The Rainbow That Never Was

Chapters

Chapter I - It Begins
Chapter II - Ripples
Chapter III - Making a Magical Mockery
Chapter IV - A Junction of Sorrowful Souls
Chapter V - Taking Flight
Chapter VI - A Day in a Star's Life
Chapter VII - Sponsoring the Skies
Chapter VIII - Making it Big

Chapter I - It Begins

“Leave her alone!” The small blue pegasus pony yelled in a determined voice. If there was one thing that she couldn’t stand, it was ponies who picked on weaker ponies, especially when that pony was Fluttershy. Cowering behind Rainbow Dash was the stick-legged pegasus, and standing tall in front of her were the bullies, the ponies she longed to put in their place.

“Ooooh, what’re you gonna do, Rainbow Crash?”

Oh how she hated that name, it had followed her like a malicious kitten since she was young. Hardly able to resist letting a punch fly right then and there, Dash let fly a retort, “Keep making fun of her and find out!”

The three ponies were lined up side by side on the start line, itching to get the race on. Rainbow licked her lips in anticipation as the gathered crowd waited patiently for the race to start. ‘This’ll be easy, against these two losers, there’s no way I can lose!’ She thought to herself, snapping back to the task at hand only seconds before Fluttershy waved the checkered flag, signaling that the race had begun.

Rainbow Dash threw herself forward, giving a powerful flap of her small wings, and the race was on! She felt a slight bump as she passed Fluttershy’s cloud, but her mind was on the race, and she focused on keeping up. This race wasn’t going to be the most difficult thing she’d ever done, but it wasn’t going to be a cakewalk by any means; If she took these two lightly she could easily lose the race.

‘I need to pull ahead as soon as I can, get an ear-’ the thought was interrupted before it was even finished when Rainbow heard a scream. Quickly, she whipped her head around to see who it was coming from, and to her horror, she saw Fluttershy. She was screaming. And she was falling. Making a split second decision, she pulled a beautiful U-turn, rushing towards the plummeting pony. This race may have been important, but she’d never forgive herself if she didn’t save her friend.

Looking back to see what all the commotion was about and seeing nothing but the blur of a retreating rainbow, one of the other racers let out a grating laugh. “Hah! Looks like Rainbow Crash is chicken!” He barely managed to finish the sentence before he ran headlong into a cloud.

The crowd watched with mild confusion as Rainbow Dash became a blur to their eyes - but in the wrong direction. She ignored the occasional jeering question from the crowd as she raced downwards, pushing herself to her limits. Even as she folded in her wings and dropped, she had a terrible feeling she couldn’t make it in time. Watching the flailing yellow limbs below her, tears welled up in her eyes. Her friend was falling to a certain death, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Just as she was about to give up hope some part of her that had been previously been silent spoke up, ‘Is this really it? are you going to let your best friend die, just like that?’ She blinked back the tears, her face once more a mask of determination as she sped like a majestic rainbow bullet. “NO!” She yelled, in answer to her own mental pep talk. She tucked in everything she could, feeling speed like she’d never felt before, but not enjoying it; how could she right now? She constantly was gaining air on Fluttershy, but she could see that it still wouldn’t be enough. She could only see one way out of this situation. Rainbow opened her mouth to yell, praying she was close enough that Fluttershy would hear her.

Fluttershy’s eyes were clamped tightly shut, her screams having died away long ago, to be replaced by an almost silent sobbing. She didn’t know much about the ground but there were two things she did know. The ground was very hard, and she was falling very fast. She knew what happened when something very fast hit something very hard and she horrified to even think about it. ‘Well, there are worse ways to go...” She thought dejectedly, but for some reason, she had a large amount of trouble thinking of one right now. “Fluttershy!........... wings!” Her eyes flew open as she heard the snippets of voice from above, and her ears perked up sharply.

Rainbow inwardly celebrated. She knew she was close enough to get through to Fluttershy now, although it appeared that she hadn’t heard her completely. She yelled again knowing that they were running out of time, “Fluttershy! Open your wings! You have to fly!”

Fluttershy blanched when she heard the whole of Rainbow’s plea. ‘I have no idea to fly, and now probably isn’t the best time to be learning!’ She thought, and was surprised at how angry she was about it, especially at a time like this. “Please! J-just try! You have to try!” This time she heard a catch in Rainbow’s voice. As she looked back, she could see a trail of tears streaking off of her friend’s face, and they just kept coming, no matter how hard Dash tried to stop them. Fluttershy closed her eyes and took a deep breath, feeling the wind whip through her hair. She tried to be as calm as she could, her breathing steady, but she could still feel her heart pounding in her chest. She imitated the way Rainbow was currently falling, and she felt herself drop like a rock. The feeling of the wind blowing against her face was far from terrifying... in fact, it was exhilarating! Now she understood why so many ponies loved to fly, it was different than anything she’d ever imagined.

Dash continued to drop, looking down in hope as she saw Fluttershy pull herself in tight, dropping just like she was. “You can do it Fluttershy.... I know you can...” She whispered quietly to herself. Her eyes widened as she saw Fluttershy’s wings begin to unfurl, and she held her breath, knowing everything was out of her hooves now.

Fluttershy extended her wings slowly, not used to the unfamiliar feeling of the wind blowing through them. She thought back to the countless times she’d watched Rainbow Dash practicing, and she tried to remember how she would come out of a freefall. As she extended her wings, she slowly pulled out of her dive, wobbling, as she glided slowly. Now that she tried flying, she was amazed to find how breathtaking it really was.

Rainbow Dash let out a yell of victory, seeing Fluttershy pull out of her free-fall no more than twenty meters from the ground. ‘She’s actually flying! I can’t believe it!’ She thought ecstatically, making a beeline for Fluttershy. Not sure how long the flimsy pony would be able to continue flying for, she quickly caught up, and Fluttershy turned to her, “I’m flying! I’m actually flying!” Fluttershy missed a beat and fell, but was quickly caught by Rainbow Dash, who gave her a quick grin as she began to fly upwards.

“Yeah.... you sure were.”

Rainbow let out a sigh of relief as she alighted back up on the clouds, Fluttershy shakily stepping off of her back. Dash was exhausted, both mentally and physically. This ordeal had been unexpectedly, the most taxing she’d ever dealt with. The race was the furthest thing from her mind at this point, as ponies began to gather around the two fillies. most of them looked at her with a look of awe, having expected the meek yellow pony to be done for when she fell..

“Th-that was a nice job out there, Rainbow Cra- I mean, Dash.” Dash turned to see the two bullies from earlier, looking, in what Dash assumed was a first for them, somewhat respectful.

“I was just doing what I thought I needed to.” She said with an air of superiority to her voice, which she was quick to try and cover up, “But Fluttershy here, she’s the one who really did a good job, she actually flew!” At this, all of the gathered ponies went suddenly silent, and focused their collective gaze on Fluttershy. This pony, who couldn’t fly to have her life had, well, flown to save her life!

Fluttershy cowered under the gaze, but Rainbow was quickly by her side, “It’s alright Fluttershy, you did something pretty great down there, you’ve gotta expect some attention.” “W-well.... If you say so...” Fluttershy stood up slowly, still not making eye contact with any of the ponies, but she wasn’t fainting, and that’s more than could’ve been said had she been put in the same situation a day before.

“Y’know Fluttershy... I think you could be a really great flier someday, maybe even as great as me!” Rainbow Dash said, nudging Fluttershy in the side.

“R-really?” Fluttershy asked meekly.

“Of course! You and me, we’re gonna be the greatest fliers in all of Equestria!” Fluttershy wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about that prospect, but she was getting the feeling that she might rather enjoy it, after all that had happened today. Looking over at Rainbow Dash, she caught something out of the corner of her eye.

“R-rainbow Dash! Y-y-your flank!”

“What’s wrong?!” Dash turned her head quickly, looking back at her previously blank flank. Now, where there had once been nothing, there sat a white twinkle of light that dissolved into an array of colors at its edges; it was somehow inspiring simply to look at. “Wow.....” Rainbow Dash sat awed, admiring her new cutie mark. “Fluttershy... it’s because of you that I have this. Thank you.” She said sincerely, causing Fluttershy’s cheeks to flush red.

“Oh, it was n-nothing.” She replied with an awkward grin. She could tell, things were going to be a lot different for her now, ‘I think I could get used to this whole “flying” thing.’ She thought to herself as her and Rainbow walked away from the crowd.

Chapter II - Ripples

The small freckled pony sat, staring longingly out of her window. She stared as if the simple act of hoping could give her a sign, that it could tell her what to do. She remembered her family back in Ponyville; She lived with her granny and her big brother, her parents were hardly around anymore. For that matter though, she wasn’t around either, as she was living with her aunt and uncle in Manehatten. At first, she’d loved the big city, living with her relatives. As time passed by though, she’d begun to regret leaving her home behind, and she began to wonder about her family. The Oranges lived the high class life, there was no doubt about that, but something just wasn’t there for her.

Applejack gave the long off town one last wistful glance, before she turned around and plodded away from the painful sight. She knew she’d adapt to the city life, eventually, but she had no idea how long that might take. Right now, she just wanted to see her family again, back at good old Sweet Apple Acres. She’d made a decision though, and she didn’t have the heart to tell her aunt and uncle she wanted to go back without a good reason.

“Applejack dear, you should start getting ready for the opera tonight.” She could hear her aunt’s voice ring throughout the residence, and she gave another heavy sigh.

“Ah’ll be re- I mean, I’ll be ready in just a bit.” She managed to catch herself. With a heavy heart, she trotted over to her dresser, picking out a simple green dress. She had to admit, as hard as it was to get used to ‘fancy talk’ and not being around her family, her aunt and uncle were kind, and very generous, just not quite in the way she was used to. Applejack rambled to herself as she touched up in her bedside mirror, “This was always mah dream.... I can’t let these first impressions scare me away.” She sounded unsure, as if she was trying to convince herself that what she was saying was true.

“Hurry up Applejack, or we’ll be late!” That was her uncle calling. She turned her back on the mirror, walking to the door of her room. She glanced back over her shoulder one last time, at the sun glinting off of Ponyville, before she turned her back on it, forever.

It had been a hard day on the rock farm, and it was as quiet as death. Pinkamena Diane Pie hated every day that she spent like this; it was silent, joyless work. She blew a stray strand of straight hair out of her eyes as she walked back towards the small shack that her family called a home. She wasn’t totally sure what they were having for dinner today, but she could guess it involved rocks. It was always rocks with her family, rock stew, rock steak, rock toys, rock powered lights. She’d actually always wondered how that last one worked, as they didn’t farm any kind of coal.

Pinkamena almost bumped right into her father as she considered how to get energy from solid granite. He was just leaving the shack to go into the silo, probably to get some rocks to make dinner with. “Hey da-” was as far as she got before he shushed her. She always hoped that one day, somepony would come and tell her that the no talking rule was all a big, horrible prank. Not surprisingly, nopony ever did.

Just a half hour later, her family was seated around the table, a “hearty” rock stew sitting in the center of the table. Before she could halfheartedly dish up a bowl for herself, Pinkamena’s father cleared his throat. ‘Is it finally time to talk? Is the silence finally over?’ Question’s raced through the filly’s head, her father spoke. “Pinkamena. I think it’s time your mother and I tell you something.” The sound of a voice was music to her ears, although her happiness was doused by what came next. “We’re going to be handing the farm over to you, someday soon.” Pinkamena’s face fell, although her parents seemed not to notice. This farm had been her prison for the last ten years of her life, and they wanted to keep her here forever? She wouldn’t stand for it. She listened to her father go on and on about what kind of responsibilities she’d have, but really, she wasn’t listening. She was planning.

After her father’s speech, the no talking rule had been reinstated, and after dinner was over, everyone went to bed, as per usual. ‘At least these aren’t made of rocks’ Pinkiamena thought as she lay awake on her bed, waiting for everypony else to be asleep. ‘Not so silent now, is it?’ The snores of her family were creating a quiet drone though the house as she slid like a pink shadow out of her bed. She crept towards the window, wincing as a floorboard creaked underhoof. She let out a sigh of relief as the snores continued, gathering herself before unlatching the window and throwing herself up onto the threshold. She gazed back with a tear in her eye as she thought of her sisters, who she cared for so dearly. Her head shook violently as she pushed the thought from her mind, turning back to the outdoors. ‘I can’t take them with me. from here on out, I’m on my own.’ A single drop could be heard splashing against the packed dirt outside as Pinkamena dropped from the window.

The small white unicorn stumbled as she walked back through the front door of her home. She’d been walking for over a day, ever since her horn had taken her to that rock. “Dumb rock...” She muttered under her breath as she went to inspect the costumes she had been making. Rarity knew they were lacking something, but she couldn’t put her hoof on what exactly it was. “It couldn’t be... rocks?.... No, of course not.”

Late into the night, Rarity slaved over the costumes for the school play. No matter what, she could never seem to get it to be quite as good as she wanted. “It just doesn’t have that certain flair...” She whined to herself, pulling the materials apart again, getting back to exactly where she had started. There had to be something they were missing, but she was still at a total loss to what it could be.

Rarity revisited her original plans, looking over them again. She examined each pattern in great detail, and realized something. These designs were all so simple, it was almost painful for her to look at now that she noticed it. She’d tried to cover up the simplicity by tacking on fancy stitches and random odds and ends, but it did little to hide the simplicity to the trained eye. “These outfits would have to be coated in gems just to make them look good!” Rarity exclaimed with a small amount of shock. That was it. A total redesign was needed, and it was needed tonight.

She set to work once more, tossing aside her old patterns and pulling up completely new pieces of paper to start over with. With gentle strokes of her pen she quickly had a basic outline, constructed of elegant swoops and complex stitching. When she was finished, she stepped back to take a breather, preparing herself for the steps to come. “Alright Rarity, you’re past the hard part, now there’s just assembly.” Her voice wavered as she said the word, but the determined look on her face stayed. The room quickly became a terrific storm of cloth and needles, a wild flurry of order and form flying around the small pony at it’s center.

Rarity exerted more magic power than she had ever before, knowing the costumes had to be ready the next day for rehearsals. The room glowed with magic as fabric was cut to size and laid onto mannequins, slowly but surely forming into distinct shapes. The costume that had originally been nothing but a flower petal around the head of a small filly was transformed into a complex outfit, with a series of vines and leaves branching off of the back, and a blossom real enough to trick a bee.

As the pieces fell into place like those of a majestic jigsaw puzzle, needle and thread came to the forefront of the creative symphony. The needles gracefully sewed along the seams of the outfits around the room, each stitch coming faster than the last. The haphazard pieces of cloth pulled towards each other, forming outfits that some of the best designers in Equestria would’ve had to stop and take a peek at.

The final stitches fell into place after some time; to Rarity it could’ve been ten minutes, or ten hours. All she knew was that she was done. She also knew she was tired, Oh so tired. So tired, in fact, that she passed out, right then and there. Floating snippets of cloth floated gently to the floor, contrasted by the flurry of tools that dropped with a clatter, turning the floor into a minefield of sharp and breakable objects. The outfits were marvelous, standing out as a pillar of order in the grime of a mess. They were everything that could’ve been asked for, and more.

Chapter III - Making a Magical Mockery

‘Nononononono, this can’t be happening, not now!’ Twilight Sparkle concentrated as hard as she could on the egg in front of her, but even with her eyes closed, she could feel the gaze of the examiners on her. It wasn’t a good feeling; it was a feeling of being judged, and very critically at that. No matter how hard she tried, for some reason, she wasn’t able to produce even a spark of magic. ‘I have to do something... or... or I’ll fail!” Failing. The one thing Twilight was truly afraid of.

‘I wish they would just say something, instead of being so quiet...’ Twilight knew she wasn’t wowing anypony, but there was hardly anything she could do about it. Normally, she was a veritable well of magic, but it was as if she’d just locked up. The oppressive silence in the room wasn’t helping, and beads of sweat rolled down Twilight’s face as she strained to have any kind of effect on the egg. She braced herself against the floor and focused; she was so close, but it there was a feeling as though something had put a cork in her magic.

She relaxed, catching her breath before another attempt. “Miss Sparkle.” The proctor’s voice caused her spine to go rigid, and she knew what was coming next. “Your display of magic was... less than impressive, to say the least.” Twilight let out a sigh. “It is with great regret that we inform you that we cannot admit you to Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns.” Well, that was it then. She wished they would just come out and say it instead of stepping around the facts; she’d messed up, and she knew it. ‘I had one chance to get into this school. And I blew it.’ Twilight hung her head, a combination of crushed dreams and embarrassment following her out of the room.

That night, Twilight lay awake on her bed. Her parents had tried to comfort her, but she had gone straight to her room when she got home, and hadn’t come out since. Even her big brother, normally able to console her in the face of any problem, was of no help. Her only spark of comfort came from smarty pants, the small doll that she clutched to her chest.The pillow beneath her head was stained with tears, but she’d long ago stopped crying. She’d drifted from the stage of disappointment and sadness to the stage of resignation and acceptance. She really wasn’t sure what she would do now, with her chances at the school squandered.

Twilight slipped out of bed, absentmindedly floating Smarty Pants alongside her. “Well, looks like the magic is back on again, at least.” She didn’t sound very relieved about it. She trotted slowly over to her desk, flipping through the pages of an open book, before slamming it shut. There wasn’t anything in there that could help her get back into the school, she knew that for sure. The sound of the book shutting echoed through her quiet room.

‘An open window, a breath of fresh air, that’s what I need.’ Twilight thought to herself. She walked over to the window, gently pushing it open letting the cool night air wash over her. The sky was clear, and a beautiful full moon shone amidst the twinkling stars. The familiar silhouette of a pony stood out against the smooth surface of the moon, “At least she doesn’t have to worry about getting into schools...” She let out another deep sigh. She looked at her clock, and realized it was already far past midnight. “I suppose I should get to sleep.” She accentuated her point with a yawn. It had been a long day, she might say the longest of her life, and she hadn’t realized just how tired it had made her.

Twilight swung herself onto the bed once more, pulling up the covers to her chin. She pulled Smarty Pants close, drying a tear or two that tried to form with the small doll. “I just wish.... I just wish today hadn’t happened...” Twilight closed her eyes, determined to escape to a world of dreams, where none of this would matter.

She could feel herself start to doze; her limbs became heavy and her mind began to wonder. Just before sleep enveloped her, she heard a noise. Her eyes flew open.She sat completely still. She listened for the noise, and heard it again. It sounded like a quiet whisper, but not from someone trying to go unnoticed; it was from someone a very long way away. “H-hello?” Twilight questioned the darkness. There was a reply, still quiet, but she could tell for sure it was a voice now.

Twilight slowly pushed her covers back, creeping to the edge of the bed. “Who’s... Who’s there?” She asked tentatively, still unsure if she was actually hearing anything. Once more, the voice could be heard, and this time, she could tell it was coming from outside. She stepped into the puddle of moonlight flooding through her window, and suddenly, the voice became as clear as that night’s sky.

“Listen closely, child.” Twilight looked up into the sky, where it seemed as if the voice was coming from. “I see much potential in you; you are far more powerful than anyone knows.” The strong and melodic voice flowed like the moonbeams that seemed to carry it.

“Who.... are you?” Twilight asked once more, eyes locked on the moon.

“Me? I am the most powerful pony ever to have set foot in Equestria; I am the Mare in the Moon; I am Nightmare Moon.” The voice stated with a small hint of pride in its title and name.

“Nightmare Moon....” Twilight let unfamiliar name tumble from her lips.

“Yes child, that is my name.” The voice continued on in its soothing tones, calming Twilight even in the face of something so strange.

“N-not to sound impolite but... why are you talking to me?” Twilight asked, a genuine tone of wonder. ‘I’m talking to the mare in the moon! THE mare in the moon! I always knew There had to be a pony up there! Twilight one, naysayers zero.’ She thought with satisfaction, waiting patiently for a reply from this mysterious being.

“I speak to you, Twilight Sparkle, because I see not what you are, but what you could be. I can teach you to harness your powerful magic, and become the pony you were destined to be. All that you must do, my dear child, allow yourself to be taught.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up, shining in the moonlight. “O-of course! When can we start?” The filly was filled with so much anticipation she could hardly stand still.

“It’s quite simple.” Nightmare Moon began, “All I require of you, child, is that you leave your home, and come to the ruins of old Canterlot, deep in the Everfree Forest.” Even this voice couldn’t soften the blow those words dealt to Twilight’s enthusiasm.

“You mean.... I have to leave Cadence? My parents? And.... and my brother?” Tears edged to the surface of her eyes once again; she’d lost track of how many times she’d cried today.

“Hush, child. You may feel the pain of separation now,” A twinge of empathy could be felt as much as heard in the mare’s voice, “but the pain will fade, and I will care for you as if you were my own child.” Twilight sniffed, wiping the tears from her watering eyes.

“I.... I want to learn.... but isn’t there another way? There has to be another way....”

“There is no other way, I am sorry, child.” Nightmare Moon’s voice was dripping with regret, “You can stay with your family, or you can come learn from me and surpass the power of even Celestia. The choice is yours.” When presented with options such as those, she found that the choice practically made itself. As much as she loved her family, the offer of such magic was something that she couldn’t turn down.

“I... I’ll do it...” She said after a long consideration, her voice flat and joyless.

“Good. Take only what you need, child, and hurry, the night grows short.”

Twilight slung her uninteresting saddlebag over her back, sighing as she shifted through the books covering her desk. She tucked away a few of her favorites such as ‘Starswirl the Bearded’s theory of magic’, ‘The Magical Method’, and a few other odds and ends, such as her quills and scrolls. Just as she was about to leave her room, she looked back at her bed, and the small homemade doll sitting there. She walked slowly back over to Smarty Pants, slowly picking her up and tucking her in with the books. “There’s no way I’d leave you, you know that.”

Twilight crept slowly down the stairs of her house with a look of grim determination on her face. A sharp pang of guilt jabbed into her as she walked past her parents’ room. “I should at least leave a note, shouldn’t I?” She asked herself. She trotted into the kitchen where her family always kept a notepad and quill, quickly tearing off a sheet and picking up the ink soaked quill. She began to write:

Dear Mom and Dad,

I know you’re worried about me, and you must be wondering where I am. Please, please don’t worry. I’ve gone off to learn magic, from someone who doesn’t require an entrance exam, and won’t turn me away. I love you both so, so much, and I don’t want either of you to fear for my safety. As for Shining, just tell him one thing. He’ll always be my BBBFF.

Sincerely, Your loving daughter, Twilight Sparkle

P.S. I’m going to miss you all so much. Goodbye...

As Twilight finished, tears ran down her face onto the note, smearing the letters. She quickly returned the quill to where it belonged, sliding the note onto the table in the middle of the kitchen. Nightmare Moon was waiting, she was sure, but it was so hard to say goodbye to her life on such short notice. She walked slowly to the front door, taking in the sight of her house for what she was sure would be the last time. She opened the door, pausing in the door-frame to look back at the family portrait in the entryway. She quickly turned away, stepping out onto the street. “Lead the way, teacher...” She said halfheartedly, softly closing the door on everything she knew.

Chapter IV - A Junction of Sorrowful Souls

Ponyville. It had been years since Pinkamena had seen the small town. She’d been on her own that whole time, wandering, looking for a place where she belonged. So far, she hadn’t been able to find one. She’d found not a single pony who was willing to take her in; who was willing to try and make her smile. A smile. It’d been so long since she’d had one. She wasn’t even sure she could remember how to do it by now. She tried. Nope. Nothing. She let out a sigh before walking into the town before her. It was just the way she remembered it from when she had some here to sell rocks as a child. Even on a dark night like tonight, it was a vibrant explosion of color on the landscape.

It almost made her happy to see the town again, but she couldn’t bring herself to talk to any of the ponies there. In fact, she tried her best to avoid being seen altogether. As much as she wanted to talk to one of these ponies that might know her, she knew it was far too risky a chance to take. She was still a few years away from being an adult, and she was fairly sure that anypony who recognized her would tell her family, and she was not going back to them; not while they were on that rock farm. “Will I ever find somewhere to belong?” Pinkamena muttered to herself, drearily trotting through the town. She wasn’t sure where she was going to go next. She’d pick a road, she’d follow it for a time, and then she’d pick a direction and walk. She’d walk as far as she had to if it meant the possibility of a place to call home.

She’d been walking for a good half hour now, and she knew exactly where she was. It was as if the place hadn’t changed at all in five years, she could hardly believe how much everything seemed to be the same. There was a road coming up. She knew where it went. The Everfree Forest was at the end of that road. She’d only heard stories about it, about ponies disappearing, and about things that shouldn’t exist existing. She’d never really been scared of it, she’d just never had a reason to go there, especially not when she’d been told not to by so many ponies. Now she had a reason to go in there. She was looking for something, and she didn’t know where it might be, and she wasn’t sure if anypony actually lived in that forest, but it was worth a shot. As she came to the place where that road split off, she stopped, taking a deep breath. She set off down the path.

As she plodded ever onwards down the trail, she reminisced about all the years since she’d left her home. She’d found food where she could, she’d slept under the stars almost every night. She looked up at the sky now, thinking about how constant it was, and how it never abandoned her or turned away. The twinkling night was always there for her, even when other ponies were not; it had become her family, and the moon had become her best friend. A tree blocked her vision. She jumped when she looked back down and found herself right on the edge of the Everfree Forest, Ponyville far behind her.

She took a step into the thick trees, and the shadows seemed to engulf her. She blinked, letting her eyes adjust to the dull light that filtered through the canopy of trees, and she could see a pathway that was falling into disuse, surrounded by thick trunks on all sides. “Nothing to do but go forward.” She said glumly, keeping her eyes on the ground in front of her as she walked towards the center of the forest. She tried to keep her eyes ahead for two reasons. First, she wanted to see where she was going. Second, she didn’t want to see where everything else was going. She was sure there were things moving around out there, and she didn’t really want to know what they were. Her imagination took on that job for her though, and every flickering shadow seemed a beast, waiting to pounce, every tree branch blowing in the wind seemed a limb reaching to grab.

Suddenly, there was a noise. It could’ve been a twig snapping, it could’ve been leaves rustling in the wind. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that it was a sudden, startling noise. Pinkamena bolted, practically flying away from the sound. She sprinted, weaving between trees and ducking under low branches, not considering that this flat out run would draw more attention to her than just about anything else she could do. She was scared; she was terrified; and she knew that she’d been lying to herself when she said she wasn’t. There was a reason ponies didn’t go into the forest. It whittled away at you, it got inside your head, and it wasn’t too long before it made you see and hear things, things that were there one second, gone the next.

Suddenly, she burst from the trees. Suddenly, there was a cliff. Suddenly, she ground to a halt. She looked down as her front hooves rested right on the edge. She couldn’t see anything but cliff and fog down there. “That was a bit too close for comfort...” She muttered, sitting promptly down on her rear. Now that she wasn’t teetering over certain death, she had time to look around, and take in everything.

The chasm stretched about as far as she could see in either direction, before it curved away, seeming to wrap around the piece of land in the middle. Trees were behind her, and, across the chasm, in front of her. Other than the chasm, the only thing she saw that was of even minor interest was a rope bridge. It looked as rickety as they come, and she wasn’t sure she trusted it to hold a mouse, let alone a pony.

Pinkamena pulled herself to her hooves, trotting over to the bridge. Looking across it, she saw a bright flash of light from the middle of the forest further on. “What could that be....” She asked herself, determined to find out. Placing one hoof on the first plank of the bridge, she pushed down. It was surprisingly sturdy, the board not showing any signs of bending. She tentatively stepped out onto the bridge, still stepping softly, just to make sure it was safe. As she placed her weight on the board, it creaked, but didn’t give. Pinkamena let out a sigh of relief, slowly stepping form board to board.

It took Pinkamena a couple of minutes to get across, and she relaxed when she was finally on firm ground again, realizing how tense she had been. She looked down over the cliff, thinking what could’ve happened if just one of the planks in the bridge had been too weak. Her morbid thoughts were interrupted as a bright flash of light came from behind her, and she turned towards the source of it, reminded of why she’d crossed the bridge in the first place. A path away from the bridge, back into the woods, and in the direction that the lights were coming from. “Well, isn’t that just perfect...” Pinkamena muttered as she followed the path back into the trees.

As she walked, she noticed the flashes of light getting more frequent. Instead flashing every five minutes or so like it had been when she'd first seen it, it was now lighting up the sky at least once a minute. Pinkamena wasn’t entirely sure, but she thought the flashes were getting brighter as well, which made her stop to think. Did she really want to meet whatever it was that was making these flashes happen? Yes, she decided, she did want to meet whatever it was. Those flashes of light had gotten her curious, and curiosity was something that she still found hard to contain. It probably wasn’t the best idea to continue down a trail towards something she could tell was immensely powerful, but she just couldn’t help herself.

After walking for about ten minutes, the trees began to clear up, and she could see the trees thin just ahead. The flashes of light too, were just ahead, coming from somewhere very close-by. As Pinkamena broke free of the treeline, she was stunned by what she saw. Another steep cliff sat directly in front of her, but far more interesting was what rested on the very edge of that cliff. A palace. A palace sat there, built entirely out of grey stone, and as smooth as if it had just been built. Flashes of light periodically lit up the windows, and Pinkamena had to rub her eyes to make sure she was actually seeing this. Sure enough, it was there.

Pinkamena cautiously approached the towering structure. “I’m sure somepony would’ve mentioned a place like this in the middle of the forest, wouldn’t they?” She asked herself, bringing herself to wonder how many ponies had actually seen this grand structure that lay before her. “Alright. Find where flashes are coming from. Check. Find out why flashes are happening. Not so check.” She sighed, knowing that she’d need to get even closer if she wanted to know anything about what was going on. She walked up the the large doorway that led inside, taking a deep breath before peeking around the corner.

Inside, there was a large chamber, seeming to take up most of the structure. It was mostly bare, except for a few patterns decorating the floor. At the far end of the room, there was a raised platform that had what appeared to be a very limited planetarium on it. There were five spheres all attached to arms, seemingly at random heights and distances from the center. Far more interesting than all this though, was what was currently occurring in this room.

There was an orb of purple light floating in the middle of the room, pulsing every so often and emitting a blinding light. It was a miniature star on the night sky of the darkness. Within it, the silhouette of a pony drifted, her hair floating calmly in all directions, her body tense. She was a unicorn, and couldn’t be much more than a teenager, by the look of her body. As Pinkamena peeked her head around the corner. The floating pony’s head whipped around, and she stared directly at Pinkamena. At this, Pinkamena quickly hid once more behind the door frame, trying to make herself hidden.

The orb drifted gently downwards, shrinking as it descended. As the star shrunk, the mare’s deep purple hair began to fall flat, hanging down straight as it left the confines of the orb. As she lightly touched down on the ground, the light shrank into her horn, which glowed for a second before the light faded into nothingness. She had a dark lavender coat, with exceptionally dark purple hair, with only a streak of pink breaking the pattern. Her hair was particularly long, extending almost to the floor, cut back in the front to reveal her eyes. She uninterestedly walked towards where she had noticed the pink pony.

“Hiding won’t do you any good now that I know you’re there.” She said flatly, her voice containing about as much emotion as your average brick. Slowly, Pinkamena walked out from behind door frame, looking nervous. “What are you doing here?” The unicorn questioned, her voice continuing its single tone path. “I, uh, I just wanted to see what all that light was about...” Pinkamena mumbled. “Oh. that.” the unicorn droned. “That was just practice. A beacon spell.” She said matter of factly, before turning quickly and walking away.

“But wait! Who... who are you?” Pinkamena asked, unsure what to make of this mysterious mare.

“I am Twilight Sparkle, the most powerful unicorn in Equestria.” There was no tone of pride in this statement, only the surety that comes with declaring a fact. Twilight looked back and Pinkamena, “You’d do well to remember that.” Pinkamena shivered at the coldness in Twilight’s purple eyes.

‘I know I don’t often feel anything happy anymore... but.... she looks like she doesn’t often feel anything at all.’ she thought to herself. “I’m Pinkamena Diane Pie, but you can just call me Pinka-”

“No time for that. The night is drawing closer to its end, and I still have much to go over with my teacher.” Twilight turned quickly, her hair creating a graceful arc, and walked back to the center of the room. “Well, at least let me ask this. Do you mind if I stay here?” Twilight offered up a slight shrug. “Do what you will, it doesn’t matter to me as long as you stay out of my way during the night.”

‘What a strange pony...’ Pinkamena thought to herself, already settling down in a corner to sleep the night away. ‘I get to sleep in a place like this though, so I’m not complaining.’ She scratched behind her ear and yawned, closing her eyes and preparing for the best sleep that she’d had in months.

Chapter V - Taking Flight

This was it. Today was finally the day. Rainbow Dash could hardly contain herself as she prepared to head out to the Ponyville Stadium; it was really just some stands to the side of a field, but everyone called it a stadium.

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is actually happening!” She did one last check through her bags to make sure that she had everything. Goggles? Check. Book, in case there was a wait period? Check. Enough bits to buy lunch with? Check. “Looks like that’s everything I’ll be needing.” She trotted towards the door of her home in the clouds, but stopped in her tracks. “Fluttershy. Not so check.” She winced at the realization that she’d almost forgotten her friend, the friend who she had said could sleep in. “Why in Equestria did I do that? I should’ve known I wouldn’t remember.” She put a hoof to her forehead, sighing.

“Of all days, today just HAD to be the day that I sleep in.” Rainbow Dash was to the door in seconds, turning on the spot as she left her house and shooting towards the cottage where Fluttershy had taken up residence. She’d already been pushing it, but to get to the airfield on time now, she’d need to break some records. Fluttershy’s house was and all, but compared to everything else, it was so out of the way that it took time to reach. That was some time Rainbow didn’t have right now. Straining her wings, she pushed out an extra burst of speed, grimacing at the strain. “I’m not going to miss this chance, and I’m not going to let Fluttershy miss this chance, just because I slept in!”

Setting an impressive pace as she flew over Ponyville, Rainbow pushed herself even harder as she closed on the Everfree Forest. dodging to the right of the main path, she skimmed over a patch of tall grass as the cottage came into view. Putting out her hooves to brace herself, she touched down, sliding across the empty yard of Fluttershy’s home. She looked sheepishly at the grass she had torn up with her landing, before deciding that there were more important things to worry about right now.

“Fluttershy! We need to get going!” Rainbow reached a hoof up to knock on the door, but before she got the chance, the door swung open. There was Fluttershy, completely ready, and looking as confident as ever. “Wha... how are you...” Rainbow muttered breathlessly.

“I’ve been flying with you for eight years, Rainbow, I was pretty sure you wouldn’t be on time, so I got ready for when you finally did show up.” Rainbow Dash blushed, embarrassed that she had such a reputation for being late.

“Whatever, that doesn’t matter now. We’ve got something like five minutes before we’re supposed to be there, and ready. That means we need to start flying right NOW.” Without waiting for a reply, Dash took to the skies, leaving nothing but a cloud of dust on Fluttershy’s welcoming doormat.

Fluttershy shook her head. She’d always been amazed by how well Rainbow seemed to take control of a situation, even when things were going wrong. She might not be punctual, but she was a good leader. Quickly, she pushed off the ground, flaring her wings out to catch a gust on the breezy day. She was quickly picked up, giving a few flaps to get herself going. She quickly picked up speed, gaining slightly on Rainbow Dash, who was waiting for her to catch up.

“C’mon, we’ll be late if we don’t pick up the pace!” With that, Dash was a streak off into the distance. Rainbow looked back to see that this had produced the desired effect, as Fluttershy was straining as hard as she could to catch up to Rainbow now. It almost felt cruel, knowing that Fluttershy couldn’t catch up, but if it would get them to the field faster, it was worth it. She looked forward again in time to just barely dodge a tree. “That’s it, I’ve gotta focus on what’s in front of me.” Despite this, she found herself looking back to check on Fluttershy every once in awhile, to make sure that she was still following.

At this point, the field was just coming into view. Ponies were already starting to file out onto field, many dressed in tacky jumpsuits. “Fluttershy, see that door down there?” She pointed a hoof down towards a double door on the side of one set of stands. “Just aim for that.” She shouted over her shoulder, hoping Fluttershy got the message.

Rainbow banked sharply, folding in her wings and dropping. She watched the ground carefully, opening them at the last possible second, her hooves skimming across the top of the grass. Looking ahead, she gave a flap of her wings, maintaining the altitude to make it through the fortunately open door. She landed quickly, dashing to the nearest free locker and unshouldering her bag, tossing it quickly into the metal box. She heard a rush of air and turned to see a heavily breathing Fluttershy land just a few feet from her. “Hurry up and find a locker, and get ready to go out there.” Rainbow reached into her bag, fishing out her all important flight goggles, slipping them over her head so that they hung around her neck.

“Are... are you sure we can do this?” Fluttershy asked quietly, her confidence beginning to waver.

“Fluttershy, there’s no way we can lose. The two of us are something special out there; we’re in a different league than those ponies out there.” Rainbow could see that hadn’t had the desired effect. “Look. Just trust me on this, you’ll do great out there.” She said, her voice flat and serious. At this, Fluttershy visibly stood taller, her eyes regaining some of their surety.

“Thanks... I... I really needed that.” Fluttershy said softly, before sliding her goggles down from where they rested on her forehead.

“Now, let’s get out there and kick some tail!” Rainbow had come back down from one of her serious moments, and was ready for some action. Practically Dragging fluttershy out of the smooth tiled room, she dashed out onto the field. “What’s this? Who could this last minute entrance be?” The announcer asked excitedly. “It’s the new local team, The Thunderbirds!” He drew out the last syllable, somehow multiplying the crowd’s excitement.

“You hear that Fluttershy? They’re cheering for us.” She placed a hoof on the yellow pony’s shoulder. “They’re cheering for you.”

“For... me?” Fluttershy asked, acting as though the idea was a completely foreign one.

“Yeah, for you. They all can’t wait to see how much better you’ve gotten at this.” The yellow pony looked around, seeing the crowd in a new light. She was soon interrupted from her reverie by the sharp whistle of the official, as the first team was called. “Will the Supreme Swallows please take the field.” He announced through a megaphone. Three pegasi in tattered brown and black outfits walked out into the middle of the field. All the other teams, including Rainbow and Fluttershy, were led back to the locker room to wait for their turn. It was a strict policy in this kind of competition that the contestants do not see the performances of those that go before them, to keep idea theft to a minimum. In theory, it wasn’t a bad idea, but in practice, it created a lot of bored pegasi.

Truth be told, it wasn’t the almost showing up late that was the really killer. It was the waiting. Team after team, the other ponies were called out onto the field to the roars of a modest crowd. Each team only took a few minute before they headed to the sidelines, benching themselves until the competition was over. To Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash though, it felt like hours. The wait dragged on, and each round of cheering they heard from outside slowly chipped away at their confidence. Rainbow Dash kept acting as sure as ever, mostly for Fluttershy’s sake, but she found that her own confidence was slowly beginning to wane. ‘If we have to wait much longer, one of us is going to lose our nerve...’ She thought to herself, pacing around the locker room.

By this point, only two teams remained. Apart from the Thunderbirds, another group of five ponies was also scattered around the room. The Red Condors seemed very independent from each other, as each occupied themselves at different corners of the room. Looking around, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help be feel disappointed in their sense of comradery this close to the competition. “A team should be spending this time together... Building each other up for what they’re about to do.” She mumbled under her breath. “These ponies though....” Rainbow jumped as the official poked his head into the room.

“Condors. Hurry up and get out here.” The five ponies looked at each other, making a dash to be the first out the door. In their haste, two of them actually collided in mid-air, flapping dazedly through the door.

Rainbow Dash sighed, laying face up on one of the benches, her front hooves dangling down to the hard floor. “Did you see the way they just acted? There’s no way they stand a chance of doing anything out there.” Fluttershy nodded in silent agreement, obviously having a resurgence of her old stage fright. “Don’t sweat this Shy, you’ll do just fine out there, like I told you earlier. You’re a great flier, you might even be better than me.” Dash wasn’t quite sure if that last bit was the truth, but what harm could it do to make her friend all that much more confident in herself.

“You.... You’re right Rainbow. I’ll do my best.” Fluttershy’s voice hardened as she regained some resolve, her shoulders moving from a hunched and shy position to a point where she stood tall and ready, if not confident.

“That’s the attitude. You just have to believe in yourself.” Rainbow said as she placed a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “All you need to do is trust that you can do something, and you’ll be able to do it.” Fluttershy smiled nervously at Rainbow Dash.

“Believe... Believe... I CAN do this.” She said proudly, her nervousness starting to fade altogether.

“Thunderbirds, you’re up next!” The official's shout came. Rainbow flashed Fluttershy a confident smile. “Let’s go knock some horseshoes off.” As Fluttershy walked up next to her, the two of them nodded at each other. Rainbow pulled her goggles up from around her neck, placing them firmly over her eyes, while Fluttershy tapped hers, letting them drop down onto her nose. With that, the two of them walked out of the doors, onto the field, and into the bright, windy day.

There was an expectant silence from the gathered ponies, a patient air about them as the announcer introduced the final group, the Thunderbirds. The two ponies’ eyes were invisible through the glare of the sunlight off of their goggles, and compared to the other groups, their nonexistent uniforms made them seem somewhat drab and uninteresting. They were all about to be in for a big surprise.

Rainbow gave Fluttershy a confident grin as the two of them flapped up into the air. As soon as they reached the starting altitude, ten meters off of the ground, the official blew the whistle, signaling that their time had started. The two of them looked to each other. “Remember, just like we practiced.” Rainbow Dash whispered before giving a powerful flap of her wings, she launched off from the starting position. Fluttershy inhaled deeply, calming herself, and following suit, flapping off in the opposite direction. Though nervous, she flew with all the grace that her swan feather cutie mark could afford her, pulling up as smoothly as a pegasus could ever hope for.

The two of them curved upwards, slowly tilting backwards. Flying a large arc, the two of them flapped steadily to gain altitude, sloping up until they looked straight to the sky. They kept tilting though, continuing their circular arcs as they began to near the turning point of the circle. Time seemed to slow as the two of them passed daringly close to each other, the feathers of their wingtips brushing as they reached the top of their loop. Picking up speed, they began their downward swoop, both arcing towards their point of origin. As the two of them whizzed through the air. Speeding up, the two of them blurred past their origin, pulling their wings close to their bodies and executing a flawless corkscrew, spinning over and over again as they slowly neared the ground below.

At the last second, both ponies flared out one wing, using the drag to pivot themselves back around, the other wing shooting out from their bodies to halt the turn. Bracing themselves, both ponies gave a mighty flap of their wings, launching themselves headlong at each other. Moving with blinding speed, the two of them avoided another near collision, the awareness of both ponies as to the location of their partner leaving the crowd in awed silence. The kind of coordination that these two had was something that took more than hours of practice, it took a kind of connection between teammates that only comes along once in a very long while. Even the other contestants looked on in stunned amazement.

Quickly pulling up after passing each other, the two ponies flew straight for the sky, backs mere feet apart. Both moved to their right in unison, faking a counterclockwise rotation before doubling back. Moving counter-clockwise, the two of them began a corkscrew, flying up into the air as they revolved with grace and speed. The higher to duo flew, the tighter the corkscrew became, the beating wings of the two only inches apart, and drawing ever nearer.

As their feathers scraped against each other, high above the stadium, Rainbow Dash opened her mouth “Remember, this next part has to be perfect, or we’ll be in serious trouble.” She reminded Fluttershy, who gave a simple nod in response to the warning. Breathing deeply, Rainbow Dash closed her eyes for a second, waiting until she could feel Fluttershy’s back against hers. “Now!” She gave the command, and the two of them clasped hooves, their wings folding to their sides. She could feel Fluttershy shaking, although her nervousness didn’t show. “It’s alright Fluttershy, we’ve practiced this a million times.” She consoled as they began to lose speed, the rush of wind through past their ears quieting to a soft whisper.

The duo hung in the sky for a few seconds, and each was sure that she could hear her own heart beating in the peaceful silence. A confused murmur came up from the crowd below, the ponies being completely unsure about what to expect. “This is it.” Rainbow Dash muttered, the two of them leaning to the side in unison, flipping the formation over so that their noses pointed a path straight towards the ground below. Gravity began to work its magic as they began to plummet through the sky. They began to rotate like a giant drill, slowly at first, but picking up speed as the wind whipped by them. The two distinct figures began to blur into one, a large spinning cone that flashed yellow and blue faster than the eye could follow.

The ponies below let out a collective gasp as they saw this act of daring do, leaving the other contestants baffled. This gasp of awe quickly turned into cries of worry, as the pair continued their rotating course, getting closer to the ground and showing no signs of stopping. The two created a swirling path through the air as they reached top speed, whistling loudly as they plummeted. The two were only 50 feet from the ground; Then they were 30; Then 20; Then 15; Then 10. At the last possible second, the kicked off from each other. In a split second, the colorful drill mutated into two ponies zipping away from the point where they had been less than a second away from impacting the ground. Quickly twisting from the upside-down position they had ended up in when the kicked off, they quickly righted themselves skimming the ground before pulling a quick pivot, turning on a bit. The two of them spread their wings in such a way as to stop their backwards motion, using the air that rushed by them to slow their glide.

Both of the drifted down to the ground, still going considerably fast, a perfect four-point contact that resulted him them sliding for a good distance before they came to a stop. The crowd was silent. The Thunderbirds panted heavily. The crowd cheered. Rainbow Dash looked around, seeing all the ponies that were cheering for what THEY had just done. She looked to Fluttershy then, and saw a look of self-confidence on her face; it was the kind of confidence that came from within, not from the urging and encouragement of a friend. Before long, her eyes were drawn to the bench where the other teams were sitting. Rainbow Dash was shocked to see that a good deal of them; at least half of them; were actually cheering for her! Had they really been that impressive?

After the cheering died down, all of the fliers returned to the locker room to cool off. The judges were still trying to ‘decide’ who’d won, but most of the crowd already had their opinion firmly in place of who the winners were. To most of them, it seemed nothing but a formality that the judges should even have to meet.

In the locker room, the Thunderbirds were getting some congratulations, along with some dirty looks. When one of those dirty looks was coming from a stallion in pink and brown spandex though, it didn’t quite seem to have the same effect as one might expect. “You were really something out there Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash said when the two of them were in a relatively quiet corner of the room. “I mean, we really cut that last maneuver close, but-” She was cut off quite suddenly by silky voice from around the corner.

“Both of you were ‘really something’ out there.” A white unicorn stepped around the corner, and beamed at them. “I’m Rarity, Darlings, I run a fashion company that started right here in this little town.” She explained.

“Aaaaaand?” Rainbow Dash asked, impatient for this pony to get to the point.

“I’m not the real focus right now though, I’m here to talk about you two.” Rarity quickly explained. “Me and one of my close friends had decided to come back to Ponyville for a bit. See the sights again, you know the thing. When we heard that there was a flight contest going on, I just couldn’t pass up the chance to see it. We don’t have many of those out in Manehatten, so we thought we’d check one out.” She rambled. “It’d been absolutely foooooooreeeeev-”

“Yeah, yeah, forever, get to the point.” Rainbow Dash cut in, sounding a tad bit impatient.

“Oh, yes, yes, of course. In short, we saw your act out there. We’ve never seen anything that combines grace and daring in quite that way. We can tell you’re going places, and we want to be the ones to help you get there. Let us be your sponsors.”

Chapter VI - A Day in a Star's Life

Twilight stood out on the balcony of the castle, looking out at the sunrise. She hadn’t slept a wink last night; she hardly ever did. At night, sleep cut into time with her teacher, something that was an unacceptable side effect. On the other hand, during the day, she needed the time to practice what she’d learned the night before, making sure she’d be ready to move onto something bigger and better by the time night fell again. Some nights, she managed an hour or two of sleep, although it had no effect on her seemingly solemn demeanor. New moons, the one time that she had time for a full night’s sleep, seemed to be the only time that she showed any signs of being happy, let alone possessing emotions. After any night with a new moon, she would always wake up feeling happy, though it never lasted long. The next morning, she would, without fail, be back to her old emotionless self.

Twilight turned, her lengthy but well groomed hair billowing in the gentle morning breeze as she strode back into the stone building, preparing to start her morning routine. First, was the building of the castle. She stalked through the barren hallways of the place that she called home, eventually reaching the circular central room of the castle, containing a vaulted roof and a small circle in the middle. As she stepped onto the circle, a perfect portrayal of her cutie mark, two overlapping six pointed stars, shone brightly under her hooves.

Her eyes were shut tight, her hooves gripping the floor as she concentrated. She took several slow breaths, leveling out her breathing to a slow, steady pace. Standing at this point made her feel as if she were part of the castle. When she was here, she could use the walls as her eyes and ears, she could tell everything that was going on inside the castle, simply by letting her magic flow through the veins of the building.

Twilight gave a heavy grunt of exertion, the circle below her glowing more brightly, some of the glow flowing up into the eight pillars around the room that went all the way up to the vaulted roof. From here, the light traveled from each of the pillars into a blunt spike on the top of the building, causing that to glow with energy. With little warning, the spike discharged its magical payload, shooting a bolt of lightning up into the air, narrowly missing a passing cloud. The flow of magic up the pillars ground to a halt as Twilight found the balance between the strength and amount of magic that was so important when casting large scale magic. Slowly, she opened her eyes, now two glowing orbs of white as she gritted her teeth, focusing on the base of the building. Slowly, the entire castle began to shudder, before suddenly lurching upwards, stopping just as fast. A fresh new layer of bricks had been added to the bottom of the castle, pulling themselves out of the ground as if by magic.

Relaxing, Twilight’s eyes closed again, opening to once more display a aloofness that few eyes could manage. As she was leaving the room, she staggered catching herself on the door frame. As she steadied herself, she once again mused about how much it took out of her to do this, although it had gotten easier with time. When she’d first started building the castle like this, she remembered fainting the moment she took a step. She’d made a lot of progress since that point, she knew, but she needed to make more if she wanted to meet Nightmare Moon’s standards.

After having time to gain a fairly certain grip on herself, Twilight stood again, shaking her head as she walked back into the halls. Her next stop would have to be the mess hall; she might be able to abstain from sleep, but it’s much harder to replace food with magic than it is sleep. She sincerely hoped that today was one of the days that Pinkamena had woken up early and decided to make breakfast. The pink pony’s cooking skills were more than respectable, when she decided to make herself useful and make up meals for the two of them.

Twilight finally arrived at the kitchen, finding it dark and odorless. She gave a soft sigh as she struck up a flame using her magic, lighting the candles around the room. Before long, the air was full of ingredients, each and every one surrounded by a purple aura. Cracking a few shells and floating some lettuce down to the table, Twilight supervised her magic’s beating of eggs and chopping of vegetables. It wasn’t long before she had a modest plate of scrambled eggs and salad prepared for herself.

Twilight’s eating went to autopilot as she sat down, all the utensils floating quickly back to their places, allowing her a moment of rest in the middle of her busy, exhausting schedule. Her mind wandered back to the night before, remembering the hint that her teacher had slipped her. Some big landmark in her apprenticeship was coming, and if the way Nightmare Moon had talked about it was any indicator, it was coming soon. She had no idea what it could be, but she had a feeling it was going to be important for the future of her apprenticeship. Whatever it ended up being, she was going to make sure to do it right, and do it well. Twilight knew what Nightmare Moon thought of failure, and the mere thought of it sent shivers down her spine. It was a good thing that she never failed, most other ponies couldn’t have made it through even a year of learning under such an unforgiving pony.

Nightmare Moon had been lenient enough at first, to be sure, but as the months passed, she grew more strict, and less tolerant. She’d imposed rules for all their lessons, and eventually guidelines for each day. Quickly, a rule against emotions during lessons had been levied, in order to create a more efficient learning environment. As the years dragged on, this behavior began to seep into her normal life, and before long she was emotionless from dusk to dusk. She still felt of course, she felt the same emotions as everypony else, but she didn’t show that she felt. Her face was always solemn, and her eyes were unreadable, causing the few ponies she interacted with to tread carefully around her.

She surfaced from her thoughts as she reached to grab another bite, finding only air and an empty plate before her. Letting out a small sigh, her picked up the plate, an intense light shining around it. As the light faded, the plate drifted ever so slowly down, spotless and sparkling as it touched gently down on the table. Checking the clock on the wall, she found that she’d spent more time in the kitchen than she’d meant to, setting off at a brisk trot for the exit to the forest. The castle towered of the countryside now, a long, convoluted stairway leading down to ground level where the rest of the castle seemed as if it were still growing, like a plant, out of the soil.

Opting to leave the stairs unused, Twilight quickly teleported from landing to landing, skipping over entire flights of stairs at a time as she shaved down her journey to the front of the castle. After only a few purple flashes of light, she stood at the base of the stairs, where they ran straight into the dirt. As of yet, the castle had no gate, or outer walls for that matter. Twilight still had far to go, she knew, before the project would be complete. Two more stories would be built onto the orderly mess of the main building, after which walls would rise out of the perimeter. Then, at last, her project that had stretched on for years would be complete.

Stepping out of the tilled grass of the castle grounds, and into the forest, she forced her mind to refocus. It was time for training, and if there was anything you needed to focus on while practicing, it was magic. If you didn’t control it, magic could hurt you, or even kill you. Most ponies didn’t even try to perform the kinds of magic that carried such risks, but Twilight was working with spells that were the standard for a ruler of Equestria one thousand years ago. These kinds of spells could not only kill you if done carelessly, they could wipe every particle of your being from existence. This was one of the reasons that Nightmare Moon tried to keep her student emotionless; emotions could kill when handling magic of such a high caliber. Twilight took a deep breath, having arrived at her normal training ground. A once peaceful meadow was scarred by the remnants of sessions gone by, the ground charred and blackened, while some rocks supported plant-life and still others seemed to be completely transparent.

Today, she was going to practice a kind of magic that she’d dabbled with before, but never tried to truly make use of. Today, she was working with the mighty force of electricity. Sure, she knew how to make a spark, how to stun somepony with a shock, but just the night before, her teacher had taught her how to really use that power. Just the night before, she’d learned to create lightning

Her eyes shut calmly, her breathing even as she focused on what she’d been taught. “Step one: Feel the power.” She repeated to herself, opening herself to the air around her, and the electricity she’d been told was laying dormant everywhere, even in her own body. Gaining a sense for how the current flowed through the air, she used her magic to slowly manipulate the flow of the electricity, making sure that it all flowed towards her. “Step two: Collect the power.” The hair of her coat stood on end as it flowed into her, keeping her breathing calm and steady. As she gathered more power, pulling it from the air around her is a whirlwind of energy, the charge began to build. It started off as nothing more than a spark, a small noise coming along with the blue speck of light that quickly died. Before long though, Twilight’s body was coursing with the charge, blue arcs bouncing from one point to another irregularly. It wasn’t enough yet though, and Twilight knew it. She continued to siphon her power out of the air, trying to remain calm as she felt the arcs hopping from point to point on her body, a feeling that slowly became sharper and more intense. By the time she opened her eyes, having collected all the latent energy that she could muster, her body was crackling with blue streaks of light, constantly jumping from one point to another, an aura of arcing light. “Step three: release.”

Everything was silent except the sound of her slow exhalation and the crackle of crackle of electricity. Bracing herself, she slid a hoof forward, turning to point herself towards a burnt tree, a favorite target of hers.

The sparks disappeared from her body.

Her horn glowed a bright blue.

With a sudden flash of light, everything exploded at once. A searing blue bolt shot with pinpoint accuracy from the tip of Twilight’s horn, striking the very center of her target. At the same time, a clap of thunder nearly blew out Twilight’s eardrums, and the shock-wave from it sent her tumbling backwards, the bolt having been loosed. She rolled along the ground a good ways before getting her feet under her, still sliding a few more feet before grinding to a halt.

After such a bright light, it took Twilight’s eyes a moment to adjust, and when they did, she looked to the tree. She looked to a smouldering stump where the tree had been standing, just a moment before, at least.

Another flash shook the forest, and left Twilight panting. She’d been at it all day, and she’d greatly improved, much to the dismay of the trees. There was a certain trick to it that had taken her some time to catch on to, a trick that helped to eliminate the explosive recoil she’d experienced with her first few shots. The secret to lightning was relaxation. If you were tense, if you resisted, it would jolt you. But, if you relaxed and simply let the energy flow through you, it would exit, smoothly and quickly, damaging only the target. To be sure, she still stumbled every once in awhile, but more often than not, she had smoothness and accuracy on her side.

All around the clearing where she trained, there were smouldering stumps, splintered wood coating the grassy ground. The sun was just beginning to drop behind the hills, painting the sky a brilliant orange and making the clouds appear a dull violet. “Time to head home...” Twilight muttered, turning away from the scene of destruction behind her. The true nature of magic was so much more destructive than she’d ever imagined, and sometimes she couldn’t help but think that there must be better uses for it.

Twilight could already feel her teacher’s presence as she walked back to the castle, even before the sun set. It seemed to be happening earlier and earlier with each passing day; when she’d come here eight years before, Nightmare moon had been little but a voice, now she appeared every night, in a form Twilight would’ve sworn was tangible, even as it flickered and faded away into the daylight. Was it that she was getting stronger, or was Twilight just getting more attuned to her?

The unicorn shrugged, pushing the thought from her mind as she arrived back at the castle she’d built for herself, climbing the stairs. Part of being emotionless meant not having random thoughts, thoughts that didn’t matter. Her teacher knew if she was having thoughts that didn’t matter, something that had quickly stopped her tendency to daydream, or nightdream, as it were.

Twilight climbed the last flight of stairs, finding herself in front of the cathedral like structure that topped the whole thing; the only structure that had been there when she had started. She passed Pinkamena on the way in, giving her a sidelong glance when she called out “Good evening Twilight.” In that friendly but subdued voice that she always seemed to use. Twilight hardly paid her any attention anymore, she’d become more a feature of the castle than another pony to talk to. Of course, Pinkamena was the closest thing she had to a friend these days, and she still acted friendly even while she was being ignored.

Past where Pinkamena sat absentmindedly drawing on the floor while she waited to observe the lesson, was Nightmare Moon. Her almost completely opaque form looked just as menacing as ever as Twilight approached her, bowing low. Nightmare Moon nodded acknowledgement, motioning for her student to stand. “Tonight, I have a treat for you, my faithful student.” Twilight had been anticipating this, and worked to keep her emotions in check as Nightmare Moon paused.

“A special task, one that you must complete if you wish to receive any more training from me.” She sounded far more serious now, her voice losing any kindness it had held. Twilight closed her eyes, wrestling her emotions to the back of her mind. “I need you to show me how much you want to learn.” Twilight heard nothing but her teacher’s words. “I need you to kill.”

A lock slid heavily into place.

"Who?"

Chapter VII - Sponsoring the Skies

The sun flowed in through the uncovered window, casting a bright glare across the messy bed inside the room. Applejack shielded her eyes as she pushed back the covers, slipping out of the bed and landing softly on the floor, before giving a large yawn. She stretched, letting out a satisfied sigh as she saw that everything was in working order, before standing tall. Walking to her wardrobe, she rifled through the contents, quickly deciding on one of her more casual, yet still formal jackets. She slung the jacket over her shoulders, taking a moment to push her legs through the holes, before straightening out the fabric.

Applejack was almost ready, taking a moment to run a brush through her hair, letting it hang freely as she shook out the odd kink. Turning to her hat stand, she caught sight of a certain hat and turned away. She didn’t really need a hat today after all, she decided, quickly distancing herself from the hat. She couldn’t stand to be near that thing; her father’s old stenson that her parents had sent her, but she couldn’t stand to put it away either. It was the last thing she’d ever gotten from her parents, and letting it go felt like letting them go.

Every time she looked at that hat, she saw the two of them, smiling like they always had. They’d sent her this hat, and just weeks later she got the letter. Just weeks later, she’d learned that they were dead. With it being just as big of a harvest as ever, and them had one less pony to help them with it, they overworked themselves, and they were too stubborn to stop, even when they were told to. They’d skipped meals, and sometimes worked the the point of passing out, and yet they still kept trying. They were good at what they did, to be sure, but sometimes, you just couldn’t be good enough. Sometimes, a job was just too big.

Applejack had cried for hours when she’d gotten the news. She hadn’t seen them since she had come to Manehattan, but they’d written to her almost every week. They’d been the thing that made her want to go home more than anything else, and now they were the thing that drove her away. Deep down, she knew why they’d died. It was her fault. She’d left, them, and the harvest that they’d always done together ended up being too much for them. She couldn’t go back and face that guilt, so she didn’t go back at all. The hat was reminder enough for her of what had happened, and some days, even that was almost too much to bear.

She quickly left her apartment, taking a brisk run down the stairs to clear her mind. It was only a few floors, after all, and a morning jog always seemed to do her good. She hurried through the lobby of the building, checking the clock as she ran. She had some time to make up for, and so she was happy to see that there were a few taxis waiting right outside. She ran over, opening the door to one of the yellow carriages and shutting the door behind her.

“If you can get me to the Carousel Fashion in the next fifteen minutes, I’ll pay double.”

“Late, late, late, late!” Applejack dashed out of the cab, taking a moment to decipher the outward opening nature of the door on the large building she’d just gotten to. “Rarity’s going to kill me if I’m late for another meeting.” Looking around the lobby, she found that, to her dismay, the stairs were once again the only option for climbing the tall building. The stairs wound up dauntingly as she stepped into the stairwell, looking up with a sigh. “Nothing for it...” She muttered as she started to ascend, her hooves clattering loudly against the hard stairs.

“Fluttershy, pick up the pace! We’re already running late!” Applejack’s ears perked up at the sound of another voice from below, and she could hear the sound of hooves quickly gaining on her.

“Fluttershy... Where’ve I heard that name before?” Applejack asked herself, just as a blue streak rushed past her, taking two stairs at a time.

“‘Scuse me, we’re running a bit late!” The blur said apologetically as it bumped against Applejack, whose mind was quickly piecing things together. Fast blue pony, together with a ‘Fluttershy’.... These had to be the ponies they were meeting today.

Halfway up the building by now, Applejack looked to where she could see Rainbow Dash, with a floor lead and gaining. “Oh no you don’t!” She called, a grin spreading across her face as her body sprung into action, her pace changing from a quick trot to an all out gallop. If she could get there before Rainbow Dash, she wouldn’t be late!

“You’ll have to move faster than that, slowpoke!” Rainbow called down the stairs behind her, only to watch as Applejack strained with effort, and began to make up ground. Rainbow’s wings started to unfold, but she shook her head, and pulled them back tight to her body, “Let’s keep this nice and fair.” She chuckled to herself as she started to push her body harder. Applejack had made up the one floor disadvantage, but was clearly starting to tire from pushing herself so hard- she wasn’t in as good shape as she’d been back in the day.

“I...I’m not about to lose that easy.” She gasped out, looking up to see there were only a few floors left to go, if she could just keep up the pace. Her muscles were already starting to burn as she bounded up step after step, just able to keep pace with Rainbow Dash. Rounding the last corner, they were neck in neck- That is, until Applejack stumbled.

Rainbow Dash whirled, pushing her shoulder under Applejack to catch her with a grunt. “Oof.... Shouldn’t push yourself so hard, you know.” Dash said as she helped the pony get her balance back, walking with her up the last flight of stairs to the floor both of them were going to.

“Not as spry as I used to be, that’s for sure...” Applejack muttered through gritted teeth, her chest heaving as she tried to get her breath back.

“You want to pay for us to fly?”

“Of course. If you’d seen yourselves, you’d want to pay you to fly too.” Said the well dressed, yet slightly out of breath orange pony.

“All you have to do, is let us provide you with your flight-suits, and maybe give us a shout-out at your shows. Now doesn’t that sound easy?” Rarity said, grinning. The contract was laid out on the table between them, with a quill primed and ready at the bottom. There were two spaces for signatures, but so far, neither one of them was filled.

Rainbow held out a hoof as Fluttershy reached for the quill, motioning for her to hold off on signing so quickly. “Might sound easy, but things like this are never quite that simple.”

“Clever pony.” Commented Applejack, leaning forward in her seat. “What can we do to make the contract a bit more... appealing?”

It was a few hours later that the flying pair walked out of the building, having hammered out a deal that Dash found to be satisfactory, and had gotten an uncertain nod of approval from Fluttershy. Once they’d settled it, the two of them had been fitted for flight suits, ones which, oddly enough, had already been designed, as if waiting for the two of them. The suits were a light blue, with nice white feather patterning, and happened to be stuffed in the brand new saddlebags to two carried, both of which were plastered with the Carousel Fashion logo.

“I’d say we came out of that on top, wouldn’t you?” Dash said with a grin as she gave Fluttershy a playful nudge.

“Y-yeah, we got a good deal...” Fluttershy half-agreed, half-returning Dash’s grin. In truth, she’d been a bit lost by most of the negotiations that had gone on, but Rainbow had handled it all rather well. All Fluttershy knew was that they were going to get paid a rather large amount of bits to fly up in Cloudsdale, and around the country.

Chapter VIII - Making it Big

"Ready to go out there?"

"Don't you think these flight-suits are a bit tight? I can hardly breath..."

"They're supposed to be like that- they keep you sleek and slim."

"If you say so..."

"Now come on, we were supposed to start a few minutes ago... don't want to be late for our first show."

As the two stepped out onto the launch platform, it was easy to see that their sponsors had done their job, and done it well. Within a matter of months, they'd managed to get enough ponies interested in the duo to fill up an entire flight stadium in Cloudsdale, and then some, hyping the pair up as: "The greatest fliers since the Wonderbolts." Interviews with ponies who had seen their earlier performance plastered the ads, drawing both hopefuls and skeptics to the show.

"There really are a lot of ponies out there... watching us..." Fluttershy blanched, looking around at the crowd. Even Rainbow Dash, with her seemingly endless confidence, couldn't quite keep her nerves down.

"Yeah... more than we've ever preformed for before, that's for sure. Don't worry though Fluttershy, we'll be fine." She tried to sound as certain as she could, but the movement of her hooves betrayed the tension as she idly scratched at the cloud she was standing on.

The announcer's voice startled her as it come on over the sound system, "Today, we've got a very special treat for all of you fans out there. The first professional performance of the newest flight team out there, the Thunderbirds!"

"That would be our cue." Rainbow Dash gave her partner a nudge, before the two of them took off, wings beating heavily.

"Remind me what we're doing up here Twilight?" Pinkamena asked nervously, constantly looking down as her hooves settled into the fluffy white with each step.

I already told you, it's for my studies." Twilight snapped back, starting to becoming more than a little exasperated with the pink pony. "No one said you had to come." That kept her quiet for a moment. She'd taken to going places with Twilight, simply for the fact that she didn't know what else to do. She had her talent, of course- she'd discovered it in the years before she'd met Twilight, on her travels. It'd been just another lonely day, looking for somewhere she belonged, when she stumbled upon a pony even more distraught than she was. The small foal had been crying, alone on the streets, going unnoticed by all. Pinkamena had asked why the foal was crying. She'd explained, through sniffles and sobs, that it was her birthday, but she'd lost her balloon, and shortly after, had gotten lost from her parents. Pinkamena checked her bags, nodding as she trotted away, seeming not to care, just as every other pony on the road did. Having returned to her crying, the foal looked up when she heard the sound of approaching hoofsteps, being met with the sight of the long haired pink pony holding a balloon, her parents in tow. As Pinkamena handed over those blue and yellow balloons, ones that had come out of her own meager pool of bits, the look of joy on the face of the foal was indescribable to her- it gave her the warmest feeling she'd ever felt. Her cutie mark came with that, a spitting image of the balloons she'd delivered, though she was never quite sure what it meant. Whatever it was, there was no use she could find for it- nothing that would bring in enough bits to sustain her, and she'd eventually given up hope that she ever would.

Instead, Pinkie clung tightly to the only friend that she had in the world, Twilight Sparkle. It was far from a mutual friendship, but the unicorn let her stay with her, travel with her, and even had deep conversations with her, on occasion, a real heart to heart. Of course, she'd been far colder as of a few months ago... but she was sure that phase would pass, and that Twilight would be back to the friend she'd always been.

"I just wanted to know what we were going to do, Twi..." She replied after a long pause.

"Stop calling me that." Twilight snapped, straightening up a bit as she continued to speak. "We're going to a stunt show. In fact, we're here now." She said, walking up to the ticket booth. "Two tickets for the... Thunderbirds." She said, checking what the current show was.

"Sorry miss, all sol-"

I said two tickets." Twilight fished in her bags for a moment, before she was able to float out a rather large amount of bits, slipping them through the glass. "The extra is a tip. Take it, and go home." She said, not even bothering to wait for her ticket before walking inside.

Pinkamena followed close behind her, looking out at the weaving blurs of the two pegasi over the crowd whenever she got the chance. The stands were packed, Twilight simply leading her to a place in the aisle where they could see most of the stadium from. "Nice day." Twilight said quietly, eying the blue pony, watching her every movement.

"She's a great flier, isn't she?" Pinkamena said, watching how the blue pegasus looped and dived, never being anything less than graceful. It wasn't hard to see how all the Pegasi around them could get so enthralled, coming time and time again to see tricks like this.

"Great... such a gift she has there..." Twilight murmured, speaking mostly to herself as she perfectly followed Rainbow Dash's movements with her head.

The two of them sat in silence for a long while, in the middle of the loud crowd, watching. One watched in awestruck silence, while the other watched, and waited. "That's long enough." Twilight said, getting to her hooves and stretching, looking back at Pinkamena. "I've got something to take care of now." Her manner was abrupt as she turned, walking down the steps in the center of the isle towards the stadium.

Pinkamena was left to think, pondering how this had anything to do with her studies. Then it clicked. One word, a word she'd heard uttered a few months before. Her eyes widened as she knew what was about to happen, bounding down the stairs to stand infront of Twilight.

"I know what's going on... you don't have to do this..."

"You're wrong. I do."

"But... this... this isn't you! The Twilight I know would never do this."

"Prehaps I'm not the Twilight you know. Get out of the way Pinkamena. Leave."

"No, not unle-"

There was a sudden sharp noise, and Pinkamena felt a stinging in her cheek as she stumbled to the side, Twilight pulling her hoof back from the slap she'd just delivered. "I said, leave. I won't take your next refusal so lightly."

Pinkamena just watched as Twilight walked by, her eyes watering lightly as she walked back the way she'd come. Seeing the ponies in the crowd, all so happy, all cheering, she knew she had to do something. Turning to a couple, she pleaded with them to leave. They stared at her as if she were crazy. They all did. Not a single pony listened to her. She left alone, helpless to do anything.

"Now that she's out of the way..." Twilight muttered, a few ponies finally taking note of her as she reached the rim of the stadium, looking down over the edge. With barely a moment's hesitation, she stepped out over the edge.

Her horn shone brightly as she caught herself, the base of each of her hooves glowing for a moment as she stabilized, walking on the air as if it were a floor. Even the sound of her hooves against a surface was there, despite walking on what was simply air. She had the crowd's attention now, all eyes locked on the powerful unicorn.

The performers had noticed too. "What in the world...?" Rainbow Dash muttered to herself, pulling her flight goggles down around her neck as she ground to a halt, looking down at the lavender pony below her. Fluttershy was stopped a small distance away from Dash, and Dash motioned for her to stay where she was as she descended to Twilight's level, wings flapping slowly to keep her floating there. "What do you think you're doing?"

Studying."

"What? What are you talking about? I think we nee-"

"I'm doing what my teacher told me. Isn't that how you got good at flying?" She asked, raising a brow at the pegasus.

"Of course... there's no way I could've learned everything on my own..."

"And you also had tests, yes?"

"Yes... We had to show that we were good enough at one thing, before we could learn the next... I still don't get how all this is supposed to make sense..."

"You should understand how I feel then... and why I have to do this." Twilight's horn glowed for but a second, a pulse of purple light flashing through the clouds that she'd been standing on not two minutes before.

Then, everything exploded.