circles, examining his body in an odd manner. The thought occurred to Ditzy that this strange pony deserved to be in a mental facility, when suddenly he muttered something to himself about his mane and tail. Finally he spoke. "What were you on about again. Oh yes, the whole,'explosion,' thing. You see, it wasn't exactly an explosion of sorts, it was a regeneration actually. As for the pegasus you just saw, I am him. . .well, was him, and he was me once. Now I'm me though and he's me, but a different me. Did I just ramble, I don't think I've done that since eight, that's nice. But again, who are you?"

Ditzy just stared at the pony flabbergasted, she couldn't catch hardly any of what the brown earth pony had said, and now she was blinking constantly as it came to her. She was suddenly assured of his insanity and told herself that she needed to get this pony to a mental ward stat.

"Well, since you're not going to answer me, I guess I'll just start, my names The Doctor, what's yours." The earth pony held out his hoof and smiled merrily at her. Dizzy could only look at him in confusion.

Finally she decided to humor this pony's craziness just to see where it would take her. She took his hoof in her own. "My name is Ditzy Doo."

"Ditzy, huh, that's a cool name, I like that name, it's nice and easy to remember. I like that."

Ditzy blushed a bit at the compliment, which was not lost on the Doctor. He smiled at her, then pulled her inside the small blue box he'd materialized in. "Come along Ditzy, into my awesomely magical blue box."

The tan pegasus was dragged into the box so roughly that she fell to her face the moment he let go of her. She got herself up and recomposed herself, only to lose that composure as soon as she saw where she was. The inside of that little blue box was really big, and filled to the brim with futuristic technology.

"I-i-it's bigger on the inside," Ditzy started, then she drifted off, letting the thought float in the air. The Doctor smiled at the mare as the door to the box shut behind her. The grey pony started twisting and turning different switches and levers. The room they were in started to shake violently, and when it stopped the doctor nodded towards the door.

"Take a look outside Ditzy." The mare did as she was commanded, and her eyes widened at the sight she was hit with. On the other side of the door was an ancient looking city that was nothing like Ponyville. The mare shut the doors instantly and turned to the Doctor flabbergasted.

"Where are we?", Ditzy asked, trotting up to the doctor slowly, eyeing him from his dark mane to his hourglass cutie mark. That was a bit intriguing to her. If cutie marks were a representation to a pony's character, then what did an hourglass mean.

"That was Ponyville, or what will become Ponyville. This is Ponyville in the year 200, 800 years before Celestia's rule in fact." The Doctor smiled at Ditzy as her jaw dropped in surprise.

"Well, whenever, where ever, we are, I need to get back."

"Why is that?", the doctor asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Because I'm getting married in the morning, and you just kidnapped me before I could get on the altar."

This time, it was the Doctor's eyes that widened in shock.

"What?"

***

Ditzy gulped audibly as she walked along the altar, her father stood beside her as she walked towards her future husband. She'd worried about this day for a year now, the parents had set this up, seeing as how they thought nopony would want her otherwise. She cursed herself for having been born with the faults she'd been given, mainly her eyes, one being askew from the other.

Thinking about her eyes also made her think about the Doctor. When she had left him, he had said that her eyes were nice, that he liked her eyes. That was the first time anyone had ever told her that, and she liked it. Not that she would probably ever hear it again, considering the fact that even her groom-to-be hated her eyes. She found herself once again wishing for a miracle.

She had just made it to the head of the altar when that miracle happened. A sudden familiar sound reached her ears, and she turned to see a little blue box appear in the middle of the aisle. She grinned widely, knowing the Doctor was on the other side. A familiar chocolate earth pony appeared out of the box and walked up to the almost-couple.

"Who are you?", Ditzy's groom to be, Aeros, asked as the doctor approached the two.

"Not important who I am, well, at least not for you. What's important is that I came to this wedding just in time to stop it, after all, can't have my new friend stuck marrying a Lorianis now, could I."

"A what-" Aeros started, but was quickly interrupted by the doctor whipping out his hoof from his coat. Attached to his hoof was a golden K-law, and in the K-law was an odd device. He used one of the appendages on the K-law to press a button that activated the device. A high-pitched blast of sound shot from the small device, and, after a sudden blast of light activated by the device occurred, a new creature that resembled an overgrown ant stood in Aero's place.

"Did you honestly think you could fool me with a psychic trick like that, I invented psychic tricks. Well, technically Rassilon invented them, but the point is that I am just too good to be fooled that easily." The Doctor turned to Ditzy and smiled. "Now that that's settled, how would you like to take a trip with me in my little blue box Ditzy Doo. Did I mention it travels through space as well."

Ditzy smiled, and took the Doctor's hoof in her own, running away with him into his odd blue box.