Age of the Alicorn

Chapter 6: A Dash of Light Booms into a Rainbow – Part 1

An arc of searing pain throbbed through her skull as the pony lay there on the ground.

She stirred awake, barely capable of flinching without experiencing a jolt to remind her of the ache in her head that refused to give way to her will.

She could hardly remember anything… and then… it came to her.

“Where am I?” the question arose from her conscious being, bringing about a series of blurry memories to the forefront of her thoughts.

The mare could remember talking… and sitting… and bucking to get fr-

Everything surged to her like a flood right before she heard the strange utterances of something that almost sounded like words.

For a moment, she laid there, pondering as to what could be being said to her. But, with all of her physical strength that she could muster, the pony soon placed her four hooves firmly upon the ground around her form.

She felt the dirt and grass pressed like a cushioned carpet beneath her tensed limbs. Her torso rose and every muscle groaned and ached as she forced herself to stand.

“Marr yoh oklay?” a deep, guttural, yet unclear sounding garble of syllables was stated from nearby and was registered as such in the jumbled mess that was currently the mare’s disoriented mind.

She didn’t respond, but, instead, slowly cracked her eyelids apart, carefully absorbing the light that shone as she attempted to force her senses to function correctly.

A few seconds in, she began to see more clearly, and yet, even with her eyes almost completely open, nothing but fuzzy blurs of varying colors were what she saw.

“Are yoh okay?” the voice from before asked again, interpreted by the mare’s processor more correctly, and bearing a younger, more stallion-like ring to it.

When she glared in front of her, all that she could see was a dark, tall blob of a figure, and she assumed the appropriate response.

“Who are you?!” she declared, crouching her sky blue body low momentarily. “What have you done to my friends?!” she rapidly stated while springing the forward portion of her body up to allow her back hooves to keep her balanced as her rainbow-maned head rose high, and her wings spread instinctively. “Come on, put ‘em up! Put ‘em up!” the mare danced about on her bottom tiphooves, her muscles surprisingly cooperating with her all of a sudden, and she motioned her front-most hooves in a pattern of boxing motions towards the unknown individual.

“Whoa, Nelly!” the stallion replied cautiously. “I don’t even know who your friends are, let alone you!”

The pony squinted her lenses as her purple-red eyes readjusted and the fog that was interfering with her vision began to pass. As she focused, the image before her dramatically changed.

She dropped to her hooves and her jaw loosened as she became agape at the pony before her very eyes.

There, not but a few hoofsteps away, was a stallion who stood a head’s height over her, his mane was a sunbeam yellow as it flowed from atop the crown of his cranium into a single, finely-woven braid that laid against the side of his neck, and his tail done in a similar fashion. Protruding from the locks of hair was a horn, long and pointed, and his face was strong, with eyes of pure diamond blue shimmering like true crystals.

The most important detail, at least in the mind’s eye of the mare, were the grand, majestic feathered limbs that extended from the back of the stallion’s golden-orange body.

Her eyes were nearly bulging out of her skull as she slowly registered what she was taking in.

“Ummm… hello?” he finally said, his expression one of worried concern and bepuzzlement. “Are you alright?”

“Huh…” she bellowed in a low manner, snapping out of her stupor of awestruck shock “…oh, I’m fine.” She completed her statement with a chuckle of nervous habit. “He’s an Alicorn!” she shouted inwardly.

“That’s good,” the stallion answered in return, gleaming happily at her recovery, “I was beginning to worry that you might have been hurt, Miss…?”

Realizing that he was implying a question as to her name, the pony-gal began wondering if she should reveal herself, or invent some cockamamie story and new identity. Peering into his eyes for a few seconds, she found herself, for some reason, trusting him.

“Rainbow Dash,” she responded with her head held high with a smile.

“And I am Light Speed,” he returned readily and openly with a light bob of his chin.

“So, where in Eque-” the Pegasus began before mentally correcting herself to avoid making an obvious blunder in a discussion with a complete stranger in unknown circumstances, “-the world are we?”

“You don’t know?” the Alicorn questioned with a hint of a curious undertone to his voice.

Taking a quick glance from her right to her left, the sky blue pony noticed that they were standing in the midst of open fields of blooming greenery of many kinds that went on for a good distance. Above, the skies were nearly clear of anything but a few clouds and the sun’s bright beams.

“Uh… nope,” she admitted rather straightforward.

“Okay then,” he replied, waving a hoof in the direction of the area around them, “this is the central meadow of the plains of Sky Island.”

That hit a note in the Pegasus’s mind.

“Wait,” she interjected at the end of his statement, “‘Sky Island’?”

He paused at her question, staring at her with a greater amount of wonder.

“That’s right,” the stallion confirmed, tilting his head to the side slightly, “You’re really not from around here, are you?”

The mare considered her options, reserving her prior prejudgments in favor of cautious friendliness.

“Maybe,” Rainbow stated while masking her expressions with neutrality.

“Well then, it may be best that I show you,” Light Speed said before shooting into the air.

“Whoa!” the Pegasus exclaimed as she witnessed the Alicorn burst forth with a mighty wave of his wings, leaving a trail of light in his wake.

The speedy pony zoomed up until he reached a point far above the ground and stopped to look down to the gawking Pegasus.

“Well come on!” he called to her. “You can use those wings, can’t you?”

Blinking for a mere moment, Rainbow Dash adopted a playful grin as she accepted the challenge. Positioning herself in a stance similar to a cat’s, she pounced into the air, ascending higher and faster than she usually would, and leaving a rainbow trail behind her.

“Wow,” the Alicorn expressed his impressments as she passed him and stayed a few yards ahead while floating with the steady flapping of her wings, “you’re a fast one.”

“They don’t call me Rainbow Dash for nothing!” she stated with a growing smirk aimed in his direction.

“In that case, I won’t have to hold anything back!” he declared right as he raced past her, earning an equal reaction from the Pegasus.

The two were neck and neck, side by side, as they pushed themselves further upwards towards a collection of small clouds bunched together in the wild blue yonder.

“I win!” Rainbow shouted as she burst through one of the white puffs, Light Speed not but a hoof’s point below her.

As the two ponies brought themselves to a slow stop and lowered their forms down upon one of the remaining clouds, the Pegasus couldn’t help herself as she gave herself a personal celebration.

“Yeah!” she cheered as she pumped a hoof over her head before landing every one of her legs on top of the fluffy accumulated vapor. “That’s right! I’m awesome!”

“Well done, Rainbow Dash,” congratulated the stallion as he came closer to her.

Although happy that he was glad for her victory, she was thrown off by his humble response, as she had expected him to be at least a little unhappy, which would have allowed her to gloat to her heart’s content. Instead, she felt a bitter taste in her mouth at the thought of treating this guy with such a bad attitude. So, Rainbow decided to end with-

“Thanks,” she voiced her appreciation, excluding any hint of dissatisfaction from her face.

“Now that we’re up here,” he began to state as he waved an extended hoof out, “I can finally welcome you to the Kingdom of Sky Island.”

She followed the trail of his attention with her red-purple irises to a truly awe-inspiring scene.

Stretching in every direction, there was a great expanse of earth, teeming with life, and going on for miles. And yet, at the four corners of the land, there were large cities of stone constructs, bustling with ponies. In-between them were multiple villages spread across the rolling pastures. To top it all, there was a building of singular majesty set apart, almost in the middle of two of the fair hamlets.

“This. Is! AWESOME!” the rainbow-maned mare pronounced. Then, she caught a glimpse of what she perceived to lay beyond the horizon. “Wait, where’s the ocean?!”

“Ocean?” Light Speed asked in return. “You mean like a large body of water?”

“Yeah,” she replied as though it were a pretty obvious fact.

“Oh, the closest thing we have to that is the lake inside the island,” he answered plainly.

Rainbow’s jaw slipped open in shock at the revelation. “You mean that-”

“Did you think that the name of the island was figurative?” he cut into her statement.

“How?” she shorthoofed her follow-up inquiry.

“According to legend,” the Alicorn recited from memory as he peered down at the ground, “the island sits atop a floating mass of special clouds.” He then turned his crystalline eyes to face her once more. “Otherwise, your guess is as good as mine.”

Something clicked in Rainbow’s mind and she found herself wanting to fly over the edge of the island to see if the legend were true.

Incapable of resisting her own urges, the sky blue Pegasus rose from the cloud at her hooves and sped off towards the nearest bordering point of the island’s sides.

“WAIT!” she heard the voice of her newest acquaintance yell, almost as if in desperation, but she kept going.

“STOP!” Light Speed shouted as he flew in front of her with his bright body.

Putting as much control into her action as she could, Rainbow Dash skidded to a halt mid-air, barely avoiding a crash collision with the stallion.

“Wha’d ya’ do that for?!” she exclaimed.

“You can’t do that,” he warned her.

“What?” she said with a mischievous smile. “I just want to see if what you said is true.”

She attempted to buzz around him, but was intercepted as he appeared in front of her again in a flash of light.

“What in the hoof?” she stated in surprise.

“Please, I beg of you,” the Alicorn requested, “for your own safety, do not go beyond the edge of the island.”

“Why not?” Dash questioned suspiciously at the sudden concern for something seemingly simple and completely safe for a Pegasus such as her.

Light Speed expressed a reluctant, pained glance towards the air under him before huffing.

Looking back at the Pegasus, he softly said, “There’s a danger to doing so.”

“Like what?” she inquired, pressing her question with her front two hooves crossed in front of her upright hovering form with a slight stink eye locked on the curiously strange acting stallion.

Calming himself, the Alicorn peered into her confused eyes. “The fact is that anypony who has attempted to leave the island has been lost to an unrelenting storm of unknown origins.”

Rainbow was suddenly stunned by the implication and couldn’t express how to answer such a statement.

“If you must know,” he continued his explanation, “we lost two very important ponies to it years ago.”

Rainbow Dash watched as her new acquaintance locked his jaw and held back a cringe and a tear, which caused her to flash an instant question to herself as to who the two could have been to bring such an emotional reaction to the stallion.

Thinking fast, she came up with an idea.

“Hey!” she called out to him, earning his attention once again. “I know what we could do!”

“What?” the Alicorn asked with an uplifted spirit and eagerness to his tone.

“You could show me some of your wicked moves!” she exclaimed.

“Oh… I don’t know about that…” he muttered unsurely, rubbing the back of his mane with a hoof “…I’m not really that good.”

“Come on!” the rainbow-maned pony insisted. “I know you got some moves to that speed that you’re packin’!”

“Maybe…” he grunted lightly as he peered away from her again.

Deciding that she wasn’t going to wait for him, and that he could use some convincing, the mare made up her mind.

“In that case,” she replied as she drew a few wings’ length closer, “I’ll give you a little demonstration of my awesomeness, and then you can show me yours.”

Before he could object, Rainbow Dash hurried over to a small collection of cumulonimbus clouds and began zooming all about them.

She concentrated as she gathered the puffs of vapor into a single grouping, then she proceeded to zoom around them, packing them in. Then, with quick precision and proper timing, she started to mold them into a work of art, etching away at the loose edges and smoothing out the angles.

Finally, the Pegasus broke off from the product of her attentive focus, and shot higher and higher up into the great blue.

Coming to a halt, she gazed at her audience of one for a moment.

“Now for the finale,” she thought as she noticed Light Speed’s demeanor of wide-eyed fascination at the showing of her talent.

Setting herself into a dive-bomb stance, Rainbow rocketed downward, intent on making her mark on this particular Alicorn’s life with a boom.

Several seconds flashed by before the air around her body began to accumulate into a bubble and then exploded with a spectacular sonic boom that worked in a symphony with a ring of rainbow that rippled across the open sky like waves of the ocean.

Light Speed gawked at the display of true talent as he watched the rainbow of color wash over the sculpture of cloud that was, in fact, an exact lookalike of Rainbow Dash in flight.

“That was incredible!” he congratulated the mare as she circled under, over, and came to a stop next to him, still sporting a trail of rainbow behind her.

“I told you that I’m awesome!” she shouted as she beamed at the stallion. “But enough about me! I wanna see you in action!” she emphasized her excited desire by pumping her top hooves, one after the other, in front of her.

“Since you insist,” he finally conceded with a nervous chuckle.

Then, without a second’s passing, he shot forth, bulleting through the air with a spinning, straight-forward flight path. With a swift motion of his wings, he cut an angle and proceeded to dash towards the clouds. But, what was truly wondrous to behold was that Rainbow’s trail of rainbow was now following him like he had grabbed ahold of it by merely passing through its colorful folds.

With a combo of twists and turns, he danced behind the image of the sculpture, until he came right behind the poofy pony-piece.

Pausing for only a moment, he lit his horn, and the skies shimmered with the results.

The looping lines of the rainbow became diamond-esque, and the sunlight beamed down upon it, sending a series of thousands upon thousands of glittering colors to shine through and around the clouds, enveloping everything in its path for a duration of seconds.

“That. Was! AWESOME!” she voiced her approval, both of her front hooves held high above her as she welcomed the stallion back.

“Oh… I don’t know about that,” Light Speed murmured as he slowed his return flight to a stop as he came back around, grinning his muzzle with a touch of a blush to his cheeks.

“Come on!” she asserted rather loudly. “You’re great!”

“I don’t think I’m good enough to be called great just yet,” he continued to deny himself of any self compliments.

Before she could utter another statement, Rainbow spotted the stallion’s flank, and immediately drew another angle to her praise of the guy-pony’s skill.

“You even have the cutie mark to match your skills!” she stated with boisterous excitement.

He suddenly stopped and directed his eyes to the object of the mare’s words.

There, rested upon his upper thigh, was the picture of a wing streaking along, followed by a white trail of what was presumably light.

“Oh, this,” he answered with a humored undertone, “I got this while watching a flight event being done by the Crimson Wings. It’s they who inspired me to become the greatest flyer in the whole world, and it is they who I aspire to.”

“You’re too modest,” Rainbow Dash said, waving a hoof in his direction with a roll of her eyes.

“I still think that you’re the better flyer with that sonic boom-rainbow combo,” Light Speed complimented her.

“Sonic Rainboom,” she corrected him.

“Nice,” he commented in reply, “That’s a great name for it.”

“Yeah, I-” she began, only to be cut off by-

“Your highness!”

Rainbow Dash paused as she absorbed the sudden intrusion.

“Oh, no,” Light Speed groaned beneath his breath.

The two ponies spun just enough in the air to spot a trio of Pegasi stallions in two separate styles of uniform. The pair set in the back of the formation were both dressed in silvery-white attire with head coverings and goggles while the front-most was in a crimson suit of slim armor with a red mask over his face and only the gold of his mane showing.

“Your Highness!” repeated the pony dressed in red as they drew closer and stopped a good breadth away. “What are you doing out here?” the lead Pegasus of the three directed the question to Light Speed, ignoring the gawking mare behind him.

“Is there something wrong with me being out here?” the golden Alicorn stallion returned dryly, looking none amused at this intrusion.

“Your highness,” the pony continued, “you know the Lord-Regent’s statutes on matters involving you. You know that-”

“-he’s draining my life of any chance to be me,” interrupted Light Speed, turning his gaze away from the soldier-pony.

Although still confused as to what was going on and at the implications of what the Alicorn was called, Rainbow Dash was suddenly interested and slightly unhappy at the idea of somepony as awesome as Light Speed being treated poorly and was beginning to wonder if she should step in for her newest friend. Wait, what?

“Your highness,” began again the rambling red-suited Pegasus, “you know as well as I that…” His seemingly non-stop nagging came to an abrupt halt as his glass lenses-covered eyes finally took into account the rainbow-maned mare behind Light Speed. “Your highness!” He shot himself forward and in-between the Alicorn and the Pegasus woman as his silvery-white adorned accomplices flew around to encircle her. “Get behind me!”

“Whoa there, nag-boy and co!” Rainbow shouted as she attempted to ready herself for any kind of action, glancing unsteadily from one of the other Pegasi to another with her bright reddish-purple peepers on alert.

“Stay back, your highness!” declared the crimson-clad figure, keeping his position between Light Speed and Rainbow Dash. “We’ll deal with this attempted felon!”

“What?!” yelled the sunbeam-maned stallion as he watched the scene with his diamond blue eyes widening in fear for the mare.

“Sire, it is our place to ensure that, as according to the law of the Regent, this pony cannot do anything to you,” the Pegasus guard spoke again, edging closer to Rainbow with his fellow soldier-ponies mimicking his action.

Light Speed looked on to Rainbow Dash, who was none too sure of how to handle her current predicament, and she peered on to him as well. Crystalline irises met the ruby-like violet of her own, and he could see the worry and confusion as she could see his contained fear for her safety.

Suddenly, that stallion’s face hardened and he disappeared in an instant, only to reappear in a flash in front of her and the red-armored Pegasus.

“Enough!” he declared, facing to the soldier-pony with outstretched wings and light shining from his form.

All of those gathered there had to cover their eyes for the few moments it lasted. Then, they opened their sights to Light Speed glaring dangerously at the lead pony.

“But, your highness,” he attempted to worm his way out of the boiling cauldron he had so inadvertently dove into, “you are Prince Light Speed, heir to the throne, and this pony-”

“-is my friend,” growled the now revealed Prince in disapproval of the nearly spoken jab at Rainbow.

Shocked would be an understatement. Rainbow Dash was utterly and completely floored by the number of things she had learned and experienced.

To start, Light Speed was really the Prince of an entire kingdom, and was going to one day rule all of it! Then, in less than an hour’s time, she becomes FRIENDS with the mysterious Alicorn! That she couldn’t wait to tell all of her friends back in Ponyville! Most of all, however, she was finding it so cool how he was defending her from his own guards! Oddly enough, though, she had this strange sensation that was warm as she watched him protect her. Usually, she’d do her best to step in and do her own defending, but, for some reason, she liked it, especially because Light Speed was doing it.

But she’d never admit that to ANYPONY, ANYTIME soon!

For a few seconds, the Prince merely stared at the soldier without moving.

Meanwhile, the crimson-clad Pegasus shared a passing glance with both of the other Pegasi, earning nods in return.

“Re-gardless,” he dragged out in his smooth tone that he returned to without losing anymore of his nerve, “you must return with us. The Lord-Regent is absolutely in shambles over you leaving the safety that the castle walls provide.”

“Not without Rainbow Dash,” shot back Light Speed with a straight face, not missing the slight twitch of the Pegasus guard’s muzzle, before turning to face the aforementioned mare, “if that’s alright with you.”

Now, usually, she would have stopped to consider her options or vigorously sought to demand answers. But, today was not to be so.

Without more than a second of thought, she said with a smile, “Sure, Prince Light Speed.” She did her best to sound both amused and somewhat aggravated at his lack of disclosure towards that not-so-small detail.

Inside, on the other hoof, she was giving herself a facehoof for being so quick to accept an offer from somepony she had just met and barely knew anything about him, or where she was for feathers’ sake! Then, she realized how hypocritical she sounded and gave herself another mental facehoof.

“He-he,” he chuckled sheepishly, instantly shifting from his serious demeanor to one of nervousness towards the redirecting of focus upon his failing to bring to light his lineage.

“Your highness,” the Pegasus soldier droned rather pitiably, almost sounding as if he were whining, “the Lord-Regent-”

“-will have to deal with it,” interjected Light Speed once more, barely paying any more attention to the nigh unto begging that was being offered.

Realizing that there was no convincing the Prince out of his choice, the crimson-armored pony huffed before signaling to his silver-suited subordinates with a wave of a hoof.

“Very well, your highness,” conceded the soldier-pony as the other two gathered back behind him, “if you and your… guest,” he breathed out with something akin to disgust within the underlying tone of his voice, “would follow us, then can we make our way to the palace, and the Lord-Regent will be all the merrier for it.”

“Stay close to me,” Light Speed whispered to Rainbow Dash.

In quick succession, the party of Pegasi and Alicorn with the soldier-ponies in front flew on in the direction of the grand structure of the castle that Rainbow had been given an eyeful of before.

During the longer than expected journey to their destination, the mare knew that she would have the time to bring up her own questions with her new friend, and didn’t intend on wasting a perfectly good opportunity.

Flying within a short distance of the bright yellow-on-gold Alicorn, she called out to him with a curt “Hey!” loud enough to catch his attention over the bustling of the wind around them.

In response, he replied with an audible “Yes, Rainbow Dash?” as he faced her without missing a flap of his wing or deviating from their flight path.

“Would you like to tell me when you were going to tell me about you being mister prince of the whole island?” she questioned with her front legs crossed and her face was adopting a pouty and hurt look that expressed a need for an answer soon. Deep inside, the stunt-pony hadn’t a clue why she was acting like this, but she had no reason to think there was anything wrong with it, so she rolled with the attitude that she was so aptly portraying.

Sighing deeply, the braided-maned stallion gazed into her demanding, yet ever playful peepers as he knew this had been coming, and he couldn’t blame her for being suspicious as his intentions for withholding such an important bit of information involving him. Even if she was still a mystery to him, he considered the wild, rainbow-maned mare his friend, and Light Speed was not one for offending his friends.

“Alright,” he began with his head bowed a little, “I’m sorry… I didn’t want to keep you in the dark, but I didn’t know how you would react.”

Rainbow Dash was surprised as she heard those words and saw the slightest hints of worry on his face. “Wha’da’ ya’ mean?” she questioned while flying just far enough ahead of him to have a good view of him.

“I’m a Prince…” he hesitated “…but I’m not proud of it.”

“What?!” she exclaimed, temporarily distancing herself from him before closing the gap again. “You’re a Prince! That’s awesome! You shouldn’t feel unhappy about it!”

“Thanks,” he murmured, raising his head once more to return her smile that she beamed at him.

“You don’t have to thank me for saying the truth,” she retorted with a wave of her hoof in denial of his praise.

“No,” the Alicorn stated, “Thank you for being my friend.”

Rainbow Dash was slightly taken aback by his sincerity and really felt as though she had made an impact in Light Speed’s life with merely accepting being his friend.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better friend, especially a mare as wonderful as you,” he added with a bright grin.

Okay, that wasn’t something that Rainbow was accustomed to. Sure, her friends called her nice things, and she knew that she was awesome, but nopony had ever used the word wonderful to describe her. Somehow, she was feeling a warmth that was foreign to her. Was this how other mares felt when they met somepony really special? Wait, where did that come from?

Although she wouldn’t know it, Rainbow was blushing ever so slightly. Thankfully, Light Speed didn’t manage to catch it. At least, he hadn’t recognized the color as it was when he saw it.

As their speech came to a close, they drew closer as the scene of the island greenery passed on by and the many villages that were along the way gave way for the sight of the grand structure that Rainbow Dash had the pleasure of seeing before, only it was growing with every foot of space nearer to the castle.

Walls as tall as a ship’s mast and thick as Twilight’s former tree home, the fallen Golden Oak Library, encircled about a spire-like building that was reaching into the skies, nearly blocking out the sun with its tip-top, and its width stretching across hundreds of paces. All of its structure was polished stone that was spiny along its surface and had dozens of openings from whence Pegasi were moving in and out.

Upon nearing the wall, the immense dual gates opened up with silvery armored Pegasi and Earth Ponies standing at the ready from within, and at the center of the courtyard was a flagpole that had a standard waving proudly. Adorning that banner was the upper half of a Pegasus outline with his wings outstretched and his head held high, with a golden border to compliment the image.

Rainbow was gobsmacked at the sight as she followed Light Speed’s lead to land behind the soldiers as they touched down upon the ground just outside of the walls.

“Hold!” a Pegasus called as he walked forward to in front of the crimson-clad member of the escort group.

While the two conversed, Light Speed edged near enough to Rainbow Dash to say, “Don’t leave my side.”

Even if it was a simple statement with good intent behind it, for some reason, the mare couldn’t help the feeling of butterflies in her tummy at the touch of his warm breath on the skin of her ear.

“Alright,” the silver-armored Pegasus stated as he stepped aside, “you’re cleared to go through. Welcome back, your highness.”

At once, the three soldier ponies began to head forward with the Prince and his honored guest walking into the gate opening side-by-side.

The courtyard that was inside was just as glamorous with fine cut stone walkways set around the castle and well-kept bush work surrounding that all. Walking about in disciplined order were guards of both Earth Pony and Pegasi lineage, maintaining the security of the whole of the castle grounds, while working around an assortment of servants and maids who were preparing for something, whatever it may be.

Besides making sure to stay next to Light Speed, Rainbow Dash was so downright star-struck by the grandeur of the whole getup.

“Thank you, Sergeant,” a new voice spoke out from the direction of the building, “You’re dismissed.”

At the sudden intrusion of the new stallion’s words, Rainbow Dash turned to notice that she had been nearing the castle with the group faster than she had anticipated, and then her attention became focused upon the originator of the statement.

Standing stalwart in front of the staircase that led up to the open front doors of the imposing palace was a tall Pegasus with a brown mane and was sporting the same crimson armor that was upon the lead pony of the trio who escorted the Prince and the mare, minus the headgear, which allowed for anypony to see his mocha brown features and clear green eyes that stared back with strength and confidence.

“You are most kind, Captain,” spoke the Sergeant, who just so happened to be the pony at the lead of the three who had been sent to find the Prince, in a tone that sounded mostly neutral except for a tinge of sarcasm to his words, “However, our orders are clear that we must deliver the Prince safely back to the Lord-Regent without delay.”

The Sergeant made a move to go around the other pony, but the Captain stepped in his way.

“Now, Sergeant,” the green-eyed Pegasus began to state, looking straight into the goggles of the golden-maned one, “I am offering you the perfect chance to relax and allow me to take your duty. If anything, you should be thanking me.”

“But-” the persistent Pegasus began to interject with a counter-argument.

“No buts, Sergeant,” the Captain corrected, “Now get a move-on. I’ll take care of the Prince and ensure that he is safely escorted to the Lord-Regent.”

“Yes, sir,” the crimson-clad Sergeant grunted through gritted teeth as he led his two subordinates with him into the castle without turning back to the Captain, whom was approaching the Prince and his guest.

Rainbow Dash was slightly nervous as she watched him near them, but her concern ebbed away as Light Speed began walking forward himself.

“You have saved my hide yet again, my old friend,” the Alicorn stated as he and the guard-pony locked one of their front legs with one another and stood across from each other for a moment.

“Anytime, your highness,” the brown-haired pony stated, “After all, it wouldn’t do for my oldest friend to have to end up in trouble, especially since I know that you need a breather every now and then.”

Unsure of what to do, Rainbow stood by and watched as the two stallions had a moment to just greet one another as they let go of the others’ leg and stepped back a pace or two.

However, she didn’t go unnoticed by the Captain as he caught a glance of her from behind Light Speed.

“Your highness,” the brown Pegasus said with a tinge of faux disappointment in his tone, “when we were you going to introduce me to this lovely mare who appears to be following you?”

Remembering that he had forgotten his manners in the midst of the tense situation, the Prince turned his braided-maned head back to face Rainbow Dash.

“I’m so sorry, Rainbow Dash,” he pleaded with a sincere expression on his golden-orange countenance.

“Nah, you don’t have to be sorry,” she assured with a wave of her hoof, having ignored the comment about her from the other Pegasus, and focused more on Light’s genuine consideration for her. Something about the way he treated her felt really right.

“Even still, I can’t be treating one of the few ponies I consider close to me like that,” he replied with a bright smile.

For some reason, Rainbow wanted to shoot off into the sky and perform another Sonic Rainboom just because of that statement alone, but she resisted the urge.

“Rainbow Dash, I would like to introduce you to Captain Bursting Winds of the Crimson Wings’ Second Battalion,” Light Speed directed her attention to the brown pony with a wing as he gave his name.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Dash,” Bursting Winds said with a slight tilt of his head in her direction.

“The same for you, Cap,” Rainbow returned nonchalantly.

“Bursting Winds,” Light Speed redirected the focus of the Captain as he spoke, “this is Rainbow Dash, my newest friend.”

“Really?” the Crimson Wing officer questioned with a curious twinkle in his eyes and a real grin on his muzzle. “Now this is a nice surprise, indeed.”

Rainbow Dash was not one to shy away from attention, but something about his words made her wonder as to what was the big deal about her being Light Speed’s friend. Was what that other soldier-pony said true? That there was some law that prevented other ponies from even talking to him?

“Yes,” the Prince confirmed as he walked back to beside Rainbow, “By the way, Rainbow Dash?”

“Aw, Light Speed. Just call me Rainbow. That’s what all my friends call me anyways,” she told him, not entirely sure why she was being so direct around somepony who, although a friend to her, was relatively unknown.

“Alright, Rainbow. I just wanted to ask if you would like to have a tour around the castle. I would gladly give you one,” the Prince offered with a smile as he stared into her reddish-violet eyes with his diamond blue peepers.

She felt so warm inside as she peered back into those deep pools of crystal that she couldn’t help but take a moment to just keep looking on into them…

“Sorry to interrupt, your highness…”

…and there went the moment.

“Yes, Bursting Winds,” replied the Prince as he refaced the Captain.

“I am truly sorry, but the Lord-Regent does desire your presence,” the Crimson Wing informed Light Speed, not missing the slightest hinting of aggravation on the mare’s face.

“Couldn’t you just distract him or make an excuse for me?” the Alicorn asked, almost allowing a sense of begging enter his voice.

Bursting Winds sighed. “Even if I want to see you happily spending your day away with one of your only friends,” the Captain stated with sympathy to his words, “you know as well as I do that you have an important day ahead of you, and your Uncle would skin me for holding that up.”

Light Speed returned the sigh in a deeper fashion.

Rainbow Dash watched as his eyes dulled and his features drooped ever so slightly. She didn’t like seeing him so down in the dumps, but wasn’t sure as to what was even going on.

“You’re right,” the Prince returned in a serious tone. Turning to the rainbow-maned, sky blue mare, he adopted a somewhat downtrodden smile. “I’m sorry, Rainbow-”

“What did I tell you?” she interrupted his apology with a grin that conveyed her care for his concern. “You don’t have to say sorry to me. We’re friends, remember?”

Light Speed beamed at her in response. “You know, I hope we get to see each other again one day,” he said as he walked nearer to the Captain.

Rainbow was confused by this as she questioned as to why they wouldn’t. Well, besides her getting back to Equestria.

“After all,” the Prince said as he started to walk away towards the castle door, before twisting his head back to face the mare one last time, “I’m friends with the most amazing pony, and that’s you.” He then disappeared in a flash of light, leaving the faintest shimmering of magic of a trail behind him.

Rainbow Dash stared on at the spot with a mixture of amazement and wonder, yet also a combination of sadness and disappointment at the thought of never seeing the awesomely spectacular pony who was Light Speed. But, most of all, what he had said had struck a chord in her, and she did something that she had never done before! Well… maybe a few times, but never around another a pony!

She blushed!

What he had said about her, unlike any other pony and what they said, the Alicorn’s statement had caused her to feel warm and fuzzy and happy, and the very way he had said it was unlike anything anypony else had said to her that was just so… She didn’t know! It just made her feel so special!

“Excuse me, Miss Dash,” the words from the Captain barely registered in her mind as she couldn’t take her mind off of Light Speed and how he made her feel.

“Miss Rainbow Dash,” Bursting Winds emphasized, stepping in front of her line of sight, and thus interrupting her one-sided staring contest.

“Huh?! What?!” the mare spluttered out in rapid succession as she refocused on her surroundings, and recomposed herself to look less like some love-struck pony from one of those gushy romance novels that Twilight had in her library… Wait, what?!

“Sorry for ruining your… moment,” the Crimson Wing stated, doing his absolute best to suppress a cheeky grin at her obvious blunder, and the slightest twinkle of delight shined in his green irises at the sight of the full-grown filly’s aggravated expression and attempt at looking all-too cool to be unsettled. “I was just wondering if I could have a word with you.”

“Well… since ya’ asked so nicely,” she replied with a slight rolling of her eyes.

“Please,” he began to direct with a hoof pointing onto a less occupied stone path, “this way.”

“Fine,” she muttered, not really interested in what this Pegasus had to say, but she just wasn’t in the best position to deny his request.

The two ponies then began to trot down the way, nearing a branch-off which the stallion led them along until they went to an enclosed hedge piece that had a fountain at the center.

“Alright,” the brown Pegasus said as he came to a halt just beside the finely-crafted stone piece with water flowing down the centermost part to the bowl at the bottom, “this is private enough for us to talk without interruptions.”

Curious as to what possible reason he had for bringing her out of sight like he had, Rainbow Dash was quick to draw conclusions that he was trying to do something she wouldn’t like. However, she didn’t want to be offensive considering that this guy was Light Speed’s friend, so she chose to merely be to the point.

“Spill,” she stated plainly, squinting her eyelids over her ruby-purple orbs which portrayed her rather untrusting state of mind at the moment.

“Ah, quick to the point, I see,” Bursting Winds expressed with a calm demeanor, before shifting to a serious face, “Very well then. I would like to tell about Light Speed.”

“Wait, what?” she asked, somewhat confused by his sudden desire to reveal all that she had wanted to know about since she had begun to get know the amazing Alicorn prince, and even more so that she really did want to know about these things so suddenly, but most of all that a complete stranger would be so forthright with such personal details of somepony else, especially a friend so close.

“You are his friend, yes?” the Captain asked without budging while looking to her with an unmoving straight face.

“Of course,” she replied without a second thought, and then realized that she had so easily accepted the Prince as a friend that it had not bothered her in the least to think of him as such.

“Well, then,” he said with a renewed smile, “you are one of only two ponies who can say that.”

The shock of that revelation took her a moment to recover. “You mean-” she started to ask.

“-that before you arrived, I was his only pal in all of Sky Island,” he interrupted without missing a beat.

She merely nodded with an expression of total surprise beginning to form on her face.

“Yes,” Bursting Winds answered simply.

Rainbow was completely unprepared for such an unbelievable thought, as was evident by her lower jaw hanging open and her eyes bulging inside of their sockets. “What?!” she shouted, failing to keep her tone low enough to not draw attention.

The crimson-armored soldier-pony just bobbed his head up and down as he let her cool down and allow the information to soak in.

“How come?!” Rainbow questioned with a mixture of worry for her new friend that he was being mistreated and anger that such a great guy was not getting the proper respect. After all, somepony as cool, awesome, and… kind and considerate as Light Speed deserved to have friends just like any other pony! At least, in her mind’s eye he did.

Bursting Winds was busy rubbing one of his ears with a hoof before he waved at her in a quieting motion as he glanced back and forth at the entrances to the fountain area. “Please,” he pleaded in a hushed tone, “keep it down. I’m not exactly supposed to be talking to you about this.”

Realizing her mistake, the mare followed his actions by covering her muzzle with a hoof while looking about.

“Considering it may be easier if I just start from the beginning,” he continued, being more careful to not speak aloud but keep it at a low volume so that only the two of them could hear, “would you mind if I tell you of the Prince’s life-story?”

Even if she was more than glad to have such an opportunity to learn more about Light Speed, Rainbow was curious of one detail.

“Why would you be so quick to trust somepony you just met like this?” she asked rather pointedly.

“Prince Light Speed trusts you, so I trust you,” Bursting Winds easily returned.

The honesty of his words and his unflinching attitude made Rainbow realize that he meant business and that she didn’t have to worry about him being a dishonest character. So, she chose to place her trust in him and to sit and listen to what may be very important.

“Okay,” she stated, taking a seat and facing him from an adjacent position near the fountain, “I’m ready.”

“Right,” he said, taking a moment to clear his throat for the long explanation he was to make.

Although the energetic stuntpony inside of her was screaming for movement, action, and the sort, the rainbow-maned mare was making a stand with herself there and then to be still and to listen. This had to do with somepony who had become very close to her, and she wasn’t about to blow this opportunity if she could help it.

“Well, to start,” the stallion began, “you need to understand something about this kingdom.”

Rainbow Dash was listening intently as she aimed her eyes and ears in his direction, not moving a muscle of her sky blue body as she worked to take everything he said to heart.

“Here on Sky Island, there are only two races of ponies,” Bursting Winds elaborated, “one Pegasi, and the other Earth Pony.”

Now there was a curious parcel of news. She couldn’t imagine Equestria without Unicorns, especially Ponyville without Rarity. But that was beside the point.

“So, as you can probably guess, it was a phenomenon of such great magnitude when the king and queen, both Pegasi,” he further stated, “had a child who was not only winged but also bore a horn upon his head.”

She couldn’t help but see his point. After all, Rainbow Dash had no clue when Princesses Celestia and Luna were born or who their parents were. For that matter of fact, neither had she heard of Princess Cadance’s parents, even though it was well-known that she was only a few years older than her or her pony friends. Only Twilight was known about in those regards and she had become an Alicorn Princess rather than having been born one.

Yet, by all evidence, Light Speed had an impossible birth. Wow. Now she felt like an egghead. Thank you, Twilight.

“The likes of which had never been seen by the ponies of our land before,” Bursting Winds continued his explanation. “Due to this, his parents were rather protective of him in his earlier years, as they were extremely fond of their son. So much so, that they didn’t allow anypony else near him until he was old enough to properly speak.”

“It wasn’t until he was ten years of age that they finally chose to introduce their son, Prince Light Speed, to the whole kingdom,” his words rung with a sense of pride for the pony in question, which didn’t make too much sense to Rainbow Dash since she wasn’t the type of pony to consider that level of parental protection exactly good for a foal to have to endure.

Still, she couldn’t deny that Light Speed’s parents did love him very much, something that she was glad to say that she understood, but not to that extent.

“As time went by,” the Captain spoke on, “the royal couple eventually decided it best that their son meet and get to know ponies of his age, so they called for volunteers from amongst the common pony-folk, as well as the families of the Five Great Houses of Sky Island.”

Yet another peculiar thing to her. Really, didn’t Light Speed’s parents know how to make friends without making it into a national issue?

“Although it was difficult at first, especially considering the lack of effort on the nobles’ part,” the soldier-pony said with a touch of a snicker to his voice, “it wasn’t long before the Prince was quick to make friends with dozens of colts and fillies his age.”

That relieved Rainbow’s heart to hear.

A smile, bright and big, grew onto Bursting Winds’s face in a moment of silence. “And that’s when I first met the Prince.”

“Back then, I thought he was kind of weird,” he said, not losing that grin of his.

Instead of taking action by defending Light Speed against criticism of any kind, Rainbow chose to wait and hear more before taking appropriate steps towards rectifying the problem.

“At first, he was shy and withdrawn, but,” the brown Pegasus stopped for a second as he stared at a cloud above, “when he got to know you and became your friend, he was bold, daring, and incredible.”

The more she heard, the more she liked about her new friend. He seemed to be able to be such an awesome pony, when he wanted to be. Maybe they had more in common than she originally thought. Maybe she- Wait, what was she thinking?!

Shaking herself from her thoughts, Rainbow refocused on the topic at hoof.

Thankfully, or unfortunately if she knew, Bursting had noticed her shifting features and thoughtful expression before her final breakage of thought via head shaking and subsequent attempt to continue listening of his talk.

Careful to make sure he didn’t reveal his noticing of her sudden reaction, the stallion shifted his sight to the ground with a smile still upon his face.

“We were the best of friends, him and me and all the others,” he said with a happiness to his voice that he didn’t have before.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help her own smile as she thought of the Prince happily spending his younger years with children his age instead of being cooped up in a castle.

“If only that day hadn’t come,” the Crimson Wing officer stated, almost in a whisper, as he lost his cheery mood and frowned deeply as his green eyes peered at the grass at his hooves.

The sudden change in his manners made Rainbow wonder what could have been so detrimental to have provoked such a reaction.

“It was a few weeks after the Prince’s twelfth birthday celebration that the island upon which we stand neared a distant land the closest that it has in all of our recorded history,” he said, his voice not rising above a low, neutral fashion, “and our border guards had reported sighting a city of unknown origins on the coast of that land.”

“But what was truly interesting about this was that they had actually seen other ponies in this city,” the soldier-pony stated with a slight bit more brightness, yet not shifting in his attitude.

Rainbow Dash was both interested in what he was saying, and irritated by how long this was taking. Hey, what could she say? She was naturally a pony who liked to be moving rather than sitting still, and this wasn’t any different.

“So, to go and meet these other ponies and possibly establish good first contact and relations,” Bursting Winds carried on with his words, “the king and queen chose to go, without escort, and see this new land and city.”

Rainbow Dash was starting to wonder if this had anything to do with what Light Speed had told her about.

“Saying their farewells,” he portrayed further, “the king and queen took off in a blimp with plenty of supplies for their short journey… Only things didn’t go as planned.”

The sneaking suspicion that her guess was on the money was quickly growing on her.

“Something completely unexpected occurred that day in the form of a mighty storm that wrapped itself around the island,” he stated with a straight face that conveyed a pained outlook of such a memory, “It was so fierce, that all activity on the island came to a stop and all we could do was wait for it to subside from within our homes.”

The dots were beginning to connect more rapidly in Rainbow’s mind.

“Once they were sure it was safe enough,” the Captain continued, “the Crimson Wings sent search parties to discover the whereabouts of the king and queen.” His features became more sullen as he stopped for a moment and let the severity of the experience set in, before looking straight into the mare’s eyes with his own. “Sadly, they were never found.”

Yep. Asking the obvious question with the answer staring you in the face definitely wasn’t something that she planned on repeating again… at least not after today.

“So, the two very important ponies who were lost in that terrible storm were-”

“Light Speed’s parents, yes,” Bursting Winds finished for her.

Rainbow could have facehooved herself for not seeing this earlier. That, and she didn’t like looking stupid in front of other ponies, especially strangers.

“I assume the Prince told you a little of this?” the soldier-pony questioned her without seeming to sound as if he were making fun of her fumble.

“Yeah…” she said with a far-off look in her eyes as she couldn’t help but think about how rough it must have been for Light Speed, and how much more so it has been since that day.

“Well,” the stallion said in a way that sounded as though he were rather fascinated, “then you happen to be the only pony he has ever even talked to about that, ever. I can’t say that about myself.”

That was something she hadn’t seen coming.

“Really?!” she declared, having flown to within a feather’s touch of Bursting Winds’s face and keeping her position there as she stared into his eyes and waited for the answer.

The sudden movement from the previously candid pony kind of surprised the pony in crimson armor. However, as a professional, he wasn’t too stirred to react in a way that may have caused a scene.

“Uh, you’re kinda in my space,” he stated in reply to her action while having barely moved back an inch.

Noticing their close proximity, she merely adopted a smile and said, “Hehe, sorry” before bolting back to her seated spot. “Please, continue,” she requested once there.

“Yes, where was I?” he asked rhetorically to allow him a chance to relax himself and to recollect his thoughts. “To your question, yes, you are indeed the only pony who could possible say that the Prince has opened up to you about a touchy subject that has remained rather close-lipped for a long time.”

Somehow, the thought of Light Speed choosing to tell her about his problem, even as vague as he did, instead of any other pony made her feel bubbly deep down. She wanted to perform a somersault and then fly into the air to show how just happy she was at that moment.

“Excuse me,” he interrupted her inner-thoughts yet again, “but don’t you want to hear the rest?”

Hearing those words brought her back to reality in an instant, and she immediately realized that she had already lifted herself partially off the ground in preparation for the series of gravity-defying awesomeness that had been formulating inside of her.

“You were saying,” Rainbow Dash stated with a neutral face as she replanted her rump onto the ground.

Barely containing the smile that was already inside of his very being, Bursting Winds chose to continue.

“Indeed I was,” he responded, having never left his own spot next to the fountain, “As you can probably guess, the Prince did not take this so well.” His face was, yet again, set in an expression of pained remembrance. “He locked himself within his room for days, unwilling to speak with or see any other ponies, including his friends.”

Rainbow could see from his dulled green eyes that this pony was truly hurt by such an experience. The thought of not being wanted by a friend wasn’t something she liked either, so she could sympathize.

“During that time,” the brown Pegasus recalled, “it was decided by the Great Houses that a regent should be chosen to lead in the stead of the Prince while he matured and then he would take upon himself the mantle of kingship.”

“Soon enough, it was almost unanimously decided that Light Speed’s Uncle, Duke Real Steel, was to take upon himself this responsibility, and he graciously accepted,” he started saying happily, before gaining a certain kind of look to his face that said he was suspicious of something. “However, within days, new edicts and laws began to be made that prevented anypony from going anywhere near the Prince, all of which meant to ‘protect him’.” He emphasized this with the tips of his wings.

That did seem rather odd to Rainbow as she speculated upon it.

“So,” Bursting Winds continued, “that was the last I saw the Prince… until,” he further spoke, making it somewhat unbearable to the mare.

She just wanted to hear about Light Speed! It’s not like she was looking to know about this guy, too!

Still, this could answer some of her questions, and she had quite a few.

“I made the decision,” the Crimson Wing went on, “that I would work my way into the Army. Then, I would keep going until I finally got to see my best friend again! Sure, it took time. But, after years of hard work, I became a Captain in the Crimson Wings, and so, I now serve as one of his closest guards. Why, it wasn’t until a few years ago that I was able to reconnect to him, and I’ve been his only friend ever since.”

The brown pony had a satisfied grin upon his face as he thought of that wonderful reunion.

Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, was impatient.

“What about Light Speed?!” she shouted, getting a wee bit tired of his rambling.

“I was getting to that,” he responded calmly, with the waving of a hoof in her general direction. “Well, he’s generally been lonely without company. Even I get barely any time to spend with him, especially since I received more tasks. But, for years now, he’s left the castle and spent his days practicing and doing his best to become as great as the Crimson Wings, as he would put it.”

“Is he?” she wondered aloud, curious as to how good the Prince actually was.

“Honestly,” the stallion stated, “I think he far surpassed even the very best of the Crimson Wings years ago. He just doesn’t believe me, even though I’ve told him myself.”

“Whoa…” she thought to herself in amazement.

On the one hoof, she was astounded by how skilled a flyer that Bursting Winds made their mutual friend sound. On the other, she wondered how good the Crimson Wings could possibly be if she beat Light Speed in a race. If that were anything to go by, then she could be the best flyer in the whole world!

But then a thought came to her: What if the… Nah! She’s just that awesome!

“In any case,” the soldier-pony spoke yet again, “my making excuses for him and allowing him to get away with his escapes during the days won’t help him anymore…”

This new statement brought concern to the forefront of her mind as she focused completely on the other pony. “Wha’da’ ya’ mean ‘won’t help him anymore’?”

“You… don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, do you?” he questioned with an expression that spoke of his curiosity.

“What?” she returned, wanting a straight answer instead of vagueness.

“He’s going to become king,” Bursting Winds answered, thinking that had made it clear.

Although that was kind of big, Rainbow Dash had thought it was going to be something terrible. “Isn’t that a good thing?” she asked, not seeing the full picture.

“Well it would be if…” he let his words come to an abrupt end, unsure whether what he knew was best to say or not.

“If, what?” she insisted, getting irritated by his constant stopping.

“If he wasn’t getting married…” he finally dropped the bomb, waiting to see her reaction as the last word slipped from his lips.

Rainbow was suddenly stilled as her brain became locked upon that simple statement that had such a profound meaning.

For a moment, nothing moved. Nothing made a sound. Even the fountain stopped flowing water into its bowl.

Then, a drop hit the water, and Rainbow Dash shot up from her position and into the air above.

“HE’S GETTING MARRIED?!” she exclaimed with such intensity, to the extreme that Bursting Winds was nearly knocked onto his back and his hair disheveled, whilst remaining in flight with her rapidly flapping wings.

“Miss Dash,” he called to her, trying to calm her while shaking his mane to make it less messy, “I would advise you to come back to the ground and allow me to clarify.”

The rainbow-maned mare complied, but did not in the least change her outward attitude. She hadn’t the slightest clue why, but the thought of Light Speed, who she couldn’t help but think was the single greatest guy she had ever met, was getting married made her blood boil, and she wanted nothing more than to put a stop to the whole thing!

Considering how quick to physical action she was, Bursting Winds knew that he needed to make this as fast as possible. “Listen,” he grabbed her attention yet again as she stood on all four of her hooves whilst keeping her wings out, all the while with a look of restrained fury at the previous revelation, “he’s getting married, but he’s not happy.”

Rainbow seemed to calm down more as her face became more settled and so did her wings. “I’m listening,” she said with squinted lids around her hardened ruby-violet eyes.

“The pony he’s getting married to doesn’t even know him, nor he her,” the stallion replied.

Now there was something that didn’t settle well with Rainbow Dash. If they didn’t know one another, how could they love each other, or even like each other for that matter of fact.

“So why is Light Speed going through with it?” she asked, wanting to get to the nitty-gritty of this ridiculous situation.

“It’s arranged,” the brown pony answered with a sad frown.

“Arranged!” she repeated with a heated shout.

“Has been since shortly after his Uncle was named Lord-Regent,” he said with little change to his not-so-cheery tone, “As per the requirements of Sky Island law, the crown-prince must wed before he can take the throne.”

“But who is this mystery mare?” Rainbow asked with a touch of spite in her words, and a roll of her eyes.

“Oh, some noble’s daughter,” Bursting Winds stated with little more than a snicker in the middle of his sentence. “At any rate, there’s no way to change what’s going to happen. I just hope he’ll be happy after tomorrow.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t say anything. All she could think about was that she was stuck on some unknown land, with no way home, and now that she knows somepony absolutely awesome, and he became her friend too, she may not even get to spend time with him because somepony else is going to steal him away from her. The thought nearly made her see red.

“Well, it was nice talking to you, Miss Dash,” the soldier-pony stated to the unresponsive mare, “but I’ve got to get going. Still have to do my duty as a Captain of the Crimson Wings, after all. If you need any help with anything, just come back to the front gate and ask for me.”

The brown Pegasus proceeded to leave the small enclosed space between the hedgework, allowing Rainbow Dash to stew in her thoughts by herself for a moment.

She didn’t know what to do.

Here she was, without her friends, in a strange land, and totally flustered by something that she really shouldn’t be by.

Making a decision, the mare shot out from the garden area and flew away to just have a flight around Sky Island to clear her head and get familiar with her surroundings. It wouldn’t do her good to not know about where she was since she may be stuck there for a while, after all.

She hadn’t noticed that someone had watched her fly off into the sky above.

“Oh, Light Speed, my friend,” Bursting Winds murmured to himself as he witnessed the sky blue Pegasus speed into the distance, “I think somepony has a thing for you. Heh,” he chuckled a little, “and maybe you have a little thing for her, too.”