The sun had finally risen up and the second day of school for Stardust has begun. That’s not the only thing, today the Equestria Princess Protection Group (as Twilight has decided to call it) puts their plan into action. Twilight had awoken to see that the sun was already creeping its way up into the sky. Yesterday was an early day for her, and this was definitely more her pace to wake up without a loss of sleep.

Chrysalis may have been the main thing the group was formed for, but Twilight knew that she wasn’t the only one who was going to after the young princess. This was the day where she would see some of them crawl out of the shadows and into the light, if they hadn’t already. In the week between her first meeting with Stardust, she had learned that there are many ponies who might try to take advantage of the young princess.

“I hope breakfast has already been made,” Twilight said, looking out to see the light of the sun going through her window. “I’m feeling a little hungry,”

She headed out of her room and towards the dining hall, which she had made to feel like a more normal house. With how fancy everything was, and the fact that there was usually only her and spike, she felt it unnecessary to have such a fancy place dining hall. It was still the same crystal color as the rest of the castle, but wasn’t overly glamorous.

She walked in to see Stardust already sitting down, looking at Twilight with a smile on her face. Twilight sat down next to the young princess as Spike brought in some eggs for them. He set down few more for the others who weren’t here yet. Stardust didn’t know that Heart Anchor and Solitaire was here, and Twilight had asked to keep the plan a secret from the pegasus so she didn’t worry.

“Hey Twilight,” Stardust said to the princess.

“Yeah,” Twilight responded, raising a cup of water to her face.

“I don’t want to bother you, and I don’t if you would be able to help me but…” Stardust waited a minute before continuing, “As a princess, do you have any tips for dating?”

Twilight’s eyes widened in shock, spitting the water she had sipped over at Spike. Stardust looked on, not knowing what the heck had just happened. Was a simple question so hard to answer? Even for a pony of Twilight's status. She had planned on asking Luna last night but was interrupted by the strange door that had appeared.

Twilight looked at Stardust, who waited patiently for an answer to her question. What was she to say, she had only asked Rainbow last night… oh, wait. She moved her eggs away from her as she banged her head on the table. She had completely forgotten about Phoenix and Rainbow being the same pony. In other word, she was dating a pony with two separate minds. Hopefully that was solved before long, because it would be rather weird eating with Rainbow while her body was been double occupied. She had to wonder how well the pegasus was handling the situation.

Her question was answered when she saw a sleepy Rainbow Dash walk into the room, looking as if she hadn’t gotten any sleep at all. It was pretty obvious that it wasn’t Rainbow currently driving the body, as she would have not been so sleepy. She looked at the body of her familiar friend, guessing it was Phoenix Flower currently in control while Rainbow’s mind got some rest. She received a wink from the pony, confirming her suspicions.

“Well, Rainbow Dash this is Stardust,” She said, keeping an act on up “Stardust, this will be your flying mentor here in Ponyville. Rainbow Dash, captain of the Wonderbolts, the greatest flying team in Equestria,”

“Wow,” Stardust said, amazed. Twilight sighed as she managed to draw the pony away from her earlier question. “Are you really that good,”

Phoenix punched her stomach, hoping her practice the night before was good enough. “Well of course,” She said, doing an exact replication of Rainbow Dash’s voice without any problem. “I mean, I’m only leader of the Wonderbolts because of an accident a few years ago, but I’m still really good,”

I swear to Celestia Phoenix thought to herself When Rainbow wakes up I’m going to make sure she gets a couple more hits than usual. Her voice is so annoying.

In truth, Rainbow was still in her bed up stairs. Phoenix had taken her body while she was asleep in order to learn Rainbow’s voice, which wasn’t hard since she was the same pony but a thousand years older. She had also done a memory run to learn about anything she might need to know. What most ponies would have seen as unbelievable Phoenix was disappointed over. Her entire reason for being alive was to be friends with Stardust, and seeing Rainbow abandon her friends, doing pranks, and other things made her wonder how this was the element of loyalty.

“Hey Rainbow Dash,” Spike said, also falling for the impression. “It’s been a long time,”

“I know,” Phoenix replied, not even giving Spike a clue about who she was. “It sure is nice to be back, you have no idea how much I’ve missed being here,”

Twilight was amazed at just how well Phoenix was managing to hold up the act. It didn’t surprise her that much that Phoenix was able to mimic Rainbow, but seeing how she knew Phoenix hated her friends guts, she was surprised she even bothered to act at all. Twilight looked up at the clock on the wall to see that it was getting somewhat late into the morning. Stardust had already finished up her breakfast and Twilight could wait till later since she was going to bring her to school.

“Time to go Stardust,” Twilight said, getting up and walking over to the princess. “Don’t want to be late, right?”

Stardust nodded her head and jumped out of her chair. As the two ponies walk out of the room Phoenix felt upset. She knew that Stardust didn’t remember her, but it was as if she was an entirely different pony then the one she remembered. I didn’t feel right, Stardust being that happy, even if Phoenix was happy about that herself. Phoenix sighed and walked over to the window, she never really took the time to notice how much Equestria has changed. It was so much happier, so much brighter.

As she looked out the window, something made her feel uneasy. One pony, who she couldn’t make out from how high up she was, seemed to just be sitting there in the middle of the streets of Ponyville. It was like they were a statue, but yet she somehow could tell the pony was still alive. She watched it for a while, finally seeing it move as Stardust and Twilight made there way outside. She watched as it followed them, her eyes widening when she realized what was going on.

Oh no

“Uh, Rainbow Dash,” Spike said, not knowing what was going on. “Is something wrong,”

Phoenix quickly ran out of the room and made her way outside the castle. After a couple of minutes, she finally reached the door and flung it open. Looking around, she didn’t see any of Stardust, Twilight, or that strange pony around. She took to the air, not realizing the attention she was bringing to herself. Getting high enough to see the town, she managed to spot Twilight and Stardust walking out of town. She didn’t see the pony she had seen earlier, but knew that it they had been hiding.

“This isn’t good,” Phoenix said making her way slowly on back to the ground, looking to see that everypony was watching. Right, Rainbow Dash is famous. That’s going to make this hard isn’t it.

“Please think this through next time,” Phoenix turned around to see Sonnet walk up to her. “You're bringing a lot of unnecessary attention,”

Phoenix looked back where she had been heading, knowing that it wouldn’t be worth heading anywhere in this body without attracting attention. Sonnet found it easy to figure out that it was Phoenix and not Rainbow Dash, but no one else except her, the princess, the real Rainbow Dash, and Heart Anchor even knew she was here. Seeing how things would end up, Phoenix turned around heading back to the castle.

“Don’t let that mare or anyone she’s controlling touch Stardust, got it,” Phoenix whispered before she ran off, the crowd of ponies following her.

“Don’t worry,” Sonnet replied “Heart Anchor told me what happened all those years ago. Diminshia is all mine,”

Dandelion made her way through the forest on her way to the main road. She had already taken on her normal disguess, and was one she wasn’t ready to give on up. Stardust and Blue Moon hopefully kept quiet about their incident yesterday, and she didn’t want to deal with something like that again. As long as they didn’t say anything, she should be fine.

As she made her way to the road, she ducked as she saw two ponies coming down the road. She didn’t bother to peak, not taking any chances of it being Stardust, especially since there was two of them. She waited patiently for the two ponies to go away before looking out again. When she looked again, she saw the two ponies pass her, and finding that they were princess Twilight and Stardust walking to school. She sighed as she realized it was just them.

That’s when she saw another pony come from the left side of the forest into the road, finding it was Applejack. She took a look at Applejack, wondering why she was there, and why she was hiding as well. Something about this wasn’t right, she knew it. She looked around to see if she could find anything strange. She did, just barely out of view she saw the shadow of a pony behind a tree, using some sort of strange magic. They weren’t a unicorn, they were just a normal earth pony, but something gave her a bad feeling about what was going on. As she discarded her disguise to use a spell she had learn to since controlled magical essence, which any used spell - no matter how advance - gave off. As she cast it, she clearly saw a trail of essence being given off by the pony, which was connected directly to Applejack.

Not caring if she was seen in her true form, she burst out of her cover and towards the pony that was using the spell. Before she reached them, she was tackled by somepony she hadn’t noticed. When she saw the yellow tip of Blue Moon’s mane, she quickly shook him off.

“What the hey are you doing?” Blue Moon said angry “Were you trying to do something to-”

Dandelion tackled him behind a tree and covered his muzzle as the strange pony looked in there direction. Blue Moon tried to struggle free but all his attempts to failed as Dandelion wrapped her hind legs around his arms. She felt terrible for doing it, but he wasn’t going to stay silent otherwise. Dandelion watched as the pony casting the spell looked behind her and got blasted by a spell, shattering what must have been some sort of illusion as it was disappeared. Looking back at the road, she watched as Applejack fell unconscious to the ground.

“I know you two are there,” Blue Moon heard the sound of his sister's voice say. “You can come on out,”

Dandelion let Blue Moon go, who quickly caught his breath. “Thanks,” He said furious at the changeling.

“Your welcome,” Dandelion said in an equally furious tone as the two walked out of there hiding place.

The two look at the older mare as she walked up to them. Sonnet glanced at Applejacks body in the road, not knowing whether or not she was still alive. She was glad she got there when she did, considering how these two were acting.

“Sorry Sonnet,” Blue Moon said, looking at Dandelion suspiciously. “I thought Dandelion was stalking Stardust so-”

“Go to school Blue Moon,” Sonnet said, her voice cold as ice. Without a second thought, Blue Moon ran off, know better then to make her sister angry. “Dandelion if I’m right?” The changeling nodded in response. “Get Applejack to the hospital, she needs immediate treatment. I’ll explain to the teacher why you aren’t there okay,”

“What’s going on?” Dandelion asked confused.

“Come to the castle tonight and I’ll explain everything, just go,” Sonnet said, pointing at Applejack’s limp body in the road.

Without another word, Dandelion changed back into her disguise and rushed to Applejack’s side, picking her up and running in the opposite direction of the school. Sonnet gave a sigh, unable to believe what has already happened. She had expect this pony to show up, but didn’t believe what it meant she had to do. Luckily, he had changed a lot since then.

“Alright Discord,” Sonnet said to herself as she made her way back into the forest. “Let's see what you have to say about all of this,”

Author's Note

So, this is where the story is going to take a giant turn towards the alternate universe side... and I mean a REALLY BIG turn. Also, in case you are wondering why I am still uploading even after saying that I won't be uploading a lot during the summer time, I'm going to try and upload as much as possible over the summer. That being said, it will most likely be limited to one chapter every two or three weeks, and I will be primarily working on this... and something else fun that I don't yet want to announce since I still haven't gotten my stupid COVER ART for it yet. I will give you a hint as to what it is though, it is a pretty big community in the MLP fandom, one that tends to get a good amount of hate. Okay, if you guys can't guess it from that... then you probably are like me and didn't want to read an insane amount of words because you know you might never finish it (I read the original, but have yet to fully finish it) no hard feelings. That being said like, comment, and follow because well... I think you get why by this point. Well, until whenever I upload next, I will see you guys later.