One Pony Amongst Many People

The tail was gone. The cutie mark, instead of being on her flank, was on both cheeks of her face. The blue fur was gone. The pony ears were gone. The hooves were gone. The steel wings and prismatic hair still remained, as did the scar on her left eyelid. What replaced the fur was tan skin. Her eyes were smaller than they were before.

Rainbow Dash stared up at Sansa with her same magenta eyes, breathing heavily. "What happened to me? I feel differ-"

She paused when her hand reached her line of sight. No fur. No hooves. Only five fingers. Her hair now reached her lower back. She pulled her cloak back over her body as a reaction of being cold. With fur, she never had to do that. Once she did, she heard footsteps coming from the ground outside. They got closer, until the door opened. She didn't move.

Jon looked around the room, then looked down at the lump on the floor. Its head was facing the other way. It had a total of six colors in the hair, but those familiar ears were gone. Sansa was leaning in beside the body, on her knees. She looked up to her brother. Jon cocked a brow.

Rainbow slowly turned her head toward him. She bit her lip as she clenched her eyes shut. Her cloak was wrapped around her entire body. She stood up, keeping the cloak wrapped around herself. No hind legs. She nearly toppled over due to not being used to having only two legs, but Sansa rushed over to hold her up.

Jon was speechless. He just stood there, dumbfounded. She was human now? That should have been impossible!

The steel wings of Rainbow's wrapped around her upper body, leaving tiny cuts that weren't deep enough to bleed. Her lower legs, other than her head and arms, were the only parts of her visible under the cloak.

Sansa said in a voice soft enough to rival Fluttershy's, one that Jon couldn't hear, "Come on, let's get you dressed."

Rainbow nodded, and they turned around to leave the room. Sansa kept holding Rainbow up as if she were drunk. Jon stood there and bit his lip. He sighed as he turned and walked away.

*   *   *

Sansa picked at the new suit, tugging and pulling at the fabric to make sure that who was wearing it at the moment was comfortable. "Sansa, it doesn't matter. I'm fine."

Sansa stopped picking at it and stood up, eyeing Rainbow Dash in her uniform. Earlier, she had cut holes in the back of the vest, letting her steel wings slip through easily. She stepped aside and revealed a big mirror. Somehow, some way, she looked a little bit like Sansa with prismatic hair dye. Rainbow smiled. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

The two women walked out of the room, Rainbow spreading her wings for better balance. As the girls strolled down the steps, Sansa looked at Dash with worry in her eyes. She didn't know why she was nervous about the other woman, but she just was.

Rainbow Dash gazed back at her. With no thought at all, she took flight, zipping past Sansa and gliding out of the castle. She landed in the practice area. When she looked around, she could see the many faces of men, staring at her with amazement clear on their faces. One of them covered their mouth with his hand as if he were giggling.

She glared his way, and some of them chortled. Rainbow spread her wings, which intimidated them enough to get them to stop their laughing. Her wings were much bigger than when she was a pony, that was for sure.

Tormund and a few others just stared at her with wide eyes. A few looked as if they thought that Sansa had dyed her hair again. Only one person in the crowd knew what was really going on, and that person emerged from a gap that had been made a few seconds ago. Once again, like in the building, he was speechless. Dash looked down at the ground, not knowing what was going to happen next. She didn't know whether or not she was going to ever be looked at normally by anyone anymore.

Or any pony, depending on the odds.

Jon opened his mouth slightly to say something, but lost track of thoughts. He had too many questions that he needed answered at the moment. He managed to ask, "How?"

Rainbow looked up at him. "I don't know," she replied.

She really didn't know how all this happened. Blush heated her face as he walked closer to her. But he stopped when he was within arm's reach. The woman in red walked out of the building, leaning in the doorway. She stared at Dash with penetrating look. The woman spoke up. "Did I miss anything?"

Dash glared at her, almost wanting to say to change her back, but then again, Melisandre might not have done it. Rainbow thought that things like turning an animal - or, pony - into a human would be magic even beyond her measure. Even Twilight couldn't have done that.

Instead, Rainbow turned back around and ignored her. Walking off, she stood by the fire that was barely burning. Looking at the flame, she got a feeling of Deja Vu. The light looked as if it were telling a story. A warrior that resembled Jon Snow wielding a sword seemed to walk out of a burning building, untouched.

Abruptly, the flames went back to normal and Rainbow Dash came out of her trance as somebody put their hand on her shoulder. She jumped slightly, then whipped around. Tormund stood there, staring at her. "Are you alright? Seem a bit jumpy, I see."

She turned around. "Sure. What do you want?"

"Well, nothing except... wow, you're a human now! It's amazing. It's a phenomenon I've never seen before."

"You've never seen a rainbow horse with wings turn into a human without warning? I sort of predicted that none of you guys have seen that."

He chuckled as he walked up and stood beside her and stared at the flame. "So, there's a rumor going around saying that you and Jon have been quite the smitten kittens lately. That true?"

Blush heated her face and she scratched the back of her head. "I dunno about that, but I can see how you think that. It's always been kinda weird to fall in love with someone that wasn't a pony back where I lived, but everyone handled it fine when Fluttershy got married with a draconequus."

He looked at her with a quizzical look. Rainbow chuckled. "Oh, you haven't exactly been there. Fluttershy is one of my friends, and a draconequus is a creature with body parts of several other animals. He has a pegasus wing, a bat wing, an eagle's talon, a bear claw, all that other stuff. His name is Discord, he's the symbol of chaos. He's kinda cool, but we don't hang out as much now that I'm here. And, he's back there."

Tormund nodded. "I see. So you're a creature expert?"

Dash raised a brow. "No, of course not. I only know all of that stuff 'cause he's a friend of mine. And he used to be an enemy."

"I used to have enemies too."

"You did? Like who?"

"Everyone at Castle Black, until I started living here."

Rainbow nodded. "So, who were your friends back then?"

"There were no friends in the wildling camps. It's everyone for themselves unless it comes to battle."

"That's sad."

"You think that's sad? Go check out the rest of Westeros!"

Dash pursed her lips and looked down at the snowy ground. She did feel sorry that Tormund was alone. That sounded mushy when she thought about it. Turning around and walking away, she laid eyes on a stone on the ground. The grooves seemed to tell the same story, just as the flames in the fire did. She shook her head. The rock couldn't have moved.

But she couldn't stop thinking about it. She couldn't stop picturing the building burning, Jon walking out of it with a body in his arms.

Shaking her head some more, she held it in her hands.

Was everything at once trying to tell her the same thing? Well, that was obvious. The burning building, Jon Snow walking out of it untouched...

Now everything she looked at was moving like the flames were. Too many things on her mind at once, she felt as if she might pass out or fall over. "Stop it!" she nearly yelled, grasping her head tighter and leaning against a wall. "Just stop!"

Someone tapped her shoulder. She spun around, nearly jumping out of her skin. There stood Jon, looking at her with curiosity and worry clear on his expression. She began to panic, looking down with fear. "You're the last person I want to see right now," she muttered.

"What?" he asked, not able to hear her.

She looked up with tears of anxiety in her magenta eyes. "I said you're the last person I want to see right now!"

Taking flight, she sat atop the castle and didn't leave her post until sundown.