1: When A Door Closes

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All things have a beginning and an ending. It is only when these two points finally are together that we can decide whether or not it was truly worth while.

The day had been rather uneventful, no terrible villains or raging demigods to fight, no forests rising up to take over the town. Absolutely nothing, and that is how Rainbow liked it.

“Message for you, Rainbow!” Cloudchaser yelled from behind one of the clouds above Rainbow's head, the cloud covering half of her face, her eyes just barely peeking over the white puffy object. “Applejack said that she wants to meet you at Sweet Apple Acres as soon as possible! Feel free to leave now. I can take care of your shift. Shouldn't be too much of a problem”

“Thanks a lot, Cloudchaser!” Rainbow said waving a hoof to her co-worker. “See ya later!”

I wonder what she wants... AJ usually doesn’t try to get a hold of me when I am at work.

The sky was black as charcoal, but clear as glass. Without a cloud in the sky, she could see the entirety of Ponyville stretch out before her. Lights shone brightly on the cobblestone streets, providing a nice warming glow to the friendly town beneath her. Ponies were walking around throughout the town enjoying the beautiful nights. Some were enjoying the warm evening, while others were heading over to the concert that Vinyl was putting on in the centre of town. As Rainbow flew overhead she noticed Twilight gazing through a large telescope from her tree house balcony. A small notepad floated over the unicorn's head in her trademark violet magical aura.

Ever the egghead… Even at night when most ponies are relaxing, she is taking the time to study…

Rainbow could feel a smile starting to stretch across her face. She admired the Twilight’s determination to her studies. That amount of determination and devotion that Twilight had reminded Rainbow of herself. Rainbow violently shook her head to try to snap her mind back to the more pressing topic at hand.

Anyway back to the problem with AJ. She has been a little distant lately, but that could be anything really… When we were at Joe’s last night, she hardly said anything, usually she doesn’t stop taking when we go out. In any case I should get over there as quick as possible.

Rainbow tucked her wings close into her body and in an instant she began to plummet downwards towards the ground, quickly picking up speed. Just before the she collided with the ground her wings flared open, sending her rocketing across the ground. The trees shook from the force that trailed behind her as she soared towards Sweet Apple Acres. It was something that always made her smile for some reason. The sound of the rustling trees beneath her, the wind rushing through her fur, and the sweet scent of the delicious fruit below, calmed her down no matter the situation.

In a couple of minutes Rainbow arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, and she spied her target down below. Applejack was pacing through the trees. Rainbow had a bad feeling about that. With a simple flap of her wings, Rainbow softly landed and trotted over to the orange mare.

“Hey, AJ! How’s it going?” Rainbow asked.

“Oh... Hi, Rainbow” Applejack said, her voice carrying an unusual cold undertone. Usually the hard working farmer was very kind and considerate, but something was off that Rainbow could not pin. Thud! A swift kick to the base of the tree shook it to the core, dropping all the apples into the barrels below. Applejack took a deep breath and stared into Rainbow's eyes. “Listen you and I need to talk RD”.

“Umm, okay…” Rainbow said, running a hoof through her mane. Her mane was dishevelled more than usual, the separate colours entangled with each other into one rainbow coloured mess. “What’s up?”

“It’s about you and I... I know that we have been going out for four months now, and we have been keeping everything secret from the others…. But I'm startin' to think…” Applejack said while bucking another tree.

Started to think? Oh no…

“I just think that this relationship isn't going to working out Rainbow."

“What do you mean it isn’t working?” Rainbow asked with misty eyes. She had a million questions that she wanted to ask, but the words wouldn't leave her mouth no matter how hard she tried. What did I do wrong? What makes her think that we can’t possibly work together?

“I told you already RD” Applejack said with a stern tone towards the sobbing mare. “You and me aien’t working out at all. All y'all care about is yourself.” The orange mare said, poking a hoof in Rainbow’s chest. “Y'all are trying to prove to everypony that you’re the best, and rubbin everyone’s nose in it, when you don’t need to be. I told ya that if ya didn’t work on trying to get that boastful attitude of yours in check, that we were going to have some problems, and I was right all along.” Applejack took a couple of steps towards the tree to get back to work.

Rainbow Dash took a couple of steps forward trying to get closer to Applejack, but every step the orange mare would mirror a step backwards, keeping the distance between them the same. A surge of conflicting emotions coursed through Rainbow. Sad that mare that she loved, and she thought had the same feelings towards her, was breaking her heart. Something that she would never have done to the painfully honest mare. Sorrow and anger battled inside Rainbow's mind. For the moment, sadness and confusion won out.

“I've tried to change since we have gotten together” Rainbow tried to say through the tears.

“Ya I know you have. And ever since the Mare-Do-Well…” The mere mention of that day felt like a stab in the heart for Rainbow.

Why? Why? Why did she have to bring that up? It still hurts to remember that. All of my friends lied behind my back, and even refused to tell me about it until I had cornered them. At least Twi had come up to me after the incident and apologized until she was blue in the face. What bothers me the most is that they didn’t even have the decency to try to be upfront me with the whole situation, and instead resorted to sneaking behind my back. My closest friends made me feel terrible about myself, all just to make learn a lesson… They could have done that if they had just been upfront with me and talked to me.

“Why did you have to bring that up?” Rainbow asked, a deep seated anger now in her voice. She felt her muscles tensing up, getting ready to strike, should her anger push past the fragile tipping point. Rainbow let out a sigh, and her body started to relax. It was something that she had picked up from all the years of competition and races. It was the only sure-fire way to relax that she had developed over the years, and it was an extremely helpful tool to have. “You know that its still hard for me ever since that day and yet you still throw it in my face. I, at least, tried to change for you.”

“I know that but it just wasn’t enough RD. Y'all parade around trying to prove that you are better than everypony else, and it don’t need proven. All your friends know that you are the best flyer in Ponyville, hell everypony in the tha whole town knows it. I know that you have been trying to be better when it comes to your ego, but frankly it has been getting worse and worse.”

“You could have told me…” Rainbow said, her voice now just a simple whimper. The tears had stopped flowing, and her fur had started to dry. Even though the tears had stopped, the sadness still coursed its way through her body.

“Ah tried to, Rainbow…” Applejack said avoiding eye contact with the cyan coloured mare. “But I thought if ah did that this would happen. Ah thought that this would have been easier if ah brought that mare-do-well up. I never thought, would have gotten so angry that you but... I can't keep lying to you." Applejack continued back over to another a hit the tree with her hind legs with a painful sounding impact. When the farmer pulled her legs back from the tree, a large indent lay in the tree’s bark. She turned her gaze over to Rainbow Dash, fresh tears rolled down the farmer's face like a waterfall. “The real problem Rainbow..." Applejack said with a quiet whimper. "Was that ah never really had feelings for ya…”

“What do you mean that you don’t have any feelings for me?" Rainbow asked confused. "You were the one that asked me out after I told you.” The tears had started their way back down Rainbow’s face. “You know…” Rainbow said while wiping her face with the tip of her wing. Applejack's words finally started to make some since in the peagsus's mind. She did think that it was a little odd on how the farm pony reacted around her, not wanting to do much in public, and constantly making excuses to skip out on lunch or reschedule a date.

“I always thought it was a little weird that you wanted keep our relationship from the others, but it makes sense now. After I told you that I wanted to go out with you, you rejected me. Sure it stung when you told me no but I could have got over that. Then you called and told me that you wanted to try the relationship. Do you know how happy I was? I felt invincible! Not even the hydra in the Everfree Forest would have scared me. But you were just stringing me along this whole entire time weren’t you?”

“Rainbow…” Applejack said her voice truly sincere. “You were so sad after ah I had said no. Heck, ya were even thinkin’ about quittin your dream about joining the Wonderbolts. Ah had never seen you so heart-broken before. You didn’t even come to the annual Apple family apple cider sale. I just thought…”

“So you thought that it would be better to string me along on a relationship for months!” Rainbow said, her anger almost past its breaking point.

“Ah was just trying to help you”

“And that was your first thought!” Rainbow angrily raised a hoof towards her friend. “There were a million different things that you could have done to make me feel better. You could have just let me be, and let me figure out how to deal with it by myself. But that… That is just wrong!”

“Ah was jus’ tryin to help ya out Rainbow. It aien’t like I didn’t try to make it work." Applejack collapsed on her hind legs, and buried her face into her front hooves. "I tried and tried but no matter what I did it just felt wrong. Ah figured that if I could get ya to break up with me that you wouldn’t have been as mad, but that plan fell apart just like that rickety old barn of ours”

“I trusted you…” Rainbow said, trying to form a cohesive sentence. Her anger towards Applejack was making it hard to even think straight.

I have to get away… Away from here…

Rainbow’s wings burst open, and in flash she took off into the sky.

“I was only trying to help…” Applejack said while pulling her hat down over her eyes. “I just wanted to help…”

The only thing that Rainbow knew for sure was that she had to get away from Applejack for a while. Her mind was racing a million miles a minute with thoughts of anger, deceit, and sadness. The tears still stained her face. Often she would fly to clear her mind, but the sky seemed to only amplify her thoughts now. Out of the distance she saw one clear beacon of salvation, one place where she knew that she could be safe. With minimal effort she landed on the library’s balcony and walked into Twilight’s house. At a small wooden desk, the lavender coloured mare sat, dutifully writing in a large book.

“Hey… Twi…” Rainbow squeaked. With a loud pop, Twilight vanished in a flash of white, and appeared above hanging on a light fixture overhead. A lavender force field completely surrounded the frightened mare. Her eyes were the size of pinpricks, and she was clutching onto the light fixture for dear life. Any other day Rainbow would have been rolling on the floor laughing at her close friend, but today she couldn't manage even a simple simile.

“Rainbow!” Twilight said while gasping for breath. “You should be careful sneaking up on ponies like that. You could give someone a heart attack.”

“Sorry about that…” Dash traced an indistinguishable figure on the ground with a forehoof. “Look could you just come down from up there? I have something that I need to talk to you about.”

A look of shock appeared on Twilight’s face. It took a second for her mind to catch up, but she had finally realized that she was a couple of feet up in the air, and not on the ground. “Oh right sorry about that.” In a flash Twilight was back on the ground, and the forcefield around her dissipated back into her horn.

“You’re getting really good at that.”

“Aw, thanks Rainbow” Twilight said. Rainbow could see a small blush of red under the lavender fur.

Always so modest even when it is just a simple complement

“So why are you here again? It’s almost ten o’clock at night”

“Oh yeah I wanted to talk to you, if that is okay…” Rainbow brushed a hoof across another of her hooves. “I know it’s late at night but would you mind…”

Twilight could hear the urgency behind her friend’s voice. Rainbow was never one to ask for another pony’s help, but if she did something terrible must be bothering her.

“Not a problem Rainbow. I would do anything to help somepony out.”

And always the helpful friend as well. Thank Celestia that has never changed. That goofy egghead smile always seems to cheer me up.

“Anyway…” Twilight said rolling her eyes. She looked over to Rainbow with an expression that could only be described as a scientist that had found a solution but didn’t quite know why the solution worked. Rainbow felt like she could see the gears turning in the egghead’s mind. “You said that you had something that you needed to tell me.”

“Oh yeah” Rainbow went back to drawing an imaginative figure on the immaculate hardwood floor of the library. Her eyes quickly darted around the room, and Twilight could see that she was trying to avoid the question. “Do you mind if we just take it a little slow with the truth-telling? I can see you are just like a cat with a ball of yarn just waiting to get at the nugget of unknown information, but you have to understand it is a little hard for me.”

“Oh sorry about that Rainbow. You caught me in the middle of a massive study project. Sometimes I find it a little hard to separate myself from my studies…"

Rainbow eyes had glazed over Her eyes felt as heavy as lead, she could feel them start to drop.

“…so the princess asked me to figure out how to get things to work as fast as possible.”

“That’s… good…” Rainbow said nonchalantly, her wings had started to twitch from the sheer boredom that the pegasus was feeling. It was one of the many involuntary wing spasms that all pegasi had, and most ponies knew what it signalled. Pegasi wings would always twitch to mimic the anticipation that pegasus was feeling. Unfournately for Rainbow it was especially prominent. Being a pony of action, Rainbow was easily bored and straight to the point.

Damn things… Always betraying me when I need them to shut up.

“Oh sorry, for boring you Rainbow… So what did you want to do?”

“Huh,” the sudden question caught Rainbow off guard.

“You said that you wanted to take it slow, so I figured that we would do something to pass the time, until you feel comfortable enough to tell me what is getting you so worried.”

“Right… How about the telescope?” Rainbow pointed a wing over to the large black tube on the library balcony. “I have never been stargazing before.”

“Really?” Twilight ask puzzled. “The fast and awesome Rainbow Dash wants to spend the night gazing through a big glass tube at the sky? Don’t get me wrong it is something that I have always wanted, a friend to sit and to go stargazing with, but I thought you would be last pony that would be interested.”

“Yeah… I know. I just thought that it would be interesting to try something new, and I may be interested in stars and astronomy. I do read other things then the Daring Do books, you know. Even as a little filly, I believed that I would be able to fly to the stars, so I had started to take an interest in Astronomy. I checked out a couple of books out from the library like the Astronomy Guide to astronomy, and they were totally cool.” That was the switch that engaged Twilight’s egghead reaction, and she went into full overdrive.

“Yes yes yes yes!” Twilight yelled at the top of her lungs while bouncing around Rainbow Dash in circles. “Finally! Someone to talk to that will actually be able to give some input.” In a flash Twilight was gone, and then reappeared in front of the confused mare.

“Come on!” Twilight latched a hoof to her friend and teleported to the outside balcony, magically carrying them both to the destination. Backlash from the spell coursed through Rainbow’s body, and tied her stomach in more knots then what she cared for. Even though she tried to keep the contents of her stomach down, it was a losing battle. Rainbow proceeded to throw up into a small bush below the balcony.

“Please Twi…” Rainbow said, rubbing a hoof over her empty stomach. “Don’t ever… Do that again”

“Sorry about that, Dash. I forgot that you aren’t used to teleporting.”

The two sat for hours. Twilight pointing out stars and constellations and Rainbow trying her best to keep up with the lavender coloured mare. She did surprisingly well for only having a moderate grasp on astronomy as she was able to give input on some of the stars, and was even able to provide a new fact for Twilight to absorb into that massive mind of hers.

While Rainbow had calmed down greatly after her chat with Applejack, she was still a bit anxious about telling Twilight about her and AJ. Twilight saw that she was still a bit antsy, and came up with an idea that may help her calm down even more.

“Hey Rainbow, would you like to hear a story about myself? It might help you feel better about telling me whatever it is that’s bothering you.”

The question caught Rainbow completely off guard, but after thinking it over for a minute, she thought that it actually was a pretty good idea.

“Uh, yea sure. If you don’t mind that much, it’d certainly make it easier.” She said with slight hesitation.

“Not at all.” She took a deep breath, and went on with her tale. "Before I had graduated from Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns, I had received a failing mark in one of the classes that I needed to graduate from the school.”

Rainbow Dash nodded in acknowledgement. Everypony in Ponyville knew how much Twilight cared about having everything perfect when it came to her studies. All marks had to perfect, and all assignments completed on time. Any marks below exceptional were disregarded and tossed away. Twilight was always one to accept her failures outside of her studies, but she always had problems excepting marks outside of her buffer zone of acceptance. The Smarty Pants situation a couple of years back exposed everyone to the mare’s dark side. Underneath that well-kept, list making exterior was a crazy pony that everyone in the town was scared of. They had even gone as far as to implement emergency procedures should Twilight ever snap again.

To any other pony it would be a simple failing mark. Hell, I had gotten tons of them in flight school… But this is Twilight, a mark like that must have destroyed her.

“I was absolutely in shambles when I had received the mark back” Twilight continued, her voice gradually saddening with each and every word. Rainbow could see the lavender mare’s fore-hoof shaking underneath her. “It got so bad that in the next couple of weeks I had only been to class once, and that was because there was an exam that day. Eventually I had enough of school, and ran away from Canterlot. Then snuck on a train going to Manehatten.”

“What happened then?” the cyan mare asked, her mind completely captivated in the scholar's story.

“It took Celestia ten days to find me, Rainbow. I had been living in a small room, with somepony that took me off of the streets after the second day I was there. It wasn’t the nicest place to be, but at least I had somewhere warm to stay. Celestia was eventually able to talk some sense into me, but that dreaded mark was still there, pushing on the deep corners of my mind. When we got back, I felt even worse that I had let both my idol and my parents down. It felt like the whole world was crumbling around me.”

“So what changed?”

“It was Spike” Twilight said while looking over at the empty bed at the foot of her own. “It was the first time that he had called me Mom. Even if it was a simple slip of the tongue, the words etched their way into my heart… He truly was my child.” Tears had started to form in both the mare’s eyes. Twilight was still rubbing her forehoof down Rainbow’s back, and the simple gesture calmed the cyan mare instantly. Extending a wing across to Twilight, Dash had covered her friend with the feathery appendage. “I had hatched him from that egg, and I had raised him from a little baby. It was at that moment that I knew that I had to be strong for him.”

Rainbow let this information sink in for a minute. She had never expected that Twilight would ever be capable of such a thing. What surprised her even more however, was her willingness to share this story with her. It didn’t seem like something she shared too often, and Rainbow felt rather honoured that Twilight felt confident enough in her to share it.

With renewed confidence, Rainbow spoke. “Hey Twi?”

“Yes Rainbow?” Twilight said whipping the tears from her eyes.

“I think I am ready to tell you what happened”

2: Trying To Find A Solution

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"The solution often turns out more beautiful than the puzzle." ~ Richard Dawkins

“Are you sure that you are ready to tell me?” Twilight asked with a reassuring look on her face.

“Yeah, I am…” Rainbow said, playing with her mane with a hoof.

“Oh! Just a second!” In a flash Twilight was gone and reappeared just as quick with a small doll in her mouth. The doll was a simple shade of grey, with black hair draping down its face. One of the two button eyes was hanging on by a thread. It looked like any slight pull would rip the doll’s eye clean from its face. Stretched over the doll's bottom was a dark blue pair of white-polka dot underwear. With a simple toss, Twilight threw the doll over to Rainbow, landing in front of the confused mare.

“Smarty Pants?” Rainbow asked poking the doll’s loose eye with a hoof. “Why did you go get her?”

“Well… She has helped me through some tough times. So I thought that you might like to have her for a little bit. I know it’s a little silly, but you'll find it reassuring to have her around when you can’t talk to anypony else” Twilight explained. The doll was oddly reassuring, and Rainbow could feel her nerves starting to calm down, while staring into the mismatched button eyes.

You know, she is right… I do feel a little better just having it here.

“Thanks, Twi” Rainbow said while pulling the doll towards her with a wing. Letting out a large sigh, Rainbow sat down on her haunches and tried to get muster the courage to tell Twilight about Applejack. She had kept the fact that she was a fillyfooler from most of her friends. Fluttershy and Applejack were the only ones that knew she was into mares, Fluttershy was her closest friend in flight school, and Rainbow went to her when she had problems in school. She got into fights frequently and really didn’t have any friends except for Fluttershy. Even her parents didn’t know about it, in fact they had been apart ever since Rainbow had dropped out of flight school. Rainbow didn’t want them to know, and they never tried to find where she went after she left. They weren’t really the closest family, but they still looked after each other.

“I guess we should start at the beginning of the story. It all started when I was a little filly in flight school” Rainbow started to explain. She ran her hoof through her mane once more, letting out a large sigh as the appendage left her mane. “I was always proud of my mane, the only rainbow coloured mane I had ever seen, besides my parents of course, and it helped set me apart from all the others. Sadly even though I was proud of it, my mane and my attitude caused the other kids at school to bully me constantly. They called me names like Rainbow Crash, and the names got worse as the years went on. I could deal with the name calling and all of the practical jokes but during my last year at flight school, a rumour started to go around that I was a fillyfooler” Twilight reached over a hoof over her distraught friend, a new surge of confidence began to roll through Rainbow. Here someone was, fully listening to her story and making sure that she was okay the whole entire time. Having someone there for her felt incredible, and she wished that the feeling would never go away.

“I never really gave it much thought” Rainbow continued. “I was so busy with trying to be the fastest flyer at school that I didn’t really have time for relationships. But as time went on, and the teasing continued I started to realize that they may be right. Fillyfoolery was something that flight school was strongly against. They were a traditional school through and through. Sticking to all the old teaching methods, and views no matter the cost. So you can see why I was a little bit wary about accepting it. All my life at the school and even at home, I was told that it was wrong for a mare to be attracted to other mares like that. Despite all of that though, I began to notice that I really wasn’t attracted to any of the stallions in class and that I was starting to have some thoughts about another friend in class. It was so strange to have all those thoughts, that were directly conflicting with what we were being taught.” Rainbow let out a sniffle. "It made me feel out of place, like there was something wrong with me Twi. You know?"

"Rainbow... I couldn't even imagine what it must have been like to feel like that." Twilight said.

“Thankfully Fluttershy noticed that something was off, and asked me about it. I had never seen her so serious in my life Twi” Rainbow said letting out a small chuckle. “It was so unlike her, and it tripped me up a little bit. Eventually I told her about it, and she was the first one that I told about my feelings.”

“That must have been hard for you. Opening up to someone like that is always hard no matter what the situation” Twilight said, tracing her hoof through Rainbow's mane.

“Na not really” Rainbow said, poking Smarty Pant's good eye with a hoof. “I mean it was little difficult because I really wasn’t sure myself, so it felt a little weird talking to Fluttershy about it. After I had explained it to Fluttershy, she said that we would still be friends no matter what, even if I was a fillyfooler. It felt nice to have that support you know…" Rainbow gave a small nudge with her wing on Twilight's side. "Someone to lean on if things went south.”

“Over a couple of weeks I tried to find out who I really was, trying to find what made me… well me. At first I tried to deny it but as the school year continued to go on, it just started to make more and more sense as time passed. It was funny. I didn’t give it any thought until someone started spreading that rumour, and then it was the only thing I could think about.”

“Sometimes that happens, you don’t put much thought into it, but once someone brings it up you finally start to put thought into it, and that is all you think about.” Twilight said while magically packing up the telescope on the balcony, keeping her gaze on Rainbow. With a simple magical pull of a small hinge of the telescope’s side, the giant black tube telescoped on itself, compressing the rather large object into something much more manageable. “So you had finally decided?”

“Yeah it took a month or so, I tried to deny it but all signed pointed to it. I even got the courage to ask one of the mares in class if they wanted to go out someday, but that was a really bad idea. Of course I was rejected, and then the rumour had been confirmed to be true, as she told the entire school that I had asked her out. After that I was shunned by all the other kids, the teachers started to ignore me. One by one they started to ignore me, treating me like I didn’t even exist. Other kids would throw things at me when I walked around the school, telling me to get the hell out their school. They made feel like I didn’t belong Twi…” Rainbow’s sobbing made it hard to get the words out. “I felt so out of place… And I didn’t want to tell my parents, because I thought they would push me away just like everyone else.”

“S-S-So…” Rainbow said wiping fresh tears from her eyes with the tip of one her of wings. “Eventually a group of kids had gotten together, and cornered me outside of the school…” Rainbow was now in full breakdown mode. Tears were following from her face and her body was uncontrollably shaking underneath Twilight’s hoof. “They beat me up Twi… They beat me pretty bad… After they stopped all I could see and taste was my own blood dripping down my face. One of them had cut me open right above my eye, and I couldn’t see out of it for a week. My parents had thought that I had gotten into another fight, so they really didn’t ask too many questions.

“After I had finally gotten better from the beating, I ran away from home, and stayed with Fluttershy until I could find my own place” Rainbow said sobbing softly, the tears began to mat on her pristine cyan fur. “She had already graduated from school, and it was the only safe place that I could think off. The first couple of months were a little rough. I couldn’t find any way to find a job, and I was losing bits paying Fluttershy for rent. She didn’t want me to pay anything, but it didn’t feel right just staying in her house with giving her something in return”

“Eventually it did get better” Dash said with a sniffle. “It took a couple of years, but I was finally able to get enough money saved up to make my cloud house. It took a couple of months, but I was able to finally have somewhere to live that I had made with my own two hoofs.” Rainbow lifted her front hoofs into the air, and stared at them with a smile on her face. “It’s funny… It felt so good to finally have something, but it felt even better that I had made it all by myself. After it was finally built I got a job with the weather team. Ever since flight school, I kept my preferences to myself… Didn’t want the same thing to happen again you know…”

“That was when I meant AJ and everything started to fly back up to the surface. There was just something about her that had me mesmerized me. I don’t know what it was… Maybe her hard working attitude that she had towards her farm or maybe the deep connection that she shares with her family. I don’t really know, but something just seemed to draw me to her. Over the next couple of months we had introduced ourselves, but we weren’t really friends, until you came to Ponyville…”

“Until I came here?” Twilight asked confused, her head slightly tilted to the side. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well you see… We weren’t all close friends before you showed up. I was friends with Fluttershy, who was friends with Rarity, who was friends with Pinkie, and finally Pinkie was friends with Applejack. So we all kind of knew each other but we weren’t really that close. It was when you got here that we actually came together as friends.”

“Oh I didn’t know. Well I guess it is good that I came here. I know that meeting you girls was one of, if not the best thing to happen in my life. So it would be nice to think that I helped a little bit in bringing everyone together.”

“You did more than that Twilight. You helped me find a solid footing… Even though I had my cloud house, and a job with the weather team, I still felt like something was…” Rainbow waved a hoof in the air, while looking around the balcony. “Missing… You know what I mean?” her gaze stopping on Twilight.

“Yeah I do…” Twilight said with a simile, her head gazing up to the beautiful stars above. “When I was in Canterlot studying under Celestia I thought I had everything. I had all the books that I could ever want, and I was studying under the most powerful unicorn in existence.” Twilight looked over and gazed into Rainbow’s eyes. They were filled with anger, sadness, but she could see a glimmer of happiness behind them. It was shrouded behind all the other emotions that coursed through her head, but she could see it behind everything as clear as the night star in this perfect night sky.

This has been really eating Rainbow up… And she is finally telling someone about what happened.

“When I came here, I thought Celestia was punishing me” Twilight continued, her eyes gazing over to a small blanket that was magically floating over towards the two mares. It was a simple blanket, with her cutie mark etched across the front of the fabric. The purple glow dissipated, and the blanket fell perfectly over them, covering the mare in it's warmth. “I thought friends were just a waste of time, and something that ponies didn’t really need, but you all showed me otherwise. Like you said Rainbow, it felt like something was missing, and you girls helped fill that hole in my life”

“Awww… Thanks Twi” Rainbow said giving a playful hit to Twilight’s ribs underneath the blanket. Twilight slightly jumped underneath the sheet, letting out a small shriek from the sudden contact. After Rainbow’s hoof made contact she began to realize that she wasn’t really sad anymore about the memories. Sure it hurt to bring up old memories of the past, but something about having Twilight sitting her beside her just made her feel… Safe… Like nothing would be able to hurt her.

“Although back to my story… After your coronation I had finally worked up the courage to ask Applejack out on a date with me. I didn’t tell her about the flight school thing, she didn’t need to know about it. Just like the others, she shot me down as well… I couldn’t really blame her, but I had to try at least. My father always said that if you don’t ask the question, then the answer is always no. Although… A couple of days later after she said no, I got a call from her saying that she wanted to try going out with me”

“That is a little weird. First she goes from rejecting you, to actually asking you out” Twilight asked confused. The pieces just didn’t fit in her head. Why would she simply just flip like that?

“Now that I think about it I should have realized it earlier, but I was so excited that she agreed to go out with me. I think that I even jumped around my room like a little filly, when she had said yes.” Rainbow cheeks blushed with embarrassment. “So we went out without telling any of our friends, and it was really good at first. We have a lot in common, and we are both competitive which was nice. But now that I think about these past couple of weeks, she was a little detached from me, not acting like she usually did when we went to Joe’s or when we out to see a movie at the theatre in Canterlot… Over the last week I have only seen her once and that was just when I stopped by when I was working over one of the Sweet Apple Acres fields”

“What happened?”

“Well…” the tears were starting their way back down Rainbow’s face. A hoof presses against her face, and Twilight wipes the tears away. “Applejack broke up with me today, but it turns out that the situation was a lot worse then what I thought. It turns out that she didn’t even care for me in the slightest. No feelings once so ever”

“What!” Twilight was outraged. Her eyes began to shine with a white omniscient glow. Rainbow could feel the powerful magic surging from her friend, the sheer power of Twilight’s magic felt like it was going to tear her apart. “How dare she!”

“Twi…” Rainbow shouted. The power continued to grow, and the library began to shake with a powerful force. Leaves began to fall from above, as the branches shook with the omniscient force that radiated from Twilight’s body. Rainbow looked up to the sky, and the stars above had begun to change in colour, each randomly changing colours at different intervals in the sky. In the library the books began to magically spin around in their own magical orbit. Powerful shockwaves started to emanate from the purple unicorn, shaking all the houses nearby to their very foundation.

“Twi! You got to snap out of it!” Rainbow shouted once again, her head snapped towards the mare. Rainbow began shaking her friend to try to get her to snap out of the rage induced magical surge. “Come on egghead… Come back to me.” Twilight’s eyes flash once more, and her normal violent eyes reappeared through the glow. Leaves no longer fell as the library finally settled, and the magic in the air began to seep back into Twilight’s horn. With a slam the books fell to the floor, and the magic that changed the stars dissipated from the night sky.

“Sorry about that Rainbow” Twilight said rubbing her temple with a hoof. “I still haven’t really gotten control of the magic that comes with you know” she said while rustling a wing underneath the blanket. Rainbow couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle as the feathery appendage tickled her ribs as it brushed across. “I still get have trouble with controlling my magic when I get angry, and it just seems to… Well you saw what happens.”

“Oh don’t worry about it egghead. Your coolness just jumped a couple points. That was awesome” Rainbow said shooting a hoof into the air. “Anyway it turned out that Applejack didn’t have any feelings towards me, and she was just trying to make feel better. She didn’t even have the nerve to tell me about it first, and she tried to get me to break up with her by bringing up the Mare-Do-Well incident.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Well” Rainbow rolled her eyes as the words left her mouth. “I guess she thought that I would be mad at her for a little while compared to how angry I am now. It makes some sense but still I don’t know why she just didn’t tell me that we couldn’t work out. It would have been better if she just rejected me and left it at that.” Rainbow let a loud yawn, covering her mouth with a hoof, her wings mimicking her mouth as they slowly open, and then closed in tandem.

“I guess we should get to bed. It is four at night after all” Twilight said mimicking the yawn. “Did you want to spend the night here?”

“Are you sure?” Rainbow asked. She didn't know why the offer to stay caused a surge of happiness to course through her body. Maybe it was because deep down she didn't want to spend the night alone. Going back home would have just brought up all the pain once more, and she truly felt safe here. The peace and quiet of the library did have a certain charm to it, and having someone close by gave Rainbow a much needed surge of assurance.

“Don’t worry I still have a spare room, and I hardly use it. You will probably have to move some books off of the bed, but that should be it.”

“Thanks Twi. I really didn't want to spend the night alone, and it really means a lot” With a simple levitation spell from Twilight the blanket that covered the two mares lifted up into the air, and causally floated above their heads.

“It is the first door on your right. Feel free to take the blanket with you.”

“Mmpph thanks” Rainbow said her voice muffled by the blanket in her mouth, along with Smarty Pants firmly tucked underneath a wing. With that Rainbow trotted down the hall, and walked into the spare room. All Twilight could hear was the springs of the old bed moaning under the weight of the mare.

It took a lot of courage for her to tell me that. To tell me that she is both a fillyfooler, and that she had gone out with Applejack. Although… Twilight thought to herself while walking into her bedroom. Up on the top shelf of her personal collection she saw the book that she needed to help out her friend. A simple spell levitated down to Twilight, and the pages of the old book rapidly began to flip, eventually stopping on the section that Twilight needed.

Ah good… Basics of Analytic Psychology Part Three. This should have what I need to help Rainbow out. She sounds like she will need a lot of help to get over Applejack, and maybe I can actually keep their friendship together. I better check on her to see if she needs anything.

As Twilight peered into the room, the sight filled her with happiness. Lying all wrapped up in a bundle, lay the drooling cyan mare. The yellow section of her mane comically fell in her open mouth as she snored. Clutched tight in her hoofs lay Smarty Pants, his stuffing starting to leak out of one the open stiches of the doll’s leg. A large smile was blazoned across Rainbow’s face.

At least she is having a good dream.

Twilight turned and walked out of the room. With a plop on her bed, she magically pulled over the blankets, and was asleep before the sheet touched her fur.

3: A Kind Heart

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"Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone in order to do it." ~ Author Unknown

Rainbow Dash awoke with a sleepy yawn, stretching underneath the soft blanket over-top of her. Looking around the room, she found herself smiling. She didn’t really know why but it felt safer here then at her own home. Maybe it was something about the quietness of the library, or maybe the homey atmosphere had finally started to suck her in. Her cloud home felt somewhat sterile compared to Twilight’s house. Rainbow slowly blinked to get the sleep out of her eyes, and finally jumped out of the warm bed, landing with soft plop onto the floor. As she looked around the room, she began to look at all the trophies that Twilight kept on display. They were nestled inside of a large wooden bookcase that stretched from floor to ceiling, each shelf had trophies spread evenly apart in alphabetical order.

First place in the Canterlot spelling bee, first place in the young unicorn’s competition… Even first place in the Archmage’s Tournament. That’s amazing!.

“Being nosy are we?” Twilight asked with a smile while sticking her head in the hardly used spare room.

“Twi!” Rainbow yelled. The surprise from her friend caused her to jump into the air. Dust flew off the cabinet and filled the room with a musty smell. “I-I-I didn’t mean to,” Rainbow stammered, waving her hooves in front of her face in panic. “I swear I just looked for a little bit.”

“Relax, silly,” Twilight said, letting out a playful chuckle. “I don’t mind you looking at my awards, Rainbow. Half the time I forget they're even in here. Usually, I don't go in this room, it's more of a place to throw all the stuff I don't need. I wanted to see if you wanted some pancakes for breakfast.”

A rumble emanated from Rainbow’s belly. She was extremely hungry. Not eating since yesterday will do that to a pony.

“I'll take that as a yes," Twilight said with a laugh. "Everything will be ready for you when get downstairs. Feel free to use the shower if you want.”

“Thanks, Twi.” The purple mare trotted out of the room, and Rainbow walked into the shower. She turned the tap on with a hoof and let the warm water run down her mane. It was extremely calming. Each drop that landed on her fur seemed to wash away the pain of the night before.

So where do I go from here? I mean, now Twilight knows about me, and the only other ponies that know about me are Fluttershy and Applejack. I guess I just need some time to think. Rainbow rubbed her temple with a hoof. Like I am so good at thinking…

“Hey, Rainbow,” Twilight yelled from downstairs, her voice muffled from the water splashing on Rainbow’s ears. Rainbow felt her stomach rumble again, the zen moment of the shower had made her completely forget about her hunger. A loud popping noise emanated from outside the shower. “Did you want anything else with the pancakes?" Twilight’s voice now perfectly clear.

“Sweet Celestia!” Rainbow shouted in shock. Her hooves slipped on the wet flooring below, sending her falling towards the hard tile below. Each beat of her terrified heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. “Damn it Twi, you scared the hell out of me! After all that talk about scaring ponies, you could take some of your own advice.”

“So did you want anything else with breakfast?” Twilight asked, as if nothing had happened.

“Uh… No…” Rainbow said, picking herself up off of the wet floor.

Seriously though? That is a little creepy there Twi… Just popping here like that...

“I’m in the shower here, Twi. You’re invading my privacy a little bit.”

“Oh, right, sorry,” Twilight said. “I am not used to having guests overnight so you’ll have to forgive me.” With another loud magical pop, the unicorn had teleported out of the room, back into the kitchen below.

Anyway… What am I going to do? I guess I could talk to Fluttershy about it… Yeah that sounds like a good idea.

With that, Rainbow had made up her mind, and walked out of the shower. A couple of brushes of her mane, a quick shake to get all the water off of her fur, and she was ready for breakfast. Rainbow took in the sights of Twilight’s home while walking through the halls, as she headed downstairs to the kitchen where breakfast awaited. Pictures of all of her friends scattered the walls from floor to ceiling, most of them from the first couple of years they were together. Rainbow couldn't help but stop at the last picture in the hallway, her gaze stopping on one picture in particular. At the very end of the hall, laying inside of a charcoal coloured frame, was a photo of Rainbow and Twilight, lying side by side in the grass, both of the mares were laughing with a giant goofy grin across both of their faces. Rainbow remembered that day as clear as a bell, it had been the day she had discovered her love for reading. It wasn't too often she found something that she enjoyed as much as flying, and it had been Twilight that showed her to that new world. As she gazed into the photograph Rainbow couldn't help but feel sense of joy wash over her.

We really have gotten close over the years haven’t we? Ever since that day at the hospital, we have been spending a fair bit of time together. Maybe… Rainbow shook her head.

Rainbow walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, the smell of the fresh pancakes filled the air. Stray trails of drool started to make their way down the Rainbow's muzzle, the intoxicating smell of the pancakes calling out her name. She pulled one of the black chairs from the large table and patiently waited for the food to come to the table. It only took a couple of seconds for Twilight to come in with a stack of pancakes piled ten high. A large wicker basket of pristine, fresh blackberries magically floated in behind her. Her belly rumbled once more with anticipation, as a huge smile started to make it's way across Rainbow's face.

That looks so good! Pancakes, and even blackberries as well!

“Don’t worry, that is all for you,” the unicorn said magically levitating the food onto the table. “I figured that you would be hungry, so I made a fair bit of things that I thought you would like.”

“Thanks Twi,” Rainbow said while eagerly pulling a hoofful of berries from the basket. “Are you going to have anything?”

“Oh!” Twilight exclaimed. “I forgot about that.” Twilight’s horn began to erupt with a bright lavender glow, and the magic started to shape itself at the empty spot on the table. With each second that passed the aura began to morph in shape, twisting and moulding with startling speed. Rainbow sat in her seat, her mouth wide open as a full breakfast materialized on the table in front of her. A fresh glass of orange juice, along with a fresh daisy sandwich materialized before her eyes.

“Simple food conjuration spell,” Twilight explained letting out a small laugh at her friend’s facial expression. “It's really no big deal, just something that I have been working on for the past couple of days. Although it takes a fair bit of energy in order to make a simple meal like this.” Twilight said as she let out an exhausted sigh. “Hopefully it tastes good… Last time I tried it, nothing really tasted right. Not really sure how that happened. Maybe some magical interference..." Twilight said tapping a hoof to her chin. "Or maybe some crossed streams of energy..."

“It doesn't taste bad,” Rainbow said while messily shoving another hoofful of berries into her mouth. “In fact it is amazing. These berries taste like they were picked yesterday. I’d have never have guessed that they were made with magic. Well done!” Rainbow said while raising a hoof in air.

“Thanks!” With the basket of berries gone, Dash decided to move onto the pile of pancakes, the large tower of delicious cakes easily larger than her head. Small strands of syrup dripped down the side of the impressive tower. The pancakes were good, but there was a mild after-taste of the berries from before. The natural flavour of the fruity aftertaste provided a nice contrast from the sugary syrup that coated the mountain of food. “So…” Twilight asked while tapping a hoof to the table. “If you don't mind me asking. What are you going to do about… You know…”

Rainbow let out a sigh, her ears flattened to her head. The truth was that she really didn't want to face the problem at all, but deep down she knew that it would just get worse if she continued to put off. “I don’t really know. Probably going to talk to Fluttershy and tell her what happened. She will probably help me out, and then I was thinking that I would come back and catch up on some reading if you don’t mind?”

“Mind? Not at all, Rainbow,” said Twilight as she clapped her fore-hooves together. “Just give me a little time to get prepared.” The eagerness of her friend caught Rainbow off guard.

“Alrighty then… I guess I’ll get going. Fluttershy is usually busy later in the day, and I wouldn’t want to miss her before she leaves to take care of the animals in the forest.”

“Sounds good,” Twilight said, taking a bite of her sandwich. “I’ll be here all day so feel free to stop in after two or so, by then I should have everything taken care of.”

After Rainbow finished off the blackberry after-taste pancakes, she took off and flew out an open window in the library’s main room.

What in the hay was that all about? Twilight is usually happy about our reading sessions but that was a little weird.

The flight over to Fluttershy’s cottage was fairly uneventful. Usually there was something going on in the town square, but today it looked like the whole entire town had taken the day off. Not a single pony walked through the streets, and all the stores seemed to be empty as she flew past. Rainbow softly landed at the front of the small cottage, and knocked on the door with hoof.

“Hey, Fluttershy!” Rainbow yelled. “You home?”

“Oh Rainbow,” Fluttershy quietly said, opening the door. “I haven’t seen you in while. If you don’t mind me asking, how are you doing?”

“Well,” Rainbow said rolling her eyes. “I really don’t know, to be honest. Mind if I come in?”

“Oh no, not all. I was just feeding Angel his carrot salad. Come on in.” With that, the two mares walked into the cottage. It was more disorganized than usual. Some of the plants had been thrown from the tables by the small woodland creatures walking around the house. In the corner of the room, laid Discord in a chalk white hammock that was impossibly floating in the air, the ends not attached to anything. A barking pearl white teapot floated over the dragonquis’s head as it poured tea into thin air, the liquid taking the shape of glass in the palm of Discord's claw.

“Oh hello, Rainbow,” Discord said with a conniving grin. “To what do we owe the great pleasure? Has the Everfree Forest start to run amok again? Oh oh don’t tell me. Chyssi is back and wants revenge… Oh oh or maybe Sombra has joined up Trixie, and we will all perish in a battle of terrible magic, and overly complicated staircases. Oh the humanity!”

“Can it, Discord,” Rainbow spat, the deep seated anger clear in her voice. “I am here to talk to Fluttershy... In private.”

“Oh is that all? Fine I can leave you two alone for a bit.” With a snap of his lion’s paw, Discord vanished into thin air, teleporting out of the room in a cloud of red smoke.

“So Flutter-”

“Shush,” the canary yellow pegasus said pressing a hoof to Rainbow’s mouth. Fluttershy quickly looked around the room staring at every small corner of the cottage, as if she was looking for something odd to have magically appeared in the room. Eventually she set her eyes on a small blue pen the laying peacefully on top of a small table. With a poke from one her wings, the pen wiggled back and forth on the table, a small chuckle emanated from the inanimate object as Fluttershy pulled her wing back to her side . “Discord!” the yellow pegasus stared at the pen with serious intent, her eyes not straying from the pen. “Rainbow said in private, so could you please leave us alone for a little bit, if you would be so kind?”

“Fine, Fluttershy,” Discord’s voice echoed from the pen. “For you, I will go.” A pair of bright yellow eyes materialized above the pen, slowly hovering in place. “At least some ponies ask nicely,” Discord's voice echoed from the pen, his eyes fixated on Rainbow. With another pop, and another cloud of smoke, the pen vanished into thin air.

Fluttershy let out a sigh. “You could be a little nicer to him Rainbow. He really does mean to do his best, but sometimes it’s a little too much to have him around all the time. I wish I had enough courage to ask him to stop every once in a while, but you shouldn’t try to stop someone from doing what they are good at.” The yellow mare’s head snapped back over to Rainbow, who was standing impatiently tapping a hoof on the wooden floor, her tail twitched back and forth. “Oh I'm so sorry, Rainbow. Feel free to take a seat,” Fluttershy said as she pointed a hoof over to the dark green couch in the middle of the room. “Did you want anything to drink? I have some wonderful herbal tea from the forest. I just made it so it should still be warm.”

“Yeah, that sounds great,” Rainbow said, while taking a seat on the soft couch. The furniture had a weird smell to it, probably a combination from all the animals that typically ran throughout the small cottage.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Fluttershy asked, placing a fresh cup of tea on the table in front of the two of them. Rainbow took a deep breath, and the smell of the tea filled her nose. It had a surprisingly interesting smell to it, not too strong but pleasantly potent.

“You remember when I talked to you about being a fillyfooler right?”

“Of course Rainbow,” the yellow mare replied while taking a sip of her tea. “It was so saddening to see you that day. You looked like you had the weight of the world on your shoulders, and all of that burden seemed to leave once you told me. Why do you ask?”

“Well...” Rainbow said, rubbing her head with a hoof.

Damn I thought this would have been easier with Fluttershy, but it is still hard to talk about it. I wonder why I didn’t have this much trouble with Twi…

“Something happened a couple of days ago, Flutters...”

“Oh? Nothing terrible I hope.”

Rainbow could see the words in her head, but no matter how hard she tried, her brain would not let them to leave her mouth. To her, it felt a little weird talking to Fluttershy about it after all this time.

Come on, brain… It isn’t that hard, just some words and we’re done here… Just say them!

“Was it bad, Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked. All Rainbow could do was nod her head, the words still refusing to come from her lips.

“And does it have something to do with what you being a fillyfooler?” Fluttershy asked as she tried to coax the words from Rainbow, taking careful steps to make sure that she didn't push her friend away, or startle herself in the process. Another nod came from the rainbow maned pegasus. “If you don't mind me asking, did you find somepony to be with?”

“K-K-Kind of…”

“Kind of? What does that mean?” Fluttershy asked, confused.

“Well…” Rainbow said relieved, as she finally managed to get the words out. “This other mare and I had been going out for a couple of months. At first I thought it was great. We had a great time going to movies, and spending time with each other. It was nice to finally have someone close that accepted me, and I never had to hide the real me from her. It felt so liberating…”

“Well it does sound like it was good.”

“Yeah it was… Keyword there being was,” Rainbow said, making air quotes in the air with her hooves.

“Was? What do you mean was?”

"We broke up last night… But at least it wasn't all bad,” Rainbow said. She had to admit that she did have some good times with Applejack. All of the family meals that they had made Rainbow truly feel like one of their family. Rainbow hadn't really been close to her family ever since she had ran away from home, and it felt amazing to have that connection back in her life. All that time away from her family had made her forget what it was like to have a supporting network behind her, and Applejack had given her a new family when she had needed one. “The months I had with Applejack were actually pretty good.” Rainbow quickly put her hoofs up to her muzzle once she had realized what she had said. The secret was out…

“Wait, it was Applejack?” Fluttershy questioned.

“Well, we had a big fight… And some stuff was said…” Rainbow said, tears starting to roll down her face. “It turns out that the mare who I thought was the mare of my dreams, didn’t even care for me at all. Not a single feeling at all... She had strung me along in relationship for four months! Just as some terrible excuse to cheer me up after she rejected me.”

Something in the timid pegasus seemed to snap at the mere mention of those words, her shy demeanor shoved away as anger filled Fluttershy’s thoughts. “What!” the timid mare shouted. “How dare she!”

“Flutters you’re starting to scare me a little bit.” Rainbow said, with a look of shock making it’s way across her face. The last time she saw Fluttershy like this, things didn’t turn out well. Nopony wanted to see ‘new’ Fluttershy come back. Even the thought of it sent a shiver up Rainbow’s spine.

“But Rainbow, you don’t deserve something like that to happen to you! Nopony deserves something like that to that to happen to them. Something so cruel, stringing somepony along like that, and not even taking the time to consider your feelings. And to think that Applejack would do something to like that.”

Rainbow let out an exhausted sigh. “I thought that two of us would be together for a while, but apparently I was wrong. It was stupid to think like that… Like somepony would want to be with me…” A surge of depression started to wash over Rainbow. Her mind clouded with doubt, as she began to curl up into ball, tucking her muzzle deep into her hooves. Bringing up the rejection brought everything back up to the surface, the emotional pain felt like it had torn a piece of herself way.

Why would somepony want to be with me?

“R-R-Rainbow...” Fluttershy said, putting a hoof on her friend’s shoulders, her voice truly sincere. Tears started to form on Fluttershy’s eyes as well. All her life, Rainbow was somepony that she could look up to, never to back down from anything, no matter how difficult it was. Rainbow always stood strong, but this… Seeing the pinnacle of courage that she had grown to know, breaking down in front of her, brought a new view of the cyan mare to Fluttershy’s eyes. Underneath all of the brash exterior was somepony that just wanted to have someone close to her, just like everypony else. For Fluttershy it always brought back images of that terrible night that Rainbow had asked to live with her after running away from home. All alone, completely broken in every sense of the word, just looking for someone to accept her. That night they had spent all day talking, just taking time to sort through all of the pain. "I know it hurts Rainbow, but I know you can get through it. You have been through much worse than this and made it through. Trust me when I say there are ponies that want to be with you. You’ll just need to find the right one."

“Y-Y-Yeah I know,” Rainbow said, her voice muffled from the hoof pressed tight against her muzzle. “It just feels weird…. Like something is missing… You know? I was never one for this lovey-dovey stuff, but when I looked around town, I begin to realize all of the things that I am missing by not having somepony special. All of those moments that other ponies will cherish for the rest of their lives, just because they got to share it with the ones they hold close to their heart. I had that Flutters, and now its gone.” No matter how hard she tried Rainbow started to cry, the pent up emotions finally starting to make their way to the surface.

Her heart felt like it had been shattered beyond recognition, each piece a small shard of the whole. All she wanted was for somepony to care for her, somepony that she cared for, somepony to help her with all the hardships that life could throw at her. She had put up this strong independent façade in front of her friends, and it was starting to crack under all of the sadness and turmoil that shrouded her mind.

“Rainbow, don’t say things like that. You are truly wonderful, and now you’re beating yourself up over something you couldn’t have stopped even if you tried.” Fluttershy reached over and pulled Rainbow’s muzzle from in between her quivering hooves. She could see the sadness deep in Rainbow’s eyes, only a little hope behind all of the pain and tears. “Listen to me, Rainbow, when I say you are one of the most courageous ponies I know. Think about it… The Young Flyers competition, Discord, and Nightmare Moon. None of that was enough to scare you like this. You will get through, I promise you that.”

With those words, Rainbow could feel herself start to feel normal once again. No matter how much she tried to deny it, Fluttershy was right. She had been through so much worse than this and had made it through just fine, and with those thoughts the pain didn't seem to hurt as much. All of the those times, she was strong, never backing down from the hardships that she faced, and now she had to be strong again. The sorrow started to roar in her mind once more, it trying to bring her down with it’s poisonous touch, but it quickly was stifled under a newfound confidence in herself.

“Thanks Fluttershy,” Rainbow said as she uncurled herself from the defensive ball that she had tucked herself in. “You’re right. I have been through more than this haven’t I.”

“Don’t worry so much Rainbow, everything will work itself out in the end. You'll just have to give it some time.” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Rainbow said, wiping a stray tear from her eye. “So what do I do now?”

“Well… I don’t really know Rainbow. It probably would be a good idea to take things a little bit slower from here. I know that you probably don’t want to but-”

“No, you’re right,” Rainbow interrupted. “I am supposed to go over to Twilight’s to catch up on some reading anyway. So I will just go from there and see how the day carries out.” Fluttershy nodded her head in acceptance. Both of the mares hopped off of the odd smelling couch and made their way for the door. “Maybe I will ask Twi if I can spend a couple nights at her place.” Rainbow Dash let out a sigh, her ears flattened against her head.“I just don’t want to be alone right now.”

“I know, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said, as she pulled Rainbow for a hug.

“Thanks again,” Rainbow said. With those words she turned to the door and took off into the sky, leaving a perfect rainbow contrail behind her.

“You can come out now,” Fluttershy said with a smile across her face. With a loud pop, Discord materialized behind her, a bowl of popcorn cradled in his arm. “You know it is rude to eavesdrop like that.”

“Sorry Fluttershy, I couldn’t help myself,” Discord said, tossing a clawful of popcorn into his mouth. “At least somepony will be happy about this whole situation.” Now it was Fluttershy’s turn to be confused. What was Discord talking about?

“Huh?” Fluttershy said as she looked up at the draconequus. A conniving grin was blazoned on his face, and that made Fluttershy worry. A look like that, especially on the god of disharmony was never a good thing. “What does that mean?”

“Oh nothing my little Fluttershy… Nothing at all...”

Author's Notes:

Okay okay, after the terrible old chapter 3, here is the new one. A fair amount of people made solid points about the old chapter, and I believe that they were right to say that it was bad... Because it was... I mean it was really bad... So here a rework of Chapter 3!

Special thanks to Kodeake for pre-reading the chapter, and give me some input on what to change.

Oddly enough this rewrite ended up warping my original thoughts for the story. Originally it was going to be short, maybe 5 chapters, but it looks like that was a bad idea to do. Trying to cram in a boat ton of ideas into a small story is never good, so I have decided to expand it out a bit. Anyway with my original plans in limbo at the moment your guess on how the next chapter is going to go is as good as mine :P. I have ideas, but it is going to be interesting to see if they work. Anyway hope you enjoyed! And as always feel free to comment!

4: The Honest Truth

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Twilight sat at the table, periodically taking a couple of sips out of the delicious herbal tea that she had made herself after Dash had left. It was a custom brew courtesy of Fluttershy; not to bitter, not too sweet, with a tangy lemon after taste. It helped to clear her mind so that she could think about how she could help Rainbow. She was going through so much, and was clearly in a lot of emotional pain. Twilight wanted to help her friend in any way possible. It was all of the unknowns that bothered her most, so many questions about how the Pegasus would cope with such a harsh breakup. Twilight racked her brain for ideas on what to do, but coming up short, she decided to turn to her faithful friends, books. She found one amongst the shelves of phycology about rejection and how to cope with it. She opened the pages and absorbed what she could. After a few cups of tea and a daisy sandwich, she closed the book, a frown upon her face.

The book wasn’t that helpful, which is surprising… Twilight thought as the book magically closed shut with a loud thud. Even I knew all of that. It is just all common sense really. Taking time to think about the situation, coping with the pain the best way that you can, make sure to talk with others about the pain that you are feeling… Everypony knows that… But still, what do I do with Dash? Should I try to help, or should I just let her try to figure it out for herself?

“Whatcha thinkin about there Twilight?” a curious voice asked. The dragon’s voice sent a shiver of shock up Twilight’s spine. She had forgotten about Spike this morning, her mind was too focused on how Rainbow was doing with her breakup with Applejack and pushed Spike out of her head.

“Oh nothing Spike,” Twilight said as she patted the dragon’s small head with a hoof. “Just trying to help a friend with a problem, unfortunately I am having some trouble figuring out how I go about it. I have a few ideas, but none have a desirable outcome.”

There is always a chance that Rainbow will still be able to be friends with Applejack, but the more I think about it, the less it seems possible. Being able to still be friends with someone that has done something so cruel to you is hard… Constantly being reminded of the times that you spent together, and the constant reminder of the pain that came from the rejection… Twilight gave her head a violent shake, as she tried to snap her mind back into reality.

“If you say so,” Spike responded. “Anyway… I’m going to spend the day with Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Applebloom. Did you need me to bring anything back?”

“Not that I can think of,” Twilight replied. “Go have fun, and try not to get into too much trouble this time.” Twilight said with a knowing smirk.

“You really don’t know how much destruction those little fillies can cause do you,” Spike said with a deadpanned expression on his face. “I swear everywhere they go looks like it just had a tornado of Discord sized proportions touch down. How they cause so much damage wherever they go is beyond me. It’s not a question of if I get into trouble, but rather how bad it is going to be this time.” A knock radiated from the library’s front door. “And that would be them now.”

Spike got up and walked over to the door, grabbing the handle with his small claws. Standing there was not the trio of fillies that he was waiting for, but rather the elder sister of group’s farm filly.

“Oh hey Applejack, what brings you around here?” Spike asked.

“I… Uh… Need to talk to Twi… In private if you wouldn’t mind,” Applejack said.

“Uh sure… Twilight! Applejack is here and she wants to talk to you about something.” Usually the surprise visit from one of her close friends would be a pleasant distraction, but upon hearing that name, Twilight felt a surge of anger start to course through her body. She fought off the sudden bout of rage and took a deep breath, quickly silencing the thought as appeared.

“Come on in Applejack,” Twilight shouted from the kitchen, a clear hint of spite in her voice. The farm pony walked into the room, and pulled up a chair to the kitchen table. As Twilight gaze found her guest, she could tell that Applejack hadn’t been taking care of herself over the past couple of days. The usually well groomed fur was matted all over the place, pieces sticking out sporadically in a multitude of directions. Huge dark circles surrounded the bottom of Applejack’s eyes, and her pupils were completely bloodshot. Through all the anger coursing through Twilight’s body, she couldn’t help but feel sad for Applejack. She looked like she was having a rougher time than Rainbow through the whole thing.

“Uh are you okay?” Twilight asked even though she already knew the answer to her question.

“No Twilight… I am not even even close to being okay,” Applejack said as she placed her brown hat onto the table. “I have done something awful Twilight, and I don’t think that I can fix it…” Applejack shifted her gaze to the table. “Or if I even deserve to fix what I have done.”

“Applejack…” Twilight was at a true loss for words. One hoof her mind was debating that she should be angry at Applejack for betraying a friend’s trust, but on the other hoof, seeing her like this just didn’t seem right. She just sat there blinking at her friend, trying to decide what she should do. No matter what she thought, she couldn’t bring herself to be mad at Applejack. One part of her wanted to tear apart the already destroyed pony that sat in front of her, but the rational side of her thoughts debated about trying to see for things from her perspective. In the constant battle between anger, and rationality, rationality seemed to be the victor for the time being.

“I toyed with a pony’s heart…” Applejack raised her hooves above the table, both of the orange limbs violently shaking in front of her face. As Applejack turned her gaze over to Twilight, all Twilight could see was a bleak sense of dread. “I just took it in these hooves and smashed it all to pieces. No thought at all for what I was doing… I just tried to help Twilight…” Each forced word that came from Applejack was filled with more and more sorrow. “I never thought that things would end like this.” Applejack said as her head shifted back to the table. Sounds of sobbing and tears dropping onto the oak tabletop filled the room.

“Applejack… I know what happened…” With those words, Applejack’s head shot up from the table, her eyes filled with sadness, and her ears flattened to her head. “Rainbow came by yesterday and told me what happened. I’ve heard her side of the story, and I would like to hear your side at the very least.”

Applejack let out an exhausted sigh. She really didn’t want to through all of the details again, as it just ended up reminding her of what she had done. “I guess I will start at the beginning. It all started after your coronation. After the party was finally winding down, Rainbow and I went to the castle gardens to get some relaxation before heading to bed. We sat in the garden for a couple of hours just talking about some pointless things. As usual, Rainbow was boasting about some trick that she had just made up to impress the Wonderbolts. I really wasn’t paying that much attention to be honest. You know how Rainbow gets when she is on the whole Wonderbolt thing.

It was getting dark, and Luna’s night had finally taken its hold. I was about to leave, and that is when Rainbow put her wing on my shoulder, pulling me in closer as I tried to get up. I can remember just sitting there, looking into those magenta eyes of hers. They were full of confidence, and determination. That is when Rainbow moved in a placed a soft kiss on my cheek…”

“Well that does sound like how Rainbow would approach the situation. Please continue...” Twilight said as she scribbled into a small notepad with magically floating pen.

“Really Twilight. You are seriously going to take notes on this?” Applejack said, as she stared at Twilight with the best deadpanned look that she could muster.

“Of course!” Twilight said. “Why wouldn’t I? You can’t solve a problem without the proper information.”

That and I might need to use some of this a little bit later depending on how things go.

“So after Rainbow kissed me, I just sat there… Blinking into those eyes, not sure what to say about what happened. So many questions were flowing through my head at once, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t think of anything. I did the first thing that came to me.. I ran…”

“You ran away from her?” Twilight asked with her head skewed to the side, a puzzled look on her face. “Why would you do that?”

“I couldn’t think of anything okay, so I just got out of there.” Applejack said. “It was all so sudden… And I couldn’t think of what to do, so I just ran. The next day, I caught up with her and told her that I was sorry about running out on her after that. It took a while for Rainbow to forgive me but once we got past that she asked if I had the same feelings for her… I had to say no Twilight… I like Rainbow, but just as a friend, nothing more…

After that day, I didn’t see her for a whole week, and none of our friends had even talked to her once we had gotten back from the celebration. I looked everywhere trying to find her, just so I could try to explain myself, but no matter where I looked I still couldn’t track her down. She wasn’t around any of the usual places that she normally would be and nopony in town had seen her at all since your coronation. I thought it was little weird that none of the five of us hadn’t heard from her after for a couple of days. Eventually I did find her crying into her hooves in the Everfree Forest, next to a small river. She was so lost Twilight… So I did the only thing that I could think of to make her feel better. I asked her if she would like to go on a date with me, and we could see where things went from there. After the first couple of dates, I began to realize that nothing was going to happen and that I would have to break it up, but I could never figure out a right time, or a right way to do it without hurting her… And you know what happened afterwards…”

The two mares sat in the kitchen, starting at each other, without either saying a word. After what seemed like hours, Applejack spoke once more. “How’s Rainbow doing?”

“When she came to me Applejack, I didn’t know what to do… I have never seen her so depressed before. While Rainbow was here telling me about what happened to her in flight school she looked like a completely different pony. She is usually beaming with confidence, but that day she looked completely broken in every sense of the word, as she tried to find some logical reason why you would do something like that to her.” As the words left her mouth, the anger finally won the battle of Twilight’s mind, and now it had free reign to do whatever it pleased. “Why in Celestia’s name would you do something like that? Especially to one of your friends.”

“I know Twilight. Trust me I know!” Applejack yelled as she continued to cry. “You don’t think that I know that it was wrong! But you should have seen her Twilight. After I had said no the first time, she was heartbroken. All week afterwards Rainbow just kept to herself, not even speaking to any of us. I even heard her talking about quitting her dreams about becoming a Wonderbolt, and I couldn’t see her torture herself like that. Everyday it just seemed to be getting worse and worse. She continued to shut herself out from us. You remember when she didn’t talk to anypony for days on end don’t you?”

“Why did you do it though?” Twilight asked once more. “You had so many options, but you decided to string her along like that… Why?”

Applejack let out a sigh. “I don’t know Twilight… I couldn’t see her like that. It hurt just thinking that I was causing all of that pain.” Applejack placed a hoof on her chest, the orange limb still trembling. “She was so depressed, and I was the one that caused it. All that pain, all of that regret, all of the sadness and it was all my fault. Do you know what that feels like Twilight? Every time I saw her it felt like my heart was getting ripped out of my chest. I had been the one that brought such that pain to my closest friend. When we were together, all of that pain, and all of the suffering was finally gone. She was so happy that she had found someone that cared for her. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t tell her the truth and put Rainbow through all of that again, so I just kept going on with it… Tell me Twilight what would you have done in my situation?” Applejack asked.

“Well I would have…” Twilight said but stopped mid sentence.

What would I have done? On one hoof it would hurt to see Rainbow like that, and Applejack is right. Your friend reveals their feelings for you and you have to be the one to turn them down. But on the other hoof Rainbow would have been able to fight the pain of her rejection, and eventually be back to normal. But how long would that have taken? And what would she have missed as she tried to figure out the situation for herself...

“I don’t know what I would have done…” Twilight said with a defeated sigh.

The two sat in silence only broken by the occasional sob from Applejack. After regaining her composure, Applejack spoke.

“What do you think I should do now though?” Applejack asked as she lifted her head from the table. “Every moment that passes, I am constantly reminded of what I did to Rainbow, and it’s tearing me apart. I keep thinking to myself, “What could I have done differently? Should I have done anything at all?” All of these questions are driving me insane. Twilight! Look at me! I haven’t slept at all since I told her the truth.”

“Slow down Applejack,” Twilight said as she reached across the table to place a hoof on her trembling friend. “First things first, do you think that it would be a good idea to talk to Rainbow so shortly?”

“Probably not.” Applejack let out an exhausted sigh. Deep down she knew that if she were to talk to Rainbow now it would just end up tearing a larger rift into their already fragile friendship…

If we are still even remotely close to being friends… Applejack thought to herself. “If I talked to her about it now, it would just make things worse.”

“I think you’re right that talking to her now would just make everything worse. You should take some time and let her come to you. When she is ready to talk, then be there for her. Of course Rainbow will be mad at you, and you are going to have accept that, but you might be able to keep your friendship if you are lucky.”

“T-T-Thanks Twilight… You must hate me for this.”

I thought I would, but the more I think about it, you were just trying to make your friend feel better. Even though your heart was in the right place, the way you decided to help was completely unacceptable.

“Applejack I could never hate one of my friends…” A loud knock radiated from the library’s door. “Even though you did something terrible, I could never hate you,” Twilight continued, as another knock interrupted her once more. “All of you girls are so close to my heart, and I don’t want to lose any of you.”

“Twi! I can hear your voice. I’m coming in!” Rainbow’s voice shouted from behind the door.

Oh no no… Not here and not now… This is the last thing should happen.

“Twilight, you have to hide me… I can’t see her, not like this,” Applejack said wiping the tears from her sleep deprived eyes. Unfortunately it was too late. Rainbow had already walked into the library, the surge of anger coursing through her body clearly visible. Her wings flared out, and she stared over at Applejack with a look that would make even the toughest pony cower in fear.

“What is she doing here?” Rainbow spat from the doorway, the spite towards Applejack clear in her voice. Rainbow stormed into the the kitchen and slammed her hooves onto the table. “I said what is she doing here, Twi!”

“I-I-I was just trying to get some help Rainbow,” Applejack said exhausted. “This whole entire situation has been tearing me up inside, and I didn’t know who I could talk to, so I came here.”

“It has been tearing you up!” Rainbow yelled as she slammed the table again with a hoof. “How do you think that I feel about this? I trusted you with my feelings and you took them and crushed them without any thought at all. How could you do something like that to me? I thought I was your friend.”

“You are Rainbow… I just thought that I was helping…”

“Here we go again!” Rainbow shifted her gaze over to Twilight. “You see what I mean! She says that she was trying to help me out, but any sensible pony would have realized that it was completely wrong to do. I mean what were you thinking!”

“I don’t know Rainbow… I couldn’t see you like that anymore,” Applejack said with her head low to the table. “Every single day ever since I had turned you down, you just continued to sink further and further into your sadness.”

“Well what did you expect clueless? Of course I was upset about it! What did you think was going to happen?! You thought that I would all be sunshine and lollipops after I poured my heart and soul out to you and you took it all away from me.”

“ENOUGH!!!” Twilight yelled, as she slammed a hoof on the oak tabletop. A powerful surge of magic emanated from her body and began to shake everything in the library as it rolled across the floor. The surge quickly snapped both Rainbow’s and Applejack’s attention over to the enraged unicorn, as the vibrations cause various objects to fall onto the oak floor below. “Both of you need some time apart from each other! I will not see you two fighting like this!” After a brief pause, Twilight took a deep sigh, and started to calm down. “Now, would both of you kindly leave, and stay away from each other for the next couple of weeks... It will do you both some good.”

“Sure,” Applejack said as she got up from the table, expertly tossing her hat back on top of her disheveled mane with her mouth as she stood. “Thanks for hearing me out, Twilight. It really meant a lot.” With those words Applejack left the library, leaving Rainbow and Twilight alone in the now quiet room. Moments passed before Rainbow broke the eerie silence.

“Sorry about that Twi...” Rainbow said, anger in her voice now replaced with regret. “I am not sure what came over me… It’s just… Everytime I think of her, and what she did...”

“No need to explain yourself Rainbow,” Twilight said as she put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder.

“Hey do you mind if I ask you something?” Rainbow’s gaze shifted over to Twilight.

“Sure Rainbow.”

“Would you mind if I spent the next couple nights here?” Rainbow asked with her head low to the floor. “I just don’t really want to be alone right now…”

“Rainbow you don’t need to ask me something like that. Of course you can.”

“Thanks Twi!” Rainbow’s face shot up, a look of happiness and joy spread across it. “I’ll be back in a sec. Just need to go get some things from home.” With a flash of blinding speed, Rainbow flew out one of the library’s open windows, and took to the sky.

Well that could have gone better… At least now I know how Applejack feels about breaking Rainbow’s heart, but that still doesn't help out that much… In fact it just makes everything worse… Twilight reached over and grabbed the teapot that contained the remainder of the tea from earlier. It was cold now, but that didn’t matter, just having something to drink right now was enough. With the last mouthful of the cold beverage she sat the cup down on the table, and rubbed a temple with a hoof. Her head felt like somepony was taking a hammer and repeatedly bashing it for hours on end. Every solution that she came up with never had the right answer.

How am I going to fix this...

Author's Notes:

So thank you so much to all my editors for helping me out with this. They were all a great help! Reading over the terrible messes that I had before the final product can't be easy. My original timeline for the story was blown apart due to Chapter 3, and as a result the story is going to be longer then what I was thinking... Also I had this chapter somewhat ready yesterday, but sadly the site was down as you all know, so I hope it was worth the wait. Seems like everything wants to stop this chapter :P. On to why this took so damn long to get to you guys.

First of all, I have one of the crappiest 2 weeks that I could even think off. 5 midterms, trying to find a place to live in Ottawa over the summer for my new co-op position. Second I just found out that my father has some heart problems. Lastly the worst piece of news comes from one of my courses. I just found out that one my main programmers for a term long project is dropping out this year due to personal reasons. Typically that wouldn't bother me that much but it was really damn sudden, no heads up at all. So now I got a month to program a working prototype for my term project, and it is only really me working on the project as my other teammate isn't too helpful with the coding aspect. But enough doom and gloom, onto the good stuff!

Special thanks goes to monkhm for giving me some pointers on how to be able to write better. Hopefully some of the points rubbed off and helped improve this story. Thanks for reading as always :)... Oh and there may be some artwork coming up with a later chapter, if anyone likes the cover art it will be similar to that (I really only know how to draw Dash and Twi :P)

5: Does Time Heal All Wounds?

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“It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.” - Rose Kennedy

It didn’t take long for Rainbow to get back to the library, only a couple of minutes had passed after she left. In that time, Twilight had started a fire in the library’s fireplace, and was nestled inside of a warm blanket. A large book lay open in front of her, and a refreshing glass of juice sat next to it on the oak floor. As Twilight gazed at the surprisingly boring novel, she tried to get her mind off of the situation with Applejack and Rainbow, but her thoughts continued to drift back towards the explosive fight.

Today could have gone so much better… Twilight let out an exhausted sigh as she magically flipped a page in the book.

The last thing that I wanted was to get those two in the same place like that, especially after Applejack had already been through enough from telling me about her feelings towards the break up. I guess it could have been worse. At least… They didn’t hurt each other, and Applejack seemed to be okay… Well not ok… But better than how I thought she would have taken it at least.

With a gust of wind, Rainbow floated down towards Twilight, a small rainbow striped blanket in her mouth. In a simple elegant motion, Rainbow laid the blanket down, and lay on top of it, letting out a sigh as she dropped down to the hard floor below.

“That was fairly quick,” Twilight said, as she took a sip of juice. “Did you get everything that you needed?”

“Of course I did! What else would you expect from the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria?” Rainbow said with mock excitement, her typical demeanor clearly absent from the statement. Her mind was constantly looping back and forth between the conversation with Fluttershy, and her violent rage towards Applejack moments ago. No matter how hard she tried, Rainbow felt guilty for tearing into Applejack like that. There were parts of her that thought it was correct to act like that, but deep down she knew that it was a terrible thing to do to the broken farmer.

“Hey, Twi,” Rainbow said, her gaze fixated on the flames as they licked their way around burning logs. “Sorry about blowing up like that when Applejack was here… I don’t know what came over me, but everytime I think about her, I can’t help but get angry at what she did… All of this pain, for no reason… Part of me wants to think that I was right, acting the way that I did… But I know it was wrong...” With those words, Rainbow felt a feathery limb making it’s way over her back, the warmth from the violet wing instantly spreading through her body. “I wonder how she’s dealing with how I acted…”

Terrible… Depressed… Guilt… Lost… Somewhat relieved… That last one was interesting, of all things that Applejack could be feeling right now, relieved definitely was the odd one out. The meeting with Twilight had gone a little bit better than what she had thought it would. It shocked her, how well Twilight took the her side of the story. The whole morning she had been preparing herself for how she thought Twilight would react. She was expecting that Twilight would be angry, maybe even yell at her for doing something so hurtful to one of their friends, but instead she was understanding… Trying to put herself in Applejack’s hooves, and see what she would have done, if she had been the one that saw Rainbow so depressed instead of her.

Applejack continued to walk down the street, her mind constantly debating about what she was going to do now that she had told Twilight. Deep down she knew it didn’t change much. Rainbow was still hurt, the only difference now was that somepony knew what why she truly pulled Rainbow along like that. Applejack began to notice that the pain of guilt was less than what it was before, it now feeling like a stab with a thin knife every time she caught herself thinking about the situation.

Maybe Rainbow was right… Applejack let out a sigh as she continued to walk, no particular destination in mind, her head low to the ground as she continued to think. I should have just left her alone, and let her deal with the rejection in her own way… Of course she would have been able to get over it… I have seen her fight through worse things, so why did I think that I had to help her by lying to her? Stupid idiot… Stupid… Applejack let out a defeated sigh, because deep down she knew that she shouldn’t be doing this to herself.

Maybe Rarity will be willing to listen… I need to at least tell somepony else about what happened. Even if Twilight knows, it isn’t fair to be keeping my terrible actions from the rest of the girls… Yeah that’s what I’ll do… I will tell them all! What they decide to do afterwards is their choice, but I can’t continue to lying like this… I just can’t…

Finally with a goal in mind, Applejack set out for Carousel Boutique, keeping to herself as she walked down the always busy streets. As Applejack stood in front of the integrate store’s violet door, a loud noise radiated from behind. In seemingly no time at all she reached the clothing store of her friend, a knot of nervous started to form as she stood in front, trying to gather the courage that she desperately needed. Reaching out with a hoof, Applejack grabbed one of the handles and knocked.

“Hey Rarity!” Applejack shouted. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine darling!” Rarity yelled from inside, clearly annoyed with something.

“You mind if I come in? I need to talk to you about something important.”

“The door is open! Just mind the mess!” Rarity's voice radiated from behind the door. As Applejack opened the door, she couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at the beauty queen. Her mane was dishevelled beyond recognition, parts of sticking up at seemingly impossible angles, and other places comedically out of place. Rarity was busy at work, constantly checking the manikin in front of her, carefully measuring each possible stitch to make sure that they were done with the utmost precision and care.

“Uh…” Applejack said from the doorway. “You okay there Rarity? You seem a little..”

Rarity let out an exhausted sigh, her gaze still tied to the manikin in front of her. “Sweetie Belle and her friends were here a couple minutes ago. I had specifically set some time aside today to finish these dresses for a very important client, and now I will be up all night trying to get these designs together.”

“You’re busy… I’ll leave you alone.”

“Don’t worry about that Applejack! I have been needing a break anyway... Please make yourself at home,” Rarity said, while gesturing a hoof in the direction of the small pink cushions that lay scattered across the disorganized floor, her gaze unwavering from her work. “I haven't got the chance to clean up what those fillies have done. I will never be able to understand how they can cause so much destruction wherever they go...” Applejack walked in and looked around the disordered boutique, there was dresses and pieces of models scattered around all over the place. Pieces of torn fabric were splayed across all of the walls, and the curtains on the presentation stage at back of the store had been ripped down the centre. Unravelled bolts of fabric lay scattered along the floor, coating the typically normal tile floor in a sporadic rainbow coloured mesh.

“Wow,” Applejack said, mouth agape. “They really did a number on this place didn't they. I know there destructive little filles, but this is outrageous.”

“Don't remind me,” Rarity said, clearly annoyed at the whole entire situation. “I left them alone for ten minutes Applejack. Ten whole minutes! And they destroyed my store in that short amount time! It truly is the worst possible thing!” Applejack let out a sigh. She had heard it all before, the worst possible thing gets a little old after the tenth time hearing that month. “And… With this...” Rarity levitated one of the stray red bolts of cloth over, and cut out a large chunk of fabric. The piece fit perfectly around the dress, and provided a nice accent to the orange piping that stretched down the figure of the dress. “I am done! With the first dress at least…”

Rarity's gaze shifted over to Applejack, who had sat down on one of the few clean cushions left on the floor. “Applejack, darling, what in Celestia’s name happened to you? You look absolutely dreadful… Your mane is all matted, and you look like you haven’t slept in months!”

“Well it has been only been a couple of days since it happened...” Applejack said while taking her hat off and placing it on the only clean table top that she saw around her. “Do I really look that awful? Because I definitely feel like it.”

“Applejack dear... If I said that you look like you've gone a couple of rounds with an Ursa Major, it would be a major understatement... Please tell me what happened to you...”

“Well...” Applejack said while rubbing her front hooves together. Nervousness began to spread its way throughout her body, it's effect almost immediate as Applejack tried to find the strength to tell Rarity what had happened.

What if she doesn't take the news like Twilight did? What if she hates me for how I treated Rainbow? I don't think that I could handle losing another friend because of my stupid choices.

“Please Applejack...” Rarity pleaded while gently placing a hoof on Applejack's shoulder. “Please tell me what happened. Whatever this is can't be good if you keep it to yourself.” Applejack let out a sigh. Rarity was right, if she kept this hidden from everypony else, it would just cause more pain.

“Well Rarity... Rainbow and I have been going out for the past couple of months behind everypony’s back.” Rarity nodded her head in acknowledgement, clearly unphased by the news, as if she had already known all along. Applejack stared at Rarity, and then it finally dawned on her why Rarity wasn't freaking out after hearing such jarring information.

“Y-Y-You knew?!” Applejack yelled.

“Well...” Rarity said, her voice trailing off near the end. “Not at first. I had a feeling that something was going on with Rainbow, but I couldn't quite put a hoof on it. Rainbow seemed a little bit less...” Rarity waved a hoof through the air, as she tried to find the right words. “Herself, when all six of us were together. She almost looked like she was trying her hardest to impress somepony in our group. At first I didn't really know why she would be acting like that. Rainbow must have known that she didn't need to prove herself to any of us, so that idea didn't really make much sense... After a while, I guessed that she had developed feelings for one of us, and was too scared to tell anypony about it... It was the only thing that fit really. Why else would the most fearless out of all us be hiding something from her friends like that. I don't really blame her... I would never be able to bring myself to tell any of you girls about something like that.

As time went on, Rainbow seemed to gaining a little bit more courage, as she was sneaking hints in here and there. Very subtle hints mind you, but definitely noticeable if you paid close attention. Then there was that time that none of us had seen her for a couple of days... Before she vanished from all of us, Rainbow came by the store wanting to talk about something, but she was never able to gather herself long enough to tell me what had happened. The poor dear was in a terrible state, her fur was matted with tears, and that radiant colour of hers was replaced by some dreadful, dull wash of the old colour that remained. When Rainbow came back after a couple of days, she acted differently… There was a new spring in her step, the sadness that had dwelled on her before had been replaced with something much nicer, and those magnificent colours had returned to their original pristine state.

But if I had to bet my guess on one thing in particular, it would have been the way that she looked at you, Applejack.” With that statement, Applejack tilted her head in confusion, not quite sure where Rarity was going with her point. “Every time she looked at you she seemed... Happy... It wasn’t much, just simple body language, but I could piece together the pieces from there.”

“Well...” Applejack said, still completely dumbfounded that Rarity had put that all together from just small little ticks in body language. “You really do have a knack for noticing the small details don't you?”

“Of course I do darling. I wouldn't be able to do all the magnificent work that I do here in the boutique without it. But that can't be the reason for why you're feeling so terrible. Did something happen between you two or?”

“Well…” Applejack ran through the story as she had done with Twilight, starting with how Rainbow had first asked her out, and finally finishing with the fight between them. At every moment through the story, Rarity was silent, only nodding her head a couple of times to signal that she was still listening. Applejack let out a sigh once she had finished, and sat patiently waiting for some response to come from her friend. The two mares sat in complete silence for what seemed like eons, until Rarity finally spoke, breaking the awkward silence between them.

“So…” Rarity stammered, truly at a loss for words. So many thoughts coursed through her mind, anger, hatred, sympathy, but mostly sadness. No matter how Rarity looked at situation, there was no ending where neither Rainbow or Applejack would end up hurting each other in the end. Either Applejack would have gone living the rest of her life with Rainbow, constantly maintaining the charade until she couldn't handle it anymore, or Rainbow would have noticed that something was wrong, and they would be in the exact same situation they were in now.

“What are you going to do now?” Rarity asked, her mind still trying to figure out how to feel about how Applejack treated Rainbow. The thoughts of anger constantly fought against her sympathy towards Applejack, cancelling each other out one by one. Each time her mind would come close to settling on a solid emotion, it was directly pushed away by another feeling, as they all tried to fight for the right to be called the appropriate response.

“I don’t know Rarity… I really don’t know…” Applejack let out a muffled sob, slowly wiping the stray tear that had been sneaking down her muzzle with a hoof. “Rainbow was right… Why would I do that to her? Something so cruel, and I didn’t even take any time to think what would happen. Part of me wishes that I could go back, and change the stupid choice that I made. But I know that’s impossible, and I’ll have to live with the choice that I made.”

“Applejack...” Rarity said. Sympathy had finally won the battle of Rarity's mind, taking it's rightful spot as the appropriate choice.

“Every fibre of being tells me that I need to talk with Rainbow, to sit down and let her get all of the anger out her system. I don’t care what Rainbow would do to me… Maybe she would yell at me again, or maybe she would hit me... Quite frankly I know I deserve it… But I know that won’t change anything. No matter how much I hope it would change, everything would still be the same. Rainbow would still hate me for what I did to her, and I would still feel like I just went a couple of rounds with Discord, while trying to fight the entire Changeling army. I just don’t know what I should be doing now. Everything seems to have the same terrible outcome, and no matter what I think about doing to help, it looks like it will just make it worse.”

“Have you thought about doing nothing?” Rarity asked.

“What do you mean?” Applejack asked confused, her head tilted at an odd angle.

How could I do nothing after all of this?! I have torn apart Rainbow’s feelings, destroyed the friendship that we had, and who knows what the other’s will do once they find out… And you want me to do nothing about this? Nothing at all?

“Let me explain…” Rarity said. “You keep saying that no matter what you think of, it always ends up just making everything worse. If that is the case, why do anything at all? Why do anything, when all possible choices lead to a worse outcome... Sure Rainbow is feeling terrible now, but from what you tell me, she has Twilight to help her, so we don’t have to worry about her. Rainbow will get over this Applejack… It might take some time, but she will get over it… What I want you to do however, is make sure that you look after yourself.” Rarity said, while putting a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder.

“You can’t do this to yourself darling… There is no sense treating yourself like this, when it doesn’t change anything. Just make sure to take care of you first, and the rest will work itself in the end. Rainbow might eventually forgive you, or she may not, but she will come to you at some point. When she does, you will have to be ready for whatever she may do, and you can't if you keep beating yourself up like this…”

“But Rarity…” Applejack said with a whimper. “I have to do something… I can’t just sit here doing nothing.”

“Applejack… You can be so stubborn sometimes… Remember what got you here in the first place. You made the choice to do something when you saw no other way to help, and it ended up destroying a close friendship. This is no different… So please, just try to look after yourself, and let Rainbow deal with it in her own way.”

Applejack let out a defeated sigh. She knew that Rarity was right, and if she did anything it would just end up making things worse.

“Thanks Rarity,” Applejack said, with a small smile stretching across her face.

“Applejack will be okay,” Twilight said. “It would take much more than that to keep her down.”

“Yeah, you’re right…” Rainbow let out a sigh. “I just wish that I could have seen the breakup coming at least. I mean all of the signs were right there in front of me, and I didn’t even consider the fact that things might have not worked out between us. All that time, I was so absorbed with trying to find somepony special, that I guess I forgot to remind myself that things could fall apart in front of me… I feel so foolish…” The only sound that could be heard throughout the library was the quiet soft crackling of the fire, and the occasional sob that came from Rainbow.

“How did I not see this coming? Everything was there. She was getting further and further away from me each and everyday, and I didn’t even stop to ask her what was wrong… I just continued on like it was nothing... I was just happy that she said yes, and all I really cared about was myself. Why did I have to be so selfish... Maybe if I did something...”

“Rainbow, you may be many things but you’re definitely not selfish.” Twilight reached a hoof under Rainbow’s chin, and pulled her gaze to hers. As Twilight stared into Rainbow’s eyes, she could see that deep down, Rainbow was still trying to make sense of all that had happened. She was just looking for somepony to help, somepony to help her make sense of everything. “You were happy with how everything was going, so it only makes sense why you would focus on that. Nopony wants to look on the bad side of things, so we focus on the things that make us happy. The things that bring joy to our lives are the moments that are truly worth remembering, not these terrible moments that bring us so much pain and sorrow.”

“But why didn’t I see it?” Rainbow said with a whimper. “I should have been there for her, I should have seen that something was wrong… Maybe… I deserve this for not noticing…”

Those words bore directly into Twilight’s soul, each small word hurt like a thousand blades piercing through her skin.

“Now Rainbow, listen to me!” Twilight said, while grasping Rainbow’s muzzle in her fore-hooves. “You should never think that you deserve something like this… Never… You are one of the most brave, thoughtful, and kind ponies that I know. You’d give up on your dreams, just to be with those who you hold dear to your heart. So don’t you ever think that you deserve this kind of pain, because you’re better than all of this.” Rainbow opened her mouth to interrupt, but Twilight continued.

“Rainbow… You have done so many things, that everypony thought was impossible. You stood tall when they told you it couldn’t be done, that it was a lost cause, but you still tried your hardest and look what happened... Not only did you prove them wrong, but you proved to yourself that it could be done. If you deserve anything, it would be happiness... Not this pain and suffering.” Twilight reached over and put a hoof on Rainbow’s chest, a serious look on her face. “So don’t you ever think that you deserve something like this to happen to you… Don’t you ever say that again.”

Rainbow just sat there, looking into Twilight’s eyes, only able to blink as the words of her close friend filled her mind. No matter what she felt like right now, Twilight’s words had filled her with a sense of pride and accomplishment, something that she desperately needed right now. Rainbow laid her head on Twilight’s shoulder, and let out a deep sigh, as she squirmed around trying to find a comfortable spot. “Thanks for being here for me, Twi, it really means a lot to me that you’re listening.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, a confused expression now making it’s way over her face.

Of course I would be here for you Rainbow… Why wouldn’t I?

“Well… It’s nice to have someone to talk to.” Rainbow let out loud yawn and nestled her head deeper in Twilight’s shoulder, finally finding a comfortable spot to relax. Rainbow’s eyes remained fixated on the fire in front of them, the majestic flames oddly tiring as Rainbow continued to watch. “You know what I mean? Just having someone that is willing to listen to you is such a relief. I know that no matter what happens with this whole Applejack thing, that I can at least talk to you about it…”

“I see what you mean.” Twilight said with a smile. “Not having anypony to talk to would be absolutely terrible. Nopony there to help, and all of those thoughts coursing through your head. But I know that you’d be there for me... In fact you’ve been there for me more times than I can count, so of course I would help you through this. Why wouldn’t I be there for my friend?” With that, Rainbow closed her eyes, and finally started to relax. The warmth of the fire relaxed her body to the core, the thoughts of day slowly clearing from her mind.

“Don’t worry Rainbow… I will always be here to listen, no matter what happens,” Twilight said, as she slid a hoof through Rainbow’s mane. Both of the mares quietly lay there, neither saying anything to the other, as the burning logs provided the only sound that filled the library. Eventually the flames had started to die down, leaving behind only a couple of ash coated logs, a few small glowing embers still clinging to the side. Twilight closed the book in front of her, and levitated it back up to the shelf, making sure to remain as still possible, as Rainbow continued to lay perfectly still.

“Hey Rainbow…” Twilight said, turning her head to face the pegasus on her shoulder. The only response that came from Rainbow, was a playful chuckle, followed by a quiet snore. “I guess it can wait for later...”

6: A Lesson On Magic

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“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” ~ Roald Dahl

I can’t believe it has already been a week Rainbow and Applejack talked… Twilight thought to herself as she read a fairly dull passage from an old tome that covered the concepts of advanced teleporting magic. She had pulled the dusty book from the shelf to try get her mind off of Rainbow’s fragile friendship with Applejack, but every time she would try push the persistent thoughts back deeper into her mind, they seemed to worm their way back to the surface, just itching to make their presence known once more.

Rainbow was pretty adamant about keeping their friendship in this terrible fractured state. Twilight thought to herself, letting out a sigh as she recalled the argument that she had with Rainbow the day after the fight between the two friends. That day had mostly consisted of Twilight suggesting that Rainbow at least think about what to do with Applejack, and Rainbow constantly getting angrier, as Twilight continued to lightly press on the already fragile situation.

Celestia knows I tried for hours to convince her to at least try to forgive Applejack for what she had done… But no matter what I said, she wouldn’t change her mind. During our fight Rainbow didn’t even take the time consider the option… But I guess it is understandable…

After the fight with Applejack, Rainbow had decided to stay at the library, while she tried to sort out her problems with now-former friend. The first couple days that Rainbow was there were a little bit trying for both them, as the new addition around the house meant there was less space for everypony. Twilight did have to admit that having Rainbow around the library all day was interesting to say the least, as now she had somepony else to talk to besides Spike. At least it did seem that Rainbow was getting better as time went on, becoming more and more like her old self each and everyday.

Twilight’s gaze shifted over to Rainbow as she lay in the corner of the library’s large central room, an open book in her hooves, and a large grin stretched across her face. Oddly enough Rainbow had spent most of her time in the library, reading as much as she possibly could, only taking some breaks for a couple moments to stretch her tired legs. Within the small amount of time that Rainbow had spent at the library, she had completely finished the Daring Do series, and was moving onto other material. Nothing too interesting for Twilight’s taste, but it was nice to see that she was having other literary interests.

Something just doesn’t seem right here, but I can’t quite put a hoof on it. She seems to be a little less… Rainbowish for lack of a better word... I guess that can expected to a degree, but something about it feels strange. No constant talk about how awesome she is, no mentions of the Wonderbolts, and not even a single cocky remark at all.

“Hey, Twi,” Rainbow said while laying on a soft cushion on the other side in the room, her head poking over the open book, a confused expression plastered over her face. “What’s up? You seem a little…” Rainbow waved a hoof through the empty air, while she rested the corner of the heavy book on her belly. “I don’t know… Stuck?”

“I guess you could say that,” Twilight said with an exhausted sigh, closing the dusty book with a hoof. “I was just thinking some things over. Nothing too important...” As Twilight looked over at Rainbow, she noticed that the book Rainbow had open on her chest was a fair amount thicker than any of the other novels that she had normally read. “What are you reading anyway?” Twilight asked.

“Oh this?” Rainbow pulled the thick book to her chest, revealing the title. In bright golden letters the words Advanced Aerodynamics: Mach Cones, and the Visible Light Spectrum were emblazoned across the book’s pristine brown leather cover. “Well I figured that maybe I should be doing a little bit more studying into how I can actually do the Sonic Rainboom. It’s nice to know that I can do it, but now I want to know why it happens. Ever since the day that I did it back as a filly I always wondered about how I’m the only pony to do it, so I figured, why not figure it out for myself? Why do you ask?”

“No reason, just wondering,” Twilight said while levitating the old book back to its rightful location on the shelf, cataloged perfectly in alphabetical order with the others. “I never thought that you’d be getting into that sort of material.”

“I guess…” Rainbow said as she closed the book with a satisfying thud, tossing it on the table beside her with a simple movement. “I don’t know really, it was just something that I wondering about for a while now.” Rainbow stood up from the comfortable reading spot that she had made for herself, and made a beeline for the kitchen. “I’m going to get something to eat. You want anything?”

“No I’m fine, thanks for asking,” Twilight replied. After a couple of moments passed, Rainbow walked back into the room, a small plate of hayfries in her mouth. Both of the mares sat patiently in the room, neither one say anything until Rainbow spoke up.

“So what’s up for today?” Rainbow asked as she ate her snack.

“Not much really. I guess all that I have planned for today is to get ready for the Archmage Exhibition that is going to be happening in a couple of days. Other than that I have nothing planned at all.”

"Archmage exhibition?” Rainbow said with a confused look on her face. “What’s that?”

“The Archmage’s Exhibition is an event that is hosted in Manehatten every two years,” Twilight said with her best lecturing voice. “Unicorns from all over Equestria come and participate in the event. All of the participants are judged by a panel of three esteemed judges, the panel typically composing Princess Celestia, Luna, and one celebrity judge that is kept secret until the opening ceremony. After a couple of grueling days for the participants, one unicorn is selected and wins both the title of Archmage Champion, as well as personal lessons from the Archmage… Although even if somepony doesn’t win, it’s a really good idea to go if an individual has a lot of potential. It provides the perfect setting for master magicians to search for their next potential student. Quite often, these powerful teachers will pick those who just barely didn’t earn the title, and take them as their own pupil.”

“Sounds important,” Rainbow said with a nod.

“For most unicorns it is… If I had to make a comparison to pegasi culture, I guess it would be extremely similar to a Wonderbolt audition.”

“So… Are you competing this year?" Rainbow asked after a couple moments of silence. "I remember seeing that sweet trophy that you won!" Twilight's face began to curl up into a smile.

There is some of the Rainbow that I know, finally starting to poke of it's shell.

"I bet you could beat everypony without even trying! Just flash some of that awesome alicorn magic, and boom instant win!”

"Rainbow, I can't compete for a couple of reasons. First of all, I'm the surprise judge for the exhibition this year, so obviously I can't compete. The second reason is because of these," Twilight said as she flared her wings out, extending them to their full extent. "Alicorns aren’t allowed to enter due to their innate magical abilities. Every alicorn has access to a divine pool where a large amount very potent energy is stored. Celestia has the sun as the nucleus of her power, and Luna has the moon that she can draw from, if need be. With such deep pool of energy to pull from, alicorns have a distinct advantage over everypony else, and thus are not able to compete in the event."

"Okay then," Rainbow said, nodding her head in acknowledgement. "I have another question. How does magic work anyway? All I know is that it happens..." Twilight's ears shot up, and large smile made its way across her face.

"Well..." Twilight started to lecture, while a little confused on why Rainbow was suddenly interested in magic, but that would not deter her from passing her knowledge along to another curious pony. "Magic is broken down into six major 'schools'. First you have the school of conjuration magic.” A dull lavender glow surrounded Twilight’s horn as a purple table manifested itself in the air. “As you can see conjuration magic focuses on the manifestation of physical objects through non-physical means. The caster’s thoughts are transformed into something tangible, and can be actively manipulated in anyway the caster of the spell sees fit." The magical structure of the table began to shudder, twisting at geometrically impossible angles, until the magical energy settled on one final shape. Where the table used to be, now lay a simple chalkboard, with messy notes scribbled across the chalkboard’s face from top to bottom.

"Then there is force magic, which is my personal favourite." Twilight continued to lecture, as the chalkboard vanished with a small flash. "It requires a very quick mind to be able to apply the massive force needed to manipulate objects, while keeping the distribution of external force equal across the object’s surface. Telekinesis falls into this school for obvious reasons, and teleporting is just the concept of adapting the right applicable forces and applying them to the target at extremely fast speeds. Defense magic borrows a large amount of concepts from the force school of magic, as most defensive spells are derived from basic repulsion spells." Looking over at Rainbow, Twilight could tell that she was getting bored with the lecture, and decided to take a more hooves-on approach to answering Rainbow's question.

Twilight's horn began to glow a dull shade of violet, and a small flame started to form in front of her. "While I'm quite adapt in force magic, I've never been able to quite grasp how combat magic works..." Rainbow’s face contorted with confusion, as the thought of Twilight having problems with anything magic related, didn’t quite register at first.

Really? I find that hard to believe... How can Twi have any problems with magic?

"You see..." Twilight said, her concentration focused on the miniscule ball of energy in front of her. Small tendrils of energy periodically shot out from the orb in random directions, some hitting Rainbow in the muzzle, sending a dull, tingling pulse throughout her face. "Each school of magic requires a different mindset when casting the spell. Combat magic such as this small fireball requires for the unicorn to be able to keep their flow of energy constant but ever changing to match the nature of how spell reacts in the world. Too much energy in a particular location will cause an overload of the spell’s structure, and will potentially cause the spell to violently explode. While too little energy will cause the spell to harmlessly dissipate.”

The ball of energy shuttered and then quietly evaporated into thin air, only leaving the ambient heat the flame had once created. "Ever since I became the Princess of Magic, I have been trying to figure out how combat magic works." Twilight let out a defeated sigh. "But I guess I still got a long way to go. No matter what I try, I can’t seem to get the constantly shifting energy stream to behave the right way."

“Don’t worry about it too much Twi,” Rainbow said, putting a hoof over Twilight’s shoulder. “You will get it eventually.” Both of the friends sat in the library’s central room, a comfortable silence hung in the air between the two. "So... You’re going to be the guest judge?"

“I was thinking about it…” Twilight replied, the uncertainty of her thoughts obvious in her voice.

“But?” Rainbow asked, her head tilted at an odd angle. From the tone of Twilight’s voice, Rainbow knew that Twilight was hiding something from her, and was afraid to say what was on her mind. “But what? It sounds like it’s something really important to you, so why are you hesitating on going?”

“Well…” Twilight nervously rubbed her forehooves together. Deep down she didn't want to ask the question that was causing her indecision. Rainbow had managed to recover fairly well from the break up, but Twilight couldn't help but worry if Rainbow would be fine with her leaving for a couple days. There were only a couple times where Rainbow had asked for Twilight’s help, but no matter what Twilight couldn’t help but feel a little guilty if she weren’t there for Rainbow when she needed it.

“Are you going to be okay if I leave for a couple of days?”

Rainbow stared back, not quite sure on how to respond to the question.

“I guess I’ll be fine…” Rainbow said after some thought, shrugging her shoulders as the words left her mouth. “I could read through these last few books on aerodynamics, and wind drag… At least that will keep me busy, for a little bit.” Rainbow’s eyes nervously darted around the room, never staying in one place for too long. “Although... I was thinking about asking you if I could tag along... If that was all right.”

Twilight sat there, staring in shock at Rainbow as her mind tried to make sense of what Rainbow had said. There weren’t too many things that shocked Twilight anymore. She had faced hydras, changelings, and had even finished a spell that even the legendary Star Swirl the Bearded himself hadn't been able to complete. However that simple sentence had completely stumped her… The simple inquiries on how magic worked were one thing, but actually wanting to come with her to the Archmage’s Exhibition… That didn’t make any sense!

Why would Rainbow be taking an interest in magic of all things? Ever since we first met, she has constantly made remarks about how magic isn’t that interesting… So why does she want to come with me to the magic exhibition?

Twilight’s ear gave a small twitch, something that was unavoidable when something didn’t make perfect logical sense. Unfortunately ever since she had tried for weeks on end to uncover the truth behind Pinkie’s Pinkie sense, the nervous twitch would always make its way back.

“Why do you want to go with me to see the exhibition?” Twilight asked, still confused about Rainbow’s request. “Don’t get me wrong, I’d enjoy the extra company… It’s just that…" Twilight paused for a second, as she tried to find the right words. "You’ve never once, not a single time since we met, took an interest in anything magical… But now you’re asking me to come along to an extremely important exhibition. Why?”

“I don’t know,” Rainbow said. “I thought that it sounded quite cool actually. All of those unicorns competing for some awesome prize, each one putting their best hoof towards something that they want…” Rainbow paused to collect her thoughts. After a couple of quiet moments, she continued to speak. “It’ll be nice to take some time away from Ponyville for a couple of days. So much has happened in the past week… With all the stuff that happened between me and Applejack, I figured that it would be nice to take a break from it all.”

“I guess that makes sense…” Twilight said, slightly dumbfounded by the simple reason that she had been provided. “If you really want to come, we would be catching the eight o’clock train to Manehatten. It’s going to be an all day trip to get there, so you better pack well.”

“Will do! I’ll get started right now.” With that Rainbow shot up the stairs in a cyan blur, the backdraft behind her scattering loose papers throughout the library. Twilight just sat there, staring at the bookshelf in front of her, not saying a single work, her mind still trying to process what had just happened. Giving her head a violent shake, she snapped herself back into reality.

Okay… Okay… So Rainbow is taking an interest in magic… That is normal… Right?... It’s perfectly normal for somepony to have a little curiosity… And it makes logical sense that Rainbow would want to know.

However the more Twilight repeated the last sentence in her head, the less and less it added up.

Wait! No it doesn’t make any sense! This doesn’t make any sense at all!!!

Twilight felt a small tug on her coat, but quickly dismissed it as her mind continued to try to piece the information together. Another tug came, this time more persistent than the last. Looking over at the area of fur being pulled, Twilight saw a purple scaly claw pulling once more, trying to get her attention.

“About time,” Spike said, clearly annoyed that he had been ignored. “All of the bags are packed for the train ride in a couple of days. Don’t worry… I double checked everything on the list you gave me, and double checked the other list as well. Everything is all set to go.”

“Thanks Spike,” Twilight said with a smile, while patting the little dragon on the head with a hoof. “Rainbow is going to be coming with us on the trip to the exhibition. Are you okay with that?”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I?” Spike asked with a confused look on his face.

“That’s good. Although… You better get to bed, we have to get up early tomorrow and it’s getting late.”

“Aww… Do I have to?” Spike said, giving his best puppy pleading eyes that he could muster.

“Yes you do.”

“Fine. I am going.” Spike said as he began to walk up the library’s oak stairs. “See you in the morning?”

“You definitely will,” Twilight said with a smile.

The next day came rather quickly, as the rest of the night had been packing and getting ready for the trip that lay ahead of them. Rainbow first to wake up, making breakfast for everypony on the trip while Twilight and Spike continued to sleep. After the small breakfast and Twilight double-checking everypony’s saddlebags to make sure that everything had been correctly packed, the group set off for the train station.

Unfortunately the train ride had been fairly boring for Rainbow and Twilight. Spike decided that he was going to nap for most of the trip, and was fast asleep in his own personal room, only a couple minutes after they got on the train. After Rainbow and Twilight had spent hours discussing the finer points of the Daring Do novels, neither mare could find anything to talk about to help entertain them. Time continued to slowly pass as the train rolled down the tracks, the only interesting thing being the immaculate scenery that was whipping by the window. In their room lay two beds, a set of navy blue sheets draped over top of them. After sitting in the room reading a couple stories to pass the time, it was late and Twilight let out a yawn as she continued to read from the book in front of her.

Rainbow poked her head from underneath the navy blue bed sheet, her face contorted with an expression that screamed that she was deep in thought about something. Twilight stared back into the magenta eyes that lay fixated on her, as she tried to deduce the pegasus’s thoughts, but to no avail.

“You okay there, Rainbow?” Twilight asked with an eyebrow raised, as she glanced up from the book that she had been reading. “You look like your head is going to explode if you think any harder about whatever it is that has you stumped.”

“Well... Back at the library you mentioned that there are six main ‘schools’ of magic.” Rainbow said, making air quotes in the air with her fore-hooves to emphasize her point. “Though you only went over conjuration, combat, and force magic. So that’s three down, and I have been spending a while trying to figure out the last three, to see if I could do it without your help.”

Really? Why are you trying to deduce the last three schools of magic? For that matter why do you care that much to actually try to figure it out for yourself?

“So far I have a couple of ideas,” Rainbow continued while tapping her forehooves together as talked. “Luna has control over the night, and Celesta has control over the day… However no matter how much I try to put those together, I keep coming with absolutely nothing. Although... I think I have a good guess for one of the other schools at least.”

“Oh?” Twilight asked. Deep down she wanted to see where Rainbow was going with this. Twilight knew that Rainbow was a lot more intelligent than what most ponies thought, just in different aspects of knowledge that others didn’t fully see at first.

“Well I know the Elements of Harmony work on the magic of friendship or something, so I’m guessing that the magic of friendship is one of main schools of magic.”

“Well sort of…” Twilight replied.

You’re close their Rainbow… Very close...

“You see Rainbow, the magic of friendship is part of one of the greater schools… And that school focuses on the magic that comes from the soul.”

“Magic of the soul?” Rainbow shot a confused look over in Twilight’s direction. “I’ve never heard about that.”

“Most non-unicorns don’t know how the magic of the soul works, Rainbow. So it makes sense that you’d never heard of the school before… You see this particular school refers to the magic that comes from a unicorn’s very essence of being, the magic of friendship and the magic of love are both rooted deep within this school. Magic from the soul is very powerful, in fact it is some of the most powerful magic that a unicorn can tap into, however it is also the most draining of schools, and is hardest to learn out of all the six main schools.”

“Unlike the other three that we have talked about, this magic requires the caster to delve deep into their own being, and access the power that lies deep within themselves. This deep inner power resides in all unicorns, however it is very hard to access it, unlike the much easier sections of magic that the other schools gather from. Most often a catalyst like the Elements of Harmony are used to assist in the use of this deep power. There are some ponies out there, very few mind you, that can syphon a little bit of this energy. Those that have been able to accomplish this incredible feat, have typically gone down in history for a variety of different reasons.”

“Really? That sounds awesome!” Rainbow said with a quick hoof bump underneath the sheet. “So that leaves only the last two schools then.”

“Ah yes, the school of warding, and the school of enchantment.” Twilight continued. “Both similar at first glance to the untrained eye, but they are in fact very different. Warding magic focuses on spells that are some what ‘sentient’,” Twilight said while accenting her point with air quotes. “In general, warding spells somewhat have a mind of their own, only acting when the warded object is in danger from external forces.” Rainbow shot a confused look over at Twilight, the point of the makeshift lesson clearly not sinking the pegasus’s mind. “Think of a mother protecting her child Rainbow. They will go to any means to protect the one that they hold dear, just like how an advanced warding spell would act.”

“Okay, I think I got it,” Rainbow said, a quick nod acknowledging her understanding. “Warding spells are used for protective purposes. So what about enchantment magic?”

“Enchantment is the act of passing one’s magic ability to another object, thus giving the power to whoever wears or wield enchantment. Typically these spells are one that increase an item’s particular capabilities, like making an axe stay sharper for longer periods of time. Sadly enchantment magic is the one school that ponies are starting to deviate from, as most people don’t have the patience to get the spells correct. Enchanting magic takes a long time to perfect, and even longer time to master, so there are very few ponies left that are experienced in the magic style.”

“Yeah I could see how that would be a pain in the flank. All of that time and effort put into something that you love, without too much to show for it would suck.” Both mares sat there for a couple of moments, not saying anything to each other as they watched the night cloaked scenery rocket by. However there was a question that had been pressing on Twilight’s mind ever since yesterday and she was determined to find the answer to it here and now.

“So Rainbow…” Rainbow turned her case from the window over to Twilight. “Why have you took such a heavy interest in magic all of a sudden?”

“Huh?” Rainbow replied with a confused tone. “What do you mean? I already told you, I thought that it sounded cool, so why not learn about it?” As Twilight thought about the reason, it didn’t seem to add up. To be interested in magic was one thing, that was perfectly reasonable, but from going from such an extreme disinterest to suddenly becoming fixated on it… Just didn’t add up.

There is something that she isn’t telling me… I don’t know what… But something just seems a little weird about this whole entire trip… Rainbow has been a little off ever since I told her about the Archmage Exhibition.

Twilight sat there, staring at Rainbow with serious intent, making sure to notice every feature that came across Rainbow’s face. “You’re hiding something from me… Aren’t you?”

“Pffft…” Rainbow said while brushing the comment off with a hoof. “N-N-No... What would make you say that?”

“Really, Rainbow…” Twilight said with a deadpanned expression. “You wanting to come with me on this trip is understandable. I mean even though you said that you would be okay, I can still see you wanting to come along, but that isn’t what is confusing me at the moment. You taking such a heavy interest in magic like this is just… Odd…”

“I told you. You made magic sound awesome so why wouldn’t I be interested?”

Come on Rainbow, work with me here a little bit. I am just trying to figure this out…

“Please Rainbow, tell me why.” Rainbow glanced around the room, searching for a reasonable answer to the question that had been laid in front of her.

“You’re not going to stop until I tell you… Are you?” Rainbow asked, her eyes still fixed on the bed.

“Probably not.”

“Okay okay…” Rainbow let out a sigh. “Over these past couple of days with everything happening between me and Applejack, I noticed something about how I treat my friends.” Twilight rose an eyebrow at the comment, not quite sure where Rainbow was going with the topic. “I’ve never really paid much attention to what all the others have been doing. All I have really been interested in myself, just focusing on the Wonderbolts auditions, and my now failed relationship with Applejack. All of this time I have never stopped to consider what you guys are interested in, so I decided that I would take the time to slow down and see what my friends enjoy.”

With that a smile stretched across Twilight’s face. “Come here,” Twilight said while patting the empty spot on the bed with a hoof. “I’ve got something to show you and I think that you’re going to enjoy it.”

“Uh sure…” Rainbow said, a little confused on what Twilight wanted to show her. With a simple flap of her wings, the light sheet flew off the bed, landing in a ball of fabric on the train floor. As Rainbow sat next to Twilight, she began to notice that a pearl white glow was emanating from Twilight’s horn, the air heavy with a thick magical force that slightly weighed on her fur. “What are you doing there Twi?”

No response came from the alicorn, her mind clearly focused on the spell that continued to surge through her body. Twilight lowered her head down, resting her horn on Rainbow’s head, and with that simple action, Rainbow’s world was replaced with darkness.

Author's Notes:

Yet again I have to give Kodeake a big thanks for helping me with this chapter. Throughout the development of this chapter, I'd about half of it written for the longest time. These parts were all miss matched nonsensical scenes that didn't really make any sense in the slightest. But thankfully I was able to tie the scenes together and produce something that you might like. I've only got Kodeake's edited version, and have published it those edits... Because I'm impatient as hell, and don't really like waiting that much for anything :P

As usual feel free to comment on anything that you want about the story, and I shall get back as soon as possible. Although I'm a little sorry about the cliffhanger at the end, but hey... It helps me set up the beginning of the next chapter, and that particular scene would be way too long to include in this chapter.

Hope you enjoy the chapter! I'm off to prepare for all my exam tomorrow, while squeezing games of EDH in where ever I can :)

7: Let Me Show You My World

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“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.” ~ Helen Keller

Dark… Why is it dark? Rainbow thought to herself as she opened her eyes. All that she could remember was the fairly bland bedroom, and then Twilight saying something… Then nothing… Rainbow sat in the barren space and tapped her head with a hoof. What was it that Twilight said?

‘I’ve got something to show you and I think that you’re going to enjoy it.’ What in the hay did she mean by that? Rainbow thought to herself as she looked around in the barren darkness, no source of light in any direction. There is nothing bucking here! All that I can see is black for miles. A small shiver coursed through Rainbow’s body, its suddenness sent a surge of fear through her. She was all alone, sitting in a desolate place that she knew nothing about, with no one around to ask what in the world what was going on.

“Ha ha, very funny Twi,” Rainbow said, her panicked voice echoed through the nothingness that surrounded her. “Nice prank. You really got me…”

“Prank?” Twilight’s said, her voice seeming to come from everywhere in the world at once. “Oh no no. This isn’t a prank Rainbow. I told you I wanted to show you something that you’re going to like and I meant it. The spell seems to be a little more complicated when you’re casting it on somepony else. Usually it just drops me in the right location, but for you it seems to have sent you off somewhere else. You should be able to see something of in the distance. Just head towards it and you will be fine.”

“What in Celestia’s name are you talking about!” Rainbow shouted as she looked around the barren space. “There’s nothing here! I can’t see a damn thing and it’s starting to creep me the hell out. Undo whatever you did, and get back into that boring bedroom…” There were a couple of moments of silence before Twilight’s voice boomed through the world once more.

“Please Rainbow, you should be able to see it now. Trust me,” Twilight pleaded. “If you want I can cancel the spell, and you will back in the room with me, but please… Just trust me.”

Rainbow sat on her haunches, thinking about what she wanted to do.

What the heck do I do? Twi said that if I wanted out that I could just say so, but she also said to head towards something, but there isn’t anything bucking here! Although… Twilight would never lie to me like this. Rainbow let out a deep breath, the calming effect almost immediate as she felt the worry start to leave her body. I’ll give it a couple of minutes, and then if I don’t see anything I’ll ask her to let me back out.

In the distance, a small light began to radiate, its glow seemingly inviting Rainbow to walk towards it. With a small stretch of her hooves, Rainbow sat up and started to walk towards the ominous glow, her footsteps softly echoing with every step. As she slowly trudged towards the light, a pleasantly warm feeling began to wash over her, starting from her muzzle all the way down to her tail. After a couple of minutes of walking Rainbow stood in front of a large wooden door. A small gold handle lay in the center and with a simple push with her hoof, the door opened and she walked on through.

With a flash of bright light, the world filled with color, and sitting in the middle of the center of this new colorful world, was Twilight, a big smile stretched across her face. As Rainbow looked around the new room that had materialized before her, she noticed that it looked a fair amount similar to the Golden Oak’s Library, but there was no ceiling. In its place lay a starry night sky, completely filled with beautiful stars that shone with a subtle dull glow. Rainbow continued to stare at the sky above her, basking in awe at the simple beauty.

“Gorgeous isn’t it? ” Twilight said. “The stars are always beautiful, every single night, their brilliance shines without fail. Such simple beauty is always breathtaking, and it never ceases to amaze me. I remember times where I’d just look out the window late at night, looking at the sky for hours on end. Quite often, I would sit with Princess Celestia after a long day of lessons, and we would tell each other stories that we had read about. I know this night sky is not the same, but at least it is as close to the real thing as what I can remember.”

“Yeah… W-W-Wait a minute…” Rainbow said as she whipped her gaze over to Twilight. “What the hell did you do to me?! I mean you could have at least given me some warning that everything was going to disappear. That scared the hell out me you know.”

“Sorry about that…” Twilight said while rubbing the back of her head with a fore-hoof. “I’ve never cast this spell on somepony else before, and I guess I screwed up in some of the calculations. I’m sorry about not asking you if it was okay at first, but you seemed a little down after telling me about why you had taken such an interest in magic. I figured that this might cheer you up.”

“Okay so where in Celestia’s name are we?” Rainbow glanced once more around the library’s interior. The only differences that she could see was the missing ceiling, and a collection of doors that surrounded the room, each with own label across them. “It all looks like the library back in Ponyville, excluding the obvious.”

“This,” Twilight said while waving a forehoof around. “This is my mind.”

“This is your mind? What do you mean?”

“All of this Rainbow… It’s all me. The library, the night sky, and even the darkness that you came from. It is all me. What you’re seeing right now is a projection of the inside of my mind, a visual representation of how my thoughts are laid out if you will. At the moment we’re just simply sitting in the central hub, which kind of acts like a central point that connects to all the other parts. You said yourself that you wanted to see how magic works, so I thought why not take you directly to the source. This way I can give you an extremely detailed lesson on how my magic works, and it will also help us pass the time.”

“Okay okay,” Rainbow said while waving her hooves in front of her, her mind still trying to make sense of the situation. “So. Let me get this straight… You cast a spell that let me see inside your head.” Twilight nodded in acknowledgement. “Right now we’re sitting in your mind, and all of this is you.” Another nod came from Twilight. “And you did this too...?”

“To show you the lowest level on how magical theory works. Now come on, we’ve got a lot to see, and very little time to see it. The train should be arriving at the station in a couple of hours, and that should give us just enough time for me to show you what I wanted. Just follow me, and please, don’t venture off anywhere.”

“Uh okay…” Rainbow said with uncertainty in her voice. Both of the mares got up, and began to walk to one of the many doors that surrounded the room. Twilight pushed the door open with a hoof, and proceeded to walk in, gesturing for Rainbow to follow as the door swung ajar. With a couple of steps into the new area, the door closed behind them. Rainbow surveyed the room as the two walked in. A large circular wooden floor lay at the centre of the room, but no walls extended from the base of the floor. Surrounding the wooden disk in the center, lay a vast expanse of night sky, filled with pearl white clouds. The dull glow of Luna’s moon provided a dim source of light throughout the world.

Twilight sat down, and patted the ground next to her for Rainbow to join her.

“Please sit down Rainbow, and be as still as you can be,” Twilight said. “Magic is very hard to coax out while casting this spell. It’s a lot like trying to look two different ways at time. So just sit perfectly still.”

“Sure, I guess,” Rainbow said as she sat next to Twilight. “Should I be looking for anything or?”

“Just give it a second.”

Rainbow gazed around the sky, looking everywhere with serious intent, as if she was looking for something miniscule to appear. A small wave of energy materialized in front of her, and it slowly started to move towards the two. The energy flowed like a wave as it travelled through Rainbow’s body, effortlessly coiling around her as it moved. As the energy surged over Rainbow, she was filled with a sense of familiarity.

What the hell? I swear that I have felt this before, it almost feels like… Rainbow turned and looked at Twilight, the mare’s eyes were closed tight, and she was chanting some spell underneath her breath. It feels like… Twilight. Calm, collected, organized, and a little crazy. Another wave materialized and washed over Rainbow. One by one, more and more began to materialize in the empty room. Some just floated through the air, while others sank lower into the sky below.

“Closer, but it’s still not enough,” Twilight quietly said. “Just a little bit more.” Twilight’s horn began to glow with a lavender light. The waves of energy gathered towards the horn, and began to quickly circle around it. With a thunderous roar, the energy dispersed from Twilight’s horn, and the area around them roared to life. Tendrils of magic filled the world, each there own seperate colour, some entwined with each other as they danced around the room. Rainbow stared in awe, completely flabberghasted at the explosion of light. The pale glow of the radiant moonlight, now replaced by a vibrant hue of color. Curtains of red and green magic effortlessly fused together over head. Some of the coils of magic floated down towards Rainbow and circled her a couple of times before flying back off into the sky.

“Wow,” Rainbow said, her gaze unmoving from the magnificent light show of a world that lay before her eyes.

“It’s amazing isn’t it,” Twilight said, a hint of exhaustion could be heard in her voice. “When Celestia first told me about this spell I didn’t believe her that you could see magic like this. To be able to see magic, in its purest form, it is unbelieveable.” Twilight reached out a roof, a red stream of energy made its way over, forming a small orb on the top her hoof. “All of this is magic, Rainbow. Pure magic, untouched by any external factors, and just waiting to be shaped at will.” The small ball on top of Twilight’s hoof began to twitch, it’s structure bending back and forth, never settling on a particular form for too long. After a couple of seconds the energy morphed one final time into a bright purple flame.

“All magic comes from here. It all depends on the type of magic that you want to use, and in what ways you want to use it.” Twilight stared at the small ball of flame that lay sitting in her hoof. “This magic is simple combat magic, and if it is used for that purpose it easier to access. But if you try to bend it outside of it’s usual purpose.” The flame gave a small shudder and materialized back into it’s base form. “It typically reverts back to it’s original form if you try to force it.”

“That is so sweet!” Rainbow shouted. “I wish I could use magic that this, it would be awesome! Maybe I would be able to conjure a nice bed to nap in wherever I wanted.”

“But Rainbow,” Twilight said as she brought over another stream of energy. “You do channel magic like this, just in a different way.” Rainbow sat with a confused expression on her face.

“What do you mean? I’m a pegasus… Of course I can’t use magic like you do Twi. Kind of lacking the right materials there,” Rainbow said, pointing to her head with a hoof. “If you catch my drift.”

That’s right. I didn’t go over that at all did I? Twilight thought to herself, as the stream of energy playfully continued to roll around on top of her hoof. I just explained how magic works for unicorns but not for the other tribes… I thought she knew since she was reading that aerodynamics book, but it must just go into the concepts behind flight, and not the pure basics. Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin, trying to think of an idea on how to explain the concept of non-unicorn magic to Rainbow, while keeping her engaged in the conversation.

“Hey Rainbow,” Twilight said, as she came up with a solution to her small problem. “Think fast!” As the words left Twilight’s mouth, she threw the ball of energy at Rainbow, aiming just beside her. Rainbow’s wings shot out from the surprise of Twilight’s abrupt toss, and the orb whizzed by Rainbow’s head. What shocked Rainbow though was that the energy didn’t continue to fly past her like she thought it would. Instead the orb hovered patiently in spot, floating a small distance away from the tip of her wing. Rainbow moved the wing down, and the orb mimicked the simple action.

“I did forget to mention one very important aspect about magic,” Twilight said as Rainbow continued to play with floating sphere. “All ponies have magic deep inside of them, the only difference between all of the races is how they use this energy. For all of the pony races, using magic comes naturally. Magic is what allows pegasi to fly, and it is also what gives earth ponies their deep connection with nature. Unicorns are unique in the fact that they can actively shape their magic with the use of their horn.”

“So how do pegasi use magic then?” Rainbow said, taking a brief second to stop playing with the magical sphere, that still hovered next to her wing.

“Pegasi wings act as their magic conductor. It takes the energy in their body and allows them to manipulate it so they can fly. This magic is also what allows pegasus ponies to control the weather.” Rainbow shot a confused look over at Twilight, not completely understanding on how the two were connected.

“What do you mean that pegasi use their magic? Pegasi wings are like bird wings, you just give them a flap and off you you go.”

“Bird bones are hollow, Rainbow,” Twilight said. “And because of that reason they require much less to lift them into the air. The magic that you have helps give the extra boost needed, and provides the necessary lift to get you off the ground. A pegasus’s flying potential is based on how well they can access their magical reserves. The more you can tap into this power, the faster you can fly. In fact this magic is the same substance that allows you to create the Sonic Rainboom. As you reach the extremely fast speeds, the magic begins to resonate with it’s surroundings, eventually reaching the point where the colorful explosion fills the sky.”

“So you’re saying that I’ve been really creating magical explosions without knowing it?” Twilight gave a small nod.

“That is so awesome!” Rainbow shouted as she did a small flip on the spot. “Is there anything else that I have been doing that I don’t really know of?” Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin. It did surprise her that Rainbow had never learned about the concepts of non-unicorn magic. Granted it was a lesson they probably would teach early in flight school, so she might have just forgotten about it.

“Not that I can think of,” Twilight said. “Maybe when we get back from the Archmage Exhibition, I can try to show you how to access your own energy. I’ve heard that a select few pegasus ponies have been able to tap into their energy and draw small portions of it out at will. If you can do that, we can probably improve your overall speed by a little bit, as well as give you a way to fly without spending as much energy.”

“We could?” Rainbow shouted, the happiness clear on her face. “That is great news!”

Twilight’s ears perked up as a sound began to radiate through her mind.

“Now arriving at Manehatten station!” The deep voice boomed. “Please secure all of your belongings and please move towards the exits in an orderly fashion. Thank you for riding with us and we hope you had a pleasent experience.”

“And with that it looks like we’re out of time,” Twilight said.

“Awwww,” Rainbow pouted, while crossing her forehooves across her chest. “I was having a lot of fun here.”

“We can come back here if you want to sometime later on. Now just sit still and relax. It shouldn’t take too long to get you back into your body.” Twilight’s horn began to glow with it’s traditional lavender hue. As she lowered her head to Rainbow’s, she stopped just before the tip reached Rainbow’s forehead. “Uh you might feel a little weird going back. Some ponies have described the experience to be… Awkward, to say the least.

“Thanks for the heads up this time Twi,” Rainbow said. “Now hit me with your best shot.” With those words, Twilight lowered her horn to Rainbow’s brow, and let the spell take over. The world around Rainbow gave a violent shudder, as the immaculate scenery of the cascading streams of magic began to violently twist and warp towards her. A wave of vertigo shot through Rainbow’s body as the world convulsed one last time and with loud pop, it vanished into blackness, only to be replaced moments later with the quiet train room. Rainbow sat staring at the wall, only able to blink as she began to feel herself trying to adjust to the new world in front of her.

“Come on Rainbow,” Twilight said as she pulled Rainbow through the room’s small wooden door. “We’re going to be late if we don’t hurry up.” Surprisingly, Spike was already walking down the hall with bags in tow behind him. With little effort he dropped the bags at the mares’ feet and proceeded to walk towards the exit. Twilight walked on past, magically levitating the heavy satchels over her back as she walked by.
Rainbow tried taking a step towards the saddlebags, but as she put her hoof forward to take a step, she instantly felt lightheaded. The sudden surge sent a wave of vertigo through Rainbow’s body as she pressed up against the wall of the train to keep her from falling on her face.

Noticing that Rainbow wasn’t behind her, Twilight turned around, and shot a confused look towards the stumbling pegasus. Rainbow tried to take one more step, but once again a lightheaded rush filled her head, and she stumbled forward.

“You okay there Rainbow?” Twilight asked. “You seem a little…” Twilight rolled a hoof in the air as she tried to think of a proper word. “Discombobulated?”

“Twi…” Rainbow said, a deadpan stare making its way across her face. “Next time you want to describe some feeling, use a word that I will at least recognize.” Rainbow looked at her hoof, and put a small weight onto it, the rush filling her head once more. “Is there any side effects to that spell that you cast? It’s a little hard to walk here.”

“Hmmm…” Twilight said, tapping a hoof to her chin. “Most of the books mentioned a weird sense of vertigo, and indescribable colours that were generated as the mental projections collapsed in upon themselves, and--”

“Please get to your point,” Rainbow interrupted, clearly annoyed at the whole entire situation.

“Yes, they did mention about some mental overload afterwards.” Twilight walked up to Rainbow. “Come on, you can lean on me to help walk, at least until the spell’s effects start to wear off.”

“Sure.” Rainbow said as she leaned into Twilight. A slight tickle made it’s way through Rainbow’s wing, as Twilight’s fur poked in between the feathers. “I think it is a fair tradeoff for being able to see all of that awesome magic dancing in the air, and all of the sweet colours together.”

“Well that is good to hear,” Twilight said, letting out a playful chuckle as the two walked out the train exit into the massive cityscape of Manehatten. “We will have to do it again some time.”

Author's Notes:

Okay after exams, a new co-op position, and a move here it is. Hope you enjoy! It is a long time coming, and hopefully it was worth it.

As always thanks for Kodeake and Jlm123hi for being my editors on this story. Also before I forget, I may be publishing a new story (or may not depending on how my life starts to pan out, but probably). The new story has a working title of "Sometimes Death Is Not The End" and will mainly focus on Twilight's death, and her getting stuck in between the mortal and the dead planes of reality. So far I have an extremely rough draft of the first chapter done, and it seems to be somewhat well received by a select group of people. I also have an awkward writer's block with this story. I have a bunch of chapters lined up, about 9 more in total, but these next 3 are proving a little bit of a weird snag.

Feel free to point out errors, screw ups, or anything else. Also comment if you want, I love reading them and responding is always fun. At least I'll be able to write while I wait for my MRI tomorrow. Hurray for having something to tide over waiting!

8: Let The Games Begin

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“Most things, even the greatest moments on earth, have their beginnings in something small.” ― Lauren Oliver, Delirium

With every step, a wave of vertigo shot through Rainbow's body as the three continued to walk down the busy streets of Manehatten. It annoyed Rainbow to no end that she had to have Twilight's help to walk straight, but the readjustment to her body was definitely worth it. Rainbow was still amazed at the vast abundance of magic that Twilight had within herself. The simple yet graceful views of the multicoloured magical streams had given her a sense of awe that was typically only reserved for the view of the magnificent golden sunsets that Rainbow watched every night from her home.

A soft nudge poked against Rainbow’s side interrupted her thoughts as they walked down the busy streets. Curious of the source of the feeling, Rainbow looked over at her side with a confused look as Twilight's wing gave another small twitch, her feathers softly poking into Rainbow’s fur once more.

"You alright there Twi?" Rainbow asked with a quizzical tone, turning her head back to the busy sidewalk.

"I'm fine," Twilight said as the wing shuttered once more by her side. "On second thought, do you mind stopping for a quick second?"

"Uh sure..." Rainbow said, not entirely sure how to answer the question. As the three stopped on the crowded street, Twilight slightly pushed away from Rainbow and unfolded the troublesome wing to its fullest extent. With a sigh of relief she pushed back into Rainbow's side and draped her wing overtop of the confused pegasus.

Rainbow stared at the wing with a dumbfounded expression as Twilight relaxed the feathery appendage. Such an expression was not unusual in pegasi customs by any means, but when a pegasus’s wing was over another, it was a clear sign to the wandering public that they were a couple.

"Um Twi... What are you doing?"

"Me?" Twilight asked with an innocent tone. "Well, with you leaning on me for support, my wing was getting a little sore, so I thought I'd put it somewhere a little more comfortable." Twilight turned her head towards Rainbow. "Is that alright?"

"There can't be anyway that she doesn't know about that," Rainbow thought to herself as she stared at Twilight's outstretched wing on her shoulder. The feathery appendage was very nice and warm, the soft tips of the feathers felt as soft as silk against Rainbow's fur. What struck her as odd, was that she didn't really care if other ponies saw the two of the like this, in fact it felt like the wing should have been there a long time ago, as if it had been missing in her life for ages. Rainbow quickly shook her head, banishing the thought out of her mind as she continued to walk beside Twilight. "I guess she did grow up as a unicorn, so maybe she doesn't know."

"Yeah it's fine," Rainbow said with a nod. The three continued to walk down the down streets in silence admiring the sights, until Rainbow spoke up again. "So where are we going anyway?"

"Well..." Twilight said as small jet black book levitated from the saddlebags. Rainbow stared at the book as the pages magically turned to the desired section. With little effort Rainbow noticed that the entire page was covered from top to bottom with multi-coloured sections, each with its own titles and times labelled in a perfectly organized manner. Rainbow playfully laughed to herself as Twilight continued to scan through the day planner.

"Of course she has this whole entire tripped planned out." Rainbow thought to herself as she smiled. "Twilight not having this trip laid out would be as impossible as Pinkie never throwing another party again."

"Well the train was on time for once, so we're actually in Manehatten ahead of schedule," Twilight said, her focus completely on the levitating book in front of her. "Which means we should be making our way over towards the coliseum. The princesses should already be there, so all we need to do is show up and look over the setup."

"Hopefully they’re faster at it this year," Spike said as he walked in front of the two mares, carefully sidestepping the absent minded ponies that crowded the busy streets. "It was so boring watching them! Remember the last time we were here Twilight? It took them an hour just to set up the banner."

"Yes Spike, I remember," Twilight said, clearly not paying full attention to the drake’s complaining.

After an hour of uneventful walking through the busy streets of Manehatten, Twilight, Rainbow and Spike had finally reached the coliseum. The building was massive in size, dwarfing all the other nearby structures by at least twenty feet. As Rainbow starred the impressive structure, she couldn’t help but feel impressed at the building that lay in front of her. From top to bottom, the building was immaculate, each rounded stain glass window cut to perfection, and there wasn’t a single aspect that Rainbow could find herself disliking.

“Impressive isn’t it?” Twilight said as she scanned the structure’s flawless face. “The coliseum was built around four hundred years ago with each piece levitated perfectly into place by the most esteemed architect unicorns at the time. Each piece was carefully cut of a unique stone found in the mountain tops that surround the area, and brought here over the course of five long years. Once the project was completed, the unicorns held a celebration, christening the coliseum as the pinnacle of engineering at the time, and even to this day it holds the prestigious record.”

“Thanks Twilight… I don’t think that Rainbow really wanted the history lesson,” Spike commented as he walked past the two.

“Actually…” Rainbow said, her gaze shifting back down to face the coliseum’s large stone door. “I thought it was pretty interesting.”

Twilight walked up to one of the guards that stood patiently in front of a large stone door. He was a pearl white pegasus covered completely from head to tail in a heavy looking set of vibrant purple armour, sections of gold trimming on the edges of each the heavy looking plates. Small tuffs of the stallion’s vibrant orange mane stuck out underneath the plating, providing a nice contrast to the dark colour of the armour. A rather large metal spear was clenched tightly in his hoof, his facial expression unwavering as Twilight approached with a smile.

"Hello, Sky Chaser," Twilight said with a friendly tone, easily recognizing the guard from her many years at the castle. "How are you today?" The guard gave a salute in response to the question.

"Very well, your highness. Thank you for asking." Twilight let out a sigh of annoyance. She absolutely hated it when the guards called her by her title. For weeks after the coronation, Twilight had tried to get the guards to stop, but it had been a losing battle. For a short while, the guards would just use her name, but after a while things always slipped back to the formal norm.

"I take it Princess Celestia and Luna are already here?" Twilight asked, her tone of her voice a little shorter than usual.

"Yes your highness,” Sky Chaser said with a nod. “They’ve been here for approximately an hour already and are patiently awaiting for your arrival."

"Thank you," Twilight said. After the conversation ended, the three proceed to walk on through the awe-inspiring door.

"You really do hate that don't you?" Rainbow asked as they walked through the vast empty hallway. "The formality thing I mean."

"Augh! It drives me nuts Rainbow," Twilight said, the annoyance clear in her voice. "Thankfully most of the ponies in Ponyville have dropped the title, but the guards just can’t seem to get past it. I keep trying to get them to stop but they just seem to continue using it as if my pleas don’t mean anything to them at all."

"Oh?" A familiar voice said, the regalness behind the voice completely recognizable to anypony who would have been listening. "Don't tell me that you are giving up that easily, my student."

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight shouted with childlike excitement as she quickly darted towards her, leaving a wobbling Rainbow standing in confusion. Noticing that Rainbow was about to lose her balance, Spike reached up with a claw and helped stabilize her. “I haven’t been able to see you since the incident with Sombra.”

“It is always a pleasure to see you again my faithful student.” Celestia said as she returned the affectionate nuzzle. “How have you been these past couple of weeks?”

“I’ve been doing quite well,” Twilight said with a large smile as she took a couple steps back towards Rainbow.

“That is good to hear,” Celestia said with a nod. “And how about you Rainbow Dash? How has this past month been treating you?”

“It was a little bit rocky in the beginning to say the least,” Rainbow said as she rubbed a hoof through her mane. “I had a huge relationship problem that I had to sort out, and thankfully Twilight was there to help me out when I needed it.”

“That is unfortunate to hear,” another regal voice commented in the distance. With a powerful flap of her wings, Luna landed next to Rainbow, the downdraft of her mighty wings brushing against Rainbow’s fur as Luna’s hooves softly touched the ground.

“So sister…” Luna said, her voice cutting through the silence that hung in the air. “Did you tell her about the Archmage?”

“Archmage?” Twilight asked with a puzzled tone, with one eyebrow slightly askew. “What about him? Did something bad happen?”

“No nothing like that,” Luna said as she shook her head. “We received a letter informing us that Cadence would not be able to make it this year to help judge the competition. So instead of her, the Archmage himself decided that he will be the replacement judge for the event.” Upon hearing the news, Twilight’s ear gave a small flick. Luna turned her gaze and looked towards Twilight with a nonchalant stare. "We were also told that he wanted to meet you personally Twilight." As the words left her mouth, Luna tapped a hoof to her chin, trying to jog her memory. "He said something about wanting to meeting the genius mare that deciphered Star Swirl’s lost spell. Although it is a little odd that he took so long to request a visit with you Twilight.”

“T-T-The Archmage… Is coming here…” Twilight stammered, her mind trying not to get too worked up about the situation. However as Rainbow looked over, she noticed that Twilight wasn't faring too well. After knowing Twilight for many years now, Rainbow could spot the stages of her over the top freak outs a mile away. First came the constant stammering as the rational part of her mind still had some form of control, then eventually the stress would start to creep on her and the ears would start to flick back and forth. Once that started to happen, it would be only a matter of seconds before the rational Twilight would be gone, the overreacting part of her brain eventually taking complete control over her actions.

"And he wants to talk to me..." Twilight said, her ear gave another small flick. Luna just simply nodded her head in confirmation, at the rather obvious statement.

“And there she goes…” Rainbow thought to herself as she continued to watch Twilight.

"If you excuse me..." Twilight stammered as she tried to find a valid excuse to teleport off someplace that was anywhere else, but came up short. “I-I-I think I hear my laundry calling.” With a bright magenta coloured flash, and a loud pop, Twilight teleported off, leaving behind no trace of the frantic alicorn as the spell dissipated into the air.

“You just had to say something about it,” Celestia said with a sigh as her gazed turned towards Luna. “I was deliberately trying to keep his visit a secret, Luna.” Luna shot a confused look over in Celestia’s direction as she tried to figure out why Celestia would have kept something like that from her student of all ponies. “Twilight has always been one to get riled up easily, blowing even the simplest of matters out of proportion with ease. I knew that she was going to run off as soon as she heard the news.” A peaceful moment hung in the air with nopony saying a single word to the other.

“Would you mind going to get her?” Celestia asked as she turned towards Rainbow. “The teleportation spell she used has a very limited to range to it, so she couldn’t have gone too far.” Rainbow flexed her wings and gave them a voluntary flap, putting her a couple of inches off of the ground. The adjustment to her body still hadn’t fully finished, but the lightheadedness that she still experienced was now manageable, the feeling now just a small reminder of the events of the mind-walking spell.

“Don’t worry about it,” Rainbow said while hovering patiently on the spot. “I’ll grab her and make sure she is ready for the Archmage when he gets here. You can count on it.” As the words left Rainbow’s mouth she shot of like a bullet, quickly racing through each off the coliseums vast archways in search of Twilight. Thankfully she didn’t have to look long, as Twilight was pacing back and forth across the one of the many barren hallways within the coliseum. With a small flap of her wings, Rainbow landed softly next to Twilight, the mare in question muttering to herself as she continued to pace.

“No no no, this isn’t good,” Twilight said to herself, completely oblivious to the fact that Rainbow was now standing next to her. “I don’t have anything prepared for his visit, no checklists, nothing planned to talk about. What if the conversation doesn’t go anywhere and we just sit and stare at each other, with neither one saying a word.” Twilight gave a quick shake of her head, and continued to ramble quietly to herself.

“Just wait for it…” Rainbow thought to herself as carefully watched Twilight, patiently waiting for the perfect moment to grab the alicorn and bring her back down to earth.

“Maybe I'm overreacting a little bit…” Twilight muttered softly, the rational part of her mind momentarily victorious over the still panicking irrational section of her mind.

“There it is,” Rainbow thought to herself with a smile. With a sudden burst of speed, Rainbow grabbed Twilight by the shoulders, and held the hysteric mare firmly in her hooves, preventing her from pacing around.

“Twi, you've got to calm down,” Rainbow said calmly as she gave Twilight a little shake. “What are you so worked about anyway? You've met the Archmage before haven't you? So what is the big deal?"

"What's the big deal?!" Twilight snapped at Rainbow, her out of control mind getting the best of her at that moment. "The Archmage is the absolute epitome of what all unicorns strive to be!" With a little effort, Twilight squirmed her way out of Rainbow's grasp and scampered a couple of steps back into the hall.

"He is regarded as one of the most important figures in society, right next to the princesses, and he wants to talk to me personally!" By this moment, Twilight had begun to hyperventilate, each breath get faster then the last, her wings frantically moved about, seemingly mimicking their owner's frantic emotional state. Her eyes began to dart around the hallway as a million thoughts raced through her head at once, completely out racing her brain's ability to sort out the rational ideas from the irrational.

"What if he doesn't like me? What if I say something completely stupid and ruin my future chances of talking with him." Sensing that the conversation was starting to devolve into an incoherent mess, Rainbow sighed and grabbed Twilight's face in between her hooves.

"Twilight!" Rainbow said as she stared into Twilight's panicked eyes, which continued to dart around as her mind continued to sort through hundreds of panicked thoughts. "Just take a second and breathe."

"But... but..." Twilight said with a small whimper, her bottom lip quivering slightly as the words left her mouth. “What if-”

"Relax Twilight," Rainbow interrupted the panicking mare, her gaze unshifting. “Just relax and breathe…”

Finally the words had started to sink into Twilight's brain as Twilight closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. After a couple more breaths, Twilight looked back up towards Rainbow, her facial expression back to normal.

"There we go," Rainbow said with a smile, as she let go of Twilight's muzzle. "Feeling a little bit better?" Twilight took another small breath, carefully timing the gaps in between, they were still a little bit closer together than usual but nowhere near what she was at before.

"A little," Twilight said as she rubbed a hoof to her head, a small smile across her face. "I guess I was overacting wasn't I?"

"Just a little bit," Rainbow said with a playful giggle. "But hey, it wouldn't be you if you didn't overstress about something, now would it?".

"Thank you so much Rainbow," Twilight said as she brought Rainbow in for a thankful hug.

"Aw don't mention it," Rainbow said as she slowly pulled away from the soft embrace. “We better get going though. The Archmage is probably here by now.” Twilight nodded and flew off towards the judge’s table, leaving Rainbow alone in the now empty hallway.

“What a weird day,” Rainbow thought to herself as she took flight.

The Archmage lay sitting at the grand table, sitting in silence in between the other two princesses, as they tried to strike up a conversation with the solemn pony. A pristine white cloak covered his body from head to hoof, his bright emerald coloured eyes the only feature that was clearly visible underneath the cloak’s hood. Behind him a wooden spine shape staff hovered patiently in place, the small blue crystal ball that lay resting on the tip reflecting the sunlight into Twilight’s eyes as she continued to walk alongside Rainbow.

“Archmage,” Twilight said with a respectful bow to the pony with Rainbow following suit.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Princess Sparkle,” the Archmage said without moving an inch. “And you as well, Miss Rainbow Dash.” The Archmage’s voice was very deep but full of authority, truly a voice of somepony that demanded to be respected. With his old bones popping as he arose from his comfortable chair, the Archmage slowly made his way over towards Twilight. A hoof reached up and pulled the white hood down from his head, revealing the old vibrant indigo coloured fur beneath.

“It is amazing to see how you have grown,” the Archmage said as he analyzed Twilight from top to bottom. “So much different from the small purple unicorn that I remember from all of those years long ago. You were the youngest to win the competition, and were full of so much magical promise, even back then. Seeing you easily cast the intermediate spells that most unicorns twice your ages had problems with was truly something to behold.” The Archmage turned to face Rainbow, a knowing smile across his face. “Does she still get obsessed over the littlest things that attract her interest?”

Rainbow simply stared at the Archmage as he asked the question. The chat with the Archmage was nowhere near the way she thought the conversation was going to go, not by a million miles. For some reason, Rainbow had painted a mental picture of a cold, elderly stallion that only took time for the ponies that he thought would be important in the future. Instead she felt like was talking with her grandfather, not some all important figure in Equestrian society.

“She did that even when she was a little filly?” Rainbow asked.

“Of course, you didn’t think that it was something that she just picked up from being Celestia’s pupil did you?” the Archmage said with a hearty laugh. “I can remember that one day, she stayed up until the late hours of the night with her face buried deep into an old history book that I had with me. When I woke up the next morning, she was passed out, holding the book tightly in her hooves as she snored.”

“Archmage…” Celestia said as she cleared her throat. “I don’t mean to cut you short, but the exhibition is getting ready to begin.”

“Very well,” the Archmage said as he made his way back to the judge’s table. As he sat back down into the chair, the staff floated to his side resting perfectly on the table’s edge. Twilight made her way over towards one of the open seats, and Rainbow turned towards the crowd, ready to fly off into the stands. Her wings flared open and she got ready to take off into the sky, only to be stopped by an indigo magical hold that surrounded her tail.

“Miss Dash,” the Archmage asked as the spell began to dissipate. “Where are you going?”

“Uh… To the stands to watch the exhibition,” Rainbow said while a little confused on why the Archmage would ask such a question with such an obvious answer.

“Oh no we can’t have that,” the Archmage said as he reached over to the empty chair that sat in between him and Twilight. “Please join us. I insist.”

The crowd roared to life as the announcer for the event walked onto the stage, their cheering drowning out every other source of noise that should arise. A bright orange stallion made his way to the center of the vast open field, and the crowd fell deathly silent as the unknown stallion stood patiently waiting on the podium.

“Fillies and gentlecolts! Welcome to the twenty-second Archmage’s Exhibition!” the announcer’s magically enhanced voice boomed throughout the coliseum as he spoke. “We’re proud to present you with the largest selection of participants that we have seen since the record setting event six years ago! And as an additional surprise for all you that have decided to join us here at the exhibition, we have an extra special panel of judges this year.” The announcer turned towards the rather large table where all of the judges were located. “This year we not only have Princesses Luna and Celestia, but also the newly crowned Princess Twilight!” The crowd burst into cheering, as Twilight tried to hide her bashful blush underneath her mane.

“However due to unfortunate circumstances that could not have been avoided, Princess Cadence was not able to make it to the exhibition.”

“Awww,” the crowd all said in perfect unison.

“Don’t be sad my fillies and gentlecolts! Taking her place at the esteemed evaluation table will be the Archmage himself!” As the words left the announcer’s orange coloured muzzle, the crowd exploded into cheering. “And with all the boring stuff out of the way…” A basic firework spell channelled from the announcer’s horn and shot straight into the sky, erupting in a bright flash of multi-coloured hues as it soared through the sky. “Let the exhibition begin!”

Author's Notes:

Okay so I am really, really sorry about putting this story off for so long. I will be honest with you, I didn't have much motivation to write this chapter and I was have a boat ton of unusually hard times trying to write this chapter for some reason. Every single time I would write something, it just seemed to look wrong, no matter how it came out. So I would delete it all and revisit the chapter in a week and try again. Then eventually my procrastination swept it under the rug, and left it for the dustbin until I realized that I have neglected this story for way too long.

Anyway... Sorry about the wait, and hopefully the next chapter will not take two more freaking months for me to get of my lazy ass to write. Thankfully the story is completely laid out from this point on in chapter names, and it's looking that there will be another 7 or so chapters for the story. Thankfully I already have an ending and epilogue in mind.

As always feel free to tell me what is wrong and any criticisms you might have with the chapter. All input is greatly appreciated!

9: Overcharged

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“What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.” ~ Aristotle

“Alllllright fillies and gentlecolts,” the announcer said as he trotted back onto the stage. “Welcome to the Archmage’s Exhibition! Now since we all know how much you ponies love the combat exhibition, this year we’ve decided skip all of the usual boring challenges and get straight to what you all came here to see! So let’s get started now, shall we!” With those words the crowd burst into a thunderous round of applause. The combat section of Archmage’s Exhibition was always the most popular of all of the events in the exhibition, and for good reason. For the participants, it was one chance to show their skills in every single school of magic into one single challenge. For the crowd they got to watch an extremely engaging performance where anything could, and usually did happen.

“The first two challengers to prove their worth are…” The announcer turned towards and pointed to a small red mare that stood on the far side of the coliseum, impatiently tapping her hoof to the ground as she waited for the event to begin. Her mane was rather sporadic in style, with patches of charred hair scattered throughout an otherwise normal, two toned orange mane. “Crismon Ember, a powerful unicorn that has specialized for many years in both the combat and force magic. She has had the pleasure of severing the Royal Guard for ten straight years, combating some of the most evil horrors that ponies could imagine. From changeling armies, to even the dreaded frost golems of the vast glacial peaks, nothing will stand in her way.” Ember gave a quick brush of her mane at the announcer’s comment. With little effort, the mare summoned a small ball of flame that slowly circled around her. In a flash of light the seemingly normal orb of flame gave a violent shudder and flew towards the middle of the arena, detonating with a deafening explosion as it reached its target.

“It’s good to see that she could make it this time,” Twilight said after the roar of the explosion had died out.

“You know her?” Rainbow questioned, receiving a quick nod from Twilight in return.

“Yes, quite well actually. She was one of the more enjoyable guard-ponies that helped look after Spike and I when I was studying under Celestia. Everyday she would take time out of her day, just to come and visit Spike and I after I had finished my lesson for the day. In fact, you could say she is one of the main reasons that I got so interested in the force magic school in the first place. Every night she would go into the middle castle courtyards just outside my window and practice her magic with extreme dedication and finesse. I can remember sitting next to that window and thinking about how I could possibly have the skill with force magic that she had. So I'd constantly take notes on how she practiced, making sure to watch for even the simplest movements. The books on force magic we had in the castle were great by all means, but being able to see magic performed at such a high level didn't quite compare with the old texts. Once I was old enough and had enough experience in the other schools of magic, Princess Celestia assigned Ember as my force magic teacher, and I trained under her guidance for a couple of years.”

“That’s actually pretty awesome,” Rainbow said, her gaze shifting back towards the announcer.

“Aaaand,” the announcer shouted enthusiastically as he turned towards the other pony that patiently stood on the opposing end of the coliseum. His stature was different than Ember’s, easily a foot taller than the mare. He was extremely well built for a unicorn, his impressive muscle structure rivaling even most earth ponies. “Her prestigious opponent, Aegis!” The purple colored stallion simply bowed at the sound of his name, his well kept blue mane brushing across his muzzle as he lowered his head. “Once a pony renowned for his genius and expertise in the magical school of warding, he has since devoted his time to becoming one of the best in force magic. However that is not where his power lies. Aegis is famous for being the second strongest pony in shielding magic, falling a couple of inches behind Shining Armor himself. He is also one of the few fortunate ponies to come close to the esteemed prize last exhibition, falling short of the title of champion by only a couple of points.” The announcer took in a much needed breath before he continued.

“Remember ponies, the standard Archmage combat tournament rules apply! Any and all forms of magic are permitted, as long as it doesn’t seriously injure the opponent. Matches will be carried out in a single elimination style and the combatants may wish to concede to their opponent at any time they so choose. All participants will be scored in a variety of aspects throughout the dual, ranging from defense to the quality of every spell that is cast.” With the rules for the dual established, the announcer turned towards Ember.

“Are you ready, Ember?” the announcer asked only to receive a well practiced salute from the mare in question.

“And you, Aegis?”

“Yes, sir,” Aegis said with a quick nod.

“The combatants are set!” The announcer took a couple of steps back towards the edges of the coliseum walls, sitting down in one of many empty chairs that were set out for the staff. “Begin!”

With a violent roar, a white hot jet of flame erupted from Ember’s horn towards Aegis. Unfazed to the simple attack, the stallion let out a deep sigh as a magical shield erected in around him. The column of fire slammed into the newly conjured defense with a satisfying thud. In a violent shudder the torrent of flame warped and enveloped the shield in its molten wake, threatening to scorch anything that dare stay in its way. Confident of her work, Ember watched the spell dissipate into the air, only to see the violet coloured shield remained firmly in place, not a single scratch across the pristine face.

“Is that all you got?” Aegis insulted as the shield quietly receded back into the ground. “Well, if that is the case…” A violet coloured aura surrounded Aegis’s horn as two orbs of pure force energy materialized beside him. With a simple movement of his hoof, the orbs shot down the field towards the target. Ember quickly dodged the first blast, the sphere missing her head by a couple of inches. However the second shot slammed into her body and detonated on impact, sending her flying across the field into the coliseum wall, causing her to collapse against the unforgiving stone slab.

"Lucky shot," Ember said with a light tsk as she pulled herself free from the indentation in the wall.

"Luck didn't have any part in that one," Aegis said with a coy smile.

"We'll see about that," Ember quickly retorted. With a malicious grin, Ember ran down the field towards her target, firing spell after spell as she closed the distance between them. In a simple yet agile maneuver, she jumped into the air and shot a bolt of flame below towards Aegis.

Unimpressed by the rather simple maneuver the stallion jumped from underneath the blast to safety, only to be stopped by a swift hoof making contact across his muzzle. Pain shot through his body as he recoiled a couple of steps back from the blow. Impressed that the mare actually landed a hit across his face, Aegis summoned a cage that quickly encased Ember in its magical hold.

Ember let out an annoyed sigh as she started to channel a concussive blast of energy at the tip of her horn. However when she shot it against the cage bars, the spell quickly rebounded back at her, detonating as it came in contact with its master.

“How pitiful,” Aegis spat. “You're not even powerful enough to break through a simple reflecting spell. Here I was thinking a royal guard such as yourself would be a more challenging adversary, but apparently I was mistaken.” Brushing a hoof through his mane, Aegis took a couple of steps around the conjured cage before speaking again. “That blow across my face was pretty good, I’ll give you that one, but everything else since then has been lackluster at best.” Aegis abruptly stopped mid stride and looked towards Ember with a wicked grin across his face. He always enjoyed belittling his opponents, no matter what their skill level may actually be. Often times he took great pride in how well he could anger his competition and this time was no exception. He knew that one more quick push against the unicorn’s overzealous pride would send her over the edge, and he knew just where to do it.

“Tell me, little pony, how did you get into the guard anyway? A weakling like you couldn’t even
guard a piece of fruit, let alone one of the princesses. They must have been really desperate if they were scraping that far down the barrel.” Those last words were enough for something to snap inside of Ember. Nopony would insult her life’s work and get away with it if she had anything to say about it. With a calming sigh, Ember sat on her haunches and began to mutter softly to herself as her horn began to glow. The wind that blew through the coliseum shifted violently and was now circling around her, the skies above becoming darker and darker as each second passed.

“What’s going on?” Rainbow asked with a confused look as she stared at Ember. She could tell that something was different with the unicorn. The air around her became thick and heavy with an ominous presence that Rainbow couldn’t quite put her hoof on.

“The air almost feels like...” Rainbow thought to herself as she waved a wing through the empty air. "Syrup? Why in the hay…?”

“Ember is drawing magic in from the surroundings,” Twilight said with a hint of worry behind her voice. “I know that we went over the magical schools on the way here Rainbow, but there is one very important thing that I forgot to mention. All unicorns in Equestria have something known as a magical limit that determines how much magic they can have in their body at once. The limit helps keep the number of magical accidents to minimum as a unicorn should never be able to channel more magic than their body can handle. In some rare cases where the unicorn is emotionally pushed to the limit, they can overcome this limit, but otherwise a unicorn should never be able to access more magic than their body will allow. Although a long time ago, a famous researcher pony found a way for high level unicorns to push past this limit. For the researcher’s time it was one of the most important discoveries to ever come to light, quickly outpacing many forms of magical research.”

“And that’s bad, why?” Rainbow questioned, her obliviousness surrounding the situation obvious in her tone of voice.

“If the ability is used sparingly it, typically isn’t a problem,” Twilight said as she continued to stare at Ember. The mare had started to twitch slightly, and a dull white glow had started to form along her eyes. “If a pony absorbs too much magic, it will eventually outpace their body’s ability to control it. With nothing to keep the power in check, all of it eventually starts to seek a way back into the surroundings which sends the unicorn into an overcharged state. During the course of these events the unicorn will lose all control over their body and attack everything around them without any sort of reason behind their actions.”

“Why would anypony risk doing something so dangerous then?” Rainbow asked.

“Think of it this way, Dash,” Spike chimed in from beside her. “What would you do if you were in a Wonderbolt competition that would guarantee you a spot on the team if you were to win it?”

“Anything,” Rainbow quickly replied with no hesitation.

“Exactly,” Spike said with a nod. “Knowing you, you probably would injure yourself doing something bold and daring that you might regret later, but you'll have at least have won the challenge that you set out to do, and you'd finally be a Wonderbolt. If you had the ability to suddenly increase your flying abilities back to normal after a tiring race, you probably would. However Ember is a little bit different. She doesn’t really care for competitions or whether or not she is the best pony at any specific form of magic, but she always took great pride in her work, making sure that she protected the princesses no matter the task, and no matter the cost to her. However she overly…” Spike paused for a quick moment as he tried to think of the correct word.

“Devoted,” Twilight said while she turned towards Spike.

”Yes, devoted!” Spike exclaimed with a snap of his claws. “Ember absolutely hates it when somepony makes fun of the princesses or her work. I mean she absolutely hates it more then anything in the world. I can remember one time Twilight had said something on how the royal guard wasn’t doing there job as best they could due to the severe lack of organization. Boy when Ember found out, she was down right livid, and things didn’t go too well for Twilight when Ember got her hooves a hold of her.”

“Really? What happened?” Rainbow asked.

“She burnt off all of my fur,” Twilight said flately. “For starters...”

“So you can see why she’s doing this,” Spike continued to explain, while quietly chuckling to himself as the memory of furless Twilight flashed through his mind again. “An insult like that probably sent her anger over the edge, and now she is fully determined to make Aegis eat his words. Frankly, I think the guy deserves it.”

“She is getting awfully close to her limit though,” Twilight thought to herself as she looked back towards Ember. “Anymore and she’ll…” Suddenly a bright flash of light encapsulated Ember, effortlessly blasting away the conjured cage that was holding her prisoner. A hushed silence fell over the crowd as they stared in suspense at the white orb. After a couple of moments of stillness, the light slowly receded back into Ember. Her eyes had become solid white, and small arcs of pure magical energy shot off of her body, the small streams skipping across coliseum floor before they disappeared into the air. Small bursts of flames licked off of Ember’s fur as she attempted to stand, only for her hooves to give out moments later.

“Celestia! Luna!” the Archmage’s powerful voice boomed through the colosseum, easily cutting through the ominous stillness that now filled the stadium. Both of the princesses turned the Archmage upon hearing their names, patiently awaiting the next words from the powerful unicorn. “Listen to me carefully, everypony here is in serious danger. Get as many ponies as you can, and get them as far away from here as possible. I’ll reinforce the coliseum shield and that should buy you enough protection to get everypony out unharmed.” Both princesses nodded towards the Archmage and proceeded to take flight towards the plentiful crowd. As they cleared the coliseum walls, a thick clear shield erected behind them, wrapping the weak barrier that already existed in its protective embrace.

“Sky Chaser!” the Archmage shouted towards the attentive guard. “Get Spike out of here! Take him to the Manehattan Inn, Rainbow and Twilight will be joining him later.”

“Yes, sir,” Sky Chaser said with a salute. In one smooth motion, he scooped Spike up in hooves and placed him on his back. With impressive speed he took off through the open door and soared to safety.

“Twilight, do you know what to do?” the Archmage asked, receiving a quick nod as the words left his mouth. “Good. Now, Miss Dash, you probably should get out of here as well. There is no sense endangering your life.”

“I’m not leaving,” Rainbow said, her dedication clear in the tone of her voice.

“W-w-what?” the Archmage stuttered, completely baffled by the mare's response.

“I’ve made one thing clear to myself throughout my life Archmage,” Rainbow said with a hoof softly pressed to her chest. “I will never, ever leave my friends when they need my help. So if Twilight is going to risk her life to try to bring Ember back from this magical overcharge thing, then I’m going to help her out.”

"But..." the Archmage continued. Sensing that he was going to get anywhere no matter how hard he tried, he turned to Twilight and let out a defeated sigh. “The barrier is going to require a lot of concentration to maintain, and even if it didn’t the amount of magic needed to keep it strong will be enough to drain me. Will you two be okay on your own?” Twilight simply nodded in acknowledgement. “I’ll leave you to it then. Good luck.” With a flap of their wings, Rainbow and Twilight quickly began to make their way towards Ember and Aegis.

“Aegis, get out of there!” Twilight shouted as she soared towards the center of the field. The stallion stared at Twilight with a dumbfounded expression across his face, completely at a loss for words.

“What did I just say?! Get out of here now!” This time the words sank into the stallion’s mind as he took off towards the nearest exit. With extreme caution, Twilight landed a few feet away from Ember and she slowly began to walk towards the mare, while Rainbow cautiously hovered behind her. To say Twilight was a little scared about approaching Ember would be a massive understatement. Being close to somepony that was in an overcharged state was similar to trying to predict whatever Discord might do should he ever revert back to his evil ways. Nopony could ever predict where and when something was going to happen, but they knew it was only a matter of time, and that wasn’t going to be good.

“Remember what the Princess told you,” Twilight thought to herself, her rational mind momentarily victorious over the crippling fear that coursed through her veins. Ever since her magical outburst at the entrance examination, Celestia had always made it a clear point to make sure that Twilight knew how to deal with an out of control unicorn. Twilight never had any more magical mishaps since that day, but she did have to agree that it was a much needed skill, even if she almost never had to use it. “Ponies are still able to control the power after they absorb too much. The only thing that stands between them and utter loss of control is their own willpower. If they can keep the power under reins for even a small moment, they may be able to let out enough of it for their magic level to return to normal...” Ember gave another violent twitch as the boundless magic pulsated throughout her body once more. “However that is easier said than done… Especially when she has pushed herself this far already.”

“Ember?” Twilight quietly said. Ember slowly raised her head from the ground and turned towards Twilight as the word rung in her ears. Twilight could see that the mare was fighting to keep control of the powerful energy that lay contained inside of her, the sheer effort of the task pushing Ember’s willpower well past her breaking point. One simple slip, one simple break of concentration and the power would roar to life, ready to strike at anything that dared to be close to it. However behind all of the stress, Twilight could see regret… Regret for doing something so reckless that could endanger the numerous ponies that Ember had sworn to protect.

“Princess Twilight?” Ember said with a hushed tone, her eyes slowly blinking as the words left her mouth.

“It’s going to be okay, Ember,” Twilight assured Ember as she took another step forward towards her. Summoning all the remaining strength she had left, Ember slowly stood up from her prone position and scanned through the emptying stands of the coliseum before turning her gaze back towards Twilight.

“How can you… Be so sure?” Ember let out a heavy sigh. She felt exhausted, and she knew it was only a matter of time before her willpower would eventually cave. Every part of her nerves felt flayed and torn from the constant assault they were under. The magic that coursed through her veins felt like a tremendous weight across her body, the burden increasing more and more with every passing second.

“Trust me Ember,” Twilight said as took another cautious step. “Try to release the magic… Slowly…”

“I don’t know… If I can…”

The magic inside of her gave one more final shove against its cage, this time Ember’s will proved to be no resistance, as she felt it easily shatter beneath the momentous weight. The resistance on her body seemed to release all at once, as she collapsed to the ground with a relieved sigh. She could feel part of her start to be locked deep within psyche, the control over her body slowly slipping away until it was no more. Now she could only sit and watch as the magic took full control over body, free to do with it whatever it so desired.

“Ember?” Twilight asked, a hoof’s length away from the huddled mare, unaware that Ember’s control over the magic had already shattered. A moment of silence hung in between the two of the them, until Twilight began to feel the earth below her hooves start to shift. As she looked down to the seemingly normal slightly charred grass, Twilight realized something wasn’t right… The ground was boiling hot…

“Rainbow!” Twilight yelled behind her. “Get away from her now!”

The ground beneath Twilight erupted into four giant columns of flame, with Ember sitting in the center of the searing hot torrents. After a couple of moments, Ember rose to her hooves, her legs no longer violently trembling beneath her as she stood.

“This isn’t good…” Twilight thought to herself. With a bright orange flash, a large orb of pure flame magic began to materialize at the tip of Ember's horn.

Small tendrils of magic quickly began to extend from the four columns that surrounded Ember, the small streams connecting themselves to the orb as it began to syphon the magic from the pillars. In a matter of seconds, the spell unleashed and sent a large column of flame roaring down the field towards Twilight.

Quickly noticing the situation that she was now in, Twilight began to channel as much magic as she possibly could for a teleportation spell as the blast of flame began to close in on her. However as she watched the flaming column rocket towards her, Twilight noticed that there was one problem with her plan to escape the blast. There wasn’t enough time to gather the energy needed for the distance that she needed to travel in order to escape unharmed.

“Look out,” Rainbow yelled as she slammed into Twilight, pushing her away from the blast as quickly as she could. With Rainbow not able to slow down her blistering speed after the two cleared the blast, they tumbled across the soft grass coliseum floor before coming to a complete stop. Rainbow now stood overtop of Twilight, who lay on her back, her eyes darting back and forth to wherever they so desired.

“You okay?” Rainbow asked as she quickly scanned over Twilight’s slightly trembling body. On first glance, Rainbow didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, but as her eyes trailed back across Twilight’s fore-hooves, she noticed that most of the fur on the front of her hooves had been seared away, leaving behind a large burn across the front of her legs. Rainbow’s ears flattened against her head, as pulled one of the burnt forehooves close towards her.

“Twi… Your hooves…”

“It hurts, Rainbow...” Twilight said, her eyes beginning to water as she looked into Rainbow’s magenta coloured eyes. “But we’ll have to look after it later. We have to get Ember to regain control of the magic, or things are going to get even worse than they already are.”

“Yeah, but how?” Rainbow asked as she took a step away from Twilight.

“I don’t know, but there has to be a way.”

Using more strength than she thought she would need Twilight rolled over back on her hooves, making sure to avoid the burn. Reaching out with one of the charred limbs, Twilight tried to stand, only to have a searing bolt of pain shoot through her body, forcing her hooves to give out from underneath her.

“Twi, you can’t stand on those hooves. Here just a second...” Taking extreme caution to not touch the burns, Rainbow draped one of Twilight's hooves over her shoulder and carefully slipped her body underneath Twilight’s frame. With a quick push of her hooves, Rainbow rose from the warm ground, the alicorn now laying comfortably on her back as she rose.

As Twilight scanned around the coliseum, she noticed that all of the innocent ponies that came to watch the exhibition had vacated area, leaving only the four ponies alone in barren deathtrap. With a sigh of relief, the Archmage dropped the shield the now-unneeded shield, and proceeded to walk towards the three mares in the center of the field.

"Look and see what you are doing," the Archmage said to Ember, his voice strong and commanding but not too forceful. The energy that circled around her seemed to stop all of its movement, seemingly waiting for the Archmage to continue. "Is this truly what an esteemed guards-pony such as yourself does?! Do they blindly scorch everything in sight and even harm the ones they’ve taken solemn oath to protect. No, they don't! They protect who they serve. Look at the princess Ember!" Ember looked over towards Twilight and immediately felt a sense of guilt surge through her barely conscious mind. “You were the one that caused that!”

"He's right…” Ember thought to herself, her thoughts echoing softly throughout her head. “The princesses have put their absolute trust into me to protect them from anything, and yet I am the one that ended up harming them. This isn’t me… I wouldn’t do this…” One brief moment of silence echoed through Ember’s mind before she turned to face the power that coursed through her body. It shone like a bright light, the brightness almost blinding her as she stared. “I think it is time that you got the hell out of my body.”

Ember reached through her mind and grabbed the magic in between her hooves. The orb struggled to move in every possible direction that it could, merely looking for some way to escape from the mare’s clutches. After a couple of moments the magic started slowing down in its movements, before coming to a dead stop.

"Now to let you out and back to where you belong."

In one simple motion, she pushed the magic towards the edges of her body, and began to let it slowly seep out into the world around her. With each painstakingly long second that passed, Ember could feel the weight across her body start to lift.

"Look!" Rainbow shouted as she pointed a hoof towards Ember. The flame columns that surrounded her gave a small shutter and slowly receded back into the ground below.

"It looks like the Archmage got through to her," Twilight quietly said with a deep and heavy sigh. The flow of energy coming from Ember’s body had stopped flowing into the air around her. Rainbow could feel the atmosphere starting to the revert back to normal, the air feeling crisp and soft like before. With the magic finally out of her body, Ember could feel her legs beginning to buckle from underneath her, the limbs finally giving out from all of the force that had been put upon them. Not wanting to fall face first, she slowly lowered herself towards the ground comfortably tucking her hooves underneath her as she lay on top of them.

“Archmage,” Ember said, her voice extremely coarse. “In my bag there should be a package of enchanted bandages specifically designed for burns. Could you please treat the princess with them?” Normally she would have done it herself, but the overcharge had completely drained her of any energy that she once had. It would take many days, if not a full week for her magic to finally return to normal.

“Of course, Ember.” A bright flash of light later, the wrappings materialized next to the Archmage,
the entangled mess of fabric floating patiently in the air beside him

“Is she going to be okay?” Rainbow asked, while Twilight lifted a hoof towards the Archmage. “That burn looks pretty bad.”

“Don’t worry about it, miss Dash,” the Archmage said as he began to wrap the limb. “The burn looks a lot worse than what it is. Unfortunately the princess will not be able to walk at all for the night, but if she administers a fair amount of healing magic across it every four to five hours, it should heal enough for her to walk without too much pain.” After a couple of minutes, the Archmage finished covering both limbs and took a couple of steps back from Twilight to check his work.

“I know it doesn't mean much to say this now,’ Ember said. “But I'm sorry about what happened. I just---”

“You don’t need to apologize for anything Ember,” Twilight said with a smile across her face. "It was merely an unfortunate turn of events that couldn’t have been avoided."

"B-b-but," Ember stammered with her head hung low. "How could she forgive me just like that? I went against everything that I've sworn to protect as a royal guard. And through my careless thoughts, I almost killed her... So why?" Ember felt a spark of magic underneath her muzzle start to push her head up until her eyes were matched with Twilight's.

"Ember, please listen to me. You've always been there to protect the princesses no matter what the call, willing to risk your own life to save others. I can only begin to think about the thoughts that are in your head, but please try to forgive yourself. You did nothing wrong, you just made a bad choice... Now I don’t mean to be rude, but I believe there is a baby dragon that is probably worried out of his mind, and eagerly awaiting for us to see him.” Taking that as her queue Rainbow took a couple of steps away from Ember..

"You better hold on tight Twi," Rainbow said once Twilight was comfortable. "It may get a little rocky on the flight back."

"Spike should be at the Manehatten Inn right?" Rainbow asked, her head turning towards the Archmage.

"Yes. The Inn is about a mile due south of here. When you get there, the innkeepers should be able to direct you two to your room without any problems.."

"Thank you." With those words, Twilight tightened her grip around Rainbow’s neck and the two mares flew off into the skies above.

The two mares now stood in front of a large wooden door, the numbers “629” emblazoned across a small gold plate on the door’s face.

“You ready?” Rainbow asked, only to receive a quick nod from Twilight in response. With an effortless push of her hoof Rainbow opened the door to the room. As they walked inside Rainbow noticed that the room was rather simple for being one of the more prestigious rooms that the inn offered. The walls were painted a dull indigo coloured hue. An odd choice given the blue carpet that stretched across the room. At the end of the room sat a rather large balcony, the outlook providing a gorgeous view to the flower gardens that resided below. Turning her head towards the two beds that lay in the room Rainbow saw Spike sitting near the foot the bed closest to the balcony, his head hung down towards the floor. Sky Chaser sat next to him. Ever since they had come back to the room, Sky Chaser had sat with Spike, trying to calm the drake’s pacing nerves, but was largely unsuccessful at his task.

“Poor guy,” Rainbow thought to herself as she took a step into the room. “He must have been worried sick about us.”

“Hey, Spike,” Rainbow said with a smile. “Sorry it took so long for us to get back…” Upon hearing Rainbow’s voice, Spike’s gaze instantly snapped towards the open door. For what seemed like minutes, he simply sat on the edge of the bed, his mouth moved back and forth, no words coming from his mouth as a wave of much needed relief came over him. Without saying a word he jumped of the bed and ran as fast as his little feet would carry him, wrapping her hoof in a scaley hug.

“I knew you guys where going to be okay,” Spike sobbed with tears rolling down his face. “I just knew it.”

“Thank you, Sky Chaser,” Twilight said thankfully. “Sorry for making you look after Spike while we were trying to help Ember at the exhibition.”

“It wasn’t a problem at all, princess” Sky Chaser said with a quick shake of his head. “He didn’t say a word to me at all while we waited for you two to come back.” Sky Chaser reached behind him and grabbed his spear that lay resting against the wall behind him. With a simple motion he tucked the large weapon underneath his wing and proceed to walk towards the door.

“Thank you for helping Ember,” Sky Chaser whispered in Twilight’s ear as he walked on past, closing the door behind him as he left the room.

“Well…” Rainbow said with a quick roll of her eyes. “I don’t know about you two, but I could really use some good old relaxation right about now. What do you think Twilight?”

“Sounds good.” With a loud pop Twilight teleported off of Rainbow’s back onto one of the beds. With a quick jump, Spike landed on the bed next to Twilight, while Rainbow climbed onto the other bed next to the bathroom. As he reached in for a hug, Spike stopped mid motion as he noticed the bandages wrapped around Twilight’s hooves.

“Twilight…” Spike said with a concerned tone. “What happened to your hooves?”

“Ember lost control Spike,” Twilight said quietly, her hooves shuffling awkwardly beneath her as she answered the question. “I wasn’t able to channel enough magic to escape a blast of flame in time. Thankfully though Rainbow was there to save me, or else it would’ve been much worse.”

“Thank Celestia...” Spike said with fresh tears forming around his eyes. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you never made it back.”

The three sat in the room for a couple of hours, constantly talking about whatever ideas came to the top of their heads, simply enjoying each other’s company as the night quickly approached.

“Well… I think we probably should get some sleep.” Twilight said as she looked towards the clock. “It’s been a long day and I know that all three of us probably could use some shut eye.”

“You’re probably right,” Spike said as he got up. With a couple of steps he walked towards the smaller bed that lay sitting at the foot of Twilight’s bed, and quickly curled up beneath the warm covers that awaited him. Within minutes he was sound asleep.

However for Twilight this simply wasn’t the case as she sat and stared at blue wall next to the bed. Every part of her body from muzzle to tail felt exhausted, but no matter how hard she tried, sleep’s magnificent embrace just wouldn’t come. Every time she would start to feel herself starting to fall to sleep, the events of the coliseum would replay in her mind, forcing her body back into the severe sense of shock that she had felt moments ago. A cold sweat trickled down Twilight’s spine as the thoughts to roll through her head. She could feel her heart rate start to increase. Each beat of her heart filled her ears with a loud thumping, and she could feel her stomach tie into notes as she tried to calm herself. However no matter how hard she tried, the fear continued to surge throughout her body.

“Twilight, what’s wrong?” Rainbow asked with a panicked tone as Twilight began to thrash around.

“I’m scared, Rainbow,” Twilight said frantically. “I keep thinking about what would’ve happened if you weren’t there to save me. Every time I close my eyes, I can see that fireball roaring towards me again, and it scares me Rainbow.” As Rainbow looked over, she could see that Twilight was starting to panic. Without any hesitation, Rainbow pushed the covers away from her, and quietly flew over towards Twilight’s bed. Hovering in the air as quietly as she could, she reached a hoof underneath the covers and quickly slid underneath the soft sheets. With a simple motion, she lay a hoof and wing over top of Twilight, cradling the troubled mare in between her hooves. In an instant, Twilight could feel the unease that had started to build up start to melt away into the comforting embrace.

“If you weren’t there Rainbow I probably would---.”

“Ssssh it’s okay Twilight,” Rainbow quietly interrupted as she slowly ran a hoof through the troubled alicorn’s mane. “It’s over now. There’s no need to be thinking about what could’ve happened. What matters now is that we’re safe, and there isn’t anything in Equestria that will change that.” As the words left Rainbow’s mouth, Twilight could feel her body start to return back to it’s normal rhythm. Both mares lay together in silence, neither one of them saying anything to each other as they enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere. Without saying a word, Twilight moved in close towards Rainbow, her back now pressed firmly against Rainbow’s stomach.

“Thank you Rainbow,” Twilight said as she closed her eyes.

“Don’t mention it,” Rainbow said, only to hear the soft sound of Twilight’s peaceful snoring in return.

Author's Notes:

Sorry this chapter took a little bit longer then what I would have liked. Due to some circumstances like my Old Man going into the hospital for heart surgery once again, I had to push the date for this chapter. Hopefully it was worth the wait.

So this chapter is a little bit different in tone then what this story has been so far. I wanted to try something a little bit different. Right now I am taking a huge gamble with this chapter, so I hope that everyone likes it. If you didn't the next couple of chapters will not be as action oriented as this one, so there is that at least... As usual feel free to comment on any feelings, or problems that you might have with the chapter. Any mistakes can be sent via message.

As always thanks for reading. And keep a look out for a TaviScratch story that should be going up in a couple of weeks hopefully. Kodeake and jlm123hi have already taken a quick look over it, and once the edits are made I can send the finished copy to them for the real editing. The story will be entitled "Fixing My Broken Heart" and will focus on a drug addicted Vinyl trying to get back on her feet after the events of I Am Octavia... That and I might write a DiscordShy one shot, not really sure...

Chapter 10 - The Beginning Of Something New

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“Everything is a mystery, ourselves, and all things both simple and humble.” ~ Giorgio Morandi

Peaceful... That was the one feeling that went Rainbow’s mind as her eyes slowly fluttered open to the sight of Twilight’s violet toned fur and dark purple mane. With a couple of blinks and a brief survey of her surroundings, Rainbow noticed that she still lay in the same position that the two of them had fallen asleep in last night. Her hooves and wings were tightly wrapped around Twilight’s midsection, and the alicorn’s backside was pressed tightly against her own. Wondering what time of day it was, Rainbow’s gaze shifted towards the balcony window and her eyes soaked in the beautiful sight of Celestia’s sun just starting to poke over the horizon.

Letting out a happy sigh at the sight before her, Rainbow took a brief moment to bask in the relaxing atmosphere the room provided. It was a nice change of pace from all of the chaotic events that she had found herself in the last two weeks. Nopony was shattering her dreams by uncovering an intricate web of lies that had been pulled over her eyes. Right now, everything was peaceful and all that Rainbow wanted to do was lay beneath the covers and bathe in the peaceful moment. However it seemed like her subconscious had a different opinion on what she should be doing. One by one, her mind began to bombard her with thoughts about climbing out of bed and getting a proper start to the day. With as much effort she could muster in her half asleep state, the cyan pegasus attempted to swat the persistent thoughts back to the recesses of her mind . For the first couple of minutes, it seemed like Rainbow would be victorious, but as the minutes passed, her lazily put together defense proved that it wasn’t enough. The persistent thoughts had broken through, and now there was no way that she would be able to simply ignore them.

Accepting her defeat with an annoyed groan, Rainbow pushed the covers away with her one free wing and began the process of untangling herself from her embrace around Twilight. A quick pull of the her wing freed it from Twilight’s side, the alicorn only giving a small shudder as the feathery appendage slid effortlessly across her fur. With her wings now fully free, Rainbow moved to liberating her fore-hooves from the snoring alicorn’s grasp. The first one easily glided from underneath Twilight’s side, escaping from its captor with minimal effort. However the other foreleg seemed to be a different story… No matter how many times Rainbow attempted to pull the leg towards her, she found the limb to be rooted firmly in place, refusing to move even a single inch.

Curious as to what had such a strong hold on her forehoof, Rainbow lifted the remainder of the sheets up with and peered over the Twilight's shoulder. Slowly she began to trace across the leg’s features until her eyes spied the culprit… A pair of violet coloured hooves that were tightly wrapped around the base of her hoof, cradling onto the leg like a cherished stuffed animal. The sheer cuteness of the sight alone was enough to make Rainbow’s heart skip a beat.

“Damn egghead…” Rainbow thought to herself as Twilight attempted to pull the hoof closer towards her, the smile across her face getting larger as she did so. “That has got to be the more adorable thing that I’ve ever seen.”

Seeing how much Twilight was enjoying her slumber, Rainbow sat patiently in place, refusing to move a single inch as the time slowly continued to pass. Although as she lay there, Rainbow began to feel some strange new feeling beginning to make its way throughout her body. It started deep at her chest and slowly made it’s way along each nerve in her system, curiously exploring as much as it possibly could. Each limb that it came across quickly filled with unusual warmth that embraced her like a hug from a long lost friend. It was extremely pleasant and Rainbow could feel a new happiness starting to spread along side the emotion as it continued to explore her body. The entire world around her seemed to brighten, and she could feel a smile starting to creep across her muzzle as the emotion continued along it’s way. Rainbow didn’t know what the new feeling was, and frankly she didn’t really care. The atmosphere of the room and the strange new feeling provided the perfect combination of relaxation needed to eliminate all of the stress that had accumulated within her over the last week and for the first time after her messy break up, she truly felt like she was starting to get back to normal.

However as the time edged on, Rainbow found that her curiosity towards the mysterious emotion was beginning to grow and she quickly found herself trying to decipher what the feeling truly was. At first the meaning came to her in little trickles, seeping through the small openings of her still Rainbow’s mind fully awoke from its slumber half-awake mind. After a couple of minutes, causing the true meaning of the feeling wash over her like a tidal wave… She knew exactly what this mysterious feeling was… And what it was quickly sent the pegasus’s mind into full blown panic mode.

"Oh no… No, no, no…“ Rainbow thought to herself, her breaths quickly becoming frantic as a new sense of hysteria began to settle in. “This can’t be happening! Not again!" Immediately all concern for letting Twilight sleep left her mind and she frantically began to yank her captive limb from its embrace. After a couple of pulls, the hoof was free from Twilight's grasp. Rainbow immediately shot out of the bed, the hectic action almost causing her to fall flat on her face as she planted her hooves on the soft carpet below.

“Okay Rainbow get ahold of yourself…” Rainbow pondered as she began to pace across the length of the room. “You’re not starting to develop any feelings for Twilight… You’re not developing any feelings for Twilight... This is just something that will go away with time.”

Stopping mid-stride, Rainbow looked towards the surprisingly still sleeping alicorn. With her eyes settled on Twilight, the feeling pawed against her psyche once more, this time less persistent, but it was still enough to make it’s presence known.

“Yeah that is what it is...” Rainbow thought as her gaze on the alicorn broke and her
pacing resumed. “Something that will pass with time, it has to be...”

In attempt to calm now her racing nerves, Rainbow resumed her pacing, until she was stopped by a brief stirring from the small wicker basket that lay at the foot Twilight’s bed. The basket let out an annoyed moan, and a purple claw reached out beneath the covers. With a quick flip of the wrist the sheet flipped over and revealed the drake that lay beneath them.

“Uh… R-r-rainbow?” Spike mumbled while letting out a quick stretch. “Why in Celestia’s name are you pacing through the room this early in the morning?” With a quick crane of his neck, Spike looked towards the balcony, and then looked back towards Rainbow. “The sun isn’t even fully up yet.”

“Oh hey little guy…” Rainbow said, mentally cursing to herself that she had forgotten about the sleeping drake. “Sorry about waking you up. Just have something on my mind and I really need to figure out what it means...”

“Well…” Spike grumbled as he pulled the sheet back over his head and pulled it tight against his body. “If you need to do some thinking, could you please do it outside? Some ponies are still trying to get some sleep.”

“Not a problem,” Rainbow replied as she turned and walked towards the balcony door. “Sorry for waking you.” Reaching out with a wing, Rainbow grabbed the door handle with her feathers and pulled it open. Taking a couple of short steps onto the hard metal flooring, Rainbow plopped down on one of the empty wooden chairs sitting the balcony and began the laborious process of trying to decipher some sort of meaning behind the thoughts that rolled through her mind.

“Why am I having these feelings now, of all times?” The speedster questioned as she looked towards the sky above. As she looked up, she saw countless clouds slowly flying overhead, and the odd early rising pegasus getting a start to their day. Every so often a brisk wind would brush softly against her fur and would throw her mane across her muzzle, filling her vision with a bright rainbow hue of colour.

“I mean, Twilight and I've been friends for years, and I’ve never thought about her like this before… Not once… Have I?” With that Rainbow’s mind began to wander back as far she could remember. One by one the memories of her friendship with Twilight came streaming by, and she carefully began to look over every moment. Initially none of the memories seemed to stick out, but as the memories became more recent, Rainbow began to notice that there was small spots where her mind had wandered to thoughts about potentially seeking something more than friendship with the librarian.

One of these memories had happened right after her first night after the break-up with Applejack. That morning she had woken up and noticed the simple picture with the two of them lying happily in the field, without a single care in the world. Rainbow vividly remembered noticing the picture in the hallway and how her thoughts quickly drifted towards how her friendship with Twilight had quickly grown ever since she had discovered her love for reading. She also remembered after that brief aside her mind had briefly played with the idea of having something more than friendship with Twilight. It was an extremely brief thought, one that only inhabited her for a couple of seconds, but never the less it was still there.

After the memory had finished it’s recollection, Rainbow moved on to the others that lay patiently waiting for their visit. One by one she came to them and let the memories recall themselves. Most of them weren’t even worth her attention, as the majority of the them were just like the memory of the picture, a couple of brief asides here and there but nothing serious enough to warrant major attention. Time slowly continued to pass, and Rainbow continued to sift through all of the memories until eventually she noticed one particular memory that shone brighter than any of the others. It flashed brightly among the sea of it’s brethren and seemed to almost be begging for Rainbow to look at it once more. Closing her eyes, Rainbow heeded the memory’s wish and let the recollection replay in her mind.

With a bright flash, the busy Manehatten street popped into view, and she found herself walking alongside Twilight and Spike. Looking around Rainbow knew exactly what this memory was and it surprised her that the walk to the coliseum was the one memory that stood out more than others. Once again, she could feel her side tightly pressed against the alicorn’s and she could feel Twilight’s wing softly laid across her shoulders. The feeling of the soft down of the inner feathers tickled her coat and sent small shivers along her spine as the group continued their walk down the busy Canterlot streets. With each step Rainbow could feel the alicorn's fur brushing against her own, and she could feel her cheeks beginning to redden at the close contact.

A couple of minutes passed and the memory continued along its recollection, replaying the scene exactly as Rainbow had remembered it. However as the memory continued unfold, Rainbow noticed that there was something strange about how she acted when Twilight placed her wing across her shoulder. Normally she would have spoken up immediately and told the alicorn what the action meant in the eyes of the public, but this time had been different… This time she had chosen to stay silent and that chosen silence immediately began to raise questions in Rainbow’s mind.

“Okay… So I didn’t let Twilight know about the whole wing thing… But that doesn’t really mean anything... Does it? Sure it means a lot to other ponies that saw us, a whole lot actually. But to the both of us it meant absolutely nothing. Twilight was just resting her wing and that was the only place to put it at the time… Yeah that is totally what it was. Just a simple stretch and nothing more.”

“But…” Rainbow continued to think as the warm feeling from before pawed at her once again, and the memory slowly began to fade in darkness. “If it didn’t mean anything then why the hay did Twilight’s wing feel like it did? As soon as she placed her wing across my shoulder, it felt as if it were something that I should have had in my life long before then... Something that always should’ve been there… And that isn’t something that I would’ve felt if it truly meant nothing...”

The pegasus let out a sigh and opened her eyes once again. “But if it meant something, then what in Celestia’s name does it actually mean?! Was it just a one-time thing? Should I just ignore it and move on? Or maybe that and all of these other emotions are the just beginning of something else entirely… ”

An annoyed groan left Rainbow’s mouth, and she placed a hoof on her now aching temples. All of the conflicting thoughts were battling against each other and their constant fighting made her feel like somepony was taking their best swing against her head with a fairly large hammer. Each new thought increased the pain of the now splitting headache and it didn’t seem like it would end anytime soon.

“Augh....” Rainbow mentally cried, extremely miffed at the situation she now found herself in. “Why the heck did everything have to become so complicated? It seems like it was just yesterday that everything was perfect. I was happily working everyday with the weather team... I had the one pony in my life that I never thought I’d ever have and I finally perfected the last few stunts that I wanted to show off to the Wonderbolts… Everything was going absolutely perfectly and it felt like nothing in the world would change that...”

“But these past couple of weeks have thrown a giant thunder cloud into everything. Now I don’t even know where to start… Should I be trying to get myself back together and move past everything that happened? Should I talk to Applejack once we get back home and see if we can work something out? I just don’t know anymore… And what in Celestia’s name do I with these feelings for Twilight?! Do I simply ignore them and hope they go away?”

A couple of moments of silence passed in Rainbow’s head before she continued. “But what if they don’t go away… What happens then? I could spend weeks trying to figure out the best way to ask her out, finally muster up the courage to do it, just to have my heart broken yet again by somepony that believes that lying to me would be better than saying no." Upon finishing the thought, Rainbow lifted a hoof towards a new sharp twinge of pain that had begun to radiate from her chest. Oddly enough the pain of Applejack’s betrayal didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would, but it definitely was still there.

"The only thing that would be different this time is which friend’s shoulder I’d cry on after everything went south...”

Rainbow gave a quick shake of her head and got up from the chair. “Twilight isn't like that though. Sure she’s got some problems of her own but there is no way in Celestia’s name that she’d ever betray me like that.” With a smile Rainbow hovered from her place on the balcony and peered into the window of the hotel room. Her eyes immediately drifted towards Twilight and she could feel a small smile starting to stretch across her muzzle.

“She's been there for me through this break-up with Applejack, helping me with everything as I put myself back together…. When I came by that night and asked for her help, she dropped everything she was doing… I didn’t even have to ask or anything…. She just knew that something was wrong and sat by patiently waiting until I eventually worked up the courage to tell her. And just when I thought she was done helping me through this, she offered to let me stay with her, just so I wouldn’t have to be alone… A friend that is willing to do all of that, just to make me feel better would never lie to me in order to save my feelings.”

“But…” Rainbow thought as her mind began to drift back towards Applejack and what she had done. “Then again… I never would’ve thought that AJ would’ve been even capable of doing what she did. So what is to say that Twilight wouldn’t do the same? Maybe she would lie to me just like AJ did...” After a brief moments of silence, Rainbow’s headache attacked her once more, sending yet another sharp blast of pain through her skull.

“In any case… something better get my mind off of this,” Rainbow innerly pleaded, as she gave a couple of quick flaps and plopped her hooves onto the cold balcony floor below. “If I continue to think about this, I think my head is going to explode.” With a heavy sigh Rainbow made her way to the balcony door and slowly opened it with a quick pull of her wing. Taking a couple of steps, the cyan pegasus made her way into the hotel room and slowly turned around to close the door behind her. Reaching out with a hoof, she grabbed the door handle and gave the large object a quick push. However it seemed that Rainbow had put more force into the simple action, as the door began to rocket it’s way towards the wall. Upon contact with the structure, it sent out thunderous roar that quickly began to radiate throughout the small room. Immediately Rainbow’s eyes snapped towards the slumbering alicorn, and she began to pray that the noise wasn’t enough to wake her. Unfortunately after a couple seconds of silence had passed, an indistinguishable murmur came from beneath the covers, and the violet alicorn beneath began to slowly stir from her slumber.

“Uh…” Twilight groggily said as she slowly rose from beneath the sheets and wiped her eyes with a quick brush of her hoof. “What in Celestia’s name was that?” Briefly looking around the room, Twilight’s gaze stopped on the cyan mare that now stood awkwardly brushing a hoof through her mane.

“Hey Egghead…” Rainbow said, an innocent smile working it’s way across her muzzle as the words left her lips. "Get a good night’s sleep?”

“I guess so...” Twilight replied with a quick stretch, the sound of her cracking bones filling the room as her limbs stretched out to their fullest extent. “With everything that happened yesterday, I would’ve thought that a good night sleep would be the last thing that I would’ve gotten, but thankfully I was wrong about that.”

“Speaking of yesterday…” Rainbows quietly muttered as her mind began to replay the events of Twilight’s panic attack from late last night. “Are you feeling okay…? You know… About everything that happened last night.”

Twilight let out a heavy sigh. "No… No I'm not Rainbow. I'm doing better then last night but I still can't seem to get rid of this fear that I have. Every time I close my eyes, I see that fireball roaring towards me and keep thinking about what could've happened if you weren't there to push me out of the way... It's terrifying, and I don't know what I'm going to do to stop it. Usually I have the answers, or at least something to go on that will help me get to some form of solution, but this is different…” A brief moment of silence passed as Twilight reached up with a bandaged hoof and wiped a lone tear that started to make it’s way down her face. After the quick brush, Twilight lowered her hoof back to her side, and her head followed suit. “No matter what I try Rainbow, I’m still scared and I don’t know what I’m going to do…”

“Twi…” Rainbow whispered as she continued to run her hoof along the troubled alicorn’s back. “I don’t know what I can say to that... However the one thing that I do know is that you’ve got to remember that yesterday has come and gone, and there is no way that what you're feeling can ever happen… You’re safe now and I promise that nothing will change that.” With a hopeful look, Rainbow arched her head around to see if Twilight’s expression had changed at all, but sadly it still remained in the same stricken expression. It pained Rainbow to see her friend in such a troubled state, but the helplessness she felt the around the situation hurt even more. Sitting beside her was the mare that had given everything she could to help her in her time of need, and now that she needed to do the same for Twilight, it seemed like she couldn’t even come remotely close to finding something that she could say to bring Twilight back to normal.

“Come on Rainbow…” Rainbow thought to herself as her mind frantically began to run through possible things to say. “There has to be something that you can do… Something to get Twilight back.” One by one the ideas continued to roll through her mind, but even though there were a countless number of ideas that she had, none of them seemed to properly fit the situation before her. Most of them were just simple variations of trying to convince Twilight that she truly didn’t have anything to be worried about, but Rainbow remembered how successful her last attempt at that was and it was clear to her that simply repeating her statement in different wording would not be what would bring Twilight out of her slump.

Deciding to approach the situation differently, Rainbow discarded all of the thoughts that she currently had, and she tried to approach the situation from a different angle. Thankfully that seemed to be what she had needed because it only took a couple of seconds for before a perfect idea flashed through Rainbow’s mind… She knew exactly what she was going to do.

“How about I tell you a story Twi,” Rainbow said as she looked upwards towards the ceiling with a smile starting to form across her muzzle. “It’s a rather simple story but it’s one that I think that you should hear, especially right now... It’s about a certain pegasus mare and a close friend that was there when she really needed somepony to listen.” Hearing Rainbow’s words, Twilight began to slowly raise her head and looked towards Rainbow with a curious look, wondering all the while where Rainbow was going with her comment.

“The story starts on a relatively normal day, not too long ago actually. The pegasus was at work and was happily doing her part alongside the other members of the weather team. She had just finished getting all of the clouds that they would need for the rainstorm that night, when one of her co-workers came along and said that her marefriend had some sort of super important message and that she needed to meet with pegasus at the orchard as soon as possible. Not wanting to disappoint her marefriend, the pegasus quickly made her way towards the orchard and softly settled down beside her target, who oddly enough was pacing through the trees when she arrived. With a quick trot the pegasus made her way over to the mare and asked her what the big emergency was.”

“After a couple of moments of not being able to say what was on her mind, the pegasus’s marefriend finally came out with what she wanted to tell her, and sadly it was something that pegasus never in a million years wanted to hear.” Realization quickly dawned on Twilight and her mouth quickly opened in shock.

“The mare that pegasus had spent months upon months crushing over told her that entire time that throughout all of the time that they had spent together, she truly never loved the pegasus in any way and she had only agreed to be her marefriend because of some bizarre thinking that lying to her face would’ve been better than simply letting her down like any other pony would. Needless to say, the pegasus was heartbroken and she flew away from the backstabbing mare in an attempt to get her mind away from the pain that quickly formed in her heart. But sadly even the act of doing what she loved most didn’t seem to help, in fact it just seemed to make everything worse…”

“For what seemed like hours she continued to fly through the skies, just looking for somewhere that she could possibly escape from the searing heartache… Somewhere where could find somepony that would listen to her and maybe, just maybe help her with everything that had happened. Thankfully, she noticed the house of that close friend in the distance and she made a simple glide down towards the home. With minimal effort, the pegasus landed on the balcony window, took a couple of steps inside, and proceeded to try to tell her friend what the traitorous mare had done to her. But sadly no matter how hard she tried, the words never seemed to find there way out. Despite the pegasus not saying a single word, her friend immediately noticed that something was wrong and in attempt to ease the troubled pegasus’s nerves, the friend told her a story about a time that she had ran away from because of a low mark that she had received in class.”

“Thankfully that simple story was exactly what the pegasus needed to move past her fear and was now able to tell her friend everything that had happened. But of course, she couldn’t just start with what the traitorous mare had done… She had to tell her friend about everything that lead up to that point… All of the times that she was bullied in flight school… All of the beatings that the other students had given her because she was different… And what she had done in order to get away from it all. But after that the pegasus was finally able to tell the friend what the two-faced mare had done...”

Taking a quick pause, Rainbow shifted her gaze until magenta eyes were locked with Twilight’s own. “I bet you already know who I’m talking about Twi… You were there when I needed it and you helped me through all of the terrible feelings that Applejack dumped on me when she told me the truth and it really meant a lot…” A moment of silence filled the air as Rainbow broke her gaze and scooted closer towards Twilight, her fur now pressing tightly against the alicorn’s own. With a smooth motion, Rainbow unfolded a wing and draped it across Twilight’s side.

“I know what you’re going through isn’t even remotely close to what you helped me with, but I figured that I should let you know what all of it meant to me… And that just like you were there to help me through all of that pain and heartache, I’ll be here to help you through this…“ With a slow turn of her head, Rainbow looked back towards Twilight.

“That sound good to you Twi?” As soon as the words left Rainbow’s mouth, Twilight felt all of the fear that had coursed through her body disappear in an instant. All of the fear and all of the worry Twilight had felt were gone and it was all thanks the cyan mare that sat next to her.

“Of course that sounds good,” Twilight sputtered as turned towards Rainbow and wrapped her in a bone crushing hug. “Thank you Rainbow… Thank you so much…”

“No problem Egghead... “ Rainbow replied as Twilight released her from the embrace. “No problem at all.”

“So…” Rainbow said in an attempt to clear the now awkward silence that filled the room the room. “What do we do now?”

“Well, I guess we could get ready for the next challenge in the Archmage's Exhibition,” Twilight replied as her horn flashed with magic and a small book and pencil began to levitate towards her. Along its travel the books pages flapped about until eventually reaching the alicorn’s desired section. “It says here that the warding challenge is next.”

“Warding challenge?” Rainbow questioned.”What’s that one about?”

“Well you see… The warding challenge is one that delves deep into the application of warding and enchantment based magic, and contestants are asked to apply all of their knowledge to safeguard a small object given to them at the beginning of the exhibition. The goal of the challenge is to make it as hard as possible for the judges to get into objects by using any kind of magic from the six major schools. The unicorn whose spell lasts the longest is awarded the most points and the everypony else is scored based on that best score. Obviously it is a challenge designed to test the warding school of magic, but knowledge in the enchantment school is also needed, as the contestants will need to be able make a powerful warding spell, and bind it properly to their object’s personal magical field.”

“Sounds really boring…”

Twilight let out a heavy sigh. “Sadly it is… Since both the warding and enchantment schools of magic are extremely under-populated compared to the others, you end up seeing the exact same spell combinations from every single contest in the exhibition. Probably because most of them simply learn one spell that is just enough for exhibition and simply just brush off the event like it is nothing… It’s the main reason that ponies have been trying to get the challenge banned from the exhibition for years now. For years they have tried but it seems like the Archmage wants to keep it around for some strange reason…” Twilight paused and tapped a hoof against her muzzle as her mind went to work on search for a valid reason for keeping such a negatively received event in the exhibition. “Maybe it’s his way of keeping the enchantment school alive in the public’s eyes or maybe it’s-”

“Anyway... “ Rainbow interrupted, knowing full well that if she hadn’t interrupted Twilight’s train of thought there, that it would have kept on going for much longer than what she wanted. “What’s going after that? I’m guessing that it probably something to do with one of the other schools of magic.”

“That would be correct,” Twilight replied with a quick nod. “After the warding exhibition there will be a challenge that’s centered around the conjuration school of magic where contestants will have an unrestricted chance to conjure any sort of object that they can think of. Points will be awarded based on the caster’s originally towards the object, their effort into crafting the object’s spell structure, and how long they can maintain the object once it has been cast. The challenge is a crowd favourite and is generally considered to be the most enjoyable for the contestants as well. It gives them a chance to show to the judges what they can do really do when given absolute freedom, and it gives the crowd the opportunity to see some truly amazing things. In fact I can remember that during one particular exhibition, the unicorn that ended up winning was able to conjure an entirely furnished building in a matter of minutes and to top it off he was able to maintain the spell for an entire hour before he had to release it..”

“That actually sounds pretty awesome.”

“Oh it was,” Twilight replied with a wide smile across her muzzle. “Before that exhibition, every unicorn thought they knew what the limits of conjuration magic where, and it was believed that no matter how much we tried, we would never be able to overcome that limit. But everything changed one unicorn took the stage. When he showed the world what he could do, he shattered that simple idea, and showed everypony that magic is not limited by nature, but by-”

“Woah there Twilight that’s enough,” Rainbow said as she raised her hooves in the air. “I don’t need a whole entire history lesson on the dude.”

“Oh right, sorry about that… I guess I got a bit carried away there, didn’t I?”

“Just a little bit,” Rainbow playfully said while brushing a hoof against Twilight’s side. “But hey that’s fine. Magic’s your thing, so getting a little carried away here and there is to be expected.” A brief moment of silence passed in the room before Rainbow spoke once again. “So what’s after the conjuration challenge?”

“That would be the force magic challenge,” Twilight replied in a matter of fact tone while magically flipping to the next page in the schedule. “It’s relatively simple compared to the other three. All the contestants are asked to do is lift a series of magically enchanted stones as high as they can before throwing them into as far as possible into a target field. And as you probably have guessed the unicorn that gets the furthest distance with the heaviest object is awarded the most points. And once that challenge has finished, the contestants are given a day long break in exhibition activities where they are given time to relax and prepare themselves for the final challenge, after which the pony with the highest amount of points is chosen as the champion of the exhibition.”

“Wait a minute… If all of the contestants are on break, then what the heck are we going to be doing?”

“I’m not sure really,” Twilight said while tapping a hoof against her muzzle. “I was thinking that maybe the three of us could find something to do around town.”

“That sounds good. Was there anything that you had in mind?”

“Not as of right now…” Twilight said as she looked towards the balcony window. “I was thinking about going around to some of the stores around and see if there was anything that I wanted to pick up for the girls, but other then that I didn’t really have much planned.” Twilight turned her gaze back toward Rainbow. “What about you? Did you want to do anything tomorrow?”

“Not that I can think of… I might take a quick fly around town, but other than that I got nothing.”

“Hmmm…” Twilight said as she began to scan through the exhibition schedule. “How about we grab a bite to eat here?” Rainbow turned her gaze towards the schedule and began to look at the restaurant that Twilight was pointing to. The building in the picture was a bit off colour and a couple feet shorter than the other buildings that surrounded it. Upon a close inspection of the picture, Rainbow noticed a large yellow sign that said ‘Welcome to C&P’s Fine IstallionDinning’ lay sitting outside of the restaurant door and a billboard of two identical looking istallion mares sitting side by side that hung from the building’s roof.

“Istallion eh?” Rainbow said. “I could go for some Istallion.”

“Perfect,” Twilight cheerfully replied as she marked it in the schedule and levitated the small book back into her satchel. “It’s a date.”

Author's Notes:

So about after almost of year of waiting for the next chapter, it is finally here. Honestly I would like to have some valid excuse for why you guys had to wait so long for this, but I don’t have one. Sure I was really busy with a full time course load, and a part/full time job during the year, but I should have been able to put in some work here and there and got the chapter out much earlier than this… So with that I would like to apologize for how long the chapter took, and hopefully the next one doesn’t take nearly as long.

As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Feel free to point out any problems/questions/grammatical mistakes you see throughout, and I’ll try fix/answer them when I get a chance to.

Also do note that this chapter has only been fully reviewed by one editor at the moment. My impatience has won out as per usual, and I will make the edits once they are available to me.

When A Door Closes, Another Opens

by Intet22

1: When A Door Closes

2: Trying To Find A Solution

3: A Kind Heart

4: The Honest Truth

5: Does Time Heal All Wounds?

6: A Lesson On Magic

7: Let Me Show You My World

8: Let The Games Begin

9: Overcharged

Chapter 10 - The Beginning Of Something New