The Heart's Shell

“I can’t believe we did that!” Pinkie sobbed. “We’re never going to see Dashie again!”

The girls were sadly walking back to the train station, without Rainbow Dash. They had been told by Princess Celestia that she had to fight her demon foal before it got any stronger.

“It’s going to be alright, Pinkie” Applejack sniffed, putting her hoof around Pinkie’s shoulders. “Rainbow Dash is really brave. She’ll make it through. Besides, she’s been through much worse situations than this”

“But that’s when we were with her, fighting villains together. Like Nightmare moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Tirek and even Starlight Glimmer. None of those we fought entirely on our own.” Twilight responded. The mane 5 dropped their heads. Rainbow Dash was their friend, and when she was in need the most, they sent her away unintentionally to fight her darker self.

They all entered the train that took them back to Ponyville. Hardly any of them said anything on the carriage. Twilight just stared out the window, Rarity was comforting Fluttershy who was still crying, and Applejack and Pinkie Pie were just sadly looking at the ground. Then, a bouncy enthusiastic unicorn entered the train. She had a dark blue coat with a white and blue mane and an hour glass for a cutiemark. Her name was Minuet. As soon as she noticed Pinkie Pie, she ran to her in excitement.

“Pinkie! So nice to see you again!” she expressed. But she was getting no response from the pink Earth Pony.

“Um, I didn’t know you came to Canterlot. Just a coincidence that I’d be coming to Ponyville, we all planned to visit Lyra Heartstrings. If you know her? Of course you know her! You told me you knew every pony in Ponyville!”

“That’s nice” Pinkie Pie finally replied unenthusiastically. Minuet’s smile dropped.

“Pinkie, what’s wrong? Why are all of your friends look like they’re down in the dumps?” Pinkie just sighed and turned away from Minuet. Then something came to her.

“Wait a minute. You told me that you made five friends when you were in Ponyville” Minuet counted the sad ponies. “Why are only four of them with you?”

Pinkie Pie began to tear up again and bury herself in Applejack’s arms.

“Rainbow is going somewhere, and we don’t know when or if she’s going to return” Applejack replied.

“Oh, that’s a shame. I’ll just leave you girls alone then, I was never here” Minuet travelled to another carriage. The rest of the train ride was silence. No pony talked at all. Even some of the passengers that had Pinkie Pie in the same carriage as them were surprised she was behaving herself.

They finally made their way back to the castle. As they reached the door, Spike happily answered it.

“Twilight you’re back!” he answered whilst he hugged her leg, but she just kept moving. Then he noticed something was up. “Hey, why are you guys so upset? Didn’t you find out what you were looking for?”

“Spike. The watch doesn’t matter anymore” Twilight snapped, trying not to cry again.

“What? Why? You were making such a big deal about it yesterday”

“It doesn’t matter anymore ok!” Spike was scared with Twilight’s sudden tone of voice. Twilight began to cry again, so did the rest of the ponies in the room. Then, Spike knew what was up.

“Hey, why isn’t Rainbow Dash with you?” he finally asked. The saddened ponies looked at the oblivious dragon. Then suddenly, Pinkie ran up to Spike and squeezed him tightly.

“RAINBOW DASH IS GONE!!!” She sobbed, squeezing Spike harder and harder.

“Why is she gone?” he asked.

“She’s going to fight her demon foal. That was the being that sent her the watch. The princesses said themselves that Rainbow is the only one who can fight it. She also said that Rainbow might not have a chance of coming back” Twilight replied.

“Twilight. You shouldn’t have told Spike. He’s just a child!” Rarity argued.

“You mean; we’re never going to see Rainbow Dash again?” Spike asked again. The other mares nodded.

“YEEESSSSS!” Pinkie sobbed, squeezing the dragon even harder. But this time, Spike was also crying. Pinkie let go of Spike as he ran up to Twilight and hugged her. They both cried together. It wasn’t something that anypony was going to get over so easily.

“Those poor, poor ponies!” a voice echoed through a cave. She had a crystal ball showing the rest of the mane 6 and Spike saddened by the loss of Rainbow Dash. The room was so dark her face was hidden.

“They can’t survive a day without the tough, loyal Rainbow Dash by their side to make things all better. Well, once I’m done with her, they will not see another day with her!”

The voice laughed maniacally.

Meanwhile, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Rainbow Dash were wandering through the forest. They were going to the demon caves. It was a long distance to travel, so they were flying for most of the time. The entire time though, Rainbow had lots of questions on her mind she wanted to ask them, like how they knew about the demon foals in the first place. She just looked sadly at the ground. The princesses observed her. They didn’t know what to do.

“Are you alright, Rainbow Dash?” Celestia asked. Rainbow Dash just sighed.

“I just don’t understand” she replied.

“What don’t thou understand?” Luna asked.

“Why this is something I have to do by myself. I mean, I’m used to fighting monsters and stuff like that. But like you know, I would always fight them with my friends. Like when we had the hoard of changelings. I would’ve been ok to defeat them all by myself, but to be honest; I would’ve gotten tired afterwards. Princess Luna, as you probably remember. I had a dream where I fought changelings by myself without any problems. And you thought it was the tantabus. But that in reality, I never would’ve done by myself”

“But whatever do you mean?”

“I mean that’s the pony I really want to be. The one who can fend off anything by herself. But, I can’t. I always rely on others in the end. Helping others instead of myself”

“But you are. Going in there and fighting your demon foal, you could be saving Equestria” Princess Celestia responded, putting her hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder.

“I know that, I just don’t understand why I have to go alone. It would’ve been more helpful if my friends were with me. Then we could fight the demon foal together. Or at least go half and half with finding the song”

“You have to go alone because demon foals are very unpredictable creatures. We had to face our demon foals before too. When we did have help, they just ended up getting themselves hurt. We don’t want that to happen to your friends, and neither do you”

Rainbow hung her head and sighed again.

“I guess I don’t. But not being with them is making me more anxious”

“We know. But they are safer finding a cure for Tank, which will only work if the demon foal is destroyed first”

“But there has to be more to it than that”

“We all have to face our demons. Our darker selves. Unlike all of the threats that you and your friends have faced, you cannot fight your demon with your friends” Luna replied.

“When you put it like that, it makes more sense”

The mares kept trekking through the never ending forest with a chance that they might come across something soon.