“Scootaloo bumped into me and I stumbled into the Crystal Heart,” Amber grunted, pointing to the rotating relic.

“I’m so sorry, Amber,” groaned Scootaloo. “I didn’t see you.”

“Hey, it wasn’t your fault,” said Rainbow Dash crossly. “It was…”

She was about to say Lightning Dust was responsible, but then she remembered who had recommended Lightning in the first place.

“It was… an accident,” she finished.

Amber tried walking, but quickly recoiled once she put some weight on her left foreleg. Some doctors walked up with a stretcher.

“We’ll take you to the hospital, miss,” one said.

Amber clambered into the stretcher looking forlorn. Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, and Lightning Dust accompanied her and the doctors all the way to the infirmary.

“How are we going to treat this burn?” asked a nurse. “Why did the Crystal Heart cause this injury?”

“This is Amber Aldis,” a doctor told her. “She’s infected with Venomodo poison. She can’t use magic or have magic used on her without taking severe damage.”

“By the looks of it,” said the other doctor, “she got a good deal. From what I’ve heard, using magic on a Venomodo’s victim has far greater consequences than just burns.”

“I suppose we’ll just supply her with cold packs and see how it plays out,” decided the first doctor.

Rainbow Dash felt guilty for forgetting how reckless Lightning Dust is, but she didn’t want to say anything because she still liked Lightning Dust and was happy with how she’d improved since she knew her at the academy. Minutes after the medical staff administered cold packs, a visitor arrived who didn’t share Rainbow’s point of view at all.

“Spitfire? I never knew you and Amber were friends,” remarked Scootaloo.

“I’m on pretty good terms with all of Cloudsdale’s weather team,” replied Spitfire. “Even some of the temps.”

“Nice of you to drop by,” smiled Amber, sitting up in her hospital bed with her shoulder in bandages.

“Sorry I didn’t get here sooner,” Spitfire frowned. “I only just heard from Blaze that Lightning Dust caused you…”

“I didn’t do anything!” objected Lightning Dust.

“You can get in trouble for things you didn’t do, you know,” frowned Spitfire. “Like if you don’t show regard for others’ safety.”

“How about if you don’t manage to find an ice iris?” Lightning scowled.

Spitfire spluttered. “How did you find out about that?!”

Rainbow Dash gulped. “Uh, I mighta told her about that.”

Spitfire gave her a dirty look.

“Sorry, captain,” said Rainbow Dash.

“You don’t get to call me captain. You’re not a Wonderbolt,” snapped Spitfire.

And she stormed out of the room.

“Thanks for visiting!” Amber called with a sarcastic tone.

The three remaining visitors all seemed to feel guilty about the accident to some degree. Scootaloo got some treatment as well, but all she really needed was some cleaning alcohol and a wipe with a cloth. Both she and Rainbow Dash were mortified that they could have caused a fatality. Lightning Dust wasn’t doing a good job showing her regret.

“Well, I’ll try to keep a good lookout from now on,” she said half-heartedly as she shuffled towards the door.

“Good to know,” said Amber.

After watching Lightning leave, Rainbow Dash was more inclined to think ill of her.

“Well I’m not leaving,” she said. “I’m gonna stay here with you until you’re better.”

“Aw, I appreciate that,” smiled Amber. “Hopefully this burn’ll go away. Oh, uh, don’t mention this to Starlight in the meantime. I had a hard time convincing her to go and have fun with Double Diamond and his friends earlier. She’d feel pretty lousy if she found out about this while she’s back in her old village.”

“But won’t she want to know that you can’t touch the Crystal Heart?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“We can wait until the Air Sprinting show’s over, can’t we?” asked Amber.

Rainbow considered. “Yeah, I guess.”

Scootaloo spent the night in the infirmary along with Amber despite her injuries healing a lot better, and with Rainbow Dash staying with the two of them, the hotel room she’d rented stayed empty all night. In the morning, the doctors allowed Scootaloo to leave right away.

“How about we go get some breakfast, Rainbow?” she asked.

“Uh, I’ll wait and see if Amber can go too,” replied Rainbow Dash.

Scootaloo nodded to indicate she’d stick around, but her stomach grumbled in protest.

“Go ahead, Scootaloo,” said Amber.

Rainbow Dash nodded. “And stay outta trouble.”

“OK,” said Scootaloo.

After she departed, the doctors examined Amber’s shoulder. The burn wasn’t red and steaming anymore. Amber was asked to try putting weight on it. She twitched a little bit when she did, but she claimed that it wasn’t nearly as painful as it was yesterday.

“Well, I suppose you can go as well,” decided a doctor. “We’ll give you some cold packs to take with you. And I’m sure I don’t need to tell you this, but steer clear of the Crystal Heart.”

“I will,” said Amber.

Rainbow Dash thought Amber was in more pain than she let on, because she was hovering away from the hospital with her legs dangling down, her right foreleg clutching a bag of cold packs.

“I guess we should go have breakfast now,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Uh…”

“Aren’t you hungry?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Well, it’s just… I don’t think these cold packs are all that good,” Amber said, “They need replacing like five minutes later.”

“If they’re not that great, then why is your shoulder so much better?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“I meant it’s comparably better,” sighed Amber. “I’ll be fine, Rainbow. I just need something better to hold against my shoulder. I was thinking… snow.”

“Hm. Not a bad idea,” said Rainbow. “OK. Let’s go.”

“Uh… OK.”

If Rainbow wasn’t so keen to make amends for indirectly causing the accident, she might have asked why Amber seemed so hesitant at her own idea. She was too distracted by Scootaloo, who it turned out hadn’t gone to get breakfast at all. She’d been waiting outside the hospital since she’d left the room.

“Can I come?” Scootaloo asked, seeing that Rainbow and Amber were turning towards the outskirts of the city.

Rainbow now noticed that Amber was looking a bit squeamish. She attributed this to the memory of the accident.

“No, no,” she said. “You just go and get some food like I told you to.”

Scootaloo backed away and watched as Rainbow Dash and Amber Aldis flew away towards the snow that surrounded the Crystal Empire.

“She thinks I’ll injure Amber again,” she groaned when they were out of sight.

She sat on the sidewalk outside the hospital feeling downhearted. When she next looked up, she was a little startled to see Spitfire standing quite close to her. Some distance behind her were the rest of the Wonderbolts flying towards the stadium.

“You’ll never be Rainbow Dash, you know,” she said.

Scootaloo felt hurt.

“But then… neither will I,” Spitfire said quickly.

She gave Scootaloo what was probably meant to be an encouraging smile. Then she turned and took off to re-join her teammates, leaving Scootaloo to feel a little puzzled.

“Wow, look at you,” remarked Rainbow Dash, observing how quickly Amber was flying.

“I went to junior flight camp too, you know,” smirked Amber. “It’s too bad we never met up there. How about we race?”

“Sure.” Rainbow could never turn down a race.

They counted down and sped away past the train station and out into the wind and snow. The wind was causing Rainbow Dash to pull to the right a little bit, but when she looked back to see how far ahead of Amber she was, it looked like the wind was blowing her away.

“Where are you going?!” Rainbow called.

Amber didn’t reply, and Rainbow lost sight of her in the mist. She took off after her, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“What’s she doing?” she asked. “Is she up to something? Is she trying to shake me off? Did I come off as desperate? Maybe I am trying too hard to make things up to her.”

Soon, Rainbow Dash spotted Amber. She was digging in the snow.

“Yeah, I guess she does want some space,” sighed Rainbow Dash. “Well, I can take a hint. And at least Scootaloo knows I’m…”

Something caught Rainbow’s eye. Amber appeared to be pulling something out of the snow.

“What’s that red thing?” wondered Rainbow Dash.

She squinted and saw that Amber had something orange clenched between her teeth.

“She is up to something.”

Rainbow Dash flew straight to Amber Aldis, who saw her coming. Before Rainbow Dash could demand an explanation, Amber leapt forward, grabbed Rainbow by the back of the head, and shoved her into the hole she’d just dug in the snow. Rainbow Dash’s upper body was stuck, and she couldn’t see or hear anything. She couldn’t get free for several seconds, but then she felt hooves grab her tail and pull, and out she came. It was Scootaloo who had helped her out.

“Rainbow, what’s Amber doing?!” cried Scootaloo.

They both looked at Amber just as her horn began to glow. One bang and one burst of smoke later, Amber Aldis disappeared.

Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo had virtually no time to be shocked or traumatised, because once the wind blew the smoke away, Amber Aldis was standing, whole and unscathed, a few feet away from where she’d cast her spell. There were tiny purple fragments around her, and she was standing next to a thin red object that looked like a phoenix. She was examining herself and looking thrilled. When Rainbow Dash saw that the heart shaped burn on her shoulder was gone, her jaw dropped. Amber’s horn lit again. This time, nothing happened. No bang, no smoke, just a beaming Amber Aldis. Next second, a streak of yellow light slid away from her along the snowy ground and passed Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. The two bewildered pegasi watched, speechless, as the streak of light slid smoothly along and finally stopped at Scootaloo’s scooter, which was lying on its side a short distance away and already collecting snow.

“I’m back, baby!” exclaimed Amber Aldis.

Then she remembered that Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were witnessing this and faltered a bit.

“OK. I want an explanation,” demanded Rainbow Dash.

“Well… where do I begin?” Amber Aldis fidgeted. “I mean… it’s a long story.”

“Just tell us what you did!” ordered Rainbow Dash.

“OK. I’ve been trying to get a feather from Scootaloo for months,” said Amber. “Ever since the Millennium Rally.”

“Why?” asked Scootaloo.

“So I can finish with this” answered Amber, indicating the thin red object behind her. “This is a Reverse Cremator, an invention of Starswirl the Bearded. It’s been buried here in the arctic for centuries. He… well… he told me where it was.”

“Like… you read it in a book he wrote?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Amber grinned.

“Oh, come on! There’s no way the stallion himself told you where to find that little phoenix model!” scoffed Rainbow Dash.

“His, uh, ghost did,” said Amber.

“Sure,” smirked Rainbow Dash.

They looked at each other for over a minute, both waiting for the other to change expression.

Scootaloo broke the silence. “What does this have to do with one of my feathers?”

“Well, the Reverse Cremator needs four things in order to work,” said Amber, ignoring Rainbow Dash’s still sceptical face. “One from each type of pony. See those things sticking out of the head?”

Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo spotted a blue hair, a brown hoof clipping, and an orange feather.

“There was a pink feather in it as well earlier,” said Amber. “But now… here I am.”

“Wait!” cried Scootaloo. “Are you saying that that phoenix thing can… bring ponies back to life?”

“That’s it. It can bring back an alicorn, a unicorn, an earth pony, and a pegasus,” explained Amber, “once it has something from all four species in its comb. And for months now, I’ve had three of those things. Remember when you saw me in the spa, Scootaloo?”

“During that field trip?”

“Uh, huh. While I was there,” said Amber, “I managed to get my hooves on a feather from Princess Cadance, and tail hair from Prince Shining Armour, and a hoof clipping from Miss Harshwhinny. And I also managed to drop a hint to Miss Harshwhinny about the out-dated Wonderbolts recruitment regulation.”

Scootaloo scratched her head.

“Yeah. I planted the book she found there. I’m the reason there was a race between Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, and Lightning Dust.

“Why did you want to start the Millennium Rally?” asked Scootaloo.

“Well, Starswirl said he wanted…”

Rainbow Dash interrupted. “OK, drop the Starswirl thing. You can’t seriously expect us to believe you talked to the ghost of Starswirl the Bearded.”

“Well, I guess I can’t expect you to,” sighed Amber.

“Keep going,” urged Scootaloo. “What did he say? How did you find him?”

“He found me,” said Amber. “I was wandering around here the morning me and Starlight came to study the Crystal Heart… huh, I learned more about it yesterday then both of us did over a few…”

“Get back to Starswirl,” said Rainbow Dash.

Plainly, she wanted to hear this story despite her disbelief in Amber.

“Starswirl’s ghost said he wanted to revive two ponies,” Amber told them. “One was himself. Can you guess who the other is? Here’s a hint. A famous pegasus.”

“Uh… Snowdrop?” Rainbow Dash shrugged.

Amber looked slightly disappointed. “That was too quick.”

“Wow! Did he know Snowdrop?” asked Scootaloo.

“In their winter years, yeah,” answered Amber. “Anyway, his ghost asked if there were any earth ponies or alicorns I’d like resurrected, as he didn’t have any particular preference. And I told him I wanted to be reborn.”

Author's Note

I guess at this point, I can say what inspired "Wonderbolts Millennium Rally". It was the same sources that inspired this story.