//------------------------------// // I // Story: The Lost Skies // by Holly Dash //------------------------------// "Hey, Rainbow! What d'ya think ya doin' there?" My eyes were wide open the moment I heard the unmistakable Apple family accent. I turned my head, only to see one of my best friends - an orange-yellow earth pony. Her lips were almost invisible, she had that suspicious look on her face - I could always tell when she was angry and suspicious of somepony. For example, her posture right now - the narrowed eyes, almost invisible lips, the small pupils. "Ah, ha, ha, ha," I chuckled nervously, "I was, umm, resting." I flashed a big fake smiled, feeling as my forehead became sweaty. The earth pony didn't take that for an excuse, she narrowed her eyes even smaller, that I couldn't help but wonder if she'd close her eyes at the next sentence I say. "If yer restin' includes stealin' from mah orchard, then I guess you ain't lyin'!" Applejack stared in my dark pink eyes, and I started sweating again. Applejack snorted, then looked at one tree in a very loving way and walked closer to it, touching it's trunk with her hoof. "Y'know, these apples are special! They're sweet, very juicy an' in general are the tastiest apples in Ponyville. They were gift'd to me by-" "I know, right!? They're like, the best apples ever!" I interrupted my friend's speech with my compliment about her apples. I mean, my tummy was full of them, I even ate them slower than other apples in Applejack's orchard! I had certainly never ate any apple tastier than these-... I saw Applejack's knowing grin, and my pupils narrowed, when I understood my mistake. The mare swished her blonde mane to the other side, and expectantly waited for something... "Hav'n't ya got nothin' to say for yaself?" The mare said, looking at me. "Uh... um... oops?" I said, knowing that she waited for an apology, but I knew as well that I wasn't going to give one. I shot up in the air and made a backflip, then crashed into the cloud I had been sitting on this whole time, making it go forward, and I started flapping my wings, shooting away from Applejack's farm. Sadly, I was a little too late flap my wings upwards, as I hadn't watched where I was flying - and I bumped in a trunk with my head and fell down. My head hurt mighty lot, but I didn't have time, as I already heard the distinctive call of Applejack. I ran into the woods, and just as I looked back, I saw an angry Applejack run into my cloud, dissolving it. Only pegasi could walk on clouds, but there was a little minus to that - I could always block a pegasus path by just putting a cloud in their way. We, pegasi, always bounced off. Unicorns and earth ponies could run through the clouds no matter how many you would stash in their way. And right now, I had forgotten that Applejack was a earth pony. I shook the thoughts off my mind, and flapped my wings, to fly away. I was already three feet in the air, when I felt my wings forcefully slap together. I knew that there existed an occasional wingboner, but I never knew that wings could just fold themselves - okay, I knew that Fluttershy sometimes couldn't open her wings because of fear, but I wasn't Fluttershy! I was Rainbow Dash! I wasn't afraid of anything! Luckily, I didn't crash the ground, but continued galloping as I had before. Just as I started taking on more speed, I felt a harsh tug at my wings, and I turned my head to see that it weren't my wings that were gone crazy - it was Applejack. "Hey!" I angrily shouted. She had lassoed me like she always did on her cows, pigs and sheep - and I certainly wasn't pleasant about that. I was her friend, Rainbow Dash, not some dirty pig! "Easy there, las!" I heard her yell, and I shot a disapproving glare at the earth mare. "Ha!" I shouted, and started galloping even faster. I knew I was faster than her. Maybe she was a little more enduring than me - but only a little! I was still much faster than her, and soon enough I had already knocked her off her feet - I saw her feet tangle in the rope which was tied around her tail and my wings. Soon enough I was dragging her rump over the Ponyville center, and I decided to run to Twilight's, so she could tell Applejack right on the spot that she just couldn't treat her friends like she treated her sheep! I knocked into the library's door, finally stopping myself by crashing into a bookcase. Two books fell on my head, but nothing worse happened. I looked at Applejack, and I was disappointed a bit. No, I hadn't meant to hurt her, I never would, but seeing her in state of almost yawning was kinda unpleasant. She wasn't even tired, although I could say that she looked few shades darker, and her mane and tail had twigs stuck in them. But I guess no other pony would ever care about those little things. "Oh, my, darling! What ever had happened to your bouffant?" I heard a white unicorn worry. I stand corrected. No other pony except Rarity would ever care about Applejack's bouffant. I saw the white mare running closer to the dark yellow one and after a moment Applejack was free from the rope which had been tied to her tail. I snorted, and then I turned my head to a purple unicorn. "Rainbow Dash, why did you pull Applejack in my library?" She said in a shocked voice. "Are you alright, Applejack?" I heard the other unicorn say, before levitating a comb and brushing her friend's mane. I angrily looked over at Twilight, and shook my tail, hearing Applejack assuring Rarity about her condition, and then she answered Twilight's question with the story shortened. "Act'ally, it wasn't t'at bad. Ah was just layin' on my tummy while Rainbow here pull'd me to yer house." She tried to justify me, and folded my wings in pride. Yes, I had helped Applejack in everything, not fought with her. It was Applejack who had started, I explained Twilight. "Right," she said, "because you weren't stealing Applejack's apples at all, according to her." The unicorn made a short retort. "I was just tasting them!" I defended myself. "Girls...?" I heard a silent, timid voice, and I turned to the other pegasus. "Should we continue?" Suddenly every pony except Applejack, who still tried to get one twig out of her mane, looked at me. I felt uncomfortable for a little bit. "Um." I said, looking at the almost maniacal stare in Pinkie's eyes. The continuum happened so quickly, I couldn't even react in time. Suddenly a violet flash bolted behind me and grabbed me, then I saw Fluttershy grab something sharp and throw it in air toward Rarity, who quickly ran to my flank and... And... Nothing happened. I wriggled out of Twilight's grasp, and shot straight up to the ceiling of the library. I didn't want any of these freaks near me right now! What had they done? I couldn't understand for a few moments, until I saw a bunch of light yellow, red, orange, green, blue and violet hair in Rarity's mouth, which she passed on Twilight. I recognized it as my hair and when I looked at my rear, I saw that one lock of my tail was gone. The lavender pony put my lock in some kind of cauldron, which seemed to be boiling. "Twilight? What was that?" I asked, and after a while the unicorn turned to me. "We're getting each of us six' hair - twelve hairs from tail, must include every color the pony has." She started, and looked at the cauldron. "What for?" I asked, and I saw that I wasn't the only mare here who was confused - Applejack seemed to be in the same situation. She didn't even notice that Pinkie Pie crept closer to her from the back, and plucked a small lock of the blonde hair. Applejack didn't seem too please, as she jumped in the air and looked at Pinkie Pie angrily. "With Applejack's donation the last, this is going to succeed. I, Rainbow Dash, have made a potion for us - it will contain all the memories of our friendship and will tighten the bonds forever!" Twilight explained. Pinkie gave Fluttershy Applejack's lock, and Fluttershy flew over the library closer to the cauldron. "Contain memories? What?" I felt a little puzzled Rarity cleared her throat and looked up at me. "If anything like that Discord thing ever happens again to us, we'll be ready - we'll have the potion which will make us inseparable! Isn't that wonderful, dear Rainbow?" Twilight nodded to the whole thing, then took Applejack's hair and put it in the cauldron. The unicorn then rushed to the recipe book and murmured something under her breath, seemed to me that she over-viewed if she hadn't forgot anything. Well, come to think about it, the idea wasn't that bad. Even through a blur, but I still could remember my ill unlike ways I acted after I got corrupted by Discord, and that made me shiver. I never wanted to experience that again - consciously or not. Twilight blinked, then called us all up. "We all stand around the cauldron, and we must let our muzzles touch right above the center of the it. In case of mistakes, the consequences will be..." She read, and then narrowed eyes, reading more and more silently, until nopony could hear what she said. "Consequences will be?" I asked, looking at the unicorn, and she seemed disturbed. "N-Nothing special. Some sneezing and things like that." She had dismissed the subject far too quickly for my liking, but then she cleared her throat, and closed her eyes, letting her muzzle be only few centimeters above the surface of the green liquid. Rarity came next, then I came, and I had no idea who came after me, since I closed my eyes. "Together a bond will form, to which six beings will conform, They will stand until the end, let their fates braid and bend!" I had time to only think that those rhymes were quite impressive, coming from Fluttershy. Then I felt sharp pain in my head, and blackness wrapped around me tightly.