Equestrian Betrayal

“Why… why, why, why, why,” Dash cried softly, “Why me, I didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t understand… it was an imposter.”

She had woken up in a prison cell a few hours ago. Somepony had taken the time to remove the arrows from her back and bandage the wounds. Numbly, she traced the linen bandage around her middle with a hoof. If she twisted her head around she could see where blood had seeped through the linen and dried over her wounds. This was all so surreal to her. She was slumped in the corner, staring out of the small window of her cell. It was raining outside, she noted this and frowned.

Rainbow Dash had intimate knowledge of the weather patterns for Cloudsdale, Canterlot, and Ponyville, so this information was more helpful than most would think. The only place scheduled for rain this week was Canterlot, and that wasn’t until the upcoming Tuesday she thought.

‘I’ve been out for at least three days,” she thought sadly.

Her hooves ached from pounding on the door to her cell, and her throat burned from screaming for help from anypony. They hadn’t even bothered to post a guard by her cell door. They must not think her capable of escaping.

From what she could see through the small slot on the door, her cell was the only one in this corridor anyway. Why would they be worried? She was just a wounded and distraught Pegasus, it wasn’t like she could magic herself out like a unicorn.

With some difficulty Dash levered herself up off the cold stone floor and stiffly walked to her tiny window. If the bars hadn’t been there it would have been just big enough for her to stick her head through. If she stood on her back hooves she could just see out of her new home. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to see. Far, far below she could see a hilly plain dotted with a few rocks. If she craned her neck and looked up, Dash could make out a large natural rock shelf, and what looked like the edge of the ancient Canterlot foundation.

‘So I’m on the cliff face under Canterlot. I didn’t even know this was here…’

Sighing deeply, she turned and plopped down on her haunches, wincing as her wounds burned. Come to think of it, her jaw was a little sore as well, probably from being stomped by Shining Armor.

‘Shining Armor… Twilight… Ponyville… What happened? Why me… Why don’t they believe me? I feel so lost…'

The boastful, proud, and unshakable Rainbow Dash buried her face in her hooves and cried.

Princess Celestia sat in her personal study, a room she rarely used. Even her beloved protégé did not know if it. None knew it existed; when they passed it’s location in the castle they saw smooth stone where the door was. Celestia had used some of her most powerful arcane spells to enchant the room and keep it private. She had spent much time in here shortly after the banishment of Nightmare Moon.

There was a thick layer of dust blanketing the room, owing to its disuse for the past few centuries. Old edicts and Royal Decree’s lay half finished and scattered about her polished mahogany desk. An ancient campaign map hung next to a single bookshelf, its ink nearly faded to nothing.

The Princess was lost in thought, sipping some of her best wine, and gazing at a large portrait. Her study had a gloomy feel to it, matching her mood.  Light flickered feebly from a single lit candle on the corner of her desk.

The portrait was wider than her considerably sized desk, and hung directly above it. It featured her beloved sister, lying in a field during a full moon, surrounded by blooming moonflower vines. Her fore hooves were crossed as she gazed up at an awe-inspiring blanket of stars with a soft smile.

The entire painting had been made with only shades of blue, and was widely considered to be Lionardo da Vinci’s greatest work. It was simply titled Selene, and had hung in the halls of Canterlot for many years. Art aficionados and court ponies alike had speculated wildly about the reason Luna was smiling in the portrait, much to the amusement of the Lunar Princess.

“That had to have been.... at least eighteen hundred years ago,” the Princess mused to herself.

After Nightmare Night, Celestia had moved the painting here, so she could mourn in private. She had hoped never to return to this room again, though she found herself wandering here earlier in the day and did not fight the urge to be secluded.

Rainbow Dash. That name was echoing in the halls of Canterlot. The nobles had gone up in arms against the cyan mare after learning of her rampage. Celestia was instantly suspicious of the motives of these ponies. They were so removed from the rest of Equestria by status and wealth, so why should they care? Celestia thought she had an explanation, and she found it worrying.

The nobility was always looking for a ways to look good in the eyes of the taxpayers, and they wanted to bring Rainbow Dash to justice so they could be regarded as the “Protectors of the Common Pony”.

The Princess of the Sun scoffed at this.

“Protectors, like hell…” she muttered disdainfully. She hoped she was wrong, but if the nobility tried to scapegoat Rainbow Dash just to better their image…

There was something horribly wrong with this situation, but she couldn’t quite put her hoof on it. What puzzled her was the very fact that Rainbow Dash could even bring herself to hurt somepony like she had. It made no sense. She had no motive, there were no reports of strange behavior, she hadn’t been skipping work or going off on her own frequently. She was perfectly healthy when she was brought in, if you didn’t count the arrow wounds.

Celestia had personally checked Dash for any form of magic, be it a curse or hex or potion, and nothing came up. It was very troubling. Slowly, a picture was forming in her head. Unrest amongst the lower classes, possibly conspiring nobles, and now the most loyal pony in all of Equestria had essentially massacred a town.

“No… it couldn’t be,” she said slowly, as something dawned on her.

“What couldn’t be?” somepony asked behind her. The voice startled Celestia, and she leapt to her hooves and spun around, illuminating the dim study with a powerful surge of magic.

“Who dares- Luna? How did you know this room was here?” She asked with surprise in her voice.

Luna smiled sweetly at her elder sister, and moved in to nuzzle her.

“We always know where you are Tia. You are our sister after all,” Luna whispered conspiratorially into Celestia’s flowing mane. The Sun Princess relaxed and hugged the most important pony in her life.

“That doesn’t explain how you got past my wards,” she said, attempting to sound airy and carefree.

“We were always more talented in the arcane arts dear sister. You should know this.” Luna stuck her tongue out at Celestia playfully before becoming serious. She could see that her sister was troubled.

“Now tell us what is bothering you Tia. We want to help you, we want to be involved again,” she pleaded hopefully.

“Or are you so enamored with our beauty that you would rather sit in a dark room and stare at a picture of us all afternoon? You know, we could commission a new portrait, one with more flank perhaps?” Luna struck a ridiculous pose, something she had to have stolen off the cover of a dirty magazine.

Celestia struggled to keep a straight face, but could not hold it. She burst into peals of laughter and had to sit back down lest she fall over. Luna gladly joined the laughter, happy that she cheered up her sister somewhat. After a minute of uncontrolled laughing, Celestia wiped a tear from her eye and stood, once more hugging her sister.

“I am so happy that you are with me once more dear sister. Come, let us leave this place of bad memories behind. We can speak more comfortably in my chambers.” Luna nodded and trotted after her sister, leaving the depressing study behind.

As they walked the halls, Celestia shared a smile with her sister, and decided to withhold her alarming thoughts. Her sister didn’t need to be worried about anything now that she had returned.

Dash had curled up in a ball in the corner of her cell. She realized there was no way for her to eat while unconscious, so she had gone without a good meal for almost four days now. She winced as a cramp rolled through her guts. She felt like she was going to be sick, and her mouth and throat were painfully dry. Rainbow groaned and muttered to herself.

“Somepony please feed me.”

She was answered by the loud clip-clop of guard shoes on stone.

“Princess, I must protest, this is a very dangerous pony. I cannot let you enter unaccompanied,” somepony said.

“And we are telling you, for the third time no less, that we do not wish for your presence. This is a very delicate matter. Now be gone from this place.” The stomp of a hoof and the jingling of keys accompanied the final command.

Dash’s ears perked up and she stared at the door.

‘Are they going to let me out,’ she thought hopefully. The door shrieked as it swung on rusty hinges, allowing her visitor in.

Her savior was... Princess Luna? The princess let herself in, and kicked the door shut behind her.

‘No they aren’t going to let me out…’ Her ears drooped and she laid her head down. Luna looked at the depressed pony with concern. A moment of silence passed before Luna sat down awkwardly in the small cell. Her eyes darted around, trying to think of something to ‘break the ice’ as ponies these days called it. After a moment of thinking the princess had an ah-ha moment.

“Um… we brought you some food and water Rainbow Dash. We didn’t know if you had been feed recently, and… well we thought it would be nice-“ As she was fumbling on her words she levitated a small pitcher of water and a bowl of apples out of seemingly nowhere.

Rainbow’s eyes widened and she lunged forward, snatching the pitcher out of the air and bringing it to her lips. She drank greedily, spilling water down her front as she guzzled as much as she could. She next attacked the apples, grabbing one and ripping large chunk off with her teeth. She chewed messily and gulped the fruit down.

Luna was so startled by the sudden movement that she nearly fell over.

“Good heavens, when were you last fed,” she asked incredulously.

Rainbow said something around a mouth full of apple, but to Luna it sounded like “shore hay vertigo”

“We… we don’t quite understand,” she said as she watched the Pegasus devour apples at a lightening pace.

After the last apple was gone, Dash took a moment to wipe off her muzzle and catch her breath.

“I said four days ago. Uh, thanks for the food… your highness.” Dash said, embarrassed by eating like that in front of a Princess.

Luna’s jaw hit the floor.

“Four days ago? This is unacceptable,” Luna shouted. She took a better look around the room. Dash didn’t even have a rag to sleep on.

“Guard, come here post haste,” she bellowed, easily slipping into the Royal Voice. It made the entire cell shake, and the door vibrated on its hinges. Rainbow flinched at the sudden loudness. Soon enough, the guard she had berated earlier had galloped down the corridor and burst through the door with his sword drawn.

“What is the meaning of this,” the Luna snapped, ”These living conditions are wholly unacceptable!”

The magic behind Luna’s Voice was incredible. It was actually pushing the dumbfounded guard backward, and he was doing his best to stand in place. Dash was completely amazed that the Princess had become so vocal about this.

After Luna had laid into the guard for a good five minutes she sent him running off with a list of things to do. Luna huffed and paced back and forth in her cell.

“Of all the foolish things…” she snorted and turned back to Rainbow. Apparently it was her turn to be slack jawed.

“Um… was that too much,” Luna asked uncertainly.

“That was awesome,” Rainbow Dash shouted, hopping up off the ground excitedly. She paused and frowned for a moment, before sitting down and eyeing the Princess warily.

“But why would you do that for me when nopony else believes I’m innocent?”

“Because we- I believe you are innocent Rainbow Dash,” Luna said, looking dash in the eye.

“Really,” Dash asked. This was too good to be true. A Princess was on her side? What was the catch?

Luna nodded, “we have to go raise the moon now Rainbow Dash, but we will be back later to ensure that all my demands were met.” With that the princess of the night turned and walked out of the cell. Before it closed, she poked her head back in the doorway.

“Oh, and we shall bring you more food as well. Would that please you?”

“I uh… yeah. Thanks Princess…” the Pegasus said.

“It is my pleasure Rainbow Dash.”

“Princess Luna,” Rainbow said tentatively, “You can just call me Dash. If you want to I guess.”

“Hmm, we can do that if you call us Luna.” The night Princess smiled and left before Dash could respond.

True to her word, Princess Luna had returned later in the evening, after Dash had her bed and the moon was high in the sky.

“I, uh, wanted to thank you for the, uh, bed and the food and stuff Princess,” Dash said quietly.

The Princess turned from where she was gazing out the window and shot Dash a look. The Pegasus was puzzled for a moment before realizing what she said.

“I mean Luna,” she amended sheepishly. Luna smiled sweetly at the cyan pony.

“As we said before it was our pleasure to do so.”

A comfortable moment of silence passed before Dash spoke again.

“Why,” she asked quietly. Fluttershy would have been proud of her volume.

“We are sorry?” Luna said, she hadn’t quite heard what Dash had mumbled.

Rainbow glared and spoke louder this time, standing up and looking Luna in the eyes.

“Why are you helping me when nopony else will? Why do you think I’m innocent? What’s in it for you to be the only one on my side?” she snapped.

Luna turned back to the moon, her moon, and was silent.

Dash was growing impatient. “Well,” she shouted, “answer me!”

Luna took a deep breath of the crisp night air before closing her eyes.

“We are helping, because we believe you are innocent. It is how you would say, ‘a gut feeling’. we have read all of the letters you have sent to my sister, as well as the ones you are mentioned in and we do not think you capable of such a thoughtless and cruel act. It defies logic. We know how you must feel, but paranoia is unnecessary and we wish to reassure you. It seems that Everypony is against you, and you want them to hear you out so badly, but they wont give you the chance. We were there once.”

Luna opened her eyes. They were glassy, as if she were gazing at some far off memory. The Princess of the Night let out a shaky breath as she clamped down on old emotions.

“Jeez, I-I didn’t know. I’m sorry that I yelled at you. It’s just that I have no idea what’s going to happen to me and everypony is mad at me for something I didn’t do. I mean look at me, I’m I jail here and its really bothering me Luna. I just don’t know what to do.”

She bit her lip and hung her head. ‘Come on Dash, you’re tougher than that, don’t cry in front of the princess.’

Luna moved to Rainbow’s side and carefully laid a wing over the back of the young Pegasus.

“Why don’t you start by telling us your side of the story? You would be surprised how helpful it can be when somepony just listens.”

Dash looked up into Luna’s large eyes.

‘Wow, they’re the same color as my coat,’ she thought quietly.

Dash let out a loud yawn and leaned into Luna’s side. The Princess was surprisingly warm. After a moment she was ready to speak.

“Well… It all started when I left my house in the morning. I had some super sweet tricks that I wanted to practice…”