Chapters Rainbow Dash sighed as she stretched, ready to do her morning chores of clearing out the clouds. She flicked her right ear and shook out her beautiful rainbow mane, making dew fly off of her from the chilly sunrise. After a few good stretches and a slow strut in place she stretched out her wings, angled them vertical and jumped, thrusting down with her wings to propel her high into the sky, away from her cloud home. Dash stretched out her forelegs straight in front of her and her back legs straight behind. She curled and twisted intricate patterns in the sky before turning and flying towards a fluffy, white cotton cloud. As she approached the unknowing fluff ball she reeled backwards, kicking off the cloud into a backwards summersault, making the cloud evaporate. For an hour or two she spent the rest of the time clearing clouds slowly and lazily. Once she had finished her task she snorted and fluttered off to see if any of her friends were up and walking around town yet. Despite the warm, rising sun the day seemed particularly cold, which felt odd to Dash but she pushed the thought from her mind.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” came an excited, high pitched Pinkie Pie voice.
Dash stopped abruptly and looked around for her, but didn’t see her. Confused that she possibly imagined it she continued flying until she saw the pink pony sticking her head out of Sugarcube Corners’ window. RD glided down to her friend and stopped in front of the window on the top floor. “Hey Pinkie, what’s up?” she asked casually, yawning slightly.
“Have you been hearing anything…weird lately?” she asked her tone completely serious and almost freaked.
“No. I haven’t heard anything besides birds chirping this morning, Pink,” RD replied, quizzically looking at her usually spunky best friend. For a few minutes they sat there, pondering what could be going on until Pinkie shook her head and invited Rainbow inside.
The two sat on Pinkie’s rug, tails flicking a little nervously. “So what have you been hearing?” Rainbow Dash finally asked.
“Just…my name, but really distant and scary,” she said, looking much shaken.
Rainbow nudged her friends shoulder to grab her attention, for it had drifted, but not in her happy, A.D.D. way. “Hey, there’s nothing wrong I bet. You’re probably just tired still from Cadence’s Foal Shower,” Dash explained, feeling alright with that answer.
“Y-you think so?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Yes,” Dash replied simply, smiling.
“Well that’s a relief!” Pinkie said, jumping to her hooves, looking bright and happy again. She grinned hugely at Dash. “Thanks Dash,” she said, hugging her friend tightly.
“No” puff “problem” puff “Pinks,” she gasped out at the bear hug. Dash managed to peel her off after a few more seconds.
“Let’s go prank some ponies!” Pinkie suggested.
“I’m down with that,” Dash agreed, and the two went off.
When Dash got home that evening she was happy. She’d enjoyed a whole day of pranking with her gal pal, Pinkie. As she settled onto her couch with some hot chocolate she picked up another Daring Do book, yanking a wool blanket over her body. She’d gotten only ten pages in when a frantic pounding sounded off the door. Immediately she leapt up, dropping the book onto the coffee table and the hot chocolate onto the floor. The banging sounded again and she trotted up to the door.
“Rainbow? Rainbow Dash!” called Fluttershy, scared out of her wits.
Dash flung open the door and Fluttershy barreled through, tackling her friend to the ground, sobbing against her chest. “Rainbow…I’m so…scared,” she spluttered between hiccups.
“Fluttershy, what’s happened?” Dash asked, carefully carrying the shaking pale yellow pony to the couch and wrapping her up in the black blanket.
“There were noises in my house. Creaking like old joints. Then there was a voice in my head. It kept whispering my name, getting louder until it started screaming that it was coming for me, that it would kill me and all my friends. That we had no chance,” she said in rush, while Dash had cleaned up the hot chocolate.
The hair along RD’s spine rose and her mane stood on end. “Y-you heard voices in your head too?” she asked hesitantly, knowing the answer already.
“Yes…who else is hearing them Dash…?”
“It’s Pinkie Pie. She told me this morning that she was hearing her name being whispered. But not like you explained it,” she told her friend, shaking her head as she said it, unable to believe that it was just tiredness now. “I told her she was just overtired from the Foal Shower.”
Fluttershy exploded into snotty, obnoxious tears again. Rainbow Dash flattened her ears against her head then walked up to the fearful pony, nuzzling her cheek. “Hey now, it’s okay. Let’s go talk to Twilight about it.”
From behind her pink mane Fluttershy whimpered a yes and the two took flight, stopping at Sugarcube Corner by the top window where they saw Pinkie through the window. Something about the pink pony was off, she paced in the room, staring blankly about it then she shook her body violently, as if trying to rid herself of something. Dash knocked on the window and Pinkie shot up into the air, squealing fearfully. Rainbow Dash opened the window and came inside, followed by Fluttershy.
“Oh girls, it’s just you,” Pinkie Pie said, sighing with relief. “Dash you’re wrong, those voices are real, I’m not just overtired.”
“I know Pinkie, that’s why we came here. Fluttershy has been hearing voices too, and they’re saying bad things. We need to get to Twilight’s immediately.”
Pinkie nodded and the three set for Twilight’s library. When they reached the library Dash entered the room first, glancing around cautiously for books were strewn about. Alcohol sat on the table in the middle of the room, two beer bottles gone and a wine bottle half empty. All three exchanged skeptical looks before coming in completely and looking for the lavender pony named Twilight Sparkle. From the kitchen they could hear sobs and a teenage, male voice saying comforting words.
Pinkie Pie knocked on the kitchen door before entering and they saw a five foot, purple and green scaled dragon with an arm draped around Twilight.
“Spike, is she hearing…voices?” Dash asked quietly.
He merely nodded and Twilight straightened herself, facing her friends with a tear stained face. “Girls, are you hearing voices too?” she asked, hiccupping.
Fluttershy nodded, tearing up again and Pinkie nodded also, twitching slightly. Dash took a step forward. “I’m not hearing anything though,” she said nervously.
“I was hearing it say they’d rip me from my magic, that without it I will disintegrate into nothing. I’ve looked through books upon books about why I might be hearing voices, or if removing a pony’s magic is even possible. So far I’ve come up with nothing of the sort. But I keep hearing the voice in the back of my mind, promising me that it’ll destroy me from the inside out,” Twilight explained.
“They kept telling me that I was never really happy, that I can’t make anypony feel happy, that I’m meaningless without my thinking I am doing something for somepony,” Pinkie said, seeming calmer now, but serious.
“They said they’d kill you all, that I couldn’t do anything about it,” Fluttershy repeating what Dash had heard her say earlier.
All of them stared at Fluttershy for a moment, but instead of cowering behind her mane, Fluttershy straightened and said in a strong voice, “I will not let anypony harm any of you.”
Spike spoke up finally. “What could all this mean? Is somepony just playing a sick joke on you?” His mature voice seemed to shake slightly at concern for his friends.
“Who would be cruel enough to do that?” Dash asked.
“Somepony who wanted to see us fall apart?” Twilight said, and then flinched, clenching her eyes closed tightly. “No…no…leave me ALONE!!” she screeched, arching her back, her eyes blazing white in fury.
Around her, Dash saw Fluttershy and Pinkie twitching and acting similar to Twilight. Pinkie screamed at her voice, saying it didn’t know who she was. Fluttershy collapsed into loud sobbing. Dash flattened her ears hard against her head at her friends despair and yowled out, “Leave my friends ALONE!!! You stay OUT OF THEIR HEADS! You have no control! You are nothing!” Just as the words left her lips her friends settled down, their voices of mockery disappearing.
“Let me get you all some water,” Spike said, tears forming in his eyes as he walked to the cupboard and grabbed four glasses, filling them with ice and water. The others gathered around the table, eyes raw and blood red from their attacks. Dash stayed back, fear gnawing at the base of her skull.
“What just happened?” Dash asked.
“I don’t really know, but whatever it is, you seem to have some sort of control over it Dash,” Twilight mused.
Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie had spent the night at Twilights library, keeping each other company during the night. None of them could bear to sleep but whoever was disturbing them seemed to sleep during the night, so all was peaceful. All sat around the kitchen table once again, groggy and eyes bloodshot.
“So what about Applejack and Rarity? Are they not hearing voices?” Rainbow Dash asked as Spike served them some waffles with an assortment of different syrups. She took some normal maple syrup and drowned her poor waffle squares in it.
Twilight swallowed a chunk of powdered waffle and shrugged. “We can go visit them later,” she said, yawning largely.
“Sorry dear I have heard nothing of the sorts,” Rarity replied to Twilight’s question, a couple hours later at the Carousel Boutique.
Twilight sighed, almost relieved. “Thank goodness,” she said.
“Why do you ask?” Rarity pushed.
“Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and I have been hearing terrible voices. They tell us the things we do not wish to hear the most,” Twilight explained, feeling her hangover coming on as a slow, throbbing headache. “Nng, thank you for your time, Rarity. We are off to Applejack’s now.”
Rarity nodded at her friends. “I would join you but I have an ensemble to finish for a client. I will join you all later at Twilight’s, say, five?” She turned back to her dress.
Twilight nodded and all of them headed off to the orange, earth pony’s farm, Sweet Apple Acres.
Rarity...
"Yes Fluttershy?” Rarity asked. When she got no answer she turned around. Nopony was behind her. “Oh, guess the wind must be carrying her voice,” she told herself aloud, trying to comfort herself. She felt eerily alone in the massive boutique, but at the same time she felt a presence. Perhaps it was just Opal.
“Well howdy Twilight, Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie,” Applejack greeted her friends in her southern accent. They had just arrived, finding Applejack bringing in a cart full of multicolored apples to the barn, where’d they’d be cleaned and polished to sell later.
“Applejack, we have to talk to you. It’s really important,” Twilight said.
“Well sure, Twilight. Ah’m all ears,” Applejack replied, unhitching herself from the cart.
“Have you been hearing strange voices lately? Like, in your head?” Twilight asked her.
“Why, I can’t say that Ah have. Why do ya ask?”
“Well, we have, excluding Rainbow. They’ve been saying terrible things. Saying they’ll take the things away from us that we care about.” With that Twilight recapped about what the voices had been saying her. Pinkie continued after, followed by Fluttershy. They then recalled their incident last night, where Rainbow had somehow warded off the evil voices with just a command.
“Well this is very strange,” Applejack inquired. All the others nodded in agreement. “What’d’ya suppose is going on? Is somepony doing it? Or are y’all just imaginin’ it?”
Twilight shook her head and shrugged, unclear of it herself. “It feels very real,” Twilight whispered anxiously. “Maybe I should ask Princess Celestia and Princess Luna about it.”
All the others agreed. “So let’s all meet at Twilight’s at five then okay?” Rainbow said, waiting for their nods of approval before launching off. She soared through the air, her heart beating rapidly. As she continued flying she saw a familiar orange pelt. Without a thought she broke off her course and flew to Scootalo. The little pony brightened at Rainbow’s approach. Dash could see her cutie mark, swirls and dips representing dance moves, as she approached.
“Hey there Scoot,” Dash said as she landed beside the now, taller orange pony, who could see Dash’s nose at eye level. “How’s it goin’?” she asked.
“It’s going,” Scootalo said quietly.
“What’s wrong kid?” Dash asked, curling down onto the grass beneath the oak tree.
“I’m just feeling like I don’t fit in anymore, anywhere,” she said, flopping onto her side, staring blankly ahead of her, through Rainbow Dash.
“What about Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell?” Dash asked, knowing they were her best friends.
“They’re gone for the summer, remember? I don’t have anyone to hang out with,” she said with a sigh.
“You can hang with me,” Dash offered, then thought if bringing her into the mind games situation was the best. She didn’t take back her offer though. Maybe Scootalo could help.
“Oh really, Dash? Could I?” she asked, setting herself upright and smiling at the cyan pony.
“Of course, kid,” RD replied, smiling.
“You know I’m not a kid anymore right?” Scootalo questioned.
“Yeah, but sayin’ ‘teen’ sounds weird to me,” Dash explained and the two laughed. “But there is one thing.”
“What that?”
“My friends are having some trouble, so we’re meeting them tonight at Twilight’s to discuss things over and contact the Princesses about it,” Dash said, trying to keep it simple.
“Sounds alright with me. What’s the trouble?”
“I don’t wanna freak you out, so you’ll just hafta wait until we get there,” Dash said a little darkly.
Scootalo’s eyes opened hugely but she kept silent and nodded. The two spent the rest of the three hours they had to take a nap in the warm sun.
“Is everyone here?” Twilight asked later that night. “Rarity?”
“Present.”
“Fluttershy?”
“Here.”
“Applejack.”
“He’ya.”
“Rainbow?”
“Here.”
“Pinkie?”
“Here.”
“Okay, looks like we’re all accounted for then. And hello Scootalo, it is nice to see you again,” Twilight said, looking at the orange Pegasus.
“Likewise Twilight.”
“Alright so recently a few occurrences have been happening. Some of our sub consciences have been tapped into and are being played with. We don’t know what we are dealing with but the Princesses shall be here shortly so they may have answers.” At those very words both Luna and Celestia teleported into the library. All bowed to them and whispered greetings of respect.
“Rise my subjects,” Celestia requested. “What seems to be the trouble Twilight? Your letter was very urgent and seemed to be tear stained.”
While Twilight recounted the recent mental events Scootalo couldn’t help but feel fearful. She stole a glance at Rainbow Dash, who seemed to stand rock solid, as if nothing could penetrated her skin or her mind. Scootalo followed posture, stretching as tall as she could be, trying to look as brave and courageous as her idol. When Twilight recollected that Rainbow had saved them from a terrible bout Scootalo looked at her proudly. Rainbow smiled down at the orange pony then refocused her attention on the Princesses, who seemed to look fearful.
“I have something I would like to share,” Rarity quipped as Twilight finished.
“You may speak,” Luna said.
“After you all had left I could have sworn Fluttershy had spoken to me only saying my name. When I had turned around there was no pony in sight. After that I felt an evil presence, but nothing happened after my name was spoken,” Rarity explained, looking shaken.
“Twilight and friends, I’m afraid we have some bad news to tell you as well,” Celestia said, her eyes glazed slightly. “Discord has escaped his prison again, but with the help of an unknown being.”
Everypony just stared at her for a moment. “But, that can’t be!” Rarity protested. Fluttershy wailed, this time in pain almost. Twilight cried out also. Pinkie Pie hollered and slumped to her knees.
“Guys!” Rainbow Dash yelled. She grasped for words to say, to end their agony when a bloodcurtling screech erupted from Fluttershy. Her body was flung across the library and she smashed her head against the shelving and she fell to the floor, but RD caught her just before she hit the ground. “You! Whoever you are! Leave them alone!” The screaming and hollering stopped immediately and Rainbow laid Fluttershy on the ground. “She’s unconscious,” she whispered, her voice hoarse from screaming.
Princess Celestia flew over at once, her horn glowing a pale yellow. “She’s in a coma. I don’t know how to bring her back. There’s a complex binding spell on her and only her will can break it,” she explained quickly, her horn dimming to no glow.
“She won’t be able to help us…just like the voices said,” Rainbow Dash said in horror from behind Celestia. Rainbow Dash continued to back up, away from her gentle friend’s body until she bumped into Scootalo, who merely pressed against her in comfort. Dash shook violently.
“But does that make what they say true then? They’re gonna take all of what we care about away from us?” Applejack asked, blinking away tears.
Luna stepped forward to address the rest of the ponies. “We do not know what is going to happen yet. Do not fear faithful subjects. All of you shall join us in Canterlot so we may keep a close watch over you.”
Everyone nodded in agreement and all of them teleported to Canterlot, no questions asked.
When the bunch had arrived at Canterlot in the castle Fluttershy was rushed off to be attended to in a small hospital room within the castle. Scootalo had excused herself to a bathroom and followed a guard there, immediately puking into the toilet after locking the door behind her. She’d never teleported with anypony in her entire earth. After she flushed the toilet she looked at herself in the mirror, washing her hooves slowly with warm water that soothed her. In one of the drawers she found a bottle of mouthwash and used some, thinking about how it was probably here for this specific reason. Finally she made her way back to the remainder of the group, who stood in front of Princess Celestia, listening to her every word.
“…and so you will all be kept her under my watch to keep certain that no more harmful events occur to any of you ponies,” Celestia said, looking at each of them with worry. When her gaze fell on Scootalo she looked slightly shocked. “Who is this filly?”
“I’m Scootalo,” Scootalo replied, dipping her head respectfully at the Princess.
“Pleasure to meet you my little pony,” the Princess replied, smiling. She then turned back to the rest of the ponies. “All of you can choose a bedroom on my corridors level. Good evening every pony. Twilight, I wish to see you in my room later, after you get comfortable.”
Twilight nodded to the princess and led the group upstairs, a different way than the princess took. The first room they approached had a single, mahogany door that led into a smaller bedroom with a queen sized bed that had purple, thick covers on it. To the right of the bed lay a massive window that overlooked Canterlot and the forest beyond it. In front of the bed was a mahogany dresser with an oval mirror. All the walls were done up in a violet color that seemed earthly. Scootalo was decided for this room and she walked in slowly, approaching the bed then launching herself into it, bouncing a few times on it before settling into the velvet blanket.
When they approached the second room there was two doors in a shining white paint that seemed to glitter like snow. The bed frame of the king sized bed on the inside glistened the same way with a velvet comforter in sapphire upon it. Most of everything else was made up in the crystal-like white paint. The window was shaped in a heart. However, the walls and ceiling were a pale blue, like the sky. Rarity immediately claimed the room for her own.
After that room came a simple room done up in different shades of browns and tans. This room was chosen for Applejack. Rainbow Dash took the next room, which was painted with yellow walls, a red comforter, a green dresser, blue doors and a purple bed frame. The last bed chamber, the one closest to the princesses was Twilight’s, done up in hues of purple and blue. Twilight ignored her room though and immediately went to meet with the princess right after.
She knocked on the door three times and it magically opened. On a warm colored carpet, next to a small fire lay the princess. Cautiously, Twilight walked forward, seeing her princess entranced by the dancing flames. Celestia sighed and lifted her head to face Twilight as she approached and settled next to the princess. Like she did when Twilight was a filly, the princess draped her wing over her students back. Twilight was thankful for the comfort. Her head throbbed from her mind attacks.
“I remember when you used to come in here so we could read stories together,” Celestia said distantly, looking out the window next to the fireplace.
“I miss those days. Nowadays it seems like we are always trying to stop some bad things from happening all the time. It almost feels like there’s never truly any real harmony happening,” Twilight observed.
“You may be right my student, but just because we have not achieved harmony yet does not mean there is none. How can there be harmony without disharmony? We would not know the difference,” Celestia commented.
“So why did you call me down here in the first place?” Twilight asked, looking up at Celestia.
“I worry about you a lot. And if Discord is on the loose then I feel he may to be to blame for this. However I’m certain he is working with others. What bothers me also is how Rainbow Dash is able to control the stop of it,” Celestia admitted.
“She wouldn’t turn against us though. She’s the element of harmony for ponies’ sake!” Twilight said protectively.
“I wasn’t accusing your friend of anything Twilight. I trust that she is as loyal as ever,” Celestia said quickly.
Rainbow Dash curled up into the red velvet, twisting it around her like a cocoon. In the room next to her she could hear Applejack talking to herself. The words were soft and urgent, as if she were trying to comfort herself. Dash uncurled herself from the velvet wrap and went next door to see if Applejack was okay. She knocked on the door twice before entering. The covers were strewn about from the bed and beneath the comforter was a shivering shape, muttering. Cautiously, Dash lifted the blanket, finding dilated pupils Applejack beneath it.
“Applejack? What’s wrong?” Dash asked, pulling the cover away completely.
“The…voices…I hear them now,” Applejack whispered.
“What’re they saying?” RD asked.
“They’ll burn down the farm, with my family in it,” AJ whispered, hanging her head and sighing. “And truth is…I believe them.”
Rainbow just stared at her friend for a moment, her eyes going unfocused. When she refocused, she saw Applejack had laid her head on her hooves. Her eyes fluttered as she drifted in and out of sleep. For now the voices seemed to have stopped in her head. Carefully, RD lifted Applejack into her bed and wrapped the blanket around her, flying out and back into her room. Scootalo greeted her upon her return, for she had wandered in there to talk about all that had happened. However, she never took her gaze from the window, where in this round corridor, she could see Ponyville from here.
“What’s going on?” Scootalo asked, sounding much older than she was. “Everything is turning upside-down. Threats to kill you guys. To harm others. It’s sick. Why is it happening? And why to you guys? All of you are so nice and generous and helpful.”
Rainbow Dash could only look at her friend. She didn’t have any of those answers. “I…I don’t know Scoot…I really don’t. All I know is I won’t let any harm come to my friends. Especially you. You’re the only thing that I have for a family now.” RD pulled her cousin into a hug and the two looked out into the starry sky, seeing the distant glow of Ponyville’s lights.
Princess Celestia called for all the friends to meet downstairs in the throne room. As she watched the tired ponies plod up to her she sensed an aura of unease. Something was different this time. The only two who seemed well slept were Scootalo and Rainbow Dash. Perhaps they weren’t being affected by the voices yet.
“So what has all happened since we last met?” Celestia asked, looking at each pony in turn.
“I started hearing voices. And all throughout the night I had nightmares,” Applejack spoke up.
“I’m having nightmares too,” Twilight said. Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity nodded in agreement.
“What were these nightmares like?” Celestia asked, watching as all of them looked at Rainbow Dash uneasily.
“In the nightmare, we were on a battlefield. Good against evil. Dark against light. And at the front of the evil ranks stood Rainbow Dash. She looked sad but determined and called to battle for her ranks and a war began. My dream ended when I was on the ground and Rainbow was standing above me, a look of sadness and darkness in her eye as she crushed my skull,” Twilight explained, not looking at Rainbow anymore. The others hearing voices murmured that they had the same dream.
“So what you’re all accusing me of turning on you?” Rainbow asked incredulously.
None of them said a single word but looked at her in fear. “We don’t know what to believe anymore,” Twilight whispered.
Rainbow flattened her ears at her friends. She shook her head and looked at the princess desperately for her to say something. Celestia looked utterly confused and didn’t really look at Rainbow, or any pony in particular. She seemed to be mulling over something in her head.
“For pony’s sake I’m able to save them from their voices!” Rainbow cried.
Celestia hung her head and spoke, sounding very, very old. “All the more reason to think you’re on their side. I’m sorry Rainbow but I will need to imprison you until further notice. Guards!” Celestia called and they chained a furious Rainbow Dash, leading her away with Scootalo trailing behind.
They took her down a long corridor painted with gentle colors of the land. They descended a staircase, the colors becoming colder in more hues of purple and blue. As they got to the bottom of the staircase they took a right and Rainbow began to recognize Luna’s corridor. At the end of the hallway was a circular room with two doors. One was a large oak door with Luna’s cutie mark engraved onto it while the other was a barred cellar. The grey unicorn guard opened it with his green magic and Rainbow obediently walked into the cellar. Gadget Grey, the unicorn who introduced himself to Rainbow at the top of the staircase, then locked the cellar with his magic and looked at her sadly before leaving the cousins to talk.
Neither of them spoke for a long ten minutes. Rainbow shook her body out a few times, trying to get the wing restraints to settle on her body more comfortably. However much she tried to though, the clasp just wouldn’t sit right. Finally she just gave up and lay down, finding it hard to with the leg restraints containing her leg motion by a few inches. She huffed a few times before sniffling, tears starting to form in her eyes. Quickly she blinked hard a few times. Right before she was about to say something though Luna walked out of her bedroom.
