Nightmare Dove Arc

In Ponyville, Prism Bolt traipsed in his home. He shuffled his hooves about in the floating house. Zecora's words repeated on his lips, and flustered thoughts of everyone and Dove. He searched out the window, finding Ponyville in a horrid enrapturing of fog. He jumped back. Out the door, the fog was climbing, closer to the home, reaching over itself to Prism. Wrapping out his massive wings, he lifted and searched. The fog was nearly everywhere. He rose further. It covered nearly all. Save, for some beacon at Canterlot, a pink sphere between the void. He grit his teeth, and flew.

His wing felt better, though he could notice its strain. Trees became amalgams as he past and blistered to the city. The sphere gradually became closer, larger, the fog over the slope and berating about it. Starburst was above, flying somewhere. Just an orange speck to him, but fast, toward the mountain. A tall pony was falling. Fast.

He shifted his angle. Color strew from his mane. His tail ignited in a blitz of rainbow and he past Starburst and careened to Dove. She wrapped his form. He attempted to turn, but Dove wrought against him, and his wing recalled its strain. They burst into a miasma of snow and he slid from aside her.

Blinking himself awake, he noticed the large form attempting to rise. A voice sounded behind him.

"W-Who?"

"Anthea!" Prism suddenly noticed and called. She stood at the open incline of mountain, somehow feeling her way up. Starburst dropped to a narrow dive and slid in. They met each other, but Dove's form rose. Her eyes were bright beyond stars. Raw magic transfused from all of her, throwing the three back. Prism attempted to hold, Anthea as well, pressing forward, motioning the necklace into her mouth. The magic pulsed, berating Anthea and Prism. It knocked Anthea down and back from Starburst, Starburst finding the necklace falling back but taking it. Waves threw against them, but Starburst held the locket in her mouth, pushing on, past pulses, to Dove. Feathers ripped from her. She tore her eyes open and found Dove, then pressed the necklace to her.

Where...?

Where...?

Where...?

A sphere dipped around Starburst, blue and complete, and uncomplete, yet a void yet white and everything. Everything came into being. It was a tree. New trees, always there. Starburst turned her sight around, rain having fallen on her. A tree with scars along it stood before her, and Dove walked out, from the blackened, continual rain beyond it.

"Mon cherie," Dove said, "Where are we?"

"Dove... I think, this is your mind."

"This is...?"

She walked about. The rain went on. Starburst followed her. Roots entangled a tree ahead. The ground wasn't there. Just a thought. Dove and Starburst stopped. They walked.

"Hey, Dove!" two young ponies called. Dove turned to them, the recess area just outside the school. "Show us a trick! Show us! Show us!"

Dove watched herself from the trees. The young Dove shuffled her sight away, but looked back.

"Very well!" she cried. "Feast your eyes, and look not away!"

Many doves flew from behind her from seemingly nothing.

"Magic! We want real magic!"

"..."

Something faded. Something grew. A new pony, a unicorn, juggling animals with her horn's magical glow about. Young Dove watched.

She fell. Pushed, and now muddied on the ground. Some contorted grins over her.

Dove rose. Nothing was before her. Her mother seemed a glimpse but gone. Only a cave, somewhere, beyond some noise. A show, from the sound. Trixie returned to her, Dove atop her mother's lap, listening to coos and strokes against her roughened mane. Gone to the whispering trails of water. A horn bashed below it.

Starburst rested her eyes upon her. Young Dove, alone. Her horn scattering in pieces. The pieces falling, never leaving, and rejoining with others. The schoolyard. Dove was back, her face a burnt mess and tears from her eyes. Others levitated books around her.

These came and flew from Dove's eyes and mind as she stared. The kept coming. They slowed, then returned and paused. Falling apart and returning. Starburst pressed against her. It stopped.

The schoolyard. Young Dove, alone. Starburst walked to her, Dove looking, following. Young Dove sat in the sand, holding a book. Starburst sat before her.

"Hey."

"Oh, bonjour!" young Dove said. "Ah, you are beautiful! Such wonderful wings!"

"Merci, and there's someone you need to know."

Dove stood over herself.

"...What are you doing?"

"Levitation!"

"Dove," Starburst said, meeting the standing Dove above them. Starburst stood aside her.

Young Dove flowed her magic. The book paused and shook in air. Her eyes wrenched shut. Her horn burst flame and magic singed her face.

Starburst met Dove's eyes.

"Magic... it never worked for you..."

"...No."

The horn burst flame once more as the magic failed.

Starburst held herself against Dove, looking at young Dove, prompting Dove's sight to her as well.

"...But... you never failed to be amazing. Even now, here, and then, you were amazing."

Young Dove smiled. The book was down. Open to showmanship. Her singed face housed a grin. She laughed, alone, before a book, and herself. Starburst smiled.

"Amazing."

"..."

Dove was silent. She searched the sky. It seemed still, now, all of sudden. Vivid and known. Starburst's hooves wrapped around her shoulders, her weight pressed into her.

"You are amazing Dove."

The world seemed to fall.

"This weight, is part of you, but you are so much more."

The sky became light.

"I can feel it in you. I know it... You are amazing."

The sky was morning. The morning sky. It had risen, and the snowy incline was before them. Anthea dragged herself up, Prism Bolt running as well. Snow lessened in the glow, Starburst curved in it, and the white, amazing pony in her hooves. Orange wings draped her, tears in her eyes, and a widened smile. Starburst wiped her wettened face, and held her, the sun rising further as the full world spanned out before them.