Chapters Dear Rainbow Dash,
We just what to remind you to go imperial every now and again. You need to exercise your magic.
Always love,
Heartache and Ever Glade.
Rainbow Dash groans after reading the letter. She loves her parents but they still baby her even though she moved so far away. She sighs and pets Tank's shell.
"Another letter from your parents?" he asks seeing her annoyed expression. She nods in response.
"They're reminding me to play." she huffs, "Wanna go to Whitetail Woods?" she asks him and watches as he smiles in response. She then picks up a ribbon and hands it to Tank. "Then let's go." she picks him up and flies out the door.
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They stop in the denser part of the woods and Rainbow Dash puts Tank on the ground. In a shimmer of light a white kitten takes the place of Rainbow Dash and hops onto Tank's shell.
"Play time, play time. What we gonna play Tank?" she asks rubbing against his shell.
"You really go through a drastic change when you come out of you pony form, don't you?" Tank says.
"Only a little change, besides you know I didn't finish growing properly." she stares him down.
"I know, how about we play hide and seek." he suggests.
"Can I count, can I count?" she starts bouncing on and off his shell.
"How high you're gonna count?" he says with a smile.
"A hundred million kazillion thousand!" she says excitedly.
"Okay." he answers and then she begins as Tank slowly walks behind a tree.
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It took ten hours for her to finish count and find Tank.
"What are we gonna do now Tank?" Rainbow asks excitedly running around the tortoise as he walked.
"It's time to go home Rainbow. It will be dark soon." Tank answers looking p at the sky.
"But I wanna play some more." she says pouting, hoping onto his shell.
"Don't you have work tomorrow?"
"Yes." she groans.
"You need your strength." Tank says, and then waits for her to answer. When she doesn't answer he stops and asks, "Are you okay Rainbow Dash?" She mews weakly in response.
"We're stopping by Fluttershy's cottage, before heading home." he says as he turns towards the direction of Fluttershy's cottage and begins his slow and steady trek.
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Fluttershy is just about to go to bed when she hears a knock on the front door. She looks at the clock to see that it's nearly 11 o'clock. who would be at the door at this time of night. She hears the knock again. "I'll be right there." she says quietly making her way to the door.
Opening the door, at first she sees no one, then she looks down. "Oh Tank, what are you doing here? Is Rainbow Dash flying around in the middle of the night again?" she asks before realizing that there is something on his back. "What's this?" she picks up what appears to be a white piece of fabric. She nearly drops it when it moves in her hooves. Upon further investigation she gasps, "A teacup Persian kitten. Do you know how rare these are?" she says somewhat distracted.
Tank pulls on her mane and motions back to the kitten. Fluttershy looks closer and realizes that the kitten appears to be hurt. "Oh my!" she says and brings Tank and the kitten inside.
After examining the kitten she becomes confused, "There doesn't appear to be anything physically wrong with her." she says to Tank. She then sees the crystal bell on her collar glowing and suddenly felt weak. The kitten stands up no longer in pain and purrs as Fluttershy strokes her.
"Your welcome." Fluttershy says stifling a yawn. "Would you like to stay here for the night?" she asks the kitten, who just stares up at her with rose-hued eyes.
"You kind of remind me of Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy says and the kitten promptly runs off the table and stands at the door waiting for Tank to follow.
"Oh well." she says to herself and yawns again before heading upstairs.
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"That was close." Rainbow Dash says watching Fluttershy go up the staircase and reverting back to her pegasus form afterwards.
"Why can't your friends know again?" Tank looks up at her.
"Imperials are shunned among normal ponies. They just don't understand." she then picks up her pet and flies home for some much needed rest.
Rainbow Dash wakes up at her usual time, but something feels off. She shakes it off and goes on with her morning routine.
After a few stretches she's ready to make herself some breakfast, then she realizes something dreadfully wrong. She laughs a bit unenthusiastically, "That's funny I feel like I'm a little short right now."
Again she looks at the counter, she looks up at the counter. "Tank!" She exclaims and flies to where her pet tortoise was sleeping.
Slowly awakening Tank is surprized to see his owner in her half 'n half form. "Is something wrong?" He asks
"I don't know, I woke up and I felt funny, then I stretches and then I was gonna eat, but I couldn't reach. Why can't I reach!!!" She says all this on the brink of tears.
kitten "It's alright do you remember anything that could have pulled you into your safe form?"
"Well there was that thing last night." She thinks aloud tapping her chin with a fluffy, padded hoof.
"What thing last night?" Tank asks suspiciously.
"I got hit by some strong magic, but I didn't really think too hard about it, cause I was fine after I feed from 'Shy."
"You rely on her too much."
"Relax, Cuddlemuffin magic will never take any more energy than the excess. Pegasus magic always pools excess energy if you don't fly too much and regenerates in ten seconds. Unicorns always notice the loss and earth ponies spend it too fast. Besides she was going to bed anyways." She sat the last part she pouts and crosses her front hooves.
"Strange how you've gotten so close to cat size, you're usually a little bigger every time you do this."
"I usually keep my magic on my appearance, so you've never seen my actual size."
"You erased Fluttershy's memory didn't you."
Rainbow Dash looks to the side and gives a sweet innocent look, "Maybe."
Tank simply rolls his eyes and begins for the kitchen. "It'll probably be best for me to make breakfast, you usually put poison in it when you're like this."
"Coming." She trots to the kitchen behind him.
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"Derpy Hooves *quack* reporting for *quack* mail duty." Derpy tried to say smoothly, but couldn't keep herself from quacking.
"Derpy are you feeling okay?" Raindrop asks in genuine concern.
"Fine, never better *quack*" she says grumpily brushing yellow feathers from her face.
"We'll okay then." She tries not to gape at her friend's feathered mane. "There's a bundle of letters that the pony delivering it said not to make anypony other than you deliver so, you'll be doing that today."
Derpy picks up the bag and pulls out a letter while tossing the strap over her shoulder. She pauses and groans loudly.
"Something wrong Derpy? " raindrop asks.
"This one's addressed to me." She grumbles as she leaves to deliver the letters.
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After the initial shock Rainbow Dash honestly couldn't care less. It was Tuesday and weird stuff always happened on a Tuesday. She's been through enough weird stuff as it was and knows that freaking out only made things worse. She was happy that she woke Tank up before his usual time because if she didn't it would have still been hours before she has so breakfast.
So they were eating, until the door rang. "Dash mail." They could hear Derpy say on the other side of the door.
"Yeah, yeah hold your horse apples, I'm coming." Momentarily forgetting her post ion Dash answers the door. "'Sup Derpy." Rainbow Dash maintains her cool composure.
"Mail all the way from Mystic Mountains." She says with a gesture prompting Dash to raise an brow.
Upon getting no witty come back she looked up to see Dash's expression and when she didn't see her she looked down.
"Laugh and your dead, bird." She glares daggers.
Stifling a giggle Derpy says, "I was pretty surprized to she a letter for you because you weren't listed as being part of the community, but this literally takes the cake. *quack*" she hoofs her the letter.
"Whatever." She takes the letter and is about to close the door.
"Since I probably know more than you. Last night was a silver fort calling. It drains Imperial magic until it's too weak to function. Your reserve pegasus magic would make it a little hard to tell until it couldn't reach your imperial side."
Wincing at the knowledge Derpy seemed to have she asks, "How do you know all of this?"
Derpy just winks and flies away.
"Silly birdie." She giggles before she catches herself, "Darn it." She whines under her breath as she closes the door.
"Mail?" Tank asks.
"Yeah, looks like it's from my mom."
"Another play reminder?"
"Doesn't look like it, and it sorta looks like I'm not the only pony stuck in their half form."
"Your aunt lives nearby, you could probably talk to her."
"Yea." Rainbow skims through the letter and sighs. She pulls a train ticket from the envelope and places in on the table by the door with the letter.
"Going somewhere?"
"Apparently all Imperials have to be in the mountains for some meeting with the alicorns. It also says Aunt Winny isn't coming." She pouts.
"Guess I'll hold down the fort 'til you get back." He smiles
She glares at him before saying, "Fluttershy's gonna be checking in on you."
He looks a bit upset at this but she doesn't really care.
"I'm gonna go to Aunt Winny's place and see if she'll fill me in. I'll see if I can pick up some food on the way to leave for you." As soon as she finishes, she is out of the door.
It wasn't uncommon for Applejack to wake up to the smell of apple fritters being fried in the kitchen. It wasn't weird to see Big Mac and Granny Smith awake before she was. What is strange is the fact that she could hear that someone was cooking but what she sees is her brother and grandmother having a conversation in the living room.
"Umm, someone cooking?" She asks, knowing that Applebloom couldn't cook to save her life.
"Eeyup." Big Mac answers nonchalantly.
"Somepony come to visit?" She asks.
"Eenope. " Comes the reply.
"Then, Umm, who's cookin'?"
Just then a pretty white pegasus with pink and yellow hair walks out of the kitchen with a plate of apple fritters.
"Here we are. They should be finished before Applebloom gets up." She says. Her tail is wagging and her ears look suspiciously like a dog's.
"Thanks Winona. These. Old bones ain't like what they used to." Granny Smith says rubbing her back.
The pegasus sees Applejack.
"Oh Jackie, you're up! Granny said I could cook today." She says excitedly.
"Umm Granny?" Applejack questions looking to her grandmother.
"Don't get your apples in a bunch. Don't cha remember when you were little and she used to take care a Applebloom." Granny says picking up a fritter.
Thinking it over, Applejack could remember a pegasus who looked surprisingly similar watching over them whenever Granny Smith was busy.
"Well, yeah, but didn't ya just say Winona as in our dog Winona?" She asks, still confused.
"That's right I've been with the family for years. Isn't nice to have a dog on the farm?" Winona smiles warmly as she wags her tail.
"Alright I'm gonna go back ta sleep." Applejack stares blankly as she heads back upstairs.
"See you later. Oh speaking of later Granny I'll need to head to The Everfree Forest after breakfast." She looks up at Granny Smith.
"Alright, just don't take too long." She grumbles through the food.
"Sure thing." She salutes and heads back into the kitchen.
After she was finished cleaning the kitchen, Winona decided to take her leave.
Living in an orchard for as long as it's been around never once made it feel any less surreal. The green trees drifting in the early morning breeze, the beautiful rays of sunlight which perked up the seedlings and made them stand tall. The ever present twitch in the trees to let her now her niece has stopped by for a visit.
"I'm going to the Everfree coming with?" Winona calls out in her half pony, half dog state.
"How'd you know I was here?" The little half kitten pokes her head out of the tree with a pout on her lips.
Winona flies up to her and plucks the small rainbow-maned imperial from the tree.
"Who's the queen of hide and seek?"
Dash's pout deepens as she replies, "You are."
Winona places Dash on her back and begins to trot towards the forest.
"Gonna go get Honey and Sugar?" Rainbow Dash asks making herself comfortable.
"Yep!"
"Jack and Mac freak out this morning?"
"Naturally."
"Bloom care?"
"At first, got bored when I didn't do anything weird."
"Sounds 'bout right. How've you been?"
"Be doing mighty fine these past few, nothing much new. Fall right on into tha' pace a' things when it gets right too it."
"Told anyone other than Granny about your foals yet?"
"Nah, maybe later."
"Think they'd be surprised?" She says this while hopping off of her back.
Winona howls, after a while it gets lost in the distance. "Naturally." She answers Rainbow's question.
After a while they are surrounded by a pack of timberwolves. They clear a path and the alpha male walks towards them. He looks down at Winona who smiles up at him. They nuzzle each other in a show of affection and Winona plans a kiss on his muzzle.
After he backs away he gives a grunt and the pack all pounce on Winona.
"Aww, they missed you." Dash coos as if watching a baby reuniting with its mother after an hour apart.
"Oh my babies gave grown so big, yes you have, mama's so proud." Winona coos as talking to a five year old.
"Ugh, so mushy and gross." Rainbow blanched. "Hey Alan, Are Lemon Honey and Sugar Stalk home?" She asks the menacing timberwolf.
He growls and two pegasus mares emerge from the forest. Their ears and teeth like wolves and leaves and branches sticking out of them randomly. The purple one with a dark green and navy mane being cover by leaves had a few twigs sticking out from painful looking angles and the yellow one with vivid green eyes and a white and blue mane sported some very wood-like hooves.
They both stared at Rainbow Dash for a moment before the pounced.
"Oooh, Ray Ray you're so cute, I could just eat you up." Says the yellow one, Honey.
"Aren't you just the cutest kitty ever?" Says the purple one, Sugar, who currently threatened to squeeze the living daylights out of Rainbow Dash.
"A-a-air?" She splutters out.
"Oooh, sorry." The two say as the released her from the suffocation, but still refused to put her down.
"How's your roommate?" Asks Sugar.
"Tank's doing fine, since I'll be out of town for a while I left a note with 'Shy to check on him."
"Oooohh, a trip where you going?" Lemon asks getting interested.
"Mystic Mountains, you're all going." Winona says giving them her full attention. "Silver Dream should meet up with you on the way, but Sugar, my dear, since you are the eldest you have my full permission to drag her there yourself iff'n ya'll don't see her at the station."
"Yes mama." Sugar Stalk's tail wags like crazy at the prospect.
"Why we goin' ta the mountains mama?" Lemon asks.
"Well you must have realized that you woke up in your half forms this morning."
"Sugar no sleep. 5 minute rest, 5 minute rest the moon was high when we change." Sugar had gotten as hyper as any pony with lollipops and leaves for a cutie mark could get. (Let's just say she's had a bit too much sweets)
Winona growled and Sugar regained her composure.
"Sorry, mama." She looks down.
"It's okay sweetie, happens to the best of us. Anyway last night was an event that arrives once every five hundred years."
"The silver fort calling." Lemon says.
"That a girl."
"Give it up for the egghead folks." Dash jokes
"The calling is said to drain all imperial magic, but I can barely even feel the wolf magic I always depend on." Lemon says looking at her hooves.
"I can feel it, I can feel it." Sugar says.
'Ahem' Winona clears her throat. "Honey that means you might have a stronger connection to one of your ancestral magic forms."
"Hmm?" She tilts her head.
"Well my strongest is Cuddlemuffin." Dash says with a shrug.
"Dash, nothing is confirmed until you reach of age."
"Whatever."
"Says the pony who gets drunk on deadly nightshade." Sugar states, causing Dash to cross her for limbs and pout.
"She's just soo cute." Her cousins coo and some of the timberwolves nearby seem to join in.
Rainbow Dash felt a tinge of pity for her male cousins. She had always known that Imperial ponies would always be female but she couldn't help how sad she was knowing that the males would think and feel as much as anypony but were forced to spend their lives as animals, usually only a fraction of the lifespan of their sisters.
Snapping out of it and back into the conversation Rainbow Dash asks, "So what's so important that we need to go back to the mountains?"
"I was getting to that. Many many pony species live for indefinite amounts of time and our kind is no different. Be that as it may many of these ponies fail to see Imperials as anything but animals." She huffs, " but during the calling it is mandatory for Imperials to return to the mountains as ponies who life for eons at a time will be heading their to meet us. The only thing is they are looking to adopt us, most of them. Some actually a want some form of relationship, but most are there to adopt and no matter how absurd this may be the Counsel believes this is necessary."
"Ponies who are married or already adopted are excluded but for everyone else. If you do not go fever illness will come. I don't need to explain fever illness do I?"
Everyone including the alpha male shakes their head.
"Good. Well ya'll better git iff'n ya wanna catch that train." Winona says handing her daughters their tickets.
"How long has it been since you two went to town again?" Rainbow Dash asks.
"Oh about fifteen years, why?" Lemon says nonchalantly.
Rainbow Dash face paws. "Oh boy." Her fluffy paw not hurting as much as she would like.(knocking her out would have been better)
Barely three minutes in town and Rainbow Dash has already been forced to back up into a bush. She watches helplessly as her cousins rummage around sniffing everything and everypony in the street they had just entered. After about a minute the street is empty as the two tumble through the now empty street.
Much to Dash's relief a whistle was blown making the two half timberwolves whimper and regain some semblance of civility.
"Yikes!" Lemon Honey comments rubbing her sore ears.
"A little louder why don'cha?" Sugar Stalk adds with her ears down and back.
"Sorry but you girls were a bit ...unruly" BlossomForth reveals herself from the cloud she was in.
"Oh, I like turtles." Honey comments.
Just then there is mewing from a bush behind Sugar, who correctly translates this to mean "I'm stuck."
"Rainbow, are you okay?" Sugar asks pulling a branch away letting the small half cat tumble out of the bush.
"Rainbow Dash!?" BlossomForth asks, shock clearly written on her face.
"Oh, you're friends with our cousin?" Honey asks.
"Cousin?" She looks confusedly at Rainbow Dash.
"Whatever." She rolls her eyes, "Blossom meet my cousins, Lemon Honey and Sugar Stalk. They're Winona's pups." She motions to her cousins with a wave of her hoof and they wag their tails at the mention of their names.
"Winona's your aunt?" She asks unbelieving.
"Yes my best friend's dog is my aunt." She replies her unease clear in her voice and on her face.
"Isn't she just adorable?" Asks Honey as she picks up and cuddles the struggling pony.
"Not usually, but I gotta say she's pretty cute right now. Didn't know you were Imperial Dash. But why so tiny." She asks stifling her giggles.
After prying herself from her cousin's wooden limbs Rainbow shakes herself out before answering. "I don't exactly see a reason to tell anypony that I'm a cat. And I know I'm small. I can't feel my imperial magic so I can't change my size anymore. " she states then fixes her mane with her forehoof. "Anyway how'd you know to calm them down with a whistle?" She looks up confused for a minute.
"Well they sounded like dogs, but they don't look like dogs." She examines the twigs sticking out at various angles on Sugar Stalk.
"Well they are timberwolves after all." Dash answers nonchalantly.
"Umm," she gulps, " what?"
"Hmm, I smell fear." Sugar's tail wags.
"No, sis, we told mom we'd be good." Honey says in a demanding tone.
"Killjoy." Sugar grumbles.
"I thought, Sugar was alpha?" Rainbow says.
"We're both alpha." Says Honey.
"Silver's beta." Sugar adds.
"Right." Dash says sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
"I still don't get why Dash is so small." BlossomForth says.
"Mew?" Rainbow tilts her head.
"Aww!" They say looking at her.
After grumbling to herself Rainbow starts heading towards the train station.
"Oh yeah the train." They two part wolf ponies say in unison.
"Oh going to the mountains." BlossomForth asks.
"Yeah you coming?" Honey asks.
"Yeah I'm right behind you." As soon as she answers the wolves speed off.
Honey suddenly stops in front of Rainbow Dash, who just ducks out of the way as Sugar crashes into her sister.
"What's wrong Honey?" Dash asks the pony who is focused with pulling her twigs out of her sister's mane.
"I just remembered something." She sits there wagging her tail.
"What did you remember, sis?" Sugar asks after freeing herself.
"Turtles are slow." She r plies happily.
It took a moment before Rainbow caught on and flew back to where BlossomForth was.
"Do you think you'll make it to the station in time for the train?" Dash says while rubbing against BlossomForth ' s stationary leg.
Struggling to quicken her pace, BlossomForth barely raises the leg Dash is rubbing against while saying, "I can make it."
"My my this is troublesome. Up we go." BlossomForth is caught off guard by the sudden maturity in Sugar Stalk's tone as she picks her up and carries her.
Rainbow Dash flies unto Lemon Honey's head and says as they walk around the town. "Timberwolves are known for their strength and loyalty to those they trust." She then gives a smirk that seemed too much for her stature, "You didn't think we'd leave you hanging, did you?"
BlossomForth smiles at her as they are carried to the station.
Author's Note
Any criticism on the length of the chapters is welcome~doki
"There are four well known types of ponies in Equestria.
Unicorns, known for their magical ability, Earth ponies known for their strength and their special connection to the earth, Pegasi known for their flight and control over the elements and Alicorns which embody the aspects of the other three pony tribes.
There are also a few inconspicuous pony hybrids not many know anything about.
There are the Imperials who appear as pegasi, able to reproduce with any living creature, their magical abilities are mirrored in alicorns but alicorns reject them because of their inbreeding. There are also Astrous Ponies with the ability to digest poisonous substances and manipulate another pony's magic. The only other ponies which will make the others' skin crawl are Sex Sensors who draw energy only by sex, never food and the Cuddle Muffins who drain other ponies energy through physical contact.
But it's not like it would be some sort of catastrophe if a number of dangerous pony type where to interbreed." she starts to laugh histerically at her last comment.
"Mommy, am I dangerous?" a baby Rainbow Dash asks looking up from where she was tucked in.
"Of course not, darling. You're only one quarter astrous, one eighth cuddle muffin, and one sixteenth sex sensor. Being half cat will keep you from being dangerous." her mother replies.
"But mama said that any part of my ancestry can affect me when I grow up."
"Ever?" she looks at a cat in the window.
"It does. You yourself are one sixteenth imperial." the cat says before hopping onto the bed. "Don't worry kitten," she says to baby Rainbow Dash, "We love you no matter what happens."
"That's right darling. Now hush it's bedtime." she says as the cat hops unto her back. She blows out the candle and leaves her daughter to sleep.