Veil of Thoughts

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Xis retpahC
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 1Eno retpahC
Chapter 12
_________
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 10

Chapter 1

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Chapter 1

The ceiling was moving. Why was the ceiling moving? Ceilings didn’t move. Yet, there it was, racing by overhead. The white panels were broken only by bright circular lights, orbs of whiteness shining down from above; they shouldn’t be moving either. Of course, if they weren’t moving, what else should they be doing?

Now the walls had joined in. Maybe they didn’t want to be left behind? After all, what was a ceiling without walls? The walls were white too, mostly. Every so often a door would run by — that made sense — walls needed doors, didn’t they? How else would doors keep up with the walls if they didn’t run?

Now the talking was moving too. No. That wasn’t right, talking didn’t move. The talking was speaking. No. that wasn’t right either. Why was it so hard to focus? Why was the ceiling still moving?

A head moved out from the walls. The face was little more than an indistinct blur with mouths opening and closing. It was pouring out words and colors. Blinking made it all go away. Blinking made everything a little easier to deal with. Blinking made it easier to think.

What was going on?

More words, words that had something else, not color… meaning… that’s what they had. Words that were being spoken, words that made sense!

“I think she’s waking up. Are you alright? Do you know where you are?” the words asked. No, the voice asked. No. That wasn’t right either.

The answer was no.

“Yes,” answered the sound, spoken but wrong. A sound that had come from within the outside. Yes. That was right. “What happened?” asked the whisper.

“I’m afraid there has been an accident, stay calm,” said the voice.

I am calm. Why won’t you answer the question?

“What happened!” the sound demanded.

“Just relax Miss, we are almost to the doctor, he will explain everything,” said the voice.

“Ok,” was the whisper.

The ceiling jumped as the world stayed still. No, that wasn’t right. The walls turned, the doors flew away. Then all at once, everything stopped. The ceiling stopped moving. That wasn’t right, ceilings were supposed to move, weren’t they?

New mumbles approached, a gray face leaned over, sharp blue eyes staring down. It spoke mumbles that drifted in and out like the wind. The voice answered in meaningless babble.

At last the noise halted, the words were silent, the voice quiet.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” whispered the mumbles. “I must contact my colleagues. Has anyone informed the Princess?” The answer was yes in the voice. “Take her to a room, no visitors, not until we know more.”

If you could just say what’s wrong, this would be a lot easier.

“What’s wrong!” shouted the sound. Odd, that time was almost like… like… what was the symbol… No. That wasn’t right… what was the word? Yes. It had almost been like speaking, except, it was wrong.

“I’m not sure how to tell you this,” answered the mumble. No. The doctor. That was the doctor, he was… speaking? Yes. That was right. “It seems that there has been a magical accident. It might be easier if I show you.”

The world moved, shifted, turned, toppled and finally reflected. Not a wall and not a ceiling. Not a door or a window. It was… self. Those were eyes, snout, mane and ears. That’s what those were. A neck with shoulders attached below; no more than that to see. Maybe there was no more? No. That wasn’t right, there must be more, had to be more.

But… eyes were wrong, one pink, one purple. And the mane, red, orange, yellow, green… that was… Yes? No, that didn’t taste right. Between the hair, a purple horn with a tip of light blue. That shouldn’t be, but, it belonged there. Wrong but right. All of it, all of it was…

“What… what…” not even the sound seemed to know.

It’s wrong. Why can’t you see it’s wrong?

“Like I said, there seems to have been a magical accident,” said the reflected mumble—no, the doctor, he is a doctor. “Do you… do you know your name?”

Of course, I’m Twilight “Dash!” said the sound. That was odd. I’m Rainbow “Sparkle!” said the whisper. The mumble frowned. No. That wasn’t right. The face. The face frowned.

“Who, am I talking to right now Miss?” asked the face. No. The doctor. He was the doctor! Why was it so hard to keep that thought?

“Rainbow” Sparkle “that’s who you’re talking to,” said the sound. “What happen? All mixed up.”

“What is the last thing you remember?” asked the doctor.

“Flash,” was the whisper, “breaking.” The doctor nodded. “What wrong with **?” the word was stuck. It was struggling to get out, to get free. Pushing against itself, trapped. Then at last, it came free. “…Us!” That had been wrong. No. that was right.

Everything tumbled, the reflection tumbled and there was ground, jumping up. The ground wasn’t supposed to… hurt. That word was easy, that feeling too well known to be jumbled up in the mess. The floor hurt.

“Are you alright,” asked the panicked mumb… doctor.

“N-es,” half whisper half sound. Floor was falling away once more as unsteady legs worked to get up. Why was standing so hard? The reflection, it was still there, all there. It was wrong. That was it. That made sense. It was wrong. The mirror was a liar.

“Please, you shouldn’t be standing!” the voice urged. Nurse, she was a nurse not a voice. Was she working with the mirror against **? No. Not that word.

Pacing did not seem to help, every angle was different. Every angle was the same. Wings, there were wings now too. Four hooves planted firmly on the floor, nothing out of place there. Tail, purple with a stripe of pink and mane still made of all the colors. Starburst on the left flank, rainbow colored lighting on the right. And the coat, that was the worst of all! It was lavender mostly but with the slightest shine of sky-blue when the light hit it just right.

It looked totally awesome!

The wings flapped, purple with tips of blue. The left eye was pink, right eye purple. Blinking didn’t make them look normal. The left eye closed. Everything was fixed but everything was broken. The right eye closed. Vision filled with bright vibrant colors and thoughts filled with unending darkness. Blinking was fine. The horn, that was the worst of all! Mostly lavender with a tip of sky-blue.

At least that was still there. Would have to make a checklist later, see what else was missing.

“Please, Miss, you need to get back in bed,” the doctor said. He was the doctor, the name was right.

“Yes,” answered the sound at last. “In back bed. We sorry.”

Idiot!

Mouth closed tight. The doctor gave a funny look.

Hard to walk, hard to climb. Legs not working like they should — thoughts not working like they should. Is hard. Wings flap, faster and faster, left one harder than the right. Tumble into the bed. Hooves are helping, putting right the mess. Wing still flapping, it doesn’t want to stop. Rolling to the side finally made it stop.

“Now, stay in bed this time,” said the nurse. A nod, don’t trust the sound.

***

The doctor on call at Ponyville Hospital that day went by the name of Red Cross. He was an expert physician who specialized in magical accidents and ailments. He had trained at the Canterlot Magic Emergency Medical Center before coming to Ponyville several years ago to serve as one of its doctors.

His magical injury patients were few and far between. Magic didn’t often go wrong, and usually when it did the problems were minor at best. There also weren’t that many unicorns in Ponyville, but still, every so often a spell would go wrong, or an accident would happen. He was the expert who was here to care for the hurt pony.

Of course he knew just as much about normal treatment as he did magical ones. Most of the time, he helped treat every day illnesses or sprained hooves, just like the other doctors.

Up until twenty minutes ago, Doctor Red Cross thought he had seen it all while working at the CMEMC. He was sure he had seen the worst of the worst in magical accidents. Yet he had been sitting, just where he was sitting now, when he had been proven completely wrong. The strangest magical accident he had ever seen rolled through his door.

The pony had been incoherent, speaking nonsense. She had been dazed and disoriented. Her motor skills severely impacted and her speech slightly slurred. It hadn’t been until he had seen both the wings and the horn that he had been truly startled though.

For a third time he checked the chart sitting in front of him. Name: Twilight Sparkle, Gender: Mare, Kind: Unicorn, Age: … he ran a hoof over the details again, back tracking to kind: unicorn. Not pegasus. Yet she’d had wings, he had seen the wings! He had watched them flap.

He rubbed a hoof against his face.

He had used his own magic to try and discover the cause of the problem, not really having any idea where to start. The first spells had been to detect a curse, but there had been none. The second was to check for any injuries, again, none. Or at least he assumed so. His spell had reacted strangely, but the result was undeniable, no physical injuries. The last thing he had done was trying to identify the spell that had been cast on her. He had not been prepared for that. Whatever magic had been used on Twilight Sparkle was so strong it nearly overpowered him.

That was the other thing that was bothering him. He flipped over the chart. On the back were notes about the patient. Twilight Sparkle was no ordinary unicorn. She was Princess Celestia’s star pupil and a master magic user. Unicorns of Twilight Sparkle’s skills very rarely had accidents like this, but when they did things usually went very, very, bad.

At least they had sent a letter to the Princess the moment Twilight Sparkle had arrived. The last thing Red Cross wanted was to have the Princess’ wrath come down upon him for not informing her of her prize student’s condition.

He scratched his chin with a hoof, still pondering the magic he had sensed around Twilight Sparkle. The question wasn’t just what had happened to her, but why? Why would Twilight Sparkle try anything that could possibly lead to her current predicament? Red Cross wasn’t sure if it was something he would ever have answered.

Shifting the papers a little he looked at the second set of medical records he had pulled and stared at the picture on the front of the folder. He’d had a hunch, a crazy, impossible idea. Yet the more he looked at the second picture the more sense it seemed to make.

The sound of racing hoofsteps outside his door interrupted his ponderings. Someone was shouting, a nurse. No, there were many hoofsteps. For one terrible moment Red Cross feared that a second case of the bizarre illness was about to crash into his office. However, when the doors burst open, it was not at all what he was expecting. A group of three ponies now stood before him.

The one at the front was an orange earth pony, with a Stetson hat atop her head. Her name was Applejack. She was a hard working apple farmer, who had been in for more sprains then any other pony he knew. Right behind her and to the left was a white unicorn that Red Cross recognized as Miss Rarity. He had only seen her for regular checkups. Between Rarity and Applejack was the nearly hidden face of Fluttershy. She was here nearly weekly, always with some new and usually imaginary, illness.

A moment later nurse Gentle Touch rushed in behind them, only just now catching up.

“I’m sorry doctor!” said Gentle Touch, slightly out of breath. “They just barged past me!” She glared at the orange earth pony, who glared back.

“This mare was givin’ us the run-around,” said the orange pony. “We heard Twilight is here, where’s she at?”

Red Cross looked at the orange pony. He had thought this might be coming. There wasn’t much that happened in Ponyville that didn’t spread like wildfire through the small town.

“Its alright Gentle Touch, I can take this from here,” said Red Cross to the waiting nurse. She shot one last dirty glance at Applejack before departing back to her duties. “Miss Applejack, if you could calm down a little, I would be happy to tell you what’s happened to your friend.”

“Is she alright?” asked Rarity, looking genuinely concerned for her friend’s well being. “We were told there was some kind of accident at her home.”

“That does appear to be the case,” said Red Cross with a nod. “We are doing everything we can to try and figure out what happened to her. As of yet, we are still not sure.”

“Is she going to be alright?” asked Fluttershy timidly. Despite having talked to Doctor Red Cross now literally hundreds of times, she never ceased to be shy around him. For Fluttershy, that was the case with most every pony in town.

“I cannot say for certain,” answered Red Cross. “For now she seems stable physically. Mentally…”

One of the overhead air vents suddenly burst open with a crash that made everypony in the room jump. Fluttershy let out a squeak of terror, hiding even more behind Applejack. The grate tumbled off the pipe and fell to the floor with a thud, a moment later a pink-cotton-candy-colored earth pony tumbled out of the vent and slammed into the floor, headfirst.

The pink pony sat there, on her head, looking at the room upside down, completely unfazed by either the fall or the fact that she was standing on her head. She began to talk very fast in a sort of made up language that no one seemed to understand.

“Hold on, I think I know what’s wrong,” said Applejack, moving over to the pink pony. With a quick flick of her hooves she righted the pony so that her bottom was on the floor and her head was right side up. Instantly she started making perfect sense, like being upside down had turned her words upside down.

“…not in Sugercube Corner, not at the park, not at the farm, not at Sugercube Corner…” the pony rambled.

“Pinkie!” said Applejack, perhaps a little more loudly than she had meant. “What’re yall talkin’ about? Where’ve you been?”

“Well, my knee got twitch-twitchy-twitch,” explained Pinkie Pie. “And then one of my ears got all itchy, then my teeth started chattering and before I even knew what was going on, my tail went all straight!” Everypony stared at her with a raised eyebrow. Pinkie Pie had an uncanny sixth sense that could often predict events before they happened. Much like the pony herself, the specifics of what those signs were and what they meant were a mystery to everypony but her.

“Come on guys! Don’t you know what this means?” demanded Pinkie when no one answered her. “It means that something really, really, really, really, really, REALLY, bad happened to somepony I know.”

“Why do you think we’re at the hospital dear?” asked Rarity as politely as she could manage. “Twilight has been in some sort of horrible accident.”

Pinkie Pie shook her head. “No, it’s not about Twilight, my side isn’t tingly.”

“If not Twilight, then who?” asked Fluttershy, emerging slightly from behind her new hiding place of Rarity.

“Rainbow Dash!” exclaimed Pinkie, “something really, really, really…”

“We get the point,” interrupted Applejack.

“…bad, happened to Rainbow Dash! I’ve been looking everywhere for her! She’s not in Sugercube Corner, not at the park, not at the farm…”

“We heard this part already too,” said Applejack, once more cutting Pinkie off. “We have to find her.”

“If I might interject,” said Doctor Red Cross, the four mares looked at him, seemingly having forgotten he was there. “I think I may have a theory as to where Miss Rainbow Dash might be.”

Chapter 2

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Chapter 2

Applejack wasn’t sure what she was going to say. At first she had been onboard with the idea of being the pony to visit Twilight. She was ready, willing and able to go. She wanted to go! But each step towards their destination seemed to take away something, her confidence. She wanted to see Twilight, wanted to be there for her in this time of need, yet, could she do it? Could she be the strong pony her friend needed right now? Applejack wasn’t sure.

Each step seemed to fill her with something too, something she could only call fear. The more she thought about it, the more her being chosen seemed like a huge mistake. Any of her friends would have been better. Rarity always knew what to say. Fluttershy knew how to act around somepony who was hurt. And Pinkie Pie… okay, well maybe not Pinkie Pie, she might want to throw Twilight a get-better-party right on the spot.

Nervously, Applejack glanced back, her eyes searching for her friends who were not there. Doctor Red Cross had insisted that only one of them come for this first visit, so as not to overwhelm his patient. The vote for Applejack had been unanimous, Pinkie had even voted twice for her. None of her friends seem to notice that Applejack hadn’t voted for herself.

At least each of her friends had offered up advice on what she should say. Fluttershy had suggested that Applejack ask how Twilight was feeling. Rarity had said to reassure their friend that everything would be alright. And Pinkie Pie, being Pinkie Pie, told her to find out what dessert Twilight liked better now and if she maybe wanted her desserts combine into a single super-duper-looper-dessert.

“What…” asked Applejack, her voice coming out in a squeaky whisper. She cleared her throat and tried again. “What should I talk ta her about?”

“Anything you like,” replied the Doctor. “The most important thing is that you’re there for her. Try to be calm, reassuring. And you should refrain from asking too many questions.” He looked back to Applejack who nodded uncertainly. How the hay was she going to talk to her friend and not ask what had happened?

They had to travel up several flights of stairs before they reached the floor Twilight was on. From there it was only a short walk to her room. The hallways were practically empty and the air was oddly still. It always made Applejack a little uncomfortable to be in a hospital. She didn’t much like the way they made her feel.

They stopped at a simple wooden door. The brass numbers on the outside listed the room as 306, but otherwise it was just like every other door in the building. Yet, at the same time it was anything but. Behind that door was her friend but also somepony wholly different.

Applejack didn’t know if she was ready for this. Red Cross had told her what to expect. Even still, she felt like no amount of explaining would be able to prepare her for what she was about to see. The Doctor looked at Applejack one last time and asked if she was ready. Applejack nodded, suddenly finding it very hard to use her words. She could feel the last of her confidence slipping away and fear beginning to overtake her.

Turning the knob with his hoof, the Doctor pushed open the door and they both entered. The room itself was nothing special. Much like the hallways it had been painted a sterile white. A large window looked out over a nearby grassy meadow. The main feature of the room, apart from being a room, was the single bed placed in its center. It was a standard hospital bed adorned with standard ugly green sheets. Applejack could almost hear Rarity’s voice complaining about the horrid color.

Not for the first time did Applejack wish her friends had come with her. However, she was here and she would be strong. Her eyes turned to the pony she had come to see. She was not prepared for this sight.

Up until that moment when Applejack had seen Twilight with her own eyes she hadn’t really believed it, hadn’t really accepted it. Now that it was right in front of her there was no denying it. The Doctor seemed to be correct in his assumption, no matter how much she wanted him to be wrong. It wasn’t Twilight lying in the bed. It wasn’t Rainbow either.

Applejack’s first thought was of Twilight Sparkle. That was who she saw when she looked at the mostly lavender colored pony. That thought quickly changed into Rainbow Dash as her eyes drifted to the multi-colored mane. There was more than that. The features of the face were mostly Twilight, the shape of the muzzle, the overly large forehead. The body was lean and athletic like Rainbow’s. There were wings, but also a horn. Applejack simply couldn’t process it. She could see both her friends at once in the same pony and it made her head hurt.

When she opened her mouth to say something, no words came out. She closed it again. There were no words to describe her thoughts. She couldn’t look away from the pony lying in bed before her.

“How are you feeling?” asked Doctor Red Cross, finally breaking the awkward silence.

“Broken,” replied the lavender mare with rainbow hair. “Hard to words.” Applejack continued to look on with uncertainty, trying to get back the courage that had escaped her. She needed to say something, anything to her friend… friends, she corrected.

“That’s not unexpected,” replied Red Cross. “You’ve had a traumatic experience. For all that’s happened you’re doing very well.” The mare in the bed half smiled, half frowned. Her mouth twitched between the two expressions like it couldn’t make up its mind. “I brought someone to visit you. Do you know who this is?”

The mare’s mismatched eyes moved from the Doctor over to Applejack. One light purple, one bright pink, they stared at her for a long time. Then, ever so slightly, she shook her head from side-to-side. Applejack felt her ears droop a little, Twilight didn’t know who she was.

“She’s a friend,” said Red Cross. “She’s your friend in fact. Try and remember her. You know her name, what is it?” The mismatched eyes did not leave Applejack. They continued to stare at her uncomfortably without blinking. Now those eyes narrowed, as if this somehow made Applejack easier to remember.

“Apple… Apple… Hat?” the mare guessed. The narrowed eyes continued to stare uncomfortably. Applejack smiled weakly trying to hide her disappointment. At least she had gotten part of her name.

“It’s Applejack, sugarcube,” the orange earth pony said at last. The lavender mare twitched slightly and let out a low grunt like she was in pain. One of her hooves came up and pressed against the side of her temple.

“Liar,” whispered the mare. “That not yes.” Whatever Applejack had expected to hear, that wasn’t it. Her friend… friends… had just called her a liar! The one thing she absolutely was not!

“Now hold on just a darn minute! I ain’t no liar!” said Applejack, her voice much louder than she had meant it. The mare with Twilight’s lavender coat pulled the sheets up a little and shrunk back in the bed. Seeing her friends’ terror Applejack instantly regretted the outburst. “I’m sorry Twi… uh… sugarcube. I didn’t mean ta shout.”

“Doesn’t purple,” muttered the frightened mare, “isn’t blue.”

“Why’s she… uh, why they, talkin’ so funny?” asked Applejack, lowering her voice so that only the Doctor could hear.

“She’s undergone serious mental strain,” said Red Cross, also in a low voice. “We’re lucky she can even speak at all.”

Applejack nodded, not sure she really understood. She took a few steps closer to the bed. It pained her to watch her friend cower away from her, eyes filled with a fear that wouldn’t stop looking at her.

“We’re worried about ya,” said Applejack much more gently. “Me an Rarity an Fluttershy an Pinkie Pie. I don’t rightly know what ta say, other than we’re here for ya, to help yall through this. I’m sorry I shouted earlier.” She tried a weak smile. The mare loosened her hold on the ugly green covers a little.

“When?” asked the confused pony. She shook her head. “Where?” Again this seemed to be wrong. “Why?”

“Because we’re yer friends, an that’s what friends are for,” said Applejack. The small, unsure smile was still on her face. Tears were starting to well in her eyes, despite her best efforts to hold them back.

“Not friends,” said the mare, her odd eyes looking away at last.

“What!” Applejack’s voice cracked under the strain. “Course we’re yer friends! We care about ya!” The lavender mare turned her whole body away, shifting to her side.

“Don’t want friends,” she said softly. Applejack made to move towards Twilight, to grab her and shake some sense into her. Or maybe to hold onto her and not let go until she remembered who she was. Before Applejack could take a single step, a hoof came to rest on her shoulder, halting her progress.

“I think that’s enough for now,” whispered Red Cross. “She needs time to rest. You can come back tomorrow.”

Reluctantly, Applejack nodded her assent and let the Doctor lead her from the room. She took one last pain filled glance back at her friend… friends in the bed. The mare was still looking determinately away. They left, the door closing silently behind them and cutting off the rest of the mare’s words.

“Don’t need friends.”

***

Only when Apple-Hat had left did they look at the door. She had seemed so familiar, the longer they stared the more they could remember about her and the more it hurt. It hurt so bad. She couldn’t be a friend, friends didn’t cause pain like this. It was a pain, not just in the mind but in the heart. Looking at her, hurt. Having her there, hurt. Why? Why did it hurt? Why would any pony want friends if they hurt so much?

When they had looked at Apple-Hat, really looked at her, everything had erupted in their mind. Their head was still buzzing, filled with thoughts and noise, sensations and colors, words and sounds. Making sense of it, finding a middle ground to think had been all but impossible. Too many thoughts, too much noise. Strange sensations, contrasting colors. Misspelled words, blaring sounds.

They closed their eyes. Closing their eyes made it easier, less things to think about, even if this room was dull and empty. The buzzing was still there but the colors faded a little and the noise wasn’t as loud as before.

They tried to think back, to remember Apple-Hat before they remembered her. They pushed past the sensations of how blue tasted and hid from the looming senseless words. They looked deeper into themself.

Everything became still until the only thing they were aware of was the silence. Everything in their head had stopped. They felt empty inside without it. It was like they had lost something, something important, invaluable and critical. It felt like a part — no, more than a part, a whole — of them had gone quiet.

“Hello, are we there?” the sound asked to the empty room. Their own voice startled them slightly, they had not expected to hear it aloud. Yet for some reason they had expected an answer. They had expected their voice to speak back, to tell them what they wanted to know.

There was no answer, there was simply silence.

Perhaps the question was not clear enough? No, it was clear, it was just wrong, not important. Of course they were there, if they weren’t there they wouldn’t be here. No, it was the wrong question. So what was the right question?

Silence.

“Do we know who we are?” the whisper tried this time. The moment they asked this question they regretted it. The response was overwhelming. Everything began to happen all at once. Images of places and ponies raced by. Sounds and voices all struck up in a cacophony. It was too much, too many things.

They put their hooves on top of their head trying to stop the thoughts from getting in. They shook their head, trying to throw out all the clamor currently erupting in their mind. It didn’t help. It was too much.

“One at a time,” the pony pleaded. “Please, one at a time!” But the flow of thoughts did not stop. It did not slow. It came, rushing through them like a torrent from a broken dam.

They were in Canterlot, trotting up great wide marble steps. They were dodging between obstacles at flight school in Cloudsdale. They were reading a really good book in bed. They were flying down the side of a mountain at breakneck speed. They were in Ponyville. They were at the library, at Sugercube Corner, at Carousel Boutique. They were high up in the sky, lying on the grass in the park, sitting in a tree looking down at themself on the grass. They were in every spot all at once!

Images and sounds and colors collided in their mind. They were remembering every thought they had ever had at the same time. Every moment they had ever been a part of was rushing through them. All of it was nothing more then flashes of a life they couldn’t recognize. As one thought vanished another appeared. On and on the memories came without end.

“STOP!” shouted the sound so loudly that all the other noise in their head actually stopped. The images crashed into an invisible wall and vanished. They were in silence once again. They were in darkness once more.

Both questions had been wrong. The first was not important enough and the second too hard to answer. A middle ground, they needed to ask the middle ground. The words formed on their lips even before the thought finished.

“What our name,” asked the whisper. For a long moment there was no answer, not silence but something else. It was like their thoughts were turning, like they were… thinking? Yes that was what it was like.

After what seemed like forever, or might have been no time at all, they got their answer. They spoke their answer to themselves. Not in a whisper, not as a sound. But a voice, their voice, spoke to them. “Twilight Dash. Our name is Twilight Dash.”

Chapter 3

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Chapter 3

Twilight was dreaming. She knew she was dreaming. It was plain as day that this couldn’t be real. It was that special kind of dream where she was both awake and asleep at the same time. She knew this was a dream because she could fly.

The warm, endless blue sky stretched out around her as she soared through it. Small fluffy white clouds dotted the otherwise empty sky and a bright yellow sun hovered lazily above her. Glancing back she saw there were no wings on her body holding her aloft. She was flying through magic, through the powers of the dream.

Twilight glanced down. Below were the rolling hills, bubbling rivers and small forests of Equestria. Dirt roads stretched out from town to town in a crisscrossing network of lines. It was all like she remembered it, except, something was missing, something that she couldn’t quite place. It didn’t seem important that it was missing, but still, the thought bothered her.

Off in the distance was Canterlot, resting on its mountain side perch. The white towers gleamed in the afternoon sun, a sparkling reminder of the home she had left behind. Twilight smiled. Canterlot had been her home for all her life, yet it wasn’t until she moved to Ponyville that she really felt like she had come home.

Twilight glanced down again. As if she had conjured it up — which she very well might have — Ponyville had suddenly come into view. It was a small simple town, with little shops and earth colored houses. Nothing fancy like Canterlot but Twilight liked it just the way it was.

She circled the town, staying high above, her wingless flight taking her in a path she wasn’t entirely sure she was controlling. Her eyes moved over the town, once, twice, a third time. Here too, something was missing. Something wasn’t what it should be. Twilight just couldn’t figure out what was odd.

The town was getting larger as Twilight descended towards it. A final banking ring and the ground came up to Twilight’s hooves. She landed gently, taking a few running strides to disperse her momentum. For a moment, she wondered if she had actually been flying and come to land in Ponyville, or if she hadn’t moved at all and Ponyville had come up to meet her. She supposed it didn’t really matter.

Twilight noticed that her landing happened to bring her down right next to her library tree house. A slight smile spread across her face. It truly had become the perfect home for her. She had settled in as the town librarian and was enjoying the job immensely. She was glad this was where she had landed. Yet, that strange feeling that something wasn’t as it should be, was still nagging her.

She took a step closer to the tree house. It loomed above her, suddenly growing much taller than it should have been. The air seemed to darken, like night had come early. Taking another step she reached out a hoof towards the door. She was shaking, why was she shaking?

“You don’t want to go in there,” said a small voice. Twilight dropped her hoof, startled by the sound. She took a step back and the light returned to normal. At the same time the tree house shrunk back to its regular size, like it had always been that way and she had just been pretending it was anything different.

Looking around for the source of the sound she could locate nopony else. Her eyes swept across the buildings. Ponyville was exactly how she remembered it, which wasn’t at all strange because this was her dream and she was currently remembering it. Except, again, something about it was wrong. What was wrong?

Spinning around on the spot Twilight’s eyes searched over everything. Buildings, square shaped with occasional rounded edges, painted in mostly earth colored browns, tans and yellows. Dirt roads stretched from house to house, they were well used with many hoofprints impressed into the flat hard-pact surface. Carts in the street, piled high with wares to be sold, with small signs on them exclaiming clever names of each tiny mobile shop. No, it was exactly like it should be. Still, something… something was missing.

“Ponies,” said the same small voice from Twilight’s side. The voice didn’t startle her this time. In fact, part of her had somehow expected to hear it, how strange that felt.

She turned her head and looked down at the small sky-blue filly standing along side her.

“Oh, hello!” said Twilight politely. “I’m sorry but, ‘Ponies’ what?”

“That’s what’s missing,” said the filly. “This is Ponyville but where are all the ponies?”

Twilight looked over the newcomer as she talked. There was something oddly familiar about her that Twilight simply couldn’t place. It was the same strange feeling she’d been having ever since this dream had started. No matter how hard Twilight tried to wrap her thoughts around it, the answer always escaped her.

Twilight refocused on the young filly standing next to her. She was a pegasus, that wasn’t too uncommon, after all, Twilight knew plenty of pegasi. She had a light blue coat, again, that wasn’t strange either. Her mane was all the colors of the rainbow, well that seemed normal enough. No, nothing unusual about this filly at all.

“Huh, you have a good point,” said Twilight. Her thoughts moved back to what the filly had said. “Where are all the ponies anyhow?” That seemed like a big part of the town to be missing.

The filly shrugged. “I don’t know, that’s your problem, not mine.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow in confusion. Her problem? What did that mean?

“Yeah, it’s probably really important, but it doesn’t matter,” said the filly before Twilight could question her further. A dull pain started to pulse in Twilights temple; she put her hoof to her forehead as the colors of the dream world bled into each other.

“What?” asked Twilight feeling confused. “My head, why does it hurt? Why does everything look funny?”

Again, the filly shrugged. The colors snapped back into place but the throb in Twilight’s temple remained.

“Yeah, that’s probably really important too, but it doesn’t matter either. At least you made it, unlike some other ponies. I totally thought you would be here sooner, but I guess this works.”

“Uh-huh,” said Twilight with a nod, she had no idea what this little pony was talking about.

“Do you know where you are?” asked the filly, taking a step closer to Twilight.

“Ponyville, of course,” said Twilight. The filly shook her head.

“No.” The filly took another step closer to Twilight. “I asked, do you know where you are?”

“Uh, not… in… Ponyville?” said Twilight, her voice carrying a note of uncertainty between her halting words. Again, the filly shook her head.

“You’re out of your mind,” said the filly calmly, her bright pink eyes locked on Twilight.

“Wait, do I know you from somewhere? You look really familiar,” said Twilight, the answer to her question just out of reach. The filly ignored the question, instead pressing on the explanation that didn’t really seem to be explaining anything.

“Already the ground is cracking, the cities are getting closer and the sky is filling up,” continued the filly.

“You’re me!” exclaimed Twilight with sudden realization. The filly put a hoof to her face in frustration. “No, wait, I’m you? Aren’t we?” The pain she had been feeling redoubled its effort, like something was trying to explode out of her head.

Around them the edges of the dream began to tear slightly, like old film run through a projector too many times. Neither of the ponies seemed to notice this.

“But if you’re me?” Twilight rubbed the side of her head Why was it so hard to focus? “Why don’t you look like me? That doesn’t make any sense.” Twilight felt like her question was the most important thing in the world and yet, at the same time, it didn’t really seem to matter.

The filly gave her no answer. Twilight massaged her head, as if this would make the pain fade away. It didn’t.

Twilight looked away from the filly in frustration, turning back towards the building behind her. This was where she had landed, at her house. Why had the filly not wanted her to go in there? Why did she have such a strange feeling when she looked at it?

It felt like her house didn’t belong. That was silly, of course it did, it was right where it should be, exactly as it should be, yet… Twilight’s eyes moved from top to bottom and back again… yet it was wrong. Just like the filly was wrong.

“Why shouldn’t I go in there?” asked Twilight, not turning to look at the filly.

“It’s not yours,” answered the sky-blue filly as if this explained everything. Twilight turned back to look at the younger pony in confusion.

“What? It’s my house how can it not be mine?” asked Twilight. “Well, I mean, ok, technically I’m just staying here, I don’t own it, I’m not even renting it… But it feels like its mine. It feels like the first real home I’ve ever had that wasn’t my parent’s house.

“Actually,” Twilight glanced at the town around her. “Ponyville feels like the first real home I’ve ever thought of as home. Canterlot is great and all, but… I don’t know… I can’t really explain it. I feel like I fit in here, like I belong here.”

Neither Twilight nor the filly noticed as in the distance the city of Canterlot, up on its mountain side, moved ever so slightly towards them. The mountain moved with it, growing just a little larger on the horizon. It finally stopped moving towards Ponyville just before Twilight turned her head to look at it.

“Did… did that mountain just move?” asked Twilight. “I could have sworn… Isn’t Canterlot supposed to be further away?” She looked back towards the filly, who shrugged. “Right, not your problem I suppose.”

“Oh no,” said the filly with a shake of her head. “That’s a huge problem. When it reaches Ponyville…” she tossed her tiny forelegs into the air, toppling backwards and miming a huge explosion. “Well, really, I don’t have any idea what it’s going to do when it gets here. But that’s…

“…My problem, not yours,” said Twilight at the same time as the filly. They looked at each other for a long moment, the pale blue filly laying on her back, blinking up at Twilight with bright pink eyes.

At last Twilight looked away, her head turning back towards Canterlot. She watched the distant mountain city for a long moment, as if expecting to catch it in the act of moving. It stayed right where it was. At last, she returned her attention to the tree house library that she called home.

Taking a deep breath she trotted towards the door. She was going to see whatever was in there!

“You can’t!” cried the filly. With a rapid beat of wings the filly raced past Twilight to hover in front of her. She held out her tiny arms, trying to block the way. “It’s not for you!”

“What isn’t for me?” demanded Twilight starting to feel frustrated. “Just tell me what’s in there!” The filly looked away. “Fine. If you won’t tell me, I’ll just have to find out!”

Using her foreleg Twilight moved the filly aside with a gentle push and trotted past. She reached out a hoof for the door and took hold of the latch. It wouldn’t move. Twilight put more force into trying to open it, yet that seemed to do little good.

“Locked? This shouldn’t be locked,” Twilight said aloud to herself. “But nothing some simple magic can’t fix.”

Twilight’s magical unicorn horn began to glow with purple energy. The door handle shimmered with the same purple light. Tiny sparks of magic arced off Twilight’s horn as she cast her spell to open the door. Despite her best efforts however, the door remained solidly closed.

Twilight’s face tensed with concentration. She pushed harder, her magic glowing more intensely. Still, the door did not budge. The magical field grew larger, enveloping the whole door. If the handle wouldn’t budge then she would just tear the darn thing from its hinges!

The wood creaked under the strain. The door bulged slightly. She was doing it, she was going to get it open.

“Stop!” cried the filly. Twilight wasn’t listening; she was pouring everything she had into this spell. “I told you, it’s not for you!” the filly repeated desperately.

One of the metal rivets shot out of the door like a cork from a bottle. From the small hole a stream of bright light poured out. The filly raced past Twilight, shoving the rivet back into place and blocking the light.

“Stop!” shouted the filly, her small hoof keeping the gap closed. Twilight was almost there. She could feel it. She was just about to get through.

“STOP!”

That hadn’t been the filly’s voice that time. The ground shook beneath Twilight’s hooves and between the new voice and the shaking, her concentration was broken. The ground shook again and Twilight took a step back in surprise and alarm. What had she done?

Where her hooves had been a crack had appeared in the ground. It was no larger than a few inches, but it was several hooves long. Like the door, blazing light streamed from the crack.

Cautiously Twilight approached the broken ground. She lowered her head so that she could get a closer look. There was something beneath the crack, something other than light, something that was moving. She lowered her head even more, turning her face to the side so that her eye was only inches from the break in the world. There was something down there.

It took Twilight a moment to realize what she was seeing. An eye, a bright pink eye, was looking back at her through the crack. Twilight leapt backwards in surprise.

“Great, look what you did!” said the filly angrily. Flapping her wings she moved over to the crack in the ground. She landed softly then placed her hooves on either side. Her face straining a little she pulled on the ground and to Twilight’s surprise, the crack closed.

“I think you should leave,” said the filly, looking up at Twilight with disappointment.

“Leave? But I just got here!” said Twilight. “I’m sorry about the ground, I won’t do that again.” But the filly was shaking her head, her rainbow colored mane swishing back and forth.

“No. You have to leave.”

Everything seemed to become very far away, like Twilight was looking through a long black tunnel, with the filly standing at the very end watching her.

“Wait! I’m sorry! Please let me stay! I don’t want to go back! I’m so afraid!” shouted Twilight reaching out a hoof to the distant filly that was long out of reach.

“I know, we’re afraid too,” whispered the filly. Then she was gone, swallowed up by the end of the dream as it washed over her. Twilight was carried away into spinning memories and thoughts that weren’t entirely hers.

Chapter 4

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Chapter 4

The ceiling wasn't moving. That was the way it should be. It didn't seem to matter how much Twilight Dash thought they understood this, whenever they glanced away, they always expected the ceiling to be moving when they looked back. Ceilings shouldn't move, they didn't move. Except for that one time.

There were many odd memories, like the moving ceiling, floating around in their head. Some were distant and out of reach, as if they were deliberately trying to stay as far away as possible. Others were forefront in their mind – usually more than one at a time – which made them appear as little more than flashing images.

Twilight Dash had been laying in the hospital bed since they had awoken. They had been doing their best to stay put. The nurse had told them not to get out of bed but it was so hard to stay cooped up like this. They needed to be outside, to run, to fly!

Their wings, pinned behind them against the pillow, tried to flap at the memory of flight. They pressed themself into the bed, forcing the wings to halt. A moment later they relaxed so that their wings could flap again.

Why had they done that? They wanted both things, they wanted their wings to flap, they wanted their wings to be still. They wanted to stay in bed, they wanted to leave the hospital.

Stay and go. Motion and stillness. Quiet and noise! They wanted all of it, all at once.

This room was so boring! They must have been laying here for days or maybe even weeks! No, that wasn't right. Not days. Not weeks. It was still hard for them to grasp the concept of time. Their eyes moved to the clock, its hooves ticked slowly across the face, jumping from one number to the next in slow, steady, beats. It had been less than an hour since they had woken up.

Everything felt like it had all gone wrong weeks ago but it was only just yesterday that all this trouble started. They tried to think back and found that – before the ceiling had decided to move – there didn't seem to be anything they could understand.

The memories weren't gone, they were… broken. Somehow the memories were broken. Yesterday was colored fragments but not a complete picture. It all seemed to be that way, like every memory had been painstakingly painted on glass then shattered haphazardly. That was how the day before was and the day before that.

It was like it all didn't fit quiet right. Like the puzzle of their mind had all the pieces they needed - maybe too many - but the shapes were all wrong. No matter how they moved the shards of broken memories, nothing went with anything else.

The door to the hospital room opened silently. Its motion drew their attention away from the chaos inside their head.

The first two ponies to enter the room they recognized. That was good, they still recognized ponies. At least those parts still fit… sort of. Quickly they double checked that the ceiling wasn't moving. It wasn't.

Doctor-Guy came first and behind him was Apple-Hat. They shifted uncomfortably in their bed. Yesterday's conversation with Apple-Hat had been bad, it was not a memory they wanted to repeat.

The orange earth pony seemed to correctly interpret the look on their face. She stopped in the doorway and whispered something they couldn't hear. Her worried expression and uncertain eyes made them shift uneasily in the bed.

"I still think it's best if you're here for this," Doctor-Guy replied to the inaudible question. "Somepony familiar will make things easier for her."

They didn't like the sound of that. They grabbed the sheets, ready to pull them overhead and hide beneath like a little filly. If they couldn’t see her, maybe their visitors would just go away and leave them alone.

However, something stopped them from hiding. There was a third pony entering the room, if it could even be called a pony. She was something completely new, something very different and at the same time, so familiar. They knew this pony, if that's what she was, knew her with their heart instead of their thoughts. Unfortunately their heart was not kind enough to provide a name.

"Good morning," said Doctor-Guy. "How are you feeling today?"

Twilight Dash shrugged.

"Not… no idea," they replied, correcting themself. "Body not…. hurt. But mind is… blind." They struggled for the right words. They weren't perfect but they worked. The tiniest of frowns flickered across Doctor-Guy's face.

"I see," said Doctor-Guy. "Are you up for a visitor today?" Their mismatched eyes moved towards Apple-Hat, who smiled sadly at them before she looked away. "No, not her. She is just here to give you moral support." Their eyes traveled across the room, over the doctor, past the door and finally to the tall white pony standing in the back.

"Do you recognize her?" Doctor-Guy asked. There was a very kind, yet sorrowful look, upon the tall pony's face. Her eyes were the lightest touch of purple and her flowing mane was pastel pink, blue and green, it danced in an invisible wind. She wore a golden crown that shown like the morning sun.

All of that seemed perfectly normal to Twilight Dash. What really stood out was atop her head and at her sides. She had a horn, just like a unicorn but she also had wings, just like a pegasus. She stood twice the height of anyone else in the room.

"No," Twilight Dash said at last. They had both those things too, horn and wings, why weren't they taller than everypony else?

"I am Princess Celestia," said the tall white winged unicorn. "Ruler of Equestria and bringer of the Sun. I have come to help. Tell me my little pony, what is your name?"

"Twilight… Dash," they said, their voice changing pitch between the two words.

"I see," said Sun-a-Horn. That had been her name, hadn't it? Maybe they would remember her proper name later… just like Doctor-Guy… or Apple-Hat.

For a brief moment their eyes turned back to Apple-Hat, she still wasn't looking at them.

"Would it be alright if I used my magic to examine you?" asked Sun-a-Horn.

"Don't hurt?" asked Twilight Dash. Sun-a-Horn did not answer right away, her purple eyes looked seriously at Twilight Dash. It made them feel uncomfortable but they didn't look away.

"I cannot promise that," said Sun-a-Horn. They shook their head.

"Enough pain," said Twilight Dash, again her eyes crossing over Apple-Hat. "Don't want more. Don't need more." Sun-a-Horn looked back towards Apple-Hat – who was standing nervously at the back of the room – trying to look anywhere else.

"Your friend?" asked Sun-a-Horn, sounding a little confused.

"Not friend," said Twilight Dash. "Don't have friends. Don't want friends. Don't need friends."

"Do you not remember her?" asked Sun-a-Horn.

"Hurt to remember," said Twilight Dash. "Painful to remember."

"Just to remember your friends or to remember anything?" asked Sun-a-Horn. They had to think about their answer for a moment. While they couldn't quite remember much else that made any sense, they could remember other things, like the ceiling. They could remember that. That didn't seem to hurt.

"Just friends," said Twilight Dash.

"If you let me examine you, I may be able to find out why that is," said Sun-a-Horn. "I may be able to make it so it doesn't hurt to remember your friends."

Again, they had to ponder her words for a long moment, but at last they nodded uncertainly. They weren't making any progress on their own, maybe Sun-a-Horn could help them?

Sun-a-Horn trotted up next to their bed, standing over them and looking down with sharp eyes. Her horn glowed with a soft white light that rushed out, enveloping Twilight Dash. They felt tingly all over as the light rippled across their body.

"What do us?" asked Twilight Dash.

"I am trying to determine the spell that caused this," answered Sun-a-Horn. They looked up at the tall pony's eyes. They could see themself reflected in those calm purple mirrors. Something about those eyes seemed to instill a feeling of trust in them. Just to be safe, they double checked that the ceiling hadn't moved.

The examination continued for several minutes and the ceiling stayed right where it was supposed to be. Each time Sun-a-Horn cast a new spell a new sensation would accompany the different colored glow. None of the spells had been painful, but some had felt unpleasant, like red washing over them.

With each attempt the expression on Sun-a-Horn would grow slightly more worried. It was getting harder to look at her eyes. She wasn't sad. She wasn't afraid. It was something else they were unfamiliar with.

It was the sixth spell that finally did something other than make them feel funny. It had started just like every other spell that Sun-a-Horn had cast. Her horn had glowed and the warmth of magic on their coat. Except, this time, the pain came.

It came without warning, from every direction, attacking from the corners of their mind. They didn't want to, but a scream escaped their lips. Instantly the spell stopped. The pain however was not kind enough to do the same. It hurt worse. How could it hurt worse?

"Twilight!" shouted Apple-Hat, the sound of her voice nearly suffocated by the pain. "What's wrong? What happened?"

The warm magic filled them once more. For one horrible moment, they feared that the pain that was everywhere would get worse. However, the pain receded as quickly as it had come. A gentle hoof touched their forehead and their breathing calmed slightly. At least they couldn't remember the pain.

"I am sorry my little pony," whispered Sun-a-Horn. "It is all right, I am done now." She tried to hide the uncertain look upon her face but didn't do a very good job. She smiled at Twilight Dash before turning away and making her way to the exit. Apple-Hat and Doctor-Guy shared confused looks, but followed after her.

Doctor-Guy stopped at the door, turning back to Twilight Dash. "I'll be back to check on you. Try and get some rest for now."

Then all of them were gone and they were alone with their unreachable thoughts once more. They checked that the ceiling wasn't moving. It wasn't, but, now it was doing something else. It had gone all blurry and watery, they could hardly even see the ceiling at all through the pools in their eyes.

***

The ponies were waiting for her when Princess Celestia returned to the waiting lounge. Fluttershy had taken one of the chairs and was sitting nervously as far back in it as she could go. She was trying as always to hide herself behind her curtain of pink hair. Rarity was pacing in a circle around the large low table that made up the center of the room. And Pinkie Pie was hanging party decorations, in anticipation of the news of miraculous recovery.

Applejack's weak attempt at a smile said it all.

"It is as I have feared," said Celestia, drawing all attention in the room. "Twilight Sparkle has cast a very powerful, very dangerous, spell on herself and Miss Rainbow Dash. What's worse is that the spell does not appear to have fully worked.

"Twilight Dash, as she is now calling herself, is two ponies inhabiting one body. Their body may have joined into a single form, but their mind is having trouble accepting that. Their thoughts and memories have all been pressed together, unable to account for being two separate minds in one."

"But you can fix her, right?" asked Pinkie Pie brightly, her smile lasted only a moment as Celestia shook her head sadly. "But… but… why not?"

"Some things just can't be fixed sugarcube," said Applejack. She seemed to be having some trouble looking at her friends.

"But you're the Princess! You raise the Sun!" Pinkie protested. "How much harder can undoing this be than raising the sun?"

"Magic is not as simple to undo as performing the opposite effect," explained Celestia. As she talked she moved towards the table in the center of the waiting room. "The spell Twilight Sparkle used is called Fusion." Celestia stopped in front of the table. She looked at the bowl of fruit that had been set out that morning. Using her magic, Celestia levitated an orange and an apple from the bowl.

"Fusion takes two different, yet similar, things and makes them into one," as she spoke her horn glowed brightly. The apple and orange glowed too, moving closer and closer together. They touched and a flare of bright white light filled the room. When it subsided, only the apple appeared to be left. "The spell takes the best parts of both and creates something new."

The apple was pulled apart, split cleanly down the center by her magic, yet, the inside was not at all apple like. What should have been a whole solid mass of meal was instead sub-divided into sections of fruit, just like an orange would be. There was no core at the fruit's center and while the outside skin was red, shiny and still apple like. The interior was a mix of both orange and apple.

"That's the most disturbin thing I reckon I've ever seen," whispered Applejack under her breath.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! Lets call it an orange-apple, no, wait! An apple-orange!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "What sounds better Fluttershy? Orange-apple or apple-orange? Orange-apple or…

"You will pardon me for asking," interrupted Rarity who couldn't take her eyes off the fruit. "But where are the other parts of the orange and the apple, the parts that were not the best?"

"When properly preformed, they are not lost, but changed into energy," replied Celestia. "If you were to eat this fruit it would be like eating both an apple and an orange at the same time."

"Like brunch!" cried Pinkie Pie brightly. "Or Linner, or Snackfest, or my personal favorite dessert, because dessert goes with everything and it's an anytime kind of meal! Hey! Can you cast that spell on these?" Out of nowhere, Pinkie produced a cake and a pie, holding up the delectable dessert in excitement.

"Pinkie, hush!" said Rarity. Celestia smiled. Her horn glowed again and the pie and cake became magically fused together. The pink pony nearly exploded with excitement as her newly formed treat appeared in her outstretched hooves. She took a huge bite of the cake-pie.

"Oh-my-gosh! This is the mostest bestest tastiest pieiest cake I have ever tastediest!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

"Like I said, the best of both, with neither part lost," Celestia continued. "Everything that was there, is still there. While fruits and baked goods work fine, this spell was never meant to be used on a pony.

"In the case of Twilight Sparkle and Miss Rainbow Dash, their bodies are very much one and the same now. Their minds are struggling to fit in a space for one. Only once have I ever seen this spell used on a pony." Celestia's face darkened at the memory.

"The last pony to use this spell on another pony was called Aurora Wind. She was a student of magic, much like Twilight Sparkle in some respects. She was fascinated with me. She admired my wings and horn to no end.

"She would ask me to tell her all I knew about the subject, every time ending at the same question. How could she get both? And each time my answer was the same. She could not. It seemed that was not the answer she wanted.

"It was not long after she left my school that I heard unsettling rumors about her. She was using her magic on other ponies, trying to unlock the secrets of my power. I found her and tried to reason with her. My power comes from the Sun. I look the way I do because I am part of it, and it is part of me.

"That answer was not enough for her. I asked her to stop, to give up on her fascination with this want. We did not part ways on good terms to say the least.

"It was only a month later when it happened. A letter arrived claiming that Aurora Wind had done the unthinkable and joined herself with a young pegasus mare by the name of Silver Stars. It did not appear to have gone as planned.

"Not only had the spell decreased her magical prowess, but her mind began to unravel. Silver Stars was fighting back, no matter how much Aurora Wind tried to deny it. Their fusion was imperfect; not a true joining for Aurora did not want to lose herself in the mind of another.

"The strain of two minds constantly fighting took its toll. I watched as they lost their grip on reality. Within a few days their body began to fail." Celestia paused in her recount of past events, she looked very sad. Everypony in the room was listening with wide eyes, both desperately wanting to know what had happened and fearing the worst. Pinkie Pie was stopped in mid bite of her cake-pie.

"I used my power to put them right, to reverse what Aurora Wind had done in her misguided attempt for power. However, things - as Applejack has said - can not always be put right."

Celestia's horn glowed again, re-enveloping the orange-apple. Once more there was a flash of light and once more there were two fruits… sort of. The orange had returned, yet the peel was missing and juice ran down its sides, dripping onto the floor. The apple – if it could even be called that – had become a pile of little more than mush. It was like it had been mercilessly crushed. She placed the damaged fruits back on the table.

"They did not go back the way they once were. Silver Stars, while mostly whole, was never able to fly again. The rest of her life was tormented with whispered nightmares of her trauma. Aurora Wind… was not as fortunate. Even when she was at her end, she struggled to hold onto her failed power and unrelenting desire.

"I fear that a mind once joined cannot be un-joined. It is no longer about picking out one pony's thoughts from another, but untangling individuals from a whole. I am not sure such a thing can ever be done properly."

"And you think the same thing will happen to Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle?" asked Fluttershy. Celestia shook her head.

"I do not know what will happen. I like to think that I know my student. What Aurora Wind became, and what she did, I have never seen in Twilight Sparkle. I looked into their mind, I saw beyond the veil of thoughts inside their head. It may have been too late to bring them back the moment Twilight Sparkle cast her spell."

"But Twilight would never do something like what Aurora Wind did! She isn't like that!" said Pinkie bouncing up and down; trying to will everypony to understand her. "She would never do that to anypony and especially not to her friends! This has to all be just a big accident!"

"Unfortunately, this spell is no accident," said Celestia with a sad shake of her head. "It is true that some magic can happen by mistake. Levitation, teleportation or transformation can sometimes be cast without the user intending to perform any of those spells. However, this spell requires absolute concentration to work. The caster must pay attention to every detail or risk combining things the wrong way.

"No, whatever the reason, Twilight Sparkle knew exactly what she was doing."

Chapter 5

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Chapter 5

Twilight Dash had managed to get out of bed – that had been the easy part. The hard part had been the floor. Not only had it hurt when they had toppled down to it but getting up from the smooth surface was impossible.

They tried to push up from the ground but they couldn’t. Their hooves simply wouldn’t move like they wanted. Nothing wanted to coordinate with anything else. Their legs were all jumbled up underneath them.

They had to get up. They had to get out of this place. Any moment, Sun-a-Horn and the others would be back, they had promised they would come back. They did not want to see them again. They did not want them to start the pain all over again. If only the floor wouldn’t be so difficult!

After several unsuccessful attempts to stand, a thought occurred to them. If their legs wouldn’t do what they wanted so maybe they should try something else. Turning their head, they looked back over their shoulder. The wings on their back flapped in silent understanding.

The wings didn’t flap quite right though. The right wing reached out in a smooth stroking arc. The left wing just wobbled up and down uncertainly. That was no good. Their wings were just as mixed up as their legs.

They stopped trying to flap their wings. The left one went to their side but the right one continued on. They tried to make it stop. They couldn’t, it wouldn’t. They reached back with a hoof, to make it still, but they couldn’t reach it. The wing began to flap harder and faster.

Panic began to overtake them – no, not them… that wasn’t right.

They struggled on the ground, trying to get up. The panic was inside them, throbbing in their mind, spreading through their body. They had to get out! They needed to be calm. They had to escape! They needed to stay. They had to shut up!

Rapidly, the right wing began to flap as if trying to escape from their body. “Stop!” shouted the whisper. The wing did not stop, it only flapped harder and they began to slide along the floor.

They moved slowly at first, the weight of their body dragging them down as the one wing struggled to pull them. They tried to use their hoof to halt their progress, but it simply slid along the slick floor tiles.

Then it was as if they had become much lighter. It was an odd sensation, one they were both familiar with and completely foreign to. They tried to ponder it, yet understood it at the same time. They had done it lots of times… and never once in their life. The feeling was frightening and exhilarating.

With the sudden lightness, the wing’s effort kicked in at full force. They zoomed across the floor before they crashed headlong into the wall. Their horn punched a hole through the wall into the next room where a surprised tan pony gave them a strange look. They had only a moment of rest before they were pulled the opposite direction. This time they took out the bed with a tremendous crash on their way across the room.

This was no good, they weren’t getting any lift! They had to pull their hooves in if they were going to get higher. Their frightened hooves scraped at the floor, trying to take hold of anything that would stop them.

The wing beat again, harder and faster this time. One hoof in, one out. They were pulled upwards in a tumbling spiral that slammed them into the ceiling. The wing stopped and they dropped back to the floor with a painful thud.

Now the ceiling was spinning, that was new. The walls had joined in too, it was like they were dancing. Their wing began to pull them again. They were going to dance with the walls and ceilings, because, now there were a couple ceilings spinning around each other.

There was shouting coming from the door. Was the door mad that it hadn’t been invited to the dance? Their unfocused eyes tried to understand what the door was saying.

Something leapt at them from the door. Their wing flapped hard and moved them safely out of the way into another wall. The door continued to shout at them but it had somehow changed its voice. Their ears tried to see the door and maybe figure out why it was angry at them.

Suddenly the door was right in front of them – No. That wasn’t right, that couldn’t be the door. There were no walls around it. Besides, the door was still at the door, shouting at them… yes… that made sense.

The thing that wasn’t the door loomed over them. The wing beat as hard as it could, trying to get around the not-door.

They sped towards the other side of the room. The not-door leapt at them. They collided in a tumble, with the not-door ending on top. The door cheered loudly but stopped as the thrumming of a wing beat once more filled the air.

Just as suddenly as they had stopped, they were off again, this time with the not-door on their back. They crashed into the shouty-thing at the door, knocking it aside. With another heavy thud they hit the adjacent wall. If only the wall had moved out of their way. Maybe it wasn’t in the mood for dancing?

It seemed however that the ride wasn’t over just yet. Once again the wing beat as hard as it could and it tugged them down the hallway at full speed. The not-door clung to their back and screamed its terror as they went.

White coated blurs leapt out of their way in cries of protest as the floor moved at a feverish pace. Great, now the floor was moving. Why couldn’t everything just stay still? Why couldn’t they have just stayed in bed like they were supposed to?

“What the hay is goin on out here?” asked an orange blur as they raced past it. The gasps of surprise and shock were quickly lost as Twilight Dash sped onwards.

There was something at the end of the hall that they didn’t like. It wasn’t the moving floor, racing by underneath them. It wasn’t not-door on their back, although they could have done without it screaming in their ears. No, it was something else. Something they couldn’t... Twilight Dash saw it only a moment before they knew what was happening. The window at the end of the hallway was open.

“No, no, no!” shouted Twilight Dash. The not-door on their back seemed to realize what was about to happen a moment before it did. It pushed itself off and tumbled away along the floor.

There was nothing Twilight Dash could do. If only they would just move their hooves in a little so they could gain some height. They pulled in their forelegs and their body lifted from the floor, gliding upwards. The blue sky was calling to them. This was the most terrifying moment of their life!

They needed to fly. They wanted to get back in bed! They needed to run.

They stayed perfectly still as the building ran past them. The open window rushed around them and they soared into the perfect blue sky. Up and up they went, the building falling away below. They had made it, they were flying! They wanted to be back on the ground!

The wing suddenly stopped. Their legs flailed uselessly below them unable to find a surface to run on. The ground loomed up below them, they were falling! They were falling! They wanted their wings to flap and they wanted their horn to work. But neither did anything.

Sky, building, ground. Sky, building, ground. Sky, building, yellow, ground.

The world was lost in a tumbling rush of colors as they spun end over end. The sky and building stayed right where they were and the ground rushed up to say hello.

***

“Rainbow!” shouted Fluttershy. Her hooves slammed against the floor as she galloped as hard as she could. Her friends running right along side her. A trail of rainbow hair streaked behind the out of control mares that sped down the hallway.

With a cry of terror the nurse that had caught up in the mess leapt off at the last moment. The lavender mare zoomed upwards and out the open window.

Fluttershy didn’t even slow down. She had been running faster than she ever had in her life. Following only a few steps behind she leapt out the window, chasing after her friend.

Up and up they went, much higher into the sky than Fluttershy usually liked to go. Her friend suddenly stopped flapping her wings. The mare tumbled down out of the sky, her legs flailing below her. Fluttershy changed direction, diving down after them, her wings flapping hard to close the distance.

She was only hooves behind her tumbling friend. They were all racing towards the ground. She almost had them. She was so close.

The falling mare spun over once more. As she did, Fluttershy’s teeth closed on her friend’s tail. Her wings strained under the new weight. Their descent slowed as Fluttershy pulled with all her strength. They stopped only hooves above the ground.

Gently, Fluttershy lowered her trembling friend to the grass below. Rainbow couldn’t seem to stop shaking, even as Fluttershy held her. Only a moment later their friends came rushing out of the hospital, galloping towards them as fast as they could.

One of Rainbow’s eyes opened and Fluttershy felt a tingle of shock run down her spine. Her eye, Rainbow’s eye, it was the wrong color, it wasn’t the bright pink that Fluttershy was so used to seeing in her friends face. It was purple, it wasn’t Rainbow’s eye at all. It wasn’t Rainbow in her arms.

The eye contracted and the pony in Fluttershy’s arms winced, her hooves coming to her face.

“Get away!” screamed the pony that wasn’t Rainbow Dash. She struggled out of Fluttershy’s arms. The yellow pegasus let the lavender mare go and slunk away from her.

There were so many emotions running through Fluttershy that she had started shaking. That wasn’t Rainbow. She hadn’t believed it, she hadn’t accepted it. Not until that instant when she had looked into the other mare’s eyes.

The rest of her friends arrived only a moment later with Celestia and Doctor Red Cross following not far behind. The lavender mare with the rainbow colored hair was lying on the ground. There were soft sobs coming between broken words. “Please… stay away… please…”

***

It had taken some doing to get Twilight Dash to calm down. It seemed that if any of her friends tried to approach her she would scream at them; her words changing between terrified pleas and nonsense.

Fluttershy wouldn’t get anywhere near her, staying the furthest back. The expression on her face worried Rarity, she had never seen the yellow pegasus so distraught before. Fluttershy was, well, shy after all, but this was something different. If it had been any other time, Rarity would have gone to her friend to console her.

Celestia seemed to be the only pony that could get close to Twilight Dash. For some reason her reaction to the Princess was less extreme than to her friends.

After a few minutes of coaxing, Twilight Dash tried to stand, but that had been an effort in futility. Like her words, her hooves were simply all mixed up. One hoof would go down for support while another would slide out from under her. Each attempt to stand appeared to deteriorate what little calm the pony seemed to have.

In the end, Celestia had convinced the mare to let her be carried by magic back to her room. Twilight Dash hadn’t really given acceptance but she hadn’t said no either.

Floating gently in the warm glow of magic, Twilight Dash hovered just ahead of Celestia as they made their way back to room 306. The friends followed far enough back that Twilight Dash couldn’t easily look at them.

They hadn’t gone more than a dozen steps when Rarity noticed that Fluttershy was not following them. She broke off and headed back. Applejack gave her an uncertain look, before her eyes turned to Fluttershy.

“Go on, we won’t be a minute,” said Rarity with a weak smile. Applejack nodded but looked uncertain.

Fluttershy hadn’t moved from the spot on the grass where she had sat down after saving Twilight Dash. She was looking at the ground as if it were too difficult to raise her head.

“Fluttershy, dear, are you okay?” asked Rarity. Fluttershy looked up, her eyes watery with tears. She shook her head. Rarity had never seen her friend this upset before. “It’s alright, you caught them, everything is going to be fine.”

“No it isn’t,” whispered Fluttershy. Her eyes dropped down to the ground, her pink hair cascaded down and hid her face.

“No,” said Rarity sadly. She trotted over to her friend and sat in the grass next to her. “I suppose you’re right.” A long moment of silence passed between the two. “What is it that’s bothering you dear? Surely that little fall can’t be what you are all worked up about.”

Fluttershy’s eyes, hidden behind her curtain of hair, flicked to Rarity then looked away.

“It’s… nothing…” said Fluttershy softly. “I don’t want to trouble anypony with it.”

“Fluttershy,” said Rarity seriously. She turned to look her friend in her shining blue eyes, that tried to glance elsewhere. “Your problems are never any trouble. I’m always here for you when you need me. Your friends will always be here for you.”

Fluttershy nodded.

“She doesn’t know who I am,” said Fluttershy after a long moment. Whatever Rarity had been expecting to hear, that wasn’t it.

“I’m not sure I understand,” said Rarity. “What would give you an idea like that?”

“I could see it in her eyes,” said Fluttershy “the way she looked at me.” She looked up at Rarity. “She… she was afraid of me.”

***

Celestia was still leading the procession as they climbed back up the stairs towards Twilight Dash’s room. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were furthest to the back, with Twilight Dash hovering up at the front.

Applejack couldn’t help but glance back towards where her friends where outside. As if she didn’t have enough to worry about with Twilight Dash, now something was up with Fluttershy. Whatever it was, she hoped Rarity would be able to handle it.

The extra time it took to get back to the room had let the staff clean up a little. There wasn’t much they had been able to do about the numerous holes punched into the walls – as well as the one in the ceiling. However the room looked a little less like a disaster zone.

A nurse had suggested that they move Twilight Dash to a new room, preferably one on the first floor, closer to the ground. But Twilight Dash had protested at this loudly. This was her room. She wanted to go back to her room. She wanted to go back to her bed.

“She’s actin like a little foal,” whispered Applejack to herself.

Twilight Dash was still sobbing quietly as Celestia lowered her back into the bed with her magic. Red Cross had advised against having any of them there right now but Celestia had insisted they stay. He hadn’t argued further.

With the exception of Twilight Dash’s continued sobs, the room was very still and quiet. Even Pinkie Pie didn’t seem like her normal cheery self.

“I need to ask you some questions,” Celestia said at last.

“I don’t think this is really the time for questions,” interjected Applejack. “Uh, your highness.” She added quickly.

“Unfortunately it must be done,” said Celestia seriously. She turned her attention back to Twilight Dash, who was looking at her with big wide frightened eyes, tears still fresh on the mare’s face.

“Oh, oh, oh! Me first, me first!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, hopping up and down and waving her leg in the air. “You keep saying ‘we’ don’t you mean ‘I’?” Every head turned towards Pinkie Pie. All of them, except Twilight Dash and Celestia, looked stern. “What? It’s really weirding me out and that’s saying a lot!”

“We yellow… no… we did… no … not… we do not know,” said Twilight Dash, shaking her head. Her words seemed to take a great effort for her to say, like she had to remember each one.. “Your word, we do not word... no… do not know. Is no… has no meaning.”

“You mean like zephanoblaist?” asked Pinkie Pie with her head cocked to the side. “That doesn’t have any meaning either because I just made it up!” Applejack gave her friend a poke in the side.

Twilight Dash stared at them uncomfortably but did not seem to have an answer to Pinkie’s question. Although in truth, Applejack wasn’t sure she would have one either.

“Can you recall why you cast this spell?” asked Celestia, once more taking control of the conversation. Twilight Dash looked away from Pinkie Pie.

“Had to,” said Twilight Dash simply.

“Why did you have to?” asked Celestia.

“Because had to,” repeated Twilight Dash.

“Do you remember anything from yesterday or from before that?” asked Celestia. Twilight Dash thought for a moment, then shook her head.

“Open… no… wake to running ceiling. Hear somepony life in head… not our life. Not anything before. Just ceiling.” Her mismatched eyes turned to look at Celestia. Her broken words difficult to understand, but Celestia seemed to know what she was trying to say. “All you, like word, no meaning.”

“Did anypony understand any of that?” asked Applejack quietly.

“I think she said that she woke up under a moving ceiling and doesn’t remember any of us,” said Pinkie Pie.

“Why were you trying to run away just now?” asked Celestia.

“Had to get out,” she said. “Had to stay. Not stay here.”

“Why?” asked Celestia. “Where do you have to go? Why can’t you stay here?”

“Is pain,” said Twilight Dash, putting her legs against her chest. “Not want. Not right. Have to get out. Soon is too late.” Celestia looked very worried at this.

“One last question,” said Celestia, her eyes fixed uncomfortably on Twilight Dash, who squirmed under her intense gaze. “Who are you? Are you Twilight Sparkle or Rainbow Dash?”

“We… do not… understand,” replied Twilight Dash. Her expression changed at these words. Her face became a mixture of shock and contorted pain. She put a hoof to her temple as she winced. “Too much… is too much…” she gasped before letting out a grunt of pain and collapsed back into the bed.

Her breathing became erratic, her eyelids fluttering open and closed.

“Out,” said the Doctor sternly as he rushed forward. “Everypony out! Nurse!” he shouted a note of panic in his voice.

“What’s wrong,” demanded Applejack, not moving an inch. The door swung open and two nurses hurried into the room. “What’s happening to her?”

The doctor had his ear pressed to Twilight Dash’s chest as she struggled to breathe, her body shaking.

“Get them out of here,” repeated the Doctor.

“I aint movin!” shouted Applejack angrily. “Not ‘till you tell me what’s wrong!”

One of the nurses moved towards Applejack. Applejack recognized her as the nurse that had tried to stop her from seeing their friend on the day of the accident. She hadn’t stopped Applejack then and she sure as hay wasn’t going to now!

Another nurse must have taken hold of Applejack from behind, because somepony was tugging on her and trying to drag her out of the room. Applejack would have none of that. She wasn’t going to leave her friend, not like this. No nambie-pambie nurse was going to drag her out.

“Come on Applejack,” said Pinkie Pie. It wasn’t a nurse, it was Pinkie. Applejack looked at her in shock. How could Pinkie want to abandon their friend? “You have to let them work. They know what they’re doing and you being here and shouting at them isn’t helping anypony!”

Applejack suddenly felt ashamed. Pinkie was right. This was not the time to be stubborn. She couldn’t do anything for their friend… friends – she had to remind herself again.

“Alright, you take good care of her ya hear,” said Applejack. Reluctantly she followed Pinkie out of the room. Just as they reached the door Pinkie Pie suddenly shuttered as a strange twitch raced through her body.

“Ear-flop, eye-flutter, knee-twitch!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, Applejack looked at her in surprise. Her eyes turned to the door right in front of them. It remained solidly closed. With a tentative hoof, Applejack pushed the door open but there was nopony on the other side.

“Well that was strange,” said Pinkie. “I wonder who has to look out for opening doors?”

Xis retpahC

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Xis retpahC

Dash was dreaming. She knew this was a dream. It was as plain as the muzzle on her face that this couldn’t be real. It was that special kind of dream where she was both asleep and awake at the same time. She knew this was a dream because she was falling.

Clouds raced past her a she tumbled through the sky. Her wings flapped uselessly at her sides, only throwing her off balance more. The wind screamed in her ears. The ground was reaching up to grab her.

Dash didn’t like the feeling of falling, of not being in control. Crashing wasn’t at all like falling. She crashed all the time and while she didn’t enjoy crashing, at least it was her who was doing it. Falling was completely out of her control.

She tried flapping her wings again.

“That won’t do any good you know,” said a voice from above her. Dash tilted her eyes upward. A small lavender ball was racing down behind her. The ball accelerated so that it was level with Dash. It was then she realized it wasn’t a ball at all but a filly. A filly who looked exactly like her.

No, not like her. Why had she thought that? This filly didn’t have any wings, although her own wings seemed to be doing little good at the moment. There was a horn on the filly’s head, and her mane color was all wrong.

“Why won’t it do any good?” asked Dash, her wings still trying to halt her ground wards plummet.

“Because you don’t know how to fly,” answered the filly that wasn’t like her at all. “You only think you know how to fly.”

Dash opened her mouth to argue, to tell the filly she was the best darn flyer in all of Equestria. However, her chance to say any of that was lost as she slammed full force into the ground. A plume of dust towered into the sky from the impact, hovering high above like a dirty brown cloud for a brief moment before fading.

Standing up from her crash, Dash brushed herself off casually, as if the million hoof fall had been simply a little trip. She was completely uninjured. No broken bones, no cuts or bruises, not even a sprained hoof. It wasn’t her best landing but she’d had worse.

Her eyes turned upwards looking into the sky. A bright moon glowed high overhead. It was casting down enough light that it hardly seemed like night time at all. For one crazy moment she considered where she had fallen from, the moon seemed like a likely answer.

“I supposed that might be possible,” said a voice. Dash brought her attention back to the ground. The filly hovered in front of Dash, her glowing horn keeping her aloft. The magic stopped and the filly dropped gently to the ground, landing much more gracefully. “Does it really matter where you fell from?” Dash looked skyward again, she suppose it didn’t.

“Where am I anyhow?” asked Dash, looking around at the barren emptiness of the world. She didn’t recognize this flat featureless place at all.

“Uh, Ponyville, obviously,” replied the filly. Dash gave her a quizzical look.

“You remember Ponyville a lot different than me,” replied Dash, slightly irritated. She held out a hoof at the empty air. “If this is Ponyville, where are all the buildings? Where are all the ponies?”

No sooner had Dash proclaimed this then buildings began to spring up out of the ground like fast growing weeds. In seconds, the pair was surrounded by a town on all sides. They were both silent for a moment.

“I said, where are all the ponies?” Dash repeated. No ponies appeared. She looked at the filly who shrugged again.

“I don’t know, they’re your responsibility, not mine,” said the filly. Dash raised an eyebrow at the strange little pony. Her coat was lavender. Her mane and tail were dark purple with a highlighted pink stripe running through them.

“Hey,” said Dash, pointing a hoof at the small mare. “You look familiar, do I know you from some place?” The filly shrugged. Dash shook her head in confusion, this was getting her nowhere.

If she was going to figure things out, she would just have to set out on her own and…

A sharp pain suddenly lanced through Dash’s chest. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. Above her, the sky flickered. For a moment there were other shapes, not the moon and stars. She could hear words, whispered in her ears like distant shouts.

“Heartbeat is erratic, pony is non-responsive.”

It was silent once again, the stars and moon had returned overhead, she was back in the nighttime Ponyville. Dash found herself on the ground, curled in a protective ball. She lay there, shivering in the dirt, trying to comprehend what had happened.

“What… what was that!” asked Dash, her voice quivering just as much as her body.

“That’s not important,” said the filly. She walked over to look down at Dash.

They stared at each other for a long moment. The pain had gone, the strange world and sounds had faded away like they had never been. Lying on the ground wasn’t going to give her any answers. Dash worked her way back to her feet.

“Who are you anyhow?” asked Dash, eyeing the small lavender filly up and down.

“Even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me, you couldn’t,” said the filly, giving Dash the same up and down glance. “It’s not your responsibility.”

“Do you think you could, uh, make a little more sense?” asked Dash. “So far you haven’t answered any of the questions I’ve asked you.”

“That’s because your questions aren’t important,” said the filly. Dash felt a little tick of rage over her eye.

“What?” asked Dash.

“What’s important is that you’re here,” said the filly mater-of-factly.

“That I’m here?” asked Dash, working to keep her growing frustration in check. “Why is that important, it’s just Ponyville!”

“No, that you’re here,” said the filly. Dash had just about had enough of this filly and her nonsense. “You are here for that.” The filly raised her small hoof and pointed past Dash to something behind her.

Cautiously, as if it was the last thing she wanted to do, Dash turned around.

A giant monster, a dragon, even Princess Celestia would have been closer to what Dash thought might be waiting for her eyes. However it was none of those things, it wasn’t even close. This was nothing special. This was nothing important.

“The town library?” asked Dash, a confused expression on her face. She looked back towards the filly. “I don’t get it. Why should I care about that place? It’s for eggheads.”

Dash didn’t like something about this place, it made her feel… strange. This building didn’t belong here. It wasn’t right. Dash took a step away, she was afraid of this building.

“There is something you’re trying to remember,” said the filly quietly. Dash’s eyes turned down to the filly. “Something just out of reach. Something you know inside you, with every fiber of your being but that you chose to forget.”

Dash took another step away from the building. She didn’t want to be anywhere near this place! She turned away but the filly was levitating, hovering only inches from Dash’s face, blocking her escape.

“When you go through that door you will confront what you’ve forgotten,” continued the filly. “You will find the most important thing in the world. It will change you. It will make you whole. But only if you accept it.

“You want to know. That’s why you’re here. If you didn’t want to know, then you would have stayed right where you were. You must go inside.”

“No!” shouted Dash defiantly. “I don’t like that place! I don’t like this place! I want to leave! I want to go home!”

The pain came. Just like before, sharp and pointed in her chest. She gasped for breath. For a moment, just a moment, there were ponies standing over her, faces she didn’t recognize, words she didn’t understand. Then she was back in Ponyville. Back on the ground with the filly the only one over her once again.

“What was that!” cried Dash, her voice on the edge of hysteria.

“It’s not important,” said the filly, looking up at the moon high above as if she could see the ponies that Dash had seen. “If you stay like you are, it won’t matter what it is.”

“Why won’t you make any sense!” shouted Dash angrily. “Just tell me why that darn house is so important! Tell me why you’re here! Tell me what’s going on!”

“No,” said the filly simply. Dash was not prepared for that answer. It had been so blunt and direct. Up until that point every answer had been incomprehensible. “If I tell you, then it means nothing. Fire is hot. Pain hurts. The grass is soft. I cannot tell you what you must know but that you don’t have to understand. What you must see with your eyes but not with sight. What you must feel but not with touch. Some things, no one can tell you, no matter how many times they say it.”

The filly moved away and the tree house library was once more before Dash.

“I’m afraid of what’s in there!” said Dash. She put her hooves over her head like a little scared foal. “I’m afraid that it will hurt me!”

“I know,” said the filly calmly. “And we are afraid for you. If you do not like what you find, then all of this has been for nothing.”

Dash did not get up, she was so afraid. Why was she so afraid of that house? What was in there that made her this way? Not books, those were boring but they weren’t scary. Well, some were, but books weren’t scary. They were just books!

“Please,” said the filly, looking down at Dash sadly. “You have to, we’re depending on you. We can’t do this alone. Not without your help.”

Dash suddenly felt something inside her. She didn’t know what it was at first. She just knew that she had to do this, she had to do it for the filly. It was the strangest, craziest thing she had ever felt.

This nonsense speaking filly, whose name she didn’t even know. Dash had to do this for her! She didn’t know why, but she had to. The feeling was so strong, so powerful. She could only describe the feeling as… loyalty.

“Sparkle,” said the filly, interrupting Dash’s thoughts. “That’s my name.”

“Okay, Sparkle,” said Dash, forcing herself to her feet. “I’m not afraid.” The loyalty filled Dash with a new found strength, her fear evaporated. She was not afraid of anything and certainly not books!

She charged the door. Her hoof took hold and with one quick motion she shoved it open.

Blinding light poured through the doorway. Bright and golden, Dash had to close her eyes against it. It was warm and strong. The light made her feel safe. Why had she been afraid of this place?

Her eyes adjusted and Dash got her first glimpse of what was beyond the door. The other side was not the library. For a moment, Dash wasn’t sure what she was looking at. She glanced behind her, then back through the door.

It was another Ponyville, just like the one she was in now, except, not quite right. Everything was flipped around, like it was a reflection. And, instead of being nighttime, it was bright and sunny on the other side.

“So… is this what you wanted me to see?” asked Dash uncertainly. There had been no big revelation, no moment of clarity, just Ponyville, except with more light.

“No” said Sparkle with a shake of her head. “That is where she is waiting for you.”

“Where… she… what… who?” asked Dash. There was a moan from the sunshine Ponyville and a moment later a mare stumbled out from behind the door. She must have been standing on the other side when Dash had flung it open and it had crashed into her.

Dash blinked, not really sure what she was seeing. She looked back at Sparkle, then back to the mare standing in front of her. They were the same, except, the one in sunshine Ponyville was much taller.

What was even stranger was that big Sparkle had a little filly with her too, standing right next to her. This filly was sky blue and her hair was a rainbow of colors. Dash couldn’t look away from the filly, that couldn’t be… it wasn’t… Dash shook her head.

“Who are you?” asked Dash, her attention returning to the lavender mare.

“Twilight,” said the mare. “And you must be Dash?” Dash nodded. “And this,” Twilight held out a hoof to the small filly beside her, “is Rainbow.” The filly waved, uncertainly Dash waved back.

The sudden pain pulsed in Dash’s chest again. It was a stabbing reminder of something she just couldn’t wrap her hooves around. It didn’t knock her to the ground this time but it took all her effort to remain upright.

The world flickered around her, no around them, because Twilight was still there too. For a third time they were someplace else. Someplace not night or day Ponyville. Someplace white. The voices were still there and they could make out the words.

“Something’s wrong! We’re losing them…” the sunshine Ponyville snapped back into place.

“Did you feel… did you see that?” asked Dash. Twilight nodded, she seemed to be unable to speak. “But how? What is it?”

“It’s our pain,” said Twilight, still holding her head. “For all we have lost, for the friends we can’t remember.”

“Friends…” said Dash, the word felt funny on her tongue.

“You need to hurry,” said the filly Sparkle. She was looking around, her large purple eyes darting back and forth as if she could see invisible swarms of insects approaching from all directions.

“Yes, I am well aware of that,” said Twilight. “Dash, do you remember anything before now?” Dash opened her mouth then closed it. She thought for a long moment, what did she remember?

“I remember a ceiling,” said Dash at last. “The rest of it… I remember it but it doesn’t make any sense.”

“Because you only have parts of it,” said Twilight. “Because what you’re trying to remember is half of a memory. And what you’re missing, what we’re missing, is the most important part. The thing that ties all our memories together…”

The world shook around them. Part of the sky high above cracked and broke. Dash looked up in a panic. How did the sky have a crack in it?

“…Friends,” said Twilight, returning Dash’s attention to her.

“Okay… so… what?” asked Dash.

“It’s not just about memories,” said Twilight. “It’s everything. Our friends are part of who we are, without them we are incomplete and lost. You’ve been struggling and resisting telling yourself they don’t matter because you can’t remember them.

“You’ve been telling yourself that you don’t need to remember them. But that isn’t true. I need them, we need them! It’s the one thing we can’t agree on, the one thing holding us back.”

“I don’t remember having any friends,” said Dash taking a step away. “I don’t need friends. All the friends I’ve ever had have left me. Why would I want friends?”

“Dash,” said Twilight sadly. “That isn’t true…”

“If it isn’t true then why can’t I remember any of them!” shouted Dash. “Not their faces, not their names. Nothing! It hurts when I try! It’s empty when I look! I don’t have any friends!”

The whole world shook around them. In the sunny sky above the clouds contracted slightly, encircling the sun. However, the clouds did not hide the growing crack that now stretched across the blue dome above. The ground beneath their hooves spider webbed with hundreds of tiny cracks. Twilight took a step back.

“What’s happening to me?!” Dash continued to shout, not even noticing what was going on around them. “Why do I feel this way? What is this place! Who are you!”

“You don’t know,” said Twilight, her eyes widening in surprise. “I thought… I thought you would’ve realized by now… I thought you knew…”

“Knew what!” cried Dash angrily. “What am I supposed to knew! I mean… know! Why can’t any of you just give me a straight answer!”

“Dash,” said Twilight, her eyes shifting uncomfortably as she chose her words carefully. It seemed like whatever she was about to say was really important and also very difficult at the same time. “Something happened to us… something… that’s my fault…”

“NO!” shouted Rainbow. She raced to Twilight and tried to push her away from Dash. Despite putting all her effort into the push, Twilight remained right where she was. Rainbow’s back hooves slid along the ground, leaving gouges in the dirt. Her small wings flapped as hard as they could. But all her effort didn’t move Twilight even an inch.

“You can’t tell her that, don’t tell her that!” Twilight looked at the filly with concern.

“You know too, don’t you!” shouted Dash, looking down at Rainbow.

“Twilight has to say it!” said Sparkle. “Dash needs to know this! She can’t deny it any longer. There isn’t time anymore.”

“I need to tell you that we…aglf…” said Twilight, her words cut off as Rainbow shoved a hoof into Twilight’s mouth.

“Hey!” shouted Sparkle, trotting up next to Rainbow. The small lavender filly glared at the sky-blue one angrily. “You stop that right now!”

“No,” said Rainbow with a shake of her head. “Twilight is just being a silly-filly. Dash doesn’t need to hear anything she has to say. You should just go back to your nighttime Ponyville and lock that door up tight.”

“I’m not leaving until I hear what she has to tell me!” shouted Dash. The world shook again, the cracks spread wider beneath their hooves. Through the cracks in the ground was inky darkness.

Twilight finally managed to pull free of Rainbow’s hoof. She stuck out her tongue, her face screwed up in a look of slight nausea.

“What I was trying to say,” repeated Twilight, the filly tried again to stop her, this time shouting nonsense over her words. Twilight raised her voice. “…have to …you …thing important!”

“What?” shouted Dash, barely able to make out the words between the shouts.

“We aren’t two ponies anymore!” yelled Twilight. “We’re the same pony!”

“What!?” shouted Dash in shock.

“I said, we’re the same pony!” Twilight repeated, still yelling. But she needn’t have bothered. Rainbow had suddenly gone silent. In fact, both fillies seemed to have gone entirely.

The two mares stood in the sunshine Ponyville, the air had gone still, the ground had stopped shaking. Everything was oddly calm.

“I’m sorry,” said Twilight. Her voice seemed slightly muffled somehow. “It’s my fault, I did this to us.” Dash didn’t answer, she was looking at the cracked ground, her pink eyes wide with confusion.

“Dash, you have to listen to me,” said Twilight. “We share the same body but we aren’t sharing our mind. Our mind is fighting over our friends. I’m trying to share my memories with you but you wont accept them.”

Dash looked away uncomfortably.

“I’m sorry Dash. I didn’t want it to be like this… Dash…” Twilight looked at the sky-blue pegasus standing in front of her. “I need you to… you have to… to trust me.”

“Why should I do that?” asked Dash harshly.

“Because if you don’t, our friends are going to try and put us back the way we used to be…”

Chapter 7

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Chapter 7

Rarity and Fluttershy did not return to the hospital. Whatever had happened – whatever had gone wrong with their friend – they weren’t going to find out from her. They needed to know how this mess had started. And there was only one place for them to get some answers, the Ponyville Public Library.

When somepony had told Rarity about the ‘accident,’ she had said it had happened at Twilight’s house. It wasn’t much to go on but it was all they had.

It was a short trot to the library. Twilight’s house was located only a few minutes away from the hospital. Rarity found it odd that Ponyville wasn’t any different than she remembered it being the day before. Ponies in the streets went about their business, laughing and talking. The sky above was its normal shade of dazzling blue with the sun slowly rolling across it.

This was just another day and everything out here was the same. Rarity wasn’t sure why she thought it should be any different. The events of the previous day and the chaos of the morning had swept her up in an emotional rollercoaster. It seemed almost unfair that the rest of the ponies were blissfully unaware of what was currently going on in the hospital.

Rarity let her mind wander as she watched the other ponies around her. What was it like to be a pony whose friend wasn’t in mortal peril? Could she remember what it was like to be like that pony she saw on the corner, giggling away without a care in the world? Rarity wondered if she still remembered how to giggle.

The tall tree house library rose high above them as they arrived at their destination. It was one of the larger buildings in town and had been built into an actual living tree using magic. Rarity was sure that Twilight had told her all about it at one point. She felt a pang of sorrow in her chest at the memory of Twilight.

For a long moment the two ponies stood in front of the tree house, shaded in its shadow. Rarity was trying to find the courage to go in and Fluttershy looked like she wanted to be anyplace other than here.

Rarity took a deep breath, she knew she could do this, for their friends, who needed them. As she approached the door, she was surprised to find the sign in the front window stating that the library was open. Perhaps nopony had thought to flip it over? She tried the door handle and found that it was unlocked. Perhaps nopony had time to lock the door behind them?

The downstairs was deserted and that made Rarity feel uncomfortable. She had never been here before without Twilight around. Well, that wasn’t true. She had visited the library numerous times before Twilight had taken up residence. Now that Twilight was here, it felt like she was intruding into somepony’s home.

Apart from Twilight herself not being there, Twilight’s usual mess of research – which often littered the floor in piles – was also absent. In fact, the library was unusually clean. Twilight, for all her organizational skills, always seemed to leave a horrible mess behind whenever she was working on something.

Rarity and Fluttershy trotted into the cavernous downstairs room. Their hoofsteps echoed loudly against the wooden floor. They hadn’t gone more than a half a dozen steps when there was a crash and a shout from upstairs.

“Twilight!” shouted a tiny panicked voice. Rarity almost felt her heart break in her chest as a purple baby dragon rushed out from the upstairs room. For the briefest of moments his eyes gleamed with longing and hope but as he saw Rarity and Fluttershy his expression dulled. “Oh… hey… I thought…”

“I’m sorry Spike, she’s still in the hospital,” said Rarity.

“Yeah, I know, I was just…” Spike started to say. “Is she going to be okay Rarity?” The tiny dragon looked down from the upstairs landing, his big green eyes glinting with tears.

“I honestly don’t know dear,” replied Rarity. “But we’re doing all that we can to help her get better. Actually, we were hoping we would be able to talk to you, if that’s okay?”

“Uh, sure, I guess,” said Spike. He didn’t move, he just sat there, staring down at them.

“Do you think you might come down please? It feels like we are standing at opposite sides of the room shouting to each other,” said Rarity with a smile.

“Oh, yeah, of course,” said Spike. “Sorry,” he added before hurrying down the stairs. “I guess I’ve just been a little out of it since... you know.”

“It’s quite alright,” said Rarity with a smile. “Now, what can you tell us about the day of the accident?”

“I didn’t actually see what happened,” said Spike. “I just found her afterwards. Twilight sent me out on an errand. When I got back, I found her lying on the floor, except, she was all different. So I ran and got help. And the doctors came and took her away. And I’ve been cleaning since she left, because I want everything to be perfect when she gets back.”

Spike had said all this very fast. He was hyperventilating a little as he finished, tears starting in his eyes. Rarity trotted forward, putting a hoof around Spike to comfort him.

“What was Twilight doing before you left?” asked Fluttershy.

“She was going over her checklist for the day,” said Spike.

“Do you still have that?” asked Rarity hopefully.

“Of course, Twilight has me keep all her checklists,” explained Spike. “Gimmy one sec.” the little purple dragon waddled off into the adjoining room.

Rarity wondered what they would discover from Twilight’s list of things to do. Her friend was incredibly meticulous when it came to planning. If there was something to be done, Twilight usually had a list on how, when and where to get it all accomplished to stay on perfect schedule.

Spike returned with a very long piece of parchment in his hand. He held it out and Rarity used her magic to lift it into the air so that both she and Fluttershy could read it. Only the first few items had been checked off the very long list.

(X) Write checklist.
(X) Review checklist.
(X) Eat Breakfast, Pancakes and orange juice.
(X) Double check of the checklist.
(X) Send Spike to get repaired bust of Callos the Strong.
(X) Read Chapter 28 of The Magic of Mysteries.
(X) Meet Rainbow Dash and give her surprise.
(_) Read Chapter 29 of The Magic of Mysteries.
(_) Read Chapter 30 of The Magic of Mysteries, unless Spike gets back early.
(_) Move Star Swirl the Bearded back into basement.
(_) Replace Callos the Strong.
(_) Lunch, apple salad.
(_) Triple check of the checklist.
(_) Reorganize History of Equestria section.

The list went into details of organization, a step in which Rarity thought it might have taken just as long to write as to re-organize the section. The list ended with dinner, dessert, brush teeth, quadruple check checklist and finally bed.

“What was the surprise she was giving to Rainbow?” asked Fluttershy. Spike shrugged.

“I don’t know, she didn’t tell me,” said Spike. “But she seemed really excited about it. When I wrote the list she had me tripled check that I had included that one. I have the checklist she had me make to check the things on the checklist if you want me to get that.”

“No, I think this is fine,” said Rarity with a smile. “How about this The Mysteries of Magic book?” asked Rarity. “It seems like she was really into it.”

“That’s pretty normal for Twilight, she reads whenever she can,” said Spike. “The Mysteries of Magic eh?” said Spike with a nod. “Yeah, I think that’s under dangerous spell craft!”

Fluttershy and Rarity looked at each other with wide eyes and Rarity knew they were both thinking the same thing. Dangerous spell craft. Twilight hadn’t, she couldn’t have… this couldn’t have been the surprise she had intended for Rainbow?

What if Twilight had found a new spell and wanted to try it out? Celestia had said this hadn’t been an accident, what if Twilight hadn’t understood what the spell would actually do.

A minute later Spike returned with the book. It had a well worn dark green hard cover. The lettering was etched into the front in silver. The words glinted in the sun as Spike held it up.

Rarity used her horn to lift the book and flip its pages. She was no advanced magic user like Twilight and a lot of what was in the book she didn’t really understand. However, she knew enough to know that these were no simple spells.

Yet, something wasn’t right. As Rarity flipped to the end of the book she realized that she had never seen a chapter 28, nor any chapter for that matter. This book simply didn’t seem to have any. How could Twilight have been on chapter 28 of a book that had no chapters in it?

“Are you sure that’s the one Twilight was reading?” asked Spike after a minute. “Because, I don’t think she has pulled that one out in a long time.”

“It’s right here on the… oh my…” Rarity looked at the list again, she had gotten it backwards. “I guess I read it wrong, it’s The Magic of Mysteries, not the other way around.”

“Oh. That ones over there at the reference desk,” said Spike pointing to the round table that made up the center of the library. Rarity let the book she was holding drift back down into Spike’s arms before she and Fluttershy trotted over to where Spike had pointed.

The circular table had numerous open research books on it, as well as other quick reference guides lined up end to end. In the center of the table was a marble cut statue of a unicorn with a large curly beard.

Rarity found what she was looking for lying out of place from the rest of the organized books. It was open to the start of chapter 28. She read the first lines.

“Oh my! This isn’t a spell book at all,” said Rarity, her eyes widening a little. “It’s a romance novel! I didn’t know Twilight was into this kind of thing.” She kept reading, it was actually pretty good.

“Who is that?” asked Fluttershy, pulling Rarity out of the steamy romance story. She looked at what Fluttershy was pointing at. It was a white marble bust of a unicorn that Rarity didn’t recognize… and yet… that pattern on the hat… where had she seen that before?

“That’s Star Swirl the Bearded,” said Spike, trotting back to them after putting away the other book. “He’s Twilight’s idol, second only to Celestia. She brought it up from the basement while Callos the Strong was being repaired. She has a checklist of replacement statues someplace… Anyhow, we were supposed to take him back down to the cellar when I got back but…” Spike looked away, his eyes starting to water once more.

Rarity followed his gaze to the wooden carving of the stallion that normally held the place of honor on the table. The memory suddenly clicked for Rarity. She had been here the day the wooden carving had been broken. Rainbow, trying to explain some new trick she had mastered, had knocked it off the table with an errant hoof and snapped off an ear.

“Twilight said Star Swirl was a good pick, because everypony should know about him,” said Spike. “Also, he’s really heavy so Twilight didn’t think Rainbow would be able to knock it over.” There was silence for a long moment and then the baby dragon looked up at Rarity with watery eyes. “Rarity… what… what am I going to do if Twilight doesn’t come back?”

“She will,” said Rarity forcing a smile that didn’t quite fit on her face. “I promise she will.” She was thankful that she was not the element of honesty.

They had heard nothing yet. No doctor, no nurse, no news. Pinkie and Applejack were seated in the waiting room, the only sound the soft steady tick of the clock.

Fluttershy and Rarity still hadn’t arrived and Applejack was starting to worry about what had happened to her friends. It had been more than an hour now. What was keeping them?

The door opened, Applejack and Pinkie both looked up. It wasn’t the ponies they were hoping for, but Applejack felt much relieved by who it was. Rarity and Fluttershy had at last arrived.

“They told us to come here,” said Fluttershy, a worried expression on her face. “They wouldn’t tell us why. Did something happen to Rain… I mean… Twilight Dash?”

“We don’t know what’s happening either,” said Applejack. “She was having some kind of a fit and they told us to leave. Now we’re just stuck here waiting. What happened to you two? Where have yall been?”

“We went to Twilight’s house,” said Rarity. “To see if we could find any clues as to what happened.”

“That’s a great idea!” exclaimed Pinkie. “Why didn’t you invite us along! I love detective stuff! I’m the best detective there is! I’m so detectiveous that I detect the detection!”

“Did yall find anything?” asked Applejack after a short pause in which everypony stared at Pinkie with no clue as to what she had said.

“We thought we might have,” said Rarity. “But it turned out to be a dead end. Spike wasn’t there when it happened. All we have is this list to go on.” She held up the list for Applejack to read.

“What about this book?” asked Applejack, pointing her hoof at the item on the list.

“Oh! Oh! I love that book!” said Pinkie. Applejack gave her a sideways glance. “It’s one of my favorites! I bet that’s totally the copy Twilight borrowed from me. At first she wasn’t that interested in it but, after I told her a thousand times how amazing it was, she said she would read it if I just stopped talking!”

“Pinkie, what do you know about spell books?” asked Applejack.

“Uh, it’s not a spell book,” said Rarity blushing slightly.

“I was also trying to get her to read Fifty Bales of Hay,” continued Pinkie. “But she said one was enough for now and she would see how she liked this one and if she did she would borrow the next one!”

“Is that, uh, a farmin book?” asked Applejack with a raised eyebrow. Rarity, Pinkie and even Fluttershy giggled. “Not a cookbook either I take it.”

“No, its, uh a little more, romantic than that,” said Rarity.

“Uh, huh. Anyhow,” said Applejack, trying to get the conversation back on track. “It looks like the last thing Twilight did was meet with Rainbow. Whatever this surprise was, it has to have somethin’ to do with the way they are now.”

“We asked Spike what it was, but he didn’t know,” said Rarity.

“Well, it’s a start,” said Applejack. “At least it’s something to go on. I just hope it isn’t too little too late.”

The silence ticked on as the day slowly trotted past. They had been waiting for hours with no news. Rarity had left twice to inquire about their friend but had returned without an answer. All they could do was sit and wait. It was the worst feeling in the world.

Twilight’s house had provided no real clues. Applejack had re-read the list several times but came up with nothing new. Eventually, she had just set it aside, frustrated by its lack of answers.

Even if they had found a clue to go on, Rarity doubted that anything could have helped them at this point. Celestia knew what was wrong, she knew how to fix it, but the fix would be imperfect, risky and dangerous.

The day was growing late and the sun was lowering slowly in the sky. Outside twilight had come early, bathing the horizon in a purple-blue glow, with the faintest stars glinting on the edge of night.

When the door opened again, all of the heads in the room turned to see who had arrived. It was the doctor, he wasn’t smiling.

“I’m sorry that you all had to wait so long,” said the Doctor. “Your friend is stable for the moment and the Princess has asked that I come get you. So that you can…” words seemed to fail him for a moment “… so that you can be with your friend.”

“What’s wrong,” asked Applejack, her words breaking in her throat. Doctor Red Cross shook his head sadly.

“To be honest, I don’t really know,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be anything… wrong with her, not medically speaking.” He paused for a long moment, looking at the mares in front of him, debating his words carefully. “I am sorry but your friend… she may not be with us that much longer.”

Fluttershy started to cry and Rarity moved to her side to hold her.

“Is there nothing we can do?” asked Rarity as she tried to comfort Fluttershy.

“We have done everything we can for her,” said Red Cross. “For now, all we can do is wait and hope. I’ll take you up to your friend.”

The trip up stairs was surprisingly short. Applejack had expected it to take much longer, yet no sooner were they out of the waiting lounge then the door to room 306 stood before them. Red Cross pushed it open for the mares and they filed in one at a time.

Twilight Dash was not the only pony in the room. Celestia was still there, standing bed side and looking over her pupil.

“What is wrong with them?” asked Applejack, hoping to get a better answer from the Princess. Celestia looked very sad, her purple eyes glistening with mourning.

“It appears that like Aurora Wind and Silver Stars, Twilight Dash’s fusion is imperfect,” said Celestia. “Twilight did a much better job with her spell, a flawless job in fact. However it would seem this kind of joining is truly impossible. Their mind is rejecting them. Their body is failing. They are… they are dying.”

All of the ponies let out an audible gasp. Fluttershy and Rarity both began to cry quietly.

“What… what can we do?” asked Applejack. “The Doctor said we just had to wait and hope, but… there must be something we can do!”

“There is only one option left to us at this point,” said Celestia. “I must separate them, before it is too late for both.”

“But that didn’t work last time,” said Pinkie Pie. “You said you can’t just put them back the way they used to be!”

“No, I can not,” Celestia agreed. Her eyes turned back to the pony in the bed. The lavender mare’s breathing was still labored, her rainbow hair was matted to her head with sweat and her face looked pained. “I must ask a terrible thing of all of you. Something nopony should have to ask and nopony should have to answer.”

“No,” whispered Fluttershy, backing away, tears rolling down her face. “Please, no. Don’t ask us that.”

“Ask us what?” asked Applejack.

“I am sorry my little ponies,” said Celestia sadly. “But I must ask you to choose who you want me to save.”

The room went silent. Nopony moved, nopony dared answer the question that lingered in the air.

“You need to decide quickly,” said Celestia. She was focused on Twilight Dash. “I am afraid there is not much time left.”

“We can’t vote on our friends,” said Applejack. “How can you even ask us that!”

“It is not a question I ask lightly,” said Celestia seriously. “I would not ask of you a choice I was unwilling to make myself. I have already chosen Twilight Sparkle.”

Everypony was quiet for a moment as Celestia’s last words hung in the air. It seemed like nopony was willing to give an answer to her question. At last, when the silence seemed like it would go on forever, Fluttershy stepped forward.

“Rainbow,” said Fluttershy, her shy eyes looking almost defiant. “I want Rainbow back.”

“If we have to choose, I pick Twilight too,” said Pinkie more seriously than her friends had ever heard her before. “That’s what my Pinkie senses say.”

“I…” said Rarity, looking uncomfortably at Applejack. “I also vote for Rainbow.”

The last vote was on Applejack. She looked nervously at her friends, how could she choose any of them over the other. The choice was all on her, she would decide it, she would cast the vote that would sacrifice one pony’s life for the others. How could they ask that of her? How could anypony ask that of any other pony?

“I don’t like this,” said Applejack after a long moment. “I don’t think this is right… but I also don’t see any other choice.” She hung her head in shame, closing her eyes so that she wouldn’t have to see the reactions of her friends, “Rainbow… I pick Rainbow…”

Celestia nodded. Her horn began to glow, magic flared around the room in a dazzling display of power. Outside, the sun was dipping under the horizon. The day’s end was only seconds away.

Twilight Dash began to glow as Celestia’s magic flowed over her body. The air crackled with energy and everypony except for Celestia took a step away.

“NO! Stop! Please!” the voice came from Twilight Dash.

“Stop!” cried Applejack, realizing her mistake. This was wrong. This was completely wrong! They couldn’t do this! But Celestia did not stop.

Twilight Dash’s horn began to shimmer and brilliant blue sparks shot from it into the air. Celestia’s eyes widened as purple waves of energy spilled out of the mare in the bed and mixed with her own white magic.

Celestia redoubled her effort, her spell glowing even brighter so that it was hard to look at the epicenter of the chaos. Twilight Dash was fully encased in blinding white light.

There was a crack like thunder and all at once the room went dark.

Night had come. The sun had set below the horizon. The cascades of magical energy had knocked out all the lights, leaving the room in shadowy darkness.

Celestia’s horn came to life once more. An orb of white light formed above her head, bathing the room in a glow like the moon.

It took everypony a moment to realize what they were seeing. Where there had only a moment ago been one pony, there were not two. The number of ponies seemed to have gone the other direction entirely. The bed was empty.

Chapter 8

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Chapter 8

Far from the hospital, high up in the air, there was a brilliant flash of purple light. It was so bright that it illuminated the ground and the surrounding trees, leaving a lingering after glow in the night.

With a scream of terror, a lavender pony with a rainbow mane tumbled down out of the sky.

Twilight Dash had not meant to teleport, they had not meant to do anything. When the panic had come, it had carried them away. For some reason the spell had brought them here – wherever here was — and left them several dozen hooves above the ground. Their wings seemed content to let them fall.

Still screaming, Twilight Dash plummeted down face first towards the invisible ground. At the last possible moment, their horn glowed and their fall halted. Again, their magic had come to their aid without them controlling it.

As they realized this, the spell wavered and failed. With a thud, they crashed down onto the ground, getting a face full of dirt.

Dazed, exhausted and afraid, they looked up, their eyes searching the darkness around them. They weren’t entirely sure where they were. This wasn’t the hospital. This wasn’t anyplace they recognized.

Their body hurt all over, partly from the fall and partly from the spell that had tried to rip them apart. A new feeling of terror washed over them. Those ponies that had pretended to be their friends had tried to do the most horrible thing to them. Even now they could still feel the remnants of the magic that had tried to unmake them.

They couldn’t stay here. They had to get up. They had to run or fly or teleport. They had to get up!

They placed all four hooves on the ground and pushed, only to roll right onto their back. They tried again, this time toppling end over end as they tumbled forward.

Again and again they tried, but always with the same result. One hoof would always try to do its own thing, instead of work with the rest.

Focusing all their thoughts on their legs, on their hooves, they tried to make them all stand together. It seemed to be working. This time, no hoof pushed harder than the others. Inch by inch they began to move upwards, slowly rising, slowly standing. They were doing it, they were getting up.

Once or twice they nearly collapsed back down, but each time they managed to steady themself. Standing seemed to be all about balance. They couldn’t favor one leg over the other, nor rely too heavily on one side. As long as they stayed center, moved as one pony, they could stand.

Before they knew what had happened, they had done it. Their legs were straight, all four hooves planted firmly on the ground and they were standing. How could they not have remembered how to do this? It was so easy.

They looked down at their hooves. Was walking just as easy?

They lifted their front hoof and immediately slammed it back down. The moment they had tried to take a step, they had started to fall. They did not want to fall. Walking could wait. Standing was enough for now.

No longer lying on the ground, their new, slightly higher, vantage point, let them at last look at their surroundings. They were outside and they knew this place, they had been here before. This was… this was some kind of farm. They had met somepony in a hat here… they had met…

The feeling of imbalance returned and they felt themself toppling forward. Magic raced to their mind and sparks shot from their horn. With a flash and a bang, unbidden energy enveloped them. The falling sensation of teleportation wrapped around Twilight Dash and they were carried away, across the infinity of space.

Pinkie Pie and Rarity had paired up in the search for Twilight Dash. They had traveled out towards the north side of Ponyville. All around them the night was filled with lamplight and the shouts of ponies calling for Twilight and Rainbow. The whole town had joined in on the search. Pegasus in the skies, earth ponies and unicorns on the ground.

“Twilight!” shouted Rarity again. Her throat was already sore from all the yelling. “Rainbow!”

She stopped walking, taking a moment to listen for a reply. But, the only sounds she heard were the other search parties echoing the names in the distance.

“At this rate we’re never going to find them in time,” said Rarity. “They could be anywhere. We don’t even know if they’re still in Ponyville!”

“Of course they are!” said Pinkie.

“And how would you know that?” asked Rarity with a raised eyebrow. “Did your pinkie senses tell you that?”

“Oh no silly!” said Pinkie with a giggle. “The teleport spell only has a maximum effective range of two and a half klicks, at the best of times. Taking Twidashies current state into account, they most likely couldn’t have managed more than a distance of twenty one hundred hooves. So there’s no possible way they could be that far outside of town.”

Rarity’s mouth hung open in complete shock and disbelief.

“Well, I mean, unless they teleported twice or three times, or… oh no! What if they teleported four times! Do you think they could teleport four times?” cried Pinkie, working herself into a panic.

“I’m still surprised they even managed to teleport once,” said Rarity. “Pinkie, how do you have any idea how unicorn magic works?”

“I read stuff,” said Pinkie with a shrug. “Like, did you know that Equestria backwards is Airtseuqe? I didn’t read that one. I just worked it out in my head.”

“Uh, huh,” said Rarity with a confused nod. “Rainbow!” Rarity shouted again.

“No, my name is Pinkie Pie silly!” said Pinkie.

“Pinkie,” said Rarity in frustration.

“Yep, that’s my name,” said the pink pony.

“Did you completely forget that we’re looking for our friend!” asked Rarity, her voice sounding a little annoyed. She knew Pinkie could be odd sometimes, but this was strange behavior even for her.

“No, of course I didn’t,” said Pinkie. “Did you forget we are looking for our friends?” she stressed the last word as she said it. Rarity blinked at her in confusion. “You and everypony else seem to have forgotten that pony is our friends, Rainbow and Twilight together. None of you say ‘them’, you always say ‘her’.”

“Pinkie… it’s just habit,” replied Rarity.

“No it isn’t,” said Pinkie with a shake of her head. “That’s how you see them. You think they’re already gone. But they aren’t, they’re still there.”

“I want to believe that,” said Rarity looking sad.

“But you don’t, do you?” asked Pinkie, her bouncy hair drooping a little. Rarity shook her head, unable to look at Pinkie Pie. They were quiet for a long moment. “Rarity, why did you break your promise?”

“My… promise, dear?” asked Rarity, she looked up in confusion.

“In the hospital you voted for Rainbow,” said Pinkie. “But you promised you would bring back Twilight.”

“I… how?” asked Rarity. “How could you possibly know that?”

“I know when a pony breaks a promise,” said Pinkie seriously. “Just be glad it wasn’t a pinkie-promise.” Rarity looked away again.

“Yes,” said Rarity at last. “I did.”

“Why?” asked Pinkie. “If you wanted Twilight back, why didn’t you vote for her?”

“What difference would it have made? She still would’ve teleported away,” said Rarity. Pinkie scowled at her. “Fine, they. They still would’ve teleported away.”

“That wasn’t what I asked,” said Pinkie. “Why didn’t you vote for Twilight?”

“I… I didn’t want to be the one to make the choice,” said Rarity. “I know it should have been me who cast the final vote, not Applejack. I know I should have been the one to bear the burden for my friends. But I couldn’t, it was too much.”

Pinkie’s eyes widened slightly.

“Oh no…” said Pinkie. “Oh no, oh no, oh no!”

“What?” asked Rarity. “What’s wrong Pinkie?”

“Don’t you realize what this means? Don’t you know what you’ve done?” exclaimed Pinkie. Rarity took a step away, Pinkie was frightening her.

“You… you,” stammered Pinkie.

“We found her!” shouted another voice, cutting Pinkie off. There was a pony running towards them. “Come quickly, we found her!”

Rarity took one last look at Pinkie before she turned away. She galloped as fast as she could towards the pony who had shouted. Pinkie stood there, her eyes still wide with fright as Rarity and the other pony vanished into the night. Neither of them heard the words that Pinkie whispered.

“You weren’t generous,” said Pinkie softly to the wind. “And I don’t feel like laughing at all…”

Twilight Dash reappeared with a sharp crack and a flash of light. They once again had no idea how far they had traveled or where they had ended up. But like the time before, they hadn’t appeared on the ground.

Their legs flailed uselessly below them, their wings hugged their side, afraid to open, and they toppled down towards the ground below. They weren’t nearly as high up as last time, nor was it hard solid earth that they crashed into. With a splash, they belly flopped into a waiting puddle of mud. It covered them from head to tail.

Sputtering slightly, they pushed themself up and whipped the mud from their eyes. Where in Equestria had they ended up now?

Just like they had done before they worked their legs beneath them, pushing in unison to stand. It was easier this time, but still required them to focus on doing it. They had to keep reminding themself to balance and not to push too hard with any one hoof. After a minute or so they were back on their hooves.

This didn’t seem to be any place in particular, yet, it was familiar. They were near the edge of Ponyville, where the shops and houses ended and the endless fields began.

In ten seconds flat, they realized that they had met somepony here. No sooner had they realized this then their horn began to glow again.

“Oh, horse feathers,” said Twilight Dash a moment before they teleported.

Unlike the previous two times, they landed on their hooves. For a moment they seemed to stick the landing, then their legs wobbled and they toppled to the side. The only consolation prize was that the mud had not teleported with them.

It wasn’t dirt they were lying on now, nor was it mud. It felt like something else, like, wood? Were they back inside? Had they returned to the hospital? No, nothing here was white. Although that was odd because they felt like there should have been something white here.

They looked around, trying to get a sense of their surroundings. They were inside some kind of really big building. At night it was shadowy and slightly scary. They had been here before. They knew this place, this was…

No. They weren’t going to think about that. The moment they thought about the fancy white unicorn they had met here their horn would start glowing. Just like it was doing now. Then they would suddenly teleport. Just like they were about to do any second.

“Oh come on! You can’t be…” with a pop and a flash they teleported again.

“… serious!” exclaimed Twilight Dash as they reappeared someplace else.

This time they were ready, this time they were prepared. The magic faded, they began to fall and their hooves hit the soft grass. They were standing! They had done it! They hadn’t crashed into the ground!

Their wings buzzed with joy and they toppled forward into the grass.

“Where now?” asked Twilight Dash, pushing themself up once more. They were back outdoors. In some kind of…

“No!” said Twilight Dash closing their eyes. “Not care where we is!” They sat like that for a long moment, eyes closed and hooves overhead like a little foal.

In the still night air they could hear shouting off in the distance. Their ears perked up. There were many voices, but they couldn’t make out what they were saying. It sounded like one word, being shouted over and over. No, not one word, two words, two different words.

They lifted their head trying to get higher to hear the words. They tried to get up from the ground, but they couldn’t manage it with their eyes closed.

“Look at ground, not look around, look at ground,” said Twilight Dash. They opened their eyes, staring straight down at the grass below them. They weren’t going to look around, they were just going to try and hear what the other ponies were shouting.

They listened harder, the words were difficult to make out. They looked up. Why had they looked up. This was Ponyville Park, they recognized it, they knew it. They waited for the magic to whisk them away but it didn’t, they stayed right where they were. Maybe the strange magical ride was over?

No. That wasn’t right. There was something else, something they were forgetting. There was something else they had to remember, something that they had remembered every place else. No. They didn’t want to remember. It hurt to remember.

The shouting was getting closer now, the voices louder. Glowing orbs bounced up and down as they raced towards Twilight Dash. There were orbs coming down from the sky too, like the stars were descending on them. Every direction was filled with shouts and lights and shouts!

“We found her! There she is!” exclaimed one of the shouts.

Twilight Dash was surrounded. There were so many ponies here, it frightened them.

“Stop it!” shouted a harsh voice from above. A yellow pegasus was descending from the sky. “You’re frightening her! Everypony just back off!”

Why was she shouting? She shouldn’t be shouting like that. When they had met her here…

Twilight Dash sighed, resigned to their fate. For a fifth time the teleport magic came and they were whisked away. The faces of the ponies blurred and vanished. The last words echoed in a whispered shout as Twilight Dash turned the world below them.

“…Rainbow!”

Then all sound was lost and only the feeling of the universe racing past them was left.

They didn’t care. Wherever they ended up they were just going to let themself fall to the ground and they would just sit there, not looking at anything, not moving, doing nothing.

The magic faded and before they could do anything, their wings did it for them, stopping their fall. Reflexively they put their hooves down onto the ground. It was wood once more but it was not the same building as before.

They looked around, unable to help themself and felt a shiver run through them. This place, they knew. They knew all too well. They felt a panic rush over them. They had to remember, who had they met here?

Just like the other places, once they realized that they had met somepony here, they would teleport away. They needed to teleport, they needed to remember, they had to get out of here.

They remembered the pink pony who had waited for them inside this building. Her and the dozens of other ponies that had thrown them a party. They did not teleport.

“Great, one time we need, not work,” said Twilight Dash. “Have to go. Have to leave. Not here. Don’t here.”

They turned on the spot, their hooves moving under them. They were trying to walk, but they just turned in circles instead. It was the strangeness of both control and chaos. They were standing, they were turning. At the same time they were doing neither of those things.

They stopped turning and their focus shifted to the place they didn’t want to look, the thing they didn’t want to see. Then they saw it. Their eyes narrowed and the magic came once more, but not to teleport.

Rarity arrived slightly out of breath just as Twilight Dash vanished in a flash of magic.

“Rainbow!” shouted Fluttershy, reaching for her friend and missing as the pony vanished. “No!” She turned on the crowd and there was anger that Rarity had never seen there before. “I told you all to back off!”

The ponies backed away, some of them looking frightened.

“Whoa there nelly, calm down,” said Applejack, pushing her way through the crowd to her agitated friend. Fluttershy glared at Applejack, like she was about to shout at her too.

“They can’t have gone that far,” said Rarity, “and now that we know they’re still teleporting, we should be able to see the flash when they reappear.” She looked up to the pegasus high above. “Anypony see anything up there?” They shouted down that they had not.

“What if she went into the Everfree Forest?” suggested Applejack. “We might not have been able to see the flash in there?”

“Or what if they’re inside a house?” suggested Rarity.

“We have to keep looking, we have to find her,” said Fluttershy.

“You guys!” said Pinkie as she galloped up to the group, breathing hard. “Something… something really bad is happening!”

“Not now Pinkie!” said Applejack.

“But this is really, really, really important!” said Pinkie desperately.

“Hey! There’s something happening at the library!” shouted one of the pegasus above. “I think it might have been some kind of explosion!”

Wasting no time, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy all bolted towards Twilight’s house. Pinkie shouted after them but her friends did not slow down to listen. She galloped hard to catch up, her usual bouncing steps absent.

They arrived at Ponyville Public Library only a few short seconds later. The door was wide open and the air smelled of burnt wood. Applejack charged in first, not slowing to wait for the others.

The downstairs looked like a hurricane had hit it. Books had been tossed off their shelves and furniture had been overturned. The great round table that had made up the center piece of the library had been split in half. The marble bust of Star Swirl the Bearded had been shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. And lying, in the center of the room, next to the shattered table and shaking uncontrollably, was Twilight Dash.

Applejack slowed her pace, approaching with caution. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end. Even she could taste the raw magic in the air. Her friends followed close behind, but she waved for them to stay back. She didn’t know what was going to happen. She didn’t know who she was going to find lying on the floor.

She was only a few steps away when Applejack heard the soft sobs of crying. Her friend was crying, why was she crying? For the table? For the books? Applejack knew Twilight loved books, but this didn’t seem like it was for that.

“Y’all ok sugarcube?” Applejack asked when she was only a few hooves away. Twilight Dash looked up, tears rolling down her face.

“It my fault!” she cried. “It all my fault!”

“No,” whispered Applejack, moving closer. “It ain’t your fault, you’re just a little mixed up right now, that’s all. It’s okay, everythin’s gona be okay.”

“NO!” shouted Twilight Dash, suddenly getting to her feet. Applejack stopped her advance. “It not going be okay! Nothing going be okay!” There was rage and anger and fear in Twilight Dash’s eyes. Even mismatched as they were, there was no mistake.

“Calm down, Twilight,” said Applejack.

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” Twilight Dash shouted. Her horn began to glow and little blue sparks of magic jumped off in all directions. The sparks left faint traces of magic in the air as they cascaded to the ground.

“Ok, I won’t, I promise,” Applejack said, taking a few more steps back.

Twilight Dash’s eyes suddenly pulsed white and her pent-up uncontrolled power burst through. With a scream, the energy in her horn suddenly erupted outwards, tossing Applejack off her hooves as if she were light as a leaf in the wind. A shockwave spread out in all directions knocking down the rest of the ponies. The library shook violently under the force.

The magic continued to grow stronger. The whole interior of the library was caught in a torrent of wind. Books were swept up from the ground, spinning up into the air around Twilight Dash like a shield. She stood on two legs, her eyes glowing a fierce white and tears streaming down her face.

Applejack tried to shout to her, but the noise was so loud she couldn’t even hear her own voice. She had to make it to Twilight, she had to! Pushing against the wind, Applejack struggled to walk forward. A hoof took hold of her, keeping her back.

Rarity was trying to shout at her but for all the good it did she might have said nothing at all. Applejack couldn’t hear the words, but she knew the message. Rarity didn’t want her to go, it was too dangerous. Shaking her head, Applejack turned away and pressed on.

Her eyes were watering against the force of the wind, it was hard to keep them open. She pulled her head back, only narrowly reacting to a book as it raced past her muzzle, nearly hitting her. However, she was not so lucky with the next book.

It slammed into her side, nearly knocking her off her feet. No sooner had she recovered from the first one then a second book hit her and then a third. She could hardly stand, let alone keep moving forward.

A whoosh was the only warning she had as a heavy tome sped towards her, she looked away. This was going to hurt. Yet, no impact came. Chancing a glance back at the book she found that it had fallen to the floor.

Applejack felt confused, until another book crashed into some translucent white bubble and fell to the floor just like the other book. Applejack looked behind her, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had all followed her. Rarity’s horn was glowing, glowing stronger than Applejack had ever seen it. She was projecting a magic barrier around them.

Right, Applejack thought to herself, it’s now or never.

Motioning for the others to follow she led the way, breaking the force of the wind while her friends followed in her wake. Pinkie Pie was pressed up against her side, helping support Applejack against the magical force that she was fighting. Rarity’s bubble was stopping the flying objects from hitting them, but it did nothing for the wind.

They were only hooves from Twilight Dash. She was still standing on her hind legs. Her wings flapped gently to keep her upright and her horn glowed as bright as the sun. The edge of the magic bubble pushed into the eye of Twilight Dash’s magical storm.

Applejack reached out a hoof to take hold of Twilight Dash, as she did the lavender pony looked down at her, empty eyes ablaze with magic. Applejack paused, feeling slightly afraid of what might happen once she touched Twilight Dash. Taking one last reassuring breath she found the courage inside her and pushed forward.

When her hoof was mere inches from taking hold of her friend, Twilight Dash moved away. She didn’t step back, or move to the side. Instead she began to rise into the air, her wings flapped gently as they lifted her up and up.

Desperately Applejack tried to grab for her again, but missed as Twilight Dash moved just out of reach. The pony rose higher and higher until she was nearly at the top of the room, a full fifteen hooves from the floor. There was no way to reach her now, even on her best day, Applejack couldn’t jump that high.

And then, the strangest thing began to happen. Applejack was suddenly getting closer to Twilight Dash. For the briefest of moments she thought the mare was coming back down. But that wasn’t the case at all, Applejack was rising up.

It was then that Applejack realized she was being carried. Fluttershy had her under both forelegs, lifting her upwards. They were quickly closing the distance.

Twilight Dash simply looked at them, eyes still blazing white.

Again Applejack held out her hoof. She didn’t know what good it would do, but she was sure, down to her very bones, that if she could just touch her friend, she would be able to do something!

Before Applejack knew it, they were once more only inches away. She did not hesitate this time, their hooves touched and it was like a spark of electricity jumped between them. There was a thunderous crash as the whirlwind suddenly stopped. Books tumbled out of the air and fell to the ground. Applejack began to fall, tumbling into darkness that raced across her eyes.

Chapter 9

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Chapter 9

A flash of brilliant white light was all that Fluttershy could see, it was all that she could feel. Even with her eyes closed the light still blinded her but it wasn’t just in her eyes, it was in her body, it was in her mind. She was wrapped in the light and it made her feel fuzzy, almost like she wasn’t really there.

Then, as quickly as it had come, the light faded and the strange sensation was gone.

Fluttershy chanced a glance, to see what had happened. She was not prepared for the sight before her. The first thing she noticed was that the magical storm had gone. The second thing she noticed was that Rainbow had gone. The last thing that she noticed was that everypony had gone.

She looked down at her empty hooves. Applejack was gone too. She had been right there a moment ago; Fluttershy had been holding her as tightly as she could! Yet, she hadn’t even felt her friend leave her forelegs.

Desperately, Fluttershy searched the ground for any sign of her friends. The wind had blown out all the candles and without magic only the moonlight lit the dim room. She was able to make out shapes in the shadows. The library floor was a mess. Books were tumbled everywhere around the wreckage of the table. The rest of the furniture had been pushed over or broken.

But none of what she could see on the ground resembled a pony at all. Where had her friends gone? She had looked away for one second and they had all vanished.

Her mind began to race with wild possibilities. Maybe they had been teleported away. Maybe they had all run outside. Maybe they were hiding, because they were afraid.

No, if anypony was going to be hiding, it was going to be her, not her friends. They were brave and strong and Rainbow was the bravest and strongest of them all.

A loud, startling, knock echoed from the door. The terrifying sound caused Fluttershy to dart to the ground and cower beneath a pile of books. The knock came again, louder and more urgent this time.

“Go away,” Fluttershy whispered to herself. “Please go away.” There was a long pause. Had the pony left?

The door exploded in a shower of wooden splinters. There was nothing for it, Fluttershy screamed in terror, her tiny voice no louder than a whisper.

At the door stood the tallest, most frightening pony she had ever seen. Dark shadows covered the pony, obscuring its face and body. Or maybe it was made of shadows! Fluttershy pressed herself lower to the ground.

“Is anypony here?” asked a voice that didn’t belong to the shadow at all. Fluttershy knew that voice. It had — no, it couldn’t have been — but it had, it had come from the terrible darkness pony standing at the broken door. It was the voice of Rainbow Dash!

“Yes,” said Fluttershy, getting to her hooves. The shadow pony looked at her, its eyes reflecting white in the glint of the moonlight. Then the pony stepped forward and the effect was washed away. The rainbow hair came first, then the soft pink eyes. With a squeal of delight Fluttershy leapt into the air, grabbing the pony in a tumbling hug that carried them both back out the door.

“Whoa, hey,” said the sky-blue mare with a nervous laugh.

“You’re alright!” cried Fluttershy, tears of joy in her eyes. “You’re back to you! You’re…” Fluttershy stopped mid sentence. Her overjoyed outburst left her at last as she returned to her normal, timid, self. “I’m glad you’re okay,” she finished quietly.

“Uh, yeah… me too. I guess?” said the pony beneath Fluttershy. “Do you, you know, mind getting off me?”

Fluttershy blushed heavily as she realized she had tumbled her friend end over end and come out on top of her. “Sorry,” muttered Fluttershy. She moved off the pinned pegasus.

“It’s alright,” said the pegasus nonchalantly. A quick flap of her wings got her standing again. She held out a friendly hoof. “Name’s Dash by the way. It’s nice to meet somepony else that isn’t a crazy filly.”

“I know who you are,” said Fluttershy, giving her friend a strange look. Dash lowered her hoof. “Crazy… filly?”

“Yeah, this crazy little filly named Sparkle has been following me around, telling me nonsense,” said Dash. “But I think I finally lost her.”

“If you say so, Rainbow,” said Fluttershy in confusion.

“Rainbow?” repeated Dash absently, her eyes drifted away. “Why does that sound so familiar?”

“Because it’s your name?” said Fluttershy. “You’re Rainbow Dash.”

The sky-blue pegasus shook her head. “No, that isn’t my name!” said Dash, taking a step back. Her pink eyes suddenly snapped up in defiance. “Who are you! How did you get here!”

“I’m… I’m… Fluttershy!” said Fluttershy, taking a step towards Dash. Her friend was frightening her. “I’m your friend! Don’t you remember me?”

Dash put a hoof to her chest and winced in pain as she took another stumbling step backwards.

“No,” grunted Dash. “No, I don’t… I’m all alone in here. I’m supposed to be all alone.”

“You aren’t all alone,” said Fluttershy, taking another step towards Dash. “Your friends are here with you. I’m here with you!”

“Get away!” cried Dash, holding out a hoof. “Please… stay away… please…”

Fluttershy stopped her advance. The expression in the eyes, the voice, the words… she had experienced all this before. This was exactly like the last time that she and Rainbow had come face to face out on the hospital grounds. It was the exact same feeling. Rainbow… no, Dash, was afraid of her. Dash didn’t know who she was.

“She cannot remember you,” said a new voice that made both ponies jump. Fluttershy’s usual reaction, when anything startled her, was to jump into some ponies forelegs. However, Dash tried to do exactly the same thing. The two ponies collided in midair and crashed down in a tangle of legs.

“Heh-heh, the two of you look silly,” said a small lavender unicorn. Both Dash and Fluttershy were tangled up on the ground, so that they were eye level with the filly. Her large purple eyes were glinting with laughter.

“Not you again!” exclaimed Dash trying to struggle out from under Fluttershy, who had once more landed on top of her. “Get off me!”

“No,” said the lavender filly suddenly serious. She pointed a hoof at Fluttershy. “You stay right there.”

“Um, I really do think I should get off. Dash doesn’t really seem to want me on her back.”

“No,” repeated the filly sharply. “Dash,” said the filly, turning her attention to the struggling pegasus. “You have to listen to me. I am trying to help you.”

“Horse-feathers!” shouted Dash defiantly. She was still trying to work her way out from under Fluttershy. However, without even trying, Fluttershy was able to keep her pinned. It made Fluttershy wonder how she was managing it without even trying.

“You can’t run from this. You can’t fight this,” said Sparkle, her eyes locked on Dash. “You have to see it and you must accept it.”

“I don’t want to,” said Dash, finally giving up on her futile efforts to escape. “Everything you’ve told me doesn’t make any sense! Nothing good’s come out of you!”

“You found her,” said Sparkle. She held up a hoof, pointing it at Fluttershy. “Just like I said you would.”

Dash looked up at the yellow pegasus on her back. Fluttershy smiled weakly down at Dash.

“So what,” said Dash despondently. She let her head drop to the ground in defeat. “I don’t even know her and all she’s done so far is sit on top of me.” Fluttershy felt her heart sink in her chest.

“Yes you do,” said Sparkle. “But you do not know how to see her.”

“That doesn’t make any sense! I’m looking right at her!” shouted Dash, holding a hoof up towards Fluttershy. “You keep telling me nonsense! Why can’t you do something useful like get this pony off me!”

Sparkle looked at Fluttershy and nodded. Taking this as an okay to finally release Dash, Fluttershy used her wings to get off her friend. Once Fluttershy was clear Dash got slowly back to her hooves.

“Dash, you cannot see her because you do not understand how to see,” said the filly.

“Hey, my eye doctor says I have perfect vision!” exclaimed Dash.

“Eyes have nothing to do with seeing,” said the filly. “If all you do is look, you’ll never find out what you need to know unless you see.” Dash crossed her forelegs and sat back on her haunches defiantly.

“Look at this pegasus,” continued Sparkle, holding out her hoof to Fluttershy, who looked at the ground timidly. Dash stared at Fluttershy, the pink eyes glancing over her without recognition. It was strange, Fluttershy felt like Dash didn’t really see her, like she was invisible.

“Okay, I’m looking,” said Dash. “So what? She’s just the same pegasus that’s crashed into me twice now.”

“Because you do not see!” said Sparkle.

“Yeah, whatever,” said Dash.

“Maybe you can’t see because you don’t want to,” said Fluttershy. Both Dash and Sparkle looked at Fluttershy in surprise. “Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll be more quiet.” She backed away a little.

“No,” said Dash, uncrossing her forelegs and looking away. “Maybe you’re right… I don’t want to see. Not really. I’ve been looking for answers, but I feel like I’ve done it with my eyes closed…”

“It’s not about eyes…” the filly interjected.

“…Yes, thank you,” said Dash annoyed. “I’m afraid of what I’m going to find. I’m afraid that I will see the truth and it will be terrible.”

“Why?” asked Fluttershy. “What truth do you think you’ll find?”

“The truth about me,” said Dash. “Twilight told me that we’re merged together into a single pony. But she didn’t tell me why.” Dash looked up at Fluttershy. “I’m not sure I want to know why.”

Fluttershy found that she suddenly didn’t want to know either, but she couldn’t find her voice to tell that to Dash.

“Something happened to me,” continued Dash, her eyes drifted to the tree house behind Fluttershy. “Something I don’t want to know, something that I don’t want to remember. Something, that happened in there.”

Dash trotted past Fluttershy, moving back towards the library. Fluttershy knew she didn’t want to find out what was inside but her voice simply wouldn’t come to tell Dash to stop.

“When you see it Dash,” called Sparkle. “When you know it and finally accept it, not with your eyes but with your heart, it will change you. You will finally see. And you will not like what you find.”

“I know,” whispered Dash. She halted at the threshold, looking into the dark interior.

A panic suddenly raced through Fluttershy. She did not want Dash to go inside, she did not what her to see what was in the darkness.

A cold shiver caused her whole body to tremble. She couldn’t explain it, couldn’t understand it, her hooves were moving on their own. She was running towards Dash, charging towards her friend.

Slowly, Dash stepped forward into the house. There was darkness inside that was shadowy and deep and never ending.

Fluttershy leapt into the air, momentum carrying her in a rush towards Dash. They collided for a third time, Fluttershy once again ending up on top.

“Hey! What’re you doing!” cried Dash.

A crack light thunder split the air above them. Something rushed overhead missing them by inches. Fluttershy looked up and instantly wished she hadn’t. A massive pointed spike filled the space above them.

It had come from inside the library, extending outward from the dark depths. It was so long that it reached all the way across the street before it had crashed into another house. It was wide enough around that it filled the entire doorframe.

The ground began to tremble very slightly.

“This is the part where you run,” said the filly. Her horn glowed brightly and she vanished in a flash of purple light.

“RUN!” Fluttershy yelled. She grabbed Dash and hauled her friend up from the dirt. No sooner where they clear then more spikes burst from the ground. They extended several dozen hoofs into the air behind them, creating a jagged fence that barred the way.

However, there was no time to examine it further. Fluttershy gave Dash a hard push, moving them aside as the road in front of them erupted in gleaming points.

The two ponies ran side-by-side as they fled from the spikes bursting out of the ground in every direction. Around them Ponyville began to crumble, spikes thrust out of the windows of buildings, through their roofs and past the doors. Every direction was pointed, every path ending in gleaming spikes.

They were surrounded. There was nowhere left to run. Crisscrossing spikes blocked their path in every direction, walling them in. A rapidly closing circle of points was slowly coming for them.

It was then, when they had nowhere else to run that two things went through Fluttershy’s mind. The first was that these things surrounding them didn’t look like spikes at all, now that she’d had a proper look. No, she was sure they weren’t spikes. They were horns, unicorn horns.

The second thing that came to her mind was that she had to hold Dash. She grabbed Dash around the middle and held her tight as the end approached. The spikes were only hooves from them now, closing in, tightening.

They struck from every direction, all at once, their points elongating and moving fast. The two ponies stood frozen, only moments from their end.

But Fluttershy had also thought of a third thing and she was ready, she knew what she had to do. With only inches left, she leapt skyward, Dash held tightly in her fore hooves. She had been quicker, her wings flapping harder then they ever had before.

Higher and higher they rose into the moonlit sky. Below the spikes churned and gnashed like jagged teeth, devouring all of Ponyville. Fluttershy looked away from the terrible sight, her eyes finding the shocked face of her friend she held in her forelegs.

Fluttershy had never seen Dash so shaken as she was now. The sky-blue pegasus was trembling from head to wing tip. There were tears in her eyes and she was squeezing Fluttershy even tighter than Fluttershy was holding her.

“It’s okay!” said Fluttershy, trying her best to sound as confident as possible. To her surprise, her voice was unusually steady. “Everything’s okay!”

“No,” said Dash, shaking her head. The tears in her eyes ran down her cheeks. “Everything is not okay…” Her words seemed to fail her. She looked her friend in the face, pink eyes meeting soft blue ones. “I think I finally see at last, the truth I don’t want to remember, the thing that’s been holding me back. I think… I think I died.”

When Applejack awoke, she found herself lying on the floor. Her head was pounding, like some tiny pony was playing a drum on the inside of her skull. It took her a moment to realize where she was. She felt confused as she looked at her surroundings.

This was the Ponyville public library, right where she had passed out after touching Twilight Dash. Yet, it couldn’t be. The books were all neatly shelved. The table, that had been torn asunder was whole once more, as was the bust of the marble unicorn that sat atop it. Everything was in its place, neat and tidy as it almost never was.

Her head still hurt.

Something else wasn’t right. It only took her a moment to realize what was wrong. Her friends! Her friends were not here either! She looked around in a panic. No Rarity, no Fluttershy, no Pinkie Pie and no Twilight!

She shouted for her friends but her words had an odd quality to them, like trying to talk underwater. The air was unnaturally still here too. Applejack felt like she couldn’t breathe. She had to get out of this place!

Nearly breaking down the door in her panic, Applejack rushed outside into the street. Bright warm light crashed into her, hitting her eyes like a solid force. The sun was high in the sky. How could that be? How long had she lain there unconscious on the ground?

Her eyes came back down to Ponyville. The streets were empty. At this time of day there should have been dozens of ponies out an about. Yet, there was nopony else here!

“Well, not nopony else,” said a voice from beside her. Applejack turned her head to look in the direction of the voice, her eyes darting back and forth. At first she didn’t see anypony but when she glanced down, she found a small sky-blue filly looking up at her.

It was a little Rainbow Dash who looked just the way she should have looked, except, smaller.

“Rainbow Dash?” asked Applejack confused. “Why y’all so little?”

“Nah, just Rainbow,” said the filly. “Twilight’s coming. She’ll be here in a second.”

A pop and flash of light signaled Twilight’s arrival by teleportation. Applejack couldn’t believe her eyes. It was Twilight! She was back like she should be, her own pony once more!

“Twilight!” Applejack cried, rushing forward and hugging her friend before Twilight could get any words out.

“Applejack?” asked Twilight confused. “What… how… you can’t be here! This doesn’t make any sense!”

“You remember my name!” said Applejack, overjoyed by her friend’s miraculous recovery. “How’d you set yourself right? Where’s everypony else? Why’s Rainbow so small?”

“Applejack!” Twilight interrupted sternly. “How did you get here?” Applejack blinked, confused by the question.

“Uh, I came out that there door,” she pointed behind her, turning to the tree house she had just come out of. Or at least she would have if it had been there. The building seemed to have vanished. “Huh, it was there just a minute ago.”

Everything shook, the ground, the buildings, even the sky. In the distance Applejack could swear that the mountains moved a little closer. In fact, she was sure that Canterlot was much closer to Ponyville than it should have been.

“Twilight, what the hay is going on here?” asked Applejack.

“I’m not sure how to explain this, so, I’ll just say it,” said Twilight. “This isn’t Ponyville, not really. This is a construct of my imagination, a metaphysical manifestation of how I remember Ponyville. I thought it was a dream at first, but it isn’t, not really.”

“Twilight, I have no idea what y’all are talkin’ about,” said Applejack, now thoroughly confused.

“Applejack, you’re inside my mind,” said Twilight as bluntly as she could manage.

“Inside your… wait… you ain’t saying that… that we’re all joined up, like you and Rainbow!” cried Applejack in shock. She lifted a hoof to see if it had changed color, which it hadn’t. She felt for a horn, which she didn’t find.

“No,” said Twilight. “Fusion only combines two things, not three. Having you would be one too many. I don’t know how you’re here, but I’m pretty sure that your body and mind are still your own.”

“That’s a relief,” said Applejack, relaxing a little. “For a moment there I thought we might really have a mess on our hooves…

“Twilight, there’s somethin’ I have to ask you,” said Applejack. The expression on her face looked very serious. “Somethin’ I need to know.” Twilight looked uncertain but didn’t interrupt. “Why? Why’d you do this to Rainbow? Celestia said it couldn’t have been an accident.” Twilight glanced away uncomfortably, unable to withstand Applejack’s gaze.

“You’re right, the spell wasn’t an accident,” admitted Twilight. “I did this, knowing what would happen.”

“But why!” shouted Applejack, shocked by Twilight’s admission.

“I didn’t have any other choice, it had to be done. I had to do it!” Twilight shouted back. There was silence between the two mares for a long moment.

“She can put them back exactly the way they were,” said the filly at last. “Twilight Dash can wield both the element of Loyalty and Magic. Two elements can achieve what one will not. What Celestia cannot.”

Applejack’s eyes widened at this announcement, she looked at Twilight, to see if the filly was lying. But it was there in Twilight’s face, she could do it, she knew she could do it.

“I wont!” shouted Twilight.

“You can undo this? Y’all can put you and Rainbow back just how you were?” Applejack shouted in frustration. Twilight nodded. “Then do it! Set this right!”

“No!” Twilight shouted. “If I do that, Rainbow will die!”

“But, you just said…” Applejack tried.

“Exactly as we were!” shouted Twilight. “Exactly as she was…” Twilight sat back on her haunches, lifting her forelegs to look down at them, like she expected to see something there.

“What… what happened?” Applejack asked, much more softly this time.

“Rainbow was at my house,” said Twilight, both her purple eyes looking off into the distance as if she could see the memories unfolding before her. Applejack was suddenly surprised when the air rippled and she could see the memory too. It was like looking down through a window in the air, with the main room of the tree house below.

“I had a surprise for Rainbow, a book. The newest Daring Do. It’s not supposed to be out for another month, but I received an advanced copy, signed by the author.” The Twilight in the memory held up the book for Rainbow to see. “She was so excited for it. I had never seen her that happy, not even when she met the Wonderbolts.

“You know Rainbow, she couldn’t contain herself.” In the memory Rainbow was hugging the book to her chest, the widest smile spread across her face. Then Rainbow leapt into the air inside the library. She flew in circles of excitement, crying out her joy.

The smile on Twilight’s face darkened into terrible sadness as she watched her own memory.

“You don’t think about it, not in your own home, not where you feel the safest… It’s my fault. I simply couldn’t have left the table empty. I had to pick something Rainbow wouldn’t knock over…”

The laughing memory of Twilight set down her checklist and called up to Rainbow, telling her to come down. The momentary distraction caused the soaring pegasus to collide with one of the bookshelves. Her speed rebounded her through the air and towards the table in the center of the room.

Applejack saw it happen in the memory. She watched in horrible slow motion as Twilight realized too late what was about to happen. She couldn’t react fast enough, couldn’t will her magic quick enough.

The horn of the marble unicorn atop the table went right through Rainbows back. There was a scream of pain and terror and it took all of Applejack’s will to not look away.

“She was…” Twilight couldn’t finish the thought, her voice barely above a whisper now. “… Right there in front of me. All my magic and there was nothing I could do. No time to get to the hospital. Too dangerous to try teleporting. Too deep a wound for healing magic to be effective.”

Rainbow looked up towards the Twilight in the memory but it was like she was staring through time right at Applejack, her pink eyes wet with tears. “I guess… I’ll have to give this back without reading it… let me know how it ends…” The book dropped from her hoof, bouncing under the table. Her eyes closed slowly, the faintest grimace on her face.

“I would not let that happen,” said Twilight, suddenly defiant. “I would not allow that!” The Twilight in the memory began to glow, her horn shining with what seemed like the light of the sun. The memory ended.

“I did the only thing I could think of,” said Twilight. “I saved her by giving up myself.” She looked at Applejack, her eyes pleading for acceptance. Applejack said nothing. She moved forward and wrapped her forelegs around her friend. Twilight began to sob uncontrollably and Applejack held her.

“It’s okay,” said Applejack softly. “It’s not your fault. I don’t blame you.” Through her sobs, Twilight did not notice that Applejack’s words weren’t entirely honest.

Chapter 1Eno retpahC

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Chapter 1Eno retpahC

The dream was over. Twilight had watched it be over. She had watched Applejack vanish and felt the end come but she hadn’t woken up. Instead, she had faded away, into the darkness.

Twilight could feel herself falling… No. That wasn’t right. She didn’t have a word for it. What did you call it when you stayed absolutely still yet moved away? Maybe falling was close enough.

There was something else, somepony else, falling with her. Even though Twilight couldn’t see the other pony, she felt it was there. No. That wasn’t right either. Felt was the wrong word. It was more like she sensed the other pony, more like she knew that there had to be another pony. She also knew that other pony shouldn’t be here with her.

Reaching out with her… whatever they were — she couldn’t think of the name — Twilight gently pushed against the other pony. The other pony didn’t seem to want to move but Twilight pushed with all her strength. Not with her – whatever they were — but with something else, with something she might once have called ‘magic’ but that word wasn’t right either.

The other pony began to slow. She was doing it. She was pushing the other pony back, back to where it belonged.

Twilight felt a coldness press against her back and she shivered at its touch. She could see it. She could see the coldness, the feeling, the sensation; it had form and shape. She could see it through some twisted kind of sight. Twilight could see the edge of nothingness.

The boundary of existence had no color. Against this vast nothing, the blackness all around Twilight might have been the brightest white by comparison.

The icy cold crawled over Twilight. She was pressed against the divide yet she had not gone beyond the edge. The other pony, the one she could not see, could not feel, but knew was there, did not stop. The other pony tried to continue through, its hooves slipping from the darkness and passing into the nothing below. Twilight held like a barrier, keeping the other pony mere hooves away from nonexistence.

They were stuck there; moving neither towards the blackness above nor the nothingness below.

Tentatively, Twilight pushed at the pony she was holding. It moved slightly further away, but as it did, Twilight began to sink into the nothingness. If she could have screamed, she would have. She could not comprehend the feeling. It wasn’t pain, it was something worse, something terrible. It was like her very essence was being torn apart.

Twilight pushed again, with more force this time. The nothingness tore at her, latching onto her soul and digging into her thoughts, but Twilight did not stop. She pushed harder. Everything she had was focused into pushing the other pony back.

And suddenly, the other pony was free. Twilight could sense it in the same strange way that she could feel it. The other pony was racing away from her, sailing up through the darkness… flying… flying away…

If she could have smiled, Twilight would have but the nothing took her and she had nothing to smile with.

Dash felt herself rising upwards. It was like flying… No. That wasn’t right. Flying was the wrong word for it yet she could think of no other word. Perhaps flying was close enough? Yes, she was flying, even if she couldn’t feel her wings.

She couldn’t comprehend what had just happened to her. She had been at peace with herself. Her eyes closed against the darkness; against the end. Everything had just stopped and she had started to fall.

Fluttershy may have delayed it but it had still come. Dash had felt it come, felt the nothingness embrace her and take her with it, dragging her down towards the inevitable.

She had not been afraid. She was ready to accept it, so that Twilight could go back to how she was. Except, right at the edge, right where there wasn’t anything anymore, she had stopped. Something… No, somepony, had stopped her, had held her back.

They had lingered there for a long time and then as quickly as it had come, the feeling of not being anything receded. Dash almost felt like she had been shoved back, pushed away from death.

The tiniest glow of light glinted in front of her and Dash held up a hoof to her eyes to shield them against it. Even as small and distant as it was she could feel its warmth calling her back, beckoning her to return to it.

Not that she felt that she had any choice. Her path seemed to be set. She felt like a cork, shooting up through a deep ocean, destined to rise to the surface with little control.

As Dash got closer to the glowing light, she became aware that she was not alone in the darkness. There was a pony right beside her, sailing upwards towards the light as well. Dash turned her head and saw the shadowy outline of the pony. It was another pegasus, its wings flapped gently in a slow rhythmic beat. It was either further away than Dash had thought, or was smaller than she assumed.

“Fluttershy?” whispered Dash. The pony turned its face towards Dash and she felt a bolt of shock run through her body as she saw its eyes. Those eyes! Those were her eyes! The same color, the same shape.

“No,” answered the pony beside her. The light shifted across the pony’s body, revealing a coat of powder blue and a mane of rainbow colors. She was not a full grown pony, she was a filly. More precisely she was how Dash had looked when she was a filly, even the cutie mark was missing.

“You!” cried Dash, pointing an accusing hoof at the filly.

“Us actually,” said a voice from her other side. Dash turned her head so fast that she actually spun in the air. A small lavender unicorn was flying alongside so that she was flanked by the fillies.

“Sparkle,” whispered Dash. “What are you two doing here?”

“We are here for you,” said Rainbow. As she spoke she began to move in the air, they both did. Like some strange flying formation, they circled around Dash, orbiting her as if she were a planet. “We are here, to give you back what you’ve lost, so that you can go on.”

“To give me… what?” asked Dash in confusion, her head turning as far as it would go as she tried to keep track of the filly.

Above, the tiny point of light had become massive. It was as large as the sun now, filling most of the sky. Its brightness washed over them, yet it did not blind them. However, Dash was too busy to concern herself with it now.

“We were divided before,” said Sparkle, coming into view. “Half in one place, half in another. We were not really sure where either of us belonged.”

“You gave me to Twilight,” said Rainbow as she floated past, “because I was too painful to keep. You wanted her to protect and remember me… once you were gone.” Dash looked away.

“Twilight gave me to you,” said Sparkle, “because she didn’t want to lose you. She wanted you to have me so that you could always stay, even if she couldn’t remain.”

“Now that it’s just you,” said Rainbow, once more in front of Dash. “We can be whole again. You can be whole again.”

The fillies began to glow, just as bright as the light overhead, which now filled the entire sky. Their slow orbit began to increase in speed and the fillies became little more than whirling orbs of light as they spun around Dash.

“Hey! What are you doing!” shouted Dash. She felt strange. She could feel the essence of each filly starting to pour into her. Memories were flooding back into her mind. Life was flowing back into her body. “Stop! Please stop! I don’t want this! I want Twilight! I want…”

All at once everything collided with Dash. Both fillies slammed into her as she crashed into the glowing white sky and was forced back into life.

A new sensation enveloped Twilight. Not falling, floating? Sinking maybe? Twilight wondered if this was what it was like not to exist. If it was, it really didn’t feel that much different. Her thoughts seemed a little slower, it was hard to focus and hard to think. However, those things were still there, she could still think.

Did she have more than thought? Was there anything more than thought? Twilight tried to remember what else she should have, what else there could be for her to have. What she wouldn’t give for a checklist.

What else, thought Twilight to herself, what else should I have! There was no answer.

Twilight tried to reason out what else there should be. She tried to draw inspiration from her surroundings. Yet everything around her was filled with nothing. Not darkness, not emptiness, just colorless nothing.

Shouldn’t there be something?, thought Twilight. Shouldn’t I see something?

As she thought it Twilight realized what she was missing, what else she should have, sight. She knew it, within whatever was herself. Her eyes opened to the darkness, washing away the nothing that had been a moment ago.

She was surrounded in darkness once more, yet this darkness was different somehow. She couldn’t explain it, after all, darkness was darkness, yet this was just… different. She still couldn’t see anything but she knew it was there, knew she was seeing it.

However the darkness did not stay black for long. Tiny pin pricks of light winked into existence. There was only one or two at first, but soon the blackness was filled with them. There were millions of them, billions of them, more than she could ever count. They were in every direction, close yet impossibly far away.

“Stars,” whispered Twilight softly. She had a voice. As she had spoken aloud she had realized she had a voice.

Her eyes looked down and Twilight knew that she had eyes. What else did she have? She lifted her foreleg and watched as her hoof materialized before her eyes. It was connected to something, to a body, she had a body. She glanced over herself. It was all there, just as she expected it to be. A lavender coat, her purple mane, four legs and the unicorn horn atop her head.

No. That was wrong. She shouldn’t be able to see all that.

Her perspective changed. She was inside her body, floating in the darkness, surrounded by shining stars. She didn’t know if she had everything she should have, but this felt like it was enough for now.

Twilight’s attention shifted from her internal focus to the strangeness around her. She didn’t recognize this place. It was quietly beautiful and strangely haunting. She felt like all the stars were watching her, waiting for her to do something.

Distantly Twilight felt like she knew this place but she didn’t have a name for it.

A streak of light raced past overhead. It was completely silent as it moved. It had a long streaming tail of light that slowly evaporated as it soared across the sky. Twilight watched it for a long time until she lost sight of it in the field of distant stars.

However, she didn’t have to wait long before another and still another shot past. The sky was not full of them, not like it was full of stars, but there were still many. Twilight wondered what they might be.

Suddenly, Twilight felt herself move. She could not say how she moved. She did not have wings, her hooves did not touch the ground, for there was no ground. In truth, it didn’t even feel like she was moving, yet she moved.

Around her, tiny glints of light began to spark into existence. Twilight glanced back to find a long tail of stardust streaming out behind her. To somepony else, she supposed that she looked like a shooting star, just like the ones she had seen only moments ago.

Faster and faster she raced towards the distant stars, having no idea where she was headed. Her eyes searched the stars in front of her looking for some clue of a destination. There were so many stars, more than she could ever properly see in an endless life time. Each glinted and sparkled like a tiny gem as her eyes swept across them.

Her eyes kept being drawn towards one spot, no matter where she looked. At first she wasn’t sure what was different about the small group of stars. They seemed to be just regular stars, like all the others in the sky. They were special in their own way, but no different than the rest. Yet they were different. The way they were grouped, the way they twinkled. She knew those six stars. That was what she needed, that was where she needed to be.

They were growing stronger, pulsing with light, beckoning her on. She reached out her forelegs, trying to grab the impossibly far off points of light like a little foal. They twinkled at her, out of reach.

Some of the other stars in the sky raced past her. Twilight caught glimpses of them and was surprised by what she saw. Up close, they weren’t stars at all. They were… cutie marks. That one had been of an hour glass. And that one over there was some bubbles. And still, the one that narrowly missed her head, was a rainbow like wave of colors. But they were different somehow. The cutie marks weren’t static as they normally appeared, they moved and glowed with a strong inner warmth, all but the rainbow wave of colors, which was dull and lifeless.

Now there were hundreds of cutie marks shooting past her, so many that she could hardly even make them out. Some were vibrant and bright, others dull and faded. She knew some of them, had seen them on other ponies. Many more she did not know or had never seen. There were so many of them!

Twilight looked back to the group of six stars. They were much brighter now and much larger. The star at the center had grown the largest of the group. It was brighter than the others too. Its color had changed from glinting white to pulsing purple. She recognized the constellation, she knew the symbol, it was her own cutie mark.

She got even closer still. The five small stars around the larger purple one began to change, their glinting white exterior becoming more defined until Twilight could make out each in turn. Three apples, three butterflies, three diamonds, three balloons and a cloud with a rainbow lighting bolt. Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie… Rainbow Dash, those were their cutie marks. Each one glowed brightly, radiating warmth and moving with life.

Each of the marks grew larger in her vision until all of the sky before her was filled with only the six cutie marks, all of the other stars were invisible against their brightness. Then even the whole sky was not large enough for them. If Twilight turned her head she could look at each one in turn, but she could no longer see them all at the same time.

Twilight focused her attention back to the purple star at the heart of the constellation, wondering what it had changed into. Her eyes widened as she saw it. Twilight was all too familiar with what had appeared before her. It was the library tree that she called home.

With a gentle thud of hooves, Twilight landed on the side of the house, so that it was like a floor beneath her. The stardust trail washed down around her, cascading away like tiny diamonds.

Twilight glanced around. There were no dirt roads around her, no Ponyville, just the house floating in blackness and her atop it. The infinite number of cutie marks hovered above her, pretending to be stars once more and watching her, while streaks of light raced across the sky towards their own stars.

She pulled her gaze down from the sky and found that she was standing on the library door. Her eyes widened slightly at this realization. This door, this door was for her. Unlike every other time she had encountered it, this was her door.

With the gentlest of movements she tapped on the wood. The door opened, swinging inwards. Brilliant white light poured out of the house. It was blindingly bright, Twilight couldn’t see anything beyond it as she hovered in front of the glowing entryway.

But she didn’t need to see where it led, she knew. She knew this was it, this was where she was meant to go. Putting her hoof into the light Twilight felt warmth run up her leg. Taking one last deep breath she plunged into the unknown and vanished. The door closed silently behind her. The warmth around the library tree faded away and it turned dull and lifeless.

Chapter 12

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Chapter 12

The ceiling was moving. Why was the ceiling moving? That wasn’t right, a ceiling shouldn’t move. Yet, there it was, moving. Like it didn’t care at all that ceilings weren’t supposed to move.

Well, if the ceiling wasn’t going to behave, she supposed she just wouldn’t look at it. She let her eyes close and the ceiling stopped moving. Everything stopped moving.

Slowly she became aware of other things around her, sounds and voices and sensations. They weren’t moving, they were doing other things. She could hear the sounds of squeaky wheels. She could make out the worried voices, speaking in low tones. And she could feel that she was lying on her back, her whole body jostling slightly as she moved.

Logic and reason told her that the ceiling wasn’t moving, that she was the one who was moving. The voices – some she knew, some she did not – she could understand their words, she just wasn’t listening to them.

She didn’t let her eyes open, not yet. Instead she turned her focus inwards, to her own thoughts. She listened to the silence inside her head. It was so quiet. There was no confusion, no foreign thoughts, nothing, just her. She frowned and let her eyes open again.

The ceiling was still moving. The memories came rushing forward. She knew that ceiling, she knew those walls. Her eyes snapped fully open and she sat up suddenly in a panic. The voices cried out in protest, but with everypony trying to talk at once she didn’t know what they were saying.

Everything came to an abrupt stop, the ceiling, the walls… well, not the talking, that continued. A nurse was trying to coax her to lie back down. She would have none of that.

In a tumble she fell off the side of whatever she had been lying on and landed painfully on the floor. Her hooves came up under her and she struggled to her feet. She was surrounded by ponies she only partly knew.

“Calm down,” said one of the ponies. “Just calm down now. You’re alright sugarcube.”

“What happened?” she asked. Her voice felt odd in her throat, like she hadn’t used it for a long time. Her mind was still fuzzy, like parts of it were slowly flickering on one at a time. There were images of a strange dream running through her thoughts... No. It hadn’t been a dream, it had been real. A shiver ran through her as she remembered what the touch of nothing had felt like. “Where am I?”

“We brought you back to the hospital dear,” said a white unicorn. “You and Fluttershy and Applejack all passed out. When Applejack came to she told us what had happened but when you wouldn’t wake, we feared the worst. We knew we had to get you here as quickly as possible.”

“Wait, did you just say ‘I’,” asked Pink-Party. No. That wasn’t right, that wasn’t her name. She knew it, but she just couldn’t quite reach it. Her memories were slowly trickling back to her from the distant reaches of her mind. Pinkie Pie, that was her name. And that was Rarity and Applejack and… Fluttershy.

“I thought you couldn’t say I!” pressed Pinkie Pie, pointing a hoof at her. It was the first time that the mare was aware that she had a body. Up until that point she just assumed she was a pair of floating eyes. “Something’s wrong isn’t it? Something happened to you in that dream-thing!”

The mare tried to back away, but found a wall behind her. Her whole body felt… wrong. There was something horribly wrong with her. In a panic, she turned from the group and broke into a gallop, pushing her way past them. Shouts of protest echoed after her as she rushed away.

Her mad charge caused the outcry of several doctors and patients alike. She was searching for something, something… The mare skidded to a halt. In front of her was a large glass panel that was part of a door. It had been tinted so that it was slightly opaque and she could see her reflection in it.

“It can’t be,” she whispered.

She lifted a hoof to her head and touched the horn, her reflection did the same thing. She was unable to believe it was there even though she could plainly see it. At her sides, her wings flapped restlessly. Reluctantly, she turned her left flank so that she could see the cutie mark emblazoned upon it. Five white stars around a large dull gray one.

“No… please no…” the mare pleaded.

The others caught up to her just as she collapsed to the floor, unable to stand any longer.

“Twilight Dash, what’s wrong!” exclaimed Applejack, her voice distressed. The pony looked up from the floor, her mismatched eyes turning red with tears.

“No,” she said, her whole world broken in her voice. “I’m just… just Dash.”

The doctors had wanted to take Dash back to her old room, after all, she had only left it a few hours ago but Dash flat out refused. So, instead they had been shown to a waiting room. She had said little to her friends as they had walked, hardly glancing at them, feeling completely ashamed to speak.

They sat in silence for what felt like forever. Dash couldn’t find the words or the courage to speak, or move, or even cry; until Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around her.

The shaky makeshift walls within Dash crumbled. It was too much, she couldn’t hold it in any longer. Dash began to weep uncontrollably. Fluttershy held her tighter. No, not just Fluttershy, everypony, all of her friends, they were all gathered around her, all embracing her.

“She’s… gone,” sobbed Dash, between gasping breaths. “She… gave her… self… for… me. I didn’t… want… I want… her… back… I need her… back… this… isn’t… fair…” Her friends held her tighter.

What was she supposed to do now? How could she live like this, in this body without Twilight? It was stupid, it was unfair, it was… her thoughts failed as grief overtook her. All Dash could do was cry and all she could think of was Twilight.

All throughout, her friends held her and let her cry. They did not offer empty words of comfort, nor try to force reason or questions upon her. They were simply there for her, to hold her and protect her, for it was all they could do.

“She’s gone,” Dash repeated when her tears had subsided. Her eyes burned, but there were no more tears she could cry.

“You mean y’all dreamt that she’s gone?” asked Applejack. “Twilight said that might happen, that she would become silent or something. So, she’s still in there someplace… isn’t she?”

Dash shook her head.

“No,” said Dash. “This wasn’t a dream. This was real. I was there, at the edge of death… I watched her… I saw her…” She wrapped her hooves around herself like she could still feel the cold touch. “I was there with only the darkness and the nothing and… Twilight… She… She pushed me back… She saved me. She gave herself for me…

“I didn’t dream it,” repeated Dash her eyes defiant. “I watched Twilight die and it felt just the same as when I… died…”

The whole room went completely silent. Every pony had an expression of utter terror upon their face.

“So, Twilight… she’s really…” said Applejack at last, her voice choked. Dash closed her eyes tight, but neither nodded nor spoke. “What will we do without her? What will Equestria do without her?”

“Omgosh!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, suddenly jumping back. “Omgosh, omgosh, omgosh, omgosh!” she repeated. Everypony looked at her with concern. “I totally forgot! I wasn’t supposed to forget, but I totally did! I can’t believe I forgot!”

“Pinkie,” said Applejack, worry in her voice. “Calm down, what did you forget? What’s wrong now?”

“Something’s wrong with the Elements of Harmony!” exclaimed Pinkie.

“The… Elements of Harmony?” asked Rarity with concern. “What do you mean?”

“You know, the Elements of Harmony!” cried Pinkie Pie. “Generosity, kindness, laughter …”

“We know what the elements are,” interrupted Applejack. “I think what Rarity meant is, what’s wrong with them?”

“I’m sorry,” said Pinkie, looking sadly at Rarity before she turned to the rest of her friends. “When Celestia asked us to choose,” Rarity suddenly looked horror struck, “Rarity picked Dash.” Pinkie’s eyes turned to Dash, but the horned pegasus showed no reaction.

“Yeah, so?” asked Applejack, not following.

“But Dash wasn’t Rarity’s real choice,” continued Pinkie.

“Pinkie, I hardly think this is important right now,” said Rarity loudly, trying to end the conversation. Applejack gave her a stern glance and she went quiet.

“She really wanted to pick Twilight,” continued Pinkie. “She promised she would pick Twilight. But she didn’t because she didn’t want to have to be the one to make the choice. She did the most selfish thing I can think of. And she wasn’t generous.”

“Is that true,” snarled Applejack, turning on Rarity. The white unicorn shrunk away, first trying to put on an unconvincing smile of innocence then cowering backwards like a little foal as Applejack bore down on her. “Did y’all pick Dash just so you wouldn’t have to be the one to choose? Do you have any idea what I went through? What that choice did to me?”

“I… I…” Rarity’s words seemed to fail her.

“There’s more!” shouted Pinkie. Applejack turned her attention away from Rarity, but the look in her eyes said they weren’t done with this yet. “When we were out looking for Twilight Dash, Fluttershy started shouting at everypony. I’ve never seen her so angry… actually, I’ve never seen her angry before.” All heads turned towards Fluttershy, she glared back defiantly.

“So what if I got a little upset!” snapped Fluttershy. “I just wanted them to give Rainbow some space, so she wouldn’t panic.”

“And worst of all, I haven’t felt like laughing,” continued Pinkie. “Not even a chuckle or a giggle.”

“So what?” said Dash bitterly. “What does it matter? What does any of it matter now… Without Twilight, the elements don’t mean anything. Without Twilight…” She broke off into silence, looking away from her friends. Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around Dash protectively.

“I agree with Dash, so what?” said Fluttershy, there was anger in her words. “Who cares if three of the elements have stumbled a little? Is that really something to get so worked up about right now? Can’t you see what this is doing to Dash?”

“It’s not just you three,” said Applejack looking away from her friends. Everypony turned to stare at her. “I lied to Twilight. I told her that I didn’t blame her for what happened. I think what she did was brave, I really do. I know she tried her best to fix this mess, but she’s really just made it so much worse. And I do blame her for the way things have gotten.”

Pinkie turned to Dash and stared at her.

“What?” asked Dash uncomfortably. Fluttershy held her tighter as if trying to shield her from the wrath of accusation that was about to fall upon her.

“Twilight gave her life for you,” said Pinkie. “You said so.”

“You don’t think I know that!” shouted Dash, feeling anger rising to her face. “You think I wanted her to do that?”

“She did the most loyal thing anypony could do,” whispered Pinkie, she looked Dash in the eyes. “Which means…” Pinkie turned away abruptly before trotting over to a table near the corner. “Dash, can you levitate this?” Pinkie was pointing at a bowl on the table.

Dash’s eyes widened at the odd request. It took her a moment to remember that she had a unicorn horn and thus could perform magic. But she didn’t know the first thing about magic. Having a horn didn’t mean one instantly knew spells. After all Twilight had studied all her life…

The strangest sensation rolled through Dash’s thoughts. Levitation, she knew levitation. There it was in her minds eye, the principles, the theories, the practicalities. It was like she had studied it all her life.

“Pinkie!” said Fluttershy sharply. “Would you just let it go!”

“No,” said Dash, putting a gentle hoof on Fluttershy’s foreleg. “I guess I could try.”

Try was the wrong word. She hardly even had to think it. The magic flowed through her horn with a warm tingling sensation and she lifted the bowl easily. Dash felt a little surprised at how easy it came to her. Unicorns made levitation look effortless, and it really was. Dash just didn’t understand why.

“What about teleporting,” demanded Pinkie, pointing at a spot on the ground beside her.

“I don’t see the point in…” complained Dash, not wanting to do this anymore, she didn’t like the way it was making her feel. Pinkie pointed at the spot again, glaring at Dash. “Ugh-okay, sure, whatever.”

She coaxed Fluttershy to release her from the protective embrace, giving her a strained smile. Reluctantly Fluttershy let go of Dash.

Levitation had been one thing but teleporting that was… With a pop and flash Dash slipped through the fabric of reality as easily as one might dive into a pool of water. Dash reappeared next to Pinkie with a surprised expression on her face.

“Our traits are faltering,” said Pinkie seriously. “Just like they did when Discord tricked us into betraying them. But not yours, yours has changed. You’re not loyalty anymore. You’re…”

“Magic…” whispered Dash. She sat back on her haunches, completely flabbergasted at the realization.

“Wait, how is that even possible?” asked Applejack. Pinkie shrugged.

“I have no idea,” answered the pink pony. “I don’t understand why stuff happens, I just know it does.”

“I think I need to go check out a book,” said Dash, pushing herself back to her feet.

The hospital staff would have been less than happy to find out that their most high profile patient had once more snuck out. They would have been even less happy if they had found out that her friends had encouraged it. However, the nurse waiting at the door had seen nopony leave, even if the room had become very quiet behind her.

They were not three stories up this time. The waiting room was on ground level and utilizing the window for escape had been fairly straightforward, with only Fluttershy taking a little tumble out of it when she had climbed down rather than use her wings.

With the search over, Ponyville was peaceful and calm once again. The windows of the houses were dark and everypony had gone back to their homes for sleep. Only the glow of the full moon, just now starting to rise, gave any light to the darkness of the night.

Dash gazed at the moon for a long moment and a strange thought occurred to her.

“Where did Celestia go?” whispered Dash.

“Back to Canterlot,” answered Applejack. “Right when the search started she said she had to go. She didn’t say why.” Dash wondered what could be so important that her mentor would abandon searching for her.

What would Celestia do when she returned? Would she try and put Dash back the way she had once been, or leave her in this body? Dash shook her head again. She didn’t want to think about that either.

The library tree came into view in front of them. This place seemed inescapable. Dash had mixed feelings about the building. One part of her called it home. It stood for everything she loved in Ponyville. Another part of her remembered it as the place where she had taken her last breath as Rainbow Dash. She felt a cold shiver run up her spine as they neared their destination.

The front door was still ajar and the downstairs was completely dark. As they entered the lower room, the candles flickered to life. It took Dash a moment to realize that it had been her that had done it. She hadn’t even had to think about the spell this time, like it was almost automatic.

The downstairs was in ruins. Torn pages from countless books littered the floor. The splintered table sat sadly at the center of the destruction. It broke her heart to see the room in the shape it was.

“Spike!” shouted Dash, causing everypony to jump.

“Dang it Dash,” cried Applejack. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

Hurried footsteps echoed from the next room. The small baby dragon named Spike sprinted out before them. He stared up at the five ponies gathered in the library.

“You’re back…” he said, his eyes watering. He rushed forward, his tiny arms wrapped around Dash’s leg in a hug. “When they took you away… I…”

“Spike,” repeated Dash, much more softly this time. Spike’s eyes widened a little and he let go.

“Twilight, what’s wrong with your voice?” asked Spike. Dash felt a little stab of pain in her heart.

“Spike…” whispered Rarity. “That isn’t…”

“It’s nothing,” interrupted Dash. “We’re in a hurry and I need my number one assistant right now, can you help, it’s really super important.” Spike saluted.

“Of course,” said Spike, with sort of an odd look on his face. “Should I make a checklist?”

“No, we don’t have time,” said Dash. Spike’s eyes went even wider.

“We… don’t… have… time? For a checklist?” cried Spike. “Twilight, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m totally fine,” lied Dash. “I need the book The Mysteries of Magic, I also need…” she began to list off spell components.

“Are you sure you don’t want a checklist?” asked Spike. Dash glared at him. “Alright, alright!”

In only a few moments Dash had the book in hoof, she propped it open on the floor, turning the pages to a drawing of several inlayed circles and crisscrossing lines. Using the chalk that Spike had brought back on his second round trip, Dash began to trace the pattern onto the floor. She used her magic to clear away debris while holding the drawing implement in her mouth.

“Are you sure that book is such a good idea?” asked Fluttershy. “Spike said it was in the dangerous spellcraft section.”

“I know,” said Dash. “I told him to put it there so nopony would check it out by mistake, thinking it was The Magic of Mysteries.” Rarity blushed a little.

“Hold on,” said Applejack. “You told him to put it there?” Dash nodded, causing the careful line she was drawing to smudge a little. She wiped away the mistake with a feathered wing. “Since when do you file books in the library?”

“Since I…” said Dash. She paused, her concentration broken by the question. She… she never sorted books in the library, that was a job for eggheads like Twi… Dash shook her head again. When had she told Spike that? “I don’t remember.”

“Part of Twilight is still in there, isn’t she?” asked Applejack.

“Yes,” said Dash after a long moment. “Something she gave me, to keep safe…”

“Her life,” whispered Applejack. “That’s what she told me when we were in that dream-place.”

“Part of her is still here,” said Dash, tapping her temple. “Not like another voice or another mind, not like it was before. It’s kind of like this library.” She waved a hoof at the room. “You can see all her things, and they tell you about her, but they aren’t her, she isn’t here. But I think I can bring her back.” Dash went back down to continue her work. “I know I can…”

“Dash,” asked Rarity. Since they had left the hospital she had been the quietest and Applejack kept giving her dirty looks whenever she made any noise. Applejack glared at her now, but Rarity continued with her question. “You said Twilight was gone. You said she…” Rarity paused a long time at the word. “You said she died for you.” Dash winced, but said nothing.

“What are you trying to do here?” pressed Rarity. “You know as well as I do, that there are some things magic simply can’t do. If she really is… dead… Dash, there is no spell or power in all the world that can undo that.”

Dash halted her drawing once again and Rarity went quiet.

“I don’t have time to explain,” said Dash looking away from her friends. “And this will go faster if you all help. Applejack, can you give me a hoof with drawing this? Fluttershy, Rarity, I need you to start work on those jars that Spike is bringing up.” She indicated the small pile of multi colored jars that Spike was hauling out of the basement two at a time. “Pinkie you, just, uh, I don’t know, do something…”

All of the ponies busied themselves with their tasks and the talking fell to a minimum. Spike kept reappearing with the things Dash had asked for. Every now and then he had to ask what was next but otherwise the room was silent with the toil of work.

The drawing was huge, taking up nearly the entire floor. The ruined table had been pushed aside and the ground cleared of stray pages, by Pinkie Pie who was busily matching them back to their books, with surprising accuracy.

All around the outside of the circle were tiny bottles of different sizes. They too had small little pictures on them. Dash helped prepare the last few.

“That should be the last of them,” said Dash, doing one last count of the jars. In all, there were forty two bottles evenly spaced around six concentric circles and a multitude of crisscrossing lines that comprised the intricate pattern.

“Alright,” said Dash, a quick flap of her wings brought her to the center of the symbol on the ground. “Stand back!” Her friends moved clear, as did Spike. “I’ll be back as quick as I can. Wish me luck.” Her horn began to glow, and the tiny glass jars all around the room vibrated with her magical energy. The chalk lines blazed with colored light, streaming out from Dash.

“Woah, hold on just a minute,” shouted Applejack. She leapt the lines and landed right beside Dash. “Where do you think you’re going?” The magic pouring out of Dash did not stop.

“Applejack!” shouted Dash. “What’re you doing! You need to stay clear!”

“Did you think we would let you do this all alone?” asked Rarity as she trotted up to Dash’s other side, carefully stepping over each line. The magic intensified. Dash couldn’t halt the spell, not now that it was started. She knew what would happen if she did, it might rip a hole in the earth large enough to engulf all of Ponyville.

“We’re all in this together,” said Fluttershy, landing softly behind Dash.

“I want to go into the dream-thingy too this time!” cried Pinkie as she hop-scotched across the glowing lines of white fire to land in front of Dash.

“We aren’t going to the dream-space,” said Dash. A vortex of rainbow light rose up around them, engulfing the five ponies. “We’re going into death. We’re going to get Twilight.”

_________

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Atop the tallest tower in Canterlot, Princess Luna watched over all of Equestria. From way up high, everything looked so tiny, although not as small as it had looked when she had seen it from her lunar prison.

The night was dark. Only the twinkling stars above gave any indication where the ground ended and the sky began. The Moon had not yet been raised, although she would attend to that in a few more minutes. The ground was covered in shadows, broken only by a few small flickering lights where there were cities. Any pony out tonight would need a lamp or they would not even be able to see the tip of their own muzzle.

However, Luna was not just any pony, she was a princess, an immortal, a goddess given form. She was blessed with powers beyond that of other ponies. She could easily see the most distant rock, on the most distant shore of Equestria, but she was not looking for rocks.

During the night, it was her job to keep watch over the sleeping ponies below. It was her duty to keep them safe from harm. It was her purpose to protect them after the sun had gone down. Just as her sister did during the day.

Yet, a thousand years ago, she had abandoned that protection. While the ponies praised her sister for the Sun, she had thought they feared the coming of her night. Little by little her resentment began to grow. The thoughts welled up inside her like a poison, bringing out the worst of her.

Magic, after all, was tempered by emotions. The cruel fate of being ignored by her subjects, the whispered lies the other ponies said behind her back and her own greed of wanting her night to last forever, all twisted inside her. Luna had let her negative feelings become a monster. Mixed with her magic, that monster manifested itself as Nightmare Moon.

Luna flinched at the name.

No matter how she tried to forget, that tainted experience was still a part of her. It would always be a part of her. The Elements of Harmony, powerful though they were, could not take away the truth of what she had done. Not everything could simply be fixed.

Luna flapped her wings uncomfortably. Her horn glowed softly with an aura of midnight-black magic. At the edge of the world, the smallest glint of silver broke the horizon as the moon began to rise. It would be a full moon tonight, just like it had been then, on the night her sister had banished her for a thousand years. Nightmare Moon had wanted nighttime eternal and darkness forever but those were not the reasons her sister had imprisoned her in the Moon.

Luna closed her eyes, she could still hear the voices in her mind of the memories past.

“Sister! Thou must stop!” cried the memory of Celestia. “This cannot be thy kind heart’s true desire. We do not want this, thou doest not want this, not truly! Thy subjects love thee, thou would givest anything for them!”

“They mock us,” whispered Nightmare Moon. Luna shivered. The voice was still clear in her mind, the sound impossible to forget. It made her insides crawl just to hear it. Cold, empty and sinister, the voice was without compassion, a hollow echo of Luna’s own. “They look upon us and see fear. So we shalt be honest and give them fear, for it is what they want of us. We shalt be generous and give them darkness, for it is what they need of us. And we shalt be kind and give them death, for it is what they deserve of us.

“Then shall the world crumble. There will be neither night nor day and we shall have true harmony at last.”

“Sister!” shouted a voice. Luna was snapped from her memories. Her eyes flashed up to see her older sister soaring down from the sky. Luna blinked, surprised by Celestia’s presence. Celestia was the keeper of the sun and followed its cycle closely, just as Luna did with the moon.

They often saw each other during the twilight hours when the world was neither night nor day. But Luna had missed her sister this night. Celestia had been away on urgent business. Luna couldn’t remember the last time she had seen Celestia awake at night… The nighttime princess looked away. Yes, she could recall the last time. She had just been remembering it.

“My sister,” replied Luna as Celestia came to land at the edge of the tower. “Thou are’t up late this evening. We were told that thou was’t in Ponyville, dealing with a matter most important.”

“Yes,” said Celestia, her wings folding down to her sides as she trotted up to Luna. “I have just come from there. My faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, is in danger.”

“Twilight is in danger?” exclaimed Luna, her eyes widening.

When Luna had returned from her banishment, she had not come home to a warm welcome, apart from her sister. While nopony would dare say anything to her face, she could see it in their fearful glances and hear it in their quivering voices. They were afraid of her.

Not until Nightmare Night, a holiday dedicated to the monster she had been, had Luna finally met somepony that was not fearful of her. She had met Twilight Sparkle. She had found a friend in the young mare, a kindred spirit. It was the first time Luna could remember smiling since she had come back. When she had told Celestia of this, her sister had simply smiled and said that she would have expected no less of her protégé.

“Tell us, what has happened?” asked Luna impatiently.

“Do you remember Aurora Winds?” asked Celestia quietly. Even though Celestia’s face was calm, Luna could hear the distress in her sister’s voice and see the anger deep within her eyes.

“Of course,” replied Luna in confusion. “How could we possibly forget the first bearer of the element of magic?” Luna’s eyes widened suddenly. She knew the truth in her sister’s unspoken words. “It has not happened again, has it? As it did before between magic and kindness…”

“No, not just like before,” said Celestia. Luna relaxed slightly only to feel the shock return even stronger at her sister’s very next words. “Twilight has fused herself with Rainbow Dash, the element of loyalty. I have tried to separate them, as I did so long ago with Aurora Wind and Silver Stars but it did not work.” She gazed seriously at Luna. “I need your help sister.”

“Is there no other way?” asked Luna sadly. She had been there when her sister had faced down the abomination of magic and kindness. There had been a battle and destruction and death. It was a terrible memory, she did not want to relive it, not with Twilight Sparkle.

“There is no other way,” said Celestia. “You know this as well as I. If we let this imbalance exist… if we allow the elements to fuse… You remember. I do not need to remind you.”

“No, you do not,” said Luna looking away in shame.

“Sister,” whispered Celestia sadly, it was obvious that she had not wanted to reopen old wounds. “We did not know then what we know now. If I knew what they would do to you, what having three elements within you would do… I never would have allowed us to bear them. I do not blame you, I have never blamed you. I blame my…”

“We should waste no more time,” interrupted Luna, turning her back to her sister. “Come, let us depart.” With a quick beat of her wings, the princess of the night was lifted into the air.

A moment later she could hear her sister join the flight behind her. Celestia stayed a short distance back, giving her space. Luna’s thoughts slipped back into her memories. It was the last thing she wanted to think about right now but she couldn’t help herself.

“How can thou want this!” asked the memory of Celestia. “How can thou want to bring disharmony upon us? How can thou want to upset the balance we worked so hard to maintain. Thou hast torn the very fabric of the world.”

“Can thou not see how the world will be better once we bathe it in night forever?” asked Nightmare Moon with a sinister smile.

“No,” said Celestia. “We will not allow that.”

“Then stop us, dear sister,” replied Nightmare Moon. “Thou hast the power to kill us. Undo what thou hast helped create. Destroy us and banish kindness and honesty and generosity from this world.” Nightmare Moon’s smile widened. “And in that act, destroy thyself and rip thee precious harmony to shreds!” Nightmare Moon laughed, a cold, high-pitched, inpony sound.

Celestia stood frozen. Unable to do what was required of her.

“Thou must,” pleaded a small voice. Celestia’s eyes widened. With all of the willpower she had left, Luna had managed to show through the monster that dominated her. “To restore balance, thou must fuse us with the Moon. Make us part of the world we tried to steal away.” Luna glanced up in Nightmare Moon’s body, seeing the silver orb high above. “Let the elements slip back into the world for others to have, for we were never meant to bear them…”

Celestia hesitate for a moment but understood.

“When there is balance,” said Celestia softly as her horn began to glow. Nightmare Moon began to glow as strings of fusion magic wrapped around her. High above, the Moon began to glow too. “When new bearers appear, we will bring thee back and we will find a way to give thee harmony.”

Luna blinked away the memory and the tears. She did not want her fate to be that of Twilight Sparkle’s. She would do whatever was needed. She would put Twilight right.

Chapter 13

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Chapter 13

The bright white light was everywhere. It was all around Twilight, inside her, in her eyes and in her mind. It was like no light she had ever felt. Yet, she knew this light. This was the light of magic, of true pure magic. This was the light of life. It was the light that flowed through every living being. It was the light of existence.

It did not frighten Twilight as she walked through it. It felt safe and warm and like everything she loved.

She did not know where she was going. Everything was the same, filled only with the white light. She could see nothing but the light, which had neither sky nor ground. But still she knew she was going the right way, that there was only one way to go in a place that had no direction.

Twilight became aware that she was not alone in the light. Another pony, a mare, trotted past her, not even giving Twilight a glance. Her hoof falls were silent, causing Twilight to wonder if the other pony was even there at all. Before Twilight could give it any further thought the mare vanished into the light. She had been a white spark on a white background.

As Twilight continued, she began to realize that there were many other ponies around her. She hadn’t been able to see them, like her eyes needed to adjust to the light, or maybe it was her mind that had to adjust, she couldn’t tell. Like the first mare she had seen they were silent, as if they glided along the ground rather than walked.

There were only a few at first, moving in an out of the light as if it were a dense fog. However, the longer she walked the more shapes she began to see moving in the light. Before she even realized it, Twilight found herself walking in a herd of a hundred other ponies.

She couldn’t make out the other ponies properly. They had pony shapes, but their faces and manes were nothing more than outlines against the light, as if they were drawings that hadn’t been filled in.

Twilight felt oddly safe with them, even if they did not speak to her, nor come any closer, nor told her their names, nor even look at her. Yet even still, she felt safe, like she belonged here, Twilight couldn’t explain it.

Her thoughts were dull and fuzzy, like the light was filling her mind with its empty white noise. It was a strange sensation, not to think. All her life she had done nothing but think and plan and study and think some more but not thinking, felt good.

She felt — no she knew — that she was part of something greater. She was connected to these other ponies in a way that she could never have connected with anypony else. It was a good feeling, it was a feeling like being loved by the very world itself. She didn’t understand it, and it didn’t matter that she didn’t understand.

Twilight could have kept on walking forever. Yet something halted her progress, something, that wasn’t light but sound. No, a voice. Impossibly distant and faint, yet there it was.

The voice whispered to her, just to her and nopony else. It had said her name.

Yet it hadn’t come from any of the ponies around her. She wasn’t even sure they could speak, or what they would sound like. And she knew that voice. It was familiar and its tone filled her with the same kind of warmth she felt from the light. For the life of her, she couldn’t picture who the voice belonged to.

Now there were several voices, all calling for her. She knew them all. Twilight stopped walking and the herd of outlined ponies parted at her back, flowing around her like she was a stone in a stream.

Twilight started to turn her head to look back.

“Don’t look back,” said one of the ponies made of light. Twilight was startled by the voice, she hadn’t expected any of the ponies to be able to speak. It was a colt who had stopped beside her. She couldn’t make out his featureless face, nor his cutie mark, just his outline. “That way, that place, is no longer for you.”

“I know,” said Twilight, turning her head away. “I just thought I heard something.” The colt nodded but didn’t move, his blank face stared at her.

“You’re different,” said the colt. As he said it, a few other ponies behind him stopped to look at Twilight too. She suddenly felt uncomfortable. The warm, safe, feeling she had was starting to slip away. Thoughts were trying to force their way back into her. “You look… different.”

“Do I?” asked Twilight. “I can’t really see myself, so I don’t know.”

“You can’t?” asked a mare from Twilight’s opposite side. Twilight turned to look at her. There was not one, or two, or even three ponies stopped on her other side, but nearly twenty of them. The whole flow of the herd was gathering around her.

“Uh, no,” said Twilight. “I think you should all keep moving, I’m nothing special to look at.” She felt her cheeks starting to flush. All this attention was embarrassing her.

“What’s happening to your face?” asked another colt. A wave of whispers rippled through the crowd. Twilight put a hoof to her face in embarrassment, only causing her to blush deeper.

“What is that on your head?” asked one of the ponies from the crowd. Reflexively, Twilight lifted a hoof to her head and touched her horn. She suddenly realized that not a single pony gathered around her was a unicorn… nor were they pegasus. They were all just indistinct outlines.

“You have a cutie mark!” cried a filly, lifting a hoof to point at Twilight’s flank.

Twilight glanced to where the filly was pointing and went wide eyed at her cutie mark. Five white stars shimmered like they were real stars, but the large one in the center – that should have been purple – was a dull gray, like its color had been washed away

“You… don’t belong here,” said the colt that had first spoken to her. Soft murmurs of agreement echoed from the other ponies. The strange calm was unraveling all around her. The feeling of being loved was gone.

“Ye… yes I do,” stammered Twilight. How could she possibly not belong? After all she had been through they would deny her! Twilight made to move forward but found that there was no path. Hundreds of glowing light ponies blocked her way and would not move aside.

“You don’t belong here,” said several of the ponies in unison. Twilight tried to take a few steps back but she couldn’t, her hooves simply wouldn’t move that way. The ponies closed on her, the small circle of space between them shrinking. “This place is not for you.” They closed again.

Unable to go forward, unable to go back, Twilight did the only thing she could think of. She ran sideways. This path was not blocked, nor did the light ponies attempt to stop her. She galloped as hard as she could, not glancing back.

Twilight wasn’t sure how long it took but at last the number of ponies around her thinned. The further away she got the less outlines there were, until, at last, she was alone again in the world of white.

Twilight came to stop and listened for the voices that had called her name, for the voice that had started this whole mess but she couldn’t hear them.

It was odd, before the voices, she’d had no concept of direction. She had simply been walking. Not forwards or back, just walking. Now, however, everything had a definite direction. Everything was still white and featureless, every direction still looked the same. Except now she could tell which way was forward and which way was back.

Experimentally, she tried to take a step back and found that she simply couldn’t. Her legs would not move in that direction. She tried taking a step forward and found it was easy. Side to side worked too, although it was a little more difficult to do.

Twilight looked forward again. She didn’t really want to go that way anymore, with the warm feeling of love gone, that direction almost felt cold. Nor did she want to encounter the light ponies again, she didn’t want them to see that she was different.

For a long moment, she stood there, trying to decide what she should do.

She heard her name called for a third time. This voice, like her, was different from the others. It was softer, warmer and gentler. The voice also had an odd quality that Twilight couldn’t put into words; it felt like reading a good book, there was no other way for her to comprehend it. And it was coming from the direction she had been galloping, the sideways direction.

Twilight continued sideways, not knowing where she was going, or what she would find.

Dash could feel all of her friends holding her tightly. If they were screaming, she could not hear them. They were plummeting through the darkness, rapidly approaching the barrier that separated life and death, the place where Dash had felt Twilight push her back into life.

All around them was a spinning vortex of rainbow colors that flared out from Dash’s horn, similar to the cone that formed whenever she preformed the sonic rainboom. It was meant to protect them, meant to keep them alive as they crossed over into death. In truth, Dash had no idea what it would actually do. Only one pony had ever dared to use this spell before and it was in his hoof that the words of caution were written in The Mysteries of Magic. Dash could remember the passage.

I gazed out upon the vast darkness and knew that I had reached the place that was forbidden to the living. It is the space between worlds where none but the most foolhardy would willingly venture into. Beyond it is the vast nothing and beyond that is death itself. There are no answers there. There are no loved ones to bring back. There are only those who are at peace and we have neither right nor power to tamper with them.

Star Swirl the Bearded, possibly the greatest unicorn wizard that had ever lived, had written that when he had returned from Death. He had sought to return a loved one, to go beyond the veil of life and take from the other side. It was said that when he returned empty hoofed he debated for a month if he should destroy the spell or not.

In the end, it remained. As with all magic, once it was discovered it could not be lost. Somepony would inevitably stumble upon it again but without his words of caution to guide them against its use.

Words of caution that Dash had ignored.

Dash could see the nothing now, or rather the absence of darkness. She gritted her teeth knowing the cold was about to come. However, it did not. They slammed into the nothing and stopped. The nothing stretched and bent like a taught sheet. For one terrible moment, Dash thought they would be flung back into life.

However, the rainbow vortex began to spin faster around them. It was almost like a drill, forcing its way through into the nothing. They sank into it and Dash had to close her eyes. Staring at the nothing was very unpleasant, like her eyes weren’t meant to see it.

She could feel the resistance slacken and finally break and they were racing forward again.

Dash let her eyes open once more. It was no longer the nothing around them but a crystal blue sky filled with countless silver clouds! It was possibly the most beautiful thing Dash had ever seen. She wanted to look at them all, each was unique, each was special, but she kept herself focused. Twilight, they were here for Twilight.

“TWILIGHT!” shouted Dash as loudly as she could. She had no idea if her friend would have any chance of hearing her but… more shouts, her friends, they were shouting Twilight’s name too. Dash couldn’t help but smile.

She hadn’t intended to bring them along. They had foalishly jumped into the gateway as she was casting the spell. Only Spike had been too cautious to join them knowing that it was dangerous to leap into magic one didn’t understand. However, that hadn’t stopped her four friends.

They were moving very fast now. Clouds were racing past in blurred streaks. Above them, a lightning bolt shot through the sky, its jagged shape twisted and turned towards its destination.

Dash wasn’t sure but she thought the clouds might be… angry at them. She didn’t know why she thought that. But she didn’t want to linger here and find out.

The rainbow vortex was carrying them towards a grouping of six clouds. The other clouds were moving away from the gathering, as if they were afraid of the approaching ponies. Dash focused in on the group.

The six clouds began to change. Her eyes widened as she saw them. They weren’t clouds, they were cutie marks! And she could make out her cutie mark, represented in the six clouds! No. Not just her cutie mark but her friends as well. The five symbols all surrounded a giant dull gray star. Twilight’s cutie mark.

Dash pushed her hooves out in front of her, their speed increased.

“We’re coming Twilight,” said Dash. “Just hold on a little longer.”

The light around Twilight began to dim, although it did not fade. Her hooves clopped against something not made of light but made of stone. Glancing down, Twilight found cobblestones beneath her hooves. It was intricate stonework that had taken both time and craftsponyship. She knew these stones, knew this street. She was in Canterlot.

As she realized where she was the rest of the city seemed to form out of the light, building itself around her. Although, not all of it came into existence. Much of the city was still bathed in hazy white light, only partially finished. It was as if the towers were rising out of the light.

Like the ponies before it, this Canterlot was just outlines, simple shapes that had only one color, white. While a few buildings had signs, they were blank. It was Canterlot and yet, it was not. Her pace unchanged, Twilight continued to walk in the same direction she had been traveling while the world drew itself into existence around her.

At last the path ended in a sort of balcony. Twilight knew this place, she had come here many times to think, both when she had lived in Canterlot and after she had moved to Ponyville.

This spot looked out over Equestria. From here she could see much of the distant southern land. When she had lived in Canterlot, she had never really seen Ponyville as anything but a simple little town. To her, it had been nothing more than just another part of the landscape.

Yet, after she had moved to Ponyville, and made it her new home, whenever she came to Canterlot to visit, she would inevitably find herself at this spot, looking longingly down at the cozy town below. How strange it was to think of all the times she had come here and never really noticed it before.

Twilight looked over the balcony, there was no Ponyville below just more of the soft white light.

“A bit for your thoughts, Twilight?” asked a kind voice from beside her. Shocked and surprised, Twilight turned from the overlook. Standing along side her, just as tall as Twilight remembered, with the same kind smile she always had on her face, was Princess Celestia.

Completely forgetting herself, Twilight jumped up and hugged the Princess, only remembering a moment later how improper the gesture was. However, before Twilight could pull away, she felt the Princess’s foreleg wrap around her, returning the embrace.

“Princess!” cried Twilight, overjoyed and afraid at the same time. “What… how?”

“Is it really so strange to find me here?” asked Celestia.

“Yes, actually,” muttered Twilight. She looked away, slightly ashamed of herself.

“No my little pony, there is nothing for you to be sad about,” said Celestia, using her hoof to gently turn Twilight’s face back to her.

“But I don’t understand,” said Twilight. “I know what happened to me, I know what I did! You know what I did! Aren’t you… disappointed in me?”

“Twilight, I will never be disappointed in you,” said Celestia. “Not when you work so hard and give so much.” Twilight hugged her mentor again, tears of joy and sadness starting down her face. “I am only sad that you have come to this place so soon.”

“Where am I anyhow?” asked Twilight, pulling back from the embrace but not letting go of the princess, afraid the other pony would vanish if she did.

“You are where you need to be,” said Celestia with a smile. Twilight frowned.

“No, I mean what is this place?” asked Twilight, rephrasing her question and hoping for a better answer.

“It is what you need it to be,” replied Celestia. Twilight rolled her eyes in frustration.

“Why does it look like Canterlot? Why am I here, why are there no other ponies here except us!” cried Twilight, finally letting go of Celestia in frustration. She was about to take a few steps back, but couldn’t, so she stepped to the side instead.

Twilight felt her eyes widen in confusion. Celestia only solidly existed from the neck up. Just like the towers of the city and the ponies she had walked with in the herd, Celestia’s body and wings were only a fuzzy white outline of light. It was as if she were made from parts of the sun.

“What…” was all Twilight could manage to say. She gaped for a long moment before finally recovering herself. “What are you?” asked Twilight at last.

“That was quite a few questions,” said Celestia thoughtfully. “Let’s see. Well, this place looks like Canterlot because that is what you expect it to look like. You already know the reason you are here, you made the choice to be. And we are not the only ponies in this place. You, are the only pony in this place.

“As to what I am, the answer itself is not difficult, although it may not be possible for you to comprehend.”

“Try me,” said Twilight flatly.

“Very well,” answered Celestia with a nod. “I am the Celestia that exists within you. The part that is both how I actually am and how you want me to be. I am not a memory, nor a dream. I am the Celestia that exists within all ponies, in magic that flows through unicorns, lifts pegasus into the sky and tends to the earth ponies on the ground. I am the Celestia that shines down from the sun that you feel on your coat and see in your eyes.”

Twilight stared at Celestia, trying to comprehend. The tall white glowing princess smiled gently down at Twilight.

“As I said, it was unlikely that you would understand,” said Celestia. “However it is not important that you understand. Not all things need to be understood. What is important is that you accept.”

“That I accept you’re some glowing, not-memory, sun… thingy?” asked Twilight, her brow furling in frustration. “And that everything here is crazy?”

“No,” replied Celestia. She took a step back and her whole form became even more fuzzy. "There is something you must accept about yourself..."

“Wait!” shouted Twilight. She charged forward, trying to grab Celestia but her hoof passed through the light and her mentor was gone. “What do I have to accept! Please! Come back! Tell me!”

However, there was no answer and Twilight found herself all alone at the balcony’s edge. Her eyes glanced over the balcony once more, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ponyville below but still there was nothing except the light.

Twilight looked down sadly. What was she supposed to do now? She didn’t belong here, but she couldn’t go back. There were no ponies here with her, no Celestia. She was all alone. She missed her friends.

Twilight noticed something odd about the ground. It wasn’t white anymore, it flickered with colors. The stones that had been washed out white, were turning gray, just as they were in Canterlot.

A roar and a crack like thunder was the only warning that Twilight had. She was able to glance skyward just in time to see a rainbow vortex racing down out of the sky. She was just quick enough to move sideways and avoid a collision.

The vortex slammed into the ground in front of her in an explosion of rainbow light. She held a hoof up to shield her eyes from it. Being so long in the world of white the bright vibrant colors of the rainbow-thing was almost too much for her.

When at last she could look at it, Twilight discovered that the thing which nearly crushed her appeared to be some kind of giant pillar of rainbow light. It was turning slowly and Twilight could see through the semi-transparent sides. There was something inside it.

“Oh, come on! I ended up on the bottom again?” cried a voice that Twilight knew. It was the first voice that had called out to her. The voice she knew the best. “Twilight!” cried the voice.

Quickly, Twilight tumbled back, feeling a sudden panic in her chest. She scooted along the ground until her back collided with the solid wall of the balcony. Her eyes widened as she realized whose voice it was.

“Dash?” asked Twilight meekly.

“Not just Dash,” said a second voice.

“Applejack?” whispered Twilight, her heart tearing at her chest.

“Yep! We’re all here!” cried Pinkie Pie, bouncing on the pile of her friends.

“Hey, come on, get off me!” protested Dash.

“No!” said Twilight shaking her head. “No! Please no! Not all of you, you can’t all be… dead…”

“What? No!” exclaimed Dash. With a forceful push she finally managed to free herself from the pony pile. Twilight felt her eyes widen seeing Dash in the shared body. “We just came to get you.” Dash held out a hoof towards Twilight but she did not move to take it.

“What are you guys doing here!” cried Twilight. “You can’t be here, this isn’t possible you… wait… you didn’t! You couldn’t have! Don’t tell me you used magic to bring you here!”

Twilight’s eyes moved over the sight before her. Five of her friends were standing inside the pillar of rainbow colored light. The colors reached all the way up into the white sky as if they were attached to something incredibly distant, as if it were a bridge back to life. The ground below their hooves wasn’t cobblestone either, it was wood. Wood that she was fairly sure had come from her library. Where the edge of the pillar of rainbows ended, the ground returned to the soft white glowing stone.

“Yeah… I kind of, maybe used a forbidden spell,” said Dash with an uncomfortable smile. She rubbed the back of her neck in an embarrassed sort of way.

“Star Swirl expressly said that magic should never be used!” Twilight began to lecture. “He said we shouldn’t tamper with death! That we can’t! He said…”

“Yeah, I know what he said,” interrupted Dash. “And you can tell me all about it later.” Dash held out a hoof towards Twilight, although they were a dozen hooves apart. Dash did not leave the pillar of light. “Now come on, let’s get you out of here!”

“No,” said Twilight looking away. “I’m sorry you came here. I didn’t want you to have to go through this. But I can’t go with you. There are some things that even magic can’t do… that it shouldn’t do.”

“Horseapples to that!” shouted Applejack. “We didn’t come all this way for nothing!”

“Yes you did,” whispered Twilight. The rainbow pillar flickered and shrunk a little. As it did the wooden ground that was outside the pillar evaporated away. “Please, just… go.”

There was the clop of hoof on stone, a hiss like steam and Twilight felt something slap her across the face. She put a hoof to her cheek in confusion. Standing over her, tears falling from her eyes, was Dash. She had… she had slapped her!

“Idiot,” cried Dash. “You selfish, foalish, idiot.” Silver steam was bellowing off Dash’s body, parts of her were evaporating away just like the ground had. Beneath, her body was made of light.

“Dash! Get back here!” shouted Applejack.

“Dash please!” pleaded Fluttershy. Rarity and Pinkie were holding the yellow pegasus back, keeping her from running out to Dash.

“You think this is just about you,” whispered Dash, ignoring her friends cries of protest. “Did you even stop to think about your friends and what you were doing to them?”

“Of course!” said Twilight. “I did this for you!”

“I didn’t ask you to!” shouted Dash. “I didn’t want you too! It’s so easy for you to give up when it’s the rest of us that have to deal with the consequences.” Almost all of Dash’s lavender coat had burned away to white. Her wings were starting to hiss now as well. Like not-Celestia had been, Dash was only solid from the neck up.

“Dash, you have to get back in the pillar!” shouted Rarity. “Your body is almost gone!”

“Please Dash…” begged Twilight. “Please go back.”

“No,” said Dash seriously. “Our friends might have picked between us, but I won’t. Either we both stay here or we both live.”

“I can’t force that kind of existence on you,” said Twilight. Dash tried to interrupt but Twilight pressed on. “I had no right to do what I did. I just wanted to… to… save you. I couldn’t let you go, not like that, not so soon!” Again Dash tried to say something, but Twilight wouldn’t let her. “I wanted to put you back the way you were, I really did, but I couldn’t, I’m sorry, I’m…”

“Twilight!” Dash shouted at last, startling the rambling unicorn. “Would you just shut up for a second?” Twilight closed her mouth. “In all this you never stopped to ask me how I felt…”

“You hate me,” whispered Twilight. “You…” Dash lifted her hoof and pressed it over Twilight’s mouth.

“Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe I don’t blame you at all!” said Dash. Twilight’s eyes widened. “How could I possibly hate you?”

“Becawse as all my fawlt,” said Twilight her voice muffled behind Dash’s hoof. Dash rolled her eyes.

“Twilight, I don’t hate you,” said Dash. “And I don’t blame you. You just have to accept that!” Dash finally lowered her hoof from Twilight’s mouth. “Are you ready to come back with us now?”

“Come… back?” asked Twilight. “Do you really want that?”

“Of course we do!” exclaimed Pinkie. “How could we not want you back!”

“Pinkie is right dear, we all want you back!” said Rarity.

“But we can’t exist together,” said Twilight. “The spell is flawed. If I go back, this mess will just start all over again.”

“Maybe,” said Dash with a shrug. “Or maybe we were just flawed in how we handled it. Instead of trying to give the other what we thought they wanted, we should have asked what they needed. We should have been trying to exist in harmony with each other.” Dash put her hoof out once more.

Twilight nodded, taking Dash’s hoof and letting herself be pulled back up before embracing Dash in a hug.

“Hurry up!” shouted Fluttershy desperately. Dash and Twilight raced to the rainbow pillar. Dash slid through easily, the glow on her coat slowly fading back to lavender now that she was safely back inside. Twilight however collided with the rainbow wall, unable to pass through.

“What the hay?” asked Applejack. She put a hoof out through the wall before quickly pulling it back with a yelp like she had been burned.

Twilight pressed her hooves against the rainbow pillar, but she could not pass through.

“What’s wrong?” asked Rarity. “Why can’t she get through?”

“…we have neither right nor power to tamper with them,” whispered Twilight, taking her hooves off the pillar and placing them back on the ground. “Star Swirl was right. I’m sorry. I can’t go with you.”

“I do not give up on my friends!” exclaimed Dash, her hoof reached out through the rainbow wall to grab Twilight.

“We do not give up!” chimed in Applejack, her hoof also taking hold of Twilight.

“We want you back,” said Fluttershy, also grabbing on.

“We need you back,” said Rarity, adding her hoof to the pile.

“Because without you,” whispered Pinkie. “We would be lost. Also, I wouldn’t get my book back.”

As she touched Twilight all of five ponies’ cutie marks began to glow. Then the five shining stars on Twilight’s flank surged with energy, pouring their essence into the dull gray star at the center of her cutie mark. Slowly it began to change, its color returning. The effect was mirrored on Dash’s flank as well. On one side the cloud with the rainbow lightning bolt glowed fiercely, on the other, the dull gray star began to change back to purple.

“Pull!” shouted Pinkie. All of them pulled at Twilight. Her face slammed into the rainbow barrier and she bounced off. Her eyes tumbled in her head and her muzzle was screwed up in a dazed expression. “Oopsie! I guess we needed to wait just a little longer. My bad.”

The cutie mark on Twilight’s flank bloomed with energy as the purple star glowed with radiance.

“Pull!” Pinkie shouted again.

“Hey! Wait!” protested Twilight. But this time she was pulled through. All of them collapsed in a heap in the center of the pillar. The rainbow walls of the pillar began to spin, faster and faster.

“Alright!” shouted Pinkie. “Time to ride the rainbow!”

“Ride the whattttt-ahhhhhh!” screamed Twilight. With a jolt the vortex contracted and they were yanked roughly back into the sky.

Chapter 14

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Chapter 14

Due to many comments, many of which I agree with, this chapter has been significantly reworked, twice... So, uh, third time’s the charm? Apologies to everyone, minor stress breakdown. Hopefully this should be just a bit more fulfilling.

Applejack felt the world flicker into existence around her as the darkness of Death receded. For a brief moment everything was slightly fuzzy and out of focus. Bright, rainbow colored light filled the room. Applejack could see outlines of objects, but they had no color.

All at once, the roar — that Applejack hadn’t even realized was there — ended abruptly. Absolute silence pressed against her ears and the multi colored light left her vision. After a few blinks her eyes adjusted back to the flickering candle light.

Applejack found herself standing in the center of the library. She was in the exact same spot she had departed from. In fact — she glanced around the room — everything seemed to be exactly as it had been when they had left.

“Whoa!” said Spike, breaking the silence. Applejack found the baby dragon standing in the exact same spot he had been too, like he hadn’t moved for hours. “What was that supposed to do?”

“It let us travel into Death,” answered Rarity. She looked a little unnerved at her own words.

“Are y’all okay, sugarcube?” whispered Applejack to the lavender mare with the rainbow hair. The mare had her eyes closed and didn’t speak, but nodded very slightly.

“Into… into Death!?” cried Spike. “Good thing it didn’t work!”

“Didn’t work?” asked Fluttershy softly in mild disbelief. She peaked out from around the mare to look at Spike. “Oh no, that can’t be right, we’ve been gone for hours.”

“Uh, no,” said Spike, “You’ve just been standing right there. There was all this light and noise and stuff. I watched the whole time, you guys didn’t go anywhere!”

“But I felt it!” cried Pinkie, flinging her forelegs into the air and spinning around dramatically. “I was there, on the other side, flying through a field of the most amazing balloons I’ve ever seen! And there were streamers racing across the sky! It was like the biggest, bestest party ever!”

“Say what now?” asked Applejack. Pinkie had drawn her attention away from the unresponsive mare at the group’s center. “I didn’t see no balloons, just green fields of apple trees.”

“And I saw beautiful butterflies!” added Fluttershy, moving out to join Pinkie and Applejack. “More butterflies than I’ve ever seen before! Except…” Her voice trailed off uncertainly. “I got the feeling that they didn’t want to be my friends. Almost like they didn’t want me there.”

“Wow! Really? Because that’s exactly how I felt!” exclaimed Pinkie. “It was like I wasn’t invited to the party!”

“I can’t believe we just did that,” muttered Rarity, taking a few steps away from the group. “We shouldn’t have been able to do that… you can’t bring the dead back…”

“Rarity, are you alright?” asked Applejack, taking a hesitant step towards her. “Ya don’t look so good.”

“No, I am most certainly not ‘alright’!” snapped Rarity. “Do you have any idea what we’ve done?”

“Calm down,” said a voice that froze everypony in place. “It’s not what you think.” For a long moment there was silence. Slowly, all eyes turned to the mismatched mare standing at the center of the room.

“Twilight?” asked Spike, a note of uncertainty in his small voice.

“Not what I think?” shouted Rarity indignantly, before anypony else could speak. “Not what I think! We went into Death and we brought back the dead! How, exactly, is that not what I think?”

“Because we didn’t bring back the dead,” said the mare, her voice was different this time.

“Dash?” asked Fluttershy.

“I was wrong,” continued the voice that sounded so much like Dash. “I thought Twilight had given her life for me. But that’s not how it is, she hadn’t given her life for me, she had given it to me. So she was still alive inside me, more than just a memory or a thought. But some part of her was still missing. Something that we found in Death…”

“My soul,” said the voice of Twilight. “I thought that both of us couldn’t exist like this. It wasn’t just a conflict of minds but of our very souls. I thought that if I left, everything would fix itself for Dash. But I was wrong too. Dash helped me see the truth. Instead of accepting this body, this intertwined fate, we’ve been trying to find a way to fix it and that’s been pulling us apart.”

“Some things you just can’t fix,” said Dash a little sadly. “Some things, you just have to accept.”

“And you’ve, what, accepted this?” asked Applejack. Twilight Dash nodded hesitantly. “So what are you now, who are you now?”

“If I had to describe it,” said Twilight. “It’s not quite like how I used to be, before this whole mess happened. I’m still me in here but I’m also Dash. It’s like we share the same memories, like we’re one pony, but there are two of us.”

“It’s like we’re two ponies working together to make one,” said Dash.

“So who’s in control?” asked Pinkie. “Does like Twilight get that leg,” she pointed to their right hoof, “and Dash gets this wing over here?” In a flash she moved around Dash to tug at her wing. “And does Twilight only see out of this eye?” She looked into the purple eye, searching it closely as if she was trying to see Twilight inside it.

“No,” said Twilight. “And stop that!” They took a step away from Pinkie.

“It isn’t like either one of us is in control,” said Dash. “It’s like we both are.” She took a step forward. “Me and Twilight did that together. It’s like… like…” She struggled for a comparison.

“Like peanut butter and bananas?” suggested Pinkie Pie.

“What? No!” said Dash in confusion.

“Also, yuck,” said Twilight, sticking out their tongue. “No, it’s like we are one body, one mind, but two souls.”

“What have you done,” said a voice that made everypony jump. Applejack spun on the spot to find princesses Celestia and Luna landing just outside the library door. They did not wait to be invited in. Neither smiled as they entered and Celestia looked very displeased.

“We went into Death to get Twilight, and we flew through all this darkness, then this field of balloons, or apple trees, or butterflies, or whatever else Rarity and Dash saw, then we found Twilight and she was like, no I don’t want to go back, and Dash was like, we’re totally taking you back, and Twilight was like, okay, and I was like PULL, but it was too soon, so I was like PULL again, and now were all back and Dash and Twilight have finally worked out their problem!” said Pinkie helpfully at nearly in comprehensible speed.

“Did she even take a breath?” whispered Applejack.

“You went into the realm of Death?” asked Celestia, her face emotionless, but her glare fixed on Twilight Dash.

“Yep!” said Pinkie simply.

“So the fusion spell,” asked Celestia, “it worked? You are truly two ponies merged into one?” Twilight Dash nodded.

“I guess we are,” said Dash. “We’re both here, existing together.”

“I see,” said Celestia. “That is… unfortunate.”

“What… what do you mean?” stammered Twilight, their expression suddenly becoming upset.

“I was hoping it would not come to this,” said Celestia. “I did not want to have to go through this a second time.”

“What are y’all talking about,” asked Applejack, moving forward slightly. “Go through what?”

“The Elements of Harmony are balance,” explained Celestia. “They strengthen and complement each other. When they work together, they can accomplish great things. But they exist in balance, and Twilight Dash has changed that balance.

“You have no doubt noticed that your traits pertaining to your elements have faltered recently,” said Celestia. Applejack felt a flicker of surprise, how could Celestia possibly know that?

“Woah!” said Pinkie. “Do you have pinkie sense too?”

“No,” said Celestia. “I know, because this has happened before, twice in fact. The first time was with the first bearers of Harmony and the second time was to my sister.”

“What exactly happened?” asked Rarity slightly confused.

“Aurora Winds happened,” said Celestia. “She was the first bearer of Magic. But she used her gift for personal gain, to merge with another pony… to fuse with Silver Stars, the bearer of kindness. The disharmony created from her horrific act disrupted the balance between the elements.

“The powers became twisted as the struggle of two souls strained the bond between the bearers. Balance was replaced with chaos and harmony with discord. The internal turmoil manifested itself into the world as a physical being, as…”

“Discord…” whispered Twilight with a sudden realization. “They made Discord…” Celestia nodded slightly.

“My sister and I had no choice but to seize control of the elements ourselves,” continued Celestia. “We had to restore balance, to bring the world back into harmony. We were able to contain Discord but our actions had unforeseen consequences.”

“The elements must exist in harmony,” explained Luna. “No one pony may bear more than a single element. To hold more than one is to tip the scales of balance. For us, that imbalance brought forth a monster from within…”

“Nightmare Moon,” said Dash.

“So wait, are y’all sayin’ that because Twilight and Dash are joined together, they’re going to turn into some kind of monster?” asked Applejack.

“Perhaps,” said Celestia, “perhaps not. In both previous cases there were extenuating circumstances. With Aurora Wind, she brought disharmony through force. With Nightmare Moon, she manifested from my sisters own internal turmoil. But with each, did the elements play a part.”

“So… so what are you going to do to us?” asked Twilight. Celestia did not answer right away. The room was filled with an almost unbearable pause.

“I know what I must do,” said Celestia, her eyes fixed on Twilight. “But I would hear your answer first, Twilight Sparkle. Why did you do this?”

“I did this to save Rainbow Dash’s life,” said Twilight seriously, her own eyes locked with the princesses. “I gave up myself so that she could live.”

“I see,” said Celestia softly. “So if we were to separate you,” Twilight’s face paled, “Dash would not survive the process.” Twilight shook her head slightly. “I would also hear from Miss Rainbow Dash then, what do you want?”

“I want…” said Dash, they looked away.

“Dash no!” shouted Twilight, her eyes panicked for a moment. “She’s fine, we’re both fine with this! We’ve accepted this!” Celestia seemed to grow slightly larger, her towering form causing Twilight to shrink away, looking a little afraid.

“Speak Dash,” urged Celestia seriously. “I would hear your thoughts.”

“I want… I want to give Twilight her life back,” said Dash. “I know what she gave up for me, what she’s done for me… and I don’t want to throw that away. But… this doesn’t feel fair to her. It doesn’t feel fair to anypony. No matter how you look at it we are still two ponies trapped in a single body…”

“Then there is still uncertainty within you,” said Celestia. “You place a difficult decision before me. My sister and I cannot put you back as you were, not now that I know the truth of why you came to be. But I cannot leave you as you are, with your heart filled with uncertainty. In such a state the deterioration of your elements will only become worse.”

“Our elements are fine!” lied Applejack, then closed her mouth quickly.

“Exactly my point,” said Celestia with a sigh. “It is only a matter of time before your harmony collapses and a new blight is unleashed upon the world. I am afraid there are few choices left to us…”

“What… what are you planning to do?” asked Rarity. Celestia looked away, but did not answer.

“Thee can relinquish thy elements,” said Luna when her sister did not speak. “And balance can be restored.”

The four friends gasped in horror. But Twilight Dash did not react.

“The only other option…” said Celestia. “I do not wish to consider.”

“Twilight… you can’t,” pleaded Applejack.

“It’s the only way,” said Twilight. “Because the other option is banishment… isn’t it?” She looked pointedly at Celestia and saw the momentary flicker in her mentor’s eyes.

“What?” asked Pinkie slightly confused.

“You are correct, Twilight Sparkle,” said Celestia. “That is the only other option.”

“Then I will give up my element,” said Twilight. “All throughout this mess, Dash and I have been loyal to each other and magic has only made things worse.”

“Dash, what say you?” asked Celestia. Twilight Dash nodded, but there was a frown on their face.

“Dash agrees with me,” said Twilight. “But she doesn’t want to admit I’m right.”

“Very well,” said Celestia. She looked to her sister, who nodded.

Together the princesses’ horns began to glow, white magic mixing with black energy. The strands of magic swirled through the air, wrapping around Twilight Dash. The other four ponies backed away. The light raced faster and faster, spinning like a whirlwind. The strands passed around their body and through it and then there was a brilliant flash and the room went dark as the candles flickered out.

The shadows remained for only a moment before a pulse of light briefly illuminated the room. The light had come from a glowing gem that hung in the air, spinning slowly. It was shaped like Twilight’s cutie mark, the large purple star that adorned her left flank. All eyes were on the newly formed gem that glinted and twinkled, just like a real star.

“Is that what the elements look like?” asked Fluttershy. “It’s beautiful.”

“What, what will happen to it?” asked Twilight, finally able to pull their eyes away from the gem.

“It will be kept safe,” said Celestia. Her horn glowed and a protective bubble wrapped around the gem. “Until the two of you have found true harmony within yourself.”

“So… you’ll let us stay like this?” asked Dash.

“Well that is up to you,” said Celestia. “You may have finally accepted how you are, but it may be some time before you can accept who you are.”

“The hour grows late,” said Luna. “Sister you should return to rest, or you will miss the sunrise.”

“Yes, you are right sister,” said Celestia, for the first time looking a little worn out. “When you are ready Twilight Dash, when you have balanced yourself, your element will be waiting for you.” Twilight Dash nodded.

Celestia and Luna departed back to Canterlot, carrying with them the Element of Magic, held protectively between them. Twilight watched it with sad eyes. It felt like she had lost a bigger part of herself than when she had merged with Dash.

Twilight had wanted to start working to put the library back in order, but Dash had suggested it could wait for tomorrow. The princesses had been right, there was still turmoil within them. Their problems might have been sorted out for their body and mind, but they were still having problems being a single pony, no matter how much Twilight didn’t want to admit it.

Their friends had insisted on staying the night. Dash had wanted to refuse but Twilight welcomed the company. In the end they had compromised with themself, if somewhat reluctantly. Their friends could stay, but there would be none of that girly sleep over stuff, just sleep.

With a cheer, Pinkie Pie produced several sleeping bags for them, seemingly out of nowhere. The friends laid the roll out sleeping mats on the floor in a circle so that they could all see one another.

“I always keep some sleeping bags stashed nearby, just incase there is an emergency sleepover party, which there is!” cried Pinkie, blowing on the paper trumpet she had gotten from some place. “So what game should we play first!”

“I said none of that girly stuff!” insisted Dash.

“Yeah, I don’t think we are gona play any games tonight,” said Applejack wearily. Pinkie’s ears drooped a little. “There will be time later, once we’ve recovered from all this excitement.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” said Pinkie a little sadly. Then her face perked up. “But there is time for cake right? There is always time for cake!”

“Sure,” said Twilight. “I guess we could do cake before we go to sleep.” She could feel Dash’s reluctant thoughts give a little to the idea of cake.

“Alright!” cheered Pinkie. “I’ll be right back!” With a whoosh, she vanished in a pink blur.

“Where is she going to get a cake at this hour?” asked Dash, settling down into their sleeping bag.

“Oh, you know Pinkie Pie,” said Rarity, “I’m sure she has an emergency party cake some place.” The room went quiet, while they waited for Pinkie to return. No pony seemed to know what to say, or what to ask. Finally, it was Fluttershy, of all ponies, who broke the silence.

“Dash, are you really unhappy fused with Twilight,” asked Fluttershy.

“No… not unhappy,” said Dash after a moment. “Uncomfortable maybe? It’s really kind of strange, not in a bad way, just, strange. It’s like having somepony else in here with me. I don’t know… it’s like Celestia said, we might have accepted how we are… but I think it’s going to take more time for us to accept who we’ve become.”

“I promise I’ll do everything I can to make this better for you,” whispered Twilight to herself.

“We’ll do everything we can,” corrected Dash. “We have to do this together.” Twilight Dash smiled.

“So what’s it like in there?” asked Applejack. “Can you hear each others thoughts?”

“Sometimes,” said Dash. “Sometimes its just murmurs, but when Twilight is really thinking hard about something, its like she’s whispering in my ear.”

“I keep remembering things,” said Twilight. “It’s hard to tell if they were things I did, or things Dash did. Like there is this one memory, where I was trying to show off to this colt I had a crush on. I was trying to get as close to the ground as I could before pulling up.” Twilight smiled and Dash frowned.

“Wait!” cried Dash. “That’s my memory!”

“So what happened?” asked Applejack slyly.

“Nothing happened!” said Dash defensively.

“I ended up crashing into him!” said Twilight with a giggle and a blush. All of the girls couldn’t help but laugh.

“Oh yeah! Well I can find embarrassing memories in here too!” said Dash. They were quiet for a long moment, their face strained as they searched. “Wow Twilight, your childhood was really boring! It’s all just studying and more studying! Didn’t you have any fun before you came to Ponyville?”

“Of… of course I did!” stammered Twilight. “Reading is lots of fun!”

“Who wants cake!” cried Pinkie Pie. The party pony had reappeared with a six layered cake that wobbled slightly as she held it. The frosting was colored to each of the ponies, although two of the layers were still blue and lavender. “It’s actually six different cakes that I combined into one! It’s no cake-pie, but it’s still super awesome! Do… do you guys like it?”

“It’s perfect,” said Twilight Dash together.

END

Author's Note

Thank you everyone who took the time to read and/or comment on my work. It really means a lot to me! I do read every comment (even if I don't respond), so just because this story has been posted for a while don't feel discouraged from telling me what you thought.

Chapter 10

Veil of Thoughts
By Starwin

Chapter 10

It might have been days later, or only minutes — how did you tell time in a place where the sun never moved — when Twilight finally stopped crying. At last, Applejack let her friend go. Twilight, still sitting on the ground, smiled thankfully up at Applejack.

“So, I can put us back the way we were,” said Twilight. “But I won’t.”

“But we could get y’all to the hospital,” said Applejack. “Have the doctors standing by, have Celestia there ready to help.”{1}

Twilight shook her head and looked down at the ground so that she wouldn’t have to meet Applejack’s gaze.

“No, you don’t understand,” said Twilight. “If… If Dash and I separate… what you get back… it won’t be…” She looked up at Applejack, trying to make her understand without words. “There won’t be anything anypony can do for her.” {2}

“So if we can’t get you back the way you were, what are you gona do about this?” asked Applejack, waving a hoof at the world around them. As if on cue, everything shook again. “Do you have some kinda plan to get out of this mess?” {3}

“I don’t,” said Twilight softly. “I expected that once we were fused together, things would just sort of work themselves out. But… but they haven’t… ”

“An there’s no going back I suppose,” said Applejack, her ears drooping a little. Twilight shook her head.

“I could go back to being just me,” said Twilight, wiping away some of the tears that had returned to her eyes. “But Dash…” she shook her head. “This is the only way she can... stay.”

“So what’ca all gona do now?” asked Applejack.

“I need to get Dash to understand,” said Twilight. “As long as she keeps fighting against me, things will just keep getting worse. She has to see that this is the only way. She has to know that I did this for her, that I didn’t have any other choice.”

“And how do we get her to understand?” asked Applejack. {4}

“I don’t know,” said Twilight. She pawed at the ground with a nervous hoof. “I told her what happened but I think it just made things worse. How do you make somepony understand something that they can’t understand?”

“Twilight,” said Applejack with a smile, “I don’t understand half the things you say most of the time. But that doesn’t mean I ain’t listening. If we can find Dash an talk to her, maybe we can help her. Maybe we can help you both sort out this mess.

“I think what we have’ta do now is find her,” said Applejack confidently.

Taking a glance around, Applejack really looked at Ponyville for the first time since she had arrived. The buildings were familiar, although she couldn’t put names to them. She recognized the street, but didn’t know where it was. This place was like the best parts of Ponyville taken and all mashed up together.

“Uh, how exactly do we find Dash?” asked Applejack. “Ya think she’s up in the sky some place?”

Shading her eyes, Applejack glanced skyward. The bright sun hung at its pinnacle. It hadn’t moved since Applejack had arrived. Large concentric rings of clouds encircled the sun so that there was very little sky to be seen. She searched the clouds and what little sky there was, but if Dash was somewhere up there, Applejack couldn’t spot her.

“I’m not sure where she is,” said Twilight with a shake of her head. “I’ve never been able to find her, no matter how much I look. I think she has to be the one to come to me.”

Applejack turned her gaze down to Rainbow. The little filly was watching them with impassive eyes. She seemed to be listening to the conversation but whether or not she was paying attention, Applejack didn’t know.

“So you ain’t Dash than?” asked Applejack. The filly shook her head. “And you’re not Twilight either?” Again, the filly shook her head. “If you’re in Twilights mind why don’t you look like her? Why ain’t you a little Twilight?” {5}

“Why aren’t you?” replied the filly.

“Cause, I ain’t her?” said Applejack confused.

“And neither am I,” answered the filly.

“That didn’t explain anything!” said Applejack with a shake of her head.

“Yeah, she does that,” said Twilight, slowly working her way back to her feet.

“So if you ain’t Dash and you ain’t Twilight…” asked Applejack.

“I’m Rainbow,” said the filly with a smile.

“Uh-huh…” said Applejack. “Look, can you take us to Dash? I might be able to get her to listen but you have to show me where she is.”

“Yeah, no problem!” said Rainbow excitedly. “But I don’t think you’ll be able to get through to her.” Applejack nodded. If nothing else she had to try.

The filly galloped off ahead of them, leading the way. Applejack’s eyes followed the little Rainbow before turning back to Twilight..

“What is that thing?” asked Applejack when the filly had run out of hearing range. {6}

“I think she’s Dash’s memories,” answered Twilight. The lavender mare began to trot slowly after the little filly.

“She’s what?” exclaimed Applejack, stunned by Twilight’s answer. Applejack galloped a little to catch up to her friend before falling in along side her at a trot.

“She’s the memories of the things that are most important to Dash,” continued Twilight. “I think she gave them to me, to protect and to remember for her. Dash has a part of me too. Something that I wanted her to have. Something I wanted her to keep safe.”

“And what’s that?” asked Applejack. Twilight looked away and whispered something. “Sorry, what was that sugarcube.”

“My life,” said Twilight. Applejack stopped walking and stared at Twilight.

“You… you don’t mean to sacrifice yourself, do you?” asked Applejack. {7}

“I would give anything for my friends,” said Twilight. “I would do anything to keep them safe. If I have to go away so that Dash can stay, then I will.” Applejack was surprised by the determination in Twilight’s voice.

“Twilight…” said Applejack sadly. Twilight shook her head.

“We should keep moving, that little filly has a way of running off,” said Twilight, quickly ending the discussion on the subject. She looked away from Applejack and trotted on ahead.

Several minutes passed in silence as they followed the filly through not-Ponyville. Applejack wasn’t sure, but she thought that they should have easily reached their destination by now. After all, Ponyville wasn’t that big. Yet it seemed to stretch on forever. And was that the third time they had passed Sugarcube Corner?

“Twilight,” said Applejack, breaking the silence. “What happens if you stay like this?” Twilight glanced back at Applejack, but looked away before answering.

“I can only guess, since nopony has ever come this far before. I can think of several possible outcomes. Firstly, we stay just like we are, semi-separate while we’re asleep, combined while we’re awake. Not Twilight and not Dash but some amalgamation of the two, a new pony with our thoughts and memories, but not us, not really.

“That’s what the spell should have done, how it’s supposed to work but I guess I did something wrong, because that’s not how it is. In any case, that seems very unlikely given the current state of things.” The ground trembled slightly under hoof as if to emphasize her point.

“Secondly, one of us goes away, either becoming so quiet in the other’s mind that it’s like we aren’t even there… or that we really aren’t there at all.” Twilight shivered at this thought. “We just fade away like we never were. Whoever is left would exist in our fused body… I’m not sure what that would be like, but I don’t want to find out…

“Thirdly, our mind is unable to cope with the stress of having two ponies inside it, thinking different thoughts at the same time, and we descend into madness.” The world shook again and the clouds overhead wrapped tighter around the sun. “Which is what I think is happening right now.” Twilight added as she looked up.

“Our body will be unable to sustain us, unable to function properly and we’ll…” Twilight couldn’t finish her thought, but she didn’t need to. Applejack had already seen what was happening to them outside of this place.

“There is one more option in there, isn’t there?” asked Applejack, picking up that Twilight had used the word ‘thirdly’ instead of ‘lastly.’

“There could be a lot more options I haven’t considered,” answered Twilight evasively. “But the spell has never worked before, so I just don’t know.”

“Where did you learn this spell anyhow?” asked Applejack. The question had been nagging at the back of her mind since Celestia had told them about it. {8}

“From Celestia of course,” said Twilight.

“An, did she tell you what happened to the two ponies who tried before? Stars something and Wind?” asked Applejack.

“Aurora Wind and Silver Stars?” said Twilight. “Yes, of course. Celestia told me what happened to them when she taught me the spell. She warned me never, ever, to use it on another pony… but I didn’t have another choice…

“Applejack,” Twilight asked after a moment of silence. “Did I… did I do the right thing? Is any of this worth the pain its caused everypony?”

“I don’t know sugarcube,” said Applejack, her eyes a little sad. Twilight’s ears drooped. “I can’t say what I would’ve done in your situation. But I don’t got no magic. So I can’t rightly say.”

“Is… is Celestia mad at me?” asked Twilight. She had stopped walking.

“I don’t think so,” said Applejack. “Concerned for sure, but I don’t think she’s mad.”

“Are you… do you hate me?” asked Twilight, her big round eyes looking pleadingly at Applejack. {9}

“Oh sugarcube,” said Applejack with a smile. She moved to her friend and gave her an affectionate nuzzle. “No, no I don’t hate you at all! Why would you think that?”

“Because,” said Twilight, she looked away. “Because in the hospital, when Celestia asked you to choose, you picked Rainbow…” Applejack pulled back with a start of surprise. “So did Rarity…”

“Twilight…” said Applejack.

“Why?” said Twilight, tears rolling down her face. “Why didn’t you pick me? Don’t you like me?”

“That was a awful thing the princess asked of us,” said Applejack looking away and shivering. “It was the worst thing I’ve ever had to do in my whole life. How could I pick, how could I choose? They left it all up to me! How is that fair?” shouted Applejack. Streaks of tears ran down Applejacks face.

Twilight waited expectantly.

“I didn’t know then what I know now,” said Applejack softly. “I thought… I thought you had done this for selfish reasons. I thought you had forced this on Dash without considering how she would feel.” Twilight opened her mouth to protest but Applejack kept going, not giving her the chance. “I thought a lot of things, things I didn’t want to believe, but they were the only things I knew.

“But they were wrong. You’ve done the bravest thing I’ve ever seen. Twilight, can you ever forgive me?”

Twilight looked at Applejack, her expression unreadable for a long moment. Then she rushed to her friend and hugged her tightly.

“Yes,” whispered Twilight. “Yes I can.”

“Hey! Are you two going to hug all-day-long or what?” shouted the filly standing ahead of them. Twilight and Applejack pulled apart slowly, both smiling just a little at the other.

The horns below were still moving and churning. For the moment the two ponies high above seemed safe and out of reach. Fluttershy was still holding Dash in her forelegs and the sky-blue mare was still holding her back, crying softly against her chest.

Fluttershy couldn’t believe what her friend had just told her. The words echoed in her thoughts. Dash was… she had… no. It was too horrible even to contemplate.

“But… you’re here,” said Fluttershy to the top of Dash’s head. “You can’t be… you aren’t… not if you’re here. Because if you were… you know… then where are we? I’m not, um… d-dead too… am I?” {10}

“I don’t know,” said Dash. “I remember it happening but... but then there was a lot of nothing. I don’t know if you’re dead but I don’t think it felt like this… because this feels like something and that felt like nothing.” {11}

There was a long moment of silence while the two ponies hovered in the air. Well, in truth, Fluttershy was hovering and holding Dash, who wouldn’t flap her wings.

Dash kept looking down at the grinding horns below and Fluttershy kept trying to look anywhere else. She didn’t like the way Dash was staring at the horns. It gave her the same strange feeling she’d had right before Dash had tried to go into the library, right before the spikes had first appeared.

“Dash?” asked Fluttershy softly. Her words pulled Dash’s pink eyes away from the horns below. “Why are you afraid of me?” {12}

Dash looked away.

“It hurts to remember you,” said Dash. “Whenever I look at you, whenever I try to put a name to your face,” Dash looked Fluttershy in the eyes and winced, then looked away, “it hurts. It hurts like there’s a hole in my heart. And I don’t want to keep feeling that.”

“Is it because… Do you… do you hate me…?” asked Fluttershy, her eyes starting to well-up with tears.

“No… no, I don’t hate you…” said Dash, stressing the last word.

“Do you hate Twilight?” asked Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus was not prepared for Dash’s reaction. {13}

“Yes!” screamed Dash, her face contorted in anger. “I know what Twilight did! And I hate her for it!”

“Is she the reason you’re d…” asked Fluttershy, unable to finish her sentence, her eyes widening in horror. “She didn’t… kill you, did she?” {14}

“What?” asked Dash, taken aback by the question. “No! She gave herself up for me! She sacrificed herself so that I could stay! I didn’t ask her to do that! I didn’t want her to do that!

“I shouldn’t be here,” said Dash. “Twilight never should have done this.” Dash began to struggle against Fluttershy, trying to get loose.

“Dash! Stop!” pleaded Fluttershy, trying to hold onto her.

“I don’t want Twilight to have to live this way because of me!” {15}

A final flail and Dash slipped free of Fluttershy’s grasp. She began to plummet, racing down towards her waiting doom below.

Fluttershy didn’t think, she didn’t consider, she acted. Her whole body turned in the air and she dived, racing down through the night. Dash was ahead of her, falling impossibly fast. The horns gnashed below, awaiting their willing victim.

Fluttershy wasn’t going to make it, she simply wasn’t fast enough. She was reaching out her foreleg to Dash, stretching as far as the limb would go, but the other pony just wouldn’t take it.

“Please!” Fluttershy pleaded, reaching even further, trying to grab Dash.

“I’m sorry,” whispered Dash, her words clearly audible as if she were whispering them in Fluttershy’s ear. “Don’t hate me Fluttershy.”

The horns opened in a gaping maw. Dash fell right through the center, swallowed up by the darkness inside. Just as quickly as it had opened, the horns began to close. Fluttershy didn’t stop. She raced through, barely squeezing between the points as they closed behind her.

Their destination, as it turned out, was Twilight’s tree house library. Applejack stared at it uncertainly. This was not the first time she had been to this building today, both in this dream-place and in the real world. Why did it keep popping up? She voiced the question to Twilight.

“You know what, I’ve noticed that too,” said Twilight thoughtfully. Her eyes swept across the house as if looking for the answer to be written on the outside. “I’ve now encountered this building no less then fifty times while I’ve been here.”

“What?” exclaimed Applejack in surprise. Twilight nodded.

“It likes to hide from me but, eventually, every building I approach in Ponyville turns into this building when I get close enough. It must mean something, it must have some significance…” said Twilight aloud.

“Nah, it’s not important,” said Rainbow.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” said Twilight.

“Now wait just a gosh darn minute!” shouted Applejack. Both Twilight and the filly-Rainbow looked at her in surprise. “Y’all just goin’ to give up like that? The Twilight I know would get to the bottom of this! Of course this is important! Why else would you keep coming across it?”

“She does have a point,” said Twilight to the little filly. Rainbow shrugged. Twilight’s attention focused on the library. She looked like she was really struggling to think, her eyes narrowed in concentration.

“Well…” said Twilight slowly. “I do have a theory…”

“A theory is good,” encouraged Applejack. Twilight’s theories were usually better than most ponies’ facts.

“I think this house is following me,” said Twilight with a nod. “There must be a book I haven’t returned.” Applejack let her head drop into her hoof. Then again, sometimes Twilight was just as wrong as everypony else. “Either that or it’s possibly a subconscious manifestation of the bridge between my mind and Dash’s. The locked door, that I’m continually unable to get through, might signify some sort of desire of Dash to keep me out or keep us separate.” she added after a moment. “But I think the overdue book is much more likely.”

“You mean this house leads to Dash?” asked Applejack.

“Or a very overdue book,” Twilight reminded her.

“I’ll take my chances,” said Applejack. Moving forward, Applejack pressed a hoof against the door. It didn’t move. She pushed harder but for all the good it did, the door might have just as well been a solid wall.

“Did you try turning the knob?” added Twilight helpfully.

“Yes,” said Applejack with a grunt as she rammed her shoulder against the door. It wasn’t just locked. It was sealed shut. Whatever was on the other side, overdue book or not, it didn’t seem like she would be able to get through this way.

“Maybe it’s locked. Did you check to see if it’s locked?”

“Yes!” said Applejack more harshly than she had meant. Leaving the door alone for a moment, Applejack trotted along the side of the building to where there was a window. Holding up a hoof to her eyes to shade out the sun, she looked in through the glass.

She was not prepared for what she saw on the other side. It was not Twilight’s house beyond the glass, it was a whole world! Applejack couldn’t take all of it in. She didn’t understand what she was seeing.

The ground was made of moving spikes that rose and fell in waves. The sky was dark, as if it were night time. The giant moon seemed to confirm that assumption. And falling down out of the dark sky, moonlight streaming around them and making them glow like tiny stars, were two ponies. Two ponies that she knew. Two ponies that looked like they were in trouble.

Applejack charged back to the door, slamming into it again with renewed urgency.

“What’s wrong?” asked Twilight, seeing Applejack’s sudden panic.

“Its Dash and Fluttershy!” shouted Applejack. “Something’s wrong! You gotta help me!”

“Did you try pulling it? I can’t remember if you push or pull that door. That’s always really confusing!”

“I didn’t mean give me more dumb suggestions!” shouted Applejack. “I meant use your magic… Wait…” Applejack suddenly paused in her efforts to get through the door and looked at Twilight in confusion. “What did you just say?”

“What? Did pulling work?” asked Twilight, looking slightly pleased. “I really should get a sign that says pull.”

“Twilight… what’s wrong with you?” asked Applejack.

“What? Do I have something on my face?” Twilight asked in a panic. The world shuttered again. Suddenly the sun high above blinked out of existence, leaving a huge circle of empty blue sky. However, even with the sun gone, it still appeared to be day time. The clouds closed into the gap left by the sun, sealing off the pale blue sky completely.

“What’s happening?” cried Applejack, her eyes getting wide. “Twilight what’s going on!” Twilight looked at Applejack with sad eyes.

“The end,” whispered Twilight. “I think… this is the end…”

“Dang it!” Applejack shouted. She charged back to the door, ramming it hard with her shoulder. In the distance they could hear buildings collapsing. The world was rolling in on itself. In a moment this place would be no more and Twilight would go with it.

Turning desperately, Applejack bucked hard at the door. The wood groaned under the force, but held. Applejack kicked again, putting all she had into the kick. If the door had been a tree, it would have splintered apart.

“Applejack,” whispered Twilight. The lavender mare was looking away from Applejack as she spoke, watching the rolling darkness approach along the horizon. Applejack kicked again and again, but the door wouldn’t give. “I just want you to know how happy you made me. How happy all my friends made me.”

Twilight turned to look at Applejack, smiling sadly. Then the darkness swallowed her up and the world crumbled away.

In the moonlit Ponyville, the horns continued to turn and undulate against each other. The world shuttered and high above the moon flickered in the sky. The stars spoke in an echoing voice but their words were impossible to make out. Then the sound was gone and the moon returned. Only the low groan of the horns grinding against each other filled the air.

With an ear piercing whine the horns ground to a halt, frozen like a sea of stalagmites. Their sharp points gleamed under the glow of the moon.

Then suddenly, they shuttered as a massive explosion of the colors red and yellow and orange and green and blue, erupted outwards in a massive shockwave. A rainbow fire shot out of the center, soaring high up into the night. At the leading end of the rainbow, racing into the sky, were two ponies.

“Fluttershy,” said Dash, her face wet with tears. “You… you pulled me back… why?”

Behind Fluttershy was the wake of a sonic rainboom. Her sonic rainboom, not Dash's. It blazed in the sky, spilling colors in every direction.

“I don’t hate you,” said Fluttershy as they soared ever higher. “And you shouldn’t hate anypony either, especially not yourself.” Dash smiled sadly.

Above them, the moon winked out of existence. The world faded away into blackness. There was no ground below, no stars above, it was just the two of them in infinite darkness. The only light came from the colors of the glowing rainbow that streaked out behind Fluttershy, although it was now only a few hooves long.

“I don’t want to fade away,” said Dash as she cuddled against her friend. “But I don’t want Twilight to have to do this for me.”

“Maybe you should ask what she wants,” said Fluttershy, “before you decide to give up on yourself.” Dash didn’t answer.

Then the light of the rainbow faded and night full and truly came.

Character Questions provided by:

{1} Arcane Howitzer
{2} JustPassingBy
{3} {6} EchoWolf31
{4} LulaMoonSparkle
{5} Someguy987
{7} Lemonpop
{8} Tchernobog
{9}{13} Hyperion
{10} Dusk Apollo
{11} The ghost
{12} Arikele
{14} Csquared08
{15} Tagan