Lost and Found

by Cloudy Skies

25. Ponyville

Sugarcube corner was the same as always. Colorful interior and wonderful smells that Rainbow Dash couldn’t care less about right now. She’d no sooner stepped inside the confectionary than had Mrs. Cake placed a tray of muffins on a table for her. Rainbow Dash hadn’t touched the treats, and she pretended not to notice the sympathetic looks Mrs. Cake gave her.

It had been going so well. They had been going somewhere. They had been getting progress, only to have it whisked away in one instant. Her wings twitched at the thought, and the bracelet around her wingbone itched.

She tried as hard as she could to focus on being angry, but it was impossible not to be a little afraid, too. Celestia had suddenly gone to sleep, and she wouldn’t wake up, the tall and strong princess resting in the dust. The rest was a blur. At Twilight’s request, Rainbow Dash had crossed the distance to Fort Macintosh in less than an hour, and from there on, it was all a mess of shouted orders and entirely too many serious, angry pegasi.

Luna had arrived before morning broke, and Twilight had gone with the princesses and the guard to Canterlot by air. There had been no time to protest, leaving Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity to beg a train ride home without any bits to their name. The quiet that had tainted that train ride had lasted all the way to Ponyville station this morning, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t even tell why she’d followed Pinkie Pie and Rarity to Sugarcube Corner. It’s just how it all worked out.

Hope, Celestia had said, but the instant she—well, whatever she’d done, it was all in shambles. It was a subdued Pinkie Pie who walked rather than bounced down the stairs, though she hadn’t quite given up her usual smile.

“Sorry Dashie, just had to make sure Gummy was okay,” Pinkie explained, beelining for the muffin tray and burying her snout in one of the hapless baked goods without hesitation.

“Hey, where’s Rarity?” Pinkie added once she had decimated the muffin count. “We’re not playing hide and seek, are we?”

“No, we’re not,” Dash grumped, rolling her eyes. “She went to see if Twilight’s back at the library, and if she’s not, to see how Spike’s doing.”

“Okie-dokie,” Pinkie agreed with a nod, chewing and swallowing in blessed silence. Again, Dash questioned why she was even here. She glanced out the window where great snowflakes were falling to settle over town. Winter had come to Ponyville. She should be out soaring through the snow-laden clouds and creating furrows with daring, low-flying stunts. Except she still didn’t feel like it. She might as well be one wing down.

“Oh! I forgot, while you were visiting the little fillies’ room on the train, Rarity told me—” Pinkie started to say.

“I don’t know!” Dash blurted, throwing her hooves up in the air. “I just need to see her, to know if she really does, you know, like me and stuff!”

“—this really neat recipe for a tomato salad,” Pinkie finished, blinking. “Who?”

Dash groaned and smacked her forehead on the table, neatly upending the muffins over her head.

“Who likes you, Dashie? Besides everypony, I mean—oh, I bet it’s Thunderlane! He’s always looking at you like he thinks he should lie and say you have something on your cheek and then offer to brush it away with his hoof and then say something really sweet except he’d never do that because while he’s super sweet, he’s kind of not as smart some ponies like Twilight—”

“Fluttershy,” Dash muttered.

Pinkie Pie blinked, stared, and blinked again. Rainbow Dash felt a light weight lifted off of her head, and heard another muffin disappear down the bottomless pit that was Pinkie Pie’s gullet before she responded with a single word.

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Dash offered in return.

“Do you love her back?” Pinkie Pie asked, her voice low and gentle. After a moment, Rainbow Dash could feel a presence at her side, and she didn’t protest when Pinkie Pie leaned her head against hers.

“Doesn’t matter.” Dash snorted.

“Um, silly, it totally does. I don’t pretend to know as much as Rarity pretends to know about love, but that’s like, the most important part! Except for Hearts and Hooves day chocolates, maybe. But wowsies, she likes you? That’s super neat, except for the part where she’s kind of lost,” Pinkie declared.

Rainbow Dash slumped and stuck out her tongue, staring ahead past the candy-themed columns, past the pastry-laden displays and out the snow-rimmed windows. Talking about this sort of touchy-feely stuff wasn’t helping at all.

“It doesn’t matter. She does. Matter, I mean. I don’t know,” Dash admitted. “Do you have somepony like that?”

“If I have a Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head before laying her ears flat. “No—”

“Oh for Pete’s sake,” Dash groaned. “Somepony different. You’re all great, and you know I would do anything for you, Pinks, but I mean, somepony who’s, I don’t know, always there? A friend you can rely on even if they’re not like you? Somepony who’s always right behind you no matter what you do, even if you’re too—too stupid to realize?”

Pinkie Pie swallowed. After a moment’s deliberation, she gave the tiniest of shakes of her head. Rainbow Dash lifted her head off the table.

“I used to think everypony did. It’s not important what I feel, exactly, because I—” she paused. The words would hurt to say out loud to another pony. They sounded like weakness, but she knew they were not. Even if they were, she would make them be something more.

“I need her,” Dash said, stretching her neck and wings both. “And I need to know if this is all just some dumb misunderstanding or if she’s been thinking about this for as long as I think.”

“You’re not upset she’s lied to you?” Pinkie Pie asked, tilting her head. Rainbow Dash frowned back, resisting to urge to snap at her, say something mean. Pinkie was wearing that innocent smile she sometimes used, and it was impossible to say if she was trying to rile her up on purpose.

“No, I’m not, because that would be stupid,” Dash said, simply. “And I’m not stupid.”

Sugarcube Corner’s bells jingled, announcing the arrival of another customer. Of course, business was hardly at its peak during near-blizzard conditions, so it was no big surprise when Rarity stepped inside, the unicorn wrapped in a prodigious amount of scarves, hats and other things Rainbow Dash didn’t know the names of. She shut the door behind her with a little difficulty, shoving back the small snowdrift she’d brought inside with her.

“Well, Twilight has not yet come back, and it seems she is unlikely to visit Ponyville any time soon,” Rarity announced as she slowly and deliberately unwrapped herself.

“That’s silly, because you can’t visit where you live anyway, that’d be cheating!” Pinkie said.

“What, she’s not coming back?” Dash asked, gaping. “What’s going on?”

“Apparently,” Rarity said, looking particularly sour. “She’s sent Spike a letter detailing how she’ll be in Canterlot until further notice to deal with this ‘crisis’. She will be assisting Princess Luna.”

“How is Twilight going to help—wait, when was she going to tell us this?” Dash snapped. “What the hay is that egghead doing?”

“If I knew, I would tell you,” Rarity replied with a glower that for once, didn’t seem directed at her.

“Maybe we could go visit her?” Pinkie suggested, though her smile sagged. “I bet she would love a visit.”

“Perhaps,” Rarity muttered.

“Right. So where do we go from here?” Dash asked, glancing around the table. Usually, Twilight would be the one to call the shots, and her ideas weren’t always terrible. Failing that, as much as she hated to admit it, Applejack did a decent job of these things.

“That ‘we’ is becoming a bit strained, isn’t it, dear?” Rarity asked, echoing that exact line of thinking. Pinkie Pie said nothing. She reached out for the last of the muffins, but apparently decided against it, letting her hoof fall back to the ground.

“Yeah,” Dash muttered. A slow sort of dread was creeping up on her as her friends sunk into silence. Doors were closing all around her, options cut off. There was nothing to hold on to, except—

“Hey, what did Celestia say about Princess Luna?” Dash asked, furrowing her brow as she thought, tried to remember.

“Pardon?” Rarity said.

“Something about dreams and stuff,” Dash added, hopping off the floor and breaking into a hover. “She said that Princess Luna was all about dreams and fairytales, didn’t she?”

“Prophecy, I believe,” Rarity agreed. “Why?”

“I’ll tell Twilight you said hi,” Dash said, racing for the door before Pinkie Pie or Rarity could do more than fumble for words. In the space of seconds, she’d torn the door open and jetted out into the open. In a minute, she was above the clouds that the other weather ponies had set in place over Ponyville. If they had managed this far without her, they could do so for another day. She pulled a quick corkscrew to clear the snow off her wings, eyes on the distant mount Canterlot.

---

“She did this for you, Twilight Sparkle!”

The words echoed inside Twilight’s mind, bouncing off the walls inside her brain, amplified and repeated every time. The first words Princess Luna had spoken upon seeing Celestia’s supine form.

She’d taken it back. Or rather, she had tried. Once chariots and the escorts had landed on the castle grounds and Twilight was alone with the princesses in Celestia’s private bedchambers, she had apologized. Luna would not meet her eyes, but she had apologized, told Twilight she had said something terribly unfair, and that she did not blame her. Her sister was millenia old, and her decisions were her own, Luna had said before leaving them alone.

At least she trusted Twilight to be alone with Celestia. Still, the words stayed with her. The implications were staggering.

On her great bed, in the large and airy chambers, the princess lay. Crownless and no longer gold-shod, she was as beautiful as ever where she rested, splayed out with her mane still billowing on a wind nopony else ever felt. Beautiful, and, for the first time, just a pony. It was the second time Twilight had seen her fall, and this time, it stuck.

Fallible and flawed. Had the princess decided that she would accompany the Elements just because she wanted to be close to Twilight? She could reconcile the concept with any other pony. It was stupid and perhaps romantic, but to think that Celestia would do something like that?

It would have been funny had she been awake. Twilight wanted nothing more than to ask Celestia if this was the case, and odds were, Celestia would laugh with her. She missed that laughter.

The court physician was dumbstruck. At Twilight’s insistence, they had sent for Zecora from Ponyville, but she already knew that it was a shot in the dark. All signs were good, they had said. She was weak, but she was alive. Merely resting, but she would not wake. Alicorn physiology wasn’t different from that of other ponies, but the princesses were different, the physician had said. How it was different, he could not tell. None of the princesses had ever had so much as a common cold.

On a whim, Twilight jumped onto the bed, laying down at the princess’ side. After a moment’s hesitation, she leaned against her. Her body was as warm as ever, like a furnace or a miniature sun.

“Sorry, princess,” Twilight muttered. She’d meant to apologize for touching her if the princess was uncomfortable, but the word was greater than the intent. She was sorry. For absolutely everything. Twilight clenched her eyes shut and hoped sleep would claim her before the tears.

Twilight awoke again with a start. Bewildered, she scanned the room looking for whatever had disturbed her. It took a few moments before she realized where she was. Bed. Princess. Plush carpets and impossibly expensive furniture. Large windows and a mild Canterlot winter—

And Rainbow Dash knocking on the glass of the sliding doors that led to the twelfth-floor balcony. Her ungentle knocks shook the glass, and Twilight could hear the blare of a siren far off in the distance. The unicorn’s heart was in her throat, and she nearly fell in her haste to get off the bed and gallop over to admit her.

Once the door opened, the siren was louder by far. On reflex, Twilight glanced over her shoulder to make sure the princess didn’t stir. It was a remarkably stupid impulse.

“Rainbow! What are you doing?” Twilight hissed. The pegasus slipped inside and shut the door behind her. A second later, a blur the white and gold of the pegasus guards whisked past the balcony. Dash nonchalantly shook the snow off her wings and head.

“Hey Twilight, how’s the princess?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Asleep, and, uh, she’s stable—are those guards after you?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah. Don’t care. Didn’t have time to go through the gate. Listen, where’s Princess Luna?”

Twilight gaped. “You can’t just barge in here like that! You’ll be in trouble!”

On cue, Twilight heard a soft set of hoofsteps approach the grand golden doors that led to the opulent bedchamber. She flailed, spun on the spot, and eventually settled for standing in front of Rainbow, forelegs splayed as if though she could hide the crazed pegasus with sheer willpower. Belatedly, she realized that magic might have done the trick, but the door slid open just as the thought crossed her mind.

“The alarm is going off. We doubt there is any threat, but—” Luna said, the princess pausing right past the threshold with her mouth open and wings spread.

“Oh, there she is, awesome,” Dash said, wiping her hooves on the carpet. “Sorry about the mess. Uh, and about your sister,” she added, dipping her head. Twilight could feel her heart and brain both complain at their suddenly shortened half-life.

“We usually prefer our guests use the front door,” Luna suggested with a wry smile. Twilight didn’t quite dare breathe a sigh of relief until she knew whether or not this was the kind of humor Luna employed before she banished somepony.

“Yeah, so, you’re all about dreams and things like that?” Dash asked.

Princess Luna drew back, craning her neck. “We—hum. Well, we will allow that, it is one way to say it. To what end?”

“Princess Celestia said something before she, uh, took a nap,” Dash continued, her eyes flitting to the bed. Twilight winced at her candor, and Luna’s smile tightened. “You can tell if they’re okay, right? I need to know.”

Twilight sighed. “Rainbow Dash, we would all like to know, but if it was that simple—”

“It is everything but simple, yet we can,” Luna affirmed.

Twilight blinked. “What? if you know that, why haven’t you done so before? Why—I don’t understand?”

“Because, as we said, it is not simple. Trying to create a link like this, it draws on the ties that bind ponies. For all that your connection is special, potent, even, you have been friends for years, not decades,” Luna explained. “I doubt it will work.”

“That’s stupid,” Dash said, crossing her forelegs as she took to the air.

“Will you stop insulting princesses when I’m around, please?” Twilight groaned.

“I’ve known Fluttershy since I was a little filly,” Dash continued, outright ignoring Twilight. The pegasus’ eyes intense. “If you can do something, anything? Do it.”

“You would command us?” Luna asked, a brow arched. “Do not misunderstand, we are grateful for all you have done for us, but without a focus, there is really nothing we can do.”

“‘Focus’? Why can’t you speak normal?” Dash cried, closing her eyes and hanging her head. Her wings went limp. Twilight sighed and leaned against the pegasus.

“We need something intimate to the subject,” the princess continued, sympathy plain on her face. “In our experience, ponies do not maintain keepsakes of the same emotional quality as they did before. Last time we performed this spell, we used a silver brooch handed down through four generations.”

“I don’t think Fluttershy has anything like that,” Twilight answered. “I know she really loves her little animal friends, but she’s not very close with her family, I think, so—um, Rainbow, what are you doing?”

At her side, Rainbow Dash had lifted one of her wings, and was struggling with something. She had her snout buried under the base of her wing, and gave a little grunt before she righted herself. In her mouth she held the multicolored bracelet Twilight had seen only once before.

“This’ll do,” Dash said, stepping forward to hold the bracelet up to Luna, who gently seized a hold of it with the light blue of her magic.

“If you believe so,” Luna hummed.

“Yeah. I’m sure. So, how does this work?” Dash asked, scratching the back of her head.

“You are ready to do this without even knowing what it is?” Luna said, and it didn’t sound like much of a question. Indeed, there was little doubt in Dash’s eyes. “Very well. What we do, is let you share a dream. We are sure we can find a chamber where you can spend the night. Assuming that Fluttershy is well and also sleeping, you should find each other. You will not know it is a dream, but you will remember it.”

“Dream,” Dash repeated. “Is it real? I need to know if she—” she paused, her voice cracking. “I need to know how she is. I need to talk to her.”

Luna pursed her lips. At length, she shrugged, turning to lead the way out of the royal bedchamber. “Most would say it is what you make of it.”

Before Luna could lead her friend out and away, Twilight called out. “What would you say?” she asked, already heading for the bed where Celestia lay.

“That what feels real is real.”

Comments

[lavender]

Aww...
I was really hoping for the five of them to have their own adventure and meet Applejack and Fluttershy along the way.
Celestia just had to go ruin things by up and passing out on them, didn't she.

[Shumiry]

Man though, that's going to be a tough thing to reconcile. She finally overcame that fear of leaving Equestria, only to prove her fears right. Talk about feeling trapped. "Oh yeah, you can leave whenever you want, you'll just die."

Loving the story, btw. Simply fantastic.

Please keep writing, I'll keep reading!

[JAG]

And... there goes the rescue mission. You are a twisted, diabolical troll, sir.

Okay, but seriously. This turn of events is... is not what I had hoped for, I'll admit, but having given it some thought, this way probably works better. Two simultaneous cross-country adventures might potentially have become redundant and stale. So keeping the Mane Four in Equestria and continuing the two distinct storylines is probably best. Assuming that's what you're doing, anyway. Dash and Fluttershy sharing a dream should be interesting; I'm looking forward to that.

The impact this'll have on Twilestia is my main problem with this. Celestia's continued unconsciousness coupled with this dream connection idea is a concern; I didn't want another Eternal. I'll keep reading regardless, of course, but I was looking forward to the reletively original concept of a Twilestia adventure fic.

[Cedric Bale]

I don’t pretend to know as much as Rarity pretends to know about love,

Best line this update.

Also, I called the Celestia weakness thing! Though I'm pretty sure everyone called that, and I was expecting it to take quite a bit longer, but still, CALLED IT. Wasn't expecting the Twilight guilt, though... I really should've.

[Convisku]

Celestia collapsing this early is a bit of a surprise, but a good one. This story has suddenly taken on a different tone with the collapse of 'Adventure' and I like it.

[KittyCatOmaniac]

"Princess Celestia has left the party."

[CalmNQuiet]

This narrative draws the reader in slowly and gently. It's a little unexpected how what seemed to be a fairly straight-forward journey & return turns into a far deeper twist of romance and intrigue. However, I suppose this should not come as a surprise considering you are a writer of enormous ability. It's just so incredible to be caught by surprise by a story and drawn in to the world, the characters, and everything that happens. I'm not sure where exactly it happened, perhaps it was a few chapters back, but I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. Thank you.

[Meta Four]

“Doesn’t matter.” Dash snorted.
“Um, silly, it totally does. I don’t pretend to know as much as Rarity pretends to know about love, but that’s like, the most important part! Except for Hearts and Hooves day chocolates, maybe. But wowsies, she likes you? That’s super neat, except for the part where she’s kind of lost,” Pinkie declared.

Perfect. Just perfect.

[kushi02]

sneakrets!