Pegazo Vampir Equinae

by Gecko

Rating: teen
Tags: Rainbow Dash, Other, Scootaloo, Adventure, Tragedy, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Romance, Original Character
Length: 86089

A single crash. A simple accident. Rainbow Dash's life will never be the same again.

Monsters, they're not real right? Well they are, but that's not a very widely known fact. They have stayed hidden for a long time. Until that day. She crashed, straight into the Everfree. She got the 'Blessing' the mother called it. But that doesn't mean Rainbow Dash thought so. Because she was the one, the one to be 'infected', giving her advantages, but it made her something else.

Published 2012-08-11 18:34:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-02-09 22:41:56 UTC

Prologue

She could feel it; this day was going to be awesome. That was the first feeling Rainbow Dash had as she rose from her bed. The rainbow-maned mare trotted into her kitchen without a care in the world. She made herself some breakfast, which she quickly ate, and took off towards another day of training. But first she had to go grab the ‘item’ Pinkie had borrowed the day before. Rainbow was just hoping it wasn’t destroyed; Pinkie Pie tended to get rough with that kind of equipment. The Pegasus jumped off her cloud and started flying towards Sugarcube Corner.

Her landing was less than spectacular— she had tried to do a trick just before landing and ended up with her muzzle in the ground. Rainbow Dash was dazed for a couple of seconds before she stood up again and looked around her to check if anypony saw her little misfortune. Luck was on her side as there was nopony in clear sight, so she stood back up on her hooves and shook off the dirt.

She started trotting off towards her destination, the all too famous confectionery. The place where everypony got their sugar-toothy needs met. When she arrived, she noticed that there was no line. This was definitely unusual for such a popular hangout. She trotted inside and found Mrs. Cake standing at the counter, and as Mrs. Cake saw Rainbow Dash, she waved her inside.

“Dear what are you doing here today, hmm? Looking for something sweet?”

Rainbow shook her head. “Nah, I just came over to get something Pinkie borrowed from me yesterday. I just hope she hasn’t broken it.”

“I don’t think so. She’s using it upstairs right now.”

Dash nodded and started walking upstairs. I never thought she would be using it at this time of day. I know it’s good, but geez. No need to get obsessed, Rainbow thought to herself as she knocked on Pinkie’s door. There was no answer. The pegasus sighed and opened the door herself and saw a brown pony, not the pink party pony she was expecting. Rainbow immediately face-hoofed.

“DON’T LOOK AT ME!” The brown pony cried out and hid behind the bed.

“Pinkie, seriously? You drenched yourself in coffee. How did you even manage to do that?” She walked towards the bed and heard a sloshing sound, the kind where you swallow a lot of liquid… suddenly, out from behind the bed popped a pink pony.

“Coffee? I don’t see any coffee, unless you are talking about the coffee machine. But why would you be talking about that since you obviously said coffee, but that made me think tha—” She was stopped as a cyan hoof found itself inside her mouth.

“You know what Pinkie? Just ignore what I said. I came here to get my coffee machine, and I am not leaving without it.” Pinkie jumped back behind the bed and suddenly appeared at the edge of Rainbow’s vision with the machine in her hooves.

“Here you go Dashie, completely unscratched... Okay, maybe except for that teeny-weeny one.” She pointed her hoof towards a big crack in the machine. Dash rolled her eyes and took the coffee machine from Pinkie before any more damage could be done.

Without another word between the two mares, Dashie walked out of the room and started to walk downstairs so she could get the machine back home, and finally go and exercise, when she came to the store part of the house, the door opened, and a very familiar lavender unicorn entered the building.

“Oh hey there Twilight, what brings you here?” The unicorn tilted her head slightly, yawned and pointed towards the machine now residing on Rainbow’s back.

“Could I get some coffee before you go?” She yawned again. “I really need some. I’ve been studying the whole night. I found some really interesting books about clouds.” Dash rolled her eyes. To her it seemed like she was the only pony in the entire village that actually had a coffee machine. How that was possible she would never know.

“Yeah, yeah whatever. I need to do my exercise, though. So I’ll come get it later, okay? Hey, if this studying thing is going to keep you up at night, why not get your own coffee machine?”

Twilight made another loud yawn. “Thanks, but the reason I had to ask was that my own machine is actually broken, and there is not a single place to get it in Ponyville! What’s up with that anyway? Oh, and watch out for clouds while flying.” Rainbow looked at her in disbelief at that last statement. Why would she warn me about something I already know?

“Twilight you silly pony. I always avoid clouds; I mean what kind of speedster would I be if I crashed all the time?” Twilight shook her head slowly and rolled her eyes.

“That’s not what I meant, especially since you actually crash all the time… But that is beside the point. What I was referring to was the fact that there are some kinds of clouds found around the Everfree forest that are invisible and are supposed to cause some kind of accident whenever a pegasus flies through them.” The pegasus giggled at the unicorn’s silliness.

“Twilight, I have never flown through one of these supposed ‘accidental clouds’. And besides, if they are invisible, then how can I avoid them? How could anypony avoid them?”

The statement seemed almost to hit Twilight in the face, and she looked shocked. She shook off the comment and seemed more awake than she did before.

“I suppose that’s true, but I still don’t want you to hurt yourself… nopony would. And, there are rumors about this sort of cloud as well. You see, any time a pegasus has gone through one and landed in the Everfree, they have either disappeared or are no longer the same. But I think the latest instance of this happening was about two hundred years ago so there’s that. Oh, sorry, was I rambling? Just be careful, okay?”

Rainbow nodded. She trotted over and gave her friend a hug before giving her the machine and darting off into the sky for her usual morning exercises. She was, however, interrupted just before she launched herself.

“Oh good mornin’ Rainbow, fancy seeing you here. Ah thought you would be doin’ some trainin’ for the Running of the Leaves. Which, by the way, Ah’m gonna win. What did ya go for anyway? Ah bet it was somethin’ apple-flavored.”

Can’t they see I want to fly!? Seriously, why do I keep meeting almost all of my friends before I can actually get to exercising, geez. And why does she think she even has a chance in the Running of the Leaves? I am so going to win because I am more awesome than AJ. That’s a fact. She made a slightly annoyed, yet sheepish grin. “Nah I was just getting something Pinkie borrowed, but it seems like almost nopony in town has a coffee machine; what is up with that? So Twilight borrowed it, and I want to go flying now. Goodbye AJ and see ya later!” Before the farmer could even react to what Rainbow had just said, she disappeared from view leaving a rainbow trail behind her.

I FINALLY GOT AWAY! she laughed to herself as she tore through the sky, feeling the wind in her mane, simply enjoying the feeling of flying. She felt like it had been too long, even though it had only been a couple of minutes. She couldn’t help herself. She LOVED to fly; she thought it was the best feeling anypony could ever have, excluding certain things, but those weren’t things she had in her mind at this exact moment. No, she just flew at a leisurely pace, something she had not done in a long while. She snapped out of the trance she had found herself in. Rainbow Dash started her routine of flips, flops, spins and all of the likes. Suddenly she stopped and started hovering in the air, thinking: Should I do that? Why not? It’s not like I haven’t done it before… hehe, Ponyville is in for a surprise this morning. She giggled to herself as she thought of what she was going to do.

Rainbow flew to the far side of the Everfree Forest so she could get enough momentum to do her signature move. The move she was certain would get her into the Wonderbolts sometime soon; she just knew it. The move? The Sonic Rainboom of course.

As she reached the other side of the forest, she got a cold feeling, but she shrugged it off as simply being the forest’s unnatural atmosphere. She lined herself up for Ponyville and took her stance. Good morning Ponyville! she thought as she darted off towards her hometown.

As Rainbow continued to speed up over the forest, she felt amazing; she loved to fly and The Sonic Rainboom was really awesome and, to top it off, she was going to prank everypony in Ponyville. Rainbow was so excited to see what everypony’s reactions to her morning prank would be. It was not just a prank, though, but also a moment for her to show off, which almost everypony knew she loved.

Dash looked down at the forest while continuing to speed up and shivered at the thought of all the monsters residing in the local forest, but all that disappeared as something happened. Rainbow’s vision swam with red, and she could not control what she was doing.

Without notice, she suddenly started to crash right into the middle of the forest. This wasn't he thing Rainbow's mind focused on the most, sine there were only really one thing she was feeling right now...

Bloodthirst.

Chapter 1

As Rainbow Dash stirred from her sleep, her mind immediately reminded her of what had happened. She quickly rose to a sitting position and found herself in a bed, however her mind couldn’t quite process her surroundings since she was too busy trying to figure out what had happened. She clearly wasn’t in the forest, that much was clear, but as she tried to take in her new location, the only item of note in this particular room was the simple bed she had awoken from.

On the other side of the room, almost parallel to her own bed, was another bed exactly like hers- or at least they looked the same to her. She rose from the bed and looked around a bit more and found that there was a small window almost at the top of a wall. The last thing she noticed was the big metal door serving as the only entrance to the miserable little room, but as she stood up, the door slowly opened, showing a silhouetted figure shaped like a pony. What was stranger still was that it was levitating, not flying since the form clearly had no wings. It had a cloak of some kind, hiding the pony’s features. But what really ticked Rainbow was the fact that this particular pony was nearly transparent, almost ethereal.

The pony looked up from her rag of a cloak and stared right at the pegasus. The eyes were empty. They just looked empty, no emotion, no nothing. The ghost took away the part of the cloak hiding its head, revealing that it was in fact a unicorn. It laughed, though it was impossible to tell what kind of laugh it was. There wasn’t a single emotion in that laugh, the most neutral and empty laugh you would ever hear. It smiled.

“Ah, so you are Rainbow Dash. Before you ask, I do know a lot about you. Yes, that’s almost the point. You are probably wondering what I am; well, there is a really simple answer to that. I am the mother and I am dead, but at the same time not; I’m stuck in the middle, not yet dead but not alive. A ghost, I believe you would call it. I have been dead for a long time you see. About 3228 years to be exact, and I have stayed in this form captured in here.“ The ghost paused as if to get a reaction from the cyan mare.

“Then where are we exactly?” Rainbow Dash shot back at the ghost. It simply smiled.

“Excellent question! We are in the Everfree forest, but we cannot be reached. This place is out of reach for anypony who hasn’t received the blessing, and that, my dear, is why you are here. You activated one of my creations, a specially-made cloud that made you vulnerable to the blessing and me. But you see, since I was buried here in the Everfree, there has been no way to get anypony that flew through my clouds to actually land here willingly, so they were created in a way which made the flyer crash.” She stopped talking so that the pegasus in front of her could process the information she had just been given.

“I don’t get it.” Rainbow said flatly. “What blessing? “I don’t feel different--” Rainbow began before her hoof shot up to caress her jaw. “Okay, maybe except for the fact that some of my teeth hurt. How do I know this is not simply a dream trying to put some insane idea into my head!? Why should I believe a single word you say? It’s not like it’s impossible to get out.” The unicorn made another empty laugh, but this one seemed to border on mocking.

“Actually, it is impossible for you to get out-- without my consent that is. And this is certainly no dream. You might remember the feeling you had just before you fell?” Rainbow slowly nodded. “That feeling you experienced was you flying through one of my clouds, though I shouldn’t take all the credit; a ‘friend’ of mine helped me create them. You see, these clouds have only existed for a thousand years. And I believe you might just realize who that friend might be, considering that you are one of the Elements of Harmony.” Dash’s eyes went wide as she realized who this ghostly mare was talking about. “Yes, her, though nopony in Equestria, except me, knows that she helped me, but that is beside the point.” Her horn glowed ominously, and a mirror appeared in front of Rainbow Dash. “Take a close look at yourself. What is different about you?”

Dash looked into the mirror and the first thing she noticed was that her teeth that had hurt slightly were not normal teeth any longer. They were now fangs digging into her lip. No. she thought to herself. She was no longer a simple pegasus. She had transformed. Though not a huge amount, the differences were still there. The color of her eyes had turned into some weird mix of crimson and her normal rose. Her entire body was a lot more sleek and fit than before. How this was possible, Rainbow had no idea. She tried using her muscles and felt that they were, in fact, a lot stronger than before. Now she had to test it, but then it hit her. I’m a monster… Her face fell flat, and she hung her head low.

“Now child, no need to get disheartened. All it takes is willpower. You just have to will the appearence away and you will temporarily revert to your original look from before the blessing. And now for the hard truth. Yes, you are in fact now one of my children, a vampony! Children of the night are what we are. I am the original, the mother. I created the original blessing using power from an artifact used by the first, the omnipotent one. Using this power, I was able to create a blessing to make ponies more powerful, more special. But before I could bestow my blessing onto other ponies, I died. I died giving birth to my son. I have seen my heritage develop through the years, and it still exists. Though I may never meet my family again, I am more than happy to give ponies this blessing. Come now child, I have things I must show you.” She led Rainbow outside of the door into a large corridor seeming to go on for eternity. The walls were completely devoid of anything other than paint. The only door that could be seen was the one they just came out from. The ghost started hovering off into the hallway.

Rainbow Dash had no idea what to feel right now. She wasn’t quite sure this was real, but it all seemed so vivid, everything felt natural. Whenever Dash had realized she was in a dream, she would wake up, but she had not done so. All the while she was feeling that this might actually be happening which made her all the more scared of what she had become and who this mysterious mare was. “So tell me something: now that I’m a vampony, what are some of the good and bad things that’ll happen to me?” She was trying to take her mind away from the fact that she had turned into something else. She wasn’t Rainbow Dash anymore, she was just... something else.

“Ah yes, the perks and downfalls of my blessing,” the mare said flatly as she continued to float onwards. Rainbow followed. “You see, when I was trying to create this blessing, I tried making the benefits outclass the negatives, but I modified it to my personal liking. Some things were unmovable it seemed. The positives are, as you said, upgraded strength and agility. You know, the usual. You can see exceptionally well in dark, like any nocturnal creature. Though you don’t need any sleep, you CAN sleep if you would want to, but you’ll never need it. However you are also a bit special. You see, because you were created through a cloud and my own influence, you are an Alpha vampony.” She stopped again, not wanting to go overboard and dumping too much at the same time, but deep inside the ghost knew that she was far from over with her explanation.

“Alpha what now? There are ranks? And, just what, I don’t…” She looked down at the floor frowning. The ghost completely ignored what Rainbow just said.

“I will continue my explanation then. Let’s go over the rankings. They are as follows: Alpha-Omega, that’s me, the strongest. Omega, only the strongest vamponies are allowed in this category. Alpha, that’s what you are. Alphas are able to become Omegas, but they need extreme training for this; it’s not an easy feat. Lieutenants, these are the second lowest of the ranks but still a lot more rare than the usual grunts. You can only become this rank if the Alpha that made you a grunt in the first place gives you the ability to. An Alpha can only have five Lieutenants at any time, any more and the abilities retract. And lastly we have the lowest rank on the chain, Grunts. These are the soldiers created from any rank of the chain, but if they are transformed by a lieutenant or a grunt, they answer to the Alpha that has the responsibility of said vampony, but if an Omega transforms you, you enter the unit said Omega handles, an Omega also has the ability to create Alpha’s though only five and their soldiers all obey the Omega, if there should be a fight between an Alpha and an Omega. That’s the rankings... Why do I always ramble when I talk about this? Oh right, I live for it.” She chuckled at her own joke. She knew she loved to just ramble about everything; that was her legacy.

“Let’s get to the negatives then. You are weakened by the sun, but you still have the core of your abilities, but I would say your power is cut in half in the light of the sun. You can walk over streams. No, wait, I removed that; I don’t understand what the use would be. During the night you can be seen in mirrors but not during the day; I was unable to make it better on that front.”

“Then how-” the ghostly mare cut her off.

“Magic.” She said flatly. “Let’s continue! Now to the weirdest one: you can go into anypony’s house without permission, but if said owner requests you to leave, your body goes into some sort of automatic mode, forcing you to leave. And now for the part I know you will hate: every Alpha created through the cloud has to convert at least five other ponies in three months; otherwise, they will go into an uncontrollable rage that’s incurable. I put this in myself because if I hadn’t, no one would spread my lovely blessing.” Rainbow stopped after she heard those last sentences. She had to convert other ponies, or she would succumb to rage? This put a very sick feeling in her stomach. “Oh, and you also need blood at least once a month, but I think that was almost obvious when you heard you were a vampony, but whatever; it’s not like I care. And besides, the only thing that happens when you don’t have blood is a loss of the ability to use your newly gained abilities, as it were.” She then noticed that the rainbow mare was no longer following her so she looked back. “Come now, you would want to get out of here, am I right? And I have looked into things, so I know that at least one of your friends will understand your condition.” Rainbow looked up at her with a glare that exclaimed hate.

“Oh? And who would that be?” she shot back at the ghost. She trotted over to where the ghost was currently floating.

“Well, that’s simple, your local bookworm as you call her. Twilight Sparkle. As to why she is so understanding, well, let me just say it benefits her, in a way.” The pegasus thought she saw a smile creeping upon the ghost’s ethereal face, but she wasn’t sure.

“Twilight? And it benefits her? Oh wait, she wants to study me. OH WHAT JOY!” The sarcasm was almost dripping from her mouth at that point, but she wiped her face with a hoof, getting it off.

“Well that is one of the reasons. You will just have to wait and see.” The pegasus gave her a suspicious stare, not quite understanding what she was implying. “Oh. and if you are wondering what’s at the end of the corridor, well it’s your way out. But, if you run away from me, I won’t allow you to get there. You know, I am just as proficient with magic as the average unicorn, maybe more, so...” Rainbow gave her a glare.

“I hate listening to you, mostly because I don’t really care.” The ghost laughed; Rainbow could hear the amusement in it, but it was still so empty…

“There is one thing I forgot to mention in the benefits rant. If you tap into your memory, you can remember every single detail about almost everything.” Rainbow thought this sounded completely ridiculous, but she still tried to remember something.

As she tried to remember, there was a picture in her a head. A complete picture of the scene she was remembering. The time where she fought for Fluttershy’s honor, the day she had gained her cutie mark. Everything was clearer than she ever thought possible, every single cloud she had seen. Every detail in the surroundings, everything was completely fleshed out, not a single blind spot. The scene started to play itself. She had seen the colts harassing Fluttershy, and she went in and helped. Seeing this made her feel incredibly… nostalgic.

Rainbow Dash quickly shook herself trying not to get stuck in a trance of memory, which would be bad. She just stood in place for a while trying to understand that she had actually seen that entire scene, 100% fleshed out. It was a scary thought, but also very calming.

“From the look on your face and the fact that you have just stood there for a couple of minutes, I am going to assume you tried?” Rainbow nodded at the question. “I knew it. Oh, well now you see that you won’t forget this conversation any way you try, because when you think of it, everything will come back just as fast as you fly… and I know you fly fast. Even faster with the blessing, I assure you.” The ghostly mare laughed to herself without giving a single noise. It seems she’s more open to the idea, everything is going according to plans…

“I can see that the good things at least somewhat make up for the fact that I have to make other ponies into monsters as well. Because if I don’t, I will become crazy, but knowing my friends, they are probably going to throw themselves at the chance just to help me. But that’s my element, loyalty…” Then it hit her like a rock: nothing would ever be the same again, even if she tried to ignore it. It would always be in the background haunting her. Maybe she could use them for some fun? Rainbow then remembered that the Running of the Leaves was coming up, allowing herself a slight smile at the reaction she knew Applejack would have. At least I am getting used to the idea, though I still hate it. It can’t be all bad, right? She thought to herself trying the keep her hopes up.

“Now let’s go into more history and yes I will continue to ramble about the entire existence of vamponies. Ok maybe not the entire existence, but a lot of it. I was the only vampony for over two thousand years. The second vampony to ever come into existence, and the strongest Omega I have ever had the pleasure to meet, was the one and only Nightmare Moon. I hear that the legends often depict her as the one who created the blessing, but while it was still I who created it, the story does have some merit to it. Nightmare Moon was the one who helped me create the clouds, which she dubbed “Nocturnity Clouds.” Bad imagination I know. Nightmare’s reason for this was that she wanted all the new vamponies to remember she was the one who made it possible, and I am not going to deny her that, since it’s true.” Rainbow Dash scowled.

“Nightmare Moon has something to do with this? And she was the second vampony in existence? How can you keep making this even more tedious than how it started? It’s not like this is even useful to me.”

“That’s where you’re wrong; you see, this information can be used for a lot of things. I know your friend Twilight would at least care for what I have to say. I am saying it to you because you are the lucky one, and that’s my stance on that topic. I think I forgot something, hmm let me think.” She then zoned out completely leaving Rainbow to just stand there staring at the floating ghost mare. But seeing as how she didn’t have anything better to do at the moment, Rainbow tried to retract her fangs. She felt a tingly feeling and then felt around her mouth with one of her hooves to find that her fangs did in fact retract; there were no fangs where there had just been a pair. She felt something inside her head, a slight headache. She tried taking out her fangs again, and the headache disappeared as she did so. Great, now I have to deal with a headache every time I have to hide this new stupid condition. Then suddenly without any warning whatsoever, the ghost’s head turned and looked straight at Rainbow, smiling. “There seems to be nothing more I want to tell you at the moment, except for one thing.”

“And what’s that?” Rainbow asked curiously, because this was the last thing she had to hear before she could get out of this disturbing place.

“It’s simple really: if when I ever give you or any of your future grunts any orders and they aren’t obeyed, I will make the traitor’s life a living hell, and trust me, I won’t hesitate in the least; I don’t have any mercy for insubordination.” The smile suddenly turned evil and twisted, but the ghost turned her head forwards further into the corridor. “And if you are wondering how I can contact you and monitor your movements, well you have my magic, which practically means a better connection for me. This means telepathy. For a simpler explanation for your simple little head, I can talk straight to your head, and you may respond through thinking, simple as that. Oh look, I think we have arrived.” And surely enough, the door was finally visible at the end of the corridor.

Rainbow Dash immediately took to the air and flew straight for the door. She sped up so fast that she was almost unable to brake before hitting the door. She now found herself a single foot from the door. She opened the door and was hit by extreme amounts of light. She was overcome by the blinding, almost familiar, sobering light.

See you soon, my little Alpha.

Chapter 2

Rainbow Dash slowly awoke from the slumber she had found herself in. She looked around and found that she was in a forest. I’m probably in the Everfree forest, she deduced as she rose from the spot she had just been sleeping in. She stretched before she shot up into the air at an incredible speed, a feat completely alien to her. When she burst through the treetops, she found that the day had ended and the moon now watched over the land. It’s already night? But, how? Rainbow Dash was really confused as to how this was possible.

Silly little filly, did I not tell you before? I use magic, which is all the explanation you need.

Dash was startled at the voice she heard in her head, but she recognized it. You, you are that ghost I met, aren’t you? She could hear a laugh from the voice after she finished her thought.

Did you miss me?

No I didn’t, so could you please leave? I have things to do other than to talk with a voice inside my head, she shot back in her mind, Rainbow found it quite weird talking into her own head. It was not something somepony did on a regular basis now... was it?

Ugh, fine. But I will be back soon, with a task for you to complete.

The only thing that signaled the voice’s departure was a single beeping noise inside of Rainbow Dash’s head. Gee thanks; just don’t mention what I have to do. Even though she said later…

Rainbow started flying off towards Ponyville-- or rather, to her house. She remembered the ghost saying something about trusting Twilight; she still didn’t understand what was so special about her, but that didn’t mean she was going to show up un-showered. That would just be disgusting. Even though the smell surrounding her wasn’t so much sweat as forest smell, she decided that’s what she would call the scent.

As she landed on her cloud, Dash shook off the nightly mist she had attracted. She was not a stranger to this, so the process took her less than a second. She trotted inside her humble abode, straight into the shower.

Standing under the constant stream of water, she started talking to herself about what had happened to her.

”It can’t be all bad right? I still have my free will, at least partially… I think. Ok I’m not sure. This is not exactly the direction I wanted my life to go at the moment… I was SO close to finally entering the Wonderbolts, but that doesn’t seem possible now. IT’S NOT FAIR! WHY ME!? I didn’t ask for this stupid curse; I hate it. But, seeing as how I am now stuck with it, I guess it’s best to just try and accept it. No use in whining right? Okay, maybe except for that one time with Rarity, but that was dogs. So that doesn’t count.” She slowly turned off the water stream and stepped outside the shower. The cyan mare took a towel off the rack and dried herself off. When Rainbow finally finished, she sat down on the fluffy cloud floor and just stayed there. No movement, just sitting there, staring into nothing. This continued for the next five minutes before Rainbow pulled herself out of the trance she had found herself in.

“That was... different…” Dash said, not thinking about the fact that nopony was around. She took a long, slow blink before finally trotting outside of her bathroom. What should I do now? Oh right, Twilight. Rainbow didn’t even look around her house before she was out of the door flying off towards the tree library.

Flying over the small village, she noticed that not a lot of ponies had gone to bed yet, an observation supported by a lot of lights still turned on in most of the houses. This was not something Rainbow Dash usually noticed; maybe it had something to do with her current condition? She saw that she was closing in on the library, so she concentrated on trying to hide her new features, and as she did so, the headache returned. I will just have to deal with it. It’s not like I can’t handle it. She landed a small way away from the library. Rainbow Dash was so close to the library itself, she could almost touch it, but then a pink blur rammed right into her.

“Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash managed to say under her breath as she was grabbed by the pink menace.

“Hi Dashie, you disappeared there for a while. I was getting worried, but my Pinkie Sense didn’t pick up on anything, so I waited. Are you ok? I’m so happy I could explode, but what good would that do because then I wouldn’t be here to throw parties for ponies and then they would be sad but I don’t want them to be sad so I decided not to explode.” Before another word escaped her mouth, Dash pushed her away and gave her a clear look that said something along the lines of ‘Pinkie stop, just stop.’ Pinkie did stop and looked right at Rainbow Dash.

“Please not right now Pinkie, I have something secret to talk to Twilight about, so would you please leave for now? I promise I will see you tomorrow, ok?” Pinkie blinked and nodded very slowly, and then she made a smile only Pinkie can do.

“That’s fine; if it’s secret then you don’t have to tell me. But I already know what has happened to you. You’re a vampony now, aren’t you?” Rainbow Dash’s mouth fell agape, and she just looked at Pinkie. “Relax Dashie, it’s not like I like you any less. You are still my best friend you know. I discovered this when I read the last chapter so no need to worry about me.” She turned towards the direction of Sugarcube Corner, and made a pose. “Off towards Chapter 4!” She said and started bouncing off towards her place of residence, leaving Rainbow in the dust.

“How did she… wait, she’s Pinkie, that explains it then.” Rainbow decided this was the path that wouldn’t make her head hurt even more than it already did.

Rainbow Dash arrived at the door of the library and pounded the door. For once, she actually knocked. While not a thing the totally-awesome Rainbow Dash would normally do, this was serious business that required a genuine attitude.

She heard some voices from inside the building. Rainbow recognized them as Spike and Twilight which would make sense since they lived there, but she couldn’t quite work out what they were saying. Before long, Spike was standing in front of her inside the doorway. “It’s Rainbow Dash!” He yelled into the library. “Come on in.”

“Rainbow Dash!? What’s she doing here?” Twilight Sparkle said to nopony in particular. The unicorn looked up from her books with her reading glasses on the tip of her muzzle and looked at Rainbow. “Hello Rainbow Dash, what brings you here at this time?”

“Oh you know, the usual. No but actually I need to talk to you about something… Without Spike, if that’s ok?” Rainbow shifted uncomfortably.

Spike rolled his eyes. “Gee fine, just kick me out. No problem though, I was already planning on going to sleep.” And without further ado, the little baby dragon walked upstairs, leaving the two mares alone.

“So, you wanted to talk about something?” Twilight asked with a very curious tone to her voice.

“Well, I don’t think you will like it really, but she said I could trust you. And somehow Pinkie figured it out without me saying it.” Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“Who said you could trust me? And with what for that matter?” Twilight’s enthusiasm only seemed to rise.

“IT’S HARD, OK!?” Twilight was taken aback by the sudden outburst from the pegasus. “I’m sorry for yelling, it’s just that, this is not fun for me. And, it’s really hard not to just walk away.” Rainbow looked out one of the library’s windows.

“I promise I won’t get mad. It’s not like you are a monster or anything.” Rainbow was glad Twilight didn’t see her face at that moment because it had just turned into the color of a ghost. “I mean, you can control yourself, which automatically means you are not a monster… How did I even get on that topic? I have no idea, but enough with me. You had something to tell me?” Twilight stopped and looked right at Rainbow. The unicorn sat down on her couch and looked at the pegasus with waiting eyes. All the while Rainbow Dash was feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

“I guess it’s easier to show you, since it also removes my headache…” She looked at the ground for a moment and then up at Twilight who was still watching in anticipation. Rainbow Dash took a long and slow breath before releasing her form, showing her fangs and her sudden sleek body. Seeing this made Twilight’s eyes go wide and her jaw almost hit the floor, all the while she let out one huge gasp. Rainbow Dash stood there looking back, trying to look as unthreatening as possible. After a couple of seconds of silence, Twilight finally spoke up.

“I never expected this, though the princess did warn me. And whoever it was that told you I was trustworthy with this is right. The princess taught me well I would assume. No matter, I already know how it happened,” she said rather calmly, but there was a hint excitement in there somewhere.

“How do you know that, and how are you accepting this so easily? I don’t get it, I HATE IT! And why do you seem so excited by it!?” Twilight was taken back yet again by the anger in Dash’s voice.

“Please Dash, calm down. There’s no need to get angry here. Even though I could handle you at the moment, I don’t want to because I would have to kill you. You don’t want that, and I don’t want that. And I am excited because you are the first vampony to not be a complete monster for over two hundred years; don’t you understand what this means? I need to study-” She was interrupted.

“Let me get this straight: you say you can beat me even when I have these freakish powers? I can accept that for now, not that I want to fight you anyway. And as for you studying me, you already know there is no way that’s going to happen in a million years. I also want to know WHY are you not afraid of what I am, and why are you saying I’m no match for you even with theses powers? You haven’t seen them.” Twilight smiled, but, it was not a sinister smile. It was a simple kind smile.

“I know a lot more than you think. Have you ever heard that the vamponies are creatures of the night?” Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah well what is the opposite of that? The day, and who controls the sun which gives the day? Celestia. And as her personal student, it was almost unavoidable for me to become what I am.” Dash looked at her puzzled at what she had just said. “I know most of the history of the vamponies, since Celestia herself told me. And to deal with them, she created a sort of anti-vampony experiment. This experiment ended in the creation of a system. A system where a select few ponies are allowed to be trained in a specific way, which I’m not going into detail with because it would take far too long and serve no purpose. As to why I react so calmly to you is that: even if I’m trained to kill vamponies, there hasn’t been a sane vampony for two hundred years as I said before. But with that last one, we, or rather Celestia, discovered that the sane ones are actually just normal ponies turned against their will, so Celestia always warns the new recruits that if they were to meet a vampony that could talk sanely to them, we should not attack. Simple as that.” She took a big breath after the long explanation.

“When you say sane vamponies, what do you mean exactly? Are there vamponies now, for example, that are insane or something?” Rainbow asked Twilight.

“Yeah about that… the thing there is that, the intentions of Nightmare Moon, who we expect is the origin of this, were never made clear. She also created another version, much more widespread, that not only infect ponies but all sorts of creatures. I even think a tree once got the virus; how that was possible I have no idea. And these vamponies, they have no sanity in them whatsoever, unable to communicate in any way shape or form; their only instinct is to kill. At the moment, however, Celestia managed to seal them in a faraway place, but there are always those single ones that escape from time to time, and that’s why the program Celestia started is still in use. For the record, the program is called The Sentinels of the Sun, which I actually think is a pretty good name.” She stood up from the couch and walked over to the bookshelves, looking for something. “Now where is that handbook again?” She asked herself as she continued looking.

Rainbow Dash just trotted slowly towards where Twilight was looking for the book, and then she saw a small book lying on a nearby table. The title read ‘The useful Handbook on Vamponies.’ Well that’s a very un-original way to name a book. She thought to herself as she picked it up. “Is this what you are looking for?” She said to Twilight who looked up and smiled, taking the book from Rainbow using her magic.

“Perfect! Thanks Rainbow, this is exactly what I was looking for.” Twilight put the book on a table and started to read it. “This book is actually really interesting, helps with a lot of vampony related things.” She started fumbling around the pages intensely reading every word.

“You know before, when you mentioned that Nightmare Moon created the vamponies? well I know for a fact that it’s not true.” Twilight’s head immediately shot up from the book and looked straight at her with a very serious expression.

“How!?” she demanded in a surprisingly angry voice.

“You know how before I told you about somepony telling me that I could trust you?” Twilight nodded keeping her expression. “Well I don’t exactly know who she is or rather who she was. She is a ghost, never told me her name now that I think about it. She told me about dying around 3228 years ago. Oh and I have some kind of super memory… Anyway, she told me about harnessing the power of the ‘original one’ or the ‘omnipotent one’ was the words she used, I think.” Twilight’s face went into a state of shock staring into the air, with no sign of anything in them.

“The original one… 3228 years ago… The only pony we know that died that year was Clover the Clever, the apprentice of Starswirl… If the powers of the original one is in this cur… I mean condition, then there is something hidden that we have never seen. I just hope it doesn’t come to bite us later… This is a revolutionary discovery! Thank you so much Rainbow Dash. I have so much to tell the Princess in my next letter already…” She deadpanned all those sentences without a single dose of feeling, but suddenly she shot out of the spot she was standing on and grabbed a quill and paper and started writing her letter to the princess.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to write to the Princess? I don’t really know how she would feel that one of the elements is a vampony.”

“Don’t worry Rainbow, that doesn’t matter in the least, but she did say she was feeling something coming; I guess this could be it then, nothing to worry about,” she said calmly as she continued to write the letter.

“Right, but I have to say one last thing that I don’t know if you know.” Twilight looked up from her letter and looked at Dash.

“Is it something bad?” Rainbow slowly nodded. “Well spit it out then, I already promised not to freak out.”

“Yeah about that… the spirit or ghost told me something I had to do within three months time…” Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

“Within the span of three months I have to… oh Celestia!” She started tearing up as she remembered what she had to do. Twilight put a reassuring hoof around her shoulder, pulling her into a hug. “I have t-t-to turn f-five other p-p-ponies or I-I-I w-will go mad…” At this point the tears were falling down her face.

“There there Rainbow, we will find a way to fix that, it’s not your fault. I would give myself any day, but since I’m a Sentinel, well there is an obvious obstacle, we can’t be turned. But I’m sure some of our friends would throw themselves just to help you.” They finally broke the hug and Rainbow Dash wiped her face with a hood.

“I do have *hic* great friends… hehe.” She allowed herself a slight smile at the memory of her best friends.

“Now just lie on this sofa while I finish off this letter, and then I’ll look through the handbook a bit more.” Rainbow Dash complied and lay down on the couch.

Twilight finished her letter quite quickly after that, so she started trotting up towards her room. Knocking on the door slightly, from inside the room came a very sleepy voice. “What is it? I’m trying to sleep here.” Twilight trotted inside now that she knew Spike was still awake.

“Sorry Spike but there is something Celestia needs to know right away, so can you send this letter?” Spike sighed and took the letter into his claw and sent it on its merry way.

“Is it about Rainbow?” he said before tucking himself back into his bed.

“Yeah…” Twilight turned around before completely closing the door. A malicious smile filled her face as she quickly thought of what to say. It's about how she's a vampony now. And remember, their first feeding is always the most dangerous. Naturally she'll be staying here tonight so I can watch her. However, I have a few things to do downstairs tonight so she'll be sleeping in my bed. Twilight then turned off the lights and closed the door, leaving the small dragon alone in the darkened room.

Twilight picked up the handbook and started to look through it again. After looking at it for the normal information, she noticed that two pages had been glued together. She tried to pull the pages from each other using her magic, and it revealed two entirely new pages. How come I have never seen these before? What’s the page number? WHAT DO YOU MEAN PAGE S?! What kind of number is that? I am pretty sure that’s a letter. Agh, I will just have to ask the Princess sometime in the future. But seriously, page s? What the hay? She started skimming over the new page, finding some strange things. This has happened? How did I not know of this? But I do but I don’t know about her… Her thoughts were cast aside as a very big burp came from upstairs. Spike soon walked out the door with a scroll in his claw.

“Letter,” he said flatly before Twilight took it in her magic and Spike once again went to bed.

As Twilight read the letter, her eyes went as wide as possible.

“Twilight? Is something wrong?” Rainbow asked looking up from the couch.

“We have to prepare… Celestia is coming.”

Chapter 3

“Wait, Celestia is coming right now?” Dash asked, worried about the quick reaction.

“That’s pretty much the entire letter, so yes; she’s coming, right now,” Twilight stated as she trotted into her kitchen.

“But what’s going to happen to me? I mean, that can only be a bad thing, right?” Rainbow started to fly around worriedly.

“Rainbow, I didn’t know you were that paranoid, too; that’s usually my role.” The both of them chuckled for a bit. “I mean, remember Smarty Pants? I was paranoid but in the end it turned out alright.” Those words calmed Rainbow down, so she sat down on the couch again.

“Right, no panicking,” Rainbow Dash said to herself, trying to calm down. “IT ISN’T WORKING!” she yelled as she started to fly around again.

“CALM DOWN!” Twilight commanded, quickly grabbing Rainbow in her magic field and putting her down on the couch with incredible force. “Now, Rainbow Dash, I swear upon everything, that whatever happens when Celestia gets here, you won’t get hurt or banished. I swear on my life!” she exclaimed right into Rainbow’s face, who did as she was told and stopped blabbering, silencing herself. “Good. And now we wait,” she stated as she placed herself next to Rainbow Dash on the couch and started waiting.

Luckily they did not have to wait long before there was knocking on the door. This frightened Rainbow Dash who immediately flew behind the couch. Twilight sighed annoyed and went for the door.

The unicorn opened the door to reveal Princess Celestia. She emanated an aura that hit Rainbow Dash right in the chest, filling her with pain.

“Princess, come in. Rainbow Dash is a bit scared right now; I guess I would be too if it was me… Oh sorry.” she motioned into the library and the princess nodded and walked inside. There were no guards with her, which puzzled Twilight to a great extent; guards were always right behind the princess. Was this so important that not even the guards should know about it?

All the while Celestia was walking further into the library and the pain in Rainbow’s chest grew each step the Princess took, until she stopped.

“Rainbow Dash, please show yourself,” the princess said calmly. Rainbow peeked over the couch and looked straight at the princess. Pain was clear in the flier’s eyes. “I see, that’s unfortunate.” Rainbow tilted her head slightly. “My presence seem to be hurting you, is that true?” Rainbow slowly nodded. “I have to apologize for that, but I had to make sure.” And suddenly the pain in Rainbow’s chest lifted and flew away. The look of relief on Rainbow’s face was clear, and the princess smiled lightly.

“Princess as you can see-“

“I know, my faithful student, I can see it myself.” Twilight let out a small ‘oh’ and nodded. “Now, how did this happen again did you say?” The princess asked as she sat down slowly on the floor.

Rainbow Dash slowly walked out from behind the couch, still scared of the aura the princess had just taken away. “H-hello princess,” she stammered.

The princess stood up again and walked over to the pegasus, giving her a caring hug. “My loyal subject, the element of loyalty, I would never do anything to hurt you, and I can see the pain in your eyes. Please calm down.” And almost instantaneously Rainbow calmed down; she had no idea how it happened, but it did. The princess released the hug and smiled at the Pegasus, who made a weak smile in return.

“Thanks princess, I needed that,” Rainbow said as she trotted over and sat down on the couch again. The princess sat down on the floor again. Twilight took a seat in a nearby chair. “It all happened this morning. I was trying to--“

She continued to talk about her experiences that day to the princess and Twilight.

“I see. I wonder who this ghost character is though,” Celestia mumbled when Rainbow had finally finished her story.

“Princess, I have a theory on who it could be, though there’s no concrete evidence to support it, I personally think it’s Clover, Clover the Clever.” Twilight stated matter-of-factly. Celestia’s face went into a state of confusion.

“Clover… I suppose that could be true. I never met her personally, but seeing as the death was exactly 3228 years ago, the only pony of note that I know died at that time was her. But that doesn’t mean it’s her; everything is just speculations at this point,” Celestia explained, and Twilight nodded.

“There is one thing I forgot to mention though.” Rainbow admitted quietly and Twilight’s face widened, knowing what she was talking about.

“Please tell me, I’m only here to help,” the princess admitted with a soothing tone.

“Princess, I already know the thing she’s going to say and well, it’s not pretty,” Twilight said nervously.

“Twilight Sparkle, I have a hunch that I already know what’s she’s going to say as well, and I can see on your face that you found page S?” Celestia said making Twilight’s face redden up with a blush. She turned back to Rainbow who was still sitting on the couch. “Now please, do tell me.”

“Well, the ghost mentioned something I had to do or else I would go into a blood craze with no way out.” The princess nodded and Rainbow continued. “I am supposed to t-t-turn five other p-ponies,” Dash said as she curled herself into a ball stroking her own tail.

The princess’s face turned serious. “That is quite the conundrum. But I’m not angry at you, if that’s what you think.” These words made Rainbow look up at her confused. “I could never be angry at you for something you can’t control. I just hope the ones who this happens to would want to do it, can I at least make that clear?” Rainbow nodded and started to tear up. “Now now, don’t cry.” The princess stood up again and nuzzled the newly-made vampony.

“Thanks.” Rainbow said as she flew up in the air, out of the grasp of the princess. “I think I’m feeling a lot better now, so thanks.” She smiled and Celestia smiled back while Twilight was still flustered from something Rainbow Dash didn’t understand. She landed next to Twilight poking her with a hoof. “And what’s up with you being all red in the face and stuff?” Rainbow said with a smug smile still poking Twilight.

“I might tell you, in the future.” Twilight said as she crossed her hooves. Rainbow poked her again.

“Please?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight looked up at Rainbow, who was making a very sincere smile, and then she saw something: a sparkle in her eye. Rainbow sparkle… Wait, no, dumb Twilight stop thinking like that. STOP IT, RIGHT NOW! Twilight yelled in her head as she looked away from Rainbow blushing even more than before.

“What is up with Twilight?” Rainbow asked the princess, who only chuckled.

“That I’m afraid I can’t tell you because that would be awkward for Twilight. But to be fair, let’s just say it involves the handbook on vamponies.” Rainbow’s look turned to confusion. The princess just smiled.

“That’s great and all, but was there anything else?” Rainbow asked the princess as she landed back on the ground again.

“Yes, there is. I want you to know that as long as you don’t go outside the boundaries of reasonable use of your powers, I won’t act. When you mentioned that she would send you on these ‘missions,’ do you have any clear idea what these might entail?” Rainbow shook her head. “That’s… bad. I’m afraid that she doesn’t have the best intentions in mind, but let’s hope not then.” Rainbow nodded at the statement. “I’m also a bit curious, how are you planning on revealing this to your friends?”

“Pinkie already knows; I don’t know how, but she somehow just knew.” This statement slightly shocked Celestia, but she regained composure in a matter of seconds.

“That’s very odd indeed, but it’s nothing we should worry about. How about the others?” Celestia asked curiously as she stretched her wings.

All the while Twilight was still fidgeting with herself in embarrassment.

“Right now, I have no idea, though I think Twilight would need to be there. I think that would be best, because if the others see that she’s okay with it, they might be more inclined to accept it.” Rainbow explained, still sitting comfortably on the couch.

“Yes, that is true. Farewell for now my loyal subjects. I have a kingdom to rule, but I also need my sleep.” She winked at Rainbow and went out the door, flying off towards Canterlot.

Dash went over to the still-flustered Twilight. What’s up with her? It happened when the princess mentioned a page S or something. What did that page say? I really want to know. Rainbow poked Twilight, who didn’t even react. “Twilight, get up… Please?” she said bringing Twilight out of her stupor. “If you don’t want to say why you are so weird all the time then don’t, though you look really adorable when you’re like this.”

“I DO NOT!” she retorted, only blushing slightly now.

They looked at each other without a word… until they broke into laughter. The laughing session held on for a minute or two, neither could really tell.

“Ahh, that was pretty funny,” Rainbow said as she dried the tears of laughter from her eyes, Twilight doing the same.

“Yeah, that did sound ridiculous. As for the book, I’ve decided not to tell you. Maybe in the future, but no promises.” Rainbow let out a small ‘aww’ and Twilight just chuckled. “Now, let’s get a plan to tell the girls, hmm?” Twilight asked the Pegasus.

“Yeah, that sounds good.” Both of them let out yawns. “Heh, guess we’re tired?” Twilight nodded. “I just want to say something before we go to bed or something; firstly, could I stay here tonight? I don’t really feel like flying home right now.”

“Of course you can, Rainbow; you’re always welcome here.” The two smiled at each other. “The second thing?” the unicorn asked.

“Well, I have a plan on how to tell Applejack, but that involves her not knowing until the Running of the Leaves.” Rainbow smiled sheepishly. Twilight just sighed.

“You’re going to cheat aren’t you?” Rainbow Dash faked being shocked.

“How could you possibly think something like that of me?” Rainbow said in a Rarity-like voice. Twilight just looked at her with a flat face. “Fine… Yes I’m going to use my powers there, but remember, she only said to not use wings, you know that.” The unicorn rolled her eyes then rose from her chair and trotted into the kitchen of the library, Rainbow following close behind.

Twilight opened the fridge with her magic and grabbed two sandwiches for a night snack.

“Right, so no telling Applejack until the Running of the Leaves: check. how about Fluttershy and Rarity then?” Twilight put forth as she took a bite from her sandwich.

“Fluttershy would probably be the easiest one I would think. Considering she would say sorry like it was her fault or something, so she’s easy. As for Rarity, I’m going to expect something bad, though if what I hear is true and that she actually read that crappy ‘Dawnbreak saga’ then I’m not quite sure what her reactions would be.” Rainbow took a bite of her sandwich, and Twilight just nodded along with everything she said.

“I know for a fact that Rarity read that series, but that doesn’t really mean anything.” Can’t let Dash know that I actually like it too, would be awkward and not something that would help my goal along. Twilight thought to herself as she took yet another bite.

“I’m just afraid that she will think I’m sparkling or something; that would be awkward. Really awkward.” Rainbow stated.

Twilight looked away, getting a bit of crimson in her face again. This is getting really awkward, at least for me. And for the sparkle bit, I already know she can produce sparkles, but I won’t tell her that. She would just have a nervous breakdown, or something worse… She shook her head and looked back at Rainbow as she took the last bite of her sandwich. She stretched her hooves and yawned. “I think I’m going to bed now. You can just go to the guest room when you feel like sleeping. Good night.” She trotted out and up the stairs into her room.

“Good night.” Rainbow said to herself as Twilight walked upstairs. Wait, why did I yawn before? I’m not supposed to be needing sleep right? At least I think she said something like that.

That, my loyal one, is true, but your body is still trying to adapt, so you will sleep a lot less than a normal pony would.

Oh great, the almighty voice is back. Rainbow made a grunt at the voice that let out a small chuckle at the Pegasus.

Silly, silly mortal-made immortal. I’m only here to guide you for the moment.

I know and that’s the problem, you’re going to use me later, which I’m not exactly thrilled about. Now Rainbow took the last bite of her own sandwich.

Enjoying food? If you, for example, don’t obey one of my orders, your sense of taste might disappear. Just saying. Rainbow gulped. I can do that, yes.

Please go away? I want to be alone right now. The voice made a final popping sound, disappearing as fast as it had come.

Rainbow looked around for the coffee machine Twilight had borrowed earlier the same day and found it standing right next to the sink already plugged in. Guess I could take some, not that I really need it. She decided to make a single cup.

As Rainbow Dash finished her cup of coffee, she yawned again and decided to go for a late night flight to get rid of some excess energy.

She opened the door to the library and took flight. Managing her speed had become noticeably difficult due to her new form. Rainbow couldn't help but smile as she flew over the town. She really loved this place for all its worth; it was small yes, but it had her friends, and that was all she needed. The only thing that could come close, but never top it, would be a spot in the Wonderbolts, but she knew that was no longer an option. She would be the odd one out, the outsider.

The town was even quieter than it had been when she had flown over to the library in the first place. All lights were out and everypony was sleeping, except for her that is. At least she thought so. She noticed a faint light while flying. It was emanating from the apple orchard her friend owned, but the light wasn’t coming from the house itself. No, it was coming from what seemed to be The Cutie Mark Crusaders tree house. What are the girls doing up at this time? Determined to answer that question, she flew down to the house, retracting her appearance and gaining the headache once again.

It seemed like whoever was inside the tree house had heard her land, as a lot of shuffling started in the small house. The sounds suddenly stopped as Rainbow walked inside and saw Scootaloo sitting at the table. “Hey Scoots, what are you doing here?” Rainbow asked as she walked inside. The filly sighed.

“I couldn’t bear to be home; mom and dad were fighting again. I’m afraid something might happen, so I decided to come here, the safest place I know,” Scootaloo said with a very flat look.

“Well that’s not good,” Rainbow said awkwardly. She didn’t really know what to do; this wasn’t really her comfort zone. Fluttershy would usually be more up to this task, but alas Dash was the only one present. “Look Scoots, things like this happen all the time. I’m actually in quite the situation right now myself, but I don’t think it’s as harsh.” Rainbow pulled Scootaloo into a caring hug making the filly smile.

“Heh thanks, but this is normal for my family. It doesn’t really faze me as much anymore,” she said as she released the hug and smiled, which was returned by the larger pegasus. “What I’m more interested in is what problem you are having, care to talk? I’ve talked.” Rainbow chuckled at the filly.

“It’s gonna scare ya, I know it will. It’s something I can show you, but are you absolutely sure you want to see it?” The filly made a hesitant nod, and Rainbow took a large breath.

Rainbow slowly released her new form in front of the filly whose eyes were widening all the while, her mouth hanging agape. Scootaloo fell out of her chair in surprise, but she quickly got back on her hooves.

“AWESOME!” she exclaimed, making the grown mare very confused. “You’re a legend normally, and now you’re a vampony as well? That’s so awesome,” she said as she hugged Rainbow’s leg.

“Thanks, I thought you would be more freaked out. Not many ponies like the whole ‘being a monster’ thing.”

“Monster? If ponies think you’re a monster, then they’re stupid. And if you really are a monster then I’m a chicken, which I’m not.” Rainbow snickered slightly at the filly’s silliness.

“Thanks,” Rainbow said as she dragged Scootaloo into yet another hug. “What do you say about me staying here with you for the night? It’s not like I have anything important anyway.” The filly’s eyes started shining.

“You would do that?” she asked with excitement in her voice.

“Of course, it’s the least I could do for my number one fan.” The filly beamed with pride and happiness as she dragged Rainbow Dash over to the spot she had made for sleeping.

Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo curled together and the filly fell asleep almost immediately. Rainbow smiled and placed herself next to the filly, pulling a hoof over her and falling asleep as well.

Chapter 4

Rainbow slowly stirred from her sleep. As she tried to stand up from the position she had been sleeping in, she found that one of her fore hooves had become a lot heavier. She looked at the hoof and saw something really obvious. Ice? I have hooves made of ice? That’s not what I expected. She looked down and saw that Scootaloo was still sleeping peacefully on the tree house floor. Good, at least she’s still sleeping. Rainbow walked outside and looked to the horizon. The sun was just rising. Gee, I really didn’t get a lot of sleep. Though I know why, but still, this is very weird and new. She held the hoof made of ice close to her as she trotted down the slope to the ground. She looked at her hoof and then at a nearby tree. She nodded to herself and slammed the hoof straight into the tree. The ice shattered and her hoof was free again. She had no idea how this worked, so she tried something. She focused power into the hoof that had just been encased in ice. Ice started forming around the hoof in a very sharp fashion. Yup, vampony powers on that too; how come I didn’t know about this before? She shrugged and slammed her hoof into the tree again, shattering the ice, but this time there was also a very big crack in the tree itself. AJ won’t be happy about that. But who’s gonna tell her? Nopony, that’s who! She laughed to herself and didn’t hear the sound of hooves connecting with wood.

“Dash? What was that shattering noise?” Scootaloo asked as she rubbed her eyes, trying to wake up.

“Uhhh, ice hooves?” Rainbow Dash said in a worried tone. She had hoped that Scootaloo wouldn’t hear that--not that anything bad would come from it, right?

“Ice hooves? Sounds cool, what do they do?” the filly asked, still in the stupor from just waking up.

“I have no idea. I just woke up, and one of my front hooves was encased in ice for some reason, not a situation I thought I would ever wake up in. Not exactly sure what I can do with them though.” Rainbow finished and looked at Scootaloo whose expression had turned from sleepy to excited.

“Sounds AWESOME!” The orange pegasus squealed, making Rainbow close her eyes and roll them inside the eyelid as to not allow Scootaloo to see her. “Dash, I was wondering, this cool new thing you have, could you make me-“

“No.” Rainbow simply deadpanned and flew off into the sky, not wanting to have this conversation.

Scootaloo’s head turned to the ground with a frown. She’s doesn’t know why I want it, but I’ll show her, and she will make me a vampony. Because if she’s a vampony, that means being a vampony is cool, so I want to be one! Scootaloo allowed herself to smile as she went inside the tree house to get her things and get back to her parents. Maybe later she could try to get Rainbow Dash to listen to her pleas.

Rainbow Dash landed in front of the Ponyville library, and quickly made her way inside. What she saw wasn’t exactly what she had expected. Inside the library sat a very angry Twilight, her eyes bloodshot and exhausted. She looks like she went through Tartarus and back; I wonder why she looks so mad though. Rainbow asked herself as she gave Twilight a sheepish smile making the unicorn grunt in annoyance.

“Where were you?” the unicorn asked staring right into the eyes of Rainbow Dash, piercing her soul as she would put it. The look she was giving the pegasus was so intense that it made Dash shudder uncomfortably.

“I kind of slept at the Crusaders tree house, and why are you up anyway? And why do you look like you haven’t gotten any sleep whatsoever?” she said, giving Twilight an unusual smile.

“And why were you there? FOR THE RECORD, I WAS REALLY WORRIED WHEN YOU WEREN’T HERE! Oh, I was yelling, sorry. I woke up at around 1am and decided to take something small to drink. I looked into your room to make sure you were fine, but lo and behold, you had disappeared. At first I thought that you had gone downstairs or something, but when I noticed that you weren’t even in the library, I got worried and started looking for a scrying spell the whole night, and that explains the huge pile of books over there.” She waved her hoof off towards a direction in the library; Dash looked, and there was a pile of books that was literally the height of ten ponies. Rainbow really didn’t care about the amount of books, so she simply looked back at Twilight, unamused as she was. “And I was taking a break just now, staring at the door, and then you came. So now, explain, what were you doing at the treehouse?” Twilight allowed herself to attach a very angry smile on her face. How that was possible, well, only Pinkie could explain that.

“Well, I kinda wasn’t tired, due to being a vampony and all. I suddenly wanted some coffee, so I made some. Then I decided to fly off the excess energy I had. And then there was light in the tree house, and I flew down where I found Scoots all alone in there, so I asked what was wrong. Apparently her parents had a fight so she went there, and I decided to stay there to sleep. Aaaand when I was about to leave, she wanted me to turn her; I’m never going to do that. EVER!” she explained and Twilight nodded logically.

“Hmm, yeah, I supposed I could believe that. You at least have a sense of morale and didn’t turn her, but I wouldn’t expect less from you, being the element of loyalty and all.” she said to no one in particular and used her magic to get her a book which she started to skim through rather quickly.

“Thanks?” Rainbow went over to a nearby shelf to look for the latest Daring Do book, just to check if there was a new one. But sadly, there wasn’t, since she had already read all the ones currently out, which made her frown. She had still hoped, but sadly, that didn’t help her.

“Right, here it is!” Twilight exclaimed as she pointed her hoof into the book, Rainbow looked over at her. “Family—“ She was interrupted as the door to the library opened and outside stood three of their friends: Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy. What surprised Rainbow and Twilight the most wasn’t the fact that they were at the library, but the time that they were there!

“Hi girls! I brought Rarity and Fluttershy since I was supposed to do so. I don’t know why I shouldn’t bring Applejack, but I wasn’t meant to do that, so yeah, here are the girls and you can tell them… Oh wait you are already in your cool form. OOPS! Guess I failed on the timing, I’m sorry Dashie!” Pinkie rambled as she grabbed Rainbow Dash in a hug and went over to close the door. All the while Rarity’s jaw had figuratively hit the ground, and Fluttershy was shying into her mane.

“Ok, ok, I know what you two are thinking right now, and yes, she’s not the normal Dash. She’s a vampony, nothing wrong with her and even if she could do something, I'm well prepared for anything she might do, so trust me; I have Sun powers.” Twilight explained as she used her magic to lock the door that Pinkie had just closed.

“Does she sparkle?” Rarity asked curiously, giving them a very awkward smile; they returned it with a very flat look. “I guess not then, too bad. Rainbow would look rather good in sparkles though.” The flat looks continued.

“Rarity, please stop. That thing is so bad it makes me puke, so please stop. What surprises me the most is that you aren’t even intimidated… What about you Fluttershy? What is your reaction to this?” Rainbow asked as she turned towards the cowering pegasus.

“You look scary, b-but I know you wouldn’t ever hurt us…” she gave a very weak smile towards Rainbow who returned it wholeheartedly.

“I knew you two would take this well.” she said turning towards Twilight who smiled and nodded.

“Want me to tell them? Or are you going to do that?” Twilight asked her, instantly making Rainbow frown uncomfortably.

“Tell us what exactly? Darling, do you need any help? I could help; I would be happy to.” Rarity said as she trotted over and put a hoof on Rainbow’s back.

“Something’s wrong? Oh, my, I don’t know if I could help.” Fluttershy said very quietly but everypony in the room still heard it. Rainbow quickly moved away from the hoof extended by Rarity and nodded towards Twilight, who responded with a very clear nod.

“She has a problem… Not immediate, but she has three months. And, well, if it doesn’t get done in three months, she may as well be dead.” Rarity looked shocked, giving off a loud gasp and Fluttershy just whimpered further into her mane, and from nowhere Pinkie jumped out of nowhere hugging Rainbow Dash. “She’s a vampony and, well, she needs to turn five ponies.” Twilight stated rather clearly, this didn’t even phase Rarity in the slightest, and Fluttershy flinched.

“That’s what she needs to do? Why didn’t you say so? I would be happy to help, that form does look very appealing, and I already have the perfect ideas for a dress.” Rarity declared.

“You do know that my fangs are visible, right? And Pinkie, please get off me.” Pinkie did, and then she stood right next to Rainbow Dash wearing a smile that everypony associated with Pinkie. “There are a lot of bad things; I can’t really tell all of them, but there are a lot of bad things, and when you try to look normal, you can, but you get a very intense headache.”

“Ah, ah, ah, that’s where you're wrong Dash darling. I wouldn’t be a very good element of generosity if I couldn’t help you by getting this, let’s call it thing, and helping you any way possible.” Rainbow was taken aback at the enthusiasm from her friend, something she hadn’t expected.

“Rarity, you don’t know what you are doing,” Twilight said flatly.

“I do know what I’m doing. I’m giving myself a thing to help my friend, and I am happy to do that. How come you haven’t done so? You seem very knowledgeable about this, and considering your situation, I thought you would have already done so.” This made Twilight blush, but Rainbow had no idea what that could even mean at a statement like that, which made her annoyed.

“RARITY! You promised not to say anything, and besides that’s nothing! And as to why I haven’t done so and getting turned, well I have anti-vampony training, making me immune to this thing as you call it. There is one exception, but that’s a very impossible situation. Andl don’t go off topic. Why do you want to do this? You would be a vampony forever.” Twilight explained, still flustered by what Rarity had said. Rarity just smiled knowingly.

“Ok, I have no idea what you two are talking about here. Pinkie do you have any idea what they are talking about?” Rainbow asked turning her head towards Pinkie, who was still smiling; it was a very creepy smile. Wait, how do I even go about turning ponies? That would be great to know. Though I still don’t want to do it, it would still be good to know. Rainbow thought trying to call the mother, but, sadly, there was no response.

“I know everything~!” Pinkie sang as she jumped behind a door mysteriously disappearing from the room. All ponies just looked at the door she had disappeared into. They even felt her presence disappearing from the room.

“I wonder what that was about.” Rainbow stated out loudly.

“Yes, that was very Pinkie indeed. But now, let’s get to helping Rainbow shall we? How do we go about this?” Rarity asked, breaking the very odd silence.

“Are you one hundred percent sure?” Twilight and Rainbow said in unison. They looked at each other, laughing slightly at their synced speech.

“Oh Twilight, I see your angle. But yes, I am sure, one-hundred-percent to be accurate.” Rarity stated firmly, and the two mares just nodded. But no one of them noticed that Fluttershy had risen from her spot, coughing to get everypony’s attention.

“Uhm, excuse, sorry was I interrupting?” All mares in the room shook their collective heads. “Oh ok, because I also want to do this. I want to be nice and help my oldest friend…”

“Fluttershy, please no, I don’t want you to do this,” Rainbow said towards Fluttershy who took a very stern look onto her face.

“No! You don’t have a say in this now. You always save me and help me from everything, and that’s because you are stronger than me, but now it’s my turn to repay that favor! So I want to do this, and I want no objections from you. Is that understood?” she said, sternly staring at Rainbow. Luckily enough for Rainbow, she wasn’t using that stare.

“Uhhh… Okay.” Rainbow simply stated, but was rudely interrupted as the door to the library swung open, and there stood a young, orange pegasus filly. Rainbow grunted and looked away. “Scootaloo, I already told you, no. I won’t do it, so just go away.” Rarity and Fluttershy looked at Twilight who nodded, and they made a very small ‘oooh’ sound, understanding what Rainbow was talking about.

“Rainbow you don’t understand. You HAVE to do this.” Rainbow looked at Twilight who shrugged and took Scootaloo into her magic field, trying to push her out of the library. “PLEASE! LISTEN TO ME!” she yelled as Twilight locked the door again, not understanding how Scootaloo could even open it in the first place. Banging could be heard from the library window, the banging itself coming from the exact same filly. Twilight sighed and isolated the window making it so that it made no sound from the intense banging.

“That was annoying, so, let’s get back to business!” Twilight exclaimed loudly, scaring Fluttershy and making her hide behind Rarity.

“Yeah, that, one more time, you two sure you want to do this? I don’t want you to feel guilty for not doing it.” Rainbow asked the two mares. They just nodded confidently. Great. When something inevitably happens to them because to this, I’m going to feel really guilty… Celestia damn it. Rainbow sighed, making the three other mares very confused, but they didn't say anything.

Oh hello, I heard you wanted help.

Yay, it’s the horrible oppressor of mine! Rainbow shouted in her mind. But yeah, I need help. Seems like my friends want me to turn them, and I really don’t want to, but I can’t decide for them. They are determined to go through with it. So I need help with the conversion thing. She explained to the voice.

That’s easy really, you just have to bite them in the neck and not suck blood, but try and push so to speak; this will push the vampony essence into their system. The process will require a whole night’s sleep to actually kick in. And I am so happy that you are already helping yourself help me! Oh and when you are done with this, call me again. I have a mission for you. So again, bye for now!

Still there? No? Ok good. Rainbow made a very uncomfortable smile. “I just talked to the boss, and well she explained the process thingy. I think it’s best to do it in a separate room, since I think it will look very ugly. And when you wake up tomorrow you will have turned, or that’s what she said.” Twilight nodded very matter-of-factly and the two others just looked confused.

“Boss? Who in the world of fashion is that?” Rarity asked, very interested in this new information.

“She’s just the original vampony, you know the one who created it and all that. And no, it’s not Nightmare Moon; it’s somepony else, and we have no idea who. But that’s not important, and now I need to know what you are going to do when this happens and how you will explain it to the ones closest to you. Like you Rarity, how will you explain that to Sweetie Belle? And you Fluttershy, how will you explain that to Angel? Or wait no need to explain on that one; I don’t really think he could complain, but yeah, how about Sweetie Belle?” Rainbow said to Rarity but the fashionista still held her stern look of determination.

“Angel probably would be angry at me, but he wouldn’t say anything. He respects most of the choices I make… So no, he won’t be a problem…” Fluttershy said, calm as a tree.

“Sweetie Belle also won’t be a problem. She’s my sister and will accept it just as easy as we did with you or as easily as Scootaloo did. I don’t really know how you showed her, but I am very sure my own sister wouldn’t think less of me for helping a friend.” she said while smiling towards Rainbow Dash who silently cursed at her friend’s steadfastness at doing this, and she hated it, a lot.

“Ugh, fine, let’s just get this over with. Twilight, got any place we can do this in private?” she looked at the unicorn, who simply nodded and pointed towards the kitchen. “Ok then, who’s going first?” Rainbow asked towards the two friends so very inclined to do this.

“I could go first, and then I can remove any fears from Fluttershy if it were to hurt, which I personally don’t think it will.” Rarity said and looked at Fluttershy who simply nodded.

Yes, she can go first; I don’t mind…” Fluttershy said looking out the window seeing the pegasus filly still banging the window, which still made no sound.

“Ok then Twilight; entertain Fluttershy while I do something I will most likely regret sometime in the future…” she said and trotted into the kitchen, closely followed by a smiling Rarity.

“Ok then, I have no idea what’s going to happen now, but I know what I need to do. I will give you one more chance to back out. Are you sure you want to do this?” Rainbow asked Rarity who simply sat down on a chair and smiled while nodding. Rainbow sighed. My friends are awesome for doing this, yes. But they are ruining their own lives, and I don’t want them to regret doing this… GAH! This is so annoying! Rainbow breathed slowly trying to calm down as she trotted behind Rarity getting into position, or rather what she thought was the best way to do this.

“Don’t hesitate Rainbow, just get it over quickly and then it’s done. I think it sounds pretty easy.” Rarity said very calmly, actually managing to calm Rainbow slightly as she took one last breath before slowly going in for the bite.

As her fangs tore through the surprisingly fragile skin of Rarity, the unicorn in question let out a quiet yelp, as if she got pinched in the neck. Rainbow remembered that she had to push as the mother had told her so she did. She felt some sort of mass moving from within her fangs into the veins of Rarity. It was a rather slow process, since the mass just got more annoying to push through, but then it stopped. She had pushed every ounce of mass that she needed. She pulled away from Rarity, retracting her fangs from the unicorn’s neck. Rainbow saw that there was a bite mark left on the spot she had just bitten. That’s going to be ugly, can’t I remove it somehow? Then she remembered something. She slowly gathered energy into one of her hooves, making solid ice around her hoof. She stroked a bit of ice on the bite mark, making Rarity shiver at the cold nature of the ice. And as Rainbow Dash finished stroking the mark, it had disappeared. Thank Celestia for random coincidences. She thought as she let go of the grip she had on Rarity.

“Do you feel any different?” Rainbow asked curiously, walking over to the other side of the chair to look Rarity in the eyes. The look she was giving off was a happy one.

“Yeah, I’m fine, when are you going to do it though? I felt that icy something you just did, maybe for preparation? But why are you hesitating?” This confused Rainbow; she had just bitten Rarity, but somehow she didn’t remember it? Rainbow rolled her eyes in annoyance of things she couldn’t explain.

“Rarity, you see, the thing is, I already bit you, but you seem to have forgotten it… Why are so many weird things happening?” Rarity raised an eyebrow, smiling softly.

“You did? And, me not remembering might be good thing. Since we don’t really know what the one getting bitten feels during the bite, maybe it’s something horrible? If it is, well then it’s a good thing I don’t remember anything.” she said smiling and rising from the chair. She walked over to the door to the main room of the library and looked back at Rainbow Dash who just made a small smile back at her. “Should I send in Fluttershy?” Rarity asked which made Rainbow flinch, but she recovered quickly and nodded back at the unicorn.

“Fluttershy darling, it’s your turn now. Don’t worry about the whole thing, didn’t hurt a bit,” she said to the yellow pegasus, who nodded and walked into the kitchen rather slowly.

“I’m curious here, how did the entire process go?” Twilight asked sitting in a chair with a textbook and quill ready for notes.

“I’m sorry but I don’t remember any of it; Rainbow did, but I somehow forgot. Maybe it had something to do with the whole thing, I don’t really know.” This made Twilight’s enthusiasm drop by a small amount, but not much. She used her magic to place the textbook and quill on the table right next to her, motioning for Rarity to take a seat on the nearby couch.

“Things like this always happen. I know it’s nopony’s fault, but it’s still annoying not to get any notes on these things. Rainbow is, after all, the first vampony in two hundred years, so the studying I could do is immense. And with the triple amount of vamponies running around, research will go three times as fast.” Twilight explained making Rarity give her a rather flat look.

“I suppose that’s true.” Rarity said, and then she nodded.

Their discussion was interrupted as the door to the kitchen opened and Fluttershy and Rainbow stepped out, both of them having rather calm expressions.

“Oh, hi girls, this was certainly an experience… But I have to go and do something for the boss now.” Rainbow said flatly as she quickly trotted to the door. She opened it and Twilight shouted after her as she took to the air.

“RAINBOW!” Twilight shouted, but the cyan pegasus didn’t hear her, she just flew off into the air.

“Good, now, how do I go about calling her again…” Rainbow said to herself while flying through the air. Hello! I kind of need to talk to you! You said something about a mission or something? She called out in her mind, which she thought was very redundant, when she actually thought about it.

Oh hello Alpha, I see you did in fact convert those two; I can already see their fires starting.

Fires? Rainbow asked curiously.

Yes, fires, figuratively of course, but I can still see that you did it. Ok now to the mission, I need you to go to Manehattan and get something for me. Something of high value to me.

Chapter 5

Rainbow Dash stopped in mid air, hovering. She thought through what she had just heard, and replied, Manehattan? But that’s like a two-day flight! How do you expect me to get there?

I think you forgot something quite important here. You have this amazing, new body right? Yes you do. And in fact, I know that an Alpha is four times faster; if said Alpha is a pegasus, then the other races receive other benefits. This in itself means that the flight there will take you around ten hours, I would think.

Oh right. I’m faster now, that’s not something that happens to me, and I’m always awesome. But four times faster? That’s insanely much, but I am inclined to believe it I guess. Rainbow though as she turned towards the northwest and took off, off towards Manehattan.

Good, see how fast you are already going? And this is without your magical light show, no wait, you called it a Sonic Rainboom, sorry. But it’s still a magical light show. Rainbow just grunted at the voice. No need to get angry! I am just stating facts. Since, if you hadn’t done that magical light show, you and your friends would not have your cutie marks. This in turn points towards the fact that the Sonic Rainboom was magic and a very big light show too. So yeah, that’s that. And if you wanted to, you could do Rainboom speeds right now if you wanted too. It’s not like you would get tired or anything, meaning you would get there faster. This is beneficial for the both of us. So come on now, speed up! She demanded, Rainbow did as she was asked. And sure enough the sound barrier was broken within seconds.

Rainbow smiled as she blazed through the sky at an immense speed. Rainbow looked down at the ground and found herself already past Canterlot; she was flying incredibly fast! She couldn’t believe it. One question. What exactly did you need me to do again?

I never said that did I? Well you see, I want you to act natural at first, but that’s easy to do… Though you really do stand out like a sore hoof, what with your rainbow mane and all. But that can be good to, so don’t worry your pretty little head. You see, the thing is, I need an item, and the only way to get it is through ‘special’ connections so to speak. Don’t worry, I have everything you will need for this. When you get to Manehattan, I want you to find a special tavern, and you’ll need to ask the bartender something I will tell you when you get there. So don’t worry; everything will be fine. What could possibly go wrong?

“She flew so fast that she made a Sonic Rainboom, and that easily as well… That vampony thing sure makes pegasi a lot faster…” Twilight said to no one in particular as she went back into the library.

“Was that a Sonic Rainboom?” Rarity asked, and Twilight nodded. “Oh, that explains the loud explosion.” She looked around nervously, thinking about what to say next... “So, what happens now?” Rarity asked.

Twilight turned towards her with a solemn expression. “I have no idea actually. But I would think that waiting for Rainbow to get back would take far too long. I would say we go about doing our usual things, the everyday chores and whatnot. As for when the thing kicks in, well, I think waiting until tomorrow would be a good idea, since that sounds reasonable... But, in any case, I think you two should sleep here tonight. Since turning into a vampony would probably scare the ponies, or animals around you.” Fluttershy and Rarity nodded along as Twilight spoke. They turned to each other and nodded, and went out of the library.

“I guess that covers that then... Now where did I put that handbook again? I really need to look up turning other ponies. Knowing that process will surely help, I would think.” Twilight said to herself as she started to look around the library for the handbook that seemed to disappear whenever she didn’t look at it.

Twilight searched for a multitude of minutes, never finding the handbook. She was starting to get frustrated, but this soon stopped because of knocking on the library door could be heard. “COME IN! IT’S A PUBLIC LIBRARY!” she yelled out and heard the door open. She was expecting a grown pony, not the orange filly she had found in front of herself. “Scootaloo? What are you doing here? I didn’t know you read, maybe here to pick up some Daring Do?” Scootaloo looked up at Twilight with a troubled expression and shook her head.

“No, I’m here to ask something, and I want your help...” the filly said, avoiding Twilight’s gaze. Twilight sighed, knowing what the pegasus filly was going to ask.

“I think I have an idea, and what on Equestria could you possibly have that would make me help you in doing that? I will not help you ask Rainbow to turn you into a vampony; trust me, you don’t want that... And besides, what possible reason could you have for wanting that?” Twilight asked, still looking for that handbook.

“How did you even know I was going to ask that?” This question was answered by Twilight giving her a very, very flat look that made Scootaloo realize what she was pointing towards. “Oh, that, yeah, that was pretty obvious... I have something you want, that’s why you would want to help me.” This made Twilight look at her with confusion and tilted her head to the side. “Twilight, I can help you solve your little problem involving Dash, and yes, I can see it; it’s painstakingly obvious... The only pony not seeing it is Dash herself. I have a very good idea on how to get her to notice you.” Twilight’s expression turned serious as she trotted over to Scootaloo.

“I will think about it.” Twilight said, making the filly smile.

“Sister,” Luna said as she walked into Celestia’s sturdy. “Where were thou last night? Thou seemed rather distracted.” Luna pointed out, making Celestia look over at her smiling.

Celestia was standing by a very large bookshelf, looking for a book. “Dear sister, last night, there was something I had to do, nothing dangerous, but it required my immediate attention, so don’t worry.” Luna gave her a look. “What is it sister? Did something happen?” Luna snorted at this.

“Nothing special happened last night? Did thou not visit Twilight Sparkle and her pegasus friend?” Luna asked as she moved closer to Celestia, who started to look rather nervous.

Celestia shifted uncomfortably and turned towards the bookshelf again. “Yes, it did have something to do with my faithful student, but it wasn’t anything you need concern yourself with.” Celestia said, trying to get her sister to go away from the topic at hand. Luna snorted yet again.

“Sister.” Luna said flatly. “Why art thou lying to us?” This made Celestia freeze completely. “We know what happened last night; I saw the entire thing... Why are thou lying to us about it? We could help her! We have personal experience with her kind!” Luna exclaimed, Celestia simply looked away from her sister.

Celestia coughed lightly, getting the attention of her sister. “Luna, I did not want this to trouble you. Nightmare Moon was a bad era in your life; I was trying to protect you. I did not want to hurt my sister.” Celestia said solemnly, forcing a smile to appear on her sister’s face. Celestia looked back to the bookshelf yet again, still talking to her sister. “I was looking for a book on the subject, but they are always so very hidden, but now that you are inclined to help, maybe you could give some personal input?” Celestia said as she looked at her sister who smiled and nodded, making Celestia herself smile as she embraced her sister in a loving hug.

“Thou should still have told us, but yes, we would love that very much sister. We would love that very much.” Luna said as they released from the hug and started to trot over to the sit in her sister’s study.

Rainbow Dash was closing in on Manehattan, and after only three hours, she recognized the scenery of the landscape she was flying over, traveling at a speed that still baffled her. But it didn’t annoy her at all, since it was her flying and not somepony else. That would have been something she would hate. Because she was the fastest flyer in Equestria, everypony knew that!

You’re closing in on Manehattan already? You sure are the fastest flier, but still, I shouldn’t expect less from an Alpha, but oh well.

I’m just that awesome, that explains everything. Manehattan could now be seen on the horizon, making Rainbow wonder what she was actually going to do there. I am really close now, so don’t you think it’s time for you to tell me what I’m supposed to do here? I don’t exactly know that. Rainbow explained as she started to slow down for the landing that would soon come.

Simple really, I need you to go to a certain spot, but before I tell you where, I want you to pick up a newspaper. It’s good for a pony to keep up-to-date with current events, and I’m also curious about something. Oh and don’t forget to retract your features. She reminded Rainbow who quickly retracted the features of her vamponyism, Rainbow’s new word for it.

Rainbow Dash landed a bit outside of the town, trying to be subtle. A newspaper? I guess I could do that pretty easily, I mean, it’s just a newspaper. She entered the city, immediately finding herself surrounded by huge skyscrapers all around her, intimidating Rainbow immensely. She was used to the open airspace around Ponyville, but this just seemed ridiculous.

After walking around the city, and lots and lots of ponies mucking around all over the place, Rainbow finally found a stand that sold newspapers. She plonked a bit on the counter and grabbed a newspaper before taking back into the air. She found the closest outcropping from one of the skyscrapers and landed. The little platform she now found herself on was very grey and plain. Luckily for Rainbow, there was a chair randomly standing on the huge building. Rainbow just shrugged the weirdness off and sat down in the chair to begin reading:

The Equestria Daily, the Hide interview

As all citizens might remember, last weekend there was a robbery of the largest bank in the entirety of Manehattan. The suspects were the infamous Greasy Hide and his followers. He was declared not guilty the day after he was arrested. Following the court decision, this was what he had to say, “It’s sad when a city accuses an innocent pony of something they haven’t done. I might not be the nicest stallion, but I still believe in ethics.” Following this, yesterday there was a lawsuit issued by Mr. Hide himself against the entire city of Manehattan, baffling the entire population of our wonderful city with the successful verdict in his case. The jury was overwhelmed by the evidence he had showed them, some might say they had been bribed, but we here at The Equestria Daily fully believes that Greasy is a very honest stallion and would never go as low as bribery. The lawsuit ended with the mayor of Manehatan giving Greasy Hide and his closest man Steadfast Shield complete immunity in the eyes of the law, something nopony in the entire history of our fine country has ever gotten before. During the pause of court we managed to get another quote from Mr. Hide: “I issued this lawsuit because I can’t stand this city accuses innocents, I’m here standing up for civil right.” This of course lead to disbelief when there was no new law created about civil rights. This is unfortunate, but there have been rumors about the mayor bribing them with their new immunity instead of creating new laws. If this shows to be true, the mayor would most probably be arrested himself, but there would be nothing the Police could do about Greasy and Steadfast due to their new gained immunity. Yesterday when court had finished we were allowed yet another interview with Mr. Hide, but he shied away but left one quote for you readers: “Corruption in the government of this city is a bad thing, and I will do everything in my might to stop it.” Was all we got before he needed to get rest... Before we end this column we have one last quote from one of Greasy Hide’s advisors, we never got his name. “We have already begun our operation of making sure that no innocent will ever be accused ever again.” After this quote had been spoken, the advisor disappeared in a puff of smoke.

, Top News

Rainbow Dash read through the article one more time. She wasn’t sure what to believe. He sued the entire city? How is that even possible? And now he’s immune to the law? Who is this guy?

Why did it have to be him? I thought he was dead... How can he still be alive?

Uhm, excuse me miss ghost person, but how do you know this guy? Rainbow asked as she stood up from the chair and stretched her limbs, letting out a small moan at the release of tension.

Let’s just say he’s dangerous and that you haven’t seen the last of him, not by a long shot. And he’s over 200 years old, how he managed that, I have a pretty good idea. It still bugs me, and whatever you do, do not, I repeat, do not engage him in combat, ever, or his living shield, Steadfast. The probability of you dying horribly is nearly guaranteed... At least right now... Enough with that; let’s get to business then, shall we?

Yeah let’s do that. Where was I supposed to go again? Rainbow asked as she took to the sky, hovering over the streets of Manehattan.

I need you to fly over to Cenpony Park, and look around the edges for a bar. This bar will be called “A Pony’s Lucky Drink.” You need to place yourself at the bar and say a specific phrase to the bartender.

And what would that be?

The phrase is “Om man förstorar en potatis, vad händer med kärnan?” and if you can’t pronounce that, I recommend writing it down.

That would probably help. Rainbow simply though as she landed on the ground and started looking for a store that sold quill and paper. She wasn’t a stranger to writing; it was just something she didn't do very often. It didn’t help that she wrote like a crow or worse. But at least it was coherent.

Rainbow continued her trek towards Cenpony Park in search of a story, and wouldn’t you know, at the corner facing the park itself was a store neatly called “Quills and Paper.”

Rainbow felt that this sounded oddly familiar to something in Ponyville; she couldn’t quite point out what though.

After getting the paper and quill, Rainbow flew up on a building and wrote down the weird phrase that the ghost recited for her yet again.

She now found herself trotting around the edge of Cenpony Park, trying to find this bar she had been told to find. What is this phrase going to do anyway, and how do you even know it if it does? Rainbow asked as she remembered that the ghost had said that she couldn’t interact with anything but her and a little bit with the friends she had turned, remembering that made Rainbow’s stomach churn uncomfortably.

What the phrase has no relevance to anything, but the phrase is in the ancient language of Swepony, nearly dead at this point, but a few ponies still remember... And well, I know it because, well, let’s just say they allowed me to see it, hard to explain, but I just know it, ok? On the topic of remembering things, remember when Twilight told you about the crazy vamponies? Rainbow nodded, not wanting to interrupt. Yeah, well, I remembered that I didn’t tell you that one of my children somehow managed to break free. Trust me, you don’t want to try; cause’ if you don’t have the materials, you die, and the materials no longer exists... Well, anyway, the one who got away, he was a very odd fellow; he was crazy, oh I love crazy! But he has turned ponies into his messed up version of vamponies, who are completely feral and have no sense of moral or anything. They obey him without question. His grunts are generally weaker than your grunts, since he doesn’t have my help. I add a lot to the equation, and if you were ever to be put up against him, which I don’t doubt could happen, you would have a fighting chance... He’s not the strongest unicorn... Anyway, sorry for rambling, I do believe we just got to the bar.

Rainbow shook her head and looked around her. Sure enough, she was standing just outside of “A Pony’s Lucky Drink.” Rainbow trotted inside.

The first thing she felt when she trotted in was the smell; it smelled like a crowd of ponies had puked at the same time. It did not smell very nice, in fact, it smelled like horse puke as Rainbow so delicately put it. The bar was already in full motion and yet, the time had barely hit 4pm, but it was a Saturday, so Rainbow put it as normal.

The ponies sitting around the small, round tables that were standing in the room looked like your everyday pony, like the ones you could find around Ponyville, but what stood out more as she walked closer to the bar was that there were barely any mares in the bar, maybe one or two but no more. This didn’t faze Rainbow, but it was still odd to see more stallions than mares, especially when the majority of Ponyville consisted of mares.

The cyan pegasus trotted over to the bar, immediately getting the attention of the barkeep standing behind the desk. “What would a lovely mare like you want on a day like this?” he asked as he cleaned a glass with a cloth.

Say something, don’t just give him the paper yet, wait a while. The ghost’s advice was accepted as Rainbow started to speak.

“Apple family cider, I don’t feel ready for anything hard just yet.” The barkeep nodded and went into the backroom to get her some of her favorite cider. Applejack might be her rival, and very good friend, but boy could her family make cider.

Aah, yes, Apple family cider, that’s good stuff from what I hear.

It’s the best. Rainbow replied. She looked up and the barkeep came out from behind the bar with a huge cup of cider.

“Here ya go! Hope it fits your tastes.” he said as he went back to cleaning old mugs with a damp cloth.

Rainbow took a swig of cider, and almost instantly she heard snickering behind her. She shrugged it off as somepony telling a joke. This place really smells. Why did you have to pick here of all places? But what’s good about this place is that they have Apple cider; that’s a big plus. That stuff is the drink of gods, Rainbow remarked into her mind, but there was no reply, at least not instantly. Oh well, I guess she went to the toilet or something… Do ghosts even need to use the toilet? She pondered this while taking another chug of the cider.

No, I was in fact, not on the toilet. Ghosts don’t need toilets for the same things as living ponies, but we do use it to flush away ghost residue… Or rather, exhaustion; we give off this powder, and if a pony were to absorb or ingest said power, they would become very stressed… I don’t even know why I’m telling you this, but oh well. Get the bartender back over here!

Rainbow took one last giant swig of cider, finishing the mug in three sips and causing the bar to cheer inexplicably. She motioned for the barkeep to come back over. “What is it?” he asked, Rainbow took out the piece of paper she had written the phrase on and gave it to him. He quickly read it over and his eye twitched, making Rainbow very confused. “I see.” he simply said before he went into the back of the bar.

After several minutes of Rainbow just sitting there on her chair thinking, the stallion finally came back out from the back, his expression rather serious at this point, which only made Rainbow’s curiosity peak at what would happen next. “Lady, would you please follow me into the back?” he asked politely and opened the swing-door to the inside of the bar. Rainbow rose from her chair and nodded while walking over to the very inconspicuous door.

Be prepared for anything.

And then there was that noise that Rainbow recognized as the ghost going away. Great, she says to be prepared, and then leaves. Isn’t that just the nicest thing? I mean, this could potentially be dangerous maybe? No, that’s impossible, right? Nothing can possibly go wrong with walking into something completely unknown… Right?

Rainbow was led through the building, up and down stairs, through multiple corridors, until finally she arrived at a door. The barkeep motioned for her to walk inside. Rainbow read the sign of the door. It said ‘Greasy Hide, New owner of the Dole Corporation’ Him? Oh Celestia, this is going to get ugly isn’t it? Rainbow gulped and reached for the door.

Inside looked like any normal office. There was a huge wooden desk at the back of the room with multiple office accessories like pencils and paper. The entire room was surrounded by a huge bookshelf, all of them filled to the brim with books. Though they were very neatly kept, there was still something off.

Behind the desk sat a pony, white coat, tan mane, earth pony. He removed his glasses as he looked straight at her with a judging look. Beside him stood one of the largest stallions who Rainbow Dash had ever laid eyes upon, easily bigger than Big Mac, and he was big! The look on the giant’s face was like a wall, stern and steadfast. I guess the big one is that Steadfast guy then; how come both are earth ponies? And that small guy must be Greasy, I would think… I do hope this goes well… She did say these two were really dangerous, oh Celestia, what have I gotten myself into? She thought to herself as she slowly walked inside, the door closing slowly behind her.

Greasy looked at her for a couple of seconds before finally ending the silence. “Are you the one who gave the bartender this piece of paper?” he asked, showing her the little note she had written not even an hour ago. Rainbow simply nodded. “I see, that must mean you want the ‘Räkmacka’ right?” Rainbow didn’t know, but she still nodded. “I thought so, but the one who sent you must have a lot of faith in you, because getting the ‘Räkmacka’ takes a lot of skill, at least, I would think it does. Since you obviously didn’t come here by your own accord, I can only assume who sent you. But that doesn’t matter, since I already know who you are, Rainbow Dash.” he said with a smug smile as he pushed his glasses back onto his muzzle. This was beginning to scare Rainbow and she was visibly nervous. “No need to get nervous, miss Dash. I don’t want to hurt you; I just want you to take my test to make sure you’re up to the task of getting my ‘Räkmacka’. So would you please follow my good friend Steadfast here and get ready for a hard fight.” Before Rainbow could ask any questions, she was being pushed out of the room by the giant hulk of a stallion that had stood beside Greasy.

“Hey! Stop pushing me! I can walk just fine by myself!” Rainbow protested, making Steadfast grunt in annoyance and walk away. Rainbow followed him, still annoyed at the stallion’s giant hooves on her flank; it made her feel really uncomfortable.

Steadfast lead her down several flights of stairs, never up any stairs, but that was because when they came to the lowest floor, Steadfast motioned for Rainbow to walk through a door. On the other side of said door, there was a circle surrounded by buildings. Multiple windows were open, and the ponies in these windows were looking straight at her; she even saw Greasy in one of them.

She slowly walked further into the small courtyard before being met by a number of ponies, five to be exact, who looked like thugs. Not your normal everyday, scrawny thugs with weapons, no, these were the kind with huge muscles that could scare a pony into giving up their money.

One of the stallions walked forward towards her with a very angry look. “Little pegasus, the test Mr. Hide has placed before you is to defeat us in combat. All five of us against a puny, pegasus mare.” He said as he socked Rainbow straight in the muzzle, knocking her over.

Rainbow Dash quickly jumped to her hooves, taking a defensive stance. One of the stallions charged at her with incredible speed, but Rainbow evaded it like it was nothing. He crashed into the building, making him dizzy. Rainbow took this as her signal and bucked him straight in the stomach, making him fly into the far wall. This scared Rainbow as she hadn’t meant to do that.

She didn’t even get to think it over before another of the stallions charged into her, tearing out all the air in Dash’s lungs. She gasped breathlessly as the stallion punched her in the face and threw her towards one of his friends who bucked her in the back.

“ARGH!” she screamed when she heard the sound of bones snapping. She flew into the nearby wall, just laying there…

“C’mon, Rainbow Dash! I thought you had more fight in you than this! Already breaking your back, how lame is that!?” She could hear Greasy yell from his window.

This made Rainbow’s frustration increase, and she managed to stand up, without any pain in her back. She ignored this and charged the biggest of the stallions in the courtyard, immediately knocking him out.

Now there were only three stallions left against her. They all charged at her. She simply took to the air. The stallions stopped before they ran into each other, but not on Rainbow’s pass! She grabbed all of their heads and slammed them together, making them stumble away from each other. Then there was the pain in her wings coming from nowhere; they began to hurt like fire spreading over her entire body. She fell to the ground, the pain dispersing as her hooves met the ground.

“No cheating, Miss Dash. I got my best unicorns to enchant this place, making pegasus flight one of the worst things you could do!” Greasy explained, only making Rainbow even angrier.

One of the remaining stallions charged at her, and she somehow roundhouse kicked him in the muzzle, knocking him out completely. This is getting creepy, how am I this strong? I know I’m supposed to be strong, since vampony and everything, but, seriously this is scary. Let’s just hope I can get out of here. This is not something I had planned- Her though process was interrupted as she heard the sound of a knife being pulled out from its sheath.

Rainbow quickly looked around and found that both of the stallions had pulled knifes and were holding them in their mouths. One of them charged her, and she easily avoided him. But she missed something; she didn’t even get to react before the other stallion had cut a bleeding wound on her forehead, making blood fill her vision.

In her bloody rage, her entire body changed, making her vampony features appear as she charged the one who had cut her forehead, slitting his throat with her teeth and causing him to fall over, dead.

She looked towards the last stallion, her mind filled with rage. The stallion looked afraid, so afraid that he started to scream. Rainbow ran over to him in less than a second. She grabbed him and threw him thirty feet into the air. He rammed into the ground with a huge pound.

In her rage, she flew up to Greasy’s window, completely ignoring the pain that shot through her wing. She hovered there, looking right at him with the reddest of eyes. “Where is it?” she demanded with such rage.

“You’ve won. Don’t expect me to congratulate you; the fact that you are a vampony only confirms my suspicions, and don’t even think about hitting me. You would regret it, very quickly. Trust me. But yeah, you deserved it. So here it is, the ‘Räkmacka’” he said as he reached into his desk, pulling out a small box of metal with an aura of importance about it. He shook his head in disappointment and hoofed her the small box.

Rainbow grabbed the box and placed it in her saddle bags.

She took to the air, her eyes still filled with rage. She quickly left the city’s borders to calm down, still filled with rage…

Great! You’re back! … Oh no, this is bad… You have to land. RIGHT NOW!

Chapter 6

”Get me Tic Tac.” Greasy said as he closed the window from which Rainbow Dash had just left.

Steadfast Shield grunted and went out the door to get the requested pony.

Greasy had seemed very calm during the rage of Rainbow Dash, but in fact he had been quite surprised. I have never seen one of her things so angry and strong… It’s going to be interesting to see how she develops. If I’m unlucky, she might just kill me, but I know she won’t win. She doesn’t even have control, silly, silly pony. He flicked the papers on his desk into a single pile and placed them in the out folder. He sighed and turned to the opening door.

In stepped a stallion. He was pretty small for a normal earth pony, but Greasy knew that his disadvantage in size was completely made up for the smarts of this colt. His coat was dark blue with eyes the color of silver. His mane couldn’t be seen due to the big cloak he always had around him… He has been valuable; I just hope he has any idea on what to do here…

“You called for me?” Tic Tac asked as he stepped inside, walking slowly towards one of the chairs in the room. He sat down quickly, making Greasy sigh. “Ahh, it’s about the vampony, is it not?” he asked while leaning back in his chair, giving off a small sense of security.

“Yes, this is about that pegasus. I was curious, you saw that display at the end, and I had to ask: what do you think caused that?” Greasy asked as he turned his chair to look out the window, down into the area Rainbow just had fought in. He could see the dead stallion being dragged away from the site. It wasn’t a pleasant sight, but Greasy had seen worse.

“I thought so, well, you see, I haven’t got a lot on her yet. Though, looking at the way she was fighting, I would say she’s pretty new and does not have a lot of knowledge of these things. Personally, I don’t think you should worry; she won’t be a problem, at least not for a very long time. Unless something unexpected happens, but what would that be? Nightmare Moon? Ha! Don’t be ridiculous, what possible way is there for a random pegasus to have connections to Princess Luna? She’s pretty much one of the most socially awkward ponies I have ever met. Though, that was a year ago, so she might have changed. I suppose she has, but I still think there is no need to worry.” he explained, yawning at the end of his explanation.

“You do seem rather calm about this, considering everything you have done for me; I won’t do anything about her. But if she gets in my way in any shape or form, she’s going to get the Hinzo guys on her.” This made Tic Tac raise an eyebrow. “Ah yes, them. I can’t afford to take chances with anypony interrupting out operations.”

“I do see what you mean.” He stood up from his chair. “I will go and look further into things and I will get back to you later, is that fine?” Tic Tac asked, smiling slightly.

“Yeah, you go do that, I have planning to do.” Greasy waved a hoof to the door and Tic went outside.

I can’t believe he fell for that; he really is gullible, which means that everything is going in my favor. Tic Tac thought as he made a soundless laugh while smiling.

“TWILIGHT!” Pinkie yelled as she slammed the door to the library open.

“WHAT!?” Twilight yelled back at her while staring at a bookcase, looking for something.

“It’s a doozy!” she exclaimed. Pinkie was shaking furiously while bouncing around the library.

“Doozy? Last time was me accepting your Pinkie sense… So what is it this time?” Twilight asked, not paying much attention while looking for a book.

“I have no idea; all I know is that it’s somewhere around Manehattan, but all our friends are in Ponyville right?” she asked, shaking so much that she crashed into a bookcase, making it fall on her, but she managed to escape just in the nick of time, leaving the bookcase on the ground.

Twilight froze as she heard everything that had just happened. She turned slowly towards the bouncing pony. “M-m-manehattan?” she uttered, afraid of what the Pinkie sense was indicating. Pinkie Pie nodded. “No…” Twilight took the bookcase that had fallen into her magic and made it stand normally again, all the books were splayed upon the floor. “Not good, not good at all.” Twilight muttered as she reached for ink, paper and a quill.

She quickly wrote a letter of worry to Celestia, rolled it together in a scroll and called for Spike. “SPIIIIKE! I NEED YOU TO SEND SOMETHING!” she called, all the while Pinkie was still shaking uncontrollably, but somehow managed to stay in one spot and look at Twilight. She stopped just as Spike walked downstairs.

Twilight gave him the letter, immediately sending it to the Princess. Pinkie saw that Twilight was charging her magic for something, so she decided to ask. “Twilight, what happened and what are you doing?” she asked as she walked towards Twilight, tilting her head to the side very slightly.

Twilight stopped, cancelling the spell she was charging. “Oh right, I never told you… Rainbow Dash kind of went to Manehattan, and that’s why I’m scared. I need to check, so I’m going to try to teleport myself there. Hopefully I will be able to manage, can’t say I have teleported that far before. I need to do it though; Rainbow needs my help. And with Rainbow’s current state of affairs, I had to send Celestia a letter, standard for a sentinel.” Twilight explained as she trotted around in a circle worryingly.

“Can I come?” Pinkie asked curiously.

Twilight looked at her with confusion. “I said I don’t even know if I can get myself there, so how are you supposed to come?”

“Oh, I forgot.” she giggled. “Just promise me one thing: bring her back safe, ok?” Pinkie asked with pleading eyes.

“I will.” Twilight said before she disappeared in a flash of light.

Celestia was sitting at a table with her sister, talking about things and drinking tea. This peaceful scene was interrupted by the appearance of a letter from Twilight Sparkle.

“What’s this?” Celestia said very curious about what this letter was about to say.

Luna looked at her sister, and the more Celestia read of the letter, the darker her expression got. “Sister, is there a problem?”

Celestia nodded, keeping her expression, and handed Luna the letter.

“Oh, I see… your expression almost told us. Would thee like us to help your student and the Element of Loyalty?” Luna asked, looking up from the letter.

“I suppose… this does call for immediate action. I’m not sure if Twilight can achieve that long of a teleport though. Would you be willing to find her and help her on the way?” Celestia asked, still a bit baffled by what the letter had told her. Pinkie sense... that does fit with Pinkie Pie. She thought to herself. And Twilight seems to believe it, so I guess I should too. She shook her head slightly and looked at Luna who had risen from her chair, staring out the window. Celestia herself stood up from her chair and walked to the side of her sister. “Go and help them.” the sun goddess simply said.

Luna nodded, and before Celestia knew it, her sister had disappeared. Good luck sister, I do hope you can help Rainbow Dash.

Twilight opened her eyes after arriving from her spell. What she saw was not pretty, exactly the opposite in fact. She was in the middle of a clearing; at least, it would have been if the tree’s in the vicinity hadn’t been cut in half. The damage to the tree’s wasn’t from a saw, but from what appeared to be a blunt force and hit the upper part of the tree, making them break in half, leaving logs scattered about everywhere. What happened here, and more importantly, where am I? Twilight asked herself as she trotted through the fallen trees. There were no sounds from animals or anything… What was that? Twilight thought as she felt a sudden gust of wind heading in her direction. She turned towards the source, but what she saw made her flinch. It was Rainbow Dash, but something was off. She had a huge gash cutting right across her forehead with dried blood all around it. Rainbow’s eyes were not the new mix between colors, no, instead they were completely red. Blood red. They practically screamed hate. Twilight stumbled backwards into a tree, looking at the charging mare.

Twilight shook as Rainbow Dash closed the distance between them. Twilight closed her eyes, not wanting to look. And then the noise stopped. The sounds of the wind charging at her wasn’t there anymore. Twilight opened her eyes very slowly. What she saw made her shake even more. Twenty feet or so away from her stood the cyan pegasus. Tears were forming in Rainbow’s eyes as her eye-color turned back to her normal mix of crimson and rose.

Rainbow Dash stumbled forward, tears streaming down her face. “I-I-I-I’m sorry.” And then, she fainted, her head connecting with the ground.

“RAINBOW!” Twilight screamed as she started to charge towards her friend, tears flooding her eyes.

There was a flash of black as Twilight ran into something, knocking her back onto her flank and rolling to the side.

Twilight quickly turned back around to see what she had run into and she saw—

“Princess Luna?” Twilight asked in a very confused and surprised voice. The Princess looked at Twilight and nodded. Luna used her magic to help Twilight stand up from the shallow ditch she had found herself in.

“Verily. Twilight Sparkle, whatever happened here? We are concerned.” Princess Luna asked, gesturing at all the broken trees around them.

“Well you see… I teleported here—which I somehow managed—and found the entire forest had been mutilated. I started walking through the trees when I heard a sound, but when I looked towards the source, I found that Rainbow Dash was flying straight towards me. There was something in her eyes, I do not know what, but it was there. It did not mean well. It didn’t feel like something natural for Rainbow Dash because she looked horrifying. I thought I was done for, but then she stopped and turned back to normal before fainting. So I started running towards her, and then I ran into you.” Twilight explained, breathless upon finishing.

“I see.” the lunar Princess simply stated. She turned towards the limp body of Rainbow Dash. Luna stood there for a couple of seconds; for Twilight, they felt like hours. “If what you say is true, and we have no reason to doubt you Twilight Sparkle, then this is something we don’t have any knowledge over. We have never seen a vampony behaving in such a way.” The princess walked over to Rainbow Dash and nudged her with a hoof.

The lunar princess shot back almost immediately after she had touched Dash. She sighed and turned towards Twilight. “We think you should try to wake the element of loyalty.” Luna said as she grabbed Twilight in her magic field and levitated her towards Rainbow’s sleeping body.

Twilight touched Rainbow Dash and immediately felt a presence of… something, she couldn’t pinpoint what.

So you are Twilight Sparkle? You have very colorful memories.

Twilight shot back as she heard the voice; it had startled her, coming from nowhere like that. When she heard nothing more of the voice, she decided to touch Rainbow Dash again.

Please don’t do that again, it kind of hurt me. It’s really tiring to communicate with something merely touching one of my children, and the fact that you have that stupendously useful vampony immunity does not exactly make it any easier.

Who are you… wait, I think I know who you are; you’re Clover the Clever aren’t you? The original vampony. Twilight pinpointed into her mind, hoping it would get to the spirit she was mentally linked to.

Clever girl, yes, I am in fact Clover the Clever, though, I do not go by that title any longer. The last time somepony called me that was before I passed. So congratulations, you figured it out. Before you ask, no, I won’t tell you anything about Star Swirl. I may have been his apprentice, but that does not mean I want to spill all of secrets. Now that introductions are over, can we get to business?

And what exactly is business? Twilight asked, rather curious of what Clover could tell her.

Business is that I know what happened to Rainbow Dash.

Tell me. Twilight stated rather harshly.

Calm down, Sparkle. I was going to, but you interrupted me, so no talking ok?

Fine…

Good. Now, Rainbow Dash got this way to something very rare in vampony genes, or actually, it hasn’t happened before due to one very specific fact. But I do not want to tell you that fact, what with it being personal and not important to the task ahead. You see, Rainbow Dash and I were walking through Manehattan. Rainbow was getting materials for certain things… when she got to her destination, the man in charge had put a telepathic field inhibitor around the house, making me unable to pinpoint exactly what had happened. All I know is that she got a huge gash across her forehead, which will probably leave a scar… The blood from her wound ran over her eyes, activating this state. I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing, but I guess it could be both. It made her go into a sort of rage, this kind of rage makes you unable to control anything, it has the victim’s original task in mind and will do anything to complete the task. This did not go so well for Rainbow Dash… she did something that’s she’s going to be fussing about for a long time… she killed a pony, STOP! Before you say anything, it was not her fault. She could not control anything. If anything you should blame me, but I already know that you are blaming me, and rightly so. I don’t have a name for what happened; all I know is that her mind is a very big ball of confusion right now. I can see everything happening in her mind, but I can’t intercept or help her, and let me tell you, the things in here are not pretty. They would make you cower in fear, Sentinel. This pretty much leads to my point of telling you all this.

And what would that be? Twilight shot back directly after. And Rainbow killing a pony, that’s going to hurt for her, I can already see it…

Yes, she’s already suffering, but if you don’t help me with this, she probably won’t wake up, and that’s not due to physical damage, no, it’s will be from today’s traumatic events. What I want from you is to help her, I need you to enter her mind and fix it.

And how do you propose I do that? ‘Cause I am willing to do anything to help my friends.

Loyalty? Isn’t that Rainbow Dash’s element? No matter. I knew you would say yes; you have quite a few obvious tells, Twilight Sparkle. The only pony not seeing them is Rainbow Dash herself. And trust me when I say this, it would help her if you gave her the support, but I guess I can’t press it.

How… Ugh… I know, I know, I’m just afraid of how Rainbow will react, I mean, she isn’t exactly in the best of moods, what with the whole vampony thing and all… But I suppose that if we manage to fix her up, I might do it. Twilight sighed.

Yes, do that. Good. Now go and talk with Luna or something for awhile I need to gather a bit of energy, will probably only take a minute or two, but I still need them. Afterwards, we can get started on the part where you go into Rainbow’s mind, does that sound good?

I guess it does. Anything else? Twilight asked.

Not really… Oh wait, tell Luna that ‘The Mother’ says hi.

Ok then, bye for now. Twilight released her hoof from the body of Rainbow Dash and turned towards Luna who was standing there watching Twilight.

“Princess Luna, there has been developments in the situation; I was informed that I need to go into the mind of Rainbow Dash in order to help her. And apparently it doesn’t look pretty in there.” Twilight explained. The expression on the Princess face remained the same while she nodded.

“That is not good, but we have full confidence that the Element of Magic will be able to fix up a mental patient. Might we ask where you got all of this information?” The lunar Princess asked. “We will guard you and the Element of Loyalty while you correct the situation.” she hastily added.

“Thank you, Princess.” Twilight said with a bow. “I was talking to ‘The Mother’. She actually had a message for you, to tell you that ‘The Mother’ said hi.” The expression on Luna’s face turned to horror, and she looked away in shame of being afraid. Twilight chuckled at the sight, but she kept it down, lest Luna hear it.

Twilight turned towards Rainbow Dash’s body once again. She took a big breath and touched the body once more.

I see you are back. Tehe, Luna’s reaction is hilarious… ANYWAY! Are you ready for the transition? It might hurt slightly, but that’s nothing to what Rainbow is feeling, so one last time, are you ready?

Twilight only nodded.

Good, then lets begin.

Twilight heard the sound of magic starting, and she began feeling very tired. She collapsed on top of Rainbow Dash.

When Twilight reopened her eyes, all she could see was fire.

Chapter 7

Twilight was baffled, this place looked horrifying. She couldn’t believe this was supposed to be Rainbow Dash’s mind.

The surroundings were trees as far as the equine eye could see. All trees were burning, but not the normal reddish yellow that everypony is used to, no. The flames themselves were blood-red. They didn’t emanate heat as flames usually do, these emanated feelings, strong feelings. The ones who affected Twilight the most was the feelings of rage, hate, disgust and despair. It made Twilight cringe at such a horrid place; the sky was dark, and not even the moon was shining here, whatever this place was.

The ground Twilight was standing on was gel, crimson red gel. It burned the feelings into her hoofs as she just stood there, baffled.

Everything was interrupted as she felt a strong pull lift her into the air. She saw the larger area of the burning forest, but that was all there was, an endless forest of fire, emanating the worst of feelings. She stopped in the air and felt herself standing on something, Twilight looked at her hooves and found that she was standing on pure air. She felt a cold shiver travel across her back as the feelings from the trees started to lose intensity, but they were still burning. What was happening?

Twilight suddenly saw a huge force field surrounding her, how it had got there, she had no idea. She turned around and found herself looking at a green unicorn mare, who wore a wicked smile. “And just who are you supposed to be?” Twilight asked rather quickly.

“Guess three times.” Twilight immediately recognized the voice as Clover.

The mane of Clover was nonexistent; she had none; it just wasn’t there, gone, nothing. Her eyes were white, pale as the coat of Rarity, cold and hateful. Cutie mark… Her cutie mark was a wand, but not a wand like the one Trixie had as cutie mark, no. Twilight recognized it as a wand used in ancient pony times, often thought to amplify magic, but nopony made them in the modern age, simply forgotten. They were never proven to have worked, but belief is a strong tool, Twilight reminded herself. “Just what are you doing here, and more importantly, how did you get here?”

“Well, you see, the thing is, I can’t go into somepony’s mind alone, but when I sent you in here, a window was opened for a very small time, so I jumped in. Simple as that.” She closed her eyes and smiled wholeheartedly, making Twilight shiver at the thought of who she was talking to. “But, yeah, I have no idea where to go now actually. Every mind is different, so I have no foreknowledge about this place. This forest fire looks delightfully red though.”

Twilight shivered and shook her head. She nodded slowly. “Jumping through a window?” Clover nodded. “I see, and you have no idea what to do?” Clover nodded again. “Great, I wonder how we go about doing this then…” Twilight sat down on her haunches and took a hoof to her chin and started to think. “Hmm…”

“Twilight Sparkle, you are a thinker, sometimes a bit too much I think.” This made Twilight look up at her. “You see, even if I do not know what to do, I know what to look for. There is always a pattern, usually an oddity in the area. And since this orb can move, we should walk around this eternal forest looking for the odd thing out.” Twilight nodded slowly. “Good, then get up and follow me!” she commanded, Twilight complied and rose from her location, and the two mares started to walk towards a seemingly random location.

The two mares didn’t say anything as they observed the ever burning forest beneath then. But there was something bugging Twilight, so she just had to ask. “Is that really what you look like? It’s a bit odd, seeing a pony without a mane, and honestly, you don’t appear the way I thought…”

“Easy! Really easy info on that actually. You see, this isn’t how I look, not really. It’s just how Rainbow perceives my appearance; it’s not very accurate. The only thing about this body that actually is true is the horn on my head and the fact that I’m a mare… Wait, that makes it two things, oops,” Clover said in a very giddy tone, her smile making a shiver travel down Twilight’s spine once again.

“Uh huh…” Twilight mumbled as she continued to look around for an anomaly.

This continued for a couple of minutes or seconds, Twilight had a hard time telling, until Clover stopped. Twilight turned towards her and tilted her head to the side. Clover pointed towards something in the forest; it was a clearing, clearly an anomaly that did not fit in with the never ending fire forest of emotion.

They slowly descended towards the clearing, the orb still protecting them from the intensity of the flames. As they landed in the small area, something happened.

The flames around them started to disappear in smoke. The smoke floated up into the air, gathering itself in a big cloud. It gained form and landed in front of them. The form it was taking put Twilight on edge; it was the spitting image of Nightmare Moon. Twilight took a step backwards.

“Twilight Sparkle, relax, do not be scared. It’s only the reflection of a feeling or a personality trait of Rainbow Dash. Considering she’s not evil in spirit, I suspect that this picture of Nightmare Moon is a feeling, or rather, an emotion. I would think its Anger or perhaps Hate?” Clover said, looking straight at the image of Nightmare Moon.

“I am not one of those. I am the feeling of power, yet I am one of the weakest traits. I can still overpower either of you two. We will not allow you to wake Master, not when we bad traits have the over hoof. That would simply not do. Yet, we have not regained complete control as of right now; Anger is working on it.” Nightmare Moon said in a melancholy voice. “Now then, you two SHALL BE REMOVED!” it screamed, charging towards Twilight.

Through her quick reflexes, Twilight dodged the attack. She rolled to the side, making Nightmare Moon surprised at the mare’s sudden movement. She quickly fired off a spell only taught to the Sentinels. It hit the image straight on, making Twilight surprised at how easy it had been. Nightmare Moon flew back several feet, finally disappearing in the same smoke that she had come from. “Ok, that was too easy… WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME WE WERE GOING TO FIGHT THINGS!?” Twilight screamed at Clover.

“Calm down, Twilight Sparkle. I had no idea of the interruption of emotions; they have never been this aggressive before, maybe once, I don’t have a lot to go on anyway. And besides, you took her down like a champ. I guess that’s what to be expected of The Sentinels, at the same time, she’s the weakest of the traits, so I would say that it’s only going to get harder from here on out. Now, look at this,” she finished, motioning towards a hatch that had appeared on the ground. “This will allow us to go further into her mind.” Clover made a squee like a little filly getting her birthday present. “Finally some action, I was getting lazy. I haven’t gotten action like this in centuries.” She smiled and jumped down the hatch.

Hope for something good. Twilight thought as she jumped down the hatch as well.

As Twilight opened her eyes, what she found wasn’t what she had expected. It wasn’t the dark and horrible place that she had thought it was, no, it was Ponyville on a warm and sunny day. “I’m home?” she asked to no one in particular.

“Hmm, I’m here, so no, you are not home. This does look awfully suspicious though,” Clover said as she started to walk down the road towards the town, Twilight followed soon after.

“Right, true, I wonder what we will meet here,” Twilight stated.

“Whatever we meet, for the love of Celestia, do not trust it. Nightmare Moon said that the bad traits are protecting the innermost part of Rainbow Dash. Which means that we won’t meet the good traits or emotions or whatever they are. But there might have been an interruption, so if we are lucky, there might be a good and a bad one here, but probably not, since that never happens. Unless the traits have something to do with each other, like Hate and Love. But considering what Nightmare Moon said, something bad has probably happened to Love, and I doubt it’s something good…” she explained as they walked into Ponyville.

The town was abandoned, or there just weren’t any ponies there. It reminded Twilight of the first time she had met Zecora, but this time there actually weren’t any ponies there.

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap

“What was that!?” Twilight exclaimed as she jumped into the air, scared by the odd sound.

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap

“I have no idea, but I would think it’s the indication that the trait present can see us and knows that we are here.” Clover explained as they continued their trek through the small town.

The silent tension was broken as a pink blur knocked Twilight off her hooves and onto the ground. The pink blur itself was shot away from Twilight by a blast of magic from Clover.

The pink blur rose from the crash site, revealing Pinkie Pie. This made Twilight’s head turn all kinds of ways. She was smiling too and was cantering towards them—no wait, bouncing—she was bouncing towards them, in a way only Pinkie Pie can. “Ghostie silly, don’t attack me! I’m Innocence. the one you should be afraid of is Psycho. She’s the dangerous one, and the one making the weird silly sound.”

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap

“That one!” she exclaimed. “She’s hiding for the right time to strike, and trust me when I say this, she’s a psychopath.” Clover’s and Twilight’s expressions fell at that comment. “Oh come on! I thought it was funny. Anyway, we ‘good traits’ are happy that you two are here. We need all the help we can get, or Master will never wake up again,” she said with a serious tone.

“Uh huh. So you are Rainbow’s picture of innocence?” Twilight asked.

“Yepperonie! Can I hug you now?” the trait-made Pinkie Pie said, still wearing a huge smile. Twilight nodded before she was immediately glomped by Pinkie in a huge hug.

“Twilight Sparkle, I told you to be careful. For all we know this one could be a Deceptive trait trying to get you to trust her before she stabs you in the back.” This made Twilight and the Pinkie thing giggle. “Why are you laughing? This is serious.”

“You don’t get it do you?” Twilight asked and Clover shook her head. “If the form the traits has to do with Rainbow’s perception of the world, that means that if Pi—I mean Innocence—would have been a bad trait, we would see it on her right?” This made Clover frown and nod, annoyed at the perceptiveness of Twilight.

“Yes, you are soo smart, Twilight Sparkle,” Clover sarcastically said.

“Silly ghostie, Twilight has always been smart, now, before we can get all buddy buddy, we need to find Psycho so that we can move on. Just to add, I can move along with you two if you don’t banish me as well… And trust me when I say this, if you ever get to Anger, you will need all the help you can get. If we are lucky, we might find one of the stronger good traits, but the chance of that is small, and I can’t see the realms all traits are in since Hate is blocking everything and making it really hard for us good traits to organize,” she explained in a very scientific voice, mimicking Twilight’s own very easily. “Oh oops, I suddenly got possessed by Intelligence for a moment there, how did that happen? I don’t know. He-he-he-he.” She laughed, bouncing off towards Sugarcube Corner.

“Well, this journey has certainly been interesting so far,” Twilight commented towards Clover before she started trotting of towards Sugarcube Corner as well, Clover simply nodded.

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap

As the two mares entered Sugarcube Corner, Clover had no idea what this place was supposed to be as Twilight was just not expecting this. The entire shop had been turned into a fortress of pink pillows laying about everywhere. And the only things standing out from the pinkness of the shop was Twilight herself, Clover and the tray of cupcakes standing in the middle of the room.

The Pinkie clone, or whatever it was, turned towards them before swallowing an entire cupcake in one bite. She went past them and closed the door. Pinkie looked at them again with a serious look. “Thing is, I want to help you two, but I can’t do anything to Psycho for one simple reason. No traits are allowed to hurt their counterparts, but as to how Anger subdued Calm, I think Hate helped him, which probably means that Anger took care of Love. But that’s just what I think. We seriously need your help though, surprise attack and all that.”

Clover shifted, revealing the other side of her body, exactly the same. “I see, but do you have any plan for how we are supposed to ‘banish’ her?” she said in a calm manner.

“Uhhhmm… I don’t really know!” She smiled awkwardly, making Twilight and Clover look at her in disbelief. “Except, you could just go outside and ask her to fight you head on. The chances of that working are pretty high, considering her condition…” she mumbled as she chewed down on another cupcake.

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap

“Uh huh, so what do you think about that?” Twilight asked, wanting confirmation from her temporary companion.

“I don’t see any other option right now. It’s probably going to be pretty easy though, considering we are still in the outer layers, meaning weaker opponents. Isn’t that right?” she asked ‘Pinkie’.

“Yep! That’s true; you sure are smart, ghostie, though I already knew that.” She smiled. “Let’s go outside then? I could get her to come out more easily.” Twilight and Clover nodded, and they all walked outside.

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap

As the company of mares walked outside into the middle of the town, silence filled the air. Nothing made a single sound, except for the intense tapping.

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap

“IF YOU ARE AFRAID, THEN WHY NOT JUST LET US THROUGH!?” Clover screamed at the top of her lungs.

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap

“I see. I guess revealing myself is the best option then?” A poof sound could be heard. “Oh, you two smell deliciously new.” Snickering could be heard from all around them, making their back hairs stand on edge.

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap

She pounced at Clover and missed due to Clover being prepared with an illusion of herself as she had teleported away.

Twilight looked at the assailant. It looked like Pinkie Pie on a bad day, like the time when she thought her friends were abandoning her, but more twisted and evil. Evil ‘Pinkie’ made a twisted smile as her eyes twitched.

She pounced at Twilight. Twilight froze, unable to dodge. Luckily for her, Clover was there and shot a blast of magic into the evil ‘Pinkie’s’ side, making her fly to the side. She immediately jumped to her hooves again. Her entire head twitched to the side; all the while, she still kept her smile.

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap

“Now die,” she simply said as she disappeared from sight, suddenly connecting with Clover’s side, knocking her down.

Twilight saw this and reacted within seconds, trying the same spell from before. It made the ‘Pinkie’ laugh maniacally as she disintegrated into nothingness.

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap… KRACKRABOOM!

She exploded in a cloud of blood red smoke, completely disappearing within seconds.

“I’m not as rusty as I thought then,” Twilight stated as she jumped down the hole that had opened in the ground.

“She’s letting it get to her head. That’s never good.” Clover shook her head. “Silly youngins, they never get it.” She turned towards ‘Pinkie’. “Are you coming?” she asked. ‘Pinkie’ nodded enthusiastically and jumped into the hole.

“That’s the easy ones over, time for me to shine.” She grinned as she jumped into the hole, curious about what was waiting for her on the other side.

“Ok, this time was easier,” Twilight stated as they all arrived in what seemed to be… Cloudsdale? “Ok, what personality trait could be here? It’s seems a very Rainbow-y place to be.” She commented as the three started to walk through the cloud city.

“Oh, oh, I know where we are!” ‘Pinkie’ said as she took a large breath. “This place probably signifies the place where we will find Stubbornness, she’s not a very reasonable trait, hence why she’s here, and she’s also not the nicest pony. She’s so focused on winning every time that she ignores everything else. So I would probably think that she’s in the large coliseum thingy, probably training for something that will never happen. She can be nice when Rainbow’s in a race, but ever since that stupid Vampirism came, everything has been stupid, and the bad traits got the upperhand. I never said that before did I?” Clover and Twilight shook their heads. “Oh okay then, yesterday, for you two, or earlier, hard to tell the time in here. But you see, Vampirism came and absorbed all physical traits, such as Strength, Vision, Agility and all those other guys. He took control pretty quickly and he’s—did I mention it’s a he? Pretty weird in a mare’s body, but I guess that’s what happens when you inject random substances into ones body. He’s also the one being protected by anger at the moment, and if you can get us to her, we can turn her good, all we need is Love, Calm and Compassion. Those three are the important ones since they have their own Element of Harmony thing, but it’s not the Elements of Harmony since they only exist outside… Yup, I think that’s it.” She finally took a breath after finishing that entire explanation.

“I see, did you know of this before?” Twilight asked Clover.

“Yes… No… MAYBE! Gah! It’s hard to know if these things happen. I did in fact, not know that this could happen, but if there ever was a vampony that this could happen to, it would be Rainbow Dash, due to some things that I’m still not telling,” she explained, grunting at the end in annoyance. Twilight did the same, but for her own reason.

‘Pinkie’ just looked at them, still smiling the Pinkie way.

“Oh lookie, we have arrived at the Cloudiseum!” ‘Pinkie’ exclaimed, pointing towards the huge building in front of them. The two mares didn’t hear her and walked into the Cloudiseum, falling back on their rumps. “You silly ponies, I did tell you it was there. You two should listen more often,” ‘Pinkie’ said harshly, making the two mares blush in embarrassment of their actions. “Good, now hug and then we will go get this guy!”

They looked at each other and then nodded in acknowledgement, determined to finish this.

As they walked through the entrance to the arena, a steady beat of drums could be heard. The sounds intensified as they continued to walk through the cloud building, completely empty of anything except a long corridor.

“Yah think you can beat me? Hah! Don’t make me laugh!” Insane laughter could be heard from the speakers. “It’s nice to meet all of you, especially you, Innocence. What do you say about having some fun later? I’m not gonna go easy on ya.” Gruff laughter and static could be heard as a door was swung open to the company’s side.

“NO! I will never do anything with you! You are disgusting and evil!” Innocence cried out in disgust and anger. Twilight held a hoof to her mouth, trying not to laugh at the oddness of the situation, thinking about the fact that these two were in fact two sides of one person… A very odd though indeed...

As they continued to walk through the empty corridors, they found themselves outside the locker room. “Welcome, I’m not there since I’m, you know, training to be awesome and the best, obviously… You should wear the costumes, authenticity and all that jazz, and it’s funny to see unicorns in a Wonderbolts costume… So go do that, I am waiting outside. Oh and, good luck!” The voice exclaimed before static overtook the speaker and finally dying off directly after.

“Well, not that I’m complaining, but why are we supposed to wear these costumes? They are pretty cool though.” ‘Pinkie’ commented as the company walked, ‘Pinkie’ bounced, inside the room.

“Well, I don’t know, but I guess we can humor her, just for the heck of it, and later, I can brag to Rainbow about it… Just because…” Twilight said as they found a small box containing exactly three outfits, even weirder was the fact that they were made for one earth pony and two unicorns, which confused the company greatly. “Well, that’s convenient,” Twilight stated as she levitated the outfits out from the box and gave one to each pony.

“Well, isn’t this hilarious? Rainbow’s mind is being nice for once. No offence.”

“None taken.” ‘Pinkie’ Smiled.

“This is funny in my kind of way. Creepiness is funny, or maybe it’s just me…” Clover said in an overly creepy way, making chills travel down ‘Pinkie’ and Twilight’s spine.

“Stop doing that!” Twilight complained, not wanting to get creeped out by everything. Twilight shot a playful blast of magic at Clover who repented it with her own blast of magic.

“Don’t waste your magic, silly pony. We will need all your power for the near future,” Clover explained as she opened the door to the outside.

Twilight had just finished putting on her costume as she looked at herself in the mirror. Wow, I do look like a Wonderbolt, but the costume doesn’t fit me… Would fit Rainbow though. I bet she would look beautiful… NO! STOP! Twilight, don’t do this to yourself; you must do something about it! Just don’t think about it till you finish this, ok? Yeah, I can do that. She encouraged herself as ‘Pinkie’ stood up from her spot. As she walked outside, standing next to Clover, Twilight found herself feeling a very odd sensation of vertigo. Not something she usually felt, probably due to this somehow being contained inside the head of Rainbow Dash.

“Ah, yes, Unicorns and an earth pony, or Innocence… She was always such a nice girl, don’t you two agree? Isn’t she just wonderful?” Stubbornness said as she landed in front of the three ponies. “Though you three do look pretty wonderful in your new costumes, so full of the Wonderbolts spirit! Not that you will ever become Wonderbolts, not Master either… BUT THAT DOES NOT MATTER! Oh, sorry, got angry there. I recommend that we have a competition, without the unnecessary violence, since that’s bad, let’s just do it the easy and fun way, okay? I promise I will go willingly if I lose, not that I will mind you, but if I on some off chance managed to fail, and you won, I would go willingly.” She explained as she jumped over the railing onto the cloud filling up the center of the arena. “So what are you waiting for? Celestia? Pretty sure she won’t come!” She intimidated them, making all of them nod at the same time and jump onto the cloud, ready for whatever the enemy could be able to somehow throw at them.

When they landed on the cloud, Twilight finally got a good look at the Wonderbolt mare she was looking at, it was Spitfire the captain of the Wonderbolts. Dash did always talk about her like she was a god… Twilight thought to herself. She quickly noticed how big the stadium was. It could fit at least fifty thousand ponies, at least, that’s what it looked like. Fifty thousand is a huge number for an Equestrian stadium. The Gryphon’s had the biggest with their ‘Skybomb arena’ which could house up to two hundred thousand individuals, but Equestria’s biggest could contain up to one hundred fifty thousand individuals. Twilight shook her head, trying not to go off on tangents in her own mind. And then, something hit her. “Girls, how are we supposed to beat her in athletic events? I mean, if she represents Rainbow Dash’s competitive side, then she will be pretty hard to beat, and none of us can fly…”

Clover smirked. “Well, that’s good then, ‘cause if we can’t fly, she has to duel on our terms, which immediately makes our odds just a little bit higher, and if nothing else, I’m pretty fast, just saying… Being the Alpha-Omega does come with its own set of advantages. Whatever speed and stamina Stubbornness has, I outclass her at least seven times over, so no worries on that front.” She finished with a laugh.

“Oh ghostie! That’s great! Then you can beat her in a race!” ‘Pinkie’ said excitedly, jumping around in a circle.

“You three do know I can hear you right? And sure, if you think you can beat me, I am more than willing to prove you wrong since you don’t have any chance in the first place,” ‘Spitfire’ said with a laugh.

“Let’s get going then,” Clover said as she readied herself at the starting line of the track that had appeared out of nowhere.

‘Spitfire’ smirked and placed herself next to Clover. There was a sudden flash, blinding both Twilight and ‘Pinkie’. It disappeared, and what Twilight found was a bit funny and oddly quick. The two contestants had stumbled right before the line, and neither of them had crossed it, except that Clover’s tongue had fallen from her mouth in exhaustion, going over the line, making her the winner. Twilight jumped in the air, squealing and yelling. “YESYESYESYESYESYESYES! We won! Take that Stubbornness!” she shouted, still bouncing. ‘Pinkie’ was doing the same.

The first one to stand up of the contestants was ‘Spitfire’, her eyes twitching as she turned towards Twilight. “I guess you did. Well then, I will go. Sure hope you three get lucky against the others.” She smiled and turned into small sparks of electricity before disintegrating completely.

Clover stood up. She shook herself and spat on the ground. “Heh, I knew I would win, even if it was by a tongue… Funny, now let’s go!”she shouted as she jumped down into the hole that had appeared.

“She’s really odd.” Twilight commented.

“Yeah, I feel that too. She has a lot of weird personality traits, very weird…” ‘Pinkie’ said before she also jumped down the hole.

“I wonder if she might be bipolar? Or maybe, she’s just a more normal Pinkie, but with weirder traits,” she said to herself before finally jumping in.

“Ok, now, this place makes no sense, considering where we are…” Twilight commented as they arrived in a library. “This place is huge, WHY!? This is not very Rainbow Dash-y.” Twilight was baffled. The roof literally reached up to twenty feet, the bookcases reached all the way to the ceiling, and all of them were filled with a multitude of books.

“Well obviously they don’t all display knowledge, most of them are memories and things she knows, and if this is the library of Rainbow Dash, think about Celestia, or mine.” Clover said as they walked through the library. No sounds were heard, except their own steps, but the eerie quiet was broken by a thud.

“Oh look, visitors! How nice, finally somepony has come to take care of Ignorance.” The company quickly turned around and saw…

“Me?” Twilight questioned.

“No, I’m not you, I’m Knowledge,” a unicorn said, but she looked exactly like Twilight…

“But you look like me! Which means you are me!” Twilight’s voice started to get louder.

“Oh, right, true… Well, no matter, I am just here because, I have no idea really… Guess I got lucky and can follow you. It’d probably be weird to follow somepony who looks like me though…” ‘Twilight’ said.

“NOT TRUE! You look like me!” Twilight exclaimed in anger.

“Yeah, yeah, just call me Knowledge. Don’t call me fake Twilight or something, that’s just stupid, and it’s not my name, so yeah,” Knowledge said nonchalantly, her eyes traveling towards a book, which she walked over to.

“Good, ‘cause I’m Twilight… In any case, it’s nice to meet you, Knowledge. Are you supposed to be a bad trait or something? I thought that we would only encounter bad traits as we go further. I don’t see how Knowledge could be bad,” she questioned.

“Well, no, it’s not me; I’m the good one, but I already said that. Are you deaf or something? No wait, don’t answer, I don’t care,” Twilight harrumphed. “I don’t, so stop talking. The bad trait in here is Ignorance. She represents everything that’s bad and dangerous to know, then there’s also the obvious things that she never gets,” she said while looking through a book.

“I could tell that much. Seems like Twilight isn’t the brightest filly when ponies talk about obviousness, but Rainbow Dash doesn’t get things like that either, especially looking at that one thing that I’m not saying, because I promised not to…” This made both Innocence and Knowledge look at her weirdly. “Yes, there is something obvious that Rainbow Dash is missing… Not gonna tell though.” Twilight narrowed her eyes, looking at Clover, who only laughed.

“Silly, stupid Knowledge, you are so boring, revealing I’m here, and before you ask, amplifying powers just work, ‘kay? I’m in a pony’s mind, no need to explain it… I will be waiting at my place. Knowledge knows where it is, and then we will have a competition of wits, Twilight Sparkle. We will see who wins that exchange of knowledge,” s voice said, that echoed around the library.

“Now that I think about it, why does the knowledge department even lie this close to the core, so to speak?” Twilight asked.

Knowledge spoke up, making everypony look at her. “You see Twilight Sparkle, that is easy. She values her memories and her knowledge a lot, but at the same time, it might have something to do with the fact that the bad traits have taken over, but you never know…” She trailed off as she started to walk towards a direction in the library.

The library itself wasn’t very aesthetically pleasing, not that a library is supposed to be. But it was very dirty in this library.

Twilight was a bit flattered. Rainbow thought of her as the epitome of knowledge, which could only be a good thing, right? She looked over to Knowledge. Celestia, she looked exactly like me. That’s creepy… Wait, if she and Ignorance are supposed to display Rainbow’s knowledge, doesn’t that mean they are not as smart as me? Oh Celestia, I just insulted Rainbow Dash. I take it back! Gah! It’s hard to not insult somepony when thinking… I should probably focus on what I’m doing, so stop thinking so hard, Twilight! She scolded herself as they continued their trek through the endless library. But out of nowhere, Knowledge turned and went in to one of the lanes.

As they walked into the section, Twilight found that it lead to a door. Knowledge opened it and they all went inside.

When she entered the room, she saw a pony who resembled Clover, but it still wasn’t her real color scheme.

Ignorance stood up and used her magic to grab a white board with a very complicated equation. “Your challenge, the one I give you, is to beat this equation. I have never done it, and if you do complete it, good for you. Bad for me, since I don’t have any way of fighting back…” She trailed off as Twilight took the pen in her own magic field.

“Actually I don’t even need to write things down, because I already know the answer.” Twilight commented, making everypony look at her, except the real Clover who simply smiled and nodded.

“You do?” all traits said in unison.

“Yes, the answer is obviously three, you see…”

Ten minutes of explanations later.

“… So, that leads into the square root of nine being three. See, that wasn’t so hard?” Twilight said as she finished, finally opening her eyes after having them shut while explaining, what she found made her chuckle. All of the traits that had been listening to her had fallen asleep and were all snoring lightly. Twilight used her magic to summon a gust of wind, making them all wake instantly.

“Ah! Yes, good, you completed it… That means I’m going away… Oh well, no sense in whining now is there? But do you know what? I want to help you guy. So I ask my dear friend Knowledge if she would be willing to help me cast a spell to send you to the third innermost layer, ‘cause you need all three to re-harmonize Vampirism. He is getting really annoying.” She grabbed her chest and screamed in pain. “Celestia dammit, he knows… Let’s get this going quickly okay?” Everypony present simply nodded and the two Knowledge ponies started to channel a spell around the company of three.

Twilight started to feel very light and tingly as she popped and was teleported.

“At least I did something good for Master before getting crippled in pain by Vampirism.” Ignorance said as the two traits finished the spell.

Knowledge walked up to her counterpart and gave her a tight hug. “Ignorance, my dear friend, no need to worry. You might represent ignorance, but at least you have a sense of morality; that’s not something that can be said about Hate, Anger, Callousness or Vampirism. They don’t even know what the word means. The only one that can be rescued is Vampirism himself, and that’s exactly what those three are going to do, so giddy up and give them all the hope you can, they will need it.” Knowledge explained as she nuzzled the other mare.

Ignorance nodded into her friend’s neck and started to cry. She didn’t cry because she was sad, she cried because her destiny was to represent everything bad their Master had experienced, it was who she was, and it was she would ever know.

“Hey, c’mon now Iggy, don’t be sad, you have me. I might not have the same knowledge as you, but I haven’t exactly so much to exist from either,” she said reassuringly hugging her friend closer, kissing the top of her horn.

“So, Innocence, where do you suppose we are now?” Twilight said as they arrived in the square of Ponyville.

“Oh, this place, the Knowledge sisters did send us to third innermost layer. The place of Callousness and Compassion, but knowing the bad traits, Compassions probably locked up somewhere close to Callousness herself,” Innocence said as they walked through the town.

“I’m quite curious as to who Rainbow Dash’s mind has decided to put as Callousness, will be interesting to see,” Clover commented.

“Yeah, I’m pretty curious as well. It could be anypony really. But we have to be on guard; we know this won’t be easy,” Twilight said as she took a pose making the others snicker. “HEY! I heard that, I just felt like being silly before we jump into the insanity.”

They rounded a corner and saw two ponies, Callousness and Compassion, in the forms of Trixie and Fluttershy.

“I kind of figured Compassion would be Fluttershy,” Twilight said under her breath as they closed in on the scene that was unfolding in the middle of the market of the small town.

“Oh, so you have finally arrived. Callousness would have thought it would take longer, but alas, the Knowledge sisters always were… Untrustable. Be ready for the fight of a lifetime, Callousness is the fourth strongest trait in this entire body, empowered by Vampirism, Callousness shall ban thee from this place.” Callousness said as she hopped down from the scene with a thud, making Compassion cringe.

Twilight and Clover looked at each other and started laughing. “You know, it’s pretty funny how you talk in third person, just as the real Trixie.” Twilight pointed out. Callousness looked downright furious.

“Callousness is not anything like that insufferable mare, Trixie. She was horrible and made Master crash, and therefore, she’s a bad pony,” she said as she took a stance.

“But if Trixie’s a bad pony and traits look like a pony the Master thinks has something to do with said trait, doesn’t that make you a bad pony?” Innocence pointed out.

“Oh, a fellow trait, poor Innocence. You were always so blind, just ‘cause a trait looks like a certain pony does not mean that it’s exactly like that pony. We traits are all more like the Master than anypony else. And now, BEGONE!” Callousness shouted as she used magic to teleport behind the three, making a magical explosion that hit them all. It lifted Twilight into the air, and she landed ten feet from the spot she had flown from. “See? That was my opening. Do not underestimate us just because we are traits. We have lots and lots of power.” She spun around with her cape and teleported once again.

“CLOVER! Do you have any plans?” Twilight asked as she dodged a magic missile that had been launched towards her.

“Yes, but you should get out of the way. This one’s mine,” she said as she spun around, shooting magic in all directions, almost hitting Innocence and Twilight. A scream of pain could be heard from somepony else in a nearby alleyway. Before Twilight or Innocence could even react, Clover had started running towards the sound.

She made a flip, landing on her four hooves at the entrance to the alleyway. She could be seen shooting multiple magic missiles into the alley, creating a multitude of explosions. But her barrage was stopped as Callousness kicked her from the side, knocking her over. Luckily enough, she wasn’t down for long; she immediately jumped to her hooves and revealed fangs in her muzzle, startling Callousness and creating an opportunity for Clover to attack.

She rammed into Callousness with her muzzle. Twilight couldn’t see what happened next, and honestly, she didn’t want to know, but she thought it may have been the sound when a vampony slits a pony’s throat with their fangs.

Magic pulsed from Clover’s horn, removing all blood from her face as she turned towards Twilight and Innocence. The body of Callousness slowly started to fade away until finally disappearing in a flash of red, making Clover look extremely menacing as she walked towards them.

“Ghostie, you’re looking very evil right now,” Innocence blurted out, immediately covering her mouth with a hoof when she realized what she had said.

“I do? I take that as a compliment, you know. I like looking evil, it’s just something I do,” She smiled as she walked past them. “Are you two coming or what? We have a trait to save,” she said as she started to ascend the stairs to the stage, making Compassion see her.

Compassion didn’t have a look of relief, no; she had a look of horror. “Go away! PLEASE! Go now!” she exclaimed, but Clover ignored her and walked closer.

That was a mistake, due to the pony crashing into the side of Clover, knocking her right off the stage with said pony right on top of her. “Nopony defeats The Great and Powerful Callousness that easily!” she exclaimed as she started beating on Clover who rolled to the side, knocking her opponent off her.

“How are you still alive!?” Clover screamed.

“Easy, Callousness made a puppet for you to destroy; Callousness is not that horrible at fighting, so what did you expect? Callousness is amazing, the best of ponies!” she said as she flicked her mane.

“Oh yeah? Then taste this!” Clover said as she charged her horn. One would think the charge would be green or something right? WRONG! It was blood red, yes, blood red. It made Twilight roll her eyes, knowing that it probably had something to do with the fact that she was a vampony.

The bolt fired from Clover’s horn soared towards Callousness who quickly jumped out of the way. “HAH! Is that all you can do? Callousness says that you are a horrible opp—” She was interrupted as the bolt of magic went through the backside of her head, leaving her to collapse onto the ground..

“See? You never talk down to me! I am the ultimate fighter, and no silly trait of anypony will ever beat me in a fight of combat!” Clover screamed at the body in anger. She cackled like a madmare, with blood on her entire figure.

Magic could be seen pulsing through her horn, green this time, removing all blood from her body and letting it go, splaying it on the ground. “Now, isn’t that delightfully bloody?” she said, smiling at Twilight who was collecting herself.

“Please, never do that again. I’m really surprised that things could get so graphic in here…” she said, turning towards the stage with a whimpering Compassion.

“You know that you completely removed Callousness from Rainbow Dash right now, right? I don’t know the repercussions, but I can’t feel her anymore. And we traits know where the others are at all times… And just now, Callousness was removed completely. I hope nothing too bad happens…” Innocence added with a tint of sadness.

“You are a younger trait. I’ve seen traits when they are born or lost. Disappearing traits often just mean that the pony has less of that specific trait, so do not worry, Innocence. Nothing terrible has happened,” Compassion said as she stood up in her cage. “And now, uhm would you mind opening this cage?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah sure,” Twilight said as she used her magic, easily opening the cage-door.

“Thank you…” She looked at Clover. “What you did was unnecessary, but I can’t deny the fact that it worked, but please, do not do that again, ok?” Clover nodded. “Good, very good… You though,” she looked at Twilight. “You’re special aren’t you? But looking at you just now, and seeing the things you did with the others, I am pretty sure you can win this. Now, let’s go to the next layer,” she said as she raised a hoof as to open a door. Out of nowhere, a door formed, and she walked inside and disappeared, soon followed by the other three.

“Wait what?” Twilight said as they appeared again. “Cloudsdale Orphanage? Why are we here?” She asked to no one in particular.

“Rainbow Dash lived there for a year. Her parents died, so she moved here. A year later, she went to flight camp… I was here at the time, not in this form, but it was not a good time, so I would expect that Hate chose this place, considering the hate Master feels for it. It’s an excellent place for Hate to grow,” Compassion explained.

“Compassion, the traits often look like ponies that Rainbow Dash has met, and you look like our friend Fluttershy. So I was wondering, who does Love look like?” Twilight asked, very curious about the answer.

“Ah, Love, she’s really sweet? But as to whom she depicts… She doesn’t really depict anypony, she’s a template. Why is this so, you might ask? The answer to that is simple, Master has a lot of love for the ponies close to her and her former family… But there is nopony that, at this point, that represents love in Master’s eyes. When Master finds that very special somepony, Love will probably take the form of that pony.” Compassion said as she opened the door to the orphanage.

“Oh…” Twilight said, a bit disappointed by the answer she got. Well, then the possibility of everything going my way is pretty much nonexistent… Twilight sighed as they walked through the corridor.

The orphanage was… ordinary. There were rooms to the side with toys for children, a room that looked like the place where food would be served, and there were the sleeping quarters at the end. They walked through the multiple rows of bunk beds, one of them standing out.

The bed in question was not the grey tone everything else the orphanage had been up to this point. It was cyan, the color of Rainbow Dash herself. The pillow had the mark of the Wonderbolts, the lightning bolt that always rested on the flanks of the female members. To the side of the bed were two pictures. One was of a now retired Wonderbolt, Lighting Flash. Twilight remembered seeing him in the papers once or twice when she was a filly. He retired soon after they all had gotten their Cutie Marks. There was a small text on the picture itself, it said: “To Rainbow Dash, the greatest filly: Follow your dreams with all your might and you will go far.” Twilight could feel a small tear well up as she saw the other picture. It showed Rainbow Dash as a young filly and a grown mare and stallion, who Twilight could only assume were her parents. The expression they were sharing was of joy, so clear and happy… They were hugging each other. Both parents were pegasi, and Twilight saw Rainbow had gotten her unique mane from her beautiful mother. She was wearing the same colored mane as Rainbow Dash, but she had it in a different style, one Rainbow could easily replicate if she wanted to. Twilight thought that this might have been related to her mother’s coat having a deeper kind of blue than Rainbow Dash’s. Her father looked rather plain; he had a gray coat, and a light blue mane donned his head, cleanly shaved, a hairstyle most colts still used. The eyes… The eyes of both parents were the same as Rainbow Dash herself, rose... The picture was so happy. Twilight felt that her tears were starting to overflow, making her sob slightly.

Clover bumped into her. “Wake up! Twilight Sparkle, I am disappointed. You stand there in a trance and cut us out entirely! You were gone for two minutes, or even more!” she exclaimed in Twilight face, making her stumble backwards slightly.

“Oh, sorry. I kind of got lost in these pictures… Does Rainbow Dash still feel true happiness?” she asked Compassion.

“Yes, she does… But the only times she really feels happy nowadays is when all six of you just get together and have fun, hanging out, the normal things. She really appreciates those moments…” She trailed off. Twilight could see a tear forming in Clover’s eye, who quickly wiped it away. “Right, let’s not dwindle on that; let’s go find Hate and rescue Love, shall we?” she quickly retorted. All the mares nodded, and they started to walk further into the orphanage.

“YES!” the other three exclaimed with different amounts of enthusiasm, Clover with the lowest amount…

“Right, good. Now where is she hiding?” Compassion mumbled to herself as they trekked through the orphanage.

The bunk beds seemed to finally end when they arrived at a very inconspicuous door.

Clover stepped forwards. “Gee, I wonder what could be in here,” she said as she opened the door. As Clover opened the door, she was taken aback by what she saw. Clover closed the door slowly and fell to the ground laughing. “Hehehe… Funny… Bahahaha!” she laughed.

“What was in there?” Twilight asked, worried about what it could be.

Clover stood up and snorted, stifling her laughter. “Nothing really… I just saw something funny… It was pretty awkward for the two… Hehe,” she explained.

“Right… I’m not sure I want to know then… But, we should all go inside, shouldn’t we?” Twilight asked, the others nodded. “Good, let’s go inside then.”

Twilight opened the door, revealing two ponies sitting around a table and having tea. It did look incredibly odd, and the two just looked at the four ponies that had entered the room with wide eyes. One of them was clearly Love. She was plain, white coat, white mane and grey eyes. Plain… And very creepy. The second was… Chrysalis? I suppose that makes sense. Twilight concluded. Considering my brother and Cadence defeated her with love and all that.

“Uhhmm.” the two uttered.

“This is not what it looks like.” ‘Chrysalis’ or Hate said with a stern tone. All the four ponies gave her a look. “This was something I did because I was bored. She’s not free, if that’s what you think! No, I was bored, so I decided to have tea with her, happy now!?” she roared.

“Hate, please calm down, no need to get angry… Wait, that’s what you do, being Hate and all that… Sorry, go on.” Love said, staring at Compassion with a pleading look that clearly said ‘help me’, making Compassion wince.

“YES! So shut your muzzle, Love! I have things to handle!” Hate said harshly as she stood up from her chair. “Now, who’s going to be the first to be defeated?” she said as her eye twitched.

“I’ll handle this one, so stand back.” Twilight said, walking towards Hate with a strict expression.

“Twilight Sparkle, how exciting to finally meet you, not really though. What’s going to be fun is destroying you.” She smiled devilishly as her horn began to glow.

The orphanage disappeared completely, and they were all now standing on a cloud. “See this? Much more spacious, which means more fun.” Hate charged towards Twilight.

Twilight jumped to the side, channeling magic into her horn. Hate saw this and stopped her charge to do the same.

They both released their beams of magic, locked in a stalemate. It was excruciating. Twilight’s sides started to burn as she pushed and pushed and pushed, until finally, it broke.

BOOM!

There was an explosion where the two beams had met, pushing the casters further away from each other. They fell into a heap on the ground, but Hate stood up almost as fast as she had landed.

“HAHA! This is fun! It’s hard to get a good fight these days, so it feels good to get some real exercise!” she said as she disappeared.

Twilight stood up slowly, looking around her to find her opponent. She couldn’t see her. She saw Clover, Innocence and Compassion standing far away, looking at her. Love was in a cage right next to them. Why don’t they just free her? Maybe it has something to do with— Her thought process was interrupted when a big, black fuzz crashed into her side, making her fly several feet away.

“Mwahaha! You are weak, Twilight Sparkle. You may have strong capabilities, but that does not mean you can beat everything that stands in your way.” She kicked Twilight further away. “See? You can’t even move anymore, how weak is that? One crash and you are already exhausted! Don’t make me laugh.” Twilight’s body disappeared in flash of light. “What?”

Lightning hit right next to her. “WHAT!?” She looked up and even higher than the clouds they were all standing on, a storm was forming, almost glowing. It descended towards them but stopped. Something dropped from it. Hate was unable to realize what it was until it hit her.

Twilight charged magic around her entire body as she fell, making her a living projectile.

She rammed right into Hate, creating an explosions that emptied the sky of its clouds. Twilight stood at the center, unscathed. Hate lay unconscious on the ground.

And this time, it was Hate’s body that disappeared.

“Oh come on, using my spell? Really original,” Twilight commented.

“Uhm… TWILIGHT SPARKLE! THERE SEEMS TO BE A SITUATION OVER HERE!” Twilight could hear Innocence scream. She turned towards them and teleported. What she saw, well, there were two Clovers.

“Right, great, of course she can use Changeling powers, now… How will I figure out who's fake?” Twilight said, looking over the two unicorns standing before her.

One of the Clovers spoke up. “Twilight Sparkle, I am disappointed in you… Just look at the color of our magic, and you will see the real one, after all, who else do you know that can use red magic?” Her horn lit up, glowing red. “See? What do you say about that, other me?” The other Clover’s eye twitched.

“NO!” Hate bellowed as Twilight hit her right in the muzzle with a dense blast of magic, knocking her away from the company.

“Twilight Sparkle, remove her, please?” Clover said, nudging Twilight towards Hate.

“She’s a strong one, isn’t she?” Compassion asked.

“Oh, you have no idea. She just doesn’t know how to unlock everything. But she has nothing on what Rainbow Dash can do if she took her time,” Clover said, watching Twilight and Hate duel in a fight of magic.

“Master has been getting stronger ever since Vampirism arrived; she has grown more in every aspect in these two days than in the last two years. What you’ve created is really something remarkable. None of us good aspects truly like it, secretly I don’t think the bad ones do either, but right now they have control over him, which is something they very much like. We all know he’s stronger than all of us combined, so it wouldn’t make much sense to go against him. So that’s why it’s important for us to get him to our side,” Compassion explained as Innocence nodded along.

“I see, something funny though. I have been in multiple minds, and this one is a lot easier to get around. I know why, but you don’t, but I can let you know one simple piece: Rainbow Dash is very special,” Clover said with a sly expression.

“I see, I hope it’s nothing dangerous then.”

“Oh it isn’t, not really. It just makes her special…” She trailed off as an explosion could be seen from the fighters.

“HATE! HOW DOES THAT FEEL!?” Twilight screamed, jumping out of the way of yet another barrage of magic missiles.

“SO MUCH FUN!” Hate screamed back.

“THEN BEGONE!” Twilight screamed as she charged towards Hate, lighting her horn with magic.

Hate started to do the same.

As they closed in on each other, Twilight’s magic started to change in color; instead of being her normal lavender, it turned golden, the same color Celestia uses.

The two crashed into each other in a cascade of light.

When it disappeared, Hate’s body had completely disappeared.

“Oh great, she died too. Is this going to be a trend with these three or something?” Twilight asked as she shook off all the dust that had found its way onto her.

Clover stood over on the cloud and smiled.

Twilight appeared in front of them all. “Now, let’s release Love then, shall we?” she said as she walked over to the cage and opened it, releasing Love.

When she looked back to the other three traits, she saw their expressions. Clover was smiling, Compassion’s mouth hung agape, and Innocence’s mouth mirrored Compassion’s..

“What?” The looks continued. “Oh, right, that… I killed her it seems. She’s not really dead, and she’s just a lot smaller, right?” The looks stopped and they all just nodded.

“Thank you,” a new voice said behind Twilight. She turned around to see Love looking at her. “For saving me, you might have defeated Hate in a very harsh way, but there’s no need to dwindle. Now, let’s get to the next place shall we?” Love said as she opened a door that had appeared out of thin air.

The rest followed right after.

“Okay, where in the hay are we now?” Twilight asked as they all appeared.

“This place… It’s the Gryphon aviaries,” Compassion said.

“Gryphon? How come Rainbow has been here? Oh, wait, Gilda, I see...” Twilight mumbled as they walked outside the cave they had found themselves in.

What was outside was huge. It wasn’t like Canterlot, no. This was… enormous. There was a valley completely surrounded by mountains. In the middle of the valley lay a vast, sparkling lake. A drinking hole, Twilight concluded. The mountains that surrounded the valley were filled with houses; they were rather small, or at least, smaller than the houses in Ponyville. At the far end of the valley was a much larger house. It looked to be a palace of sorts. It’s probably the palace of the Gryphon king. Twilight thought as the company of five walked down a slope.

“This place is amazing,” Twilight said, surprised at the color of the place. It was so colorful and so ‘not’ Gryphon, or at least from what she had seen of Gryphons, they weren’t the most colorful of people. But the only Gryphons Twilight had met were Gilda and Gustave le Grand, so she didn’t really have much of a reference point.

“Yes, yes it is. Funny thing really, that was the exact same thing Rainbow Dash said when she came here for the first time,” Compassion explained as they arrived at a small outcropping of the mountain they were climbing down. “We just need to get all the way down, and we will probably find Anger and Calm pretty easily.”

Twilight nodded. “I’m just curious here, but is it possible to change the traits, so to speak?” she asked, making the three traits look at her a little oddly.

Compassion answered, “Yes, I suppose that could happen. I don’t see the relevance though. The first traits that appeared are, for some reason, the only ones who know how to do that though. It’s easy really, to do it you would need the trait in question along with Love, Calm, and myself. We are really just here to make sure it’s nothing dangerous. How I know this… I have no idea, but you know it too, don’t you Love?” Love nodded.

“Hmm, interesting indeed. Not what I expected really, so an outsider could actually change things about a pony by going inside them?” she reasoned.

“Yes, that’s entirely possible. Was there any reason for you asking?” Compassion questioned.

Twilight blushed. “N-n-no not really, I was just curious.”

Compassion looked at her with suspicion, “If you say so.”

Clover started to laugh. “Hehehe, this is hilarious to see. You are all just as oblivious as her. What’s interesting though is Twilight’s reason for why she has that feelin. Hehehe.” Twilight blushed even more and looked away. “Don’t you all see it? That is a clear indication of what’s going on, but you three don’t get it, do you?” Love shrugged, Compassion shook her head and Innocence did the same. “Just as I expected then. I am curious to see what plans Twilight Sparkle has then.”

“OH LOOK! WE’RE HERE NOW!” Twilight shouted, eager to stop speaking about the topic.

Clover just laughed even more. “Yup, she is so totally feeling that way.”

The three traits just looked at each other and shook their heads, not sure what to make of the situation.

But finally Compassion spoke up again, “Ok then, just follow me. I will lead the way to Anger and Calm, or where I presume they are at the moment.”

The rest of the group just hummed in agreement.

They arrived at what seemed to be a cave drowned in water. “And just what is this place?” Twilight had to ask.

Love suddenly spoke up, “It’s the secret hiding spot that Gilda once showed Rainbow Dash. To get inside, we will have to swim for a bit due to the cave going underwater a bit further inside.”

“Ok then, let’s get to it,” Twilight said, trotting inside the cave and using her magic to light it up. The rest followed close behind.

The cave was rather long. It wasn’t ridiculous, but it took maybe a minute to arrive at the water Love had mentioned. Twilight immediately jumped in and started to swim.

The water felt odd; there wasn’t really anything wrong with it per say, but it was eerie. Maybe this was Rainbow Dash’s feeling when she swam through water? It would make sense, since she never seemed to enjoy swimming.

The underwater cave Twilight was swimming through was very empty. It was completely barren of any jagged edges, almost smooth like it had been cut out from the mountain itself. Twilight started swimming up again with a shortness of breath

When she surfaced, she met two faces she didn’t expect, or at least one of the two.

The two faces she saw were Gilda, presumably Anger. The other pony she saw was Princess Celestia. Calm, then. Twilight thought to herself as the two traits looked at her. Calm hung on the wall with restraints with something around her muzzle, inhibiting her ability to speak. Twilight was taken aback by the scene before her of her mentor restrained.

Twilight started to charge towards Anger, but before she knew it, her horn was somehow stuck in the wall. “Wha? How? Grr!” she grunted as she pushed away from the wall, trying to escape, but she was unable to with her horn stuck.

“Easy! You are so easy to trick, Twilight Storkle,” Anger said, sounding rather contempt with herself.

“Really? Twilight Storkle? Is that the best you can do? I mean seriously? What does that even mean? Storkle… Nope, that isn’t even a word, so what did you mean by it? Oh, you probably tried to sound smart by mixing sparkle and stupid, not very original if I say so.” Twilight declared, staring into the wall.

“Shut up, you are just jealous of my amazing coming-up-with-words skills,” Anger declared as she scratched Twilight’s flank with her claws, making Twilight yelp in pain. “Yeah, good, NOW SHUT UP!” Anger screamed as she kicked Twilight in the stomach, making her lose her breath.

“Ey you! Birdbrain! What do you think you’re doing!” Clover exclaimed as she crashed into Anger from behind.

“GAH! WHY ARE YOU ALL SO INCREDIBLY ANNOYING?” Anger screamed as she rolled around, making her lay on top of Clover and started hitting her. “SO!” Smack! “WHY!?” Bonk! “ARE!?” Donk! “YOU!?” Ding! “SO!?” Bang! “STUPID!?” Clover flew over the room with bruises as Anger walked towards her again. “See? You do not, I repeat, do not mess with me. I am stronger than you can even fathom. Maybe if I were to get out of Master, you would be stronger than me, but with you only being a mind inside another mind, I outclass you all by so far that it’s stupid. You thought Hate was strong? She is, but I have twice her strength and four times her will. How does that feel!?” she said as she kicked Clover further across the small cave.

“HORSEAPPLES! If I only could touch you, Clover. Anger over there would be toast!” Twilight complained, still trying to get free.

“Oh yeah? And how would you be able to do that egghead?” Anger said as she punched Twilight in the face. “Oh so you passed out? How sad.” She was bucked in the gut. “Oh so you were just playing then, good for you, since that didn’t even hurt.” She dragged her claw across the entirety of Twilight’s body, making her bleed.

“Anger, stop right now,” Compassion, Love and Innocence said in unison as they entered the room.

“Oh look who it is. It’s the trio of goody-two-shoes. What do you think you have against me, hmm? Nothing, that’s what. You need the help of these two losers to even get here, so what are you even supposed to do? Be annoying maybe? I can handle that.” She charged towards them, fuming with rage.

Twilight could hear the commotion, but it was hard to focus when her entire body was aching.

“Psst, Twilight,” Clover whispered as she slowly crawled over to Twilight. “You said you could do something to defeat her, what is that?” She muttered as she crawled.

“It’s a very experimental spell I found a long time ago. I never found a use for it, but now is as good a time as any, and since we are only inside a mind, the repercussions are probably a lot less than if I were to do it outside,” she explained.

“What is it then?”

“Fusion, technically. I could combine the two of us so that we are two ponies in one and our strengths and other attributes compound. It’s only supposed to last for ten minutes or less, all depending on energy usage. But you have to touch me for it, and I can cast the spell. My being stuck doesn’t make this any more difficult,” she explained, getting tired at trying to get out of the wall.

“I see, and it only last for ten minutes? I think that’s enough, let’s do it then,” she said as she reached for Twilight, touching her hoof. “Go on, cast it.”

“Okay.” She took a large breath. “Right.”

The fight between traits was stopped as Twilight and Clover started to glow. The light continued to increase in intensity more and more, nearly blinding. It stopped and in front of them stood a very different pony; the colors were all awkward from purple mixing with green, making a ridiculous shade of brown. All the features of the pony looked almost exactly like Twilight Sparkle’s. The pony opened her mouth.

“Wow, this feels weird,” Twilight’s voice said. “Tell me about it.” The voice quickly changed to Clover’s. “Ok, how should we go about doing this?” Twilight asked herself. “Uhhh, I think our thoughts are mixing, and it feels weird. Let’s just go at her and win, then we can worry about this, ok?” Clover asked. “Yeah sure,” Twilight answered.

They charged at Anger. She tried to dodge, but she was too slow. “Now, now, now, silly Anger, we are two in one, so you don’t have a ghost of a chance,” Clover’s voice said. She smiled. “Calm down, Clover. We just need to dissolve her, not kill her.” Twilight said, sighing.

They grabbed Anger by her throat as she tried to push away from the grip. “Let me go!” she exclaimed. Twilight and Clover shook their head and activated their horn. Anger was engulfed in magic before she disappeared entirely.

“That was easier than I thought,” Clover’s voice said.

“Wait, you two just defeated her, just like that?” Compassion asked as all of the traits’ jaws fell to the floor.

“Yeah, I’m also surprised. Seems the power of two ponies in one is pretty amazing. Honestly, if we were to meet Celestia in a match of power, we would have about half of her aptitude, I think,” Twilight’s voice explained. “Hmm, wait, let me try something, this is getting weird.” Magic gathered in her horn and then the two ponies separated, completely unscathed.

“Twilight Sparkle, that was genius, really clever,” Clover said as she gave Twilight a hug. “This means nothing though, I am just happy to not be stuck with you.” Twilight chuckled. Clover released the hug. “Now.” She used her magic and completely freed Calm, who fell to the floor.

She rose up from the ground. “Thank you. Now all that’s left to do is subduing Vampirism. I need the help of Compassion and Love to open the final portal, shall we?” she asked them, and they nodded.

Magic flowed from the three ponies as a big portal was formed in the cave. All of them jumped in.

“Why is it so white?” Twilight asked as they arrived.

“Simple really, we are in the middle, and it’s only just a holding place. Just look over there,” Calm said, pointing at a stallion lying on the ground a bit away from them. “He’s not dangerous. We just need to blast him with magic, and he should be fine, so come on you two, we have a master to save,” Calm said as she, Love and Compassion all walked over to the body and showered it in magic. When the magic dissipated, he looked the same, but he gave off a feeling of happiness. “It’s finished, finally,” Calm finished.

All three of the traits turned towards Twilight and Clover. Love spoke up. “You two have saved Master, and therefore we are forever grateful. Is there anything we could possibly do to repay you?” she asked.

Clover looked at Twilight, who in turn looked at Love. “I think you should give Twilight Sparkle what she wants. I don’t need anything, not that there is anything you can give me.”

“What can I do for you then?” Love said as she looked at Twilight.

“What I asked before, you know, about changing traits… I was wondering…” Calm’s face turned to realization.

“Oh, I see. I think I might understand what you want. It seems quite obvious now. You want to have Love be you, don’t you?” Calm asked. Twilight nodded as she blushed. “No problem, we could do that. But whatever you do in this case, if Master were ever to know of this event, Love will break. The entire feeling of Love will forever disappear from Rainbow Dash, and she will never be able to feel love. Even more possible is that you will become the new Hate. Can you handle that? Are you prepared for that possibility? I am giving you one last chance to walk away from this. We can do it, but I am just warning you. If you mess up, EVER, Rainbow Dash will never be the same, can you live with that?” Calm explained, very composedly.

Twilight nodded in shame.

“I see. Do you two agree with this gift?” Calm asked Love and Compassion, who both nodded. “Okay then, come over here, Twilight Sparkle.”

The three of them put a hoof on Twilight’s head and held it there for a couple of seconds before they took it down.

Love put a hoof on her own head as the other two did the same.

Love started to glow; when it dissipated, a complete look-alike of Twilight stood there. “Wow, this is weird. I feel different, but I guess that’s what happens when a trait changes form,” Love said. “Now, I think we should send these two out of here, shall we?” Calm and Compassion nodded. “Good, now be prepared,” she said to Twilight and Clover.

The three charged their magic and created a bubble around Twilight and Clover. It started to glow and slowly started to disappear.

Innocence jumped inside, and it disappeared.

“Did she just... Follow them through?” Compassion asked, really surprised at what had happened.

“I... I think so... Let’s just hope she makes the transition.” Calm stated with confusion.

“Yeah, let’s hope that she does... But if there ever was a trait that could handle it, it would have to be her.” Love finished.

“That’s true.” The other two said in unison.

“So, let’s get back to our stations to prepare for master’s reawakening.” Calm said, and they all disappeared through their magic.

Chapter 8

“Ugh my head.” Rainbow uttered as she awoke from her slumber, but she was blocked from standing up by a... Thing lying over her. “What’s this?” She murmured as she opened her eyes and found Twilight lying on top of her, something hit her. Huh? What was that? It feels... Good. She decided to wake Twilight. She shook Twilight who slowly stirred.

The unicorn slowly opened her eyes and stared at Rainbow. “Huh, wha? It’s over?” She jumped up. “IT’S OVER! HAHA! YOUR FINE! YES!” She blurted excitingly as she hugged Rainbow Dash.

“Wowow, hang on a minute, what happened and what are you talking about?” Rainbow asked, Twilight was about to answer but was interrupted by a voice appearing in both their heads.

Simple really, you got knocked out permanently or it seemed like it at the time. And I needed somepony to help me go into your skull and Twilight just so happened to be the perfect help. So it were that we went into your mind and saved you from all the evil traits of yourself and you might find that there is a distinct lack of certain feelings you had before, we banished them so to speak, they are a lot weaker now... Except maybe Anger... I didn’t expect what happened to her and I’m still not sure... So I need to ask you this, are you feeling anger of any kind, whatsoever?

Rainbow thought to herself. Anger? ... Can’t say I do... “No, I don’t feel angry, at all... Which is really weird...? This is new, and why am I not completely freaking out about the fact I killed a pony? I thought I would be going crazy right about now... As for what you just explained... It sounds so weird that it must be true, weird logic, I know, but that’s what it feels like...” She scratched her head with a hoof and blushed slightly. “Ehe...”

You don’t feel anger... Great... This might be bad... But let’s not worry about that right now... As for why you aren’t freaking out... When we defeated your bad traits, who had practically taken your body for their own, the good guys decided to take over and one of the three is Calm... So that’s probably why you are calm... And you aren’t angry at yourself since well... Anger is gone...

“Wait, how am I also hearing you right now?” Twilight asked, still hugging Rainbow.

Simple really, I cast a little spell on you when you didn’t notice, so I can talk to you if you touch Rainbow Dash here, as to why I could talk to you before we went into her mind... Well, let’s just say I used a lot of power managing that... But it had to be done, so congratulations! You can talk to me! Oh look! Luna incoming!

The two mares turned around and found that sure enough, Luna was flying towards them looking afraid... She was being chased by what seemed to be a pegasus with the same manecut as Pinkie Pie except it was yellow and the entire pony was white... Her mouth moved as she flew after Luna who was flying around trying to outrun the blabbermouth that was now following her.

“I mean would you look at you mane? It’s all glowy and stuff and looking super awesomeazing! I would love to have a mane like that, it looks so fun, and if I had a mane like that I would be all ‘Wrooom, Wooosh’ because my mane would be space as literally as you can go when it comes to manes and space.” She saw Twilight and Rainbow looking at her. “OH MY GOSH! It’s Master and Twilight!” She exclaimed charging towards them and locking the two of them in a huge hug. “Twilight, before you two disappeared I decided that it would be fun to join you on the outside and i must say that this place is a lot more colorful that inside Masters head and I am also getting all these weird feelings, but that’s probably due to the transition from being a simple trait in a pony to becoming a fully fledged pony myself and I couldn’t be happier!” She blurted with glee.

“WOWOWOWOW! Calm down a minute, are you saying that you are from Rainbow Dash’s mind? In that case, what trait do you represent? ‘Cause you look nothing like the ones I met walking inside there.” Twilight explained as she backed off from the white pegasus.

“That’s easy; I’m Innocence or rather was Innocence... I’m not sure what to call myself anymore due to me being a real pony and all... What could my name be? Hmm...” She sat down on the ground and started to fumble on what she would name herself.

“Well, this is a surprise.” Rainbow commented, and Innocence gasped. “I mean, you are from inside me? That sounds really creepy.”

“It is! I know! And I got my name! It’s going to be “Surprise”! It fits, right?” Innocence says with happiness.

“I suppose it does, but who are you even supposed to be? And why do you look the way you look?” Rainbow asked.

“Well, inside your mind I had the form of your good friend Pinkie Pie, but when I jumped outside with Twilight and ghostie, the universe decided to change my form because it seems that there can’t be two perfectly similar ponies at any given time. The universe also said that it would make the universe implode just because of the fact that there would be two Pinkie’s, why would that be? I have no idea...” Rainbow Dash and Twilight shuddered at the thought of two Pinkie’s running around being, well... Pinkie...

“That much is true, we have heard of an incident like this before, or rather, discovered it firsthoof... We are the object of somepony wanting a copy of my sister but instead the universe decided we should pop in from nowhere, it does not bother us anymore, we were created in a special way and as we have heard from our sister, she was supposedly also created by the universe.” Luna said as she landed beside them, a lot more calm that what she had seemed when she was fleeing from the newly dubbed ‘Surprise’.

“Princess Luna? What are you doing here? That is, if you don’t mind me asking.” Rainbow said, really confused as to why the lunar princess was standing before her.

“Our sister got a message from Twilight Sparkle saying that ‘Pinkie Pie’ had gotten a reaction of something she phrased as Pinkie’s ‘Pinkie sense’ and our sister said that we should probably go and help Twilight Sparkle with whatever problems might come to pass, but alas, there was none. But we thought that since you are having a hard time handling your newfound abilities that we could help you out and train you in the way of vampony powers. We might not have the powers we had as Nightmare Moon but they’re still there and that makes us fully able to help thee.” Luna explained and Rainbow’s jaw fell open slightly.

“You know what’s funny? This!” Surprise exclaimed, showing that she, too, had fangs. Everypony looked at her and gawked. “What? I thought you would have expected it, I mean, I was a part of Rainbow Dash after all, so it’s only natural, right?” Twilight closed her mouth and nodded in agreement.

“That would actually make a lot of sense.” Twilight concluded as she nodded.

“We see… This was unexpected… But we see no danger in training thee as well as Rainbow Dash…” Luna said, still looking at Surprise smiling, with fangs in her mouth.

“I… I want your help on that yes… When I was in the city, things got… Out of control, I had no idea what I was doing, really… It was like getting captured in a cage and you sunk into a pool of blood going up to your mouth… Ok that sounded too weird, but that’s not the point. It felt really, really weird… And therefore, I’m happy to accept training from you Princess.” Rainbow concluded, making Luna nod.

“Sure! Sounds like fun! And besides, I get to hang out with Master more, that will be fun, since I’ve never been able to talk to her face to face, or is it muzzle to muzzle?” She asked as she trailed of from her original point.

“Right, she sure has her influences from Pinkie… I am worried about what will happen when she meets Pinkie…” Twilight shuddered at the though.

“It’s still so weird seeing her, she’s supposed to be a part of me and she’s not in me… It’s weird to look at a part of yourself having a physical form…” Rainbow murmured.

Right, good for you, getting Luna to train you, well played, she’s probably the only pony who COULD help you, oh and congratulations on the fact that tomorrow there will be five vamponies in existence.

What are you— Her thought trailed off as she remembered what she was talking about. “Rarity, Fluttershy, how are they doing? Has something happened yet? Is it still the same day?” She asked worryingly.

“Calm down Rainbow Dash, it’s still the same day. Though, I soon have to raise the moon, but before I do so, would you three like a lift to Ponyville library?” The princess asked.

The three of them nodded and Luna charged her horn, and whoops they disappeared in a cloud of black magic.

“That was… Surprisingly uneventful.” Rainbow commented as the four of them appeared in the library. “In a good way, not a bad way.”

“Teleportation is not hard for somepony with our kind of magic levels; neither would it be hard for Twilight Sparkle, if she tried that is.” Luna explained as she turned towards the three of them. “Before we go, we have to make sure, have you by any chance turned anypony? Because if so, we would be willing to train those too.”

Rainbow turned to Twilight, who shrugged. Sighing, Rainbow spoke. “Well, yes, there are two, but they got turned earlier today, which Clover told me mean that they will be full vampires tomorrow. Yes, yes, she did tell me so, I remember it now…” She looked away.

“Verily… We see, well then, we shall be off, see you all tomorrow, and be prepared to train, we will not be going easy on you.” And so, Luna disappeared in her magic.

“Well, that’s nice, what do we do now…” Twilight glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s 9pm, so it’s not like we could introduce Surprise to everypony just yet.” And just as she said that, a door was opened, and in, stepped Spike.

“Twilight!” He exclaimed, running over and hugging her. “You were gone for the entire day, I was getting worried over here… And who is… That?” He said, pointing at Surprise who only smiled and waved at him.

“She’s… Think of her as a mix of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, but with Pinkie’s personality.” Twilight explained, and she could feel the shivers coming from Spike.

“I see, but what is she doing here?”

“My house got blown up, so these two nice ponies decided I could stay with one of them, isn’t that right you two?” Surprise said, still smiling.

Twilight and Rainbow gave of a nervous laugh. “Heh, yeah… That’s what happened.” They both said in unison.

“But I think I speak for the both of me and Twilight when I say that it would be best if she stayed at my place, don’t you, Twilight?” Rainbow said, looking at Twilight.

“Y-yeah, that would probably be the best bet, being a pegasus and all, he-he-he.” Twilight nervously said.

“Ok? So your house got blown up? How did that happen?” He asked, suspiciously eyeing Surprise as he let go of Twilight. “And what’s your name?” He added.

“Oh, that’s easy, my name is Surprise, and my house got blown up by some bullies and Rainbow Dash defeated them with her coolness.” She explained, making Rainbow nod in agreement.

“I see, and who were these ‘bullies’?” He continued to stare at her with suspicion.

“Spike, stop harassing her, she’s not lying, I was there, ok? Now go to sleep, it’s 9pm and it’s time for you to go to bed.” She commanded, pointing towards the stairs.

He grunted in annoyance and walked up the stairs, but before he got to the top, he used his claw to motion between his eyes and Surprise, meaning that he was watching her. Aaaand then he went to bed.

“Right, that was completely out of nowhere… Should we get back to our respective places and get some sleep then? I mean, we sure could use it… Maybe you too, but that’s still debatable.” Twilight concluded with a yawn. “I sure am tired.”

The door to the library slammed open and Pinkie was standing there. “Twilight, Rainbow! You’re back! YAY! You’re fine! I’m so glad!” She said, pulling both Rainbow and Twilight in a hug. “Oh wait, I was here because my Pinkie sense was feeling something.” She said as she let go. “I got the combo that said there’s another me somewhere, but I don’t remember making another me, so something must be wrong…” She saw Surprise and they both gasped loudly. “OH MY GOSH! You’re me, but you’re not me! You are Rainbow Dash and me! That’s amazing! I have to throw you a party! A new pony is in town!”

“Can I come?” Surprise asked with glee.

Pinkie nodded furiously and both of them disappeared out of the library in a puff of smoke.

“That was... Very Pinkie.” Rainbow finally decided to say.

“Yeah, it was… I hope she can find her way to your place later, or she might have to stay at Pinkie’s place, I just hope they don’t break anything, I have no idea what those two could be capable of…” Twilight said, still staring at the door with a half open mouth.

“Yeah… They hopefully won’t break anything, Pinkie usually doesn’t but with two of them… I am scared what might have happened tomorrow when we wake up…” Rainbow concluded.

“… I wish you a good night then Rainbow.”

“Yeah, goodnight to you too Twilight.” Rainbow said as she shook her head to go out of the confusion from Pinkie and Surprise running off.

Twilight, did the same. “Wait, before you go, I want to give you something.” Twilight said as she trotted towards a nearby cupboard.

“Sure, what is it?” Rainbow asked, raising an eyebrow, quite curious about what it could be.

“Nothing big really, it’s just something my family thinks helps with bad luck and you seem to have a stream of that right now, so I wanted to give it to you, you know, for good luck.” Twilight explained as she looked through the cupboard.

“Uh huh, that seems like a pretty personal gift to me…”

“Well, of course it is, you’re one of my best friends, why wouldn’t I give you a personal gift? And if I give you to this and you take it, well, I would see it as you having a guardian angel… Not really though, you already have two big profiles looking over you…” Twilight said as she stopped. “AHA! Here it is!” She exclaimed.

What she pulled out looked to be a mane-pin, a pin you use to set your mane in a certain way. “A manepin? Really? How come that represents luck or whatever it was?” Rainbow asked skeptically.

“What? This is serious, every member of our family has a special number of these that we give to ponies we think need them… and other things.” She trailed off at the end.

“Uh huh? I guess I could use it, since it seems to mean a lot to you and stuff.” Wait a minute? Did I just accept to using a mane-pin? That’s not something I would do… But I don’t want to make Twilight sad… Wait, did I just think that? Oh Celestia, what is happening? This is new… She scuffled around nervously.

“You will? That’s good, makes me sure you’re safe… And you would probably look kind of good in mane-pin at the same time.” Twilight said with a smile as she attached the pin in Rainbow’s mane. “See? You look wonderful and it gives you luck too, isn’t that great?” Twilight smiled

“Y-yeah… Well, this has been great, but I think you need your sleep and I need to think over a couple of things and such… So see ya tomorrow I guess?” Twilight hummed approvingly and Rainbow was off into the sky, out of the library.

As Rainbow soared through the sky, she got increasingly annoyed, because she couldn’t figure out what was going on. Why am I getting all awkward around Twilight? Nothing changed right? And why in Equestria did I even accept this pin? I mean, that’s so not me, I don’t do this kind of thing… But why can’t I remove it then? It feels wrong even thinking about it… WHY AM I FEELING THIS WAY? I don’t even know what I’m feeling… Does it have something to do with that Twilight saved me from uncertain demise? That maybe has something to do with it… I mean… WHY IS THIS SO WEIRD!?

Don’t you get it? You’re having a crush on Twilight, easy as that, that’s why you don’t want to make her sad, easy as that. It’s getting pretty obvious even if it has only been going on since you woke up from our little escapade in your mind… I think you’re just very happy to have such a nice friend as Twilight Sparkle, I never had any close friends as that… Maybe Starswirl, but he was more of a mentor than a friend… And Princess Platinum, god that irritating bimbo! I despised being around her all the time… Pansy and Smart Cookie were the only ponies I would ever have called friends, and even them… They could only really be called acquaintances… After the unification of the tribes, we got separated to do separate things in the government so we never got together, and when we did, the only thing we could do was share boring stories about our jobs… Oh sorry, I went out on a tangent… As I said before, you have a crush on Twilight Sparkle, but if you want to do anything about it, that’s up to you, I guess…

WHAT!? I have a crush on Twilight? That’s completely… True… Oh Celestia, it’s true, how… Ok, now I am feeling weird… I need to get some sleep… This day has been ridiculous in every way possible… Rainbow finished as she landed on her cloud and walked inside.

She went into the fridge and quickly drank a bottle of milk and placed it on the counter. Wait a minute, I can’t have a crush on Twilight, that’s stupid, and happened WAY too fast, so no, I do not have a crush on the sex... I mean the librarian of Ponyville... Ok, this is screwing with my head, I really need to get to bed... Rainbow opened the door to her room and immediately fell onto her bed and fell asleep.

“Twilight,” Spike said as he walked down the stairs. “Why on Equestria did RD have a mane-pin in her mane? That was kind of... Odd to see... Do you have any idea how that happened?” Twilight blushed slightly and looked away. “So you do have a reason for that?”

The unicorn nodded. “Yeah, I do have a reason for that... She only think it’s a gift... It’s really not though... Well, it is, but the real reason I gave it to her is well... To spy on her, or rather, it’s a detector of sorts. It can detect if she’s in any immediate danger and I can come to her rescue.” She nodded to herself as she finished.

“I see... Good thing she accepted it then... It’s not really something Rainbow would do normally...” He shrugged. “Meh, good night Twi...” He said as he yawned. “I’m going to bed.” He said, walking up the stairs.

“Good... I do hope I won’t have to use it, but looking at the situation, it’s kind of impossible for it NOT to happen...” She said with a huge yawn. “Oh, I really should make for bed.” She mumbled to herself as she dragged herself up the stairs to get a good night’s sleep.

Chapter 9

”MASTER! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!” Surprise exclaimed, jumping around in Rainbow’s room.

“Ugh, please stop calling me master, please, it’s weird.” Rainbow placed a hoof to her head due to the sudden headache she had just got from Surprise’s yelling. “Where were you doing last night anyway?”

Surprise placed a hoof on her chest. “Who, me? I was playing with Pinkie, preparing for my party, which is later today, and it’s going to be awesome!” She said making a huge smile.

“O—kay… That will be interesting… Why did you wake me up anyway? And how did you even get here?”

“Oh silly, that’s easy, I got here since I’m partly you, of course I know where I… I mean YOU live. It would be weird if I didn’t know.” She made a laughing snort. “That’s kind of funny… OH and I woke you up since I stayed up all night in here and the Princess arrived not too long ago, isn’t that right Princess?” Surprise said, looking towards the door, where, in fact, stood Princess Luna.

“Verily, we are indeed here to start thine trainings. Though, we do recommend getting some food before we take off towards the designated location.” She said in a very authoritative voice. “You see, these kinds of excursions should only happen where certain… Conditions are made.” Luna said, in a secretive voice.

“Right, makes sense, all these powers are kinda scaring me…” Rainbow stood up from her bed and stretched her entire body until she heard the satisfying cracking noise that usually came with the exercise. “Let’s get eating.” She walked past Princess Luna and walked into her kitchen, opening her fridge, checking for anything edible, she found yoghurt. Meh, I’m not THAT hungry, this will probably be enough… OK, that’s not something I would usually say, but, meh, I’m not hungry. She quickly drank the entire container of Yoghurt and breathed out in enjoyment as she finished. “Now THAT is something I could do every morning.” She turned to the other two ponies currently stading in her kitchen, Luna was tilting her head slightly to the side at the sight of Rainbow drinking yoghurt. Surprise, well, she was simply smiling. “What? I don’t really need anything more, I don’t feel hungry.” Luna rolled her eyes at that.

“Oh yoghurt, I LOVE YOGHURT!” Surprise exclaimed, jumping towards the fridge and taking a container of yoghurt for her to drink. Before Rainbow Dash or Luna could even react, the container had been emptied.

“She certainly has an appetite.” Luna commented, still staring at the white pegasus.

“She sure does…” Well, that was weird… Wait, shouldn’t we try to go and train? I think that would be a very good idea. I do wonder what the training will involve… Wait, didn’t Clover —the magical ghost—say that I am one of the few ponies that have ice hooves? I wonder if the Princess knows anything about that. Rainbow continued to ponder this as she walked out her door. “Huh, wha? Oh, right. Are you two coming? I think we should get this started as soon as possible and then yesterday’s accident won’t happen again.” Rainbow said with a laugh.

“Yeah, we should totally do that, I would really like to know how to use all these cool abilities, I mean, they seem really cool, except for being bad, but, oh well, and I don’t care about that, since I know my friends wouldn’t think less about me because of it, but I, personally, don’t have any real friends yet, except maybe you and Pinkie, and maybe Twilight, oh and Ghostie! Can’t forget about her! Oh and maybe the Princess, would you like to be my friend Princess?” Surprise rambled and stopped, looking right at the Princess.

“We would be happy to accept thine request; we would be delighted to be thy friend. Now, should we all get going?” The Princess said with a slight smile.

The two pegasi nodded and they all took off.

Twilight let out a large yawn as she slowly awoke from a good night’s sleep. Well, that, was a relaxing evening of sleep, weird though, I would have expected this night to be sleepless, what with all that happened yesterday… Wait a minute… Whatever did happen to Pinkie and Surprise yesterday? Well, the library is still standing, that is certainly a good sign. She rose from her bed, looking out her window. What she saw was how normal the town looked, this slightly surprised her but it also gave off a big feeling of relief. “Well, that’s good.” She remarked, slowly standing up from her bed. “Spike, wake up, time for a new day.” She said as she used her magic to lift Spike from his basket.

“Huh? What’s happening? Oh, it’s morning… Fine, fine, I’m awake, so, please release me from your magic?” As soon as he said it, she did release him from her magic field.

“Great, good. Now would you be so kind to make breakfast for the two of us? I need to fix myself up a bit first.” Spike nodded at this and waddled off towards the kitchen, humming a familiar tune. “Oh Spike, you are so adorable when you addle in the morning.” She said to herself as she started to make herself presentable for the day.

As she finished she smiled in satisfaction and walked downstairs to get her breakfast. When she entered the kitchen, a pancake flew through the air and landed on one of the plates on the dinner table. “Hah, I knew I could do it!” Spike exclaimed happily.

“Spike, didn’t I tell you NOT to play with food? It’s a bad habit to have… Though, be happy you hit the plate this time.” She said in a playful voice.

“Yeah, yeah, I know… Still, I am finished with the food now though. So now, let’s eat, shall we?” He said as he placed the rest of the pancakes on the table.

“Sure Spike, let’s!” She said happily and grabbed one of the pancakes in her magic and levitated it towards her mouth, but she was interrupted by the sound of a door flying open.

“TWILIGHT!” Rairity called out. “THIS IS HORRIBLE! OF ALL THE THINGS THAT COULD HAPPEN, THIS IS. THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!” She exclaimed as she stood in the door.

“Whatever do you mean?” Twilight asked as she saw her distraught friend.

“Mirrors my dear, I cannot see myself in mirrors and that IS NOT something good, I cannot make myself pretty using mirrors any longer, this is horrid… Though I do have myself to blame… I didn’t really ask if there were any repercussions with the curse… Which I really should have seen coming, what with it being a curse and all… But if this is the price I have to pay for helping one of my dearest friends out of something so horrible, it’s the least I could do… I actually only came here to hear if you would be so kind as to help me with my morning activities.” Rarity explained, though she couldn’t hide the fact that she was hyperventilating.

“Well, I guess I could, I don’t see why not… But wouldn’t it be smarter to get help from the spa, or maybe Fluttershy? Both of those seem a lot more sensible than coming to me with this issue…” Twilight said as she finally placed a pancake in her mouth.

“Well yes, normally I would do that… But I am not exactly sure going to the spa with these.” She pointed at her newly grown fangs. “Is such a good idea. And I tried going to Fluttershy’s house earlier today, and well, she clearly isn’t taking this very well, she has decided to lock herself up because she think she’s somehow a monster now. What is even weirder is that she should let me inside, being in the same situation, but she’s to scared… I hope she get’s over it…” Rarity said with a frown.

Twilight rose from her seat and placed a hoof over Rarity’s shoulder. “Don’t worry Rarity, I’m sure she will get over it, she just needs to learn the basics of vampony physiology… To remove the fangs from your mouth, you only have to will them away, and they will disappear all by themselves… As for not being able to see yourself in the mirror… Well, you can, but only during the night… So there’s that…” Twilight explained, smiling sheepishly. “Now, let me finish my breakfast and I can get to helping you, how does that sound?” She asked Rarity as she released her from her grip.

“Yes, I would like that, I would like that very much.”

Just then, Applejack stood in her orchard and something popped into her head. Now that’s odd, RD’s usually sleeping in one of mah trees at least every other day and she isn’t doing that now… I wonder what’s going on, maybe I should pay her a visit.

If one were to look at the training Princess Luna was putting Rainbow Dash and Surprise through, one would first notice the intense yelling from the Princess of the Night… But that was mostly on Surprise, whom was surprisingly clumsier than Rainbow Dash, not something a pony would expect if you simply were to look at the two. The training itself could from the outside seem like a completely normal exercising pass, nothing extraordinary… But in you were to look a bit deeper and understand exactly WHAT they were training, their motions would give of something completely different. What they were really doing… Well, it may sound simple, but still, they were learning how to better use their newly gained abilities from being vamponies. But as mentioned earlier, it looked like a normal training pass, well, not exactly normal, they were being trained by a Princess, but that’s beside the point… So you see, they were having a nice and very intense spar, which can’t really be nice, but you probably get the point.

“BLOCK!” The Princess yelled, very loudly. This made them flinch for a second. This opened the perfect opportunity for the Princess to hit again, and she sure did. She smashed the both of them into the ground, still not even using her full capabilities, at all. “See? This is what happens when you lose concentration on something, thou should always remember that raw power is never the answer. Training and carefully planning out your next move is always the best way to go about things. And besides, we are training you in this, just because you need the basic control before we can help you with all the other, more complicated issues.” She said sternly, standing over the two as they slowly stood up from the ground.

Geez, that was a really cliché speech, that’s like the plot of every power thing ever… La di da, learn to control yourself… I know, I know, there’s something in there, but still, it’s cliché, you have to admit to that. Rainbow thought as she stood up once more.

Well obviously, I would know… But yes, control is important, more so for you… Considering the outburst and all. Though, that probably won’t happen again, since, well, that was triggered by anger and well, you know what happened to her.

Oh I do, I do very much… Now, how to outsmart the Princess… Rainbow pondered this while trying to look as if she was actually concentrating on what the Princess was lecturing them about now.

“You see, without proper coordination, you will lose. And that will not be good, not good at all. Now, are thou ready for another try? If you manage to get one hit of, we can call the day well spent. We doubt you will be able to.” The Princess flew into the air and started to hover. “Now, come at me with all you’ve got.

Rainbow charged aimlessly at her, without thinking really. What surprised Luna was the fact that she could see that Surprise was planning something, she just couldn’t figure out what. She would see that later, now she had to take care of Rainbow Dash.

As Rainbow Dash neared the Princess, Luna quickly avoided it. What surprised Luna this time was the fast reaction from the pegasus. Rainbow had quickly turned around and started to charge at the Princess once again, this time nearly hitting her. But Luna was too quick for RD. She flew out of the way and teleported herself on top of the pegasus, pushing the both of them towards the ground, slightly hurting Rainbow Dash.

Now came the unexpected, just as they hit the ground, Surprise hit Luna right in the side, ramming her off Rainbow Dash. It was a clear hit and as Surprise stood up from Luna, she could see a smile appearing on the Princess’s face.

“Very good, thou used my temporary inability to notice you coming at us. It worked now, but remember, it might not work when you’re alone. But alas, we did promise you could get off now, so, go off, dilly dally, we need this specific pegasus to learn her tactics.” She said, motioning towards Rainbow. Surprise gave a nod and once again, a huge smile appeared on her face. Luna trotted over to the body of Rainbow Dash, whom was slowly starting to stand up once again. “We are disappointed in you; we would have thought that since that since you are an Alpha you would at least be able to get a single hit off. And as you might know, Surprise just got one. It might have been luck, but she still did plan it, which makes her better than you, and yet, her raw power is so much lower, since she’s only just a part of you. What surprises me even more is the lack of help from the Mother or Clover as we have come to discover. She know everything about this, everything. And now you ask, how do we know she’s in your head? Simple really, she was in ours when we still were Nightmare Moon and the fact that she helped Twilight Sparkle getting into your head. We give you one last final chance to show your worth, and if you don’t, intense training that you won’t like, will happen.” She said, sternly, staring coldly at Rainbow Dash.

As Rainbow rose from her position in the ground, her face had turned very determined. Well, that certainly means that the plan was successful, and she doesn’t even know it… Wait, are you sure this will work?

Oh yes, she has no idea you can do that, no idea at all, but that’s mostly because she doesn’t have it… So yeah, this might just surprise her.

“Ok, yeah, it was silly of me, but I am ready to thump you to the ground so can we get started?” Rainbow Dash said in a very daring and intense tone as she glared slightly at the Princess.

“Thou are very silly if you think you intimidate us. But, ok then, fire away.” She said as she flew up into the air once again, taking a stance and starting to hover.

Remember now, do exactly as you planned, wait, I made the plan… Just follow the plan and she will be surprised and such…

Yeah yeah, I know that. Rainbow claimed as she lift off from the ground.

Before Luna could react, Rainbow Dash had disappeared from her view. She felt a large push of air from above her and when she looked, Luna could see a rainbow streak coming towards her. It came closer and closer and just when it was about to hit her she quickly dove away. The rainbow streak continued downwards and a very steady cone was forming around Rainbow Dash, Luna had no idea what was happening. It exploded with a large boom and the light was extremely intense. It blinded the Princess, when she could finally see again she had no idea what was happening and she was knocked out of her hovering state. She started to fall, unable to understand what was happening.

Rainbow Dash could be seen flying even further up in the sky. She stopped and looked down at the falling Princess. She won’t get hurt really, she’s a Princess. That was Rainbow dash’s though process as she started to speed downwards. When she had gained a very large momentum she started channeling energy into her hoof, making it into solid ice, she placed her hoof over her head and continued to channel energy and the ice slowly started to take over her entire body. Her entire body was now encased in a block of solid ice, falling towards the Princess at an alarming speed.

The Princess hit the ground with a thump, barely getting any bruises from the fall, she could see the ice falling towards her and she was completely unable to move as it came close, and closer, and closer.

The ice finally hit…

About ten feet away from her person.

The ice broke and out came Rainbow Dash with a large grin on her face as she slowly walked towards the Princess. “Hey Princess, what do you say about that? Kinda good, if you ask me, could have been cooler, didn’t need to be though. I never planned on hitting you with the ice, not really, it was more a show of my awesome skills and bet it was really unexpected, especially from you expression. I’m sorry, but you look really shocked right now and it’s hilarious.” Rainbow started snickering.

Princess Luna shook her head and tried to regain her previous composure. “Well yes, we are very confused… We did not expect that you could do a Sonic Rainboom just like that; it seems we don’t know as much as we did before. And the ice, I suspect it’s something from the vampony powers, there could be no other way of that happening otherwise, not at all… It’s not something a normal pony can do, so that has to be the best explanation… Something we did notice was that you can plan something if you want to, that was a smart move, not something we would expect from a new timer… At the same time, you doing a Sonic rainboom, that’s probably the least probable thing of them all, it was only a myth before, you are the first to actually do it… Still, we did know you could do it, but not that easily. And the way you used everything in combination, we commend you for that plan, it was smart and much unexpected. We would say that this has been a good day of practice, even if though it was simply basic things. You would not have defeated us, we could have taken the hit, sure we might have been damaged but not anything serious, we are more durable than we look. We are happy you do have this much control already, but do not by any means think you are capable of great things just yet, we do not want a repeat of yesterday.” The Princess lectured.

Rainbow’s cheeks flushed lightly at the recall of her embarrassment of yesterday. “Yeah, I know. Today was kind of just me wanting to prove a point by being all flashy and stuff.” The Princess nodded to this. “Yeah… Hey Princess, wanna come to the party Pinkie Pie is having for Surprise? I think it’s going to start soon. “

“We would be delighted to attend, the soirée’s at the castle are usually really daft, a party made by the Element of Laughter? Now that, sounds like fun.” The Princess declared with a rather unexpected smile.

“Yeah, she does throw the greatest parties… Now, should we get going?” Rainbow asked nicely and the Princess nodded slowly and they walked towards the town.

What they didn’t expect to find… Well, they didn’t expect to see anypony really, but who they saw made Rainbow cringe a bit.

“Aj…” Rainbow sighed.

Applejack was standing at the far end of the field, staring at the two of them as they neared her location, her mouth hanging agape. Applejack herself, well, she didn’t move, at all.

As they closed on her location, Applejack shook her head, trying to understand what was going on. “Wait, wait just a minute here. What in tarnation did just happen? And why on Equestria does Rainbow Dash have fangs in her mouth? Care to explain, RD? Wait a minute, why do you have it too, Princess?” She asked, staring skeptically at them.

“Applejack, Element of Honesty, calm down. We were only helping the Element of Loyalty learn her new capabilities as a vampony. And we have a vast knowledge on the subject, since we are one, we thought it would be a good idea to train her so something bad doesn’t happen.” The Princess explained rather calmly.

Applejacks reaction was something a little bit more extreme. She could be seen starting to sweat of fear and it annoyed Rainbow Dash. “Y’all are vamponies? That’s… Oh sweet Celestia help me!” She hollered as she ran off.

“Oh crap, she took that rather good, considering, at least she didn’t yell as loudly as possible.”

And almost as if directed, Applejack started to scream.

“Well great, now everypony in town will know, great, just great… Well, at least it can’t get any worse, right?” She asked the Princess who looked at her in shock. “What?”

“You said the forbidden line… On the creator this is bad.” Rainbow was totally confused as to what the Princess was referring to.

Rainbow was about to ask out of curiosity, but she was interrupted by a hollering laughter.

“Oh, How fun to finally see the Princess of the Night. Hello there you two, you can’t see me, since I’m not where you are, I’m in a remote location… And you see, my henchmen are where you are. They are with you to take Rainbow Dash into my care, so please, do take care. Oh and By the way, nice to meet you again, Rainbow Dash. My name is Greasy Hide.”

Intermission

Day 0:

WOOSH!

Was the sound that interrupted the doctors in their daily routine as they got blinded by the lavender light. When they opened their eyes again, they found that Twilight Sparkle was standing there, with an unconscious Rainbow Dash on her back. It didn’t seem that unusual, since Rainbow Dash seemed to crash on a regular basis, but on a closer look… The wounds the pegasus was now housing were a lot worse than what she usually got. The expression on Twilight Sparkle was not a particularly worried one; she seemed rather neutral with the whole thing, which made the doctors sigh in relief that it probably wasn’t anything too bad.

Some of the doctors ran right for Twilight, immediately picking up Rainbow Dash from her back and getting her into a room, Twilight let out a slight mutter when all this happened. “She needs blood… But you probably already knew that.” She remembered that it would have been obvious if she told them the truth, but she couldn’t do that, it would mess things up. She was lucky that Rainbow had accidentally retracted her fangs before falling unconscious or else this visit would have been a lot more unpleasant than it needed to be.

Happy that Rainbow was now in the care of doctors, Twilight sat down in one of the nearby seats, waiting for responses from the doctors. She looked out a nearby window; it was nearly dusk, the day had gone surprisingly fast, even if she had done nearly nothing productive in the whole day, it was a weird feeling…

That made her decided to pick up a book from the library, but she was about to cast her spell, her body was filled with a feeling of worry making her unable to cast her spell for some inexplicably reason, so she simply decided to calm down and relax while waiting for a report from the doctors.

Stop being so grumpy, she’ll be fine, I can feel it. If she were to die, I would know, I have that kind of connection with her.

Well, that’s good; she did look pretty horrible though. Twilight replied in a melancholy voice, not exactly very enthusiastic about having a complicated discussion with Clover at the moment.

Awww, c’mon Sparkle, don’t be a downer, I’m just trying to be nice, I know she’ll be fine, so I think it’s useless for you to mop about it, and it annoys me… Oh right, there was that too, that made me laugh.

Huh, wha? What are you talking about now? What’s funny? Twilight asked in her mind, quite curious about what the spirit was going to answer.

I don’t know if I ever told you, but you probably know anyway, being a Sentinel and all… Anyways, there was this rouge vampony going around Equestria, being all mean and such, what’s funny is that I found that she’s trapped. Not like anypony cached her, it was more like she trapped herself. She somehow noticed the presence of Rainbow Dash in the world so she got mad that another vampony could exist, so she started thrashing her own cave, locking her and her servants inside their cave, unable to escape, that I find funny. Though, when she gets out, which in the rate she’s going, is probably going to be in two weeks or something like that. Isn’t that funny?

No, it’s not funny, we are just lucky she won’t get out earlier, since Rainbow Dash has apparently gone into a coma. Twilight replied harshly.

Well, how do you even know that, the doctor hasn’t been here, right?

He has, when you were doing your monologue, the doctor came and gave me the news, she’s stable, but in a coma, so she won’t be waking up for a while, so shut up, please? Twilight replied in as nice a way that she was able to manage, considering her slight anger at the spirit.

A sigh could be heard from Twilight’s mind, soon followed by a slight pop, signaling that Clover had left her mind. Twilight sighed to herself as she stood up from her seat and entered the room the doctors had told her Rainbow was now staying in.

Rainbow was lying there, completely bandaged, there were almost no spots on her body that didn’t have bandages, but those were only bandages, meaning they weren’t the most serious of wounds, so she wasn’t mortally damaged; this made Twilight make a slight smile.

Twilight dragged a chair close to the bed as she sat down on it, she looked at the bandaged pegasus and she sighed and put her head on the bed, looking up at the face of Rainbow Dash, giving of a final sigh, Twilight closed her eyes and fell into the world of dreams.

Day 1:

“Wha, huh?” Was all Twilight could do as somepony seemed to be shaking her harshly. She quickly looked up from her sleeping position and looked at the origin of her awakening. “Applejack?” She said with a dumbfounded expression.

“Eh, yeah… I heard Rainbow was put in the hospital and it made me feel horrible inside, I wasn’t being very nice to her. She revealed it to me… You probably already know what ah’m talking ‘bout, don’t you Twi’?” Twilight could only nod and sight slightly. “Thought so… Anyway, I shunned her for it, before she was able to explain things to me. Don’t get me wrong, It still feel weird knowing that she’s what she is, but ah’m trying to look past it, after all, what are friends for?” She managed a slight smile, Twilight got one of her own and gave Applejack a hug.

“You couldn’t do more if you tried, just wanting to apologize is proof enough that you regret it AJ. That means… Hmm… It does, doesn’t it?” Twilight pondered, releasing the hug she was giving Applejack.

Aj looked at her with confusion and tilted her head slightly to the side. “What are you talking about?” Applejack asked, quite curious about Twilight was going on about.

“Oh, it’s nothing really, I just realized that all of our friends now know, I actually didn’t expect it to go as good as it did, I actually though at least one of the girls would freak out more than they did… You did kind of freak out, you even admitted to it, but you quickly regretted it, so that leads me to the only logical conclusion…” She looked up at Applejack and smiled. “That friendship really is magic.” This made the two of them let out slight giggles at the silliness of Twilight.

“Ah suppose. Well, ah just came here to check up on you and RD… I just hope she’ll be fine… Anyway, ah need to get back to the farm, the apples won’t pick themselves.” She reminds Twilight with a smile and receives a nod from the unicorn, who continues to sit and watch the pegasus.

Rainbow hadn’t even moved a muscle since she came to the hospital, it’s only to be expected was Twilight reasoning.

Sighing, Twilight stood up from her chair and decided to get something to eat, if she was going to stay here and watch over Rainbow Dash, she still had to get nutrition from somewhere.

Twilight went to the cafeteria and asked if she would be able to get some food, they were more than willing to do so. But, she still had to pay, Twilight didn’t exactly expect anything less, she wasn’t a patient, so they didn’t really have any obligation not to ask for payment. Going along with it, twilight placed the bits on the counter and continued to chow down her food. It didn’t exactly taste great, but she didn’t care, it was something and Twilight wasn’t exactly a big gourmet. She liked food, yes, but who didn’t?

When Twilight finished, she returned to Rainbow’s room, not exactly keen on doing anything else, she just sat there, looking at the pegasus with a worried expression. A coma wasn’t exactly a good thing, but Rainbow’s chances were certainly in her favor, what with being a vampony and all, they could recover from almost anything, except death… It would take time though; the question was how long it would take before the pegasus woke up from her coma. As Twilight sighed, she could hear the door to the room being opened by somepony. It was… “Hi, Spike.” She muttered, not exactly enthusiastic about the visit, right now, she only wanted Rainbow to wake up, even though she knew that wouldn’t happen for a while.

“How’s she doing Twilight?” Spike asked as he walked up besides Twilight.

“She’s stable, in a coma though, nothing she can’t handle.” Twilight quickly remembered that Spike, did not in fact, know about Rainbow’s condition so she quickly tweaked what she was going to say next. “She’s Rainbow Dash, what do you expect? She’ll be up and walking in less than a week, I just know she will.”

“Then how about you Twilight? Are you ok?” Twilight nodded at his question and sighed. “Good… I just had to check up on you… I was getting worried when I heard what happened to Rainbow Dash and you hadn’t come how, so I just had to check up on you. Now that I know you’re ok, I will go back to the library to keep it going.” Spike said in a helpful voice, making Twilight smile.

“You will always be my number one assistant.” She said as she stood up from her chair and gave the baby dragon a big hug.

“Thanks Twi’. You’re the best.” He said as the hug was released and he went back outside the room.

Time ticked past and Twilight continued to watch over Rainbow Dash constantly as she slept on the bed. During the times she was sitting there, the doctor came in multiple times asking if Rainbow had moved, every time Twilight had to shake her head as she continued to look at the injured pegasus. This process repeated itself multiple times over the following hours.

The time was half past three in the afternoon and Twilight was still watching over her friend. Not expecting anything to happen. But then, a knock was heard from the door. In stepped her three remaining friends. Among them, Rarity looked the most calm; Pinkie’s mane was deflated, probably due to the sadness of Rainbow being in a coma. And somehow, Rarity or Pinkie, had been able to get Fluttershy out of her cottage, Twilight reasoned that she would probably still be freaking out about everything that had been happening, even if it was her own choice… “Hi.” Twilight said in a very monotone voice.

“Twilight, how’s she doing?” Rarity said with a worried expression. “You must be the most scared, considering your feelings…” She trailed off at the end.

“Yes, she’s going to be fine, it will take a while though. Her being in her condition, with her condition and such, she will get back to us, it’s just a matter of time. And yes, Rarity, I am scared, I should be, she’s one of my closest friends, of course I’m going to get worried, what you said is only partly the reason…” Twilight sighed as she finished. Twilight realized she had been doing a lot of sigh today, it was only natural, she guessed, was with her crush being, well, crushed… Not literally though, only in the sense of battle.

Pinkie’s mane poofed back to its normal poofiness with a gasp from the pony. “Dash is going to be fine! WOOHOO!” Pinkie exclaimed, jumping into the air, surprising the other three ponies in the room with her enthusiasm. But as she did, a doctor leaned into the room and hushed her. She stopped in mid air and floated back to the ground, excusing herself to the doctor for being too loud as she remembered that other patients might need sleep. She could be thoughtful if she wanted!

“Oh… I’m just happy she’ll be fine.” Was all Fluttershy muttered after Pinkie’s explosion. The other three didn’t really think it was anything special, she did act like that all the time…

“Yes. I did get Fluttershy out of her cottage after I told her the tips you had given me, they were all very helpful. Something funny though, when I came back to the boutique after you helped me yesterday, I noticed that in the mirror, my make-up could be seen floating. I found that a bit funny. Oh and I finally have proof that Fluttershy does in fact have mane-extensions… Wait a minute, why on Equestria does Rainbow Dash have a manepin in her mane?” Fluttershy shrunk as she heard Rarity talk about her secret. Nopony seemed to notice, Twilight looked up at Rarity and smiled slightly.

“That’s simple… I asked her to wear it, I said it was sentimental, and it is, but not as much as she thinks… I only gave it to her so that I could be notified, should she get into a fight. Seems like it worked… Had I arrived at a later time, she would have been ponynapped, so I can be happy for that.” Twilight explained with a neutral expression.

Rarity smiled at Twilight with happiness for the unicorn. She and everypony else knew that if Rainbow Dash was allowing herself to style her mane in any way, there has to be a reason for it and Rarity could only guess, but she was happy for Twilight, happy for what was to come, even if the situation at the moment was the most desirable.

Day 2:

Twilight slowly stirred from her sleep and found herself in the same hospital room as before… It would have been weird if she wasn’t, she concluded. The morning was slow and she got breakfast from the hospital café once more, not bothering to go home. This was important; she had to be there for her friend… And for another reason… Anyway, she quickly finished her food and went back to the room. But on her way back, she saw the cart with books that she had seemingly forgotten even existed in the first place. She stopped the nurse who was pulling the cart and started to look over it. Wanting slight entertainment, she picked the book called “What you didn’t know about vamponies” the name itself was silly. It was longer than it needed to be and it probably didn’t have any accurate information on the subject what so ever, but she still picked it, Interested in what it might say.

She sat down in the chair in the plain room once again and started to read the book. It was kind of silly how bad the book was, it was only fiction… Well, that’s what it seemed like, because none of these made any sense and were so untrue that you could feel a chill go down your spine, just simply by the idiocy shown in this book. Let’s take one of the least silliest ones, “Vamponies have a tendency to fly.” That line made no sense, what so ever, some vamponies can fly, BECAUSE THEY HAVE WINGS! Vamponies don’t just suddenly grow wings and start to fly…

Her reading stopped by a pony opening the door to the room. The was, “Princess Luna!?” Twilight almost shouted. “I must have forgotten you… What happened? Are you ok?” Twilight said hysterically, but as she tried to calm down, she looked over the Princess and she looked completely fine, no visible wounds and she was standing tall as the Princess always did, her royal stature certainly helped…

“Calm down, Twilight Sparkle, we are fine, we woke up almost directly after the battle had ended, we even felt your burst of magic as you teleported to this hospital. We are very happy that Rainbow Dash is doing fine, even if she’s in a coma, but we have a feeling it won’t last that long… We are sure she appreciates your friendly affection.” Luna explained as she overlooked the bandaged pegasus, in the corner of her eye, she could see Twilight blushing slightly, Luna smiled at this and nodded. “Very good, you seem to be taking good care of her Twilight Sparkle, we have to get back now, we have royal business to take care of.” Luna closed her eyes and teleported away.

Twilight smiled slightly as the Princess disappeared, she only ever had the best of intentions, but good intentions don’t always lead to good things, that’s something Twilight had learned a long time ago…

Sighing, Twilight went back to her book, laughing slightly at the silliness of the book. It wasn’t that it was badly written in anyway, it was just the lack of real information that made Twilight chuckle. She knew that she could write a more informative book than this, but she couldn’t do that, ponies might think she’s insane!

Enjoying your book?

Twilight was interrupted from her reading by a voice appearing in her head, she knew full well who it was at this point. Hello there Clover, come to be annoying once again? I don’t have time for that.

You, don’t have time? Now, that’s a laugh, you have nothing to do so you stoop as low as reading b-class reading material that doesn’t even give you any real information. This is Twilight Sparkle we are talking about! The day you read uninteresting books will be the day the world end, not as harshly as the day when ponies understand what Pinkie Pie is doing, but it would still be pretty bad.

Your point being? I chose this book only because I wanted to hear the stupidity some ponies can have when they try to write something that’s so completely off the rocker that it’s stupid. I like those kind of books, they give me a slight bit of entertainment, even if it’s small, it still provides me with entertainment on such a boring day. Twilight explained to the spirit, who huffed and shot back with another remark.

This continued for the whole day, letting Twilight actually have something to do, even if it was arguing, it was still enjoyable. This only stopped when Twilight fell asleep later in the evening.

Day 3:

As Twilight rose from bed on this day, nothing happened, not like something should happen. Twilight looked at the body of Rainbow Dash yet again, she couldn’t help but sigh, even if she had done that a lot the last few days, she still hadn’t sighed enough; at least, that’s what she felt. Rainbow still hadn’t moved a single inch since the day she came here. It was a saddening sight, to see a mare so strong just lose like that. It was incredible, Twilight knew that Rainbow Dash had enormous abilities that far outperformed a normal pony, but that Steadfast guy couldn’t be a normal pony, there had to something else about him, he was unnaturally strong. Twilight had felt it when she met him, as she stood before him, she could feel the power emanating from the stallion, Twilight had never felt such power in a regular pony, and it was uncanny. She had to investigate this further when Rainbow finally wakes up from her coma. The only living beings she had ever met that could match or out power him in raw power would have to be Princess Celestia, Discord, Luna/Nightmare Moon and probably the Changeling Queen when she was empowered by her brothers love… So where was this strength coming from? The Elements of Harmony. A voice echoed in her mind. She had forgotten those, they were more powerful than all the other things she had mentioned though, but at the same time, they required all six of them to actually activate them…

Twilight finally decided that it was best to get some food for herself, so that’s what she did, she went to the café and got the same old food. She ate it faster than the other days, but that’s only natural, she had already eaten it, so there was no need to really taste the food, all she wanted at this time was the nutrients of the food. As she finished she let out a large yawn and stretched her muscle a bit, not that she had a lot of them, but it still made her just a little bit more awake.

When she came back to Rainbow’s room, she saw something she hadn’t been expecting, well she had, but she didn’t think that it would happen right now, so that’s why she was surprised. What she saw, well, it was Scootaloo, who looked really melancholy as she looked at the comatose Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo was sitting on a chair on the opposite side of the bed that Twilight herself sat on most of the time. Scootaloo had noticed that she had come inside and looked up at the unicorn with a sad expression. “Is she going to be fine?” Was all the orange filly said before she looked back at her inspiration.

Twilight said nothing before she sat down on her own chair and looked over at the pegasus filly with a slight smile. “Yeah, she’s going to be fine, in time, I think you know why… Though, it could take time, and I have no idea how much time that is, it could be a week, it could be month. I have no idea; let’s just hope it’s not too long shall we?” She said with a very sincere smile which slowly spread to the filly’s face, making her smile, just a bit.

Scootaloo cocked her head to the side and laughed slightly, not a loud and happy laugh, more of a relief kind of laugh. “That makes me happy… She’s always been my inspiration, you know?” Twilight smiled and nodded. “Yeah, she has always been awesome, even if she’s always busy with other things… I guess she thinks I’m and annoying kid or something like that. One of the few times she actually comes a bit closer, I screw it up by asking her that stupid question about becoming a vampony, I regret that now. Even if she’s one, does not mean I should be, it doesn’t help me in any way, yeah I might become stronger and all that stuff, but really, that’s not what I want. What I want is to help, and get my cutie mark, that’s probably my top priority, but helping you guys seems like a good idea, who knows, it might give me my cutie mark for all I know, so, is there any way I could help you?” Scootaloo finished with a serious expression, clearly confusing Twilight, the filly had spoken in a fashion quite unlike her normal behavior, it was not the kind of thing Twilight had expected, but she was happy that it had actually happened so Twilight smiled.

“We can probably find something you can help us with, if that’s what you want, but right now, you should go about doing your regular activities like usual, I will inform you and the others when she finally wakes up and you can get happy and such then, does that sound like a good idea?” The filly nodded at the unicorn’s question. “Good. Oh and Scootaloo,” the filly looked at her. “I’m happy you changed your mind about becoming a vampony.” Twilight said with a smile.

Scootaloo looked right back at her and smiled, nodding as she went outside the room and walked away.

Twilight sighed in relief for once as she placed her head of the bed and looked at the pegasus with a smile. I hope you wake soon. Was all she could think as she sat there, looking at the pegasus, so peacefully asleep. It made Twilight happy to know that she wasn’t trouble in her sleep, now, THAT, would have been heartbreaking.

The day went on, doctors checked in, Twilight ate her food and more specifically, nothing happened.

Chapter 11

Day 4:

Birds were chirping, that was the first thing Twilight noticed as she woke from her sleep. She listened closely to the sound and found that it wasn’t actually birds chirping, and it wasn’t pleasant to listen to, at all. She looked up and out the window. Nothing there… She stood up and trotted over to the window to look outside, what she saw, well, it wasn’t pleasant for the pony in question, but it wasn’t unpleasant to look at, at least. The sound was coming from what seemed to be the ambulance cart, dragged by two of the hospital ponies. She thought she recognized the pony that was hurt and she did, it was the mare who had seen Twilight almost fighting with the Steadfast stallion. That put a spot of guilt in Twilight’s stomach as she decided to go and thank the mare for her very random and very helpful appearance just the other day. That’s when she noticed the stallion that had been accompanying the mare was now trotting up the hill towards the hospital, he didn’t look very happy. Well, that was to be expected when one’s marefriend had been hurt. Nodding to herself, Twilight decided to go and eat before visiting the two of them in their affirmed room at the hospital.

She chomped down on her food as usual, not really minding the taste. The door to the cafeteria opened, this wasn’t something that had happened while Twilight had been in the hospital, it was usually really quiet and not a lot of ponies in the main part of the hospital. The pony who stepped inside was the stallion she had just seen outside the hospital, Colt Train, she remembered his name being. She waved a hoof at the stallion, making him see her and bring forth a smile and walk towards Twilight. “Well, how odd to see you again.” He said with enjoyment in his voice, the fact was going right through Twilight as she didn’t notice his enthusiasm for this conversation.

“Yeah, I certainly didn’t expect to see you here of all places, considering how we first met. I can't stress this enough but thank you for saving us.” She said as she brought forth a hoof and shook the stallions hoof with her own in greeting.

He sat down at the opposite side of her table and started to talk. “You’re quite welcome, that was a really special sight to see, or rather, something you don’t see every day. I’m happy I could be of service. As for why I’m here, well, let’s just say that the house we moved into is living up to its price. It wasn’t exactly expensive. In these parts though, I wouldn't exactly expect houses to be overpriced. But this one was really cheap, and well, apparently, we now have a basement. Somepony had filled over the hole to the basement with planks, hiding it for some reason. Anyway, my marefriend fell down the hole and broke a couple of bones, but, she’ll be fine, at least, that’s what the doctors are telling me, and I can’t exactly complain.” He explained, tearing up slightly when he had mentioned the part where his marefriend had fallen down the hole. He sighed and looked at Twilight with a slight smile. “Well, that’s my story, care to explain why your pegasus friend is in the hospital. And one more thing, have you looked at the blood samples for her? I saw that the doctors took one when I was going in here, it had completely solidified almost exactly when they had taken it from her, don’t you find that odd?” As he mentioned this, Twilight started to sweat slightly, but she smiled sheepishly, hoping that he wouldn’t notice.

“Well, I don’t know about the blood part, that’s new to me, but the least I can do for your help is tell the story, so that’s what I’m going to do!” She said with a smile, but just as she was about to start, he stopped her.

“Wait, wait, wait. I want you to tell the whole story, including the bits of her condition, and no, I’m not talking about her being in the hospital, I’m talking about her fangs and her apparent vampirism.” Twilight’s face turned white as he talked. Her was expression completely blank. “Now, I know this because I saw her fangs when she got knocked out, when we were a bit farther away, just before you arrived in fact, but I thought I was seeing things, but as we came closer, I knew that she indeed had fangs. This troubled me, but I didn’t look it to it until yesterday. I went to the local library and asked about myths involving ponies with fangs and such. The librarian was a very nice dragon, I assume you are familiar with him, what with you living here and all... Anyway, I found that the only pony-like creature to have fangs are Changelings, but only in their original from, or vamponies, and that’s how I guessed it, and judging from your expression at the moment I’m going to assume that this is the case, so please, do tell me the entire story, from start to finish, if you please?” Twilight was shocked, this guy was amazing! He had researched this out of sheer curiosity and was now questioning her about it, it was brilliantly done of him!

Twilight looked down and sighed sadly, knowing that this guy wouldn’t accept anything but the truth, so that’s what she decided to do, tell him the entire truth, from start to finish, excluding what she had done to Rainbow’s ‘love’ as it were…

“I see… That’s a lot of things happening at once. Can’t say I blame her though. She doesn’t exactly seem like a bad pony, at least by your words. I can say though, you are blatantly in love with that mare, I recognize myself in you, you should know that. That feeling before I got the answer from my marefriend, it was horrible not to know, but when I finally asked and she said yes to being my marefriend. The pure bliss I felt at that exact moment is how I imagine every pony feels when somepony answers to their affections. So again, I don’t judge her for her condition, considering she’s not any danger, at least, not in the current state of affairs. I hope you fix this Twilight Sparkle, and may force of love be with you, always.” He finished, walking away dramatically from Twilight, leaving her completely exhausted and flabbergasted at the stallions understanding of the situation. She looked up at the clock, it was now 8 pm, this really surprised Twilight, she must have had quite the tale if that’s the time it had taken her to tell that story, it wasn’t even that long… Yet…

When she came back to Rainbow Dash’s room, the first thing she did was… Fall asleep.

Day 5:

Twilight awoke with a shock, something had shaken her. She quickly looked around the hospital room and found that nopony was in there, except for her and Rainbow Dash, of course. This, Twilight found odd, but she couldn’t quite figure out why, she looked up at the nearby clock on the wall, it was now 12 am. Well, not that late at least… She shook her head and looked outside the window to check if she could see the Running of the Leaves going on outside, since that was supposed to be today. She could indeed spot the finish line from her location, she sighed, remembering how her first Running of the Leaves had been. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were having their grudge match, which had followed from the Iron Pony competition, which incidentally, Twilight judged. She allowed herself to smile slightly as she could see ponies accumulating on the starting line of the race. She was barely able to point out Applejack in the crowd. Twilight knew she was going to run, Applejack wouldn’t go for anything less. Only thing being, today Rainbow wasn’t present, so Twilight doubted that Applejack would even have the drive to try for first place. Not that she had anything to prove to anypony.

Twilight retracted herself from the window and went out the door to get food once again. It was the normal thing, nothing special happened today. This made her think about yesterday. Colt Train had seemed rather forward with his behavior, but he seemed harmless at the core. He didn’t seem like the kind that would be mean; he actually seemed rather nice, at least from what she had experienced so far. She couldn’t even blame him for the research into vamponies, if Twilight had been in his situation, she would probably had done the same as he did, she couldn’t blame Colt Train for being curious, at least not when she was exactly the same. But she still couldn’t shake off the feeling that something about him seemed off, but it was probably nothing.

Twilight shook her head and left for Rainbow’s room once again. She was getting rather bored with this place, but that was only due to the extreme lack of books and things to learn, but she could manage, at least for Rainbow Dash. She almost felt obligated to do this… Twilight did feel kinda bad for manipulating Rainbow’s feelings the way she did, but she couldn’t change that now. All she could do was help her friend, in every way possible. Even so, if a friend did get hurt as much as Rainbow Dash had been, she probably wouldn’t sit at their bed as much as she was doing with Rainbow Dash, and she did feel kinda bad about that… But what can you do when you’re in love?

Her train of thought was interrupted by something shaking the bed, she looked up at Rainbow Dash, what she found, well, it was something. Rainbow’s body had just now twitched, this meant that she was close to waking up, even if it would still be a couple of days till that happened. Twilight smiled, this was probably the highlight of the day, finally an end to this incredible torture called a hospital would end.

And thus, she was interrupted by the door opening, in stepped Applejack, she didn’t have a medal, this, Twilight had been expecting, Applejack didn’t exactly have anypony to race against this year, so her motivation wouldn’t have been the greatest, but at least she still raced. “Good day Twilight,” Applejack said emotionless as she stared at the unconscious body of Rainbow Dash as she sighed. “Ah thought ah would come here and pay my respects and tell Rainbow that she missed the race. We need to do that another time.”

Twilight smiled as she looked up towards Applejack. “Aj, don’t worry, that will probably be soon, she just twitched, that means she’s only days from waking up, faster than anticipated, but it could still be a while.” Twilight noticed that there was a faint smile appearing on Applejack’s face as Twilight explained this, Twilight smiled back. She liked her friends happy, not nearly as much as Pinkie Pie, that pony thrived on it. “And yeah, I will tell her about you two having a private race when she wakes up, I promise you that.” Applejack nodded, Twilight smiled back.

Applejack tipped her hat to Rainbow Dash and Twilight and bid farewell, nothing more needed to be said that day, it was simply a conversation of few words; it didn’t need to be more. Twilight sighed as Applejack closed the door, it was a really boring day, Twilight concluded as she leaned back in her chair, trying to think of something she could use to drive her time away.

You could try talking to me, I see myself as quite the conversationalist actually, and the other day just proves that. No but actually, I just wanted to point something out before going away again, I have things to do, even if you think I don’t. You see, the guy from yesterday, and yes, I did see him, I just didn’t talk to you, that’s how it works. Anyway, he was weirdly perfect in every assumption he made, now, I’m not saying anything, but I think you two are the same, ready to do whatever it takes to get an answer, and I like that Twilight Sparkle, I like that a lot. Secondly, Rainbow Dash and you, that’s gonna happen, we both know it, it’s just a matter of time till Rainbow realizes it herself… That’s all I have to say… Tally-ho!

Twilight could hear a small ‘poof’ sound as the spirit disappeared from her head. Twilight sighed, if Clover could visit her mind without Twilight knowing, it could cause problems, especially if certain things were to happen… Not pointing any hoofs, Twilight shrugged, she trusted Clover not to be a complete idiot, she trusted her that much, and thus, Twilight fell asleep once again.

???:

“GENERAL!” A voice shouted, hurrying his followers to react, it soon followed by one of the bigger ponies in the crowd walking towards the voice.

“Marshall, sir, what seems to be the problem?”

“There is no problem, General, this is a good thing, look at this.” The Marshall removed his hoof from its position, revealing the sparkling light of the sun. The Marshall raised his voice, “COME NOW, MY BROTHERS, RAINBOW DASH AWAITS US!”

Screams could be heard as the Marshall hit the wall with all his power, completely shattering it and leaving a huge hole in the wall, allowing them all to be released into the world.

“I’m coming, fellow alpha, you better be prepared.” He laughed maniacally as she he took to the air, followed soon by his lower standing soldiers.

Day 6:

Twilight yawned, still lying down on the bed. She looked up at Rainbow Dash’s face, it twitched, making Twilight smile. The time was nearing, this was good.

Twilight stood up from her chair and stretched her back with a huge yawn. She walked out the room to get her breakfast once again. Nothing was happening as usual, but that was to expected, there weren’t exactly a lot of accidents going on in Ponyville since it wasn’t that big of a town. So, the only patients in the hospital at the moment was Rainbow Dash, and that Rose Lilly pony, the marefriend to Colt Train, the extremely smart private investigator, or whatever he’s supposed to be. There were also some random ponies Twilight had no idea who it was, but they were still here, so it would be good to note. Twilight sighed, she could already tell that today was going to be eventless; she could feel it in the air, it felt, well, boring. The door to the cafeteria opened, in stepped Colt Train and his marefriend, who was slightly leaning on the stallion, she didn’t look great, but at least she could stand, but from Twilight point of view, she could see that she was limping. That was to expected, Twilight rationalized. The condition the mare was in wasn’t the best, but you could see that it would take a day or two before they would let her get out of the hospital, just to be safe. Twilight smiled as she looked at the couple, she could almost see them radiating, it was something she desired now that she was seeing it.

The scene was interrupted by a huge slam from the door, Twilight looked at the source of the slam, it was a stallion, and he looked exactly as... Well, Colt Train, it was hard to really see the details of his person due to him wearing something over the entirety of his body, it was a huge cloak, hiding almost every detail of him, it seemed odd at first sight, but Twilight brushed it off as nothing.

“Colt Train, what happened? I tried to get here as fast as possible, but getting here from Stalliongrad is a trouble, especially if you have to take the train… I am so, so sorry bro… And you, Rose Lilly, are you feeling ok?” The stallion almost shouted as he ran over to the couple, Lilly only nodded to the question. That reminded Twilight, she had never heard Lilly speak even once, but that didn’t faze Twilight, she was probably just a mare of few words.

“Tic Tac, my brother, it’s fine, you don’t have to be so worried, she’s fine, I got her here almost immediately, so there’s no need to worry, ok? You didn’t even need to come, I have no idea how you even got the message, I don’t remember sending a letter.” Colt Train said sternly as he held his marefriend and looked at his brother with piercing eyes.

Twilight chuckled to herself, it was a pleasing sight, siblings caring for each other, that was the feeling she always had for her brother, and she would do anything for Shining Armor. Twilight smiled as she went back to Rainbow’s room. When she entered the room she noticed that Rainbow had turned herself to the side. Well, at least the time was growing closer, this made Twilight smiled even wider at the prospect of Rainbow finally waking up.

Dawn of Final Day:

Twilight woke from her sleep once more, in the same spot, she had almost gotten used to it by this point, which could never lead to anything good. She yawned and went for breakfast as usual and quickly came back.

She sat at the side of the bed, looking at her friend, and crush… She sighed, she knew it would be soon, but it was hard to wait, she knew she was being greedy, though, she did feel like she could be, the two days before Rainbow’s coma had been hard on the both of them, mostly Rainbow Dash, what with her life turning almost upside down in a matter of hours and days. Twilight had a hard time placing herself in a similar position, it was a hard thing to do, you never know how good you had it until something comes that turns your life upside down. This had certainly been one of those times. Twilight closed her eyes for a moment and tried to relax.

Her concentration was interrupted by the door opening, Twilight looked at the perpetrator. The pony standing in the door wasn’t who she had anticipated would stand there, so it was a bit of a surprise for her, it was Colt Train once again. He was sure showing up a lot these last days, it was inevitable, what with them being almost the only visitors in the hospital in the last few days.

“Hello there, Twilight Sparkle…” He sighed silently. “I just came to say goodbye, it was good talking to you the other day, though, and I must apologies for my forceful behavior. I am pretty sure I didn’t exactly come off as such a nice pony, but I came here to say sorry. I am a bit of a private investigator, or I’m just really curious about everything, it’s hard to specify.” He bowed slightly before walking into the room to the opposite side of Rainbow’s bed, he sat down in his own chair and looked over at Twilight. “I still can’t believe I saved your life, it’s an honor to save a pony, I didn’t even intend for it to happen, it just happen. I’m glad it did though, you two seem very special, I haven’t met Rainbow Dash in person just yet, but I can feel something in the air, in this very room, and it’s somehow oozing of the tow of you, it’s almost like magic… It probably is, but what do I know?” He then stopped, he didn’t want to impose on the Unicorn and her friend too much, so he just stood up from his chair and turned for the door when—

“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she flew into the ceiling with a shock as she awoke. “GET OFF ME!” She screamed, she seemed to be in a state of extreme confusing as she was flailing all around as she laid there on the bed, yelling her lungs of, trying to fight off whatever it was she was imagining.

Twilight quickly realized what was happening, she was hallucinating about the battle, she had fallen unconscious during the battle and her reflexes were suddenly flailing all around her, trying to fend off Steadfast, as the stallion had been called. “I-I-I Have no idea what to do...” Twilight looked at Colt Train, “help?” She asked with pleading eyes.

“I have just the thing!” He quickly exclaimed, jumping to the side of Rainbow Dash, poking five spots on her body with the tip of his hoof, and suddenly, Rainbow Dash stopped.

Twilight was staring at Rainbow, who was still visibly shaking, but she didn’t move, she was simply squirming in fear; it made Twilight’s stomach feel sour as she asked a question. “What did you do?” Was all she could mutter as she stared at her friend who was slowly but steadily calming down.

“Pressure points, my family forced it on me, sorry about that, but I had to paralyze her entire body, or else we would have been unable to reach her. But look on the bright side, the paralyzing effect only lasts for about one hour, so that could be counted as a plus, at least for me.” He explained with a smile.

Rainbow’s vision was slowly coming back to her as she stopped shaking, she could start to make out figures around her , which quickly turned into ponies, it was Twilight and… Some other pony… “Uhh… My head…” She said really silently, only stopping the two ponies, making them look at her. “Hi there Twilight, what happened?” Was all she could utter before losing almost all of her breath. She felt exhausted, this was rare…

“You fainted Rainbow, for a week… But I have to say this Rainbow, Welcome back.” Twilight said with the biggest smile Rainbow had ever seen on the mare.

“I… That was a long time to be out, and I missed the Running of the Leaves… At least I’m still alive, right Twi’?” She said with a small sense of victory as she smiled at the unicorn.

Twilight could only nod as she gave the pegasus the biggest and longest hug she had ever given to anypony in her entire life.

Chapter 12

”Ok, so who’s that guy?” Rainbow said as Twilight let go of her.

Twilight looked over at Colt Train and then back at Dash. “This is Colt Train; you could say he’s your savior.” Twilight explained as she looked at the unmoving but awake pegasus.

“Savior? How can he be my savior? I’ve never seen that guy before!” Rainbow exclaimed a bit louder than intended and blushed slightly at her silliness.

“No, you’ve never met me before, and I’ve never met you personally before either for that matter. What Twilight here means is, when you got knocked out by that giant stallion, Twilight was trying to fend him off. But she wasn’t exactly doing a spectacular job at that, luckily enough for her, my marefriend and I just happened to pass by at that exact moment. This forced the stallion to go away since he wasn’t supposed to involve civilians or something like that.” Colt Train explained, making Rainbow blink at him and nod very slowly as she tried to gather up what he had just said, and then, she gasped…

“Wait, so I got knocked out? I don’t remember that… I thought it was a tie… Oh well, guess not… Well, thanks for that then, I don’t really know how to say anything more than that, but thanks for saving me.” Rainbow said solemnly to the stallion that stood at the side of her bed.

Rainbow looked towards Twilight, who was smiling slightly. Rainbow understood this, but she didn’t really get it, how long had she been out for exactly? “Twilight, how long was I out?” She asked politely, which made Twilight frown a bit, Rainbow had clearly just asked this, had she just forgotten it or something? Twilight decided that it wasn’t something she would poke at.

“About a week, let me tell you, a week at a hospital is really boring when you haven’t got anything to do…” Twilight said with a sigh. Rainbow’s eyes got wide as she understood what the unicorn had just said.

Did she just say she stayed here for the entire week that I was out? That’s a freakishly long time, I don’t think I would ever be able to that, maybe with a Daring Do book, without it? I don’t think so… Rainbow’s mind was racing as she continued to process what was going on, she still couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but hearing that Twilight cared that much made her happy on the inside, Rainbow didn’t like this. C’mon brain, stop it! I’m not in love with Twilight! That’s stupid! I’m not a fillyfooler! She scolded herself harshly as her face crunched together in disapproval.

Rainbow Dash, stop denying the obvious, it’s actually really annoying to hear, I mean, I can feel your feelings and that’s very rare. It only happens when feelings are extremely strong and that means you are extremely in love with that mare, so if you don’t accept that soon, I will mentally kick your butt when you sleep.

Oh, right, you exist… And no, I’m not in love with another mare, that’s so not me, ok!? What she did for me was extremely kind and such, but don’t expect me to love another mare for that, OK!? Rainbow screamed at her mental companion, who was silently laughing at Rainbow.

Oh, wait, let me try something.

As Clover said that, Rainbow’s right forehoof moved up and over the bed cover. This made all three of the ponies eyes go wide as they stared at the moving hoof with fascination.

“Well, that’s fast.” Colt Train said with incredible disbelief and a sigh. “I think I will be going now, I don’t exactly belong in this room with you two. May we see each other again someday.” He said as he slowly walked out the door.

It… Worked? Good to know, could be useful in the future.

I do not like the sound of this. Rainbow mused with a cringe.

“Clover?” Twilight asked.

“Clover.” Rainbow confirmed.

“Right, understandable that… Anyway, how are you feeling?” Twilight asked with care in her voice.

“I’m fine, except for the not being able to move part, when the forehoof moved that was Clover, not me... So I guess you could say I’m just dandy, though, I do want to move around, but I can’t do that, now can I?” Rainbow said with melancholy as she sighed.

Twilight couldn’t say anything, she just sat there with a smile at the pegasus, who in turn smiled back at her. This quickly turned awkward, at least for Rainbow Dash, who decided it was a good idea to start talking about something. “Soo… Did I miss anything while I was out? Except for the Running of the Leaves…”

“No, not really, or rather, I don’t know, I have been staying here the whole week, so it isn’t exactly any way I can be updated on stuff that’s going on.”

The both of them stopped as they both heard a certain voice they knew all too well.

You two are so silly, you know that right? It’s hilarious to look at the awkwardness that seems to be around you two all the time! Anyway, that’s not what I’m here for this time, I need to say something to the both of you. I think you know how I talked about the rogue vampony, right? Yeah, I think you do, anyway, he escaped from his little cave thing… He should be here in a couple of days, which screws up a lot of things, like Rainbow’s training for one. But yeah, I wanted you two to know that since I need Rainbow to get something for me yet again, but I promise she will get back before our little rogue get’s here. Oh and Rainbow Dash? You can move now, just saying. When you are ready for the mission, just step out of the hospital and I will brief you, bye!

“OH COME ON! I don’t need another of those adventures any time soon, the last one nearly destroyed me! Ugh… Guess I will have to though, otherwise things will go south… Let’s test the other thing though.” Rainbow jumped up from the bed and seemed to hover perfectly in the air. “AWW YEAH!” She exclaimed with lots of enthusiasm. “Finally! I’m back in action!” She giggled, this was exciting, she could finally get back to the real world, dreaming might be fun, but the real world beats that any day! “HAHA! Take that weird paralyze thingy!”

“RAINBOW!” Twilight yelled loudly. “Calm down, ok!? No need to jump around like a manic just yet, even if you look healthy, how that is possible I have no idea. Probably has to do with the whole vampony thing, but still, calm down and get back on the ground!” Rainbow could be heard moaning loudly as she landed back on the ground and stared at Twilight. “Good, thank you. Now, I can’t let you go a mission like that again, you could get hurt, and besides, you just woke up from a coma! If you just have to go, you can’t keep me from going with you, don’t like it, too bad, you just have to deal with it!” Twilight scolded at Rainbow, who simply smiled at the unicorn.

“Sure, sure, you can come! It makes no difference to me, except that the company will be a lot more enjoyable, talking to Clover all day can get extremely boring. She just throws commands at me constantly, and I don’t like that, at all! So calm down and I will let you come with me, deal!?” Rainbow exclaimed back at the unicorn, who simply nodded sternly. “Good, now, help me get these bandages off me and we can get out of here, I never liked hospitals!”

And before she knew it, she was enveloped in purple magic and all her bandages were quickly removed from her body and revealed that her wounds had completely healed and she looked like she would on any other day. She stretched her entire body and let out a huge moan of satisfaction at the relief of tension she had been building up.

“Good, now let’s get out of here.” Rainbow commanded as she went for the door. As she reached for the door, she looked back at Twilight and spoke in a grateful and happy tone, “and Twilight? Thanks for looking over me the last week.” Rainbow said with a smile as she opened the door.

Twilight’s heart jumped as she heard what Rainbow had just said, she had a small smile as she walked with the pegasus out of the hospital.

When the two of them came out into the lobby, the doctors all just looked at Rainbow as she flew past them, they couldn’t believe what they were seeing, and that pony had been in a coma because of extreme damage for the last week, it was unbelievable that she was even awake at this time! What was even crazier was the fact that she had no visible wounds on her entire body, at all! And she was flying without a care in the world, what they were seeing was simply impossible! A pony could not heal and get back on their feet, or wings in this case, that fast, it was impossible! So they all just simply stared at the pegasus as she went out the front door, with a purple unicorn following soon after.

As they stepped outside, Rainbow landed on the ground and looked at Twilight with a very amused face. “Did you see them in there? They looked so funny! They couldn’t believe my recovery rate, yeah, I’m awesome, that probably has something to do with it, but still, it was really funny to look at those guys!” She giggled.

“Yeah, they did look kind of hilarious didn’t they? If I were them I would probably have done the same thing. You did recover unusually fast for a pony, but we both know the reason for that… Anyway, where is Clover and her instructions?” Twilight asked out into the blue, her question was answered by what she wanted to know.

Twilight Sparkle, my dear, I was here all along, I simply waited for your conversation to take a pause, which it just did, so I am jumping in right here. I am glad you decided to join Rainbow Dash on this escapade; it makes it a lot easier, just so you know. Anyway, when you find what I want, do not, I repeat, do not check what it is, if you do, you are in for a world of hurt, do we understand of each other? Good, now, what I need you to find is located in Canterlot, yes, Canterlot, you could visit somepony you know while you’re there I guess! That could be fun, could it not? Oh and Rainbow Dash, aren’t you having a terrible headache? You might want to show those fangs soon. Now, when you get to Canterlot I will continue on what you two are going to do, so just go there and I will wait over here in the corner…

“O-kay… Canterlot then, shall we go for the train station?” Rainbow asked as she slowly allowed herself the pleasure of showing her fangs to the open.

“Sure, we can do that and wait the whole day, or you could just lift me and fly there, which will go a lot faster and you will train yourself just getting there, that sounds like a better idea, does it not?” Twilight said with a rather serious tone.

Rainbow looked at her weirdly as she tried to understand what her friend had just said, did she want Rainbow to carry her all the way to Canterlot? She could do it, it was more a question if Twilight was up to the task of being in the air while she flew there. “Are you sure? Have you ever even been carried by a pegasus before? I mean, I know that non-pegasi hate being in the air, they don’t feel natural there, are you sure you can handle it?” Rainbow asked with lots of concern, Twilight just dismissed it with a hoof.

“Yes, I will be fine, the Princess took me flying on multiple occasions and she taught me not to be afraid of heights, so yes, I am pretty sure I can handle it. Now, can we please get this over with? I don’t want you getting hurt and I want this to be over as soon as possible if that’s possible.” Twilight said rather sternly, Rainbow just nodded at her and took the air and grabbed Twilight around the waist and started to fly off towards the royal city of Canterlot.

When Rainbow took to the air, she felt a tug from the pony she was carrying; she looked down at her friend and found that she was simply trying to make herself comfortable. Rainbow could only smile at this, her friend looked funny as she tried to make the flight all that more enjoyable. “Twilight, is it okay if I speed this up? It’s going to take a while if I fly at a normal speed, if I try to fly fast, we could get there a lot sooner. But, in that, there is a problem, I don’t know if you are okay with it…”

Twilight giggled as wind flew through her mane as they flew at a leisurely pace. “Yeah, I will be fine, and besides, as soon as we get this over with, the sooner we can get back, right?” Twilight said reassuringly with a tint of excitement.

“Have it your way!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she made one giant flap with her wings, immediately picking up a lot more speed than before. The speed they were traveling in increased by the second, it made Twilight’s face feel like it would blow off, but she couldn’t stop the feeling of awe at the incredible feeling of flying at an extreme speed. Twilight started giggling and wooing as they tore through the sky towards the capital. Rainbow looked down at her friend and saw her enthusiasm, this made Rainbow smile, big time. She could do That, that would certainly surprise her friend even more. Yeah, she was doing That, she was about to blow her friend away with pure awesomeness.

Her wings flapped harder and faster as she quickly sped up even more, the wind was tearing at them as the two of them soared through the sky. A border of the light spectrum could be seen slowly forming. Twilight face went wide as she realized what was happening, but Rainbow wouldn’t do that, right? She could pull it off, yes, but was it safe? Maybe… Twilight braced herself as a cone started to form around the two of them, Twilight could do nothing but stare, and this was getting intense. Twilight couldn’t stop feeling VERY exited but also very afraid, she had no idea what to feel at this point, too much was going on in her head to process the scene that was happening before her.

The cone got smaller, and smaller. Twilight could see that the burst point was getting increasingly closer, she braced herself for impact, and then…

KRA-KRABOOM!

Twilight couldn’t pick up what she was seeing, it was all just a huge blur of rainbows and lavender… wait, why was there lavender? Oh right, she was here and it was probably just her closed eyelids fooling her of the odd color… She opened her eyes and found that everything around her was rainbows; it was amazing to look at, almost impossible to describe. It filled her with such a huge feeling of joy as they traveled through the day sky in the most colorful of ways. Twilight couldn’t say anything, she was honored to be carried by Rainbow Dash, especially when she could do something like this, and it was intense. “How do ya like that, ya egghead?!” Rainbow shouted as they roared through the sky at extremely high speeds that were slowly going down again as Rainbow wanted to have a much more controlled fly capability. Twilight could only giggle in amusement, she couldn’t react in any other way, it was all just so perfect… Except for one thing, which made Twilight flinch quickly as she yelled back at the pegasus.

“WOOOHOOO!” Twilight shouted at the top of her lungs as they neared the city of Canterlot, well, that was fast. Twilight couldn’t utter words for the rest of their journey towards the city, her body was filled with the ecstasy of intense flying and it had taken a toll on her endurance, she was very tired, and she hadn’t even done anything!

Rainbow just laughed to herself as the purple unicorn giggled as they drew closer to the city. Rainbow had known that this would probably be Twilight’s reaction, that had pretty much been her own reaction when she did it as a filly, except, she didn’t freak out all that much, since she was too awesome for that. Because freaking out is so, not awesome. Rainbow decided to land a bit outside the city so that she could clear the head of her friend before they went into the city, it would also be a good spot to get all their supposed Intel from Clover.

Rainbow landed on the ground and released her friend from the grip she had on her. Twilight was still in a stupor of awe so Rainbow had to shake her. “TWILIGHT!?” She exclaimed loudly. This shook the unicorn and she looked at the pegasus with a blush that clearly said ‘sorry’ Rainbow only laughed at her friend’s silliness.

You’re there? You are? Good, then let’s get down to business, shall we? Now, I need you to get yet another package from me, you just have to misplace it somewhere close to the Everfree forest, or any forest for that matter, I can easily get it from there, that’s what happened to the last one, if you were wondering. Anyway, I need you to go to “Elusive’s magnificent clothier” I know what you’re probably thinking right now, a clothier? What could we possibly get from there? Let me tell you, there are a lot of things you don’t know about secret organizations, which is all I have to say about that topic. Anyway, when you get there, I need you to ask the shopkeeper about a ‘hemlig sten’ another swepony term, don’t mind that, it’s just a code in the underworld of Equestria, I have no idea why they use it, but they do. That’s all from me, so bye!

Twilight looked at Rainbow with a quizzical look, Rainbow shrugged. “I have no idea what she’s talking about most of the time; I just do what I’m told, easy as that.” This answer seemed to bug Twilight, but she didn’t push it.

They walked towards the gate and the guard greeted them welcome, he apparently knew Twilight, but who in Canterlot didn’t know Twilight at this point? Or at least knew who she was…

Rainbow had become familiar with this giant city, or at least in proportion to Ponyville, Manehattan was A LOT bigger than Canterlot, even so, Canterlot was still the capital, having a good tactical location certainly helped. As they walked through the city, Rainbow could really notice class differences as they went through the different layers of the city. It wasn’t the extreme differences you could find in a city like, say, Rio de Poneiro, that city had class differences so extreme, they had to shove ponies out of the city, and of course, those ponies were the lower standing ones. It was when Rainbow reminded herself of these things that she could really appreciate the usual boringness of a normal day in Ponyville.

When they arrived, the store seemed completely normal, but inside, oh the inside, it made Rainbow cringe it was so girly, so much pink. And to believe a stallion owned this place! He was probably the most flamboyant pony ever! And then, he appeared; he looked almost like that Hoiply Troitly pony, or whatever name he had. He spoke up in the voice Rainbow had predicted he would have, a very feminine but still masculine voice, it made Rainbow want to laugh, but she had basic manners so she held it in. “What may I help you with?” He asked the two of them, Twilight looked at Rainbow who nodded back at her.

Twilight uttered the line, ‘hemlig sten’ the stallion looked at the two of them with a questioning eye and then nodded. His motioned his hoof in such a way that made the two of them understand that he wanted them to follow him.

They walked into the back of the store, in through a door, it lead to a stair that went down. As they walked down the stairs, a very odd smell filled the air, but Rainbow tried to ignore it as they walked through a wooden corridor, until they finally came to a door.

The door was opened, so Rainbow and Twilight went inside. A voice started. “Hello you two, I hear you seek the ‘kalaspuff’, in that case, you have come to the right stallion!”

Twilight had a weird sense of familiarity to the voice, she couldn’t quite place the voice to a face, but there was something off about it.

The chair the stallion was sitting in turned around and when he stopped, he just stared at Twilight, who stared right back at him.

“Twilight!?”
“Dad!?”

Chapter 13

“What are you doing here?”
“Why are you the leader of an underground society!?”

Both of them stopped shouting at each other very quickly and just looked at each other, not saying a single word as they just stared. Rainbow looked at them, they didn’t move, they just looked. The air was incredibly tense, until something happened. “I am here because Rainbow Dash here asked me to get something that we need for a special thing I’m not going to talk about.” Twilight said as she crossed her forelegs in annoyance at her father.

“Good for you... Besides, I am not the leader of an underground society. I am the owner of the black market! Located in this very building!” Twilight’s father shouted with gusto, it hit Twilight in the face, so to speak. Rainbow continued to look at them. She didn’t get it, but it must be weird though, having your father lead the black market.

“And for what possible reason do you think that’s any better? It’s almost worse! It’ not illegal to have an unknown society, except if you do something incredibly stupid. And just like that, I lost the respect for my father.” Twilight said, stomping into the ground, emphasizing her point with the pound in the ground.

“You think? Well that’s too bad, is it not? Sadly, I cannot allow you two to leave, you know who I am and I don’t want to go to jail, you understand don’t you?” He said with a sinister smile. Rainbow could really feel that this was going to get bad, really, really fast. Rainbow quickly turned around to go out the door, but just as she did, it was completely blocked by some of the grunts. “Yeah, well no, you’re not living in this place. I am so sorry, Twilight, but I cannot allow it. And I know your weakness, daughter of mine.” He said with a sinister smirk.

“And what on the face on Equestria could that be?” Twilight shouted with an angry voice. “You have no chance against me and you know it! You shouldn’t underestimate my friend here either!” She exclaimed, her father simply smirked back.

“I know that, I have no physical or magical chance against the two of you, and I certainly haven’t underestimated you. There is one thing you never expect, and that’s the unexpected.” This greatly confused Twilight, but she didn’t have enough time to think through it before she was knocked out with a blunt hit to the back of the head, the same happened to Rainbow Dash. “Yes, daughter, you are so gullible aren’t you?” He said, looking at the two of them, unconscious on the floor. “Put them in a cell... For now. The rainbow one needs to die, but we need to find an easy way to do so, and whatever you do, do not, I REPEAT, do not hurt my daughter in any way, if you do, you’re life will be ruined. Got that!?” He shouted at the grunts, they all grunted in a way to say ‘yes’ and lifted Rainbow and Twilight and carried them out of the room. “Oh, Twilight, why did you have to see this? I don’t want to lock you in a cell, but I have to, and I am sorry for that, so, so sorry.” He mumbled to himself as he started on his continuous paperwork that just became bigger and bigger by the hour.

“...What!?” Twilight exclaimed very angrily as she awoke in a white room with nothing special to it, except for the incredibly large metal door that obviously was the way out. Twilight surveyed the room and found Rainbow, still unconscious on the floor, a bit away from her. Twilight trotted over to her and started to shake her body with an intensity that Rainbow woke up almost instantly. “Wake up! We need to find a way out of here!” Twilight shouted in Rainbow’s ear as she had just woken up.

Rainbow started to scream as she didn’t know what was going on as she awoke, and then she saw Twilight shaking her, “why are you shaking me?” She said with a very shaky voice, making it very hacky, so to speak.

Twilight stopped and blushed slightly, “ehe, sorry about that, I just wanted you to wake up. Because we need a way to get out of this cell. I really need to get my dad into prison, I can’t condone this.” Her eyes flared with determination, which really touched rainbow for some odd reason. It gave her a respect for Twilight that she already knew existed, but at the same time, it was wonderful to see in action.

Rainbow stood up from the ground and looked around the room and saw it as it was. She saw the big metal door and smirked. “Let’s try to smash this door away, shall we?” She laughed a bit as she poured energy into one of her legs, creating ice around it. Rainbow stood up on her back legs, carefully forming the ice into a very spiky form. She charged at the door and smashed the ice into the door. The ice shattered completely, and Rainbow’s face fell and she sighed in defeat. “Well, buck...” Rainbow commented as the ice slowly disappeared.

“I was about to tell you that it probably wouldn’t happen. That door is Maginium, a metal with incredibly strong resistance to anything. Magic can’t touch it. So, no, that isn’t going to happen.” Twilight commented with a matter-of-factly voice. Rainbow snorted and walked to wall furthest away from the door. “Now, what on Equestria are you doing now? That’s not going to work, just so you know.” She shook her head, knowing that what Rainbow was about to try wouldn’t work, ever.

Rainbow dashed towards the door at an incredible pace, Twilight almost didn’t notice her, she was that fast. She crashed into the door, pulling it from it’s hinges, dragging it to the far wall. There had been two guards outside the door, with half of their bodies blocking the door, so there was an incredible splash as the door slammed into the far wall. Twilight was baffled, that was impossible, and she puked, the sight wasn’t that nice, at all. “Well, that happened.” Rainbow commented as she tried to find the nearest showering room. Apparently, there was a convenient placed shower just next to the cell they had just been in. So Rainbow jumped right for the shower, trying to get all of the blood off of her. It went pretty quickly and she just randomly took one of the closest towels and quickly dried herself off. And just as she finished, Twilight walked into the shower, looking at her. “So, that was impossible, was it? It’s didn’t look like it. But really though, you didn’t account for the wall around the door, that wasn’t maginumum, or whatever you said. It’s good to be impulsive at times.” Rainbow commented with a smirk.

“That’s maginium, and no, I didn’t think about that. So yes, being impulsive can be good, at times.” Twilight said, disapproving of Rainbow’s nonchalant reaction. “And that thing that just happen was extremely gross, but you didn’t know that it would happen, so I can’t blame you.” Twilight said with a sigh, Rainbow could only smirk.

Rainbow laugh slightly and then commented, “thanks then. Anyway, let’s find your father and get the hay out of here, I don’t like what he does either, we should give him to the police or something.” Rainbow said as she tried to come up with a better way to take care of Twilight’s father in a way that wouldn’t kill him. “Oh, wait... Could I do that to him? Or is that a bad or good thing if I did that to him?” Rainbow said, and Twilight immediately got what Rainbow was hinting at, it was pretty obvious.

Twilight’s mouth opened, and she couldn’t utter a word, so she shut her mouth again. and then she had an answer, “well, I don’t know yet, okay? We will see, it all depends on his attitude when we get to him.” Rainbow nodded at this, she was okay with it, it would be good for her if he had the attitude that lead Twilight to say that she could do it. Hse wouldn’t do it otherwise, it wouldn’t be right to Twilight.

Rainbow then realised something. Wait, how does the conversion process really work? I mean, is there any specific kind of ponies I need to turn or can it be anypony?

I knew that someday you would get that, and it’s easy, my little Alpha. You are becoming stronger though and I approve of that fact. So, onto the point. You see, it has to be a pony that you already have some kind of relation to, it can’t just be a random pony. You already have a slight relation to Twilight’s father, but that’s mostly due to you being a friend of Twilight. So yes, you could turn him. But, in reality, you could turn anypony, but for it to count towards the five you need, it has to be somepony you know personally.

Yes, that’s all. Thanks for helping me with that. You are like the huge encyclopedia that nopony ever reads, but you are incredibly useful and I always have a hard time understand what you’re talking about. Rainbow thought in a tone that clearly stated her point about Clover clearly being boring in the way she explains things. Clover laughed before she replied the next time.

Yes, I get that a lot, but it’s good to know that you think I’m useful, most vamponies think I’m just their imagination and they’re always wrong. So, it’s good to know that you aren’t as stupid as the other ones. And that’s me going away again.

Right, good. Rainbow said as she came back to the world. She saw Twilight staring at her weirdly, so Rainbow simply said, “Clover.” Twilight then immediately ooh-ed, understanding what had just happened.

“Well that makes sense then. Right, let’s get going... Wait, what exactly did you just ask Clover?” Twilight asked with curiosity in her voice.

“I asked about the conditions of me being able to make ponies vamponies, apparently I need to turn five ponies that I know personally to complete the quota or whatever. Unless I want to become a mindless monster.” Rainbow said as they walked through the corridor.

Twilight could only nod in understanding. The only thing the two of them wanted at the moment was to get out of this place, it smelled weirdly. It was a very daft and old smell, almost as if the place hadn’t been cleaned in, like, forever... “Celestia, I really can’t believe what my father is going here, whatever it is, it’s incredibly stupid and we need to stop him.” Twilight said, as she shook her head.

Rainbow hummed slightly, she agreed with Twilight, but she didn’t need to comment on what her opinion was, because she totally agreed with Twilight, Sparkle understood this as she nodded. “Anyway, where to go from here?” Rainbow said as they reached a flight of stairs.

Twilight looked at the stairs, really thinking through the options. And then she remembered what happened when they came down to her father’s apparent office. “Let’s go up, ‘cause I think we’re on a lower floor than before, we have to be. This is definitely not a higher floor than before, so I think we should be going up.” Twilight finally decided, so that’s what they decided on.

As they walked up the stairs, Rainbow got a weird feeling in her gut. She didn’t like what was going to happen next, that was, if something were to happen. She had no proof that anything was about to happen, she just had a very bad feeling about the whole situation. The hideout had too little guards guarding them. It was incredibly suspicious, at least, that was what Rainbow felt.

When they came to the next floor, there was a door, Twilight opened it and immediately stopped in her tracks as she saw what was inside. Rainbow had no idea why she stopped, so he pushed Twilight aside and then she saw it. The floor wa a single big room. It was filled with ponies around one big wrestling circle in the middle, Twilight’s father could be seen sitting in a chair on the far side of the room. Rainbow then understood Twilight’s reaction, but instead of stopping, Rainbow decided to react.

She started to hover slightly, luckily for her, nopony had seen her yet, She charged right for Twilight’s father, who could see her coming from a mile away, and thus a bodyguard jumped into RD as she flew through the room, immediately knocking her into the wall. “I see, you two are a lot stronger than I though. No matter, I will just have to place you in a higher security cell next time.” He said as everypony in the room stopped completely and the wrestlers in the ring went out of it and dried their sweat. They did this because they knew that something was about to happen. Twilight’s father laughed in a menacing way as some of the grunts grabbed Twilight in her confusion and put a magic blocker on her horn, it was then that she finally reacted to something and she started to resist. “You two don’t know when to stop, do you?” He said with a laugh.

And then, something happened near Rainbow Dash. The stallion that had jumped at her flew away from her into the other wall and Rainbow stood up from the floor. Rainbow made a frust, making dust come out of her nostrils as she tried to look angry, but she couldn’t be angry, so she was actually just annoyed. Ponies started going for her, trying to get her to lose the fight. But Rainbow revealed her fangs and most of them quickly got scared at her enhanced appearance. She smirked and laughed to herself. ten different ponies jumped at her, she simply swatted them away from her with a single swipe of the hoof flinging them away from her. Twilight’s father’s mouth went agape for a second and he then regained his composure. “Well, well, well. You are rather well versed in the way of fighting, how about we make a deal?” Rainbow glanced at him, acknowledging that she was in fact listening to him. “Ok then, so, you see, I was thinking, you have quite the ability there, I don’t know what it does, but I don’t really care. But I thought that you probably don’t want to fight too much, so I had an idea. What if, you were to fight for your freedom against our strongest fighter? If you win, I will allow you to get out of here and I will also give you what you came here for in the beginning. If you lose, you have to stay, both of you. How does that sound? If you say yes, please fly into the wrestling circle.”

Rainbow looked towards the gagged Twilight as she tried to resist. Twilight saw Rainbow looking at her and she nodded towards Rainbow. Rainbow then flew up into the air and landed in the ring in the middle. Twilight’s father ringed a bell to his side and a door opened. RAinbow looked towards it. Out came a pegasus, he was huge, he was the size of Big Mac the muscles of Snowflake and his wings were almost the size of Celestia. This stallion didn’t look like he had taken any Ponybola Canteroids, it all looked natural and that made him all that more frightening. Rainbow gulped as the stallion landed on the ring with a huge thump. Then Twilight’s father talked up again, “Oh and the fight is to the death. Ready, set, fight!” He shouted.

Rainbow’s concentration completely stopped as she realised what he had said. So she missed to black the incoming attack from the stallion, she got knocked into the wall of the ring with an oof. Rainbow then quickly regained composure as she started to plot for what she was going to do with her opposition. He lunged at her with a grunt that almost shook the room due to the deepness of the grunt itself. Rainbow glided under him, due to her being so sleek and then bucked him in the gut. He didn’t even react, he just regained his composure and charged again. Everypony in the room, excepting Twilight, Rainbow and the stallion that Rainbow was fighting, all other ponies laughed and screamed in enthusiasm, they were enjoying the ‘show’. Rainbow dodged to the side, the jumped into his side, he didn’t even get rubbed by her touch, he simply continued to charge until he reached the end of the ring. Twilight’s father guffawed at the sight, he simply knew that the pegasus couldn’t possibly have any chance against the massive stallion. Rainbow kicked away from the stallion and quickly regained her footing. She quickly overlooked the situation and looked at the stallion, she already knew she had to beat him using her speed. She couldn’t match him in strength, she thought.

QUICK! Fly into the air and do the icicle thingy that you tried on Luna! It’s the only thing that can work against a pony like him!

Rainbow understood the message and tip Clover had just given her, so she flew into the air, leaving the massive stallion in the ring. She started to fly around in a large circle around him as he stood there in the circle, carefully studying her moves. As her speed got to and incredibly speed, she flew towards the furthest wall from the stallion and made a quick turn. She immediately charged energy into her hooves, quickly encasing her in a big icicle of ice that traveled towards the stallion so fast that he has no way to avoid it. It created a hole right in the middle of the stallion, killing him instantly, blood spurting everywhere and the room went silent. Twilight sighed at the sight, she knew that it would come to something like that, her father was a jerk.

Rainbow landed in the middle of the ring, looking at Twilight’s father who was simply staring, not believing his eyes. Rainbow’s eyes were emanating determination so Twilight’s father sighed. He motioned at some of the ponies at the corner of the room, they nodded and walked into another room and quickly came back out with buckets of water. They threw the water of Rainbow, cleaning her of all the blood. He motioned at the ponies holding twilight and they let her go and he sighed. “You win, fine. Here you go.” He said as he held up a very small package. Rainbow hovered over to him and grabbed it. She looked over at Twilight who had just been released from her locks. “The door our is simply up two floors and you’re on the ground floor, is that fine?” Rainbow nodded and then winked at Twilight, who immediately get what Rainbow was meaning. Twilight’s horn flared and a pulse filled the room.

When the big flash stopped, only Rainbow and Twilight were the ones not knocked out. “Not what I meant, not really, but it worked.” Rainbow said with a laugh as she grabbed Twilight’s father and carried him over to Twilight. “Now, are you going to teleport us to the police station or something?” Rainbow asked as she retracted her fangs.

Twilight smiled and flared her horn again.

When they appeared again, they were in Twilight’s library and Twilight’s father had disappeared from Rainbow’s grip. Rainbow looked at Twilight in confusion. “He’s in prison, or is going to be, soon. I sent him to the police station in Canterlot with a note telling them about who he was, so he’s probably not coming out of there any time soon.” Twilight said with a smirk, Rainbow replied with a similar smirk as she looked down at the little box, still lying in her grip. “Sure, go and do what you were supposed to do with that.” Twilight said with a smile.

Rainbow opened the door to the library and took flight.

Place it in a random glade of the Everfree forest, I will get it, so don’t worry about that.

Rainbow nodded to herself as she sped up towards the forest. She quickly decided for a glade a bit into the forest, she landed. It was a small glade and she looked for a good burrow or something similar. She found an outcropping in a tree so she place it there with a smile, because she was happy that it was over.

Rainbow jumped into the air yet again and looked over the horizon with a sigh and then she heard it.

MEAHAHAHAHA! Oh, you have no idea what will happen in two days! Watch out of me, Rainbow Dash. I am Marshall, your maker, so remember me!

Chapter 14

“Okay, that guy seems pretty creepy.” Rainbow said to herself as she turned towards Ponyville with a sigh, things were about to get rough. Rainbow hoped that nopony that wasn’t involved would get hurt. But, knowing the irony of the world, that was inevitable, even if Rainbow would try her hardest to protect all of them. She shook her head and turned towards the library. She had no idea what to do, the rest of the day would be incredibly boring since she had nothing to do. She landed in front of the library and opened the door and what she saw made her remember something that would make the day go by. In front of her stood all of her friends and the orange filly, it was strange to see her without her friends but it was weird to question. She then remembered the night in the clubhouse that happened which made her make a slight smile. “Oh, well, hi to all of you.” She said with a sly smile. She then realized that all of her friends now knew, even though Applejack was the last one to know, she was the most honest of the bunch. What with being the element of honesty and all.

“Well, I wasn’t exactly prepared for this either Rainbow, all five of them just rushed in almost as fast as you left. I heard they all wanted to welcome you back to sanity. So, now, all of you, say hi.” Twilight said with a sense of command in her voice. Rainbow was amazed at her attitude, she liked it, it was nice to see her that way, since she’s the leader and Rainbow liked that attitude. It was kind of cool.

“Dash?” Applejack said as she walked towards Rainbow, taking the word. “I am happy your back, we didn’t really talk on very good terms last time we talked. I wanted to say sorry for that, I realized that I was wrong. Just because you are like this, that includes Fluttershy and Rarity, does not make you any less you. Twilight explained something to me, that you were practically forced into this, it ain’t right. You are still you, I get that now. I really just wanted to say sorry for my horrible attitude when I saw you that week ago.” Applejack said as she hung her head. Rainbow was touched, even if she knew this was inevitable. It was touching to see. She had realized something in the last year, the elements are something special. They connect the six of them on a very deep level. When some of them had a large fight, sometimes even those sorts of fights that could break even the best of friends become mortal enemies, in a sense. They all came back out of it with a stronger friendship than before, that doesn’t happen with normal ponies, not if one really looked at it. It made Rainbow realize that she could trust her friends no matter what, they were unbreakable in a sense and that, was the best feeling to have. Rainbow smiled at Applejack and simply hugged her, Rainbow felt something wet fall down her back. She realized that AJ was crying very silently, Rainbow didn’t point it out, she didn’t want to, it wouldn’t be right.

The two of them released the hug and smiled at each other, Applejack wiped her face, quickly resetting it to her original and not tear filled face, Rainbow smiled and spoke up to all of them. “You all need to know that I’m fine, you don’t need to clarify anything or explain things, you don’t need to. I am fine, don’t worry, I don’t want you all to be sad. I survived that fight with my life. I have Twilight to thank for that, mostly. There’s also those random ponies that stopped the fight. But without Twilight, I would be dead by now, I am sure of this. I need to clarify something though, Twilight and I just came back from Canterlot, because we needed to get something, I’m leaving it at that. Anyway, I am sure of something here, I am stronger and more durable than before, I feel like I’m more than I was before. It’s really hard to explain, but you don’t need to worry, I’m better, I feel stronger and everything. So yeah, don’t, don’t just go to me and say you’re happy, Applejack is the only pony who has something to say sorry for. And do you know what? I forgave her almost exactly after it happened, why wouldn’t I? Her reaction was completely understandable, I would have done the same in her situation. So those who have nothing else the say than that, leave now, I need to rest. We all do, because in a couple of days, something bad is going to happen, Twilight know what I’m talking about.” Rainbow finished, very tired of her incredibly long speech. She took to the air and flew close of the roof. There was a small outcropping in the tree and she laid down on it, taking a nap, falling asleep almost instantly.

Twilight sighed loudly, which was soon followed by all the other ponies doing the same. Twilight looked at her friends, they all made slight smiles as they all walked for the door. As Twilight closed the door behind them, something troubled her, she needed to prepare. However many days were left to the arrival of that rogue vampony. They needed to prepare as much as possible before he arrived. Twilight turned around to see Scootaloo still standing inside her library. Twilight understood why she was here, she probably need to clarify things to Rainbow Dash, Twilight understood this. “You can wait here until she wakes up, I have nothing against it. Just remember, she has already forgiven you. Not that you did anything, but she’s going to be happy to know that you’ve changed your mind about things.” Twilight said with a slight smile. Scootaloo smiled back with vigor, Twilight was happy from that, it was adorable to see the little filly smile in that way. Scootaloo sat down on the couch and placed herself in a comfortable position. Twilight decided that she would get back onto her studying, she was a bit behind, but she knew that Celestia would understand, even if it made her stressed out. But she had at least learned a little bit of a lesson a while back. She knew that the Princess wouldn’t be bothered when there was a good reason.

Rainbow stretched her entire body as she let out a huge yawn. She opened her eyes slowly and found herself in the library. She then quickly remembered how she had come there, she smiled. Things were getting a little bit better. And then, she remembered the stupid condition that needed to be filled within three months, which meant that there only was two and a half months left, or whatever. Rainbow glanced towards a window to check the time. It was becoming dusk, which meant that she had been asleep for a couple of hours at the least. She flared her wings and jumped down from her porch, and then she saw the orange little filly in front of her. She shook her awake with her hoof. Scootaloo slowly awoke from her small slumber, she quickly apologized and Rainbow told her to stop. The little filly looked up at Rainbow with a tint of sadness in her eyes, so Rainbow asked what was going on. The filly started to explain how she didn’t want the transformation and such anymore, she had realised that it was stupid. Rainbow exclaimed her happiness at the filly’s decision and the two of them hugged and the filly started to beam and practically flew out the door. Rainbow made a warm smile to herself, she liked that little filly, she had spunk. She was happy that Scootaloo had changed her decision, it was a good thing. A filly shouldn’t go into these things, it was bad. Rainbow’s thought process was interrupted as Twilight entered the room, “oh, hi there Twilight. It’s good seeing her make a better decision you know? She’s a good filly, and I am happy that she made the right decision.” Rainbow said with a sigh.

Twilight came over to her friend and gave her a spontaneous hug. As they released the hug Twilight spoke, “yeah, she did chose the best answer for a filly... Although, I already knew she was going to say that to you, she told me when you still were in the hospital. Anyway, enough with that, we need to prepare for whenever that vampony comes, ok? Should we get to it?” Twilight asked with vigor, she was obviously really into protecting the town, a good cause. Rainbow nodded. “Right, ok, good. Now, what could we do to prepare for this?” Twilight started to ponder this as she slowly started to walk around the room. Rainbow sat down in the sofa and started to ponder as well. “Oh, right, we could do that.” Twilight exclaimed as she came up with an idea. “You see, we could try and collect all the pedestrians in a specific location and the ponies who can fight try and protect that position with all their might. This happens while the two of us try and take out the big boss guy, since we are probably the only ones who have a chance. Rarity and Fluttershy could give us support, but they aren’t exactly up to it. Does that sound like a good ground idea to you?” Rainbow nodded at the librarian, and Twilight hummed in gratification. “Right, good, thanks. Now we just need to convince the ponies of Ponyville that this will happen so that nopony gets hurt. Now, how does one go about that?” Twilight continued to ponder this as she walked around the room. And then, she walked into a wall, “well, ouch.” She said as she shrugged it off and started walking around again. Rainbow snickered at the sight, it did look rather funny. “Anyway, I need to go and talk to the mayor about this. I think you should go and check up on some of our friends, ost specifically Rarity and Fluttershy, what with them being vamponies as well. I need you to check on their situation, and hopefully, they’ve learned to deal with the situation and aren’t hyperventilating about how they can’t do anything... Could you do that? You seem to be rather bored.” Twilight was right on that statement, Rainbow was quite bored, and what she had just suggested seemed like a good idea.

Rainbow waved a hoof and nonchalantly said, “Yeah, sure I will do that, just get everything ready for when that guy gets here and I will fix the rest.” Rainbow found herself sounding a lot more nonchalant than she wanted to, but she couldn’t change that now, so she simply opened the library door and flew off towards Rarity’s boutique. Rainbow wasn’t really bothered by the situation, she was pretty confident in her abilities, she wanted to protect the town, it was important. Nopony should get hurt just because of some stupid thing like what was going to happen. Hey, Clover, if you’re there, I want you to check something. Could you maybe check the other guy and compare him to me? In raw power, I am curious if my confidence in this is justified.

Easy, sure, sure, I can do that. Not that I need to, I already know the comparison between the two of you. He’s a lot more hotheaded than you, and I do mean a lot. You are a hothead, that’s pretty much your character, he’s like you times twenty, it’s so stupid. He thinks he’s better than everypony, if he didn’t at least have the small sense of common sense that he seems to have, if he did not hold that, he would probably think he could take on Celestia, and that is stupid. Oh, right, comparison between the two of you, sorry. Let me just see here quickly, oh, there it is! Wait, really now? That much? Huh, that was fast... Okay, anyway, you two are pretty much on the same level, yeah, that’s the level, it sure is. Eh, ehe, heh, right, yeah, the two of you are pretty similar. You do have one thing he doesn’t, you have the ice hooves. Funny thing actually, have you noticed how that is always the way you finish off opponents? Ok, maybe not all of them, but it’s your finishing move of choice it seems. Be aware though, he has something as well, I can’t really tell what it is, he’s hiding it pretty well, there’s like this big shadow thing that blocks it, and it’s dangerous, be aware Rainbow Dash, be aware, this won’t be easy. Anyway, I have things to do, bye!

Right, right, thanks then, I guess. Rainbow shook her head in disappointment, Clover was odd, she knew this, even so, she was a good help. Even if she’ the reason for everything, though, the clouds were placed by Nightmare Moon, but she was influenced by Clover, so everything leads back to her. It always does.

Rainbow landed on the ground in front of the boutique and opened the door, it was a shop after all, you could just go in. The doorbell plunged as she entered the foyer and she was greeted by the sal filly called Sweetie Belle. “Oh, well hi, is Rarity in?” Rainbow asked with a bored tone.

Sweetie Belle looked up at her with her incredibly large eyes and made a small smile. “Yeah, she’s in, just walk through that door.” Rainbow nodded and walked towards the door the filly had motioned towards. “It was you though, wasn’t it? It was you who did that thing to her wasn’t it?” Rainbow stopped in her tracks and her heart fell as the filly’s voice squeaked. Rainbow couldn’t utter a single word, she simply nodded and a small whimper could be heard from Sweetie Belle.

Rainbow felt horrible, it wasn’t a very comfortable sound, it was pretty horrible. As Rainbow entered the next room, she saw Rarity casually swinging fabrics through the air, Rainbow didn’t really understand what was going on. There were so many different fabrics going through the air, it surprised Rainbow, she had never see Rarity manipulate this many things at the same time before, it was mind boggling. Rarity quickly to the new entity in the room and turned towards Rainbow Dash and uttered a squeal of some sort. “Rainbow Dash, how are you doing? Your speech at the library was special, we did worry a lot about you, but that was justified. We are all very happy that you’re fine.” Rarity said as all the fabrics laid themselves very organised back on individual shelves.

Rainbow blinked, it was weird seeing this, Rarity has fangs clearly sporting her face, she probably didn’t want the stupid headache, and when your alone, it didn’t really matter that much. “Yeah, I am fine, don’t you worry. I just came here to check on you, what with the vampony thing and other stuff. I notice that you are clearly not trying to hide your fangs, I guess that works when there’s no windows in this room for some inexplicable reason. But that’s not really what I first noticed when I entered the room, your magic seem to be a lot stronger than before, I don’t remember your magic being this strong. It’s a good sight.” Rainbow said with a slight smile. It was genuine, it was real. Rarity smiled back at her with a slight laugh. “And, Sweetie Belle seems to know, doesn’t she? I suppose that would happen.” Rarity stopped and looked at the ground.

“Yeah, right, that... She knows, yes, it wasn’t the most peaceful of sights, but she accepted it pretty easily. That was a good thing. As for me becoming used to this, well, I’m still not quite completely into it, it’s still a bit weird. But, yeah, my magic seems to be a lot stronger than before, it’s delightful really. That fact has made me ignore the no mirror thing a lot more easily. The comfort of stronger magic makes up for and actually makes it faster than having the mirror. So, yes, I am doing quite well. No need to worry about me, my productivity has increased by large amounts, and that’s a good thing.” Rarity finished with a smile. And seemingly out of nowhere a cup of tea appeared, or it was probably just Rainbow not paying much attention to the situation and she laughed to herself. “I think you should go and check up on Fluttershy, she has a much more interesting situation than me. It was an interesting sigh when I actually saw it. I’m not saying more than that, but I think you’re going to be relieved and a bit happy about it.” Rarity said as her magic enveloped Rainbow and pushed her out of the store. Rainbow didn’t mind, she was actually pretty happy that she was kicked out, because now, she didn’t have to leave on an awkward note.

Rainbow laughed to herself, it wasn’t that funny, she just found it a bit funny. She took to the air and started to fly off towards Fluttershy’s cottage. It went pretty quickly, it was to be expected really. Her body did make her faster, she wouldn’t get used to it though, it was odd, to say the least. A bear could be heard as she came closer, it didn’t bother her all that much, it wasn’t like Fluttershy couldn’t handle it. There had been multiple times where that had been proven. She landed in front of the cottage and knocked. There was a sound from inside the cottage and soon after the door was opened and Rainbow went inside. She saw Fluttershy standing in front of her with a natural expression, it was an unusual sight, you didn’t really expect it. She opened her mouth with a squeak and said, “oh, hi Rainbow, what brings you here? I don’t need your help or anything. So please, just go, I am fine, the vampony thing is going fine and I need you to go away, please? I am a better flyer and it’s weird, now please, just go, I am still trying to get over it. It’s going fine, so yeah, please go away.” She started getting louder at the end and she started pushing Rainbow out of the door.

Rainbow didn’t know how to react, this wasn’t what she had expected, Fluttershy was acting out of character, it didn’t seem natural. But the change of situation was enough to change any pony. But as fast as Rainbow had been pushed away from the door, Fluttershy flew inside and closed the door. “That, was odd... I think she’s going to be fine.” Rainbow said to herself as she took to the air. She couldn’t quite comprehend what had just happened. Fluttershy didn’t seem all that worse for wear, she seemed fine, in a way. She would probably go back to her normal personality in time. Rainbow started to fly towards her home, she was getting tired, it was time to go to bed. Even if she didn’t need it, it was a time synch, was it not? Rainbow landed on her porch and went inside. The house was starting to look a bit odd, it wasn’t that well cleaned, but Rainbow didn’t care, she simply forced herself to sleep, and oh did she sleep.

What she didn’t know though, was that her body was incredibly tired, so she was about to sleep for a lot longer than anticipated.

Chapter 15

A loud shout could be heard, “Rainbow Dash! Thou must wake!” The royal voice of Princess Luna sounded, which scared Rainbow Dash to such and extent that she fell out of her bed screaming. “Good, you are awake, you must come immediately, you have slept for far too long already!”

Rainbow Dash had no idea how to react at the moment, so she simply blinked before uttering something, “What are you talking about? I haven’t slept for that long, it’s only six am for Celestia’s sake.” Rainbow stated as she slowly arose from the floor, looking at the Princess.

Luna looked at her with a serious expression and calmly spoke again, “We know you didn’t intend to sleep for this long, and yes, while it may be six am, the day you woke up is too late. We are two days later from the moment you went to bed. You slept for a whole day and more. This was expected due to your body’s condition, you were not completely healed and the little adventure you had with Twilight Sparkle didn’t exactly help your cause.” The Princess explained, Rainbow blinked, she hadn’t expected to sleep for that long, but what the princess said did make sense. Her body was really out of energy at the time, but she felt a lot better after all that sleep it made her feel good.

And then a realization came to Rainbow, “wait... Does that mean that he’s almost here?” Rainbow had to ask this, even if she probably knew the answer. The Princess nodded and Rainbow’s face filled with fear, this wasn’t what was planned, she had to get to Twilight.

Rainbow rushed towards her door to fly away, but she was blocked by the magic of the Princess, “Rainbow Dash, before you go out there, know this, do not under any circumstances think you’re better than him. The chances of that are pretty small. The only things you have to your advantage are your speed and the ice. Use these abilities wisely and you might just come out victorious from this.” Rainbow could only nod, she knew that the Princess would say something like that, everypony always did. The Princess smiled and released her grip of the pegasus, who immediately flew off towards the library in the small town of Ponyville. “Good luck Rainbow Dash, and may the winds blow in your favor.” The Princess declared to herself as she became a cloud of black smoke and flew off.

Rainbow felt a feeling of distress as she flew towards the library, it wasn’t exactly a good thing that she had slept for as long as she had, but it wasn’t her choice. It annoyed her to no end as she landed on the ground. She could hear bickering from inside the tree as she knocked on the door, she was answered by a happy faced Twilight. “Right, I’m sorry for being late, it wasn’t my meaning, my body was supposedly very tired. So there you have it, anyway, what is going on and what have I missed?” Rainbow knew that she was about to hear something about Marshall, it was pretty obvious.

Rainbow then saw the ponies located in the library, it was a whole lot of ponies. She would have thought it would only be her friends, since he hadn’t come to the town just yet. Better be safe than sorry though. It was the Apple’s, as in Granny Smith, Apple Bloom and Big Mac. The mayor was also there, and of course, her friends. Sweetie Belle and her parents, a whole lot of ponies were there to take shelter she guessed. “Right, good, we are in need of your help. You see, I heard from Luna and Clover that he’s closing in on our location a lot faster than anticipated os we started to gather everypony as fast as possible. You see, we decided that my basement is probably one of the more safe locations, that is, when my machine’s aren’t present. Anyway, we have gathered a small force that can distract the main bulk of the force while the two of us deal with the big bad pony thing. We have the guys we just met, Colt Train, Caramel, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Noteworthy, Big Mac, Doctor Hooves, Derpy, Cloud Kicker, Cloudchaser, Flitter and last but not least, Princess Luna.” Twilight said as she motioned towards the Princess who just entered the library.

Everypony started to kneel, except for the bearers of Elements of Harmony. They all stopped pretty quickly though since the Princess said to then that they should stand. Twilight used her magic to open the basement door and the ponies who weren’t staying to help all went down and as the last one went through. Twilight closed the door and put a spell on it. Twilight cleared her throat as she spoke clearly, “right, you have all chosen this yourselves and I hope you’re ready, because this won’t be easy, the ponies who are about to invade are crazy, but you don’t need to damage them in any way, I would prefer it if you didn’t. You see, these ponies are brainwashed by the big bad, and Rainbow and I are going to deal with him. And do not under any circumstances engage in combat with these ponies, they are dangerous and will try to kill you. I repeat, do not engage in combat, distractions are your main goal. If you see anypony out there being pinned down by one of the attackers you must immediately intercept. We cannot allow any causalities in this situation, we need to do this flawlessly or something bad will happen. Did you all get that?” Twilight said in a stern tone, everypony present nodded their heads in way that made you understand that they said yes. “Good, now, find a good lookout spot and let us know when you see the first sign of him arriving, there’s not much time left. Rainbow Dash, Princess Luna, I need the two of you to stay, I have tactics to discuss.” All the ponies present nodded and all of them left except for Rainbow, Luna and Twilight.

Rainbow closed the door after they had all left, she knew that she would have to stay, it made sense, she and Twilight were the main force that were supposed to go after Marshall. Rainbow turned towards the other two ponies currently standing in the room and the discussions started.

“Now, Rainbow and I will take him on as soon as he gets here, that’s the main point. Princess, we need you to support the other ponies in their tasks if they manage to fail at them, we cannot let anypony fall today. This is a very dangerous day and lots of bad things will happen. It’s better that we get hurt than other ponies dying, we don’t want that. Princess, if you see the two of us having trouble, you should intercept, remember though, you must not interject if there is even a slight chance that we will win, you can only help when there is no possible way for us to win anymore. You are a triumph card, I don’t want to put you at the front with the big bad, you would certainly help, since your abilities are better than the both of us combined, but I think we must do this ourselves, I want you to protect the other ponies, they are more important than us.” Rainbow smiled and nodded along with the Princess. Rainbow loved Twilight’s speeches, they always seemed to inspire confidence, which is a rare ability when it comes to ponies. Not a lot of ponies could inspire a load of confidence at the normal everyday pony, but Twilight Sparkle could, she had the determination and skills to accomplish it. “Good, they both of you now know the basics, I now need to go through our battle plan Dash, Princess, you may leave us, we have plans to discuss.”

The Princess nodded and walked out the door, and then she felt it, there was less than an hour left till the storm. Marshall was coming and it wasn’t going to be pretty. The Princess decided that it would be a good idea to see if the ponies who had decided to help them with their tasks had found a good location to scout from.

Luna looked to the sky and flapped her wings to gain altitude, she overlooked the city as she hovered. She could see some of the ponies carefully placing themselves on roofs all around the city, how they got there, she had no idea, but she didn’t delve on the fact. She could see some of the ponies still unable to find a good spot to hide so she decided to help some of them out, it would be better that way.

She landed behind the pony in question and spoke, “are you having trouble finding a good lookout point?” She knew the answer, she still had to ask. You can’t expect somepony running around to have a perfect hiding spot, that was just silly.

The pony turned around and looked at her, it was the colt, Colt Train... Luna twitched as she got the pun, it was bad, so very bad. “Yes, your majesty?” He said with a courtly bow.

“Arise.” Luna said with a small snort. “We did not come here to get treated as a Princess, we just wanted to check if you had found a good lookout position.” Luna said with a small stare. She didn’t like this pony, he seemed off in a way. He was way too stereotypical and everyday to not be suspicious. At least in her eyes.

He arose from his kneeling position and smiled in an apologetic manner. “I’m sorry that I offended you then, it was not my purpose to do so and thus, I am sorry for my misbehaviour. But yes, I do have a problem finding a good location, you see, I’ve been trying to get onto this here house and I need your help to get up, could you do that for me?” He asked with a tint of embarrassment.

The Princess sighed to herself, of course, she would have to carry him, didn’t she? She nodded at the stallion and grabbed him and quickly flew him atop the nearby building. He thanked the Princess who simply nodded and flew off again. Luna hated to admit it, but that stallion did not bode good, or maybe, she just didn’t like him, that was also fully plausible. She shook her head in annoyance, she knew that it would be a bad idea to go the way she was. You should never distrust anypony unless they have proven themselves untrustable before. That is pretty much a fact of life. Even so, the Princess couldn’t help but feel off when she thought about that colt. It annoyed her to no end to distrust one of her little ponies, but what could she do? The guy seemed utterly untrustable in some odd way, but he had done nothing wrong. Maybe he had a bad past or something silly like that. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and looked for another pony in need, there was none. So she decide to place herself in a cloud overlooking the entire town to prepare for the assault that would soon come upon the town.

Twilight turned away from her little whiteboard and spoke in a clear tone towards Rainbow Dash, “did you get everything? If we do everything this exact manner there is no way we would lose. Unless there’s a weird factor that I know nothing about, let’s hope that’s not the case. It would be bad if it was.” Rainbow was utterly bored, Twilight had just lectured her in battle. It was complete and utter nonsense, she didn’t understand a single thing Twilight had just said, it sounded like gibberish to Rainbow Dash, but she nodded and said yes to the fact that she had been listening, even if she hadn’t. She didn’t want anymore lectures, considering she had already gotten three, and those only existed because she wanted to be honest, but she couldn’t bother anymore, it was so boring. “You finally got it? Well good, I hope you’re not lying, but why would you? you didn’t do it the other times and I trust you to not lie about this. So yeah, we need to place ourselves in a very tactical location to await the big bad. How about your home? That would be a useful location, I could simply cast the cloud walking spell on myself and we could do that. Is that okay with you?”

Rainbow could only nod, she felt obligated to, she had just broken her friend’s trust in a way, so she felt the need to comply with the rest of her friend’s requests. Twilight flared her horn with magic and there was a flash and the spell had been cast. The two of them walked out through the door and closed it behind them. Rainbow took to the air and grabbed her friend around the waist and started to fly off towards her home. It didn’t take all that far until they had arrived, so Rainbow simply let go of Twilight when she was standing on the porch of Rainbow’s house and the two of them stood there, outside the house and overlooked the city from their slightly elevated position. The calm wasn’t there for long, a loud horn could be heard, making a loud boom, signaling the attack. Rainbow looked at Twilight who nodded and the two took to the sky. Rainbow could see the forces advancing on the town, there were a lot of vamponies, at least in the fifties. The opposition in the town would have a problem, she just hoped they could take it. Vamponies are not something to take lightly. Rainbow then spotted him, the biggest one of them all, a stallion standing atop a hill overlooking the town, he was laughing. Rainbow sped up and charged towards him, she had no idea what would happen next, she just hoped she wouldn’t screw up. As they closed in on him, he saw them and smirked. Rainbow let go of Twilight who used her magic to teleport to the ground. Rainbow charged at him with all her might. She reached a high speed as she closed in on him, he saw this and jumped out of the way, making Rainbow crash straight into the ground. She had been prepared for this so she could jump out of her daze really quickly. The stallion laughed, “oh yes, I haven’t been in a fight for a long time, it’s nice to meet another Alpha for once, I never get to do that, there are few really vamponies alive at the moment. This is going to be a very fun afternoon, I get to fight two very powerful ponies, doesn’t that mean I’m at a disadvantage? No, it doesn’t. I am a lot more powerful than the two of you combined.” And then, he disappeared in a matter of seconds, he suddenly just vanished into thin air, his laugh could be heard as a creepy whisper could be heard. “Yeah, I am fast, don’t you think? Yo have no chance against me, hahahahaha!” He laughed maniacally.

Rainbow could feel vibrations coming from a nearby tree, she turned towards it and flew right for it, she was so fast that she crashed into whatever it was that made the vibrations. It was Marshall, he had been knocked from the tree and he screamed in frustration. Rainbow ducked away from his random swatting around as he rolled down the hill and hit multiple branches on his way down. Rainbow descended and landed besides Twilight who hadn’t done anything, she could keep up with the speed of the two ponies in front of her. They were incredibly fast, she hadn’t expected them to be THAT fast, but they were and that scared her. Laughter could be heard from the hill as the rolling sounds stopped, Marshall ascended into the air with a dangerous smirk. He continued to laugh even louder as he sped up towards Rainbow Dash, whom he had picked as the primary target.

He smashed right into her, knocking her into a tree as he continues to laugh. Twilight decided that it was time to act, he had his back turned towards her and he was standing still. She charged her horn with the most powerful anti-vampony spell Celestia had taught her. As she ran towards him, she was silent, and he continued to laugh at Rainbow Dash. Twilight’s horn collided with the backside of the stallion who didn’t move an inch, he slowly turned his head towards the unicorn, whose head was firmly placed inside his flank. “Did you really think I’m that clumsy? This is a projection, I learned it froma weird hermit guy, no... I didn't learn it from him, I stole it. Don’t you think it would be very stupid of me to leave my flank open to an attack? Yes, it would be rather dumb of me, but, you see, it’s only a projection.” He said as his body disappeared and a shadow appeared from a nearby tree that kicked Twilight into a nearby tree. “You two are a lot more gullible than you make yourselves out to be, you know that? You’d expect two of the most powerful ponies in the entire land to at least have some sort of skill, but no, that doesn’t seem to be the case, now does it? You two are a disgrace, I expected a lot more from the personal student of Celestia, but my expectations were apparently placed too high, that’s a shame, isn’t it? Well, it’s time to finish you off then.” He said with a firm laugh. It annoyed Rainbow as she stood up from her tree daze. She could see Twilight trying to stand in the corner of her vision, she saw Twilight wink in her direction, she had no idea what it meant but she decided to do something foolhardy that could work, in theory of course.

Rainbow swished up into the sky in such a way that it didn’t alert Marshall, at least, she hoped it didn’t. She flew even further into the sky and placed herself up there looking down at Marshall who was slowly walking towards the slowly standing Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow’s eye twitched and she started to fly straight down. She encased herself in ice but she could somehow still flap her wings, she did so and she quickly gained insane amounts of speed. A clear and loud boom could be heard as the sky was filled with a large and icy rainbow. This stopped Marshall in his tracks and he looked up. He didn’t have any time to react before darkness overtook him as Rainbow hit him, square in the back.

Twilight yelled in victory as she saw his body fly away. Rainbow was slowly standing from her impact, it had hurt her more than she had anticipated. Twilight rushed over and helped her stand up. “I think it’s over.” Twilight said as the two of them laughed in their victory. And then it came.

A loud explosion could be heard close to them as they saw a huge shadow that continued to grow as it came closer to them, a very angry bellow could be heard as they saw what it was. It was Marshall, eh had somehow grown into an oversized monster, the size of twenty ponies in one, he was huge. “Did you two really think I could be beaten that easily? I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve, and this isn’t even my final form, think about that for a moment.” The prospect of him getting even bigger scared the two ponies who were now standing next to each other, trying to stand. “And before the two of you decide to try and beat my, I must show you something that might just change your mind.” His hoof went towards his backside and he picked up something orange from one of his pockets. He brought it towards the two of them and they quickly saw what it was. “Yes, I have this, and if the two of you even move a muscle, she will die.”

Rainbow’s eyes filled with tears as she yelled, “Scootaloo! I will save you, mark my words, I will save you and kill this motherbucker in the process!”

Author's Note

Did I just do that? Yes, I did just do that, it was too perfect not to end, I want to hear you opinions as always, I am easger to hear what y'all think of this turn of events. :twilightsmile:

Chapter 16

Marshall started to laugh, “silly, silly little vampony. Do you really think that will help your cause? Yelling at me? Really now, since when has that ever worked for anypony? It’s a pretty stupid cliché that you shouldn’t do. Now, I want this to be a fair fight, therefore, I will place this little pony in a safe spot and only bring her forth if emergency calls for it. Now, are you ready to get a piece of this huge flank?” He mumbled in a deafening voice. Chills ran Rainbow’s back as he laughed. Determination placed itself upon Rainbow’s face as Marshall placed Scootaloo in a seemingly randomly appearing pocket on his flank. Rainbow stared up at the giant pony, it was crazy, he was twenty times her own length, but somehow, she knew that he had left himself vulnerable, she just didn’t know how and she had to find out. He readied himself by taking to the air, Rainbow Dash soon followed his massive self.

They hovered in the air for what seemed like minutes, or even hours, but was actually just a few seconds. Marshall charged towards Rainbow Dash, she tried to fly off towards the side to dodge, but Marshall being the massive shell that he now was, she didn’t get away fast enough to dodge his massive swing arm. She got lunged through the air, but she was able to stop herself from spinning out of control and crashing just in time for Marshall to charge another attack Rainbow quickly readied herself for the impact as she started to charge towards him as well. Their muzzles touched and time seemed to stop, she saw his eyes in front of her, they looked empty, they held some sort of secret inside them, and then the crash came.

They smashed into each other with incredibly force, the observers, namely Twilight Sparkle, couldn’t see what had happened since a huge flash had appeared at the time of impact. As soon as the flashes faded, Twilight could see a faint movement on the ground. They had crashed into the ground, Twilight hadn’t noticed since the flash had also come with an explosion that almost completely deafened her. Twilight blinked her eyes, trying to think through what she had just seen, and then it came to her. In front of her laid the two fighters, they were completely awake, but both of them seemed incredibly shocked about something, Twilight assumed that they were shocked about the flash itself. What baffled Twilight the most though, wasn’t the explosion, or the flash, no, it was that the two ponies in front of her seemed completely unharmed, they didn’t even have a single scratch on their entire bodies, it surprised Twilight to no extent. But somehow, it also made her smile.

Twilight’s thought stopped as Rainbow jumped out of the ground and ran over to Twilight at an incredible speed. Rainbow whispered something to Twilight, who quickly understood what the pegasus had said. Rainbow then charged right at the giant pony again. Twilight blinked once more, she tried to comprehend what Rainbow had just said, and then the words echoed in her mind.

Save Scootaloo, I will distract him for you.

Twilight’s demeanor quickly turned into something determined as she flared her horn with magic and teleported. She appeared on the giant pony’s backside, the whole pony had suddenly stood up. Twilight looked for the pocket she had seen Marshall put Scootaloo inside. She found it with almost no effort, but it scared her. It didn’t seem natural, not that anything with this pony seemed natural anyways. She jumped into the pocket, and what she saw, it really surprised her. She had expected it to be a weird pony hide pocket, or something similar. But it was more than that, it was like a cave. It looked like somepony had cast an extension spell on this pocket alone. As she looked around, she couldn’t find Scootaloo anywhere in her vicinity. Now she really started to get scared. This wasn’t any ordinary bag or pocket, not including the fact that it was huge. It looked like a cave with frostbite. It was grey, filled with stalagmites and stalactites, they almost filled the entire cave floor. It was weird, there seemed to be a predetermined way that she was supposed to take. The road in front of her seemed to lead further into the cave-like pocket. She gulped and nodded. Now fully determined to face whatever was in front of her, just to save the little orange filly from captivity.

At the time, Rainbow fought against the giant pony, they had almost made a silent agreement not to make a similar attack as before. It had destroyed the plans of both of them. Rainbow had just knocked him away from her as she charged again. She enveloped herself in ice as she charged towards his abdomen. Then she felt it, even though her entire body was encased in ice, including her wings and everything. She could still move, she didn’t know how to react, so she did the only thing she could think of as she steered towards Marshall’s stomach. She flapped her wings as they were still encased in ice, it was odd, it seemed tougher to flap them, but they seemed to carry a larger strength behind them, simply because they were enforced by ice. As she sped up, Marshall started to laugh, in the same evil way that he had done before. Rainbow obviously ignored this.

Rainbow made contact with Marshall’s chest using her ice spike, and then it happened, she was flung away. It was almost as if his entire chest was made out of rubber, and it startled Rainbow as she crashed into the ground. “Do you want to know? You do, don’t you? How did I become this big? That’s an easy question. You must have noticed my minions that I sent to town, yes? Good, so you did, anyway, those minions have other uses than cannon fodder, you see. I am able to absorb them from a distance, it’s something I learned a while back. I am not even using all my power in this form and you are barely keeping up with me, how does that feel? I imagine it can’t feel all that well. Imagine though, all that power in this huge body, remember though, I have more minions still inside the town, attacking your friends. I am not stupid, I don’t absorb all of them, that would be stupid. I can do even more than that though, just look at this.” He said as his entire body started to rumble. Rainbow could see as his body shrank down to his old side. But something was different, his veins were more visible than before, and then Rainbow’s eyes were filled with realization as she understood what had happened. “Ah, so you do understand what has happened, good for you. Yes, I just compacted my old strength into a smaller body. I am faster, stronger and a lot more agile than before, you have no chance anymore. Before you ask, don’t worry about your little friends, not even the purple unicorn. They may be inside the pocket, but don’t worry, they weren’t crushed. Lots of things aren’t what they seem, I can tell you that. Oh, so you didn’t realize that I knew? Of course I knew, felt her stand on me, I just don’t care. She won’t get out of there with her life intact, that much is certain, I have taken certain precautions to make sure that she can’t escape from there, unless certain requirements are met, so to speak. Now, let’s get back to our delightful little fight, shall we?” He said with a smirk. Rainbow didn’t like his attitude, but that could only be natural, he wasn’t the nicest of ponies, everypony could see that at a first glance.

Marshall looked shaky and on the brink of exploding as he stepped forward, it couldn’t be good to store too much power in a body that couldn’t handle it. He charged at Rainbow, but that was all she got to see before she was thrown through the woods. She crashed straight into a tree, but she soon got to her feet again. She couldn’t move, she was stunned, he was faster than her eyes could handle. He laughed like a maniac as he slowly and mockingly walked towards her. And then, he disappeared from Rainbow’s view, all she could see was a pink flash as Marshall disappeared. “You don’t touch our Dashie!” Rainbow immediately recognised the voice, it was Pinkie, what on Equestria was Pinkie doing here. Suddenly, Applejack appeared in front of Rainbow Dash and spoke,

“Rainbow? You okay?” Rainbow couldn’t say anything, she was still too surprised that they were here. Rainbow opened her mouth to speak, but Applejack broke her off, “don’t say anything, I know what you want to say. Half of them, alright, more than half of them just suddenly fell together and stopped moving making the other’s incredibly confused. That left them all in a very vulnerable spot, so almost all of us took the chance to knock them out, and surprisingly enough, it worked with a buck to the stomach. So no, we didn’t come here just to help you, we came here because we finished. Now, I need you to rest up, I know you are tired, I can see it on you. So stand here and rest till we can no longer stand, which probably won’t be long.” And then, Applejack ran off towards Pinkie. Rainbow didn’t quite understand what was going on, she simply stood there for a couple of seconds as she looked to the air, she saw Cloud Kicker and the others flying over the forest and it confirmed everything Applejack had just said.

All of the help squad, or whatever she was supposed to call them, had come to help her out. She didn’t want that, in that case, where was Luna? She was probably the only one who had got orders not to interject, and knowing her, Rainbow knew she wouldn’t unless everything went to Tartarus. The bushes next to ehr started to rustle as the colt she had seen over the last days just too many times appeared before her, Colt Train. “Rainbow Dash, you’re okay, good, I’m happy. I know you’re worried about your friends, that’s natural. I can’t really help when it comes to the fighting part, but know this, I will do all in my power to get the girls out of there as fast as possible if things go to Tartarus, trust me on that.” Rainbow nodded slowly and he was off.

Rainbow Dash blinked, what had just happened? Rainbow was still unable to comprehend what was going on as she stood there. She started to think over what had just happened in under almost just a minute and then she understood. They had asked her to stay out of it, how could she possibly do that? She walked towards the locations she had seen everypony walking towards and it opened up to a small grove. What she saw hurt her heart. All the ponies were running at Marshall, but without any resemblance of difficulty, he just knocked them away like flies every time they came close enough. Rainbow’s eye twitched as she looked at the scene. She didn’t know what she was feeling, it couldn’t be anger, it could never be, she was unable to feel anger, but what was that before then? When she yelled at Marshall about Scootaloo, what was that feeling, hate maybe? That could be possible, right? It made a lot more sense than anger, since she was unable to feel that anymore. Her thought process was interrupted as a huge red stallion was knocked into the tree right to her side. It was Big Mac, she could see massive scarrings appearing on his body as he rose again and charged. It really hurt her heart to see the scene in front of her.

She pumped energy throughout her body as she slowly felt ice enveloping her, she still hadn’t figured out why she could move with it on, but it didn’t bother her, she just wanted to be able to fight. With the ice around her, she felt a relief on her scars, she looked at them with a judging eye and then she saw it, somehow, the ice was healing her at an incredible rate. She laughed silently to herself as she waited for her wounds to quickly heal, and as soon as her wounds were healed, she felt a lot better.

She started to back off into the woods again to take speed. She jumped off the ground and flapped her wings. She soared through the twigs of the forest at immense speeds, she put all her might into it as she quickly felt a cone forming in front of her. It became bigger and bigger as she neared Marshall, he looked at her as she flew towards him, he gulped as she exploded just in front of him.

Twilight started to get annoyed, the cave seemed to go on forever, it never seemed to stop. Around every turn she made there seemed to be exactly the same room she had been in before and it was really starting to annoy her to no end. She stopped as she felt something. She then started the ground to shake uncontrollably as she was flung into a nearby wall completely unexpectedly. She had not been prepared for what seemed like an earthquake. She expected that it was Rainbow Dash and Marshall colliding with each other, but that made her think, why hasn't that happened earlier if that was the case? She expected to be completely knocked out when she crashed into the wall, but that didn’t happen, she opened her eyes and found herself in a dark corridor. It wasn’t dark as in no light, but in the way that it was painted black. There was plenty of light in the corridor, it just didn’t look that way, it looked dark, but it wasn’t. She could see her hooves in front of her as she slowly nodded to herself. She raised a hoof to go forward and it worked pretty easily. She started to trot in a casual pace. The dark corridor looked like it had an ending, but it still seemed far away, but it grew closer by the second, it made her feel enthusiastic about the trek finally ending. Twilight slowed down as she neared the end of the corridor as she saw what was placed in front of her, it was a completely black door. Twilight took a large breath and opened it with her magic. She was immediately overtaken by the insane amounts of light emanating from the room. She held a hoof in front of her eyes to get a look of the room, within a short amount of time, her eyes adapted themselves to the light and she could see the room in it’s entirety.

It was a pretty small room, which quite surprised Twilight, she had expected it to be huge to need the amount of light that was located in the room itself. The room itself was pretty uninteresting, as it was completely colored white, Twilight could make out the walls, but it was till creepy that almost everything was completely white. The only things in the room standing out was a wooden table standing in the middle with two chairs next to it. On one of them sat a mare, she had a slight yellow tint to her coat and a grassy green mane. She had a horn adoring her forehead, the mare sat there, with a cup of tea in her magical aura as she stared at Twilight with bored eyes. Twilight caught a glimpse of her eyes color, they were the same red color the sun had at sundown. Twilight thought they looked beautiful, but she shook her head in annoyance, she wouldn’t let herself get distracted. Twilight stepped towards the unicorn who made a gentle laugh as she stood up from her chair. “Welcome Twilight Sparkle, to my humble abode. I am here to stop you from reaching the orange little filly. And trust me, you have no chan—” She was interrupted as Twilight’s horn tore through her chest. The mare gasped as Twilight retracted her horn, her face was incredibly harsh as she looked down at the mare in front of her. “How...”

Twilight stepped towards the next door as she spoke. “When it comes to saving my friends, ponies like you should not stand in my way, especially not it you’re this weak. Now go, heal yourself, I didn’t kill you, I wouldn’t do that, you can still save yourself, you have about one hour, twenty three minutes and about forty seconds before you bleed out, I would recommend mending yourself. I bet you’re not an invalid so it should be pretty easy.” Twilight said with a huff as she went through the door.

The mare crawled up the table as she fell over the table and laughed to herself. “Oh Sparkle, if that’s all you can do, may Celestia save your poor little soul.” She said as her body started to flicker like a hologram disappearing. “She destroyed a basic and weak clone, I wonder how she will do against the real me.” She made the weirdest of laughs as her entire body became stardust and disappeared.

As Twilight closed the door behind her, she swore she could hear something from the other side, but she ignored it as she found herself in yet another corridor, this one was a lot smaller than the last one, shorter as well. She quickly arrived at the next door and opened it. In front of her was yet another white room with a table in the middle and the exact same unicorn sat there with a smug grin on her face. Twilight was too angry to care, she simply grabbed the mare with her magic, taking her with surprise, and flung her into the wall, she fell unconscious immediately. Twilight started to walk towards the next door yet again, it was already getting tiring to do that motion more than once. And then, she heard a sound from behind her, she immediately turned towards the source and found herself looking at the body of the unicorn as her body shimmered away.

At that moment, Twilight understood what was going on. The mare was only using mirrors of herself to see what Twilight was capable of, and it annoyed her to no end. Twilight started galloping towards the next door and shouted out as she entered. “Show yourself, you petty mare! Using cheap tricks like that! Face me like a mare and you will see for yourself just who you have to deal with!” Twilight then stared at what she knew was yet another mirror clone. It smiled as it started to shimmer and disappeared, only to be replaced by the same pony once more, but this one felt more real.

The mare laughed, “you think you have a chance? You really do, don’t you? Let me show you why you don’t!” The mare screeched as fangs appeared in her mouth. “Not too shabby if I do say so myself. I just made it so that this is the last room, not that it matters, you won’t get past me, I have more power than ten normal ponies have combined.” The motion of this was hilarious to Twilight as she started to laugh out loudly. “Stop it! I command you to stop! What is so funny about this!?” Twilight cleared her eyes with a hoof as she stood up, still snickering a bit to herself.

Twilight giggled as she spoke out, “I don’t have a chance? Trying turning that on you. You probably know who I am, from what I heard, you know my name, so that leads me to believe that you know I am Celestia’s personal student, am I right on this point?” The mare slowly nodded. “Ok, that’s pretty good for you, isn’t it? But what I bet you didn’t know, is that fact that I have anti-vampony magic. Oh, what’s with the scared face, you didn’t expect it? Well, too bad.” Twilight finished with another giggle as she flared her horn. The other mare seemed completely distraught as she was unable to move. Twilight’s horn started emanating clear yellow light, the other mare gulped, she knew what was coming for her. The magic gathered together in a ball that shot at the mare with incredible speed.

The mare felt something as the ball enveloped her, she felt relieved in some way, the next thing she knew, she laid splayed on the ground, unable to move. Twilight walked towards her with a happy smile adorning her face. “You know, it’s a good thing that you are a vampony, all I did was stun you and release you from your masters grip. So, I would advise you to do whatever you want as soon as the spell lifts. I’m a lot more merciful than you would ever be in your previous state. I can’t cure you of the vampirism, if I could, there would be no vamponies. You should feel lucky for surviving, I doubt your master will get the same treatment. He’s done everything by free will, the lot of you have been mind controlled by him, that’s why you are not to blame. Now, I have a filly to rescue.” Twilight finished as she left the mare there, lying on the ground. Twilight hadn't even bothered to learn her name, since it would have been completely useless information.

Twilight opened her eyes, she found herself in the forest she had been in before she went inside the weird pocket thing. She saw two ponies in front of her. It was Rainbow Dash, who was wearing a small smile as she looked at Twilight. The other was Marshall, who looked incredibly angry and confused at Twilight. “How!? How did you defeat my guard? What are you?” He shook his head and then he laughed. “Oh, but silly me, of course you would beat her, she wasn’t that strong to begin with, though, I did hope she could handle the likes of you! This just plays into my plan perfectly though. Do you have any idea what I plan to do? You don’t? How wonderful, just watch and learn.” He laughed like a maniac, confusing the two other ponies.

He showed his fangs, they were massive things. He quickly dragged a fang though one of his forehoof, making him bleed. he swatted his hoof in such a way that blood flew straight into the open mouth of Scootaloo, she almost choked on it. He laughed as he understood that she had succeeded. Rainbow and Twilight just looked at him with confusion. This surprised him to no extent. “Wait, you have no idea what I just did, do you? Of course you don’t. I just made Scootaloo swallow vampony blood. Do any of you know what that means?” The two of them shook their heads. “Oh, that is just priceless, isn’t it? She never told you, I find that incredibly stupid of her. Clover has never been the best mentor. Though, it is pretty hard to figure out. You may have noticed how vampony blood coagulates pretty quickly, am I right on this point?” Twilight nodded and Rainbow had no idea what he was talking about. “It means when blood becomes solid so to speak. Anyway, vampony coagulate so quickly is to protect the foundation of vampony-ism, in a way. You see, by the drinkage of uncoagulated vampony blood, your body transforms. You become a vampony of the same skill and rank as the vampony whose blood you just drank. What is even more funny is the link the two get. You see, if I were to become an Omega now, your little friend there would also be one. And yes, I am in fact, turning you little orange friend into a vampony. She won’t be under my control, but she will still be a vampony. It’s so sad when fillies have to grow up fast. Forced vampirism like this often lead to the drinker of the blood getting a massive growth spurt, and as such, she will grow at immense rates within the next, shall we say, hour or so?” He then laughed.

Rainbow and Twilight were completely mortified at the thought. Twilight didn’t know what to do, she just glanced at Rainbow. She could see Rainbow’s face malforming almost as her eyes almost started to glow darkness. Twilight then understood what was happening. Rainbow just realised that she really hates this guy and she’s gonna bring her hate all over him. What happened next surprised Twilight. Rainbow’s body started to glow in a red aura as Rainbow’s body grew to twice her normal size, it scared Twilight.

Rainbow stepped towards Marshall, who now understood his mistake. Rainbow’s eye twitched as she grabbed him around the waist in less than seconds.She took to the air and disappeared from Twilight’s view in such a short time that Twilight was barely even able to react. Twilight then saw something in the air. It was coming towards the ground. And then, there was an explosion.

Twilight flew into a tree. When she opened her eyes, she saw a huge crater in front of her. Her jaw fell, she didn’t understand, what was going on? She then saw Rainbow walking towards her slowly, the glow in her eyes gone, and her size had shrunk to it’s normal size. She walked up to Twilight and spoke in the most relieved voice Twilight had ever heard.

“It’s over.”

Author's Note

Little anecdote from me here:

Funny thing about this chapter, from the beginning, I foresaw this being around 3k as most of my stuff, but it got to this length, I think that's a pretty good thing, don't you all think so too?

I am happy I could get this out before Christmas eve, since that's when we get out present over here in Sweden, don't ask why we're different, honestly, I have no idea.

Hope you all enjoyed the Chapter though, I think I did good with this one. Next thing I'm working on is probably the start of the prequel thing, don't worry, it hopefully won't stop the production of this. I don't write most of the time, majority of the time, I lie there, planning for the future :twilightsmile:

Chapter 17

As the day slowly continued to blow by, the residents of Ponyville all stood silent. They didn’t want to talk anymore. The day had been incredibly scary for all of them. None more than Rainbow Dash. If an outsider would have stepped their hooves inside Ponyville on that day, they would think that it had been abandoned. The day would be remembered as an incident of large proportions. The town was lucky that nopony had been damaged in the accident. Of course, the general population had no idea of what had happened to the little orange filly named Scootaloo. The news about her condition was only allowed within a small circle. Not even her closest friends knew exactly what was happening, it was kept under the rug by a certain number of ponies. That brings us to the next occurrence in what would continue to be a journey that Rainbow Dash would never have expected. it all began in a library that we know all too well...

“How is she doing?” Twilight Sparkle asked as she closed a door behind her, quickly concealing it with her magic. She now found herself in a small room of the library, Twilight had forced herself to allow this specific room to be used. There was nothing special about it, it was just a room with a bed and several chairs. On the bed laid a orange filly, but she couldn’t quite be called a filly anymore, her body was skewed, it looked so odd. She was transforming, it was as if the blood she had digested had decided to change everything about her. One of her wings had grown to the size of a grown pegasus while the other stayed a small wing like the ones she used to have. Fangs had started growing out of her mouth, and two of her legs had grown to the size of a full grown pony as well. If you weren’t prepared for what you were seeing, the sight of the pegasus would make you throw up.

Rainbow Dash, who was sitting on a small chair to the side of the bed, slowly looked up at Twilight with sadness in her eyes. “Still not waking up. Can’t say I expect her to, not yet at least... Why did it have to be her? She didn’t do anything to deserve this. I wanted to protect her and instead I just turned her into this,” she said as she made a weak gesture towards Scootaloo.

Twilight knew that Rainbow was beating herself up for this, and Twilight didn’t like it. It wasn’t Rainbow’s fault, it was all Marshall’s fault, the one who actually did it. “It’s not your fault, it was his fault and you know it. Stop beating yourself up over it, it won’t help her. Calm down and if we’re lucky, we might just find something that can help her.” Twilight didn’t believe this, but she was just trying to comfort her friend, who smiled slightly as she gave Twilight a hug. Twilight knew that there would be no possible way to cure Scootaloo of her condition, the best thing they could possibly do to her, now that the virus, or whatever it was, ravaged through her body like wildfire, was to temporarily turn her back into a filly so that she could live life normally. As normal as a vampony could possibly live. Even so, she would still have to live with the implications that she would outlive her friends, her best friends. Of course, she would still have friends, Rainbow Dash would see to that, Twilight knew as much.

As Dash embraced her friend, she breathed out and spoke, “yeah, I know. I just wish I could do more. She had just accepted that she wasn’t going to become a vampony, and now, suddenly, she gets turned into one, in the worst possible way. I can’t help but feel bad about it!” She released from her hug and backed away. “Sorry, I got angry. I think I need a walk. I’ll be back later. Keep a good look on her, will you?” Twilight nodded at her friend. Rainbow knew she could trust Twilight, if there ever was a time where Rainbow knew she could trust one of her friends over the others, it was now. Twilight had been through a lot for her the last couple of days. She had even saved Rainbow on multiple occasions.

As Rainbow stepped outside of the room, Twilight, once more, concealed the door in magic. Rainbow started to trot towards the door as she was interrupted by the only other sentient being that inhabited the library except for Twilight, it was Spike. “How is she?” He asked. Twilight and Rainbow had been forced to tell him all that had happened during the last couple of days. First he thought that they were kidding with him, but when he realised that they weren’t he got confused. He didn’t get mad, even though they had expected him to be mad, but he didn’t want to be mad. They had kept it from him, for a good reason, and he could accept that. They didn’t expect such an easy reaction, but they were happy with it.

Rainbow stopped and looked up at the dragon. “The same.” She simply said. The dragon seemed fine with that answer, so he motioned for the pegasus to continue her trot out of the library. And she did. Rainbow didn’t feel the need to retract the fangs in her mouth any longer, the whole town already knew because of the incident. Rainbow was happy with that, it was a drastic situation and she helped had them with her odd powers. There couldn’t have been a better opportunity to unveil her secret. Of course, the whole town was practically scared to death of her, and she didn’t like it all that much. It annoyed her, but at the same time, she understood. The only ponies who were still able to look her in the eyes as a normal pony were the ones who had fought against Marshall. Her closest friends though, they were the ones who helped her the most. Applejack had become much more accepting of her after the incident, she could feel a stronger connection between the two of them. Applejack had seen the interaction between Rainbow and Scootaloo, so she had seen just how much Rainbow actually cared for the filly, even if she didn’t always seem like it. This reminded Applejack of her sister and herself. Of course, Apple Bloom and Applejack were real sisters, so it wasn’t completely the same, and yet it was. Applejack never bothered to talk about it with RD, she knew that the rainbow-maned pegasus would be bored, and she was fine with that.

Twilight was probably the one who had backed Rainbow the most. Everypony in their circle of friends knew why, except for Rainbow herself, since she was completely oblivious at the moment.

Surprise, the former part of Rainbow Dash, had integrated rather well into Ponyville at the time. She had come out of nowhere, just appeared and was now suddenly working in Sugarcube Corner, not without a lot of training. She was a part of Rainbow Dash after all, and Rainbow wasn’t exactly the best chef to walk the surface of Equestria. The ponies of Ponyville had seemed rather sceptical of the white pegasus, and they soon learned just how similar she was to Pinkie Pie. They all remembered her welcome party, that was something they would never forget. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle had no idea how lucky they were to have skipped it. It was an incident that would be dented into the minds of the ponies for years to come. An event like that, you never forget.

Rainbow dash had no idea where she was going, she was simply walking through the small town, looking around as ponies gave her looks of adoration coupled with fear. She ignored it, she wanted ponies to look at her glory and adore her as she went past them. Well, that wasn’t happening. As she walked through the town, she came upon the apple cart. As soon as she saw it, she presumed that she was going to meet Applejack, but apparently, that wasn’t going to happen. It was Big Mac who was handling the cart today. It disappointed Rainbow Dash slightly because she didn’t really know the stallion all that much, and he used to scare her. But she wasn’t anymore, she had seen something during the fight. He wasn’t as strong as ponies seem to think, of course, he was extremely strong and a normal pony should be very cautious to engage him. Rainbow walked up towards him, just to say hi, but as she came closer, she noticed that he was slowly starting to pack the cart together to walk home. Rainbow shrugged and spoke up. “You going home, Mac?” The stallion replied with his trademark ‘Eeyup’ making Rainbow nod in acknowledgement. “Is it okay if I follow you back to the farm? I feel like walking today.” The stallion replied with a silent nod.

When Mac finished packaging the cart together, he started to walk off towards the farm. As Rainbow walked next to him, she couldn’t help but wonder why the stallion looked so quizzically at her. It couldn’t been the fact that she was showing her fangs, he had clearly stated that it did not rub him the wrong way. So she wondered what it could be. Rainbow didn’t bother to push it though, there was no need to. It wasn’t exactly her thing to tell, if he had something to tell her, he should just say it, but she wouldn’t push him. It wouldn’t be the right thing to do. She could certainly relate.

The trek towards the farm was a slow one, nothing especially interesting happened, ponies just did their thing and looked at Rainbow with their weird looks as the two of them walked out of the town. The road to the farm was ten minute long walk. Not that long, but for Rainbow, it felt like forever, she could fly there in less than a minute, so walking there in ten was slow, oh so very slow. But at the same time, she had decided to walk, so it didn’t bother her too much.

And then, he stopped. Big Mac stopped walking and started to look at Rainbow, she looked back at him as she tilted her head to the side. “Mac? Is there something wrong?” He nodded. “Then tell me! I could probably help.” Rainbow, on the other hand, wasn’t prepared for what the stallion said next.

“I want you to make me a... Whatever it is you are.” This surprised Rainbow Dash, she hadn’t expected this, so this was what he had been hiding! He wanted Rainbow to make him a vampony! But why on Equestria would he want that? Did he even know the implications? Did he really understand how many things would change just because he became a vampony? “You’re probably wondering why I want that. Simple, I’m angry at myself for not being able to protect my family as much as I can. During the battle against Marshall, I was the first one to get knocked out, and I can’t forgive myself for that! I know Aj is a strong pony and can take care of herself, but I’ve always been the big and loyal protector. And I want you to do this because I know you can do it, and I know it would make me stronger. I don’t ask for myself, I don’t ask for you, I ask for my family, will you help me?” Rainbow had no idea what to say, her jaw simply fell open, this was the longest time she had ever heard the stallion speak in one session! He wanted to become a vampony to protect his family, it was a noble thing. He just wanted what was best for the ponies he cared about the most, Rainbow couldn’t say no to that! She knew the feeling of wanting to protect something and failing, and most importantly, she knew what it meant to be loyal.

Rainbow slowly nodded as she tried to regain her composure. “Okay, I’ll do it. When do you want me to do it, now?” The stallion nodded. Rainbow stepped towards him. “Ok then, here we go.”

Twilight sat on the chair in the hidden room reading a book. She was drinking tea as she slowly churned her way through Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone. She wanted to re-read them, she hadn’t done that in awhile and she felt that now could be the perfect time to do so; and besides, the classics never got old. She could hear something from Scootaloo, so she quickly put her bookmark in the book and checked what was happening. Then she saw that the body of Scootaloo was extending itself. The torso of the body started to grow until it suddenly stopped. The entire torso had now grown to become the size of a normal pony. Twilight sighed, seeing a sight like that was going to be hard to forget. It was a very disturbing sight, seeing a pony grow that fast. Even if she had seen it before, on the same pony, it would never be easy to handle. “Not too long to go now, I guess.” Twilight said to herself. The only parts of the body that hadn’t grown to the size of a normal pony yet was one of the wings and two of the legs, Twilight expected that they would soon follow the rest of her body and she would have a fully developed pony body.

Ouch, gotta hurt.

Twilight rolled her eyes, she had no tolerance for Clover’s silliness at the moment, she had just seen something incredibly weird, so she was grumpy and replied as such. What do you want? I just saw something pretty disgusting, so I don’t exactly feel all that well, so please, say what you’re gonna say and get out of here.

I’m not so sure you want me to leave when I actually tell you what I have to say, but okay then. I was observing Rainbow Dash without her knowing, I tend to do that when I’m bored. Anyway, When she left the library, she started walking around town. She met up with Big Mac and the two of them decided to walk to Sweet Apple Acres in each others’ company. Of course, they don’t talk with each other, that stallion never talks with anyone, but wow, he has a nice flank... Getting to the point. He suddenly stops and looks at Rainbow Dash, she obviously asks what’s wrong. And what happened next surprised her just as much as it surprised me. He wanted to become a vampony to protect his family, fancy that! Noble cause for a noble stallion I guess. He made a rather lengthy speech about how he felt that he was too weak to be the protector ofhis family and so forth. It was really touching and all that, and finally, Rainbow actually turned him, just because he had told such a story. Now, what do you think about that piece of news?

It sounds legitimate, and besides I don’t expect you to lie, why would you? There’s no need for you to lie to us, from what I know of course. But yeah, I am quite surprised that he felt the need to do such a drastic thing, but I guess I can’t blame him. I would do anything to protect Spike and my friends. I also understand why Rainbow did what she did, she has her own reason to practically jump at each opportunity she gets to turn a pony but she doesn't. She asks if they really want it, and she has standards. Any other pony and they would practically jump at every pony they could see, but Rainbow isn’t like that. She’s loyal, not only to her friends, but to all of Equestria, and that, is why I trust her judgement. Twilight answered as she took a sip from the cup of tea she held in her magic. From the outside, she would look like she was still reading a book, so her expression had stayed the same as she communicated with Clover.

I see, well, I understand your reaction. I had the same one, kind of. You are a smart pony, Twilight Sparkle, I wouldn’t doubt you, it would be a silly thing to do. There are very few ponies that I have real respect for, and you might just be one of them. Be proud of that, the only ponies that are still alive that I truly respect are Luna and Celestia, but I respect for a completely different reason than you. I know more about them than you could ever dream of. But that’s a story for another time. But know this, you have my respect, don’t misuse it. Plus, if you’re nice, I might just let you read the journal of my life sometime. No, not today, I will probably never give it to you, except under very specific circumstances, but know this: I am not exactly who you think I am. If you want to know more, why don’t you ask your precious mentor Celestia?

The magical poof sound could be heard once more as the spirit disappeared from Twilight’s mind. Twilight still didn’t move, she was trying to piece together what Clover had been talking about. Twilight had somehow gained the respect of Clover, Twilight had no idea why she had gotten it, but she had. What was even weirder was the fact that the only ponies who she respected as well as her was the Princesses. It made no sense to her, what had she done that could possibly make Clover respect her? She didn't delve on it as she continued on to the next thing she had heard. A journal of Clover’s life? What on Equestria could that book possibly contain? And most importantly, why did she say that Celestia would know about her? What past did the two of them share? Clover may be incredibly old, but how did she know Celestia?

Twilight ran out of the room and quickly threw together a letter to Celestia, asking for the Princess to come to Ponyville so that she could ask the princess a couple of questions about Clover.

Barely a minute after the letter had been sent, there was a reply from the Princess, it wasn’t a very long note, it simply said:

Dear Twilight

I will be there shortly, I just need to finish a couple of things. I can also quickly give you the answer to you biggest question about Clover. I know her, because she was the one who helped me and my sister defeat Discord.

Your Dearest Teacher,
Princess Celestia

P.S. Clover had a magnificent life, I hope you get to hear the complete story sometime. It’s quite the read.

Author's Note

TA DAH! It's back, and I'm hopefully back, we'll just have to see with the next chapter if I really am, etc.

Anyway, I'm sorry for my week hiatus-like thing. It wasn't my meaning to do so, there are a lot of reason why it happened, I'm not gonna bother telling.

I was thinking and thought something. I am really close to 200 faves, which is a pretty big number in my opinion, so I was wondering, do you guys want a Q&A like thing when we reach that? Or do you want something else? Let me know in the comments :twilightsmile:

Chapter 18

”So yeah, that’s that.” Said Rainbow as the process had been completed. “Don’t worry if you don’t remember it, it’s a side effect or something.” She mumbled as she started to walk towards Sweet Apple Acres once more. She looked back at Mac who hadn’t moved an inch, “are you coming or what?” This broke the trance the stallion had ended up in as he nodded towards her.

As they walked, nothing happened, they didn’t say anything, the wind blew and the trees were whistling. She never said it to her friends and she never could, because it would break her awesomeness level, but she really liked the whistling of the wind, it was calming in a way. Especially now, considering what had happened in the last group of days. She sighed, she was relived, nothing had happened since the whole Marshall incident and that was two days ago. She knew that was a weird statement to make, but it was true. Ever since she had become a vampony, things had kind of exploded, in a sense. The only calm time that had appeared during the last group of days had been when she was knocked out cold! But it was hard for her to measure those days, especially considering that she wasn’t awake.

Rainbow’s calm time stopped as they arrived at the farm. She smiled to herself, not that she really knew why, she just felt like smiling. She nodded at Big Mac, who nodded back and she flew the last short bit to the house. She knocked on the door and was met by Applejack. “Rainbow? What are you doing here?” She asked, not that she minded her friend being here, she was simply curious.

Rainbow made a small laugh and replied, “Nothing much, really. I was going around town and I met your brother.” She made a small gesture towards the stallion who walking down the road towards the farm. “And I decided to follow him here to visit you. You know, ‘cause I felt like it.” She said with a small shrug.

Applejack raised an eyebrow as waved to her brother, who waved back. “I see, good thing too, I wanted to propose something. Or rather, make a suggestion.” Rainbow tilted her head to the side in confusion and looked at Applejack. “Not now, I feel like doing something else first. How about another opportunity at beating me in The Running of the Leaves? Since you missed the real one.” She finished with a smirk.

Rainbow made a small laugh as she nodded in determination. At that moment they had almost made a silent agreement that Rainbow wouldn’t use her newly gained abilities, since it would be extreme cheating. And of course, there would be no foul play, since they were only doing this for fun.

A knock was heard on the library, this was immediately head by Twilight Sparkle who rushed to open it. In front of her stood the magnificent Princess Celestia. Twilight made a weak gesture for her to walk inside. The Princess made an order to her guards to simply guard the door; they would simply be an annoyance if they stayed on the inside. Celestia took a seat as she looked at Twilight, who still stood up and looked rather nervous. “Calm down my student, I am simply here to answer your questions. I don’t understand what you’re so nervous about.” Twilight quickly caught this and sat down in a chair and tried to make herself look just a little bit less nervous.

“I’m sorry; I’m just a little bit jumpy right now. When I sent the letter, I had just seen a very disturbing sight, don’t worry, I’m fine. There’s nothing to worry about.” She said as she took a large breath. “I wanted to talk to you about Clover. You apparently know her, how come I haven’t come to know this before now?” Twilight realized that that had sounded really harsh, without meaning to do so; she just hoped her teacher wouldn’t yell at her for it.

Celestia made a small smile as she spoke up, “Yes, I did know Clover; I thought she died a long time ago. But when Luna returned I learned that she was still around during Nightmare Moon. What surprised me the most was what she was doing. She was helping Nightmare Moon. I’ve never got to ask her why. She never seemed to be one who would go against Equestria, if anything; she’s the reason this country even still exists. For, as I said in my letter, she helped me and my sister defeat Discord all those years ago. She’s never mentioned in the stories people have about the event. Our telling simply tells us about how Luna and I came from nowhere and blasted him to stone. This isn’t true. My sister and I came from rather humble beginnings. We were like any other pony in our time. We didn’t even know who Discord was when we were born. Heh, which reminds me, Clover, if she was still alive, would be older than us.” Celestia decided to take a small break to allow Twilight some breathing space.

Twilight simply sat there, amazed at what her mentor was telling her. Clover was older than Celestia? How was that even possible? It seemed like the most absurd notion. Even if Clover was a ghost, it still seemed utterly ridiculous. Twilight blinked. “I have no reason to doubt you, at all, I would never doubt you. But these things are unbelievable, how come you’ve never told anyone about this before?”

Celestia smiled as she closed her eyes, which she quickly opened again. “My dear student, Twilight, I have told someone else about this, with that, I mean Cadence, she needed to know, for obvious reasons.” Twilight nodded as she motioned for the Princess to go on with her story. “Clover was born about eighteen years before us. She lived a peaceful life until a certain thing happened which made her flee from her home. I’m not going to tell you her story; you have to find that out yourself. The next time she came in contact with civilization was through a magic outburst from her horn. It killed her father. The one who found her after that was Star Swirl. Yes, I do mean Star Swirl the Bearded. He had noticed the whole event and decided to train the filly under him. She had showed amazing magic capabilities. Almost like you did before you became my student.

“As years went on, Clover had to find a job to help Star Swirl with keeping their house. They were sharing one. This lead to Clover becoming the personal servant of Princess Platinum. Which, in turn, lead to the six heroes of Hearth's Warming eve to discover the land we now live in. That’s where our story begins. You see, Luna and I never lived before the joining of the tribes. We were born almost exactly after Equestria was born. Our parents had moved to the new capital. They were a unicorn and a pegasus, so they hadn’t exactly been accepted in any other society before. It was a sin to marry somepony of another race. So they moved to Equestria because the race equality had just been established and all the races lived equally.

“I was born a year after that and Luna followed me a year after that. We were your normal everyday ponies. I was a unicorn and Luna was a pegasus, it never bothered us, we were siblings, why would it bother us? When my tenth birthday arrived, our parents took us out to the city to find me something for the day. That’s when I first met Clover. She, out of nowhere came up to me and asked a question. She simply asked for the name of my sister and I, and of course, I replied. She only smiled and then she walked away. When my twelfth birthday arrived, nothing had happened but just the day after, the first sighting of Discord had been made. The incident slowly increased, and soon they started to happen every day. That’s when he took over. Almost as soon as he declared dominance over all ponies, somepony knocked on our door, it was Clover. She said she had a way to save Equestria from Discord and she needed our help. I asked her why, and she simply said to follow her. Our parents apprehended us just before we ran off and asked why we should follow her. She told us her full name and asked for our help. Our parents let us go to follow Clover. That was the last time I ever saw them.”

Celestia took a pause, she was getting slightly teary eyed as she remembered her parents. Twilight didn’t know what to say, she simply sat there with a gaping mouth and looked at Celestia. Of course, she quickly closed her mouth, trying not to disrespect her teacher.

Celestia smiled again, with a small chuckle. “I did promise to tell you everything, so I shall. Clover lead us out of the city and away from Equestria, when we asked her where we were going, she simply said something about seven distinct locations. Six of those would be the Elements of Harmony. I never got to know what happened inside the seventh shrine. Clover simply came out of it and seemed a lot more confident in our abilities to defeat Discord. After we had gotten our hooves on the Elements, our real mother contacted us. And by that, I mean Faust herself. Yes, she’s our real mother. I can’t explain it now, it would take far too long, just know that after we met her, and we became what we are today, as most ponies call it, Alicorns.” As Celestia finished her story, Twilight was unable to say anything, the whole story had come as a shock, and she could only understand that what the Princess had just said would soon lead to the defeat of Discord. “After we defeated him, we were heroes, everypony that saw us, called us heroes. This soon led to all ponies voicing for us to take the reins of the country. Of course, we couldn’t say no, it would have been cruel. And that leads us to now.”

Twilight could only muster up exactly one sentence, “I don’t know what to say…” The Princess made a laugh at her student as Celestia rose from her spot. She walked towards the door and turned towards her student and said one last thing before walking out.

“Most ponies don’t.” And with that, she walked outside. Twilight sat there on the couch for what seemed like an eternity, but was actually only ten minutes. After the ten minutes had passed Twilight brought forth lots and lots of papers and started documenting everything she remembered of what the Princess had just said, this was vital information!

And then, there was another knock on the door. Twilight looked up and walked over to it, only to find… “Rainbow Dash?”

As Rainbow Dash and Applejack finished their race -it was a tie- they placed themselves beneath a tree and relaxed. “So what was it that you wanted to talk about?” Asked Rainbow with curiosity, she had been curious even since Applejack first had said something about it.

Applejack smile to herself as she let out a small sigh and spoke, “First, I need to know something, what are you feelings for Twilight?” Applejack could see what was happening between the two, at least around Twilight, it was incredibly hard around Rainbow, especially considering that she was as oblivious as she was.

Rainbow scrunched her face as she replied,”What do you mean, feelings for Twilight? She’s a very good friend that has saved my life many times already. What do you want me to say? I don’t understand.” Rainbow was annoyed, if this was what Applejack was going to talk about, she was soon leaving, and she didn’t want to talk about sappiness.

Applejack sighed to herself with a laugh. “Nah, I expected that to be your answer actually. NO, I simply thought that you should ask her out for dinner, to, you know, thank her for saving your life those times.” This was something Rainbow could! And it was true; she did want to say thanks to Twilight for being so nice to her and saving her life all those times. Twilight had even looked over her when she was in that coma, for the entire week. She practically had to thank her in some way for that help.

Rainbow thought for a second and then she replied, “How do you suppose I do that then? I don’t know how to make food, not good food at least. I’m also really bad at knowing what Twilight would like, I mean; we are not that much alike. The biggest thing between us has to be Daring Do, and there’s nothing I can do with that.” As Rainbow continued to mumble over what she could possible do for Twilight, Applejack made a chuckle.

Applejack shook her head as she spoke, “You don’t need to bring her any place fancy, bring her out here to the farm, I can fix the grub if that’s what’s worrying you, I can even get the two of you a separate table, if you want to, of course.” Applejack her Rainbow Dash moving as she leaned towards the tree.

Rainbow Dash smiled to herself as she looked at Applejack and spoke. “Yeah, I would like that, could you place the table on the hill? I like that spot.” Applejack could only nod with a smile as Rainbow made a smirk. “Well then, I’m going to ask her then, but first, I have to take a shower, I smell right now.” She said with a laugh that Applejack shared with her. And then, came something unexpected for Applejack, Rainbow hugged her, it was short, but it still happened. Rainbow turned away and took to the sky. Before zooming off, she turned to Applejack and said one thing. “Thanks Aj, I can always count on you, can’t I?” Applejack nodded as a smirk adorned her face, Rainbow also made a smirk as she zoomed off towards her house.

Oh, so you’re finally going to ask her out on a date? Isn’t that nice? I thought you would be too chicken to do something like that.

Oh please, not you again, I dislike talking to you, you should know that by now. Rainbow thought as she landed on the porch of her cloud house. She opened the door and quickly went for the shower.

I am being completely serious here, and yes, I know you dislike it, that’s why I’m doing it, wasn’t that obvious enough? I thought it was. Anyway, I just wanted to say congratulations for achieving some kind of normal social standing. What you had before could only be called boring and slow and maybe just a little bit egocentric.

And of course, you just had to use a word I have no idea what it means, thank you sooo much, you inconsiderate ghost. I don’t like you, please go. And no, this is not a date, it’s a cool meal between very good friends and one of them want to thank the other one for being there for her and saving her life at multiple occasions. Nothing more, nothing less, so please, shut up and go away. Rainbow thought aggressively as the hot water washed over her.

You know I can’t go away. Okay, I can, but I don’t want to, or rather, I have no good reason to go and do something else. It’s fun to sit here and annoy you to no end. I actually want to see this thing through. Even if I’m not going to talk when the whole thing plays out, I am still going to be here, watching, from both sides, so I will know what both of you are thinking, at the same time. How does that make you feel?

Rainbow put shampoo in mane as she replied. Bad, so very bad, I hate you, please go away… I know you won’t do that, but still. It makes me feel uncomfortable; of course, I have felt uncomfortable all the time since I first learned that you can practically walk through my mind without me being able to stop you, at all. So yeah, I hate you, that is my answer to that question. She thought as she grunted.

You are so colorful today with the insults aren’t you? I like that. Still though, I know you’re not angry at me, because you can’t be angry at me, I still find that funny. It’s like the annoyance part of you have completely taken over from where anger left. It’s fun to see you evolve, so to speak. But yeah, you are soon finished with your shower, therefore, I am going to shut up now and watch. Oh, and don’t forget, dangers are lurking behind every corner.

The water stopped and Rainbow cleaned herself with a towel as she started to yell into her mind. What are you talking about? What dangers? And why did you say it in such a weird way? Of course, there was no answer, which annoyed Rainbow to no end, Clover did say that she was going to leave, but it still angered her. Why was she even being so cryptic? What did she even mean by it? Or maybe, she was just trying to lure her to do something stupid? Yeah, that was probably what it was.

As Rainbow finished cleaning herself, she walked outside and took off towards the library. She let her mane blow in the air, it was this way that she usually styled her mane, it always made itself the same way that she wanted it to. Not that she really cared all that much about it; at least it looked better than what Rarity would have her have. She didn’t even want to think about the weird hair that pony could create. Especially not with Rainbow’s awesome rainbow mane and tail.

Rainbow landed in front of the library and took a large breath as she knocked on the door. It opened and Twilight looked at her and said, “Rainbow Dash? What are you doing here?”

Rainbow was surprised by the look of the unicorn, she looked incredibly stressed and Rainbow had no idea why, but she had to ignore it to ask the question. Rainbow glanced away as she started to talk. “I wanted to thank you for saving me all those times, so I wanted to ask if you wanted to have dinner with me.” Rainbow Dash didn’t get an oral reply, instead, Twilight just hugged her, for a really, really long time.

In a certain bakery, a certain white pegasus looked at a certain pink earth pony, who looked back. The two for them gasped as the pink one started to shout. “This is so exiting, my date senses are tingling, I wonder who it could be!” The pink one shouted with extreme enthusiasm.

The white one started yelling right after that. “I know! Mine is too!” And the two of them gasped even louder, and suddenly, without warning, the two of them were no longer in the same bakery.

Mr. Cake, who had overheard their little exchange of words, sighed to himself as he muttered, “I hope whoever’s going to that date is ready for what is about to happen.” He said as he walked up the stairs.

Chapter 19

Greasy wasn’t feeling well, he couldn’t quite put his hoof on it; there was just something that was really bothering him. He couldn’t for the life of him understand what it could be. Everything had been going perfectly and just the way he wanted it to, and yet, this feeling still remained. He was trying to get the feeling to disappear by showering himself in loads of paperwork that needed to be filled, but it just wasn’t cutting it for him. He had gotten a letter from Tic Tac about his infiltration mission, it had been going very well apparently, this was a good thing. He sighed in relief as he sank into his chair. He was starting to get tired, he had been doing all this paperwork for the last six hours and it wasn’t getting him anywhere since it wasn’t anything really important. If he had wanted to, he could have simply given it to his secretaries, but he needed something to stop worrying himself.

The door opened. Greasy looked up and smiled, he was going to enjoy this. “Nightlight! My good friend, what brings you here?” he said as he stood up from the chair. Nightlight himself seemed really nervous about being there as if he was scared of something. He didn’t even look Greasy in the eyes. “Now, now, no need to be nervous, cheer up! Steadfast! Go fetch us some wine!” he shouted at his loyal lackey who only grunted in affirmation to the request.

Nightlight started to look just a little bit better as he finally started to look Greasy in the eye. “I’m sorry Greasy, but... It’s just that something bad has happened.” Greasy lifted an eyebrow as he made a motion for him to continue. “Yeah, well my daughter and her friend Rainbow Dash stole the ‘hemlig sten’ from the Canterlot hideout. I am so, so sorry.” he said as he shied away from the eyes of Greasy.

Greasy just started to laugh. “Good, very good in fact! Everything is going according to plans. Sorry to have scared you my friend, but you weren’t supposed to be able to resist them. The guards you got were deliberately bad at their jobs, just because I wanted them to succeed. they might think they’re strong, and they are, don’t get me wrong. But, there’s just one thing they haven’t added into the equation just yet.” he said with a giant smirk.

Nightlight looked up with a curious look, “and what, pray tell, is that?” he asked with a rather sly expression.

Greasy just continued to smirk as he replied, “Me.”

As Twilight continued to hug Rainbow, she slowly started to think. This hug had been going on for quite a while and it was making Rainbow Dash terribly confused, so she had to find a way to make it stop without making it incredibly awkward, so that’s what she decided to do. “Twilight?” she said as she lightly poked the lavender unicorn. Twilight looked up at her with a smile. “Uhm, not that this hug isn’t nice but I think we should get going. Unless you want us to be late, and I know you despise being late.”

This created a reaction from Twilight who simply went out of the hug with a simple nod. “Yeah, you’re right, I wouldn’t want us to be late now that you’ve made appointments for us and such.”

Rainbow made a silent sigh of relief that she had been able to do that without it turning too awkward, if she was honest to herself, she didn’t think she would have been able to do that. But she did, and it was awesome. Rainbow wasn’t sure how to do this, this entire day was going to include a lot of improvisation from her side and it made her really nervous, not that she had anything to be nervous about... Right? She was the most awesomest pony of all, right? Yeah, that had to be it, she was simply nervous because what if she wasn’t able to live up to her name? No, wait, that wasn’t possible, failure wasn't in her blood and it would never be. She couldn’t allow herself to simply fail at something as easy as this, it was just a day with one of her favourite friends, right?

Ok, Twilight might have saved her life a couple of times, but did that really change anything in their relationship as friends? Rainbow didn’t think so. Or, at least she thought that she didn’t think so, she wasn’t exactly sure anymore because something was feeling off. There was simply something bothering Rainbow Dash, as if something was poking at her heart, what did that even mean? It was as if it wanted to tell her something, but a heart couldn’t talk. Now Rainbow was simply confusing her own thoughts so she decided to focus on the task ahead instead of worrying about failing.

“Brother!? Come over here and help me! We need to get everything in order before the two of them arrive!” Applejack shouted at her brother as she rushed through her house to get the table and chair ready under the designated tree. It was going to be hard to get everything exactly as she wanted it to be. As oblivious Rainbow Dash seemed to be, she was sure that Rainbow herself would think that the entire setting that Applejack would place them in to be incredibly weird, but Applejack tried to ignore it, since she knew it would help her friends in the end. She could almost see the love emanating from the two of them when they were close to each other and that Twilight had at least admitted it to herself, Rainbow just seemed to shove it away like a child. Or, maybe, she didn’t even know what the hay was going on, that was another possibility. Applejack smiled as she rushed into the kitchen to see if the food was cooking at the necessary rate. It seemed nearly perfect to where she wanted it to be. This was a good thing, a good thing indeed.

She heard her brother reply with a “Eeeyup!” as she ran into one of the side rooms to get another one of the chairs to the tree in time. There was little time to relax. Applejack just had one thing that she could possibly hope for and that was for the night to be as flawless as possible for her friends, she just hoped that she could manage such a feat.

Rainbow suddenly stopped at the order as they noticed something. It was a seemingly random house, but that wasn’t the weird thing about it, it was at the border of the town, but weirdest of all, it hadn’t been there yesterday. It was almost as if it had just been erected in a matter of minutes, but that wasn’t possible for ponies. To build a house would take at least three days to make it livable, yet that wasn’t the case for this house. It was there and it hadn’t been the day before.

Normally, they wouldn’t even have bothered looking at it, except for this time. There was something so incredibly weird about the house that stood out as a sore hoof, it was a sign. Not just any sign, mind you, it was a overly huge sign going up about ten feet into the air as if the creator really wanted somepony to see it. The sign was a big picture with a slogan, on the picture was a incredibly white stallion with quite the handlebar moustache holding his hoof towards the big speech bubble right next to him. The stallion had a very magnificent top hat adorning his head, almost hiding away his bubbly and yellow mane. He was also wearing a incredibly classy costume with a very fitting tie as he happily smiled at his speech bubble which said something among the lines of “Are you bored? Do you want something to do on this magnificent day? Are you a company of two? If you are, then come inside for the ultimate enjoyment for the two of you. Here at Pink Surprise we promise satisfaction to all our customers!”

Twilight tilted her head to the side as she stared at the sign for a moment. “This certainly seems interesting. I can’t quite put my hoof on it, but I recognise that stallion from somewhere. It’s almost as if he’s... No, that’s not possible.” she mused and waggled her legs slightly. “Well alright then! Let’s explore this house, nothing bad could possibly come from doing this.” she said as they shared a laugh.

Rainbow shrugged and walked forward, “Yeah, this couldn’t possibly be anything bad, c’mon, it’s called Pink Surprise, it’s not like it’s a house of horrors or something. Come on then, let’s go inside, my dear Twilight.” she said as she walked up the first step and extended a hoof for Twilight to grab. Twilight grabbed it almost instantaneously and they were on their way inside.

As soon as they entered the small house, there was something very off about it. Twilight couldn’t quite put her hoof on it so she decided to ignore it for the time being. The inside of the house wasn’t anything spectacular, at least, not the hallway they found themselves in. It was surprisingly long and didn’t look like it would fit into the small house that they had just entered. As soon as they took their first steps into the house, the door slammed shut right behind them.

This alerted the girls to an immense level and Rainbow practically charged into the door to get it to open up. It opened itself really easily. But what was behind it wasn’t what they had been expecting, it wasn’t the happy green yard from where they had entered, no, it was a room, like they had entered a completely random door in a randomly selected house. There wasn’t anything particularly odd about the room itself it was just a simple fireplace with a couch and a chair looking at it. Around the room there were some very simple decorations, but that was pretty much it.

Twilight was about to voice her concern about this house when the weirdest thing hit her. She was unable to form words. As she tried to speak, all that came out was air, no sound, no nothing. This was bad, very, very bad. She rushed forwards to Rainbow and poked her with a hoof so that Rainbow would look at her. She pointed with her hoof at her throat and then motioned it forward like she was asking Rainbow to say something.

Rainbow tried to say something, and failed. The same thing happened here, she only managed to push air out of her lungs, no words or anything. They looked each other in the eye and came to a silent agreement, they didn’t need to say anything to get out of here. There were one thing on their minds though, who did this to them and most importantly, why?

The two ponies had just searched the room and hadn’t found anything that could help them get out of this incredibly weird house when they closed the door to the room behind them. Twilight made an apologetic sigh and Rainbow simply replied with a smile and a pat on the back. Rainbow knew that her friend hadn’t meant for this to happen, so there was no need to be mad.

They slowly started to walk down the long corridor that, for some reason, had no doors in it. They reached the T-junction at the end of the corridor and looked down the two new paths. One of the ways lead towards a green corridor filled with lots and lots of doors. The other path lead towards a single door at the end of it.

BOOM BOOM!

Rainbow falls over forwards as she feels a humongous pain appearing in her chest. Her eyes started flashing red as she looked into the red floor of the corridor. Twilight quickly ran to her friends side as she helped Rainbow get to her feet. The unicorn looked into her friends eyes as she leaned on Twilight’s shoulder. Rainbow’s eyes were moving all around the place, looking at the walls, the ceiling and then the floor. They were almost moving too fast for Twilight to see it. Suddenly, Rainbow stopped looking all over the place as she just stared into Twilight’s eyes as she tilted her head slightly to the side. Twilight knew that look, she had seen it a couple of times during her training. It was a look that should never be underestimated in these circumstances. It was the very scary look that comes from… Hunger.

Rainbows mind was a complete cloud of dizziness, she couldn’t think straight. She had no idea what was happening, she didn’t remember anything. She just felt dizzy. She had no idea where she was. But one thing she knew for certain. She was very, very hungry. Lucky for her, there seemed to be a very delicious red apple in front of her. She smiled wickedly as she rose from the ground with a menacing smile. The apple seemed scared of her as it waggled backwards. For some reason unknown to Rainbow, the apple seemed to have legs and could move. This wasn’t something Rainbow could be bothered to think about right now. Right now, she was simply hungry for an hopefully incredibly tasty and juicy apple. In Rainbow’s eyes, she had never seen a more delicious apple in her entire existence. Even if it could move, she wasn’t going to let it slip away from her this easily.

Something purple appeared from the front of the apple, it seemed to shoot towards Rainbow. She simply swatted away the weird beam-like thing as if it was a fly. This made the apple turn as fast as it could towards a red door and ran for it. Rainbow wasn’t going to let this incredibly delicious apple run away from her, not this easily. She jumped into the air as she flew towards the apple as fast as she possibly could. As she neared the delicious little red apple, she heard something in the back of her mind. It sounded vaguely familiar. She had no idea what it was, it did sound like a voice. It almost sounded as if tried to tell Rainbow not to eat this apple. This, of course, was an absurd notion to Rainbow. Why shouldn’t you eat an apple that looked so… Delicious.

Soon enough, the pegasus crashed right into the apple. Somehow, the apple’s form seemed to have changed. Now, it almost looked like… A pony. Rainbow was far too hungry to think about that though. As Rainbow raised her head and opened her mouth so wide that she could get a very good taste of this delicious looking apple, using her now incredibly useful fangs. She quickly lowered her head and pierced the apples outside layer and started to suck out the juices that were contained inside. Rainbow closed her eyes as she continued sucking the liquid out of this incredibly weird looking apple.

The juices filled Rainbow with a new kind of feeling. It was a great feeling! Rainbow had never felt this way before. She felt so invigorated and so aware of everything. Her body shuddered in ecstasy as this new feeling infiltrated her body. This was the tastiest apple she had ever had the pleasure of eating. Good thing it was this big too. A small apple would never have satisfied her appetite. When her hunger was finally satisfied, she felt the apple pony thing fall over backwards and she did the same.

When Rainbow Dash opened her eyes the next time, she was met with a really full stomach. She felt so full that it was hard to move. The red roof above her made her slightly confused. Her head was dizzy. The last thing she remembered was eating a really delicious apple. Before that… She had been with Twilight! What had happened in the middle there? Why was she back where she and Twilight were before? She went against the force in her body that was telling her not to stand up and rose from the ground. What she saw was simply the very red corridor that she was currently standing in. She turned around and her eyes went wide.

It was Twilight. But not the lively purple unicorn that she had come to greatly appreciate the latest weeks. No… It was clearly the unicorn, but she wasn’t standing, Rainbow didn’t even know if she was conscious. She took as step towards the unicorn. The beautifully vibrant purple color had almost disappeared from the unicorn's coat. Now, her coat was an incredibly sick looking shade of gray. Rainbow could feel her eyes welling up in tears as she rushed over to the limp body of her wonderful friend.

She quickly flipped her friend over so that she could see her face. Something had happened to her. Rainbow couldn’t figure it out. Something must have knocked her out and then gone for Twilight. Then she saw something on Twilight’s neck. It was a puncture wound. No wait, there were two… They were incredibly close to each other and blood was slowly seeping out of the small wounds. Rainbow fell over backwards as she realised what it was. She slowly opened her mouth and brought up her hoof to her mouth and felt her fangs. She was shaking as she put her hoof in front of her face and her fears were realised. There was blood on them.

She was now openly weeping as she crept towards the limp body of her incredibly close friend. She looked at the face of her unicorn friend, it was empty, her eyes closed and her mouth curled up in a very small smile that seemed almost happy with itself. She tried talking, but nothing came out but small wheezes. She started mouthing the words “I'm sorry” as her tears splashed the face of her friend. Rainbow felt as if she lost control of her body as she moved her head closer to her friend’s. Very slowly, as the tears were flowing down her face, something inside of her happened. She didn't really understand. It was almost as if a switch had been flicked. Her heart started beating incredibly fast as she leaned in towards the unicorn. She was unable to control herself as she kissed the unicorn.

Author's Note

I bet you weren't expecting this!

I wasn't either. If you had asked me a week ago, I would have told you that the likelyhood of me ever returning to this was close to zero.

Turns out I was wrong. I am quite happy that I was wrong. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, even if what happens is something of an odd comeback so to speak.

I do feel I need to point at what made me come back. From thursday to earlier today, I have been a gathering of friends, so to speak. During this gathering, those who enjoy our little pony show sat down to watch the newest episode together during the saturday. As I watched the episode, I had a laugh about how I had writtien something around the same subject, so to speak. This, however, wasn't the trigger. A bit later, I went onto equestria daily, simply because I wanted to see other people's reactions. Then I saw this:

This isn't the first time I've seen people mentioning the fact that the story has been on hiatus for almsot a year. People have wanted me to update for quite a while now. I have wanted to return for so long, but the juice for writing has just been completely gone. So many things have happenend in my life, I can barely recognise the person I was back when I went on hiatus.

The fact that this comment appeared in front of me was what triggered what would make me write this chapter, but it wasn't the comment itself that did it. I don't know how to word it, but when I saw that comment, I realised that somehow I had made something memorable for some people. This confused me greatly since I though (and still think to some degree) that this is just one of many stories that exist on this site. Reading that comment, a sinking feeling entered my stomach, I became sad over letting people down. Then my friends asked me about what made my face turn in such a weird direction and I showed them the comment. With that, a huge conversation about how I should continue started, and now I'm here.

I am here to finish this, I have always ment to do that. I might be slow with updates sometimes, I will not put myself to the schedule I tried keeping before, because that was hard on me. I will be here, writing, I promise you all that. Thanks for staying.

Chapter 20

As the door in front of them unlocked, Surprise and Pinkie were already running through it. This hadn’t gone as they had planned. They had just wanted Rainbow Dash and Twilight to get together. Honestly, their plan hadn’t been the best, but it was better than nothing. They didn’t have time to think about that now though. They were rushing towards Rainbow Dash’s location to try and get Twilight to a hospital as fast as possible. Then they heard something very unexpected. It was an alarm of sorts, they knew exactly what it meant, but it made no sense. If Twilight was unconscious how could the conditions for that going off possibly have happened? They didn’t care since that alarm meant they could take a faster route through the house.

When they arrived, they saw Rainbow Dash hanging over Twilight’s body sobbing silently to herself. Pinkie turned to Surprise as they were nearing Rainbow and Twilight. “You take Twilight to the hospital as fast as possible, I think I need to talk to Rainbow Dash, I am pretty sure I know what just happened.” Surprise didn’t even bother to look at her in that moment, she simply nodded. When they finally arrived, Pinkie slowly tried removing Rainbow’s incredibly hard grip on Twilight. “Rainbow, please, she needs to go to the hospital if you ever want a chance of her surviving.” This made Rainbow stop as she immediately released the grip around the purple unicorn as she backed away slowly.

Tears were still running down Rainbow’s face as she watched Twilight getting carried out by Surprise. She looked at Pinkie, her eyes filled to the brim with tears. As Rainbow slowly tried telling her what had happened, Pinkie realised that what she thought had happened actually did happen. Rainbow had no idea what she was really doing when she started hunting Twilight down. She made the obvious connection to the vampirism inside her, which would make sense. Now, Rainbow just started crying even harder as she grabbed the fur of her friend’s chest. “It’s all my fault Pinkie, why did I do that? What if she doesn’t make it? I will have to live with that for the rest of my life, I can’t handle that. I don’t want her to die, Pinkie!” Pinkie could barely make Rainbow’s speech out since she was practically talking into her coat but somehow she could piece it together and get a full picture of what her friend was saying.

Pinkie took her friend’s head and placed it forehead to forehead with herself as she looked into the eyes of the pegasus. “This wasn’t your fault, don’t think that. You weren’t yourself, that much even I can see. This wasn’t you! There is only one thing that could possibly be at fault here, and that is whoever created those,” she said as she poked her hoof on her friends protruding fangs. “I’m sure Twilight worked it out as soon as it was happening, I mean she is the smartest of fillies that I have ever known. She just wasn’t able to handle whatever comes with those two things. We don’t blame you Rainbow, because we know that you wouldn’t hurt Twilight. I also am quite certain you have just realised something about the unicorn yourself haven’t you?” she said with a caring smile that made the pegasus laugh nervously for half a second. Then she started to blush as she buried herself in Pinkie’s fur again. Pinkie simply smiled to herself as she rose and brought Rainbow up from the ground too. “Come on now, its all gonna be fine, I can tell, I mean, the doctors at the hospital are amazing at what they do. And I’m pretty sure that if the worst comes to pass, well, Celestia might just come, but let’s hope that doesn’t need to happen, right?” Pinkie said as they started walking out of the house.

Rainbow nodded as she started to walk too. Then she realised something. “Wait, there is something really odd here… I mean, for you two to have arrived that quickly. I have a single question. Why did you two create this house?” This was not something Pinkie had expected to come now, she had hoped her friend wouldn’t have realised it yet. Pinkie gulped, she had a lot of explaining to do.

Applejack stood on the top of the hill looking over the landscape. Something was wrong, she could tell. Rainbow said she was going to bring Twilight here, but they hadn’t arrived yet. It was getting very late in the afternoon, the sun was on the course of setting over the horizon. Sometimes, Celestia liked to place the sun there, and although not bringing anything practical to the world, Applejack couldn’t help but admire the view.

No, it was getting absolutely too late now, she couldn’t wait for them any longer, something had to be wrong. Rainbow Dash wouldn’t just leave her hanging like this. Before she started looking for her friends though, she had the excellent idea to actually get some food herself since you can’t just go looking for late and or missing ponies on an empty stomach. That would just be silly. As she entered the house, it was quiet, it was homely. Of course, Sweet Apple Acres always seemed to feel incredibly cozy, even to visitors. The only sound Applejack could hear was Granny Smith’s snoring in her rocking chair. Apple Bloom was out playing with her friends, this she knew. She had no idea where Big Mac was located though.

This didn’t bother her too much, since the stallion sometimes liked just walking through the orchard as he thought about things. He thought about things a lot, and he never seemed to share them with her. It wasn’t all too weird, he was just that kind of pony.

Applejack entered the kitchen and grabbed an apple, she didn’t want to make dinner yet, it was far too early for that. Even if it was getting late, the apples liked to eat late on lazy days such as this. Today had been a resting day of sorts, so that they wouldn’t overwork themselves in the orchard. Sometimes, just because she thought it was fun, Applejack did go out and buck a couple of trees on the lazy days, since she simply felt like it.

With the apple completely swallowed she went outside and towards the barn, she wanted to check if her brother was there. The possibility of him being there wasn’t all that big, but she chanced since she wanted to tell at least one family member that she was going to look for her friends. As she neared the barn, she heard a sound, it was almost as if somepony crashed into the wall or something.She now started galloping towards the barn and quickly opened the door. What she saw was something she would never have hoped for.

She saw her brother on the ground with his stomach facing the roof of the barn and his face completely revealed and he looked exhausted, he had bruises everywhere. Most frightening of all though… He had fangs protruding from his mouth.

Applejack couldn’t even muster a single word, she was completely speechless, her brother, a vampony? Rainbow couldn't possibly have done this, could she? Applejack was almost starting to doubt her close friend because the sight in front of her was so obscene and weird. it didn’t make any sense in her head. She tried speaking and all she could muster was a single word. “How?”

Big Mac slowly rose from the ground with a pained expression as he looked her sister squarely in the eye with a determined look. “It’s not how, it’s why.” he said in his usual voice. He took a deep breath as he spoke again. “I personally asked Rainbow Dash to give me this. I always feel weak, you and your friends are always the ones saving us, I never do anything to save the farm or help it. I did this so I could finally be able to protect the ones I love and help if someone ever threatens the farm. I know I’m helpful at times, like when the Flim Flam brothers came over. I know I help, but you’re always the one in front. I overheard a conversation between Twilight and Rainbow and I head something about dangerous ponies or creatures appearing soon. I want to be able to help. I didn’t do anything useful when Marshall and his minions attack, I almost got knocked out immediately while you and the others fought them off. I love my family, I am only doing this to help us.” he sighed as he finally finished with his long speech, he usually didn’t speak much, but his time it had practically just appeared from his throat. He knew his sister wasn’t going to be happy with his choice, but he thought that if he showed that he really was trying to do something good, she might listen to him.

Applejack was stunned, she didn’t know what to say. Her brother felt useless? She didn’t think of him that way, not that mentioning it now would help any, he was already turned to one of them. How could he go to such lengths though? Applejack couldn’t possibly comprehend why her brother would have gone to get himself turned like that.

Applejack looked at the ground and tipped her hat over her eyes and muttered a single sentence. “Please, just go.” Big Mac shrunk, he had been expecting this, but he had hoped against it.

He walked towards the barn door and stopped. He gave a huge sigh as he looked back at his sister. “I know I did something unthinkable for you, but please reconsider when I’m gone. I just want the best for Granny and Apple Bloom.” he said as he galloped off towards the sunset with tears streaming down his face. Applejack sighed as she tipped her hat up again revealing that tears were also streaming down her face.

Twilight? Can you hear me? You need to wake up immediately! If you don’t you might get stuck for a very long time and we don’t have time for that!

Clover’s voice echoed in Twilight’s head, but she couldn’t process it properly, there was just something about it that seemed uninteresting to her. Why should she “wake up” when she was in this paradise? Twilight loved the current place she was in. It was the most relaxing place of all. It might have been her favorite place except for one thing. She had a feeling that something was missing.

She was currently on a beach resort in a far away corner of Equestria and she was simply laying there on a sunbathing chair and rested under the sun. She was alone, as in she didn’t have any friends or family with her to the resort. It was weird, because each time she tried to think of her friends, her head just started to hurt and she had no idea why this was.

As Twilight was still relaxing, something incredibly unexpected happened, the sky turned gray in just a matter of seconds and thunder could be heard all over. Twilight jumped out of her chair and started to run towards the hotel so that she could get inside her room and be away from this terrible storm. As she was running towards the hotel, she was for some reason, not coming closer, she was running away. This greatly distressed Twilight as she quickly glanced towards the ocean to look if there might have been someone following her. In the moment she glanced towards the ocean, a huge lightning bolt hit right into the water and made a huge boom in Twilight’s ears. Out of the crash site for the lightning, there was a pony. Twilight seemed to remember this pony. She was some kind of blue? Not that the coat stood out the most, what really stood out about this pony was the rainbow mane.

The mare stepped towards Twilight with a stern expression and started talking. “I might look like Rainbow Dash at the moment, but I’m not Rainbow Dash, I am Clover and I need to get you out of here. You need to get out. I never meant for this to happen, it was as unexpected for me, in some ways at least.” The mare said as she grabbed Twilight’s hoof and then proceeded to hold her entire body and started flying off into the sky. Twilight had been stunned by the whole thing so she had no idea how to react. This mare was possessing another mare or something? That seemed utterly ridiculous.

Twilight started struggling against the grip of ‘Clover’ but she, in turn, just squeezed harder to keep her grip on the unicorn. As soon as they passed the cloud cover, something clicked in Twilight’s mind, she seemed to remember things. She remembered her friends and Clover and everything outside this stupid fantasy. “Wait, how did bringing me over the clouds work to get my memories and everything back, that doesn’t make much sense.” Twilight commented as she stopped to struggle.

Clover just laughed in a very odd way as she replied. “Well, it’s a simple thing. It’s hard to wake a pony who won’t listen. Especially when they are in a weird vampony trance. Which you were. I will tell you more about this when we get out and Rainbow Dash also is present, because she needs to know as well. The reason why you remembered things when we went over the clouds is because they were the borders of your dream. Dreams are weird since you don’t always remember things outside of them, but when you wake up, you remember everything. I took you out of your dream. You might have been in a vampony trance, that it why I have been able to save you in this way. If it wasn’t me, I don’t really know who could. Anyway, it seems that we have arrived at the final destination. Simply step into that gate when we arrive and you should wake up in your hospital bed.” Clover said as she landed on the weird cloud and released Twilight from her grip and immediately ran towards the gate.

Before finally walking into the gate Twilight looked back towards Clover in her Rainbow Dash from and said: “Thank you for getting me out.” Twilight smiled broadly as she turned back towards the gate and walked inside. When she went beyond the borders of the gate. All the light around her turned into a really weird mix of all colours. It was almost as if rainbows were trying to envelop her in their shiny light. After a couple of seconds of weird rainbow lights, she woke up. There was one thing she somehow remembered before she went into her trance, just before. Her eyelids had been almost completely closed but she had still seen it in her weak state. Rainbow had started crying over something Twilight knew wasn’t her fault. Then the unexpected for Twilight had come. Rainbow had… Kissed her?

“Twilight?” Rainbow uttered as she she saw the eyelids of the unicorn opening. Rainbow nudged her chair closer to the bed as she casually started holding Twilight’s hoof. Twilight looked at Rainbow and smiled widely as she kind of understood the whole situation. Rainbow started to apologize a lot. “I didn’t mean to do that, I don’t know what came over me I couldn’t control myself, please forgive me.” She said as her forehead connected with Twilight’s bed.

Twilight took her free hoof and used it to stroke Rainbow’s mane. “You know that I don’t blame you, even if I’m not in the best of states right now. I could see that it wasn’t you. It’s really quite obvious to me what really happened, at least, I think I know. You should know too, at least to some degree.” Rainbow simply nodded while head was still in the mattress and made a sound which sounded a lot like understood what Twilight had meant. “Now, please come up from there, we really need to talk to Clover, we need to know what really happened so that we can prevent it from happening again, okay?” Twilight said as she nudged Rainbow’s head upwards and gave a smile. Rainbow simply replied with a small nod.

I can always hear you two, so you don’t even have to mention that I should appear now. I am here, go ahead, ask whatever questions you like, I am mostly prepared for them.

As Clover’s voice echoed in their minds they looked each other as to discuss who would ask the questions but Rainbow shoved her hoof in Twilight’s direction. “You do this, if I want something specific, I will ask about it, but you’re probably better at this than me.” she said with a slight smile that indicated for Twilight to start her mind conversation with Clover.

Ok, so first of all. We want to know why and how it happened, that is very important, I am sure you know exactly why. Twilight was still a bit rusty with this mind speaking thing, it seemed really weird to her, even if she was really good at magic it was normally not something she did. Celestia barely even used this kind of magic but she understood why Clover had to since she didn’t really have her own body.

Well, this might take some time. I’ll try my best to make it as short as possible since it’s rather boring. As you know, vamponies need to consume blood at times since it’s practically their source of power so to speak. I know I mentioned you needing to drink blood when you had just been turned, I just forgot to tell you the rest of it. You see, if you don’t drink blood within one to three weeks after your last feeding, you might go somewhat awry. It’s really irregular, It’s hard to say exactly how long for each pony, but it’s generally around two weeks, even if that’s not always the case. The grunts usually last a lot longer than the stronger ranks since they generally don’t use a lot of energy. The same goes for lieutenants. The weird thing about what happened to Rainbow isn’t that she had completely forgot about feeding, since that’s what activated the whole thing. It’s a bit unstable which is quite annoying in my opinion, but it’s not really something I can fix.

This didn’t sit right with either of them, but they knew they had to question her further since they didn’t get to ask her questions a lot of the time. Twilight just continued to follow on the same trail. I suspected as much actually. I makes a small amount of sense when it comes to your vampirism at least. It did surprise me since it was such a spontaneous thing. I need to know something really crucial though, I know I tried using my anti vampony magic on her to neutralize her rampage at least for the moment, but she completely deflected it, how did that happen?

That is, well, I honestly don’t know. I always knew you could use that kind of magic, which is good since I thought that you could have neutralized her rampage. When she deflected your magic, I got really, really confused. Vamponies should not be able to do that. Ever. I know how the magic works in some ways, but not even I can deflect it. I always knew Rainbow was somewhat special, but this was completely unexpected. She is an alpha, which means she has a good amount of power in her, but far from my own. She shouldn’t even be able to touch you miss Sparkle. I can’t answer why she did that, but I can only expect that it means she is very special and meant for something important. There is no more that I can tell you when it comes to this, at least not at the moment. I promise that if I find something related to Rainbow’s curious case I will come back with that since I am just as curious as you two.

As the two ponies heard the weird popping sound in their minds once again, they looked at each other with really weird looks as Twilight shrugged weirdly as she laid there in her bed. Rainbow looked a bit amiss as she didn’t really know how to process the information she had just been given. She was special? This was really weird.

Twilight coughed to get Rainbow’s attention. The first thing Rainbow noticed on the unicorn’s face was the very small hint of a blush, for some reason, Rainbow started to blush as well. Twilight looked at Rainbow as she made a light hearted laugh. “You know, I just want to point something out that I really liked. I know that you probably did too. It’s a bit weird with me lying in this bed and all but still. I know what you did in that hall Rainbow and I certainly wouldn’t mind another one.” She said as she grabbed the pegasus head in her field of magic and brought her in for a quick kiss.

Author's Note

I'm actually really proud of the fact that this got updated more than once since I doubt myself. It's a good feeling. Anyhow, I felt a bit weird writing some parts of this, but I don't really know since my Pre-reader told me the opposite was true.

Your comments and opinions about the chapter are greatly appreciated.

Chapter 10

”There.” Twilight said happily as she finished helping Rarity with her morning chores. It had taken them quite the long time since Twilight isn’t usually so good at this. But, at least she managed, even if it took a long time.

“Why, thank you Twilight. I must be off now, I have already used up too much work time, see you soon.” Rarity exclaimed as she quickly exited the library to go off towards her shop and start making dresses.

“Well, at least she remembered to retract her fangs.” Twilight mumbled to herself as she stretched her muscles. They had become very tired due to her sitting down and doing, well, nothing much really…

Oh Celestia, that was exhausting. Holy moley, I’m tired now.

“Who’s there? Who’s that?” Twilight shouted worryingly.

Calm down, geez, this is tiresome… It’s me Clover, now, before you say anything, I am able to do this because I cast a spell on you while we were inside Rainbow Dash, call it a tracer or something… And uhmm… It made it possible for me to do what I’m doing now, and let me tell you, it used up A LOT of my magic.

Wait, Clover… So you can talk to me using telepathy now? I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing… Besides, what do you even want with me? Twilight asked, suspicious of what motives the spirit could possibly have.

Nah, I’m really just here to make you realize something. Do you remember while we were inside Rainbow Dash and the whole ‘Love’ business?

Yeah? Twilight said, now really worried about what would come next. She hoped it wouldn’t be something completely off the rocker.

Oh good. Well, first I want to say that I have an overhand, in a lot of different ways. You see, if you ever go against me in any way that I dislike, well, let’s just say that Dashie will have a bad time. But you probably already knew that. What I really wanted you to know is that it wasn’t entirely your choice to do what you did. I saw you in there and how you handled yourself and I must say that you are quite the adept thinker… Well anyway, normally if you were in your right mind, you wouldn’t have done what you did; I manipulated you into doing it. You didn’t notice it, and you shouldn’t have, ‘cause I didn’t really do anything visible, all I did was slightly changing your brainwaves, now, this takes power. I did it because I need an edge; it’s a good thing to have you know. Now, why am I telling you this? I really wanted you to know that whatever happens now, I have a much stronger hand than you.

You… MANIPULATED ME!? Well… Ok, I don’t know what to say, except for that fact that I dislike you doing it… And at the same time, you having an overhand seems completely useless right now, at least, it does to me. But being prepared is always smart, I guess. I can’t say I’m too unhappy with how the whole Rainbow business is growing to be, I mean, that crush has been annoying me for some time… She trailed off as a very distinct sound could be heard.

BRZZT

“Oh no… Nonononononono” Twilight chanted as she quickly opened a cupboard to find a small rectangular rock.

What on Equestria is that supposed to be?

“This? This rock buzzing, it means Rainbow is in trouble… Already though? I knew something would happen but still… Ok, off I go!” Twilight shouted as she quickly enveloped herself in magic and teleported away.

“Horseapples.” Rainbow Dash said in a very flat way. “This, is gonna get ugly…”

She couldn’t have hit that statement more spot on than she did. As fast as the broadcast of Greasy’s voice ended, stallions and mares could be seen appearing from bushes. There was one specific stallion Rainbow recognized, it was Steadfast Shield, the giant stallion that never says anything.

He stood atop of a hill, not that high of a hill but it was still located higher up than the two of them. He silently stood there as ponies closed in on them slowly as Rainbow and Luna prepared for the inevitable battle that would come. Rainbow swore under her breath because she was annoyed at the fact that they just had to attack them when they were all out of energy, well Rainbow was, at least, she didn’t know about Luna, she was a Princess after all, you never knew with Alicorns. But, Rainbow could hear that the Princess was, in fact, breathing heavily, a common indicator of fatigue.

One of the mares jumped at Luna, but she simply flicked the mare away with her tail as if it was made of some sort of metal, clearly hurting the mare. But in the act of counter attacking the mare, two stallions rammed into Luna’s sides, pushing her together.

CRACK!

A snapping sound could be heard and Luna yelled out in pain, but it didn’t seem to faze her, because she was back in action almost immediately, knocking the heads of the two stallions together, making them fall into unconsciousness.

Rainbow on the other hoof, was having quite the difficult time, for, you see, she had three mares and three stallions on her at the same time, making counter attacking almost impossible, because if she ducked away from an attack, another would hit her during the move. If she tried to attack, she was blocked by the ones she weren’t attacking, so she had no idea what to do to get out of this little trouble she had found herself in.

Frustrated, Rainbow hastily tried to channel power into her hooves, to, once again, create ice. The others seemed to prepare themselves for what was to come, the two who were pegasi cowardly flew up into the air and the two unicorns cast a shield spell around themselves. Ice started to cover Rainbow’s hooves before finally encasing them. She thrust her tow hooves into the ground, completely surprising the attackers. She started to push the ice further and as she did, she started to feel the earth around it as it slowly crept further into the ground, giving it frostbite. Rainbow smiled. She forced the ice to form at her will and it suddenly appeared at the hooves of the earthbound opponents. The ice itself crept up on their hooves, making them unable to move, they tried resisting the grip of the ice, but they were completely unable to do so. Before their pegasi companions could react, their entire bodies were incased in ice. Rainbow grunted in approval and released her own hooves from the grip of the ice, immediately taking to the sky.

The ponies she was now facing were wearing extremely scared expression, not caring about that fact, Rainbow charged at one of them, so fast that the mare she attacked had no possibility of dodging, what so ever. The stallion, still struck by fear slowly flew backwards, still looking at the scene in front of him. Rainbow Dash was wearing a really neutral expression, it was as if she wasn’t angry or frustrated, or she simply had a heart of cold, the stallion couldn’t quite point it out. Rainbow bashed the mare into the ground, making a large ‘thud’ noise when the body made contact with the ground. Turning towards the last stallion, Rainbow’s eye twitched. The stallion, who didn’t want to die, tried one last maneuver against the rainbow maned mare. He made a huge gulp and flew upwards into a layer of clouds, completely blocking him from Rainbow’s immediate sight.

Rainbow flew through the clouds and appeared on the other side; she didn’t see the stallion, at all. All the directions she looked, there was no stallion, just air and clouds. Determined to hunt him down, she calmed herself down and plunked herself down on the nearest cloud and decided to trick the stallion into thinking she was trying to nap on a cloud.

The stallion looked from his hiding spot and saw Rainbow lay down on the cloud. He was seriously wondering what had gone through the mare’s mind as he was pretty fast figured out the plan of the mare. He had seen from the behavior and heard from his employer that the mare in question, Rainbow Dash, was not the most patient of ponies, so he knew that if he just stayed hidden for long enough, she would get annoyed and start thrashing around, making for the perfect opportunity to strike.

As he observed the mare, he started to hear something, and it made him angry, he could hear something from the mare, and it was snores, honest to Celestia, snores, she was sleeping. The stallion couldn’t believe what he was seeing and put his hooves over his ears, trying to reset his hearing. When he released, the nose returned and he finally understood that the mare, was, in fact, sleeping.

Determined he lifts off from his cloud and sped up towards the mare, speeding up as he closed up on the mare’s cloud.

When he was but ten feet away from the mare, her eyes peeked open and she made a smile and the stallion got angry at himself. “Peekabo.” Rainbow Dash said coldly as she hit the stallion in the muzzle, breaking his concentration, making him fall as he slowly became unconscious. Rainbow didn’t want to kill ponies, so she decided to save the guy, even if he had just tried to kill her. She picked him up and flew up above the cloud layer. She chose the nearest cloud and placed him down on it on his back. She picked his hoof up in her own and placed it over his heart, as to make him look dignified. Smiling, Rainbow flew down below the cloud layer once again.

A few minutes earlier…

As Rainbow Dash followed the stallion up into the clouds, Luna was still fighting against her opponents, not having the ice hooves, stunning all of the six was a hard task. She knew that they probably didn’t care what happened to her, since their orders were simply to catch Rainbow Dash. What surprised her though, was the fact that they even dared, she was Celestia’s sister after all and immortal Alicorn on top of that. What drove these ponies, she would never know, perhaps bits? No… That would be stooping too low… You never know though.

Luna took to the air, leaving four of her attackers on the ground; this would give her more leeway to go about incapacitating these ponies in a much more controlled way. The first of the pegasi charged at her aimlessly, which she easily avoided without problem. But as she did, something hit her in the back, she looked towards the origin of the pain and she found that the unicorns were shooting projectiles at her. She sighed in annoyance, but soon remembered that she still only had four ponies to go against at the moment. The pegasi who had just charged her whimsically turned around from his charge and his eye twitched slightly as he smiled. Confused, Luna charged right at him, hoping to surprise, but he continued to hover in place and smiling. Luna didn’t have time to think over her actions as she sped up even more. As she closed into him, something knocked her away from her target. She lost control and wavered around in the air before finally getting a grip of her wings once again. She looked at what had hit her this time and she found that the pegasi stallion was still hovering in the same exact location. She looked down and heard a thud. An earth pony just landed on the ground and looked up to her and smiled. She had jumped 30 feet! That’s in-equine! Baffled, Luna decided to finally finish everything. She had tried to be nice and do it the easy way, but they were annoying her to no end.

She flared her horn with magic and shot away two small shots of sonic sounds, deafening the ponies, making them hold over their ears, trying to hear something. But when they were unable to they all started to panic and Luna charged. She immediately knocked the pegasus who had just mocked her to the ground, making him unconscious within seconds of her touching him. Her next target was the pegasus mare who was flying a bit away from her. She quickly flared her horn and the pegasus started to sleep. Two down, four to go. She decided taking out the ‘easier’ targets would be a good plan so she decided to take care of the earth pony stallion next. He was big, but not Big Mac big. She used her magic to make him sink into the ground and put a sleeping spell on him too. Next target, the female unicorn. Her sonic spell was starting to wear off so she threw a rock at the face of the unicorn making her instantaneously fall unconscious.

Now… Wait, where did the last two go? Luna looked around furiously as she looked all around for the two ponies. But her search was interrupted as mockery against her person could be heard from a nearby bush. She attacked the bush it was coming from and there was nopony there! Suddenly, another voice started its mockery, which was soon followed by mockery coming from all directions Angry, Luna flared her horn once more, trying to locate the two ponies. And she found the two of them, a mare and stallion hiding in a bush, snickering for some reason. Not caring what they were having so much fun over, she quickly dove inside the bush and incapacitated the two of them, immediately knocking them out. She snorted at the bodies in defeat as she walked out towards the unconscious bodies and ponies encased in ice as she waited for the Rainbow maned mare to come back down from her escapade in the clouds with that stallion.

Her concentration was completely broken as she somehow got knocked straight into the air, making her really weak in the process. She looked down at what had hit her and she saw the same big stallion that had stood on the nearby hill just before. Luna moaned because she had forgotten such an important detail. Luna tried to use her wings, but they didn’t obey her command, no, nothing worked, she couldn’t move, her entire body had been incapacitated, but she was still conscious, how was this possible? She tried to yell for help, but, it simply came out as a small gurgle of despair. She knew she wouldn’t die, that would be something extraordinary, since she couldn’t die, right?

Just as she was about to accept her turn into the unconsciousness when she would hit the ground, something happened, a flash. In the sky, over the clouds. Luna opened her eyes, and she saw her, Rainbow Dash was performing the Sonic Rainboom yet again and was flying straight towards her. Rainbow picked her up in a matter of seconds later. Dash mumbled something about Luna being safe which made the Princess smile in confidence as she silently moved towards self provoked unconsciousness. Rainbow nodded to herself and flew up in the clouds once again. She placed the Princess on one of the bigger clouds that wouldn’t disappear before she was finished.

Rainbow slowly descended towards the ground wearing a serious expression as she looked at the stone faced stallion who was staring straight back at her. She landed gracefully on the ground and their staring contest continued.

They simply stood there, staring at each other, not moving a single inch for several minutes.

But all changed when the big stallion attacked.

He rushed forwards towards the pegasus and struck her in the chest with a right hoof. Rainbow, unable to react in time, took the hit directly to her stomach. Steadfast smiled slightly as he used the elbow of his left foreleg and hit her it the back, making her completely lose all air in her lungs and fall to the ground. He looked at her and sighed that she could be defeated so easily. He picked her up from the ground and placed her on his back. He rolled his eyes and started to walk off.

What he didn’t know was that Rainbow had tricked him. As he walked towards the nearby forest Rainbow opened her eyes and kicked him in the stomach and jumped off from his back. Rainbow Dash huffed in his direction as she jumped off his back collected energy in her hoof, once again making it ice. She used her hoof to hit him square in the face with ice, drawing forth a single drop of blood from his nose. This wasn’t enough since he was still standing. Rainbow prepared for another attack against his head, but as the hoof drew really close to his face, he reacted.

He took her hoof with his own and slammed it against her own face, stunning her for the moment. He took her back leg and threw her over his shoulder, impacting her with the ground. He did the same thing at least ten times and the he finally looked at the now completely bloodied mare, she was gone, not dead, but unconscious. He grunted in annoyance and placed her on his back as he walked towards the forest again.

FLASH!

A big flash was seen by Steadfast and he looked towards the location of the flash, he saw a lavender mare standing there, looking at him. He recognized the mare as Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic, and protégé of Celestia. Her horn flared and its aura enveloped Rainbow Dash and levitated her off his back, his eyes twitched as he charged towards the lavender mare with a grunt. Her horn flared and she appeared behind him as he continued to charge, but as he noticed her disappearance, he immediately stopped and turned around to once again face her. They were just about to charge at each other when…

“Uhhmm… Excuse me? But what is going on here? Why are you two looking like you are about to fight? Why is that mare over there bleeding and why are there ponies encased in ice?” Twilight and Steadfast looked towards the voice, they found a meager looking colt, probably only in his early twenties. He had a coat of dark blue and his eyes were silver. His mane was a simple brown, something common in earth ponies Twilight noted. Besides him stood a red-orange unicorn with blue eyes and her mane followed the colt’s trend of being brown, but the mare’s mane reached to her should opposed to the colt she was standing next to. “Hello? I am asking here!”

“Uhmm… Well…” Twilight trailed off, not sure what to say, she was still surprised at the weird situation.

Steadfast took something up from his suddenly appearing saddlebag and held it between him and the newcomers. It spoke with a voice saying “Civilians, leave now. We don’t want civilians to die, bad for image.” Steadfast grunt in acceptance and ran off into the forest.

“Well, that was interesting.” Twilight commented, picking up Rainbow Dash with and magic and turning towards the two new ponies. “Thanks to you two as well, I guess, if you two hadn’t come when you did, I think things would have turned out very ugly indeed. I’m Twilight Sparkle and this is Rainbow Dash. She needs to get to the hospital, but it’s not immediate… Who are you two?” She asked the two of them.

The colt answered. “I am Colt Train, yeah, it’s a weird name, my parents were a weird couple. And this here, is my marefriend, Rose Lilly, she’s good with, well, flowers, I’m a good tactician… Not really the most useful talent in the world, but I always win at games… We are moving into the close town somewhere nearby, that’s why we were walking this way, and we always liked the scenic route. I think the town was called Ponyville.” He finished and Twilight made a slight smile.

“Yeah, Ponyville is great, hope you like it, it’s just down that path.” She motioned towards a path going out the area they were located in. “I need to get this pegasus into hospital now, and again, thanks for appearing out of nowhere.” She said before flashing away in a puff of magic.

A Potential Future?

Read this blog post and comment there: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/845367/a-very-random-update-with-a-question

I might come back if you guys respond to me.