//------------------------------// // Chapter One: Train of Thought // Story: Equestrian Concepts // by Achaian //------------------------------// Chapter One Train of Thought, Part 1 Ditzy yawned. She was sprawled out in her bed, eyes closed against the still air of the morning. It was early, or it felt early as she lay back in her bed, thinking about the coming day, her mailmare route, and how she was going to spend time with Dinky, who was growing up entirely too fast in Ditzy’s opinion. She had almost completed her first year of school and had become fast friends with a few others. It was a chore at times, keeping up with Dinky’s schooling and a full-time job, but it was worth it. Dinky was the most adorable foal Ditzy had ever seen, and she was a welcome distraction from the rest of her life, yet—something didn’t feel right. Stretching, Ditzy turned over, facing the window and opening her eyes for the first time that day, blinking rapidly and squinting to clear the morning haze from her eyes. The world outside was moving! With a yelp, Ditzy haphazardly rolled off of the bed and onto the floor, landing on a wing and bruising it slightly. A… metal floor? Oh. Then she remembered. My vacation, of course. Ditzy was on vacation, or rather on the way to her vacation. She was on a train to Canterlot in one of the first class passenger cars. Ditzy had immediately noticed the fine upholstery, with furnishings including a dresser, wrought iron lamps, silk curtains, and a mess of other livery that she could not identify. Normally Ditzy didn’t care for anything that fancy, but how she had gotten a first class ticket is another story entirely. Rolling upright, Ditzy realized she had landed on her back, and glanced about quickly before she let out a nervous laugh when she realized that she was in a private car, after all, and nopony had seen her clumsiness. Rubbing the sore spot on her wing, Ditzy wished that whoever had designed the car had had the foresight to include carpeted floors, or even wooden ones. Oh well, can’t have it all. Ditzy grinned as she got back in her bed, savoring the silk sheets. She had to admit to herself she could see why some ponies took vacations as often as possible. It’s nice to get away, if only for a while. Ditzy was headed to the coast, for a week of peaceful exploration and relaxation on the beaches. Canterlot was a stopping place on the way. Ditzy had never spent any significant time there, and the train was going to stop there for a day and a night to resupply. Ditzy hadn’t wanted to take a vacation initially, but after everything that had happened, she thought she needed it. Especially after the incident with Discord. Ditzy shuddered and pulled the sheets tighter, suppressing an urge to fall through vivid memory. Things had gotten quite interesting after the last year and a half in Ponyville, after Twilight Sparkle, the new librarian and personal protégé to Celestia had arrived. It wasn’t that she didn’t like her—Twilight alone had significantly increased the mailmare’s business in Ponyville by the sheer number of books she ordered and she was nice when she wasn’t impatiently awaiting a delivery—but she brought along quite a bit of excitement that occasionally crossed into all-out mayhem. Anything from Nightmare Moon to Parasprites. And then, of course, there had been Discord and his special visit to her, his special malice. Ditzy slammed her eyes shut. What Discord had done to her memories was not something she would want or try to recollect. Action replaced thought to give her a moment’s peace as she rolled back out of bed with slightly more grace. When she had gone to request a vacation, it hadn’t surprised her that nearly a month of free time had piled up. Admitting to herself that she needed a vacation was easier than she had expected. The trauma had made it necessary. So what am I supposed to do before the train gets there? Ditzy recalled her lone regret as the train rumbled softly under her hooves. She had opted not to take Dinky along, but school was far too important. Unbidden on the trails of that thought, the last few weeks began to press in on her surprising good mood. Ditzy hadn’t expected to improve quickly, and had suppressed thoughts that she might not improve at all, yet the new sights and new purpose had granted her some small reprieve. It wasn’t all bad the last few weeks. I can’t forget that. Ditzy opened a window and let the wind roll over her, through her blonde mane as she stretched her wings and felt the warm air run through her feathers. “Aaaahhh…” It always felt amazing to wake up to thermals under your wings; it was something only pegasi could truly appreciate. Can’t I do this every morning? “Room service!” Ditzy hopped slightly and let the wind carry her over to the rear of the car. “Come in!” The waitress entered, a young earth pony with a cinnamon-brown coat and a stark white mane. Ditzy smiled as soon as she looked at the cart. Toast, bagels, orange juice, an absolutely delicious looking assortment of fruit and flowers, eggs, coffee, and a muffin. Ditzy gave a slight shudder and closed her eyes as she struggled not to overreact to the sight. Some things are best left forgotten… Not here, not now. This is the time to get away. “Something wrong, miss? Would you like anything?” Her eyes popped back open as her mouth assumed her characteristic smile so often previously absent. “I’d like some of these!” she said, conveniently avoiding pointing at the muffin. As she opened her eyes, the waitress started slightly as she noticed Ditzy’s eyes, but regained her composure, and her smile, extremely quickly. The waitress continued to smile while serving Ditzy, but it didn’t look real to Ditzy. It was a tired smile: It spoke of long hours, low pay, and a dead-end career. After many years of getting fake smiles, nervous excuses, curious glances, and downright irritated stares aimed at her eyes, Ditzy had become unusually perceptive about reading facial expression and body language. It pained her at times, to see some ponies looking at her so, but she bore on anyways. After all, Ditzy thought as the waitress continued to the next cabin, it does get better as long as you try. Ditzy wouldn’t have dared thought something so optimistic before, but the last week had been strange. And despite the strangeness of it all, it ended well enough. Ditzy leaned out of a window and recalled the events of that previous week, the encounters before she had set off. She found that a smile sneaked onto her face as she did, a warm indication of her bettering mood. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Ditzy had never recognized the significance of the fact that she was the only mailmare in Ponyville until she had tried to leave, if only for a week’s respite. A little known fact about the mail service in Equestria is that both the mail service and the weather pegasi are part of a larger organization—the Avian Corps. Ditzy had to request that a spare pegasus come train for the week prior to her vacation. Being a mailmare was a lot of work, and it took a thorough understanding of both routes and various mailmare know-how. Theoretically an earth pony or unicorn could do it, but due to the occasional floating house, such as Rainbow Dash’s, that position quickly became more trouble than its worth. Speaking of Rainbow Dash… Dash herself was not far off from Ditzy’s house, and she watched with a fair degree of caution as Dash meandered closer. Ditzy had scheduled the replacement pegasus to meet her just outside her house, and she hadn’t particularly hoped that Rainbow Dash would be the one to show up. Ditzy felt a slight disappointment—she had hoped for someone that would take the job, well, more seriously, and Dash had the unfortunate habit of lounging on clouds and more than occasionally going too fast for her own benefit. After meeting, Ditzy had planned to head over to the small office that served the mail needs for Ponyville and the surrounding area. Ditzy paused as she saw Dinky jumping up and down just inside the window, waving goodbye to her mom. Dinky was just adorable to her and— “Hey Derpy! Has, um…” Dash glanced around conspiratorially. “Has Daring Do and the Legend of the Crystal Kingdom come in yet? Twilight was, uh, wondering about it.” Funny that you would be ashamed of that, and not anything else. Ditzy shook her head no and Dash looked slightly disappointed. Dash had usually gotten her books at Twilight’s library, but some light teasing at the eggheaded rate that Dash had consumed the Daring Do series had her preferring to do things more discreetly. It was obvious to Ditzy what was going on, but she spared Dash the awkwardness. Ditzy had never expected Dash to be secretive—she was usually very brash, not caring much for the consequences of her actions. “Come on, Derpy! I’ll race you to the office!” “No, wait—” Dash took off without waiting for a response and Ditzy covered her face with her hoof. She had wanted to talk about the job a bit before they started, but Dash had already vanished into the cloud cover. Sighing, she did her best to keep up with the impetuous polychromatic pegasus. Being a mailmare wasn’t an easy job; Ditzy had to carry around quite a large load of letters all day and she didn’t want to tire herself out just getting to the office. To add to her usual load, she also had to supervise Rainbow Dash and hope she was paying enough attention to get through the week. Ditzy sighed to herself as she arrived at the office to see Rainbow Dash trying to put on a mail-saddle backwards. She should do fine, it’s only a week. Despite her reassurances, Ditzy could not shake her own doubts. Rainbow Dash managed to hold a steady job as a weather worker, how hard would it be to get her to switch to something a little more mundane for a week? Ditzy had a much, much harder time reassuring herself five days later. “Letters misdelivered, packages unsent, some were even found in an apple tree! We simply cannot accept this level of incompetence…” Ditzy sighed inwardly as Mayor Mare continued her tirade. She was beginning to get tired of being shouted at and yelled down when she opened her mouth. It wasn’t like she was used to it or constantly being reprimanded for her mistakes, or hearing, every day, her errors expounded upon by most ponies within sight of whatever she had somehow managed to break or anything else gone wrong. I just hope she’ll realize whose fault this is when Dash messes this up. Rainbow Dash had been terrible during her training, constantly staying ahead of Ditzy while only half-listening to instructions. She seemed to have neither the inclination nor the ability to move at an appropriate pace. Near the end of the last shift, Dash had actually managed to lose Ditzy, only to be found later sleeping in an apple tree. At least she hadn’t decided to take a nap on a cloud where everyone could see her slacking off. Ditzy had then returned to the office and braced herself for the coming storm of complaints and damages. She hadn’t expected it to be quite this bad, though. Dash had managed to make almost as many mistakes as the first time Ditzy had worked in the mail service, and that was a major accomplishment for someone whose eyes functioned normally. Every day it had gotten worse, with the mayor coming in to vocalize an increasing number of complaints. Ditzy didn’t even want to think about how bad it would be when she wasn’t around to manage Rainbow Dash. Ditzy regained her presence of mind just as Mayor Mare ran out of breath. “I was training somepony to cover for me during my vacation,” Ditzy said tentatively with a tired look. Looking slightly mollified, Mayor Mare set back, glanced around, scolded Ditzy one last time about how she should be more careful, and left. As soon as the door to the cramped mail office slammed shut, Ditzy let her head swing forth and hit the wooden desk, too distracted by her frustrations to notice the pain. She hadn’t been insistent enough the last couple days to actually tell the mayor that, but the yelling had never been so grinding either. Growling, Ditzy set her head upon her hooves and contemplated a speck on the wall directly across from her. She was sick of being treated like a child, but perhaps once Rainbow Dash finally realized how difficult this job was and finally took it seriously Ditzy could start to change her own reputation. If only they knew how hard I tried; they get all the benefits and I get nothing. She needed patience, just a bit of patience, just a bit of protection against the slow degradation of her mind, recession back into that state of repressive solitude that had consumed her before Twilight had come to town. She was mostly lonely, and while some other ponies were respectful, they seemed to not much care for her or for conversing with her. Others were downright mean to Ditzy, including Rainbow Dash at times. It was particularly irking that the other Elements were, at a minimum, kind to Ditzy while Dash continued to be rather rude at times. At least she had Dinky, who was a constant joy to be around. She was creative and imaginative: in the mind of a foal, anything was possible and the world was a shining place of wonder and happiness. Dinky gave her a purpose besides simple being, a new perspective on life that was fresh and innervating. She hardly noticed the flight home or even getting into bed, stopping to give Dinky a hug and a soft kiss on the forehead before retiring to troubled sleep. The next morning after a long and only marginally satisfactory sleep, Ditzy woke up with a grim determined feeling, knowing full well the magnitude of the task she faced. She had to get Rainbow Dash to fly the route, not quickly, not hastily, but slowly and carefully. Not racing, not attempting to pull off a sonic rainboom backwards, and definitely not stopping to take naps on clouds or in apple trees when she thought nopony was looking. This in particular irked Ditzy, whose hard work she thought deserved recognition but went unrecognized for the most part. Ditzy stepped outside to see Dash trying to see how many clouds she could hit in a single dive. When Dash eventually noticed Ditzy waiting for her, she pirouetted and landed stylishly in front of Ditzy. Ditzy gave her a flat expression and Dash seemed to deflate, if only slightly. “Did ya see that? Pretty awesome, right?” Dash said, energized and ready to launch into the air again. “Yeah, I guess.” Ditzy spoke without emotion and with a face that betrayed nothing, even, leveled, and calm. Dash’s expression became one of slightly awkward nervousness at the hinted disapproval and change in attitude, and looked away. Before, Ditzy had been alternatively laughing, smiling, or frowning—mostly frowning at the mess Dash had made in the few seconds that Dash had actually paid attention to Ditzy. Ditzy was still strangely unenthused, so Dash then dealt with things that challenged her in the way Dash dealt with most of her problems—by ignoring them and flying much, much faster than they could. A few hours later Ditzy found herself cleaning up the letters that Dash had carelessly stuffed into a mailbox. With a look that spoke of quiet determination, Ditzy had followed Dash around the route, repairing the almost hopeless mess that Dash had made. When Ditzy finally got back to the office, she found that Dash had already left, leaving her to face the inevitable complaints about the things she had missed. Ditzy didn’t normally get lots of complaints, even with her usual mistakes, which some ponies had accepted after realizing her disability. An attentive few, including Twilight Sparkle and most of the other elements that resided in Ponyville recognized that Ditzy was a hard worker and more than what her eyes told everypony else. Rarity had even offered to take care of Dinky during Ditzy’s vacation. Ditzy had happily accepted, knowing that Dinky would have a great time with Sweetie Belle and the other fillies that made up the notorious Crusaders, as they called themselves. It was surprising that Rarity would offer such a favor to somepony she only knew as an acquaintance. Probably why she has the Element of Generosity. It sure did take a lot to keep a small horde of rambunctious fillies under control, among her other pursuits. Ditzy moved through the office carefully, taking note of what Dash had misplaced in her haste and lack of caution. As far as Ditzy could tell, Dash was the only element that held a degrading view of Ditzy, that Ditzy was a hopeless clutz with little to no emotional depth. A truly unfortunate number of ponies had that view of Ditzy, but she had learned to deal with these troubles as they came, as she had learned to tolerate the rantings of the usual complainers. Admittedly, she hadn’t tried her best to get to know everypony in Ponyville, but that had changed when Dinky had started her schooling and Twilight Sparkle set up shop in the library. The complainers would take longer to stop, and it was wearing on Ditzy that Dash failed to emphasize with her when all of the other Elements did. And she was going to have to deal with Dash again tomorrow, and all the trouble that she would cause while Ditzy was gone, and all the angry ponies, and the mayor, and there would be no end to the— No. Not again! Mentally growling, Ditzy lifted her head and looked out a small window at some passing clouds, wondering if Dash was on any of them. This time, Ditzy decided, she was going to pony up and SHOW Dash that her job was one that needed to be taken seriously, and that she deserved to be treated with respect. Ditzy knew that if she never demanded respect from Rainbow Dash, she wouldn’t get it. It wasn’t because Dash was a bad pony—she just didn’t realize sometimes the hurt she inadvertently caused. In the distance, she spotted Dash’s cloud house. Walking out of the office with her head held high, she knew that this would be a confrontation. “To hay with the mayor,” Ditzy muttered. “She can listen to herself complain and see if she likes it.” Whatever the outcome, Ditzy would take her stand upon the clouds. ~~~~~~~~~~ Rainbow Dash was at her cloud house, looking at the newest edition of Daring Do and the Legend of the Crystal Kingdom with a grin that approached squee levels. She had found it in the incoming mail that morning. While technically bound for Twilight’s library, Dash had decided to intercept it just long enough to read it. She suddenly became aware of her look of slavish devotion and furtively looked around. She couldn’t let anyone catch her reading of all things. If she got caught doing something as lame and eggheaded as reading, well… that would be almost as bad as when she had started reading, but nopony could know that her obsession went further. She would never hear the end of it if somepony realized that she had Daring Do dolls (Dash preferred the term action figures) and a shrine to Daring Do in her closet, not to mention all that fiction and some rather questionable art. Peeking out the windows to make sure nopony was spying on her darkest secret, she noticed Derpy approaching. “At least she couldn’t have seen me,” Dash muttered. Then Dash heard knocking. Panicking, she looked around for somewhere to hide her precious, finally deciding that under the couch was as good a spot as any. “Coming!” Dash yelled, sweeping the foyer of her house for anything that could betray her obsession. Luckily, her fanart was hidden away in drawers, the action figures were in their cases disguised as cabinets, and her embarrassingly large collection of Daring Do books was by her secret shrine in her room. The knocking on the door hastened into a beating tempo before Dash finally opened the door. “Heya, Derpy!” “Call me Ditzy, please.” She looked straight forward at Dash, a serious and disapproving demeanor setting the tone. Dash was slightly muffed—she had always known Derpy was Ditzy’s nickname. I didn’t think she minded! She didn’t say anything before. Why’s she so worked up now? She hadn’t objected earlier that day or during the previous days, or ever, really. Ditzy looked almost stern—her face wasn’t the usual giddy smile or the scrunched-up face she tended to make after she had made a mistake, but a flat look that was reminiscent of the faces that schoolmasters at flight school would make at Dash after she had skipped class to go racing or hang with Fluttershy. “So, what’s the occasion?” Dash asked with a slight nervousness as she motioned for Ditzy to come inside. She hoped it wasn’t about temporarily replacing her. Being a mailmare was such a boring job, tedious and not at all like riding the storms that Dash so enjoyed when she wasn’t on weather duty, which had its own exciting moments. Being a mailmare just seemed dull to Dash. Ditzy started to walk inside, heading in the general direction of the couch that Dash had hidden the Daring Do book in. If she sits on the wrong cushion, she’s going to feel the book! And that would undoubtedly lead to a very awkward question-and-answer session as to why Dash had one of the books bound for Twilight’s library. Not the middle cushion not the middle cushion not the middle NOTTHEMIDDLE— She sighed inwardly with relief as Ditzy turned to face her, at least until she noticed that Ditzy still looked stern. Ditzy had stopped to where she was framed by a large window, with a cloud blocking out the sun setting behind her. She was looking at Dash almost as if she were studying her. “So, uh,” Dash was starting to feel the awkward uncoolness in the situation. Ditzy had never answered her original question. “What brings you here, new muffin recipe?” she was surprised to see Ditzy wince significantly but then regain her composure. What’s wrong with her today? “No, but we have to talk about your replacing me.” Dash would have groaned, but Ditzy was already acting weird enough and she didn’t want to irritate her anymore. She hated having to do that job, but she had to do it—Dash was obligated to have some experience in other departments if she ever wanted to move up in the weather managing ranks. Like I really want a boring desk job anyways. “You really aren’t taking this seriously, Dash.” Rainbow Dash knew that, but it was Ditzy’s tone that surprised her. Was Ditzy… angry? It wasn’t a huge amount of anger, not something that would cause attention if it was displayed by anypony other than Fluttershy, but Ditzy almost sounded hurt. Dash knew she was terrible at understanding other ponies’ emotional responses sometimes, so she went with her usual response to emotionally challenging situations: awkwardness and evasion. “Well, um, ah, that’s nice, and, um, but I really have to—” “Please just listen this once. You know you have a problem with responsibility, but being a mailmare is something that requires attention and you have shown a complete lack of care for this job so far. I really expected better understanding of duty from the Element of Loyalty! You only managed to deliver half of the letters to the right addresses, and all the others you either misdelivered or lost completely! You didn’t even—” Not good. Dash thought to herself for a moment, mentally tuning out Ditzy. Ditzy was getting pretty mad, and while Dash wasn’t good with angry ponies, or emotionally charged ponies in general, she knew that Ditzy was completely serious and more than a bit mad. “—And I know you’re Equestria’s Best Young Flier, but you’re going to have to slow down to get the job done right. You should be ashamed of your negligence.” Dash sat down on the floor, almost afraid to glance up at Ditzy and the angry glare she was sending Dash’s way. Ditzy was right, of course. Rainbow Dash wasn’t usually one to let herself be lectured, but Dash had done a terrible job and she knew it. She hadn’t expected Ditzy to go on a tirade. She didn’t even know that Ditzy knew words like negligence. Ditzy had always been quiet and clumsy in all the situations Dash had seen her in. It was almost as if the old roles had been reversed and this time it was Ditzy scolding Dash for messing around with thunderclouds, Dash thought. “I’m sorry, Ditzy,” Dash sighed. “I just don’t know what went wrong.” Almost a full second passed before Dash realized just exactly what she had just said. “Oh, no no no no that’s not what I—” Dash intended to say, but it melted away into fear as she saw Ditzy’s face and the sinister way it was directed at her. Ditzy looked furious. It was a kind of angry that Dash didn’t know existed, not just anger but a cold, dangerous stare. Her face spoke of torments long buried and a burning desire to inspire the same pain she felt in others, something that Dash had no concept or comprehension of. Dash started to say “I didn’t mean it like that!” but found she instead uttered a squeak. The clouds suddenly moved away from in front of the sun, creating a menacing, blindingly bright silhouette of Ditzy as she flared her wings threateningly and advanced on Rainbow Dash. Dash scrabbled back quickly until she hit the door, looking only for a way out her house and away from the burning stare and the slow, insidious advance of Ditzy. Dash looked back up and found herself hypnotized—all she could see was a black outline of Ditzy and the setting sun outlining her, robing her in a painful glow of threatening rays of light. They seemed to promise vengeance, repayment for the pain Rainbow Dash had caused her. She tensed, closing her eyes and prepared herself for whatever would happen next: a blow, an angry yell, a tormenting whisper, to reap what she had sowed unwittingly… …But instead, she heard the door behind her open and close softly. It took a few moments for Dash’s brain to comprehend what she had just happened. Dash slowly looked up and around to confirm that Ditzy had left. She had expected anything else, really. Angry yelling, some sort of cruelty, a physical strike against her. Fights were not common in Ponyville or Cloudsdale, as far as she knew, and it would be strange to imagine her friends engaging in a sort of wrath-filled deliverance of pain that Ditzy had seemed keen on inflicting. Acts like that were inexcusable. Violence of any kind had only been justifiable against dangerous beasts such as Hydras and Changelings, things that no doubt would hurt them given the chance. But then why would Dash imagine Ditzy doing such a terrible thing? She’s gone. But her eyes… Dash shuddered a moment, remembering the inferno in Ditzy’s eyes that had proceeded her unexpected exit. She didn’t have an answer to that, and she wasn’t sure that she wanted one. Dash had never acted this scared because of somepony getting angry, but this was different somehow. It seemed like a new level of madness had consumed Ditzy. Maybe she had acted so terribly against Ditzy that she would… would what? Cease to view her as a pony and instead imagine her as some tormenting animal? Pretend that Dash was a changeling and then have at her? Dash didn’t want to imagine, but she did anyways. She knew that this was at least partially her fault, and probably mostly. She had to do something, so she got up and closed the blinds to the window to distract her from the light still streaming through intensely. Thinking back on their short and rather one-sided conversation, Rainbow Dash realized that Ditzy was right, even if she had… had… almost done whatever Dash had thought she was going to do. Dash knew she had acted shamefully during the few days that she had been trained by Ditzy. It had been more like Dash dragging Ditzy at a breakneck pace while she had desperately tried to instruct her. And then Dash had gone and made the worst possible slip possible. It was then that Dash realized the amount of abuse that Ditzy took from her and most ponies in Ponyville. I haven't been exactly nice to her, and most ponies just ignore her when she's around... but it's not like she hasn't ever snapped at us! Maybe she deserved some of it, but I can't leave, I did the wrong thing, I slipped up, I... Yet Dash could not deny that most ponies treated Ditzy like she was inadequate, and it had to have taken its toll. Dash, too, knew she was stained with that guilt. Suddenly conscientious, the chromatic cloud-culler knew she had to do something. Dash was the element of loyalty, after all, as Ditzy had so painfully reminded her. Even if Ditzy wasn’t the closest of friends, Dash had a responsibility to try to fix Ditzy’s emotional storm. Fluttershy had had some advice for when other ponies went crazy: “When your friends scare you the most, it’s because they need your kindness.” Dash sighed and let herself flop onto the floor, legs askew. She knew Fluttershy would want her to do something, she just didn’t know what. Fluttershy was too far away to go ask now—Ditzy might go do some crazy thing and Dash would be responsible. She had enough ink on her hooves as it was from messing up the mail so atrociously. Maybe I can think about her, since she’s always better with dealing with hurt things… “Hello, Rainbow Dash!” The imaginary Fluttershy said. “Hey, Fluttershy,” Dash said dejectedly as she blew a strand of her mane out of her face. “What’s wrong, Rainbow? You seem a little sad… But, um, I didn’t mean that to seem—” “It’s ok, Fluttershy. I just said something stupid and I made Derpy really mad. You know I’m bad at feelings— what should I do?” Imaginary Fluttershy looked sorrowful for a moment and walked over to Dash, gently hugging her for a moment. “It’s good that you can admit that you messed up, Rainbow Dash. But you should go and apologize to her and make her feel better. If, um, that sounds right to you.” Imaginary Fluttershy backed up and covered her face with her mane, looking at Dash with an expression that revealed an overbearing concern for her friend and her emotions; she worried if she had just offended Dash with her mild imperatives. “It’s ok, Fluttershy. Thanks for the help.” Dash grinned, and then realized that she had been talking to an imaginary version of one of her friends for quite a noticeable length of time. Glancing around fervently for the second time that day, Dash again sighed with relief when she realized nopony was there to witness her slight craziness. Imaginary Fluttershy was right, though. I have to go help Ditzy and I have to go now! Charging out the door, Dash had no idea where Ditzy could be found and had absolutely no plan on how to find her. Just the way she liked it: no meticulous planning, no messing around, no wasting time. She wasted a little time wincing when the sunset shone potently into her eyes, though. That was going to take a little time to forget… Dash dove into the blue distance, determined to do the right.