> Desires
>  by Skylight77
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Fluttershy! I'm so sorry I... Aarrggghhhh!!!"

"Rainbow Dash, what's wrong?!"

There was a loud screeching noise as Rainbow Dash’s body was being enveloped by a mysterious purple aura that was starting to emit. A very concerned Fluttershy, recovering from her impact earlier, tried to step forward to help. 

"Don't come closer! Aaaahhh!!!" Rainbow Dash shouted through the pain. 

Fluttershy stopped in her tracks; she could barely watch what was going on. She didn't know if Rainbow Dash knew what was going on. All she knew was they were not in safe conditions.

Taking a look at their surroundings, they looked like they were in the basement of a factory, its purpose, unknown. A lot of discarded boxes piled up against the walls. Everything else was practically trash. If they didn't know better, they were in a junk yard, but inside a building. There were all sorts of machines around that they couldn't recognize. They look rusted, and broken. Everything else was charred. It was dark, dusty, and the walls were rough.

It was as if they were in an abandoned and forgotten laboratory. 

The only thing that was illuminating the area at the moment was the bright purple aura that was emitting from Rainbow Dash's body. Fluttershy could only sit there, watching in horror of the kind of pain her friend was experiencing; tears were escaping her eyes wishing that it would stop. Rainbow Dash was bent down on the ground. If she wasn't gritting her teeth, she was yelling from the pain she was enduring. 

Fluttershy tried to help, but Rainbow Dash insisted on staying back until it was over. And sure enough, it did end, but not instantly. The purple aura slowly, but surely faded, along with the cries of pain, leaving behind a heavily injured pegasus. 

Rainbow Dash was lying on her stomach, gasping for air and coughing. She was covered in many scratches and bruises that covered her body. Her wings looked dispositioned and stretched, like somepony had tried to tear them off. But where Rainbow was hurting the most was on her stomach. It was hard for her to breathe and coughing didn't help.

"Rainbow Dash, w-what happened to you?" Fluttershy stuttered her voice, slowly walking up to Rainbow Dash. 

Fluttershy was also in a lot of pain, but not in nearly the same condition. She shared the same minor injuries as her pegasus counterpart, scratches and bruises that surrounded her body, but while her wings and stomach weren't in majorly bad conditions, the most noticeable injury was on her left cheek. She had a scar on her cheek that spread slightly wide, but quite long, lined diagonally across her face.

It was a scar that Rainbow Dash felt a burning rage at the sight of, even if Fluttershy was okay compared to herself.

Silence filled the room after the aura vanished. Only the sound of slow and steady breathing, coming from Rainbow, could be heard. As Fluttershy got up to Rainbow Dash, she helped her onto her hooves. 

“What was that?” Fluttershy asked.

“I-I don’t know…” Rainbow exclaimed between breaths, it was difficult for her to breathe. “But whatever that was, it just saved us… for now.”

At this point, Rainbow Dash was now sitting up again, clutching both her hooves on her painful stomach.

"What… do you mean?" Fluttershy asked worrying. “You didn’t look like...-“ she pointed to Rainbow Dash’s pained body with her hoof “-this… a few minutes ago.”

"I told you Fluttershy, I’m fine," Rainbow said as she tried to continue walking. "Nnnnrrggh… if we don't get outta here-" she was cut off when Fluttershy interjected by walking in front of her, placing her hooves to stop Rainbow Dash.

"But you’re not fine, look at yourself," Fluttershy cried. “If you keep this up… you’ll…”

Just then, Rainbow’s ears perked up. Her ears picked up a sound that came somewhere ahead of her. . Fluttershy had a look on her face that looked as if she had heard it too. She slowly turned her head around to look.

They had forgotten that there was someone else with them.

Fluttershy let go of Rainbow Dash as she turned around. They both slowly walked over to the source of the sound. Fluttershy assisted her friend in walking, since Rainbow Dash’s condition had seen better days. They looked down at the pony in question when they reached it.

There, lying on the floor was the silhouette of a third pegasus, in no better condition. The right wing was heavily marked and wrinkled like it had been crushed, while the left wing looked sliced as there was a gap in the center of it, spread like a line. Otherwise the rest of its body was batted with similar minor injuries that both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy have.

The silhouette opened its eyes… grunting silently. It caught sight of the two pegasi.

There was silence in the room. The two pegasi stared at this silhouette, who was still lying on the ground. Nothing could be heard, until Rainbow Dash broke the silence.

"So you're still alive huh?" Rainbow Dash paused for a second. Her voice didn’t seem to hold any care for the sight that beheld her. "I thought that last attack put you out for good.”

The silhouette didn't respond. Rainbow's expression was blank. The pain however returned to Rainbow Dash's stomach. She grunted in pain and lost balance on her hooves. Fluttershy put her head under Rainbow Dash's neck to help support her weight as she was placing herself into a sitting position. Rainbow Dash started coughing again; she clutched her stomach as every single cough only made the pain worse. Her eyes were closed.

Soon, the coughing settled. Rainbow Dash managed to slowly steady her breathing as a result.

“Honestly, I think you deserve just as much…” Rainbow declared as she opened her eyes.

“Rainbow, please-“ Fluttershy was silenced gently by Rainbow’s hoof.

“But after what you just did earlier, I’ll trust you for now.” Rainbow released her hoof from Fluttershy’s muzzle and continued on. “Now tell us, what do you know, what caused all this to happen, and why we should believe...” Rainbow Dash paused for a second to change the topic. “No, first tell us who or what you are, and then continue from there,” Her tone was very serious.

The silhouette lowered its eye lids and paused. It then nodded off to explain its story.

______________________________________________________________________________

Everfree Forest, 4 years ago:

A bright green light was emanating in the middle of an unnatural forest. This light was bright enough to pierce through the thick leaves that covered the air outside. A few moments after its appearance, it faded, but it left behind something in its place. It dropped out of the air and landed in an unknown location. This being was left unconscious somewhere in this forest. The air was still, and no other creature could be heard anywhere near the area.

That was all this being could recall as it awakened itself from a slumber that felt like it lasted for days. It at least slept on something soft. The being stood up, and took a look at its surroundings.

It was night outside, and the being was all alone, nothing but the foliage of the forest’s nature covering its vision even further. It tried to recover itself from the shock by taking a few steps into the forest; however this shock was making it unbalanced in walking. 

‘What is this place?’ the being thought to itself. It managed to find a clearing in the forest that contained a small lake. This being walked up to the lake in order to take a look at its reflection, revealing what this being was. 

The reflection revealed a mare pony with light green eyes. Her coat was slightly light brown and her mane was a sharp bright red. 

She carefully examined her body. She was wearing what appeared to be a collar around her neck. Her mane was an overhead straight while her tail was long and thin. Her mane, her tail, and the collar she wore were all the same shade of red. 

She also appeared to have wings on her back. She looked like an ordinary pegasus, but she looked back at the lake with a very confused look at her appearance. 

‘I don’t remember this, what happened to me earlier?’ She tapped the lake’s water with her hoof, leaving a rippling effect as she tried to think.

“Hey!” a voice called out. Reacting by instinct, the pegasus turned around in a fighting stance at the direction she heard the voice. “I wouldn’t stay here if I were you. This forest is very dangerous, especially at night.” 

She saw a light purple earth pony mare with a darker purple mane and tail, fluffy in style. This earth pony walked down a path, not meeting eye contact as she made her path that would cross a distance passed the pegasus. The pegasus slowly withdrew her fighting stance. This earth pony had a serious frustrating look on her face. 

“Who are-“ the pegasus tried to call out in response but was cut off. 

“Don’t you raise your voice at me!” The earth pony yelled back. “I have a severe headache and I do not need you making it worse.”

The earth pony continued walking the path; she looked even more annoyed than before from just two words. Regardless, the pegasus eyed this pony cautiously. Her mouth was slightly open, but only had her clenched teeth visible. 

“If you need directions on exiting this forest, then you’re free to follow me,” the earth pony continued. “Otherwise you’re free to stick around for the hungry predators of this forest, and I don’t think you’d want that.”

The pegasus didn’t have many options. She was confused, lost, and was offered guidance out of the forest. But at what cost, only to get more lost in a world she couldn’t recognize? Not to mention the one guiding her was clearly very irritated.

In the end the pegasus decided it was better to be lost in safe grounds than lost in dangerous grounds. She took a slight breath and decided to follow this earth pony.

On a side note, the shock from earlier was no longer present so she was able to recover her balance. Oddly, she remembered doing this before, but at the same time, she couldn't.

______________________________________________________________________________

The two ponies continued walking the path for a few minutes in silence. There was no indication that the pegasus could find for this path that they were following, but the earth pony seemed to know what she was doing. The pegasus didn’t want to say anything in risk of getting yelled at again, but the earth pony decided to break the silence and looked back at her. 

“My name is Berry Punch; you got a name or what?” The pegasus thought for a moment, but wasn’t given two seconds before being cut off again. “Alright before you give yourself a headache too, I’ll just call you Carousel, at least that’s what I see when I see the mark on your flank.” 

Hesitating a little, the pegasus turned her head to take a glance at what she was talking about. Their on her flank was the mark she mentioned. There were a number of ponies each holding a spear in one hoof and forming a circle formation facing in a counter-clockwise position. In the center was a green flaming blaze along with smoke emanating from the flame as it formed all above them, their spears piercing through the cloud of smoke above. 

It did look much like a carousel, but when the pegasus looked at it, she experienced something else. In her mind, she was in a dark void, seeing nothing but those flames from her mark surrounding her. Not even the harsh flames illuminated the area she was in, and the flames were burning on nothing but the void.

“What? Don’t tell me you don’t know what a Cutie Mark is. I suppose next you’re gonna tell me you don’t know how to fly.” The pegasus snapped back to reality and brought her attention back to the earth pony, who continued to talk. “Well that would explain why you look so confused and puzzled. You’re acting like you’ve never seen anything I’ve seen you lay your eyes on so far.”

The pegasus was even more confused now. “What are you talking about?” 

The frustrated earth pony shook her head. “I’m saying that you have amnesia, now no more questions, your voice is more confusing than what you’re witnessing.”

“But you’re the one tha-“ The pegasus was cut off once again by the rising voice of the irritated earth pony.

“I AM THE ONE, who is guiding you and possibly saving your life!” The pegasus was taken aback by this outburst. The earth pony stopped moving, placing a hoof on her head and grunting. “Ugh, if you can’t appreciate that, then be quiet! I don’t need a pegasus giving me logic when she has more head problems than I am having now!” The earth pony continued her walk while the pegasus kept a safer distance away. “Just take what you can get and then you can go bother somepony who can answer all the questions you’ll be having that won’t cause their heads to explode!”

This earth pony appeared to hold very mixed feelings of being kind enough to help a confused pegasus, while at the same time, very irritable at the condition she was in when this moment came up. The pegasus had no choice but to go with her logic. She always had the option of just stranding herself in the middle of nowhere, but she chose to follow the earth pony.

______________________________________________________________________________

The two ponies eventually found their way out to the forest clearing. The pegasus stopped to take a look at the outside world while the earth pony continued walking. It was still dark. 

“That forest’s name is Everfree Forest, I recommend staying out of there.” The pegasus looked back to the earth pony who was leaving her behind. The earth pony continued to talk without eye contact, but it seemed her mood had settled down. “The first thing you may want to do is remember how to use your wings. Try to use your instincts, you should still have those.”

The pegasus lowered her head, wondering if she should continue following her and risk getting more backlash scolding. It was probably better to part ways here, but the pegasus decided to at least say something.

“Hey…” she called out, but the earth pony cut in once again.

“Berry Punch; no need to thank me, just take care of yourself Carousel, and don’t cause too much trouble.”

With that, the pegasus lost sight of the purple earth pony who she could barely remember was named Berry Punch. She couldn’t figure out whether to be thankful or annoyed by the event she just experienced, and was more lost than ever. 

The pegasus grunted, placing a hoof on her head. This experience gave her a slight headache all of sudden. She decided to walk it off, in the opposite direction from Berry’s path. 

At the very least, the pegasus did somewhat have an identity to go by now, and that was the name Berry Punch had given her, Carousel.

Thinking back to what else Berry had also said to her, the first thing she should do is regain the feelings on her wings. She looked back at them and through instinct, was able to flare them. She flapped a few times and could feel her weight on the ground becoming lighter. Her walk then turned to a trot, and then a gallop as she flapped her wings harder; getting the feelings of learning flight all over again, except that she had a sense of déjà vu that she had done this before.

Carousel reached upon a cliff and used this moment to try and take air. She jumped right off the edge and took flight.

But at this moment, she lost all feelings on her wings, the slight headache from earlier returned, but stronger.

Reality broke away. Carousel’s vision faded. She could hear nothing but a high pitched screech surrounding her. She clenched her head with both hooves as she began to fall, but her sight was replaced with the visions she saw earlier.

The flames had surrounded her in the dark void once again, but this time, she wasn’t alone. Dozens, if not hundreds of other silhouettes of figures she couldn’t recognize were either running or flying alongside her. Where were they going? Where was she going? The screeching became louder as the vision faded.

Reality came back to the falling pegasus when she impacted the ground, but it wasn’t the ground she hit. With her normal visions returning, the screeching was silencing. But she noticed that she landed on something, or someone.

“Get off of me you idiot!” The figure smacked Carousel off before she could react and was sent flying a distance away. The pegasus landed on her hooves, sliding along the landscape. She took a glance at the figure she had landed on. It had the head, claws, and wings of an eagle, but the legs and tail of a lion.

There standing before her, was a griffon, who flew right up to her and grabbed her by the neck. Carousel, being lifted off the ground, clenched her hooves on the claws that were choking her.

“You do that one more time and I am gonna-“ The griffon was cut off as Carousel responded to this violent action by kicking the griffon in the stomach with one of her hind legs, causing the griffon to drop her. Carousel landed on the ground and stood low, clutching her neck and gasping for breath whereas the griffon was clutching its stomach looking more enraged. 

The griffon regained itself and struck the downed pegasus with its claws which sent the her flying back from the impact. She rolled on the floor before coming to a stop, now lying in pain. The griffon flew up to her. 

“What’s the matter, can’t fly? Well then I’ve got the perfect place for a snot nose brat like you!” The griffon grabbed Carousel again and took flight. Carousel’s wings were secured. She struggled to break free, but could do nothing to escape the grasp the griffon held. They were heading in the direction to the center of the forest she was lost in not too long ago. 

“Have fun living the rest of your life under banishment!” The griffon let go of her grasp at break neck speed, causing the flightless pegasus to tumble down to where she started. The griffon let out a huge roar before being lost from sight. Carousel impacted on one of the trees in the forest, now trapped on its branches.

The rustling of creatures lurking in the woods could now be heard. Her eyes shut tightly as the visions returned once again.

She saw, nothing, but heard, felt.

A soft cry was made, whimpering, it echoed… 

______________________________________________________________________________

Current Day:

“Wait, what?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "That didn't sound right at all!”

“It happened four years ago, Rainbow," Flutteshy said. "A lot can happen in that time.”

“I know that,” Rainbow Dash replied. “What I meant was that story didn’t make any sense.” She turned her attention back to the brown pegasus she and Fluttershy now knew as Carousel. “How did you survive, and what was all that about?”

The pegasus in question didn’t answer.

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Do you remember anything else?” She shook her head, causing Rainbow to groan.

“You said you heard news about her before you met her," Fluttershy mentioned. "Maybe she’ll remember if you talk about those days?”

Rainbow Dash thought for a moment. She couldn’t bring herself to trust this unknown pegasus because of what she already knew about her. But now, due to recent events, she was willing to do so, if not for the lack of options, but for Fluttershy. Fluttershy tried reasoning with Rainbow Dash that there was more to this pony than what she was seeing, despite what Rainbow Dash witnessed. But now, Rainbow Dash accepted Fluttershy’s request.

This is the story of the events that led to this disaster that Rainbow Dash believed she witnessed, what she saw, what she heard, and what led to,... their banishment.
> Chapter 1: The Nightmare
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	6 days ago:

*pant, pant, pant, pant* 

Running, running. That’s all Rainbow Dash was doing, running. A terrified look crossed her face as she continued running. She couldn’t see anything, or tell what she was doing. All she could do was run.

She slid along the ground beneath her to come to a stop, taking a moment to look back and forth at her surroundings. There were no landmarks, she was running out of breath, and was hopelessly lost. Nothing could be seen, nothing but darkness in an endless void with no life, no path. She could hear voices, evil demonic giggling voices. Every time she heard those voices, she would only run.

The demonic voice kept on giggling, getting louder, and louder. Rainbow Dash jumped in a gasp before continuing to run from it. She had no clue as to where it was coming from.

“Raiiinbow Daaash…”

The ground beneath her became non-existent. Her legs continued trying to run, trying to find the floor to run with, but it was no longer there. With no floor left to run on, gravity started taking Rainbow Dash as she fell deeper into the void. All she could do now was yell a terrifying cry. Flailing all four legs, she tried to find something to stop her. But there was nothing around to stop her fall, not even the use of her wings were able to stop the gravity that was overtaking her. Darkness surrounded her and swallowed her whole.

Everything went black.

______________________________________________________________________________

It didn't take long for Rainbow Dash to regain her composure, or at least that's what it felt like, when she came to, she tried to run again, but she found herself strapped down, lying on her back. She could feel an intense heat coming from where she laid. All of her limbs were secured. 

Rainbow Dash gasped for air in a frightful panic. She didn't have much time to react before a pink figure made itself visible in front of her. There was nothing else she could see but steam rising in the air, a steam that was coming from beneath her. Her back and wings were being burned from the heat source. The figure only came closer. Rainbow Dash frantically tried to free herself, struggling harder as the figure came closer.

“Raiiiinbow Daaaash.” She could hear a familiar voice call out once again. Rainbow Dash breathed heavily, feeling like she was suffocating as the pink figure came closer. 

The pink figure reached Rainbow Dash, revealing who she was. 

“I thiiink youuu’re reeeady… Rainbow Daaash!” 

A loud audible heart beat echoed around the area. The pink figure leapt towards her.

An audible screeching noise toned in before everything flashed white.

______________________________________________________________________________

“Nooo!”

“Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow Dash screamed awake, flailing her legs around as she shot her head straight up from the bed, sweat apparent on her head.

Rainbow Dash panted with her hoof on her chest. Her vision shifted up to meet with a familiar face, Fluttershy, who jumped away from Rainbow as she awakened from her nightmare. She had a concerned look in her eyes, standing in front of the bed Rainbow was laying on. 

“Fluttershy! Oh it’s only you, phew…” Wiping off her forehead, Rainbow Dash took in a few more breaths trying to recover from her life threatening nightmare. Taking a glance around, she found herself in her own house, lying in her own bedroom, on her cloud bed.

“A-are you okay?” Fluttershy asked.

“-sigh- No!” Rainbow responded.

“Were you having that nightmare again?”

“Yes!” Rainbow Dash dropped her head back down to her pillow in frustration. “I just don’t understand, why do I keep having these? They’re always about our friends. All I can see is this dark menacing look in their face. They have this creepy laugh... they're always chasing me down…”

Rainbow paused for a moment as she grunted, trying to better explain herself. “I try as much as I can to run away, but no matter how hard I try they always catch me. Their actions are horrible, and they’re smiling through it all like it was some sort of, sick game.” Rainbow paused again as she put a hoof on her forehead, taking in what she just experienced. Fluttershy didn’t interrupt and just continued to listen. 

“Today, I saw Pinkie Pie, cooking a meal…” She gestured a hoof towards herself. “It was being made, from me!”

“You two were cooking a meal together?” Fluttershy asked confused.

“No Fluttershy, I was being cooked!” Rainbow Dash corrected.

“You were being… *gasp*” Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth in horror. “She was trying... to eat you?”

“Yes!” Rainbow Dash answered.

“B-but Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy started as she walked over to one of the sides of Rainbow Dash’s bed, getting a closer look at her with their conversation. “Pinkie Pie is our friend. Why would you think she’s trying to hurt you?”

“I’m not!” Rainbow Dash argued, sitting back up. “It’s these dreams!” She conked her head with a hoof. “They’re messing with my mind!”

“When did you start having these?” Fluttershy asked as she rested her front hooves on top of Rainbow Dash’s bed. Fluttershy couldn’t recall a time Rainbow Dash would be so terrified of something she knew wouldn’t hurt her. But the more she heard about it, the more serious it sounded.

“It was after the day we threw that surprise birthday party for Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow Dash answered.

“But, Rainbow Dash, that was a long time,” Fluttershy stated. “We all helped out on that, and I never had nightmares about our friends. At least, I don’t think I have been.”

“Well, no pony else is getting them, I’m the only one,” Rainbow Dash stated as she looked away, looking depressed.

“*Gasp* r-really?” Fluttershy asked surprised. “How do you know?”

“I don’t,” Rainbow Dash responded calmly. “But if you’re not having them, then…” She trailed off.

Fluttershy was having difficulties processing this. She wanted to help out, but she didn’t know what to do. Since it was a nightmare, it wasn’t something that could be easy to solve.

“Maybe we should ask Twilight about this?” Fluttershy suggested.

“I already did that remember?” Rainbow Dash started as she looked back to Fluttershy.

“Oh… well, um…” Fluttershy stuttered, making Rainbow Dash mentally deadpan.

“Remember when I told you all about how Spike was sending me to Princess Celestia?”

______________________________________________________________________________

“Listen guys, in my dream, Spike was sending me to Princess Celestia!” The voices that reflected that day played back in Fluttershy’s mind. That voice belonged to Rainbow Dash.

“Now why would that be a problem, Rainbow Dash? Personally I would be delighted to have a meeting with the princess.” That was Rarity’s voice.

“But he wasn’t sending me, he was sending a note, with me in it,” Rainbow’s voice.

“So Spike was sending an invitation note for you to meet with her?” Pinkie’s voice.

“No, the note wasn’t an invitation, the note contained me as it was being sent,” Rainbow’s voice.

At this, Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth in horror as she remembered that part of the conversation.

“Well, that explains everythin’,” Applejack’s voice.

“Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash, I’ll make sure Spike doesn’t send any letters addressed to you without your permission,” Twilight’s voice. The group was starting to disband.

“Thanks Twilight… Wait, no…” Rainbow’s voice as it was stuttering.

“Don’t worry Rainbow Dash, we’re your friends. We understand,” Twilight’s voice.

______________________________________________________________________________

The conversation was brief, but it all made sense. 

Fluttershy was at a loss for words as she looked back upon that day. She took a step away from the bed, bringing her forelegs back on the ground while she looked away from Rainbow Dash. She felt as if these dreams weren’t dreams anymore. It felt as if something like this would actually happen.

It hurt Rainbow Dash seeing that her words practically brought a painfully terrifying image in her friend’s head. A part of her told her that every time she told Fluttershy about these dreams, her friend would suffer the same nightmares, or fear they would come true.  

Even if Fluttershy said she thinks she wasn’t having them, she probably was and just didn’t remember. Fluttershy seemed to be the only one who actually understood what she was saying when she told them. But it didn't make any sense as to why only Fluttershy  was understanding them.

Maybe Fluttershy wasn't really understanding them, but was rather the only one who was really afraid of what she was saying. Whatever it was Fluttershy was thinking, she couldn’t tell them any better. 

During her explanations, Rainbow Dash tried to be brief about it so as to not torment their minds, but in the end, it only succeeded in tormenting Fluttershy's mind She was just so scared of the implications of Rainbow Dash’s words that she could never say what she thought they really meant. Rainbow Dash constantly tried telling them, but it only hurt Fluttershy. She eventually decided to stop trying in order to at least ease Fluttershy’s mind.

It didn’t happen every night. But it happened enough times to where Fluttershy would witness it again when it happened at times. Flutterhy would ask about it, and Rainbow Dash would have to talk about it again, or Fluttershy would worry more.

It did help that at least somepony else understood what was going on. Telling Fluttershy about it always reminded her that it was just a dream, and nothing like this would ever really happen.

“Say, what are you doing here anyway?” Rainbow Dash asked in an attempt to change the subject.

“Oh, right, um…” Fluttershy hesitated, looking back up to Rainbow Dash, now remembering the reason she came here in the first place. “Twilight told me to give you this, after the storm cleared up.” Fluttershy reached into her wing with her muzzle.

“The storm…” Rainbow Dash’s mind started processing with the mention of the storm. Suddenly her mind bolted as she just remembered.

“Oh! The storm! That’s right!” Rainbow took a look out her window, taking a glance at the sun’s position in the sky. Fluttershy had been taken aback by this outburst; she didn’t have time to show Rainbow Dash what she needed to show her.

Yesterday, Rainbow Dash had worked all day on setting up a huge storm that would prevent a drought season this summer. She had managed the weather patrol that day and when she was done, she decided to sleep in early.

“Oh pony feathers; I was supposed to clear the leftover clouds first thing in the morning! Dang it! I better hurry!” Rainbow Dash shot herself on all four hooves on the bed. She flared her wings as she readied herself for takeoff. 

“Oh my, that wouldn’t be good… should I help?” Knowing she had wasted some of her time, Fluttershy decided to put her item back away. She believed that the weather needed to be done first and she wanted to do something to help make up the time she made Rainbow Dash waste, if she could that is.

“Relax Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said as she flew up to her window to check the skies. “Being a little late to get started is not a big deal to me, and besides-“ She motioned her hoof outside towards the clouds. “-this isn’t even that bad.” 

Fluttershy flew up beside her and also took a look at the skies. To Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash had her work cut out for her. There were certainly A LOT of left over clouds from the storm that spread all across the skies. She couldn’t even begin to count how many there were. Some of the clouds were bigger than others to the point where it looked like four to five patches of them combined together. If Rainbow Dash’s house was any higher in the skies, they probably wouldn’t be able to see the ground.

“But, you’re more than welcome to help out anyway pal,” Rainbow Dash said, tapping a hoof on Fluttershy’s back. “Just remember that busting clouds, is not the same as activating them.”

Rainbow Dash took off immediately towards the clouds, leaving a breeze to blow on Fluttershy from such a sudden acceleration.

Rainbow Dash was now in full work mode. She was busting through one cloud after another like butter. Fluttershy exited the cloud house, heeding what Rainbow Dash had just told her. She was right after all. Fluttershy never had reason to bust clouds, so she never learned how to do that properly. If it wasn’t done right, she could end up shocking herself instead.

Now Fluttershy didn’t know what to do. She had just offered to help, but didn’t know how she could.  She watched Rainbow Dash do all the busting, and she was making the whole thing look so easy. 

Fluttershy watched Rainbow Dash kick through a cloud with her hind leg, somersault to take out another, and burst right through three clouds lined up together like they weren’t even there.

Fluttershy could barely keep up with Rainbow Dash’s antics. If she didn’t know any better, Rainbow Dash was just doing one of her performances with Fluttershy being the silent cheerleader. These clouds were spread out far enough to make it look like a performance.

Suddenly, an idea came to Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash would take less time on busting these clouds if they were closer together. Fluttershy decided; if she couldn’t help bust them, she could combine them so that Rainbow Dash could take out a huge group in one go. It would take more effort to bust it sure, but she didn’t doubt Rainbow Dash’s abilities to bust it just as easily.

Fluttershy flew up to one of the clouds and started pushing it. She was able to get this cloud to collide with other clouds, causing the cloud formation to grow bigger and bigger with each cloud it made contact with. 

While Rainbow Dash was busy busting the clouds, Fluttershy was busy collecting them into a pile. If it was any other pegasus, they might have said that Fluttershy was making things worse, for the bigger a cloud formation was, the harder it was to work with, whether they were activating it, busting it, or keeping them under control. And this cloud was getting really big.

Rainbow Dash took a cloud in her hooves, immediately spinning it around before hurling it towards another cloud. Their impact caused them both to evaporate. She raised one hoof in the air as she increased her altitude. Aiming for another cloud, she brought down the hoof in a chopping action, striking the cloud. 

Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs together, smiling as she eyed the cloud she just struck. When she noticed the cloud wasn’t responding, she turned her eyes into a glare. Suddenly, the cloud exploded on its own, allowing Rainbow Dash to return her smile. It was as if that cloud was afraid of Rainbow Dash. After all, that strike was supposed to take it out anyway.

With that last cloud taken care of, Rainbow Dash checked around the scenery for anymore that she may have missed. She only found one that she had missed.

“Last one Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy called out.

This cloud that Fluttershy had put together had become the size of Rainbow Dash’s cloud house. Grinning, Rainbow climbed herself up to higher heights. After reaching her height, she paused for a second, taking a good look at her target while she hovered in mid-air.

“Take cover!” Rainbow Dash hollered out after she prepared herself. She proceeded to dive straight for her target.

Realizing her speed, Fluttershy panicked. She flew away from the cloud and quickly took cover behind one of the trees on the ground.

“Yeeeaaaahh!” Rainbow Dash hollered out as she flew at amazing speeds towards her target. You could hear the wind screeching from her wing power. Rainbow Dash impacted directly into the cloud, causing her to disappear from sight. 

Fluttershy took a peek at the scene, waiting for something big to happen.

But nothing was happening. 

Fluttershy took herself away from the tree to get a better look at the cloud. She waited for something to happen, or for Rainbow Dash to come out of the cloud.

Suddenly, a bright rainbow glow appeared in the center of the giant cloud formation. The glowing grew brighter and brighter, until...

*BOOM!!!*

The cloud burst into a huge explosion of multiple colors. It was pretty much a delayed nuclear rainbow bomb that completely evaporated the cloud into nothingness.

Fluttershy could feel the results of the explosion from where she was. A powerful gust of wind blew around the scenery. From Fluttershy’s distance, it was just a slightly powerful breeze that blew through her pink mane, but did not upset her flight balance.

Fluttershy put a hoof in front of her head, covering that breeze that blew on her eyes. She smiled as she took in the beautiful sight that she witnessed. The explosion was both epic and beautiful at the same time.

Once the wind settled, Fluttershy flew up to where the cloud formation once stood. In its place where the cloud formation used to be, was the awesome pegasus that had caused such an explosion. 

“Aw Yeah! Did you see that Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash lifted her right hoof in the air as she flew towards Fluttershy.

“That was amazing Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy lifted her left hoof in the same way Rainbow Dash did.

“And it was all thanks to your help pal,” Rainbow Dash finished.

The two pegasi lifted their counterpart hooves in the air, motioning forwards with them in great force and unison. They clopped against each other, creating a magnificent high hoof bump. They both let out an audible, ‘Ah’ sound from their voice as they did it. They were both proud of such a creation.

The two pegasi’s hooves were connected for a few seconds before they separated. When they separated, Rainbow Dash had that neglected question to ask again.

“So… what was it that you needed to show me, Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked.

“Hmm?…” Fluttershy took a moment to think before remembering. “Oh… r-right… um…” She reached behind the back of her yellow coat.

A pony’s coat was deep enough to secure most small items during quick trips out of their homes. Depending on the item, their coat or mane could be used as an easy way to carry them for a while, and for pegasi, under their wings were another option. But when it came to certain items that were too big or even too many items to carry, they needed pouches or saddle bags.

Fluttershy pulled out what appeared to be a note addressed for an order. Rainbow Dash read its contents while Fluttershy held it open with her hoof. Despite the fact they were still flapping their wings, hovering high in the skies, reading the contents of the mail was easy, but the contents itself seemed odd for both of them.

“Hmm, this looks like an order for… wait... she wants me to go to Baltimare’s hospital?” Rainbow asked confused, scratching the side of her head.

“I… think so,” Fluttershy said, unsure of herself. “Pinkie has been sick to the stomach. Twilight said we needed an order from Baltimare’s hospital.”

“But, I don't get it," Rainbow Dash asked as Fluttershy pulled the note away. "Doesn’t our Ponyville hospital have that kind of medicine?”

“I don’t know…” Fluttershy stated. 

Fluttershy started placing the note inside an envelope, making sure it was sealed securely.

“Twilight is with Pinkie right now. She told me to give this to you to give to them.” Fluttershy motioned the mail over to Rainbow Dash, to which Rainbow Dash took in her hoof. “She said they’ll know what to do when you give it to them,” Fluttershy finished.

“Okay, leave it to me, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said as she gave a salute. “Tell Twilight that I’ll have this delivered before she knows it.”

Before Rainbow Dash took off towards Baltimare’s direction, she first flew towards her home, flying inside through one of her windows. Within a second later, she flew back out of it with a small package strapped around her body. She flew towards Baltimare’s direction, leaving a rainbow trail behind.

Fluttershy stayed behind, watching Rainbow Dash as she flew away at incredible speeds. It was no surprise as to why Twilight requested Rainbow Dash to make this delivery.
> Chapter 2: Priorities
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	6 days ago:

With the wind breezing through her prismatic mane, Rainbow Dash felt the adrenaline rush through her body. She had been given a task to do, and she was not gonna let her friend down. Despite it being a simple task in theory, Twilight turned to one of the best fliers, if not ‘The’ best flier in all of Equestria to handle such a simple task.

“Guess she really wants Pinkie to get this medicine as soon as possible, time to turn up the speed.”

Rainbow Dash reached into the back of her coat, pulling out her special flight goggles, and placed them over her eyes. With the wind no longer beating against her eyes, she beat her wings harder, picking up her speed while having both hooves in front of her to help pierce through the air. 

Rainbow Dash was flying just a few meters above the land of Equestria. A Mach cone was forming in front of her as she flew faster and faster. The path ahead had minimal obstacles in her way. She could fly low and fast without any problems. 

With no pony or town in sight, Rainbow Dash was free to be as reckless as she wanted without the worry of bringing harm to anypony or Equestria. With this thought, she continued to increase her speed, beating her wings harder and faster. The Mach cone was forming even sharper. 

Rainbow Dash always loved flying around and performing all sorts of techniques, but this was a chance to put all that training for the benefit of her friends. 

The air continued pushing her back, even the small package she was carrying was slightly weighing her down, but she would not slow down. Adrenaline rushed through her body. Her wings were restless. They fought against the wind with all their might. 

Practice makes perfect. Rainbow Dash had practiced this enough times to pull it off at her own will. Even now, the results of her training showed as the final barrier of the Mach cone formed.

*Bang!*

The Mach cone in front of her shattered and she burst through. She created a huge Rainboom explosion that marked her trail. The Sonic Rainboom she performed tore through the skies, crashing through the land, creating massive amounts of debris from rocks and dirt flying from its source. The clouds that were close by evaporated quickly as the rainbow spectrum sliced through them. Even those that were close to the spectrum vanished.

Rainbow Dash was flying at supersonic speeds towards her destination, leaving large dust trails trailing behind her, along with a rainbow trail forming from her path of flight, just meters above the ground. At this rate, she would get to Baltimare in no time.

______________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash’s destination finally came into view. Her landing point was near the town center, as the hospital was close to that location. It was also a very open space to land in.

Rainbow Dash glided down effortlessly. Just before she came hitting the ground, Rainbow Dash immediately extended her wings to slow the fall. She landed hard, yet smoothly on all four hooves, kicking up dust as she impacted the ground. After she landed, she lifted her head up with pride, giving a joyous sigh.

“Phew, what a rush!” 

With the sound barrier no longer broken, her surrounding sounds came back to her. But the sounds rushed very loudly. It was so loud, that it hurt her ears. It was as if an explosion had happened. But before she could react to the sound, a mob of ponies came rushing through her. 

“Ough!” Before she knew it, a ton of ponies came running by in a rush, trampling on Rainbow Dash as they rushed by. There was so much dust in the air that she couldn’t see anything, but she felt many hooves stomping down on her.

The trampling ceased soon after it started. Rainbow Dash was lying on the ground, hoof out, wide eyes, and dazed from the sudden impact. She shook her head to regain her composure. 

“What the?...” Rainbow Dash lifted her flight goggles from her eyes, looking towards the stampede that had occurred so suddenly. The ponies all gathered around the town center, where a large statue was present. 

Getting back on her hooves, Rainbow Dash flew up overhead towards the crowd of ponies. 

“Hey! What’s going on here?” Rainbow Dash tried to ask the crowd.

Due to the chattering of voices that were coming from these ponies, it was impossible for them to hear or notice her. They sounded like they were in a panic. She took a look at the statue. It appeared to be a triplet of cheerleaders, two standing on their hind legs, holding a third pony with one hoof each, while the third one was upside down.

Rainbow Dash could only catch a few choice words from the chattering crowd. Thief, Explosion, Three. She noticed that there was a hole at the center of the statue’s stand.

Suddenly, another shout came from above. 

“I SEE THEM!” A pegasus pony from above shouted. The crowd of ponies silenced their chatter and looked above to where the pegasus was. “OVER THERE, HEADING TO THE FOREST!” Rainbow Dash saw the pegasus give chase in the direction she pointed.

“Hey Cloudchaser, wait up!” another pegasus from the crowd shouted, taking flight in order to catch up with her partner. They both flew off towards the direction of said forest. 

Curiosity struck Rainbow Dash, so she decided to catch up to them and figure out what was going on. But she had to keep her speed steady as that Sonic Rainboom travel she initiated earlier took a lot out of her already.

______________________________________________________________________________

Catching up to the two pegasi, Rainbow Dash started recognizing them; Cloudchaser and Flitter, two pegasi who were identical in colors for greyish blue coats and white manes, but quite opposite mane styles. One had slightly darker colors while the other wore a pink bow in her mane.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash called out, flying nearby. “What's going on here?”

Flitter was the first to respond. “A trio of bandits robbed our town’s…” As Flitter turned her head to look at who was speaking, she also recognized who it was, before recognizing the voice. “Oh, Rainbow Dash? Hey! What brings you here?” Flitter said, as she rubbed her head. Cloudchaser turned her head as she heard the name.

“I could ask you guys the same thing,” Rainbow Dash responded. “I thought you two were on vacation.”

Cloudchaser gave an embarrassed chuckle before responding. “Hehe… yeah, we kind of were actually.”

“Then some goons decided to interrupt, so we’re here to teach them a lesson,” Flitter spoke, clasping her hooves together.

“Ah, defending a town you want to relax in huh?" Rainbow said, smirking with her hoof under her chin. "I like that."

“Working with you has really rubbed off on us, Rainbow Dash,” Cloudchaser responded.

Rainbow Dash knew these two always got along with each other so well, it was as if they were related. How awesome it would be to have a flying buddy like that 24/7, Rainbow Dash could only imagine. It's too bad everypony who was even close to her flying skills were always such jerks.

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go catch up to these goons and teach them a lesson!” Rainbow Dash blurted. She increased her speed towards the direction the party was going.

“With you on are side, how can we possibly fail?” Flitter said, increasing her speed to keep up.

“Hey, wait up you guys, I started this party,” Cloudchaser said, increasing her speed as well.

______________________________________________________________________________

The party soon arrived at the forest’s entrance. They decided to descend closer to the ground while they searched the forest. There was already a path to follow, so while they followed the path, hovering just a few meters above ground, they discussed the situation.

“Okay, so what exactly are we dealing with here?” Rainbow asked.

“Diamond dogs-” Cloudchaser responded, pointing her hoof further down the path. “-three of them. I saw them making their escape to this forest.”

“If I remember correctly, the name of this forest is Hayseed,” Flitter said, rubbing her chin.

“Did you catch what they looked like?” Rainbow asked towards Cloudchaser.

“No, sorry,” Cloudchaser responded, bringing her head down in shame.

Rainbow Dash put herself in thought for a moment. “What exactly did they do anyway?” This thought had escaped her until now. 

“They stole an artifact from the town’s center,” Flitter begun. “I-it was in that statue,… or, it was anyway, uh…” She cleared her throat. “We don’t know what it looked like, or what it was for, all we know is that it was some type of gem.”

Cloudchaser continued with the details as she spread some vines apart that were in their path. “Probably a very valuable one if it had to be hidden like that.” The other two pegasi passed through as she continued. “These dogs must’ve done their research if they were able to find it though.” She zipped through the vines after the other two passed by. “Understanding how that statue works is beyond me.”

“Well that settles it then; we search for these dogs, give em the boot, return the treasure, and celebrate over some bottles of stomach medicine!” Rainbow shouted.

“Yeah!” Both Flitter and Cloudchaser cheered, lifting their hooves in the air, but cheered all too short as their minds suddenly registered what Rainbow had said. “…Wait, huh?” 

Rainbow’s ears perked up, catching the slightest hint of other voices. “I think I heard them, this way, come on!” She dashed off towards the voice’s direction. 

Flitter and Cloudchaser looked at each other, slightly confused by Rainbow’s previous statement. But it didn’t sound important right now so they decided to shrug it off and just keep up.

______________________________________________________________________________

*Rustle, rustle…*

*Rustle, rustle…*

The trio of pegasi rushed through Hayseed Forest, pushing away the leaves and branches among their path. They were getting closer to their target. They could hear the voices in the forest become clearer as they closed in. 

With one last push of the vines and branches in Hayseed, they came upon a clearing, where the three thieves were in plain sight. The clearing was spread out like a meadow, a large open space filled with a lot of sand. 

“Gotcha!” Rainbow remarked.

The band of thieves already looked stunned before they were found. They immediately turned their attention towards the group of pegasi.

“They Found Us, Hide!” The one they assumed was their leader shouted. The trio of Diamond Dogs panicked and dove towards the ground, quickly digging themselves through.

“Stop Them!” Cloudchaser and Flitter shouted in unison. Rainbow Dash charged out of the forest’s foliage in chase of the thieves. Their digging caused a cloak of dust surrounding them. They disappeared from sight in this cloak. As Rainbow Dash reached the dust storm, it started to settle. The dogs had disappeared underground, and Rainbow Dash only met covered up grounds. 

“Grr… Cowards!” Rainbow pouted as she stomped the ground, letting out a large exhale as she wiped a sweat off her head. The events of today had started showing their signs on her body.

These Diamond Dogs were notorious for being incredibly skilled diggers. They could dig themselves underground and cover up their digging at an incredibly fast rate. 

“No, they got away?” Both Cloudchaser and Flitter said in unision, catching up to Rainbow Dash.

“Oh no, they’re not getting away from us!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, putting a hoof to her head to think of something.

“What are we gonna do?” Flitter asked. “At this rate, we’ll never reach them by digging.”

“Everypony huddle up!” Rainbow Dash ordered. “I’ve got an idea.”

The trio of pegasi put their heads together and their hooves over each other’s shoulders for a private conversation. Rainbow Dash whispered her plan to the twins. When the plan was told, they all disbanded. 

“You think that’ll work?” Flitter asked.

“Of course it’ll work, since when has Rainbow Dash ever let us down?” Cloudchaser remarked.

“You bet your feathers it’ll work,” Rainbow boasted, placing her hoof on the goggles still on her head. “Flight goggles ready?” The other two pegasi each pulled out a pair of their own flight goggles that they had apparently had prepared as well.

“Check!” They each secured their flight goggles over their eyes. Most pegasi normally don’t always keep them on hoof whenever they left their homes, but these three had a special case today. 

Rainbow Dash always loved flying, so she almost always had them around. Cloudchaser was training with her flying a lot lately due to an academy she was participating in, so Rainbow Dash assumed that’s why she kept them around today. As for Flitter, that was a mystery, but it must’ve had something to do with Cloudchaser. They were the best of friends after all.

Rainbow Dash placed her package on a nearby branch that would keep it held while the other two pegasi secured their flight goggles over their eyes. They each took flight towards their side of the formation. They spread themselves in a wide formation of what would otherwise look like a circle, if they had more pegasi with them.

Rainbow Dash studied the landscape, along with the position of her package, to note how best to handle the plan. The other two followed her lead until she was ready. Once she was positioned correctly, they began their operation.

Each pegasus started flying in a counter-clockwise motion. Their flying accelerated faster, and faster. The force of their wing power created powerful winds that picked up in their surrounding areas. Grass and dirt were being picked off the ground by the powerful winds that were forming.

Their tornado was working. The sands were being tossed around violently in all directions. If it weren’t for their flight goggles, they would have been receiving a lot of pain in their eyes right about now. 

“*pant* keep up the pace, *pant* you two!” Rainbow Dash yelled in between breaths. She had proved from time and time again that she was an incredibly talented flier, but even a pegasus as great as her got exhausted eventually. A flight of traveling miles away from Ponyville was really showing its effect on her.

Rainbow Dash’s wings started weighing on her to the point where her speed practically matched both Flitter and Cloudchaser’s, but that didn’t stop her from being able to command them properly.

The tornado continued to dig up the meadow at a rapid pace. 

“Aaahhhh!” The three Diamond Dogs’ screams could be heard. They soon came into sight, each one being lifted by the powerful winds that the pegasi had created. The thieves were helpless in their attempts to escape the tornado. Rainbow Dash awaited them to reach their altitude.

“Now!” Rainbow Dash commanded. 

All three pegasi broke their flight pattern, each one darting towards each thief consequently. Rainbow’s hooves impacted the thief she targeted, using her force to dash out of the tornado. She aimed straight for the tree that had her package, slamming her captured thief into said tree.

The package that had rested securely on the branch had bounced right off upon impact. Rainbow Dash caught the package with her hoof, slipping the strap right through, all the while using her other hoof to keep her target at bay, never taking her eyes off of him. This dog was terrified. He held his arms over his face.

“Ahh! P-please, don’t hurt me! I-I give up!” The thief hesitantly stuttered.

Rainbow Dash smiled in pride at this remark, she had succeeded in her task.

______________________________________________________________________________

The trio of pegasi had gathered the thieves toward the center of the meadow, which now held a massive crater due to all the sand being dug out by the tornado. The pegasi surrounded their surroundings, each pegasus keeping an eye on one thief. 

Cloudchaser and Flitter kept their pawns at bay while Rainbow Dash interrogated their leader. Now that they had been caught, it was time to retrieve the town’s stolen treasure. 

The events of today had obviously made Rainbow Dash exhausted, as she was panting quite heavily compared to Flitter and Cloudchaser. They wondered why Rainbow Dash was so tired out from just creating a tornado, but they decided against questioning her. They had more important matters at hoof.

The three Diamond Dogs they encountered weren’t the same ones Rainbow Dash had encountered with her other friends a long time ago. They were different from the ones that had pony napped Rarity, but they did look similar in the way of clothing. Their vests were similar in design, but different in color. One was brown, another was blue, and their leader wore black.

The pegasi gasped when they heard sudden unfortunate news. 

“*pant*, *pant* what, *pant* what do you mean you don’t have it?” Rainbow Dash asked as her sweat slid down her forehead.

“Are you sure these are the same dogs Cloudchaser?” Flitter asked to Cloudchaser.

“Yes, I’m positive, they must be lying,” Cloudchaser responded.

“We’re not lying, we did have it, but-“ The thieves’ leader started before getting cut off.

“So then what happened to it?!” Rainbow said, getting up to the leader’s face. “You didn’t drop it on your way here, did you?” Despite her sweating, she could still appear very menacing to the thief.

“No!” he responded, waving his arms in front of him. “It was taken from us.”

Upon hearing this, Rainbow backed down and gave them their space. “Go on…”

“A pony, like you, took it from us,” he started.

“You mean another pegasus got to you before we did? No way, we didn’t see anypony else before getting here,” Rainbow stated.

“He's not lying," one of the other bandits stated. "When that pony took it from us, the pony flew off that way,” the Diamond Dog finished while pointing in the direction he was referring to. The three pegasi followed their gaze towards said direction.

“Baltimare’s not in that direction,” Cloudchaser said. “I think this might be another thief we’re dealing with here.”

Rainbow Dash shifted her gaze back to the Diamond Dog leader. “Okay buster, talk, what did this pegasus look like?” she threatened.

“Well…” He started. Despite Rainbow Dash’s exhaustion, this Diamond Dog was probably sweating more than she was. The thief tried hard to remember the pony that had attacked them.

“She was brown, lightish brown. She had red hair… I-I think her eyes were green. Er… her hair was straight overhead. Her tail was long and thin… oh, and she was wearing a red collar around her neck…”

______________________________________________________________________________

Current day:

“I remember,” Rainbow Dash started, “that was when I first heard about you,” she stated as she pointed towards the silhouette in front of her, the pegasus she was now questioning.

It seemed like she was now ready to tell about what she could recall about that moment. Whether it would give them answers, Rainbow Dash didn’t know. But they had to start somewhere.

While the story was being told, Fluttershy looked around somewhere. But she made sure to follow along with the story.
	
> Chapter 3: The Mysterious Pegasus
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	6 days ago:

Somewhere in the land of Equestria, there was a temple. This temple lied deep in the woods, just beyond the Badlands. The temple doors were open. On the left side of the opened doors, there was a slot. An item was placed in this slot. This item appeared to be a gem carved into the shape of a pony. It appeared to be the key to said temple.

A loud commotion could be heard inside the temple. The sounds of wood colliding against each other, rocks falling from the ceiling, and tremors were all apparent. A single pony was traversing the temple, a mare pegasus, running through the traps and defenses this temple unleashed. 

The pegasus’s coat was light brown, while her mane and tail were sharp red. She was also wearing a collar around her neck with the same shade of red. She had traveled around Equestria alone, traversing dangerous terrain, exploring ruins, woods, and temples, along with meeting all sorts of ponies in her time. She could never remember the ponies she met, or their names. But there was one name she stuck with for herself. Carousel, as her Cutie Mark very closely resembled. 

Now here she was on another adventure, running from the dangerous hazards this temple unleashed. There were rocks falling from the ceiling. Carousel had to side-step from the left and the right in order to avoid being hit by them. As the arrows shot from the walls, she jumped over them or in between their paths. But, Carousel had to keep her wings tucked to her sides while she did this.

“*Gasp!*” Looking up ahead, a corridor was slowly closing. Carousel grunted as she picked up her speed. If she did not make it, she would be locked out. She was determined to make it and did not stop. By the time she got to it, the passage was almost fully closed. In order to make it, Carousel dropped herself and slid in order to slip right under the closing door.

Just as Carousel was sliding through, she caught sight of a large gap in the floor she could easily fall through. Adjusting her balance, she kicked off the floor with her front hooves while she was sliding, giving her the jump distance to cross it, landing gracefully on the other side on all four legs, keeping her wings to her side. 

Carousel took a slight glance behind her, giving a low sigh while smiling back. She chuckled slightly, watching the corridor close off.

As soon as it fully closed though, Carousel immediately felt a tremor under her hooves. Gasping, she switched her attention back in front of her.

This one came fast, but she saw where it was coming from just in time. Carousel instinctively jumped backwards. 

*Smash!* 

The ceiling above Carousel smashed straight down; crushing whatever was in its path. Carousel was inches away from the impact; the gap she jumped over previously was her landing spot. She nearly fell through, but managed to reach far enough to grab on the ledge before going out of reach of visible ground.

Another tremor was heard coming from the hole she was about to fall in. Carousel gasped again and panicked. She immediately started pulling herself up and out of that hole. The ground between the hole and the wall that previously fell from the ceiling was very thin. But it was just wide enough for Carousel to stand herself straight on her fore hooves, just barely being able to avoid the wall that came crashing upwards from the hole, crashing into the ceiling.

Carousel kept her stance, nervously gritting her teeth while standing on her fore hooves in between two walls that nearly crushed her. It was rather silent now. She twitched her eyes left and right, looking and listening for any more signs of danger. 

Seeing nothing more was happening, Carousel gave a sigh of relief. She dropped herself to the side in a cartwheel style, allowing her to shift her stance to an upright position. No longer upside down, she stood on her hind legs, resting against and in between the walls.

Carousel skidded along the slim path, sliding against the walls. The path wasn’t long, but it took a bit of effort to get through, slowly moving one hoof after the other. 

Carousel managed to slide out of the corridor regardless. The walls that had fallen from both her front and her back didn’t take up the whole room, so she wasn’t trapped. 

Getting out of the corridor, Carousel was now able to stand on all four legs again. She gave her tail a large flick in the air, causing some dust to fly off. She used her hoof to dust off the rest of the uncomfortable debris on her.

Carousel looked back towards the walls that were now blocking her path back. She put a hoof on it, giving a slight chuckle. 

And then she dipped her head down, giving off a disappointed sigh.

Carousel turned away from the wall. After taking a look towards her wings to make sure they were still secured properly, she continued walking down her path.

The path contained multiple sets of unequipped pony armor on both sides. Each one contained a spear, but the top of each spear contained a lit torch, rather than a blade. It looked as if a red carpet was laid straight in the middle of the path, just for the explorer. It looked rather, unsettling.

But even more unsettling, was the feeling rushing towards Carousel’s head. She grunted, closing her eyes in an attempt to block it out. She knew it was futile, but she kept walking. The rush to her head grew. The pain made itself apparent, but she continued walking. Her breathing became a low growl. She tried to force the air to blow out through her gritting teeth. She endured the pain for as long as she could. 

“Ahhh…” But she knew it was futile. The pain in her head would come. She stopped walking, dropping her body to the ground. She could no longer keep her teeth clenched together.

“Ahhh!” Carousel placed both fore hooves on her head. The rush in her head continued. Images were returning to her mind. 

“Aaaaahhhhhhh!” She continued to cry out her pain. The sounds echoed through the temple corridors. If she wasn’t so deep inside the temple, or the forest that contained the temple, other ponies could probably hear it. 

______________________________________________________________________________

The images returned to her. Carousel saw herself, traversing other temples, reliving all the pain and hardships that came from them. Rocks collided with her, arrows scraped her, and fires scorched her. She traveled many different plains, many different temples, and many different challenges. But she never recalled where or when these challenges occurred. The images didn’t even show light or color. She found herself running from the corridor she was just in a few minutes ago. But instead of dodging traps, she was running from a black void. The void was chasing her, and it was winning the chase. The void engulfed her.

______________________________________________________________________________

“Aahhh…” The images were disappearing and the pain was subsiding. The rush towards her head was now leaving her. 

“Ahh…” Carousel was resting on the floor, panting deeply, but quietly. This wasn’t the first time she had experienced this rush, and she knew it certainly wouldn’t be the last. She just lied there, continuing to pant, recovering from the rush. While she couldn’t recall her previous adventures, she could still remember the reason for her being here.

Recovering her strength, Carousel was able to pick herself back up. She took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then exhaled. 

“If this temple doesn’t end me, my head certainly will,” Carousel stated to herself while rubbing her head. “How Much Longer Must I Traverse These Halls?!” she suddenly yelled out.

This rise in her voice caused a small bit of debris to fall from the ceiling. Carousel placed her hoof up to the red collar that she wore around her neck. She shifted it around a bit, getting a feel to it.

“Huh…” Carousel thought as she felt her collar. “I’ve only been traveling for a few minutes. Why does it feel longer?” Carousel shook her head and sighed, dispersing this thought from her mind. She used her hoof to turn the collar around. Now that she had calmed down, she continued to follow the path through the temple.

The path continuously contained multiple stands of the same pony armor with the same spears of lit torches on both sides. At the end of the path, those pieces of armor led to some sort of inscription held on a stand. It appeared to hold instructions for what was next.

Taking a look past the stand, there was another huge hole in the floor, with no sort of way of crossing. At the end of it was an engraved hole. It would look like something could be inserted there. But before she thought any further on it, Carousel read the inscriptions on the stand.

“Beyond lies a piece of our treasure, one last test of abilities to prove. Demonstrate your strength and balance; the final key will meet your brute. Claim your weapon, and secure your goal.”

There was a large crank noise that sounded when Carousel finished reading the inscriptions. The stand was starting to move on its own. It was sinking in the ground. Carousel stepped back as the stand continued to sink. She then heard something else. Looking up, she saw an opening in the ceiling. Something was falling from in there.

Carousel moved her tail towards a spear that one of the empty pony armors held. She wrapped her tail around it, using her tail to remove the spear from the armor’s grip.

“Strength and balance…” Carousel thought out loud. She looked towards the engraved hole ahead of her. “Maybe in there…”

The sound was getting closer. With the spear in her grip, Carousel flicked her tail to extinguish the flame that was lit on top of it. She propped herself into position, swaying her tail back and forth in the air, keeping a close eye for the object to appear.

The object came into view.

Carousel readied herself as soon as she saw it, not even thinking about what it was. As soon as the object came into striking distance, she swung the spear, trying to hit the target. 

But, she missed. The force of her swing caused the spear to continue its momentum and circle around, hitting the back of her head. The sound of the object colliding against the floor, and a bladeless spear colliding against Carousel’s head, sounded at the same time.

“Nnnrgh!”

A large grunt could be heard coming out of Carousel’s mouth as she stumbled with her steps, causing her to twist and turn her movements to opposite directions. She collapsed to the floor on her back. Her head nearly collided against the object. The spear fell out of her grasp, sticking to the floor. Carousel grasped her hooves to the back of her head, gritting her teeth in the pain she just induced herself.

“Mmph…” Carousel rubbed the back of her head a few several times. It was rather refreshing compared to what she experienced earlier, but at the same time, irritating. Carousel tilted herself backwards and then kicked off the ground with her forelegs. This allowed her to stand back up immediately. Carousel gave off a visible snort through her snout, stomping both her fore hooves on the ground, twice, looking towards the engraved hole past the stand while letting a bit of steam loose.

After that short moment, Carousel took a glance back at her right wing, making sure it was okay. She looked towards the object she tried to hit with the spear earlier. All she could identify about it was that the object was shaped like a cube. She looked towards the engraved hole, seeing that it matched the shape of the cube, making it obvious that it was the key. 

Carousel glanced back at the spear she had dropped earlier. She walked closer to the cube, using her tail to pick the spear back up. 

“Okay, fine!” Carousel shouted, taking a good look at her target. “We’ll play a different game, happy?” Carousel lifted the spear over her head, prepping herself carefully. Carousel swung her tail with a strong force, making the spear collide solidly with the cube. 

*CRACK!*

The cube went flying towards the target. The impact caused the spear to snap. The cube connected swiftly inside the hole in the wall on the other side of the gap. 

“Perfect!” Carousel exclaimed with a smile, throwing the broken spear away. “Wait, was there anything over th-” *Crank!* “-Ahh!”

Carousel was suddenly cut off when a large cranking noise sounded again, causing her body to jump. The ground under her was shifting. The path towards the gap where the cube now rested was closing off. If there was anything else that was in there, Carousel wasn’t going to see it now.

No, the path wasn’t being sealed, the ground was moving down. The path behind also looked to be sealing off. Carousel looked up to see that the ceiling was moving with the rest of the room.

“Nnnh… dang it,” Carousel thought out loud nervously while checking her surroundings.

The room continued to descend to the lower levels of the temple. Carousel glanced carefully around the area as it moved. Lots of grinding could be heard; dust flying around the walls could be seen.

“This is good, right?” she said nervously. “This is going to end well… this will end well.” Carousel’s wings jittered uncontrollably. Carousel had to press her hooves against her wings in order to keep them still. Carousel waited in anticipation for her destination to be reached. 

As the next room came into view, Carousel’s body shut down.

“Huu…” Carousel gave a depressing sigh as she managed to regain control of her body.

The ride reached its destination, not before causing a loud thud as it connected at ground level with the temple’s basement.

The room that had been revealed before the ride came to a full stop was enormous. Carousel gasped in awe at the sheer size of it. She slowly preceded further inside.

The room was shaped like a dome, the path surrounded by a circle hole at the edge of the walls. Carousel proceeded to walk towards the center of the dome. When she saw the temple from the outside, she did not expect to see something like this on the inside, even if it was all underground it seemed. 

Carousel reached into her right wing while she lifted it from her side, revealing what she had been holding in it all this way. She now held it in her hoof.

It was an amulet, a yellow amulet, possibly gold. There was a single piece missing from the amulet. With the final piece inserted, it seemed like it would form the shape of a clock, or a watch. There was an engraving on the back of it. It read, “STB 10-” the last number couldn’t be identified yet.

The other side of the amulet appeared to hold a small mirror. But no reflection could be seen, possibly due to the missing piece. The amulet was small enough to fit on Carousel’s hoof. This amulet was the reason why she was here now. 

Getting back on track, Carousel came to a stop when she noticed something in front of her path. She lifted her head up to take a look at what it was.

Carousel’s mouth opened slowly in awe at the sight. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her amazement caused her to drop the amulet, as she dropped her hoof to the floor.

“Hhhaaaaaaa…..” Carousel let out a sigh of astonishment.

Carousel lost control of her wings again. They started fluttering rapidly. She could barely exhale at her amazement. Her fluttering wings beat faster, causing her body to lift in the air. Before she went too high though, she wrapped her tail around the dropped amulet to scoop it up with her. Carousel’s wings continued to beat faster, allowing her altitude to climb higher, but slowly.

In front of her was a sculpture of a large and massive dragon. Its wings were spread gracefully, its jaws held open. Carousel had never seen anything like it. Her wings beat so fast, they were creating a breeze that blew close to the dragon’s form, blowing off its dust. She looked at the dragons form, gazing her view upwards. 

“…Incredible…” Carousel placed a hoof on the dragon’s model, sliding it upward as she continued to climb. 

“I’ve, never seen, anything like this…” Her altitude continued to climb, spotting a platform at the head of the dragon. Her wings took her to the platform, where she landed at eye level of the dragon sculpture. If she wasn’t so excited, she would’ve noticed the sets of stairs leading up to said platform on both sides. 

“…What… what is this?” Carousel asked, placing her hoof on the dragon’s snout. “It’s a dragon… but…” she was at a loss for words, trying to think why it was here at all, what it represented.

Carousel slid her hoof along the dragon’s frame as she walked along, searching it. Despite how amazing this dragon looked to her, this wasn’t what she was here for, and she wasn’t here to figure out what it meant.

Carousel’s search took her towards the jaw of the dragon. There, she found what she was looking for. The dragon’s teeth showed outside of its jaws, and one of them contained something. It was a small yellow object that contained an engraving. The engraving was nothing more than the number, “4”. Carousel moved her tail towards that small object, comparing the object with the amulet in her tail’s grip. 

The colors matched. This was the final piece of the amulet. 

That piece was wedged in between a small hole in its teeth. Carousel used the feathers on her left wing to feel around the amulet, testing its grip. This wouldn’t be easy to take out; she had to use forcible measures.

Leaning against the tooth with her left hoof, she used her right to strike at the teeth. She struck again, and again, each strike followed by a grunt as she continued to apply more force each time. Carousel continued to strike the tooth near the area where the amulet was gripped at, causing it to loosen. 

With one final strike, the piece of the amulet chipped off the tooth, causing it to fly past and behind Carousel, now released from the dragon’s maw. 

Carousel turned away from the dragon to collect the piece of the amulet. With the rest of the amulet held in her tail, she brought it in front of her, while scooping up the final piece with the feathers on her right wing. Carousel examined the shape of the piece with the rest of the amulet. The final piece was shaped like a slice of pie from a one and eighth circle, which fit perfectly in the actual amulet. 

The dragon sculpture behind Carousel suddenly blinked. Its eyes gazed down toward her.

Carousel smiled at the sight before her, the final piece was now connected to the amulet. It gave off a shine as it was completed. She was too distracted to notice the dragon sculpture behind her moving. Its jaws were slowly opening. 

Carousel turned the amulet over to catch a look at the mirror-like area that originally had no reflection. She held it in the air, excitedly anticipating a response from the amulet. The mirror created light, a light that grew very bright and very fast.

*Screech!* the light’s flash was like a bang. 

“AAAHHH!!!” Carousel tossed her eyes away as the light blinded her. The sudden flash caused her to stumble backwards, causing her to trip and fall to the floor. But she didn’t lose her grip on the amulet in her tail. 

The dragon gave a loud growl as it closed its jaws, aiming for the blinded pegasus. Carousel rubbed her eyes with her hoof as she regained vision, only to see the mouth of a massive dragon closing in on her. 

Carousel immediately gasped and ducked forwards before the set of teeth closed aggressively behind her, piercing right through the ground underneath her, causing it to crumble away. 

The dragon’s teeth connected with the amulet in Carousel’s tail, causing her to grunt. The dragon’s teeth were strong, but that amulet was practically gold. The amulet was made of material that was so hard; this dragon’s teeth's material wouldn’t be able to penetrate it. As a result, part of the dragon’s teeth chipped off when it collided with the amulet.

The dragon let out a roar upon contact, as if it were in pain. Its jaws flew open while its breath released a massive cloud of smoke from its mouth. Carousel was blown away from this smoke, sent on a collision course towards the moving room that had sent her to this basement-like area.

Any sounds coming from Carousel were muffled by the smoke as she was being pushed by the dragon’s breath. She collided on one of the corners of the mobile room. The smoke that had cloaked her presence quickly evaporated after the impact. Her backside was what broke her fall, while her right closed eye broke the amulet’s fall after she lost her grip on it.

*Crank!*

The mobile room started to climb back up. Carousel opened her left eye after recovering from the impact. She saw the dragon sculpture moving, but only the upper part of its body was moving. It gave a loud roar, causing the whole room to shake. The bridge and stairs that led to the dragon were crumbling. Debris all across the room was falling. 

Carousel lost sight of the dragon as the mobile room continued to climb back up the temple. Explosions could be heard outside. Explosions suddenly reached inside the room. Carousel flinched, tossing the amulet out of her eye. She used her tail to catch the amulet as she got back to her hooves.

“Oh, this is bad…” Carousel shifted and turned her positions randomly, casting her sights around the temple. There was a lot of debris breaking off of the temple walls. Fire shot up from under the ground.

“Whoa!” Carousel jumped in surprise as she saw the flames shoot up. “Ah!” Another flame shot up from behind her. She jumped out of the way to put some distance between her and the flames. More explosions came about randomly. Carousel casted her sight upwards in the direction the room was moving.

“Come on, hurry up!” Carousel had to impatiently wait for the mobile room to reach her destination. She couldn’t go anywhere until the next room was present. More flames shot up from the ground, breaking through it, but stopping when it reached the ceiling, causing more debris to break away.

An opening made itself present towards one of the sides of the mobile room. Carousel flared out her wings. Once the opening was big enough, she jumped towards it, using her wings to give her a speed boost. She grabbed the ledge and quickly climbed up it, getting out of the mobile room.

Carousel could still feel the temple shaking. It was as if the whole temple was collapsing. She started running down the hallway, avoiding all the debris that was falling. The lines of pony armor were crumbling apart as she ran past them. More flames shot from the walls, attempting to block her path.

The blockades from earlier came into view. They were collapsing along with the temple, allowing a mostly possible path with minimal resistance for Carousel. With her treasure still grasped in her tail, she spread her wings and leaped across the crumbling piles. She changed her running to flying. 

There was a slight blockade on the other side of the gap she jumped over before, but it was weak enough to break through. Carousel used her speed and wing power force to crash through the debris, a trail of flames nearly catching her on the way. 

A lot of the smaller debris kept hitting her body and wings as she sped through the collapsing temple halls. Flying was faster, but more difficult thanks to all the obstacles. She continued to soar along the path, avoiding as much of the debris and flames that had crossed her path. The flames were just firing out of the walls randomly.

The path was long and treacherous. Getting out of the temple was proving to be quite as challenging as it was getting in. When the path turned, she turned. When debris fell, she avoided them. When explosions occurred, she flinched and stumbled. All of these were obstacles trying to stop her.

Carousel heard an unsettling rumbling behind her. Taking a glance back, she did not like the sight. As if the flames shooting randomly around the temple weren’t bad enough, now there was a huge wall of fire engulfing the path behind her, and chasing her. 

More panic engrossed on her face. Carousel brought her eyes back in front of her. To her luck, the temple’s exit was within her sight. Both targets were closing in fast. It was now a race between the pegasus and the flames to which would exit the temple first.

Carousel was closing in on the exit while the flames closed in on her. She put all her focus on the amulet in her tail, and that exit. She had to make it out. No other thoughts were made. She even closed her eyes for that single thought. 

______________________________________________________________________________

Escape.

The images returned to her without pain.

Escape. 

She ran through the flames that brightened her path. Nothing else was more important than running, flying, or anything else that would succeed in…

Escape.

______________________________________________________________________________

As soon as Carousel reached the exit, she flung open her eyes. She could feel the flames so close to her body. Carousel darted her direction, all too close to the flames. 

“Nnnnggg!” Carousel cringed.

The flames had made the slightest contact on Carousel’s right wing. She lost control of her flight pattern and was now tumbling towards the ground, deep in the forest. She impacted the ground, losing her grip on the amulet. She slid a few meters distance from her landing site, along with her amulet, bouncing along a few distances ahead of her.

Carousel’s sliding stopped abruptly, her back legs landing on the ground with a thud.

Sunset had fallen, and night was near. The crumbling of the temple could still be heard. Carousel rested where she laid with her eyes closed, catching her breath from all that running and flying. Her right wing was sprawled out and in pain from the burn. She wanted nothing more than to just rest where she lied. 

So that’s what she did.

The crumbling sounds of the temple soon stopped. Things were pretty silent now. The wind blowing across the forest could be heard.

But then, moments later, another sound came. A distance sound of wings flapping could be heard. There was a landing sound nearby.

“Whoa! What have we here?”

Carousel’s ears perked up at the sound of a new voice. 

“Looks like it’s my lucky day, I just struck gold!”

Carousel lifted her head up to cast her sights in the direction she heard the voice. She could easily identify what it was in front of her. It was a griffon, holding the amulet in their claws, the amulet she had worked so hard in putting together.

“Hey… that’s mine…” Carousel exclaimed, struggling.

The griffon had a puzzled, yet disgusted look on their face. 

“Eww, that voice, who made that?” The griffon caught sight of the injured pegasus. “Did that come from this pony?”

Carousel attempted to get back on her hooves as the griffon closed in on her. She looked towards the amulet, then the griffon, while the griffon did the same.

“Nah, that couldn’t have come from you-” the griffon raised one of its claws. “-because you, were never here.”

The last thing Carousel saw was a claw coming straight for her face.

Everything went black.

______________________________________________________________________________

Current day:

Rainbow Dash carefully listened to this story that this pegasus, Carousel, was telling.

At some point, Fluttershy seemed to have found some bandages around the wreckages inside this, what they would call, abandoned laboratory. She was wrapping those bandages around the injured parts of Rainbow Dash’s body, mostly focusing on her dispositioned wings. 

Fluttershy cringed at the thought of those wings. There was just no way that it had happened the way it did, but she was finding it difficult to deny. Her eyes teared up as she worked on bandaging those wings. It was all she could do now.

Rainbow Dash’s pain was easing very well due to Fluttershy’s contact on her wings, but her nerves were far from being eased. There was just something wrong about this… Carousel… about the story Carousel was telling. Not about what was happening in the story, but rather what she was telling.

Either way, it seemed like they reached the end of what she could recall now. As such, Rainbow Dash had to continue with hers.

The problem was, whether her part would be related or not, so she had to tell as much as she could until that connection came up.

“Why am I doing this again…?”
> Chapter 4: Beauty of Flight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	5 days ago:

It was a beautiful morning in Equestria. The sun was shining, the winds gave a gentle breeze, and it was so peaceful. All she could hear were the powerful winds that brushed against her cyan coat and her prismatic mane. She wore such a relaxing smile on her face while she flew at Mach speeds, flying just a few meters above the ground. 

As a pack of clouds came into view, Rainbow Dash increased her altitude, zooming towards the large formations of clouds. She stylized her flight pattern, zigzagging in between cloud formations, brushing the clouds using the tips of her wings as they were crossed. 

These clouds were much like the ocean to her. She dipped herself inside a few of them. The clouds didn’t evaporate, but her passing was marked with her body’s shape. Flying out of these cloud formations allowed some of them to drip cloud puffs off of her like water, leaving a trail of smaller clouds in her wake.

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth as she flew through another cloud formation. Her mouth filled with the cloud’s contents as she flew through it. Shifting her head to the side, Rainbow Dash slowly blew out the contents of the cloud behind her, leaving behind a small smoke of cloud, unlike a cloud of smoke, this left a slight fog behind her. 

A few larger cloud formations came into view. Rainbow Dash started twirling herself around leaving behind a rainbow trail that traced her flight pattern.

Rainbow Dash’s flight took her just below one of the larger cloud formations. She struck it with her hoof, not leaving her path of flight in the slightest. This strike caused the cloud formation to drizzle out a light rain, lightly soaking her coat and mane. She let out a happy sigh as the refreshing rain water sank into her flight muscles. Her speed had lowered as she closed her eyes to allow all of this rain to sink in. 

Lifting her head up, she opened her mouth and held out her tongue, tasting the drizzling rain that she had caused. The taste was very refreshing, like the freshest glass of water bits could buy, as this was where it all started. 

All the while, she never broke her path. This was the life. This was her life, her dream. This is what she was all about.

The cloud formation soon ended, causing the light drizzle to fade from her path. Rainbow Dash shook her body around to rid of any excess water that was drenched into her coat. She shifted her wings to descend, letting her limbs push straight against her body. It was a gliding technique that allowed her to pick up speed as she lost altitude, without having to use her wings. 

Rainbow Dash’s flight path had her heading straight towards a long river she caught sight of. Her body brushed through the air like a breeze to her, continuing to blow harder against her the faster she glided. The sounds of the wind repeatedly pierced through her ears; growing louder the lower she went. The sounds beat violently against her. She was practically in free fall, listening to every single sound of the air being sliced.

Just before she hit the surface, Rainbow Dash adjusted her limbs and wings to stop herself. The wind effect from her flight caused the river waters to leave a large rippling effect. The waters left visual splashing waves in their wake as Rainbow Dash continued to soar through the stream at a very low altitude. All her limbs were spread forward and back. Her wings continued to flap slowly, yet hang widely to steady her altitude, slicing through the air like butter that made contact with her flight path.

Rainbow Dash’s smile however suddenly started fading. Rainbow Dash always loved flying, but today, something else was on her mind. She lowered her head, causing her eye sights to gaze the waters. There, her reflection barely, but clearly visibly appeared. She took a long look at her reflection.

Rainbow Dash was carrying a small package on her back. This package was the reason why this flight was happening, but that wasn’t what was on her mind. She continued to stare at her reflection and reflect upon all the events that happened yesterday.

It all started with that dream. A dream that she wish would just leave her alone. To think that her friends would ever turn against her was ludicrous, yet she’s been having it for years. These dreams never really had any serious effect on her, but she feared that it may have this time, somehow. Right now she felt that the biggest worries were related to how long she had taken to fulfill this request Fluttershy told her had come from Twilight.

Rainbow Dash was given a simple task of flying to Baltimare’s hospital to get a medicine for Pinkie Pie, but she goofed it up a little by trying to fulfill other requests that had failed for unknown reasons. Although she wasn’t asked to help, it was clear they needed it, and Rainbow Dash didn’t want to let them down while she was there.

After rounding up the Diamond Dogs her team caught, they reported that the stolen item was no longer in their possessions. She took the rest of her time in Baltimare to assist in searching for leads as to who had taken it. 

Eventually their search had to end as the direction they were given gave them no more leads. They were only told that the one that had taken it flew off in one direction, but it became clear that this pegasus eventually changed their path. 

The Diamond Dogs that had previously stolen the treasure were eventually let go after proving to not hold possession of said item. Crime rates were incredibly low for a reason. A lot of ponies in Equestria held contact information with the princesses, even very far away. And practically every living intelligent life that lived in Equestria knew the princesses. They respected them, but at the same time feared them, whether they had reason to or not. 

So, whenever thieves were usually caught, they never attempted it again, lest they feared they would have to deal with the princesses. Even Rainbow Dash held a fear for them she wouldn’t even try to hide.

The ponies of Equestria had such appreciation for the princesses that their overactive imaginations were practically their own punishments. Their imaginations allowed them to believe all sorts of harsh punishments that could possibly come from these princesses, even though they’ve never seen them happen.

With all their sources for a lead on the stolen treasure gone, Rainbow Dash was left with no choice but to abandon the search and continue with the task Fluttershy had left her, requested by Twilight. Her activities that day had left her so exhausted that her panting was very noticeable by the time she got to the hospital. Before she could even request the medicine, the nurse at the front desk even asked if she needed help. Of course she was requesting medicine, but it wasn’t for her.

It was as simple as Fluttershy had said, all she had to do was give them the envelope, and they took care of the rest. She received the medicine and secured it in her package. Rainbow Dash had intended to leave once the medicine was received, but her muscles were strained too much from all her activities. As a result, she had collapsed on the floors of the hospital before she could attempt to leave. This left the nurse with no choice but to take Rainbow Dash in for the night.

Rainbow Dash kept thinking back to that day. The long hours of flying miles from one place to another didn’t leave her with much to do, other than enjoy her trip. But today, she didn’t find that sort of motivation. All she could do was blame that dream. It was just a dream after all. But why would it keep coming back? And why was it bothering her so much today? After all, she didn’t have one last night.

Shaking her head, Rainbow Dash brushed all those thoughts away; they made no sense to her anyhow. Ponyville would soon appear in the distance, all she had to do was give Twilight the medicine and everything would go normally again.

______________________________________________________________________________

“I CAN’T BELIEVE HOW IRRESPONSIBLE YOU ARE!” Twilight had this look of pure rage, standing inches away from Rainbow Dash, scolding her to no limits. They were just outside of the Ponyville hospital. Rainbow Dash had delivered the medicine, to which Twilight had immediately taken and teleported straight inside, or at least that’s what appeared to have happened.

As soon as Rainbow Dash had arrived, Twilight snatched the package with her magic, tossing Rainbow Dash away in the process before she had a chance to say anything. Rainbow Dash didn’t see what she did with the package, especially now, as Twilight was closing in on her with a very angry expression while Rainbow Dash backed away in fear. The commotion was either attracting the other ponies to observe, or causing them to flee in fear.

“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH PINKIE IS SUFFERING THANKS TO YOUR UNTIMELY SCHEDULE?!” Twilight scolded Rainbow Dash.

“B-but Twilight, all she had was a stomach ache… right?” Rainbow stuttered while continuing to back away. Twilight turned around and started stomping away from her.

“…Do you even have any idea what sort of condition Pinkie Pie is suffering?” Twilight started. “Did you even read that note?!”

“…uhh…” Rainbow tried to think, but had no time to.

Twilight snapped her head back towards Rainbow Dash, firing a blast of magic at her. The beam of magic hit Rainbow Dash, causing her whole body to go into a zap state. Suddenly the surrounding area around her exploded. Rainbow Dash vanished within the smoke, leaving behind charcoaled grass in her circle.

______________________________________________________________________________

As Rainbow’s form appeared again, her whole body was forced down towards the ground. She was teleported aggressively to another location and thrown against the ground in the process.

*Click* *click* *click* *click*

All four of her limbs were spread when she landed. She felt something press against all four of her legs immediately after she landed. She was trapped now.

“Hello, Rainbow Dash,” Rainbow Dash heard a familiar voice behind her, “so glad you could volunteer to help me with my designs!” She recognized who it was, and she did not like it. She had been teleported to Carousel Boutique.

“W-wwait! I-I didn’t volunteer for this!” Rainbow frightenly shouted. 

“Let’s get started,” Rarity said.

“Uh oh…” Rainbow’s ears dropped. Now helpless to defend herself, Rainbow Dash was about to receive what she assumed would be her punishment, and she wasn’t gonna be able to get out of it.

______________________________________________________________________________

“Hold still Rainbow Dash,” Rarity announced while tugging on Rainbow Dash’s mane. She was standing on top of Rainbow Dash, trying to keep her from moving, even wrapping her curly tail around the rainbow one to limit movement. She held a brush in her magic to brush against the rainbow mane. Rainbow Dash wasn’t comfortable with her position, and she was only making it more painful with her squirming.

“Rarity, I thought I was helping you model,” Rainbow Dash said annoyingly. Her hooves were strapped down to a floor board to limit movements; limbs being spread far enough for her to be lying on her stomach. Yet, she still squirmed enough to give Rarity a hard time.

“You are Rainbow Dash,” Rarity replied, stroking her brush harder against the rainbow mane.

“Ack!” Rainbow grunted.

“But you’ve let yourself get so messy that I simply cannot start until all this grime and dirt is cleaned up,” Rarity exclaimed, “especially your mane. My my my, just look at it.” Rarity levitated a mirror in front of Rainbow Dash with her magic, all the while continuing to talk. 

“Judging by your appearance, your day yesterday must have been absolutely horrendous.” Rainbow Dash not only saw the so called ‘mess’ her mane was in, but also the unicorn that had her hostage. She was wearing her red designer glasses again.

“And you were given such a simple task. Pinkie has a simple stomach ache, and all you had to do was bring her medicine back as soon as possible. I suppose things don’t always go according to plan don’t they Rainbow Dash? I know mine doesn’t.”

Despite what Rarity was describing, the only real mess Rainbow Dash was seeing in her mane was the rough beating it was taking from Rarity’s brush as she was taking even the tiniest amounts of dirt that Rarity could find.

The problem that Rainbow Dash was having wasn’t so much that Rarity was brushing her mane like this, but rather that she was doing it so slowly and so carefully, Rainbow Dash knew that this would take forever.

Perhaps a little gossip could speed up the time.

“Really, I’d like to hear how your day was,” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. The mirror was taken away from her view. She suddenly felt the weight on her body shift and loosen.

“Oh I’d love to talk about my day Rainbow Dash, but first…” Rarity started as she was stepping off of Rainbow Dash, unwrapping her purple curly tail from the straight rainbow tail. “But first, be a dear and spread your wings for me,” she demanded. Rainbow Dash attempted to stand up again; only to be stopped by the straps that she forgot still held her down. 

“Rarity, what are you-“

“SPREAD YOUR WINGS!!!”

Rainbow Dash’s wings suddenly flared open after that sudden outburst. If she had the option, she would have gone air born as a reaction instead.

“As I suspected, all that flying has caused your feathers to be in total disrepair.” Rainbow Dash could hear Rarity placing some of her tools away as well as take others out. With the mirror out of her face, she could no longer tell what Rarity was doing, but by her guess…

“Not to worry,” Rarity exclaimed. “I’ll have these wings fixed to proper conditions in no time at all.”

Rainbow Dash could feel some clips moving along and picking at the feathers of her left wing. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure if by “proper”, if she meant either flyable, or fashionable. Either way, Rarity’s work was rather reliable, so she had no worries of getting cut or something, as long as she could hold still.

“So, about MY day…” Rarity started as she worked on Rainbow Dash’s feathers. “It all began when I was working on a new fashion line for a very important client. This client is a rather-“ 

“Ugh, skip that part!” Rainbow interrupted. She could hear a pair of scissors and felt them snipping at some of her damaged feathers.

Well okay, Rainbow Dash was going to get cut, but there would be no injuries at least. Rainbow Dash usually preens her own wings, but one advantage to Rarity’s work was that pulling the damaged feathers was more painless with the proper tools.

“Humph, fine then,” Rarity replied in a scowl tone. “I was working on my dresses for Hoofington, when all of a sudden, a raging storm shattered through the skies above my boutique!”

“Uh, was this two days ago? Mph…” Rainbow cut in again, but afterwards was suddenly silenced by a roll of duct tape being placed over her mouth from Rarity’s magic.

“Stop interrupting me, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity replied in a scolding tone. “It is very rude to interrupt a lady's story telling!” Rarity placed that tape to ensure that she wouldn’t be interrupted again. Nevertheless, she continued picking at Rainbow Dash’s feathers with her tools, moving them in place, or apart to get at the damaged ones.

“Now where was I… oh yes-“ Rarity continued her story telling, “-when all of a sudden, a raging storm shattered through the skies above my boutique!” Rarity removed the tools from Rainbow Dash’s right wing and switched over to the left. “It was absolutely dreadful! I could hear nothing but thunder clouds, banging violently across Ponyville!”

If Rainbow Dash could, she would start questioning who the hay was managing the weather on this side of Ponyville. She couldn’t tell if Rarity was being overdramatic or not, but…

“My boutique was the center of such an absolute disaster. It suffered a terrible wrath from such a violent lightning attack! My boutique’s front doors didn’t stand a chance. It was absolutely destroyed!” 

With the way Rarity was describing it, Rainbow Dash decided to make a mental note that she should go and question some pegasi when this was over. But right now, she had to survive an insane rambling of a story being told so slowly. Shifting her eyes into nothingness, she mentally groaned.

This was going to be a long day.

______________________________________________________________________________

“The storm made such a mess of my shop that it took forever to clean!” Rarity since finished the preening on the Rainbow Dash’s wings as she continued her story. Rainbow Dash was no longer strapped down as they moved locations in the shop. 

Rainbow Dash still had her mouth taped though. Rarity had started the modeling process of her work with Rainbow Dash with some measuring equipment. All the while, Rarity continued her ramblings of her day, or, two days ago. Already, Rainbow Dash was frustrated.

“Luckily Applejack came by the next morning. She was nice enough to help clean up. She even fixed my door for me!”

______________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash’s body grew stiffer by the moment for all the holding still she had to endure from this. Now the dress was being put together on her body as Rarity was done measuring.

“The material she used to repair my shop is rather impressive. Why, I believe it could stand up to that monstrous weather like a true knight! But after all that cleaning, I myself was in quite a predicament.”


______________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash couldn’t decide what was worse, the modeling or the rambling. She lost track of how much time had passed by, along with most of Rarity’s story. She wasn’t sure how much more she could take.

It looked like Rarity was putting the finishing touches to the dress, but with Rarity’s work, you could never be sure. And with this tape still stuck to her mouth, asking Rarity wasn’t an option either.

“Luck shines upon me, for the spa closes tomorrow in the afternoon. So this gives me till tomorrow morning to finish these designs and get a quick check up before I leave to Hoofington.”

______________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash completely regretted having ever asked about Rarity’s day. She would just not stop talking while Rainbow Dash was silenced for interrupting such a slowly told story. 

However, Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up as she noticed mercy finally shining on her. Rainbow Dash’s attention was brought back when she felt the dress starting to be removed.

“But alas, Pinkie is sick… I’ve been trying to find a way to reschedule our meeting, but my client insists that it must stay the way it is, and nothing will be able to change that. And if I don’t take this opportunity now, I may never get the chance again!”

The dress was now fully taken off, but Rainbow Dash wasn’t out of the woods yet. She was still silenced while Rarity STILL continued her story. Just how much could this unicorn tell without being distracted by anything? There was just so much information told in that story that she could only recall a few key things. But she was in no situation to respond to any of them, especially with her mouth still taped.

Then she suddenly realized, taking a sitting position, she looked down to her hooves. They were free, so she could remove the tape herself. 

“Mmrph!” Rainbow Dash mentally scolded herself for not realizing this sooner. She gripped on the tape with her hooves and pulled on it tightly. Duct tape’s sticking was strong, but she kept tugging on it.

“Why, the possibilities could lead to it being The Worst, Day, Ever! Oh, what is a lady to DO!?”

*Rip!*

“Ack!” Rainbow Dash managed to get the blasted tape off of her snout, along with possibly a few hairs off her coat with it. She rubbed her muzzle to ease the pain that came with it. This was not a recommended solution to removing duct tape, but it worked for her and that's all that mattered.

Something caught Rainbow Dash’s attention. It was silent all of a sudden… too silent somehow. She turned her body to look back at the previous source of the sound.

Rarity had finally stopped talking. She was lying down on her fainting couch in her usual overdramatic manner, lying on her back with her limbs spread straight out, along with one hoof above her face.

A huge wave of relief came upon Rainbow Dash. If there was a time to leave, it would be now. There was no way she could take anymore words from Rarity today. Standing back on all four hooves, she took her sight back to the front of the shop. She found her exit, now she just had to get to it. 

Rainbow Dash carefully made her approach, silently and slowly moving her hoof steps towards the door. If she could just reach that, she would be back to the refreshing skies and home free. There was no telling how much time had passed during that storytelling, but at this point, she would rather take a twenty four hour work day at the weather factory then listen to any more rambling.

Then, the voice came back…

“You’re still here Rainbow Dash? Would you like me to style your mane as well?” Rainbow Dash’s entire body crawled in a pit of despair within seconds screaming out.

“NOOO!!!” Rainbow Dash violently flapped her wings, dashing straight towards the boutique’s doors. 

*Smash!* Rainbow Dash smashed right through the doors, causing them to break. She had to get as far away from the shop as she possibly could.

“Darn, I just had that door fixed yesterday,” Rarity said. So much for being sturdy material, or maybe that was the effect of the preening session.

Rarity flared up her horn and gave a tingling bell signal to it. Within seconds, a certain orange farm pony appeared in front of the destroyed doors of the boutique. Applejack had a smile on her face, having a new set of materials in tow that looked even sturdier than the last batch on the shop’s door. 

“Ya called Rarity?”

______________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash just kept flying. She didn’t care what her destination was. She would fly all the way back to Baltimare if she had to. She JUST had to get away from Rarity and her obnoxious TALKING for the day! She had said so much that she couldn’t get it out of her mind, and that only made the situation worse with a realization.

“Oh no, she’s taking a trip to Hoofington tomorrow. That means she’ll want some help carrying her luggage. No!”

Rainbow Dash increased her speed. She didn’t care what she was doing. She did not want more talking with Rarity anytime soon. She would hide outside of Ponyville if she had to, she was not going back until Rarity left for her trip.

______________________________________________________________________________

Current day:

“That reminds me,” Rainbow Dash started as she looked towards Carousel. “You were at Hoofington at some point. What business did you have there?”

While they were talking, Fluttershy had tried to help Carousel with her wounds, but she had brushed Fluttershy away, in an oddly violent manner. If Carousel was to be trusted, she wasn’t easing her case with how she was treating Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash was tempted to end this charade right now, but because of what happened earlier, things weren’t adding up. They had to know what was going on.

Fluttershy had no choice but to tend to her own wounds with the bandages she intended for Carousel.

“Fluttershy, I hope you know what you’re doing…”
	
> Chapter 5: Fortune Teller
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	4 days ago:

These forests were just like any other to her. The winds blew against the leaves. Animals sounded and wandered about. Some even crossed her path. Being a pegasus, she could always fly over the forest and skip the journey, but there would be much less to see. Not much of a journey if you don’t take in the sights.

But Carousel, didn’t know what her destination was. She just traveled and let nature take its course on where she would end up. Carousel walked this forest with nothing in mind, taking in the sights. 

Every once in a while she would notice an animal cross her path. Some had fallen to the ground after trying to gather food. There was a squirrel that fell from one of the trees above her, holding onto an acorn. Carousel nearly stepped on this squirrel, but stopped her hoof before she did. The squirrel managed to get back up and scurry away from her afterwards.

There was no joy, nor misery to her travels, but the sounds of life surrounding her kept her sane. So she kept walking the path of this forest, which she never learned the name from. But it seemed to be quite a tame forest.

“HOWDY CUSTOMER!” Carousel’s whole body jumped in the air in surprise, without her hooves leaving the ground. 

The sound of three voices came right next to her, seemingly out of nowhere. To her left stood what appeared to be three fillies of each race. One was yellow with red hair and a red bow in her mane. One was white with hair that mixed with purple and pink in color. And the last one was light brown with purple hair. This was her immediate notice of the three on how they looked.

“Welcome to the CMC Forest Brigade!” the yellow earth pony started.

“The CMC stands for Cutie Mark Crusaders!” the white unicorn continued.

“Where our job is to find wandering adventurers…” the light brown pegasus nearly finished.

“…And Sell Them The Best Tools For Exploring Equestria Will Ever Know!” All three of them shouted, ending their introduction.

Carousel managed to regain her senses after that startling surprise, holding a hoof to her chest and panting slightly. But she didn’t get much of a chance to catch her breath as the fillies came so close to her with those huge smiles. She tried to back away in response.

“Seriously! Y’all never find better tasting food than this!” the earth pony filly said as she motioned her hoof to her side of the stall. The stall was quite extended in length, yet Carousel missed it while she was passing by because it was so well camouflaged behind some leaves from the branches that hung low from the nearby trees. “If’n y’all ever get tired from walking, our apple pies’ll surely pick ya right back up!”

“And if you want to take some to go, or you need something to carry all this stuff, then try one of these!” the unicorn filly continued while motioning to one of the saddle bags on the stall. “We ensure not only safety for your items, but also comfort to your backs as well. And if you have too many things to carry, try one of these carts instead!” She motioned her hoof to one of the carts outside the stall.

“But if you just need something to defend yourself with,” the pegasus filly cut in, holding what appeared to be a sling shot in her hoof, “then we’ve got you covered as well!” She shot a pebble from her sling shot directly forwards and up. Carousel immediately moved her head away in order to avoid the shot, whether if that was aimed at her or not. 

She turned her head to follow where the pebble went, already baffled by the situation. The pebble barely managed to hit an acorn from one of the tree’s branches that was behind her. This caused the acorn to swing slightly back and forth, but still hung firmly onto the branch when it stopped. Carousel nervously looked back to the fillies. 

“Our satisfaction is your satisfaction, and we guarantee that if you’re not one hundred perc-“ the filly pegasus suddenly stopped silent. Off in the distance, it sounded like there was another voice, but it was too muffled to make out the words. The three fillies looked panicked.

“Uh oh… that sounded like Miss Cheerilee,” one of them said in an audible whisper.

“Uuhhh… we’ve got to close up shop!” another one said while all three of them frantically cleaned the place up, taking the items away from the stall and placing them into one of their carts. 

“Yeah… s-sorry for the inconvenience, bu-ut please visit again!” The little fillies quickly fled the scene as instantly as they appeared, leaving behind a giant dusty trail which surrounded Carousel.

Carousel hacked and coughed away with her eyes closed as the dust storm impacted her face. She flapped her wings while keeping her hooves on the ground, using the wind to blow the sand smoke away from her breathing room. 

Carousel managed to cease her coughing after successfully clearing the dust away from her. She was quite taken aback by the sudden crazy encounter of what she otherwise thought was a peaceful forest. When she opened her eyes, she caught sight of another grown pony taking the position of where the three fillies used to be.

“Oh, hello there, I’m terribly sorry to trouble you, but-“ the grown pony started. Carousel’s immediate depiction of the pony was a dark purple mare earth pony with two different shades of pink hair, one being brighter than the other. “-you wouldn’t happen to have run into a trio of fillies around here have you?”

Carousel had a stunned, yet slightly terrified look on her face. More ruffling sounds could be heard behind the earth pony. Without a moment’s glance, Carousel quickly turned tail and galloped away from the scene.

“Wait!” she heard the earth pony call out.

Carousel made no attempt to stop. She wanted to get away from the crazy scene as soon as she could. She didn’t look back. 

When it came to meeting with other ponies, her encounters with them had never entirely been a peaceful one. Almost all of her encounters that she could remember could be described as simply as, crazy encounters. Maybe she was just so bad at interacting with other ponies that she was always alone.

Carousel stopped her running after she was sure she brought enough distance between her and the shop that was being run by fillies. Carousel took a look back through the distant to make sure she wasn’t followed. Still being inside the forest, it would be hard to find her, but there were many paths and land marks inside the forest that it wouldn’t be too easy to get lost in.

Carousel took a deep breath to calm herself down, using her hoof to slide the collar around her neck. The scratchy feeling caused from the movement of this collar helped her relax. Now that things were peaceful again, she decided to continue her travel. 

Well, she almost did, but something caught her eye. Taking a look to her right, Carousel caught sight of a strange opening in the forest. She chose to investigate, pushing away the foliage that crossed her path.

Upon entering the open field, there was one thing of interest that caught Carousel’s eyes. On the other side’s center field from where she entered, there was a strange pile forged from the forest’s nature. But the pile consisted entirely out of pinecones. 

More strange than that was, there was something, or someone, lying on top of the pile. Carousel proceeded closer to the pile to investigate.

On closer inspections, Carousel identified it as a light blue pony, a unicorn, having a mane color of two different shades of a lighter blue than the coat. This unicorn appeared to be lying on its stomach, sleeping on the pile of pinecones. 

To think that would even be remotely comfortable…

The unicorn’s ears perked up suddenly. Carousel was still approaching this pony before she realized the unicorn possibly heard her approach. The unicorn’s eyes opened slowly, causing Carousel to stop her approach. The unicorn looked directly at Carousel.

“Yes?” the unicorn spoke in a serious tone.

Now Carousel could recognize that it was another mare. She also realized that she didn’t really have anything to discuss. Clearing her throat, she responded.

“Excuse me, I was just-“

The unicorn’s horn shined brightly all of a sudden, interrupting Carousel. The flash was so bright that she had to cover her eyes. The flash was quick and was only bright enough to startle. 

When Carousel uncovered her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that the pile of pinecones had disappeared, and in its wake stood a blue table stand. The unicorn was sitting at this table stand with a sheet of papers in her hoof, smiling. Lights seemed to be shining on her from out of nowhere. 

“Greetings fellow citizens of Equestria!” the unicorn started her speech. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is here to bring to you the news today! What do we have today but a magnificent and otherwise tragic discovery! We bring to you today, a wandering pegasus who is oh so helplessly lost! Does The Great and Powerful Trixie see a dark future for this pony? Yes she does. Is there any hope for this poor lost soul?” 

The lights around this unicorn switched off. A new set of lights then switched on shortly after, but they shined on Carousel instead. She couldn’t tell where they were coming from, but they were surprisingly bright while the rest of the area appeared dark. 


But what was more confusing was how this unicorn was describing her. Using a hoof to block the light out of her eyes, Carousel responded.

“W-wait… I’m not-“

*Poof*

A large cloud of pink smoke suddenly burst in front of Carousel. The puff of smoke disappeared quickly. In its place was the unicorn with her horn still magically glowing, hoof to her chest, and eyes closed.

“Fear not my fellow companion, for fortune has shined upon you today. The Great and Powerful Trixie knows this-” the unicorn opened her eyes and pointed her hoof at Carousel, “-and it is The Great and Powerful Trixie who shall guide you to your journey.”

Carousel put her hoof down and tried to say something, but the unicorn halted her.

“No…” The unicorn’s tone lowered as she closed her eyes again. “There’s no need for words.” She put her hoof down and lowered her head. “Let your mind be at ease. The Great and Powerful Trixie will look into your fortune.” The unicorn’s horn glowed slightly brighter. “She will see where you have come, and she will see where you are headed.”

The unicorn slowly stepped closer towards Carousel who was really confused by the situation. She could feel a magical presence surrounding her body. The magical touch was very gentle and not being threatening in the slightest. 

______________________________________________________________________________

Carousel’s mind wavered. Images were coming to her head again. But they came slowly and gently this time. She closed her eyes and focused on her body. It was almost as if she could see her own body through her mind. Everything else was nonexistent. The only thing she saw was her own body.

“It is as I expected,” the unicorn started once again. “I sense it. Something sinister lurks in the mind of this pony, but where is it coming from…” The unicorn used her magic to search more thoroughly around Carousel’s body. Her search was narrowed down to her right wing. 

“It is somewhere here, I know it is.” The magical aura that surrounded Carousel’s body went into focus around her right wing, leaving everything else and focusing on that wing. “Mmmh…” The unicorn moved her horn closer to that wing.

Carousel’s mind waved in response to the unicorn’s words. It was as if she could see what the unicorn was seeing. There on her right wing, a spot was focused in on. 

There was a burn mark. The image focused completely on that mark. This burn mark was bringing more images to Carousel. Her feelings started wavering.

“Ah, I see it. A temple from ancient times, dangerous traps lurking at every step.” 

The images rushed through Carousel’s head much faster than earlier. The walls were engulfed in flames. She could practically feel their intense heat. 

“Flames, hot enough to burn even the mightiest of ponies into a crisp. But… where? Where is it coming from?”

A large sculpture of a dragon appeared in front of her vision. It was alive, and the flames surrounded it.

“Do my eyes deceive me? They do not. You were in the presence of a large dragon, which nearly set its jaws upon you.”

The dragon’s jaws shot straight towards her and chomped down, darkening her visions.

“No, it did set its jaws upon you, but… oh my… fortune has set upon you, for it was the treasure that had saved you from your moment of peril.”

A yellow amulet came into Carousel’s vision. Her mind started to reel. She was chasing after it.

“A real dragon’s teeth could chomp through solid diamond, you were fortunate this wasn’t a real one, yet, I am sensing misfortune here… Where is it?”

A large claw made itself present around the amulet that Carousel was running after in her visions. The claw closed down and snatched the amulet. She could see the silhouette of the griffon that had taken it. She could hear the laughter coming from it. Carousel’s mind filled with rage.

“What is this? It is but a griffon, a griffon that has taken your fortune. I see it. It is flying away even as we speak. But where is the destination… I can sense the presence of a mighty clash between pegasus and griffon. But where is it going to hold? Where?”

The vision focused on the griffon’s direction with the land. Arrows pointed towards its direction of flight. The image moved towards that direction. It pointed towards a town with no further details. The map layout made sense to Carousel because it was her mind. It wouldn’t have made sense to any other pony, except for the unicorn in front of her.

“That town… a small town called Hoofington. That is where your fortune leads…”

______________________________________________________________________________

The visions started to fall apart.

“I-I can’t see anything else…” The unicorn’s horn dimmed. She removed her horn from Carousel’s wing and started stepping back.

Reality started coming back to Carousel. She regained her vision, but her mind still seethed with rage. All the lights turned off and the area brightened back up, once again looking like they were in a forest opening rather than a stage.

“This is The Great and Powerful Trixie with the news, reporting a clash between pony and griffon to be occurring later today in Hoofington,” the unicorn stated while jotting down some notes in her stack of papers from the table.

“Who will be the victor and claim their prize? Trixie isn’t sure, but…” The unicorn flashed her horn, creating a large pink cloud of smoke to form around the table. When the smoke died, the table was gone, and in its place was the pile of pinecones from earlier. She looked back towards Carousel. “The Great and Powerful Trixie does have a request.” She walked towards Carousel who stilled a fury of anger drawn upon her face. Her teeth were grinding, her wings were shivering with wrath, and she was breathing menacingly. 

“A clash between ponies and griffons, maintaining a battle with a griffon is no easy feat, for if one shall clash with a griffon, one shall clash with their life.” The images of a griffon that had haunted Carousel a long time ago came back to her mind. Surely this was the same one. Thinking about it made her give a deep but silent growl. Her rage fueled rapidly.

“If this pegasus manages to succeed in her trial, The Great and Powerful Trixie requests that she will meet back here, tomorrow at noon.” The unicorn placed both hooves on Carousel’s riling shoulders. She looked straight into her eyes, smiling. Carousel glared back, but while her eyes were looking directly at the unicorn’s eyes, they weren’t focused on the unicorn. Her mind focused on that memory of being attacked by that griffon.

“There, she will lead you to a journey of magnificence beyond anypony’s imaginations.” The memory was much clearer than ever. And now that griffon had taken her amulet. She had to get it back.

“Do you accept?” the unicorn finished.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!”

Carousel let out an enormous screeching cry, flapping her wings rapidly while she remained in place. Her wings caused powerful winds to blow across the meadow, pushing against the unicorn. The winds were so strong that the unicorn had to turn her head and cover her eyes, all the while sliding across the meadow, heading towards the pile of pinecones. Huge waves of dirt filled the air as Carousel continued to vibrate her wings, yelling at a volume so loud, the whole forest could probably hear it.

The unicorn’s sliding came to a halt after slamming with a rough thud against the pile of pinecones. Carousel halted her screeching and darted herself in a random direction. She took small altitude into the air, heading towards one of the forest trees, crashing into them and bouncing off of them with such a force. She bounced off of multiple trees, kicking and thrashing about them randomly, causing a crack with each tree she hit, letting leaves and branches get knocked away senselessly, no distinct pattern in mind.

Carousel halted her fury by landing behind the pile of pinecones from the unicorn with an audible slam. Carousel was only on the ground for a split second before darting towards the pile at full speed. The unicorn that had been blown into the pinecones couldn’t recover fast enough before Carousel blasted her way through the pile.

*Crash!*

The pinecones exploded and scattered upon impact while the unicorn was lunged into the air. The unicorn kept her eyes shut. She wasn’t in the air for long as she soon crashed back to the ground on her stomach with her limbs spread. The unicorn grunted as she opened her eyes and lifted her head up from the ground, just in time to see the Carousel take high into the skies.

The pinecones that were blasted in the air started tumbling back to the ground. They were all falling in rapidly and randomly. Some seemed to focus on a single spot in front of the unicorn. The unicorn shielded her eyes as they came down. The rain of pinecones ended shortly. The unicorn removed the cover from her eyes to glance down at the small pile that seemed to have formed from that rain. 

The pile had spelled one word. 

'Yes'

The unicorn stared off into the direction Carousel had flown, startled by that sudden fury.

______________________________________________________________________________

Current day:

“Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo…” Rainbow Dash pondered about their appearance in that forest. She had heard that they had gone on a camping trip and were still there that day. She had a hard time believing everything else had happened, but there was no denying that Carousel could possibly describe them if what she was telling was true.

Yet what Carousel was telling was still bothering her.

Before Rainbow Dash continued with her part, she looked over to Fluttershy for acceptance. Fluttershy nodded her head in response. 

This next part would be difficult to retell, but if Fluttershy was comfortable with it, then she was willing to do so.
	
> Chapter 6: Pain of Fashion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Warning, not for the sensitive mind.


4 days ago:

Rainbow Dash had a very groggy feeling within her mind and body. She couldn’t focus. She felt so weak as she struggled to emerge from her sleep. Rainbow Dash grunted as she slowly opened her eyes. Her vision blurred, but there was nothing to see, nothing but the black void that surrounded her area. She tried to move, but she felt her limbs restrained. It felt so hot in here, or rather, her coat felt so hot to her, like she had been tanning herself, but not from the sun. She tilted her head to examine her position.

Rainbow Dash’s body was strapped to what appeared to be a table in a vertical position. All her limbs were spread in the four corners and strapped. Her wings appeared to be strapped as well. She felt weak, so very weak and alone. 

*Slam*

A bright light that nearly blinded Rainbow Dash’s vision made itself apparent in the distance in front of her. It was like a door had opened in front of her. Beyond that door was the silhouette of a single pony, a unicorn. The unicorn slowly approached as the doors closed, ceasing any lights in the area. 

Rainbow Dash’s nerves intensified as the unicorn approached, all she could feel was fear. She was helpless to defend herself as the unicorn approached. The closer the unicorn approached, the more her form had focused, until finally, her form was unmistakable.

“Hello there Rainbow Dash, sooo glad you came by to help me,” the unicorn Rainbow Dash knew as Rarity spoke. She had a very menacing smile on her face. Despite nothing but void surrounding their areas, their form was solid and clear.

“Let’s get this started shall we?” Rarity lit her horn up and used her magic to present all sorts of clothing tools. Rainbow Dash couldn't tell where exactly they came from, but now they were being displayed in front of her. The table that she was strapped to started to shift. It slowly turned into a horizontal position, leaving her staring in the skies of the black void.

Rarity’s clothing came into view. One of them appeared to form what she would guess was a cape. That cape was levitated and pressed onto Rainbow Dash’s shoulders. The cape seemed to otherwise cover the entire front of her body.

“Nnngh!” Rainbow Dash for some reason was feeling a lot of pain right now. It was as if the cape was sticking to her heated coat, zapping her with their static and tugging at the hairs of her coat. But she felt no pain on her shoulders. The silk was putting a lot of pressure on them though that they felt so fragile.

Rainbow Dash’s nerves would not calm down. She tried to keep pressure flexed into her shoulders as the clothing pressed down on them in a very rough manner. The silk was folded directly where it was being pressed while the rest of the fabric practically burned her with its simple contact.

Then her fear was struck. Two needles with strings attached to them were levitated directly above her, hovering just inches away from the clothing.

“Beauty knows no pain!” The needles pressed straight though their marks, slowly penetrating the clothing.

“Aaack!” Rainbow Dash writhed in agony as the needles pierced through the pieces of cloth. She could feel the painful sting coming from the needles as they pressed through, disappearing inside the cloth, with no signs of slowing down. The needles reappeared again, piercing through the cloth inches away from its previous destination, leaving the string to follow.

“Very good Rainbow Dash, just keep holding still like that.” Rarity continued the motion of threading the silk, piercing the needles through as the cloth pressed roughly on Rainbow Dash’s shoulders. The needles kept piercing in and out of the fabric while the strings followed, making the fabric connect to both of Rainbow Dash’s shoulders.

The painful contact was paralyzing Rainbow Dash’s motions. The more she moved, the more painful it was. She had to be as still as possible in order to endure the painful stings.

“There, now that wasn’t so bad, was it darling?” Rarity had stopped her sowing and the pain had ceased. The cape like fabric had been connected to Rainbow Dash’s shoulders like they were a part of her. The fabric was covering the whole front part of her body.

“Ooof!” Without warning, Rarity jumped on top of the table, landing directly on Rainbow Dash’s stomach. She could feel the stinging static leave her where Rarity’s hooves were pressing down on. Rarity then grabbed the fabric in her teeth, near Rainbow Dash’s neck area, and tugged on it very hard.

“AAAAHHH!!!” Rainbow Dash’s shoulders erected a painful spike as the fabric that connected to her shoulders attempted pry itself off by force. The strings that had connected with the fabric and Rainbow Dash’s coat proved strong enough to withhold its grip. It would not be ripped off of Rainbow Dash so easily.

Rarity released her grip from the cape, causing it to snap back and whip at Rainbow Dash’s neck.

“Perfect,” Rarity announced after releasing her grip. 

Rainbow Dash was panting heavily after the treatment. Her shoulders had an immense aching sting, which was now added to a lot of pressure due to the cape that had been connected through her coat, piercing inside of her.

Rarity hopped off of the table, releasing her weight off of Rainbow Dash. She sparked her horn again. Rainbow Dash felt a shift in the table that she was stuck to. The table was rotating back into a vertical position. Rainbow Dash could no longer see the menacing unicorn. She heard the clip clop of hooves being made behind her though. It sounded like they were walking up stairs.

“Ahh, Rainbow Dash, by the time I’m done with you, your beauty shall be glorious!” Rainbow Dash could hear Rarity’s voice just a little distance behind her, and slightly above.

“AAAHHH!!!” Rainbow Dash felt her rainbow mane being tugged very roughly behind her. She felt her mane being taped to the back of her neck in a quick motion..

“Oh dear… that didn’t turn out right…” *Rip!*

“OOOOOOOOWWWW!!!” Rainbow Dash’s cry resonated with the area around her as the tape was pulled off of her mane and coat. The void made a rippling effect with the sound of her loud screams. The pain was intense. The pain grew even further when Rarity tugged on her mane again, pulling even harder and further. Her mane had been taped further behind her neck, in a more flat position.

“Ahh, that’s better,” Rarity announced. The table felt like it started to shift again, but Rainbow’s body wasn’t moving. 

“AAAAHHHMMMPH!!!” Rainbow Dash suddenly felt that same ripping sting resonate with her whole front body. The cape like fabric that covered her body ripped off her like it was connected and came straight for her face, wrapping roughly around her to block out her vision and muffle her voice.

“Mmph, Mmmmph!” Rainbow Dash couldn’t breathe as the cloth was forcibly pressed against her face, suffocating her. There was no resistance she could do. Her limbs and wings were still strapped to the table, and no matter how much she struggled, she couldn’t move them. She tried desperately to move her head around to get some air, but the more she struggled, the more pain it caused to not only her shoulders that the cape connected to, but also the stinging static it was putting on her face.

The cape pressed harder, forcing the back of her head to press rougher against the table. The cape stretched, it sounded like it was ripping apart. Rainbow Dash could feel something sharp passing through the areas that were ripping, dangerously close to her face. The trail was outlining the form of her head, until the fabric slipped right through.

“*Gasp!*, *pant, pant,*” Rainbow Dash continued panting heavily with the fabric no longer pressing against her face. It was now moved to lay behind her. Rainbow Dash could feel her sweat dripping along her face. The table was shifting her position all around and spreading. Her limbs were lifted straight, fore legs up and hind legs down, while her wings were spread wide to the side.

Rainbow Dash could feel the cape being pressed flat against her wings. Due to her lack of being able to check behind her, she couldn’t determine everything that was going on, or how it was made possible, but what she felt now was that cape being pressed between her wings and the parts of the table that kept her strapped down. The static stinging was gone now.

“Oh, Rainbow Dash, you’re looking positively fabulous already, and we’re just getting started.” Rainbow Dash hesitantly tilted her head towards one of her wings, fearing what would come next. Her eyes went wide in shock with what she saw. There were multiple small pins that were levitating and pointing directly towards her wing. There was also a mirror that seemed to allow Rarity to see her work.

The pins levitated closer towards her wing. Rainbow Dash had to look away. She squeezed her eyes closed and gritted her teeth, sweating bullets at the anticipation of the pain she would undoubtedly feel.

“Nnnnngh, Nnnngaaah!!!” The pins were piercing through her feathers, connecting to the fabric that lay beneath her wings. They connected slowly, but all connected at the same time. Each feather tip contained a sharp sting from the pins, one she could feel pressed directly in the center of her wing, and two more on the center edges.

*Pierce* “AAAAHHH!!!” Before she had time to recover, Rainbow Dash felt her other wing get pierced by the same pattern of pins, only it was forced quickly. The pain was not any better to contain. Being quick only created more pain.

Rainbow Dash’s head plopped down, away from the table as she felt it shift again. The table's shift caused her four limbs to spread in the four diagonal directions. She couldn’t find the energy to look around anymore. Her resistance was futile, and trying to see what happened next wasn’t helping.

Unfortunately for her, looking away wasn’t an option. Rainbow Dash felt her mane being tugged at by Rarity’s mouth, causing her head to be lifted up. Her head was being lifted high, exposing her neck clearly. She felt a hoof keep hold on her head to keep it still. When she felt the fabric of the cape start being pressed against her surrounding neck area, she could no longer keep her eyes closed. She opened them to witness what was coming up next.

“Now, we shall have this fit perfectly!” What was levitating near Rainbow Dash’s neck area was a tiny iron that was emanating heat that she could feel before it was touching her. The iron pressed against the fabric, causing it to press against her coat. As soon as it connected, an intense sizzling sound became apparent. 

“AAAAAHHHH!!!” The intense heat could be felt clearly through the fabric. The iron was burning Rainbow Dash, tracing over the area the fabric surrounded around her neck. The fabric was shrinking.

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth so hard, trying to endure the intense heat coming from the iron as it slid around her neck. Tears were starting to leave her eyes. Rainbow Dash was trying so hard to suppress them.

“AAAHHH! NNNNNGHH!!!” Rainbow Dash tried harder. She pressed with all her force to straighten her head. The fabric was tightening around her neck as the burning iron slid around her neck, singeing her.

*Beat*

Rainbow Dash heard a loud audible heart beat that echoed throughout the area. She slowly opened her eyes, her tears frozen where they lay as she opened them. There was nothing but the void to see.

*Beat*

Rainbow Dash heard the beat again. Her tears started retreating back to her eyes. Things were silent. She could feel nothing anymore. Even the burning heat was no longer apparent. All she could feel, were the tears retreating back.

Rainbow Dash’s tears disappeared without a trace.

*SLAM!*

A door opened, revealing a blinding light in front of Rainbow Dash. 

“AAAAHH…-” The light pushed against her, causing a screeching sound. She caught sight of the silhouette of a single pony before her vision was completely blinded by the light.

______________________________________________________________________________

“*Gasp!*”

Rainbow Dash had awoken from her nightmare, thrusting her upper body upwards in surprise. After seeing the bright daylight outside, she had calmed down.

“*Pant, pant* no… not again…” Rainbow Dash started wiping the sweat glands that became apparent on her forehead.

Taking a look at her surroundings, Rainbow Dash found herself lying on top of a cloud that she had used as her bed. But the cloud was purely black. She was sure it had been white when she napped on it, but it must’ve changed due to the nightmare she had experienced.

“Mmmrph…” Rainbow Dash gave a frustrated groaned at the sight. She roughly dug both of her fore hooves into the cloud. They sank deep within the cloud without breaking it. Rainbow Dash gave a deep breath and cleared her mind. She took slow breathes in and out as a way to calm herself down.

The cloud bed that Rainbow Dash was lying on was now starting to brighten up. Rainbow Dash’s mood was influencing the nature of the cloud, making the cloud start to become normal. The cloud had brightened back to its original white color. Rainbow Dash gave a low sigh of relief after having calmed down.

Taking a more thorough look around her surroundings, Rainbow Dash saw that she seemed to be a little just outside of Ponyville. She just remembered the last thing that had happened before she took her nap, Rarity and her dressmaking.

Rainbow Dash took note of the sun’s position in the sky.

“Right, today’s the day Rarity’s leaving for Hoofington,” Rainbow Dash talked to herself, thinking about what to do. “I guess I better get over there and help her out.” 

Despite her experience yesterday and what she told herself, she decided to go and help Rarity out anyway. Besides, the others would most likely be there anyway, so it wasn’t like she would have to deal with Rarity’s talking alone. Besides, the talking was the least of her concerns now.

Rainbow Dash proceeded to fly off to the Carousel Boutique. While she flew, she thought back to the dream that she had just experienced. This one really made her uneasy. Not only did it happen so much sooner after the previous dream than usual, but this one was much more focused and detailed. She was more aware of what was going on during this dream.

But the moment she had managed to focus, the dream vanished.
> Chapter 7: Painful Implications
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	4 days ago:

Rainbow Dash returned back to the Carousel Boutique in order to help pack for Rarity’s trip. All of her friends, Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity were all already present there when she arrived.

Pinkie Pie was missing most likely due to her illness. The rest of them were there assisting Rarity with her luggage of supplies and dresses that she was taking either for her client or for her stay while she was at Hoofington. Each pony was carrying at least one luggage, the details not on Rainbow Dash’s mind. She instead was trying to think back to that dream that she had had earlier, but it was difficult to recall dreams precisely.

The five ponies were walking to the train station with the luggage in toe, with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy carrying their part while flying in the air. They were both carrying two separate suitcases. 

While they were heading to the train station, Rainbow Dash thought back onto what Fluttershy had said a couple of days ago. If this dream was really that serious, she had to let her friends know. But for some reason, it was just so difficult. She had to try again though.

“Listen guys, I have something I have to tell you,” Rainbow Dash started. 

“What is it Rainbow Dash?” Twilight said as the four ponies turned their attentions to Rainbow Dash.

“It’s hard to believe, but listen,” Rainbow Dash paused for a second. “Last night, I had a dream. In that dream, Rarity was sticking a dress on me.” Rarity raised an eye brow at this.

“Rainbow Dash, that wasn’t a dream, that happened yesterday, these are the dresses I’m taking,” Rarity stated while motioning to each of their luggage.

“No Rarity, that wasn’t it. You were using needles and everything when you stuck that dress on me!” Rainbow Dash attempted to correct. “You were really hurting me when you were doing that!”

“Oh dear I was? Why didn’t you say anything?” Rarity asked as she put a hoof to her mouth, but then remembered. “Oh, I remember, I had to tape your mouth closed because you kept interrupting me.”

“Hold on,” Applejack interjected. “Tape her mouth? What in tarnation did ya do Rarity?”

“Why, Rainbow Dash had asked about my day during that dreadful storm,” Rarity stated while she took an elegant pose while still walking. “So I tried to tell her all about it. But she kept interrupting me. I had to silence her somehow if I was ever going to share it with her.”

“Guys! I’m not talking about her story!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “I’m talking about the dress that Rarity was sticking on to me!”

“Rainbow Dash, I’m sorry about that,” Rarity stated. “But I needed to get my line of fashion done, and you were the only pony available at the time who was willing to help.”

Twilight hid her face with a little bit of an embarrassed grin at that remark.

“First off, I wasn’t willing to help!” Rainbow Dash shouted again. “Second off, you burned it on to me!” This left the four friends with a concerned look in their eyes. Rainbow Dash’s shouting seemed to be attracting other ponies’ attentions. “The tools that you were using to stick that dress on me burned me! It was so hot and painful!” 

Fluttershy placed both her hooves, along with the package, over her mouth. She was horrified by the statements Rainbow Dash had made. It sounded like Rainbow Dash had such a painful experience if what she was saying was true.

“Oh my, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity responded, feeling guilty about it. “I’m so sorry, I… I didn’t know.”

Rainbow Dash’s mood started to shine after hearing that response.

“Modelin’ fer a dress can be painful, But ah never expected it ta sound painful like that,” Applejack said.

Rainbow Dash’s mood suddenly dropped. Fluttershy seemed to be concerned

“Listen Rainbow Dash, I’m sorry for how I reacted earlier, but Rarity desperately needed help,” Twilight said in a sympathetic tone. “Don’t worry though, if modeling is as painful to you as you say it is, then you won’t ever have to do it again. We understand, right Rarity?”

Rainbow Dash’s body started vibrating in frustration, her breathing becoming slightly aggressive, but not visible from a distance.

“Oh of course darling,” Rarity responded. “It would be so uncouth of me to force somepony to dressing fabulously, even if she could use some lightening up.” She cleared her throat. “Nevertheless, I shall only model her if she allows it. How does that sound, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash released her grip from the suitcase she was carrying, letting it drop to the ground, spilling out its contents. Without a word, she flew away from the scene in a hurry and in frustration.

The remaining four friends, minus Fluttershy, all stopped walking and looked at each other in confusion. Fluttershy had looked off in the direction Rainbow Dash had fled towards, both fear and worry in her face. What Rainbow Dash described sounded just awful to her.

“Oh my, was it something I said?” Rarity asked.

While the others were discussing the situation, Fluttershy had gently set down the suitcase that she was holding down to where Rainbow Dash’s had dropped. She left the scene to follow the trail that Rainbow Dash had flown.

“Maybe she didn’t want this to be heard in public,” Twilight thought as she noticed that several of Ponyville’s citizens were watching them.

“But Twilight, she was the one who started this conversation,” Rarity said.

“Hmm, Fluttershy, do you know what’s going on with her,… Fluttershy?” Twilight looked around, only to notice that Fluttershy had left at some point.

______________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash was flying through the air with no particular destination in mind. She was beating her wings in a very aggressive manner, clearly frustrated. The wind was being pushed and blown away by Rainbow Dash’s force. The clouds that were even close to her path dissipated as she passed by them.

“Grr! Why is it so hard?!” Rainbow Dash set her flight path on a direct course in the direction of one of the larger clouds that came into view. She flew to a higher altitude before she descended towards it. Rainbow Dash landed on the cloud with a large thump, causing some particles to escape the cloud upon impact. Rainbow Dash started beating the cloud with her front hooves, punching left and right to let out her frustration and causing more particles to break apart.

“I am not trying to tell them I am embarrassed!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she continued beating the cloud. “Why can’t they see that? I’m trying to tell them that they’re-…”

Rainbow Dash stopped her voice and movements as she realized what she was about to say. “N-no, they’re my friends. They would never do something like that,” she tried telling herself.

“But… that dream… Rarity, she was…” Rainbow Dash was losing her words. She could recall that dream so clearly. She could practically feel the pain again while thinking about it again. Every piece of fabric that was being connected directly to her coat, with the use of pins, needles, and…

“Mmmrrph!” Rainbow Dash gripped her head in her hooves in frustration. She plopped herself down on the cloud on her back, trying to make sense of everything.

What Rainbow Dash could recall was that Rarity was sowing a cape on her, but she was doing it in a very painful way. Was that to imply that that was how she felt for Rarity’s dresses?

______________________________________________________________________________

Fluttershy had managed to follow Rainbow Dash’s trail not only by following the direction she flew in, but also by using the path of oddly positioned clouds in the skies. Fluttershy found Rainbow Dash lying on one of the larger clouds. Fluttershy intended to talk to her, but she stopped and hid herself when she noticed Rainbow Dash was already talking with another pony.

But there wasn’t another pony she was talking to. Rainbow Dash was talking to, herself. Fluttershy stood on one of the clouds nearby, keeping herself barely from view. She was feeling very uneasy about this.

“Oh… maybe I should leave. It’s wrong to spy on other pony’s privacy,” Fluttershy told herself. She attempted to try to leave, but she was just too worried to move. She hesitantly moved her attention back to Rainbow Dash’s words.

“I don’t hate Rarity’s dresses, I don’t,” Rainbow Dash said to herself. “I just don’t like sitting around for so long, having to hold still while she works.”

Rainbow Dash brought herself back up as she looked off into the distance. “Is that why I feel like my body is being pierced as I have to hold still like that?” Fluttershy cringed when she heard Rainbow Dash say that. “Do I really feel like I'm being stabbed repeatedly while I model for Rarity?”

Fluttershy imagined the images from Rainbow Dash’s words. She saw a dress that was filled with needles that could be seen from the outside. The needles were used to connect to Rainbow Dash directly. The outside of the dress however, completely hid the needles.

Fluttershy gave a small squeak. She pressed her hooves around her body in agony just thinking about what that could’ve felt like.

“…And that burning and static, the singeing... how hot it was…” Rainbow Dash continued as she picked herself and started pacing around. She was starting to use a lot of similar words without even realizing it. “Am I really that embarrassed that it sets me on fire like that?”

Fluttershy now had the image of the dress being burst into flames while Rainbow Dash was still wearing it. Or the dress was just burning her to the touch because the dress was that hot. Either way, it was too difficult for Fluttershy to imagine it happening. She could practically feel the pain now. It was that terrifying to her.

Fluttershy shivered and whimpered in agony as the images kept coming to her. She slumped lower into the cloud, hiding her face within it, trying to escape the images. She could only imagine how Rainbow Dash was feeling right now if this was how she was feeling.

“Mmmph…” Rainbow Dash groaned in agony at the implications she thought of. She stopped pacing and stood at the edge of the cloud. “Do they... really hate me?” she said as she plopped herself down, dangling a hoof off the edge of the cloud. “Or is it me who’s hating them… for what they put me through?” She closed her eyes as she thought. The cloud she was lying on was starting to darken.

Fluttershy could only feel misery watching that scene. She tried to think of something, anything that she could say. But she couldn’t find the confidence to figure out how.

“I don’t hate you, Rainbow Dash…” Fluttershy said under her breath. “I… I could never do something like that…” She felt as if speaking those words would help. But Rainbow Dash had to hear it from her friends, the ones who she thought she was hating on, or were hating her. "Rainbow Dash... you're my..." She couldn't finish that sentence before Rainbow Dash started speaking again.

“I don’t hate them…” Rainbow Dash said silently. “I… I don’t hate them… and they don’t hate me…” She slowly closed her eyes. “So why does it feel like they’re always bringing pain to me?”

Fluttershy was feeling very guilty. She couldn’t figure out how to help at all. She felt as if she herself was being such a bad friend to Rainbow Dash by not finding a way to help her.

Fluttershy could try to explain to their friends what Rainbow Dash was explaining, but it was too painful for her to even think about it. She felt as if she was already proving to be a bad friend by watching Rainbow Dash’s privacy.

Seeing Rainbow Dash was no longer moving nor talking, Fluttershy quietly left the scene, keeping the rest of her friend’s privacy spared. She would pretend she didn’t witness this, hoping that would make up for spying on Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy just couldn't bare the thought of Rainbow Dash one day hating her, or even the other way around.

______________________________________________________________________________

Current day:

Fluttershy was very uncomfortable and terrified by the retelling of this moment. She shivered and whimpered uncontrollably. Rainbow Dash, despite her injuries, held her close, trying her best to comfort her.

Rainbow Dash ran her hoof through the back of her pink mane while Fluttershy held her tightly, hiding her face in her cyan coat. Fluttershy’s ears dropped low, trying to press against her head to block out any more words coming from that story.

“I hope what you’ve recalled was worth this, Carousel,” Rainbow Dash stated as she looked towards her, never letting Fluttershy go. 

Carousel lowered her eyelids, giving a low but deep growl as she recalled what she had done next. Rainbow Dash continued brushing Fluttershy’s mane while Carousel started continuing with her side of the story.
> Chapter 8: Clash in Hoofington
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	4 days ago:

Carousel tore through the skies in a fury. Wind pressure was not an obstacle to her. She continued flying through the air at rough speeds, one destination in mind. Thanks to that unicorn she never caught the name of from earlier, she remembered all too well what she was doing before. She had completed putting together an amulet, but a griffon had stolen it from her soon after she had her treasure.

There was nothing else on Carousel’s mind. All her attention was grabbed by that single griffon. Her emotions burned with fury, ignoring everything she caught sight of as she flew. Her eye kept twitching, she kept her teeth grinding, and you could hear a violent buzz coming from her wings as she flapped them so roughly and quickly. The only thing she wanted to see was that town. That was where the griffon was. Which meant that was where her amulet was.

The town soon came into her view, but she did not slow down her flying. She closed her eyes, thinking back to the image that she saw earlier. How that unicorn had managed to give her such directions, she didn’t care. All that mattered to her was getting that amulet back. Afterwards, she would re-visit that unicorn.

The images were directing her to a rather large building that looked to be about four stories high. The location seemed to be around the center north edge of the town from her direction.

Carousel opened her eyes to scan the area. Everything was void to her. Only the building that matched the description she received, mattered to her. The building at the center north edge was the only thing that wasn’t voided out in her eyes. 

Carousel set her flight path directly towards one of the windows on the fourth floor. She crashed right through it, expecting it to break, but it instead flipped.

Carousel landed her hooves hard inside the building’s floors, causing it to crack. The ponies inside were all startled by the entrance. The window behind her was flipping violently thanks to her force. She lifted up her head, blowing steam out of her nose. The ponies inside were gasping in surprise.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to be in here!” one of the ponies shouted, causing two ponies to approach closer. 

Before they could grab her, Carousel shoved them out of the way and started up her wings again, dashing straight towards the stairs heading to the third floor. 

The fourth floor of the building appeared to hold many work rooms, using glass as a way to see each working pony. Carousel’s violent flying caused a lot of papers to get blown off randomly. As soon as she reached the doorway to the stairs, she shut the doors behind her, stopping any possible pursuers.

Carousel used this moment to take a little breather. She used her hoof to shift around the neck collar she wore, taking a deep breath as she pushed it up and down. 

“Let the hunt, begin!” Carousel said in a low but dark tone. She turned her collar around. “You are here somewhere… and when I find you…” Her body shivered in anticipation. She breathed silently, but audibly.

Carousel hovered in the air as a way to descend down the stairs, heading to the third floor. Upon reaching the door that lead to whatever was on the third floor, Carousel placed her ear against it, listening in on what might have been inside. 

But that was impossible, because it sounded like it was quite noisy in there. It sounded like a lot of chatter, but most of it sounded like activities going on, such as items being moved, machines running, and something that sounded like an argument going on.

Carousel carefully opened the door, slipping inside without causing much notice. Scanning the area, it appeared to be a department store, despite what the fourth floor looked like. There were multiple shopping areas selling different types of items.

Carousel carefully treaded across the floor, keeping her position low so as to keep herself hidden among the crowd. A few ponies laid eyes on her as she traversed the area. If she was trying to sneak around undetected, she was doing a terrible job at it.

But that didn’t matter to Carousel. It didn’t matter how many ponies saw her. All that mattered was if a certain griffon noticed her. That griffon was somewhere around here, there was no doubt in her mind about that.

Carousel treaded closer to a section involving accessories. She heard the arguing going on over there. She braced her back against a wall, standing on her hind legs, and sidled along it for closer viewing and hearing.

“You were trying to steal this from me weren’t you?!” Carousel heard voices.

“N-no, I…”

“I saw your grubby little hooves touching it! Don’t play dumb with me!”

Carousel peeked her head around the edge of the wall. She saw a few ponies backing away from the scene that was going on in the shop. A pony and a griffon were their center of attention. It looked like the griffon was the one angry, for the pony was being grabbed by the neck thanks to the claws of the griffon.

Carousel zipped from one cover spot to another, allowing her to get closer to her target.

“I-I was just trying to examine it, l-like you asked me to…”

“Lies!” *Smack* “You took that amulet right from my claws so that you could keep it for yourself!”

There was a large commotion of gasps when it sounded like the griffon punched the pony. They all seemed to be afraid of what was going on.

“B-but…”

“Save your breath, I have witnesses!” The griffon turned to the crowd, who all had fear in their eyes. “Isn’t that right you losers?”

Carousel was away from the crowd, hidden behind shelves with items blocking most of the view. They were arranged in ways that provided very minimal view, so she could see the griffon just fine, but it would make it nearly impossible for the griffon to see her.

Carousel crept along the aisle. She could see the amulet in the griffon’s claws. It was clearly the same one she had before, yellow, and in the shape of a clock. Carousel could feel the images of the incident being beaten in her mind. She could feel her head thumping violently just looking at it. Her rage grew more. She was giving a low growl as she continued treading carefully.

“Now, unless you want more trouble coming your way, you will do EXACTLY as I say!”

“Urk…”

“You will be paying for the damage you did to my amulet…”

Carousel approached closer to the scene.

“You will be paying for that damage you did to me…”

“B-but, I didn’t… ack!” The griffon gripped the pony harder.

Carousel came within range. She lunged at the perfect opportunity.

“And For Attempting To Steal My Amulet, YOU, WILL, AGHUG!!!” Carousel halted the griffon’s speech by shoving the griffon aside with the weight of her body. The pony was released while Carousel held the griffon against the wall.

“GIVE THAT BACK TO ME!” Carousel said like she was finishing the griffon’s speech. She attempted to grab the amulet back, but the griffon showed resistant. The crowd of ponies gave more gasps at the situation.

Carousel was shoved away by the griffon, causing her to fly back, but Carousel retaliated by pushing herself against the shelves that she was shoved to. The shelves of items spilled and shattered as a result, but she used the force of that push to lunge at the griffon again, using both forehooves to retaliate an attack.

The force impacted the griffon, causing them to break through the wall. The griffon retaliated after impacting the ground by shoving Carousel up and over. Carousel slid along the ground before she could halt herself, keeping her sights on the griffon. The griffon stood back up, giving a menacing look back at Carousel.

“Oho, you do not want to mess with me you loser!” the griffon challenged, punching one of her claws with her other claw.

The clash had just begun.

Carousel exhaled a visible steam of breath through her snout, twice. She whipped her tail around and spread her wings into a fighting stance. She eyed the griffon carefully, scraping a hoof along the ground. Her goal was to get back that amulet, which she could see being held by the tail of her griffon opponent.

The griffon charged for Carousel, throwing a claw strike directly at the pegasus. Carousel retaliated by striking with a hoof. The claw and the hoof connected, canceling out each other’s strikes. A volley of strikes came from both pegasus and griffon, both being blocked, or both connecting.

Carousel was backing off while the griffon continued striking. Any passerby ponies were either being shoved away from the fight, or avoiding it. Their fighting led them into what appeared to be a kitchen area before it started changing up.

*Smack* Carousel threw another punch in the middle of the fight, connecting with the griffon’s head. 

“Grr! Rah!” The griffon attacked back, striking a claw at Carousel’s face, thrusting her away. Carousel impacted on one of the stoves with her back, causing some of the cooking pots to spill on the ground. The griffon pulled out what appeared to be a chainsaw, which was probably somewhere in the stash of items in the area.

“I told you, you do not want to mess with me! Now You’ll Pay!” The griffon started up the chainsaw and aimed it at Carousel. Carousel stopped the griffon by gripping her hooves on the chainsaw’s handles before it touched her. The chainsaw was getting close to her neck.

“Nngh!” Carousel struggled to push the chainsaw away while the griffon pushed back. Thinking quickly, Carousel moved her tail to wrap around the handle of one of the nearby cooking pots. Since it was recently used, it was still piping hot, despite its spilled contents. Carousel threw the pot in the air using her tail. She then used a free hoof to slam it directly on the griffon’s head when the pot came within range.

“RRAAAAAAGHH!!!” The sizzling of the griffon being burned was loud. This retaliation caused the griffon to drop the chainsaw. The chainsaw was still running, sawing through the floor on its own.

Carousel used this moment to grab the griffon. She shoved the griffon to the stove.

*Slam, slam, slam…* Carousel repeatedly slammed the griffon’s pot wearing head directly on the stove’s surface. The pot shattered due to its abuse.

Suddenly, the large wings of the griffon spread, knocking Carousel off balance. The griffon grabbed Carousel, taking her into the air, shortly, and then throwing her towards a damaged part of the ground due to the chainsaw.

______________________________________________________________________________

A single pony was sitting at a desk, finishing a file of papers concerning his job. He gave a grunted sigh as he set the files down.

*Crack!* The ceiling above said pony had just been torn down. Landing in front of him was a brown pegasus, followed by some falling debris from the destroyed ceiling. The pegasus’s face was directed toward the stallion in a painful manner.

“Can I help you?” the stallion said in a casual tone and look. 

*Crash!* Suddenly a griffon swooped down and attacked the pegasus. Their ruckus caused them to hit a ton of objects in the work place. Papers were being flung off, tools were crashing to the ground, and the desk got destroyed. 

Their battle directed them away from the work area, leaving a dazed stallion just staring at his destroyed work. His eye twitched as he looked at the destruction. The only thing still intact was the files that he just finished.

“I QUIT!” he said as he smacked the files away. The floor under him gave away due to a chainsaw still running, causing a hole in the ground. *Crash*

______________________________________________________________________________

*Crash!* “AAIIEEE!!!” A bunch of ponies started screaming and running when the appearance of a pegasus and a griffon’s duel came apparent out of another wall they crashed and broke through.

Carousel threw the griffon towards a set of machines. The machine cracked and started spurring out electricity.

*Boom!* The machine exploded, causing the griffon to get blasted away. The griffon used this momentum to charge at Carousel. Carousel didn’t expect that and got slammed hard by the griffon’s body.

The two fighters rolled and crashed through many objects, causing more destruction. A set of lights fell from the ceiling due to their ruckus, creating fire within their wake.

“AAIIEEE!!!” Many ponies scrambled and screamed at the sight of fire.

Carousel was currently being shoved by the griffon through more objects, breaking right through. She tried to stop the griffon, but was unable to. The griffon held her by the head, targeting straight for a wall that led out of the building.

*Crash!* The two fighters broke right out of the building, both losing control of themselves. They were on the second floor when they crashed through. The building had sustained a lot of damage due to their fighting that it was now collapsing behind them.

Carousel and the griffon separated in mid-air, tumbling towards the ground. They impacted the ground, rolling outside of town, landing near a forest. It didn’t take long for them to come to a stop.

The griffon had recovered first, leaving Carousel on the ground. Both of them had received lots of bruise marks due to their battle, but it looked like the griffon was winning. The griffon glared at the downed pegasus with a menacing smirk.

“*Pant, pant* Give it up dude, *pant* I eat ponies like you for breakfast. *Pant, pant*,” The griffon’s wings spread into a taunting pose. “You’re out of your league trying to take me on.”

That last impact dealt quite a blow to Carousel’s head. Her mind had scrambled some more as a result. She hesitantly picked herself up as her mind focused on that griffon.

Things were suddenly much clearer to Carousel. The description for this griffon became apparent to her. This was a female griffon. The fur around her face was white while the rest of the fur on her body was brown.

Carousel managed to stand back up, using a hoof to rub her forehead. She then turned her red neck collar around again, flashing a smile as she stared at her griffon opponent.

“What are you smiling about, pal?” the griffon asked.

“You’re not the same griffon I encountered many years ago,” Carousel stated. “Who are you?”

The griffon gave off a confused look. “Who am I? Why should I tell you?”

“Hmph, you may not be the same one, but you might as well be,” Carousel responded, looking slightly away. “Even so, I still want that amulet back.”

“Oh, you mean this?” The griffon motioned her tail towards Carousel, showing her the amulet. “Sorry dude, but this is mine!”

“Oh is it? Then I ask, what does it-“

“Dude! Stop Talking!” The griffon interrupted. “Your voice is really creeping me out!”

“Well, I’m sorry if you hate it, but I have to ask, NNGH-“

The griffon charged and struck at Carousel in fury, slamming her into a tree in the nearby forest.

“I Said, Be Quiet!” the griffon roared.

Carousel grunted before responding. She wasn’t putting up any resistance. “Urgh… can I please get a-“

*RAAAWWWRR!!!* The griffon gave a wild loud roar in rage, blowing roughly against Carousel’s face. The griffon punched Carousel in the face with her claws in an attempt to silence the annoying pegasus. The griffon continuously struck at Carousel’s face with its claws, all the while, Carousel didn’t try resisting, but endured each blow.

“*Smack* I told you to stop talking you lame-o pony! *Smack* I don’t care what your weak excuse is, but I know you can hear me just fine! *Smack* When I Tell You To Stop Talking, You Stop-“ *Crash*

Before the griffon could land that last strike, Carousel quickly moved her head out of the way, causing the griffon to pierce her claws directly inside the trunk of the tree.

“Grr… Nngh!” the griffon grunted, trying to remove her claw out of the trunk. While she was busy attempting that, Carousel slipped away from the griffon’s grip. 

“If you want me to listen to you then why won’t you listen to me!?” Carousel retaliated all that abuse putting a bit of distance from the griffon before charging at her in the air, slamming the griffon with a powerful kick against the tree.

“RAAAHH!” the griffon shrieked out in pain. That attack caused the tree trunk to start cracking.

“There Is Only One Thing That I Want From You!” Carousel shoved the griffon’s head against the tree, causing her beak to pierce inside the trunk as well.

“Mmph!” Now the griffon’s claw and beak were stuck to the tree.

“All I Want Is The Amulet That You Took From Me!” With the griffon helpless to defend herself, Carousel snatched the amulet back. 

“And Then You’ll Never Have To Hear From Me Again!” Carousel flew a few distances back again, now with the amulet in her hooves. 

“IS IT REALLY SO HARD FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND THAT!!!?” She charged directly towards the upper part of the tree, kicking it with a force powerful enough for the damaged lower section to snap.

*…Pant, pant…* Carousel gave very low pants as she watched that tree start rolling downhill, deeper into the forest. That griffon was unable to release herself from its grasp. The griffon was helplessly being taken deeper inside the forest as a result.

Carousel looked over to her retrieved amulet. She saw herself in its reflection. She started… chuckling for some reason.

“…Heheheheh…” Her chuckling was getting stronger slowly. For some reason, she felt so good. She started flying away from the scene to suppress her chuckling. But her chuckling kept growing.

Soon it became a laugh. Carousel flew faster, no destination in mind. Her laughter couldn’t be contained.

“Ahahaha, ahaha… *gasp* Nnngh!” Carousel’s laughter ceased when she felt a burning pain coming directly from her mind. She clutched her head desperately as she continued flying. Images were being beaten in her mind.

Carousel was suddenly starting to feel so much pain. All of the damage her body sustained became apparent to her in a much greater scale. She started seeing images of every mark and scratch that were on her body. Then the images were shifting back to the building where that clash took place.

Carousel was seeing the images of the many ponies that had been injured due to that battle. She felt their pain. Their appearances were so focused. One of them was pink with two shades of yellow hair, one of them was light blue with a darker blue hair, one of them was white with dark purple hair, and one… was just a light blue filly with two shades of white hair.

The sounds of their agonizing pain burned through Carousel’s mind. Her flying slowed down as the pain became apparent. She was… whimpering mid-flight. Tears started escaping her eyes.

Carousel was dropping her altitude, wrapping her hooves around her body. The cries of those injured ponies surrounded her mind. They wouldn’t leave her alone.

Carousel took a hesitant landing in a meadow area near an outskirt of a different town, dropping her amulet nearby. The tears stayed with her eyes, but the whimpering was clearly present. She curled into a ball, attempting to drown out the sound of those cries.

*Rustle…* A new sound made it to Carousel’s ears. It sounded like hoof steps. The cries in her mind were slowly drowning out as it came closer.

“*Gasp* Oh my…” Carousel heard voices now. It sounded like two ponies were heading her way. “I did hear crying… excuse me ma’am, are you alright?”

The sounds of the new voices were calming her down. Those voices drowned out the cries of pain that were attacking her mind. She looked away from the ground and looked up to the pair of ponies that had found her.

“*Gasp!*” But then fear struck Carousel when she saw them. She tried backing away.

“Whoa, hey… don’t worry, we don’t want to hurt you.” There were two unicorn ponies in front of Carousel. One was an adult mare while the other one was just a little filly.

The sight of the filly unicorn brought fear to Carousel’s mind. The images of that injured filly were about to attack her mind again. But then, the unicorn filly in front of her walked closer to her, with something in her mouth. The filly set it down in front of her.

“Here, I think you dropped,” the filly said. It was the yellow amulet that she had just recently gotten back. Carousel carefully placed a hoof on it. The painful images came to a complete stop. She gave a deep sigh of relief seeing that the pain had been relieved.

“I’m sorry, my name is, Amethyst Star,” the older unicorn said. “But, you may call me Sparkler. And this is my little sister, Dinky.”

“Hello!” the little filly responded.

“You look like you’re hurt, we can take you to the hospital if you’d like.”

Carousel picked the amulet in her hooves and set it close to her. She gave a nod in response to the two unicorns that had offered to help. Their presence had eased her mind somehow. She allowed the two unicorns to aid her up to her hooves, escorting her to whatever destination they had in mind.

______________________________________________________________________________

Current day:

“Oh… my…” Fluttershy was quite taken aback by these events that were stated. She had managed to recover somewhat from her traumatized state earlier, but still held onto Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash however was still being irritated by what Carousel was telling. She obviously wasn’t going to get an answer unless she brought it up.

“Okay Carousel, what is going on?” Rainbow Dash started. She pointed a hoof at her while keeping the other wrapped around Fluttershy. “You’ve been telling us all about how important this amulet is to you, but you’ve never mentioned what it does or what it was for.”

“Um… it’s a flash light?” Fluttershy hesitantly suggested. Rainbow Dash gave Fluttershy an odd look in response. “She said it gave off a light so bright, it blinded her.”

“That amulet is so important to her because it creates light?” Rainbow Dash asked in an exaggerated tone.

“Mmm… m-maybe it’s Equestria’s brightest flash light ever?” Fluttershy said with an embarrassing smile. After all, some ponies would find such precious emotions in the smallest of things, no matter how ridiculous it was.

Rainbow Dash looked over to Carousel for a response. But she didn’t respond. She just dropped her eye lids, scrunching her face.

Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up. She could just barely hear some sort of cranking noise going on, somewhere nearby from where they were. She could just barely feel the entire facility move in an odd way. It was short, but it made her realize something.

This facility must've been floating in the skies.

Rainbow Dash groaned with an irritated sigh. Whatever that amulet was for, either Carousel couldn't remember, or she was purposefully not telling them. The latter seemed to be the more likely one.

“Look, the next day is the day everything starts happening,” Rainbow Dash continued in a softer voice. “We better get some answers as to what is going on, or we’re through with this charade!”

Fluttershy could see the seriousness in Rainbow Dash’s eyes. If things didn’t make sense soon, they were never going to learn what happened.

Fluttershy gave a nervous gulp when the story continued again.
> Chapter 9: Limits
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Warning: Not for the fragile mind.


3 days ago:

*Flash*

There was a bright flash of light. It was all Rainbow Dash was seeing right now. She could still hear its flashing sound. The sound was dimming away but it was still present.

There was the silhouette of a single pony in the center of the light. That pony started approaching as the bright areas behind started to close like a door. 

Deja vu suddenly struck Rainbow Dash. This scene felt all too similar.

Now, she remembered why. Fear returned to her. She couldn’t move. Her limbs were strapped down to a table that changed forms. The table was currently positioned so that her body faced in the door’s direction. The whole room was void, even with the bright light emitting in front of her.

Rainbow Dash felt an aching pain on her shoulders. There was a lot of pressure on them. Her neck area was very hot and sticky. She had sweat on her forehead. Even her wings were pained. There was a sharp sting that outlined her wing areas, along with one in the center of each. 

All these areas seemed to connect to the fabric she was currently wearing. But Rainbow Dash couldn’t see what it was. She was forced to look straight ahead at the opened doors bringing in such bright light.

The doors were closing, allowing Rainbow Dash to see clearer. As the light continued to disappear, the silhouette of the pony started to become clear. Despite there being no light in the surrounding areas, the pony’s form was clear. 

“Ah, Applejack, it’s so good of you to join me.” Rainbow Dash heard the voice of Rarity behind her. Indeed in front of her was Applejack. Rainbow Dash noticed a tool kit that Applejack seemed to be holding before she set it down in front of her.

“Course ah did, Rarity. Ah brought the tools like ya asked.” The tool kit was opened up by Rarity’s magic.

“Hey there, Rainbow Dash, you look mighty plum tuckered out there,” Applejack continued. Something was being lifted out of the tool kit due to Rarity’s magic. What Rainbow Dash saw, made her wince in fear. It appeared to be a power drill, to which Applejack took into her hooves.

A shiver went down to Rainbow Dash’s spine as she felt a brush running through her mane. The brush suddenly jolted aggressively.

“AAAaahhh…” Rainbow Dash’s head was forced upwards to look at Rarity. She seemed to be standing on something that gave her extra height if she was able to get that close to Rainbow Dash’s face. Rarity was holding a menacing smile on her face.

“But of course she is tuckered out, Applejack,” Rarity started in a dramatically sympathetic way. “She has been working so hard lately that she can no longer keep up with herself.”

“…Nnngh…” Rainbow Dash continued to whimper as Rarity forced her head to be held up high. She winced when she heard the sound of a power drill revving on.

“And that’s what we’re here for, Rarity,” Applejack said in a darker tone. “We’re here ta make sure that her energy is never faltered again.”

Rainbow Dash’s hind leg twitched in fear when she felt a hoof press against it. Due to the straps on the table, Rainbow Dash couldn’t move her limbs out of place. 

*Shriek!* Now, Rainbow Dash felt the power drill, drilling through the hard surfaces of her right hind hoof.

“Nnnngaaahhh!” Rainbow Dash saw sparks before she closed her eyes, writhing in agony as the drill was piercing through her limb. Despite the fact that she was trying to pull her leg back, it wouldn’t move due to the straps.

A huge amount of pressure and pain was being applied to Rainbow Dash’s hoof as it was being drilled. It was going in deep.

*Shriek!* “Ugh… that dreadful noise is unbearable…” That loud screeching noise coming from the power drill seemed to be upsetting Rarity. But the grip she held on Rainbow Dash’s mane still remained.

“That only means it’s workin’, Rarity!” Applejack responded to Rarity’s notion. *Shriek!* “She’ll never grow tired after this!”

The sounds coming from the power drill seemed to be dimming away. The rising pain that Rainbow Dash was feeling came to a halt. Her hoof however was left with a very uncomfortable pressure of pain.

Rainbow Dash gasped and panted. She could feel her sweat sliding slowly down her forehead. Her head was released from Rarity’s grip, leaving her neck sore after being kept held high for that long. She hesitantly looked down to her right hind leg.

There was quite a well-rounded hole graved near the edge of the hard surface on her hoof. Rainbow Dash saw a cylinder-like gem being levitated towards that hole. It stopped moving when Rainbow Dash started feeling a brush running through her mane, slowly.

“Ahh, Rainbow Dash… your mane is just as colorful as these gems,” Rarity said as she brushed the multi-colored mane. “They are as powerful as they are beautiful, the perfect fit for a mare like you. With these gems… you’ll never fail, EVER again!” The pointed end of the gem went first, entering directly inside the hole that was made on Rainbow Dash’s leg.

“Aaahh…” Rainbow Dash attempted to suppress a yelp. The gem was being forced inside of the hoof, but stopped when it hit something inside. Whatever it was poking was making Rainbow Dash very sensitive right now. The gem was still sticking out of her hoof.

“Hmm… seems ah didn’t drill far enough,” Applejack said as she placed a hoof to her chin. She reached into the tool kit again. What she took out made Rainbow Dash cringe.

Applejack held a hammer in her mouth. She took the hammer and aimed it towards the gem that was sticking inside Rainbow Dash’s drilled hoof. Without warning, she swiped the hammer with great speed, leaving Rainbow Dash just seconds to look away and brace for impact. 

*PING!* “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” The scream echoed throughout the void. The pain was unbearable.

“There we go, Rarity?”

“Yes, Applejack.”

Rainbow Dash grinded her teeth as she attempted to recover such a specific force of incision. Her right hind leg was vibrating uncontrollably. The sound of the power drill revving up became apparent again.

Rainbow Dash slowly opened one eye, fearing she would regret doing so. She saw Applejack drilling a bolt through the hole in her hoof.

“Nnnngh…” Rainbow Dash winced as more pressure was being applied to her hoof. The uncontrollable shaking wasn’t helping either. Soon the bolt was drilled in, filling the hole in her hoof completely, along with concealing that gem.

*Click* The gem that was implanted inside Rainbow Dash’s hoof gave off a bright glow. It was bright enough to see outside of the hoof. Before she had much of a chance to recover, the sound of the drill revving up was heard again.

“Success, time ta move on ta the next,” Applejack stated while moving the drill towards Rainbow Dash’s left hind leg. Rainbow Dash felt a brush tug on her mane before she saw the drill connect.

“…Nngh…” Rainbow Dash’s head was forced to turn up, looking at Rarity. 

“Hmm…” Rarity sounded like she was humming an idea, placing a hoof on her chin.

*Shriek!* “Mmm… MMMmmhhh!” Rainbow Dash groaned, trying to endure the piercing pressure that the drill was putting on her hoof. She could see the flashing of the sparks coming from that drill being reflected like lights on Rarity’s face.

“*Gasp* Ideeaaa!” Rarity announced. “Applejack, do be a dear and hurry that along.” The shrieking sound suddenly dimmed away. The pain Rainbow Dash was feeling subsided.

“Okay, Rarity, lay it on me,” Applejack responded.

Rainbow Dash saw Rarity levitating another cylinder shaped gem down to where Applejack was. Rainbow Dash whimpered. There was no way that incision was any deeper than the previous. Rainbow Dash put a stronger force on her head to attempt to look down towards her hind leg. Rarity seemed to allow this as Rainbow Dash had managed to do so.

Rainbow Dash saw the gem being inserted into the small hole that was engraved into the hard surface of her left hind hoof. There was more pressure on it than there was pain, but Applejack was looking at Rarity like they were passing ideas. 

Applejack had a hammer in her mouth, but then she decided to toss it away towards the ground. She had a smirk on her face before she turned around, lifting one of her hind legs.

Rainbow Dash gasped at this motion. Fear struck all over her body. She knew what was coming. Rainbow Dash turned her head away, trying her best to brace herself, biting her teeth down hard.

*Smash!* Applejack kicked the gem with a mighty blow, inserting it quickly into Rainbow Dash’s leg.

“AAAAAAAHHHHwmmmph!!!” Rainbow Dash’s screams were halted when another gem was shoved into her mouth. Rarity was using a hoof to keep them gem inside her mouth, using the other hoof to be set under Rainbow Dash’s chin. Putting pressure against the gem and her throat, Rarity caused Rainbow Dash to swallow the gem.

There was a visible lump showing the gem’s presence, sliding down Rainbow Dash’s body until it reached her belly area.

*Smack!* That was when Applejack gave another kick, right in the area where the gem was.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!” *SHRIEK!!!* At the same time Rainbow Dash felt the force of Applejack’s kick being placed on her stomach; more power drills suddenly came into contact on both of Rainbow Dash’s strapped forehooves, drilling away at their hard surfaces.

“AAAAAHHHH!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” *Shriek!* Rainbow Dash couldn’t even see with all the sparks flying about due to those power drills. They were drilling through her hooves with no mercy.

There was a large amount of pain put on Rainbow Dash’s stomach. Her right hind leg was vibrating in soreness with a lot of pressure put on it while her left hind leg was having a bolt being screwed in to cover the gem. Rainbow Dash’s shoulders and wings held a very uncomfortable sting having a large cape being connected directly on her coat due to the needles. Her neck was very sore having that same fabric being burned onto her coat. Both of Rainbow Dash’s forehooves were directly being power drilled through, causing such an agonizing pain to her.

So, much, pain. It really hurt. Rainbow Dash was losing her senses. It became so much harder to concentrate.

______________________________________________________________________________

Before she knew it, the shrieking halted. The gems were already placed.

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes after managing to recover. She saw that the bolts had already been applied to all four of her limbs. The gems gave off a bright light emanating within each limb. Applejack was no longer in front of her and she couldn’t hear Rarity anymore.

*Creak* The table that Rainbow Dash was strapped to had begun to shift around again. Rainbow Dash’s body was being turned upwards to face the skies of the voided room she was in. The table started moving in the direction Rainbow Dash’s head was in. While the table was moving her, the table shifted its shape. Rainbow Dash’s forehooves were being brought to her sides while her hind legs were connecting straight.

Rainbow Dash saw some kind of bar passing just above her. In the corners of her eyes, she saw Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack. Rarity was standing with Applejack while Pinkie Pie was standing on the opposite side of them from whatever contraption she was entering.

"She is finally ready," she heard Pinkie say.

“She will become, perfection,” she heard Rarity say.

“She will be the hardest worker ever,” she heard Applejack say.

The next line was spoken by all three of them at the same time. “She will never fail one of us, EVER AGAIN!”

Fail. That word struck Rainbow Dash’s mind like a solid rock. Her mind tried to reel back towards previous events that happened earlier. But as soon as she tried that, her mind wavered uncontrollably. She got very dizzy.

*Beat* The sound of a heart beat resonated in the area again.

*Bzzz!* The machine above her suddenly burst into electricity. Rainbow Dash’s eyes grew wide in shock.

“Ahh, aahhh!” Rainbow Dash panicked, trying get away, only to be held down by the straps. The electricity came dangerously close, more specifically, close to her face. To make matters worse, the fabric she wore felt as if it would concentrate all this electricity to flow only around her body. It felt highly conductive. When it connected, Rainbow Dash’s vision was blinded by a bright light.

______________________________________________________________________________

*BZZZ!* “AAAHHHH!” Rainbow Dash awoke to something zapping her wildly beneath her. She looked beneath her to see what she was lying on. 

Rainbow Dash groaned seeing that she had just created another black cloud due to her dreams. The worst part was that she decided to nap on a cloud that was much larger than she usually uses. She was so frustrated at the sight of that cloud.

Instead of trying to turn it back to normal, Rainbow Dash just took off into the air. She then headed straight back, striking the cloud with her hooves, causing the cloud to dissipate.

“*Groan…* what is wrong with me!?” Rainbow Dash asked herself as she braced both forehooves against her head. She really tried to make sense why these dreams were suddenly happening so often. The only conclusion she could come up with was her recent failures over everything lately.

First she had failed to retrieve an artifact stolen from Baltimare. Then she had taken too long to return to Ponyville in order to get Pinkie that medicine. And of course, no matter how hard she tried, she could not get her friends to understand exactly what was going on in her dreams. Not to mention she still had to figure out what the weather team did with that storm near Carousel Boutique.

“I am not a failure!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “I’m just getting too tired too quickly! There’s too much going on!” Rainbow Dash knew that if something wasn’t done, this would keep happening. She had to do something about this. She didn’t want to keep letting her friends down like this.

Taking a look at the position of the sun in the sky, Rainbow Dash could tell that it was still pretty early in the morning. Regardless, Rainbow Dash had her next destination in mind. She flew off in the direction of the cottage near the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy was most likely home at this time.
> Chapter 10: Fortune’s Message
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	3 days ago:

“*Pant, pant*”

Her breathing was steady, but her mind was scrambled. There was nothing she could hear but a very high pitched screeching sound. The void in her mind rushed through multiple images. She saw many ponies as she was rushed through. There was so much destruction, so much fire surrounding her as her mind rushed through the void. Everything was being sucked in, until suddenly, she woke up.

“*Gasp!*”

Carousel shot her head up from the bed she was sleeping in. There was a dull pain coursing all around her body, but a sharp one coursing through her head. The high pitched screeching was leaving her ears. She heard very soft muffles surrounding her. But before she was able to come to her senses, she felt some hooves grab on to her.

“Nnngh…” Carousel struggled to get herself loose from those hooves’ grips on her. She could hear some muffles of voices going on around her, sounding like they were telling her to stay still.

Getting some of her senses back, Carousel managed to see the ponies that were trying to hold her down. Based on the way they were dressed, along with the bandages on her body, she could tell that she was at a hospital. She had to get out of here.

“Get, off of me!” Carousel shouted, attempting to release herself off of the bed. It felt like she managed to release some cables that were attached to her.

“Calm down ma’am!” Carousel heard the voices say. Her hearing was becoming clearer. “You have to calm down before you hurt yourself!”

*Beeeeep* Carousel could hear a loud audible beep sound that continued to play.

“I said, get off of me!” Carousel shoved one of the ponies away, causing them to stumble backwards on the floor. Carousel managed to get herself off the bed. Two other ponies however were still gripped on to her.

“Ma’am, stop it!” one of the ponies yelled.

“She's hallucinating, we have to get her back to bed, stat!” another one yelled.

“Grr… I said, LEAVE ME ALONE!” Carousel yelled. She started vibrating her wings, using the wind and force to weaken their grip.

*Smack* Carousel took this moment to punch the pony gripping at her left side. That blow caused the pony to get knocked away, crashing into a stand of medical supplies. The impact caused those supplies to fall off their shelves, shattering on the ground.

“Stop it! Somepony, get help!” the last pony gripping her said. The first one that she shoved out of bed scrambled to their hooves and fled the room.

“Graah!” Carousel grabbed the pony’s head, shoving it downward towards the floor, causing their head to bounce off. That force caused the pony to lose their hold on Carousel. Carousel finished off by spinning around and kicking that pony away. The pony was sent flying towards the wall, crashing hard into it. The pony dropped to the floor unconscious, leaving a crack on the wall.

“*Pant, pant*” Carousel panted, trying to recover her exhaustion after being able to free herself.

An alarm sounded around the hospital. Carousel had to act fast, otherwise there would surely be more ponies trying to stop her. Within her tail, Carousel still had that yellow amulet wrapped around it. She kept it with her even with those ponies trying to take it from her. 

Carousel used her tail to toss the amulet towards one of the windows in the room. When the amulet impacted the window, instead of it shattering, it just flung open due to the amulet’s force. Carousel immediately took flight, shooting straight outside the building, catching the amulet in her tail before it dropped too far. Her flight path started immediately towards some woods before anything else, allowing her to lose any possible pursuers.

“*Pant, pant*” Carousel placed her hooves on her forehead as she flew. She gathered her thoughts, clearing her mind. Today, she was supposed to meet with a certain unicorn she met yesterday. That’s where she was going now.

Carousel took a look at all of the bandages that covered her body. She started to remove them immediately, ripping them off of her body, and throwing them away. All of the pain in Carousel’s body started to ease after the bandages had been removed. She took a deep sigh as she placed a hoof towards her collar, moving it up and down, relaxing her spirits. The headache she had was going away. Her emotions were calm now. There was no more pain surrounding her body.

Carousel changed her flight path to fly towards the direction of where she met that unicorn, no longer being concealed within the woods.

______________________________________________________________________________

Out in the center of a meadow area deep within a forest in an unknown location in Equestria, there was a blue unicorn with a smooth flowing mane that had two different shades of a lighter blue. She was lying on a pile of pinecones with a bored look on her face, dangling a hoof off the side of the pile. She was just waiting there. She even looked towards a watch she randomly wore on her hoof, just watching the time go by as she waited.

This unicorn was close to considering leaving the area, yet she waited. She looked up to the sky, and waited. The breeze blew through her graceful flowing mane, and she waited. She listened to the beautiful singing sounds of the birds chirping throughout the forest, and she waited. She closed her eyes, spawning a hair brush to brush her mane, keeping it in its graceful flow, and she waited.

She waited, and she waited.

______________________________________________________________________________

Carousel managed to find the blue unicorn she was looking for deep within the forest she found her before. The unicorn’s patience was rewarded. Carousel landed calmly in front of the center meadow area in the forest, standing in front of the pile of pinecones where the unicorn lay.

There was a silent tension in the air as the two ponies stared at each other. Carousel held her amulet high in the air, using her tail, making sure the unicorn saw it. The unicorn broke the tension.

“You’ve kept Trixie waiting, what took you so long?” the unicorn asked.

Carousel thought back to the scene at the hospital before hesitantly answering. “…Something held me up.”

“Hmph… it doesn’t matter, now that you’re here.” 

The unicorn flashed her horn, sending a large magical wave of light around the surrounding area. She jumped off of the pile of pinecones as the magical aura caused them to disappear from sight. The unicorn slowly walked towards Carousel.

“A pegasus and a griffon, clashing in a mighty duel against each other,” the unicorn started. “This is certainly a great and powerful battle of epic proportions… and suicidal to the ponies who dare attempt such a thing.”

The unicorn circled Carousel as she emitted random lights around the area with her magic. The outside area was becoming difficult to see. Carousel cautiously eyed the unicorn as she circled her body. The unicorn was the only thing that was clearly focused in the surrounding area.

The unicorn stopped in front of Carousel, giving a somewhat disappointing sigh, shaking her head. The unicorn’s horn flashed again.

“It is such a shame…” Carousel’s mind was suddenly pulled into direct focus towards the unicorn’s face. The world around her rushed.

*Pierce*  “Aaanngh…” Carousel suddenly felt a very sharp pain in the back of her neck. It felt like claws piercing through her coat. She couldn’t move and struggled to breath. She could only stare at the unicorn in front of her. But now, she heard a voice behind her.

“And now, this griffon is here to take back what is rightfully hers!” It was the voice of the griffon she had fought yesterday to take back that amulet she was currently holding in her tail. And now, that griffon was taking that amulet in her claws, releasing it from Carousel’s tail.

The griffon released her claws from Carousel’s neck. Carousel slowly dropped down, her body collapsing to the side as she plummeted towards the ground. 

“…Nnnh…” Carousel grunted as she tried to focus on the unicorn above her. Her vision wavered. Before she could say anything else, she lost conscious.

______________________________________________________________________________

“…Nnngh…”

Carousel groaned as she slowly opened her eyes, managing to regain conscious. She saw that she was still in a forest, seeing the leaves blow from their branches. She picked herself up to all four legs, checking her surroundings.

Not a pony, griffon, nor creature was in sight. She was all alone in this meadow.

Carousel’s emotions riled up. Her body tensed up and shivered violently. She gave a low growl, scrunching her eye lids in a glare.

But then, her emotions stopped. Something was wrong. Despite what she could’ve sworn happened earlier, something felt off.

That unicorn that she met today, she worked with that griffon to take the amulet back. The amulet was gone again. The unicorn distracted her while the griffon struck her in the back of her neck so that they could take it back.

But that pain in the back of her neck wasn’t present, yet the amulet was nowhere to be seen. She put her hoof to the back of her neck to check.

*BZZT!* “AAAAHHH!!!” As soon as she placed her hoof on it, something started shocking her violently.

Reality was slowing down to her. The pain was becoming duller. Everything was graying out.

______________________________________________________________________________

Everything came to a complete stop, including her own body and pain. In the midst of all this, she heard something.

“You are so gullible my little admirer,” the voice said. It sounded like the unicorn from earlier. “I find it hard to believe you actually defeated a griffon. Then again, I guess you could say that you didn’t really defeat her. But thanks to you, this little problem has been has taken care of so that it’ll never happen again.” The voice paused for a second. It was odd the way she was speaking.

“You should be so proud of yourself. Your gullibility has probably given you the greatest accomplishment ever. If you wish to receive your prize-” the voice stopped suddenly. New visions came to Carousel. She saw a large mountain that pierced high in the skies. On the side of that mountain appeared to be an entire city. But the image pointed towards the bottom of the mountain. “-go to this mountain. You will find what you’re looking for.” An image of the amulet appeared just before the images started fading, and everything was returning to normal.

______________________________________________________________________________

The color returned to her surroundings. Everything started moving again. Carousel no longer felt any pain, not even from around her neck. That unicorn must’ve used that wound to engrave a message to Carousel that would play when she became aware of it.

Yet rage still fueled her to the core. Her amulet was still gone. Until she had that back in her possession, she would not calm down.

“AAAAAHHHH!!!” Her screaming resonated so loudly, some of the birds in the forest started flapping away, escaping the forest’s loud shrieks.

Carousel immediately took flight, flying straight over the trees of the forest, passing straight through the leaves, which were snapped off of the branches they stuck to. Carousel’s next destination was clear as day. 

Off in the distance, she could see the mountain, so far away. It was indeed a very large mountain. Carousel started flying towards it, with no other thoughts in her mind. She didn’t care if it was possibly another trap. She didn’t care about how far she had to travel. All that mattered was getting her amulet back.
> Chapter 11: Stamina Solution
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	3 days ago:

“Aaarrgh!”

Rainbow Dash struggled a flock of birds piled around her limbs. She was currently hovering in mid-air, in the fields near the cottage that belong to Fluttershy. These birds were trying to immobilize Rainbow Dash, but all they were managing were bringing her lower towards the ground. 

“Haa!” Rainbow Dash flung her limbs around, causing some of the birds latched on to her to be tossed off. Some of their feathers scattered as they crashed towards the grass.

The birds had managed to bring Rainbow Dash close enough towards the ground, that the land critters were able to reach her. Squirrels, mice, ferrets, and other such rodents started clinging and climbing onto her when she came within reach.

“Nnngh!” Rainbow Dash strained herself attempting her continuous struggles. Her limbs were aching, yet she kept resisting. She threw one of her limbs towards the side, causing some of the creatures latched on to get thrown off, but more kept coming.

Fluttershy watched on the sidelines, keeping her eyes on Rainbow Dash. One of the animals, a squirrel, which Rainbow Dash had thrown off, flew and crashed close by to Fluttershy. The squirrel immediately picked itself back up and charged straight for Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy kept her eyes on Rainbow Dash, but she was growing a little worried. This had been going on for a while, yet Rainbow Dash never requested in any way for this to stop. Once Rainbow Dash had started something, she would persist on it until she was satisfied. Fluttershy never doubted Rainbow Dash’s abilities, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t worry about her.

The animals persisted in pulling Rainbow Dash’s body towards the ground, clinging onto even her wings. Rainbow Dash pushed on them while the animals pushed back. The animals nearly surrounded her body.

“Grr! Raah!” Rainbow Dash put a burst of adrenaline through her body, putting more strength in her muscles. In the sudden surge of her struggles, she knocked off all of the animals that had covered her body as she managed to fly back into the air. The small critters were scattered all over the place, littering the field with their bodies.

“*Pant, pant*” Rainbow Dash panted as she checked her surroundings, looking for anything else that would try to pin her down.

*RAAAWWWRR!!!* The roaring sound of a larger animal had made itself present. Rainbow Dash looked off towards the direction it came from. A few distances next to Fluttershy, was a large bear pawing at the grass roughly. This bear was glaring directly towards Rainbow Dash. He started charging immediately.

Rainbow Dash stood her position in the air, focusing on the bear that charged towards her. Her muscles ached, her body strained, sweat drenched her forehead, yet she still kept at it. She was determined to take this one on.

*Crash* “Aaaahhrr!” The bear came into contact with Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash attempted to stop his charge with her forehooves, using her wings to push against his weight. The bear’s push had slowed down and eventually came to a halt due to the wing power of Rainbow Dash’s wings.

Rainbow Dash’s strength allowed her to push against the bear’s head, causing him to slide backwards across the fields. The bear let out another violent roar. He changed his position, allowing the force of Rainbow Dash’s push to get himself to stand on his hind legs, allowing his forepaws to grab onto Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash grunted as she tried to get out of the bear’s grip. Her limbs and her wings were secured in his paws. Rainbow Dash wiggled her body, pressuring her limbs and wings to release herself from his grip. Her wiggling allowed herself to spread the bear’s paws apart, allowing Rainbow Dash to continue pushing against him.

The bear still had his grips on Rainbow Dash’s body, but left none of her limbs secure. Rainbow Dash was able to use her wings to maintain her power. She put in a lot of force in her hooves and wings to give a mighty push to the bear, causing him to slide through the fields a few distances backwards. It was like a titan being shoved by another titan as the bear’s sliding caused dirt to be shred off the ground as he slid along, only he was pushed by a pony quite smaller than him.

When the bear managed to halt his sliding, he stomped on the ground with his front paws, giving off a loud roar in the process. He charged for Rainbow Dash again. Rainbow Dash stood her ground, or in this case her air as she was still hovering. She braced herself for yet another impact.

But this time, before the bear came within range, he leapt off of the ground, aiming to land straight towards Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash changed her bracing position to catch the bear in the air, attempting to stop him from crushing her.

But when the bear came into contact, Rainbow Dash was unable to resist his weight. All the strain in Rainbow Dash’s body left herself strength less to keep herself in the air. The bear’s weight led both of them to crash towards the ground.

“Gaah!” Rainbow Dash tried to push the bear off of her. The bear glared directly at Rainbow Dash, bringing his head closer slowly, giving off a low audible growl. Rainbow Dash continued to try to escape her fate. The bear’s head just got closer and closer. 

Suddenly, the bear brought out his tongue, licking Rainbow Dash’s face with it.

“…Mmmph…” Rainbow Dash’s struggles had finally halted when that large tongue came into contact. That bear smiled while he lathered his tongue along Rainbow Dash’s face. The bear’s licks traced through her cheeks to her closed eye lids, leaving saliva trails drenching her. Rainbow Dash found it hard to breathe as the ferocious bear tasted around her snout. Rainbow Dash’s tired body laid there, limbs and wings fallen flat on the grass, defeated as this bear licked her across her cheek, her head lying sideways on the grass.

“Oh dear,” Fluttershy said, placing a hoof over her mouth as she saw the situation. She flew over towards Rainbow Dash and the bear that was attacking her with his licks.

When Fluttershy arrived next to them, the bear had stopped his licks, picking himself off of Rainbow Dash in the process to allow Fluttershy to check on her.

“Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy looked over Rainbow Dash’s form, making sure that she was okay.

“…Nnngh…” Rainbow Dash grunted before opening her eyes. Feeling that her face was covered in saliva, she used her hooves to wipe some of it off before picking herself up off the ground, into a sitting position. Fluttershy gave off a sigh of relief, seeing that Rainbow Dash was okay. 

“Good boy,” Fluttershy said as she started petting the bear under his chin. The bear gave off a purr of delight, liking the stroking.

“Ahh, that was a great work out,” Rainbow Dash announced, dusting herself off. “Well, come on! Let’s get ready for round two!”

“Round two?” Fluttershy asked, surprised. The bear that was by her side started walking away. “Oh, but Rainbow Dash, I don’t think we can do a round two, look at them.” Fluttershy pointed towards the animals that were attacking Rainbow Dash. They were all panting and sweating in some form. Some of them were even lying flat on the ground. “I don’t think they can go another round today. You’ve been going at this for hours.”

Rainbow Dash sighed at this, letting her body drop back to sitting. There wasn’t anything she could do about that. The whole reason she was training herself like this was to get herself in better shape when it came to long tasks. Since she had time off of anything important, this was the perfect time to work on her stamina.

“Tch, tch, tch,” Fluttershy made an odd clicking sound with her mouth while she looked over towards some bushes. Rainbow Dash saw that the bushes released a large flock of butterflies heading towards her direction. Fluttershy must have called them over if that was the case.

The butterflies gathered around Rainbow Dash and surrounded her body, leaving the front of her open for air. Rainbow Dash gave a deep sigh as the butterflies relaxed her tired body. It was strange how these insects had the ability to soothe aching muscles like this.

Rainbow Dash stretched out her wings, allowing the butterflies to flutter towards many of her aching pressure points, easing all sorts of soreness and pain. She could feel the adrenaline rushing back to her wings and legs. The best part about being sore was that treatments like these always felt better.

Fluttershy was definitely the best animal caretaker that Rainbow Dash ever knew. There was always something awesome about her animals, and this moment was only proving it further. She recalled one time when she witnessed a flock of butterflies; she was bored out of her mind. But the butterflies Fluttershy owned herself certainly had some interesting traits. One even had the guts to snatch a favorite toy that belonged to a ferocious cat named Opalescence. Rainbow Dash learned that day that even some of the most boring or fragile creatures could end up being awesome.

In fact, the reason why these animals were being awesome today was because of their hopes for becoming somepony's pet in the future. Sure, Fluttershy was a great animal caretaker, but there was a difference that these animals saw between having a home at all, and being somepony's personal pet. Fluttershy could only make sure that their new owners would treat them right. And if these animals wanted to make themselves look great by pushing themselves like this against Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy didn't want to stop them if it meant they had a better chance of finding that somepony that would take them in as their pet.

“How do you feel, Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked, watching the butterflies work their magical touch on Rainbow Dash.

“Mmm… better,” Rainbow Dash responded. “Thanks for helping me out with this, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy smiled proudly at the compliment.

Rainbow Dash picked herself off the ground and back on her hooves, letting out a prideful grunted sigh in the process. The butterflies that had surrounded her were now leaving her form.

“Say, Fluttershy, how has Tank been doing?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I haven’t seen him since I left him with you when I was busy setting up that huge storm a few days ago.”

“Tank? He’s been doing well,” Fluttershy responded. She pointed a hoof towards what appeared to be a small house made for animals. “He’s still in his little home over there.” Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy started walking towards the house after Fluttershy announced it. “I left Angel with him to wax his shell.”

“Angel huh?” Rainbow Dash said. “I hope his shell is spotless and shiny. That shell needs to be well maintained with all the flying he does.”

Fluttershy giggled at this remark. To think that a tortoise of all things would spend more time in the air than on the ground, Rainbow Dash’s influence really changed that tortoise’s life. It’s too bad that to this day, he still has trouble steering that rotor on his shell properly.

“Of course, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy stated as they reached the small home. “Angel has been a big help, and he’s really taking good care of Tank’s shell.” She opened the door that led inside of the little home. “See?”

Inside, both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could clearly see the white bunny known as Angel, and the green tortoise known as Tank. Angel was busy rubbing the top of Tank’s shell with a smooth white rag.

Angel proudly removed the rag from the shell, examining his work. The shell gave off a bright shine. He could practically see himself in the shell’s shining reflection. Angel was really proud of this work-

-Until a very small dust particle fell from the ceiling of the small house, landing slowly and softly, but directly on the shining spot of the shell. 

As soon as that particle touched the shell, Angel’s mood went 180. He scrunched his face in a frowning malicious form, shivering his body in a pent up rage, crushing the rag in his grip in the process. He gave off a bunny yell, threw the rag away, and started beating on the shell with his paws. He stomped on it repeatedly even.

Tank had become aware of the beating and was not happy about it. He looked up at the bunny, crouched his legs, and then pushed against the floor, causing his shell to rise towards the ceiling. This caused Angel to hit his head on the ceiling as a result, causing him to halt his attack.

Angel rubbed his head in frustration. He stared down at the tortoise, giving off a deep growl in between his gritted teeth. He jumped off the shell, lunging down towards the tortoise’s head. Tank retracted his head back in his shell, causing Angel to miss and slam into the ground. He picked himself up immediately and darted straight inside the hole of the shell that contained his head, disappearing inside. A large audible beating could be heard inside, causing the shell to shake in the air.

Fluttershy gasped loudly seeing how quickly the situation changed. She immediately closed the house’s door, placing her back against it. She gave a nervous laugh looking back at Rainbow Dash trying to hide what was going on.

“Ahahaha… they’re just… uh… playing?” Fluttershy said nervously.

*Boom!* A loud explosion could be heard inside the small house which could even be seen from the house’s obnoxious shake when it occurred. Fluttershy wandered her eyes a little bit, but then looked back at Rainbow Dash, giving off that innocent, yet nervous smile.

Rainbow Dash gave a displeased frown at the gesture. She could even see a sweat gland sliding down Fluttershy’s forehead. But before Rainbow Dash had a chance to say anything, she heard the sound of hooves landing on the ground not too far by behind her. She took a glance at its direction.

“Oh, look! The Mail Pony’s here!” Fluttershy said frantically. She darted as fast as she could towards the cottage’s mail box, zipping past Rainbow Dash, causing the force of that sudden speed to make her spin in place. Rainbow Dash stopped herself soon after, but not before her eyes could stop spinning. Fluttershy slammed into the mail pony, causing him to be knocked away from the mail box, dropping a lot of mail contents as a result. 

“Oh… let’s see… what do we have here?” Fluttershy said at an unusual panicked speed, frantically trying to check her mail box for anything to distract the situation.

Rainbow Dash grunted as she closed her eyes, placing a hoof to her head to regain her composure. No longer being dizzy, she turned back to the small house containing Tank and Angel. It was oddly quiet now despite what occurred earlier, or at least what she believed occurred earlier. She approached the door, ready to open it to take a look inside.

*Smack!* The door flung open, smacking Rainbow Dash so hard, it caused her to get flung away. Rainbow Dash was flung straight for the cottage doors, near Fluttershy’s mailbox. Her back was turned away from the door when she crashed, causing more of the mail to be flung in the air.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy was still frantically searching her mail box’s contents. She could hear some of Fluttershy’s words.

“Candy delivery… advertisement of tools… a tournament announcement… hospital stockings, oh my… um…” Fluttershy continued looking through for anything that was addressed or related to her subscriptions. None of these seemed to be her mail, but she continued looking for a distraction.

Rainbow Dash however groaned at one of the words Fluttershy used. “…Tournament? Oh, you’ve got to be-“ her silent speech was halted when one of the letters landed on her face. She picked it up in one of her hooves, thinking to just throw it aside, but halted when she noticed what it titled. 

“What the?... Hey, Fluttershy, look at this,” Rainbow Dash said while picking herself up from the ground. Fluttershy halted her rummaging, dropping all of the letters on the ground before hovering over to where Rainbow Dash was to see what she found.

______________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, Tank and Angel were still fighting with each other, inside the shell. Angel was shot out of the shell, bumping into a beaver in order to halt his momentum. The beaver yelled at Angel, smacking his tail at Angel, causing him to be flung towards another direction, stopping on the grass.

Angel gritted his teeth and growled in anger. He picked up random sticks on the ground and threw them at the beaver. The beaver dodged the stick, but the stick managed to impact a currently unstable home that more beavers could be seen building. The weight of the stick caused it to collapse. 

Seeing their unfinished home destroyed, all of the beavers gave a cry for battle. They each picked up a piece of lumber from their home, turning to the bunny that caused this.

Angel gave off a nervous smile and gulped at the situation. Before he knew it, he saw a barrage of objects being flung towards his direction. He ducked for cover, allowing the lumber to fly past him. 

But their path of destruction came upon the same bear that Rainbow Dash was wrestling earlier. That bear currently had many other animals attached to his back. They all jumped out when those many pieces of lumber started hitting and sticking to the bear’s back. The bear turned around, looking towards the beavers, giving off a predatory growl. The other little critters that were attached to his back joined in as well. The beavers gulped nervously in response.

______________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy sat next to each other side by side, looking at the contents of the mail that Rainbow Dash held in her hoof.

“Dressing appointment canceled?” Rainbow Dash asked as she read the front cover.

“This letter is addressed to Rarity, and it was sent from Hoofington,” Fluttershy added.

“But, that doesn’t make any sense,” Rainbow Dash continued. “Rarity left for Hoofington yesterday, didn’t she? Why would they be telling her by mail?” 

While Rainbow and Fluttershy were discussing with each other, the animals were practically turning the garden into a warzone. They were both unaware of the chaos going on behind them.

“Maybe they didn’t meet up yet?” Fluttershy theorized.

“It’s not just that though, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash continued. “Rarity was going on and on about how she’s been trying to get that appointment re-scheduled for a later date, but they never accepted it. So why now?”

Fluttershy put a hoof to her chin, contemplating on what could’ve happened. While she was thinking, there were animals behind her fighting frantically in mayhem. Their battle was shrouded in the smoke that they caused in their battle.

“Hmm, I’m gonna fly over there and check it out,” Rainbow Dash concluded. Fluttershy looked to Rainbow Dash in a surprised expression.

“Rainbow Dash, are you sure about that?” Fluttershy asked. Rainbow Dash was now hovering in the air.

“Of course Fluttershy,” Rainbow responded. “Hoofington’s not that far from Ponyville, so it’s not too much trouble.”

“B-but…” Fluttershy struggled to follow up. She was really more concerned about Rainbow Dash’s health than the travel. She had been working out for hours earlier, and it hasn’t been much time for her to rest.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, I won’t be long. But if it makes you feel better, tell the others where I’ve gone.” 

Rainbow Dash was about to leave, but halted when she remembered something. “Oh, before I forget-“ She dug into the back of her cyan coat, pulling out a few bits in her hoof. She immediately shoved the bits deep into Fluttershy’s pink mane, pushing it inside deeply and quickly, causing Fluttershy to flinch as she had no time to react. “-thirty bits, take care of Tank for a little longer, bye!” Before Fluttershy had a chance to respond, Rainbow Dash took flight, dashing out of the scene quickly, and blowing some mail around in her wake as she started flying towards Hoofington.

Fluttershy put a hoof to her mane, slightly startled by the sudden action. Whenever it came to some of the things Rainbow Dash offered or suggested, she would cause them to happen quickly. In this instance, she gave Fluttershy these bits before she had a chance deny it. Now she was practically forced to accept these bits.

In the end, Fluttershy didn’t mind though. She gave a deep sigh of relief as she reminisced in the events that had happened recently. She was worried that she was not being a good friend to Rainbow Dash after hearing about those nightmares again, and not being able to do anything about it. Even though she wasn’t any better at telling her friends about those nightmares, she was proud to be of help to Rainbow Dash for something.

Fluttershy turned her head around to take a look at her garden. Her face jumped in surprise at what she saw. She now noticed the chaos that was going around. All the animals were fighting with each other. And it wasn’t a verbal fight, it was physical. This was certainly not a good sight.

“Oh dear…” Fluttershy flew towards the center of the garden, making sure she was within earshot range for what she was about to do next. She took a deep breath, and yelled. 

“STOOOP!!!” The sound of that yell caused all of the animals to halt their fighting. Some of them paused in midair for a split second before gravity brought them back to the ground.

“Phew…” Fluttershy sighed. It was very unnatural for her to yell like that, but it was something that HAD to be done. “What has gotten into all of you?” Fluttershy asked.

All of the animals were trying to speak at the same time, saying things along the lines of who started it or defending and such, at least the way Fluttershy understood it. But everything was being brought back to Angel, who was currently nowhere to be seen. For some unknown reason, Angel was always the hardest to control of all her animals, but at the same time, also her most helpful.

“We’ll discuss this another time,” Fluttershy concluded. She couldn’t bear hearing so much hate on Angel. “Let us all just take a deep breath, and-“

“These Animals Don’t Deserve Special Treatment!” Fluttershy yelped and fell to the ground when she heard the voice of another pony yelling at her. It was the mail pony that she bumped into earlier. The mail pony flew over towards the animals in a fit of rage. Some of them seemed to be holding his mail.

“Give Me Back Those Letters You Filthy Creatures!” The mail pony used his mouth to grab onto one of the letters a ferret was holding, yanking it away from the little critter. Due to the current grip, this caused the ferret to be flung away as a result. 

The roars of the animal’s cry for battle came forth once again.

“Hold Still You Fowl Little Mail Snatchers!” The chaos that was the animal war suddenly turned into a goat chase among animals holding letters, the mail pony that chased them, and the bigger animals that were defending the smaller ones.

Fluttershy gave a depressing whine. Unlike animals, she couldn’t control ponies very well, especially those she didn’t know much about, if anything at all. And after moments ago she had just felt relieved about how Rainbow Dash thought of her, things around here were going downhill fast. She didn’t know what to do either.

If she was going to prove to Rainbow Dash she didn’t hate her, that she wasn’t what those nightmares described, she had to settle this chaos. She just had to figure out how.

If only Rainbow Dash had stuck around just a little bit longer…

______________________________________________________________________________

Current day:

“Yeah… if only…” Rainbow Dash repeated that phrase depressingly. If that had happened, things might have played out very differently.

Rainbow Dash looked straight into Fluttershy’s eyes, seeing the fear, yet trust in them. She didn’t blame Rainbow Dash for leaving like that, but Rainbow Dash still felt so guilty for doing so.

Rainbow Dash looked away to bring her attention back to Carousel.

“Let’s continue.”
> Chapter 12: A Magician’s Tale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	3 days ago:

Carousel flew through the skies, beating against her wings more than she was the air. She abused her own body more so than ripping the air apart. She was not thinking about how to get there as fast as she could. Her body was more so releasing all the adrenaline throughout her body that she could possibly manage.

Carousel was still riled up. Her eyes stuck to that mountain she was flying towards like it was her mortal enemy. She stared at this mountain like she wanted to destroy it and take it down. This was wrath she was feeling. Yet it would never be seen, because it wasn’t possible at the moment. But being impossible did not change how she felt.

Carousel’s mind scrambled as she came so close to the mountain. It was a long flight, and it felt like she was draining the entire wrath that was being contained in her body. She had all of the reasons to contain the wrath, but no reason to keep it fueled.

And yet, she still felt it.

______________________________________________________________________________

Carousel’s landmark came into view. She was flying on the opposite side of the mountain from where the city was connected to. She flew straight towards the ground, getting ready to land.

But as soon as she reached the ground, she felt nothing to land on. Instead, the grass seemed to burst in a sparkle of light, causing her to fall right through.

“*Gasp!*” Carousel had no time to react before she disappeared inside, losing all sights of everything. She kept falling through, but it wasn’t long before she suddenly felt landing, allowing her to come to a complete stop.

“W-what?” Carousel asked, taking a look at her surroundings. She couldn’t see anything. Everything was as voided as the images she saw in her mind were. She couldn’t even see the area where she entered this place.

“So good of you to come, my little admirer,” a voice spoke from behind Carousel. “Trixie knew you would come, after all.”

Carousel immediately turned herself around. She lowered her ground as she saw the silhouette of the pony who was speaking to her. But it was a little off, like she was wearing something. Carousel could see the unicorn’s horn glowing, even though it was slightly hidden. As the unicorn stepped closer, Carousel remained her ground, growling in anticipation for whatever she was about to do.

But then, Carousel stopped her growling. The closer the unicorn came, the clearer her form had become. But more importantly, she could clearly see the amulet that the unicorn was holding in her magic. She had it, but the griffon she was with was nowhere in sight.

“Trixie believes this belongs to you,” the unicorn stated. Carousel noticed the uniform she was wearing. It was a cape and a hat. They were both purple and were designed with many stars.

“W-what, is going on?...” Carousel asked confused. Everything she was witnessing wasn’t making any sense. She noticed the unicorn chuckling.

“Not everything is at it seems, does it, my little admirer?” the unicorn answered while continuing to walk closer, lifting her hat in the air, revealing the glowing horn. “But there is one thing that is as is around here." The unicorn turned her head slightly while flashing a smug smile. "And that is this..." She motioned her head towards the amulet she was carrying in her magic. Carousel took a slight glace towards the amulet before she refocused her attention back to the unicorn. She couldn't figure out what the unicorn was planning,

"You really have a bad habit of keeping your hooves on this amulet," the unicorn continued, still closing in on Carousel. "So, allow Trixie to solve this issue right away.” The unicorn flared her horn brighter, levitating the amulet closer to Carousel’s face while Carousel tried to back away slightly. “Witness one of the greatest inventions in all of Equestria!”

The unicorn levitated the amulet towards the front center of Carousel’s neck collar until they touched. Carousel turned her head and closed her eyes, bracing whatever was about to happen. When the amulet and collar connected, they created a sudden glow that grew shortly before dying out. 

Carousel looked back in front of her when the unicorn stepped away. Her horn dimmed before being re-concealed with that hat. The glow on the amulet had vanished as well. She was no longer holding the amulet in her magic, yet the amulet still connected with the collar.

Carousel placed a hoof on the amulet, trying to move it. The amulet moved with the collar. It seemed that the collar and the amulet were connected together now.

“And that, my little admirer, is how you prevent the loss of your precious souvenirs,” the unicorn said. Carousel took her hoof off the collar.

“What, are you?” Carousel asked.

“I could ask you the same thing, my little admirer,” the unicorn responded while placing a hoof to her hat. “For a magician never reveals her secrets!” she said while at the same time, using her hoof to throw her hat quickly across and in between both ponies. Carousel saw a pinecone levitating in midair right after that hat passed between them. The unicorn placed her hat back on before grabbing the pinecone out of the air with her hoof.

“But since you asked first, a proper introduction is a must!” The unicorn threw the pinecone up slightly in the air. She turned her head and opened her mouth as the pinecone fell towards her. 

*Crunch!* Carousel winced as the unicorn bit down that pinecone whole. The unicorn was gobbling it down like it was nothing. She could hear the hard crunching sound coming from it. It didn’t help that the unicorn was chomping down on it with her mouth open. She could see the sharp edges piercing in between those teeth, and some were piercing through so far, the unicorn’s outer jaws showed the ending points of the needles.

“Nngh…” Carousel managed to regain her composure when the unicorn was finished with that pinecone. Before she noticed it, a small rag was levitated near the unicorn’s snout. The unicorn brought one swipe with the rag towards her snout. Suddenly, all those needles had disappeared. It was disturbing, yet fascinating.

“I am-“ the unicorn started as she lowered her ground. She then threw her fore hooves up into the air, standing on her hind legs. “-The Great, and Powerful, Trixie!” Fireworks were shooting out of the air, seemingly out of nowhere. She then broke her stance, standing back on all fours as she continued. “But if that is too long for you, my little admirer, then you may just call me, Trixie.”

“Trixie…” It was then that Carousel finally caught the name of this unicorn. 

A sudden strange disturbance formed deep within her mind.

“So, my little admirer, do you have a name?” Trixie said as she started patting the top of Carousel’s mane, taking a look at her collar. “For if you do, Trixie isn’t seeing one here.”

Carousel felt an odd wave of adrenaline rushing through her with this odd contact. It felt so weird, yet, oddly soothing.

“Carousel.”

Trixie stopped her patting and looked towards Carousel. “Hmm?”

Carousel cleared her throat before responding again. “You can call me, Carousel.”

Trixie backed away a little bit, trying to process words. “C-carous-“ she couldn’t contain her snickering. “PPHHAAAHAHAHAHA!!!” Trixie broke into a laughing fit, collapsing towards the ground, clutching her stomach as she laughed. She pointed a hoof towards Carousel in the middle of her laughter. “Hah… h-I don’t know wha-at to make fun of more-h! Your name or your voice! AHAAHAA!” Trixie was rolling around the ground in laughter, tears forming in her eyes. Her hind legs were even kicking in the air.

Carousel watched as Trixie laughed her guts out. Carousel’s face turned serious. She began to give off a low growl. Her vision focused on the laughing unicorn. She bent down low, giving a strong glare at Trixie as her teeth clenched together. Her emotions were building with rage hearing that menacing laughter. 

The only thing that Carousel’s mind focused on was Trixie’s laughter. Trixie’s movements were in slow motion to her. Carousel’s body began to shake and her hoof grinded against the ground as she slid it with much pressure setting down. Her breathing was very heavy.

“Hey, are you okay?” Carousel’s mind paused when she heard a voice. The visions she saw suddenly became apparent in her mind. At some point, Trixie had stopped laughing and was standing in front of her like normal, giving her a confused look.

Carousel halted her growling and temper, but her body still stayed low. She looked up to the unicorn, letting her expression fall flat.

“You must have a lot of questions for Trixie, don’t you, Carousel,” Trixie said as she let out a smile, bringing herself to Carousel’s level. “But alas, Trixie will only answer what she is about to tell you now.” Trixie brought her hoof to Carousel's collar, lifting them both up to their hooves. Carousel saw Trixie’s horn glowing brighter underneath her hat as she started backing away. “Regarding your souvenir…”

______________________________________________________________________________

The surrounding area of the void they were in was now creating images. Carousel could see both Trixie and the griffon that had attempted to take her amulet.

“My fellow apprentice here, Trixie has quite the story to tell with her, but let’s just say, her greed never ends,” Trixie started. The images showed them at what appeared to be a stage performing a show.

“Trixie makes a living attracting audiences all over Equestria granting them a magical performance of Great, and Astonishing Feats!” The images showed the stage flaring a lot of fireworks all over the stage and above the audience.

“But my fellow apprentice over there, got greedy,” Trixie said as the image focused on the griffon, seeing her go to the crowd. “She decided to become a thief and start stealing from MY audience!” The image showed the griffon’s tail digging through some of the audience supplies just before the images got slashed. Carousel covered her eyes when the slash went through. When she looked back, the images changed to Trixie alone, somewhere in a barren field.

“Trixie may be cunning and clever with her amazing talents, but she does not resort to petty thievery. She earns her rewards, even if she has to work, On A Rock Farm, to do so!” Trixie seemed to hold venom in her voice at those words she raised. She gave a sigh and calmed herself before continuing.

“But alas, these ponies are just as gullible, if not, even more gullible than you are, but-” the images changed to Trixie and Carousel when they first met. “-this was where she crossed the line. A poor defenseless pegasus wandering through a forest, alone, lost, scared, and everything taken from her.” Carousel glanced over to Trixie, wondering if she was even describing the same story. The images changed to where they met the second time.

“My apprentice told Trixie all about how she was going to get back at you for the way you treated her, with my help.” Trixie smiled at this remark. “She got her wish, but not how she thought it would go in the end.” Trixie shined her horn brighter, causing the entire area to flash. The images disappeared.

______________________________________________________________________________

Carousel and Trixie were now returned to the voided area that they were previously in. Carousel couldn’t tell how she was doing this, or what this room was. But the way Trixie was telling her story was astonishing.

“Long story short, she never had possession of the souvenir you wield now. Not knowing that, she led herself to her own punishment.” Trixie flapped her cape gracefully. “Trixie didn’t have to do a thing after that.”

Carousel could barely follow that story. She felt like she had been used. But the way she was used didn’t bother her. 

...It was odd. Even after so much trouble that she had been put through, she felt so... calm about it. 

Carousel placed her hoof on the amulet that was connected to her collar, examining it. She could tell that it was indeed hers. The inscriptions on the front was still there, clearly visible. She could even feel the marks of where the engravings were.

“So,” Trixie started up again, “do you have any questions for Trixie now?”

“…Yeah,” Carousel responded in a bit of a delay. “Where... are we?” she asked as she moved her hoof towards the scenery.

“Ah…” Trixie stated smiling. “You haven’t even started, and you are already lost.” Trixie gave her horn a simple flash, twice, before continuing. “Not everything is at they seem are they? Yet we are simply, underground.”

Trixie shot out a wave of magic out of her horn, like a beam. Carousel moved out of the way of the beam’s range, looking to where that beam was going. The beam was striking at something that didn’t look like was there at all. The beam was revealing something. It looked like a large door that was leading to a temple, but there were no walls anywhere near the door.

“Trixie promised you a journey of magnificence beyond anypony’s imaginations!” Trixie said. Carousel walked towards the door, leaving a gasp of awe through her voice. Seeing as there seemed to be no way of opening the door on immediate depiction, she looked back towards Trixie.

“The journey is a long a dangerous one, but Trixie is ready to face the challenges for what she desires!” Trixie started walking towards the door. While she was walking, she used her magic to pull something out of her hat. It looked like a large brown feather. It seemed like that feather belonged to that griffon she was talking about. Trixie levitated the feather towards the center of the door. 

“Everypony desires something in their life, Carousel,” Trixie said as she seemed to analyze the feather with the door in front of her. “Come with Trixie, and everything you’re questioning now, will become clear as day, even to you…”

The door gave off a bright flash.

*Crank!*

The door started opening. Carousel put a hoof over her eyes as the door slowly started climbing up, slowly revealing the insides.

*…bzzt…*

The area started to go all static.

*Bzzt…*

Reality broke away as the static covered everything.

______________________________________________________________________________

Current day:

“AaaAAAHH!”

“Carousel, what’s wrong? What happened next?” Rainbow Dash looked towards Carousel’s silhouette, anticipating what was to come. But it wasn’t coming. Carousel was gripping her head with her hooves, looking to be in pain.

“Nngh… Nnngh!”

“Oh no, I think she’s having trouble remembering,” Fluttershy said, looking worryingly at her.

“Now?” Rainbow Dash asked as she looked back to Fluttershy. “No… come on!” Rainbow Dash looked back to Carousel.

“Please, try to remember,” Fluttershy said to Carousel.

Carousel gritted her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut as she tried to force her mind to think back to those events. It was as if something was forcing her mind to be drawn away from happened in that temple.

Rainbow Dash looked away, shivering her head as she squeezed her eyes shut. There just had to be something that would help her remember.

They were so close.
> Chapter 13: Never Around
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	3 days ago:

Rainbow Dash was currently on a flight path towards Hoofington. Normally the distance to get to Hoofington would be too far to just travel to without some sort of public transportation like a train, even for pegasi. But Rainbow Dash was going here alone, so there was no need.

Rainbow Dash was flying to Hoofington because of a letter regarding Rarity’s client canceling their appointment. Even though Rarity’s talking was really annoying Rainbow Dash when she was talking about it, she still learned that Rarity’s client was giving her such a hard time with re-scheduling their appointment. And yet, while Rarity was there, she got a letter sent to Ponyville instead about their cancelation.

Both of these events didn’t make any sense at all. That was why she decided to figure out what was going on. But it just now occurred to Rainbow Dash that she didn’t even know where in Hoofington that Rarity’s appointment was supposed to be held or where she would be at the time.

“*Gasp!*” But just as Rainbow Dash arrived, she knew exactly where she should start looking first.

Off in the distance, on the other side of the town, Rainbow Dash saw a commotion going on. She could see the source of the commotion. There was a building that had collapsed, clearly a bad omen

Rainbow Dash picked up her speed to rush to the scene. It may have been so far away, but Rainbow Dash’s eyesight allowed her to clearly see things others would most likely miss or have trouble seeing.

“Oh no, this is NOT good.” As Rainbow Dash got closer to the scene, she could see more details of what was going on. 

There were carts and carriages scattered around the area. Many ponies who appeared to be injured were being escorted to these carriages. These were obviously the hospital staffs who were escorting them.

Rainbow Dash took a more thorough look at the pack of ponies who were being escorted. Her fear came true. She easily recognized one of them.

“Oh no, Rarity!” Rainbow Dash immediately flew down towards her. She looked to be currently out cold. She was being carried by two other ponies who were taking her to one of the carriages.

“Stay back!” Before Rainbow Dash could get too close, one of the nurse ponies moved in front of her path, holding both fore hooves outstretched. 

“What happened to Rarity, is she alright?” Rainbow Dash asked, pointing behind the nurse towards Rarity.

“She’ll be okay, but we need to get her help fast,” the nurse said. “You’re free to ride with us while we take her to the hospital, but we advise to give her enough space to breathe.” Rainbow Dash did as she was told, following them to the carriage.

______________________________________________________________________________

“You filthy critters are nothing but wild animals!” 

Fluttershy’s peaceful garden was turning into absolute chaos. The mail pony that had arrived was causing so much trouble. The animals that were in Fluttershy’s care were scattering all over the place while holding some of the mail that the mail pony had dropped. The mail pony was being very aggressive in trying to get them back while Fluttershy was trying to calm all of the animals down. But they weren’t calming down because of the mail pony.

“You’re all despicable, every last one of ya!” he said.

“Oh… excuse me… please don’t be mean to them…” Fluttershy tried to say to the mail pony. “You’re… scaring them.”

“Blasphemy!” the mail pony yelled while shoving Fluttershy away.

*RAAAWWWRR!!!* A large bear roared out in response to seeing the abuse Fluttershy take. He was not happy with what this pony was doing to his owner.

“I Don’t Care If They’re Endangered, I Want My Mail Back!” he yelled while pulling out a pepper spray out of his package. When the bear charged close enough, he sprayed that can directly in his eyes.

*RAAAWWWRR!!!* This caused the bear to roar out in pain, covering his eyes. Fluttershy got back to her hooves, moving directly in front of the mail pony.

“No! Stop that!” Fluttershy yelled at the mail pony, trying to assert herself. “You’re hurting them!”

“I Have A Job To Do, And I’m Not About To Have It Stopped Because Of These Useless Animals!” the mail pony yelled back, brushing right past Fluttershy. He stomped his hoof on a rat’s tail, taking the letter it was holding. Afterwards, he took the rat in his hooves, and immediately threw it at a bird charging straight for him.

“NOW GIVE ME BACK MY MAIL!!!”

Fluttershy was at a loss for what to do. She had tried being kind, and then she tried being firm. But someponies were just so much better at being assertive that words alone could not get them to stop.

Fluttershy really wished that Rainbow Dash was still here. But she wasn’t right now, so Fluttershy really wished that she could stop this somehow. She had to do SOMETHING! She just HAD to!

______________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash could see Rarity slightly moving as she started regaining consciousness. They were currently riding in a medical carriage while the doctors and nurses tended to Rarity’s smaller wounds. 

Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell how badly she was injured. She could see that her mane was crumpled up and she was covered in lots of rubble and dirt. There were plenty of scratches that were being covered up by those bandages. But the most notable injury was the large lump in her head that could be seen through her mane, and it wasn't her horn, no matter how much it looked like it.

Rarity had been carrying a few saddle bags with her. When the medical staff came, they took them off of her as they were loading her to the carriage. The saddle bags were placed inside as well.

The medical staff were trained not to allow any ponies to get anywhere near the injured ponies that they found at the scene. If the two ponies were family members, or knew each other well however, they had special permission to stay close by for their words of encouragement or other matters. The fact that Rainbow Dash had spoken Rarity’s name allowed them to know they indeed knew each other, now Rainbow Dash just needed to know what happened to her.

“Nngh…” Rarity groaned as she stirred herself awake.

“Rarity, are you okay?” Rainbow asked.

“Of course I’m not okay!” Rarity yelled as she shot herself up while the nurse who was tending her tried to keep her down. “Look at what’s happened to my beautiful mane!” Rarity put a hoof through her mane, not even caring about the lump on her head.

Rainbow Dash’s expression faltered. She had to roll her eyes at this remark. Rarity was definitely alright, despite that lump that somepony could probably mistake for a second horn.

Rainbow Dash searched through Rarity’s saddle bag, looking for something that she knew Rarity would keep with her.

“Rainbow Dash, are you snooping through my belongings? How uncouth could you possibly-“

“Here!” Rainbow Dash interrupted Rarity’s rant by pulling out a hair brush in front of her. Rainbow Dash passed the brush over to the nurse while whispering to her ear. “Just get her mane curly, and she’ll calm down.” The nurse nodded in response to that notion.

“Now,… What Happened To You Rarity?!” Rainbow Dash suddenly bursted out, regaining her seriousness. The nurse had to shush her as a result to keep it down. Rainbow Dash continued anyway, but in a quieter tone. “Did that building collapse on top of you? Who did this?”

While they were talking, the nurse had grabbed an ice pack to ease the pain that was on Rarity’s head. She proceeded to place the ice pack on the lump on Rarity’s head while Rarity pressed it down with her hoof. The nurse then preceded start running the brush through Rarity’s mane. This was able to ease Rarity’s mind and was able to bring her head back down.

“Oh, Rainbow Dash, I don’t know who was responsible for this,” Rarity started. “But I did see how it happened. Two ruffians were roughhousing while I was heading towards my client at the top floor! They were attacking each other, with no care of any pony getting scuffed into the situation!”

“What?” Rainbow Dash looked to be deep in thought for a moment. “What did they look like?”

“I…” Rarity paused for a few seconds. During that pause, the nurse brought herself away from Rarity, rummaging through some supplies inside the carriage. “I can’t remember. I didn’t get a good look at them. I think-“

Before Rarity could finish, the nurse came back to Rainbow Dash, holding out a newspaper for her to check.

Rainbow Dash gasped at first glance at what the front cover was. She took it in her hooves and showed it to Rarity’s face. “Is this the one?” she said while pointing to a photograph of a pony.

“Why, yes, that’s her, that’s definitely her!” Rarity started grasping. “I recognize that hideous collar anywhere! She was definitely the cause of this!”

Rainbow Dash mentally deadpanned. The only thing Rarity could recognize about this pony was the collar of all things. Of course, the mention of the collar brought Rainbow Dash’s attention again as she took the paper away to look at it more thoroughly herself.

Rainbow Dash could see the pony’s form clearly from this picture. Red mane and collar, light brown coat, pegasus mare. Rainbow Dash’s mind jumped backwards, thinking back to what she heard a few days ago. It was the same pegasus that those diamond dogs had mention before. Rainbow Dash kept a serious look on her face as she stared into that picture.

“Rainbow Dash, darling, are you alright?” Rarity asked while the nurse was resuming to fixing her mane. Rainbow Dash broke her trance, looking back to Rarity when she spoke. She looked back to the newspaper, then over to the nurse.

“Hey, is it okay if I take this with me?” she asked the nurse. The nurse just simply nodded. “Good, Rarity-“ Rainbow Dash looked over to Rarity as she started hovering in the air with the newspaper on hoof, “-I’m taking this to Ponyville to figure out who the hay this pony is. But before I do, I need to make sure you’ll be okay without me.”

“Oh, Rainbow Dash, do not worry about me,” Rarity stated. “It’s just a simple scratch, I’ll be okay.”

“...Says the pony who is more worried about her mane than that giant lump on her head,” Rainbow Dash stated bluntly.

“E-Excuse me!?” Rarity yelled out rather furiously.

“I’ll at least let the others know where you are and what happened so that they can take care of you, later!” Rainbow Dash left the carriage with that last statement, leaving Rarity to only give what sounded like furiously growled response towards no pony. Rainbow Dash couldn't tell what her deal was.

With the newspaper in her hoof, Rainbow Dash was now heading back to Ponyville to do what she said she was going to do.

It would be a bit of a long trip back to Ponyville however. Not to mention Rainbow Dash had been working out hard with training herself earlier, and she hasn’t had much of a time to rest yet, so she had to keep her flying steady. The fact that she was carrying a large newspaper with nothing to hold it in place also weighed her down.

As a result, all Rainbow Dash could do while she was flying, was read the front cover of the newspaper while she was flying.

______________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash kept her eyes busy checking her surroundings while she read the newspaper. She always had to be alert while flying around. She’s had more than enough crashes from flying to learn from her mistakes, despite what most insensitive ponies thought.

The newspaper didn’t hold much more information from what she was told already. A pony and a griffon were in quite a clash against each other, using any means necessary to defeat their opponent. They caused so much destruction in their battle that the building they were fighting in eventually collapsed. Some unfortunate ponies weren’t able to evacuate in time before the building collapsed on top of them.

“Unfortunately, one of those ponies happened to be Rarity,” Rainbow Dash said to herself. “What were they fighting for?”

Rainbow Dash continued to fly through the air while she read the newspaper. There was something about this pegasus that was throwing her off. She already heard about her stealing an already stolen treasure all the way over at Baltimare, and now here she was, hearing about her again causing an attack at Hoofington and injuring lots of ponies in the process.

Baltimare and Hoofington were very far apart from each other. Unfortunately she couldn’t find anything in the newspaper about why she was fighting at all. What business did she have? And who was the griffon she was fighting? She couldn’t find any more information about it in the newspaper. Maybe she was searching the wrong places.

But before Rainbow Dash could think much more into it, she caught sight of something from the corner of her eye.

“Hmm?” Rainbow Dash slowed down her flying while she looked back off into the distance. She eventually came to a full stop, hovering in midair while she was witnessing something strange happening.

“What’s… going on?” she could see the skies very close towards Canterlot blinking. It wasn’t due to clouds either, the skies were literally blinking. She could just barely hear a strange sound coming from it.

______________________________________________________________________________

Current day:

The silhouette of Carousel was panting low, but heavily as she tried to picture those moments that had happened.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could tell she was trying really hard to remember. Something must’ve happened there that was either too difficult for her to process, or something she just didn’t want to remember.

If Carousel really didn’t care about them, then why was she trying so hard to help?

“What made you change your mind?”
> Chapter 14: The Greatest and Powerfulest Lie
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	3 days ago:

“*Bzzzzt* …you… *bzzzt* …everything here… *bzzt* …see?”

“…What, are you… *bzzt*…”

“*bzzt* saying that you’re so gullible.”

Carousel twitched herself back at this mention.

“Do you really believe me when Trixie says this-“ Trixie motioned in front of her, “-is the Tree of Harmony? Harmony means nothing to you does it?”

Carousel looked her surroundings over. Nothing was able to process to her. They had managed to reach the top of the temple that they were traveling in, but the room they were in made it look like they were deep in space, yet they could breathe. In fact, they appeared to be standing on nothing. However, a pair of lights was shooting across a path in front of them every few seconds, as if they were marking the path. Stranger than that, it didn’t feel like they traveled nearly far enough to reach this sort of height.

In the center of this strange room was one lone tree. It sparkled and glowed brightly to the point where you couldn’t even tell it was a tree. It was even quite a thin tree as well, with very little amount of leaves and branches covering it.

“But, as soon as we came in, you’re the one who shouted,-“ Carousel cleared her throat before continuing, “-‘Welcome to the Tree of Harmony’,” she finished in an imitating pose, waving one hoof in the air. Trixie had to suppress a giggle not just because of her gullibility, but also how silly she looked doing that imitation.

“Not everything is as it seems, my little admirer,” Trixie started. “Everything you’ve been seeing… is a lie!”

Carousel had a confused look on her face. Trixie turned away from her to look directly towards the glowing tree that was in front of them.

“Trixie will tell you something, Carousel,” Trixie started. Carousel hesitantly moved closer for a better hearing, “the reason magicians never reveal their secrets.” Trixie paused for a second as she went into deep thought. She started lighting her horn.

______________________________________________________________________________

“You of course remember the first time we met each other, am I right?” Trixie started as she flashed her horn brighter to illuminate her surroundings. The flash made her cape and hat disappear before Carousel’s eyes. “What you didn’t know was, I knew more about you than I was letting on.”

“W-what?” Carousel was really taken aback by this. She took a few steps back away from Trixie. “H-how?”

“You should know that already,” Trixie continued as she returned her gaze towards Carousel. “The griffon you fought?” She walked closer to Carousel as she spoke. “She told me all about you, all about how she found you just lying near that temple with-“ she poked the amulet on Carousel’s collar, “-that treasure.” Carousel looked down at the amulet, then back at Trixie.

“B-but…” Carousel tried to intervene by trying to think of how that couldn’t have been possible, but Trixie continued.

"She thought she could just get away with saying she traveled that temple alone, but I saw through her lies.” Trixie backed away, eyeing Carousel carefully. “I bet you’re thinking I’m making one as well.” She turned and walked away from Carousel, continuing her speech. “But you were the one who told me everything you knew.”

Carousel let her mouth hang open at this remark. She tried to form words to say, but nothing was coming out right. She never told Trixie anything. So why was she saying that? Trixie turned her head back towards Carousel.

“When I looked into your fortune, I showed you all of the things that I knew about you.” Trixie formed an odd smile on her face. “That was when you started leading me.” Carousel managed to close her mouth, but had to slowly blink for a second. She tried to remember what happened during that point.

“When I first saw you, you did look a little lost for somepony who just had her precious treasure stolen from her." Trixie chuckled a bit at this remark before continuing. "I was beginning to think my apprentice was lying to me again. That is... until you started showing signs of remembering when I showed you what I knew.” Trixie looked towards the non-existent ground in front of her, shaking her head. “So, gullible.” Carousel decided to walk closer to her.

“Why are you telling me this?” Carousel asked. Trixie looked back at her as she responded.

“It is a magician’s secret.” Trixie’s horn started glowing brighter again. She lifted her head up high. “For once a secret has been revealed... the magic... fades.” She threw her head down quickly, letting her horn illuminate the area again.

______________________________________________________________________________

Carousel had to cover her eyes as the area revealed itself. Everything was so much different now. It actually looked like they were in a large room now. The path they were following that the lights showed earlier was clear with a carpet now.

But the only thing that Carousel was focusing on was the tree that was previously there. She slowly walked closer to it because she could no longer tell what it was. It now just looked like a bright source of light generating on nothing, giving off a few small sparks flying slowly away before disappearing.

Carousel could feel her mind pulsating from looking at this light. It was too staggering to describe. She felt her whole body tremble on its own, her wings shivering, and the adrenaline in her body going nuts.

“It is as Trixie says,” Trixie started as she walked next to Carousel, staring at the light. Carousel noticed that she had her uniform back on. “Once you learn the secrets, the magic of such a trick wears off.” Trixie started breathing a bit harder now; Carousel casted her gaze towards Trixie as a result. She was finding it hard to breathe as well.

“The Tree of Harmony… it’s the greatest and powerfulest source of magic in all of Equestria.” Trixie breathed very slowly, but very loudly. “For many years, this tree has lived itself on a lie, a lie that continues, even today! *Pant* it has hidden itself for so long, with the name of, The Tree of Harmony. It has lived this form for so long, it now hides its very existence!” 

Trixie could barely contain her tone while she spoke. It sounded like she was revealing a failure that was so bad; it was sealed away from reality itself, using its false powers as a cover up. 

“Trixie doesn’t know where the real Tree of Harmony is… *gasp* But she has discovered the next best thing! With your help…” Trixie turned to Carousel, to which Carousel had stumbled back a bit as a response, gasping for breath. 

“Trixie will have nothing to hide anymore! Everything will be revealed to even you!” Trixie was sweating a lot. Carousel could find a deep and lustful desire within herself.

*Bzzt, tchh tchh* Her mind felt so unstable. Carousel and Trixie both looked into the light. They both brought a hoof to push into the light.

“Our reward, lies now!” Trixie concluded with great determination in her voice.

*Screech! Tchh!*

“AAAAHHH!!!” Both Carousel and Trixie started yelling as the light grew so much brighter. They felt their bodies being pushed inside, disappearing into the light.

______________________________________________________________________________

The images returned back to Carousel. She started seeing lots of her past events all at once. But they all related to Trixie.

She saw the pile of pinecones that Trixie was lying on. They started spreading apart wildly in the air. Each one was bursting into flames, being incinerated into charcoal within seconds.

She saw Trixie bringing her horn towards the burnt part of her right wing. The burnt part of that wing suddenly reignited its flame. The flame dispersed quickly, taking away the mark.

She saw the images of Trixie showering lights all around their surroundings. The lights were turning off, one by one. Then the shattering of the lights became apparent. All the lights were gone.

Now she was seeing a huge cloud of pink smoke. Within the smoke, she could see Trixie treading through it in slow motion.

All of these things had one thing in common. They were all tricks. She saw one thing happening with them, but another was happening all along. They were all lies that she had witnessed or been told, being revealed. They were beating into her mind like bricks. Nothing was ever as it seemed.

Her surroundings had changed before she realized it. The smoke was clearing away. She could hear a low and deep growl in front of her. She could feel so much pressure going on in her mind and body. The images focused on where the growl was coming from. For that moment, she became aware of everything.

Everything, everything to her, was a lie.

______________________________________________________________________________

“*GASP!!!*” Carousel’s mind returned to her. Reacting quickly, she grabbed Trixie and dove out of the way from what was in front of her.

*Crunch!*

A large dragon was directly in front of them, nearly inches away. It had nearly dropped its jaws on the two ponies before Carousel had regained her senses and took her and Trixie to jump out of the way.

*Thump!* Their landing on the ground was a very rough landing. Trixie gasped in surprise upon impact, suddenly regaining her senses as well. The first thing she saw was that large dragon.

“H-H-AAAAAHHH!!!” Trixie cried out. Carousel and Trixie scrambled back on their hooves before the dragon could recover its balance. The two ponies started stepping back in fear of this large dragon.

“What… what is going on?!” Carousel asked. 

Nothing was right anymore. Their surroundings were completely gone. They were in an endless void with no visible exits in sight. All they could see was the large dragon in front of them. This dragon had purple scales with a red belly. It had wings that looked very sharp, spikes that surrounded its back and tail, along with a spike on its nose, razor sharp teeth, and giant claws.

As the dragon recovered its balance, it looked directly at the two ponies with a predatory glare. It opened its jaws widely, giving off a loud sound.

*RRRAAAAAAAAA-* Carousel and Trixie could feel the room shaking, *-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-* they stumbled their balance as the loud roar blew on them, *AAAAAAWWWWWWWRR!!!!!!*

Carousel and Trixie had to hold on to their manes while that dragon blew out that large and extended roar. It felt like the force of the dragon’s breath alone possibly blew out some of the hair off their coats and manes.

“*Pant*, Wha-ht, No! This… What?!” Trixie stumbled over her words. “*Pant* this wasn’t supposed to happen!”

“What?!” Carousel yelped in shock.

*Thump, Thump!*

The two ponies felt the ground shake when that dragon stomped its fore claws on the ground they couldn’t see. They could hear a deep audible growl coming from the dragon. It spread its wings wide apart, prepping itself to attack. Without a moment’s notice, it lunged itself towards the two ponies.

“Scatter!” Trixie yelled.

Both Carousel and Trixie leapt towards opposite directions, barely managing to avoid the dragon’s lunge. The dragon kept going, bringing itself airborne, very high in the air.

“What is a full grown dragon doing here?!” Trixie yelled out while she started running in the opposite direction of the dragon. “They don’t live in Equestria!”

Carousel ran over towards Trixie’s direction, placing distance between her and the dragon. “Why are we here? How do we get out?” she asked in a panic.

“I don’t- AAHHH!!!“ Trixie was cut off when a large breath of flame shot from the dragon’s mouth, sending it directly in front of the ponies’ path. “Other way!” They turned around to run in the opposite direction.

*Thump!*

But they were cut off when the dragon landed directly in front of them. Carousel and Trixie froze in place, looking directly upwards at the mercy of this fierce dragon.

“What are we going to do?” Carousel asked fearfully.

“I don’t know,” Trixie responded. “I wasn’t prepared for something like this.”

“What about all those tricks that you have?” Carousel asked, looking towards Trixie. “Can’t we fight back?”

“Are you insane?!” Trixie darted her head very close to Carousel’s in a scolding manner. “Do you have any idea how DANGEROUS a dragon is?!” Carousel backed away slightly from the scolding mare. Whether the dragon or Trixie was more terrifying at the moment was now debatable. “We can’t fight a full grown dragon, it’s impossi- AAHHH!”

Trixie was cut off when the dragon blew a large breath of fire again. The fire swirled around in the air, heading towards the ponies. Carousel and Trixie dropped deeply into the ground, hugging their forms as close to the ground as they possibly could. The flame swirl blew over their heads, just inches away from them. The heat wave coming from the flame had managed to singe part of their manes in the process. Trixie managed to save her hat by pulling it off and moving it under her just before it passed by.

“Just do SOMETHING!” Carousel yelled after recovering from that blast.

“Why don’t YOU come up with a PLAN?!” Trixie yelled back as she flared her horn quickly and brightly. She used her magic to gather as much of the tiny water particles in the air as quickly as she could. She gathered all the water particles into a single pile in the air, allowing them to form a storm cloud.

The dragon started charging forward again. As soon as Carousel saw that storm cloud come into view, she immediately took flight towards it. She came within range of the storm cloud quickly, and struck it with her hooves.

*Bam!*

The cloud created a powerful bolt of lightning that was aimed straight towards the dragon.

*BZZZT!* *RAAAAWWWRRR!!!* The bolt of lightning struck the dragon, but its effect only seemed to enrage the dragon more than harm it. It was still charging straight for the two ponies, but more changing its course towards Carousel.

“Ahh!” That lightning bolt barely phased it at all. Carousel tried to move away from the cloud, seeing the dragon get closer. The dragon struck with its claws.

*Smack!* Carousel was unable to move away in time. She was struck and knocked away by the claws of that dragon.

“No!” Trixie cried out. She focused a lot of magic into her horn to create a beam of pure energy, aiming straight for the dragon.

The beam was trailing on the dragon’s scales like a zapping lightning bolt. But it didn’t seem to be doing anything to the dragon. Trixie tried putting in more power into that beam.

The dragon caught sight of the unicorn that was firing that beam. It turned its attention towards Trixie. Trixie noticed this and stopped firing her magical beam. Fear struck her knowing that her magic was having no effect on this dragon. The dragon raised both its claws in the air. Trixie tried to run before the dragon brought its claws down.

*Crash!*

The dragon smashed the ground, causing Trixie to get blasted by the destroyed debris that escalated from such an impact. Despite not being able to see the ground, the parts of the ground and its debris instantly became visible when they scattered. Trixie tumbled and rolled across the ground due to the force of that attack.

Carousel managed to recover from her attack earlier. She may have been struck, but due to her actions, she was able to escape serious injuries. Seeing Trixie getting attacked like that, Carousel acted fast and started charging straight towards the dragon.

Carousel took the opportunity to strike the back of the dragon’s head with as much force as she could muster. The dragon gave off a deep growl after experiencing that strike. It moved its tail swiftly behind itself. Carousel attempted to strike again, but…

*Whack!*

Carousel got smacked with that spikey tail, somehow avoiding the spikes. She got thrown directly towards Trixie, who was just about to get back up after recovering from her impact earlier.

“AHH!” Carousel crashed directly into Trixie, causing them both to tumble and roll across the ground. They rolled a bit before coming to a full stop, lying apart but next to each other.

The dragon gave a deep growl as it looked towards the downed ponies. Carousel and Trixie hesitantly pulled themselves up to look towards the fierce dragon that was relentlessly attacking them. The dragon slowly treaded closer to them.

*Thump, thump, thump.*

“Ugh… I told you, it’s hopeless,” Trixie stated in agony. “Dragons are too dangerous and powerful. It’s impossible for ponies like us to defeat this thing…”

*Thump*

“Urk… what if we attack from a different angle?” Carousel asked.

*Thump*

“That’s out of the question! It won’t make a difference unless we attack from its weak point!”

*Thump, rrrrr…*

“Then why are we not doing that?”

*Thump*

“Are You Out Of Your Pony Mind!?” Trixie blurted while turning her attention towards Carousel. “Do you have any idea what you are asking?!”

*Thump*

“Of course I don’t!” Carousel responded while picking herself back on all fours. “But you’re the one who told me to come up with a PLAN!”

*Thump, RRAAAAAAWWRRR!* The dragon raised its head up high, ready to strike.

“And THAT’S the best you can come up with?!”

“JUST DO IT!”

Trixie quickly released her magic towards the ground, causing a large pink cloud of smoke to emerge, concealing them both. The dragon dropped its large, open maw directly into this pink smoke cloud, chomping down on whatever was inside. The dragon brought its head out of the smoke soon after. It started chewing on whatever it had captured in its mouth, creating a large crunching sound effect with each chew. It then gave a big gulp, swallowing its contents. The contents showed a visible lump in the dragon’s neck, swiftly sliding down it until it disappeared within its stomach.

The pink smoke started to clear up. Trixie could see the silhouette of the dragon in front of her as the smoke started evaporating. Looking to her left, she could see that Carousel was no longer there.

*Rrrrrr…* The dragon took notice of Trixie as the smoke disappeared. Trixie’s uniform was gone, and she was alone now. She shivered at the sight of the large dragon before her, being cautious with her movements. She had never been so nervous before in her life. Regardless, Trixie started prepping her magic.

“Carousel, you foal… you better hope that worked… nnngh…”
> Chapter 15: The End Of Carousel's Story Ark
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	3 days ago:

Carousel could feel herself sliding deeply within the dragon’s throat. When she heard about a weak point that the dragon probably had, she had to take it. She didn’t know and didn’t care what she had to do, and she certainly didn’t expect this. All that mattered to her was that it would work.

“Gah!” *Splash, splash* Trixie’s hat and cape took back its normal form as they entered the stomach of the dragon, being incinerated by the dragon’s stomach acid. Carousel hovered just above the acid. She was covered in saliva due to the chomping. Thanks to the cloak and distraction the hat and cape caused, she was able to avoid the dragon’s teeth before she was swallowed.

*Pant, pant* Carousel wiped some of the saliva that covered her vision. It was really hot in here, and there was quite a bit more space than she thought there would be, but no indication on what the best course of action was. She focused her eye sights on one of the walls on the stomach. She charged for it swiftly, striking it with one of her hind hooves as hard as she could.

*RRAAAAAAWWWRRR!!!* The dragon let out an audible cry as it felt a sharp sting in its guts. Trixie noticed that the plan was having an effect.

“Hah! Take that you monster!” Trixie let out her beam of magic, aiming towards the dragon’s face. The beam was zapping the dragon’s face, causing it to stumble backwards as it continued to cry out its roar.

Carousel continued punching and kicking random parts of the inner walls of the stomach, causing more damage to the dragon.

Trixie kept her magic flowing, keeping the dragon at bay with their simultaneous attacks, both inside, and out.

*TCCCHHHH!!!* “Nngh… NNNGH!!!” Trixie was straining herself with the amount of magic she was putting into her horn. She was sweating as particles among particles of sparks were bursting out of the sides of her horn.

“RAAAH!” *Slam!* *pant, pant* The heat was becoming unbearable, and the abuse was straining Carousel’s body. She kept striking at random spots of the walls, getting weaker each time.

*AAAAWWWRRRRRRRR!!!* The dragon managed to act again, placing one of its claws in front of its face, blocking out Trixie’s beam. It let out a huge roar as it slammed its other claw directly towards its own belly.

“GAAAH!” The inner walls of the belly shifted so suddenly, darting and slamming into Carousel, causing her to be thrusted back violently.

The dragon let out a large breath of fire, aimed towards the ground. The flame moved up, treading towards the direction the beam was coming from.

“NNNGH… AAAH!” Trixie was able to notice an intense heat coming closer to her before the flames made contact. She halted her magical lightning beam and leapt off to the side, barely able to avoid direct contact with the flames as they passed by.

Carousel was flung towards a landing spot within the belly that wasn’t flooded in the stomach acid. However the movement of the dragon caused some of the acid to splash and spray around the area, some of it landing on Carousel.

*Tss* Some of its intense burning became apparent to Carousel as the acid burned small parts off of her coat and mane.

“…Urk…” Grunting, Carousel slowly picked her face up with her front hooves from whatever she was lying on. She shook her head around, trying to recover from that impact. When she looked in front of her, she saw something she did not expect to see.

“*Gasp...*” Inside the dragon’s belly, stuck on the flooring of this intestine, there was a large and bright crystal sticking out. 

“What… what is that?” Carousel picked herself up, trying to examine this crystal. She had a very uneasy feeling staring into the bright light of this crystal. The feeling was very similar to the light she was seeing before from that bright tree. She slowly walked closer to it.

“Hhh, *Gasp*, hhh…” Carousel’s breathing was rapidly becoming heavy as she approached this crystal. Her mind raced against her. At that moment, nothing mattered to her at all. Not even the amulet that was still attached to the collar she wore around her neck. A strong desire filled her mind to just grab this crystal, and reveal, everything.

Carousel grabbed the bright crystal.

*TTCCCHHHHZZZZZZZZZZ!!!* “YRAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!!” Carousel screamed at the top of her lungs as the electrical energy flow fueled across her entire body. The electrical energy flowed all across the ground, zapping everything in its path.

*RRAAAAAAAAWWWRRR!!!* Outside the dragon, Trixie could hear the intense zapping sounds coming from the dragon. After recovering from that flame attack, she managed to pick herself up just in time to see the start of the chaos. The entire dragon’s form had electricity violently flowing all across its body.

“W-what? What’s happening!?” Trixie stuttered, slowly backing away from the dragon. It was as if this dragon was going haywire. Electricity was shooting out of its body in all directions. Even worse than that, the entire void that they were in was flashing. She could catch the glimpses of the room they were in before they encountered this dragon.

“AAARRRGGNNNNHHH!!!” Carousel pulled with all her might as the crystal fueled her body with its magical flow. Her entire body burned intensely as the crystal was being pulled out. The entire room was shaking. Lightning shot all across the inside of the dragon’s belly, exploding the walls upon contact. Debris was being scattered all over the place, creating splashes as they fell into the stomach acids.

Outside the dragon, it was no different. The entire room shook. Lightning shot across the flashing void. Debris scattered. Trixie had to dig her hooves on the ground to keep her balance.

“What happened in there?! Carousel! What did you do?!” Trixie yelled.

The dragon clutched its throat and held its head up high. Its throat was causing a regurgitating effect.

The pools of stomach acids lost their effects and temperature. They splashed all around the walls as they became nothing more than colored water. The liquid was rising, rising high to meet with Carousel and the crystal.

*Shing* “AAAAHHH!!!” The crystal had been pulled free just before the rising pool flooded them out; causing them to rise, rise up towards the dragon’s throat.

*Kurrrr, Krrrmmmm, Ptwuh!* The dragon barfed something out of its mouth. This caused the electricity flowing around the dragon to cease. The effects of the void were starting to disappear. The dragon started to collapse towards the ground as the void was disappearing.

*Thump, Crash!* Just as the void vanished underneath the dragon, the dragon collapsed on the floor, causing the floor to break apart. The dragon fell through the floor, causing a long drop down that neither Carousel nor Trixie could determine how far of a drop it would be.

Trixie covered her eyes as the rest of the debris continued to fall down. There was a bright and intense light coming from the smoke being caused by the falling debris.

Carousel and the crystal landed roughly in the center of the now visible room they were in. The crystal was planted within the floor, a few distances away from Carousel. That tree was gone. In its place was the crystal that Carousel had just drawn out.

*Flash, Screech!* The crystal resonated a light that illuminated the entire room. It released a magnetic field around it that took hold of Carousel, carrying her towards the crystal.

Trixie released her hoof away from her eyes to witness what was going on. Her nerves were attacking her like crazy.

“I-is, that…” She couldn’t really think about it.

*TCHH! TCHH!... TCCHHH!* The crystal released electrical energy, surrounding Carousel’s body. The fields of magical electricity shot across the room randomly, destroying the walls of the tower they were in. Multitudes of debris scattered across the room, causing massive destruction around their surroundings. The magical flow coming from the crystal was so bright and powerful; Trixie had to shield her eyes again.

“AAARRGH, AAAAAAAHHH!!!” Carousel screamed in agony as the electric current resonated through her body.

“Nngh… what is going on?!” Trixie was in a panic, trying to make sense of everything. “It’s like, I don’t even know anything anymore… Nothing is going the way it’s supposed to!”

Trixie moved her hoof slightly away to take a look at the surrounding areas. The electric fields were practically tearing the room apart while the room’s existence continued to flash on and off. The outside world from the tower were coming into focus the more those walls crumbled. Trixie could only see the sky and barely see the clouds within them. No doubt their current altitude was incredibly high. Trixie looked back towards Carousel and her undergoing torment.

“*Gasp* I’ve gotta stop this, NOW!”

Trixie jumped a few steps forward to get closer to her target. She released a beam of magic from her horn, targeting Carousel. When the beam hit Carousel, her whole body was enveloped by Trixie’s magical aura, along with the crystal’s electrical current.

“Nnnngaaahh!” Trixie screamed in agony. She was trying to use her magic to pull Carousel out of whatever this crystal was doing to her. She put a lot of force in both her head and magic to pull Carousel out. But she wasn’t budging. In fact, now Trixie was starting to feel her pain. Magical electrical shots coming from the crystal were shooting and tracing close to Trixie, but the crystal’s electrical current used the beam from Trixie’s magic as an energy flow to get to her directly.

“AAAAAHHH!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!” Trixie cried out louder. Her body started standing on just her hind legs, allowing the source of her magic to generate a more concentrated magical flow. The hairs on her mane started standing and blowing around. The hairs on her coat made it almost look as if she was still wearing her cape.

“NNNNGH!!! MMMMMMHH!!!” Carousel could feel the current being forced through her body. They were forcing their way into her mind, into her senses. Her adrenaline scattered violently all around her body with immense speeds.

In the midst of all this, Carousel’s visions were returning to her, the visions that had always forced their way into her mind. She could feel the headache forcing her way into her mind even amongst all this electrical current that was tormenting her body. The visions were numbing her senses. She couldn’t feel anything. She couldn’t hear anything. She couldn’t even see anything but the visions that forced her way into her mind.

Except this time, that last part wasn’t true. This time, those visions were forcing her to see everything that was around her. The visions gave her a clear and perfect view of Trixie’s form. She was in pain, crying out in agony, all in an attempt to use her magic to pull Carousel out.

“AAARRR-KAAAAAA!!!” Trixie’s body thrusted violently forward, but she still remained where she stood. Many objects appeared out of Trixie’s form during that thrust. Pinecones, lots and lots of pinecones were scattering out of Trixie’s body. They tumbled and rolled around the ground. While they rolled, their appearances started to change. One by one, the pinecones started changing into apples. Every single pinecone was changing into an apple a few moments after they bounced off the ground, revealing what they truly were.

“AAAAANNNNNGH!!!” Trixie’s head and mouth were forcibly being dropped down. As her crying stance stood lower, the form on her body began to reveal itself. The sides of her coat gave of a bright and extended shine. When the light slowly faded, they revealed pouches and bags, strings and straps, things that would conceal and carry, and most importantly, hide.

The bags started flinging open, spilling out its contents all on its own. They were thrown violently across the floor, just like the pinecone looking apples from earlier, but being thrown behind her this time.

The items consisted of tubes of paint, rolls of bandages, lengthy rags, books and papers, and quite a few other supplies and devices. They all seemed to be related to what Trixie had done to her.

The back of Carousel’s neck gave a magical shining flow. Something became visible on the back of her neck, just above her collar. Through all the electrical currents rushing through her body, a set of bandages became visible on the back of her neck. The bandages were engulfed in flames. They were getting incinerated by the electrical current coming from the crystal. The wound that was being covered up by the bandages soon came into view, only to disappear from view almost immediately by a fog of shining particles. The shining particles flowed around her neck, taking the wound away.

*Tcccchhh,… TCH!* “Aaaaahhh… nnnnnghh…” Carousel’s pain was being less focused. The more these images rushed through her head, the more she learned what they meant, and the more painful it was for her to come to such conclusions.

Everything really was a lie to her. She was witnessing the revelations of every trick that this unicorn, Trixie, had pulled on her. Trixie was right. Once the secret has been revealed, the magic fades.

When Carousel first met Trixie, she saw her sleeping on a pile of pinecones. But they weren’t pinecones that she saw, they were apples. Sleeping on pinecones wouldn’t be comfortable at all, but sleeping on apples was a different story.

All those lights she saw were pointed in ways that made her look like she was somewhere else. It only affected the one they focused on. Carousel thought Trixie was showing her the images of her memory, but those were Carousel’s thoughts all along. Trixie only used her words and lights to manipulate Carousel’s mind into making those thoughts, making her believe that she was seeing the images in her mind with her own eyes.

Illusions and lies, trickery and manipulation, that’s exactly how everything was around here. They were lies so powerful, they became true. But once they were revealed, their magical truth, ended.

*TCCCHHH… tcchhh…*

No more. Carousel wanted no more. She focused her eye sights on Trixie, keeping her gaze on all the lies she had created. She desired nothing but revelations. She was blocking out her mind on everything that was a lie to her.

“AAAAAAAHHH!!!” Carousel focused on Trixie’s screams of determination. Trixie's magic was a lie, but her desire was very real. Trixie was putting all efforts in her magical pull, even while her secrets and humility were revealed.

The items that were being released from Trixie’s form were starting to shine brightly. Their shine soon dissipated them into particles, flying into the air. Quickly, but one by one, the particles were being twirled around the room, circling around Trixie. The particles were getting very small while they twirled around her. The particles seemed to be disappearing into Trixie’s horn. As they disappeared, Trixie struggled further. She gave one final pull on her magical hold on Carousel.

*Tcccchhh… TTTTCCCCCCHHHH!!!*

In that moment, Carousel now knew what she wanted all along, what she truly desired.

“AAARRRHHH…” *CCSSSSHHH!!!* “AAAAAHHH!!!” Trixie flung backwards as her magical pull finally moved Carousel. The crystal had exploded and shattered. Carousel was thrown towards Trixie due to that magical pull. Carousel had collided with her and they were knocked back very far, far enough to cause them to slip off of the edge of the tower.

Carousel and Trixie started plummeting from miles away in the skies. Carousel’s body was showing a massive amount of electrical current, flowing around her body. The shine on her body was slowly going away while they were falling.

Trixie recovered from the impact first. The sounds of the air being sliced by their falling bodies pierced her ear. The danger of their falling height was no distraction to what she feared when those floating particles continued to rush to her horn.

Carousel grunted as she opened her eyes. Her body was rushing faster than their falling speed. She suddenly felt a large amount of pressure being forced upon her neck as they fell. Trixie had placed both of her hooves around Carousel’s neck, squeezing it very tightly in her grip. Trixie was glaring at her with malice.

“YOU INCOMPETANT FOAL!!!” Trixie yelled at Carousel, shaking her in her hooves. “DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU HAVE DOOONE?!?!?!”

Carousel’s senses were slowly coming back to her as she saw the particles rushing into Trixie’s horn. She could barely breathe due to Trixie’s grip, but she could barely feel them either. The particles continued to swirl around Trixie’s horn while Carousel’s nerves became more focused.

The particles started forming along the spiral ridge of Trixie’s horn, giving a shine as they entered. Trixie looked like she was starting to lose focus. Her eyes closed and her grip loosened. Her eyes flashed beneath her eyelids before the glow on her horn disappeared, along with all the particles.

Carousel’s nerves rushed through her body as they started returning to her. She could feel the winds rushing through her form as they fell. Carousel struggled as she felt Trixie tightening the grip around her neck. She tried to remove Trixie’s hooves off of her, but then she saw Trixie’s body tremble violently. Trixie’s eyes flashed open in a menacing glare. There was something so different about those eyes now. There was a low growl coming from Trixie that could be heard through the sounds of the rushing wind.

Trixie pulled a hoof back, and then she tossed it forwards, punching Carousel in the face. Carousel winced from the sudden assault. 

Trixie was attacking her now.

Carousel put her hooves up in front of her. Trixie continued throwing her punches at Carousel, but Carousel defended by using her own hooves to stop their assault. They continued punching each other as they continued falling from the skies.

“Nngh!” Carousel spread her wings apart to stop her fall, but Trixie was keeping herself latched onto Carousel, preventing her from getting away. Carousel continued trying to pry her off, punching Trixie with her own hooves.

Trixie’s face filled with nothing but rage. She flared up her horn, charging an attack to be fired directly at Carousel. Carousel retaliated by flipping their bodies around, aiming her punches at her face.

Trixie fired her beams of magic, but due to their assault on each other, the beams were narrowly missing the target in front of her. Carousel did what she could to distract her fire or dodge out of the way, but Trixie kept her grip on Carousel.

*Ping!* Carousel managed to narrowly strike Trixie’s horn, causing her to shoot a beam straight into the air, despite their falling bodies.

“AAAAHHH!!!” Trixie’s horn started to spark a dark electric field as she screamed in agony. 

“NNNGH!!!” The electric field resonated through her body to zap Carousel as well. Carousel started losing feelings around her body again.

Trixie used this moment to continue attacking Carousel. She punched Carousel in the face. She then flipped their bodies over so that Trixie was higher up. And then, Trixie fired a magical blast directly at Carousel’s back, releasing her grip as she did this.

“AARRRGH!!!” Carousel was blasted away from Trixie. Her body plummeted towards the ground in the direction away from the tower. 

Trixie’s body was still falling as well, but she held her control. She re-positioned her body to start falling face first towards the ground. She brought all her limbs behind her and sticking towards her body. Her impact sight came into view. Her face filled with confidence as the ground came very close to her. Trixie’s horn started glowing again. Just before she hit the ground, her entire body gave a bright flash. And just like that, Trixie vanished.

Carousel’s body left a smoke trail as she continued to fall. She couldn’t see where she was landing. The wind continued to blow roughly against her face as her plummeting speed continued to increase.

Before she knew it, Carousel started feeling the scrapes of twigs passing through her body. Before long, she blacked out instantly as she hit a hard surface.


______________________________________________________________________________


“…nngh…” Carousel’s mind rushed as her senses came back to her. Her body was lying flat on something solid when she regained consciousness. She put her hooves in front of her to push along the surface, attempting to pick herself up. She grunted and her face was winced up, just trying to get up.

Carousel managed to slowly pick herself up, slowly opening her eyes as she did so. Her surroundings were covered with leaves. She couldn’t tell where she was, except that she was probably deep inside another forest. She hesitantly took a step in front of her.

*Snap!* Carousel started falling as the branch she was standing on gave away.

*Crash!* A bit of sand was tossed up; covering her vision after her fall had stopped. She slowly picked herself up again, shaking her head slightly while trying to recover from the impact. Nothing was on her mind anymore. She wasn’t even sure what she was doing right now. All she thought about was what was going on right at this very moment. When she opened her eyes, her vision blared. But she could barely see something make itself present as the sand was starting to clear away.

There standing in front of her, past the sand cloud, was another pony. That pony was glaring daggers into Carousel’s soul. One word reached Carousel’s ears, which came from that pony.

“YOU!!!”


______________________________________________________________________________


Current day:

“…And, that was when I first saw you…” Rainbow Dash mentioned after Carousel had finished her story.

Carousel just closed her eyes. No more responses came from her. It looked like she was done with discussing anything with them anymore.

Rainbow Dash looked towards Fluttershy. Fluttershy just stared back with sad eyes. Those eyes just seemed to be filled with regret.

Rainbow Dash had to look away. She couldn’t stand seeing Fluttershy like this. She forced her eyes to close. All she could do was reflect on the rest of the things that she already knew. But nothing could stop her emotions from riling up at the one fact that was staring at Rainbow Dash’s face.

Everything that had happened to them, was Carousel’s fault.