It was April 1st.
Rainbow Dash knew, with a beating heart and a furiously twitching ear, the end was nigh. Yet the sun was up, bright and shiny, with yellow beams of light illuminating the cloudy room that graced Rainbow Dash's hooves--which were off limits to anything or one else but nature, whose cloudy, watery, mushy, muddy terrains varied by season--step, step, stepped inside, refrigerator on the left, box on the right; she went in and searched for a snack, a bite to eat, something to quell the timberwolf inside her that snarled at her, growled, wishing for another meal. However, Rainbow Dash hadn't shopped for a while, her job of maintaining the town's weather had overstepped its bounds and smashed, shattered, broke those blasted dreams she once adored of simply going to the store to shop for some food; carrots, lettuce, maybe a simple radish or two, the ingredients that could be diced for her delicious stew she had in mind, despite her ability to truly cook a decent meal. But determination was Rainbow Dash's little name, a title her father told her she could never have if she wasn't putting her all into whatever she did. So she did, did she did.
In her mind, the idea of food entering her throat, sliding down and satisfying the beast was tempting. She could go fly down to the town where food was a plenty, where flowers of all kinds, grasses too--even though it made her queasy to her stomach thinking that grass would be even on her chart of deliciousness--lay in a basket, before being promptly cooked to a crisp, just how she liked it. Rumble, rumble, a quake of some sort, with her ears twitching once again, and her hooves now quivering to the loud booms inside her. She pressed on, forward towards the stairs. Food could wait, she had something to do today, something important.
She ignored her stomach's pleas and walked out the door. Her friends needed her, a Wonderbolt to be, with wings that can soar through the skies, ripping through its winds while the ponies below watched with awestruck gazes and glimmering eyes; could she say for sure? No, no, surely not. But she hoped they would say her name, like a Wonderbolt, but hopefully it wasn't those creepy ponies she hadn't desired on any day, hour, minute, or even a long, extended second to hear or even know they were watching her. Besides, her friends needed to be present to start the cheers, otherwise her mind would veer right into a ravine, full of scouring animals with sharp blades for teeth, and darkness lurking inside their chaotic hearts.
In her scope, while she flew with that same wind blowing through her luscious, rainbow mane, was the libr--castle, where her friends, including a Princess, would stay and chat. Today was a day they were to discuss with the Wonderbolts a mission, where they would sacrifice their time, lives, and even brain cells to decode and encode messages sent by the Princesses in Canterlot, whose hooves bore the cold sweat that had to transcribe them with the darkest black ink they could find to ensure that the messages could never be lost, faded, forever into the oblivion of the void. She, Rainbow Dash, did not know why she was told to come, since her mind was wrapped in a circle when it came to decoding messages that seemed to be in a third realm language that comprised of little to no worth, while her more mature side wanted to strangle the messages with the force of a thousand suns, since she could not back away from a challenge that was thrown at her at top speed. Yet, she was loyal to her friends, and nothing else could break that bond.
So she landed in that same old dirt, different from the feeling of a cloud, which had no particular feeling other than the nonsensical floating that tickled the insides of her hooves, making her able to stand, but sensitive to another hoof that decides to squiggle in to rub them. She shivers, remembering when she was almost given a hooficure, wanting to smash the nearest object in response, but she only found her friend, wearing a smile that threatened to leave her white beauty. After a few minutes of struggling, Rainbow Dash had gotten away from the dreaded hoof-touching spa, and swiftly hid in a bush. Yes, bushes are the best to hide in for a pegasus whose escape was dire.
She walked up to the doorstep and rang the sweet bell, which dinged and donged until the cows beckoned entrance, mooing and groaning in sheer praise that somepony, even though she was not their type, rung the bell that brought harmony to the world, and gave chaos a run for their bits, which crumbled together to form a ball of ash and disharmony. Rainbow Dash smiled, and waited patiently for her friend to yell at the guard to open the gate with speed. She imagined her friend barking the orders, while the guard frantically wished he wore his armor, for he thought Princess Twilight, a purple alicorn with a vicious tendency to snap if something hadn't been done right, would murder him as he stood if he hadn't opened the gate, while she, Rainbow Dash, had to deal with the brawl inside her that crawls without knowing how it moves, slithers? did it glide like her, with wings just as large? She couldn't tell, her stomach can't make art and digest food at the same time, its acid burning the artwork before it had a chance to even leave the system.
Rainbow Dash had stepped back after she heard that sound of music, one where royalty smashes the guards that serve her. It made a worthy distraction, her stomach rumbling to the painful sounds of frantic panic and frustrated agony echoed by the guards near the gate. She watched it slowly open, and greeted her the two suffering guards: one orange, a coat that didn't seem to change to white or grey, which were the normal colors of the guard, while the other bore that white, glistening coat that Rainbow Dash knew well. They stared at her, dumbfounded, probably glued to the sight of her mane, which had gained a windswept look from flying at top speed from her cloud house in the lovely, blue sky to the plain ole ground. This was stopped by a sudden growl from behind, a bark that echoed in Dash's ears. "Aside!"
They moved, orderly, one unconsciously assigned to the right, while the other wall was grasped onto by the orange stallion, bare without armor. He sheepishly smiled, while the grey one stood like a statue, emotionless. The one in the middle, not a guard, sported a grin, wearing her only piece of regalia: the crown. It was Princess Twilight, or to Rainbow Dash, just Twi'.
"Rainbow Dash!" she said. "Welcome!" She ensnared the pegasus in a hug. "How are you?"
The hooves wrapped around her felt nice, warm against her fur, friendly too; she smiled. "Good, Twi'," Rainbow Dash replied with care, her hooves returning the gesture. "I'm fine."
A wind blew gently over them. "That's good, Dash." A giggle. "Flying faster for fame?" A wiggle in her brows.
She facehooved. "J-Just getting some extra practice in!" she said, her voice giving way before she had even spoke. "Practice makes perfect!" she added.
A laugh, a hearty, stinging laugh, bore through the depths of her friend. "Oh, Dash! I'm glad you're my friend." Her laughing died down. "May I show you to your chair?"
Rainbow Dash, a slight blush tinged on her cheeks, nodded. "I'm forgetting where the chair is to begin with..." Another gust of wind whisked over the two. "The stone carvings are hard to see sometimes."
Twilight nuzzled her friend's cheek. "Well, it shouldn't be hard when there's two of us figuring it out! Come," she beckoned with one final nuzzle before separating, her hoof showing the way.
Twilight had left Rainbow Dash's cheek, which was once warm from the friction they had shared but now was cold from the breeze that swept it to this unbearable temperature; even though the wind's gentleness was not comparable to the skies above, it left a bitterly cold reminder on Rainbow Dash's face, one that told her that Twilight had left her, left. She shook her head, disregarding the idea of her friend leaving, for Twilight was near, going up stairs in her castle to the room of their friendship, where stone thrones equal in size and majestic qualities stood together in a circle, around an even smoother, rounder slab of stone, centered in the room. Each chair bore a cutie mark including Twilight's and Rainbow's, which assigned to them their rightful place in harmony, where proper discussion and equal reign was to be had. It would be great if she knew when they were coming, her tummy was making that awful humming...
Wind, turbulence, a steady glide; landing in fierce winds took pride and effort. Spitfire knew, her orange mane and yellow coat were definitely put into a spin, swept by the winds that tore through Ponyville's airspace. Soarin', with his smug smile baring witness to Spitfire's struggle, came too, wearing a pair of goggles to protect his green eyes, while his mane mirrored her own, except his was blue and definitely more flat from the wind's harsh gusts. The two had been called by Princess Twilight, who they had met before when she wasn't a Princess, but a unicorn, who had tremendous power and a heart of gold. Now they were anxious, at least Spitfire was, her legs were shaking, her mind was a-quaking, her mouth was numb; everything she thought she dispelled when she was just a filly, her wings fluttering in the breeze of the tryout arena, where others were sweating bullets while she had only plucked a loose feather and adjusted another, came back to haunt her over something so minuscule in theory, but critical in this situation, which had only one chance to make things right. She was already sweating bullets, while Soarin' was smug and tapped her on the shoulder. Spitfire turned, and asked him what was wrong, and he replied for her to calm down, rest, and not to shake. He could see through her easily, which promptly caused a large, red, evident blush to spread on the poor Captain's face, which Soarin' saw as a small, yet glorious victory. He had won a battle, yet not the war.
The two walked up to the gate, one more slowly than the other, and rung the loud bell, which made the two guards behind it shake with fear. They began to open the gate, but was stopped when Twilight Sparkle bellowed her call. The two stood rigid, except the one in orange had a minor case of the quakes, his eyes darting to his partner and back to center position, where his gaze was fixated on the shaft that opened the whole entrance. Twilight descended from the stairs and came promptly to the gate. She asked of them to open it, and there stood Spitfire and Soarin', patiently waiting.
Twilight rushed to them and captured them in a hug as well. "Welcome!' she excitedly said. "Welcome to my castle! It's been a while since we last saw each other, hasn't it?"
Soarin' beat Spitfire to the punch. "Yeah, it's been a while," he said, which brought a glare upon him from Spitfire, who wanted to say something else. Yet, the words were already said, floating in the air and into the eardrums of the Princess, sitting languidly in a chair in the waiting room, waiting to be processed by the speedy brain of Twilight Sparkle, who had read, decoded, encoded, and checked every little part of speech and identified it readily.
Twilight pulled away from the two and beckoned them in, of course, without a nuzzle, for they were not like Rainbow Dash, who, to her, had more of a worth than they did. However, the three still shared a friendship, just... minor in Twilight's eyes. As they passed the gate, Twilight barked the orders for the guards to close, making the orange stallion begin to crank the gate back into position. Soarin' had flashed a smile at him, which Spitfire knew was a bit of a mocking gesture, but the stallion apparently did not mind, for he returned one too. As they got out of sight of the two fellows, Spitfire jabbed Soarin's left fore hoof, which prompted a glare to descend on her. She gave him a smirk and turned to Twilight and said, "So what's it like to own a pad this large?"
Twilight had almost mistaken Spitfire's question as one that Rainbow Dash would ask, but, realizing that she was not around, knew that Spitfire, who was almost like her friend, had said it, which gave way to the spontaneous combustion of giggles. She smiled. "It's definitely amazing. I can even store more books than I could at the library!" Another giggle, but not as loud. "Instead of only A-Z, now I have 1, 2, 3; even 36,205!"
The eyeballs in Spitfire's head had almost jumped out at the sound of the number, "T-Thirty six..."
"36,205! Yep!" Twilight said giddily. "If you want, I can show you my library later! It's simply stacked with every edition of every book in Equestria!"
The two pegasi, both foreign to the idea that a hub of books could even exist, stood frozen briefly in their minds. After all, The Royal Canterlot Library in the Castle of the Twin Sisters was currently off limits to the public, because somepony had stolen two hundred pieces of necessary manuscript without checking them out, which made Princess Celestia turn from a happy, cheery alicorn with a mane of rainbows and sunshine to one that would burn an entire city down with just one flick of her inflamed tail. Now, hearing another library of the same caliber be created in such a short amount of time was a bit overbearing for the two flyers to handle. They just let it be, as they walked up the stairs to the throne room, which, in their minds, probably looked majestic and gold, with riches and glamour being thrown everywhere. Like a pageant, but without all the rich snobs telling you that one pony looked better than the other.
When the party of three reached the throne room, they were greeted by a slouched Rainbow Dash, who was lounging on her stone slab, which, apparently, had blue comforters on its seat. Twilight glared at her friend, which promptly made her stand tall in its grasp. Spitfire and Soarin' didn't pay much heed to that, for they were astonished by the fact that there wasn't a single bit of gold in the room. Not a single bit of gold. None.
Spitfire tilted her head at Twilight. "Say, don't you have anything in here that has gold in it?" she asked, recalling that nothing, not even the guards adorned any sort of golden armor. Most of it was stone, or a crystallized material, which their hooves clinked and clanked against it much more softly than stone.
Twilight wore a bemused grin on her face, bewildered by the fact that she was even asked that question. "Um... No, not really." A pause. "Celestia told me that you don't need riches to have friendship..." She took off her crown. "Except for my crown and hoof plates, which were made in the finest of gold to represent pride and honor of the Elements."
Soarin' gazed over at Rainbow Dash, which Spitfire knew, was somepony that they have been looking at over the years to replace her brother, Rapidfire, due to the poor tear in his leg that will probably end his career. It was a shame, knowing that her brother had to quit to heal, but injuries are injuries, and the Wonderbolt industry can't end because one pony got hammered by a wind and collided with the arena ground.
A loud growl emitted from Spitfire's stomach, which was odd since she had ate before they gotten here, but it must've gotten a certain somepony's attention, for Rainbow Dash had gotten up and stood right beside her in a flash. She asked, "Is your stomach rumbling too?"
Spitfire gave Rainbow Dash a nod. "Except I ate before I came."
This made Rainbow Dash raise an eyebrow. "Then why is your stomach growling?"
As Soarin' was about to open his mouth to toss in a quip to Spitfire, Twilight Sparkle, whose brain had been in the stars for a few moments, finally opened her mouth to speak. She said, "May we all sit down?"
The two stomach growlers sat beside each other, while Twilight and Soarin sat opposite of them. "Alright, so, this is all who is attending this meeting today." A somber pause. "I'm sorry that the other girls couldn't make it, they had to attend to their jobs of creating dresses, feeding animals, baking cakes and muffins, and kicking down some apples--"
A joyous chorus of grumbling interrupted Twilight's explanation. The two culprits blushed lightly, one even waved her cyan hoof at her, which killed the severity of the situation, in Twilight's mind. She sighed and continued anyway, the mood brutally murdered by the sounds of desperation and acid brews. "Well, today, we're here to discuss the messages Princess Celestia had given us to look at." With an easy spell, Twilight brought the scrolls into the room, putting them in the center of the table. "She said they were important to Equestria, and I have to say, they are really, really heavy."
"Why's that?" Rainbow Dash immediately asks. "I thought scrolls were light?"
Twilight giggled. "Dash, scrolls are never light, that is, unless they haven't been written on."
Spitfire joined in on the giggling, which brought Dash to a state of embarrassment, her ears splaying against her head. After a few seconds, the giggling of mares who knew of the scrolls several roles had died off. Spitfire patted Dash's back, and said, "It's okay to not know how scrolls work. They're a bit complex since the paper we use for scrolls is a bit more dense than the paper used in books." She turned to Twilight, who sported a gentle smile. "Am I right, Princess?"
"Yes, scrolls have a density that makes them heavier than most writing materials. They--"
A sudden, yet loud cough from beside her kept Twilight's speech to a minimum. "Oh, right. Thank you, Soarin'. We should be talking about the messages, not how heavy scrolls are..." Her ears lay splayed against her head for a moment, before they shot up in utter excitement. "Oh! So, these messages I have on the table are to be read by each of you. Pass them around so we can all reach the same consensus as to what they mean."
While Twilight properly distributed the scrolls, Rainbow Dash asked what consensus meant. The reply, though lengthy and descriptive to her, told her all about the word: where it was from, who invented it, who first said it, before the one who explained it to her finally told her of the definition, which was simply "them". Rainbow Dash frowned after hearing its definition. Twilight explained everything, even the simplest of words, in the most epic of ways, before she let the one hearing her down by being so simple, which did help her comprehension of it, but the simplicity being thrown into the complexity without much effort made Rainbow Dash sit in awe that her friend could lead her on like that. It didn't deter her mentally, as she had opened the scroll Twilight gave her while Twilight babbled about the definition and had started to decode it, but in the back of her mind, the idea was still there, ready to be sprung.
Time passed as the four ponies decoded the detailed message. It was written in five different languages, which varied on each scroll. Of course. Twilight knew many languages, since her job practically screamed for social communication. There was the normal Equestrian Equish, which was what everypony in Equestria's borders spoke, however, she also knew Xavar, which was the Griffon's second language for political word, while the Griffon's main language was translated as Griffonic. The others ones she knew could go on forever, including the French, who stood the tests of time and had even given Zecora's homeland a run for their money. Thankfully there had been peace since that fateful day when the French threatened to invade Zecora's homeland, however Twilight had to be apprehensive, for the French did not like for butting in on their affairs, and at any moment, the French could announce their invasion on Equestria.
The others had asked Twilight frequently of what a word meant, which made Twilight, in the end, translate a lot of the scrolls herself. But, Soarin', to everypony's surprise, translated every scroll without even having to ask Twilight anything. Not even for a glass of water, which everypony else had one at their throne, but unlike Soarin's, was empty. In the end, they had translated every bit of language. Setting the scrolls down in the center, rolled just as Twilight had before, Twilight spoke, "Alright, so what did everypony get out of the messages?"
Soarin' raised his hoof first, which made Twilight giggle. "Sorry, Soarin', this isn't a classroom. You don't have to raise your hoof."
He gave her a smile, one that didn't look smug as Spitfire would usually see. "Well, from what I translated, there is a surprise waiting for those who wish their bodies to stop their aches."
"Stop their aches?" Spitfire asked. "You mean, like stomach aches?"
"Soarin..." Rainbow Dash murmured. "Does this have to do with our stomachs?"
Twilight's eyes widened. "Um... Dash, Spitfire, what's that on your bellies?"
They looked down and gasped. In large, black ink wore the words "Press Me!" and in the center of their respective bellies was a button, which, to Soarin', was tempting to press. The horror in their eyes, how they twinkled in the sun's light, told the tale of the two mares' plight. A button on their bellies?
Rainbow Dash, whose mouth was agape in shock, was the first to find her voice. "T-Twilight, what's going on?"
Twilight shrugged. "I don't know... I have never seen this before."
"Maybe there's some sort of explanation in the messages," Spitfire threw out into the open. "You know, because it's a puzzle."
Twilight nodded. "Let's try that first before we go panicking to Celestia..."
"Why Princess Celestia?" Soarin' asked.
Rainbow Dash tapped her hoof on the chair's armrest. "Because Twilight always goes to Princess Celestia when she doesn't know what to do..."
Twilight glared at her friend, which made Rainbow Dash sink in her seat. "I guess we'll go with Spitfire's plan." A pause. "What else did we find?"
Rainbow Dash was the first to speak. "Well, mine, I think, means that we need to feed our stomachs something that we have never thought of eating."
Silence reigned. "Repeat that, Dash?"
Her brow furrowed as she hoisted the scroll into her grasp and unraveled it once again. "If you are grumbling, then your body is of need. Take care of it, by eating something that you never took heed," she said. "There's also some small print here, should I read it too?" After receiving a curt nod from all three of the ponies present, Rainbow Dash continued, "If you mistake the word 'heed' for seed, then make sure that seed is from a plant, not from a steed."
A blush came over the ace flyers, while Twilight, who heard the line, sat absent-minded, staring at Rainbow Dash's muzzle. All three of the pegasi set their gazes to Twilight, who had asked what the message meant by seed from a steed. They promptly told her of the story, where mommy and daddy loved each other very much, followed by the three lettered word, which, according to Rainbow Dash, had scarred her for life when she was younger, which gave Twilight a horrible, horrible headache. A blush adorned Twilight's cheeks too after hearing all their simple explanations, yet, she wanted to know more. More about the messages, that is.
"So, what about you, Spitfire, what did you get from them?"
Spitfire smiled at Twilight. "Well, from what we know, it makes sense that Dash and I's stomachs are rumbling due to not having the proper food that we need, but the scroll I read said that we should also be careful, for the one that we should take heed lies in a forest of dread and eve."
"Twilight," Rainbow Dash said. "Does this mean what I think this means?"
Rainbow Dash's horror story became true, as Twilight nodded, her wings fluttering for a moment before resting to her sides. "It's time to go to the Everfree Forest, my friends."
The three pegasi had never been more scared of a few messages in their lives.
The four sat still in front of the dark, black thrills of the giant tendrils that graced the trees of the yesteryear, which the Everfree Forest loved to keep clear from the rest of the normal, beautiful trees of Equestria. Here lay death around every corner, where animals of the forest run wild, free, and able to eat on any meat. Twilight stood in front of them all, the only one not afraid to lead the charge, her mane wildly flapping in the wind that brushed over the four of them. Her violet eyes were set on the goal: to find the food to solve this silly problem. She sighed and turned to the three quivering pegasi, who definitely did not want to go on this adventure. "Seriously?" she asked, which promptly earned her three erratic nods. "Look, it's just a forest."
"But it's the Everfree Forest!" Soarin shouted.
"Yeah, where we crashed!" Spitfire added.
Rainbow Dash stopped her quivering and turned to Spitfire. "Wait, I thought you two crashed into the side of that one mountain?"
The two nodded. "But when we were younger, we both had crashed in the Everfree and..." A tear escaped Spitfire's eyes. "We almost..."
Soarin hugged his Captain. "It's a long story, Dash, but it runs deep with her and I."
Rainbow Dash's mouth formed into a large 'O' before she saw Twilight's face, and dashed that pesky gesture away. Twilight, on the other hoof, knew that in order to fix this mess, she had to first persuade them to follow her. But with what? she thought. What would get three pegasi to follow her?
After thinking of nothing but of the birds' awkward chirps, Twilight sighed in defeat. "Look, we need to get whatever this plant is so we can fix this mess. I don't want any of you to feel or..." She paused to stare at the buttons. "Be pressed the wrong way."
Soarin' chuckled heartily at her pun, which drew two angry glares. He faltered back slightly but then mirrored the glares with his own, which, somehow, got the two to look at Twilight, who was staring with a twitching eye at the three. "So, are we ready?" Twilight asked.
The three nodded and the adventure began, the clip-clopping of hooves hitting the hard, grey dirt was all to be heard...
...and the sound of two growling stomachs battling their desire to eat anything new.
The winding environment took them on many twists, turns, even loopy-de-loops that felt physically impossible to imagine, according to Twilight, while the rest of the pegasi groaned, for there were even clouds that could do these types of feats. The eerie, dark, deserted feeling that rocked the four ponies told the tale of the Everfree, how the anguish that crept in the depths of the trees, how the sounds of faint gasps for help echoed in the bushes, and how the distinct sounds of rustling of leaves could scare anypony, and make them turn around, spread their wings, and fly out of the forest in hopes of finding civilization, but quickly realizing that when in the Everfree, the only way to get out was to walk out. Not even flying, which Twilight knew was futile, could save a pony. If they were unicorns, and those unicorns were strong enough to teleport out the forest's grasp, then maybe they could get away, but alas, it didn't happen often for very few unicorns possessed that power.
They had already moved far into its depths and had found nothing that they haven't tried yet. Twilight felt that their efforts of finding this food item was not enough, so they ventured forward, their tails tightly clung to their bodies. Rainbow Dash was behind Twilight, with her nose held high, and her tail held tight to her own chest, which felt odd considering the button that meshed into her fur coat was right there, smack dab on the center of its place. Yet, to her, the button wasn't there, or at least, it felt like it wasn't.
She sighed and continued on, watching Twilight's rage begin to take place. "Ugh!" Twilight said in frustration. "Where is this plant at?"
On cue, Spitfire's stomach grumbled loudly, louder than any other time before. She stopped, looked down, and noticed the button on her belly had changed. It still was circular,but underneath the word "Me" said the word, "Now" with multiple exclamation points after it. The three others eyed the spot, while Spitfire's mind rapidly conjured the ideas of death, destruction, and her fate of being tickled to the point of exhaustion, which did not fair well with her stomach, which grumbled again like a tremor of an earthquake. Soarin' smiled and brought his hoof to her stomach. "May I?"
Without much of a choice, Spitfire nodded. "Not so hard, please."
What happened when Soarin's large hoof pressed against Spitfire's belly shocked them all.
When contact was made, the button on Spitfire's chest made a low clicking sound. "Did that button just?" Soarin asked.
Twilight nodded, absent of all other functionality except for her brain and heart, which almost stood still for a second. "I-It did."
Soarin sighed and relinquished the pressure on her chest, which, thankfully to Spitfire, did not hurt her one bit. Instead, it--
"Guys, where did the floor go?" Rainbow Dash asked in a panic.
Twilight gazed down at the floor. Instead of collapsing, the dirt ground of the Equestrian soil moved above them while they floated in tandem with it. "Spitfire, was any of this in your message?!"
Spitfire shook her head. "No! I have no idea what is going on!"
The world, in Rainbow Dash's eyes, exploded in color, the spectrum, which included her mane, her coat, her eyes; came one in several colors, a twist, a swirl, a centralized piece that shaped her identity as a range of hues, which, in her lifetime, expanded to infinite of tints, shades, views, corrections; they were all one in each other, monochrome in theory, but not in practice. She gazed to her left and saw Spitfire floating too, blending in with the scenery of rainbows and shine, flourishing and relishing in color, blazing across the skies that she imagined were still real, but she knew were long gone with the space of time that she left. Or was it really real? It confused her. She wasn't good at identifying these things.
To her right was Twilight, a purple blob, and to her right, Soarin. They floated in sync, almost mixing, but not quite, for Rainbow Dash couldn't tell, the lines were too blurry to see them. Spitfire, on the other hoof, was visible in her entirety, which, in her mind, favored a question. Did she really know what was going on? It seems the world Rainbow Dash will or will not be shifting in asks her to see loyalty, or, so she thought, or maybe she did think it; it's confusing to her. She wasn't good at identifying these things.
It felt like an endless barrage of color, yet, it wasn't. Just color after color, nothing solid or identifiable to Dash's eye could work. Yet, Spitfire saw it differently. A yellow bolt of lightning favored Dash's mane, electrifying it, but not burning it, nor zapping it clean off her head, nor killing her. Instead, it stayed still and gave heed to any who saw it. Her wings were up too, Spitfire noticed; did Dash know they were open? She had to ask, but her mouth couldn't find itself again. Only color, much of it, was around her, and a bolt of lightning bled through it all, focusing itself on Dash, the Rainbow Dash. It made Spitfire's fur stand up on end, tickling her sensors and sending them into a haywire of bliss.
Then, Rainbow Dash, having gone through a sensory overload of color and floating, felt ground. She landed, and so did the rest, not blobs nor simply floating; instead, color came with lines and readily identifiable ones too. They were flowers: green, red, blue, yellow; in a garden, and there sat a being, whose hooves weren't really hooves, but claws. It stood and held out its claw. Rainbow Dash, unknowingly, brought her hoof to its claw and then, she felt it.
It smiled at her, with a grin, larger than any grin she saw. But then the grin faded into the backdrop, and so did it, floating away in distinct bloom and with it, so did Spitfire's button, as Rainbow Dash saw, fading into a yellow tangent of fire and dust. Spitfire gasped and fell to the ground, coughing.
"Spitfire!" Rainbow Dash said, coming to her aid. She helped the poor Captain up, whose body felt weak and cold to the touch. "Are you alright?"
Spitfire nodded weakly. "I'm fine, Dash." They, both, looked around and saw nothing, not a trace of either Soarin nor Twilight. "Where did they go?" Spitfire asked.
She saw that look in Spitfire's eyes: failure and loss, a feeling that Dash couldn't help but hide from, yet, she clung onto it with care as it felt weak in her hooves. Rainbow Dash knew her idol was weak too, just like her, and together, they moved towards the garden of flowers, which had endless rows of them, all different kinds that they had never seen before, so Dash presumed. She turned towards Spitfire. "Is this what the message wants us to eat?"
Spitfire shrugged. "We won't know until we try it!" She slowly held one in her teeth. "Let'sh eat!"
Together they ate them, and then, at that moment, Dash's button disappeared, and all together, they were gone, chowing down on flowers of delicious taste.
Rainbow Dash felt, her head wrapped in that same confusing circle, an electric pulse course through her. A shock here, there, legs quivering. She remembered what happened though, and her eyes widened. Her anxiety of losing her friends was lost as she saw them in the doorway, standing still, alive. It was all that mattered, and she let out the breath she was holding, her mind free from the attack that she thought she had to defend. She gazed at Spitfire, who was also very alive, and moved to her side, nuzzling her cheek.
Spitfire felt Rainbow Dash's face nuzzle hers. It was... different. An electric pulse felt like it coursed through her entire body. It gave her a jolt, of course, moving slightly away from Rainbow Dash, whose head was tilted slightly to the right. However, Spitfire knew she did not want the feeling to go, so she nuzzled back, their fur rubbing once again. Spitfire flashed a smile at her and said, "We're okay now?"
Rainbow Dash looked down. "Yep, looks like it is gone."
Twilight and Soarin smiled at her, which, felt different too; it made her feel queasy. She asked them what was wrong.
"Oh, nothing," Twilight replied. "There's just a scroll sitting on the table for you."
Spitfire looked at the scroll and smirked. She knew what it was, a scroll of recommendation for the lineup they were to--wait, Rainbow Dash was getting that slot? She gazed at Soarin, who promptly gave her a wink. The big ol' dope didn't even tell her. She sighed and then put on the biggest smile she could ever muster. "Looks like there is," she said, which brought Rainbow Dash back to life. "It's for you, since they don't like me."
Twilight gasped. "Of course w-we like you, Spitfire!" She looked at Soarin for help, who shook his head in response. This earned him a nice five long, painstaking laps on the new obstacle course she had devised, Spitfire thought, and he'll have to do the toss too.
On the other hoof, Soarin knew he had it in the bag. Rainbow Dash, one of the best, if not the best, flyer in all of Equestria on the roster, and he would do it with style, just like he always had. Style, Spitfire, and a chance of making Princess Celestia the happiest ruler in all of the land; another day at the office, so to speak, but definitely a nice pay raise. He smiled and gave Rainbow Dash the signal to open the blessed thing, which lay on its side, ready to be opened.
With apprehension, Rainbow Dash walked towards it. In her mind, she had gone through the weirdest sequence of events: buttons on her and Spitfire's bellies, going through the best color show of a lifetime, and eating foreign flowers to lose the button that sat on her belly; who would've even thought? What could this scroll do that could change her life in ways that she hadn't already experienced? Slowly, she grabbed the scroll, unrolled its form, and began to read aloud, "Dear Ms. Rainbow Dash." A pause. "I would first like to congratulate you on your first ever 'Princess Celestial April Fool's joke'." She stopped, gazed at the three, and growled. She threw the letter aside, and began to storm out the room, before Soarin caught her in his hooves--darn that stallion, she thought--and he, not that he wasn't strong, placed her right in front of him. He glared at her and said, "Continue reading the scroll."
The gaze he wore, almost like fire in a forest, made Rainbow Dash shiver to her core. She nodded, reluctantly, and walked towards the scroll again. She opened it and continued, "I also like to congratulate you on joining the Wonderbolts--" She gazed up at Soarin. "R-Really?"
Soarin nodded. "This was an exercise to see if you can deal with a situation that is foreign to you." He grabbed her hoof. "Not to mention that we already know your dimensions and skill, we--"
"I'd like to interrupt you on that, Soarin," Spitfire announced, grabbing all three of the ponies' attention. "It's not that we knew her dimensions and skill, but we wanted to see if she could change. We didn't want somepony who would rouse the media every chance they could get and cause problems within our team." She stood in front of Rainbow Dash, who stood as still as a statue. "You know by now that we're strict as can be, we can push you to your limits, and we have not only the best flyers, but the smartest ones too." She grabbed Rainbow Dash by her mane and pulled her forward, causing Rainbow Dash to gasp. "And I expect that you will be the same, correct?"
"Yes," Rainbow Dash said.
"I can't hear you, private!" The word rung into Dash's ear so fluently. "You will be the same in honor, loyalty, respect, and integrity of our fine group?"
"Yes ma'am!" Rainbow Dash bellowed in response.
"At ease!" she commanded, before lowing her voice. "Your among friends here, Rainbow Dash. Welcome to the squad." She brought her hoof out to shake. "We're glad to have you."
Spitfire thought Rainbow Dash would shake her hoof, since it was proper and prim for a pony of her status to do so. Yet, what she got was a complete reversal, something she would remember forever.
A hug. Not too tight, yet not too soft, and then, a sweet torrent of tears rested on her neck.
Twilight saw the scene and smiled. In all the years she's known Rainbow, not once did it seem like her cry could be genuine. Yet, here she was, crying into her idol--no, Captain's neck. It was all like a dream.
"So," Soarin said. "What are you going to do now?"
Rainbow Dash smiled. "I'm going to go flying with my new teammates of course!" They rolled off the tongue so well. "I--Thank you..."
Twilight came to Rainbow Dash's side. "Does it feel like a dream?" Rainbow Dash began to nod, but stopped, and shook her head, which made all three of them tilt their own, respective heads. "Why?"
Rainbow Dash sat still. Why, she thought, why does it feel like its real? Genuine? Not a falsehood? A smile graced her face as the words in her mind began to play a sweet melody, one that made her, and apparently her wings, transcend to the heights of the skies, and then come back down again, perpetually. "Because each button I step or press allows me to move on to the next, making this only one of the many buttons I have left." She pauses and brings them all to her. "And I have all you and the rest of our friends to support me."
There had never been any more truer words spoken by Rainbow Dash, Twilight thought, and so she wrote them down in her little journal, a keepsake that she intended to look back at when she is older, and laugh, giggle, smile, and cry with all her friends. Hopefully Rainbow Dash remembers it too, for she will be with her forever, hoping to press even more buttons in the future.
