//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Surprise // Story: Identity Crisis // by The Engineer Pony //------------------------------// Pinkie Pie floated through the city of Las Pegasus. Her hooves brushed against the vaporous edges of clouds as she glided above them, and the breeze rustling through her mane managed to tangle it beyond even its usual state of anarchy. As she drifted through the air, Pinkie Pie savored the thrill of flying, the undiluted pleasure of drifting through empty air. A perplexed earth pony trotted past her, appraising her with a look of pure bewilderment. Of course, this being Law Pegasus, walkways crisscrossed the city for the benefit of non-pegasus residents and visitors. Though the city was built among the clouds, it boasted an intricate infrastructure of pathways, plazas, and solid architecture that made it the only pegasus city in Equestria to house substantial populations of earth ponies and unicorns. Every location in the city could be reached entirely on hoof. But that never stopped Pinkie Pie. She was in Las Pegasus to host a special anniversary celebration for its ponies, and she was determined to experience the city the same way its original pegasus citizens had. Consequently, Pinkie Pie had tied a couple dozen helium balloons to her back and had taken to floating everywhere she went, her tail twirling behind her as a propeller. Her hooves had not rested on solid ground in days, and Pinkie Pie was enjoying every minute of it. Today, though, Pinkie had far more important things to do than delight in the wonder of flight. Her present task superseded all other concerns: she had to make somepony smile. Pinkie Pie drifted across the street to the entrance of a large building. It lacked the flashing lights and exuberant colors of the typical Las Pegasus structures; orderly rows of plain, square windows contrasted sharply with the elaborate styles of the buildings to either side. A simple coat of white paint somehow made the place stand out more than all the glamor and flare of the rest of the city, while reflecting the utility of its purpose as Las Pegasus’ hospital. Maneuvering her balloons through the front door, Pinkie Pie entered the hospital and approached the front desk. A few quick words with the receptionist—well, quite a few words, accompanied by a party favor or two—gave Pinkie Pie the location of her injured friend. Immediately she zipped off down the hall to find the pony. She paused when she reached the door, hearing voices coming from inside the room. She waited outside for them to finish, listening curiously to the discussion taking place. “—still confined to his room until he explains himself. Fleetfoot is keeping guard to make sure he doesn’t try to escape.” The voice spoke with authority, but a tint of concern added a touch of personality to the professionalism. “What about the rest of the Wonderbolts?” Pinkie Pie smiled broadly as she recognized Rainbow Dash's voice. She sounded weaker than usual and in a bit of pain, but just hearing her friend speak lifted Pinkie Pie’s spirits. Or maybe that was the helium lifting her. “Is the performance still on for tonight?” “We’ve had to modify the routine somewhat,” answered the first voice. “We only had one reserve on standby, but with both you and Clipper out of the show, we’re having to make do with one fewer flier than I’d like.” “As hard as it’ll be to go on without me,” Rainbow Dash said, “I bet you guys will do fine.” “Yeah,” the other pony agreed with a chuckle. “After all, we did manage for quite a few years before you joined.” There was a short pause in the conversation until the pony continued, “Well, I should get back to the stadium. I still need to fly the reserve’s wings off in practice.” “See you, Spitfire,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Thanks for stopping by and seeing how I was doing.” The door to Rainbow Dash’s room opened, and Spitfire stepped out into the hallway. As she left, she called back to Rainbow Dash, “No problem. After all you’ve done for us, it’s the least I can do. Hope you feel better soon, Crash.” With that, Spitfire turned down the hall and walked away. Once she was gone, Pinkie Pie floated down from her hiding spot on the ceiling. She certainly did not want Spitfire to think she had been eavesdropping. Pinkie Pie knocked on the door fame and poked her head into Rainbow's room. “Dashie?” Inside, Rainbow Dash lay sprawled out on a hospital bed. Bandages wrapped around her head and right wing, and a few bruises dotted her body, but otherwise, she appeared to be fine. However, the way Rainbow’s hooves fidgeted restlessly—and the frustrated expression that formed whenever her eyes shifted to the clock on the wall—worried Pinkie Pie. A book sat on the nightstand next to Rainbow Dash’s bed, but it did not look like it had been opened. “Pinkie?” Rainbow’s eyes brightened as she saw Pinkie Pie. Her hooves fell still, and she sat up a little in bed. “Hi, Dashie!” Pinkie Pie leapt into the room with a burst of confetti. She grinned happily down at her bedridden friend, who responded with something that could almost be considered a smile. “Hey, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash said. “What are you doing here?” “I’m planning the Las Pegasus Centennial Celebration.” Pinkie Pie held up a poster for the event. In one corner of the poster, a trio of Wonderbolts soared through the sky. “I thought you would know that, considering I hired you to perform tonight.” “Well, I knew that part.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “I meant, what are you doing here? Don’t you have a party to plan, or something?” “Of course I do,” Pinkie Pie merrily replied. “But when I heard somepony hurt herself in training today, I decided a visit to cheer her up was in order.” “I didn’t hurt myself!” Rainbow Dash blurted out. She jerked forward angrily, causing her wing to clip against the nightstand. She winced and slowly leaned back again. “Soarin’ kicked me into the ground and attacked me!” “Soarin’?” Pinkie Pie tilted her head inquisitively. Considering she was still floating unsupported in midair, the rest of her body rotated along with her head. “Why would he do that?” “I don’t know!” Rainbow Dash threw up her hooves. “It makes no sense.” “Well,” Pinkie Pie said ponderously, as she slowly spun back to upright, “if it makes no sense for Soarin’ to hurt you, then it must not have been him who attacked you.” “That makes even less sense, Pinkie,” Rainbow flatly replied. “Doesn’t it? Haven’t you ever encountered a creature that looks exactly like a pony you know, but acts completely different, until you’re left wondering if either you or the other pony has gone crazy, especially if nopony else seems to think anything’s wrong, but you’re pretty sure you’re not crazy, because you think you would have noticed it already?” Rainbow Dash hesitated a moment. “A changeling?” she finally asked with reluctance. “Yep!” Streamers flew from behind Pinkie Pie as a celebratory ringing sound signified Rainbow Dash’s correct answer. “A changeling must have replaced Soarin’ in an attempt to get to you. I thought I spotted a couple of disguised changelings following me around this morning, but I wasn’t really certain until just now.” “What?” Rainbow Dash nearly lurched upright again, but she seemed to remember her injury and stopped halfway. “There are changelings here in Las Pegasus?” “Well, I’m fairly sure they’re only here to capture us, but yes, there are.” Pinkie Pie rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Then we need to get out of here! We need to go tell Twilight right now!” Rainbow Dash’s sudden fervor quickly drained away. “Except…what about the celebration tonight? What about the performance?” Her voice faded away, before picking up again in a more subdued tone, “I really wanted to fly tonight.” “But you can’t fly,” Pinkie Pie pointed out. “Not with a broken wing.” “Yeah, well…” Rainbow Dash slumped back in bed. “I had kinda hoped I’d get better in time for tonight. Lying here, doing nothing—I just feel useless, I guess.” “Useless?” echoed Pinkie Pie. The sincerity in her voice drove out her usually playful manner. “I don’t know,” continued Rainbow Dash. “It’s just, flying with the Wonderbolts, putting on shows, pleasing my fans…it’s what I always wanted. And getting a chance to perform at a big celebration like this, at the request of Equestria’s biggest party planner…I was really, really looking forward to it. And now that I’m injured, I won’t get to do that. I won’t get a chance to do what I’m best at.” For once, Pinkie Pie actually felt she was at a loss for words. She just hung there for a moment, suspended by her collection of brightly colored balloons. Noticing that one of the balloons was sagging, Pinkie Pie distracted herself by pulling a canister of helium out of her mane and refilling the sinking balloon. Then she turned back to Rainbow Dash. “I’m sorry, Dashie. I really, truly, positively am. But right now, we’ve got bigger problems to worry about: we need to get back to Twilight and help her repel a changeling invasion.” Rainbow Dash stared off into the distance for a few seconds longer, her eyes clouded with unfulfilled longing. Then she shook her head and spoke again. “You’re right, Pinkie. What’s the plan?” “Let’s see.” Pinkie Pie pulled down a map of Las Pegasus. She circled the hospital with a red marker. “We’re here. We need to make it to the hot-air balloon dock here, so we can get to the train station on the surface and catch a ride back to Ponyville.” She drew a convoluted zigzag route across the city. “We just need to stay out of sight, avoid changeling spies, and keep you off your wing. Easy!” Pinkie Pie put on a wide smile and rolled up the map. With a small grunt of pain, Rainbow Dash climbed out of the hospital bed and put her hooves on the ground. She swayed slightly and put a hoof to her forehead, but quickly steadied herself. Moving slowly at first, Rainbow made her way over to Pinkie. “That’s the spirit! Let’s go!” Pinkie Pie spun around—completing one and a half revolutions—to face the door. She flung it wide open and shot through the doorway, her tail whirling behind her. She rammed right into a pair of undisguised changelings standing in the hall. “Uh oh,” said Pinkie Pie. She whipped out her party cannon and shot it point blank at the changelings. Caught off guard, they were unable to get out of the way and got blasted down the hallway. “New plan. Run!” Rainbow Dash set off at a gallop, Pinkie drifting along behind her. At the far end of the hall, the changelings rose woozily to their hooves. Their wings buzzed, and they took flight after the fleeing ponies. Rounding a corner at breakneck speed, Rainbow Dash burst through the doors into the hospital lobby. “Changelings!” she shouted. Ponies looked up in alarm, then scampered out of the way to make room for the charging pegasus. A unicorn who had been flipping distractedly through a magazine dove under a coffee table, and Rainbow Dash ran across the recently vacated couch. Close on Rainbow's tail, Pinkie Pie peered over her shoulder to check the progress of the changelings. They rounded the bend and flew into the lobby, knocking over a potted plant in the process. With practiced skill, Pinkie Pie held her party cannon below her as she floated through air and took careful aim. A gust of wind and confetti hit the lead changeling in the face, causing him (or was it her? Pinkie was never sure) to careen off and slam into the wall. The other changeling, undeterred by the plight of his fellow, followed Pinkie as she retreated out of the hospital. Ahead, Rainbow Dash bolted across the hospital's front plaza. She weaved around startled tourists, not stopping to apologize as she knocked a cup of coffee out of the telekinetic grip of a passing unicorn. The cup twisted through the air, tumbled the ground, and rolled to the edge of the pavement. There it flipped over onto the surrounding cloud, fell straight through the vapor, and disappeared out of sight. As the unicorn shouted in protest, Rainbow Dash ran right on by. Pinkie Pie altered her course and flew above the heads of an earth-pony family to catch up to Rainbow Dash. “Where are we going?” she shouted. “No idea!” came Rainbow Dash’s short response. She galloped across an arched bridge, jumping up on the railing to maneuver around a pair of ponies strolling by. “The balloon dock is the other way!” Pinkie Pie turned around to point a hoof in the direction they should go. She slowed down for a second so Rainbow Dash could see which way she was indicating. In the moment Pinkie spent hovering stationary, the changeling barreled into her. Pinkie Pie instinctively braced herself for a collision, but the changeling flew slightly above her. He lowered his horn, and Pinkie heard several popping sounds as the changeling thrust his way through the cluster balloons supporting her. Suddenly, without enough balloons to hold her up, Pinkie Pie found herself plummeting downward. She dropped through the cloud beneath her and fell toward the ground far below. “Pinkie!” cried out Rainbow Dash. She instinctively dived after her friend, spreading her wings to fly down and catch her. Her left wing splayed wide, but her right wing found itself confined by a bandage. Lopsided, Rainbow Dash tumbled after Pinkie Pie, spiraling uncontrollably through the air. “Don’t worry!” Pinkie screamed over the cacophony of rushing air. The landscape below grew larger as the two ponies hurtled toward it at a disturbingly fast rate. “Grab on to me!” To her credit, Rainbow Dash did not waste time questioning Pinkie’s baseless logic. She twisted her good wing this way and that, maneuvering herself over to the other pony. When she got close enough, Rainbow Dash clamped her hooves around Pinkie Pie’s midriff. “This is bad!” Rainbow shouted in Pinkie’s ear. “This is fun!” Pinkie Pie responded. She spread her hooves, angling to the side to slightly adjust their plummeting trajectory. “Get ready!” “Ready for what?” Rainbow Dash yelled. The ground soared up to meet the falling ponies. They slammed directly into the springy surface, bouncing back upward as the material stretched rebounded beneath them. On the second bounce, Pinkie Pie landed on the trampoline on all four hooves. Rainbow Dash fell hard on her back next to her. “See?” grinned Pinkie Pie. “Nothing to it. And it looks like we lost the changeling.” “What?” groaned Rainbow Dash as she stumbled to her hooves, a feat made more difficult by the fact that Pinkie Pie was excitedly jumping up and down on the trampoline, causing the surface to lurch and pitch underneath them. “Nice of you to drop by, Pinkie!” came an animated voice from below. Pausing in mid-jump to peer over the edge of the trampoline, Pinkie Pie saw a familiar earth pony clapping excitedly at their recent stunt. An accordion lay on the ground beside him. “Hi, Cheese!” greeted Pinkie Pie. “Thanks for the save.” Pinkie saw Rainbow glance between the two party ponies, an incredulous look on her face. Then she shrugged, apparently giving up on trying to understand what was going on. Cheese Sandwich, however, did not seem at all surprised at having witnessed two ponies fall from the sky. “Anytime. So what brings you down here?” “Well, I kinda need to head back to Ponyville,” Pinkie Pie replied, hopping down from the trampoline to give Cheese Sandwich a hug. “Sorry, but you’ll have to run the party tonight without me.” “Let me guess,” said Cheese as he reciprocated the gesture, “you’ve discovered a changeling threat and need to report it right away.” “Yeah. I knew you’d understand.” Pinkie Pie pulled away and motioned for Rainbow Dash to get down from the trampoline. “Have fun at the party.” Cheese Sandwich gave a wide grin as Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie started to head off toward the train station. “Have fun fighting changelings.” “Oh, we will.” Pinkie Pie skipped merrily as she waved back at her fellow party planner. She bounced away with vibrant enthusiasm radiating through her entire body. Rainbow Dash, though, stared at the ground as she shuffled along behind Pinkie.