Where the Clouds Move By Their Own Accord

Chapters

The Funeral
B-sides and Rarities
Escapade
Rattlers
I'm Out

The Funeral

So, quite blatantly, it began at a funeral.

Now, that may sound dreary, but no need to go insinuating at what kind of story this is right off the bat. The truth is, it is actually very light-hearted and understandable.

Heh, understandable.

If only you knew the first thing about understanding. What kind of a story is it if it isn’t understandable? Obviously you haven’t created a pleasant read if the reader can’t either relate to it or at least emotionally connect. And I don’t mean emotional like, “Waaaaahhh! Waaaaahhh! Soooo Sad!”. I mean like, real emotions... all the colors of the rainbow, everything under the sun emotions. I would like to pontificate as such, that all we ever wanted was to be understood anyways. All we ever wanted was to understand and be accepted. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, I know that much-

My apologies, I digress. Sometimes I really do get off track.

Back to the story- a funeral. Ah, yes, the funeral. Truth be told I wasn’t entirely off script, the story does begin with a heaping pile of understanding. Now, let me ask a simple question-

just how much did you truly understand about your first funeral?

Hmph. I presume not much. The idea of death is intoxicating. That could be in both a beautiful sense and an uninvited sense. Your first funeral could have meant anything, the implications are endless. You may have cried without the slightest of clues as to what the situation at hand pertained. You may have kept a silent vigil, either unmoved or emotionally stable. Hell, you may have laughed because you thought the poor soul was a bastard, or its demise silly. I honestly don't care. Because the awful truth is, no matter how old you were, you were inexplicably in awe by the deciding force of nature.

Don’t tell me that you were prepared for it! No one is ever prepared for it. Even if you never knew who the fated individual was in the first place, it is hard to sit in a room full of grief stricken subjects that did. Their painful cries pry into your very being like a spearhead driven through a paper plate. I’ve attended such funerals. I’ve been to such places. Some of them are grand, and would grow to look less like a funeral so much as a cult gathering if it weren’t for the crying folks. Others are small, and oddly enough the most emotionally draining. But it truly all comes down to how you accept it, how you address it- because the simplicity of it is really remarkable when you take a step back and look at it.

So, quite blatantly, it began at a funeral. Not just any funeral, but a first funeral. It begins with a pony who has no name. It begins with the most emotional funeral I have ever seen. It begins with a desire to understand. Remember what I said about smaller funerals? Well... this young pony happens to be the only one in attendance on this date. I believe that I had almost shed a single tear at their last goodbyes, and that is saying a lot, mind you. Oh! But I don’t wish to spoil it! That would be rotten of me! I must know a storyteller's place. For, as with everything:

It all begins with a means of understanding.

o----o

The soil was soggy and muddied, as if somepony had trodden upon it numerous times over for no apparent reason. A mound of dirt stuck out of it, neatly packed but still makeshift, making it appear to be an overgrown ant hill. There were several lines drawn in the dirt, but none more pronounced than the word “Mom” placed in the middle of the mound with a crudely drawn heart encasing it. An old rag doll completed the piece, as it rested reclined next to the mud pile. The pony before the despicable sight looked on dissatisfied. This was as far from proper as it could possibly get.

“I’m so sorry I can’t do more than this,” she thought, eyes shuttered and head turned away. “this is an utter disgrace...”

And, for lack of a better word, she was sorry. Sorry for many, many things. Sorry that she never went back. Sorry for a life most unwelcome. Sorry for the way she cast her mother away, leaving her stranded on that forsaken porch in the middle of an unrelenting downpour. She was sorry for the way her mother looked at her as she left... a look of melancholic approval, a nod in the right direction.

“This is the only way. This is what must happen.”

A single tear spilled from the corner of her eye. The words rang in her head, sweeping back and forth in a psychological bell toll. She held herself tightly, unwilling to accept her memories as truth. “Abandon ship” was not a part of her extensive vocabulary. She was strong, faithful, ever so clever, and talented, proving to be a handful to anypony who crossed her the wrong way. Yet, on that night, the white flag was waved. They had given up. Her closest companion through all of her filly years... gone. The goodbye was swift and bittersweet. The reunion- a drawn out and graceless goodbye.

No. This was wrong. She was determined to leave her past behind her. What happened then was not her fault, and it certainly wasn’t her battle to fight. Well... wasn’t it? Just whose battle was it if not hers? The constant argumentative wars in her head had ravaged her mind over the years. Which side to take regarding the predicament was unclear. Interesting how a heart and head befuddlement could make you so weak, could make your entire body ache.

NOTE: Regarding the Heart and Head situation-

What her heart told her- Go back. She needs you. She needs her daughter.

What her brain told her- Stay out of sight. You are not strong enough to face your demons.

For all of those years, she had reluctantly listened to her brain. Listened to reason, if you will. But, she didn’t want to be reasonable. She wanted to be valiant, she wanted to be a hero, she needed to be a savior. There were times when she had fully intended to go back to that rain-soaked porch. She would have everything packed, every tangible piece to the puzzle would be strewn together, everything she needed would be at her disposal. But the intangible was never there. Her wits were never there. Every time she was ready to go, she would slowly break into a teary sob, and she would slump to the floor. She would curse herself, and she’d claw at her heart in frustration. It was always the same old story, and she loathed that story with every fiber of her being. The story never failed to tell itself though, and history would always be sure to take notes.

But, is this the way it was supposed to be? Her mother had told her to leave! She had told her to go, and to never come back! It was better this way, she said. And, all things considered, it truly was. Her life was most definitely not a big bushel of roses, but it couldn’t be worse than those years. Those dreadful years... she could be dead. Her mother had saved her. She was so young, and she had so much to live for, so much life ahead of her. She could not have helped in any way back in those years.

So, why was this so hard?

A sudden gust of wind blew up, scattering particles of mud in various directions. She clutched at her raggedy old bag she called a coat and bundled up inside of it, shivering under the near complete uselessness it provided for warmth. In times like these, it was common for her to delve deep into her psyche. She would conjure forth fond memories, in which the brief moments of bliss could tide her over until she found someplace warm. If nothing else, it simply made her forget the cold she felt outside. “Finding an inner sun,” as she preferred to call it. She sought into her mind, willing for the kind words of an old friend to play across her eyelids like the writing of a quill across papyrus.

But no revelation was to be played today.

Only the grim reminiscences of a soul plagued by regret.

“Oh, mom...” She managed to pipe out. Nothing else.

She sat in silence before the grave for hours, fighting through the daunting wind that swept across the valley. The blustery waves of icy air lapped at her frame, carrying with it any ounce of heat from the overcast sky. She bit her lip and frowned. Her teeth were chattering against each other. Her eyes were glazed over, and they began to replicate the forms of small ice rinks. She lowered her head into the wind and closed her frosted eyelids. It would take a volatile concoction of inclement weather to dissuade her from staying a bit longer. She sat in the frigid conditions, unmotivated to make a single movement...

because if she knew anything at all, she knew that nothing lasts forever.

“How fitting.” She thought as she opened her eyes and glanced up at the swirling storm clouds. It was bound to rain soon. She flattened herself down into the mud, fully stretching out her body into a strange contortion. It looked rather uncomfortable, her hind legs overlapping each other and her torso twisted sideways. She leaned her head on her left hoof, letting out a huff of breath that floated out into the atmosphere and quickly disappeared. A discouraging smile formed on her lips as she watched her breaths dissipate in the stale air. Odd, everything seemed to be just smoke and mirrors. She breathed a long, forlorn sigh. The wind shifted, racing down the plains, enveloping her, its chilly claws inescapable. She shuddered, turning away from the new direction it took. A drop of water sloshed down upon her cheek, and she failed to wipe it away. “Was anything even worth it?”.

A foreboding darkness now shrouded the grounds. The clouds peered down on her, faceless and mysterious. They could not sustain the weight that they carried, and they had picked this moment to discard their payload. Without further adieu, the rain began falling from the sky.

At first, she felt only a slight drizzle. The pitter-patter of tiny droplets could be felt on her coat, tarrying with them reconciliations of the times she gazed out from her lonely window in her old room. The window that stood for an escape into another world, another dimension even. She shrugged the thought off, the memory shattering like a pane of glass. Then, the rain came down harder. The muddied soil beneath her splashed up with each drop and gripped her coat with a solemn reprise. All of the memories came back... all of them. They flashed across her brain in a cognitive dissonance, surging through her spinal cord, and thus making the area before her seem to quake with malice. Her expression turned from blank, to fear. These memories would revisit her often, and each time they did, she despised the outcome. It would leave her on a hellish train ride to nowhere, or, at least that’s how it felt. The cold seeped into her insides, freezing her solid. The wind gingerly carried her soul along, leaving her stranded in murky waters. In the end, it was not the weather that made her leave, it was the notions that they carried.

She sat up begrudgingly, and through the rain that was picking up with each second, she watched the mound slowly melt.

“Thank-you, mother. Thank-you for everything.” She whispered, her voice being drowned out by the rain. It was now impossible to discern what was rainwater and what were tears rolling from her cheeks.

The rag doll that sat on the grave stayed there, now sopping wet and beginning to fuse itself to the mud. It watched the pony trudge away, the grey mist from the rain veiling her as she went. Slowly, the torrential rains washed her figure away from sight, just as it washed the doll away from existence.

o----o

“Oh-oh.” Rainbow Dash gasped, springing out of her bed and shooting into the air. She spun around in a violent circle. “Where is it where is it where is it?”

Her room was messy. The floor was littered with an assortment of trash, subscriptions to Wonderbolts Weekly, and various other trinkets that evidently struck Dashie’s fancy. It looked as if it were in ‘Pinkie Pie party recover mode’. Dash sorted through the wreckage, frantically searching for the item that she was in dire need of.

“Nope...”

“Uh-uh...”

“No...”

“Blech! What even is this?”

Articles of clothing and other useless items were being heaved to and fro. Rainbow fluttered from corner to corner, digging through random objects until she would scrape the floor beneath. Only when she ransacked her room entirely did she remember something that she should have remembered the instant she got out of bed.

“Oh, dear Celestia.”

Dash put a hoof to her face. She exited her room, where just outside the door was the basket she was supposed to take to the picnic today. She had left it there overnight, so that she would not forget about it come the next day.

“Lay off the cider a bit, Dash, wouldya?” She said to herself.

Dash snatched the basket from the doorway with her mouth and pivoted to look at the clock. 12:15... boy, did she oversleep. She snarled, swinging the basket around and placing it on her haunches.

“Last time I stay late at one of Pinkie’s parties.” She chimed. Then, as her name implies, and seriously no pun intended here, she dashed out the... well... window.

It was a very sunny day in Ponyville, and the sun beat down with vigor. It pierced through the treelines, making any a shady spot extremely difficult to find. Other than the terrible heat, it was a nice day- just nice enough to do something productive. Ponies everywhere were out flying kites, hang-gliding, or earning their cutie marks by scaring some chickens half to death (don’t tell Fluttershy). Particularly, our five ponies sat on a hillside, in an ideal place for a picnic. They were blowing fans in their faces in an attempt to counteract the gruesome heat which, to their dismay, did not seem to be working. They were sweating profusely under the conditions, and the refreshments seemed to be disappearing by the second. There was a dragon there whose apparent vocation was to scuttle from town to hillside and vice versa, each time carrying a load of water that seemed to evaporate almost as soon as it got there. When he didn’t return one time after storming off in frustration, it only grew more humid. There was a certain white pony who absolutely could not stand the conditions, or the dragon’s attitude. A light bulb flicked on inside her head. She had gone back to her abode only to bring back a dozen humongous motorized fans, which had turned the hillside into a blast of fresh air, and-

wait... five ponies? Ummmm...

“Uh, anypony seen Rainbow around lately?” Twilight Sparkle asked, fidgeting around on the checkerboard patterned blanket beneath her. She looked to her friends’ expressionless faces, their manes flowing in the artificial breeze. They obviously had no idea.

“Oh, dear,” Fluttershy stammered, “what if something happened to her? Do you think that she wandered off into the Everfree forest again? I keep telling her not to, but she never listens... we don’t have to go find her, do we? Oh, forget I said anything...” Fluttershy turned away bashfully.

“I’m sure she’s fine, Fluttershy.” Twilight said. She searched the skies, waiting for the pegasus with the rainbow colored mane to come bulleting out of its midst. “She’s only... um, fifteen minutes late.”

The five ponies rested at their usual location for the picnic, and only for the umpteenth time. Twilight considered it highly unlikely that Rainbow had forgotten where it was. She swished her mane back, her lovely dark blue colored hair with pink and violet highlights standing out in the bright sunshine. “Oh well, the show goes on.” she thought. She turned back to the banquet, where a delicious array of sweets and other delicacies presented themselves with a grandness that could only be tailored by a crafty hand.

Pinkie Pie had brought the Cakes’ new dragonberry lemonade cupcakes, the likes of which Twilight had been eyeing for some time now. Each cupcake was frosted with a creamy butterscotch, which was turned a light blue color, and was adorned with sprinkles and a single dragonberry on top. The cupcakes themselves were a hot pink, and teeny bits of the berries could be discovered in each mouthful. Of course, the box was widened and every treat was separated from the rest, so that they would not touch (according to Twilight’s specifications). “They made ‘em out of dragonberries and lemonade! Isn’t that silly? I’ve never heard of such a thing! You know, you’re lucky I didn’t just scarf ‘em down on the spot, they looked de-lish! I’m a good friend, aren’t I Twilight!?”. Pinkie Pie’s words rambled around in her skull as she marveled at the cupcakes. She couldn’t help but imagine Pinkie’s incessant laugh afterwards, either.

“Pinkie, I must say, those cupcakes look stunningly good! I’m really having a tough time waiting for a bite.” Twilight said.

The pink pony she was talking to cheerfully raised a hoof and wavered it through the air. She was busy gulping down one of Applejack’s finest apple fritters, but it didn’t stop her from replying through a mouthful of half-chewed food. “You and me both sister! I can’t stand it when we have to wait all ‘lady-like’ for somepony else to show up. They’d just eat all the food anyway! Oh, and they made ‘em out of dragonberries and lemonade! Isn’t that silly? I’ve never heard of such a thing! You know, you’re-”

“Yes, I know I’m lucky, and you are a great friend, Pinkie.” Twilight cut her off, already knowledgeable about the rest of the sentence. She smiled and rolled her eyes.

Pinkie Pie’s eyes went wide, staring wildly at Twilight. Apparently, Pinkie had no recollection that they had shared this conversation earlier in the day, and she contributed Twilight’s knowledge to her magical abilities. Pinkie sat back on the grass, eventually sliding the rest of the fritter down her gullet. It slid down with a gulp and she immediately transfixed her eyes back on the unicorn.

“You know, Twilight, it’s not very nice of you to read someone’s mind.” She scoffed. Then, as if everything had just been utterly forgotten, she smiled and kicked up three of AJ’s fritters, catching each of them in her mouth.

Everypony else shared a similar, dumb expression as to what Pinkie was talking about.

Rainbow Dash was barreling through the sky, her mind in a state of flux for being late to the picnic. She had never been late before. Her internal alarm clock was usually right on the button. So, why had it failed her today? Eh, no matter. The congregation today wasn’t of grave importance anyway. Who the hoof cared if she was but a few minutes late? Still, she didn’t slow down. The food she carried in her basket began to turn to mush she was traveling so blindingly fast. She didn’t notice, and still flew faster-

“You know Pinkie,” Twilight started, “you’re right... I mean about the food thing,”

-and faster-

“If Rainbow wants to show up late, then that’s her problem. We shouldn’t have to wait on her with empty stomachs.”

-and faster still-

“Everypony, dig in!”

They all dove into the delicacies awaiting them. Twilight Sparkle lifted one of the dragonberry cupcakes from the cardboard box with gentle telekinesis and cradled it into her hooves like a fledgling. She licked her lips, eyes welling with the promise of a treat most incredible. Her mouth opened wide, readying itself to savor every last bite of the-

“I’m HEEERRREEEE!!”

Twilight looked up unexpectedly. Rainbow Dash came gunning out of the sky, funneling down with an undesired destructive tendency. Twilight had a split second to react, but any motion away would be to no avail. Dash smacked squarely into her with awesome power. The cupcake carromed away from Twilight’s grasp, shooting across the field as if it were fired from Pinkie’s party cannon. It vanished with a twinkle off in the distance.

Dash lay on top of Twilight, a little disoriented from the collision, the blanket that everyone was sitting on now shriveled up around them. Twilight lay underneath, in severe shock. Stars were buzzing around her head, and her mouth stood gaped open, still anticipating the decadent flavor the cupcake was sure to provide. Sadly, that cupcake was now a lost cause.

“Hey How’sitgoin’ What’d I miss Nice weather right? Hey AJ what’s up didjya miss me?”

Everypony cocked their heads to the side as they guised at Rainbow’s interesting entrance. Her nostrils were flaring, her mane was all sorts of wind-blown, and she still erected herself over a discombobulated Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow looked at her friends as if she were a bull and she was seeing a crazy amount of red. Her vision blurred her friends images, as they appeared to be slithering up and down like snakes. It was likely she should be tested for a concussion. Dash rubbed at her eyes viciously. Her left eye was flinching sporadically as the scenery now transformed itself into an outlandish Dali portrait.

All the others saw was a completely distraught Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie crashed to the ground, cackling in an mused whinney.

“HAHAHA Hehehe ah, oh! Do you guys see the look on her FACE!? Haheh, totally classic! Haha!” Pinkie snorted, rolling around on her back.

Dash shook her head in an attempt to rid herself of the strange illusions. The world slowly drifted back to its appropriate state, now revised to a crisp scene and ultimately culminating in a sense of relief for her. She could still hear sirens ringing in her ears, however. Oh, wait, that was just Pinkie’s fanatic laughter.

“Haha! And look at Twilight! Oof! Hahaheh!”

“Rainbow, not to disturb you or anything, but do you think that you could remove yourself from Twilight’s bubble? You seem to have... mangled her.” Rarity called to Dash. She winced at the sight of Twilight, who looked very uncomfortable. The poor purple unicorn was caught underneath Dash, and she had absorbed the worst of the collision, her eyes staring mindlessly up at the careless pegasus. The definition of “starstruck” was reset to “repeatedly getting bashed in the head by a series of intense lights” as far as she was concerned.

“Heheheh, maaaagic n’ unicorns n’ boooooks and stuffs!” Twilight whistled, totally out of it.

“Whoops.” Dash uttered, realizing that she was towering over the unicorn. She jumped off of Twilight and meandered over to AJ, who was still trying to decide whether or not Dash was ill in the head. Dash looked at AJ and shrugged her shoulders. She parked herself on the grass and turned away, sheepishly rubbing her front leg with a hoof.

“Somepony be a dear and fetch some water for her.” Rarity said, limply gesturing a hoof in Twilight’s direction.

“Ugh! Forget it! I totally didn’t wanna go to the picnic anyway!” A voice screamed from the bottom of the hill.

“Twilight, I really am sorry... I didn’t see you clearly.” Rainbow Dash said, the sincerity in her voice pure. She poured another glass of water and set it down in front of the unicorn.

“Rainbow, I’m fine! Honestly!” Twilight claimed. She was now wearing Dashie’s sunglasses to protect her head from the harsh light. “What about yourself? You took a pretty brash hit also.”

“I-I’m fine... I think we’re a bit more worried about you.”

“Well, I appreciate your empathy, but I am completely all right!”

Twilight’s tone of voice was not arguable. No one dared tell her she need go home. She got to all fours wobbly and shot her concealed gaze over Dash’s way, smiling approvingly. Dash nodded and managed an unsure smirk. Twilight proudly lifted her head and took a first step. She nearly toppled right over, the ground spun. The blanket shifted beneath her. She clumsily stumbled around like a mad ballerina, performing feats of incredible dizziness. Dash watched Twilight step all over the salad and bread as she tried to maneuver through the picnic.

“Whoa, heheh, um, I meant to do that...”

She trampled over the party platter-

“Um, who put that there? Hehe...”

She tripped on her own hoof-

“Wha, YAAAGGHH!”

And she clonked to the ground.

“Um, I think I’ll lay down here...”

Dash smacked her face with a hoof and rubbed straight down, the skin stretching and snapping back resiliently. She rolled her eyes to Twilight, who was still stuck to the floor, trying to make polite small talk as if nothing were wrong. The sunglasses that were on her head were now askew. Everything about her, really, was now askew.

“Rainbow... didn’t you bring a basket of food?” She asked.

“Oh, yes, and it was most delicious.” Fluttershy answered from the corner of the blanket. She was cringing as Rarity assisted her in combing mashed up food stuffs from her mane.

Rainbow Dash again smacked her face with her hoof.

“Guys, really, I’m sorry for ruining everything.” she said.

“Oh, darling, you didn’t ruin anything! Now hush yourself and eat some of those rolls, you look starved!” Rarity cooed. She took the time from toiling with Fluttershy’s mane to run a personal fan across her face, her newly designed fanciful cap jostling around.

“Ummmm...” Dashie muttered, pointing at the rolls that had been laid waste to by Twilight’s hooves.

“Oh. Well, no matter, Applejack over there still has some apple pie left.”

“Darn tootin’! Here RD, try yer fancy at this’n, new recipe from Granny Smith!”

AJ shoved the pie in Rainbow’s face, her cheeks ballooning to size of a chipmunk set for winter. “Mmmmm! Fanks gyes! Oor teh bessht!”

And after all the hooplah died down, the day gradually took a turn for the better. Sure, Twilight Sparkle did have a moderately serious head injury, but no worries, she’d be fine. At least as the day drew on she was able to right herself and walk. The sunlight kept blasting through the sky, putting Rarity’s fans to good use. Dashie's sunglasses proved to Twilight's benefit. She accompanied Fluttershy, chatting it up in the corner as the other four invented a new game.

Rainbow Dash hailed it, “monkeyball”, and the objective was only to keep the ball from hitting the ground. Of course, this game had already been invented... but it hadn’t yet been played before in gale force winds. When the ponies hurled the ball into the air, it raced around in numerous directions midflight, making the game considerably harder and a lot more entertaining. They all jagged around in meticulous footsteps, tagging along behind the ball as it circled. As you might expect, AJ and Dash were exceptionally good at the game, and they got the majority of the taps. Pinkie Pie was surprisingly good, if not a bit energetic. There were several occasions where the others were annihilated by her as she fought for the ball. And Rarity...

tried.

Don’t get me wrong, Rarity was a strangely athletic unicorn for her lifestyle. She just wasn’t much suited for this game. Oh! She did get the last tap of the game in though!

The ball deflated on her horn with a hiss, its rubbery remnants cloaking her face.

Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle snickered in the corner at her misfortune.

“Twilight! Twilight! Check this out! Look! Look!” a voice cried from just within earshot. It was Spike squabbling up the hillside, waving a letter from the Princess in his right claw. Everypony halted their activities to see what all the fuss was about.

Spike panted into the center of the six mares, where he doubled over, outstretching his arm in Twilight’s direction. “Here, its a-a... phew! A letter from the, *wheeze*... Princess.” He coughed. He leaned over on Applejack’s shoulder, catching his breath.

Twilight lifted the scroll from Spike’s grasp with dazed magic. She rubbed at her head and dropped it to the ground in front of her, instead choosing to unroll it with her hoof. The others watched Twilight as she studied the scroll. She looked up with shock after only studying it for a short time, flipping it to the back as if there had to be more to it.

“This is so... strange...” She said, eyebrows raised.

“What’s it say?” They all asked.

Twilight looked up. “It says its for you.” she replied, pointing distantly at Rainbow Dash.

Dashie’s eyes pondered Twilight. The purple unicorn stared back in disbelief, the letter before her legs threatening to blow away in the breeze. The others were taken aback. Dash never turned away from Twilight as she approached the letter. She stood in front of Twilight, and with an awkward glance, she rotated the letter to face her. It was succinct, containing one sentence-

From Princess Celestia in Royal Canterlot,

Rainbow Dash, you’re up.

o----o

“Rainbow! Would you lay off? I’ve already sent several letters back questioning what it was for. Spike’s claw is going to snap off if we keep sending!” Twilight Sparkle spat at Dash, her own mind perplexed by the curious letter. The two and Spike were the only ones in the library, discontented that they had not received any mail back. Rainbow hid herself in the corner, ready to be carried away by the Royal Guard or worse. She imagined the letter to be a warning, a warning that she had done something dreadfully wrong, and that Canterlot was after her for it. Images of the guard floated around her head. Her figmentations became all too real... and she panicked.

“YAAAUUGH! I didn’t mean to take that extra orange! They put it in my bag and I accidentally took it oh don’t make me go awaaaaa-ha-haaay!”

Twilight looked over the pegasus cowering in the corner and shook her head. “Rainbow, no one is going to take you away, that is absolutely ridiculous." she reasoned. "Spike... anything yet?”

Spike rubbed at his stomach, attempting to encourage a letter to spew forth. “No... sorry.”

Rainbow coiled up even more in the corner. Paranoia whispered her name through the air- “Rainbow Dash... Rainbow Dash...”. Her ears twitched around as the incriminating name nestled itself into her brain. Bravery be damned, this was Royal Canterlot we were talking about! And they wanted her? What for? What could she possibly have done? Gee, if the Guard didn’t act soon, the anxiety would kill her before they’d even arrive.

“Hm. Rainbow?” Twilight said, tip-toeing her way over to the frightened pegasus, “If you want, you can stay here for the night. We can, uh, see if we get a letter back by the end of it. You just need to... relax... I assure you no one is going to ‘come and take you away’. The idea that the Guard wanders off and steals anyone away in the night is illogical.” She grabbed a blanket from the floor and tried to cover Dash with it.

Dashie involuntarily nodded her head and let Twilight drape the blanket over her. The wind outside was picking up, causing the treehouse to tremble in its foundations, and leaving Dash in a self induced earthquake. Her head bobbled around from atop her neck as precariously as Pinkie’s sanity. The room swirled in a cosmic nuance as the night seeped to the insides of the house-

And there was the Royal Guard cutting through the scene.

And there was Luna, out painting those dots and dashes, gazing on restlessly.

And there was Rainbow Dash, squeezing Twilight Sparkle to near asphyxiation.

“Ergh, Rainbow!” Twilight garbled out, “Let’s just get in *oomf* bed!”

Twilight muscled away from Rainbow’s grip and lifted up the blanket that had conveniently fallen from Dash’s haunches. She could hear Dashie’s heart thumping from the inside of her chest, the irregular rhythm seemingly surrendering her to a haunting numbness. The chills were contagious. Twilight was tingling all over from an antic anticipation. Now, she was not at all worried about the Royal Guard, that fear was indeed unsolidified. What she was truly afraid of was the absence of a response from the Princess. Was there something that she wasn’t supposed to know?

NOTE: regarding the letters sent-

Canterlot would not receive a single one of them.

“Rainbow Dash, what can I do to assure you that nothing bad is going to come of this?”

Dash said nothing, she merely drew Twilight’s covers over herself as she sat in her guest bed. The room grew as silent as the howling wind outside would allow. Only Dashie’s eyes could be made out from the porthole she made through the covers, the window from which she peered out of revealing a fed up Twilight Sparkle.

“Yeah, let’s just get some rest. Good night Rainbow.”

“WAAAUUGHHH!” Rainbow shrieked as the lights flickered off. Limbs were most likely torn away from their anchors on the tree in combination with the wind. The ear piercing shout dropped Twilight to her knees and sent Spike shuffling backward.

“Cut it out Rainbow! Here!” Twilight hollered amidst the screams.

Twilight plugged in a night light that she had not desired to use since her infancy. Suddenly, a dainty glow illuminated the room, and the shadowed outlines of stars and crescents danced on the ceiling. Rainbow Dash thought them to be her hallucinations. The shapes rotated as if they had developed their own axial rotation, or as if they were a 2-D mobile. The ball that spun from inside the light sputtered, irking out a constant clicking sound similar to that of a clock hand. Nonetheless, it calmed her, the lucidic trance spurring her away. It was the best decision Twilight had made all night.

Twilight sighed in finality. Rainbow Dash had layed back on the bed, tremors still visible, but far less drastic. “Good night Rainbow, Spike.”

Neither heeded Twilight’s wishes, as both had entered their respective dream states.

Rainbow awoke with a start. The morning sun bled through the curtains, prying itself into the room. The consistent clicking sound being emitted from the night light was still present, and faint fragments of the shapes could be seen prancing on the floor. Other than that, the room was still and unstirring. She checked her vitals and pinched herself to make sure she was awake. Pain, the thankful sign to tell you that you had not been taken away, imprisoned, and tortured in the middle of the night. A tad ironic if you ask me. Rainbow hopped out of bed, cautious not to startle a dormant Spike. She discretely fluttered over toward the exit, trying to be no more a burden to Twilight than she was the night before.

“Mrmmm... Rainbow? Is that you?” Twilight inquired, raising out of bed. Her mane was entirely bed-ridden, and she lazily rubbed at one eye with her hoof. A terrible light protruded through a poor window location, or rather a poor bed location, making the room seem much too vibrant for the wee hours. Rainbow turned around in midair to scan Twilight’s sleepy visage. She put her head down miserably, recounting the happenings of last night.

“I didn’t mean to wake you... sorry. I, uh, was gonna leave so I wasn’t in your hooves for the rest of the day. I take it I was quite a hoof-ful last night.”

“Well, did you think that I could just turn you away like that? I don’t think that you could have even made it home.”

Dashie siged. “You’re right... but still..." she put her head down, " Did Spike get anything at all?”

“Well, I guess he slept pretty soundly through the night, so I’d say no. Sorry Rainbow, we’ll get to the bottom of it, promise. I’ll tell you when we get a response.” Twi replied.

“Thanks Twilight," Dash rubbed at the back of her head, "I’ll get going now.”

Twilight watched the blue pegasus head for the exit, her wings hardly upbeat. “You don’t want breakfast or anything like that? I’m sure when Spike wakes up he can make us some pancakes.”

Rainbow stopped at the base of the hall. “Thanks for the offer, Twilight, but really, I have to go.” she replied, not twisting her head back to catch a last glimpse of the purple unicorn.

Twilight didn’t get the chance to get another word in. Rainbow exited the library, its vast selection of books and scrolls echoing in an ancient slumber. The winding hall was ominously lit by the morning sun, the hollowed out trunk revealing strange, natural engravings in the wood. “Get a hold of yourself, Rainbow,” she thought, “nothing’s going to happen, it’s probably just some odd-job she wants". Dash picked her head up and composed herself. The hall would eventually lead out to the front door, and beyond that a normal Ponyville. At least those were the usual circumstances. As far as she was concerned, the situation at hoof was not the usual. She kept telling herself not to worry; “Don’t worry, there’s nothing to worry about...” she would reiterate in her head, as if the game would help any. The only word she could catch out of the sentence was “worry”.

Twilight’s front door creaked open slowly, the hinges groaning in a long agony. Rainbow Dash poked her head out from around its sides. Everything outside appeared casual... that’s not to say that it would be once she set foot out the door. In the very least a stampede of ducks would storm through, as there was never a normal day in this town. Rainbow put her front hoof on the welcome mat, readying herself to return to the world.

Just... one... step...

“Hiya, Rainbow!” Pinkie Pie shouted, popping out of the bush that resided next to the door. Rainbow went completely stiff and fainted, her legs sticking straight out. “Haha, silly! You’re supposed to say hi back! Watcha doin’?”

Rainbow never looked at Pinkie Pie, her eyelids twitched and her eyes shrunk. “Oh, you know, just hanging around.”

“Jeez louise, can you believe it! I was doing the same thing! I saw you coming out of Twilight’s treehouse and I just thought I’d stop by to say good morning! Well, I didn’t actually say good morning, but it is the morning, so it’s kinda sorta implied I guess. Good morning anyways!”

Dash hiccuped, scared out of her wits. She choked out some incomprehensible garbage before finally finding the spontaneous pink pony, “Your idea of saying hello is jumping out of a bush and shouting it?”

“Sure! Why? Do you prefer the morning party poppers?”

Dashie disregarded the question. She righted herself on the doorstep, now facing Pinkie head on. “Pinkie, what are you doing out this early?”

Pinkie smiled and prepared to tell a story that she had vowed to tell later, but, of course, could not help but divulge now. She sucked in a deep breath of air, and blew it out in Dashie's face. Dash winced and waved it away. “Well, I was only out taking my morning walk. I do it most mornings... duh. But boy, what a walk it was this morning! No, it wasn’t so much a walk as a trot. You see, I spent my morning trekking off of the usual path cuz’ I saw a nasty lookin’ storm cloud floating through town,” Pinkie lifted her hooves up and growled in order to produce a menacing feel, “and I had to follow it to see where it was going. Oooh, and I followed it. I followed it all over the place! It went over rooftops and bridges, but I never lost track of it!”

“What? It isn’t supposed to rain today, though.” Dash interrupted, oddly intrigued by Pinkie’s story.

Pinkie continued- “That’s what I told it! I said, ‘Hey, you’re not supposed to rain! What’re you doing?’ but it didn’t listen! Awful cloud. Ya gotta be a good listener in this town... else bad things could happen.” she said. She shook her hoof around at the clouds’ wrongdoings.

“Pinkie, focus. Where is the cloud now?”

Dash put her front hooves on Pinkie’s shoulders, staring wildly. Pinkie searched the skies with uncertainty. “Ummm... somewhere?”

“I thought you said that you had tracked it all morning!”

“Yeah! But then you showed up, and I got sidetracked. What’re you doing at Twilight’s anyway?”

Dash grunted and ascended to the skyline of the town. She scanned the skies, which were entirely clear, and slowly drifted away from the treehouse. Pinkie watched Dash go, her mind slightly puzzled.

“Okay, bye Rainbow!” she wailed.

Twilight then came to her front door, finding it odd that Pinkie was sitting in her bushes. The pink pony was still turned off in the direction that Rainbow had went.

“Pinkie?”

Pinkie Pie shuffled around in the bush to face Twilight. She grinned. “Hiya, Twilight! Whatcha doin’?”

Rainbow Dash floated through Ponyville, eyes open for mysterious storm clouds and Princess Celestia’s royal chariot. Neither of the two made their presence known, which invoked a feeling of indifference. Rainbow examined the horizon, striking and brilliant, the sun just barely clipping the treeline. It lit up a series of dismantled trees, all having been severely whipped around in the lofty wind last night. Branches seem to have been thrown everywhere, sometimes lodging themselves into the siding on the houses. Sort of a rude awakening to get up and find that a giant stick had shot through your house in the night. Dash suddenly had a random thought as to who sold the insurance in this town. Surely that was a busy pony. Now, Dash shook her head, getting back to business. She ascended higher up, her view becoming broader, her hooves coming to rest on a puffy white ball of wispy cotton.

Wait... what?

Dash glanced down to find the lone cloud in the sky directly in front of her. It wasn’t holding any rain water, nor did it really look threatening at all. It was not a whole lot bigger than Dash, nearly the perfect size for a hammock. Pinkie’s description of it was apparently a bit misleading... shocking. Dash hovered over it for a spell, checking out its origins, pondering its isolation up here in the sky. She ran her hooves through it, its contents trickling over her coat.

“What, Cloudsdale, bit of a mistake this morning?” She said to herself. She alighted upon its mass, its frame caving in and bouncing back buoyantly under Dashie’s weight. “Okay, let’s get you home.”

Dash spun off of it, some of the puffs getting kicked up into the air. She circled around its side. The direction to the Cloudsdale cloud making facility wasn’t very difficult to gauge for her anymore. Sometimes Cloudsdale could get lost in the, well, clouds, and it really couldn’t be seen. But since Dash always knew where she was now, she could guess the appropriate angle to take to get there. It became 'easy schmeazy', so to speak. After circling the cloud a couple of times, she picked a reasonably plush side of the cloud to push along. She put her hooves to it. She began pushing...

and pushing...

and shoving...

and kicking...

and beating...

but the cloud didn’t budge.

How could it not budge?

Dash panted, out of breath. The cloud looked to be gloating, though, of course, the imagery was merely in her head.

“What the hay?” She whispered. The cloud was sweet and puffy on the outside, but what was the middle composed of, bricks? Maybe Rarity’s suitcases?

Dashie’s face went blank as she was overcome with these series of awkward occurrences. The letter from the Princess, the cloud, what was next? She wondered if Twilight ever got a letter back at all. “Rainbow Dash, you’re up", it was eating her up inside. What could she want with her? Twilight would normally get all of the news, this was abruptly and entirely new. None of the solutions thought up by her mind gave satisfactory answers. Worst of all, at this point, she was alone. She hadn’t thought about that. Excellent, something new to worry about. Dash ate at herself as she watched the remnants of that strange cloud apathetically amble away.

Wait... WHAT!?

Yes, the cloud, it was definitely moving under its own free will. Now, this was unreal. If only Discord were the cause of this, it would be easier, but that was improbable. He had been imprisoned once and for all. Plus, this cloud was not made of cotton candy, nor was it pouring chocolate milk from its orifices. No, it was simply uncontrollably raking across the sky- which was the scariest thing of all. Dash snorted, contemplating whether or not she should chase the thing. Maybe Fluttershy could assist her?

“Fluttershy, I need your help in finding out why this cloud over here is moving around by itself.”

“By itself?”

“Yeah, I don’t know, it’s weird, so we gotta check it out.”

“Oh... hold on, I think that I got a call earlier saying that the Everfree forest was missing a cloud... I’ll go back and tell them that you found it. Thanks for your help!”

*Door closes*

Oh yeah, so that’s how that situation would play out.

Dashie sucked in a deep breath, disparagingly conquering her fears. She blasted off into an unknown future.

Dash hugged on tightly to the cloud. It swept along, gradually gaining speed and relishing a certain ambiguity. She did not relinquish her grip on the intruder in the sky.

“Well, if you won’t move for me, I suppose I’ll just have to find out where you’re going.”

Rainbow Dash and the cloud drifted higher and higher as they moved along. Dash gripped onto the handlebar she made from the cloud material, holding it tight. They nearly emaciated a skein of geese. The cloud burst through the group, taking a lot of squawks and feathers with it. Dashie brushed some of them off of her coat and let them float back down to the earth. She screamed her apologies out with them, hoping they'd reach the group.

Apparently, the cloud had a mind of its own as well, as they did not stop moving faster until the geese were clearly out of sight. They flew a considerable distance before the cloud slowed to a steady pace, growing to become the equivalent of a boring kiddie ride at a theme park- one that did not cease to stop. Its straightened path through the skyway bore no mark of obtrusion. The sky itself was a humid bowl of accentuated light. They were immeasurably high into the atmosphere, and the features from the ground below were now indistinguishable. This was much higher than Cloudsdale's elevation. That destination was now out of the question. She was literally in a sea of sky, there was absolutely nothing else in her surroundings.

If it weren’t for the severity of the occasion, a cider and some Daring Do would be the only items needed to make this heaven. She now regretted not taking something to go in Twilight's library. Oh, well, guess she’d have to make due. Rainbow whirled around onto her back, kicking her hooves up and begetting the majority of her frets. She submissively let the eerie quandary play out, no longer concerned if it were Canterlot they were indeed headed to, or a troll’s front door. She shut her eyes. She stuck two puffs of the cloud into her ears. The world was now a world that Dash controlled, and that was how she liked it.

Funny how daydreams are always so much more realistic than your natural dreams. You’d think that if you left your mind to wander, you’d dig up some curiously exotic illusions; Especially in Dashie’s case, the poor pony in a constant state of chaos since the letter. Think about it. You’re resting on a cloud for Celestia’s sake, how much more inspiration for invention do you need? But no, for whatever reason, all she could think about was Pinkie Pie doing cartwheels on Sugarcube Corner. The superfluous thought scrambled her brain, the nodes sending impulses to other caches of weird memories in her head. Twilight read a book. Applejack said “sugarcube” over and over. Fluttershy relaxed in a spa bath, swimming in a graceful peace. The thoughts were just fiscal fragments of memories that, for some odd reason, had not been forgotten. They sparked up and shocked her, buzzing around like electric lady bugs.

“Ow... that kind of hurt.”

then another quick shock.

“Ow, what gives?”

Rainbow opened her eyes and looked at the cloud, which had grown dark in appearance and had tiny volts of electricity shooting through it. She jumped up and shivered.

“Now THAT’S weird!” she exclaimed. And truly, how weird was it that the cloud had turned to one capable of ill weather instantly? Oh, yes, no weirder than a cloud moving by its own power. Duh. Another thing, as Dash now realized, it had come to a complete halt. Its immovable mass sat in the sky just as it had before.

Dash sat up in mesmerization. She was being booted from the ride. The cloud was now listing heavily to the right, dribbling out droplets of water as it rolled. Dash fluttered aside as the cloud fully turned itself. It dumped out a careening waterfall like a massive bucket, the contents spilling straight down to the stark looking dirt far below.

By the way, where the heck was she?

Dash peered through the glistening waterfall, a rain like which she had never seen before. An endless stream for such a small cloud seemed hardly plausible. Dash stuck her hoof into it, the water parting and continuing to spiral to the ground. She looked down. The ground beckoned her, eagerly awaiting her arrival. She had come this far... pointless to waste the trip.

Rainbow followed the constant stream straight down. It went on for quite a while, Dash hadn't realized just how high up they were.

It was boring.

Dash played with the water as she descended. She enacted faces into it, kicked it, punched it, pretty much did just whatever she pleased. This could only go so far. Dashie's attention span hummed inside of her head, beeping out an annoying tick. This was the reminder that played in her head whenever something was deemed a chore. Fascinating, the mind of Rainbow Dash.

"Yup, I'm bored." she proclaimed.

Dash slung herself toward the earth.

The ground revealed itself to be a great plain. Flowers buckled in the breezy wind, blowing in the long grasses, reaching outward and caressing the air. Random spots of dead plant life were seen in varying spots in the grasses, their presence a bit disheartening, but in an odd way adding a sense of individuality. The low rising hills scored the valley like a great giants morning stretch. The sunlight made all living things reach taller, combatting the others in a race to snatch the rays. Rainbow had seen nothing like it. Its beauty and grandness was so regal it was on the verge of rebellious. She circled the stream of water, taking in all of the sights with a vivid splendor. The charming display was something she would see in calendars... not here, wherever ‘here’ was.

Rainbow’s hooves touched down on the cool grasses almost surreally. She looked to the base of the waterfall, which was flattening a cropping of daisies, drowning them in a muddy bath. There was a small speck of mud in the middle where the daisies did not sprout their roots from. She looked to it. Something was congealed in it, a small chip of some sort.

What in Equestria was that?

Dash drew in closer to get a clearer visual, when, out of the blue, the water stopped gushing from above. The cloud had fully disintegrated, letting the chip glisten in the beams of the sun. Dash skipped through the marshy meadow, advancing on it, bending down to uncover the truth. As it turned out, it was not a small chip she was looking at, but the corner of a washed out, dirty old box.

“Ugh, time to get my hooves dirty. This had better be worth all the trouble, Princess.”

Dash sorted through the mud, her hooves getting caked in the moppy, wet sludge. Fortunately, the box was relatively miniscule in size. The mud was pushed away effortlessly as it made way for the item it was hiding. Dash carved away just enough of it to heave the box from its location. She rocked backward from the force, falling on her hindquarters, the box landing in her lap. She blinked a couple of times, then fell her eyes to the tiny, convoluted item she now held in her grasp.

It was a sore sight, even without the garnish of mud. Rainbow lifted it and jiggled it, the grime peeling off, the tenderly constructed box threatening to break. it was lightweight, perhaps only a stack of feathers so.

“Rainbow Dash, you’re up.”

She sighed. The box was whisked open without so much as a further gesture.

Another scroll.

“Oh, sweet Celestia.”

Dash delicately lifted the scroll and hugged it to her chest. It made a crunching sound as they touched, the paper worn and crumbly. Dash quickly searched around, making sure that no one was watching. The coast was clear... as it had been today, and the night before. She removed the scroll from her chest and slowly unrolled it, revealing a series of scribbled letters in elaborate penmanship.

And Dashie then knew that this was all wrong.

This is mom.

No. What an exquisite lie, this could never absorb the hole I feel in my heart for her.

This is an ashamed slip of paper, and it’ll have to do.

They tell me that she’s dead, my mother. They tell me that father finally drove her away and killed her, slew her as he slew my childhood. And, though the news doesn’t travel from reliable lips... I believe them. I believe those untrustworthy, heartless criminals. All because he stole her from me, that bastard, and I’d rather her be dead than share a less than life with him. A cruel twist of fate, one might say, that he won this game. He won the game of life fairly and justly. What an omnipotent fool. He doesn’t have me.

I will live on, though at times it will be grueling. I have nothing to turn to, nor anywhere to go. I have no food to stab at my ravenous hunger, nor beverage to slake my intense thirst. But letting that sick being receive any satisfaction from my demise will be motivation enough. My story will be told, for I will tell it. His name will linger on in an infamous resonance, and the walls will glower upon word of him.

I leave my rubies in the park for a kind soul to find.
They sparkle and shimmy, shimmer and shine.
A quest awaits, and I will go forth.
If I fail, we’ll pass the torch.

Mother, a new world has presented itself to me. It is full of crooks and villains and thieves and the like. It is not the life you would have chosen, given my strengths. But when life hands you a stick to shake, you snatch it away and ram it back down its windpipe.

wind and rain strum upon my rooftop, cooing softly. They ask of me, “where will you go?”
I brush away the cobwebs in my head, and I answer to them:

“Where the clouds move by their own accord.”

B-sides and Rarities

I do not believe in apparitions.
I do not believe in ghouls or mystical entities.
I do not believe in Whooves’ cavalcade of scientific experiments.
I don’t believe in much at all anymore.

It was a cool spring evening, and I had just settled down to enjoy my evening cup of coffee. That’s right, evening cup of coffee. She waltzed onto the lawn, youthful and stunningly beautiful, her mane falling around her neck like a girlish necklace. There was a certain aura about the place whenever she walked in. I didn’t know how to describe it then... it was hypnotic, gallant, otherworldly. She trotted over to me and kissed me on the forehead, making my heart explode from my chest and splatter itself onto one of the trees.

“Hi, darling, what are you up to?” she whispered into my ear, her voice lingering inside my head and resonating through my veins.

“Waitin’ for the rain to come, dear. S’posed to be a big’n today.”

“Got an extra chair for me?”

I always had an extra chair for her.

“Yup. Strange you ask that.”

She smiled at me as I pulled out the second chair from underneath our oversized umbrella. She sat down in it, letting out a restful sigh and putting her hooves behind her head. I smiled, taking in the pleasant aroma of the usual lilac perfume she wore, watching her every breath escape from her lips. Her magnetic pulse lulled me into her, and I would never resist it. I would never desire to resist it. Our eyes met as she turned to me, and no words needed to be spoken. Nothing needed to be said, else we spoil the moment. It was all there in her features. It was there in her eyes. She was the first love I ever had, and I hers.

We kissed as the rain hounded the canopy, the darkened sky concealing half of her face. The sweet sensation of her touch won me over a long time beforehoof, but the invigoration I felt never faded through the years. She was angelic. She was perfect. She was everything that I had ever wanted. Two lovers, drenched by the rain that was whipped in by the wind, never once needing the world to be ideal. We had each other. Her love was more than enough to get me to endure. The thunder rolled across the heavens, echoing down across the vast expanse of marshland around us. We held each other, letting the boom ring around in our ears.

She drew back from my lips and smiled.

“Where would we be,” she asked, her eyes searching into mine, “if not here?”

I pondered it for a moment. The question she asked was obviously a silly conversation starter. I didn’t care. “Oh, probly lyin’ face down in’a ditch somewher.” I replied sarcastically. She punched me in the shoulder with her hoof.

“No, weirdo! I mean, if we hadn’t met each other? What would life be like?”

She was grinning at me, always finding me to be humorous in some estranged way. I turned out to the rain, where I saw a daisy get torn from its roots and sprung up into the air. “Hm, I stick by muh previous response.”

“Sometimes you’re impossible.” she retorted, the grin never sliding away from her lips.

Life is beautiful. Life is extraordinary. Life is diverse. I understand that now more than ever. I can only speak of it in this way, for I am one of its survivors. I am one of its endurers. Life is meant to last, but only for a little while. Love is meant to be forever, but it is also meant to break your heart. Above all, life is not personal, it is meant to be shared. You must return from whence you came eventually, thus you end up sharing your soul with the world. It’s an interesting paradox, life. One minute, you’re here, the next, you’re gone. I don’t know how else to explain it...

life is death.

The icy cold whip of life reached out and lashed at me randomly that year. It took her from me, that whip, and I have not felt a pain as intense since. Therefore, I understand. I understand the stakes and the consequences to an extent. I understand more than you, but do I fully understand? I'll never know. Is it fate? Is it what some divine being ordered? Where is she now?

I do not believe in apparitions.
I do not believe in ghouls or mystical entities.

So long as I have a heart left unmended, it will continue to break. But as I recall, the story isn't about me. It's about a poor pony and her deceased mother. It's about two young mares willing to uncover the truth, willing to find a means of understanding.

And that's where it all begins, isn't it?

The funeral is over. It has been over for years. It's time to continue the story.

o----o

“And you just opened it!?” Twilight Sparkle shouted at Rainbow Dash. “You imposed upon somepony’s grave, and thought it would be all right to just open the box?”

“I dunno... I thought that the Princess was trying to tell me something. But then I found this.” Rainbow Dash replied. She held a crumpled old letter in the air, its fragile substance crackling like firewood.

“Well, obviously! What would have happened if there were ashes in there? That’s so disrespectful!”

“How was I supposed to know that it was a grave!? You wanted to get to the bottom of this, this is how we’re doing it. So, deal.”

Twilight tilted her head to the ceiling and huffed, frustrated. She certainly saw reason in Dash’s case, but this only brought about more problems. Who in the hoof wrote this letter, er, grave? Who even replaces her mother’s death with a piece of paper? Not the Princess, that’s for sure. Twilight had read the letter several times, studying the intricate penmanship, mongering over its contents. This letter was not written by Royal quill. So, the next step was to find out whose it was.

And that was proving to be utterly confusing.

Books were heaped up in piles all around Twilight’s library, taken from their shelves to research a specific part of the letter.

“I leave my rubies in the park for a kind soul to find.

They sparkle and shimmy, shimmer and shine.

A quest awaits, and I will go forth.

If I fail, we’ll pass the torch.”

“That rhyme, it reads like some sort of clue. What do you think it means?” Twilight asked to nopony in particular, flipping through a series of books on recreational parks.

“Probably that some nice pony found some of her jewels and decided to take ‘em for safekeeping.” Dash replied nonchalantly. “Seriously, how do you hide rubies in a park?”

Twilight looked up from her book entitled “Diamonds in the Rough: A Guide to Equestria’s Most Famous State Parks” to speak directly to Dash. “You bury them. That box you dug up was most likely buried for a very long time. Now, you say that you came from some sort of grassy plain, maybe that was a park. There’s a good start. Where were you again?”

“I-,” Dash hesitated, “I, uh, don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I mean, I don’t know.”

“Then how did you get home!?”

“I don’t know.”

“HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW!?”

“Look, all I know is that I randomly picked the right way to get here. Everything else is a blur, I don’t even remember any landmarks.”

Twilight flung her hooves up into the air, her disappointment in Rainbow Dash clearly displayed on her face now. This puzzle was going to expire a lot of her precious time... a lot of it. She hadn’t even received a letter back from the Princess yet. What was so important that she couldn’t take the time from her harrowing schedule to write a simple letter?

“You know,” Twilight stated, “I haven’t even earned so much as an IOU from the Princess. What the hay is going on?”

Dash shrugged. “Still nothing?”

“No! And if I can’t send her a strongly worded letter, I’ll send her a strongly worded... me!”

Twilight stood up and paced around the room. She stepped over all of her books in her angered march, the pages could be heard crinkling up from beneath. Dash bowed her head. A Twilight in this state meant business. Any attempt at an argument= lecture. Any attempt at soothing her= lecture. Any attempt at anything= lecture. The world was such an intimidating place.

“Twilight, get a hold of yourself. Maybe the Princess has set all of this up. Then she wouldn’t need to send a letter.”

Oh, my dear, did you really just say that?

“Hmph! Some Princess that would be!” Twilight raved, “So, you’re saying that she brewed up all of this trouble so she could teach us a lesson? Oh, what tenacity! What lesson could she possibly be teaching us, Dash, the neighborly gesture of snooping around in another pony’s personal matters? No, it doesn’t make any sense, something more is ahoof.” She telekinetically lifted “National Treasures” from the floor and flung it open. “We have to keep searching. Somewhere in here, there’s an answer to this mess, and we’re gonna mop it up and wring it out to dry.”

Dash rubbed at her shoulders shamefully. By all means she averted Twilight’s provoking gaze.

“Are you going to sit there, or are you going to help me?” Twilight asked ruefully. The question was rhetorical.

Dashie laboriously dismounted from her pedestal of books and trotted over to Twilight. Her brow furrowed. How was she to help Twilight Sparkle? She didn’t know the first place to look. Books upon books were compiled on the floor, their spines bloating and cawing out their names. Dash rifled through a few of them, none of them having to do anything with rubies or parks. Then a small, sapphire book with a black ribbon revealed itself. She picked it up, read the cover, and smiled slyly. She shot a quick glance over Twilight’s way, who was lost in her search. Rainbow opened it.

Twilight heard a couple of chuckles coming from Rainbow’s direction. She looked up and sighed. “Dash, I don’t think reading a copy of Rarity’s diary qualifies as research at this juncture.” she said.

Dash rapidly closed the book. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” she claimed, chucking it over her head.

A knock was suddenly heard on the front door. No, it wasn’t a knock, it was a repetitive banging noise. Twilight looked over her shoulder to the door. Who was that? Rainbow eyed her and shrugged. A loud crash was heard, where somepony was evidently attempting to bust through. Apparently door handles were too good for this stranger. The door bulged inward. Twilight backed away, Rainbow adjacent to her. A shadow was creeping its way in under the doorframe, being followed by cries of “Oh, this is so unseemly! Twilight! Are you home? Twilight?”

It was Rarity.

Rarity slashed into the room, door counterparts scattering everywhere, her horn glowing a light blue tint. Her eyes lit up as she saw Twilight and Rainbow sitting in the room, and it vanished instantly as she tripped over a book and face-planted into the floor.

“Oh, Twilight, I’m so happy to see you!” she declared from the only spot of hardwood left in the room.

“We definitely weren’t reading anything!” Twilight barked, grimacing nervously. Dash caught on, and she discretely scooted over to that sapphire book and buried it under a mountain of other texts.

“What?” Rarity implored.

“Nothing!”

There was a short pause. Rarity looked confused. “Yes, well, do you think I could ask of your help?”

Rarity’s eyes sparkled. Just like that, trouble. Help? Now? What was so important now? Twilight turned away from Rarity and leered at Rainbow. Her eyes asked “what do I do?”. Dash held her gaze and remotely shook her head no, simultaneously pointing to the letter. “I don’t know... we’re a little busy, Rarity. What is it that you need?”

Rarity scuffled over to Twilight’s hooves, trying to buy a bit of sympathy. “Oh pleasepleasepleaseplease pleeeaaaase, Twilight!” she begged, “I just don’t know what’s going on!” Her voice cracked.

Twilight lifted a hoof and reared back. “What? What is it?”

“It’s my horn!” Rarity cried. She bounced up and planted her nose into Twilight’s, her pupils narrowing in a frantic scrutiny, her hind legs getting suspended in the air. Twilight went wide-eyed as Rarity invaded her with fret. “Its been acting up all day! I don’t know what else to do!”

Twilight smiled shyly. “Ummm, what’s wrong with it?” she asked, slinking away from the frenzied white pony. She saw Dash roll her eyes to the ceiling and mutter something in her peripheral vision.

“Oh, it’s terrible! Just awful! The blasted thing has been dragging me around all day, and I don’t even know why!”

Dashie’s ears suddenly perked up. She and Twilight regarded each other with facial telepathy. They nodded as Rarity sobbed softly on the floor.

“Go on.” they said in unison.

“Yes, well, that’s about it, really. It lead me all the way here. By the way, I’m dreadfully sorry about the door.”

Dash and Twilight shared a connection of brainwaves then and there. Rarity was suddenly having troubles with her horn, hm? That’s a little curious, considering recent events. Oh, and what were they searching for again? Ah, yes-

Diamonds.

Twilight and Dash looked to each other for a short while, acknowledging that this could be a big break. Dash nodded to Twi, and Twilight turned back to Rarity.

“Don’t worry about it... sooooo, it’s just been dragging you everywhere, has it?”

“Yeeeeehehessss! Please make it stop!”

Twilight smirked and lifted her head with prowess. She trotted in a circle around the white unicorn. “I will do everything in my power to help.” she said. She paused, taking glances at Dash. “First, where has it taken you before here?”

Rarity rolled her eyes. She saw Twilight pull out a pad of paper and a quill. “Now, what does that have to do with anything?” She asked.

“Just answer the question.”

Rarity grumbled. “Well, let’s just say that I’ve spent more than my fair share of time on Sugarcube Corner today. Pinkie Pie has been there all day, babysitting the Cakes’ foals. It’s a catastrophe in there. Do you think it possible for your own horn to hate you?”

“Unlikely.” Twilight replied. She scribbled something down on her sketchpad, causing Rarity to let out breaths of anguish. “Where to next?”

“Twilight, you’re being ridiculous, could you just-”

“RARITY! This is important!”

“Fine! Do watch your tone, darling!” Rarity hollered. She fiddled with her mane a smidge, her nerve-racked mind thinking back to the events that preceeded her. “Well, do you just want the jist of it? I’ve wandered on by several houses today, getting plastered stares from all of my peers. I don’t need to go into specifics, do I? It’s been a most embarrassing matter. Anyway,” she said, wringing her hooves nervously, “I’ve really been all around town today. I don’t know what you want me to say, Twilight, I’ve been everywhere. For the most part, it’s just been Sugarcube corner. The dear place has been undergoing renovations ever since that branch came crashing down on the roof, and believe me, I’ve caught the full extent of it. How did that happen, might I ask? Has there been a storm recently?”

Dashie chortled from the other side of the room. “Ah, yeeeaaah! Hello? You didn’t hear it?” she asked.

“Oh, my apologies, Rainbow,” Rarity said, “I had completely forgotten that you were in the room. Forgive me. How was your visit to the Princess? Did you get that letter situation straightened out?”

Rarity’s eyes shined Dash’s direction, sparkling in their usual glory. Dashie looked utterly puzzled. Her mouth opened and closed, trying to find the words to verify what Rarity was speaking of. There was an awkward pause. Dash searched the floor, eyeing the books as if they’d give an appropriate response. Nothing was forthcoming. She picked her head back up, finding a fraught Twilight Sparkle silently hopping behind Rarity, her front hoof making a cutting motion across her neck. She was winking wildly. Dash crooked her head to the side.

“Uh... cool. It was cool.”

Rarity followed Dashie’s gaze behind her, where Twilight had dropped to her hooves and donned a marvelous false grin. “That’s... cool.” She said, examining Twilight skeptically. “So then, you found out what the letter was for?”

“Ummmm...”

“Let’s get back to work!” Twilight interjected. She crossed in front of Rarity and angled her head away from the couth unicorn, frowning at Rainbow Dash. “So, sugarcube corner... I could go for a treat, how bout’ yourself, Rainbow?”

“Uh, sure?” Dash stated, thinking the opposite to be true.

Rarity glowered. “You don’t truly mean...”

“Yes. It’s only logical that we investigate the whereabouts of Sugarcube Corner. I’m fairly certain that something there is making your horn go nuts. Wouldn’t you agree? I mean, I am fully within my senses, right?” Twilight cheered. She raised an eyebrow at Rarity.

Rarity reached out for the words, but they eluded her like a slippery demon.

“Then it’s settled, let’s go girls!” Twilight mused. She shot a discrete wink Dashie’s direction, and coolly made way through the gaping hole that had replaced the front door. Dash nipped at her heels, averting Rarity’s stare.

Rarity hunkered down, dejected. “Well, not only does my horn hate me, but my friends do as well.” she muttered.

The stillness of the breeze came as a bit of a shock on this particular afternoon. It had been unfathomably windy of late, roofs were adorned with sticks and leaves and lawn ornaments from, quite possibly, numerous blocks away. The houses loomed over the streets, shadowing the pavement with a ghastly feel. The outlines from them made monsters stretching across the grounds, entering the windows and doors on the other side as unwelcome guests. They overtook anypony prancing down the street, darkening their facades and transmorphing them vampiric in nature.

“Come on, Rarity, Let’s go!” Twilight called backward. Rarity was moping up the street, destitute and hung out on a line to dry. She glanced up to see Rainbow and Twilight far ahead, the shadows playing with their features, the darkness blackening their manes. Rarity blinked a few times.

“Hold on to your horseshoes! I’m still moving!” she yelled.

Twilight and Rainbow snickered to themselves out ahead. They trotted down the avenue, taking in the sights of the damages, laughing rudely, though it wasn’t meant in that way. Ponies cleaning up the messes beamed their glares in the pairs direction, though they failed to faze the two. It wasn’t as if they cared, anyway. The pair tried to appear apologetic, but that, too, was failed miserably, as the grins never washed away from their faces. Their exuberance was comically followed by Rarity’s gloom, looking displaced in her pursuit. The street was a three pony parade of polar opposites.

“And then she went SHOOOOM!” Twilight Sparkle one-lined, finishing up her story about the thing in the place about that one time.

Seriously, I have no idea what she was talking about.

Dash roared with laughter, stupefied by the story, though she had absolutely no idea what in Equestria it was about either. They were both high on laughter. Their giddying cries riveted the streets, causing many a pony to take a gander out the window. They spotted the purple unicorn and the blue pegasus stumble up the avenue, shrieking with joy, not a care in the world, it seemed. The start of the conversation had been forgotten a long time ago. What were they even laughing about? They didn’t have time to think about it. Suddenly-

SSSHOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!

The breeze picked up, flipping the two ponies’ manes forward into their faces, slamming the shutters on the windows closed.

“Heeeeeeelllllllppppp!” was the cry heard somewhere off in the distance.

NOTE: regarding the breeze-

Uh... Rarity?

Rainbow and Twilight were in a dead-sprint. Rarity was rocketing by everything, flashing across the map in a mind-numbing blur. She passed Sugarcube Corner without a hitch.

“Oh, tha-a-nk C-Celesss-t-ia.” she humored, girating across the ground.

Rarity made it to the edge of town quickly, disengaging from Twilight and Rainbow with ease. The two ponies giving chase were aware of the situation. Rarity was becoming a gnat sized speck in the distance in a hurry. They raced for it with all of their might, but the gap was not going to close. They were falling behind. They certainly didn’t want to lose her.

“Are you going to be okay on your own?” Rainbow Dash asked of Twilight, huffing and puffing with her down the street.

“Yes, I’ll be fine. Go out ahead, we’ll meet up.”

Dash nodded her head in approval and took off into the air. She flapped her wings into shifting gears, smoothly and effortlessly, preparing to make a go. Then, she was shot out of a cannon, her small frame shooting off in blaring speed. The sudden acceleration sent shockwaves through Twilight’s body, tickling her senses in hair-raising excite. The pegasus with the rainbow colored mane was a small blurb in the distance almost immediately.

Whenever Dash ranted on about flying, she never once exaggerated it. She did truly love the sport, for without it, she didn’t know where she would be. Her life could very well consist of only flying. This is what she lived for. This is what, emotively speaking, moved her. And, as Dash barreled down the street, she was reminded of it once more. The wind was streaking through her mane, whipping it backward. She was moving so fast it was near the point of assimilation. The grin on her face stretched from ear to ear, in part from the incredible amount of G-force she was zipping through, the other from her joy. Houses passed by like splotches of paint, their shadows shifting forward as the pegasus spirited along.

As the saying goes- ten seconds. Flat.

Dash was closing the gap on Rarity speedily, her pleas for help becoming more distinct as Dash went. There was an overwhelming sense of deja vu culminating from the depths of Dashie’s memory, this situation must have played itself out before. She raced. She did what she was born to do. Her belly was inches from scraping its way along the ground as she dragged down the strip. Rarity’s whimpers were now within earshot even, as the white pony was fast approaching an upcoming bridge.

“Hold on Rarity! I’m coming!” Dash yelled. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, urging herself to move faster still.

“Hold on to what?” Rarity stated, her voice very close to Dash’s ears.

Dash opened her eyes. “What?”

Dash slung past. Rarity had abruptly stopped at the base of the bridge, and Dash had failed to notice.

“Rainbow! Look out for the-” Rarity started. She winced as Dash whacked headlong into a street-post, “...thing... whoops.”

NOTE: regarding concussions-

Nurse Redheart was going to make A LOT of money in the near future from her studies on Rainbow Dash.

Dash slid down the pole, her face making screeching noises as she fell to the grass. She hit the ground with a thud. She didn’t make any sudden movements.

“Ow.”

Dashie sat with her face fused into the pole. Her head throbbed. Her brain ached. She had an unscratchable itch biting into her back. This day needed to end, and it wasn’t half-way over yet. Rarity galloped over. The extravagant white unicorn stood over Dash, not unlike a zoo creature, unsure of how to best approach the situation. She struggled with herself. She attempted to be of assistance. It began with-

“Um... Rainbow Dash?”

and when Dash didn’t respond, it ended with her prodding at Dashie’s side.

“Rainbow?”

Dash whipped her eyes open and sat up. She flailed her front hooves around. “I’m fine, Rarity! Stop touching me!”

Rarity jumped back. “I’m sorry Rainbow, I was only trying to help.” she said. She flipped her ears down adamantly.

“Some help you are.” Dash replied, crossing her hooves over her chest.

Rarity glided backward a bit to give Dash some space. Well, actually to give herself some space. She stifled some unappreciative words with a few short breaths and nullified her anger by counting to ten. No, twelve. No... eighteen. Her nose scrunched up and she avoided Rainbow by checking out the scenery around her.

Heh, that mare was always my favorite.

Oh, shoot, storyteller... right.

Dash sourly turned away and looked to the bridge, expecting to find Twilight Sparkle trotting over it, easing her way into the scene. That’s not what she saw. Instead, Twilight Sparkle was inching her way over the bridge like a worm, one struggling to get out of the way before it became dinner for a sweet little birdie. Her front legs had entirely failed her, her hind legs shoved her across the ground slowly to the center of Rarity and RD. Dash raised an eyebrow. Twilight scuffled over to them, where she collapsed, her tongue exhaustively protruding from her mouth.

“Not... running... ever... again...” she wheezed. Her head lolled off to the side as she stared blankly into oblivion.

“Dear, you could have just teleported, couldn’t you have?” Rarity asked.

Twilight looked up.

She looked at Rarity as if she were some sort of transcendent alien bug.

She pulled her eyes as far to the back of her head as she could get and drove her face into the ground, hurt by her own thoughtlessness.

“Uuuuggghhhh! How could I be so stupid!” she cried.

Twilight threw a sluggish fit on the ground at her displeasure. She bashed her hooves into the ground in a tiring montage of punches and kicks, wearing herself down more than she had before. It didn’t last long. Her hits became weaker and weaker as her lament tired her out completely. Dash and Rarity looked at her weirdly.

“Twilight.” Dash stated, urging Twilight to get up and realize the situation.

She didn’t respond.

“Twilight.” Dash reiterated.

“Whhhhhaaaaattt?” Twilight croaked out, her face still buried in the ground.

“We’ve stopped.”

There was a pause as Twilight still lay despondent on the pavement. Dash rolled her eyes. Rarity blinked warily. Twilight’s state of comatose couldn’t last, no matter if she wanted it to.

“So we have.” Twilight mustered out. She picked her head up uneasily and set her thoughts straight. Dash and Rarity were looking at her, their faces showing displeasure. She fixed her eyes on the maddened unicorn. “How do you feel Rarity?”

Rarity went wide-eyed. “How do you think I feel? I’ve been dragged around all day on countless endeavors to nowhere! Obviously you won’t be able to fix it now, so I don’t know who will!” Rarity replied with a hint of anger. It quickly disappeared with another thought. “Oh, dear CELESTIA! How will I finish my work!?”

Rarity trotted up and down in place in a convulsive panic. She spit out incomprehensible mumbles of worry and fret as Twilight and Rainbow looked on disdainfully. Rarity was her usual self again. Rainbow and Twilight let out a unanimous sigh. Suddenly, the trail had gone cold. Dash and Twilight were lost again.

“That’s it.” Twilight stated, getting to all fours painfully. Dash offered her a hoof to help as Rarity worked herself up on the other side of the road. Twilight shot Rarity a meaningless glare. “I’m going to Canterlot.”

“What?” Dash asked. “Now?”

“What other options do we have, Rainbow?” Twilight inquired. She searched into Dashie’s eyes for something.

Dash didn’t respond. She swerved her eyes away from Twilight’s.

“That’s what I thought.”

Twilight looked through Rainbow to see Rarity one last time before sending off. She was still sputtering like a broken dishwasher.That was more than enough for Twilight to reason herself into leaving.

“I’ll make my visit to the princess short and sweet. I don’t know the timeframe in which we have to work, but I also don’t see us making it anywhere soon without that chat.”

Dash still didn’t say anything. Twilight Sparkle always formulated the plans, and she always formulated the most reasonable solutions. Dash knew there was no valid argument there.

Twilight leaned into Dashie’s ear. “I’m terribly sorry I’m leaving you with her.” she whispered gently, regarding Rarity.

“Huh?” Dash uttered, her eyes going wide.

Twilight leaned back from Dashie’s face. She smiled sweetly. Her horn started to produce a faint glow, an energy mustered up from the last remnants of Twilight’s endurance.

“Oh no you don’t!” Dash shouted, hurling herself at the purple unicorn, her hooves outstretched to grasp hold of her.

Twilight disappeared in strenuous magic before Dash could grab her. Dashie thunked to the ground, her hooves still outstretched, her eyes still wide. They narrowed. She stared at her empty hooves in disbelief. The word “reason” didn’t stick in her mind as much as the word “abandon” did anymore.

Dash blinked a few times. Her eyes twitched. Twilight wasn’t there. Twilight had left her with a disillusioned unicorn, who was angry and confused, and now at an impasse with the blue pegasus. Dash slowly twisted her head around, not overly anxious to see Rarity bore into her now that Twilight wasn’t around. Her head stopped when it fixed itself on the perky unicorn. Rarity stared back impassively.

“Twilight’s gone?” Rarity queried.

Dash nodded her head dismissively.

Rarity looked around. She sucked in a deep breath. “Well,” she said, “I was going to let it slide, Rainbow, but your manners have hardly been amiable today. I believe you owe an apology to me.” Rarity lifted her head proudly and awaited a response. “Say you’re sorry.”

Dash planted her head into the pavement. She closed her eyes and sobbed quietly.

“Well?” Rarity provocated. Her grin was on the verge of being mischievous.

“I’m sorry...” Rainbow said, so quietly it was nearly to herself.

“What was that?” Rarity asked with absolution.

“I’m sorry!” Dash yelled.

“For what?”

“Are you serious?”

“For what, Rainbow?” Rarity put a hoof to her ear.

“For being rude! Er, something, I don’t know!” Dashie exclaimed in frustration.

Rarity smiled. She put her hoof back down and trotted back from whence they came in an overeager fashion, her pride reaching into her and stemming out in great serendipity. “Apology accepted. That wasn’t so hard, was it?” she whinnied. “Now, since I’m sure you’ve nothing more to do, I was wondering if you’d be so kind as to help me with my recent commission. It’s been consuming all of my time of late, and I’m afraid that I just won’t get done on time. These random spurts of magic are certainly not helping.-”

Rarity chattered on obliviously, not caring to notice Rainbow Dash repeatedly throwing her head into the pavement. A lofty breeze whistled its way through Dashie’s head, shrouding her thoughts, cradling her in an annoying casket. Rarity’s words never stopped. They riddled her brain, capsizing it like a fishing boat caught in a hurricane. Dash got dizzy.

“Rainbow?”

Rarity’s voice surged through her head.

“Rainbow?”

“Stop it!”

“Rainbow Dash!”

“Ggrrrrrgh!”

“Get off the ground!”

Dash stabbed at her head, trying to get the words to ooze out.

“RAINBOW!”

“WHAT!? WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT!?” she screamed, rolling over and opening her eyes.

“I WANT YOUR HOOFIN’ HELP!” Rarity hollered in her actual voice. She was elegantly floating down the roadway, her horn faintly illuminated,drifting the white unicorn down the avenue. It certainly didn't take long for her horn to start up again, and excellent timing now that Twilight had left. Rarity frowned. She didn’t fight it. She didn’t resist. She was sickened by the ridiculous errands she’s been running (or floating), and this situation was going to play itself out now or, kidding aside, she would resort to cutting off the insipid thing melded to her head.

“Oh.” Dash uttered, sitting upright.

“Come on! Let’s go!” Rarity commanded, but the edge was lost in her voice now.

Dash bolted back to her senses and spun back to her hooves. Rarity was moving at a much slower rate than before, as if her horn had suddenly discarded its intensity. She was now floating peacefully onward. Dash grinned impoverishly, easily catching up to the capitulated unicorn, excited that Rarity wasn’t yet done. Somewhere deep inside, Dash had told herself that this would all work out. Somewhere deep, deep, deep inside.

“Ugh, when we get done here...” Rarity trailed off, turning away from Dash’s benevolent smile.

Dash tagged along behind Rarity, in no rush, pleasantly thinking to herself and leaving Rarity to her own. Nopony impeded upon their path as Rarity escorted them to the edge of town, acting as a surrogate. The buildings were disappearing, trees and wildlife taking their place. The smooth pavement of the road was replaced by rough gravel. Birds and an assortment of other creatures serenaded the scenery, their charming chirps echoing from tree to tree. It was reminiscent of the walk to Sweet Apple Acres, only from the other side of town. The sun was high in the afternoon sky, with a pair of normal clouds providing a shady protection over the two ponies for the time being. Dash was, for the first time in a long time, fully relaxed.

The two said nothing to each other as they fled cross country. Rarity was in a full on pout, and Dash was comfortable with leaving her undisturbed. Their two minds were kept to themselves. This was as close to harmonious as it was going to get. Rarity busied herself fretting over her unfulfilled orders, going over her this and that. Dashie’s mind was completely elsewhere, totally layed back as the trek was about to come to an end. Things were now so simple again. So... simple? Too simple. Dash started to think about it. No! No! Don’t think about it! Happy place! Happy place!

Too late.

“Ergh!”

The seeds of doubt were planted.

Dash started to dig into it deeper.

What if Rarity’s horn was just “acting up”, and there was nothing more to it?

What if this just led to a dead end?

Or worse-

What if this led to a never-end?

They could be following this trail for the rest of their lives, and not a clue as to why.

Dash eyed Rarity, who was a few paces in front of her. Was the trail going to be like this trip? never ending?

No.

Dash shook her head, reminding herself to keep faith.

Even a labyrinth of clues ended somewhere.

Rarity lazily drifted along the ground, scuffing up her hooves badly. This was a poor day for the white mare indeed. She let out a long, hollow breath, trying not to think about her dear hooves. There was always a way to fix things. She promised herself a manicure right after this unnerving venture. After all, she deserved it.

The trees were growing sparse now as they made their way to the very outside of town. The gravel road sprouted weeds spaciously divided about it. Dash looked on anxiously.

A dead end?

No, no, not a dead end!

Dash willed Rarity to find a solution soon, because this wait was going to make her explode.

Note: to Rainbow Dash-

wish granted.

In a sudden motion, Rarity’s body jerked sideways, tearing her off-course. She crossed out into the grasses, heading into the hillsides.

“Waauugh!” she shrieked at the sudden shift in direction.

Dash smiled, keeping hold of her invisible leash and also crossing into the grasses. She mulled over Rarity’s shaky disposition, thinking this to be a bit unfair. Rarity didn’t know what was going on. Should she tell her? Apparently Twilight didn’t want anypony to know. But why? Dash fought it. Ultimately, Twilight’s wishes were Twilight’s wishes.

The two ponies sauntered over the hills, Rarity leading the way. The cool grasses brought a soothing sensation to her burning hooves. Thank goodness for the detour from the gravel. She calmed herself slightly as they swept along, taking her deep breaths and recounting her numbing rituals. One... two... three...

Rarity went on counting for quite a while. Dash still followed, content to leave the poor mare be. Rarity counted to approximately eighty-eight. She counted approximately eighty-eight paces across the ground. She had effectively produced a zen vibe, even Dash felt it. The strangling rope connecting them earlier was coming untied. The poison that lingered in the air was dispersing. Rarity decided to dip her hooves in to test the waters. She felt encouraged to speak.

“Rainbow, h-how,” she cleared her throat, “how are you doing back there?”

Dash blinked. “I’m fine, Rarity. Yourself?”

Rarity’s eyes watched herself float along through the grass. “I’m doing... great.”

There was a pause. They kept rolling over the country-side.

“Rainbow,” Rarity said, breaking the silence, “I- I’d like to apologize if I’m being a bother. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.” she shied away from Rainbow’s gaze.

Dash looked to the ground. “I’m sorry too, Rarity, we were both kinda out of line. No harm done.”

Rarity sighed out in relief. “Oh, thank Celestia! I certainly didn’t want us to be at each others necks for the rest of the day. Especially seeing as how... um... well this is how we might spend the rest of it.” she crooked her neck back to look at Dash.

“Yeah.” Dash stated coolly, meeting Rarity’s glittering eyes.

“Could you imagine? What a rough day that would be! Not that this day hasn’t been rough on its own, but still-”

Dash looked past Rarity and scanned the path ahead.

“-this would be much more difficult in retrospect.”

“Uh, Rarity?” Dash tried to interrupt.

“Hold on, let me finish-”

Dash shook her head. “No, Rarity.” Dash said, pointing to the front.

“What?” Rarity asked, turning around. Her eyes went wide. She let out a muffled squeak. Her nose plowed into the trunk of a great tree.

Rarity rubbed her nose, ceasing the pain. She looked up at the great willow they had run into, its branches extending out with incredible reach, hugging the two into it with a warm welcome. It stood out like a sore thumb, being the only tree within sight. That aside, it was a magnificent spectacle; dwarfing the two ponies, its frame big enough to be Twilight’s summer getaway house. The leaves wavered though there was no breeze, their golden hues gleaming in the sunlight. The canopy was breathtaking, it blackened out most of the sun, leaving the ground below it caught in a midday twilight.

How did they not notice that from a mile away?

The two ponies looked at each other, astounded. Rarity realized she was able to move by her own free will.

“So, are they here?” Dash asked, verting her eyes back and forth, searching the ground.

Rarity checked her surroundings. Her horn fizzled out, never having turned itself away from the tree. “Are what here?” she countered.

“Oh, nothing, nothing.” Dash glanced up at the canopy, avoiding a situation. “What have you found?”

“I-I,” Rarity hesitated, “I don’t know.” she said, scanning the tree.

“So nothing’s here?” Dash asked hopelessly.

“No... it’s just-”

Dashie’s eyes rekindled with a spark of hope. “Just what?”

“Rainbow, my horn has been all sorts of cuckoo today and I don’t think-”

“They’re in the tree, aren’t they?”

Rarity stopped with her mouth in mid-sentence. She said nothing more.

“Great, where am I gonna find an axe?” Dash questioned herself, searching the ground around her for some sort of sharp object.

“You don’t honestly believe that there are diamonds in the tree, do you?” Rarity asked, shocked by Dashie’s peculiar behavior.

“I’ll believe just about anything right now.” Dash replied.

“What are you talking about!?”

Dash didn’t answer. She kept perusing the dirt, expecting a hatchet or a saw to reveal itself.

“Rainbow!”

“WHAT!?” Dash responded, striking her hoof into the tree trunk.

Some of the bark crumbled away from the blow.

The tree was eroding.

Dash felt it in her hooves.

“What the-?”

Rainbow punched at the tree some more. The same thing happened each time, the bark would gradually give way to each strike.

Dashie’s eyes lit up.

“Rarity! Your gem finding spell! Focus it on the tree!”

Rarity was totally lost. “Then will you tell me what’s going on?” she asked. Regardless, she did what she was told.

Rarity closed in on the mysterious tree and enchanted her horn, this time by her own power. It glowed a magical blue, close to being the only source of light there. She scanned the bark up and down before coming to rest on a section close to where Dash was digging.

“There, there.” Rarity said, gesturing to the spot.

Dash shoved Rarity out of the way and dug in fiercely.

She scraped

and scratched

and sifted

and hollowed out

and bit

and shook

and scratched some more.

They were in there.

Dash could see them.

They were glimmering, defying the lack of light by shining on their own.

They were there.

Dash reached in.

She grimaced, pulling on them with all her might.

She needed them.

They were being stubborn.

She needed them.

Dash tugged.

They were coming loose.

They were loosening in their foundations.

Just one more big heave and-

“Well, I’ve never seen anything like them!” Rarity exclaimed, eyeing the glittering rubies with fascination. “These are marvelous!”

Dash sat up from where she had flung herself down and looked at Rarity. “Just the rubies? Isn’t there something more?” she asked. She burrowed into the recently dug hole in the bark, searching for that something else.

“More?” Rarity pondered, never parting her gaze from the rubies. “Why would there be more? These rubies are soooooo rare, what more could you need?”

Dash halted her search through the tree. “Rare?”

Rarity’s voice was trembling. “Oh, yes. If I’m not mistaken, and I don’t know how I could be, these are fire rubies.” Rarity paused to let it soak in. “And they can only be found in one part of Equestria!”

“Really?” Dash asked, lowering her hooves from the trunk of the tree.

“Mmhm.”

Dashie glanced around anxiously. “Well... where?”

Rarity finally looked up from the rubies, the glimmer in her eyes spiriting away with them. She studied Dash as if she were coming in from afar, as if she had not been here long. She smiled. Her eyes brightened up, joyed to see Rainbow Dash taking an interest in the matter. “Rainbow,” she said with a trill in her voice, “these magnificent rubies can only be found in the badlands just north of Appleloosa!”

Escapade

I am not going to fight it anymore.

I am not going to sit here and lecture you about it.

I am not going to sit here and pine away over it.

That’s ridiculous.

Because even I don’t know.

You don’t know, and I don’t know, and nopony bloody damn well knows.

Now, this story may not be about me,

but I can tell you what I do know.

I can tell you my story.

I will tell you my story within the lines of this one, and maybe that will help you understand.

Because I feel it’s important.

Because I don’t know.

And you don’t know.

And screw our unknowing.

So just stop my ramblings now, I’m sick of them.

When she died, my only love, I was heartsick. I couldn’t work. I couldn’t socialize. I couldn’t eat or sleep or even beg for the scraps trampled underhoof by the nobles. I was dying inside. There was no doctor to fix it. There wasn’t anypony to console it. It was the loneliest I had felt since my very beginnings, and even then surpassed those. The world was cold and ugly, its face similar to the aftermath of an incredible boxing match. One that it lost. But I couldn’t blame the world. No, I had only myself to blame. The world was not lost, I was. I had lost myself in the world. I was cold. I was ugly. I lived as a recluse.

I could not afford to keep up maintenance on the house. It brought back painful memories anyway. The walls had grown foreign in nature, the wooden panels whispering her name from their midst. It was haunting. I was haunted. But ghosts and ghouls didn’t exist, now did they? No, this was all in my head. I had to get away. I had to get off of my grief stricken plot and escape from these frail arms. So I stuck a for sale sign up in the yard. Not that anypony would see it, the house being buried deep in the marshes, but I had to get something out of it. I was going broke. I needed to get out of here and find a place of work in Canterlot, or any other place where they were hiring, really.

Two of the longest months of my life passed by. I had posted the ad in nearby villages, hoping the townsfolk were willing to see a different part of the world. Nopony bit the offer. The ads had probably blown away in the breeze. I sat in my loneliness, wallowing in sorrow and distant memories. She wasn’t going to come back. No one was going to bring her back. What the hell was I doing? Get off your ass!

Words. Countless amounts of them floated in my head, each of them embellishing themselves for attention. The problem was, I had no idea what they meant.

Two months passed. A knock resounded from the front door, making my stomach churn. I sat up from my bedside. I passively trudged my way to the front door and flung it open, the door nearly snapping off of its hinges and crashing to the floorboards.

The pony on my porch reared back, startled. “Hi... is this the house that’s for sale?” the pleasant mare said in a sweet voice. She tried to peer into the house behind me.

I looked to the for sale sign stuck in the front lawn. “Don’t know what gave ya that idea.”

I hadn’t noticed the colt standing next to her. He looked buff and esteemed, but he spoke in a calm, gentle manner. “Heh, touche. We were just wondering if you were having an open house. Do you mind if we take a peek? Are you busy?”

I looked behind me. I sighed. “Nah, by all means, com’n.”

I ended up selling the house to that cute couple for a modest amount of bits. They were so innocent, so sweet. They had a wonderful life ahead of them.

I hated them.

I handed them the deed with a naked tear in my eye. Even my tears were lonely. It dropped and landed on that slip of paper, leaving a part of me behind, imparting with an ounce of my soul. Somewhere in me, I thought I had made a mistake.

“Good luck.” I said to them, their thankful grins hitting me full blast.

Me? I packed my bags for Canterlot.

o----o

Rarity and Rainbow sat underneath the giant willow, studying the gems before them, eyeing them in studious scrutiny. Rarity was clearly in complete astonishment. She drooled over the jewels, their beauty not to be undermined by anything or anypony. Dash was indifferent, not caring for the value of the gems, but rather what they stood for.

And what did they stand for?

Why were they led to a small cache of rubies that were normally found in the badlands of Equestria?

“These are only found just north of Appleoosa?” Dash asked, clarifying what Rarity had said before.

“Yes, quite rare..." Rarity paused. "Rainbow, do you think that we’ve stumbled upon somepony’s secret stash of rubies?”

Dash picked up one of the gems and twirled it around in her hooves. Her reflection gazed back at her in the smooth surface. The seemingly magical gem had a breath of its own. It lived. It thrived. Dash gently tossed it back to the grass.

“I’m... not sure. Something tells me these aren’t just somepony’s rubies that they were hiding.” Dash said.

“What tells you that?”

Dash looked to the tree trunk, its base most likely able to hold twenty of her. “Gut feeling.” she said.

Rarity frowned. “Soooo... should we keep them?”

Dash hadn’t given that a thought. She needed to show them to Twilight Sparkle, so obviously they were coming back with them, but Rarity wanted them for a different reason entirely. Was there harm in the matter?

Dash turned away, thinking. “Yeah... yes, we should. But only if I can have one.”

Rarity beamed with delight. She telekinetically lifted the rubies and wavered them in the air ecstatically. “Oh, but of course! Here!” she trilled, separating one of the rubies from the group she had under her spell, “Have this one! It’s one of the chunkier pieces!”

Dash snatched it out of the air and grasped it in her hoof. She looked back in the direction of the road they had come from, the willow producing a low ceiling for the horizon line. The sun was beginning to descend, taking with it the life from the grasses, as they shrunk back down to the earth in a sleepy fall. The air was noticeably chillier, Dash clung to herself tightly. She twisted her head around to look at Rarity, the white pony hardly paying attention to the weather, her full intent on the rubies.

“I think it’s time to go, Rarity.” Dash stated calmly, holding herself and glancing out to the horizon once more.

Rarity surprisingly dispersed her gaze from the gem stones. She stared out into the distance with Rainbow Dash. “I fully agree.” she declared.

Dash and Rarity swooped back through those rolling hills, the sunlight fading on them, their shadows stretching out over the grasses. Rarity was following Dashie now, toying with her rubies, eyeing her reflection in them. She hadn’t given a second thought as to-

why the rubies were lodged in a TREE?!

But she didn’t care. Rainbow Dash didn’t mind that Rarity wasn’t asking questions in any sense, so why bother?

As they trudged up hill after hill, Rainbow Dash thought of Twilight Sparkle. If the visit to the Princess was a success, then this could all end fairly soon. It could all be over at the clap of a hoof. Good riddance... right? A strange notion passed through Dashie’s mind at that instant. An ultra weird, superbly awful notion that shouln't have presented itself in the first place. Dashie didn’t really want this to end.

This was adventure.

This was exciting.

Why would she give that up?

Somewhere inside Dash, she thought this quest wasn’t supposed to end now. She almost wanted to solve the mystery for herself, leave Celestia out of the equation entirely. If the Princess wanted her to get something done, then why interfere with her plans? Dash would do whatever it took to see to it that the deed was done, and done it would be. At that moment, Dash realized that she wanted this. No, she needed this. Even though she had been in a state of chaos, she knew that things would return to normal after this strange trek. Normal didn’t work for her.

Normal wasn’t glorious.

Dash searched into her fire ruby, wishing to find Twilight scrawled into it in some sort of clairvoyant message. All she saw was her unrecognizable face glaring back at her in the stone. It glistened almost charismatically, as if excited to be torn from its burial place and thrown into the world. Dash winced. She stuck the gem between her teeth and kept walking.

The road could be seen from the top of the final hillside as the night sky finally blanketed the two ponies. The last ray of light flashed away from the gravel almost spiritually in a sense, as if enlightening the road ahead. It was assuring. The twinkling stars in the sky brought about a luminous feel. Luna had outdone herself on this evening, the moon and the stars combined to brighten the aweing scene with liveliness, hitting the grasses and the upcoming trees with virtuosity. The moonlight made their shadowed figures laugh in a dark way, inviting and friendly. They were a welcome sight. The rubies held in Rarity and Dashie’s grip gleamed, lighting up the pairs’ faces in a dainty glow, like a dulled flashlight. They pranced through the striking view, their breaths escaping from their lips and disappearing in the chilly night air. The road neared.

“Let’s get us home, Rarity.” Dash said, the gleam from the gem dancing in her eyes.

And so they went.

Three hours.

Rainbow Dash sat in Twilight Sparkle’s treehouse for three long, horrid hours.

Twilight wasn’t supposed to be catching up on old times with the Princess, she was supposed to be lending a helping hoof. The day had melted by, and she had most likely been dawdling in Canterlot for the lot of it. That was unacceptable. When she got back, she was most likely going to get a taste of her own medicine lecture-wise.

Rainbow Dash gladly did the dirty work.

But not while her supposed “help” was busy lounging in a reclining chair.

Dash paced the library floor with a fervor, eyeing the walls as if they were her sworn enemies. She kicked the books on the floor aside as she came across them.

Oh dear, she was becoming Twilight...

“Are... are you okay, Rainbow?” a timid voice spoke from the stairwell. Spike jumped off of his seat and cautiously approached the blue pegasus. He grabbed his tail bashfully, averting Rainbow’s icy stare. “I mean, you’ve been here for hours... why?”

Dash sighed glumly. “I’m sorry, Spike,” she tried to say delicately, “I just need to talk to Twilight, so I’ll wait til’ she gets back.”

Spike scratched at the back of his head. “This can’t wait until tomorrow? What’s so important?” he said. He yawned, stretching out his claws and showing off his baby incisors. Rainbow had been keeping him up, he was obviously tired.

Dash chuckled. “How ‘bout you get some sleep there, mister? I promise I’ll make the visit short and sweet.”

Kinda like a promise she had heard earlier.

“Well I’m not tired!” Spike bragged, flexing his muscles to appear less so. He winked at Rainbow Dash. “I could stay up all night if you don’t tell Twilight.”

Dash produced a faint smile on her lips. “Heheh, I won’t tell, Spike.”

Spike saw Dash lighten up a bit and he relaxed. His sleepiness fell him back to the stairs, where he sat down, still managing to stage his alertness. “I don’t know about you,” he said, failing to cross his legs. His head drooped off to the side a bit, “but I think we could throw a party, so long as it has ice cream...” he slumped back on the stair, laying his head down on the wood, “lots and lots of ice cream...”

Rainbow smiled and rolled her eyes. She meandered over to the corner of the library that housed the Daring Do comics.

“Rainbow.” Spike uttered, shakily pointing his claw into the air.

“Yes?”

“Could you go... get the... hmm... ice cream? It’s in th-the freezer...” Spike ordered dreamily, coasting off into the night. A dragon's mind was not adapted to a pony's sleeping habits.

Dash smirked. She pulled one of the comics from off of the dusty shelf and flipped it open. “Yes, I’ll get right on that, Spike.”

The young dragon was appeased. “Good.” he said, smacking his lips. Buckets of ice cream frolicked in his head. He counted them, pointing them out with his imaginary spoon. He gradually succombed to his weariness.

“Good night, Spike.” Rainbow whispered.

Spike tossed on what would be his bed for the night. “I’m not... tir-” he started. He cut himself off with a loud snorting noise and a few snores.

Dash was now the only functioning party in the room.

Dash silently crept through the pages of her comic, having read all of the words a thousand times before. The pages of neat illustrations were no less a pleasant read as a memory game now. Dash read off the words from the next panels before she even laid eyes on them, but they still felt sweet to the touch.

And now, she couldn’t help but imagine herself as Daring Do.

That’s right, Rainbow was adventurer extraordinaire, defying the rules and always staying cool. Lame rhyme, I know, but it’s what she came up with. Her life leaped from the panels. She was finding treasures, fending off villainous creatures, and making narrow escapes as thin as a hair. Daring Do's world was cool. Dashie's world could be just that cool. Dash hugged the book. If only...

Suddenly a flash flared up in the center of the room. Dash shied away from the intense light as it occupied all of the corners of her wooden abode. She flinched away from a tiny spark of magic that sailed out from the clutches of the orb in the center, sizzling out on the floorboard before her. She put a hoof over her eyebrows, attempting to disperse the rays of light away from her iris’. A single pony’s blackened outline could be seen in the center of the orb. Dash grimaced.

Twilight Sparkle materialized in the center of the room, looking thoroughly pissed off. Dashie blinked a few times, adjusting back to the dimly lit room, focusing in on Twilight’s features. Dashie set her book down.

“You have some explaining to do!” Dash chided in a whisper-yell, staring coldly at Twilight.

“Darn right I do!” Twilight countered loudly. She struck her hoof down into the floor. “I just got ba-”

“Shhhhh!” Rainbow chimed in.

“What?”

Dash pointed to a dreaming Spike over on the stairwell. Spike rolled in his slumber and struggled to stay in his restful state. They could hear him murmur a random assortment of words, suggesting that he was still asleep.

“Ah.” Twilight quipped, lowering her voice.

“You were saying?”

“Oh, yes, well I just got back from my visit with the Princess, and you would not believe what happened.” Twilight trotted over to her window and whisked it open, gazing out into a starry abyss.

Dash plucked herself from the floor. “What happened?”

Note: regarding what happened-

This is what happened-

“Princess! I’m so happy you could see me on such short notice!” Twilight exclaimed, rushing across the royal carpet to greet Celestia. She donned her “all business, no excuses” expression.

“Anything for my star pupil.” Celestia replied, watching Twilight storm across the floor. She was able to tell something was amiss. “What’s up?”

The Princess’ desire to use slang expressions whenever she wanted to stay hip bothered Twilight somehow. She didn’t feel the Princess needed to stay in the know to accomplish her royal duties. She shrugged the thought off. “Princess,” Twilight said briskly, “I can’t stay long because I have to get back to Ponyville, but could you please tell us why you’re making us run all over Equestria?” Twilight stopped in front of Celestia, her plea could be heard reverberating from the walls.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about. Care to clarify?” Celestia responded incredulously.

Twilight sighed. “The letters you’ve sent us... what are they for?”

Celestia brought a hoof up to her chest, utterly confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Twilight Sparkle, I haven’t sent you any letters in days.”

Twilight looked starstruck. “You’re kidding, right?”

Celestia shook her head. “I’m afraid not.”

Twilight looked around the room in a dazed panic, growing chilled to the bone on the inside. “Well, wh-what about the letters I sent? Did you get those?” she chirped, shaking in her horseshoes.

Celestia bent down close to console her pupil. She gazed into Twilight’s eyes kindly, using that regal beauty that set all of her subjects straight. “Twilight, I haven’t received a letter from you since last week... is something wrong?”

“So... wait.” Dash said after Twilight had finished up her story. “None of the letters are from Canterlot?”

Twilight combed a hoof through her mane. “Apparently, no. Rainbow... I- I’m really beguiled by this one.”

The pair huddled around the central table, having brought out the two leads they had to go on to solve this puzzle. An age-worn letter. A fire ruby. They beckoned to them, urging the case to go on.

“Rainbow, we can’t keep doing this... whoever sent these could be very dangerous. They could be some sort of marauding deviant or crook looking for a cruel joke." Twilight paused to gaze at the gem and the scroll. "It won’t end up being very humorous, I might warn.”

Rainbow Dash did not want to hear those words.

“I think our best bet is to let the Royal Guard sort this one out.” Twilight reasoned. “I’m sure that they can settle the situation.”

Dash gazed at the letter and the ruby lying on the table. She saw something in them. She didn’t know what it was, but she saw something. Dash looked back to her Daring Do comics, feeding off of its stigmatic words, swallowing them in earnest.

She wanted this.

She needed this.

“No.” Dash muttered, her head turned down to the table.

“Excuse me?” Twilight asked.

“No, Twilight, I want to do this. I think that you’re being over-dramatic.”

Twilight reared back. “Who said I was being dramatic?” she replied, completely astounded. But a measly thirty hours beforehoof, Rainbow Dash had been here, in her library, cowering in fear and tweaking out.

“Whatever. Twilight, listen, we can do this! Yes, I don’t know who wrote the letter, or who’s doing this to us, or where it’s taking us, but...” Dashie paused, picking up the ruby and directing Twilight’s gaze to it. “but don’t you want to find out for yourself? Twilight, think about it: I think that we can handle thugs and brutes by now." Dashie pulled off her best puppy dog eyes. "Please do this for me?”

Twilight watched her confounded expression glimmer in the gemstone. She stared into it like a portal to another dimension. “You’re insane, Rainbow, I-,” she stopped, the words getting choked up in her throat. She let out a gasped breath. “You... you get one chance.” she said with uncertainty.

Dash lit up like an equestrian candle. “You’re game?”

Twilight looked out to the window she had opened a short while ago and closed her eyes. She sighed. “Yes. I will help you. You can’t do this alone.”

Dash flung herself at Twilight Sparkle, embracing her rather ferociously. Twilight let out a muffled gasp.

“Okay, okay!” Twilight chuckled through Dashie’s mane, “Tell me more about these fire rubies so we can get some rest. We’ll have our hooves full come tomorrow.”

Twilight and Dashie awoke the following morning to a deafening snort emitted from Spike’s mouth. They both jolted up in astonishment. Spike merely hiccuped and resumed his slumber. Dashie and Twilight looked to each other, grinning. This was it. They were doing this. They shoved their covers off of their bodies and sprung out of bed. Dash grabbed the scroll and the fire ruby from the table, and they both made their way downstairs furtively, being wary not to awaken the sleeping dragon.

“All right, hold on, let me consult the checklist. Let’s see what we have to bring with us.” Twilight announced, hoofing her way to the cabinets. She pulled the top drawer open and lifted a scroll out from it, unfurling it and studying it instantly.

Dashie squeaked over in the corner, teeming with excitement. She waited for Twilight to call off the items they needed so that she could flash around the room and grab them.

“Okay, ruby, scroll, check... ah! First things first,” Twilight articulated, leaning to one side, “We’ll need our packs.”

Dash whirled by Twilight, blowing the scroll into her face with the coming wind. She grabbed two packs from the closet and pivoted, smiling tumultuously.

“Done!” Dash shouted.

Twilight huffed the scroll out of her face. “Right. Next, we’ll need some snacks.”

Dash shot by Twilight once again, this time throwing her off balance. She wobbled, sustaining herself. Dash could be heard noisily browsing through the kitchen. She appeared back in the doorframe, carrying various munchies in her mouth and hooves.

“Fimiffed!” Dash babbled out, a bag of chips occupying her mouth. She opened the packs and dropped the food into them respectively.

“Super effective! Okay, packs, snacks... oh.” Twilight muttered, looking at the next item on the list. She glanced up from the scroll. “Where are we gonna find shovels?”

Dash shrugged the packs from her shoulders. “Why do we need those?”

Twilight looked at Rainbow pathetically. “Seriously? Rainbow, both items so far have been buried somewhere at random. We are traveling to an arid place full of dirt and rocks. What do you think?” Twilight responded.

Dash caught on. “Oh yeah. Well, we could borrow some from Braeburn once we get to Appleoosa, don’t you think?”

Twilight nodded her head in agreement. “Good thinking.” She faced the scroll once again, vexing her eyes on the next item. “Oh! How about hats and water, it can get pretty dry out there.”

Dash zoomed into the kitchen, feverishly snatching two large containers of water from the fridge and racing back to drop them off by the packs. She then chucked herself into the closet again, where she lifted out two jaunty caps that Rarity had made for Twilight a while back (she never once wore them).

“Eh, these’ll do.” Dash mumbled, eyeing the caps with a hint of disdain.

Dash tossed the caps across the room like a frisbee and smoothly trotted back over to the packs. Twilight checked both items off of her relatively short list, double and triple checking to make sure they needed nothing more from the treehouse. She set the quill and scroll aside, contented and positive that they were fully prepared.

“Well, I think that we should be ready to go! We can pick up whatever else in Appleoosa when we get there, sooo... shall we?” Twilight beamed. She held her hoof out, juxtaposing that thin, innocent smile on her lips.

Dash gently clacked her hoof against Twilight’s, smirking. “Let’s get it done.”

Twi and Dash slung their packs onto their haunches and trotted through the threshold of where Twilight’s front door had once been.

It hadn’t failed for the last few days, and it certainly wasn’t failing today, the sun was out and the threat of heat stroke was made fully aware. Dash and Twilight nestled the zebra printed straw hats onto their heads and fished out their sunglasses which they now permanently kept in their packs. Waves of heat could be seen steaming off of the ground, rising into the air like a vaporous spectre.

“Heh, if you think this is bad...” Twilight said, comparing the conditions here with what she expected to come.

The two waltzed down the street in style. If Rarity had seen them, her heart might have stopped on the spot. The two looked, dare I say... (sigh) fabulous. Alas, the unicorn had parted ways with Rainbow Dash the night before, barricading herself in her boutique so that she could assemble her newest project together. No one was about to see her for the coming hours.

“Twilight,” Dash piped up, matching the purple unicorn step for step, “I don’t look weird... do I?”

Twilight looked to the oversized sun hat perched on top of Dashie’s head. It did look weird on the blue pegasus... in my opinion anyway. Twilight agreed. It was most likely in the highest fashion, but it was not to her liking.

“Nooooooo...” Twilight reassured her, wearing a lying smile. She was lucky she was wearing those sunglasses.

“Good.” Dashie said, spreading her wings out so that they could get some air. “I have an image to keep up, you know.”

Twilight laughed. “Yes, I know.” she said, suddenly thinking about herself in her current attire. “I must say though, we certainly don’t appear to be headed out west.”

Dash chuckled. “Well, I don’t care what they think! We won’t be staying to entertain them!” Dash flapped her wings a couple of times, as if testing them in the heat.

“Heheh, I suppose you’re right! We can look as ridiculous as we want in the badlands anyway, no one lives out there!”

Dash raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said that looked all right?”

Twilight suddenly appeared to be teetering on the edge of a cliff. Her eyes went wide. “Wha? Oh! Heh, did I say ridiculous? I meant... um... delicious!” she blurted out, trying to cover herself.

Dashie’s face went blank. “We look delicious?”

“Delicious! No doubt about it! Let’s just keep walking!”

Twilight inadvertently started to trot at a faster pace.

It was a short walk to the Ponyville train station. Twi and Dash had crossed town in just ten minutes, coming to their destination on the edge of town. The station was empty. It usually was, as nopony was much of a traveler in this town. Shame. Why wouldn’t you want to get out of Ponyville? Oh, bother, nevermind it. The two bought their tickets and boarded a train to Appleoosa without any complications.

Just as the station was, the cars were deserted. Apparently nopony felt obligated to make the trip to the old western town today, and this train had been traveling for quite some time. It would have been humorous if there had been a tumbleweed bumping its way across the carpeting, crossing the pair’s vision like in one of those western flicks. You know! Like in one of those old Filly the Kid westerns! Ha, that would have been-

Ugh, story, story, right.

You guys should really just tell me to shut up sometimes.

Anyway-

Dash and Twilight fought playfully for the first seat they laid their eyes on. Yes, the car was completely empty, but it was a pride thing. It started with a simple shove, but it quickly escalated. Fortunately, the staff onboard were very hospitable. They let the two ponies nip and bat at each other, tumbling to the floor in an uncoordinated entanglement. They let Rainbow Dash rip off Twilight’s pack, using it as a mace to wallop Twilight in the behind, sending her reeling sideways. They let Twilight snag Rainbow in a telekinetic grasp before Rainbow could leap into the designated seat, using the power to fling Rainbow across the car.

They let out a sigh of relief as the purple unicorn finally “won”, and had settled in her seat.

“Ha!” Twilight boasted, sticking her tongue out at Dashie.

Dashie slid into the seat directly facing Twilight Sparkle, making silly faces at her.

A lanky colt in a blue uniform approached them after all of the festivities had died down. He adjusted his cap slightly, then looked at the two with trepidation. “Tickets please.” he tried to say with conviction.

Twi and Dash chuckled, reaching into their packs that were now ajar and fishing out their tickets in a simultaneous fashion. They politely handed the colt their crumpled up slips of paper.

“Thank you.” the colt said, turning away from the two mares and walking back to the next cabin.

“Thank YOU.” Twilight said seductively, batting her eyelashes back at the colt. Rainbow stifled a few snorts of laughter until the colt had fully exited. When he shut the door behind him, the two mares bust out laughing.

The trip to Appleoosa was a long one. Roughly a ten hour trip by train or so. They wouldn’t make it into town until nightfall, so finding a place to stay was of importance. That didn’t bother them now. Finding a place in town wasn’t overly difficult. Not anymore, anyway.

Note: regarding Appleoosa-

Since the main six’s last visit, the quaint settlement had grown into a rather prosperous one, attracting ponies from all around. It had grown in population, housing, profit, and just about anything else you’d associate with an up and coming city. The main street that used to carry everything from wild to mild west dances was now a hustling and bustling tourist attraction. Entrepreneurs that took a chance on buying a building there soon found out that it was money well spent, as tourists just ate up the country twang on the products they were selling.

Dashie and Twilight gazed out of their window, watching the scenery moderately change from grass to dry earth. They watched the ground flatten, only giving way to a few towering rock formations every now and then. They watched as the grasses disappeared altogether, as if they had been melted by the sun. It was a complete deviation from Ponyville. The ground was dry and arid. It was barren and cracked. It was desparate for life and thirsting for water.

It certainly wasn’t unlike anything they’d seen before.

“Are we there yet?” Rainbow spewed out into the cabin air. She attempted to open the window, but it wasn’t working. She ended up mashing her face into the pane of glass, kissing it like her first time (a rather embarrassing story, I might add). The earth rolled by in a blurry spectacle from her viewpoint.

“Rainbow, we’ve only been on the train for about two hours.”

“So?” Dash replied coldly.

Twilight only rolled her eyes.

“They could move the train a bit faster.” Dash said, crossing her forehooves over her chest.

Twilight eyed Rainbow with her piercing violet eyes. “Rainbow Dash, they’re pulling a train! That’s a giant hunk of metal weighing a few tons, I mean, if you didn’t know.”

Dashie huffed. “Oh yeah? Well, Fluttershy and I once pulled a cart with all of you in it. I think that counts for something.”

Twilight pulled back and sat upright. The expression on her face was one of pure shock and hurt. “Are you implying something?”

Dashie scanned Twilight’s frame onceover. She then directed her gaze back out the window. “Alls I’m saying is that someone should lay off the strudels every once in a while.” she mumbled.

Twilight drew back in her seat, pressing herself into the velvety booth. She looked like a hoodlum ready to pounce on Dash at any second.

Rainbow glanced at Twilight out of the corner of her eye. She did a double-take. Twilight looked like a ravenous lion out on the prowl.

There was a frozen moment between the two as they sat eyeing each other.

Then they both abruptly broke out in a hysterical fit of laughter.

Time eased its way by. The pair rested comfortably in their seats, talking about the future, the past, and the present. They talked about hardships, school crushes, their parents and their lives. They talked about the Wonderbolts, books, holiday vacations, and how AJ’s freckles moved in a funny way whenever she talked. They spoke of an Equestria free of the Princess’ sovereignty. They spoke of themselves leading Equestria.They saw fire and ashes and smoke. They decided not to speak of it again.

The night sky slowly descended over the two ponies as they talked. Luna raised the veil of stars and inky black nothingness as if brooding over a day gone awry, and she had failed to correct it. Nonetheless, the deed was completed as the pair talked in their car. They had talked for hours. It didn’t feel like hours. The ten hour train ride felt only like three, but their destination was closing in. Twi and Dash were confused when they noticed that suddenly the lights had been turned off, and the night had taken over. Was Luna tricking them? Where had the time gone? Somewhere, moments must have been missed in there. Somewhere, the day had not yet ended, and they were still conversing about monocles and a day at the beach. Time had blown away as if it never occurred in the first place. They were surprised when they heard that their stop was but two minutes away, and that they should ready their things.

Twilight yawned. “Well, I think that we should find a place to stay for the night. Where’s there a place in Appleoosa?”

“Not Braeburn’s?” Dash responded.

Twilight thought about it. “Hmmm... what time is it?”

Dash shrugged.

Twi decided against it. “No, no. I wouldn’t bother him this late. There’s bound to be some sort of motel now though.”

Dash and Twilight looked out from their train window a final time, finding the approaching lights from Appleoosa become more vivid. A radiant sign that clearly said “station” on it fast approached their car. The wheels underneath the train could be heard screeching, gradually bringing the train to a halt.

“Is it just me, or does Appleoosa look... bigger?” Rainbow Dash stated, staring out at a multitude of lights and new buildings at the center of town.

“Well that just brightens our chances, doesn’t it? C’mon, help me gather my things.” Twilight replied, throwing some of the snacks back into her saddlebag. Dash grabbed a few things and scooted them her direction.

The train came to a stop at the platform, and two wayward ponies wearing some interesting hats leaped from the exit and into the vivacious night air. The station sign lit up the platform like a carnival theme park ride would. The effervescent glow gave a light, bubbly feel to the night.

“Okay.” Twilight said as she and Dashie left the deserted platform, “Do you think that we can ask the night clerk if he knows somewhere to stay?”

“Good idea.” Dash replied. She ascended into the air and fluttered into the station. Twilight trotted in after her.

Dash dropped back to the floor in front of the help desk, Twilight joining her side. The gentlecolt working the shift on this evening was a portly pony with a light brown coat and dusk grey eyes. He looked about ready to pick a fight with anypony, his face was stern and non-negotiable. Dash rested her hooves on the counter, speaking through the hole in the layer of plexiglass separating herself and the clerk.

“Excuse me,” Dash piped up, turning the clerk around to face her, “my friend and I are looking for a place to stay here in Appleoosa. Do you know where we might be able to find one?”

The colt behind the counter looked at the two innocent mares with scrawny eyes. The assumption that he really did not want to be here could be made. “Yeah,” he said in a deep, booming voice, “thur’s a hotel down the main strip. Can’t miss it.”

“Heheh, strip.” Dashie chortled.

“Thanks for the help! Let’s go Rainbow.” Twilight commanded, whisking Rainbow away from the counter.

Just like that, they were leaving. The clerk watched them go through those unsettling eyes.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t be playin’ in the streets fer too long.” the clerk called after them. He flipped open his news magazine. “It can get pretty nasty out there.”

Dash and Twilight found Main Street without much difficulty. They just looked for the buildings that dominated the skyline and the lights that outshone the stars. That wasn’t too hard to understand. What was hard to understand, was how Appleoosa became a thriving city of nocturnal ponies out looking for a good time. The street was lined with shops and bars and hotels. It was littered with ponies aimlessly wandering in a drunken stupor. It wasn’t the ideal place for two young ponies to be, the clerk’s words of warning now made sense.

Twilight and Dashie made their way up the brightly lit street, dodging a countless amount of hooligans out enjoying themselves a bit too much. Many of them wobbled into the pair, apologized, and proceeded to stumble into somepony else. The familiar denizens of Appleoosa were nowhere to be found, or at least in their case, could not be seen. It was just a guess that they barred their windows and locked their doors securely at night. Just a guess, though. Dash and Twi parted their way through the chaotic crowd, looking for the first hotel they could find.

“Over there!” Dash shouted to Twilight, gesturing to a freshly designed building that read “INN” just above its doors. Dash grabbed Twilight by the hoof and dragged her over to the glowing sign.

Twilight and Dashie hopped up the steps to the Inn. They avoided one last run in with a drunk before they found themselves standing under the sign, the light reflecting in their eyes. A gentle smile could be seen on their faces. They pushed through the big red doors, where a surprisingly modern display of architecture was revealed inside. A humongous chandelier was hanging from the ceiling, glittering in the lights almost as much as the fire ruby in Dash’s saddlebag. It hung over a wide staircase lined with red carpeting, which went up a few steps before splitting off into two sections, leading off to separate parts of the building. The check-in center was to the right of the entryway. The pair scurried over to it.

Dash rang the bell sitting on the counter.

The help was already there, she just always wanted to do that.

“Sorry.” Dashie rasped sweetly, turning away from the clerk.

The clerk smiled, thinking nothing of it. “Can I help you?” he asked.

“Yes.” Twilight stated, twisting the clerk’s head her direction. “We need a room for the night, please.”

The clerk checked his book for a short time. “Oooh,” he chanted, wearing an apologetic grin, “I think we’re booked for the night. Sorry! If you like, I can check the other motels down the strip for-”

Just then, they all watched as a white colt, obviously intoxicated, was being dragged down the steps by one of the watchpony’s on duty. He was hurled out of the motel and into the never tiring streets.

“Teach you to throw bags of ice in the pool!” the watchpony yelled through the door. He closed them and wiped his hooves. Then he trotted back up the stairs, back to work.

The clerk eyed his book of names again. “You know what.” he said, looking for a phone. “I believe that we will have a space opening up for you. Hold on just a moment.” the clerk picked up the phone and punched in a few numbers.

Twilight and Dashie entered their motel room, exhausted from the long train ride, exhausted from the lively streets of Appleoosa. Muffled shrieks and shouts could still be heard bleeding through the walls into their room from the street below. They were so tired the cries most likely would not inhibit their slumber. They set their packs down on the table. Then they threw the covers on the beds aside, readying themselves to plop down into them.

“Twilight,” Dashie said, tucking herself into one of the beds, “what’s the first order of business tomorrow?”

Twilight yawned. “Continental breakfast.” she replied sarcastically. She flipped off the lights, instantly covering the two in darkness.

“No.” Dashie said in the darkness. “Should we see Braeburn first, or what?”

“Braeburn.” Twilight decreed. “However, our first first order of business is sleep. Good night, Rainbow.” She turned over in her bed and coiled up into a ball.

Rainbow Dash didn’t reply. She stared up at the ceiling, her vision beginning to kick back in. The shouts rising from outside fused with the hum from the heater. They eventually perished in the darkness and stillness of the room. The ceiling had its own collection of stars. Dash connected dots from it, producing her own constellations. It kept her up like an insomniac with an energy drink. But eventually, those thoughts would perish as well. The hum from the heater. The lack of movement. She absorbed them, growing weary. That was enough. Dash tossed in her bed, grinning foalishly, catching the faintest of glows emanating from her pack before drifting off to sleep.

“Wake up! Wake up!” Twilight shouted, opening up the window curtain. A blinding ray of light shot into the room, soaking into the walls and dying there.

Rainbow Dash sat up, groggily wiping her eyes. The plush motel room bed was too heavenly to escape from. Dash pulled the covers over her head, listening to Twilight Sparkle dart around the room, her hoofsteps noisy and cumbersome. It was too early for this. What could she possibly be grabbing this early in the morning?

“C’mon, Rainbow, it’s past ten already, we need to get a move on!”

Great Celestia of Equestria they slept in.

Dash sprung herself out of bed, the covers coming with her. She was a floating phantom of bedsheets hovering in the center of the room.

“Boo.” Dashie joked through the bedsheets. “Okay, okay, I’m up. What do you want me to do?”

Twilight looked unamused. “First off,” she said as she telekinetically lifted the covers from atop Dashie’s head, “you can move out of the way so that I can make your bed.”

Dashie fluttered aside so Twilight could assemble to covers back to the bed frame. The bedsheets drifted down under the purple glow and neatly pressed themselves down into the bed, looking identical to the one next to it.

“Great.” Dash said as the covers had settled. “What next?”

Twilight looked around the room, making sure that everything was accounted for, making sure nothing made them seem like unruly guests. “I have pretty much everything covered,” she said, double checking herself. “so just grab your things. I mean, you could take a shower, but what’s the point in that anyway? Besides, we don’t have much time. Check-out is at eleven. Do you still have the ruby and the scroll?”

Dash shuffled over to her saddlebag and peered inside. “Yup, still here.” she said, rummaging through its contents. She closed the pack and threw it over her backside.

“Good.” Twilight replied. She picked up her own pack and tossed Rarity’s hat on her head. “Grab those two water jugs in the corner so we can go.” She nodded her head toward the far corner of the room.

Dashie pounced on the two containers, slinging them over her shoulder and turning back to the door where Twilight was exiting. She bounded off the bedside, grabbed her own hat from the table, and followed after her.

The pair trotted down the steps back to the front of the hotel. The chandelier was swaying casually this morning, like the pendulum on a small clock. Dash and Twilight cautiously scuttled under it, wary that anything could happen... anything. They then diverted themselves over to the check-out center to their left.

Dash rang the bell sitting on the counter.

The help was already there... oh just nevermind.

“How kin I help y’all?” a mare with brown eyes and a canary yellow coat said this morning. She produced a thin smirk on her lips.

“Hi!” Twilight greeted the mare with an upbeat attitude, “We were just wanting to check out now, please.”

The clerk smiled with the customary hospitality shown here in the west. “Well, sure thin’ sweetie!” she drawled. “Just be needin’ yer room key s’all!”

Twilight twisted her neck around to look into her pack. She dug through it, searching various compartments, none of them containing the room key.

“Oh-oh.” Twilight muttered. “Hold on, let me just-” she trailed off, fishing through her pack, pulling out a random assortment of items. Dashie sighed and walked away while Twilight fell to the floor, still ruffling through the saddlebag.

As Twilight struggled with her pack, Dashie trotted along the wall, admiring the intricate weavings and engravings carved into it. She craned her neck up to marvel at the high vaulted ceiling, extending to floor after floor, reaching into the air. It was a sight to behold. It was as if Appleoosa was making a go at being a western Canterlot. Dash chuckled at the thought. High society hospitality went hoof in hoof as much as pudding and applesauce did. Still, Appleoosa: western capitol of Equestria, it had a nice ring to it.

Suddenly, a handsome colt not much older than Rainbow Dash bumped into her, sending them both crashing to the floor. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said it was on purpose. Rainbow Dash always caught the eye of all the colts. In some ways, that was good, in others, not so much. The colt readjusted the hat on his head and looked at Rainbow, who was sitting upright and rubbing her head. The colt bolted to his hooves and offered Dash his hoof.

“Terribly sorry, ma’am.” he said, still extending his hoof out. “I didn’t see ya thar. Lemme help ya up.”

Dash took the help the colt was offering and he strongly hoisted her up to her hooves. Dash rubbed at her head some more before finally opening her eyes. Her pupils expanded. Her heart skipped a beat.

He was pretty cute.

“What’re ya doin’ round these parts? Y’all from round here?” the colt asked, all smiles.

Dash stared into the colt’s wild blue eyes as if it were a never-ending ocean.

“Oh, jeez, I didn’t hit ya that hard, did I?” the colt said with sincerity. “Do I need ta take you to a doctor?”

His voice was dreamy. Dash snapped out of it. “Oh, no, no, I- I’m fine." she abashed. Her cheeks were red. "And no, we ain't-aren’t- from around here, my friend and I are only visiting.” Dash gestured a hoof over in the direction of a purple unicorn who was laying on the floor, fiercely digging through a saddlebag. She pulled out a plastic key from the very bottom of the pack.

“FOUND IT!” Twilight Sparkle proclaimed from the floor.

“I mean, if you couldn’t already tell.” Dash said, eyeing the scene that Twilight was making.

The colt laughed. “Well miss...?”

“Um, Dash, Rainbow Dash.”

“Well Miss Dash, will ya be stayin’ long?”

Dash blushed. She turned away, looking to the chandelier that was swinging to and fro.

“Uhhh... well...”

“C’mon, Rainbow, let’s go!” Twilight interjected into the charming chat. She bit Dashie’s tail and proceeded to drag her out of the hotel. Dash was embarrassed. She put a hoof over her eyes, ashamed and impish. Twilight carried her along like a six year old with a rag doll.

The colt watched her go, grimacing at the pegasus being carried across the floor. He sighed. He seemed to be striking out a lot of late. Dumb luck. Karma, maybe. Mares were hard to come by... at least sober ones, anyway. He was about to turn away and abandon the chance meeting, when he caught the faintest glimmer of hope sparkling from Dash’s saddlebag.

The colt’s eyes went wide with disbelief.

“Charlie! Charlie!” the colt whistled, searching the main floor. “Charlie!”

“What?” another colt whispered from the shadows in the corner. He emerged from them and joined his friend’s side, munching on an apple.

“Did you see that!?” the first colt said, wrapping his hoof around Charlie’s neck.

“What!?” Charlie implored.

The colt sighed. “Ugh, the mare! The mare!”

Charlie looked to the doorway. “Oh, you mean the one you failed to hit on? Yeah, I did see that. Baazing!”

The colt cuffed Charlie in the back of the head. “No ya idiot! Didjya see... oh, whatever." The colt took Charlie's apple from his grasp and threw it aside. "Look, juss git the gang together. Kin ya do that?” he said. He started to trot off to the next room.

Charlie looked puzzled. “Whatcha want us to do, boss?”

The colt trotting away never missed a beat and he never turned around. “Follow them.”

Important note: regarding the situation-

A young mare with a hat tipped down over her face overhears the conversation between wondercolt and his boy Charlie. She calmly collects her things and leaves.

“Braeburn!” Twilight Sparkle shouted, knocking on the pony’s front door. “Braeburn! Open the door!”

Some shuffling was heard from the other side of Braeburn’s front door. A single voice could be heard talking to itself from inside, contradicting itself and placing doubt where there was none. If Twilight and Dash didn’t know any better, the assumption that the pony that lived through these doors was insane could easily be made. They backed off of the front step. In a sudden motion, the door was swung inward, where a crazed Braeburn was seen panting in the doorway, nostrils flaring and eyes burning a firecracker red.

“WHAT!?” Braeburn hollered from the doorframe.

Dashie and Twilight inched away from the door. Perhaps Braeburn was crazy...

Braeburn saw the familiar faces backing away from his doorstep and he instantly relaxed. “Oh, pardon me guys! I didn’t expect ta see a fermiliar face!” Braeburn placed his head on the doorframe. “Please, come in!”

Twilight and Dash looked unsure.

“I’ll explain myself.” Braeburn said.

Twilight and Dash looked at each other. They nodded in approval.

“Braeburn,” Twilight said as she entered through the front door, “Do you by chance have a couple of shovels that we can borrow? And can you fill up our containers with some water?”

Braeburn closed the door behind Rainbow Dash as she came in. He laughed upon hearing Twilight’s words. “Now what’re ya gonna do with those?”

“Oh, you know... some excavating, some digging around.” Twilight paused and watched Braeburn take the water containers from Dash and carry them into the kitchen. “All that jazz.”

A faucet was turned on in the kitchen, where Braeburn must have been filling up the jugs. The smooth stream of water intertwined with his soft voice. “Sounds like you two gotta lot on yer plate.” Braeburn paused. The sound of water hitting plastic filled the air. “Where’s cuz’? She round here somewhere?”

Note: regarding cuz’-

somewhere far away, four ponies sit on a hillside in an ideal place for a picnic. A simple pony with apples for a cutie mark and a face beset with freckles sits up and asks, “Where in the hoof ‘er Twilight n’ Rainbow?”

“Oh, she’s not with us this time. She’s... tied up in other matters.” Twilight lied.

“She still workin’ the farm?”

“Yes.”

Braeburn chuckled. “Heh, she’s always workin’, ain’t she?”

“Yup. She’s quite the diligent pony. About as hard working as I am studious.” Twilight replied. There was another pause. Twilight and Dashie shuffled uncomfortably about the room. Braeburn appeared back in the room with two jugs of water filled to the brim. “Thanks for the shovels and the water, Braeburn. It’s a big help. Oh, gosh, sorry, you are lending them to us, correct?”

Braeburn set the jugs of water down by his hooves. “Only if ya promise to bring ‘em back!” he retorted enthusiastically. “And sorry fer earlier, I mistook you two fer a coupla tourists. They’ve come knockin’ on my door of late, and I juss can’t stand it!”

“Have they been visiting often?”

“All the time!” Braeburn yelled. He sighed. “But that’s besides the fact. You ladies need some shovels? Hold on, lemme go on out back and grab ya some.”

Braeburn left out the back door, leaving the two mares in an eerie silence. Without warning, Twilight’s horn started to glow a light purple, and the drawers in Braeburn’s house started to fly open and rest in the air.

“What are you doing?” Dash asked Twilight as she perused Braeburn’s cabinets and drawers.

“Looking for a map of the badlands.” Twilight responded. She continued her search.

Dash rolled her eyes. “Could have just asked.”

“That would defeat the purpose.”

“You’re silly.”

“Maybe,” Twilight said, telekinetically lifting a piece of paper from one of the drawers, “but I get what I want.”

All of the drawers were rushed back to their original locations as Braeburn entered back into the room with a pair of shovels. Twilight shoved the map into her pack.

“Wouldn’t ya know it, these were the last two I had!” Braeburn whinnied as he came through the door. He didn’t notice anything abnormal about the room or about the two mares standing in it. “Guess ya kin consider yerselves lucky!”

Twilight smiled marvelously. “Thanks a lot Braeburn, we owe you one!”

“Shucks you two! You don’t owe me nothin’! It was nice ta see a friendly face.” Braeburn giggled bashfully. He set down the shovels at the pair’s hooves. “You two wouldn’t happen to be stayin’ fer a spell, wouldjya?”

Twilight and Dashie shook their heads.

“Sorry Braeburn, but we gotta split.” Dashie said, eyeing the door.

“We appreciate the offer.” Twilight added.

Braeburn showed a brief moment of despair. “All right.” he murmured. He immediately perked back up. “You’ll be back, won’t ya?”

Twilight and Dashie both nodded in agreement.

Braeburn smiled genuinely. “In that case, lemme juss show ya out the door.”

Two colts in ten gallon hats watch from across the street as two young mares exit the house they’ve been staking out. They watch with intent as the mares wander off down the street, carrying shovels and jugs of water.

“That them?” one of the colts asks. He appears skeptical.

“That’s them.” the other one assures.

“Looks like a dud. Whatta we got wit them two?”

“Not sure. It’s what the boss wants.”

The first colt gets up from his seat. “Well, let’s get ‘em.”

The other one sticks a hoof out, stopping his partner before he does anything brash. “No, no. Not yet.” he says. “Right now, we follow.”

“It’s pretty hot out.” Rainbow Dash said, stating the obvious as the pair had just reached the outside of town. She waved her hoof at her face, using it as a rather poor fan that accomplished next to nothing.

“Thanks for the update.” Twilight said as she scanned the map she took from Braeburn. “keep up at this pace and we might appoint you permanent weather mare.”

“Sarcasm noted.” Dash replied. She plucked the sunglasses from her pack and threw them on.

The pair of strangers to Appleoosa headed due north, directly into the badlands of the west. Rock formations hundreds of years old rose up from the cracked surface of the earth, reflecting the harsh sunlight from their orange-red edifice. It was hot. It was dry. It was everything that they were expecting. The sun beat down on them, harnessing their stamina and throwing it for a loop.

Quick side note-

If you were to ask me, I’d have to say that I had no idea what they were doing. This so called “mission” was completely unorthodox and, now, almost meaningless. I mean, a random letter presents itself to you under suspicious circumstances. What would you do? Would you follow a trail to an uncertain fate? Would you tackle whatever was thrown at you for an unknown cause? The concept is entirely ridiculous to me. Funny thought hit me at that moment-

Only, and I mean ONLY, Rainbow Dash would do something this spectacular.

I wouldn’t have done it. As soon as I found out that the letters were not from the Princess, I would have said “meh”, and I would have moved on. Yet here she was, with the ever faithful Twilight Sparkle, trekking it to who knows where. They would soon find out, however, that Equestria wasn't a safe place for such things. Equestria wasn’t just filled with monsters and devious creatures anymore. It was filled with liars and crooks and thieves, just as the letter foretold.

And real life was sure to come up and smack the two in the face.

“Where to begin, where to begin...” Twilight said to herself, studying the map. She pondered over the names of the rock formations, all of them having something to do with fire. Fire, flames, torches. One of the names stuck out in her mind.

“There.” she said, pointing to one of the formations. “Rainbow, hand me the scroll.”

Dash pulled out the old scroll from her pack and handed it to Twilight in her mouth. Twilight magically lifted the letter and unfurled it before her eyes, skimming directly to one section of it.

“If I fail, we’ll pass the torch.”

“See?” Twilight said, showing Dash the map.

Dash followed Twilight’s hoof across the map, where it came to rest on a formation appropriately titled “The Torch”.

“Well that couldn’t be any more straightforward.” Dash stated, becoming a bit more energized. “Let’s go.”

They took a couple of swigs from their water jugs before taking off, venturing into the land that looked as if it had been decimated by a severe nuclear accident.

Thanks for that one Albert Einsteer... idiot.

“The Torch” was but a mile trot from where they were, not too far in, yet not painstakingly close. They started off at an exuberant trot, excited and hopeful, young and restless.

The sun beat down on them

They slowed to a steady walk about a quarter of the way there, sweating it out. It was dangerously hot now, they were starting to feel the effects. Dash dragged the shovel behind her as if she couldn't hold up its weight.

The sun beat down on them.

They trudged along the ground, halfway there, their hooves burning, sweat pouring off of their bodies. Their hats drooped down over their faces and their bodies slumped.

The sun, almost literally in a sense, beat them. It shoved them into the hard, unforgiving dirt as if it wanted to bury them.

Twilight and Dashie sluggishly crawled along the ground, the burning soil searing their coats. They were a good three-fourths of the way there.

“Ow, ow, ow.” Dash uttered as she limply followed Twilight across the boiling ground. She pulled her shovel along behind her, it left a trail extending back to where she had dropped it. “How much farther?”

“I can see it,” Twilight croaked out, “it’s just up there!” At this point, she didn’t know whether or not that was a mirage or what.

“No, no!” Dash groaned. “We’ve been able to see it the whole time! It was only a mile away, remember?”

Twilight halted herself mid-crawl. She looked lost. “Oh yeah.” she murmured.

“That’s it, I’ve had enough of this.” Dashie said. She tilted her hat off of her head, and proceeded to abandon some of the expendable items she carried in her pack. She threw her own shovel aside, and took a drink from her disappearing water supply. Dash gradually swooned to her hooves.

“What are you doing?” Twilight asked helplessly from the spot she was now glued to.

“Just hold on to the shovel.” Dash responded.

Dash bit hold of Twilight’s tail. Amid Twilight’s pleas of mercy, Dash turned her 180 degrees, and started to drag her along toward their destination.

This was an interesting sight. A beleaguered blue pegasus fights through fatigue to drag her weary friend to a place that they don’t even know houses the item they’re looking for. Undeniable fact: Twilight and Rainbow are an oddball couple that somehow, inexplicably, unquestionably functions as a whole. Rainbow pulled Twilight the last quarter mile to their mysterious rock. She clinked her hoof on the rock to make sure that they had made it. She collapsed into the shade, downing her water.

“Could have teleported us.” Dash heaved.

Twilight winced. “You know,” she said amidst deep breaths, “I really wish that you’d stop making me hate myself right now.”

They both sat up and took a couple of big gulps from their water jugs. Their supply was diminishing at a rate that was not to their benefit. It would have to be that way for the rest of the trip. In any sense, they were here. They had made it. They had to be close to the next clue, it just had to be here.

It didn’t take long for the two to recuperate. Their young and vibrant bodies replenished themselves quickly with the help of the water and a few energy spells from Twilight. Twilight found the strength to push herself to her hooves, and Dash was soon to follow.

“Okay,” Twilight said, turning to Dash underneath the edifice of the rock formation, “I think that we should surround the rock and look for markings. Sound fair?”

Dash chuckled. “Hellooooo?” she said, unfolding her wings.

Twilight smiled. “Good thinking!” she exclaimed. She threw Dash the map. “You scout the rock, report to me your findings. I’ll meet you back here.”

Dash gave Twilight a smirk. She flapped her wings with effortless force, preparing to fire herself from the ground. She looked up into the blue sky, a concave bowl of humidity and light. Her eyes widened at the sudden upwelling of the freedom she felt.

This was adventure.

This was exciting.

Why would she give that up?

“Be back in a jif.” Dash said, beating her wings faster.

She never made it off the ground.

“Hold it right thar.” a voice broke in from the shadows.

Dash stopped. She recognized that voice.

“Golly! You’ve made this’n too easy on us, girls!” the voice continued. “Here we thought that we’d hafta trick ya into meetin’ us somewhere, but you’ve gone n’ isolated yerselves fer us! Thank ya kindly, ladies, very thoughtful.”

Twilight and Rainbow backed up into the face of the rock. They could fend off brutes, thugs, ruffians. They told themselves so. Another day, another monster.

“Show yourself!” Twilight shouted out into the stale air.

At first, nothing stirred. Then a colt with wild ocean blue eyes appeared out of the shadows from behind the rock. He crossed out into the open, where he respectfully tipped his hat to the two mares.

“Good afternoon to y’all.” he said.

“Hey, I remember you!” Dash cried. “ I saw you at the hotel! Have you been following me? What do you want?”

The colt plastered a smile onto his face, one that didn’t seem would disappear. “Oh, nothin’ much miss... Dash, was it? You see, ya juss got somethin a ours and we’d like it if ya cud give it back now. No harm, no foul, if ya catch my drift.”

Dashie involuntarily grabbed at her saddlebag. “What do you mean ‘we’?”

The colt shook his head, as if disappointed. He stared at the two mares, testing their patience. The silence was like staring death in the face. Then he suddenly whistled quite loudly, and a swarm of pegasi and unicorns bulleted out from their hidden perches on the rock face, descending down around the rock, circling the mares.

This was bad.

This was a new monster.

Welcome to the real world.

Dash and Twilight plainly showed fear on their faces. They drew back as far into the rock as they could go.

“We don’t have anything of yours! Please, I think you have the wrong ponies.” Twilight pleaded, trying to win her way out of it.

The colt frowned. “Aww, don’t have nothin’ of ours? Well, this must be a huge misunderstandin’!” the colt bowed his head and sobbed sarcastically. “But ya know,” he picked up, “thar ‘er certainly some... other... ways that we kin git what we desire.” He lifted his head back up and reintroduced that menacing smile on his lips.

The other colts in the group whistled and cheered and bleated at the two mares backed into the corner. Rainbow and Twilight were genuinely scared now.

“Wh-who are you?” Twilight managed to gurgle out from her dry lips.

The ringleader of the group again shook his head in disappointment. The smile on his face never vanished, nor did the passionate sparkle in his eyes. “We go by many names, missy,” he said, needlessly adjusting the hat on his head, “murderers, thieves, villains. But those juss ain’t quite right.” He paused, partaking in an apple from his saddlebag. “Nah, it’d be juss fine if ya called us by our here group name. We call ourselves:"

Pause for dramatic effect.

"The Rattlers”

Rattlers

Be still, my beating heart.

tick... tick... tick...

If you were to ask me how Canterlot treated the lower class back in my day, I’d have half a mind to score your face with a rusted, white-hot screwdriver. Believe me when I say there is no exaggeration there. Because, back in my day, the lower class was dirt. No, we were less than dirt. We were particles of dust floating gently in the breeze. The kind that, if inhaled by the aristocratic denizens of the wretched place, would promptly will them to contract the boldest of colds. We were frivolous pieces of outdated furniture, pathetic and insignificant, a complete eye-sore. We were a waste of money, space, and time. We scrounged around for our means of survival by digging through trash bins and lapping up the remains of an unfinished dinner plate.

We were jested, bested, and laughed at.

We were noponies.

We were secluded.

-anyway-

Over the course of just a few months of living in Canterlot, I had already grown entirely bitter over the resentment we received just for being who we are. There were only a few of us: sewage maintenance workers, window cleaners, royal maids et cetera, but we could never catch a break. We weren’t allowed in at social events. Hell, we were so poor we couldn’t buy an article of clothing necessary to attend such a gathering anyway. Those who had families found it painfully difficult to keep them afloat. They worked all day and all night. They tired themselves out for their respective families, each and every one of them eroding themselves down to a hollow husk, a shallow and intrinsic shell of skin and flesh. What would they come home with? Bread crumbs, a button or two, a foul stench polluting the air. It was unfair.

What kind of thought spawned inside of me to come here?

Oh, forgive me, I had almost downright forgotten.

I barely knew anypony when I lived in Canterlot. Most of the ponies, or at least the ones that I could converse with, were zombie-like in nature, and they wandered Canterlot performing the various tasks they were forced to do. I did, however, befriend one down to earth family of four while I was there. They were a cast of writers... the lowest of the low. I worked as a hoof-shiner, for my original position of craftsman was much too overwhelming of a position to take in this town. I made next to nothing. They did as well. They were my neighbors, and the closest thing that I could call a friend.

My shoe shining business took a hit one day (not that it hadn’t taken hits already) when somepony set the shop ablaze for sheer kicks and giggles. We stopped the fire from spreading to the other’s houses, almost miraculously, as the housing was conjoined. We put it out with some buckets of water and the only blankets that we had. By the end of it, we were out of water, and the blankets had crumbled to ashes, but the fire was out. Only problem now was, I was out as well.

My neighbors took me in after that in the kindest gesture that I have ever witnessed in all of my years. They were already struggling to get by, and they couldn’t stand to witness another suffer. I was genuinely touched. I vowed that I would do all that I could to provide. But now, I couldn’t. I no longer had any equipment, nor the money to buy any. My only chance was to take up the “family” business... I had to become a writer, just like my determined neighbors.

But... I couldn’t do that...

You see...

I was illiterate.

Starting from the bottom up is never easy. It was disheartening to realize that their youngest foal was far superior in her studies than I was. She read off words with the ease of a flowing brook filled with a pristine display of floating daisies. I spewed nonsense out of my mouth as if I were a garbage disposal with a fork jammed down its throat. That didn’t stop them from trying to teach me. I felt embarrassed. I grew flush every time that I couldn’t figure out a word, and then came to discover that it was something so simple like “trade” or “weather”.

But they never stopped.

And I was getting better.

I had to. It was my duty to.

Because writing was going to be a helluva lot harder.

From what I understand, I’d say our two mares were in a bit of a bind at the current part in the story. If you think things can get worse... they will.

o----o

“Get us out of here, Twilight!” Dash chided to the purple unicorn, who was visibly shaking and undoubtedly overcome with fear. Things had gone wrong. Twi didn’t know how, but they did. Now, she had told Dash earlier that the letter could have been from anyone. True, it could have. It could have been from deviants or thugs. It could have been from monsters or gremlins. But oh hell, it could have just as easily been from Pinkie Pie. Did she actually believe what she had told Dash in the library? No, she truly didn’t.

Turns out she was wrong.

“Twilight!” Dash repeated.

“I-I can’t, Rainbow,” Twilight squeaked out. She was frozen. She looked like a sack of potatoes, like absolute dead weight.

Dashie had about enough foaling around, “What do you mean you can’t!?”

Twilight only looked to the dry earth surrounding her hooves, “I... I don’t kn-know. Something’s jamming me, Rainbow. I c-can’t use my magic.”

“Twilight, you have to-”

“‘Nuff talkin’!” the colt with the ocean blue eyes cut in. His smile had since distorted itself to a grotesque smirk. “Now, lemme make this real simple on ya,” He pointed to Dashie’s saddlebag, “either ya give us the ruby in the pack, and don’t go makin’ it seem like ya don’t got it, or we read n’ article ‘bout two poor mares in the paper tamorrow. Ya understand?”

Oh, they understood. They understood all too well.

Dashie was a mess. She had ripped her, but more importantly Twilight’s, world asunder, tearing it from its tranquility and barbarously tossing it into the wild. The blame rested solely on her hooves, and she had gotten a dear friend into a lot of trouble for it.

“Why are you doing this to us?” Dashie asked, attempting to appear completely calm.

“What’s this? Twenty queshuns?” the blue-eyed colt responded harshly. You know, just for future reference, let’s call him Blue. “Nah, ya don’t understand then. Ya answer ta me, not the other way ‘round.” Blue struck his hoof into the ground at his impatience, “Now, what’ll it be then, ladies?”

Dashie wasn’t so frightened now. She felt a pit of fire boiling down inside of her, which made her impulsive, “No, YOU don’t understand! Or we don’t! Look, I don’t know! All we want to know is, why us!?” Dashie’s anger subsided as she reconsidered how dire the situation was. “Why the letters? How did you know about the ruby?”

Blue tilted his head to the searing hot sky and huffed a breath of frustration, “Pardon my french, ladies, but WHAT ‘N THE HOOF ‘ER YA TALKIN’ ‘BOUT?” he hollered, ticked at the two mares disobedience. Biding for time wasn’t going to work anymore. “I saw the gem in yer bag back at the Inn! What’s this ‘bout letters?”

Twilight and Dashie glanced at each other for a brief moment. They didn’t write the letter? They didn’t know about the ruby?

Blue continued his rampage. His own minions were slightly concerned for him now. “Ferget it! I don’t care! Now, listen ‘ere! That gem ya got thar is mighty valyable. Only time I ever saw one was at a rich folk aucshun. They don’t juss pop up outta nowhere now, not since the Ruby Rush.” Blue paused, trying to catch his breath, “Look now. It’s obvious ya don’t own that thar gem, so its only right ya give it back to its rightly owners.” He attempted to urge forth a smile.

“Rightly owners?” Dash persisted, finding that fire again, “You guys aren’t the rightly owners! We don’t know who- er... whatever...” Dash trailed off, realizing that that sentence wasn’t going to turn out the way she hoped.

Blue didn’t argue the other way. He fell into a dead silence, one that prodded at the two mares brains and left them spinning. A subtle breeze picked up, sweeping across the ground, blowing under the legs of everypony in the circle.

“Thinkin’ ‘bout flyin’, Dash?” Blue stated simply, rupturing the air. It was the most haunting voice Dash had ever heard. “I wouldn’t. Won’t make it too far.” Blue lifted a hoof to his chest and scratched at his coat. He stole a quick glance around at all of his companions. “Boys...” Blue muttered. His voice sounded as if it were emanating from the depths of an icy cave, “Git ‘em.”

Twilight cringed. Her eyes went wide with outright fear. Dashie planted her hoof down in front of Twilight. She had gotten her into this mess, she was going to get her out.

Even if she had to die trying.

The Rattlers closed in on the mares slowly, as if enticing them to let their guard down. They thought that this was easy pickings. Two mares? This was better than stealing candy from a baby. Mares had the capacity for their dreams to wither away and die. The weird thing was, The Rattlers didn’t know what they were getting into. Dash and Twilight hadn’t abandoned hope. Dash would fight. Twilight still attempted to conjure forth a spell.

Blue watched his group close in, as if disinterested in the entire matter. “Last chance, gals,” he said over top of their heads. Dash merely responded by taking a swipe at the dirt with her hoof. Twilight stood behind her, grimacing.

“All right...” Blue said, turning away from the situation.

Suddenly, and to Dashie’s complete surprise, the gem magically danced its way out of her pack. It slithered out into the air, dangling in front of Dash. She swiped at it, trying to gather it back in, trying to will it back to her. It didn’t come back. Instead, it just floated out in the open air.

Blue looked just as shocked, “What’s goin’ on? Why didn’t ya guys tell me ya cud do that?” he queried.

“It ain’t us,” one of the Rattlers answered, staring at the ruby hovering in the center of the circle. They had halted their approach to gawk at the wondrous gem glittering in the midday sunshine.

Blue furrowed his brow, “Well, the purple one! I thought ya were suppressin’ her magic!?”

“We are!” came the answer, “It ain’t her neither!”

Everypony stood in awe as the gem hovered in the middle of the circle. Dash thought about it. It lived. It thrived. This gem truly did have a mind of its own.

In a sudden flash of intense light, the gem in the middle burst out with an energy that made the sunlight want to crawl away with its tail between its legs. Everypony closed their eyelids tightly, a white spark of energy singing their eyes. They reared back on their hind legs. They whinnied and shouted in an incoherent montage of words.

The ruby, still burning with the crazy amount of light, suddenly fishtailed in the air and sped off like a rocket straight at one of the Rattler henchmen. It clonked down on his muzzle, knocking him clean out. He, literally, had no idea what hit him.

Dash and Twilight flattened themselves into the rock, shying away from the blinding display of surging energy. Something whistled its way into Dashie’s ear, like the subtle wind of a springtime engagement with her best friends. It was a voice, soothing and calm in a time of despair. It was a voice that was not her own.

“Run.” it said.

Dash blindly grabbed for Twilight Sparkle, feeling around until her hooves came to rest on her feathery coat. Dash crudely wrapped her forelegs around the disoriented unicorn and proceeded to usher her away from the scene, completely on the notion of a voice in her head. She bolted off to her right, convinced that something beyond her own power was occurring, and that she should just follow the lead.

“Where are they!” Blue shouted into the air, fiercely rubbing at his eyes, “Find ‘em!”

Dash and Twilight spiraled away from the group, blindly heading out farther into the badlands. Dash attempted to open her eyes, which seemed to have been welded together, the light still occupying her vision. Twilight hung limply in her grasp, as it was Dashie’s turn to drag her around.

The Rattlers were scrambling back to their senses. The light from the gem had since dissipated, but the lingering effects could still be felt. They wobbled to their hooves. They pried open their aching eyes and bruised egos. Everything was a blurry view of fractions of shapes and shadows.

“That way! That way!” one of the Rattlers shouted, catching the outline of his fallen comrade heaped in the dirt. He pointed off in the direction that Dash and Twilight had went.

The others took a moment to adjust their eyes to fully see the direction in which the colt was pointing. When they finally did, they noticed their unconscious friend collapsed on the ground, and the ruby missing. They turned off in that direction, and a blue and purple speck could be seen barreling off into the distance, straight toward another rock formation.

Blue stressed his anger to its full potential, yanking one of the Rattlers to him by its ear, and then swiftly kicking the poor soul hard in the side. “Git ‘em ya bastards! They got the ruby! The hoof ya still doin’ ‘ere!?”

There’s encouragement for you.

The four pegasi Rattlers streamed into the air, bulleting off at a wicked pace. The five unicorns and Blue himself galloped off after them. Rainbow Dash had a good head start, but she was carrying a disclosed (Twilight was sentimental about the subject) amount of weight in her hooves.

It was hot. It was dry. There was a lot of physical effort exerted by Dashie in her venture to get Twilight out of here. Twilight was still a bit dazed by the light, she feared she may have lost her vision. She felt helpless in Dash’s arms. Dash willed herself to go faster. She was dog-tired already, the stale air and Twilight’s weight on top of that was draining her. The determination it took to accomplish this feat was mind-boggling. The element of loyalty could forever be epitomized by this moment, by the determination to survive. It would not be determination enough.

Dash looked back over her shoulder, back to the Rattlers giving chase. They were screaming through the air, gaining in on them in drastic fashion with each wingbeat. Dash wasn’t going fast enough. They needed a place to hide. Where could you find one of those out here?The area was wide open, spotting the two would be foal’s play. Besides, they were in plain view anyway, hiding was out of the picture. The situation looked bleak.

Rainbow Dash suddenly had a brilliant idea.

“Twilight! Can you use your magic yet?” Dash asked.

Twilight’s fuzzy vision was making her slightly delirious, but she noticed that she was able to use her magic, “Yes... I think so, but I can’t see, so I don’t know where to teleport to-”

“No, no, not that,” Dashie cut in. She drifted lower to the ground. “I need you to start making the wind blow.”

“What are you talking about- WAAUU!” Twilight shrieked as her hooves began to scrape across the dry earth. She was kicking up particles of dust in her wake.

Twilight knew what Dash wanted.

This was ingenius.

“I got it!”

Without hesitation, Twilight focused all of her energy into making the wind blow right into their faces. The gradual cloud of dirt that she was kicking up was turning into a whirlwind of dust behind them. It rose up high into the air, cloaking them to a certain extent.

The Rattlers formed quizzical expressions on their faces as they bore witness to the coming storm of dust.

“What the-?” one of the Rattlers coughed out as he inhaled a good amount of the wall.

“Use your wings! Flap it outta here!” another one proclaimed, unable to see his companions through the haze. They all began to beat their wings ferociously.

Dash looked behind her again. A wall of dirt was streaking behind them.

“We need more!” Dash exclaimed.

Twilight put more energy into it. Dashie started to swerve in a zig-zag across the ground, producing a literal veil of dust rising into the air. It was working.

“It’s working!”

What she said.

Dashie and Twilight raced for the rock formation that was in their sights. They were now losing the Rattlers with each of Dashie's wingbeats. Dash smiled.

The Rattlers were behind, choking on a cloud of dust. They had their eyes shut tight as they parted through the storm. One of them had a brilliant idea of his own. Odd for someone of his brain capacity. He went straight up.

“I think that we’re losing them!” Dashie yelled to Twilight, greatly excited that her idea was working. The poor mare was incredibly devoid of energy, but she kept going.

“Yeah? Well I hope it’s worth my hooves getting trashed!” Twilight proclaimed. Her eyes still had not fully adjusted and her hooves began to burn with a blaring red sore.

Hell, I’ll admit it, I was impressed that they continued on, and I had championed that subject.

Dash glanced back over her shoulder another time. The only thing that she saw was a bowl of dust.

“I can lift you now!” Dash wailed to Twilight. She groaned as she started to lift the purple unicorn from off of the ground, giving her hooves a rest.

Dashie and Twilight were closing in on the next rock formation now. It was so close, Dashie just wanted to reach out and touch it. They still needed a place to hide in it though. Dashie scanned the rock, looking for the most logical, rather illogical, place to hunker down. They had to be discrete, they had to be unpredictable. This was going to be difficult in such an obvious location.

“Where to go, where to go-”

“GOTCHA!” came a voice careening out of the sky.

The Rattler dive-bombed out of the air, and he fell into a tangled heap of worn, sweaty bodies. They kicked and thrashed around on the ground, only until the colt had them pinned them down. He was too powerful. They weren’t going anywhere.

“Help! Help guys! I got ‘em! I got ‘em!” The Rattler claimed, enthusiastically battering his hooves down into the ground to get a proper hold on his catch. He proudly wore his smile that stretched from there to Las Pegasus.

“Get offa me! Get offa me ya featherbrained ninny!” his prey croaked back at him. They still fought with vicious ferocity.

Wait... that didn’t sound like them.

The Rattler looked down, only to find his prey to be a couple of his pegasus comrades. They glared back at him coldly, unamused with this joke in this serious of a predicament.

The dive-bomber brought his hooves to his face, staring at them in utter shock. They were right there! He swore that they were right there!

“Wow! I didn’t think that I could make someone else teleport!” Twilight exclaimed, sort of giddy in a sense. She had heard the voice and immediately casted the spell, but it only sent the Rattler flying, not themselves.

Dash only smirked at Twilight’s revelation.

Dashie sped off ahead, the rock drawing ever nearer, its massive presence now made fully aware. Dash scanned it over quickly. They needed something now-

now-

now.

Dash spotted it.

They could hide in the brush surrounding the rock until Twilight recovered.

Perfect.

Dash lowered her head, stream-lining straight for a spot in the brush.

Dash grunted.

Twilight screamed.

They darted right in.

They were concealed in the brush.

“Where are they!” Blue hollered to his group, having caught up to them after several minutes, “How could ya ‘of lost ‘em n’ the middle of a HOOFIN’ DESERT!?”

The rest of the Rattlers searched the rock that Dash and Twilight had disappeared into. This was uncanny. They had literally just vanished altogether.

Blue trembled with seizure-like shivers. He had never lost. Not once in his life. This was the first time something had gone amiss. Not the first time somepony ran, or hid, or fought. No, this was the first time that it hadn’t been controlled.

“Dammit!” Blue hollered, kicking a part of the brush that he was searching through, “They musta teleported!” Blue planted his hooves into the dirt as if he were stomping on everypony’s hopes and dreams.

“You!” Blue continued, pointing to two of his henchmen. He had gone completely mad, his entire visage screamed disarray, “You were the two that I’d sent ta follow ‘em, right?”

The two colts that he was pointing at nodded distantly.

“Good!” Blue warbled, “Do ya rememba where they went fer the shovels?”

The two colts nodded again.

“Well,” Blue said, eyeing them like a frantic lunatic, “how ‘bout ya pay a visit back and see if they’ll be stayin’ fer the night?”

Dash rubbed at her head, as it hurt rather badly from slinging into the brush. They had taken a serious tumble for only splashing into the shallow grasses. Dashie opened her eyes, simultaneously swishing her hoof around in her search for Twilight Sparkle.

Everything was black.

Her worst fear had become realized.

She was blind.

(Definitely wasn’t her worst fear, but it went hoof in hoof with losing her wings.)

Dash listened for any rustling around before acknowledging that the coast was clear. “Twilight,” she whispered, feeling around for the purple unicorn, “Twilight?”

Dash’s mind was wrecked. She was broken inside. Losing her sight? Her life could very well just end now. Only it couldn't, for she had a job to do. She couldn’t see, yet, all she could think about was Twilight Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle was put ahead of herself in her mind.

What a completely selfless gesture from the boastful blue pegasus.

“Twilight?”

Suddenly, a faint purple light flickered on in the darkness. Dashie thought that she was seeing things float through her vision, until Twilight’s features became clearly illuminated under the glow. Twilight was smiling for some odd reason.

Dashie wasn’t blind. She was only surrounded by darkness.

What the hay?

Dash looked at Twilight, her foalish grin pleasantly displayed on her face. It was apparent that she could see properly now, as she scanned Dashie’s features onceover, making sure Dash had come out unscathed. Her smile never disappeared from her face.

Why was Twilight acting all... weird?

“Twilight, what’s going on?” Dash asked nervously, suddenly aware of her surroundings. They were not hiding in the brush.

“Look in your pack,” Twilight said, still grinning.

Dash glanced down to her pack, where a faint, orange glow could be seen creeping its way out of the corners. The gleam was so miniscule in size that Dash hadn’t noticed it in the darkness beforehoof.

“The ruby...” Dash said, wide-eyed, “how did you-”

“Not me,” Twilight cut in. She lit up the suffocating darkness just a bit, enough to fully illuminate the two bodies standing there.

Dash drew back from the sudden light, “Then who?”

Twilight looked away, pondering over the way things had coalesced. She couldn’t think straight, “I don’t know.”

Dashie’s gaze never parted from Twilight’s strange grin, “What’s so funny?”

Twilight shook her head and rolled her eyes. There was a moment of silence that hung in the air, creating a rift between the two ponies. Dash realized that Twilight’s grin was misleading, as she was not at all happy, she was just unsure of how to properly handle her emotions. And how was she supposed to handle it? They hadn’t had such an encounter with other ponies before, at least not without the entire group involved.

“I gave you one chance, Rainbow...” Twilight said, hanging her head low.

Dash didn’t quite follow, “What’re you talking about?”

Twilight didn’t respond.

Dash didn’t understand. Twilight looked just fine to her. Her hooves were most likely burning with the intensity of the sun, but it didn’t appear to be bothering her. Who knows what was going on in that pony’s mind.

Dash decided to forget about it. There were other mysteries to be solved here.

“Twilight... where are we?” Dash asked, feeling uncomfortable in the silent darkness.

Twilight focused a bit more energy into her horn, enough to brighten their surroundings. The walls were made of solid stone. They were damp and cold to the touch. Twilight’s horn illuminated the stone all the way down a narrow corridor, as they were in some sort of hoof-carved tunnel. The place seemed ancient, it was not freshly hollowed out.

They must have been beneath the rock.

Dashie’s face lit up, overcome with a sure feeling that what they needed was here.

“Twi! It’s here! It’s here! It has to be!” Dash said joyously. She fluttered off down the corridor, scraping her hoof along the stone, “Pass the torch. Pass it! We were supposed to pass it! Gee, woulda saved us a lotta trouble.”

Twilight only nodded and began to trot off after Dash. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was following her, or watching her. The chilled air down there felt like the breath of a spirit slowly making its way down her back. It told her something had been here before... recently, as in only a few years.

o----o

Flashback: five years after the funeral...

Our funeral pony sits in a diner located in an old mining town just off the coast of the ocean. She had taken refuge there ever since she was orphaned by her mother all those years ago, hearing of how breathtaking the town once was. Starswirl the Bearded himself visited this town often back in the day, as it used to be quite beautiful. The town was next to the ocean, and it was surrounded by rolling meadows as far as the eye could see. Any of the imported flowers you would see on the fashion runways used to come from right around here. Many years after Starswirl died, however, a very important mineral was located in the soil. Industry was on the rise, and many of the big-wig owners and CEO’s of those industrial companies flocked to the site to dig up the find. Many of the meadows were ripped to shreds in the process. The almost “sacred” ground of the place was severely desecrated. Only a few of the meadows survive today.

Note: regarding the meadows-

Rainbow Dash has once visited these meadows. She does not know why she visited, or how she got back home.

A gentlecolt waltzes into the diner and sits down next to the funeral pony. They pay each other no mind at first, as the gentlecolt must be visiting from out of town, she had never seen him before. The stranger orders a cup of joe and pulls out the day’s newspaper, skimming through the headlines until something would pique his interest.

They go on like this, ignoring each other, up until the gentlecolt started to glance up from his newspaper from time to time to catch a look at her. She tried to ignore him, colts would look at her all the time. It was sad. Sad, because they would never have a chance with her, and she was almost always well out of their league. Plus, this colt looked to be well into his fifties, and he definitely was not Hugh Hoofner. Creepy.

After staring at her for quite some time, the colt finally decided to speak up.

“I’m sorry, but, do I know you?” he asked, setting his paper down and studying her over.

She sighed. This was how it always started. “Cuz’ if not, I definitely should!”, would more than likely be the next line. What a joke. What an absolute joke.

“Weaver, right? Your name is Weaver?”

Her blood ran cold. It felt like thousands of icicles had suddenly stabbed her heart, sending pangs of icy pain through her body. She hadn’t heard that name in a long while.

The funeral pony, Weaver, turned to the stranger, hoping to be able to make out an identity. She scanned him up and down, but nothing came to mind.

“Ah, I knew it was you! I knew it!” the stranger continued, “Gosh, I haven’t seen you since you were but a blank flank!” The stranger paused, searching for words. “Forgive me, you probably don’t remember me. The name’s Crosswind, and I was a friend of your fathers. We started up a home building business waay back. Wow, its been so long! How is he? How’s the family been coming alo-”

Within seconds, the stranger was on his back, having been rudely tackled to the floor. He yelped as Weaver landed on top of him, sucking the air from his lungs.

“My name is NOT Weaver, you got that?” the mare said. But no matter how much she denied it, it always would be.

Crosswind gasped for air and nodded his head vigorously. Everypony in the diner glanced up to catch sight of the commotion, including the manager.

“Hey! Hey! What’s going on!” the manager hollered, racing over to cease the quarrel, “Stop! Get out of here, you’re not welcome here!”

Weaver paid little attention to the manager’s approaching hoofsteps. She gave Crosswind a deep, provoking stare, one that seemed to blur his vision and leave his mind fluctuating like a defected light bulb. In an instant, he saw everything in that mare’s eyes. The pain, the loss, the tragedy, the hidden guilt and that rain-soaked porch. He saw the past, the present, and the future. Did he really see anything, though? Because all that he could remember after Weaver was yanked from his chest was-

‘You have absolutely no clue, do you?’

“Right, right! I’m leaving!” Weaver said as she basically let the manager push her out the door.

The others helped Crosswind back to his hooves in the diner. Crosswind felt woozy and dazed as he tried to prop himself up on one of the diner’s booth chairs. The manager gave a half-hearted chuckle at Crosswind’s struggle.

“Interesting way to end the day, eh?” the manager snorted, a placid grin forming on his lips. Crosswind only shook his head in his sudden mental delirium.

Weaver trotted back up to her doorstep, trembling slightly from being exposed to the chilly air drifting in from off the ocean. She checked her mailbox, the monotonous routine beginning to make her feel sick, as there had been no mail for years. Not for five years, anyway. She breathed a heavy sigh, her hoof coming to rest on the base of the door. She felt weary. She wanted to shut her eyes and let the world exist in a black nothingness. It could never be that way, though. Weaver nudged the door open with her muzzle, entering into the ramshackle old house she had acquired from a pony intent on getting rid of the damned thing. She had no other options, and had taken it off his hooves.

Weaver closed the door behind her, locking it tight. The musty smell of the old house wafted in through her nostrils, making her sneeze. It was dark and cold. The heater was obsolete, and the only way to light up the din was by candlelight. Weaver crossed the room to the only table that rested in it and struck a match that was lying on the table. She lit the candle that was sitting next to it, making the crooked old boards that made up the walls show their gruesome faces.

Weaver sat down and put her hooves to her face. Why did she continue on like this? What drove her to live? Was it truly the hatred for her father?

She didn’t know anymore.

Weaver eyed her bed through her hooves. it looked unusually soft on this particular grey evening, but she knew that that probably was not the case. Though things may look appealing on the outside, the world had taught her that all things were full of surprises, and normally disappointing ones.

No, what caught her eye this evening was the little brown box that she kept under her bed. She hadn’t taken a peek from that box for a while, she only broke into it when she really needed it. Today was debatable. She was tired, she was hungry, she was cold. That was normally just another day, though. Did she really need to dig it out today?

Weaver stared at the little brown box.

She fought with herself.

Oh hell...

Weaver willed herself to get out of her chair and mope over to the box. She whisked it from its rest, brushing off the cobwebs and dust. She walked back to the table and plopped it down, again settling herself in the chair.

She ripped open the flimsy, cardboard top.

The first letter in the stack read “Dear Child...”

Weaver lifted it and decided to read the rest of it.

Dear Child,

Please stop sending the letters, as your father has grown suspicious of your true identity. I know that this is the only way that we have been able to communicate, and I am truly interested in how you’ve come along, but it is for your safety, and mine. I will continue to write to you in secret, just so you don’t have to go and get all depressed.

That okay with you, missy?

Okay, so, things around here are... well, i can’t say that they’re better. As for the bruise under my eye? Heh, darned thing just won’t go away. Better than broken legs this time, though. Don’t worry about it. I don’t need your pity. I’m your mother for Celestia’s sake, I need to be worried about YOU. I realize that things haven’t been ideal where you live, but don’t you for one second think about coming back here. Your father has been looking for you ever since you left, and believe me when I say he will not be overly excited if you return. I’m trying to keep you safe, Weaver, don’t ruin that. My time will soon be over, but you? You represent all that is good and all the hope in the world. Go forth and do something for yourself. Every moment that you are alive, it torments him.

More letters soon, dear.

I love you with all of my heart.

Until next time.

And that was it.

Weaver hugged herself, the room seemed to grow colder in a matter of minutes. She sucked a tear back up into her tear duct.

“I’m leaving,” she muttered under her breath.

o----o

“Twilight! Look at this! Look at what’s written on the wall!” Rainbow shouted from up ahead in the corridor. Her voice reverberated down the hall, it pricked Twilight’s ears. Twilight mosied on up to the energetic pegasus.

“Look! Look here!” Dash reiterated, pointing at something on the wall.

Twilight looked to the wall, where the scribbled words “Pass the torch” could be seen pressed into the stone. Twilight looked disinterested.

“Din’t I tell ya? Din’t I tell ya?” Dash claimed, poking at Twilight’s side. She started to flutter off down the hall, “Come on! It must be just down this way!”

Twilight sluggishly followed.

Dash rounded a corner at the end of the corridor, where she stumbled upon what appeared to be a small altar. There was a small box placed on the middle of a stone pillar in the center of the room. The box looked very similar to the one Dash had back in the library. This one didn’t have any ashes in it, did it?

It didn’t matter, it was going to be opened regardless.

Dashie’s grin grew wider (if that was possible). Twilight huffed a breath of impatience and proceeded to enter the room. Dash stuck a hoof out to stop her.

“Uh-uh,” Dash said, still heroically standing and facing forward, “reach into your pack and grab me something about the size of an apple.”

“What?” Twilight asked, growing tired of the games.

“Just do it.”

Twilight sighed. She reached into her pack and telekinetically fished out a bag of peanuts, “Here, happy?”

Dash swiped the peanuts out of the air, “Very.”

Rainbow slowly crept into the room, scanning the room with those fuschia iris’. She kept her head on a swivel, as if she suffered from a bad case of paranoia.

“Rainbow, let’s just get the thing and leave, can we?” Twilight said as she watched Dash crawl in a ridiculous fashion across the floor.

“No way, I’ve read all the books, Twilight. Trust me, this is important,” Dash replied, still inching her way to the pillar.

Twilight chuckled a bit, “You’ve read one book.”

“Have not!”

Twi rolled her eyes, “My mistake, a series of books.”

Dash finally slunk up to the pillar, drawing up to where her treasure was held. She licked her chops, preparing to make the old switcharoo, “So?”

“Well, I mean, there’s more than that.”

Dash nearly dropped the peanuts, “There’s more?!”

“Not in the series, I mean, there’s more than just-” Twilight stopped herself. She did not know why she was having this conversation. It seemed frivolous. “Look, would you just pick the thing up already? I really want to go home.”

Dash readied the bag of peanuts in her hooves. She wiped a drop of sweat from off of her forehead, “Done and done.”

Rainbow nimbly swept the box from the pillar and replaced it with the peanuts. It seemed to work, nothing proceeded to shake or tremble.

“Ha! Piece of cake!” Dash proclaimed, admiring her own deed.

Suddenly, the bag of peanuts leaned over the side, and they fell off.

“DUCK AND COVER!”

Dash threw herself into the corner, heeding her own advice by covering her head with her hooves. Twilight looked unamused.

“Dash,” Twilight stated.

“What?”

“Grab the peanuts.”

Dashie pried open an eyelid, coming to discover that the world was not caving in around her.

“Gotcha, I can do that.”

Dash and Twilight made their way back down the corridor, the box in their possession (plus the peanuts). They made their way back to the front and looked up from where they had fallen into. Small rays of light could be seen trying to squeeze their way through the brush where the hole in the rock was.

“Go up and check for the Rattlers, Dash,” Twilight said.

Dash began to clamber up the the side to reach the top, “On it.”

Dashie poked her head out from the hole in the top, looking out from the brush surrounding the rock. It was apparent the Rattlers had left, as she could see no one. That’s not to say that they weren’t waiting. Dashie fully revealed herself by jumping out of the brush. Everything was still.

“Clear,” Dash said to herself.

Dash fluttered up to the top of the rock in order to fully survey the scene. There wasn’t a Rattler in sight.

“All clear.”

Dash descended back down the rock face, back to where she presumed the hole to be. She moved the brush aside, calling out Twilight’s name.

“All right all right, I’m coming,” Twilight said as she emerged a few paces from where Dash had been searching. Dash lifted her head from the brush and walked over to her.

“Okay, everything is A-okay. Where to next?” Dash asked

Twilight shrugged, “Well, we should tell Braeburn that we lost his shovels, there’s a start.”

“Oh yeah,” Dash said. She had forgotten about them. Braeburn wouldn’t be too happy, “Can we open the box there?”

Twilight stared at Rainbow Dash. She thought Dash was being unbelievable, “Rainbow, we need to get out of Appleoosa. I don’t know what you think, but I for one don’t think that we are safe here.”

Dash sighed. She was right. The Rattlers wouldn’t just stop looking for them. They carried something that was too valuable, plus they probably weren’t excited about the getaway.

“Yeah, I know,” Dash replied. Twilight was glad that she saw reason. Dash pawed at the dirt, “Twilight... is it getting dark out?”

Twilight studied the horizon, where the sun was definitely lowering down over it, “Hm... we weren’t in there for that long, were we?”

“I don’t think so.”

Twilight smirked, “Well, definitely not the strangest thing that’s happened today.” She turned back to Rainbow Dash, “We should get going then.”

Dashie returned Twilight’s gaze, “Braeburn’s? Can you teleport us?”

“Yes, but only in spurts,” Twilight responded. She extended a hoof out to Dash, “Take it.”

Dash smiled and slapped a hoof down on Twilight Sparkle’s. They both vanished into thin air.

The pair trotted back into Appleoosa, restlessly carrying on. They kept an eye out for Rattlers or really anything else that would hold interest in wielding the box. They stuck to the backroads, keeping to the shadows as the night sky descended upon them. Luna’s gorgeous night was becoming a familiar sight for them recently. They alone probably could have ended her torment all those years ago.

Braeburn’s house wasn’t too far away. He had moved to the outskirts of town in order to dissociate himself with the chaos that was inner city Appleoosa. Nopony could really blame him. The tourists there were really quite a nuisance. In any sense, Twilight and Dashie weren’t too far away.

“All right,” Dashie said as they traversed down the street, “what’s our excuse to Braeburn?”

Twilight sighed, “Excuse? Rainbow, we need to tell him the truth. This was far too dangerous of a situation, what don’t you get about that?”

“Oh, c’mon, we could have handled it...”

Twilight was fed up with Dash now. They could see Braeburn’s house but a hundred yards away, but she wouldn’t make it there to scold Dash in privacy, “Handled it? Handled it? Dash, what if we didn’t handle it? We could be dead, deceased, gone with the wind! Murdered, Dash, murdered. What don’t you understand?”

“Well, I, uh...”

“That was rhetorical. You don’t understand. Why are we doing this? For what cause? None. Absolutely none. Give it up, Dash.”

Dashie had never seen Twilight this way. The glare in her eyes was sinister and deadly, like needles picking at your sides. Dashie fell completely silent.

Twilight stepped up to Braeburn’s front door, raising a hoof to knock on the door.

“Braeburn! Braeburn, open up, it’s me, Twilight Spark-”

Twilight froze as the door creaked open slightly. It looked like she was staring at nothing, nothing at all. She looked like a block of stone.

Something was way off.

“Twilight... what’s wrong?”

“They’ve been here.”

“Are they still here?”

“No, I can’t see them... c’mon, let’s go in.”

“Geez, the place is a mess! This is bad, this is very bad.”

“Dash, get a hold of yourself, we need to find him.”

“Right, right. Braeburn! Braeburn, we’re back! Oh, please be okay, please be okay.”

“Braeburn!”

“I don’t have a good feeling about this, Twilight.”

“I’m gonna go check the back rooms, you stay here.”

“Braeburn? Oh, please be okay...”

“WAAAAUUUUUGGGHHHH!”

“Twilight!? Twilight! Where are you?”

“Back room, Dash! Back room RIGHT NOW!”

“Did you find him? Did you find-

…

oh sweet Celestia, no, no, no.”

“C-call an ambulance! Get anypony!”

I'm Out

Tick... tick... tick...

Boom.

And my world exploded, engulfing me in a sea of vicious red flames. My mind was incinerated, just a ball of fire that burned with remorse, and eventually burned down to a pile of smoldering ash. The world was flipped on its axis. A cup of tea to drink went down like molten lava. There was absolutely nowhere to go now.

Forgive me, perhaps I should start from the beginning.

I was learning at a startling rate. I picked up on my reading skills and basic lettering in a matter of weeks, and for the first time in my life, I couldn’t be more proud of myself. I was able to keep up with my family’s youngest, and the ability of their second wasn’t too far away. All was well in the household. The same could be said for the community. The other lower class citizens banded together in order to support each and every one of us. We were essentially a fully functioning machine of ponies.

And they said communism was bad...

The family was coming along nicely. Slysweep, the head of the family, would bring home some eats and something to do every night, keeping myself and the rest entertained. Slysweep’s spouse, Joy, would stay home and teach the kids (plus me). Every day, we would learn, be read to, read to her; it appeared to be smooth sailing, as far as living in Canterlot went. We may as well have been the upper class compared to the other villages scattered around Equestria. But were we high and mighty? No. Of course, as with every damn story I’ve ever read, there are always dark clouds on the horizon and a colossal tidal wave ready to swallow you whole.

I can only describe it as the Canterlot purge. Mainly because it has no name, no one felt it necessary to record the event in the history books. Essentially, the task was to weed out undesirables, unemploy ponies at various positions that were deemed harmful in the pursuit of a perfectly regal Canterlot. The plan was simple: the ponies that the Royals wanted gone were given slips of paper in the mail, entailing that said pony pack up their things and leave the city, no relocation given. So, one day, at random, hundreds of families, lovers, and workers were given small slips of paper in the mail that essentially read “Just Leave”.

The cruel thing was, most of the mailponies that served them in turn handed themselves their own demise.

The plan was simple, and it was effective. A rebellion would be quelled immediately. A plea for mercy would go unnoticed. A full on uprising and many innocent lives would be lost. We all knew this. We knew what we had in store for us. We knew that we had lost. In all, only five hundred of the lower class were kept to do the things that the royals would not lay their pampered hooves on. The rest were given ninety days to leave. Those positions expelled included craftsponies, quilt makers, foalsitters, royal helpers, hoofshiners, artists... and writers.

When Slysweep held the slip of paper in his hooves the evening of, the look in his eyes was unforgettable. It was easy to see that he was completely broken, utterly and absolutely incapacitated by the news. He didn’t move from the chair he sat down in for days. He didn’t speak or eat or drink, only stared.

I didn’t know how hard the news would hit the family. I figured that it would only halt our learning process, and that we would flee Canterlot as a family and find shelter elsewhere.

I was wrong.

Slysweep got up one day, much to the shock of everyone else, and proceeded to screech at the top of his lungs. Everypony in the house covered their ears at the deafening noise, I could see the fear in the foal’s faces. He proceeded to bash his hooves into the floorboards, striking them so hard he made holes in the wood.

Joy raced over to calm him. He would have none of it. This was the beginning of the end for those two, and I never thought I’d see the day. They were inseparable. They were a perfect pair. They were made for each other... much like the one I had lost long ago. I wanted them to be happy... but what would happen next would lead down a long road to disaster.

Slysweep hit Joy, smacked her across the face with an aggressive amount of force. Joy collapsed on the ground, immediately bawling, the foals empathizing with their mother.

I was in awe. I should have stepped in to stop it... but I didn’t. I watched, completely expressionless, and utterly devoid of feeling. I felt like a ghost in the room at that point, like an onlooker that could do nothing to help.

Ghosts and ghouls don’t exist. I was merely a weakling that was too afraid to speak up.

The next eighty-six days proved to be a heart-wrenching race to the point of no return. Joy and Slysweep grew to hate each other. They were at each others throats for seemingly no reason at all ninety percent of the time. Fights would break out in the household with any sort of sudden motion or subtle cough. All the foals could do was look on as their mother and father played a rowdy game of tug-of-war, one which nopony ever won. They looked to me, the foals. They looked to me to end the trivial quarrel, and to reunite the family by peaceful means. Their eyes were pleading and pink and weary. They were grief-stricken. I needed to do something for those eyes.

I did nothing.

The family was going to part ways, and I was about to be a passerby on the outside looking in.

o----o

“Somepony! Anypony! Please! Help us!” Twilight Sparkle shouted, darting in through the Appleoosa hospital double doors. Everypony in the hospital emergency room glanced up to find a distraught purple unicorn, tears streaming down her cheeks, rush in and drop to her knees in the middle of the hospital floor.

The nurses on duty leaped from their posts in order to assist the fallen unicorn. Radios crackled from their hips, every one of them sending a page that ordered help to the emergency room.

“Where ya hurt, dear? Please, calm down so we kin help ya,” one of the nurses said, attempting to console Twilight by running a hoof through her mane.

Twilight was sucking in deep breaths of anguish, “N-not-n-not me! It’s-”

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash burst in through the double doors. The doors smacked the wall with a clack as all attention was then focused to her. There were gasps of shock and horror as they saw the mess of a package that Dash carried in her grasp.

Rainbow Dash cradled Braeburn in her forelegs, his blood caked on her coat. There was so much of it, it was hard to believe that some of it was not her own. The pony she gingerly carried through was broken so badly that it was hard to discern whether or not it was actually a pony. The nurses even grimaced as he came through the door.

Dash fluttered in in slow-motion. Everything was surreal. The emergency room habitant’s eyes glared at her. The radios of the nurses cackled and blared to life, but she could hear none of it. The four nurses that were hovered around Twilight left her instantly, maneuvering their way around her to fetch the dying pony in Dashie’s legs. Twilight could be seen sobbing on the ground. Dash could almost taste her bittersweet tears, and it made her want to throw up.

“We need a stretcher n’ the ‘mergency room stat. We gotta colt, major blood loss, beaten ta a pulp by the looksa it. Faint heart beat. Get the prep team ready,” one of the nurses called into her radio as the others relieved Dash of the weight she carried in her legs. They only relieved her of the physical weight.

Dash watched as two colts hurled themselves into the room, pushing a stretcher along. They pulled it up next to Braeburn’s bleeding body, readying themselves to pluck him from the floor and rush him to surgery. In no time at all, Braeburn was taken from the room to who knows where in the hospital. It was a blur. It was so fast that Rainbow didn’t believe that it even happened in the first place. But Twilight’s cries placed those doubts in a world that was all too real.

“We need to go with him! I can help! I can help!” Twilight whelped, trying to barge through a wall of nurses holding her back.

“Sh, sh, sh, no, no. We’re gonna handle it. He’s n’ good care, trust us. Thar’s nothin’ ya kin do, sweetie,” one of the mares said. Her soothing voice only felt like nails biting into Twilight’s back. “Juss settle down. Y’all gonna need somewher ta stay fer the night, it’s gonna take awhile. Ya kin visit ‘im soon, ya understand?”

Twilight didn’t understand. Nopony understood. The entire infirmary was filled with ponies gawking with their mouths half open. How could anypony understand?

Rainbow Dash backed herself into a corner. The situation still made little sense to her, and she continued to be completely lost in the events unfolding before her. The only thing that floated through Rainbow’s head was Braeburn’s name, and she wasn’t even entirely sure that she recognized it.

“You! You! Hey, rainbow one?” One of the nurses was pointing at Rainbow Dash. Dash stared back awkwardly, “What happened ‘ere? How’d this happen?”

Dash trembled in her horseshoes, “I... I... uh...” She trailed off. A single tear formed in her eye as she began to fully grasp hold of the situation.

“Rattlers!” Twilight proclaimed from the floor. She instantly went back to sobbing. “They, they... ooooh!”

Suddenly the hospital room was eerily quiet. There were murmurs and whispers that tried to drift out into the room, but died as they hit the air.

The nurses only looked at each other. One of them rushed off behind the desk in the room and picked up a phone. The others sat with Twilight Sparkle and kept her company. It was the loneliest company Twilight had ever felt in her life. Smarty Pants would have far exceeded this.

Twilight sat on the floor and sobbed some more. Dash stared in disbelief.

Hours passed. They heard no word on Braeburn’s status. On top of that, the sheriff was called in, along with several of his partners. They had walked through those double doors, and immediately trained their eyes on an emotionally compromised Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. Dash knew that that was trouble straightaway. Certainly the sheriff wasn’t just going to let them slide away without questions, and what made it worse was that Twilight was in no condition to handle the circumstances. Dash would have to answer, and she wasn’t sure if she would be able to handle it either.

After talking to the hospital staff for some time, the sheriff walked over to Twilight and Rainbow, who had reluctantly settled in a waiting room chair.

“Ladies, how ‘er we doin’ tonight?” the sheriff asked. He got two blank stares back. Stupid question.

“Right, uh, lissen. I know this may be a hard time fer y’all, but we need ta ask a few queshtons ‘bout how this ‘ere happened. Kin ya do that fer us?”

Twilight turned away and sniffed. Rainbow Dash nodded her head slowly.

“Mmk. So, tell me what happened.”

Dash turned to Twilight, who would not return her gaze. Dash sighed. She toughened herself up a bit, and faced the sheriff head on.

“We, uh, found him like that sheriff... in his house,” Dash explained. The sheriff’s stare felt insincere and provoking. Dash averted her eyes.

“And?” The sheriff bent down and got uncomfortably close to Dash.

Dash backed away, trying to make it appear natural, “Um... we had a run-in with a group of... uh... other ponies.”

“Rattlers,” the sheriff stated.

Dash lowered her head. Twilight still focused her eyes on the doors to the hallway.

“Yeah. Those guys.”

“Hm. I see. Gotta better excuse than that?” the sheriff asked coolly. He scribbled something down in his notebook that he was carrying.

“What?” Dash inquired, puzzled.

“I said, gotta better excuse?” the sheriff said. He looked up from his notebook, “Rattlers is so old. Been hearin’ it all the time now. Rattlers did this, Rattlers did that. Sick of it. Not sure if they even exist ta tell ya the truth. Cud be one big ‘ol lie.”

Dash was dumbstruck, “You’re kidding right?” This was even catching Twilight’s attention now.

The sheriff stuck a hoof up in the air, “Now, I ain’t sayin’ anypony did it. Nothin’ like that. Alls I’m sayin’ is, we don’t know who did, and we need ta ask queshtons. Rattlers not workin’ fer me.”

Dash saw through that lie instantly, “That’s totally what you think! You think that we did it? Are you insane!? Braeburn is like family to us! He IS family to one of us!” Dash almost rose right out of her chair. She would not hesitate to go berserk, especially if somepony insinuated her of doing something as horrendous as this.

“Now now, settle. We don’t know who did it.”

Note: regarding who did it-

They most definitely knew who did it. They were getting paid to “not know”.

“No! I won’t settle!” Dash hollered, “We have a friend in there, and you think that we almost killed him, then brought him to a hospital?” Dash paused and tried to force the sheriff back a bit, “Listen here, bub! We have a friend back in Ponyville, and-”

Dash stopped herself as her mind was suddenly filled with thoughts of a pony back home. AJ. Applejack, Applejack, Applejack. This was going to be not only a big blow to her, but to the entire Apple family. The situation worsened.

Twilight seemed to catch on, and she stifled a few more tears.

“Y’all from Ponyville?” the sheriff asked.

Dash nodded.

“Hm. Well, I’m gonna hafta ask ya ta stay fer a few nights, if that’s all right with you ladies.” the sheriff said. The question was not optional, they were being detained.

Dashie’s face grew beet red with anger, “No! That’s not ‘all right’! We have to get back to Ponyville! We could be getting chased!” Dashie was about to lose control of herself, “Why don’t you believe us!? Do you want us to end up like him!?” she screamed. She pointed off down the hall. Everypony in the room was now intently focused in on the situation.

“I’m not sayin’ that. We need ya here fer further investigashun,” the sheriff said. He was lying through his teeth. Dash noticed there was a twinkle in his eye whenever he did. She decided to see what was really going on.

“You know what? Fine. We’ll stay. Just long enough to prove we didn’t do it, got it?” Dash crossed her hooves over her chest. Twilight stared at Dash as if she must have lost her mind. Perhaps she had.

“Rainbow, are you crazy?” Twilight said, breaking her silence. Dash only put a hoof to her face.

“I’m sorry, this pack is killing me, I need to take it off.”

Dash shuffled around in her chair, reaching around behind her to take off the blood soaked pack that she still carried. Dash lifted the pack and brought it around her body, settling it down in the chair next to her.

The sheriff eyed the pack with interest, “Whoa nelly! That’s a mighty bulky pack yer carryin’ thar ma’am. Whatcha carryin’?”

Dash stared the sheriff down, “Whatsit to you?”

The sheriff smiled and glanced down to the pack. He shrugged his shoulders, “Nothin’ much missy. None a my business. Why? Ya hidin’ somethin’?”

There was the twinkle in his eye. Everything slowed down for Dash again. The look in Twilight Sparkle’s grieving eyes. The bright lights gleaming and bouncing off the white walls. Dash looked to one of the officers talking to the nurses, and she thought that she recognized him.

That was more than enough for her.

In one deft motion, Dash grabbed both Twilight and her pack and shot straight up into the air. The sheriff grabbed for her, but he missed, and Dash darted straight for the double doors.

“STOP THEM! STOP THEM NOW!” the sheriff screamed, gesturing to a couple of bystanders that watched as Dash bulleted away with Twilight in tow.

The two "officers” that came with the sheriff immediately took action, barreling off through the double doors that the runaways had just exited through. They got out into the chilled night air, but Dash and Twilight were nowhere to be seen, plus the officers didn’t have the wings to give chase. They had lost them.

Back inside, the sheriff had raced across the counter to reach a phone. he picked it up angrily and punched in a few numbers, uncaring of whether or not he had to shove the nurses out of the way to get there. The line rang a couple of times, before the party on the other side eagerly picked up and gave their greetings.

The sheriff looked crazed and frenzied, and his voice was raspy, “Am I reachin’ the master? Lissen, juss lost the two mares, they up n’ left the-”

Suddenly, the line went dead.

“Rainbow! Put me down! We can’t just leave Braeburn in there!” Twilight exclaimed, fighting in Dash’s legs. They were flying very high in the air, high enough to travel undetected.

Dash grimaced, “Twilight, we aren’t going to live to see Braeburn again if we don’t get out of Appleoosa now.”

Twilight sucked in a deep breath and tried to erase the dried tear-stains on her cheek by rubbing her head against her foreleg, “What are you talking about? What were the Rattlers going to do in a public hospital?”

Dash sighed, “Well I don’t know. You could have asked them, they were right there.”

Dash was growing complicated. Twilight was growing tired, “What are you talking about? You think that the police are Rattlers too? Rainbow, your imagination is starting to get the best of you, and I’m very concerned for you.”

Dash rolled her eyes to the heavens, “Twilight, I know that I haven’t been making the best of decisions, but you’re just gonna have to trust me on this one.”

Twilight looked down. Normally, she would be frightened to be carried so high through the air like this. She didn’t have the tightest of holds on Dashie’s forelegs. She was so wrecked and cold that it didn’t really matter.

“Fine,” Twilight sniffed, “take me home then. I’m going to tell the others what’s going on, and then we’re coming right back.”

“Twilight, those guys aren’t just gonna let us walk back into Appleoosa. We can’t just-”

“I don’t care!” Twi cut in, “We did this! I can’t believe that I thought that this ridiculous trek would end up anywhere to our benefit! We almost k-killed Braeburn!” Twilight shivered, Dash could feel Twi’s tremors clambering up her own forelegs.

Twilight could feel the tears welling in her eyes again. She felt entirely guilty for all that had occurred. “I’m sorry, Rainbow... I’m out,” Twi said through sobs.

And that was it. It was over. Twilight was out.

Dash didn’t say anything back. She let her brain curl itself into a ball and tuck itself into the corner of her head. The box that contained the scrolls and the fire ruby jostled around inside her pack, seemingly displeased with the news. They were never going to find out who this pony was, and they were never going to be able to tell her story. Dash was heartbroken to watch the dream wilt away before her eyes, but again...

Who else could they end up hurting along the way?

“I’m really sorry...” Dash said, her forelegs beginning to feel heavy. She couldn’t find the nerve to say anything else. There really wasn’t anything else to say, no matter how hollow the apology was.

Twilight said nothing. Everything that had occurred was, yes, inadvertent. But she and Dash still had to be held accountable in some sense. Braeburn wouldn’t be dying in a hospital without their help. Not only that. Braeburn wouldn’t be dying in a hospital and then abandoned by the mares who assisted him in getting there.

It was an endless spiral of despair.

After a long silence, Dash decided to change their mindset. “Twilight... how are we going to get home?”

There was a complicated question. Obviously there was some truth to Dashie’s Rattler theory. Twilight didn’t know whether or not the town police had been corrupted, but that didn’t matter. The real Rattlers were not going to let she and Dash skip out of Appleoosa. A train ride was out of the question. Walking back would take days-

oh-oh. This was Rarity exacting her revenge on Dashie, and she hadn’t even intended it.

Dash sighed, “You, uh... know those cars that you have to kinda push along down the railroad tracks...”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Twilight interjected.

Dash stuttered, “I, uh... that’s really... hm.”

What she was trying to say was, it was the only way to get out of Appleoosa.

“Yes, yes, get on with it. We need to get back to Ponyville as soon as possible. There’s no more hiding, the others have to know now,” Twi said. She paused, seemingly deep in thought. How would the others take the news that they were about to give?

Twilight closed her eyes, “And I need to write a letter to the princess... if it even goes through.”

Twilight and Dashie found a hoofcar not a mile away from Appleoosa’s main railroad station. It was off of the main tracks, but it still led into Ponyville as an extra track. Dashie set Twilight down on it, her forelegs burning from carrying her for so long. Dash collapsed next to the purple unicorn, catching her breath.

“Okay! Wheew! Can we rest just a bit? I’m pooped,” Dash stammered. Her tongue rolled out of her mouth and hung itself over the corner of her lips.

“That’s fine. You’re going to need all of your strength to pull the thing anyway,” Twilight said.

Dash chuckled, and not because she found something funny, “Heh, you’re not gonna push the thing... are you?”

Dash watched as Twilight curled up on the creaky wooden boards and closed her eyes. She saw one tear glisten in the moonlight on her cheek, and it seemed to freeze in the chilled night air. She appeared calm, but Dash knew that that was far from the truth.

“Nope,” Twilight said irrefutably. Dash could see her trembling in the icy night air.

Excellent. Dashie was a lone gun. Somehow, somewhere inside... she thought she deserved it.

“Right. I’m on it.”

Dash got up and slouched over the bar on the cart. She wished that she had something to cover Twilight with, as she was visibly freezing over. As if any positive gesture would resurrect the camaraderie between them at this point. Dash pushed down on the car.

“Oof.”

She pulled it back up.

“Hnnng.”

This was going to be a very long night.

Twilight woke up the following morning from a startling dream. She had been in a forest full of vicious wolves, and they had circled her, not unlike the Rattlers. Only difference was, these creatures were natural killers, and they weren’t looking for rubies, they were looking for a meal. Twilight was backed up against a tree. All hope was lost. She lost herself in the menacing red eyes of the wolves as they lunged for her, and then-

“Wah!”

Twilight woke up, drenched in sweat. She felt filthy. The sun’s rays bled through an unusual overcast sky, spotlighting their car slowly drifting through the landscape. A constant squeaking sound could be heard emanating from the center of the cart. It never seemed to falter in its simple rhythmic pattern.

squeak... squeak... squeak...

Twilight wiped away the sleep in her eyes, and she wished that she hadn’t. Her eyes focused in on a pegasus with a rainbow colored mane. The sight was atrocious. Rainbow Dash looked awful.

Dashie’s eyes were glazed over, completely bloodshot, and thoroughly unnerving. Her mane was tangled, frayed, and frizzed out. She was mindless. The stare in her eyes shot out straight ahead, circled the world once, then buried itself in the back of her brain upon returning. She was huffing and heaving as she single-hoofedly pulled the car down the tracks.

Had she been doing this all night?

“Uh... Rainbow? Are you okay?” Twilight asked half-heartedly. She winced at the sight of Rainbow Dash.

Dash didn’t respond. She let out a low growling noise, one that reminded Twilight of the wolves from her dream. Dashie’s eyes were almost just as red, so that was sort of an easy connection to make. She continued to pull the car along the tracks.

Twilight noticed that they had certainly made headway. The scenery was beginning to sprout plant-life in random spots in the dirt. Celestia’s sun was trying to poke its way through the clouds to highlight their faces, and they in turn reached out to gather in the rays. How’d they get here? Twilight was shocked at Dash’s persistence and focus (or trance) she had to make it home.

“Dash, I think that you need a break,” Twilight said, sitting upright and facing the zombie that was Rainbow Dash. Dash only kept going.

“Riiiigghht...” Twilight paused and watched Rainbow overwork herself. She eyed the bar going up and down, “I suppose that I can help you at least.”

Twilight got up and steadied herself over the moving bar. She timed it correctly, and she began to push down on it while Rainbow brought it back up from the other side. Rainbow kept up her normal motion and still pulled the thing as if she were the only one running it.

“How the hoof have you been doing this all night?” Twilight said to herself as she struggled with the bar. She groaned at the physical effort exerted for the early morning hours. Life wasn’t fair anymore. Life wasn’t as simple as books and pastel colored ponies.

“Braeburn...” Dash whispered out from under her breath. Twilight only barely heard it, and suddenly emotions flooded back to her.

“Yeah... that.” Twilight muttered. They carried on through the landscape.

Ponyville looked as if it had a dark cloud hanging over it from a distance. That was only fitting, the news they were about to give it almost made it seem necessary. It was like they had already prepared themselves for something terrible to happen. It might have been terrible-proof, strange things happened all the time in that town.

Dash and Twilight rambled into Ponyville Station. The station manager gave them a very strange look as Twilight hopped off the cart, telekinetically lifting Rainbow Dash, who was still going through the motions of the past thirteen hours. She gave the manager a similar look as she passed through the doors.

“Nice to see you too,” Twilight said with no emotion whatsoever. Dash followed that up with a groan.

They stumbled into Ponyville, weary, tired, and their senses strung out. They walked through the streets like two battle-worn renegades who had encountered one doozy of a monster. All eyes turned to two of the six element bearers as they limped up the street, Twilight now supporting Rainbow with a hoof over her shoulder. Onlookers scrunched up their noses curiously as they wondered where those two must have been. Nopony impeded their path to ask. Nopony stopped them to offer a helping hoof.

Twilight stumbled up to her front door, noticing that she once again had one. Spike must have hired someone to fix it. She fumbled around with the doorknob before finally opening the door and sealing themselves inside. They both immediately slumped to the floor upon closing the door behind them. The two bodies smacked against each other as they fell.

“Rainbow... they could find us here,” Twilight said through exasperated breaths. “They could find us-”

“Darn right they could,” said a voice from above them.

It was Applejack. (Did I have you going? Did I? No? Screw you.)

Twilight was the only one who looked up. Dash had passed out on the floor. Applejack, Rarity, Spike, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy had gathered in Twilight’s home, evidently awaiting their return. Applejack looked to be the only stern one there. The others just eyed Twilight and Dashie inquisitively.

“Where the hoof have you two been?” AJ asked, seemingly towering over both of the exhausted ponies lying on the floor. The rest appeared to be frightened of Applejack for some reason, they backed away and let her talk.

Twilight’s emotions flooded back to her. She felt the waterworks start in her eyes upon the sight of Applejack. How do you put this gently? How do you break such awful news to one of your closest friends? There was no simple solution.

“Ap-Applejack, B-Braeburn’s in the hospital,” Twilight whimpered.

Well, I suppose that’s one way to go about it.

“What?” Applejack replied. She wasn’t really one for jokes. Not cruel ones, at least.

“We were in Appleoosa, and, and... and Rattlers...” Twilight buried her head in her hooves. Applejack wouldn’t hurt her, would she? No, AJ didn’t have that kind of temperament. Still, it might have been more reassuring if Twilight had been speaking to the element of kindness.

“Ya were n’ Appleoosa? What n’ tarnation were y’all doin’ out there?” AJ asked. When the two had come through the door, AJ looked pissed. Now she looked confused, “N’ what do ya mean Braeburn’s in the hospital?”

Twilight glanced over at Rainbow Dash, “Fluttershy, could you help Rainbow? I... I need to tell you guys something.”

Fluttershy looked shocked, “Ohmigosh! Is she hurt? Oh, I thought she was just tired.”

Fluttershy trotted over and tended to Rainbow Dash, picking her up and carrying her upstairs for the time being. Twilight still lay sprawled out on the floor, and she turned to look back at her friends.

“Here goes,” Twilight said, a tear spilling from her eye.

Twilight told her friends everything. From the first letter to the next. From Rarity’s strange find to the discovery that the letters were not from the Princess. The fact that, they had only kept it from their friends because they thought that the letter was meant only for them. Then their continuation with the random journey. The Appleoosa stay, the Rattlers, the next box. She told them about Braeburn. She told him that he was still in the hospital, and they had no idea how he was doing. Twilight was in a fit of sobs and whimpers by the end of it.

All of them stared at Twilight. Even Applejack, who had just received word that her cousin was in the hospital.

“So, wait...” Pinkie Pie muttered, “We aren’t throwing a surprise party?”

Rarity nudged Pinkie in the side. Pinkie Pie only looked puzzled.

“I’m so sorry, you guys... I’m so sorry,” Twilight sobbed. Like Dashie’s, the apology seemed hollow, but there just wasn’t anything else to say.

Suddenly, Applejack darted out the front door. She leaped over Twilight and just ran. She ran and ran and ran. She wanted to be furious with the two for keeping them out of the loop like that, but she couldn’t find the nerve to stay. Her cousin was in the hospital, and it was due in part to her two best friends.

“I hope that you realize... I think... I...” Rarity’s words got choked up in her throat. She had been backstabbed somehow, yet she couldn’t force herself to be angry. “Girls... I think that we should go find Applejack.”

Rarity walked around Twilight first, heading out the door. Pinkie followed, still unsure of what had just taken place. Fluttershy was the last to head out. She walked over to Twilight and leaned her head in close to Twi’s ear.

“Twilight, listen,” Fluttershy cooed, “we are still your very best friends, um... I think. I mean, yes! Yes, we are!” Fluttershy thought that she was losing Twilight. “Look. You just made a bad mistake is all. Everypony makes those. We still love you.”

Twilight looked up and gazed into Fluttershy’s forgiving blue eyes. They were the eyes of a guardian angel.

“F-Fluttershy? I know this is a bad time to ask for a favor.” Twilight paused and sniffled, “But could you take Rainbow Dash? I’m afraid I might end up killing her too if she stays here.”

“Anything for a friend,” Fluttershy responded, smiling. She began to trot back up the steps to fetch the sleeping pegasus.

“Oh, and Fluttershy?” Twilight added.

“Yes?”

“Take the box out of Dash’s saddlebag.”

It grew to be late into the evening. Twilight had heard from Spike that Applejack and the rest of the Apple family had boarded a train for Appleoosa upon hearing the news on Braeburn. Twilight prayed they didn’t have a run-in with any marauders or crooks. The house seemed empty, though Spike had been there for the majority of the time, unwilling to leave Twilight’s side. Rainbow Dash was gone. The rest of her friends were gone.

The night was cold inside of Twilight Sparkle’s treehouse.

Twilight had been trying to write a letter to the Princess for the entire day. This time, the problem wasn’t that they were mysteriously vanishing somewhere between here and Canterlot, it was that Twilight had nothing to write. Spike had watched Twilight sit in front of her desk the entire day, staring at a blank sheet of paper with a tear in her eye. Twilight was in no mood to write or do anything. Her bed began to sound like a safe haven. She needed a long rest... a very, very long rest.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Who could that be at this hour? Twilight only had one guess.

“I’ll get it!” Spike said, hopping off of his post and proceeding down the hall to the front door.

Twilight heard Spike open the door downstairs, and she heard the faintest of voices coming up from down the hall.

“Oh, gosh, is this a bad time? I’m really sorry, it’s an emergency,” came the muffled voice from down the hall. It wasn’t the voice Twilight was expecting to hear.

Fluttershy came trotting up the hall, Spike tailing her. She gracefully waltzed into the room where Twilight was writing, or really lacking to write, a letter.

“Oh, Twilight! Is this a bad time? It’s an emergency...” Fluttershy repeated. She stopped in front of Twilight’s hooves.

“No, no.” Twilight wiped away a tear, “What’s going on? Any word on Braeburn?”

“Oh, no... I don’t know. Um, maybe I shouldn’t tell...”

“Fluttershy, what’s going on?” Twilight asked again.

Fluttershy looked to the floorboards. She saw Twilight’s purple hooves standing there before her. “I uh, I saw Rainbow Dash...”

“Yes, and?”

“Well, um, I...”

“Fluttershy, what’s wrong!?”

Fluttershy backed away, “I w-woke up and I saw Rainbow Dash go into the Everfree forest again. I keep telling her not to, but she never listens.”

Twilight blinked a couple of times. She looked at Fluttershy, then Spike, then Fluttershy again. Then she looked at the box that Fluttershy had sat on her table.

Twilight trotted over to the box. She had a sinking feeling in her gut. The tantalizing hunk of intricately carved wood called her name, mocking her.

Twilight flipped the lid up.

She studied the contents inside.

“By Celestia, how did she even...”